Bionicle the Next Chapter: A Story Set in Motion

​Bionicle the Next Chapter: A Story Set in Motion ​is the second chapter of Bionicle the Next Chapter and details the period of Marendar, as well as the introduction of major characters like Vashari, Arilam, Orokal, and Petram. For more information, see Bionicle: The Next Chapter Universe.

​Chapter 2
Somewhere in New Atero there is a room where old fully robotic beings who are beyond repair are broken down and their parts stored. The room is more like a giant warehouse, full of parts from destroyed and Broken Bohrok who while functioning had been programmed to protect the city.

But there were more than just Bohrok parts in this warehouse. Something slithered beneath a mound of scrapped and twisted armor and metal. Then a single massive silver clawed hand burst from the scrap.

His name was Marendar. He had been constructed by the Great Beings as a fail-safe if the Toa got out of control. His only programming, his only function was to destroy Toa and he was good at it.

Marendar had fallen many Toa with his blade and powers… until he had been met with the Toa Nuva. The combined might of the seven Toa had been too much for him and he’d been torn to shreds by their power.

But there was something the citizens of New Atero hadn’t known. They hadn’t known that Marendar wasn’t so easy to destroy. As long as his core was still intact then his body would always come back together and repair itself.

He’d been doing this for the last six months, repairing himself and using parts from scrapped Bohrok to add and augment himself.

Silver sharp teeth crunching in his maw, he lifted his canon-arm and blasted a hole in the ceiling...

Insidian and Crystalia reach the throne room of Lord Velika. The massive Great Being sat silently on his throne as they approached him, the Shadowed One's staff in his steely grip.

"What news do you bring before me?" Velika asked. "I see that you have brought her back alive."

Insidian and Crystalia bowed.

"Of course, Crystalia is an asset that is still useful," Insidian said.

"My lord," Crystalia said. "The Toa plan to gather a party of traitor Skakdi and infiltrate the fortress... I'm not sure how they believe they can get away with this but it is their plan."

"How... foolish," Velika smirks. "We shall let them infiltrate then, we will be ready for them."

"That won't work." A Toa of fire, Vashari said from behind Crystalia. "A single Skakdi can bring a team of fully trained Toa, and this fortress."

A Skrall General beside Velika's throne, Borom, looked surprised, "I'm not sure what you are saying. This fortress is impenetrable. Although I would like to see them try. There is a certain Toa of Fire whose Mask would look very nice on a wall."

"I may not know much about the world, but I know what Skakdi are capable of. No matter their allegiance."

"He does have a point. Even if they're outnumbered, we should still be careful. They also might bring more people than we expect." Said Arilam. The lightning Toa usually didn't participate in conversations, but Skakdi opposing Velika could be very dangerous.

"Let them come. We shall destroy them with ease. Or are you doubting our ability? We can demonstrate, if neccessary." Borom moved threateningly towards Vashari.

"Your attempt to scare me isn't working." The crimson Toa of fire gave Borom a steely smile.

"Good. Fear does nothing but destroy you. If you are able to control your fear, then maybe you belong with us." Borom stepped away.

"Once again, you are wrong. Fear allows you to know that you alive, that you are in danger. All creatures feel fear. What's important is that you have willpower to overcome it." The Fire Toa takes a threatening step towards the Skrall General.

The Great Being slammed his staff on the ground to prevent a fight from breaking out. "Fear... fear is control," Velika said. "Without fear in a population they will rise up, and there will be chaos. Put enough fear in their hearts and they will bow before their lord. And no, I don't underestimate the Skakdi. It's simply the fact that they cannot get enough Skakdi to compete with our numbers."

That was when four large armored Skrall elite warriors dragged a certain knocked out Toa of flame into the throne room.

“We caught him in one of our stock rooms, trying to steal our weaponry. He is not one of our Toa.” One of the Skrall said.

“Throw him in the dungeons, put a de-powering leech on his spine… and remove his mask, he shall be questioned in due time.” Velika announced. The Skrall nodded before they began to drag him off to the cells. Once in the cells they laid him on a metal table, pulled of his mask and opened a jar before pulling out a green slimy leech...

Arilam, to his horror, recognized the fire Toa. An old friend. Trying his best to keep his face passive, he watched as the Skrall guards took Orokal, the fire Toa, to his cell.

"Please let him be okay, Please have him be ok.." he said in his mind.

In New Atero, Marendar climbed his way through the destroyed ceiling of his would be tomb with a clawed metal hand before reaching the surface and standing in all of his silver, biomechanical glory. He was about the size of a building, silver except for the added Bohrok and other robotic parts he'd patched himself up with from the scrap beneath him. His head was long and humanoid, in the shape of an almost feral looking mask with a elongated mussel with long, serrated silver teeth. His left eye is normal looking and yellow, while the right is larger, an red-circular eye that Marendar can zoom in on and asses his targets.

