So glad you guys are reading this! I'm so excited to continue this!
I do not own Tales From The Borderlands! Not even Rhys, even if I'm trash for him.
I had been told by many that I suffered from something akin to anger issues. Regardless of the fact that I found that to be bullshit, it made sense that my 'anger issues' stemmed from years of beating payment out of people who chose to back out of – what I call it – a temporary alliance. In my eyes, I didn't care if you were a part of Hyperion – you were still kind of an asshole – or if you were a psycho. What was important was the payment I got at the end of it, and me being a Promethean native certainly left people satisfied knowing I hauled ass across Pandora just for them. It isn't an easy life, something I said to a friend when asked about my 'anger issues'. It was either that, or 'accidentally' pushing him out of the caravan.
You could imagine that it took all it could for me to not chuck the tablet in my hands at a random skag, thus ending the conversation at hand, but eventually leading to my demise as a target of Hyperion. No one ever can be that stupid, unless you're a Vault Hunter; in that case, you brought that on yourself. You could say that, if I had never accepted the bounty from that lazy Hyperion, I would not be in this situation: dying of heat, listening to some old fart brag about his position and the fact that if I didn't give him the vault key as planned, he would find me, and he would kill me. With those words alone, I can conclude that their threats are just as shitty as their movie references.
Not to say that you should ignore threats by Hyperion; as a bounty hunter of many years, this is all I can tell you: don't. Kids, don't let your imagination run wild for this one, this is a problem adults can't even handle. No point in risking your life destroying a company that manufactures the weapons that you may kill one, maybe two Hyperions with. You have no other choice than to submit to them – if you can't beat 'em, join 'em – or to attempt to get by using illegal means. This is the majority of Pandora's inhabitants, believe it or not. You would think they would have taken the first ship to Helios...
As I pondered the advice I imagined ending up beside me in my grave, my skin prickled, the hairs spiking up to tower the bumps on my arms and legs as I was forced to listen to nothing but the chiming in of the breeze. My poorly painted fingernails, bitten down to the nub from countless events of stress, could no longer feel the low hum of the tablet. My boots halted their movement by a small lake in the broad desert, the only lake I've seen in miles, beads of sweat crawling into the collar of my jacket as if they were shivering in the cold. All I had to do next was avert my gaze to the face inside the tablet, lips tugged into a frown to counter his look of irritation. Not gonna lie, that may have sent a few shivers down my spine.
His grin was wide. "Tired of me already? Get this job done right and you won't have to be. You got 10 million on the line, baby, so best listen to me, kay?"
Never mind the fact that he almost sounded like a certain Hyperion dictator – handsome, I must say – he was right. I had never took on a job with this much on the line before, only a few jobs here and there in the area. It was a favor no one dared to accept, and I would happen to stroll past the lone, crumpled up paper on the board every time. I wasn't in it for the money, but the chance the deal gave to me: enough cash for a trip to Promethea. In other words, of course I was in it for the money. I was sure many others were as well before they kicked it or decided working for a Hyperion wasn't worth it.
For a woman with anger issues, I had lots of patience. "I was listening, kay?" Of course, I wasn't, but there was no way I was admitting that.
"Remind me what I told you when you first gave me your services," he said, his hazel eyes glinting with his apparent superiority. "C'mon, little one, humor me."
"I'm twenty-seven, you prick," I grumbled.
Beating the back of the tablet on my palm, I walked on, the sign labeled appropriately as 'Prosperity Junction' only ten minutes away. This also meant that hearing "Conversation is key conversation is key conversation is key conversation is key, c'mon, you remember this don't you blah blah blah..." would come to an end soon. At the notion of it, I couldn't help but leap happily, boots kicking the sand underneath behind me as I made my way to the run down, dusty village. His rough and guttural voice – I kind of forgot his name, but whatever – was loud, and indignant at me ignoring him. When I pressed the camera of the tablet against my chest he didn't seem to have much of a problem anymore. Even when a high end, Hyperion issued car had trailed along right next to me at the same pace as mine.
