Don't Own Borderlands, Only The Oc.
'thought'
"Speech"
System
"Speech through echo devices and Text via book, notes, or newspaper... when those are around..."
(Mid Chapter Authors Notes)
Tina whispers something, breaking the silence.
"W-What did you just say?"
Most of the room slowly look over to her to see that she is frozen place, skin pale, eyes widened.
"We need... you to go to a place called...The Wildlife Exploitation Reserve..." Roland mutters, failing to read the room entirely and uttering those same CURSAID words to the poor girl.
This man has the social awareness of a fucking peanut.
Tina staggers backwards, eyes widened with horror.
"No..." She whispers, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.
"Nooo nonononononoo" she clutches the sides of her head and begins practically screaming. "N̵̹͇̅Ö̴̩͜N̵̨̲͛̋Ò̷̭̰N̸͖͍̒̈́Ǫ̶̪̈́N̴̫͆͗Ỏ̸̤ͅN̷̺̜̾O̵͓̓N̶̢̛̹̾Ô̶̜!"
She lets out a shriek of anguish as she falls into a ball, shuddering violently, tears pouring from her eyes. "I WON'T GO BACK! YOU WON'T MAKE ME! I'LL KILL YOU ALL! DON'T TEST ME!"
I stop time, walk over to the girl having the worst panic attack I have ever seen, and wrap my arms around her.
She violently flinches and begins thrashing in my grasp. "STOP! NO! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"
"Shh... Tina. Calm down. It's okay. We aren't going."
She shudders and sobs into my shirt as I glare over my shoulder at Roland.
Most of the vault hunters seem to be frozen in horror at the sobbing, panicking, mentally unstable girl.
I narrow my eyes at Roland. "Read the room, dumbass. You need to get your crippling social interactions in check."
Tina isn't thrashing any more, but she is clinging to me like a lifeline, shivering violently.
"I-I don't want to go back D-David." Tina whimpers.
"Don't worry Tina, you won't be." I sooth as I pat the back of her head.
I hold out a hand and conjure a grenade mod, it twinkles slightly.
Restful Gas Grenade: (Epic) (Manufacturer: none)
Unleashes a peaceful and slow hiss of gas, those who breathe it find themselves swiftly drawn into the land of dreams, where they will have a peaceful and restful sleep, free of any nightmares or hardships. The gas this grenade produces has no side effects, so if you really wanted, you could even use it on yourself if you are in need of a good nap.
I pull the pin, causing everyone nearby to flinch, I look back towards Roland and Lilith and pinch my nose with one hand, then point at them.
A white gas begins slowly wafting from the grenade, it swiftly crosses the room, it looks like Maya takes a deep breath before it gets to her, as do Roland, Lilith, and Axton. A bubble of air simply springs to life around my head, followed shortly by Gaige, Salvador, and Zero... then, well, Krieg is just wearing a gas mask.
Tina's shudders slow as she continues crying, then a moment later her grip loosens and she falls asleep.
I catch the back of her head before it can smash into the wooden floor.
The gas clears a few seconds after that as I gently pick up the girl and walk over to Axton's spot on the couch.
"Move." I deadpan down at him, my eyes narrowed.
He decides not to push me right now, and simply nods once in understanding, swiftly standing and stepping around me, he seems to be blinking drowsiness away as he yawns.
I sit the girl down on the couch, grabbing a pillow to support her head, then I step back.
"I-" Roland begins, but I whirl around with a glare and put a finger over my lips.
The room falls into silence as I turn back around, after a couple of seconds I create a pair of noise canceling headphones and put them around her ears.
"Alight." I growl. "Panick attacks aside. Roland you are a fucking idiot."
"I didn't know she would have this kind of reaction!" He exclaims.
"Is this where she-" Gaige gasps as she covers her mouth.
"It seems like that, Gaige."
"Many of you don't seem to know, and that's not your fault... Tina wasn't very forthcoming with information, but I would have thought that her 'besty' Roland would have at the very least known not to say those words around her."
"Eh? I'm confused." Salvador mutters.
"You see, Tina was supposed to be experimented on... yet she narrowly escaped... after watching her parents get tortured to death." I state, deciding to not even try to mince my words.
