And so here is the extra special early chapter 10. I'm currently on a writing break from Chapter 12, as it's a tough chapter to write. So in the mean time, I'm preparing something for my next fic. And no, it's not a sequel. I need a break. But I'm going off on a tangent. Anyway, here's chapter 10, chapter 11 will be out on Wednesday. Thanks to all reviewers, blah blah blah, whoever has read and not reviewed so far, please review, I'd really appreciate it. But that does not matter. You want to just read, so I'll get on with it. Except for one last thing: Did you know that 'chapter' on the spell-checker is considered wrong? It ignores the 'cha' and tries to get me to change 'pter' to peter. Weird, huh?
Disclaimers of many lands: Yo no poseo Bionicle, pero poseo todos los caracteres originales. Esto es probablemente inexacto, porque yo no hablo español!
Chapter 10: Belly of the Razorwhale
Nothing's changed. The thought surprised Kratashi, but it was true. It was all the same as when he had left. In fact, it looked almost like his old team had just been here. The door that they had smashed through still hung off its hinges. The rocks around it were still barren, cold grey, volcanic stone. The Fortress looked like it had grown from the rock, made of the same rock. Only it rose high from the boulders, straight walls that rose high to a spiked crown. The place radiated shadows and darkness, and even normally cool and collected Kratashi felt a powerful urge to bring the place down. And if his friends weren't hopefully inside, he might have done.
Inside, they found themselves in the cavernous hallway they had found themselves in before. But this time, they walked through the dark marbled hallway without incident. The floor was cracked from the battle, and Kratashi's keen eyes could pick out the spot where he and Daufu had made their last stand. But he knew he was just imagining the faint sounds of battle still rung through the chamber. He decided instead to focus on the task ahead, searching for a way down to the dungeons. He found one through the huge wooden doors at the end of the hallway. Descending the steps felt incredibly surreal. Kratashi still couldn't quite believe that they were really there. But as for fear, he found none. He felt no worry that his friends would not be imprisoned here, waiting to be rescued. His choice had been made, and now he would follow it through to the last. There was no point worrying about failure now. So he did not. But there was a problem they had to deal with, and he stopped just before he stepped into the all-important corridor that had led them here. Peeking round the corner, he could make out a lone door, marked 'Cell A' at the far end of the corridor. At the other end of a deadly obstacle course designed to make escape impossible. Trying to get in however... "Alright Tala, you know the technology best, so you tell me and Takena how to disable it. And then stand back." Kratashi added as an afterthought. Tala nodded and looked down the corridor with a night-vision scope he had stored in the backpack.
"Well, I see a pair of Crystal-impact launchers, from the looks of them modified for rapid-fire capabilities, although that weakens the crystals themselves. I would advise destroying the crystals and the launchers with elemental blasts, to prevent the crystal's activation. Then..." he looked out into the corridor again. "And then you're running the gauntlet, a series of Energy Extraction rifles, which will drain the target as they run down the corridor, until they reach the end, too weak to stand, and get obliterated. That and more Crystal Launchers."
"So how do we get past it?" Kratashi asked. Takena snorted.
"Isn't it obvious? All we can do is run like Karzahni and hope we survive." Tala nodded grimly.
"I'm afraid she's right. That really is all we can do. However, the Energy Extraction rifles will obey their programming, in either of two ways. They will either fire twice, at half the distance down the corridor and at the end, because there are two of you, or overload and explode half-way along. If it was me, they'd do the first. But perhaps not." Kratashi shook his head.
"Zabronix was, whatever else besides, a technical genius. I seriously doubt she would overlook something like that. And the weapons were originally built by the Xians, who are so paranoid they certainly wouldn't."
"Then you'd best run like Karzahni's hounds are after you. Then destroy them before they destroy you. While dodging the Crystal Launchers as well."
"Well, nice knowing you." Takena laughed madly, cackling at the prospect of death.
