Liking, Following, and Obeying


WHOOSH! A gust of wind soared across the cold, Pandora night as the four pairs of boots pounded on the sand.

Sworn to uphold the supposed divinity of the Twin Gods, a trio of bandits fell victim to the wind's force. Falling flat on their asses, the three quickly got up and looked to the source of what knocked them down. There they saw them, the men their Twin Gods had just warned them about not too long ago, The Outsiders the COV cultists had quickly gave them due to their extremely outdated-looking armor. While it may have been night out, it wasn't hard for the bandits to make them out from the four visors, each glowing a distinctive color; Cyan, green, blue, and red: Kane, Wilkes, Fisher, and Grimm, men not of the Borderlands.

"IT'S THEM!" One bandit shouted pointing at the four, "THE HERETICS!"

"KILL THEM!" The other, a big one, raised his buzzsaw axe, "THEIR DEATHS WILL PLEASE THE TWIN GODS!"

Before they could carry out their attack for the Calypsos, a hail of bullets cut their psychotic screaming short. The trio were snuffed out very quickly thanks to ten years of combat experience from the Outsiders, or what the four still call themselves, Zeta Squad. While Wilkes grunted, the rest sighed in contempt for the fools who think they can confidently kill the enemies of the Calypso Twins despite their only tactic being rushing towards an enemy with an improvised axe and poorly-maintained firearms, neither of which they know how to use properly. It seemed at the moment that Zeta had no equal on Pandora and the one who seemed close was a woman they knew very little about, including the Devil in the details about the whole COV thing. They still felt as on their own as they did when they lost their commander not too long ago, in their point of view at least.

Looking around the area, Zeta expressed confusion when they noticed the lack of the only people they knew that knew Pandora. The four found themselves standing in front of a giant limestone structure. They quickly made it out to have been the front entrance due to the giant metal door and the sign supported by two lights bearing the Dahl logo above it.

Realizing that something was wrong, Kane tried reaching out to the Firehawk through the ECHO.

"Lilith?" He said the woman's name in hopes of getting a response, "You there? We've got a problem."

"Yeah, I got one too!" The Firehawk said on the other line, "You and your team aren't here! We got COV everywhere!"

"Shit." Kane looked to his concerned squadmates, "What about Tannis?"

"She's fine. I told her to run to the ship as soon as they showed up."

"What about the Vault Key?"

"I have it. Get over here as fast as you can while I deal with the COV!"

Nodding, Kane pointed his friends toward the front gate. With Kane staying right behind them, Wilkes, Fisher, and Grimm approached the entrance, which was inaccessible thanks to the big door shut before their eyes. Smiling, Wilkes pulled out a little something that makes anything accessible, a Semtex charge. Walking up to the door, Wilkes activated the timer on the charge before setting it on the steel surface. Running back to his squadmates, Zeta stood impatiently knowing Lilith was in a firefight by herself while they were stuck out there.

After a few seconds, BOOM! Wilkes's explosive went off, unleashing a blast as big and fiery as the Firehawk when she teleports. Waiting for the smoke to clear up, Zeta Squad readied their guns in case of a swarm of COV. Once the smoke cleared, the four grunted amongst themselves when they finally saw the door had suffered little damage despite getting hit with Semtex, the biggest boom the Orion Confederation Marine Corps could buy. Too bad Wilkes didn't know that Semtex was no longer the biggest boom for years.

"Shit!" Yelled Wilkes as he witnessed his explosive fail.

Despite having took a hit from Semtex, the front gate stayed intact. Wilkes's explosive charge did nothing.

"I HEARD THAT!" Said a bandit from the comms.

"I HEARD THAT TOO!" Another one said, "THAT EXPLOSION CAME FROM OUTSIDE!"

"I THINK IT'S THE OUTSIDERS!" The first guy came to the quick conclusion.

"HEY, I THINK SO TOO! THE OUTSIDERS HAVE ARRIVED!"

Grimm snarked after overhearing the bandits' conversation, "Well, so much for a stealthy approach!"

Wilkes huffed, "Since when was stealth our thing?"

Seeing as they couldn't make a grand entrance, Kane looked around the area for another way in. It didn't take long for him to see an open doorway leading inside.

"I guess a dynamic entry will have to wait." He pointed at the door as he started walking toward it, "C'mon. Let's catch up with Lilith and Tannis and get to the ship."

With no time to waste, the three followed Kane into the alternate path. Having just made their presence known to every cultist in the area, Zeta had to hurry. Lilith and Tannis were probably overwhelmed by the COV for all they knew, and possibly their twin leaders as well, for they were pretty blunt with their anticipation of their arrival.

Heading inside, the four ran across a rusty hall filled with old Dahl equipment. They had to use their new ECHO to navigate the facility so they could make it to the Crimson Raider leader and their scientist in time. Making it to the far end of the hall, the four reached a lift that took them one story up. Once they made it up, they were greeted by a window, giving them a nice display of several dead COV cultists and Lilith by her lonesome holding the Vault Map talking to none other than the Calypsos themselves. With widened eyes, Zeta Squad panicked out of the urge to confront the Twin Gods themselves and provide backup for their new allies. As they tried thinking of ways to get down right that second, they could hear Lilith have a nice chat with the Twin Gods.

