Chapter One: Fight the Good Fight
"Hey glowstick, where are you?"
Koru Sen chuckled and blushed a little at the usage of the new pet name bestowed upon him by his girlfriend, Eve Delaine. He rubbed his eyes with gloved hands and halfway sighed, halfway groaned into the headset he wore by his right ear. "At the bar. The one below the hangar."
"Again? Isn't it noon there?" Eve asked from the other side of the line, clearly bemused.
"Roy says only quitters get hangovers." He massaged his temples and hung his head. "I think it's because he's never been sober."
"Yeah, that sounds like him." Eve replied almost wistfully.
"How about you?" Koru asked her. "What are you up to?"
"Oh," she hummed a bit as she thought, "The usual. With the girls on the way to put the boot down on a Hive summoning ritual on the Moon. You know how I feel about those things."
"Ugly little bastards." Koru agreed, laying his head on his arm and staring down at the dirty, dark floor with his golden yellow eyes.
The bartender frame came over and poured him a fresh glass of water. It looked him up and down and seemed to nod once. "No charge, Mr. Sen."
"Thanks." Koru responded dryly.
"Your tab of," it paused as if to compute the proper response, then continued in a much more overtly robotic tenor, "ten-thousand and twelve glimmer," it dropped out of its cold cadence, "is still due for payment. Shall I extend the tab another week?"
His head began throbbing. "Yes, that's fine. Please do."
Eve piped up in his earpiece, "They're still bleeding you dry?"
"Phoenix pays his portion a few days late but it's all there. It's Roy's habit that's bleeding us all dry. We even had to have Ozara open a fourth tab to keep it manageable." Koru waved the frame away and took a sip from his water. "Ugh. Well, have fun on your mission. Don't let Lily get too flirty with you."
"I never do. And you know how she feels about you calling her that."
"I don't complain when she doesn't even call me by my name. She just calls me 'Eve's boyfriend', right to my face."
"She's being protective." Eve explained.
"She's being a bitch." Koru corrected.
"Hey, now, that's not-"
With a quickness Koru's agitated nerves could barely fathom he felt a strong grip wrap around his shoulders and pull him to the side, nearly completely off the bar stool he was sat upon. He craned his neck up to see Commander Roy, a huge human man with a full black beard and warm brown eyes grinning down at him. "Koru! Guess what!" he jostled Koru a bit and squeezed the warlock tighter, pressing him against his heavy purple chestplate.
"He'll never guess." Koru felt a hand pat his other shoulder and Phoenix continued, a smirk hidden behind his green eyes as he swept his medium-length brown hair out of his way.
"Go on, guess!" Roy called out almost happily.
Koru wriggled out of Roy's grasp and sat back up on the stool, straightening the collar of his long coat. "You two no longer need my services as a babysitter?"
"What? No. I told you he'd never guess it." Phoenix rolled his eyes and sat down on the stool next to Koru. "No, we got a call from Cayde just now. He's sending us on a super important mission that he can only trust us with."
"He barely knows us." Koru said with a hint of disdain.
"Well it was an urgent distress beacon, he said." Phoenix smiled. "Get your helmet on, we're going."
"They only send distress beacons to guardians already in the field, Phoenix." Koru was nearly hauled to his feet by Roy.
"Then this one is special. Come on, let's go!" He turned to lead the way out of the bar. "Fireteam Pluto, move out!" He formed his hand into a fake gun and fired in the direction of the steel stairs that led up to the Tower's hangar.
Eve spoke up again in Koru's earpiece. "Oh wow, a secret distress call from the Speaker himself? You must be his favorites." She stifled a giggle and sighed in obvious appreciation for her humor.
"Shut up," He said, trying his best to sound playful.
"Come on." Roy said matter-of-factly, grabbing Koru by the arm and dragging him behind Phoenix.
Eve spoke again, "Hey, well have fun on your big super secret mission, glowstick. Tell Phoenix and Mjolnir I said hey."
"Wait," Koru followed Roy almost absently, lost in a momentary, yet profoundly infinite, place in spacetime in which his mind could neither work nor focus. Shaking his head and forcing himself out of a thousand-yard stare, he at last found the bits of information that clicked together in his mind. "Mjolnir?" He asked dumbly.
