Chapter 20: This Cave is Not a Natural Formation

"So you believe that this 'enemy' you think exists somehow managed to steal you're … system filled with all the data you have, which they then used to create the weapons and automatons they are using to attack you and various areas around Valoran?"

The Master Chief was currently sitting with Caitlyn in one of her favourite tea shops, sipping tea while he told her his suspicions. Or, to be more accurate, he was standing because his weight had already broken one chair and had ceased drinking the tea after he had shattered the fragile china cup.

"Yes," he replied honestly. The Chief had spent the entire day before trying to boot up all the Dawns systems, but to no avail. With most of the data on the mainframe gone – actually, everything except the most basic commands and anything that hadn't been in the localized system – the Chief was stuck. He had the weapons on the ship still, but no longer had access to data, ship-based weapons, or even the fuel stores inside – which in turn meant he had no way of getting the vehicles to work.

Caitlyn shook her head. "There isn't any way that someone could have sneaked by the defences – Heimerdinger set up his turrets everywhere. And I really do mean that. I asked him to guard my house one, and I later found a turret in my toilet. Oh, and not to mention the fact that none of us know how to use your tech, so there isn't any way we could have taken it anyways."

The Chief shook his head. "They could have used magic, or stolen it when the Dawn was still submerged. Regardless, someone stole and deleted the system after I left Piltover."

Caitlyn sipped her tea and then gently put the cup down. "Chief, I will help you whichever way I can, but at the moment I'm more than a little pressed with this Triad business, so you can't expect much. Once that is done, I can do more, but beforehand… I can't spare enough people to begin anything near a systematic search."

"There is a way," Chief said, gazing at a trail of coloured streamers that a little girl was running with. "Let me search the city myself."

Caitlyn sputtered her mouthful of tea landing on the table. "Absolutely not!" she cried, dabbing at the spilt tea with a napkin. "There is no way I can allow a super-soldier become a vigilante and roam around the city. Already that business with the train caused too much interest in you." She looked as if she was going to say more, and then stopped.

The Chief glanced down at her briefly, then lifted his eyes back to the peaceful view of the plaza. He nodded his head.

Caitlyn let out a small sigh and pushed her plate aside, leaving a couple of shiny coins beside it. "Thank you, Chief," she said, rising up. "I'll help as soon as I can. In the meantime, try and enjoy Piltover, just… don't flaunt your weapons too much. I'd rather not have to arrest you."

The Chief tilted his head fractionally, wondering how the sheriff intended to do that. He was pretty sure her cuffs wouldn't even cover half his wrist.

She walked away, lifting her hand in farewell.

The Chief watched her leave, then turned his attention back to the plaza. He wondered he should leave his weapons back in his room like Caitlyn suggested – then dismissed the thought. No matter how safe she claimed the city was, he knew it was not, and he'd rather have his weapons on him if something did happen. And he wasn't some random civilian, ready to gun down the first person that looked suspicious.

The Chief began to walk down the road, leaving the plaza behind him. There wasn't really much for him to do in Piltover - he wasn't one to walk around just to take in the sights. With his business at the Dawn concluded, there really wasn't much keeping him in the city, except for the fact that this was his first real outing. He was a little bit reluctant to cut it short, no matter how boring it may be.

He passed some stalls, and realized he was in a market district of the city. While there were plenty of stores in the city, travelling merchants seemed abundant in Valoran.

He stopped by one stall which featured some jewelry. While he did not care for them, a bright blue one caught his eye – it reminded him painfully of Cortana's light.

"Well, good sir, is there anything that you like?"

The Chief raised his gaze fractionally and saw the stall owner looking at him with a painfully wide smile.

"No thanks," Chief said, and made to move away.

"You sure?" the owner called out. "Something for your lady friend, perhaps?"

"No thanks," the Chief said again, and walked away. He thought about what the man had said, the thing about the lady friend. Was that what you were supposed to buy them? Shiny baubles? Where they hidden shield-generators or something?

The Chief shook his head. Civilian life was way too confusing.

The Chief stepped off the main road and onto the sidewalk, avoiding a speeding car. In the direction he had turned he could see the Forward Unto Dawn in the distance.