"Firehawk." Tyreen called Lilith, "Just give me the map."

Holding the Vault Map, Lilith tightened her grip on the alien artifact.

"No. Way." She growled.

"Cool!" Tyreen smiled, "Let's do this!"

With one thrust forward with her arm, a single blast of energy managed to send Lilith to the ground. Witnessing this from above, Zeta Squad quickly resorted to bashing the windows with the butts of their weapons, putting cracks in the glass, which did very little to break them open. Their focus on getting out there distracted them from seeing the Vault Map flying right into Troy's giant metal arm.

"Got it!" He said aloud.

Getting up, Lilith hastily took the fight to Tyreen, Siren to Siren. Summoning a camera, Troy took this one opportunity to broadcast their fight for all the Borderlands to see. This did little to send Zeta Squad further into panic for they were still bashing the windows to give themselves a quick exit.

The four heard Lilith ask through the radio, "You're a Siren?"

"Yeah, well…runs in the family." Said Troy.

The four finally looked outside to check up on the Firehawk, who was in sudden peril. Having grabbed and held her up was Tyreen, the self-professed God-Queen herself. Zeta Squad noticed Tyreen absorb some kind of red energy from Lilith as she lifted her.

"I'm the Siren." The God-Queen told the Firehawk, "He's the parasite. Literally! When we were born, our father had to cut him off me. Now I'm the only thing keeping him alive."

Lilith struggled to speak with Tyreen's hand gripping her throat, "What're you doing!?"

Tyreen continued, "I can leech the power from any living thing. Even you, Firehawk."

It was seeing Lilith in serious trouble that finally made the four panic further. With no choice, the squad decided "fuck it" and, at the same time, all charged toward the window. Their collective strength, built up by years in the Marine Corps, was enough to finally shatter the glass and not give their bodies trouble when they landed all the way down on the concrete ground perfectly on their boots.

"Ty." Troy tried getting his sister's attention, "Tyreen!"

With gritted teeth, Tyreen turned to Troy, who was pointing at the four men they kept taunting.

Guns raised, Kane ordered the God-Queen, "Put her down, Tyreen Calypso! Now!"

Seeing the four men in person, Tyreen smirked as she dropped Lilith. Excited to see the actual Outsiders themselves standing before them, Tyreen walked up to Zeta Squad, all of whom had their guns pointed at her. Troy followed her but was slow to confront the four, remembering that they were the same men that managed to slaughter a good amount of their crazed followers with such extreme ease.

Despite seeing their guns focused on her, Tyreen spoke cheerfully, "So these are the Outsiders, huh?" She started walking around them, "Wow! You know, I almost couldn't believe it when I first saw you guys back at the HBC! You guys really aren't Vault Hunters, are you?"

Fisher answered with no emotion, "No."

The cold, one-worded comment from the Cold Support was enough to garner the God-Queen's attention to Fisher and Fisher only. Tyreen confidently approached the helmetless Marine, admiring his exposed looks and stern stare. Tyreen couldn't resist chuckling at his attempt to look intimidating and professional, finding his whole shtick rather cute.

"No…" Her steel gray eyes first met his icy blue eyes, "…I guess not."

She had the nerve to reach out and put her hand on his chest.

"Now what's a dashing man like you doing with these soldier boys?" Asked Tyreen, "You're not like these losers, are you?"

Wilkes cocked his shotgun the moment he heard "soldier boy". Kane briefly put one hand on his friend's pump-action to calm him down. Grimm took deep breaths as he witnessed his best friend getting the most attention from a power-hungry Siren and her metal-armed brother, the latter of which stood arms-crossed amused by their whole presence.

Fisher kept his cool the whole time, "What this 'dashing man' is doing amongst those so-called losers is his job."

Troy blew off Fisher's comment entirely, "Doing your job? Oh, brother."

Tyreen chuckled, "And what's that, Outsider? Liberate the Borderlands from me? From Troy?"

"Something like that."

Troy laughed hysterically, "Liberate the Borderlands? Oh, Outsider, there's nothing to liberate around here!"

"I can liberate it from your annoying ass at least."

"Whatever you say, Outsider!" Troy growled.

Fisher's eyes tried to stay locked onto Tyreen's as long as they could. Unfortunately, after a while, they finally went off-course for just a brief second. Having gazed into his eyes for so long, Tyreen immediately noticed this, turning to the exact direction the Outsider was looking at. Troy did the same. The two mentally gasped the second they saw the Firehawk herself with the Vault Map in her hands. While the Calypsos and the Outsiders were conversing, Lilith used the distraction to quietly snatch the Vault Map back and hide it someplace while they deal with the two.

