Chapter 2 - Wanted
It was a cold and frosty night. Big city was flying along the skyline. Sanctuary; The Flying city. Everyone who saw that last year, when Handsome Jack had struck, were amazed. It didn't surprise most of the people anymore. Now it was a normal phenomenon in Pandora.
It was home of the most Crimson Raiders and Vault Hunters. And of course there also lived normal citizens.
Four of the Vault Hunters were sitting in Moxxi's and seemed a little bored. Mad Moxxi watched amused, as Axton, the Commando was losing all of his money to slot-machine, in a hope of hitting the jackpot. She was leaning on the table and talked to Salvador. Poor guy had seemed depressed so she had tried to cheer him up, but alcohol had only exacerbated the issue. Now he was depressed and drunk. Then Axton hit the front of the slot-machine frustrated.
"Sweetie, that hitting doesn't help you to get what you want." She said and giggled a bit.
He walked over the bar and sat down next to Salvador. Short Gunzerker sighed and looked at him.
"Amigo, what are we doing?" He muttered annoyed. "Our live is aburrido.. it's boring. It sucks."
"Yeah. It was different last year." Axton smiled sadly, while his mind drifted to the memories. Those were good times. Fighting against the most powerful enemy. And the Warrior. Blood and adventures. Yeah, those times.
"What happened to us?" He asked.
Salvador snorted. "Those pendejos happened. They all died." He got up and walked out of the bar.
Axton sighed. He was right. Life was too boring nowadays and that was making them insane. For example their last mission im Frostburn Canyon; Last week, Patricia Tannis had sent them to kill couple spiderants and five minutes later they were done. Brick had smashed them both with one hand and Gaige had boiled over to him. They had almost killed each other. Lilith had transported to somewhere and then two days later she had appeared to Crimson Raiders HQ covered in blood. Zer0 had disappeared and all of a sudden and things around them started destroy on by one and even their Runner had crashed to the rock. After that, Maya had started to cry and Salvador had hugged her, and after a while he began to cry so loud, that it echoed throughout the Canyon. Instead of Salvador holding her, Maya had to hold him tight and tried to comfort him. Mordecai had started to fire with his sniper rifle, like a maniac and almost shotted Axton in the head.
Axton leaned his hand on his chin and tried to shake those memories away. Then he heard a drunken laughter from behind him and saw Maya sitting in front of Zer0 and she was totally hammered. She was laughing like some psychopath. Zer0 just shook his head frustrated and displayed a couple of red question marks on his visor. Their table was in a corner of the bar and Zer0 looked like he wanted to disappear to the shadows on the wall, next to him. Everyone in bar were looking at those two. Axton a felt little (just a little) sorry for him.
"Her head feels great tomorrow", Moxxi said sarcastically and laughed. She opened a new Rakk Ale and handed it to him.
Axton nodded. After a while, he was starting to feel a little drunk himself. This might be great time, to go homehe thought and tried to reach something what was supposed to be on chair, next to him. His black hoodie was gone Damn, where did I left it again...
Maya, the siren and Zer0, the assassin were still sitting on a corner and Maya was the only one who didn't look bored as hell. (Well, Zer0 had his helmet on, so..) She sat in front of him and was drunk. REALLY drunk. She giggled all the time and sometimes she looked like she was going to pass out. Suddenly she spilled her Rakk Ale all over the table and on her friend. That made her laugh even more and Zer0 just sat still like a shocked statue.
A red ! emoticon displayed on Zer0's visor.
"Whoops, I.. I should.." She slurred. Axton's black hoodie was next to her, on a chair. She took it and began to wipe the beer off the table with it.
"No! What the hell are you doing?!" Axton ran over the table in horror and tore his hoodie away from her hands. She looked a little hurt when he did that.
Zer0 shook his head jaded.
"You should go to sleep / You have drunk enough for now /.." He looked at Axton, who glared at Maya. "And you too, soldier."
Maya stood up and was (maybe) about to protest, but all the sudden she fell on the table. Zer0 and Axton shared a look and then they leaned over her to see was she okay. They both heard a soft snore. Axton sighed again.
"Last year, would you have never guessed, that we would become babysitters?" He asked and chuckled tiredly.
Zer0 shrugged. If someone was babysitter it was him.
