Co-Authored by Dragon Claw92 and Omicron the IceQueen
Queen's notes: ...you should also watch out for the little matoran
Heroes of Spherus Magna
Looking for an adventure
He wasn't exactly sure what he found but it had to be a story, and Takiu (he really wanted to talk to his hero to see if he may fully change his name!) had set out for an adventure to find a story after all. It was the farthest he'd been from a Koro, on his own too!
Granted, seeing that mass of something... flying and burning in the sky had scared Takiu at first, but drawing on all the stories of his hero when Toa Taka was just a Matoran too, he dared to come and investigate. And he nearly tripped on an Agori like being when fallowing the trail of debris left behind.
So now he was peering under the slab of thin-ish metal at this being. Takiu poked the grey-silver color of the metal armor with the hammer side of his kohlii stick, and after getting no response poked him again with a finger. "Are...you alive...?"
The 'ish', as it looked neither like a full on Agori, or anything else from this planet that the boy knew of, twitched slightly after a moment or two, sky blue optics flickering a few times before fully lighting up. A coughing noise came next, followed by a groan. Finally, the strange being shifted, mumbling words that probably didn't make much sense, as they were both a bit fuzzy, and a different language. It didn't take too long, however, for the 'ish' to notice Takiu's presence, and poking, "...eh?"
The ish's voice was deep and strong sounding despite the fact it was just waking up. What was this thing anyway?
Bright red, orange and white eyes started back from the 'safety' of the Matoran's hiding spot, on the door that was resting over top of the mech. The Matoran unknowingly looked a bit more like the youth the 'ish' was used to, even if his mask was just slightly too big.
The 'ish' took a little while to refocus on the surroundings, though its optics remained on the Matoran. Again it shifted a bit, trying to get itself out from under the door, though given the state of the 'ish', it was likely to take a little while for it to fully 'wake up'. This would be the perfect chance for Takiu to try and figure out what it was.
He could tell the new...person thing...ish... wasn't all there yet, moving slow like the Turaga first thing after a rest time- and Takiu moved on the other side of the door, sliding off to show how small he really was. Holding his 'staff,' and taking a second to look at the attached fossilized talon on the end, he knelt down to peer under the door, looking for the glow of a heart light or stone.
"Are you okay?" he asked, unsure as the ish-person hadn't said anything really. Just babble.
The 'ish' didn't appear to have a heart light of any sort. Not one that was overly visible, or normal. He did, however, have an unusual plate on his chest, smack dab in the center, with an equally unusual symbol on the front, whilst the area around the symbol was glowing a soft, icy blue, pulsating slightly now and then, though nothing overly rhythmic. Its armor appeared to be severely dented and banged up too, with a few exposed wires sparking due to small fractures and breaks in the cable casing.
The odd being was still watching Takiu as it moved, shuddering slightly as it started to push the heavy door off of itself. It responded again, this time in clearer words that at least identified it to be -judging by the tone- male. That was about all that could be deciphered though; it still was speaking nonsense, or at least sounded as though it were.
The Matoran child touched the door, but paused, watching as the mech shifted the door, then started lifting it. Takiu eeped and scrambled back away, wide eyed and crouching on the ground, with his pack and staff, he looked like he was in the middle of playing pretend to the new comer.
"Are you going to move that?" He yipped, "It would take a Toa! Or an Onu-Matoran!"
The 'ish' paused to look at the child, seeming utterly confused before looking back at the door and, after adjusting his position, kicking it off of him. It didn't send the door flying, but it certainly flipped it over, off of the strange being and harmlessly to the side. He then got up, shook the dirt off himself, and looked quizzically at Takiu, as though curious what was going on.
The Matoran youth squeaked, or rather chirping in alarm, scrambling back away from the much bigger mech. The tri-colored eyes wide before holding the kohlii stick out, trying to mimic what he had seen Toa Taka's carving doing many times in the battle scenes. The fact that he barely cleared over the ish's lower thigh wouldn't keep Takiu from being a brave Toa of light!
No sir!
This was a master athlete of kohlii, Takiu had been playing all his life and scored goals against the best Matoran of Po-Koro and Ga-Koro! He was just as athletic as Takua was back in the Dark Times and just as brave as the first Story Keeper was!