"Hey, she seems friendly." A cheerful, young voice observed. "I mean, for a Pandoran, anyway. You think she'll—"
"Vaughn, bro, we're on Pandora," another voice pointed out, silvery and oh so pleasing to the ears, but with the telltale attitude of a Hyperion loser, "but... it doesn't hurt to ask, I think?"
The other one, Vaughn, wasn't so sure at that point. "Yeah, if you don't count the slowly... cutting your face off and wearing it to sleep type of thing."
At his words of uncertainty, the corner of my lips couldn't help but form a grin, my blue eyes glinting as the sun observed the scene from up ahead. I could imagine Eris standing right beside me, her baby blues furrowing at me prolonging this conversation when she would have left long ago. I could just imagine it: eyes rolling in an attempt to defy her, but holding that certain longing to be somewhat like her. I would follow her, I know that much because I'd be on my knees if it meant her satisfaction. However, she wasn't with me, so I had no choice but to be my own person for the time being. In the end, I had come to the conclusion that being without Eris is not good for my mind, or movie references.
So I stayed behind, deciding to humor them. "You know I can hear you, right?"
The man sitting in the passenger seat of the car rolled down his window, all the way down to where I can see the other inhabitant in the drivers seat. Clutching the tablet against my chest, my hooded eyes scrutinized their lanky, slim figures. My own gaze traveling to the seemingly younger man, I watched with interest as he used his free hand – one with handcuffs that wasn't loosely wrapping itself around his wrist – to fiddle with the cuffs of his sleeves. Deciding to not dwell on the grip he held on the handles of his suitcase, I kept on with my inspection, up to the black – or was it green like my jacket? – vest he wore to enforce the 'I'm from Hyperion, so I'm kinda an asshole by default' trope. When I finally returned his grin with a frown off of my own lips, he averted his gaze just as quickly and muttered out a name.
"Um... Hello," I began, trailing off with a few cackles, shuffling my irises on every other object in this vicinity but their faces. "I'm... uh..." Do not introduce yourself, Noah, don't do it don't do it... "I'm nobody." Well, there went any amount of social skill I had.
The man in the drivers seat didn't take what I said too kindly. "Well, 'Nobody', can you tell us how to get to the... World of Curiosities?"
The tablet in my arms grew hot at the very mention of it, but my eyes were as wide as ever, teeth biting on my thumbnail to mask the smile growing on my lips. The Hyperion accountant and I were silent, and I could tell his ears were perking up like mine in search for more information. Yet, Rhys' – I couldn't help but listen in on what they tried to keep from me – mouth was moving, repeating his statement, and I was in my own little world consisting of what was ahead of me. As bad as it sounded, the Hyperion workers before me were inadequate, easy to handle in case of a bad situation in my eyes. However, I should have dwelled on the low probability of a guy like the two of them being CEO of a large, tyrannical company such as Hyperion.
This deal had already begun to fall apart at the seams, and I had no idea. "It says so on this huge sign." One that is behind another huge sign... "You can't miss it!" You most certainly can...
"Thanks!" The younger one of the two men, Vaughn, said.
Returning his polite and genuine demeanor with a beam of my own, my hair flew in the direction of where they sped off to, hands threading through my bangs and pushing it to the side so it wouldn't obscure my vision. Satisfied with the result, I raised the tablet high in the air so my client and I could meet face to face, sharing the same expression and the same idea as he did.
We certainly didn't share those views when I said this: "You know what, I think I'm done talking with Hyperions for the day."
His voice raising even higher than before at my sudden declaration, the tip of my finger pressed down on the red, circular button in the corner, ending the conversation as I saw fit. Shoving the tablet into my pocket, since I wasn't ready to throw it in the ocean just yet, I kept on with my journey to my destination: Prosperity Junction. Specifically, it was the the exact same place I may or may not have lied about it being so easy to find.
Whistling a tune of determination sounding faintly like one from a game with monsters, the leaves crunched beneath my right foot as my other stepped over dead bodies that littered the sinful, barren ground of the town. Looking down, it didn't take long for me to realize there were no leaves, just the bones cracking under the pressure of my boot. In just ten minutes, I figured, many bandits had fallen wrath to an unknown suspect, and I missed it. Others holed themselves in their houses, heads peeking out to assess what happened only to find blood – thank God it isn't theirs – coating their walls. Judging by how quickly I heard the door slam shut, they came to this conclusion: yeah, let's not.
