Worlds Unknown

This article was written by Wilber737. Please do not add to it without the writer's permission.

Worlds Unknown
Story
Setting	Solis Magna system
Date Set	1,003 AGC

Worlds Unknown is a story serial by Wilber737, set a year after the recreation of Spherus Magna.

Prologue

Vaser sat heavily on his chair, deep in thought. He resembled a Toa clad in green and gold armor, with a spear at least 8 feet in length. He had sent agents to the planet Aqua Magna because energized Protodermis was in great supply there. But he hadn’t heard from them since.

The virus is spreading too quickly to be contained, the strange being thought. And if we don’t get that Protodermis in time, we might not survive.

The being paused, and stared out the window of his fortress.

It was so beautiful, Vaser thought, sadly looking out over the war wracked land. But the Brangh had to destroy it.

Vaser’s thoughts were interrupted by Badsh, another being, same height, but instead of green she had blue and gold.

“Any word?” she asked, looking concerned.

“None, I am beginning to worry. If Grals didn’t get it…” His voice trailed off.

“Then we have no hope of curing the virus,” she finished for him.

Vaser stood up. “I can’t just sit here and wait, you and I will go to the planet Aqua Magna ourselves, and I’ll leave Carrun in charge here while we are away.” It was a command, not a suggestion.

“Are you sure?” She asked. “I mean, you’re the leader of this whole village and--”

“I can’t sit around and watch my people suffer!” He snapped, anger rising. “Come on, we have to go,” Then he closed his eyes and concentrated…

Chapter 1

For the first time in a long while, Toa Inika Kongu was having a good day. For the Toa of air, the past month had been total chaos. First, Teridax taking over Mata Nui’s body had been the biggest issue; then the Matoran had been hard at work building the new Coliseum for their new world and stocking the Archives with live Rahi specimens for study. Having forgotten how to handle these Rahi prior to the ordeal with Teridax, the Matoran allowed many to get loose, meaning Kongu and the other Toa had to wrangle them back to the Archives. But now, all the Rahi were in the Archives and the Toa could rest.

Kongu turned at the sound of Hewkii approaching. The Toa Inika of stone was the most athletic of the team, and the strongest, meaning he was the Toa that would be the one to wrestle the smaller Rahi (like the five- or six-foot ones) to the ground, before tying them up.

“It’s nice to have a day off every once in a while,” the Toa of Stone said.

“I know. I’m not sure what to do; I might just quick-snatch a Rahi just out of habit.” Kongu chuckled.

“But stay prepared just in case.”

Both Toa turned to see Jaller walking towards them.

“Hey, Jaller,” Kongu said.

“Any problems here?” The Toa of fire asked.

The other Toa shook their heads.

“That concerns me,” Hewkii said. “I mean, everything was crazy, and then, it all goes silent. That gives me the creeps.”

---

Vaser opened his eyes. Yes, he was still in one piece, unlike some of his species when they went inner-planetary. He looked around. His companion was also in one piece.

“We made it.” Badsh said in awe as she looked around.

“Let’s get moving,” He replied.

They walked along an old beaten path until Badsh sat down and said: “My feet are tired, let’s rest.”

Vaser sighed. He remembered reading and hearing comments from other people that worked with Badsh, there was always a ‘she walked a very short distance and then took a rest.’

“Okay, just for a few minutes.” He agreed, sitting down. But then, he caught someone out of the corner of his eye moving into the woods. Could it be Grals?

“Stay here.” He ordered, moving in to investigate. He finally caught up with the stranger. And then found out something terrible, he was following a Brangh. How could he be here?

Vaser thought back, the Brangh once lived in peace with the Grads, (as the strange people are called,) and made quite a good relationship with them. But then, Makuta came, guaranteeing the Brangh power beyond anything they could imagine, we tried to tell them it was a sham, but the Brangh had all but closed their ears to us. The Brangh got turned into servants of the evil Makuta. And when that happened, the Brangh stole our power, our knowledge, our weapons, and planted a deadly virus in some of us.

The leader of the Grads snapped back into reality. The Brangh whirled around at the sound of the intruder.

“Hello, Vaser, old friend.” the Brangh said.

“You lost the right to call me that a long time ago, Dask,” Vaser replied, swinging his spear at his old friend.

Dask quickly blocked with his shield and followed up by a parry with his sword, knocking Vaser on his back. But Vaser wasn’t done yet, twisting just enough to kick with both legs behind Dask’s shield. The two rivals quickly got back on his feet,

“Why did you listen to the Makuta?” Vaser asked, blocking Dask’s blows.

“Why wouldn’t I? They offered me power, and oh, I have power.” Dask answered, using his telekinetic abilities to tear a tree out of the ground and hurl it toward Vaser.

Vaser barley dodged in time, but Vaser had a secondary plan, for he knew something about Dask, every time he would use his power, he would lose his amazing sense of balance for a few seconds. Vaser hoped his plan would work, because if it didn’t, there would be one less Grad in the universe.

“You think you’re so powerful, throwing around overgrown toothpicks!” Vaser snapped, his voice defiant. “I used to pick my teeth with Makuta!” He could tell Dask was getting angry, so he pushed on.

“You know, you Brangh are nothing more than Makuta in Brangh armor!” He taunted. Dask had heard enough, using his power to create plants to bind Vaser’s feet, but Vaser was too quick for him, leaping into Dask knocking him off his feet. A sharp blow in the head was enough to knock him out. Vaser used his dwindling power to put a stasis field around Dask.

---

Krekkanite was also having a good day. It wasn’t the four Toa he had torn in half, nor was it because he raided one of the Dark Hunters armories successfully, it’s what he found inside that put him in a good mood: A set of electro-claws that can cut through anything. This, combined with his amazing strength, and pure energy would make him almost invincible.

A great challenge indeed. He thought with a snicker.

Chapter 2

Kongu got up again and charged towards the Muaka for the fifth time. The Muaka had escaped the Archives. Usually, Muaka were tall, about 12 feet in height, and tough, with sharp claws and big teeth. And the Matoran named this one ‘Hedesh’ which meant ‘escapee’ in Matoran dialect. This one was named accordingly---for this one has escaped the hold of Matoran at least three times. Three Toa should have been able to take one down with ease, but this one was playing hard to catch, leaping from rock to rock. It was obviously sick of being caught, and it wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Kongu caught up to it again and unleashed a windstorm capable of tearing a building off its foundation. The Muaka never stirred, just stared at Kongu with its fearsome eyes.

Not good, Kongu thought.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the other Toa catching up to him, this made him smile, with the other Toa finally catching up, they could contain this beast. Kongu never saw the paw coming…

Jaller arrived just in time to see that the Muaka was bringing down a huge paw on Kongu. There was no time to hesitate, just react. Using his Mask of Fate, Jaller hurled himself under the paw at amazing speed, crashing into Kongu and sending them both out of danger just before the Muaka slammed its paw down.

Hewkii scanned the battlefield. Jaller and Kongu were out of the battle, that jarring impact knocking the wind out of both of them, so it was up to him to take on this beast.

“Just another day at the office,” Hewkii said to himself.

The Muaka slowly started moving towards the disoriented Kongu and Jaller. Hewkii used his massive strength and tore a 10-ton rock out of the mountainside, hurling it at the Muaka with all his might. It struck dead-on, sending the Muaka to the ground, unconscious. Hewkii roused the other Toa, and then started dragging the Muaka away.

“Well, that was easy.” Kongu said sarcastically. “I just love having paws quick-drop on me.”

Jaller chuckled, and Kongu cracked a smile. “Come on; let’s escort Hewkii and his catch home.” Jaller said.

---

Badsh was getting worried. Vaser had been gone for an hour now, and she was beginning to wonder where he was. What if Vaser got captured by Brangh? She would have to find him if he didn’t get back in a few minutes. Just as she started to take a meal out of her pack, Vaser appeared out of the woods, his expression grim.

“What took you so long?” She asked. “Who did you find?”

“Dask,” Vaser answered plainly.

“Did he fight you?”

“Yes.”

“Did you win?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he?”

“In the woods,”

“Did you put him in a stasis field?”

“Yes.”

“And when your powers wear off?”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I get there, hopefully, the jailer will get him quick, and I will get my powers back before I get to that bridge, if you know what I mean.” Vaser said, sitting down. “Well, there is no Energized Protodermis on the surface, so the only place to look is down.”

Badsh stood up and stated: “I’ll get us down there; your powers are weaker than I thought.”

“No, you can’t!” Vaser replied harshly. “You’re not good enough at your powers to do that, if you do it wrong, you’ll teleport other things close in proximity to who-knows-where.”

But Badsh wasn’t listening, she concentrated and they teleported far below the surface of Aqua Magna.

“I said not to do that!” Vaser exploded. “You could’ve teleported anybody, or anything that was close to us!”

“Okay, chill,” Badsh said.

“Chill! You want me to chill! Sure, you just disrupted the fabric of existence, and I’m supposed to chill! You are in for it when we get back.” Vaser said harshly.

---

Kongu was very confused. One minute, he, Jaller, and Hewkii were in Metru Nui, the other; he was in some very different place.

“Uh, guys, I don’t think were on Metru Nui anymore.” Kongu stated uneasily.

He and his friends were standing on a cliff face overlooking a vast green grassland at the bottom of the cliff.

“Well at least whoever teleported us didn’t take us off the cliff.” Hewkii stated plainly.

“Anybody for a climb?” Kongu asked

“Oh, it’s just a little pebble.” Hewkii replied.

The climb down the cliff was long and hard, even though they would take a rest whenever they could. It seemed like an eternity by the time they got down the cliff. Hewkii looked like it was the best climb he had ever had. But the other Toa looked like a train wreck.

“Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Hewkii said, slapping Jaller on the back.

“Yes, it was that bad,” Kongu said, trying to catch his breath. “and worse than that bad,” The team rested for awhile, and then headed out to look for any civilization.

After looking for an hour, the three Toa sat down to take a rest. Kongu stood up. “Well, so much for that idea. We can’t even find a decent tree. I say we head back, were not going to find any life here.”

“Head back?” Jaller said. “Head back where? There is no place to ‘head back’ to. C’mon, guys, we’ve only been looking for an hour.”

Hewkii gestured to the ground. “Well, there is grass.” He said matter-of-factly.

Kongu shook his head. “Remind me to not talk to him if I want happy-cheering up.”

The trio kept moving through the grassland for another hour. They finally found a lake.

“I’m thirsty,” Kongu said, kneeling down to take a drink.

“Wait, look, over there,” The voice came from Hewkii, who was pointing up at the top of a hill past the lake about 200 yards. “A Matoran! I saw a Matoran!”

The other Toa looked with a mixture of amazement and a little relief. Yes, it was a villager, about a foot taller than a Matoran; he eyed the Toa wearily, and then ran off.

“After him!” Jaller yelled. “He could give us some answers!”

The Toa chased the villager all the way to a rocky plain, and then they lost him among the many boulders.

“Where did he go?” Hewkii asked.

“Alright, he might be setting a trap, so keep your eyes peeled.” Jaller replied.

---

Krekkanite watched the Toa walk around in the rocks. He had made an illusion of the villager of course, and now was the time to strike and test out these new claws, he supposed.

Kongu heard a noise behind him. Spinning around, he saw a big muscular and powerful being that looked about as friendly as a Doom Viper. Unlimbering his laser crossbow, Kongu took aim and fired. The laser bolt flew straight and true, striking its target dead-on, but bounced right off thanks to Krekkanite’s thick armor.

“Um, guys,” Kongu began. “A little help would be happy-welcome right about now”

Jaller and Hewkii turned around, unlimbering their own weapons. Krekkanite laughed bitterly and lashed out with a kick and sent Kongu flying through the air and crashing into one of the giant rocks. Hewkii made a stone hand grab Krekkanite with enormous force. Krekkanite idly shrugged and shattered the hand, sending shards of stone in every direction, Forcing Hewkii to back off.

“Impossible,” Hewkii breathed. “That should have been able to level a city.”

