In a flash of light, Lilith appeared... in a small, fairly decrepit room. She slowly looked around, wearing a disenchanted expression.
There was a dead body sprawled in the corner there, another one... was he dead?... in a cage hanging from the ceiling, some blood splatter here and there. The decor in tatters, paint chipped, rust like a scene from Silent Hill, and... what the hell was that music playing? Sounded like the track from a gothic porn.
And as Lilith explored the current room, slowly walking through and examining the decor, something else reminded her of that. A fairly large portrait, basically a pinup, of a harlequin woman, wearing something of a red tux with no pants, with matching tophat. Typical chest-displaying flirty pose, and speaking of that... jesus, breasts the size of Lilith's head.
Lilith approached it, examining the woman with morbid fascination, and noticed the title across the bottom. 'MOXXI'.
"...oh dear god." Lilith commented. This was the woman she came here to meet.
Lilith stepped away from the painting and walked into the next room. There was a counter, and all around were paintings and even a bust of... was that Marcus? Dressed up as George Washington? As a clown? As... what?
Lilith had to hold a hand in front of her mouth to keep herself from laughing. She'd never be able to look at him with a straight face again. But all this art, of an ex? Eesh, Moxxi didn't seem quite over him.
Lilith approached the counter. There was a claptrap there, wearing a tophat and fake moustache. How classy.
The claptrap didn't say anything though, just looked at her. Lilith looked at it, then at the area behind him. There were several lockers, some ajar, full of guns and other toys. Lilith noted a ledger on the counter, full of names and accompanied by a locker number.
"...this a storage area?" Lilith asked.
The claptrap didn't say anything. He just nudged a pen on the counter to Lilith, and tapped the ledger.
"...no thanks." Lilith said. "But I thought this was an arena. Where's the... arena?"
The claptrap simply pointed behind Lilith, to the right. Lilith glanced in that direction, then turned back to the claptrap.
"...don't talk so much, girls don't like that." She said, and walked back into the first room.
She looked to the right, and there were stairs leading down. And wow, even from atop the stairs, it was clear that the bottom floor was even worse. Bare dirt for a floor, weird arrows and spinning disks from some Tim Burton flick everywhere, a filthy stage with broken folding chairs facing it – some on their sides – and another body. There was, however, a bounty board there.
Lilith carefully walked down the stairs, half expecting to fall through them given how they creaked, and approached the board. She put in her credentials... and immediately regretted it. Helena said this place had a closed-circuit New U system, right? This was probably closed-circuit too. Nothing was stopping Moxxi from stealing her credentials.
Lilith sighed, and brought up the bounties. There were just one – prove yourself.
"Oh really?" Lilith asked with a smirk, and tapped it.
Apparently, she had to survive five rounds in 'Hell Burbia', 'The Angelic Ruins', and 'The Gully.' Five rounds of criminals, the same one she's already killed thousands of? This was all she had to do? No problem. Might take more than an hour, but oh well, Patricia was at Newer Haven, she could handle the Lance invading for a few extra minutes.
Lilith looked around, looking for the entrance to the arena itself. She quickly found one teleporter, behind her to the right. She also noted yet another body sprawled out there, and the general decrepit squalor of even this little hallway leading to the arena.
Not expecting much, Lilith walked to the teleporter. 'Hell Burbia', this one was. She shrugged, and pressed the button.
In a flash of light, she appeared in an equally decrepit town. Looking around, she noticed she was directly under some kind of tower. Blood splatter stained the metal floor of this tower, so she quickly decided to move from under it.
The town was pretty unremarkable, just like dozens she had seen before... though the jackolanterns were an interesting touch. Dead trees, some flaming barrels, yadda yadda, same story as it always was. But what caught Lilith's eye right away was the stage. Dirty red curtains kept it closed, and two massive, illuminated X's were done up just above it. Lilith looked around for a sign of anyone. Finding nobody, she slowly approached the stage, expecting some kind of opponent to come from it.
"Tonight's match will be in... Hell Burbia!" Came a voice from above.
Lilith spun around, and saw her. Mad Moxxi, in the flesh, standing high atop the tower with a megaphone. And as she finished announcing this, the cheers of spectators could be heard. But... where were they? Lilith saw nobody. Perhaps there were cameras linking up to spectators outside?
Moxxi stood on a surprisingly small platform, with only a pole in the center for some kind of safety. She held it firm and leaned right over the ledge, standing on the corners of it, to look right at Lilith.
"Well well well, the grass must always be greener on the other side, 'cause you're a new face and it's a pretty one indeed!" She cooed, before giving a grin and pulling herself back up to the platform.
Lilith didn't know if she should feel complimented from that.
"How's everyone doing tonight?" Moxxi called, receiving louder cheers from the audience. "Let me hear you roar! Roar for me, Pandora!"
And the audience did indeed. Quite deafening. There couldn't have been more than a few hundred spectators, but the way they were screaming with glee was almost disturbing. This was apparently an arena of death, after all. They cheered for blood.
Lilith stood there awkwardly, waiting for something to happen.
Finally, after a few seconds, she heard the telltale sound of people respawning. There were no New U stations around, but the sound was unmistakable. Lilith quickly brought up her Pyre and looked around. Nothing was near her, but she heard plenty of footsteps and people shouting to the left.
"Watch that side!"
"Get over here!"
"Rush him!"
