Against the Storm/Volume I

Against the Storm: Volume I is the first volume of Against the Storm. It was written by CaptainLandr0ver and released on December 8, 2017.

This Volume sees several events occur on Powai Nui which alert the island's authorities.

Theme: Muse - Take a Bow
Gently, the morning sunlight began to shine on the tall mountains. There was only a yellowish light, which fit the shade of the rocky behemoths, to illuminate the valleys and hills below, where a morning breeze moved the greatgrass like a vagrant yellow sea. The noises of the night faded away, and in their place the chirping of Rahi rose up, resonating in the dew on the leaves of the giant, graceful trees. Somewhere in the distance, a herd of deer-like Rahi rose up and began to graze on the grass peacefully and a flock of Kupurero watched them from the skies, twirling through the cold air in unison. Insects swarmed around a pond, some slowly and others at lightning speeds, but all in a graceful manner.

But not all creatures were peaceful this morning. After all, this was Powai Nui, and those who knew about it knew how destiny liked to treat it. Swiftly, a humanoid being dashed through the grass. His left hand was covering his stomach, and his right hand was holding onto an ornate staff, which matched the designs seen on his silver and gold armor. Two red ribbons tied around his torso flapped behind him, one trailing ashes as it began to catch fire. A third ribbon was bound to a strange black mask and a spherical machine, which were banging together as he ran.

He looked behind his shoulder, and saw several mechanical beings chasing after him. Somehow, despite the uneven terrain, all of their footsteps were in near unison. They raised their weapons and began to fire them, and several dozen flashing, flickering projectiles whizzed past their target. Two of them embedded themselves in the right shoulder, one into the armor and the other into what was underneath, and the ribboned being fell to the ground just in time to begin rolling down a grassy hill. He tumbled down, his armor scraping against the oak bushes and smearing rainwater. As he fell, the flaming ribbon he wore was torn off by the foliage, and spread it’s fire to it.

As the figure came to a stop, he noticed the fire spreading and the mechanical beings, who were now at the top of the slope. He raised his staff, and red lights appeared where the fire had started and in other places along the top of the hill. He focused, squinting his eyes, and space itself ripped where the red lights were, transporting flaming plant material to other places above him. He repeated this several more times, evenly spreading out the flames as they grew at an accelerated pace.

Much to his dismay, his pursuers stepped right through the fire without flinching. They raised their firearms once again and opened fire without any hesitation.

The ribboned being raised his staff once more, and a cluster vortexes opened up right in front of him, which all of the numerous fired projectiles flew right into. Several more portals opened up, this time above each of his pursuers, raining their own rounds down on top of them. Some were only knocked around and scraped, others were mowed down to the ground and riddled with holes.

All that mattered to the ribboned being is that he could now escape from them while he had the time. He knew that his staff had to recharge from having destroyed hundreds more of the same type of mechanical beings all across the Matoran Universe.

“What had I done to get myself into such a lifestyle as this one?” he thought to himself.

A rusty voice spoke up from in front of him and seemed to answer this question for him.

“Running away, again?” it said, and the ribboned being turned to see another humanoid wearing dirtied dark silver armor.

The ribboned being refused to speak.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot, you don’t talk much.” said the humanoid figure in front of him. “That’s to be expected from a race who made a failure such as this Matoran Universe… thing.”

The ribboned being assumed a defensive stance to prepare himself for anything. He could hear the remainder of the mechanical beings rise up behind him, some of them raising their weapons again.

“Guns down, boys,” the other being said, and the mechanical beings did as they were told. “So, Jayniss… such a nice name, isn’t it?” He paused and thought deeply for a bit. “Not really, to be harshly honest… I kinda laughed when I heard it from my hirer for the first time. Speaking of that guy, who would hire a Dark Hunter to go and catch a rogue Great Being?”

There was no reply.

“My thoughts exactly, Mr. Optimism. Anywho, I’m… gonna put this bluntly, although it’s a bit unnecessary since I spoiled what I need to do with you while I was rambling… I was asked to capture you alive. Y’know, they didn’t say anything about you being free of damage… just, alive. They need your wicked staff thing, too, although I don’t think they’d take too much off of my pay if I took that beauty for my-”

The Dark Hunter was cut off mid-sentence when a bolt of lightning came from behind and struck one of the mechanical beings. It’s damaging effect spread to all of it’s comrades, reducing the last of them remaining to malfunctioning, misshapen clumps of metal limbs. The Dark Hunter crouched down momentarily and let a few curses slip out before casually standing up and turning around to see where the bolt of lightning had come from. His eyes fell upon a Toa of Lightning, sporting dark blue and ghost white armor which looked simultaneously ornate and in disrepair, like an ancient piece of art. She was holding in her right hand a hook-like blade attached to a long, white handle. The blade was charged with great amounts of electricity, noticeable through the arcs of electricity dancing all over it. “‘Sunder’.” she said. Her voice was pure-sounding, but beset with signs of aging and stress.

