Destiny 2: Putting "Horse" Into "Horsepower"

Chapter 11: Worth Waiting For

A few more days had passed since the trio had reunited on the Farm. They had been training in those few days and they felt more than ready to try and get to the shard of the Traveler. When they had signaled they were ready they were immediately dropped off at the start of the dark forest with Hawthorne looking at them suspiciously.

"You sure you want to do this? There's a reason this place is called a "dead zone". Nobody ever comes back from these places, guardian or not." Hawthorne asks.

"We have to Hawthorne, it's a sign." Ghost replies. If Taiki were there with Hawthorne he'd see her facepalm or do something else out of anguish.

"Yeah, a sign that says "dead zone" you eight pointed idiot!" Hawthorne shouts. Ghost tunes her out as Taiki, Spe-7 and Suzuka begin moving towards the forest.

"Oh hey look, a chest." Taiki mumbles as he decides to open it. "Wonder what's in here..." He finds a bunch of glimmer and an auto rifle, but that's about it. "Damn, nothing."

"I didn't think there was gonna be anything else." Suzuka replies. "Is there anything else in that chest?"

"Well there are some other guns in here but they don't look any better than what we have right now." Taiki says before his eyes shoot up and glow. "Look out!"

"Whoa!" Suzuka shouts as she barely avoids an invisible sword and counterattacks with a powerful kick that uncloaks her attacker- one of the Fallen!

"Well, I haven't seen these guys before." Taiki mumbles as he puts a few bullets into the Fallen's head.

"Those are marauders, the worst kinds of Fallen you can encounter besides Captains. Never see them coming until it's too late." Hawthorne says. "Had one nearly hack off my arm before one of my friends sniped it. If I hadn't known any better I would have thought he was shooting at me." With that in mind the three scout the area around them to make sure that no other marauders are hiding out with their invisibility- fortunately for Taiki he manages to spot one of them as his vision can pick up a faint outline of his enemy, and he blasts that marauder in the face with his shotgun.

"How did you do that?" Spe-7 asks as the dead marauder uncloaks.

"You can just make out their outline, their cloaking tech ain't perfect." Taiki replies. "Either that or it's just being an exo that helps." Fortunately for the girls Suzuka also manages to spot one last hidden marauder via Taiki's technique before putting a bullet through it's head with her sidearm. With that they head inside a dark cave and Spe-7 immediately clings to Taiki while Suzuka carefully scouts it out. "...Are you really that scared?"

"What? No I'm not!" Spe-7 says, her voice betraying her fear.

"You sure don't sound like it and you sure as hell don't look like it." Taiki replies, attempting to pry Spe-7 off of his arm. Eventually the three make it through the cave without any hitches and they find themselves in the dark forest.

"Well... This is the forest." Suzuka mumbles, but when she attempts to contact Hawthorne, all she gets is static.

"We're on our own from here." Fang says as the three carefully traverse the forest to reach the shard. As they get closer and closer they can hear various voices coming from around the trees, possibly Fallen communicating with one another.

"You still got your rockets?" Taiki asks, and Spe-7 confirms as she grabs her rocket launcher. "The shard's just up ahead so let's just... Oh boy..." Waiting just near the shard is a large group of Fallen consisting of two captains, lots of vandals and dregs, and Fallen with arc spears. "They must be getting desperate if they have spears."

"Should I fire?" Spe-7 asks.

"Not yet, I'll try and distract them." Taiki replies, and Suzuka looks at him in disbelief.

"You're going to sacrifice yourself just like that?" Suzuka asks.

"We gotta distract them one way or another." Taiki replies. "I got this, don't worry." And with that Taiki slowly and carefully moves out to execute his plan. Among the trees are various rocks that he can pick up and throw at the Fallen, and he uses that to his advantage as he picks up a tiny pebble and lobs it at one of the spear wielding Fallen. It nicks the insectoid in the back of the head and it immediately turns around, alerting those around it. Taiki then lobs another larger pebble at one of the captains, bouncing it off the shield and drawing it over. It's not long before Taiki has thrown enough rocks to draw the entire group of Fallen into a tight circle, long enough for Spe-7 to take aim and fire a rocket. All of the Fallen only hear a loud whump sound and they all appear to be shocked as they see a rocket heading towards them, and the explosion takes them all out at once.

"Nice work!" Spe-7 says. "You got them right where I needed them!" And with that being settled the three finally reach the shard of the Traveler.

"And I'm pretty sure we scared them away." Ghost says. "Take us to the shard and we can do our work."

"You got it." Taiki says as Spe-7 and Suzuka bring out Twinkle and Fang and they alongside Ghost examine the shard.

"This is why we were brought here..." Ghost says.

"I've never been this close to the Traveler's light before..." Fang says.

"Do you feel it?" Twinkle asks excitedly. "Hold onto your helmets you three!" And with that the three ghosts split and begin absorbing the light flooding out of the shard. Finally the three literally explode with energy and the three guardians feel rejuvenated.

"Oh YEAH baby!" Taiki shouts as he feels a surge of energy rush through him and his elements return.

"Whoa!" Spe-7 yells as she feels something like her arc energy flowing through her, but it feels like a burning hot volcano- solar energy.

"Oh my goodness!" Suzuka says as she feels void energy flowing through her.

"Do you feel it?! The light is back!" Ghost shouts.

"WE'RE back!" Twinkle and Fang shout simultaneously. With newfound pride and confidence Taiki-9, Spe-7 and Suzuka ready their weapons as they hear Fallen nearby.

"Eyes up guardian!" Ghost says confidently.