Now Krekkanite targeted Jaller, shooting an energy blast, striking the ground right beneath Jaller’s feet. It created a 20-foot crater in the ground where Jaller was just standing, sending Jaller flying through the air at a very high speed. (Luckily, Toa armor is very hard.) Jaller crashed into the ground a good 100 feet from where he was just standing. Now only Hewkii stood between Krekkanite and the other Toa. Krekkanite smiled and slammed his fists in the ground, tearing a 10—ton chunk of earth out of ground, and hurled it at Hewkii. The chunk flew towards its target and hit a glancing blow, but that was enough to take Hewkii out of the fight. Krekkanite turned and walked away. He had better things to do than fight Toa right now.

Kongu woke up on a comfortable bed in the middle of a cavern, he really didn’t expect to wake up, or if he did, he would thought it would have been in a cell, or worse. His body ached from that kick from Krekkanite. He looked at his armor. It was cracked and dented in numerous places, with a few large cuts to his right arm. Kongu sighed and started to sit up, but a voice stopped him.

“Take it easy,” It said. “You took quite a hit out there.”

The voice was rippled with age and wisdom.

“Who are you?” Kongu asked.

“My name is Carrun; I’m the leader of the Grads until Vaser gets back.”

A dozen questions went through Kongu’s head. Where was he? Where were the other Toa? Who were the Grads? Whose side was this Carrun on?

Carrun walked out into the dim light of the cavern. He had red and gold armor and had a golden sword. Even in the dimly lit room, his armor shone brightly.

“Where are the other Toa?” Kongu asked.

“They are in different caverns.”Carrun replied.

“Bring me to them.” Kongu said.

“As you wish,” Carrun said.

Carrun led Kongu to another cavern where Hewkii was resting. Hewkii immediately got up at the sight of Kongu.

“Kongu! I never thought I’d say this, but it’s good to see you!” Hewkii said.

Kongu and Hewkii clanked their fists together.

“How is Jaller?” Kongu asked

“He had the worst blow out of you all. He’s okay, but real battered up.” Carrun said.

“Whoever that guy was that we fought, he was powerful.” Hewkii said. “He took out all three of us in about oh, a minute.”

“Can you take me to Jaller?” Kongu asked.

“Okay,” Hewkii answered. He turned to Carrun. “Where is he?”

“Follow that tunnel and you will find him.”

Chapter 3

Vaser and Badsh were far below the surface of Aqua Magna. They had no luck finding Energized Protodermis.

Vaser stopped walking. Badsh nearly bumped into him.

“Why are you stopping?” she asked.

“I sense Energized Protodermis around here,” he replied. “And I think it is to the right.”

He turned to the right wall and ran his hand along it. He was looking for something that wasn’t just right. Then he ran over a little dent in the wall that had three more dents in the middle.

“Here,” He said.

“All I see is a big rock wall.” Badsh said, eyeing the slab with undisguised confusion.

Vaser pushed on the little dent and the part of the wall slid away.

“It’s more than that,” He said.

Inside the wall was a big pool of Energized Protodermis. Badsh took a black vial out of her pack and carefully filled it up with the Energized Protodermis

“Years ago, one of our number put this secret pool here, in case something happened to our supply.” Vaser said, looking at carvings on the walls.

“That should be enough.” Badsh said, lifting the vial out of the pool. “Let’s get out of here and bring this vial back home.”

Vaser put his hand in the Energized Protodermis. He felt his power being restored to full.

“Dip your hand in here.” He said. Badsh carefully dipped her hand in the liquid. She looked a lot better since the recharge.

We are going to need a lot more Protodermis than what’s in that vile, Vaser thought. But that is to cure the virus. After that, we can bring the others here to recharge.

---

Hewkii led Kongu down a winding tunnel illuminated by dim lightstones on either side, though they were few and far between. Carrun had stayed behind for reasons unknown. That made Kongu nervous. A stranger like that out of his sight was like feeding a Muaka by hand and hoping it doesn’t bite it off.

And with the three of us wounded, this would be the best time to strike us down one by one. Kongu thought.

Kongu was suspicious of this Carrun. He regarded the Toa…different. And he always seemed so alert with the Toa around. I can’t blame him. Three strangers wind up on his planet, and he’s a little nervous. I would be too, I guess.

The cave took another sharp corner.

How could Jaller be this far down? Could Carrun be setting a trap for us? He wondered.

“In here,” Hewkii said.

They walked into another cavern with Jaller standing in the middle. Jaller jumped at the sound of the other Toa’s metal shod feet scraping against the stone floor.

“Hewkii, Kongu, it’s good to see that your okay.” He said. “Where were you guys?”

Kongu shook his head. “This guy named Carrun brought us here to ‘recuperate’” He said. “But why would he separate us?”

“I’m not going to wait to find out. Let’s get our weapons and get out of here.” Hewkii said.

Jaller nodded his head. “Agreed,” He said.

Kongu nodded his head in agreement. “It’s not every day you get to sneak out of an overgrown worms-nest.” He replied with disgust.

The Toa Inika started down the tunnel. It soon became obvious that there was a temperature drop.

“Okay, so either we’re descending, or there’s a blizzard raging above us.” Jaller said. “I’ll make some fire to warm us up.”

Jaller lit his sword of fire. The tunnel kept getting colder, the further they advanced, the further down the temperature went. Kongu started to notice strange crystals on the walls and ceiling.

“Hold up for a second, guys,” he said.

Hewkii looked at one and said: “I’ve never seen one like this before. It looks like some sort of crystal.”

Kongu reached out and touched one. It felt pliable and warm to the touch---almost like it was alive.

“Well, whatever that is, it’s strange.” Hewkii said.

Kongu carefully took out a knife and cut one of the crystals off the wall and put it in his bag.

---

Vaser was teleporting back to his homeland. The mission he had done went by without any problems, something a person who was used to having problems in everything he does; this was too good to be true. Something will ruin this mission, I bet. Nothing goes this easy. He thought as he landed smack-dab in the middle of grassland, Badsh right behind him.

Now all they needed to do was get back the village. The Grads’ village was well hidden between a mountain range, and an active volcano. The Grads held off any attack, through traps in the mountains, to thick fortress walls. But Brangh attacked a week ago, badly damaging the fortress. The Grads held off the attack, but if they were to attack again, the Grads were helpless against them.

I wonder why they haven’t finished us off yet. He thought. What could they be up to?

Their journey had taken them close to the mountain range, a perfect spot for a Brangh ambush. He signaled Badsh to draw her weapon out, drawing his as well. He needed to pay attention to this area, for many Grads have been attacked here.

This is ridiculous. How could there not be Brangh?

They walked for awhile, keeping his eyes peeled for any movement---but he found none. He finally got to the village. Vaser immediately walked up to the jailer. “Did you get Dask here okay?” He asked.

“Yes sir. He is guilty of murder, and many other charges.” The jailer replied. “He’s in cell number 32.”

“The execution?” Vaser said.

The jailer looked at his paper. “On Tuesday, oh, did you get what you were looking for?”

“Yes, I did, and I think we can cure this thing,” Vaser said.

Vaser started walking towards the jailhouse and then went right to cell number 32. Dask looked up, hatred in his eyes.

“Hello, Vaser.” He said.

“It’s too late for that, Dask.” Vaser said back. “I’m here to ask a question. Do you have any last words?”

“No.”

“Well then, good bye, and good riddance.” Vaser said, walking away. He soon found Badsh walking down the street.

“And you,” He began. “You’re going to scrub all of the floors in the fortress every week for oh, 20 years.”

Badsh just stared at him in amazement.

“Well, get going! The floor isn’t going to clean itself! Oh, and give me the Protodermis.” Badsh nodded and gave Vaser the vile of possibly the most important substance to the Grads survival.

“What about Grals?” Badsh said, attempting to change the subject.

Vaser frowned. He had almost forgotten about Grals.

“Let’s go find him,” He said, walking towards the science lab. “You go and summon Carrun and Vehter, and rendezvous with me back here in 30 minutes.”

Badsh nodded and carried out Vaser’s command. Vaser walked into the science lab just as the scientist was mixing chemicals.

“Oh, Vaser, how did you get here? Oh, of course, you have the Energized Protodermis I presume?” The half insane scientist said, head slightly cocked to the side. “Or, you have come here for one of my weapons.”

“Both.” Vaser said. “I need four powerful weapons. And I also have the Protodermis.”

“Oh! Oh yes! I do have weapons, that I do!” The scientist said, digging through a box of prototypes.

Vaser waited patiently and said: “So, how is medical school going?”

The scientist never looked up at his leader. “I haven’t lost a patient yet. Some don’t get better, but I always know where they are. Ah, here it is,” The scientist said, pulling out four weapons. “These are energy rifles, they can blow up anything in the way, but you mustn’t overload the energy cartridge, or they will blow up.” He said, as if he talked about blowing up energy cartridges all the time.

“Now,” He began. “If I may have that Protodermis, I’ll take it and do…whatever I’m supposed to do with it.”

Vaser sighed and handed over the Protodermis.

Chapter 4

A few moments ago…

The Toa were walking down the tunnel, and found a fork in the tunnel. Hewkii said to go left, but Kongu and Jaller insisted they go right. Because Hewkii was outnumbered in this decision, they went right. They walked about 500 yards before noticing that they were not alone.

“Um, Jaller, there’s something in here.” Kongu said. “And it sounds angry. What do you say we go to the left tunnel?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Jaller said.

The Rahi Dragon that was living there unleashed an energy blast.

Kongu and the others were now fleeing for their lives.

“I knew we should have taken that other tunnel!” Hewkii cried, ducking under another energy blast from a very angry Rahi Dragon. Hewkii threw up a wall of stone just before the others got to the different tunnel. The Rahi Dragon broke through the wall to find out that there were no Toa around to eat. It carefully looked around, its dull brain trying to pick up their scent. Hewkii and his friends ran down the tunnel and found their weapons. They were stacked neatly in the corner of a small cavern. Hewkii hefted his Laser Axe in his right hand, the others doing the same with their own weapons. It felt good to have his Axe again.

“Bad breath is on his way.” Hewkii said. “And I doubt he’s here for coffee.”

Hewkii pointed his Laser Axe at the beast and fired boulders laced with lightning. The bombardment pounded the Rahi, sending it off balance and crashing into the floor.

“GO!” Hewkii yelled.

The Toa ran as fast as they could, but it wasn’t enough, the Rahi Dragon recovered right in front of them. Kongu and Jaller unleashed air and fire, both laced with lightning. But the beast just shrugged it off, letting out a roar that sent Jaller and Hewkii tumbling backward. Kongu quickly got them up and together they let loose all of their powers. This time, the Rahi stumbled backwards, but still got back on its feet.

“Not good,” Kongu said. “Really, really, not good,”

The Dragon let out another roar, sending all three of the heroes flying backward. The Toa landed in a heap at the end of the tunnel. Kongu closed his eyes and waited for the pain. In two strides the Rahi would be on top of him and his friends. But that never came; Kongu heard an energy blast and opened his eyes. Yes, there was an energy blast, then another one, putting a serious dent in the beasts’ armor. Four more simultaneous shots and the beast collapsed. Kongu looked to see who shot the beast; it was Carrun, and three more Toa-like beings. Two with green and gold, and one with blue and gold, all carrying energy blasters with smoking barrels.

“How did you find us?” Kongu asked.

Carrun shrugged. “I know these tunnels inside and out, and when I saw that you were gone, I figured you went for your weapons.”

Kongu’s eyes narrowed. “And why did you save us?”

“I didn’t want to see you get killed,” Carrun said. “Looks bad on my resume,” he added quietly.

Kongu shot an irritated look at Carrun’s corny joke. “Well that’s nice; at least this looks good on your resume.” He said “Look, I don’t know who you are, but you’re about this close to me putting an energy bolt through your mask.” Kongu said, putting his fingers apart about a half an inch.

Badsh drew her spear. “I say we shove that crossbow down the green ones throat.”

Vaser stepped in between the Grads and the Toa. “Fighting will get us nowhere.”

Jaller stepped forward. “As much as I hate to say it, he’s right. Alright, whoever you are, we need to get out of here, and if you won’t help, get out of our way and let us do it on our own.”

