"So?" Lilith grinned. "Spill the beans."
"Okay, well. He spoke to the president of Maliwan."
"He what? How the hell?"
"He did a contract and they hadn't paid, so he called it in as a favour" she smiled, remembering the warm shiver her body had given in response to feeling so...important. "Anyway, they took us to their facility here on Pandora, gave us a tour, and then showed us the shop."
"And he bought you all this? Bloody heck, maybe I should try giving him the eye. Anyway. What else?"
"And it was AWESOME" Gaige shouted, almost bouncing on the bed.
"No I mean what else...I might've been peaking slightly at that little exchange by the front door. Are you two an item now?"
"Oh, I don't know" Gaige pouted. "I guess so, but he hasn't physically asked. Anyway." She looked at the clock. "I've been sidetracked recently. I've gotta upgrade DT. He hasn't had any action in ages. I'm thinking of installing an AI."
"Okay killer." Lilith stood up, and walked towards the door. "But be careful. You know the amount of stories flying around about AI's"
"I know, I know. But they're just stories. Come on, the fact they're published in books with characters like 'Bobey the Tech Monkey' gives it away a little."
"Axton, will you hurry up?!" Maya shouted, trying to be heard over the sounds of Brick's insulting Nine-Toes. The water was now chest height, and despite only lifting her phaselock just above the water, she was panting heavily.
"Done. Launch me at the wall!"
She obliged, throwing him sideways. He hit it a little too hard, but recovered quickly. He stuck his turret to the wall, but Maya noticed it looked a little different. Attached to it, at slightly funny angles, were the RPG's from the loader. The turret locked on to the bandits gathered up top, now leaning on the glass to see the vault hunter's feeble resistance.
The glass may may have been bulletproof. It may have been siren proof, even. But one thing it was not, was rocket proof. Twin rockets punctured the glass simultaneous, sending shards flying, and causing the bandits to fall. The three of them covered their heads, preventing glass from cutting anything vital. Brick had to stop shouting to cover himself, and he looked at Axton. "HAHA, good going Slabs!"
The slab thing was getting annoying, fast. They'd put up with it a long time, but it was getting too much now. Maya used the last of her strength to phaselock Axton, then Brick, throwing them out of the pit. She knew they were probably hurt, but they'd survived. She just hoped there was something to get her out of here too.
Axton scrambled to his feet. He felt a pain in his left ankle, probably twisted. "Maya!" he called. That girl really needed to work on strength control. Not that Lilith could teach her that, she was queen of overkill.
"Yeah, still here Axton. Get your arse in gear and get me out!"
He searched around, throwing the bandits careless piles to the side. There was money, abandoned guns, and a stinking pile of who-knows-what that stuck to his hand. He picked up a cloth to wipe it off, and found a piece of rope underneath. Instead of calling, he just threw it over the edge, hoping Maya would grab it before the bandits did. Though most of them were so intoxicated, it'd be hard for them to.
"Okay, pull!"
Axton tried, but with the water weighing his and her clothes down, and the fatigue earned from attaching the rockets to his turret, he struggled.
"I got this" came a familiar voice from behind him. Hulking, massive hands gripped the rope, and dragged it backwards as if there was nothing more than a mouse on the end. Maya nearly left the ground from the velocity as the rope reached it's end, and she lay, sprawled on the floor, coughing up water and panting.
"You'll be okay , Maya. You're stronger than this, come on." He sat her up, patting her back.
His worry was interrupted by Nine-Toes' voice, echoing harshly. "I suppose you've earned an audience with me now."
Oh joy, just what Axton needed.
Jack seriously did not want to be here. But, he'd used a lot of money funding Gaige's spending spree at Maliwan. Who buys twenty four guns at once? Not that he regretted it, mind you. The smile on her face made his day. He just wished he'd always tried so hard to make people happy.
He was coming up to the Fridge. Not a nice place, by any means. The cold in the air clung to the lungs, and the pointed peaks, protruding proudly from the crystal-coated ground. Not literally crystal, obviously. Well, not until you jumped down a bit further and headbutted a crystalisk.
Jack found the nearest cover, a long-destroyed car from the looks of it, and digistructed his sniper. Oddly, for a weapon built for use on Pandora, it had an incredibly low sound output. This was the reason he chose this sniper, despite it's low fire rate, due to being bolt action, and it's small magazine size, only four bullets. The rats were near copies of each other, so he had to take them all out before searching. He counted eighteen, plus a mutated one.
