AN:

As regards to the name of Shin Malphur's Ghost, some of you suggested names that were a reference to old cowboy movies, others wanted simple and generic names like Bob or Dave while one reviewer in particular wanted to name his Ghost Thorn. The first two were okay but the last one was just plain ridiculous on multiple levels so there is no way in hell am I ever going to name Shin's Ghost Thorn.

No offense to the Guest reviewer who suggested the name in the first place but you are aware that Shin's Ghost already had a name given to it by Jaren Ward prior to pairing up with Shin, right? Also, I doubt he needs anymore reminders of the guy who destroyed his home and killed his family. Geez, have a little more tact.

00000

Chapter 7

Team JNPR had promise. That was what Lord Shaxx concluded as he silently observed the first year team's progress from afar. The veteran Titan saw no need to intervene since they seemed to have the situation well under control as they dispatched the Grimm through their unique fighting styles. He also had to suppress the urge to make a commentary as the children fought because not only was this not a Crucible match but it was also an actual life or death predicament for them and unlike a Guardian, they wouldn't be able to resurrect from dying.

It had been quite some time since Shaxx had to watch over someone that didn't possess the same resilience as a Guardian. Not since the Battle of the Twilight Gap where the Fallen Houses banded together to take the Last City if he recalled correctly.

The Lord was broken out of his reminiscing when a Beowolf broke through the tree line and was about to flank him, no doubt deeming the Titan as easy prey.

That was the worst mistake that the poor creature would ever make. It also happened to be its last.

"Look out!" the boy dressed in green clothes called out to the Titan in warning as he took his magenta eyes off of the enemies before him.

It was a pointless act that only served to distract the boy known as Lie Ren since the first year student was nearly mauled by an Ursa for his trouble while Lord Shaxx was already moving to act before the boy even opened his mouth to issue the warning.

The Titan swept his arm to the side, catching the charging Beowolf on the jaw with a ruthless backhand. A loud crack reverberated across the Vex graveyard as the lupine Grimm was sent crashing through several trees, sending splinters and leaves flying in its wake. It was already dead before it even hit the first tree.

With his other arm, Shaxx drew his scout rifle and fired a round into the skull of the ursine Grimm that almost mauled the R of Team JNPR. He then proceeded to discharge a bullet into more Grimm that were in the midst of stampeding out of the tree line.

"Do not ever take your eyes off the enemy unless you are utterly assured of their death," Lord Shaxx warned in a tone that even gave the surrounding Grimm pause as the magazine of his scout rifle slid out and he slammed in a fresh one, "Understood."

It may have been just Ren who had the momentary lapse in attention but the warning was definitely directed at Team JNPR as a whole they franticly nodded their heads. Hell, even the freaking Grimm were nodding along with them and the creatures of Darkness were logically supposed to not have understood human communication.

"Good," Shaxx grunted in slight satisfaction at seeing his point being taken seriously as he slung his rifle on his back, "Now resume your battle."

Without further prompting, the vile creatures of Darkness and the brave first year team of Beacon Academy flung themselves at each other to eliminate the opposing side as if to appease the Titan watching with a vigilant gaze.

Assured that things were running along smoothly again, Lord Shaxx took several steps back to better watch the battle commence from the sidelines. He then began to assess the members of Team JNPR with a more in-depth analysis of their fighting styles.

You could judge a person's character on how they present themselves on the battlefield better than psychoanalyzing them during social interactions. The battlefield was what brought a person's true self to light for there was no need for the masks that people wore in public to hide what they were too afraid to show to the world. When their very life was on the edge, they were all but forced to discard that very same mask for it would only serve as dead weight in the end.

And Guardians were faced with this every time that they step into hostile territory. Lightbearers may be capable of reviving themselves upon death but it didn't discount the fact that dying was an extremely unpleasant experience. No matter how many times a Guardian went through the act of dying, it would always be rather jarring and near mind-breaking.

It was no wonder that the mundane populace of the Last City usually saw the protectors of humanity as somewhat broken or distorted at times. After all, how could anyone who lived in safety their whole life possibly relate to someone that risked life and limb everyday in order to defend those weaker than themselves?

Although, psychologists always had a field day whenever they attempted to scan the brain of a Guardian.