Vaser looked the Toa of fire straight in the eyes. “Well, we are going to your planet again, so we can take you if you do one thing.”

“What is it?”

“One of our numbers is missing on your planet; we need you to guide us, as you know your planet better than we do.” Vaser said.

“Okay,” Jaller said, gesturing towards to other Toa. “This is Kongu, and this is Hewkii, and I’m Jaller.”

Vaser did the same. “This is Badsh, Vehter, Carrun, and I’m Vaser.”

“And you’re about to be squashed.”

All seven whirled at the sound of Krekkanite.

“I owe you a re-match,” Grumbled Hewkii, “And I owe you some pain.”

Krekkanite struck out with his fist, barely missing Hewkii’s head, instead digging his claw deep into the wall. Vaser grabbed Krekkanite’s claw that was in his left hand and took it out. By now Krekkanite had succeeded in tearing a big chunk of the right wall and hurled it at the Grads. The fragment, too tall and wide for the narrow entrance, got lodged in the cave, blocking their exit and blocking them from Grads.

Krekkanite armed his energy launcher and pointed towards Kongu.

“Stay back or your friend gets fried.”

Kongu noticed that Hewkii was totally engulfed in rage. Hewkii just stood straight up and said: “Do it,” Hewkii said, walking around Krekkanite. “Go ahead and destroy us all, thinking that your powerful than anyone else, but I have news for you buddy boy, somewhere, out on this planet, there’s someone more powerful than you, and just as you think you have won, you’ll meet your demise.”

Kongu wasn’t sure what Hewkii was trying to do, but he did succeed in distracting Krekkanite enough to move his weapon off to the side. “You think you can defeat me by telling me Matoran stories?” Krekkanite said, taking aim at Kongu again. “Say goodbye to your friend,” He said while charging his weapon.

A split second before he fired Hewkii covered the barrel of the weapon with extremely hard stone. With no place to discharge the gun, it exploded, sending all beings in the cave flying backward, all except Hewkii, who picked up the half destroyed Krekkanite and threw him into the far wall. Sanity started to return to Hewkii’s eyes.

“I—I lost it, didn’t I?” He said. “I mean, I really lost it.”

Kongu got back up. “And I always thought you were calm.” He said, shaking his head. The

Toa turned at the sound of the Grads blowing the barricade to bits.

“Well, we better get going,” Vaser said, brushing himself off. “We’ll make better time if we split up.”

Jaller whispered to the other Toa: “I don’t trust these guys a bit, when they get us to our planet, abandon them.”

A plan was made: Hewkii, Badsh, and Carrun were to go to the southern plain and search. (For Grads could sense each other when within 15 Kio. (A Kio is approximately .85 miles.) Vaser and Jaller would search up north in the White Quartz Mountain area, and Kongu and Vehter were to look around the jungle.

Chapter 5

Hewkii looked around in awe as the team moved through the plain. Vaser described things to look out for, like traps or possible hidden entrances. Whoever these Grads were, they just seemed strange. Carrun obviously wants to be in charge, but he’s not the best under pressure. And Badsh was just full of herself.

Always talking about herself...even Kongu isn’t that bad, he thought to himself. I’m about sick of playing around with these guys. I’m getting out of here later on.

“I wouldn’t,” Badsh said. “Or all your friends will find you as a heaping pile of armor.”

Hewkii grabbed his laser axe. “If you’re so powerful, find this ‘Grals’ on your own.” He said defiantly.

“Look, I don’t want trouble.” Badsh said. “A short time ago, the Brangh turned against us, taking…everything. We barely escaped alive; all I’m asking is a favor.”

Hewkii didn’t look convinced. “How touching. Now, if you will excuse me, I’ll be going.” He said, walking away.

Badsh turned to Carrun. All he did was shrug, and say: “I knew this wouldn’t work,”

---

Kongu, like Hewkii, had deserted the Grads. Now, he was walking aimlessly through the jungle. Just another day at work, He thought. If only I knew where I was.

To say the least, Kongu and his friends had been through a lot lately. The thoughts of the past flew by in just few seconds, and he snapped back to reality.

I wonder where I’m going, He thought. I don’t even know which direction I’m going. Oh, well. It’s not like I’m a stranger to this. He walked up to a statue with an ugly face. Now there’s a face only Makuta’s mother could love.

He quietly circled the statue, looking at the ancient carvings. One in particular caught his eye: one that said “Mastuka”. Kongu frowned. Mastuka, loosely translated in Matoran dialect, meant “The way of the hidden.” Kongu just lightly touched the carving, making the wall of the statue push slightly inward. Puzzled, Kongu pushed harder on the stone, only to see the wall go away. Kongu coughed as a lot of dust flew out of the opening. Once it cleared, Kongu unlimbered his crossbow and cautiously stepped inside. He went down some stairs and saw something: a temple. The temple was massive, the hall stretching as far as the eye could see to the right, and to the left, was a massive door with many locks. Kongu chose to go right.

That door has so many locks, I don’t think I could get in there, He thought, scanning the area for any traps. And besides, it has to be locked for a good reason. Kongu’s thoughts were once again drawn to the Grads. A lot of fishy stuff has been going on with these ‘Grads’. Sure, maybe I shouldn’t have deserted them like that, but were practically taking me captive!

Kongu looked around in amazement, lining the sides of the hall were massive pillars, at least 20 feet tall, and 2 feet wide, with still no end of the hall in sight.

Who could build something like this, He thought, passing by one of the massive pillars. Then he passed by a door. Kongu paused. It didn’t look locked; it wouldn’t hurt anything to take a look. To his surprise, it wasn’t locked, and came open with ease.

It looks like someone broke the lock.

Kongu cautiously stepped inside. There was nothing in the room except some tablets on the ground. He picked one up then immediately gasped.

The Brotherhood of Makuta made this.

Kongu looked at some more tablets, pausing at one in particular. They didn’t build this as a temple, they built it as a tunnel network! He thought. That makes sense, the Makuta wouldn’t build a temple. He read more of the tablet. It read:

The deeper you go, the more warriors you’ll find, use the key of Gashed to find unending warriors.

Then a sort-of riddle appeared.

Wouldn’t you look for the Muaka in a large box, rather than in a birdcage?

And another one appeared.

Don’t concentrate on the Muaka when there might be a swarm of Stone Rats behind.

Kongu frowned. He was always bad at deciphering riddles, but these ones seemed kind-of easy. Kongu repeated the riddles six times over.

The first one means, if you want to find a lot of fierce warriors, wouldn’t you look in a big place? The second one must mean: If you concentrate on a danger in front of you, you’ll miss another coming up from behind.

But why were riddles here? Maybe, maybe whoever put these tablets here—wait, maybe those tablets were planted to aid someone in finding this place!

This was a lot to take in. Kongu grabbed a blank tablet and started writing.

1. The Brotherhood built this place—to store what I’ve heard many warriors.
2. Apparently, someone was looking for this place—and obviously found it.
3. I’m just plain lost.

Kongu tucked the tablets in his pack. He needed to tell the others about this. He quickly exited the room, but then stopped. He heard something off to the right. Grabbing his crossbow, he went off to investigate. Rounding a corner, he saw a familiar face.

“Jaller!”

Jaller jumped at his approach. “Whoa, Kongu! How did you get here? Makuta bones, you scared 100 years off me.”

“I was just taking a walk,” Kongu said sarcastically. “Don’t you know I find secret fortresses in my spare time? What are you doing here?”

“I got lost,” Jaller said, shrugging.

“I’ll fill you in on this place—as we walk out of here.” Kongu said, looking both ways down the hall. “But which way do we go?”

Jaller looked both ways, and then looked at Kongu.

“We go left,”

“But Jaller, I think we came from--”

“We go left,” Jaller interrupted, more forcefully.

“You’re the boss,” Kongu said, and then added under his breath: “Unfortunately.”

They walked for over an hour before they came to the end. All that was in the wall was a control panel. The screen said: ‘Override mode’

Kongu walked up to it and touched a button. A loud hum filled the air.

“What did you do?” Jaller yelled, he could barley be heard over the hum. Then all the stone on the walls and ceiling just disappeared, revealing metallic walls and ceiling, with doors lining the enormous walls.

“That’s what I did,” Kongu said. “I must really be skilled at things like this,”

The Toa walked up to the wall that had the control panel, there was a door there now. Kongu kicked the door in. (Being ¾ robot, Toa are much stronger than humans). Inside resembled controls of one of those airships used on Metru Nui. But much, much, larger.

“Let me see,” Kongu said, sitting down. He looked at a red button. “This probably means ‘Go’” He touched the button. At first, nothing happened, but then, the control panel flared to life. Lights flashed, and buzzers went off. A rumble filled the cockpit.

“Were flying!” Kongu exclaimed. “Look over here, it says, ‘Auto Pilot Engaged’”

The ship, better known as the Naticon, rocketed across the landscape, destination unknown.

Hewkii heard an enormous rumble, and then saw the Naticon rocketing towards him at 1,500 MPH. It passed straight over him and shot a beam at him. Once the beam hit him, he teleported into a large metal hallway. Jaller came to greet him.

“Welcome aboard,” He said. Then he walked up to a control panel, hit a switch and said: “Hewkii is on board,”

The voice that came back was Kongu’s. “Roger that, once I figure out how to fly this thing, we’ll be on our way,”

Hewkii didn’t know what to say.

Jaller just said: “Come on, I’ll tell you what’s going on when we get to the cockpit.”

All Hewkii could muster was: “Cockpit…?”

“Yes, the cockpit,” Jaller said. “We found this place while walking around the jungle. We discovered in the cockpit that there is a manual of everything on this ship.”

The group traveled to the cockpit. Hewkii was looking at everything as they walked down the hall. When they got there, Kongu immediately got up when Hewkii came in.

“I finally got this thing to hover over the ocean. Good to see you, Hewkii.” He stated. “We didn’t want to leave you out of the action. I’m about ready to power up the main computer.”

Kongu knelt down and flipped a switch, bringing the computer to life. Even crazier, it spoke:

“Welcome, this is the Rash-class battle cruiser Naticon identification number 1221-5FE9D5-S322-251S5-S3.”

Kongu stood up. “It’s not every day you get to see a talking computer.”

The computer lights flashed.

“This unit is designed to interact and obey any voice that talks to it. You can put security settings on it to do otherwise and---”

“Wait, can you tell us what the systems do?” Kongu interrupted.

“Certainly,”

The computer ‘talked’ for hours, relaying every system function, with some interruptions from the Toa. By then, everyone knew about every system. Jaller was the commander, Kongu was the one to fly and navigate, and Hewkii ran systems like weapons and shields.

Jaller sat in the captain’s chair. “Fire main engines and get us out of here.”

“Roger.” Kongu said.

The ship flew out into space. It was the most amazing sight they ever saw.

“Why are we going away from our planet?” Hewkii asked.

Jaller stood up. “We can explore new worlds with this, why not? Engage hyper-drive.”

“Engaging,” Kongu said. “Hyper-drive at 96%,”

The ship was on its way to find more planets. They dropped out of hyper-space after 2 hours of flight.

Kongu spoke: “2 bogies on the radar, closing in fast.”

“Power weapons, charge shields to maximum.” Jaller said.

Chapter 6

Vaser met up with the other Grads. He had known the Toa weren’t going to stick around.

They were not going help us; very well, we can do this on our own.

These Toa were obviously novices. Yet, they are already legendary. No one got famous that fast, unless, of course, they'd done something really awesome.

If I ever see them again, I’ll have to ask them...

Now they had to find Grals, not an easy task, especially if your tour guide leaves you. The others had regrouped and they were ready to go.

“We should probably go this way,” Badsh said, pointing to the right. “It looks creepier.”

“Why do you look at the creepier place?” Carrun replied.

Badsh shrugged. “Don’t you watch TV?” She said, smiling. “Isn’t everything that the bad guys do in a creepy place?”

“Alright, no more stupidity,” Vaser said. “You sound like a bunch of Rahi.”

