Trilateral Symmetry
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"Eyes up, Guardian."
I gasp.
Fresh air fills my lungs
My mind races, whirling through possibilities as I struggle to fill all the blanks in my cognition.
"Wha-?" I mutter, uncomprehending.
I look down and stare at my hands in shock. They're covered in some kind of gloves, an odd material that continues down to my wrists. Looking over myself, I see I'm wearing some kind of strange, lightly armored, black bodysuit. I can't remember what it's made of, or how I got it, or even why I'm wearing it.
"Guardian?" Another voice pulls me from my thoughts, and I jerks my head up.
I see another girl, one with dark brown skin, wearing another strange set of light armor. It's black like my own, but the style of it is completely different. It also includes a cape, unlike my own.
She's also staring at a strange floating light. It's hard to tell what's generating it, as we're all sitting in darkness, possibly some kind of cave given the uneven ground I can feel beneath me.
"Guardian? You called me a guardian, didn't you?" The girl continues, talking to the light. "What the hell is that!?"
Then, to my surprise, the light responds. "It's what you are now." the light pauses, and I can see its form twist in midair, "Well…technically you're just a freshly Risen at the moment, but… I'm sure you'll be an amazing Guardian in no time!" it cheers.
"Guardian?" Another voice says over my shoulder.
I start, whirling around to stare at another strange light. Up close, I can see that it's actually some kind of… leviting drone, or something. An odd angular thing made up of a bunch of black and green diamond-like shapes attached to a central orb. At the center of the orb is a glowing light, what I can only presume is its eye.
"Uh… H-hello?" I greet, unsure of what to do.
"Hello Guardian." The drone greets its voice more of a smooth baritone, as opposed to the chipper enthusiasm of the other one.
"Uh…" for a moment, I don't know what to say. "H-hi?"
"Hey!" the other girl shouts, and I can't help but jerk in place.
I turn around with a grimace on my face, only to see the dark skinned girl staring intently my way.
"Who are you?!" she shouts.
I open my mouth to respond on instinct, only for my mind to come up blank.
"I…" a pit opens up in my gut as I realize I don't even have that. "I… I can't remember."
I feel a lump climb in my throat as I realize just how little I have.
"I can't remember anything."
"...oh." the girl says in a suddenly small voice. She looks to the side, the wind stolen from her sails, and only something hollow left in its wake. "Well…I-I… me neither." She admits.
Suddenly, there's another flash of light from the other side of the cave. We both snap our attention to the source, only to see, to our shock, another girl emerging from some kind of strange, almost pixelated, light emitted by a third drone.
She's wearing some kind of white and gold dress, with long blonde hair and pale skin. For a moment, she just rests with her eyes closed as the light races up and down her skin. Then, the third drone says, in an almost matronly voice, "Eyes up Guardian."
Then her eyes flash open, revealing a brilliant kaleidoscope of power for a brief instant, before fading into a more mundane, yet no less vibrant blue. She gasps, her expression wide with shock and confusion.
"Wha-?" She mutters, staring at her hands in an eerie mirror of myself.
"Holy shit, there's three of us." The dark skinned girl mutters.
I glance at all three of our glowing drones. "...looks like." I can't help but agree.
The new girl startles at our words and sends a shocked look our way.
"Who are you?!" She yells, then stops and blinks, "I… wait… I… who am I? I-"
"You can't remember anything?" the dark skinned girl cut in.
The new girl starts to say something, frowns, and slowly shuts her mouth with a tight nod.
"...I don't think any of us can." I comment.
"That's normal!" I jerk again at the sudden comment by the cheerful drone.
Looking more closely, I can see that it has a black and white shell of a similar, yet slightly different pattern to the one near me.
"No Risen wakes up with any memories of their first life." The third one explains, this one with a white and gold shell that is once again slightly different from the other two. "It's just a fundamental part of being reborn in Light."
There were a lot of questions that the answer produced, but first on my mind was, "Reborn?"
Instantly, I could feel all eyes in the cave fall on me, and I felt the pressure weigh on my shoulders. Even still, the pressing question wouldn't leave me.
