Chapter 9

-1 YEAR LATER-

"What's going on? What the hell is this?" Axton said looking at the giant apparatus that was in front of them.

"Its an Eridium pump." Jack said to him looking at the giant machine.

"Eridium?" Axton asked

"Yes, When the four people you failed to assassinate on Pandora opened up the legendary Vault, they found it to have no treasure, rather it be an intergalactic prison used by the ancient aliens to keep the Destroyer from harming anybody," Jack explained.

"Destroyer?" Axton asked

"Oh for God's sake, it's like a giant squid thing, Okay?" Jack said pinching his temples.

"Anyway, when they killed the Destroyer, they inadvertently triggered a rapid growth of Eridium on the planet Pandora. Atlas Corporation is officially been taken off the map, due to the..well..incident at Athenas. I've ordered a lot of robots down to the planet to excavate out the Eridium, this shit is priceless man, I'm rich now!" Jack yelled

"...I?" Axton asked

"Oh...yeah...I mean us," Jack said

"What about the executives? They okay with this?" Axton asked looking at Jack suspiciously.

"Executive? What Executives? They all cashed out on their stocks so theres nobody but us running Hyperion now! We practically own Hyperion!" Jack said triumphantly

"What about Mr. Tassitier? He wouldn't dare cash out his stock with Hypeiron. He's been loyal to the corporation for over 30 years!" Axton said

"True, he didn't," Jack said "But I dealt with him...accordingly,"

'Which means that I killed Mr. Tassitier' Axton thought to himself gritting his teeth at Jacks utter arrogance.

"If I may sir," Mr. Blake said walking into the room "We best get back to headquarters, I'm afraid overexposure to these pumps could lead to...well...harmful side effects."

"Like what?" Axton asked

"Were not entirely sure yet sir," Blake said "But it did cause skin breakouts and burns on the foreman."

"Alright, lets get outta here," Jack said to Axton before leaving the room with Mr. Blake. Axton took one look at the machine then followed the two out of the facility.

-1 YEAR LATER-

Axton was still in his tuxedo while he was being brutally beaten by Hyperion officials and people loyal to Jack, including Wilhelm who had all of his limbs during this time.

"I can't believe you would do something like that," Jack said walking into the room with his hand behind his back.

Axton was being restrained by two other officials when he was getting bludgeoned by people he worked with. They were standing what seemed like a parking garage that had liquid nitrogen canisters that powered the cars. Axton now reckoned he had 4 cracked ribs, along with a crushed pelvis from when Wilhelm stomped on it from the side, and a lot of bruises and cuts from getting bludgeoned by Jack's loyal men.

"You would give out info to some godforsaken place to try and take me down?!" Jack said

"He will pay for this..." Blake said holding an assault rifle.

"Can't you see it for yourself John?" Axton coughed "You are willing to kill over 90,000 people just to try and ensure you're the richest man in the galaxy?"

"Yep." Jack said smiling " Well, technically I'm looking for a Siren so I can blow her brains out. Shes hiding in this city. And I'm not letting you get in the way of this."

Jack then walked closer to Axton then asked him

"So is this where the line is cut?"

"Apparently so.." Axton said glaring at Jack.

Jack laughed at Axton then said to him.

"Axton, nothing can stop this from happening, today I finally seal my dominance over the frigging galaxy with this last act of valor...not even you," Jack said pulling out the strange looking pistol from his holster and aimed it at his chest.

"Somebody will stop you John..." Axton muttered

"Please..It's Jack...Handsome Jack," Jack said pulling the trigger

A purple dart shot into Axton's chest and stuck out about 4 inches, causing him to give off a small gag. The needle was about an inch thick and was glowing purple. Axton went into shock. He never felt pain this immense in his entire life, it felt like his insides were on fire, Axton got shot while in the military service, but nothing came close to the amount of pain he was feeling right now. The two guards let go of Axton and he collapsed on the floor. His gun fell out his back pocket, so he tried to crawl over and grab it, but only to have it kicked away nonchalantly by Jack. He kneeled down to Axton and said to him.

"E-Tech, how do you like it?" Jack said moving it around.

"It runs off the Eridium refined from the shithole known as Pandora and can leave bullet wounds without a bullet, but its twice as effective and twice as lethal. I reckon you got about an hour or so before the Eridium goes into your bloodstream and collapses your heart. Pretty neat huh?" Jack said to Axton musing about the gun.

Axton coughed up some of his blood before muttering to Jack.

"...Fuck...You..."

Jack laughed silently and said to him before standing up

"I'm afraid you're in no disposition to do so,"

Jack kicked him square in the face to teach him somewhat of a lesson, but that wasn't enough. when Jack was about to walk to the elevator and turned around to Axton and said.

"I gave you the chance to join me, but you just had to throw it in the dirt...You dissapoint me Axton"

"I don't side with murderers of innocent people," Axton said still on the floor clenching his chest in pain.

"Whatever.." Jack said rolling his eyes. "Come on fellas, we got history to make."

Jack then walked up to Wilhelm and said to him

"Wilhelm, take care of him,"

'Yes sir," Wilhelm said slightly bowing his head,

"I'm off to make trillions Axton, ciao!" Jack said waving his hands before closing the elevator.

Wilhelm walked slowly to Axton with a crowbar in his hand, "You just had to fuck it up didn't you?" Wilhelm said whacking him in the face with the crowbar.

