BIONICLE Adventures 3: The Darkness Below

	The Darkness Below
	Book
Series	BIONICLE Adventures
Author	Greg Farshtey
Publisher	Scholastic
	ISBN 0-439-60733-7

"Toa would challenge Toa in the darkness below the city, in a struggle that still lives in my nightmares."
— Turaga Vakama

The Darkness Below is the third BIONICLE book in the BIONICLE Adventures series. It was written by Greg Farshtey. It also included black-and-white pictures of Krahka's Toa Metru combination form.

Synopsis

The Toa Metru are ready to begin their trip to the Coliseum, weak and nearly powerless after the exhausting battle with the Morbuzakh, but stop short at the border of Ta-Metru when the Onu-Matoran named Nuparu runs up to the Toa Metru. Whenua greets him, and takes him to the side so he can listen to what the Matoran has to say. Apparently, Nuparu discovered a leak in the Maintenance Tunnels of the Onu-Metru Archives, where the sea can gush in. This is odd, because the miners usually reinforced the walls. Whenua talks with the other Toa Metru, and they decide to all go down and investigate.

Whenua, having been an Archivist before, leads them to a hidden shortcut by opening a hole in the road that leads to the Archives, and the Maintenance Tunnels, which were nicknamed the 'Fikou Web.' Soon, however, they are attacked. A freak fog and the buzz of Fireflyers surround them, but Matau, using the little elemental power left to him, blows the fog away to reveal a Insect Control Rahkshi and a Weather Control Rahkshi. The Rahkshi challenge the Toa Metru, and the Toa begin to attack them. An icy wind created by Nuju causes the Weather Control Rahkshi to unleash a blizzard, but doing that also causes the insects to start to die, and the Insect Control Rahkshi attacks its comrade. The Toa Metru use this opportunity to attack the Rahkshi, who then flee. After a small rest and talk, they proceed, Whenua leading the way again. Farther in the tunnels, a fork of six paths splits them up, with each of them going in a different tunnel to find the leak.

But soon chaos erupts. Nokama is attacked by a Kraata-less Insect Control Rahkshi, Vakama is blasted backwards by Nokama, Matau is blown into a rock wall by Onewa with strange fire-powers, Onewa is knocked down by Vakama, and Nuju is running to assist Matau. They soon collide, battling each other. However, as Vakama is thrown between Nokama and Onewa's blasts, Nuju and Matau stop Onewa, which leads to their accusations. Realizing that Onewa says he has not seen Matau since they split, and the others are saying that they never attacked anybody, they stop, wary and cautious. Whenua soon breaks in, and hears what they were saying. Whenua tells them that they had all been attacked by a fellow Toa Metru, yet not. A Rahi shape-shifter named Krahka, able to assume the voice, power, and look of anything she made visual contact with, is lurking there, and attacked them all. They gingerly proceed, Whenua holding a Lightstone in front. They soon come to a chasm, with nothing but a flimsy Le-Metru cable built across, and Stone Rats swarming below the chasm. Whenua makes his way across, then Nokama, and then Matau (walking across using his hands in a supreme show of arrogance). Vakama then begins to proceed, but a ghostly, floating Density Rahkshi suddenly makes an appearance and cuts one end of the bridge. Vakama falls, and while holding on, he realizes the Stone Rats are beginning to climb up the bridge. He uses a Weakening Kanoka Disk and jams it into the bridge. Stone Rats, Vakama, and a severed bridge plunge down, and Vakama is only saved by Matau's insane courage. They fly through the ghostly Density Rahkshi, but it grabs their leg and begins pulling them down. Matau flies toward a wall and turns sharply, and the Density Rahkshi instantly shifts itself to accommodate it, resulting in its flying through the canyon wall and out of sight. The two Toa fly to the other side, leaving only Onewa and Nuju left. Nuju hesitates, but Onewa grabs him suddenly, and jumps across the bridge, using his Elemental Power and Proto Pitons to swing to the ledge. Nuju declares that if he had any power left, he would freeze Onewa then and there. Vakama stops them from fighting, and Whenua, without a word, hurries onward.

