No matter how many years pass…no matter how many battles are fought, and no matter which side wins…there is an unspoken rule that exists for all eternity…
Never leave loose ends…
An old military adage of the makuta…
(Four days ago)

Irecrax walked through the dark halls his mind filled with one thought, ‘When will that blasted thief get here?’
Almost as if on command a cloaked figure dropped from the ceiling and kneeled before Icrax his voice filled with a mix of respect and fear.
“M-My lord I have stolen the crystal from Artakha.” At that moment the thief held out a beautiful crystal, which shined with an unearthly light.
Irecrax swiftly grabbed it and thought to himself, ‘With this the brotherhood of Makuta will finally rule the universe as is their destiny.’ Then he turned to the thief said, “You do your work well thief. Now for your reward...” As he said this he pointed his palm at the thief.
The thief’s greedy smile quickly turned into a scream of agony as his limbs started disintegrating, his last words were, “But… why?”
Irecrax smiled cruelly and said, “Because I don’t want any loose ends. Did you really think I would share my power with you?” He quickly turned around and walked toward his lab, his mind filled with dark thoughts which blocked out the screams of pain. ‘With this crystal I will create an army of ultimate life forms and then my plans will be realized.’

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…
-Lao-Tzu

(Three days ago)

Lordon opened his eyes and leapt out of bed, grabbing his bow and cloak hanging nearby. As he walked out onto the balcony he saw the captain of the guard, Tanma.
“Hello, Tanma.” he said.
Tanma snapped to attention, “Good morning Sir!” he shouted.
Lordon chuckled and said, “Tanma you don’t need to act like that around me.”
“Well if you say so sir- I mean Lordon. Shall I rouse the guard?”
“Of course,”
Tanma nodded and went down the hall knocking on doors, though nearly blowing them of their hinges and yelling at the Matoran to move their lazy bum would be more precise.
Lordon folded his arms and stared at the sunrise, reflecting on how he came to call this place home. He was born on the island of Stelt, but he would never call that place home, but was quickly made a pariah for his inability to even strike the slaves or weaker classmates out of cruelty or anger. But he was by no means a weakling, he was both stronger and faster then his brother Sidorak. Even though the training sessions usually consisted of Sidorak being given a sword and seeing how long Lordon dodge. And then again there were his… abilities, but after they were revealed Lordon’s father locked him in a cell declaring him a genetic quirk. He escaped and after fleeing that awful place he made his way to this beautiful island which was being raided and ruined by the terrifying Rahkshi. After defending the aboriginal Matoran against an attack he quickly gained the trust of the Matoran living there and later he taught them how to defend themselves using the often-underestimated bow. After driving the Rahkshi off the island he helped them rebuild their villages except this time with walls and a large keep at their capital. But what surprised him is that one day, after they drove off the Rahkshi for good, Tanma came to his house and presented him with a specially power-forged crown and declared him leader of the island Zerix(actually he didn’t have enough heart to say no). To his satisfaction he had been a fair and just ruler to this day.
Lordon sighed and looked from the balcony to see the early-bird Matoran practicing their archery; he now regarded them more like the large, friendly family he never had (but always dreamed of) rather then loyal subjects. Then he noticed a younger Matoran messing around with a bow, presumably his fathers. Lordon smiled for a bit but then that smile turned to a look of alarm the Matoran had shot an arrow into the sky, imagining some airborne foe no doubt. If his calculations were right (they usually were) the arrow would soar into the air hit another young Matoran playing in the courtyard! Almost without thinking Lordon stretched his arm and the arrow slowed down, and then stopped completely The Matoran who had shot the arrow’s jaw dropped and he immediately started attempting to apologize while stuttering.
“S-S-Sir I-I’m s-s-so sorry I had no...” Lordon stopped him by holding up a hand.
“It’s fine you didn’t know any better but more importantly no one was hurt.” The relived Matoran nodded in agreement.
Lordon turned to the younger Matoran and said, “Now why don’t you go play somewhere else okay? We’re practicing” The younger Matoran smiled, nodded and walked off. “As for you,” he said turning to the Matoran who had shot the arrow, “Be more careful and return that bow to your father.”
The Matoran nodded gratefully and ran off to apologize to the young Matoran.
Lordon chuckled to himself, his job wasn’t all boring politics and pompous fools, contrary to popular belief, after considering this for a moment he called out to his best friend, “Tanma, keep them training. I’m going out for a run.”
Tanma nodded and resumed coordinating the training efforts. Lordon jogged out the main gate and ran until he reached the beach as per his usual route. But there Lordon saw a tall, dark figure in a tattered red cloak wearing a mask that would mean night vision on a toa, but Lordon doubted that was the case. So knocking an arrow to his bow he called out, “In the name of the kingdom of Zerix what is your business here?”
The dark figure looked up and said, “I want you king of Zerix to come with me; you see, we need you so dearly for our experiment, so this may hurt.”
Lordon barely dodged the crimson lightning that came out of the figures fingertips and let loose his arrow, unfortunately the figure was able teleport and did so.
“Before I shoot you to pieces so small you couldn’t feed a Protodite with them, tell me, why me”?
Irecrax (you probably guessed it was him by now) laughed and said “Because I would kill two Gukko with one stone, one I had get rid of you sometime, partially because you gave Matoran hope, something I had to stop. Two this island will make a great base because it is easily defended, and has a lot of natural resources, of course, the Matoran would not yield, even without you, ah well, sacrifices must be made”. Irecrax said this in a causal way, like it happened every day.
Irecrax recoiled, he was hit by what felt like his mind being ripped open, stabbed with a hot poker, then healed then stabbed again.
‘Never, ever, threaten my friends’ Irecrax heard Lordon’s nitrogen laced voice in his mind and felt like his head was going to implode. ‘I already had telepathy, mental blasts, mind reading, and immunity to mental effects but this crown amplifies it and I will do everything in my power to bring you down.’ (That was why he was a pariah besides his pacifist nature; his race considered the mental arts a waste of time) Irecrax got up, slowly. Lordon had only stopped because of the things he saw in Irecrax’s mind. Lordon paused and then donned a determined look and notched another arrow to his bow.
“I will not let you do this.” and at those simple words the fight began in earnest. Lordon fired barrage after barrage of arrows, all customized and let loose searing mental blasts, but Irecrax kept dodging in the most extreme ways.
He had shot a net arrow but he teleported out of it, he shot a flameburst arrow but used heat resistance to nullify it and he wouldn’t stop teleporting long enough to be hit by a mental blast. ‘Blast it’ Lordon thought as he pulled out his last arrow and aimed it at the somewhat bruised Irecrax (not even he could dodge all of them) ‘even if he was a makuta I didn’t think it would come to this.’
You see several years ago, some wounded Toa, who had just finished a mission came to Lordon’s island, cold, hungry, some sick and wounded, but he and the Matoran took them in and treated their wounds and healed their sicknesses. So to show their gratitude the toa team but a bit of their power into a few of his arrow’s creating his last resort: the protodermis arrow.
“Just try to dodge this!” Lordon muttered as 6 multicolored beams shot out of the arrow flew forward all aiming at Icrax.
Irecrax simply laughed his infernal laugh again and teleported out of the way, “Did you really think that could stop me?”
“Yes.” said Lordon with more venom in his voice than an entire horde of Visorak.
Irecrax spun around as he heard a whizzing sound just in time to be hit by all six arrows and he screamed as he felt ice, fire, air, stone, earth, and water hit him with their respectful powers.
Lordon expected to see Irecrax stuck in Protodermis but he gaped as he saw that Irecrax, badly hurt but in one piece standing there. ‘It must have been his limited invulnerability power.’ he thought in horror.
Irecrax, eyes blazing with hate, power, and more than a slight touch of madness walked toward Lordon saying “I am Irecrax, and I cannot be defeated by a weak idiot like you!” He suddenly stretched forward using his elasticity power, while focused his chain lightning power into his fist, and that’s the last thing Lordon saw before he blacked out.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Irecrax looked at the limp form of Lordon and thought
‘I can’t believe that a member of such a pathetic race such as the Steltians could give me so much trouble, but it will be worth it in the end.’ Irecrax grabbed Lordon and teleported back to his base, bringing the unconscious king with him.
……………………………………………………………………………………………....

(present day)

Irecrax slowly got up from lying facedown on his desk; he had fallen asleep like that last night, working out the possible kinks in his project. His first thought of the day came to him ‘Well enough rest, I have to get on this, after all, the universe isn’t going to conquer itself.’ he quickly walked over to his lab, purposely avoiding Chirox. When he finally arrived (it was a large base) he stepped up to his creation tank and pondered on his first move, it was almost like a game of chess, do the wrong thing, get the wrong result. “Hmm…” he pondered aloud “should I add rahi DNA or Visorak venom?… Well I might as well start with this.” he said, and dropped the crystal the thief had delivered into the vat. Throughout the day Irecrax worked, failing numerous times but finally as the sun rose in the afternoon sky Irecrax made a discovery, Kikanalo DNA synchronized perfectly with the crystal. As he inserted a piece of Kikanalo DNA along with genes that would make it stronger, faster, smarter, and give him more information about the universe along with several fighting styles along with how to use killing intent, along with numerous other things. His work was rewarded almost instantly. A bone-like structure burst forth and grew around the crystal, followed quickly by muscles and the metallic skin. Until finally, minutes later there was a titan floating in the tank, he was more than twice Irecrax’s size and he practically radiated strength. Icrax quickly walked over to a lever, grinning like a Matoran on naming day and pulled it, the tank started draining and creature opened its eyes for the first time and with his first motion, a simple touching of the glass of which he was encased, shattered it. Irecrax was already picturing his conquest but he subdued his excitement and remembered to give it weapons. “You are unit double k” he said to the creature. The creature had a somewhat angular face, and was fourteen feet tall with black protodermis skin, but the most disturbing feature that it had was an almost two foot long horn in the middle of its face. But even without armor and weapons it still looked like it could wreck half of a metru, not to mention the long, powerful looking tail. Irecrax snapped his fingers and a rack of weaponry came up. “Chose.” said Irecrax. To his delight it hefted a spear with one hand that would usually take two Rahkshi to lift, and with the other hand he lifted a gun that would more likely be on a turret. ”Now step into the armoring chamber” the creature nodded and walked, slightly uneasy on its feet but swiftly adapting, into a large room. A computer scanned him for a while then robotic arms came out of the walls and put plates on the creature. Irecrax’s visions of glory, conquest and ambition came back even more vivid than before after Irecrax’s creation walked out, now more easy on its feet.
“Now” Irecrax said while snapping his fingers, the floor opened up and Lordon bound in chains rose up battered, bruised, and obviously tortured, yet his eyes still glowed with defiance and hatred at his captor and with curiosity at the new entity. “I want you to kill him in the most gruesome way possible”.
Lordon’s face blanched but his eyes remained defiant.
The creature was young but Irecrax had made him mature, he understood that this was an order from a commanding officer and although he didn’t like the order he also understood that this was his creator talking. The creature hefted its spear and swung it, the cut was a quarter of an inch long but it was deep and creature watched as blood sprayed from the wound.
No.
A quarter of an inch was how faraway it was, because at the last second, an odd crosshair appeared in his vision, it targeted Lordon and information was sent to his brain, it appeared to only have good things to say of him.

Like I said before he was young but mature.
Irecrax’s creature looked down at him, and said slowly in a surprisingly soft yet deep voice, “No”
Icrax screamed at him voice full of rage and slight confusion “No? What do you mean no?! Don’t forget I am your master and I control your destiny, now do it or face the consequences!”
The creature shook its head no saying, “I am a sentient being too, artificial or not and no one, be it Matoran, toa, or Makuta decides destiny”.
Irecrax shrugged menacingly calm and said, “Fine, looks like its back to the old drawing board… but that’s after I PICK THE CRYSTAL FROM YOUR CORPSE!” At those words black lightning flew from Irecrax’s palm and sped towards its target, but the creature stood through it all, showing only slight pain.
The creature looked down at Irecrax and said, “My turn” and with that he swung his spear again simultaneously freeing Lordon who grabbed his bow and crown (both were on the aforementioned weapon rack) and knocked Irecrax through three walls and into his courtyard.
Irecrax got up, shook his head and shouted, “All Rahkshi and Exo-toa destroy Lordon and unit double k”! 30 Rahkshi and 10 Exo-toa ran into the hole in the wall. After numerous slashing, twanging, and blasting sounds there was an ominous silence until a Rahkshi head plate flew through the hole in the wall landing at his feet. Irecrax felt something his kind had never felt before: fear but at the same time he felt strangely proud that his experiment was a roaring success. ‘He is much stronger than I could ever imagine, I may not survive this.’ a second later the creature burst through the wall with an unconscious Lordon slung over his shoulder. Setting Lordon down gently, he walked purposefully toward Irecrax of the brotherhood, a terrifying cold fire in his eyes.
“This is because you tried to kill me.” With that he picked up Irecrax and threw him making a matching hole in the wall. On the other side Irecrax had slammed into Chirox who, in surprise dropped the contents of his experiment on the sudden visitor and that’s all Irecrax remembered before he blacked out. Meanwhile outside the creature, not knowing Irecrax was out cold, roared and proceeded to rip, tear, blast, and basically destroy half of Irecrax’s fort, it was a small wonder that Chirox was able to avoid him before he picked up Lordon and ran off with as much haste as he could muster.

3 hours later

Irecrax finally woke up to seeing Chirox, Teridax, and Miserix looking down on him, but that wasn’t what startled him. It was the feeling of ...power he felt powerful but he would wonder about that later because Miserix was speaking.

“Well Irecrax what happened? What could be powerful enough to scrap 30 Rahkshi, 10 Exo-toa, destroy half of your fortress, and make a fool out of you?”
Irecrax told his own version of the story about how the second he made “unit double k” it went on a rampage and how Irecrax tried to stop him but he was far too powerful and swatted him aside.

Chirox laughed cruelly at this and said “you think we will buy that pack of lies? We have security cameras! We know about Lordon!”

Miserix nodded in agreement at this and said angrily “You make something you cannot control, then it destroys half your fortress and then you lie to me, your father will be turning in his grave at this but, Irecrax you are hereby exiled from the brotherhood of makuta.”

Irecrax seethed with anger and he lashed out at Miserix with the strange power rushing through him, screaming, “I practically made this brotherhood what it is today! You cannot exile me! I am Irecrax! Soon to be master of the universe, experiment or no experiment!”

Miserix, even when working with Chirox and Teridax was barely holding Irecrax off. ‘This isn’t Irecrax’ thought Teridax holding off a flurry of blows ‘he’s much too powerful, too fast, and too strong.’
“Chirox! What in Mata nui’s name did you spill on Irecrax?!” shouted Miserix
Chirox ducked as a kick flew over his head “It was a new type of power serum, it was supposed to increase your power fivefold or more.”
“Well it worked.” snorted Teridax
Chirox couldn’t help but swell with pride as his experiment was a complete success, but then the gears started turning in Chirox’s head ‘Irecrax is going to kill Teridax and Miserix what should I do? Should I do the smart thing and help Irecrax or should I do the honorable thing and go down with them?” When said like that it took approximately one half of a second to decide what to do. Chirox turned toward Miserix and blasted the surprised leader with chain lightning.
Miserix roared in pain and shouted “so you’re a traitor to, eh? I’ll have your mask on a spear for your treach-. “Alas that was all he got out as Irecrax shot out his shadow hand which grabbed Miserix but instead of absorbing him like a regular shadow hand would. It started draining his energy until there was just empty amour in the place where a proud and noble Makuta once stood.
‘So Chirox sides with me and I kill Miserix, only one makuta left to take care of.’ Irecrax thought as he turned to Teridax (who was in shock at his leader’s sudden and anticlimactic death) and grabbed his arm saying, “In the name of my new empire DIE!” at those words he activated his fragmentation power and watched Teridax explode with grim satisfaction. The only thing that was left of him was his mask of shadows which Irecrax proceeded to put on. Unfazed by the fact that he just took two lives he turned to Chirox. “Do you join the fools in death or do you acknowledge your new master?”
Chirox smiled and said “I say long live Irecrax.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………..

(Meanwhile)


Lordon recovered five minutes after he was knocked out and had been running since. He put his hands on his knees and started panting. “I think we are at a safe distance to stop.”

The creature nodded and said in the same soft, and powerful, though less slow voice, “Are you… alright?”
“Yes but I owe you my life” Lordon paused for a minute. “Even though you look like a beast you fight, and act like a true king my friend.”
Creature paused for a moment and said “then I am… your friend?” he said trying out the word on his tongue.
Noticing his discomfort Lordon decided to inquire “Yes, but are you well? You look a little confused.”
“The word is in my memory banks, but I am unfamiliar with the concept.”
Lordon thought for a few seconds and replied “a friend can have many levels, the lowest is are aquatinces, people who you know on a first name basis, the next level are people who you know a little about and would invite for events like a party, the last level are people who you would give your life for.
“Why?”
“Because they are good people.”
“Good… I read about your profile, and I felt as if I should spare you, because you had many subjects who looked up to you. Why is that?”
“My guess is that you are a good person, a good person wouldn’t kill an innocent man.”
“Is that why your subjects look up to you? Because you are a good person?
“Basically yes.”
“So if I do good things, people will look up to me and I will have friends?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will be a good person” after this he looked thoughtful for a few seconds “I will take the name Cedrak, it means “friend” in the old language.”
At those words the wind rushed by, as if someone or something approved of him.
“Well enough rest” said Lordon, getting up “the nearest port by my knowledge is Darvan, a three days journey from here, there we can get a ship to my kingdom and be on our way.” They got up, and set off on their journey to Darvan.
But Cedrak was not thinking thoughts of ships and ports and sea air like Lordon ‘less then a day into this world and there is an attempt on my life, so what will guarantee that my first and only friend will be safe if I stay with him?’
……………………………………………………………………........................................

