KINGDOM HEARTS: SONIC VERSION
Chapter Twenty: Behind the Mask, Part 2
It had seemed like years had gone by since the heroes had arrived on Mahri Nui, even though it's only been a couple of hours. As Hahli led them out into open water, she explained the seemingly endless struggle the toa have faced. She explained the Bohrak invasion, the search for the legendary toa of light, which turned out to be Jaller's best friend, Takua, and the final battle against a shadow being they called 'The Makuta'.
"Sounds like a heartless if I ever heard one." Sonic whispered to Silver; making sure Hahli didn't hear.
"It's hard to tell." Silver whispered in equal silence. "But from what Hahli's been telling us, this Makuta guy has existed long before the heartless."
"So what happened to the Makuta?" Storm asked as he walked beside Hahli. "He's dead now, right?"
"We all thought he was dead the first time." Hahli said. "When the previous toa defeated him, we though it was over. But we were proven wrong when the Makuta released the Bohrak."
"Where toa now?" Angel floated alongside the water toa.
"They said they went back to protect the matoran on Metru Nui." Hahli explained. "But there was something in Tahu's voice when he spoke. I think he was lying."
"Why would he lie?" Storm asked.
"I don't know." Hahli admitted. Hahli looked forward. "We're here."
The Sonic Team was greeted with the sight of a small open temple-like structure. Inside stood a statue that stood to Jaller's height holding a glowing crystal. The structure itself was no bigger then Sonic's home on Destiny Island.
"Whoa...this is...something." Sonic said unimpressed.
"That's because you're not looking in the right place." Hahli stated.
Sonic gave her an inquisitive look. Storm lightly tapped on his blue friends shoulder lightly to catch his attention. When Sonic looked back, Storm turned his attention to the ceiling. A miraculous mural was imprinted within every corner and crevice on top of it. The mural mostly depicted a struggle between two beings struggling for what looked to be the Mask of Life. One was a misshapen mix-and-match warrior holding flaming chains. The other was impossible to see because it was smudged, but it could be seen holding double-bladed staff. Thousands of rune symbols surrounded the mural.
"Strange. I've never seen such symbols before." Silver thought.
"That's cools!" Storm shouted suddenly; causing Sonic to jump. "Hey, Silver, what do those weird things say?"
"I...don't really understand." Silver said sheepishly.
"I do." Hahli said. All eyes were drawn on her. "They tell a legend about creation and destruction."
"Creation and destruction?" Angel repeated.
"Yes. Long ago, before Mata Nui came into existence, the Great Beings created two brothers, Artakha and Karzahni." Hahli pointed to the separate beings. "Artakha was given the duty of creation while Karzahni was in charge of destruction. But when the Great Beings created the Mask of Life, Karzahni was overcome by greed and sought the masks power."
"No surprise there." Sonic muttered. Silver jabbed him in the side.
"Artakha knew this and confronted his brother." Hahli continued; not noticing the commotion. "But Karzahni's powers were too great for him and the world was on the brink of destruction. In a final effort, Artakha used his most powerful weapon: his staff. The staff over powered Karzahni and restored most of Karzahni's destruction."
"Most?" Sonic questioned.
Hahli floated out of the shrine and pointed to the sky. "His powers only were not enough to restore that."
The four heroes walked/floated to the point where Hahli was and looked up. To their surprise, this wasn't the only world around. As the looked out to space, they realized Mahri Nui was only a part of the actual world. Close by were several islands that seemed to hold different locations and inhabitants that differed from the one they were on. The heroes stared into space in a daze.
"Toochaba." Angel said in amazement.
"This is simply amazing." Storm said; equally amazed.
All this was caused by Karzahni?" Silver asked.
"The Makuta did help either." Hahli said venomously. "That's why we need to find the Staff of Artakha. To restore the world to is proper place." Hahli turned to the heroes. "You must think I'm crazy to try and find it."
"No, never!" Sonic stated. "I would do the same thing if it was my world."
"Your world?" Hahli questioned suspiciously.