Lilith smirked. The closest way to get to where the voices were coming from was to go down the street and turn, so she jogged that way. She turned the corner, noticing some Lance drop pods in the far corner, and raised her weapon at the buildings along the Underdome wall.
And just like that, a series of rounds struck her midsection, from one man on the roof. With her shield taking the rounds easily, she just smiled and returned a short burst of fire to his head. The rounds ripped through his shield, and a burst of blood exploded from the back of his head, painting the wall behind him. His head caught fire, turning him into something of a Ghost Rider as he collapsed in a heap.
"And another head goes BOOM!" Moxxi cheered happily as the crowd lit up.
Lilith laughed aloud. Headshots were always fun, and Moxxi and the crowd's enthusiasm was intoxicating. Eager for more, she ran up the stairs to the rooftops of these buildings. From here, she could see several dozen yards down the rooftops, and three men were there – two with assault rifles, and one masked psychopath. The psycho was closing in, blocking her from getting a clean shot at the gunmen, so she quickly grabbed one of her grenades. A quick pass by the MIAV mod, a toss, and that took care of the gunmen for the time being.
The psycho, with insane laughter, reached Lilith and tried for a huge overhand chop. Lilith backed away, and backed off more to evade the followup backhand slash. This put her right on the edge of the rooftop. The psycho laughed more and thrust his cleaver forward with both hands, for Lilith's midsection.
Lilith grabbed his left hand and forced it to the side, the cleaver just grazing her shield. The psychopath panicked slightly, stopping himself from going over the edge of the building. Lilith, holding his wrist, quickly spun him around so she was holding him from behind. She grabbed the back of his head and quickly slammed his skull into the wall. There was a loud crack!, but it was just his mask.
Enraged by his mask cracking, he screamed and shoved Lilith away. He turned to face Lilith, and tried again for an overhand chop. Lilith grabbed the handle of his cleaver, pinned her Pyre to his gut, and fired a short burst. Blood splattered the wall behind him as he screamed in pain and rage. Lilith grabbed the cleaver, wound up as he stumbled back, and delivered a backhand slash across his chest. He tripped and fell against the wall as a crescent of blood painted the rooftop and wall beside him. Lilith adjusted her grip on the cleaver and thrust it through his heart, impaling the wall behind him, and that was it.
Only one of the two gunmen was caught by the MIAV. The other had closed the distance between them, and opened fire from just a dozen yards. His assault rifle was overly powerful and had recoil only a guy like Brick should handle, so much of his spray went wild. Lilith's shield took the rest, and she returned fire. His shield was a good one, taking most of her shots with ease. It broke just as the last of Lilith's clip was fired. Three shots got to him, producing a scream of anger. There was a pause before the rounds took effect, but they did, and he slowly began to burn alive. His screams became louder as he desperately tried to pat himself out.
Lilith calmly reloaded as the man fell to the ground in front of her, screaming and rolling in vain.
"You're so cruel!" Moxxi cooed with delighted laughter.
Lilith supposed she was. But after all the things she had seen these people do to the citizens of Fyrestone and the various Havens, she didn't much care. She just gave Moxxi a smirk, and erupted into a Phasewalk.
She quickly ran across the rooftops, looking for more criminals. She found four of them, holed up on the other end of this line of rooftops, guns aimed where Lilith had come from.
So they were playing defense? Ha.
Lilith emerged from her Phasewalk with a powerful blast, knocking one off the roof. He immediately produced a sickening scream, and the crowd cheered wildly, so he must have landed incorrectly.
One of the remaining men was burned pretty badly, and the other two were merely singed. The nearest one was crouched, and raised his matador at Lilith. She quickly kicked the matador aside, the shot just missing her, and grabbed the matador. She tried to yank it from him, but he held firm, allowing Lilith to yank him to his feet.
The second man recovered from the phase blast and raised his own weapon, so Lilith quickly delivered a kick to his chest, knocking him against the wall. The matador man then gave her a hard punch to the face. Her shield took it, but her head still snapped back uncomfortably. She held the matador firm, keeping the two of them together, and retaliated with a blast from her palm to his face. He wasn't shielded, and screamed as the energy instantly gave him disfiguring burns. He stumbled away, releasing the matador and clutching his face in both hands.
The second and third men both recovered now, but Lilith was quicker, raising her Pyre and unloading on them both. They too were unshielded, and were quickly put down and immolated.
The final man stumbled for Lilith, apparently partially blinded, and tried to punch Lilith. She easily evaded him, and decided to give the crowds a show with this last kill. She grabbed a grenade, but didn't mod it. She just armed it and tossed it off the roof. The man threw another punch, and this time, she hooked his arm. She spun him around and heaved him off the roof, right on top of the grenade. And the second he landed, it detonated, making the man erupt in a geyser of blood and chunks.
The crowd cheered wildly, and Moxxi cackled with glee.
Lilith noted, looking off the roof, that the man who landed badly had in fact landed on a quite charming picket fence, and was impaled. The large pool of blood under him meant it got him near his heart, and he had already bled out, dead.
"Did I promise you a show, or didn't I?" Moxxi asked the crowd. "Who loves you and who do you love?"
And the crowd wildly cheered and chanted, MOXXI! MOXXI! MOXXI!
Moxxi looked down at Lilith, her smile wide.
"Baby, baby, baby... you're doing so well. I can't stop now... next wave!"
