[spoiler]Note: This story originally was made on a separate thread (that was not my own) months ago. Since then, it has been altered but the story is still the same overall. If you have not seen the original post, or have seen it anyways but want to read this, then please make yourselves at home and enjoy the new story.[/spoiler] It all began some time ago. Not long ago, but not too recently either. It all started when Lord Shaxx (formerly called Shaxx) began the construction of the Crucible's landmarks. Construction bots and volunteer Guardians had all pitched in to help create this live fire arena as a way to test a Guardian's limits against fellow Guardians. However, shortly after construction on Venus, the workers began to find these small insects crawling around on the framework. Exterminators couldn't kill all of them, but most were exterminated or evicted from the area with little problem. Still, these bugs felt off. They gave a menacing aura as if they were agents of the Darkness. Curious, several Warlocks that worked out on the construction took the insects to the scientists for experimentation. Days later, the data came back; they just seemed to be ordinary bugs. Soon, the arenas on Venus were complete, the Crucible was now open. Shaxx, given his prestigious nature, was given the title of 'Lord' and became the head of all things Crucible related, including becoming the Crucible Vendor and appointing a Crucible Quartermaster, and limiting the amount of influence the Factions had in the arena. Days after the Crucible's grand opening however, the strange bugs returned in the Venus arenas. By this point though, the bugs could stay as they were only pests during the construction. they didn't come back in bulk as expected, but they still creeped out the Guardians that happened to come across them. One day, a Hunter was dominating in the Crucible. He backstabbed a Warlock effortlessly, stalked and assassinated a fellow Hunter, and cut a careless Defender Titan to ribbons with his Arc Blade. When he was finished, he noticed the bugs crawling on his blade. Despite mutilating a Titan to the molecular level just seconds ago, he took the insect and put it on the ground to let it scurry off. A few days later, he was back in the zone and destroying the opposition with a fellow Gunslinger. After seeing a group going for Heavy Ammo, he activated his Arc Blade and charged in. All of a sudden however, his vision looked blurry, he swung an missed, and before he could react, he was looking at the barrel of an Invective. Everything was dark. After his Ghost revived him, he still felt weak but he didn't let it stop him. He pulled out his Vex Mythoclast and decimated the opposition once again. After the round ended, he went to switch to the Suros Regime and noticed that the insects were crawling all over his gun. He brushed them off and went on to a game of Clash. Mid-way during the battle though, his Suros began malfunctioning. It wasn't doing enough damage that it originally did. He decided to change to his Mythoclast but found that it was suffering from the same problems. Baffled, he left the Crucible match and talked to Banshee about what was happening. Banshee said that this has been happening to everyone's Regimes and Mythoclasts. He was backed up with everyone else's orders so he could not help. Switching to new weapons for the time being, the Hunter decided to use Baldedancer some more. after finding an enemy Hunter he chucked an Arcbolt grenade. But for some reason, the grenade didn't hit the Hunter at it's usual range. He killed the Hunter regardless, but something was up. After a moment of pondering, he noticed the small bugs on his foot. His Ghosts neutralized it, and he took it back to the scientists for investigation. The scientists began working different experiments on the bugs; the experiments involved Light this time. Then they noticed a grave misfortune: the bugs feed off of Light. The Crucible arenas were soon shut down temporarily and the pests were exterminated again, but not before other weapons and other Guardians were affected. Warlocks found their Radiance weakened, and their Firebolt Grenades were weakened alongside. As soon as it began though, it stopped; all seemed fine soon after. A year had gone by. Eris Morn had come to the Tower to spread her knowledge of Crota, and soon a team of Guardians were able to assassinate Crota in his Ascendant Realm. The Hive Prince was dead. Banshee managed to fix Suros and Vex up enough so that they could work decently, but said the damage was most likely permanent until he could find way to fix that. Discouraged, Guardians began using them less and less. After the defeat of Crota came the rise of Skolas. However, with the help of Reef Queen Mara Sov, Skolas was captured and eventually executed in the Prison of Elders. However, there was a new threat. The Taken King Oryx had come to claim vengeance for his son's death. The Crucible was amped to find new areas to establish arenas, as the recent additions of Reef territory proved as fun testing grounds for a Guardian's skills. While the Taken War was going on though, the Sunbreakers entered the Crucible and wreaked havoc upon everyone. However, the sudden increase in Light caused a terrible problem: The bugs returned in bulk. They didn't come back to just Venus, they were everywhere. They had managed to migrate to several of the Crucible arenas and they slowly spread to not only the Crucible, but to Osisris's Trials and Saladin's Iron Banner events. Eventually, they were being found through missions and Strikes. However, they were everywhere in the Crucible. Eventually, the older arenas were quarantined and separated from the roster until they could fully exterminate the bugs. As the epidemic grew, Sunbreakers soon began to suffer from it along with many more weapons. Guardians began to joking refer to the bugs as "nerf-roaches" due to their abilities to destroy their weapons and weaken their Light. Despite the setbacks, Guardians were able to push through, defeating the mighty Shield Bros, the next-in-line-prince Alah-Kul, and slaying the Court of Oryx. Eventually, Oryx himself would fall to the Guardians, though some also speculated that the bugs may have infested his Dreadnaught after Guardians invaded it and had a hand in weakening even him. Nonetheless, teh King was dead. However, research during the Taken war showed that the bugs infecting Guardians were creating hostility in them. Guardians began arguing with themselves more and more. Many have threatened to murder the Cryptarch, Master Rahool (although the numbers didn't increase by much as they were high to begin with). Guardians even began threatening to 'nerf' each other. While the hysteria went on, scientists worked around the clock to find ways to end this conflict. So far, they've managed to create medication that would sedate the aggression but nothing on fully curing the effects that the bugs have placed on them. Much to their dismay too, Guardians didn't like to take the medication. The most common complaint was that it was grape-flavored. Scientists are currently in production of a bacon-flavored medication, though they're irritated that Guardians were complaining about something so ridiculous. Maybe the scientists themselves are coming down with the disease as well? Definitely a possibility. All we know for sure is that these nerf-roaches (now their official name) are currently here to stay, as the old extermination methods are currently outdated. Will we be able to survive this infestation, or will the Darkness conquer us using these annoying insects? Only time will tell, but many fear that we may be running out of time... [spoiler]inb4 TL;DR...[/spoiler]