"He meant our world." Silver chuckled nervously. Storm slapped his huge hands over Sonic's mouth. "Of course that's what he meant." Silver whispered to Sonic. "Think before you speak next time."
"Hahli." Angel said as she glided up to her friend. "Dream important. Never give up."
"You really think it will all work out?" Hahli asked.
"They do and so do I."
They group looked down the slope to find Jaller, who had been following them.
"Jaller, what are you doing here?" Hahli asked. "I thought you were helping Matoro retrieve the crawler."
"Let's just say, I left him in a sticky situation." Jaller chuckled. Hahli laughed along with hi, but also gave an admiring look, which Jaller failed to notice. "So what are you all doing here?"
Hahli wanted to show us this really cool painting." Storm informed.
"Really?" Jaller said. Jaller walked under the shrine and saw the mural for himself. "Wow, I never noticed that. Look's pretty interesting."
"Hey, Sonic, can you come here for a moment." Silver requested.
"Sure." Sonic responded. The two mask hedgehogs walked a little away from the others so they could not hear. "What is it?"
"I just had a thought." Silver explained. "If we find the Staff, it might lead us to the keyhole."
"I was just thinking the same thing." Sonic said with a pondering look. "But where do we find the thing."
"Matoro said he found the mask in a place called the Field of Airweeds." Silver remembered. "If the mask was there, then maybe the staff is hidden somewhere with it."
"Whatcha talking about?"
Silver and Sonic jumped back when Storm, Angel, and the toa's appeared next to them.
"Uh, nothing?" Sonic grinned shakily.
"We were just thinking." Silver said. "If Matoro said he found the Mask of Life in the Field of Airweeds, then maybe the Staff of Artakha might be in the same place."
"Well, it's not like Matoro to miss something like that." Jaller muttered. "But it is something to look forward to."
"Then we shall move to the Field of Airweeds." Hahli said. Hahli turned and glided through the water. "I'll lead the way since I know the terrain better then anyone."
"Let that live forever." Jaller groaned."
Hahli swam up ahead followed by Angel and then the males, who did not share the benefits of having wings. But unknown to them, six dark figures were hiding in the shadows, watching the toa. One of them slithered a tentacle around the statues arm and snapped it like a twig.
"I don't see why we can't kill them now." One soft hissing voice said.
"No, the master said to wait." A more gruff voice said.
"Do you question the master's intentions?" A new voice said.
"N-no." The one said in a meek voice.
"Duh...what now." Another more unintelligent voice said.
"Now...we wait." A new voice said; crushing the statues arm.
The toa led the new visitors nearly all the way across Mahri Nui when they stopped atop a hill side above a crop field. It was obvious why the field was given its name. The entire field was filled with seaweed that seemed to hold air bubbles inside it. There were also miniature versions of the toa harvesting the airweed. If they had to guess, they would say that they were the matoran that the Toa keep talking about.
"What are they doing?" Storm asked.
"They're harvesting Airweed crops." Jaller answered.
"Why?" Angel asked.
"The Matoran were not as gifted as we were." Hahli explained. "The matoran constantly rely on the airweed to breath or they would die."
"Harsh." Sonic said.
"Very. Now, let's find that staff." Jaller said; quickly changing the subject.
The six quickly scattered around the air fields. Storm asked one of the matoran if he had seen anything, only to be scared away by Storm's large mass. Silver was fleetingly passing through when he found Sonic completely tangled up in the weeds. To this day, no one has figured out how. Angel gracefully glided through the airweeds until she came across a scorpion-like creature called a Hydruka. The two stared at each other for a moment and then the Hydruka had hearts in his eyes.
"Find anything?" Jaller asked the group when they rejoined later.
"I was unsuccessful." Hahli said sadly.
"Same here." Storm said; rubbing the bump he received when a matoran whacked him.
"Nothing." Silver said through the cocoon of weeds.
"Naga." Angel answered while repelling the Hydruka.
"That's too bad. I thought we were close." Jaller said. The red toa quickly noticed that someone was missing and did a headcount. "Hey, where's Sonic."
