Chapter 41
Garden of Minos
They found themselves standing in darkness. Around them Gaige could just make out what appeared to be a narrow hallway that went forward a little way, before being swallowed by darkness. She stood still, waiting for her eyes to adjust and wishing that she had Artemis's hearing, cause all she could hear was the pounding of her heart as she waited to see if anything jumped out at them.
Slowly her eyes adjusted and she could start to see the area around them a little better. The gate behind her was still giving off light, but she was afraid to look at it knowing that it would blow her night vision, instead she focused on what was ahead of them, which was a narrow corridor, considerably smaller than the size of the gateway, though still wide enough that they could comfortably move forward shoulder to shoulder with room to spare. The walls were dark and hard to make out, but were angled out for a little ways before coming back together, forming something like an inverted coffin and were covered in the markings of the Eridians. At the edges of the hall were shallow troughs that seemed to be filled with water, though she wasn't about to stick her hand in to find out.
Artemis started moving forward silently, prompting Gaige to follow along, her hands unconsciously tightening their grip on her gun. Soon the corridor ended, widening out into a fair-sized chamber, the walls tilting out as they went up till just over her head height, then angling back in too meet above the center. The room was shaped like a diamond, with them standing at the bottom point, straight across from them was the only area where the walls didn't slope out, instead, the angle of the ceiling continued down, into the floor. On either side of this were strange statues that looked like Guardians crouching, hands forward like they were offering something, though they were empty. Other than that the room appeared empty.
They stepped in and did a quick once over of it, but the only thing Gaige noted was that the water continued its way around the outside of the room.
"Was your other room like this?" Gaige whispered, fearing any loud noises.
"What room?" Came the equally soft reply.
"You know, on Tartaris?"
"Hmm, similar, but no, definitely not the same. For starters that one entered on a narrow walkway without walls, though this area is similar and those statues look like the one that was holding the artifact, but in that one's case, there was a large wall with some kind of carving or something on it and the whole thing felt more like you were floating in space, while this one feels like we're in a cave or something."
"Yeah, I get that, so see any controls or anything?"
"Nope."
"Maybe one of the statues?"
"Most likely, we need to go down."
"Down? And how're we supposed to do that?"
Artemis just pointed ahead. Gaige followed her direction and looked past the two statues and at the wall that angled down, and then she spotted it, a darker line at the base of the wall. Cautiously she made her way over, glancing at the statues on her way past, some part of her expecting them to come alive the instant she wasn't looking at them.
Getting to the drop, she looked down. The floor fell away at the same angle as the ceiling, running downward out of sight.
"Do we have to?" Slipped out of her mouth before she realized it.
"Only if we don't want to be stuck forever."
"Damn." She double checked her gun and when she saw Artemis finish the same said "Shall we?"
The other girl nodded and they stepped off the edge, dropping into a slide on the grooved surface. The slide went on for longer than Gaige had expected, and just as she was about to yell something, the ground fell away from under her and she splashed down in a small alcove.
Stretching out in front of her was a large open area covered in a few inches of water. They cautiously stepped out and looked around, the room was large, not quite big enough that the creature they'd fought outside could curl up in and it stretched upward a considerable height. Evenly placed as far up as she could see were small indents in the wall that looked like someone had lopped off the bottom of a circle and knocked it out of the wall. Judging by the closest ones, they appeared to be nearly twice her height and just as she was moving to look closer, they all lit up, emitting the same glow as the portal that had led them here.
The girls dropped into a guarded stance and fell back-to-back with each other and Deathtrap, waiting for something to happen.
Artemis was the first to notice, even though the portal was closer to Gaige's side, but one of the portals rippled and something stepped through.
It was tall and thin, with back bent legs and a bit of a hunch to its torso. It had a large head that flared out at the back like a crest, though its face was rather flat, trailing down from its one glowing eye, traveling through what looked like tusks or mandibles. It had overly long arms, ending in large hands, one of which was holding what looked like only the handle of a spear and the other was in a large circular device that ended in a ball. Though it was a little hard to tell, due to the light washing over it, but it appeared to be blue and dirty purple and even though it was over twice their height, it looked enough like one of the Guardians for them to immediately tell what it was.
