"Oooh, this is great," Maya stated once they fully materialized, Krieg falling on his rear trying to listen at the same time. He got up as she continued. "Love this place. The fresh smell of salt and warmth of sun all while we kill some sons of bitches."
He shared the excitement, but not in the same manner of course. Flipping his buzzaxe and slapping it into his palm, he gave a wicked snicker knowing what was to come. The duo ran ahead as gunfire rained down on them, causing action to rip across the map immediately.
Elemental damage and soaring buzzaxes filled the area and it was cleared of pirates in minutes, Krieg's joyful screaming and chopping complementing the siren's abilities well. It was always a spectacle to see the two in bloody harmony.
Closing in on the cave-like parts of the map, skags and crystalisks momentarily blocked their path. With no drops of Mordecai's legendary sniper as of yet, the duo assumed that they needed to head in deeper- and that always sounded nice to them. More grinding of skulls and melting of flesh. Krieg's frenzy of screaming and rambling about opening veins and grinding the cartilage was almost music to Maya's ears; always a sign they were doing well and breaking no sweat. As long as Krieg was okay, the team's main form of support was never endangered.
"I LOOOVE THE MEAT POUNDING!"
The skulls of skags flew in all directions as ankle-biters dared to come too close to the raging psycho, the muscly giant sprinting up the scaffolding and scaring the shit out of the pirates that tried to hide from his fury. Maya kept her pace, healing him when needed and phase-locking the final kill for Krieg to enjoyably disembowel with his buzzaxe like an organic pinata. That always sent him into a jumping fit and often falling off of edges- this time it was the scaffolding, resulting in a sandy-faced Krieg peeling himself from the white ground below. Maya was at his side crouching, watching the blood-soaked man get up with a smirk of pure amusement. The sand stuck to his whole torso and he didn't even bother to swat any of it off. He sped on ahead, his momentum not stopping, and Maya rolled her eyes with a snort. It takes a lot to stop this train!
Reaching the Sandman's Outlook, the duo were more than ready to take on the barrage of pirates ahead. The duo determinedly bolted forward through the clear pool of water towards their prey.
Before the pirates' salty throats could scream the words 'Vault Hunter', Krieg's buzzaxe would be firmly embedded in their throats, decapitating most of them and dragging their trachea out of the harsh gash the weapon left on them. Maniacal laughter thundered from the psycho as he finally finished off the last Raider, tearing its head from his buzzaxe's blade and tossing it into the air. Before Maya could question it, a shower of red and pink spattered the both of them as Krieg delivered a strong kick to the skull, sending it flying with a sickening series of crackles.
"HOMMME RUN FoR THE MEAT lORD!" he screamed and ran around Maya in a series of circles.
Maya reloaded all of her weapons, whistling to herself and looking around in confusion- no weapon drop. No legendary Mordecai weapon. Before she could contact the others, their ECHO devices grabbed their attention.
"Weapon located/Meet you two back at HQ/Mission accomplished." Zer0's voice poured out from the ECHO, a violently screaming bandit hushing in the background with two loud assault rifles burrowing their ammo into his body. Presumably Salvador. "DID YOU SEE THAT? TELL ME YOU SAW THAT." The short man laughed loudly in the distance and Maya spoke up, Krieg still running around. "We'll be there in a few. You know it's never clean after Krieg's done with his bait," she stated bluntly. Zer0 responded. "Understood. Have fun.~" The ECHO ended with Salvador trying to get Zer0's attention with creative cusswords. The two were complete goofballs.
Krieg kept swinging his axe around and his orbit around Maya was oddly shaped, almost running out of the area from such an adrenaline rush. That is- until he realized there was no more pirates. He slowed down with large huffs and panting following his slumping figure, holding his soaked buzzaxe tightly as the sand-coated giant finally braked to a stop in front of the siren. Despite his pent-up rage he always sported, he seemed to be at attention whenever Maya and him were alone, almost like he wanted to be instructed on what to do next.
