bonesiii Posted July 1, 2012 Author Share Posted July 1, 2012 (edited) Chapter 40 Ito sat on the invisible bird’s back, watching the Bohrok swarms march.They were NOT headed to the Bahrag.They all went north.Northeast, actually.He followed them out of the Le-Wahi jungle. Now he could see many other swarms across the island headed the same way.Tahu’s voice came, asking for his report, and he gave it.“Follow them to the coast there on Jhianau. Find out what they’re doing.”“Already wayflying.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Familiar shores greeted Udmijok’s eyes over the horizon now, through the rain that had not yet left this region to the south.A chain of five islands, surrounded by faint wakes – traces of still more Tarakava.Hunting.Hunting his people.Each of the islands was made of a strange form of rock with layers alternating between gray and tan. They were steep-sided with slopes too slippery for Tarakava to get a grip, and topped with small forests.Here and there he could see variously colored members of his four-legged species deftly climbing on the slopes – they were guards as he had been.Between each of the five islands, rope bridges were strung from the very tops of the trees, high above the water. In ages past, they had simply climbed down the slopes and swam across the narrow channels, but of course that just made them easy prey now.With the thick rain that was now falling, all Udmijok could see from here was the northernmost island clearly, and a larger outline in the gray rain backdrop that he knew was the island behind it, and a bridge fading towards that silhouette.Now a Tarakava leapt out of the water towards a guard.An orange sphere flew. Hit the beast.The Tarakava was buffeted by a sudden wind, missed the guard, and slid back down into the water.Another Tarakava popped up on one of the edges of the slopes and punched at the rock. Breaking its smooth surface, in a long strategy by Makuta to create a stair-like ramp the huge lizards could use to climb to the village above.But the closest guard fired his weapon and a massive wave knocked the Tarakava’s aim off on the second punch, missing the rock entirely and sweeping the beast back into the sea.Such was life here.A Tarakava spotted the boat first, letting out a roar that alerted its brethren and the nearest guards.Udmijok stood on the prow, waving his weapon high in the air, making sure the guards could see who he was. They waved back excitedly, turning and shouting to the others – he heard only faint voicelike tones over the rain and crashing waves. Then they all mimicked Udmijok’s signal.“Can we take that as a sign they welcome us?” Kewonga asked.“Yes.”“Then,” the Healer said, turning to the undead Toa, “We could use a lift.”The body did not seem at first to hear him. But its black eyes watched as the Tarakava swam closer.He felt weightless. They lifted into the air.“Something’s wrong,” Knife-Tail said. “They’re shaking their heads. And there’s less guards here than there should be.”“Are they denying us sanctuary? May we land in that forest?”“No, no. Of course they’ll welcome us, but they must be under attack on the other end of the island.”“Just get us in those trees fast,” the Le-Matoran ordered the undead Toa.They were now out of reach from the Tarakava.Near the trees…Among the trees.“What’s wrong?” Udmijok asked the nearest Shvontuk.“We’re under attack!”“Kuambu?” He feared that by escaping, he’d only brought the Kuambu to his island, but the centauroid shook his head.“We don’t know who it is, but they’re attacking from the air, stealing all our supplies, island by island!”At that, Toa Tyaagko snapped his head towards the speaker, leaped out of the boat, and ran towards him.The unfortunate Shvontuk noticed the black eyes and heartlight, screamed, and ran into the thick of the jungle. But Tyaagko was of course only trying to get around him. His actions told everybody who the Toa believed was attacking – the pirates.The Toa reached a clearing and flew up into the air, before any of the others could react. Azh’yuuros shouted after him that he’d forgotten his shield, but the Toa was long gone.Knife-Tail turned to the others, still standing in the boat. “I have to go with him. This is my home, and I am still one of its guards.”“Go,” Kewonga said. “Azh’yuuros, you should help them too. I and one of my fellows will handle the Checking.”“Hide the ferry!” Knife-Tail advised. “It’s been heavily modified by strange beings. Surely pirates would want it.”“Good point,” Kewonga said. “We’ll do that first.”“And if anyone who didn’t see you arrive with me challenges you, tell them Udmijok granted you temporary haven from the sea beasts.” He nodded one last time at them, and ran down the path with Azh’yuuros.As he went, he thought he heard distant rumbles of thunder. The clouds rolling in now were extremely dark; barely any sunlight was coming through even though it was approaching noon now. He mumbled a complaint to himself.He soon reached the rope bridge, which was wide enough and then some for two lanes of Shvontuk to cross on.But he had to cross first and warn everyone to wait while the blue giant crossed, lest his extra weight plus theirs break – or just weaken – the bridge.As he waited on the other side for the giant to walk carefully over the wooden slats, Udmijok looked down at the familiar sight of ocean waves through the gaps in the wood. Once long ago that had made him dizzy, but he’d gotten used to it. Then he’d been taken from all of this by the Kuambu, and he’d started to believe he’d never see it again.He thought back to the guards the Tarakava had killed long ago, on his watch.To his vow of vengeance.And he thought of the dire state his people would be in, robbed of many, if not all, of their hard-earned supplies.Why did the Unknown let that Rahunga come with us?Shvontuk didn’t want to kill.They rarely did, in fact. Even the worst Tarakava, they tended to just push away, trying to find a way to take and destroy the infected masks. But sometimes what was necessary was necessary. Justice must be done.They’ll be going back that way, where that Niaka is.If Udmijok went, he would have to fight her, to either her or his death. How did he know that one day she might not repent of her crimes? And how did he know that he would win the battle? If he didn’t, he’d be throwing away one more guard that could have helped keep his people safe.I can’t do it, he decided. The deciding was so much easier now with his four feet digging into familiar soil.He would not continue on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Surkahi landed on the beach of the little northern inlet where he’d met with BE several times.There in the water awaited a Takea shark wearing shapeshifting armor.“Did you deliver the message?”No response.“Are you… there?”The shark stared at him.He probed it with his mind. He sensed no other presence, but his telepathy wasn’t powerful enough to be sure.From what he’d overheard Tahu and Bhukasa talking about, the message was indeed delivered, just as Caroha had foreseen long ago. And the shark wouldn’t have a way to know the answer, if Hujo’s mind was no longer in it.He walked closer and touched the shark’s nose. It allowed him to energize the armor. Then it swam away. He noticed it was an old shark, with many battle scars.When he then materialized the huge Sharkray, the old Takea showed no fear of it. The larger sea beast swam away.Surkahi sighed. He wished there was a way to know how things had gone. He’d been meeting with Hujo – or his eyes – for months now, knowing that Hujo falsely believed those past meetings took place closer to today – and that it tore Hujo’s mind apart every time. Just as with Caroha when she’d experimented before.This was the part he most worried about. He’d tried, for his part, to urge Caroha to choose another way. Was it worth this risk to show Hujo the Cosmos directly? Why not just find the tablet records and let him read them?Wouldn’t have the same impact on him, she’d insisted.Anyways, he wasn’t the Advisor; wasn’t even on the Council. Caroha valued his experience but she would do her own thing. Even most of the Council agreed with Surkahi, but it happened anyways.I must remember that I do not Prophesy.She understood her visions, obviously, the best.What really worried him was… her visions spoke only to what was going to happen in the Paracosmos. Not another dimension. Now Hujo was beyond reach, and nobody even had a clue what would happen.For once, the future was as hidden for the Unknown as it was for everyone else. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tahu walked carefully through the familiar group of tall plants, forced to rely on the very faint sunlight that filtered through the stormclouds; he could not light a flame here.He’d learned that lesson the hard way here once while searching for a mask. The tall, narrow Ahrikalla plants could move to fight anyone trying to climb to their seedpods at the top – where a mask had been hidden. He was glad he would be digging this time, not climbing.Worse, they served as a sprinkler system for the jungle. Any whiff of smoke and a raging flood would burst forth.With his Vision power, he looked through the muddy ground.There it was. A buried stone box, right between the three tallest plants.If only I could dry this ground out first, he thought. With a steady heat it wouldn’t be that hard, but here it would be impossible.So he switched to his Strength power and started scooping the mud away, hoping it wouldn’t just ooze back into the hole.But it did, of course.I should have sent Gali, he thought.He tried again, tossing handfuls of mud much farther away.Not even sure why I’m trusting Niaka’s word on this, he thought.He’d been surprised when his by-now routine attempt to contact her or Vamuka had actually worked. Her story was even more surprising than this, although Bhukasa had already told Tahu of Hujo’s strange mode of communication. How could Niaka have known the same thing unless her tale was true?Oh, I’m sure there are ways… But her voice just sounded honest…And Tahu figured he could handle himself if this was some kind of Rahunga trap.His real worry was being alone in the Kuambu-infested jungle. He had run here at full Kakama speed, using the Combination power with Vision to keep an eye out, but he saw no unusual beings – just Rahi – and now he kept Vision combined with Strength. Every few moments he’d glance around, but he still saw nothing.Surely a Toa would have a rare soulsong.He had no doubt the Kuambu would ship him off to a prison if they defeated him. Although Rathoa claimed he’d been knocked unconscious by one and left alone except for his soulsong being copied. But Tahu wasn’t about to trust the Rah-Makuta’s word, even if they had a temporary truce.Actually, his bigger worry was the delay all this was causing in getting through the Bahrag’s mysterious stone dome. The Oru-Vortixx would be on their way back…Finally, Tahu found the box.It was below the level of the water that now seeped through the mud, and the constant rain made it impossible to see through the surface, but he felt it.Mud started to ooze back over it, so he reached under it and lifted it out, finding it surprisingly heavy even with the Pakari power. He heard something rattle against the sides when he tilted it.Set it down.It was shaped like a coffin but about half the size. Colored tan.He tried to crack off the top lid with Strength, but he put no dent in it.Same kind of dense stone Kini-Nui’s made of, he realized. It would take Pohatu to break into it that way. He thought he might be able to do it if he punched the top really hard, but he was afraid the contents might be fragile.Need fire. He sighed. That meant heavy lifting – fire near the Ahrikalla plants would be very unwise.Tahu lifted the box, gritting his teeth.This is silly, he realized after a few clumsy steps. I’ve got an energy pack!Laughing at himself, he set it down. Paused to take some heavy breaths and look around again. It isn’t really funny. Keep your wits about you.He put his hand on it and commanded it to turn into energy.No flash of light. His hand still felt cold stone.What?!He tried again. Nothing.Bah.Probably made by Unknown.Grunting, he went back to carrying.Finally when he saw no more of the sprinkler-system plants, he set it down again. Wow, that’s heavy.He made a tiny beam of flames, cutting the lid off, but didn’t allow the flames or their heat to reach inside the box, in case its contents were flammable.It worked. Tahu smiled.All the way around.Tahu pulled heat away and glanced around again. No enemies.Lifted the lid.The box was mostly empty.What he’d heard rattling around turned out to be a silver sphere with a steel cube framework encasing it. No larger than a Madu fruit.He picked it up, turning it over in his hand. Other than a tiny cylindrical bump on one side of the sphere, he saw no further detail. He held it to his ear and shook it.Sloshing sound. A liquid inside the sphere.And there was a faint hum. He held it still. Hum was still there.Mixed with… it sounded like the soft crackling of a static electricity burst.Hm.Tahu looked around again.Motion nearby. A Rahi.He was about to look away when he realized it wasn’t just one Rahi – it was a pack of Rahi wolves. Running.Not right at him… but he remembered which way he’d come from the Bahrag. The wolves were headed that way.The pack ran past him, and he saw instantly why they ran.All of them had Krana affixed to their faces. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kopaka smashed the Ko-Wahi stone box to pieces.The Toa of Ice was standing on a newly remade ice bridge over the Dahuarogo Ice Lake – the lake was frozen over today from the thick fresh coat of snow but the ice was thin on its own.He’d quickly spotted, with his Akaku, the little circle carved in the lakebed, which turned out to be a lid of something that looked identical to the ice around it, but felt more like stone and wouldn’t melt.In the hollow pocket beneath it had been the tan stone box. Kopaka had created a column of ice beneath the box, lifting it and the lid above it to the surface of the lake, where he’d made the surface ice move aside.Now he saw a strange object inside, about the size of his head. Though small, it was fairly complicated.Eight radiating legs formed a base. A cubical central part that seemed to be hollow sat atop them.Atop that was a complex device made of blue-glowing flat crystal cylinders stacked like a tower, with wires and strange little sphere devices holding it together. A metal handle topped this.A… lantern?That was the closest thing he could think of to describe it. But if, as he suspected, it was made by the Unknown, it wouldn’t be what it seemed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Udmijok was halfway across the third rope bridge when gravity turned sideways.He almost fell between two vertical ropes, catching one at the last second.A dark humanoid figure whizzed over the bridge.Gravity normalized, leaving Udmijok hanging from the edge of the bridge. He glanced down to see circling ripples – betraying submerged Tarakava on the prowl. Up!When he once again stood safely on the bridge – clutching a rope – he heard a loud clanking sound.Saw something falling to his right.A lance of blue fire from behind flew at an even more massive shape. Udmijok crouched in fear at the sight.It floated in the air to the west of the islands. He couldn’t quite make out its shape, as darkness had gripped the whole area under the intense storm, but it was wider than it was tall.Blue fire tore into its side, and Knife-Tail briefly caught a glimpse of a row of what seemed to be windows around the edge of a huge coin-shaped object.He looked towards Azh’yuuros.Lightning flashed, revealing Toa Tyaagko over the forest of the largest island, and a huge boulder – Udmijok recognized it as one of many strewn across the islands – floated next to him.The flash of light instantly disappeared and Tyaagko disappeared into the dark, but the beam of blue fire illuminated the boulder. It raced through the air, 'falling' sideways toward bent gravity.Slammed into the side of the huge object. Udmijok heard the same loud clanking sound he’d heard earlier.The rock broke apart and the fragments fell into the sea. He couldn't tell how the target had fared.Udmijok ran back towards Azh’yuuros.How can I attack this thing?He was used to guarding against creatures that could swim or roll on land – not fly. How could he affect destiny to help here? A change in the wind wouldn’t do much.A few other guards had caught onto the flying boulder strategy. They were trying to hit the boulders as they flew through the air to increase their likelihood of hitting the pirate airship.Udmijok reached land, and waited for a boulder. Fired. Missed.We’re gonna run out of boulders quick.Then he saw shooting from deeper into the forest, aimed right into the sky.“Don’t attack the Toa!” he shouted at them.Lightning.Four beings in the sky.They aren’t.He ran that way.Passed many guards, shouting in confusion. From ahead, Udmijok caught the words, “raiding the storehouse!” and then from behind he heard another reply “same as the last two islands!”The largest of the five villages was just ahead. Udmijok saw orange spheres flying.He ran into a collection of huts among the trees, made of the same alternating tan/gray stone as the shore’s slopes.A tall humanoid ran out of one hut, carrying a bag filled with supplies. It was blue and black, with a flat circular head dominated by two narrow eyes.One of the pirates!He fired his sphere. Hit the pirate.Made him trip on a root.The pirate growled as he fell. The bag hit a tree and ripped open. Udmijok and several other guards converged on the being, but it was already on its feet and picking up what was left of the bag.Udmijok fired again, but missed – his aim was true, but the being lifted into the air.He couldn’t see how it was flying, but it was over the trees now. He picked up a small crate of food that had fallen out of the bag. This is OURS! He wouldn’t let any pirate get it.On he ran until he spotted another pirate about to enter a hut.He was about to fire when he saw the now-familiar shape of a Matoran out of the corner of his eye.One of his people was leading Kewonga, Hafu, Midak, and Akohre to the center of the island. Kewonga carried the cube device. They were sneaking through the bushes, trying to stay out of sight of the pirates. Udmijok didn't think they were doing a good job.Midak saw Knife-Tail and waved him over. “Found nothing on the other two.”“Here goes,” Kewonga said.He pressed the button.Stared at it.“It’s not red!” Akohre marvelled. “Blue!”“Look, it’s an arrow!” Hafu said. Indeed – the top of the button was now serving like a screen, displaying a narrow triangle. Kewonga moved it around – the arrow moved too, bending slightly. It was pointing to a place on this island, not very far away.They all ran that way. Udmijok considered leaving them, but he was worried about the pirates. They should have waited till the pirates left! But then, what would they do when the pirates got to the fifth island? He supposed they had no choice but try to get to where the enemy had been.“It’s pointing here!” Kewonga said.Udmijok ran up and looked at the button. The arrow was spinning, then turning into a totally blue button, flashing, whenever Kewonga held it in a certain spot.“But there’s nothing here!”The next image Udmijok saw made him cringe. A dark, hulking humanoid shape walking through the trees behind the Matoran.Turning. Seeing them. Looking from their faces to their hands.Right at the cube.“RUN!” Udmijok shouted, firing at the pirate.A tall humanoid landed behind the Matoran.“What’s that?” the pirate demanded.The Matoran and their Shvontuk guide ran, and Udmijok and other guards circled the pirate, firing.Too late.One second, all four Matoran were there, running in front of him.The next, four pirates swooped down at once and left behind only the Shvontuk.“NO! STOP THEM!” he shouted at anybody else nearby, but they were already trying. There was only so much destiny could do.He fired, hit the pirate carrying Kewonga and the cube. Tried to change the cube’s destiny to fall out – the pirates’ only interest in the Matoran was to learn what it was, he figured – but the pirate held it too tightly.And then they were out of sight behind trees.“No, no!”He ran and ran.Came eventually to the northern coast. Saw Azh’yuuros on this side of the island, still firing at the enemy vessel.Lightning illuminated two humanoids locked in battle over the island. He saw no sign of anyone else.Another flash, another view of the fight above. Udmijok looked around desperately in that fraction of a second for any sign of the Matoran.None. Just Toa Tyaagko and the blue and black being. The Toa trying to prevent the pirate from getting away.A crash of thunder. Rolling echoes.New lightning.Udmijok saw the pirate’s fist raised.He fired upwards, trying to stop it. The orange sphere sailed...The sound of shattering. Too late.Then more thunder drowning it out.His orange sphere flew right between the two combatants as the punch pushed them away from each other.Lightning.Toa Tyaagko fell from the sky, his mask of Undeath reduced to shards falling around him.Udmijok felt sick and dizzy. He stumbled; only the fact that he had four legs kept him from falling.Lightning.A dark mass faded away into the rain, moving on unhindered to the other two islands. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa locked himself in the control room with nothing but his paper trace of the Poetraxiens Memory.He didn’t like the idea of returning yet again to Ga-Koro to pick up the strange lantern the Toa had found, even if the sun was setting now to give a natural shroud of darkness. Surely by now Kuambu had eyes overlooking Ga-Koro.And he knew very little about the strange lower level’s controls.Maybe something here would help.He aimed a beam of energy at the wall in front of him. The radiating pie-chart of symbols appeared. He studied each one without moving the beam, trying to recall their meanings.Most of the meanings came to him as easily as words.When they didn’t, he re-read the Poetraxiens, and it helped.He looked at them clockwise, thinking what effects each option might have. Interesting…All of them were shaped something like an animal. The one for window was shaped like a jellyfish. He assumed it symbolized a round transparent object, as some jellyfish were, and as the window feature seemed to make this room.The one for the Seahopping map was a frog that looked like it was swimming.Then he tested others.This one shaped like a bird with an open mouth would come in real handy.Apparently he could broadcast his voice to the rest of the ship remotely – by what means, he had no idea, but he wouldn’t have to poke his head out of the hatch every time he ordered a maneuver. A Captain could be very effective down here with this alone – no need to walk, yell, or send messengers to give orders on different decks.The option that most intrigued him right now would need such a broadcast. So he went there first and warned everybody to grab a handhold.Moved the beam over the symbol shaped like a fish, activated its power.The circle of buttons was replaced by a blue vertical bar, the topmost end appearing right where his energy beam pointed.He moved it down.Felt slightly lighter.Through the panoramic vision power all around him, he saw a golden bubble of light appear around the ship.But not shaped like a sphere this time.A hemisphere. A dome.The hull itself still floated at the same level in water. The water was simply lower now, and the ocean around now rose up to form a dome over them. The transition looked spectacular, as if a massive hut was being built by a magic tsunami all around them.Then they were under, the water settled around them, and lowering the Seahopper simply made the little bit of sunlight from above get dimmer, until he couldn't see it behind the golden wall.Lower. Lower.He switched off the beam – the bar disappeared.Now his boat floated deep underwater in the golden dome. Fish swam around the dome, looking curious. Bhukasa was impressed. This would help...A new beam. Circle controls. Tested another symbol shaped like a dragonfly.Instantly, he could see the ship from above.Moved the beam around in the room – this moved the invisible eye so he could look at the ship from behind, in front, to the sides, or even below. When he released the beam the angle stayed there. He angled the camera so he seemed to be floating above and behind the ship.He couldn’t help but grin, looking at the seemingly primitive wooden ship from this angle.Another symbol, shaped like a rabbit.Voices.The voices of his crew. He could hear them from here.He listened for a while.Maku’s voice was the easiest to hear – probably an audio receptor in the steering wheel, he decided. Most of the crew was commenting on how strange it was to be floating under a dome of water, and speculating what else the secret room could do.There was no symbol, it seemed, that let him control the rudder from here.Apparently that could only be done from where Maku now stood. If he wanted to control travel directly from here, seahopping was the only option. He could not complain about this, not because he liked it, but it sent his mind on a path whose end would feed the sorrow. He decided to accept any flaws in the system without question.Bhukasa noticed that the sail was still being pushed lightly by a wind, which seemed impossible. But then so did the rest of it.The wind wasn’t very strong, though.The boat seemed to be moving, but if they wanted any speed from this method without seahopping, they’d have to row.Bhukasa did one more check.As he did, the idea of letting himself look at his and Toggler’s memories came back to him… but he pushed it aside. He knew if he waited too long he’d never recall them at all… but he just… couldn’t face them yet.He brought up the vertical bar again and returned almost to the surface.From his viewing angle above and behind, if he looked up and forward, he could see a little hole in the dome. No golden light appeared there – rain even came through it. A strange sight – the voices of the crew commented on it with delight.He moved up even more, so he now seemed to be standing above a wider hole. He could tell from here that the golden light beneath the waves wouldn’t be very visible to random observers unless they got close. The yellow bubble wall was mostly invisible, although it would be easily spotted at night. It was only due to the thick stormclouds that he could see most of it, he suspected.Then better do it before night.He went back to the frog symbol, thinking he’d seen something out of the corner of his eye before.Yes. When he displayed the map, the symbol of a clamshell appeared on the far edge of the map.He moved the energy beam over it. 'Clicked.'Now moved the beam back over the map. A red dot followed the beam. He moved it near the dot displaying his current position and clicked again, tensing for something to happen.But the red dot simply dropped there and stayed.A way to mark important locations, he realized.Now he turned off the map and brought it back. The red dot was still there.He moved the beam to the dot, and next to it a symbol of a shark appeared. Clicked it.The dot was erased.And that was all the symbols. He was impressed. He’d have a lot of control. But he lacked any direct control over propulsion – besides Seahopping – or weapons. For those he still needed his crew and the more traditional sails, oars, and ballista-slings.He use the bird symbol to call up. “Alright, everybody. Man the oars. Maku – head back towards Ga-Koro.”There, they would pick up the strange technology Tahu and Kopaka had retrieved for him. He didn't know whether it was really meant for him, but no Unknown had shown up to correct them when they'd discussed the plan, so he would take it. He wondered what it did.He already had the four comatose Toa onboard, though he had no idea how they would help. He was restocked, repaired – more or less – and now familiar with the controls. He had everything he needed, except for one bit of knowledge.Where was the Lone Ship? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Udmijok and Azh’yuuros ran across the bridge together now, wasting no time in chasing the pirate airship.But it didn’t attack the fourth island – it skipped ahead of them to the fifth island. The blue giant’s flames had apparently frightened them. How much damage he’d actually done, nobody had been able to tell.They arrived at the last island just as the crew was flying back into their ship laden with more stolen supplies.Udmijok shouted at the ship, firing again and again, trying anything he could think of. A strong downdraft to ram it into the treetops. The Guardian’s blue flames to hit some vital spot. He even managed to cause a bolt of lightning to strike it, but nothing worked.Now it was a dark shape fading once again into the rain.Now it was gone.Udmijok stared that way long after he could see only rain.Eventually, he felt the little crate, still in his left hand.Turned away from the ocean.Paused.Shouting, threw the crate with all his might into a tree. It broke into pieces.He stared at the pieces, seeing instead the faces of those guards killed long ago on his watch, and of the four Matoran – who knew what their fate might now become?Slowly he became aware Azh’yuuros was watching him.“Come,” the giant said gently. “Two Matoran are still here somewhere.”He didn’t answer or move for a while.Finally he felt his head nod and his feet carry him inland. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito flew quickly over the shorter forests of Ta and Ga-Wahi, then the desert of Po-Wahi.It did not take long to reach the northeast coast.There he witnessed the Bohrok plunging into the sea.Gahlok created currents and pushed the others along from there. To where?He continued to fly out over the ocean, very curious… already forming a theory from the previous reports of Bhukasa. Now he saw Bohrok hovering up with levitation Krana, then sinking below the waves. Rain cascaded around everything, sending elegantly curving trails of water rolling off of Bohrok armor as they flew around.As he got closer, light faded into view.Sure enough, the Bohrok were entering the gap in the ocean, inside the golden wall of light that Bhukasa had described.And not just to see the sights.They were tearing into the ocean floor. ‘Cleaning’ it to use Lewa’s term.Already they had cut a shallow trench into the rock, growing ever deeper by the second.The Matoran Universe…They were right over one of the tunnels between Metru Nui’s dome and another dome to the northeast. If they continued like this too long, they would break through its wall.Only that mysterious wall of light would hold out the ocean then. If it disappeared, all the domes would be flooded.THIS is the mission of the Bahrag?Tahu asked for a report again, and Ito was about to give it, when something caught his eye.A sail…A Kuambu ship, anchored far enough away from the golden wall to avoid its pull.“Waitquick,” he said, and steered Jhianau closer.There was a tallish Ga-Matoran in the crow’s nest, holding two black pistols. Matching the description Bhukasa had given…This was the Lone Ship. Bhukasa’s nemesis.Watching the Bohrok.Waiting.“Tahu,” Ito said, “I know where Bhukasa can battlefight.” -----> Review here! <----- Edited September 24, 2012 by bonesiii Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted July 9, 2012 Author Share Posted July 9, 2012 Chapter 41 The rain over the seas north of Mata Nui was as thick as fog and as loud as a waterfall’s roar.Bhukasa watched the dim gray sky above broil.Something unnatural was clearly at work. This heavier rain now came in faster than the other clouds were traveling, but once it reached the area of the Hole in the Ocean, it slowed and just hovered over them, growing in strength.But most of it didn’t reach his ship’s deck.He had the ship mostly submerged in a bubble-dome of yellow energy. Just the top peaked above the waves – the crow’s nest on which he stood. Only the rain through that little hole at the top of the dome reached the ship below.He looked down at the strange lantern Kopaka had unearthed, with the power source part Tahu had found now placed inside. Ito had just dropped it off for Bhukasa, and told him where to find the Lone Ship. Bhukasa had no idea what the lantern did, but he figured it would be important.Now he held up the telescope – a new one of a different design he’d gotten from the Kriitunga since the other had broken.Pointed west.There it was.The Lone Ship.Floating off the eastern side of the Hole in the Ocean.The ship was just a silhouette through this intense rain, but he could see its castle-like shape clearly, and he was sure it was alone.Bhukasa crouched down, and pointed the telescope at the Hole’s yellow wall.Vaguely through the distortions of water and energy, he could see movement inside the Hole. From what Ito had told him, it was Bohrok digging a new trench deep into the seafloor, each in their hovering sphere forms.He recalled memories of both Hujo and BE separately seeing a similar trench between Mata Nui and the southeast pillar-island. And he’d heard that Gali had an adventure there once.Had that been dug by Bohrok too, long ago?There were two distinct vertical columns of Bohrok activity. One column was hovering down into the Hole, and another column was hovering back out, carrying rocks away.Could it be a coincidence that these three things were in the same place – the trench-cutting Bohrok, the Hole in the Ocean, and the observing Kuambu?No, he decided. They had to be connected.And something told him it was all connected to the great secret Hujo knew.I can find that secret in my own mind now.He just needed to face his memories. Then Toggler’s. Then Hujo’s secret would surface.Bhukasa tried. He closed his eyes.In his mind, he imagined turning to a giant image of himself, standing on a shore surrounded by pine trees.But the giant’s eyes erupted in tears.A torrent of tears flooded the land the tiny observer Bhukasa stood on, and threatened to drown him.He opened his eyes.The first thing his eyes saw when they opened was the distant silhouette of the Kuambu ship, right where it had been before he closed his eyes.It wasn’t moving. It was anchored. He could see the cable angled into the water.Bhukasa smiled. He had an idea.His memories would have to wait. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nixie followed Knife-Tail, with Azh’yuuros and Korau.“It was somewhere around here,” the centauroid muttered sadly.He’d met up with the remaining two Matoran again where the ferry was hidden. Told them the tragic tale of the pirates kidnapping Kewonga, Hafu, Midak, and Akohre, as well as the strange cube the Unknown had given them.Just before they’d been taken, he said, the cube had displayed something other than a red flash. Kewonga had risked the CHECK on this central island of the Shvontuk’s five islands, and the button had turned into a blue arrow.When they brought it to where the arrow pointed, it had turned into a blue dot. But there’d been nothing there.The pirates had attacked then, before they could figure it out.Now the four who remained agreed to look again. Nixie thought it was obvious that whatever they were looking for must be buried.Apparently someone else had figured that out too.Because now when they arrived back where the dot had been, there was a huge mound of earth. Next to it, a hole.“This wasn’t here before!” Knife-Tail exclaimed.They stared at the hole for a few moments. Then Nixie walked next to it and looked down.“It’s a cave!”Someone had dug a hole to a cave that had been there all along.It was dark and it was still raining, but she thought she saw something laying on the cave floor.“Look!” Knife-Tail said, pointing the same way.The blue giant sent a snaking beam of blue fire in, lighting up the cave and the object.It was a cube.Silver cube, with a clear button on the top.Just like the ones the pirates stole when they kidnapped the four Matoran.“I don’t get it,” Knife-Tail said. “Did the pirates dig this, and leave the cube in place of whatever they found? Why would they?”Nixie sighed. Maybe it was because she was the Astrologer of Mata Nui, but she felt she could see their future now.“Don’t you see? An Unknown must have known somehow that the other cube detected something in this cave. Maybe it sent a signal to them. An object the Unknown were missing. Then while you were trying to stop the kidnapping, the Unknown came here, dug the hole, and took whatever was here.”“And left us another cube in its place, to continue the mission,” Azh’yuuros agreed. “So, what we’re really doing is helping the Unknown search for things?”“Apparently,” Nixie said.“Is that what we’re doing?” Korau asked. “I mean… Should we continue without the others?”Nobody said anything for a while.Nixie looked at Azh’yuuros. He was the most powerful among them. He had a job he was supposed to be doing, but he wasn’t needed there yet. But when it was time, he would be needed.“You shouldn’t really risk going after the pirates,” she commented.“Four Matoran were kidnapped from right in front of me,” he said grimly. “I owe it to them to undo that error.”