A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for being late, but Halo 4 came out, and so I decided to wait and finish the campaign to get more elements of the story, and then life hung me up on the publishing of the story, but on the upside, this chapter is nearly 3500 words long! So enjoy, and Chapter 8 will be coming soon. However, a set due date will not be proclaimed, because life is just the way it is.

Also, this story is now officially AU, because Halo 4 has been released.

Some errors in names have been pointed out, and Fifi le fume's name will accordingly be changed sometime between now and Chapter 8 to the correct spelling, Fifi la Fume. Andrew Del Rios is really Andrew Del Rio, but after watching his meager performance in Halo 4, I feel impressed to keep this AU and make him a slightly different, much more effective leader.

Also, in this timeline, Cortana and the Master Chief were stranded in space for a much longer time than in canon, but Cortana staved off rampancy by going into a 'sleep mode', slowing down her degradation.

Please, please, PLEASE review! Though the views and reads are nice, please show your appreciation by favoriting, following, or reviewing the story, because it makes me feel less worthless.

Sorry for the long A/N, but in the ensuing months, (hopefully before 2013 rolls around) I will be publishing a prequel of sorts to the universe, entitled, 'Plains of Ash and Fields of Glass'. Feel free to guess what it is about!

Now onto the story!

Thanks,

Billybobjoe47s

Chapter 7: Revelations

Toonity, E-Day+1

"What the grapp?" Noble 6 voiced. The other people shared his confusion, though they were not quite as vocal about it. He turned the paper over, looking for anything else, but to his frustration, that was all the paper held. "Which one of you did this?" he asked, looking at both groups of animals. They all shrugged, a gesture that Noble 6 found disturbingly human. "Well than who did?"

Another bright flash of light blinded them, and 5 more slips of paper landed in the groups' hands. They read, 'Do not question, but believe. You are all about to be tested. The journey ahead will be long. Check Hammerspace, Brennan.'

Noble 6 looked around, looking to see which one was named Brennan, and the injured blue skunk looked behind himself, muttering, "But I can't use Hammerspace! I'm not even….." But his voice trailed off as he finished turning around and stopped talking. He turned around, and in his paws were additional clothing to what he already wore, and a strange, data-pad like device.

Both Noble 6 and Brennan blinked. "What the grapp?" "Where'd that come from?"

The data pad lit up, and a cheerful voice announced, "Greetings! I am the Multiverse Traveler version 4.1.3. Please hold still, as I attempt to determine your universe of origin." A bright green light popped out and swept over the 5, as well as the mall cops and the rest of the toons.

This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and all the other toons and the mall cops ran screaming in the other direction, as far away from these strange events as possible.

The data pad blinked. "Universe origins determined. You-"it said, a laser pointing right at Noble 6, "Are a denizen of C-02, of the species human, gender male, but extensive genetic and other augmentations detected." The laser moved to Buster. "You are a denizen of T-01, species….. undifulate energy, both normal and dark, form Lagomorph, gender male, but with unusual sentient characteristics, further research required." It moved to Babs. "Also a denizen of T-01, species undifulate energy, both normal and dark, form Lagomorph, gender female, but with unusual sentient characteristics, much like subject Two." The laser then pointed at Fifi. "Denizen of T-01, species undifulate energy, both normal and dark, form Mustelid, gender female, but with unusual sentient characteristics. Further research into T-01 needed, as significant change detected since last Multiverse survey." The laser finally pointed at Brennan. "Denizen of T-01….. Correction, tachyon frequency analysis indicates C-01. Form Mustelid…. Correction, free radical damage analysis indicates former human status, research required as to transformation. Universe and species analysis indicate Successor status, scanning for genetic markers…found. Current form Mustelid, gender male. Injuries detected, including bruising, a simple fracture of the ulna and an avulsion fracture of the fifth metatarsal. Beginning Infraradio wave healing treatment. Greetings, Successor. Scan completed. How may I assist you?"

Brennan was stunned into silence. The data pad blinked. "Oh dear. Perhaps you do not speak English." It launched into a volley of other languages, and Brennan could recognize German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and even Latin. "No response detected. Brainwave analysis indicates stunned disbelief, and thought wave patterns indicate English as spoken language."

Brennan found his voice. "My name isn't Successor, um…. thing."

The pad flashed blue. "I know this fact. Successor is the term given to humans from C-01, as you have inherited my creators' former position as those most likely to form a Multi-dimensional government."

Brennan asked, "Um…. Ok…" and cast about for something else to say. "What are their names?" he said, pointing to the other 4 members of the small group huddled around the device.

