Ignition Comics
2007 - Ignition Comic 7: Mask of Life, Mask of Doom
Adapted by Michael Larson. Edited by Jeff Douglas.
The sea was alive with energy. Kalmah’s new had reverberated throughout the deep, reaching Mantax in the hunt and Pridak in his legion. Ehlek and Carapar had been preying upon lost Matoran when they received the news. Without a further word, all six knew what had to be done. The time had come to convene again. As a courtesy to Takadox, they gathered in his cave, where he had remained unmoving for decades and may still remain for some time to come.
Kalmah was the first to speak.
“The legendary Mask of Life was seen floating down from the surface world,” he informed the others. “A mask whose powers and energies can be sensed from far away.”
“Assuming this is the legendary Mask,” Takadox said slowly. “A possibility which still remains in question… I need not remind you that whispers of a legendary Mask of Life are scarcely more than that. Even our old friends, the warmongers of the Great Disruption, had only ever heard rumors of its ancient use.”
“There is no Kanohi in existence that can do what Kalmah describes,” Pridak responded sharply. “We need that mask! It’s our answer—what we’ve been waiting for!”
Carapar shrugged, indifferent. “What for? We’ll still be stuck down here, looking like this.”
“Don’t mind him,” Takadox rolled his eyes before Pridak could retaliate. “That shell around his head is extremely thick at times.”
“Once, we were six rulers of the surface world, from Xia to the southern islands,” Pridak exclaimed. “Then we dared rebel against the Great Spirit Mata Nui and were condemned to an eternity down here in the abyss. But if the mask Kalmah describes is indeed the legendary Mask of Life, it could make us all that we once were. We could be free of this pit and conquer once more! Whatever its powers—the Mask of Life will belong to the Barraki!”
Kalmah’s tentacles swayed gently in the flow of the black waters. “The waters of this sea turned us into creatures who cannot breathe air. But the Mask of Life can undo that. We’ll be free to reclaim our empires and rule all that lives, as we once did.”
Ehlek’s green fins bristled eagerly. “We can cover more of the sea searching separately. And anything that tries to stop us dies.”
The eyes of Mantax shifted from one warlord to another. “Whoever finds the mask will signal the others… or else.”
✴ ✴ ✴
The six parted ways, each going about their individual schemes. None told the others what they had in store. None felt the need. To explain their plans to each other risked another Barraki stealing the idea and beating them to the Mask. Although they spoke of alliances and cooperation, whoever was the first to secure the Kanohi would gain a massive tactical advantage over the rest.
So Kalmah began searching the caves surrounding Mahri Nui in case the Matoran hid it there as a treasure. Carapar began his search in the depths even the Barraki had never charted, daring to tangle with the terrifying beasts below. Mantax moved slowly, deliberately leaving last and swimming in a direction the others would truly not expect.
While the others began their preparations, Takadox paid a visit to another prisoner of the Pit below. It certainly was a gamble. Delaying his search in this way risked giving the others a large head start.
But Takadox had always been a gifted gambler.
The creature in question? An individual all inmates of the Pit knew well: the bestial, four-armed being named Nocturn. His bioluminescent appendages gave small telltale glows in the dark waters.
“You’re sure you have not seen such a mask?” Takadox asked sweetly.
“Calling me a liar?” Nocturn asked in disbelief and anger. “I could snap you in two—”
“You don’t want to do that, Nocturn,” Takadox sang, his eyes boring into Nocturn’s. “Now listen carefully—if the mask should ever come into your hands, this is what you will do with it…”
✴ ✴ ✴
Not long after his confrontation with Nocturn, Takadox found himself swimming through the old, familiar trenches. While the other Barraki continued their search for the Mask of Life in their own ways, he had something interesting to investigate. He swam down, deeper and deeper in the ocean depths, eventually reaching the despised destination.
Unlike the rest, Takadox had observed Mantax’s strange behavior after the meeting. It was not the first time the black-armored Barraki had behaved in this way, and now Takadox had a theory he wished put to the test.
The insect-like Barraki reached up to a stone formation. He pulled his eyes just over the rise, careful to remain unseen. My prey should be by at any moment, thought the hunter, all I have to do is wait…
“What are you doing here?” a voice said loudly, causing Takadox to yell in surprise. However, his shout became more of a gurgle as a tentacle wrapped around his neck and pulled him to the face of Kalmah.
Takadox pulled the tentacle loose.
“Oh, it’s you, Kalmah,” he said calmly. “You have such a… subtle way of saying hello.”
“Answer my question, Takadox. We are supposed to be looking for the Mask of Life… and yet here you are, skulking among rocks.”
