Songs: Green Day - Welcome To Paradise; Radio Moscow - Densaflorativa

"So you cowards teamed up with that bandit from Helios? Figures. They gave up their moonshot cannons real easy. Now I can launch my Paradise Gas wherever my eye can see. Adapt and re-use! That's called strategy - you know, if you ever wanna taste victory for a change." Hector announced a while later.

"I'm so ready to kill that guy. Get Tannis those samples, killer. I'll keep rounding up the Raiders." Lilith said. I had taken a short break from trying to fix the ECHO device, because it was driving me insane at the moment. I hadn't really gotten anywhere further than that. The map was a bit more stable, but that was all that had happened so far. This thing was a nightmare, but it looked like I had to get a move on with it soon, now that Lilith was looking for everyone.

"Tannis! I couldn't find you after the attack. You somewhere safe?" she asked next. I quickly checked my map again. For some reason I thought that Tannis was with her all this time. Looked like she wasn't.

"Oh, yes! I'm secure in one of my many hidden panic shelters. Handy when you live in a constant state of panic. Enough small talk, get me those samples and we'll have a plant monster army of our own in no time!" Tannis said, sounding really excited about the prospect of creating said plant monster army. It was like she lulled us into a false sense of security while under the surface she was still as insane as ever. Or maybe it was just a science thing. Who knew.

"We just need an antidote." Lilith replied to that, sounding just as weirded out as I felt right now.

"Hff. Fine. Honestly, sometimes you people make no sense whatsoever." Tannis commented, sounding defeated.

"Get Tannis those samples, killers. I'll keep rounding up the Raiders." Lilith told the Vault Hunters. It looked like everyone of them was on the task. I got one extra signature from the map as well. I was just hoping it was Anouk. It seemed like the logical option, but then there were a bunch of Raiders that had been scattered all over the place. It might as well have been one of them.

"You might find yourself hitting harder while fighting within a gas pocket. Strange, but potentially helpful! Do keep a close eye on your exposure level, unless sprouting vines and losing your mind is a newfound kink - in which case, I have some ECHO novels for your perusal. Judgment-free zone!" Tannis said to the Vault Hunters. Mordecai and I exchanged a worried glance.

"I really didn't need to know that." Mordecai mumbled.

"I was gonna say it's good to know that Tannis has some somewhat normal hobbies, but then... I don't know how applicable that really is." I replied.

"Look for closed bulbs, I need pure specimens." Tannis gave them instructions over the ECHO. I had started working on the device again and now got some faint interference. And that could either be a bad or a good sign and we wouldn't know until the thing either broke completely or started working again.

"I see the gas has infected the local fauna as well. Vault Hunter, try obtaining samples from those infected skags." Tannis said again. Okay, this was just getting out of hand. Skags were getting infected, too? That was just wild to me right now. What kinda stuff was that and how did that Hector guy get a hold of it?

"We've got the first flower sample, Tannis." Maya echoed her. I started to work a little faster on the ECHO device. I didn't really want to miss out on all the action, especially now that I had my new leg and Sanctuary was on the line.

"Very good. These mutated plants are enormous, even by Pandoran standards. It's unlikely that this gas is naturally occurring. Someone engineered it." Tannis replied to Maya. I sighed. Of course someone did. Fighting an evil colonel and his plant army wasn't enough, there had to be a mad scientist as well.

"The gas has been elegantly designed to increase biomass at an exponential rate. In dumbspeak: gas make tiny plant go big big and do the ouch." Tannis kept on talking. I could hear the eye roll when Gaige replied to her.

"We're not that dumb." she said.

"Yeah! We also got all the samples." Salvador added.

"Great. Creating this gas would require an understanding of advanced bio-genetics I can only describe as brilliant... and arousing. Now we must discern how the gas is infecting humans. I will require samples. Specifically brain matter, which I like to call that good gray stuff."

"We'll be onto that as soon as we finish off the skags." Axton told her. It was quiet for a while after that. I kept working on the ECHO and it looked like I was finally getting somewhere after hours of work. I tried locating whoever was nearest to us at the moment and it turned out to be Maya.

"Hi Maya, this is Nova, can you hear me?" I asked her. No reply. Shit. She probably didn't hear me and I needed to tweak the ECHO device a little more to be able to reach Lilith and everyone else.

"I just got some weird interference on my ECHO device, anyone else got the same problem?" I suddenly heard Maya ask.

"It worked!" I exclaimed. Well, it didn't really work, but I was getting somewhere. I needed to amplify the signal somehow...

"We're back?" Mordecai asked. I shook my head, grinning widely.

"Not yet, but we're one step closer. I was able to send a message to Maya, but she could only hear it as an interference. I need to amplify the signal and then we might have a chance to get through to them." I answered excitedly.

"Great. Will people be able to detect our ECHO signature?" Mordecai wanted to know. I shrugged.

"I dunno. Maybe. Definitely if they're close enough." I replied, looking through my things to see if I could find anything to amplify the signal.

"We're done with the skags, moving onto the brains n-"

"Got one!" Salvador interrupted Gaige.

"Oh my. Such playful mRNA structure. You naughty little thing, you." Tannis answered gleefully.

"Tannis." Lilith said to remind her to focus on the task at hand. I really hoped they could get an antidote done. Otherwise half of Sanctuary would be wiped out just like that. That is, if they weren't already.

"Ahem. Yes. I will, as they say, keep my Class 5 biohazard suit on. Just a few more samples, Vault Hunter. I've almost reached a conclusion!" Tannis said happily. I found something I could use as an amplifier, the only problem was... it was in my leg. It was connected to one of the microchips. I quickly checked what it was supposed to digistruct and whether it was anything important. Thankfully, it wasn't.

