BIONICLE: Faux - Part II

PART II

        It might have been because he had spent so much of his life underwater, but Defilak decided that he really did not like the sun.

The heat bore down on him and the other five Matoran that were bound up in the back of the wagon piloted by the Agori known as Sahmad. The orange-clad being looked almost like a Matoran at a glance due to his size, but his ruthless and sadistic nature made him seem more like a Barraki than anything else. He did not utter a single word as he whipped the strange two-headed creatures pulling the cart, and none of the Matoran dared to speak lest they draw his ire towards them.

Defilak looked around the caravan, watching the expressions of his fellow Matoran. Of them, he only really knew Gar, who had been his trusted advisor back in Mahri Nui. Two of the others appeared to be from Voya Nui, given their haphazard appearance; the Ta-Matoran he believed was named Dezalk while the Ko-Matoran was called Tejuto. Finally, the last two seemed to hail from Metru Nui: a Ga-Matoran named Kotu and the Po-Matoran Podu.

It was not lost on Defilak that the number of Matoran abducted as well as the specific selection of elements mirrored the typical lineup of a Toa Team. As their six types were the most common in the Matoran Universe, it was typical that the average Toa Team would have at least one of them as an element. Defilak could only guess what sort of plans Sahmad (or his employer) had for them, but he doubted it could be anything good.

He took in a deep breath and exhaled it in a sigh, wondering how they were going to get out of this. That was when he heard the low rumble of an engine.

He clearly was not the only one who heard it as the other Matoran lifted their heads up as well. “What was that?” asked Dezalk.

Defilak shushed him before looking over his shoulder. There, in the distance, was some sort of wheeled vehicle, likely of Agori design. And it was quickly catching up to the caravan. Very quickly.

Sahmad seemed to notice it as well as he let out a curse before whipping the two Spikits furiously, urging them to go faster. The combined eight legs of the creatures was not enough to accelerate the caravan however as the Thornatus was soon tailing right behind them. In the driver’s seat, Defilak could see a black-armored being that was far too large to be a Toa; in fact, he seemed to barely fit in the vehicle he was driving.

With one hand on the controls, the pilot flung a blade at the back wheels of the caravan. They were immediately taken out and the wagon came crashing to the ground, its Matoran occupants tumbling out. Sahmad fell out of his seat as well and the leashes to the Spikits snapped. Startled, the two creatures did not stop running and abandoned their owner, leaving him lying there in the sand.

The Thornatus screeched to a halt and its pilot stepped out of the vehicle. Without a word, he undid the Matoran’s restraints before walking over to Sahmad, blades and Cordak Blaster at the ready.

“There’s two ways this can go down,” the bounty hunter said. “Your way or my way.”

Sahmad pulled himself up, spitting out sand as he glared up at his assailant. “I know who you are,” the Agori grunted. “Zakron warned me to look out for you.”

“Then I hope he told you about how I captured him twice back in the day,” Hydraxon replied. “Make that three times, now.”

“Actually, he told me that you weren’t who you claimed to be. That the original Hydraxon died a thousand years ago and you’re just a Matoran playing pretend.”

Defilak frowned as he overheard the conversation. He looked up at Hydraxon, wondering if perhaps he really was a Toa after all. But that wouldn’t explain there apparently having been a different being named Hydraxon….

“I’ve heard it all before,” Hydraxon growled. “I’d bet you anything that Zakron got his information from the Barraki, who are a bunch of lying deceivers.”

“Is that right?” Sahmad retorted. “So I take it the name Dekar doesn’t mean anything to you?”

Defilak sucked in his breath at the mention of Dekar’s name. The Po-Matoran had been a dutiful hunter that had lived in Mahri Nui. He had gone missing shortly before the arrival of the Toa Mahri, and pretty much everyone had thought he had been killed by the Barraki. If what the Agori was saying was true….

No. Defilak shook his head. It didn’t make any sense. It was impossible, surely….

As he stared at Hydraxon, he felt Gar lay a hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right?” the Onu-Matoran asked him quietly.

“I’m sure-fine,” Defilak lied. He tried to think of some excuse for his reaction, but nothing came to mind.

He forgot about coming up with one when he saw Hydraxon point a Cordak Blaster at Sahmad.

*  *  *

“Tell me who you’re working for. Now.”

Sahmad laughed humorlessly as he stared down the six-barrels of the Cordak Blaster. “You think you can threaten me with death? You really don’t know anything about me.”

“Don’t need to,” Hydraxon growled. “Now answer the question.”

Sahmad shook his head. “Look, I don’t know how things were in your world—I can tell you’re one of those biomechanical freaks that the Great Beings made to ‘save’ us. But if you’re threatening to kill someone who has lived on Bara Magna for practically half of their life… you’re basically offering to do them a favor.”

Hydraxon narrowed his eye, studying the Agori carefully. He had seen this kind of behavior before; some of the prisoners he had apprehended in the Pit liked to feign not being afraid of death. But he was always able to break through their facade and call their bluff.