They travel into a dark mist, and as Nokama and Whenua lead in front, the Toa Metru begin to disappear. Nokama hurriedly yells for them, but Whenua insists they go on. Turning on him, Nokama realizes something, and stands in battle stance. She realizes who Whenua really is: Krahka. Indeed, she is right. The Rahi shifts into various shapes and tells Nokama of her hatred of 'top-dwellers,' or Matoran. Krahka leaves Nokama with a silver Chain Lightning Rahkshi, a green-tan Illusion Rahkshi, and a black-white Cyclone Rahkshi. Using all of her cunning, wit and skill, Nokama takes each one down, using her faded powers, intelligence, and a small leak. Nokama then goes on to find the other Toa Metru, aside from Whenua, stuck in some small crevices back in the cave they disappeared in. However, Nuju is stuck in a strange stasis field. They manage to get him out using a Teleportation Disk, which teleports only the stasis field, not Nuju. They hurry on, encountering a number of Lava Eels. Vakama says that they are no major threat to the Toa, but a loud roar from underground scares the eels, and they promptly melt away the floor, forcing the Toa to grab on to boiling hot pipes overhead. The six of them witness a large creature pacing below, and begin swinging from the pipes to reach the other side of the broken floor. They succeed, and stop to rest. Nuju volunteers to scout ahead, and as he does, he finds a chamber where Whenua is hanging upside down. Nuju is then trapped in a stone cage, created by Krahka.

Vakama, Nokama and the others are starting to worry about Nuju. Vakama realizes Krahka might set a trap if she has Nuju, so he has Matau hide. When 'Nuju' gets back, the Toa Metru tell 'him' that Matau went off to get help. 'Nuju' hurries to supposedly assist, but after Nokama gets Nuju to say something that the normal Nuju knew was not true, Matau reappears from above and pins Krahka to the ground. Krahka just smiles, and transforms into a Lava Eel. Matau immediately lets go due to the heat, and the Toa have to follow her through the tunnels until she transforms once again, this time into a form that does not leave a trail. Wanting her to bring them to her lair, they start drilling into the wall, loudly, trying to make a tunnel out, which they know Krahka will not allow. Soon enough, clouds of strange, black smoke envelope them and they are carried off to her lair. Dumped there, they see Whenua hanging from the top of the cave, and Nuju in his stone prison. Krahka tells them they are going to stay in this room forever, and starts sealing up the walls. The Toa Metru wait for a small while, formulating a plan, and then decide on one. Vakama grabs a Kanoka disk from his pack, a Reconstitute at Random Disk, and launches it at Krahka, causing her to go through rapid transformations. At the same time, Matau uses some of his air power to launch himself up and grab Whenua, who has almost broken his bonds. Onewa and Nokama quickly vault over to Nuju's stone cage and free him. Matau and Whenua start a power dive toward Krahka, but she puts up a wall of flames as Vakama. The real Vakama absorbs them, with what little will he has left, and then releases the flames at one of the entrances. Vakama yells at the sentient Rahi, calling her a thief, someone who steals other creatures' might because she has none of her own. She just laughs, and transforms into a monstrous creature, a deadly combination of the six Toa Metru. She brings down the full might of their own elemental powers on the Toa Metru, who immediately spread out. However, Krahka's power is tiring her. Her mind having absorbed some of the memories of all of the Toa Metru, she is mentally unbalanced. The Toa begin to disturb her mind further, telling her of her want for conquest, how she would end up driving all of the Rahi and Matoran away, and she would be the absolute ruler of nothing. She begins to expend large amounts of power quickly. Whenua begins to attack and surprise her from underground. In rage, she lets loose a single beam that mixes all of their powers, forming solid Protodermis. Vakama begins to stare in awe at this before being pulled back by the others. Krahka collapses, and Vakama, being closest, watches as she transforms into a Lava Eel and escapes once more. The other Toa Metru hurry over, asking him why he did not just stop her. He says she was simply protecting her home, but in that power she was given, she became a monster. He sees inside her what the Toa Metru can become one day if they are not careful. And then, exhausted but victorious, they find and seal the leak, and leave.

Characters

The Toa Metru
The Krahka
Nuparu
Various Rahkshi
Stone Rats
Lava Eels
The Tahtorak of Metru Nui (NM)

Quotes

Dedication

"For Leah, who brings style, class and grace to everything she does"
— Greg Farshtey

Trivia

At the back of the book were instructions on how to build Krahka in her six-Toa form.

External links

The Darkness Below archived on Wall of History