“It’s a day for calling each other names, ain’t it?” said “Sunder”, not at all intimidated by the stormy Toa aiming her weapon at him. “And how did you know that’s what I go by?”

“You don’t remember me, do you?” the Toa replied. “Those amps I’ve had to send through your body many times in the past have been getting to your head already.”

“Now I remember you a bit more,” “Sunder” said. “I don’t know your name, but what I do remember you for is your temper… your element and your personality go hand-in-hand, don’t they?”

“Speaking of hands,” the Toa of Lightning said, “I know what you’re doing with your left.” She nodded toward “Sunder”’s left hand, which was sneakily aiming a small hand held firearm at Jayniss. “You’re not fooling me… again.”

“Or am I?” said “Sunder” before flinging the firearm in front of him and firing it at the Toa of Lightning. The shot was blocked almost as quickly as it was anticipated.

“I knew you were going to do that,” she said.

“Oh, sure you did…”

“Yeah, I did.”

“You’re just saying that to help feel better about yourself, aren’t you?”

“You're the one who needs to take better care of yourself.” said the Toa of Lightning. “If I were you, I’d go looking for jobs that won’t get you onto this island.”

“If you were me, I’d be dead.” was the reply “Sunder” gave her.

“Very funny.”

“Oh, yeah…” “Sunder” said, his voice trailing off dreamily, “I remember… you always like to crack jokes! I can remember your name now, I think…”

“Maroona?”

“Ah, shoot! I was just about guess that before you spoiled it to me so flippantly.”

Jayniss saw the banter before him and decided that now was the best time to try and escape. He backed away slowly, keeping his eyes locked onto “Sunder”.

“Sunder” immediately threw his head back, bent his arm and fired his pistol over his shoulder, nailing Jayniss square in the jaw. The shot did no real damage, but from the projectile embedded in his chin surged a current of strange feeling, which gently sent him into a paralyzed, catatonic state. His hands jerked open and closed, allowing his staff to fall from his failing grasp as his body fell to the ground.

Maroona immediately retaliated by summoning a ball of lightning and launching it at “Sunder”, who barely dodged it. The Dark Hunter rolled to the side and picked up Jayniss’ staff, incidentally grabbing a handful of grass in the process. As soon as he was upright, he dashed behind a bush and began fiddling with the staff. Something on the staff clicked, and a portal opened up next to “Sunder”. He smiled into it, and looked back to see that Jayniss was no longer there. He ran back out of the bushes and saw that Maroona had dragged the Great Being to where she was standing and was guarding him.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she taunted. She then fired a bolt of lightning, but “Sunder” dodged this, and instead the bolt struck the bush. The immense amount of electricity caused the plant to dry out entirely as crumbled pieces of wood flew in all directions.

After seeing this, “Sunder” rushed at Maroona, pointing the tonged end of the staff towards her. Maroona raised her weapon and positioned it so that it’s long handle fit right between the staff’s two tongs. She quickly twisted her weapon, using the torque to twist the staff out of his grasp. Now that “Sunder” had no weapon, Maroona put her the conjoined weapons to the side and threw several punches at “Sunder”. Most of them were unfortunately blocked, and “Sunder” further proved his  combat superiority by striking her in the abdomen several times. Using her powers, Maroona charged her body, and while the next punch still hurt just as much, it definitely hurt her opponent more. She then threw her arm back to send a powerful strike into the Dark Hunter, almost sending him off balance and severely disorientating him. Seizing the opportunity while he was dizzy from the impact, she pushed him forward, sending him stumbling into the portal he had created. Incidentally, it closed almost as soon as he was completely through it.

As Maroona kneeled down and let her head lower to catch her breath, she noticed that the armor over her abdomen was damaged from the battle. From the dents in it one could tell that a lot of the power sent through “Sunder”’s punches were absorbed into it, yet despite this they still hurt like they had hit her flesh directly. Something about him made him much stronger than when they had last crossed paths.

A Vo-Matoran came out of the bushes carrying a writing utensil and a notepad. He finished writing something down—which he was very focused on—before looking up at Maroona.

“I am glad he has been banished from this island now,” he said.

“Yep,” said Maroona, as she groggily grabbed her weapon and the staff.

“The terror he brought upon this island could have really damaged my customer flow.”

“Is there anything, Leoger,” Maroona said as she pulled her weapon and the staff apart, “that matters to you other than business?”

