CHAPTER SIX
Onu-Metru
“Tsk, tsk. Another letdown.”
Onepu withheld a grimace as he looked upon the twisted monstrosity in front of him. What had once been an innocent Ash Bear had been mutated into a horrifying beast with a disfigured face and a malformed left arm, ending in a series of blade-like fingers. He had never seen such a horrible creation… yet the black-and-green Makuta standing beside him treated it as if it was an everyday sight for him.
“I can never seem to get the proportions just right,” Mutran murmured to himself, tapping his mask with sharp fingers. “One arm is always different than the other. Such a shame; it was turning out so well.”
He made a small gesture with his hand and the mutated Ash Bear returned to its stasis tube. As the two layers of glass fell over the Rahi, subduing it with gases, Mutran directed his gaze to Onepu. The Onu-Matoran archivist instantly tensed, apprehensive for what the Makuta had to say to him.
“Stay here while I go fetch some more supplies,” Mutran said as he strode past Onepu. “If you touch anything, I’ll have you be my next test subject.”
Before Onepu could even say a word, Mutran was already gone. The Onu-Matoran let out the breath that he didn’t realize he had been holding in. Ever since the Makuta’s takeover of Metru Nui, life in the Archives had taken a complete turn for the worst. Rather than study Rahi, the archivists were expected to bring them to their new Makuta overseers, Mutran and Chirox, so that they could be experimented on and transformed into war beasts, thought the results were anything but pleasing. It sickened Onepu to his very core, but of course the price for voicing his disapproval would be a fate worse than death.
“Mata Nui,” he heard a voice murmur behind him. “Not Graalok….”
Onepu frowned as he turned to see his fellow archivist Whenua standing there with an aghast expression on his mask. Of all the Rahi in the archives, Whenua had formed a personal connection with the particular Ash Bear specimen Mutran had just mutated. Onepu wasn’t sure why Whenua was so close with Graalok, though he suppose he was one to talk considering his affinity for Ussal Crabs.
“He didn’t hurt her much, if that’s any comfort,” Onepu said quietly, knowing deep down that it wasn’t. “She’s a tough girl; she can handle a lot.”
Whenua was silent as he stepped over to Graalok’s stasis tube, putting his hand on the glass. The mutated Ash Bear slept peacefully in stasis; Onepu could only hope that she felt no pain while in that state.
After a tender moment, Whenua let out a sigh as he turned to face Onepu. “We’ve got new orders from Makuta Chirox,” he said grimly. “He wants us to find a rare Rahi hiding somewhere here on Metru Nui.”
A look of confusion crossed Onepu’s mask. “A rare Rahi? Here?”
“Somewhere,” Whenua replied. “He said he would provide us with more details once we were all gathered.”
“Wait, who’s we? Just you and me?”
“You, me, Taipu, and the Chief Archivist. I don’t know why he wants the four of us specifically, but you know I’m not going to be the one to question him.”
Onepu frowned as he looked towards the door. “But Makuta Mutran told me to stay here. Should I wait until he comes back before telling him?”
“I don’t know, Chirox made it sound like he wanted to see us all in the shortest time possible. I don’t think he’s too keen on waiting.”
“Great,” Onepu muttered. “If only Mavrah was still around; then I could just ask him to be my decoy, just like the Kinloka Incident.”
“Uh-huh.” Whenua tugged on his arm. “Come on, we should go. I’m sure Mutran would understand, especially if it’s an order from another Makuta.”
“I don’t know,” Onepu said as he followed his fellow archivist out. “Have you seen the two of them work together? It’s like watching a Ta-Matoran and a Po-Matoran try to screw in a lightstone….”
* * *
“You want us to go to the Great Temple?”
Makuta Chirox glared at Chief Archivist Pavua, who immediately shrank from his gaze. “Do you have difficulty hearing, Archivist? Because I can easily amend that.”
“No, Makuta,” Pavua murmured, the three scopes of his mask retracting. “Please, continue.”
Onepu and Whenua exchanged glances as Chirox resumed speaking. “You are to travel to the Great Temple, where you will find information regarding the location of the Rahi you call ‘Keetongu.’”
Onepu perked up at the name but did not dare interrupt. He had heard of Keetongu before — every Onu-Matoran had — but most of the Archivists had dismissed him to be nothing more than a myth. He wasn’t sure what he was the most surprised about; that Chirox seemed to be confirming Keetongu’s existence, or that the Makuta even knew about Keetongu in the first place.
As if reading Onepu’s mind (which he probably was), Chirox said, “Yes, the legends you have heard are true… to an extent. We know that Keetongu is somewhere here on Metru Nui, and we need you to find him.”
Pavua cleared his throat. “Um, with all due respect, Makuta, but why can you not find him yourself?”
“Pavua!” Whenua hissed at him. “Don’t ask questions!”
“Yes, listen to your friend,” Chirox said dryly. “Even if I had an answer to your question, you do not need to know it; my will is final. You will go to the Great Temple and you will find Keetongu. The price for failure will be… well, just look in Mutran’s lab and you will figure it out for yourselves.”
All three Onu-Matoran bowed their heads, not daring to look the Makuta in the eyes. “By you will, it shall be done, Makuta Chirox,” said Pavua. “Are we allowed to bring our equipment with us?”
