In Route to The City, 500 ATC

Marcus was nodding his head slowly, "Seems legit," He concluded. The ghost had just finished explaining to him much of humanity's past, the light of the Golden age, the Darkness and the fall of the Traveler, The rise of the City and the Guardians. "You don't doubt me?" The Ghost asked, as he tried to weld Marcus' flimsy armor back together.

"What can I say?" Marcus said, "Of course I'm going to believe the floating ball of light after we just fought for our lives against a bunch of 4-armed aliens."

Marcus: The name he and his ghost had finally settled on, was sitting comfortably as the ship's autopilot made it's way towards the city. Stripped of his armor, Marcus was wearing nothing but a skin tight black body suit. He was tall, tanned and muscular, his black hair, streaked with grey, flowed down to his shoulders, and his face was covered with a scruffy beard.

"By the way," His Ghost piped up, "You might want to shave that beard"

"Why would I do that?"

"If you're going to be a Titan, Zavala is probably going to want you looking more professional."

Marcus turned in his chair to look at the Ghost, "Zavala? Sounds familiar."

"Really?" The Ghost said, "Unless you somehow knew Zavala before he died, I don't see how you would know him unless you had lived in the city." Marcus scratched his head, "It's nothing solid, just scattered bits of information that pops up in my head, whenever I get something solid I lose it just as quick," The Ghost turned back towards the armor, disappointed, "Oh, well tell me if you remember anything else." The abrupt end to the conversation did not sit well with Marcus, and he cleared his throat awkwardly before saying: "So you said I'm a Titan? What makes you think that?" The Ghost didn't even bother looking up, "You're too big to be hunter and too dumb to be a warlock, you have the brawn, so that really narrows it down to Titan."

"Don't you have armor to fix?"

"It'd go faster if you shut up."

"You A.I's always this snarky?"
"Wait until you meet Cayde."... "Who?"

The Last City, Earth 500 ATC

"Come on man, you can do better than that!" The Exo mocked, as he jumped from tree to tree. Marcus chased after him, muttering obscenities under his breath as he tried to keep up with the Hunter vanguard. Cayde-6 had seen Marcus as soon as he entered the Tower, and wasted no time at all shouting, "New recruit!" before dragging Marcus into one of the Towers many simulation chambers. The simulation was of a generic forrest, and Cayde's task was simple. Without using weapons, the Titan would have to find a way to get Cayde down from the tree's. Marcus had tried everything, from rocks to his own helmet, but yet he could not hit Cayde.

He almost wished that his Ghost was still there, because he knew he was good at throwing that sarcastic ball. But no, as soon as they landed the Ghost vanished, saying something about reporting to the Speaker, whoever that was. Marcus shook his head, bringing himself back to the present, he had a basic idea of what Cayde wanted: He wanted Marcus to use his Titan abilities, but Marcus had no idea what those abilities were.

He thought back to his Ghosts earlier insult, "You have the brawn, so that really narrows it down to Titan." Marcus knew that already, despite being dead for who knows how long, the Guardian was surprisingly keeping pace with Cayde, and he didn't feel tired in the slightest. As for the brawn...Marcus smiled. Cayde looked back at the Titan, letting out a chuckle to himself as he watched the Marcus run under him, he was just beginning to call the drill to an end when he heard a loud snap behind him, Glancing back, and for the briefest moments Cayde felt an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time: Total astonishment. Quickly closing in on the Exo, Marcus was moving so fast he was almost a blur, his momentum was carrying him faster and faster towards the Hunter. But instead of dodging the trees like before, Marcus was literally running through them, and they fell with a crash behind him. Cayde looked under him, the Titan was almost upon him, and as his foot landed on the next tree Marcus made his move, diving forward, Marcus wrapped his arms around the tree and tackled it with such a force that he totally uprooted the tree, roots and all. It came crashing down with Cayde along with it.

After that there was only silence, broken only by Marcus' heavy breathing and Cayde's hysterical laughter. "Well." Cayde gasped, pausing in between fits of laughter, "That was brilliant, totally unconventional but brilliant!"

Marcus stood up, cracking his back as he glared at the Exo, "What other choice did I have?"

"You know you have grenades right?" Cayde opened his palm, and in it appeared a grenade, "For most guardian's, grenades are the first thing we learn how to use. We are always subconsciously storing Light, and once we store enough of it we gain access to a variety of abilities." Cayde casually threw the grenade behind him, where it blew up dosing the trees in fire. "Thats a solar grenade." The hunter explained, "As I hunter I can also use this throwing knife, for essentially the same effect."

