Author's Note: *Sigh* Haven't been getting a lot of reviews lately. Is it because this doesn't have boobs in it? Is that all you guys care about? I mean I wrote this fan-fic because I just want to get this story out of my head, but I'll appreciate some sort of feedback. Anyway, after a couple of chapters, I'll try to add some humor into my story to freshen it up a little bit. God that sounds depressing. Don't mind me, I'm just a bit under the weather lately. Hope you guys enjoy the story.
Chapter 14: Wam Bam Island Incident
"Tell me, how do I get to Wam Bam Island?" Selena asked the cameraman intimidatingly, as she was pushing him against the wall with one arm and holding a gauntlet-attached energy blade to his neck with another arm.
"Huh? What… what the …?!" the cameraman was just coming to his senses as to what was happening. Then when he realized what was happening, he felt fear and was tempted to scream
"Don't scream. Don't say anything else. Answer my questions and follow my instructions and you won't have to die." Selena ordered with a soft but angry voice as he glares at the cameraman.
The cameraman only nodded nervously, which meant that he'll be willing to comply with her requests, albeit in a forced manner. He just wants to shout for help, but doesn't want to upset the Hyperion specialist who is clearly a crazy b*tch.
"Good. Now, I'll ask again. How do I get to Wam Bam Island?" Selena asked.
"We're actually not that far away from here. If you want, I could set a course change and we'll be there, 30 minutes tops." the cameraman said nervously but compliantly. Selena then relinquishes her hold onto the cameraman, allowing him to do his duties. "Um… mind if I ask why do you need to go there?"
"That is none of your business. You will set the course straight to the location I ordered. Do not let anyone else on this ship know about what's happened here. If they do find out and ask about the course change, find an excuse." Selena told the cameraman with great detail and efficiency. "I will be on and off of the island in one hour at most. If any asks where I am, tell them you don't know and that you never saw me. Keep everything a secret. Tell anyone about this incident and your life ends."
"Right, got it." the cameraman replied as he quickly gone to the piloting controls on the ship to make some adjustments. "Setting course for Wam Bam Island. ETA 25 minutes."
"Well, well, well. Look what's going on here?" a voice said, originating from the door of the cockpit. Selena and the cameraman quickly turned around, with Selena immediately taking out her Hyperion SMG pointed directly at the origin of the voice. It was Eugene, with Kazuki closely behind her. Kazuki was a bit startled seeing Selena pointed a gun at her, although Eugene was unfazed by the threat.
"We heard a commotion going on in the cockpit, so we came to see what is happening. What is going on?" Kazuki asked while slightly shocked to see what's happening in front of her.
"I'll only say this once. Stay out of this. Pretend that you never saw any of this and don't tell anyone on this ship about this, or your will die." Selena said intimidatingly with a serious face, the SMG still pointed to Eugene and Kazuki.
"Girl, you don't scare me." Eugene said smugly as if he really wasn't scared of her. "Besides, I already know what you are planning to do."
"What do you mean, Eugene-san?" Kazuki said surprisingly. "What is she planning to do?"
"Well, obviously, she is responding to the message we heard from the Camtrap about a certain Sparky Flynt, trying to kill a certain group of vault hunters on Wam Bam Island." Eugene deducted. "I wouldn't reckon she'll want to go there for a vacation. Now, my guess is one of the two things. Either she knows one of the vault hunters and was trying to help Sparky Flynt kill them, or she is trying to save one of the vault hunters."
"What? You know one of the vault hunters that were mentioned? So do I." Kazuki said shockingly as her face turns to that of slight anger when she readies her Talisman cards from under her sleeves. "Tell me, is it to kill or to save? And which one are you targeting?"
"That is none of your concern." Selena said with a mildly angry tone. She wants to raise her voice, but doesn't want to wake up the others over at this confrontation. She glares at Kazuki some more, clearly wanting them to back off. Kazuki glares back, clearly not wanting to stay out of this.
"Woah, easy there. I know one of the vault hunters as well. He's Axton the commando and he is one of my best buds. In fact, I was just thinking of saving his ass before you came along." Eugene said as he is trying to calm the tension between the two female corporate vault hunters. "So how about this? We strike a deal."
"What are you proposing?" Kazuki said intriguingly.
"Since we all know one of the vault hunters that are all currently on Wam Bam Island, I'll say we all go there together." Eugene proposed. "We then find this Sparky guy and do what we have to do. Then we all come back here and no one will notice that we were gone."
"Absolutely not." Selena said sternly. "You guys will only interfere with my mission."
"Well, there is a vault hunter among the group that I won't let you kill. His name is Zero and he is a friend of mine." Kazuki said with determination.
"Good, because I wasn't going to kill him, or any one of the vault hunters. I am trying to save one of them as well." Selena replied.
"Really?" Kazuki said with relief while putting away her Talisman cards. "In that case, I wouldn't mind you completing your mission. But I shall come along, because I need to save my friend as well."
"You two are not going anywhere. Both of you stay on this airship and ignore this conversation we just had. You got that?" Selena said, growing impatient.
