Hours of fighting SIVA-infected fallen. Scraping to steal back the Plaguelands. Dying over and over, forcing his Ghost to bring him back. Mikeal5225 was starting to feel the burn in his mechanical muscles as he ran across the ground. He pushed further. Now, when they could end it, he wasn't going to quit.
His fellow guardians roared. He roared. His Ghost cried out it's own tinny battle-cry.
Aksis responded. The massive mechanical beast teleported, trying to escape its death. It's cry, an electric roar as the multi-limbed monster tried to escape.
Mikeal5225 didn't allow it. The Titan leaped up, his eyesight filled with the blue light of empowerment. As he came above the spider-legged creature, he slammed his fists into its back. For a moment, he flashed back to a moment in the past. Long ago, when he had used his first Fist of Havoc. Now, fighting the latest monster to threaten humanity, it seemed appropriate that the essential blow to aid in killing the beast was so similar to his first Super.
But then, the Exo thought to himself as he leaped back from Aksis, taking a bit of pleasure in the mechanical monsters screams of pain. A lot has changed.
With that thought, he swung a hand out. Coming from the fires within his very soul, a hammer appeared. A hammer of molten steel, forged from Solar light, it's heat turning all around it to plasma except it's wielder.
"Tether going up!" His friend, the hunter named Katyeee, cried as she leaped into the air. A bow appeared in her hands, one made of a purple light. Unlike his hammer, which burned, Katyeee's bow seemed to absorb. To the observant, it was as though the bow itself hungered for it's wielder's does. A contradiction to existence itself, a creation made of Void light.
Something that its arrows shared. For a moment, a line of purple light and bleak shadow seemed to connect Katyeee and Aksis. Then a black hole appeared, at the very center of Aksis. A tendril attached to the red and gray creature, making it scream once more.
"Together!" The Warlock Siking cried. His hands snapped outward, Arc energy surrounding them. As his body became the very embodiment of the storm, he rose upwards on a field of electromagnetic energy. When he attacked Aksis, it was with all the power of lightning, pouring his power into the beast.
Not to be outdone, Mikeal5225 began to throw his hammer. As it landed and exploded, the molten weapon reappeared in his hand. Katyeee threw her grenades, shooting Aksis over and over. On of the others in their group of six fired, and Mikeal5225 was elated to see the recognizable cluster missles of a Gjallarhorn explode out from the initial round, further pounding into the beast. Again and again they struck. Soon Mikeal5225 was unable to maintain his hammer, and switched to his own weapons.
For a moment, it seemed like they'd failed. That, despite all the sacrifice, all the fighting, the Emissary of Darkness would triumph.
Then, with a final defiant wail that reverberated the world, Aksis fell.
"I'm just glad its over." Mikeal5225 said with a note of satisfaction. He'd removed his helmet, allowing his purple Exo features to be seen. The others had done the same, Katyeee revealing her blonde hair and blue eyes, Siking his Awoken blue skin and bright white hair. The other three had left, having collected their share of the loot and gone to get some rest.
It was funny to Mikeal5225 how destroying the greatest threats in existence sometimes devolved into loot scrambles.
"Same," Katyeee ran a hand though her hair, the Hunter sighing as she did so. "Cayde's going to love this."
"I simply wish there was more time to study all this," Siking said with a frown, his gray eyes flashing around the chamber of the mow dead Aksis. "With SIVA under our control-"
"Leave it," Mikeal5225 said with a grunt. "We risk enough putting the stuff in our weapons and armor. Turning the whole city into it will probably end in an apocalypse or something. Well, another one anyways."
Siking sniffed. "Please. I wouldn't suggest implementing it immediately! But studying it, developing a less aggressive version? That could lead to incredible discoveries for humanity."
"Speaking of which," Katyeee rose up, stretching. "I'd like to discover my bed. You guys want to meet at the Tower later? Break the good news?"
"Sure," Mikeal5225 nodded. "Sleep well."
Siking and Katyeee gave him a nod, the Awokens stern, while the human's was cheery. With a summoning of their ghosts and a wordless command, his fellow guardians disappeared into a cloud of while lights.
Mikeal5225 took a moment to look around himself. Then he summoned Ghost.
"Take us home."
Ghost, wearing his new Iron Temple shell, 'nodded'. "Sure thing. I could use a break."
In a flash of light, they left.
-
When Mikeal5225 opened his eyes again, he was sitting in his ship. The one-seat vessel rested in the atmosphere of Earth, orbiting slowly. He reached for the controls, and began the trip to fly to the Tower.
