Well, here's the next chapter. This is where you see the conflict about to begin.

I don't own most of these characters. However, the Prophet of Judgment and the AI, Felicia, are mine.


Chapter 3: Spartans for a Day

"So," Phineas asked, still a few feet ahead of John, "what's with the armor? You a soldier or something?"

John nodded, but didn't explain anything.

"You must be some sort of special forces, to have advanced armor like yours."

"What makes you think this armor is advanced?" Cortana asked, trying not to give anything away.

"Well, given the technology we saw in your ship, a fusion reactor in a suit of armor would remain pretty high-tech. And unless you've had some genetic modification, it must amplify how fast and strong you are."

John was speechless. This kid, who lived in a world nowhere near as advanced as his, was guessing almost very aspect of his MJOLNIR Mark VI armor with glances and intuition. Not to mention the argumentation he had. It was uncanny, to say the least.

"But, to be honest, that power core is pretty inefficient."

"How would you know? You've never seen it, and, even if you had, I doubt you could do better than the top minds of the 26th century."

"Well, given the fact that Ferb and I have engineered a cold-fusion reactor in one afternoon and that we have recreated every element known to man, and then some, I know what I'm talking about. Does your fusion reactor use…"

John tuned out the kid's constant stream of words. If there was anything of interest, Cortana would fill him in.

As it was, he had no idea what the kid was talking about.


"Aaaannnddd, done!"

Perry jumped off the couch and walked over to Doofenshmirtz.

"Alright, so, just to make sure I have this right, I signed up to help OWCA figure out this mess, no strings attached, and I get a lifetime supply of Almond Brittle?"

Perry nodded and took the sighed contract from his nemesis.

"Well, what's first?"

Perry took out a notepad and wrote down something. He then handed the message to Doofenshmirtz.

"There are unidentified signals around the planet, and you want me to interpret them?" He looked to the platypus for confirmation. Receiving it in the form of a nod, Doof grinned. "Well, it just so happens that I have my Signal-Hack-Inator ready to go!"

Perry raised an eyebrow.

"What? It was for tomorrow's scheme!"


"Helmsman, where are we?"

The Minor shrugged, a very human gesture. "I apologize, Arbiter, but I do not know. We are reciveing no known signals, but we are checking the local star positions to attempt to guess our position."

Thel 'Vadam nodded. "Very good. Hold the ship here, for now."

The Minor saluted, right fist on the left side of his chest. "By your word, Arbiter."

Another Minor approached. "Arbiter, we are receiving a communication from the humans."

"Let it through," Thel 'Vadam replied.

The Minor nodded and pushed a button on nearby holo-display. An image of Lord Hood appeared.

"Admiral, is your ship intact?"

Lord Hood's mouth twitched. "We're fine. But I want to know why that wormhole dropped us back at Earth."

Thel 'Vadam's jaws parted in surprise. "We are at Earth?"

"Either that, or our navigation data got fried."

"Sir, that is entirely unlikely." An image of a predatory mammal appeared next to Lord Hood. "If that had happened, I wouldn't be intact."

"Well, Felicia, can you explain why there isn't anything in orbit?"

The Arbiter looked to his crew to confirm everything that Lord Hood had mentioned. The helmsman nodded, as did the Major at the scanners.

"First, there are some objects in orbit, but they are primitive satellites, and what appears to be a rudimentary space station or two. So, I think it would be safe to assume we aren't home."

"Well, how in-"

"Sir!" "Arbiter!"

Both Lord Hood and Thel 'Vadam looked to their bridge crews.

"We have contacts! They appear to be coming from the other side of the planet!"

His blood chilling, Thel 'Vadam asked, "Can we identify them?"

The Major glanced at his display, nodded, and tapped away.

In a moment, two large vessels of a familiar design appeared on the Arbiter's display. The names read Blade of Judgment and Fist of Destiny.

At once, the chill in his blood vanished, replaced by the heat of rage. "Helmsman, bring us about. Prepare all weapons!"

Turning back to the communications screen, Thel 'Vadam noted Lord Hood was doing the same.

Another Prophet was about to be silenced.


"Um, Perry the Platypus? We might have a problem."

Perry chattered.

"Well, I managed to hack into the signals. Their some sort of communications between some ships that are in orbit."

Perry gasped.

"That's not the worse part. Their about to shoot at each other! We could be next!"


The three entered a backyard.

"So," Cortana asked, "where's this proof?"

Phineas sighed. "Hey Irving," he cried, "we need your scrapbook!"

Another kid popped up from behind the fence. "Really? WOOHOO!"

He jumped over the fence and ran over, placing the book on the ground in front of John.

"Where did he come from?" he asked.

Ferb looked straight at him. "Not even we know that."

John shrugged. So perhaps this kid had some strange tendencies. It wasn't John's universe, it wasn't his problem. He looked at the pictures Irving showed.

"Here's the time they fixed a time machine. Here's the giant building. Or, at least, the first hundred floors. Their rocket ship, the biosphere…"

John tuned him out. Was there something in this universe that made everyone talk nonstop?


Cortana was very impressed. These kids really were smarter than most scientists back home.

Not only were they right on how to improve the armor, they had done things even ONI hadn't dreamed of!

"So, you're willing to not only get us home, but improve the Chief's armor as well?"

Phineas nodded. "Yeah. But to do that, we're gonna need some blueprints. You know, specifications, power distributions, and the kind of stuff."

"Why would you need that? We can't just hand the specs away."

"Well, if we only improve the power core, it would overload some of the systems. We would have to find some way to use or reroute that extra power. And if we did that without checking the blueprints, we could damage something important!"

