BIONICLE Legends: Invasion
Chapter 6
Written by Jeff Douglas
The Cord
Vezon made his way quickly through the Cord, the sounds of furious shouting echoing up the tunnels, calling to him, directing him where to go. For a moment the sounds disappeared altogether, but after pursuing his path further, the sound somehow seemed to come from above him and coming closer. Somehow his tunnel must have eclipsed that of the Toa during the fighting before joining again. Scurrying down the passage, he found an apt location to hide, a large oval room with thousands of seats carved into its walls, tucked away from the larger tunnels.
Oblivious to the mysteries of the chamber, he watched and waited, unwitting of the green gas that was filling the tunnel.
✴ ✴ ✴
Kongu continued throwing sand walls up for Jaller to melt into glass, but there were almost no signs of the Zyglak. Evidently they had had far more trouble destroying the glass walls than the Toa had had making them, something that bought them some time to recover.
“I know you don’t like it, Jaller,” Matoro grunted, “But I think I should scout ahead.”
Jaller turned from melting the sand and frowned. They may have bought themselves time, but if something were to attack the Toa from out of nowhere, could they afford to have one less Toa present?
Or had Jaller blindsided them to the Zyglak by not letting Matoro scout more?
“Fine,” the Toa of Fire sighed reluctantly. “But don’t take long.”
Matoro nodded and activated his mask, and at once he felt his mind slip free of his body. Rising into the air, he willed himself to drift through the glass walls behind them. Although he swam through them like they were simply air, he still couldn’t help but brace every time he moved through one, as though he would slam into the glass wall at any moment.
But as he emerged on the other side, such thoughts were lost at once. The Zyglak had vanished.
Matoro flew a little further up the tunnel, but they were gone. The Toa of Ice grimaced, realizing that the Zyglak probably had a dozen alternate routes that could still intercept the Toa. Spiriting back down, he flew down tunnel, past the Toa and Hahli who had removed her mask, and flew into the passage beyond. True enough, the track they were following intersected with several different networks which funneled and joined into a single passage.
The Toa of Ice started to fly back, but then slowed as he caught a slight movement out of the corner of his eye. Squinting in the minimal light afforded by the lightstones, he could barely make out some silver-gray armor glinting in the tunnel. And above it, a maniacal, dimly luminescent grin. Matoro’s eyes widened.
Vezon!
And the Toa were marching straight toward him.
✴ ✴ ✴
While Matoro was scouting around, the Toa had continued making their way down the passage, albeit more slowly than before. Perhaps it was the claustrophobic tunnel or the looming shadows, but Jaller had grown anxious and ordered Kongu and Nuparu to carry the body of Matoro while they moved. Nuparu took the lead, being accustomed to seeing in such dim light, and to the best of their ability they followed the sounds of his footsteps to navigate. But even that was only so useful.
A loud crash and a string of the chutespeak equivalent to foul language indicated that Kongu had slammed into a tunnel wall. Not that anyone blamed him. Lightstones had grown sparse in this stretch, and even those that did line the tunnels were too difficult to extract from the obsidian to be practical.
“Remind me, whose idea was it to leave our resident lightstone at home,” Hewkii murmured.
“Karzahni’s, I guess,” Hahli replied. “Really hope he made it back through that shadow cave alright.”
“Do you really think Karzahni would be the one to seal himself off like that? Seems like he’d welcome all the company he can get.”
“I don’t think he isolated himself on purpose. I think somebody was trying to keep him in exile. Deliberately keeping him ignorant of the world. Quarantining him so he wouldn’t interfere with someone’s plan,” Jaller replied.
Nuparu frowned. “But who…”
Jaller frowned slightly. “I remember hearing about two buddies of mine who, around the time Takua and I were running around with the Avohkii, who left Ta-Koro to look for Artakha. After wandering around the island for some time, they wound up in Mangaia where Makuta scared them off their quest and prevented them from looking any further. Perhaps because he didn’t want the Matoran going back to Metru Nui. But more likely he wanted to isolate Karzahni and Artakha for some reason.”
“Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Karzahni would have interfered with his own plans or something. I can’t imagine Makuta just wanted us pent up in Mata Nui for the sake of it. Maybe he—”
Hahli screamed in pain. Reaching up to her mask, she tore the Elda off of her face.
The Toa shouted in surprise as the light from her face filled the chamber and hurt their eyes. Having grown moderately accustomed to the dark, the sudden, star-like brightness was painful.
“Was it the mask?” Jaller demanded, slowly lowering his hands from his eyes.
Hahli nodded.
“I don’t know… I could barely feel the pain and then my mind was ablaze all of a sudden. Like my mind was being attacked.”
“Bizarre,” Nuparu remarked.
As if on cue, the body of the Toa of Ice convulsed, and Kongu and Hewkii put him down on the ground. As he gasped for breath, Matoro barely had time to shout,
“Vezon is just ahead!”
“Way to ruin my entrance…” Vezon scowled, padding into the chamber.
✴ ✴ ✴
The Zyglak had wasted no time in making their way along their familiar passageways. The surface dwellers hadn’t begun to suspect the complexity of the labyrinthian Cord.
But as they emerged down-tunnel of where their quarry were supposed to have been, they were shocked to see no Toa. In fact, they were shocked to see six fellow Zyglak were being pinned down by some silver and black surface dweller wielding a particularly vile looking spear.
