Toa Metru

Mystery of Metru Nui
A thousand years ago, the city of Metru Nui was in danger. Several Toa had disappeared while on missions for Turaga Dume, leaving only Toa Lhikan. Turaga Dume had also ordered all routes out from the city sealed off, in preparation for an impending crisis. The city had come under attack from a plant creature called the Morbuzahk, causing more Matoran to be kidnapped every day. Lhikan dealt with the Morbuzakh attacks as best he could, but when two Dark Hunters, including Lhikan's former teammate Nidhiki, were seen inside the city, he began to get worried.

Having become suspicious of Dume, Lhikan took matters into his own hands and stole six Toa stones from the Great Temple. He had originally planned to give the stones to six Matoran who had found the Great Kanoka Disks: Nuhrii, Vhisola, Orkahm, Ahkmou, Tehutti, and Ehrye. But he thought better of this plan and instead decided on six others: Vakama, Nokama, Matau, Onewa, Whenua, and Nuju. Lhikan infused the stones with some of his own Toa power and gave them to the Matoran with directions to the Great Temple. Just as he delivered the last Toa Stone to Vakama (who was trying to make a Vahi Mask of Time for "Dume"), Nidhiki and his partner Krekka attacked and captured him. The last thing Lhikan told Vakama was to "save the heart of Metru Nui."

The Matoran went to the Great Temple as instructed and place their Toa Stones in the Suva shrine. When the Toa Stones were collected, a beam of light shot out of the Suva and transformed the surprised Matoran into Toa. Amazed at their transformation, the new Toa found Kanoka Disks inside the Suva engraved with their names and images of their new masks; they took these Toa Disks as signs that they were destined to be Toa. After they each chose tools from the Suva's collection, Vakama got a vision of the Great Disks and the Matoran who found them. Though not everyone had faith in the visions of a "fire-spitter", the Toa Metru agree that it's all they have to go on, so they split up and each search for one of the Matoran.

But the search didn't go off as well as planned. First, there was the hassle of evading the Vahki enforcers, who were programmed to pacify troublemakers - like a certain group of rookie Toa running around the city. Complicating matters was the Toa's inexperience with their new powers. The six Matoran had also vanished without a trace. But after a little detective work on the Toa's part, each Matoran was found and rescued from where they had been trapped by the Dark Hunters. But they also found some evidence that one of the Matoran actually helped set the traps for the other five.

The Toa Metru then began their search for the Great Disks, with the Matoran in tow to keep an eye on them. With a little work - and several close calls - all were able to retrieve their Great Disks: Nokama got the Ga-Metru Disk from the mouth of a sea monster, Vakama claimed the Ta-Metru Disk from an erupting fire pit, Whenua found the Onu-Metru Disk in an Archives storage closet (after he and Nuju faced Rahi monsters behind several wrong doors), Matau grabbed the Le-Metru Disk from a soon-to-implode force sphere, Nuju found the Ko-Metru Disk in an icicle on top of a Knowledge Tower, and Onewa scaled a towering statue to claim the Po-Metru Disk.

With all the Disks found, Vhisola told the Toa Metru that according to her research, the Morbuzakh can be stopped by destroying its King Root. Having noticed the plant's dislike of cold earlier, the Toa figured that the King Root must be in the Great Furnace, so the group headed to Ta-Metru. On the way, Ahkmou tried to run but was quickly caught; when confronted he admitted that Nidhiki threatened him into helping trap the other Matoran.

Inside the heart of the furnace (and after the Matoran had left), the Toa were shocked to find that the Morbuzakh could communicate telepathically; it explained its plan to take over the city but let it slip that it was commanded to attack by someone. After using up nearly all their elemental power fighting, the Toa eventually lured the Morbuzakh into drawing them in closer, where they unleashed the powers of the Great Disks. The Disks' power created an energy sphere that cut the Morbuzakh off from its vines and killed it. With the Morbuzakh's defeat, all its vines throughout the city disintegrated, and the Great Furnace collapsed (with the Toa Metru escaping safely).

The Great Cataclysm
Fresh from their victory, the Toa Metru went to the Coliseum, hoping to present themselves to Turaga Dume (though they had to make a detour into the Archives to keep them from being flooded, and found themselves fighting a territorial shapeshifter called Krahka). Unfortunately, Dume rejected their gifts of the Great Kanoka Disks and insisted that they pass a grueling physical test before they would be recognized as heroes. With their elemental power drained and their mask powers still inaccessible, the Toa suffered a humiliating defeat. Dume ordered that the "impostor" Toa be arrested; though Vakama, Nokama, and Matau were able to escape. On the way out, Vakama saw the Dark Hunters with Dume and figured out that the three are working together.

On the run from the Vahki and the Dark Hunters (and a Tahtorak that they had awakened); Vakama, Nokama, and Matau saw Lhikan's Spirit Star over Po-Metru, so they headed in that direction; Vakama also began experimenting with the Great Disks and found that he can merge them together. Meanwhile; Onewa, Whenua, and Nuju found themselves locked up with a strange Turaga, who immediately put them to work doing seemingly pointless tasks.

