I do not own Destiny or any of its characters.
"Let's Go to Prison!"
Hunter sighed, stretching out his limbs on his bed and imagining the feeling of it relieving tension. He wished he had an organic body. He wished he was Human or Awoken. He wished his body wasn't classifiable as an inactive plague. He wished he could not be alone and yet crave companionship more than anything.
"Cayde is here," Hunter's Ghost reported.
"Okay," Hunter sighed, controlling his SIVA to form his armor's pants.
A moment later, Cayde stepped into his ship's bedroom and raised an eyebrow. "Practicing?"
"I'm getting better at controlling it," Hunter said. He looked down and the SIVA on his torso formed into first Sovereign armor, then Cayde's, then a few others before returning to just his body.
"Impressive," Cayde nodded. "I got something more impressive, though."
He tossed Hunter's newly-upgraded Mos Ultima to him, Hunter catching it and inspecting it. It had a new paint job, now having a gold joker's head on both sides side where Cayde's own Hand Cannon had a spade emblem. The rest of Hunter's Hand Cannon was black with gold highlights and black detailing for the joker head. He loved it.
"It's still not a match for my Ace in power, but it's faster, easier to reload, and it handles a little better, giving it a little more range," Cayde said.
"Making it just a touch more versatile than yours while not beating it, hence Joker versus Ace of Spades," Hunter nodded. "I love it."
Cayde nodded, smiling. "I also took the liberty of upgrading this one." He tossed Hunter's Galiard-42 to him. "I got it a little more power, reload speed, and a little better zoom in the optics."
"You're the best," Hunter smiled. "So, what's on the agenda today?"
"Today, I'm going to be sharing a drink with my new partner," Cayde said.
"Partner?" Hunter frowned.
"That's right," Cayde nodded. "Wherever I go, I take my partner, and most of the places you go, I go. I've decided to spend some time with my boy."
Hunter's eyes widened before he smiled. "Just don't expect me to call you dad or anything, old man."
Cayde laughed, nodding. "That's fair!"
Just then, Cayde's Ghost appeared beside him. "I just got a message from Petra. She says she could use some help stopping a riot at the Prison of Elders."
"Petra?" Hunter asked.
"Petra Venj," Cayde said. "Right hand to the late Awoken Queen, Mara Sov. Petra's a...special friend. You'll like her."
"Because she's a special friend, or because she's Petra?" Hunter asked skeptically. Also, how the fuck do you even have a special friend?"
"A little glue, a bit of tape, a dildo, and a lot of sweet talking," Cayde said.
"Tell me you're joking," Hunter groaned.
"Dead serious," Cayde said. "Anyway, since you're here with me, feel like going to jail?"
Hunter shrugged, reforming his Sovereign Armor, minus his helmet, as he stood, putting his rifle on his back and his Mos Ultima back in its holster.
Cayde grinned. "Our first mission as official partners. I'm so excited!"
And with that, he warped back to his own ship and they both took off. A few minutes later, they warped down to the landing pad Petra Venj had told them to, their ships beginning to circle the prison.
"Petra Venj," Cayde greeted the Awoken woman as they reached her at the end of the landing pad's walkway. "Thanks for the invite. Whatcha packin for this party?"
Hunter's eyes flicked over her for a brief second, taking in her appearance. Her blood-red hair was pulled back in cornrows on the right aide and tired into a tight bun on the back left side of her head with her bangs falling to almost cover the gold or bronze, it was hard to tell in the low light, eyepatch over her left eye. She wore a tight shirt with dark pink in a rounded, inverted triangle down to her abdomen, then black on the sides and along the bottom, a metal collar with a pair of small antennae sticking up from the sides, sleeves with dark pink pauldrons with white along the bottom, then white down the outside of her arms, then wrapping around to cover her entire forearms with black on the inside of her upper arms. She wore a thick purple belt with several other straps looping off of it on her hips with a knife hanging from a strap on the front of her right hip, and a pair of tight black pants and boots. Her glowing blue eye met Hunter's, Hunter able to read amusement and a touch of curiosity in it, then returned to Cayde.
"Eh, the usual," Petra shrugged before drawing her sleek, curved knife, which was almost the length of her forearm.
