[i]"I mostly ignore those who say that my contest, the crucible, is nothing but blood sport. What I want is a place for Guardians to challenge one another. The most powerful forces in the system, competing to better one another. I don't regret what happened to the Old London arena. It was an example of just what Guardians can do. And why the Darkness should fear us. We lost a bit of history, perhaps. But we made a bit as well."[/i] ~Shaxx ************************************************************************************************** "Guardian...down?" She sounded more surprised than upset. Our shared ghost means that those cozy three versus three rounds are a bit more challenging. We can't revive without all four of us there. There was only room for three. We'd received a challenge, though---and that challenge was by one Guardian. That meant this challenger wasn't going to be able to revive either. It didn't seem fair, but we didn't see the reason to not kick her ass and just keep it moving. Darion insisted we go in prepared to fight like it was against a full team. He wasn't saying much else. That's his name, you know. Ricochet. His real name is Darion. "Well, -blam!-." I remember saying. Or thinking it. I can't really be sure, because my ears were still ringing. And maybe my brain was still a little rattled. It was hard to be certain that I'd seen what I thought I just saw. The whole world moved. Static washed over my shield, and over my display. I could feel it prickling my skin even through the armor and my robes. The light was blinding, the sound was deafening, but the volume of... [i]information[/i] conveyed gave me vertigo. I don't know how to explain it to someone who hasn't seen it. Ask a Warlock. A lot of knowledge is required to use the Light, and use the energies we all use well. The more energy, the more knowledge. Angel's made of pure [i]-blam!- you[/i] and little else. Takes a lot of brain space to be that angry. When she lets loose, you can see it all. Freeze frame the Arc patterns, and then look at some high detail cognitive wave captures. Knowing how those work was the only way I dodged it. "Move!" I shouted, not really meaning to. The light hadn't faded. The buildings around us which formed the narrow alley were crumbling, but I could already see the stone sparking and flaking away into nothingness before it could reach her. It wasn't going to slow her down. The arch of crackling force which tore through the air past me, where I'd just been standing, would have obliterated me completely. It left a smoking, smoldering, molten line across the ground. I smelled Ozone, I tasted disorientation, I heard the closest thing to fear I think I'm capable of. I wasn't truly afraid of her. It was just sudden. I also knew that we couldn't win. "-blam!-! Holy -blam!-! -blam!-! Ricochet!" Bishop was laughing, and yelling at the same time. Ricochet had hand picked us for this round. He rarely did that. Usually if we got an assignment, he just took whoever was available. Or sent whoever was available. But he wanted the best he had at taking down other Guardians. It wasn't going to be enough. "He's down, Diss?" He requested quickly of our Ghost. "Like, down down? That was one hit! Holy shit!" It was one hit. We'd spent three minutes looking for her, covering corners, scanning for ambushes. Moving slowly, quietly, expecting some sort of trap. We found her standing at the mouth of an alley, right in the open. All white armor, red mark. Red Scout Rifle on her back. Something else there---couldn't tell what it was. No rocket launcher, no machine gun. She was just standing there. "He's down. -blam!-. Going after her." There was nothing else really that I could do. I could guess where her Arc strikes would go, I could blink clear. If I could land some hits without her hitting me back, I might be able to do something. Create an opening. That's what I was thinking. That's all I had time to think. I ran into the still falling rubble. Bricks and flakes of stone and dust obscured my vision, but I could still see where she was standing. She's so damn bright, it's not all that hard. Brought both Hand Cannons up, tried to find my balance as I ran. Couldn't get a lock on, but that didn't matter. Figured it would be hard to miss her. I fired through the chaos, darting off to my left while still closing the distance. Jumped, sprung between jagged pieces of rubble. Blinked once under a falling chunk of wall. Landed, skid across another, planted my feet, jumped from it, fired twice, blinked again---when I came out, the light was gone. "Seriously man? What do you expect to---BELOW YOU!" Bishop said she just sort of... teleported there. Blinked. I'd know a blink if I saw one. She didn't blink. She'd manage to focus that energy behind her briefly, and charged toward me with such force that the ground splintered and a roiling sonic boom spilled away from her. Some of the thunder I heard and felt was her boots grinding into the pavestones to slow her down. "Gotcha, bitch." I didn't need to see. She'd gone beneath me. I aimed both cannons down, fired. Alternating. Left-right-left-right---BLINK! Back to the ground. My shield immediately started to drain from what felt like a sudden blast---I'd blinked into the aftermath of whatever the hell she'd done to Ricochet. In the instant I was there, I tried to track her. Couldn't, and took off in a dash to the right which shifted into a blink before I could take the time to figure out where she'd gone. When I came out, I was skidding backward. I could see tendrils of steam from my own arms and shoulders. Bolts of Arc were still discharging everywhere---it seemed that she left those damaging fields behind her almost everywhere she went. Watching her take down Bishop was a learning experience all its own. For all his panic, he lasted a few seconds. She thundered his way, he fired---I think I saw her shields pulse and fail, but she didn't slow down. He dove to the side to avoid her inevitable attempt to use a sudden burst of speed to smash into him, but then she crashed through rubble and her tanklike approach suddenly shifted to favor agility which was a complete mismatch with her previous approach. He flung a dagger at her back, and she spun out of the way of it. Flinging herself, twirling in the air, landing with a single hand palmed on the ground and then using thrusters to rocket herself back toward him. He went up. Over her. Spiking a Trip Mine underneath himself as he went. Pulling his Rocket Launcher from his back. I thought, for a moment, that he'd nail her. Right between the mine and his rocket. No one survives that. But she swerved clear, turned her body so that at passing the point he'd jumped she'd be backpedaling and facing him. I saw her reach back, pull the Arc Flashbang grenade from her belt---I started a dash back toward her, blinked, and opened up. Two of my shots went wide. I tried to focus and make one count. It grazed her chest plate, she didn't flinch. I saw the sparks. I started to lead her. One good hit. I needed one good hit. I didn't get it. She slid her left foot back, planted her boot, suddenly stopped entirely despite all of her momentum from the dash. Hurled the grenade upward in a flash of a motion, an underhanded Softball pitch straight into the air. The other hand swept her Scout Rifle from her back. "Now [b]I[/b] gotcha, BII---" He didn't get to finish. "BISHOP, DODGE!" Boom. She fired one shot. It hit her grenade. It either detonated very close to him, or on impact. I don't want to believe it, but I think she nailed him with it and managed to fire that shot at the same damn time. He vanished into the flash and the smoke. ...I wouldn't make this shit up. I knew the Nova Bomb was going to miss her, but I did it anyway. I didn't last much longer than that. They call her the Angel. I thought that was just a myth. Three on one is pretty badass, but I'm not sure if she's everything they said---maybe if she can beat us six on one. Maybe, maybe if she uses whatever that was on her back. I think it was a sword. Oh, Old London? Yeeeeaaaah we kinda wrecked that whole thing. I mean just that area. London's huge though, they'll find another area to use! I'm not the one who decided we should have practice brawls on historic sites. -blam!- off. ************************************************************************************************** [i]"Could have sworn, when she hit me? The Arc, it made... there was a pattern behind her. Looked like wings. Looked like wings."[/i] ~Ricochet _________________________________________________________________________________________ Gotta start posting these. For those of you looking for old posts and things to put together from the story I'm weaving together... http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/82519181 <---- Grimoire style accounts of Angel http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/84954265/0/0/1 <--------- First person account of how she wound up with New Monarchy ...all other Vanguard Assault Lance related posts can be found by searching VAL or VanguardAssaultLance Enjoy!