I wrote this story for a narrative in school about a snow day, so I decided to upload it. Synopsis of it is that there is a snowstorm that rolls into the tower and Zavala gets dragged off to a sleepover with three hunters, two warlocks, a titan, and Cayde.\
It was quiet in Old Russia. It had been quiet ever since the collapse of humanity, after the Traveler came to Earth and sent humanity into a Golden Age. Humans built settlements on the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and turned Mercury into a garden world. Not many people came out here now, besides the Guardians, humanity's last hope for peace. Long dead people capable of wielding Light as a weapon who were brought back by Ghosts, small mechanical creatures that the Traveler created right before it went dormant after the Collapse, when alien races came from other planets and attacked, destroying cities and threatening humanity. Only one city was left now. The city that the Traveler loomed above, like a giant moon. They called it the Last City. It was where citizens across the world came to live once cities had started to collapse. Even the Awoken from the Reef came to live in the Last City.
The Awoken race was a kind of descendent of humanity. When humans had fled out towards the asteroid belt and were left stranded out there, the mix between Light and Darkness changed them, forming into beautiful humanoid creatures with a slight control over the Dark and Light, with the ability to use it like magic. Most Awoken lived in the Reef, located out in the asteroid belt beyond Mars, where they originated from. Though some Awoken chose to live in the Last City as well.
Guardians would've normally started their patrols by now, but today was different. Today, snow was rolling in. Banshee-44, the gunsmith, had predicted there was going to be a huge snowstorm that day, but everybody had just laughed. The last time he had predicted something like this, it had turned out to be completely sunny and blistering hot. This time, however, he had been right. Commander Zavala had originally just waved it off, telling the Guardians to go about their normal duties, but after five Guardians had gone out and the snow started to fall heavily, the Vanguard concluded that there was no way they could send out any more Guardians, as their ships wouldn't fly well in the snowstorm. Five Guardians were stuck out in the Cosmodrome until the snowstorm passed over. Well, the Guardians had rejoiced when they heard that they had a Snow Day. From the youngest Guardian at fifteen, to the oldest at 67, they all cheered.
Except Commander Zavala.
Commander Zavala was an Awoken and a veteran titan. He was also the leader of the Guardians and the leader of the Vanguard, along with his two companions: Ikora Rey, the Warlock Vanguard, and Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard. His skin was a pale blue color and his eyes were a vibrant amber. He, like all Awoken, had this strange, ethereal glow about him. His skin seemed to have some sort of energy faintly traveling over it, while his eyes glowed with power. Normally, Zavala's eyes were warm, but stern. Today, his eyes looked angry, as if they could start shooting sparks. Why was he angry? Because Cayde-6 had decided to drag him to a "sleepover" party that some of the Guardians were having. Zavala had so much other work to do, that he couldn't spare having a Snow Day at all. He needed to focus on his work, trying to come up with strategies to take down the Taken King, or figure out how to force the Fallen out of Earth, so they could maybe open other settlements past the wall.
"Come on! You can't always act like you have a stick up your ass. You've got to lighten up," the exo insisted as he dragged the titan along behind him. For being a hunter, he sure was strong.
"I have duties to attend to Cayde. I still have to talk to Eris about the Taken King and-"
"Nope!" Cayde interrupted Zavala as the robot dragged the humanoid into the hunter dorm room wing. "You are going to relax and you are going to enjoy some fun with these Guardians. And there is nothing you can do to wiggle out of it." Cayde came to a door and then let go of Zavala's arm, knocking on the door. Zavala debated just fleeing when Cayde was at the door. Zavala was fast Cayde was much faster and he could catch up to him quicker, being a hunter and all. Before Zavala could decide, the door opened and a girl poked her head out of the room. The girl was an Awoken, like himself, with very pale blue skin, a bright blue eye with the other one covered by a bandage, and pale whitish-blue hair. A hunter. Virna Qanj. He recognized her face from the many times she would come into the command room. She also happened to be in a… relationship with Cayde. The girl's face brightened as she saw Cayde and him.
"Great! You're here. We've been waiting forever!" She opened the door wider, allowing Cayde and Zavala to enter. Zavala looked at the room. It was slightly bigger than most were. It had a small living area with a kitchenette attached and a door that presumably went to her bedroom. Zavala turned his head over to the living area, where he saw four other Guardians. Two warlocks, a titan and a hunter, all dressed in casual clothes. He recognized the two warlocks as Matt-1 and Kyle O'Riley, two warlocks that fit more into the hunter personality category than the warlock one. Matt, like Cayde, was a sentient robot, however his metal plating was green and black with green eyes and a green light behind his mouth. He was… Pretty… Out there. He didn't take anything seriously, even if his friends were injured in battle. Ikora had tried to help him be more serious, but it was clear that nothing would help him. Kyle had sandy blonde hair, tan skin and bright blue eyes. He was a bit calmer than Matt, but still was out there. The titan was Connor Blackwood, a human that had a rather strong bond with Matt-1. Connor and Matt were known as the "Fred and George Weasley" of the Tower. Even more so than Cayde himself. He had chocolate brown skin, black eyes and short black hair, that was spiked up at the top and pushed forward slightly.
