Songs: Hillstomp - Stewball; Queen - Friends Will Be Friends

"Okay, I think we're all here and complete. Tell them, Brick." I said, as I was walking up to the group of Vault Hunters with Jael in tow.

"Alright, slabs! Need help gettin' a present for my boy, Mordecai. You took Hector out, which is great. But his special forces are still hangin' around! Take 'em out and grab some rifle parts for me. Then I'll whip up something special for Mordy." Brick explained. There were some confused looks all around.

"Well? Go get 'em, slab!" Brick repeated, not sure what everyone was waiting for.

"The locations, Brick. We're gonna need the locations." I said to him.

"Oh yeah. Right. Sorry, been too focussed on keeping everything on the down low and all. It's a surprise. I'm sending you the locations. You gonna be in four teams?" he asked. I nodded.

"Cool. Axton and Sal, you go get Lieutenant Bolson, location's on your ECHO." Brick said. Axton nodded.

"Sure thing. We'll be back soon." he replied and headed off with Salvador. Brick looked at Gaige and Zero next.

"You guys, go and get Lieutenant Angvar. This is gonna be good." he said next with a grin. Gaige grinned back and held her hand out to Zero for a high five. It took Zero a while, but they finally high-fived and headed off.

"Okay, next up... Krieg and Maya. Lieutenant Tetra. You gotta head to Helios for that one." Brick explained and sent off the coordinates to the hideout.

"Got it, Brick. We'll be back in a sec." Maya replied with a slight smile. Now it was only me and Jael left. I figured since Jael was part of the Raiders now, I could trust her, even though I always got the feeling she'd bail on us the first opportunity she'd get. But maybe that was just me being weird, who knew.

"Okay, you guys. Go to the Research Center and kill Lieutenant Hoffmann. But be careful, alright?" Brick told us.

"We're always careful. You go and distract Mordy, alright? I think he's planning on heading out and getting Talon back soon, so that would be the best time to actually put all the parts together. Then we're ready when he gets back." I said to him. He nodded quickly and gave me a smile.

"Don't worry, I got it all planned out. I'm gonna see how everyone's getting on while you are out there, alright?" he replied.

"Sure, Brick. See you around." I said and went to the Fast Travel station with Jael. She had a pistol and an SMG with her and was carrying a rocket launcher on her back. It seemed like she was happiest with having a rocket launcher, to be honest. When she was trying it out with Gaige the first time, she seemed to have a good bit of fun with it. Which was good, as far as I knew there weren't really any heavy gun enthusiasts with the Raiders. If Jael could take the spot, all the better.

"Hey, Brick, we're at the spot you marked on the map." I heard Axton say through the ECHO.

"Heard that's where Lieutenant Bolson is hiding out. That son of a bitch-bastard burned down a whole village!" Brick told them.

"New Pandora is more than one man! We fight on!" I heard someone shouting through the ECHO.

"Found him!" Salvador shouted and started firing his two guns at once. It was pretty loud, but it was also over fairly quickly.

"Good kill! Three more to go!" Brick stated.

"Damn, that was quick." Jael commented as we approached the Fast Travel station. I typed in the code for the Research Center.

"Yeah, Salvador knows what he's doing. It looks like he's just shooting like a maniac, but there is some sort of method behind it." I told her.

"That's wild. You know, thanks for taking me in. I do like it here. It's rough, but at least I'm doing something worthwhile, you know? I mean, yeah, Anouk doesn't really understand it, but she hasn't grown up like I have. It's just... different." Jael said. It kinda took me by surprise, because she always seemed so indifferent to everything. I didn't really expect her to talk to me openly.

"Sure, I mean... we were recruiting anyway and all... how are things with you and Anouk? I never got to ask her, it wasn't really the right time, you know?" I asked her. She just shrugged.

"We'll try and see if things work out over a long distance. But it's not like we have some sort of long term plan. I guess we'll just see how things go." she replied. I nodded and initiated Fast Travel for us.

The Research Center being pretty much empty now was kinda weird. It had a weird and eerie atmosphere about it. Especially since there was still some of the plant gas around that made the air look kind of greenish.

"That's Lieutenant Angvar's hideout. He was Hector's right-hand man and needs to get dead!" Brick said over the ECHO.

"On it, Brick." Gaige answered.

"Hector may be dead, but his dream lives on!" someone (presumably Lt. Angvar) shouted. Not for long, though, before DT made minced meat out of him.

"Aww yeah! Nice one!" Brick said.

"We better go and hurry, we're already running super late." I said, as we made our way through the overgrown Research Center.

"Hey Nova, are you around?" Mordecai suddenly asked over the ECHO. Oh no. Did he want to go and get Talon back already? I kinda thought we'd have some more time. Shit. I gave Jael a panicked look.

"Uh... Not really. Why?"

"Oh, I was just going to get Talon back. I thought you wanted to come with me, maybe." he said.

"I'd love to come with you, but I'm really busy with some stuff right now. I might be able to come with you if I hurry and get back?" I replied.

"I'm already on the way. I'll see you when I get back, though. Shouldn't take me too long." Mordecai answered.

"Cool. I'll see you later!" I said and ended the connection.