"Ooh!" Cayde said, pointing at her with both hands. "Do the thing!" He leaned toward Hunter slightly, gesturing at Petra. "Seriously, watch this."
Petra smiled in amusement and held out her hand. As soon as she opened her fingers, the knife began to rise, spinning around quickly before she reached up and caught it.
Cayde shuddered. "That'll never not freak me out. Do it again!"
"Later," Petra said, rolling her eyes and sheathing her knife, cocking an eyebrow as she noticed Hunter staring at his own palm. "Maybe. Right now, gen-pop is running wild. Fortunately, the main arena and lower levels remain on lockdown. But if the core security systems fail..." she looked back at the entrance to the prison, drawing a black Hand Cannon, "containment is going to be...a problem."
"Sounds easy enough," Hunter said, drawing his Galiard-42.
"Just another day at the office," Cayde agreed.
Petra smiled affectionately, almost like someone watching an excited child. Then, she nodded and turned, running into the prison.
"Alright, partner, this is a Cayde riff in six," Cayde said, checking that the Ace of Spades was loaded as he walked to the edge of the platform, turning back toward Hunter. "Watch me for the changes, and...uh, try to keep up. Now let's go to prison!" He said excitedly before dropping off the walkway through a break in the railing. "WOOOOHOOOO!"
Hunter rolled his eyes, grinning, as he ran toward a door next to the one Petra had taken, Cayde already shooting.
"Got you! Got you! Got you!" Cayde shouted every time he fired, stopping his kill announcements just as Hunter stepped onto a bridge toward the interior of the prison, Petra one one to his left and Cayde to his right. "Oh, these guys really wanna dance!"
"This riot has to end here!" Petra said, both of them actively fighting. "If these killers get out, the Reef will be overrun!"
"Don't worry," Hunter said. "They won't be going anywhere."
Just then, the door ahead of him opened, a half-dozen Fallen charging out of it, only for Hunter to open fire, the Fallen's heads exploding into jets of Ether rapidly.
"Damn!" Cayde said, sounding impressed. "With an Auto Rifle even! I bet you could take the cork out of a bottle at a hundred yards and not spill a drop!"
"Remind me to find out after," Hunter said, stepping into a massive, destroyed chamber where Fallen and Cabal were fighting.
"This is gonna make a great story!" Cade cheered, he and Petra also reaching the room, though on different levels, and all opening fire.
However, after a moment, just as Hunter was moving to finish a Cabal Centurion, the wall beside the Centurion suddenly exploded, the blast instantly killing the Centurion and hurling him at Hunter. Hunter dropped into a crouch, slipping under the Cabal's corpse before staring at the hole left behind.
"Hey!" Cayde shouted. "Who's blowing stuff up without me!?"
"Someone who just stole my kill," Hunter said. "Cheating bastard."
"I'm going to get eyes on that explosion!" Petra announced. "You two join me when you can!"
"I'll race you there, Petra," Hunter said, running to the hole and dropping in.
"Hey, that's cheating!" Cayde accused, laughing. "If you win by cheating, you still buy!"
"And that's why you suck at cards," Hunter smirked. "You suck at cheating."
"Ah, bite me," Cayde said, beginning to shoot again.
"Careful, Guardian," Petra warned. "That blast knocked a few more cellblocks open!"
"Got it," Hunter said, swapping his Galiard-42 for his Hand Cannons.
"By the way," Cayde said. "I named him Hunter when I found him."
"Of course you did," Petra snorted. "Well, Hunter, try to hurry."
"Don't worry," Hunter said. "I work faster than Cayde. I'm very careful to make sure my clients are thoroughly satisfied with my work."
Cayde snorted. "Prostitute."
"Alright, Hunter," Petra said, Hunter hearing a grin in her tone. "I'll be most satisfied if you finish before me. And don't bother being gentle. The rougher you are, the better."
"Should I take over the shooting and let you two have a few minutes?" Cayde offered.
"And here I was about to ask you to clear out the other way in," Petra said. "But I suppose I can entrust both entrances to Hunter this time if you'd prefer."
"Well, why didn't you say so!? Cayde said, just as Fallen swarmed around a corner in front of Hunter, only for him to open fire, beginning to drop them all with one shot to the head each.