Eve, with obvious rising panic, responded. "Oh, uh, sorry Koru we're going in a cave, deep underground. Yeah, uhm, right into the Hellmouth! You're breaking up, sorry. Kshh kshh shh." She ended with an obviously hastily thrown-in sound of static with her mouth before hanging up the call altogether, leaving Koru with silence in his ear.
"What's that?" Roy asked over his shoulder, clearly having not heard Koru speak.
"Mjolnir." Koru repeated. He ground to a halt and his arm fell limply from Roy's grasp. "Why does that sound familiar?"
Phoenix stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked back to his teammates standing still in the hallway. "What's the hold up guys?"
"Phoenix," Koru looked to his teammate almost pleadingly, his golden eyes wide with desperation. "Why does the name Mjolnir sound familiar?"
Roy interjected before Phoenix could answer. "Mjolnir? That's my dick."
A moment of tense silence came over the three guardians. The warlock looked up to the titan in indignation, the hunter poised to step in and keep them from killing each other.
"Why did Eve call you that?" Koru asked quietly, glaring up at Roy with embers burning in his eyes.
"Who do you think named it that in the first place? I didn't even know what a Mjolnir was before I met her. Or how to say it right." Roy shrugged and smiled happily. "But it fits. I mean, you know, just barely and only with a lot of lube, but still. Like a bigass hammer."
"I can't believe this." Koru looked away and stood still, staring at the plain steel wall in shock. "This is insane. Not real. That means you and my girlfriend..."
"To be fair, she wasn't your girlfriend at the time. I don't even think you were in the Tower yet." Roy offered in vain.
"You fucked Eve." He said simply, turning his attention back to the titan in front of him.
"Well, yeah." Roy's smile faded as he saw the anger contorting Koru's face. "I mean, everyone did."
"And what does that mean?" Koru nearly yelled out, slapping his palm onto Roy's breastplate. The titan was not even moved by the impact, but when a glowing orange rune began pulsing rhythmically upon it under the warlock's hand, Roy finally assessed the danger he was in. "Explain or you're going through the wall. Again."
Roy, for once, was silent. He reached up and slowly grabbed Koru's wrist in his hand firmly but made no move to remove it from his chest.
Phoenix slid in beside the two of them and gripped them both by one shoulder, shifting his gaze between the two of them. "Hey, hey, whoa. Guys, not in the Tower." He looked down to see that Roy's hand was crackling with electricity as the rune on his chest glowed brighter and pulsed faster. "Okay, Koru buddy, you need to calm down, all right?"
"I am calm." Koru said, forcing past a crack in his voice. His throat felt dry and his eyes on fire. He scowled over to Phoenix. "What did that mean, everyone fucked Eve?"
This time Phoenix and Roy shared a nervous glance. "Well, it's true." Phoenix explained slowly. "Remember in Roy's story about his first day as a guardian?"
"The Drunken Tale." Commander Roy corrected.
"Right." Phoenix continued. "That girl at the end? That was Eve. And he had sex with her. But, Koru buddy, you gotta realize that was before you were a guardian-and definitely before my time. And we did some digging after your little date in the steppes," He sighed and looked Koru dead in the eye. "She's had at least a couple dozen guys inside her since her ghost brought her back."
Koru was silent for a moment. Internally, he seriously contemplated the consequences of setting off the explosive rune he held to Roy's chest. He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to hug Eve. He wanted to push her away. He wanted to be alone. He wanted to be with his friends. He looked down to his wrist locked in Roy's grip and realized that if he were to set off the rune, the titan would drag the warlock along with him. Koru sighed and recalled the fiery rune, leaving Roy no worse for wear.
"Sorry, brah." Roy loosened his grip on Koru's wrist and instead shifted it into a firm handshake followed by a hug. Koru, numbed to his senses with his mind going a lightyear a microsecond, could not return the act. "I haven't done it with her for a while though. She said she wasn't trying to get serious or anything."
Koru managed to nod in understanding.
Phoenix chimed in, "Hey, look at it this way, bud. Sure she's had a bunch of other guys, but she's with you now. And that's all that matters. Right, Roy?"
Roy nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, and she's actually okay with calling you her boyfriend in public. That's new for her."
