The Outcast Guardian 2.0 - Chapter 2: Consequences

As Caedus burst out the door of the bar, he was closely followed by the enraged members of his raid team, with Wraith following closest behind him. Due to the strict no weapons fire policies within the City, the Guardians couldn't shoot Caedus in the leg and catch up to him that way, but the betrayed Titan had other ways to bring him down. Using his newly acquired powers, Wraith materialized a small diamond shaped drone and tossed it into the air. It hovered for a second, then zoomed after Caedus. It latched on to his back and let out a pulse of red energy, causing the terrified warlock to stumble and fall. He quickly got to his feet and saw an angry fireteam closing in on him. The Awoken fled into a nearby alley and clambered up a ladder leading to the roof of an apartment building. When Wraith and his friends got to the roof, they were promptly greeted by the flash of a pulse grenade. Wraith was knocked over the edge of the roof but was able to grasp a pipe bolted to the brickwork. The pipe was unfit to support the weight of the titan and it came away from the building. Despite it being well out of his reach, and the only other option being falling 10 stories headfirst, the Exo reached for the ledge, and grabbed it. Wraith looked up and saw that his hand was only attached to his wrist by a thin strand of SIVA. He pulled himself up and he ascended as if he was using a grappling gun. By the time he got back on the roof, Tenebra, Jade, and Wilhelm were on the roof brandishing various constructs of Light. Tenebra was holding a miniature void singularity, Jade was pointing a Golden Gun at the cowardly Stormcaller, and Wilhelm was twirling his knife as he closed a conversation. "Welcome back, Wraith." The hunter said. "The Guardian got some backup on the way. They're a few minutes out." "If you're looking for Caedus, the rat's over there." "Thanks, Tenebra," said Wraith. He strode over to the warlock, his arm transforming into a blade. "Stand up." Caedus looked confused. "Sorry, what?" "You heard me. We'll settle our differences, hand to hand." Caedus looked at the bladed limb and swallowed nervously. "Are you insane? Your backup will be here soon." "Then let's do this quickly." Caedus got up. "Okay. Fine." He then hit the titan with a palm strike. Wraith shrugged it off, grabbed his opponent's arm, and proceeded to efficiently break it in three different places. Caedus howled in agony and recoiled in shock. Wraith grabbed the warlock's other arm and shattered it in the exact same way. Suddenly, he felt three pairs of hands pulling at him, Jade's voice shouting at him to "Stop, please stop, you've done enough damage to him." As he struggled against his friends, he heard the sound of a sword being drawn, and then everything went dark as he felt the engraved blade of Dark Drinker smack against the back of his head. Hours later, Wraith woke up with a splitting headache on a metal cot. When he looked around to get his bearings, he saw something that, if he still had an organic heart, would have caused it to skip several beats. Tower Level -1. He'd heard stories of this den of nightmares. Apart from the Vanguard leaders, the only things down here were Warlocks, and their experiments. What terrified Wraith was the fact that there were no limits on what the Warlocks could do, and the tests were so disturbing that only the most hardened and emotionless lasted any length of time as a scientist. These heartless Warlocks were overseen by Ikora Rey herself, and though she found it distasteful, she allowed the scientists to torture subjects if they deemed it necessary. "Welcome back to the land of the living." Wraith jumped, looked around, and noticed a pair of distinctive amethyst eyes." Hello, Tenebra. You scared me. Or maybe I'm on edge due to this place. By the way, great hit. You really know how to swing that sword." The onyx Warlock shrugged indifferently. "What was I supposed to do? You shattered every single one of his limbs. And then you began smashing his limp frame into everything around you." Wraith remembered what happened and he was shocked by how much pent-up anger he released on that roof. "Caedus's Ghost patched him up after your rampage, and only then did Guardian reinforcements show up. They arrested Caedus and sent you here. I assume you've heard the rumors of what goes on here." "I have. I'm not looking forward to my turn on the operating table." The Warlock smiled slightly. "I must admit, you're doing an excellent job of hiding your fear." The Titan nodded in grim gratitude. "Thanks. That's high praise from you." The purple eyed Exo turned to leave, but before she did, she said one last thing. "I overheard the Vanguard. Start rehearsing, because you'll be telling your story to them next."