The room is silent as I break it a moment later. "Take a wild guess at where this happened."
Lilith glares at Roland as the man rubs his forehead and lets out a quiet sigh. "Damn it."
"Jesus." Lilith scoffs. "You prick."
"I'm not going." I state, drawing attention back to myself.
"Hn?" Roland asks. "That's not really a good idea."
"Tina needs someone to support her or she'll have another mental break at being left behind. Neither of you are with our group, so she'll see it as outsiders trying to comfort her. That she isn't good enough to be with us anymore." I frown as I gesture around.
The room falls into silence as Gaige speaks up a moment later. "I'm staying behind too."
"Three members down, going into the Hyperion war crime zone?" Axton asks as he casts a glance over to Tina. "Normally, I'd say that I don't like our odds... but... you two really should stay with her."
"Don't think for a moment that I'm not going to help you there; I just won't physically be there." I slowly look in between Krieg and Salvador, the first silently looking down at his hands, while the second is absolutely shaking with wrath.
"They did what to my drinking partner?!" He seethes.
'Which is stronger... hn... Krieg probably has more experience with melee.'
I slowly walk over to Krieg, causing him to look up at me. "I might not be going with you... yet I will send some power with you."
My bracelet shifts into a sword as shift it into a reverse grip and hold the handle out to Krieg.
"Krieg. You are probably the most physical strong out of the others... so I'll give this to you. Take this blade, wield it, and I want you to reduce that place into nothing but rubble and ashes." I snarl my hand gripping tightly as there is a quiet shiver of rage.
'I knew what had happened to Tina... even before I had met her, yet... Seeing her break down like that? Hell. No. I will Rip Handsome Jack in half myself.'
He looks down at the sword and slowly reaches out a hand.
He takes the blade and looks back up at me and gives me a nod. "I will. Hyperion will not get away with- THE TOWER WILL FALL! THE EARTH CRACKED! THE CRACKLING INFIRNO BLEEEEDS!"
"I trust you." I nod. "With this sword you can strike at range. You've seen me use it before, right?"
"SERENDIPPITY!" He savagely grins, head twitching to the side.
"I have." He nods a second later.
"Good." I nod. "I'm going to get Tina into an actual bed. I don't really need to know what your plan is, anyways. I won't be there... but might I suggest the Lilith express so you can go there, kill stuff, and come back before Jack even realizes we've split up."
I step over and pick up the sleeping bomber in question, making my way to the door as Gaige stands up and follows, I pause allowing her to catch up and look over my shoulder. "Good luck. Also. Jack seems like the type to use an explosive collar if it looks like we'll get Bloodwing back. Take care of the collar first."
I turn and walk through the door. "Come on, Gaige."
POV: Elsewhere
A gas mask wearing man looks down at the blade in his large hands, all around him vault hunters gag and heave, a downside of the fire lady's power.
The only one completely unaffected, being the Fire Lady herself, and the pretty lady- Err. Maya.
He didn't feel it that much this time... maybe it's a result of the unyielding wrath he is feeling at this very moment.
His hand clenches tighter around the handle.
He feels... stronger... merely by holding this.
A blue figure appears on his left, while a red on his right.
"I feel as if I... remember this place." The blue slowly mutters.
"THE NEEDLE MAN!" The red shouts.
"That was here?!" The blue man asks.
"HAUL THE BLOOD! THE VICTOR WINS A PRIZE!" Responds the red man.
A man with a bandana and goggles is talking to the fire lady, but they just seem so... distant... this is what it is usually like when his two halves converse... the world dims, the sounds are muted, and it's as if he is the only one(s) in the world.
"That was seriously here? To think... we were so close to her." The sane half states.
"THE TINY ONE?" The insane one asks.
"Yep." Blue sighs.
"THE TINY ONE SAD!" Red shouts.
"She is... all because of this filthy place." Blue nods.
Something has changed recently... the fire lady allowed the blue half to regain some control over their shared body. The red half has taken offense to this, yet at this moment they are of one mind.
"This place will be reduced to rubble in no time." Blue mutters
"ASHES TO ASHES! GUTS TO GUTS!" Red agrees.
The man snaps back to attention as his two halves remerge. It always gives him a headache when they do that.
One thing is for certain... this place will fall...