“Only occasionally,” Leoger answered as he picked up and observed a fragment of the lightning-struck bush. “My, that bush received many times more damage than that Dark Hunter.”

“Yeah, ‘cause bushes aren’t made of metal,” Maroona said.

“Yes, but, assuming he was a Toa, which is my theory, his organic components should have been severely damaged… not to mention the extreme temperatures.”

“You’re missing a key point,” Maroona said as she stood up, assisting herself with the staff, “and that’s that Toa are more resilient than Matoran.”

“But we are technically made up of the same materials. You're practically a larger version of me.”

“Yup.”

“Then how can you take more damage than I can before you get seriously injured?”

“Magic.”

“Oh, Maroona, don’t be absurd—”

“I was kidding, Leoger. If I knew for real this talk would’ve been pretty short.” Maroona went on finding a way to fasten the staff to her, all to no avail. It was only after this that she noticed that, peculiarly, Leoger had not responded to her. She turned around as a feeling of unease surged through her body, but was relieved to see that Leoger was fortunately still there. His silence, rather, was caused by the reawakening of Jayniss, who simply stared at Maroona.

“Hey,” Maroona said as she stretched forth her hand holding the staff, “you want this back?”

Jayniss reached his hand forward, seemingly to accept it. As Maroona leaned forward to give it to him, a red portal opened up beside the Great Being, and he lowered his arm. Gathering the other things he had dropped, save for the staff, he simply walked through the portal without saying a word. There was a moment of silence after this as Leoger and Maroona simply stared at each other and where Jayniss was last seen. The portal had closed on a patch of grass, shortening it below and signifying exactly where the portal had been.

“Well,” Maroona said, “I guess the best thing to do now is hand this over to the KCO.”

“Are you sure?” Leoger questioned. “It’s not hazardous of an object.”

“Not unless someone less than respectable gets their hands on it.” Maroona argued. “And on this island that’s more likely than it should be. I think Kakkan will know what to do with it.”

Arrows and Artifacts
“Arvos, come look at this!”

Gradually, an exhausted Ta-Matoran finished climbing up a steep incline and reached flat land. He wanted to just fall down on the ground and catch his breath, but he knew that if he did that Wreshi would likely get too far ahead of him again. He looked up to see the Po-Matoran, donned in rare black and yellow armor, walk ahead like there was absolutely nothing stopping him. No exhaustion, no dehydration, nothing. “Wait up!” he exclaimed as he urged himself to shuffle forward, panting heavily.

“You still can’t be this exhausted,” said Wreshi, “can you?”

“It’s too high up,” Arvos said. “I just can’t get enough oxygen.”

“Really?” Wreshi said as he finally turned around to talk. “We still have a long way to go—I think—and the air’s already gettin’ too thin for ya?”

Arvos stumbled up to Wreshi and put his hand on the Po-Matoran’s shoulder to balance himself. “If I had the choice,” he said between deep breaths, “we would’ve gotten a better mode of transportation.”

“Nonsense,” Wreshi said. “This is the best mode! You can go anywhere, you know when to stop so that you don’t break down…”

“Most machines aren’t stopped by thin air,” Arvos said.

“Well,” Wreshi said, “look, you’ll be fine in a little bit and the air won't be bugging you. Most Matoran are able to adapt to high altitudes no matter what type they are.”

Arvos was able to stand up without assistance now. “My lungs are adapted to hot air,” he said, “maybe the cold air is getting me.”

“Nah, I don’t think air temperature affects breathing.” Wreshi claimed as he began walking up to the next hill. “I’d let you get all your breath, but I think we’re runnin’ outta daylight.”

Arvos reluctantly followed him. As he trudged through the wetted sand, he realized how similar it was to the sand in Po-Powai. Even in it's muddy state, he could that that it was just as fine, probably just as warm and the only difference was that it was white instead of red. Looking down at the sand, he didn’t see the long object embedded in the hillside at his eye level, and walked right into it. Wreshi turned around and snickered.

“Stop laughing at me,” Arvos pleaded.

“Nah, you’re fine,” Wreshi said reassuringly, “I’m not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you. Like I always say, laugh with people, not at them, and you were just too shocked to laugh I guess.”

Arvos forced a quiet, sarcastic laugh, struggling to grasp whatever sense may or may not have been in Wreshi’s words. He stopped trying when he focused his eyes onto what he had run into. Rather than a branch, it was a metal rod about as long as he was tall and about the thickness of the average tree limb. “Woah,” Wreshi said as walked over to help Arvos up, “when I was told about the rumored artifacts, I was told they were way up higher than here.” After helping Arvos back onto his feet he studied it for a bit. Arvos reached out his hand and grasped it, and confirmed that it was a metal rare to the island. He then tried to jerk it out of the hillside, but was unable to. With the strength of both of them, they were able to pull it out and study it.