(Darvan)


“Well we’re here” said Lordon overlooking the busy crowd of assorted beings “the port city Darvan, a haven to rouges and pickpockets everywhere, follow my lead, don’t make eye contact, and stay away from the spice vendors” It would be an understatement to say they attracted a lot of attention as they heard things like.

“Is that the lord of Zerix walking with that monstrosity?” and
“Who’s the horned freak?” along with the occasional cry of
“Hordika! Run!” Overall it was bad until finally things went overboard.

“You!” Cedrak stopped and the slightly obnoxious voice continued. “Yes you with the horn, you are under arrest for vandalism and murder!” Cedrak turned around and saw a tall black and yellow toa wielding twin cutlasses approach him.

Lordon was shocked at first but he regained his composure and glared at the toa walking toward them as he spoke. “That is obviously false, murder?! Even the notion is ridiculous and I’ve known him all his life (blatantly ignoring the fact that Cedrak was only a few days old) and he has been proven both fair and virtuous!” Lordon was screaming in toa’s face by the time he was done.

When the toa regained his senses he said producing a wanted poster as he read aloud. “Renegade creature wanted by brotherhood of makuta for murder of Teridax and Miserix and vandalizing a brotherhood fort. I don’t think there are many creatures that like your friend and he’s got a seven million widget bounty on him!” by the time he was done, several assorted beings were griping their weapons and staring at Cedrak with a greedy look in their eyes.
The mutant may have been mature in many aspects but there were many things in which he was immature, how acceptance worked was one of them.

Kikanalo king felt for the first time the emotion known as sorrow along with a tinge of confusion and thought ‘is this my destiny? To be attacked and confronted wherever I go? Logic dictates that Lordon would be attacked and confronted as well, I do not wish for Lordon to be hurt.’ then he noticed a tablet, and with that in mind he picked it up he carved the following message.


My friend Lordon I am sorry but I cannot go with you to Zerix. It is likely I will be chased there as well, with a bounty like that, and even if things do go well I am currently outside the law and many may be tracking me so go ahead and go to Zerix. I will be trying to disappear. If I have nowhere else to go or if the brotherhood stops tracking me I will come to Zerix. Sorry it had to be like this and I wish I could have met your friends: your friend Cedrak.


He handed the tablet to a Matoran who said he would give to Lordon when he was done arguing with the toa. So Cedrak revved up his skates and set off to hopefully one day find acceptance.

(With Lordon ten minutes of arguing later)


Lordon, having won the argument with the toa and getting a ship turned to speak with his friend only to find that Cedrak was not there.

“Excuse me sir, are you by any chance Lordon?” said a Matoran, Lordon nodded the affirmative “your friend told me to give this to you.”

Lordon looked at the tablet and felt his heart sink at the words written on it. After searching the harbor for hours he found no sign of his friend he sat down with a sigh and thought. ‘Why did it have to be like this my friend?’ He gave the Matoran a ticket to Zerix he told him to give it to his “friend” if he ever came back. And so Lordon boarded his ship and as it left he looked up at the full moon wondering if he would ever see his friend again.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Later that morning in the harbor)

Cedrak woke up from his makeshift camp outside the city wall; he got up, stretched his arms and thought on his next move. ‘Well I have to stay away from the better side of Darvan or that toa might try something brash. Logically I would have get a ship away from this, so what to do.” His idea was simple: sneak around Darvan, get to the seedy part, and board a ship to somewhere he could hide without being found, as a dockhand. He was, surprisingly, extremely agile for his bulk though after sneaking past five toa he made it to the seedy area and started asking a Matoran working there a few questions. “What’s the best place to disappear?”

The Matoran never looked up from the knot he was tying. “Aye, I suppose Xia would be the best place, providing you don’t mind dealing with them shady Vortixx.”

Cedrak thought on what he knew about the Vortixx. ‘Vortixx are willing to make a deal with anyone about anything and are known for making weapons. On Xia there is no vegetation due to heavy industry and the sky is black with the smoke from their factories. They once blew up an island to test a weapon and even though no one inhabited it, many rare Rahi and flora died out, earning them the distaste of the brotherhood.’ “Thanks for answering my question” and he ran off before the Matoran could answer, to find a ship. Shortly afterwards he found a ship heading for Xia and joined as a dockhand.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Xia)


Later when Cedrak reached Xia he imminently started up a conversation the first Vortixx he saw. “Excuse me do you know who is in charge here?”

The Vortixx turned around and said “now listen if the weapon is broke…” his jaw dropped at the sight of the Cedrak. He was silent for a full minute before he said with a shaky voice. “If there’s anything you want… go see Pridak okay.” Then the Vortixx ran off.

After rolling around and getting lost five different times he finally got to Pridak’s fortress. Without getting much resistance from the guards, he walked inside.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Meanwhile in Pridak’s throne room)


Pridak sat in his throne room a strange bird like Matoran walked up to him and bowed. “Yes telepath you may speak” said Pridak.

“Well my lord I have heard the thoughts of an extremely powerful individual. It appears he wants to “disappear”, but he is very young Pridak you could shape him to your will, he would be your greatest general.”

“What is his personality telepath?”

The telepath smiled inwardly “he is extremely greedy and gullible I suggest you tell him your plan before anything else.” At that moment a faint thudding sounded, it began getting louder and louder until the Cedrak stepped into view.

Pridak, visibly unfazed got up and started walking towards the causeway saying “I already know why you’re here so let’s talk.”
After Cedrak and Pridak left the telepath looked around for a few minutes and after making sure no one was there he pulled a lever behind a tapestry. A floor panel dropped out from under him he fell for a couple minutes… and landed on his mask. Telepath grumbled and moved a mattress over to where he fell. The room he was in was small it only had a computer and a tunnel leading back to the surface of Xia. The telepath ran over the computer and typed the following message.

Helryx I have almost guaranteed that Pridak’s plan will fall apart (Then he proceeded to type about Cedrak but we’ll skip that part). I request that my next assignment be that I monitor the strange mutant, he could be potential threat or a potential ally.

Helryx’s reply was almost immediate.

Request denied just tell redirect him to the southern islands eventually he’ll run into Axonn, but if he survives Axonn you may monitor him, but report the outcome first, as protocol.

The telepath shuddered at his memories of Axonn, last he had saw him he had been charging into battle axe raised over his head laughing like he was on a thrill ride instead of in the middle of a battle. He felt sorry for the guy but he wasn’t about to contradict the orders of Helryx. He quickly shut off the computer and ran off to continue his duty.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(On Zerix)


Lordon jumped off the boat and was almost immediately swarmed by a hundred Matoran all asking questions.

“You’re back! Where did you go?” shouted one.

“You’ve got scratches all over were you in fight with a Muaka?” said another.

“Out of the way! I’ve got to see Lordon, I’m responsible for his safety after all.”
Lordon heard the voice and smiled, Tanma could be pushy at times but he trusted him with his life. Tanma ran towards him waving his arms above his head.
“WHERE THE KARZAHNI HAVE YOU BEEN?!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. After calming down a bit he began to speak normally “There was nearly a riot when you went missing, everyone wanted to go out and look for you, it was every thing I could do just to keep them calm!”
Having enough of the chaos Lordon leapt onto a platform (used for the rare town meetings), put two fingers in his mouth, and whistled loud enough to wake the dead. When the noise stopped he started to speak
“I know you have a lot of questions but I’ll explain it all tonight in the mess hall.” And without saying anymore he headed to his castle.
…………………………………………………………………………………………........

(Back on Xia)

“So let me get this straight.” Cedrak started “You want me to lead your army against the Great Spirit Mata nui so that you take over the universe?”

“A bit cliché and simplified, I know, but precisely.” said Pridak casually.

“Well it’s a very interesting offer…” Cedrak then pictured Lordon, battered, bruised and almost dead, but still standing defiantly against Pridak’s army. At that Cedrak hefted his spear and donned a determined look. “But I can’t let you do this.”

Pridak was unfazed by this threat “I don’t know what the telepath saw in you but you have that doomed-do-gooder stench, and on that note SECURITY SYSTEM ACTIVATE!!!” several cannons came down from panels in the ceiling and blasted the unfortunate Cedrak, knocking him through the wall. And without checking to see if the artificial being was alive Pridak started walking away for another meeting until he felt a hand clasp around his throat.

“Miss me?”

“Impossible! Those were-“

Some crosshairs came over the Cedrak’s eye and he finished for him “A-rank cordak rifles.” The same crosshairs moved to examine Pridak “I’ll give you a fighting chance but I’ll warn you your power is no mach for mine.” And with that he dropped Pridak who immediately gripped his sword and lunged for his opponent, howling a battle cry.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."
- Muhammad Ali

(Destral at the same time)

‘I did it father’ Irecrax thought. He was sitting at a rather large chess board with pieces representing places, people and islands. ‘I finally have control of the brotherhood’ in reality it hadn’t taken much with Chirox vouching for him, some makuta angry at Miserix’s death, and others didn’t care as long as they got to fight. ‘So now’ he thought as he moved some pieces ‘the blasted mutant moves to Xia and Lordon goes home, the fools I know their every move’. He picked up the Kikanalo figure and said aloud “by making a fool of me you have sealed your own fate.” And the figure shattered into many pieces, he couldn’t wait until the real deal. ‘But revenge later I have to make an announcement.’ He pressed a button on his desk and over the intercom said. “May all makuta report to the grand hall for a meeting.” With that he swiftly got up and teleported to the grand hall to see the makuta assembled curious about what their new leader was going to say. “You are all wondering why I called you here, well I intend institute a program of training to-” that was all he got out before the shout of Bitil’s obnoxious voice drowned him out.

“We don’t need training, we are makuta, and we are superior to all, we-” and that was all he got out before finding Irecrax’s heel planted in his mask. Irecrax quickly teleported back to the stand, clearly irritated and shouted.

“That attitude was what got Teridax and Miserix killed the only way to kill what killed them is by training to get stronger than it, and as I was saying we will also be trying to form kaita. But before anyone says something stupid we have heard reports of Matoran, Turaga, and toa doing it and the massive power increase that comes with it, now shut up and meet me in the training room!” and with that he stormed off. With all the makuta all staring at the crater Bitil was in.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Xia)

‘This’: Cedrak decided ‘is pain’ he had burn marks, (lasers) numerous cuts, (Pridak is pretty good with a sword) and numerous knifes sticking out of him at odd angles, (there were a few brave-then-now-broken Vortixx). But it was worth it, he had stopped Pridak’s plan and was leaving with this condition “if you try anything like this again I WILL hunt you down and I will not be so merciful.” And it was pretty effective since Pridak was starring down the barrel of his gun. But he felt something else besides pain, like he was being cheered in front of many ‘it’s hard to tell what this emotion is, it’s either pride or satisfaction’ after a while he decided that he would dwell on it later. But then his “crosshairs” built into his eyes picked up something. He walked/rolled causally for a while but suddenly veered behind a wall. Pridak’s advisor came out looking confused. Cedrak’s arm quickly shot out and grabbed the Matoran-bird.

“You want to know why I was following you right?” Said the Matoran-bird, stating more than asking

“Yes. Why were you?”

“That’s not important right now but I want to give you this.” He held out a tablet
“It’s a ticket, from a friend” he explained “to the southern isles no one will find you there.”

“Why are doing this?”

“That’s not important either.” Said the odd creature, grinning.
Cedrak, decided not to look a gift Muaka in the mouth he set the telepath down and after thanking him, departed for the docks.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Zerix)

“…and that’s what happened” finished Lordon the room was silent for a while but Gadjati, the resident carver went out and a few minutes later came back with a sign that clearly said. NO BROTHERHOOD ALLOWED
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(South isles a few days later)

Cedrak looked around and saw only destruction, houses were torn apart, stones that stood for years toppled in an instant, and the smell of decay filled the air. But suddenly he heard a groan coming from the ruble. Quickly he made his toward the ruble and threw off a portion of wall off from the source only to find the toa that tried to arrest him but a few days earlier!

“Why are you here?” said the bruised toa

“I could ask you the same thing.” Said Cedrak
The toa too tired and beaten to care that he was talking to a “criminal” answered “we were sent to stop Axonn from conquering this city but he overpowered us easily he left me alive to “spread his reputation”.

“And your team”

“Dead”
Cedrak was shocked to hear the shear hopelessness in his voice. But that shock quickly turned into righteous determination.

“What is your name?”

“Veson”
“Well Veson which way did he go?”

“What?”

“Which way did he go?”

“West but you’re not going to try to-“

“I am”

“But what of me? I can’t go back to Darvan I will be ostracized for living when they didn’t, and punished for letting my team die, maybe even stripped of my duties.” He said it like it was worse than death.
Cedrak thought on this for a moment and after quickly writing a note on a slab of stone handed it to the toa.

“Go to Zerix, I want you to give this to the ruler there, he should welcome you”

“But I just tried to arrest you a few days ago why help me?”

“No one, and I mean no one should be able to get away with anything like this.”
And with those words he sped off, ready to deal with this Axonn leaving the toa dumbfounded and wondering if he had made a mistake back in Darvan.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

– James Baldwin

(Later on the same island)

It didn’t take long to find Axonn as he was the only other major power on the island. When he did find him he was sharpening his large axe on a rock with his back turned to him. Without looking at him Axonn started speaking.

“Let me guess I killed a relative, destroyed your town, or both?” He spoke with a powerful yet somewhat sad voice.

“Neither, I have come to make you pay for all the innocent you have slain.”

Axonn looked at him and seemed surprised by his appearance for only for a second. “So you are an avenger then”?
Not knowing what to say to this Cedrak only nodded.

“I used to be like you” Axonn seemed distant “always throwing myself into impossible battles saving people I didn’t know …ahh those were the days.” Axonn got up and hefted his ax “but that will not save you! Now PREPARE YOURSELF!” and with that two titans hurled themselves into battle.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

The telepath was crouched behind a rock trembling, he was regretting coming to this island ‘I’ve never seen Axonn fight so hard and what’s worse the stranger seems to be wining!’
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Axonn went for a low slice but Cedrak leapt into the air and pinned his ax to the ground. Axonn countered by forming and throwing a magma ball which Cedrak dodged and launched a kick. But Axonn used the momentum to pull his ax free both leaped backwards trying to anticipate their opponent’s next move. Cedrak broke the stalemate first and charged at Axonn, for the first time he felt adrenaline in his veins and he welcomed it, savoring the feeling of a true fight. He was not alone in his enjoyment for Axonn had found not found such a worthy foe since his days in the hand. Axonn jumped away from him only to be caught in the face by Cedrak’s tail. Cedrak capitalized on the momentary weakness and spun about on a dime to punch Axonn in the gut, knocking the wind from him. Axonn before the following spear could make contact fired a Magma ball at the ground, creating a flash the blinded them both, giving Axonn time to retreat.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

The telepath, still behind his rock considered his options; he could wait till the fight was over and try to recruit one or both of them but then again he could be killed by mistake by say, a stray lava ball, at this level of fighting such casualties became common. ‘Okay, but not much’ or he could find the nearest base and report this to Helryx and most certainly live ‘yes that’s the best option’ and he quickly ran off to report. He was no coward but he wouldn’t be very useful to Helryx if he died for such a stupid reason.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Axonn quickly did a roundabout and axe head met spear shaft. Axonn quickly broke the deadlock and brought up a roundhouse kick which the Kikanalo king caught with his tail and used the opportunity to throw Axonn who quickly threw his axe to buy time for recovery. Cedrak dodged the axe and sped forward barely managing to get Axonn into a headlock.

“Why?”

“Why what?” muttered Axonn struggling to break out of the iron grip.

“You said you were like me, why waste your powers on petty conquest like this? I can tell you have done so much more.”

Axonn did not answer the question but instead flipped Cedrak over his head and caught his axe as it returned to him.
Cedrak recovered quickly and rushed forward and went for a low slice but Axonn leaped into the air and landed on Cedrak’s spear head.
“This seems familiar doesn’t it” muttered Axonn “except you can’t shoot magma.” He said as he gathered up for another magma ball.
“No but I can do this” with that he raised his gun with his free hand and shot, accidentally hitting the magma ball. Then the ball started shaking violently until it glowed white. “Blast” both muttered in mortification.
The explosion could be seen from the other side of the island.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

“That was close” muttered the telepath who was gripping at a few burnt feathers, he had barely managed to get out of the way in time and even then that had hurt. The report would have to wait, he had to see if they were alive and figure out what they (if they lived that is) were going to do next.
……………………………………………………………………………………………....

