Intergalactic travel is quite the one-of-a-kind experience that should be witnessed rather than being told about; especially when you are stuck in a crappy space shuttle instead of using the fast travel stations like any other human or non-human being to make it a more comfortable and definitely less eventful journey. But then again, your company- former company strongly believing that you're a traitorous bastard who needs to be annihilated as soon (and violently) as possible makes the shuttle seem like heaven.

'Heaven' would be one of the last things that crossed John's mind at that particular moment, however, as he was desperately trying to control the crammed vehicle while fending off multiple Loader Bot attacks- or rather, trying to avoid the missiles directed at the old hunk of metal he was currently in charge of. Many colorful swears running through his head at the speed of light, he settled on an innocent "Son of a taint!" and steered the vehicle to left, escaping a Loader by mere moments.

He was more afraid than angry, truth be told; if he were on his own, he could pull off something more dangerous that had a better chance at making him get rid of the swarm of robots tailing on his ass, but he had a rather important passenger he dared not risk losing.

This particular passenger was currently hugging a small, toothy creature that awfully looked like the Kraggons populating Elpis. "Come on, dad! Just let me phase them so that we can escape!" The creature gave an encouraging roar.

"How about 'No.' kiddo?" John gave his daughter a strained smile that dangerously trod on the verge of a nervous breakdown, "As much as I'd love to destroy them right away, I can't put you in danger."

"'Cause I'm the very reason we're on the run, isn't it?" She sounded so crestfallen that it made his chest tighten.

John took a moment to steal a glance at her daughter, who was sitting in the chair next to him, still huddled close to her pet as she looked at the floor. He sighed, "Pumpkin, no... You know very well that I don't blame you for any of this." He made a sharp turn to the right that disoriented them for a moment- luckily it had the same effect on their pursuers. "I wish we could have stayed at Helios and gone on with our lives, but y'know..." He shrugged, giving her a lopsided grin, "That would've gotten boring after some time anyway." Angel let out a snort as her eyes met her father's, two pairs of bright, dual-colored eyes holding each other's gaze.

"Yeah... Guess you're right, dad." Her pet, Warrior (a name fitting its personality rather than its size) purred happily, content that its masters were relatively less stressed.

Thus, the first day of the rest of their changed-freaking-drastically life began. Surprisingly enough, the shuttle held on until they landed on a pretty deserted part of Pandora (was any part of the planet not deserted anyway?), then died with a sputter of oil and a couple of tiny explosions. Taking one of the backpacks they managed to bring along and throwing it onto his back in one quick motion, John put his hands on his hips and scanned the empty desert that seemed to go on for miles and miles; Warrior obediently stood next to him, wagging its tail with curiosity as it took in all the smells Pandora had in store for it. Wearing a similar pack on her back, Angel slowly came to stand by them, scrunching her nose as she looked around in the overly-bright sunlight, looking for any sign of technology she could detect.

Well, no such luck.

If he hadn't improved the damn thing himself, John would have deemed the ECHO device absolutely useless and inaccurate, which was currently lying in the sand thanks to having been thrown away during an anger fit.

"Nothing?" Angel asked with a bitter smile, to which her father answered by throwing his arms in the air exasperatedly and grumbling something under his breath. "Want me to check it out?" she added, her smile turning into a sly grin. She turned to grab the poor device currently resting atop a tiny sand hill; Warrior made a sloppy run to it and bent its head down to sniff it, letting out loud, careful snorts every time it took a breath thanks to is weird-shaped nose.

John let out an almost-matching snort, running one shaky hand through his disheveled hair (talk about dry climate ruining your carefully made, very cool hair), "Angel. Pumpkin. Sweetheart." The young Siren chuckled, leaving the ECHO be without her father even doing or saying anything else. John was as talented as she was when it came to anything related to technology and machines, so this was quite the blow to his ego. "I might not have the… mojo you possess," there he wiggled his fingers as if to cast a dangerous spell, a mock pout settling on his face, "But your dad here is quite the tech whiz." He gestured at himself proudly, "If you haven't noticed."

The duo looked at each other, their stiff and confident postures still deeming the other inferior- and broke into a fit of giggles simultaneously. When their laughter, fueled by now-past adrenaline and stress, finally died down, Angel looked at her father carefully. "Dad?"

Her voice was almost as small and frail as it was when she was younger, back when she was so afraid of even Claptraps that she hid behind John to avoid the overly-chatty robots. Warrior let out an almost-silent wail at its masters' sudden change of mood. John felt something cold grabbing at his heart, "Yes, sweetheart?"

