When Kendrix opened his eyes, his mind was immediately and completely overwhelmed with a singular, scorching emotion:
Regret.
He let out a soft groan as he shifted his arms and legs under the sheets, feeling them ache with a soreness he suspected was unparalleled by any experience from his previous life. And as if that wasn't enough, the smell somehow managed to be even more overpowering.
"Told you you should've showered."
Kendrix squinted his eyes against the brief glare as Proxima flashed into existence, her pale blue eye staring down at him with unabashed pleasure.
"I'm starting to suspect that the phrase 'I told you so' is a favorite of yours," Kendrix grumbled, slowly sitting up. She was right, though. He definitely should've showered. He swung his legs to the side of the bed, then slowly stood up, wincing occasionally when a particularly sharp stab of pain rose above the rest of his aches. He then rolled his shoulders and head a handful of times in a mediocre attempt to dispel some of the soreness. As he glanced around his room, he was briefly surprised that it was just as bright as it had been the previous night, before remembering that the little apartment had no windows.
"What time is it?" he asked aloud, glancing at Proxima with uncertainty.
"A little before 0800, so don't worry, you're not the last person up, not by a long shot."
"Ah," he replied, somewhat confused. "Well, no time like the present, I suppose."
Kendrix moved into the bathroom and moved to turn on the shower, before noticing that Proxima was still floating alongside him.
"Um… a little privacy, maybe?"
Proxima raised her topmost spike… fin?... in a vague imitation of raising an eyebrow.
"You stripped down without a thought last night, then went waltzing around in the nude once you woke up, and now you ask for privacy?"
Kendrix glanced down at himself, somehow having forgotten that he'd slept naked. He couldn't help but give the rest of his body a brief once-over. Much like his first look at his face the previous night, the exercise left him feeling underwhelmed.
"...right," he replied sheepishly, before hesitantly turning back to the shower.
Evidently sensing his continued discomfort, Proxima spoke up.
"Fine, if it will make you feel better…" she said with a synthetic sigh and a roll of her eye, before vanishing in another flash.
When he felt her presence return to his mind, Kendrix gave her a small flush of wordless gratitude. He then turned back to the shower and turned it on. He briefly held his hand out to test the water, finding that it was taking a few moments to warm up. Some things never changed, he supposed.
How do you do that, by the way? he asked as he waited.
What, the vanishing?
Yeah Kendrix replied, stepping under the showerhead as the water reached a comfortable temperature.
Well, it's a little hard to explain. The technical term for the phenomenon is transmat. It's the process of turning matter into pure information, and vice versa.
...I see. And you can use it to… teleport?
Sort of. It can be used to transport material, yes, as moving information is much easier over long distances than moving actual, physical matter. But it can also be used for other things, like storage.
Wait, is that what you did to my armor last night?
Yup. Keeping equipment stored as data allows us to carry a much wider variety of tech while also travelling ludicrously light. Makes things like carrying ammo and collecting shinies a whole lot easier.
Wow. That's like… crazy useful.
Kendrix paused for a moment, letting the shower's warm water wash away the grime and pain as he considered the implications of the technology being described. Another question formed in his mind, so he spoke up again.
Wait so, if you're pure information right now, how come I can hear you?
Because the medium my information is currently occupying is your brain. Silver lining of losing all your memories is there's a fair bit of space up here.
Wait, so could you just like… transmat something inside someone's brain?
Actually, no, not really. Transmatted material can't normally occupy biological networks like brains, it's usually a computer or similar device that it's housed in. I can exist in your mind due to our shared Light as Ghost and Guardian. I don't think I could even put anything else in *your* mind, much less in someone or something else's.
Huh. Weird.
Yeah. But that's the paracausal for you. It rarely makes sense, even to people like us.
Satisfied that he was about as clean as he was going to get, Kendrix turned off the nozzle and stepped out of the shower. He grabbed a nearby towel and quickly dried himself off before exiting the bathroom. He found his undersuit lying near his bed, somehow cleaned and folded. He picked it up and stared at it for a second before slipping it on.
Did you do my laundry?
Another benefit of transmatt: I can isolate the data of foreign substances, namely biological agents like sweat and blood, and choose not to include it when I bring your gear back into reality. Result? Instant clean.
The clothes felt consistent with what Proxima was telling him; they weren't warm like he'd expect freshly cleaned clothes to be, nor did they smell like any sort of detergent. They just felt… normal.
Wow. Thanks.
No problem.
