CHAPTER 1-3: The Right Intentions


Eliza has thought of all the ways he could die on planet Earth before; sharks, poisonous spiders, a small canyon that was just waiting for a hapless visitor to meet their unfortunate demise.

One way he did not consider, however, was extreme boredom.

Their time walking in the Australian Outback was going on for an interminable amount of hours. There was nothing out there except desert, small trees, creatures that hop about, and holes in the ground. He wasn't sure about the holes, but they didn't look random. That made him uneasy.

Calico didn't make it any easier. He insisted that they leave before another patrol of...whatever those things were...came over there and found them. Two hours later, ZERO signs of those things around. Eliza started to think his brother was paranoid when he said they had to leave their home, Mata Nui, because he was worried of an unforeseen disaster. Now, he started to have those thoughts again.

This was, in his words, strike two.

A few hours ago, he looked into one of the holes to see if there was anything of interest. There wasn't anything except small white crystals, with a tad bit of red within each one. He was curious (and bored) so he decided to converse with Calico.

"Calico," He asked, "what are these things? Why are they in the holes?"

Calico turned to him and saw the crystals. He then said, "Those are opals. The ancients used to give us those as gifts."

Then, that was it. He continued walking.

Strike three.


Calico observed the landscape of the Australian "Outback", as the ancients called it. The holes filled with opals were everywhere, nearly making walking a difficult task. The hopping creatures were apparently very abundant in this area of Australia. So far, he must have seen at least twenty of them pass by him and his brother in the past few hours. They didn't seem to do much though; just look around and eat grass.

only if I had that much peace, he thought to himself. Sleeping for thousands of years does no good to your nerves.

"Hey, Mr. get-a-move-on!" An annoyed voice said. "Why are we stopping now? What happened?"

Calico realized that he had stopped in his tracks. He turned to Eliza and said, "Just admiring the view, I guess."

Eliza looked as if he was about to burst out laughing. Instead, he said, "Wait - did I hear you right? Calico, the most stubborn and relentless Toa I have ever known, Want's to take a stop? And admire the view? I think the desert heat has gotten to you, brother."

Calico then, seeing no reason not to, argued back.

"Well, at least thousands of years in stasis let me keep all that!" He yelled unexpectedly. "You've been nothing but impatient and irritating ever since we left that stupid tomb! You are nothing but a little whiner! 'No, this will take too long'! 'No, it can't be done in time'! "No, my foot hurts'!"

Eliza snapped back. "Well, I guess so, brother. But wait - who was the one who got us in stasis in the first place? Oh, that's right, YOU! The entire trip to earth was a terrible idea! The ancients needed us, and we were to weak to help them because of what you did! You couldn't just help them instead of-"

"Wait!" Calico said. "Don't talk."

Eliza looked confused. "Um...Calico? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or anything, I just wanted to-"

"No, not THAT, you idiot!" Calico said. "I think I heard something."

Eliza grew quiet. Then, they both heard it; a quiet but audible whispering in some weird unknown language.

"Someone's here," Calico concluded. "Eliza, can you use your kanohi? We need to know what they are saying. It could be important."

"Sure thing," Eliza said. He started to concentrate his Suletu on the beings that were quietly conversing. He has mastered his mask up to the point that he didn't need the mask of translation to figure out languages; he could simply figure it out by using the person's thoughts.

The whispering was indeed a conversation in progress. He managed to catch the last part:

..and these Toa...are they dangerous?

Very. Do you know about the one solider that came into the camp? He had a platoon of seven other men with him in the morning.

Really? Well, what did Stein say about it?

Well, let's say that he was NOT pleased at all with this. He is hell-bent on capturing and eradicating them.

And that's what we're here for? And the proxies?

Yes. That's the entire reason.

"Well, Eliza?" Calico suddenly said. "Is it something important?"

"Um...Calico..." Eliza said in a shaky voice, "maybe we should get out of here...NOW!"

It was too late. The ground below them trembled as the holes filled with opals exploded with several four legged, laser - wielding proxy robots. The robots climbed out of all the holes and started to surround the two startled Toa.

"It's a trap, Eliza!" Calico screamed at the top of his lungs. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

But before they could even move, the proxies suddenly started to tremble. Then, bolts of electricity suddenly spewed from every single one. The bolts all struck the two Toa, stunning them. The pain they tried to endure ended up being to strong for them to handle, and they started to loose consciousness. Before long, the two Toa were lying on the ground, completely immobilized.

One of the proxies aimed their laser at Calico, but before it could fire, a terrible voice said, "Wait! I want them alive!"

All of the proxies turned as one. Their optical sensors gazed upon the captain of the Australian Borog colony.

"I want them to suffer before their demise," Captain Stein said.


Calico dreamed of a time before time.

