Author's Note: Ah damnit, just deleted Maelstrom Guy's stories and his profile has been cleaned too. This sucks, cause his story A Spider's Big Four was a major inspiration for mine. Maybe I should start looking into moving over to Archive of Our Own before they do it to me next. Anyway, this chapter is more of a teaser, I wanted to give you guys a little something before I turn my attention to another story. Side note, one of these days, I am going to settle on a format for how I start off my chapters and when that comes, I'm gonna retroactively edit all the dates in each chapter to match it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or MHA.

Beta-read by Iowaman24.

Step Inside….Become

0900 Hours, Tuesday, 2526(2126)-04-04 (UNSC Military Calendar),

UA, Japan,

PO2 034, Samuel,

Current cover: SGT Mendez, Samuel, C.,

…[]

The long hallway was vacant, save for just Sam. Today was the day his class would be receiving their costumes. They were just given the instruction to change into them and meet Aizawa downstairs by the shuttles. From there, they would be transported over to where the battle trials were to be held. The other three left for the locker rooms, but not Sam. Instead, Aizawa had told him to report to the Support Department as his required extra prep-work. He didn't need to say what, Sam could tell from just his body language alone.

Sam walks past multiple classrooms before coming to a stop before a large reinforced blast door with yellow and black warning paint along its borders. When he enters, he casually walks past the various students who were too focused on their work to notice him before coming to a stop in front of a coded door with a sign that reads "Authorized Personnel Only." He scans his ID onto the pad and enters where he is immediately greeted by the department head, Power Loader, or just Maijima Higari. Though, instead of his usual costume, he instead was wearing a blue engineer's jumpsuit and a mask with a plastic faceplate.

"Oh Mendez-san good, you're here," he says and waves him over and hands him a sealed metal case and a locker key. "Here's your undersuit, both parts of it. We have everything already set up, go ahead change into this and then meet us down in the lab when you're ready," he instructed before ushering him into the private changing room.

Sam sets the case down onto the bench in front of the locker and opens it revealing an inner sealed case. The inner case had been partitioned into two sections with the inner skinsuit on top and the armored undersuit beneath it. There is a brief pause as he runs his hand over the smooth and back material of the inner skinsuit. He takes a deep breath and proceeds to strip down before putting it on as the undersuit requires complete skin contact in order to work properly. It was just as comfortable as he had remembered as it perfectly hugged his body like a second layer of skin. Hell, if he wasn't seeing himself in the mirror, he could see himself forgetting the suit was even on to begin with.

Next was the black armored bodysuit which would be sandwiched between the external armor plates and his padded inner suit. The titanium-alloyed nanocomposite material was nearly impervious to knives and small-arms fire, and was both incredibly light and as flexible as cotton. Just like with the undersuit, he hardly noticed a thing, even after he slips on the boots and gloves. When finally satisfied, he places his uniform onto a nearby hanger and places it and the case neatly into the locker. Without another thought, he shuts the locker door and leaves the room.

As Sam enters into the main area, towards the other side of the room which had the soles of his boots in the center of a raised platform separated at approximately shoulder width apart. Maijima gives him the greenlight and Sam climbs onto the stage and places his feet into the soles. He feels a slight increase in pressure around his foot as the clamps slide into place, securing his feet to the soles. As Sam grabs ahold of the arm rests, Power Loader moves up beside him and makes sure that all clamps are secure.

"How's he looking Bobs?" Satisfied with his checks, the aforementioned alien signals for the go ahead and Maijima asks Sam "Are you ready?"

"Affirmative."

The off duty Excavation Hero beckons at Bobs a Little and the two swap places. Maijima takes his place behind the console and begins powering on the machines while the floating alien moves in to directly assist with the assembly process. High-pitched whines reverberated throughout the room as the machines that power the robotic arms power on. The armatures begin moving forward with individual armor pieces while Bobs a Little remains on standby ready to bolt them together.

Throughout the process, Sam recalls what Dr. Halsey had told them the day they received the original Mjolnir Mk. IV armor.

"Even though this technology will save humanity in the war to come…"

They start the assembly at his boots and gloves first and proceed to work their way up and inward.

"Liquid crystal cannot rise on its own."

The excited Huragok freely floats around him. Though he was moving at a blinding speed, Sam could still see the amazing precision and accuracy the alien was working at as he bolted the plates to his suit's superstructure.

"Titanium alloy cannot prevail in the face of extinction."

The little alien works diligently as Majimia slowly moves the arms loaded with more pieces into place.

"Armour cannot hope."

