A/N: Sorry for the SUPER long wait. I'm back but I'm not going to be able to update much until summer rolls around. If there are some discrepancies let me know. By the way thanks for reading. And also I don't own Bionicle. I think that's obvious though.
Chapter 2: The Truth
I tried to keep myself slamming into the side door as the Dodge Charger pulled out of the backstreet. My friend, Aaron looked to me for guidance. I shook my head, no idea about we should do. The man with the wavy, green hair rolled down his window and scanned behind us. I saw his green eyes when he looked back, green as leaves on a tree. However that shade of green wasn't exactly normal. Then I realized that my eye color, an emerald green wasn't exactly normal either. Did I have something common with the men who saved Aaron's life and mine? He turned to his partner, a man who also had wavy hair; however his hair color was a crimson red.
"Tahu, they're still following us."
"I know."
"You're not exactly that great of a driver either."
"I know Lewa, will you stop it. I'm trying to keep us from dying a horrible, unimaginable death. So keep quite unless you plan on helping me." Tahu said through gritted teeth. However my friend, Aaron didn't seem to care. Aaron, in most situations is something of a joker, but out of all the people I know is he the most determined.
"I know you guys are talking about important things. However, what the hell is going on!" He yelled. I put face in my hands with a sigh.
"Aaron if you want to live through this I would recommend to keep that mouth of yours shut." Tahu growled turning back to face my friend.
"Hey, how do you know my name? I didn't tell you who I was." Aaron shot back.
"Really, Aaron do you have to start being stupid at a time like this." I said, grabbing my friend and pulling him back towards his seat.
"For all we know these guys could be more dangerous than whatever we were going to face." He prodded. Didn't really make sense to me, they were human after all, even though they looked a little out of place.
"Trust me, Jason and Aaron we're a lot friendlier than the Rahkshi." Lewa replied, attempting to allay my friend's fear. However the name Rahkshi meant nothing to Aaron and me at the moment, since we couldn't associate the word with anything. But at least it gave a name to the things chasing us. "Listen, you two, all you need to know is that those things wanted to hurt you. We're here to keep you safe." And somehow even though this man was a complete stranger I felt assured, even Aaron had settled down.
However we weren't out of danger just yet. The Rahkshi were still chasing the car. Tahu stepped on the gas pedal pushing the car to higher speeds. I clipped my seatbelt and so did Aaron. Tahu spun the wheel and the back of the car swung out. This time my friend and I were a little more secure when the car drifted around the corner. The world outside my window started to blur as we came down that hill. Looking ahead I noticed a crash had occurred between a semi truck and a few other cars. A few cop cars and a fire truck, along with an ambulance were on the scene. Cops and firemen along with a few victims of the crash stood off to the side.
"Umm, sir there is accident up ahead. I don't think this is exactly the best way to go." I said.
"I've noticed. Luckily, a friend of mine installed something in car for emergencies." Tahu grinned.
"Let me guess, he put in ejector seats. Boy, this is going to be fun." Aaron groaned sarcastically.
"Very funny Aaron, he had something a little more conservative in mind." He said as he had moved over to the gear shifter and pressed a button. I felt the car jerk as nitrous was pumped into the engine of the car. The Charger lined up with empty car trailer of the semi. The car flew through air as we cleared the ramp. The world outside the car blurred. My heart felt as though it was going to leap out of my chest. My eyes grew wide as we cleared the accident. Lewa laughed with glee as we came down on the other side of the accident.
"You've got to be kidding me; tell me we didn't just do that?" Aaron laughed hysterically.
"We did and get used to it. Every day of my life is like this. And very soon so will yours." Tahu answered, twisting the wheel. The car rounded a corner and slid down a side street. Lewa looked out the window again, his eye scanning the behind us. He turned back to Tahu and nodded. I could feel the sudden slow down of the car as Tahu took his foot off the gas pedal and depressed the brake pedal. For the next hour our ride was completely uneventful, we had lost the Rahkshi and now proceeded at a most leisure-like rate. I tried to ask more about what had occurred, however the two rescuers refused to speak. The silence continued until we had happened upon a vacant parking lot. Actually it wasn't completely vacant as four other vehicles sat in the middle of it. Tahu's Charger pulled up alongside the others, three motorcycles and a sports car. Tahu and Lewa opened their door and stepped out of the car. Aaron and I followed their lead and got out of the car. We saw five others that looked just as out of place as Tahu and Lewa. Tahu motioned for them to follow but told Aaron and I remain behind.
