Ep. 35 – UJD Warmed Up, I’m Not Dead!
And so, with our luggage already on the ship, communicators given, goodbye's said, the gang and I trasmated to the ship's common room.
"You guys are sure you want to come with us? It might be a long time until we come back here…" I said, just to make sure they knew.
"Yeah, just go man! We've stuck together for five years give-or-take, do you think you'll get rid of us that easily? An adventure might be fun to celebrate everyone's marriage. Plus, I think we can handle being away for some years. We were prepared for it when we decided to become Huntsmen, so this won't be too hard. We even have your communicators!" said Sun.
I looked at the others and they nodded.
"Ok then, store your luggage then come to the cockpit. There might be some turbulence when traveling dimensions, so it's better if we stick to one place."
"Now I'm having second guesses about this trip…" said Jaune, while I smiled.
We did a quick look around Remnant with the ship, then I went to space.
"MoonRay, you do have a scan about this system after so many years, right?"
"Who do you take me for?! Of course I have a scan. I'll plot a course to an area suitable for the jump."
With MoonRay's piloting, I had time to explain our destination to my wives and friends.
"Okay, we will do a quick stop to my home universe. Hopefully nothing invaded while I was away. I should also drop by Ikora, just to say that I'm not dead, yet. Then, we'll check out the Last City, and finally a quick stop by the Traveler's shard so that we can activate the Ghosts. You know, I should probably make Ghosts for you guys as well.
Anyway, why do you need Ghosts and this quick stop in my universe? Let me explain.
Ghosts like MoonRay were created by a machine called the Traveler which floods a certain amount of space with 'Light'. Now, Guardians grow stronger by gaining attunement to different elements and different specializations: Hunter, Warlock, Titans, Solar, Arc, Void, and obviously Light itself. The main use of Ghosts is communication, logistic support, analysis, revival. Basically, Ghosts are connected to the Traveler so, unless there is a veil of 'Darkness', they can collect ambient 'Light' and revive you. When traveling to other universes, there will be no 'Light', but I modified these Ghosts so that I can connect them to both the Traveler and me. Since I have a machine in me that let's me have basically infinite 'Light', you will be able to revive infinitely. I can also help you raise your attunements faster since I can basically become a walking mass of energy. You will need to train to use my abilities, but you will at least lose the concept of lifespan, be able to revive, regenerate, and create shields for yourself."
"You know, it's been a while since I heard one of your unreasonable explanations. I kinda missed them." Said Blake.
Well, I was being 'normal', at least I tried.
Anyway, we arrived in a void sector slightly outside Remnant's solar system.
"MoonRay, release one of the waypoint satellites. Then let's link it up."
"Roger!" she said. I saw on the UJD's display a new waypoint just behind and below the ship.
"Perfect, everything works. Fasten your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen, we might encounter some turbulence on this flight from Remnant to my universe. If you feel the urge to throw up… Keep it in. In case of an emergency, start activating your armor now and pray we don't get blasted into nothingness. Now, UJD warmed up, shields up, armors on. 3, 2, 1, Go!"
When I said 'Go!', space twisted, folded, distorted. 'Ah, I missed this. Not really, I kinda forgot after almost six years here.'
Soon, we were presented with the same distorted space filled with portals I had already seen.
"Well folks, this… Is the space between universes. I just need to find my universe's waypoint satellite and we should be good to go. MoonRay, do you get the signal?"
"Sure do, leave the piloting to me!"
Such a reliable partner. Sometimes, that is. I looked over to my friends and they were pretty rela- Ah, no. They are knocked out. Well, I am not getting any danger signal from any of them, so it's fine, they will just miss this sight.
"There we go! The portal right in front of us!" said MoonRay, so I took command and slowly entered the portal.
We exited from the twisted space a few kilometers away from the waypoint satellite. I started checking that everything worked fine, then I woke up my friends. All the while, MoonRay was 'dancing' around and shouting something about the 'Traveler's Light' or something.
"Hey, wakey wakey. Come on, we arrived in my universe!" I said as they woke up.
"Woah! There's absolutely nothing here. Where are we?" asked a not-so-amused Yang.
"Don't worry, we are outside the solar system. It will take around an hour to get back to my planet. Oh, MoonRay. Did you receive any messages when we came back? Distress signals? Maydays? Messages about the nth alien race invading our system?"