The locks on the armor let out a resound metallic snap as the breast and back plates place and lock together around his torso. For the final steps, Bobs slides the shoulder pauldrons down and inserts the suit's micro-fusion power supply into the suit's power plant. Sam watches with intense anticipation as the helmet slowly lowers around his head.

"It all means nothing…"

With a flip of a switch and as the suit powers on, a window opens up on Sam's hud asking him to start the initialization process. He selects yes and the suit's systems power on and begins syncing with his neural implants.

A robotic voice announces "Suit sealed, and locked."

"Until you step inside."

The suits sensors power on allowing Sam to see the room around him while his HUD came back online. He couldn't help but notice that there were some new features this time around. Bobs circles around the spartan and inserts a chip-like device into the back of his head and Sam's mind is flooded in this cool mercury feeling.

"You should be seeing the interface at popup about now."

His HUD then began running another prompt.

The teacher explains. "Turns out the bit about him being a biological supercomputer was literal. He combined a part of himself into your suit thus allowing him to operate the suit's systems exponentially more efficiently than you would've been able to on your own."

Sam curiously inquires "How would this affect my performance?"

"I don't have any hard numbers, but you can expect to be fast, stronger, more agile…you know stuff like that. He would definitely help with your survivability overall. Like say if you're incapacitated, he would be able to take control of your emergency systems and do whatever it takes to keep you alive. Tech wise, you'd basically be immune to any cyber attacks, not sure what his hacking skills are, but safe to say I don't think there is any network on the planet he wouldn't be able to penetrate and leave while remaining completely undetected."

Sam lets off an inquisitive hum and dumbly comments "That sounds nice."

Maijimi cracks a wide smile and jokingly asks "I don't have to worry about you doing something like stealing someone's crypto do I?"

Rather than retort, Sam just indignantly scoffs.

"Now, let's see to syncing your targeting and tracking sensors…"

While looking at a tablet, he pulls out a flashlight, flicks it on and raises it up into the air.

"Look at the top light," he politely requests.

Sam looks up towards the light and Maijima flicks it off.

He moves the light down and says "Now the bottom…"

This would repeat a few more times.

"To the right…and to the left…Okay, your targeting and tracking systems are good."

They ran a few more tests on his suit's sensors. Over the next ten minutes, Sam had his suit's audio and visual systems successfully tested. He also had his motion tracker reactivated and tested. Confirmed enemy targets would show up as red dots while allies and unrecognized contacts show up as yellow. Bobs a Little would also personally help with Sam to further distinguish allies from enemies to avoid any blue-on-blue incidents.

"Now onto other things. Bobs decided to upgrade your armor with Covenant tech while we were working on it," he lectures, further drawing in Sam's attention. "First things first, thrusters were added to your suit. The button on your HUD should resemble a figure roughly your shape with lines coming out behind him. Can you use that to deploy your thrusters?"

Sam nods and the suit unfolds as the thruster flaps located on various spots around his armor. The engineer flies around to check for any obstructions or faults.

"They won't allow you to exactly fly, but they should get you some pretty good air and will be great for immediate course corrections." He then quickly warns "Just watch for what you land on, some things aren't really built to handle half a metric ton landing on them."

During his stay at UA, the little alien was given a text-to-speech device to allow him to better communicate with others.

Bobs a Little messages "Proper test required."

Sam nods in understanding.

"Anything else?"

"Using Covenant material, the entire suit has been made much more resistant to damage from directed energy attacks," Maijimi explains. "The power system has also completely been redone, combining your current micro-fusion reactor with the plasma Z-pinch one we pulled off of one of the elites. Practically doubled the power output and made what were already incredibly advanced devices look like a basic car battery comparison. And there's one more thing…"

Bobs a Little pulls up a grid with a detailed outline of Sam's systems and magnifies onto a specific part.

"He experimented quite a bit and managed to install nanobots into your armor. They're designed to work automatically to maintain and repair any damage to a particular unit. Not to mention auto-bio foam injectors and a myriad of other survivability features designed to keep you alive."

"That is amazing," breathes Sam.

The entire reason for Sam staying behind was because of his suit getting breached thus robbing him of his ability to travel in vacuum. His suit having a self repair function, albeit a limited one, would outright prevent something like that from ever occurring again.

"Reclaimer, repairs take time," warns the alien. "Repairs may be impossible if the module is too damaged. Replacement parts will be required instead."

"Noted. How many tests are left?" he asks.

"Two system checks remaining," the engineer beeps.

Maijimi thoughtfully suggests "Everything looks good, I'll release the inhibitors, hold up."