Phoenix lightly jabbed Roy in the side with his elbow. "Anyway, let's see where Cayde wants us." He held up his hand and whistled. "Hey Skye, where was it that distress beacon came from?"
In a flash of cubic light Phoenix's Ghost, Skye, materialized above his palm and floated. Her center optic was green and her pointed chassis was gray. She spoke in a high, but not overtly annoying, pitch. "Gah, stop whistling for me. I am not a dog! And Cayde said it was coming from some place called the Burning Shrine on Mercury."
Koru muttered under his breath, "If it were an actual distress signal everyone who sent it would be dead." He crossed his arms and followed his team as they turned to go up the stairs. His mind was in too many places at once to worry about anything other than a mission.
"The Burning Shrine?" Phoenix asked quizzically. "Is it on fire or something?"
"Oh no." Roy commented, "What if the people who sent the signal are trapped inside? We have to get them out."
Koru interrupted quietly, almost to himself, "Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and this shrine is likely on the sunward facing side of it, or at least a section most likely to see the sun the most often in its solar year. Besides, it was converted into a massive machine by the Vex, there's no way anything is alive enough there to burn and be worried about it."
"Well," Phoenix said, blatantly ignoring Koru's explanation, "We better hurry and get them out."
"I always wanted to be a firefighter." Roy laughed heartily.
Koru held his face in his hands as he followed them to the hangar entrance. "This is going to be a very long day." He groaned in exasperation.
II
"Anything on the radar yet?" Phoenix asked Koru, pulling on his forest-green gasmask-style helmet. From the inside of his ship's cockpit all he could see was a sprawling, never-ending expanse of sand and stone beyond this singular outcropping of cubic rock that was clearly carved by Vex tools millennia ago. No doubt Koru and Roy could see the same thing.
"Yes, it's in the center of the structure. A few readings on the outskirts as well. Can't get a visual from this angle. Should we touch down and see what's going on?" Koru navigated through several screens of the holographic projection in front of him before settling and returning his hands to the ship's pilot wheel. "It could be a siege situation. They could be holed up inside with Vex trying to get at them."
"Let's do it." Roy exclaimed, and his teammates could very clearly hear the telltale sound of him cracking open another beer.
"Yeah, one sec," Phoenix agreed, his mouth full.
"Are you eating?" Koru asked defiantly.
"Yeah, the pizza just got done. Mmm, want some?" Phoenix replied with a laugh as he struggled to swallow his mouthful. He wiped his mouth and lifted his helmet up over his face a little more to see better.
"No." Koru responded dryly.
"What kind is it?" Roy asked.
"Meat lovers'." Phoenix answered.
"Ooh, yeah I'll have some."
"I'll give you a slice when we're down there."
"Ballin'." Roy nodded and a loud hiss echoed through his microphone to signal his ship's airlock being released.
Koru sighed and pulled his own helmet on, released the airlock of his own ship, and took the drop down out from his cockpit to the sandy golden dunes a couple dozen feet below. He activated his glide ability and floated down the last few feet, where Roy was already waiting for him. Phoenix followed a short time later, nonchalantly chewing his pizza loudly as he approached. He handed Roy the promised slice.
Roy took it and immediately took a sizable bite, nearly moaning out as he savored the flavors. "Good shit, Phoenix."
"So what's the situation?" Phoenix asked Koru, tossing the crust of his pizza into the sand and pulling his helmet down over his head completely.
"You idiots are extremely lucky this planet has been completely terraformed." Koru scoffed and turned their attention to the huge complex of massive stone blocks before them.
Directly ahead of them was a tall pillar of stone that looked broken apart by the ages. Beyond that a huge opening reached all the way to the top of the structure, and served as the main entrance; beyond it lay a cavernous main room with the trademark pale white-green glow of Vex light constructs inside. To either side of the main entrance the structure jutted out and its walls expanded over the base in some areas. There looked to be corresponding doors on either the left or right side and they appeared to be much lower and wider than the main entrance-Koru thought their original function might have been more utilitarian than ceremonial: as loading bays.
The three of them looked around the perimeter of the building, but saw no signs of activity even where the ship-based radar system told them there should be.
Koru pointed out to the main entrance, motioning with the beak of his helmet that hung over his visor. "We have three just inside. We should check it out." He suggested.