"Girl, you just don't get it, do you?" Eugene said smugly. "It's not about you anymore. We also have friends that we care about, and we also need to make sure that they stay alive. Besides, you put one bullet into either me or this pretty young lady over here and you bet your ass that everyone on this ship will find out. Then you can say goodbye to your chances of saving anyone."
Selena takes a couple of seconds to consider all of this. It is getting tougher and tougher to convince them to stay on this ship. Bringing them along might not necessarily compromise the mission too much as long as they stay out of the way. Judging by how they behave during the interviews, they certainly don't lack in competency in doing so. The possibility of them jeopardizing the mission still exists, but she couldn't see any other alternative. Finally, she has made a decision.
"Fine." Selena said as she puts her gun down and holster it. "Once we get to Wam Bam Island and find this Sparky Flynt, we go our separate ways into dispatching whoever he hires as help. Once we are done, we come back to this airship within an hour. No mistakes. No compromises. Also, we do not speak of this to anyone. If this goes exactly as planned, no one will need to know what we were doing."
"Heh, you got it." Eugene said smugly as he gave Selena a thumbs-up.
"Understood." Kazuki said. "I promise I will not interfere with your mission, nor will I hold you back."
"We'll see about that." Selena said with a glare.
"Uh, guys. We are almost there at the location." the cameraman said nervously. "You guys might want to wait at the cargo bay. I'll open the doors for you once we've landed."
It is still in the middle of the night and the Blue Moby has landed on one of the quiet beaches of Wam Bam Island. There were clear skies tonight, with the moon shining brightly from above. As the cargo bay door opens up, the three corporate vault hunters exit the airship, now wandering the beaches to figure out where they were supposed to be heading.
"Mind telling me who you are saving and the reason behind it? Seems like you are going through a lot of trouble for this." Eugene asked Selena.
Selena said nothing, opt to continue walking along the beaches to find their location.
"Pfft, not the talkative type, are you? Whatever." Eugene said casually with his attention now focused on Kazuki. "What about you, girl? What's your deal with this Zero guy anyway? He's your boyfriend or something?"
Kazuki blushed a little as she said "It…it's none of your business. Please, just focus on the mission."
"Heh, whatever you say." Eugene said casually.
They've been walking for several minutes until Eugene finally got tired of the silent walking and spoke again.
"*Sigh* I'm tired of all this walking. How are we supposed to figure out where this Sparky Flynt guy is, anyway?" Eugene said exasperatedly. "It's not like there's a sign saying 'Welcome, victims of vault hunters. Sparky Flynt is that a-way' with an arrow sign pointing us to the right direction."
Just as he said that, they just walked by a sign that says 'Welcum, victems of volt huntarz. Sparky Flynt iz dat a-way' with an arrow sign that seems to be pointing them to the right direction. As they follow the direction, it leads to a resort house with a giant sign by the door that says 'Sparky Flynt waz here.'.
"Well, that's convenient. Though admittedly, with horrible spelling." Eugene said jokingly.
"It isn't safe to go through the front door." Selena advised. "Let's check by the windows."
"I agree." Kazuki agreed.
They then go to the side of the house and carefully open windows to check if anyone is inside. Surely enough, the room is lit and there is someone inside. More precisely, there is an entire group of people sitting at a round table all talking over each other. The corporate vault hunters can smell smoke and food odor from the outside as the group of people tries to converse.
"Erhem#$%. Listen up, people! Hey, listen up!" one of the people started talking louder than the rest to make the others pay attention to him. He was a short one wearing some sort of makeshift armor, with a helmet with exaggerated horns on them. You can hardly tell what his face looks like because of the helmet. As he yells loudly, the entire room starts to quiet down to hear what he has to say. "Thank you all for joining the 'Victims of Vault Hunters' event. I'm Sparky Flynt, and as you all know from my ECHO transmission, I need someone to take care of these six vault hunters, because THESE JERKWADS KILLED MY DAD! I am going to avenge his death and you guys are going to help me." He puts up a whiteboard, showing the pictures and names of the respective six vault hunters. "Now, since, we're all here. Why don't we introduce ourselves?"
"I'll be the first." said a man in a Dahl soldier uniform. He is a Caucasian gruff military man with an asshole grin on his face, like what you see from a bully who is about to f*ck you up. "The name's Jarter and I'm here to kill the commando Axton who went AWOL from Dahl. Any member of Dahl who sees him is ordered to kill him on sight. I'm here to do just that."
"Jarter!" Eugene thought to himself. "So that's where that guy went."
"Wait, wasn't there a corporate vault hunt going on that limits the influence of corporations such as Dahl? I heard that in the radio recently. Why would you be here then?" Sparky Flynt said confusingly.
"Pfft, f*ck that sh*t. So what if I'm going against the rules of this stupid vault hunting thing going on around here. Axton and I got a score to settle, and I am not going to let some corporate assholes tell me what to do." Jarter replied rudely. "By the way, I'm only going to help you guys kill Axton. The rest you guys are going to handle it on your own."
