//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Bizarre Anomaly // Story: Halo Zone // by Rookie109 //------------------------------// It was now bright and early, Lee's woke up opening his eyes from the sun beaming through the trees in the tent, the tent had been unzipped for unexplained reasons. Lee felt something wrong with him, he was feeling a minor headache along with his eyes hurting. He also couldn't even get up on two of his legs feeling something fuzzy all over himself. Lee on all fours attempted to get out of the tent still not clearing his hurting vision and mind, he neede to wash his to relieve himself of the pain he was feeling. As he mad it to a small pond, he would soon realize that there is something very off about himself than his pain and headache. When he extended his right arm forward to reach for the water to wash his eyes in the pond, his minor headache and blurry vision quickly went away for Lee to see himself in shock. Lee had no hands, he had a gray smooth and hairy skin, then he looked into the pond slowly to see his reflection to see in shocking realization to see an animal in the perspective of his reflection, the reflection of the animal he saw had green fur, a black mane of a horse and had the same brown eye pupils as Lee did, that animal was Lee. Lee was left in shock breathing heavily to not let out a panicky scream, Lee had turned into small horse, he was then quickly cut off as he looked up at his forehead seeing a strange appendage on his head, he was a unicorn. It was only a moment before Lee had let out an scream loud enough to wake up the entire campsite giving everyone a shocking wake up call. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH After Lee had made such an audible scream, he tried to stand up on two of his legs, but unfortunately, he couldn't due to the circumstances of his new form. As he was attempting to stand up on two, he then tumbled backwards on his back, Lee had no other option but to stand on all fours anyway. As Lee was able to move his limbs steady, he then realized something from looking into the pond again at his reflection, he thought that he might not be the only one that turned into what he is now. As that wild guess went into Lee's head, he had to hurry his way back to the campsite where his friends were probably waking up from his loud little scene moments ago. Lee quickly running on four limbs, he made it back to tent with its zipper door still oddly open. When Lee got in the tent, the first to wake up from their sleep was Mike from the sound of his voice, he was feeling the same way as Lee felt when he woke up. After the sleeping bag sheet fell off of Mike, he was the same thing Lee was, a small horse, gray fur, black mane but in different style, and having the same horn on his forehead. Lee called out his name to see if he was alright. As Mike faced in the direction Lee was standing in, his vision was cleared up to see good enough at what he was looking at. His eyes grew wide with his mouth agape and was at the point where he was about to scream. ''Mike, listen to me very carefully, just remain calm and don't panic, its me Le....'' Lee had been cut off by the sound of Mike panicking from hearing a talking animal, then he looked at his arms from pushing away not believing what he was seeing, hearing and what had happen to himself. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT IS THIS, LEE? Mike questioned hesitantly. ''WHAT HAPPENED TO US, WHAT'S GOING ON!?'' From Mike's panicking, he woke up Kent, Glenn, and Dale; but Erik wasn't in the tent. It was an obvious guess that he unzipped the tent as Lee went outside. The same as Lee and Mike, they panicked trying to stand up and think straight and looked like the same animal that Lee was. The group in the tent had different features to their new forms and normal ones including; Dale had wings resembling a Pegasus that was the same height as his friends, Glenn was the size of a normal horse taller than the others, Mike was a Unicorn like Lee, and as for Kent, he had black and white stripes resembling a zebra. As the group in the tent calmed down from their fiasco they were making, they were full of questions about what had happened to them. ''Guys, what the heck happened to us, what are we?!'' Said Glenn as he was attempting to get up. ''We don't even know that answer at the moment Glenn, we all woke up looking like animals, maybe we shou..!'' As Dale was about to finish, he had fell backwards on his back next to the edge of the tent, as Dale applied weight on the edge of the tent where the support claps held everything together, the entire tent suddenly collapsed on top of the group in the tent. As Lee, Dale, Glenn, and Kent struggled to get out of the tent, they then found the opening where the zipper door was, they had to make their way out of the collapsed tent one by one to not make their situation any difficult from what they were dealing with moments ago. When they got out of the tent, they then made a head count and missing one person, it was Erik. ''Ughh guys, where's Erik?'' Questioned Glenn who was now a tall and pale yellow horse with brown hair. What Erik, where did he go?'' Asked Dale who was a the same color as Glenn but different height, red and yellow hair and had the wings of a pegasus. ''I think he went that way.'' Said Kent who looked like a zebra but the same height as the three of his friends. He pointed a hoof at the trail of footprints leading to the opposite direction Lee went. ''Wait, the campsite, we weren't the only ones that changed into these things right? We have to see what happened the the others and the Sergeant.'' Said Dale. ''Your right, we should separate, me and Mike will find Erik while you, Glenn and Kent regroup with the Sergeant.'' Said Lee. While Dale, Glenn, and Kent were regrouping at the campsite, Lee and Mike had found Erik. Erik was a white