According to Heimerdinger, the Dawn had become a sort of attraction for the city. People couldn't visit it, of course, but it seemed that everyone wanted to be in the same city-state as the warship from the heavens, or whatever it was they had labelled it as.

The Chief didn't care one way or the other, especially now seeing as all potentially compromising data was gone from the ship. The only thing he didn't like was the attention it gave him. The only thing people wanted to see more than the ship was the space warrior it bore.

Those that wanted to approach him were too nervous to do so, however. His general demeanour, Mjolnir and weapons tended to do that.

The Chief resumed walking, his gaze straight ahead. There really wasn't anything interesting around here.

Well, except for that.

Before the Chief had been deployed in any real combat scenarios, the UNSC had ODST troopers launch raids on insurrectionist's depots with the help of bomb-detecting drones. Said drones had all sorts of chemicals stored in their database: man-made ones to natural ones. It could even make assumptions for explosive chemicals that hadn't been seen before based off of its molecular structure. The Chief's helmet had one of those systems, and though he had never really needed to use it, right now it picked up traces of possible explosive chemical compounds on the sidewalk.

His visor lit up the path of the compound, and it trailed off the sidewalk and into a nearby alleyway. While it could be nothing more than hextech fireworks, the Chief decided to follow it anyways, reasoning he had nothing better to do anyways.

The alley way was narrow, especially for someone of his bulk. Eventually, though, it widened out into a side street, albeit a shady-looking one. There were several people around, but the Chief payed them no heed. No one would bother him.

There was a lot more of the chemical on the ground, too. The Chief bent down and tried to examine it. It was oily and red in colour, and that didn't ring any bells in the Chief's mind – not that he expected it to. Really, he was so oblivious to this world that it could just be dish soap – if they even used that here.

"That's explosive residue, alright," A voice said from somewhere behind the Chief.

The Chief rose up, grabbing his assault rifle in one smooth motion and aiming it at the unknown person. His motion sensor hadn't detected anyone near him. Was it broken again?

"Now now," said Graves, holding a hand up. "No need to be so hostile."

Graves was sitting on a low garage roof, and his sitting position hadn't triggered the motion sensor.

Chief mentally cursed. He was letting all manner of people sneak up on him, and that was a serious problem. He'd have to train harder once he got back to the Institute.

"You can't be here," Chief said, which was true. Graves was outlawed from Piltover, and Caitlyn would probably arrest him on sight, league champion or not.

"I got some business to attend to," the Outlaw responded, tossing his cigar to the ground.

The Chief made the connection at once. "Explosives?"

Graves nodded. "The Triad purchases explosives that use that, and I have a bone to pick with them." He grunted. "Cheate' me on too many times."

The Chief considered that. Graves, the outlaw, was here to fight against the Triad, a common enemy to the police force. Did that give him adequate reason to stay here?

No.

"Leave," Chief said, and turned to follow the rest of the trail. While he wasn't all that eager to much in and help the police force bust a crime syndicate, his anti-insurrectionist teachings were much too hard to ignore.

Graves grunted behind him. "That'll take you to their main base of operations," he said. "A warehouse that leads to their underground base – fortified, with enough fail-safes to lock down the whole area long enough for them to escape quickly."

The Chief stopped. "You know another way in," he said, saying it in a way that made it more of a statement than a question.

Graves smiled. "I know another way in. But I only show you if I go with you."

The Chief sighed internally. While he could leave this to the police force, he knew it would be faster if he did this himself – and with a lesser loss of lives. He also knew that if Graves didn't show him the second way in, the Triad would bolt, making the job of the police so much harder. And he really wasn't all that eager to spend more time than necessary fighting his way into a crime syndicates base. Unless Graves was bluffing…

"Why?" asked the Chief.

Graves tilted his head with a frown, but the Chief still hadn't turned back and so could not see his expression.

"Why do you want to go with me?" he clarified after Graves didn't respond.

Graves hopped off the roof and walked beside the Chief. His shotgun was strapped to his back, and he had a revolver on his waist. "Hell, I aint the kind of guy that lets a good thing slip away."

The Chief turned to look at him. He should have figured this was just another case of someone taking advantage of his presence. Not that he really minded much; UNSC soldiers did it all the time. Everyone wants to play tag-along with the hyper-lethal supersoldier.