So the next words to come out of my mouth were: "If I had to go with too much blood or too little, I'd go with the splatter..." Oh Christ, here we go.
I was ashamed, so ashamed that as soon as I felt a hand wrap around my ankle, I began to cry out what everyone in town was thinking: "God... Christ! I know it was god awful but you really didn't have to do that!" and promptly shake off his grip. Before I could pull my katana out of its sheath, the man before me spit out the sand in his mouth before murmuring words to himself, unintelligible. My eyes narrowing at his actions, I dropped to my knees, rocks burying themselves into my skin. Having no regards to this, despite it being painful and bothersome to deal with, I had a desire to hear what he had to say.
"Hyperions... those..." His body was shaking, that sticky, red substance I knew all too well painting his lips. "those... bastards..."
When he mentioned 'ten million', I no longer cared about what he had to say next. What he said only confirmed it for me, those two Hyperion workers were part of the deal, and they were the ones that caused all of this. I had absolutely no idea, at the time, how the two scrawny dorks in that car did it, but they managed to do more than just kill some of these bandits. That fact on its own made me wonder what else they could do, and what power they had at their disposal. That fact was horrifying, more so than this deal I was about to get myself to.
Of course, like all of the bandits in this rotten planet, this man had to waste his last breath on me, leaping at me to get his piece. At that point, all I had to do was roll out of the way, and watch him as he scrambled in his spot in the sand. Accordingly, his movements surely became rigid as a result of using the last of his energy on a bounty hunter. With a small smile, cracking the bones under the skin of my fingers, I made my way towards him with the handle of my katana finally in my grasp.
"Y'know what I hate more than Hyperions?" I began, stopping near his feet. "I really, really hate bandits... and I gotta tell you something else." With a suffering sigh, I plunged the tip of my sword into his back, sneering at him all the while as his sounds of protest faded. "I'm a goddamn bounty hunter."
Not that it matters, considering none of that even happened. At this point, it is safe to say that I have been lying more about my part of the story than the other two in the so called trio. In the end, people are going to have to deal with my shenanigans – I hate that word; I have no idea why I'm using it – listening to me lie over and over while I replay it all in my head. As time goes by, lying will become less and less bearable; for who, it didn't matter.
What really happened was when the bandit leapt at my being, I was caught off guard at his sudden movements, my eyes wide as he tackled me to the ground. His hands were closing around my throat, sticky with blood. He must have been living off of adrenaline since I was in no way expecting his grip to be so strong. My throat was closing up on me, and spots began to jump around my vision as my fingers tried to pry his off. His eyes, the only part of his face I could see behind the mask, were squinting, trying to hold on to the last of what was keeping him alive. A good ol' kick to the family jewels fixed that quite fast. Just as quickly, I took the chance to slide my katana out of its sheath located in the straps in the back of my jacket – very convenient sword holder, I must say – and stopped the erratic beats of his heart. His eyes were as wide as mine was, unable to keep his eyes off of me as my body shook, trying to maintain my breath. In return, my gaze sat on the blood staining his suit, his chest raising once, twice, before it dropped completely.
My knees could only give out, fingers tracing the design on what saved my life just now. I held the charm attached to it so firmly that I wasn't surprised it was digging into the palm of my hand. After a much needed moment to myself, the soles of my brown boots finally found the ground, fingers wiping the stains off of the sharp ends of my weapon. Sliding it back inside my sheath, black with complex and intricate designs like the handle itself, I did what I had to do, and kept on. Yet I could not shake this feeling, one of loneliness, one I didn't want to admit.
I missed Eris.
One after another, my feet stepped higher on the ladder bars, ears perking up at any sound. From the sound of it, the deal had long since begun, a woman's voice rather high with suspicion getting lower in volume as the building commanded it. Besides her, the voices that followed were familiar, as I only just spent my kindness giving them false information moments ago. As I was climbing up the long, tedious ladder to the top of the World of Curiosities, what was beyond my knowledge would be the next few moments that followed.
