I have returned! Not that matters all that much, but, eh, whatever. So the story continues, as now the gang will be getting a better shield for Sanctuary. (Remember how Lilith mentions that in-game with Mordecai and Brick after you beat the game and return to Sanctuary…?)
Henceforth…
Chapter Nine: Many Must Fall
Lilith examined the 3D schematics, as Matt pointed at the beginnings of the tunnels. All the Vault Hunters had now collected around the scanner on the top floor of Crimson Raider HQ.
'The entrance is on a hidden panel on the wall just there,' he pointed. 'And I imagine the shield upgrades are somewhere in this storage area.' The Anomaly gestured around the general area of a fairly large square room.
'Didn't it show up on your scan, Gaige?' Lilith asked. She shook her head.
'Too encrypted. I could only detect that it was indeed in the bunker, given by the energy signature given off, but not the exact location.'
'So you want us to go attack it?' Maya construed.
'It's our only play,' Aurora admitted. 'Trying to sneak in is too risky. They'll know that someone's trying to get in because the door is automatic.'
'How can you even be sure that there even are suitable shield upgrades in it?' Axton questioned.
'My technology doesn't lie!' Gaige argued playfully.
'No, but it malfunctions,' he fired back. Her eyes widened and she lost her callous attitude. 'That's right. I heard about the whole Deathtrap incident. You should be careful with your shit.'
'Screw you, asshole!' She degraded. Gaige was about to push him, but Zer0 put his hand between the two.
'You must not argue / As there is no point in it / So work together.'
'He's right, slabs,' Brick concurred. 'We're all friends here.'
'Yeah, we can't do this mission if you two are arguing all the time,' Matt stated, the similarity in his words from before causing Aurora to look downwards for a second remorsefully. 'This is important enough for you to set your problems aside.'
'Whatever…'
'That goes for you and Matt, Axton,' Maya reminded him. 'We can't be having you holding this stupid grudge on Matt while we're doing this.' Axton sighed stressfully. 'For the good of the team?'
'For the good of the team,' he muttered.
'Anyway,' Aurora continued. 'Once we take down the Gulag, and get the capacitor and generator, we can control the location. It should give us more Hyperion data, so we can wipe them off the face of Pandora. Also, it'll allow the Raiders more room to train.'
'Sounds like a plan, amiga,' Mordecai acceded. She smiled.
'It is gonna be a lot of fun!' Brick commented happily.
'Easy,' Lilith ordered. 'You haven't explained how we're going to get past the second door, Matt.'
'Well, it's a good thing I have a way of getting past it then,' he revealed. Everyone frowned.
'What do you mean?' Maya asked. Matt pulled out a rectangular, crimson device.
'Another Gemini device, a Bypass,' he told them. 'It's part of a set. This is a sender, and the other is the receiver. You send a code with this, and the receiver emits it into any device it is connected to. Back when Gaige, Aurora and I were at the Gulag, I plugged it into the bottom of the access interface panel by the door.'
'And why have you only being using this now?' Lilith inquired.
'I couldn't get it working until recently,' he enlightened them. 'Fixed it shortly before our collective sparing match. You know, when I went to my workshop?' The Siren nodded in recollection.
'Great,' Gaige commended. 'Now we have a way to get to get past the door.'
'Right then,' Lilith addressed. 'Everyone make sure you've got your gear! I'll be briefing you all on your role on this mission tomorrow morning. Prep yourselves, and get some sleep.'
There was a unanimous nod about the room to that statement, whereupon everyone went their separate ways to prepare for the mission.
He woke up screaming once more, wishing to escape the nightmare he had been trapped in. He sat up.
Matt wished they would stop. His nightmares seemed to be fairly consistently awful. This time he was having dreams about his sister, even though she died a long time ago.
Aurora was in the other bedroom in his house, so waking up with a scream would almost certainly attract her attention. He didn't want wake her up, as he did not want to find out what it was like to wake the young woman up and ruin her rest.