pegasus with the same black hair, he on the other hand now hoof was calm compared to their reaction. Lee with a puzzled look saw a symbol on the side of his flank looking like a molecule or atom, he then looked at his own flank seeing a symbol but was different, Lee, Mike, Erik, Dale, Glenn, and Kent had different symbols on their flanks Lee had realized just now from spectating Eriks appearance. As the wind breezed peacefully, the silence was interrupted when called out his friends name. "Erik, is that you?" Questioned Lee. As soon as Erik heard Lee's voice, he stood up to turn and face Lee seeing that he wasn't the only one that has changed. "Lee and Mike, the same thing happened to to guys." Said Erik. "Erik, what are you doing out this far? Lee questioning Erik. Do you have any idea what happened to us and why we are these things?" "I woke up early, I couldn't walk straight, and then I saw my reflection realizing that I turned into this mythological creature, we have transformed into one state of matter to another!" From what Erik just said, Mike wasn't believing a word he was saying. "So let me get this strait, we transformed into mythological creatures!?" Mike said worried and confused. "Hypothetically speaking, yes we have. Can you see that by looking at yourselves in the mirror, Lee and Mike are unicorns and I am a pegasus, this could be a serious situation, what has become of us could become of the whole group at the campsite!" Erik said hesitantly. After that, Lee, Mike and Erik suddenly heard screams of terror from the direction of the campsite, they were quickly running on all fours back to where the group and their friends were at, but the situation at the campsite would be way worse than how Lee and his friends did the moment they woke up. As they approached the campsite, crew members and marines were freaking out. As for the Sergeant, he was the tallest creature of the group, taller than Glenn. Everyone could not stop the panicking due to the fact that they were now small horses with horns and wings. The situation was getting to out of hand that not even Sergeant Maddox could handle alone, all around Lee was panick and confusion, it was at that very moment, Lee was about to put foot down to reason with everyone. "QUIET!" Shouted out Lee with his horn unexpectedly glowing with an orange light on the tip of his horn. After a moment of the bright light that shines from Lee's horn went off, everyone stood still with all eyes on Lee. Sergeant Maddox was left in shock thinking in his head what he had just seen happen right before is eyes. "What on Earth was that?" Said Sergeant Maddox who was still shocked from what Lee just did. As everyone remained calm in the disorganized camp, they had now focused all their attention on Lee. "Everyone listen to me, whatever has happened to us is terrifying and I understand that feeling, this is a world that is not like any others we have explored and discovered in the galaxy. Whatever is on this very planet we walk on now is the reason we are these things, but at this very moment right now all of you losing hope in yourselves, we as soldiers must remember to stay strong to survive. When we make it back to the Tycora, we will find a way to fix and undo what has happened to us, we cannot let fear take hold of us because of how much we achieved for many generations and the reasons we have to live on for the next. If we are going to survive this, we have to stay together, so that Humanity may have a future." From Lee's encouraging and emotional speech, it made the group still silent with their heads tilted down forward in sorrow. While all was silent, Erik was experiencing flash of memories coming back to the UNSC Tycora, he also believed that this bizzare anomaly was set in motion when the engine room was damaged by an unknown energy source. It was a big surprise for Erik to discover that this new advanced slipspace drive had faced yet another slipspace anomaly. This anomaly had a side effect not like any other, the anomaly had changed the human state of matter into another with new shape and form, and Erik had been the only one to answer that situation for the work he was assigned to in the past. Years ago, Erik was chosen to be a part of a secret project directed by ONI, Erik worked as an ONI scientists with many brilliant minds that volunteered in the project, the project was about engineering and creating the Celerium Drive. The Celerium wasn't just made with brilliant minds, but with raw salvaged materials from the wreckage of a destroyed Forerunner ship. The wreckage also had remains of a Forerunner artifact called the Composer. The Composer was irrationally used by the infamous Didact to turn ancient humans into Forerunner soldiers called Promethean's, the ship along with the Composer was destroyed by a Spartan-117 at the incident of New Pheonix. The ship and artifact may have been destroyed, but there was so much to salvage from the remains of its destruction, it's remains were salvaged from big pieces to small shards. Project Celerium was kept secret from the public for a long time until later on it was presented as a greater advantage for the survival of humanity, but the creation of the Celerium was kept in secret for the scientist to keep to themselves, Erik was one of those scientists. As the memories of the secret he was told not to speak of came back to him piece by piece, there would be a time and a place when he would reveal that secret to his friends. As Erik was finished recollecting himself, everyone with horns, wings and without horns and wings were calm and were struggling with their new forms. They no longer had hands to pick things up, the couldn't stand up on two legs, and some of the members of the group had horns and wings to get use to. Packing up the tents became unorganized and a mess leaving the ones without horns and wings to use their mouths to