Once he'd finished putting on the undersuit, there was another flash, and Kendrix suddenly found himself once again sealed inside his armor from the previous day. It too had been cleared of all damage and only thing missing from the ensemble was his helmet, which had instead appeared on his bed. He glanced at it, considering Proxima's unspoken proposal. After a moment, he scooped the helmet up and placed it on his head.
Suit yourself, the voice in his head said with a hint of disappointment.
After another quick glance around, Kendrix stepped out into the hallway and sealed the room behind him.
When he stepped out of the elevator and back onto the open platform near the tower's peak, Kendrix immediately noticed a few changes. For one, there were a lot more Guardians milling about than there had been the previous night. This also meant that it was a fair bit louder than his last visit, what with all the boisterous conversation going on. It was also a lot brighter. That was of course in part due to it now being daytime, but most of the credit went to the other Guardians.
Though Kendrix had no memories, he felt certain he'd never experienced such a wide and vibrant array of clothing in all his years prior to death. It seemed that every individual Guardian had a completely unique concept of fashion, with no two individuals looking even remotely the same. He swore that he could see every shade of every color represented in at least one place, and most in several.
Such a sight would have been striking enough on its own, but the effect was compounded by the fact that most of the Guardians present were in near constant motion, bouncing from location to location, vendor to vendor, appearing and disappearing in flashes of transmat. It was a full-scale assault on Kendrix's senses, and he found himself having to take a moment to adjust. Once he'd gotten a little more used to the hectic surroundings, he took a second look around the platform.
Kendrix noticed a group of about a dozen guardians arrayed in a loose semicircle over near the bounty tracker. Silently exulting at having found somewhere to look that didn't give him motion sickness, he began steadily moving towards the island of stability.
As he approached, Kendrix noticed that none of the Guardians he was looking at were saying much. They were all generally just standing around and staring at the bounty board, as if waiting for something. Kendrix stopped when he was a few paces away as a sudden anxiety swept through him. Approaching a group of heavily armed and clearly eccentric strangers suddenly didn't seem like the best idea.
Unfortunately, his curiosity quickly won out over his common sense. He picked one of the nearby Guardians at random, a tall, thin figure wearing some kind of hooded cloak, and tapped them on the shoulder.
"Excuse me, but... what exactly are you guys doing over here...?"
The figure slowly turned to face Kendrix, their movements so subtle it was almost impossible to tell they were moving at all. Kendrix glanced up into the figure's face, only somewhat shadowed beneath the cloak, and had to stifle a gasp.
The figure appeared to be a man, but he was like no man Kendrix had ever seen. His skin was a pale, ethereal blue, and his eyes were dark and full of stars. The man slowly reached up and removed his hood, revealing a tall mohawk of silver hair. His eyes darted up and down Kendrix's form, quick yet efficient.
"You are new," the man said in a near-whisper, his voice smooth yet somewhat empty.
"Uh… yeah," Kendrix replied, trying not to sound as intimidated as he felt. He was suddenly rather glad he'd decided to continue to wear his helmet. Without looking, the man pointed directly at the bounty board behind him, his expression refusing to change.
"This is the bounty board," he said in that same almost-whisper. "We are waiting for it to update in a few moments. To see what bounties were completed yesterday, and which are becoming available today."
"I see," Kendrix replied hesitantly. After another moment of staring, the other Guardian nodded, then turned back to the board, his deep blue cloak swaying slightly as he did so.
He seemed…
Strange?
I was gonna say nice, but… yeah.
Strange is our bread and butter around here, so you'd better try and get used to it.
"Don't mind Wayland. He's a friendly enough fellow once you get to know him. First impressions just aren't his strong suit."
Kendrix turned to the sound of the new, deep voice. One of the other Guardians had turned to take a look at him. This one was about as tall as the first, but was noticeably bulkier. Kendrix couldn't decide if that was due to his natural body, or the deep green, almost tank-like armor enclosing it. Shaking himself back to focus, Kendrix looked up to meet the Guardian's eyes. What he found instead, however, was even stranger than Wayland's ethereal appearance.
Instead of eyes, two bright yellow lights stared down at Kendrix from a face made of a white metal. When the Guardian spoke again, a blocky maw in his face flashed with that same yellow as steel jaws moved in a surprisingly emotive simulation of a mouth.
"Name's Beckett-5," the Guardian said, extending his... hand?
"Uh, Kendrix," he replied, giving the outstretched hand a hesitant shake.
Beckett nodded and gave what Kendrix thought was a smile.