As he did so, the Guardian thought back to all that had happened in the last few years. The Black Garden. Atheon. Crota. Skolas. Oryx. And now Aksis. Armies of monsters, all with weapons and magic beyond anything that could be imagined. All dead.
He pierced through the storm surrounding the City, and felt himself relax. With a silent command to his Ghost, he felt his armor and weapons fade into his inventory, and slowly cracked his robotic neck. This close to the Tower, it was finally safe to relax a bit. As he slowly came towards his home, Mikeal5225 thought back once more to battles past.
It was odd to feel nostalgic about such things. All of them had been... horrifying. Existences on a level beyond that of some armies. Atheon trying to make Vex domination a physical law of reality. Battling Crota in his own dimension. Skolas stealing Vex technology to make the House of Wolves dominant. Oryx himself had become a monster the size of a building, forcing Mikeal5225's group of guardians to their limits to bring down the Taken King. And now Aksis, transformed by Golden Age technology into a being equal to any other.
Light knows, enough had tried to kill him recently.
But, despite everything, Mikeal5225 felt good. With Aksis gone, and no new threats on the horizon, it was easy to feel optimistic. To feel triumphant. It was a good day.
Which is why he was shocked to see a bright green oviod appear in front of his ship, floating peacefully as he turned to send the ship into the tower. Panicking, he tried to turn, only to simply drive into it. An explosion followed. Before the Exo blacked out, he heard a voice.
"...servant...divine...powerful...heed...appear!"
-
Within the Tower, Ikora Rey looked up from the table the Vanguard leaders worked at in the top floor of the Guardian headquarters, eyes widening. She spun around, a shotgun appearing in her hand in a flash of light.
Cayde-6 and Zavala looked from their own work. They tensed at the sight of their fellow warrior holding her gun, looking around as though an enemy would appear at any moment.
"Ikora?" Cayde asked, the Exo Hunters mouth lighting up orange as he spoke, his electric blue eyes narrowing. "What happened?"
"I..." She stared around. To her fellow warriors, the sight of her fists tightening against the metal of her shotgun was somewhat like watching a predator bare it's teeth. The fact it was the calmest of them that was acting that way made it worse.
"Ikora!" Zavala barked. She spun her head to look at him. "Report!"
"I think what he means is," Cayde said gently. "'lets put the gun away so you can stop scaring the newbies.'"
Ikora looked around. Several Guardians were looking at her, shock and fear in their gazes at the sight of her waving her shotgun around.
"Something has happened," Ikora said softly. "Void..."
The room was silent.
"Someone call the cryptarch, cause we'll need him to decode that one." Cayde mused.
When Mikeal5225 woke, he rose to his feet in a blur of speed. His hands reached for a weapon, grasping for his Necrochasm, Last Word, anything that could send a quick hail of bullets at whatever had attacked him.
Nothing.
The feel of his hand clenching at empty air was enough to bring him to a standstill. He stared around, trying to understand what was happening.
Humans. Human teenagers to be exact, surrounding him in a wide circle. Humans standing next to monsters. All the teens were wearing smilar robes, and seemed to fall under a wide range of body types. That hair though. Purple, blue, green, as though some of them were Awoken, but only their hair was affected. One of them, a tiny pink haired girl, was right in front of him, staring at him in a way he couldn't quantify.
As he straightened up, he felt the cool air, and realized he was wearing nothing but his undersuit. No armor, no weapons. Damn.
The children were speaking in a language he didn't recognize as he straightened. French? Mikeal wasn't an expert, but it was very similar to Old World French. Damn again. He spoke Russian, English, and a bit of Awoken. No French.
"What is that? Some kind of Golem?"
"It looks like it's made of metal!"
"It's wearing clothes though. None of the other summons did."
"Sure is purple though. Look how it's eyes light up."
"Guess the Zero actually summoned something. I was kinda hoping for another explosion though."
He looked at the other beings in the room. They seemed to cover a wide range of things, from a giant mole sitting beside a blonde kid, a bat on the shoulders of a kid with hair so blue it could have belonged to an Awoken, and... He blinked. A dragon. A legitimate dragon.
"What."
When he spoke, the pink haired girl in front of him blinked in shock. "You can talk!?"
He looked down at her, surprised. "Yes. What... what is all this?"
"I..." She looked over at someone, confusion in her eyes.
Mikeal looked as well. The one she'd focused her attention on was an older man, with kind eyes and glasses. He was staring at Mikeal as well. The Exo found himself reminded of Ikora, or Siking. That look of curiosity burning within his eyes, just like a Warlock unlocking the secrets of the universe.
