Wow, I felt a little berated for last chapter. . . how strange.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Bionicle, Varia or other characters created by GF or dragontiger12, but my OCs are truly mine.
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(Spherus Magna)
Kalnur wandered through what had once been his home planet; while it still existed, his banishment had saved him from a worse fate: almost every one of the Old Great Beings had died or been exiled to alternate realities; for example, he had found good ol' Kresh in a strange universe completely full of organic wildlife and teeming with dragons; but he was one of the few.
As he kicked down a small wall that was still standing straight in the rubble that had once been Voidstone, he remembered all the things that had happened in and outside of it, especially with Chard, another Great Being that had been almost as crazy as him; it had been her idea to build a gigantic robot and send it to travel through the universe.
Seeing there was nothing to salvage from this old, dying planet teeming with energized protodermis, he decided it would be best for him to erase all memories of the old world: he had new things to care and worry about, mainly trying to avoid another shot at his fortress before it was even finished. . . that, and making sure Varia got paid back for what she did.
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(Great Being Dimension)
Kalnur had returned from his trip to Spherus Magna with a face as stoic and inexpressive as the carvings in Mount Ihu; he had then taken on to continue building his new Fortress. It didn't have a name yet, but it would rival Stormfire both in size and power: if Varia thought he wasn't worthy of his title or being a Major or whatever it was she said, he'd prove her how wrong that opinion was.
It took him countless amounts of energy and material to even repair the damage lightning bolts had done to the fortress' walls and foundations, not to mention the destruction of all the useful minerals and metals in the ground below, which made it even more difficult to gather the material necessary; she really knew how to fight with her mind even while she was enraged, that he would agreed with.
Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, the space inside the fortress was filled with metallic filigree, ranging from forges to an Amaja Circle, even a cold storeroom to keep organic materials safe and unspoiled; there was also a turret to repel attackers and a hangar to keep any vehicle he planned to create or borrow.
As he kept building, things came and went, but he paid no attention to them; anything that was needed was either transmuted from the surroundings or imported from a thousand dimensions; every single object inside the perimeter was hand-crafted into the shape it would appear to the outside eye.
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(Days later)
Kalnur was finally back on his feet; after many days of continuous manual labor, his whole body had paid the toll it had been forced to create; that had translated as an aching of both mind and body that had lasted for hours to no end, it had even knocked him unconscious. . . just to regain it minutes later because of it.
He walked through the courtyard and into the main –and only- door into the complex; true, the whole courtyard was open to the sky, but it had a shield generator to prevent most unwanted visits; it would take a Kanohi Dragon's full effort to breach it; activating the self-defense mechanism, he traveled to a small planet on another universe: Naya; there he'd find the leaves he needed for his message; no more asking Vorx for materials.
He appeared in the middle of the jungle, just in the path of one of its gargantuan creatures; quickly jumping to the side, he cleared the dust off his armor while the beast made its way through; truly magnificent creatures that put even Vorx's size to shame; there was so much untapped potential here!
Kalnur swiftly cut three leaves the size of his mask, and began manipulating the vast amounts of energy in the planet to make the veins in the leaf grow in the shape of letters and symbols, taking some of it for his own use and reserves. When he was finished, he packed the three letters into his sack and looked at all the life around.
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(Stormfire, Tall Torrent and wherever Yistran is living at the moment)
There was a small bang and a flash, and a leaf the size of a Kanohi fell to the floor in each one of the fortresses, regardless of their owner and dweller being there at the moment.
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(Many more days later)
Kalnur was sprawled over the courtyard of his new fortress, courtesy of his latest experiment with transmutation; it couldn't be judged a complete success, after all, the –rather big- vial of unused matter had been needed to finish it on time; the upside: it had taken all of the fortress' defense mechanisms to bring him to a stop.
It was strange to see his new "home" from this point of view; it had been built according to his original plan, but it was only half the size of Stormfire, and there seemed to be a lot more free space than his old one; all this had him pleased and confused at the same time, but that would be dealt with later, there was someone pounding at the door.
He got to his feet, dusted himself off and walked towards the entry and find out who had cut his musings short; he was greeted by four different beings: Vorx, who seemed to be trying to solve a small cube, Varia, who was trying not to kill both the host and a guest, Yistran, who was looking at Varia and Kalnur with a sneer of disgust, and Kalnur, who seemed to be looking at nothing but the walls in front of him.
"Greetings. . . people, I suppose your presence here means that my invitation got received in one way or another" He said as the other Kalnur just walked into him and "disappeared". "Come in Vorx, you are quite welcome in here" Then, he turned to Varia and Yistran, who had been trying to light each other on fire and make it look like an accident.
"Now. . . about you two. . . You" He said pointing at Yistran. "You have never been of any help, you tried to kill my friends, and altogether, I don't like you one bit" He continued on before Yistran had even the chance to look offended. "But you're a Great Being too and you haven't done anything personal to me, so you can come in" He added as he stepped aside for Yistran to enter.
