A/N: I hope you all enjoy chapter ten. Remember to leave a review if you can!
Master Drummer: Yeah, I have big plans for Axton. And yes, DAHL must fall.
deadpool69: I figured it's been a while since anyone has gone on a good rampage, so there it is!
Isaac Clark aka Reven: Thanks for the feedback on Scarlett, and np about the rated m thing. I just honestly am not good at writing that stuff.
Chapter Ten: A look at Mrs. Dahl
"What is wrong Angel, why did you bail out on me, why were you upset?" Zer0 asked as he followed Angel down to their cabin. Angel wouldn't answer him until he put his hand on her shoulder and stopped her. She turned towards him with an angry expression, her eyes red from crying.
"Zer0, you tore that man apart!"
A question mark appeared over the confused assassin's head. "I killed the man, you have seen me kill people."
"That's not why I'm upset. The way you killed him was so coldblooded and merciless, no one deserves to die in such a way."
"He tried to kill us, the man deserved suffering, the man felt his sins," Zer0 said, trying to redeem himself to her. Angel just shook her head and pulled him down next to her.
"Zer0, people do bad things. I know you yourself have done terrible things in your lifetime. You must learn to let go and forgive. You can bring as more people to 'justice' then any hero has in a life time, but if you don't let go, you're no better then them." Zer0 hung his head and thought about her words. He was never one to forget, every time someone had wronged him, he swore vengeance. When he swore vengeance, he never let his victim go, all except one. Angel's betrayal was one of the most painful experiences he had ever gone through, topping every time he had gotten shot, insulted, or beaten. Somehow, he had been able to forgive her after all she did. Angel put her hand on Zer0's helmet and turned his face towards her. "I know you're better then this. You may think you're a cold hearted bloodthirsty assassin, but I don't," she whispered to him, looking him straight in the eyes with a loving gaze. She leaned over and kissed the forehead of his mask lightly, then gave him a warm smile. Zer0 couldn't believe she had gotten over her anger so quickly, how was this woman the daughter of Handsome Jack? From above deck, the two heard captain Scarlett yell, "Oy, you two down below, we're back in Oasis!" Zer0 and Angel walked above deck and saw the ship had indeed stopped by the sand port town. Scarlett nodded towards them with a smile. "We'll have to do that again, eh? That was some of the best fun I've had in years!"
"Thanks for all your help Scarlett," Angel said as she followed Zer0 down the latter.
Scarlett winked at her and answered, "No problem mate, just take good care of that one, alright?" Angel smiled and nodded, then proceeded to climb down to Oasis. Zer0 stood at the bottom waiting for her with the key card out. "Well that worked out well, all things considered," Angel said, trying to stay optimistic.
"Don't count your chickens, we still have the two others, who should we chase next?" Zer0 asked as he sat down on a bench by Shade's stand. Angel took a look at the two others, Elwood and Saturn. Elwood would probably be the most simple out of the two, but she knew the tower would be difficult to escape. It was tall and thin, and the only two exits were out the bottom or off the top. They would have to commandeer a buzzard for the extraction. Then Angel remembered their escape from prison all those years ago. Gaige had driven the buzzard in a nosedive in order to catch Zer0 while he was falling, maybe she could pull that off to. They were going to need expert timing, but they could pull it off. "We're going after Elwood next," Angel told Zer0, "Get the car ready, we're heading to New Opportunity!"
After a three-hour drive, the two arrived in the grand city, now under control by the DAHL Corporation. Zer0 jumped out of the car and looked to the skyline. Towering over him, he saw the tallest skyscraper he had ever seen in his life. "That's Elwood tower," Angel explained as she walked over next to him, "you see why this is going to be difficult now." She was right, the tower was in the middle of the city and extremely high off the ground. This was going to be a difficult heist.