"What are you waiting for, Louise?" When the older man looked at the girl, the curiosity in his gaze turned to kindness. "You've successfully summoned your familiar. Complete the ritual."
"R-Right!" Taking a deep breath, she turned back to Mikeal. "My name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere."
What a ridiculously long name.
Mikeal suddenly realized he hadn't heard from Ghost.
"Pentagon of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make him my familiar."
Worry suddenly filled him. "Ghost?" The image of Ghost dead, laying on the floor with his light extinguished, made Mikeal's fists thirst for a weapon.
The tiny girl ignored him, noticeably speeding up. To be honest, the speech she was saying sounding slightly familiar. Not the words, but the feel of them. But Mikeal ignored it, focused on turning to find-
The girl grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him down. Before Mikeal could think to punch her in the face, she was pressing her lips against his forehead.
"What happened?" Ghost rose up from a bush about ten feet away, at the edge of the courtyard. As Mikeal blinked at the feel of lips against his metallic head, Ghost looked over at his friends, the prongs that made up his body spinning around. "Huh. Odd sight to wake up to. Pink hair."
Mikeal was about to sigh in relief, when a burning sensation came from his hand. He froze, the lights of his eyes and mouth flickering as power flooded his body. Ghost froze as well, his tiny form spinning around as his 'eye' blinked on and off rapidly.
"W-What?" Mikeal looked down at his hand as the pain and power flooding him disappeared. On his hand, a small symbol blazed. Three circles resting on top of a triangle. The rune of Oryx, the Taken King. As he stared in horror, the rune faded to be replaced by an unfamiliar one.
"That can't be good." Ghost said softly.
The girl smiled in satisfaction at the symbol on his hand. "With this, you are my familiar."
"...Really not good." As Ghost faded away, Mikeal couldn't help but agree.
Hours later, Mikeal was following Louise. He hadn't spoken a word since she'd kissed his forehead besides 'What'. She didn't seem to mind. She strutted proudly, almost glowing with happiness. Mikeal ignored that in favor of doing what was really important.
Checking his inventory with Ghost's aid.
Since he'd been going on a raid, one to face an unknown enemy opponent, he'd carried every last weapon and armor that could conceivably useful. Not just weapons. He also carried hundreds of synthesis cartridges, items he could use to create new ammo in a pinch. Not only that, but he now had several items he'd looted from the Fallen Splicers, as well as two incredible weapons he'd gained from Aksis.
So, in short, he was prepared. But for what? This place was so... peaceful. A school, with students in uniforms similar to that he would have seen in ancient Anime legends and dramas. Nothing like the Cosmodrome. Or even the Tower.
The Tower was the safest place in the world. And yet, there was a constant tension in the air. He'd never noticed it. But even in a room full of Guardians, surrounded by concrete, steel, and defenses, Mikeal5225 had never felt truly felt safe in the Tower. Not when he knew death could come at any moment.
But here? Children giggled, spoke, and played all across the school without a trace of tension to the actions.
And then there was the school itself. The walls were stone and wood, built with ancient tools. Everything seemed so ancient in design, yet it was newly built. Maybe a few decades at best. How odd, after years of running through ancient building made using advanced technology, to find a new building made with primitive tools.
"Time travel maybe?" Ghost whispered. So far, no one had truly notice Ghost, apparently thinking he was a part of Mikeal in some way. "No, their language is far too different from anything in my database. Though, it could be data corruption? But what about those creatures?"
Mikeal nodded in agreement as a massive eyeball floated past. None of these existed on Earth, Mars, Venus, or even the Dreadnaught. And the Moon and Mercury, with their respective Hive and Vex overlords, had no animals at all. Not to mention the, well, dragon.
And then there was his own situation. Apparently the people here saw him as one of these familiars. So far, he couldn't help but assume they saw familiars as something similar to Ghosts. Hard to tell how he felt about that. What the hell was he going to do? How could he get home and leave this strange place? Mikeal5225, the Young Wolf, wondered for a moment what the little girl that had brought him into all this thought of it.
Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere's couldn't have been prouder at that moment. As she strode through the school, she couldn't help but overhear the incredulous voices of the others.
"She actually succeeded in a spell?"
"I guess she's Louise the One now."
"What is that thing anyways?"
At the last, Louise felt a bit of her pride fade in favor of her own curiosity. She snuck a look at the being following her.
It was tall, towering over her, with broad shoulders and a body that seemed to radiate strength. It stood like a man, and walked with fluid grace despite the make-up of it's body. Though it wore a strange type of clothing, she could see it's hands and face, both of which were made of metal that was colored purple so dark it was almost black. As she snuck glances, she could see that small spiky thing floating around it. And then there was it's eyes and mouth, which both glowed whenever it spoke.