He had always tried to find the ultimate challenge. That's why he came to Pandora. He had thought, that Vault would've been it. But, then everything was over too soon. Now there was only bandits and some creatures who didn't have a chance against him. Last week, he had went a little crazy because of it. And he wasn't the only one.
"We need to find a new Vault." Axton had taken the words out of his mouth.
Zer0 nodded. Challenge accepted, he thought. It was about a time to suggestion like that.
"Hey boys, it's closing time." Moxxi's voice came out of nowhere. Both of then nodded to her and then turned back to look at the passed siren.
"So.. Should we just leave her like that?" Axton asked.
Maya was fully asleep. She wouldn't wake up until morning. Some evil idea flashed in Axton's mind.
"Well, we might as well / Maybe she learns a lesson / Not to drink anymore."
Axton laughed. "I don't think that's gonna happen. Admit it, you just don't wanna carry her." He said and grinned.
"Do you?"
"No."
Zer0 was just about to walk out of the bar, when he saw the wicked grin on Axton's face. He had a pen in his hand and was leaning over the sleeping siren. Zer0 chuckled quietly and watched as his drunk friend wrote something to her face. He really didn't even wanna know. He had a strange feeling, that he would see tomorrow a very pissed siren, who tries to kill that poor guy.
"I wasn't involved in this. Okay?" He was too tired to speak in haiku.
Then the duo left the bar and Maya and then walked towards to Crimson Raiders HQ.
Couple moths after Jack's defeat girls had decided, that there wasn't enough space to all of them. Zer0, Mordecai and Brick were volunteers to move to the house next to HQ, but sirens and Gaige had rejected the offer. Then the next day they had moved themself. Now girls lived in their own apartment and boys in theirs. When the boys had got HQ for themselves, they had started to decorate the building. Now it had new upper floor, so they all could have their own rooms. They had even built a new room to Tannis. On the roof was cool terrace with shelter and under that was couple couches and big round glass table.
Lilith and Mordecai were sitting on one couch and Brick was laying on other one. They watched as Axton and Zer0 walked inside the building. Lilith sighed and leaned deeper into her sofa.
"We could have shared those spiredants," Mordecai muttered. He had one Rakk Ale in his hands.
"Don't start that again, you big baby!" Brick groaned. He swinged his pipe to Mordecai's direction. "I bet, that there's much, much more those thing left just for you."
"I don't know.. I'm I the only one who had noticed something strange?" Lilith asked while she stood up from his couch.
Brick chuckled. "Yeah, I have. That slab of asshole complains all the time."
Mordecai threw his bottle's cork right to Brick's head. Brick made an angry scream, as he stood up enraged and was just about to beat the hell out of him, but Lilith stopped him.
"Listen to me, you morons!" She shouted angrily. Both of them looked her in confusion. Brick slowly sat down on his couch and gestured her to continue.
"Last week, when I left for two days, I traveled to Badlands and I thought to kill a few loaders. But when I got there, there was no one. I thought, that was just a bad luck, but now I'm not so sure anymore." She looked both of them with worried look. "I talked about this with Angel and she searched for a common enemies near the Sanctuary but.." She cut her sentence to take a breath.
"No luck?" Mordecai asked. He and Brick looked now more serious.
Lilith shook her head.
"No. Not at all. There's something going on.."
Maya woke up late in the morning. She opened her eyes and saw dark wall next to her. Her back hurted when she got up. Then she realized something; She had slept a whole night on a table. Even worse; Moxxi's table.
"Morning, sweetie."
Maya turned around to see Moxxi behind her smiling to her. When she had turned and Moxxi had seen her face happened couple thing:
First, Moxxi's eyes widened, then her face seemed like she couldn't decide what expression she should make on her face and then she bursted into laughter.
"I.. I'm so sorry.. I.." She tried to speak while laughing, but failed miserably and started to laugh even more. ".. I need to go now.."
Then she turned around and almost ran away from her.
"What the fuck just happened..?" Maya watched puzzled as Moxxi disappeared to back of her bar. Suddenly her head started to aches really hard and she felt like she wanted to go to her own bed and sleep the whole day.