He lined up, held his breath, and took out the mutated on first. Not only because he was the most dangerous, but he was right on the edge of the drop to where the crystalisks lurked, and the force from the bullet sent him tumbling over the edge with barely a sound. This gave him another shot before they realised they were being fired on.
He pulled the bolt back, the used bullet casing landed with a soft thud in the layer of mud trekked in recently by the rats, and lined up with another rat, one apparently on break. He was sat on a table, reading a grubby nude magazine, desperately trying to rub the dirt off of it in order to see better. Jack shot him through the eye, the bullet breaking the back of his skull and sending brains up the wall. It would've been perfect, giving him yet another shot, due to how the rat fell out of sight behind the table. Emphasis on 'would'. The pink splatter certainly didn't go unnoticed, and within seconds they all knew they were under attack.
Keeping calm, he fired again, hitting a midget rat in the back, passing through his lungs, and punching out the other side. A rat had made its way towards him, and he quickly teleported behind it, and broke its neck. This would be a lot easier if he could kill them quickly enough to get away without being noticed. He digistructed a short blade into his left hand, and crouched behind the next nearest cover, some steps leading up to a slightly raised area. Being raised had no advantage at this point, so he kept behind the steps. He pulled the bolt back, and emptied the last bullet into the rat stood furthest away. This would keep them from finding him for a little bit, scattering the deaths.
He reloaded, and took out four more, before reloading again. This only left ten, and they still didn't know he was. He teleported behind another rat, slit his throat, and threw the blade. The knife in the chest of a rat thief who'd just spotted him, silencing him before he could shout a warning to his comrades. He slid behind a table, still out of site of the rats.
Or this is what happened in his head. What actually happened was, after killing the first one with the short blade, the threw it. It instead landed in the crouched rats neck. A kill in the neck is faster than the chest, more oft than not, and so less painful. Though both are near instant, the difference can be vital. A chest shot would have meant a little pain, and so the rat would have gone down clutching his chest. Instead, he died with his finger pointing to Jack's location.
He trained his rifle on two midgets, who started approaching at a rapid pace. He took the first one out, and the second took cover. A grenade hit the floor next to him, seconds after a shout from one of them. Fortunately, they didn't have decent grenade mods, and he just picked it up and threw it back. It didn't kill anyone, but it did explode halfway through it's aerial journey, keeping Jack from any damage. He turned, reloading. His magazine wasn't empty, but it always helped to be ready.
His ECHO beeped. "Yeah, you got Jack."
"JACK!." It was Mr. Torgue. "FALSE ALARM, FOUND THE GUNS IN MY COAT POCKET. YOU CAN COME HOME NOW."
Jack slapped his face. What an idiot. How does one manage to even fit guns in a pocket, never mind lose them there. And the shouting got annoying as well. What was it with muscle heads and low intelligence? He liked Torgue and Brick, but they did little to help stereotypes.
"Alright Torgue, but that's still a five hundred thousand price tag."
"YEAH, YEAH. THE MONEY'S TRANSFERRED. NOTHING SAYS BROMANCE LIKE FLASHING CASH!" with that, the ECHO cut out. Thank god.
He threw a grenade. He didn't have a mod equipped. He rarely used explosions, and he'd only just picked this one up from the recently killed, but it did the trick and the remaining Rats kept in cover long enough for an escape. He hit the fast travel station at running pace. Killing them would've been little challenge, but where killing wasn't a necessity, it wasn't happening.
Salvador stepped into the cold night air. As soon as he'd officially recovered, he'd hit the bar. Mordecai joined soon after, though Axton was nowhere to be seen. He'd been talking to Mordecai about Bloodwing Junior, who he was sure would hatch any day. The collective dirt that had accumulated over time clung to Sal's boots, only showing now after their first ever wash. He didn't see the point in cleanliness; everything was dirty in the end.
Mordecai caught up to him. "I-I gotta go, Sal. Check lil Blood, you know? Have a good one!" He stumbled towards Marcus', before correcting his path back to the fast travel.
Salvador trudged back, leaning against any walls that came into his vision. The door to the HQ came too fast, and hit him square in the nose. He nearly crumpled, but he forced himself through the door. He should really of tried to be quiet, but he didn't have much sense, his brain cells swimming in their own tears at the amount of alcohol he'd ingested. He got to the guys room, being the only on in here since Mordecai's moving back into his house temporarily, and fell, face-first, onto the nearest bed. God, it felt great to be back to normal.