The Guardian looked at them for a second before slamming the handle on the ground, sending ripples through the water. As if that was the cue to start, both girls brought their guns up and fired, but the Guardian merely stepped back through the portal behind it and a second later emerged from across the room. Their shots followed it into the portal, but where it stepped out two floors up and was looking down at them, the bullets emerged from a different portal and were flying back at them, forcing them to duck out of the way.
"What was that?" Gaige shouted as she rolled to her feet, dripping water and tried firing again at the Guardian, only for it to repeat the process, stepping back before she even had the trigger pulled.
Jinx hadn't fired when it had emerged, testing to see if it would repeat the trick, and as soon as it did, she swung around to fire at it only to have to dodge away from Gaige's shots. She let loose a curse and threw herself out of the way and as she rolled to her feet, had to throw herself back as the Guardian swung its weapon at her. The instant it did, a bright red beam emerged, broken up with little dark spots. Even though she thought she'd managed to get out of its way, the beam twisted and followed her, like a whip of energy and caught her in the side, throwing her through the water, which sprayed up around her until she came to a stop.
Seeing what had happened, Gaige opened fire at the Guardian, knowing full well what it would do, but not caring. As expected, it stepped back through the portal, so Gaige quickly brought her aim down, letting the bullets find their own targets.
The Guardian emerged from its next portal, to find that the bullets hadn't gone through the portal after it and had instead bounced everywhere and ended up getting hit by a volley. As it staggered under the surprise attack, Deathtrap swung around and fired off an electrical beam, which hit it square on, forcing it to dive back into the portal.
By the time it had emerged again, Jinx was back on her feet, and joined in, hitting it as it was still emerging from the portal and making it sink back in.
This time, it didn't emerge immediately which gave them a second to talk as they scanned the room.
"You OK?" Gaige called out.
"Yeah, but stop shooting me."
"Wasn't on purpose."
"I know, but it's still's annoying."
"Fine, I'll stop shooting, you take it all by yourself."
"Can you be any more of a brat?"
"Maybe, you wanna find out?"
"No."
"Then stop being a bitch."
"But you love it."
"Yeah, well, we'll see. Still, how'd you hit that thing as soon as it emerged?"
"Oh, easy. There's a small ripple right as the portals connect, if you can spot that, you know which ones are connected."
"Seriously? Why that just solves all our problems then, this should be easy."
"Sarcasm. Again."
"Yes sarcasm! You make it sound like that would be easy to spot."
"Well, yeah. But how about this, you keep shooting the floor, and I'll try and hit it when I can."
"Sure, whatever. As long as it comes back that is."
Right then the Guardian shot through one of the portals at high speed, lashing out with its whip as it did, forcing them to scatter to avoid being torn in half as it sailed through the room and dove into another portal.
"Me and my big mouth." Gaige sputtered as she lifted herself from the water.
"Well, that was...new." Jinx said, looking around, trying to spot where the Guardian would be coming from next. It wasn't as hard as Gaige made it out to be, you just had to look, the hard part was that one person could only see so many portals at one time, so if the ripples started behind you, or even above where you were looking, you might not spot them in time, which was what happened next.
The portal shimmered and the Guardian shot through it, straight at her back, but luckily for her, Deathtrap had seen it and managed to shove her out of the way, though he was hit hard enough to dent his shoulder guard in the process.
"Babe!" Gaige shouted as she rushed over to her robot "You alright?"
"Urru"
"Thank goodness, but that is it! I've had it! This thing's goin down. I'm tired, I haven't had a drink in the better part of a week, and I still have no idea if I can fix my relationship problems, and then this overblown ancient junk heap hits my bot! Nobody messes with my bot! Nobody!" With that she stormed over to where Jinx was standing up and making sure to use her left hand, yanked her backup piece off her and spun around just as the Guardian dove out of a portal at them.
Jinx felt the other girl shove her over, using her falling body for support as she pushed them down and under the flying opponent. As it flew over them, she pulled the trigger, firing the shot point blank into the Guardian as it passed, too close to deviate. The shell tore into the stomach of the Guardian, throwing it off course and causing it to plow into the water, sending great plumes in its wake till it crashed unceremoniously into the wall.
"Take that!" She bellowed at it even as it started to rise again. Not wanting to waste a golden opportunity, both Jinx and Deathtrap unloaded upon it, causing it to slam the handle of its whip into the ground. A bright light shot up out of it and quickly formed a dome around it, absorbing the last of their shots, though not before they had inflicted considerable damage.
While it was hiding behind its shell, Jinx took the time to reload, only to realize Gaige was giving her an awkward look.
"What?"
"Uh, sorry for borrowing your gun without asking, so, uh, please don't kill me over it."
"Huh?"
"You know, like that psycho chick."
"I'm not gonna kill you over it, just give it back. And as long as you're at it, give back my grenade mod, you seem to have trouble remembering that one."
Gaige quickly handed them back and Jinx quickly attached them to her belt while muttering "Though the mod is useless unless I get more ammo."
"Yeah, I'm out too." Gaige said, obviously trying to move away from her stealing weapons.
"Speaking of which, how're we doing on ammo, in general?"
"Uh, almost out of SMG, a bit low on assault rifle, and out of grenades, other than that, I should be good, you?"
"Low on sniper rounds, and almost out on assault rifle and SMG as well, and no grenades. And now that I'm looking, I seem to have used up most of my pistol rounds? When'd that happen?"
"I think you ended up giving them to some of the troops during the fight, but I could be wrong."
"Dang it, this is why I don't share, always bits you in the end."
"But you share with me."
"Yeah, but that's different, I was meaning sharing with strangers."
"And what am I at this point?"
"I donno, but not a stranger."
"Urggur"
The girls snapped their guns up at Deathtrap's warning and the shield around the Guardian fell. The instant it was out of the way they opened fire, hitting it a few times before it stepped through a portal.
"That's getting annoying." Gaige grumbled.
"Hmm, electrical shots don't seem to be doing anything, maybe we should try something else?" Jinx muttered looking around for the tell-tale ripple.
By the time she'd noticed it, the Guardian was stepping out far above them and aimed the strange device it was holding and fired a ball of glowing blue energy at them.
They scattered out of the way, but the instant it hit the water, the electricity inside spread and caused them to both fall over twitching.
The pain lasted a few seconds as the energy coursed through them, leaving them drained and it took a few more moments before they could get back up.
"Ow." Gaige groaned, rubbing her arm and looking over. She watched as Artemis shook her limbs, making sure that nothing was damaged by the sudden surge of electricity. When it seemed that she was alright, she rolled her neck and winced even as Gaige heard the familiar whine of her shield beginning to recharge.
They looked around, trying to find where the Guardian had gone, finally spotting it as it emerged a few levels up. Gaige grabbed onto Deathtrap's arm, quickly hauling herself out of the water even as he fired off a green caustic beam. The laser sliced across the Guardian leaving bubbling acid in its wake, making the creature stop the attack it had planned and stagger back into the portal.
"So, you were just gonna leave me down here?" She heard shouted from behind her and guiltily turned around to see Artemis glaring at her, one eyebrow twitching menacingly.
"Uh, you coulda grabbed the other arm you know?" She offered.
"And you could've said something." Came the retort.
"Urrrgurg" Deathtrap snapped, electing a pair of "Sorry"s from the girls. Nodding, he turned his attention back to the actual problem at hand and spotted the Guardian emerging again. He fixed his aim and fired another caustic blast, since it had worked last time. But this time the laser slid across the surface of the Guardian without much effect. Puzzled, he cocked his head just as the being raised its weapon again. Not fearing the electrical attack, he remained where he was, aiming another attack at it.
"Dodge!"
The cry from below him caused Deathtrap to reflexively do what he'd been told and he threw himself to the side, just as the ball of green flew out of the Guardian's weapon and sailed through the space he'd just been to erupt against the water, creating a floating green mess that bubbled sinisterly.