Pov: Within the compound, several minutes later.
"OHMYGOD-" a man shouts as he dives out of the way of a massive beast that seems to be composed entirely of ice.
The large insectile creature smashes through the building's wall as it lets out shrieks of rage.
A rocket smashes into its side causing it to stagger to the left, it turns and unleashes a torrent of icy water that leaves a trail of frozen ground in its wake, the short guy who fired the rocket had gotten out of the way, but the insect takes this as a challenge.
The varkid charges forwards, towards the shorter man, only to stumble as a sniper round smashes into the armored carapace around its head.
It shakes its head and lets out several clicking sounds as its mandibles slam together.
A taller man lunges forwards, a mask on his face as he wields a sword in one hand.
"HRAAAGH!" He roars as he swings the blade downwards.
There is a flash of light, and suddenly two halves of the massive varkid flop to the side, sending bluish freezing liquid spraying across the grass.
The man who almost got crushed lets out a low pant as he walks over and looks down at the massive beast, nearly the size of a large truck. "Damn. That's a weird Varkid."
A blue haired woman slowly walks over. "I know... but... doesn't it look sort of familiar?"
A silence falls over the group for a moment.
"Amigos, I think we just killed David's mascota." The short man eventually states.
"Ah fuck. We killed David's Varkid..." The taller blond man growls. "Ugh. Who's going to break the news to him? He's gonna be so pissed."
"No." The assassin in full black states.
"Not it." The siren states with a small head shake.
"Nah." The short man scoffs.
"No. While I might have killed it. I couldn't bear to see him sad-RIIBBY SPLEEN! TALKY MAN NO TALK! KRIEG TURN!" The sword wielding psycho states.
"Ah. Damn it." The blonde commando sighs as he scratches the beck of his neck. "That's gonna suck. How'd Jack even get this anyways?"
"He has been following our movements for a while... he more than likely took it while we were at Torgue's campaign of carnage." The blue haired siren mutters.
"How are you going to handle it, Axton?" She continues. "Just walk over him and say something like 'oh, sorry, David, we- uh- killed your dog'."
""Dog?"" the short man and the taller blond asks.
"I mean, this thing was practically his dog, right?" The siren asks.
"…"
The others really can't refute that... David is a little bit insane... and he did treat this large icy bug monster like it was a dog.
Pov: Returned.
I let out a quiet sigh as I sit on the foot of the bed, I glance back to Tina who remains unmoving under the blankets, her chest rising and falling as she continues to sleep.
"Well... that was rough." Gaige sighs.
I nod absentmindedly as I run a hand through my hair. "I didn't think she would react that poorly."
"You knew?" Gaige asks as she turns to look at me.
"Hn? No. I just meant in general. I never thought she would react that poorly for well, anything." I state as I shake my head.
"True... she always seems just so happy." Gaige agrees. "To see her like that, so broken and distressed... so scared..."
"Traumatized." I add.
She silently nods. "It... honestly hurt. What sort of monster does a man have to be to do something like that to someone so young."
"I don't know." I sigh as I lay back, avoiding Tina's legs and staring up at the ceiling.
"So." I begin. "What now?"
"Well, I am going to go take a shower. I haven't had one in four days... ugh." Gaige states as she gets up off the bed and walks towards the bathroom door.
"Can I join you?" I quietly ask as she grabs the door handle.
She looks back, a half-lidded expression of pure apathy on her face as she deadpans to me. "No."
"Drat. Maybe next time." I sigh. "I was hoping for something hot to distract me from the general melancholy I feel."
"In your dreams, pal." Gaige scoffs as she shakes her head.
"You're right. In my dreams." I smirk.
She flips me off then goes inside the bathroom.
"Gaige I'm starting to believe you don't even know how to play poker." I frown as I look to the cards in my hand.
"Do you?!" She asks.
"…"
"…"
"Uhhh." I continue a moment later. "Yahtzee?"
She gives me a half lidded stare.
"You got any ones?" I slowly ask.
"David. I am going to murder you." She deadpans.
"Uno?" I ask.
"It won't be today, it won't be tomorrow. Just know... one day. These hands will be wrapping around your little neck after I get tired of your shit." She continues.