“But if you couldn’t stop it then, what will you do now? Even Toa Tyaagko couldn’t stop them. Trying was the last thing ‘he’ ever did. Maybe we should keep on the course, CHECKing. Ahurahn made it sound very important, and it’s probably safer.”“I agree,” Korau said.Nixie looked at the Po-Matoran chef.She’d been as disturbed as anyone to see him ‘sorted’ as a ‘Darkmind’, whatever those terms really meant. But now it seemed he really was mis-sorted after all, and Niaka was the traitor.Nixie found that even harder to believe. The chef she didn’t really know, though like anyone on Mata Nui she loved Fauii cakes. But Niaka she’d known fairly well. She’d never suspected her fellow villager could be evil.But that was the whole point of Rahunga, wasn’t it?Anyways, I guess Korau is trustworthy after all.Azh’yuuros slowly nodded. “I hate to admit any weakness. If I am to be an effective Guardian, I HAVE to be strong. But at the Vault I am in my own territory – there I have the advantage. Out here, against those pirates, I obviously don’t. So yes, I say we should continue.”She wished he would explain what this 'Vault' he kept talking about was, but he'd refused to answer before, so she just accepted his reasoning.All three looked at Knife-Tail.He sighed.Looked north.Said nothing for a while.Then he looked south. “We’ll be going that way, yes?”“Well,” Nixie said, figuring that as the resident Ga-Matoran she would be in charge of navigation, “we’d agreed to CHECK the other prison islands and any others we missed up north, but I guess we can’t risk that now since the pirates went that way, and I don't know if the rain has started there again anyways. So yeah, I say let’s continue south.”Nobody disagreed.“I would not go,” the centauroid said, “except that now there’s only four of us. I guess... you need me.” He looked like he almost wanted to add something else, but for whatever reason he kept quiet.So they headed back to the ferry. Getting it back in the water – safe from Tarakava – would be a problem, but Knife-Tail promised he had an idea.They were almost there when the rain finally stopped, though the clouds did not break. Nixie did still see rain rolling in to the north, though, so she felt confident they'd made the right decision. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa lowered the ship and had his crew row to a spot just under the Kuambu ship.Then he called up the Seahopping map.Moved a beam onto the clamshell, and dragged a red dot to the blue dot indicating his current position. Clicked, dropping the red dot there.Now the Lone Ship's position was marked.Then he had them row a safe distance away from the Kuambu. Told them to hold on.Seahoppped to Kriitunga Island.Surfaced.It was still raining here, but not half as bad as at the Hole. He thought he saw lighter sky to the west.He’d brought them to the river mouth. Quickly they lowered one of the Ga-Koro boats. Bhukasa, Takua, and Krohlaba got in and headed upriver to tell the King his idea.On the way, Krohlaba pointed out the Kuambu prison, visible through a gap in the trees lining the right side of the river.Bhukasa saw the wooden fence, the dome-like roof-cage, and a jungle inside, made of the same kinds of trees.He tried to imagine some way to free that one Toa there, and Johke, but couldn’t think of any. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Niaka watched the line of raindrop impacts in the ocean recede east. Clouds still obscured the sun, but she could now see the horizon to the west clearly.“So, any plans to get out of here?” Vamuka wondered, exhaustion in his voice.Niaka handed him the mask.“No idea. I would think Makuta wants me to continue this mission somehow, but the Tarakava are acting like we should stay here. I wish I had my Rah-Kanohi. Makuta could just tell me himself.”That’s what she said. Any infected Tarakava would hear her being loyal. Meaning Makuta would hear her being loyal.But was she?Vamuka looked at her strangely, but didn’t ask anything further. Maybe he figured her words were only for Makuta’s ears, although the lava farmer was so simple sometimes she doubted he was that smart.The truth was, most of the Tarakava were acting like they wanted to eat the two Matoran. They’d been lucky an infected one had captured them, not a wild one. But if animals could carry on debates, this was about what it would look like.The wild ones kept circling, eyeing the Matoran, then circling closer and closer.The infected ones were circling closer still, their eyes on the wild ones. When a wild got too close the infecteds ganged up on it, punching, snarling, snapping.But while those were distracted, other wild ones took advantage of the distraction to sneak in from behind.No sooner did the infected ones fight off the previous offender when they had to double back and attack another.Alone in all this was the one that had been infected but had been possessed briefly by Hujo and rejected its mask.It was joining the infected ones in the defense, but when they ganged up on a wild one, it didn’t participate. It swam in a circle around the island, just giving a sharp look at any wild ones that came too close, and they backed off. But it was just one, so the other half of the island was open most of the time.Niaka felt strangely alone for the first time in a long time.Once she wouldn’t have feared these creatures. Rahudermis gave her the power she needed to not only survive the predators but capture them at will, putting infected masks on them.Now she felt just as captured by the same master as her victims.But without the Rah-Kanohi…Her thoughts trailed off as she started to fall asleep, and Vamuka gave her his mask.But she still felt fairly tired. Both of them had been awake for a long time now. They needed sanctuary to get some sleep, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.What could they do if the wild Tarakava ganged up on the few infected ones? Knocked off their masks?Tarakava could be tamed. But not all that easily, and not all at once.Even the tamed ones had to be kept well-fed.When she really thought it through, she realized they were in a lot of danger.It was then that she saw the thing out of the corner of her eye.A wide, flattish shape, hovering in the sky, colored grayish-blue. Coming up towards them from the south.She tapped Vamuka’s shoulder and pointed.“What is that?”“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. “But it’s hovering, and it’s not a Rahi…”As it got closer, she could see it was shaped like two coins. Two parts of the rims touched – the rest were spread open like a clam.The bottom coin was shaped like a cylinder, with alternating windows and some kind of machinery on its rim. The top one was like a flattened dome.Closer and closer it came.She heard no noise from it until it was very close, and then all she heard was voices. Someone shouting orders, but she couldn’t make out what was said.The machines between the windows looked like cannons now. She saw no engines.When it was nearly over them, two tall beings leaped out of the gap between the upper circle and the lower one. They didn’t fall right away – they hovered until they were right over the two Matoran.Then they started ‘falling.’By now, Niaka had decided this was wonderful news, compared to being stuck here surrounded by predators. She waved her hands just to make sure they were seen. Shouted for help. Vamuka did the same.She glanced back at the Tarakava.One of the infected ones had risen its head up. Nodded at her. Then sunk back beneath the water.Makuta wants me to go with them.Given the situation, that’s what she’d have to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa watched Kopaka zoom into sight and come to a sudden stop near the Bahrag's strange dome. The Kakama symbol on his Golden Kanohi dimmed.He’d met up with Tahu, who’d then come back – he was already here. Kopaka had taken the two parts of the strange lantern to Ito, who’d in turn delivered it to Bhukasa.“I saw the wolves on the way back,” Kopaka reported. “Almost here. Va are riding some of them.”“You’re total-sure they’re wearing Krana?” Lewa asked.“I’m sure.”Before Lewa had taken off his Krana, he hadn’t heard any hint that Rahi would be ‘given forebrains.’ But since both Bahrag were free of the ‘Overseers’ now, this had to have been their idea.That was almost good news to him – anything the Oru-Vortixx were involved in, he feared. But not really good – they were here to stop the Bahrag anyways.“There's something else I have to say,” Kopaka said. “While there's time.”He briefly summed up what Ito had seen at the Hole in the Ocean. “He said you have to know...” The Toa of Ice looked hesitant.“Whatspeak?” Lewa asked.Kopaka sighed. “You know how Rathoa showed me parts of my past, in his Truth Room?”“Yeah,” Gali said.“Something he showed me there... Ito said it was true. That poem the Kuambu said to Niaka?”“Mata Nui's realm, below?” Tahu asked. “You know what it means?”Kopaka nodded. “It's time I told you about the Matoran Universe.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa had briefly met with Khungakrii in his palace and explained the idea. The King had agreed, and decided to come with them to oversee the plan’s enaction.Now they tied up the Ga-Koronan boat on the Seahopper, and Bhukasa pointed at a wooden handle. “You’ll want to hold that tight.”“I shall,” the King said, smiling. “I am eager to see this ‘seahopping.’”“And you should probably hold onto your crown, too.”Bhukasa went down.Called up the map on the ceiling again.Seahop.This was a short trip, and he stayed on his feet the whole time. He was grinning broadly when the motion stopped and he headed up. Everything was going right.Reached the top deck.Now they were at the northwest horn of Kriitunga Island.They lowered the Ga-Koronan boat again, and the King got in.Krohlaba walked up to Bhukasa. Looked over at the King, back at Bhukasa. “If you wouldn’t mind… I’d love to be at the controls for this. A matter of honor.”“Of course,” Bhukasa said.The King nodded. Krohlaba climbed aboard. The boat was lowered, and rowed ashore.As the Kriitunga climbed Pohatu’s stone spiral staircase up to the control platform, Bhukasa went back to the lowest level.He had stopped the ship just in front of the horn-cannon. Now he clicked the clamshell, and put a dot right where the cannon was.Clicked the open-mouthed bird to project his voice. “Alright, start rowing.”The crew did.“Farther… Farther… A little west, Maku. More. Straighten – due northwest now. Good, keep going. More.”He watched the blue dot marking their current location. It moved farther away from Kriitunga Island, closer to the Hole.“Can you still see the horn?” he asked as he opened up the main menu and clicked the rabbit symbol so he could hear the answer.“Plain as day,” Maku said. “A rainy, overcast day, anyways.”“Just warn me if we’re getting too far away. Keep on this heading.”After a few minutes, Maku spoke up again. “Hard to see now.”“Alright, stop for now…” He compared the dots. “That’s good. They’re lined up.”He leaped out of the hatch and climbed to the top deck again. Looked behind them. Yes, the horn was still clearly visible.“Fire,” he told Takua.The Matoran aimed the flare launcher up and shot. The flare whizzed into the sky. Pop. Red explosion high above.In response, the horn’s cannon started moving. He could still see it fairly well even through the rain.Right now it was aimed north. It turned, aiming more toward his boat.Toward the northeast.Toward the Kuambu ship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa turned back to the huge stone dome, contemplating Kopaka's revelation of the underground domes. He wasn't surprised. Hadn't the Kal hinted at it too? And it was another secret of the Turaga's. He knew how they kept secrets.He barely noticed that it had stopped raining a while ago, and the sun even peeked out here and there now, nor did he notice when another brief shower moved through moments later.What occupied his thoughts more, for now, was the approaching wolves.Tapped the dome again with his axe.“We through-need. Boxor-punch?”Tahu nodded. “Better try it.”The Boxor army was surrounding the dome. They were fairly sure the Bahrag were inside. He didn’t want to risk damaging the robo-vehicles early, but what choice did they have?“Wait,” Rathoa said. “Let me try some of my powers first.”“Alright,” Tahu said, “but hurry!”So Rathoa shot beams of energy at the wall. Each beam was a different color tone, presumably a different power.One was clearly a bolt of lightning, one green poison, one a blast of sound. Kohrak Kal added his own sonic blast after that. As did the other Rahunga, and then all six Toa and all six Kal tried, together. Finally, Lewa tried using the weird powers of the Btou-merged axe, with Rathoa’s guidance to get maximum effect.Nothing.“Boxor, now!” Tahu said.Maybe brute force will wall-break.They punched. The sound was like a loud, clattering version of beating rain, thundering through the jungle.It was at that moment that the wolves came.They entered from the northwest, like a wave rushing into the group.Each was a little larger than a Toa in mass but shorter because they were on all fours, colored shades of medium and dark blue, and sporting plenty of claws and teeth. They had some fur as well as armor.The wave split around the dome. Those first on the scene focused onto the closest Boxor or person and clawed at them, doing their best to bite them, while the ones behind raced on to attack the next victim.Soon the whole Boxor army and everyone with them was fully engaged in battle with the wolves.Lewa managed to keep them off him well, with a low and wide cyclone whose eye he stood in. Jabbed the tip of his axe at one point, knocked off a Krana.That wolf started to run away.The Va on its back just slapped another Krana on.Another Va raced by and grabbed the Krana Lewa had knocked off, and leaped on another wolf’s back.Lewa kept trying.Now he got another Krana and energized it.Boxor were ripped apart.Toa tools grabbed.A wolf got an Onu-Matoran by the arm and dragged him into the jungle. No!They were losing. Fast. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa waited until he could no longer see the sides of the giant cannon. Now he could only see the circle of its front. It was aimed just right.A few seconds of silence passed.Then a green flare popped above the cannon. Meaning their computer read perfect aim.The reptilian Captain turned to his crew. They looked back at him expectantly.The memories! I need them first!But everything was ready. He had his plan… And he’d had enough of waiting.“Let’s go.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa fought his way closer to the dome.Reached it.Now he set a whole series of cyclones between him and the attacking wolves.Turned on the stone wall.Held his axe high.Swung down hard.It glanced off, leaving not even a dent.He swung harder this time.Nothing.Harder!Nothing!“AAH!” Swung it so hard he lost grip on it.The axe bounced away into the broiling crowd of battle.The cyclones disappeared.“No!”A wolf immediately turned on him.He raised a hand and summoned a burst of air.A breeze ruffled the wolf’s fur, but most of the energy zigzagged sideways and slammed explosively into a Boxor, which burst into pieces, sending its Matoran controller screaming through the air over the battle. Lewa was horrified, but a moment later the wolf grabbed his leg and ran.Lewa punched at it, flailing his legs wildly.It let go.Another slammed into him, running after a de-Boxored Matoran who was also running. Much slower.Lewa saw it pick the Matoran up with its teeth, by the torso, and fling it into the stone wall.The Matoran slumped down. Didn’t move.Then yet another wolf was in his face, pawing at him and snarling.Lewa snarled back this time, and gave a powerful kick.Knocked its Krana off.As it ran away, he scrambled back to his feet and tried to dodge past the battling pairs towards his axe.Saw it laying on the ground.A large black hand moved over it, gripped the handle.Lewa looked up.The hand belonged to Makuta Rathoa. The titan looked up too, and they made eye contact.Rathoa slowly raised the axe. Lewa remembered only just then it was still merged with a Btou staff and one of Onua’s claw-tools. Right now Rathoa had all of Lewa and Onua's power, plus his own.Neither moved for a moment, except that Rathoa shot a bolt of bubbling red energy at a wolf that tried to bite him.Then Rathoa turned the axe around and handed Lewa the handle.“Thanks,” Lewa muttered. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Two large humanoids landed on the island in front of Niaka and Vamuka.One looked something like a titan version of a blue Bohrok Va, with some black in the color scheme also. Despite the blue, it was clearly a male.The other looked like a robot.The Va-like one made some kind of hand signal, and the robot nodded.Both walked forward.“Will you take us aboard?” Niaka asked.But they didn’t answer – they just grabbed the Matoran by their arms. And lifted off.“Who are you?” Vamuka asked. “What are you doing?”No answer.They flew in, under the upper ‘coin’.The top of the lower coin, she saw, was a top deck. The whole lower coin was tilted, almost at a thirty-degree angle. Metal posts reached up from the wooden deck – crewmembers were holding onto these to keep their balance as they walked across the deck.As they flew in, Niaka felt the wind shift. The prevailing wind came from the east, but here it turned north. She realized the clamshell-like arrangement of the two halves of the ship made it work like a sail. Probably a power was bending the wind to handle direction, and another power probably handled levitation.Near the edges there were four openings down into the inside of the lower ‘coin.’ The two pirates carried the Matoran inside.Niaka took a good look at each of the other crewmembers first.One was an orange Matoran.Another was taller, colored black with a somewhat reptilian face, and a body build similar to the blue Va-like one’s.Another was also a tall, green humanoid, but was much bulkier and gruff-looking.Still another looked quite fat, colored off-white – that one was munching on what looked like Ruki meat.They were taken without any comment to a locked room. The blue one opened the door. Threw them in.Closed it behind them.The room was dark.But she saw four pairs of eyes glowing.“Who’s there?” she asked, warily.“It’s us,” a familiar voice answered.It was Kewonga. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Krohlaba watched Bhukasa’s boat through a telescope.Waited…The boat disappeared under the waves.He counted to fifty slowly.Glanced at the King.Khungakrii nodded.He pressed the power-up button.The giant cannon whirred to life. Blue light shone out its opening, sending a beacon-like beam of light out across the ocean.It stopped raining then. He took the opportunity to make double-sure the Seahopper had left.The computer beeped. The cannon was charged.He took a deep breath. Scenes of all he'd done wrong in his life flashed before his eyes, and the memory of his stand for what was right. Now was the time to cement the new alliance, and to make his mark against the Kuambu, maybe to save countless lives.A quiver of excitement ran through his body, but worry and doubt gnawed at him as well.Did he really have the strength, the boldness, to do such a thing? Could he take this risk, knowing this cannon might be deadly if this Bhukasa, who he didn't know well at all, didn't do his part just right?It must not be about revenge.He closed his eyes, finger feeling the trigger, and slowly let his breath out. Tried to breathe normally, to relax and stop thinking about all the eyes focused on him, wondering at his hesitation.What would Pohatu say? The Toa trust Bhukasa. It is their realm beneath the sea this Kuambu is allowing to be threatened, apparently.He did not have all the information, though. It was just like that day at the Shredder Tower...With one exception. That day, a voice deep down inside him had been screaming at him that he was doing the wrong thing. And he had embraced the wrong thing out of anger, savoring the sharp feeling of violence.Today his heart told him this was right, and the feeling he savored far outshone what he'd felt that day. He felt peace.With a slight nod, he pressed the trigger. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa watched from inside the lower deck.The Seahopper had just arrived, just under the Kuambu ship, and was still submerged enough that the enemy couldn’t see them.They rowed towards the anchor cable. It slid into the half-bubble of yellow energy, and up to the prow.One of the Kriitunga crewmembers sliced it. He had to saw at it a little, and the vibration carried up the cord, worrying Bhukasa, but it was so satisfying to see the lower part fall down and disappear, the other end hanging uselessly.They had at least a few seconds before the Kuambu figured out what caused the cable to shake and then go limp, he was sure.Bhukasa looked southeast.The water there started to glow blue.The giant bolt of plasma from the horn, miles away.As he’d suspected, the bolts kept on going once they were fired. They slowly fell under gravity’s influence, but he’d told the Kriitunga to fire high so it would go much farther than normal.He looked from it back to the Kuambu ship, judging the precision of the aim.Now.He raised his ship.It surfaced right in front of the Kuambu ship. Surprise.“Row hard! Straight on!”They did.He rammed it.While most of his crew had been busy preparing the rest of the plan, some of the crew had been busy installing a heavy metal ramming prow.It punctured the Kuambu ship below the water line.On the tip of the prow there was a little metal part on a swivel joint. It could bend down or back towards his ship – it couldn’t bend forward. As it went in, it bent up and inside the two forward-pointed metal beams of the prow.Now that it was in, it fell.His ship bounced off, but the hook was stuck inside. It wouldn’t come out now.“Forward!”The bolt of plasma came on. As it was, it would miss the Kuambu ship by several feet.“Farther! Now slow down a bit.” He didn’t want to kill them, just to level the playing field.The bolt hit.It vaporized the Kuambu’s rudder – he watched it from an impossible angle thanks to the dragonfly button.What was left of the back of the ship burst into flames, though the Kuambu apparently fired something at it to make the flames go out moments later.He lowered the viewing angle, looking at the hull underwater.There were now two holes. The one his rammer prow was stuck in, and one where their rudder had been. Neither was below the water line.Yet.He called up the fish symbol again and began lowering the Seahopper. The dome of yellow energy didn’t reach all the way around the Kuambu ship – water now poured into the hole at the back, but his boat would be fine no matter how low it went.Leaving the enemy only one option, lest they sink.Purple energy shone from one point on the ship.Spread quickly across the whole ship.Spread along the rammer prow.Across Bhukasa’s ship.Flash.The Kuambu ship and Bhukasa’s boat appeared in the air.Over a jungle.Atop a pillar island.Surrounded by a Hole in the Ocean.With Bohrok cutting the seafloor.Fell.Crashed in the jungle.All was still. -----> Review here! <----- Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted July 23, 2012 Author Share Posted July 23, 2012 Chapter 42“Kewonga?” Niaka asked.“Yeah. And Midak, Akohre, and Hafu.”“What happened?”There was an awkward pause.They know about me, she thought.Then Kewonga summed up the pirate attack at Knife-Tail’s home. His tone of voice was dutiful, merely reporting, emotionless. He avoided Treespeak.Meaning, she knew, he was afraid if he got emotional he’d get angry at her. And he was afraid to get angry. He didn’t know what she was capable of, as a Rahunga.Does he realize I’m powerless without my mask?Come to think of it, all they’d have to do would be to give the mask to Vamuka and convince him not to give it back to her. Would he agree?Where was he?She resisted the urge to glance to her left, where he’d been standing. She knew she wouldn’t see his eyes there. She’d been wearing his mask long enough for him to fall asleep. If she looked that way, the others would see her eyes turn, and think exactly what she didn’t want them to think.“So,” she said, trying to direct the conversation away, “the pirates have the cube?”“They do. We haven’t seen it since we got here.”“This ship is weird,” Midak said. “If you can call it a ‘ship.’”Niaka noticed then that the floor wasn’t at an odd angle. Had the ship tilted to right itself? Or perhaps gravity was bent in here?“Yeah,” she commented. “I’ve never heard of anything like it.”Nobody said anything for a moment.That was how she wanted it. Let them think over what she meant by that. She meant, speaking as a Rahunga with a lot more knowledge than any of you, even the Healer. This gave her Rahunga status value to them, value she could build on in a moment with something she DID know.“I haven’t either,” Kewonga said after a moment.“I have heard of a mysterious band of pirates, though,” she said. “Makuta… well,” now she let herself sound a bit ashamed, because she honestly was, and she knew letting them sense it would give her an even better tactical standing, “told us about many goings-on across many islands.”Now she’d confirmed their suspicions outright. They had no answer for that, but their eyes didn’t leave hers.“Go on,” she said after a while. “We might as well talk about this. What do you want to know?”“Is he alive?” Kewonga whispered. “Makuta?”“Yes.”The other two murmured amongst themselves fearfully at that.“Are you… of the order of Mukana? Jombu? Repented?”She smiled. Then remembered they couldn’t see it in the dark. “I am. I wasn’t, but… something happened on the Tarakava island. It’s a long story, but basically Hujo contacted me and… well, he opened my eyes to a lot of things.”Like the big secret, she thought. But that wasn’t something she could use here.“Who knows about that?”“Now just you four, me, and Hujo. Vamuka doesn’t even know – I didn’t dare say anything out loud with infected Tarakava around.”“I don’t understand,” Hafu said. “I thought you said Hujo met with you? Wouldn’t they hear that conversation?”“It… uh… was kinda… telepathic.”She noticed Kewonga narrowed his eyes. He doesn’t believe me.“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. When he gets back, ask him yourself.” But that didn’t help right now. “Look,” she added just to give herself time to think of what better to say, “I… I mean, what I’m telling you, this has to stay between us, okay? Makuta can’t know I’ve turned.”“What are we supposed to do?” Akohre asked. “Pretend we don’t know you’re a Rahunga? Tahu knows, the Turaga know, and we’ve all talked about it. If Makuta has spies, they know we know. By now I bet even the Bohrok know!”“Pretend I made you a deal,” she said. “The deal Makuta would have wanted me to make anyways. You see, this mission we’re on, about the cube – ”“We’re on the mission still?” Midak asked, looking around at the darkness.She ignored him. “Makuta agrees with the mission. It has something to do with the Kuambu, and they’re not on his side. Nor yours. A mutual enemy.”“Ahurahn that-knew, didn’t she?” Kewonga thought out loud.“Probably. There’s something else I should tell you. Ahurahn actually told me before we were even sent to that island, when we were on the Kuambu ship, that she’d come and free us. I didn’t tell you like I was supposed to.”“Why not?” the Healer asked, sounding mildly angry now, then he sighed as if to calm himself.“Frankly, I don’t know why she even told me, and not all of you,” Niaka said. Which wasn’t an answer – it wasn’t meant to be just yet. It threw their thoughts off balance was all. Now for the answer. “I didn’t believe her.”That wasn’t the reason at all, but she couldn’t risk getting them thinking about her vulnerability.“The Unknown must have planned this ‘mission’ for us all along,” Akohre said. “I wonder if they knew the pirates would capture us?”Niaka considered that.“If that’s true,” she said, “then maybe the mission isn’t lost after all. Maybe we can convince the pirates how important it is. They’re heading north, after all, and the rain has stopped. They have the cube.”“But we don’t know what the mission is,” Kewonga said. “And we can’t pirate-trust.”“Unless we’re supposed to,” Akohre said.Niaka wasn’t sure how she’d gotten him on her side, but she used it. “I agree. The Unknown are smart, and apparently future-minded, like our adept here. They must have known this would happen. Why else would Ahurahn make such a big deal out of telling us to look around for nearby islands and not even seem to notice we were in the middle of a longlasting downpour?”“So you think she before-knew we’d be coming north again, here-now?” Kewonga asked, disbelief in his voice.“I do.”“I agree,” Akohre said.“Fascinating,” a robotic voice said loudly.They all jumped. Turned around.The door opened.The two tall humanoids – the robot and the Va-like one – were standing on the other side of the door. Now she noticed the door was made of wood, and it was pretty thin.They’d heard everything.She was glad she hadn’t said much about Hujo…------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo looked around at a brightly lit city under a black, starless sky.The story of how this island came to be, he thought, was so outlandish he never would have believed it.Caroha touched chronoserum to ‘Event’ the Paracosmos, including Hujo, who then ‘little-Evented’ Twisted Island, confined to one circle of the Paracosmos’s Field of Shadows, then they came to this alternate Paracosmos where the alternate Niaka ‘little-Evented’ a modified copy of Metru Nui.Or rather, it was a modified copy of an alternate copy of a modified copy of the original Metru Nui, inspired by a modified copy of the modified copy of the island directly above it.Insane.But here it was.“I think I’ll call it ‘Metru Alta,’” Niaka said after a moment.The city was entirely empty of life except for Niaka, Hujo, and the tame Kahgarak. No Rahi, no people, no anything, unless you counted the plant life, which Niaka had made much more common across the island, patterned after Ga-Metru. Hujo was sure of it – he’d just come out of a Soulsong-sensing trance.Its three inhabitants now stood on the dock to the Great Temple.Most of the water surrounding the island looked black, except where the silver city’s white lights reflected off the water between them and the island. Looking out to sea, Hujo thought he could see the rippling wall of shadow that encircled the island, in which wormhole-tunnels to the many barren circles of this dimension's Field of Shadow were located.The Zivon would undoubtedly be coming through there soon, but he would find no prey to hunt here. Instead, Niaka had tried to focus on giving the plants huge fruit that would satisfy the giant crustacean beast. If it did try to attack her, the tame Kahgarak would protect her.“It’s… amazing,” Niaka whispered. “I can’t believe… I made all this.”“I know the feeling,” Hujo said.He turned to look at the Great Temple. “I’d better see if what I need is here.”“I think it is,” she said. “I focused on it as much as I could. But… be careful. I also got a very bad feeling about that temple. Like… what you want is… guarded.”Hujo nodded. That would be the chronoserum’s evil nature corrupting the process. He wondered what else had gone wrong on the new island and if any of it would matter to him.Maybe I shouldn’t just leave once I get the tool, he thought.He’d feel guilty leaving Niaka and her new pet alone without first checking out the rest of the island. Blue Fire could come in handy against unexpected dangers. He was sure there were no biomechanical beings, but there could be robotic troubles… or plant ones, he thought, recalling the Morbuzahk from Caroha’s history tablets.But he couldn’t spend much time here. He didn’t know what kind of danger Caroha was in.And a worse fear had finally surfaced from his never-ceasing analytical mind.These jet-Bohrok things knew about dimensional travelers. Caroha had worded it that way. They didn’t merely know that invisible people sometimes flew around – they knew they came from other dimensions.How would they know that?Maybe because they were dimensional travelers themselves.If so, then they may very well take Caroha with them to some other dimension Hujo could never reach. Soon… maybe it had already happened – he hoped he was about to find out. But if not yet, then he may not have much time.In his heart he knew he would go after Caroha as soon as he had what he wanted. But he would hate himself for it.Now I see why Caroha wants to think of people like Niaka here as not real. It would make these choices easier…------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Va-like humanoid made more strange hand signals, and the robot translated. “Welcome to the Apax. Follow us.”Niaka looked at Vamuka, laying unconscious on the floor.“Leave him,” the robot translated.The five Matoran followed.As they walked through the hallway, the blue one made more hand signals. The robot – who was mostly black except for some patches of pastel blue, and a single blue pointed eye – asked, “What happened to that one?” Apparently meaning Vamuka.“Don’t answer that,” Niaka advised. She didn’t want the pirates to know she was the one missing a mask… and all of them would be better served not letting the pirates know they needed masks anyways.“Yeah, we’d better close-watch what we now-say,” Kewonga muttered.The blue one looked like it was laughing, but it made no sound.“Cap’n Gar-Korr appreciates a good sense of humor,” the robot commented. “Or so he tells me. Humor escapes me.”More hand signs.“We figured you all would talk to each other, since you look so similar. You had to know each other, but we never imagined we’d get that kind of info.”They walked up a staircase back onto the pole-dotted deck. The top ‘coin’ was down, covering the whole deck, which was now entirely level. No gravity-bending, she thought.The folding-open must make the whole ship act like a sail, she thought. But something was definitely bending the wind earlier. Right now they must be hovering in place, probably still over the Tarakava island.They walked up to a big table.The fat one was setting out a delicious looking dinner, with enough for all of them.More hand signs.“Eat,” the robot said.Niaka surveyed the crew. There was one more than she’d seen before, of a species she’d never heard of – biomechanical, with a short, squat torso, Toa-like arms and legs, and a white beard. That one had already started eating.She sampled the food. It wasn’t that bad.“Courtesy of your centaurish friends,” the fat one said. She glanced at him. He didn’t fit in with this group. The others – except for the robot – looked gruff and mean. That one looked absolutely jovial.“Not ‘courtesy,’ though, eh?” the bulky strong one said, to laughter from the whole crew but the robot.The ‘Cap’n’ made more hand signs for a few moments.“He lied earlier when he said he didn’t expect what you said,” the robot said. “He thought you might know something about Bohrok.”The captain looked at Akohre. “You mentioned them. What are they?”“Oh,” the scholar said, shrugging. “Just… some of our friends who are often out of the loop.”The captain got up. Walked over to a latched cupboard. Unlocked it, and pulled out a large tablet.Set it on the table.Hand signs.“You’re lying.”Niaka looked at the tablet. She saw words like Toa Mata, Bohrok, Nuva, Kal, Rahkshi, Piraka…“We saw this thing going all blue,” the green one said, holding up the cube. “We dug, figuring it was a treasure detector.”“Some treasure,” the orange Matoran said. “A tablet telling nothing but a myth.”Niaka remembered Akohre’s comments with a chill. This tablet described the coming of the Toa almost as it had happened, but with no Rahunga involved. But it went on to describe things she was sure hadn’t happened yet.The… future?She glanced at the adept. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.A murderous, tangible ghost.The captain made more hand signs.“The tablet mentions Bohrok too. So we know they’re real, and they’re an enemy. We know they tried to clean an island, failed, but later were let loose to clean it after all. Where are they? Where is this island?”Niaka’s eyes widened. The pirates didn’t realize most of the events the captain just mentioned hadn’t happened yet. They thought it had taken place in the past – well, the captain thought that, at least.“Don’t say anything,” she told the others.More hand signs.“Are you sure?” the robot said.He was talking to the Captain, not the Matoran.The captain frowned, making more hand signs.The robot made hand signs back.The bearded one joined the hand-dance.So did the Matoran, with an obstinate look on his face.“Shut up, Toulhye,” the black reptilian one said.“Oh I will, and thanks for telling them my name, Uxxako of Xia!”The Captain handsigned furiously at those two. Niaka didn’t need a translation to know he’d said, “No more names!”Now the Captain turned to the robot and made a quick handsign. Everybody else put their hands down. The debate had been settled.Niaka had heard of sign language for the deaf or mute before. The Rahunga had even been trained in some of the basic vocabulary of some well-known sign languages, but this was not one of them, as far as she could tell.The robot finally translated the original statement. “The Captain was once a Vortixx like… since you already know his name, Uxxako here.” He gestured at the black reptilian humanoid.The Captain said more.