Takena and Kratashi walked into the corridor and, with a nod, charged. The first set of Crystal Launchers fired as predicted, and Kratashi unleashed a Sonic Blast to destroy the launchers, while Takena hit the crystals with a pair of high-pressure jets, launching them down the corridor and generating a crystal shield in their path. They sprinted down the corridor, trying to judge the distance between them and halfway down the corridor. Kratashi got it first, and, thinking fast, smashed out a large chunk of crystal as the rifles fired their beams down on him, using it as a shield for himself, protecting him from the worst of the damage. He saw a second crystal coming at him, and swung out a foot to kick it away, hitting an energy rifle mid-charge. It exploded spectacularly, throwing deadly shards of crystal in all directions. Kratashi felt several embed themselves into his armour, but the Protosteel held fast, protecting him from the damage. Shutting his eyes to shield them, he charged blindly down the corridor, even as more jets of water flew from Takena, deflecting crystals all over. Kratashi launched wave after wave to shatter the growing crystals in their path into dust on the floor, but the machines sapped his strength so it got harder and harder as he went on. In the end, he hit a door, and realised too late about the second blast... then he knew what he had to do. It was insane, it was daring, and it was really a plan that Takena would come up with, but then needed to open the lock somehow. Kratashi waited until the last possible moment before throwing himself at Takena, knocking her to the floor. He ignored her slashing at his chest, concentrating instead on the explosion as the Elemental Scanner Lock got blown apart, and he shielded Takena from it. When the dust subsided, he got up and helped her up. Takena looked sheepish and mumbled an apology, but then turned her attention to the door ahead of them. Kratashi placed a hand to the door as Tala caught up with them, and he heard Takena whisper, fearful to be hopeful, "Can you hear him?" There was a spark of light to his right, where Tala had repaired the door-opening mechanism, the Elemental Scanner lock having been mostly removed by the blast of stolen energy. Kratashi and Takena were kept up by excitement and fear alone. They all watched, silent, as the door slowly rose up into the ceiling... it seemed to take forever and Kratashi willed it to rise faster... and then was fully open, revealing an even darker chamber, and something stirring in the darkness. And from that darkness, a death-rattle of a voice slithered from lips that had not moved for hundreds of years.
"You're alive!" the sound, despite the hoarseness of it, was joyful. Kratashi was rather bemused, and felt a twisted desire to laugh. Surely they should be the ones saying that, not the being in the cell. Never mind how he recognised them. Kratashi compromised by beaming. Tala walked forward tentatively, and now Kratashi realised he could see a pair of glowing cuffs, white with a strange energy like purple lightning crackling through it. Tala was rather nervous about approaching the legendary Pokan, but being Tala, courageous and brave; he approached regardless, and swiftly set to work on the cuffs, causing them to open with a crackle of escaping energy. Pokan took them from him and crushed them in his fists, letting the fragments fall to the floor. He looked, if possible, more alive and powerful than ever, his biomechanical body resistant to the ravages of time. He stepped out of the cell into the ravaged corridor beyond, and laughed. "And you were certainly thorough." He said, examining the remains of an energy extraction rifle. "But you missed a bit..." he continued, before laying his hands on the wall and commanding the rock below to rise up and crush the remaining weapons. Tala was amazed, and it occurred to Kratashi that Tala had never seen powers used in that way. His own element was not subtle in itself, despite its opportunities to be exploited in such ways, and the ironic twist that all who subscribed to it had to be subtle, and Takena, although skilled in manipulating her element, was even less subtle than his powers. When she used her powers, it was very in-your-mask. Sprays, torrents and jets of water. So simply laying a hand on a wall and making it come alive was a new and astounding experience for Tala. It was a rare site for Kratashi and Takena too, as Pokan generally preferred to rely on his legendary strength to fight. He wasn't too proud to use it in a tight spot however. Having left the corridor, they stopped to make a plan.