As the last dropped, he reloaded his pistols, then holstered the Hawkmoon, raising his left palm a focusing, his palm glowing red for a moment before the light settled and his SIVA returned to dormancy. He drew a knife, holding it on his palm before it began to hover over his hand and spin. After a moment, a Dreg darted around the corner, shrieking, only for Hunter to flick his hand out toward the Dreg, the knife spinning into its head, killing it. Then, Hunter continued to run, keeping only his Mos Ultima out for now, but retrieving his knife on the way by.
He headed along a suspended walkway that was in danger of breaking free, then stepped into a room with a half dozen Fallen and a computer. He shot four of the Fallen before a door opened and Petra arrived, one of the Fallen turning on her instantly. Hunter hurled a dagger across the room into the back of that Fallen's head as Petra stabbed the other in the side, slamming him to the ground before ripping the knife out and driving it into the Fallen's head.
"I love field work," Petra said, pulling her knife free of her kill and tossing Hunter's dagger back to him.
"And you're good at it," Hunter said.
Petra nodded her thanks at the compliment. "That explosion took out security on the lower decks. I'll check the high-value prisoners down there." She hopped over the bottom half of a partially-opened door. "You and Cayde get to the security hub. Get security back online."
The door sealed and Hunter shook his head, sighing as he headed through a door toward the interior of the prison. Cayde was right. He liked Petra. So he needed to be careful to never see her again after this. Holliday flashed through his mind and he grit his teeth, putting his pistol away and pulling out his melee dagger, along with the twin he'd bought to go with it, holding both in reverse grip.
"Are you alright?" his Ghost asked.
"Fine," Hunter growled, just as a trio of Dregs raced around the corner holding Shock Knives and pistols.
Hunter shot forward as well just as the lights flickered in a power fluctuation and went out, leaving his eyes and the as the only light, though his vision flared red as his night vision kicked in. All three turned to flee, but he slashed one up across the back, stabbed the next in the side of the head, and slashed the back of the third's neck, severing its spine. After a few minutes, and many more unprepared Fallen, he reached the next door and light spilled through, illuminating the corpses behind him. He sighed, having worked out his anger, and sheathed the knives on the back of his waist, between him and his Machine Gun, then grabbed that. As he walked out into a small cellblock, he began to spray toward the security hub, rapidly slaughtering the Fallen and Cabal waging a small war in the room. Of course, room wasnaccurate given that the cellblock was, if Hunter remembered correctly, a mile long. Just as he opened fire, Cayde reached the room at an upper level, beginning to say they would have to shoot their way through, only to trail off.
"Alright, who pissed off my partner?" Cayde asked, shooting a Cabal Psion with a sniper rifle on the far side of the room.
Just then, a Dreg leapt at Hunter from behind, only for his left hand to swing down, flicking a knife up behind himself, the knife stabbing into the Fallen's head from below. Hunter grabbed it just before the Ether vented, then hurled it a hundred meters along the cellblock. A moment later, it stabbed into another Psion sniper's head, killing him.
"What a shot!" Cayde gaped. "I think I'm gonna cry!"
"Get moving, old man," Hunter said as he swapped his Machine Gun for his Galiard-42. "Don't make me do all the work, again."
"Right!" Cayde said, running for his next door as well.
As Cade turned right to cross a bridge, however, a Hive Knight, of all things, charged at him, the same size as the glowing ones from the Pit of Heresy but normal. Cayde dropped into a slide as the Knight leapt st him, Cayde firing three shorts from his Golden Gun and reducing the Knight to ash. As he slid to his feet, he pulled out an Incendiary grenade. "Can I just say, I'm having the time of my life right now." He tossed the grenade over his shoulder and it fell to the floor on Hunter's level, exploding and blasting a group of Hive.
"It's not terrible," Hunter said, firing into a group of Fallen and slaughtering them. "Keep moving."
"Make sure to get out early for bad behavior!" Cayde said before continuing to move.
Hunter snorted, just as he rounded a pile of debris and found Hive waiting.
"Fuck all of you," Hunter growled, beginning to slaughter them rapidly.