Zer0 looked around for a weak point in the tower, but guards covered every entrance. "I will use my cloak, they will not know I've passed them, that's the easy part," Zer0 said as he analyzed his points of infiltration. Angel nodded in agreement and said, "While you sneak in and reach the top, I will steal a buzzard and use it to pick you up at the top if all goes well." Zer0 pulled out his gear and started to check it for problems. His katana, his most reliable weapon, was functional as always. Zer0 spread out his throwing knifes, checking to see if he had enough; then proceeded to clean his sniper rifle. After he finished maintenance, he packed all his equipment back up and signaled to Angel he was ready for the heist.
Angel snuck off into the shadows, going off to find them a buzzard, as Zer0 vanished from sight and began heading towards Elwood tower. The two gate guards were DAHL ultras, sporting heavy armor and large assault rifles. Zer0 quietly dove over the two and landed unnoticed. He turned and smiled under his mask at his success. The ground floor was fairly good looking, but that was expected because that's all guests usually saw. Zer0 climbed his way up the stairs and towards the roof; Henry Elwood was no longer safe.
Once Zer0 got to the fiftieth floor, he spotted trouble. Two DAHL eye soldiers were guarding the top of the staircase. Eye soldiers were given special optic devices that allowed them to see even the most hidden enemies. Zer0 had to think of something to get passed the two without alerting the rest of the guards. "Angel I need help," he whispered over the echo comm., "there are two DAHL eye soldiers, I can't get past them."
"Hold on Zer0, I have a plan," Angel responded, and then hung up. Zer0 sat in wait for her distraction, wondering how he would know what it was. Suddenly, the power in the tower went out, causing the soldiers to look away from his position. Zer0 saw his window of opportunity and went for it. The assassin jumped from his cover and through a dagger at one of them, hitting him straight in the eye. Before the other could respond, Zer0 lunged at him and severed his top half from his bottom with one swift and powerful swing of the katana. With the two guards disposed, Zer0 was able to continue up the tower unseen.
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"Mam, I have some good news and bad news." Katelyn Dahl turned around in her office to see Lt. Copper standing behind her. "The bad news is that the Crimson Raider's resistance headquarters has not yet been found," he continued, "the good news is that we no longer need care. The New U system is almost functional, so we can leave this God forsaken city."
"What are you talking about Lieutenant, I don't give a shit about the New U system," she responded as she looked back to her screen, which displayed all activity of her DAHL soldiers. Copper looked at her, stunned.
"Mam?" he asked, as if he hadn't heard her correctly.
Katelyn turned towards him and asked, "How far has development gone?"
"Um, we have gotten to the point where we can find the person before they have died and pull them into the system. We still aren't able to reconstruct their body, that white burst back in the Hyperion ruins made sure of that," Copper answered, still trying to figure out why Katelyn didn't care about the New U system.
"Good, stop development immediately," she commanded to him in a low tone of voice. Copper was again shocked by what he heard, had his leader gone insane?
"W-wait, wasn't that why we were doing this in the first place? I thought you were trying to bring someone back," Copper stammered, trying to put together what was happening. Katelyn sighed in annoyance, she was sure she had told him this before.
"I do, the New U station uses time travel technology to pull someone's body into the database right before death so it can re-construct them," she explained to the confused Lieutenant.
"Wait," Copper asked, "what does this have to do with bringing someone back?"
Katelyn shot him a glare and growled, "Let me finish. There is a way one can rewire the system to allow you to warp to the past, just as it warps the recently deceased to the future." Katelyn stopped for a second and let out a sad sigh. She wiped her eyes as she said solemnly; "The one I want to bring back was not himself when he died. To save him, I need to go back into the past and change a horrible mistake, it's the only way I can get him back." Copper saw Katelyn do something he didn't even know she could, she started to tear up. Though there were tears in her eyes, she didn't cry. She would never cry, for he was not gone. She still had a chance, and she was not going to let go. Not when she didn't even get to tell him goodbye. "I'm going to go relay the orders, but before I go there is one thing," Copper told her as he walked through the door.
"What is it Allen," she responded, not turning to face him.
"The assassin is confirmed to be alive, and he is helping the resistance from the outside with Angel, the daughter of the notorious Handsome Jack. Zero's taken out two of our board members so far and had taken their keys. Pretty soon, he'll be able to access our stronghold's facilities. Should we send the remaining two extra protection?"
