A/N: To those who were wondering the Omega shield is actual Atlas gear from Borderlands 1 but I've added extra abilities to it in this story.
The other pearlescents shown in this fic are purely made up from the recesses of my mind so don't go looking for them, although I wish they existed...And hey presto just like that I saw the trailer for the Borderlands Pre-Sequel and well I can't talk about it here but I saw the trailer after I thought of these guns so don't judge me if you notice the similarities with Sal's gun, their inspiration comes from their namesakes.
Thanks for the favourites and follows, it's nice to know that I must be doing something right :P
Enjoy!
Chapter: 10 Through the Maze
The team had scrambled up from the armoury, relying on each other to haul themselves up and climb higher till they finally reached the top where Grog had came from. Maya was the first up and found that they were in a huge circular empty room. The light was natural light as she had first thought it might've been. It was flooding in from a huge window that looked exactly like the HCS shield they took down earlier, only she was looking at it from the other side now.
"This place. I remember this room." Zer0 said as he hauled himself over with the help of Salvador, his short height meant he needed a booster from Axton below and for Sal to grab him and lift him up. At that moment the assassin truly empathised with Salvador's height.
Maya looked back to Zer0 when he spoke. "How so?" She asked. "I thought you were imprisoned where we found you?" She asked.
"Not the whole time." Zer0 replied and walked over and glanced around. "The first time I woke up I was here. See that bed over there?" Here he pointed to the back where a pretty nice bedstead was placed. "I woke up on that. Then they came for me. Took me to the experimental room." He shook his head at the thought. He clearly didn't want to explain any further so Maya just nodded when a thought came to her.
"Hey how about we test our new guns here?" The siren offered. "It is a big space and looks like there aren't any enemies for now."
The others all agreed and began practicing together and tried out the specials of each of their pearlescents.
Maya's Bahamut SMG special was spreading its fire out in a cone shape like a shotgun but more accurate, since it had targeting abilities meaning one could select up to five targets at once within the range of the cone and the gun would fire at them all in one go. This was possible because it had five small barrels disguised to look like a single one. It could change elemental attacks between fire and shock at the flick of a small switch to its side. This made a devastating combo if the wielder depleted their enemy's shield with shock before burning them to crisp with the fire. It was tagged: "Now I see you. Now you're toast."
"Nice." Maya smirked as she tested it on everyone else when they had listened to her request on trust to stand in front of her. They sourly regretted it when they felt the pain of shock and fire. They all protested before being pacified by the glowing tattoos of the siren, impeding a good ass kicking if they didn't shut up. She added "besides I was going to heal you all up back anyways. Sheesh you babies."
Zer0's Omega with its tag: "The Alpha and that other thing." boasted extreme recharge speed, high capacity including shock resistance. On top of that it absorbed laser attacks granting additional recharge rate and capacity for a duration proportional to the square of the luminosity of the laser. Also there was a limit to the amount of energy absorbed, including from shock attacks, once that limit was reached at the push of a button the shield would discharge all the stored energy either in the form of a shell of energy surrounding the wielder or an intense laser beam of a diameter of about half a metre that spanned as far as the eye could see. Zer0 practiced using it against Maya's shock pearlescent and stored energy efficiently by absorbing her shock bullets and all he had to do was stand there and take the hits only at the cost of his shield capacity but that cost was well worth the profit. He aimed the discharged beam at a wall which instantly turned white hot in the afterglow of the beam. "He-he" Zer0 chuckled and expressed a ":D". He no longer missed the pearlescent sniper.
Salvador's Magus shotgun was great at mid range but at close range it was fatal to the receiver. Its fire rate was really fast. That said it had to counter this high rate with a huge magazine size and quick reload speed. Upon reloading there was a 85% chance of the shotgun reloading itself using digistruct technology, thus letting the user fire two or even three magazines in a row without stopping, it was tagged: "Why reload when you can keep shooting?". It switched between four elements: fire, shock, ice and corrosive as homage to the character Magus from Chrono Trigger. The disadvantage was that the switch between the elementals happened randomly but ordered as so: Shock - Fire - Ice - Corrosive . Therefore it wouldn't always shoot effectively if the opponent was resistant to an elemental type, however it countered this by swapping through the four types in quick succession so that in a single magazine all four elementals would be used. The interesting part about the Magus was its ice elemental that none of the vault hunters had ever seen before. The gunzerker tested it out on Axton's turret and the ice was capable of freezing the machine for a few seconds.
"Good thing it follows up the ice with corrosive, if it were fire afterwards it would probably melt the ice, rendering it useless." Maya commented.
"I know. Amazing right?" Salvador grinned. All the vault hunters nodded their heads in agreement.
Axton's Lavos rifle boasted amazing fire damage at a decent rate with great reload speed and magazine size. There was an 85% chance of lighting enemies on fire which resulted them in being set on fire for a good eight seconds of which it dealt additional fire damage per second. With each second the damage rose in factorials. For example after four seconds the damage would be 4! = 4*3*2*1=24 points, at eight seconds it would be 8! = 40320 points, the damage would be cumulative therefore after the full eight seconds it would be 46233 points and that was only the fire damage. Also this sequence would be repeated for every successful enemy lit on fire. It was tagged: "Lavos! = Big Fire. 'Nuff said," as a reference to the SNES game, "Chrono Trigger". It also had a 50% chance for flamed enemies to ignite flames in other opponents upon contact.
Krieg's rocket launcher, Ultros was incredible. It could fire up to eight shots at once or eight shots in quick succession per rocket pack. So if he held down the fire button for 1 millisecond and let go, then one rocket would fly, if he held it down for four milliseconds and then let go, then four rockets would fly. He could change their flight path from being a circle of rockets or a line of them. And what was the crème de la crème? They were heat seeking. So when Krieg practiced he had to make sure the friendly fire mode was on in case he'd kill one of his own teammates. Its tag was: "Did You Know Octopuses Have Eight Tentacles?" As a reference to the boss, Ultros, in the SNES game, "FF6".
Gaige's sniper rifle, Kefka, was incredibly accurate and boasted high reload speeds. Once a target was hit the bullet would do continuous bits of damage over time, non elemental, just damage. This extra damage was cumulative with sequential bullets landing home. Since the rifle was able to calculate the distance of a target using an infrared relay it meant it knew exactly whether a target was hit or not. Therefore if a bullet missed, say to the left of the target's head instead of hitting the head, it would then explode in the air left of the head resulting in a chance to hit it's target with its shrapnel. It was tagged: "Ku ku ku ku ku! I Won't Miss Your Ugly Face." after the iconic laughter of the villain, Kefka, in FF6.