(Several hours later)

Cedrak slowly opened his eyes and saw the devastated land around him, he got up slowly, ignoring the screaming pain of his organic parts and the protesting grinding of his mechanical parts. His eyes scanned the horizon looking for any signs of life, suddenly his crosshairs picked up a life form underneath a pile of rocks. He quickly aimed his dented blaster and fired only to hear a fizzle. He cursed his bad luck and threw the blaster away and moved in, ignoring his bleeding fingers, and started tearing at the rubble until a horrendous sight greeted his eyes. It was Axonn the strange, yet noble warrior laying on the ground utterly helpless he was covered from mask to toe in gashes, welts, and burns. Obviously he had taken the brunt of the blast, and it was equally obvious that he needed medical attention. He looked down and saw his own wounds he had a large gash in his shoulder and was covered in energy burns. Then it came to him ‘energy’ he looked down at his hands he could feel the energy coursing through his veins moving to close wounds and mend parts. He had so much but maybe he could use it for something else? Still very unskilled at energy manipulation, he clumsily started focusing energy into his wounds. And slowly, ever so slowly they started closing up. By the time he was halfway through he felt as though he had been hit by a Kane-ra bull, then the bull called his friends and then they played Kohli with his head for the ball. For a minute he considered healing Axonn, after all just a few hours ago they were trying to kill each other and he had killed and had plundered those towns. But for a brief, decisive moment he did not see him as Axonn the tyrant and killer, he saw him as Axonn the honorable warrior, and with that his mind was made up. Doing his best to ignore the exhaustion he started poring energy into Axonn’s wounds by the time he was done Axonn was still injured but he would live, feeling the emotion of satisfaction once more Cedrak dropped to his knees and unconsciousness greeted him on the way down.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Axonn’s eyes opened slowly but just fast enough to see his adversary drop. His old warrior instincts kicking in he hefted his axe to smite him, but then he realized something. ‘I can move.’ Axonn was by no means a genius but he knew that he should be dead or dying from the amount of raw energy that hit him. ‘That leaves two possibilities: one I am extremely lucky, which I seriously doubt due to the course my life has taken or two that he healed me.’ He looked at the mutant’s limp form, his axe poised to strike and thought on that possibility for a few seconds. With a grunt he shouldered his axe ‘well stranger things have happened.’ Slowly standing up he hefted his power forged axe and hurled it at the ground blowing a cave into it. Slinging the unconscious form of Cedrak over his back he slowly walked into the cave.

'Hatred…is like a ravenous snake that chases its own tail, it captures it and feasts heartily…unaware that it is consuming itself in the process. Or like a deadly disease that gives strength…but also consumes the body within.'
Hatred gives power…but demands a very high price…never give into your hatred and let it rule you for the rest of your life…for along the way… you may very well become the very thing you hate.
- The words of a priest administering aid to his people…
(Destral)

Irecrax was once again at his board ‘Axonn has been framed and the Visorak depart to another island and t-‘. But his thoughts were cut off as the monster’s piece vanished along with Axonn’s “What the Karzahni!” Irecrax quickly went back to thinking his formidable mind racing to come up with explanation. ‘the board contains locations people and places, pieces being removed means one of three things one the person is dead, two active dismissal on my part or three a third party has removed him from the line of sight and if one dies it falls not evaporates.’ Obviously since he didn’t dismiss it had to be one conclusion: there was an unknown player. Irecrax placed his hand on his chin ‘this game just got more interesting.’ With that thought lingering in his mind, Irecrax decided, with a devilish grin on his face, that it was time for another training session.

To bad he didn’t know that the piece disappears when the person goes underground.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Destral- training hall (AKA the hellhole)

Irecrax dodged another slash with frustrating ease (both for him and his opponent) and countered with a kick sending Vamprah flying backwards, the smell of ozone filed his nostrils and he leapt to the left as several makuta attempted to blast him with chain lightning. Irecrax cackled madly through the pain and shouted “you call that lightning? I’ll show you lightning!” His palms crackled with energy and the now-infamous crimson lightning soared through the air, at first clashing with but slowly overpowering his foes lighting and with one final push, Irecrax blasted his opponents into unconsciousness’s welcoming arms… or so he thought. As the dust cleared he saw one, out of the seven that attacked him one. “You’re doing better then I thought you would have Solis”. The tired makuta nodded in response, then took up a thoughtful look.
“Since we are the only makuta conscious at the moment may I ask you a question?” Solis took the silence as a sign to continue. “Why are we doing this? I understand the value of training, but are you sure that we are doing all we could have been doing? All we have done so far is keep tabs on this “Unit double K” and alerted Darvan shouldn’t we tell the council or at least tell Takanuva and his toa?”
Irecrax walked forward, smiled, and put his hand and Solis’s shoulder “Do not worry Solis I assure you that I am doing everything in my power to hunt down your father’s murderer, Miserix will be avenged.” Later that night Solis realized why that didn’t comfort him. Because the smile of Irecrax was akin to the smile of a predator.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Destral- Irecrax’s office

Irecrax stared at the reports of the various makuta working under him and considered the combat potential of each, all makuta were mighty but only a few could call themselves fighters among his elites. Picking up a file marked “ANTROZ” he skipped all of the useless mission data until he came across his profile and combat data.

Antroz prefers hand to hand combat, having a rare (among makuta that is) sense of honor that drives him to that, unfortunately several times that same sense of honor has landed him in the infirmary. Because of aforementioned honor he has several strong ties with the toa army and particularly their leader grand general Takanuva. But even though his “honor” has gotten him into several scraps (mainly dark hunters and other such shady organizations) his prowess with his hooked blades is unmatched and pretty close to unstoppable. Despite his wide array of powers he prefers to use the ones that will boost him (strength sapping and quick healing) rather than his offensive ones, making him even more difficult to defeat. This only adds to the sense that he is a knight that has stepped out of a ancient tale, rather than a scientist. On a side note he is currently experimenting on flying without wings saying that “it will remove possible targets”. Antroz is also the proud 1st warrior of the brotherhood, surpassing even Miserix in hand to hand combat to attain this honored position. But this has made him a target for dark hunters, various bounty hunters and even fellow makuta.

Irecrax winced at the thought of Antroz’s last fight, the opponent had been Bitil, and despite trying every dirty trick in the book (and several he made up himself) he got off with three broken ribs and a broken arm and a mangled leg, not to mention numerous slash wounds. But still many makuta claimed he got of lucky considering it was Antroz. He then picked up the next profile.

Vamprah has a one track mind Sleep, Eat, Track, Kill. And despite his (relatively) young age he has already garnered an outstanding assassination record with over 150 kills all left untraced and his fighting style reflects that, sneaking up on a foe, undetected and then striking him down with ruthless efficiency. Vamprah prefers to work alone due to his occupation as assassin but still works well with others, many a foe has fallen to his claws, unaware that the other makuta were merely distracting him but many more have died sleeping, poisoned or even for apparently no reason in broad daylight (though this is rare). But even if (huge if here) he might get caught Vamprah is far from helpless, he is between Bitil and Gorast in skill in hand-to-hand combat. Of his powers he prefers ones that aids those in his profession (stealth, sleep, stasis etc.). A strange and chilling fact about Vamprah is that he never has spoken once in his entire existence, even when young he was silent and although the theories run rampant he certainly isn’t telling.

After smiling at the thought of a dagger buried in his creations back, Irecrax then picked up Chirox’s folder and considered the benefits of this mad scientist joining his team of elites.

Chirox if anything is intelligent, not as much as Mutran much to his chagrin (but if anyone dares to tell him so he’ll break their arm regardless of who they are and how strong they are). But despite that and his other shortcomings he is better than Mutran in combat making him a valuable field commander. He is an expert at making energized weapons (much better then he is at making rahi at any rate and many wish that he would just stick to making weapons). Of his powers he prefers to fight at a distance (elasticity, vacuum and weather control) and to stall for reinforcements. Despite their rivalry Mutran and Chirox were once good friends but as their ability in the labs drifted apart (Mutran favoring small and useful rahi while Chirox kept accidentally making massive and destructive ones) as did their friendship.

Irecrax nodded, after all Chirox was the only one who knew about his secret and so he needed to have a high position to appease him. Not to mention that it would be a shame if something bad happened during the numerous fights that would make Chirox suddenly deceased, then the secret would die with him.
A shame indeed.

Shaking off the amusing thought and re-focusing Irecrax picked up the next folder.

Krika, how does one describe him? Let’s try this: fight him and it will be the last thing you’ll ever do. Krika, though his sword may be somewhat oversized wields it with uncanny skill. Not to mention that his mask of repulsion will keep your weapons and projectiles away from him, but you will be just inside of his sword’s wide range if you choose to fight him up-close. Not to mention his nick-name: the Ghost, which is because he has developed his density control to the point where he can become completely intangible and it appears he has mastered the art of doing this at will. That mixed with the facts mentioned above makes him a formidable foe second only to Antroz. But he also has a relatively high sense of morals and seems to envy the toa, which has led to several blemishes on his record. It also makes him notoriously hard to recruit for any missions that include stealthy eliminations. The cause for said motives are said to come from his deceased father Altus the 2nd leader of the brotherhood, who died defending his son from a rahi gone wild. Ironically it was the last one that he created known as the Kanohi Dragon. And with his dying breath he told his son to live life like he would and thus far he has succeeded.

‘That one could be a problem, but his skill outweighs whatever risks there might be’ Irecrax thought as he picked up yet another report and scowled at the person it entailed.

Gorast is truly a sight to behold on the battlefield, often racking up the most kills in the “kill counts” some makuta hold, she is by no means as skilled as Antroz but specializes in area effect-type fighting, rather than dueling like the first and second warriors of the brotherhood. Techniques such as slicing down several foes at once with suddenly grown limbs, or blasting through the battlefield as a cyclone or beheading enemies trapped in the mud she caused are her game. Gorast’s entire character seems to be built around loyalty no, scratch that, fanaticism would be more accurate considering that the last makuta that spoke out against a leader’s designs (Miserix at the time) was severely beaten almost to the point of death before Antroz and Krika, along with several other makuta could restrain her. When asked on this she said “anyone and I mean anyone that stand’s in the way of the leader’s design will have to get used to life without limbs”. The theories on this have ranged to mind control to simply over-loyalty, no one as yet knows for sure and no one has gotten up the courage to ask her.

Irecrax frowned; despite Gorast’s power and skill with her blades he had no wish for her to follow him around like a lost Ussal. Especially considering how she treated him like trash before he became leader, he could still hear her stinging barbs. ‘Hypocrite’ he thought before moving on to Mutran.

If you were to call Mutran one thing it would most likely be intelligent (Chirox would say arrogant and quite a few would agree but I digress). Mutran primarily specializes in strategizing and supporting other fighters with his various potions and enhancing brews. But with great responsibility comes great arrogance, Mutran will almost always treat his opponent like it’s a fact he’ll lose no matter how powerful he or she is, which draws the ire of Antroz who frowns upon this, as this is (as he would say it) “dishonorable”. But he is head scientist and so carries a bit of weight despite his conceit. In combat he makes up for his awful abilities with several redeeming tactics. His favorite is to teleport far above a foe and then using his personally energized staff to shockwave a general area then teleport out in the midst of the confusion. But all round he should stick to the back and scheme from there.

Irecrax scowled at Mutran’s photo: oh how he loathed him, and so did many others. But there would be time for revenge latter and reached for Bitil.

Bitil is without a doubt one of the most unpleasant things ever to exist and most likely one of the most effective operatives this great organization has. He is a jack of all trades, but by no means is a master at any but still valuable nonetheless. He can fight, disable traps, give medical attention, (but is just as likely to poison the patient to up his position as he is to cure him to earn favor) and do mid level assassinations, and usually this would mean he would be a mid-level member and thus dead, but he can do them all at the same time. This is due to his mask, which allows him to draw copies of himself from the timestream unfortunately he occasionally winds up with wounds at random and often important times. But Bitil would be much more appreciated if he wasn’t so despicable. Bitil has no sense of honor (and by extent respect) which is frowned upon here; even Gorast has a healthy does of respect for the person she’s going to kill. Which is nothing compared to makuta like Krika and Antroz. Bitil in a fight will do everything and everything to win throwing sand in ones eyes, playing possum, threatening your children, everything. And because of that and only that Bitil ranks number 5 in combat. In a fight Bitil will first spam the area with time clones then proceed to pummel the opponent into a bloody mess. If that doesn’t work he will then attempt to play a game of knife in the back if this does not work he will play possum and this if bought will lead to another game of knife-in-the back. If all of the above fails Bitil will flee showing no regard for his comrades and if he wasn’t so effective he would have been most likely been executed by now.

Irecrax once again scowled, this was yet another makuta he hoped would die in combat. But then again not many would miss him if he were to disappear.

Solis: son of Miserix and earner of the highest scores ever in the potential radar (though some think that the second is because of the first) and now orphan. Solis despite his young age, is already breaking records and striving hard to overcome his father’s extremly long shadow and is indeed well on his way to becoming leader. In battle he uses shadow to cloak himself and tries to end the fight as quickly as possible and with the least amount of pain to all parties using his sleep and stasis powers and if pressed transformation and other powers more dangerous depending on how stubborn his foe is. Also despite his young age possesses strong leadership qualities already. Anyone that has Miserix for a father and Krika as mentor he is expected to have high morals but in his case he would make a good toa. But he is by no means a goody two shoes if he finds out that you’ve seriously wronged him we equally seriously recommend you find a different universe to hide in. on the few occasions that he has been angered he has used the one thousand blades style, which he appears to have mastered though it is hard to tell with a style like that. The one thousand blades style is dangerous because it involves many energy-sapping teleporting strikes. And up to date only those with extremely high energy reserves or those with little will to live have used it.

Irecrax grinned malevolently, he had the perfect team: strong enough, diverse enough, and most importantly, most of them were disposable. As he got up another folder fell out of the pile, as he picked up the folder labeled IRECRAX, he paused for a minute before opening it.

Irecrax has made many a rahi and houses a powerful mind, unfortunately the stronger Makuta (Mutran and Bitil being prime offenders) often stole his designs, leading to the belief that while Mutran and the other thieves were hardworking Makuta, Irecrax was lazy (could lead to possible mental issues, being unrecognized) , and worse than that, terribly weak. Unfortunately while I plan to remedy the “lazy” bit, there is nothing I can do for the weak bit for-

Irecrax snapped the folder shut, he wouldn’t dwell on that day. Irecrax shook off the memories and flipped on his main computer, he had to make a call.

'Words are useful, but only for politicians, diplomats, and pacifists…I am none of those things. I am a warrior of the Paladin who faces you're kind to stop you're madness and desires for power…words are not for you or me….'
'Whatever you wish to say, say it with your swords…and I shall answer with mine!
- the words of one of Paladins knights shortly before attacking an army of Hordika’s followers and warriors…
(Zerix)

Lordon stared down at the toa before him remembering the unpleasant encounter in Darvan. When the toa came in he had expected another shouting match about the “criminal” in question, but then Lordon saw his eyes, they were the eyes of a man that was lost with not very many places to go. Then he had read the letter in which the Cedrak had implored him to help the toa by giving him a place to rest and to heal his obvious brain damage from the terrifying encounter with Axonn. “Well” Lordon said after the long and uncomfortable pause. “I suppose I will help you, but you must promise to help me with two things in return, one promise never to attempt to hunt down Cedrak.”
“I need not swear he has already proved himself to me as righteousness by his willingness to avenge my comrades, what is your second?”
“My second request is that you train with me.”
“Excuse me?”
After mentally briefing him on the Makuta’s betrayal Lordon looked at the toa intently “at the risk of sounding clichéd I will say this: a storm is gathering and we must be ready to withstand it but seeing as we are the most powerful ones here it is logical that we train together so that we, along with Zerix, can withstand it.”
The toa grinned ruefully “I need not promise that either, after all I don’t think Axonn is going to lay down and die.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Cedrak)

The mood in the cave had been at first tense and cold, each thinking the other would snap at any moment. Then as their wounds began to heal they became more open (or at least Axonn did for Cedrak as of yet did not have much to be open about) he told him a bit more of his life and it turned out he had a good audience, unlike the few he told his life to he did not judge, or say what he would have done. he just listened. But one day while the Cedrak told his life story (short though it was) Axonn interrupted.
“You say that the toa said that I killed his team?” Axonn beseeched.
Cedrak nodded. “That’s what led me to fighting you in the first place.”
“But I don’t kill toa, I told you that”.
“You know that, and I know that, but does They know that?”
Axonn thought on this for a moment and without any warning, his face lit up with rage and his arm shot for his axe.
“Somebody framed me!” Axonn screamed he got up, intent on killing the mystery person and got three steeps outside the cave before Cedrak yanked him back in.
“Think” he hissed “do you even know who would do this or who is even capable of killing a whole team of toa with ease?”
Axonn looked thoughtful for a moment and said “the makuta are the only ones that I know of that have that range of powers and as few as they are, fewer still could slaughter a toa team. When it comes to my list of suspects Teridax is number one with a cordak blaster.”
After going over some data Cedrak nodded “Teridax according to what I know is the most ambitious and cunning makuta among the current members, well besides Irecrax of course, and you still haven’t healed all the way yet.”
“Nonsense” muttered Axonn as he pushed his friend away, only to grip his arm in pain as Murphy’s Law took affect.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Destral)

There! The Axonn figure just re-appeared on the same island if only for a few seconds. Irecrax was ready to depart immediately, but then an idea occurred to him. He turned to the computer and said “send Solis to isle B in the south isles quadrant on a seek and destroy mission.” Solis was getting suspicious, and after all if either died it would still benefit him.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Destral mission dispatch and transportation)

Solis looked at the mission on the paper it seemed that he was to assassinate Axonn who killed an entire squad of toa (strange it seemed to him that the toa died as soon as Irecrax left on “business” the other day). Tridax nodded as he took the paper “southern Isles, eh?” Solis only nodded. “Best of luck then.” Tridax said as he opened the portal and Solis stepped through.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Axonn’s cave)

Axonn looked to the east suddenly “something is coming” he stated “I can feel it.”
................................................................................................................................................