Maya tapped her chin. "You are NOT going back to Sanctuary like that," she muttered with an obvious tinge of revolt. The stench of ripped flesh and open wounds tinted the fresh air and Krieg just stood bloody, slowly grumbling to himself, scratching an itch on his skull with the blunt part of his buzzaxe. Maya was about to instruct him when she noticed something odd on his boots.
"...Hold on. What's that?" she moved closer to inspect the odd colour that caked Krieg's boots with a pulpish texture. "Look at your feet. They're completely BLUE!"
Looking down with slight alert, the psycho lifted a leg and stared wide-eyed at the vibrant blue coating that completely covered both his boots. He shook his foot violently, throwing his axe to the side and almost kicking himself in the head.
"GET IT OFF!" he shouted in an odd pitch, starting to kick at the water around them and stomp aggressively. Maya stood back and actually wondered what it was. Did he run through a field of alien feces? Was the blue water just dyed blue and it got on him? The obvious thoughts made her take the situation as a joke, snickering as he dragged his feet through the clear spring water and burrowing his ankles-
-until one kick accidentally soaked Maya from the head down.
She gave a quick yelp and stumbled back, catching the psycho's immediate attention and making him stop completely. Good job you idiot, you got her wet! You ought'a love the lecture she's gonna give us, his mind started before Krieg dealt a good slap to the back of his head. "SHUUUUSHH."
Maya stood dumbfounded, arms out wide to let the water drip from her limbs. She looked down at herself in slight irritation then looked up slowly at the guilty one, soaked hair flat to her head. "Oooh no, you DID NOT JUST-" suddenly a wave of water smacked against Krieg and he fell back in surprise, rear planted in the water as he gained sight of Maya again.
She approached in a playful manner, arm alight with siren energy. "What's the matter, big guy? Don't like revenge?"
Krieg's mind raced, looking confusedly at the siren as she approached. Accept the challenge, buddy. Splash her again. Do it. His inner voice urged him on, causing his fists to ball in the underwater sand. His foot suddenly came up in a watery kick to distract the siren, scrambling backwards with a final understanding of the situation and standing up eagerly. Maya was already up and using her powers to lift more water than a normal arm could throw at her opponent. Bombarded with water, Krieg found himself skipping around kicking water at the siren as she burst into laughter, the psycho timidly following suite with incomplete sniggers- that eventually erupted into bellowing cackles, fresh and salty water raining on both of them as they circled competitively.
The adrenaline rising again, Krieg had just about had enough and broke the circle, rushing in to dive-tackle the siren and stop the menacing waves she threw. Her innocent laughter turned into a terrified barrage of yelping as she stopped throwing waves and just booked it away from him, hoping to have some sort of speed advantage. No dice. Krieg's cackles grew closer and overpowered Maya's pleas as he took a lucky leap forward, arms outstretched to snatch Maya and bring her down with him.
"PRETTY MEAT PREY IS THE BEST PREY-" Krieg managed to shout before the both of them inhaled a mouthful of water, a loud SMACK and muting of all sounds enveloped the duo. Krieg was sure he had the siren caged around the waist with his arms, his face being pressed against by the soft cushion of Maya's butt.
This didn't last long.
Krieg's catch wriggled out from his grip and stampered out of the water, huffing and heaving from the shock she just experienced. Krieg stayed underwater for a bit, deciding what to do before squirming about and crawling onto land like a dying fish.
Maya was unsure whether or not to be terrified, livid or baffled at what just happened. Well, I'm not dead, She thought positively. That calmed her down a bit, but she was still wary of the recovering psycho flopping on the grass. "Well- I-" she let her arms flap back at her sides with a wet FWAP. "...That cleaned you up at least, big guy," she curled her face into a frown. The disoriented psycho got to his feet and on that note looked down at himself, seeing all the blood, sand, and blue stuff cleanly washed from his muscled body. His bandages became loosened from the aquatic mess and his pants seemed to droop lower than usual. He stood dripping wet and completely still for a little bit until his heaves turned back into paceful breaths. Maya seemed to be covering her eyes a bit.
