AN: This chapter will mainly be the institute trying to capture Enzo, so… you're in for one hell of a doozy. Also, I got past my writer's block, woo! Anyway, some of you have been complaining that I've been doing Enzo's POV way more than the SS's, and technically, that's true, but seriously. Why would I want to focus on what's just a regular person with a big heart and exceptional fire-fight skills instead of the damn SPARTAN-III military-trained, augmented, masterful, and badass Enzo-D407. I mean, come on!
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Enzo-D407
I narrowed my eyes behind my helmet as I walked down the fog-covered street. It was a mess. Cars were over-turned and flipped on top of each other, windshields shattered, and metals crushed. All the buildings flanking the street had at least one corner in complete shambles. I carefully stepped over a lamppost, keeping my sniper rifle on safe mode. I treated noiselessly on the cold asphalt, years of training keeping my movements silent within the bulky suit.
Something caught my eye. There was a truck, but it was its cargo that caught my attention. It looked like a discount MJOLNIR armor if it had an extra couple inches of plating. You could that the armor was made more for suicide charges and massacres than precision and stealth. It stood a few inches taller than me and had an orangish green hue and had Vim! painted all over it. It was probably made more for advertisement than actual battle, but it interested me nonetheless. Surely, nobody would squander protection like this when the best armor I've seen is a car hood strapped to a guy's chest. It was probably one in a thousand suits of armor just like this.
It was in a cage on a flatbed trailer on the back of the truck. It had steel cables reinforced with iron supports and a door. Me, being a SPARTAN, simply opened the steel cables and decided to study the suit. It had a few, nearly microscopic, words painting on the left leg's ankle. "X-51 Power armor," I read aloud. A fitting name, I decided. Should I destroy this or keep it for study? I couldn't wear it since 1) it didn't seem like it had a power source and 2) I'd have to choose between my current armor and this one, and I sure as hell wasn't leaving my armor. I finally decided to take some of the more interesting features, then blow the rest to kingdom come. I opened a panel in the back and looked at all the innerworkings. It was mainly supports and an exosuit to actually support the literal ton of armor. I took out a couple of pieces, stowed them away in my rucksack, then decided to use a grenade to blow it from the inside out. I looked over it one last time to store some details in the back of my mind where it would become useful if I decided to tinker with my MJOLNIR.
I quickly punched a hole in the back, chucked a primed grenade in, then jumped out, ducking into cover behind some overturned cars. I felt a shockwave and saw a flash, then heard the boom. When I looked, the power armor piece had been turned into a smoldering pile of molten metal.
Suddenly, a woman wearing a leather coat leapt out of a bush and held what seemed to be a gun at my head. "Hands up!" she shouted. I wasn't sure what was going on, so I slowly raised my hands, if only to humor her. "Now… follow me nice and easy," she said, backing away slowly. "And what if I refuse?" I asked, tilting my head to look more nonchalant. "We'll have to force you," she grunted, then waved. Three more people dressed in exact replicas of her leather coat leapt out, holding the same guns to my head. I made sure my sniper rifle had ammo by glancing up at its ammo counter. Sure enough, it had its ten rounds ready to massacre. "I look like I'm outnumbered here," I started, seeing the woman grin, "So I guess it's a fair fight." With that, I swiftly moved my arm and pulled the trigger shooting the head off the other woman that had a gun. "I don't take nicely to people holding firearms at my head," I quipped, then slid my combat knife out, then jumped into cover behind a cement wall. I reloaded my sniper, then switched to DMR. Without warning, a laser flew over my head. "You guys got lasers!? Fuck you, too!" I shouted out, annoyed that they had enough fire power as an elite.
"Walk out peacefully!" shouted the woman. "Alright, if you say so," I stood up and walked into the open, holstering my DMR. I had a plan. "Cuff him," she waved over towards the two remaining men, who started walking towards me. When they got close enough, I did something extremely risky. I stabbed the bald man in the neck and wrestled his gun away. The other man, a tall African-american with short-cut hair, drew his gun, then squeezed the trigger, revealing it was automatic. I managed to avoid most of the shots, even though I didn't really avoid them. I had just moved way too fast for him to notice. I then severed his head and held the laser gun to the woman's head. "So… you gonna talk or will you join your buddies on the ground?"
She looked at me angrily, so I stepped it up a notch. "I don't really need you – I'd just prefer to know what's going on. And I have a much better punishment than death," I grinned maniacally. Essentially, I was just thinking of making her walk back to Far Harbor in her underwear. I didn't really count the embarrassment as punishment since, to a SPARTAN, if it doesn't hurt you physically, it ain't a threat. And there were creatures capable of managing to get my shield half-way down in one single swipe. If she didn't have any weapons, she was dead meat.
"Do whatever you want – I don't care," she sneered. "Alrighty then," I replied, walking over to her. I ripped off her coat, revealing that she had merely a jumpsuit beneath it. "What are you going to do – rape me?" she spat. "The fuck? Hell no!" I said, tearing off her jumpsuit. "It sure looks like it," she muttered. "You're going to walk to Far Harbor in basically underwear – so move it, smart-ass," I pushed her forward with my laser pistol, snapping her more… concealed weapons with my other. "Fine," she mumbled, then started walking down the street, more of a jog if I'm honest.
"Well, lieutenant – good job," I congratulated myself. "Now to see how this thing works," I gazed at the laser pistol.
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Vertex (Z3-15)
24 HOURS LATER
That idiot SPARTAN had taken my jump-suit which was concealing my chip. That was why I had to walk to far harbor bare-foot and with no weapons – not even a pistol. I was currently at the Institute again, enduring the rage of my dispatcher. "Did you at least catch footage of him in action?" she facepalmed, muttering some… less than nice things in Japanese under her breath. "Yes," I replied, the tiniest hint of smugness seeped into my voice.
"At least that dispatch wasn't a total waste," I heard her grumble, then jacked a wire into my head. A screen lowered from the white ceiling, then started showing what I had seen. He was there, about to take out S5-42. It was paused, and his image was stuck like that. I could almost see the smug smirk on his face, if I knew what it looked like.
It then resumed, showing him whipping out his combat knife and puncturing Y3-81's neck. It paused at that exact moment. "Impressive speed – nothing compared to what those witnesses said. Though they weren't lying when they saw nothing but a blur," she mumbled in fascination, rewinding the footage and reshowing it in slow-motion. He had managed to move his arm in a manner that would be very difficult while moving. The video resumed, and then showed him head-butting Y3-81, then wrestling the laser gun while jump-kicking Y3-81. "I think I know a way to capture him…" I heard her mutter.
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AN: We're nearly at 1000 views! Hell yeah!