(Southern isles)

Solis looked around, the area seemed to be the home of a herd of Rahi nui’s or had been devastated by a battle of grand proportions. Judging by the fact that his target had been ranked S-class by his superiors the second seemed much more likely. The only feature seemed to be a cave that he could tell was not carved naturally. Solis took a deep breath and extended his detection range, detecting energy was a useful talent. Which somewhat ironically, the Matoran of the countryside first invented and then harnessed to detect rahi and other such threats, since they did not have a city guard to depend on. But then it was more effectively used by bounty hunters and the like to find their targets. It was useful indeed for it basically enhanced your 6th sense to tell how many dangerous things there were nearby, and if it was developed well enough, it also told you how dangerous they were. But it not many could use it, you either had to have extensive training or a ridiculously fast brain, otherwise you’d have to be focusing for hours on end. Thankfully (or unfortunately in some cases) Solis had both.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(with the duo)

But as it turned out so did Axonn, along with the Cedrak who had the ability ingrained during his creation.

“I know you’re there… both of you.” said the mystery figure. Said figure had gold plates on his shoulders and lower legs and silver on his mask and upper legs. His torso had a burnished metal color but what was surprising was that he had a talisman with the Brotherhood of makuta symbol around his neck indicating that he was either a makuta or one of their infamous hunters. But despite his cool demeanor Solis was panicking on the inside there were two energy signals in that cave, one equal to him and one that far exceeded him. ‘Calm down’ said a voice that reminded him of his beloved father and his teacher, Krika ‘even if your target is stronger then you are makuta and you have powers and authority, use both!’ Then a figure stepped out of the cave that derailed that train of thought.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Destral)

Irecrax was in the middle of some of the toughest decisions of his life: who was he going to kill, when were they going to die, and most importantly how slowly was he going to kill them. For the Cedrak piece had appeared on the southern isles and he was torn between going there and tearing his head off, but then again if the abomination killed Solis he would have much more leeway in hunting him down, but then again there was still the fact that murderer Axonn would still roam free and eventually expose the fact that he killed the toa team, and of course there was the fact that a good many makuta wanted Solis to lead.
Decisions, decisions
But in the end he decided to let his creation kill Solis, after all two for the price of one was a fine deal was it not?
…………………………………………………………………………………………….

(Southern isles)

Solis abandoned all thoughts of logic and threw himself forward, eyes blazing for vengeance on the being that killed his father. “RAAAAAGGHH FOR MY FATHER!” Solis screamed and in a flash of sparks twin crescent blades met spear shaft. And despite looking fury in the eyes, and that there was enough killing intent in the air to choke on, Cedrak was confused. Father? Who was this guy? Cross-eye appearing once, more he took a scan. Only to almost drop his spear in shock, His opponent was Solis son of Miserix and he was about as powerful as Axonn. But for his surprise he got a heel to the back of the head courtesy of teleportation, he quickly spun around to see Axonn who seemed to be shouti-.
“Behind you!”
Cedrak ducked down and caught Solis’s heel as it passed overhead and swung it downward intent on dashing him across the ground. Only to growl in frustration as his grip became empty, once again due to teleportation. Axonn gripped his namesake and looked warily about; that makuta seemed to be a master of the old one thousand blades fighting style as evidenced by their current frustrations.
“Don’t worry all we have to do is wait him out” Axonn said barely dodging a slice that would have taken his head off. “If we live that is”.
“MURDERER!” screamed Solis’s voice as teleported in front of Cedrak, blades raised above his head his face a mask of blazing rage. The mutant simply and calmly sidestepped and watched as the blades dug themselves deep into the rock, and swiftly grabbed Solis’s throat and looked him square in the eye.
“I did not kill Miserix and I am not your enemy Solis!”
“Then who killed my father huh?”
“Irecrax!”
Both Solis and Cedrak looked at Axonn in shock, the warrior had entered what seemed to be a trance, his mask blazing with white fire and his eyes glazed over.

“That’s a mask of truth” said Solis with awe in his voice, though he was talking to himself more than anyone else. “Only two are known to exist, the other belongs to the Paladin, if he exists that is and the second belongs to…” at that Solis’s jaw dropped. “But if that’s a mask of truth then…” realization was slowly dawning in Solis’s voice. “IRECRAX! That son of a…”

“Incapacitate him before he gets away!” shouted Axonn. Cedrak swiftly delivered a chop to his neck, dropping Solis like a sack of rocks.

“Where did you learn that?” asked the Cedrak still holding on to Solis’s unconscious form.

“The mask told me, it sometimes tells me things, all of them true.” Axonn stated cryptically, eyes still somewhat misty. Cedrak shrugged off his unease at Axonn’s apparently sentient mask.

“Well” the Cedrak stated looking at Solis’s limp body “what do we do with him? His father is dead, I have framed for the murder and I have a bad feeling about letting him attacking Irecrax.”

“For now I think we should keep him around, get some answers about what the Karzahni is going on at Destral.”

“By the do you know who the Paladin is? Even my extensive data has nothing on him besides a possible warning.”

Axonn sighed almost nostalgically, “They say that the paladin is the incarnation of the greater good and others say he is Mata nui himself, but most deny his existence entirely. He appears every 1000 years or so when some evil is on the rise and often in the most unexpected ways, the last time he appeared was in the guise of a Matoran peasant to smite the foul demonic necromancer known as the baron and prevent him from raising an army of undead toa. Also, he never appears the same way twice, in his appearance before the baron he slayed an entire nest of kanohi dragons during witch he was a Skakdi in shining amour but they all had three things in common, one he was always a male, two unless his current form was unable to wear a mask it would always be a mask of truth, and three he always wore this strange sort of plate mail armor, that up to this date not even the Nynrah Ghosts have been able to replicate. But we’ll talk later, we have to find out what Irecrax is doing”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Some time later)

“…up…on…wake up” Solis’s eyes opened to reveal Axonn standing over him, but despite the fact that they had been trying to kill each other but a few seconds ago he felt no hostility coming off of him. Then he felt rage flash through him again at the memories of Axonn’s discovery, Cedrak decided to intervene.
“You can kill Irecrax later but we need answers, and now would be appreciated.” The protagonist said.

Solis simply nodded “only if you give me an answer first:” at this he turned to Axonn “why did you attack Destral all those years ago?”
Cedrak looked at Axonn with a penetrating eye “What does he mean, why did you attack Destral?”
Axonn sighed once again “Sit down this will take a while to explain.” After taking a seat Axonn began his tale. “It all began with the first great war when the numerous continents went to war with each other in a contest for superiority. At the time I was younger than Solis here, but nonetheless my continent was ravaged despite my races power, which you have seen firsthand. But the humbling thing is that it was all done by one man or thing I should say. By now he is only a legend no doubt, used to scare Matoran around a campfire, but I have seen him with these very eyes: he called himself the dark one or Hordika.” At the mention of this name the room dropped several degrees in temperature” He rode into my village on a huge black phase dragon and declared ‘whoever does not hang the white flag by sundown will be destroyed’ we did not listen of course for he was smaller and therefore weaker then us, and there was only one of him.” With that Axonn’s face became a mask of rage and Cedrak looked on, somewhat confused: for he had never heard this before. “Oh what fools we were!” Axonn screamed and slammed his axe into the ground, the Kikanalo and Solis leapt backwards, dodging the ensuing ruble. Axonn continued, now ranting eyes filled with rage at this “dark one” and sadness. “My people fought we fought with all our strength and beyond, but yet the dark one was powerful beyond belief! Hurricanes roared, the earth shook, and black infernal fire rained from the sky, as my home burned, countless warriors threw themselves at him only to die at his feet!” Axonn took a deep breath and started out calmer this time. “I was one of the lucky, or unlucky I guess you could say, few that lived. My mother hid me, but only seconds later I blacked out due to a head injury. When I woke up I saw a figure walking through the ruble, thinking it was Hordika I leapt up and grabbed my fathers axe.” He looked sadly down at his axe.
“And I charged him for all I was worth, but stopped when I got a good look at him. He was a toa dressed in gold and with a cloak swirling as if it had a perpetual breeze behind it. He looked down on me sadly, and when I looked into his eyes past the mask of truth, I saw the future of the universe before me, as if he knew everything that has happened and would happen. I also felt that he knew me and everything I have done, but it was comforting in a way. At this I kneeled thinking that Mata nui himself had come to avenge my people. He kneeled down and looked me in the eye and asked me gently with a voice that reflected his eyes. “Child what has happened here?” at this I couldn’t help but break down, for here I was, an orphan with no home and friends and not even a race to call my own. I told him everything I knew and could remember about Hordika. Then when I was finished he got up mounted his golden-white dragon and said “if I am to hunt him down then I am to need a squire.” And with a wave of his hand an extra saddle appeared. On the ride he told me most of what he knew of Hordika, including that he was the instigator of those accursed wars along with the fact that he once served his father. On the journey we traveled to numerous islands teaching about the Hordika’s lies and gaining followers and training them and me with sword and bow. And then we went to war, across many lands we marched, Hordika’s madness opposing us at every turn.
Until at last we had him holed up in Ga-metru where his forces and ours did battle, many lives were lost until Hordika himself in all his dark glory challenged the Paladin to a duel. A battle of which will be forever engraved into my mind. Blades clashed, mountains crumbled and holy and dark energy clashed in a magnificent display. But Hordika was no match for our hero, and in the end Paladin did not kill Hordika, no for that would have been far too good for him. Instead he sealed him into a shrine in the great temple, where hopefully he will stay forevermore. After the battle Paladin disappeared and only reappeared when he was needed like when the Kanohi dragons multiplied to beyond our control.
But after the battle against the necromancer, one of Hordika’s disciples, I had a thought “wouldn’t it be nice if paladin didn’t have to keep saving us, that we could save ourselves, save him the trouble” and so I started gathering up his followers and led them myself, donning a mask of truth I went out and smited evil wherever we could find it. But this was my greatest mistake for our battles cost us dearly and soon we were but a fraction of our former glory. Soon after the Makuta appeared I was enraged that Mata nui would place emissaries of what I thought to be darkness at the time in positions of such power. So I and the rest of my friends assaulted Destral and I fought their finest warrior to the death. But, unfortunately I won. After I had beheaded him I heard a child scream “FATHER!” I turned and saw a young makuta no older than I was when I lost my father. I looked down, unable to face him and a vision appeared. In the vision I was a child again and I watched as a black cloaked figure slaughter my family and race, in a rage I asked him “who are you?” the figure laughed cruelly and turned around. It was me, except the mask of truth was dented and rusted and he said “I am you”. When I came out of my vision I was dumped outside of Destral like so much trash, thought to be dead. Afterwards, once again with nothing to call my own I joined several organizations and when they were disbanded I spiraled into decay, and drink, forgetting the teachings of Paladin and focusing on petty conquest. Until I met you Cedrak, you didn’t fight me out of greed or personal gain; no you fought because you believed it was the right thing. It was the sort of thing the paladin might have done.
By the end of his story the two were awed, Cedrak at seeing the new side of his friend, and Solis who grew up hearing stories of the vigilante that killed Irecrax’s father, now seeing his side of the story. But Cedrak was also more than little relieved, all he had seen of “civilized leadership so far was a bunch of piraka (excluding Lordon of course), and was comforted by the fact that there were leaders worth fighting for.
“Well that was my story, know tell me yours.”

“Irecrax has changed since last you knew him, before you were made” he said looking at Cedrak. “Irecrax was considered the dead last of the Brotherhood since he lost 35% of his antidermis in the infamous “Paladin raid”.
Axonn flinched at that.
“But when he came back with Teridax’s mask and my father’s body he was a new person. His power had increased at least tenfold and he was twice as ruthless, and he told what I now know to be lies, saying that you killed my father and Teridax and stoked their fires for vengeance and then used it to take control. After assuming command he began doing these odd things, he upped our training, trying to get us to master energy manipulation and energy sensing faster. Not to mention his “training sessions” where he teleports a few makuta into a room and then thrashes them mercilessly. And most recently I saw that he has an Artakha-crafted chessboard that shows people and places so that he could keep tabs on you, me or the old lady down the street if he wanted to. And finally he issued a warrant for your arrest in Darvan only to mind wipe the inhabitants of said city minds a few days ago claiming “the less people that knew the safer they were.”

Cedrak and his silver and red friend were shocked by the upset each blaming themselves, Axonn for killing Irecrax’s father all those years ago, and Cedrak for not killing his accursed creator when he had the chance. They both shook it off, life was to short for such regrets.

“Then he must know were we are now!” the Cedrak said voice raised in sudden fear, he leapt up and grasped his spear as if Irecrax and a horde of Makuta were going to emerge from nowhere and descend upon their small group.

“Cool it” Solis said “Irecrax may be strong and cunning but he prefers to act when everything is in his favor, so he will wait until we are weakened, or when he has some sort of master plan.”

“But what are we to do now?” said Axonn “Only we-“

“Actually we are not the only ones that know.” Said Cedrak “Don’t you remember Lordon and the toa I mentioned?”

Solis smacked his head, suddenly panicking “I almost forgot Irecrax has set a bounty on Lordon and he’s going to send dark hunters!”

Axonn got up swiftly “When will they arrive?”

Solis looked at the sunset for a moment, calculating the time and their position on the globe “Any minute now!”

“Can you teleport us there?” asked Cedrak

“You intend to fight Irecrax?” Solis questioned, the two warriors looked at each other and nodded. “Then I’m in, even if it is crazy, I can get you there but it will take some time under the circumstances.” Solis replied

“Then what are you waiting for? Do it!” Axonn shouted
Then there was a flash and the area was empty… except for one very interested member of the order of Mata nui.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Zerix some time ago)

Lordon was satisfied for once since Irecrax had kidnapped him and for good reason. He was getting stronger: of course he wasn’t Makuta level yet, but then again few were and even fewer could claim the mental prowess he had. And the Veson was an ideal sparing partner. You see like Lordon he had no elemental power but Veson had several unique abilities under his belt. You see, soon after he was born Veson had caught the dreaded inops disease, which poisoned the toa’s elemental energy making it dangerous, if not downright deadly to use.
Unfortunately for Veson and his parents the only known cure known at was sealing his elemental power away, permanently which usually rendered the toa as helpless as a tall Matoran. Still desperate for his son to follow in his footsteps and become an officer in the toa army, Veson father set out for Artakha, braving squall, desert, foes, and even one of the dreaded crystal serpents so that he could beg for a chance, not something Artakha was known for giving.
But for some reason (much to the small family’s delight) the ruler of the island decided to help the young toa and crafted him his twin cutlasses, flash and umbra along with a mask that he said that “its powers will reveal themselves in time.” Along with a small book on energy manipulation that literally grew (in size and decoration, along with information) as he learnt more. And most useful of all was the strange side affect that was part of the inops virus was that one trait (speed strength etc.) was increased dramatically so it was almost like a tradeoff or an apology for taking away those powers, in Veson’s case it was leadership.
Although despite what it might sound like he was not a superior commander instantly, instead people felt the urge to follow his command (like his now-developed suggestion power) along with the fact that he had quite the knack for strategy. Over the last few days he and Veson (along with a few Matoran) had already mastered: sticking to surfaces and liquids (using energy to plaster your feet and other appendages to a solid or staying above a liquid), 1st mark energy weapons (using energy to sharpen for battle or to blunt for practice weapons), energy sensing, and they were, if the book was any indication, going to start on levitation soon.
But Lordon’s desire to better himself seemed to spark a flame within the island, Gadjati was crafting better statues quicker, Tanma was drilling everyone double time and the resident iron Matoran was beginning to work on fine circuitry and folding metal instead of just smithing. And the island was already being proven better for it: the guards were reaching toa-level in hand-to-hand combat, Gadjati’s masterpieces were beginning to almost double the treasury and the smith had proudly presented the first Matoran-sized jetpack along with his first katana which Tanma now wore with much pride (and used with much caution), but most of all, new faces were beginning to drift to Zerix, bringing more culture to the once just farms and more farms island. Yes Lordon began to feel truly satisfied. ‘But then again’ he thought with a smirk ‘I still owe Irecrax a favor.’
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Daxia)

Helryx simply starred at her messenger, spy, and friend simply unable to consider the fact that there was a mortal in the world that was stronger then Axonn.

“You say” she started notes of disbelief in her voice “that this “Cedrak” beat Axonn, and then nursed him back to health?”

The telepath simply nodded, evidently unable to believe it himself. “Indeed Axonn seems to be becoming loyal to him though, which may be a problem if we try to re-recruit him in the future.”

Helryx simply frowned, she respected Axonn and all but if he comprised the order’s existence he would be dealt with severely.

“Continue monitoring them along with this Lordon guy as well.”
The telepath nodded and teleported off to oversee his duties. ‘Well’ thought Helryx looking at her own board that had some dark hunter pieces moving toward the Lordon figure and Solis, Axonn, and The Kikanalo king figures heading for Zerix as well. ‘This will be interesting to say the least, but personally’ she grinned slightly ‘I’m rooting for the one with the horn.’
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Zerix- night)

Lordon’s eyes barely opened in time for him to see the dagger heading for him, his neck more precisely. Making short work of the flying piece of metal using telekinesis Lordon reached under his bed and pulled out a sword and using energy blade Mk.1.

“Blast it” he heard a voice hiss “and here I was hoping for an easy kill, now listen can you hurry up in die already I have another appointment coming up in an hour.”