Not that he had a choice.
'Matt?!' Called Aurora, too scared to use the nickname, running worriedly into the room. 'Are you OK?' She sat next to him.
'Sorry, bad dream,' he replied noncommittally. 'I woke you up, didn't I?'
'It's OK,' she consoled, putting an arm around him and resting her head on his shoulder. 'It isn't your fault.'
'I just want it to stop, you know?'
'It doesn't just go away, Matty. You have to move on as well.'
'Easier said than done.'
'I know, I know,' Aurora solaced. 'But I'm always here for you, OK?'
'Thanks, 'Ora.'
'That's what friends are for.' Aurora bent over and kissed him lightly on the forehead. 'Best friends forever?'
'Forever,' Matt validated, lying down back in his now clean bed. Aurora walked back to her room and laid down back in her own bed, staring up at the ceiling.
We aren't just friends, she thought gloomily.
Matt slammed his back against the wall by the entrance to the Gulag for cover. Gaige had already unlocked the first door, and the entire group of Vault Hunters were waiting for the go ahead from Lilith to storm through the proper entrance.
Mordecai was still visibly on the hill to their left, with his slag sniper rifle. He was aiming around to get a good observation on all the Hyperion personnel swarming the area. The sniper noted to the rest of them that there seemed to be more guarding the area than usual, to which Matt proposed that they were likely to be more on edge due to the supposed "glitch" that Gaige had incited earlier. The entrance of to the bunker was not too far away from where they were, but the panel wasn't altogether visible though.
Lilith seemed to holding them back, not quite ready to let them go in on the personnel. Matt looked at one of them and silently shook off visions of past trauma. He knew he was ready to take them on, and tear them into pieces, although not literally.
Maya and Zer0 seemed to be loading all of their guns still, but it appeared to him that they were mostly just stalling. This was important. Protecting Sanctuary seemed to be a number one priority, especially following Hyperion's much-publicised siege of New Haven.
Gaige was ready. He could tell by how she nodded at him once she had prepared her first weapon of choice next to him and primed Deathtrap. The Mechromancer seemed to be a little scared to use Deathtrap; even after extensive reworking of software and emergency protocols had been integrated. Matt told her that Deathtrap was something she needed, especially since not using it would be squandering her own talents.
'Lil? We gonna go anytime soon?' Matt asked. There was a brief frown from everyone except the two about use of the nickname so quickly.
'Wait for it…' Lilith instructed. She held them back with a gesture of her hand.
'Lilith, we can't really wait for too–' Maya attempted to tell her, but was interrupted by a loud explosion on the grounds nearby. Hyperion Loaders exploded everywhere, and various soldiers were sent flying. There were several more explosions following that. Matt looked up to see multiple slab Buzzards circling overhead with dispensable bombs attached to them.
'HAHAHAHAHA!' Brick laughed. 'MY SLABS ARE COMING IN!' He charged in with his fists held high.
'Go!' Lilith commanded, although it was fairly evident.
Instantly, Matt, Gaige and Aurora charged in ahead, shooting multiple soldiers and stripping the shields of Hyperion Infiltrators. Zer0, Maya, and Lilith followed suit, firing at the Infiltrators now that they were visible.
Zer0 turned invisible with his Deception, leaving his hologram in his place. A Battle Architect ran towards the hologram, assuming it was the original due to its apparent realistic nature. The hologram took out its sword, and the Architect fired. Once he the bullet hit, the hologram disappeared, and Zer0 reappeared and shot the Hyperion employee in the head. He slumped to the ground, dead.
'How peculiar,' the assassin revelled. 'Dead before he even knew / Where I had struck from.'
'Zer0 could you stop enjoying one kill and help us over here?' Maya asked him, as Lilith and she were struggling to handle the excessive amount of Loaders in their vicinity. Zer0 nodded, and took out his corrosive Maliwan Snider and shot the critical weaknesses on several of them, leaving most of them without their gun or leg. Mordecai's slag was proving useful, as he would hit enemies quite often.
