A lot of the chapters were fillers until I could work out what I was gonna do with the story. SorryNotSorry. x
The facility was huge. They'd been through most of it, and it took them four hours, with a short lunch break. Gaige loved the machinery, though she knew how most of it could be improved. It did disappoint her slightly that the guns were made with such simple systems, but it still gave her a thrill seeing her favourite firearm companies work. She wondered if Jack knew it was her favourite.
"Now. This is as much as I can show you. So, Jack, you mentioned you were interested in buying?"
"Yes." He leaned in closer to Davis so Gaige wouldn't hear. "Dont mention a price. Anything she wants, I'll buy."
"Very good." replied Mr. Davis, standing back. "This way."
He walked through to the next room. It was all metal, the walls, the ceiling. Everything. Immaculately clean, not a speck of dust anywhere. It was massive, only two and a half metres high, but easily five times the length of the Crimson Raiders HQ squared. A small, clean table sat in the middle, a metre and a half long, half a metre wide. And, best of all, guns.
Lining every wall, and on display in cabinets in the middle, were too many guns to count. They ranged in colour from blue to red, black to green, mixes of some and all. Snipers, pistols, SMG's. Even three rocket launchers. Gaige stood, wide eyed, taking it all in.
"Woah."
"Take what you like, it's on me."
"You sure?" she asked, turning to Jack. She hated taking money from people, but she was skint, having lent a large sum of money to fund Mordecai's drinking rampage.
Jack nodded. "Mr. Davis, do you have any recommendations? She's a fan of SMG's."
He gave Jack a surprised look. "Not sniper rifles? How odd, I assumed you had similar tastes."
Jack laughed. "Unfortunately, I have yet to teach her to use a sniper well, though I'm sure she's well capable of using one."
"Well" he said, turning and strolling across the room, coming to a half about a third of the way and gently removing a small SMG. "This is our version of the 'Plasma Caster'. A few companies have had attempts, but ours definitely has incendiary fight in it. And this" he moved over about two metres "is the 'Hellfire'. High elemental damage, elemental chance and..."
"A small radius for incendiary damage, meaning the shots don't have to be entirely accurate." Finished Jack.
"Ever the expert" smiled Davis.
"Gaige, just have a browse. I'm not giving you a budget, take what you want. But I need Mr. Davis assistance for a specific gun."
Gaige was disappointed, hoping Jack would stay with her, but she was still grateful. The guns were insane, he was sure the two mentioned classed as legendary. The amount of times she'd have to beat bosses six feet under to get this kind of stuff would be ridiculous.
"Well, you haven't called me over for guns, that's for sure' Davis smiled. "You've always been the type to not judge until you've killed with it. So what, may I ask, do you want?"
"I heard an interesting rumour, concerning the 'Black Label' beer of yours. Apparently, you're bringing it back already?"
"Ah, yes. We're attempting to alter the recipe, the previous one wasn't up to scratch in my personal opinion. But, we don't have anyone willing to drink that amount of beer, and bandits aren't the best judges when they think that skag's piss is tasty." He paused a second. "You may have misunderstood that. I don't mean skag's piss the brand, I mean actual skag urine. They are an odd bunch."
Jack laughed. "Well, I do know a certain someone who lives by the Tundra Express who has a decent alcohol tolerance, and he's drunk more than enough to give a decent opinion on it."
"Well," Mr. Davis said, "he may just be of use."
"Here we are Slabs."
"..This is Fyrestone."
"Yeah, I know. Ever heard of Nine-Toes?"
Both Axton and Maya shook their head. "He was a bandit round here. First leader we ever killed. Also has this thing for skags that I don't get. Why don't he smash them?"
"What...like pets?"
"Guess so. Now, Slabs. After Hyperion moved the hell outta here, Nine-Toes came back, and has those damn flying skags on him. God knows where they came from."
Axton and Maya shared a knowing glance. A while ago, Zed had asked for parts from different creatures. They'd got them for him, being relatively low on cash and with time to kill, and he'd basically sown rakk wings onto skags. Not their best decision ever, but shit happens. "Okay, so where is he?"
"See that fence?"
"Yeah..."
"This way!" Brick charged at the fence, knocking a hole in it with two solid hits. He ran through, heading for a gap between two rock faces. Maya and Axton didn't have a great deal of choice, so they sprang after him.
On the way a few weak skags attacked, though Axton and Maya didn't have to do much when Brick was leading with his fists, throwing skags at the walls. It only took a minute before they arrived at their destination, a long cave entrance, flooded with the stench of urine and tobacco. Brick finally slowed and let out a laugh. "That was easy!"
"Hey, it came from over here!"
"What a moron" muttered Axton, throwing his turret down. The two bandits who ran round the corner were shredded with shrapnel instantly, as were the three midgets and two psychos. He took cover behind it, pulling out his Dahl assault rifle. Only around thirty bandits approached, and between himself and Maya, it took less than a minute.