The alpha Zyglak didn’t know what it was about the spear, but it beckoned for the rest of the warriors to wait as he watched for an opportune moment.
✴ ✴ ✴
Vezon threw his hands out.
“Well, I’ve arrived.” he grunted. “Let’s get this over with.”
Jaller raised his Zamor launcher to fire, but he stopped. In Vezon’s hand rested the Spear of Fusion and he was pointing it at himself. A wicked grin spread across his features.
“What do you think will happen? How furious do you think Vezok would be to see how irresponsible I am with his missing half?” Vezon giggled. “What do you think? Halves? Thirds? Quarters?”
The Spear detonated and in a brilliant display of fission, the body of Vezon was split in three. To the side of the original Vezon, the eyes of two smaller versions of him blazed to life.
“Allow me to introduce Thezom and Shazul — or, as the non-Matoran would say, Triple and Quadruple. Though if you’re like me, I’d just call them Thing One and Thing Two. Now… as one!”
“Not as one,” Thezom shook his head. “As three.”
“We’re acting at the same time,” Vezon explained. “Hence as one.”
Shazul scoffed. “I just got set free and you want me to do the same thing as you? Now, as four!”
“Three,” Thezom corrected.
“You’re three. I’m four.”
“Vezok isn’t here. There are three of us.”
“My name is four and that’s what we’re sticking with.”
“Great,” Kongu growled. “Just what I needed.”
“Fine!” snapped Vezon. “As four!”
Hahli started to put back on her mask, but Matoro motioned her to wait. Instead, the Toa of Ice rushed at Vezon, but Vezon seized him and slammed his head into the wall. Matoro looked dazed, but hardly out.
“I think you should have your Toa of Ice checked,” Vezon cocked his head. “He seems defective.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Nuparu sighed. Triggering his mask of flight, he rose into the air and whirled himself as a drill into the earth.
‘Thezom’ glanced at Vezon. “Swimming in the earth? Is that fair?”
‘Shazul’ folded his arms. “You didn’t give us adequate warning before you pulled us out.”
“I didn’t have to warn you,” Vezon snarled. “You’re a part of me. If anything, you — Actually, I’m beginning to understand how Vezok feels…”
Nuparu exploded from beneath the three fractional Piraka. Caught off-balance, Vezon lost his grip on the spear and it fell some distance away. Vezon reached for it, but Jaller got to it first.
“First things first,” Jaller said, pointing the Spear of Fusion at the three pieces of the half-ex-Piraka and fusing them back together. “One of you is quite enough. Secondly…” Jaller tossed the spear onto the ground as a jet of flame erupted from his palm, melting it to slag.
“I’ve had enough of that spear for one lifetime.”
For a moment, Vezon’s eyes blazed with hatred. But then it passed and he shrugged. “Well, I guess Vezok will have no way of fixing himself.”
Hewkii raised his hands and pointed at something behind Vezon. “Don’t look now, but that’s the least of your concerns.”
Vezon whirled to see a dozen powerful Zyglak looming over him. He gulped.
“Uh…” he chuckled and pointed at the Toa. “My life for theirs?”
A Zyglak slammed him hard in the midsection, and Vezon doubled over.
“Fine,” he grunted. “How about their lives and two lesser versions of myself…?”
The Zyglak kicked him in the head and he blacked out.
✴ ✴ ✴
The Toa Inika watched silently as the Zyglak carried Vezon off to a fate unknown. They could not imagine what would become of the ex-Piraka, but they preferred not to think about it. More remarkable, however, was the fact that the Zyglak had not paid the Toa any mind. They knew they were there — Jaller could swear some had looked directly at him — but they had made no move to oppose the Toa. In fact, it was almost as though the Toa were a natural occurrence in the caves.
“Why the quick-sudden change in heart?” murmured Kongu.
“I don’t know,” Nuparu replied, dusting the grime off his armor. “But let’s get out of here before they change their minds.”
“Matoro,” Hahli whispered. “Why didn’t you want me to put on my mask earlier?”
The Toa of Ice frowned. “We can’t keep going in this pitch black — I saw you guys drop my body earlier when Kongu ran into that wall. The Zyglak know we’re here, so we may as well borrow your light, if that’s fine.” Gently, he took Hahli’s mask from her hands. “Besides, we know where the Ignika is. It would be best for you to have a moment of respite from your headaches before we have to fight again.”
Hahli stared at him, but reluctantly, she conceded. She wasn’t particularly happy about Matoro telling her what to do, but she did feel much better without it on, and the brightly lit tunnel was a welcome change. Reluctantly, she nodded. The Toa of Ice smiled.
Jaller glanced between the two of them, but ultimately shrugged. “Very well. Let’s keep going, then.”
As the Toa started off, Hewkii couldn’t help but stare after Matoro. This was very uncharacteristic of him.
Hewkii had not been present for most of the Turaga’s storytelling, but their tales had been retold more times than he could count. One that had particularly struck him was the story of a shapeshifting Rahi that had haunted the Toa Metru and used their own identities against them. But unless something had happened all the way back on Voya Nui, the body of the Toa of Ice had not been out of anyone’s sight perhaps since arriving on the island.
Frowning, Hewkii dismissed the thought.