“Take whatever you need,” Chirox said dismissively, already turning his back to the trio. “Just don’t keep me waiting.”
With that, the black and silver Makuta spread his wings and took off, ascending to the upper levels of the Archives. Once he was gone, Whenua turned to look at the other two Matoran.
“I can’t be the only one who thinks he’s leading us into a trap, right?”
Onepu shrugged. “I mean, if he wanted us dead, Pavua gave him more than enough reason to kill us,” he said with a glare to the Chief Archivist.
“H-hey!” Pavua retorted, his voice still shaky. “That’s no way to talk to your superior.”
“I’m sorry, Pavua, but your rank doesn’t matter much these days. Not since the Makuta took over and made themselves all our bosses. Chirox even referred to you as just an Archivist and not a ‘Chief Archivist.’”
“Even so—”
“Even so, we should get a move on,” Whenua interjected. “Chirox could be back any second and we’ll have less than a microsecond to explain ourselves before he eats us or whatever.”
“Let’s get our equipment, then,” said Onepu. “And let’s just pray we’ll able to take the chutes to Ga-Metru instead of taking the long way….”
Ga-Metru
Macku had full confidence that this plan was not going to work.
Making it into Ga-Metru had been the easy part; she was a Ga-Matoran, so of course it would have been. But the issue was that she wasn’t supposed to have left in the first place. Under the Makuta’s rule, no Matoran was allowed to leave their designated district unless permitted to do so. Hopefully no one had noticed her absence, or else this rebellion had failed before it had even begun.
Fortunately for her, the regularly scheduled classes for the day had already ended and the streets of Ga-Metru were populated with Matoran. If a patrolling Bordakh had spotted her when they were empty, then she would have had a lot to answer for. As she navigated her way through the crowd of Ga-Matoran, Macku spotted Nokama walking out of her class room, arms full with supplies. She hurried over to the teacher and called her name, prompting Nokama to turn around, her eyes widening in surprise.
“Macku?” Nokama said as the other Ga-Matoran reached her. “By the two suns, I thought something had happened to you. You weren’t in today’s class.”
“I accidentally attended Amaya’s class by mistake,” Macku lied, conscious that there were most like prying audio sensors nearby. “Anyway, I was wondering if I could talk to you. Somewhere private, preferably.”
“Well, I have a meeting with the Ga-Metru Board coming up soon,” Nokama replied. “If you want, you could walk with me there and talk.”
Macku shifted uneasily. “Uh, it would be much better if we found somewhere private. Someplace where no one can hear us.”
“Why is that so important?” Nokama asked. Her eyes then dilated briefly before narrowing, her voice dropping lower. “You met with the others, didn’t you?”
“Not so loud!” Macku hissed, glancing around furtively. “I need you to come with me, right now. It’s very important.”
“Have you been plotting against the will of the Makuta?”
Macku took a step back from Nokama, her mouth hanging open. “What… what did you just say?”
It was at that moment that she noticed the Vahki Bordakh standing in the doorway behind Nokama, its Staff of Loyalty sparking at the tips. Realizing what was happening, and knowing that there was nothing she could do about it at this point, Macku turned to run away just as Nokama pointed after her.
“Arrest that traitor!”
From all directions, Bordakh units sprung out from behind the school buildings, moving briskly to converge on Macku. Thinking quickly, she headed for the Protodermis Fountains that spanned the school yards, recalling an entrance to the sewers that she and Hahli would sometimes sneak down into while ditching class years and years ago. Of course, that was well before Turaga Dume implemented his strict labor policies (and the Vahki that were chasing her), so who knew if someone had already done something about that little oversight.
Reaching the fountains, she spotted the grate and ran over to it, pulling on it with all of her might. It didn’t budge and Macku saw that it had been bolted securely into the ground. Cursing to herself, she moved to run a different direction only to be sent flying off her feet by a Kanoka disk launched from one of the Bordakh’s launchers. She landed mask-first onto the ground; she didn’t need to get up to know that the Vahki already had her surrounded.
“All right,” she grumbled, sitting up but keeping her eyes to the ground. “You’ve caught me. Do your worst, you stupid machines.”
The Bordakh units did nothing, remaining still and silent. Macku heard the flapping of wings above her and she looked up to a freakish figure circling over her. As it descended, she was able to make out its bat-like appearance, with blue and black armor covering its warped form. Both its arms and legs ended in sharp points and its claws were curved, looking almost like hooks. The mask it wore on its face was not like any she had seen before; certainly not on any Matoran she knew, nor would she ever associate it with a Toa. That left only one possibility on who the nightmarish newcomer could be.
Landing gracefully within the circle of Vahki, Makuta Vamprah crept over to Macku, red eyes from the slits of his mask. Macku mustered all of her courage to meet his gaze, trying to desperately ignore the fact that her body was shaking. She expected Vamprah to say something; to coax the fear growing inside of her heart; to give her some spiel about how there was no escape for her, no hope, nothing but darkness.
But he did not do any of those things. Instead, he grabbed her with one of his claws and took off into the air, ignoring her screams as he flew further and further from the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment