- No ones POV-
Stryder and Star were sitting down on a bench, talking about the newing excursion into the outer known galaxies.
"So, where'd you pick up the kid?" Star asked, popping open a soda. After hundreds of thousands of years, Coca Cola was still a thing.
Stryder sighed, popping his own open. "Some outer world called Remnant. Kind of a nice place, minus the local wildlife and some of the people." the Awakened Hunter said before taking a calm sip of purple soda.
"Hrmph. Sounds like a nice place." Star said after chugging his entire can.
Stryder stared into the sky, a blank and far away look on his face.
"Yeah, Huevos would have liked it." he said finally as the mood fell several degrees. Star decided to change the subject. "So, what do you think the Kid will end up being?" the Exo asked, crushing the can between his palms.
"Oh, a titan. No doubt about it. He fights like a Titan, and he thinks like one too." Stryder laughed, sipping his cola again."you want to know what his great plan that let us beat the Servitor?"
"No, what?"
"To insult it, turn it around, and hit it with a sword." Stryder laughed once more. "Not to kill it mind you, but to distract it so I could have a clear shot at it."
Star nodded, making a face of approval. "Kid seems smart enough. Nice enough to, if Night is anything to judge by." Star said, pulling out another can of Cola.
"Yeah, what's up with that? Night never, and I mean never, lets anyone call her Astra. Bolts tried, and she nearly took her head off."
Star looked at him, his face flashing from 'are you serious' to 'reality check, this is stryder.' "I forgot how bad with people you are." Star sighed, draining the next can. Stryder just put his leaned back, stretching his limbs across the bench. "You don't have to tell me, old friend. But I still don't understand what's up with Night, though."
Star just sighed
-Jaunes POV-
I had taken a couple moments thinking about it, but really I knew what I wanted to be the moment it was said.
Knights and heroic Wardens holding the last line struck a chord with me. I nodded.
"Come to a conclusion, Guardian?" The Titan Vanguard, Zavala, said.
"Yes, Sir. I would like to be a Titan." the vanguard's face broke out into a smile, before holding his hand out for a shake. I took it, and by the Traveller, his grip is strong.
"Welcome to the family, Guardian. Be sure to meet with Lord Shaxx before the days end. He will handle most of your training." Zavala smiled before motioning that I was dismissed. Me and Astra left the room, heading to the elevator once more. "Man, that was stressful. Is it always like that?" I asked, looking at my Warlock buddy. Everything about her was brown. From her light hair to her coffee and milk colored skin to her chocolate brown eyes.
"Ehh, kind of. I remember panicking and blurting out the word warlock when Lord Zavala asked me the same question." Astra shrugged, her sand and gold ghost popping into existence.
"For most guardians? Yeah, it's that stressful." Sierra said, doing a little spin around her brown and cream robed guardian.
"Hey, Jaune, question." Astra said, looking at me.
"Yes, Astra?" I responded, hoping it was something easy.
She led me to the elevator, bringing us up another two floors. "You survived the RDZ, right?"
Okay? Where's this going? "Yes?" i said tentatively, holding the rest of the question on my tongue.
"So you must have a weapon, right?" she asked, her brown eyes sparkling just a bit.
Oh, that's where this is going. "Yeah, I have my sword and a… oh, god. Rose?"
My blank ghost popped up besides me. "Yes Jaune?"
"The Auto rifle we found. What's it called? Kustov or something like that." I asked as the elevator went upwards. The rusted gun materialized in my hand, the tag Kovosh-VT88 appearing in view.
"It's a Kovosh-VT88. We found it at the crash site." I said, noticing the bug eyed look on Astra's face. She sighed, shaking her head. "Ok, we are stopping by Mr. 48 and getting you a new weapon. That thing looks older than Shaxx himself." Astra said, pulling me by the arm.
"I'm sorry, who?" I asked, not sure of who anyone she was talking about was.
My question did not get a response. Instead I was dragged over to an old looking Exo sitting at a kiosk. He looked up at us, tilting his head. "Ahh, Ms. Astra Night. It is...good to see you again." he creaked out slowly, having to stop and take a 'breath' between phrases of the sentence. "And who is… This?" the old Exo turned to the new Titan.
"Jaune. Jaune Arc, Sir." he said, giving a small bow.
"Jaune needs a new weapon, his own being a bucket of rust." Astra said, gesturing to jaunes firearm.
"Ahhh… well… I have a… fine selection of weapons… for guardians such as yourself." the Exo said, pulling out a rack of firearms. "We have... the Colt V2, a ...classical style hand cannon-" Mr. 44 started, but Rose cut him off.
"Nothing that requires good aim, Mr. 44. Something that spits out a lot of bullets, or a shotgun." Rose said, bobbing in front of the old Exo. he nodded knowingly, putting the hand cannon away. He proceeded to pull out a newer and much cleaner Auto rifle than Jaunes own Kovosh. "This is… a Cydona...AR1. a well rounded but common rifle. Only one hundred... glimmer." the exo said. I inspected it, seeing that it was far superior.
