XY:A:S4

Chapter 4

By B1ockh3d & Aeroxx1337

Authors note: We're baaaack!

"Lilith, Axton, you guys need to get back here!" Brick shouted into the microphone.

No response.

"Lilith, Axton, can you hear me?" Brick asked again. Still no response, "Are you guys blowing shit up without me? Dammit!"

This time, the radio crackled. There was gunfire, explosions, and a voice in the background, "Yeah, we're fine. They saw us, so we started burning them alive. You know, the usual. You can come on down if you- shittheradioisonfirecallyouba-"

And the channel went dead.

"Axton! Lilith!" Brick shouted back. There was only white noise, "Dammit… We're missing all the fun! Grab your guns, I'll get my good sledgehammer!"

"I'm always up for a firefight!" Pax smiled excitedly.

"Yeah. Can you guys leave after your meeting with Maya?" Brick asked.

Aero and Pax lightly nodded, and I picked up my armor from the floor and started to slip it on, but a hand stopped me.

"Stop hiding." A woman advised.

I noticed the hand that grabbed my arm was also covered in blue tattoos. I followed the tattooed arm up to a friendly face, who I assumed was "Maya."

"I'm Maya." She formally introduced. Called it.

"Uh, I am XY:A- Uh, Aphyx. Call me Aphyx." I awkwardly presented myself.

"Hey, you got here in a flash." Brick noted.

"Yeah, I was about to come back. I was at Ellie's shop when you called." Maya answered, then started looking me up and down, "If I saw you from across the street, I'd think you'd be one of those crazy fans like Lilith had awhile back."

"…But?"

Maya took a deep breath, "Well, I can tell those aren't tatoos or painted on, which leads me to believe you're really a Siren."

"…Is…that bad?"

"Bad? No. Impossible? Absolutely." Maya started looking me over a second time, "Sirens are all female, altered by alien technology. But the real red flag is that there isn't such a thing as a male Siren."

"Uhh… Okay?"

"Tell me; when you got to Pandora, how did you feel?" Maya asked.

"Fine. Wait, how did you know I am from another planet?"

"Easy. Handsome Jack would've gotten his mitts around you before we killed him a year ago, you don't have an ECHO device, and you're rather uneasy about where you are." Maya elaborated, "But, why did you leave your other planet?"

"I…did not want to be bottled up in my caretakers' home forever. So, I ran away." I stumbled to explain.

"What planet did you come from?" Pax contributed.

"A:PH:1XA. But it is easier to say Aphyxia."

Maya noticeed the tattoo on my wrist, and she picked it up and looked at it, "…XY:A:S4?"

"That is my name." I nodded, and pulled my wrist away.

"Ah. One last question, what can you do? What's your ability?" Maya curiously impeded.

"Uh… Oh. Phasestop." I answered.

"And that is?"

"I can stop time for a brief moment."

"Can you do it right now?" Maya queried.

"Uh… Not on command. I do not know how." I mumbled.

Maya nodded, "I would like you to stay in Sanctuary, however, I think Lilith would love to meet you in the battlefield."

"You're gonna send the idiot who came to Pandora without any guns into the middle of a battlefield?" Aero added, "Yeah, that's not a terrible idea. Not at all."

"That's why I'm assigning you two the task of standing in front of him and getting shot instead." Maya commanded. "Good luck. Try not to lose any limbs this time. And you two better make sure Aphyx comes back in one piece!"

"Of course." Pax and Aero hurried me out the door, into the fast travel, and we were then in a place full of that purple ore, "Welcome to the Eridium Blight."

Aero spawned and drove a bandit technical, and Pax and I sat in the back.

"You know, maybe I should have stayed in Sanctuary." I started to doubt, "I am not good enough for these missions."

"We can always go back and you can be a guinea pig to Tannis, who will undoubtedly just love testing you." Pax reminded.

Oh god, not the crazy eggplant lady… "Fair point."

We drove for a little while longer, and we reached a sealed gate.

"Huh. That's where the old Hyperion gate was." Aero noted.

"That's definitely a new gate. It wasn't there a week ago." Pax glanced over the needlessly large gate.

Pax and Aero get out, and I joined them. We all started looking for… something or other. I just started looking.

After about a minute, I found some sort of notch in the wall. The rest of the wall was smooth, except this notch.

"Huh." I touched it, and a red laser projected onto me, "…What?"

Pax and Aero ran over, and stopped to keep their distance, "Stay still…"

The laser stopped, and without another word, the gate opened. We spent a moment looking at each other awkwardly, then remembered that the gate we needed to get through is open, and we ran back to the car and entered the place.

"So… How did you do that?" Pax asked, "Because last time those were around, they scanned Hyperion personal. And if you weren't Hyperion, then you were dead."

I mouthed some words, but no sound came out, "Ah…I… I have no clue."

"Whatever you did, it worked. I ain't complaining." Aero shouted from the driver's seat.

"True, true." Pax nods, "Aphyx, can you get yourself into the gunner seat?"

"I can, but I do not know how to use it!" I stressed.

"Can you aim?"

"Yeah."

"Can you pull a trigger?"

"Yeah?"

"Then you can gun. Get up there!"

"If you say so," I climbed up to the gunner seat and position myself. I grabbed two joysticks and looked at a holographic scope, "And?"

"Shoot whatever lines up in your sight." Pax answered. I guess that was a stupid question.

About a minute later, we showed up to a path littered with bodies.

"Hey, isn't that Crimson Lance armor?" Aero shouted out. Pax gets out of the back and walked alongside the car to inspect the bodies.

Pax nods, "Yeah. Didn't they disband though?"

"Yes, they did." Aero hopped out. I tagged along and jumped out of the gunner seat to the ground, and landed on something.

"Ow!"

Aero and Pax came over to my yelp, "What's wro- Ooooh! Jackpot!"

Pax ran over to where I sitting and picked up a radio-looking device, "An ECHO recorder!"

"Play it!" Aero demanded. Pax pressed a button, and a whirring sound began from the machine.

"ECHO number one, Atlas Corporation, experiment ma-" and it cut off.

"…Atlas?" Pax turned the recording over in his hands, "Atlas was shut down years ago."

"Play the rest!" Aero anxiously asked. Pax shook his head.

"The back of it is jacked up. We have to go get it fixed."

I had ignored the beginning of the recording, "…Did anyone catch the end?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Aero asked.

"Experiment. This 'Atlas' corporation is experimenting on something. But what?" I asked. The two looked at me, "And if they are shut down, why is there a radio with their name on it?"

"I have no idea." Pax shrugged.

"Looking for the Vault?" Aero suggested.

"…What is this 'Vault' you guys talk about?" I questioned, remembering when they asked Brick about being a 'Vault Hunter.'

"Wait, you don't know? That's what made Pandora famous." Aero informed, surprised by my lack of knowledge. I shook my head.

"We'll catch you up." Pax got back in the car, followed by us, "So, this is the story of Pandora…"