grab things in place to put them away, the ones with wings had trouble controlling their reflexes with repeating wing smacks to the face and other places, and as for the ones with horns, they could levitate objects, this helped relieved the group of their current situation. Their ability to levitate objects became fascinating to Erik, the process of the idea almost helped even though packing the camp wasn't that easy as they thought. (One Hour Later) The group were moving on and were busy dealing with their new situation, it wasn't easy being a small horse with horns, wings and neither, and so far the group was not able to find a safe place to rest. Sergeant Maddox on the other hand was as much annoyed getting use to this new for like everyone else, from observing this current situation gave him an idea. Sergeant Maddox decided to form three separate groups to be trained and adjust to the abilities of their new forms, as the Sergeant was planning things out, one of the marines spotted a secure area which the Sergeant can work on his plan with the whole group, but he would need three other members of the group to help with the training. As Sergeant Maddox's command to secure the perimeter was completed, he then had an announcement proposing his plan. "Everyone listen up, it has occurred to me that all of us have been struggling with our new situation, which is why I have a plan, we are going to train and adapt in our new forms, we have to separate into three groups, the first group will be Unicorns led by Lee ,the second group will be Pegasus's led by Dr.Erik, and the third group without horns and wings will be with me and besides, I don't have the horns and wings to levitate and fly." Lee and Erik were suprised to hear that a high-ranked sergeant gave them the task to lead the two groups. As the chattering was finished, Sergeant Maddox was almost done talking. "Now that our objectives are clear and what each of our groups is met to do, it's now time for all of us to..." As the Sergeant was about to say the last sentence of his announcement, he was suddenly interrupted by the boom of lightning in the sky. It was certain that there was rain drops coming down on the group leaving a Sergeant Maddox with an annoyed and frustrated expression on his face along with the whole group doing the same. As the rain continued pouring down, he had to finish his announcement involving the rain. "Everyone get under a tree and set up some tarps, hopefully this rain ends soon." Said Sergeant Maddox in a calm manner. As the rain came down in the jungle, some of the members of the group were staying dry inside giant hollow trees, some tried staying dry under poorly set up tents that were levitated ant tied to some branches of the trees with water dripping through the tarps, and the rest that didn't care sat in the rain getting soaked and wet. Lee and his friends remained under the tarp dripping endless drops on top of them, if they were in the hollow trees, then Glenn would have made it a tight place to be in. The group sat with their hooves crossed with boredom waiting for the rain to stop, Erik then had a few words to say on their current situation. "This is going to get harder get use to this then I thought." Said Erik. Lee turned away with a sigh with the rain dripping through the tarp. Lee and Erik were going to be assigned to task with many trainees depending on them, which met they had a busy day ahead of them. (Forty Minutes Later) Now that the rain had ended in the afternoon, the group would now separate to proceed with the Sergeants plan in learning their new abilities. Lee and Mike were in the group of unicorns starting their training in yet another grass plain area but with huge and small boulders everywhere, their first task would be to levitate the boulders like what they did with their equipment and to figure out what else they could do with their horns. Unicorns in fairytales were known as magical creatures, the group would test their abilities on the rocks to see what magic they are capable of doing. As the group continued clearing the area with their levitation emitting colorful auras from the groups horns, in attempt of levitating one of the bigger boulders from the area, one of the members accidentally tripped on a small boulder losing his hold on the big boulder that had been high above that was about to fall down on Mike. Lee quickly noticed the boulder as it was about to fall and crush his freind like bug, he pointed his horn directly at the boulder hesitating not to miss and shot out an orange light beam from his horn destroying the boulder into many bite sized pieces. After that, Lee opened his eyes to see if Mike was alright, for some reason everybody was looking at Lee with shocked expressions on their faces. Mike just saw his friend shoot a laser beam from his horn that would prove to be a means of protection along the way, he then nervously asked Lee a question from what he just witnessed. "Lee, how did you do that?" Mike asked Lee. "W-well all I did was just horn at the boulder focused with this power I felt. I think I figured out another use for this sort of thing, if unicorns have magic, we can do all sorts of things that couldn't be possible." Lee finished. From what Lee said made the group boosted with confidence, when he described how he shot the beam at the boulder, Mike and the group would do the same thing. Some of the group asked Lee a question that Lee could maybe be certain of. "Are you sure this is how it works?" Questioned the marine. "Yes that's how I did it so why not, now aim and focus your energy at the target." Well alrighty then, like the kids instructions. The unicorn marine said to himsel. First aim at the target ,focus your energy and..." As the marine released the surge of energy from his horn at the object, a blue beam of light had burst out from his horn shooting a burnt hole through a tree