"Mordecai, if there are any bandits coming our way during the next ten minutes, I'll need you to cover for me." I told him, before disabling the nerve connections in my leg. If I didn't do that, this would be a lot more painful.

"Why's that?" he asked and looked over just as I was opening up my leg, part by part. It was kind of strange to be a walking and talking parts deposit, now that I was thinking of it. Mordecai looked slightly horrified.

"Need a part." I told him.

"From your leg? Is there no other way?" he wanted to know. I shrugged.

"None that I can think of right now. This will be fine, don't worry. It'll only deactivate one of my microchips and it's not a very important one. That is, if everything goes right." I answered.

"Please tell me you'll be careful with that..." he mumbled while I proceeded to take apart my leg until I got to the microchip that I needed. I took a deep breath before I dove in and proceeded to rip it out of my leg. Of course I didn't feel anything, but there was still some weird sort of phantom pain, as if my brain wasn't ready to accept the fact that mechanical parts don't hurt.

"Hehe. Got it." I mumbled happily to myself. I started putting all the other parts together again, which was basically just like a big puzzle. Gaige really had done a brilliant job with her design, so any changes to the functionalities of my leg would be easy and I could do them if I needed to.

When I was finished, I looked up at Mordecai again who was staring at my leg with a horrified expression on his face. To be honest, I felt the same when I saw Gaige take apart her robotic arm for the first time. But by now, I had gotten used to it. Of course, Mordecai wasn't usually there when I was taking my leg apart.

"That looked really bad. I know, you don't feel any pain in your leg, but that just looked really, really bad." he commented.

"It's alright. I'll have to clean the parts when we get back to Sanctuary, though, there's probably some sand in them now." I said and enabled the nerve connections again. I could feel my leg again. I carefully moved it and it still worked fine, as if it was completely new. Perfect.

"Aha! A breakthrough! We all know that the Pandoran atmosphere is chock full of benign spores. The gas mutates the spores already present in our lungs." Tannis then said through the ECHO while I was taking apart the microchip.

"Oh. Wonderful." Lilith commented sarcastically.

"The spores spread to the brain, taking over the nervous system. The subjects are left nearly mindless, like a slag-huff addict or a music enthusiast." Tannis told everyone. I had managed to crack open the microchip and get the part I needed. Now it was only a matter of minutes until we were up and running again.

"I have disappointing news. I lack the expertise necessary to synthesize the gas and create our own legions of plant-human hybrids." Tannis then announced. I wasn't sure if she was disappointed not to be able to get the antidote or if she was more disappointed in herself for not being smart enough, after calling all of us stupid.

"Again, not doing that." Lilith answered and sighed. Tannis scoffed loudly. Judging from Lilith's general mood, Tannis could be glad she was in her hidden panic shelter, because she'd be dead otherwise.

"You sound just like that university ethics board. No matter. Return to the Backburner and send me those samples."

"I'm running out of Eridium, so I'm gonna make one last sweep for survivors. See you back at camp." Lilith echoed them. I wondered if she had given up on Mordecai and me or if she hoped we'd make it back on our own. Maybe she had managed to pick up our ECHO signature and was coming to get us. But I doubted it. This thing was still too weak. Not for long, though.

"Please send me those samples as soon as possible. I have made every preparation and completely disrobed so that there is nothing between me and the laboratory-grade mylar of this biohazard suit. The sensation is... very satisfying." Tannis echoed the Vault Hunters. I connected the amplifier with the right wires and fixed them up as quickly as I could. I nudged Mordecai.

"Hey, can you check if I'm turning up on the map?" I asked him. Mordecai looked at the ECHOmap quickly and smiled.

"Yeah, you're there. Is it working?" he wanted to know.

"Let's find out." I replied with a grin and tried to get through to Maya. It didn't work the first time, but the second time I seemed to be able to get a connection.

"Maya, can you hear me?" I asked.

"Nova? Is that you? I can hear you, but the connection is bad. Where are you? Are you with Mordecai?" she replied promptly.

"Yeah. Our ECHO devices got banged up pretty bad, so we gotta make do. Let me see if I can get a better signal." I told her and started fastening up the wires. This would hopefully work.

"Hey, bandit king. What's up with the scanner?" I heard Gaige ask.

"Oh, that's on me! Yeah, um, I was scanning my glutes, for reasons, and, uh, and I busted that science thing. Just give it a little bandit high-five." Vaughn answered her. In the background I could hear the bioscanner getting smacked.

"Ah, there we go." Gaige mumbled.

"Scanning bio-signature." the robotic voice of the scanner announced.

"I love that sound." Tannis commented.

"Should be working perfectly now." I told Mordecai and handed him the ECHO device. He looked at me questioningly.

"You go and talk to Lilith, I'm gonna fix the other one up. I know what is wrong with them now and I know how to fix it, so it's gonna be quick." I said.

"Alright then." Mordecai replied and took the ECHO device out of my hands and handed me the other one.

"Vault Hunter, over here. Tannis is working on an antidote. In the meantime, let's find a way back up to Sanctuary." I heard Lilith say after I fixed the issue with receiving communications. I quickly took another part out of the microchip and built it into the ECHO device.

"Yo, Lilith! Me and Talon and Nova got a nice perch out by Mount Scarab. We might've found a way up to Sanctuary!" Mordecai echoed. Hopefully this would be over soon and we could all go back home.