Mahana Hordika yes, Mahana Hordika. Mahana existed as a matoran on Metru Nui. she has the heart of a Toa, drives of Weebl and Bob, and the giant gauntlets of Nina Cortex. Tech Notes: okay, I have to admit it, this one was inspired by the way-too-cool-for-her-own-good Nina Cortex, the "bionic goth girl" from "Crash Twinsanity." who doesn't like a mute bucktoothed goth girl with giant mecha-mitts skipping over the rooftops to angry metal music? I'm still not entirely satisfied with Mahana's giant mitts. the cables were originally planned to attatch to her back, making them look more like augmentations rather than naturally occuring features, putting further emphasis on the fact that she ain't normal. and the extension feature was a real bear to figure out. it's a little weak, but maybe I'll modify it to do more like the Bohrok spring-loaded punch rather than goofy stretchy arms. the liftarm connected to her mitts can be "locked" in place by pressing the small "bolt" attatchment snugly against and over a small axle piece in the forearm. powers/abilites/etc: Mahana Hordika, like all the Hordika, lost the ability to user her elemental Toa powers for a while. instead, she simply relies on her giant mitts to deliver devastating punches. she can tap into the power of her mutated Kanohi Hordika slightly in order to extend her arms a bit. with this talent, she can climb and hang on to virtually anything for a near indefinite period of time. finger cramps do occur, though. once she regains her energy powers, she can slam her hand onto the ground and create a massive shockwave that disrupts everything nearby. Big, fancy, really long Story: Mahana aimlessly wandered the wrecked city, it's crumbling remains a perfect mirror of her psyche. Kiri Metru, legendary balladeer, impromptu toa, and Mahana's best friend and employer had days ago taken Dume's Kanohi Kiril and dove into the heart of the collapsing coliseum, amidst a storm of energy and flying debris. now all she had to remind her of the toa sworn to protect Metru nui from the shadows was her mask of molecular reconstitution and a broken string from her Guitar. The once energetic Le-Metruan shuffled through the remains of the formerly proud knowledge towers, unaware of the giant spiderwebs quickly being spun amidst the shattered spires. "Kiri will come back. She just has to. she saved the city...she saved the island..." Mahana broke down in the middle of a once bustling metru square, its shop stalls now an array of splintered wood and protodermis. sobbing uncontrollably, she had no idea what attention she was gathering. a skitter of feet, a click of mandibles. The scrape of something unholy against ice and stone. Barely thinking straight, the matoran stared at the back of the Toa's kanohi. "I'll keep it safe for her. I have to. I don't know if...when. when she'll return." Being just a matoran, she knew she couldn't tap into the unimaginable power of such a kanohi, but she heard that Ta-Metruan forgeworkers could sense the power in a mask. Curious, she held it up to her own mask, a typical Miru. Feeling nothing, she tried to stop another surge of tears. Her thoughts bounced back and forth. She had seen the Makuta, a creature more feared than the Dark Hunters, form before her eyes. The giant claws, the rows of razor- sharp fangs, the hideous wings. then, the coliseum beginning to crumble under its own weight, sending shockwaves of energy into the blackened sky. the look of determination on Kiri's face as she shouldered her broken guitar and gazed into the Kiril. a thousand reflections dancing off the silver spheres holding every matoran in the city save for her. was it a blessing or a curse that she hadn't been placed in one of those? "KIIIIIRIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!" Mahana screamed in despair, repeating the same shriek of horror she uttered when the Toa made her final decision to rescue the doomed city. staring into the kanohi once more, she gave up all rational thought. ripping off her miru, she slammed the powerful kanohi onto her face. her mind went blank, then became a violent whirlwind of nightmares. her body twisted into that which could only be found in the recesses of the dark one himself's thoughts. the ever- changing matoran struggled to keep control as her arms grew into the massive claws of the Makuta, struggling to think of the fallen toa in order to claim her form. the Boggarak had just about enough with this freakshow and shot a Rhotuka directly into the storm, ending all of Mahana's thoughts for a good long while. a week passed. two. perhaps three. the cocoon had been all but forgotten, due to the visorak swarms' discovery of even more toa to eat. a small bird rahi landed on the massive parcel of silk, dangling over a breathtaking view of the ruins of ko-metru. the rahi's sharp talons dug into the silk and scratched something below it. sensing movement, the rahi hurriedly took flight again, not wanting to see what had made that ripping noise behind it. Immense claws shredded the cocoon and cradled the odd creature's face. the Rahi's claws left twin gashes above the eye of the beast. angered from the sudden interruption of a good sleep, the giant swung around to see where its attacker was, but only succeeded in getting thrown out of the cocoon. falling was an interesting sensation. the creature could remember something about falling and how important it was, but couldn't place it before its claws dug into the side of a knowledge tower to stop the descent. clinging to the ice spire, Mahana Hordika surveyed her domain. Gemuri had an equally bad day. waking up inside a visorak cocoon after a bad dream of some onu-matoran dragged off by vahki was bad enough. then it got worse. she couldn't remember anything of what happened before she woke up, save for perhaps the dream, and she now encountered the ruins of Ga-Metru harbor. she flexed both pairs of arms and stared, perplexed, at the small violin and twin serrated whips she was holding. "guess