Cortana nodded. "Fine, but you'll have to destroy them when you're done."

Phineas looked at Ferb. "We accept your terms," the young Brit replied.


"Sir, the Covenant ship is hailing us!"

Lord Hood double checked his readout.

"He's right. They haven't even powered up their weapons."

Glancing at the AI, he opened a channel to the Elites.

"Arbiter, do you know what's going on?"

The alien placed a hand below his jaws. "I think I might know. We will be safe while we speak with this Prophet."

"How can you be sure?"

"This Prophet follows an older code than Truth. He will not attack, not yet."

Lord Hood nodded. "Open the channel, Felicia."


Thel 'Vadam knew of the Prophets' treachery, as he had experienced it firsthand. However, he also knew this Prophet was an odd one, one who would think more like a rational being and less like a religious fanatic.

If it was the right Prophet.

And, when the image of a younger Prophet in a midnight-black robe appeared, he knew it was.

"Arbiter, it is most inopportune to meet you again."

Thel 'Vadam inclined his head slightly. "Indeed it is, old friend."

"I stand by what I said upon your alliance with the humans. It is the will of the gods that you should perish, having sided with heathen."

"And yet you have not powered your weapons."

The Prophet blinked slowly. "You were always observant, old friend. We are stranded in unfamiliar territory, and I do not wish to risk the damage that could prevent us from returning to our homes. So, I will offer you a bargain."

At this point, Lord Hood spoke. "How can we trust you? Your species was the reason this war was started in the first place!"

The Prophet narrowed its eyes. "I follow the old ways, human. When the Prophet of Judgment speaks, it is the truth as he knows it. Thus, I will not break this bargain."

Turning back to Thel 'Vadam, he continued. "We will not engage you with any weapons from our spacecraft. You agree to the same. This fight will be carried out on the surface of the planet."

Thel 'Vadam shook his head. "Your troops will decimate the surface. If we must, it will be contained to a single landmass."

Judgment nodded. "Your compromise is acceptable. But that is the extent of our rules of engagement. From there, it is slay or be slain."

Thel 'Vadam considered his bargain. While he was confident of victory, he worried that the humans would not like the bargain. It would put whatever natives on the planet at risk.

So he was rather taken aback when Lord Hood nodded. "We will abide by the terms."

Not wanting to appear reluctant, Thel 'Vadam nodded as well.

"Thus our pact is made!" Judgment declared. "On the surface of this planet, the gods decide our fate!"


Doofenshmirtz gasped. "Perry the Platypus! We're about to be invaded!"

Wide-eyed, the secret agent ran over to examine the device Doof stood by.

"Those ships decided to land troops and duke it out down here! Anything that can invent ships like that would easily overpower our military! We're doomed!"


John felt very exposed.

Normally, he rarely took his armor off, even at the one place he had once called home.

And here he was, out of it, letting some kids mess around with it.

"You okay?" Cortana asked. The boys had somehow produced a computer system was able to hold her, so she would be fine if the suit shorted out during the upgrade.

He gave her a small grin. "Just wondering when the real problems will start."

Cortana laughed. "I know what you mean. It seems too good to be true. No Flood, no Covenant, not even Insurrectionists."

John leaned back against the tree. "I actually hope nothing like that will happen in this universe."

"Yes, it does seem pretty innocent, doesn't it? Nothing like back home. I'd actually be surprised to see anything remotely like the Flood here."

"What is the Flood?"

John looked up to see the two boys wheeling out his armor on a metal cart.

John shook his head. "You don't want to know."

Phineas shrugged. "Okay, I'll take your word for it. Anyway, we're done!"

"Already? You've only been working for an hour!"

John shared Cortana's disbelief. It took longer for UNSC techs to refit a Pelican, and they were nowhere near as advanced as his suit.

"It would have taken less time if we didn't get sidetracked."

"With what?" John asked.

"We'll show you once you're back in your armor. Now, using the upgraded power core, we've added a jet pack. It runs off the extra power, so it never runs out of fuel. It isn't perfect, so it'll only work for a minute or two before it needs to cool down, also for about a minute. And, just for efficiency's sake, we've made the armor able to be donned or removed in about a minute."

John, quite skeptical, shrugged. "Sure. Let's see if it works."

Ferb pushed the cart over to John. Sure enough, the armor rapidly attached itself on John. Once it was finished, it didn't feel any different than before.

He reached over to the computer with Cortana and she transmitted herself into the suit.

"Wow, those boys are good. You know how to use the jet pack?"

John nodded, then turned to the boys. "So, what was that distraction?"

Phineas grinned. "Well, we thought it'd be cool to have suits like yours! At least, that had the same results. So Ferb and I pieced together some suits that'll make us as strong and fast as you! They have approximately the same functions as yours, but are designed for people like us!"

Ferb ran into the garage and wheeled out another cart, this time with five sets of armor. One was a dull orange, one was a purplish-black, one was pale pink, one was dark blue, and one was jet black. They all resembled John's MJOLNIR armor, but varied slightly.

"Of course, we customized the color and some of the other functions for the people who are going to use them. Cool, huh?"


Alright, who saw this stuff coming?

So, to recap, the Covenant is going to land on Earth for a massive land campaign against the combined Elite and human forces. Meanwhile, the Chief had a slight upgrade, while Phineas and Ferb made their own versions of the MJOLNIR armor.

Any guesses on who those extras are for?

Plus, a little clarification for those who want to know why I mentioned the Flood: I just wanted to. There will NOT be any Flood in this story. I'm going to have enough trouble with a Covenant invasion. I don't think I could reasonably keep this T rated with the Flood.

So, please review!