There was a button press and the cords and cables hooking up to his suit were released. They were then retracted back into the walls as control of the suit was transferred to Sam.

"Move around a bit, get a feel for it. When you're ready, meet us over there by the recharging station."

Taking their advice into consideration, he takes a moment to get used to being back in his armor for the first time in months. It was as amazing as he remembered it and it even still had its new car smell. After a minute of light stretching, he makes his way over to the other two and they motion for him to stand in the yellow square.

"Alright, so I am sure you've noticed those lights all over your armor?"

Sam nods.

"Shield emitters, we managed to take the shield system off of that Field Marshal and install them throughout your armor. Hold still please?" he explains.

Bobs a Little hits a button on the console and a vertical bar starts orbiting around him. As the bar picks up speed, yellow streaks flow off of it and Sam's armor is suddenly bathed in a golden light. He keenly watches as the empty bar at the top of his HUD slowly fills up.

"Turns out the Covenant tech was incredibly inefficient, apparently upgrading technology to their fullest was a violation against their religion. Guys are kinda like the Imperium of Man in a way," Maijimi scoffs. He quickly shakes his head and continues "Anyway, the shield plugs directly into your suit's powerpack. That allows for an even spread of proportional energy around your body."

Suddenly, the yellow streaks turned red and Sam could hear what sounded like a plasma pistol charging up. There was a loud pop and Sam was suddenly bathed in a flashing red light with a high-pitched alarm sounding off within his helmet. He looks back to the bar and sees that it had instantly emptied. Barely a few seconds pass before the bar quickly fills back up.

The alien quickly adds "Recharging delay is three seconds. Full recharge time is four seconds"

"As you can see, your shields, while incredibly resilient, can still be overloaded. You'll need to find some cover to recharge or your suit is going to start taking hits."

Bobs a Little adds "Combat skin shields allow for directional manipulation."

"That's right. You can also increase your shield strength ten-fold when locking down your armor. The drawback however, is that while the armor is locked, the shield will only last for five seconds. After that, your shield will deactivate."

"Electromagnetic pulse will be fired upon release from armor lock. Recharging delay remains three seconds. Full recharge time is extended to ten seconds."

"How much damage can the shields take before being overloaded?"

"Shield capacity is rated for 15 megajoules," whistles Bobs a Little.

Maijimi blankly states "At full charge you can basically take a tank shell to the face and remain completely untouched. Probably even more of you shift all your shield power to the front. Now for the final addition we made…"

The trio moved over to the next station which had a few monitors around a large mirror.

"You should see another icon that looks like a silhouette of your armor with lines going through it. That's your cloak, give it a whirl."

Doing as instructed, Sam watches in astonishment as his reflection almost completely disappears from the mirror save for a little shimmer along his body's outline. He glances down at this body and watches in fascination at his transparent armor and how the light seemed to bend around him. His surprise is quickly replaced with excitement and he starts brainstorming possible combat applications. The support course teacher and alien engineer were just as excited based on the former's large grin and the latters enthusiastic squeals.

Maijimi explains "We mounted an active camouflage generator onto your armor. You'll be practically invisible at distance, even through a scoped weapon. You might be discovered in close proximity to a person though, but even then they would need some rather sharp eyes."

Sam let out a whistle as he was clearly impressed by the equipment.

His brows furrow and he asks "How long does this last?"

"The generator draws directly from your suit's power unit. So in theory, as long as your suit has power, the cloak stays on." He frowns and frankly comments "Wouldn't advise it though, see watch."

Bobs a Little, as if on queue, flips a switch on the console and one of the monitors shows off his thermals.

"Bobs did his best, but you will still light up on thermals while it's on," he grumbles. "And the longer it's on, the more power it draws away from your shields, and it doesn't mask things like your footprints either."

"Recommended use no longer than forty-five seconds to maintain optimal shield strength," Bobs a Little chirps.

"Also, getting shot will disrupt it temporarily and reveal you. The more hits you take, the more visible you'll become. It will also hide your weapons but the lights may still be visible. Also the same rules, the more you fire your weapon, the more visible you are."

Sam asks "Will it be affected by atmospheric particles, like snow and dust?"

They both nodded.

"Same limitations."

Sam shuts off the generator and shrugs reasons "Well, one can never become too reliant on one's equipment."

"Your VISR would probably be able to pick it up, or at least the IR and Thermal settings," Maijimi comments. "Safe to say cameras will probably do the same thing."