"That's hot." I reply instantly as toss my hand of cards over my shoulder, not even slightly worried.
"Ugh. You pervert." She sighs.
"You know what they say, similar people tend to group up together!"
"Alright, first off, wrong. People say 'Opposites attract'. Secondly, the actual phrase you are thinking of, is 'It takes one to know one'." She states with just an absolutely scathing look of disappointment.
Shame she can't do better than me. She probably could... if she wasn't on Pandora at the moment and didn't have a bounty of literally trillions.
Oh right. It's been a while since I've checked bounties.
"Bounty check!"
Wanted Dead or Alive: Axton
Crimes:
War crimes
Theft of Hyperion Property
Theft of Dahl Property
Murder of Hyperion Personnel
Plagiarism
Copywrite Infringement
Impersonation of Hyperion Officials
Reward: 250,000,000,000
"So Axton's is unchanged since after the murder of Wilhelm" I announce.
"Well, Jack hasn't exactly seen us do anything for a week or two... of course it wouldn't have changed." Gaige shrugs.
Wanted Dead or Alive: Zer0
Crimes:
Political Assassination
Theft
Murder
Being Scary as Fuck
Really Scary
Scary
(Please don't kill me! I'm just a poor coder!)
Reward: 64,000,000,001
"Zero got an ENTIRE dollar added to his bounty. See! Some stuff has changed!" I reply
"Ooooh a whole dollar." Gaige scoffs with an eyeroll. "Man, they are really breaking the bank on this, hm?"
"And you're one to talk, Miss Excessive Adorability?" I smirk
She doesn't respond to that so I assume she wants me to continue.
Wanted Alive: Krieg
Crimes:
Property of Hyperion
Destruction of Hyperion Property
Murder
Insanity
Sunk Costs.
Unique Brain.
Reward: 210,000,000,000
"Hn." I hum. "Krieg's has gone up... Jack must have saw his new split personality thing he is doing."
"Okay." She shrugs.
Wanted Dead: Salvador
Crimes:
Murder
Manslaughter
Theft
Heresy
Cannibalism
Trespassing
Public Indecency
Driving While Under the Influence of Drugs and Alcohol
Destruction of Private Property
Arson
Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon
Kidnapping
Bribery
Burglary
Ate possibly THE groadiest thing possible in the presence of Handsome Jack
Disturbing the Peace
Public Intoxication
Disorderly Conduct
Drug Possession
Disturbing the Peace
Pyramid Schemes
Reward: 334,000,000,000.99
"Salvador's is more or less unchanged post tournament... but they added quite a few more crimes to his list and- wait a hot second... is... Salvador actually in a Pyramid Scheme? Because at this point I think they are just tossing stuff at him to make his list of crimes longer and longer as some form of elaborate joke." I continue.
"I can see it." Gaige nods.
"The joke thing, or Salvador in a pyramid scheme thing."
"Yes." She deadpans.
Wanted Alive: Maya
Crimes:
Siren
Murder
Forceful Defenestration
Witchcraft
Reward: 2,000,000,000,000
"Maya now is at two trillion, and will probably be pushed higher, after their little adventure." I continue.
"Man, maybe you should have checked the bounties AFTER Jack found out about it, hm?" Gaige asks.
"Probably." I agree with a small nod. "But seeing as how I am already here-"
Wanted Alive: 'Tiny' Tina
Crimes:
Unauthorized creation of explosives
Destruction of Property
Muder
Torture
Assisting the Crimson Raiders
Train Robbery
Reward for Capture: 1,231,001,000
"Tina's is unchanged... now for the grand finales." I slowly mutter.
Wanted Alive: Gaige Feller
Crimes:
Creation of Unauthorized Technology
Tampering with Hyperion machinery
Excessive Adorability
Pedophilia
Romantic contact with a minor.
Murder of Marcie Holloway.
Evading Arrest
Arson
Reward: 3,000,000,000,001
"Hm." I lowly hum.
"What?" She slowly asks. "What is it?"
"Do you want the bad news... or the worst news first?" I frown, dead-serious.
"…"
"Bad?" She slowly asks, soundly slightly shaken.
"You have once more surpassed Maya in your bounty's worth."
"Fuck." She hisses under her breath. "A-And the worse news?"
