Wraith Syndicate's Invasion



The Wraith Syndicate's Invasion (sometimes known as the First Trial of the Toa Powai or the Toa War, although these names are looked down upon by scholars) was a conflict on the island of Powai Nui in the Southern Islands. Taking place many years after the Primeval Wars and segueing into the early days of the Great Regression, the conflict arose when titular organization occupied the island to obtain several powerful artifacts brought to it by the exiled Great Being Jayniss. In order to defend the Matoran-populated island from their malicious tactics, Toa Maroona formed the Toa Powai, who became the largest threat to the Wraith Syndicate.

A combination of the effort of the Toa and heavy disagreements between the members of the Wraith Syndicate led to it fracturing while on the island, although the fates of its members were diverse. Having won, the Toa Powai trained and learned to better protect their island as word of them spread across the island. After years of peace, several factors—a few of which manifested during the Wraith Syndicate's Invasion—would lead to the island's Great Regression.

Prelude
The Wraith Syndicate was a small organization, founded by the Falqãta Tetradon and Makuta Pretadix, former members of the Brotherhood of Makuta who were betrayed by Teridax. Tetradon, who was designated its leader, formed it with the goal of eventually challenging the Brotherhood of Makuta and establishing order in the Matoran Universe. The two founders (who at the time were its only members and hadn't revealed its existence to anyone else), through some series of events learned of Jayniss, a Great Being who had been stripped of his power and exiled to the Matoran Universe by his brothers and sisters, carrying with him a variety of powerful artifacts. Setting their sights on these artifacts, the two hired a Dark Hunter named "Sunder" to track Jayniss down.

After chasing Jayniss onto Powai Nui, "Sunder" came in conflict with Maroona, a Toa of Lightning who had recently appeared on the island. Using the Staff of Vortices (one of the artifacts Jayniss was carrying), Maroona transported the Dark Hunter to an unknown location. Realizing he was being hunted for his artifacts, Jayniss decided to leave them on the island and travel elsewhere. These artifacts include the aforementioned Staff, the Mask Maker's Tool, and the Mask of Catastrophes. The former two were given to the trusted Kakkan Containment Organization, designated KVM-026 and KVM-027 respectively, and contained, while the Mask of Catastrophes went undiscovered for many years.

During this time, Tetradon had been creating a serum modified from his naturally-produced venom which would enhance Pretadix's psionic capabilities. As the failed versions of the serum and the very idea of being experimented on would cause the Makuta to lose his trust of him rapidly, Tetradon incited hallucinations in him using his Great Xakar in order to remove his memories of failed experiments.

Beginning
Around a century later, Tetradon and Pretadix would hire the Dark Hunter "Alchemist" and Phi, one of the creations of Makuta Antharahk. They tasked the two with traveling to Powai Nui, retrieving the Staff of Vortices, and using it to transport Tetradon and Pretadix to the island for further instruction. Upon arrival, "Alchemist" and Phi encountered Ruthos, the former War General of the robotic army Antharahk had used, who had been exiled by his creator and was presumed dead. Ruthos decided to join the two hirees in their endeavors for the sake of his own survival.

Setting out on the next steps of his mission, "Alchemist" traveled to the region of Le-Powai, spying on Powai Nuian Matoran on the way and learning of the Kakkan Containment Organization (KCO), which he deduced was the organization containing the Staff of Vortices. To attain more information, he kidnapped, captured, and began to interrogate the Le-Matoran Forest Ranger Lewok. The Dark Hunter was unable to get much out of him, however, as Toa Maroona confronted him, and drove him away. At a later point in time, while arguing with Phi in the same region, "Alchemist" found that he was being spied upon by Tesudin, a nomadic Toa of Sonics. He and Phi did battle with Tesudin, knowing that he could further alert Powai Nui to the Syndicate's presence on the island. Tesudin was able to escape the battle, however.

Formation of the Toa Powai
Meanwhile, using several translation keys contained by the KCO, Lewok translated a strange Kupurero song he had recorded earlier into an Archaic Matoran phrase. Maroona further translated it, finding that it said that Lewok and five other Matoran, Corduk, Detras, Navahko, Salvina, and Wreshi, should become Toa as soon as possible. At this time, however, "Alchemist", Phi, and Ruthos invaded the KCO and stole the Staff of Vortices with ease before returning to Le-Powai. Using the Staff of Vortices, which he soon modified, "Alchemist" transported Tetradon and Pretadix to Le-Powai as commanded.

Determined to stop the KCO's invaders and elated by the possibility of leading her own Toa team, Maroona got to work creating six Toa Stones and arranged a meeting at the Citadel of the Avesians, where the six proclaimed Matoran were transformed into Toa. After letting them choose Toa Tools, Maroona decided the first task for the newly-formed "Toa Powai": She, Corduk, Detras, and Wreshi would travel to the KCO and guard it, anticipating another invasion, while Lewok, Salvina, and Navahko would travel to Le-Powai to investigate reports of a ghastly humanoid creature haunting the region.

Just as Maroona had thought, another being invaded the KCO: Makuta Pretadix. Not knowing that the Toa were untrained, however, Pretadix took them to be a considerable threat. He had a brief argument with Maroona during which he dropped the name of the Wraith Syndicate before leaving abruptly. Salvina, having met him before, introduced Tesudin to Lewok and Navahko. The four then noticed Ruthos and confirmed that he fit the descriptions of the entity running around Le-Powai. Navahko began to pursue Ruthos, but was stopped, having broken his ankle.

