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Description
Kevlin mini-series.
Chapter 1.

My footsteps echoed through the corridors of the toa headquarters. It was the only sound accompanying me, in fact. A confusing sense of regret clutched around my heart. Just hours ago, my sister had seen through the toa’s plan, and Maurak had caught her. But now, she and our ambassador had both went missing, and five dead bodies were found. I didn’t doubt for one moment that M’azzal, my little sister, was behind those murders. But there was one thing that bothered me: there had been no way for my little sister to get hold of any weapons. And every body still had their weapon, without bloodstains on them.

I shrugged off this thought, as I turned left and encountered an open door. Even though it was opened, I knocked on it out of habit.

“Cut it, Kevlin,” my friend, Kriss, said. She was already at the crime-scene, since she had immediately ran to it when turaga Hahli had told us the bad news, at the huge steps to the entrance of the headquarters.

Another factor that had delayed me was that I had to throw up and wipe away my tears. I was happy Kriss had already went. She’s a tough person, just like sissy, but in contrary to M’azzal it’s just her shell that’s tough. Seeing me in such state certainly would’ve made her burst.

The scene of the two bodies of the greeny guards, Barcida and Hiilfra, made my heart only sink deeper. I found my sister suspicious from the start, ever since she wandered off to unknown places after her transformation. But I had always tried to ignore that, and I kept telling myself that M’azzal was just acting weird.

But then the murders started. At least once a week, the toa headquarters would receive a message about a murdered member of Kaine Noir’s gang. At first the matoran were happy, even though we as toa were not. But then the mysterious murderer started involving the citizens into her rampages. She would leave bodies rotting away in supply crates, kill members right in front of the eyes of citizens, and even force matoran to help her trapping her targets sometimes.

About a few months later, I discovered my sister’s scythe under her bed. I knew that she was in possession of one, since it was the weapon she was gifted with as a toa. But the blood stains on the steel were what alarmed me. The day after I found out, I warned her for the mysterious so-called “reaper toa,” because rumor had it they’d involve innocent people at night. It only made sense to her that I’d warn her, seeing as she went out almost every night.

Since then the murders became more silent, and also happened less frequently. She would leave the bodies of her victims in abandoned alleys, leaving them to be found, usually by a toa or a cleaner.

And now she was gone, and any signs that could tell us what happened were scattered over three places within the head quarters: the dungeon, the corridor and Maurak’s office.

Kriss whiped off the sweat behind her mask, revealing her true face for just a second. “I can’t believe we’ve been assigned to this case. It almost seems as if the HQ just wants to pay you back for what your sister has done,” she said as she stood up from her kneeling position.

I shrugged. “Most of the toa are still in the city because of M’azzal. They didn’t have a rented cab like we did. When some more experienced ones get here, I’ll sure the Turaga will hand this case over to them.”

“I sure hope so. In the meanwhile, don’t touch anything and just examine with your eyes. I don’t want to mess this up for the pros,” Kriss replied.

“There’s nothing to mess up, toa sister,” a voice to my left said. When I looked into the direction the voice came from, my gaze met that of Jellef, a Toa of fire, a “greenie” just like us.

“You’re just as wrong as your shots today were,” Kriss replied, not bothering to turn to him. He had clearly been bothering her for a little while before I got here.

“Speaking of shots: shots fired!” a familiar greenie Toa, who was standing on the opposite side of the room, said. It was Dorghen, a Toa of earth. He had been following Toa classes in the same year as me. I never talked to much to him though.

“Shut up, you rockhead!” Jellef shouted back. He felt around his neck, just where my little sister had held him earlier today.

I decided to quickly come between them. “Whoa whoa, calm down there, mates. We’ve been assigned to investigate this mess, no matter if this makes sense or not. So don’t start fighting now!” I commanded them. Neither said a word anymore.

I walked up to Kriss. “So, what are the clues you’ve found so far?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “More mysteries than answers.” She took a noteblock from the table, and handed it over to me. In it she had written the missing clues we were facing, such as:
“Cuts in dungeon victims don’t match reaper toa’s weapon of choice”
“No traces of reaper toa escaping from their jail”
“No clue what weapon was used to execute ambassador’s guards”
“No traces leading to ambassador’s and reaper toa’s current location”

A million thoughts went through my head at that moment. “You’re supposed to write ‘Toa’ with a capital ‘t’,” was all I said when I handed the notebook back to Kriss.