"Urg" He said, looking at it a bit fearfully.
"Yikes." Gaige said, still dangling from his arm. She dropped down next to Artemis who was busy firing at the retreating Guardian. "Good call. Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
"How'd you know? That it wasn't electrical I mean?"
"Uh, not sure really, maybe it was that it didn't take damage from the electrical attack, then made an electric attack, then it took damage from the caustic, but then it didn't, so I guess it was kinda a gut feeling or something."
"Well, thanks, no matter why you yelled it, but what're we gonna do? If this thing becomes immune to elementals after being hit, what'll we do?"
"Could always use good old fashioned normal bullets."
"Boring."
"But effective."
"But what about Deathtrap? What's he supposed to do?"
"I donno, conserve his energy?"
"Urgurrrr"
"I know you wanna help, but what can we do?"
"Well, I suppose we need to find out if it stores the attack element, and if so, for how long."
"Uh, what?"
"Like my adaptive shield, it only holds the elemental data for a short time."
"Ah, I get it, so when it next emerges, we see if it still fires caustic."
"Yeah, though I think it might still have it this time, since it got hit with a second wave. Oops, here it comes."
Just like she'd predicted, it stepped out and fired another green blast, which they dodged away from, being aware to avoid the still bubbling pool from the last one.
"Huh, that was easy."
Gaige hung her head and groaned "When're you gonna learn."
This time when the Guardian emerged it did so on their level and off to the side of Jinx, who spun to face it in time to see it swing its whip at her despite the distance. She threw herself into a roll as the energy whip extended, crossing over half the room to slice through the air over her head with a crackle. Coming up she fired off a shot, but due to the water in her eyes it went wide, hitting one of the other portals which flashed and absorbed the bullet, almost simultaneously anther portal flashed and the bullet continued unabated from it till it entered a different portal, continuing that way till it struck the wall between two of them.
"Would you watch it!" Gaige shouted, having been forced to duck the shot multiple times.
"Huh." Jinx said ignoring her "That's interesting though. Wonder if there's a pattern to which ones connect where and if they're stable."
"You're seriously wondering that now?" Gaige spat out, eyes trying to take in all of the portals in an attempt to spot the Guardian.
"Yeah. If we could figure it out, might be useful."
"You know what else might be useful? SHOOTING THIS THING!"
"Ow. You don't need to yell when I'm standing next to you!"
"You're right, BUT IT MAKES ME FEEL BETTER!"
Jinx didn't reply, instead she spun her rifle around and fired it next to Gaige, electing a shout of pain from her as she clutched her ear. "DAMN IT!" She yelled but just as she was continuing her tirade, she spotted the Guardian staggering back into the portal and cut it short with a "Next time warn me!"
"I might have been able to, if you weren't shouting in my ear."
"I couldn't hear your apology over the ringing in my ear."
"I didn't apologize."
"Bitch."
"Back at ya."
The Guardian flew out of one of the portals, dashing across the chamber, lashing its whip as it went. They ducked under it again and Gaige muttered "Great, we're back to this phase again."
The Guardian continued through the portal and out another one, but this time the whip skimmed across the surface of the water, which surprised them enough that they barely managed to jump in time to avoid it.
It continued this a few more times striking high and low seemingly at random, but eventually it didn't emerge for a few seconds as they scoured the room for any sign of it.
It emerged suddenly from straight above, slamming down with enough force to throw a wave of water over them. In the brief moment that it was hidden from view, it raised it's barrier again. They stared at it as it crouched there, seeming to take in some kind of energy that coursed through it and pulsed slightly.
"I really am gettin tired of this whole invulnerability thing." Gaige growled as they watched it.
Jinx just grunted in acknowledgment as she watched the pulsing light getting stronger, enough so that she could make out different colors in it as it seemed to start washing out from the Guardian and was soon pulsing strong enough to send waves across the water and up the walls.
"Well, that doesn't look good." She muttered.
"Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up." Gaige chanted, her eye twitching slightly.