"Let them be, but send out one message to the both board members. Do not, under any circumstance, kill the siren. She is to be kept alive," Katelyn barked, regaining her former strength. Copper nodded and ran out the door to carry out his leader's orders. Katelyn turned back once again to her computer screen and watched the images being displayed. The room was silent as Katelyn continued to loose herself in the things she saw, becoming more determined with each picture.
Copper entered the barracks and pulled out his gun from its locker. As he began to clean it before entering the city, where he would relay the message, a soldier ran up to him. The lieutenant raised his head and calmly said, "Yes?"
"There's been a massacre of our soldiers in the city, more then fifty good DAHL men are dead."
Copper's eyes widened as he snapped in attention. "Who did this to my soldiers?" he yelled as he grabbed the poor messenger by the collar.
"The reports say it was Axton sir, you should be able to watch the fight on the security tapes in the city," the soldier stammered in fear of his commanding officer. Copper dropped the man, who scrambled out the door as fast as possible, and grabbed his assault rifle. "Axton, you always were brash. One day it's gonna bite you in the ass harder then it did when Sarah left you."
"So what are you going to do?" a woman's voice asked him.
Copper turned and smiled when he saw her. "He'll show up soon enough. When the Raiders make their next move, we'll be there with our guns ready. Their little rebellion won't see the light of day."
"Would you like me to go prepare the troops in case of another attack?"
Copper nodded and said, "We can't have a repeat of last time. Make sure they are extra attentive and tell them to respond against any suspicious behavior, no matter how small it is."
As the woman walked out to carry out his orders, Copper sat trying to think of a plan. That bastard wasn't going to get the best of him this time; Axton was not the better man. The commando was selfish and glory seeking, how could he be? Copper seethed with rage as he thought of how Axton had single handedly embarrassed his troops, killing fifty of them and escaping with not even a scratch. This had to end.
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Zer0 finally reached the top floor after the long climb he had endured. He took a couple seconds to rest at the top, using the time to call up Angel. "I'm on the top floor, I see Elwood's office here, ready extraction," he panted through his echo device.
"I hear you loud and clear Zer0," Angel responded, "I've got the transport buzzard ready, all you need to do is grab the key and run."
Zer0 nodded in understanding and made his way to the door quietly. He peaked through the keyhole of Henry Elwood's office and saw a man sitting at his desk with multiple guards in the room. "What, we don't kill her," the man spoke over the phone, "alright, okay fine. Understood." Once he hung up he signaled for one of the guards to come over. The DAHL jet trooper walked over with a silver suitcase and put it on his desk. Elwood opened up the case and put his key card inside. Once Zer0 caught sight of the target, it was time to put his plan into motion.
He cautiously knocked on the door and backed away, keeping himself cloaked the whole time. In a couple of seconds, one of the soldiers opened up the door and looked around. Zer0 crept up behind him, and then with a powerful thrust, stabbed his katana through the man's abdomen. The soldier cried out in pain as Zer0 pushed through the door, using the impaled man's body to shield him from the shower of bullets. As he pushed forward, he vanished again, leaving a hologram of himself holding up the dead soldier. As the others approached slowly, Zer0 jumped into sight and kicked one of the soldiers over towards the others. One tried to rush him with the bayonet of his gun, but Zer0 quickly blocked the attack. The assassin smashed his head into the soldier's forehead, causing him to stumble backwards. As the soldier swayed backwards, Zer0 followed up his head but with a swift an elbow to the chin, then stabbed his sword through the soldier's chest. Zer0 then flipped over the soldier's body and shoved it into one of his comrades. The sword jabbed the jet trooper in the heart, leaving the man on the floor bleeding to death. Zer0 pulled his sword from the DAHL soldiers and turned to Henry, who was pointing a gun right at him.