"Hello! What are you—" Squeaking, I raised my foot and shoved it right into whoever's face was under me.
Slapping my hand against my mouth, my neck couldn't help but sneak a glance over my shoulder at the man on the ground. I watched him, and watched him, until he finally moved the slightest inch and sent a sickly sweet smile at my direction. My lips, moist with lip balm, were clearly more well off than his. Skinny with apparent delirium and dehydration, he jumped to his feet, my nose breathing in the last of this town's air. Even so, that stupid smile wouldn't wipe off his face, even when I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Hi, Noah!"
"Aw, shit." Yet another perk of being a bounty hunter shows itself; you catch all of the ones that were more or less off the walls in terms of mentality. "Hi... Shade..."
"You didn't tell me when you were visiting! Oh, I gotta tell Frank—"
"Shade, no, no you don't." I said, cringing at every word out of his mouth. "I... I talked to Frank already." Frank is dead, like everyone else in Oasis...
Nonetheless, words just kept on spewing out of his mouth like bullets, and I couldn't even bother to stay for the rest of his monologue. Advising the delirious, and lonely man not to follow after me, I continued my long trek up the ladder. Apparently Shade was talking so much that he did not care to listen, climbing up the same ladder to butt into business that wasn't his. The number of voices inside were dwindling as I climbed, leading me to go up the ladder even faster than before. For that reason, and the reason of wanting Shade to get the hint, I was up that latter in less than five seconds. If Shade kept his mouth shut for once, my spot on the rooftop could prove to be a efficient hiding spot if shit hit the fan.
I could feel my heart racing, the hairs of my skin raising with anticipation. Just below me was not the deal of a lifetime, but a chance to have the answers to my past within my grasp. If I could get my hands on the Vault Key, I wouldn't have to worry about the trip to Promethea because I'd actually have the cash to make the travel there and back. This key would not only be the key to a vault, but the key to what I have been asking myself this entire time: who was the Vault Hunter that knew me?
Turned out I wouldn't know the answer to that question for a while because of Rhys' hand holding the Vault Key deciding to lose control at the wrong place, and the wrong time. Why do I say that, you ask? Because of said hand going haywire, the Vault Key fell to the ground. Additionally, Vault Keys are supposed to be durable, and physically real. This one, seemingly painted with addictive eridium, was none of these things. What was also not durable and real like this stupid key was my current mental state. At this point, even my reaction to this was a joke because I couldn't comprehend this happening.
It was a fake. It was a fake. It was a fake. It was a fake. It was a fake it was a fake it was a fake it was a fake it was a fake it was a fake it was a fake.
Whether I was angered or horrified was a question in itself. "What is that?"
"Well, ma'am, if my eyes aren't mistaken..." To add, Shade fiddled with the handle of his glasses. "I think that's a fake Vault—"
Gripping tufts of hair into the palms of my hands, my feet paced around the rooftop of the World of Curiosities. All the while, the only words that could escape my lips were, "Oh god, it's a fake. It's a fake..." The fact that I couldn't care less what the Hyperion would do to me once he found out was not at all fright inducing enough compared to what I was about to do to this band of idiots below me. What they didn't know was that, what they considered was a loss of money, was my one and only ticket to the infamous, undesirably inhabited planet of Promethea.
The breeze is crisp for a town surrounded by the desert, complementing the tension that was brought about by what was now on the floor. I was lucky not to be in the middle of it, shivering at the glower the pair of Hyperions directed at the pair of Pandorans. However, I was in an even more unfortunate situation at the moment: words from the man beside me were reaching my ears when I didn't want it to. My name was like a mantra for his tongue even as my right foot hung off the edge, leg swaying as if it didn't regard the solid ground below. There were no words to describe the reason why my body couldn't stop quivering. Was it that I lost my chance to hightail it out of Pandora and go back home? Was it that I would no doubt be punished if I divulged the fact that, upon approaching the deal, I found out the key was a fake even if I intended to run off with it from the beginning?
My cheeks, rosy with the blush I put on that morning, grew tight and lost its color. What would Eris say? Would she be upset with my apparent stupidity? Why did I care so much about what she thought of me? Oh, right.