Lordon turned around and saw he was facing a smirking copy of himself “Dangit.” he muttered.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Veson’s quarters)

But meanwhile Veson’s attacker was not being so tact. Veson had awakened to the sound of thumping, and the ground shaking. Leaping up, he barely managed to pull out his cutlasses in time for the dark hunter to come crashing through his wall. The brute was a full ten feet tall and had two sets of arms, each bearing a nasty set of claws. “Gladiator” Veson muttered, he had heard of the dark hunter before in the rumor mill, he gritted his teeth ‘time to see if that training paid off’ he thought, as the dark hunter raised his claws to strike him down.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Lordon)

Lordon swiftly brought his sword to defend as the fake-Lordon took up an offensive position. He didn’t have to wait long, not-Lordon lunged forward intent on gutting his opponent, only to step back in surprise at a parry that broke his blade. Lordon grinned at his defenseless opponent and steeped forward, intent on skewering his foe.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Triglax’s POV)

Triglax leapt backwards and mentally cursed, his foe was much stronger then expected and now he had a broken blade to show for it “Devastator,” he said into his headset “I’m going to need that back up and hurry up before I get gutted.” Triglax leapt backwards as his target thrusted forward aiming for his head, only to gape in surprise as he turned into an archives mole and scurried quickly into a crack. ‘Stop’ said a voice in his head, a voice that sounded like a good friend, and a friend that he should listen to. ‘Come out’ said his friend, he should listen, that’s what friends are for after all right? Slowly he turned around and stepped back out of the hole. The last thing Triglax saw was Lordon’s energy enhanced blade heading straight for him.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Veson’s POV)

Fortunately Veson dodged the claws of his opponent, unfortunately that put him in the path of a thrown boulder.
“Charger! Stay out of this! I haven’t killed a toa for a long time.” Veson’s heart sank, two dark hunters? With his training he could have handled Gladiator but the appearance of this “Charger” all but cancelled out his chances of wining.

“Same for me Gladia- what?... Something’s coming and it smells tough whatever it is.” Fortunately for Veson Cedrak choose that moment to slam into the bull-headed dark hunter. Charger swiftly recovered and shook his fist at the offender “Grack! You smell like a Kikanalo, and I hate Kikanalo! I’m gonna enjoy killing you.”

“You can try” said Cedrak who peered over his shoulder at Veson, who was slowly getting up “need a hand?”

Veson grimaced, once again confident that they could win “Yeah, thanks by the way.”
“Don’t mention it” Cedrak looked at his opponents, cross-eye appearing once again. “Dark hunters eh? Well lets see what you’re made of then.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Lordon south wall)

Lordon swiftly dropped and rolled to the left as a telekinetically thrown boulder sailed overhead. ‘This is bad’ he thought ‘he changes his density to avoid my arrows and his mind blocks my mental attacks somehow, it’s almost as if he was made to fight me.’ Lordon leapt up and dodged a hail of random objects, including a few of his own arrows. ‘Oh the irony, an archer gutted by his own arrows’ he thought bitterly

“You’re doing well Steltian; no one has survived this long against me, for I am devastator and no one is stronger then Devastator!”

“Let’s test that theory, shall we?

Devastator turned around quickly, but not quickly enough to stop an iron strong fist from hitting him square in the gut. Devastator doubled over and clutched at his stomach in pain, big mistake. Solis teleported high in the air, using gravity power to speed his decent and his density control to make himself as tough as solid protodermis, brought both feet upon the still-dazed Dark hunter, effectively breaking his spine.

Lordon stared warily at his rescuer, trying to discern whether he was friend or foe.

“Greetings Lordon of Zerix, I am Solis, I guess you can say I am a friend of Cedrak.”
(Author’s notes: about Solis betraying Irecrax so fast: well he killed his father and he would be willing to join anyone, except someone more evil of course, to kill him, but it’s a big plus if they are strong, sympathize with him and hate Irecrax as well, just think of the lengths you would go to avenge your father.)
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Cedrak-east wall)

“When are you going to stand still and DIE?!” screamed the aptly-named Charger, who had once again missed by a fraction of an inch. Worse yet he had the distinct feeling that he was being toyed with, and he HATED that!

“You’re going to have to try harder if you’re trying to hit me” said the infernal horned one.
“I’m going to kill you” Charger muttered angrily, lowering his head, intent on gutting his foe with his horns. Charger rushed forward, only to suddenly stop and feel his foes hands gripping his horns, holding them at bay. “Impossible! You can’t be stronger then me, no one is stronger then me, I am Charger!” screamed the dark hunter, killing intent streaming from him. His foe answered by lifting him into the air and slamming him into the ground. His spear swiftly followed and charger barely rolled aside in time for the spear to tear through the earth where he was a second ago. Charger leapt high into the air, his form a silhouette against the full moon, and milliseconds later his spear flew downwards. Cedrak jumped to the right and watched the spear cleave through two trees. But he paid the price for it and felt Chargers arm blades sink into his side. He roared in pain and lashed out with his spear, the end of its shaft striking the bounty hunter across the face and breaking his angular nose. Charger considered his options, which was a rare thing for him, his opponent was stronger then he was and was injured and the minotaur-like fighter knew better then anyone how fiercely a wounded animal could fight. And then again there was the bright light emitting from his enemy’s hand.
Wait. What?
His foe lifted an arm, a glowing palm pointed at him and a blast of what looked to be sheer light flying toward him.
And even though the last thing Charger saw was light, he soon drifted into darkness with a gaping hole in his chest.

“Didn’t know I could do that” Muttered Cedrak, staring in morbid fascination at his foe’s smoking corpse.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Veson north-wall)

“This is officially crazy.” Muttered the last dark hunter, first he fought a element-less toa that matched him in hand-to-hand combat, then he saw Charger get speared by a weird flash and, worst of all the Matoran guard had awakened and were beginning to assemble. And he could tell just by looking at them that they weren’t pushovers like most self-proclaimed “Warriors”, they were fighters and worse he was on their home turf. “Well” he said to Veson “looks like this is a draw then toa, sayonara!” at with that Gladiator threw down his pack of smoke grenades, and without waiting for the explosion turned around and headed for the boat as fast as his long legs could carry him.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Zerix- Tanma’s post-north wall)

Tanma scowled at the events that were taking place- the dark hunter had the nerve to flee! ‘After he had come here, ready to kill my friends’ images of Lordon and more recently, Veson flashed through his mind ‘My comrades’ he thought of the many Matoran ready to fight and die with him ‘and destroy my home he has the nerve to run?’ he would not get away with this! Tanma glanced at the jetpack on his back.
‘I sure hope Elshem knew what he was doing when he made this.’ Tanma thought, slightly nervous as he turned it on.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Gladiator)

Gladiator glanced behind him; he had managed to lose the toa- that was good. Until he heard a slight buzzing, at first he dismissed it as a simple dust darter, then it was a dull roar, he spun around, fearing that the horned one was after him, but still he saw nothing. He continued, faster this time until he could identify the source of roaring. ‘Behind me, no above me, wait both?’ he turned around just in time for a small, armored, green and courageous captain of the guard to slam into him.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Tanma)

Tanma slammed into the dark hunter, small size he had, but small strength he did not have to worry about. Ripping his katana free from his sheath, he attempted to maneuver the blade around the dark hunter’s seemingly impenetrable armor, searching for a weakness. But his efforts were in vain as Gladiator threw him as if he weighed nothing.

“Stupid Matoran” muttered his enemy, who was already towering above him. Thinking that our favorite le-Matoran would be an easy kill, Gladiator raised his claws and brought them down, hoping to finish his foe with a textbook move. But he was to be badly disappointed as Tanma’s jetpack turned on, propelling him through the air, and above his adversaries head. Tanma, saw the opportunity and plunged his katana deep in his enemy’s neck, Gladiator didn’t even see it coming. “Stupid” he managed to gurgle, before falling over, as dead as a stone. Tanma looked at his blade in awe, he had killed a dark hunter, a feat that few toa, let alone a Matoran could claim (not that he enjoyed it of course, for even in this violent time only the truly sick and twisted enjoyed killing coughGorastcough).

“Well” rumbled a new voice, Tanma spun upwards and took a stance as a silver and red being that carried an axe as big as the green captain of the guard, stepped out of the shadowed woods, surprisingly stealthy for his size, and into the moonlight, looked at Tanma’s handiwork, grinned and whistled. “Looks like you saved me some trouble, young Matoran. I, Axonn thank you.”

(Destral)

“Dang it all!” screamed Irecrax as energy coursed through his body, shaking the compound to its roots. “Why does this keep happening? He fights Axonn, he survives and makes an ally of him, I send dark hunters after Lordon and he rescues him! Blast it all!” He was ready to teleport over there and burn the island to the ground himself! But that would send the long arm of the law after him, so he had to play the “good guy” for a while. Irecrax took a deep breath and the building stopped shaking ‘remember what father said “there are always things to salvage if you only know where to look”’ then it struck him “he killed the dark hunters.” Irecrax smiled devilishly, oh he could use this.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Odina)

The Shadowed One: that was his name, for his true one had been lost to history, to outsiders, and even to himself. Sat upon his onyx throne staring in fascination at the toa caught in stasis, waiting for the report on the mission to, he did not have to wait long for his door was thrown open and there standing breathless was a emissary of a the brotherhood of makuta, his body language obviously betrayed unease and a touch of fear, but there was also something else, did he detect a trace of … disbelief? “Sir” the emissary started, his eyes darting this way and that, no doubt looking for exits and bodyguards in the shadows. “To put this bluntly” the messenger tensed up, ready to flee at a moments notice “everyone died.” The shadowed one did not respond, and fearing for his life the emissary quickly tried to leave. Unfortunately he only got three steps before hearing the voice of the shadowed one.

“All of them?”

The messenger gulped, knowing his masters tendency for killing messengers “All of them sir”

“Gladiator, Charger, Triglax and Devastator all died?”

“Yes sir”

“By the targets hands?”

“Not exactly, you see they received help at the last moment in the form of a strange mutant called Cedrak, who according Irecrax’s reports killed them all.”
“Leave”

“Of course sir” he could hardly leave fast enough.
Once the door closed the Shadowed One narrowed his eyes, got up slowly “RAAAAGH” and punched a crater into the floor. “Recorder.”

“Yes sire”

“Add another grudge to the book.” The Shadowed one, whose name was lost to history, added another to his list of people to kill.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
(Zerix)

When our heroes had meet up the mood had at first been tense, with Veson ready to avenge his comrades, Lordon looking out for more foes and Solis getting the evil eye from any Matoran able to recognize his race. And just about when Veson was about to scream bloody murder Cedrak stepped up, took a deep breath and said in a introductory voice “Axonn, Veson, Veson, Axonn, Lordon, Solis, Solis, Lordon, Lordon, Axonn, Axonn, Lordon, Solis, Veson, Veson, Solis.” and almost collapsed from exhaustion. After the ensuing laughter stories and revelations were swapped and despite their different races, ideals, backgrounds and values they all found common ground: they all hated Irecrax’s guts.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Xia)

“What do you mean there ain’t gonna be a war?” asked Carapar of the Barraki

“Surely the great Pridak isn’t having second thoughts is he?” asked Takadox smoothly. The six Barraki sat assembled, all having different thoughts about what Pridak just said, Carapar was angry that the war was cancelled, Kalmah was trying to figure out if he could take command, Takadox was wondering how to twist this to his advantage, Ehlek and Mantax remained silent, no surprise there.

“You heard me, you ignorant spawn of a Brakas monkey, there is an uncalculated player in this, he managed to both beat me in combat and our newest weapons had no effect on him.” At this the assembled warlords looked surprise; it was not like Pridak to admit losing to anything and would rather chop off both his hands before admitting his weapons (which he was extremely proud of considering that they were his livelihood) were ineffective against anything.

“How many were there?” asked Kalmah emotionlessly.

“One.” The warlords, even Kalmah and Mantax reeled in surprise

“You mean” wheezed Ehlek looking at the numerous repairs going on “that one measly toa-“

“I never said toa!” screamed Pridak shooting up from his seat in a very rare display of emotions “the thing was fourteen feet tall, covered in black and silver amour and was stronger than a Kanohi dragon on steroids; tell me does that sound like a toa to you?”

Silence reigned in the room.

Until Takadox spoke up “actually the brotherhood has a bounty on him, I picked up this when I was in Darvan checking on my… interests.” At this Takadox produced a scroll.

“Seventy million widgets?!” exclaimed Carapar


“That would really help our war effort.” said Mantax thoughtfully.

“Gentlemen, I think I know what our next step is.” said Pridak, grinning like a Muaka, about to feast.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Destral)

Irecrax’s computer beeped as it once again received a message ‘the shadowed one?’ he thought.

The message said this: Irecrax: you have exactly twelve seconds after reading this to explain what the Karzahni happened on Zerix and why you did not inform me of the alliance this mutant and the target. And if you cannot explain this you will find yourself short the services of the dark hunters.”

At this pathetic threat Irecrax simply laughed ‘why tell the truth when you can lie through your teeth.’ his conniving mind told him.

The reply said this: The third player (a.k.a. the mutant) was on another island at the time so I did not see fit to tell you, if you can manage to bring his head to me I’ll pay triple his bounty of seventy million widgets. I will deal with Lordon personally.

Of course he had no intention of paying that but the Shadowed one didn’t have to know that did he?
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Odina)

The Shadowed ones jaw almost dropped at the sheer amount of money Irecrax was offering, even shadow was whistling appreciatively behind him. And although a small part of his mind told him that it might be a trap or deception alas his greed overrode his common sense. “Recorder!” he shouted.

“Your commands sire?”

“Dispatch all available Dark hunters to Zerix with orders to bring back the mutants head on a silver platter.”

“All of them sire?”

“Yes all of them, now move your miserable carcass!”

“Yes sire, at once sire”
Soon the area was a buzz of activity as the numerous dark hunters scrambled for boats. Of course the shadowed one was planning to kill Irecrax after this and collect the bounty on makuta heads, but Irecrax didn’t have to know that did he?

………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Zerix)

Eventually things fell into an odd cycle: Cedrak trained from sunup to noon, trying to master his great strength and picked up what the others already knew in rapid and almost frightening procession and spent the rest of the time catching up with his friends. Axonn would either join him or help the Matoran with their training or the fortification efforts (nobody had to say it but there were going to be more incidents like with the dark hunters and they would be ready the next time), Lordon would either join him or test the Matoran for potential to manipulate energy (these things besides his regular duties), Veson would either train or study his book of energy, hoping to garner new secrets from it, surprisingly Tanma also frequented these training sessions claiming that the only way to get stronger was to fight someone as strong or stronger than you, that attacking targets only got you so far. Solis at first trained on his own, uncomfortable with the non-makuta, but was becoming more social as time passed, even though the burning desire to avenge his father stayed with him. And though tension was still present among the once enemies of the group it was slowly abating.
That all came to a very sudden halt when the dark hunters landed: it was first detected by Cedrak who sensed about one hundred (give or take) varyingly strong energy sources, then it was confirmed by the jetpack corps (Tanma’s jetpack was so successful that there was now a small unit of them) who managed to catch sight of the ships, and by the time they got to the capital the Matoran guard were already assembled and everyone was holed up and ready for a fight to the finish. The opposing sides just stared at each other for a while until a female dark hunter approached the wall, daggers lined her waist and one mechanical arm was juggling one between its fingers, she was a master of her art that much Cedrak could tell, and he couldn’t help a grudging respect for her, for her weapons were now an extension of herself. Obviously she was leading this rabble and if she were an example of their strength and skill they were in for a difficult fight indeed.

“Hand over the one with the horn” she said “and we’ll let you off scotch-free.”

“Leave” said Lordon who was staring boldly down at the invaders from the top of the wall “and maybe we’ll let you go back to your master in one piece.” The mob of dark hunters rumbled with laughter at this.

Lariska gave a mental shudder, even if they came back in one piece they would soon be in pieces due to her leader’s eye-beams, and she knew that pain, after all, that was how she lost her arm.
“I admire your tenacity, and for that I will give you an half an hour to decide.” Said the dark hunter, whose voice also held the slightest traces of humor
Lordon leapt down from the wall and turned to his assembled companions and turned to his horned friend “well you heard what they said, plan A?”
The mutant nodded “Plan A it is then.”
Lordon grinned and shook his friend’s hand “Good luck then… you’re going to need it”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Lordon, approximately twenty minutes later stepped back up to the wall with the Kikanalo hybrid behind him, who was making a ever so slightly over exaggerated show of looking for a possible exit, even though his hands bound and Solis was pointing a sword at the “prisoner’s” back.

“I have decided to give him to you” the dark hunters collectively stepped forward to accept their prize, but Lordon held out his hand and silence filled the air “but this is too easy. Why don’t we make it interesting? Solis if you please?” Miserix’s son nodded and waved a hand in the protagonist’s direction.
Lariska noticed only too late the grins on Solis and her target’s faces.
In a flash of light Cedrak disappeared and Solis proclaimed triumphantly “Let the hunt begin!”
Lariska’s eyes narrowed: she had to hand it to them, they certainly knew what they were doing, and if they killed Lordon and burned Zerix to the ground, the thrice accursed council would come down upon them like a storm and by extension the toa army led by Takanuva himself and even though the dark hunters were strong she would not dare bring down his wrath upon them, so that only left one option: search the universe for the bloody mutant. She nodded almost imperceptibly to Lordon; he had her respect with that maneuver, a difficult thing to earn indeed, only to almost to jump out of her amour as she heard his voice in her head.
‘Well what are you waiting for? The longer you wait the farther he gets.’
She turned to the confused dark hunters. “Well what are you waiting for? Start searching!” in seconds the dark hunters were running about like chickens with their heads chopped off, it would have been comical if they were not professional killers.

