I do not own Destiny or any of the characters.
Teacher
Cayde watched proudly as his Exo protégé sprinted through the arena, leaping over a broken section of bridge and dropping a stun grenade into the gap, the grenade blasting a Titan running past below him. As he landed, he fired a half-dozen shots into another Titan's chest with his Scout Rifle, the stun rounds dropping the Titan and rendering him unconscious. A Warlock flew up over the bridge behind him, but as she did, she hit a laser tripwire and a small metal rod with a disk on the end that the Exo had set up as soon as he landed fired a bolt of electricity into her chest, hurling her away and knocking her out.
As he reached the bottom of the ramp he was on, a Titan leapt at him from above, wielding a sword, but holding it backward, and the Exo spun, deflecting the first slash with his rifle before his free hand drew his sidearm, a small silenced handgun more for stealth kills than open combat, and emptied the clip into the Titan's chest to force him back before dropping the pistol and dropping him with his Scout Rifle. He reloaded it, then swapped it for his Auto Rifle, continuing to run through the arena, dropping any Titans or Warlocks he met. As the last Hunter standing, it was easy to know who was a target. Literally anyone he saw.
Finally, the buzzer sounded the end of the match and he sighed, reloading his rifle before leaving the arena, heading for the waiting area where the results of the Guardian Games would be announced, and where Cayde was waiting. As he walked in, Cayde grinned, nodding approvingly, and the Exo shared the grin, walking over to his mentor.
"Very well done," Cayde smiled. "I doubt I could have done it much better myself."
"I doubt that's true," the Exo said, his voice deeper and slightly more metallic than Cayde's, making it seem darker, less cheerful and more intimidating, despite his naturally friendly nature. "I need a new pistol, though. That one wasn't worth keeping."
"Thought that might be the case," Cayde said, drawing a pistol and twirling it on his trigger finger for a moment before passing it to him. "Brought you a present for all your hard work and progress, Hunter."
The Exo grimaced at his name. Hunter had been what Cayde had called him when the Exo was revived as a Guardian, and Cayde had only chosen that name as a joke, since he was, in fact, a Hunter class Guardian. Hunter shook his head, inspecting his new gun. Like Cayde's personal gun, the Ace of Spades, this one was a Mos Ultima II, the most powerful and reliable base model hand cannon, and one that is easily customized to make unique sidearms. This one, however, was currently unmodified.
"Thank you, Cayde," Hunter smiled. "You give the best presents."
"I know," Cayde smiled.
Just then, the screen released a chime as the results of the games were released. Titans had won by a very large margin, but the spot of top competitor belonged to Hunter. Almost everyone cheered, looking over at Hunter, though a few glared, and Cayde clapped him on the shoulder before guiding him out of the room and back to the Tower's dock.
"You up for a mission?" Cayde asked.
"Always," Hunter nodded. "What do you need me to do?"
"Not 'me,'" Cayde said. "'We.' You and me are going to save a couple of Titans' asses from the Cabal."
Hunter grinned. "Well, you do love making Cabal heads explode."
"They make such fun targets," Cayde shrugged, hands out to his sides as he walked backward toward his ship, Hunter heading for his own.
Hunter flew a Kestrel Class AX, while Cayde was currently flying a Symmetry Flight, thanks to having crashed his last ship while distractedly talking about food. Both entered their ships and left the dock, Cayde sending Hunter the coordinates before they set off. Hunter set the autopilot and and headed to the back of his ship, swapping out his Guardian Games gear for his combat gear. As he got his normal armor laid out, however, he stopped, staring at himself in the mirror.
Unlike most Exos, who had disconnected plates covering their chassis, Hunter's was different. the plates that should sit on top of his largely exposed chassis were, instead, connected with a kind of flexible micro-weave material that was as strong as his plates but allowed for full flexibility, and he possessed more plates, the plates mimicking a human's major muscle groups, such as biceps, triceps, pectoral muscles, abs, glutes, thigh muscles, and so on, as well as two in the place where a human would have shoulder blades. As a result, he had a much more human silhouette than a normal Exo, and possessed heightened speed from having been made of a lighter material, but at the cost of his body possessing less physical strength than other Exos. His head, however, was the same as most, with the same general appearance in black, red eyes and red light inside his mouth, and a pair of small, conical horns extending from his forehead, each only an inch long and a half-inch wide at the base.