She turned front, frowning. Spoke. That was the thing. Her familiar could speak. As far as she could tell, none of the others could (A blue-haired young girl let out a tiny sneeze at the same time as a large dragon). Whatever else one might say about Louise (tiny, arrogant, mean, explosive, tiny) she was also very intelligent. And the fact she couldn't reconcile was that her familiar being able to speak meant he, she assumed it was male, could also think. More than the animal she was hoping for.
Then again, she just didn't know anything at all about it. In fact, the only thing she could say was certain about it was that it wasn't human. She didn't even know how powerful or useful it might be.
Louise shook her head firmly before the depression set it. No more! She had successfully summoned something! For the first time, a spell had worked! She had to believe her familiar was worth it!
"Excuse me," Louise blinked. Her familiar's voice again. It was oddly human, very smooth, and carrying a slight rumble to it. "I'd like to ask a few questions, if its all right?"
She nodded. He was polite, and seemed nice enough. That, combined with the fact he was essentially living prove of her worth as a mage, made it easy to listen to his request like the benevolent master she was. "We're going to my room. We can discuss things there."
The beings strange face shifted slightly, the metal plates moving. It was unnerving, the way it's face moved like cheeks and lips. She had to wonder what it meant that she'd summoned a being of metal as her familiar. He was clearly a earth familiar, which meant she might earth as well!
She held off from squeeing at the progress she was making with her magic, instead stepping into her room. She ignored the hay she'd left to become her future familiars bed, instead stepping over to her table and sitting down. He took a seat across from her, and the spiked ball floating around him came to a stop. She had to take a moment to wonder why she felt like the ball was staring at her with that bright light at it's center.
"Okay then familiar," the tiny young woman declared as authoritatively as possible. Which, despite her wishes, only made her look adorable. "If we are to work together as master and familiar, I believe we should understand your capabilities! Therefore, I demand you tell me about yourself!"
"...You are a very rude little girl." Ghost said quietly.
As Louise's prideful demeanor turned into the sort of anger Mikeal was more used to seeing from Cabal, he felt, for the thousandth time since waking up on a bridge filled with rusted cars, out of his depth.
Author's Note: After the Age of Triumph and the official end of the first Destiny in terms of content, I thought it was a good time to write a Destiny fic. And I choose Familiar of Zero for it, for several reasons.
First, well, the whole void thing. It's interesting to wonder how Louise's connection to Void would interact with the various weapons and abilities of Destiny, such as the Dark-Drinker sword.
Second, Destiny and FoZ are VERY different. Sure, both have war, magic, parallel dimensions, and hot older woman who can kick butt (Mara Sov, Karin the Heavy Wind). But Destiny is a first person Science Fantasy with a heavy emphasis on technology kicking ass, while FoZ goes for the anime tropes hard, especially with the harem stuff.
Third, the difference in power level is interesting.
As a simple example, a good Guardian can easily kill a standard mage with the simplest of guns, they are strong, fast, can withstand high velocity bullet impacts, and have enough magical power to at least compete with mages. Guardians sheer variety of weaponry helps as well.
But mages from FoZ can be pretty damn powerful as well. Sure, they may not be bulletproof. But, as an example, I'd say that Karin the Heavy Wind, aka Louise's mom, can be ridiculously dangerous on a Destiny battlefield in terms of her offensive power. Defensively, even the toughest armor from FoZ is paper compared to Destiny armor. But she could still kick major league ass before getting a bullet in the chest.
She'd basically go all tornado on the place, moving around at high speed, smashing Dregs and Captains through concrete walls, until someone finally shoots/blows her up.
And finally, Guardians versus Saito. I'm not gonna hate on the kid. People either hate his guts or love him, and I'm really not on either side of that. But Guardians and Saito are very different. Saito was a young, passionate kid who got lucky in terms of powers. Guardians are deadly undead badass sorcerers/assassins/knights who constantly carry small armories around, resurrect themselves in seconds, use weapons capable of breaking the laws of physics, and dance with the incredible grace of Bruce Lee.
But Guardians haven't had much in terms of personality. The guy/girl we see in Destiny cutscenes is funny at times (I ship my Guardian with Mara Sov by the way) but that stuff got downplayed quick. Usually, they seem to be something like drills. The work at the direction of their masters, smashing through anything in their way with the long patient grinding only obsessed MMO players can do.
In summary, I think the idea is fun, and I wanted to write a quick chapter to cure writers block on a different. Hopefully people like it