The plan had been devised fairly quickly. They had three members of their team left to find, although Kratashi had seemed, to Tala at least, rather dismissive of finding Daufu. So they had split up to cover more ground, Kratashi and Takena searching the labs where they had been experimented on, while Pokan and Tala explored the second floor. Pokan was fairly sure that their teammates would not be found in the dungeons, or indeed anything else, something verified by Kratashi. So now Tala found himself searching for a lost Toa with the leader of the Toa Koro. Who had actually chosen him. This had to be one of the best days of his life! But the fortress, though deserted, still sent a chill up his spine. An irony for a Ta-Matoran, but then again, he had no powers now. The dreams of a young Ta-Matoran lay shattered on the floor, his hopes of Toa-hood dashed. But he had long ago swept up the fragments of his dreams and thrown them away. Instead, he'd found new dreams, and new abilities. With nothing left to lose, he had trained under master engineers, from Nyrah to Xia to Metru Nui. Yes he'd had to hide his face under a cloak sometimes, but he'd convinced the majority that he'd simply had a nasty accident while working. In fact, it was in Metru Nui that he had found the most trouble. He snorted derisively. Metru Nui, the grand city, was built on lies. Everything was so perfect because anything that wasn't allowed to stay, driven off by Matoran waving Kanoka. Their time on Mata Nui had improved them considerably, as far as he was concerned. Rural folk tend to be much kinder. He'd learned to be less judgemental the hard way, but it had paid off. You can't tell a Matoran by their Kanohi, and he never did. He returned to the real world when he heard a crash. Pokan had punched down a hidden door in the wall, and together they stepped through. Inside was lit by a sickly green light, issuing from a Computer Screen, somehow still functioning after all this time. Pokan turned to him. "I saw your skills with the cuffs earlier. Do you think you might be able to get some data from this computer on where my team members are?" he asked.
"I should be able too." Tala replied, walking forward and beginning to tap keys on the keypad. Soon he had cracked the password, and was searching through the files, while Pokan examined the room. It seemed to be empty, save for a bizarre machine at the back. Set into the front was what appeared to be a door, but when Pokan wrenched it open, he found it opening onto a metal wall. He tapped it with an expert finger, but there was nothing behind it except machinery. But Tala was on it in a flash. "I can't find anything on the computer." He huffed. What's this?" he said, examining the odd machine. "It looks familiar, but I can't remember what it is..." then he looked at the door, then to the rest of the machine, then back to the door. He examined the wall, but found nothing. But when he examined the frame, Pokan heard a sharp intake of breath.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "Do you know what it is?" Tala nodded. He looked rather excited.
"Oh yes I do. This, my friend, is an Olmak!" Tala said grandly.
His words did not have the effect he had intended.
"A what?" Pokan replied, his face blank. Tala sighed dramatically and then explained.
"An Olmak. An interdimensional gate. In fact..." he cried, clicking his fingers and rushing to the computer. "So this must be the controls! That's why there's nothing on the computer! I've been looking in all the wrong places!" his hands whizzed across the keypad once more, symbols rushing across the screen at speeds that almost match his own. After about a minute, Tala stopped and stood back from the screen, which was loaded up with a new program, the controls for the Olmak machine. It looked horribly complex, and for a moment Tala looked uncertain, but he stepped forward anyway and began to examine the controls. After a short while, he hissed "yes..." and clicked something, and the strange symbols on the screen changed into a different configuration. Pokan realised that the symbols were in fact some sort of co-ordinates for, presumably, interdimensional travel. Tala also brought something else up, explaining as he did so, "I have absolutely no idea how to set the co-ordinates, but I just set it to the last use. And I happen to know that there's a Toa at those co-ordinates, since this document lists all the interdimensional travels. Zabronix apparently had a thing for accurate records. It's easy to see why; it's all very simple with them. But she forgot to protect them. You know, it's almost as if she wanted us to rescue everyone..." his finger hovered uncertainly above the button, thinking. Was it possible? Were they making a huge mistake? Pokan looked like he was thinking along the same lines. But at the same time...