'Secure area under attack,' outlined an automatic female Hyperion voice. 'Deploying reinforcements.' Several moonshots were fired in response to that announcement, where numerous Loaders appeared out of the lunar supply crates. Multiple EXP Loaders ran towards Gaige, but Matt shot them and blew them up with his Hornet before they could reach her. She nodded in gratitude at him.
'It's robot fighting time!' Gaige exclaimed, before digistructing Deathtrap from her gauntlet. She then began to fire multiple shots with her Bekah assault rifle taking down 7 enemies in rapid succession, as Deathtrap aided in a few itself. 'M-M-M-Monster kill-kill-kill!'
'Careful, kid!' Axton called back to her. 'You're almost hitting me with some of those shots!'
'Accuracy's overrated!' She claimed, before cheering as Deathtrap cleaved an Engineer into tiny pieces. 'You are a mean MACHINE!'
'You know, I think' – Matt paused as he shot a few Architects in the head – 'I am starting' – he stopped again to kill a few armoured soldiers with his Chimera – 'to understand why' – he made his way towards her, dismantling a few ION and SGT Loaders with the shock element of his gun – 'you are often called' – Matt eventually found his way beside her, however not before stabbing an Engineer with his knife – 'hyperactive, Gaige.'
'You think so?' The Mechromancer yelled excitedly over the loud noise of bombs exploding and guns firing. 'What's wrong with that?'
'Nothing!' Matt bellowed back. 'If anything, it's adorable!' Gaige laughed, blushing slightly.
'Did I mention my Hyperion contract included a crime of excessive adorability?' She exclaimed.
'Seriously?' Matt could not quite believe that, but Gaige nodded back. 'Mine just claims I'm "property of Hyperion" so they "need" me.'
'OK, slightly more morbid, but never mind,' she joked.
'Can you two stop that?!' Aurora demanded from them. 'We need to get through this!' She shot a few more Loaders with her revolver.
'Right, sorry,' Gaige uneasily apologised.
Abruptly, a Hyperion Engineer jumped high into the air, and was about to land and crush Gaige. Matt slowed down time long enough for him to shoot the Engineer in the head mid-air with his Volcano, causing him to fall the ground beside Gaige. He moved her slightly so that she would be safer before the Engineer dropped dead on the ground.
'Headshot!' Matt celebrated happily. He looked around to see that all present Hyperion personnel had been defeated, and was hoping that they would not reappear.
'Volatile action taken. Deploying further reinforcements,' claimed the same sardonic Hyperion voice.
'Ah, shit,' Matt moaned, disgruntled more than worried. It wasn't as if Hyperion was a major threat at this point.
'More idiots to fight!' Brick cheered. Several seconds later, more moonshots were fired from Helios. Out of the crates were strictly EXP Loaders.
'They're planning on going kamikaze on our asses!' Maya realised. Then Matt got an idea.
'Wait!' He commanded. 'Don't shoot 'em! I have an idea!' They nodded towards him. He drew the attention of the five Loaders, enough for them to chase after him.
'I hope you know what you're doing, Matt!' Lilith told him.
'I got this!' Matt ensured. 'Over here, you little buggers…'
Hastily, he ran over to different doors and pressed the buttons to open them. Inside one of them was a containment room, where there sat a lunar supply beacon in the middle, active and sending out signals for reinforcements. The Anomaly led them towards it, setting off their detonators, and slowing time to slow enough that he could run past them and escape the radius of the explosions. Matt was still caught by the shockwave of the rapid succession of explosions and was pushed back, but got off the ground easily.
'That was smart,' Mordecai reflected over the ECHO, appearing evidently impressed.
'Whatever,' Axton begrudgingly dismissed.