“But there was another race of Vortixx, the Oru-Vortixx, of Oracle Industries. They captured Gar-Korr and subjected him to strange experiments. He was altered by mysterious ‘essence parameters’ of the ‘Bohrok.’”The Captain gestured towards the sea, which was visible out the windows between the cannons.“Since then he’s always felt a connection to these ‘Bohrok’, and it got stronger when we came up from the domes to here.”“Domes?” Midak wondered aloud.Kewonga shook his head. “Don’t ask.”“Who the Bohrok are, why he was altered this way… he doesn’t know. It’s why he can’t talk.”No wonder he looks like a Va, Niaka thought. But she had no idea what ‘essence parameters’ were either, or why he would be changed that way.She looked at the green one. She recognized his species. It was from the far southeast of the Matoran Universe. Probably this meant Gar-Korr had somehow escaped his captors and fled that way, and while living down there he became a pirate and invented this ship, collecting his crew there. That must be where the bearded one’s species was from too.She’d heard tales of pirates in the south from Makuta. The theory worked. So then, he must have come up through a sun-hole down there and worked his way north, following the vague feeling of connection.And now he was just a little to the southeast of Mata Nui.Almost there.“If you ever found these ‘Bohrok’,” she asked, making it sound like she didn’t know the term on purpose, “what would you do?”The captain frowned. Made no hand signs.“We’d steal their treasure, of course,” Toulhye said, smirking.“They do have some, yeah?” the green one asked.Hafu snorted. “More like they hate treasure.”“Enough Bohrok-chatter,” Kewonga said, glaring at the sculptor. “We have something more important to us we need to talk to you about. As you already know.”The captain took the cube from the green one’s hands, and set it on the table next to the tablet. More signs and more translation.“You apparently didn’t even know what your mission was. You were about to find out, and dig up this tablet. Apparently it’s treasure, yes?”Niaka shrugged, by her Rahunga training. It was far more valuable than anything else she could imagine right now, but the pirates didn’t know that, or need to know it. But the awkward silence from the other four ruined it.“It is!” If the robot could translate a gloating tone, it just did.She was starting to think less and less of Akohre’s ‘meant-to’ theory. It did indeed seem they’d been hunting Unknown treasure all along. She thought back to Ahurahn’s original words to her. She couldn’t remember the wording, but it sounded like perhaps most of the other Unknown were doing the same. Was this what they always did? Why enlist Matoran help right now?Especially help including Niaka, who the Unknown had to know was a Rahunga?But those larger questions aside, was it really a good idea to entrust a treasure-hunting mission to pirates of all people?At least they’d be good at it, she thought, almost smiling at the thought.The pirates didn’t know what Unknown were capable of. And as far as she could recall, nothing the Matoran had talked about when they were being listened in on had said it either. She didn’t really know much herself; that was the whole point of Unknown, wasn’t it?Maybe Ahurahn wanted the pirates to collect the treasures, thinking they were safe in these wooden cupboards, and then easily steal them back all from one place?It made sense.But what did that have to do with the Kuambu? Ahurahn said this was about them.She didn’t know.The captain spent a few more moments in silence, looking around at them. Then he hand-signed again, and held up the cube.“Tell us how this thing works. Or else.”“Or else what?” the Healer challenged.Gar-Korr grinned cruelly, and the rest of the crew laughed.That was all the answer they would get. Niaka didn’t think it was a bluff, whatever ‘it’ was.“I think we should tell them,” she said, looking at Kewonga and the others in turn.Kewonga looked around at the others.Then back at Niaka. He narrowed his eyes again.Does he still not believe me?She couldn’t imagine the difficulty of the decision he had to make. Of course, she could just go ahead and make it for him, and tell the pirates everything. The pirates wanted it – they’d make sure Kewonga couldn’t stop her. But that wouldn’t earn her any trust.Niaka widened her eyes a little in surprise at herself, at her next thought.I’ll respect his decision, whatever it is, she thought.How very unlike me…Then she smiled. She couldn’t help it.Kewonga shrugged. “I don’t know what to do, for sure, but I guess… we’ll agree.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The door to the Great Temple hung open.At least, it did until Hujo and ‘Niaka Alta’, as he’d started to think of her, got close. Then it slammed shut in their faces.“Okay…” Definitely some type of guardian.He lifted the staff and burnt a hole in the door big enough for both of them and the Kahgarak, if they didn’t ride it. Hujo was already walking – hovering an inch off the floor, thanks to the suit. Niaka got down, and the spider followed them in.He turned around, holding the light of his staff close to the door’s hinges.Pistons on the inside. Wires.So the guardians were machinery-based. Of course. Metru Nui.He wondered if Vahki might be lurking around, again recalling the Cosmos history.The inside was pitch black. Unsurprising – it was in the Field after all. Hujo brightened the three whirling flames in the staff.He didn’t see anything like Vahki.The whole inside was hollow, with nothing in it except what looked like a stone cabinet at the other end.“I guess you really focused on it,” Hujo said. “It looks just like we planned. Did you sense any kind of guardian besides the slamming door?”“I don’t know. It’s my first island.”Hujo chuckled. Then brightened the staff again to eliminate the corners of shadow on the far end.Yeah, nothing else.They walked cautiously up to the cabinet.It was hanging open. Inside, he saw a glowing light in a device on the inside of the door, glowing brighter the closer they got.And pistons.Just before it slammed shut.This was an odd way to guard. He remembered Caroha saying that the corrupted things in the Paracosmos, at least some of them, happened because of her own subconscious fears. What did this say about Niaka’s personality?Or was this from the chronoserum?Thinking back over his experience with the mysteries it had spawned, he’d bet on that.He walked closer.Held up the staff.Heard the sounds of breaking rock.Whirled.Vahki.But bigger, meaner.Breaking in through the stone walls like they were paper.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nixie gripped the ferry’s railing tightly, as it was lowered down on a rope.Korau, Knife-Tail, and Azh’yuuros were onboard, with as much supplies as the Shvontuk people could spare – which wasn’t much thanks to the pirates. Two other Shvontuk had volunteered to come, guards who had long ago known Knife-Tail – they didn’t call him that, but Nixie couldn’t pronounce what they called him.The boat was diagonal, sliding gently down the stone slope of the northernmost of the five islands.One end of the rope was tied to the body of the boat, the other was in hundreds of Shvontuk hands at the top of the island, who were slowly letting the rope out.The army of guards was standing on the slopes and the forested edge above, firing their orange Kuamor at the Tarakava.With that much influence over destiny combined in one place, plus a few warning shots of Azh’yuuros’s blue fire, the Tarakava couldn’t bring themselves to collect in front of the boat. A few hung back, keeping an eye on it, but even they looked defeated.Nixie realized grimly that some were probably not hungry anymore, thinking of Knife-Tail’s story of the end of Toa Tyaagko.The ferry reached the water.The nose almost submerged, but didn’t – they’d chosen this spot because there was a little shelf just at the water line that evened the boat out.Azh’yuuros severed the rope with fire, then put it out so the Shvontuk could reel the rope back in and use it.She started the motor and took them farther out.Programmed the next line of code from the tablet.And they were off.She saw Knife-Tail waving towards the island, and turned around to see the guards waving back. She joined him, as did the others.Nixie looked at the others. A tiny group, but they had more weapons than they’d started with, and the two most powerful had stayed.The boat turned south, facing open sea.“Look!” Korau said.He pointed up, towards the west.The clouds had broken in three places. Shafts of yellow light filtered down through the moist air. The wind had calmed, and the ocean was glassy. Three parts of the ocean looked blue, not gray, reflecting the blue sky behind those gaps. Yellow sparkles appeared across a wide swath of water, reflecting the sun off the tips of thousands of little waves.She had to gasp at how spectacular it looked.The sun was low, but to her it felt like a dawn, after all they’d gone through so far. She hoped it was a sign that the worst was over.Korau looked at her and grinned.She grinned back.Then one of Korau’s eyes wandered to the left, as his other eye looked right. -----> Review here! <----- Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted July 30, 2012 Author Share Posted July 30, 2012 Chapter 43 Bhukasa opened his eyes.He was still in the Seahopper’s map room. But nothing was turned on, and the hatch was closed. All he could see was a faint blue light nearby. The floor was slightly sloped to the port side.He sat up and aimed a beam of energy at the wall.Nothing happened.I hope it isn’t broken…Bhukasa stood up and inched towards the dim light. Brighter – but still dim – light from his eyes and flashing heartlight revealed the shape of the strange lantern.That would be ironic, he thought, if Hujo went through all that just to get me a light source.The dim light he saw was a little blue-glowing square mounted in the top of the handle – he hadn’t noticed it before it lit up. It hadn’t been glowing before, as far as he could recall.He picked the lantern up, and held it close to his face, looking for a button to turn it on.But it turned on by itself. Bhukasa was so surprised he yanked his arm away from his face, and stumbled backwards, falling on his tail.Sighing, he climbed back to his feet, and looked around. The lantern’s blue light reflected clearly off the black metallic walls.He looked up at the closed hatch. He didn’t remember closing it, and he worried it couldn’t be opened without the technology. I might be trapped. He tried to imagine suffocating to death, but decided he’d rather not.Tentatively he leaped a little, touching the hatch.It lifted. Swung open and stayed open. He sighed in relief.Jumped out.It was still dark enough here that he was glad for the lamp. The wooden deck was heavily damaged. Jungle leaves stuck in through holes all around, and he heard chirping birds and other Rahi sounds, through the onslaught of the thick rain, which shook the leaves and made everything behind them a gray blur.His crewmembers lay all around, all asleep, except one.Toggler looked like he’d just woken up. He sat up and looked around in confusion. Then he looked down at his hand, which lay in a small pile of gray shards.The Mask of Telecommunication.Toggler groaned. “We’ll have to wait for Tahu to talk now.”Bhukasa nodded grimly.The closest crewmember was one of the Kriitunga, a red Forge-powered one that had handled the making of the rammer prow. Bhukasa tapped his shoulder and he awoke.“Wake the others up,” he said. “Tell everybody to grab weapons and meet me at the prow.”“Yes, sir.”Bhukasa climbed the ladder, and Toggler followed.When they reached the top deck, Bhukasa beheld the open sky, through the clearing in the dense trees his own ship had just made. But the sky wasn’t truly open.A giant wooden cage roofed the prison. Rain came through it like a sieve.“How’d that get here?” Toggler asked aloud.“I thought we teleported to the Hole’s prison,” Bhukasa said. “Maybe afterwards we teleported to the Kriitunga Island one?Toggler shook his head, pointing towards the stern.There was the outer fence, and beyond it, he was pretty sure he could still see a golden wall holding back an ocean – no desert. Besides, it had only been raining like this at the Hole.Bhukasa also noticed the Seahopper was raised off the ground – apparently on top of parts of trees that hadn’t broken.Directly in front of them was the Lone Ship.It towered over his ship, but not as high as it had been in the water. Bhukasa walked to the prow and looked down. Sure enough, his rammer had broken off, but not before tearing an even bigger gash in the enemy’s hull.Bhukasa had rammed the Kuambu ship at a diagonal-front angle. He’d only been able to see the rudder hole the plasma bolt caused thanks to the any-angle viewing power of his people’s tech, so he couldn't see that hole now.But he could see several other holes ripped into their hull by broken trunks of trees – it had fallen all the way to the ground since they didn’t have anything like his lower deck’s strange metal to prevent it.The Lone Ship would never float again.There were already new brown veils hanging over all the holes he could see.“Take out their weapons,” he ordered, running back to one of the two working ballista-slings.He took careful aim at one of the Kuamor launchers sticking out between the castle-like crenellations, and fired. The launcher exploded. Turned to the next one, as Toggler destroyed another.They repeated this until they were out of bombfruit. There were of course other launchers on the other side of the ship, but none that could hit his crew. He wondered if the launchers were removable – and either way, he knew they carried portable ones too, so they weren’t safe. Just in less immediate danger.“Strange,” Toggler commented. “No fight yet.”“No sign of motion at all,” Bhukasa added.“Maybe they all teleported away?”Bhukasa shrugged as he turned to face the rest of the crew, who walked out onto the main deck right now.“Maku,” he said. “I want you to pick the best defensive Matoran and stay here.”“Where are you going?”“Everybody that’s not staying with you is boarding that ship.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The battle with the wolves was won, in the end, almost single-handedly by Rathoa.One wolf remained now, standing between Lewa and the wall, growling threateningly, but it clearly knew it wouldn’t last.Lewa deftly swung his axe so that the flat of the blade knocked the Krana off.The wolf ran away.The battlefield was still.Lewa surveyed the damage. Almost half the Boxors were ripped apart, and about a third of what remained was severely damaged.The wolves hadn’t killed or seriously injured anyone, but some Matoran had been dragged off into the jungle and were only just now walking back in.Every Matoran who no longer manned a Boxor, though, pulled out a weapon, or borrowed a spare from a neighbor, and they bravely faced the dome again, ready to strike. Lewa saw only one green Matoran among them, but he couldn’t help but feel proud of them all – really, they were all his people. Even Rathoa.Lewa also couldn’t help feeling disturbed about Rathoa.Maybe it was the fact that the Makuta showed himself to be so much more powerful than anybody else here, even the Kal. Maybe it was something in the way he’d handed Lewa’s axe back. Or maybe it was just the memory of past wrongs, and the knowledge that Rathoa still wasn’t really on their side.He stared at the wall again.Something about it felt different now, but he couldn’t place it.Something had changed.Something.Lewa frowned.He looked around at the others, to find them all looking to him for the answer. He turned away, facing the wall again. There had to be a way in.What would the Overseers do? he mused.Then he realized that was a good point. The Oru-Vortixx had captured the Bahrag before. If the Bahrag had the power to create such a wall anytime, at least if they were together, then the Oru-Vortixx must know a way through.And by now, he was certain the buried Vortixx would be free… and on their way here, following the Bahrag’s tracks.He looked back at the piles Matoran were making of the ruined Boxors.My solution? We have to fight-win with the Oru-Vortixx… and…But he couldn’t think past that part. Because it was impossible.Yet again, we must wallbreak before badfolk herecome.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa led the single-file march over the forward-facing pole of the prow, which was now pointing right at one of the veiled windows.“Everybody be as quiet as you can,” he whispered.The glass was broken, and it was large enough for even Toggler to enter.Toggler was right behind him, and Sairiph hovered to his left. He kept thinking to himself that his options were gone, if they decided to mutiny, but he didn’t think they would. The Kuambu were their enemies too.Behind Toggler came Takua, then several strong Kriitunga mutants.In his left hand, Bhukasa held a long stick he’d found laying on the deck, broken off of a tree. He’d snipped the leaves and twigs off, except one somewhat thick sharp-pointed twig at the tip that bent directly away from the main pole. In his right, he carried the lantern, knowing there would be dark parts of the ship.Now he reached forward with the stick.Held it high, and stabbed down at the veil.The sharp twig punctured the cloth, and ripped it from whatever held it up.Behind it, holding up the lantern, he saw an empty wooden room.Twirled the stick, wrapping the veil around it. Lowered it. Scraped it sideways, breaking off the rest of the glass and scattering it. Repeated this on the other four sides. It wasn’t quiet, but compared to the pounding rain, it was actually hard to hear.Jumped in, over the glass on the floor.Toggler turned into his hovering sphere form and followed, with Sairiph close behind. Toggler turned back to normal, and stood between Bhukasa and the exit door, with Sairiph, weapons ready.Bhukasa turned back and quickly used the cloth-wrapped stick to brush the glass on the floor to one side, making it safe for the others. He motioned for them to follow.Takua leaped in. Then a Kriitunga.Just then Bhukasa heard a loud wooden crunching noise from outside.The prow shook. Kriitunga fell off.Prow slid to Bhukasa’s right.“No!”He ran forward.Obviously one of the trees holding his boat up had snapped. Now the whole boat slid back. He was helpless to stop it.The prow tilted up.Pointed almost straight up. Lightning struck the cage roof far above right at that moment, imprinting a photograph of the scene in his memory.A thundering crash brought the boat’s slide to a stop. Bhukasa felt the floor shake from it.“Are you alright?” he shouted, forgetting his earlier order.No answer.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa was tired of thinking. Just plain tired, in fact.He put out a hand to lean on the wall.His hand met air.The Toa fell through the wall. Landed on his side amidst ground foliage inside.“Whah?”Stumbled to his feet, half inside the intangible wall, half out, looking around in fear at the army of Kranaed Le-Matoran and the Bohrok. The two Bahrag turned to face him haughtily. One opened its mouth to speak.Lewa ran back through the wall.Saw the shocked looks on everybody’s faces.He turned back. Reached out.Solid wall.He looked back at the others for an explanation. Most of their mouths were too busy hanging open in shock.Lewa tapped the wall with his axe again. Solid.He stood there for a moment, facing the wall and panting. He’d been so afraid of being caught in there alone, he’d started hyperventilating.Now he was just angry.I’ve gone through too much to be delayed by a silly wall, he thought.He gripped the axe tightly. Hunched his shoulders, preparing to run. “It’s not real!” he shouted. “Follow me!”Ran.Through.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa watched as another tree under the boat snapped loudly, and the prow tipped towards him again.The Seahopper tilted forward, but a thicker tree on Bhukasa’s left – the boat's starboard side – collided with the hull and sent it tipping to port.He saw motion on the deck – panicked scrambling around – as it slammed into another tree on the port side. Both trees bent outward, and the ship creaked and groaned as it wedged itself tight between them. Railings on both sides shattered.It stopped.Now there was nothing substantial under them at all, as far as he could see. But it was still at least thirty feet off the ground – held up by only friction and maybe another tree under the stern.Several Kriitunga and Matoran stood up from where they’d piled against the raised helm deck in the back. Others who had fallen off the prow cautiously approached, as a rope ladder was lowered. Everybody seemed to be uninjured, but he wasn't sure.He heard Maku giving orders, too quietly to make out the words from here.Suddenly he saw a sphere flying through the air.At him.It hit the wall next to him.Something translucent and shining slightly yellow appeared. Stretched outward. Pushed him away from the window.A forcefield sphere. It blocked him off from the window. He couldn’t go back that way.Then he heard shouts. Whirs.He had to leap nearly up to the ceiling to see down through the window now.Saw Kuamor firing in at the rest of his crew.Bhukasa turned, running past the others and out the door.He quickly took in the design of the ship’s interior.Above him, as the roof above the room he’d just come from, was the open-air walkway behind the crenellations. It was raining so hard the inside edge of this formed a waterfall off the wood all the way around. This ring-shaped walkway was open in the middle, with a crossed walkway over the courtyard below, shaped like a plus-sign intersecting the mast in the middle.The courtyard encircled another such gap down to a lower level with another plus-sign cross-walkway over that.Between those levels he saw stairs at the diagonal points between the plus-shaped walkways, and a gap in front of the mast's base where more stairs led down to the lower levels.It was huge.And totally empty.“They’re not here anymore,” he whispered.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tahu watched Lewa run back through the wall. Then Onua chased. Went through.Boxor started moving forward.One went through.Another didn’t.But five others went through. The one that hadn’t made it tried again. Went.“The wall is only there if we believe it’s there!” Tahu shouted. “Everybody in!”They charged – and the more went through, the less it blocked.Tahu ran in himself. It was very strange to pass through what appeared to be a solid wall. It seemed to glow as he passed through, so his eyes saw bright light until he was through.Then he saw the Bahrag and their guards.“Toa! You’re with me against the Bahrag! Everybody else – free the Le-Matoran and take care of the Bohrok!”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa had made a terrible mistake.The Kuambu weren’t defending their ship.At least some were attacking his boat, already.But were they all?What if the Captain is fleeing? he thought.Lightning struck a tree through the prison roof. The boom was almost instant, deafening.Wincing, he pointed at the stairs. “Go back, help the others, all of you. Go through one of the holes on the lower levels.”“What about you?” Takua asked.“I need to get to the prison's exit!” The Lone Captain must not escape.With that, he leaped away from them. Landed atop the level behind the crenellations. Looked west, saw the divider fence vaguely through the rain.Also saw more Kuamor spheres nearby – the other side his bombs couldn’t have reached. One of the Kuamor was purple.He ran for it.Sure enough, the base of the launcher had a lever that when turned released the launcher to be portable. He aimed it at himself and fired.He found himself able to see just like the dragonfly button on his ship. He was floating above himself, looking down on his body.Behind him, Toggler and the others weren’t moving. Nothing moved – there were no sounds. Time was frozen, but he felt like the effect wouldn’t last long. He thought about moving forward, and his vision leapt around.This must be how they choose where to teleport to, he thought.He zoomed with his mind over to the gate. He saw from the foliage that nobody had been there recently. Briefly he wondered if there were prisoners here. Then he realized it meant the rogue Captain hadn’t escaped yet. Good news.Teleport, he thought.Time moved again, and purple energy washed over him.But he was still on the Kuambu ship. He felt a slight pain in his mind, as if the power was telling him something was wrong. He also noticed his right hand was throbbing. A moment later all felt normal.He looked back. Saw Toggler and the others running down the steps to find another hole or window to get out of. Toggler glanced at him. Then they were out of sight.Teleportation isn’t working here, he thought.Which was good news. Otherwise the Captain could have just teleported himself away, Bhukasa realized. He wondered what would cause such a thing.He glanced down at the lantern in his right hand.Shrugged, and looked around at other Kuamor.One nearby was blue.That would do it, if he remembered correctly.Put it in the launcher. Climbed atop the crenellation. Held the launcher so he was between it and the prison’s exit far away.Fired.Blue flash.He flew high and far through the air.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito thought his eyes were deceiving him because of the rain.He’d watched the Kuambu ship waiting as the Bohrok tunneled into the seafloor. He’d seen Bhukasa’s ship surface just as the bolt of plasma flew in. Seen the ramming. Seen the purple flashes – one around both ships, the other over the pillar island.Watched the ships crash in the jungle.He’d glanced back at the Bohrok, worried they were going to intervene, perhaps on the Kuambu’s side.When he looked back at the prison jungle, it was topped with a roof-cage.His mouth had fallen open.One moment, it was uncovered, the next, covered.There hadn’t been another purple flash as far as he’d seen.He had stared, telling Jhianau to hover a bit closer and move north so he could see it from another angle. Time had passed, and then he’d seen lightning strike the cage. Lightning had been on and off with the wide storm earlier, but he hadn’t seen any for a while. The strike surprised him so much he slid sideways – Jhianau hovered right to stay under him.“Happythanks,” he muttered, patting the bird.Another flash of lightning.Yes, he was sure of it. A roof had just appeared… really, it was like it hadn’t even appeared. One moment it wasn’t there, then it was as if it had been there all along.Baffled, Ito hovered closer. He could see a battle was taking place at Bhukasa’s ship.I’ve got to wayfind in.He flew close enough to touch the cage.But a repulsive effect pushed his hand away.Crazolga slime.It was hard enough to believe a massive wooden structure could be built in the blink of an eye. It was harder still to believe the slime had been applied just as quickly – especially during a rain. He happened to know it was wet when it was applied and had to dry to stay on – rain would wash it off otherwise.He waited a moment and tried to touch it again, curious if it was indeed being washed away.No. The repulsion felt just as strong.Full-done cage just herepops.He thought back to the lantern he’d given Bhukasa. He’d held it to his ear and shook it at one point. Heard a liquid sloshing around.If it was made by Unknown, chances were that was the power source.Chronoserum.Which could alter reality.Ito nodded slowly. The lantern was more than just a lantern, especially if it was indeed the cause of this roof.Chronoserum was highly dangerous. Whatever benefits it may seem to give, there was always a lurking danger that just might surface and ruin everything. He was as disturbed as he was intrigued.Then he wondered if perhaps, just maybe, it was another belief-illusion. But another attempt to fly through failed, and he didn’t know of anything that could cause such a huge one anyways.No, it must-be chronoserum.But what else might it have changed?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Krohlaba and Khungakrii got back on the Ga-Koro boat, which Bhukasa had kindly left for them, and started back towards the river mouth.“Why didn’t you decide to stay with Bhukasa?” the King wondered aloud as they crossed in front of the western horn.Krohlaba shrugged. “The Kuambu have hunted us for so long. The idea of being the one to pull the trigger against them, knowing this time Bhukasa would make sure my actions weren’t deadly… I just couldn't pass that up.”The King nodded. “Understood. But I must say, I regret that there isn’t more we can do for him and his friends, after all they’ve done for us.”Maybe there is, he thought. But he couldn’t explain the thought to himself. They had no big ships of their own to go help. This boat could go far out, but it was too small to carry many and it was too slow to get there in time.They entered the river and continued upstream.The truth was, he’d had a good conclusion to his brief time of nation-changing influence. He’d launched them down the wrong path, then helped right their path, and seal the wound, and now he’d done something about their biggest enemy that would be told of in legend for years to come – even if Bhukasa didn’t win in the end.It was exhilarating, but he missed being just another face in the crowd, just another pair of hands working on the Shredder Tower.Just a part of the works, helping bring non-mutagenic soil to the gardeners who provided food for everybody else. Stopping in at The Golden Touch on his way to work sometimes. Admiring the towering architecture of the rich side of the city despite all his resentment of how it had come to be.He was deep in the middle of imagining life without anyone important knocking on his door ever again, when he happened to look at the trees.At the gap in the trees where he’d shown Bhukasa the Kuambu prison.The roof was gone. -----> Review here! <----- Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted August 12, 2012 Author Share Posted August 12, 2012 (edited) Chapter 44 Hujo shot blue fire at the closest giant Vahki.The bolt hit the bright silver metal and scorched it. Didn’t melt it.The Kahgarak leaped between them and the robot. The spider’s forcefield blazed and pushed the monstrosity away.Niaka leaped on top. She looked back at Hujo. “I’m safe. Just get it and go!”“I can’t just blast it open!” he said as another Vahki stomped towards him. “The tool might be flammable.”“That’s true. I think it’s actually paper!”He made a firecage.The Vahki stabbed right through it. Only his suit saved him – he flew out of the way just in time.Now he hovered higher than the Vahki, trying to think.Two giants leaped into the air after him. Oy.He zoomed around them to the other side of the Temple, taking care not to hit the walls.One leaped at him from just in front of him.He dove below it.It slammed into the wall.Through it.Stone blocks rained down. Hujo fled to the other side.Glanced at the walls all around. What with that last hit and the many holes from the robots’ entry, the ceiling would not hold long.“Get out of here!” he shouted at Niaka.She nodded, and snapped the reins – the Kahgarak ran out the way they’d come in.Hujo could fly out the huge gaping hole to safety now. But he couldn’t leave the tool.Idea.He dove, even as another pair of spiders leapt at him, smashing through that wall.Stopped right over the cabinet.A Vahki raised a staff. Stabbed.Hujo dodged.Cabinet exploded, crushed under the huge weapon.Hujo dipped, snatched the first hint of paper he could see, and fled.Out the hole.Looked at the paper.It was just a piece of what looked to be a map.A ripped-off corner. But he could tell it showed a wide region of islands. He studied it as fast as he could. Nothing looked helpful.Energized it, dove back in.The latest leapers had smashed the opposite supporting part of the dome as the first leaper. Now a huge stone arch from the other two compass points of the dome were all that held up the ceiling. Many stones along the edges of that arch weren’t supported well at all and were now falling, one by one.He waited for an opportunity, as the cluster of Vahki razed the remaining wall under this open side – thankfully that wasn’t supporting anything anyways.Zoomed.Landed.Carefully kicked splintered rock aside.More paper.Grabbed it. Flew.The ceiling collapsed thunderously behind him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nixie cried out in alarm at Korau’s crossed eyes.“What?” he asked, his smile fading, but his eyes centering on her.“What’s wrong?” Knife-Tail asked.Korau’s mouth opened, and stayed open. His left foot twitched. His right eye looked back at the beautiful patches of blue sky, while his left looked at the Unknown cube.“Oh no,” Knife-Tail said. “It’s happening again!”Azh’yuuros agreed grimly. “One by one.”“What’s wrong with him?” one of the other Shvontuk asked.Nixie knew not even the Healer could answer that.“Nothing’s wrong with me,” he said. “I was mis-sorted… but you weren’t… what do you mean?”She stepped forward, taking his hand. The chef was sensitive – she didn’t know how he’d take this. “Korau… your eyes are… it’s just like…”Both eyes centered on her, and widened.Suddenly he tilted his head all the way to the left, his eyes still focused on her, and pitched his whole body that way. Fell to the deck with a shout of alarm.“What’s happening?!” He sounded panicked, fearful. He knew.The next island eased into sight then. She glanced at it.Korau stood up, looked where she was looking. Looked back at her. “It’s like… Mad, isn’t it?”She didn’t have the heart to nod. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo slowed to a stop, breathing deep to calm himself.Looked at the paper he now had. It was the rest of a map, minus another corner.In the center-top, he saw Mata Nui indicated. There were no labels at all, except for one place.“Your destination,” read the label next to a big blue dot.The map clearly showed a wide swath of open ocean due south from Mata Nui, though he knew there really was no more ocean. This stretched all the way to the bottom side of the map – no islands there in a line except one, shaped like a U. The dot was right in the east-west middle of this area, almost on the edge of the map.Gotta be where Caroha is.He surveyed the scene below him.Niaka and the spider were still on the stone causeway between the Temple and Metru Alta. Now the guardians were storming across the causeway after her. The spider ran into the city, and the guardians chased.Hujo glanced back at the map.The words had changed.“Your destination. Hurry. The time is almost up.”Hujo almost dropped the map in shock.Chronoserum can change reality, he remembered. But as far as he knew, the chronoserum involved in Events didn’t actively change reality after the Event. Something or someone else had to be involved for this to happen.Now the words changed again.“The Shaking dimension is between the Paracosmos and Metru Alta. You can teleport there yourself. You do not need the Kahgarak. Go now!”Once more he looked back at ‘Niaka Alta,’ racing at top speed through the city, the giant Vahki smashing anything in their way to chase. He closed his eyes. This isn’t fair!Again. “They’re going to leave. You must go now!”He couldn’t…“I will watch over her,” the words said. “Somehow, I don’t know how, but I exist all the time now.”It couldn’t be… Niaka wasn’t in the pool…BE?“Yes.”Hujo’s jaw dropped, in the middle of a smile. He almost cried for joy, but fought the tears back.“GO!”Hujo gripped the staff tightly, took a deep breath, and nodded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa was flying over trees at high speed.He still held the lantern.Not the Kuamor launcher – he’d held it so that as it fired he would let go. The blue energy that sped him up faded.He watched the rushing trees, knowing he should be tensed and ready to make any move necessary to land safely. Knowing he should do something about the lantern – it might break on impact even if he didn’t.But all he think about was the sorrow that rushed out of the depths of his mind as fast as the trees rushed by, as soon as he was alone.He barely felt the twigs and leaves whip into him, his left arm collide with a thicker branch, his whole body bounce off a gnarled trunk. He fell through the air, but he saw it as falling into despair.Something in the back of his mind reminded him he had to stop the rogue Kuambu.Something else noticed he was no longer holding the lantern.The rest just fought the sadness…CRASH. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Niaka explained as much as she felt it was safe to tell the pirates about the cube and their mysterious mission.But in the back of her mind, she kept thinking about the two things she still didn’t understand.What did the mission have to do with the Kuambu?And Bhukasa still needed her help, according to Hujo.Her voice trailed off as she worried about these things. It was clear to her Bhukasa was the key to the survival of the dome realm below, and indirectly just about everybody else. She pictured the desert these waters had become in the alternate world, as Hujo had seen it.She’d gotten glimpses into Bhukasa’s and Toggler’s memories, as Hujo had seen them.Niaka closed her eyes.Someone snapped fingers in her ear. She opened her eyes to see Gar-Korr looking impatient.Niaka sighed, and continued. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The whirling sphere of blue light disappeared, and Hujo flew up into space.Compared the islands on the map with what he saw of the desert mesas they had once been.Estimated what the dot referred to in the open area.It was in the middle of one of the remaining lakes.He dove. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Krohlaba pointed at the roofless cage.The King gasped in shock. “How?!” He sounded delighted.“That one Toa,” Krohlaba said. “He’s still in there. We should free him immediately!”“Agreed.” Khungakrii motioned for him to steer the boat to the riverbank.“But we don’t have a flying Rahi handy.”The King flapped his beetle-like wings.“Sir! You can’t go in there yourself! What if the Kuambu—”“I’m the King,” the taller Kriitunga argued. “I can—”“That’s right, you’re our king, and your duty is to stay safe so—”“Bah.” He crouched, held his wings wide.“No, sir!” Krohlaba grabbed his foot.“It’ll be…”The King’s voice trailed off.His eyes widened. He grinned. Pointed behind Krohlaba.There was a Gukko bird, flying over the river from the west.Right at them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As the flames of re-entry raged around Hujo, he felt a vague touch of another mind in his.BE, he knew instantly.Can you still see into the Paracosmos?He felt that BE could.His mind quickly realized why. While Hujo was still here, he was a bridge between the Paracosmos’s chronoserum and this dimension's. If BE’s connection there was ever going to end, it would be when Hujo left.BE agreed.Is there anything else you can do to help there?Then he realized BE was already helping. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa saw the dome-illusion disappear as the majority of the army crossed inside.He tried to follow Tahu’s orders – the Toa would take on the Bahrag themselves, while the others freed the Le-Matoran.But the Matoran and Bohrok were too persistent. They latched onto him and others, reaching for their masks while holding their own faces away.He tried to levitate around them. Failed.Shouts of alarm came from behind.He looked back.Oru-Vortixx.And then fire. Thunder.Bombs. A rain of bombs through the canopy above! Hints of motion beyond.Explosions ripped through the Oru-Vortixx ranks, knocking them around. None were injured – but it was enough force to knock them unconscious. They tried to dodge – and would have except that the bombs were so numerous and wide-spread, there was nowhere to go.Lewa peered up through the jungle, trying to see who dropped the bombs.He caught a few glimpses.Gukko wings?But the Gukko pilots are here, Kranaed…The sight was so surprising, some of those pilots let go of Lewa right then.He stole their Krana while they stared.Levitated out of their reach.Looked back at the Vortixx.None moved. Heartlights all flashed, but they were out of the picture for now. Again. A big relief.Lewa shrugged off the question of why, and made a wind to blow himself towards the Bahrag. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nixie pulled the boat close to the first of several tiny islands at the first stop.Each island was volcanic, and somewhat active, but not very violent. It was a chain starting smaller than the ferry to the east-southeast, then six islands got bigger until one several times the size of Ga-Koro. Then three more islands got smaller as the line continued west-northwest.Knife-Tail and Azh’yuuros went ashore and Checked.Nixie kept a close eye on the water for signs of Tarakava.All the ones that had chased them had broken off the chase a while back. The Shvontuk said they’d been to this island chain many times before, collecting some valuable hardy plants, and the Tarakava wouldn’t go near it. But it wouldn’t hurt to be careful, she insisted, remembering a bad attack recently at Ga-Koro. They agreed.First island, red flash.The same happened on the other islands, and they headed west – another pillar island was visible there.“That’s the best view of a glass pond I’ve seen,” Knife-Tail commented, gesturing back at the largest of the volcanic islands.“What?” she asked.Azh’yuuros smiled. “He means a sun-hole. Don’t you have one on your island?”“I’ve never heard them called that,” Knife-Tail said before Nixie could answer, and she didn’t know what to say either.“I guess your people don’t know about the domes, do they?”“The what?” she asked.“Nor yours?” he added, looking at her. “But I thought… Hm. Perhaps I am confused. My apologies.”“What? Apologies for what?”“Nothing.”“No, really. What’s a ‘sun-hole’?”But the blue titan looked away and didn’t answer.She looked at Knife-Tail.He shrugged. “Every major island has a glass pond. Well, as far as I know. Even the Tarakava Island has one; it’s on the side of the volcano underwater.”“Wasn’t easy to discover that,” another Shvontuk added.“They say you can see lights,” another said. “I live on the big island, where our glass pond is. Our elder says the lights are from the cities of the dead. If you look closely, they seem to be faaaar, far down, so far down it’s impossible.”“Probably just refraction in the glass,” Nixie said. “I use telescopes and other such instruments – I know about that.”“Maybe,” Knife-Tail said.Nixie glanced back at Azh’yuuros. Did he know? Was that related to this ‘Sapphire Vault’ of his?Then she looked at Korau.He was studying his feet. He seemed normal now, but he wouldn’t talk. She wasn’t sure if she should try to get him to or not.They’d arrived at a pebble beach.“Check quickly,” she said. They all knew why. The top of this island was probably a prison just like the others. Meaning Kuambu would come here often.Knife-Tail Checked alone this time. Walked to the innermost side of the pebble beach.She saw red.He came back.Time for the next leg. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Krohlaba stared in amazement at the Gukko.It had a saddle strapped to its back. Clearly from Le-Koro.He walked closer.But it launched into the air.Flew south, towards the prison.Circled around to look at him.Shook its head from side to side.Circled back, and flew into the prison.“Did that Gukko… shake its head, ‘no?’” Khungakrii asked.Krohlaba shook his own head in amazement. Then he grinned. “Maybe it was just our Headshake Ritual.”The King laughed hesitantly.Then he looked south, and shrugged. “Well, I guess... Uh…”They both stared south in silence.Until the bird flew back, a green Toa on its back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo slowed a little, and plunged into the desert lake.Made sure he was invisible, and swam deeper.Started a grid pattern search along the lakebed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Blue Eyes existed at the bottom of a lake.He’d been popping in and out of existence here intentionally every few minutes. Now he made sure to stay here until Hujo freed Caroha.A giant forcefield dome, glowing red, rose high above him.It contained air like an upside-down cup in water would. Its floor was mostly still water – the “Jetrok”, as Hujo called them, had their air intakes and exhaust ports closed, so they floated like bubbles. Little propellors and rudders had extended down into the water, so they could move around.They circled the little rock ‘island’ in the center of the energy dome.On it was a forcefield projecting machine, Caroha – unconscious and tied up – and next to her, the flying suit in its storage mode – appearing to be merely two boots connected by the armor chestpiece, with three hovering orbs above it.The only light came from the red glow of the domefield and the little lights of the 'eyes' and Caroha's blinking heartlight. BE stayed low in the water so his own eyes would not be spotted.The Jetrok had been using this spot as a base-camp, apparently, since before the ocean drained. BE wondered if they knew this little ‘puddle’ would remain.A question for the Jahurungi.Who is not me.BE’s thoughts turned to his new state of existence – something he hadn’t had time to do until now. Really, he should be existing into the Paracosmos again to check on all the animals he’d Awakened, but he didn’t want to miss a single second of Hujo’s rescue of Caroha.A good question to ask first was whether he was still a ‘he’, considering his mind was now ‘hosted’ in ‘Niaka Alta,’ not Hujo.Or was it? He still felt a faint connection to Hujo, even now, but he didn’t sense Niaka at all.Perhaps Blue Eyes lived totally in the chronoserum pool, and Niaka merely served as an anchor.That thought alone spawned countless concerns and conflicting emotions.Knowing Niaka was even now being chased by mindless giant Vahki bent on destruction was not easy. He needed to check in on her again very soon. Thankfully she was staying in the region of Ga-Metru, which despite being her own version of it, retained the trait of having a lot more water around.It was odd being anchored to a being who mere hours ago had been sworn loyal to Makuta.Even more disturbing, though, was the idea that perhaps BE was a separate consciousness living in chronoserum.Hujo had thought before that chronoserum seemed somehow almost alive, although it was so profound he had felt like this was just his attempt to give words to something beyond it. And there was a darker side to it, a side Hujo strongly suspected was in truth its defining essence – that any good that came out of it was just a side effect of… well, of what?Something… Could words like ‘evil’ be applied to something that ‘life’ was difficult to apply to as well? Perhaps in both cases, it was beyond life and beyond evil, or not quite alive, and not quite evil. Maybe both at the same time.Such were the leftover thoughts of Hujo in BE’s mind, and they terrified him, especially when he considered his origin.And the fact that everything he had earned was just an incorporeal collection of memories.And his memories seemed prone to utterly collapsing, disappearing.What if…Maybe…It was a very difficult thought… Thinking about what he might become if, after having lost all his memories and self-identity, he followed a different path of ambition.In fact, what scared him even more was the split-second decisions he made under pressure.Like trying to solve the cascading, building disaster he saw coming in the Paracosmos by doing the very thing Surkahi warned him against – awakening more and more Rahi. Giving them sapient consciousness, like a Matoran. Without even thinking through before he did it whether it was right.Le-Koro would never be the same, for example – the latest time he had started to exist into the Paracosmos, he had felt that he could exist not just in water, but also in minds that were similar to minds he had already existed in.Like Gukko.It had taken every ounce of concentration not to awaken a ‘navy’ of Takea sharks, spinesharks, and sharkrays too.He imagined for a second what the ocean would be like, filled with deadly predators with full intelligence.Maybe… Just maybe, the universe would be better off if I did NOT exist. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It had taken everything Lewa had in him to get here.Admitting his own foolishness, nearly falling to a Krana once, then actually falling, then having to battle for his own mind, and everything it had taken to get here.It almost seemed like cheating that now he knew how to cage the Bahrag so easily. The other five were gathering where he stood now, just as he’d imagined it.Sure, the Bohrok here and the remaining Kranaed Le-Matoran would turn on him, he had also expected. The end wouldn’t be totally easy.But all they had to do was aim six beams of elemental energy at the Bahrag, combine the beams into one, and the protocage would appear. Considering everything else he’d been through, ‘easy’ was definitely a word he’d dare use for that.Then six figures moved around from where they’d evidently been hiding behind the Bahrag.They seemed somewhat humanoid.A bit taller than the Toa. Black and silver. And somehow… hollow.They moved in front of the Bahrag, blocking the Toa’s line of fire.And then the Pahrak and Nuhvok attacked.They burst out from the ground around these new enemies. There were less than thirty, but they moved fast. Nuhvok opened tunnels, out of which Pahrak came, and Pahrak blasted their powers at the ground. Huge chaotic spike formations of stone materialized. Then they ducked back into the tunnels, which disappeared.Lewa looked at Onua. “Together!”They both sent Earth power into the ground, to stop the tunnels from opening.Nothing happened. Lewa felt a faint pain in his mind.“How dare you oppose your brothers!” one of the Bahrag said from behind the new obstacles. “How foolish you have been! Ours is the earth in our sight, and you shall not thwart any of our workers.”Lewa glanced back at the Kal.The Bahrag evidently had the same thought. “And you six, my special team. It is well that you are here to defend us. Repent of this madness now!”“It isn’t time!” Lewa shouted back at the Bahrag. “You’ve been awakened early!”“Ours is the time in our sight. Ours the land, the sea, the air. Ours is the—”“Your ‘workers,’” Tahu shouted over them, “are carving a hole in the seafloor – they’ll drown everyone below!”“They will not listen,” Kohrak Kal said. It had fought its way over to them, but it did not turn its powers on the ever-increasing barriers. “I come to give you our decision. We shall not obey our queens, but neither shall we remain here. Our alliance stands, but this is… too much.”“No!” Lewa said. “We need you!”Gali raised a hand to shush him. “How will you help us?”“Yes,” Tahu said. “We came this far…”“We will help,” the white Kal said, “by not freeing the Bahrag if you capture them, until the appointed time. That is the core of our agreement. Not this.”Lewa tried to remember how they’d worded the agreement. “But…”“We are decided. Good-bye.”With that, he left, and so did the other five. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo finally spotted the red forcefield.He’d gotten enough of a sense of it from BE’s mind-connection that he’d been able to abandon the grid search and head for the general area. He’d ‘recognized’ some of the geological features and homed in on it. Then it was easy to spot.But something was happening there.Something bright blue was shining at the top of the forcefield. Two Jetrok were grabbing Caroha with thin extendable arms.Hujo sped under the forcefield.Shot blue fire at those Jetrok. Destroyed them.Others clustered in front of him. Headed at him.He rammed right through them – at a low enough speed to survive. But it hurt. As he came he blasted through them with more blue flames.Burst out of the water, flying at Caroha, ready to grab her arm.But quicker than him, a Jetrok opened its air intakes, reached for Caroha, tilted up towards the blue disk above. A dimensional door, Hujo realized.Fired rockets.Grabbed Caroha’s arm.Disappeared into the blue energy.Hujo flew.Towards the doorway.It shrank.Gone.Hujo fell into the water.Blue Eyes floated by him, profound sadness in his eyes. -----> Review here! <----- Edited August 27, 2012 by bonesiii Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 (edited) Chapter 45 Bhukasa jerked awake. Stood up. Already running before his eyes were even adjusted to the light.He knew he’d been knocked out again. He didn’t know for how long, but he didn’t care. Everything depended on him getting to the exit before the Lone Captain.Trees whizzed by as he ran.He caught a glimpse of blue light.The lantern! I might need that!Zigged left, grabbed it, zagged right, kept running.More zigzagging around the gnarled trees.Leaping over bushes.Ran past some abandoned huts – his mind barely even registered the fact that no prisoners were visible there, so BE's Gukko must indeed have freed them.He breathed harder and faster with every moment that passed.This was it.This was the end.He needed those memories now.Had to face them.But everything was wrong.Different.Before, it had been the quiet moments that brought up the sorrow and the hints of memory.Now, it was in the adrenaline that the sorrow burst forth, and sorrow alone. His whole self was saturated with it.And the quiet moment he needed to remember…It was too late for that. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------When Caroha had been taken in the clouds, Hujo had been doing everything right as much as he could. It was nobody’s fault.After that, he finally realized, he had been doing everything to the best of his ability.Now she was gone, and it was HIS fault. He was too late.The leader of the Unknown.The Event Matoran who spawned the Paracosmos.The only one who could go back to the Cosmos.Arguably the most important person in his world.And besides all that, a shy Ga-Matoran scientist who ultimately just wanted to keep to herself and study physics quietly.Gone.It was a terribly selfish thing to think in response, but Hujo now realized with a bit of pride that he’d utterly forgotten the difficulty of using the suit. He’d been walking and hovering through confined spaces with no fear, not even thinking about how easily he could just slightly think about slamming into a wall at a thousand miles per hour and thus do it.This thought made him lose control.He zoomed sideways. Out from under the forcefield.Up! UP!Zoomed up.Higher!He was going faster and faster, but at least he was focused on flying up, not down. He’d been only inches from the seafloor.Hujo glanced back. The motion made him slow and turn back, but he fought it and reversed again.The rest of the Jetrok followed. And fired.He burst out of the lake.Faster and faster. Up and up.This isn’t good – they took Caroha from the sky last time.But he was afraid to go close to land now. His confidence was shattered. Well of course it is! he thought in sorrow. My fault!He sensed BE’s mind brushing against his, but he couldn’t tell what BE was thinking. He could only sense deep sadness.The Jahurungi.Solver of mysteries. At that, he was good. At rescuing? No.Maybe he should have gone back to the Paracosmos and… but no. Yet, he SHOULD have at least tried to contact Surkahi and ask his advice. He’d known it even as he chose not to, thinking his plan would work.The big question became this.Did the other Unknown have ways to travel through dimensions?BE tried harder to send a thought, but Hujo’s mind wouldn’t receive it. He did theorize what BE meant, though – he could still ask now. And he would.If they did, there was hope.The thought alone slowed him down, just before he passed into space.He regained some control, taking deep breaths. He tried to wipe his teared-up eyes, but the suit’s forcefields, of his hand and face, collided clumsily. He looked down.Jetrok approached. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BE did not exist.He chose to change that. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kuhauha carried the bucket to the Lightning Well behind Po-Koro.Dipped it in.The tip of one of his fingers touched the water.He straightened.Dropped the bucket.Nodded.And ran north. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito had flown around and around the prison cage, trying desperately to find a way in.Now from directly above, he could see Bhukasa running, could see the battle at the Seahopper, and he could see three moving forms as well – also running, also closing in on the exit.He couldn’t DO anything.That made him furious.Ito was not the kind of person to accept limitation. When he could not, he did anyways.This could be my end-beginning, he thought.But he was also the kind of person who put The Right Thing before himself. He could no longer live with himself if he didn’t.So he would be inside. Nobody would see him enter. There was a chance that…But that didn’t matter, did it?No.Once he would have hesitated here.The Thing that he should do, nobody would understand, until much later. Why it was even risky, nobody would understand. After he did it, few would even remember it, compared to everything else. But it was riskier than anything else he’d ever done, and any sane person would want to hesitate, wait and see if another way through presented itself.By then it could be too late.No. I nowgo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Udmijok and Azh’yuuros stepped out once again onto an island, carrying the cube.This was the fifth location they’d checked since leaving his home island, and the first his people hadn’t encountered before.It was a mostly barren, earthen island of moderate size, with rolling hills and occasional clumps of knife-like grass with orange blades. The air smelled like moist soil, but there was an acidity to the smell that Udmijok thought must somehow account for the rarity of other vegetation. “Don’t eat the plants,” he muttered.They rounded a corner in the maze of hills, and found themselves on rocky ground.Up ahead, there was a hole in the ground.A blue humanoid stood atop it, holding the ends of several ropes.The being looked female, with a smallish torso but long legs so that she stood about the same height as a Toa. Her hands had three large silver curved claws. A leathery appendage reached out the back of her head. Attached to one shoulder was what appeared to be a blue scimitar.Azh’yuuros stepped on a pebble. It crunched against the smooth stone ground.The being crouched, looked towards them and snarled like an animal. She had big neon-green eyes and two big white fangs.She rapidly reeled in the ropes. Attached to the other ends was a net filled with fish.She ran.“Hello?” Udmijok called after her. “We’re nothing to fear!”But she leaped over a hill and was gone.“That was odd,” the giant Glatorian muttered.“Yeah. Wonder if there’s more like her here.”They walked up to the hole.There was a cave running through the whole island.“Smells like salt,” Udmijok said. “That’s ocean water.”“And that water’s running fairly fast,” the giant added. “Looks like an ocean current channels through here. The fish there are probably safe to eat, unlike everything else here.”They continued on.“I don’t see any other tracks ahead than the one. If there were others, you’d think they’d all come here.”“Unless she provides food for others.”They reached what they estimated to be the center.CHECKed.Blue arrow. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Niaka watched as the pirates landed in the prison below, to CHECK.This was an island just like the other prison islands, to the west of Udmijok’s land. It had a pebble beach, wooden fence coated in repelling slime, divider fence, jungle – and prisoners (who the pirates refused to free).It had a crucial difference, though.There was no tall cylinder above the water line. The circle of the pebble beach was at the same level as the base of the wooden fence.The pirates didn’t much care about this interesting factoid, though. They just landed, pressed the button, and flew back.Gar-Korr made a handsign.“Red,” Pulsar said.The Captain made more handsigns, and pointed north – the way to the next island Niaka had told them to CHECK.The ship opened up like a clamshell and bent the wind to aim west.Tuolhye went up to a winch in the center of the lower ‘coin,’ and turned it. Niaka noticed that at the top of the outer edge of the lower coin was a rim of upward-facing pincher-like metal devices. Where the top coin met the lower, these gripped a fattish metal rim on the upper. Where the coins didn’t meet, the pinchers were open.As Tuolhye turned the winch, pinchers opened and closed as necessary to spin the meeting-point to the north. Niaka guessed the purpose was to eliminate friction damage on the main deck itself; only parts inside the many little grippers were spinning, so they could be more easily replaced.As this happened, the wind bent again, always aiming the way the meet-point was aimed. So now the wind was north, and the ship acted as a big sail, moving that way.The bulky green one walked over to Niaka. “The one you can call Sage, the one with the beard, handles the wind. I just loot. You can call me that – Loot.”“That’s fascinating,” she said – she didn’t mean it.“The fat one’s Grub. What’s your name?”She shrugged. “Boater will do.”He grinned. “Nicknames are fun. We’ve never had prisoners before. And let me tell you, great as the treasure finds are, the talk here is boring.”“If it makes you happy. What do you wanna talk about?”He looked serious. “Xia.”She frowned.“You know it.” He pointed at the Vortixx. “Uxxako’s heard of Rahunga before, yanno. Your kind shopped at Xia.”“Our leader handled that. I’ve never been there.”“Who, Makuta?”“No, our own ‘Captain’ rank of Rahunga. He’s not loyal to us… er… them, anymore.”“You must be dying to know if we’ll keep your secret.”She didn’t answer.“Betrayed your own people, and pretended to still be on their side. Now you betrayed your new friends, and you wanna keep pretending to be on THEIR side. Maybe your nickname should be Fooler. You’d make a good pirate.”“Not interested. And I notice you didn’t answer your own question. Will you?”“It’s not our way to meddle in the goings-on of the outside world. Aside from the obvious ways,” he added with a burst of rude laughter. ‘Grub’ joined in on it.“That’s not exactly a promise.”“Hey, if it’s ever profitable to sell that information, maybe we will.”She looked away.“What do you think of all this, ‘Kewonga’?”The Healer didn’t answer Loot. He was at one of the sides of the front of the ship – or the part that was now the front – watching ahead. Gar-Korr was at the other side.Niaka gestured towards Gar-Korr. “How did he get away from Oracle Industries? They’re kinda reputed to be… you know, undefeatable.”Loot didn’t answer right away. She hadn’t been looking at him. Now she turned and locked eyes with him.He held her gaze. She couldn’t read the expression on his face.Finally, she had to look away.“Hey, K… I mean, Grub, let’s go fishing,” Loot said, walking away.Apparently that was all the answer she’d ever get. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nixie watched the giant’s head over the hills when she could. They’d reached the center of the island.Azh’yuuros had looked down – presumably at the cube.Now he ran on, looking excited.“I think they’ve found something,” she said.She glanced back at Korau. His eyes were wandering all over the place, and his whole body was twitching. He was fading much faster than Toa Tyaagko had, from what she’d heard. Why?Korau looked at her. Then looked away, and muttered, so quietly she almost didn’t hear him.“Find my mind and mind my find.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The two CHECKers reached a stone cave.A rope was tied across its opening, tied to two snags on the rock. Fish hung from it. Below, a firepit cooked them. The fire smelled horrible – it was dried leaves of the acrid grass burning.Udmijok heard noises nearby. The female being they’d seen.The blue arrow pointed into the cave.Her cave.He looked at the giant.“I’ll watch the entrance,” Azh’yuuros whispered. “Go.”He nodded. Stepped around the fire, and went in.There was a makeshift bed made of driftwood and dried algae. Some rough-hewn stone pots – really more like small boulders with a hole scraped in the top. They contained water that smelled fresh, but when he looked closely, tiny bugs swam in them all. Disgusting.The arrow pointed to the back of the cave.There was a narrow horizontal crack here, and behind it, he saw what looked like a silver sphere, a wire running away from it, and a blue glowing orb. But the objects were too big to reach through the crack.How to get them out?Just then, he heard a roaring cry of outrage. The cave’s owner had come back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa saw something falling from above. Looked up.A part of the wooden cage-roof far above had suddenly been severed, in a circle shape. That circular part fell through the air.It looked small, but it fell towards an area not far from him, and looked bigger and bigger as it came.It was bigger than a Koro.Crashed in the jungle, hard, not far from him. He saw birds flying away from that spot, screeching loudly.Another exit…But it would be very hard for the Kuambu to get there, unless they could fly, and he was pretty sure they couldn’t. They were rulers of the sea, not the sky.Anyways, it didn’t change what he must do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito flew through the hole in the roof-cage.As he did, blue energy sparkled in the air around him.It hurt, like a more powerful version of a static electricity shock, but all over him.He knew it wouldn’t be seen by anyone below, though, thanks to the invisible bird’s power. And that was consolation enough. He gritted his teeth, and urged the bird to quickly fly away from the rest of the roof.He looked down where the piece of roof had landed.But it was gone. Nothing but jungle remained.It was as if it hadn’t fallen.He looked up.The hole was still there.Blinked.The hole was patched. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kopaka had kept his Vision power active as the labyrinth of obstacles materialized between them and the Bahrag.Now, he saw something very strange.All across the Le-Wahi jungle, in places both near and far, parts of the jungle were disappearing.One was so close, he saw it with his normal eyes, and so did the other Toa.A tree was there. Then its base shrunk. Inward. Imploded.And disappeared, amid what looked like blue sparkles of energy.The top of the tree crashed down.The Toa just looked at each other.“I have a feeling,” Kopaka said to Tahu, “you need to check in with everybody else before we go on.”Tahu nodded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa arrived at the divider fence.Ran left.Tahu called, asking if he’d seen anything strange.“Can’t talk now. Try Takua.”Tahu apologized and went silent.He could see the black metal exit ahead. There was nobody near it.Impatient, he shot a beam of energy at it from where he was. But he had to run closer to see the radiating pie-formation of symbols that appeared.Reached it, stopped, panting, but wasted no time in looking over the symbols, knowing Kuamor spheres would come launching out of the jungle at him very soon.Found the symbol he knew controlled the doorway. Clicked it.A range of other symbols appeared.None looked like what he wanted. He needed to lock out all control except by himself. Was it possible?He KNEW it was.But how? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The pirates CHECKed the next island. This one was west of the Tarakava Island.It too was just like a pillar island, only low down, almost even with the ocean, at high tide.Niaka knew Pohatu had recently used Unknown sandals to run over the ocean, and had crossed very near an island just like it between Mata Nui and Kriitunga Island without seeing it.Why were some of the islands raised pillars and others identical except for the height?She didn’t know. But now the pirate ship headed north again.The next stop would be the one west of the Rockswimmer Squids island. She wondered what the pirates would do then -- would they just let the Matoran go? Would they give up the tablet?Tahu had called and had mentioned the Hole in the Ocean. The pirate ship was headed that way. Where Bhukasa’s showdown had been planned. She wondered how it was going, but she had no way to know until Tahu called her again, and he’d be busy for a while.Loot came back over, with some cooked fish. He and Grub had dangled long fishing lines out the back of the airship and caught several fish. Then Grub had prepared them.He handed one to Niaka. She took it.“I have another question,” Loot said.She shrugged. “You can ask, but I probably won’t answer.”“Fair enough. Something you were talking about when the Cap’n was listening in. This mission. It was given you by someone called ‘Ahurahn.’ Who is that?”She thought over what to say. Really, she could answer this truthfully. Just re-word it a bit.“I don’t know.”The other Matoran smiled at that, then hid their smile before the pirates could notice.“It’s me,” Ahurahn said.Everybody jumped. Niaka whirled. There she was. The winged Matoran-like being. Standing on the deck. How had she gotten there?As if reading her thoughts, she turned into a Ruki, and then into a cooked Ruki. And back into herself.Niaka noticed there was one less fish on Grub’s oven.Gar-Korr stomped up, signing furiously.In response, the pirates backed away from Ahurahn, raising weapons.“I do not come to fight you,” Ahurahn said. “You have agreed to the mission. Why would I?”Signing.“Then why?” Pulsar translated.She pointed north. “There is more Checking to do." She held up a map. "This island is due west of Kriitunga Island, which you will reach as you continue north. I do not need you to check Kriitunga Island itself; we have handled that ourselves, but I do need you to sail there. Some people you’ll find at the river mouth need a ride.”Gar-Korr frowned. Signed.“We are not a taxi service.”“Then continue to the Hole in the Ocean,” Ahurahn said, ignoring the Captain and pointing to another dot on the map. "You will find a hole, recently patched, in the roof of the cage. The patch has not been coated with Crazolga slime yet. You will be able to blast your way in. Do so.”Signing, and Gar-Korr stomped, as if trying desperately to get her attention.But she continued before Pulsar could even translate. “Once in, protect the Snow Lizard.”Gar-Korr lowered his hands, eyes wide.He knows of Bhukasa?“This should be your payment to us for our help off of Xia,” Ahurahn said – Niaka raised her eyebrows at that – “but you’ve fallen so far since then, I know you wouldn’t see it that way. So… I have talked to our Council, and we all agree.”Gar-Korr still didn’t move his hands. Loot leaned in, obviously already suspecting what she’d say next.“Vast treasures shall be your reward, if you do as I say.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa tried to remember. The key was in his memory. He was sure of it.But he couldn’t… just… couldn’t…It was a given that he was crying. He hadn’t stopped crying except when he’d been knocked out.People said that crying was therapeutic. Maybe for them it was. But his sorrow would not end. The deeper he fell into it, the wider the abyss yawned, and the deeper still he could fall.Sobs wracked his whole body then.His arms shook so much he dropped the lantern.A crackling beam of blue energy zipped out.Touched him.He cried out in pain, as blue sparkles appeared all over him.What’s happening!? -----> Review here! <----- Edited September 25, 2012 by bonesiii Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted September 3, 2012 Author Share Posted September 3, 2012 Chapter 46 Kuhauha ran so fast over the Po-Wahi dunes he sent sand flying far ahead of him.Reached the inlet. Skidded to a stop.“SURKAHI!” he shouted.Listened.Nothing.“SURKAHI! COME HERE!”Nobody around.Then he looked at the water.Blue energy was shining in the water, which was spinning, forming a funnel shape.BE instantly knew he had to jump in. That is, ask Kuhauha to jump in.His host was afraid. He was just a simple watch-tower guard who loved Fauii cakes and Koli, who helped collect water and sometimes explored Po-Wahi. High adventure and danger… and weird glowy whirlpools… not a part of his life.But BE – Hujo, Bhukasa… apparently thousands to millions or more other beings needed him.He didn’t understand what he was being asked to do, besides leaping into that whirlpool, but he was sure it was important. Necessary.So he dove into the water and swam, his heartbeat and his kicking feet fusing in a loud drumming.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The blue sparks moved mercifully away from Bhukasa.He stepped away from them, fighting back the sobs.They coalesced.Into a Po-Matoran.Bhukasa blinked away the tears – and the rain – and looked again.Yes, he’d seen it right.The Matoran was faced away from him.Slowly turned around. Saw him.“Bhukasa!” the Matoran said. “Are there any Unknown around? I need to find one.”“Why? Is something wrong at Po-Koro?”The villager paused, looking at Bhukasa’s eyes – at the tears, no doubt. But he didn’t ask about it, thankfully.“No. Hujo sent me.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Krohlaba was amazed to see a strange airship coming, as he, the Toa of Plants, Johke, and the Kriitunga King arrived at the docks at their island’s river mouth. The Toa looked conflicted about this sight, but he didn't say anything.There was a larger boat here, and they had resolved to use it to get to the Hole, even though it wouldn’t arrive quickly.“Am I the only one that gets the feeling we won’t be taking the boat?” the King commented.“What ‘we’?” Krohlaba asked, frowning. “You have to stay here at the docks. Get an escort back to the city. Why are you acting like you’re just a citizen?”Khungakrii didn’t answer for a moment.When he did, it was in the lofty language of the elite class. “I King rule this island. Strength and sagacity of tradition backs my every whim. Thus shall I go, as I wish, with the steadfast obedience of my subjects.”The miner scowled. Khungakrii meant well, but something strange had gotten into him lately. Krohlaba didn’t like it. Nor did he understand it.He wished he was better at understanding people. That failing was part of what got him into the whole mess with the two Toa and the Ghomboka, and it had plagued him throughout the rest of it too. Why did they do the things they did?But then, why do I?