Authors notes: Alright, I know it's been some time since I last updated, but this isn't dead, just to let you all know I'm still working on this.

Now, just some context, Taylor's rant to her adopted alien son by the end of this chapter is over.

A hunter in waiting

2.2

As we looked around the beach, ignoring the flaming remains of the former cargo boat, we took notice that the sun was rising. But underneath the beach, deep into the earth's crust, our soon to be bond brother had discovered a cave of decent size, apparently rich of necessary resources for our operations.

What we had to do next, was to inform mother, before announcing half of our plans to the group. The plan was as simple as could be, Legion, our bond brother, would be a villain in the disguise of banished hunter captain armor, a set of hunter armor that hides the worms of a lek'golo, making it harder for anyone to draw the connections between Legion and Collaboration.

Turning our head towards our mom, we tapped into our connection, 'Mother, we have a plan that will benefit ourselves in the long run… you may not like it.' We informed her.

She had finished her rant and lecturing from earlier, and was now talking to Miss Militia, which was about us. She turned to face us, and she responded, 'What is it?' she asked.

'There is a unique ability that we have, that allows us to share one mind with two colonies of our worms. We call this a bond brother, and to inform you, we made the decision to prematurely start a bond brother at just the exact moment that the whole confrontation happened.' We explained.

If we could see her face, she would be narrowing her eyes at us, 'And what do you mean by this? And how exactly do you plan on using it?' she asked.

'We have discovered an isolated cave deep underground, an underground lake resides within this cave, we intend to start a double life. One with the Protectorate, and one as a chaotic rogue, which will most likely be identified as a villain by public relations within the PRT. Normally, this would be impossible for normal capes, but we are no normal cape, nor normal case 53. We intend to not be limited to an already existing path; we do not intend to be under the control of anyone in particular.' We paused on that, letting her to fully process it before continuing, 'But do not inform Faultline of this right now, not in the presence of Militia. Let the PRT and the Protectorate believe that they have full control over us. If they do find out, we would like to see them try and take us out.' We commented. 'And to inform you, when our bond brother is ready, we will contact you at the exact time that we are ready to commence operations.' We informed her.

We then heard her sigh, before she responded, 'Alright, just remember to inform me when you're situated. We'll need to talk about how dangerous setting up two cape identities at the same time.' She warned us.

We nodded, before speaking up from our position, "W# h4^3 (0m3 u9 w1th a 6ec1si0n. W3 w111 j0i% the Protectorate." We announced. At this moment, we decided to begin producing more worms for our body to increase our height to standard hunter height.

Faultline then nodded, "I… won't argue with that. You cause too much collateral damage for my taste. And if it's what you want, I won't get in the way." She spoke. We were somewhat surprised, but before we thought on it further, Faultline explained further, "But, I request there be at least more free room for them." She requested. Now that she finished, we thought on it for a moment, before coming to the conclusion that she was still not comfortable with how the PRT treats case 53's.

Mother then spoke up, "Yes, they're going to need free room, otherwise I won't exactly be happy." Mother warned. She held the posture of a mom who was about to go off on a tangent about certain things about their child.

Miss Militia looked over to us, thought for what seemed like a minute before she spoke up, "I'll see what I can do for them." She Acknowledged their concerns. It was then that the group noticed that we were steadily growing in width and height.

Gregor was the one who pointed it out, "Is it just me, or are they growing?" he asked, earning a look from the other three. They looked at us and noticed that we were indeed, growing.

"How big do you think they'll grow?" Faultline shared her thoughts with the rest of the group.

Mother then put her hands through her hair before speaking, "For all I know, as big as leviathan…" she paused at that trail of thought before she decided to ask us, "Actually… Collab, how big do you think you'll grow?" she asked.

We gave it a thought for a moment, pretending that we were pondering the question before we answered, "9os51bl/ tw31^e f33t t4l1." We answered. Miss Militia then rubbed her forehead in response to that.

"Yeeeaaah… I'm going to have to call in a truck…" she stated before grabbing her radio. "I don't know if they'll actually believe me or not." She plainly stated.

Deep underground…

We began to shape our second body, having bred far more worms in a short manner of time in comparison to our first body. As we gained shape, we brought forth the required materials for the first project. Having done it with resources that were apart of already put together materials, it was by far quicker with the raw resources.

After the optic mask was finished, which only had one optic instead of the normal four. Instead of emerald, green, they were blood red. The mask shared the look of that of a hunter captain of the Banished. We then donned it on, activating the lights, and looking around the cave, we took note that this cave was surprisingly rich of raw resources.

It was then we utilized a unique facet of the mask. "Well, seems that we are quite lucky to have found this cave." We spoke, using the built-in translator inside of the mask, before we began to chuckle without the help of the translator.

Now, before we could build the power armor that we would hide our worms inside of… we would have to create the forge that was necessary to smelt the raw resources. There were many things we had on our list, one of them were adding our own mix onto the armor.