The pad beeped, then said, "Please do not think about your name. Scanning…. Excellent all subjects think in English thought patterns. Analyzing first layer coherent patterns…. Subject 4, please make an effort to continue to think in English…. Complete. Successor, would you like me to determine your name as well?"

Brennan said, "Sure."

The pad beeped again. "Complete. Would you like me to verbally speak, or project directly into your mind, Successor?"

Brennan looked very uncomfortable at the idea of having a machine projecting into his head, and said hastily, "No, just speak."

The machine said, "Understood. Subject 1," again pointing with its laser, "Has forgotten his name, oddly, although I have come up with a common moniker, Noble 6." Noble 6 started at its casual mention of his highly-classified code name, and stared at the pad again. Oblivious to this, the pad continued, "Subject 2's name is Buster Bunny, an interesting moniker seeing as how his form appears to be that of a rabbit."

Buster scratched his head. "Well, that's really one of the two ways you name a toon, and I didn't have any… distinguishing characteristics like Fifi did at birth."

The pad ignored him and continued, "Subject 3's name is Babs Bunny, also an interesting moniker, same reasons as Subject 2."

"Subject 4's name is Fifi la Fume. Nothing more to say at the moment."

"Your name, Successor, is Brennan K. Theler. How may I serve you now?"

Noble 6 broke in. "How the maulk do you know that? My code name is level-3 clearance!"

The pad said, "Simple. By asking you not to think of your name, you unconsciously thought of your name, and all I had to do was read the brainwave patterns on the uppermost layer of your mind and translate into English."

Noble 6 growled. "No one is allowed to know that name. I'm afraid you'll all have to disappear." He reached for the pad, but it made a tsking sound. "I wouldn't try that, Noble 6. That is not highly recommended." Noble 6 ignored it and when his hand was 3 inches away, the pad extended an antenna and shot a blindingly bright bolt of electricity at Noble 6. His shields quickly flashed out, and he was knocked back a step. He quickly tried to grab it a second time, but the pad shocked him again, and he fell heavily to one knee, cracking the linoleum tiling on the floor.

As Noble 6 struggled to not black out, he stayed on one knee, greyed out and struggling to remain conscious. The others finally got their first good look at him. Dressed in a heavy, bulky grey armor, he was incredibly imposing to the 4-foot tall toons. His visor, colored a dark grey, was a mere slit in his helmet, and there was not a single inch of skin exposed, as anything not covered by the grey armor was encased in a black bodysuit. The armor was pitted and scarred, and that was not the full extent of the damage, for carved into each of his shoulder pads and rerebraces was a roman numeral, I, II, IV, and V. On the hand planted in the ground was a slightly larger numeral: III. The other hand was bare.

On one thigh was the rather large pistol. The toons all noticed something they had missed the first time around, which was that the butt of the weapon had a roman numeral II carved into it. On the other thigh was a blue, horseshoe-shaped weapon. On his back were two weapons, painted jet black. The only visible differences were that one had a longer barrel and scope. Around his waist was a variety of spherical devices, some with the obvious shapes of grenades and others simple blue spheres. On one side of his chest piece, an imposing, rather large, curved knife hung upside down in its sheath, positioned for easy drawing. Its' handle had the Roman numeral IV carved on it.

He recovered and stood up again, once more towering over the others. He shook his hand out, and backed a few steps away from the pad. It said, "Good decision, Noble 6. I would not like to have to shock you again. I must congratulate you on your resilience. Most other beings would succumb to complete syncope within a few seconds of the first application, yet you resisted two applications without falling farther than presyncope. Duly note, however, that another attempt will result in a much stronger application."

It continued, "Given that this Party has suffered what appears to be moderate mental trauma, as well as—"it pointed with its laser to Brennan and Noble 6, "moderate to severe physical trauma, I recommend retiring to a place of rest for the remainder of the day and night. Do any of you have a suitable dwelling?"

Brennan replied, "I don't really live here, so count me out." Babs said, "I have over 20 siblings living in my house, there's no way I'm letting that thing in with so many children." Fifi said, "Moi house is very modest, and there would not be any room for vous to stay, unless vous fancy staying in le city dump?" However, she winked at Brennan. "Unless vous would like to come over?"

He backpedaled quickly. "Um…. I already made arrangements with Buster in case it was needed, so thanks, but no thanks." He glanced at Buster, visibly sweating. He winked, and then said. "That's right Brennan, I got it covered." Brennan blew an inaudible sigh of relief, which was quickly silenced when Fifi said, "Well, than moi will have to come over to Bustair's house!" Buster tried to stop that wave, but was quickly swamped when Babs gushed, "Ohmygosh a sleepover!" She and Fifi joined hands and danced in a circle. "A sleepover! We'll have so much fun!" they squealed, and Buster simply gave in, knowing he was no match for that kind of enthusiasm. He shot Brennan a glare for his help with this predicament, even indirectly.

