Chapter 11

“I could’ve wished for a Moto-Sled,” grumbled Iruini, snatching up his Rhotuka shield and stowing it on his back. “Or an army of Brakas, or that Axalara T9 I’ve heard so much about, or season tickets to the Visorak circus. But what did I have to go and wish for instead? A destiny separate from the only teammates I’ve ever had… what was I thinking?”

Recovering his senses, he ignored the crack in his Kanohi and stepped out from the chamber to find it unguarded. A quick test revealed the mask was too damaged to carry him. He cursed the golden entity who had stolen away into the night now that he had feasted on the Toa’s desires.

The fort shook as he limped through the winding hallways, no doubt the shockwaves from a distant battle that wasn’t nearly as distant as he would like. Wisps of crimson vapor were seeping in through growing cracks, as though the night sky of Spherus Magna had turned red. Bricks and mortar rained down from above then evaporated. He saw glimpses of a scarlet being at the center of the chaos, engulfing the structure within a nightmare spiral.

Everywhere he turned, he could see abominations of fantasy made real. In one chamber he saw a shadowy entity with the six heads of a Doom Viper, in another he watched the reptilian water dwellers of Zakaz devouring a screaming sentry. There were creatures of Skakdi folklore stirring in the shadows, cackling, undead silhouettes and shades of fallen warriors now conjured to life. They were grotesque and unknowable, the stuff of darkest and unimaginable nightmares.

The Skakdi were maddened by the power of their dreams, which now ran unchecked throughout the fortress. The golden being had visited great illusions on them, but he’d tamed their wilder impulses. Now it seemed he was nowhere to be found. With the floodgates open, the Skakdi took on nightmarish new shades.

Turning in his direction, a gray Skakdi suddenly caught sight of him and beckoned his comrades closer.

“A Toa!” he yelled, pointing the tip of a curved sword at him.

“Cut him up into pieces!”

“Crack his ball joints!”

Exhausted, Iruini felt gnarled fingers try to wrestle his shield from his hands. He panted for breath as scaly arms wrapped across his chest and he was pressed down. A warrior in azure armor pressed the barrel of a blaster to his chest and sneered.

“There’s no fight left in him!” he snarled.

“Is he even real, or just some other illusion?”

“Who cares, bash his gears out!”

The sentries bickered and squabbled, all the while Iruini sat slumped in their clutches. At one point, there was a serrated blade pointed in his face. Then at last a heavyset brawler planted a kick in his midsection and the others joined in, stomping the Toa of Air with their webbed feet. There were so many of them that he lost sight of the world altogether.

Only the crimson remained when he closed his eyes.

“Rip his legs off! Beat him to death with them!”

“Melt him! Turn him into a puddle of green!”

“Shove that fancy shield where Mata Nui doesn’t shine!”

The voices became a blur of threats and garbled commands. Already driven past the point of sanity, the Skakdi slowly realized they had the power to turn their imaginations into reality. They swarmed him like a horde, one of them trying to pull his arm clean from the shoulder joint, another gnawing on his wrist.

Desperately, Iruini tried to call upon his Kualsi but his damaged Mask of Quick Travel barely heeded his command. He crackled out of view and broke their hold, only to reappear a few paces away in a shower of sparks, his Kanohi finally giving out altogether. An instant later, he felt the crushing impact of a blunt weapon on the side of his head.

Another tremor, but too late for Iruini. The Toa was surrounded by burning red eyes and broad, hungry smiles. The warriors wouldn’t relinquish their grip. They had him pinned.

“Yes,” drooled the nearest voice. “Let’s do all those things and finally have some fun…”

As a clawed hand reached for his cracked Kanohi, he knew that it was over. In disobeying Norik and seeking his own glory, he had stumbled into a demise of his own making. Whatever will to resist he had felt before now dried up. He would meet his end here on the shattered cobblestones of this crumbling fortress, pressed under the weight of an army of Skakdi and his mistakes. Perhaps his teammates would forgive him in time and find the pieces that had once been Iruini.

“I’m sorry, brother,” he wheezed, thinking of all that he had thrown away. “I’m… so sorry.”

He closed his eyes and let out a silent prayer that his end would come swiftly, thankful in the end that it wasn’t in the clutches of Visorak.