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito finished telling Tahu all he knew.Well, not all…But now his attention was focused on the motions he saw in the jungle.The three beings had almost caught up to Bhukasa… and… Kuhauha??But there was a fourth approaching as well, judging by the faint motions in the plants around it.“So,” Tahu said, “you think it was things that belong to you that disappeared?”“I know-not. But I had thousands of Rahi-traps and otherstuff in Le-Wahi. Many inside treebases.”Who was the fourth?“Why would chronoserum do such a thing?”Ito was no longer listening. The fourth was close now. He finally caught a glimpse.Ah.There was nothing to glimpse. He clearly saw plants moving aside for a being that couldn’t be seen.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Plants shook near Bhukasa. He raised his claws, ready to fight.A being suddenly appeared right in front of him.He was so surprised he fell back on his tail again.Stumbled to his feet.The being was the color of sand, with iceblue eyes, and wore a fancier version of a mask of Stealth.“Volitaos?”“The same,” the Unknown said.“Hey!” the Po-Matoran said. “So it’s you I’m to ask, not Surkahi. Listen—”“We don’t,” Volitaos said. Then he looked away dismissively – Bhukasa noticed the Matoran looked confused, almost angry… and yet very sad.Volitaos addressed Bhukasa now. “There’s very little time. I must tell you about the lantern.”“What is it?”“It’s a lantern,” Volitaos said. “It shines.”“Uh…”“That’s it. A light that will never go out, as long as the chronoserum battery is in it.”“But—”Volitaos turned back to the Po-Matoran, who looked ready to explode from curiosity. “Blue Eyes, YOU have the answer you need inside you. As long as she lives, there IS hope.”Then he turned back to Bhukasa. But pointed at the Matoran. “The lamp’s chronoserum did cause these changes. But not on its own. It was Hujo. But he doesn’t know it.”Then he turned back to the villager. “You must tell him.”Now he looked at Bhukasa again, taking a step back. “The changes have set up a duel. Some benefit you, some your enemy. Be careful, and remember it’s all real. Do not take risks wondering if it’s a dream or a memory. None of it is.”He took another step back, and grew wings. “Bhukasa, take Kuhauha’s hand, and the end will begin.”“Wait! What about—”“I can’t help you any more. We’re out of time. But I hope it’s enough.”With that, he disappeared in the middle of a flap of his wings. The grass where he had been shook twice, and went still.“Wait!” Bhukasa called after him.But he was gone.The reptilian looked at Kuha… whatever the name was…Held out his hand.The Matoran shrugged. “Here goes nothing.”Touched.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BE was pulled away.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa’s vision blanked.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kuhauha shrieked as Bhukasa’s eyes closed and the reptilian being fell on his face. Kuhauha narrowly dodged – Bhukasa almost fell on him.He no longer felt Blue Eyes in his mind.I don't understand...------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Udmijok ran out of the cave.Azh’yuuros had created a wall of fire between the cave and its owner.“We need that fire in here!” he said, handing him the cube. “I’ll take her. Look at the back, you can’t miss it.”Azh’yuuros nodded, and ducked in. He barely fit, but he did.Udmijok pointed his weapon at the female being. “What’s your name?”“Krutuska,” she spat.“Where are you from?”“Kriitunga Island.”He was surprised. He’d met some Kriitunga, but none looked like this. Must be one of the mutants.She snarled at his surprise. “I was going to end it, you know! The sand, the madness, the ghosting. I had the cure!”He nodded slowly. “Listen, we’re not here to harm you. We just need something that appeared here recently.”“Orb and silver and wire are MINE! MY cave! MY stuff!”“How did you get them, then?”She roared at him, and attacked.But Azh’yuuros created another wall of fire – he came out now, carrying the Unknown device. Krutuska almost touched the wall, then backed away, whimpering, but still snarling in between whimpers.“I have seen such things before,” Azh’yuuros said. “I think we can use this. It’ll speed up our mission and make it much safer.”“MINE!” Krutuska shouted. “I was a Healer! It was my task! But I didn’t have the right tool! It blew up in my face, made me THIS! I wandered until I lived here, and then the Acid came! A CURSE! But then came a blessing – THAT came. I’m SUPPOSED to have it! To use it! To cure!”Azh’yuuros shook his head. “You’re insane. This technology has nothing to do with healing.”“Wait a minute,” Udmijok said. “You’re a healer?”She calmed down for a moment, looking more interested than animal for once. Nodded.“Have you ever encountered an illness that… well, makes someone’s eyes move randomly and not in synch, makes them… uh… spout random poetry… and then sends them into a coma?”Her eyes widened.“Haywire,” she whispered.“What?”“Long ago it moved through our people, before I decided upon my task. A one-by-one plague. Then a team of Toa came. They took away the plague as their karma for refusing to grace our fields with their spirits, and trying to conquer us.”Mad’s team. He doubted her account was accurate, but at least he knew where ‘Haywire’ started. “What is it?”“It’s not a disease, in truth. It’s… a weapon.”He frowned. “A wea… But how… Uh… Well, then, who made it?”She shrugged. “I don’t know. But I know how to cure it.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa and the other Toa ran into the labyrinth.Tahu had talked to everyone who would answer, including Niaka.The pirates had just picked up the people at the Kriitunga Island rivermouth.Takua reported the Kuambu were starting to win the firefight at the two crashed ships.Nixie reported Knife-Tail and Azh’yuuros had just brought someone onboard who claimed to be able to cure Korau – of course, the Toa hadn’t known about his affliction until just now as it was. Plus, the ferry was being upgraded with a technology that Lewa recognized as an Unknown levitation, propulsion and cloaking machine like those of the zoocraft.Everything was happening fast now.And the Bohrok were still cutting the seafloor.Lewa worried Bhukasa wouldn’t be able to stop that in time – what he was supposed to do, Lewa had no clue, but it seemed clear Hujo believed it was up to Bhukasa. But there was another way, if they hurried – defeat the Bahrag.At least, I sure-hope that will stop the Bohrok… Did the swarms actually need their queens to operate? He didn’t know, and if anyone was supposed to, it was him.Regardless, Tahu agreed the time for strategizing was over, for ill or gain.They rounded a corner of the strange stone.Surkahi stood there.Floated there, that was.Lewa grinned. “Happytimes! You are here to help?”“No,” Surkahi said.The Toa stared at him.There was silence for a moment.Tahu broke it. “Excuse me?”“The time has come when you will no longer see us,” Surkahi said. “Though there is a chance,” he added, facing Onua, “that you will.”“What are you talking about?” Pohatu asked, sounding dismayed.“We are meant to be Unknown. We cannot help you.”The moment was surreal, knowing the battle raged around them, but that this was the moment Surkahi chose to deliver this message. “Then why are you here?”“I need you to deliver a message, Tahu,” Surkahi said. “To both Checking groups.”Lewa looked at Tahu. The Toa of Fire was clearly struggling with his temper.Surkahi was clearly stoking it.“The message is simple. They don’t need to land to CHECK.”He grew wings. “Goodbye.”“Wait!” Lewa shouted after him as he lifted off. “Why won’t you help?”Surkahi turned one last time, to face the Toa of Air.“I am proud of you, Lewa. Don’t mess it up now.”He smiled, and flew away.Lewa watched him go, unable to speak or move. Would he really never see Surkahi again?He wanted to apologize for his outburst earlier, for his mistake. He wanted to know why Surkahi was proud – hadn’t he failed them by falling to the Krana? He hadn’t listened to Surkahi, and he’d paid the price.I guess, he thought, it’s because I came back.But in truth, he didn’t feel very proud of that. Why should he, when he was just doing what he should have done long before? He hadn’t been strong enough even to do it right away. Somehow he felt he should have been. He came up with every excuse to delay pulling off that accursed ‘forebrain’.Now he saw those excuses for what they were.Around him, Bohrok attacked, as did one of the tall robot things, but Lewa barely noticed.All his attention was focused on the sight of Surkahi flying away.The Unknown dipped behind a thick tree, and Lewa lost sight of him.He closed his eyes slowly, sighing.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Where is BE?Hujo had no control now. He was flying fast, then slow, then up, then down, upside-down, now north, now west. Now visible, now invisible.The Jetrok clustered around him, lancing fire.He shot fire back, hotter and brighter. His one advantage, as Caroha had said.The thought of Caroha made him fall into sadness so bad, his ability to fly seemed to switch off.He fell.Towards the clouds.Jetrok lanced fire again.He couldn’t dodge.I could die here.Fired.Destroyed a Jetrok before its flames could reach him – they disappeared in a puff of smoke. The wrecked robot fell as well.He knew of a way out of this, but it would mean getting out of the suit. Should he do it?Yes. I have no choice!Fell into the cloud.Shed the suit, while firing more bolts randomly in an upward direction.Put the suit in his energy pack. He would be visible now, but only Niaka survived to see him anyways, and he’d lost control of the cloak anyways.Materialized the Songsphere.All this would really do was buy him time, but that was what he needed most right now.Song of Ta-Koro.Bubble enveloped him. Flew down.Out of the cloud.Fire hit the bubble, but did not pass through.This won’t last long, though…------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nixie watched Azh’yuuros weld the metal base of the orb to the hull. Then he connected a little wire sticking out the other end of the silver sphere to the navigation device.The screen changed.The input display for the navigation code was still there, but at the bottom of the screen, new instructions appeared. “For flight, press the up arrow three times, then right, then left, then the number two.”She did.The ferry hovered.“Wow.” She grinned. “Cool.”The other line read, “For cloak, press the number five, the letters A, H, G, U, O, K, and A, and then the left, up, right, and down arrow.”She did.Nothing seemed to change, but she assumed they were invisible to outside eyes now.Tahu’s voice came then. “Surkahi says, you don’t need to land to CHECK.”She heard the sounds of battle. He didn’t have time to chat. “Okay, thanks!”The battle sounds left.“Good,” Korau muttered. “The rest of this will go fast now.”She turned to Krutuska. “Now, the cure?”“I need a promise of payment first.”“The orb tech is out of the question,” Azh’yuuros said. “It does not belong to any of us. We are retrieving it for those who do own it, and they’ll want it back when our mission ends.”She scowled, and paced the deck.Then she pointed at Knife-Tail’s weapon. “I want one of those.”He and the other Shvontuk looked at each other. Knife-Tail shrugged. “A fair trade. We have spares at home. Deal -- but only after our mission’s over.”“Fine.”“Cure?” Korau asked, looking hopeful – and normal again for the moment.“We need ice. And if you keep heading south, we’ll find some soon.”Nixie put in the next leg’s code.The ferry flew south quickly. At least for now, they were going the right way.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa awoke.All was silent.He sat up.Looked around.He was in the middle of the prison jungle, alone.He looked up.It was night.No roof-cage.And a familiar sight… an airship. The Apax. He wasn’t sure how he knew of the Apax, but he was sure that he did.Cables hung from it.Tied to the Seahopper.The Apax was lifting his boat out of the prison.He smelled smoke.Hours must have passed. What happened?It was all over, but he couldn’t quite remember it.How…Then another thought came to him, but it was not his own.Time, Blue Eyes thought to him. It’s me… somehow… The duel is beginning, but you’re being told part of the end before it happens. You're seeing a glimpse of your future.Why?Because you know you’ll survive. But you don’t know if anyone else will. And you know your boat will get out of here.That was no benefit, he thought, the sorrow threatening to well up yet again. He would rather know he would die if his death would save the others…And one more thing, I think.What?This way you’ll see the duel as you remember it now. You won’t remember what the Lone Captain looks like. Even though you'll see it as it happens.Bhukasa thought he should react with surprise or disappointment at this, but at the moment his emotions felt off somehow, like a dream, so this revelation seemed completely expected.BE went away.Bhukasa fell again.Fell asleep.Awoke.There was the Po-Matoran. The… vision… or whatever… was over.Bhukasa stumbled to his feet. Picked up the lantern he’d dropped.“What happened?” the villager asked, worried.“I… I’ll… tell you… some other time…”Plants shook in the jungle.He caught sight of something dark blue and small. Matoran-shaped.Something else, lighter blue, with many arms.And something red – but he could only see the color.The rest of the Lone Captain was a blur. -----> Review here! <----- Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted September 7, 2012 Author Share Posted September 7, 2012 Chapter 47 Bhukasa ‘remembered’ one more thing about the Lone Captain.He didn’t – at least this time – have any Kuamor spheres, though he carried a launcher. He must have used them up on the way, but Bhukasa couldn’t imagine why.The attack came as melee from him and the many-armed being he recalled was named Kwadrika.But the Ga-Matoran shot bolts of plasma from her twin pistols.Bhukasa dodged.“Kill the Matoran,” the Kuambu said, gesturing at Kuhauha – at least, Bhukasa remembered THAT he had gestured – and had at least one arm to do so with – but not what the arm looked like.“No!” Bhukasa said. “You are a Matoran too!”The Ga-Matoran hesitated.“R’yn! NOW!” the red blur barked.She fired.Kuhauha dodged, a terrified look on his face. Ran into the jungle.‘R’yn’ chased him.Kwadrika and the red blur circled Bhukasa.Then the Captain lunged, swinging the launcher like a club. Hit Bhukasa on the side of the head.He flew to the side over twenty feet.Slid another ten before he stopped. His chin hurt bad, but he ignored it, once again stumbling to his feet and bringing his claws up. It was happening NOW – it was REAL – and it HURT – but he knew HE would survive.The Matoran. He had to defend the Matoran.But he had to contain the Kuambu too!It was no choice. He ran into the jungle after Kuha… whatever.Glanced back as he ran.Thankfully, the blur and Kwadrika chased him.They must have thought I was trying to escape! he realized. The Captain had control of the exit. He must know Bhukasa did too. But he didn’t seem to suspect Bhukasa could trap him in. That was the best news he’d had all day.Of course, he needed to remember…Up ahead, he heard something crashing through the jungle.R’yn?But it sounded too loud.He saw blue ahead. That was R’yn. The crashing came from his left.Bhukasa leaped through a small clearing to gain distance on R’yn and get away from whatever that sound was.Then he saw it.It was just a silhouette through the intense rain, but it was coming closer, fading into clearer view.Something huge.Towering over the jungle trees. Made mostly of wood, but with blades of metal.The blades were mounted on a spinning metal cylinder, laying horizontal, mounted to a massive wooden frame.Behind this, the vehicle was asymmetric, chaotic, but full of moving parts. Apparently made entirely of wood with a few exceptions, with a tall vat on the right side.The cylinder spun forward like a roller-wheel, and Bhukasa caught a glimpse of a single massive wooden wheel at the back of the vehicle.Orange flashes inside rumbled. Smoke rose from machinery inside.He didn’t understand, but he could tell one thing. It was HUGE, and it was strong.Because as it moved forward, as the cylinder spun like a wheel, it knocked over entire trees.They fell away from it – towards Bhukasa.Where did this thing COME from?!It was almost on top of him.Bhukasa was not at all surprised, as he ‘remembered’ this, that he then started running faster than he had yet, pulling every ounce of energy he had left into it. Aiming beams of energy at trees, sapping life energy from them to regain some tiny bit of strength.Glanced back, saw the red blur and Kwadrika run up behind it, and leap on top of it.But Kwadrika couldn’t touch it. A repulsive effect made him hover, slide back off. The Captain was not affected.Crazolga slime. The Kuambu can touch it!The red Kuambu turned a winch.The machine turned. Following Bhukasa.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito watched Bhukasa run from the impossible machine.Chills ran all through his body as he realized what it was.It seemed to be made of pieces of the roof-cage, and various components from his hidden devices in Le-Wahi. Cobbled together, completely rearranged, and turned into a weapon of incredible power, useable only by the Kuambu Captain.Ito, of course, saw the Kuambu just fine, and he would remember the shape, for he already knew it and would never forget. But he wouldn’t tell anyone, so it didn’t matter.What caused his chills was the design of the craft.There was no protodermic power other than the slime’s repulsion. No fancy power source. Every part except for the metal bits could be found in nature. And it was horribly complicated. Only someone far smarter than him could think of this. He tried to absorb it, and got some insight, but he didn’t have time to focus on it. Bhukasa was in big trouble now.The machine was closing the distance.Ito turned Jhianau and flew ahead of Bhukasa.First, he dipped down and turned visible.Kuhauha ran into the little clearing where he’d landed.Ran right into the invisible bird.Screamed.Ito grabbed him, held him against the bird so he could still see it.“Onget,” Ito said.The poor Matoran didn’t ask questions. He saw a Le-Matoran, he was clearly too tired to run anymore, and he jumped on.Ito took off again, just before R’yn entered the clearing, and ran on, not knowing she was now chasing nothing.He couldn’t rescue Bhukasa this way too – too much weight for Jhianau to carry – and he guessed the mystical ‘duel’ that the chronoserum had set up would not allow it anyways.But he did know exactly what he needed to do.Flew towards the Kuambu ship.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Blue Eyes existed in the lake near the red forcefield-dome. There was nobody there.He forced himself to think over what the Unknown had said.There’s a way to get Caroha back. But how?BE wished he had Hujo’s analysis powers.But I do…He closed his eyes. If someone were to look at him, they would see nothing.I really AM Hujo.He had thought he’d accomplished the impossible. He understood that when Hujo entered the chronoserum, his mind had been forced through time and existence, and that naturally had severe effects on him. He forgot who he was... No, I forgot. But when that blank persona earned his consciousness, earned his friendships, he started to think that everything depended on him remaining that originally blank identity, that he had defied the rules of reality to become someone else entirely.No. It wasn’t real.Bhukasa’s troubles. The changes he had wrought, the things he’d done. The friend he'd found in the fish. Those were all real. Hujo was real.But he was not.He was upside-down again. But now the other way.He was still Hujo.He was still in the pool.Which time, he didn’t know. But at some point while Hujo had been in the chronoserum, his mind must have leaped forward and had BE continue.He was truly upside through time, he thought sadly, wishing he could cry.His mind had been pushed into the past. Now he was just finding his feet.Hujo’s feet.He thought of all the potential harm he’d caused, trying to do good. He couldn’t yet understand why, but he felt like it had all been more bad than good.The more Rahi he’d awakened, the more he felt like the people he’d influenced had fallen asleep.The more he’d tried to understand about how he came to be in this form, the more impossible to understand it appeared.The more he defined the chronoserum he lived in, the more undefinable it became.Time and space and minds… and the lives of little fish… were not meant to be messed with this way. He felt a great evil building, poised to strike at any moment.And yet, only he could do whatever needed done. He realized in that moment what it was.I should not exist.But I have one more task.Let the evil build, just this one more time. This good thing, the Paracosmos needed. The evil could still be defeated by others, using normal means. Hopefully.Flash.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BE did not exist.While not existing, he – Hujo -- focused on the key.The bridge.Caroha had touched chronoserum.Hujo had touched chronoserum.Caroha had to have entered the Paracosmos’s version of the chronoserum pool.Therefore she had appeared as blue eyes in water, long ago, in the Cosmos. Done who knows what.Hujo had done the same.And the next key to the puzzle – BE could exist into the minds of types of beings he had already entered. Like Gukko…Or Event Matoran.Therefore, he could exist in the mind of Caroha. True, later she had somehow become a shapeshifter... but she could touch chronoserum without causing another Event, therefore she was still an Event Matoran.The problem with Caroha was simple. It wasn’t that she couldn’t come back to the Paracosmos herself – she could. No, it was that right now she couldn’t.Because she was unconscious. Probably kept so, somehow.But he could Awaken.So BE willed himself to exist into Caroha’s mind.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa caught up to R’yn. Leaped.Slammed into her.Knocked the pistols away.She rolled, reaching for the rifle on her back. Brought it up.Bhukasa whirled, hitting the rifle with his tail.She didn’t lose her grip, but she’d lost her aim.He grabbed the rifle with his left hand. Cut it in two.She gasped, and leaped back.“Get out of here,” he said, waving the lantern in his right hand at the monstrosity behind them.She saw it.“He’ll run you over if it lets him kill me,” Bhukasa added. “Don’t expect loyalty – so stop giving it.”Then he ran.He looked back.She was now running after him.“Not this way!” he shouted at her. She was obviously too scared to think right. “He’s chasing ME! Get out of his way!”She nodded, and ran perpendicular to the machine’s path. It didn’t turn to chase her. Plowed right on towards Bhukasa.He wished he could use that trick. In fact, he tried it. But the machine just turned, aiming right at him again.He glanced back one more time, to see R’yn and Kwadrika meet. They both looked confused and angry. Like they thought maybe their usefulness had been forgotten. But compared to this thing, what use were they?This Captain is done using servants, he knew. He hadn’t been bluffing when he said the Captain wanted to kill him. He was pretty sure it was true.He also knew the Kuambu wouldn’t succeed.Or did he?Despite Volitaos’s warning, he was very tempted to worry the vision he’d seen was just a dream. Or maybe that’s what the Unknown had meant – that he shouldn’t just assume he’d survive. Agh! I don’t know!But he did know the Bohrok were carving.Carving.Carving.And he was doing nothing to stop it.That’s what the Captain’s really doing. Delaying me.Besides, he was the only one left who had full control over his people’s tech. Somehow the Kuambu must have partial control, but maybe that was only by using Kuamor they’d harvested from Bhukasa anyways – they’d probably not been able to even use the pillar islands as prisons until they captured him.No, the Captain wouldn’t kill him – would he? – but he didn’t really need that to win. Bhukasa wasn’t sure about it, but the thought of death wasn’t what scared him now.What really scared Bhukasa was the thought that for HIM to win…He’d have to kill the Kuambu.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Kuambu ship rose well above the jungle around it, as if it was a castle built here on the land, with a tall tower in the center.As Ito flew closer, he could see the broken parts that had controlled the rudder, the ropes that connected to the 'tower' – the mast – and various other components.He could also see the many holes the trees had punched in its side. If not for that, it would have been as defensible a structure as a real land castle like Kini-Nui Hall, but as it was, nobody wanted to be stuck with that as their last fallback.So when he flew in, landed in the courtyard, and got off, there was nobody to witness him turn visible.“Here-stay,” he told the Po-Matoran he couldn’t see. “And quietstay.”He ran to the staircase at the base of the mast.Smelled smoke already.Ran down.Into a hallway.The smoke hung along the hall’s ceiling. He followed it. Punched through several brown veils hanging across the hallways, following the smoke.Found another staircase. Went down.Near the back of the ship, he found the helm.There was a big wheel to turn the rudder, even though anybody that used it couldn’t see from here. The Kuambu couldn’t use a traditional raised helm and still remain unseen, of course. They had means to work around this difficulty, but that wasn’t his concern now.At the back of this room was the door to the Captain’s office. A wooden door was locked shut, but he could see orange light from behind it. The fire was there.Ito ran at the door hard and broke it open with a strong kick.Entered.The fire was in the back, surrounding a little device.It was a clock, with a flint lighter device, and a mechanical keypad on the top. Bolted to the wall. As long as a Kuambu was onboard, they could press the code in every hour and reset the timer. But an hour had gone by with the ship empty now. So the lighter lit, and kept on lighting constantly.Sparks still flew off as the flint scraped metal. A huge pile of tinder beneath it burned wildly. The fire had already spread along the wall and was destroying some cabinets behind the Captain’s desk.A primitive self-destruct.Ito ran to the closest cabinet that wasn’t ablaze. It was locked.He materialized a metal hammer. Broke it open.Inside were about fifty thin wooden cards.Ito pulled one out.It was titled, “Poetraxiens Hydrologis.” Not what he wanted, but he figured he might as well keep it, so he energized it into his pack.Broke open another cabinet.Pulled a card.“Poetraxiens Makuta Spiriah.”He was into the Ms now. Energized that one and fingered through the rest.But the fire was right next to him.Yanked the drawer out, energizing the whole thing, grabbed something from the desk, and went out into the hallway. He tapped the whole cabinet, and one more, on his way, energizing them as well. Coughed.Materialized the drawer with the Ms.Mbaukli, Mechanica, Medoarbial, Megarahial, Mentalitus… Ah.Poetraxiens Memory.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo landed at what had once been the alternate Ta-Koro, energized the Songsphere, and ran.The Jetrok approached.He entered one of the many pyroclastic canyons. Put his back to one of the walls. Now the Jetrok could only come at him from left, right, up, or anything in between.He made a semi-circle of blue fire and released it to expand away from him in all those directions.Again.Again.Jetrok entered.Were incinerated.More.Burned.More.Burn.The metal wrecks crashed to the canyon floor – Hujo had to dodge one that had been right above him.Silence.He listened.Just silence.Waited.…More silence.Was he safe?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito ran out of the burning room, carrying the wooden card and the device he had grabbed from the Captain’s desk.A veil ahead of him lifted.He gasped in surprise. Habitually rolled to the side, going down a cross-hallway. I was sure nobody was here!Glanced back.Saw nobody.“It’s me,” a familiar voice called after him.Ito sighed, as he turned back and saw an Unknown standing there. Laughed. Volitaos. Of course.“What-talk?”“Caroha just came back. Hujo doesn’t know.”Ito grinned. “I’ll see to it. Treebright happythanks!”“Thank Hujo,” Volitaos said. “I just did what Caroha prophesied I should.”“Happythanks anyways,” Ito said, slapping the Unknown on the back. “Always a choice.”Volitaos nodded. Then he disappeared.Ito ran back up.“Kuhauha!” he called. “I have news!”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The impossible wooden machine was so close, the tips of the highest leaves of the trees it was knocking down brushed the back of Bhukasa’s tail.He leaped.Up over two trees ahead.Crash, crash went the trees.The machine was still there.The red blur sat there, a serious look on his forgotten face. He obviously knew he had the upper hand, but he was no fool. There was no gloating. Every ounce of his concentration went into what he was doing. He did everything to the best of his ability.Bhukasa tried to match it. He was strong, the legacy of his species living on through him.He looked around. No sign of the two mercenaries. The Lone Captain and Lone Survivor were all alone now, he thought.He saw a broken branch laying on the ground. Grabbed it. Snipped off the leafy end.Looked ahead. Tried to memorize where his footing needed to go.Turned around and ran backwards.Aimed inside the device – the repulsive slime was only on the frame, not all its parts.The makeshift spear jammed in some gears.Snapped.Its pieces exploded throughout the machine. Sawdust flew.And the machine rolled on unhindered.Bhukasa let out his breath explosively in frustration as he turned around to see where he was going. There were too many parts to the thing. Every gear was repeated left to right hundreds of times. He’d probably broken the one – it was so complex and continually in motion, so he couldn’t tell – but that wasn’t anywhere near enough.So I’ll keep trying.The crashing sound got quieter.Had he actually broken it enough after all? Impossible.No. The orange flashes and bangs kept going. Gears kept turning.He turned away and kept running. Let it slow down. Fine with him.Ground rose up.He slammed into it.Flew above the trees.Slowed. Turned around uncontrollably. Got a glimpse of a cloud of dirt around a huge wooden catapult. It had been buried under where he was running. Another change, another weapon of the Lone Captain.He fell.Through the trees. Tried to grab them, slow his fall, avoid being knocked out. Faster, faster.CRASH.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BE existed in Kuhauha’s mind again.Grinned, with Kuhauha’s mouth. There was knowledge waiting in the Matoran’s mind that made him wish he had his own mouth to smile with.Then he stopped smiling.He did have his own mouth.He stopped existing.Did nothing, in nonexistence for a while.Just… well… BE-ing, without existing.Closed his eyes.This was the end. He knew the way back, but once he went there, he knew… Blue Eyes would never exist again.But I… he… will always matter to me, Hujo thought.He opened his eyes.Hujo stood in the canyon, amidst the wreckage of the interdimensional machines.Knowing he should return. Wishing he could go help the copy of Niaka. Knowing he’d probably not be able to get back to her ‘Metru Alta,’ and knowing that anyways, he was still needed in his own dimension. It was time to go home.But for now, he just stood there, looking over the twisted metal.Listening to the tap-tap-tap as the metal cooled.He smelled the smoke. Touched the remains. Thought about it. Did everything the Poetraxiens Memory said to do.I must never forget. -----> Review here! <----- Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted September 17, 2012 Author Share Posted September 17, 2012 (edited) Chapter 48 Ito pushed Jhianau to fly faster than he ever had.There was a wide path of felled trees curving around through the jungle. Where that ended, smoke rose from the machine. He couldn’t miss it.Then he saw the catapult and the explosion of dirt. Bhukasa flying.I knew it! I knew it!Some of his old traps hadn’t been cannibalized to make the combine-like machine. This one was calculated to lift a Rahi of a certain weight range just high enough that when they crashed back down, they’d be knocked unconscious, but not killed.Bhukasa fell.Ito flew closer…Kuhauha gasped in horror as he understood the scene they were approaching – approaching too slowly.“FASTER!” he shouted at the poor bird.Materialized another of his devices – a hollow bamboo tube with a bomb on one end, and a stone inside. Flicked the flint.A fast fuse ran back to the end as he aimed at the giant wooden wheel in the back of the machine – not at it exactly; it looked slimed, but at the more sensitive instrument handling its steering.Fired.The bullet hit so fast it seemed instant.The gun, of course, exploded in the process. Ito’s hand was scorched, but he was okay. Mostly just the back of the gun blew out, which he was careful not to aim at Kuhauha.The wheel locked in place.Bhukasa hadn’t landed in its current path. It stopped turning.Smashed past Bhukasa. Felled trees buried him, and the whirling blades went by inches away from him.Blue sparkles.The wheel turned. And this time it looked slimed where it hadn't been before.No!Ito turned away. It would have to circle around before it could hit him. He had a few seconds.Landed.“I can’t carry you any more,” he told Kuhauha. “Get as far away from all this as you can and stay hidden.”“But—”“GO!”The Matoran jumped off.Ito flew back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa smashed through stone obstacles, breaking away from the other Toa.Attitude and thinking.Let them Bohrok-fight. I want to where-know Bahrag.He could sense them, even now.His time under the Krana’s influence had changed him. And yet, he realized the change had much less to do with the Krana than with choices he made. And his attitude. Surkahi had been right.Another of those strange robots – Exo-Toa, he realized was the name, perhaps from some latent thought of a Bahrag subconsciously overheard while he was Kranaed – saw him and chased.Wait.No.Attitude and thinking.He turned.Faced the robot.The Exo-Toa was hindering him now.It was backwards…How could he know that?Backwards from how it was in the Cosmos.The Exo-Toa was supposed to hinder when a Toa got in it, like wearing a suit. Not when it was in its auto mode. Then it was supposed to help.Things have reversed. I need to put the suit ON.But how could I KNOW that? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Niaka watched the Va-like Captain reading the prophetic tablet.She guessed he was scouring it for some hint to the reason for his connection to the swarm. But he looked frustrated – the answer wasn’t there.The yellow wall of the Hole in the Ocean came into view.“Almost there,” one of the pirates said. She glanced at him. Sage, the one that spent most of his time somewhere on the lower decks. “Wisdom has much to say about moments like these.”“Here we go,” Loot said, rolling his eyes.Sage looked down at the floorboards. “But today I have not the heart to speak it. For I know how the Snow Lizard must feel.”Gar-Korr signed.Sage nodded sadly.“What do you mean?” Niaka asked.Grub looked up from the suit of armor – made of fish-scales – he was sewing together. “Sage is the last member of an extinct race, you know.”Like Bhukasa.These pirates weren’t what they seemed, she thought. Then again, neither was she. They weren’t pure evil like Makuta – not even Loot. Certainly not Gar-Korr.She looked back at the bearded one. “If you don’t mind my asking… what can I… I mean... How…”Sage looked at her. “You want to know what you can say to help the Snow Lizard, Boater? You want insight into what it’s like to be him, to be me?” His tone of voice was strange, unreadable. Not quite angry, not quite appreciative, slightly ironic but very serious. And something else she couldn’t understand.Which is the problem.Sage walked back to the stairs and went below deck without another word.Niaka sighed.Now she looked over at the riders from Kriitunga Island.The two Kriitunga looked happy to be coming, but she doubted they honestly had much to offer. On the other hand, one being the King and the other the famous ‘angry miner,’ they were celebrities. Maybe they would rally the Kriitunga on Bhukasa’s boat and help significantly enough.Johke looked like he didn’t care about anything.He’d agreed to come, to help his old fellow prisonmate Bhukasa. But she didn’t think he’d stick around if it looked like his life was on the line.But the Toa of Plants – Green, as he’d chosen to be nicknamed here – looked… ah… extremely unhappy.No wonder. If what I’ve heard is true, he was on Toa Tyaagko’s team. He came up here from the Matoran Universe to chase these very pirates.In fact, as she watched, he started to look more and more uncomfortable.He’s gonna burst.Sure enough, a moment later, he loudly proclaimed, “I can’t stand it!” He stood up, raising his Toa tool and facing Gar-Korr. “Let’s stop pretending. We’re not friends, and this ‘taxi ride’ is ridiculous! What is your trick?”Gar-Korr didn’t look at him.That’s a bad move.