Bionicle: Legends of Earth

Chapter 3

Hahli screamed as the world was abruptly yanked out from under her, sending her crashing to the ground as she was forcefully dragged towards the edge of the cliff and to her doom. She couldn't see what it was that had ensnared her, she only knew that whatever it was, it was obviously strong enough to keep her from moving her legs even the tiniest bit. As she approached the looming edge of the plateau, she managed to grip onto the ledge that hung over the immense drop with her free hand, still being pulled by her captor.

She remained like this for what felt like days, her entire being stretched between her fellow Toa and friends, who were frozen with fear at whatever it was that was trying to steal her away, an immense drop to the ground, where she was sure that she would be smashed to bits upon impact, and a monster (whom she could only imagine was more grotesque than that of the Barraki, by the way her brothers were staring) who was bent on having her for it's meal.

All of a sudden, there was a piercing noise, the tension on her legs went slack, and she was immediately sent swinging back towards the cliff side. Seeing an opportunity to save herself, she immediately tried to hook her protosteel talons into the ledge above her, to give her an anchor to climb back up. But before she could, her ears were nearly blown out by the sound of an immense explosion, apparently nearby. As she hung there, legs flailing futilely, trying to get some kind of leverage or foothold to propel her back up to her brothers, she felt something strange grip her heart.

Fear.

It was a foreign feeling to her, fear. When they faced the Piraka, she hadn't been afraid. When they faced Vezok, she wasn't afraid. When they had been thrown into Karzahni, had their Kanohi stripped from them and forced to wear Karzahni's twisted masks, she was not afraid. She had been concerned, worried and even scared, but not afraid.

Not like this.

Back then, she knew that everything they did was noble, for the sake of Mata Nui and for all of the Matoran that she had lived with on Mata Nui, and who were still counting on her on Metru Nui. But now… Now there was nothing noble behind the Toa Mahri's actions. They weren't fighting for others that could not defend themselves, and they had no greater purpose to serve. Karzahni, they didn't even know where they were! Now they were simply fighting to survive. How had it come to this, Hahli wondered, to go from fighting for the life of the Great Spirit to fighting for their own lives?

She had little time to ponder this, as she felt something grip her around her torso and lift her up. Unable to react in time, she was left with only one option; resign herself to the will of Mata Nui, and hope that she survived long enough to drown her brothers for their inaction while she was left in danger. To her surprise, whatever held her now was similar to the grip of that creature that had captured her first. And yet it was…different; less brutal, perhaps? Whatever it was, it was clearly less uncomfortable that being yanked off of the side of a cliff.

What surprised her even more was whatever creature it was placed her back on top of the cliff that she had fallen off of, feet-first and very gently, as if it were afraid to hurt her. Unfortunately, due to the exhaustion of the first creature's attack and the strain on her legs, she collapsed to the ground immediately. Panting heavily, she attempted to catch her breath after her extremely trying ordeal.

As she lay there gasping for breath she wondered, what exactly this creature was that had saved her? Was it some grotesque beast that would put the most hideous Rahi to shame? Or was it some noble creature that fought for the sake of Mata Nui and Toa alike? Was it native to this land or was it also stuck in the same horrible situation the Toa Mahri now found themselves in?

'Well, there's only one way to find out…' Hahli thought to herself, preparing to get up and confront…whatever it was. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something approaching her. Something large and pale, not like the metal and organic protodermis that she was used to seeing. She could only assume that it belonged to the creature, and that it was trying to help her again. She found herself genuinely touched that any creature could be so kind, and to someone that it barely knew!

Hahli stretched her hand out to grip the large, pale thing, and found it to be very soft, yielding, and slightly squishy, unlike anything she had felt before. 'Just what kind of creature is this?' she thought as she steadied herself, and stood to her full height, about twice as tall as the pale, squishy thing. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned herself around and found herself staring up at the visage of her rescuer.

What she saw was the last thing that she was ever expecting.

She first realized that the large, pale and squishy thing that she was holding onto was it's hand and the creature had no armor covering it anywhere, save for some sort of flimsy, flax-like material that covered it's torso. She also found herself unable to tear her eyes away from its face, staring at her with a strange combination of awe and confusion.

