"Hey Roland! It's been three whole days and you haven't bothered to Catch-A-Ride, man! What gives?"
There was a familiar voice. Roland looked over his shoulder at the scrawny figure of Scooter; quite possibly the only redneck left on the rock known as Pandora. He still didn't believe that this man had come from that woman who called herself Moxxi. Just how old was she, anyway? He slowly shook his head, and struggled to hide the smile that began to creep its way to his lips. He hadn't forgotten what Scooter had said about his mother when he had been hired to put a stop to Bone Head.
'The Catch-A-Ride near Fyrestone's more busted than my momma's girl parts. Why don't you take a poke at it? The uh... system, not my mom. Hotdog down a Skag den, know what I'm sayin'?'
Scooter always claimed that it was Lucky who 'broke' his mother, but from what Roland had seen, his impression of Moxxi began to deviate from what he had heard. Of course, he never mentioned this to Scooter. Strange as he was, he made for a good friend, and he sure as hell wasn't the kind of person you'd want on your bad side. His Runners were damn useful, too.
"Got nowhere to be." He replied, now turning his whole body to face Scooter.
"Aw, Rakkshit man. Why don't ya take a Runner an' catch up with yer buddies? Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you don't know shit about how these runners are built, so you're just wastin' away down here anyway."
Roland sighed and slouched against the wall. "Don't even know which way they went. Seems like a waste of my time, and your money."
"That's where ye'r wrong. I made sure to equip all'a my Runners with them position...things. How d'you think I've been gettin' back all them that you took when you was on yer vault adventure?"
Roland grunted and closed his eyes. They had taken Scooter's Runners to hell and back on their previous quest. The fact that he was still offering to let him and his friends use the service was ludicrous.
"So let me get this straight," He opened his eyes again and stared down at Scooter. "You want me to take another one of your Runners, possibly getting it destroyed in the process, and expect nothing in return?"
"Naw, I'll be expectin' somethin' this time," Scooter grinned crookedly.
Roland crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"
"You'll be takin' me with you."
"Seriously? Why would you want to go out there with me? It's not like we'll be looking for scattered parts."
Scooter shrugged and sat forward in his seat.
"I get bored when it's just me an' my girls," He motioned toward his Runners with a nod of his head. "I figure that the four of you are always up to somethin', so why not tag along?"
Roland sighed. Scooter's reason for wanting to come along was essentially the same as his for leaving. Boredom seemed to represent both ends of motivation. "If you really want to come, I'll not stop you."
"Awesome!" Scooter's crooked grin grew wider, and he jumped up to his feet. "Just lemme grab my things an' we'll be on our way. Oh, while I'm packin', feel free to pick a colour for our ride. In case you've forgotten, you can paint 'em all kinds'a pretty colours."
'All kinds of pretty colours, huh?' Roland smirked and made his way to the nearest Runner. The vehicle was built similarly to the old matchbox toy cars he'd used to play with as a kid, sans any fancy colour, of course. Scooter had a habit of stripping the paint from every vehicle that he salvaged, only to repaint them again. 'Guess it's just another one of his hobbies.' Roland thought to himself as he slowly brushed his hand across the Runner's surface.
"Picked a colour yet?" Scooter's voice rang out from two rooms over. "If I remember right, you guys sure were fond of my flamingo job. Can't say it's the manliest thing to be ridin' around in, but hey, I'll not judge."
"Heh." The memories came flooding back to him in one fell swoop. He and his friends had finally repaired Scooter's Catch-A-Ride system, and the team were awarded with both a vehicle and a choice of colour. Each member had decided that they wanted a different colour: Roland had chosen 'Blaster Master' Red; Mordecai's was 'General Flee' Orange; Lillith chose "Blue Sky' Blue, and Brick wanted 'Flamingo' Pink. They all had to laugh at that. Of course, Brick didn't find it funny in the slightest. In the end, they all took pity on him and let him have the colour that he wanted. After all, Brick had been known to sever heads with his pinky finger. He wasn't the sort of man they'd ever want to cross. That, and Roland valued his head. That's where all of his thinking was done. He assumed that he could say the same for Lillith. Mordecai, on the other hand, only used his head for tactics. The rest of his thoughts were handled elsewhere.
"What the hell," Roland smiled. "let's take pink."
Scooter's laughter echoed down the hall.
