The three began to move, but Koth held out his hand. "You'd better stay here, Trell. We'd be best to handle this."
Trell shook his head as he pulled out his disk launcher. "I'm no Toa," he said, "but I can fight."
Koth saw the determined look in his eyes and said, "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."
The three of them rushed down the street, and as they passed the Terda Inn, Redizic and Zorkek ran out to meet them. Introductions were made as they ran against the flood of Matoran streaming away from the sounds of battle. When they reached the sight of the explosion, they stopped and stared in amazement.
A giant crater dominated the city square with smoke still rising from the center. From inside the crater, dozens of creatures were pouring forth. Rahi of all kinds were leaping, crawling, and flying out and demolishing the nearby buildings. A Muaka turned and saw the Toa and those with them. It leapt at them, and Koth shouted, "Scatter!"
The others leapt away as a stone hand emerged from the pavement and grabbed the Rahi midair. As she rolled to one side, a Nui-Rama saw Lestra and swooped down on her. She let a bolt of energy fly from her hands, striking the insect. The moment the energy struck the creature, it ceased to move, and as it crashed to the ground, bits of its body flew apart. Lestra moved to examine the creature and found that it had no organic tissue. It was a robot.
She quickly stunned a Tarakava that ran at her and reached out with her power. She sensed an above normal amount of electricity flowing through all the Rahi around, meaning that they were all robots.
She ran up to Koth, who was fending off a Visorak, and pumped a thousand volts into the creature.
"Koth, they're all robots," she exclaimed.
"How do you know?" he asked.
"I can sense the electricity flowing in them. It's way above what there is in normal beings."
"Lestra, look out!" cried Koth.
The Toa of Lightning turned around just in time to see a Kane-Ra and a rock lion lunging at her. She raised her arms to protect herself, but just as the Rahi had reached her, they were blown to one side by an energy bolt and a ball of fire.
The two Toa turned to see Onric, his palms still smoking, and Tivari, his blaster still glowing, standing a few bio away.
"Are we late for the party?" asked Tivari.
Onric looked across the field and asked, "Who're the Aquaton and the Matoran over there?"
Lestra jolted another Muaka-bot. "Not sure really," she lied, giving Koth a sideways glance, "they offered to help, and I hated to turn them down."
"Well," said Onric, blasting a chute spider, "I'm not too picky about allies right now, and if a Matoran wants to stay and fight, that's his business."
The Toa were just about to throw themselves into the fray, when the Rahi stopped attacking and retreated to the center of the crater. The smoke had cleared now, and it could be seen that there was a tunnel, leading underground at the base of the hole. And out of that tunnel came another being.
The being that appeared was small in stature, only a head taller than the average Matoran. He seemed old and frail, but he had an air of wisdom about him. Redizic and the Matoran rushed to join the Toa as the being spoke.
"Greeting Toa," he said, his voice wizened and dry, "I do apologize for what my pets did to your city. They get so carried away sometimes."
"Cut the Muaka drool, Oriles!" cried Tivari. "What do you want?"
"Who is this guy?" asked Koth, staring down at the being.
"I am Makuta Oriles," said the being, "the being in charge of your island and those nearby. You three may not know me, for I was only recently given the job, after your previous Makuta disappeared."
"And you've done nothing but bring us trouble," said Tivari.
"Oh come now, I can't help it if one or two of my experiments got out of my labs or if a few Matoran have gone missing over the past year. If anything I should be blaming you, Tivari."
"What's he talking about, Tivari?" asked Lestra.
Tivari unfurled his blade and said, "I'll explain later." He turned to the Makuta and shouted, "Oriles, we're giving you one chance. Leave now, or so help me, I'll finish what I started."
The Makuta smirked and said, "I'll leave, if you hand over the girl." A wave of shock passed over the beings on the crater's lip. "But if you don't, I'm afraid my pets will have to take her from you."
Onric stepped in front of Lestra. "Lestra's not going anywhere," he said.
Oriles nodded, as though he knew that he would get that answer. "So be it."