His left arm ends in a long clawed hand, but also has a long blade that extends from his wrist, while his right is a massive canon arm.

He unleashes a mechanical roar before he leaps into the air, his feet transforming into boosters, as he now levitates over the ground, at an accelerating speed as he heads towards the Temple of Light.

It took only seconds for the massive Toa-destroyer to reach the Temple of Light. Marendar raised his canon arm, a massive orb of crimson energy forming before it burst from the barrel, impacting the side of the temple, and blowing a huge chunk of it away.

"Toa... must be cleansed..."

Kaeren was about to say something when the whole temple shuddered, the roof above the jail-block that most of the Toa were standing in was suddenly blown completely away. Kaeren covered his head as rubble raind down around him.

"We're under attack!" he shouted as he turned towards the massive hole in the roof, and grabbed his twin fire blades before flying into the air.

It wasn't long before he saw it. "No... that can't be..." they'd all heard the legends, he'd seen the destroyed parts of Marendar with his own eyes.

"Marendar..."

From his home in Ga-Magna, Tritus heard a deafening mechanical screech which sounded oddly familiar... In a really bad way.

"No, No way...

We have to get to the Temple of Light" He said to Eireon, his friend.

The Toa at the Temple of Light assembled together, their eyes trained on Marendar. It focused it's scope-eye on them, before firing another blast of energy narrowly missing the Toa. Now the Turaga came into the chamber of the Temple, before seeing the Giant and taking a step back.

"Is that..." Vakama could barely breathe.

"I'm not sure if this is going to make things better or worse..." A Vortixx said, firing a Reconstitute at Random disk at Marendar.

At the same time a volley of zamors impact Marendar as Eireon came running with Tritus by her side.

"What's going on???" the Ga-Toa said, drawing his weapon.

Another explosion shook the air as the disk Skylia, the Vortixx, threw was hit by a rocket sent by Marendar. The zamors didn't seem to do much to him. He trained his arm cannon on Skylia, taking aim before firing.

Skylia tried to move away from the attack, but the blast sent her flying into the walls. At the same time, Jaron tried to freeze Marendar with a beam of Icy energy, but it dodged it with ease and responded with a mini-rocket that Jaron barely missed.

Kaeren and another Toa of fire began funneling their powers into a cone of fire, the two Toa elevated higher and higher as they rose in a swirling tornado composed of flames.

Lync activates her Hau to protect the Toa from a shower of pellets from Marendar.

"What should we-"

She was cut off by a psychic yell from a Toa of psionics who was levitating rubble to strike Marendar.

"The Scope-Eye, it's unprotected. If we can hit that, it's main way of attacking us is gone."

The Toa prepare their aim at the scope-eye.

Sitting in his throne in the Fortress, The Great Being looks curiously at Vashari, studying him.

"You know Vashari, if you put your mind to it you could raise up the ranks quickly... You have a certain air to you."

For the crimson Toa, this seemed like nothing.

"I don't see why not. I haven't done much at all. What would you like me to do?"

"We'll see in due time... Patience is the most important factor in this war."

Lync and Toa of fire kept up their barrage of arrows at the giant, each arrow meticulously aimed. One of the arrows sailed above Marendar's arm and knocked it's scope eye straight off.

Lync sighed in triumph. She didn't know if it was her or the other Toa's arrows that had taken Marendar's eye off, but it didn't matter. The job was done. The giant fired one last blast at Kaeren, knocking him out of the sky, and took off.

"I'm going after it. We can't let it rampage across the city. If you want to come, then come." She spread her wings and took off after the robot. Jaron and Tritus attempt to follow her but Marendar and Lync had already disappeared, both flying at high speeds.

The Psionics Toa, Ishappa, looked around the ruins of the Temple of Light,

"Where's Kaeren? And the Turaga?"

The Toa searched frantically through the rubble, before Jaron gasped in horror. The seven Turaga were crushed by a pillar that collapsed on them. There was no sign of Kaeren.

"The Turaga... How is this city going to manage without the Turaga?" Tritus knelt by Takanuva's body.

"And what about Kaeren? Has anybody seen him?"

Ishappa gritted her teeth, "Uh, Tritus, Kaeren fell 100 feet after Marendar shot him out of the sky... I doubt anyone could survive that."

"So... We lost the most important members of the Government. Who's going to manage this city now?" Tritus said, shaking his head.