So, Takiu totally meant to trip when running away... To get a better angle! He was just seeing if it was better to take on the ish from the ground.
Really.
The ish, however, tilted his head with curiosity, and while his words couldn't be understood, he did seem curious, and perhaps concerned. If Takiu looked back at him, he'd have seen that the ish also looked highly confused, as though he really had no idea what was going on around him. After a moment though, the ish moved a bit closer and offered Takiu his hand. Was he trying to help the Matoran up again? He certainly wasn't acting overly hostile.
The Matoran child looked down, then he craned his head back so the brown mask was tilted to stare. Clutching his kohlii staff Takiu poked at one if the silver-grey hands, despite himself still having the universal, innocent curiosity of the young, "What...are you?"
The ish seemed amused when Takiu poked him, making a quiet chuckle sort of sound as he looked the child over. He said something else as well, but just like before, nothing could really be understood. Whatever the case was though, this being seemed happy to talk, even if he had no idea what was being said. He also stayed squatted down so he was more at eye-level with Takiu once putting the boy on his feet, most likely so he wouldn't accidentally scare the Matoran again.
"Why can't you talk Bionicle?" Takiu asked, puzzled to no end as the youth edged to one side, then circled the mecha. "What are you?"
Of course, the being had no idea what Takiu was saying, and as such just raised an optic ridge before giving a shrug, trying to convey something, though just what probably was harder to figure out.
The Po-Matoran child stopped in front of the mech again, staring for a long minute, than squeaked as something belatedly kicked in. With a little flail- because all Toa did that now and then to get the blood flowing (right?), the boy ran back to his dropped adventure bag to start digging in.
The ish just watched for a moment, seeming highly confused about what was going on. He stood up again and moved a little closer to watch, though he settled himself on the ground in a sitting position again so he was back at Takiu's eye level afterwards. No doubt about it, he was definitely curious.
A few things were tossed out, a crafted and carved ball of some sort rolling over to the mech. It rolled into his foot, feeling much lighter than the stone it looked like, being made of Laval pumas.
This definitely caught his attention, and as such the mech carefully picked it up, looking it over curiously to try and figure out what it was made of.
Takiu popped up again, "I found it!" He cheered holding something disk shape and large in his small hands, being palm sized to an adult. His announcement was understandable though, to the new mech.
The mech tilted his head at this, making a faint, 'hm?' noise as he looked Takiu over curiously, his gaze soon falling to the unusual object in the child's hands. Clearly he wanted to know what it was. "…What is that?" He asked, not really seeming aware that Takiu could understand him now as well.
"It's a Rue stone!" The child chirped, looking around at his stuff, putting the stone down in order to run around after the things and pack it back in. Chatting the whole time but with the medallion like stone not being in contact it didn't work as he unpacked and put things back in again. This was defiantly a child.
The being laughed quietly in amusement. "I'm not sure wha-" the rest of what he said couldn't be figured out thanks to the boy setting his stone down. He didn't seem aware that Takiu couldn't understand him anymore either.
The boy picked it up again, looking around then edged over and held it up by the leather strap, that was like the rest of it was just too big for him. "Here, put it on."
Bulk seemed amused as he accepted it. "Alright. And what does this do?" He paused to think on it a little bit. "... Is this why I can understand what you're saying part of the time?"
"It's a Rue stone, a translation stone... I don't know Agori- yet!- just Matoran..." Takiu shifted in place, and then spotting his ball pounced on it.
"I'm not sure what an Agori is, actually." He confessed before chuckling a little as he watched the Matoran go for the ball. "I'm not from around here."
"Yeah...you're weird looking..." Takiu said with the tactlessness of the young, walking around the mech again before poking a knee, "You're not Bionicle!" he yipped realizing this fact at last, clinging to kohlii stick and ball.
He laughed at the remark, seeing no real issue with the child's lack of tact. "Well, I'm not sure what a Bionicle is, but I'm not that either. I'm a Hero." He didn't seem to realize how bizarre this would have sounded.
Though the fallowing look and stare hinted at that.
