"He's a great foil to use to help break up some of the more somber stuff in the destiny universe. He always seems to be having fun and is a good reminder for why we all keep playing this game" -quote from my friend Azidamadjida while we were discussing Drew Drew is a character I have personally enjoyed creating and has brought many laughs to the readers of Legend Untold and myself, as well as being an inspiration to us all (except for the lack of intelligence part). This is for all you readers who love Drew-22, whether it be for his crazy antics or for those rare moments when his caring shines through, and wanted to know what his first day as a Guardian was like. I hope you all enjoy it. ________________________________ [i]It's dark in here...hey, what's that light?[/i] I sat straight upright with a shout of mingled pain and surprise. I couldn't see anything but a bunch of blurs at first, but I slowly began to make out what was around me as the pain faded. There was red sand, old boxes, sand, an old building, and more sand. [i]I shall call this place...Sand Land[/i], I thought to myself. "Hello," a small voice came to my ear. I jumped up onto my feet in surprise. "AH! Ghost!" I shouted, unable to pinpoint any person that the voice could be coming from. "How did you know that?" the voice asked again, now clearly female, and a small little circle with block casing on it floated in front of me. "You're dead? What sicko put your dead spirit in that little ball? That just seems cruel," I questioned her. "I'm not THAT type of Ghost," she muttered quietly, "I was made to find you and bring you back to life." "Cool," I replied, "But who killed you?" "...I'm not dead," she sighed, her glowing blue eye rolling. "Good for you," I cheered, "Wait, who are you? Who am I? Where are we? What does revived mean?" "Oh gosh...I don't have a name, I don't know your name, we're on Mars, and revived means brought back to life," she answered quickly and quietly. "You can be Sally, I'm Drew-22, and I thought this place was Sand Land," I responded, then thought about what I had said and continued with, "Hey, I'm Drew! I have a name! Wait...I WAS DEAD?!" "Sally...that's great, thank you Drew-22!" she exclaimed in quiet excitement, "And yes, you were dead. I don't know what killed you, but I woke you back up from your long sleep and now you're a Guardian." "Just Drew is fine. Guardian sounds neat, do I get to hit stuff?" I inquired. "Why wo...no- well, yes actually, you do," Sally answered cautiously. "Yes!" I pumped my fists in the air, then began thinking back on what had happened so far, "Huh, I woke up to the sound of a woman's voice with no memory of what happened before...something about that seems right." "Uh! You pervert!" Sally exclaimed, offended. "What?" I asked, "What did I do? I just said it feels right, I don't know why it does. How does it sound pervy?." "You better be serious," she muttered, then appeared to take a deep breath to calm herself, if machines can breathe that is. "Um, okay? So what now?" I asked. "Now we get you to the Last City," Sally told me. "How long of a walk is that?" I questioned. "Walk? It's on a different planet," Sally stated. "Okay, so how long of a walk?" I repeated, not understanding. "We can't walk there, we have to find a ship to fly there in," Sally explained. "Ooohhhhhh," I responded, "So where can we find a ship?" "We need to find a Cabal ship or a Guardian that was bold enough to come here," Sally mused. "There's more Guardians?!" I exclaimed, "Are they all like me?" "No, each is different," Sally said, then muttered to herself, "Thank the Traveler they're not all like you." "So they weren't all dead?" I asked. "Actually, as far as I know pretty much every one of you was brought back from the dead. It's hard to find living beings that can wield the Light," Sally told me, "We should start moving." "Moving where?" I asked. "To find a ship," Sally told me. "Find a ship for what?" I inquired. "To get to Earth," Sally sighed in exasperation. "Aww we're leaving Sand Land?" I whined. "It's Mars, and it's not safe here," Sally explained, starting to get annoyed by my forgetfulness. "Why isn't it safe?" I questioned. "Because of the Cabal, which are the aliens that control most of this planet," Sally told me. "Can I hit them?" I asked eagerly. "If we run into any, then yes, but I sure do hope we don't," Sally answered, her voice getting quieter and scared-sounding at the mention of the Cabal. "Lets go!" I shouted with excitement at the thought of a fight. "Okay, okay," Sally said, trying to keep me from drawing the attention of anything nearby, "Just let me enter your armor matrix first." "Armor what now?" I asked, not knowing what she was talking about. "Just hold still," Sally sighed. The little Ghost then floated straight at me face, but disappeared with a flash of white light just before hitting me. I looked around in confusion, wondering where she had gone. "Okay, ready," Sally's voice spoke softly, but she was still nowhere to be seen and her voice sounded like it came from inside my head. "Whoa!" I exclaimed, jumping I bit in surprise as she spoke again, "Where you at?" "Inside your armor matr-" Sally began, but stopped when she remembered I didn't know what that meant, "I'm basically inside you." "Cool," I mumbled, not knowing how that was possible but accepting it. I looked down at my body to see if there was any way to tell she was inside and found that I was wearing full-body armor. The plating was thick and bulky and shaded in white as well as dull grey; I was oddly unsatisfied with the coloration. Looking over myself more, I realized that even without the armor I was a really large man, and started inspecting my muscles. "I am jacked," I stated admiringly as I flexed my arms in a power pose, "Me gusta." "Why couldn't I have someone less...less like him?" Sally mumbled pleadingly. "Wait a minute..." I moved my arms around some more, feeling inner sheets of metal and chords moving underneath my armor, "I'm a robot!" "You didn't remember? And the number in your name didn't make it obvious?" Sally asked disbelievingly. "Am I made of metal?" I inquired, but without waiting for an answer I punched myself in the face, a resounding clang emitting on contact. I stumbled a bit from my own melee but was grinning widely as I collected myself. "I AM made of metal!" I declared. "Of all the people it could have been..." Sally groaned, "Let's get this over with, tin man." With that I began walking, not in any specific direction, just hoping that whichever path we took would lead to a ship. As I went on, tracking through the endless sea of sand, more buildings began to appear out of the sand, and the remnants of a once grand city began to rise out of the sand around us. Of course, there was still sand everywhere, including all over the buildings. "What's with all this?" I eventually asked. "This city? Back during the Golden Age, humans colonized many planets aside from Earth and built grand cities of innovation and science. This was Freehold, one of the pinnacles of human civilization, but now it lays under the sands of Meridian Bay, only a few parts of it ever protruding from the sands at a time," Sally explained with tones of awe and loss in her voice. "Um... golden... planets, cities... innovation?... pineapple... saaaaaaand... oh! So a bunch of nerds moved to Sand Land for gold and built stuff, but the sand kept getting everywhere so they left. And now the sand is still everywhere. Is that right?" I tried piecing together what she said, not knowing any of her big words. "...You know what? Yeah, that's it Drew, that's what happened," Sally said after a long pause. "Hehe, I'm so smart," I smiled at my ability to piece things together. __________________________________ Link to part 2: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/221445585/0/0 Link to ToC: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0