While she was walking toward to her house she saw herself on window, as it mirrored her picture. Her blue hair was one big mess and her face.. WAIT .. what was on her face? She walked closer to window and saw ink on her forehead . Scruffy text covered his whole forehead and it said:
'Im dumb and I like to Drimk!a! Yay,! (Zero wasnt involved in this. 'Kay)
"WHAT THE... no .. nonono.. You are so fucking dead, Axton.."
Axton was clearly responsible of this. He and Zer0 were only ones with her that night, and Zer0 obviously wouldn't write wrong his own name. And there was too much spelling mistakes.
Maya was pissed of when she emerged in the HQ. Axton sat on the chair, but jumped up his seat in horror, when the siren almost smashed the door. Everything seemed to happen exactly how Zer0 had predicted.
Few minutes later Axton appeared from the nearest New-U station.
"I shouldn't done that.", he muttered.
Gaige, the mechromancer was walking toward to Ellie's garage, at the Dust. She had woke up earlier, than anyone else and had been really bored. Then she had decided to go kill some bandits, but unfortunately she hadn't found any of them. Like they all had mysteriously disappeared. So while she was there, she thought, that she just could go to meet that lovable mechanic. Just as he was walking in, he saw with corner of her eye something horrible and very familiar.
A paper, which read: "WANTED for serious and outrageous crimes."
There was more papers like that, from all of Vault Hunters. Gaige felt horrified. Last year they had defeated Jack and now there might be someone else.
Then she heard some strange noise from the garage, like someone had coughed. She stood still and silent, until the noise stopped. Then she started to walk slowly inside, towards where the sound had come from. She saw some dark shadow behind one of the Runner and were ready to summon the Deathtrap. She almost slipped on the floor and looked down. There was puddle of blood. Cold and tensed feeling went through her body as she approached that shadow. All of the sudden the shadow moved and it almost freaked her out.
"You don't wanna screw with me and my robot!" She screamed and reached out her robotic hand.
"Gaige?" She recognized that voice; It belonged to Ellie.
Gaige walked quickly over to her. Ellie was sitting on a floor, leaning her back to the Runner. She breathed heavily and was covered in blood.
"Oh my god, what the hell happened?" Gaige knelt down in front of her. Blood almost flooded from the gunshot wound on her stomach.
"That son of a bitch shot me", She said quietly. There was so much pain in her voice.
"Who did this to you? I will kill that piece of shit!" Gaige felt the rage rising. She reached out her hand and Deathtrap appeared next to them.
"I don't know.. I haven't seen those guys before.." She started to coughed again.
"They looked like those.. Crimson Lance guys.. But they had black armor... I feel dizzy..."
She fell unconscious into Gaige's arms. Blood started spill all over her and she felt the panic overwhelm her.
"DT, you need to carry her, carefully. We need to get her to Zed, and fast"
Alice had bunked on the Gunslinger's Corner for a three days and during that time, she was better acquainted with the residents. Two of them, Jerry and John were brothers. They both were somewhere around the thirties and their face's looked almost the same. Jerry was two years younger than his older brother and they both had brown short hair. Their leather jackets looked like same on each other and they both were little dusty. Alice recognized them from each other only in small things. Jerry's shoelaces were white, when John's were brown. John had little darker skin color and he had long scar on his cheek. They were young travellers, who last year decided to remain there for a while.
Angus was older and little grumpy hunter. He had many scars on his face and hands and after drinking a little whiskey, he told stories about his life before retiring. They included herd of a giant skags, who looked like Skagzilla, enormous number of bullymongs, bandits and pirates. Then he got older and retired. He had his dark gray hair on ponytail and he had little wrinkled sweater. After all he looked a little bit gray himself too.
Emma, a pregnant woman had lost her husband, when bandits had broke into their home six months ago. A week after she found out, that she was pregnant. Then she had traveled to Lynchwood and tried to find a place, where she could increase a child, but it was harder on Pandora. Her biggest dream was to move to a safer planet, somewhere far away from Pandora, but she couldn't afford that. Alice felt sorry for her. Every time when Emma visited in Keith's bar she seemed so sad. Her sad face was so beautiful when she made a small smile and her long dark hair billowed on her shoulders, while her bright green eyes sparkled.
