Chapter Two

Near the Fountains of Wisdom in Ga-Metru, scores of Matoran looked up at a massive screen. The wise, benevolent mask of Turaga Dume, elder of the city, gazed down upon them. None paid any attention to the transport that crawled by on insectoid legs. Driven by Vahki Bordakh, the order enforcement squads of Ga-Metru, it carried several large, silver spheres.

“Matoran of Metru Nui,” Dume began, his voice and image carried all over the city. “It is with deep sorrow that I must inform you of the disappearance of our beloved Toa Lhikan.”

In Ko-Metru, Ta-Metru, and all around the city, Matoran gasped. Those who attempted to approach the screen, or turn away from it, were stopped by Vahki squads.

“But with the help of the Vahki,” Dume continued, “order shall be maintained. Trust in me and soon all your concerns will be laid to rest.”

The Turaga’s words felt like hot irons to Vakama. Back in his forge, he was looking at the package Lhikan had given to him.

“Toa Lhikan… I failed you,” he said sadly. He undid the foil wrapping to find he was holding a Toa stone. It was then he noticed the writing on the metal wrapping, but before he could examine it more closely —

“You should not blame yourself, Vakama.”

The Matoran turned to see Turaga Dume entering, flanked by a squad of Vahki. A good mask-height taller than Vakama, Dume radiated wisdom and a paternal feeling for all Matoran. But the Vahki close by were a constant reminder that Dume was the authority in Metru Nui and his words were to be obeyed.

Dume looked around at the chaos left in the wake of Lhikan’s struggle with the Dark Hunters. “You are a mask-maker, not a Toa,” he said gently.

Vakama nodded. While Dume was looking away, he slipped the Toa stone and its wrapping onto the already cluttered table behind him. Certain it was well hidden, he went to get a chair for Dume, only to get his feet tangled and stumble to the ground.

“I have come for the Mask of Time,” said Dume.

Vakama scrambled to his feet. “Yes, ah, well… I am sorry, Turaga. It’s not yet ready. Great Masks take time to craft.”

“Perhaps you are using inferior disks.”

“I use the finest quality available, Turaga. Only Great Disks are more pure, but they can only be retrieved by a Toa.”

Dume turned away. “Of course. Pity Toa Lhikan is not here to help.”

Vakama turned and bumped the table, knocking the Toa stone off. Only swift movement let him catch it and conceal it again before Dume turned back to him.

“Bring the completed mask to the Coliseum before the great contest,” the Turaga ordered. “The destiny of Metru Nui rests in your hands.”

Vakama allowed himself a sigh of relief as the Turaga and his Vahki departed. As soon as they were out of sight, he went back to the metal wrapping. On closer examination he could see the writing on it was a detailed map — a map of a place every Matoran knew well.

“The Great Temple…” Vakama whispered.

As soon as he was able, Vakama slipped away and journeyed to Ga-Metru. But when he arrived at the Great Temple, he found to his surprise that there were other Matoran there as well. Five of them, in fact, and all strangers to him.

Matau looked Vakama up and down and said, “Fire-spitter? Did you wrong-turn?”

“You tell me,” Vakama replied, opening his hand to reveal the Toa stone he carried.

Nokama stepped forward and showed that she, too, had a Toa stone. Each of the other Matoran did the same. “It seems we are all recipients of Toa Lhikan’s gifts. All similar, yet each unique.”

“Like us!” said Matau, smiling. “All Matoran — some just more handsome than the rest.”

Whenua shook his head. “Who’s ever heard of Matoran getting summoned to the Great Temple like this?”

“What will be asked of us?” added Nuju. “We are all just… strangers.”

“Some stranger than others,” said Onewa.

Nokama gave the Po-Matoran a sharp look. “Your negativity pollutes this sanctuary, builder.”

“Save the lessons for your class, teacher,” Onewa spat back.

Their argument was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a stone shrine, which rose out of the floor in front of them. “The Toa Suva!” exclaimed Vakama.

“When Toa realize their full potential, this suva shrine grants them their elemental powers,” Whenua recited from memory.

Each of the Matoran stepped forward and placed their Toa stone in a niche in the Suva. A beam of elemental energy shot from the assembled stones. The temple chamber shook as if a great earthquake had struck the city. Then, as suddenly as they began, the tremors came to a stop.

The Matoran looked at one another, bewildered, as the image of Toa Lhikan’s mask appeared in the energy beam. The yellow Kanohi Hau hovered in the air.

“Faithful Matoran, Metru Nui needs you,” the Hau said, speaking in Lhikan’s voice. “A shadow threatens its heart. Prove yourselves worthy Toa and fear not. The Great Spirit shall guide you in ways you could not imagine.”

The mask glowed blindingly bright. The Matoran staggered backward as beams of energy shot from the mask, bathing them in unimaginable power. The Matoran began to glow, then change. Their bodies grew taller and stronger, armor forming where none had been before. Their masks transformed from the simple Kanohi of Matoran into Great Masks of Power.

The hovering mask, now a bright ball of light, suddenly winked out. No sign of its presence remained, not even the Toa stones. The six Matoran — now six armored Toa Metru — looked at themselves and each other in awe.

“Are we… Toa?” asked Onewa, excitement in his voice.

“If we appear to be Toa-heroes, then we are Toa-heroes!” answered Matau.

Whenua, once an archivist in Onu-Metru and now the Toa of Earth, voiced the thoughts of them all. “Since when are Matoran just zapped into Toa?”

“When uncertain times lie ahead,” suggested Nuju.

Onewa looked around. “Now all we need are —”

As if in answer, the sides of the raised suva fell away to reveal a cache of Toa tools. “These!” shouted Matau.