As the team took a breather they all sat around the room, which they guessed to be sector 2 according to the holo-map.
"Y'know I was wondering about the names too Ax. Even they are different from Atlas' usual way of naming their guns. They usually name it after Greek mythology from the planet Earth. " The gunzerker stated. " I would wager that whoever made these for Atlas probably made them for themselves or for fun, I mean they're just so different from the Atlas norm."
"Hmmm. Yeah I think you're right. I wonder what kinda guy would be brave enough to go against the 'Atlas grain'." Axton said in a pleased tone admiring his rifle.
At overhearing this comment, Zer0, who was sitting on the bed, couldn't help but think back to his master: Masahide Suichi. He would be the type to be different and manufacture a weapon or weapons that wouldn't really be what Atlas themselves produced. After all he did make his digistructing katana. As if by habit Zer0 reached for the hilt of his blade only to be reminded that it wouldn't digistruct, instead it sparked and shocked him slightly and he cursed as he whipped his hand back. Gaige, who was looking out the window had noticed this and moved over to him, she leant into his face to grab his attention and sat on the bed.
"Hey, are you okay?" She whispered.
He looked away from his hand and up at her, "Yes. It was only a shock, from the hilt of my katana. It still fails me."
She furrowed her brows, "Do you want me to have a look at it?" she asked pointing to the hilt.
"No. It would be futile despite your worthy skills. I require the lab equipment. They have the needs to re-install the digistructing mechanism. I may find the antidote there also."
Gaige just nodded and couldn't help but flash a look of worry as she scanned his body. She could see the cracks in his helmet had widened since the fight with Grog, so much so, that she swore she could see through one that started from the top and right over his left eye, she ran her finger down it and he let her.
"Your helmet. It's breaking."
"It can't be helped." He replied and kept still as her fingers found the big crack over his left eye. "I am in no position to fix it."
Just then Gaige's prodding finger had widened the crack and it's tip had slipped into the visor, she let out a little yelp as the sharp bits cut her and she quickly pulled her hand back. The rest of the team on the other side of the room hadn't noticed though.
"Sorry." She whispered, clutching her bleeding finger. Zer0 was alarmed and used his rat hand to hold her arm whilst his robotic hand dived into Gaige's inventory to find a plaster. He ducked his head closer and could see that a shard of the visor was embedded inside.
"Wh-What are ya doin..don't you know that you shouldn't look into a lady's bag!" Gaige shrieked and now she had caught the other's attention. "Hey!"
"The situation requires that I break social norms." The assassin replied as he pulled out what he was looking for.
"Uh Zer0? What are you doing to Gaige?" Axton asked the question everyone was thinking. From his perspective Gaige was blocking his full view of Zer0 so he walked around and closer and they were both on a bed so to him it looked almost like Zer0 was trying something dirty.
"Do not panic. I am just tending to her wound." Zer0 replied, he had already pulled out the shard carefully as Gaige hissed due to the little sharp pain.
When Axton saw that the wound was just a little cut he rolled his eyes and went back to his conversation with Maya. 'Always protective of her' He thought. He mentioned this thought to Maya who nodded smiling and replied with a whisper that she thought they'd be dating soon to which the other's nodded in agreement and started sharing their own thoughts on the topic.
This, Gaige picked up upon as she glanced behind her to the huddle. "Uh Zer0, can you hurry it up? I mean I think they're talking about us. Kinda embarrassing." She said looking back down to Zer0's handiwork. He had finally cleaned the wound and placed the plaster over it.
"Done." He said and lifted his head to look at her face. "I don't care what they say."
"Huh really? You don't?" Gaige raised a brow and crossed her arms. "So you didn't care when Axton teased us that time? I swear I saw an angry emoticon."
"..."
Gaige just chuckled but suddenly stopped when she noticed Zer0's visor looked a bit different from before, worse even.
"Hey Zer0. I think the crack has gotten wider..."
At this comment Zer0 placed his hand over to feel the crack and he suddenly felt a bit of it chip away and felt a small breeze enter his helmet. He hoped it wouldn't worsen, then they'd all see. He noticed Gaige's worried look again.
"Don't worry Gaige/I will get back to normal/Just you wait and see." Zer0 let his arm fall and patted her on the head. He looked over to the commando and caught his attention.
The commando nodded and turned to look at everyone else, "So we all ready to move out?" he asked.
The vault hunters all nodded in agreement.
"Lets go!"
The section they were in was at the very back of sector 2, which was sector 2a, they needed to get to the front, which was sector 2e. According to the holo-map there was an elevator there which should take them to sector 3, since there were no other stairs or lifts shown on the map they decided to head there rather than waste time trekking through the vastness of sector 2. Sector 2 was by far the largest of all three and comprised mainly of heavy machinery which suggested some sort of production took place there. Comino's message was still a nagging thought in the hunters' minds. He said he would blow up this sector if they didn't comply. So they needed a back-up plan.
They traversed through many corridors and walkways fighting any random would be assailants. Comino watched them on his monitors and he was seething. His intruders had barely been scathed from their encounter with Grog. He realised he needed to step up the game more if their numbers were to be dwindled, he chuckled as he got up and walked into Lab 2 which was just across the hallway from the security centre. He still had a few 'pets' he could use and he was sure they were itching to taste the flesh of the vault hunters, so he went over to the overseer's console and keyed in the codes to release Grog's older brother and sister out onto Sector 2d. The scientist grinned mischievously as he returned to the security room console to act out part two of his retaliation plan.
The vault hunters made it to the gate of sector 2b. It was a simple door which wasn't even guarded so the little rat keyed in the code and the door slid open with a whirr and beckoned the hunters in. They were met with a large circular room with a huge spiral staircase in the middle, they saw four doors set in the walls equally spaced apart. But no matter how hard the rat tired to open them they would deny his key code and even if Gaige and D347-TP tried to hack, it was no good as the mechromancer explained that she couldn't even read the code let alone decrypt it. So they ended up taking the stairs, they looked splendid. The steps themselves were made of clear light turquoise crystal but it's top surface was grained to provide grip. It looked sparkly and dull all at the same time and different when looking at it from different orientations, this the team saw as they climbed the winding path.
"Hey look. I can see another light there. Perhaps another HCS is there." Gaige said pointing up and directing everyone's attention to the circular hole in the ceiling that grew larger in view as they reached closer to it.
"Wow just how many has this place got?" Axton asked. "I think we were kinda lucky to find the one with Zer0 behind it."