"No, nothing of the sort. Actually, it seems there is something strange. Maybe I should say something normal: only one year passed in this universe. Time seems to work differently in other universes."
"Well, it's good that there is nothing going on. One year, huh? Well I kind of expected time to be different. It makes sense. Hm… If it's just one year, let's send a message to Ikora saying that I'm still alive. There is no need to go back yet." I then looked back at the passengers. "Do you guys want to go look around the city? Or should we get to the shard and go to another universe?"
"I think that we might as well go first to the Traveler's shard and become Guardians like you. Then you could bring us around this 'Tower' and you can present us as new Guardians you met on your mission. That would make it easy for us to go visit the city, don't you think?" said Pyrrha.
"Hm… Yes, let's do that if it's alright with everyone. One year might be a little short for a long-term mission, but I can use a spatial anomaly as excuse. Something like: 'Oh, I was going to this other galaxy then *bam!* spatial anomaly. I got transported closer to my destination and found some new Guardians along the way.' Sounds like a plan!" I said, evaluating the pros and cons.
"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's go, I want to see an alien planet!" shouted Ruby, who had stars in her eyes. Literally since she was gazing outside and, you know, space, stars…
I smiled and had MoonRay plot a course for Earth.
So, here we are, a Guardian and nine extra-dimensional beings on a ship looking over Earth. Sounds like the start of a bad joke. Anyway, it took about an hour to get close to Earth, even though I am not counting the time I took to give the others a quick tour of the other planets.
Earth is a little different from Remnant since there are many satellite wrecks orbiting around it and the Moon isn't blasted to pieces.
"Well, what do you think? Isn't so different from Remnant right?" I asked to break them out of their thoughts.
"Y-yeah! I thought it would look… Different? The other planets also were… Underwhelming. Nessus looked nice though. And Mercury as well." Said Weiss.
"Well, Nessus and Mercury have been modified by a race of machines called the Vex, so they are a little peculiar. Earth is pretty much the same as Remnant just without the Dust and more aliens." I said.
"Wow, I almost forgot about Dust since we never use it anymore." Said Nora.
"Well, without further ado, let's go and make some artificial Ghosts!"
With that, I descended to the EDZ, just a few hundred meters before the Traveler's Shard. We trasmated to the ground and my friends put their guard up. I just strolled with MoonRay towards the shard. Oh, by the way, I had my 'Last Word' equipped, just to make sure. I started thinking about what kind of Ghosts I wanted to make for my friends. I had already given a Ghost with the 'Winter Lotus Shell' to Weiss, one with the 'Crimson Shell' to Ruby, and one with the 'Fire Victorious Shell' to Yang. It just seemed fitting. I decided to give Jaune's Ghost an 'Armory Forged Shell', Pyrrha will get one with the 'Sanctified Vigilance Shell', Nora will get one with the 'Arc Shell', Ren will get a Ghost with the 'Gyro Shell', Blake will get the 'Nine Lives Shell' that's for sure, and Sun will get the 'Predator Sun Shell'. Oh, on a side note, I have made Sun some armor in the last four years: a 'Virtuous' Hunter set with some slight modifications, like an extension for the tail and modified colors, but those were a standard. I also modified his weapon, but I��m sure he'll enjoy the 'Arcstrider' super much more.
I'm digressing! The Traveler's shard. I need it because I could not find a lot of knowledge about it in my mind, which means it is not from my universe. Cool. Anyway, I need to use my semblance on the Traveler to understand how it works and basically substitute myself to the big ball in the sky. I already have an idea, but I need to make sure.
We reached the shard and I activated my semblance. A shit-ton of information poured into my mind, so much that I had to leave the processing to a secondary thought process. I stayed still for a couple of minutes, then I talked to Weiss.
"My dear, do you mind if I tinker with your Ghost?"
"Sure, here you go. Don't break IceCone." She responded. 'IceCone? My naming sense has rubbed off on her, definitely. First is 'Schneesturm' and now 'IceCone'. Terrible.' I thought that.
"Seems like a fitting name." And I said that. But she smiled, so it's fine.
Anyway, I put my hand on the Traveler's shard and started pulling out some of its Light. I then shoved both that and my own light into the Ghost shell. It whirred to life, rattled a bit, then zipped to Weiss.
"Guardian! How are you alive?! Shouldn't you guys be dead?!" IceCone asked.
