BIONICLE Legends: Invasion
Chapter 5
Written by Jeff Douglas
Voya Nui
“Where?”
“Someplace far too dangerous for any Matoran to go. This is a matter for Toa.”
The Matoran threw his weapon on the ground in anger. “That’s not good enough!”
“Garan!” Balta exclaimed, more out of surprise than reprimand.
In the fringe of the Matoran village, Axonn stared at the six Matoran, observing the eager energy that coursed through their overzealous frames. The unlikely defeat of the Piraka and the fact that so many had survived against such odds had filled them with a new boldness that rivaled even the most courageous of Toa. Sure, they had lost an untold number of friends in the struggle against the Piraka. But having lived so long with such bad fortune and having grown used expecting the worst possible outcomes, the fact that all six of them in particular had survived and saved their friends had practically turned them into new Matoran. If he wasn’t careful, they’d do exactly what Jaller and his team had apparently done and charge off on their own.
But in an ocean so treacherous the Toa Inika may not survive, allowing the Matoran to go was not an option. The only possible factor they had to their advantage was destiny itself, and even that was uncertain these days.
“If the land of Mahri Nui — if our friends really do live on beneath the seas,” Garan continued, “And if it truly is as dangerous as you say, shouldn’t we do whatever we can to help?”
Axonn sighed. He had discovered much too painfully how fast rumors spread on Voya Nui. None had been present for the quiet burial of the Ta-Matoran that had floated to the surface, but somehow everyone had heard about it anyway. Garan and his five friends were hardly alone in desiring to help the campaign for the Mask of Life. They had done so much already, and now that the fight had left them behind, they could hardly be blamed for wanting to pursue it.
“Give them a week,” he conceded. “If the Toa Inika return in seven days and say that the coast is clear — then and only then will we form an expedition and travel beneath the seas.”
“And if the Toa Inika or our old friends need us before then?” Dalu demanded. But Axonn’s expression made it clear he had yielded as much as he would.
“One week,” he repeated. “If they don’t return, the survival of your friends will be the least of your concerns.”
Garan eyed him carefully. With great reluctance, he turned to go, and the six Matoran left.
Axonn watched them depart. He hadn’t been kidding, either. The Inika had far less than a week to accomplish their task. Even if they were successful, he knew the odds of the survival of the Mahri Nui Matoran were slim to none. But these Matoran could not know what was to come. Not yet, at least.
When a large blur of emerald flashed in his peripheral vision, the unwelcome thoughts were quickly dispersed.
✴ ✴ ✴
As Krahka approached the Matoran village, a hulking gray figure was already coming to intercept her. She braced herself.
“Greetings. I am the Toa Krahka. Do you know—”
But the gray titan wasn’t looking at her so much as he was looking past her.
“Is that… A Tahtorak?” he asked alarmed. “How did that—”
Krahka glanced back just in time to see an explosion of dirt and debris arc up from the forest. As the rubble rained down, at the center of everything, she could make out the forms of the Tahtorak and the crimson dragon it had gone off in pursuit of.
“Yeah,” she said feebly. “He’s with me.”
Axonn threw a glance at her and charged off. Sighing, Krahka started off after him.
The Matoran, meanwhile, had emerged from their homes to see the chaos that was unfolding. So focused were they on the mayhem that nobody noticed when Vezon emerged from a shadow and slipped into the tunnel to the Cord.
✴ ✴ ✴
“Give me the truth!” Tahtorak bellowed. “Tell me the answer!”
The Kardas Dragon responded by unleashing a devastating scream that leveled the surrounding forest, knocking his opponent off his feet. The Tahtorak was thrown backward. But when Kardas followed up the attack, the Tahtorak slammed into the dragon’s jaw, sending the focus of the burst into the air.
Kardas reeled, taken off-guard. Most creatures fell with the first blast, well before it came to melee fighting. For the first time, the Kardas realized what it meant to fear.
For its part, the Tahtorak was having a blast. The millennium in the Field of Shadows had been terribly monotonous. It felt good to stretch its muscles once again in the best way it knew how.
An uppercut to the Kardas Dragon sent it tumbling out of the forest, and a shove to the already off-balance creature sent it crashing into the sea. As the Tahtorak loomed over it, the desperate Kardas Dragon lashed out with its feet, slowing the inevitable attack and giving it the fraction of a second it needed to get to its feet. Building energy within itself, the Kardas Dragon prepared to unleash the devastating energies in a powerful blast. But the Tahtorak leaped forward, forcing the dragon’s mouth shut. The dragon fought to pry the Tahtorak’s grip off, but the green Rahi had a steel grip backed by eager muscles fresh from centuries of disuse.
The Kardas Dragon had no idea what would happen if its energies backfired, but it didn’t particularly want to find out. With newfound strength, the Kardas Dragon wretched it’s jaw free and barely unleashed the blast in time. It still suffered heavy damage, but the bulk had been averted.
The Tahtorak didn’t wait for his opponent to recover. With a massive force of strength, he hoisted the Kardas into the air and hurled him into the sea. The crimson Rahi hit the waves hard, sinking into unconscious. But it didn’t descend beneath the waves to join its peers in the Pit. Kept aloft by its massive lungs, the dragon was carried by the tide northward.
Upon waking some time later, the Kardas would find itself several kio out from another large tropical island. Summoning its strength, it flew to investigate.
✴ ✴ ✴
The Tahtorak roared in exultation as it looked around for somebody else to clobber. Axonn grimaced as he drew near. Even an individual of his might and power would have trouble facing such a formidable beast head-on, and certainly not without wrecking the island in the process. There was only one thing he could do.
“Botar!” he shouted. “I have need of you!”
For a few moments, there was nothing. Then, to Axonn’s right, a titanic creature stepped beside him.
