In It For Life
Chapter 1
It was hard to tell day from night in Hollow Point. Especially when you are not allowed to leave the underground city. Not even being allowed to play with the other children. At least on Elpis, she was allowed to fast travel to see Pickle. In other words… Lyall was bored. She wasn't even allowed to show her tattoos on Pandora. Athena said that it is too dangerous. That Hyperion will be searching for a siren now that Angel is dead and Lilith escaped. She just wants to see the sun again. Ever since the move, Janey or Athena were always watching her. Making sure that Janey's old brown jacket covered in in motor oil fully covered the 12 year old's torso. No matter the weather, always having to wear long, brown cargo pants. Really sucks during the summer. Well… it would be worse if she saw sunlight. The preteen was hiding behind the large metal garage. Pieces of light runners littered the ground.
Brown eyes glow purple as the light continues on down to Lyall's feet. A purple light envelops the engine to one of the light runners. 10 tons of metal shakily lifts into the air. It hovers a few inches above the cracked grey concrete. Long blonde hair fell into her face, eyebrows scrunched up in concentration.
"Lyall! Where are you!" Athena calls out from the side door. When she and Janey woke up, the kid was gone. The bedroom across the hall from the master room was empty. Normally Lyall would be the last to wake up, Janey normally having to drag her down to the garage after opening. The brown jacket was on the floor of the very messy bedroom.
"I'm out here!" Lyall calls over to Athena quickly dropping the engine on the ground. Her swirling tattoos stop glowing right as the ex-Atlas assassin runs over to the preteen, brown jacket in hand.
"You know the rules," Athena states stopping in front of her young sister-in-law. "Jacket. On."
Lyall's head hangs down as she takes the jacket and puts it on. "I hate the rules. It gets hot out here." The blonde whines squirming in the jacket. The taller woman roll her eyes before ruffling Lyall's hair.
"Janey and I have to pick something up in Fyrestone. We will be back in a couple of hours. Now say the rules to me, you clearly need a refresh," Athena says bringing Lyall inside the garage, leading her by the collar of the jacket.
"Stay inside, only open the door for Moxxi or Scooter, no explosions, and do not make a gun with legs," Lyall deadpans not fighting the fact that she is being herded inside. The second Athena let go, Lyall instantly ran over to a complete Elysian Green runner and climbed into the turret.
"Since when was building a gun with legs against the rules? That sounds bloody awesome!" Janey says as she walks over to Athena and plants a kiss on her cheek, immediately resuting in a pretend gag from Lyall.
"Ever since you married a buzzkill with no sense of humor," the younger blonde teases leaning down the side of the car.
"Your prototype shot me in the leg…" the gladiator deadpans, arms crossed not reacting to the kiss.
"And as a result, you got to take a week off of helping in the garage and had Janey fretting over your every need. You're welcome," the kid teases as she picks at the paint on the car.
"Just don't do anything stupid," Athena comments taking Janey's hand as they leave through the garage door.
Lyall waits until the door clanks shut before scrambling out of the runner. Inside of the work bench next to the runner, was a pistol. T4s-R to be exact. The young blonde grabs Athena's spare holster and attaches it to the right side of her pants. After putting Athena's T4s-R in the holster, Lyall runs over to the side door and opens it. Ever since the move, she had never been left alone. Until now. After the whole Lilith trying to kill Athena, Lyall was told to stay away from Sanctuary. However… she wanted to meet the sirens that live there. She loves Janey and Athena very much, but she is tired of hiding the fact that she's a siren. She has powers, she should use them. "Maybe Moxxi will let me stay with her for a while… I need a break from this prison."
The other residents were just starting to get ready for the day, few people were out on the streets. Which made it all the easier to slip between the buildings. It only took a few minutes for her to start approaching the fast travel point. Unknown to her, a skag nest was nestled in the rocks only 10 feet away from the machine.
As she goes to type in the coordinates to Sanctuary, five skag whelps suddenly charge her. Her breath gets knocked out as she falls onto the dirt covered ground. A skag jumps onto her chest and growls in her face. Swirling tattoos begin to glow as the skag whelp is surrounded by a purple light and thrown back into the four other skags. Black spots appear in her vision as she attempts to not pass out from the exertion.
Out of view, Jack watched the young siren from the top of the rock outcropping. 'Nisha, get the kid onto the ship, but leave the jacket," he orders before walking back to his Hyperion ship.
"Why leave the jacket?" Nisha asks using her Skullsmasher to snipe and kill the weak skags.
"As a message to Athena. Our old friend has been playing mommy to the kiddo we're rescuing… so let's leave her a little clue," Jacl says over the echo as Nisha jumps down to land next to Lyall.
The lawbringer shrugs and pulls a barely awake Lyall to her feet. It does not take her long to work the jacket off the preteen, making it fall onto the corpse of a skag. "So we're kidnapping a kid? Why not just return her to Athena?" Nisha asks slowly getting a stumbling Lyall to the ship that Jack moved closer.
"Nisha Nisha Nisha…. Athena had been refusing to let her reach her full potential. Keeping her prisoner. I just want to help the kid fulfill her destiny," Jack says helping Nisha strap the now asleep Lyall into a seat.
"After this, I'm out. This is wrong," Nisha says getting into the copilots seat.
"Fine by me," Jack shrugs getting into the pilots seat.
As the ship takes off to the head to Opprotunity, Athena and Janey materialize at the fast travel point.
"What is Hyperion doing out here?" Janey asks watching the ship fly off.
As Janey was speaking and watching the ship, Athena picks up the discarded blood stained jacket. "Janey… they have Lyall… we're going to need backup…"