"You check that out," Wreshi said, "I'm going to go see if there's more stuff round 'ere."

The Ta-Matoran continued studying the rod. As he did this, he began to notice other oddities: anomalous Rahi bones scattered around, something glinting in the bushes, and a dirtied red ribbon, which was shredded down to it’s individual fibers in some areas, stuck on a high-up tree branch.

Wreshi crept toward the bushes and began to slowly push them aside, and found some sort of sphere composed of metal arms connected at the ends of a metal rod. As he studied it closer, he saw that near what was likely the bottom of it, the arms could pivot and allow it to open up like a flower.

Cautiously, Wreshi snapped a branch off and prodded the object. To his relief, nothing exploded and no highly acidic liquids came pouring out of a hidden tube and onto him. He set the stick aside and touched it again with his extended finger, before flicking it. It, too, was made of a rare metal, possibly the same kind as the rod.

As he picked up the object, coiled dead vines broke off of it’s far end. He looked back to see how Arvos was doing.

"You alright?"

"Yeah," Arvos said, "I'm just noticing other things— Rahi skeletons and stuff."

"Skeletons?" Wreshi said. "So, this place could be trapped... luckily, you didn't activate any gnarly defense mechanisms when you pulled that out. But, you better be careful down the road, 'cuz there are more booby-trapped areas on this island than I can remember."

“What road?” Arvos said. “I don’t plan on doing much more adventuring. The only reason I’m here assisting you is because I have nothing better to do.” “Neither do I,” Wreshi replied, “so I adventure. Just feels right to me. Here, come look at this.” He showed Arvos what he had just found and the Ta-Matoran studied it.

“Again, definitely not from here,” he stated. “Made of whatever this arrow’s made of.”

“That’s an arrow?” Wreshi asked.

“Yep,” said Arvos as he showed the Po-Matoran the lightweight arrowhead and subtle fletching on it, which too were composed of this foreign metal. The two of them also noticed the letter “T” written in the Matoran alphabet inscribed faintly on the arrowhead, only barely visible through the many scratches and dust layers over it.

“Wreshi,” Arvos said, gesturing to the spherical device Wreshi was holding “what is that you’re holding?”

“I’m not sure, really,” Wreshi said, “but I think it fits the description of one of the things that Great Being brought here.”

“A— Great Being came here?” Arvos asked.

“Yeah, his name was Jayniss. All I remember about him was that he was ‘expelled’ from the other Great Beings or something. He brought some artifacts with him, and I think this is one of those.”

“So, what does it do?”

“It’ll probably eat us or something if we’re not careful, so I think it’s safer in the hands of the KCO until they figure out what to do with it.”

Hunted
The next morning, nothing was quiet in Le-Powai. Ghostly choirs echoed throughout the canyon walls, vibrating ponds at it’s loudest parts and likely garnering some sort of attention back in the Le-Matoran tree village. The Ga-Matoran were likely annoyed by the Le-Matoran, and likely would soon begin to yell at the Le-Matoran to stop overreacting about the occurrence. The Le-Matoran would argue back that the choirs predicted major events, something which the Ga-Matoran should’ve known. The Ga-Matoran would argue that they couldn’t study them if the Le-Matoran kept howling in response to the choirs. This arguing between the Ga-Matoran “Riparies” and the Le-Matoran “Conifers” would likely go on for at least another hour maybe two or three even, before their bickering ended when the songs did.

Lewok found it a bit humorous that something so well-understood to both Matoran types such as the Kupurero songbird could still cause arguing that made it seem neither of them knew a thing about them. He swore that he could even hear the assumed bickering echo beneath the birdsong.

What was currently being sung was known as a “petrichorus,” named from a fusion of “petrichor,” the smell emanating after rainfall which is highly esteemed by Le-Matoran and Ga-Matoran, and “chorus.” Kupurero seemed to have an intimate connection to the weather, and as such petrichoruses were the loudest type of song they sung. However, the petrichorus today rather quiet. Additionally, petrichoruses included noises which sounded like water dripping in a cave, and none could be heard. The chords sung were not indicative of dew on leaves, mist or rainbows, another sign that something was abnormal.

Lewok stopped walking on the trail to sit down on a rock and snack on something. He rested his ranger’s rifle on the rock and sifted through his burlap pack, but was unable to find any food. He knew that he had packed more food than what he’d already eaten. Finally, he found a sack of dried rice and berries in the pouch containing his identification as a Forest Ranger for the Association for Powai Nuian Wilderness and Trailworks.