An instant later, the robotic Rahi were once again rushing out of the crater. This time, however, all their fury was aimed at the Toa and those with them.
At first, the heroes fought well, with heaps of robotic body parts piling up around them, but no matter how many Rahi they defeated, more poured from the crater to take their place. And so slowly but surely, the heroes began to tire.
Redizic caught a Burnak across the face with his armored gauntlet and sent it flying. The excess force from the blow caused him to fall to his knees, panting for breath. A chute spider advanced on him, but was frozen solid by one of Trell's disks, before it could reach him.
The Matoran helped his friend up and asked, "You alright?"
"Yeah," said the Aquaton, punching another Brakas-bot, "just getting a bit tired."
Trell opened his mouth to say something, but stopped short as he stared ahead. Redizic turned to see what his friend was gawking at, and his jaw fell open as well. All the robotic Rahi were once more rushing to the center of the crater, and when they got there, they arranged themselves like a well orchestrated army and began to change.
The Rahi's bodies began to change, with pieces folding in on each other, unlike anything the heroes had ever seen before. The Rahi then latched a hold of each other and began to combine. First, a giant pair of feet formed, followed shortly by two legs, a body, two arms, and a head, and from within the robot, the voice of the Makuta could be heard.
"You may have stripped me of my powers, Tivari," boomed the voice, "but you did not leave me helpless. You have tried my patience long enough, now give me the girl!"
Oriles' giant hand shot down and grabbed a hold of Lestra, pulling her up into the air. The heroes tried to get her out, but no amount of fire bolts or energy blasts would break the Makuta's grip. Within the robot, Oriles smiled and pointed his other hand at the heroes. A glow of energy appeared on palm, and an instant later, a beam of power lanced towards the heroes.
The heroes dove out of the way and began attacking the giant. As bolts of energy and Kanoka disks bounced off the robot's metallic hide, its shoulder plates slid back, and two energy cannons emerged from the openings. The cannons opened fire on the heroes as Lestra looked on in horror. She struggled to free herself, but it seemed her elemental energies were being disrupted, for she could not summon so much as a spark.
She looked and saw Trell and Zorkek get blasted by one of the cannons. Koth activated his Mask of Speed and rushed to catch them, but Oriles blasted the ground in front of him, so it blew up right as he ran over it. Tivari decreased Redizic's personal gravity and the Aquaton bounded up to try to smash open the robot's hide, but before he could reach the giant, Oriles had blasted the Toa of Gravity into oblivion. Cut off from the Toa's power, Redizic plummeted downwards and hit the ground with a sickening thud.
Suddenly, all the heroes began to move, and they flew behind Onric, whose Matatu was glowing brightly.
"Alright, Oriles," cried the Toa of Fire, "let's finish this. Just you and me."
"Ha," laughed the Makuta, "you Toa are all alike. So confident in your abilities, so sure you'll always win. Did it ever occur to you that you just might lose?"
With that, the robot brought his hand down on the Toa, sending him sprawling down the street. He tried to get up, but felt his strength fading fast. He looked up and saw his mask laying on the ground next to him, cracked in two. The Makuta took aim once more with his cannon and fired.
As Onric began to lose his hold on consciousness, time appeared to pass in slow motion. He saw something whiz and connect with the robot's hand that held Lestra. He looked closer. It was an arrow. The beam of energy lanced from the cannon and just before it struck him, a bubble of energy appeared around him. A cloaked figure appeared in front of him, holding its arms out, as though forcing the Makuta's blast back. As the energy faded and the hand holding Lestra exploded, the figure turned to Onric and removed his hood.
"I must be seeing things," Onric thought. "That looks like that Skakdi I killed."
"I am that Skakdi you killed," said the figure, as though he had read his thoughts. He rolled Onric over onto his back and fired his eyebeams at the Toa. Too weak to try to get away, Onric jumped as he felt their healing energy coursing through him. The last thing he heard before the world faded was, "I forgive you, Onric. I forgive you."