"Calm down, IceCone. You are not a normal Ghost and she is not your normal Guardian. Proceed to do your stuff and make Weiss your Guardian." I said. Since I had created IceCone with my Light as well, it should consider me something like a God. A good boost for my ego, not that I need it.
"Oh, uhm… Sure, I don't care about the details. It's good that I found my Guardian so fast!" it said. 'Heh, how gullible. Maybe it's subconscious. Oh, I can feel MoonRay's disgusted stare. Must feel strange for your Guardian to create new Ghosts on a whim.'
Anyway, I continued to give life to the Ghosts one by one. Yang had named her Ghost Ember, in loving memory of her old weapon that is currently collecting dust on the ship, not that there is any dust there. Ruby had waited to name the Ghost. She wanted to see its personality first. When it came to life and acted very protective of her, Ruby burst in tears and named it Summer, like her mother. I paused a minute to just hug her and calm her down. Jaune wanted to know the Ghost better before deciding. Pyrrha followed his example. Nora called her Ghost Thor. The fun thing is that Thor acted almost like a parent would, so from now on she's Nora, daughter of Thor. I will never call her that because she would probably bash my head in. Ren called his Ghost Backer since it immediately rushed to his back and only sometimes peeked its frame out, so he hoped he could 'watch his back'. Blake called her Ghost Nova. She said she liked the name. Sun instead called his Ghost CasaNova. He said that it's because he is Blake's refuge, so his Ghost must be Nova's so he went for that. His might be the second best after Ruby's, at least in terms of meaning.
After we finished the Ghost creation process, everyone was officially a Guardian. They instinctively knew what class they were, which corresponded to their individual combat style. Weiss became a Warlock, Yang a Titan, Ruby a Hunter. Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha were Titans, while Sun, Ren, and Blake were Hunters. Since I was still classified as a Warlock in the Vanguard's database, we were four Titans, four Hunters, and two Warlocks. Well, I will try to have them use the other classes' abilities, so their class will only be the main specialization. I mean, anybody can throw a flaming knife, not just Hunters.
"Ok, you just gained an initial attunement to the Light, so not much changed. From now on, you will have to train to gain more attunements while I basically supply you and your Ghosts with Light. You should progress quickly simply because you are close to a source and it's only the nine of you that share my Light. Now, let's go to the Tower, I have the sudden impulse to prank Ikora." I explained.
"Hey, you've said that name a couple of times now… Who's this Ikora? Another woman?" asked a very menacing Yang.
"C-calm down, Yang. Ikora is the Warlock vanguard representative. Basically she's like Ironwood and I am an Atlas elite, just that I can choose my missions and have almost complete liberty. There still are things I need authorization for though." I explained. This is a very watered down explanation, but it will suffice for now.
"Hm… Fine!" she said.
At any rate, we went back to the ship while they were testing some jumps and abilities I had demonstrated to them. They got the hang of it quite easily I must admit. We trasmated to the ship and enjoyed the trip to the Tower. I did a panoramic tour of the EDZ first, then flew a couple of times around the Last City, showing the view to the gang. It's much more futuristic compared to Remnant, so it was appreciated. We trasmated to the plaza and I told the gang to follow me. I moved towards Ikora's usual location. Just before getting to the bazaar, I gestured to wait for a second, then I activated my personal stealth drive and sneakily moved behind Ikora. I then tapped her shoulder, without revealing myself. She turned around suddenly, obviously not thinking that someone could possibly sneak up on her. She saw no one, so she turned around again, then I tapped her shoulder again and deactivated my stealth drive.
"I'm not dead!"
"And who would you be? You are obviously a Warlock from your armor, but I've never seen your face." She said.
I touched my face and remembered that I had my skin layer on, so I deactivated it. When Ikora saw my super cool robotic face, her eyes widened, then she blasted me into a nearby wall with a melee attack.
"Ikora! Seriously?! I come back after a year and this is what I get?!" I said, standing up and dusting myself.
"It's exactly because you've been away for a year, without a single message, distress signal, or anything else! What the hell happened to you?!"
��If you mean my skin layer, it's foreign tech. If you mean why I didn't contact you guys, it's because I had something more important to do." I said. Seeing as she would surely attack me again if I didn't explain, I continued, "I was caught in a spatial anomaly, then I found myself in another solar system, luckily it was my destination. And guess what I found there? Guardians! There they are! Guys! Come here!" I said. 'Please don't fuck up my perfect excuse.'
