City of Hope

I opened my eyes and my vision was overcome by a bright light, forcing me to squint until my eyes adjusted. I heard a robotic voice say "Ah good, you're awake. Meet me in the hall once you've gathered yourself." before a pair of footsteps clanked toward the door and shut it.

I took a few minutes to get my bearing before standing up off of the bed I woke up on. I was inside of a room with a single bed, a tv mounted on the wall, and a large green curtain that could be drawn to the other side of the room in order to cover the bed area.

I materialized my armor, leaving the helmet off, before opening the door and catching an over-excited Sam. "Ah, you bastard! Don't you ever do something like that again or, or I'll leave!" Sam yelled as rammed his body into my chest.

I chuckled and said "Hey little buddy, I sure didn't miss you while I was snoozing..." in a soft voice. Sam looked up at me and sniffled "Don't you hey little buddy me! I'll kick your ass!" I looked over and saw the same robotic man, that had helped me during the last fight with Davrik, standing against a wall with his arms crossed.

"You owe me big time, you know..." Wraith-1 said as he pushed off of the wall and stuck his thumb out behind him before continuing "But first we have to go and talk to the bigshots of the Guardians. Come, I'll give you a short tour while were walking."

I glanced toward Sam and saw him shudder before disappearing into my body. I shrugged and followed after Wraith and listened to him explain the various facilities of the Tower as well as where they were located, and a few of the various things that Guardians can do besides missions, which included the Crucible and something called 'The Trials of Osiris'.

"In order to go out on the more rewarding missions, you need to have a Fireteam of at least three or more." Wraith stopped in front of a large double door and turned his head to look and me and said "But we can discuss that at a different time." before opening the doors and stepping into a large room with a long, narrow table in the middle, that displayed a virtual map of the solar system, as well as a lot of windows in the front of the room, overlooking the City in all of its glory.

A large, blue skinned man, another Exo, this one with a singular horn in the middle of his forehead, and a woman with a buzzcut and healthy brown skin stood on one side of the table as Wraith and I entered. The Exo was the first to speak, saying "Aha! The man of the hour finally awakes. Man, I can't wait to put you in hel-I mean training!"

I saw Wraith look away nervously at the mention of the Exo's 'training', which worried me quite a bit, but I kept a calm demeanor as the only woman in the room extended her hand, saying "My name is Ikora Rey and I am the Warlock Vanguard..." She then extended her other hand to the Exo and said "This is Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard." To which Cayde responded with "Hiya!" as Ikora pointed to the blue skinned man and said "And this is Our commander, as well as the Titan Vanguard, Zavala."

I shook her hand and said "It's nice meeting you all. My name is Lucifer Blake and I'm the Guardian of the lovely Ghost named Sam." The room was silent, so I cleared my throat and held my hands behind my back, thinking I said something wrong.

Cayde snorted and said "Hah! He called that piece of scrap metal lovely! Good one man!" earning him deadpan stares from Ikora and Zavala. Cayde shrugged them off and said "C'mon lighten up! We've got a new Guardian, so we gotta show him how we roll!" as he made gestures with his hands to punctuate his words.

Zavala coughed and said "Alright Guardian, I need a debriefing on what happened exactly once you first awoke with your Ghost. Then I want you to tell me how you defeated that Kell." in a serious tone. Cayde held his hand up and said "The man just woke up Zavala! Give him some time to catch his breath. Geez, this guy is too serious!"

Zavala sighed and said "And you're too laid back, Cayde..." Cayde gasped and said "No I'm completely serious! This is my serious face, can't you tell?" I stood there in complete silence as those two began to bicker and argue.

'Is this how they usually act...?' I asked Sam. Sam sighed and said "Unfortunately, yes. Since you appear to be a survival expert as well as a nature freak, one can only assume that you're a Hunter. This means that we'll be stuck with that lovely Exo until we die...'

Cayde stopped midsentence and sneezed, prompting Ikora to step in and say "You two are setting a bad example in front of our newest member. Can you settle down, or do I have to use Code-3...?" Zavala and Cayde both froze before conjuring seats made out of pure Light energy and sitting down.

Ikora smiled and nodded her head as she did the same, saying "Now, we had heard from your Ghost that he found you some few thousand kilometers Southwest from the Last City inside of a ruined and abandoned city. Tell me, did you also come across your gear in that same city?"

I asked Sam if it was alright to tell her the truth and, once he gave the green light, I said "Yes. We had initially ran into a large group of Fallen and I had managed to kill one and take its weapons as I continued to make my way through the city in search of a hidden vault that Sam had mentioned. It wasn't until I was caught by the Fallen and almost killed by a large Captain that I had found the tunnel leading to the vault."