“Hey! I know you’re not deaf, Gar-Korr.”The Captain set down the tablet and faced the Toa.Stood up. Walked close.“Watch it, Cap’n,” Tuolhye said. “He’s itchin’ and it ain’t muscle rash.”Pulsar walked over – half to translate and half to make sure the orange Matoran’s prediction failed.Gar-Korr was the one in charge here, but he looked… almost defeated. Started signing. By now, he’d used some of his most common signs often enough Niaka was starting to pick up the basics, so she tried to translate what she could as he signed it, before Pulsar translated.“You’re not our prisoner. But we are your debtors.”The Toa blinked. “What is this, reverse psychology?”“I know about Haywire,” Gar-Korr continued.He paused, as if waiting for the Toa to say something. But he looked speechless.“That happened because you came up here after us. Nobody could have predicted it, but it’s still our fault. That’s on my shoulders.”The two stood there, facing each other. Nobody said anything.Finally, Green closed his eyes and turned away.“If this reward we’ve been promised is what I believe,” Gar-Korr added, “piracy won’t be worth the risks. We’ll be rich beyond our wildest dreams.”What makes him think that?Gotta be something the Unknown told him when they helped him escape Xia. Which only begged the question of why they did that, but she knew she wouldn’t have all the answers.“Your team’s dedication helped convince me I was in the wrong,” Gar-Korr said.It was hard to judge tone of voice in sign language, at least for her, but he looked genuine.“So after this… I’m going to retire somewhere. No more piracy. Your team… won.”The other pirates looked surprised, except Grub, who just shrugged. Loot and Tuolhye looked annoyed, but none of them looked like it was unimaginable. Uxxako seemed happy to hear this.Green sat down, his eyes unfocused. Niaka knew he was lost in memory.It was strange how this turn of events made her feel warm inside. This wasn’t at all like the old her. She smiled.Now she thought of Vamuka, and wondered if it would be okay to reveal their dependence on masks, to get him back awake. She hated leaving him comatose in that dark room down there.But years of experience and training stopped her. It was a convincing story, but she hadn’t seen it turn real yet.Besides, Vamuka really was too eager for his brains sometimes. Maybe he’d be safer there.“Time for fun,” Uxxako said from his vantage point near the front of the ship. “We’re over the Hole.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito dove.Landed.Jumped off.Frantically pulled away branches.A white arm.He held the Kuambu device close. A metal tip touched Bhukasa’s muscle.Pressed the button.Bhukasa shook himself awake.Ito leaped back.Bhukasa used his powerful muscles to lift a tree off his leg, and crawled out from under the remaining branches.“On-get!” Ito said, touching Jhianau and disappearing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa saw the lantern laying on the ground. Picked it up. Then reached out.Touched something he couldn’t see – and then could.A spectacular white translucent bird, hovering silently. Ito on its back, also translucent.Bhukasa jumped on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ito flew as fast as he could towards the two crashed ships. But he flew low.He could see that Bhukasa was crying. And he thought he knew why. There was so much Ito wanted to say to him. But he couldn’t. Tears flowed down Ito’s face too, as they once had, when he had heard of the genocide long ago. Tears now also for what he knew Bhukasa must be going through.“What is that thing?” Bhukasa asked, pointing at the Kuambu device.“Awakener. Kuambu sometimes use after out-knocking and songcopying. Now, you need to boat-get,” he said. “Duel needs to be even-fair.”“My boat will… help?”“I mindthink so. But… I probably can’t fly you far. It breaks the rules. Quick-take.”He held up a thin wooden card.Bhukasa took it.Blue sparkles.Bright flash.…No rain.Ito was no longer in the prison. Bhukasa wasn’t with him, and he didn’t have the Awakener either.Ito was still in a jungle, though.Le-Wahi.Below, he saw a stone dome.Mentally shrugged the illusion aside.Now he saw a battle. At the center, the Bahrag.The chronoserum had sent him back. Traded him for his devices. He wondered if it would have done that anyways if he hadn’t helped. Either way, at least Bhukasa had a chance now.He looked around, until he saw Lewa.The Toa of Air was running from an Exo-Toa. Turned quickly around a corner. Levitation-jumped to a different spot.The Exo-Toa ran where Lewa had been. Stopped. Looked around.Lewa snuck silently around behind.Pulled its head back, switching it from automatic mode to manual.Lewa stepped in front as the suit opened. Lewa grinned and got in.Though the tears still flowed freely, Ito grinned too.He’d trained Lewa well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa landed with a thud.But he stayed conscious for once.Stood.The wooden card wasn’t in his hands anymore.No!But he didn’t know for sure the ‘duel’ had taken it away. Maybe he just dropped it.Looked around.There it was, floating in a mud puddle. Snapped into two pieces, probably by his scissorclaws.He grabbed them.Saw the title on one half.He was so elated he read it happily out loud. “Poetraxiens Memory! YES!”But the sadness, of course, eclipsed that feeling.Crashing. Orange light. Smoke. Down-slamming green.The machine was almost on him again.I know the first half. He tossed that away and ran.He didn’t dare hold up the other half to try to read it as he ran. He needed some other strategy, and he’d probably need Taureko to translate it anyways.Bhukasa saw the towering castle wall of the Kuambu ship. Ran that way.He hated to go towards others. The Lone Captain might kill them. But so many other lives depended on him knowing what this said, and maybe he was ‘destined’ to get back to his boat anyways. Maybe the chronoserum had changed it so he’d have a fair chance there – and only there.The Kuambu ship was between him and his ship.Wait...He stopped and looked around. Ran in circles, searching...There.Something shiny.The Awakener.He grabbed it and ran.On the way, Tahu finally called again, and they exchanged updates. He was glad to hear the Apax was coming. He knew it sounded familiar, but more importantly, it gave him an idea.Reached the Kuambu ship.Ran in the nearest tree-punched hole.The Lone Captain couldn’t bring that thing in here. Bhukasa ran through the lowest deck’s hallways, taking as direct a line as he could to his boat. The Kuambu would have to go around.He smelled smoke.Saw orange light.This ship’s on fire!The fire was towards the stern. Spreading far and fast, but for now he had a clear way through. He didn't think it could be from the plasma bolt; that fire had been put out.Reached another hole on the other side.Peeked around the edge of the veil.He could see that Kuamor were still firing at his ship. No bombs were flying anymore – they were out.He lifted one leg to step out.Put it back.Do I really want to do this? These Kuambu probably don’t share their Captain’s murderous ways. I should leave my crew to them. At least they’d survive.He looked down at the card.The last line.“SOLM: Saehns egotrostethau nenk’n kraomem, so with yek’n unwal.”Definitely needs translated.He could run off into the jungle again. Wait for Tahu to call. Conference with Nokama. He’d be risking no lives that way.But Tahu was busy with the Bahrag.And Bhukasa needed an endgame. He knew of one – killing the Kuambu. But, memories or not, he was certain that was not his way. The only endgame he’d thought of so far without that was in the Seahopper.The sadness. The fears, the suspicions.All of them he carried with him as he took a deep breath.Maybe it was just the orange light and the smoke that made him do what he did next.But whatever the reason, he stepped out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo appeared in the sky over the Paracosmos Mata Nui in a blue flash.The scene of the pyroclastically destroyed island was replaced with the island as it should look, though he remembered sadly that it couldn’t stay that way forever.He was almost home, but home would never feel the same.The Ta-Matoran admired the view for a few seconds more. The island was incredibly beautiful, even at this huge distance. The setting sun was starting to paint oranges and yellows across the sky, which reflected off the white snow of Ko-Wahi, and the rippling shadow of the Mangaia and Ihu reached far out to the eastern sea.He just hovered there in the Unknown suit. Watching.Remembering…But time was brutally short. He sighed. Maybe one day all the evil would be gone and they’d live free for the rest of their lives.A chill ran through him as he realized… that was what he had to fight for.The day wouldn’t just come.Alright… He breathed in deep, slowly. Looked at the spinning three flames in his staff. Nodded. Let the breath out slowly.And flew home. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa plowed through the rock obstacles with the power of the Exo-Toa armor.He made a puff of wind.It shattered another obstacle.These Exo-Toa are amplifying Toa power.He started to round a corner, then thought better of it, and decornered it instead.There they were. Red and blue, crouched low so the Toa couldn’t see them over the obstacles.“Toa Mata!” he shouted. “This way!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa leaped onto the top deck of the Seahopper.He’d obviously surprised his crew – many turned to fight him, but recognized him a moment later.From this higher vantage point, he could see that Toggler and Sairiph were wreaking the most havoc on the faceless enemies around him – in other words, on the jungle, without really hurting the enemy at all, which about summed up the battle. The Kriitunga wielded a variety of powers, but the Matoran were pretty much left with throwing disks, with no visible targets to throw them at.He could also see an airship in the sky. The Apax was here.The two coins were closed, and apparently the wind was moving in a circle around it. It spun, and as each cannon moved so that it faced where the big hole had been in the roof-cage, it fired. Then the next cannon moved into position and fired. The hole was near the top, but definitely on this side of the divider fence, so the cannons were tilted down to hit it.“What’s happening, Captain?” Maku asked.“Just keep up what you’re doing,” he said, and ran down to the quarters level. Entered the room with the four comatose Toa.Touched one with the Awakener. Pressed the button.The Toa awoke!Yes!He didn’t know if this would be a permanent cure, but it proved he could have all four awake at the right time. He awoke them all, and quickly explained his plan.The Toa of Water immediately answered, “I already know some of what’s going on here, thanks to your telepathic friend.” She looked at the others. “We should do as he says.”“We owe you,” another said. “Of course we’ll help.”The other two agreed.He asked them to meet him on the top deck. First, he wanted to check something.Bhukasa went alone into his quarters, and quickly copied the last line of the Poetraxiens onto some tablets. Just in case.He ran out, and almost went back up.But no, he had to check something else first.Climbed down the ladder to the rowing deck.Aimed a beam of energy at the black hatch, which lay open.Still nothing.Was it really broken? And why hadn’t it been fixed by the ‘duel’? The enemy’s machine had been, and so had the roof-cage. Or why hadn’t something else about the ship changed to be similar to that machine?His eyes swept over the almost-wrecked deck. Fragments of wood, plants…Something gray.A Great Rau?!He ran over to where it lay by the forward starboard side of the ship.Sure enough, it was a Great Mask of Translation.But he already had a translator on board. This was the change?He noticed the shards of the broken Mask of Telecommunication were missing. The main purpose he would have put that to now would have been to contact Nokama for a more accurate translation – by Taureko’s own admission.Was something trying to tell him the Poetraxiens wasn’t something to show just anybody? Especially its final line?That would make sense, considering the extremes the Kuambu apparently went to on Memory Island. Unless its remaining secret was to their benefit… Oh, more questions for the Jahurungi. Anyways…He wondered if the chronoserum had also provided a Btou staff, but he didn’t see one. Too much to ask anyways. So he’d need Toggler.That was fine – he needed the titan anyways. Not for the being himself, but because he probably wouldn’t part with his weapon.The sword of ice was Bhukasa’s only hope for a sixth ‘Toa’.To make a protocage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The ferry crew CHECKed many other islands, at high speed, but all got red glows.Thankfully, the course stayed southernly.Now they were in sight of a white island. Nixie thought it looked amazing – the contrast of the blueish-white of the side that pointed towards the darkening blue eastern sky, and the red that reflected the horizon-floating sun.“The Icescape,” Krutuska said, in a sort of awed, sort of fearful tone. “You must let me steer us in. The mysterious natural forces here make it totally hostile to life, and there’s only one safe line in to the center. There we can CHECK and also cure Korau.”Nixie stepped away from the controls, gesturing at it with a light wave of a hand and bowing her head a little.The mutant Kriitunga took a moment to get used to steering by arrow keys.Then she took them around to the east-northeastern side and flew them in along a zigzagging line through many tall icy peaks.Nixie watched for any sign of these strange forces Krutuska mentioned, but all she saw so far were a few minor avalanches and a lot of fog rising up from the ice. The air was definitely cold, though.To the south, a wisp of a dark cloud seemed to be raining, but as it moved over the island, the blurry area under the cloud started sparkling and looked brighter. It must have turned to snow.Cold energy, she thought.She’d long wondered if there was cold energy at work in Ko-Wahi too. But most of that region was highly elevated, where snow would form naturally. Here, there was no doubt, some power was draining heat.“I only know of one place here where it’s safe to land and get out,” Krutuska said. “Even then, we’ll need some fire to stay unfrozen.”Azh’yuuros nodded.She put the flying ferry down on a little flat clearing in the midst of some of the highest peaks. Nixie could see only a ring of mountains spiking out of fog around them – the lower regions of the island were not visible at this angle.As soon as the ferry lowered near the ground, the temperature dropped dramatically.When they touched down, the cold was painful.The giant Glatorian made a circle of blue flames hover around them. That was better.Knife-Tail CHECKed.They were all relieved when the light flashed red. Nobody wanted to walk around following a blue arrow beyond this clearing.“We’ll need to go into that ice-cave,” Krutuska said, pointing at a dark, thin gash in the ice-wall in front of them. It was high enough for Azh’yuuros, but definitely not wide enough for the ferry.Nixie looked at the Shvontuk.He obviously understood the glance – she wanted to go with her fellow Matoran, couldn’t send him in there alone. “We’ll stay here,” he said, gesturing at the other Shvontuk guards.Krutuska stepped out, and by the wince on her face, Nixie knew the snow-packed ground must be even more radically cold.The mutant caught her glance and smiled. “I’m sure it hurts me more than you. I’m from a desert. And let me tell you… it feels good to know this will be the final end of Haywire.”Nixie stepped out. Grimaced. Yeah. Ow.Azh’yuuros intensified the ring of flames, and followed. “Oh, my.”Korau stepped out last.Hopped up and down, his arms raised high. “Cold as mold that’s old and cold!”They walked towards the gash.Everybody except Korau. His feet looked like they were frozen to the ground. He leaned forward, bending his legs like he was walking, and looked down at his feet, but his feet wouldn’t move.The giant moved the flames closer to his feet.But it wasn’t the cold – it was Haywire.Suddenly Korau turned and ran.“NO!” Nixie shouted. “You’ll die!”He disappeared into the fog.Azh’yuuros bolted after him, lancing fire ahead to clear the fog, but high enough that it wouldn’t harm Korau.There – Nixie saw the chef trip on a rolling snowdrift.Azh’yuuros picked him up and carried him back, his limbs flailing wildly.Like this they entered the ice cave. Went in deep.The air was so cold here their breath created even thicker fog than outside, though the wind blew that fog in as well.The cave narrowed.Stopped abruptly.“Good, it’s still how I remember it.”At the end, it didn’t actually stop. It dipped down sharply. Formed a bowl with steep sides. Deep enough, with a cushion of snow at the bottom, that you could survive the jump to the bottom, but you’d be unlikely to jump out even if you were Toa. The opposite wall, near the ceiling, had another little gash, through which the wind and the fog blew out.Krutuska turned and faced them.“Haywire is a techno-organic parasitic being,” she said. “So small you need a special lens to see it. I've only caught a glimpse once. It stays in a host body until that body can no longer sustain it, and then it leaves, seeking out a new host. For as long as I’ve studied it, I’ve never seen it leave a host prematurely, except in one specific case.”“Cold?” Nixie said.“Exactly. We have huge mountains which sometimes get snow on Kriitunga Island.”She looked sad. “One day, an influential elite displayed the symptoms of Haywire, after I had studied it and already determined what it was. Before, when it plagued only our lower class, the elites did not care, but now they recruited me to devise a cure.”Nixie thought she understood where this was headed. Because obviously, Haywire was still around.“I discovered it could not survive long in cold, whether in a host or not. I theorized that if a host was placed in a freezing place and appeared to be at risk of freezing themselves, Haywire would leave the host early. I was able to try it on that elite, and it worked.“We tied him to the mountaintop, and raced back to the village so we too would not be prey. Then Haywire eventually fled the body, wandering in the snow. We found the elite, and got him out in time.“But Haywire did not quite die. Our region of snow is seasonal and small; it must have found its way out. Soon more lower class Kriitunga fell prey to it. Every time an elite did, we repeated the cure.”How horrible!“So you have to leave me here?” Korau asked – it was more of a squeal.“Yes.”“Won’t Haywire just infect one of us when we come back for him?” Nixie asked.“No. Because we will not come back until many days from now.”“But I’ll freeze!” Korau objected, his arms now flailing even more madly. “You evil Rust Weevil!”“You can be thawed again; it's done all the time. In the meantime, while you’re frozen, Haywire will be frozen too, somewhere out there, hunting in vain for some little Rahi that I am telling you can’t survive here. Haywire will know that’s a better chance than staying in your body. It’s the only way.”“Won’t it just come out now and attack one of us?” Azh’yuuros demanded.“It never did to us. And I believe it becomes so entwined with the host’s nervous system, it literally cannot detach until it has no choice.”Azh’yuuros looked furious at this.Nixie wanted to feel that way, but she knew Korau might die otherwise. They had no way to keep him alive artificially like those four Toa of Bhukasa’s that Tahu had told them of, and this wouldn’t be the kind of coma Vamuka was now in on the Apax. It was a weapon that would cause this, and it had been the death of Toa Tyaagko.The blue giant obviously understood it too – he didn’t say anything more.Nixie said, quietly, “I know it’s possible to survive being frozen. Several Matoran through history have been frozen alive in Ko-Wahi, and they all thawed out just fine when they were found.”Her main worry was the ‘mysterious forces,’ but Krutuska had said those could not reach here. Was that true? But she was too afraid to ask – this was a way out. If those forces were frightening enough, maybe it was better not to know, lest she argue Korau out of his only hope.The Kriitunga stepped aside and gestured at the hole.“Throw him in.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa tapped Toggler on the shoulder and asked him to follow him down to the empty rowing deck.He went back to the front, where he’d found – and left – the Rau.Pointed at it, and held up the wooden card.Toggler’s eye flashed. “The last line?”“The same. It’s… time.”Toggler took the card and read it. “SOLM: Saehns egotrostethau nenk’n kraomem, so with yek’n unwal. Huh.”Now he picked up the Rau.Looked.Bhukasa watched his eyes scan the line again.Widen.Toggler looked up at Bhukasa, locked eyes. Back at the card. Over to a wall.Suddenly, he dropped the card and the mask and staggered back.Turned away, slowly. His shoulders tensed.“What?”Toggler didn’t answer.Was what it said really that shocking?The titan let out a long sigh. His hand moved towards the sword on his back. Hesitated. Lowered.He tilted his head one way, then another. Turned around so that his left side faced Bhukasa. He turned his head more towards Bhukasa, but he didn’t make eye contact. His eyes were moving rapidly from right to left.“I…” he began, but he didn’t finish.The look on his face was one of grim determination mixed with… distance. There was something deeply disturbing about it.“It… uh… Wow. All I can say is…”His voice trailed off yet again. Then his eyes snapped to Bhukasa’s, and widened. Looked away again. A faint smile encircled a voiceless mouthing of something – maybe one or two syllables, starting with an M or maybe a B.“What?”Toggler picked the two objects back up, a look of determination still on his face, but it seemed less grim. Almost hopeful.Finally he faced Bhukasa.“Most of it is easy to translate, it’s our words, just spelled and contracted differently. Sans – without – ‘egotrostethau’ – the only word that’s difficult – none can block memories, so with – meaning with ‘egotrostethau’ – you can ‘un-wall’ the memories.“So the memories are there, they’re just walled off. And ‘egotrostethau’ is both what allows someone – including enemies like Kuambu – to wall them off, and what you can use to break down those walls.”“So what is it?”“An ego trust – a permission or agreement of the deepest part of the mind – of thou, of you. Your own deep desires. Nobody can take your memories unless somehow deep down, you want them to.”“Why would I want anyone to?”“I don’t know about you, friend, but the many times Kuambu have robbed me of my memory, I’ve feared them. Maybe I felt like, if that were to stop working, they might start killing.”A light went on in Bhukasa’s mind, even as the light of the sun outside failed.Had not he done the same thing – even said the same thing in giving out orders to his crew? He purposefully made sure they didn’t try to see what Kuambu looked like too early, for fear of what the Kuambu would do in reaction. This whole mystic duel had now given him a protection against just that fear.And in that case at least, the fear was surely real.Maybe they wouldn’t kill him, the normal Kuambu, but they could put him in a prison like the one on Kriitunga Island. Until the chronoserum moved its roof here, where the exit was of his people’s tech, that one was apparently impossible to escape from. At least for someone like him – maybe someone like Sairiph could escape, but not him. He was sure the black metal was only on the pillar island prisons.So I must have wanted to forget my past, somehow.This made sense too. How horrible it must be to carry around the memories of his whole people being destroyed. Even more understandable if, as he now greatly feared, somehow he had been responsible for it.As if he could read Bhukasa’s mind, Toggler said, quietly, “It wasn’t your fault, you know.”Bhukasa jerked his eyes up to Toggler’s. What?He just remembered, Bhukasa realized. And it involved my people. He knows…Then he felt them coming.A huge tidal wave of memory, flashes of images and sounds and smells that he could catch fleeting glimpses of, but the mystic wind of his own fear of them kept the wave still, unable to sweep over him.Some of those images contained Toggler.Then he saw the Apax in his memory.Then he heard words – he couldn’t quite make them out, but he knew they talked about the pillar islands.I need to know… what I knew… I have to face them.With an ego trust of recall, an agreement with himself to remember, Bhukasa could.So… finally… he thought to himself what he’d known all along he should.I agree.The wind that was his fear faded.Died.The tsunami of octasens loomed.Towered, rippling dark and light blue, crested with white. The smell of salt, the hiss of cool wet spray, the knowledge of its substance and behavior.A bit of pain as it struck hard and fast.His mind submerged entirely in cold, sound-muffling, dark wetness.But in the darkness, the light of memories played. -----> Review here! <----- Edited September 24, 2012 by bonesiii Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted September 24, 2012 Author Share Posted September 24, 2012 Chapter 49 A white reptilian being walked into a room that smelled of pine.Bhukasa looked from his woodwork up at the other Ukyabha. Smiled.“Almost done,” he said. Looked back at it – it just needed a few more crossbars in the back.He tilted his head, inspecting, and pulled out one bar. Too short.“It looks good,” the other reptilian said. He was colored white and dark metallic green-gray. Whereas Bhukasa had mostly symmetrical scissorclaws, each of his hands sported an axe-like blade on the outer sides, two fingers curving downward on the front sides and thumbs on the inner sides.Bhukasa took another pine stick and whittled it to a slightly longer bar. Then he walked over to a table in front of a wide window, and opened a jar of finish. Put one of the two more narrowed ends into a clamp device. Twisted the clamp closed. Picked up a brush, and started putting the finish on.He glanced back at his customer. “Oh, it’ll take until later tonight, if you wanna come back.”“No, it’s fine, I’ll wait.”Bhukasa shrugged, and looked back at his work. He hated working with an audience. He felt like every move had to be a performance instead of just enjoying the work himself.“So, I’ve got another tree I’m looking at in my northern fields,” the Ukyahba said. “Had some problems with armored borer beetles there. This tree was hit, but not too bad. It won’t survive, but you should get some wood out of it.”“Sounds promising.”“Nasty little things, those bugs, you know. I tried a refractor, sending electric energy. Apparently they actually like that, because they started whistling loudly, and the ones from everybody else’s field came swarming in for a feast. Now they won’t leave.”“Ouch. I thought the electricity was supposed to target the metal of the armor.”“It is. It works on Rust Weevils, or it did back when we wasted our time with proto-iron.”Bhukasa smiled. “I kind of like the feel of proto-iron myself. Sure, you have to go to more trouble to keep it from rusting, but it’s more… natural… than that black stuff.”The customer laughed. “Always the antiquitist. Makes sense for a carpenter.”Bhukasa’s smile disappeared. This customer – he didn’t know his name – was always looking for an opportunity to throw a jibe at Bhukasa’s dying line of work.Most customers just came in, introduced themselves, and gave him some wood to turn into something. He’d give them the something as payment, keep some extra to make things he needed or things he could trade for a profit, and that was that. They didn’t hang around annoyingly like this.Of course, that was probably because he kind of annoyed them.Nobody lived in pinewood homes anymore, or worked in pinewood shops like this. Ukyabha were a special people – for their strength, yes, but more and more they’d come up with excuses not to exert themselves. For their rare familial cultural structure, sure – though like other biomechanical species they were created, not actually born. But it was their inventiveness and the flexibility of their energy powers they were in love with.Bhukasa couldn’t understand it. The energy powers were flexible, sure, but in comparison with the super-strength, they were very wimpy.An Ukyabha that neglects his strength loses his way.An old proverb.Old, because nobody but him ever quoted it anymore.Well, the King did too, but he didn’t act like he meant it.Anyways, even for the ‘advancement movement’ – or the lazy movement as Bhukasa thought of it – this customer was extreme. He always bragged about his black metal inventions, and he acted like his pine fields were just a bother that tradition required him to have and keep up.Others seemed to actually enjoy their trees – and the delicious sap and needlemush soup they produced, although many enjoyed the modern artificial foods too. This one said he never ate pine foods. Too primitive.And he wasn’t very social, despite his ability to talk for forever.Neither was Bhukasa, really. He never felt comfortable asking people about themselves. He didn’t ask for the inventor’s name, because customers were supposed to introduce themselves. Of course, everybody knew who Bhukasa was, so he didn’t have to introduce himself either.“Anyways,” the customer said, “your father commissioned a new transportation technology. We think it’ll work better in the canals than the motorboats. Less danger to the fish.”Bhukasa was putting the brush away – missed the bowl, brushed wet finish on his already finished table.Looked up. “That’s good news.”The inventor smiled. “I thought you’d like that. And hey, I get it –fish are food. They’re valuable even nowadays. Don’t like ‘em myself, but hey. Financial stability and all that.”Bhukasa nodded, turning back to his work. This crossbar was painted – now it had to dry. He moved to whittle another.To be polite, he figured he should actually converse. “How’s it work?”“Well, I haven’t actually tested it yet, but it should convert water to air, and vice versa. The golden energy should work for that, and sort of pull the boats forward in the water.”“Interesting. But can’t it just pull the water forward?”“The black metal only works really well with conversions and other non-elemental effects. Controlling motion of an element is something entirely different.”“I thought the newer motors did it.”“Bah, they cheat.” By ‘they’, he meant his competitors, who had invented the motors. “They just make propellors out of energy. No safer for fish or anything.”“Wouldn’t water turning into air hurt the fish too?”The inventor shrugged. Of course, he didn’t really care about that. He just wanted a more successful engine than his competitors.Bhukasa finished whittling the next crossbar and went to another clamp.“My guess,” the inventor said, “is that I’ll be able to make the system dodge fish. It’ll be strange – especially because it will have to submerge itself, so it’ll really be more of a submarine system. But I think it’ll work.”“Won’t it hit the sides, and oncoming traffic? The canals aren’t that wide.”“Maybe. But there aren’t that many fish.”“True.” He started painting the finish on. “But then, isn’t that just because they’re being killed so often by propellors?”“Oh, I don’t know. Nature is crazy. Give me something predictable any day.”Bhukasa didn’t answer. Nature was predictable. Just complex.Wasn’t the technology complex too? Sure it was. And when did plain old wooden paddles ever create this problem?But that required work.Which was insulting to point out.So he didn’t say it.“Anyways, your father also wants me to start a watchtower system for the coasts. I thought it should be lighthouses, really – the watching is handled just fine already on the towers we have.”Bhukasa looked at the inventor again. He he just heard correctly – this guy was fine with wooden towers?The other reptilian being grinned. “What?”“Nothing.”The inventor shrugged. “Anyways, I just think everybody’s too paranoid. We’ve got technology that could beat any invader. I miss the days when we traveled the seas. You know, we have records of beings called Matoran, but nobody alive today has seen one?”“I’ve seen one,” Bhukasa said. He immediately wished he could take it back. Why would he volunteer that information? Did he want people to think he was crazy?“What?!”“Probably just… a dream or something.”“What did it look like?”“Short, long arms. Kinda apelike. Wore a mask, oddly enough.”The customer didn’t say anything. Bhukasa glanced at him. Looked again. He was frozen in shock.“What?”“Uh… Nothing.”“No, what?” Bhukasa insisted. “You’ve seen one too?”“I don’t know. I saw something. Looked just like that. In the mountains. Tan?”“Yes!”“Iceblue eyes?”“Exactly!” Bhukasa faced him. “So… I’m not… hallucinating.”“Sure aren’t! Neither am I. Good to know. But don’t tell the King. Believe me, it didn’t look threatening at all. It just walked by, nodded and smiled like anyone else in the world would do, just being polite, you know? And then went behind a tree, and I never saw it again.”Bhukasa was amazed. He’d had almost the exact same experience. “I was in the mountains too. Maybe it’s the same one? Someone living there for a long time, before we put up the towers?”“Could be.”Bhukasa turned back, slowly putting the last brushstrokes on the bar. Thinking. This was a very odd turn of events. This guy – whatever his name was – couldn’t possibly have made up a story so close to Bhukasa’s experience by coincidence.“So… you go hiking? I thought princes weren’t allowed out of the city.”“We’re not,” Bhukasa said. “I… uh… probably shouldn’t have told you that.”The inventor laughed. “So you sneak out?”Bhukasa shrugged, as he started whittling another bar. “Better wood up there.”“I guess that makes sense, actually. The trees do seem more… impressive.”Bhukasa nodded. “We make them so geometrically perfect here, fit them into nice little rows of little cones. I don’t really know why, but the wild is more… I don’t know.”“Natural, right?”He shrugged. “No, it’s something else. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a good pruning job. Something in the wood. Something about the smell, the texture. I don’t know.”“Well, I mainly go to look at the ocean. I look forward to the new guard tower job if for no other reason. I rarely get away to see it.”Bhukasa nodded. He’d only seen it from afar himself. But there was something… magnetic about it.“You know… it’s crazy, but what say we both sneak away sometime to look for this Matoran? Maybe we can talk to it… Or him, I think it was. Ask for its story. If it knows about other lands.”“You serious?”“Sure, why not? I’ve got so many workers to program early tests, I’m really not needed except at the start and the finish. My ideas, my finalizing, but not my work, mostly. I’m free in two days.”“I’ve got royal rehearsals,” Bhukasa said.“You sound enthusiastic.” Sarcasm.“Yeah.” More.“Well, the day after?”“Fine with me. Why not?”“Why not indeed, Prince Bhukasa.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Now,” said the King, “you dip your head, and recite the Confirmation.”His father was colored white and gold, and had scissorclaws like Bhukasa.Bhukasa gave a half-nod. “I hereby confer on you the official status of clerk, of…”“Outer Court.”“Outer Court, wherein the Royal Family expects you to return this honor with a strong work ethic.”Raking pine-needles, he wanted to add, imagining the hilarious outrage that would ensue.“What are you smiling for?” his father objected. “Be serious. This is a serious undertaking.Uh-huh. Can’t we just say, ‘you’re hired’ and be done with it?Out loud he continued the recitation. “Let it be noted by the Central Court Programming Record.” Translation, the royally-sanctioned electronic spy.“And?”“Sorry. Uh… And forevermore be remembered in history.”“Bravo, brother!” another Ukyabha said, clicking his shovel-claws as he walked into the Central Court – a wide open courtyard ringed by the palace and filled with row upon row of perfectly conical trees.“That is not the end, Kud'hasha,” the King scolded. “You should know that.”“Oh, yes, the—”“Do not say it. Bhukasa must remember it himself. You do, yes, Eldest?”Bhukasa tried to remember. “Uh…”“You don’t! Haven’t you read the record?”“He doesn’t have a reader,” Kud’hasha said, laughing.“You do in your palace room,” the King said to Bhukasa, as if he had said it and not the Younger.“I read it there. I’m sure that was the end of it.”“That’s all you say, but then what does Ebhikayi say on the subject in the fifteenth chapter of Royal Wisdom?”“I uh… kinda didn’t have time to read that one.”“Me neither,” his brother said in his singsong voice, “I just pay attention when Father recites it.”“Very good, Kud’hasha, but the time for your rehearsal is yet to come. Please retire your presence from the Court.”Meaning ‘get out.’The younger – in age, not appearance, for all Ukyabha were made full-sized – gave a polite bow and walked away. He hummed a tune as he went. Bhukasa never understood how he could stand their Father’s dismissive attitude towards his younger chosen son. Sure, Bhukasa was his first choice to train as Heir, but everybody knew Bhukasa was more at home as a carpenter.It was only out of his great respect for his father, and his concern for his people’s waywardness that he continued the training.