"But...you're not a Toa Hero," Takiu puzzled, waving his hands in a big-big motion. "Or a Matoran Guard. How are you a Hero?"
"A... Toa Hero?" He asked. "... Matoran Guard? What are those?" He paused a moment before explaining further. "I'm just called a Hero. I was built for protecting people and stopping villains. That's pretty much what I do, and why I'm called what I'm called."
"...like a Vahki?" the young Matoran still was trying to grasp this, but at the same time Vahki weren't supposed to talk, just guards really. "And who are you saving?" His tri-colored eyes boggled, "Is it me?"
"I'm not sure what a Vahki is." He replied with a small shrug of sorts, "Not from around here." He then tilted his head a little, "Not sure, actually. My team was sent out to answer a distress signal, and our ship blew up. Don't really think I was awake for most of the crash, but here I am. Had you needed saving from something?"
"Umm... not really." Takiu was calming down again, "I'm on an adventure! I'm going to be a great Chronicler and then a Toa of Light!" the brown Po-Matoran preened at his plan.
"Sounds like a great plan." The mech piped up, though after a pause he asked awkwardly. "One question; what's a Toa?"
"Toa are the heroes! They're the elements and our guardians," Takiu puffed up trying to strike a pose with his Kohlii staff, "The Toa are the greatest! Toa Hewkii and Pohatu said I could become one someday, so 'm on an adventure to look for stories or," And he gasped dramatically and just pure excitement, "Maybe even a Toa stone!"
"A Toa Stone?" The mech inquired, seeming further curious. "... I'm going to take a guess and say you need one to be a Toa? Like it's a badge of office or something?"
"It turns you into a Toa if it's meant for you," The boy said, tilting his head, hesitating as he really didn't know how that happened, not yet anyways.
"How does it know who's who?" The mech inquired, tilting his head a little as he thought it over. "... not fully sure how it works..."
"It's um... um... energy." Takiu looked down at his softly pulsing heart light, touching the thing and looking back up. "It's made from a Toa's energy...so it knows."
"... sounds sort of like quaza." He remarked, glancing towards the odd, glowing shape on his chest. "Life giving energy in a solid form."
"There's three kinds of energy," Takiu perked up, he knew this! "Life energy, Toa energy and elemental energies!"
"Oh?" The mech inquired, thinking that over a bit. "... what is the difference between Toa energy and the others?"
"Uhhh..." the young matoran blinked, unsure and looked down, "...guess I need to know that to be a Toa..."
The mech raised an optic ridge. "Knowledge isn't everything, you know. Sometimes all it takes to be a great Hero is actions, not knowing all the answers."
"But what if someone else asks me and I am a Toa," Takiu thought aloud, going back to his pack to pull out a small data pad that was his size. This was a question to ask the next Toa he met.
He thought that over a bit. "... well, perhaps you learn automatically if you become a Toa." The mech said after a little while.
"Maybe..." Takiu didn't want to admit that he hadn't even gotten all his Matoran programming unfolding as he wasn't fully grown yet.
Luckily for Takiu, it didn't seem that the mech knew this, because he glanced around again before asking. "... where are we anyway?"
That he knew!
"We're in Po- and Ga-Wahi border." the boy pointed to one direction where the land was desert like the farther out.
Shifting to get a better look, the bot glanced over and considered that a bit. "... Yep, I've got no idea what those are." He then seemed to realize something and looked back to the Matoran. "Come to think of it, I'm not sure what your name is either."
"I'm Takiu," the boy said in a mix is some shyness and pride, "Like Toa Taka's old name when he was a Matoran!"
"I'm not familiar with him, or his old name, but it's a pleasure to meet you, Takiu." The mech replied with a small grin of his own. "The name's Bulk... well, that's what most people call me anyway. It's my last name, but I go by it."
"What's a last name?" The Po-Matoran asked, blinking.
"...it's a second name, in a way." Bulk explained, trying to figure out the best way to explain it. "See, I've got two names; Duncan, and Bulk. ... I'm not sure why I've got two names, but hey, there's probably some reason for it." It seemed he had boggled the mind of the native child, who knew titles and suffixes more. Bulk was now confused about it as well, but eventually just shrugged it off. "Well, whatever the reason, just call me Bulk and we'll leave it at that, yeah?"
