Ch. 3 Surprises
Master Chief opened the door to the training room and told Rock, "You wait in here, I'm going to go get the others." As Rock entered the room, she felt a strange tingle in her eye. Without thinking, she dove forward and rolled, narrowly dodging a padded two pronged sword wielded by a cloaked Thel. Chief stuck his head back in, "She can take whatever you dish Arbiter." Arbiter growled out his response in Wortish, and turned back to where Rock was, only to find that she was gone. "Wort?" Thump! The Arbiter staggered forward as Rock jumped him from behind, using his voice to figure out where his head was. Surprised, the Arbiter activated his shields, and heard a discharge of electricity as Rock was blasted off. He turned, and saw her already climbing to her feet. Rock shook her head, trying to clear the buzzing in her head. Then she felt that tingle again. Acting on instinct, she jumped onto the Arbiter's exposed back. The Arbiter, who had been trying to go low and sweep her feet from under her, growled indignantly. "Wor-Wort!" He jerked back, and Rock used that to propel herself to the other side of the training room. She looked around in desperation for a weapon, and saw a wooden boken on a sword rack to her right. She grabbed it, and yanked it off the rack, bringing it around to block an overhand strike from the Arbiter. Thel had been surprised when the girl had dodged his first blow, and a bit miffed when she used him as a springboard, but he was amazed when the much smaller girl blocked his overhand blow. With only one hand. All of this had been done while his ACU was on! Rock slipped to the side, causing Thel to fall forward. He twisted around, and saw Rock rubbing her left eye vigorously. Incredibly, it seemed to be throwing off sparks! He growled and charged forward, determined to show this girl who the better warrior was. Sensing that the Arbiter was on the move, she brought her boken up to block, but was distracted by the constant throb coming from her eye. The Arbiter easily disarmed her and slammed her into the ground. There was a pained grunt, and several somethings cracked as Rock hit the ground. The pain from the broken ribs was there, and Rock could definitely feel it, but her eye was a more important matter. Her ribs quickly healed, allowing her to breath freely. That was good, but her eye was going nuts! She wished that the invisible-not-invisible thing would shut up and leave her alone, or maybe go get that large green-metal-shell-man. "Arbiter! What is going on in here? What happened to her. She felt large footsteps from three people coming closer and the invisible-not-invisible Arbiter backed away. "The girl was doing quite well, until her left eye began throwing off blue sparks." What was he talking about? And why was her hand beginning to tingle as well? Rock was extremely confused, and couldn't concentrate on what the Metal-Shell-People and Invisible-not-Invisible Arbiter was saying. There was a fire growing in her brain and it was burning something away. As it raged, she felt her eye give one last painful throb, before it burst into azure flames. The pain in her eye raced across her body, growing stronger every second. Her right arm was twitching as if it had a bind of its own, and a particularly painful stab of fire raced down it, eliciting a moan of pain from her. She shot to a kneeling position, arm held out to the side as if reaching for something. There was a bright blue flash from her palm, and metal pieces began forming from nothing and putting themselves together. Whatever it was building, was getting bigger by the second, and showed no signs of stopping. Mutely, Rock realized that she should be afraid, but the fire in her mind wouldn't let her. It seemed that it was burning away whatever made her emotions work. The metal device forming on her arm was almost complete now, and it looked like a very large weapon. With one last cry of primal pain, the metal stopped forming, and the weapon began glowing a soft blue from long slits in the metal. The fire in her mind was still there, not painful, but she could only remember her name. That, and the fact that she had been attacked by something still in the room. She looked up from the ground, breathing heavily, and her eyes locked onto the group of five soldiers who were staring at her in shock. She brought the heavy weapon around to bear, "Black Rock Cannon- Default Mode." She pulled the trigger and held it hearing a high-pitched whine come from the cannon. Charging… She watched her targets scatter, and kept her eye on the one who attacked her originally, keeping the business end of the cannon pointed firmly in his direction. Fire. BANG! A streak of blue light shot out of the end of the cannon, arching towards her intended target and connecting with a loud explosion. Fortunately for the Arbiter, her cannon wasn't very strong yet, so the explosion did nothing more than knock him over. She heard a loud CA-CHICK, and she whirled around to see the white armored man aiming a pitifully small gun at her. BANG! BANG! BANG! The gun flashed several times and small spurts of blood erupted from her torso. Knowing her Default Mode was never going to work on that armor, she unconsciously pushed her cannon. There was a small click from within it, and the ring that had the glowing blue lines began to spin. "Absorption Shot." She brought the cannon around to point at him and pulled the trigger. FWUMP! A ball of energy collided with his torso and seemed to fizzle out. He had time to say, "Huh, I guess she doesn't have- Wait, Absorption?" His chest plate lit up a bright blue an exploded, sending him flying. She felt her right hand left hand tingle a bit, and she closed her fingers, as if gripping something. A second later, the Black Blade was in her hand. There was a buzzing noise behind her, and she darted forward, feeling her right pigtail brush up against something. She glanced behind her, and saw the non-human standing there with a glowing two-pronged sword. Not even hesitating, she reversed the push from earlier and the ring stopped spinning. She pulled the trigger quickly, and used the recoil to launch herself away from the Arbiter. She looked over at the white armored man and saw him getting up. She mildly noted that her vision was getting a bit fuzzy. I need some heavier firepower to kill these opponents. As if answering her plea, the gun began to shift again, growing thinner as a sheet of metal spikes stretched across her back. Rock felt a wave of dizziness pass, "Black Rock Cannon- Beam… Mode" She jerked the gun around and aimed it at White Armor, who had started charging. However, he took one look at the cold look in Rock's eye, and dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a beam of highly concentrated energy. Rock's vision almost blacked out at that point, but she would have nothing of that. She reverted the gun back to default mode and staggered forward, aiming at the Arbiter. Her eye flame grew bigger and stretched out behind her, before shutting off. She felt a wall in her mind give way, and her gun collapsed with a blue flash, followed closely by Rock.