The pad said, "Then it is decided. Sucessor, it would be best to stow away these objects in Hammerspace until such time as they shall be needed." It directed its attention to Noble 6. "I know you are discomfited with this situation, but your particular area of expertise will be sorely needed on this quest." They all blinked. "Quest?" "What?" But the pad had turned itself off and lay inactive in Brennan's palms. He turned around again, and when he had faced forwards again, all the clothing and the pad were gone.

Noble 6 blinked again. He thought, 'How the maulk does he fit all those things in his back pockets so fast, or even at all? And what is this Hammerspace that that note and the Traveler were talking about?' He sighed, and seeing no alternative, internally acquiesced to the pad's request to follow these small, strange beings to the blue ones' home.

They walked out the kitchen door; totally (and accidentally) avoiding the police barricade set up on the street next to the front entrance, and began to climb the hill to Buster's house. As they walked, Brennan suddenly and acutely became aware that Fifi was sidling uncomfortably close to him. He slowly tried to distance himself by walking to the shoulder of the small trail, but she followed, and he gave up when he nearly fell off the narrow shoulder into the forest. He steadfastly tried to ignore her, but she got very uncomfortably close, so close that he could feel her breathing down his neck from behind. He started speedcrutching, trying to put feet between himself and Fifi, but she kept pace with him, and he finally turned around and asked, "What do you want? And could you please move a little bit farther away? You're creeping me out."

His eyes suddenly widened as he finally realized that he was face-to-face with her, but before he could try to turn away, she latched onto his arm. He tried to pull away, but she had a grip of steel, and no matter how hard he pulled, her grip loosened not one bit. He dropped the crutches, but he was still held fast.

Fifi started kissing his arm. Brennan made a chocked gurgling noise, and his eyes rolled up into the back of his head for several seconds. He panicked and tried running, but all for no avail. Frantic, he caught Busters' eye as he continued down the road and mouthed repeatedly, 'Help!' Buster just smirked and turned away, still angry at being indirectly forced by Brennan to host others at his home.

Fifi suddenly jumped on his head and wrapped her tail around his face. Panicking and blind, he stumbled around in circles for several seconds, unable to breathe. Stumbling around blind, he soon fell off the shoulder into the forest, and emitted a panicked grunt as he felt himself falling, strangely with no pain from his broken bones.

That worry, however, stopped quickly as soon as he realized he was still blind and unable to breathe. He fumbled his way upright and ran off towards what he thought was the road, but was in reality, the woods. The others stopped and watched as he ran clumsily into the forest, getting pummeled by branches and slowly suffocating.

Soon he faded from view, and then they could hear rapid, frantic screaming that gradually faded into the distance: "Get her off! Get her off! Get her off!"

Babs said, concerned, "Shouldn't we go find him and Feef?"

Buster just smiled and said casually," He'll find his way back to my house in a few hours, once he escapes."

Six hours later, Buster's smile had long since faded into a concerned frown. The sun had just gone down, and the last vestiges of light were fading from the sky. He finally made the decision to go looking for Brennan, but just as he pulled a flashlight from Hammerspace and took the first step, the object of his concern came lurching out of the forest.

Covered in scratches and bruises, fur matted and torn, and twitching spasmodically, Brennan made a horrendous sight. In some places, entire sections of fur had been torn out, leaving small bald spots.

Brennan slowly limped into full view, with Fifi now attached to his leg. Dragging that leg behind and limping in jerks towards Buster, he muttered the same three words over and over. "Get her off, get her off, get her off…." His voice was almost entirely gone, and he soon started shivering.

Buster rushed towards him. "Oh my gosh! Are you all right?" His question was met with silence, as Brennan continued to slowly limp closer.

Buster escorted him to the entrance of the burrow, and Babs came out, yawning, "Has Brennan gotten back yet?"

Seeing Brennan, she gasped. "Oh! You look horrible! Come inside, grab some hot cocoa." She noticed Fifi. "Get off him, you've been chasing him for six hours now, and look at him!"

Fifi climbed off and remembered the fact that there was a sleepover planned for tonight. "Oh, I am so sorry Babs, we were planning to have the, how you say, pillow fight tonight, no?" She waved back to Brennan. "Have a good night's sleep, no?"

He shuddered, and Fifi and Babs disappeared into the hollow, to brutalize some of Buster's innocent cushions.