Rangery was a strange occupation. A ranger had the role of maintaining the environment, protecting other Matoran, responding to incidents and emergencies, and enforcing the laws put forth by the Powai Nui Governing Coalition. Each was given a “ranger’s rifle,” a Divurgo-based firearm with an axe blade on the stock. Although it was the iconic tool of a ranger, it was equally an unorthodox idea. Learning to use one was quite hard, and learning to use one effectively was almost twice as hard.

As Lewok closed the sack of rice and berries and put it back in his pack, he decided to take out a piece of paper and a lead pencil and record the songs of the Kupurero.

As he began to do so, he began to recognize details that made it seem more like an “orachorus”, the most baffling type of song. Such a song was a cry for action, an action which could only be specified by deciphering the specific notes into Archaic Matoran, a language which seemed to be strangely related to the Kupurero. Without a translation key (few of which existed), the process of translating notes to written language was rigorous and difficult, so some Matoran spent their entire career in the field of translating the songs to Archaic Matoran. Of course, nobody who spoke Archaic Matoran spoke it for any reason other than to look learned, so songs were usually further translated into standard Matoran.

As Lewok continued to record the song, he noticed sudden shifts in tone, pitch and time signature. These were also very common among orachoruses, each shift indicating an entirely new word in the message.

Lewok continued uninterrupted until a flock of birds flew from behind him, singing a song of panic. This “panichorus” spread to each songbird like a plague, each joining in to tell the next that something was wrong. Lewok dropped his paper and pencil back into his pack and pulled the drawstring to close it, and then grabbed his ranger’s rifle as he quickly sat up from the rock. He looked around, searching for whatever had caused the panichorus, but couldn’t find anything. Unbeknownst to him, a tall, invisible being stood a mere couple of meters away from him. Just as he began to recognize the large footprints in the grass, a glass bottle struck him in the face and shattered open, and he blacked out.

“I’m not giving you many chances.”

“I don’t have enough time for this.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have put so much solution in that bottle.”

“Are you a member of the KCO?”

“If you can hear me, I need you to tell me where the Staff of Vortices is!”

Lewok was startled to complete wakefulness when he was shaken by a metal hand. He found himself bound to a tree by his left wrist, with an imposing, metallic figure standing over him. He looked strange, like he had replaced all of his organic components with mechanical ones. When his eyes fell on his head, the Le-Matoran jolted. Where there should have been a Kanohi of some kind, or at least something passable as a face, there was instead a skeletal collection of scopes, wires, metal plates, sensors and speakers, which vaguely resembled a face.

He and his captor were in a secluded part of the forest, under a massive pine tree where the ground was littered with needles and light scarcely entered from any direction. It added to the overwhelming blend of confusion and dread that Lewok felt as he looked into his captor's nearly soulless eyes. “I need to know where the Staff of Vortices is.” spoke the being.

“The...” Lewok said quietly, “the what?”

“Staff of Vortices. Brought here by the banished Great Being Jayniss.”

“I...” Lewok stuttered as he failed to think straight, “I don’t know…”

“You are a member of the KCO as well as APNWT, right?”

Lewok gave no answer, and instead inspected a bloodstained gash above his right eyebrow.

“Under controlled circumstances, I am patient,” said his captor, whose voice was monotone and uncanny, “but today time is not. If you do not tell me where the Staff of Vortices is, I will be forced to resort to methods of interrogation which involve much physiological and psychological pain and torture.”

“Who are you?” Lewok asked.

“That is not a question I can answer.”

“What questions can you answer?”

“None. I am the one who will be asking questions.”

“If I tell you where the Staff of Vortices is, you’ll tell me who you are.”

With not even a second of consideration, his captor responded: “This deal is made.”

“I need you to tell me who you are first,” Lewok said.

“My name is Kazengo,” said the being immediately, “and I am an agent of a secret organization bent on fulfilling the will of Mata Nui where Toa cannot. Now, I need you to tell me where the Staff of Vortices is.”

Lewok thought for a bit, and then said, “It’s just south of here, near the north edge of the Matoran village. You’ll have to start digging if you want to find it from there.”

“You hesitated before you said that,” Kazengo said, once again immediately, “and I detected exactly 78 individual fluctuations in the pitch, tone and volume of your voice which indicated that the information you gave me was false.”

Lewok was equally put down by his failure at lying as he was astonished by Kazengo’s ability to pick up such information.

“Nobody who seeks to fulfill the will of Mata Nui kidnaps Matoran and threaten torture,” Lewok argued.

“That is false.” Kazengo said, “I mentioned that we fulfill it where Toa cannot. The Toa Code is against such practices, and going beyond that would mean practices such as this in the name of Mata Nui. Now I would like you to tell me the true location of the Staff of Vortices.”