What I got was a questioning look from her. “Right, forgot about that. Do you have any other things I should write down?”

“What about how Kevlin’s little sister got a weapon? Don’t tell me you think she strangled all those guards with her bare arms!” Jellef interrupted us.

The other three of us in the room turned to him. He was leaning against a shelf, an arrogant smirk on his face.

“You’ve got our attention, speak up,” Dorghen said in his low voice. I could see Jellef did his best not to look intimidated.

“If you are to shut your mouth, rocky. Alright, so I suspect that either there is a third person in the game, or...” he pulled out a document from behind him.

“We’re standing on the wrong side of it all.”

“What’s that?” I could hear Kriss ask.

“It’s a document!,” Jellef replied proudly.

“We can see that, I meant what’s written in it.”

“Well,” the toa of fire recklessly made the bunch of papers float above his hand, using hot air to do so.
“These are Maurak’s documents. All his secret plans are written in it!”

“Hold on a second, where did you get that?” Kriss asked him. I had the same burning question.

“After my, uh, daring fight with the reaper toa, Maurak took me back to the headquarters in his Zylek X-11. I sat in the back seat, next to his bag.” He put up his hands in innocence.

“Hey, I know what you’re thinking, but that’s not it. I honestly just read a bit that was sticking out of the bag.” He paused for a moment.
“But it seemed suspicious, and in these unsure times I needed to read it al through.” He handed it to me.

“It’s as I said: we’re at the wrong side.” He said with a grim tone, something I wasn’t used to from a selfish and younger toa. I gathered my other colleagues in the room around me, and started reading through it.

“No way.”

“We’ve been infected with some sort of poison?!”

“Yup, we only got five weeks left to live.”

I balled my fists. The sheer depressive attitude from my comrades was a let-down for me.
“Alright, that’s enough!” I shouted, and I shattered the door behind me with my fist. It had the effect I wanted. Everyone was deadly quiet. I straightened myself up, and looked all three other toa into their eyes.

“It might be true that we’ve only got five weeks before we become mindless servants of Kaine, but that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we do now. My sister knew all of this, but to ensure her safety she kept quiet about it.” I paused for a moment to catch up my breath.
“She took out the men of Kaine on her own for years, and knew how not to get caught. Are you saying that you are going to give up right here, and just let it all happen?” I started walking out of the room.
“If any of you are true toa, we’re going to take our destiny in our own hands. We don’t know who Kaine’s infiltrants are, but we do have the Turaga on our side. So who’s going with me?”

I stood outside the room, staring at them from the corridor. No one said a word. Then, Kriss walked up to me.

“I should be ashamed of myself that I even hesitated,” she said with a pitty smile.
Jellef came up next, his selfish grin still slapped onto his face. “I’m not going to let that ugly-face decide about me.”
Finally, Dorghen joined us. He didn’t say a word.

“Well then, let’s get the Turaga for help,” I said, already walking down the corridor.

“Kevlin, wait,” Kriss exclaimed, she grabbed me by my shoulder. When our eyes met each other, she spoke.
“The Turaga are constantly guarded by at least two other Toa. We don’t know if infiltrants might be with them. For their and our safety, we must seek help from others.”

I knew she was right.
“But where can we get help then?” I asked.

“I know where we might find someone,” Dorghen answered. We all turned to him.

“Follow me,” he said. And so we followed him out of the building, to our next destination.

We arrived that night at a small tavern to the east of Cen-Traju. As me and my group stepped inside, I was overthrown by a horrible smell. I didn’t need to look at my comrades to know it wasn’t just me who smelled it, because I heard someone throw up behind me.

Before I could turn around and see who it was, one of the very few customers stood up from his table and walked towards us. He was a toa of fire. Behind him walked another Toa, one of the element of earth. They were both slightly hunched, and they had big swords with weird glass-like tubes in them strapped to their backs.

The red one pointed at me. “Need some help brother?” Now that he was closer to me, I took the time to inspect him a bit more. The thing that stood out to me most was that he was wearing a very organic and red mask.

