Quest for the masks - Olmak

Chapter two

BRUTAKA

The carved name was still hot when Gali found it. The hoverboard was taken down from the air and bound to a caravan of adapted Tarakava, and the wall where Lhikan was suspected to have been taken was inspected by Ihu and Matoro. The two matoran examined texts pertaining to the Kanohi Olmak. They knew that one incarnation of a half-skakdi, Vezon, was fused with the Olmak but that he didn't stay in their world for long. As far as they knew only one working Olmak existed in this universe, hidden in the vaults beneath the city. None knew of it but the scholars and the guards. All others had been told it had been destroyed. It was a forbidden mask, deemed too powerful and too dangerous to exist. The council of Unnu Nui had decided to keep it in case its powers were needed to escape the ravages of decay which plagued the desert outside the city gates.

Its owner, Brutaka, had been dead for millennia. Lhikan and Defilak had been dispatched to a small oasis town south of the city when Brutaka attacked. He had spent months picking places with dangerous rahi from around and beyond the planet, and in one day had opened several portals to these places within the coliseum of Unnu Nui whilst the Toa were away.

Several matoran and agori died and many more were injured. The worst damage came from the universe where zombie Visorak had eradicated all other life. Unbeknownst to Brutaka, Kopaka and Jovan had remained in the city, suspicious of the distress signals from numerous villages. The pair raced to the centre of the city, collapsing the coliseum floor and freezing it over. To this day the zombie Visorak remain there in the ice, countless donated swords and support girders aiming toward them, waiting to implode should they wake.

Gali was knocked from her reflection by Matoro, who had noticed something in a crack in the wall.

"Morbuzakh" he said quietly.

"It will need to be verified in the towers" Ihu replied.

"It was ash, all of it. Our suspicions were correct. This is an alternate Brutaka" Gali interjected. She took the vine in her hand and toyed around with it. It was fat and healthy. Despite its evil nature, she was pleased to see at least one plant in one universe was doing well.

"I doubt he meant to leave this here. I suspect his universe is overrun" Ihu suggested. He remembered the story of the cremation of the Morbuzakh. Makuta Spiriah had engineered a virus to target the plant, and once every vine was incapacitated they were incinerated by a team of five Toa, two Toa of plasma, and three Toa of fire. There was a great struggle, and finally one Toa of plasma almost killed himself in a nova blast to kill the giant plant.

"And what of Lhikan, how did this alternate Brutaka know to find him here?" Gali asked.

"The Kanohi Akalsi, mask of alternate vision" Kopaka replied. He had appeared at one end of the tunnel with Jovan, the two friends stood side by side.

"When we froze those Visorak we saw things we were not supposed to. Forbidden masks, and forgotten masks, under the coliseum. There is an Akalsi in this universe, and we think there is one in several others. We found that Lewa had been using it under instruction from Artakha, to speak to beings in other universes. We suspect Brutaka did much the same, matching the architecture of his own universe with ours, mapping out the tunnels, watching Lhikan and waiting until he was alone" Jovan said.

"But why Lhikan?" Matoro asked.

"He knows where the Olmak is" Jovan replied.

"But Brutaka already has one" Matoro said. Gali frowned and rested a hand on the little matoran's shoulder.

"Brutaka needs more. He wants to do something bigger than one mask permits. And he is using the Akalsi in his world to listen in to ours. Tell me, how does this mask work?" Gali asked.

Kopaka considered the question for a few moments, putting a hand before Jovan to indicate he wanted to answer. Ihu was inspecting the Morbuzakh vine, and Matoro was looking up to Kopaka, his idol.

"You can see alternate worlds through it, as long as they are similar to our own. You cannot see into other's minds. You cannot walk through walls or see things hidden in that universe. It works much like my Akaku, but instead of seeing through rock and metal, it sees through the membrane between realities." The toa of ice replied.

"And how did Brutaka know where to look, how many alternate worlds are there?" Gali asked. Jovan stepped forward.

"The Akalsi must have some form of selection mechanism, it only sees universes close by. I imagine masks like the Olmak can only open portals to parallels which are touching our own world. Brutaka must want more because he realises there are other, stranger realities beyond our own neighbourhood of universes" Jovan replied. He spoke grimly of Brutaka's supposed plan, struggling himself to imagine what strangeness might lurk beyond similar universes.

"Perhaps a universe without matoran, without light" Ihu pondered.

"Before, you said Lewa was asked to speak to other beings in other worlds. Why? Did Lewa see anything of this universe, where Brutaka came from?" Gali asked.

"He spoke to beings from worlds where the endless desert is a boundless forest. He spoke to beings where Tahu and Lhikan joined the team of fire and plasma Toa, where they blasted the whole desert to glass to stop something stirring underneath. Lewa was chosen for his ability to befriend many different beings, for his loyalty, and his sense of purpose. He saw terrible and wonderful things, including a timeline where there was an evil version of himself. That is the reality this Brutaka is from. He didn't tell us much else, and he felt awful for revealing what he did" Kopaka spoke.

"We must find him and Artakha. We must tell them of this event" Gali said.

"They already know. Word moved fast across the sands. That is how we knew to come here" Jovan answered.

"What was Lhikan doing down here, with his board floating above?" Matoro asked. The matoran of ice was normally quiet, but something was amiss with this story, something he could not ignore.

Kopaka looked at him grimly, knowing one day his curiosity might lead him into danger.

"Lhikan was on another mission ordained by Artakha. We do not know what he was waiting for. We must go to them now, we need to know more to know how to act" the toa of ice announced.

With that the beings moved as one down the dark corridor, the undulating sands above whistling into cracks in the ancient tunnel. They headed to Unnu Nui to speak with Artakha and Lewa, to find out what was happening and why.

At the coliseum of Unnu Nui, below the playing fields and the frozen visorak, Lewa and Artakha stood in a darkened sandstone room, an illuminated case of forbidden and once lost masks glowing faintly in the centre.

"How much should we tell them?" Lewa asked.

"As much as they should know to put them on the path I have chosen" Artakha replied. 

Trying to flesh out the world here, and include some secrets that some characters don't know. What motives does Lewa have?