"You're apparently a pedophile." I shrug.
Her mouth opens like she wants to say something, but no noise comes out.
"Excuse me?" She asks after a couple of seconds.
"Sorry, Gaige. You're dating me. Ugh. What a pedo. Stuff me in that white van, why don't you." I snort. "Ugh, I can't imagine what sort of lewd atrocities this degenerate girl does to that poor defenseless- nigh immortal- badass super siren."
She lets out a pained groan as she recoils backwards. "Uuuuuuugh."
After about a minute of mental pain she lets out a sigh. "Well, what about yours?"
"Hm." I hum as I scroll down... and down... and down... and down...
"Well firstly they gave me more crimes than Salvador... somehow..."
I finally reach the bottom of my apparent long list of crimes. "Oh! Here we go!"
Genocide
Piracy
Killing of endangered species
Unlawful holding of exotic pets
Threats of Planetary Terrorism
Constantly increasing strength.
Reward: 124,835,500,000,000
I slowly nod. "Oh, y'know, just sitting at around forty one times your own bounty. Nothing too big. Plus, I apparently threatened to blow up a planet or something at one point? Hn."
I scratch my chin and look up. "Nope. Doesn't ring a bell."
"Mnnn."
Gaige and I both abruptly snap our heads to the side as Tina slowly slits up bringing a hand to her head. "Wh- hnnn."
She seems to blink the tiredness out of her eyes and look to us. "Oh, Davey... Gai-"
Her words catch in her throat as her breath hitches, her eyes widen and she rapidly looks around the room.
I get up and slowly walk over to her. "Shhhh it's okay Tina. Don't worry. Everything is okay."
"I-I don't want to go, David." She whispers as her body begins shivering.
"Well that's good, because we aren't."
She looks up slowly, hope in her eyes, but then reality crashes down around her. "B-But what about Mordy's bird?! I-its there! Oh god! It's there! You have to s-save it! Hurry!"
"Don't worry, Tina." I sigh as I put a hand on her shoulder and sit beside her. "It's already being taken care of... we won't need to even lift a finger."
Gaige sits on her other side and nods. "Yeah, the other vault hunters are more than enough for that place. I guarantee it'll be nothing more than ash before long."
Tina lets out a shaky breath and presses her face into my shoulder.
"O-Okay."
I wince at how broken she still sounds.
After a moment she mutters something else, still sounding slightly hollow. "C-Could I sleep with you two tonight?"
I glance up to Gaige who silently nods.
I look back down at the poor traumatized girl. "Sure, Tina, don't worry about it."
"Okay." She whispers.
Pov: elsewhere.
A blond man, a short black-haired man with a beard, a psycho with a gas mask, and some sort of robot ninja stand around a table, shadows cover their eyes- or, well, mask in Zero's case- as they stand in absolute silence.
A blue haired woman sits in the distance, looking at her hands in silent disgust.
"Don't worry, honey! Everything's going to be okay!" A man hums with a nervous titter to his voice.
"Baby don't look." A woman says as she tries to quiet a child's cries.
"Beginning Experiment." A second woman begins.
"AAAAAGHHHHHHHHHH!" The man shouts his pained screams eventually reducing to gurgles.
The child's cries grow louder.
"Subject Five Twenty Four appears to have had the same results as the last... two hundred test subjects... organ liquification. We are doing something right, however, as this one lasted two minutes instead of first test's five seconds. Shipping the corpse to the Doctor's lab for autopsy" The second woman continues. "Beginning test on subject Five Twenty Five, lower eridium density, starting with bone injections, then moving to muscle and tissue."
There is a sound that resembles a large blast door creaking open.
"Come with me. Do not Resist." The tone-deaf voice of a loader bot comes through the echo.
"MOMMY!" The little girl shrieks.
"Shhh! Tina! It's alright! Stay right there! I'm okay! You're okay!" The first woman exclaims to the child.
About a minute passes.
"Subject Five Twenty Five is now locked within the machine. Beginning experiment." The same cold-hearted bitch of a woman states.
"AAAGHHH!" The mother screams, the sounds of rattling machinery echoing through the recording.
