Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry about the uber-late update for this chapter - I've been busy with other projects recently and have also started Borderlands 2. Loving it so far, especially the kick-ass Maliwan SMGs. Anyway, more about that later. However, expect my Pandorian lore to hopefully be more accurate from now on - but I do have some new plans for this story that I've just fabricated out of nowhere and probably aren't accurate. You'll know them when they appear. Anyway, enjoy!
~Lagiacrus
The skags had been nothing – dead in one shot from the Long Thunder and dead in three from the pistol. But, upon following the signs to Nine-Toes' encampment (while wondering why the bandits had been stupid enough to put them there in the first place) he found that the enemies he was meeting were getting considerably tougher and stronger – eventually, he started meeting what appeared to be midgets! Midgets with axes! Midgets with axes that they threw at him!
They took a few hits to take down at a time and Mordecai had sustained quite a few injuries while only in battle with a few of the little shits. He remained undeterred and simply used Dr. Zed's vending machine on the inside of the encampment to inject himself with some healing fluids that instantly repaired his wounds, leaving only faint scars on his skin. He used Marcus' ammunition vending machine to refill his ammo, took out a few of the bandits who had been planning to ambush him but had seriously failed at stealth and then readied his guns for confronting Nine-Toes – before there was a vicious crash and a high-pitched grunt behind him. Bloodwing sounded his greeting cry and Mordecai was hit immediately with a feeling of absolute dread – he slowly turned around, fearing the worst possible thing – and was graced with the presence of Adira – the sole worst possible thing that he could have met at that moment.
"I thought I told you to go back to Fyrestone?" He tried to keep his cool, grabbing the kid by the collar and hoisting her up. She brushed herself off and crossed her arms, pouting at him.
"I'm going to give my method a try."
"You're gonna try and talk to him?" He laughed for real this time, causing the girl to bear her teeth in a snarl. "You really are outta your mind, Kid."
"Just watch me." She strutted past him, stepping over the dead bodies on her way to Nine-Toes' lair. He grabbed her by the hood of her waistcoat, stopping her dead in her tracks.
"I can't let you do that. Dr. Zed wants you home – not full of bullets."
"I won't be full of bullets if you'll just trust me!" Her voice was raised a little too loud and some previously unaware bandits were firing at them from all angles within moments. She screeched, hiding behind Mordecai as he sighed and shot them down with his pistol.
"See?" He reloaded the pistol, not looking at her as he spoke. "The only thing words are good for around here is for fishing out your next target."
"I'll prove you wrong," Her voice and body betrayed her, both shaking uncontrollably. "I can talk him down. Just help me get there."
"No."
She growled in frustration and turned away.
"Wait here until I get back. Don't move." He commanded sternly and turned on his heels, heading in the direction of Nine-Toes. There was more gunfire immediately, making her flinch. There must be a better way to go about this. She gulped and moved to the sides of the vending machines, taking shelter in between them. The last thing she wanted was to get hit by a bullet meant for Mordecai – he could go home looking like Swiss cheese if he wanted, but not her. Right on cue, an SMG bullet whizzed past right where she had been standing. She gave a sigh of relief. Good move.
The sounds of rocks crumbling reached her. She looked back, only to see what looked like the beginnings of a tunnel behind Marcus' vending machine. She squeezed down towards it, sighing in relief when she slotted perfectly into the tunnel. Judging by the tunnel's size, it was used by the midgets to travel between different parts of Nine-Toes' lair. This, with any luck, could take her right to him before Mordecai could charge in all gung-ho and shoot the poor man full of holes.
As she crawled through the damp, foul-smelling cave, the sounds of muffled gunfire could be heard from up above and the bandits gave cries of pain. She knew she wouldn't have long to achieve peace with the notorious bandit leader, so she'd have to work quickly. She knew she could do this.
She emerged in an arena-type structure, lined with an extraordinary amount of toilets, chests and safes, locking on to a stage off to one side where a man in a psycho mask was teasing two Skags, clad in crude armour. She couldn't tell from here, but she could only assume that this rough-looking gentleman was Nine-Toes. The gunfire was still perfectly audible from here – he must have been more than aware of it. Yet, he was ignoring it as if it was a daily occurrence. To be honest, it probably was.
However, having a young girl sneaking around within his chambers was something he was not used to and quickly noticed. A knife struck the porcelain bowl to Adira's left and she darted behind a chest, ignoring his screeching voice demanding her presence.
"Come outta there! You dare to walk in on Nine-Toes!?" He hollered, his vicious voice coupled by an unstable laugh. For a second she was frozen in fear, her back stuck to the chest like glue. The sound of Mordecai's rifle dislodging the heads of two more bandits somewhere close by spurred her to life – she was working on a time limit. She carefully stood up with her hands raised in surrender, emerging into Nine-Toes' line of sight with the least terrified expression she could manage. From behind the mask she saw his eyes widen and his hostile demeanour faltered.
