Thank you for the quote; I remembered reading that the bodies were teleported, but couldn’t find a source for that.
That said, it doesn’t say that some are repaired and others are transferred. Do you have any source on that? I don’t mean to doubt you, of course, just want to be sure.
If not, I can say that Botar and Hydraxon were attempted dissections, and that’s why they’re so messed up. Might have to keep an eye out and see if anything else needs to be edited.
I think there is a distinction, since certain characters are mentioned to have an actual helmet, like Johmak, and Hydraxon can wear Kanohi.
Interesting point. I’d say he’s joined with Ruhko’s little group for survival. He’s not the most sociable of the group, though; he mainly only interacts with Quilha.
Chapter 4
Six months before the arrival of Kopaka and Pohatu…
Delara, Toa of Sonics, was screaming.
He’d had the great misfortune of running into a pair of Dark Hunters, the Skakdi Hakann and Avak. He’d tried to stop them from taking a rare decorative mask, not realizing that they vastly overpowered him.
First, Hakann had struck, a blast from his lava launcher shattering Delara’s mask and blinding him. By instinct, he lashed out with his powers, but Hakann retaliated with his mental blasts, ripping into Delara’s mind.
Then, Avak struck, with his power to make a cage designed specifically for his enemies. The cage amplified any noise to intolerable levels on the inside, devastating for anyone with the level of increased hearing that a Toa of Sound had. Hakann’s continued mental blasts kept him too distracted to use his powers to deaden the sound.
He was still screaming when he died.
Now…
Quilha stood still, frozen in fear.
She’d heard that voice once before, while out running the halls, with her running partner. His voice came from multiple directions, impossible to tell where he was. But he was able to tell where they were.
She didn’t know what had happened to him, but he was more messed up than the worst she’d seen on the star. He caught them at an intersection, and dragged her partner off into the dark, never to be seen again. She’d frozen, standing completely still, as he came back, looking for her. He’d walked past her, so close she was sure he should’ve heard her heartbeat, but he hadn’t seen her. She was still standing for hours after he left; she’d nearly died of fright when Mavrah had called her name, when he came looking for her.
Now, hearing his voice again brought back that came fear. Every sound seemed to be magnified times a thousand. For him, she knew, it was. Could he hear her breathing? Could he hear the noise of the lights, flickering softly? Could he hear her heart beating?
He had to know where they were, or at least have an idea. He’d projected his voice into this room. It was only a matter of time before he found them. There was no way to tell how far away he was. He could be right outside, or several Bio away.
What were the Toa doing? Were they about to do something stupid, and draw him right to them? Slowly, afraid to move to fast, she glanced up at the two Toa.
The Ice Toa was panning his head side to side, as if looking for something. That’s right, Ruhko had said he had a mask of X-Ray vision. Then, slowly, he pointed. He’d located the sound Toa.
Ruhko pointed to a point on one of the maps, and pointed to the Stone Toa’s mask. Pohatu pointed to his weapons, gut Ruhko emphatically shook his head. Wait – what were they planning? Couldn’t they just wait until the Sound Toa moved on? Toa always had to act, to be ‘heroic’.
Pohatu gestured for the Matoran to come close. Ruhko and Mavrah moved to the two Toa, and all four joined hands. But Quilha couldn’t move, still frozen to the spot.
For a few long seconds, the others stared at her expectantly. Then, Mavrah pulled his hand loose from Pohatu’s, and pointed toward the door, looking at the surprised Toa. His message seemed clear: ‘go without us’.
Quilha shook her head. No. She wasn’t going to let the Toa run off toward danger, while she stood here with Mavrah. She stepped forward and grabbed Mavrah’s hand with one hand, Pohatu’s hand with the other.
Suddenly, she felt the power of speed flow through her. The Toa started to run. Caught off guard, she stumbled at first, but Pohatu’s grip kept her on course. She was surprised to be matching their pace; having never seen a Toa Nuva, she hadn’t known that they could share their mask powers with others. For just a moment, the speed was exhilarating, and she forgot her fear.
But then, as they sped through the darkened hallway, they passed the Sound Toa, and she caught a glimpse of him. Eerily, he seemed to be looking right at them, even though there was no way he would have been able to see them even if they weren’t moving at super-speed.
Because behind his mask, he had no eyes.
Across the Star, another being watched the Toa blip from one place to another.
Interesting. So these were not normal Toa. Normal Toa were enough of a problem; these Toa seemed to be even more problematic than normal. Even more prudent that they be contained.
Delara, too, was a problem, had been for a long time. He was too messed up to aid the Kestora, but he kept killing the other people on the Star, and always managed to head the Kestora coming when they tried to capture him. It seemed that the Kestora would have to take action directly, if order was to be maintained.
Yes, the two Toa would be brought down. And then… they would help Makuta maintain order on the Red Star.
The speed had brought the group far from the sound Toa, to another section of the Star, before they finally stopped. There was a door to their right, and the hallway continued onward, but Pohatu needed to talk to Ruhko first.
“So, where exactly are we going?” Pohatu said. “Kopaka and I could have handled one mad Toa.”
“And drawn the Kestora to you in the process,” Ruhko said.
“We could’ve dealt with the Kestora, too,” Pohatu said.
“Yeah, sure,” Quilha said. “That’s what the last Toa that we met said. The Kestora took them all, took every Toa except Soundy back there; not sure why he’s still loose. No, if we’re going to get to the Kestora’s machinery, we need some way of hiding you from the Kestora. I know where we can–”
“There’s a Matoran on the other side of the door,” Kopaka said abruptly. “And he looks wounded.”
Pohatu tried the door, but it didn’t open. “All right, stand back, I’m gonna–”
“There’s a mechanism to unlock it, but it’s on the other side,” Kopaka said.
“Oh,” Pohatu said. “In that case, I’ve got this.”
“I can–” Quilha started to say, but Pohatu disappeared before she could finish. A moment later, he reappeared, lying on the floor on his back. “Ow.”
Kopaka helped him to his feet. “What happened?”
“I’ve… never seen anything like that before,” Pohatu said. “It’s like… as I tried to vibrate through the door, the material changed its own vibrations to stop me. It kicked me out. Hurt, too.”
Quilha didn’t understand what the Toa of Stone was talking about, but she didn’t really care. Pulling out a set of small tools and wires, she began to try and open the lock.
“Where’d you learn that?” Pohatu asked.
“One of the other Ghosts taught me,” she said. “Before he…” she couldn’t bear to finish the sentence, but she still remembered seeing him being dragged off into the dark…
Kopaka frowned. “Wait, I think I recognize the Matoran. He looks…” Kopaka hesitated. “He looks like Turaga Nuju’s description of his mentor, Ihu.”
Author’s notes: Yeah, the walls of this place can block Pohatu. I’m not sure if this makes sense scientifically, but it’s a fun idea, and lets me do some interesting stuff later on.