"GRRNNN HRRRR!" The woman snarls before taking a deep breath, she sounds like she is in absolute agony. "Sweetheart... remember that heavy, red rock I told you to hide in your dress? Pull the pin at the top and throw it at the wall!"
The child's voice pipes up. "M-Mommy?"
The original woman returns. "Just run! TINA! RUUUUUNNNN!"
There is a large explosion.
"The outer wall has been breached. Activating M.O.A.T. protocol."
The echo recording stops abruptly
"…"
Nobody seems to want to say anything.
And for good reason...
That...
That was indescribable.
The amount of disgust they feel, the amount of horror, the sheer explosive, radiating, absolutely titanic wrath they all feel...
There is only one thing left to do.
A massive beam of light cleaves through a wall, then through a tower in the distance, causing it to slowly begin falling to the side, the top half crashes violently to the ground, going through an entire building.
Salvador rushes out of the new hole, carrying a person sized bird in his arms. That bird is currently unconscious, luckily for the gunzerker in question as it probably would have been clawing his face off at this very moment if it weren't.
"What the hell?!" A voice asks through their echo. "You aren't supposed to be here yet!"
The psycho wielding a sword whirls around, sending another massive beam of energy through a large warehouse, it cleaves through it, then through the buildings behind it, carving a swathe of destruction through the compound.
"What the fuck is that?!" The same voice asks. "Did that little brat fucking make that?! Is that where the vault monster went?! A sword?! Seriously?!"
The psycho whirls about and carves another swathe of destruction throughout the compound, loaderbots of many kinds begin slowly amassing, but they are all cleaved in twain by another slash.
"Fine. Fuck it. I wanted this to be dramatic and theatrical, but no. You forced my hand. Say goodbye to your bird friend! I hope you savages like explosions!"
"…"
Nothing happens.
"What?! What happened to that collar?! It was custom made! DAMN IT!"
The psycho sends several more arcing slashes throughout the compound, suddenly several lines of sparks fly from the assassin in black, as a second later half a dozen massive plumes of fire shoot upwards throughout the facility as the numerous fire longbow grenades go off.
"What the FUCK! Do you know how much this place costs?!"
Cascading explosions ripple throughout the facility as the group turns and runs, large animals lunge for the group, but a purple glow surrounds them, freezing them in the air, they are then flung away as the blue haired woman swings a hand outward.
Pov: returned.
"Hey, Tina... want to go get some food?" I slowly ask as I look over to the girl blankly staring at the wall.
"Okay." She mutters.
She quietly stands up as I share a look with Gaige.
We seriously need something to cheer her up, but neither of us have had any ideas.
We go down to Moxxi's bar, order some food for Gaige and Tina, but all Tina more or less does is poke her slab of skag steak with a fork, staring lifelessly down at it... she didn't even order any booze! What the fuck?!
"I'll be right back." I state as I abruptly stand, making my way over to the bar where Moxxi is cleaning out some glasses.
She notices my approach and looks over with a smile. "Need somethin' sugar?"
"Yes, actually... advice." I quietly whisper, to not be overheard by Tina.
She blinks slowly, seemingly caught off guard. "What was that? Do you need to learn a new lovemaking technique or-"
"How do you make a depressed, traumatized, crazy thirteen year old not depressed?" I ask, cutting her off completely.
Moxxi looks over to Tina. "Oh... is that poor dear- hn... I see..."
She gives me a sad smile. "I do not have the advice you want. I'm... experienced, but not in that area."
"I guess I'll wing it, then." I sigh as I run a hand through my hair. "Just give me like a pint of beer, I don't encourage her drinking, but maybe a little booze will help her forget about this."
"Encouraging a child to drink? My my, that's such a-"
"Moxxi." I deadpan as I give her half-lidded glare. "You are the first person to give her alcohol... an exuberant amount of alcohol... do not give me that shit. For my pandoran adventures has left me bitter and annoyed."
"I... see." She mutters. "I'll get the drinks to your table shortly... I hope Tina feels better."
I walk back over to the table and sit down
Tina looks up briefly but goes back to poking her food with a fork.
"It's dead, Tina, you can stop poking it."
"…"
"David... I'm not really hungry right now." She mutters quietly.
I let out a long sigh. "Alright. Care to tell us what's wrong? I miss the cheerful Tina."
