A Shocking Development

Ikora stared at the holographic display before her brown-skinned face. The red message before her said, "CONNECTION LOST," and she drooped her bald head. What is going on there? she asked herself, Where is Max?

A new figure appeared in the rectangular Vanguard room, a blue-skinned Awoken Hunter named Shin Malphur. "Ikora?" she asked, "How is Max?"

The Warlock Vanguard sighed dejectedly, "I don't know, Shin. I lost contact with him a few minutes ago, and I don't know why."

"Where was he going?" The Hunter asked.

"Phobos," Ikora answered, "We detected an anomaly, and he was the first on the scene."

"Not like he matters," said a youngly gruff female voice, "Max is an outlaw running from his past."

Shin gripped her fist, "How many times do I have to tell you, Cass?" The Hunter turned to face the Titan known as Cassandra Velnag, "Max only did what he did because the world fell into political servitude! If he saw another way, he would have taken it!"

Cass groaned, "Shin, if Max didn't cause the First Collapse, would we be worse off?"

"Yes!" The Hunter shouted, "If Max gave up right then and there, we'd all be slaves to some dictator's propaganda, earning nothing but empty promises! Heck, I don't think we'd exist!"

Cass eyed Shin suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

"Think about it, Cass. If the circumstances were different, do you think you or your parents would exist? Would the Traveler even arrive in our solar system to help us?"

As the Titan paused to collect her thoughts, Ikora's screen flashed a green "CONNECTION ESTABLISHED" before reverting to Max's profile and a soundbar based on frequency instead of time. "...MAYDAY! MAYDAY! THIS IS OMEGA LEADER, MAX PRODIGY!" Ikora Rey and Shin Malphur turned to look at the screen. "I HAVE BEEN SHOT AND I'M...ONTO THE MARTIAN SURFACE! ...QUESTING ASSISTANCE! I REPEAT: REQUESTING-" The soundbar disappeared before the screen once again said, "CONNECTION LOST."

Shin gasped, "Oh no! Max!" She turned to the Warlock Vanguard and pleaded, "Release me for duty, Ikora! We need to find him!"

Ikora sighed, "As much as I would like to, I can't. Commander Zavala and Speaker Alamo have restricted your movements since your raids into the Vault of Glass and the Hellmouth."

"And I came out alive, didn't I?" Shin argued, "I faced the Vex and the Hive in their darkest lairs. I imprisoned Skolas for his crimes against the Last Safe City on Earth. I am alive after everything our enemies throw at me! So tell me, why I can't go out onto the field again?"

Ikora sighed and muttered to herself, "And people wonder why you're Cayde's favorite." She turned back to Shin, "I don't think I need to tell you this, but you're reckless, probably more so than your mentor, Cayde-6."

"How!? All I did was protect the City from the Darkness!"

"But you failed to protect it and yourself from Max!" Cass piped up.

Shin shouted back, "He did nothing wrong to the City, Cass! How many times must I tell you!?"

"He will break the City just as he broke his own world, and until you can prove otherwise, I cannot be convinced he's innocent!"

Shin groaned to herself, "You never will be!"

Ikora sighed, "Cass, I want you to go find Max and bring him home."

The Titan grinned, "With pleasure!"

"But don't arrest him!" Ikora added, "He's our only lead into the anomalies."

Cass sighed, "Fine," and left Shin with Ikora.

The Warlock Vanguard turned to the Hunter and said, "Shin, I'm reading similar anomalies in the Cosmodrome, albeit smaller than Phobos. If left unchecked-"

Shin sighed, "I know...it will grow out of control." She cocked, twirled, and sheathed her golden hand cannon, The Last Word. It served as a memento to her former mentor, Jaren Ward; her time with him was cut short when he was killed by a Disciple of Crota named Dredgen Yor.

As Shin left Ikora for the Cosmodrome, a small orb with orbiting tetrahedrons known as a Ghost began to follow her. "Shin!" the Ghost announced, "Wait up!"

Shin turned around to find a Ghost named Gabriella speeding up to her. "Hey, Gabriella! How's life?"