Axonn turned to Veson “Did you think we made the right decision?”

Veson shrugged “I guess we just have to hope, but I have a hunch that we’re going to see him again one way or another.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Destral)

Irecrax screamed and punched a hole into a stone wall, somebody had teleported in, smashed his board beyond any possible repair and teleported out just as fast, now he had no way to monitor his enemies, the game was more akin to regular chess now, no indication of what would happen next, and only guesswork to go by on. A small part of him relished it, more of a challenge this way.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Cedrak’s location- unknown)

Cedrak felt a pounding in his head: good, that meant he wasn’t dead, teleportation worked funny that way, one minute you were escaping dark hunters, the next you were in a volcano, falling to your death. Slowly getting up the aspiring hero scanned the area, it was odd, that his implanted knowledge did not contain anything about green web covering the buildings.
Wait, what?
Cedrak double-taked and surveyed the area once more, this time using his cross-eye seeing only ruins, and a large power in the center of the city, everything else seemed to be dead, that was strange, for he was supposed to be sent to a friend of Veson’s city, but that was teleportation for you. He cautiously stepped forward only to hear a loud, obnoxious and sickening crunch. Looking down he saw something that repulsed him, it was a Visorak, a mangled and burned up one at that. Taking one last look around he saw dead Visorak everywhere, some burned, some smashed, but most were sliced… like the one he stepped in! Swiftly he stepped backwards and wiped the guts off his foot in decidedly comedic disgust ‘the first thing I’m doing when I get to civilization is to buy a pair of boots’ he silently swore. Again he proceeded this time more carefully to avoid any corpses until he came to a keep; this was the center of the city where the large power was detected.
Channeling energy to his ears (he had learned how to do that in training but as you could imagine it was a double edged sword, for if there were any loud noises you would almost certainly have bleeding ears and a chance of deafness depending on how loud it was) in attempt to pick up any sounds, he walked into the keep until he was rewarded with a sound, he had heard a soft sobbing. But while heading towards the source Cedrak noticed that the signs of violence were more recent here. Until finally he came to a courtyard and took stock of the situation, there was an open cocoon, a dead char-broiled Steltian, (who disturbingly looked very much like Lordon) hundreds of dead Visorak, and a figure in a cloak, the one making the quiet sobbing sounds, who was kneeling over a dead, female, toa of psychics. Cedrak stepped forward quietly, but apparently the man had noticed him and rose to his full height, instantly Cedrak noticed three things about him, one the “person’s” hands were clawed, two one arm was longer than the other, and three his “cloak” wasn’t exactly a cloak ‘those are wings, dragon wings!!’ thought the mutant as the hordika revealed himself in all his morbid and animalistic glory.

I believe in fairy tales…
Not in the sense that dragons are real, but in the sense that dragons can be defeated
-Unknown

“What do you want?” the creature said sadly, apparently he had been a toa due to his body shape and size and the fact that he retained his ability to speak (although that did not explain the wings and claws). “If you have come as part of them, please just no more experiments and make my death swift.”
Cedrak decided to address this question later and instead asked “what happened here, and who are you?”
“Ah so you are not one of them, otherwise you would not have asked.” The dragon-hordika sat down cross-legged and shot the female corpse another sorrowful look, before turning back to the discussion. “I was a toa once and I’m not very sure what I am now. I cannot remember my name but I can remember the battle, me and my toa team fought the oncoming hoard as best we could, but I was signaled out for their tests because I was the strongest of my team and they had my sister” he looked at the corpse again, the king could almost physically see the sorrow racking his frame. “hostage, fortunately what happened next is a blur, but the gist of the experiment to see if they could fuse two animals or in my case toa and I think a dragon of some kind using a special kind of Visorak venom and something about the process used to make someone named Voporak. When they were finished they tried to make my sister wipe out what was left of my memories, to make me a slave, but she, being the brave fool she was, gave me back a portion of my memories, combat expertise, and personality. “But that abomination” he said pointing at the deceased Steltian with hate filling his gaze “somehow figured out what she was doing and they killed her” his face twisted sourly and spat on the dead warmonger “their last mistake. So here I am no name little memory and no future.”
Cedrak silently absorbed this, after contemplation he spoke, hoping to rekindle hope for the hordika “I have a friend” he stated “that can help you with your memory problems his name is Lor-“
“No! Don’t trust him knave! We will end up in a cage again it is always the cages, move over I am assuming direct control!” he shouted griping at his head “no more cages! Not again, never again… oh no! The dragon perceives you as a threat and is already attempting to commandeer my body; I hope you are ready for a host of third degree burns…” with that the schizophrenic hordika’s eyes slited and fire flew from its nostrils.
“Why me?” muttered the unfortunate Protagonist (since when are protagonists ever fortunate?) who hefted his spear as the draconic hordika flew toward him, wings kicking up a squall and a challenging blast of flame from its mouth. The two combatants leapt toward each other and a shockwave resounded through the courtyard as claws met spear shaft and the fight began. The draconian roared into his face (by far the most potent and smelly attack he ever lived through by far), backfliped and shot a roaring ball of flame forth, only to be weathered by a good sized energy beam.
The hordika’s eye de-slited “sorry about this” he said only for the eye to regain the slit milliseconds after the apology.
“Silence knave” the now dragon controlled hordika looked his opponent up and down, looking for weaknesses and Cedrak decided to take advantage of the pause and did likewise, it would be a difficult fight to be sure, the body had wicked claws, tough skin, and then there was the fire breathing to take into account. “You are strong” he or rather it at that moment stated “for a non-dragonoid at any rate but you don’t stand a chance against me despite my…” he looked down at his two legged body in obvious disgust “unfavorable form, no tail, how do they live like this?” Cedrak decided to try to surprise him in mid-rant and dashed across the stone courtyard, fist raised and intent obvious. The Dragon’s eyes opened wide shortly before the fist of his foe struck him across the jaw, sending him spinning backwards and he barely managed to open his wings in a way akin to a parachute, just in time to stop before getting very friendly with a stone wall. The dragonoid looked up to see the silhouette of his foe coming towards him and leapt to the side just in time to dodge another punch which tore a hole in the aforementioned wall. Cedrak felt a searing pain and looked down to his left calf only to see bite marks, but no sign of the dragon that was responsible for them. “At least I kept the speed of the mask that the toa had, oh well I guess that’s destiny’s way of apologizing for being fused with such an inferior being.” Cedrak looked franticly about only to feel several claws rake his back. “Look I’m over here” a punch to the face “oh now I’m here” a kick to the gut then followed by rapid succession fireballs, but thankfully his body was rather fireproof. “Now I’- gack” the dragon found himself caught by the protagonist.
Cedrak grinned nastily at the squirming hordika “hey look you’re over there” he said and though his animalistic aggressor into a wall. “Look now you’re on the end of my spear!” Cedrak blasted forwards leaving only a blur, but catching himself at the last minute and not wanting to shed innocent blood, he turned at the last second and elbowed the dragonoid in the gut with such force that specks of blood flew from it’s mouth. But he used the opportunity to rake his claws along the mutant’s arm, forcing him to drop the spear. Then the fight had degraded into a brawl, the dragon blasting away with fire and slicing with claws and Cedrak pummeling it with all of his strength, using his greater strength and reach to his advantage and even though it may sound like an epic struggle to the last, to the uninformed bystander it would only be two savage animals, rolling around in the dirt, albeit animals striking and receiving blows that would shatter rock and rip through steel. It continued like this until Cedrak managed to wrap his hands around the elusive dragonoid’s neck.
“Leave” growled Cedrak, tightening his grip.
“Fine” the dragon said nonchalantly “but he will always have to deal with me, and no matter what he does, a blank canvas, even if studded with the finest gems and encrusted with the purest gold, would always be a blank canvas.” The body shuddered and blue eyes shone where red ones once were before as the dragon released control.
“Thanks” said the ex- toa, with no hint of the dragon in his voice. Cedrak, sensing no threat, released the hordika. The dragonoid rubbed at his neck and rose slowly, pain obvious in his movements “but he was right you know” he said “I, without my key memories will always be a blank canvas”.
“You’re disgracing your sister by talking like that” Cedrak said, hints of anger in his normally stoic eyes
“Don’t you dare talk about my sister like that, whether you saved me or not I will not stand for it!” fire flew from his nostrils and he stepped forward threateningly, ignoring the various wounds that adorned his powerful frame.

The Cedrak rose up to his full height and looked the hordika in the eye. “If you admit defeat then her sacrifice is in vain!” he said, and though anger was in his voice, it was of the righteous kind. “She lost her life to give you another chance and if you let it go then you’re letting him” he pointed to the deceased warlord “along with the dragon win! True, a canvas may be empty to begin with but that’s until someone puts in the work to paint it, now are you just going to sit there and have a pity party or are you going to do something about it?”

The hordika stood there for a minute, contemplating the fellow mutant’s words and what they meant to him “Who and where this friend you mentioned?”

Cedrak nodded approvingly “his name is Lordon; he is the king of Zerix, a powerful physicist and hopefully your cure.”

“You’re friends of royalty!?” the hordika made a move to bow, much to the mutants amusement.

“Rise, I am no king and Lordon, if I know him he would not want to be treated that way either.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(A few days later)

The next few days were disturbingly similar to the days he spent with Axonn which consisted of: burning the dead Visorak, figuring out how to block the dragon personality, the Cedrak teaching Velaix (the name he had taken- until he found his old one that is) a energy trick or two and finally (after much mourning on Velaix’s part and some eloquent words on the Kikanalo kings part) the building of his sister’s tomb.

“She most likely deserves more” said Cedrak after setting the last stone on the humble pile of rocks marking her grave “but I will give her this” focusing with all the energy he could muster, Cedrak first put a barrier around Velaix’s sister and then turned to Velaix “breathe fire on it”. Not knowing what his new friend was going to do but trusting him enough to do so anyway Velaix inhaled deeply and shoot a blast of white-hot fire. In a few minutes the result became clear, and it was beautiful, eerily beautiful, for the deep purple toa was now covered in crystal. Cedrak knelt down, concentrated a small energy beam, and with it engraved a message into the crystal:


Here lies an unknown toa, loyal to the end, she fought against the Visorak hordes with all of her might to save her home and sacrificed her life so that her brother may live, free of the yoke of slavery, may Paladin watch over her.

“Well” said the Cedrak rising “I’m afraid that’s all I can do”
“I thank you” he said to the mutant, and then he turned to his departed sister “and I thank you sister, thanks to you I will never be an empty canvas.” The two mutants stood there for some time, both saying their silent goodbyes to the selfless toa, and then departed, looking for a way off the island and a plan to do so.

If one were to look closely at the tomb after the duo left, one could see the corners of her mouth upturned in a beautiful and benevolent smile.

All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil.
- Sophocles
Cedrak and Velaix were at a loss of what to do next; they could leave for Zerix and get Velaix’s treatment, but that would attract dark hunters or worse Irecrax, they could wander and continue to dodge dark hunters, but if they were attacked Velaix could very well die because of him, and if Velaix left for Zerix on his own then he would he would attract the attention of the laws against Hordika, but if they traveled together then that had the problems mentioned, only combined.

After talking over the possible problems and results the Kikanalo king and his draconic friend came to the same conclusion:
“This is quite the conundrum”
“Agreed”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(???)

Irecrax looked at the fog before him; it was deep and showed no signs of abating.
“Irecrax… come closer my son” Irecrax shuddered at the voice, a voice that would be the sound of evil incarnated if it existed, his blade flew toward his hand and he assumed a fighting stance as a silhouette came through the mist. Only to drop his blade in shock, there standing less then five feet away from him was his father, abandoning all thoughts of the disgusting voice Irecrax knelled before him. “Rise my son, for I have a gift for you”

“What is it father?”

“You are to go to the great temple and go to the toa alter, when you get there blast it with your brand of lightning , when this has been done you will receive your gift”

“But why father? Why give me a gift, when I… I let you die?” Irecrax thought on that day when his father died.

His father ignored the question, “It is to assist you in your hunt for the renegade, and to avenge my death, now go at once”

“Yes father” Irecrax’s father nodded, stepped backwards into the mist, and disappeared.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Hordika’s prison)

Hordika for the first time in the many millennia he was imprisoned, laughed. It was the laugh of demented murderer, savoring his kill, it was the laugh of a cruel master abusing his servants, and it was the laugh of one who had pulled strings for generations, causing untold pain and suffering, about to achieve his dark goal. It was a laugh that you would hear only whispers of in your deepest, darkest, most horrifying nightmares, yet only those whispers were necessary to portray what it was.

It was evil, evil personified
The owner of the evil laughter had plans, plans that were working to perfection, and soon he would have his revenge! It had all started with the manipulation of Axonn, subtlety influencing his battles and directing his considerable rage at the makuta and getting him to think that the paladin did not care. That had led to the creation of Irecrax in a sense; the Irecrax his plans needed, true the Paladin interfering with the mutant and by extension re-kindling Axon’s faith was unexpected and unwanted, but not irreversible. And even as he thought on his plans his pawn was waking.

“That was almost too easy” and indeed it was, with Irecrax’s anger and resentment it had been easy to plant ideas and lies in his head. “And even now eager to please his “father” another fit of laughter at this, the only thing he had fathered was lies and deceptions “he makes his way here, and once he gets here the beginning of my revenge will commence” he looked up angrily at the lone star above him, the star that had been taunting his imprisonment for so long. “You hear me Paladin? Your mask is mine!”
………………………………………………………………………………………

(Irecrax’s quarters)

Irecrax shot up, covered in cold sweat “That’s the last time I eat before going to bed” he muttered. But as last nights events came back Irecrax, after careful consideration, decided that today would be a good day for a walk.
To the grand temple that is.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Metru nui- the grand temple- the toa shrine)

Irecrax stalked down the dark hallways- it was all too easy getting past the guards- a simple application of the sleep power was enough to assure that. But now it was time to see if that really was his father and not just a hallucination. Steeping into the hall of history, Irecrax’s eyes darted about, looking for the toa altar. Spotting it immediately, the makuta leader made a beeline for the monument. Halting just three feet short of the altar, Irecrax raised his hand and pointed it at the altar, “well” he muttered, “here goes nothing.”
And the lightning flew.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Hordika’s prison)


“The moment has arrived” muttered the prince of darkness as a small gap appeared in his prison, not big enough for him, not yet anyway, but it was still large enough for his weapon of choice. Pulling out a pair of swords, the father of lies uttered a farewell to his chosen weapons. “May these blades mark the beginning of your end paladin, you and your accursed father, my creator.” and he threw the twin weapons into the gap.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(The toa shrine)

Irecrax almost lost his balance in surprise as the blades suddenly appeared, leaping back and assuming a fighting stance; Irecrax looked about for a possible ambush. Seeing nothing and sensing less than that, Irecrax’s eyes turned back to the blades. They were each three feet long and appeared to be made out of solid protodermis, the hardest of all substances, and was covered from pommel to tip in glowing red symbols he didn’t even recognize (which was saying something indeed, since, as leader he now had access to the famed forbidden library of the brotherhood and absorbed all the knowledge within it, a very large amount of knowledge indeed).

‘But something is off’, said a small part of Irecrax’s mind ‘it feels evil, it is evil, throw it away!’, but the ninety-two percent of him was too elated to care. His father was with him!

And the accursed creation was going to bleed!
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Location- yet again unknown)

The Kikanalo king pulled the cloak, which he had “liberated” from the abandoned shop, tighter; luckily they had tailored to beings of his size. He and his friend had split up; Velaix was going to make for Zerix, the same way Cedrak made it to Xia (the reasoning being that Velaix could conceal his appearance but the king could not and thus Velaix was sent off with a note similar to Veson’s). But that was before they “liberated” several pieces of equipment, mostly to hide their respective appearances. Fortunately he had also “liberated” a map, equally fortunately there was a small base that picked up shipments from trade ships every now and again, his plan was simple: go to base, monitor said base, hitch a ride on the next ship, and go wherever the wind took him from there.

Yet fate had a different idea

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.
- Anonymous
(Aforementioned fort- western coast, 30 miles southwest of the city mentioned earlier)

Contego leaned slightly closer to his masterpiece, he had to admit, it hadn’t been easy even for one of his skill with technology, but finally he was going to have his friend back. Even though Contego didn’t look it, he was indeed a scientist, he was black and blue in coloration and stood slightly taller and was more muscular than the average toa and had a wicked scimitar (and he knew how to use it) and several strange devices magnetically strapped to his back, the only thing that set him apart from other toa was that he wore a mask of creation, a lesser one but still. Contego grimaced as he thought of the unfortunate incident all those years ago, and how it was all his fault.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Flashback- 3 years ago)

Contego grinned at his best friend and assistant, Telum was a Ta- Matoran and courageous even by the standards of his race. After all not many would get close to Contego, the madman of the western coast (high technology such as this was still held in suspicion ((remember Bionicle fans the Brotherhood was not as technologically advanced as they were at the start of cannon)) at this time). But they had a like mind, in that technology could shorten physical gaps. Telum wanted to use technology so Matoran wouldn’t be helpless, and Contego wanted to prove, that his rather… unique element could make him just as strong as a fire or earth toa, if not stronger. Which was why they were working on what they called the juggernaut-1 or the J-1 for short, the J-1 was supposed to partially replace toa on the field of battle due to the superior numbers factor, Telum hooked up the last wire to the unmoving machine. Said machine was rather impressive. It was a bit taller than a toa and spray-painted red (Telum’s idea) and carried a cannon almost as big as itself, the overall product was relatively cheap to make and as a bonus carried sync cables (sync cables were another invention of Contego’s, it harnessed residual psionic energy in the air caused by thoughts and used them to transmit data to living things and vice versa thus saving valuable time, it could also be used as a training tool with enough energy) so with the right the right combination of toa (and other such beings) this thing could be useful in anything from agriculture, to tactics to extremely violent hand to hand combat. This was Contego’s brainchild and hopefully his ticket to bigger and better things and a bigger paycheck along with it.
“Throw the switch Telum!”