“You called?”
“I need you to teleport that Tahtorak back to its homeland. It… it looks and sounds exactly like the one Brutaka dropped in Metru Nui long ago for fun.”
Botar rolled his eyes. “Brutaka should never have been permitted to keep that mask of his.” Focusing his powers, he opened a gaping hole beneath the Tahtorak, and the unprepared giant green Rahi fell inside easily.
“Where’d you send him?” Axonn asked.
“On Xia, the Vortixx have set about girding the Kanohi Dragon for war, and it was only a matter of time before they unleashed it on something. Now they’ll have something to unleash it on,” Botar explained. “I was preparing to deal with the issue myself, and place a weapons order for the Order when you called. But that…” he broke off.
Axonn glanced at him and did a double take. The creature was smiling.
“That was amusing,” Botar grinned.
✴ ✴ ✴
With the spectacle seemingly over, many of the Matoran hurried to the battle site to check on the damage or see what had happened. Not many remained near the village, which left Krahka without many options. Taking a firm step forward, she summoned her courage and stepped out of the forest, presenting herself in full view of the settlement. The closest villager she could see was busy spooling up a length of rope. Stopping before him, she took a deep breath.
“Good day, villager,” she declared. “I am Toa Krahka, a Toa of Metru Nui, and I would like to know how to get back there. Perhaps you could point me in the direction of the Onu-Metru Archives?”
The Matoran took a long, skeptical look at her.
“Sure you are,” he snorted, returning to his labor. “You with the Toa Piraka? Or the Toa Inika perhaps? I think you just missed the Toa Nuva.”
A beat passed as Krakha processed these strange names, narrowing her eyes in confusion. It seemed that a great many more Toa now inhabited the world.
“Toa Nuva, Toa Piraka — I’m afraid I do not follow…”
“Curious is all,” shrugged the Matoran, slinging the rope over his shoulder and turning at last to face her. “We go 1000 years without sight of a single Toa. Then, in the space of a month, the shores of Voya Nui Bay are lined with no less than nineteen Toa Canisters, only for their inhabitants to disappear again! Is that how you washed up?”
“Not exactly,” answered Krahka, turning in search of the ocean. “What island is this anyway?”
The emerald Matoran tilted his head in growing suspicion.
“Seems a strange thing to be forgetting,” he murmured, glancing up at the cooling crater of Mount Valmai. “What rock have you been hiding under all this time?”
Watching as the villager’s patience grew thinner, Krahka got the impression the Matoran of this land would not be easily deceived. Unbidden, a stray thought crossed her mind.
What would the Toa Metru do?
“Look, I don’t know how long it’s been or how far away I am, but I need to get back to my home in the Archives,” Krakha demanded, more forcefully this time. “I need directions. Can you help me or not?”
“Alright, alright,” exclaimed the Matoran, raising a hand in defense. “Last I checked, Metru Nui was far north of here. You’re welcome to take any Toa Canister you find, although the Toa Inika will probably still need theirs.”
“Matoran… so very unimaginative,” Krahka smiled.
Shapeshifting into a Rahi with four wings, she flew off, leaving the startled villager behind.
✴ ✴ ✴
Makuta sensed the mutated Piraka crashing through the overgrowth well behind him and bidded his energies fly faster. Although he was not worried about the threat they thought they could pose, Makuta had no doubt they would recognize his wispy, greenish-black form as the antidermis that had once dominated their chamber — and further, the substance that had inspired them to seek the Ignika in the first place.
The attention that had befallen Voya Nui in recent weeks was dwindling. Most of the factions that had converged on Voya Nui for the Mask of Life had gone home, but at least six of the seven Piraka were still determined to claim the Mask of Life, and there was no telling where the seventh had gotten to. Everything was converging on the Cord.
And now Makuta himself traveled there to ensure every factor fell into place. The Piraka he could handle, and if the inhabitants of Mahri Nui and the Pit were just as his scouts had described, they would fall into place as well. If not… he would have to improvise.
The Pit… it had been a relatively recent addition to the Plan. The Pit, the presence of the Barraki, the two titans who had battled in the Piraka Stronghold — to say nothing of Botar, an individual he hadn’t seen since the Barraki had fallen long ago — and a mysterious weapons order that had been placed of Xia. Just some of the latest elements in a long line of evidence that pointed to another contender in the game. Makuta had for some time suspected their presence — mysterious individuals invulnerable to telepathic attacks aren’t exactly subtle. And in taunting Axonn, Brutaka had just confirmed for him the name of the organization.
The Order of Mata Nui.
Normally Makuta hated learning of such factors so late in the Plan, but he had actually accounted for such an organization already. He had prepared for them ever since he began putting the pieces together some time ago. One such individual with a telepathic barrier rode a Toa Canister through the Makuta blockade and the sealed sea gates of Metru Nui to his location in the Mangaia where she attempted to assassinate him — a canister which Makuta had kept for his own purposes, only to have Vezon steal it.
Although he could not tell for certain what this phantom army knew or didn’t know, they had been unsuccessful in stopping the raid on Artakha, the Visorak invasions, the Great Cataclysm, and nearly everything else Makuta had done so far. Makuta expected it was a relatively safe bet that they were only guessing the extent of the Plan.
Still, Mangaia is unguarded once more, he thought, and with it, my most valuable prize… I cannot afford to let the Order of Mata Nui capture it. But who should retrieve it?
He thought a moment.
Icarax, he decided. Someone who craves the Mask of Shadows and so knows its value. And seeing that he craves battle, he will get his fill if he gets a knock from this Order.
The Order of Mata Nui. No doubt they expected to throw off their cover in a grand reveal and somehow crush the Brotherhood at the last minute. They were in for a rude awakening.
And what an Awakening it will be, Makuta smiled.