The next morning was a bit of a messy one. My alarm went off which scared me out of my mind so much so that I think I nearly threw the clock across the room. After that incident, I hopped into the shower only for the head to decide to give the bird, and break which caused a torrent of superheated water to turn my entire body blood red from practically boiling alive. Afterword I went to throw my gear on and managed to somehow put my pants on backwards. I sighed and headed out when my gear was properly equipped. I had my helmet hanging from my belt as I stepped outside to meet Luisa. Now that we weren't being shot at I was able to get a good look at her gear. She wore a red hooded cloak, which had teeth lining the hood and looked pretty torn up, probably from use. Her armor was pitch black and mixed with reds and whites. One knee pad was spiked and the other was rounded almost like an emblem of some kind. Her chest plate was divided into three parts with her neck line being red the top right section was white and the rest was black. Her helmet, which hung at her waist, was jagged, painted gunmetal grey, and almost looked like a face. Her gauntlets didn't seem to fit the rest of the armor. They were silver and shined to a bright polish. They looked like scales almost. They made her fingers look like they had silvery nails on them. She spotted me with those pretty blue eyes and smiled waving me over.

"Wassup, Jayden."

"Hi," I replied walking over.

"C'mon, let's get you armed and up to speed."

I heard a voice, a soft yet high pitched one and I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I ignored it until just before we got to the Gunsmith's kiosk.

"Do you hear that voice?" I asked.

"Hm?" her eyes widened, "Oh shit, you can hear them can't you?"

Her tone sounded slightly annoyed and not too worried. She slapped her shoulders and growled, "Shut up. Be nice to our new guy."

"What the hell? Are you talking to your armor?"

"Yeah, these are Sealed Ahamkara's Grasps, it's a long story that I'd rather not go into yet cause it involves exotics which you don't know about yet."

"Sure..."

From there I met the Gunsmith, an Exo named Banshee-66. He took me back to a firing range and had me try out all different kinds of weapons. After trying out more weapons than I care to admit, I settled for a Scout Rifle from Omolon, a sniper rifle from Hakke and I couldn't decide on a heavy weapon so I elected not to use one for now.

"Scout Rifles eh?" Luisa commented, "I'm more of a Pulse Rifle girl."

"I'm alright with Pulse Rifles, I have nothing against them I would just rather use a Scout Rifle."

"Okay, big shot, it's time to meet up with Shaxx and get you into the Crucible."

"I've been meaning to ask you something," I commented as we made our way back to the Vanguard office, "What exactly is the Crucible?"

"A series of training regimens put together by Lord Shaxx. He's a veteran of the Battle at Twilight Gap and really good at teaching new Guardians."

I made it my job to just pretend I knew what Luisa was talking about and do the research on it later. When we came in to the hallway just before the Vanguard room, Luisa hooked a right and took me to a desk where a Titan, clad in full armor was waiting. His helmet was on so I couldn't see his face. The helm bore bull horns one of which was broken. His armor was mostly white but with stripes of yellow and green scattered throughout. Sitting on his desk were broken parts of weapons. Whatever that weapon had been it was useless now. I saw intricate wolf designs all over it. The barrel was large giving the indication that it was a rocket launcher most likely.

"Admiring the Gjallarhorn are you, Warlock?" the Titan commented looking up from what I could only assume was a computer.

"Gjallarhorn?"

"There's a sad story behind it, one I don't care to tell."

"Lord Shaxx," Luisa cut in, "This is Jayden Colbalt."

"Our newest Guardian? How interesting."

"Zavala wants him to start training right away. We need him spun up quick and then he'll be deploying with Dagger on our next Strike."

Shaxx seemed to be looking me over, he said nothing for a moment.

"Alright then. Here's how this is going to work. Hop on your ship and fly to these coordinates on this day next week. Be there by sunset."

"I will," I told him.

Luisa and I headed out and made our way towards the Hanger. It was there I would meet Amanda Holiday, the Shipwright for the Vanguard and a former Hunter. It took about an hour of nothing but discussion and paperwork to get myself a ship requisitioned but by the end of it all I had one to call my own. Luisa and I headed back to the patio.

"Okay," she said, "That was actually easier than I thought it would be."

"Now what?"

"Well I'm off today, and Wolf should be back from Mars shortly. Wanna go get a drink?"

"Sure."

We headed back to the bar below the hanger. I ordered my favorite drink and Luisa ordered hers. And we just sat there bullshitting for the next few hours before Wolf showed up. By then I had drank probably 9 shots so I was feeling good.

"Hey Wolf!" I called waving him over and nearly tripping over my own feet in the process. The Exo Titan made his way over and sat down.

"How long have you been here?" he asked.

"Two hours tops." Luisa replied finishing her drink. It looked like an iced tea but when she had told me it was from and old place called Long Island I understood what it really was. If she was feeling all that alcohol she wasn't letting on.

"Well let me join you two. We can discuss our new Warlock's position."

"That's so like you Wolf. Always business and no fun."

"Hey, I can have fun too! This is just a big thing for us."