"Finally! They were taking forever!" The hunter that had spoken was the only other girl in the room that Zavala had seen, besides Virna. A human with red hair, freckles and blue eyes named Melissa Jones. Zavala then looked to the left and noticed that there was yet another hunter, who was pouring herself what looked to be a glass of sparkling apple juice. An Awoken named Nen Munonj with pale purple hair, pale purple skin and bright green eyes.
"Now that everybody's here, let's get this started!" Matt yelled, as he snatched ahold of a pillow and launched himself at the Hunter Vanguard, tackling him to the floor. Zavala sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, making his way over to the couch to sit down. This was going to be a long day. Maybe he could sneak out while nobody was noticing? No… Cayde would end up
"Oh! So, that's how you're gonna play, huh?" The hunter vanguard said with an evil smile on his face, as much as a robot can smile. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a hand cannon, causing everybody in the room to freeze. He aimed at Matt and fired, a plastic bullet coming out and sticking to the exo's forehead. Zavala was puzzled. Where did Cayde find a NERF gun? Those were old. Even older than the Golden Age.
Zavala yelped as a bullet hit the back of his neck and he turned around to see Virna, holding a NERF gun rifle in her hands, before she dove behind a mound of cushions for cover. The other Guardians dove for the remainder of the NERF guns, snatching one and then running out of the line of fire.
"Zavala! Hurry and grab a gun before you get shot!" Cayde called from his cover in the kitchenette. The commander glowered at Cayde's words. How could he and these guardians do this? Playing war with NERF guns like children, when they were fighting real battles outside of the walls! Guardians were dying! And yet… They somehow kept up a happy face. It made him angry. How could they have this kind of joy when he couldn't?!
"How can you all just sit here and smile and laugh while playing with guns!" The commander lashed out, causing the laughter to cease in the room. "There are Guardians who die outside of these walls! You all know this too well! Your ireteam members die! You could die! Yet… Yet you still play war, fight against each other with fake guns. How can you even do this?!"
A long silence filled the room after Zavala's mini-speech. "Well…" Kyle finally began. "I've never really thought of it that way, but…"
"It's all fun and games." Matt chimed in, standing up from his cover. "Outside, sure it's dangerous, but we all strive from that. We grow stronger each time we leave and come back."
"I lost an eye to the Hive, commander." Virna stated, standing up, setting her gun aside. "We all have our losses, but at times like these, we revert back to how we acted as kids, playing with fake guns. It's a coping mechanism."
"Zavala, have you ever heard the saying: the light is brightest in the darkness?" Cayde spoke, standing up. The commander nodded, looking at Cayde with a confused look. Where was he going with this? "Well, this is kind of like that. Although we are in our darkest time, we still can find light and joy within everything. So, come on." Cayde walked over, picking up a gun and pushing it into the Commander's hands. "Just try it."
"Come on guys! We gotta show them that WE are the best team around!"
"Best team? Ha! Please! We've got the best team. Right Virna?"
"Right!" The Awoken girl smiled as she raised her NERF rifle, aiming it at the cover that the other team was hiding behind. She shot a bullet at the cover, hitting the wall near the other team.
The commander flinched as the bullet hit near him and the rest of his team. When Zavala had finally agreed to just try to have fun, Cayde had split them into two teams. His team, with Kyle, Melissa and Nan, and Cayde's team with Virna, Matt-1 and Connor. They had originally started off in Virna's dorm room, but when Cayde ran out of the room, they followed him out. So, they were now playing in the halls, running back and forth, shooting at each other. Zavala raised up over the cover and shot a bullet at the exo Vanguard, nailing him in the horn on his forehead. Zavala grinned and ducked back down before Matt could shoot another bullet at him. Maybe Cayde was right. Maybe relaxing every once and a while was good. Just having fun and acting young again.
"What's going on here?" A voice cut in. Zavala looked up just in time to see Connor run past and fire a bullet directly at Ikora, nailing her in the side of the head, carrying what looked to be another NERF gun. Everybody went silent and Zavala could see the look of terror on Connor's face as he realized what he just did. Ikora was silent for a moment, before a wicked grin appeared on her face and she raised the gun, firing at every Guardian she could see.
"FREE FOR ALL!" The three female hunters yelled, as they dashed away to for cover, leaving everybody else at the mercy of the girls. Shrieks of joy escaped Kyle and Matt as the two jumped over their cover, trying to tackle each other. Matt ended up smacking into the wall and Kyle landed behind him, firing a bullet at his head before he hurried off for cover. Zavala allowed a smile to appear on his face as he saw the Guardians and Vanguard playfully fighting in the halls of the dorms.
Maybe a Snow Day wasn't so bad after all.
I will update this every so often whenever I get an idea for a oneshot. I suppose that my other story would be considered a oneshot, but eh. If you have ideas, please suggest some. Please review! I would really like it if you could give me suggestions on how to make my writing better.