"...okay...?" The child said slowly, recovering from this new, but curveball concept of a 'last name'.
With that sorted out (mostly), the mech stood up straight and moved back to the wreckage, or what pieces of it there were, and started to search for anything potentially valuable. There wasn't much to find, but soon he seemed to remember something and pulled his ball launcher out of his subspace pocket. He gave it a look over before nodding in satisfaction. "Still loaded and functional. That's good." He remarked to himself, putting it away again before turning to look back at Takiu. "You wouldn't happen to know where anyone else strange like me may have turned up, would you?"
Takiu was fallowing almost right on Bulk's heals the whole time, and when the mech turned the Matoran ran into a silver-gray leg. Squeaking, the boy flailed and clung to said leg, then meeping onto the armor.
Bulk blinked at this, looking curiously at Takiu before chuckling in amusement. "You alright?" He inquired, one optic ridge raised as he looked the child over.
"Yeah, of course I am!" Takiu shook himself after climbing down. "I'm going to be a Toa of Light after all! This doesn't bother me!" He puffed out, and it would just take a gentle poke to deflate him.
A gentle poke that the mech seemed happy to provide. "You know, you are allowed to be afraid. Hiding who you are won't help you in the long run, alright?"
The boy flailed and held his sides protectively, "Toa are brave even when afraid, and I run into a lot of things." he admitted.
"Yes, but keep in mind you aren't a Toa yet." Bulk pointed out, crouching down to be on Takiu's eye level again. "I'm going to guess you're not quite an adult yet either. You have plenty of time."
"Not yet but I will be fully grown in another fifty years!" Takiu rubbed the back of his head, "But I'm sixteen now! And Toa Hewkii and Pohatu are watching over us...?"
It took Bulk a moment to sort through the age situation, but he gave a small nod after. "Exactly," He remarked. "You're still in your childhood, which means you have time left to just... be a kid. Relax and play with friends. Don't worry too much about being a Toa to the letter yet, alright? You've still got time to grow."
"But I'm going to be a chronicler first before being a Toa," Takiu tilted his head, he had a plan after all, "So that's why I'm on an adventure, but not a scary one. Turaga Bomonga said that I can come out and look for a story."
The mech thought this over for a little while before grinning. "Well, I'd say you found one heck of a big story. Not often someone meets a person like me, is it?"
"...I don't think so!" Takiu perked up again, and almost climbed up Bulk to get up to a rock and peer around. The mech was in for it with an active young Po-Matoran.
Bulk probably would've blinked were he built for it, but he laughed quietly all the same. "If you wanted a lift, you could have just asked. There's a reason the rest of my team calls me 'the big guy'."
"I'm a good climber!" Takiu insisted, looking at the mech almost optic level now.
The mech chuckled with amusement. "I noticed that. I'm sure that comes in handy, if you're aiming to be a Chronicler someday."
"Yeah!" The boy nodded, "You have to look for stories, or follow a Toa hero!"
"How often do you get to follow a Toa hero?" Bulk asked, seeming highly curious about it. He wanted to know his chances of meeting one.
"I follow them whenever they come into the village." Takiu considered the landscape, then held his arms to Bulk (seemingly trusting the calm friendly mech) to be picked up. "I've been looking for a Toa all day."
Bulk seemed more than happy to oblige the boy, picking him up and perching him on one of the mech's shoulders. "Well then, that leaves us with a few choices; we can look for a Toa together, or we can do something else. I've got nothing really planned so what did you want to do?"
"Look for a Toa!" The Po-Matoran child announced to the world at large, waving his kohlii staff around as he wiggled into a spot for balance. Then chirped in alarm. "My bag..." He looked down at the ground were his pack was.
"Got it." The mech replied, crouching down and scooping up the bag before handing it to the boy, moving carefully so he didn't accidentally knock Takiu off his shoulder. "So, which direction should we go in?"
Once he had his bag back, and worked on re-directing his balance, Takiu paused for a good look, then pointed off in a direction, "That way!"