Brewing Storm
Chapter 4: Last One Out, Hit the Lights

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any of the characters involved except Guardian S. Storm and Guardian L. Lightning

Lightning and Storm followed Chief as he made his way into the base. Commander Keyes had called in all Pelicans within five minutes from the base to evacuate the wounded marines. Chief, Arbiter, Lightning, and Storm were being sent to secure the hangar as it had been attacked immediately by the invading covenant troops.

As they marched through the hallways Storm looked down at Lightning who was traipsing beside him.

"So, your weapon, did you pick that or did it come naturally?" He asked.

Lightning looked down the rifle he'd been using since he first arrived. "It showed up, I can dismiss and summon it using this ring on my belt,"

Storm grunted agreement, "Yeah, that's a specialty of we lightning Guardians, we can create any kind of ranged weapon at our wim. Usually it's best you match it to the World you happen to be residing in. Here, just about everything goes," Storm explained.

"So I can change it?" Lightning asked.

Storm grunted again, "Yeah, put it back into the ring, then pull it out again, but think of something different. You have to focus on it, that weapon is your mental default, so if you don't do it right you'll just pull it back out again,"

Lightning stopped to try, drawing attention from Chief, Arbiter, and Storm.

"Go ahead Chief, I'll stay with him," Storm told him.

Chief nodded and motioned for Arbiter to follow, the two resumed their trek to the hangar while Storm turned back to Lightning who slipped the weapon into the ring. Inside his helmet, his brow furrowed in concentration as he imagined the weapon Chief had used back at the dam.

Pulling on the ring again, Lightning produced a battle rifle identical to the one Chief carried.

"Whoa…"

"Not bad, usually takes a lot more practice before we can do that,"

"You keep saying 'we', are there more of us?" Lightning asked.

Storm shook his head, "There used to be. A long time ago, but that's not important right now. C'mon, we need to catch up to Chief."

Lightning nodded and the two resumed their trek, following the directions of marines they passed to catch up with Chief.

As the pair neared an open doorway they heard the muted sounds of gunfire and plasma bolts arcing through the air.

"Sounds like a firefight up ahead, you ready?" Storm asked.

Lightning gave a small nod, despite his actions so far, he still wasn't accustomed to all this.

Storm, sensing his young apprentice's hesitance, turned, and knelt down in front of him.

"That offer to wait back home is still open if you want it."

Lightning gulped, regaining his nerves as he did so. "No, I want to stay, I want to fight."

Storm nodded and slapped his shoulder before standing again.

"Alright then Private Lightning, let's get to work!"

"Yes sir!" Lightning shouted as he followed Storm through the doorway.

The hangar lay before them, marines desperately fighting to keep Covenant attackers at bay. In the middle of it all were the Chief and Arbiter, fighting off hordes of Grunts and Jackals. As Storm and Lightning entered the hangar they saw a Phantom dropship enter, preparing to reinforce the attackers.

"Everyone take cover, I'm going to get rid of that Phantom!" Storm shouted into his comms.

Lightning watched as Storm drew a weapon from his own ring, identical to the one Lightning had been using prior. Storm raised the weapon and aimed dead center on the Phantom. Charging it, Lightning noticed that Storm's version of the weapon seemed to accumulate more electrical power than his did, as lightning arced and sparked from the barrel of the weapon into the nearby metallic surfaces.

With a massive shockwave, Storm released the charge, and it shot forward. Searing cleanly through the Phantom, it floated for a few seconds before blue-flame explosions ripped throughout the vehicle, and it came crashing down. The marines let out a cheer as the Covenant forces followed the line of trajectory towards Storm and Lightning to see what had shot down their reinforcements.

"Look alive!" Storm shouted at Lightning who had been mesmerized by the shot.

Storm ducked down in front of him as the Covenant unloaded a barrage of plasma, Storm's shields flared at the contact and Lightning snapped out of his daze, aiming his rifle at the attacking forces he quickly took out three grunts before Storm grabbed him and drug him behind a shipping crate, as they ducked into cover Storm's shields blew, discharging around them. The beeping in his helmet was muffled to Lightning and he saw his master's chest heaving with the effort.

"Are you ok?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, I gave too much into that shot," Storm explained.

Lightning looked around, and saw there weren't any Covenant coming their way yet, "Stay here,"

"Wait, where are you going?" Storm asked as Lightning got up and made his way around to the far side of the crate.

He peeked around the corner and saw the firefight with the Covenant was wrapping up, the marines had given another push and the last few survivors were barely holding out against the combined might of the marines and Chief.

"Looks like things are wrapping up here," Lightning said as he returned to Storm.

"Good, shield's are back up, let's go reconvene with Chief and figure out where we're going next," Storm told him as he got to his feet.

The two approached Chief and Arbiter as the marines began to load wounded survivors onto the incoming Pelicans.

"Chief! The Brutes have taken the barracks, there were still marines in there when it was taken. We need you to give them a hand," Keyes voice came over their comms.

"Yes ma'am!" Lightning responded before the group trudged off again.

The group fought their way through the main thoroughfare of the base, making their way to the barracks, and rescuing the trapped marines. As they were escorting them to the launchpad for evac, they were joined by Sergeant Johnson and his men from the command center. The Brutes had pushed in force and taken it, disarming the bomb.

Chief, Arbiter, Storm, and Lightning pushed back into the command center, re-armed the bomb, and were making their way back to the hangar to take a loading elevator out of the base. As they entered the elevator Storm looked up.

"Oh… that's not good," He said.

"What is it?" Chief asked.

Storm turned to them before looking down at Lightning. Inside his helmet he clenched his eyes shut tightly.

"Sorry kid," he said as he tapped Lightning on the head. In a flash, Lightning disappeared, but right before he vanished he saw the flames of the explosion enter the elevator.

Lightning slammed down onto the floor in a carpeted room, a large scorch in the floor marked where he'd entered. He leapt to his feet and looked around the room.

"Storm? Chief? Arbiter?" Lightning shouted, his voice echoed around the empty room.

"Well, you're certainly loud aren't you young one?" A voice asked.

A figure appeared in front of Lightning, who raised his rifle to aim at them.

The figure was wearing a golden jacket and matching pants, his hands were wrapped in bandages from the middle of his palms up to his elbows.

"Whoa! You're safe here, no need to go pointing that thing around like that," he said.

"Where am I?" Lightning asked, looking around.

"Guarer, you're home. I assume Storm sent you back here when he deemed the mission to be too dangerous."

"That's not his call, I said I wanted to stay and fight," Lightning answered as he glared at the man.

"That may be so, but your master deemed otherwise, and in that case you should heed his decision."

Lightning sighed as he lowered the rifle and glared down at the floor.

"Come, let me help you out of that armor, you can tell me more about what happened. I am sure you are burning with questions of your own as much as I am."

Lightning looked up at the man who was smiling at him.

"You're right, I am… but let me ask one first, who are you?"

The man's smile widened, "I am know as Guardian G. Gatekeeper, I maintain the gate between this world and all others. I sensed when Storm sent you here, and I came to investigate to make sure you were alright. My other job is to look after apprentices who are left here while their masters go out on missions for the Council,"

"Council?"

Gatekeeper approached Lightning and put a hand on his shoulder, "Your questions will be answered soon enough. There's a lot you need to learn. Come, let me help you out of that armor like I said, we can talk while we work on it."