The Arbiter blinked in surprise, "Why did the girl quit? She could have ended me right then and there."
The Master Chief knelt down next to her, "She passed out from exhaustion." With a gentleness that belayed his many years as a Spartan, he quietly picked her up.
"Aww, now isn't that sweet? I didn't know you were such a bundle of love Chief." Texas walked up to him and looked at the girl in his arms. "She really is out like a rock."
There was a groan behind them and Wyoming limped forward, "Why didn't she attack either of you? Was it something I said? Texas what are you- shit! OOF!" The black armored Spartan had charged Wyoming and punched him in the face.
"Why the hell did you use LIVE AMMO on a CHILD!?"
"DOES IT LOOK LIKE IT DID ANYTHING!? I thought she was going to KILL US if you must know!"
Caboose had moved to the spot where the Arbiter had been shot, "Uhh… guys? I think you need to see this." The giant Spartan stepped back, revealing a smoking black rock.
Texas stared blankly at the rock before putting two and two together. "You have got to be kidding me. Does this mean that Black Rock Shooter isn't her actual name? The Forerunners just considered her an object? Does she even have a name?"
Wyoming chuckled, "Why don't we just give her a name?"
The other four just looked at him. Texas quipped, "That might be the only smart thing I have ever heard from you."
Wyoming just shot her the bird and looked at Rock. The girl was sleeping softly in Chief's arms. "Hmmm… With that haircut you gave her Arbiter, combined with her facial structure, I'd say she looks like a typical Japanese teenager. Well, besides the fact that she's holding onto that sword like a security blanket."
"Yeah, well who here knows Japanese?" Texas asked. There was a pause as Wyoming shifted uncomfortably. "You must be joking! You know Japanese?" Wyoming held his fingers about half an inch apart. Texas rolled her eyes, "Well then, you're no use. What about you Chief?"
Chief nodded slowly, a name already forming in his mind. "What do you guys think of Mato Kuroi?"
"What the heck does that mean?"
"Well, the literal translation would be Black Clothed Shooter."
Wyoming spoke up, "Umm… Chief? No offense, but uh… that isn't exactly imaginative. OW!"
Texas had hit him upside the head, "Mato? I like it. It softens her a bit. Did you see the look in her eyes when she was attacking Thel and Wyoming? It was as if she was just a weapon. And that voice." She shuddered slightly, the movement hidden by her armor.
The Arbiter nodded, "This child needs a family." They looked at him in surprise. "What? I may be a warrior, but I still care for the well-being of children. Besides," He added with a shark-like smile, "This is so much better than being stuck in a Cryochamber."
Chief just shook his head, "I am going to go put Mato's name into the system. Arbiter, would you take her up to my quarters and lay her on the bed?" The Arbiter looked taken aback by the request, but he nodded and took the sleeping form of Mato from Chief. Chief added, "I suppose you should put one of the blankets over her." He turned to the other three Spartans, "You three need to see if any extra clothes are floating around the ship that might fit her. If not, we'll just see if Texas and Mato can get some clothes and other supplies on the next refuel, which is tomorrow actually, so I suppose that it can wait." He nodded and walked out the room, followed by the Arbiter carrying Mato, and then the other three Spartans left after clean up the mess they had made in the training room.
The Arbiter stepped into Chief's room, Mato still sleeping soundly. He lay her down on the bed and wrapped one of the few blankets in the room around her. He tried to pry the blade from her hands, but the child had it in a tight grip and refused to let it go. He smiled and tried not to laugh. The girl was a born warrior. "Sleep well my little Shanghiela."