11.Nov.06

Feel The Rhythm Of The Ice

Co-authored by Sinead and Omicron the IceQueen

Also a crossover with Omie’s Bionicle Kora saga

She was curled up, knees pulled up to her chest, head tucked in and arms crossed over, the shields attached to her forearms were collapsed as far as they could go. The sugar white being was as compacted as she could get as she passed though the island's teleportation system. It took some time getting use to the light and energy of this but once you did you could pick out if something was wrong. Like right now.... There was an un-natural pulsing of energy and her path was disrupted. She was forcefully ejected out of the system and crashed to the stone floor a moment later.

"YE-OW!" the Kora of Ice yelped as she rolled to a stop.

Stopping mid-motion in a set of katas, the tall, fierce bot blink in stark confusion at the intrusion. "What in the Pit."

The Kora twisted and then was on her feet, the human like face wincing in pain and the odd colored eyes looked around, blinking when she saw the other.  "Err..."

Dinobot didn't know what in the Pit to do, other than stay on guard and question. "What the Pit are you."

"What in Mata Nui's name are you?" the white Kora tossed back

“You, First."

Tala, the Kora of Ice took a step back, her battle shields extending as she took her own defensive stance. The claws on the right shield popped out as she spoke, "Name's Tala, I'm de Kora o' Ice. One of da guardians of Mata Nui."

His frown increased. That infernal accent, yet again it comes to add to his misery. But the historian and scholar within his soul trembled to life. Kora? Mata Nui? He didn't say anything, just waited for her to elaborate.

"...an' ya have no idea what dat is huh?" she took another step back before back flipping, to get some breathing room between them.

He blinked twice then shook his head once. "I am . . . assuming it is a place."

"An island." Tala said, "Dat's where I've been livin' the last year.”

"An island? Where."

She shrugged one shoulder, eyes never leaving his optics, "Hell if I know man. Not in dis world I can tell ya dat for sure."

He narrowed his optics before loosening his stance, seeming to put her to a non-threat category as he continued his exercises. "An you called yourself a Kira? Kura?"

"Ko-ra. Loosely means ‘young Toa.’ And what is dis? Twenty questions?"

"Curiosity," he muttered, swinging the sword above him before coming to a crouched position, both hands upon the hilt, the sword nearly upon the ground, right leg stretched out slightly as he glared into nothingness for a silent moment. He shifted his gaze to the Kora. "You are on prehistoric earth. In a war. I am Dinobot."

"........" the ice spirit blink her red and blue eyes then face palmed, "I ain't paid enough for dis!"

"Elaborate," he replied, sheathing the sword and walking closer, opening his body language back up to his normal military-style.

The Kora side stepped, not letting the ex-Predacon get too close and had at least one shield facing him, "Well, I really don't get paid at all come ta think 'bout it." she tilted her head, "In a war on prehistoric earth? I really should be surprised but I ain't coz' I've seen weirder.....wait. Earth?! As in de human world?" If it were possible her gray skin and white armor would have paled even more.

"Affirmative," Dinobot snarled, optics wary. "The prospect of that being true frightens you."

"If de Makuta finds an open portal back ta Earth he'll..." Tala swallowed, her colored eyes narrowed. Not in anger but in a realized fear of a future possibility that wasn't nice.

"Makuta?" Dinobot hissed, curious. He stalked a pace closer, setting his head at an angle. "Perhaps you should begin your tale, telling it from the start."

"...That would be a looong tale m'man." Tala said, eyeing the larger being but didn't move again, though her guard stayed up.

"Then paraphrase," he replied, not moving, but watching her. "I have a lot of time upon my hands."

"Ah-kay." she shrugged a shoulder, "In the time before time Mata Nui had a mega fight wit his brother, de Makuta, it went really bad fast. Somethin' happened to space it's self, opened a Portal to da human world. Makuta found a poison there dat would make Rahi go nut-so and rampage around." Tala scratched the side of her neck with one of the long claws on her right shield. "De Great Spirit found six young Kora it the human world, brought them ta....the Bionicle world ta help. They did, and sealed the portals. Long time later de Makuta brakes those seals and new Kora are called. I.e. me an’ my brother an' sisters, it's our destiny ta purge the Rahi an' re-seal the portals to da human world.”

"...dat's da short story of it..." She added after a short pause of silence.

Dinobot stared at her for one long, strange moment before saying, "If you did not look as you look, nor spoke or moved as you do, I would have slagging locked you in some corner and forgotten about you within moments." He paced three steps, turned and said, "These Kora you speak of . . . they are the primary guardians of that . . . other world?"