Orokal woke up feeling heavy and weak in his cell.

"When are they going to question me anyway? Ok, focus. It may not be my best day, but I'm going to make an escape as awesome as my looks! Now a plan... When they question me, I'll use my awesomeness to defeat everyone, escape, and get the girl! What a great plan!" Yeah, Orokal's plan needed some thinking over.

At Velika's throne room, Arilam stood around trying to gather the courage to talk to the King.

"Um, Lord Velika, may I question the prisoner? I used to know him. I feel it would be best if I talk to him. Maybe I could persuade him to join us?"

"Go ahead." The Great Being replied.

Arilam gingerly opened the cell door once he made it to Orokal's imprisonment area and locked it behind him. Trailing behind him was Borom. He pretended not to mind Borom's presence.

"If you have trouble, you can use the Mask of Mind Control," he hands the mask over to Arilam.

"Uh, I'll keep that in mind."

Orokal and Arilam stood for a moment, waiting for Borom to leave.

"So Arilam, I see you've joined these people."

The Toa of lightning looked down in humiliiation, "I had no choice. Velika frightened me into it. But...

I think I have a way for us to get out of this mess... But why did you come here?"

"Oh, I just sorta stumbled across this place." Orokal said. He always did those kinds of things.

"So..."

A crimson Toa stepped out from a corner of the room at that moment. Arilam and Orokal froze.

"UM... Have you just been standing in like, a corner, watching us for the whole conversation?"

Vashari smiled, "Don't worry about me. Tell me about yourself."

"I'm Orokal, a Toa of fire. Um, who are you?"

"Vashari, Toa of fire. How did you end up here?"

"Well... I tried coming in here and I got captured the first moment I stepped foot in here"

"Interesting. Why did you come here?"

"Well... I was trying to look for Arilam."

"So, you two are friends?"

"Yeah, we've known each other for a while."

"OK. I'm just tring to decide whether or not I should let you go. You're not doing a very good job of convincing me that you should. Maybe I should leave you in the hands of someone who's not as kind?"

An Onu-Matoran in a nearby cell chose this moment to make himself known; if this strange Toa might be an ally, it was worth the risk of interrupting. "Greeting Toa," he said to Vashari, "I do not know whence you come, or what terrible fate has driven you hither, but know that this Fortess and its lord embody darkness and evil.  Did you know of the Makuta Teridax?  He was but an ambitious bully beside Velika.  Would you have proof? I had done nothing against Velika, nothing to incur his wrath, but under his orders I was taken from my home, imprisond, and beaten. Whatever you have become, whatever has happened to you, I know that once you were a Toa.  A protector of Matoran like me.  A defender of right and justice.  Velika and his army of darkness cannot but fall in the end.  Return to the light, rember who you are!  This is your duty, your destiny, as a Toa!"

Vashari looked at the Matoran. "I am Toa only in appearance. Protection is the job of a Toa. I've already met my Destiny when my Unity was shattered. There are those better than me that deserve your speech. Your just wasting time with me."

Orokal gave a faint smile, "So uh, you look awesome by the way. Seriously, with like, the weapons, and the color scheme, and... the cape! Oh wow, that looks awesome, seriously." He was trying to lighten the mood (also trying to please Vashari into letting him go). He did honestly like the cape though. The cape is awesome. Arilam took the Mask of Mind reading and left the prison.

"Once again, your not helping your case. Trying to use flattery to appeal to my vanity and pride, that may have worked a few hundred years ago. But not today." Vashari turned to leave, he felt like he wasting his time, with both the prisoner, and this fortress.

"Gah! Orokal why!? Just why!? That was such a bad idea! Now he's leaving because of me!" Orokal scolded himself. He'd have to think of another way to get out of the Fortress.

Nuhwhol watched the retreating figure with dismay, less for his own predicament than for this aimless wanderer. He couldn't stand to let him leave without making a last appeal. He called after the Toa, "Have you no purpose then?  On what do you base your choices?  I warn you Toa, this war will consume our world.  You cannot remain forever neutral!"

He stopped, and without looking at anyone he said, "My world ended long ago. If you knew what the word 'Vashari' meant you would understand. I don't expect you to, but I thank you for trying." And as he left the cells he added, "But I have unfinished business here." The Toa left the keys to the cells behind.

Orokal's eyes widened as he saw the keys left right outside the bars to his cell. He would have to wait until Arilam came back. He gestured to Nuhwol signaling the keys. The Matoran smiled. Now they just needed Arilam to come back...

Vashari walked back into Velika's throne room.

"I've made a decision," he announced to the Great Being.

"What is it?" Velika looked interested.