“I know,” Lewok said, with a fresh hint of defiance, “that your name isn’t Kazengo.”

“What evidence brought you to such a delusion?”

“Not evidence, but faith.”

“Faith?”

“I have faith that you are not who you told me you are.”

“You are a fool. Have you not learned that faith always fails?”

“What evidence brought you to such a delusion?” Lewok said. “Kazengo” hesitated for several seconds, and the Le-Matoran smirked, believing that he had finally put his captor at a loss for words.

Suddenly, "Kazengo" picked a long harpoon-shaped firearm off of the ground and aimed it to his left. Only because of it’s aim could Lewok see Maroona standing, her weapon not raised but still ready to discharge a large amount of electricity.

“Let him go,” Maroona said. “Kazengo” simply stood still. His multiple scopes zoomed in and out on the Toa of Lightning, and his weapon was still raised and was now aimed directly at her head.

“I’ve heard that powerful electrical shocks are one of the most painful things any being can experience.”

“Kazengo” lowered his weapon and backed away slowly. As soon as Maroona darted her eyes to Lewok, he grabbed something from his back and crushed it, releasing an odorless chemical which caused him to turn invisible. He then ran away, an action which was only visible through his large footprints appearing and disappearing in the grass, leaving it slowly curling back up again. Maroona trotted over to Lewok, her eyes still looking in “Kazengo”’s direction. She finally looked away to chop Lewok’s binding with her weapon.

“Thank you,” Lewok said, as he untied the rope from around his wrist and massaged it.

“No problem,” Maroona responded.

As the Toa of Lightning inspected the glass shards found where “Kazengo” had stood, Lewok gathered his things, which were strewn about in the grass, and put them back in his pack.

“Why were you bound to that tree?” Maroona asked. “I assume he captured you.”

“Yes,” said Lewok, “I believe that’s what happened. He wanted to know about the Staff of Vortices, and nothing else.”

Maroona put on a confused expression as she inspected one of the glass shards. A curdled residue oozed off of it and turned the tip of her finger invisible for a split second. “The only beings who have ever been concerned with that have been various Dark Hunters, so it’s likely that he was one.”

“Just as I thought,” Lewok said. “He told me that his name was Kazengo and that he was from an organization that was trying to fulfill the will of Mata Nui.”

“Which was likely false information,” Maroona said before dropping the glass shard and squinting at Lewok’s Kanohi. “It looks like he hurt your eyebrow, are you alright?” She knelt down and attempted to touch the mask to see it better, but Lewok gestured for her not to.

“I’m not too sure,” Lewok answered, “since I can’t see the injury. The bleeding has stopped, but that hasn’t stopped me from feeling kind of… oh, I can’t think of the word.”

“Lightheaded?”

“Yes, lightheaded. I think I’ll be fine, though—”

“No, you won’t.” Maroona argued as she turned her head at odd angles to observe the wound better. “It’s more severe than it feels, it looks like. I bet they’ll be able to help you at the KCO.”

“The KCO? Is that where the Staff is?”

“Yep.”

“I do have medicinal supplies with me, so I can just head back to the Le-Matoran village…” Lewok trailed off as he rummaged through his pack for said medicinal supplies.

“But you still have valuable information,” Maroona reminded him. “Even if I memorize everything you know and tell the KCO, they’ll still want to see you in case they can find something out from you that I or the Le- or Ga-Matoran can’t.”

“Well, if you insist,” said Lewok as he grabbed bandages and several types of disinfectants out of his bag. After disinfecting his wound with Maroona’s help and bandaging his eyebrow, which to his disadvantage covered his right eye, they began walking to Ko-Powai.

Security
There was a loud and almost obnoxious knock on the wooden door. The noise echoed throughout the stony office room  This shook a Ko-Matoran donned in golden armor from a half-awake state, and he quickly stuffed several papers with musical notes onto a shelf and scrambled to open the door. As he did, he assumed a professional-looking posture.

As he opened the door, he saw a brusque Onu-Matoran standing confidently before him. He wore bits of red over his natural black and silver armor, signifying him as the head guard of the Kakkan Containment Organization. Oddly, he held his chin so that his head was level and not tilted in any direction.

“Please, come in,” said the Ko-Matoran.

“Y’know, Navahko,” said the Onu-Matoran gruffly as he did as he was asked, “I think most would just start with that and let the guest open the door himself.”

“What difference does it make that I didn’t, Corduk?” Navahko replied considerately.

“Not much I guess,” Corduk answered, “although I did hear some slamming inside when I knocked. You didn’t happen to fall asleep, did you?”

“Well,” Navahko said, being too overwhelmed with a feeling of embarrassment to finish his reply.