"Hey!" I should have walked away. I should have approached the nearest cliff and leapt off so I wouldn't have to be punished. "Over here!"
Instead of at each other, all of the undivided attention belonged to me, faces mixing from confused and just plain stupefied at realizing who I was. Hands on my hips, I returned the gaze with just as much anger. They thought they were looking at just another person with a chance to make it big. What they couldn't realize, with such a small stature and puffed out cheeks, was that I didn't approach this deal to not get what I wanted in the end.
Then I found the suitcase on the table near some sort of vent, and it didn't take me long to figure out what was inside. The suitcase the guy in the passengers seat clutched so tightly against him? The phrase the dying man coughed out before I took his life? The two were connected to what many thought "was no object", and it was what flung me into this mess in the first place. Accordingly, my feet sunk into the cobble below me as the left foot went behind the other, prepared to fling myself over the edge with possibly the worst grace and elegance anyone ever has seen.
For once, Shade was puzzled at my sudden movement. "Noah, where are you—"
Once my feet left the ground and over the heads of the two Hyperion and Pandorans' striking the deal, the man behind me shut right up. The same could be said for them, the group of four below me, since they had abandoned the sake of killing each other to follow my flight with the most dumbfounded expressions. If I wasn't attempting to ignore the guy, my lips would have tugged just a bit upwards at the fact that Shade said, "That... that is badass!"
Now if I just averted my gaze just a bit to the right, I would have noticed the tank barreling towards the meeting spot faster than I was falling to the ground. If I relied on my hearing just a bit more, I would have heard the beat drop, bobbing my head to the music while in the air. I was in no way prepared – the soles of my boots weren't comfortably against the dusty floors just yet – when that same, huge tank plowed through the raggedy 'Welcome to Oasis' sign. The appearance of Bossanova resulted in a less desirable part of my body hitting the floor: my shoulder, which was still sore from my last job. Seething out a curse or two couldn't begin to cover it, especially when I found that the tank was coming my way and showed no signs of stopping.
The tires of the tank halted their drift just in time, my eyes wide as I stared at the silver plated wheels only a few inches in my view. Before I could shrink back and retrieve the suitcase already, a gloved hand the size of my figure pinched their fingers at my jacket collar, lifting me to their faces. The dubstep was as loud as it could be, hands cupping my ears as the booming laugh of Bossanova and the bandits below my feet rendered all hearing and focus useless.
"Let me go! Lemme go!" I screeched, fingers pulling at his larger ones with no avail. "One time! It was one time!"
"You're gonna pay, little one!" Bossanova guffawed, shaking me violently and teasing me by dropping me lower towards his group of bandits with hunger in their eyes. "I finally gotcha!"
"Hey!" My feet wrapped themselves around the arm holding me up, eyes still on the case on the ground. To no one's surprise, my eyes were on the prize rather than the obvious danger I was in. Wasn't much of a help when Bossanova decided to address me as 'little one' because who could forget a five foot four, twenty seven year old woman stealing all the gold she could out of their precious safe? "I'm not little, asshole!"
It was only a matter of time before someone made a grab for that suitcase, and the mere thought of it resulted in me struggling even more. The tension building up between the armored gang leader and me wasn't the end of the wreckage this deal turned out to be because another unknown challenger decided to barge into the chaos that was unfolding. As angry as I should have been that I wasn't the only one who was aware of this deal of a lifetime, no complaints reached my lips when I saw who jumped into the party. How could they, when none other than the famous Zer0 was the last one to make his presence known?
My reaction, well... "Holy shit." Was what escaped from my lips. "Hoooooly shit... Holy shit."
Unfortunately for me, that reaction was no lie. At the mere sight of the assassin, my steel blue irises were wider than in the face of danger I was in just a few moments ago. My body went rigid, no longer in a hysterical struggle to be set free. My thighs halted the act of defiance – if you could call wrapping themselves around the arm of a guy who could possibly crush me defiance – instead settling on hanging aimlessly, slowly as if their reputation depended on it. If my eyes weren't about to tear up over losing the deal, there was a huge possibility they would have when Zer0's neck craned towards my small figure.