They were a third of the way up when all of a sudden, turrets began digistructing spirally around the circular walls, all the way from bottom to top and they all had their dark red laser sights pointed at the surprised team.
Salvador cursed as the whirr of the priming turrets revved with increased frequency.
Team! Get behind me/ It is time to use Omega/ I've waited for this." Zer0 announced.
The colour of the turrets heated to a hot red and they let loose beams of lasers, their pulse lasting for a few seconds at a time. Even so the amount that reached the team seemed to be consistent due to the sheer number of lasers that fired systematically one after another. The team had to dodge or stay behind Zer0 and his shield, which was difficult enough to do on a staircase with no banister or rail.
Zer0 was swift and soon learnt the pattern of laser fire. He began to return amplified laser beams and used it to take out three turrets.
"Theres twenty left Zer0! Keep it up!" Axton said as he deployed his 'missus' to get enough people in his Phalanx Shield. Zer0's shield was good at protecting him and him only when he was moving, so once Zer0 had absorbed enough energy Axton would take over in shielding the team. Like this the duo could protect their team as they fired their pearlescents at the turrets. Salvador's shotgun was very useful in freezing the machines whenever it's ice mode was on, this bought Gaige time to line up shots with her sniper rifle to finish the iced ones off, this meant she had to reload before finishing a magazine clip thus relinquishing her anarchy in exchange for accuracy. The price was worth it as it was satisfying to see the sniper bullet pierce through the boulder of iced turret, followed by an echoing crack, then the shatter of both ice and machine, it's sparkling debris drifting down was quite artistic.
Krieg had let Ultros loose on the walls. "EXPLOSIONS!" He roared.
Within no time, all that was left of them was a smoking melted hunks of metal and their remains spilled on the floor. However there was no breathing time when they re-spawned again.
"There's no end to 'em!" Maya called out as she ducked a laser and responded by simultaneously targeting three turrets and shocking them till they fried to a black crisp.
"We gotta move up!" Axton yelled. He motioned to Zer0 to go first, which the assassin did once he absorbed enough fire. Zer0 jumped a few metres up and used omega's stored energy to surround himself in a spherical shield in which no lasers could penetrate, If one, like Gaige, could look at the surface interactions they would see that the constant energetic vibrations of Zer0s shield was what was actually negating the incoming fire.
"Guys go whilst my phalanx has the path to Zer0 covered!" Axton signalled upwards to the team and they proceeded to get into Zer0's shield. Once inside Axton finished off another turret as his own set to cool down. He leaped into Zer0's shield just about dodging a laser that singed his lower trouser leg.
"Yeouch!" He yelped as he was pulled in by Maya. "Now I know what laser hair removal feels like."
"C'mon we gotta time your next turret, Ax" Maya said getting the ex-sergeant to his feet.
"Yeah yeah I know." The commando got up and began returning fire again.
Fighting the turrets wasn't too bad, given their pearlescents they felled them easily. It was their re-spawn rate that was problematic. It slowed down their progress but they had fallen into a smooth well timed pattern of going from Zer0's Omega, to Axton's Phalanx and from Phalanx to Omega, so on and so forth.
Things were looking good and they were half way up, so long as they kept the formation going they would reach the top. Suddenly, whilst the team was in the middle of another transit from Axton to Zer0 the stairs began to rumble and a loud deep groan of stressed metal was heard. Before the team could react they began to stumble and took to ducking to steady themselves on the steps. Gaige almost fell off, she was wobbling on the edge but Krieg had caught her outstretched hand in time and brought them both down to hold onto the steps. But that couldn't prepare them for what happened next. The crystal stairs began to split into two right in between the separated team. Actually it happened right between Salvador's legs.
"What's happening?!" Gaige yelled as she saw that her, Axton's and Krieg's lower half of the staircase was spiralling rapidly downwards like a screw, burying itself underground.
"The stairs. They're splitting!" Maya called out from the top half, she gasped when she saw the gap widen and heighten right below Salvador.
"Help!" The gunzerker called out and extended his hand, it was too late for him to jump the gap, he was taken by surprise. If he fell he would leave Zer0's shield range and be under siege from the turrets. And Zer0 would not be able to dive in time to follow him. His short legs strained as they were nearly doing the splits.
The siren leaped over the edge of the split step and extended her hand, Salvador's sweaty palm clasped in hers and she heaved him in with her and Zer0's combined strength. Once safely onboard they all collapsed as the stairs continued to separate.
She panted a bit and blew a bit of her blue fringe out of her eyes. "You're quite heavy for your size." She breathed.
The gunzerker just frowned, muttered a thank you and lay on his back.' That was close.' He thought.
The ordeal left Zer0 with Maya and Salvador. Axton was with Gaige and Krieg. The team were forced to split.
"Zer0! Zer0!" Gaige called out amongst the sounding chaos of rumbles, bullet fire and lasers. She tried craning her neck left and right as she stared up to the receding top half.
"I am here!" the assassin replied, he grasped the edge and peered over it, seeking the other team.
He found them at the very bottom, right where they started. Axton still had his phalanx shield out utilising his double turrets and dealing not just double trouble but triple trouble if you included himself. Krieg was still firing a torrent of destruction, keeping the enemies at bay.
"Good! Now we haven't got much time! I'm hacking a door to get out of here. For some reason the code is readable now so I can do it! Just promise me that we'll meet at the elevator like we said!"
"A promise I will honour with my life!" He replied sternly with an assured nod.
"Good!"
And with that D347-TP had finished hacking the door and had to physically hold it open as it kept trying to automatically shut. So the robot placed its own frame within the doorframe as Gaige, Krieg and Axton leaped and rolled in. The robot un-digistructed and the door slammed shut with a thud.
"Axton! Look after her." Zer0 called into his ECHO link to the commando, as his half of the stairs had grinded to a halt at the circular hole in the ceiling.
Axton replied in all seriousness, "of course I will, who d'ya think you're asking?"
"Thank you." Zer0 replied and ended the call.
Now it was time to survey their new surroundings. Only Axton had the holo-map so he suggested to the mechromancer to replicate it and send it to everyone. She nodded and began working on it by dabbing at her ECHO, the holo-map and her robotic arm. She worked sitting on DT's shoulder so the robot could transport her as the two males scoured the new room.
And where was the little rat companion? – Why, with his king of course! The rat had used his cunning swift speed to climb to the top before anyone else and long before the turrets deployed. He just thought he'd scout ahead but was frozen still during that battle. He was frightened for their lives but couldn't do anything about it and just stared down at them. He was thus relieved with the outcome. He bowed apologetically to his King and friends, the assassin raised the rat's head and simply shook his own head.
"That's his way of saying it's okay little guy." Maya said smiling at him as the rat got up.
The rat smiled back and followed Zer0 down the corridor.
"That must've been Comino." Salvador stated.
"Yes." Zer0 replied.
"Gah. Playing with us." The Siren said with annoyance to her tone.
After five minutes of walking around, the siren's team found themselves back where they started. They found themselves following an almost elliptical path, identical to their previous but slightly different. Even the few enemies they had come across still had their corpses in the same places.
"Shit." The gunzerker spat, "We are running in circles. There's got to be a way out of this maze."
"Maybe we missed a door or something." Maya suggested.
"No. We did not." Zer0 said and turned to face his companions. "The rat has told me Comino has control over certain internal structures."
"Yess, tis true." The rat hissed. "He uses it to punish those of uss ho don't obey him."
"Is there a way through them?" Zer0 asked.
He shook his head and said that you just had to play along, solve the puzzle.
"Puzzle? So there's a puzzle we gotta solve?" Salvador asked.
"Yess. The whole maze is a puzzle. I have unfortunately never experienced it before sso I cannot help. Despite that me and the doctor never get along." The rat scowled.
"Huh. Well I don't blame ya, he's hard to like." Maya replied with a smirk.
So they went around one more time, but ended at back at the hole they came from again.
"Grr! Stupid Atlas! Why do they have to be so tricky with their designs?" Maya grumbled and bashed her fist against the wall.
"A mind puzzle then?/ How do we solve this puzzle? /Shall we 'Google' it?" Zer0 asked, he folded his arms and went into thought mode.
Salvador sat on an old bench that had the Atlas insignia on it and began scraping at it in both boredom and spite and groaned about how he wished he could shoot puzzles rather than solve them.
The siren hummed in thought. "I think this might be something worth giving a try. You see, we keep going in circles because all Comino keeps changing the corridors so that we wind back where we started. And I've noticed that the changes keep happening when we get close to where we started." Maya turned on her heel to take a few paces in the anti-clockwise direction. "About...here." She stopped in a part of the corridor that had a door that they always went through at the other end. " Maybe this spot is what he controls."
The others followed her and looked around for any clues.
"Could it be..." Zer0 began. "That this room rotates?" The assassin could see a gap between the ceiling and the walls and the same gap could be seen between the wall and the floor.
Maya smiled "I think you're right! The gaps are to allow leniency for the corridor to rotate. So that whenever we take different routes it doesn't matter, coz when we end up back here he just rotates the corridor so that we end up back at the hole."
Salvador huffed. "So how do we stop it from rotating?"
After a bit of silence. The rat was the one to answer.
"Perhapss there is a sensor that automatically detects your positions sand moves the corridor to catch you in the loop before you go through any doors. That way you never ssee the corridor move and think that all the doors lead back here." The rat paused and began pacing back and forth before continuing to say, "The only way to sstop that is for each of us to go around clockwise once more... but by the time we reach the four forks in the path, we choose to each go through the separate doors, thus the sensor won't be able to react to all of us at the same time, and one of us will find the correct path, that one will have to hold the door open for the rest of uss."
The hunters all stared at him, stunned by his suggestion. The rat companion was proving to be smart and useful. Zer0 expressed a hidden smile,
"Let's do it!" The gunzerker nooded with a grin, he playfully patted the little rat on the back of his shoulder. The rat was surprised but then smiled, 'it feels good to help them.' He thought.
So the team went one last time around and timed themselves to open the doors at the same time
"This is of coursse only true if our assumptionss are correct!"Cried the little rat. "Alsso we don't know what is behind the doorss it could be another trap or another enemy."
"Right. We worry about that when it happens." Maya replied. "I'll count down, when I say 'go' we all open the doors. Got it?"
The team responded in the affirmative. And when they all opened them; Salvador's path rang to be true as it led to a room with another door. Zer0's led to a bricked up wall, he almost smacked his face into it, definitely not the right way. Maya's was just an empty office. The rat however freaked out, he had slipped when the door opened and almost fell into what seemed like a bottomless pit but had grapsed the edge of the floor in time. His path led to a pitch black void, where sounds and light were lost, it was simply empty, no floor no ceiling no walls. He cried for help and Zer0, who was closest rushed to aid him. He pulled the little rat back and closed the door to the void.
"Are you alright?" Zer0 asked. The assassin's words didn't reach. The rat was shivering, no rather he was trembling and his eyes were stricken with fear. Zer0 had seen that look before. The King reached over to his loyal subject and touched his shoulder. The rat seemed to wake up, he shot his head up and met Zer0 face to face.
Zer0 repeated his question and the rat nodded this time, his eyes had now lost that slither of fear.
"Good. We meet up with Sal. He said he has the right way...and well done, you're intuition is far superior than most rats."
"Yess, my king!" The rat seemed to have found his energetic self again followed his master.
That left Axton's team consisting of himself, Gaige and Krieg. They relied on the holo-map since their passage kept changing. They suffered from corridors suddenly being blocked off and other hidden doors opening. They had no choice but to follow the opened ways that presented themselves. They could feel the scientist watching them from his hidden cameras with his icy glare, he had to be watching them if it were he who was changing the internal structure like so.
"So this is Sector 2b eh?" Axton groaned. They had yet again been cut off and the path had actually opened below them revealing a chute, he now peered over asking if Krieg was okay. The psycho was the unlucky one who fell through the trap first screaming in surprise. They psycho replied in the affirmative, his voice echoing through. So Axton and Gaige followed him down the chute.
"Weeee!" Gaige yelled as she slid down.
The two reached the bottom and landed softly.
"Well at least someone is enjoying this." The commando stated and he got up to look around the room. He saw that Krieg was over by some in-wall computer monitors. The whole room looked like a rubbish tip but didn't smell like one. He looked at what he had landed on and saw that it was scrap metal.
"Looks like a recycling pit." Gaige said as she scanned the room, she then walked over to the monitors next to Krieg and began playing around with them.
"You on to something kiddo?" Axton asked following her.
"Hmm . Yup looks like I can open another chute. And by looking at the map it will lead up further in and higher up."
"Just what we need. Nice one."
Gaige nodded and after pressing a few buttons, just as she said, another hatch in the ceiling slid open. Axton looked through it and saw that it was another chute.
"Gonna be awkward climbing up a slide." He said scratching the back of his head.
Gaige giggled as she watched Axton climb up because the first two tries he had slid straight back down but then he made quick work of it by bracing both sides of the chute with the back of his arms to vault him up and his knees and feet propelled him from below , so he could climb it looking a little bit like a crab.