they're mine now." being an already mutated Rahkshi, then mutated again by visorak, Gemuri apparently kept more of her rational side through the whole ordeal. spying a small fruit tree, the Rahtoraga climbed out of her cocoon and sat down to make a quick lunch. more weeks passed. Mahana lept from tower to tower, sometimes throwing herself into the depths of the Onu- Metru mineshafts for a thrill, hunting small rahi to eat, trying to think. of anything. when one day, she smelled something. it wasn't the scent of a rahi she could eat, nor of a visorak. it was something different. something warm, sweet. she tilted her head for a moment, trying to get more of the heavenly scent. then it hit her. "PIE!!!!!!" Mahana looked around for a second, suprised by the odd sound she had just heard. did she do that? what did it mean? was "pie" good? the gigantic Toa broke into a loping sprint on all fours, her massive arms throwing her forward faster than she could ever run on two legs, getting ever closer to this enigmatic "Pie" thing. "Pie! Pie! Pie? Pie! PIE!" she chanted the word in her head to the beat of her gallop. she liked the sound of it. was there other things that sounded this fun? Gemuri stood up from her makeshift hearth. the pastry kept baking on a heated kanoka shard, but it was now in danger of being thrown directly into the fire from the massive vibrations thumping through the ground. it seemed to be one creature. coming close. four legs, so it couldn't be a Kikanalo. not a regular one, anyway. she scooped up the disk and pie with one of her whips and dove for cover, terrified of the giant creature that had suddenly skidded into view. standing back up, the beast looked taller than a Kikanalo, but most likely stupider. it sniffed the air, uttering the same odd sound it was chanting earlier. Gemuri figured it was just some odd grunt or bellow, but once the creature got closer, she knew it was aware of her cooking. she knew it was only a matter of time before the gigantic thing found her and the pie. should she eat it and get rid of the scent? no, finding her and no pie would only get it angry. leave the pie and run? dangit, that was her pie. she had already had to throw a couple of her hard-earned fruit at a rampaging ussal to keep it appeased, she wasn't going to give up this food. Looking around, Mahana saw a flash of blue amidst the debris. the smell seemed to be coming from there. she knew some other creature had the pie, but for some reason, killing it and taking the pie was out of the question. perhaps this thing knew how to make more. throwing a large canoe off the debris pile, Mahana saw a small, blue, four-armed thing staring back up at her, wide-eyed. "You have pie?" Holy Mata Nui, it can speak. don't panic. don't fight it. you saw what it did to that canoe. give it what it wants. share. do something. Gemuri slowly offered the Pie and Kanoka, now quite cool, to the colossus. a giant hand, nearly the size of the canoe Gemuri had been hiding under, gingerly took the kanoka from her. flopping down into a sitting position, the beast sniffed the pie again and stuffed it into its mouth with reckless abandon. "good pie. have more?" More sounds. Mahana smiled. she liked them all. almost as much as the pie. they were coming a bit more easily now, like a slowly widening hole in a protodermis dam. she looked back at the odd blue thing and blinked. perhaps it didn't know these sounds. "more...pie?" Gemuri stood in utter astonishment. here this thing stampedes in, eats her pie, and now asks for more. well, with those giant mitts and relative...bigness, the beast could reach more fruit trees and perhaps even catch rahi easier than she could. it could talk, so why not try talking back to it. "I don't have any more pie, but I can make some more if you help me. understand?" Mahana giggled a bit. "understand." the word sounded a little funny. she didn't quite know what it meant, but she knew perfectly what "help," "make," "more," and "pie" were. she nodded. Fantastic. Gemuri put out the fire and motioned the giant to follow her towards a small grove of wild fruit trees that had taken advantage of the leaking protodermis turning a portion of Ga-Metru into a swamp. her mood lifted a bit by the idea of less work for her, she pulled out the violin and tried playing a few notes. not bad for not knowing what she was doing. but behind her, the beast stopped. More sounds. not the sounds like "pie" or "understand," but they were still familiar. more memories. a friend. a good friend could make those sounds. a friend that had been lost. Kiri. "Kiri?" Gemuri turned around at the wrong time. she had simply wondered why the leviathan had stopped, but the creature thought she was turning in response to the name. "KIRI!!!" catching the blue Rahtoraga in a crushing hug, she knew things were getting better. "No, no, my names Gemuri, GEH-moo-ree-aw, screwit." Gemuri croaked from the suffocating embrace. "Oh...sorry, Kiri." Mahana dropped her friend gently on the ground and beamed at her. "You...remember...me?" the words were still odd, especially the larger ones, but she knew she was getting them more and more each time she used them. "Erm...yes...but, your name is...?" Gemuri stammered, unsure of wether the beast had a name, or would be offended by being asked it. "Mahana! Kiri no have to worry, Mahana not re...remember things too." "Well Mahana, glad to meetcha. now, we have a bit of work to do. see those big round red things up there? those make good pie. but we need a lot of them." random picture notes: "awakeupcall"-- after finding a matoran "coma can," and being told a Matoran was sleeping inside it, she tries her best to rectify the situation. "philosophy" --protect matoran. eat pie. if situation occurs where matoran and eating pie arrives at same time, protect matoran before eating pie, unless Mahana can eat pie while protecting matoran. Tokaru, design courtesy of Dex antares (tokaru on brickshelf), is Mahana's reluctant object of protection.