“Now, you dip your head even lower, a little bit, at the end.”Bhukasa did.“Then the newly appointed clerk is to bow, and walk away. Then you raise your head to normal, and take on the next matter of business.”“Yes, sir.”“Again.”Bhukasa went through the whole ritual again.“Very good! Again.”He was halfway through it, when he stopped speaking.Looked up, behind the King.What was that in the sky?His Father turned around.The sun seemed dimmer.Something was coming down… through it.Something long and conical. White.Like an icicle.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa watched from behind a pine tree as a single being walked down the spiral staircase that had formed around the column of ice.It was a titan, colored white and blue, and carrying what looked like two small white pickaxes. A white sword was slung over his back.The Prince, as Royal Scout Overseer appointed by the King, looked left and right at the other scouts, also hiding behind other pine trees.The titan walked onto the snow and started walking towards the city, which it had no doubt seen from its earlier vantage point – here, the city was not visible behind the tree-furred hills.Bhukasa slowly pointed at the scout nearest him.The white and gunmetal Ukyabha nodded, and walked out from behind the tree.The titan stopped, smiling – a strange sight, for its head looked somewhat skeletal.“Greetings, Friend! May I ask to where I have descended from the heavens above?”The scout flicked his tail.Meaning question.Bhukasa made a certain bird sound.Meaning answer.“You have come to the great Ukyabha Island, ruled by the illustrious King P'hasotha and the celebrated Queen Syefhaii. From whence have you come?”“I just told you, Friend. The heavens above.” The titan smiled.Something was off about this guy, besides the impossibility of descending from the heavens. Modern scientists were sure the heavens were made of mere tiny glowing dots in the sky – nothing inhabitable like the planets of old mythology. But what disturbed Bhukasa was the lack of a sense of formality.One did not answer a formalized question by pointing out its stupidity.Therefore, he liked the foreigner immediately.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa had forgotten entirely about his nameless customer.He’d spent three days giving the visitor the grand tour of the city and satiating his curiosity questioning him. He proved to be quite eager to share information – everything except his name, which he said his people forbade him to reveal to outsiders. He demonstrated his strange shapeswitching power, and told them to call him Toggler.It seemed there was an island in the sun.The stars, Toggler agreed, were merely dots in the sky, but the sun was actually just a portal, a simple gate of crystal between the land below, and the land above, and the land above wasn’t all that different from the land below. It, too, had a sky with a sun and stars in it, as well as a moon. What that sky was made of, Toggler did not know.When Toggler had finished his tale of the heavens, he was formally introduced to the King, Queen, and the other Prince, in the Outer Court.The visitor was talking with the King now, by the Outer Throne.The palace was, of course, divided into two. Only royalty, nobles, and a select few highly trusted servants were allowed in the Inner Court and the Inner Palace. The Outer Throne was on a porch of the Inner Palace, facing the Outer Palace ring of buildings – housing for servants of lesser rank.Unbeknownst to Toggler, of course, guards were watching his every move. The King had strictly forbidden anyone from telling their visitor that visitors weren’t… ah… allowed.And when the King and Toggler finished their pleasant conversation, the titan would no longer be a visitor.He’d be a prisoner.Bhukasa was now in charge of those guards. Subtle handsigns or flicks of the tail were the code in operation now, since bird sounds didn’t make as much sense here. Sadly.Just then, the inventor ran up to Bhukasa, panting.“Oh, hello,” the Prince said.“You have to come now!” he said.“I’m busy.”“Doesn’t look like it. Look, it’s about… you know.”Bhukasa lowered his voice. “Not here.”“Then come. I must speak with you. I saw… Yeah.”“Seriously, not now.”“Then when?”“Do you see who’s over there? We have company.”The inventor looked. “Oh, no. You’re going to arrest him, aren’t you?”“Not so loud!”His guards were flicking their tails so much they risked Toggler thinking they had tail fleas. He ignored the questions, deciding to settle this now.“I won’t have time to go any time soon. Leave now – we can talk another time. That’s an order as the Prince.”“You’re needed—”“Now.”The inventor stared at him. Looked around, at the guards disguised as servants.“Fine.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Two decades later, the unnamed inventor walked into Bhukasa’s shop again.Bhukasa jumped back in surprise, dropping – and immediately forgetting – whatever he was working on. “We all thought you were dead!”The Ukyabha carried a pile of wood, which he set down atop the pile of wood Bhukasa already had. “Wasn’t dead. Was just… uh… busy.”“My father was furious you didn’t finish the coastal towers. Does he know you’re here?”“No. I don’t need to be who I was. I’m just some random citizen.”He had a strange look on his face. Something profound had happened to him.Bhukasa waited for him to volunteer the information, but he went on to talk about normal things, like anybody else, explaining what he wanted and then inquiring after everyday royal matters.Bhukasa missed the old eccentricity, surprisingly.“The new propulsion work?” he finally asked.“So well we don’t think of it as new anymore.”“Really?”“Whatever happened to that tall guy?”“He’s still in the prison.”“Your father never let him out, huh?”“My father is no longer King,” Bhukasa said. “Don’t you remember the term limits?”“Ah. So… you’re in charge now, eh? Then why—”“Kud’hasha is King. I… I shared enough responsibility for what happened. I couldn’t live with myself being the Jailor in Chief.”The inventor… or rather… average citizen… obviously didn’t know what to say.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa stood on a beach, looking on as a team of workers, led by an average, everyday, totally normal citizen, constructed a large black metal canal boat.Except this would not be a canal boat.It would be a sea vessel.His father objected loudly to this enterprise, but Kud’hasha gently reminded him who was King now. The now-Noble P’hasotha argued that a trading vessel would risk alerting outsiders to their island’s location. But Kud’hasha liked the idea of learning – by proxy – what was going on in the outside world, what foods and other trinkets they might trade.Bhukasa’s idea was to just disguise the powerful technology as a normal wooden sailing vessel.Kud’hasha said yes, with the condition that he used the normal means to sail far enough away every time before he activated the canalhopper – or seahopper as this one should be called. So there’d be no foreign witnesses.He agreed readily. Really, he’d rather just sail normally anyways.In fact, if it was all up to him, the boat wouldn’t have that gleaming monstrosity inside anyways.So as the average citizen – who he now knew was named Op’hasa – worked on the waste of time, Bhukasa gave orders to his team of woodworkers.I shouldn’t call it a waste of time, he thought.Op’hasa obviously enjoyed it, especially since it was the first programming he’d been able to do since his disappearance.And if he ever met trouble, Bhukasa had to admit he’d be glad that particular monster was in the basement.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa smiled at the Le-Matoran as he handed over the specially made bi-ended staff.The green and brown inhabitant of the island of Nhoakrus nodded in thanks, and handed him a crate of rare fruit as payment.“Thank you.”“Happywelcome,” the Ruru-wearer said. “This will well-serve as a Stun Staff…”“Stun Staff?”“An invention of my homefolk in Metru Nui.”“Not familiar with it.”“You know of the shinegates?”“The what?”The Matoran briefly, in his strange slang, summed up what these were and where Bhukasa could find them. “More-domes there are reachable now from them. You would heartlove much to trade on Metru Nui.”“I shall visit it. Thanks.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The ‘shine-gate’ was an amazing sight.Bhukasa had read ancient records that said the region of domes ended here, but that had obviously changed. And he immediately recognized the nature of the change. His jaw dropped.In front of the Seahopper, entirely blocking off the tunnel, was a huge wall.Made of black metal.But a circle of blue light, almost as big, hovered in front of it. Light filtered through, and he could see an island in the distance.Warily, he sailed up to it.Through.The Seahopper entered the shining portal. The wall of light appeared to eat up the prow, then the rest of the ship, and sweep up to him. He went through it.And there was the city-island in the distance.Bhukasa turned around.Black metal wall, shining blue circle. Just the same, but he realized that he hadn’t crossed as much distance in the tunnel between domes as usual. The blue circles were like wormholes – and on the exit, he wasn’t even in the tunnel at all. This side was even with the dome’s edge.Meaning there must be two walls, he thought.And the gravity felt different here, somehow. He couldn’t quite place it, but he felt like he had crossed not just the distance of half a dome-tunnel, but crossed onto a different world.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa looked around at a dome filled with tiny islets, back on ‘his’ side of the portal doors.There was an airship in the distance, like two huge coins or the halves of a clamshell.It was heading at him. Close now.He waved.The airship came to a stop, and Cap’n Gar-Korr and his translator robot hovered down to the deck. He’d been trading with the Apax for a long time. Much of what he’d traded had been for information about the new domes – the captain and one of his crewmembers were from an island named Xia there.“What would you like today?” Bhukasa asked. “I’ve got even better cabinets than before. They’ve got false backs, so they appear to be easy to break into, but as soon as they’re latched, the whole inside swivels. Great for storing treasure.”For this was a treasure-hunting airship, and this ancient abandoned dome was filled with buried and submerged treasure from some extinct civilization.Gar-Korr signed something, slowly. He seemed sad.“We came only to tell you the bad news,” Pulsar translated. “To warn you.”“What?” He noticed their normal trader was strangely absent today. He asked where he was.“His home island has been… destroyed.”“What?!”“On our last return, there was nothing but wasteland that smelled of… acid. He hasn’t been the same since.”“How… who…”“We don’t know anything, but we have heard rumors that this has happened on the surface world too. But whoever or whatever is doing this has moved down here now. Be sure to warn your people.”“I… I shall…”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Years later, the Seahopper entered the dome of the many islets, to meet the Apax.Bhukasa’s senses were immediately pummeled.Acid smell.Sight of brown lumps instead of lush islets. Sizzling, hissing sounds.Just one plant still growing there – a sparse grass with orange blades.No sign of the Apax.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Seahopper was docked at Ga-Metru, when it happened.Bhukasa was just tying it to the dock.When Toggler ran out of the lower decks.Holding his weapons.His sword was held to the neck of an Ukyabha.Op’hasa.The inventor’s eyes weren’t tracking right. He looked sick.“W—”“Don’t move!” Toggler shouted. “I’m getting out of here, and right now. Don’t follow me.”“How… wait…”Toggler and his hostage walked onto the dock. Walked to the shore.Disappeared into Ga-Metru.“Wait!”Ga-Matoran ran after him.Bhukasa followed, running, and leaping.But he and the Matoran all lost Toggler’s trail.Hours later, they found Op’hasa in a park, his limbs twiching, his eyes wandering chaotically, spouting insane poetry.An hour later, someone hijacked an airship and flew out one of the tunnels to another dome.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa waited in the lobby of the Healer’s Hospital.Finally, the Le-Matoran walked out.“I’m sorry to say there’s nothing we can do,” Kewonga said. “We don’t understand the illness, except that it must be some kind of neuropoison. It’s interfering with every major brain function, especially motor control and speech. But all my attempts to heal by mask power and by herbal remedies have failed.”Bhukasa closed his eyes.He’d heard enough from the babble Op’hasa spouted while they were bringing him here to figure out what happened.Curious as ever, Op’hasa had gone to visit Toggler in jail.They had talked, and that had been that. Op’hasa had left.But then he started to go crazy. Somehow, Toggler had poisoned him. In his insanity, he actually brought Toggler’s sword to him, and the prisoner was able to free himself with the power of ice – and in thanks, take his rescuer hostage.The last time Bhukasa had been home, Toggler and his hostage must have snuck aboard, and hidden in the tech room. Op’hasa had the power to open that room – Toggler didn’t – hence the need for the hostage.After the rest of it that Bhukasa had witnessed, Toggler had probably returned to Bhukasa's island and up through the sun-hole to the ‘heavens.’This would not bode well, he thought.Bitterness tainted the thought. Bitterness at his people for causing this. Toggler had done nothing worthy of imprisonment. But he must have been willing to do this, if needed, to escape.Bitterness also at himself, for not acting to stop all of this.The one person here who had behaved like a decent person was the one paying the price for everybody else’s crimes.Toggler, too, had plenty of reason to be bitter, even furious, and he knew where the island was.Suddenly a deep longing took Bhukasa over.To return.Go home. Warn them.He stood. “Tell the others to load Ob’hasa on my ship, then, if there’s nothing you can do. Maybe my people can help.” After all, among Ob’hasa’s own many inventions had been several powerful diagnostic and curative technologies.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The smell reached Bhukasa’s nostrils before the Seahopper even entered the tunnel to his home island’s dome.Acid.No…The long minutes, crossing the length of that tunnel, were torture. Bhukasa felt a great sadness, a sorrow, welling up, as a great pressure from the sides of his heads, like he was caught in a giant metal clamp, and its screw was turning. Tightening. Tightening.There was a buzzing in his ears that did not come from the world around him.His shoulders slumped and locked in that position. His tail lowered, clunking onto the deck. His mouth hung open.He cried.There was no thought to any of his actions now. His consciousness was not engaged, as if a gear had slipped in his mind, and could not now be repaired.The scene of the steaming wasteland that now eased into view over the horizon stayed in front of his eyes even as he stood now in front of Op’hasa’s bed in one of the quarters. He did not remember walking here.But he remembered that the Seahopper had continued to sail towards the island, and he could see that nothing remained, even of the grand, strong black metal mansions in the richest sectors. The palace was gone, the rivers and canals were now drainage ditches for a bluegreen substance, the trees were piles of putrid chemical ash.Vaguely he worried about crashing into those vile shores, but now he had an image of his own body letting out the anchor, with no awareness of the action.Op’hasa looked like he was struggling to breathe. His eyes were in sync again, staring at the ceiling.Slowly, his eyes moved over to Bhukasa.“What… is it…”Bhukasa walked closer. “It’s… it’s all gone, Op’hasa. Our… home…”The inventor’s eyes now widened, teared. “Gone?”“Acid… it’s like the other places… Gar-Korr warned us… I… I failed… to…”Op’hasa tried to sit up, looking urgent. “If it’s gone, then… you must… lis…”His throat made a gurgling sound, and he coughed. “Listen! When I was gone… You must know the secret! Only you will be left!”And then, talking in a low tone, speaking quickly, before Bhukasa could react, Op’hasa told him a secret he could never have imagined, in all its complexity.There was no sudden moment when he slipped into a coma. His speech was not interrupted – he simply started talking softer and softer, until he whispered so quietly Bhukasa found himself leaned forward with his ear to the inventor’s mouth.His mind was still not in gear – he wasn’t really listening, but the imagery the words painted in his mind astounded the tiny piece of his mind that was paying attention.Bhukasa was walking out of the room, in a shock trance, and then he was looking back, and seeing that Op’hasa’s eyes were closed.This trance continued throughout the night and into the next day.Bhukasa didn’t know if he slept that night or not.He discovered that the Seahopper was nearing Metru Nui. He had no memory of sailing here.But the horrible truth was finally starting to sink in. He knew now that he would sail into Ga-Metru, and he would have to make his new home there. Ukyabha Island was gone forever.Bhukasa walked – this time intentionally, but still with the ringing in his ears, and the ever-increasing sense of immense pressure – back to Op’hasa’s bed.His heartlight was black.Dead.I’m alone.It was the first conscious thought he’d had since… the sight.The pressure mounted.And one thought came back to him, from something Op’hasa had said.“I’m sorry,” he said aloud, as if the inventor could hear him. “I wish I could carry on your duties. But I am too weak. I cannot… cannot live this way.”Bhukasa carried the inventor’s body to the top deck. Tied a weight to his feet. Threw the body overboard.Then he went down to the technological deck.Called up the map function.Moved a dot onto the screen.Then another.More.“In case an enemy ever tries to get this knowledge from you, you must use this,” Op’hasa had said.Arranged the dots in the form of a Rust Weevil.The dots flashed white.Disappeared.In their place, a symbol shaped like a Rust Weevil.Rust Weevils had a defensive venom which had the power to erase a larger being’s memory that the Weevil was there, enabling it to escape and continue using its current home.Bhukasa clicked the symbol.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Over a thousand years later, a Bhukasa much changed by his experiences read the complete Memory Stone.In the midst of the guardians, and poor Sairiph whom he’d been forced to Peddle, Bhukasa remembered all of this. Probably after seeing the whole poem be so effective the guardians had then removed the last line.Wandering back to the Seahopper, with its crew of two – himself and Toggler – Bhukasa knew he could not continue to know his past. He had erased his own memories, and it should have stayed that way.As they sailed east, towards Base Island, Bhukasa looked at Toggler as if seeing him for the first time. Somehow, Toggler must have called down that genocide upon his home island, in revenge.Bhukasa was tempted to kill Toggler then and there. Who wouldn’t be?But it would be a disgrace to the memory – unwanted though that memory may be – to abandon his morals now.So he bid his time, dodging Toggler’s questions about what happened on Memory Island, what happened to poor Sairiph, what Bhukasa’s forgotten past consisted of.Until one day, he met a violent, animalistic mutant Kriitunga who was wandering from island to island.She had a Kuamor launcher. In her cave on a lush eastern island, she had several Kuamor disguised as rocks filled with bug-ridden water. Bhukasa knew this because he and Toggler spied on her.Bhukasa came to her, and tried to trade food items for the launcher and the weapon. But she just snarled and fired at him. He ran.But as he ran, the Kuamor hit a hill nearby.What erupted from that, gave him his answer. A protocage.There’s a Kuamor of protocage power.He noted its silvery color, and determined he must get the others – which he’d seen were all of this color too.So he sent Toggler to capture her one day, while she was out fishing. He froze her instantly, then thawed just the launcher, with one Kuamor. Bhukasa told him he only needed one. “It’s for my plan to free Sairiph,” he lied.A lie was better than a murder, after all.They sailed back to Base Island, for further “preparations.”The sorrow building through all of this.Bhukasa fired the launcher. Trapped Toggler in the protocage. Got back in the Seahopper. Hopped to the east of Ga-Wahi, headed west.The sorrow building, building, building...Once more, he wiped his own memories.The last memories faded as he walked onto the top deck, after locking the hatch, and laid down. He forgot who he was, and everything else he'd ever known.The last of the sorrow faded into oblivion.But in its place rose up a mystery... and a driving urge to solve it. -----> Review here! <----- Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted September 25, 2012 Author Share Posted September 25, 2012 (edited) Chapter 50 Bhukasa looked up from the wooden floorboards, where he’d been staring as he remembered all of this.That lurking numbness, that rising sorrow, that pressure returned, and he immediately regretted remembering. Next time I should write myself a note telling myself never to remember…But that wouldn’t work, he knew.Bhukasa was made out of an insatiable curiosity. It was why twice he had left his people – the Ukyabha and later the Matoran of Mata Nui Island – to explore the enticing mystery of the ocean. It was why twice he had undone his own forgetting. Such a note would only make him even more curious, he knew.That thought loosed the floodgates to more tears. He was hopelessly ruined – he had not, in truth, escaped the genocide. He was its victim too – the poison had simply worked a lot more slowly on him.True, he would not die here, not yet, but his usefulness to anyone else was gone. He could not stay focused now. There’d been a chance, but his own curiosity had ruined it.The Jahurungi had believed otherwise.But how could Hujo know? He had been a world away, literally, and he could never really understand what it was like to be Bhukasa. Seeing through Bhukasa’s eyes did not put Hujo in his proverbial shoes.No, all those whose lives now depended on him… they would die.As if his eyes had opened for the first time in his life, he saw all the flaws in his plan.What good would it do to trap the Lone Captain in a protocage? His crew was all around, and they would win eventually. There was no escape. They would take the prison, dig it right out of the ground, and they would figure out a way to free him. All this would come to nothing.Toggler knows I know… he suddenly thought.Bhukasa looked up.The titan had drawn his sword.Bhukasa lunged.Yanked the sword away with his super strength, whirling and slapping Toggler with his tail to knock him away.Due to the weight difference, Bhukasa only succeeded in knocking himself away.But he had the sword.Stood. Pointed, feeling the power of ice now in his hand.Toggler looked sad, disappointed. “Did you not see my memories? I know Hujo gave them to you. It was not your fault – it was not mine either. It was… his.”Bhukasa’s lips curled in a half-snarl. How dare this monster try to shift blame… He had escaped, and then the end had come. He HAD to be to blame.And who was this ‘him’?Bhukasa looked at the sword.I don’t need Toggler to make a protocage.But he couldn’t do it. What if the Seahopper fell? Only friction held it up between those two trees. It would fall soon, and then the frozen Toggler might shatter. This could turn into murder. Revenge-killing.He lowered the sword slightly.Fear churned through his heart now. Should he look into Toggler’s memories? What good would it do? So far remembering had always ruined him.But then, so had forgetting.So he looked.Saw Toggler, on an island where a mysterious cold energy field spread even down to the ocean.In the lowlands, where it was warmer, Toggler’s people lived.Higher up, along a mountainous ridge, it got colder. Toggler had once visited the highest point you could stand on, a little clearing surrounded by peaks spiking out of fog, with an ice-cave – the coldest and most dangerous place on the island, due to its elevation.There, a Kuambu had captured him.Thrown him into the ice-cave’s deep end.Toggler knew it was a Kuambu because, when he stared in amazement at the being’s strange shape, and asked what it was, the red being proudly declared its species name.“What do you want?” Toggler had asked.“I want to kill you,” the Kuambu said.Toggler was speechless.“Or.”Toggler could only listen.“You will find another island, a land of reptilians in snow, who alone can control the black metal. It lies below. Some believe it is directly beneath this island. But we Kuambu do not go down there unless we have no choice. You must find it. Then return here.”The red Kuambu pointed to a device mounted in the wall. “This is motion-triggered. When you return to this room, whenever you do, it will send a signal to me. Then I will come.”“W… Why?”“You WILL come back here. No matter what. It shall be seen to. If you have not found the island, then when you come here, I will kill you. But if you have found it, simply then tell me its location. It will be verified, and if you spoke truthfully, you will be merely taken to one of our prisons.”“I thought Kuambu didn’t kill?”“I am not like my brethren. They do not know.”This was a serial killer, Toggler realized. As a guard of his people, he was certainly aware of the threat of the Kuambu and of what little else was known about them besides their name. He wondered what rank this one had, and how many others he had killed.He wondered briefly what this ‘black metal’ was, but figured he was going to find out.“How can an island… lie below?”“Scrape away the snow beneath you.”Toggler did.The surface below was not ice – it was glassy, and he thought he could see far below, but blurrily. He’d heard about these on other islands.“That is a sun-hole,” the Kuambu said. “You will understand when you go down. I know how to open it, and I will once we are agreed.”The enemy now held up Toggler’s sword. “Use this to get down, by making a spiral staircase-column, like the one I secretly witnessed you making to climb that cliff last month.”“You’ve been watching me?”“Indeed – and I’ve seen that you are the best of the best of your people. Oh, and in case the people of that island turn out not to be so friendly, take this.”He held up a tiny glass cube. “It will attach to your chest as if glued. When you need to activate it, focus mentally very hard on it, and upon whom it should attack.”“What is it?”“A weapon, and a very expensive one, might I add.”– Now, as Bhukasa saw this memory, he thought, So the Kuambu made this… or did they? They don’t seem advanced enough. Did this one – the Lone Captain, he now realized with a shudder – buy it from some more powerful enemy? –The Kuambu tossed the tiny cube to Toggler, who put it over his heartlight, where it appeared to be merely the surface of the heartlight.“Remember, come back here with the location – I don’t care how long it takes – or you will die. Even if you somehow avoid coming back here, though I’ve been assured you can’t, you WILL die. So be smart, and find the island.”Toggler didn’t answer. He didn’t know what to say.The Kuambu shot a clear Kuamor at his head. His memory of the Kuambu’s appearance started to fade, even as the enemy still stood above him.“Who are you?” he asked, baffled.The enemy loaded a purple Kuamor, and aimed the launcher at itself. “That is not for you to know.”He seemed to press a button on some device Toggler couldn't see from his angle, and the glasslike floor below him slowly slid aside.Then the Captain tossed the sword in the air so Toggler would catch it.Fired the Kuamor. Flashed purple. Disappeared.Now Bhukasa saw the rest of Toggler’s memories go by quickly. Fearing to do anything else, Toggler descended to Ukyabha Island. Fearing to remain in captivity, lest killers somehow strike him even there, when Op’hasa came to talk, he focused, and something very tiny shattered the little glass cube, and apparently infected Op’hasa.Something Bhukasa now realized was Haywire – and Krutuska had lied about that cold island. It was Toggler’s people’s home. He was a little confused how the airship could get through such a small sunhole, but then maybe the hole wasn't as small as the crack in the ice, and Toggler did have ice powers. But now...Oh, no.Toggler might be guilty – Bhukasa now watched him land the airship on his own island, and go back to that cave. He awaited the Lone Captain, who came, and told him the location. But Toggler didn’t know what would happen to Ukyabha Island. He only knew that he had to do that, or die.Krutuska didn’t know or care about these things.But she had just unleashed Haywire among Toggler’s people, in revenge for Toggler stealing her Kuamor launcher. Apparently her island had been destroyed by acid too, though she had been elsewhere at the time and Bhukasa was pretty sure nobody else lived there – but she might blame Toggler for that too. And who's fault was that?Mine. I told Toggler to steal the launcher.The mysterious forces she’d told the ferry crew about, and which he’d heard about through Tahu, were a fabrication, an excuse to hide from them the truth of what she was doing.And in payment, she asked only for another launcher, to replace the one Toggler – but really Bhukasa – had stolen.Bhukasa made a mental note to tell Tahu when next he checked in, although he wasn't sure it would be wise for Tahu to tell the ferry crew. Krutuska might get dangerously violent if she was put on the spot.But his focus was on the question of guilt here.It was not Bhukasa's fault.It wasn’t Toggler’s fault.It was the Lone Captain’s fault.Hadn’t he always known it? In his heart, he had. The Lone Captain had taken a special interest in Bhukasa from the beginning.And then Bhukasa saw what Hujo had seen.The sight made his jaw drop. The whole puzzle was solved.It was so simple, so complex, so obvious, so impossible…The Kuambu had known. They must have assigned the Lone Captain to figure out how to control this. But the others hadn’t known to what depths he would sink to win.He lowered the sword. “I see it.”Toggler sighed in relief. “I’m so sorry, Bhukasa. I should have rotted in that prison. Or refused to tell him the location, accepted death. I should have realized.”“He would have just recruited another, eventually. No. You did what any sensible person would.”“Then I wish I wasn’t sensible.”Bhukasa shook his head, thinking of Op’hasa’s insanity, which had been just as much a catalyst of this as Toggler’s sanity.He handed the titan back his sword. “No, the answer is to end this, now. We have to stop him… and… we have to make the others see.”Toggler slung the sword over his back. Nodded grimly. “But didn’t they all see him try to sink us?”“I think he must have concocted some convincing lie about that, that he knew I would seahop. They have never seen clear proof, and he is their Captain, after all.”“You sound like you have a plan.”Bhukasa wanted to shrug. But the pressure changed everything – that felt disrespectful now. Most of how he normally behaved felt that way – like he lived in constant irreverence of the legacy of his people, of his royal status, of the seriousness of their deaths.“I… I think I have an idea. But we must hurry.”They turned to head back to the ladder.Then both of them saw it.The hatch lid, which was still open, rested in a diagonal-upright position while open.The top of the lid faced forward, where they now stood .Displayed a blue symbol. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lewa found the physical power of the Exo-Toa suit exhilarating.The Bahrag were in pure survival mode now, firing elemental power after power at him, but he was leaping, rolling, dodging, blasting electrical rockets at incoming projectiles of ice and rock – and on top of all this, both his own air power and his borrowed Earth power were amplified.Now Tahu came.Now Kopaka.Now the others.This was it. They were here. All six, ready for a protocage.No time to waste.Lewa raised the robotic claw now holding his axe. Tahu and Kopaka, their swords, Gali, her hooks, and Pohatu raised his hands. Onua held up his one remaining claw weapon.Six streams of elemental energy streamed out.Merged.Converged.A single beam hit the closest Bahrag. The light cascaded around her and enveloped the other as well.Formed a sphere.The sphere expanded.Reached almost to them.Lewa lowered his hand. Wait…This had been too easy. Something else was supposed to happen…But how could I know?With no idea why, he looked down in fear at his feet. Moved aside.“What’s wrong?” Gali asked.“I… I don’t know… But something… was supposed to happen…”They stared at him for a moment. Then almost as one, they turned and looked out upon the battlefield.It was over.Bohrok were retreating – those who still had Krana. The others stood there, as if awaiting orders. The few Le-Matoran who hadn’t been de-Kranaed yet reached up and took their ‘forebrains’ off willingly.It was over.Then Lewa looked at Tahu. “The Hole.”Tahu nodded, and called Niaka – from their last conversation, she would be best able to see.It was over.But it should NOT have been over yet! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Apax maneuvered into the hole in the roof-cage it had just finished blasting.Gar-Korr was busy running all over the ship, signing orders quickly. The ship turned, headed towards the smoking Kuambu wreck. Rather, towards the Machine between them and the ship.They were low over the jungle, to line up their cannons to fire.Niaka had noticed Hafu and Akohre whispering to themselves for the past few minutes. She watched Akohre glance towards the tablet, which Gar-Korr had left sitting out.Suddenly, before she could decide what to do about it, the two Matoran lunged forward.Akohre went for the tablet.Hafu went for one of the hovering devices.Akohre grabbed the tablet.Gar-Korr saw them, signed, but nobody was looking at him – they were busy lining up the cannons. The Captain ran after them.Hafu grabbed the device, found the on-switch, and hovered, as Akohre grabbed his arm.They flew overboard. Down into the jungle.“Hey!” Loot shouted.He ran towards another device.“No!” Niaka said, standing up. “Let them go! That tablet was not yours to see anyways! It belongs to Ahurahn. And we’re needed over there!”Gar-Korr stared at her.Green stood up too. “She’s right. You said you’d reformed. Stand down.” He was speaking to Gar-Korr, but his words were meant more for Loot, who had the device ready and hovering, awaiting the order to chase.Khungakrii agreed. “The little ones have made a foolish move, but we must focus on the task at hand, lest we be caught in their folly also.”Gar-Korr waved a hand dismissively, meaning, “Fine,” to Loot’s obvious dismay.Then Tahu’s voice came. “The Bohrok?”Niaka looked behind them.Thousands of little spheres were flying up from the Hole, visible only as silhouettes through the rain. “They’re leaving!”“Can you see the trench?”“No… I…”Just then, she caught a glimpse of something flying down, not up.It was… Hujo? Yes! Hujo, in his suit. He had flickered visible for a moment, made eye contact with Niaka, and disappeared.“Call Hujo!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rathoa surveyed the scene of the finished battle.They had won.But who the ‘they’ was, he was not sure.After all, it was he who had unleashed the Bohrok.But the cost of the drowning of every soul in the Matoran Universe – that was certainly never a price he wanted to pay for a minor distraction of the Toa here on this little island. No. It had been a profound mistake, and now he had helped correct it.It was something, a flailing thread of hope his mind desperately grabbed onto, justifying his tri-fold betrayal, of Turaga, then Makuta, and now of Nhayaka. It also helped justify what he knew he would do at some point.Because, sure, he had promised to help Onua stop Teridax from escaping. And he would. It would be foolish to distract from that mission by also fighting the Toa now.But the enemy of his enemy was his enemy.He entertained no illusions that he was back on the Toa’s side – or the Turaga’s – or the Unknown’s.I hate where I stand now.Hadn’t he just failed twice, and wasn’t he stuck dealing with the circumstances?He’d failed to properly end the life of Makuta and take over the Brotherhood, and his awakening of the Bohrok had come to naught as well. He scowled. This was not how his life was supposed to go. He knew he had it in him to succeed.Maybe the problem was that he hadn’t yet found His Task.Well, then, I shall make finding that task my goal from now on.That, too, was a promise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo heard Tahu’s question, and knew his hint to Niaka had worked.