"Okay," Chief said, giving in. It wasn't like he really had anything against Graves, and he didn't want to get into a protracted fight with the Triad. Speed was key here.

The second entrance was a classic sewer entrance, set into the wall that composed the bridge. It was large enough for a vehicle to drive through, which was evident from the tire marks on the wet paving beside it.

Graves looked at the Spartan, who was crouched beside the entrance, peering through the bars. "See anything?" he asked.

The Chief shook his head. "No guards for a long way."

Graves nodded. "Open her up, then."

The Chief placed his AR on the ground and grabbed hold of the two middlemost bars, pulling at them lightly. The bars popped off, making a gap large enough for both of them to crawl through.

"When I said 'open her up,' I didn't mean rip it apart," Graves drawled.

The Chief shrugged. He picked his assault rifle back up and moved in, walking as quietly as his armour allowed.

It was fairly dark in the tunnel, but the Chief was more than capable of seeing in the dark and Graves didn't complain.

They moved like that for a while, the tunnel slowly growing larger every few meters. As they pressed on, they began to see grate covers on the floor, with light spilling out of them. His motion sensor began to light up with faded red dots, indicating enemies beneath them.

"Wait," Graves whispered, and crouched beside one of the grates.

The Chief stopped and looked back. He tilted his head in question.

"Below us are the storage areas. This is where they'll keep the bombs."

The Chief crouched by the grate also, and saw that he was correct. His helmet sensors were picking up massive amounts of possibly explosive chemicals.

Chief looked at the outlaw. "You know a lot about them," he said.

Graves snickered. "I used to work with 'em," he said. "Swindled them, more like. 'Till they swindled me, and I 'aint never forgiving them for that. Just got sidetracked is all, couldn't get 'em sooner."

The Chief shook his head. Civilian life really was too confusing. At least the Human-Covenant war had been clear-cut, black and white.

He moved to grab the grate, but Graves stopped him. "Wait up," he said. "Need a cigar."

Chief stared at him. Graves ignored it and took his time, slowly making a fresh cigar, and then lighting it.

The Chief shook his head. He reached down, grabbed the grate, and in one smooth motion ripped it out and threw it aside.

The guards in the room below all immediately looked up. Because they were part of a crime syndicate, they were far better trained than the average criminal. Each one began to reach for their weapons, some moving for cover, and one running for the large alarm system mounted on the wall.

Not one of them was able to clear their weapons from their holsters.

Spartan-117 dropped down, hitting the ground with enough force that it broke tiles and sent up dust. With quick, sharp bursts from his MA5C he took out every guard in the room.

Graves dropped down after him, much more gracefully. "Nice," he said around his cigar.

The Chief moved to the first container he saw and opened it, revealing rows of stacked bombs that somewhat resembled ancient dynamite. He noted that each one lacked any way to prime them, which meant they could only be remotely triggered.

He glanced around the room, counting the amount of boxes that were roughly the same size and design as this one: 22.

"We need to disable these explosives quickly," he said. "Then we leave."

Graves frowned. "Then the leadership'll just-"

"We aren't here to start a war," the Chief interrupted. "Disable the bombs. Then we leave."

Graves hesitated for a second as he considered pushing the argument, but let moved to do as he was told. It seemed he wasn't to eager to stay here longer than necessary without his super-soldier companion.

They each got through less than three crates when they heard rapidly approaching feet.

The Chief pointed to one of the doors, and aimed his rifle at it. Graves did the same.

As soon as they opened, they both opened fire. The Chief cut down the majority, and graves took down the rest, but the enemy still managed to let loose a couple of rounds.

"Shit," Graves said, looking back. The Chief followed his gaze, and saw the neat hole the enemy projectile had burned through the crate. But that wasn't what made him concerned.

He opened the crate, which was larger and far sturdier than the bomb-carrying ones.

What was inside made his blood run cold.

Weapons, each one resembling a plasma repeater, were stacked inside. There were also handles of weapons which resembles the energy blades the Mechs had used, back on the attack of the Institute.

The Chief looked around, seeing a bunch more containers similar to this one.