But before his final wish could be heard, his eyes were wrenched open by a sudden explosion. Somewhere behind him, the far wall of the fortress shattered in a violent cascade of rubble, catching nearby Skakdi in the crossfire of debris. The wall of the inner fortress lurched and fell, dissipating into sand before it hit the ground. The sentries roared in surprise and snapped their heads in the direction of a blinding and brilliant light, which pierced the crimson haze.

“Knock knock.”

Ten shining Toa emerged from the hole in the fortress, as though they’d stepped out of an ancient tale and into the battle. They stood in a line, first Bomonga, then Kualus, Hahli, Nuparu, Jaller, Gaaki, Norik, Pouks, Kongu and Hewkii. Two teams had become one.

Iruini sputtered and wheezed against the Skakdi piled on top of him, finally catching sight of his shimmering saviors.The Toa stood ready for another glorious battle, blazing like gods. They were heroes of legend and to watch them now... it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He swallowed back the lump in his throat, knowing he couldn’t stand among his teammates. His place in the legend had been taken now.

Exactly as Gaaki’s vision had foretold.

“May I?” asked Jaller.

“Of course!” grinned Norik. “This is your moment, after all…”

With his team at his side, the Toa Mahri of Fire raised his sword high above his head.

“Toa… TOGETHER!”

Under Jaller’s command the Toa surged forward from the shining light. Rhotuka shields slammed into Zakazian dentistry. Protosteel collided with inferior metalwork and a tornado of elemental energy scattered the sentries; as though they were blades of harakeke before an oncoming storm.

“We’ve faced creeps from the deep before and came out on top,” bellowed Hewkii, grabbing a sentry by the spine and hurling him out into the open ocean. “You guys are just creeps!”

Working in unison, Hahli and Kualus blanketed the Skakdi in jets of Water and Ice while Gaaki and Kongu hurled a volley of pressurized punches. Stormclouds and earthquakes and hailstones and rockslides pummeled the guards. From afar, they were just another freak manifestation in the swirling maelstrom of dreams that was tearing the island fortress apart.

Shrinking down to the size of a Niazesk, Norik landed in Hahli's palm and let her fling him into the fray. A moment later, he reverted back to normal size, sending one of the largest Skakdi generals staggering.

“Nokama always said you Toa Hagah were Rahi experts,” said Hahli, catching a sharpened mace with her Protosteel Talon and tearing it free from her attacker's hand. “Got any requests?”

Watching her Mask of Kindred activate, Norik charged his Lava Spear and signaled for Bomonga and Gaaki to do the same.

“Did you ever meet a Kardas Dragon in your travels?”

Hahli grinned and nodded. As the triple streams of Fire, Water, and Earth erupted from their spears, she thought of Vezon's nightmarish mount rising from the lava in the Chamber of Life. Bathed in the converging elemental energies of three Toa Hagah, she flexed her wings like the Kardas and launched herself high into the air, converting the energy into a blast of concussive force. By the time she relented, the platoon of Skakdi before her were reduced to smoldering lumps strewn across the ground.

“This is chaos!” yelled Kualus, conjuring a mirror of Ice and using it to reflect a Skakdi’s laser vision back at him. “Who are we even fighting?”

“Anyone who isn’t wearing scuba gear or carrying a shield,” answered Jaller.

Firing off a Disruption Rhotuka, Pouks placed a firm hand on Nuparu’s shoulder. If Norik could pull a combo-move with a Toa Mahri then so could he…

“Remember that move you and Kongu pulled earlier?”

The Toa Mahri of Earth frowned before recognition swept over him.

Pouks set both hands on his back and heaved him like a batting ram, then started to spin. He built momentum then hurled his ally into the fray, as though he were a Huai snowball slinger. Shieldfirst, Nuparu smashed into a cluster of Skakdi and scattered them. They hit the ground unconscious, reduced to sprawling reptilian meatbags and broken teeth.

“Oops, looks like I crashed into you!” chuckled Nuparu.

Not far away, Hewkii swung his Aqua Warblade through a crate, flanked by Gaaki. The Toa of Water raised her Tidal Spear and created a field of watery tendrils, which snaked at the ankles of the startled warriors, holding them where they stood.

“I’ll line ‘em up…”

A grin on his face, Hewkii formed a round boulder of Stone and bowled it towards the trapped sentries.

“…and I’ll knock ‘em down!”