"Glimmer? I assume the local currency?" I asked, looking at Rose. he bobbed in confirmation. "Don't worry, Jaune. I picked some up during our last firefight. We can buy the gun and then some." I nodded, summoning the glittering small cubes to my hand. It was weird, tingling pins and needles in my hand, and then sudden weight. "I'll take it. Thank you so much." I said, pouring the cubes onto his desk. I picked up the gun, turning it over in my hands. It was stored into my inventory soon afterwards. Checking my glimmer, I saw that I could unfortunately not buy another gun. 'Damn. well, i can always get more.' I thought, turning to Astra. "So, where to next?" I asked her. She looked around before grabbing my arm once more and dragging me to the edge of the great tower. Woah, we were up really high. I rested my hand on the rail, looking out upon the Last City. it sprawled for so long, one could mistake it's lights as the horizon at night. But it was not yet night, but the sun was descending into a display of oranges and reds.
"Wow." was all i could manage.
"Pretty, isn't it?" Atrsa said from beside me. "This is home for us, Jaune. Welcome home." she smiled, the orange sunlight painting her in a dazzling tint of fire and garnet.
We stood there, looking at the sunset over the thriving city for a moment longer.
"Let's go see Shaxx." She finally interrupted, dragging me away from the setting sun.
-Jaunes POV-
Astra led me down a flight of stairs that seemed to connect from the top of the tower to the bottom. Not that we went to the bottom of the insanely large tower. I looked at the Traveller, like some great moon that hung in the sky.
"Come on, we'll take the scenic route." I was dragged along once more by this surprisingly strong warlock. I mean, how does so much strength reside in such a tiny warlock woman? We descended down a couple flights of stairs, then dashed through at a leisurely pace of a floor of some kind of botanical garden.
"Wow, you guys have a garden in the tower?"
"Yeah, it spans a couple floors, and kind of encroaches on some of the residential and commercial areas. But it really is beautiful. I'm so glad that they added it since the fall a couple years back." she said wistfully, as though remembering something.
I looked at her, concerned. "The fall?" I asked, unfamiliar with Vanguard history.
"I'll tell you later. We're here." Astra cut that line of conversation off, descending down some stairs.
A large Titan with an orange helm greeted them, seeming to be cursing into his ghost. "Sarge, I swear to the Traveller if you don't learn how to control your goddamn team- Hold up, I have company. We will talk later." he scalded to whoever Sarge was. The ghost disappeared as he turned towards us. One of the horns on his helmet was broken off some time ago.
"Ah, Guardians! Good to see you!" The Titan boomed, greeting the guardians. His head tilted towards Jaune. "You I don't recognize. Are you new, Guardian?"
Jaune nodded, looking eye to eye at the Titan. "Yes sir." he gulped.
The titan shook with a small laugh. "Please. If you must be formal, Lord Shaxx is fine." Jaune nodded once more, still feeling just a bit over his head.
"Lord Shaxx, Jaune needs confirmation for joining the crucible." Astra explained, stepping up towards the titan. Shaxx nodded, and held out his hand. "May i see your ghost, Guardian?" he asked expectantly. The Arc Titan summoned his ghost, letting it drift in front of the crucible handler. Shaxx's own ghost popped up to register the new ghost. It took a moment before Rose returned to Jaune. "I've got your name in the system now, Guardian. Feel free to just alert me when you're going to join the crucible for training. I would recommend tomorrow." Lord Shaxx said, before his ghost popped up once more. "Shaxx, it's Tucker. He's got a tank." the ghost whispered.
"SON OF A BITCH!"
_
"Well, that was… interesting." Jaune said finally after leaving the raging crucible handler. Astra just sighed, rubbing her temples. "Fireteams red and blue drive everyone, and I mean everyone crazy. Shaxx has a particularly hard time with them." Astra explained with a sigh. "You'll hear some crazy stories about them during your time here." the warlock explained, dragging her titan friend by the wrist again.
"Wait, where are we going now?" the titan yelped as the warlock dragged him down to the Dorms. The Dorms would be reminiscent of a nicer college dorm area from the outside. The insides were very similar to each other. A seven by ten foot bedroom area that attached to a ten by ten foot common area that functioned as a kitchen and living room. Attached was a full but cramped bathroom. An important note to make is that several rooms are doubled up, having two bedrooms and a larger common room area. This Jaune learned from his current tour guide as they wandered down the halls.
"So, which room is mine?" the Arc Titan asked nervously, looking around at the doors. Astra blanked.
"You… uh, well, you could bunk with me." Astra said nervously. It's not the first time that Astra had bunked with someone, but it was still kind of embarrassing to offer. Jaunes face turned bright red, showing his mind was going to the gutter. "No, NO! Not like that! My dorm is a double, and the second room is spare right now."
Jaune calmed down at that.
"Uhh, yeah, that would be great. Uh, sure. Yeah." Jaune rambled, scratching the back of his head.
"Great! I'll, uh, take us home then."