[quote][i]AUTHOR'S NOTE: OK, here comes the ending. The series is slated to return with "The First Kinderguardian", which may be the last story, at least for awhile. A series that I expected to end after three stories has gone for fourteen, but my ideas are finally running out. Of course, it goes without saying that if I get another idea, I'll do the story. [/i] Link to Part 1: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/252724203 Smashing glass and wood as first wave of Scorn charge into the room. The party is about to begin. ODDISH: "I know you didn't sign up for this. If you want to transmat out, I'll understand." MALEX: "You don't actually think I'd do that, do you?" ODDISH: "Just wanted to offer you the choice." The first two Scorn charge into the room, swinging their flaming lanterns of death. Two hard punches, and their broken corpses (if Scorn were ever really alive) smash limply against the barroom walls. ODDISH: "Owww... those sharp-edged helmets are a pain in the butt." MALEX: "I'd more call them a pain in the knuckles." ODDISH: "OK, you got me that time." MALEX: "They're filthy, too. Good thing Guardians don't get tetanus." More Scorn have entered the room. Ajax jumps on the leader, dragging him down. Oddish kicks the second in the stomach, and it flies twenty feet in the air and smashes against the bar, denting it. Malex throws a knife, taking out one of the ones in the rear, then demolishes a second with a brutal uppercut. Oddish then head-butts another, collapsing him. Malex takes out another with a chair. Oddish grabs a fallen lantern and bashes one of the bigger ones with it. The Scorn dies, but both Malex and Oddish are set ablaze in the explosion. MALEX (slapping out the flames): "Ow! Careful, you idiot! I just polished this armor." ODDISH: "I still want a flaming death lantern of my own." MALEX: "You Titans are nuts, you know that?" Oddish punches a Scorn in the guts and it doubles over. He then rips its helmet off its head, showing its face. ODDISH: "Geez Louise, I think I'm gonna barf." MALEX: "Yeah, those things are ugly. No wonder they wear those helmets." The enraged Scorn tries to bite him. Oddish punches it, and it evaporates into a cloud of void-violated mist. MALEX: "I thought we weren't using powers." ODDISH: "Look, I can't control that. When my melee is fully charged, whatever I punch winds up disintegrated." He flattens another Scorn with a jumping kung fu kick. Actually, he kicks it so hard that its helmet comes off and flies around the room... with its head still in it. Malex picks up a bar stool and smashes it to pieces over another attacker's head. He looks for something else to bash them with, and quickly finds a Fallen ether bong on the table. He smashes it over another Scorn's head. An explosion of vaporized ether erupts around him, and he falls to the floor, expiring in agony as his lungs fill up with fluid. ODDISH: "Told you not to breathe that stuff in." Malex's heart stops a couple seconds later. Oddish sighs and kung fu kicks another Scorn, then proceeds to strangle another with his gauntleted hands. As the creature's neck snaps, Peacemaker does his thing and Malex scrambles to his feet. The barroom brawl goes on from there. More Scorn charge in. Oddish and Malex brain them with fists, knees, feet, helmets, chairs, barstools, mugs, bottles, crates, and anything else they can pick up. Ajax takes down a few with his teeth, though the taste of Scorn blood obviously disagrees with him. Finally, the flood of Scorn slows to a trickle. MALEX: "You think that's all of them?" ODDISH: "Might be." Suddenly, more than a dozen massive Scorn enter the room together and surround the duo, waving various weapons and laughing menacingly. ODDISH: "Might not be all of them." MALEX: "You think?" ODDISH: "We can handle them. You take the ones on that side, I'll handle the res..." MALEX: "Nah, I've had enough fun for one day." He fires up his Golden Gun. ODDISH: "Well sheesh, if you want to do it the EASY way..." Malex answers with his Super, rapidly fanning the hammer as he spins. The Scorn disintegrate into flame-wreathed clouds of cinders one after the other. Only one of them is still standing by the time Malex's light fades, and he turns and flees, leaving a puddle of something where he was standing. MALEX (eyes the puddle): "I didn't know Scorn could pee themselves." ODDISH: "You learn something new every day." (to Sigmund) "Sigmund, comm Spider." SIGMUND: "Calling him now." SPIDER: <<Is it done?>> ODDISH: "Yeah, we took care of them." SPIDER: <<And is the bar still standing?>> Oddish looks around the room. There's a fair amount of smashed furniture lying around, along with dozens of dead and unconscious Scorn, and quite a bit of spilled booze and blood. Bar fights are rarely easy on barroom infrastructure. ODDISH: "Needs a bit of cleaning up before it reopens." SPIDER: <<I guess that will have to do. Your associates were here, and I paid them off. They left a box of data cubes for you, which I gave to your daughter. She's bringing your ship around to pick you up.>> ODDISH: "Understood. Talk to you later, Spider." MALEX: "So that's it? Aren't you going to check the data cubes before you pay your associates off and go?" ODDISH: "No. They want those Shadows dead just as much as we do. And besides, if they don't give me good intel, their extra ether rations don't happen anymore. they might not like me very much, but they won't risk that." The [i]Blue Bird II[/i] zooms down and around, and they are sucked onboard via transmat. However, they quickly discover that the rear seats have several large Fallen-style chests on them. MALEX: "What the...?" ODDISH: "Petra, what's in all these chests?" PETRA: "You said you needed alkane dust. Mr. Spider had a whole bunch of it, so I bought some for you." ODDISH: "How could you afford this much of it? I happen to know that you have only 6500 glimmer in your account." PETRA: "He said he was having a special today, just for kinderguardians." ODDISH: "I see." (he sits in the pilot's seat) "Well, laying in a course for the City." PETRA: "Do we have to go already?" ODDISH: "We have an early morning tomorrow, sweetie." PETRA: "You always say that." ODDISH: "Because we always do." The [i]Blue Bird II[/i] flies off into the void of interplanetary space. Meanwhile, back on the Tangled Shore, Avrok turns to his employer. AVROK: <<Uhhh... boss?>> SPIDER: <<What?>> AVROK: <<What the hell happened there?>> SPIDER: <<I don't want to talk about it.>> AVROK: <<You traded that kid several crates of alkane dust, at less than five percent of the normal price. Why?>> SPIDER: <<Well, it's just... she was just so [i]cute[/i]...>> THE END Oddish's Index Page: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/228589572[/quote] Im trans