00000

The Exo Hunter was given an empty office room in Beacon Academy so that he could do his work as a member of the Vanguard in relative privacy. He said 'relative' privacy because there were numerous bugs concealed all over the room. No doubt they were placed there by order of the Council to spy on him since he was pretty much an unknown and definitely had plenty of secrets that the wrong people could take advantage of.

Unfortunately for whoever was spying on Cayde, Remnant's anti-hacking contingencies were just plain shitty compared to the standards of the security software back in the Sol System. It was child's play for his Ghost to feed a continuous loop to the bugs and it was what allowed him to schedule a private job interview for someone that was wanted by the Vale police department.

"So I heard that you've expressed interest in signing up for a job with the Guardians," Cayde-6 started as he took a seat across the person that he was interviewing, "But we also have accounts of your rather…colorful background."

The interviewee appeared to be a young that was short in stature and yet somehow still had a well defined womanly figure for someone of that size should have. Her hair and clothes were multi-colored in brown, white and pink like the Neopolitan ice cream that her name originated from. Her round face also sported a curious expression as heterochromatic eyes stared intensely at the Exo.

The criminal called Neopolitan nodded her head as she beamed up at him like an adorable little imp. She also had yet to say a word since having met the Exo Hunter so she expressed herself through different nonverbal means that wasn't writing. If Cayde had not seen the same thing with his fellow Vanguard member, Ikora Rey, then he would have been baffled how a person's eyebrows could express so much meaning in them.

Plus, the signs that Neo somehow managed to conjure out of nowhere helped in mutual communication between them.

"No pun intended," the Hunter Vanguard corrected with a sour taste in his mouth after having realized his mistake. It seemed that not only Lux Sylphid was infected by the pun fever Summer Rose gave her so he had to watch his speech even more carefully from now on.

The multi-colored girl deflated a bit after he said that he didn't mean to make the pun earlier but she quickly schooled her features to be more presentable.

"Oh right, now I remember why Summer recommended this girl," Cayde bitterly thought as he recollected the reason why the White Rose wanted the Vanguard to recruit Neopolitan.

It wasn't because of Neo's extensive skills in combat, infiltration, engineering, assassination or even the ability to conjure illusions. The reason was something that had absolutely nothing to do with those things and what he should have expected from the White Rose.

For some twisted and unknown reason, Neopolitan also enjoyed puns much like Summer and some of her extended family here on Remnant.

Seriously, what was it about this planet that spawned people who loved puns of all things?

That reminded Cayde that he still hadn't gotten around to killing Taiyang Xiao Long yet because his time had been so preoccupied by his duties as a Vanguard that he didn't even concocted a method to kill (or at the very least maim) the elder yellow dragon without alerting Summer that it was his doing.

"Okay, moving on. You gave us quite a detailed résumé and we were able to determine through our sources that it spoke nothing but the truth," Cayde said as he perused the document that Neo provided to him, "Things have been getting tense back on Earth and our enemies are becoming bolder so we could use a highly skilled infiltrator such as yourself to invade enemy lines and preferably kill some important alien."

"I'm also obliged to mention that you will being traveling to different planets to assassinate the target through whatever means necessary just as long as it doesn't endanger innocent people or your allies."

The mute girl fiendishly grinned at the thought of finally accomplishing her lifelong dream of going on an adventure through space like in her favorite sci-fi novels.

Cayde didn't really understand the ice cream-themed girl's desire for a space adventure since it was basically the norm for the people of the Sol System. What the Hunter Vanguard did understand however was the thrill of discovering new things and places to explore.

"Alright, the only thing left to do is to sign a couple of documents and not only will you be considered an official citizen of the Last City but you will also be an agent of the Vanguard," the Exo materialized a tablet much like a scroll where it displayed the official documents for Neo's migration to Earth as he offered a stylus to the diminutive girl.

"Do remember that we can and will kill you if you violate the terms of your contract so I suggest you read the fine print very carefully before you sign it," he interjected as she was about to take the tablet and the stylus from him.

Nibbling on her bottom lip, Neo had a thoughtful look on her face before she took the tablet from the Hunter Vanguard. She then wordlessly vanished in a flash of white light, no doubt to study the documents in detail before she came to a decision.

However, Cayde had a feeling that this Neo character would still cause some form of trouble in spite of accepting the restrictions dictated by the contract. The Hunter Vanguard's other student was going to be responsible for Neopolitan though if she did agree to become an agent of the Vanguard so it was better to let Shiro-4 handle her instead.