Vehter hadn’t said anything the whole journey, for in truth he never did. There was a time to be loose and joke around, and a time for being dead serious, and this was that time. Gripping his energy blaster tightly, he moved on. This area of the woods looked like it was a bad part, and his job as rear guard was really keeping his eyes peeled. The group looked like a disciplined fire team, scanning the woods energy blaster first. Then Carrun spotted movement in the trees, a spy! He set his weapon on stun and quickly took a shot, hitting the stranger right in the chest. The possible spy slumped out of the tree, paralyzed and disoriented from the blast. Vehter caught him. The group waited until the stun wore off. The stranger sat up.

“Why did you do that?” He asked. “I was hunting Brakas,”

“See, now look what you did,” Said Badsh. “He’s just a hunter.”

Vaser walked up to the stranger. “You’re hunting equipment, now.”

The stranger looked up at Vaser. “Hey; man, I have a right to have my hun---”

“Now.” Vaser said. “Or do we have to take them.”

The Hunter stood up. “Why should I give them to you?”

Vaser looked at Vehter. “Shoot him,”

Vehter nodded took aim. Right after he did, the Stranger cried out: “Wait! I’ll give you anything you want! Just don’t shoot!” He finally handed all his equipment to the Grads.

“That’s better,” Vaser said. “How would I have known you weren’t going to stab me in the back with one these spears?”

Carrun nodded. “Go back to where you came from.”

The hunter quickly ran away.

The group moved on, Carrun and Vaser in the front.

“By the way, nice spot,” Vaser said. “That guy could’ve shoved a spear down one of our backs.”

Carrun shrugged. “It really was luck—I just looked in that direction and found him.”

“Do you think Grals is still alive?” Vaser asked. “I mean, we haven’t heard from him for a while.”

“Anything’s possible,” Carrun answered. “I sure hope so, I’d hate to have to walk this far to find out I have to just walk on back.”

Badsh came up and said to Carrun: “Can we trade places? Talking to mister personality back there is about as interesting as talking to a rock.”

Carrun chuckled and fell behind to walk by Vehter.

---

“One of the bogies is patching through a message.” Kongu said.

“Let it through,” Jaller said.

The figure on the screen was unlike anything the Toa have ever seen. He regarded the Toa with cold eyes, saying: “Get out of here, or I will fire.”

Hewkii looked at Jaller. “He’s not bluffing, enemy ships are charging up their weapons.”

An explosion rocked the ship.

“He took out our hyper-drive!” Kongu said.

“Fire all weapons!” Jaller said.

The battle between the ships was fierce, but short. The Toa’s ship had plenty of power, but two against one was bound for failure. The Naticon was severely damaged by battle.

“Status report!” Jaller said.

“Bad, shields are at 5%.” Hewkii said.

“Multiple hull breaches in levels 6, 3, 4, and 2.” Kongu said. “Were going to have to make a crash landing on this planet straight ahead.”

The Naticon spiraled down to the unknown planet.

“You wanted to find a new planet,” Kongu grumbled. “This is not how I thought we would get there!”

The computer flashed.

“Prepare for crash landing.” It ‘said’.

“We know that!” Hewkii said.

The ship entered the atmosphere.

“The outer hull is burning up!” Kongu said, fighting to keep the ship under control. “I don’t know if we’ll make it down in one piece!”

The ship finally impacted the alien surface.

“Is everybody alright?” Jaller asked.

“Yeah; fine,” Kongu said “It’s not like I haven’t been beaten up a lot already.”

“Ouch,” Said Hewkii. “Could you have made the descent a little slower?”

Kongu shot an annoyed look at Hewkii. “No, I just augured us in because I didn’t know what it felt like to hit the ground at speed. It’s not my fault; I was trying to keep it level, Hewkii.”

Jaller hit the emergency exit button. “Let’s get out of here.”

The Toa filed through the small opening. The world that greeted them was like nothing they had ever seen.

Rivers flowed by with a strange purple liquid; the trees looked like the leaves have been made of metal, and the scents the air were like nothing they had ever smelled, the Rahi insects scuttled on the ground, and an army of Toa-like beings were marching across the plain. The Toa had to go back on that last sight—an army of what looked like Toa were coming towards them. No, not Toa, Grads.

How could they be here? The planet they are on is a light-year away! Jaller thought in amazement.

---

“Are you sure this will work?” Whispered Badsh.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” Vaser answered.

Their plan was simple, the Grads found a secret hideout for the Brangh, which meant they had to lure as much guards out as they could. Carrun and Vehter would go stun the outside guards, bringing many inside guards out. If the plan worked, the duo would lead the enemy guards into an invisible, one-way shield. (Vaser got more than energy weapons from the scientist.) The shield is made in a half sphere, and it only allows you to be able to go in, not out.

Carrun and Vehter ran by. Once they were out the radius of the shield, Vaser activated the shield and held his breath. Ten guards ran into the shield and hit other side, bouncing off it.

“Mission accomplished, come on back.” Vaser said. The others walked out of the brush.

“I’m glad this worked,” Carrun said.

“Me too,” Badsh said. “What do we do with them now?”

“I’m summoning the jailer as we speak,” Vaser replied.

Carrun smiled. “It’s kind of funny, the Brangh attack us, destroy us, and we’re always on the defense,”

“Your point?” Badsh said, annoyed.

“It’s fun finally getting the Brangh on the defense for once.” Carrun finished.

By the end of their conversation, the jailer appeared.

“You called, sir?” He said.

“Yes, and we got quite a load for you,” Vaser said, gesturing towards the shield.

“Got it sir,” The jailer said right before he teleported the unfortunate captives to the Grad planet.

“Okay, here’s the deal,” Vaser said. “The Brangh have energy weapons too, so Carrun and Vehter will cover Badsh and me. All weapons off stun. The Brangh, with their powers, won’t stay stunned for long, and if we encounter a lot of resistance, they Brangh you stun will get up and shoot us before we get in. Any questions?”

All three others shook their heads, taking their weapons off stun. Even off stun and at full power, the weapons might not kill the Brangh, because they had thick armor. This was a gamble.

“Are you sure we should put these at full power?” Carrun said. “They might just blow up when we pull the trigger.”

“That’s a risk we’ll have to take.” The voice now came from Vehter.

“Wait, did he just say something?” Badsh asked. “Or did I hear wrong,”

Chapter 7

Jaller was having a bad day.

The armies of Grads had; of course, taken the Toa prisoner and were now marching through the grassland.

If you could say anything about Jaller, it would be that he was a strategist; the Toa of Fire was captain of the Ta-Koro guard as a Matoran. Even though Kongu was a commander of a Le-Koro Gukko force squad, Jaller appointed Hewkii, Po-Koro’s Kohlii team captain, to be deputy leader. (Kohlii is a widely loved sport by Matoran, Hewkii and his partner Hafu were the reigning champions for many years) The way Hewkii looks at things, all this is like a game of Kohlii, ‘lose’, and ‘give up’ are not in his vocabulary. This time though, he is forced to put those words in. They marched for a few miles before stopping at a small village. There, the Grad soldiers picked up a few more prisoners. One was a tall, red figure. He immediately took notice of the Toa.

“Never seen anybody like you before,” He said. “Especially with those strange masks,”

“Were…not from around here.” Jaller said.

“Where are you from then?” The red figure asked.

Kongu walked up to the red figure. “Were from---”

“Somewhere very far from here,” Hewkii interrupted. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me,” The red figure said. “With all that I’ve been through, there is very little that I wouldn’t believe.”

“Alright, were from a different planet, we found a spaceship and crashed it here.” The fire Toa said. Noticing the weird expression on the red figure face, he added: “In a nutshell,”

“Are you alright?” The red figure said. “Another planet? There is no other planet, just this little war-torn one. Some people just get crazy after being prisoner. I once knew a guy, a very kind guy I might add, after a few years of being prisoner he just went plain crazy, and then disappeared. Never saw him since.”

“It’s true,” Hewkii said. “Look, I know this seems crazy, I barely believe it myself.”

Kongu leaned towards Hewkii and whispered: “He doesn’t seem to know about any ships, who do you think quick-shot us up there? He didn’t look like anything the people down here.”

“I know,” Hewkii replied. “Maybe if squeezed one of these guards’ heads, they would tell me about that.”

“Come on now,” Kongu said. “Don’t do that now—yet.”

Hewkii suddenly jumped. “I got it!” He said, trying to keep his voice low. “Use your mask, and read one of these guards’ minds,”

Kongu nodded and reached out with his Kanohi Suletu, the mask of telepathy, on the nearest guards’ mind.

He saw a normal farmer, reaping his crop. Then, dark figures appeared on the horizon,

The Makuta were coming.

The villagers took whatever equipment they could fight with, though they knew they would inevitably fall. But that never came; an army of Grads came and drove off the Makuta. The leader simply came up and asked: “Will you join the army of the Grads to rid the planet of Makuta?”

Most said yes, others said no, not wanting to get involved in a war. The war with the Makuta has lasted for over 500 years, and was still is going on. There Kongu stopped.

“Anything?” Hewkii asked. When Kongu shook his head, he said: “Not even a cool rock?”

The guards started to herd the prisoners into an airship-like vehicle.

“Where do you think we’re going?” Hewkii asked Kongu.

“I’m not sure,” Kongu answered. “I doubt they are going to set us free,”

“Of course their not!” Hewkii said.

Once all the prisoners were in the airship, the Toa and the prisoners took off.

---

The Grads walked cautiously toward the Brangh outpost, Carrun was scouting ahead. Vaser and the others were behind a big bush.

We don’t have all day, Carrun. Vaser thought. I know he is getting old, but this is ridiculous.

He waited for ten more minutes.

Badsh whispered into Vaser’s ear. “I see him coming through the entrance.”

A moment later, Carrun looped around a long ways’ away and came back from directly behind.

“It’s bad,” He said. “Six interior guards, four on the outside, odds don’t look good for us at the moment.”

“Everybody ready?” Vaser said. “No turning back now,”

All nodded in turn.

“Okay then, here we go.”

Chapter 8

Kongu leaned up against the side of the airship. He hated being taken prisoner. He looked at Hewkii. The Toa of Stone just stared back, and then Kongu noticed he was starting to change. Whatever turned them into Toa Inika was wearing off, and it sure was not escaping notice of the other prisoners. The transformation ended after about a minute.

“Well, let’s see how these work,” Kongu said, looking down at his Cordak revolving blasters.

“Yeah, I was starting to miss these things.” Hewkii said. He then took aim at the side and fired. The foot-

long rocket shot out of the blaster and impacted, blowing a 15 foot hole in the side of the craft. The three Toa Mahri said nothing, just leaped out of the newly-formed hole. They were much higher than they expected, but that didn’t worry Kongu. He created strong winds that slowed down their descent enough to hurt, but not kill.

“Let’s head back to the ship,” said Jaller. “I think it has an escape pod.”

“Two escape pods, Jaller,” Kongu snapped. “I’m surprised you didn’t pay attention to that. You Ta-Matoran types are supposed to be mechanical,”

Jaller winced at the jibe. They walked for a few hours, talking about what has really been going on lately, and many other topics. They finally reached the wreck of what was once a spacecraft. Kongu silently hoped the escape pods were still in good shape. To the Toa’s surprise, they were. They crammed into the pod and started the engines.

“Hey, this thing has a map of the solar system!” exclaimed Hewkii. “We can pick anywhere we want to go. Hey, I even bet we can find our planet. Let me see, ah! Here it is!” The others looked where Hewkii was pointing. It was a small planet right next to another small planet, and a giant one.

“That has to be it,” Jaller said. “It looks just like our system.”

“Look at all these planets!” Hewkii said, intrigued. “It would take 1,000 years to explore all this!”

“We’re here to get back home, not explore.” said Jaller. “There might be something wrong, and we don’t know about it.”

“Why can’t you be positive?” Kongu asked. “Like, ‘The Turaga are telling a really boring story and were missing it.’ Look, I know were in a pickle, but can’t you just tough it out and try to fix it? You act like a Po-Matoran.”

“Now that’s just not true,” Hewkii said, smiling. “More like a Ko-Matoran,”

“Can I tell you something?” Jaller asked.