“That’s alright,” Corduk reassured, “I’ve been caught falling asleep too. For some, these caves trick the mind into thinking it’s time to go to sleep. Anyways, I’m sure you’ve heard about what’s happened in Le-Powai about the supposed Dark Hunter wanting KVM-26. I’ve come to talk to you about it and come to a conclusion as to what’s going on because Kakkan is being occupied by something happening in Po-Powai with a Rahi composed of volatile chemicals—”

“Woah, alright, slow down,” Navahko, cut him off. He beckoned Corduk to pull up a stool to his desk so that the two could talk sitting down. “First off, as the supervisor of this organization one of the things I’ve been ordered to remind you to do is to respect those you work for, which involves saying ‘President Kakkan’ instead of just ‘Kakkan’.”

“But you and Haumaru I can just call by the name with or without the title?”

“Because President Kakkan is also a part of the PNGC.”

“I guess…”

“And second, I haven’t heard about this happening in Le-Powai. Please, tell me.”

Corduk prepared himself for a lengthy explanation and explained what had happened to Lewok in Le-Powai.

“KVM-26 is the Staff of Vortices, correct?” Navahko asked for clarification as he sifted through a stack of papers on a shelf under his desk.

“Correct,” Corduk said, “the staff Maroona obtained from the Great Being Jayniss about a century ago.”

Navahko slapped half of a dozen connected papers on his desk. The yellowed title page read “Object Report on KVM-26: ‘Staff of Vortices’” in Matoran and was devoid of anything else. After fingering through pages, paragraphs and sentences, Navahko read aloud, “KVM-26 was recovered following an estimated 18 attempts by the hired Dark Hunter ‘Sunder’ to capture Jayniss, a Great Being who was exiled for unknown reasons.” Muttering to himself incomprehensibly, he skimmed down further and read, “It is believed that the only beings who know of the device outside of Powai Nui are a few Dark Hunters and a conjectural single organization who pursued Jayniss and hired the Dark Hunters.”

“Sounds like we are dealing with a Dark Hunter, then,” Corduk said with confidence.

“It says that there was a conjectural organization trying to obtain it.” Navahko argued. He noticed that while his chin was facing down, Corduk’s was level. “What’s to say that this being who interrogated Lewok was instead directly related to this organization?”

“Well, I,” Corduk stopped himself and stared, deep in thought, until he restarted with, “That is valid reasoning.”

“And then,” Navahko continued, “there’s the possibility that this is just another organization who’s heard of the Staff, or maybe just this one being looking for it.”

“This all seems a bit too hypothetical, though. It seems like this organization doesn’t like to have to do things themselves, seeing as they hired ‘Sunder’ to try and do the same thing 18 times. I’m still thinking that he’s a Dark Hunter.”

“I suppose we’ll need more evidence.”

“We do have more evidence. We have Lewok here.”

“You do?”

“Yes, he’s in one of the unused storage rooms with some of our medicinal equipment and some of his own. Both he and Maroona requested that he be there instead of somewhere in Le-Powai so that, I assume, he can tell us a direct witness account of what happened.”

“Medicinal equipment— was he injured?”

“He got a minor wound above his right eye, I believe, so I don’t want you to panic when you see his eye covered with bandages.”

“Are we seeing him right now?” In preparation Navahko began to sit up.

“Now would be better than later.” Corduk got up as well, and began directing Navahko to Lewok’s room. Each near-synced pair of footstep shot up and down the rectangular cave walls, repeatedly breaking through the standard dead silence which usually filled the elongated void. Awakened by the footsteps, several caged Rahi from half-a-dozen hallways away began barking, growling, howling and hissing a cacophony of derangement, and after some shouts from Onu- and Ko-Matoran the clamor began to died down. The last noise heard from this distant event was three or four Matoran discussing a bet they had made on the next time such a thing would happen with the Rahi. “Sounds fun being a guard,” Navahko said. Nothing else was said until he and Corduk reached Lewok’s room. Corduk was about to simply open the door before Navahko interrupted him and knocked on the door.

“He’s a visitor, not a prisoner,” he said. “We need to respect his privacy.”

A fluid voice beckoned them to open the door and come inside.

“Hello,” said Navahko as he walked in, exchanging a smile with Lewok, who had a bandage over his right eye as was said. The Le-Matoran was sitting at the edge of a lean cott covered with several cloths with a piece of paper in hand. The cott was had been broken some time ago and had bandages wrapped around one of the legs, and had several blankets layered on top of it, a few of which were patched with alien fabric.

“How are you doing?” Corduk said, trying to put as much sincerity into his words as he could. Navahko closed the door behind him.