The hedgehog in question was still wandering through the fields. Since the weeds reached above his height and he couldn't fly, he was doomed to wander forever. Lucky for him, he tripped on something and smacked his face in the ground. Now normally that isn't good, but this is different.
"What the f..." Sonic was sorely tempted to finish the sentence. He looked down to the ground and found something glittering out of it. Sonic wiped away the dirt and found a crystal mask shaped like the Mask of Life. "Awesome! Hey guys, look what I found."
But all of a sudden, a squid creature bit his wrist a forced him to drop the mask. He ripped the squid away and tossed it aside when the others showed up.
"What happened?" Hahli asked.
"Something attacked me." Sonic winced in pain.
"Who?" Jaller asked.
"That would be us."
The six heroes turned their attention towards one of the higher cliffs where the voice came from. They quickly discovered six multicolored mutates; all transformed into different creatures. The red was a squid, the blue was an insect, the brown looked like a crab, the black look like a manta ray, the green look like an eel, and the white looked like a bloody shark. But the one thing they had in common was that they all had the same bloodthirsty look in their eyes.
"Long time no see...uh." Carapar said stupidly.
"Toa, Carapar, toa." Takadox groaned.
"Who are they?" Storm asked.
"The Barraki. Nasty creatures, they are." Jaller said.
"Who are you calling nasty!" Ehlek exclaimed.
"Calm yourself or your kill yourself." Kalmah stated.
"What do you want?" Hahli questioned.
"It is not what we want. It is what our master wants." Pridak said. "And what he wants is that mask."
"You weren't supposed to say that!" Mantax hissed.
"Master? So the great warlords are taking orders from someone else." Jaller sniggered. "In any case, if your master wants it, then we can't let him have it."
"We'll see about that." Pridak said. "Barraki! Attack!"
"Toa! Charge!" Jaller roared.
Both sides jumped at one another and the battle commenced. Both the leaders, Jaller and Pridak, clashed at one another with their ideal weapons. Jaller swung his Power Sword up and across, but Pridak was quick to counter with his Shark Tooth Blade. Pridak looked as if he had had the advantage because he had two blades. But he didn't take into account of Jaller's skills.
"Not-bad." Pridak said; their blades clashed again.
"Same-to-you." Jaller grunted when their blades hit.
"But-this-is-only-getting-started." Pridak groaned.
Meanwhile, Hahli swerved around the water above Kalmah in order to avoid his whipping tentacle. But Kalmah caught her when his tentacle wrapped around her ankle.
"Gotcha now." Kalmah chuckled fiendishly as he pulled her in. "Now come. My squid would love to have you for dinner."
"Not happening." Hahli stated.
Hahli raised her steel talons and sliced the tentacle to shreds.
"Damn you!" Kalmah cursed loudly.
While Kalmah tended to his wound, Silver was running backwards in an attempt to avoid Takadox's Twin Knives. He ran until his back was at a wall. Looking up, Takadox swung his Knife down, just as Silver slid under his legs to avoid him. As Takadox removed his Knife from the rock, he couldn't help but feel respect for the hedgehog.
"I can tell just by looking at you that we are equal in intelligence." Takadox hissed.
"Maybe, maybe not." Silver said.
"Let's find out, shall we?" Takadox murmured.
Takadox's eyes suddenly glowed red, soon joined by Silver's Silver grabbed his suddenly throbbing and fell to his knees. But despite the mental pain, Silver continued to grin.
"Legilimency, huh?" Silver grinned as he stood back up. "Good thing I learned Occlumency."
Silver closed his eyes and focused his mind into a single thought. Sure enough, Takadox's mental attack rebounded and drove him into a coma-like state. Meanwhile, Storm and Carapar were locked in a battle of pure strength. Storm was holding of one of Carapar's arms with while trying to prevent the large claw from crushing his skull.
"Man, he's strong." Storm mumbled with trying to push back the pincer.
"Get ready to say...uh." Carapar stopped to think for a moment.
