Disclaimer: I don't own Bionicle and that's all I have to say

Chp. 5-Project V

Abby blinked when she heard this. A good chunk of what the woman said seem to go not only over her head, but the others as well. Benny seemed the only one to actually show his reaction. All he did was tilt his head and squish his eyebrows together and say, "Huh?"

Gali gave a patient sigh. "I knew it wasn't going to be this easy." She murmured and then said, "Well you should all make yourselves comfortable; this isn't going to be a short story."

Abby spoke up, "I don't mean to be rude, but were you two born in Africa?"

Gali chuckled slightly at this. "No my dear we weren't born in the land you call Africa. You'll all be informed where we came from shortly.

The group sat down on the grass except for Tommy who was standing a few feet away, glaring at the two with suspicion. Gali began with Kopaka silently standing by during the account.

"I guess you could say this all started about forty years ago in this world. Around that time, a great archaeological discovery was found that could probably dwarf the finding of the pharaoh you call Tutankhamun and the tablet you call the Rosetta stone combined. On each continent except for that icy world in the south, a number of people were reporting strange structures they found protruding only slightly from the ground. When many groups of archaeologists went to investigate these structures, they discovered a very interesting find. The structures they found were very large, about thirty feet high and were in the shape of a circle thirty feet in diameter as well. They also calculated the age of each to be around 5,000 years ago, around the age of the civilization Mesopotamia."

"There was quite of few anomalies that archaeologists found puzzling. Everyone at each site were confused by the fact that each structure was exactly the same on each continent, which is very puzzling if you think about it. Also, engraved on the stones that made up the circle of each structure was a language that was never recorded in the history of humankind or mine to say the least. They also noted that no matter how hard each group tried even with humongous cranes and dynamite, the structures couldn't be moved or even damaged by any human means."

"What do old dusty relics have to do with us?" Tommy asked impatiently.

"Be patient, I'm coming to that." Gali said assuring Tommy, "Anyway, because the groups could not thoroughly identify what the structures were used for, the projects were abandoned and no on paid attention to them. These structures were miles away from any roads or cities and they were almost forgotten until about twenty-five years ago."

"You see, these were very interesting structures with an as interesting purpose as well which wasn't discovered until many years later. I know it may sound odd for you all, but they used to be doorways to another place completely unlike yours."

Tommy smirked and had to suppress a laugh at this. This story was beginning to sound like a really bad sci-fi movie. Regardless, Tommy still listened.

"Around twenty-five years ago, there was a man who had heard of the portals and was one of the few to devote themselves to finding the reason for the portals' existence. He worked on the portal in North America, which just happened to reside the United States' region. One day, he invited a group of his friends to come to the site, since some of them had some expertise that helped him as well. When he was examining the portal, he discovered a symbol that many other archaeologists failed to notice."

"The symbol looked like two sideways Ws with three dots in the middle. The man was very excited of this and when he ran his fingers over it, three of his fingers pushed a trigger in each hole. After he did this, something very extraordinary happened. The carvings around the circle began to illuminate and a blue portal emerged from the middle of the circle and expanded until it filled the inside off the circle. It was also creating an enormous amount of noise that the man had to hold his ears as he came back down to the ground, since the cherry picker he had set up began to crumble from the force the portal was causing. He and his group took cover about one hundred feet away before the portal went silent. That was the first time that Kopaka, the others and me actually came into contact with humans."

"Hold it!" Abby shouted and looked at Gali with wide eyes. "You came from that portal?" Gali nodded. "If you're not human then what are you?"

Gali began to go into details of how she, Kopaka and a few others were Toa, heroes destined by the spirit they call Mata Nui. She also described the Turaga, elders of villages inhabited by villagers known as Matoran. Gali also described Makuta, an evil being that caused Mata Nui to go into dormancy. After she gave a brief description of her world, Pete spoke up.