Later I was told of the conversation that had taken place. Off in the distance the seven toa met to speak of the fate of the six teenagers. The only female of the group removed her motorcycle helmet and her long sky blue hair dropped below her shoulders. As a human she looked around the age of 25. Next to her stood Onua, an older man possibly in his later 30s to early 40s with black hair and a black beard, and dark green eyes. His outfit was a stereotypical biker outfit with black leather jacket, jeans and some chains hanging off a belt loop. Unsurprisingly he looked the most normal of the group. To Gali's left stood Pohatu, a man of 23 years with short brown hair and orange irises. Currently he was dressed in a buttoned-up casual short and was wearing slacks. Kopaka stood a little farther to the right. He was a man of 26 years or at least that was what he looked as a human. His white hair was nearly neck length and largely remained unkempt. His eyes were an icy blue warding others off.
Takanuva was scanning the area worriedly; he kept brushing the annoyingly wavy golden hair that was a disguise to make him look more human. I doubt it, I mean with all the humans we've seen the seven of us look out of place. Onua and Pohatu, and possibly I could pass for humans but the others don't look too much of the part. Perhaps it would be best to avoid contact with anyone except the other toa. Tahu and Lewa had finally reached Gali and the others over by a group of the vehicles.
"Are you sure these are the Toa of this planet?" Kopaka questioned.
"Well the amulets did lead us to their locations didn't they? Along with the instructions that Twitch provided of course." Pohatu replied.
"You mean that annoying fe-matoran that makes Lewa look quiet." Kopaka muttered.
"Hey I resent that." Lewa snapped
"I can understand everyone's worries. We must have faith in the amulets besides I'm sure we can all feel the Toa power locked within inside each of the kids." Gali responded.
"I trust your wisdom Gali. We should perhaps proceed with caution. This world is in a very precarious situation after all, along with the rest of the universe for that matter." Onua said.
"I believe Gali's right. I sensed something too when I had rescued the humans. I'm not sure what the feeling was but I know I felt something." Tahu said, coming to Gali's defense
"I'm going to side with Tahu and Gali on this situation. They may be young but I'm not as old as the rest of you. I am still new to this whole toa thing so I can understand if they're a little confused." Takanuva spoke.
"Alright, Alright I understand that Earth is new to us but we can't be indecisive at a time like this. At the very least the toa of this world should understand what is happening." Lewa said.
"So who should explain it to them?" Onua asked. No one had spoken up for awhile.
"I'll do it just given a few minutes." Gali answered. She took a few breaths and made her way towards the humans who were now gathered at Tahu's vehicle.
"Listen nothing is going to be accomplished with all this shouting and shoving." Chris shouted cutting off the argument that began to brew between Brian and me. While the toa were having their discussion Brian had accused me of this mess. I naturally was offended by his continuing tendency to place his every problem upon my shoulders. The two girls one named Alice, the other Sarah were staying out of the line of fire. Sam now had come to his friend's defense and Aaron to mine. Right around the time that Chris managed to intervene, a strange yet striking woman looking of her mid-twenties had came upon us.
"Excuse me, please." She asked gently. All activity coming the others and I halted immediately. "All of you are probably wondering how you got into this situation. It may take long to explain so I ask that you bear with me."
"Yes, we will." I said answering for the whole group. Her yellow irises passed over me, and in them I saw a glimmer of thanks, but also of interest.
"Perhaps it would be best to recite the tale told from our people. In a time before time the Great Spirit Mata Nui created us the matoran. Yet we were still lost, so Mata Nui fashioned the three virtues: Unity, Duty, and Destiny. In honor of the Great Spirit, we named an island in his honor. However an evil being by the name of Makuta Teridax was jealous of Mata Nui and sought to take the place of the god that had created him. He poisoned Mata Nui and the Great Spirit feel into a deep slumber. Now Teridax seeks to spread his shadow and let us hope it is not too late."
"That sounds like one of the fantasy novels I would have been reading right now; if I was in this mess." Sarah said.
"This tale is true; as it is the story my friends and I were taught. We come to your planet under dire circumstances. A secretive and destructive artifact know as the Kanohi Cordax, Mask of Desolation, or by its other name The Legendary mask of Destruction was hidden upon Earth in hopes of keeping it out of the clutches of evil. Now it would seem as though it was all in vain. My name is Gali and I am part of a team known as the Toa Nuva. The team consists of Tahu, Kopaka, Lewa, Onua, and I. Takanuva is an honorary member of our team currently. we come to Earth in hopes of stopping it from falling into the wrong hands and finding the seven of you."
"Wow that's an earful, but what makes you think we would believe this story." Aaron responded.
"We had feared as much. We don't what to risk you running when you see our true forms. Pohatu restrain them." A man of his early twenties with chocolate brown hair and orange eyes motioned towards the ground. The ground wrapped around the arms and legs of the six other teens and I. We couldn't move but it wasn't terribly uncomfortable.