Storm was open for attack now. Storm slapped away the claw and ducked down to roll under him. With an impressive show of strength, Storm lifted Carapar up off the ground and threw to him to land on top of Kalmah.
"Bye-bye." Storm sniggered.
But Angel was having trouble with her Barraki. While she tried to hide in the airweeds, Mantax just dropped from sight.
"Tooda?" Angel questioned.
"Too little, too late." Mantax voice sounded.
Suddenly, Mantax burst out of the ground and captured Angel in his pincers. As Mantax began to squeeze the life out of her, Angel's head tentacles came to the rescue. One tentacle wrapped itself around Mantax pincer while the other wrapped around his neck. Surprisingly, her tentacles were ten times stronger then herself and constricted Mantax until he fainted from lack of breath.
"Tootaba!" Angel boasted; stroking her tentacles lovingly.
That only leaves Sonic and the slippery Ehlek. While Sonic summoned his Shadow Blade, he never had a chance to hit. Ehlek moved around the water like Sonic did with his standard Keyblade. Ehlek swiped at Sonic's side with his Tri-Talons, but Sonic was lucky enough to jump away with only three scratches where Ehlek attempted to strike.
"Man, how am I supposed to follow something I can't follow?" Sonic asked himself; clutching his side.
"That's the point. You can't!" Ehlek cackled. But Ehlek's laughter stopped suddenly when his static gaze fell upon the Keyblade that Sonic held. His hissed at it, saying. "The Keyblade"
"He knows about the Keyblade?" Sonic thought.
"It's been fifteen years since I've seen that cursed instrument!" Ehlek hissed venomously. "I can still remember when Zoan turned that wretched thing on me."
"You know Zoan?!" Sonic yelled in surprise; jumping to his feet. "Tell me, who is he?!"
"You remind me so much about him." Ehlek said with a trace of bitterness in his voice. "And for that, I'll kill you extra slow and extra painful." He licked his Tri-Talons fervently to show a hint of his sadistic nature.
Ehlek zoomed from his spot and loomed over Sonic in 2.3 seconds. He raised his Tri-Talons and swung them down in a rapid pace. On instinct, Sonic raised his Shadow Blade, which miraculously blocked Ehlek's attack. But this only drove Ehlek to go farther. The furious eel monster pushed roughly down on his talons to push Sonic's own weapon back. Sonic could feel the cold steel of his blade pressing down on his neck.
"Time to die, chosen one." Ehlek said mockingly.
Not...yet." Sonic groaned.
The keychain on his Shadow Blade glowed and Sonic fell back into his shadow. Ehlek remained glued to the spot, staring compellingly at the point where Sonic vanished. Too dazed to move, Ehlek paid no attention when Sonic reappeared behind him and swatted at the back of his head. The blow itself knocked Ehlek out cold.
"Dang, I hit him too hard." Sonic cursed his luck. "I wanted to ask him about Zoan."
Back with Jaller, him and Pridak seemed to be at a stalemate when Jaller kicked the shark beast back.
"Take this!" Jaller yelled.
The red toa held out his Power Sword and dispersed a jet of fire from its tip. The flame caught Pridak of guard and could not defend himself when it pushed him to the wall. The Cliffside above crumbled on impact and toppled over Pridak to crush him. Jaller grabbed the crystal mask from the ground.
"Everyone ok?" Hahli asked as she landed next to her teammate.
"I'm fine." Silver replied.
"A-OK." Storm said.
"Okeetaka." Angel smiled.
"Good. Let's leave before they wake up." Jaller suggested.
They others were all too anxious to agree. They quickly ran out of the Field of Airweeds and made a brake for it back to the shrine. Sonic remained hesitant for a moment before reluctantly following. A few moments later, the Barraki awoke from their attacks.
"I feel like I've been hit by a Kikanalo." Kalmah said.
Pridak erupted from under the rubble and did not appear happy.
"Curse those toa!" Pridak growled. "We must hunt them down and kill them."