“I’m entering the trench now.”It was remarkably similar to the Ninakorr trench, only without water or any sign of animal life – except for the Krulak monsters which were scrambling frantically up the side of the pillar island. Something had them terrified.He flew down through the narrow, rough-hewn canyon, focused on keeping his composure and thus his control no matter what he would see.Flew faster than the heavy rain, so it seemed to rain up.The walls darkened, darkened, darkened.Ahead, he saw only blackness.Then light.No…Brighter light. Blue light.Dancing blue light reflecting off of water.Region of light grew. Rain flew up.He slowed, letting the rain catch up. Stared.At a gash in the tunnel to Metru Nui, reaching all the way down both sides.It was cut.A curtain of rain walled off the entire width of the tunnel.It was with a wobbling voice – and a wobbling flight – that he reported, “You were too late.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa had no memory of the symbol atop the hatch’s lid.It was blue, shaped like a hemisphere, the flat side down, with the curved upper side rippling like waves. A smaller image of the front-view of a sailing ship was ‘floating’ in the water, with the sail up, and oars sticking out both sides.Had the chronoserum done this?No.He vaguely remembered one time when Op’hasa had talked about the workings of the canalhopping technology, when Bhukasa had tuned him out to work. He’d mentioned that if a boat beached, there was a safeguard power to enable it to get back to the water.He also remembered hearing Kud’hasha once talk about an accident where just such a thing happened, and the safeguard had worked.Aimed a beam.Clicked.Saw yellow light from outside. Heard the rain splashing loudly in water.Ran to an oar window.A wall of golden light had appeared around the boat, and air inside it was turning to water!He ran back to the hatch, and closed it. Heard it lock. Now that room would ensure the Seahopper floated.“Come on!”He and Toggler raced up the ladder. Onto the top deck, where the crew peered over the side and exclaimed their surprise.But the boat was still suspended above this water by the two trees.He looked off the port side.There it was – the Apax.He raced up the steps to the wheel, where he’d be easy to spot – Maku moved aside. Bhukasa waved at the Apax, motioning – in a sign language so basic everyone knew it – to come here. Fast.The Apax had been firing at the Kuambu machine, which was just now circling into view behind the big ship. But the explosions didn’t even touch it, due to the slime.Now the pirates gave up and flew quickly towards him.Green appeared in the sky, hovering with one of the little devices.Krohlaba and the Kriitunga King hovered behind him. The Kriitunga in his crew cheered, but he noticed some looked uneasy. Their King was not supposed to be putting himself at risk like this.Behind them came Gar-Korr and Pulsar.They all landed, and the three who’d hitched a ride handed back the hoverers to their owners.“Kriitunga!” Bhukasa shouted. “I need you all to man the oars!”Khungakrii stepped forward. “I’ll handle coordination.” The Kriitunga followed him belowdecks.Now he turned to Green. “We need a little help with the foliage.” He gestured at the trees.As the Toa of Plants turned to work on that – and eagerly greeted his presumed-lost friends, Gar-Korr stepped up to sign. Pulsar followed to translate.“We will now bring back the Matoran to you,” Gar-Korr said. “But know that two ran away – we did nothing to them. You of all know that is not my way.”“I know. I must say, I didn’t think you’d become pirates…”Gar-Korr shrugged. “Perhaps facing such wide-scale ruin changes a person. Corrupts them.” He looked seriously at Bhukasa. “They say you can stop such a disaster now. Do not lose heart. Don’t find yourself in our position.”“I…”He didn’t know what to say. Gar-Korr nodded goodbye and hovered away.Bhukasa watched Green making a huge hammock of vines, attached to the two trees, and slung under the boat.Soon the boat shook, as Green gently moved the trees apart, and made the vines grow longer, lowering it into the water.Gar-Korr, Pulsar, Loot, and Uxxako landed, each carrying a Matoran – Midak, Niaka, Kewonga, and the unconscious Vamuka.Tahu’s voice came then, bearing the bad news.“It’s all up to you now, Bhukasa.”He watched grimly as the Lone Captain’s machine plowed its way closer. The incoming fire from the other Kuambu had disappeared – apparently they had retreated far into the jungle to watch.At least he hoped they were watching – if so, it meant the Captain couldn’t kill anyone. If not…The Seahopper eased gently into the water. The vines shrunk and disappeared. He felt the gentle rolling motion that meant it was floating.Bhukasa waved Green over. “You need to have all the same instructions as Maku here, my first officer.”He pointed the machine out to Maku – she hadn’t noticed it yet, and gaped in amazement and fear. “It’s coming around their ship that way. So go the other way. Steer close to the Kuambu ship, and await us at the other side.”Anticipating her customary and sensible question, he pointed to the Toa of Water, of Air, of Fire, and Magnetism. “I need you four, and Toggler. We’re going back in the Kuambu ship.”“But it’s a death trap!” Maku objected.“Not with their powers,” he said. “Water to put out fire as we go, Fire to absorb fire too, Air so we can breathe, and Ice to brace up any falling rafters.”“What about me?” the Toa of Magnetism asked.“I need you to sense any remains of metal for me.”He pointed at the Toa’s face. “That is a Kiril, is it not?”“Mask of Regeneration, yes.”“We’ll need that power too.”He looked at Takua. “Tell the Kriitunga to start rowing.”“Yes, sir.”“Green, make sure the trees stay out of our way.”The Toa nodded – he was already on it. A path was opening ahead of them, as tree roots wiggled and burrowed, moving the trees aside.The oars dug. The boat inched forward, turning away from the burning wreck ahead.“If we don’t meet you on the other side, continue toward the exit. I’ll meet you there.”Maku nodded.He caught Niaka staring at him. She looked like she desperately wanted to say something, but she couldn’t figure out where to start.The sorrow had been building, the pressure tightening, through all this. He hadn’t once forgotten it.The sight of his island reduced to nothing but earth, as repulsive as Crazolga slime.The symbol of the Weevil.But the only function working right now is the safeguard.He met Niaka’s eyes.Everything about her now shouted what she wanted to say, but couldn’t bring herself to. She was desperate to understand what he was going through, so that she could tell him something, anything to help.The pressure.But then, he realized something he had never considered before.Although what he had suffered was worse than anyone here, other than ‘Sage’ aboard the Apax perhaps, it was but one kind of tragedy in this universe.What was it like to be Niaka?What would he have said to her, if she had still been stuck in her evil ways, to help her see the light?He didn’t know, and that struck him as the saddest thought of all.But this was a different sadness, somehow. Here she was, reformed. She had beaten her trial. It couldn’t have been easy, but it had happened.How, he couldn’t understand.But the fact that it had… That gave him immeasurable hope.And now he smiled, as he felt the pressure turning, redirecting, channeling to where he wanted it to go instead of crushing him. The smile was the most sincere he remembered ever smiling in his entire life.The sorrow did not fade.It only became stronger than ever before. The dam burst on it, and it flooded his mind. The full weight of it rode up and balanced on his shoulders, and he found that he could straighten his back and carry it.He didn’t know what had happened, but something profound had changed.Crashing sounds.Time shrinking.Focused.“Come,” he said to those he’d pointed out.Green created a wide bridge of wood for them. As the Seahopper rowed next to it, they all jumped off, and ran over the golden wall.Down the bridge.And into fire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tahu checked in briefly with the Turaga and the villages – something he’d been neglecting lately.All was well there…Until he got to Ko-Koro.“Matoro?”Nothing.“Kopeke?”Nothing.They all looked at Kopaka.“The Bohrok?” he wondered. “But…”“No,” Tahu thought aloud. “The Kuambu.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mukana was looking at the other Rahunga with him there – former Rahunga, that is – and grinning.Helping to free the Le-Matoran had felt so good, considering how he had once betrayed their side.But his eyes now fell on the Toa. They looked deeply concerned. Something was wrong. Kopaka especially looked worried.Kopaka looking anything other than cool and collected was considered impossible.Shouts.Movement behind the Toa.Flying spheres of light.Kuamor.An army of beings raced into view.His eyes widened. Are these… Kuambu?!Their shape was so weird, he knew it had to be. He’d half wondered if Kuambu were just Matoran, like Rahunga – it would provide a good reason to keep their appearances secret. But these were clearly not Matoran.But what else he noticed about their shape, he knew he was about to forget.Because this looked like almost every Kuambu from the entire fleet, anchored not far to the south. They far, far outnumbered everybody here.The Toa put up a quick but futile fight.They fell, unconscious.Mukana shouted at the other Rahunga. “Flee!”They turned north.Only to see another army coming in that way.“West!”Another.East – another.They were surrounded. No way out but down or up, and no way to dig or fly that fast.People fell all around him. None died – but all were defeated.He looked back at the Toa.Six Kuambu stood over them, holding out what looked like small lanterns, mostly enclosed, but with a little round metal hatch swung open. A beam of sparkling blue light radiated from this window, shining upon the Toa.The six heroes changed shape before Mukana’s eyes. His jaw dropped.More Kuambu came up, holding what looked like Btou staffs and Stones of Permanence.Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rah-Makuta Rathoa fall.Then a Kuamor hit Mukana and all went black. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nixie flew the ferry over Memory Island.The route had taken them all the way around what Hujo described to Tahu as a vast almost island-free region of ocean to Mata Nui’s south, and then around Mata Nui.All CHECKs had flashed red, except one on a grassy island that displayed a red question mark. Nobody knew what to make of that – except that they figured the cube didn’t know what to make of something either. With no clue where to look for anything, they flew on.Nothing on Memory Island. Thankfully…And over the ocean, now towards ‘Base Island’.She noticed Krutuska looked uneasy. She figured it was because they’d soon be coming to the Hole, where the Kuambu were. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa followed the Toa through the flaming inferno.That is, everything was an inferno until they got near.Then the shining orange flux puffed out, the rolling blackness blew away, and the charred remains of wood were encased in ice.“Anything?” he asked the Toa of Magnetism.“I sense metal all over the place, but especially this way,” he said, pointing. “The traces this way are stranger than anything else.”A ceiling caved in just to their left, showering them with glowing ash and smoke. Wind blasted it away.“Hurry,” Toggler advised.Finally they reached the room near the stern of the ship where the magnetism was strongest.Bhukasa saw many small rectangular formations in the ash – probably more cards like the one the Poetraxiens Memory had been on. In front of them, a half-collapsed rectangular shape looked like it had been a desk.On the desk was a melted mix of metal and vile-smelling oozing melted chemicals.The Toa of Magnetism stepped towards it, focusing the power of his Kiril on it.The chemicals reversed, changed colors, un-reacted. The metal un-melted. Reformed, while the chemicals slid back in the gaps of the reforming pieces, until they were all in, and the gaps closed.The chemicals were all metallic and volatile, but in low amounts – they reacted electromagnetically to light itself. Photosensitive. Arranged in countless slides.The apparatus in front of them was a crude video camera.A camerati.For if the Poetraxiens had been written by Kuambu – who they already knew had a poetric streak – then the objects used as metaphors in the Poetraxiens Memory must be part of the Kuambu repertoire of technology.And here was proof.Bhukasa hoped it was proof of something more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------CHECK.There was something here.Udmijok followed the blue arrow until they found a tiny black gash in the earth, hidden behind some bushes. Like the other caves they already knew of on Base Island, it was unlikely anyone would find it unless they knew where to look.Azh’yuuros burnt a hole in the ground, and Udmijok controlled its destiny to land everywhere except on top of the Unknown object.He climbed through the enlarged hole.The object was a tablet.He picked it up and carried it out.It appeared to be blank. Odd.Just then, he noticed a glint further back in the cave.Glanced at the cube. The arrow was still pointing at the cave, not at the tablet. Apparently it was just a spare tablet, of no value.He went back down.Was that… a Kuamor launcher?It was!He carried it out, and they went back to the ferry.“Mine!” Krutuska cried as soon as she saw the launcher. “Stolen! But here!”Udmijok frowned. “This was yours?”“Yes! The… Someone… stole it!”“Who?”She looked even more nervous than she had before. “It’s mine. Give it to me. Keep your launchers. Fair price.”He looked at the others. Nixie shrugged. The other guards gave no hint of an opinion – Udmijok was the ranking officer here.Azh’yuuros was strongly against it. “We have an agreement. We’ll stick to it. How do we know this is really yours, and not the Unknown’s?”“It IS! It IS!”“But you said that about this,” he said, tapping the hovering device. “And the cube was pointing at this.”Suddenly, Udmijok thought he saw motion.Glanced down.The tablet.Words had appeared on the tablet.“Let her have it.”He took a step back in surprise.“What?” the blue giant asked.Shakily, he held the tablet up so the Glatorian could read it.His mouth parted.Showed Nixie.“Wow…”“Whose mind caused it to say that?” Azh’yuuros wondered suspiciously.“What?” Krutuska asked.Reluctantly, he showed it to her.“There you go! Unknown tablet, right? Magic tablet says it’s mine. Give!”Nobody said anything for a while.“GIVE!”She looked ready to get violent. Udmijok didn’t want to deal with it. And nobody was eager to decide for him.“Fine.” He handed it to her.She grabbed it, and ran away through the palm trees as if a deadly predator was chasing her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa and the others raced out of the burning ship, even as huge sections collapsed.There was the Seahopper, waiting. The Machine was right on their tail.Green saw them and made another bridge.They clamored aboard.“Takua!” Bhukasa shouted. “Watch every video on here and tell me if anything incriminates the Lone Captain!” He’d seen enough on the way to be sure it was a video diary of the Captain’s whole life.“Yes, sir!”Bhukasa gathered the others on the helm deck. They could see the Captain atop his machine, the same look of grim, super-focused determination on his face. And now, Bhukasa realized, there was an undercurrent of fury.He looked back to Takua, following a hunch. “Do you see any footage of that ship traveling with other ships?”“Not yet.”The sadness was here, as all this happened. Building, and though Bhukasa was channeling it away from being a crushing pressure, he did not understand. That ignorance threatened to let loose the whole weight – the Price of the deaths of a whole people – on his brain.Understanding or not, he knew he’d feel a planet’s weight’s worth better if he could stop that Captain.“Toa,” he said, grimly, “and Toggler… Fire.”They all moved into position.Six streams of elemental energy flew out...“Yes!” Takua said. “He was once in charge of a group of five ships. His rank was Commodore, higher than Captain!”The beams converged into one...Bhukasa was surprised. Apparently the Kuambu didn’t just rise in rank – there was such a thing as a demotion.“Why was he demoted?”“Working on it.”The beams bounced off the repulsive effect.Dissipated into the air.“NO!” he shouted at the slime, as if that would do any good.“We have to get him off it,” Toggler observed.Bhukasa looked at him.Vaguely he heard Takua say that the Captain knew of Bhukasa. How could he? Toggler didn’t tell him.“The Kuambu assigned him to capture you long ago!” Takua was saying. “Or one of your species. He failed! And for it he was demoted. Even though he later captured you, they judged him unworthy of a return to the higher rank.”The truth dawned on Bhukasa then, finally.They knew.About the acid.They knew how he’d done it.But HE had not done the killing.He’d been too careful. Someone else, someone yet to be discovered, had done it for him.So they didn’t imprison him. They only demoted him.But he would never rise in rank again. He was virtually exiled – that had to explain why it was the Lone Ship. The ONLY Lone Ship. The others moved in groups of five at the smallest.He must be the very definition of bitter, Bhukasa thought.He wants to kill me for revenge.Takua would not find anything incriminating on that Camerati. The enemy was too careful.Finally, Bhukasa knew what he must do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nixie flew the ferry over the Hole.It looked just as Tahu had described. The island inside it looked like the pillar islands they had encountered consistently on their somewhat circular journey. And they did not seem to be anywhere else, she thought. All together, they seemed to form a dotted line around a humanoid shape.CHECKed.Yellow arrow. Rapidly flashing.Weird.“What’s that mean?” Knife-Tail wondered.“Let’s find out!”They followed the arrow. It took them over the new trench.Then a strange symbol they hadn’t seen before appeared – a circle starting large and getting small, with an arrow pointing into the center.“Could that mean… go down?” Azh’yuuros asked.Nixie thought she saw motion out of the corner of her eye.Knife-Tail held up the tablet, grinning. “It says yes!”So down they flew. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa stared at the machine. There had to be a way to disable it, make it worthless to the enemy.He watched as bombs fell from a huge vat into a pressure chamber. Each exploded on impact, forcing a piston out, which was springloaded to return. This triggered another system which let the next bomb fall.“Hit the vat,” he said, pointing at the Toa of Fire.The Toa tried.Repulsed.“Come on!” He studied harder. There had to be an explanation. This was a duel, not a slaughter. How would Op’hasa think?Suddenly he remembered something the inventor had mentioned in passing long ago.There’s no such thing as a self-contained energy source. Power must be brought in from outside the system.How were there still so many bombs? Were they being replenished? By the chronoserum, perhaps?No, he decided. The amount was going down. But there were enough bombs to power the machine long enough to delay them, while the clock ran out on the wall holding back the ocean. Still, it seemed like the bombs should have to be spent faster than they were to power this...Then he noticed something else.As he noticed, the sorrow threatened to break loose from his channeling, tear him apart inside.He focused on the image in his mind of Niaka, struggling for words. That image gave him strength.Finally, he understood what he was seeing in the machine, and he knew instantly why it was there.A metaphor the duel had made real.A metaphor for how he should be.How he was not.Like the torrent of rain around him, Bhukasa’s mind was under a deluge of sorrow, like a rainstorm of tears. He listened to the sorrow as a description of who he was – that he was a failure, and doomed to cause death all around him. And what was really sad to him wasn’t so much that he CAUSED it, but that he could do NOTHING to stop it, any more than he could stop the rain.The rain was an obscuring fog.But that very rain powered this machine.There was a simple wheel inside the machine, right in front of the Kuambu, with wide metal bowls affixed to it. As the rain fell, it turned the wheel. Powering the bomb-dropping mechanism – the bombs did not actually power that. That enabled all the power of the bombs to go to the blade-roller, which it needed to topple those big trees.The sorrow doesn’t have to hold me back. It should MOTIVATE me.Finally, he understood the channeling of the pressure in his soul. He understood why the image of Niaka struggling for words moved him so. Why he could now carry the burden of the sorrow.He turned to the Toa of Water. “Block all rain over that machine.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo could see the hovering ferry, even though it was invisible, just as he’d been able to see Caroha.They flew down into the tunnel. Flew towards Metru Nui.To the other side.A beam of energy shot out of the cube at the Great Barrier.From the side, Hujo saw a huge black metal door sliding into position.It closed, locking the ferry in the Metru Nui dome.Ah… it wasn’t all up to Bhukasa after all, the Jahurungi realized. The ferry’s mission had really been this all along, to close the door Bhukasa couldn’t reach.The object collection was just to find things they needed to speed the mission up. Quite likely none of those objects had actually randomly teleported there – the Unknown could have planted them. Likely some Unknown had already CHECKED some of the lands at the end and replaced them with things the ferry's crew needed, he thought, but they left the earlier islands to the crew.Plus, the round trip around the pillar islands had made sure that only this one had a Hole active, so it was only here the Bohrok came to cut.But the Matoran Universe was not safe. The water would flow easily into the rest of the Matoran Universe, including eventually Metru Nui by a different route.The other door had to close.Only Bhukasa could get to those controls in time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The machine ground to a halt.No more bombs fell.The Apax obviously understood – they moved over the machine and served as a physical umbrella in addition to the Ga-Toa’s elemental absorption effect.The Kuambu Captain looked furious.Bhukasa shouted back at him. “I know why you hate me! Why you want to stop me! Well, now’s your chance, because I’m going for the exit! I can lock you in here! Lock out control, so only I have control!”The enemy looked like this hadn’t dawned on him.Shock spread across his blurred face – though as Bhukasa ‘remembered’ this he couldn’t quite understand how he could see this and yet not see the face itself.Shock turned to fury. Pure, murderous fury.“You want to kill me, don’t you?” Bhukasa shouted.“YES!” the Captain screamed at him.His voice echoed through the jungle.To all ears.The Captain crouched a little, a look of fear on his face then. He realized what in his uncontrolled fury he had just done.“Does your crew know what you’re trying to allow? What will happen if I don’t lower this island?”He saw in the Kuambu’s face that they didn’t.“He’s a murderer!” Bhukasa shouted. “You know he caused the deaths of my people, well NOW HE WANTS TO FLOOD THE ENTIRE MATORAN UNIVERSE!”He faced the Kuambu captain, whose mouth was moving, but no words came out.“I’m going to stop it. If you wanna stop me, you’ll have to kill me yourself.”With that, he leaped into the jungle, and ran as fast as he could for the exit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Niaka watched as the Lone Captain chased in a wild rage after Bhukasa, leaping off the Machine.Six beams of elemental energy flew.She turned away as the cage appeared.Niaka knew what it was like to give in to that kind of rage. She shuddered at how it looked, when you saw it in someone else.And what good did it do him in the end?Nothing.She looked back.Other Kuambu had walked out of the jungle.They carried what looked like spray cans.Sprayed black paint on the protocage. Obscuring its prisoner. It hardened almost instantly, protected from the rain by the Apax above. Then they applied a clear slime to it.They fired clear – memory-blurring – Kuamor at everyone on the ship, and at the Apax. Nothing else – not even stun.And left.Then the island shook. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo cheered as the door started coming down. Flew below it to the dome beyond, before he would be trapped in the flood. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bhukasa watched the island lower to ocean level. Knew that as it came down, the door beneath was also lowering, sealing the tunnel.The roof-cage disappeared. He happened to be looking right at it as it did – there was no flash, no fade, no effect at all except that it simply disappeared.The duel was over.The sorrow was still with him.But as the island clicked into place at sea level and fell still, he finally understood.There were two kinds of sorrow. The kind he’d suffered under before, and this kind, a transformed sorrow. A sadness that would never leave him – a sadness that he welcomed because it reminded him, in the most serious way possible, why he must never give up.As the golden wall disappeared and the ocean rushed in to fill the void, Bhukasa cried again.This time, they were tears of joy. -----> Review here! <----- Edited September 25, 2012 by bonesiii Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonesiii Posted September 26, 2012 Author Share Posted September 26, 2012 Epilogue Bhukasa watched, alone in the jungle, as the Apax lifted the Seahopper into the air.The roof-cage was gone, and the Seahopper had its safeguard, but the safeguard couldn’t lift the boat over the outer walls. He smelled smoke, though from here he couldn’t see the raging fire.He was standing right where he had been in the vision… or whatever it was.He expected himself to suddenly fall over, but it didn’t happen.Chronoserum, he thought, shaking his head. Maybe someday Hujo would solve its mysteries. Nobody else had a chance, he sensed.Bhukasa turned around.There was the black-painted protocage.He felt no happiness for bringing this about. All he felt was a sadness, a pity of this Kuambu at how far he had fallen.But he had to wonder – how far exactly had he fallen from what the Kuambu as a people were willing to do? It said something that they hadn’t exacted their ultimate punishment – which, he concluded, was this very thing – even though they knew he’d been involved with the genocide of the Ukyabha.And why acid? Where did that come from? Had it kept happening through the later centuries and millenia? Was it still happening today? It couldn't happen as often – or else nothing would be left.But he didn’t have answers to those questions.Jahurungi, he thought.Bhukasa felt a tinge of regret that he hadn’t been able to accomplish more of his task, to uncover the mysteries of the Kuambu.When it came right down to it, he still knew virtually nothing about them themselves. He’d gotten a glimpse into a culture that was paradoxically primitive and advanced, but this just made the question even more muddled. And all of it was like the Kuamor spheres – things they collected, things they built, things they did, but nothing about THEM.Maybe it was just too big a task for me.But there would be time to learn more.Or… so he hoped.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Niaka watched as the Apax took its ropes back up. The Seahopper was back in the ocean where it belonged, and the airship was moving away.She wondered what the reward Ahurahn was going to give them was.But she’d probably never know.Bhukasa exited the prison – she saw that since the way out at the bottom of the spiral tunnel was now obviously blocked, another doorway had slid aside between the two black metal doors that led into the spiral ramp area; between the two halves of the prison. A forcefield blocked this door, until Bhukasa disabled it.The crew cheered wildly as their Captain leaped into the air and landed near their boat. Then even louder as he climbed aboard.Bhukasa looked awkward, even sheepish.He made eye contact with her. She nodded. There was no need to say anything. She smiled.Bhukasa went up to the helm and started giving orders for a heading to Ga-Koro. Niaka looked forward to returning.Suddenly, Ito appeared in front of her.He held two masks, both shaped like Noble Huna. He had commanded some of the rahudermis in one of the masks to leak out a little and coat its surface.Her old Rah-Kanohi!And in the other hand, a normal Matoran Kanohi, from the spares at Kini-Nui.She reached out.All that power. Now in her reach again. Freely held out for her to take. For she had proven herself.She took the Matoran Huna.Powerless, by conventional wisdom.But she knew it had a power Makuta would never understand. The symbolic power of true friendship. She grinned.Ito said nothing – he just grinned back.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Krohlaba raced up the Kriitunga Island river in the Ga-Koro boat.His suspicion had formed in the moments after it was all over.Khungakrii had performed valiantly, calling orders for the rowers, as the final battle had ensued.It had ended.The Kriitunga had cheered at the news, and ran up the ladder to see it all.They’d been hit by Kuamor of memory blurring as they came. Krohlaba included.He had looked up. Seen the roof-cage still there.Blinked.And it was gone.It wasn’t until several minutes later, well after Bhukasa was back aboard, that his suspicion formed. He had looked around, and asked, “Where is the King?”Nobody knew. They all looked. Nobody could find him. One second, he was there, the next, he was gone.Now a roof-cage eased into view.It was back, here on Kriitunga Island where it had been built, with the hole sealed and slimed as if it had never been harmed at all.He rammed the boat into the earthen shore and ran pell-mell through the trees.Up to the side.There he was. Krohlaba’s heart fell, and he felt sick. The single worst thing that could happen to his island right now.There was King Khungakrii.In the inescapable prison.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kuhauha saw Akohre and Hafu running through the jungle, and waved them over.Akohre carried a strange-looking tablet.Earlier, Kuhauha had encountered R’yn – she hadn’t tried to kill him. Instead, she’d talked to him, curious about what was going on, and apologized for her behavior earlier. “I… I couldn’t remember who I was. I thought I was a mercenary. But now I don’t think I was.”Now the Ga-Matoran turned to the two other Matoran. Her eyes lit upon the tablet. The look in her face was one of recognition.“Come,” she whispered. “That treasure must not be seen by any more eyes. We must leave.”There was something astoundingly strong in her voice. Nobody objected. Kuhauha could see that she had only just now remembered who she was, and why the tablet mattered. The others clearly saw it too.One moment, questionable mercenary enemy.The next, unquestionable guide.“But how can we get out of here without being seen?” Hafu wondered.R’yn nodded at the concern, looking deep in thought.Finally, she looked up. “I know what to do. Follow me.”And so, as if in a trance, they did.Unquestioning.It was at that moment that the island start shaking.Lowering.And then…The Kuambu came.Everybody but Akohre, they merely shot memory blur Kuamor at. But him, they grabbed and carried away. He went shouting, flailing, crying for help.But amidst all that, he had the good sense to throw the tablet away.Kuhauha caught it.The three remaining Matoran looked at each other. Back at the Kuambu, some of whom had seen the little game of Catch the Tablet.And ran.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Onua’s eyes tried to open, but the glare of the tree-filtered sun hurt, and he closed them again.“No!” Kopaka’s voice shouted.Reluctantly, the Toa of Earth opened his eyes and stood up. His eyes started to adjust.How long was I out?It had still been night when the Kuambu had attacked. Now the sun seemed as bright as ever.In this light, he saw that the Toa had been changed. They were bulkier, almost titans now, with fancier weapons. Onua himself and Pohatu were practically walking boulders. And their Tools had all become fancier -- some of them had apparently received extra weapons as well, though Onua had not.“This isn’t right,” Lewa muttered, next to him. “This isn’t what Nuva look like…”Lewa glanced up at Onua, then looked at his merged axe.“Here.”Lewa moved to pull his claw-tool out from the merger.His hand was stopped.The claw wouldn’t come out.“Hey…” Lewa tried again, to no avail.Onua sighed. He’d thought he’d seen a Stone of Permanence in some of the Kuambu’s hands. And looking around, he didn’t see any laying around. Only way to end their effects was to smash the stone, but the Kuambu had obviously taken them away for safekeeping.He had a feeling he’d be stuck ‘one-handed’ for a long time.He looked towards the Toa of Ice. Kopaka was running all over the battlefield, as if looking for something.Then Onua realized what was missing.Mukana.All the Ko-Rahunga.In fact, every Ko-Matoran that had joined the battle.He heard Tahu trying to contact the others still in Ko-Koro – and failing. The only beings of Ice element he could contact were Kopaka, Nuju at Kini-Nui, and Taureko on the Seahopper.Onua realized what it meant.The Kuambu had kidnapped them all.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hujo turned around to watch as the giant door of black metal slammed into place.Moments later, it shook.Hujo knew that was the ocean flooding the space between the two doors.Then, a circular portion of the wall glowed. Blue.Through it, he saw Metru Nui’s dome interior fade into view.Hujo flew through the shining portal.This was how Metru Nui and the other domes that were copies from the Cosmos had been connected to the rest of the Paracosmos Matoran Universe, he realized, up until the moment of the Great Cataclysm.There was the ferry, hovering up toward the sky. There appeared to be no sun-hole there; rather, the sun illusion was rising in the east of the dome, but Hujo followed, and soon the illusion shifted from his perspective, so he could see the hole where it really was.As he flew up towards the brightening sky, his mind wandered over all that had happened. He'd experienced so much on a tiny scale and a grand one. He'd even helped Bhukasa in a way he could not publicly take credit for, that maybe someday would get a footnote in a history tablet.He resolved to head to the Labyrinth at his next opportunity, and make his way to the Ga-maze. He knew he really didn't have time for it, but sometimes something could mean so much to you that you had to make time for it, right?He wondered if he'd be able to tell which fish had been his friend.Perhaps a little smarter of a hunting strategy as it chased the preyfish. Perhaps a flick of the tail that might tell of its greater joy.Realistically, probably not. But he could hope.As he continued to categorize and analyze everything he'd learned, his memory went inevitably back to the image of what he’d seen from space, of what might have been, of what might yet be.And of what must have once been.When the giant robot had crashed here on Aqua Magna, during the Great Cataclysm, it had landed in the one spot on the whole planet with no pre-existing domes. Those other domes formed a network arrangement across, apparently, the whole sphere, but here there was a gap, shaped exactly like the giant robot, of just the right size and alignment.A gap, waiting for just that moment, just that landing.The camouflage system had engaged, creating Mata Nui Island – and the Paracosmos version of the system also completed the tunnels between the robot’s domes and the others. The old portal system – designed by the Unknown, with help from Op'hasa – disengaged, and normal sea travel was made possible through those tunnels, for a thousand years.But the point of these tunnels was not travel for its inhabitants.The point was the great secret. The secret that cast a new light on every motive and plan in the world.For what Hujo had seen from space was as simple as it was profound.The two parts of the Matoran Universe were not meant to live in harmony.No.They were at war.He’d seen the culmination of the most audacious inventors in history, a marvel of macro-engineering, fighting violently against a system even more audacious, even larger – and losing.A universe, wrestling in vain against a larger universe.A giant, struggling against his chains. -----> Review here! <----- Quote The Destiny of Bionicle (chronological retelling of Bionicle original series, 9 PDFs of 10 chapters each on Google Drive): Part 1 - Warring with Fate | Part 2 - Year of Change | Part 3 - The Exploration Trap | Part 4 - Rise of the Warlords | Part 5 - A Busy Matoran | Part 6 - The Dark Time | Part 7 - Proving Grounds | Part 8 - A Rude Awakening | Part 9 - The Battle of Giants My Bionicle Fanfiction (Google Drive folder, eventually planned to have PDFs of all of it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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