Sam nods and thanks the teacher before they're whistled at by Bobs a Little. They watch as the alien floats over to them with a duffle bag and a pair of hard cases containing Sam's gear for today's trials. The first item he pulls out is his sidearm. He instinctively pulls the slide back and inserts an individual cartridge before sliding in a loaded magazine, he flicks the safety back on, and places it into the magnetic holster on his right thigh.

Next, he brings up the larger case and opens it revealing a M73 SAW. Taking the weapon into his arms, he routinely clears it and makes sure it's on safe before extending the bi-pod and setting it on the table. Next, he pulls out an ammo-drum which holds a 100-round belt of 7.62x51mm. Again, he slides it into his weapon, the difference here is that the SAW has to be fired from the open-bolt position. He pulls the charging handle back and rengages the safety locking the bolt to the rear.

Sam held back a wince the moment he saw that simunitions had been authorized for today's training. Instead of firing a regular bullet, the round instead was replaced by a plastic cartridge containing non-toxic high-visibility paint. As with all non-lethal munitions, the cartridges are loaded with barely a fraction of the power as lethal ammunition. These ones in particular were colored red which Sam guesses was Aizawa's idea. Sam knew one thing, simunitions hurt quite a bit, which funny enough, actually helps in teaching people that getting shot sucks. Heck, they would still hurt even if they were wearing the correct padding. He can already hear the lecture that Recovergy Girl was going to give him after today's session.

After he sets the weapon back onto the table, he begins loading up on the rest of his gear. He strapped the rest of his ammo into the various pouches that were magnetically attached to his armor. The remaining bits of gear were stashed away into the storage compartments in his armor. In addition to the ones already loaded, Sam was also carrying five more belts for his SAW, and an extra two magazines for his magnum.

There were also eight individual pouches for the various grenades he was taking: two 9-bangers, two CS gas grenades, two decoys, and two snapshot grenades. These last two grenades were ones he particularly wanted to see in action. Basically the grenade itself is an IR sensor which activates when the arming button is pressed. The data it picks up will feed directly to Sam's HUD allowing him to briefly see targets hiding behind cover. The last thing Sam grabs is a simple steel, twenty-one inch friction loc baton which he attaches to his left thigh.

"Thanks, I'll see you two after class."

Sam gives them a two-fingered salute and starts heading for the door.

Maijimi calls after him, "Hey, Mendez-san."

The teen looks back.

"Go easy on the kids alright?" the teacher playfully remarks.

Sam coyly nods and reassuringly replies "Yes sir."

With that, he was out the door.

Author's note: Alright, Sam's got his armor back. The battle trials are either gonna be carried out as normal. Only a lot shorter since there's only four students, or it's gonna be everyone against Sam. There is a possibility that I can train alongside class 1B, but that would require me to make up quite a few characters and I don't think my skill is quite cut out for that.

For the USJ chapter, that is gonna be a bit tougher, probably a bit shorter too as the League of Villains aren't going to attack. I might have something, but whether you guys would like it is up to you. Unless you guys got a different idea in mind, I am open to suggestions outside of bringing in the League of Villains an entire year early. Maybe taking a break in the story will help me come up with more content, I don't really know. I definitely made this harder on myself because I am not going off of the original manga like most people would.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter even though it is a bit shorter. Please follow if you haven't and you want to see more. Please leave a review, suggestions, constructive criticisms, I appreciate it. I need all the help I can get and I hope to keep you guys around in the long run. I'll see you guys in a bit, I have to work on my Red vs Blue story for now. As always, Big Brother is watching.

Review Responses:

StrkFreeGundm: Alright, lots to unpack here. First of all, thank you for giving my story a chance, and I am happy you're enjoying it so far. As to why I didn't go over the shotgun, mainly because I had to pick and choose what gun to show off and didn't want to just bloat up the chapter by going over everything. Now, for Master Chief coming in, sorry dude, that's gonna have to be no, no more Halo characters. I don't think I would be able to make that work sadly.

DarkySunRise&MarauderPrime12: Thanks guys, thank you for your support.

The Disquieting One: As I told you in the PMs, I'm sorry you got left with that assumption. Based on what you said to me, I can only say that you're probably going to be at least a little disappointed with how some of the future arcs go.

AlanTawers: I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean.

Helljumper206: Yeah I agree. I figured I might also explore some other things and Izuku was one of the original arcs I wanted to play with.

187: Thank you, I am happy you found my story. It's nice of you to have picked up on the story bits I was trying for.

The Stasis Slayer: Thank you for your edit, I have no idea how that slipped through. It makes it worse that I had it correct the first time, and then changed it to what was originally posted.

Azure Sky Dance: It's all good dude, I'm just glad you're here.