Around this time, the Toa began to activate their mask powers for the first time: Nokama gained hers after admitting she doesn't know all the answers, and her new powers of Translation let her talk to a herd of Kikanalo and gain their help. Matau was taught some humility by the Kikanalo, and could then use his Illusion power to shapeshift. Onewa and Nuju activated their powers of Mind Control and Telekinesis, respectively, when they got in an argument over the strange Turaga's tasks; they were then able to use their new powers to escape their prison. And Whenua used his new power of Night Vision to lead the escapees through the underground tunnels.

The two groups eventually met up in the tunnels under Po-Metru, and the Turaga revealed himself to be Lhikan, whose power was drained by the others' transformation into Toa. Lhikan asked if the "heart of Metru Nui" was safe; when Vakama was confused by the question, Lhikan explained that the "heart of Metru Nui" was the Matoran. Soon afterward, the Toa found a silver sphere with Turaga Dume inside, unmasked and unconscious. With all realizing that someone else has taken control of the city while pretending to be Dume; they quickly headed to the Coliseum.

The Toa Metru found the city deserted, with the entire population sealed into spheres by Dume's imposter, none other than Makuta, who had been one of the Matorans' guardians. Makuta then proceeded to put the Great Spirit Mata Nui to sleep, triggering the Great Cataclysm. While this was happening, the Toa grabbed a few Matoran Spheres and started to flee the city, intending to return for the rest.

Makuta, however, wasn't going to let that happen without a fight. He chased after the Toa Metru, and Vakama challenged him alone. There, Vakama showed the results of his toying with the Kanoka Disks: the Vahi Mask of Time, just as "Dume" had wanted. Makuta offered him membership in his Brotherhood, but Vakama flatly refused and attempted to use the Vahi's powers against Makuta. Unfortunately, Vakama wasn't able to control its power, and he ended up slowing time to a crawl for both of them. Makuta had launched a deadly blast that Vakama would never be able to dodge when Turaga Lhikan appeared and jumped in the way, sacrificing himself for Vakama. While Makuta went after the Vahi (which had been thrown off Vakama's face from the impact), Lhikan told Vakama how proud he was to have called Vakama a "brother". Spurred on by Lhikan's last words, Vakama finally activated his mask power of Concealment and began using his invisibility to fight Makuta. The other Toa Metru soon made their way to the battlefield, and together the six of them combined their powers to seal Makuta in a prison of solid Protodermis.

Exploring Mata Nui
In their journey away from Metru Nui, the Toa Metru encountered an old acquaintance of Whenua's named Mavrah. It turns out that some time ago, the two had been part of a project to study a number of sea Rahi; but the Rahi had proved enough of a threat that Turaga Dume had shut down the project. Mavrah had become somewhat obsessed with the Rahi and what could be learned from them, and escaped with the Rahi before the Vahki could less-than-gently drive them out. By the time the Toa Metru found him, he had become paranoid; thinking the Toa were sent to drag him back to the city. The Toa's attempt to escape Mavrah and the Rahi sparked a feeding frenzy; the Toa made it out but Mavrah was washed out to sea, and one of the Matoran Spheres (one that held the traitor Ahkmou) was lost between the waves.

Arriving at the planet's surface, the Toa found a lush tropical island and named it Mata Nui, after the Great Spirit. They each explored the island, looking for good sites to found villages for their respective Matoran, and at Vakama's suggestion created new Toa Stones so that replacement Toa could come if they failed.

The Toa started the trek back to Metru Nui and encountered several Rahi headed in the other direction, scared out of their minds of something. They also wound up facing the Rahi Nui, which attacked and badly injured Nokama. They soon afterwards encountered a plant monster called the Karzahni, a prototype of the Morbuzakh that wanted revenge on Makuta for abandoning it. Karzahni made a deal with the Toa: if the Toa obtained some Energized Protodermis for it, Karzanhi would cure Nokama of her injuries. The Toa got the energized Protodermis, but only after battling an entity made entirely of the strange liquid. Karzahni kept its word and healed Nokama, and in return the Toa gave Karzahni the Protodermis; but instead of being transformed as Karzahni expected, it was instead destroyed.

The Great Rescue
Upon returning to Metru Nui on a raft of transport parts and dead Karzahni branches, the Toa Metru found a city very different from the one they left: the bioquake during the cataclysm had not only damaged several of the buildings, but also freed most Rahi from where they had been kept in the Archives. Even more unsettling were the numerous spiderwebs covering the city from top to bottom. But Vakama (believing he had failed the Matoran by allowing their capture and Lhikan by not preventing his death) had become dead-set on rescuing the Matoran, and despite their uneasiness none of the Toa would object enough to dissuade him from marching them directly to the Coliseum.

Unfortunately, the Coliseum had become the nesting grounds of the makers of the spiderwebs - hordes of Visorak who had taken over the city. The Toa were quickly overtaken and captured. Upon orders from their King, Sidorak (with input from his Viceroy, Roodaka), the Visorak bound the Toa in cocoons, injected them with their Hordika venom, and strung them up high above the city. Soon enough, the venom began to take effect, mutating the Toa into horrific bestial forms and causing them to tear out of their cocoons. Just as they were falling to their certain doom, they were caught in midair by the Rahaga, small Rahkshi-like beings who opposed the hordes.

~ Continued under Toa Hordika for the rest of the story.

Members

 * Vakama
 * Nokama
 * Matau
 * Nuju
 * Onewa
 * Whenua