Festering Evil: Shattered Past Book 4

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"Wait, Dad, if I'm a guardian now, then what about school?" David asked his father still looking at the set of gear that he'd given him. He'd been glaring at the white and black garbs for the past several minutes; he was amazed at the craftsmanship of the armor. How long did it take for you to make this Dad? He thought to himself. This armor was engraved with what his Dad called a family crest. One that belonged to his family when his father was born. It was silver in color and glistened in the light of the living room. The seal was on the shoulder pauldrons of his armor. A glowing, holographic, version of the sigil that belonged to the Mankind Defense Unit was on the bond on his upper arm.

"You don't need to worry about that anymore David," James replied to his son. "I've pulled you out; I'll be teaching you from now on."

"Wait what?!" David asked him eyes wide with curiosity.

"Yeah, I've been talking with your Mom about it for a while, and she thinks that you'd be able to retain more information if you had a bit more...hands-on approach," James replied to him. David stood up and looked his father in the eyes; he was a few inches shorter than his father, about five feet tall compared to his father's six two.

"How'd you know I was bored?" David asked curiously.

"Well, I could tell, the look on your face when you had to wake up in the morning said it all," James replied taking a seat on the couch. James was in his pajamas when he was around the house. When he was taking Ikora's spot for the Vanguard, he'd be wearing just a t-shirt and sweatpants. The only complaints that he got for doing that were from Zavala, saying that his outfit was unprofessional for his position. However, everyone else seemed to defend his choice of dress, including Lord Shaxx.

Shaxx himself seemed to just be enamored by James in general. He remembered when James first entered the crucible with all of the skills that he had learned. At the end of that match, he could hardly speak. After several games in the crucible, many guardians came back to the Tower either infuriated or terrified. James' abilities fascinated Shaxx to an extreme degree, and he was eager to see everything that this Warlock was capable of. However, after only a week most of the crucible's best warriors told Shaxx to do something about this to make it fairer for more common guardians.

Shaxx rather than take this harshly, as he often did, saw this as an opportunity to give James more of a challenge. Rather than have James fight with five other people against six, it would be him against eleven. James agreed to this rather eagerly,  hoping to be able to test his skill against a formidable group of opponents.

"This is amazing, thank you Dad," David remarked looking up at his father.

"Don't thank me quite yet, you still have some other gifts to open," James said to his son looking at Nova. Nova walked up to her brother holding a white box with a red bow on it.

"Here you are little bro, I hope you like it," Nova said hopefully. David gently took the ribbon off the box and took off the lid. Inside was what appeared to be a pair of gloves and glasses. His eyes went wide with excitement as he looked at them, it may have seemed unassuming, but it was much more than that to him. This was Oculus, the most recent virtual reality gaming unit. David had Geneva remove his gloves so that he could put on the ones that were in the box. The gloves felt a bit tight, and David put on the glasses. They were dark, but then there was a light.

The home menu for the glasses activated, and David was amazed at what he saw. It was all so, pristine.

"Wow, this is awesome!" David exclaimed looking around.

" The best part is, it's compatible with most of the games you already own," Nova remarked to her little brother. David took off the glasses and the gloves and headed up to his room, setting them gently on his desk with his computer. He then sprinted down the stairs to give his sister a hug.