"Pleased to meet you, Kendrix. I take it you're new around these parts?" Kendrix nodded slowly.
"Uh, yeah. Just got in last night."
"Nice. Where'd your Ghost pick you up?"
"Um…"
Cosmodrome, Old Russia.
"...Cosmodrome, Old Russia."
Beckett let out a low, surprisingly human-sounding whistle.
"That's a rough place to start. Absolutely crawling with nasties. Glad you made it out ok."
"Thanks." Kendrix decided not to mention that his survival had been largely thanks to a giant shapeshifting robot that'd killed the Fallen hunting him and given him a ride to the Tower.
"So what brings you over here? Looking to get started with some bounties?"
"Actually, I already grabbed a few last night before I went to bed. Didn't realize they'd be resetting come morning."
Beckett gave a shrug.
"Most bounties don't change day to day. They're either general ones that can pretty much be completed over and over again, or they're hits on really big targets, meaning they don't get called in very often, if ever. I wouldn't worry about it, I'm sure your Ghost picked out some good ones for you."
Kendrix felt Proxima's presence warm slightly, as if she were puffing herself up at the compliment.
Feeling proud, are we?
No, just happy at how smart this guy clearly is. We haven't even met and he already knows I'm the brains in this operation. Very perceptive of him.
Yeah… what *is* he, anyway?
Human exomind, Exo for short. Basically a human who had their mind uploaded to a robotic body. In this specific case, he was also resurrected as a Guardian.
I see. Kendrix paused, turning the concept over in his mind. So that's why Beckett felt so… human. Because he *was* human, at least in the ways that mattered. A thought crossed his mind. I don't suppose he might have any relation to our… friend?
He could feel Proxima give a mental shake of the head.
Unlikely. For one, our friend's body structure isn't designed like an Exo at all, and for another, its… brain, if you can call it that, doesn't seem to be structured much like a human. Like I said before, if our friend is a human creation, its not like anything I've ever seen.
Right, right.
Kendrix shook himself out of the mental conversation, but Beckett had thankfully gone back to watching the bounty board. Kendrix quietly hoped his sudden silence hadn't offended the giant Exo. His anxiety was quickly shunted aside, however, as an indignant voice erupted from the front of the loose cluster of Guardians standing around him.
"What the hell is going on here, you stupid frame?!" the voice demanded.
Kendrix glanced over, and saw that the bounty board had changed. It was now displaying a somewhat different array of bounties, with some old ones deleted or rearranged, and some new ones sprinkled in here and there. Kendrix presumed this was the update Wayland had spoken of. The voice itself seemed to be coming from one of the Guardians, a shorter individual who was wearing a cloak not unlike Wayland's, though this one was made of much brighter shades, vibrant with oranges and golds. The Guardian wore no helmet, and by the look of his face seemed to be human, though his spiked-up hair was colored by a rather unnatural electric blue.
"How am I supposed to complete my bounty if you won't even display it?" the Guardian continued, growling right into the bounty tracker's robotic head.
Another nearby Guardian let out a laugh. They appeared to be an Exo like Beckett, with purple eyes and a set of almost robe-like red and silver armor.
"Right, as if you were planning on finally growing a spine and actually trying it today of all days." the Exo scoffed in a feminine voice.
"Shut it, Trinity; no one asked you," the first Guardian replied without looking away from the bounty tracker. The Exo- Trinity, Kendrix presumed- just shook her head with a gleeful grin on her face. "Now where's my listing, buckethead?" the first Guardian continued. "Where's the Riksis bounty?"
The bounty tracker replied in its usual emotionless voice, seemingly unperturbed by the Guardian's irritation.
"The Riksis, Devil Archon bounty is no longer active."
The Guardian sneered. "What, did he decide to run and hide after I ripped his house a new one?"
"Negative. Riksis was confirmed killed last night at 2200 hours."
The Guardian froze, his draw dropping. A number of other nearby Guardians froze too, stopping their perusals of the bounty board to focus on the exchange. After a moment of silence, the first Guardian finally managed to respond.
"R-Riksis is… dead? How?! Who killed him?!"
The bounty tracker's face flashed orange for a moment.
"He was slain by the Guardian designated Kendrix."
"...who the hell is Kendrix?!"
While the first Guardian continued to nag the bounty tracker, Beckett-5 turned to the back of the stunned crowd, his eyes and jaws bright with surprise, seeking out the new Guardian he had just spoken to.
But the young Warlock was already halfway across the platform, marching briskly towards the hangar.