'Thanks,' Matt accepted, strolling back over to them. 'Now, we shouldn't get any more reinforcements.'
'Good thinking,' Aurora praised.
'Victory is near / We must not get distracted / While it's in our grasp,' Zer0 advised. Matt nodded and directed Gaige to a false panel hiding the keypad over the by the wall.
'This is the entrance to the underground network,' the Mechromancer remembered, pressing keys into it. 'Luckily, I recall the numbers for the panel.' She pressed in 8 digits and pressed the activation button to enter them. Gaige smiled when she succeeded and the panels slid up and moved to reveal the secure Hyperion door with the access interface once again. Good thing the glitch loaded in the digits for a split second.
'Here we are,' Matt said, turning to the others. 'This is it.' The others, aside from Mordecai, caught up with Matt and Gaige and admired the secure efforts Hyperion had taken. However, the humour could not be hidden in how Hyperion had still failed to hide it or keep it secure.
'I'll ECHO the Buzzards to keep watch,' Brick considered. Lilith nodded to that. 'I'll be right behind you.'
'OK, kid, let's hope your little device works,' Maya wished.
'It will,' he anticipated confidently. Matt walked down the steps towards the door and took out his parent device. He retested the connection, and once it proved functional, he pressed the button and the access panel glitched out, turning back for a second. It flashed again, displaying "ACCESS GRANTED" and slid open, revealing a more high-tech hallway.
'Let's go,' Gaige pushed along excitedly.
'Hold your horses, killer,' Lilith recommended. 'We don't know if there're traps in there or something.'
'It's fine!' Gaige counselled. 'If there were anything explosive or whatever, it would've come up on my scan.'
'OK,' she replied. 'But if we get attacked, it's your fault.'
'Matt, can you go first?' Gaige immediately asked.
'You're not seriously scared are you?' Matt questioned. She shrugged awkwardly. 'Fine.'
He walked through the hallway, with the other Vault Hunters following close behind. The hallway had a black design, with white rectangular lights on the ceiling, and on the underside of the rails on the floor. There didn't seem to be anyone around in the bunker, which didn't necessarily surprise him seen as though you quite clearly needed high clearance to access this secure area.
'The shield parts should be nearby, but the signal's getting scrambled,' Gaige complained.
'Keep looking for a storage area,' Matt ordered, looking around at all the signs on the door. They turned a corner, where two Hyperon Elites where patrolling the corridors. Immediately upon seeing the Vault Hunters, they held up their guns at the bunch,
'This is a restricted area!' One of them stated.
'Surrender now or face execution!' The other one enjoined firmly. The Vault Hunters looked at each other awkwardly.
'You're kidding, right?' Axton jested.
'Why the hell would I be –' one of them began, but was cut off by Axton swiftly dispatching both of them with a Jakobs Quad shotgun.
'That would be why,' he continued. Matt continued on through the hallways, keeping an eye out for anything that might imply some kind of storage.
'There!' Gaige pointed to a metal barrier with the small sign of "storage" attached. 'Just a guess.' She slid up the barrier to reveal multiple storage crates around the room. She opened many of them, not really finding anything in them. Her face fell upon seeing that nothing was inside them.
'Don't worry Gaige, I'm sure that there's more supply –' Matt began, but was interrupted by the blaring of alarms throughout the underground complex. Lights flashed red in alarm. Several Hyperion foot soldiers appeared in the room, swarming around the Vault Hunters as they stood helplessly in the room. Further soldiers appeared to disarm each and every one of them, even rigging up de-digistruction devices to prevent Zer0 from digistructing his sword.
'Surrender now!' The obvious leader of the group demanded. There was no reply from the group.
'Surrender now or die!' His subsidiary repeated. Axton stepped forward.
'Go to hell, dick.'