"Agreed. Roy, you're with Koru, go right. I'll stay back and to the left." Phoenix gave the order and the titan hurriedly sidled up next to the warlock on their approach.
"Roger."
They edged their way around the pillar, keeping their eyes peeled and their heads on swivels. Roy pulled his helmet back on and let out a tremendous belch. Koru tensed and his hand hovered over the pistol on his hip, ready to draw and fire at any threat that might have heard the violent expulsion of gas from Roy's gullet.
"My bad." Roy whispered.
They stepped inside the main chamber of the Burning Shrine. A tall pillar, at least thirty feet high, dominated the relatively small area. A beam of white light shot across the room above the pillar laterally, and to either side of the pillar were huge, slowly rotating stone disks with a geometric section cut out to allow for passage through on one half. Beyond the disks the chamber extended further, and Koru noted that there seemed to be a network of smaller rooms and a central one that looked to house an energizing pillar of light.
What caught their eye most notably, however, were the three guardians leaning against the huge stone pillar. The titan looked up from his conversation with the others to see the entrance of Fireteam Pluto. "About time you showed up. Another five minutes and we'd have had a free first-round win." He spoke laxly and stood up taller to inspect each of them.
Koru's ice-white coat cast an impressive shadow from the raging sun behind him and his helmet, in the vague visage of an eagle, shadowed his visor to be even darker. Commander Roy stood proud and tall in his heavy violet armor tinted with gold and the Jolly Roger flag hanging at his waist. Phoenix slunk in and hugged the wall, his forest green and black medium armor and black hooded scarf betraying his identity as a hunter.
The new titan strode forward confidently, shining nearly gold in the light of the sun so close. Upon closer inspection his heavy armor, adorned with several spike-like protrusions on the shoulders and knees, was a bright orange. He reached up and pulled off his helmet, shaking his messy blond locks from his face. He chuckled at the sight of Fireteam Pluto before him. His smarmy smile shone even in his bright blue eyes. "Come on, let's see those pretty faces." He reached out and tapped Koru on the beak of his helmet, pushing his head down a little. "I like to know who I'm killing."
The other two members of this titan's team came forward now. The warlock, a female with a navy blue robe and crackling electric armband came to the titan's side, and he very easily wrapped his arm around her waist and held her close. When she pulled her helmet off she revealed herself to be an Awoken-her skin glowed luminously blue and her eyes were a shocking shade of red. Her hair was inky black and styled into a mohawk.
The hunter of the trio slid in easily behind and just to the side of the titan. He was clad in crimson armor with thick shoulder pieces. He took his helmet off and revealed himself to be an exo, complete with a copper finish and pastel-pink optics. He nodded toward Pluto. "Your turn."
Fireteam Pluto shared a nervous look and shrugged almost in unison.
Phoenix took his helmet off and brushed his brown hair back with his hand, revealing his vibrant green eyes. He was clean shaven and couldn't seem to stop smiling.
Roy pulled his off and cracked his neck, stroking his beard. The top of his head was buzzed short.
Koru sighed and followed suit. His skin was a dusky, but still glowing, blue and his eyes were a fiery gold. His black hair was meticulously combed and straightened, parted to the right side.
"There." Koru rolled his eyes. "Are we satisfied now?"
"What's going on, anyway?" Phoenix asked.
Roy followed up with, "Are you the guys that called for firemen?"
"Is he all right?" The new titan asked, motioning to Roy.
Koru sighed. "Don't mind him, he's just… touched in the head by God, as they used to say."
"Right, right… hey, I know you." He jabbed Koru in the chest with his index finger, wormy lips squirming into a smile. "Yeah. You were the bro that got fired from the library, right? For fighting?" He laughed out loud. "What was your name again?"
Koru clenched his teeth and grabbed the titan's wrist, easing it away. "Who are you to ask?"
"Oh shit dude, my bad. Hey, my name's Roy. Leader of Fireteam Orcus." The orange titan held out his hand, which Koru hesitantly shook.
Commander Roy stiffened and looked over to the orange titan, his brown eyes meeting the other man's blues for an instant. "There can be only one." He muttered.
"Oh no, he's going full Highlander." Phoenix stepped back a few feet.