His narrow green eyes kept staring at me, waiting for an answer. “Yes, I think one of my brethren has just thrown up.”

“Oh really? Didn’t see that,” the other hunched Toa snapped at me. I turned around to face him, and as I did I saw him and Dorghen supporting Jellef.

“You fire-spitters are made to look tough, but really, you can’t even handle the smell of your average bar?” The black hunched Toa continued, now making remarks to my brother of fire. I wanted to say something about it, but deep inside I had a feeling it wouldn’t be clever to do so. I quickly noticed that this toa also wore a mostly organic mask, but this one was partially covered in spikes and black metal plates.

“Alright Nuparu, you can stop it. He might be a greenie, but he has made it through the Toa exam, which means that he is our brother now, whether you like it or not.”

Nuparu? I knew Nuparu, everyone knew Nuparu. He was one of the very first toa, and member of a Toa team called the “Toa Inika”. They were known for their countless quests through the island of Staro Masko, and even outside those realms. Their signatures were their organic masks and their blades that shot powerful beams of energy. Those weapons were the forerunners of the newer and more popular sword-rifle hybrid.

I turned back to the red Toa. I now knew he had to be Jaller, Toa Inika of fire. Even before his golden days as active Toa, he had served as the captain of the guard of Ta-Koro, the place which is nowadays known as Tar-Taju. And everyone knew how he assisted a young matoran on his quest to become Takanuva, the legendary Toa of light.

I noticed that just like me, my brethren were staring at Jaller with wide open mouths. Every one of us, except for Dorghen. He had a happy grin on his face.

“Lads, these Toa will be our help,” he said, proudly presenting the two veteran Toa to us. He was answered by two pairs of annoyingly surprised stares from the two old warriors.

“Say what?” Was all Jaller said. But it was in a deep, uncomforting tone. I could see how the joy drained from Dorghen’s face.

Nuparu shook his head. “Listen, young Toa. You have passed your exams, you are full blown protectors now, even though you might be inexperienced. Now, leave us alone, I’m sure you can handle pickpockets on your own.” He already walked back to his table.

“Come, Jaller, our coffee is getting cold.” As he said so, he sat down and absorbed the brown substance from its bowl with his hand.

I saw Jaller hesitate for a moment. He had more left of his young and adventurous spirit than his brother. At last, he put his firm hand on my shoulder as he spoke. “I’m sure your task as Toa is tough, but believe me, after the first few years you’ll start getting the hang of it.” Then he sat down on the opposite of Nuparu.

“Well, it was worth the shot,” Dorghen said, already opening the front door to the outside.

“Finally, back to the fresh air. It was an absolute waste to come and visit them. They are nothing more but old cranky people now,” Jellef snarled quietly. His eyes looked as close to raging fire as possible. Nevertheless, he had already given up, and he followed Dorghen to the outside. I was left with Kriss by my side, but I could see that she too didn’t have much faith anymore.

But then, out of the blue, the fire that had just raged within Jellef, lighted up something inside of me. Before I knew what I was doing, I charged at the tabe where the two Toa Inika sat. I smacked down my hands on the wooden surface, the shock making the two veterans look up from their bowls. I was met by a sharp and alerting stare from Nuparu, and a mildly surprised one from Jaller.

I filled up my lungs, then yelled at Jaller. “I already got ‘the hang of it’, old man! I have served the headquarters as loyally as possible, as to the point where I was even ready to sacrifice the freedom, and possibly the life, of my own damn sister! You are the one who gave up your young spirit to fight, even though you still had it in you! If someone doesn’t have the hang of being a true Toa, a true protector of the helpless, then it’s both of you, and not us!”
I forced myself to calm down, then I spoke up again, this time calmer.
“Right now, our brethren and the matoran are in grave danger. But you aren’t fit to fight with us, because you aren’t even ready to listen.”
I gave them both a deadly stare.
“You aren’t even ready to help your own brothers.”

For a moment, it remained quiet. Both Toa Inika looked around them, as if I hadn’t screemed at them at all. Nuparu then stood up from his chair, his hand grabbed for his sword. The last thing I heard before chaos erupted, was Jaller. “Well, you blew up our cover, brother. Now you’re going to fight our way out with us.” Then, matoran and Toa who had been sitting in the tavern, jumped up and pulled their blades.