"What? Is that supposed to be bad luck as well? You know, I don't think I really get this whole not supposed to say what I'm thinking cause it's bad luck thing. I mean, I'm starting to think that you don't either and you're just using it to shut me up when I make sense."
"Grrr, that's not true. I totally get it."
"Then explain it to me so I know what I'm not supposed to say."
"Uh, it's like, um, you just don't say it, that's all."
"Uh, what?"
"Whoops, it's back." She said as the shield dropped and the Guardian straightened out. It immediately went on the offensive, lashing out with its whip to strike at them in such a flurry of attacks that they barely had time to fire off any shots of their own.
Gaige had it easier, since she could just hold down the trigger as she rolled and jumped, but Jinx had to plant herself each time she wanted to shoot, meaning that she wound up wasting most of her opportunities to attack.
After a number of strikes, the Guardian stopped with the whip and held its other weapon up and a bolt of red fired down from the ceiling, striking it and sending a nova of fire racing across the water. Both of them managed to jump it, still being on the defensive from the flurry of whip strikes, but immediately after they cleared the nova, the Guardian slammed the weapon down and a dozen orbs of fire flew out evenly spaced around it, forcing them back as they tried to line up with the gaps in between them.
Jinx slid through the water, keeping low to clear the lower curves of the orbs and popped up, opening fire with her rifle and using up the last of its ammo before switching to her pistol. Just when that clicked dry, the Guardian raised slightly from where it had slammed down and brought its whip up, unleashing another flurry of strikes.
"This sucks." Gaige cried as they both worked on reloading their respective weapons while trying to avoid getting hit.
After a painfully long series of attacks, the Guardian paused again, lifting its weapon, but this time the energy that shot down to it was blue. They both seemed to realize what was coming, but only Gaige was close enough to Deathtrap to grab on his offered arm and fly up, leaving Jinx to try and jump the predicted nova.
Except this time there was no nova, as she tensed to jump, the Guardian slammed its weapon down and released the energy straight into the water.
"Aw crap." Was all she managed to get out as she tried to jump, but was caught by the wave of electrical energy that hit her before she could get clear. She fell over again, twitching as the current ran through her.
Gaige winced from her vantage point and opened fire on the Guardian, even as it unleashed a set of electrical orbs. But unlike the last set, there were only three of them, but they hurtled towards her as if they wanted revenge.
Deathtrap shot up to avoid them, but they slowly turned and followed, electing a confused "Uru" from him. Gaige spotted this and tried firing at them, only to have her shots go wide, though a few of them did end up hitting the Guardian.
In desperation she yelled out "Babe! Laser them!"
Deathtrap ducked under them and fired a green beam, slicing across the first one and causing it to explode in a mini-nova of electrical energy that almost caught him.
Though he was still immune to it, he still fell back, worried about the girl he was carrying as he fixed his lens on the remaining two.
Suddenly they exploded in rapid succession causing them to both look down, where they found Artemis laying in the water with her pistol up.
She spat out a bit and yelled "Well don't just float there, do something! And next time, don't leave me here."
"Then move faster next time." Gaige yelled back "And get on your feet, before it starts again."
Deathtrap shook his head and set Gaige down again. While it would've been advantageous to carry her around, it was better to conserve his energy as well as spread out the targets, still he did feel bad for Artemis, getting zapped for a second time.
Gaige helped the other girl to her feet and muttered "Thanks."
Before she could get a reply, the Guardian fell back into its flurry of whip attacks, forcing them apart as they dodged.
As she rolled and fired, Gaige yelled out "I'm gettin sick of this thing."
"Yeah, I heard you the first time. So you got any suggestions? Other than shooting it I mean."
"No, so keep shooting it. It'll die eventually."
"Yeah, and so will we." Artemis said while sliding under one of the strikes before coming up and snapping off a shot.
"Don't say things like that." Gaige yelled back slapping another clip in "Damn, I'm almost out over here. You?"
"Same."
"Man, I wish I'd brought a back-up shotgun. Why, oh why did I leave Cerberus on the ship?"
"What happened to the one you brought?"