He used his newly upgraded left hand to pull a Shock Dagger to himself from a Dreg corpse off to one side, then hurled it, the Arc energy flowing over the blade snapping and crackling before it stabbed into an Acolyte's head. A few seconds later, Fallen swarmed the Hive from behind, killing the last of them for Hunter before his Galiard-42 slaughtered them all in seconds.
"Not the face! Not the face!"
Hunter looked up at another bridge as three Cabal Gladiators charged after Cayde. However, before they could reach him, Hunter fired a Shadowshot up into the center one, killing it and allowing it to tether the other two for Cayde to shoot.
"Nice aim!" Cayde commended, looking down just as Hunter pulled another Shock Dagger to himself, the knife hovering and spinning a few inches from his hand, before he swung his hand upward, sending the knife spinning away into a Vandal's throat. Cayde's voice shuddered over the radio. "Upgrades?"
"Only useful ones," Hunter said.
Just then, a Dreg hurled a Shock Grenade, only for Hunter to catch it with his new upgrades, then send it flying back into the Dreg's face, the explosion killing four of them and a Vandal.
"Very useful, it looks like," Cayde nodded. "Wizard ahead."
Hunter looked and narrowed his eyes, seeing a Wizard hovering amid a swarm of Cursed Thralls. He huffed, sighting in and squeezing off one shot, setting off all of the Thralls and blasting the Wizard into ash.
"Compared to that Hell hole, these ones aren't even worth my time," Hunter said.
"Be grateful," Cayde said.
"Oh, believe me," Hunter snorted. "I am."
He swapped his rifle for his Hand Cannons again and began to run again. After a few minutes, and a few more Hive, Hunter turned right into a doorway, ignoring the fact that the floor of the cellblock simply fell away in a jagged, still-flaming edge. Through the door, he began to run along huge pipes and power cords, some places having grating floors, but many not, and every so often, an explosion would rip through a wall.
"We're approaching the security hub now, Petra," Hunter's Ghost said.
"Copy that," Petra said. "Everything's gone dark down here, so I'm stuck taking the long way to supermax."
"Take your time," Hunter said. "Leaves more fun for me and Cayde."
"Valid point," Cayde agreed.
"Can I ask something random?" Hunter's Ghost asked him.
"Sure," Hunter said.
"Why do you never use my name?" the Ghost asked. "I'm certain I told you it, but you never use it."
"For two reasons," Hunter said. "Firstly, usually it's just you and me, so there's never a need to. And secondly, it feels like I'm making a joke anytime I call you, a small, vaguely star-shaped robot, Spark. I honestly think the Traveler might have been making a joke when he named you."
"The Traveler doesn't make jokes," the Ghost said. "It chose words from different languages to serve as our names."
Hunter shrugged. "I'll start using it from now on then, alright?"
Spark nodded and winked out of sight again. Hunter finally reached a door and readied himself for a fight again as it began to open.
"Look out below!" Cayde shouted, dropping onto a Cabal Colossus and stabbing it in the head, only for it to stagger to the side, toward a several-hundred-foot drop. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! This was not part of the plan!" He shouted in fear as the Cabal fell.
"CAYDE!" Hunter shouted, running forward, only to stop after three steps as Hunter flew back up, hanging from the bottom of a Shank.
"Scratch that," Cayde grinned. "This is definitely the plan!"
"You're an idiot," Hunter scolded, even as he sighed in relief."
"Meet ya at the security hub," Cayde said, the Shank trying to shake him off for a moment before taking off toward their destination, a round, burning facility suspended from the top of the prison by cables and with two bridges extending to it.
Hunter rolled his eyes and turned right, heading through a broken section of wall and into the hallway leading to the Security Hub. Hive Thralls swarmed him instantly, only to be shot like fish in a barrel by Hunter. However, just as the last one died, Hunter stopped, taking a step back and allowing the flood of purple lasers to rip into the wall where he'd been as he formed a Golden Gun. Then, as soon as the Ogre had stopped for a moment, Hunter stepped out firing two shots into its face, killing it. Then, he swung his gun around, firing again and again, every shot killing one of the Hive or Cabal soldiers nearby, and each kill returning one shot. That was a new trick he'd learned with Spark's help since the Pit of Heresy a couple weeks ago. They'd gone on two missions since, both very easy solo jobs, and had gotten the hang of this particular use of his Solar energy, though he could only make it work with the Golden Gun, rather than if he threw Solar-charged daggers.