"It's fine, better without Leviathan dead-naming me 24/7." Gabriella was one of the 6000 out of one million Ghosts who are transgender, identifying as a different gender than their voice boxes and the number of tetrahedrons; male-bodied Ghosts had 8 tetrahedrons whereas female-bodied Ghosts had 4 or 6 tetrahedrons. Gabriella continued with, "So, Max is in trouble? Again?"

Shin nodded and sighed, "I should be out on Mars instead of Cass."

"You know the Vanguard's position on Max."

"Yeah!" Shin exasperated, "Indecisive! Zavala condemns Max, Cayde sings the Warlock's praises, and Ikora is trying to keep her peers from each other's throats!"

"Shin," the Ghost warned, "they are the commanding force of the City. If you try to defy them..."

"I know! I know!" Shin said frantically, "There will be consequences!" She sighed again, "I just want Max to come home safe, and without any handcuffs."

Gabriella was confused, "But Ikora told Cass not to arrest Max."

"Exactly!" Shin said, proving her point, "Ikora said that, but Commander Zavala could give a totally different order!"

The Ghost looked at Shin with intrigue and interest, "Are you going to do something about it?"

The Hunter slouched, "I can't," then Shin grinned, "But you can!"

Gabriella was taken aback, "I beg your pardon?"

"Sneak aboard Cass's ship, remain hidden until you find Max, then stun her and rescue him!"

Gabriella paused for a while to think, then said, "Ok, but you need to come back in one piece!"

Shin rolled her eyes, "I know, I know. But have I ever come back in more pieces?"

Gabriella rolled her eye, "You know what I mean." She floated away to the Hangar, Shin followed to her own ship.

---------------------------------------------

Max woke up in the wreckage of his ship on the Martian desert, a few miles outside the Off World Transit, an automotive subway that used warp tunnels to transport passengers from one planet to another in the solar system in an instant in the Golden Age. Now, it's a relic from a brighter time, a relic mysteriously teeming with electric power. Max felt this faint power and asked, "Ghost? Can you feel that?"

Max's Ghost shook his head, "No. Feel what?"

Max walked to the OWT while describing electricity to his Ghost. "It's a sharp, arching, chaotic spear, but sometimes you can channel it into order. It powers almost every single thing in the modern days; houses, TVs, holo-tablets, heaters, air conditioners, hearing aids, etc."

"Ok..."

"But electricity is invisible, it's a force caused by a disturbance in the electron fields of the atoms..."

The Ghost spat, "Just stop! It's a force, and that's good enough for me!"

Max shrugged, "...fine. you wanted to know, so I explained."

As Max traversed through the inactive OWT tunnels, he noticed dozens of Vex robots gathered around the decrepit subway cars, visibly scanning the cars' power boxes for any remaining electrical charges. The Warlock in turn studied the dome-headed Vex Goblins, thinking about where he would find electrical potential. 'Batteries,' he thought, 'are my first suspects too.' The Vex teleported out of the tunnels, leaving Max to examine the subway power boxes. 'Empty, every last one. So where-' His thoughts were interrupted by a low rumble of thunder. "Ghost? What's the weather report for Mars?"

"Weather report?" asked the Ghost, "What weather report? The Traveler hasn't touched this planet since the Golden Age!"

"Just measure the air pressure outside and take a look at the sky!"

The Ghost whizzed away for a minute, before floating back at alarming speeds, screaming, "IT'S A THUNDERSTORM, MAX! IT IS A THUNDERSTORM!"

Max tasted the air, small electrical pangs striking and emitting from his tongue. He asked his Ghost, "How powerful is it?"

It was a rhetorical question, but the Ghost answered anyway, "The pressure is under 25, and a lightning bolt this size could produce 100 Terawatts of raw power!"

Now Max was shocked. In a terrified voice, he asked, "Has a storm on this scale happened before?"

The Ghost shook itself, "No, but the Traveler did create a rainstorm close to a thunderstorm when it was..."

Max held a finger up in front of the Ghost, silencing him. "Light!" The Warlock announced, "Light beyond measure caused this storm!"

The Ghost laughed in fear, "Ok, now we know the source of the greatest thunderstorm of all time! Can we please go back to the City now!?"

Max shook his head, "No, I want to harness it!"

His Ghost sighed, "Again, I was afraid you would say that..."