“As long as it starts with, ‘we’re really not lost in space and the Toa Nuva are just playing a mean joke.’ Kongu grumbled. “Then I’m all ears,”

“Look, I may be a little pessimistic,” said Jaller. “But if I just assume the best and just think everything’s great, we might miss when we are needed most. Don’t you agree?”

The others nodded.

“I’m not a Vakama, or a Tahu,” Jaller continued. “I don’t want to be like them, I try to listen to my teammates. But other times, I have to take charge, and although you probably don’t always like it, it’s my duty to lead you.”

Jaller waited for a response. Hewkii said nothing.

Kongu said: “Wow, you could have been elected leader of Metru Nui with a speech like that.”

Jaller sighed and said: “Get us out of here.”

“Roger,” Hewkii said as he programmed to coordinates in the computer.

---

Vaser and Carrun ran towards the Brangh outpost, energy blasts flying over their heads left and right. Some of the blasts were the others shooting at the Brangh, but the majority were blasts shooting at him and his friends. He ran behind a tree and shot a Brangh guard straight in the chest. As he had hoped, it pierced the warrior’s armor and he collapsed on the ground. He saw Badsh shooting a guard also. Vaser took aim again, this time on the door. Being at full power, the weapon blew the door to pieces. But that just made things worse. Eight more guards poured out of the outpost, energy weapons blazing. A blast hit the tree Vaser was behind just above his head, sending him tumbling backward. He opened his eyes and got up, firing very fast at the building and its guards until he got behind another tree. This time, he just opened fire on everything that moved on and in the building. He took out six of them, which left four to go. The entire fire-fight lasted about fifteen minutes, but the Grads finally prevailed. Vaser signaled Carrun to follow him into the building. The air inside was stale and dank, as if the Brangh had let a dead Rahi sit in one of the rooms to long. There were guards everywhere, so the Grad’s had to be sneaky. They found a room that controlled the main systems. Vaser reached into his pack and pulled out a small, disk-like device and stuck it to the bottom of the panel. He then hit a button on the device and a red light started flashing. He turned to get out of the room and noticed something: Carrun was gone.

“Carrun?” He whispered.

“Here,” He saw Carrun walking into the doorway. “I was just making sure there were no guards coming this way.” He said.

“Good,” Vaser replied.

“Where did the others go again?” Carrun asked.

Vaser frowned. Carrun knew exactly where the others were. “They went back to the plateau a few miles to the south-east.” He answered.

The two Grads made their way to an empty room at the end of the hallway. Vaser was growing suspicious of Carrun. He kept asking questions about things he already knew. Vaser was also placing the disk-like things along the walls.

“What are those?” Carrun asked.

“They are motion detectors.”

“You remember that time,” Vaser began. “When you got trapped in that lava worm nest? And I had to get you out?”

“Yes, I remember that! Those worms are nasty.” Carrun replied. Vaser noticed something in the wall, it looked as if someone loosely stacked bricks over a hole. While Vaser went to investigate, Carrun thought.

He still believes it, he thought. What a fool.

Vaser got the bricks out of the way, and crawled through a small tunnel. It was a tight squeeze, but he made it through. Carrun was right behind him. The room inside looked like a house, with a few chairs and a couch. Vaser looked at everything intently. This had to be ‘hidden’ for a reason, and he was going to find out why. He searched for over an hour, but found nothing except for a small key. But where was the key hole? He looked around again for a key hole, but didn’t find it.

“Hmmm; what do you think is hidden here?” Vaser said to no one in particular.

His eyes were finally drawn to the light fixture about three feet above his head. It looked just like a normal light fixture, but a closer look revealed something very different:

It had a keyhole in its base.

Vaser stood on a chair and stuck the key in the hole. He didn’t even have to turn it---the room just started to change. The walls started shuffling around in random intervals, and by now they were moving too fast for the eye to see. When it all stopped, there was a door at the end of the room. Vaser walked up and went through it. The room ahead was full of gold and jewels, but that’s not what drew Vaser’s attention. It was the Brangh armor.

“Here, take this,” He said, his hand holding a suit of armor. When Carrun didn’t take it, he turned around to find Carrun with his energy blaster aimed right for him.

“Put down your weapon and put your hands up.” Carrun said.

“I knew you were a Brangh,” Vaser said casually. Carrun suddenly paused, as if deep in thought.

“You lied! Tell me where your friends are or I will kill you!” Carrun yelled.

Vaser just smiled and said: “Make me. Do you think I’m that much an idiot, believing you were actually Carrun? No. Remember when I talked about me saving you from Lava Worms? That never happened, and you recalled it well. Even if Lava Worms existed, I don’t think that y---”

“Enough!” ‘Carrun’ said. “Now you will tell me where they are! Are you playing tough?”

“Are you playing the mad scientist this week? Because you fit the bill perfectly.” Vaser replied. “Of course you are, I mean, you cowards actually believed the Makuta giving you your own power. Well let me tell you, that was our power. And were going to get it back.”

“You are trying to distract me, but it won’t work!”

“Oh yeah? Then how can I do this?” Vaser said as he kicked the imposter Carrun in the chest as hard as he could. He then grabbed the long barrel of the energy rifle. Using the leverage of the long barrel, he wrenched the weapon out of Carrun’s hand and put the end of the barrel on the dazed enemy’s head.

“You should have stayed back.” Vaser said. “Just because I’m the leader doesn’t mean I can’t fight.”

“Don’t think you’ve beaten me,” Carrun said, slowly reaching for his little energy stunner.

Vaser immediately saw this happening and stepped on Carrun’s hand harder and harder until he heard something crack. The Brangh yelled in pain.

“Don’t try anything or I pull this trigger.” Vaser said. “What you really should be asking is: If I pull this trigger at full power, at this range, will it blow us both up? Or will it just blow you up? I’m willing to find out. Now I’m going to ask the questions. Where is the real Carrun, and Grals?”

“Sector 4, cell 41,” Carrun answered.

“Good, now we’re getting somewhere.” Vaser said. “This better be right, or your going boom.”

Vaser chained the fake Carrun to the wall and went of search of his fellow Grads.

Might as well give the jailer someone to find guilty, he thought with a grin. Though it was pretty fun playing the hostage taker. I might have to do that again.

He finally reached the cell. Carrun and Grals were in it, unharmed.

“Vaser! Get us out of here, would you?” Grals said.

“Shut up!” Vaser said in a harsh whisper. “Do you want to attract the attention every guard in the outpost?”

Carrun walked up to the bars and pointed to a special place on the door. “Shoot here,” he said.

Vaser smiled. Carrun was the inspector of the team. Give him six identical pieces of metal, and he would find something different about each piece. Vaser looked both ways to make sure there were no guards visible. He then shot that area and the door shattered to pieces. The three Grads ran down the hall towards the exit.

“So,” Carrun began. “You obviously found the imposter.”

Vaser looked at Carrun. “I had a feeling it might be the real Carrun,” He turned around. “that feeling lasted all of two minutes.”

Carrun chuckled. “I figured you weren’t going to fall for it,” he said. “You never do,”

“It’s not like I haven’t had an---Whoa!”

The three stopped dead at the sight of at least two-dozen Brangh, armed with their latest weaponry.

“How thick do you think the roof here is, providing we’re still in the prison section?” Vaser asked Carrun.

“Probably six to ten feet, why?” Carrun answered.

Vaser put his hands up, weapon aiming about 45 degrees upward, pointing about at the ceiling above the Brangh.

“What are you doing?” Grals asked

“Put your hands up like me, guys.” Vaser answered.

Carrun smiled. He noticed Vaser said ‘Up like me’ instead of just ;Up’.

“Do what he says, guys.” He said. “Put your hands up like him, guys.”

The Brangh just started to walk to intercept their capture when Vaser shouted “Fire!”

The two other Grads learned from experience not to question authority, just do what the commander said. They aimed and fired their energy blasters at the roof above the Brangh, caving in tons of rubble on the guards. That left a neatly cut hole in the roof leading to the surface.

“Well that’s convenient of us,” Grals said. “We made an exit; I suggest we use it,”

The others nodded and crawled out of the hole. Vehter and Badsh scrambled out to greet them.

“We have bad news,” Badsh said. “The Brangh have overtaken one of our fortresses!”

Vaser was usually a calm and laid-back kind of being, that’s why he is a great leader. He usually would stay calm and make a plan to take one step at a time, which made him a great teacher. This time was no exception.

“How many survived?” He asked calmly.

“Not many,” Badsh said. “We might be in trouble,”

“You’re going to join them in a minute,” A voice said. The five Grads whirled to see the imposter Carrun and half-dozen guards.

“Now why do you need motion detectors?”

The others looked confused.

“I don’t,” Answered Vaser. “Gotcha,”

He then grabbed a device from Badsh and pushed a button. The fortress blew up in an ear-shattering explosion. The fake Carrun screamed in anger.

“They were bombs,” Vaser said. “I planted them at different places, then pushed a button and boom. You could learn from us.”

“I’ll learn from your dead corpses,” snarled ‘Carrun’, grabbing his sword. “Because that’s all you’ll be when I’m done with you,”

“Let’s get out of here!” Badsh said, already running.

---

Jaller, Kongu, and Hewkii landed their escape pod back on Spherus Magna.

“Well, here we are,” Hewkii said. “Wherever ‘here’ is,” he added under his breath.

“I know where we are,” Kongu replied. “Just give me a second to remember. Ah, yes, this way. The city isn’t far, say, oh, two or three kio.”

“Two or three kio, that’s not even a good walk.” Hewkii said, trying to keep a straight face. Then finally broke a grin when Kongu shot him an intimidating look.

“Okay, so an hour’s jog. That still is Matoran’s play for me.”

“That’s not bad,” Jaller added. “After swimming 10,000 feet down under water, this is like no exercise whatsoever.”

Their conversation was broken up by a Matoran running towards them. Kongu immediately recognized him.

“Tamaru?”

“Yes, I’ve been looking for you.” said Tamaru. “The Turaga want you immediately!”

“Why?” asked Jaller.

“Search me; they just said to get you, so I did.”

Tamaru led the Toa directly to the Turaga’s chamber. Toa Hahli, Nuparu, Lewa, Pohatu, Kopaka, Onua, Gali, Takanuva, Tahu, and the new Toa team, the Toa Valimi, Fayer, a Toa of Plant control, Dajad, a Toa of Gravity, Bheyer, a Toa of Iron, Cazer, a Toa of Electricity, Herua, a Toa of Pisionics, Gerua, a Toa of Sonics, Krakua, Helryx, and the head scientist were with the seven Turaga. Turaga Vakama stood up and gestured for the scientist to speak.

“We have been experimenting with a device that finds and identifies energy,” he began. “Everything that lives or gives out energy releases an energy signature. For example, a Matoran will make heat energy, for that is what he needs to survive. A chute gives out an energy signature because of the massive power required to make it run. All energy has a certain property about it, hence the word ‘signature’. But, there some things that are alike, for example, if you scanned two Matoran, you would find 97.265% of the energy is the same, but the other 2.735% of the property is always different. Called the Delta-Magnetic-Junction, it is also known as the DMJ. Just like DNA, it varies from person to person. We have actually designed a machine that has been able to identify the various species, like if we found an unknown energy signature, also known as an EST by the way, we could hook it up to the device and see if the EST was from a Toa, Matoran, etcetera. Well, I turned on the device and I found an unknown EST, so I turned on the other device and it identified the EST as ‘Makuta’.”

All seventeen Toa stared in amazement when the scientist spoke the work ‘Makuta’.

“That can’t be possible,” said Helryx in amazement. “The Order executed all of the evil Makuta that were still alive.

That just leaves---”

“The Makuta from Karda Nui.” Tahu concluded.

“But didn’t they die in that energy storm you unleashed?” Kongu asked.

“They did,” Pohatu said. “So that rules them out,”

“Who does that leave?” Nuparu asked.

“I can’t think of anyone…” Onua said.

“Miserex…” Helryx said softly. All eyes were drawn to her. “The leader of the Brotherhood before Teridax took over. Teridax ordered him to be killed by Krika and Spirah, but Krika disobeyed that order for some reason, instead trapping him on a different island. Later, the now Order member Brutaka freed him for his own reasons. Anyone know where he went after that?”