“Well,” said Lewok, “I’ve examined the injury in my cup of water a couple of times, and I’d say it hasn’t healed much given I only got it yesterday.”

“Yes, but,” Corduk began, “how are you doing?”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” said Lewok genuinely.

“What I think Corduk’s trying to say,” said Navahko as he brought up two stools from a corner and sat on one, “is how you’re feeling about being here?”

Lewok quickly tried to make some sort of inference about his condition. “Well, it’s cozy, I suppose. Cold, but cozy.”

“That’s good, but how can it be both cold and cozy?” Corduk asked.

“It’s cozy when I’m in the covers of my cott.”

“Why do you get out?”

“I’m an explorer, an outside-er.” Lewok paused when he realized the double meaning of what he had said. “I can’t just sit in one place all day.”

“Well, I’ll see if I can’t get you the freedom to walk around the safer parts of the caves.” Navahko said pleasingly. “Anyways, we’ve come to ask you a few questions.”

“About how I got this, I presume?” said Lewok, pointing faintly to his masked right eye.

“Exactly.” said Navahko. “As we understand, it’s unknown if this being who captured was a Dark Hunter or someone else, and thus we don’t know what he wants KVM-26—the Staff of Vortices—for or what he will do if he gets it.”

“Oh, he’s a Dark Hunter.” Lewok replied coolly

“Really?”

“Yep. Some time after she rescued me Maroona used her mask on a glass of shard he left over and found out that he arrived here from Odina. His codename was ‘Alchemist’ I believe.”

“I was right,” said Corduk, looking gloatingly at Navahko with a smirk. He then leaned forward on his stool, looked towards Lewok, and asked, “Do you know if he was hired by the same organization who hired ‘Sunder’?”

“‘Sunder’?” Lewok repeated confusedly.

“He was a Dark Hunter who chased Jayniss and the Staff of Vortices onto the island around a century ago.”

“I guess Maroona didn’t find out.”

“I suppose that’ll do for now.” Navahko said reassuringly. “I’m sure we’ll get more info in the future. Now, let’s see if there’s anything else you know that we don’t. You remember what he looked like, correct?” He revealed a piece of paper and a writing utensil and wrote down Lewok’s short and to-the-point description of “Alchemist”.

“Perfect,” Navahko said, “that’s just what we needed. Anything else you can tell us?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, then, anything you need?”

“Yes, actually.” Lewok opened his burlap pack and pulled out a piece of paper. “The Kupurero were singing this morning, and it sounded like something translatable and I wrote it down. Do you have possession of a translation key, by any chance?”

“Um,” Navahko said, looking thoughtfully into the distance, “I don’t believe so.”

“Yes, actually,” Corduk piped. He excused himself from the room, and within a matter of minutes he came back with a folded piece of paper which had been laminated with a flexible glasslike material. Lewok thanked them, and the two Matoran left, leaving him to decipher the recordings he had made.

Later, to Lewok’s surprise, Maroona knocked on the door and was welcomed in. She had come to check on him, claiming that she couldn’t live not knowing if Lewok’s wound was healing or not. After some quiet conversation which ranged from current politics to the weather forecast, Lewok asked her if she knew Archaic Matoran.

“Yes, actually,” she replied jovially. “Do you have something you’d like translated?”

“You aren’t busy anytime soon, are you?” Lewok asked.

“A Toa should never too busy to help a Matoran.” “Right, I’ve recorded some singing from the Kupurero and translated it using the key they have here.” He handed Maroona the piece of paper, and she began to read it out loud.

“The… By the power of—” She stopped and stared confusedly. “Hold, on I’ll have to read over this before I can say it aloud.” She squinted as her eyes darted back and forth, recombining mystical phrases and components. It seemed to Lewok that she hadn’t translated in a long time, either that or the language was simply hard to translate into Matoran.

Lewok was again surprised when Maroona’s eyes widened, and she put her hand over her mouth. She took a couple of staggering steps back and let her fingers slide off of her mask’s sloped chin.

“What is it?” Lewok asked, partially rising from his bed.

“It’s about time,” Maroona said with sudden excitement. The remark filled Lewok with both unease and joy.

Characters

 * Jayniss
 * "Sunder"
 * Maroona
 * Leoger
 * Wreshi
 * Arvos
 * Lewok
 * "Alchemist"
 * Navahko
 * Corduk
 * Kakkan (mentioned)
 * Haumaru (mentioned)

Trivia

 * Lewok's eyebrow injury was inspired by an injury Cap himself suffered from, an inch-deep gash in his right eyebrow which he got from falling off of a swiveling chair and onto the corner of a trunk.
 * "Alchemist"'s false name "Kazengo" is derived from "Katzengold," the German name of fool's gold, AKA pyrite.