At one time the labyrinth had once separated the ex soldier from the other two. He found himself in a simple office room, well it was simple until a badass rat that was crawling along the shadows on the ceiling dropped onto Axton landing a clawed blow to his face. Axton howled in pain, his wound stung and dropped his gun. The commando focused on getting the rat off of his face, the fight took to the floor to Axton's advantage he used his heavier build to top the rat and wind him. He used the chance to punch the rat's face and landed a knockout hook, he finished his assailant off by whacking into his flesh with the tomahawk. After three blows the rat stopped moving, Axton got off of him sighing and began to recover his breath, he stumbled over to his assault rifle and picked it off, suddenly he felt like a hundered needles were stabbing his right shoulder, he looked to it and saw what he thought to only be described as an abomination. In actual fact, the supposed dead rat's fangs had dug into Axton and what surpised him was that the rat's corpse was still lying where Axton had defeated him, it was the rat's neck that had extended by growing like an accelerated tumor, stretching the neck beyond its limits into distorted flesh that had winded its way across the room and leapt onto Axton like a snake.
The commando tore it's head off, yelling in pain. He grimaced and dropped to his knees. He swore at the vile creature and stared at it until the unnatural flesh had stopped beating and writhing, Axton delivered a shot to the heart to make sure nothing like it happened again. It took him sometime alcohol and bandages to treat his wound, he was only grateful that he could still shoot,so long as he rested his gun mostly on his left, given the state of his right shoulder. He recovered and had to bomb walls and doors to get back to his teammates, he coordinated with them using the map and the ECHOnet. On his ways he had found another passage towards their goal, he told them to meet him there.
"Shit Ax! What happened." Gaige asked, a mixture of shock and concern written on her face.
"Badass, 'nuff said." Axton huffed.
Kreig just nodded in response.
Gaige and Krieg had gotten separated at the same time as the commando but their battles weren't as surprising as what Axton had told them. It seemed like Comino tried to separate them and kill them off one by one, but the team bested the scientists plans yet again.
"So the freakazoid scientist has screwed the already mutated rats?" Said Gaige in an annoyed tone.
"Yeah, looks like it." Axton replied. "Never seen a rat like that before."
Kreig grunted and looked to be offended. He hated people like Comino, people who thought it was fine to inhumanely experiment on living things for their own benefit, profit, war potential so many unjustifiable reasons.
Axton's team found a ladder which led them through a glass corridor. The corridor spanded over what looked like to be a void, there was just emptiness, it could've been an underground tunnel and they wouldn't know. It was infact the same empty space that the rat companion had almost succumbed to within it's deep depths. Gaige, walking at the front, could see the next room they were going towards.
"Hey come and see! This room is humungous!" The mechromancer called back.
The room was indeed the largest they had come across, windowless and with high ceilings, the only other way though was a path on the other side. If anything good was to come out of the team's venture through these old Atlas labs it was that they were never bored, always surprised, but not always in a good way.
Maya's team were almost to the meet up point where they would find their friends. They had only to cross a bridge and then they'd be at the door to the rendezvous room. Zer0 who led the pace up front began to slow down till his paces became mere pidgeon steps.
"I feel really weird/ Sensations, overwhelming/Cccannot ss-tand can't... breathe." Zer0 said with great difficulty. He leant against one of the railings along the bridge.
"My King!" shouted the little rat, he scurried over to the assassin's side.
"Amigo?!" Sal exclaimed as he dropped his guard and stepped towards him compadre. He noticed that Zer0 was starting to hyperventilate as his chest expanded and contracted too quickly.
The team watched with worry as their assassin suddenly dropped to his knees and fell flat on the floor. For a second the two just looked on with shock at Zer0's limp body just lying there. Then Maya rushed over and knelt to his side checking for any life signs, the siren let out the breath she didn't know she was holding in when she saw the rise and fall of the assassin's chest. "He's breathing." She said, trying to mask the shake in her voice, she put him into the recovery position.
"Zer0...Zer0 can you hear me?" The siren called out. 'What the hell was that' she wondered, 'Could it be his virus?'
Zer0 saw it coming but couldn't do anything about it. His body was going to shut down again and when he woke up he wouldn't know what sort of state his body would be in. He felt the virus working its way through him again. He felt pain in his chest, his abdomen...it was spreading. Unbeknownst to him, the virus was already in his blood stream, so it was already present throughout his body. By now it had enough time to settle and was moving on to its next stage of symptoms: complete irreversible transformation.
'Great. They were separated and now something was happening to one of their teammates. Could it be worse?' Maya thought.
The other team faced another problem, probably worse off than Maya's group. It was yet another one of Comino's surprise so another battle had ensued. It started just as Axton's team were halfway across the huge room then two giant badass rats dropped from a cavity in the ceiling, like two mini meteors. The mad scientist had let loose his two remaining 'pets', they were both exactly like Grog whom they just about managed to finish off as a team.
"Oh hell no." Axton said, dodging the whip of a tail, he heard it snap and crack the side of the rock he and his teammates were taking cover behind. "Two of 'em! Frikkin' two of em!? When we just about managed to bring down one of them!? Now with just three of us we gotta take out two at the same time?"
As Axton went on a complaining rampage and Gaige was only half listening as she thought hard on a plan. Krieg was busy hurling grenades over to keep the rats at bay.
"Maybe we can. I've built up enough anarchy stacks, I feel - 'unstoppable'!" Gaige said with manic expression, pronouncing the 'unstoppable' in her usual Unreal Tournament Announcer's voice. "If I can just get a lucky hit at the back of their necks or inside their mouths it should be a one hit kill- or two."
"Really? But your aim, is it good enough?" The commando replied.
"No. I have like negative accuracy right now. I might as well be shooting backwards but there is a chance. Just gotta maximise it...like differentiation just gotta find the global maximum by equating to zero and iterating through a test statis-"
"Alright alright enough with the math you nerd, I get it. Just tell me how we can maximise your chances of hitting."
"The trick is to not aim. I have the 'Close Enough' skill so if I can just rebound my bullets at the right angles combined with a critical hit, it should be a critical kill." Gaige narrowed her eyes in seriousness and then looked to her robotic arm, clenching and relaxing and re-clenching her claw. "I don't think using my claw would do much good since I don't see a way to climb on to their backs to get a close hit given how they move around so much and seem to watch each other's backs." She added as she looked around the room. "...If I go down I'm screwed so you gotta watch my back." She eyed her teammates. Krieg just nodded.