"A member of my team still needs to be saved, and if I was going to leave any of them behind, I should forfeit my position this instant."
"Then let's keep you in a job!" Tala cried, pushing the clichéd 'big red button'. Behind them, the gateway glowed with bright light, the actual doorway obscured by bolts of energy. It sparked, it crackled, it burned their eyes, but something was wrong. A chart on the onscreen controls, bars of presumably energy, was falling rapidly, going from green, through yellow and orange and straight to red. Tala was instantly at the keyboard, but nothing he could do seemed to be affecting it. Pokan looked back to the gate, where the energy bolts were getting weaker and more erratic. Tala cried "yes!" and for a moment the bolts connected and Pokan saw into the void. And someone was floating in it.
"Vala!" he cried, but then Tala cursed and the portal snapped shut, gave a final burst of light and died, the whine fading to a whisper. Tala stalked over to the gateway.
"No, no, no!" he cried. "Why did that happen? What happened? It went wild!" he quickly found a panel and Pokan tore it away, obscuring them in black smoke. Coughing and waving their arms in front of their faces, Tala and Pokan peered into the hole. Tala gave a low whistle. "Well this is pretty beaten up. I guess it's packed up in a thousand years. Probably should have thought of that." He said regretfully.
"Can you fix it?" Pokan asked anxiously.
"Yes, I think so. Let me just get something from in here..." he pulled out a small, flame-producing device, and began rooting around inside the machine.
"I'd be proud to have a Toa like you on my team." Pokan told him, and Tala's heartlight glowed bright as he set to work. Everyone's counting on me... and I won't let them down.
Kratashi and Takena crashed through a door, their combined weight being enough to finally force the jammed door open. Somewhat disorientated from their efforts, they initially did not register where they were. Until at last they came round and looked around... and realised exactly where they were. They were standing in the doorway to the blasted and ruined remains of what had been the place where this had started. Takena was cautious, but Kratashi walked boldly into the ruins. To confirm the truth. He entertained no childish hopes that his guilt was about to be relieved. He knew his burden. His final vote was the final nail in his friend's coffin. He looked down into the crater, the machinery had been vaporised by the blast. And so had Daufu. He realised Takena had stopped talking, but he knew she was just behind him. He felt a long blade rise up and rest on his shoulder, but he did not shake it off. Its touch was surprisingly gentle, and he understood the gesture, even without a hand. "And there's the truth. My guilt was justified. I suppose it's a relief to know I didn't waste my life on it." He tried to laugh, but it came out like a sob.
"Kratashi... it wasn't your fault. It never was. You just voted one way. So did I. How could you have known the danger? And I... I'm sure Daufu would not have wanted you to spend the rest of your life in penance."
"Perhaps you're right Takena. In fact, yes, you are. I've grieved for hundreds of years now... So perhaps, now I'm back here, it's time to move on. I just wish he could give me a sign, let me know I've made the right decision..." something sparked near the back of the laboratory, and a small flame fell into the large pool there with a hiss. But Kratashi thought he saw it. And in the illumination of the spark, he thought he saw something else, something crystalline. He moved towards it, carefully avoiding the pool.
He stood before something so bizarre and out of place, that it dazzled him. It was a life-size ice sculpture of a Toa, wearing an Akaku and holding a large shield. It was uncanny, the ice hadn't melted away, and yet it looked like it had been there for a really, really long time. It looked eerily familiar, and almost alive... "Kratashi..." Takena said, and he was in for yet another shock. She sounded terrified. "Look at the pool..." Kratashi turned round, expecting the worst, but all he saw was a pool of silver liquid.
"So, it's just a pool of Energised Protodermis." He said. Why did she sound so scared?