"So how exactly were you able to do that?" Sam asked.
"You see kids, we were telling the truth when we said we weren't human. We have to prove it some way and this way is the quickest route" Tahu said sternly. The rest of his "team" nodded as they each removed a ring from their hands and their bodies began to change. The skin seemed to melt away like wax off a candle. Beneath their disguise each toa had revealed their true forms. A metallic yet organic body each one a distinct color, each seemed to match the color of what was their hair in human: red, green, blue, gold, black, white, and brown. They each had a silver-colored breast plate along with shoulder pads. If it were humanly possibly my jaw along with the other teenagers would have hit the pavement. Almost as if they had stepped out a comic book film.
"Oh my god, somebody pinch me. As weird as this is, it this has to be one of the coolest things to have every happened to me."
"I'd pinch you but I'm kind of grounded right now." Aaron joked.
"Is it impossible for him to be serious in any situation?" Alice asked.
"So what do you expect us to do? We're just some random teenagers and we still have no idea what's going on. How can you possibly expect us to help you save the world?" Sarah blurted out.
"Ah but you aren't just some random human teenagers. You see underneath what you think is skin, you look just like us. We would have looked a little more human if it wasn't for these damn rings malfunctioning." Lewa said, looking at the ring in his hand.
"No this can't be true, I AM NOT SOME FREAK!" Brian screamed. I could kind of understand. But the whole "freak" thing was kind of rude to say to the people who had just saved us. The action halted for awhile until Aaron had spoken up.
"Seriously dude, what's your problem? You seem to have a bone to pick with everyone." Aaron sighed. I started to notice that stone which encased me had gotten looser and after testing a bit, I struggled a bit and broke free of my stone prison. Instead of turning to face the toa I went to Brian. Barely controllable rage thundered inside of me. He along with everyone else was breaking free of the stone encasing. In a few steps I had reached him. Grabbing him roughly the shirt I slammed him into the Dodge charger.
"I'm sick of your crap, either you tell me what's going or I'm going to beat it out of you." I growled.
"You wouldn't understand." He muttered.
"Really, make me understand. Because as far as I can see your being an unreasonable jerk. I know all of this is crazy but it doesn't give you an excuse to insult the people that just saved our lives."
"Fine, I tell you what's wrong. I'm the second born of three children, one older brother, one younger sister. My brother is a good-looking, academic whiz, currently enrolling in Boston College. His plan is to be an accountant and later on create his own company. My sister is also incredible smart, she's taking AP classes whereas I'm taking none. So what do I want to do? I want to be the bass guitarist of a band, sure that's realistic. You see I can't seem to hold a candle to anyone. My parents couldn't give a damn what happens to me. My father has even come out saying I'm the least favorite child of their three.
"So you have inferiority complex, we'll doesn't everyone's life suck. Right now we're being told we are needed to save the world. So don't act like you're the only one stuck in this boat." I dropped him and turned towards the toa nuva. Of course everyone wore shocked expressions, perhaps somewhere I had crossed the line. Regardless I could care less about his feelings at the moment and all this talk was getting us nowhere.
"So?" I asked.
"Seems like Jason has quite an attitude, reminds me of someone else." Lewa chortled, looking over towards Tahu.
"What are you looking at you grinning fool?" Tahu shouted.
"I know we're all trying to be friendly but I'm beginning to believe this conversation is achieving nothing. Perhaps it would best if we gave them the amulets?" Takanuva interrupted. The other Toa nodded, each went to Takanuva and grabbed a necklace with a circular pendant on it. Lewa walked towards me holding the necklace in his outstretched hand, I took the necklace from his hand. I felt the medallion, it was warm to the touch, and on it was a leaf. Interesting choice of symbol, hmmm, well I already know that it has to deal with the belief that other teenagers and I are some kind of heroes. Well it's kind of hard to be in disbelief after everything that has happened.
I placed the medallion around my neck and spotted the other teenagers getting their amulets. They wore a medallion slightly different from mine but nothing more happened then the amulets glowing a bit.
"Nothing. Well isn't this just great. The rings malfunctioned and now the amulets are working. This trip to Earth just keeps getting better and better. Maybe if Twitch had given us a little more advice and help we wouldn't be stuck in this muck." Tahu growled angrily.
"Excuse me but who's Twitch?" Alice inquired.
"Oh Twitch, he's the fe-matoran who gave us these vehicles, and he gave us some quick lessons in how to use them. A little eccentric but a nice person overall, we're suppose to report back to him when this mission is over." Onua answered
"Now that we've gotten acquainted perhaps it would be good to find some lodging for the night?" Pohatu questioned. We all looked from person to person; no one said anything for awhile. I sighed, somebody had to do something.