Matt noticed the beginnings of the trigger being pulled, and instantly held out his hand. Time slowed as his hand glowed, and the high-powered assault rifles were fired. He saw the fiery explosions from the muzzle of the guns. The Anomaly slowed time far beyond whatever he had done before. Several bullets began slowly firing out of the tip, alerting him that he was on extremely limited time.
Quickly as possible, he ran around each Hyperion Elite soldier and snapped their necks in rapid succession. Once that was complete, Matt caught each and every bullet fired out from the guns, slowing time even further so that he could get the numerous projectiles. The Vault Hunter ignored the highly solidifying headache he was receiving or the evident massive drain on his powers this was doing.
No more bullets remained; the rest sat in his hand.
Time resumed normal passage. Matt staggered to the door, where he leaned against it for balance. He held out his hand towards them, dropping the copious bullets onto the ground, representing the action he just took. They made a satisfying clang as they fell to the ground.
'Woah,' Maya admired. Matt fell to the ground and vomited. Gaige and Aurora ran over to him.
'Ugh,' Lilith observed, her face contorting in disgust.
'Are you OK?' Gaige comforted, rubbing his shoulder.
'You can't use your Chronokinesis so richly,' Aurora guided. 'You could die if you use it too much!'
'I know, but if I hadn't slowed down time as much as I did, you'd all be dead.'
'As much as we're all grateful for you saving us, killer,' Lilith replied. 'That won't mean much if you die from it.'
'I can't believe we got ambushed!' Gaige angrily chastised herself.
'Ah, don't lose sleep over it,' Matt counselled, uneasily getting to his feet. He put his hand on her shoulder. 'Your device is still detecting a signature though.'
'But it keeps getting scrambled.'
'Gaige?' Maya called. 'I think I found the solution to that dilemma.' She took out a device from one of the bodies. Gaige lit up, going over and taking it from her.
'Scrambler!' She exclaimed. 'I can use it to deactivate the network!'
'Go ahead, kid,' Axton permitted, although it wasn't required. She wasted no time hacking into the device and deactivating the scrambling network.
'You got it?' Matt asked, although it was evident that she had succeeded.
'Yes!' Gaige rejoiced, clenching her fist in celebration. 'I know where it is now!'
'By all means, show the way, slab,' Brick replied.
'Sanctuary lives / The Raiders stand a chance now / We should waste no time,' Zer0 added. Matt nodded, and gestured for Gaige to lead on. She turned around and took a sharp right to walk back down the corridor. The others followed her, avoiding any soldiers that may be nearby and may place the bunker on high alert again.
Gaige appeared to be quite excited to help Sanctuary out, and to succeed in one of their main goals finally. They'd needed a shield upgrade for a while, and this capacitor and generator was industrial, so should protect a mining ship rather successfully.
She was constantly looking at her ECHO map so that she knew where it was. Every so often, Gaige would additionally tell them that it was close, although they would still be waiting for another few minutes.
'Any day now, Gaige,' Aurora ushered. She ignored her rushing her along.
'It's definitely here!' She announced, stepping in front of a door and opening it. It was locked. 'Dammit!'
'Allow me,' Aurora cited sheepishly. She jammed in a keycard, and the light turned green, allowing access. 'You should search bodies better.' She directed this at generally no one, but showed evident triumph in succeeding over Gaige.
'Whatever,' the Mechromancer waved off, as the industrial security door opened. It revealed the shield components, which were plugged into a testing circuit to verify its functionality.
'There it is!' Gaige pointed ecstatically at the circuit. Matt went over to unplug, and was relieved to discover that there were no sirens, no security measures, or any ounce of backlash that they had taken out the shield capacitor and generator. He was slightly taken aback by this lack of resistance – both in the circuit and in the theft of the item. Perhaps it was not important.
'Here, Lil,' Matt handed the two fairly large components to her, and she gratefully took them.
'Nice!' She admired them. 'These will definitely suit us.'