Afterall, there was no Covenant or Banished to hold a hunter from crafting an overpowered set of armor, with modifications they would no doubt believe that it would be dishonorable or unfair for their opponent. One of these modifications would be adding star ship grade shielding and armor, practically near invincible and impossible to harm us. With that set of modification, it would already be overpowered enough for us using this if we were within the halo universe, but here on earth bet, that was a different story. Sure, there were some tinkers who could create something that could penetrate tinker shields, but the covenant had shielding for starships, which gave the UNSC a difficult time alone. But tinkers were a rarity though, meaning that we would only on some occasion run into tinker supplied criminals, as well as the protectorate and PRT.

But we had to keep to the shadows, we had to seem like we had a certain specialty restrained… we had to utilize one thing over the other while our bond brother produced their own specialization. But we wouldn't hold ourselves back, of course, we would attempt to… pull a saint and pretend to steal inventions from our bond brother… when in reality, we were just taking what we rightly owned.

So, first things first, our bond brother would create shields, while we made starship grade armor.

No one could ever suspect we were the one in the same, since we were legion, for we are many.

Other than that, we would create weapons that were not specially withheld to plasma, for example, we would create guantlets that can manipulate gravity, after all, we were smart enough to weaponize what had been at first a means of traversal and expand on the concept that the gravity hammer introduced, gravity.

Back on the surface…

After they discussed further on what was to be done for us when we joined the Protectorate, or at least what could be done, Mother, Faultline, and Gregor left us with the Protectorate hero. Miss Militia was of course threatened by mother that if anything bad were to happen to us, she'd know.

Of course, Miss Militia was concerned for our mother, but we knew that momma would be fine. We even hinted that she may or may not be that trusting with figures of power, but it was for the best that she met a protectorate affiliated hero that wasn't Armsmaster. Of course, this caught Miss Militia slightly off guard, but she didn't ask how exactly why we knew that Armsmaster was… unique, but she seemed to agree.

Now, we looked over to the ruined boat, the fire having died down. The sun now began to rise as well, and in the distance, we heard vehicles approaching.

These were PRT affiliated transportation, and as they came to a stop, they opened to reveal PRT troopers. The troopers rushed over to the still unconscious Lung, intent on taking the man into custody.

And then we heard two new people approach, who just happened to be Assault and Battery. One of which would be victims to the slaughterhouse nine.

We then thought on our future intentions for when we crossed paths with the group of murder hobos. We then soon came to a decision. We would give each member a death that would be the best fit for them, for they would deserve a fitting death that would bring an end to them. Sure, there was one special death we had in hand for the head of the group, it would fit him just right. The reason we say this, is because we had somehow a second forerunner blueprint within our subconscious, quite possibly as a result of the creation of a bond brother. This blueprint was of the technology that was able to take control of a creature from the halo universe but could be reutilized to take control of a particular murder hobo.

We came to this conclusion with how his power works, as well as the fact that he is a manipulative individual. A mind controlling device would be an interesting method of torture. If the technology worked as it did on humans as it did with the sharquoi.

Now, one would wonder why the forerunners would even create such technology, but in reality, it was a failed attempt at fighting the flood, to which we were grateful for not being in the same universe as the demented fungi… or parasite. Sure, we were still in a deadly universe, but that was by far better than being in the same universe as those things.

Back onto focusing on the present, Battery and Assault then began to speak with Miss Militia. It would seem to be a big surprise for them to see us far bigger than what Miss Militia had reported. Now, instead of eight feet, we were now 12 feet tall, full hunter height, which was very intimidating to the capes. We then stood up from where we sat, having healed from the battle.

"Wow… that's a big can of worms." Assault commented, before he received an elbow to his stomach.

"Please do not insult the big intimidating case-53. He's nearly as tall as the Simurgh... or at least close enough to the full height of that endbringer." Battery warned the male cape.

"9r3e7ings, w3 ar3 (01la6orati0n. P13as3 d1sm1ss our broken translator." We introduced ourselves. Despite the clear static, they perfectly understood what we meant.

Assault, of course took note of the broken translator, "Now that you mention it, I do notice it." He commented, earning a slap to the back of the head from Battery. "Sorry… so… who's going to volunteer and help them into the truck?" only to get a collective stare from the female capes.

It was then decided that he was the one who would help us into the van owned by the PRT.

Later…

As we stepped out of the truck, we looked at where we now were. The headquarters of the local Protectorate, the rig.

We had essentially created a backdoor into the protectorate, and now would be our grand moment… but first there was one thing we had to do.

Paperwork.

Back underground…

While our bond brother went through the annoying prospect of paperwork, we had finished a third of the suit. Meaning we would be soon ready to unleash onto the world a new villain. But our first target would be simple.

Take away coil's trump card before he can get his filthy hands on her. That would be the first step in our goal. Then after that, we have bigger plans for this city, and we intend on getting the help of a certain group on getting rid of coil… one of which has someone who has a personal vendetta against him.

But we will have to wait for now, we still have a suit of armor to finish.

Authors notes: Well, I hope you enjoyed this, leave any feedback, it is appreciated, and I hope you all have a great day.