The other twenty-three figures shook their heads.

“Then it has to be him, right?” Cazer asked.

“Maybe,” The scientist said. “I don’t know the DMJ’s of the certain Makuta because I didn’t scan them of course, so I can’t tell you who it is.”

Their meeting was interrupted by one of the scientist’s assistants.

“Yes, what is it?” The scientist said.

“Well, um, the device has discovered two more Makuta ESTs!” The assistant said.

“Does one of them have the same DMJ as the first one?”

“Negative,”

“Well, we better go check it out,” Helryx said, already standing up.

The Toa split into teams: Kopaka, Mazeka, Takanuva, and Krakua were going to scan the White Quartz mountain range, Hahli, Gali, Cazer, and Helryx were to look in the ocean, Nuparu, Onua, and Bheyer were to go underground, Lewa, Kongu, and Fayer were going to fly around and see if they were flying or not, Pohatu, Herua, and Hewkii were going to scan around Metru Nui, Tahu, Dajad, and Jaller were going to look in the highly volcanic region.

Kopaka and his team had made it to the mountain range in just over an hour in the chute system.

“Well, here we are.” Mazeka said, drawing his twin ice-swords. “The hunt has begun.”

The Toa made their way across the snowy mountain range. Krakua spotted something in the corner of his eye. Turning around, he saw a sight he would never forget: A Makuta. Acting quickly, he unleashed a sonic blast that would blow down ten Makuta. But this one never stirred. Frustrated, Krakua tried again, but to the same failure. The others saw Krakua struggling.

“Rookies,” Kopaka grumbled as he slid down the slope towards Krakua, Takanuva right behind. Kopaka stopped right next to Krakua. He then took aim with his Midak Skyblaster, but then felt Takanuva put a hand on his shoulder. “Let me,” He said. Takanuva took aim and fired a light blast. Once again, the Makuta just stood there, staring. Kopaka, puzzled by this, walked up to the Makuta and lifted his hand to touch the apparently immune Makuta. His hand went right through.

“It’s an illusion,” He said. Once the words left his mouth, the illusion disappeared.

“Creepy,” Gerua said. “What do you think did that?”

“I don’t think, I know,” Kopaka said. “The Makuta did this, though I don’t know which one.”

Chapter 9

Bheyer had just discovered something: He deeply hated the cold. He, Onua, and Nuparu had made their way down the tunnel that was directly under Metru Nui and then, one moment they were walking down the tunnel, and next, a blizzard was raging in the cave.

“This is definitely not natural!” Onua said, trying to be heard over the wind and blowing snow. The Toa were now knee-deep in snow---and it was rising fast. Bheyer started forward through the now waist high snow, counting on the increased endurance of Toa of Iron to get him through. The others were right behind him. He felt an armored hand grab on to his shoulder and then that hand sent an electric jolt that sent him into unconsciousness.

When Onua woke up, he was on the floor like broken tools cast on the ground by a Ta-Matoran.

“We meet again, Toa.” A voice like thunder said.

Onua gasped. That voice, it couldn’t be! Against his will, he turned to look at his captor---and suddenly wished he hadn’t. The figure in front of him was tall, clad in red and black armor and wielded a double—bladed sword and a rotating shield/sword, and he had the mask of Shadows. All of this was too horribly familiar to the Toa of Earth.

“Icarax…” Onua said in disbelief. “But you’re dead, I saw it happen. This has to be another illusion.”

“If only it were so simple, Toa.” Icarax hissed. “You awakened Mata Nui and defeated Teridax, true. And then the energy storm consumed us. That’s false.”

“But how?” Onua asked. “Gorast killed you, not the energy storm!”

“Ah, Toa, you’re mask covers you’re head, that doesn’t mean you can’t use it. By the time you awakened Mata Nui, we were well away from Karda-Nui.”

“But… we saw you while we were escaping.” Onua said, not totally grasping what he has been told. Icarax laughed---a truly horrible sound. “Stupid little Toa, you should know by now that we create illusions.”

“But…but Kopaka’s mask won’t let him see illusions!”

“We Makuta can be…very persuasive.” Icarax said, leaning in closer. “You know, I told Antroz I wouldn’t kill you, but I think I’ll just say you accidentally fell off the balcony. But, before I kill you and hang your mask on the wall, I want to show you something.” Icarax picked up Onua and hurled him towards a balcony on the side of the cavern. When he regained his senses and looked off the side of the balcony, he saw a truly horrible sight:

There were Makuta, thousands of them, ready for battle.

“Truly an impressive sight, huh, Onua.” Icarax said, looking proudly over his army.

As much as Onua hated to say it, it was an impressive sight, but he chose to say nothing.

“Remember Vultraz? Well, he knew how to make Makuta, and here we are.”

“What happened to him?” Onua asked, already knowing the answer.

“Let’s just say he got on the wrong end of my sword when I was…in a bad mood.” Icarax said, smiling. “Just imagine, the sound of war, the screams, the swords clanking against each-other. Isn’t that great?”

“No,” Onua said. “That’s terrible.”

Onua was about sick of being tossed around by a Makuta.

Especially a dead one, he thought.

He then caused an earthquake that sent Icarax off balance enough to push him to the floor. He ran into what he thought was an exit. If he was expecting it to be an exit, he was very disappointed. The doorway had a creature about 8 feet high, with four wings, a tail, four legs with huge claws, and two heads with at least six thousand razor-sharp teeth in each mouth. He was about to turn around when he felt a blade at his throat.

“Ah, another one of Chirox’s pets got loose again.” Icarax said. Just then, Chirox walked in. His expression came from grim to happy when he saw Onua.

“OOOO! Another Toa to experiment on!” He said excitedly.

“Not this one,” Icarax replied. “Didn’t I already give you one?”

“Yes, but he was a… failed experiment.” Chirox said. “I need a new one.”

Icarax smiled. Chirox would dump anything into chemicals to create a Rahi. In the past few weeks, Chirox and his fellow scientist Mutran had been putting more intelligent things like Shadow Matoran and a Toa or two into his crazy chemicals. He obviously thought Onua looked like the perfect specimen for his ‘freak show’ as the other Makuta called it. But Icarax had need of this Toa.

He will try not to help me, Icarax thought. Though he will and he won’t even know it.

He would try to escape and tell his friends and in doing so, only making it better for Icarax. He was going to take over the planet of Spherus Magna one way or another, and no one was going to stop him, no matter what. All the beings who think their safe from harm are going to find no use of Toa, or Glatorian, or any other protector. They will finally send the once famous heroes out of their sight, believing they were completely safe from any harm. And then, even if it takes one year or one thousand, Icarax is going to prove them very wrong. He will first send his army of Makuta at the defenseless Matoran. He couldn’t wait what the ex-protectors would feel when their friends had been killed. Fear? Grief? Anger? Perhaps happiness over the death of the ones who exiled them? But, of course, like all master plans, there was a snag:

And its name was Antroz.

Teridax placed Antroz as temporary leader of the Brotherhood of Makuta while he hatched his plan to take over the universe. Icarax believes he should be the leader but Antroz says he is. He needs to keep quiet. He thought with a sinister grin. Dead quiet.

Chirox was still standing in front of him, insane eyes seeming to look through him.

“Didn’t you say that you made a contraption that would trap a Makuta’s energy and store it in a bottle or something?” Icarax asked.

“Yes…why?”

“I need to use it. And don’t you have one of those Antidermis-disintegrating spears also, you know, those ones we got from that miserable little weasel Tobduk?”

“Yes,” Chirox said, thoroughly confused.

“Get those things right now and summon the others,” Icarax said. “I have a world to conquer.”

Onua didn’t know if he should be shocked or terrified about the sudden turn of events.

---

Gali led Hahli through the deep water around Metru Nui. Helryx and Cazer were going to swim on the surface, because they could not breathe under water. Gali kept her eyes peeled for anything that looked suspicious. Hahli was starting to fall behind.

“Come on,” Gali said. “We need to keep going,”

“Just look at it,” Hahli said.

“Look at what, Hahli?”

“All of this, I mean, I have never seen anything like this. For just being under Metru Nui, this is pretty creepy.”

Gali looked around. There was quite a few things different down here; it was darker, and the sea creatures were a lot different.

The two Toa looked up and saw Helryx swimming toward them. She just pointed up. Nodding, Gali gestured for Hahli to surface as she swam. When they surfaced, Helryx spoke: “The Turaga have called a meeting, no one knows what it’s about.”

“Let’s find out, shall we?” Gali said.

Hours later, the Toa and Glatorian came to the Turaga’s chamber. Only Vakama was there. He said that Onua’s team was occupied at the moment, and couldn’t come.

“Well, Toa.” He began. “The other Turaga and I have decided that the new Metru Nui is safe. We don’t need you protectors anymore.”

“What?” Pohatu asked. “What do we do now?”

“You can get out of here!” Turaga Vakama yelled. All of the warriors gave the Turaga expressions mixed anger and disbelief. Turaga Vakama was never like this, even when he was in a very, very bad mood. To see him just kicking the Toa, Glatorian, and the others out was totally absurd.

“But, what about the Makuta,” Cazer asked. “They don’t matter anymore?”

“Correct. Now get out of here, I don’t want to see any of you after sunset.”

“You’re making a huge mistake,” Gresh pleaded. “What if danger comes up, or we refuse to get out?”

“We are the leaders of this city!” raged Vakama. “And when we say out, we mean OUT!”

For some reason, no one argued further, they just walked away. The disgraced protectors were going to find their own residence among the wastelands. Now the only one in the Turaga’s chamber at the time was Turaga Vakama. Therefore, there was no one there to see Vakama morph into Makuta Bitil, a fearsome smile on his lips.

Chapter 10

The five Grads, Vaser, Carrun, Badsh, Vehter, and Grals were running for their lives. Normally, the Grads would challenge a Brangh any day. But now their powers were too weak to even think of challenging even half of one. The Brangh had the advantage, Vaser knew that. But Vaser also knew a way---or he thought he knew how to get him and his men’s power back, but first, he had to survive this encounter with ten Brangh at least---he was too busy running to count. For some reason, a legend popped into his mind. The Legendary Sword of Jahish in legend broke a mental barrier that kept an ancient king in power by enslaving his people. That might break the barrier that keeps the Grads from getting their power back. Now, calculating the likelihood of surviving this encounter, surviving whatever traps there were guarding the sword, if it existed, Vaser roughly calculated the odds. And they didn’t look good. But Vaser wasn’t just any Grad---after all, he got famous by defeating the odds! But fame was not what Vaser was driven by; he was driven by will and determination to protect his people. But that will and determination didn’t mean anything if he was dead. But this time, it looked pretty good for the Grads. Vaser blew in a whistle that he had and ten Grads popped up out of the brush, armed to the teeth with modern weaponry. They didn’t say a word, just opened fire, mowed down the enemy and went back into hiding.

“That was…interesting.” Grals said, a smile appearing on his crooked face.

“Whoa!” Badsh shouted. “Now that was too close.”

Vehter scanned the surrounding mountains.

“Look at that,” He stated, pointing up at one of the mountainsides. “Smoke signals. They’ll be on top of us in a day.”

“The suns almost down, we’ll move under the cover of dark.” Vaser said, nodding. “No flashlights. We can’t risk the chance of being seen.”

“If we survive this,” Badsh said. “I’m getting stationed somewhere else.”

“Are you kidding?” Carrun said with surprise. “I wouldn’t take anything to get stationed somewhere else.”

“I guess I’m not the action-adventure type,” Badsh said, shrugging.

“Ah, well, you can’t win them all, I guess.” Carrun said.

“Cut it out,” Vaser said.

Soon the wood was covered by darkness. The only thing they could see was the faint silhouettes of each other and the big trees.

“Let’s go,” Vaser said quietly.