"B-but this p-pool was filled with w-water before... I w-was mut-t-tated in it. It was f-filled w-with w-water when I l-left..." Takena was shaking now, apparently terrified. Kratashi's mind was whirring, processing the information which led him to the obvious conclusion...
"We're not alone, are we?" he asked the darkness, and from the deepest shadows, which he now realised he had avoided looking at, came the most terrifying voice he had ever heard, no warmth, no friendship, just cold-blooded terror.
"Correct, little Toa. But soon it will not matter. This time, you will not escape me!"
"Alright, that should do it!" Tala called back to Pokan, stepping back and closing the hatch over the machinery. He crossed back over to the computer screen, and then turned back to Pokan. "Right... you stand by the doorway. You said you saw your Toa in there, yes? So you grab her when the portal opens, and make it snappy, because I don't know how long my patching up will hold." Pokan did as he was instructed. He saw no purpose in questioning the orders, as this Matoran seemed to know what he was doing. Besides, Kratashi and Takena had brought him with them, so he must be trustworthy. Pokan had great respect for his teammates' decisions and just as he demanded their trust, he returned it. So he did as he was instructed, standing by the portal, tensed and ready.
"Alright, I'm ready when you are." He said, watching the portal.
"Then here we go!" Tala whooped, starting up the Olmak once again, tendrils racing into the centre of the doorway once more. Pokan shielded his eyes against the glare, until it faded and he saw the portal open, and the black void beyond. He felt himself being sucked in by the vacuum, and he grabbed the doorway with an iron fist. Then he launched himself into the void, reaching out for Vala. He grabbed her and pulled her back towards the doorway. She was deathly pale beneath her armour, and her head was sealed in a hideous mask. Pokan pulled her in, ignoring the vortex of air threatening to sweep him away. Tala was hanging onto the control console desperately, but Pokan was proud to see that he made no attempt to shut down the program. His eyes and Pokan's met and understanding passed between them. They would save her. No matter what. With a roar of exertion, he wrenched himself back through the portal and began pulling Vala in when her hand slipped away from his! He reached out desperately, only to see something red shoot past him. Pokan grabbed on, and Tala grabbed onto Vala. Together, they pulled her back into the control booth, and Tala screamed "wreck it!" Pokan wasted no time, landing a solid kick into the machinery, having the rather bizarre effect of reversing the flow of air, throwing them back against the control console. Tala tugged at a stop switch, which was jammed, but he needn't have bothered as the portal, having ejected the air, and them, from the dimension, slammed shut. And then they realised Vala was screaming, babbling of terrible things... "That's a Kanohi Olisi!" Tala said, pointing at the mask. "It can create horrible visions. But it's been turned against her... and welded to her face?"
"She didn't wear that mask before." Pokan growled, and with a single swipe, tore the mask from her face and crushed it into a ball and hurled it into the darkness at the end of the corridor outside. Tala never heard it hit the ground. At once, Vala's screaming peeled out and she collapsed on the floor. And was replaced by more screaming. Battle cries.
"Kratashi and Takena!" Tala cried. "Come on, we've got to help them!" Pokan nodded and ran after him, taking Vala in a fireman's lift.
Things had descended into chaos very quickly. Takena was almost obliterated by a Shadow Blast, but Kratashi dived on top of her and avoided it. With one hand pinned beneath him, he used his free hand to fire a Sonic Boom at a Tuhrak Rahkshi hiding behind a broken column. Beneath him, Takena's shaking ceased. But another shadow blast came their way. No time to avoid it... him or Takena? He made his choice, kicking her aside and lowering his head, praying to Mata Nui that it was one strong Vohrak whose head he was wearing.