"Yer just a kid!" He exclaimed. Upon one hand gesture from him, his spitting and growling Skags silenced and relaxed. Adira in turn begged her own shaking form to relax, but she kept her arms high.
"I-I don't even have a gun!" She added, although she had no idea why – those words could either save her further or land her in seriously hot water. Luckily, they seemed to do the former.
"What in God's name are yeh doin' here, Kid!? How are yeh still breathin'!?"
"I-I'm from Fyrestone, I came here to negotiate with you." She held herself as high as possible. However, Nine-Toes only erupted into monstrous laughter.
"Have I really offed so many of 'em that kids are all that's left!?"
"No, I came here of my own accord – for me and my dad. I want to work out a deal with you." Her voice was already beginning to falter. Nine-Toes fell into an eerie silence, gazing at the girl with purpose. Then, he turned away.
"Come on down here, into the light where I can see ya." He gestured ahead of him. Gulping, Adira obeyed, knowing fine well that disaster could befall otherwise. When she stood before him, at least two heads smaller, she began to speak.
"You have a feud with Bonehead's crew, right?"
"Don't talk about that son of a bitch!" He hissed. Bingo.
"His camp is right beside Fyrestone," Adira tirelessly continued. "Every night I listen in on him, plotting to destroy you so he can become Sledge's right-hand. You're not gonna let that happen, right?"
"Yer sure as hell, I ain't!" He roared, drawing his legendary pistol, The Clipper from its holster on his belt.
"Listen, my dad is a doctor," Adira was pushing all the right buttons. Maybe, just maybe, she could succeed before Mordecai got there and took Nine-Toes down like a vengeful explosive God. "If you agree to stop attacking Fyrestone, you can take down Bonehead before he attacks you and my dad will heal your men during the fighting. We can restock all of your guns and ammo too, get you better gear! You'll be guaranteed to win! Then, you'll have Sledge all to yourself!"
"Now, I do like the sound of that," He laughed like a giddy schoolgirl. Adira found it incredible that she was still alive. Perhaps he was one of those bandits who couldn't bring himself to hurt a child. She was glad for it, especially with those two Skags eying her up. "I think you've got yer pretty little self a deal, Ki-!"
The sound of rifle fire drew his attention away from her and he ducked as a bullet whizzed on past, just missing him.
"Ambush!" He rushed up onto the stage, taking aim with his pistol as Mordecai leaped into the arena from the elevator, taking out both Skags with the pistol in record time.
"Yer a part of this, Kid!? Yer just a decoy, huh!? Tryin' to distract me with fancy talk while yer Truxican Wrestler pal sniped me!?" He barked at me, dodging two warning bullets from Mordecai's pistol.
"No, I'm not with him, I swear!" While casting a glare at the now confused Vault Hunter who had just noticed her, she yelled.
"I'll deal with ya once I've dealt with this chump." He hissed. Adira had to admit that she didn't like the sound of that. God fucking job Mordecai, now she actually was in danger.
Luckily, the only person's wrath she had to fear was Mordecai himself, who appeared to be so irritated that he dodged all of Nine-Toes' bullets with frightening reflexes and decided to deal with him melee style. After a few blocked punches, Mordecai floored the bandit lord with an elbow to the neck and sliced his throat with his blade, wiping it clean on the corpse's orange trousers and sheathing it, all while turning to face the young girl, his masked face the picture of rage.
He was so angry that he didn't even stop to examine Nine-Toes' loot – instead he scooped Adira up by force and threw her over his shoulder while she screamed and bashed him with her highly un-lethal fists, telling him that he'd ruined everything.
"We had a deal, Mordecai! He was going to stop attacking Fyrestone!" She screamed and he just decided to ignore her. Maybe she'd shut up eventually and stop attracting skags when she realised he didn't care.
They reached town just as the sun was fading away below the wastes, being replaced by the vengeful night sky that was revered by predators. Adira had to admit that she was relieved when she heard the gate slide shut behind them and the group of skags that had been chasing them crash into it full force, barking and snarling in anger at losing their meal. Immediately the vault hunter dropped her, ignoring her cries of objection as she scrambled onto her knees and was tackled by her two Claptrap friends – they were heavy.
As Adira passed through the graveyard, the two quirky robots practically attached to her legs, her eyes landed on her dad, who had already spotted her several moments before. It was hard to tell what the good doctor was thinking through his face mask, and his eyes were often so steely anyway, but Adira knew that she had really worried him this time. That way he crossed his arms as she approached – he was also angry, and she supposed he had every right to be.