The five Grads walked through the woods in the complete darkness. They didn’t say a word, just gave each other hand signals. Carrun was in the lead, Vaser right behind him. They came up to an old stone wall—with a big hole in the middle. The Grads lined up against the wall, Carrun at the edge of the hole. He carefully peeked through the hole. A hay wagon, an old barn, an old beat up house was all that dotted the landscape. He looked back at Vaser and nodded. Vaser turned towards the others and signaled for the others to go one at a time. All nodded in turn. Vaser then tapped Carrun on the shoulder and he ran behind the hay wagon. The leader of the Grads ran behind the hay wagon behind Carrun and tapped on his shoulder again. The red Grad crawled on his belly all the way to the old barn and flattened against the wall. Vaser waited for the signal to get moving, then he felt Grals’ cold hand tap on his shoulder. He nodded at Grals and crawled on his belly to Carrun and tapped him on the shoulder. The Grads relayed like this until they were all up against the wall of the beat up house. Vehter had a window above his head.

“Blow it,” Vaser whispered.

Vehter nodded and pulled out a hand grenade, pulled the pin, hit the trigger, counted to six and threw it though the window. First came the crash of the glass breaking, followed by the explosion of the grenade rocking the old structure. Right after the explosion, the Grads jumped up one at a time into the window. Directly inside were the bodies of three Brangh. Vaser switched on the flashlight that was on his weapon to try and see through the thick dust lingering in the air.

“Clean the place out,” Vaser said.

The other Grads turned on their flashlights and went their separate ways, checking each room thoroughly. They regrouped a few minutes later in the room they came in.

“Nothing,” Carrun said. “Not even a tool or piece of armor.”

“Let’s move out, the front lines can’t be far.” Vaser said.

“That’s foolish,” Badsh said. “Can’t we get back some other way?”

“Who is more foolish,” Carrun said. “The fool, or the fool that follows him?”

“Let’s go already!” Grals said.

“Roger,” Vehter said in his usual monotone voice.

Vaser noticed by looking out window that there was a road about 200 yards away from the Grads to the south.

“Uh, there’s something coming down the road.” Grals said, sounding nervous.

Yes, there was something coming down the road, and it was a Brangh troop transport.

“Shoot! Take cover!” said Vaser.

But things only got worse, the transport pulled up to the building. Vaser signaled the others to follow him. He led the four other Grads out the back door and they crawled on their bellies to the deep grass about fifty yards away from the building. They turned around towards the building, and aimed their weapons down range. They didn’t want to fire them unless they were fired on first, for their weapons were very loud and made a big flash when fired. This would give away their position. Vaser looked at Carrun.

“Get to the ditch on the other side of the road and cover us if necessary.” He said.

Carrun nodded, turned around, and went across the road into the far ditch, and aimed his weapon at the building. Vaser then patted Grals and he crawled and took a position next to Carrun. He then gestured at Badsh to follow suit. When she turned around towards Carrun and Grals, she saw them signaling for her to freeze. She slowly turned her head around, and lo and behold, a Brangh was walking behind the building. He looked across the grass field, and went back around towards the front of the building. Badsh started moving again, and in a few minutes all of the Grads were on the far side of the ditch. They walked for about 2 hours.

“We can’t be far away from the front lines,” Vehter said.

But then their radio crackled to life,

“Vaser, Carrun, Badsh, anyone copy?” Said a voice.

“This is Vaser,” Vaser said quietly into the radio.

“Good to hear from you, sir! This is Blackbird 6, ready to pick you up, just prepare an LZ and we’ll be right with you!”

Vaser was confused, the front lines were supposed to be at least a mile from here, unless they got pushed back, and that would mean, no, that couldn’t be right….the Grads were winning?

“You mean to say that we’re in Grad territory?” asked Vaser.

“Yes sir.” said the pilot. “We mounted a major offensive, and pushed those suckers back to kingdom come!”

Vaser was overcome with joy. In curing the virus, the Grad army must’ve multiplied ten-fold! We might have a fighting chance! He thought with joy.

The chopper then landed in a clearing. The five Grads got on it and flew back to base.

Three Hours Later…

Vaser sat down at his desk in the main fortress. It was good to be back. He leaned back, put his feet on the desk, and closed his eyes. About a minute later, he heard a knock on the door.

“Come in,” He said.

He was surprised to see Badsh walk through the door.

“What can I do for you?” He asked.

“Sir….I…I’d like to get stationed somewhere else.”

Vaser sat up in his chair. “Why?”

“A while ago, I thought it would great to be in Special Ops and performing Black Ops missions. But now, I don’t think I’m cut out to do it.”

Vaser looked at her intently. “You performed great this last mission, so why get stationed somewhere else?”

Badsh looked around the room, never meeting Vaser’s eyes. “You know, the ‘I saved so and so here’ ‘I did such and such heroic here’. Don’t you see? I don’t fit into that group. I’m sorry.”

Vaser wasn’t going to argue for her to come back, that wouldn’t work, either you were a soldier, or weren’t. She apparently wasn’t much of one. So he was going to say the same thing he would say to all the hundreds of people like her that had come in before.

“Suite yourself,” He said. “See you some other time.” He said as he put out his hand to shake. Badsh shook his hand and walked out the door.

Vaser sighed heavily.

“Well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.” He said to himself.

And then he heard another knock on his door, and before he could say, ‘Come in,’ his assistant came in with a lot of files.

“…And here comes the paperwork,” Vaser sighed.

“Hello Vaser,” Said the assistant. He was one of the only people allowed to call him by his real name all the time. “I have a lot of news from spies and such.”

“Any word from that planet dirt?”

“Earth Vaser, Earth.” His assistant said. “Here it is,” He handed Vaser a file.

“Might as well call it ‘Dirt’, there would be no difference.” He mumbled as he opened the file. “Hmmm…What’s this? American Army ranks and terms? Interesting…..Even though I forgot what America was anyway.”

“I thought you would be interested,” Said the assistant.

“You know, I like these,” Said Vaser. “Issue everybody a rank, in order, of course. So like, I would be the five-star general. Oh, and give the technology files to the scientist or one of his little minions.”

“Gotcha Vaser. Oh, by the way, that pesky country, you know, Tusakania, the President just gave us another bomb threat.”

“Oh, bother. I told them if they did it again we would take action. This is the second time. These guys are like dogs, you give them one chance when they bite, but the second bite you have to put them down. And that’s what I’m going to do, put them down.”

“Do you want me to get bombers on the tarmac?” Vaser’s assistant had been around Vaser so long, he could practically read his mind. (In a manner of speaking)

“Yes, get as many as you can. I want Tusakania a smoking hole in the ground by Monday.”

The two comrades turned towards the door as the scientist walked in.

Vaser put his finger up to the scientist. “Is that all?” He asked the assistant.

“All of the important matters, yes.” He answered.

“Then you can go somewhere else.”

“Yes Vaser….” The assistant quickly walked out of the office.

Vaser beckoned the scientist to come forward. “Yes, my good friend, sit down.”

“Thank you.” said the scientist as he sat down. “I think I might have an end to the Brangh. Now I’ve been experimenting on one of our captives, and I think I know how to build a weapon that will shoot a certain pulse that might get the power out of them, though there will be consequences.”

“What kind of consequences?” Vaser asked.

“Well, when I take their power, I take ours too. And not to mention, it will reduce the power by half that can stored inside the stone that is in our energy cartridges.”

“Does it have a certain range?” Vaser asked.

“Well, I’ve calculated that the range will be over the whole planet.”

Vaser paused. He knew they couldn’t evac the entire army, because if they did the Brangh would take over every part of the Grads’ line.

“Easy,” He finally said. “We can take the 20 highest ranking people off the planet when you shoot it. That way, the highest ranking will be the Official Highest Ranking Grads. Hmmm…OHRG…I like the sound of that….”

“You know, you might be on to something…” The scientist said. “I think I can make that happen…”

“Don’t think. Know. I want this to happen ASAP.”

“Roger,” The scientist left the office.

A moment later, Vaser’s assistant came back in.

“Didn’t I just see you, Deblak?” Vaser said to his assistant.

“Yes,” Deblak replied. “It seems the civilian government wants to talk to you about the war again.”

“Again? This is the fifth time this week, and its Saturday!” Vaser did a face palm.

“I know, they are just obsessed on getting you to stop the war.”

Vaser looked up, frustrated. “I am trying to stop the war. Just not their way, they want to negotiate, that won’t work, so we go to plan B, which is, take over the enemy, or wipe them of the planet. End of discussion.”

“Well, you might as well humor them,” Deblak said.

“Might as well,” Vaser said and then quickly added: “If I don’t shoot myself.”

“Good, your meeting is in twenty minutes. Oh yes, and those uh, Toa are they called? Anyway, they apparently got exiled from their own residence.”

“Why do you think so?” Vaser asked.

“I’d say dirty play. They have Makuta too, you know.”

“Let me think about this,” Vaser said, and right after that the assistant left the room.

For the next twenty minutes, Vaser kept pondering what he had just heard.

Chapter 11

The protectors of the New Metru Nui were in a bad way. Now they had to live out in the wastelands, apparently, with no supplies.

“I don’t get it,” Said Hewkii. “Why would Turaga Vakama just kick us out like that?”

“Maybe he’s jealous of our power,” Kongu said.

“That can’t be right,” Gerua said.

“Did he go insane, or what?” Lewa said.

“That’s not funny.” Helryx replied.

“Why did we just leave?” Cazer asked. “We are the most powerful people in the city! Couldn’t we just not leave?”

“Yeah, what could they do about it? Call the Vahki? Please…” said Fayer.

“We have to respect our elders of our villages,” Helryx said. “even if they are total kooks.”

Kopaka and Dajad were in the rear, looking out for any trouble behind.

“Whoa! Did you see that?” Tahu said. “I just saw something fly by.”

“Maybe you’re going crazy,” Lewa said. “I don’t see a thing.”

“Wait, I saw it, too!” Kongu said. “There!”

Kongu pointed up towards a figure floating in the air.

“Oh no, not you!” Jaller said.

Up above them was Vaser, clad in his green-gold armor.

“I would like to talk to you,” He said. “May I?”

“Come; I’ve heard a lot about you,” Tahu said.

“I’m going to give you an opportunity that you will never get again, since you got exiled and stuff like that.” He began. “I’m giving you the opportunity to become a Grad soldier.”

“We can’t do that; we need to protect our city!” Helryx said.

“We can place the city under the protection of the OWGCP, or Off World Grad City Protection.” He said.

“Even if this OWGCP exists, why should we trust you?” Kongu said irritably.

“Now hold on a minute,” Tahu said, stepping between the two figures. “Kongu, just because you had a bad experience with these guys doesn’t mean we couldn’t become allies, being exiled and all.”

“Well, yeah, I guess so.” Kongu conceded.

Tahu walked up to Vaser. “Look, we need proof that the OWGCP exists, and that your really on our side.”

Vaser teleported them to a cliff edge overlooking a massive city. “What can I prove? Tahu, you are a warrior, a protector of what’s right, am I correct?”

Tahu gave a short nod. “Look, right now, I don’t think we should join. We have a city to protect.”

“But once again,” Vaser began. “You’ve been exiled.”

“Well…”Gresh interrupted. “We were hoping you could help us out with that.”

Vaser handed the Toa a tablet and teleported away. It read:

Bitil must be stopped. He was impersonating Vakama. Onua is in the Pit.

Tahu showed this to all of his comrades, then they made a plan.

“Alright,” ge began. “Glatorian find Bitil, and Toa go for Onua.”

Chapter 12

Onua was in trouble.

Not just because he was around a lot of Makuta, but now, he had found that “failed experiment” Chirox was talking about. It was Nuparu. Apparently Chirox had dunked him in all kinds of chemicals, which made him intangible. So now, Onua was in a cell with him, along with Bheyer, overlooking the Makuta.

We are in big trouble now… Onua thought with dismay.

Onua looked through the cell door. Icarax had gathered all of the other Makuta around. Antroz looked agitated. He struggled to hear what the Makuta were saying.

“What is the meaning of this?” Antroz asked in an annoyed tone.

Icarax made his move. He drove his blade into Antroz’s armor. He could see that Antroz was losing Antidermis, so he grabbed a container like object and flipped a switch. The container like object scooped up all of the greenish-black gas, and then what was once Antroz’s body slumped to the ground.