"Broke it stopping a buzz-ax."
"That sucks."
"Tell me about it."
As they were dodging and yelling back and forth, the Guardian stopped again, which prompted a "Heads up."
This time the energy was green, electing a groan from the girls as they prepped to see what kind of attack it would unleash this time. The Guardian slammed its weapon down and a dome of green energy forced them back as it spread outward till it filled almost half the chamber. Gaige tried to fire a shot into it only to watch the bullet disintegrate.
"Well, that's not good."
As if waiting for that cue, a wave swept down from the Guardian almost touching the water before firing back up and bursting out of the top of the dome. Once clear from the wall of energy, they could see that it was in fact made up of a multitude of smaller green spikes that flew up halfway through the chamber before splitting and firing out. Some started raining down around the room, but the rest flew into the portals, flashing around before coming out at an angle and striking down at them.
They ran, dodging the projectiles as they rained down, Artemis moving as fast as she could and Gaige right next to her chanting "This sucks."
As they ran Gaige stopped her litany of pity and asked "Any ideas?"
"Other than keep running till this stops?"
"I mean for after that." Gaige snapped.
"Shoot it some more."
"Thought you'd say that."
"There's just one problem."
"Now what?"
"What if it uses ice?"
"It'd get cold."
"We're ankle deep in water."
"So, we jump."
"And when we land?"
"Aw nuts."
"So, we better think of something before it comes to that."
Gaige fell into thought until the smaller girl shoved her out of the way of an incoming attack, taking it with her shield. As she rolled to her feet, she was about to call out the other girl even though she knew that her adaptive shield was better for this when she saw something that gave her an idea.
"How many shots do you have for your backup piece?"
"One."
"What? How? Where'd they go?"
"Well, the psycho fired one, and you fired one, that should leave one left."
"What happened to the rest of them?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, you've got more than that right?"
"Oh, I left them on the ship."
"Why would you do that!?"
"Cause I didn't have the gun! Why would I carry around ammo without a gun?"
"OK, fair point, but are you holding onto it for any reason?"
"Didn't have a good chance to use it."
"Well, now might be a good time."
"Yeah, fair point."
"Besides, we can't have Deathtrap using his deathlaser, he needs to save his energy to carry us outta here and all the way back up to the ship."
"Ah, was wondering why he wasn't using that."
"Yeah, so get in there and kill this thing."
Artemis looked at her for long enough that Gaige started getting uncomfortable.
"What?" She demanded as they continued running, though the barrage was coming to an end.
"Better idea." She said drawing the gun and slapping it into Gaige's hand. "You do it."
"Wha..."
"You'll do a lot more damage with it than I would."
"Only if I hit!"
"Then get point blank. Slam it against its head and pull the trigger. Just make sure to use your left hand."
Gaige goggled at her for a moment, but right then the last of the projectiles hit behind them and the green dome fell.
"Now!" Artemis yelled turning and running straight at the Guardian. Without thinking about it, Gaige followed along as the smaller girl started firing her pistol into the glowing 'eye' in the middle of the Guardian's face.
As she got close, Gaige suddenly felt a pair of familiar hands grab her waist and lift her up as Deathtrap carried her right up to the things face. Just as she got there it started to stand back up, its whip crackling menacingly.
Without thinking, Gaige slammed the heavy gun into its eye and pulled the trigger, feeling the recoil all the way into her chest as the bullet tore through the Guardian's head. It slowly toppled over backwards to land in a plume of water, dousing Artemis again.
"I TRULY AM THE GOD OF DAMAGE!" Gaige yelled as the Guardian started to dissolve in the strange way that they did.
Artemis lay on her back, rocking gently with the dying waves and gave her a thumbs up.
Deathtrap set Gaige back down next to her and they enjoyed the quiet for a moment before Artemis spoiled it by asking from her position on the floor "So, uh, where's this control thing?"
As if in response a low groan echoed across the room prompting her to sit up as the waves started again.
"Now what?" She asked, prompting Gaige to bury her face for a second, but then, to her surprise instead of another attack, a pedestal rose out of the water.