The reaction was almost instant. Benny started to laugh out loud like a drunk hyena, with Tommy trying to keep her from noticing an amused smile on his face. Curt just looked her over as if she came out of a mental facility with Pete having a more polite look on his face. Duncan, however, had a more excited look and was smiling dreamily as well while Abby had a very surprised look on her face giving Gali a concerned look.

"How do we know you aren't lying to us? This all just sounds so weird for us." Pete commented as politely as he could.

"You got that right." Benny commented trying to hold back his giggles.

Gali reached into her shirt and pulled out a necklace with a dark brown pendant the size of a silver dollar with strange engraving on it. When she pulled it out, she lifted it an angle as if she was going to take it off but kept her arm in that position. Her left arm, which was hanging by her side, began to go blurry and changed into what the others thought was a blue robotic-looking arm. This caused the others to jump with a couple of them cussing from surprise. Gali then smiled gently and placed the pendant back in her shirt and her arm changed back to a normal human arm.

"You see, in our world, we found portals as well except we only found one of them. We were called to the structures along with a number of Matoran and the Turaga to investigate these since we did not know of their origins either. Apparently, from what Turaga Nokama could decipher, they were created thousands of years before our time by an unknown race to travel to a world that, from what they described, was a world where good and evil were less discernable and the inhabitants were more susceptible to their passions. When the portals were created in my world, they were also created in this world as well, since there had to be a point in this world to connect both portals."

"You see, when that man had activated the portal here, he also activated it from my world too. Nokama had just finished translating the carvings when the portal came on. For us, it was apparently activated so that inhabitants could come to this world, so everybody; the Turaga, and the Matoran, and my fellow Toa and me who were present were drawn into the portal despite our attempts to get out of its reach. By the time we got into this world, everyone was unconscious from the forces we felt while we were sent."

"When the man and his group saw us, most of them wanted to get out of the area. They didn't know what we all were and, of course, were frightened of us. The man was the only one brave enough to try and help us, even though when everyone woke up we were just as afraid of them as they were of us. Unfortunately, much to our embarrassment, my brother Tahu almost tried to burn the poor man into ashes until we intervened. The man was convinced that we weren't as bad as the others thought and decided to try and help us. The man tried to activate the portal again with help from us, but was unable to activate it the same way he did before. After this had failed, we tried to figure out a solution for not bringing attention to ourselves if we went out to a human settlement."

"While looking around the portal, we found a compartment in the side that had pendants such as the one I am wearing right now. But unfortunately there were only five pendants and if it wasn't for Kopaka's ingenuity, there wouldn't have been enough to go around."

Gali smiled at her brother when she complimented him, who just seemed to be completely indifferent to her kind word.

"After that, all the Matoran and Turaga were able to disguise themselves as well and until the portals could work again, we all decided to live among humans for the time being. A few years later, however, we had received word that when the portal was activated that all the other portals were activated as well and that we weren't the only ones to enter this world. Over in the European region, Roodaka, who calls herself Ruth Decker, entered this world too and she didn't come alone."

"Who's Roodaka?" asked Duncan.

"Roodaka was the commander of the Visorak, a very nasty spider-like creature I might add, which is almost the direct cause of your troubles at the moment but I'll get to that later. What makes her appearance odd is that most of us believed that she was dead, but I guess we were all wrong with our assumptions. Anyway, when she came here, she was able to bring one Visorak with her, which would have saved many lives if she didn't. She was able to disguise herself and learned of human language, nature, and politics fairly quickly, much more quickly than we did. But the one thing that fascinated her the most was a little experiment she had in mind and traveled to the United States, smuggling the Visorak she brought, just for that purpose."

"She had to make many preparations for it, such as rounding up some of the most brilliant doctors and scientists of the day and gilding the operation so that no one could question the motives of it. Roodaka claimed that the operation was a way to find new anti venoms and vaccines, but the real motive was more nefarious and sick. She wanted to test the effects of the Visorak venom on humans."

Pete's eyes went wide and stared at Gali. "W-wait. So w-we were part of t-this?"

