Earth: Old Greenland Territory

"This... Is... Bullshit!"

"Now Devrox, let's not over react."

"Over-react! Over Fucking React! Do you realize that I am getting screwed over for something that is completely not my fault?"

Cayde tried the best sympathetic look he could muster, being a robot and all. "Hey, by my accounts you got off easy. I heard the Queen has killed people for way less. I mean really, you punched her brother right in front of her and then spat on her rug. Besides consider yourself lucky that I punished you first. Last I heard Sasha is looking for you."

"So she didn't take the news all that well did she?"

Cayde got the grin that only an exo could and started to mimic Sasha's voice. "He had one job, one God damn job and he screwed it up."

"Well can you try to smooth her over a bit for me before I get back. Maybe send her to Mars. She still need more relic iron for her helmet mods."

"I'll do what I can. But you owe me one, plus all the other shit I had to do to keep your ass from getting grassed. Let's call it about twenty."

"Pschhht, whatever... Hey did you get the video that Spirit recorded?" It was the video of me knocking the royal highness's block off. He should have known never to insult a hunters cape.

"Hell yeah I got it. Xur has been selling copies for a strange coin a piece. He keeps running out and making more. Even came in on a Sunday business was so good. I used your cut to buy the queen a gift basket. I don't know what Awoken like other than beauty products and guns so I just threw a bunch of them in a crate together." Cayde looked away from the screen and started talking to civilian. "Hey I gotta go, you know how we have been trying to expand the east wing, well some city contracted accidentally dug into a hive tunnel running right beneath the city. We have been pushing through that tunnel for hours and are still getting reports of heavy resistance. I'll Check in on you tomorrow. By then I want a full field report ready."

Cayde ended the com chat leaving Devrox's screen once again filled with a barren snow wasteland

"And with that I was left with silence."

"I'm here you know."

"Blissful silence."

"This never works."

"Complete, undeniable, absolute silence."

"I guess you don't want to see those pics I hacked from Seras security cameras anyway."

"Spirit old pall, where have you been, was that something about photographs you said?"

Devrox watched as Spirit materialized in front of him. Spirit is an old ghost, he even claimed to be one of the first. Devrox found him while he was a teenager working in his father's mine. Spirit never recalled how he got there, just that he recognized Devrox as a Guardian when he saw him. Ever since they have fought side by side.

"Did I ever tell you how much of a dick you are. Besides, there are no pictures. I'm not a perv like you. What I do have is our mission details."

"Let me guess, scout out the land for possible spin metal deposits, map any unknown structures, and watch out for Fallen and Hive movement."

"Actually no, these orders are priority Alpha and come from the top. Shall I play them for you?"

"Might as well."

Suddenly an Audio File began loading onto Spirits mainframe and was transmitted into Devrox's helmet.

"Gaurdian, we have located a long forgotten stash of thermo nuclear weapons left by the Russians. We need these to power the rail guns surrounding the city and other projects. The resources are vital and should be collected at all costs. We are not sure who, but we have also gotten reports of movement in the area. This would be expected except for one thing. No other known species use nuclear power and that area has no other resources known to us. Investigate this for us and we might remove a few black marks on your profile plus allow you to compete in the upcoming Iron Banner. Happy hunting.

Spirit stood still for a second while he calculated.

"This area has been dark since the great collapse. All I have to base my calculations on are old satellite images and they aren't exactly what I call HD. From what I can tell we are about 2 hours walk from the coms link, and then a 4 hour sparrow trip till base camp."

"A sparrow? It's ten degrees out here. And besides, sparrows make my ass hurt, are there any Falcons they can lend us?"

"I thought you would be whining about this so I asked the ship master before we left. All Falcons are currently deployed in an offensive assault on a Fallen base located in Venezuala ."

"What, a raid? I haven't heard of one being initiated in a while."

"Not a raid, at least not this time. They are calling it a Crusade. Fifty guardians were deployed, each level thirty and armed to the teeth."

"I doubt she would have access to that much info. Where really did you find this out?"

Don't ask how but I could tell Spirit was grinning.

"I have my resources... And Cayde's password is Edyac."

"You sly devil. Why don't we talk more?"

"Fine how about we talk about your failure to pay rent again this month. I don't enjoy living in the barracks. I can never snoop without another ghost hacking my signal."

"And now I remember why?"

"You know you are an asshole sometime, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I know. Let's get a move on, reports say a storm front is moving in and I don't feel like having you pick ice out of my gyros."

Republic City: Air Temple Island

Sgt. Zecken was pissed. It was bad enough he had to work overtime, but he had to do it on Avatar day of all days. There was still an equalist presence in the city even though Amon had been defeated years ago. Chief Biefong wanted all available personal to make sure that the event went off without a hitch.

Zecken glanced at his watch too check the time. The parade didn't start for four hours yet the streets were already filling up with people hoping to get a close look at the avatar. His wife and daughter would be arriving soon as well. She loved Korra and thought she was the coolest person ever. Maybe one day she would think of him like that.

He was keeping his eye on a few teenage boys who obviously had been sniffing spirit vine when his radio began to buzz.

"Zzzzztttt... All available units respond, we have a 4-87 on 8th street in the alley behind the bakery. I repeat, we have a 4-87 on 8th street. Over."

Ten minutes later Zecken was rounding on to 8th street when he saw it. All over the windows were strange symbols written in what looked like blood.

"Sgt. Zecken, glad to see you here."

Zecken looked away from the mural to see his once trainee standing there taking notes while a photographer snapped photos.

"Mako! What the hell are you doing here, shouldn't you be out getting ready for the parade?"

"I was on my way to my tailor when the call came in. I saw that I was close and thought I should come by and check it out. I already got filled in by the other cops and we still got a few minutes before the forensic team arrives. Want to get my view on things?"

"Why not kid. But make sure to keep me up on the details."

"Kay, so some people called in an hour ago saying that they heard a funny noise coming from the alley and a loud banging noise. They later said that the suspect came out and began painting strange symbols in red all over the windows of the shop. The suspect soon fled south and from then on the trail goes cold. A cop came by and checked it out, suspecting to find the usual vandalism, it's pretty common in this area."

"But is wasn't , was it?"

"Nope. He began to investigate the alley way when he noticed a horrible smell coming from the dumpsters. When he opened it up, he found a body. A few people recognized the face as Lin Zutara, a 17 year old girl who was an upcoming pro-bender in the minor leagues. She was last seen heading home, the problem with that is tha its on the other side of town and While there were clear signs of knife wounds, there was also a small hole in her chest that suggests a high velocity, focused, blast from a metal bender."

"You said she as a bender, right? What kind?"

"Fire. I know where your going with this and I already checked, no scorch marks at all."

"Which means that she didn't put up a fight. If she was good enough to go pro then her go to defense would be bending. In such a cramped alleyway like that she would almost be guaranteed a direct hit and even a small blast would have left some mark. That means it must have been a chi blocker."

"Sounds about right, there are all sorts of ex members of Amon's old faction still running around. So that leaves us with the markings."

Mako began to look uncomfortable.

"That's where this gets weird. We can't figure out what any of them mean except for one. One of the shop owners says he saw something similar to it while on vacation in the fire nation."

"What does it mean?"

"The Vex."

Authors note: comment if you'd like more.