"Hmm, I can see that we won't be able to use the combo we did last time given the environment and we can't afford to use one of us as bait either, since that would be cutting it close given how there are two of 'em... I think its a good plan Gaige. I gotta hand it to ya and its the only one we've got. So I've got your back." Axton patted the girl on her head.
"Hey stop that!" She twisted her head out of the commandos reach. "Its annoying." She moaned as she scrambled away.
Axton chuckled. The mechromancer was just about to get out of their cover before Axton paused her with a last question.
"Hey Gaige, by the way forgot to ask...how many stacks you on now?"
"...650." The mechromancer smirked.
"Hey, hey Zer0!" Maya called, she tried to shake him awake. It had been five minutes already since he first went out cold.
The two had dragged him through the last stretch of corridor and past another door that the rat had to open for them. Once inside the two saw the elevator was just across the room so they were sitting put. The room was full of rubble and it was decrepit, pillars smashed and loose and bare wiring strewn around the four walls. It was a crumbling structure. A few dusty conveyor belts and factory machines proudly showing the Atlas emblem as they sat. Relics of old times.
"C'mon ninja snap out of it." Salvador urged.
Maya sighed, "We should just stay put for awhile." She looked down the empty corridor they had come through and then to the elevator shaft on the other side, which was their goal. "We need to stick together so we should wait for him to wake up and wait for the others to get here too."
"Right." The gunzerker replied and began taking a walk around the room.
The siren had used her powers to detect any mortal afflictions or wounds but found none. What ever the reason for Zer0's sudden faint she deduced no immediate danger. She sighed and sat on a rock next to her sleeping friend who they had let lie on the flattest slab of concrete. The brief silence and time gave her the moment to ponder. She, like the others, had wondered of their assassin's past since he was the only one out of all of them who hadn't said anything about it. Even if he was an assassin, hadn't they been through enough together for him to trust them with his background? At first Maya had thought this, but as time went by she realised that she didn't need to know, what she saw of Zer0 now is what he is and she found him to be trusting otherwise she wouldn't trust him back. So if he wanted to tell, he would in his own time. She wondered if Gaige knew anything. Surely Zer0 would tell her things, off all people, she was the closest to him.
"You okay chica?" Salvador asked as he noticed how silent the siren was and how her face showed concentrated thinking. "You look tired. Take a rest for now."
She smiled up at Salvador who was taking rounds of the room looking for loot. He was right after all that fighting they needed it. "I'm fine, thanks for asking. I was just thinking is all."
"It has been a long day, for everyone. When all this is over we're going to have a huge fiesta at Moxxi's or a barbeque bonanza at Ellie's." Salvador chimed.
She giggled in response, she loved the vault hunter parties and memories of previous ones flooded her mind. They really knew how to party hard. "Definitely" She replied with a grin.
"Wooooooah." Axton gawked and his eyes widened in excitement and shook his head in disbelief, '650? How did she even get that much? Probably the previous battles but still that is impressive. That will definitely will pack a punch, plus she has that pearlescent sniper', he thought. He cocked his gun and readied a grenade with a grin. "Alright team, let's move out!"
With a battle plan finally made, Krieg leaped into battle followed by his other two teammates. "It's time to dine!" He roared. By this time Gaige had pinpointed many places on the four walls of the room where she could effectively ricochet bullets off she just had to wait till the right moments.
Now in the thick of the battle, Krieg had already used up his rockets in his launcher. The team had been relying on it's successful hit rate to do most of the damage and distraction due to its heat seeker. But both rats were still standing with half of their health left. Krieg resorted to dodging and strafing his enemy to use counterattacks, thus giving Gaige the chance to use any openings to use her anarchy with 'close enough' she had managed to fire her Jakobs shotgun at such an angle that it hit the creature in the back of the mouth when it howled at Krieg, thus scoring her a critical hit. The hit reduced the rat's health in half again, leaving to one sixth of its health. As added bonus that rat had been blinded in the last attack.
"Booyah!" The teen jeered.
'If we keep this up we can defeat them.' Gaige thought as she kept up her firing despite missing 99.999% of the time. She hoped to weaken the one who was going after Axton's turrets next.
The commando had both of his turrets deployed in desperation. He didn't want to prime both at the same time because otherwise they couldn't compensate for the other's cool down time. But he needed his phalanx shield when the creature had taken a big swing at him which Axton couldn't dodge in time. He stayed within his shield, using the breathing time to reload and keep firing, he didn't know what move to make next though, if he stepped back he'd be cornered, if he advanced he'd most likely die a bloody death, so that left him the only opening of dodging to the right or left. Since the right looked like it had more space to run through Axton opted for it once the phalanx shield dissipated. He threw a distraction grenade and dived to the right but he was met with an opposing force that whacked him across his abdomen sending him flying into the wall behind him. The commando was dazed and couldn't even tell what had hit him. He groaned as he tried to sit up, he shook his head and used the wall to help himself to stand.
The blinded rat had sniffed out Axton amongst the smoke and debris of the explosion, which was how he had landed that hit and got his meal cornered. The sergeant was backed up against the wall and looked desperately around for a way to dodge the beast's next attack, but there was none. To his right there were rocks, to his left a wall and in front of him the badass advanced. "Fuck." He swore under his breath. He was pretty sure the thing could smell him so even if he stood silently still, he was still screwed. Both his turrets were cooling down so they couldn't provide a distraction and his teammates were busy with the other giant rat. He had to handle this one on his own. The beast opened his jaw wide and sniffed. Although it was blinded it could still smell the commando and had his location pinpointed so much so that he was able to snake his tail across the floor and wrap it around the commando who yelled in protest. Doing so, he hoisted him up level to his gaping mouth. Axton stared in horror right through to the dark pit at back of the beast's mouth, like it was a bottomless hole wherein light could not escape. He was transfixed by its tonsils swaying, its smell was sickening, its saliva spilled as its tongue swirled out and reached for Axton. It took a generously wet smelly long lick of him from foot to head. The commando turned his head away and closed his eyes in disgust. He groaned and moaned, thrashing about in the strong grip to no avail. He felt like he was going to puke. The stench left behind on him was revolting as one would expect from a cannibal.
"Uuuurgh! Leggo of me!" The commando yelled and spat as he tried to writhe out of his binds.
The commando's outburst caught the other vault hunter's attention. The two stared in disbelief at their teammate's situation, the badass rat was taking his time to consume his meal and still had Axton in the air but now was in the process of hauling him closer to his mouth as it tipped its head back.
"Axton!" Gaige yelled. "Fuck this! I ain't gonna let this happen!"
"GRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAWR" The psycho yelled, he was busy running circles and diving in and out of the fray around his and Gaige's target so that the mechromancer could land that fatal blow but now they hadn't the time to act their plan out, their friend was in mortal danger. Gaige sprinted to help and began firing her Jakobs shotgun at Axton's captor or rather trying to get a rebound shot at it despite not landing damaging shots she still managed to gain a few more anarchy stacks. She was relying on Krieg to keep the other busy for as long as it took for her to take this one down.
"GAIGE! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" Axton called out, effectively stopping the teen in her tracks.
"Why the fuck not!?"
"Coz we need you soild-dderr urgh- to Godaamit -to kill them. If you die...I-"
"I'm not gonna die! I'm unstoppable!" The mechromancer yelled back and Axton stared back at her wide eyed. The teen continued her advance, she digistructed Deathtrap as she ran, the legless floating torso of destruction levitated by her side, matching her speed and then it grabbed her. "Believe me Ax! I ain't gonna let you die!" She added.
All Axton could do was yell as the tail grip around him turned to, what felt like, bone crushing strength. He gritted his teeth in hopes of not biting his tongue as pain kept shooting through him. The tail then wound around tighter and muffled his screams as the tongue darted out again to bring his head past the purple lips of the rat. The then muffled screams were almost like decaying echo as Axton's body had half disappeared and his legs had stopped kicking.
"You know my mass, calculate the projection needed- Lob me to the back of it's neck, DT! Gaige called out as the duo were speeding towards the rat's back.
The robot beeped in the affirmative, brought it's big three pronged claw around her small waist and positioned her flat above it's head as if she were a lance and Deathtrap were a lancer. Gaige pointed out her clawed arm in front of her making the tip of the lance and kept her body as streamlined as possible even to the point of pointing her toes out.
"Now!"
Upon the order, D374-TP hurled it's master at the target with 100% precision and accuracy and by a second order it about turned and proceeded to aid Krieg. Gaige flew with such speed that the sound was like an arrow shot and she used the force of impact to pierce her claw deep with a viscous yell into the back of the rat's neck. The beast let out a muffled growl and dipped his head down, he was choking around Axton since the commando was still inside.
"FELL THE WRATH OF MY ANARCHY!" Gaige yelled as she took a grip at the neck hairs and went for another hit, swiping with such anger. She kept clawing away at him. "Let go him you vile creature!"
All the mechromancer could see was in red fury, blood everywhere that gushed forth from the ever deepening wound. The creature was in so much pain that it was down to its knees. Gaige's stance wobbled a bit but her furious grip brought her steadiness. Then half of its neck was gone and still the mechromancer went on. It had stopped howling since it's sounds became gurgles as it was suffocating on its own blood, then it slumped fully to the ground and spilled the contents of its mouth, including an unconscious commando. Upon seeing Axton's body slide out along with the saliva, blood and other putrid liquids, Gaige stopped her attack and took a deep breath. "Axton" She whispered. She climbed over the bloody corpse and took to Axton's side, turning him over to look at his face and she couldn't stop the few tears that were starting to trickle down her face.
"Ax! Axton! Wake up man!" She called out, reaching for an insta-health she stabbed him with it. She touched his face with her human hand, it was still warm, she looked down and saw the rise a fall of his chest although the rate was irregular. She sprinkled water on his face and smiled when she saw his eyeballs move under his fluttering eyelids. He was waking up! He came to groaning and coughing. He sat up at the sight of Gaige and smiled.
"Thanks. You did good kiddo. I knew you had it in ya." He panted.
"I'm not a kid!"
"I know I know old habit. I mean what kinda kid could pull that off?" The commando motioned his head to the dead beast. "I really owe you one."
Both their heads turned to the other fight still raging on and got up ready for round two.
"You ready?" Gaige got up and re-equipped her shotgun.
"You kidding? After that, I need revenge." Axton smirked.
Krieg was having the time of his life, he was bursting with energy and could go on for the rest of the day. He laughed haughtily whenever the rat missed him and taunted his enemy spewing curses at the beast. He was in the middle of shooting his pistol at the rat when Axton joined the fight hurling his turret right above the rat. This distracted the rat who looked up at the turret and tried to attack it with his claws. Unfortunately for the rat, his claws couldn't reach the turret so it grew angrier as Axton's 'missus' fired everything at it. This gave Gaige her opening and through sheer luck Gaige's next shot hit the back of the creature's mouth. Whilst the creature was thus stunned and dazed from her powerful attack it allowed Krieg to bounce off a rock and leap at the beast to deal the finishing blow with a powerful swing of his axe. It resulted in a bloody finale.
"Wahooo!" Gaige yelled lifting out her fist toward the psycho.
"Another one bites the dust!" Krieg said grinning mischievously and responded to the mechromancer with a fist bump.
"Awesome. Now I'd rather we move on before more of those things come!" Axton said as he motioned them from the other side of the room. He was waiting at the foot of the stairs, still covered in gunk and eager to proceed.
"Haha! Let me at the next one!" Brick yelled in his triumph over the enemies. The fallen victims had guarded the tunnel Brick had found after opening the hatch. The tunnel was lit sparsely with lanterns dotted every two metres or so. They led straight to Comino's hangar above sector 2 on one way and to the Fridge and sector 1 on another way, a definite fork in the road.
"Uh. Brick Sorry to burst your manic bubble but we've got a problem." Mordecai said as he read the signs for the hangar on the walls at the fork.
"What?" Brick asked as he walked up to Mordecai.
"We can't go any further in. There's laser deterrence field blocking our way to the hangar."
Brick looked around the corner and saw the orange hue of the field. "Well can't we just go the other way?"
"Nope. That would lead us back to the Fridge and usually we could take it to sector 1 but Axton told me that sector is all locked down from our end." The hunter sighed as he stared at the laser field.
Brick grumbled. He had thought they had made a sure way straight to the top man, but it looked like it wasn't going to go that easily. Of course the 'evil scientist' would make sure all of his entrances were defended.
Then he thought of an idea. "We need to just find the switch right?" Brick asked his friend.
"Well yeah, but look around there aint gonna be a switch on our side. Its gotta be where only that Comino can get to."
"Exactly, and we have a team on the inside right?" Brick replied cocking a brow and smirking.
Mordecai smiled in response with a slightly shocked expression, "You know what Brick? In the few times you say something clever, you're like a genius."
Brick furrowed his brows before chuckling and replying that he would take that as a compliment for now. Mordecai got out his ECHO and called up the commando.