My gang came over and stood next to me.
"I found that there were some Guardians, but they didn't have any ships, so I brought them over. These are Weiss, Warlock, Yang, Titan, Ruby, Hunter, Blake, also a Hunter, Sun, another Hunter, Jaune, Titan, Pyrrha, another Titan, Ren, another Hunter, and Nora, yet another Titan. So… Am I safe?" I said, pointing to everyone in turn.
"Safe… By the Traveler, you and your fireteam always do this kind of things. Anyway, I welcome you to the Tower, Guardians. I am Ikora Rey, the Warlock Vanguard representative."
Everyone nodded.
"Now then, you might want to introduce yourselves to the other Vanguard representatives. I see you have your own weapons, but you should still see Banshee-44, the Quartermaster. If you don't have sparrows and ships, you could speak with Amanda Holliday in the Hangar. Hopefully she has some old ship you can use. Other than that, you can go to Shaxx, the Crucible manager. You need to set up some documents to use the arenas. Your Ghosts should have already accessed our network and created an account for your Glimmer, the currency we use. I'll leave Tula-28 here to guide you." Ikora said. I wanted to throw myself off the Tower: I had forgotten about the number thing.
"Tula…28?" asked Ruby, looking alternatively between me and Ikora.
Before she could answer and do worse, I said: "It's something like my last name. Every Exo has a name followed by a number. It represents the reboots of our personality. I have been rebooted a total of 28 times. But that was before becoming a Guardian. You can just call me Tula as always." I said, trying to not cause any more problems. Everybody nodded yet again.
I bid farewell to Ikora, then we moved towards the plaza again.
"So… reboots, huh?" asked Jaune.
"Yes. To put human minds in robotic bodies, a reboot was required, otherwise it would lead to death, in most cases. I have switched bodies often, reaching the 28th reboot, which is the current me. My body now can be directly modified, so that I won't require a reboot ever again. Not that it would be possible, anyway. Well, this just means I don't have many memories before becoming a Guardian and that they are very fragmented. All the important parts are all here." I said, tapping my head.
"I really hope you can stop it with these secrets. We're friends, you can tell us." Said Ren.
"You are right Ren. In reality, I myself forgot about the number thing since I usually get called Tula. Well, let's go. Zavala will surely be happy to meet some new Guardians and you will die laughing with Cayde. We should introduce you to the Crucible manager since it is useful to practice your new abilities. Then we'll tour the city a bit."
And so, we went to the two Vanguard representatives. Zavala gave a speech about being walls that protect Humanity, which struck a cord in the gang since Huntsmen in RWBY are basically that: a line of defense for Humanity as well as a spearhead against Grimm. That was before me. 'I should introduce a new calendar. Year 5 after Tula. Hm… Doesn't sound all that bad.'
We spent a lot of time with Cayde since he and Yang started cracking jokes and puns. It was fun. Shaxx wasn't all that happy to see me since me and my teammates usually dominate the rankings, making some people complain about the balance in the Crucible. 'Heh, we just gave him some more documents to skim through.' He was happy to introduce more people to the crucible though, since it is one of the best ways to temper a Guardian's skills. We talked a little among us and decided to stay a couple of days to get a feeling for this universe. They wanted to go to another universe though, so this will be a short stop for now. We booked an arena for tomorrow so that the gang can put some practice in before touring the place.
That evening, I went to the Postmaster and checked for some messages. Anastasia had found a lead on her mission, so she grouped up with Sara to investigate. Tetsu-9, Mikael, and 'Pops' did not return yet, which was… worrying, but they did not tell me much about their missions, so I can't do much about that. I left another message saying: "Hope everything is fine. Going to tutor some new Guardians. Might go off the grid for a while. See you!"
Just like that, three days were spent between touring the Tower and Last City, training in Shaxx' arenas, and touring the EDZ. I had stored the chalet in my inventory, which came up as an exotic 'structure'. Its name was 'Safe Haven' according to the interface. Pretty good name if I do say so myself. Anyway, I set it in a safe zone overlooking a lake in the EDZ. From the rooftop garden, you can see all around, including the Traveler's shard. I did exactly what I promised myself to do, just with more people. I obviously set a shit-ton of turrets, traps, illusion devices, and runes to make people lose their way and stay away from my house. At any rate, it was about time we left for the real adventure.