"Nah." Tala shook her head, glancing down at her gray skinned and white armored self, wondering what was wrong if anything. Whoa, had it really been that long since she saw herself as a normal human? Must be... "We're second to da Toa."

"Toa?" he growled. This was all completely new to him. Fluttering his tongue, he thinned his lips in thought. "Toa . . . What, precisely, are these Toa?"

"Elements. Err, Guardians, each repisentin' an element. Also called element spirits. Da Kora are the same, just not as strong, I'm the younger spirit of ice." She tapped a shield to her armored chest, wandering if the other would pick up the fact she had left out how many guardians there was total.

"What elements," he hissed, this time not looking at her as she spoke. His attention was fixed upon the dirt of the cavern.

"Eh, six: Fire, Ice, Stone, Water, Earth an' Air. I got bother and sister Toa an' Kora in each."

"One Toa for each, one Kora," he guessed, his tone not giving away that it was a guess, but instead that he had deducted it somehow from her speech. Dinobot's crimson optics were watching every little movement the Kora made. "Most of the Toa are male; the Kora mainly female."

"Cha." She didn't see a point in not telling the truth. Tala took a few paces, the way she moved was fluid, in the way a dancer is. Though there was also something that said she had fought before and could again. Unlike most humans he'd seen, her gray skin looked very thick and not as prone to cuts and scraps.

Dinobot smirked. "Smart, in not telling your numbers. However, I am merely . . . curious. Not assessing your numbers for attack."

"I also declined to tell that da Guardians ain’t the only ones who can fight back home." Tala gave her trademark smirk

"Those whom you protect know how, I assume," he replied, smirking back. "In their own way, of course."

"Ya can say dat again..."

Smirking very slightly, Dinobot walked up to within five feet of the Kora. "You . . . are an intriguing individual, yet I am positive that you do not move as one born in that . . . 'Bionicle' world would. I would thus assume that you were born human."

"Ah'yep. Was human once." Tala looked at him, her gaze losing part of that cheerfulness. It had been a mask, or part of one maybe. The Kora was older then she looked, he new the look, having given it himself. It was a look of some one who had to 'grow up' fast and learned to defend or attack. Then the look was gone faster then it showed as the Kora smiled.

"I am Kora. I am Bionicle now."

Dinobot processed this wordlessly, watching her without blinking for a long while. He didn't want to see her squirm, but he wanted to see how much she really believed in that. How much she really WAS a Bionicle Kora.

She stared back at him. The truth of the matter was that she was use to it, having done several stare-downs with her elder brother of Ice, Kopaka, which were like this. Though they had once had a battle of wills that lasted an hour. Tala had gotten bored after that and walked away with a 'eh you do what ya want ta do, 'Paka.' she could never hold still for long, it just wasn't apart of who she was.

Dinobot nodded once, after five minutes, acknowledging her spirit. "You are what you say you are. Interesting."

"No offence, but Kopaka can figure dat out faster."

"He knows you. I do not."

"Eh. He didn't at first."

"Not many would. Appearances are oft deceiving."

"...you sound like Vakama." Tala blinked, "creepy..."

"Vakama?" Dinobot queried, raising an optic ridge.

"Elder." The Kora simply said.

Dinobot nodded again. "Of which element?"

"Fiiiiiire..." Tala changed her voice, mimicking someone Dinobot didn't know. Then her manner change as she spook again, "M'kay I'm gettin' bored real fast. Dar any slops near by? Preferably one that has lots o' snow an' ice... I'm hot...."

"Ice?" Dinobot hissed, shuddering. "Primus, you have strange tastes."

"Ice is good, it’s my element. Da colder the better man"

"You're out of your mind," he snarled. "Ice?"

"Yes, ice." Tala lifted her right shield and, after retracting the claws, she took two steps over to the nearest wall and rapped it on the stone. She smiled at him as first frost then ice formed on the rock. "Ice."

Dinobot hated ice. He. Hated. Coldness. But he walked closer to touch the ice with a talon, scraping it over the surface before looking at Tala. If this was a demonstration of what SHE could do, and her Toa was stronger . . .

Bowing his head to pace away from her, he looked up a shaft to the sky above. It was full dark, but the luminescent plants kept the cave lit. "If this is an example of what you can do . . . if any of your comrades come to this world, we cannot allow them to fall into Megatron's hands."

His stern gaze fell upon her own mismatched gaze. "Come with me."

"Why?" She tilted her head

"Because my leader needs to know what I now do. This is bigger than I could have ever dare dream," he hissed, showing a hint of uncertainty for the first time.