Koru looked over to him, "What's Highlander?" He asked. Then, finding no response from Phoenix beyond a lighthearted chuckle, he shrugged and turned his attention back to the new titan. "Well, uh, Roy. That's strange. I am Koru Sen." He stood up a little straighter and raised an eyebrow quizzically up to Roy.
"Well," Roy said, ignoring Roy's mutterings, "I know where I recognize you from. You took a titan up the butt in the library, but I know that name now. And you are a warlock. You must be Eve's new fling."
Silence overcame Koru for a moment.
"Hey," Phoenix piped up, "can we call you something other than Roy? That's gonna get really confusing really fast."
Roy scowled over to Phoenix. "It's my name."
Commander Roy's hands clenched into fists crackling with arc energy. "There can be only one."
"Yeah," Phoenix said, motioning to the purple-clad titan. "Except he's already Roy. Don't you have another name?"
The orange titan sighed. "Fine, if you must know, Roy is my middle name. You can call me Clarence, or Mr. Smallwood if you'd prefer."
"Clarence Roy Smallwood?" Phoenix asked, putting the pieces of the name together. "That's unfortunate."
"What do you mean her latest fling? How do you know her?" Koru asked, cold anger coating his every word.
Clarence scoffed and tossed his head back, looking to his teammates. "Pfft, what do you mean? Everyone knows how much she gets around. Especially around the Crucible. Hell, I had her a few times too." He grinned slyly and looked down to Koru, very aware of how much this was affecting the warlock. "See, your little girlfriend, Mr. Koru Sen," He poked the warlock in the chest again. "She's the Crucible's town bicycle. Everybody got a ride, or two, or a couple dozen in my case." He winked and patted Koru on the head.
The warlock clenched his jaw and very quietly let out a seething breath before speaking. "I'd suggest you stop talking."
Clarence went on, clearly hearing but choosing to ignore Koru. He looked to the Awoken woman at his hip and reached down to smack her rear. "Well, you know I have a thing for warlocks. I love grabbing them by the hips," He pulled on the woman from behind and mimed his words using her as a model. "Hiking up those frumpy dresses you guys all wear, and just plowing 'em into the dirt. Making 'em scream, beg for more," He leaned in toward Koru as he continued pelvic thrusting against the Awoken woman, who was more than happy to oblige him and giggle, and he continued. "I made her call me daddy, and she loved it when I put her in her place, the dumb slut. Oh man, even Klein here had a go with her." He motioned with his thumb toward the Exo hunter behind him. "And let's not forget those 'sword lessons' she gets from Shaxx, am I right, Arda?" This time he addressed the woman he was still dry-humping. She nodded agreeably.
Koru's jaw loosened up and he took a deep inhalation, clearing his mind for a brief second. He put his helmet back on and Phoenix quickly followed suit. Getting the message, the new guardians did the same. The warlock remained stark still, staring down the rival fireteam. After a long, tense moment that seemed to fill an eternity, he finally spoke. "Roy." He glanced to the violet titan, then pointed at Clarence in his bright orange armor. "Smashy smashy."
Commander Roy's stern frown curled into a menacing maniacal grin that spread from ear to ear. He laughed softly to himself as he pulled his helmet on and cracked his knuckles. "There can be only one." He repeated his mantra again, this time looking directly at Clarence.
III
"Got your six," Phoenix said as he scanned the huge room. "And where the hell is Roy?"
Koru grimaced, watching the far end of the tubular main chamber, taking note of the stone disks' steady pace as they rotated around like ancient gears of the machine that was the planet itself. "No clue." He admitted.
After Lord Shaxx, the Crucible handler, had called the start of the match Commander Roy leapt at the other titan, Clarence, and veritably carried him off and out of the Burning Shrine before any members of fireteams Pluto and Orcus could react. When the hunters and warlocks of the teams split up to their respective starting points, they anxiously waited for their titans to return to no avail. The match had only just started and Roy's radio was silent.
Koru spotted movement across the chamber and looked through the scope of his Ice Breaker sniper rifle. On the far side of the room he saw the warlock of fireteam Orcus, Arda, slip behind the rotating stone half-disk and disappear from sight. "The warlock is on the move. Going toward the back."
Phoenix nodded. "We should move up, try to pincer them." He suggested.