Its eyes were so much different…so strange and unusual; nothing like the glowing optics that she and her brothers shared. She also noted that it was much easier to read emotions on this strange being's face; while the Matoran and the Toa all had masks that could display some sort of semblance of facial expressions, they were only masks, and could only move so much. But this creature…its squishy outer layer was so flexible; she was left with little doubt that it could display a wide variety of emotions that her kind would never be able to emulate.

As she stared at it, she realized that she owed her life to this creature, and in an effort to extend good will, she tried to thank it.

Immediately afterwards, it passed out cold.

As she stood there, her brothers joined her at last, each of them asking if she was injured in any way from the recent 'attack'. She responded by focusing on the moisture in the air around her, trying to create a powerful spray of water to knock some sense into her idiot brothers for standing there slack-jawed as she was thrust into danger's unforgiving grip. It was then that she came to a horrible realization.

She couldn't use her elemental powers.

Still, consumed by rage and not thinking straight, she settled for the next best thing: Beating the living daylights out of them with her protosteel talons. It proved to be much more effective than the failed Nova Burst she was aiming for. After a few wild swings (along with some assorted screams from her brothers and a 'Crazy-mad Toa on the loose!' from Kongu), her talons managed to connect with a target.

Unfortunately, it was Nuparu's own protosteel weapon, his razor-edged shield. However, instead of the loud 'clang' sound and resonating shockwave she was expecting, all that happened was a loud 'clack' and an indignant "Hey!" from Nuparu. Hahli could only stand in shock as she realized exactly what this meant.

"Brothers…" she began, her voice breaking slightly as she tried to squash down the fear that had returned to grip her heart in all of its icy coldness.

"Yeah, psycho?" Kongu replied, still the annoying Air Toa he had come to be known as.

"I think…I think we've lost all of our powers." Dead silence.

Kongu began to nervously laugh in the background. "What, are you serious? We're Toa-heroes! We don't just lose our powers! That's…that's…" he trailed off, not wanting to dwell on the disturbing thought any longer.

"Unfortunately, that's the truth, Kongu," Jaller stated in a morose tone. "I can't summon any fire at all now…" It was clear that this was disconcerting to the Fire Toa as well, enough to sink him into a depression that would put any Ko-dweller to shame.

"And another thing," Hahli spoke up again, "Have you noticed our armor? And our masks; they aren't made of protodermis anymore. They're…something else." She mentioned, her voice wavering as she spoke, also severely shaken by the recent, and drastic changes that had overcome them.

"She's right," Nuparu said, "This is unlike any kind of material I've ever seen before in my life. It's lightweight, but it can stand up to pressure that normal rock and stone would crumble under. This is very interesting…"

"Yeah, sure, if you call being cliff-bound, in the middle of nowhere on some Mata Nui-forsaken planet interesting, then I'm not arguing there!" Kongu snapped, stress finally registering full force.

Recognizing the signs of a fight, Matoro tried to diffuse the situation as best he could. "Calm down brother, I'm sure Nuparu only meant…"

"I don't care what he meant! We're cliff-bound, and all he can deep-think about is some new armor! We should be seek-finding a way back home, not sitting around look-staring at ourselves! And if you're not gonna help me, then I'm way-finding my own way out of here!" Kongu was clearly not holding up under pressure very well. As the Toa Mahri stared dumbfounded at their normally light-hearted friend walk away, they failed to realize that he had not taken any of what was said very seriously…until he tried to jump off of the cliff, obviously intent on summoning an air current to sweep him up and gently guide him to the ground.

Unfortunately what happened was he fell off of the cliff screaming for his life as he flailed and tumbled to what would have been his doom…had there not been something semi-soft to cushion his landing.

As Hahli peered over the edge, fearing what had happened to their impulsive brother, she gasped sharply when she saw what Kongu had unwittingly done. The creature that had saved Hahli was now coughing and gasping for breath, having been rudely awakened from its impromptu nap in the most painful of ways.

The creature was awake once again, and Hahli feared that it would not be so kind this time around.