Zavala looked up and asked "Was that the same Captain you had killed outside of the Last City?" I nodded my head and said "Yes he was. When I found the vault it was sealed by a large door, however, when I ran my hand over it what I believe to be Solar energy began to fuse with my body before the door opened on its own."

Ikora's brow raised as she rested her chin in her palm with a thoughtful expression. The conversation went back and forth between Ikora and Zavala as they asked me if the Fallen had a House Banner, if there were any Fallen or Cabal we had run into during our trip to the Tower, as well as how I had defeated Davrik.

---

It felt like hours had passed since I was last able to walk around and stretch. I was currently following Cayde, who had deduced that I was a 'Hunter' much like Sam had said, as he walked through a veritable horde of traps, mines, and explosives that he had placed for 'drills'.

I was able to dodge the traps relatively easily, but the real hard part was about to begin. As we rounded a corner Cayde jumped up as the sound of bullets firing and knives being drawn from their sheaths filled my ears.

I hid back behind the corner and drew my sword, which I had named Sol earlier on in the day, before creating a massive wall of fire and shot it toward where the bullets were coming from. I heard a few surprised shouts, but no one ended up being injured as Cayde jumped from his perch and said "Bravo, bravo! Ahem, I'd like to welcome our newest addition! Sorry for giving you guys a false alarm, ahaha!"

I peeked my head around the corner and saw a large, and I mean LARGE, room filled with various people of all races, sizes, and color. Wraith-1 had followed us and he slowly peeked his head around my shoulder, making sure that it was safe, before walking out and saying "This is the 'glorious' Hunters association. Feel free to make yourself at home..."

Practically the whole room clicked their tongues and muttered to themselves, some even saying "Damn, and I thought we we're supposed to get a strong one today too..." in disappointed voices. I shrugged my shoulders at their apparent rudeness as a thin, lanky man wrapped head to toe in black bandages, with six horns poking out from his bald head, walked up to me and sized me up.

The man chuckled in a voice that just radiated 'snob'. The man pointed his thumb at his chest and said "Listen well you damned grub, my name is Xetu the Quick, and I challenge you to a duel!" Xetu had a nasty, almost sinister smile on his face as he created two long daggers from pure Arc energy. 'Damn, looks like they really like you...' Sam said sarcastically as the massive crowd of Hunters backed away to give us some room as they cheered and bet on who would win, with many betting on Xetu. I shook my head and raised Sol as I lowered myself into a stance and took a deep breath.

Cayde appeared in between us with a bag of popcorn as he held his hand up with three fingers as he slowly counted down to one before yelling "BEGIIIIINNNN!!" Cayde disappeared and Xetu was in my face at the blink of an eye. I dodged his attempted thrust and bat his other dagger away before ducking under a vicious roundkick.

I slashed out at his exposed leg, but he was able to easily avoid my attack and zip around the room at impossibly fast speeds. 'Now I know where he gets his name...' I thought as I slammed the tip of Sol into the ground, creating a dome of fire around me and preventing Xetu from getting any closer.

I began to harness Void and Solar energy, the former was for trying to replicate something I had saw Wraith do before, and the latter was to cover my body in a thin coating of fire to make it harder for Xetu to get closer to me. I was just about to apply my little self-taught abilities when Xetu slashed open my barrier and lunged toward me with a deranged laugh.

I cursed and tossed a ball of Solar energy toward him, but he just slashed straight through it as he continued his charge. He lifted both of his daggers and swung them down, looking to end me in one blow. I raised Sol and blocked the attack, causing Xetu to smile even wider as he said "Ahaha! More! Show me more of your latent powers, you damned insect!!"

Xetu pushed down with all of his might, lowering my sword enough to sneak in a vicious headbutt to my nose. I felt my shield mitigate most of the damage, but my nose was still shattered from the shockwave of his surprisingly powerful attack.

I dodged a flurry of slashes before throwing out a few of my own attacks. I refused to sit still and let this bastard wail on me. I grit my teeth as we began to get locked into a stalemate with neither side gaining too much ground all at once.

I yelled out and managed to clip Xetu's hand with the flat of my blade, knocking his dagger away and causing it to disintegrate. He dodged my follow-up strike and snarled as he let his other dagger fade away before forming a long staff out of Arc energy.

I heard Cayde release an enthralled 'Ohhhh!' before saying "This shit's getting interesting, eh!?" as he nudged a female with a mask covering her lower face and, somehow managed to eat his popcorn. The woman looked at Cayde with a disinterested look and snorted, saying "Heh, my money's on the runt..."