The six new Toa rushed over to choose their equipment. Onewa grabbed a pair of proto pitons, Nuju twin crystal spikes, and Whenua earthshock drills. Vakama pondered for a moment before taking a disk launcher for himself.

“Nice choice… for playing Matoran games, mask-maker,” chuckled Matau.

Nokama chose a pair of hydro blades, even as Matau began practicing with his aero-slicers. He executed a series of rapid maneuvers with the sharp tools, shouting, “Oh yeah!” Halfway through a particularly complicated exercise, one of the blades flew from his hand and narrowly missed the new Toa Metru of Water.

“Need I remind you,” snapped Nokama, “this is about honoring our responsibilities to the Great Spirit?”

“Nokama is right,” agreed Whenua. “Mask-maker, you saw Toa Lhikan last, right?” asked Whenua.

When Vakama nodded, Nuju said, “What did he say we could expect?”

Hesitantly, Vakama took a step forward. “He said…” the Toa Metru of Fire whispered.

“Speak up, fire-spitter!” said Onewa.

“He told me to stop the darkness… that I had to save the heart of Metru Nui,” Vakama replied. “Then the Dark Hunters took him away… it was because of me.”

Vakama stopped speaking. His thoughts had turned inward as another vision overtook him.

Shadows criss-crossed the landscape. Vakama was leading a group of figures toward Metru Nui, where there was a bright flash. It illuminated a city in ruin! Stunned, Vakama moved forward, only to see the city suddenly restored before his eyes.

Six Kanoka Disks flew toward him. Vakama ducked and dodged to avoid being struck, but the disks were not trying to harm him. They shot past him, then hovered in the air and unleashed their power on the Morbuzakh plant. Before their energies, the plant withered and died. Then, they merged together to form one huge disk before bursting brilliantly into —

Then Vakama was back with the other Toa. Though the vision was gone, he was still shielding his eyes from the flash of light. Onewa looked at him and said, “All that smelting must have cooked his head.”

“I saw it!” Vakama said frantically. “Metru Nui was destroyed! The six Great Kanoka Disks were headed right for me.”

“Thanks for dream-sharing,” said Matau, making no effort to keep the doubt out of his voice.

“Finding them would prove to Turaga Dume that we are worthy Toa,” insisted Vakama.

“Well, according to ancient legend, one Great Disk is hidden in each metro,” said Whenua.

“So we go on a scavenger hunt because a fire-spitter stood too long in front of his forge?” sneered Onewa.

“Visions can be a sign of madness,” said Nokama. “Or messages from the Great Spirit. But as Toa, we cannot afford to ignore them.”

When no one spoke, she continued, “Then it is agreed. Each will recover the Great Disk from our own metru and present it to Turaga Dume.”

Onewa looked at Vakama and muttered, “I am doing this for Lhikan. No one else.”

Nokama led the Toa Metru deeper into the temple. On one wall was an ancient carving that the Toa of Water said contained clues to the locations of the six Great Disks.

“The Great Disks will be found by seeking the unfamiliar within the familiar…” she said.

In Po-Metru, you must seek a mountain in balance…

High above the Sculpture Fields of Po-Metru, Onewa, Toa of Stone, wrestled to free the Great Disk. The disk was embedded in a huge, triangular slab of protodermis that was delicately balanced on one point. With a mighty heave, he freed the disk — and the slab began to topple toward him…

In Ko-Metru, find where the sky and ice are joined…

Nuju, Toa Metru of Ice, slid down a steep incline, headed for a very long fall. As he flew off the edge of the Knowledge Tower roof, Nuju grabbed on to a huge icicle that hung from the ledge. That was when he noticed that this icicle was most unusual.

Frozen inside it was a Great Disk.

The Great Disk of Le-Metru will be all around you when you find it…

Matau, Toa of Air, was in the one place he always hoped to avoid: inside a magnetic force sphere hurtling through a Le-Matoran transport chute toward certain destruction. But the sphere, which absorbed any debris around it, had also captured a Great Disk, and unless Matau retrieved it, the disk would be shattered.

Some days, being a Toa-hero is not all it’s cracked up to be, he said to himself.

No door must be left unopened in Onu-Metru…

Whenua struggled to slam a door in the Archives. The angry mutant Ussal crab on the other side had other ideas, though. Its massive claw snapped, trying to trap the Toa of Earth in its pincers. Not for the first time, Whenua wished that they would put signs on the doors of the exhibit rooms in this living museum.

Using all his Toa strength, Whenua succeeded in shutting and locking the massive door. He looked at the Great Disk in his hand and hoped that in the end all this struggle would be worth it.

In Ga-Metru, go beyond the depths of any Toa before…

Nokama swam through the protodermis sea with smooth, easy strokes. She had successfully wrestled the Great Disk from between two jagged outcroppings and now was headed to the surface with it.

She had been so excited about finding it that she never noticed that the two “outcroppings” were teeth… or that a huge creature from the ocean’s depths was now closing in on her…

Embrace the root of fire in Ta-Metru…

Vakama hung suspended in a Ta-Metru fire pit, trapped in the grip of a blackened, twisted plant. In his hand he clutched a Great Disk… but just how he would make it out of the  pit with the disk intact, he could not imagine…

And these glorious disks will be yours.

After many adventures, both together and separately, the Toa Metru finally met outside the Coliseum. Each held the Great Disk from his or her own metru.

Nokama looked at her fellow Toa Metru. “Any troubles?”

The Toa looked at the ground, at the Coliseum, at anything but each other. “No,” each mumbled in turn.

Then they walked together toward the massive door of the Metru Nui Coliseum.