"That would be infinitely easier with Roy here." Koru lamented, but lowered his weapon and started making his way across the room.
"Right." Phoenix agreed and followed Koru. He kept his head on a swivel looking for the enemy.
Koru jogged up to the stone stairs nearly completely eroded and buried in the ages' dust. He climbed them slowly, rifle raised at the ready. At their apex he took a sweeping glance around the room, actually more of a hallway. No threats.
"Where'd she go?" Phoenix asked. The hallway was relatively short. On the opposite end it seemed to empty into the central room of the complex. Halfway down it was another door-sized opening that led down a short hallway and up another short flight of stairs. "For a bunch of loud-mouths they sure are good at being sneaky." He frowned and kept his pistol, a silver weapon with a triangular barrel engraved with a hawk's feather, at the ready.
"Agreed." Koru admitted. "But if we can't find them," he trailed off and peered down the narrow hallway carved into the wall. It turned a sharp ninety-degree angle and then back again, forming an L-shaped passage.
"Then we bring them to us." Phoenix finished.
"My thoughts exactly. Why don't you check the other hall?" Koru nodded across the central room, past the glowing Vex construct mounted on a huge circular stone altar, to the hallway on the other side. "Looks symmetrical with this one. I'll give you cover." Across from the luminous battery was a huge outcropping of rock that served as a support pillar for the ceiling.
"Got it." Phoenix nodded and slunk away, ducking into the shadows of the support pillar.
Koru watched him for a moment before scanning the room from his vantage point, peering out from behind the corner. The room was fairly open and built as a square. He could see that the hallway they had passed earlier led up to a small bridge area that connected the two sides of the chamber, though the middle section of the walkway had long since fallen away.
When Phoenix reached the other hall and crept around to peer around the corner, he whispered. "Contact. Hunter. Going in."
He nodded once. "On it. Coming-" He was cut off by a flash of sudden movement in the corner of his eye. He turned and looked down the hall they had come from only to see the warlock of fireteam Orcus leveling her rifle at him.
"Klein?" The woman asked in a disarmingly thick valley girl accent, "I got the nerd over here."
Koru raised his rifle and took a shot at her that missed wide due to his haste. "Contact!" Koru called out for Phoenix. "Warlock!" He could hear the sound of battle from the other hall, however. There would be no backup.
The two warlocks exchanged bullets.
Koru fell back and took cover behind a partly demolished wall. He laid a fiery rune down between them, daring her to cross the line. "Arda." He tested her name on his lips. "You had so much promise. Why do you take orders from him?"
Arda pressed her back against the opposite side of the section of broken wall. "Well, like, he's just cool, you know?" Her voice was grating and high pitched, and it stung his ears to hear her speak. "And he fucks me so good, like oh my god!" Arda giggled, a manufactured sound, and continued. "I bet Eve misses him." She added the last part with a sly upward inflection.
He grimaced and clenched his jaw tight. "Bitch." He muttered only halfway under his breath.
"Excuse me?" Arda nearly squawked indignantly. She stood straight and felt the thunderstorm brewing between her fingertips as she summoned the electric energy of a tempest in a ball in her fist. She dashed to the side and tossed it past the corner where Koru still stood.
The crack of thunder boomed in the Burning Shrine and lightning shot out from the ground where the grenade landed, just behind him. Thinking quickly Koru pulled himself off the wall and sprinted around the corner, directly at Arda. The woman took a surprised step back and dropped her rifle, lifting up both hands to call forth a burst of electric blue arc energy directed at him. Koru grit his teeth and thrust a forceful palm-strike between her extended arms toward her face. He unleashed the fury of his fire from his outstretched hand and engulfed her entire helmet in a gout of flame even as she electrocuted him. The shock curled his muscles in on themselves in agonizing cramps and quickly drained his protective shield. His only solace was that Arda was screaming and backing away in pain and terror.
He managed to wrest control of his own body back from its series of spasms and seizures long enough to gather his senses. He watched Arda as she ran the way she had come and toward the center of the main chamber.
"She ran to the middle." Koru reported and groaned in pain. He shook his head rapidly a few times in an attempt to rid him of the tingling numbness. It almost worked.