"I've decided that I'm leaving this place, but first," He drew his sword, " Where is Insidian?"

"Right here." Insidian walked into the vast trhone room, Crystalia in tow, "Are you saying that you're betraying Lord Velika?"

Vashari narrowed his eyes, "You can't betray someone if you were never loyal to them in the first place." He pointed his sword at the Shadow Toa, "I'm leaving, and I'm talking your Mask with me. You don't deserve it."

"How dare you challenge us!" Crystalia snapped.

"You will stay out of this, Crystalia." Insidian unveiled his wrist blades and stepped towards the crimson Toa. Vashari mirrored him and soon they were circling each other. "I don't know what game you're playing Vashari, but it ends now." Vashari tightened his grip on his sword.

A vicious looking mutant spread her wings, examining the damage on the Temple of Light. Whatever had happened, she had missed it. Spotting a Toa digging through the rubble, she flew towards him and landed behind him,

"Look, I'm not trying to start a fight. I just want to know what happened here,"

Tritus was startled by the sudden approach of the mutant, but he managed a response, "A... The Marendar came and destroyed the Temple,"

Sylah, the Mutant, hissed softly in response, then looked up again. Something was here. Something was watching them. She withdrew her saber and began stalking around the ruined Temple. "Someone is, or was watching us," she said quietly. The mutant twirled her sword and struck it against the ground. "I know you're there. If you come out, I'll only disable you rather than kill you."

There was no response. But then out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of what looked like a Skakdi leaving the vicinity. She snapped her head in his direction but it was gone.

Tritus looked weary. "Where?"

Sylah looked around once more, "Not here, at least anymore..."

Down in the chamber Orokal waited for something to happen. Upstairs in Velika's throne room, something certainly was happening, but Orokal was frustratingly stuck inside of a prison! An explosion caught his attention. Could that be Arilam? The guards who entered the cell after Vashari left the room titled their heads upward towards the explosion. Another one and the guards left the chamber. Orokal immediately stood up from his cell, pulling out the key he had hidden from the guards and unlocking his door, as well as the other prisoners.

"Cmon, let's get out of here!"

Arilam quickly entered the chamber gesturing to the prisoners towards the end of the hall. Orokal carried one of the matoran, Nuhwhol, and rushed to the exit just before the Skrall guards entered the chamber. The prisoners froze and looked behind them.

As Insidian and Vashari circled each other, Vashari began to notice his vision darkening, and the edges of his vision were clogged with what appeared to be strange creatures. The Toa of fire concentrated, knowing it was an illusion.

Vashari breathed in and closed his eyes, the Arthron activating to it's full power. He could see everything around him through the vibrations in the air. The subtle breathing of everyone in the throne room painted a picture, clear as day. The creaking of armor and weapons, the air flowing through the room. All could be seen.

Now all he had to do is wait.

Arilam turned around, gritting his fist. The Skrall raised their weapons. The Toa wouldn't be able to make it to the exit in time. Arilam gave a faint smile to the Skrall,

"Well, this is the first time I've done this..." Opening his fist, electricity crackled across the room, the Skrall dropped to the ground in an instant.

"Let's, uh, get out of here now?" The Prisoners went through the exit, a Po-Matoran named Petram trailing behind, "Hold on a second!" He said, running after the Toa.

Insidian, thinking he had successfully blinded Vashari, lunges at him from behind his back but is surprised by a quick parry from the crimson Toa.

Through the exit, the escapees see that there is more left in their way before freedom. A Large blocks off an area around the Temple of Light. The Toa of fire, although rash, charged headfirst into the wall, the matoran he was carrying shut his eyes as rubble flew past him. Lo and behold, they were outside! The excitement died as they heard the noises of six Skrall behind them.

"They're after us! About six Skrall, can we outrun them?" he yelled.

"Uh... Hold on." The prisoners took off running with the Skrall at their heels. One of the Skrall waves his hand, and a wal of stone appears in front of the escapees.

"WOAH! When did Skrall have stone powers?" Arilam looked nervously at the approaching Skrall, machete in hand.

"Blame Velika." The Po-Matoran, Petram said. Arilam snapped his fingers, and his Tryna activated. Toa-Skeletons, Agori, anything dead around the escapees were animated, their eyes vieled by a shade. They drew their weapons rather lethargicly and moved towards the Skrall. The Skrall backed up, but kept their weapons up.

Arilam started climbing the wall, "Cmon, the Tryna won't last forever." The Prisoners began to scale the wall set up by the Geomancer Skrall. Nuhwhol, Petram, Arilam, and Orokal, the prisoners, made it across and landed on the other side of the wall. They had to keep going, though, before the skrall caught up.