"What were you thinkin', Adira?" His voice was quiet and shaky, much like how he had sounded over the ECHO device to Mordecai.
"I'm sorry, dad." It was all she could think to say.
"What were you doin' out there, after I told you to never leave town!?" His voice raised – for the first time ever and she had no idea how to respond. Dr. Zed had never truly been angry at her, not to this extent, anyway.
"I-I wanted to see what I was missing." She knew he wouldn't understand her reply, but she was so startled that it was all she could get out.
"Huh!?" The doctor seemed lost for words, somehow. Even Mordecai's attention was drawn by Adira's words.
"I'm 16 now, dad – most people my age are already Vault Hunters or soldiers or bandits – doing something with their lives, anyway. But all my life you've just kept me inside the walls, hiding me from enemies – I never even saw a bandit up close until today! I even spoke to one," Mordecai found himself listening intently, questioning the absence of that mysterious woman in his head. She didn't seem to like Adira – maybe she was listening just as hard as he was.
"I know I don't have much of a spine for fighting and I hate the idea of killing and all of that bullshit, but – but maybe if you let me outside every once and a while or if you trained me I could learn to hold my own! You wouldn't have to keep protecting me, and I could actually do something for this planet! I could fight for something – or at least against something, like Pandorians should!"
Dr. Zed was stunned into silence.
"But you told me a few days ago that you can't even kill a skag. I saw proof of that with my own eyes today." Mordecai spoke up - he wanted the girl to see reason, but he didn't even know why.
"Yeah, but maybe I could learn! There's no room on this planet for people like me, I know that now! That's why I need to learn to kill, to defend myself, even if I don't like it! Just so other people aren't putting themselves at risk for me!" She turned to Dr. Zed, who simply gazed back at her in silent amazement. The shape of his mask indicated that his mouth was hanging ever so slightly open.
"You know what Mordecai did today, dad? He took down the entire gully's worth of skags just to save my worthless hide, well no more! If somebody's going to be fighting to save my life, I should at least be holding a gun and shooting alongside them!"
The doctor cut her short, taking a few steps back.
"We'll talk about this later, Kid." Beckoning Mordecai to follow him into the surgery, Zed practically escaped the fuming girl and closed the surgery door once Mordecai was securely inside.
"Dangnabit, I knew she'd do this one day – just didn't think it'd be so soon," He growled, opening up a money box he kept inside one of the lockers. He handed Mordecai $200, which the sniper took with some confusion.
"That's for savin' her. Now I suppose you wanna know why you had to save her in the first place."
"Some answers would be good, Doc. We don't need her running off again." The vault hunter admitted, pulling up a chair.
"Fifteen years ago or roundabouts, a bus carryin' people headin' fir New Haven came on past town, but broke down and was attacked by skags that had been trackin' it. Somehow the bus went up in flames so we took everyone fir dead - tried to shoot the skags down instead. But I heard a voice callin' fir help from the bus. By the time I got over, a woman inside the bus told me to save 'er kid and handed a baby to me – that baby was Adira." He began to explain. Sighing at the memories, the doctor leaned up against the wall, pressing his forehead into his hands.
"There's more to it though, isn't there?" Mordecai had an unsettling feeling in his gut.
"Yep. 'Er mom told me that 'er dad was a bandit chief and they'd been on the run from 'im."
Mordecai's eyes widened in realization.
"You don't let her leave the town because you're worried that a bandit will recognize her, right?"
"Exactly right. In fact, I have no doubt that she could handle 'erself in a gunfight with a little trainin' – my main worry is that she'll get found and taken back to 'im – whoever he is."
"But the last time he saw her was when she was a baby! How would he know what she looks like?"
"There's a myth about bandits – no idea if it's true – but legend has it they can recognize one of their own from a mile away." He told the vault hunter, who nearly laughed.
"But she doesn't even look like a bandit!" Mordecai stood up and placed the money back into Dr. Zed's hand. "Listen Doc, I know you just want to protect her but I don't think you've got much to worry about. Most of those bandits are too stupid to know the difference between me and their comrades in a gunfight. I doubt they could recognize a girl they've never seen before as being one of them."
"Even so, I ain't takin' any chances," Dr. Zed finally stood away from the wall, pressing the money back into Mordecai's hands. "Don't tell 'er anythin' we've just talked about, kapeesh? She doesn't know that I'm not her real dad, I wanna keep it that way – it's the best fir 'er."
Knowing what it was like to grow up without any parents, Mordecai simply nodded, finally accepting the money.
"Also, I need you to do somethin' for me. Somethin' difficult."
It's good to be working on this story again, I hated just staring at it while typing up something else. I'm not good at multitasking when it comes to writing. *sigh*
Anyway, I hope you're all enjoying it so far and there should hopefully be more soon!
~Lagiacrus