A/N: Yay! This chapter is longer … and so will many of the parts to come. Hope that doesn't make you mad or anything. It shouldn't since this DLC is so awesome.
Chapter 3: Come, Play With Fire
Mission(s): Burn, Baby, Burn * Main Mission
DLC: Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage
Maya opens the loot chest and finds it empty of anything.
Piston laughs and says, "Pahahahaah! I'm not going to share the vault's prize with some no-name mercenary. I am the greatest fighter who ever lived. I will open the vault myself, and you – will get the hell out of my arena. That noise you're hearing is the arena slowly filling up with Harmstrong gas. I've turned off the cameras; just breath deep and pass out. Like a good little coward."
The green gas spreads through the arena, Maya and Zero can't hold their breath for long enough and breathe in the gas. They pass out, and after an indiscernible amount of time they come to in a small room. Bodies lie next to and in an active furnace, and blood streaks surround them leading up to the furnace from a closed garage type door.
Torgue says frantically, "What happened to the camera feed? Why do I smell gas? Did some one drag the Vault Hunter away? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON!"
Maya and Zero turn to their right, and head up a small set of stairs. They turn left walk up a slope, and turn left again to come to their way out. They encounter two badass enforcers (really big guys but not as big as the Arena Blaster). They're easily taken care of by Zero, and Maya suddenly collapses against the wall clutching her side.
After taking care of the enemies, Zero gives Maya a medical hypo needle. After receiving the red fluid, Maya stands back up gives a brief thanks to Zero and continues on her way. There are three separate platforms set apart that the two Vault Hunters have to jump on in order to reach their exit, which is small but still accessible.
They make it outside and begin trekking across the sand to the first catch-a-ride station they saw, and the only one they knew about.
Torgue asks, "What the hell? Ladies and gentlemen, the Vault Hunter has disappeared from the arena! I don't know—where'd the F*CK did he go?"
Piston says in response, "Lemme educate you Torgue. The Vault Hunter ran. Away. They found out they'd have to fight me, Piston, to become the number one badass on Pandora, and they ran away, like a little baby."
"Ran away?! THIS IS A TRAVESTY! I've got no choice – as the head of the Torgue Tournament, I must officially dub the Vault Hunter a coward!" Torgue declares.
After this Maya and Zero arrive at the catch-a-ride station, both of them are somewhat bummed, and Maya goes and sits with her back up against the outside of the building housing the catch-a-ride station. Zero just stands there confused thinking, Is the challenge over?
Torgue comes on the ECHO after a while, "Okay, it's straight up dawg time: I know you ain't actually a coward but F*CK if that twist ending didn't make for some good TV! Still, you gonna need a new sponsor if you want to stay in the tournament. Get to the Beatdown."
After this news both of the Vault Hunters realized that they would be staying in the tournament, Zero realized that everyone seemed to be referring to Maya as the only who who's there. Still he claimed the driver's seat, and Maya claimed the gunner's seat on their Light Runner (it had a blue shield paint job).
Zero drove straight out of the building, and flipped 180 degrees to the right and drove along the road that apparently wound through and around the crater. After driving a little ways, zero encountered a road gunner. The bike manned by two bikers sped at them, the passenger alternating shooting between a shotgun and a corrosive sniper.
Two more bikes came at them from out of a hole in the cliff. Zeros and Maya's combined powers of the two mounted guns managed to mow down the bikers and explode their bikes. Zero drove down the road more and eventually after encountering two more bikes came to an entrance that was blocking the passage of the vehicle.
Both Maya and Zero exited the car and turned right heading down the rest of the paved road over a bride and into the Beatdown. As they entered the Beatdown, and walked a shot distance away from the entrance towards a Zed's Meds vending Machine Torgue said something, "The number FOUR ranked badass lives out here. His name is Pyro Peat and he – HUGE COINCIDENCE! – Kidnapped one of the freelance sponsors around here about a day ago. YOU SHOULD GO KILL HIM AND MEET HIM BUT NOT IN THAT ORDER!"
After hearing this, Zero makes a stop at the Zed's Meds and stocks up on a few more hypo med needles. He had a feeling that thanks to Maya's reckless behavior lately, she would need them. Zero resigned himself to just shadow Maya, take out any enemies immediately a threat to her that she couldn't take care of and heal her when necessary.
Why was Zero taking a backstage seat? He felt, since he had his own emotions under control about the fight with Jack and the Warrior, that Maya needed this chance to become a star. Whether or not which one of them was the number one badass on Pandora, that was out of the question. The number one badass on Pandora had either died, or lost their mind among the ones left behind in the Vault of the Warrior.
Maya moved forward and crouched behind some boxes a little ways away from a collection of five broken empty car shells, and an abandoned bus. The adjacent abandoned gas pump station, and the surrounding area was crawling with bikers. All types, and Maya considered her weapons. She held her sniper rifle, but wasn't sure if she should take the shot or not.
Zero obliged for her and took out one biker walking towards them from the bus. His head exploded spattering the ground behind him with blood, and suddenly Maya opened fire as well. Bodies started to fall at a fast pace, every second another one would hit the ground; Maya wasn't doing all the work, but Zero was making it seem like Maya was.
After eliminating all the bikers within sight of her box cover, Maya vaulted over them and ran forward ducking up against the bus. Zero followed close behind, and Maya moved forward along the side of the bus.