Zer0's presence was just enough to divert the hullabaloo over the suitcase to him. In what I figured a loss of interest, Bossanova lost the hold he had on my collar, both his and his bandit buddies looking over to the newfound reason of the commotion. Even I didn't know the relationship the two had; it had to be something special because the burly, huge, dubstep loving guy didn't just let people who threatened his state of being go scot free.
The moment my side met the cold embrace of the ground, something I might have well have gotten used to at this point, one could guess which object my attention was locked onto. One could also imagine that I wouldn't be the only one eyeing the suitcase; looking up ever so slightly led me to the eyes of one tall, mostly leg, Hyperion. Like me, he must have been under Zer0's spell – except I will always be the better, bigger fan – but there was nothing in his narrowed eyes, his frown, to show that he had been, only irritation and something akin to surprise.
I returned what I thought was anger in the most childish way: sticking my tongue out and sending a wink his way. That was when, in the midst of all of the chaos, I began my mad scramble for the suitcase sitting only a few feet away, leaping towards it just as the uncertain Hyperion man did. He lost his own spot concealing himself behind some rusty, broken down vending machine just to make a grab for what was already mine. The case was already in my possession the moment my tallest fingers curled around the edge of it, the law of science rolling in my favor as it retreated from its position from laying flat on the floor, and into my arms.
A small but evident pulse of relief traveled along my skin, the bumps losing its rough, fine texture until I caught the movement of the Hyperion's right, blue eye – an implant, to be exact. That frown never left his lips, but so didn't the frantic activity that began to take place. A bounty hunter was all too aware of an eye implant like that; an ECHO eye had many purposes for Hyperion, but one that stuck out like a sore thumb was, coincidentally, the exact same tool that was currently revealing all of my secrets.
"Eris," he said. "I'll keep that in mind."
Eris did a spectacular job of messing with the records, I imagine. "Alright, Rhys." I said, the corner of my lips tugged into a victorious grin.
The bullet whizzing past my ear was as clear a sign as any that my time here was coming to a close. In times of oncoming danger like these, what I had chained to my pocket was quite handy. Raising it high above my head, my fingers wrapped itself tightly around the trigger, claws bursting from its cage to latch onto the opening of the roof above. What I found convenient about this grappling hook was that it took me with it to its destination, my body above the ground once more with the beloved suitcase in hand. Of course, it didn't sit too well that a five foot four woman decided to take the case and just as easily run off with it. Accordingly, upon my landing on top of the various minerals and pebbles sitting on the roof, I found three holes in my jacket, all out of shape, jagged, and singed. Whoever shot at me – October, or whatever his name was – caught me on a bad day, not to brag.
Unfortunately for Shade, so did he because his mouth was open and closed the minute I showed up, and yet I did not reply nor listen to a single word he said. The sound of each bullet hitting the ground, or the bandits were what was left of the deal now, as was what I held closely to my chest. It was no Vault Key, but Hyperion's are greedy; money was just money to them no matter how you looked at it. They could probably buy another one if they really wanted to, or go beg some other confused, insatiable bounty hunter to steal one for them.
The noise was so deafening I couldn't stand it. From Shade's never ending blabber about how nice a day it was to the mayhem down below consisting of bullets, slicing of flesh, and screams, I could no longer take it. I was never one for crowds, and this situation was no different. Not to my surprise, I was easily more irritated at the man beside me, going on and on like never before. The commotion inside the World of Curiosities was annoying, like all bandits were, and what I found to be so repetitive was the shot of a bullet, then a scream, then a bullet, then a scream, over and over. My brain shut itself down – there was a pulse thumping slowly, but painfully in my head – in an attempt to block the noise out, and I did what I always have been for years.
I ran, leaving the chaos behind me for some much needed peace. Unlike what transpired in The Holy Spirits bar just days before, it seemed like I left my certainty, my courage behind me too. I climbed down that ladder – quickly, but surely mind you – and I didn't know notice before, but...
I couldn't stop shaking.
I finished this at 2 am, so hope this doesn't look like shit lmao Thank you for reading! Please review if you can :)