Cayde threw the knife into a tree, as soon as it stuck the tree also caught on fire. "Judging by the way you just tackled that tree, I'd guess you are more naturally inclined to a striker type of Titan. What you did we call a 'shoulder charge' and the better you get with it, the less time you need to build momentum." Cayde snapped his fingers and the simulation disappeared, "The rest I will leave you to figure out." Cayde put a metallic hand on the Titans shoulder, "Come on buddy, let's get you some actual armor other than that hunk of junk...By the way nice beard."

The Last City, Earth 500 ATC

Marcus looked at the armor that Cayde had got for him, needless to say, it was a huge step above the armor he had just discarded. What he liked about it most was the lack of bulky shoulders, which Marcus had seen other Titans hauling around on his way in. It was a bluish grey color brought together in a camo style. Both the gauntlets and boots looked ready to cave in some fallen skulls. Lastly was the helmet, it was beautiful in it's simplicity, just a grey helmet with a reflected bullet proof visor. The armor also came equipped, Cayde said, with a jet pack for increased movement, a regenerating shield, and a online medical system linked to Marcus's body, ready to administer pain killers or other medications necessary. Cayde couldn't help but grin at the guardian's childlike expression of wonder, he too remembered when he first was brought into the Tower, and he knew all too well the awe Marcus was feeling.

"There is one thing I've left out," Cayde said, "And that's your mark. All types of guardians have a sort of item that we hold sacred, it represents who we are or what we stand for. Us Hunters have our cloaks, warlocks have bonds, and Titans have marks, which I guess you could say are sashes. You'll either make your own, find one you like, or be gifted one by the many organizations here in the tower, which I'll leave you to discover for yourself."

Marcus turned towards Cayde with immense gratitude in his eyes, "Thank you Cayde." If an Exo was capable of blushing, Cayde would be doing just that. "Alright Guardian," Cayde beamed, "All that we need now is to get you a weapon, because no offense, that Khvostov ain't cutting it."

Despite the truth in Cayde's words, Marcus felt hesitant, because the despite shape the gun was in, he felt some sort of connection with it, be it the fact that it helped him survive the Cosmodrome or the feeling in the back of his mind that he knew it from somewhere.

"Fine with me," Marcus said, "But I'm going hold on to this bad boy, store it somewhere, who knows maybe start a collection."

Cayde shrugged his shoulders, "Fine with me, now if you'll follow me to our resident gunsmith I'm sure we could find something for you."

Banshee-44 was an interesting character, to say the least. As they approached him it was clear that he was muttering intensely to himself, and it took a not so subtle cough by Cayde to get the gunsmiths attention. "What?" he said, glancing up startled, "Oh Cayde, it's you, what brings you to old Banshee?"

"Nothing personally, just wanted you to get this guardian a decent weapon," Banshee looked Marcus up and down, and the guardian could have sworn the Exo was trying to smell him, "Auto Rifle" Banshee said. Turning around, he grabbed a gun of the rack and handed it to the guardian, "Suros JJJ-76, 34 round magazine. It's got a bit of a kick on it, but if you master that you are going to have to problem blowing some heads off, you get where I'm coming from guardian?

"Uh yeah sure,"

Banshee rolled his eyes, "Jeez you got an energetic one, don't you Cayde, No way this kid survives tomorrow." Marcus turned towards Cayde, "Um what?" Cayde grinned, "Tomorrow guardian, is a very special event, the warlock vanguard, Ikora Rey, along with myself, have organized a little get together between three old friends,"

Banshee laughed, "Friends? You got a weird idea of friendship Cayde". The Exo nodded, "Yep, it's going to be quite weird to see Shaxx, Zavala, and Saladin together again". Marcus scratched his head, "Zavala's name I know, but who are those other two?

"Shaxx, the founder and handler of the Crucible, our little guardian vs guardian competition, and Lord Saladin, last official member of the Iron Lords, the three go way back, but their relationship hasn't always been buddy buddy. Anyways, we got them all together to watch a little tournament between our newest guardians, and you happen to be one of them."

Marcus shook his head in disbelief, "And you tell me this now?"

"There's nothing to worry about, it's just a good old fashioned, live fire brawl."

"Live fire?"

"Oh come on, don't be a baby, don't act like you've never died before."