"Will we ever find a place to stay?" she inquired, her large eyes lighting up like aquamarine and diopside on her pale face. She was still so young, so frail. John had the urge to heave a deep sigh, but he put on a brave face for his precious daughter.

"Definitely! If only it weren't for that darn ECHO device… Ya know? I bet we passed by possible camping sites already and this thing didn't even show them to us!" He picked the said device and gave it an accusing shake, the holographic map came alive brighter than ever as if to try to make it up to its owners.

Will we survive? he thought grimly as he checked the area as far as the map let him. How will I be able to protect her? I even almost lost her up there! And now Pandora, of all places?

His thoughts came to a halt when he felt a gentle, warm hand on his arm, "I can feed it with a little energy, if you want." Angel said quietly, pointing at the ECHO with her other hand.

"That's too dangerous-" His daughter let out a disappointed groan, "Nonono Angel, listen to me. It's not just your health that'll be at stake if you use your powers, considering the little amount of food and clean water we have; the jerks up there are probably trying to track us down right as we speak… Can you imagine what might happen if they manage to detect Siren activity?" His large hand closed on hers, "We can't risk it, pumpkin." She huffed, letting a few stray hairs dance in front of her pouting face. John gently held her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes, "Promise me you won't use your powers unless it's absolutely necessary."

Unintelligible mumbling. "Hm?" John responded with a tiny, knowing smile. "I said 'I promise.'" His smile grew larger as he hugged her close, "I love you." Without skipping a beat, her arms encircled him, "I love you too, dad."

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Now, John did believe in miracles (his daughter was one after all), but this seemed almost too surreal. He broke the hug and held his daughter at arm's reach, "You didn't…" He quirked an eyebrow at her equally surprised daughter. He checked the ECHO device which was chirping happily, a blue dot near them marking a possible camping site. "Then how…?" Angel shrugged, humming Idunno.

The holographic map flickered for a moment, letting the device pick up on an incoming call as if to answer him, "Surprise!" John couldn't help but let out a grateful, happy sigh as Angel nearly screamed and jumped excitedly, "Uncle Timtams!" Hearing its third favorite person in the whole universe and sensing its owners' excitement had a similar impact on Warrior as well, it had started howling and wagging its tail the moment it heard his voice.

"Heya, my guardian Angel! How you doin'?" While John had the ability to stay calm and collected during even the worst situations, being relaxed and cheerful was clearly Timothy's talent. And boy, was John thankful for that!

The duo watched the face gracing the ECHO device's screen as the young Siren replied with a gloomy tone, "Already missing you." Her pout didn't linger any longer, however, as Timothy's grin was quite infectious. "Ya know, considering I'm a simple HR goon, boosting your ECHO up a little is quite the achievement for me."

"I'm so, so proud of you, bro."

"Hell yeah, you should be!"

"Language, Tim!"

"Come on dad, I'm seventeen!"

The intimidating desert or the blazing sun stood no chance against this happy little family as they chattered their worries away for a brief amount of time. Finally, with a pleased chuckle that rumbled in his chest, Timothy said, "Alright, I'll leave you to your wandering and cut the connection for now. I don't want you to get caught or anythin'!" With that, he was gone, leaving the others to their own devices; but without Timothy's upbeat attitude, their smiles were bound to turn into grimaces. Angel's hand found John's, a silent squeeze that meant 'Don't worry, we still have each other.' Their stony-yet-warm pet came to stand on John's other side, resting against him as if to offer him support.

John heaved a huge sigh that had been sitting atop his chest for too long as if to let go of his worries (which didn't help, really) and let go of Angel's hand, "We should probably change before we get to this campsite, pumpkin, I mean…" He gestured to his jacket and Angel's t-shirt that screamed Hyperion with a grim smile, "We should try to look as Pandoran as possible."

"You mean, like bandits." Angel sounded amused, her father wasn't a fan of this planet's residents. John rolled his eyes and started rummaging through his bag to find any article of clothing that managed to get in during their frenzied escape.

"Try to cover up your tattoos, okay?"

Angel let out an affirmative hum and allowed her hair to fall loose, covering the left side of her face and neck, hiding the tattoos swirling behind her ear and across her neck. She wasn't complaining, she got to show off her neat undercut after all!

John buttoned up his dark jacket and tied his boots as Angel put on a leather glove on her left hand and threw a light scarf around her neck in case her hair wasn't enough to conceal the tattoos. Having nothing to do and no way to disguise itself, Warrior walked around excitedly as if its owners said the magic word, 'Walk!'. Angel shot a glance at her pet as she placed her bag on her back once more, "We're gonna take Warrior with us, right dad?" John chuckled in response, "I doubt it'd stay put if we didn't!"