Finally, he killed the last of the rioting prisoners and let his Golden Gun fade, drawing his Mos Ultima again and running for the bridge. When they reached the door into the Security Hub at long last, Spark began to try to hack into the door controls as Hunter turned, waiting for prisoners to find them.
"This says we need Waerden-level access to get in," Spark reported. "Cayde?"
"I gotcha," Cayde said. "Stand-by for promotion."
After a few seconds, the door opened and Hunter headed inside ahead of Spark. As they walked in, Cayde stood up from behind one piece of machinery or another, tossing a large wrench over his shoulder.
"Ah, you missed a truly masterful performance," Cayde sighed. "All that's left...is the coup-de-Gracie."
He pulled a lever and sparks flew out from around it, a loud whirring starting for a moment before sputtering and dying, an alarm chirping at them once. Then, another alarm began to shriek as parts of the floor began to rise, revealing large machines.
"Uh, what's going on with the floor?" Cayde asked, just before a Thrall scrambled out of it and the base of the machine left the floor, revealing something that looked like a Hive creature's body encasing the lower part of the machine. "Ugh! These Hive are gunking up the works! Get 'em outa here, will ya?"
Hunter opened fire, slaughtering the Thralls quickly before shooting the substance covering the machine. His bullets bounced off, but they cracked the substance, and after a few shots, shattered it. As Hunter's Hawkmoon ran dry, he tossed it into the air, firing at the Thralls coming from another raised machine on the opposite side of the room using his Mos Ultima. He quickly pulled out a reload for his Hawkmoon, then caught the gun with the upgrades so that it hovered above his palm. He slipped the reload into it and grabbed the handle, swinging the cylinder in just in time to have to repeat the process with his Mos Ultima, this time throwing a fan of knives into the Thralls while shooting the substance covering the machine.
Just as the substance crumbled, Hunter drove a knife into the last Thrall's head, killing it. He turned to Cayde as Cayde began looking around.
"Hive gunk scrubbed," Cayde said. "Now...uh..."
"Remember to purge the buffers," Cayde's Ghost, Sundance, reminded him.
"Sure, got it," Cayde said. "One question. How do I do that?"
"Press the red button," Sundance sighed.
Cayde turned to a wall of blinking red buttons on the machine behind him. "They're all red!"
"Then push all of them!" Sundance said.
Cayde went to work, swiping his hand along the wall and pressing as many buttons as he could until they finally all turned green. "I can't believe that worked! I am amazing at this."
"Better at that than training a protégé," Hunter said.
"Hey, I taught you almost everything you know," Cayde said, just as he pulled the lever, sparks flying again as the lights all went red again. "Scratch that. It did not work."
Hunter turned as machines began to rise again, once again gummed up with Hive gunk, as Cayde called it. "I've got this. And you barely taught me anything. You passed me a gun and said don't die."
"And then I taught you how to shoot properly afterward," Cayde said. "And how to get away with illegally modding it!"
Hunter rolled his eyes, opening fire on the Hive and the gunk coating the machines.
"Besides, I even taught you basic stuff!" Cayde said. "Who taught you to fly a ship?"
"Spark did," Hunter said.
"Oh," Cayde said. "Well...uh...who taught you how to throw a knife?"
"Trial and error," Hunter said, finishing cleaning one of the machines.
"Uh..." Cayde said, wracking his brain. "Oh! Who was it that taught you how to ride a Sparrow?"
"That would be the Sparrow Races you forced me to enter just so that you could bet against me," Hunter said.
"Oh," Cayde said, deflating. "I...I guess I really am...horrible."
Hunter sighed, aiming his Joker backward over his right shoulder and shooting an Acolyte a few feet behind him in the face, his Hawkmoon firing into the gunk on the machine. "It's fine, Cayde. You're still the closest thing to a father I've got, and I wouldn't trade you for anything."