“Say please.”

“(sigh)Please throw the switch.” Telum grinned mischievously and threw the switch. The result was immediate, the J-1 flared to life and saluted his creators, but neither of the inventors noticed the cross-eye appear and that it was drifting towards the Ta-Matoran. “Well what do you know, it works!”

“Of course it works, I built it.”

“ELIMINATE!” a mechanical voice broke into their childish argument.

“What- Telum RUN!” but alas it was too late, the J-1 had turned to Telum, its cannon glowing a deep red.

“CONTEGO HE-” was all he got out before the blast ended his life

“THREAT ELIMINATED” The rage of many storms gathered in Contego’s eyes, the J-1 turned to him cannon ready to fire. Contego, unfazed lifted his hand and squeezed.
The J-1’s head exploded.
Contego turned to his best friend, and this time, tears were in his eyes as remembered the good times they had, telling jokes, arguing about who got to pull the lever, discovering sync cables.
Then it hit him.
It was a slim chance but desperate people then he have done more on less. Contego beckoned and the intact sync cables from the ruined J-1 slithered over to him and a few of the highest quality data chips he had flew from their baskets. After all the brain was essentially a giant data bank, and these cables were made to transmit data.
It was time for a new project.
................................................................................................................................................

(present day)

Contego stepped backwards, he had not enjoyed what was necessary to get here but he could not help but feel proud at his creation. this one was a huge improvement over the J-1, two great wings were attached to it’s back, it also had a transforming feature for long stretches of travel, it still had it’s cannon but attached to it were to smaller guns, one mid level submachine type and one Vulcan type for when it would be wise not to use a giant laser. But it also carried a few exploding boomerangs, power forged to come back together after detonating and a sword that was power forged with air energy, but it’s greatest feature were still the sync cables. Unfortunately, it still had flaws, the main problem was that, for the cannon to work it had to draw power from reserves, unfortunately the problem carried over to both “forms” other problems included that he was as noisy as heck while flying and the lack of armor plating, but he would fix those later. But another thing was that he had hacked the army’s networks to pay for all this, after all the protodermis parts didn’t pay for themselves after all.
Another thing he would fix later, if they ever found out it was him that is, although he was a member of the army, that probably wouldn’t get him very far if Takanuva kicked down his door, demanding the money he had spent.
Contego picked up the chip that contained everything about Telum, his love of sweet foods, his favorite color, right down to his hate of politics, and his desire to be a hero. Contego smiled, in a painful and roundabout way, Telum’s wish would come true.

“Here goes nothing” muttered Contego as he jammed the chip into the hunk of metal and flipped the switch.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(outside with Cedrak approximately one day ago)

“Interesting to say the least” muttered Cedrak who was hiding in the brush surrounding the base (which was no small feat considering his bulk) as he watched Contego (who was also in his databanks listed as a B- class threat, no small accomplishment as well) toil over a humanoid form, wires and various bits of machinery flying to him as needed. Apparently this toa was only half toa, his other half was Artakhian. (The race that inhabited Artakha, named after their ruler) If you were to mix an Artakhian’s powers over technology with a toa’s ability to manipulate elements and what do you get? A toa of technology of course.
Like our hero said, interesting to say the least.
The King knew however, that he could not get on that boat without Contego’s help and for that he would have to befriend him.
Quite frankly between you and me that seemed more like a bonus to the lonely protagonist after all he only had a grand total of three (four if you counted Tanma) friends and he was wondering if he would ever see them again and so even one more friend would be appreciated.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Contego’s workshop-present say)

Contego stepped backwards, shocked as the lights flickered and the building shuddered, the drain had been bigger than he anticipated, rushing over to the power station Contego pulled all the levers and the lights exploded in a shower of glass as a new surge of energy flowed through the building and into the still unmoving form of Telum.

“Blast it” Contego muttered ripping open some sheet metal off the wall, reveling what appeared to be a grid of some sort and started flipping more switches. “I’ve come too far to loose my best friend to a stinking power shortage!”
…………………………………………………………………………..…………………..

(Outside with the king-present day)

Cedrak started in alarm, his crosshairs had revealed that, according to the energy levels in the building, Telum, and Contego, there would not be enough energy to bring the immobile figure to life. Briefly he considered helping the Toa of technology, weighing the pros and cons, then he considered what lengths he would go to if Lordon or any of the others died, and that was what settled it. Sneaking forward Cedrak came to yet another grid, ripping of the piece of metal protecting it Cedrak raised both of his arms and began channeling energy into it.
Hopefully it would be enough.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Contego’s workshop)

Telum’s eyes opened slowly, oddly for being hit by a giant laser of doom he felt fine.
Until the numerous statistics appeared in front of him
Power 100%
Ammo 300 mid level shots


600 strafe rounds
Status: Green

Telum leapt up and began swatting about, trying to rid himself of the floating words that appeared to be following him around but he thought that this was some prank of Contego’s (or Tech as his nickname was) and he would have been fine with that.
If he had not noticed the giant cannon on his arm that is.
Contego, being a Matoran (in his mind, that is) and thus not used to having giant cannons mounted on his arm did what any sane Matoran would do.
He screamed and tried to shake it off of course.

Main Cannon online, Charging…

But when said cannon started glowing he started freaking out even more and shook it even faster.
This, in retrospect was not a good idea

Firing main cannon.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(With Contego- in the basement)

Contego felt elation rising in his chest, he had his friend back! He had heard Telum’s heavy footsteps above. Rushing up the stairs his mind raced: How would he react to his new body? Would he blame his death on him? What would be the first thing he would say to his newly revived friend?
But something interrupted his thoughts, the alleged something was a laser that had almost taken off his head, it was only quick reflexes that saved him, and by the time he recovered from the shock of it all he knew exactly what he was going to say to his friend, ‘I bring you back to life and you try to blow my head off? IDIOT!’ had a nice ring to it.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(With Cedrak -outside)


Cedrak ducked as the laser flew above him, almost taking off his horn and causing a large crater about twelve meters away from him, the impact knocking him flat on his tail and also causing his face to make a indent on the steel wall in front of him He decided, amongst much cursing, that if he ever met the Tahtorak that hit him, that he would have a few choice words to say to him, most likely accompanied by a good punch to the face
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(With Telum)

Telum stared in shock at the destruction he had just caused, half the lab was blown to pieces, and then the stats appeared again.


Power 90%...

“GO AWAY!” and even though he felt childish doing it was the only thing he hadn’t tried. But to his surprise, the numerous figures disappeared. The clanking of feet was heard and seconds later his best friend burst through the door. Telum saw the elation in his friend’s eyes, but that was not what caught his attention.
The thing was that Contego was a foot shorter than him.
“Telum, you’re… you’re…”
“Are you okay Contego?”
“YOU’RE AN IDIOT!” Contego’s fist flew forward and bounced off his head with a clank.
‘Clank? Heads don’t go clank, they go thwack’ but that small, slightly illogical thought was forgotten in the midst of Contego’s verbal assault
“I BRING YOU BACK TO LIFE AND YOU NEARLY BLOW ME TO ARTAKHA! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?”

Another ‘CLANK’ resounded through the room.
“OW!” Why do keep hitti-… wait a minute, you mean that I… I died?”
Contego’s expression softened “you might want to sit down, after all it’s a long story and you see it all started when you were shot by the J-1…”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(With Cedrak)

Cedrak took a deep breath and retreated to his hiding place, that was more draining (and painful) than he had suspected, but it was decidedly worth it.
The thing was now, was how he was supposed to earn the trust of the two inventors. After a few minutes of thinking of plans and possible outcomes he came to a conclusion ‘Well’ he thought ‘there’s always the blunt way’
................................................................................................................................................


“So let me get this straight… you risked you career, a jail sentence and possibly your life, to get me back?”

“Why would I not? You’re worth more than those things, you’re my best friend” the robot-Matoran, forgetting his new and improved stature dashed forward and enveloped Contego in a bone-crushing hug.

“Thanks Tech! You’re the best friend a guy could have!”

“Don’t… call… me… that… and you’re breaking my spine!”
Telum set his friend down and grinned sheepishly, “sorry about that I guess I don’t know my own strength.” But the moment was ruined by a polite knocking at the door. “Tech” Telum whispered ignoring the glare of annoyance at the nickname. “Didn’t you say that you might have the toa army might be on your tail?” Contego’s eyes widened at the implications and grimly pulled his scimitar out.

“Can you see who it is? I did install capabilities for X-ray vision”

“You did? Sweet!” Telum’s eyes changed to a bluish hue and his jaw dropped “He’s about fourteen feet tall and there’s a spear slung around his back, he looks like a mix between a Kikanalo and some other thing, that’s no toa.”

Contego paled at the description, it sounded like a figure from a nightmare. But something occurred to him “hold on a sec, he’s knocking on the door that means he’s not hostile, if he wanted to get in he would have made his own door.” Seeing his logic sound tech walked up to the door and opened it and reevaluated he previous thought, rather than looking like a fiend the figure looked more like a benevolent protector, true he was hideous but his eyes fixed that and then some. The eyes were the window to the soul, his eyes showed steadfast loyalty, determination, and kindness.

“Hello” the figure said “I am called Cedrak, may I come in?”

“Friends come and friends go, but enemies accumulate”
-unknown

………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Meanwhile back at Zerix)


Velaix’s condition, was practically unnoticed by the Matoran of Zerix, mostly because they were used to odd beings that could do equally odd things running around the island. Lordon was a little suspicious at first but upon receiving the tablet he got work restoring his mind and blocking out the dragon. Axonn was delighted that he had found another sparing partner worthy of his time and the Hordika had found a sympathizer among Veson, for he had been ridiculed and mocked at the academy, he had only made it to officer by the skin of his teeth and his father pulling some strings, Solis was a little suspicious as well but those fears were soon dissipated. As for the book it was now more of a tome, and four of the five were trying figure out levitation (Velaix was still catching up), but one day, Veson and Velaix made a discovery.


Veson made another great leap into the air easily clearing 20 feet… but crashed into the ground with a thud.

“I assume you are working on jump techniques?” a serpentine voice hissed.

Once again the toa pulled himself up, he had gotten much stronger since he had started training, he could probably make it past sergeant now if he went back, but he decided to address the question.

“Close, but not quite, its levitation.”

“Ah… then let me give you a hand” the hordika got up and spread his wings, “Flight is achieved by a precise combination of thrust and lift” at that he took off, flying in a steady circle, occasionally flapping his wings “but since you are simply levitating, I suggest your try to maintain a constant lift, from what I can tell your just using energy to jump, which is giving you plenty of thrust.” He hovered in place for a while, setting an example for the toa.

“I get it now!” said Veson, eager to try it again, the toa bent his knees, gathering up a large amount of energy, and leapt into the air, but felt gravity’s pull once again. “Not this time” he muttered, the toa pushed energy out of his feet, beginning to cushion the fall, he continued to push and push until he stopped entirely. The half dragon flew over to him, a well meaning, but somewhat frightening grin on his face.

“I offer you hearty congratulations Veson, let us go tell the others of your discovery.”

“Our discovery” said the toa as he dropped back down and dashed back towards the capital also bearing a grin.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Contego’s lab)


Things had been tense at first, but then one of Telum’s numerous built-in devices told him something. It had told him that his own energy had a very similar makeup to the stranger’s, this of course prompted a rather interesting discussion on how that came to be. During the course of Cedrak’s story (minus the part’s which were sensitive e.g. Axonn’s past) Contego developed a theory, that the mix of energy from a living being got Telum mind working as a living being’s should and the electricity caused his robotic body to function (he wasn’t a scientist just for the heck of it). After all, stranger things had happened. From then on the air was far from tense, the two inventors had not had company for a long time and Cedrak needed a place to stay. It was the beginning of a long friendship.

To bad it would soon be interrupted.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(8 miles offshore of the base)

An imposing figure on an equally imposing ship lowered a Seeing Eye in interest, not much sport these days, what with the toa beginning to put escorts on the merchant ships, but the waiting seemed to pay off, the robot would make millions of widgets on the black market and the monstrosity had an equally monstrous bounty on his head, not to mention that there’d be one less toa in the world.

The pirate captain turned to his crew and raised his tri-bladed weapon. “Men we sail for vast riches and the death of one more Toa!” The crew cheered in response, for them, killing a Toa would always be something to celebrate.
The dreaded pirate captain Zaktan and his crew sailed for Contego’s base, plunder in their minds and wickedness in their hearts.

The fools.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(At Destral)

Antroz was no fool. A warrior? Without a doubt, but that did not mean foolish, he more than most noticed Irecrax’s changes, before the new leader of the brotherhood had been a trifle edgy, most makuta were. Now, though he had been swinging from violent to paranoid, to distressed and sometimes he would disappear into his office for long periods of time, then he would lock himself into the lab. Suddenly he burst out from wherever he had been and pull his “A-Team” into the pit, teach them something new (some handy tricks involving energy) or “train” with them (he still had bruises from the last time). Also he had been ordering many things from around the world, stuff that made even Gorast nervous, and Gorast had nerves every bit as tough as his and more loyalty to boot, and his interest in the rouge creation was now bordering on obsession. Though for all of his strange behavior it could all be linked back to one thing.

The swords.


All of this erratic behavior could be traced back to when he got those swords, some time ago, Bitil had gotten curious enough and had asked where he had gotten them, Irecrax grinned (in the disturbing way) and said they were a family heirloom. Antroz himself had succumbed to curiosity and snuck into the security office, to look at the monitors, only to find a very disturbing image.

Irecrax had been talking to his swords, all he could make out the words “father” and “murderer” on his lips, then he had paused and looked straight at the camera. Antroz couldn’t have gotten out of there fast enough.
There was a crackling sound and Antroz found himself in the pit with the others, Irecrax across from them. Assuming a stance, Antroz groaned, he had thought he would never see the day coming where he would dread training.
………………………………………………………………………………………………


Irecrax had not had a very stable mind to begin with, it had been shattered and slowly repairing itself since the day his father died, but hordika made monsters and dictators out of such minds. From his cell he had reached out and planted suggestions in the then young Makuta’s mind, of making monsters, revenge and dominance. Then he had taken up the swords and Hordika had been molding the mind of the poor makuta until the picture of his fathers murder was very different indeed. Before it had been an image of Axonn, looking horrified at his deed. Then it had begun to morph, first he gained a few feet, then his horrified look was replaces by a self-satisfied smirk, more and more changes took effect until it was his rouge creation, smirking down at him.
And thus the danger truly began.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Contego’s base)


Cedrak’s keen ears picked up the whistling before anyone else’s, quickly reacting, he coiled and jumped at his two friends, knocking them to the ground. Just in time for a cannon ball had crashed through the wall. Telum was the first on his feet, whipping the gun from its place on his back, he activated the scope, but he didn’t like what he saw. Three pirate ships, each bearing the nautically universal black flag, take no quarter, give no mercy. Telum set the main gun to charge and turned to his friends “Pirates”. The one word was enough and the other two leapt into action, Cedrak leapt out of the hole in the ceiling to meet the invaders on the beach and Contego pulled out his scimitar and ran to a case he kept for such circumstances. Inside the case was a pile of seemingly unimportant parts, yet with a wave of Contego’s hand the bits of metal and circuitry came together to make a three tubular machines. One was a wrist mounted flamethrower and the other two, when together were a jetpack, or spare flamethrowers. A ‘ding’ sounded and the android pointed the now-charged main cannon at the unlucky (stupid more likely) pirates, a thundering blue beam spewed from its tip, it flew through the air and struck the ship on the left, luckily it burst into flames spectacularly. Unfortunately Skakdi were usually a tough bunch, worse pirates were harder to stomp out than roaches, so it came as no surprise that the pirates came wadding to the shore, sputtering curses. A roaring noise shot past his ear as Contego flew past him, heading towards the center ship, or more specifically the emerald figure shouting commands.
……………………………………………………………………………………………....

(The shoreline)

The pirates were by no means a challenge; the only problem was that there were so many of them. The mighty mutant gripped the end of his spear and swung it, decapitating one pirate, only to have three more blast him with their impact eyebeams.
If anything it was annoying by now.
Almost absentmindedly skewering another pirate, he contemplated the difference, a few weeks ago he would have had a few problems with a disorganized, yet well equipped rabble like this, but everything was a breeze now, he supposed he had to thank his group for that one once he got back.
There was a loud roar and a figure descended from the sky, strafing the pirates with bullets and the occasional exploding boomerang. Telum landed next to his friend and turned to him, glee in his eyes.

“This body is awesome!” he cried with delight, throwing one of the exploding boomerangs yet again.

“Glad you approve” Cedrak said, watching with amusement as the remaining pirates scattered, trying to avoid the deadly projectile.

“Tech went after the captain” he stated, as he bashed a pirate over the head with the gun as he drew his sword.

“Which leaves his cronies to us” he concluded; simultaneously strangleing one pirate with his tail and roundhouse kicking another.