“Your minion saw the mask in the hands of the Matoran. I sent Carapar to fetch the little one while I…” Takadox’s own mandibles snapped shut and opened again as his eyes darted to the side, where he had been looking before. He pointed an insectoid finger. “I was waiting… for that.”
Kalmah looked over to see that beyond the rocky outcropping in front of them, a darker form could be seen swiftly and nearly invisibly toward a crevice deep in the sea floor. Beneath the rocky outcroppings of the seabed and the cave network above it, a thick metallic layer was hidden. Once it had been sealed, but a millennium ago it had been split open, flooding the Pit prison structure below.
Kalmah released Takadox.
“Every night, Mantax vanishes beneath the sea floor and stays there for hours,” said Takadox, swimming in the direction in which Mantax had gone. “I waited here so I could follow him. We know the Mask of Life could not be here so soon after being in the possession of the Matoran. So what is he doing here?”
Intrigued, Kalmah followed. “What possible reason could Mantax—or any of us—have for wanting to go there? There’s nothing below but the prison in which we were held for thousands of years.”
Takadox smiled. “Ah, dear Kalmah. Try using your head for something besides scaring small animals. Perhaps he’s hidden something there?”
“It would be just like Mantax to get his claws on a treasure or weapon and keep it from the rest of us.”
“It would be just like you, too,” Takadox countered. “Are you angry at him for doing it, or at yourself for not thinking of it first?” When Kalmah didn’t answer, Takadox scoffed as he descended into the opening. “I knew there was a reason I never liked you, Kalmah… now I remember what it is.”
Kalmah looked at Takadox coldly, but said nothing. He slowed his pace slightly, allowing Takadox to take the lead. As he passed into the opening, his eyes were drawn to glints of red armor embedded in the mud and stone beside the crevice.
It was a Maxilos guard robot. That much Kalmah knew. He and the other prisoners of the Pit had cursed the automatons often over the years, although there was nothing they could do about them. But when the prison was unexpectedly shattered open, those Maxilos guards that hadn’t been ruined in the quake were quickly and irretrievably wrecked. Only this one seemed to still exist, having been buried in the mudslide.
At its side, equally embedded in sediment, was the Energy Hound known as Spinax, who lay as still as the grave. The hound had been a pet of the old jailer, more than capable of detecting disturbances within the prison. During the quake, it had been buried here and assumed dead. Strangely, it had not rotted away, but remained as whole as it ever had been. Kalmah assumed it had been petrified somehow, for surely it could not have been dormant after all this time?
He shrugged it off and continued into the Pit.
At first glance, Kalmah’s assumption had been absolutely right—nothing remained here of the old Pit jail from before its catastrophic destruction. The sea floor was covered in a thick layer of sand, the facility’s walls barely remained upright, and even the rusty cell doors were either dislocated or barely hanging on by their hinges. The only illumination that even fell into the prison was from the torn crevice through which they had entered.
“I hate this place,” Kalmah spat. “It’s a foul, wretched dungeon without even a trace of light.”
Takadox used one of his twin knives to pry a cell door free of its last support, causing it to drift to the ocean floor with a thud. “No wonder we felt right at home here. Wait, there he is!”
Kalmah followed his gaze. Sure enough, Mantax scrambled along another section of the Pit, scurrying through the sand on the ground, then picking up and hurling a door to search underneath it. Takadox and Kalmah sank behind some fallen rubble to watch.
“Hmmm.” Takadox murmured. “Either he hid it and it’s gone, or he is looking for something else. What could it be?”
✴ ✴ ✴
Far above, something stirred in the mud.
The red eyes of the Maxilos robot lit up. With some effort, it raised its grime-infused limbs out of the mud.
Three prisoners detected below. Containment protocol activated.
Over the past centuries, former inmates had paid occasional visits to their old prison. Yet never had so many registered prisoners gathered. Never had the opportunity been so ripe. Sensing the need to resume its work, the Maxilos mechanoid shuffled over.
At its feet, the Energy Hound’s eyes opened, and it shook off its hibernation. Seeing the mechanoid of its former master setting to work on the crevice, it troted after the automaton as it began its work again.
✴ ✴ ✴
Kalmah whirled at the sound of another large crashing sound behind them. “What was—?”
Takadox swam up to where they had entered. “Someone sealed the crack in the ceiling! We’re trapped down here… again!”
Kalmah’s blue eyes flared. “It’s worse than that…”
“Worse? How can it be worse?”
“When we escaped from here a little over 1,000 years ago, something else moved in,” Kalmah explained. Wordlessly, Mantax swam over beside them, even as dozens of red eyes appeared far below. “They sensed our movements… they know we’re here… and they are coming for us!”