Destiny/Spyro Crossover Experiment Scene

Two moons shine across a frozen battleground.

A freezing wind blows across ice-covered stone. Ancient brickwork crumbles under the might of nature, only to be covered over by new battlements, hewn from wood and frozen snow. Corpses, frozen in place, pocked by heated blasts from an unknown force, stand in formation toward an icy cave, ancient stone-and-metal ruins from a time and place unfamiliar to these lands. Deeper into the cave, more bones of the creatures outside litter the frozen space, swords stabbed into more of the strange, ice-coated stone-machines. Cuboid stones litter the space in seemingly random locations, rods of silicon and metal sticking from them, guiding one's eye to a frozen gate that led to nowhere.

Seemingly nowhere.

Haze began to fill the cavern, forming into a cloud, miniature lightning strikes arcing across the anomalous structures and blocks that littered the cave as a bright light emanated from its center, a pitched whine and the smell of ozone and seasalt filling the air until-

Carver dropped out of the cloud, the Vex storm abating just as quickly as it appeared, disappearing in a flash of chronons and Arc energy. His Ghost, Vesta, transmatted from his suit, the Titan instinctively equipping his weapon - an Omolon auto rifle - tapping the safety as Vesta made her scans. A moment passed before either spoke.

"Where are we, Vesta?", the Titan said, a small cloud of mist flowing from under the scarf of his helm. It was cold, but nothing a Guardian couldn't handle, nor a Ghost.

"I'm... not sure, frankly," she responded, her shell flitting about in concentration. "This is Mercury, and this is the Sol system, but it's so radically different that I'm having trouble accurately placing us. Very little Vex presence, too."

The Titan frowned under his helm, raising his weapon as he, and his Ghost, made their way forward, Carver carefully stepping over the erratic Vex architecture and strange bones. "No Vex, huh? When you say 'very little', Vesta, I'm assuming that means cubes and the odd broken Vex gate, right?"

"Precisely," the Ghost said, a small, momentary robotic warble chirping from her shell before she continued, "Looks like we stumbled into a reality the Vex locked out of time; probably something here that couldn't fit their 'pattern', judging by the armatures left here."

Vesta floated around the Titan's head, as he pushed a snow-covered chassis over with his boot. Rusted, copper-green metal met his gaze, and Vesta made a quick scan. "Descendants," she said, and Carver tilted his head curiously. What were Descendants doing in a timestream they'd locked out of the pattern? He rolled his shoulders, continuing up the slope while Vesta continued her scanning. She always had a thing for learning every possible thing she could about someplace, even when it was fairly obvious what something was. Still, he couldn't fault the curious Ghost. It's how she found him after all.

"I don't know exactly why," she began, as if she heard him thinking on the topic of Descendants, "But I guess the Vex deployed Descendants here because they fit the timestream more effectively. This place is eons older than the Mercury we know," she chirped, as Carver nearly stumbled over a frozen disc-like optical carriage. A Goblin, most likely. "Either way," the Ghost continued, "I don't know. It's Vex, so they probably had some reason for deploying Descendants."

As she spoke, the ground began to level out, and the two could see starlight through overcast, lightly snowy skies. Whereever they were, it was clearly either up high, or near the polar regions. Stepping out into the howling winds, the Titan raised his rifle at the frozen creatures, only for his guard to drop when he saw their decrepit, shot-up state. Dead, clearly. He didn't know why they'd still be standing, though.

Vesta, meanwhile, ascended somewhat, straining her optics through the clouds at the two moons above. "Strange," she muttered, her shell flittering in concentration, "Apparently Venus and Earth, in this timestream at least, became Mercury's moons. Sort of." She focused just a little more, her shell twisting as she descended back to Carver. "It's likely that they became Mercury's moons in the same way Luna became Earth's moon. Though, given there's two of 'em and Mercury's definitely larger here than it is in our timeline, I'd say this planet had a rough time."

Carver tilted his head somewhat at his Ghost. Sure, he knew the basics of his system - it was his home, after all - but he wasn't necessarily in tune with the intricacies. He just needed to know the basics, at least in his opinion. Vesta could do the smart stuff as far as everything other than firearms was concerned. "What about the Traveler?", he interjected. "It still here? Can you feel it at all?"

The Ghost paused for a moment, splitting her shell from her core as she searched for the Light. After a few moments, the machine gasped in surprise, closing her shell before turning back to her Guardian. "It's... everywhere, Carver," she breathed, a slight warble of awe slipping from her before she continued. "I think... in this timestream, the Traveler doesn't exist in the same form that it took in ours. The Light is still here, I can feel it, and I'm certain you can too, but-" She paused. "It's in pinpricks, dotting across the planet. I can't say for certain what form they take, but the readouts are similar to Dusklight in the EDZ. Guardian, if we find anything that matches, I can do a proper-"

A howl split the air, roaring with such a ferocity that Carver immediately readied himself, a fist glowing with Arc energy as the ground trembled. In the distance, he could see... something, something flying. Vesta picked up on it.

"Can't make out the species from here, but it's tainted. Like the Scorn." She paused, immediately transmatting into Carver's suit. He could hear the faint sound of ice cracking and breaking.

And he could see puffs of breath emanating from the 'corpses'.

"Multiple Darkness signatures detected. Like it was-"

The ice-coated undead broke from their imprisonment, the ancient battlement reigniting with activity, hoarse calls and shouts pealing from rotted, dry throats as they readied themselves for combat once more.

Carver's fists lit up, and he felt a ghost of a smile pulling at his lips.

Another challenge. Great.