There was sudden, loud blaring of alarms following that statement, which made Matt groan in his head with frustration. His instincts slowed time as the secure Hyperion began to shut. It was a large door, but it should have shut incredibly fast. Realisation dawned upon him, as Matt recognised that he had slowed down time far beyond any capability ever shown before.
There was no way, at all, he could just "carry" everyone out of the room; Matt had the ability to increase power in a punch by use of his Chronokinesis, not super strength. So, instead, he moved out as many as he could at once – two. He moved out Brick first due to his extreme weight making it much worthwhile to go with him first, and then took out Mordecai next to him. Once the two were safely out, he ran back in, noticing that the door had apparently moved so little that he could not notice it during that time.
Gaige and Zer0 were next, and he found it much easier to push them past the door. Matt even found time to align their posture neatly so they wouldn't fall due to the excessive speed.
Once he was done with those two, he moved Lilith and Axton, but was slightly too cumbersome. The shield components fell out of her hand, but Matt didn't notice until he turned back around.
The technology was floating in the air, unmoving. Not an ounce of movement, yet it was heavy.
He widened his eyes, not thinking at first that his abilities weren't slowing time. Matt had stopped time, not slowed it. Evidently, he didn't know what to think upon seeing this. Ignoring the impossibilities, he was afraid a little about how long he'd be able to hold this, and what this what do to his body.
At least he could save everyone.
Gasping from offset exhaustion, he took the two shield upgrades out of mid-air, into Lilith's hands. Matt wasted no time in getting Aurora to safety, moving her out of the room. As he did so, he could feel overwhelming weakness in his bones, causing Matt to desire to vomit briefly, however, he fought back the feeling.
Once Aurora was in safety, he ran back into the room to shut off the systems.
Matt succeeded, somehow, but not fast enough.
The next move was for Matt to get out. Right now. He tried to go for the door, but the Anomaly found that he was almost unable to move. Time began to flow; the Vault Hunter could feel it in his bones.
Before he knew it, the door was shut on him, and time resumed. Matt took a deep breath.
'What? What happened?' Gaige asked. 'The door's shut!'
'Where's Matt?' Aurora conjectured worriedly.
'I'm on the other side,' he declared, a notable sense of defeat in his voice. 'I managed to get you all out, but…stopping time takes a lot out of you.'
'You stopped time?!' Lilith enquired in disbelief. She was quickly drowned out by Gaige.
'Hold on!' She exclaimed. 'I'll get you out!' The Mechromancer then hurriedly tried to re-enter the card, but it buzzed a rejecting sound and flashed red. She instead used her arm's circuitry to attempt to hack into it. Moments later, the Vault Hunter punched the wall in anger. 'It isn't working!'
'Gaige, you better hurry up!' Axton warned. 'This area's on full alert! There could be more goons here at any moment!'
'I'M TRYING!' She pleaded.
As Gaige constantly attempted to hack back into the door, Matt heard a small beep behind him. He turned around to inspect the sound. Again, the beep sounded quietly and briefly. Matt went over to the circuit where the shield components had been connected. The beep went again. The Anomaly noticed that the panel behind the wires was removable. Hauling it off, Matt looked on in shock.
A timer was counting down.
This bomb was unlike anything he had ever seen. No wires could be seen, nor was there a panel to remove it. Hyperion weren't capable of making this. And Gemini thought of bombs as "uncivilised" and instead favoured tactics over explosions. How made this?
It was a trap, Matt realised.
'I can almost –'
'Gaige,' he interrupted, but she resumed talking anyway.
'–Get past this, I –'
'Gaige!'
'–Just need to –'
'GAIGE LISTEN!' Matt demanded. She went silent. 'There's a bomb in here. It's beyond anything I've ever seen. The only thing I can discern is its radius: this entire underground network.'
'Oh my god,' Aurora uttered.
'We just walked right into a trap,' Maya understood now.
'Dammit!' Gaige yelled in manic defeat, banging on the door. 'No, no, no…you have to be able to defuse it!'