Iruni jerked upright, watching the impossible spectacle unfold before him. Across the battlefield, he caught Norik’s eye as the leader of the Toa Hagah advanced towards him. There was such gravity between them, and so much failed decision making. As the Toa swung his Lava Spear and raised a wall of Fire, the flames caught at the edges of his Kanohi and gave him a grave expression. He was as fierce as a Rock Lion protecting his pack.

“Norik…” pleaded Iruini, from the floor. “I’m… I’m so…”

The elder Toa booted a fallen Skakdi to the side and lifted Iruini’s Rhotuka Shield from the ground. With heavy eyes, he pulled the emerald Toa back to his feet then placed the shield in his hand. As Iruini stammered, he was reminded of the first time the shield had been presented to him. The memories came rushing back.

“On your feet, brother,” Norik said, placing a steady hand on his shoulder. “There’ve been enough mistakes made tonight.”

Caught between the vanishing edge of their fortress and the elemental fury of two whole Toa teams, the Skakdi descended deeper into madness. Some continued what meager fight was left, some fled into the ocean, the rest surrendered to the nightmares spawning around them.

“We’re running out of real estate here!” yelled Pouks, feinting back and tripping a warrior over the edge of the wall. “Might be time to get out of dodge!”

Looping an arm around Iruini’s shoulder and hoisting the wounded Toa back to his feet, Norik grunted to the affirmative. Whoever this crimson entity was, whatever her intentions, she’d created an opening for the Toa to escape and he didn’t want to waste it.

“Let’s get out of here, while the Skakdi are distracted by… whatever that is.

Even from afar, Kualus recognized the look in Norik’s eyes. He thought back to their encounter with the Rahi Nui, how Norik had stepped up to cover him. Seeing Iruini’s injuries, he stowed his Rhotuka shield and turned to Kongu. The Toa Mahri of Air nodded in unspoken understanding. Together, their masks began to glow.

“Don’t try this at home.”

The effects were far from immediate, but even in this remote corner of the world their call was heard. One moment the waters of Aqua Magna were rippling from the storm, the next they were broiling and churning with activity. Then, all at once, a crimson torrent erupted from the sea and spilled out onto the structure. It was a knotted and impossible mass of swarming oceanic life. A tornado of claws and pincers and scuttling crustacean legs. Much to the horror of the assembled Skakdi, it heeded the command of the two strange Toa working in unison.

Every Hahnah crab in the ocean had answered their call.

At that sight, Iruini stopped trying to make sense of his surroundings altogether.

Looking up from the battlefield, Jaller let out a hearty laugh as a familiar crab broke off from the mass and scuttled towards him, returning faithfully to his side. He embraced his old companion and felt some small piece of joy that he’d been missing returned to him.

“Hey Gaaki, I’ve always wondered - what do you call a group of Hahnah?” he asked.

The Toa Hagah of Water cast her memory back to the mutagen pens on Destral, watching the pillar of crimson shells smash into the golden being’s tower and reduce it to the rubble of broken dreams.

“I’m sorry, the Makuta never saw fit to give these poor creatures a collective name,” she answered stiffly.

“I see… and what would you call it?”

Gaaki’s eyes widened. Never before had anyone thought to ask her such a question. After a moment’s thought, she looked in Iruini’s direction and the answer came to her.

“A hurricane,” she said proudly. “A hurricane of Hahnah…”

✴        ✴        ✴

“I wish for someone who eats dreams for breakfast to come knocking on your door…”

On all sides of the fortress walls, at every vanishing post and parapet, the will to fight vanished from the hearts of the Skakdi. It was replaced instead by abject terror as the latest and strangest in this host of illusions rocked their island. Between phantom Toa and undead aberrations roaming the halls, the deluge of scarlet crab-Rahi was just another in a long procession of nightmares incarnated by Annona, plucked from the darkest and most abominable Zakazian imaginings.

To the gaze of an orange Agori watching events unfold, it was a scene of pure chaos.

And where chaos resides in the minds of madmen, so too can be found opportunity…

As the course of the battle shifted and the devourer of dreams loomed over him - as his followers turned on him and his fortress melted away - a change could be seen in the features of the golden being.

“…Now, my friend,” cackled Annona. “I believe the topic at hand was imminent death.”

At long last, he knew fear…