He trailed a finger over the plate on his chest, watching the plate twitch and quiver in a short trail behind his finger before stilling again. That was the secret behind his altered appearance. Nanites. Microscopic machines that he could control at will to change the shape of his body. However, even able to reshape his body at will, he couldn't make himself organic. He couldn't make himself a person, instead of a machine. He turned away from the mirror, pressing a switch on the wall beside it to close a panel over it in order to hide the mirror from sight. Then, he pulled on his all black armor and tattered black cape, which hung only to his hip on the left but to the back of his knee on the left. He pulled his hood up, foregoing a helmet, as always, like Cayde. One benefit of being an Exo was that he didn't really breathe to survive. It was just so that his formerly human mind would accept his new machine body, which meant that he could breathe anywhere with an atmosphere, so long as it wasn't corrosive to metal.
He turned to his gun rack as he stuck his Mos Ultima in its holster, grabbing is live-ammo rifles. His primary was a modified Hung Jury SR4, and his backup was a heavily customized Auto Rifle that had started out as a Medley-45 but only kept the body and full holographic projection sight. The top part of the body was now painted flat white with a black rail on top, and black magazines, pistol grip, and foregrip. The interior of the gun had been so heavily customized and modified that it may as well have been a different gun entirely. His heavy weapon of choice was a long, thick sword with a tanto point that could fold in half and hung from the magnet on the back of his waist. Once he'd collected his weapons, he turned and headed for the cockpit again, making a conscious effort not to look back at where the mirror was concealed.
As he walked back to the cockpit and retook his seat, voices from that past returned to him like echoes of his shame.
"What the fuck's your body made out of? You look like a sex toy that someone forgot to attach a dildo to."
"You're wasting your time, Exo. I'm not interested in a robot without the basic equipment needed to have a relationship."
"Why would I give two shits about you? Thanks for the drink, but you waisted your money. I can't even fuck you, so you're worthless to me."
"I'm really sorry, Hunter, but I'm looking for someone a bit more...compatible. You're sweet, but I'm not looking for a purely emotional relationship. I need someone I can at least kiss. I hope you understand."
He did understand. He was a machine with a human heart, which meant that he was something that couldn't do even the most basic physical part of a relationship, since he didn't have lips to kiss someone with, and therefor would never be able to have a relationship, and yet his human heart longed for companionship, searching for something it had lost from it's past life before becoming a Guardian, or maybe before becoming an Exo. Since his heart wanted what it couldn't have because of his body, it was cursed to be broken time and again when he lost control of it and allowed it to begin caring about someone.
"You thinking about it again?" Cayde's voice asked from the ship's radio.
"Yeah," Hunter said. "Kind of hard not to on a long flight like this when someone left my mirror uncovered the last time they were dropping off my repaired armor."
"Hey, I gotta make sure I still look good in my armor," Cayde said. "I can't afford to put on too much weight."
"Very funny," Hunter said sarcastically. "The day you find a way to get fat is the day I'll start worrying about acne."
Cayde laughed. "Oil baths will clear that right up."
Hunter rolled his eyes. "So what's our specific destination?"
"A base in the northern hemisphere of Mars," Cayde said. "As I said at the Tower, a couple of Titans made an ass of themselves trying to clear it out, so we're going to pull them out."
"Great," Hunter said. "And I assume we'll be swarmed from the moment we land."
"Aren't we always?" Cayde snorted.
"Generally speaking," Hunter agreed.
The radio switched off, and Hunter fell silent, getting himself focused and ready for the fight ahead. Then, finally, they arrived. Both warped to the ground, seeing the base straight ahead, the Cabal crawling all over it and trying to get through a pair of doors, only to die before they could. However, when they did, then either fell or were pushed off of the small bridge leading to each, keeping the doorway clear for more to swarm toward them. Hunter and Cayde took off at a sprint instantly, Hunter opening fire with his Hung Jury as he ran while Cayde readied his pistol.
Cabal turned to fight them as well and the two Exos began to avoid their shots, going from one bit of cover to the next. A pair of Legionaries landed in front of Hunter as he stepped out from behind the boulder he'd been using as cover, only for Hunter to flick a knife into one's face and shoot the other between the eyes. He reclaimed his knife as he ran, sticking it back in its sheath before running up a small slope and leaping off the top, clearing a spray from a group of Psions as they charged. He hurled a grenade at them, the explosion killing all but one, which Hunter slashed on the way by with a dagger from his left thigh. He rolled behind a boulder as a Centurion sent a grenade at him and swapped his Hung Jury for his Auto Rifle before stepping out again, spraying a pair of Psions instantly.