'No, I can't,' Matt conceded. 'I'm sorry, Gaige. You need to get out. Now.'
'No way!' She protested. 'I'm not leaving you.'
'Matty…' Aurora fought back her urge to cry. 'You can't just give up.'
'I don't think even a master explosives expert like that Tiny Tina could even defuse this. No one can.'
'I can't just let you die!' Gaige continuously objected.
'Matt, we're not just going to let you do this,' Lilith inserted.
'He's got no way out of this, slabs,' Brick noticed. 'Matt's trying to get us to safety because he can't save himself.'
'Exactly,' Matt agreed. 'Get out while you can.'
'MATT!' Gaige pleaded, banging on the door harder.
'If you don't leave, then you all die. Then you getting the shield upgrades would've been pointless. Go!'
'He's right,' Axton realised. 'We have to go.'
'Of course you would say that!' The Mechromancer argued. 'You hate him!'
'Listen to him, Gaige,' Maya adjoined. She could hardly believe what she was hearing.
'I don't know about this…' Lilith thought aloud. 'If you really believe this is the only way, Matt.'
'I do.'
'The Anomaly / Has now made his sacrifice / A hero indeed,' Zer0 venerated.
'Come on, Matt! We can't do this!' Gaige disputed.
'It's been an honour to meet all of you. Gaige, 'Ora, everyone, it's been a blast. No pun intended.' Matt ignored her disagreement, slightly sniggering at the end part.
'How are you making jokes when you're about to die?' The Mechromancer emphasised, leaning on the door.
'Gaige?'
'What?' She asked, hot tears falling from her eyes.
'Can you do something for me?'
'Anything.'
'Stay strong – no matter what happens. Stay true to yourself despite whatever is thrown your way. Never give up on those around you and never forget who you are. Remember: there's almost nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it. Can do all that? For me?'
'Of course, Matt!' Gaige agreed, tears streaming.
He tapped a few buttons on his ECHOear. 'I've sent all my Vault Instincts data to Aurora's ECHOear. Find the Vault, and destroy the monster residing within, please?'
'You got it,' Lilith accepted.
'Matty, you can't be serious!' Aurora excessively opposed. The bomb changed the tempo of its beeps, this time in bursts of two, indicating its eminent detonation.
'There isn't much time!' Matt presaged. 'Brick, get them out of here.'
'C'mon slabs, we have to go.'
'How can you just leave him?!' Gaige cried. 'He's gonna die!' He picked up both her and Aurora in his arms, carrying them on his shoulders. 'Put me down, Brick!'
'Let me go, you brute!' Aurora demanded, banging on his back in response.
'Go!' Matt ordered. Instantly, the Hunters bolted in the other direction.
'No! Take me BACK!' Gaige argued. 'MATT!' The voice was drowned out by Aurora's.
'Matt, please! No!' she begged, although her voice and Gaige's were starting to get quieter. It was unsurprising that now she'd stopped using the nickname.
Eventually I couldn't tell whose voice was what.
'LET ME GO! MATT, I…'
He didn't hear any more of that.
The Anomaly stood there, realising his loss. Caine might not even know. Of all the ways to go, Matt never suspected it would be to a bomb. Hyperion had never intended to kill him before, nor did he think that they would attempt to do so. Apparently, Matt was their property, so why they would terminate it so flippantly and sporadically was weird.
At least that Vault would be found sometime.
So…Matt is in an awkward position. He's pretty much doomed. We'll see.
So, this one was really fun to write simply because of Gaige. Her manic hyperactivity is so enjoyable to write, since she is overenthusiastic and loves killing things to the point where she acts somewhat overconfident.
I also just realized that many of these are named after Zer0's skills (since they all fit) so I will try to include some more from Gaige, Axton, Maya and Salvador. (Although I don't like to use Salvador's since most of them are quite…lecherous so they don't match what goes on the chapter.)