The Toa Powai regathered in Le-Powai, where Tesudin and Maroona were introduced to each other. Immediately, Maroona was very skeptical of him, and the Toa of Sonics' attempts to earn her trust only barely worked. She began to trust him more and allowed him to ally with the Toa once he gave them a wealth of information about the Wraith Syndicate.

Meanwhile, the Wraith Syndicate themselves regrouped as well and revealed themselves in Obodosara, a town near the border of Le-Powai and Vo-Powai. After they set off several sirens, the Toa Powai arrived at the scene. Tetradon formally introduced himself and the Wraith Syndicate to the Toa. He then incited a fight between him and all the Toa, and managed to take down the entire team on his own, envenomating Corduk, injuring Salvina, Wreshi, and Lewok, rendering Detras unconscious, and inducing hallucinations in Maroona. Tesudin impaled Tetradon in the chest with an arrow, something which would have been fatal had Pretadix not pulled the arrow out and used his Regeneration power to heal Tetradon. After telling the Toa of Sonics that "Ringa would never have wanted him to kill anyone," Tetradon and the rest of the Wraith Syndicate left using the Staff of Vortices.

Dissolution of the Syndicate
After this incident, Maroona and the Toa Powai fled to Vo-Powai to recover and escape any further confrontations with the Syndicate. During their recovery, Detras was met by Tetradon and Pretadix in a dream via Pretadix's artificially-enhanced mental abilities, marking the first major usage of his abilities on one of the Toa. With the Makuta able to use his abilities, Tetradon gave Phi the job of distracting the Toa while the rest of the Syndicate worked on stealing the Mask Maker's Tool, a simple plan concocted by Ruthos. Phi did as such, and soon encountered Corduk, who had just recovered from his injuries. Turned vengeful by the invasion of the KCO, the Toa of Earth immediately engaged Phi in combat. While training Navahko, Tesudin heard the noises coming from the fight, and the two went to assist Corduk. They were successful in defeating Phi, disabling many of her abilities, confiscating her Mask of Disguise, and handing her over to APNWT.

Upon returning to the rest of the Toa Powai, however, Corduk was confronted by Maroona, who berated him for choosing to fight Phi on his own. After arguing with her again, he stormed off. Angered, Maroona then forced Tesudin into a one-on-one discussion, interrogating him about the suspicious way he looked at her. Tesudin finally revealed his former life on Nynrah. He told her about his deceased accomplice and love interest, a Toa of Water named Ringa, who he found Maroona to be eerily reminiscent of. With this revealed to Maroona, the relationship between her and Tesudin began to improve as Maroona realized the emotional pain she had unintentionally been causing him.

However, when Maroona later used her Great Mask of Psychometry on Phi's Mask of Disguise, Pretadix enetered into her mind, inflicting her with frightening visions of Tetradon and inflicting mental pain on her. Even after she recovered, the experience had provoked her enough that she irrationally verbally attacked Detras, who was attempting to help her it took the help of Corduk and Tesudin to stop her tirade. After she recovered from her mental breakdown, Maroona ordered a meeting among the Toa Powai where she confessed her worries about the novice Toa be hurt or injured and the problems it had caused her, particularly with some of the Toa themselves. The Toa reassured her that she didn't have to worry about their injuries as much as she had been. With that, they got on to planning an attack on the Syndicate that would banish them from the island for good.

At this same time, the Wraith Syndicate was hit with a similar situation: Ruthos, who had suggested sending Phi to distract the Toa Powai simply to try and get rid of her, was growing disillusioned with Tetradon and his overbearing attitude to his subordinates. After Ruthos revealed the secret agenda behind his plan and suggested abandoning Phi on the island as a statement to Antharahk, he and Tetradon spiraled into a heated debate which only ended when Tetradon lost his temper and attacked him, causing his systems to shut down.

Sometime after this, Pretadix invited Tetradon to a one-on-one discussion pertaining to how they were to deal with Powai Nui. Although Tetradon had planned on abandoning the island after obtaining the artifacts he desired, Pretadix saw an opportunity to use said artifacts to terrorize the island's rather unprotected population and make an enslaved army out of them. Tetradon was greatly opposed to this idea, claiming that it was incredibly similar to something Teridax would enact, thus making it something that would break his personal moral of avoiding tactics Teridax was known for due to Tetradon's hatred of the Brotherhood leader. The argument escalated quickly as both revealed how disillusioned they had become with one another, angering them to the point of violent combat. Pretadix prevailed, impaling Tetradon fatally on his own Xakar and likening the feeling of impalation to being under the effects of the mask so frequently.

With the Syndicate now officially disbanded, Pretadix found "Alchemist", who had successfully modified the Staff of Vortices to his liking, and threatened him into joining him in his endeavors to take over the island's population. The Makuta suffered a bout of severe hallucinations, likely due to the combined effects of the serum and the murder of his only friend. He learned of his name's roots in a vulgar Archaic Matoran phrase and gave himself a new name, Hysterix.

To be written...

Appearances

 * The Feral Plains/Volume I - Mentioned
 * Against the Storm/Volume I - First appearance
 * Against the Storm/Volume II
 * Against the Storm/Volume III
 * Against the Storm/Volume IV
 * Against the Storm/Volume V
 * Against the Storm/Volume VI