Graves shook his head. "Well, this can't be good."

The Chief grabbed one of each of the weapons and placed them on his back for later study. He then looked around the room again. "You're familiar with these explosives, right?" he asked.

Graves nodded. "Yeah, I had ma' fair share work with 'em"

"What's the blast radius of them," Chief asked.

"Not very large individually," he drawled, thinking. "But the explosive blast becomes greater with each time the magic field encounters more magic, so you put some together and they make a big boom. But they're useless without the dets."

He looked to the Chief. "Why, what're ya thinking?"

The Chief calmly grabbed one of his plasma grenades and bounced it a couple of times in his palm.

Graves smiled. "Yeah, that should about do it."

The Chief pointed to the room that the enemy had entered from, and Graves began running. The Spartan quickly primed the plasma and dropped it in the nearest bomb crate.

In truth, he really didn't want to make this much of a mess in Piltover, but these weapons proved that some enemy was out there with his tech – and he would be damned if he let these criminals use them. The best way to get rid of this, and their operation, was a good old fashioned explosion.

He ran quickly, covering the ground in a few bounds and shutting the door behind him. Not that it would help.

Graves was still running, and the Chief was beside him.

Behind them they could hear the explosion begin.

Graves mumbled. "Well, shi-"

Caitlyn took the criminal out with a headshot, stopping him from stabbing one of her officers in the back.

They were currently in warehouse 12-b, one of the many that littered this side of Piltover. She had come here with two squads and Vi on the rumor that the Triad was moving weapons here, but that seemed false. There was nothing here, and the entire facility went into lockdown as soon as they had arrived. They wouldn't even be able to search the place as soon as warehouse district management got involved. While the Sheriff was sure the managers were in on the shady dealings here, she had no proof, and more importantly no warrant.

The last few criminals took cover behind a few crates near the far wall.

Caitlyn motioned to Vi. "Care to make a door?" she asked.

Vi smirked. "Sure, cupcake," she said.

Something began to whine on the far side of the room, where the criminals were.

"What's that?" one of the other officers asked, right before a stream of blue bullets impacted all around them.

"Cover!" Caitlyn yelled as Vi tackled her down.

"Why do they have a turret in here?" The Piltover Enforcer demanded. "And why is it shooting FREAKIN' BLUE BULLETS?"

Caitlyn heard one of her officers cry out in pain. Several bullets began to land around the Sheriff, creating patches of scorched, melted ground. She gritted her teeth. "It looks like the Chief's tech," she said.

Vi nodded as she fiddled with the dial on one of her gauntlets. 'Yeah… I think I remember something similar back when those rouge Mechs went crazy-time back at the League."

Caitlyn nodded, trying to make sure her top hat didn't fly off.

"K, cupcake, Imma go in hard, assault and battery style. Cover me, alright?"

Caitlyn nodded, reluctant to let her partner go out into the danger but knowing they would all die from the turret if she didn't.

"On three," the Enforcer said. "One, Two…"

There was a massive explosion. The entire back half of the room collapsed in, blasting all the criminals forward.

Dust spread across the room as debris rained down. The massive wave of heat came next, making it hard to breath.

Caitlyn dropped her file and began to cough just as one of the criminals who was knocked forward landed beside her.

He looked up at her, noting her lack of weaponry. He raised his blackened hand, a crude revolver clutched in his palm.

A massive green shape landed overtop the man, shattering the pavement. The Master Chief calmly reached down and broke the man's hand, causing a scream of pain.

Vi and Caitlyn both stared at the Spartan just as Graves moved up behind him.

"Well, 'aint this jus' a bloody reunion," the outlaw said, his clothing all torn and burned.

"…I didn't even get to three," Vi complained.

Hello all. Here we have the second installment in the ark in which the Master Chief goes somewhere other than the League. yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

On a serious note, i seem to be getting so many back-to-back assignments its hard to write anymore. But i'll still have chapters up regularly, but they may be shorter than you guys (and I) might like.

oh, and this chapter is appearing as Chapter 21, but its just chapter 20.

As ever, review if there was anything you feel is worth reviewing about, because that will help me write better int he future. If not, then I hope you enjoyed the chapter(?) and hope you guys come again next time(?)