Now that was taken care of, Cayde still had to negotiate with the Councils of Remnant to set up a series of communications satellites to contact the Last City more efficiently and to allow passage for unpaired Ghosts in search of a Guardian.

"Salutations!" the door to his office didn't so much as slam open but more like exploded to let the green blur that was Bartholomew Oobleck burst into the room, "I know that you are very busy, my good sir but I am here to inquire about the request to step foot on planet Earth that I sent to you earlier! It is not everyday that one is faced with the opportunity to-"

At this point, Cayde simply stopped paying attention whatever the doctor was babbling about at rapid speeds as his face slammed onto the top of his desk with a loud thud. Not noticing the Exo's plight, Dr. Oobleck went on and on about whatever caught his fancy concerning the Guardians' culture and history as the highest ranking Guardian on Remnant contemplated shooting himself.

It was going to be one of those days, wasn't it?

00000

Lord Shaxx didn't really approve of sending children to the battlefield but he did have to admit that Team JNPR was still an effective combat unit at least for low leveled mission like this.

Lie Ren, the boy that the Titan saved earlier, moved with a purposeful grace as he either peppered the enemy with automatic fire from his guns or dealt decisive blows with the long blades attached to his guns. Occasionally, he would hurl his weapons like they were throwing stars as he demonstrated that his hand-to-hand combat skills were enough to dispatch Grimm in a single concentrated strike before retrieving his thrown weapons.

What the boy had in speed and finesse, he lacked the endurance to take a blow so his preferred defensive method was to dodge. He also seemed a bit…distracted as if he carried an enormous burden upon his shoulders. The boy kept up a calm façade but there was a certain tenseness in his eyes whenever he eliminated a Grimm. Like there was an almost desperate edge to them.

Lord Shaxx had seen eyes like those before in his long career as a Guardian. Those were the eyes of someone searching for revenge. No matter how much the boy tried to hide it, he could see that hunger for vengeance as clear as day and the possibility of the boy losing himself to revenge was quite high especially for people young like him. These dark urges always festered the best during the early stages of a person's life.

As for the boy's partner, Nora Valkyrie, she was quite the ball of energy that even put Guardian Rose to shame, an incredible feat in and of itself. Where Lie Ren utilized quick and decisive strikes, Valkyrie used overwhelming force and firepower to vanquish her foes with her grenade launcher/warhammer hybrid.

She also had no concern for collateral damage as trees fell and craters were formed in her wake so the rest of Team JNPR had the foresight to position her as far away from the androids as possible.

It wasn't all that successful however since Shaxx was forced to summon a wide wall of Void energy to defend his Redjacks from a stray grenade. The Titan didn't really put in the same effort to save the Atlesian Knights from being blown to pieces though because the Redjacks were his property and not the Atlesian androids. Atlas may have insisted that their androids be brought along but Lord Shaxx was not going to go out of his way to ensure the safety of the androids that weren't his so he didn't mind all too much of the orange haired girl breaking the AK androids.

Jaune Arc, the leader of Team JNPR was by far the weakest of the group. The blond boy may have the necessary physical conditioning to catch up to his teammates but his overall combat skills were severely lacking compared to the rest of them. It was as if he only had a few years of training as opposed to the near lifelong training of everyone else. He was by no means a novice but in the face of his peers, he might as well be.

Although his overall physical performance didn't really leave much to be desired from, he more than made it up with his tactical prowess as he played to the strengths of his teammates and took advantage of the adversaries' weaknesses when the right opportunity was presented. He was more the brains of Team JNPR than another of its muscles.

While the Arc boy's talents could be put to much better use at the back, he had the courage to stand with his comrades on the front lines, which was something that Lord Shaxx could respect albeit a miniscule amount.

As admirable as it was to lead your troops on the front line, it was a poor idea to let yourself become a liability.

Pyrrha Nikos had proven to be the most talented fighter of Team JNPR. She weaved through Grimm after Grimm, cutting them down with near flawless precision. No single movement was wasted and only served to bring the odds to her favor as her weapons transitioned to a sword, spear and a rifle as easily as breathing.

Lord Shaxx could also see a distinct amount of similarities in fighting styles with the sword and shield between Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc so either they both studied under the same taskmaster or the red headed girl was the one to have taught him, which spoke of the girl's prodigious talents even more to have. The Titan couldn't help but be impressed by her in spite of himself.