"Too bad you won't have that opportunity." A darker, drearier voice sounded.
The Barraki turned to the sound of the voice, which ended up being their last mistake. The next moment, they were all dragged into the shadows by the Screwdrivers.
The Sonic Team and toa arrived back at back at the shrine with the crystal mask. By some odd reason, Hahli seemed to see that the statue and the mask were destined to be joined. Just as she was ready to place them together, Matoro entered in; clearly infuriated.
"Jaller!" Matoro yelled. "What was with you leaving me to...?" Matoro's insect-like eyes wander to gaze at the sparkling mask held in Hahli's hands. "What are you doing with that?"
"Hahli was going to put it on the statue." Storm informed.
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Matoro exclaimed.
The white toa drew his Twin Cutters and charged at Hahli
"Matoro! NO!" Jaller screamed
But it was too late. Matoro cut clean across the masks texture and shattered it to pieces across the sandy floor.
"Matoro...how could you." Hahli wept slightly and swam off.
"Hahli!" Jaller called out to her, but it was in vein. He sharply turned to his so-called ally. "Ok, that was crossing the line! What gave you the idea to do something like that?"
But Matoro ignored him and glared at the heroes. "Toa, or should I say, chosen one, I have allowed you to remain on our world long enough."
"Remained here? What do you mean?" Jaller asked.
"I mean, they're not from this world." Matoro said; Jaller was caught by surprise.
"How did you know?" Storm asked.
"Being the keeper of the mask, it has given me insight of information beyond my wildest dreams." Matoro answered. "As the Key Bearer, you have a duty not to meddle with the affairs of other worlds."
"He knows that already." Silver defended.
"Yet you continue to interfere." Matoro said indifferently. "As I thought. The Keyblade Master does nothing but shatter peace and brings destruction wherever he goes."
"Sonic's not like that!" Storm exclaimed.
"Funny, that's what Zoan said." Matoro said.
"You knew Zoan?" Sonic asked.
"Not personally, but the mask does." Matoro stated. "Zoan was a destroyer. He used the Keyblade to wreak havoc amongst the worlds and he is the reason the heartless are allowed to exist."
"You're wrong!" Sonic exclaimed.
"Believe what you like, but we have no room for you or your key."
And with that, Matoro departed from the sight. Sonic looked down to gaze at the weapon that had been praised as a savior. Could this weapon really be a cause for the heartless existence? Could Zoan, the unknown hero he looked up to, really be nothing more then a tyrant? There were so many questions. Even Mata Nui couldn't answer them.
After the earlier spat with her allies, Hahli had secluded herself to her hidden sanctuary at the stone cord. She had known that Matoro could be arrogant at times, especially when it came to the Mask of Life, but never before had she seen him act out so hostile before. He heart swelled up with anger and contempt for the white toa. After all she'd been through; facing the shadowed invaders, combating Gadunka, and defeating the Barraki, it all still meant nothing to Matoro. She felt so fueled that she could just...just...
"Kill him?" A voice finished her thought.
She turned to where the voice had come from, but was toppled on her back by a massive energy hound. The hound sniffed around her mask and barred his teeth as if it were ready to attack. Lucky for her, its master called it away.
"You'll have to excuse Spinax." The voice said. "He's just...excited."
The voice stepped out from behind the shadows to reveal Maxilos to be the owner of it.
"Who are you?" Hahli asked suspiciously.
"I am Maxilos, a friend."
"Why should I believe you?" Hahli questioned.
"Don't be so cold. After all, I am the only one who can help with your predicament." Maxilos said; loftily walking past her.
"How?" Hahli asked.
"You wish to restore your world to its former glory. I can help you do that." Maxilos tempted. But just by looking at her, he knew she still didn't trust him. "And if you still don't believe me, gaze upon this."
Maxilos reached over his shoulder and held out a familiar looking double-bladed staff: The Staff of Artakha. Maxilos was amused by Hahli's stare of wonderment. Hahli was hesitant to reply, but nonetheless answered.
"What do I have to do?"
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