My throat felt tight as I spoke. "Y-you said our f-first life, and you called us Risen and… and reborn? Does…" I almost couldn't say the words. "...does that mean we were…risen from the dead?"
For a dreadful moment, the cave is choked with a terrible silence.
"Yes." the drone above me says.
In that moment of confirmation, something passes through me. I feel a distant pain in my chest, and I know, with bone deep certainty, that it's related to my death.
"All Risen are dead souls reborn in Light by their Ghost." The drone continues before it stops and swivels to look at all of us. "All of you were dead for quite some time when we found you."
"Bu-but I feel fine!" the new girl argues, but I can see the panic in her eyes.
The dark skinned girl immediately pats a section over her chest, like a phantom pain passed through her too.
"That's because we put you back together." The gold drone explains. "It just wouldn't do to resurrect our new Guardians, only for them to die on the spot from all the holes we left in them."
"Not that that would be a problem if you did!" the white and black one chirps. "Now that we're together, you won't have to worry about anything pesky like death ever again!"
"That is…something of a dangerous oversimplification." the green drone hedges. "...but not entirely inaccurate."
"Why the hell should we trust you anyways?" the dark skinned girl points out. "We could just ditch you guys and go our own way."
"But we're your ghosts!" the checkered one protests.
"Ghosts?" the blonde girl questions.
"It's what we're called." the gold one's shell shifts around the core in an expression reminiscent of a shrug. "Don't ask us why."
"Hmm," the blonde considers that with a careful eye, "...but she raises a good point. Why should we trust you?"
"You don't exactly have a variety of options to work with." the… Ghost, I suppose, over me answers. "You won't be safe out there on your own."
"Is that a threat?" The dark skinned girl said.
"Memories or no, we can handle ourselves." The blonde agreed.
"...I'd at least like to know what kind of options we have to work with." I added, if only so I wasn't left out.
At that, all three of the Ghosts gave each other an indecipherable look.
"No…it wasn't a threat." the gold ghost said with a somber voice. "...Where do you think you are?"
"And how do you think you died?"
A pit forms in my gut. Every instinct in my body screams at me to leave the cave, to not even try to look at my surroundings.
But I can't help myself.
I look down.
I look down and at first all I see are the dirt and rocks and stone walls of a cave. Then I start to see it. A few shoes here, the torn remnants of a shirt there, possibly even some pants.
Then I see the bones. Scattered all over the place, half buried in the dirt. Skulls and ribs and legs and hands everywhere I look. They're broken and fractured and gnawed on, and some are far too small.
I feel sick.
"H-how many-"
"Who could do something like this?!"
"...The Fallen." My ghost says. "And you're in the Cosmodrome, right in the middle of the House of Devils Territory."
"Fallen?" I mutter.
"What the hell are those?" The darker girl growls,
"The Fallen are a race of aliens, one of many vultures that have come to pick at the bones of humanity's golden age." the golden ghost explained. "And they're called the Fallen because of their own ungraceful fall from splendor. Where once was a great starfaring civilization is now a barbaric and cruel culture of piracy and violence. The House of Devils, in particular, are known for their fanatical hatred for mankind."
"In other words, the Fallen are big dangerous spider people with four arms who love jury-rigging tech together to kill more humans and grab more loot." The checkerboard ghost added with far less enthusiasm than before. "And the House of Devils are the red ones that like to make a habit of displaying their trophies."
"..and their meals." my ghost said pointedly, shining a light on a particular collection of bones in the dirt with large bite marks. "Fallen have been known to develop a taste for human flesh."
"...Fucking fantastic." The dark girl groused, "So we're stuck in the middle of a bunch of man-eating psychos from space?"
"That is not inaccurate."
"Why hasn't someone done something about this?" I asked.
The gold ghost shrugged. "They've tried. Saint-14 broke the leadership of the houses on his crusade after Twilight Gap."
"But mankind's resources are limited." my ghost explained. "Against the seemingly endless threats pouring out of the dark, it's all the Vanguard can do to keep the light of humanity from being snuffed out."
"Which is where new Guardians like you come in!" The other ghost chirped. "With each new Guardian to wield the light, the hope for humanity grows ever brighter!"