As he did, Cayde, who'd been largely unnoticed by the majority of the Cabal forces trying to stop them, finally reached them. He leapt off of a boulder and sent a fan of daggers into a handful of Phalanxes and Legionaries before landing in a roll, passing under the Centurion's next shot. As he stood, he sent two quick shots into its shield, taking it down before placing a third in its head, turning it to much, the Centurion's body dropping as the excess pressure inside its armor vented in a jet of steam.
A Legionary landed behind Cade, only for him to hold his pistol back over his shoulder and put a bullet through his head as well, then send two more into a Phalanx's back. As he reloaded his pistol in under a second, Hunter sprayed a trio of Psions that turned on him, dropping all three before passing Cayde and hurling a dagger fifty yards into a Legionary's foot, making it fall to one knee and move its shield aside, allowing Cayde to plant a bullet in its head. Both smirked, sprinting for the base again just as an explosion of flames shot out of one door, then a matching one out of the other a moment later. Hunter grabbed a proximity mine dagger, hurling it into the bridge just outside one door in time for a group of Legionaries to set it off, being blasted apart. Then, as he leapt to the bridge, using his abilities as a Guardian to jump a second time in mid air, he sprayed a Phalanx from the side. He landed in a roll as a pair of Centurions landed on the bridge, but as he stood, he released his Auto Rifle's pistol grip, a shining gold revolver forming in his right hand and firing instantly. He blasted through their shields and splattered their heads with a single shot each, the gun's ammo being restored from the lifeforce of its victims, and he turned the gun on a group of Legionaries leaping toward the bridge from his right. He shot four of the five before the gun faded, then dropped a trip mine and turned, walking into the room where the Titans had holes themselves up, setting a Void mine in the doorway just as the last Legionary set off the solar trip mine. Just as he entered the room, Cayde entered the other door, casually tossing a grenade over his shoulder to blast a group of Psions chasing him. Both reloaded and turned to the Titans, both large burly males, like any Titans, who stared at the pair.
"What?" Cayde asked. "You look like you've seen someone slaughter a Cabal platoon that had you pinned down." He swung his gun around to the door, shooting a Legionary in the head without looking. "Ready to go?"
"Get us the Hell out of here," one of the Titans said.
"Sure," Cayde nodded, just as Hunter's Void mine activated, forming a singularity and rapidly crushed a Legionary into a ball.
"Follow us, ladies," Hunter said, walking toward his door.
As he neared it, he formed his Void Bow, pulling it back and stepping into the doorway. A Centurion roared, raising his gun, only for Hunter to release the arrow into his chest. A singularity appeared as the Centurion staggered backward, a stream of Void energy connecting him to it, making his movements so slow it seemed he was barely moving. Hunter instantly dropped into a crouch, drawing his Mos Ultima and opening fire as Cade did the same, their bullets ripping through his shield before one of Cayde's splattered his head. Both reloaded instantly before Hunter swapped it for his Hung Jury. He took off first, leaping off the bridge and moving to meet the reinforcements the Cabal had sent. He opened fire quickly, his bullets ripping through a handful of the wave of Psions speeding ahead in an attempt to surprise them. As he landed, Cayde hurled a grenade and a fan of knives, slaughtering the rest of them. Hunter sprinted up a small, slanted rock and leapt off, hurling a proximity mine dagger into the foot of a Phalanx in the center of its line of five. The dagger exploded, and three of them went down hard, the other two staggering away, only for the Titans to drop them while Cade hurled another dagger at the Centurion behind them all. Its shield deflected the knife but was fried by it. A moment later, Cayde sent a handful of shots into his chest.
They all ran past the corpses, and after a few more minutes, they stopped as they finally reached the spot they'd left, both having left their ships at the maximum range of their warp systems. Hunter and Cayde both sent the Titans to their ships, then looked around as a dozen Legionaries suddenly landed around them. Cayde and Hunter both laughed. Then, as one, they spun outward, drawing their pistols and firing as they dropped to one knee. When the Legionaries fired, their shots passed over the two Exos, making their work even easier. As the last of the Legionaries fell, they both reloaded, then warped back to their ships.
"Another job well done," Cayde said as soon as they were flying away from Mars and back toward the tower.
"Just more proof of which is truly the superior class," Hunter smirked, the Titan seated in his copilot's seat rolling his eyes, his helmet sitting in his lap.
"That it is," Cayde agreed. "So, you buying?"
"Always," Hunter chuckled. "Lord knows you've got enough debt already."
Cayde chuckled. "That I do, my friend. That I do."
Hunter smiled and settled in to fly, just as the radio came alive with Cayde's favorite music, ancient history classics from Earth, namely Queen, the Greatest Hits album. Hunter chuckled and set the autopilot, leaning back and folding his hands behind his head, smiling and enjoying the music.
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