Disclaimer: I do not own Bionicle… yet. But I do own this story and the plot… and Antonio's.
Chapter 4: Memory Bank, Part 1 Fanfare
The young woman walked trough the cave, slipping and sliding upon the wet rocks. Her flashlight did not give off enough light for her to be able to see. She slipped and gasped, surprised. She sat on her lower legs and groaned. The light from the flashlight bounced off something, catching her eye.
"Huh?" she asked. "What's this?" She scooped it up and gazed upon the small thing in her hands. It was a small gem, grey in colour. It was quite ugly, but had an odd sense of beauty about it. She studied it harder and realized it was a small mask. "A… a Kanohi…!"
"Come on! Come on!" Lewa muttered to himself. He slowly moved the joystick forward to gain more speed. But as he did so, he crashed into a tree. "Uch! No!" He whipped off the helmet and glared at Pohatu, who was grinning from ear to ear.
"That wasn't fair!" the small teen growled.
"It was too totally fair! Just because you lost doesn't mean it wasn't fair?" Pohatu said in the same tone. Not too far from them, the other sat watching.
"Are they always like this, Gali-chan?" Aria asked as the two continued to argue.
"Yah, it's their way to congratulate each other." she said, taking a sip from her straw. "They've been best friends for a long time. So, I guess it's normal."
"If only there were normal." Takua grinned. Gali and Aria giggled, Onua and Jaller chuckled. Tahu and Kopaka, meanwhile, seemed to be in their own world. The two boys sat in a staring contest.
"Gali!" The blue-haired girl looked over to the door to see three girls waving at her. Everyone, including Pohatu and Lewa, looked over to them.
"Kotu! Macku! Hahli! Hi!" she said, waving back to them. The three walked over and sat down with the already fairly large group.
"Thanks for inviting us." one of the girls said. All three had blue hair; two of them the same shade, the other, a much more blue.
"This is Kotu." Gali said, pointing out each girl. Kotu was one of the twins, her hair was in two ponytails. "This is Macku." Macku was the other twin, her hair was in a single bow. "And this is Hahli." Hahli wore her hair simply and didn't stick out much from many of the other girls at their schools. "We've known each other for what seems like forever. Sorry that I didn't tell you guys they were coming."
"It's, alright, Gali-chan, we don't mind." Aria said, speaking for the group.
"Kotu, Macku, Hahli, these are my friends I told you about. Aria, Pohatu, Lewa, Onua, Jaller, Takua, Tahu, and Kopaka."
"Hi!" Macku said, giving a wave to each of them.
"Pleasure to meet you." Kotu said, shaking each of their hands.
"I am honoured to meet you all." Hahli said, giving a short bow from her seat.
"As we are to meet you." Aria said, bowing back. They talked on, as Tahu and Kopaka continued on with their staring contest.
"Weird." Jaller said to Takua
"Yeah, Tahu's only done that one other time. And that was when him mom first got George."
"Do you think they'll notice if we left?" Pohatu joked. He received many a glare. "Can't you guys take a joke?"
"No." Gali said, sarcastically.
"Well, I need real food." Lewa said, inspecting a slice of pizza. "All that this is, is cardboard, ketchup, and sawdust."
"That's actually, pretty good." Kotu said, tapping her chin. The others looked at her, shocked. Gali, Macku, and Hahli laughed silently with their eyes. It took them a while to realize she has jesting.
"Yeah." Pohatu said, picking up his duffle bag. He caught Macku glaring at him.
"Yeah, how 'bout Antonio's?" Lewa asked.
"Sounds good." Gali said. She and the others got up. "Uh, what about those two?" She jabbed her thumb at the two locked in a staring combat.
"We need something that will break the spell…" Kotu said. A wicked grin appeared on Gali's face.
"They're under a spell?" Lewa asked, not fully understanding what she meant.
Gali walked over to Tahu and whispered something into his ear. He jumped away from her and Kopaka, face beat red. Gali burst out laughing, Kotu, getting the general idea, followed. Hahli giggled softly. Kopaka chuckled. Gali walked back over to the large group.
"What did you tell him, Gali-chan?" Aria asked.
"I'll tell you later, Aria-chan." the blue-haired girl said through laughs. The large group left the arcade.
"What'd she say to you?" Lewa asked his friends. The others pressed for answers to the question.
Tahu could only blush darker and say: "I won't say."
