Chapter Two

Several hours ago:

A large group of nearly thirty Visorak moved across the Silver Sea of Protodermis. Most were on small rafts, while the Boggarak simply skated across the water. For the other five breeds it was hard not to be a bit jealous. They were all heading for one place: a relatively small island to the south of the southern continent, quite far from any other inhabited land.

They had been instructed to head to the island in secret, which meant that they had stayed well away from any continent, island or other sea-going vessels, and had kept silent. Even now when they were far from land, the Visorak were silent. They dared not speak, lest they betray their presence.

It was not that the Visorak were scared of anything they might come across, it was that they were afraid of what their mistress would do to them if they failed. They hadn’t encountered any ships and had managed to stay clear of all continents and islands, which was an impressive feat because Visorak are not very good at manning boats or steering them.

Whether it was destiny or luck, they were now coming up on the island. This made them more excited and a few Keelerak and Vohtarak even shouted their enthusiasm. This action was met with little resistance from the lead Suukorak. Now that they were close to the island, it didn’t matter very much. After all, it thought, with the island’s inhabitants soon to be cocooned, what was the harm in letting them hear us coming.

But not cocooned yet, the Suukorak remembered, nothing must be done to the island’s inhabitants until later.

As they reached the island the small fleet of rafts veered to the right. The Suukorak had been briefed on what to do. They were to land in the island’s forested area, then capture the village and its Matoran occupants. The Suukorak had never actually seen a Matoran before, but had been told that they were small and timid. Not a match for a Visorak, it had thought. When the rafts reached the shore the Boggarak pulled them up. As the Suukorak disembarked it noticed a small boat that had been dragged to the edge of the forest. Good, thought the Suukorak. For one small boat had been mentioned in the briefing, and it signified that this was the right spot.

Once all of the rafts had been secured and the Visorak had disembarked, they advanced. How to capture the village was up to the Suukorak. It had been shown what the village and the surrounding hills looked like, and theorized that the best way to attack was to surround the village. So the Visorak split into three groups. One would take the left side, one would take the right side, and the third would go straight down the middle.

It had already been daylight for a few hours before the Visorak arrived on the island, so most Matoran were not asleep. An Onu-Matoran was the first to see them, and promptly ran yelling back to the village. It took all of the Suukorak’s commanding skills to get some of the Visorak not to go charging after him.

Due to the Onu-Matoran’s frantic tale of what he saw, the Matoran were already aware of the Visorak when they entered the village and tried to make a stand against them. They threw tools, rocks, anything they could get their hands on as their village was surrounded. This effort did not hinder the Visorak, but one Vohtarak was infuriated enough to attempt to charge them and had to be restrained by two others.

Then they closed in, corralling the Matoran, forcing them into the village center. In a short time, all of the Matoran were in one spot, completely defenseless. The Suukorak ordered a few Roporak to search the hills to see if any Matoran had not been in the village. Then it turned its attention to the assembled Matoran.

The group of Visorak could just have cocooned all of the Matoran with very little effort, and most of them really wanted to do that. But they did not. The Suukorak and all of the other Visorak had their orders, not that they made much sense to them. They were supposed to keep the Matoran in the village and not let them escape. And most important of all, they were not to do anything to them yet. They were to wait for two days, and then they could wrap them up in webbing. The Suukorak knew the orders better than any other Visorak and tried to follow them to the letter, but it too found the temptation hard to resist.

This was like torture for the Visorak. To let small helpless creatures be free, and not in cocoons, felt just wrong. But they didn’t do anything, for they feared the consequences if they disobeyed their orders. True, their mistress was not here right now, but she was very powerful and no Visorak knew the extent of her abilities. What if she could somehow know what they were doing right now? Most Visorak agreed that it was not worth the risk.

The Roporak returned with three Matoran in tow, who were soon in with the rest. Now came the hardest part of all for the Visorak, the waiting. They had to wait for a whole two days before they could get their mandibles on the Matoran, and they quickly got restless. With nothing to do they resorted to patrolling, then idly wandering, then fighting to see who was stronger. This distracted them for a while, but not completely. The Matoran were still there, just begging to be webbed up.

Then one of the Boggarak suggested that they just cocoon the Matoran now and say that they waited. This idea went over quite well with most of the Visorak. The Suukorak could almost not believe it. How could they consider abandoning their orders? it thought. But deep down, it felt the same way. Why don’t we just web up the Matoran now? said a voice in its head. No, we have to follow our orders! thought the Suukorak.

Just then a Ta-Matoran decided to test his luck and tried to make a break for one of the exits. For the already unstable Visorak, this was too much of a temptation. A Keelerak bounded after the Matoran, followed closely by a Vohtarak and an Oohnorak. They got him before he could escape, and made sure he would never try anything ever again.

The Suukorak and a few other Visorak shrieked in anger. How could they just ignore their orders like that? the Suukorak thought as it went to confront the Keelerak. Within a few seconds the two were fighting. It was vicious, but it didn’t last long, because a new element had entered the picture. One of the Boggarak shot a spinner at an emerald and lime armored being up on the hills, who jumped out of the way.

This was the beginning of the end for this group of Visorak.