She is silent for a couple of minutes.
"Do I-" she stops abruptly and looks down, seemingly trying to find a way to articulate her words.
"Do I... hold you all back?" She eventually asks.
"Pshh no." I scoff.
"B-But I'm the weakest out of all of you." She whispers.
"Debatable... you have a much higher urge to kill than Gaige." I shrug.
Said red head slowly looks over to me. "Oi. What the hell do you mean by that?"
"I mean that you don't make a habit of being bloodthirsty." I state. "Besides that, you two are actually around the same level of strength. You can't make bombs in under five minutes that is powerful enough to destroy a massive metalic blimp in one shot... yet you are pretty good at robotics and have a fist that can break concrete."
"I see." She deadpans.
I look back to Tina. "As I was saying, Tina, you aren't weak... even if through some miracle you were labeled as 'the weakest' of our group, that would still make you stronger than a majority of pandora, right? You shouldn't find shame in being weak. There's always something stronger than you, hell, even for me."
"W-What's stronger than you?" Tina slowly asks.
"Whatever's in the ocean vault." I shrug. "Maya on a good day perhaps? Or maybe after she's been using eridium... also Lilith maybe?"
"But that's so few..." she mutters. "There's dozens of people stronger than me! I feel totally worthless! You had to stay behind t-to tend to ME! T-the others might die because of my inability to get over stuff! My parents are dead! Nothing will change that! Yet I-I-"
She looks down at the table and lets out a whimper. "I shouldn't have been so selfish. So weak."
"Tina." I growl. "I am going to stop you right there. You are important to our team."
"Yeah!" Gaige nods. "Tina! Stop thinking like that! What the hell is wrong with you!"
"Besides." I shrug. "There's nothing wrong with being selfish. I'm selfish all the time. It's just human nature."
"B-But." Tina sniffles.
"Oi. Can you brats shut it." A man states from the booth behind us. "Some of us are trying to drink."
I turn around leaning on the seat as I glare at the back of a man's head, my tattoos briefly flicker, my eyebrow twitches.
"Excuse me, my guy, but if you don't shut the fuck up." I raise a hand and clench my fist, creating a dull crack similar to a snap as the air rushes out from in between my fingers. "I will fucking KILL you."
"Mind your damned business, capiche?" I snarl.
Even Gaige shoots this guy a glare as I turn back around and resume talking to Tina.
"Damn feisty brats. So annoying." The man grumbles under his breath as he continues drinking.
I am forced to silence an absolutely scathing one liner as Moxxi walks over with a large flagon of ale and sits it down in front of Tina.
She smiles down at the girl and pats her head. "it's on the house, alright? I hope you feel better soon."
The woman smiles down at the girl and walks over to the bar.
I let out a simple breath, letting my anger at the bastard behind me go completely.
"See, Tina." Gaige sighs. "You have dozens of people who care for you... please stop being sad... you're making me sad."
She looks down at the large mug, taking it in one hand. "A-Alright."
"Master Gee!" I hear a man from the booth behind me gasp, causing my eyes to widen considerably. "It's her! She was one of those vault hunters that killed Sandman!"
I turn around just as the tall man sitting behind me does, solid glowing blue eyes meet my own as a frown appears on his face.
"So... you are the ones who killed my baby brother, huh?" He slowly drawls as frown grows into a smirk. "You won't be leaving this bar alive."
Man, David just can't catch a break, can he? First he has to deal with an emotionally broken thirteen year old, then an INVINCIBLE class enemy?! He just got back from killing a super invincible enemy! And two days before that he killed a vault monster and ANOTHER invincible enemy! He just can't catch a break!
Also, please note, Krieg, Axton, and Salvador were all making the 'do men even have feelings' meme face when they were standing around that table.
Guest reviews:
Arm guest: Yes, said reply was for you.
: TRUE and thanks!
JustAFan123: I plan to more or less keep this within the borderlands universe... and damn... but now that I think about it, the end of borderlands 2 is actually fast approaching... huh...
Guest 001: Maybe eventually, currently she is being hunted by possibly millions of bounty hunters... plus there's the whole 'dealing with jack and his attempts to murder the group' thing... ah well, those can be plans for the future.
Anyways, I'll see you next time!