Insidian stepped back from the aggresive tactics of Vashari. "You are a good fighter. No point of joining the losing side." He draws and loads his crossbow.

"Your conflict is irrelevant. Further attempts to convince me otherwise will only be wasted breath." The sound of the crossbow picking into place appeared before his eyes. He wasn't completely sure of the weapons capabilities, but it was no doubt effective. Insidian fired the arrow at Vashari, but the Fire Toa reacted all too quickly, the arrow broken by his sword and Vashari lunged towards Insidian with his sword.

Ask Orokal scaled the wall, It crumpled over him, showering him in rocks. Forced to the ground, he realized that the Geomancer Skrall was covering him in stone, drying to trap him. He fought and struggled until his own body caught on fire hindering the effects of the stone prison. Staggering, he got up but the reanimated Toa had been taken down by the Skrall. The Matoran were hurling rocks at the Skrall but they didn't do much.

"I really, *really* hate Skrall..." He mumbled as he jogged over to Arilam, who was brandishing his machete to keep the Skrall back. The machete started to glow a deep blue color as a crackling sound shattered the air and the Skrall were put onto their knees. Petram used a shank he got from the bars of his cell and pinned the Geomancer to the ground with stabby attacks. Nuhwhol groaned as he attempted to stand on his own. They had managed to subdue the Skrall guards... Finally.

"Let's go," Orokal said as he carried the two Matoran towards the mountains. "They won't be able to recover and get to us in time if we can make it to the mountains." Arilam panted.

Insidian's quick reflexes show as he sidesteps the lunge and slashes at Vashari with his wrist blades. Shadowy smoke was emanating off of his armor as both Toa taxed themselves during their fight. Vashari managed to avoid one of the wrist blades but the other slashed his arm. With no time to recover, he unleashes his claws from under his cape and prepared to use the sneak attack. Insidian lunges again, but this time he falls for Vashari's plan. Narrowly missing the crimson Toa, Insidian catches the claws Vashari sets out with his wrist blade, but Vashari's weapons erupt in a blazing flame that would put a Toa Nuva to shame. Temporarily blinded by the fire, Vashari slashes his sword across Insidian knocking him backwards, before striking him with his palm with immense force, breaking his mask and causing the dark Toa to crumble.

Velika observed the battle from his throne, and once Vashari landed the fatal attack, Velika understood his ploy.

"A concealed weapon? And you continue to insist that you don't belong in the shadows!" Velika leaned forward in his throne. This decision was not his to make, but Vashari's.

In the middle of the desert outside of New Atero, Lync awoke with small flashes of what happened previously. But apart from that, she didn't really remember what happened when she and Marendar flew otuside of the city walls... Clearly she had lost, or else she wouldn't be stuck in the middle of a desert. She wasn't alone however. Vorox colonies were swarming around her, although they had chosen to leave Lync alone, which she was grateful for. A Vorox, or maybe a Toa? Whatever it was, it was starting to approach Lync.

"Y-You. How d-did you end up h-here?" The Toa-Vorox seemed incredibly flustered. What she was by, Lync didn't know.

"Uh... I actually have no idea..."

The Vorox didn't seemed satisfied by the answer.

"Then I sh-shall fetch the m-memories." The Vorox activated a power of psionics on Lync (Which probably made the Vorox a disfigured Toa) and it all came rushing back. Marendar had overwhelmed her Hau shield and sent her plummeting to the desert. Luckily for her, it was not fatal like Kaeren's fall.

"Thank you" Lync groaned. "I have to go see the other Toa. Would you like to come with me?"

The vorox-queen Cenotoa wondered. Should she go with the Toa of Air? She liked being by herself, but if the Toa had a plan...

"I w-will come with you." she finally decided. The Vorox around her burrowed into the ground, acting like her bodyguards.

In the mountains, the escapees (Composed of Arilam, Orokal, Petram, and Nuhwhol) watched in the distance New Atero in one direction, and Velika's fortress in the opposite.

"Do you think they're gone?" Petram asked.

"Probably. We should get going to New Atero. That's where we'll all be safest from the terrors of Velika's empire." Nuhwhol responded.

"Are you going to leave, or stay?" Velika inquired.

"You already know. I'm going." Vashari takes Insidian's broken Mask off his face. He turned to leave, overhearing a conversation between Crystalia and Velika.

"May I end him, Lord Velika?"

"No. Let him run off to the other side. The losing side. This game of chess is almost at it's end. And there will be no mercy for those choosing to defy me."

As he walked out he added, "I believe you." He was tired, but he wasn't showing it. "You're too weak for mercy."

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