"You could've been one of us for good," He then said whacking him again.

"Now I'm gonna have to kill ya, pretty boy," Wilhelm said

"I don't think so," Axton said pulling out the gun he had in his back pocket, aiming at the liquid nitrogen canister on the nearest car and firing.

Liquid nitrogen exploded all over Wilhelm, covering his each of his limbs with the subzero compound, causing him to scream in pain as his limbs became number by the second. Axton mustered what little strength he had to stand up, pick up the crowbar that Wilhelm used to beat Axton senselessly with, and with all his might, he took a low swing at Wilhelms legs, completely shattering them into pieces as if they were glass. Wilhelm hit the ground so hard that it shattered his arms as well, leaving him as a frozen stump on the concrete.

"It pays to have a spare," Axton panted and coughed.

He then realized that he had no time to gloat over his victory with the brute and that he had to hurry in order to stop Jack (or attempt). He limped over to the nearest elevator and pressed the 'Street Level' button on the elevator. The sliding doors closed and Axton waited for about 20 seconds while the elevator was ascending, clutching the dart trying to pull it out to no avail, because the slightest movement of it caused an immense pain in his chest. After 20 seconds the elevator intercom switched on and said

"Now entering: Streets of Mombusha city, enjoy your stay!" Then the aluminum alloy doors slowly slid open.

Death.

It was all Axton could see. Hundreds of bodies that included innocent men and women were gunned down by the might of Hyperion. Axton loaded up his pistol and began to run towards the gunfire that was held a couple blocks down. Axton couldn't help but stumble around and cough up some blood. After the 5th cough, he began to realize that he was coughing up purple stuff along with his blood. He remembered what Jack told him about the E tech guns and how the dart slowly travels into your bloodstream. When he was thinking about that he heard a slight yelp then heard a very familiar voice say.

"What's this? A Siren caught off her guard?"

Axton saw from the corner of his eyes Mr. Blake pointing his assault rifle at a blue-haired woman, with strange markings on her left arm.

"A Siren..." Axton said calmly,

"Just close your eyes dear, this won't hurt, I promise," Mr. Blake said aiming his gun at her face.

"I don't think so Blake..." Axton said aiming his gun and pulling the trigger.

A perfect shot, right in the temple, Mr. Blake was shot and killed by a former Hyperion Executive, Axton.

The blue-haired woman looked at Axton for a bit. She couldn't figure out who it was because his face was covered by shadow, the distinctive thing about him was the large protruding needle that emitted a purplish glow, other than that, he was completely indescribable. Axton looked at the woman for a few seconds then began to ran towards the crowd, now that he provided the Siren with a window to escape from.

Axton stumbled around town until he could finally see Jack from a distance, he paused for a minute then mutter under his breath.

"Jack..."

He took aim with his pistol, about to fire at Jack, but the pain from the needle was too immense and he dropped his gun and collapsed on the ground, convulsing from the pain of the needle. He lifted up the sleeve of his tuxedo to see that his blood vessels were glowing a faint purple. Is this where he dies? After all the work, blood, and sweat Axton put to this job, would come to such an abrupt end because of that tyrant who desired power among all else.

Axton then heard gunshots, fired in bursts to be exact, then saw a few Dahl soldiers storm in to try and stop the massacre from happening, they were too late.

"Dammit!" One of the woman said, she then looked around to find Axton lying on the ground barely breathing.

"Ah hell, We got a live one over here!" She yelled running over at Axton.

"Officer Booth! Help me out, we gotta get him outta here!" She then said

Then another officer ran to him along with two other Dahl soldiers. They then hoisted him up from the ground and carried him to a humvee where they provided immediate medical attention, giving him an antidote for the emulsion sickness he got from the needle, then finally getting it pulled out and sterilized the giant wound in his chest.

"You're lucky to be alive friend," The woman said taking off her helmet, she was definitely a looker this one.

"I guess so.." Axton said breathing through the oxygen mask he was given.

"What's your name?" The woman asked him.

"Axton..And yours?" Axton asked

"Sarah..."

Axton was taken to the Dahl headquarters where he was questioned by the officials on the incident. He told them that he formerly worked for Hyperion and that Jack is planning to take down all the Sirens so he can dominate the galaxy, The reason he gunned down all those people was to find a Siren.

"Well you took a helluva beating son," The official said "The fact that you're still alive, is well, astonishing to say the least."

"I don't die so easily," Axton said now wearing a white t shirt with combat pants and boots. He tried to address him as properly as he could, but he felt like shit at this point. He just wanted to eat something, then fall asleep for a few days.

"Well it seems like you've been through the shit son." The official said to Axton looking at some papers.

'Asswipe' Axton said to himself with his arms crossed. 'Being though the shit' was an understatement of what he had to go through in his past years of working for Hyperion. Seeing a city nuked, and watching someone gun down 600 people was to name only a few off the top of his head.

"Yeah well we could use somebody like you." The official said. "How would you like to join the Dahl military and help fight the Hyperion corporation?"

Axton looked around the room, looked at Sarah who was standing near the corner, then looked back at the official and said quietly.

"...Alright..."

AN: Hey guys! Thanks for all the awesome comments you guys been giving me, it's you guys who motivate me to keep on producing new chapters! I don't mean to sound like a doucher or anything but please spread the word about this fanfic! I would really appreciate it and it would help get an even greater chance to get more reviews and improve on future chapters! Thanks for reading!

-LT