/-/-/
"Got it." Phoenix responded with ease. He waved away the smoke in front of him with one of the shock swords he had taken from a Fallen vandal so long ago. "Hunter's going there too. Tried to get the jump on me. I stuck him good, though."
"Word on Roy?" Koru asked.
Phoenix stepped out into the main chamber, watching as the nearest stone half-disk spun around on its track, its open half beginning to rise up to the top of the room. "Nothing."
Koru was obviously annoyed. "Fine. We can still pincer them. On my mark rush in and finish the job."
The hunter nodded and readied himself, watching the disk rotate steadily, the sound of stone grinding against stone oddly soothing.
"Go!" Came the warlock's command.
Phoenix leapt up and activated his fiery wings, rising up into the air and brandishing his two shock swords. He flew up and over the turning disk and saw the enemy warlock and hunter huddled near the massive pillar in the center of the chamber. He saw Koru on the ground aiming his pistol at them.
Just as Phoenix crested the disk and alighted on its thick width, Arda let out a battle cry and let out a massive surge of electricity from her body, allowing it to cover her in a crackling shield that lifted her off the ground to hover. She turned toward Koru with a lightning storm wreathing her in righteous fury. Klein materialized a violet stream of light and formed it into a bow, pulling back a section of it in the middle as if nocking an arrow-and an arrow formed ready to be released. He aimed up at Phoenix.
Both Phoenix and Koru stopped for an instant, watching their enemies pull trump cards. Simultaneously they sighed in resignation, "Well fuck."
"THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!" Roy screamed from above-through the thick stone roof of the Burning Shrine. The warlocks and hunters all stopped to listen as the screaming grew closer, as if descending from the sky rapidly.
"I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS! WHY?!" Came Clarence's desperate reply.
The ceiling above them cracked and a thunderous boom echoed through the chamber. In an instant it buckled beneath the force of the impact and the two titans fell into the arena. Commander Roy had Clarence by the throat and had a knee planted in his gut, and was completely wreathed by a maelstrom of crackling arc energy himself.
Clarence, for his part, was coated in flames as radiant as the sun itself and was slamming what looked like a short hammer into Roy's back in vain.
The two titans fell to the earth like a comet of storm and flame. Arda turned her attention to them and raised her arms, releasing the electric current in a stream of dazzling lightning. Klein wheeled around and took aim at them, and fired. His arrow soared through the air and hit Clarence square in the back. For the briefest of instants Klein saw the downfall of fireteam Orcus. Immediately the titan's glowing form guttered out, leaving him completely at Roy's mercy.
And then it was over.
Roy and Clarence hit the ground, sending a massive explosion of lightning reaching out with jagged fingers to sizzle the air itself. Arda and Klein were caught in the blast radius while Koru and Phoenix were blown back by the resulting sonicboom. Shards of rock that were once part of the ceiling were strewn about the room, and a massive cloud of dust was kicked up from the impact.
/-/-/
As the dust settled in silence Koru staggered to his feet, grunting with the effort and the nearly unbearable pain in his spine and ribcage, he waved the dust away and took in the scene. A huge gaping hole was struck into the ceiling with thick cracks emanating from the center of impact. All about the ground lay the strewn remains of the ceiling and pillar that once dominated the room. Near the center lay the members of Fireteam Orcus in grotesque, twisted and broken forms among one another. On the top of the pile of guardians was Commander Roy, lightly kicking Clarence in the side. The fallen guardian did not stir.
"Wow." Roy nodded in appreciation of his handiwork. "That that was pretty cool. I didn't think it would work."
Phoenix pulled himself out of the rubble and clapped a few times, slowly at first. "Holy shit, Roy, let us know when you're doing something crazy. You know, so we can film it."
Roy shrugged and produced a flask of alcohol, unscrewed it, and took a mighty swig.
All of a sudden Skye materialized in front of Phoenix, her green eye-like core glowing and flashing green quickly. "Phoenix! Cayde is on the line!"
Phoenix smiled and nodded eagerly. "Answer it, answer it!"
"Right." Koru said, pushing himself up against the wall and summoned his own Ghost, Dari who sported a yellow eye core and a pointed red chassis, to address his wounds. "Maybe he can give us some answers."