He was standing in front of a small stone monument. It had six pillars arising from it, and had a small circular shrine with sand on it. It looked quite natural; despite obviously having been constructed with tools, it had a very...earthy feel to it.

He moved to the sand - covered shrine. The sand looked...familiar...

He then recognized a scene. Him and Eliza, trapped within a cave, no where to run...

NO, he thought. Don't think about that now.

He then saw the sand start to swirl. A familiar landscape formed in the sand - it resembled the island-continent of Australia. Then, the sand shifted again to reveal a small, white opal.

He picked up the opal. He could feel the smooth stone inside his palm. Such fond memories...

He wished he hadn't made such a stupid mistake.


Calico started to open his eyes. Before long, he snapped awake. He tried to make sense of his surroundings. He felt suspended, like his feet weren't touching the ground. Then, he realized why.

He was bound to a stake.

He tried to squirm out of the bonds to no avail. He looked to his right to find his brother in a similar situation, tied to a stake and trying to squeeze out. He could try to talk to him, say everything's all right. But when things obviously aren't, then there is no point in trying.

"Thank you, Calico." Eliza said.

Calico looked back at him. "Huh? Thank you for what?

Eliza looked amused. "For not saying that everything's all right. I'm not a matoran anymore."

"For the last time-" Calico started.

"-don't read your mind with the damn mask, I KNOW!" Eliza said. "I'm just a little worried that you may be doubting yourself. This isn't your fault; we would have never known about those proxies." Eliza tried to squirm out of the bonds once again. "Where are we, anyway?"

Calico looked around. There was nothing but mounds of dirt everywhere, that had grass growing out of them. The barren desert was looming ahead of a large figure with a box - like head. He then realized that the red dot on the being's head was an eye. He has been listening the whole time.

"Who are you?" Eliza said suspiciously. "Why did you trap us here? We did no harm to you!"

The figure stood and...bowed.

"Hello, Toa," He said "My name is Captain Stein. I would like to welcome you to my home, the late Coober Pedy." He then walked towards the two Toa and said, "You have disrespected me in more than one way."

"Stop speaking in riddles!" Calico said. "Tell us!"

Stein nodded his head. "Very well. I shall tell you." He then sat down before saying, "You've killed my people. You trespassed on the opal fields. You unlawfully disrespected all Borogs." He was quiet for a moment before continuing. "Do you know about this place? There was a time, a few years ago, when this place was populated with good people. There wasn't that many, mind you, only a few thousand. But it thrived never the less."

He then got back up. "It was also my home. Now," he said looking around, observing a distant kangaroo feeding on some grass on one of the mounds, "It is nothing but a wasteland. Now, it is no ones home but mine."

He then reached for a small gun on his back. He pulled it out and pointed it directly at Calico.

"Do you know what this beauty can do?" He said, waving it in front of him. "It can be described as a miniature rail gun, except it fires pure bursts of energy thousands of times per second," He then tilted his head at Calico. "That wouldn't be very pleasant to observe on a beautiful day like this, huh?"

He then pointed it at Eliza. "But it must be done; the punishment for both of your actions is immediate - and excruciating - death."

He then began revving up the gun. It started to glow...

Then it dropped to the ground as he suddenly disappeared into thin air. Where he once stood was a full embodiment of the manipulator, Eliza.

And where Eliza had been bound now was a very stunned Stein.

Eliza picked up the gun and looked at it before throwing it underneath the Captain, who was currently trying to get himself off of the stake. "Ten bucks says you can't get that thing within ten hours." He said. The captain growled before continuing to try and get himself out of the bonds.

"Wh...what?" Calico said. "How...did you..."

"Oh, that?" Eliza said. "A fellow Toa showed me the trick. See, everything can be turned into plasma - even living things. So, what he would do was carefully transform both him and his target into plasma, then manipulate the two masses so that they would switch places. Then, he reconfigured the two and they would re-form back into what they once were, except in different positions. Ta da! Switch teleport!"

Calico, stunned, suddenly smiled. "You are so unpredictable, Eliza."

"I know," Eliza said. "Now let's get out of here." He walked over to him and started to conform the bonds. Soon, the bonds melted into plasma and Calico dropped off the stake.

"Well, things are certainly different here nowadays," Calico said. "We need to find out what is going on around here. We need to stop whatever may be happening."

"You can't stop what has already started," the Captain said, "There's no stopping the war."

Eliza turned to Stein, who was still trapped in the bonds. "What war, Stein?" He said. "There are others on this planet that oppose you?"

The captain seemed to tremble before saying, "Yes. There is another faction that we are fighting. They are more terrible than I could ever imagine, and they make me look like an innocent little mouse."

The two Toa looked at themselves uneasily. Then, Calico looked back at him. "What is this faction? Who should we be afraid of?"

The small light on Stein's face flickered in fear. "The Scaro. The Scaro are the ones to be feared."