"Fair enough." another man said with more formality than Jarter. This man seems kind of old and appear to be wearing some kind of priest robe. He also seems to act more polite than the Dahl sergeant. "I'm here to only kill one of the vault hunters as well, who is also, apparently, a siren. My name is Mordo Sophis and I'm here to avenge a family member as well. You see, Maya the siren apparently killed my son and came here on Pandora because she seems to disagree with …our methods of treating sirens. Seems like we both have something in common, Mr. Flynt."
"You got that right! Nothing's more important than family! And that is what I'm here to avenge for!" said a man in a casual business attire, his tone seemingly very angry. "I'm Grill Holloway and I'm here to avenge my niece Gracie! This crazy b*tch Gaige apparently built a death machine that vaporized my niece with a swing of its claws during a science fair! Oh, poor Gracie. So young, so innocent. I swear to God, I will kill this girl if it's the last thing I do!" You can tell that he is very emotional right now because he is on the verge of breaking down in tears.
"That's right, ya chumps!" said a man in a marauder bandit outfit. "People call me Blendo. Nice to meet y'all. Now, I may not have a family, but I've got an entire clan who treats me like one. And Salvador the gunzerker killed every single one of them. Sure, they may be bandits and they kill other people for laughs, but that's just who we are. Nobody kills my clan and gets away with it!. NOBODY!"
"Hmph. I'm not here on a quest for vengeance like most of you, apparently." said a man in a Hyperion scientist uniform. "My name is Clements and I simply want to exterminate any loose ends that might have been created during one of Hyperion experiments. Take Krieg the psycho as an example. He's killed a lot of Hyperion personnel and is deemed dangerous to Hyperion if not taken care of."
"Clements. Why is he here?" Selena thought to herself.
"Man, what is it with people from major corporations trying to get in on the action on Pandora even though there's a corporate vault hunt going on? Sparky Flynt asked.
"What is it with you asking unnecessary questions?" Clements replied calmly. "Surely, not everyone takes this corporate vault hunt seriously. We all have our reasons to come here. I've finally tracked that violent bloodthirsty mistake of an experiment down and I am not about to wait for a vault hunting event to be over to finally kill him."
"Hmm, fair point. Okay, last one. What is your name?" Sparky Flynt said to the last man who still hasn't introduced himself yet.
"Watashi wa anata ni watashi no namae o ataeru koto wa arimasen. Watashi wa iudarou subete wa, watashi wa Zero ga shinde hoshīdesu." said the last man. He seems to be wearing some sort of Japanese robe, with an appearance similar to one of those casual-clothed samurai you see in the movies.
"[I will not give you my name. All I will say is I want Zero dead.]" Kazuki translated in her head, for her knowledge in the language is almost impeccable.
"Um, okay…" Sparky Flynt said. "Don't know what the heck you just said. Care to translate a little, or to put it in simpler terms?"
"*Sigh* Zero. Shinu." the Japanese man said, trying to put it in simpler terms.
"Okay, you are referring to Zero. Probably want him dead, maybe?" Sparky Flynt deciphered.
The Japanese man simply nodded.
"Alright, that's it then. We've got everybody. Now here's the plan that I propose…" Sparky Flynt started explaining his secretive master plan of how to take down the vault hunters. Suddenly, Selena seems to have heard enough because she just walked away from the window and start walking towards a certain direction. Eugene and Kazuki were curious as to why the Hyperion specialist just walked away and followed her.
"Hey." Eugene whispered, trying to catch up to Selena. "Where are you going? Don't you want to hear about their master plan?"
"That is irrelevant. Because they won't be alive once I'm done. Or at least one of them won't be alive." Selena said coldly as she suddenly stops walking. She then takes a look around the environment, as if analyzing for something. "There's a good sniping spot over there." She points towards a building a couple dozen yards away, which was raised on a platform. "I should be able to do a good amount of reconnaissance from that spot. These people will come out of their house eventually. Once they do, I'll follow my target through the scope of my sniper rifle. If I'm lucky, I'll just snipe my target once he is isolated and be done with my mission."
"Wow, speaking like a tactical pro. I'm impressed." Eugene said, responding to Selena's strategic explanation.
"There is something that bothers me." Kazuki noted. "One of the victims of vault hunters said he's from Hyperion. I think his name is Clements. Would having him being associated with your target in the same group interfere with your mission?"
Selena thought about it for a moment. Clements IS her target. Clements wants to kill Krieg and she is going to stop him She just doesn't want Kazuki to know too much about it.
"You ask too many questions. I do not intend to answer any of them. Now, if you excuse me, this is where we part." Selena said coldly. "Remember, we all go back to the airship at the designated time. If you're late, you'll be left behind. Goodbye." With that, she activated her jetpack and quietly hover towards her sniping spot.
"Well, now I've got to find myself a recon spot as well." Eugene said to himself before telling Kazuki "Good luck with you target, Maliwan girl." With that, he gave her a casual salute and went to another direction.
Kazuki looked around to see that both of her fellow vault hunters were now gone. Now she's all by herself on this task of stopping whoever's trying to kill Zero. She feels a little bit scared but her habit of serene etiquette prevents her from showing it. Nonetheless, she walks towards yet another direction and into the dark night sky, hiding and trying to hunt her prey.