The Shadow Blast hit him like a hail of sledgehammers wielded by a million Pokans, and lifted him bodily and sent him across the room, to smack into the broken column he had just hit with a Sonic Boom. The resulting damage to its structure caused a section of it to crumble into rubble when he hit it. His head was pounding still, but he was alive, and that was something, even if he fighting the blackness of unconsciousness. But now Zabronix had emerged from her hiding place, and he was temporarily stunned. Luckily, they weren't alone. Zabronix raised her bizarre weapon to fire again, but something whizzed across the room towards her. She redirected her attack at the object, but this proved to be a huge mistake, as the disk exploded, blinding everyone in the gloom. Zabronix sucked the light from the lab like a vacuum. "Who dares!" she roared into the darkness. "I know you're there!" There was silence. No answer. Kratashi was rather glad of this pause, as he must have hit his head harder than he thought, because behind Zabronix, he thought he something was moving.
Zabronix had a split second to react, her staff destroying the giant stone hand rising up behind her. "So I see you're out of your box, Pokan." She said, her lazy drawl rolling around the chamber. Takena felt fury rise in her. She wasn't concerned at all! Well, that would be her last mistake-no, not her last. She'd live to make plenty more.
"Well you can't blame me for trying." Pokan said, stepping into the light, Tala beside him and a yellow and white Toa in his arms. "Especially after what you've done to my friends. As their teammate, I have a duty to protect them. As their friend, I am compelled to make you regret my failures to do so with every breath."
"Oh, you've found her, well done." Zabronix exclaimed, a sadistic smile licking at the corners of her mouth. "I always wondered what would happen if you tortured someone nonstop for a thousand years with thousands of possible futures, all of them terrible. She won't ever be right again!" Pokan snarled and clicked his fingers. The ceiling collapsed on top of her, and she was forced to teleport to escape it. Now she was more serious, she knew that Pokan was a serious opponent.
"That was a mistake, building your 'fortress' out of stone. All I have to do is command it to do so, and the fortress will collapse."
"But you won't, because if you do, you'll kill everyone else. Sentimentality is your, and every other Toa's, weakness. We got rid of all that years ago, and we've gone from strength to strength!" her words were met by a harsh laugh. Searching for the source of the sound, her eyes latched onto Kratashi, who Tala was helping pull himself up from the debris of the pillar.
"Lies. Just like everything else you Makuta say. You twist words and sound, twisting the powers of my domain into servants of the shadows, like you. But this time, your words are a joke. The brotherhood's not doing so well now, is it? Destral's a shell-crater now. You could hear the battle in Metru Nui. Well, if you had hearing like mine. And then I got to watch as the Order of Mata Nui finished off the Armada. And the Rahkshi. You're the last of a dying race, Zabronix. The Toa Nuva told everyone in Metru Nui. Terridax betrayed you all and killed all your top commanders in Karda Nui. I'm surprised he hasn't killed you yet, I wonder why..."
"Isn't it obvious?" Takena asked. "She hid herself away." She addressed the Makuta, "You hid yourself away. Probably before the Karda Nui incident. In fact... I bet you used us as your cover! Of course, that's it! You pretended you'd been killed in the explosion, didn't you! Scared of admitting you had failed?" a blast of shadow struck her and knocked her back. In an instant, Kratashi and Pokan had retaliated, stone and Sonics flying at the Makuta scientist. Takena quickly got back to her feet and added her own powers. But then Zabronix blew them all back.
"Fools! You cannot defeat me! If you surrender now... then I might give you the honour of being one of my test subjects. Or even just lock you in a dungeon." Zabronix cackled. Behind them, Vala jabbered behind them,
"life from death, death from death! Choose, choose!" Tala, who was standing near her, looked very alarmed, but ignored the mad Toa. It saddened him to see this true insanity, far worse than that of the Toa of the Green they had met. This was a Toa that, Tala knew, was what Kratashi nearly became, and the closest he came to a flame was born in him, a rage against the Makuta who had done this.
"I have planned for this for years! Now let's see how you do against my Rahkshi?" at this, a small army of Rahkshi, fifteen in all, surged into the chamber, and the Toa Koro, or what was left of them, found themselves facing certain doom. Again.