“I now possess Antroz,” Icarax said.

Where are you guys? Onua thought as Icarax held the container triumphantly over his head. The other Makuta seemed to tremble at the sight.

“And now, the best part,” Icarax said with a fearsome grin. “Chirox, the spear.”

Chirox quickly came over with an Antidermis disintegrating spear, formerly possessed by Tobduk. Icarax held the spear in his hand. Onua would never know if this was true, but the spear almost seemed heavy to the black and red Makuta. He saw Icarax say something in a whisper and raise his spear, blasting whatever was left of Antroz into oblivion. Onua looked around desperately for an escape route. He wanted to get out of here as quick as possible. He scanned the surrounding walls, and then it came to him—Earth! He was a Toa of Earth! He could just---what was he thinking? Why would he want to leave? And, how does he control the Earth? Who were the two figures in the cell with him? A blanket of confusion swept over him, and across the room, Icarax smiled. He had been reading the Toa’s mind ever since he captured him, and he knew the Toa was planning to escape. Icarax turned back to the other Makuta.

“And now,” Icarax said. His smile never fading. “I will rule you all. You will listen to me. And if I sense even the slightest bit of treachery, you will all die.”

The Makuta all were looking at Icarax. Bheyer took the distraction to fight back. Using his power over metals, he made all of the Makuta’s armor fall apart. Then he made the steel bars crumble.

“Come on,” He said, grabbing the dazed Onua. “Let’s get out of here. Nuparu!”

“Here!” A voice said. “Let’s go.”

“Stay behind me,” Bheyer said as he led the team past the broken Makuta. But something caught his eye. He stopped.

“Why are you stopping?” Nuparu asked.

Bheyer looked at the Makuta armor. He saw nothing. He turned back forward.

“Nothing,” He replied. “Let’s keep moving.”

Bheyer resumed moving again. Everything was normal. Black walls, cell doors, weapons scattered all over the place, and regenerating Makuta armor. Bheyer had to look back at that last thing. Yes, the Makuta’s armor was regenerating.

“Uh oh.” He said

“What?” Nuparu asked.

“Run!” Bheyer said, grabbing Onua.

They ran towards what looked like an exit. It was a doorway leading into blackness.

It’s better than nothing, Bheyer thought.

They ran into the doorway. All he saw was black. Onua regained his senses and used his night vision powers to pierce the darkness. The problem was, though, that he couldn’t share his power with any of the others, so he had to guide them with his voice.

“This way guys, come on.”

Bheyer walked cautiously towards the voice.

“Onua,” He said. “Can you see me?”

“Yes. Keep coming straight forward.”

The sound of Onua backing into a wall was heard.

“Ungh. Dead end. I’ll just have to go under it.”

Onua channeled his power over earth and started digging under the wall.

“Whoa,” He said.

“What? What is it?” Bheyer asked.

“This ground is wet,” Onua replied.

A few moments later, the Toa of Earth came hurdling out of the hole at an amazing rate of speed. For a second, Bheyer was wondering why he was doing that. The sound of gushing water answered his question.

“RUN!” He yelled as water started to gush out of the opening.

Nuparu quickly harnessed his power over earth and filled in the hole with dirt, stopping the water flow at least temporarily.

“Wow,” Bheyer said in amazement.

“Uh, guys,” Onua said uneasily. “We’re under water.”

“Oh man, that’s bad.” Bheyer said.

“I don’t know how were gonna get out of this one, guys.”

“You cannot be serious.”

“Oh, I’m very serious.”

Kopaka, Jaller, and the others were standing on a beach. Of the shore laid the black waters of the Pit.

“The old kook said that’s where they were.” Kopaka said. “The Pit? I think that guy has lost it.”

“Okay fine,” Jaller said. “Everyone ready?”

Hahli and Hewkii both nodded. Kongu sighed loudly. He hated the water. He hated the pit. He hated the Barraki. But, finding his brother Toa was his priority. If he focused on that, he might not be so disgusted.

“Ready.” He said uneasily.

Jaller slowly dipped into the cold water. The awful familiarity triggered all kinds of memories to flow through his mind. The Kanohi Ignika, Barraki, Teridax, Matoro. Yes, he remembered Matoro. He remembered the struggle to save Mata Nui, and he remembered Matoro giving his life for everyone else. He snapped back into reality.

Back to our search,

As he slowly dropped all the way into the water, he felt that horrible, familiar feeling. The water was alive, or at least it seemed like it. The other three Toa followed suite, slowly dipping into the freezing abyss.

“Okay,” Jaller said. “Are we ready for our search?”

“As ready as we’ll ever be.” Hewkii replied. “Are we going to split up?”

“No,” Jaller said quietly. “We need to stick together.”

The Toa split up, each searching a different area. Jaller was at the bottom of the sea. The Pit had changed since their last visit, Mahri Nui was gone, and the massive earthquake that rocked it when Mata Nui awakened destroyed ancient rock formations, made massive cracks on the floor, and killed a lot of sea life. Yes, the Pit had changed indeed.

I can’t see a thing down here! If only I could see in the dark!

He stopped on a ledge. Down beneath him was too far away to tell what it was. Jaller threw a flare of fire down the hole, illuminating the walls of the gaping crevice. On one of the sides was the entrance of a tunnel. As the flare passed by, he could see the horribly familiar shape of Ehlek in it.

“Uh, guys,” He said. “I think I found it. But we have company. Barraki.”

The Barraki were originally a group designed by Mata Nui to keep peace. But, they suddenly got overzealous of their power and turned on their creator. In 1,000 years, they had most of the known world under their feet. Their reign was cut short by a surprise attack by the Brotherhood of Makuta. Right before Teridax was about to kill them all, an Order of Mata Nui member named Botar stepped in and banished the Barraki to the Pit. The mutagenic properties of the water turned them into creatures of the sea. There they stayed for 75,000 years until Teridax launched his coup de tat on the Bortherhood. In the process of his takeover, a massive earthquake shook the entire universe and shattered the prison holding them, and in the process shattered a piece of the island above, Voya Nui. The Matoran down below learned to live down in the depths, living in fear of the Barraki. In the fight for the Mask of Life, the Toa Inika went down after it, but the Barraki found it first. The Toa fought the Barraki for a short time, encountering Teridax along the way. They finally got the mask back and ran, and hadn’t heard from them since.

Later, the team met up at the position Jaller told them. Kongu took awhile to get there, and when asked why, he replied:

“I got lost.”

“Cover me guys,” Jaller said. “I’m going in, but I’m going in quietly.”

“We’ll be positioned around the hole,” Hewkii replied. “We’ll be your spotters.”

“Okay, you guys take your positions and I’ll head in once you’ve done so.”

“Good luck,” Kongu said.

“Thanks.”

Once everyone was in position, Jaller headed towards the hole. Staying in the darkest areas, he managed to keep from getting the Barraki’s attention. He started to slowly proceed into the hole when he heard Kongu whisper sharply.

“Jaller! Get down!”

Immediately Jaller dropped down, holding on to the ledge of the hole. Pridak came to the ledge soon after. All Jaller could do was hold his breath and hope he didn’t look down. After a minute or so, Pridak went back.

“Your clear. Be careful.”

The Toa of Fire drug himself up on to the ledge. He could see the Barraki talking. This gave him the perfect opportunity to sneak by them. He saw a Toa-sized hole on the side of the cavern. He swam into it only to discover the end of it was filled in from the inside.

I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way. He thought.

He saw a door. The Barraki were right next to it.

Let’s make them go somewhere else, he thought, arming his Cordak revolving blaster.

He armed his Cordak revolving blaster. Aiming at the floor at the end of the tunnel, he fired. The projectile flew straight and true, impacting the floor, blowing a 3-foot wide crater in it. The Barraki went to investigate. This gave Jaller the opportunity to slip inside unnoticed. He went through an airlock into a central room, but strangely, there was no one in sight. Gazing around the room, he saw a door on the far side. In a half squatted walk, he made his way to the door and opened it. He once again saw no one. He was slowly proceeding into the hallway. About 4 feet in, he was grabbed from behind in a steel gripped choke hold.

“Jaller?” A familiar voice said.

The Toa of fire strained to look at his captor. He was able to turn his head enough to see the black mask of strength that belonged to Onua.

“Yes…..it’s….me….Jaller…” He gasped. The grip loosened a little bit, and then tightened it back again.

“And how would I know that?”

“Remember when…me and you…got caught in that lava bird nest and I had to bail you out?” Jaller said, struggling to speak under The Toa of Earths Iron hold.

Onua let go and sighed loudly.

“I was beginning to think you’d never come!” Onua said, overjoyed.

He gestured further into the hall. There Jaller saw Bheyer standing further into the hall.

“Nuparu is here as well,” The Toa of Iron said. “You just can’t see him.”

Jaller didn’t reply to the not seeing Nuparu comment. He already guessed Chirox had a failed experiment.

By now the other Toa Mahri had come in.

“Let’s get out of--”

“Wait,” Onua interrupted. “We need to destroy this place.”

“I’ll do it,” Jaller replied sternly. “You guys get back to the surface.”

“No,” Onua protested. “I’m going with you.”

Jaller knew it was useless to argue with Onua. The Toa of Earth was as stubborn as a Gukko bird.

“We’re sending Bheyer and Nuparu out to you. Get them to the surface.” He said

“What about you?” Hahli asked.

“Me and Onua are going to destroy this place.”

“But what if-”

“We’ll be fine.”

With that, Jaller left the other Toa Mahri. He didn’t need to hear Hahli’s concerns right now.

“Lead the way.”

“I know an area that will destroy this place.”

“Let’s go.”

Onua led him to what appeared to be a laboratory. The only light in the room came from the enormous green vats that lined the walls. The liquid inside was glowing. They appeared to be full of Antidermis, although Jaller couldn’t tell from his angle. Had he not known better, he would’ve said that the green liquid was almost laughing at him in ridicule.

“We need to heat these,” he said. “And then, boom.”

Jaller lit a fire under every one of the vats, being careful that the fires weren’t so close that they would blow up the vats instantly. They needed time to get out. Their session was interrupted by the sound of clanking of metal feet interrupting their short-lived celebration. The two Toa both looked up to see three Makuta bearing down on them.

“Uh oh,”

“Let’s go NOW!” Onua said, grabbing Jaller.

The two raced to the airlock. Once inside, they locked the door behind them.

All Jaller could say before the quickly rising water went over their heads was: “Hold your breath,”

The outside door opened. Onua instantly grabbed The Toa of Fire and initiated his rocket boosters. Though they didn’t work quite as well under water, it was still much faster than swimming. Jaller looked back, and then suddenly wished he hadn’t. The vats exploded, creating an enormous shockwave with it. He knew they couldn’t outrun it, so he curled up in a fetal position and waited. Onua did the same. Impact! The shockwave smashed Jaller so hard he couldn’t see straight. All he saw was water. But then, he stopped. He was on the bottom of the sea, dug into the sand. The water was gushing over him so fast it was actually digging him deeper into the muck. He looked around desperately for something to grab on to. He saw a tree, and grabbed on to it. Wait, a tree? Jaller looked around more and realized that he wasn’t in the sea,

He was on land.

The shockwave must have created an enormous tsunami! Jaller thought. He could hardly think because he was straining so hard to hold on. I hope the others are safe.

And speaking of the others, where was Onua?

By now the water current stopped. Standing water about six inches high covered the flat island. He heard a sputter and a cough. Turning, he saw Onua lying on his back in the sand.

“Onua! Are you alright?” said Jaller, running up to the fallen Toa and pulling his head out of the sand.

“Yeah,” Onua said, coughing up water. “I’m okay.”

Jaller helped the Toa of Earth to his feet. They went on looking for the others. They found them all one at a time, just like Jaller found Onua. The Toa of Water was in the best shape, able to alter their course to keep from hitting anything. Dajad suffered minor damage to his right leg. The Toa were reunited, and Tahu swore to himself this separation would never happen again.

“Alright,” said Jaller. “Let’s protect our city.”