“No fair! He gets all the fun!” whined the robotic warrior, bashing yet another pirate with the but of his gun.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(The main ship)

Contego was certainly not having any fun. Zaktan was good with his unique sword, and he had little technology at his disposal, worse yet the minions of the dread captain were attacking him at any opportunity. Zaktan’s style itself however, was predictable, he always went for the vitals, making it easy enough to counter, but the Skakdi was bloody fast and the other two blades made things complicated. Though the worst thing was the Captains cloak, it apparently was woven from Visorak webbing and practically deflected the few blows he managed to land. Contego dodged another swing from the captain and raised his flamethrower, Contego was a toa through and through but Zaktan had come and disturbed his friends and his peace.
And that was unforgivable.
The flames spewed, fortunately they hit their target, unfortunately Zaktan simply threw off his cloak and resumed his assault.
All according to plan.
Contego mentally activated his jetpack, he boosted up to the crows nest and booted the surprised Skakdi into the sea and turned his attention to his equipment. Zaktan attempted to climb up but the boat’s rocking as the ship on the right exploded knocked him back to the earth. Contego was focused on the flamethrower and his jetpack, they rewired and changed shape but down below Zaktan was getting impatient.
“Boy! Get down here and die like any other toa!”
“Unfortunately for you I’m not just any Toa!” the three tubes which were formally a jetpack and flame thrower, flew out of the crows nest and pointed at Zaktan and began to fire lasers. Zaktan, nonplused raised his blade to defend, but with a wave of Contego’s hand the three tubes flew downwards and surrounded Zaktan in a circular formation, making it impossible to defend against
“Blast it!” was the dread pirate captain Zaktan’s final exclamation before unconsciousness claimed him. Contego’s lasers were swift and painful and soon the entire ship was knocked out, either by Contego’s swift swordplay or the flying lasers that took them by storm. Cedrak and Telum would look on astonished as Contego sailed in on the main ship, with a small mountain of apprehended pirates and with a cheeky grin on his face.
To add insult to injury he was wearing captain Zaktan’s very fine hat.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Zerix)


Veson’s book was now very fine indeed, as mentioned before, it grew more beautiful the farther he got. Though now jewels and gold encrusted it, its appearance alone would fetch a pretty penny, to say nothing of its contents. Currently Lordon’s elite (the name given to them by the Matoran) were crowded around it, it painted a rather interesting picture, with Tanma sitting on Axonn’s (who was also trying to sneak a peak) shoulder, Veson trying to get the others away so he could read it in peace. Lordon himself using his superior height to get a look and Velaix and Solis (using anti-gravity/shapeshift) hanging on the ceiling like bats all hoping to get a peek at what the book would tell them next. It was humorous to see all these experienced warriors crowding around a book. All of them had mastered levitation (minus Tanma) and also learnt energy blade Mk. 2 which was an improved version of energy blade (except for Tanma who had just mastered Mk. 1) and how to regenerate (speeding up bodily functions to have blood clot and skin grow faster, but it was tricky, one wrong step and your arteries blow, making it a after-battle technique) along with the “enhanced senses” and “heal” tricks. All of the warriors were figuratively thirsty for new information.

“Well? What does it say?” Tanma asked right of the bat, always the impatient one.

“There’s only a paragraph” Veson’s brow furrowed.

“Well? Don’t keep us in the dark! What does it say?” inquired Velaix.
Veson cleared his throat “Congratulations on finishing the book, your father would be proud of you. With this knowledge you should at least make it to minor general. There are some other techniques that I have not included, but you should be able to figure them out, and you can attempt to make your own techniques. Wishing you luck, Artakha.”
Silence rained in the room for a few seconds.

Finally Tanma spoke up.
“Is it me? Or did we just get a message from a freaking demi-god?”
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Contego’s base)


Cedrak tied up the last surviving pirate and stepped back to survey the scene. Pirates: tied up. Friends: chatting. Base: had a hole but nothing a little duck tape, elbow grease and headlight fluid couldn’t fix. Options: kill the pirates, call the army to take out the trash, and a possible third option that he hadn’t considered. Despite his hate of the pirate scum he couldn’t bring himself to kill them in cold blood, a fight was one thing but when they were tied up like this he just couldn’t do it. Call the army was an equally bad solution, no way would they believe that Contego took out three pirate ships by himself, and if they saw Telum or himself, questions would be asked, and their cover would be blown. Contego sighed and called to his friends, time to find out what option three was.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Cedrak’s plan was crazy, but it would work, also it was simple.

All it required was a nova blast.

“there are people who have talent, they go far, there are people who will work hard, they also will go far, but if one has both, then the sky’s the limit”- A friend of mine
………………………………………………………………………………………………

Contego took a deep breath and focused, Cedrak and Telum had brought up as much ship wreckage as they could and placed it near the last intact ship, now it was all up to him. He felt the power coursing through his veins and the euphoria that came with it, this was a serious problem many toa faced: energy addiction. For toa doing Nova blast for the first time (some were lucky enough not to have it) the sensation of energy filling them distracted them, causing them to draw upon to much energy, in some cases it was energy burns, sometimes a mis-fire and there were even rumors of some exploding.
Contego had a strong mind though, and pushed the sensation back down, light emanated from him and formed tendrils, the tendrils shot to the wreckage of the other ships, and began adding to the flagship, making it bigger and all around improving it, that was the easy part. When they were done the tendrils shot over to his own fort, stripping of anything useful and even some of its metal plates. When they were done the tendrils shot back and began adding to the flagship again, adding lasers, armor plating, and even engines and an anti-gravity generator.
When he was done, the fort was no more than a shell and the ship was more of a floating fortress than anything. Contego felt the drain and took one knee.
“Note… to self… don’t do that again...” he managed to mutter before falling completely over. Telum picked up his friend and turned to Cedrak
“Hey, thanks for the help with everything by the way, here take this” he said and tossed him a tube shaped object with a note pinned onto it. “You know what to do, so see ya on Zerix!” he quickly boosted up to the deck and pressed a button located by the wheel, the lightened warship took off on her maiden voyage, on her hull it was sloppily painted in blue ‘Epsilon’ (done by the tendrils). Cedrak waited until the ship was out of sight then turned to Zaktan and shook him awake. He stared directly into the Skakdi’s eyes and said in a low, threatening voice:
“If the toa army hears anything about me, you might just have to go casket shopping, understood? Zaktan was a master at bluffing, and by extant he was also a master at telling that if other people were bluffing, he looked the creature in the eyes and looked for any traces of a bluff.
To his horror, he was not joking.
Zaktan nodded, and Cedrak dropped him, smiling. “Glad we had this conversation.” Cedrak pressed the button on top of the tube, it began flashing. He nonchalantly threw the beacon away and swiftly headed off in the direction of the mountains.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Toa army headquarters- metru nui)

“Sir!” a Matoran shouted into the intercom “I think you need to see this, a recovery beacon was activated!” Takanuva was there a moment later and the room felt a bit warmer somehow. Takanuva was the last toa from the era of the Paladin, he was a Matoran named Takua at that time, but one day the paladin passed through Ta-metru and asked for volunteers, he almost immediately did so, the paladin blessed him and here he was today. Adorned by golden armor (all power forged) a head taller than most toa, along with both a sword and his trademark staff, it was no wonder why he was their leader. He had tried to stop the forgetting of the Paladin, but he was ordered to stop by the council, though he loathed it, duty was duty.
“Whom does it belong to?”
“It’s Contego’s sir” Takanuva was interested by this, why would Contego light the beacon? He was a proud one and would never do so unless something bigger than a Tahtorak attacked him. ‘Either that or he set it off trying to dissect for parts’ he mused.
“Send a team after me, I’m going to go make sure that he didn’t accidentally blow him self up.” Then his eyes widened as he considered that possibility, the Artakhians considered dying like that a bad way to go, considering all that they but into science, their labs were far beyond anything even the Vortixx could cook up, thus it was considered outright sabotage if one died in such a manner and even if he was just a half-breed, the Artakhians might still take offence to that.
This suddenly became more important.
Takanuva transformed into a beam of light and dashed out an open window, the distance to the base was covered was covered in less than a second but he was in for a surprise. He had expected a small scale war going on, or Contego standing there looking sheepish, and mayhap a crater where his lab was. He had not expected for the base to be only partially blown up, a band of unconscious pirates left on the doorstep (and to his surprise more than a few dead), and Contego nowhere to be found.
He recognized a few of the pirates, the dread Zaktan’s crew and even the captain himself, but oddly enough only bits and pieces of their ships remained. He calmly walked over to the pirate captain, who was struggling fiercely against his bindings.
“Mind telling me what happened here?” he asked calmly, acting as if he was talking to a civilian and not a B-A ranked criminal.
Zaktan’s only response was to spit at his feet, and to go back to struggling.
Takanuva frowned and let loose a small burst of elemental energy, temporarily blinding and stunning Zaktan. Though out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the recovery beacon, with a note attached to it, deciding to leave the Captain to the psychics, he went to examine the note.
It read as such


Sorry about just dropping this on you, couldn’t think of anything else, also I hope you don’t mind that I took their ships, and my stuff, but I left whatever belonged to the army, as for me I’ve received a new offer! Don’t worry he’s legit, the king of Zerix himself wrote a letter asking for my services. I took it, but I still want to thank you for taking in a whacko like me.







-Contego

P.S. can I still have the bounty on Zaktan?

Takanuva pondered this, Contego never did anything to hurt the army, he wasn’t on duty, and he was still alive, so that crisis was averted, and from what he knew of the king of Zerix, he was a good man indeed, so he decided to let the sudden exit slide for now. But questions remained, How could Contego defeat so many Skakdi, the lad was skilled, he gave him that much, but it wouldn’t be enough, though the question of dead Skakdi was easy to answer, the security systems didn’t take prisoners. As he thought on this a ‘BAMPH’ sounded and what was dubbed a “clean-up crew” teleported in. The crew consisted of a psychic toa (interrogation) a fire toa and his icy counterpart (crowd control and to put out fires) and to round it of a toa of earth, stone, and iron (structural repairs).
The Psychic saluted “squad 29 reporting for duty sir!”
Takanuva nodded and began to bark out orders, oh how he had missed field operations “Psychic, began interrogating the emerald slime over there, try not to cause any permanent damage, fire you guard the pirates until ice is finished flash-freezing them for transport, earth, stone and iron, do your thing.” The toa saluted in response and got to work.
………………………………………………………………………………………………

(some time later)

The Psychic clutched his forehead in exertion once more, and then he sighed and stood up to face his commander. “There’s good news and bad news sir, the good news is that I managed to pull some data on the black market, meeting areas and such, but when I got to the battle he became extremely defensive. Sir, I know I’m pretty good at my job, but whatever he’s hiding he’s protecting with his life.” Takanuva nodded and pondered the possibilities, mayhap the Psychic had taken a (for lack of a better term) a wrong turn into a more sensitive area, after all, Skakdi minds were notoriously hard to read, which is why there were still pirates out there. He dismissed the issue with a shrug.
“His mind may be strong, but a few weeks in the proto mine will make him want to bargain with us, go to him then and offer him fine food and better conditions, he’ll spill.”
Zaktan spat another curse “Mark my words toa! I will come to your cities and pillage them! I will hunt down your women and children, and after I’m done with them I’ll-”
That ended abruptly when the ice toa who flash-froze Zaktan, more than a little unsettling due to the fact that he looked like an evil ice sculpture.
The icy hero turned to his comrades and shrugged. “He was getting on my nerves”
Takanuva chuckled a little and addressed the team “take these guys to the hole and take the day off.” and shot off in a beam of light as the toa team teleported Zaktan and his crew to the hole, worst proto mine on the face of the planet.


He wouldn’t be there long.
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(Destral)

Irecrax needed soldiers. Not the rank-and-file, capable men at arms, and definitely not elite and well-paid mercenaries. More specifically he needed mooks that he could throw about at a moments notice and not feel bad about it later. Exo-toa made good guards, but were to expensive to mass produce, Rahkshi were easier to mass produce, but they rarely listened to direct orders and were easily distracted by a chance to destroy, making good shock troopers but bad foot soldiers. Although Spiriah’s “super Skakdi” project was near completion, they would only (theoretically) make good lieutenants, but then people would notice if boatloads of Skakdi went missing daily, negating the chance of foot soldiers.
Then it came to him, Rahkshi were created by the Makuta’s energy after all, who said there couldn’t be variants? Irecrax called in an Exo-toa and an empty Rahkshi shell and went to work, the end result was a suit a head taller than a Matoran and scrawnier, and had an open plate on its head. Irecrax felt a feeling of slight revulsion as a smaller, stupider, but more obedient Kraata slid out of a crack in his armor, and into the empty armor, the thing was silent for a moment, but then its eyes flickered to life and thumped its hand over its chest and let out a fierce hiss.
“Perfect,” Irecrax muttered “strength of the average Matoran, dim, but obedient, and most importantly easily expandable”. The new creature had no idea of its significance as its creator let loose a deep and somewhat malevolent laugh.
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(Destral- meeting hall)

Irecrax had called a meeting of his elites (Antroz and the others), to display his new soldier, as it marched into their midst Bitil scoffed.
“He doesn’t look very awe-inspiring, Irecrax this is the best you can do?”
In response to that remark Irecrax motioned his soldier to Bitil, the Rahkling pulled out a dagger and screeched, launching itself at Bitil, trying to get at the surprised Makuta’s face. Bitil easily threw off the creature and turned to Irecrax. “Still not impressive.” He deadpanned. Irecrax coolly snapped his finger and the doors burst open and a small flood of creatures launched themselves at Bitil. Irecrax turned to his remaining audience.

“They are cheap, fearless, obedient, and not to mention they have a great deal of tenacity, gentlemen, our foot soldier, the Rahkling.”

The Makuta clapped over the sound of Bitil being assaulted.
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(Zerix- 1 day later)

A floating fortress was not something one saw every day, however after psychic Steltians, ancient axe-wielders, element-less Toa and sentient hordika, it was safe to say that the people of Zerix were hardly surprised when another oddity appeared.


Lordon sighed; he almost missed the days when he just ruled a simple farming island, almost. Stepping onto the parapets, he hailed the visitor.

“What business do you have on my island, stranger?” the toa on the deck of the fortress returned the hail.

“A friend of yours sent me here.”

“Cedrak?”

“How did you guess?”

“He seems to have a penchant for sending powerful friends to my door.” A laugh resounded at this.

“Then two more join your ranks as does the Epsilon!”

Yep, just another day in Zerix.
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The rural Matoran were fascinated by the new visitors, for the all they had were disks and basic tools, hardly advanced technology, so the arrival of a flying fortress and its passengers was as if the gods had arrived on a steel chariot. Contego, once he had set up a new lab, had found more than a few volunteers, mystified by the magic he called science, Telum however, enjoyed training with Solis, Veson and Velaix, testing the limits of his steel body, but he also enjoyed being among the Matoran, who treated him as if he were a toa. All in all life had improved for the two scientists.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for their mutual friend, Cedrak.
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(Cedrak- the Doomridge Mountains)

Cedrak had decided that this was getting ridiculous, he had been climbing this mountain for two days and there was no end in sight! And worse yet, the mountain seemed determined to kill him, biting winds, landslides, and avalanches were constantly battering him, and whenever he tried to descend, whatever he tried step on crumbled.

The mountain was definitely trying to kill him.

Cedrak felt his power ebbing away, he knew his strength, but it seemed, he mused, that nature was still stronger.

And with that he collapsed.

But it was not his fate to die this day; another figure was traveling this mountain range, and took pity on him, with a wave of his hand, Cedrak was lifted from the snow and was brought along with him.
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(The hole)


Zaktan thought he was tough, and he was, but nothing prepares you for a proto mine, there, you work in stifling heat, until you dropped dead or the guards told you to sleep. Food and water were scarce, and had to be stolen, like it was said, no matter how tough you are, the mine is tougher, but things had taken a better turn, the warden had called him up, and now he was sitting at a fine in a fine room, a bowl of fruits in front of him, across from him sat an individual that was undoubtedly a Makuta, the mask of shadows made it obvious.

“Feel free to partake of the fruit.”
Zaktan dug into the fruit like a ravenous beast, when he finished, Zaktan looked back up at the Makuta.

“Okay, what do you want?”

“To the point then? Very well, in three hours the Toa will come back, and pluck the information from your mind, then execute you, or you can suffer an “accident” and an oddly identical Skakdi will come work for me and potentially become the strongest Skakdi in the world. And in return for this, the Skakdi will tell me the specifics of the fight that landed you here, so we can take revenge”

“Chances of death?”

“Small, but there will be pain.”
Zaktan snorted “I’ve worked with worse.”

“Good, you will die in half an hour.”
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There was a rumbling, the guards drew their weapons uneasily, but were unprepared for the small flood of Rahkshi that poured through a hole made by a brown one that hissed a challenge, in the midst of the chaos, the brown Rahkshi shattered the bars of Zaktan’s prison and shoved in a dead, green Skakdi, Zaktan followed the Rahkshi back to the hole and soon found another Rahkshi waiting for them, the two hissed for a while, then the other Rahkshi waved his staff.

The last thing Zaktan remembered was the odd sensation of being squeezed through a tube.
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Takanuva surveyed the chaos, then in the blink of an eye, all the Rahkshi were reduced to pieces, suffice to say, if you could see beings moving at roughly light-speed, it would have been impressive.

“Report, how many is left?”

“Sir! We lost 1/5 of the prisoners, and though the guards have no casualties, we have injuries.”

“Hold on a second” Takanuva disappeared and reappeared in the space of less than a second, “Found the nest, you don’t have to worry about Rahkshi anymore.”

And that gentlemen, is why Irecrax isn’t obviously evil.
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