"We're fucked, aren't we?" Jael asked. I nodded and took a deep breath. Time to tell Brick the bad news.

"Brick, we have a bit of an emergency. Mordecai is already on the way to get Talon back. We have to hurry up." I told him over the ECHO.

"Already? Damn. Alright, we can still make it. Axton and Salvador are already back and Gaige and Zero are on the way. Maya and Krieg are almost at Tetra's hideout and it seems like you guys aren't too far either. Just hurry up and get back here quickly." he replied. I took a glance at my ECHO map and he was right, we weren't too far away.

"Alright, we'll hurry. See you soon."

"Lieutenant Tetra was last seen somewhere in Helios. That guy would start a pandemic if it meant winning a fight." I heard Brick say to Maya and Krieg.

"I think we know where he's hiding out. Krieg's on his way, so we can corner them." Maya told him. There was some shouting that I couldn't really understand.

"Only one more New Pandoran to go! Get some!" Brick announced. That was us. We were so late to the party.

"I think we should find him around the corner, Brick. Got any extra intel for us?" I asked him while I was loading my rifle.

"Not much. Lieutenant Hoffman is hiding out in the Research Center, is all I know. Also, he's a wicked sharpshooter, so watch your ass!"

"Well, let's hope I'm more wicked than him." I mumbled into my ECHO while Jael ran ahead to get rid of his minions. She got rid of them fairly quickly and I had to admit, I was impressed by how quickly she moved up at them and finished them off without wasting bullets.

"We are united against you!" someone suddenly shouted from behind a vine. I looked through my scope and there he was, hiding. Or not, since he had just given his position away.

"Got you, bitch." I said quietly to myself and killed him with a headshot.

Hey, hey! We got all them parts! Bring 'em on back. This rifle is gonna be boss as hell!" Brick echoed.

"That was fun." Jael commented.

"It was. We better get back, though. I have no idea how long it's gonna take Mordecai to get back." I said. Jael nodded and held up a gun part from the ground.

"Don't forget this." she replied. I nodded and shouldered my rifle.

"Good call. I definitely would have forgotten." I said and took the part out of her hand. We quickly made our way back through the Research Center. The way back to the Fast Travel station was way faster than the way here. I quickly typed the Fast Travel code for the Backburner into the Fast Travel station.

"Ready to go?" I asked Jael.

"Ready." she said and nodded with a smile. We dematerialised and I thought how much happier Jael seemed here. Maybe it was really for the best that she stayed here, got some sort of safety from the Raiders and did what she did best. She seemed to be happier than on Artemis.

"Nova, Jael, are you back? Get back here as soon as you can, so we can get this done. Mordecai's probably going to head home soon, we don't have much time." Brick echoed me as soon as we got back.

"On our way. We just got back to the Backburner. Be there in a minute." I said and gestured for Jael to follow me. We made our way back to the little hideout Brick had set up to get everything done without Mordecai noticing.

"Brick! We're back!" I told him as we walked up to the group and held up the rifle parts that we got.

"Oh hells to the yeah. These are gonna make some fine-ass weaponry! Gimme a sec." Brick said, as he saw all the different parts. He started putting together parts and it looked like he knew what he was doing. I never knew that Brick knew how to build weapons. I mean, pretty much all of us had exchanged some parts before, but I don't think anyone has ever just put together parts.

"How do you know how to do that?" I asked him, when he was almost done. He just shrugged.

"I asked Anouk and she told me it's pretty easy to just stick the parts together. I got all the rest from an ECHOcast we go." he said and held up the rifle.

"Damn. That was fast. You wanna wrap it up or something?" I asked him.

"That is such a good idea. You got any wrapping paper?" he replied. I tapped on one of the microchips in my leg and a bunch of wrapping paper got digistructed on the table in front of us. Brick looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't even ask. I don't even know why." I told him. Brick just shrugged and started wrapping up the present.

"Now come on, slab! Go give that rifle to Mordecai!" he said after he was done.

"Let's go, then. He should be getting back soon." I replied and turned around just to see Mordecai standing right behind us.

"I am back. What's going on?" he asked. I glanced over at Brick and slowly held out the wrapped present to Mordecai.

"Wait, is this for me? What's this all about, Nova? Brick?" he wanted to know. I shrugged and smiled.

"Just open it." I said. Mordecai raised an eyebrow and quickly unwrapped his gift, taking a good long look at the rifle.

"This is... This is amazing. Where did you get this... why...?" he mumbled with a confused voice.

"It's for your anniversary of getting sober, Mordy! I'm proud of you! Had to get you somethin' to mark the occasion!" Brick said proudly.

"Aww. Thanks, man. You remembered! Couldn't have done it without Talon here. Makes me wanna be, like, a better guy, y'know?" he replied and looked up to the sky where Talon was cawing happily. Honestly, I was really glad to see him - or rather her - again.

"That's right, mijo. Good boy. Good boy. Hey. Thanks, Brick. You're my best non-bird friend." he said next. Brick looked like he was about to burst into tears.

"No one's ever said that to me before! I love you, man!" he told him. Mordecai chuckled a little.

"I love you too, hermano."