"Good going Slabs" Brick called, walking further into the cave. The short amount of path remaining was constructed of a wrecked train carriage, balance precariously over a massive drop. Maya and Axton waited for Bricks massive weight to have made it to the other side before being brave enough to set foot inside.
Coming out on the other side, they caught up with Brick by a short drop. Short enough that it wouldn't hurt, but not short enough that they could get back up. "Ready?" asked Axton.
Maya nodded, and they all jumped. But no one expected what they saw next, least of all Brick.
"I've gotta go Gaige, sorry. Contract on some thieving rats put up by Mr. Torgue. I'll be back soon, I promise."
She was a bit disappointed, but since he'd just spent who knows how much money on guns for her, and taken her out the whole day, she couldn't complain. It was getting late anyway, the sky a light blue. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow?"
He grinned. "You know it." He gave her a quick hug, then turned to walk away.
"Jack?"
"Yes?"
She tried to gather up her courage, but to no avail. She was terrible with guys, couldn't express her feelings well, or show them appreciation at all. Not that she'd had too before, most boys keeping their distance. But she felt like an absolute muppet. "Uh, nothing. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Nothing eh?" he asked, turning back. "You sure?"
Her heartbeat quickened as he got even closer, looking deep into her eyes, and taking her hand. Still getting closer. Oh god, was he going to kiss her? She looked up, and moved her lips to his. He looked surprised, but went with it willingly. Her heart felt like it was going to explode, space itself moving in slow motion as their lips met, her eyes closing naturally. His lips were soft, but firm, and she found it was almost exactly as she'd only a few seconds it was over, and she opened her eyes to see him grinning.
"Well that was..."
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." The words escaped her mouth before she could stop them, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
"Oh really? Well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until tomorrow if you want more." He kissed her hand gently, and disappeared into black smoke. She thought that ability was super cool and all, but she hated how suddenly he left. And that maybe she should dress like this more often.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a startled shout. "Holy SHIT."
Gaige walked up stairs, cautious, in case the cry had been caused by an intruder. Opening the door to the girls bedroom, she found Lilith, staring at Gaige's guns, laid out on the bed. "Yeah, uh...I told you Jack was taking me shopping."
Lilith shook her head. "Gaige, you lucky little bitch." Both of them laughed.
Standing before them, Brick was expecting the same as all those years ago. Where before, there were stairs all around the ground area, almost like bleachers. Now, it was just a straight wall. Where before there were just skags, now there were skags and...
"Loaders?" asked Maya, gobsmacked. Loaders and bandits did not go. She'd come armed to the teeth with fire weapons, she wasn't ready for a confrontation with anything but flesh and blood.
Lights flicked on overhead. "Hello, Brick." came a rasping voice over the speakers. "It's been a while." The lights revealed the room around them. What they had originally thought was just walls that lead to the ceiling, now showed to be topped with glass. Behind them, a metal plate closed over the hatch they'd jumped down. Above the glass, around the edges, sat drunk, laughing bandits.
Axton fired off a few shots from his rifle, which bounced harmlessly off the glass. "You like what I've done with the place?" The raspy voice laughed, then coughed for a minute. "In any case, I hope you enjoy your stay."
The rushing of water behind them drew their attention away from the voice. From two large pipes at opposite ends of the pit, water was gushing in. The bandits cheered, and the loaders noticed them, turning and slowly making their way towards them. "COME AND FIGHT ME NINE-TOES" Brick roared. "WHEN DID YOU TURN INTO SUCH A LITTLE PUSSY"
Nine-toes laughed again. "Yeah, not happening."The water was already above their toes, crawling up their legs. The loaders were even slower in the water, though their circuitry didn't seem to be effected yet. Brick just ran at them, fists already raised, ready to fight. He managed to avoid an RPG loader, before knocking it's red eye into it's own metallic frame. His rampage ended after taking down eighteen robots, an impressive feat in the water, which by now was knee level. He retreated back to Axton and Maya, who were backpedalling and firing of as many shots as possible.
Maya went to throw a shock grenade, but Axton stopped her. "The water would conduct it. We'd all be fried."
She nodded her understanding, then phaselocked an approaching GUN loader, and swung her arm, causing it to fly into the remaining two. "That's that problem down. But how do we get out?"
The water was now uncomfortably close to waist height, and still rising. "LET US OUT!" bellowed Brick, beating his chest with his ham-sized fists.
"Hahahaha...no. I think drowning is a most suiting end to you, Brick. Having drowned in vanity and a falsely-enforced sense of self-righteousness, I think physically drowning fits."
Brick laughed. "When did you turn into such a girl? You used to speak like a true bandit, now you sound like a pussy."
"Goodbye, Brick."
Axton shouted to Maya. "That RPG loader Brick took down, where was it?"
"Uh... about three metres to his left."
"Can you phaselock it over here? And both me and it, I need a dry place to work."
Might as well, she thought, putting the plan into action. Goddamit Axton, you better know what you're doing.