Description
Kevlin mini-series.
Chapter 1.

My footsteps echoed through the corridors of the toa headquarters. It was the only sound accompanying me, in fact. A confusing sense of regret clutched around my heart. Just hours ago, my sister had seen through the toa’s plan, and Maurak had caught her. But now, she and our ambassador had both went missing, and five dead bodies were found. I didn’t doubt for one moment that M’azzal, my little sister, was behind those murders. But there was one thing that bothered me: there had been no way for my little sister to get hold of any weapons. And every body still had their weapon, without bloodstains on them.

I shrugged off this thought, as I turned left and encountered an open door. Even though it was opened, I knocked on it out of habit.

“Cut it, Kevlin,” my friend, Kriss, said. She was already at the crime-scene, since she had immediately ran to it when turaga Hahli had told us the bad news, at the huge steps to the entrance of the headquarters.

Another factor that had delayed me was that I had to throw up and wipe away my tears. I was happy Kriss had already went. She’s a tough person, just like sissy, but in contrary to M’azzal it’s just her shell that’s tough. Seeing me in such state certainly would’ve made her burst.

The scene of the two bodies of the greeny guards, Barcida and Hiilfra, made my heart only sink deeper. I found my sister suspicious from the start, ever since she wandered off to unknown places after her transformation. But I had always tried to ignore that, and I kept telling myself that M’azzal was just acting weird.

But then the murders started. At least once a week, the toa headquarters would receive a message about a murdered member of Kaine Noir’s gang. At first the matoran were happy, even though we as toa were not. But then the mysterious murderer started involving the citizens into her rampages. She would leave bodies rotting away in supply crates, kill members right in front of the eyes of citizens, and even force matoran to help her trapping her targets sometimes.

About a few months later, I discovered my sister’s scythe under her bed. I knew that she was in possession of one, since it was the weapon she was gifted with as a toa. But the blood stains on the steel were what alarmed me. The day after I found out, I warned her for the mysterious so-called “reaper toa,” because rumor had it they’d involve innocent people at night. It only made sense to her that I’d warn her, seeing as she went out almost every night.

Since then the murders became more silent, and also happened less frequently. She would leave the bodies of her victims in abandoned alleys, leaving them to be found, usually by a toa or a cleaner.

And now she was gone, and any signs that could tell us what happened were scattered over three places within the head quarters: the dungeon, the corridor and Maurak’s office.

Kriss whiped off the sweat behind her mask, revealing her true face for just a second. “I can’t believe we’ve been assigned to this case. It almost seems as if the HQ just wants to pay you back for what your sister has done,” she said as she stood up from her kneeling position.

I shrugged. “Most of the toa are still in the city because of M’azzal. They didn’t have a rented cab like we did. When some more experienced ones get here, I’ll sure the Turaga will hand this case over to them.”

“I sure hope so. In the meanwhile, don’t touch anything and just examine with your eyes. I don’t want to mess this up for the pros,” Kriss replied.

“There’s nothing to mess up, toa sister,” a voice to my left said. When I looked into the direction the voice came from, my gaze met that of Jellef, a Toa of fire, a “greenie” just like us.

“You’re just as wrong as your shots today were,” Kriss replied, not bothering to turn to him. He had clearly been bothering her for a little while before I got here.

“Speaking of shots: shots fired!” a familiar greenie Toa, who was standing on the opposite side of the room, said. It was Dorghen, a Toa of earth. He had been following Toa classes in the same year as me. I never talked to much to him though.

“Shut up, you rockhead!” Jellef shouted back. He felt around his neck, just where my little sister had held him earlier today.

I decided to quickly come between them. “Whoa whoa, calm down there, mates. We’ve been assigned to investigate this mess, no matter if this makes sense or not. So don’t start fighting now!” I commanded them. Neither said a word anymore.

I walked up to Kriss. “So, what are the clues you’ve found so far?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “More mysteries than answers.” She took a noteblock from the table, and handed it over to me. In it she had written the missing clues we were facing, such as:
“Cuts in dungeon victims don’t match reaper toa’s weapon of choice”
“No traces of reaper toa escaping from their jail”
“No clue what weapon was used to execute ambassador’s guards”
“No traces leading to ambassador’s and reaper toa’s current location”

A million thoughts went through my head at that moment. “You’re supposed to write ‘Toa’ with a capital ‘t’,” was all I said when I handed the notebook back to Kriss.