It was a shame that the most naturally talented ones were usually the first to die in war. They let their gifts get the best of them and start believing that they would pull through no matter the situation. Or worse, they would throw themselves headfirst into unwinnable battles because they believed it was their duty to discard their lives to overturn a hopeless predicament.

It didn't matter if they succeeded or not. Shaxx had seen too many young Guardians paid the ultimate sacrifice only for that same sacrifice to be in vain. He had witnessed too many promising students perish to stall the armies of the Hive prince, Crota so Earth would not fall.

Who knew that watching these young warriors would bring back such depressing memories of his? Nevertheless, it wasn't wise to dwell on the past when the future was right before him.

Lie Ren swiped his blades at a Beowolf, severing its jugular as Jaune Arc raised his shield to redirect a Boarbatusk's charge away from his green cladded teammate where it was smashed into the earth from Nora Valkyrie bringing her hammer down on its porcine form. Arc then bashed his shield at a Beowolf's muzzle as his sword swung down to bifurcate another Grimm while Pyrrha Nikos slid between his legs and fired at several Grimm with her rifle to serve as a distraction before her gun transformed into a spear and was swung in a wide arc, cutting those same Grimm in half.

Lie weaved in between Grimm, delivering debilitating slashes on their hides while at the same time, herding them together. After disabling their movements, he leapt away as Valkyrie came barreling in and swung her mighty hammer before maximizing it by detonating a grenade from the head of the hammer, hitting all of the grouped up Grimm in a single explosive strike so they went bowling over their fellow Grimm.

Valkyrie cheered at the feat, not seeing the Creep that was sneaking its way behind her. Before it could sink its teeth into the girl's back, Lie kicked the Grimm in the side, knocking it away from his partner. The girl grinned at her friend in gratitude as she transformed her hammer into its grenade launcher form before finished off the Creep (any other Grimm in its vicinity) with a salvo of explosives.

Being highlighted by the pink explosions in the background, Arc and Nikos stood back to back with their weapons raised. The blond boy cried out in surprise as the girl pushed his head and vaulted over his shoulders to plunge her spear into the maw of the Beowolf behind him. Regaining his bearings, Arc raised his shield to block an overhead swipe from an Ursa before knocking the paw to the side and decapitating it with his sword.

Turning on her heel, Nikos slid her weapon free from the Beowolf's skull so that she could slash two more incoming Grimm while flinging shield like an oversized discus. The edges of the shield were not really sharp but at the speeds that it was going, it was enough to perforate a line of Grimm completely before bouncing off a tree and back into its owner's hand. Shifting her spear into its rifle form, she placed on top of her shield to act as a stabilizer while Lie and Valkyrie took their positions by her side. Like an impromptu firing squad, they let out of a barrage of bullets and grenades as their leader, Arc glanced at his simple sword and dejectedly slumped down at his apparent uselessness for this particular formation.

Lord Shaxx idly tilted his head to the side as an unfortunate Grimm was sent flying towards his direction so it sailed over his shoulder instead of hitting him. It appeared that Team JNPR was so caught up in their fight with the Grimm that they have forgotten about the fact that he was overseeing their progress. If he was their combat instructor, he would have given them a harsh reprimand and make certain to improve on their battle awareness so that something like this would not happen again.

It was unfortunate that he wasn't their instructor though.

Wait a minute…

The Titan then remembered that the combat schools of Remnant had cancelled classes for now, leaving the Huntsmen in training no place where they could learn under a professional's supervision while he had made it his life's work to aid in the development of fine young warriors.

Well, it appeared that Lord Shaxx had another hobby he could do to occupy his spare time here on Remnant.

As he imagined the possible outcomes of a team of Huntsmen (albeit in training) receiving the same kind of vigorous training as a Guardian, a message icon popped up on HUD of Shaxx's helmet. Seeing that it was marked red for the highest priority, he swiftly opened it to check what it contained, which made him pause in both alarm and intrigue.

After reading the message, Lord Shaxx turned to call out to the members of the first year team, "Team JNPR, a Geist Grimm has been sighted within the area! Locate it at once before it can-"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!" an ungodly loud shriek cut off whatever the Titan was going to say.

"Never mind, it appears that Mr. Arc has located the Geist," Shaxx drily stated before wincing under his helmet and muttering under his breath, "By the Traveler, that boy can scream."