Piston comes on the ECHO obviously talking to a camera, "I tell ya, that Vault Hunter coward was like a child to me. I sponsored 'em. Brought 'em up. And yet when it came down to the comedown, they ran away in fear. Tch – how the mighty have fallen."
After Piston's words Maya gets some encouragement from Torgue, "Even with the whole 'coward' thing, you're still the number five badass on the Torgue leader board, and Piston's number one – you just gotta kill your way up the list, and they you'll be able to whip out your heroism and slap Piston in the face with it!"
After listening to this, Maya peeks around the corner and takes out a few more bikers. But just then two bikes come screeching out of a garage and come speeding towards Maya. In a split second Zero takes out his Norefleet, and blows both of them up with the three E-tech orbs fired from the launcher.
After taking the bikes out, Maya and Zero turn right and head down the street. Maya walks in the middle, but Zero walks on the sidewalk occasionally taking cover behind a couple car shells and a broken dump truck. Zero finds an alleyway that will allow them access to the rooftops because of a fire escape.
Maya looks to her left, and sees Zero heading up the fire escape. Following from instinct, Maya finds herself joining Zero climbing up the fire escape and then standing with him on the rooftop of a building. Zero, with Maya following, turned right and jumped down to a lower rooftop. He landed and rushed across a thin metal sheet bridge and came to a red loot chest. He opened it and takes the guns out.
Zero threw the two sleek looking smgs down below and the bikers were momentarily distracted by the shininess of the two smgs. This momentary distraction, allowed Maya and Zero to take up positions on two different rooftops. They opened fire and the bikers below began to drop like flies.
As the body count rose, a few bikes came out driving in confused circles. Zero shows his skill wit the sniper, and blows out the bikes tires causing them to fishtail and run into each other exploding. The resulting explosions managed to take out the rest of the bikers down below.
Pyro Peat comes on all excited and shit, "Ohhhhoho. It's the coward, you're gonna BURN! Burn burn BURN! Flamey bits, fire in the sky. Let's talk. Fire talk with me. Fire walk with me."
Torgue then says, "You'll kill Pyro Peat's ass at some point, but you gotta wait until you find out where he stashed that sponsor he kidnapped. Otherwise you can't rise up the leaderboards."
Maya and Zero jumps down and both head left to another street. This time a short ways down the street, a barrier meant to bar access any further has been constructed. A section of tall wire fence is stretched between a tall stack of boxes surrounding a supply crate to the left and to the right is a platform constructed above a roaring open bonfire.
Maya pulls out a singularity grenade and chucks it next to the bonfire. Several bikers flew from their hiding places, and landed in and around the bonfire. With the bikers' grenades added to the mix, when Maya's singularity grenade explodes a great ball of fire erupts from the bonfire. It engulfs and destroys the barrier in almost white-hot flame.
"HOLY SHIT! THAT WAS A FUCKING AWESOME EXPLOSION!" For a moment Zero thinks Torgue says this but then he realizes that the shout came from Maya.
In addition to eliminating the barrier, the explosion took care of the remaining bikers stupid enough to hide behind the barrier. Maya and Zero move forward confidently after that, but encounter several bikers on bikes. Zero just manages to eliminate all 7 with the last of his Norefleet ammo.
Moving forward Maya and Zero come to a fairly large building blocking their path. They strafe left, and head up a long sandy slope. A few psycho bikers run down the slope but Maya blows their skinny bodies apart with her Jacobs shotgun.
Pyro Peat comes on the ECHO again, "It's the COWARD! Ohhh, I'm burning up inside. You want a sponsor yes? I have a warm one. But you must dance, first – start some trouble here in the Beatdown and I will give her to you. Get to the battle board! Now, before the flames rise!"
"HIS GIMMICK IS THAT HE REALLY LIKES FIRE!" Torgue yells.
"Cause some trouble? Aren't we already doing that?" Maya asks. Zero responds with, "We're causing trouble / apparently not enough / we need to cause more." After that Maya and Zero work their way up the sandy/rocky slope, fighting and killing a few more bikers.
As they come to the next street, a couple bikers come running out of an open garage door behind some barbed wire fence. After tossing a singularity grenade over the fence, Maya turns left and takes cover behind a broken own van. A fairly large crowd of many bikers is camped out in front of the entrance to Pyro Peat's Bar.
It becomes a hassle to take out some of the bikers since they have shock weapons; it becomes a pain in the ass when a burner enforcer rears his but ugly head wielding two shock sniper rifles shooting them like pistols. After about an hour, Maya and Zero manage to kill all of them.
But just then 3 bikes come roaring out of nowhere, Zero later uncovers the fact of an open garage tucked in a corner to the right of the entrance to Pyro Peat's Bar. Since Zero doesn't have any Norefleet ammo, Maya ends up having to phaselock all three of them long enough for Zero to puncture the bikes engines; thereby resulting in three satisfying explosions.
After mopping up outside the Bar, Maya and Zero check themselves then move forward into Pyro Peat's Bar. Maya heads left, past a small couch and table, and turns in the mission to Pyro Peat's bounty board.
A/N: Well Zero doesn't seem to grasp the meaning of 'backstage seat' very well, ah well this just means we'll be seeing more of him and Maya interacting. Thanks for reading btw.