"But, to make a difference, you need to survive long enough to get stronger." the gold ghost cautioned. "If you want to have a hope of survival here, you'll need to get to the city."
"City?" I ask, latching onto anything other than the grim reality I found myself in. "What city?"
"The city." the black and white one answers.
"The Last City on Earth."
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Armsmaster glared at the display screen, willing it to give him the answers.
"Colin, you need to take a break."
"Later." He mumbled, eyes locked on the computer's analysis.
"Colin, you have been awake for over 48 hours."
"I've gone longer without sleep." He knew he was close to a breakthrough, he had to be.
"Yes, but only in emergencies."
His face twitched. "Are you trying to tell me this isn't an emergency?"
He shot an arm at the report on another monitor, clinically detailing the disappearance of dozens of innocents in one of the worst incidents of mis-used tinkertech in recent memory.
"Almost 50 people are gone, just like that, and over 50 more dead or wounded from those left behind. All just because two incompetent morons desperate for attention had to drag them into their petty game." he growled, staring at the image of the Brockton Bay mall.
Once, it had a gleaming image of consumerism and glass, but now it looked like some cosmic horror had taken a massive bite out of one of the sides, leaving nothing but a perfectly smooth spherical hole in its wake. From what they'd gathered, it was the result of a malfunctioning tinkertech teleporter.
"I would strangle Uber and Leet myself right now, if they hadn't already killed themselves with the damned stunt!" He finished with an angry fist slammed onto his reinforced desk.
"...I know, but… you're not going to do anyone any good if you run yourself ragged trying to find the answer. You need sleep, and fresh eyes to look over it."
"I can't just leave them, Dragon!" he shouted.
"Colin I… it's not your fault."
He scoffed, brushing off her concern and letting himself stew in his own self-hatred. "If I'd actually been there, I could have safely dealt with the device."
"You don't know that."
"I know I am the most qualified person in the city to deal with malfunctioning Tinker-tech. But, because I thought dealing with Uber and Leet was beneath me," He snarled, disgusted with himself, "I decided to take a little time to fine-tune my suit to get an extra 2.7% functionality. After all, Shadow Stalker and Glory Girl were already on the scene. They could handle it, right?"
"...You couldn't have known."
"I damn well should have!" He barked. "Uber and Leet's tech is as well known for its limitless potential as it is for catastrophic failures! Maybe if I'd actually done my job, they'd actually still be here!"
At the top of the long list of missing persons from the incident were two VIPs to the PRT. Victoria Dallon, and Sophia Hess.
"...Scans of the device indicate chronoton emissions. The teleporter could have displaced them in time as well as space." Dragon pointed out. "If that's the case, it might not matter how long it takes us to reverse engineer it, correctly back-tracking where it transported everyone could also lead us back to moments after they arrived."
"Or, every day we waste is another year lost for them." Armsmaster argued, "Or maybe it's longer. Or maybe they're already dead because I took too long."
"Colin, you can't know that yet, and just trying to beat your head against a wall isn't going to get you anywhere fast." Dragon pleaded with him. "Please, just get some sleep. Leet's device will be waiting for you when you get up, and no amount of stimulants can make up for a good night's rest."
For a moment, Armsmaster was silent. Then, in the privacy of his room, with only one of his closest friends to keep him company, he muttered, "...Dragon… how am I supposed to get a good night's rest with all this weighing on me?"
To her great shame, the world's greatest Tinker found she had no solutions.
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A/n:
The Synopsis for this is that Taylor, Vicky, and Sophia were at the mall when U&L did the thing and teleported a slice of it all into the Destiny-verse right smack in the middle of the cosmodrome.
The three parahuman girls, and a whole bunch of random civilians, lasted a bit before being captured and killed by the House of Devils over the span of a year or so trying to find shelter in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
A few years later, a trio of ghosts found three very dead girls with incredible potential.
After this chapter, there'll be a timeskip. Taylor, Sophia, and Vicky end up being basically The Guardian fireteam, the ones who do all the canon story stuff together. After all that canon stuff I'm skipping over, they'd end up teleported back into BB.
The next two chapters of this are already written and will be coming out soon.