Kopaka spoke of for the first time. "Yes you're all Experiment 66, the last people to be injected, I might add."

"Why are we the last?" asked Abby.

Kopaka shrugged. "We're still looking into that."

Gali continued. "You see, the Visorak venom would probably the worst venom you could be injected with, since the effects are-"

"-Turning into a monster?" Curt finished.

Gali looked uncomfortable. "Well…yes basically, even though its even more disastrous on the human body than those in our world. You see, because of the human body's organic makeup, it can only take so much of this venom before it dies off. That was where Project V started. The usual subjects were given different amounts of the venom to conclude just how much a person could take without the body shutting down. They went through about twenty individuals before they found the maximum amount a person could take, which was about fifteen milliliters. They continued on, testing humans based on different races, age, health problems, and other factors as well to determine how it affected humans."

"When we heard about this project, we consulted the Turaga and since we assumed that she didn't know about our whereabouts, a few of us became spies to get into the project, including me and Kopaka. It was around the very beginning of the project and after we were thoroughly examined, we were able to get in." Gali suddenly looked distraught and had a sad look in her eyes.

"It was very hard to keep a low profile while we were in the Project." Gali said sadly. "Even though our jobs consisted of paperwork and observations of the subjects, it was still difficult to keep our emotions in check from how barbaric the experiments could become. I still remember the a few experiments where I almost broke down from how horrific it was." Gali took a large deep breath before continuing.

"But for the moment I shouldn't reminisce about that right now, we should be more focused on you six now."

"She's right." Said Kopaka. "Because unless we find a cure for you all as soon as possible, you all can kiss your chances of returning to normal good-bye." When he was returned with confused looks, Kopaka gave a small sigh before going on. "The venom in you is a very special venom. Not only does it affect you physically, it affects you mentally and emotionally as well."

"How's that?" asked Pete.

"You remember how Tommy almost went berserk on Curt?" He said with a muscle twitching in his neck. "You basically gain an animal's instinct and it gets worse if you don't do something about it."

The whole group, even Benny, was quiet when they heard this. The concept of going completely insane was not only worrying it was also downright frightening.

"Is there anyway to cure us or are we just plain screwed?" Curt remarked cynically.

"There are two ways." Gali started. "The first one is Keetongu, but unfortunately for us he is in the other world and is the only one to clear the venom out of your blood completely."

"What's number two?" asked Pete again.

"There's this treatment that we and the others are getting close to perfecting. We were able to bet a hold of each of your entire DNA before you changed and are planning to use as part of this therapy. Although it may not get rid of the venom completely, we can be able to get rid of any psychological effects and make you all look just as normal as you were before this happened."

"How long is this going to take?" asked Tommy.

"If luck is on our side, probably a good week and a half or two. If not, it might take even longer."

Everyone soaked these words in with interest as well as with caution. On one hand, they were depending on weird beings from another world that were indirectly involved with their problems. But on the other hand, they still did not know how to deal with their problem and they needed all the help they could get.

"Just one more question." Spoke up Abby, who still seemed very nervous from hearing the story. "How were we captured?"

Gali sighed. "The Project has many connections with a variety of gangs who they use for their dirty work. They enlisted the help of the one gang BC-36 to round you all up. One of the high-ranking members led you all near where the Project's operations occurs and they knocked you all out and took you to the building, which was where they injected you."

"You're lying."

Everyone turned back at Tommy who was glaring at Gali. "Eric wouldn't do something like that! He knows better than to turn in a fellow member!"

"Tommy," Abby said scolding, "You're not a member of that gang! You were just going through the tests to become a member. And from what Eric does for BC-36 I'm surprised that you're not surprised. So just listen, they're our only chance to get back home."

Tommy glowered at Abby and then at Gali, still not convinced that his so-called friend attacked him. "How can you prove that Eric set us up in the first place?"

As soon as the question came from his mouth, Kopaka took out a voice recorder from the inside of his jacket. When he pressed the play button, it started off with static, and then two voices could be heard conversing with one another.

