My first ever Bionicle fanfic to be published. Okay, I am almost completely redoing the first chapter, because the original was just cringe-inducingly awful and I could have done SO much better.

Disclaimer: Bionicle belongs to Lego, Greg Farshtey, and not me. I do own the humans, though.


"Oof!" She hit the ground and rolled. She struggled to regain her bearings as heavy footsteps approached. She looked up to see red-orange eyes glowing angrily over her. She reached out and wrapped her shaky fingers around the handle of her knife.

BZZZZZ! BZZZZZ! BZZZZZ!

"...Ugh."

Linda sat up and blearily flailed one of her arms around until her hand met smooth, vibrating plastic. Once she found it, her fingers grasped it, lifted it, and chucked it away. The high-pitched buzzing gave way to blessed silence, and Linda settled down into soft, warm bliss again.

"Land! There's land ahead!"

All thoughts of sleep forgotten, Linda kicked her blanket off and raced out of her cabin into the sunlight, pausing only to put her jacket on over her t-shirt and get her shoes on. Without waiting for her eyes to adjust, she ran straight to the rail and gripped it with both hands. The land before her took her breath away. She would have killed to be able to explore it. But that wasn't going to happen, not while—

"HEY! YOU $!%^$&$%! GET OVER HERE!"

-not while THEY were in charge of her. She rolled her eyes, pushed away from the rail, and took three steps in their direction. They couldn't make her come all the way over there.

"All the way, stupid!"

Linda responded by sitting down right there in the middle of the deck, arms and legs folded. They were out in the open, where everyone could see them; she was safe.

Her foster father was about to go on a cussing spree when someone called out that it was time to get off the boat. Linda finally stood up and followed behind him obediently, just as any good foster child should.


"More humans?"

"How many did you see?"

"A couple. And a craft of that size is big enough to carry hundreds."

"Hundreds? One was ever-more than nastybad enough. How can we hope to fight-handle hundreds?"

The six armored beings couldn't think of any answer to that for a long while. One of them, covered in shades of red, answered, "We'll just let them think we aren't here. At least not until we can find some weakness of theirs. Now all of us should go and look after our villages."

The other five nodded, said their goodbyes, and all left in different directions.


Linda grunted under the weight of the wooden wall. When it was finally up, she wiped her brow, swung her strained arms back and forth, and straightened the sleeves of her jacket. The only thing about all this construction work was that it left her foster parents too exhausted to do anything but gripe, which was easily tuned out, and herself too tired to bother them anyway.

She tossed a longing glance at the fantastic jungle less than a mile away. There was no way those two…people who called themselves parents would let her go anywhere. She smirked and edged away from the work site. It's not like anyone would miss her, right?

"Excuse me, miss, but there is still work to do."

She grimaced. Darn it. Oh, well, it was worth a try. She shrugged off her failure and turned to see who had caught her. A blonde woman in her mid-thirties stood with thumbs hooked in her jean pockets and aimed a "where-do-you-think-you're-going?" look at the would-be slacker.

Linda smiled innocently. The woman sighed, "Don't give me that look. I know you were trying to sneak off. You'll have time for that later."

Linda's smile vanished. No, I won't.

The woman noticed and leaned forward, frowning. "Something the matter, kid?"

"Nah," she shrugged again.

"You expect me to believe that?" The woman arched her eyebrow and jerked her head. "Come on. Help me get my clinic up, and we can talk. Let's start with names. Mine is Anna Jeanine, but I would prefer A.J. You are?"

"Linda." The girl followed A.J.

"So, Linda," A.J. began. "Grab that box there, would ya? And be careful, that stuff could save someone's life."

Struggling under the load, Linda peered in and caught a glimpse of some of the stuff she saw in a doctor's office. Stethoscope, ear probe, and whatnot. "You're a doctor?"

"More like a medical scientist, really, but I know enough to treat diseases." A.J. smiled as she easily carried a couple boxes that both looked heavier than Linda's one box. "It's a good thing I was transferring to another clinic location on that boat. You never know with mysterious islands like this."

"Do you think we're staying?"

"You mean, for good?" A.J. glanced at her and nodded. "I think so. The boat is out of fuel and the seawater has rendered the communications useless, so I don't see how we can find where we are."

"So this place is uninhabited?"

"Presumably. This island didn't show up on any map or GPS."

They arrived at a hut and A.J. set her boxes down. Linda did the same. "Alright, quid pro quo," A.J. told her. Linda gave a blank stare. "Return the favor," A.J. explained. "You asked me a question, so let me ask you one. What's got you down?"

Linda cleared her throat. "Umm, hey, where do you want this?"

"Over there. I asked you a question. Linda," A.J. reminded her.

"I…dunno," Linda shrugged, feeling helpless.

"Look, you can tell me anything," A.J. extended her hands to her sides. "I won't tell anyone."

Linda looked down and stared at the equipment in the box at her feet. "My foster parents never let me go anywhere."

A.J. raised her eyebrows. "That's all? I can help with that. What would your foster parents say about you having a job?"

Linda looked up so sharply she almost got whiplash. "You could do that?"

"Why not? I could always use an assistant around here. Especially to go looking for plant specimens to study for medicinal properties."

"You're AWESOME!" Linda cried, throwing her arms around the woman as if they had been friends for years.


In the nearby trees, a tall metallic-looking green figure watched as the nastybad creatures known as Humans built themselves a home on an island that wasn't theirs. He had known they were numerous, but he'd had no idea there were so many different kinds, shapes and sizes. It was a little frightening, even to him. He grimaced as one of the bigger ones accidentally crushed his thumb with a tool and blurted a long, loud, and surprisingly creative stream of ugly words.

"I know it badhurts, but how does that help?" he wondered. He jumped to another branch and went to return to his village.


For the next week and a half, Linda's life went relatively well, learning to help A.J. with her duties. However, one thing kept Linda from having a truly good life.

One day, Linda arrived late at A.J.'s clinic.

"Sorry I'm late!" she exclaimed as she burst in. "The fosters held me up again."

"Mm-hm," A.J. nodded slightly but didn't look up from her microscope, until Linda passed by within arm's reach. Her arm shot out, seized Linda's arm, and shoved up her jacket sleeve. Linda shouted angrily and A.J. just sighed and shook her hand sadly at the sight that greeted her.

Two long, fresh horizontal slashes streaked from three inches above her wrist to the inside of her elbow.


There, that's a bit better. At least there are the lines showing when there are scene changes. And I like the new beginning better. Go ahead, read the rest.