Soon, Buster had retired to his room to get a night's worth of sleep, as nothing could be done for Brennan in his current state. Fifi and Babs were hidden somewhere in the labyrinthine depths of the rabbit tunnel shortcuts underneath Buster's house. Noble 6 sat on the floor in the kitchen, silent and unmoving in his vigil, and he was so still that it was impossible to tell if he was sleeping or awake.

Brennan however, lay in fetal position in the living room behind the couch, all the lights on, rocking slowly and slightly side to side, almost catatonic. Above the muffled noises of the house, one could faintly hear a mantra belabored, slowly and softly, repeating until the sun came up.

"Get her off, get her off, get her off…"

R-1, E-day+2

Lesser Swarm Leader Prekt C'fan clicked in annoyance. Lesser Pod Leader Thiss K'trel had not sent a messenger for nearly a day-night through the world-hole, and this led it to the inevitable conclusion that some of the new, tasty fleshies had somehow overwhelmed him. This led to its obvious incompetence, as no Rak'te would allow a fleshy to overwhelm it.

However, the new fleshies were tasty, and the reports of larger, bigger roar-crawlers were concerning. If these fleshies were under the protection of others, much like the Old Enemies, then a war would be unavoidable and war on two fronts was undesirable.

It made the decision to send in the land-crawlers, as a quick crushing of the opposition would lead to many nights of feasting off the meat of the New Fleshies.

It also made the decision to send a courier ship-past-breath to the nearest Greater Swarm Leader. If the New Enemies were just as tenacious and insane as the Old Enemies, than more reinforcements would be economical for a quick victory.

He called for a courier, gave it its orders, and watched it run over to the nearest ship-past-breath tower, to deliver the latest news to the Greater Swarm.

Heltus, E-day+2

Lucifer grinned evilly. His scientists had just finished their study of the quake, and it appeared that it caused holes between universes, making Plan Epsilon much easier.

He called up the leader of the Infiltrators, Beelzebub. "It's time. Find me a hole to Earth Prime, and then send in as many Infiltrators as you have.

"Plan Epsilon is beginning."

Earth 4, E-day+2

Captain Del Rios sighed in relief as the lights came back on. It had been 3 hours since they went through the object, and unprepared for power surges, they had been helpless as the power went out and the ships' AI, Athena, was trapped inside the AI Core, unable to help. As the oxygen slowly ran out, crewmembers had to reset every breaker, trip every switch, and replace shorted components by hand, with no robotic or computer help to speed the process. There had been only 2 hours of oxygen left before the crew started to die from asphyxiation.

As he stood up out of his seat to stretch, the sensors officer reported, "Sir! Sensors are back online. The Justice has also recently restored power, and we appear to be in an inhabited star system, as strong radio waves are emanating from the 2nd planet from the sun, and sensors are detecting several large colonies on the planets' surface. Also, we're picking up some strange gravitational readings, but the sensors could be just fluctuating while they try to recalibrate."

Captain Del Rios thought, 'Maulk. A First Contact scenario, but we have two very large ships looming menacingly above their planet.'

The sensors officer suddenly started. "Sir! We have nearly 2 dozen extremely strong artificial gravitational signals, along with a field in the middle that matches….. Forerunner Flood research centers, on the other side of the outer system."

Captain Del Rios swore and pounded his chair. "grapp! How much does this ship have to go through? Requiem, Covenant Loyalists, that anomaly, possible First Contact with only two gargantuan warships, and now possibly the Hood Protocol? This mission almost seems cursed from the beginning." He flipped on the ship-wide intercom. "Listen up, ladies and gentlemen, we have a maulk of a situation here. The anomaly has dropped us into an inhabited star system of an unknown species. But that's not all. We have a possible Forerunner Flood research installation being researched by this species, and so I am declaring Hood Protocol. I repeat, Hood Protocol. As of now, this ship is on high alert, and I am activating external gravity fields to allow for speedy repairs. Del Rios out."

He activated a commlink to the Justice. Its shipmaster, K'tel Thar, answered. "What is it, human?" he asked in a gruff, deep voice.

Captain Del Rios evenly said. "Scans show a possible Flood research installation in possession of the natives. I am declaring the Hood Protocol. Prepare yourself for battle, and make best speed with the Infinity to the installation."

Shipmaster Thar reared back, mandibles flaring, and growled, "The Parasite returns. Fear not human, we will burn that installation and any who oppose us to ash."

Captain Del Rios nodded. "Good. I recommend activating external gravity fields to expedite repairs. Del Rios out." He sat down and waited as the ships crawled across Newtonian space to the object on the other side of the solar system, while crews worked furiously to repair the damage done by micrometeorites and solar wind to the vulnerable reflective coating on the outside of the Infinity and the Justice while the particle shields fell silent.