"So let's review," a male voice said smoothly "You want me and a couple guys to lead some idiots near your building, rough 'em up a bit, and leave 'em with you?" The voice sounded uncannily like Eric's.

A woman could be heard chuckling. "That's right. And I would like you and your group not to harm them too much. I want to make sure you did not leave them on the brink of death when I obtain them."

"And how much are we talking lady?" He said greedily.

"A good $500,000 to make up for your troubles. And also a little extra if you are to keep the city busy for the next week or two. Do we have a deal?"

Eric laughed. "The leader would call me a sucker if I didn't accept. I've always wanted to take a whack at Johnson to say the truth, so this should be no problem at all sweet heart." With that Kopaka pressed stop and the message stopped.

"That was a telephone conversation between Roodaka and Eric if you're wondering." Kopaka said simply.

Everyone looked back at Tommy, who looked as if he took a blow to the head and stomach and his eyes became slightly wider.

Tommy gave a frustrated sigh. "Okay, now I believe you, happy now?" Before Kopaka or Gali could answer, Tommy went on. "So what do you want to do with us?"

Gali smiled, relieved that Tommy believed her. "We would like you to keep a low profile for the moment. It's not only because we don't want other people to see you, it's also because people from the organization will be searching for you all and would probably bring you back for more tests."

"Are we allowed to go back into town?" Tommy asked out of the blue.

Everyone, including Kopaka and Gali, looked at Tommy as if he suggested turning themselves into the clutches of the people who had caused their little predicament.

Tommy looked at each person. "You know, just to get news on what happening in town concerning us." He said quickly.

Gali exchanged glances with her brother and sighed. "As long as it's at night and you disguise yourself well, one of you can go. But only at night." She added sternly. She looked at a watch on her wrist and looked back at the group.

"There's going to be more of us coming and we've brought some extra tents that you could all sleep in individually. It probably shouldn't hurt to set them up in a few minutes."

After this, she and Kopaka wandered back into the woods back to where the stash of tents was hidden. While they were gone, the group continued to sit there staring with wide eyes at where they left. Meeting those two was almost as interesting as when their problem first started. After about a minute of stunned silence, it was finally disturbed when Tommy left from the place he was standing and walked off into the woods. Abby, who had noticed this, got up also and followed him as well.

Tommy stopped at a tree leaned against it and gave Abby a look. "I know what you're going to say," Tommy started "and the answer is I'm just fine thanks."

Abby stopped, looked at Tommy and sighed. "Tommy, you know that's a big lie, and I was also about to talk to you about you trying to seek revenge on Eric."

At the sound of his name, Tommy looked at the ground and growled. "I'm…not…going…to pull…something…like that!" He said slowly. "The idea's just to check on what's going in town that's all."

"And to check your mom?" Abby asked.

Tommy was now getting frustrated with Abby. "Wouldn't you do something like that with your dad if you had the chance?"

That seemed to hit a mark. Abby looked uncomfortable and bit her bottom lip. "Not with how we look at the moment..."

Right now, Tommy felt like he wanted to bang his head against the tree when an idea popped in his head. "What're you worried about?" He smirked. "You probably look the best out of any of us."

The reaction was almost immediate. Abby turned a bright red and began to yell at Tommy as if he insulted her instead. "Idiot! You know I look as bad as you! You big lying moron!" Abby yelled at Tommy, which wasn't working since she was grinning and turning redder. She then turned around and started to head back to camp, swearing about Tommy along the way.

Tommy's grin grew bigger and gave out a laugh when Abby was more than an earshot away. There was one thing he learned from hanging around Abby; if she ever starts to get on your nerves, give her a compliment. She'll be swearing about you for the next hour. Tommy then gave out a yawn and decided to go back to set up the tents. The events that day left him with almost no energy and decided that a good rest was all he needed. Tommy then sighed and made his way back to his temporary home.