Cayde smiled gratefully. "I mean, yeah, of course. Who else gets to say they were raised by the one and only Cayde-6?"
Hunter smirked. "Pull the lever, One-and-Only."
Cayde smirked, a blue holographic bowler hat appearing on his head before he rolled it a few times as he bowed, then flipped it backward onto his head. Then, it vanished as he reached out to the lever. When it again failed this time, however, he shot it with the Ace of Spades. A second later, the buttons all turned green and the machines under the floor whirred to life.
"Tech support...with extreme prejudice!" Cayde grinned, then frowned. "Well, everything's where it's supposed to be, but now it's asking me fore some kind of secondary activation." He typed for a minute. "Should be a terminal you can use out on the catwalks. I'd go with you, but apparently this place has turrets, and I really want to fire 'em."
Hunter laughed. "And a very merry Christmas to you."
Cayde grinned. "I'll definitely cover you with them."
Hunter waved a lazy salute as he left the room through the door Cayde opened for him. "Hey, Spark. Can you do that holographic thing he did with the hat?"
"I can, but you'll need to find designs for whatever you want me to make," Spark said. "And it needs to be small. No tanks or anything, not that they'd be able to actually do anything anyway. The holograms are solid, but fragile."
Hunter nodded as they reached the end of the access bridge, turning left toward a gunfight just as Cayde opened fire with the turrets, the massive guns rapidly slaughtering the Fallen, Hive, and Cabal warring along the catwalks.
"Hey Hunter, whataya think of my new guns?" Cayde asked.
"If you were Human or Awoken, I'd say you were compensating for something," Hunter said, Cayde chuckling.
"You know, you could probably use your...uh...fabricators to make one," Cayde said. "Or at least something to stand in for one."
"Are you two really talking about dicks right now?" Petra asked, her voice a low whisper.
"We're multitasking," Cayde said. "Besides, with his fabricators, he'd be able to make one any size or as hard or soft as a girl wanted. It could probably vibrate, too."
"Hey, let's not go crazy," Hunter said. "I'd be satisfied with being able to have something they'd need tweezers for, as long as she'd talk to me."
"Hunter, I hate to tell you, but no one would talk to you if that was what you had," Petra said. "Even a prostitute wouldn't accept money to use you to masturbate, because they'd have to fake that for the Exo, too."
"Ouch," Hunter said. "Hear that Cayde? You suck and she fakes it."
Petra snorted. "You asshole! Good turnaround, but who are you calling a prostitute?"
"Good point," Hunter said. "In this case, Cayde would be the prostitute."
"And a damn fine one, at that," Cayde said, just as Hunter finally reached the terminal.
"Passing, at best," Petra snorted, then groaned. "I've hit a locked door. Any updates for me?"
"I'm at the secondary terminal," Hunter said as Spark worked his magic on the terminal. "Security should be reset in a few seconds."
Finally, an alarm shrieked for a few moments before shutting off.
"You in the green now, P.V.?" Cayde asked.
"Yes," Petra confirmed. "Accessing the lower levels now. Just gotta check on a couple of things, and then we can call it a day."
"What are you..." Hunter frowned. "Who are you checking on?"
"You have a bad feeling, too?" Spark asked, Hunter nodding.
Petra was silent, so Hunter quickly reloaded his guns, sprinting back toward the security hub.
"Looks like we're all done and dusted here, kiddo," Cayde said. "Ramen's on me."
"Looking pretty good down here," Petra said. "Just gotta check one last thing." She was silent for a few moments before speaking again. "No! No, no, no! Cayde! He's gone! This isn't a prison riot! It's a prison break! The airlock on Deck Zero! It's the only way out this far down! They're going to escape!"
"Not if I get there first," Cayde said calmly.
"Wait for me!" Hunter said, turning onto the access bridge.
"No time!" Cayde said. "Get clear of the bridges!"
Hunter's eyes widened and he turned to flee just as several gunshots rang out. Then, the bridge lurched, shuddered, and shattered. Hunter swore as he began to fall, watching as the security hub fell away, Cayde standing on top of it, holding onto a power cord. Then, just as Hunter was preparing to break his momentum, the bridge stopped abruptly and in a flash of pain and an explosion of sound, everything went black.
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