"You're really quick to want Pluto's shoes filled aren't you?"

I raised a brow but listened in.

"C'mon, Luisa, no one could fill Pluto's shoes. Not completely at least."

"Who's Pluto?" I asked.

Wolf turned and looked like he was about to speak but Luisa cut him off

"He's no one."

Her tone was defensive and almost sad. Now I got why she wasn't really showing much emotion while this drunk.

"Oh come on, he deserves to know."

"No he doesn't. Not yet anyway."

Wolf seemed to frown, but it was hard to tell due to an Exo's lack of facial expressions. Why didn't I deserve to know who this Pluto character was? It was probably because I was new to this whole Guardian thing.

"As long as you eventually tell him, I'm fine with that."

"Drop the subject please, Wolf."

"Very well."

Wolf sat down, "So Jayden, how has the tower been treating you?"

This was where I proved just how good I was feeling,

"Well I've got a starship, a date to start my Crucible training and I'm in a bar below a hanger drinking Captain and Coke with a girl and an Exo I just met through the condition of waking up somewhere in London 500 years in the future with crazy zombie looking things coming at me prompting the two thus mentioned to save my life and bring me here in order to take on a life I never wanted and fill shoes I'm just now finding out about because this Pluto character is either missing, quit the team, or dead." I took a breath and downed my tenth shot, "I'd say this place is treating me pretty fucking well."

Wolf laughed, "You rant as much as Luisa does sometimes."

Luisa beamed at him.

"Oh come on you can't deny that."

Luisa shrugged, looked at her drink, twisted the glass in her fingers and finally drank the last of it, "Alright Jayden, listen up."

I leaned in.

"I'm not going to lie to you, you're stepping into some shoes that Wolf and I would rather leave unfilled. But in order for us to do Strike level missions we have to have a third member. Otherwise we get stuck doing patrols. I want to fight the Darkness, drive it away from the city and roaming around in random locations for preset amounts of time gathering weather reports and intel that we already know is not the way to go about it. You get me?'

"Yeah."

"Good. Tomorrow when you go into the Crucible, show us all what you can do."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Wolf commented.

Luisa smiled, but not her regular one, this one was sly and cunning, almost like she knew something was about to happen

"How many shots have you had?"

I downed my drink, "11 shots of Captain with Coke, why?"

She glanced over toward a dart board that was hanging on the wall. I shook my head.

"Oh no, even sober I suck at darts."

"Aw that's too bad."

"I have an idea." Wolf said and stood. He flagged a waiter down said something I couldn't make out and handed her a weird looking gold coin. After examining it, she looked at us.

"What're you drinking, hun?"

"Captain Morgan spiced rum." I told her

"And you Ms. Dodge?"

"Smirnoff Iced Vodka."

Wolf looked at Luisa and seemed to smile a bit. The Hunter nodded.

"I'll join them, gimme Crown Royal Whiskey."

She nodded and disappeared behind the bar.

"Ever play Quarters Jayden." Luisa asked me.

"Only once in College, why?"

"How about Beer Pong?" Wolf asked.

"Yes. That is one of the memories I have from before now. My friends and I played all kinds of drinking games in College when not researching something. I should know what but I don't recall."

"Okay, this is Strange Coin Pong."

I raised a brow and as soon as I was about to ask, three Pool racks were set in front of each of us. They had 15 shot glasses in each and the bar tender poured out respective drinks in each one.

"Just like in Quarters you have to bounce the coin into the shot glass. If you make it then whose ever glass it is they have to drink it. You run out of drinks you lose."

"Easy enough. I'm already pretty drunk right now so I have no idea how well this is going to go."

Since Wolf had the coin he went first. And being completely sober he still managed to miss Luisa's front cup. Luisa recovered the coin and bounced it right into my first shot glass. I frowned glaring at her a bit

"You did that on purpose."

"Maybe." she still had that damned smile on her face.

I took the coin and returned the favor landing it along one of her back row. She shrugged and drank.

Wolf shot again this time landing right in Luisa's cup.

"Well fuck you too Wolf..." she feigned.

The Titan laughed.

Luisa's next shot missed landing too short of mine.

We went on for what felt like hours, joking laughing and drinking. But it started to come down to the wire. Wolf had lost already so it was between me and a very drunk Hunter. Each of us had one shot left. Both were equal distance and we had been missing left and right. A crowd formed. Guardians bet on us. According to one Guardian, an Awoken Hunter, Luisa was the Strange Coin Pong champion having never lost a single game. I was going to change that. I took the coin in hand took my time lining up the shot. And my hand whipped forward smacking the coin against the table as was the rule. Things seemed to slow, maybe it really did maybe I was just that drunk, but I watched that coin for what had to have been a minute at the least. It flipped through the air, perfectly on target for the glass and it landed on the floor.

"No that was perfect!"

Luisa laughed.

"I call Hacks!"

Luisa recovered the coin and bounced it right into my last glass. That was the end. I had lost.

I took my shot and drank it like a pro, the whole time beaming at Luisa, "I'll get you next time."

"We'll drink again after you get out of the Crucible."