Skye's core rotated and flickered for a second then brought up a holographically displayed screen that glowed an ambient blue. Another second later an image of the vanguard office came into view, looking across the war table to the three guardians assembled before it, with Cayde, his cobalt metal robotic features seeming to beam with pride, in the center. On the left was Commander Zavala, leader of the titans whose stern face and blue skin were respectively complemented and contrasted by his bulky red and white body armor. On the right a dark-skinned woman in an ornate purple robe, Ikora Rey, the leader of the warlocks, stood in austere silence with her shaved head slightly bowed. Cayde waved and gave a chuckle.
"Well hey there, Fifi!" Cayde, simultaneously the hunter vanguard and the Speaker for the Traveler, was as chipper and upbeat as ever. "So you might have some questions."
"You got that right." Koru stretched out his muscles-he was always so sore after Ghost atomic reconstruction.
"Right, well let me explain you a thing and then there might be room for questions after storytime." Cayde coughed, a curiously human thing for an exo to do, before continuing.
Roy interrupted with a whisper as he slid in behind his teammates. "I love storytime."
"All right kids, so what you just engaged in was a little event they like to call the Trials of Osiris." He deepened his voice for the last few words. "It's a little live-fire combat exercise some crazy warlock made up after he was exiled. Anyway," He continued, relishing the role of teacher. "It's designed to test the strength of the guardians who participate. Oh and Fifi, don't you worry your pretty little head about getting footage, the Disciples of Osiris cut a deal with Shaxx to let him broadcast the event for the Last City. Everything's on tape, buckaroo." He winked and fired his finger guns at Phoenix, who eagerly returned fire with his own. "Did I miss anything?" He addressed Ikora and Zavala in turn.
The warlock vanguard spoke up, "We tried to stop him from entering your names into the tournament, but he already did it by the time we learned about it."
"Like always. Ask for forgiveness, not permission, isn't that how the saying goes, Ikora?" Cayde playfully punched her in the arm. She only sighed in response. "Anything to add, Zavala?"
Zavala looked up for the first time and spoke with a deep pitch. "Well done, Commander Roy." He offered the other titan a salute, which was readily returned.
"Thank you, sir." Roy nodded appreciatively.
"We won!" Phoenix smiled wider, "What do we win?"
"Hmm? Oh, well, you won one round." Cayde explained, holding up one hand with his index finger raised high.
"Excuse me?" Koru asked. "We killed three people," He motioned over to the dead guardians in the center of the room, whose Ghosts were hovering over them in the process of reconstructing them back to life. "And we have to do it again?"
"Eight times, actually." Cayde chuckled at the expressions on the young guardians' faces of shock, surprise and even fear. "Yeah, this is a test of teamwork, strength and endurance. And also intelligence, but only so warlocks have a reason to be there. But don't worry, I pulled on some pursestrings and got each of you a couple freebie rounds-provided you won the first bout, which I figured you could handle no problem. Six more to go for you, hop to it."
"Yes sir!" Phoenix gave Cayde a thumbs-up and then asked, "Do we know who our next opponents are?"
"Not exactly, but the way it's set up, you'll be going up against people with the same win-loss ratio as you, so these fights are gonna get tougher, Fifi. Stretch those hammies and make papa proud. Okay, bye guys!" He waved and the transmission wavered until the screen went blank, at which point Skye turned it off.
"So we need to beat six more fireteams?" Roy asked the two of them, "Well that should be easy."
"They won't all be pushovers like these clowns, though." Phoenix motioned to Fireteam Orcus, whose members were struggling to their feet and helping each other to stand. Klein gave Phoenix a dirty look and raised his middle finger to the other hunter.
Phoenix rolled his eyes. "Hey, keep walking before I sick my titan on you again!"
Roy snapped his attention to the other guardians as they nearly crawled out of the Burning Shrine. A low growl rose in his throat as if in ferocious challenge.
Koru sighed and rubbed his eyes and temples, all at once fatigued already. "Well, let's get on with it then."
"We kinda destroyed this place, though." Roy nodded as he looked around. Do all our fights take place here?"
A helmeted head popped out over the edge of the hole in the ceiling and waved down at them, silhouetted by the light of the sun. "You guys just go, we got this covered. It'll be good to go when you're back here."
"Aww, how nice." Roy smiled and patted his teammates on the shoulders. "Let's go, boys."