What they thought was a small campsite full of psychos turned out to be an actual town, albeit not large, to their surprise. As John held his daughter close, his hand hovering near the pistol hidden under his jacket, he furrowed his brows; this was even riskier, things could take a turn for the better or the worse considering bigger towns meant more organized townsfolk with bigger, better firearms.

Naturally, people stared. Not that it was unlikely to get random strangers around here, but the duo that paced through the streets seemed… off. Like they weren't fit to survive the ruthlessness of Pandora. Like they weren't even aware of the ruthlessness itself that hid at every corner, in every shadow.

"Calm down and remember what I told you…" John quietly told Angel, who was fidgeting nervously, a clear indication that she could let her power wash over the town at any given moment. His daughter only let out an unhappy growl in return. "We can get some food, maybe a place to stay for the night, then we're off." he continued calmly, "It'd be better if we could get a car, but I doubt they even know what a car is in this god-forsaken planet-"

"New faces in my town, huh?" The lazy drawl cut off John's speech so rudely yet so easily and forced the two to seek out the source of the voice, which wasn't that big of a task as she was standing ten feet away from them. The woman wearing a cowboy hat that shaded her eyes from the sun put her hands behind her back and took a step towards them, leering at them all the way. "You seem awfully familiar, though." A tiny movement of her arm and her fluttering jacket revealed a six-shooter hidden underneath. John could feel Angel tensing behind him, "I bet it's the clothes, I mean, everyone wears similar stuff around here, right?" Ooohh boy, she wasn't buying it. He gave her a pearly smile that looked more like a nervous sneer.

"Or maybe it's the ECHO broadcast searching for a particular guy with a teenage girl and a disgusting moon monster." She put a hand on her hip, "A Hyperion-goon-turned-bandit with a Siren brat, falling right into my hands? That's too good to be true." John's expression turned into a worried grimace as Angel tugged at her scarf without even noticing.

Another lazy step. It took all of John's willpower not to take a step back, it was like trying not to agitate a wild beast. His hand hovered close to his pistol yet again, "Ah ah ah! Don't even think about it." Angel gasped behind him and in all honesty, he shared her surprise- just when did this woman take out her revolver?

"Mister John Lawrence…" the woman said slowly, savoring every syllable with a glint in her amber eyes, "You and your daughter are wanted all around the galaxy." She leered again, "You two can come with me calmly, or I can make your daughter watch me kill you first and take her in afterwards." She mock-pouted, "I'd rather get the bounty for you both, but your daughter's worth way more than you are, so I'll pick her if I have to." She shrugged with a grin on her plump lips, "Sorry, Johnny-boy."

Tough decision to make when you have a gun pointed at your freaking head and you really, really don't like the conditions that are given to you. John's hand trembled ever so slightly.

Whoosh.

"Angel, don-"

Bang!

Loud howling.

In retrospect, a lot happened for John to take in in such a short time span. The searing pain in his right eye (it felt like the whole right side of his head was burning, to be honest) added to the distraction as well, probably. If he weren't so filled with adrenaline and pain, he would probably be proud of himself for not fainting for a few minutes.

If he weren't so filled with adrenaline and pain, he would definitely try to stop Angel. He must admit, watching the woman's revolver flying from her hand and hitting her square in the jaw as surprise contorted her sharp features was a sight for sore eyes- or eye, in John's case. With a wild growl so unexpected from it, Warrior nearly flew at the woman and buried its sharp teeth into her ankle hard enough to make her yelp in pain (and probably wonder if she'd get rabies) as Angel let out waves of electricity towards her, her holographic wings fluttering behind her gracefully. She could go on with her attacks and probably try to kill her right there and then while she had the energy and the chance, but the fight had long alerted the woman's goons and John had lost a good deal of blood already; so, with a frustrated growl Angel beckoned Warrior to come to her, held it and John close to her and popped out existence right in front of the aggravated woman and her people.

In retrospect, Angel wondered if using up the little strength she had left to teleport her family out of danger was really worth it as she fell on her knees next to John. She was hoping she could do something to save her father, stop the bleeding, heal him (or anything, really!), but she didn't have the power to stand straight let alone have the power to use her magic.

One catastrophe tends to follow another, right? As Angel collapsed on top of John with a sob, who had nothing but labored breaths and blood oozing out of his eye to indicate he was still alive, she cursed at her slowness. "Dad… please…" she begged, her speech slurred due to lack of energy and abundance of tears, I should have acted faster! He's gonna die because of me!

It was at that particular moment that she heard the screech of tires on sand and knew in her soul that they were doomed even before her brain registered the bandit technical looming above them.