Mata Nui Comics

2002 - Bohrok Promo Comic: The Swarms

Adapted by Michael Larson. Edited by Jeff Douglas.

All obstacles must be removed.

Dozens of Bohrok spilled out across the lavaplains of Ta-Koro, freezing pillars and shattering them into a million shards. Spikes of ice tore from the ground, and the native Rahi beasts scattered, terrified.

For centuries, they had slept. Silent. Hidden. Waiting to hatch. Dreaming dreams of chaos.

Now the sleepers had awakened at last.

One by one, they left their chambers, driven by an instinct they could not explain. They wielded an ancient power, its source a mystery. Like a storm, they swept all aside. By the thousands they advanced, an unstoppable swarm.

They were Bohrok. They had come.

✴        ✴        ✴

Jala scoured the lava plains for any sign of movement. Kapura had been present when Vakama had beheld the Sacred Fire, and what they had seen had sent him fleeing in terror. Knowing Kapura, the Ta-Matoran had probably gotten pretty far by now. Jala dared not ask what it had been, but he was fearful.

Beside him, Vakama stopped in his tracks.

“Do you hear that, Jala? Distant thunder, like a storm about to break?”

Jala whirled and grabbed the Turaga’s arm, pointing. “Turaga, look! Those creatures — they’re freezing the lava!”

Vakama followed his gaze. Several white insect-like creatures were advancing toward them, wreaking havoc as they came.

“Hurry!” the Turaga shouted, starting back in the direction of Ta-Koro. “We must warn the village!”

“What are they?” Jala asked.

Vakama ignored him, already shouting at the guards, “Creatures are approaching! Defend the gate at all costs!”

✴        ✴        ✴

Closer to the Ta-Koro gate, a small host of the white creatures were advancing upon a Ta-Matoran guard. The guard swung his Firestaff, attempting to ward them off, but they continued as if they hadn’t seen it.

The guard stumbled backward, falling back into the wall. He was cornered.

One of the Bohrok raised its shield, about to flash-freeze the Ta-Matoran in one frigid blast.

“Nothing threatens my village!” Tahu shouted, swooping in and blocking the blast of ice with his sword. Ice met fire, and ice lost, barely. Tahu watched the guard run off before returning his attention to the attacker.

“But what are you, creature?” the Toa mused. “You’re no Rahi I’ve ever seen—”

Tahu could not finish his thought before the creature slammed its head into the stone wall of the fortress, spraying stones in every direction. Tahu grunted, raising his arm to protect himself from the debris. As he lowered it again, he realized the ice creature was wavering. With a crash, it toppled to the ground, its headplate falling open.

The creature is only stunned, Tahu realized. But what is that inside it…?

He looked again at the rest of the advancing creatures.

And will I live to find out?