Sahmad was different. It wasn’t just because he was mostly organic rather than biomechanical; when Hydraxon stared into his eyes, he could see a hundred millennia’s worth of pain and suffering in them. Whatever this Agori had been through had truly been unlike anything Hydraxon or the prisoners he had faced in the Pit had ever seen or done in their lifetimes.

In a way, it was almost as if Sahmad was begging for him to fire the Cordak Blaster.

Grunting to himself, Hydraxon lowered his weapon and instead reached down to grab Sahmad, hoisting him up in the air. The Agori did not react nor did he try to fight.

“If you won’t talk for me,” Hydraxon muttered, “maybe you will for my friends back in New Atero.”

“Good luck with that,” Sahmad said dryly.

Hydraxon heard the whir of the Rhotuka spinner mere seconds before it struck him in the back. Losing his balance, he dropped Sahmad as he fell face-first into the sand, his senses knocked into disarray.

“About time you showed up,” he heard Sahmad say. “I passed through the rendezvous point five miles back but you weren’t there. I was going to circle back around to wait for you when this guy showed up.”

“Uh huh.” Hydraxon felt a shadow fall over him and he looked over his shoulder to see a tall green-armored being standing over him. In each of their hands was a long blade. “Round up the Matoran. This shouldn’t take long.”

“No, it won’t,” Hydraxon agreed. He pointed his Cordak Blaster at the Dark Hunter and fired. The explosion from the two rockets sent Spinner off his feet, crashing into the sands below. The effects of the Rhotuka spinner having wore off, Hydraxon got back up and glared at Sahmad, who was frozen midstep on his way to capture the six Matoran.

“Dark Hunters, huh? I guess Ackar was right.”

Sahmad scowled at him. “Yeah, well, there’s more of them where that came from.”

As if on cue, a small interdimensional portal opened in front of Hydraxon and a violet and white being lunged out, stabbing at the bounty hunter with a spear. Hydraxon deftly stepped aside, grabbed the spear, and slammed its other end into the Dark Hunter’s abdomen, knocking the wind out of them.

“Teleportation. Cute.”

Wrenching the spear out of Vanisher’s hands, he tossed the weapon aside before moving to apprehend his opponent. Vanisher hastily teleported away only to appear again right behind Hydraxon as he tacked the bounty hunter from behind. Hydraxon dropped himself low, reaching behind his back to grab the Dark Hunter and throw him over his head. Vanisher crashed onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of sand that momentarily obscured Hydraxon’s vision.

In that moment, Spinner had gotten back to his feet and charged towards Hydraxon. The bounty hunter heard him coming and reached for one of his exploding boomerangs, blindly hurling. The bladed weapon spun in their air before finding Spinner and making contact. The resulting explosion cleared away the sand and Spinner was once more on the ground, joining his fellow Dark Hunter in defeat.

Hydraxon waited for a few minutes, to see if any more Dark Hunters would come out of the blue to ambush him. But all was quiet on that front.

Then, he heard the engine of his Thornatus start up.

Whirling around, he saw that amid the confusion and chaos, Sahmad had ignored the Matoran and instead head for Hydraxon’s unattended vehicle. The Agori had already begun driving as Hydraxon broke out into a run, throwing his blades and firing his Cordak Blaster in its direction. In response, Sahmad angled the Thornax Launcher mounted atop the vehicle and fired. The fruit went straight into Hydraxon’s face and exploded, obscuring the bounty hunter’s vision with residue and thorns. 

By the time Hydraxon had wiped his face clean, the Thornatus had peeled off and was now well into the distance, far out of reach.

Hydraxon came to a halt and cursed to himself, resisting the urge to drop down and pound the sand with his fist. It was bad enough to have a quarry escape from him; now he was stranded in the middle of nowhere with six Matoran and two unconscious Dark Hunters.

He really should not have taken this job….

“Dekar?”

The name was unfamiliar—it was supposed to be—yet he turned around at the sound of it regardless. He saw the Le-Matoran from the group standing there, a curious expression on his Kanohi mask.

“What did you say?” Hydraxon growled.

“The Agori… he called you Dekar.” The Le-Matoran frowned. “I knew a Matoran named Dekar. He died around the same time you showed up.”

“A coincidence,” Hydraxon grunted, turning away from him. “Plenty of people die before others show up.”

“Right, like that often happens,” the Matoran muttered. “My name is Defilak, by the way. Does that loud-ring any bells?”

“No.”

Whether Defilak believed him or not, the Le-Matoran did not express it either way. “Well,” he said after a moment, “I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Right.” Hydraxon turned around and walked past Defilak. “We need to find someplace safe to set up camp.”

“Where?” asked the Ta-Matoran, gesturing widely with his arms. “There’s nothing but sand!”

“Then we’d better start walking. We won’t get anywhere by just standing around.” Hydraxon narrowed his eyes as he concentrated, using his hunting senses to retrace his steps. He then pointed west. “New Atero is back that way. Let’s start walking there, though we’ll have to make stops along the way.”

He did not wait to hear any objections or alternative ideas, already making long strides through the desert that forced the six Matoran to hurry to catch up with him.