Chapter 6: Cooldown

When the Dragons returned to their hideout, Death was already waiting. The two teams just stared at each other, one with exhaustion, the other recognition. For Krayt's sake, the inactivity lasted a few seconds before Dmitri let everyone in. The green Titan's Ghost offered to fix his injuries, but he decided against it.

"So do you mind explaining what happened to you four?" Firewing asked.

20, still fixing up his squadmate, answered, "Tested out Hurricane's new Interceptor. Our playing around brought two boatloads of Dust Giants with a couple Goliaths to boot." Krayt grimaced as a piece of shrapnel was pulled out of his lower back. "We got first strike. Took us a while, but we managed to drop everything to two Imperial Colossi before they called in an arty shot. Happy ending."

"Except Krayt there had his shield on the front, instead of his back," Hurricane quipped. Dmitri stared at him like the Hunter was replaced with a replica. But they all knew he was just dealing with stress.

Dmitri quickly changed the subject, "So what are you doing here? My offer still stands, despite our most recent challenge."

"That was barely a fight," the green Titan pridefully boasted.

20 scoffed, "If it was, I don't want see what happens to you in an actual battle."

"Just shut up and get rid of the shrapnel. Auughh!"

"All done," the Exo said after he pulled out the final piece.

Death chuckled at the banter before Lucks answered Dmitri's question. "Had a mission. Information recovery. Nothing much." The Titan started to whistle nervously.

"Uh huh," was all the Dragon said, knowing it was the truth, just not all of it. He could easily see where it was going. "Winter?"

"Winter," Triton confirmed, nodding his head.

"If you got caught by Charlemagne, you're on your own. No sense dragging my team down with something that ain't my business."

"Understood," Firewing stated. A thought ran through his head. "How about some sparring when we get back?"

Hurricane rejoined the conversation, "Individual, mixed, or team?"

"Team, obviously. Krayt can't do anything until his wounds heal without his Ghost's help." Fire shot a look at the human.

"I can still fight with one arm," Krayt jabbed, before sliding off the table. He immediately regretted it as pain flared up in his back.

"And you're downed with a back injury," Lucks let out.

"No point standing and sitting around if we're going to do this," Hurricane spoke impatiently as he brought his Ghost. Seconds later, he was in his ship. The other six Guardians followed suit.

The Burning Shrine, Mercury

After stopping at the Tower to pick up their Crucible gear, Death and Dragon, sans Krayt, set out to Mercury. Triton was a few minutes late, having dashed off to the lounge. They listened to the Hunters' argument as they waited for the Warlock. Both fireteams loved visiting the Burning Shrine, and their leaders agreed to a single elimination match.

Decidng to wear the Bones of Dire Ahamkara as his exotic, Hurricane used Prison armor to help with his throwing knives and tripmines. 20/20 wore his Kellslayer outfit except the Crest of Alpha Lupi spanned his chest, further signifying his role as medic. Dmitri donned Kabr's armor and had his Helm of Inmost Light on. Both Titans focused on speeding up their Fists of Havoc and punches.

Triton stuck with Voidwalker and Obsidian Mind, knowing that Dmitri always stuck around when the Warlock was killed. Lucks kept his Helm of Saint-14 and regular armor on, switching only his weapons to access Thunderlord. Firewing only did some finetuning, as he used roughly the same gear in Crucible and the Prison of Elders. Khepri's Sting was left on, but the Hunter stuck to being a Gunslinger.

The first round ended abruptly when Hurricane's throwing knife landed in front of Firewing's face. The cyborg turned left only to have a second knife fly into his forehead.

Second round, Triton and Dmitri got themselves killed when the former unleashed a nova bomb at point blank range. Firewing became a wall ornament again from a trio of throwing knives. The Dragon Hunter jumped in the air to get moving, but was instantly shot from a sniper round.

"You're fast, but not that fast, 'Cane," Lucks quipped before another shot forced his corpse off his perch.

"Nor are you as wise, Lucks," 20 calmly spoke, making the scores 2-0.

Round three ended with Triton getted rammed into a pillar. The next two ended in Death's favor as their Titan secretly latched a magnetic grenade on 20's back and Firewing finally beat Hurricane at his own game. The subsequent fight landed the score at 4-2. It was soon tied at 4-4 when both Dragon and Death decided to let the Hunters decide the victor.

They gathered around as Hurricane and Fire stood back to back. "Here are the rules!" Triton yelled out. "You will stand 50 paces away from each other. If any of you two fire without my order, the opposite fireteam automatically wins. Your turn, Dmitri."

Said Titan took over. "Both of you will have Combustion on your golden guns. To make things even more interesting and more fair, both of you put your hands on top of your head."

Both Hunters grumbled, but did what they were told. Lucks started up a very old gunslinger ballad. Red Lightning said to his squadmate, "Are you trying to make us lose?"

"Just setting the mood, bro."

When they got to 50 paces, they turned around to face each other.

There was forty feet between them when they stopped to make their play.

"Now!" Both team leaders shouted in unison.

And the swiftness of the ranger is still talked about today.

Texas Red had not cleared leather 'fore a bullet fairly ripped,

And the ranger's aim was deadly with the big iron on his hip.

(AN) - There you are, guys. Hope you liked this chapter, and kudos to anyone who got the reference to Hot Lead and Cold Feet. Standard disclaimer applies: I only own my OCs. Any other game or entertainment referenced in this fanfic belong to their respective owners.

Next chapter will feature Ta'aan and introduce his lackeys. Stay strong.