"Listen my parents are out of town right now so I'm sure there will be enough space for us to sleep." I said speaking up.
"Good sounds like a plan, we'll head over to your house and sleep on it. I'm sure everyone needs the sleep after the tonight." Tahu said.
The next day I awoke to the sound of the strumming of a guitar. I slipped out of the sleeping bag in my living room and made my way towards the source of the sound, my room I pushed the door open and I knew it had to been one of the two Toa who had spent the night in my room, Pohatu or Lewa. To my surprise when I had pushed the door open I had found Pohatu already gone and Lewa was playing a few notes on the guitar.
"I didn't know you could play an instrument."
"In Le-Metru and previously in Le-Koro it is natural for those of the air to musically incline." He said calmly continuing to strum the guitar. The conversation was cut short as Pohatu burst into the doorway swinging the door wind open.
"The Rahkshi…they're attacking the center of L.A. I've seen it with my own eyes after I watched the human news. I used my mask of speed to quickly scout it out. Tahu and the others are getting ready. So get downstairs now." Lewa nodded and followed Pohatu out the door. We moved quickly down the steps and met the other Toa Nuva in my Kitchen. The other teenagers were also there. I grabbed myself some food to eat while the Toa Nuva began discussing a plan of action.
"It seems very simple to me. We go after the Rahkshi and finish them off." Lewa said.
"No it seems like a trap." Kopaka retorted.
"Well we can't just let innocent people die." Pohatu said acknowledging their duty.
"Pohatu and Lewa are right. Enough talk team we have a city to save." Tahu said. Then Tahu had turned to me. "You and other teenagers stay here we can't risk you dying." He and his team began to leave the house. I stopped Tahu grabbing him by the arm.
"And what if you and the others die."
"Then it is our destiny." He pulled his arm away and walked out the door. For a while I just stood there looking at the amulet around my neck. Is this how I repay the person that save my life and others? No I'm not just going to sit here and just let them die.
"I'm going after the Toa Nuva. Who's with me?" I declared. I was surprised by a unanimous reply. Looks like the heroes weren't going to save the world on their own.
Tahu struggled as Lerahk pressed inwards with his staff. His blades nearly pressed towards his body. He kick outwards and sent Lerahk flying backwards he rushed forwards but was once again halted by Lerahk strength. Tahu stumbled a bit and Lerahk took this chance to swipe outwards with his staff. Tahu slammed into a human car, so hard he left a dent the size of a wrecking ball. The heavy blow had caused Tahu to begin to lose consciousness. Lerahk slowly made its way towards Tahu. It activated the poison in its staff and raised the staff above its head. Tahu could only watch helplessly as his arms and legs refused to respond. Just as Tahu was to pass out a figure stepped out in front of him. It was Sam, the human. Tahu's eyes shot open as light grew over Sam. It altered the physical shape of Sam transforming him into a Toa. His arms and legs became metallic and his face became a chocolate brown and shaped a mask. Sam activated his Kanohi Negarix, the mask of negation and the poison on Lehrak's staff cancelled out. Sam then kicked Lerahk in the chest as he tore the staff out of its hands and then smacked Lerahk with its own staff send it flying off into the distance. He threw the staff after it and turn towards Tahu.
This is our way of saying thanks." Sam said as he reached out and grabbed Tahu by the hand.
Else where Gali was be chased by Guurahk. She could hear the sizzle as things literally became nonexistent through disintegration. She knew she could last for long she shot out towards Guurahk with a jet of water, but it was merely disintegrated. She hadn't noticed a rock upon the ground. It caught her foot and she ended up tripping. She sighed, knowing she was going to die at the hands of Guurahk when I came running.
"Back off you freak." I shouted at Guurahk.
"Jason, No!" Gali screamed as I stood in front of here. I looked back and then I saw it. A wave of blue energy flew my way and crashed into me but inside of destroying as it should have. My medallion activated. My body became green as healthy blades of grass. And my face became more solid like. I felt myself get slightly taller and my arms get slightly longer. In my hand grew out a longsword, I had become a Toa of Air. My mask the Kanohi Kaldius activated. It was the mask of Reflection and it shot the next wavy of disintegrating energy back towards Guurahk knocking it off its feet. I turned back towards Gali and helped her up.
"I guess you were right." I said looking at myself. "I guess I'm not human."
"This is good but we need to find the others and regroup if we are to stop Teridax." Gali replied. I nodded and followed after her. Now the adventure had truly begun and no one would expect the conclusion it would lead to.
A/N: So I know it was a very long chapter but hey I have been gone a very long time (in my opinion at least). Note: The Kanohi Kaldius only reflects energy, including elements; however user cannot access his/her element during its use. The Kanohi Negarix cancels out elements, and poison but cannot stop offensive attacks.