"So long chump," he spat as he fired off the revolver towards the masked assassin. The bullet hit him dead on, knocking Zer0 over in what seemed like slow motion. As the body continued to fall, it flickered away into nothingness. Before Henry could react, Zer0 appeared behind them and cut off his head, letting it roll away from Elwood's body. The fight had been too easy, Zer0 was actually a bit disappointed. He looked around the room and saw the silver suitcase with the key in it lying on Henry's desk.
As Zer0 grabbed the suitcase, the office door burst open and in rushed hundreds of DAHL soldiers, all pointing their guns towards him. "FREEZE," one of them yelled, "put your hands over your head, you are under arrest in the name of the DAHL Corporation!" Zer0 held his hands up slowly, there was only one way out of this situation, and that was the one he had seen coming from the very beginning. He whispered quietly through his echo comm., "Can you catch me?" as he started to back towards the window. DAHL buzzards started to rise into view; trying to maintain a perimeter around the assassin they had been trying so desperately to catch. Angel's voice answered over the intercom, "go for it." Zer0 took a deep breath, as he planned his movements wisely. Finally, with a sudden movement, he jumped through the window, evading the volley of bullets that soon followed his move.
Everything seemed so peaceful in freefall; the feeling of complete weightlessness was intoxicating. Zer0 enjoyed the quiet until it was broken by the sounds of buzzards and jet troopers closing in on him. He turned to face the heavens and saw soldiers flying down towards him, trying to recover the precious suitcase. Zer0 started to fire at them with his sniper rifle, the recoil causing him to flip in the air as the wind whipped around him. A jet soldier closed in on him and tried to reach for the key, but Zer0 was ready. He pulled out his sword and spun in the air, cutting off one of the wings of the soldier's jet pack. The man spun out of balance and into a buzzard, causing it to spin out of control into a close by building. Another one of the buzzards started to shot a missile at him, but it missed and blew up on a building nearby, nearly singing the assassin. The explosion pushed Zer0 towards the buzzard as he latched onto its cockpit. He brought his sword up and drove it through the cockpit, killing the pilot and causing the buzzard to do a flip in the air and lose its speed, causing it to fall behind. Windows flew by as he rapidly gained speed and momentum from the fall.
Angel's buzzard dove in front of Zer0 as the other troopers tried to catch up with him. Adrenaline pumped through him as Zer0 through out two knives, both landing a hit on two of the soldiers. "C'mon Zer0, you can make it!" yelled Angel as she tried to keep the buzzard lined up with him. Zer0 saw the ground rapidly approaching; it was now or never. Angel started to slow her speed, trying to keep the buzzard vertical so Zer0 could drop into its open cargo trunk. Zer0 reached out and grabbed the back of the buzzard and pulled himself in as the door slammed close. "Hold on!" Angel yelled to him, as she started to pull the aircraft up. The buzzard swung forward, barely missing the street below them. Zer0 was tossed around as Angel flew the chopper away as fast as she could, trying to lose the fleet chasing them. The excitement of the fall was still running through him, causing him to barely be able to stay still. He pulled the suitcase off of his back and unlocked it to look inside. The green DAHL key card reflected the dim lights of the buzzard's cargo hold as Zer0 held it up. He pocketed the key card as Angel called back to him, "get ready, we're about to land."
When they touched ground, Zer0 stumbled out of the back, feeling disoriented from the free fall. His head felt extremely light as the adrenaline started to abandon him, leaving him feeling weak and extremely tired. Angel ran over to him and helped him up with a smile. "That was one of the scariest moments of my life," she remarked as she walked him over towards their car.
"You thought it was bad, I was the one free falling, I get to fly next," Zer0 panted as he climbed in the gunner seat, refusing to drive after his tiring escape. Angel laughed and jumped in the driver seat and buckled up her seatbelt. Zer0 started to snicker as she did so, causing her to look back at him and ask, "What's so funny?"
Zer0 laughed, "You are Angel, only you wear a seat belt, nobody else does." Angel stuck her tongue out at him and began to drive them back to Rita's bar for some well deserved rest.
A/N: Well I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, remember to review and leave a favorite if you really liked it!