Now the all four of them sat in the bar with Alice. Keith was cooking a dinner to them and she was helping him as a bartender. Alice tried to turn the radio on, but when she pressed the on-button nothing happened. Damn, She snorted in her mind. She turned to look at her new friends. They all looked depressed. Brothers were drinking Rakk Ale (Alice couldn't understand how they were able to drink that garbage), the old hunter was sipping his whiskey. All, expect Emma started to be a little drunk. She just gazed at her mug where she had her apple juice and seemed to be mentally on somewhere else.
"So John, how long you and your brother are going to stay?" Alice asked and leaned her hands on the bar. If she was going to be a bartender, she could act like that too.
Older brother John shrugged. "Dunno. Last year we were planning to go to Sanctuary, but then it started flying. And now we can't even find it. So now we are stuck in here." John answered and gulped the end of his beer.
Emma petted her belly and sighed. "The Flying city. That sounds convenient. I heard, that Vault Hunters live there. I'll bet, that it's safe place.." She said so softly, that it sounded almost like a sad whisper.
Jerry put his hand on her shoulder and smiled warmly "If we find Sanctuary, we'll take you with us. I promise." He said.
Emma nodded and smiled back to him.
Alice looked at him thoughtfully and squinted her eyes.
"Keith said that two of them are sirens. I would like to find them."
All that time, Angus had seemed to be interested only of his whiskey, but then he woke up from his dormancy.
"I heard, that someone kills people who ally with those guys. Someone new", he muttered.
Emma "What? Who?! Almost screamed horrified.
John was just about to say something, when he was interrupted by Keith:
"Angus is right. There is someone."
He walked over the bar table and put the plates in front of them. They were full of his tasty food. This time it was french fries and nuggets.
"Enjoy." He said.
"You mean Hyperion? Do they have new leader or something?" John asked.
Keith shook his head. "Yesterday, I was walking on a street and there was some random black armored guys, who were talking something about their bitchy boss. I got the impression, that she isn't the most lovable person. And those guys weren't definitely any Hyperion soldiers."
"Did you hear anything else?" Alice asked.
He nodded. "They said something like 'if we kill the Vault Hunters, boss don't kill us'. Oh, and something about some door, that they were going to open", he continued.
"They obviously were talking about the Vault.." Angus muttered. "Fools."
Alice started to feel worried. Keith had told him all about the Vault Hunters and Handsome Jack and this sounded too familiar.
Meanwhile in Sanctuary, Vault Hunters had meeting in Crimson Raiders HQ. They all had gathered around the Tannis's table and looked worried at Lilith. She was sitting on a chair next to them and gazed (Very expressionless) the paper in her hands.
On a paper was a text:
"WANTED for serious and outrageous crimes."
Below that was picture of her and her name. Then there was more text:
"All who approaches the friendliest intentions or confederates this Criminal, known as the 'Vault Hunter' are instantly nominated as the accomplices and are sentenced to death."
There was reward too: It was ten-million dollars. Corner of a paper was only some kind of a circular stamp, that looked a bit the letter-B
"A guess you all know why we are here", Lilith said. She held her own wanted-paper and lifted it, so everyone could see it. Then she took more papers off the table and shared the to others. They were their own wanted-papers and all of them read exactly the same things, except for the names and pictures.
"Can someone tell me, why on earth are we wanted AGAIN?" She almost shouted.
Around them fell a very long and unpleasant silence. They looked at each others and didn't know what to say. It almost felt like ages, until Maya finally cut it:
"Who is this?" She asked and wrinkled her forehead. (She still had ink on her forehead and itched a little bit.)
She had another paper in her hands. In that, was a picture of someone else. A woman, who had long white hair, deep blue eyes and white top. Maya instantly noticed her siren-tattoos.
Her reward was higher too, almost 100-million dollars and she was apparently wanted alive.
"I don't know." Lilith said. "But she has must be really important, because they want her alive."
"But who are they?" Axton asked confused. Hyperion fell so this has to be someone else. "Someone whose name starts with B-letter. Who the fuck..?"
"Those bastards almost killed Ellie", Gaige hissed. She felt the rage began to rise again.
"I don't know, that who they are either..." Lilith took that stranger's wanted-paper from Maya's hand. Above the picture was a name; Alice. ".. But maybe she does."
Okay, second chapter done! Finally.
I brought Angel back to alive because I'll need her in future.
And by the way, my haikus sucks and there might be some spelling mistakes.
And
ChiefD3m0n1c : Thank you so much, that warms my heart :)