"Pants. Pants. Pull them up-" she gestured wildly with a free hand until he got the hint and he pulled up his orange trousers over his manhood. Knowing the siren's maturity she was probably used to telling the guy to tighten his belt from all the times he'd forget about modesty- whether it be in combat or around the HQ.
All the chaos seemingly over, Krieg had his eye locked on Maya the whole time as she tried batting out the water from her hair and ears, both in constant admiration of the woman and eagerness to take orders from her. He retrieved his buzzaxe once again in case the next direction included that of busting skulls open and kicking brains.
Standing with a bit of sass in her poise, she held a serious face on Krieg, making him a bit uneasy. But, after she took a deep breath, she burst out laughing and clutched her knees with uncontrolled snickering growing louder.
"DID THAT SERIOUSLY JUST-HAPPEN-" she snorted loudly and continued her fit. Krieg wondered if she knew her nice bum was planted into his face for a few solid seconds while they were submerged; odd thoughts started to branch off in his mind and he felt a warm tingle in his chest. He shrugged it off when his inner mind started to tease him about the encounter, giving a few good smacks to the side of his head.
"YOU WERE JUST LIKE- FWOOOOSH," Maya made silly flying gestures with her hands and smacked them together. "AND THEN I WAS LIKE 'AWWW CRAP'," she did a dramatic motion as if she was about to faint then regained her stance. She took a few moments to ramble on about what had happened- probably because she was still shocked- all the while Krieg held his one eye on her without any signs of movement. He held a dumb grin on his face and swiftly followed the siren as she started on her way out of the Outlook.
"That seems about it for pirates bud," she said as she walked, maliwan SMG slung over her shoulder. Krieg jerked his head back and let out a mix between a groan and whine of disappointment.
"I WASNNN'T DOOOONNNE." Swinging his buzzaxe left and right clumsily, the eager psycho and amused siren pressed on back.
On the way however, Maya couldn't help but turn her head to a patch of vibrant blue flowers, the middle of it seemingly trampled by a certain mad-man's boots that left a blue path out to the water...
"Krieg."
The towering body of the guy almost tripped over the siren when she stopped, bumping into her shorter frame and stampering back a couple of steps. Krieg muttered something nonsensical but had her attention.
"Why are we stopPING-" his voice lifted a tad but then his jaw was grabbed by Maya below, her hand turning his head sharply to the side.
"Blue. That's the stuff that was on your boots." She pointed and made her way over to the brightly coloured flora, making sure not to step in it herself. Krieg instinctively followed over too, holding his jaw where Maya's hand was seconds ago. His face was red from her touch. She crouched down, and reaching forward with her left she carefully plucked one from the stem. There were the tattoos again, catching Krieg's attention, glistening slightly under Maya's wet skin.
They've always been there. Just now we're starting to be intrigued? his mind scoffed in confusion. His thoughts dribbled over the possible things he could do at that moment until it set on a safe choice. He dropped to his knees and sneakily traced his pinkie over some of the markings as she pulled back in surprise.
"Sheesh, you're pretty touchy today," she'd comment with a raise of her brow, lifting the flower for Krieg to see.
"I don't remember seeing these the first time we were in here. Do you?" her tone was tinged with interest but also crackling a tad from watching Krieg- his eye was still on her arm, hand ready to reach for it again. Maya saw the obvious change in interest and just dropped the flower, getting up quickly and holding up her arms. "Alright- alright, we're done here I guess, off we go big guy."
The blue maiden sped off with such a scoff overhanging her that it fullheartedly confused her. Why so- touchy? Touch touch touch. Being a siren has its oddities, she quivered as she went ahead. Krieg stayed back for a couple of moments, his curiosity taking over and just watching the tattooed vault hunter trot away a few meters. The way her muscles moved and how lovely of a stride she had-
She's astonishingly beautiful. Do you think she knows? His outer self grunted in a general distaste from hearing his inner voice, but agreed inwardly as the subtle warmth stirred in his chest again. After a couple of seconds Maya heard the wet stamps of Krieg's boots catch up to her and she managed a half smile as they headed back to Sanctuary.
[CONTINUE]