Chapter 4
The trio had been walking for hours. The only other enemy they had encountered so far were some more bandits on their way out of the Tundra and a rogue Bullymong. Irish had worked out how to use the catch-a-ride system, but they had not been able to enter the Arid Nexus in the vehicle. So it was back to walking for the time being.
"So, some sort of weird missions, then poof, back to our normal lives again?" Irish suggested, falling in behind Kitty and Monty as they made their way through the dusty plains of the Arid Nexus.
"Who knows? We know as much as you Irish. I just wish I knew what the go was with the respawn." Monty voiced the question at the forefront of all their minds. What would happen if they died?
"Did you notice the check point posts? They have a white light. Not green, not red. White. It's weird" Kitty added.
"Yeah I have no idea what that means" Irish shrugged. "Maybe once the fast travel is fixed, it will sort itself out"
They came to a stop at the entry way to the Badlands, where they would find the town of Fyrstone. Kitty paused to check an abandoned case for ammo, tossing two shotgun cartridges to Monty.
"Not gonna share with me?" Irish teased
"There's nothing in here for you," Kitty poked her tongue at him, and rejoined them at the gate.
"We ready to go find out who this last 'comrade' is?" Irish made exaggerated quotation marks with his fingers, and Monty rolled her eyes. "What? Don't you pair go ganging up on me"
"Pffft" was Kitty's only retort.
"I can't believe how bright that slag is in the sun" Monty raised her arm to shield her eyes from the glare coming off the slag swamp before them.
"Oh, it's so pretty but" Kitty coed.
"Trust you" Irish poked her in the ribs to hurry her along. "There should be some Skags just over here" Irish slowed his pace, and began looking around. They were almost at the entry into the town of Fyrstone, and standing in the shadow of the abandoned Hyperion building, they were able to see a lot better. Shielded from the glare, they were slightly confused by their surroundings. Kitty walked over to a nearby mound, to discover it was a dead elder Skag. No bullet wounds, just dead.
"This is interesting" Kitty pointed as Monty joined her.
"There's another over here too." Irish called from near the gate.
"And look, over there. The bandits and freakin little psycho midget" Monty held her breath as she walked cautiously toward the two human corpses. "These have bullet wounds though."
As Kitty and Irish joined Monty, a bright flash of purple from somewhere within the heart of Fyrstone caught their attention.
"What was that?" Irish wasn't expecting an answer when he voiced his question.
"Only one way to find out" Kitty lifted her pistol and headed into the town of Fyrstone, followed closely by Monty and Irish.
They had no sooner reached the malfunctioning Bounty board, and another flash of purple light appeared right behind them. Each were momentarily blinded, but as their sight returned to normal, they recognised another all too familiar face.
"Wassup kiddos? Sure took your time getting here" Lillith said in a flat tone.
"Fuck, no way. Lillith is our other player?" Irish was the only one to speak.
"Me? Bah, god no. But if I didn't show up, he would be dead by now." Lillith crossed her arms in front of her chest, flicking her head to shake her short red hair out of her face. Her spiralling blue siren markings shimmered surreally in the sun.
"Meh, I had it under control" the dirty figure stepped out of the shadows from near Marcus' vending machine.
"Joel?" Irish recognised the middle aged man before the two women did.
"Hey guys. Pretty fucked up shit going on here hey?" He walked over to join them, supposedly non-plussed by the scenario.
"Uh, yeah" Kitty frowned, not knowing what to think of the fourth member of their team.
"Whatever. I'm drunk. This isn't real" LiveFree lifted his assault rifle, firing a burst of bullets carelessly into the sky.
"Good luck with that one" Lillith muttered before disappearing in a haze of purple light once more.