Gaige's party had nearly caught up to Maya's, they only had a few more corridors to shoot their way through. And it seemed that Comino had decided to stop playing with the internal structure once he realised that the team had their way around it. Every time the scientist tried something they'd break out of the puzzle within minutes and it was all due to Gaige and Axton's holo-map. The mechromancer had finally copied it into everyone's ECHO through a downloadable file through the team's private ECHONet. Thus enabling any separated persons to make their own ways back to the group.
The team were jogging across a bridge spanning, what looked to be sewage or something when the commando picked up his ECHO at the sound of its consistent beeping.
"Hi, Axton here."
"Yo! Ax Its Mordecai. Updating you on our situation, we've busted our way in but we need inside help."
"Go on."
"There are from what I can see," here the hunter peered through the corridor with his sniper lens, " there are two laser deterrence fields separating us from the hangar. If you want a way out you gotta let us in first. I don't think you can come back the way you came in."
"Alright, but can you tell us where to look for their controls?"
After a moment of ruffling sounds in the background Mordecai responded. "Yeah I can relay their signal to their control locations thanks to Gaige's map. Here I'll send them to ya."
After a few seconds Axton's holo-map lit up the control areas automatically with a flashing red. He nodded and replied saying he received them.
"Good, we'll sit tight here. Good luck." The hunter said. "And don't take too long, vault hunters never like being idle as you would know." He added before he hung up.
"So now we got some side missions?" Gaige asked looking back to Axton who nodded.
"Yeah, and we should do it before we get to Comino if possible. We don't want to kill him and then he sets a time bomb and we have no way out- or something to that effect."
"Wow you've played to many video games." Gaige snorted.
"Err no. Silly. It's experience from fighting bad guys with Dahl." Axton replied rolling his eyes.
Suddenly Krieg stopped in his tracks once there was a door blocking them from getting to the room Maya was in. They sent her a message over the ECHO to let her know and upon receiving the good news Maya got up and asked their rat ally to key in the code to let them in. Once the doors slid open it was cheery reunion.
"Maya! Sal! Zer0!" Gaige called out as she leaped and jogged over and around the rubble to get to her friends.
"The party is back on!" Krieg exclaimed and rushed ahead to his siren and high fived her.
"We've made it!" Axton bellowed, he slumped next to Salvador on a pile of rubble and they shared a handshake.
"Never thought I'd say this." The gunzerker said, "But its good to see you."
Axton laughed saying he appreciated it and proceeded to retell his story of how he single handedly defeated two badass rats of the likes of Grog. To which Gaige and Krieg quickly interjected to scrutinize his story and in the end the story didn't quite come out right.
"You guys look like you've been through shit." Maya said eyeing them, she ruffled Gaige's hair.
The three really did look like a right old mess. They were smothered in blood and dirt, especially Gaige's claw.
"Yeah well so do you." Gaige mumbled. "And why does everyone like touching my hair and patting me, it's annoooying!" At this Zer0 decided to pat her too and she ducked away which led to a mini chase around the room.
"True, true." The Siren replied to the teen's first comment, when she checked her own grubby garb and Sal's ever torn shirt and Zer0...well Zer0 was a mess to begin with.
They all looked like they truly needed a good rest but they were only half way through. Axton took this brief moment of respite and explained their new additional quest to deactivate the laser fields for their escape route. So everyone settled down in a group circle and discussed tactic.
"Hmm, maybe we should split in two again, to look for these control switches, it'd be faster." Maya suggested as she checked the flashing red rooms on her own holo-map.
"Good idea, I'm for that." The commando replied.
The others agreed with a unison of nods.
Gaige raised a hand to speak, "What worries me," she began," is that Comino gave us an "ultimatum" (, here she air quoted). We either do what he says or we're all kaboom. Kaput. Finished." She said the last words with added hand gestures, exaggerating her statement.
"True." Axton replied thoughtfully. "We gotta think about what we are actually going to do if he blows up this sector before we go into that elevator. I'm thinking so far this place is a safe zone, for now."
"I scoured this room/To seek traps, bombs and their like/There are none so here."
"Yeah I can vouch for him doing that. We had a lot of time waiting for you guys." Maya said sheepishly.
"Bah." Axton replied. "Well you guys had it easy, maybe coz you had Zer0 with and Comino needed to keep him alive. So he went easy on you. But with us, phew, he went over and beyond." Axton complained.
"Can't say it wasn't fun though – just a little." Gaige grinned slyly and Axton couldn't help but smile admitting to her claim.
"Gar! Lets go rip the flesh. We itch to move." Krieg said with annoyance in his tone.
Salvador sighed and patted Krieg on the back. "Soon mi amigo soon. I can't wait to shoot that madman myself."
"So now that we are all back we gotta go up now right? Through that elevator." He said pointing to the end of the room. The elevator shaft was big enough to hold all of them, they supposed it was used to carry large equipment before.
Just then Comino's voice came through the speakers/tannoy. "This is your last chance to comply with my request, send only Zer0 through with one of you, the rest of you can go straight to the hangar and leave and that will be that. However if you refuse you will all suffer a slow and excruciatingly painful death, wishing you had died at the hands of the rats instead."
"Well I know I've got that death-wish." Axton replied raising his hand.
"Count me in." Salvador added.
Zer0 was still in awe at how quickly his friends made their decisions. He looked around at each one of them as they replied negatively to Comino's request. He was truly humbled by their selfless actions, something an outsider would not usually see in vault hunters.
"Well then Comino, you hear that? We're coming for you and there is nothing stopping us." Maya called out in sternness.
"We'll see about that." Comino said with spite and ended his transmission. The elevator activated with a beep and the metal grate that covered it slid open. The doctor actually hadn't the time to set bombs in the room but the same could not be said about the lift. They cautiously entered one by one into elevator, with the little rat now back on Krieg's back. The team now ascended to the final level.
"Right so far so good." Gaige said as she looked around the lift. It was a bit of a squeeze but everyone managed to get in. The metal grate slid back in place and the lift shifted into gear and hummed. It began to slowly rise and jittered along the way..
"Gosh this is slow." Maya said.
"Gives us time to see who goes where." Axton said.
"Okay, so what then?"
"I say we split up like this..." Axton replied. He explained how he would go to the switch to the north-east wing with Zer0 and Gaige, whilst the others would go to the northwest wing and hit that switch. Then they would meet up in the middle. The middle would be the entrance to laboratories 1,2 and security control.
With the plan decided on the team split up when the lift stopped level with Sector 3a and opened.
A/N: I actually wanted more to happen in this chapter but I guess I couldn't condense it enough since ideas kept coming. But I hope this chapter makes up for the huge time gap between itself and the previous one. And the next one is in the making .