"Oh, so ya can dream?" Tala smiled, "An' who's dis leader of yours?"

"Dreaming shows sentience," Dinobot grumbled, turning to face her. "My leader is Optimus Primal of the Maximals. I am allied with him. He will know what to do."

"An' if I donna want ta go?" The Ice Kora quirked an eyebrow up at him, "Just for curiosity's sake."

"Then stay here," he growled, not really seeming to care about her choice. "But be warned: Megatron is not a bot to be toyed with. He will make you to his bidding."

"Uh-huh." The Kora shifted her weight to her left leg, "Does he have infected masks?"

"Infected what?"

"Masks. Great Konohi Masks." Tala sighed, reminding her self that this...guy wouldn't know about anything from her island home, "Masks of Power, only de Makuta can corrupt them an' the wearer. Thus, once da mask is infected he can control who-ever." She grimaced, like she knew first hand what it might be like. "I'd be really on edge if dis Megatron can do dat. If not, the possibility of him controlling a Kora, let a long a Toa is highly unlikely."

She would have to see for herself. "Let it be known that there are those within his control that should never have been brought online, and should never have been brought under the light of day."

"....You sound too much like a Turaga." Tala said then laced her figures behind her head, the two large shields on her for-arms folded in on them selves so they were a third of the size they had been before... She strode out to the cave opening; the Kora stopped glancing back at him, "Well? We gonna see dis Primal guy or what? I sure don’t know da way."

Dinobot snarled neutrally, more for the lack of anything else to say, then walked out, shifting to his beast mode as he did so, not even blinking at the at the transition that was so much of who he was. "This way."

"Whoa." Tala stared, "You just...changed into a Rahi." she jerked after a moment of stillness and trotted after him, "Dat's cool! How'd ya do it?"

"Rahi?" he snarled, blinking at her. "The Pit are you talking about?"

"Rahi means: animal, creature, beast, however ya want to say it." Tala blinked turning to face Dinobot as she walked along side of him and lifted her hands palms up, fingers spread out in a ‘I-mean-no-harm’ way. “Not dat I’m sayin’ you’re a Rahi, coz’ ya not. But ya just turned inta one so ya are. No, wait, dat didn’t come out right. Aw frag… I just shoved my shield in my mouth didn’t I?”

Dinobot was startled into a chuckle, surprising both himself, and, he assumed, the Kora. "That . . . is one way of putting it." He indicated himself with a tilt of his chin. "This is a beast mode. It protects my robot mode from an element upon this planet that, when in excess, causes permanent circuitry damage."

"Hmm. What kind of element?" The ice spirit said, relaxing some when she found that Dinobot hadn't taken offence at her words.

"Element . . . Mnrrr. Unlike your kind, we Transformers do not have assigned elements." He struggled to come up with something else to say, then decided to leave it. If she had more questions, she would ask them.

"Damage...huh..." For some reason Tala found herself thinking of Potodermus, "Can dis element be in a crystal or liquid form?"

"Are you listening?" he hissed. "We. Do not. Have. Elements."

"You got water?"

He gave her a dull glare.

"How 'bout air? Fire?" She lightly kicked a rock, "Ya’ got stones, earth. I'm breathing da air. We both saw the ice I made." Tala looked back at him coolly, "Earth has elements just like Mata Nui, just coz' ya can't control them doesn’t mean ya don't have 'em. You're a part of an element ya self: Metal."

Dinobot fluttered his tongue. "None but a few have elemental contact or powers. And those are regarded more as chance happenings than anything else."

"Well if that's how your culture sees it." Tala shrugged, "Just don't get Vakama or Nokama going on da subject, they'll talk ya ear off."

"And they are Toa?" Dinobot hazarded.

"They are Turaga, the elders of the island."

Dinobot's love for history and warfare, was loving the chance to be learning something new, of a culture nobody else had known of. He was a warrior, true, but an intelligent one. He was a scholar in the arts, after all. "And these Turaga are the teachers of your island."

"Teachers, guides and leaders of their respected villages as well as parental figures ta all." Tala smiled, thinking of the times she and Nuju had spent talking over a meal about the ledges of her island home. Sometimes other Matoran, or even Kopaka would join them to hear the elder talk, or any of the old Turaga.

Dinobot inclined his head. He could see the respect the Kora had for both her own elder as well as the others from her homeland. “It will not be long till we come to the Axalon.”

“...Any snow on da’ way?”

“No. There is not.”

“Frag…”

T.B.C.