Work Text:
(Oneshot)
“Why is it that we so often find ourselves visiting the graves of our Golden Age? Are we drawn to the dead, like flies to the discarded carcasses? Are we yet to move on from the past and build upon our present? Or, like the Taken, are we doomed to wander aimlessly for eternity, until something Omnipotent lights us the way forward?”
“How’s that?”
“I’d change ‘lights us the way forward’ to ‘blazes a path for us to take.’ It sounds better, and is a little more on the nose.”
Hades held his PDA and took Ronin’s suggestion, changing the words to better fit. “There”, he started. “That’s a solid start if I’ve ever seen one.”
Ronin floated over to Hades and read the words on the tablet’s screen over for himself, then bobbed up and down in agreement.
“Indeed. Though I do question the choice to write an essay on the Finality of Life on a patrol mission.”
“Are you kidding? There is no better place to write something like this, than the Fallen Metropolis of Old Chicago.”
Hades gestured around to the fallen city. Traffic lights and stop signs sprinkled the shattered streets, overgrown in weeds and grassy knolls while collapsed buildings dressed the scenery and old, war-torn Skyscrapers still stood, defiant in their refusal to fall down and die.
“The Essay just writes itself here. Plus, I figure, if I’m gonna be doing Ryan’s patrols, I might as well get some of my own work done here. ”
Ronin rolled his eye. “Alright, fine. But did you really have to bring him along?”
He motioned off into the distance and the two bore witness to the Guardian-less Cletus and his antics, as he popped out of a destroyed car.
“Shazam-bam!” He shouted out, flying out in a dust storm, a human skull hitched over his shell.
“Hey, look here, I dun found me a new hat!”
“Cletus no!” Ronin shouted from beside the Warlock.
Cletus turned back to Ronin and Hades. “Oh, hey there Hades and Flower, I found me a new hat!”
Annoyed, Ronin shouted back. “Again, my name is Ronin, I am not a flower and that’s not a hat, it’s somebody's head, put it down!”
Cletus blinked in confusion. “A head? I always wanted me a head on account of the fact that I only gots one eye.”
“We both do!” Ronin groaned. “Were Ghosts!”
“Ghosts? Nah, can't be. I don’t think we white or go ‘boo’.”
Annoyed past the point of contention, Ronin turned back to his Guardian. “You see, this is what I’m talking about.”
Hades let out a soft chuckle. “All right, I’ll admit he’s…challenged.”
“That’s an understatement…” Ronin mumbled.
“But, he’s also got a lot of heart; there’s potential in him. Plus, he’s not gonna find his guardian cooped up in that tower, the guy’s gotta get out more and better to go out in the company of friends than alone.
“Honestly, do you think he’s ready to find his guardian? I mean, Ghosts are supposed to guide and advise. I can’t see him guarding or advising anyone like this.”
“Only time will tell. But I believe that getting out is good for him. I’ve been speaking with Ms. Rey and she’s informed me of a network of Ghosts that perform reconnaissance for the Vanguard. She’s more than happy to help us get him up to speed and in that network. I think he’d be happier if he undertook missions of his own.”
“So this is a trial?”
“Of sorts.” Hades stepped down into rubble Cletus was now playing in, Ronin followed. They approached Cletus and Hades removed the skull from his shell.
“Alright, playtimes over little guy, time to get to work. Do you remember our mission?”
Cletus shook the dust from his shell and answered. “We gotta put the bacon in the city!”
“Beacon.” Hades corrected. “Patrol Beacon, Cletus. Here.” Hades pulled out a device out of his pouch and extended it into a patrol Beacon. “This is a beacon, and I am entrusting you to hold on to it and plant it in the ground for me, can you do that?”
Cletus looked at the Beacon in Hades’ hand and then in Hades’ face. “You can count on me Hades and Tulip!” If he had a face, he’d have been grinning from ear to ear.
“It’s Ronin…” Ronin attempted to remind him, to no avail, as Cletus began to scan the beacon, his eye and light straining as it slowly dematerialized out of existence.
“Alright bossman, let’s go plant this here bacon!” Cletus exclaimed, darting in the air with glee.
Hades didn’t even bother trying to correct him. Instead he pointed out to the center of the City. “Lead the way, little Light.”
Cletus flew off ahead while Ronin dematerialized. The Warlock pulled out his sparrow and darted off, following the Rogue Ghost.
They moved on for a while, passing the old Cars and Bones littered the overgrown streets of Old Chicago. “So much lost…and for nothing it seems.” Ronin observed. “Everything out here is dead or scavenged. What were the Vanguard doing sending Ryan to plant a beacon out here? ”
“Don’t forget Ronin, this is where the original Graviton Lance was found. The City may be old and worn, but I highly doubt it’s devoid of treasure. With the Vanguard down one, a portion of the City’s Guardians killed in the red War and a number of us rushing off to help the Awoken in their Dream-turned-Nightmare City, I imagine they’re looking for every advantage they can get their hands on to keep the edge we’ve acquired over the City’s enemies.”
“And I take it they’re not worried about enemy forces entrenched here?”
“I doubt it. It’s highly unlikely that there are any Fallen forces left out here. Ever since they became one house, they’ve moved operations to secrecy. They wouldn’t be out here, not in any real capacity anyway.”
Up ahead, Cletus stopped above a flat stretch of land. “Ey, I found it!”
Hades screeches to a stop. “Good job little friend, plant that beacon and I can cross this one off the list.”
Cletus goes to the location and starts to transmat an object, straining his eye once more. It hisses and buzzes, but he does fire an object out…unfortunately it isn’t what Hades or Ronin were expecting.
“You’re Kidding…” Ronin said in disbelief as he and Hades looked down on the floor at a freshly fried plate, filled with strips of Maple Bacon.
“One Bacon, just like you said.” Cletus proudly exclaimed.
“…”
“…”
Clearly, the Guardian and his Ghost were at a loss for words. Ronin was the first to collect his senses and speak. “Where…how…who’s Bacon is this???” He questioned.
“No, Cletus. The thing I gave you earlier, we need that now.”
“Ohhhh, I gotcha!”
Cletus worked and transmat another object. This time it was-
“-MY LORD OF WOLVES?!”
“Yeah, caint cook yerself some Bacon without some fire, right? I found it in the forest place.”
“I-I thought you lost it?!”
“Huh? Oh no, I just Forgots when ya asked me about it last month, But it’s here now! ”
Hades’ right eye began to twitch as he lifted the Shrapnel launcher up into his hands, Ronin floated beside him, his look alone told Hades that he didn’t think Cletus was ready for any of this. He acknowledged and raised the Lord of Wolves to Ronin, to which Ronin effortlessly transmatted back to his vault.
Truthfully, he was at a loss. He wasn’t about to give up on the little, flickering, light. But he didn’t quite have an idea how to proceed. Cletus only seemed to understand basic sights and ideas, confusing some words and meanings for others. Perhaps the warlock could use that to his advantage.
“ok…” He began. “How bout this…Give me a chopstick.”
“A Chopstick?” Both Ronin and Cletus asked in Unison, but with different tones.
“Yeah. Can’t eat Bacon without a Chopstick, right?” No. You can’t Eat Bacon with a single chopstick, and Hades would very much like that you not try to, but if Cletus would swap one meaning for another, maybe he would do so here.
“Ok, yer pretty weird Hades, but one Chopstick coming up”. Cletus looked at the ground and transmat something. Ronin and Hades watched intently, and with a modicum of horror, as Cletus worked his magic.
A few seconds past and sure enough, Cletus Transmat the Patrol Beacon out of nowhere and into the ground, much to Hades’ delight and Ronin’s relief.
“Yes, excellent work Cletus!” The Warlock exclaimed.
“Yes, great job indeed Cletus”
“Then you Bossman, Shiny flower.”
“I’M A GHOST, DAMN IT” Ronin exclaimed.
Hades took the Tablet out of his pocket, and folded it out.
“That’s another one down.” Hades crossed “Establish Old Chicago patrol zone” off of Ryan’s list.
“Next up: Test radiation levels in the Manhattan Nuclear Zone. Gonna have to leave Cletus aboard the Splint for that one.”
He looks to Cletus and Ronin, the first light cheers while the second is moderately annoyed. Two very different ghosts, two very different lights that shine at their own intensity, upon a land that has been seeded in darkness for so long. It inspires the Warlock enough that he begins to write.
*We visit the graves of our past for many reasons it seems. Reclamation, curiosity, but above all else, enlightenment. Standing upon the bones of the past, looking upon rusted lands of a fallen golden age, we are encouraged to not befall the same fatal mistake. An eventuality to be sure, but one we can delay. We blaze a path of our own out of the past towards a brighter future. Unto what? That is uncertain. But, it will be done the only way worth doing, together.*
Suddenly, Hades’ Tablet starts to beep. Ronin transmats it for him and he checks its notifications to see a message from Ryan.
“Oh, looks like Ryan and the Hunters are on their way back from the moon. Strange, he didn’t even remotely describe their time up there, he usually goes into great detail…guess it was a boring trip.”
Hades gets another ping, this time from Shade.
“Another one, this one from Shade. A mission on Mars? I’d love to, really. But I’ve got to get through Ryan’s Patrols. I’m sure Ryan’ll take up the offer, Still…I do wonder what they’ll get into…”
End of Story 7 - Patrol