"And now, with you. . . "Kalnur said as he turned to Varia. "You. . . I'm not even sure I should let you in; you could get angry again and try to destroy it" He added as she gave him a "do you really think I care now?" stare. "You dislike me for what I am regardless of why I am"
"You know, I can leave anytime; just say you wanted me to lose my time by coming to see this thing you dare call fortress, how sorry you are, that you learned your lesson and everything will be fine" Varia replied with her usual sharp tongue and wits. "Just say the magic words"
"You know, I stand my ground on what I said last time: you're way too uptight for your own good" He said as he stood aside to let her inside. "I never said I wouldn't let you in or that you should leave"
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(That Night)
It had been an enjoyable evening, mainly because Varia and Yistran had tried not to kill each other during dinner, and the only incident had involved Vorx, a spoon, a very freaked out Yistran and the dessert; then, he had asked them to allow him to stay; after all, his old home was. . . well, let's just say planets shouldn't be thrown into the path of a black hole. Vorx said he didn't mind as long as it was calm and quiet; Varia said she would think about it. Yistran grumbled something that sounded like "no".
Kalnur was heading back to the living quarters inside of Light Void, when it happened: something started pounding on the shields above his head; whatever it was, he was doing a good job, because his shields were beginning to crack.
The Rebel Great Being quickly drew out his bow and started firing volleys of arrows at what, or whoever was invading him; he may have well fired marshmallows, as his arrows were incinerated inches before they reached it, leaving nothing in their wake.
When the shields were finally out of the attacker's way, it reduced its form and size to that of Kalnur's or Varia's and drew a pair of swords that started glowing red hot as they drew eight-shaped arcs in the air in front of him. . . the attacker's fighting style seemed oddly familiar.
Drawing out his own sword Kalnur charged at the invader as it fell to the floor, swirling it in great circles around him to make both an offense and defense at the same time; both to prevent anything the stranger could throw at him and to knock him into a wall, hopefully, he'd be able to stun the assailant and interrogate him.
The stranger simply whirled in midair and slammed the flat part of her swords into the charging Great Being's back, apparently throwing him out of balance and face-first into the floor. When the stranger got near and thrust one of her swords into Kalnur's arm, it went clean through; frowning at this, she was blasted a few feet when the real one released his ball of Shadow.
"What is your business here? Why did you break into my house unannounced and uninvited?" Kalnur shouted as he approached the lump on the floor with his sword at the ready. "Tell me why you're here and I'll let you go physically unharmed" He added as he gathered Light to shine on his foe.
It was this moment when she –whoever she is- threw a small silver dagger at said Great Beings chest; who jumped out of its way in time to avoid a -not very nice- hole in his torax, but his shoulder was still cut open, and the invader took advantage of his distraction to steal his sword.
Kalnur was now weaponless and the cut on his shoulder felt as if someone had poured acid on it; trying to gather energy, he clapped his hands together; placing both palms on the ground, a large chunk of the floor and piping was gone in an instant, only to surround his left gauntlet and re-shape as a tri-claw.
"I don't have to be merciful towards you" She said as she flung the sword away. "You shouldn't even be here! I'm stopping only because of our past agreement" She continued as she slowly faded away with the wind.
Kalnur decided that was the best moment to try out a regenerative sleep, which is just another way to say that he passed out in the middle of the floor and let his powers heal him as best they could.
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(Next Day)
Kalnur woke up in the middle of the courtyard with a groggy memory of what had happened a few hours ago: the dinner, the jokes, the intruder, the whatever-it-was-made-of dagger and the cryptic words of the mysterious female al came rushing back to him.
He grudgingly rose to his feet and went to retrieve his sword, almost falling with the small hole that his alchemy had created to form the claw jutting out of his left gauntlet; regaining balance, he took it out of the wall and went to the FMC; strapping it to his back, he headed North.
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(Storm Fire)
Varia was more than pleased with the progress of her plans for Halora and her army, up to the point where she was considering that maybe she should cut Kalnur some slack. . . . with the key word being maybe.
It was at this point that a very blurry and strange figure appeared in the horizon to the South; whatever it was, it was approaching Storm Fire too fast to Varia's liking; taking the form of a Proto Drake twice the size of an average one, she stood her ground.
It was a chimera. That became clear when the roar was heard ten miles away, and it was rectified by the size of the thing when it only was a Mio away; when it finally reached the fortress, it looked at Varia with contempt.
Kalnur, in his chimera form, was easily twice the size of Varia, maybe even thrice if he stood up. He had come here for two reasons; both matters had to be addressed before he went hunting for someone.
"YOU. You know information and I want it rightnow" Kalnur said as he flashed his teeth at her. "You know the substance that can cause this kinds of wounds" He continued as he showed the scar that ran through his right shoulder. "I'm about to go in a hunting trip, and I want to make something clear: know the facts before you send the judge" He snarled as he picked the familiar scent again. "If I do things it's because I have my reasons" And with that last thing said, he continued his mad chase throughout the planes and planets.
Varia just stood there looking at the stop where he had vanished; taking a moment to process what had just happened, she went into her own private quarters, stopping only at the door to say something. "Nutjob"
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Well, I hope you liked it as I did; thanks again to dragontiger12 and Jamester211 (go read their stories, they rock!) for all the tips and reviews and ideas.