What I got was a questioning look from her. “Right, forgot about that. Do you have any other things I should write down?”

“What about how Kevlin’s little sister got a weapon? Don’t tell me you think she strangled all those guards with her bare arms!” Jellef interrupted us.

The other three of us in the room turned to him. He was leaning against a shelf, an arrogant smirk on his face.

“You’ve got our attention, speak up,” Dorghen said in his low voice. I could see Jellef did his best not to look intimidated.

“If you are to shut your mouth, rocky. Alright, so I suspect that either there is a third person in the game, or...” he pulled out a document from behind him.

“We’re standing on the wrong side of it all.”

“What’s that?” I could hear Kriss ask.

“It’s a document!,” Jellef replied proudly.

“We can see that, I meant what’s written in it.”

“Well,” the toa of fire recklessly made the bunch of papers float above his hand, using hot air to do so.
“These are Maurak’s documents. All his secret plans are written in it!”

“Hold on a second, where did you get that?” Kriss asked him. I had the same burning question.

“After my, uh, daring fight with the reaper toa, Maurak took me back to the headquarters in his Zylek X-11. I sat in the back seat, next to his bag.” He put up his hands in innocence.

“Hey, I know what you’re thinking, but that’s not it. I honestly just read a bit that was sticking out of the bag.” He paused for a moment.
“But it seemed suspicious, and in these unsure times I needed to read it al through.” He handed it to me.

“It’s as I said: we’re at the wrong side.” He said with a grim tone, something I wasn’t used to from a selfish and younger toa. I gathered my other colleagues in the room around me, and started reading through it.

“No way.”

“We’ve been infected with some sort of poison?!”

“Yup, we only got five weeks left to live.”

I balled my fists. The sheer depressive attitude from my comrades was a let-down for me.
“Alright, that’s enough!” I shouted, and I shattered the door behind me with my fist. It had the effect I wanted. Everyone was deadly quiet. I straightened myself up, and looked all three other toa into their eyes.

“It might be true that we’ve only got five weeks before we become mindless servants of Kaine, but that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we do now. My sister knew all of this, but to ensure her safety she kept quiet about it.” I paused for a moment to catch up my breath.
“She took out the men of Kaine on her own for years, and knew how not to get caught. Are you saying that you are going to give up right here, and just let it all happen?” I started walking out of the room.
“If any of you are true toa, we’re going to take our destiny in our own hands. We don’t know who Kaine’s infiltrants are, but we do have the Turaga on our side. So who’s going with me?”

I stood outside the room, staring at them from the corridor. No one said a word. Then, Kriss walked up to me.

“I should be ashamed of myself that I even hesitated,” she said with a pitty smile.
Jellef came up next, his selfish grin still slapped onto his face. “I’m not going to let that ugly-face decide about me.”
Finally, Dorghen joined us. He didn’t say a word.

“Well then, let’s get the Turaga for help,” I said, already walking down the corridor.

“Kevlin, wait,” Kriss exclaimed, she grabbed me by my shoulder. When our eyes met each other, she spoke.
“The Turaga are constantly guarded by at least two other Toa. We don’t know if infiltrants might be with them. For their and our safety, we must seek help from others.”

I knew she was right.
“But where can we get help then?” I asked.

“I know where we might find someone,” Dorghen answered. We all turned to him.

“Follow me,” he said. And so we followed him out of the building, to our next destination.

We arrived that night at a small tavern to the east of Cen-Traju. As me and my group stepped inside, I was overthrown by a horrible smell. I didn’t need to look at my comrades to know it wasn’t just me who smelled it, because I heard someone throw up behind me.

Before I could turn around and see who it was, one of the very few customers stood up from his table and walked towards us. He was a toa of fire. Behind him walked another Toa, one of the element of earth. They were both slightly hunched, and they had big swords with weird glass-like tubes in them strapped to their backs.

The red one pointed at me. “Need some help brother?” Now that he was closer to me, I took the time to inspect him a bit more. The thing that stood out to me most was that he was wearing a very organic and red mask.