with birds flying out of it. The others felt thrilled of what the marine managed to pull off with simple instructions. "I did it, I did it, did you guys see that right there, boy I could get use to this thing just fine!" Said the Marine as he was touching the tip of his horn feeling if it was hot from the laser he shot from it. After the marines try, two more beams of light in the colors of green and white shot at two boulders with the same positive outcome, then it was the whole group making progress with a light show of cool colors. The objective in clearing out the boulders had now been an easy task for the unicorn group thanks to the guidance of Lee. Lee managed a perfect job at testing out their second greatest ability in their training, the boulders had now been reduced into smaller pebbles when the group had been using them as target practice. Now that the unicorns have mastered a way to defend the group, they had much to do with their levitating after what had happened with the boulder almost crushing somebody. Little did Lee and Mike know that they were not the only ones doing what they can to make progress. The group of pegasus le by Erik were still learning how to get off the ground, the group had felt nervous of heights and did not want to do something that would lead to fractured injuries. Erik's group was becoming desperate in their attempts to fly including Sergeant Maddox's group without the magic or flight, they were the brawn and muscle from the strength they now had. Learning to fly and and controlling their new strength would be a difficult task for trainees to overcome, but luckily their doubt was brushed off when Erik and Sergeant Maddox gave them an example of the strength they didn't see in them. Erik led his group to a cliff edge, Erik was determined to teach a thing or two about what his group is capable of doing, by jumping off high ground in order to fly. Eriks idea may have been risky but he wasn't going to have anyone injured, at the bottom of the cliff was an airbag that was set to avoid a hard fall. Dale and the group felt nervous about Erriks idea in helping them fly, Erik needed a first volunteer. "Ok everyone, I know this is going to be a risky but all of you need to trust me on this one so that we can make it through this." Said Erik as he was watching his step towards the edge. When Erik saw that no one would be making the first jump, he then had another risky idea that could make his group fly like eagles. "No first volunteers? Ok then, I'll go first." Erik said as he jumped off the edge of the cliff in free fall. Dale and the others were too late to stop him, when they first saw Erik falling close to the ground,they then unexpectedly saw him in a blur shot straight up into the sky above the ground with the group looking at Erik with suprise. While Erike was now high above the group flapping his wings in the air, he looked down at them with a confident smile. "What are waiting for? Erik questioned the group. "Come on!" Now that Eriks group felt confident, one-by-one with Dale leading them jumped off the edge and taking flight alongside Erik, like the unicorn group, their training in their forms abilities has skyrocketed. The group of unicorns and the group without horns and wings looked up into the sky seeing familiar faces soaring I the air, Lee, Mike, Glenn and Kent were impressed to see that Erik did far more then what their were in the middle of. Erik ,Dale and the whole pegasus group did a circle formation readying to maneuver their flying capabilities in the sky, it had been a sign of courage and potential for the other groups. Now it was time for the group without the horns and wings to show what their made of. After 70 minutes of training, they had finally made great progress with their strength. The group would be the brawn and muscle to carry things and shove things out of the way, they had the Sergeant to thank for their training, Glenn proved to be a great example due to his buff size and strength, and as for Kent the zebra, he had a strong grip with his tail. The three groups proved that they were capable of doing three things: the pegasus group would be the eyes in the sky, the unicorns were the firepower in defending the group, and the group without horns and wings were the brawn and muscle to carry heavy objects and push them out of the way. It had now been nightfall, the unicorns made setting up the camp much easier thanks to all the hard work in their training, and as for the six friends, they found a spot peaceful enough for them to camp in. The night sky had been the best wonder since they first arrived on the planet, as Erik and the other we're looking at the stars, he then pointed a hoof at the moon getting his friends attention. "You know, I've been thinking about the strange wonders of this world for quite a while now." Said Erik. "What have you been thinking of so far Erik?" Questioned Lee. "I'm thinking that we might be encountering strange things along the way, or a civilization on this planet that we didn't even know exists, and I wonder every day on this planet what we will encounter along the way next." Erik stated. "So do I Erik, so do I." Finished Lee as he and the others were going to sleep for the next morning. What Erik said made Lee very curious, but he was learning so much about this world that he didn't believe at first, and what they have become and the creature they have seen was a bigger question that had no possible answers that members of the group couldn't explain. And the part when Erik said that there could be a civilization, maybe a kingdom somewhere on the planet that could lead to an explanation to the bizzare anomaly and what kind of planet they were on. Also the last part of what Erik said that there is no clue to what they will encounter next, but whatever comes next, it might give them the help and answers to all of their questions.