Pohatu was getting fed up with Macku, who had only been glaring at him since he first noticed her. He finally had enough, and stomped him foot on the ground like a little kid.
"What is your problem?!" the tan teen asked her.
"You play soccer." Macku said.
"So!"
"You're on the Rocks."
"Yeah!"
Gali and Kotu burst into another fit of laughter. Pohatu glared at them.
"What's so funny!"
"Mure Hewkii is on your team."
"She knows him?"
"She's his biggest fan."
"And that's funny… how?" Tahu asked, Gali was hanging onto his shoulder to help her stand up.
"Macku is obsessed with him."
"I'm not obsessed!" Macku said. "He just… I would not like to finish that thought."
"Can we go in?" Lewa whined. "I'm dying in my place!"
"Lewa, you're not 'dying.' You're just hungry." Kopaka stated.
"How would you know?" He pouted. Kopaka sighed and opened the door, everyone filling in.
An hour or so later, the large group was relaxing in comfortable chair in a private room in Antonio's. Plates empty and bellies full, the group chatted. Tahu had gone off to use the 'little boy's room.' Gali sat listening to the music in the background. The All-American Rejects, her mother's favourite band.
I'll keep you my dirty little secret
Don't tell anyone
Or you'll be just another regret
Dirty little secret
Who has to know?
She didn't know it, but she had begun to hum along. Kotu listened to her and hummed along, only off key. Macku began to mouth the words. Takua, Lewa, and Pohatu strummed air guitars. Before the group knew it, they had all began singing and dancing to the song. But the song was interrupted by a news report.
"As promised, the one who calls himself 'The Hacker,' has struck. He has taken over the Coliseum and is showing no mercy. The Vahki are unsure of what to do. Assaulting The Hacker, means harming innocents; not, means they may die. It may be a stand off for quite some time."
The group blinked.
"Hahli-chan, Macku-chan, Kotu-chan, Jaller-kun, Takua-kun, stay here and tell Tahu-kun to go to the Coliseum. I don't want you five to get into this mess." Kopaka said, grabbing his coat. Aria did the same. "The rest of you some with me."
"What's going on?" Hahli asked.
"We have to help those in the Coliseum." Aria stated.
"We can't do anything about that!" Lewa said. "That's the Vahki's job! I don't think they'll like us taking over it."
"I'm the son of Naverange Zanuga. You'd be surprised." Kopaka said. "Aria, give them their equipment." Aria tossed each of them an armlet, bejewelled with a small stone.
"Put these on and let's go."
"What about Tahu-kun?" Aria asked.
"Wait for him once we get there."
They dashed out of the door of Antonio's and headed to the Coliseum."
They all stopped by the crowd of people and Vahki. Kopaka pushed through them and headed to the front. The others followed and apologised for their rudeness, something Kopaka had not done.
"Naverange Kopaka, reporting." Kopaka said, saluting one of the Vahki. The Vahki nodded and looked at the others. "They are trainees."
"Trainees?" Gali asked Onua, who shrugged.
"Now, in order to get through the barrier, you have to have the Kanohi collector fully charged, which it is." Aria told them. "In order to activate it wave your hand above the Kanohi, the gem." They did so, surprised to see it worked. "Say: 'Barrier,' and the Kanohi should change colours, hopefully red."
"What do you mean: 'hopefully'?" Pohatu asked.
"It's our first run-through of the program." Pohatu's face drained of it's colour. "After the Kanohi turns red, run straight towards the barrier and you should come through on the other side in armour."
"And if not?"
"You'll bounce off and be sent down thirty-four blocks."
They all got ready to run towards the barrier and hit it…
To be continued…
The groups first mission as a team… sort of. Will Tahu make it in time? Did they pass through the barrier? What is a Kanohi collector? Will they defeat The Hacker? What did Gali say in Tahu's ear? All these questions and more will be answered next chapter.
Antonio's is a sort a pizza parlour. We have this pizza parlour in town and we walk to it for good pizza at a good price. The my friends tell me school sells it, but it's cheaper just to walk across the highway. I live behind it, so I just hop over the wood fence and meet my friends there. is based off of our pizza parlour.
The random thing where they play air guitars and sing along happened to my friends and me while back. We were listening to Dirty Little Secret, and one of my friends was humming along with it and soon I was singing it. The others began to just sing and play their air instruments, which gathered quite a crowd. I was never so red in my life! It was fun and we had a blast jamming to the tune, but embarassing.