His narrow green eyes kept staring at me, waiting for an answer. “Yes, I think one of my brethren has just thrown up.”

“Oh really? Didn’t see that,” the other hunched Toa snapped at me. I turned around to face him, and as I did I saw him and Dorghen supporting Jellef.

“You fire-spitters are made to look tough, but really, you can’t even handle the smell of your average bar?” The black hunched Toa continued, now making remarks to my brother of fire. I wanted to say something about it, but deep inside I had a feeling it wouldn’t be clever to do so. I quickly noticed that this toa also wore a mostly organic mask, but this one was partially covered in spikes and black metal plates.

“Alright Nuparu, you can stop it. He might be a greenie, but he has made it through the Toa exam, which means that he is our brother now, whether you like it or not.”

Nuparu? I knew Nuparu, everyone knew Nuparu. He was one of the very first toa, and member of a Toa team called the “Toa Inika”. They were known for their countless quests through the island of Staro Masko, and even outside those realms. Their signatures were their organic masks and their blades that shot powerful beams of energy. Those weapons were the forerunners of the newer and more popular sword-rifle hybrid.

I turned back to the red Toa. I now knew he had to be Jaller, Toa Inika of fire. Even before his golden days as active Toa, he had served as the captain of the guard of Ta-Koro, the place which is nowadays known as Tar-Taju. And everyone knew how he assisted a young matoran on his quest to become Takanuva, the legendary Toa of light.

I noticed that just like me, my brethren were staring at Jaller with wide open mouths. Every one of us, except for Dorghen. He had a happy grin on his face.

“Lads, these Toa will be our help,” he said, proudly presenting the two veteran Toa to us. He was answered by two pairs of annoyingly surprised stares from the two old warriors.

“Say what?” Was all Jaller said. But it was in a deep, uncomforting tone. I could see how the joy drained from Dorghen’s face.

Nuparu shook his head. “Listen, young Toa. You have passed your exams, you are full blown protectors now, even though you might be inexperienced. Now, leave us alone, I’m sure you can handle pickpockets on your own.” He already walked back to his table.

“Come, Jaller, our coffee is getting cold.” As he said so, he sat down and absorbed the brown substance from its bowl with his hand.

I saw Jaller hesitate for a moment. He had more left of his young and adventurous spirit than his brother. At last, he put his firm hand on my shoulder as he spoke. “I’m sure your task as Toa is tough, but believe me, after the first few years you’ll start getting the hang of it.” Then he sat down on the opposite of Nuparu.

“Well, it was worth the shot,” Dorghen said, already opening the front door to the outside.

“Finally, back to the fresh air. It was an absolute waste to come and visit them. They are nothing more but old cranky people now,” Jellef snarled quietly. His eyes looked as close to raging fire as possible. Nevertheless, he had already given up, and he followed Dorghen to the outside. I was left with Kriss by my side, but I could see that she too didn’t have much faith anymore.

But then, out of the blue, the fire that had just raged within Jellef, lighted up something inside of me. Before I knew what I was doing, I charged at the tabe where the two Toa Inika sat. I smacked down my hands on the wooden surface, the shock making the two veterans look up from their bowls. I was met by a sharp and alerting stare from Nuparu, and a mildly surprised one from Jaller.

I filled up my lungs, then yelled at Jaller. “I already got ‘the hang of it’, old man! I have served the headquarters as loyally as possible, as to the point where I was even ready to sacrifice the freedom, and possibly the life, of my own damn sister! You are the one who gave up your young spirit to fight, even though you still had it in you! If someone doesn’t have the hang of being a true Toa, a true protector of the helpless, then it’s both of you, and not us!”
I forced myself to calm down, then I spoke up again, this time calmer.
“Right now, our brethren and the matoran are in grave danger. But you aren’t fit to fight with us, because you aren’t even ready to listen.”
I gave them both a deadly stare.
“You aren’t even ready to help your own brothers.”

For a moment, it remained quiet. Both Toa Inika looked around them, as if I hadn’t screemed at them at all. Nuparu then stood up from his chair, his hand grabbed for his sword. The last thing I heard before chaos erupted, was Jaller. “Well, you blew up our cover, brother. Now you’re going to fight our way out with us.” Then, matoran and Toa who had been sitting in the tavern, jumped up and pulled their blades.