"Lilith, run!" Kane ordered the Firehawk.

"Shit!" Troy was the first to start running.

Having just realized they were suckered in all that time, the Calypso Twins immediately gave chase to Lilith who now had the Vault Map. With their backs turned to the four, Kane, Wilkes, Fisher, and Grimm opened fire on the Calypsos. However, thanks to being powerful Sirens, the bullets and shells dissipated before they even had the chance to scratch either of them. Hearing the gunfire, Tyreen turned and laughed maniacally at the Marines while Troy maintained his focus on Lilith as he pursued her. Summoning a giant sword, Troy threw it like a football player toward Lilith, scoring a nice touchdown right into the lower part of her leg, sending her to the ground immediately.

"AAAGGGHHHH!" Screamed Lilith at the top of her lungs from the pain.

"Lilith!" Said Fisher as he witnessed her fall.

For a brief second, Troy muttered "Yeah!" to himself after managing to score such a hit. Seeing him walk toward the wounded Firehawk, Fisher parted from the squad to pursue Troy. With plenty of bullets left, Fisher fired at the Calypso Twin in hopes that he'd at least divert his attention away from Lilith and onto the Marine. Grimm decided to do the same to provide his friend some backup. No one fights alone after all. Despite witnessing Fisher's bullets do nothing against him as well, Grimm confronted Troy and squeezed several shots toward his head.

Troy was all too happy to laugh off every round as his sword flew right back to his giant metal hand, "You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?"

With curiosity, Grimm lowered his DMR and took a potshot at Troy's…gun.

"…Really, Outsider?"

Grimm shrugged, "Worth a shot." He then chuckled, "Get it? No wait - "

Grimm's second attempt at cracking a joke was interrupted by two hundred pounds of human muscle slamming right into his body, knocking him down. While Fisher and Grimm were busy with Troy, Kane and Wilkes made every desperate attempt they could at stopping Tyreen, all of which were futile. Tyreen had enough of Kane and his stock hero talk so she sent him away so she could have fun toying with Wilkes, who was all too happy to express what he wanted to do to her and her brother. Seeing Kane fly right into Grimm, Fisher dropped his gun knowing it was doing little to stop the Calypsos and cracked his knuckles.

"Woohoo!" Troy's excitement raised from seeing Fisher want to get up, close, and personal with him, "The ECHOnet's gonna go crazy over this!"

Fisher wasted no time in charging toward Troy Calypso. Readying his sword, Troy was about to take a swing at the oncoming Marine, only for Fisher to kick it away when he got really close.

"Hey, what the!?"

It didn't take long for Fisher's fists to meet Troy's face. One punch was enough to knock him away a couple inches. With gritted teeth, Troy used his cyber-arm in hopes of knocking the Cold Support out cold, but Fisher's reflexes were too quick. The machine gunner threw several more punches Troy's way. Finally, Troy managed to score a punch using his normal arm, sending Fisher back a few inches. This did little to dissuade Fisher however. He charged toward Troy again, but this time the COV co-leader used his cyber-arm to knock his foe to the ground alongside his fellow Marines, having had enough of him already.

Getting knocked back put Fisher closer to Tyreen. The God-Queen did little to provide backup for her brother. She was all too busy watching the machine gunner put up a fight against Troy without breaking a sweat as Wilkes repeatedly kept trying to charge at her only to keep getting blown away by her powers.

"You could've helped, Sis!" Troy expressed annoyance at Tyreen's inaction.

Tyreen blew off Troy's comment, "Aw, c'mon! You looked like you had it handled!"

Troy huffed, "Whatevs."

Checking up on their latest objective, the two looked over to Lilith…as she was trying to get away with the Vault Map.

"Hey!" Shouted Troy.

Smiling, Tyreen, using her newfound abilities "granted" by absorbing Lilith's power, teleported herself in the way of the Firehawk, stopping her in her tracks. Lilith didn't get far since her leg was compromised by Troy's giant sword. The God-Queen laughed in the face of the Firehawk who thought she could flee the scene with an injured leg. The God-Queen grabbed the Firehawk yet again to absorb the rest of her power. Troy grabbed the Vault Map that she dropped. Just barely luckily for Lilith, one of the Outsiders, Fisher, grabbed Kane's assault rifle while the rest were still recovering from the many hits from the Calypsos, and fired a few shots in the air, grabbing their attention, specifically Tyreen's, who quickly teleported to their location.

"You guys don't really quit, do ya?" She asked the four.

"Nope!" Said Kane.

Wilkes pointed at Fisher, "Not this guy!"

"Just stop fighting and you can join our family!"

"No." Fisher refused.

Watching Troy walk up to them with Lilith and the alien artifact, Fisher held Kane's rifle up to the Vault Map. Tyreen watched in amusement under the impression that Fisher was gonna shoot Troy. However, that was not what he was aiming for. He was in fact going for the Vault Map. Once Troy was close enough and the Vault Map was in his sights, Fisher squeezed one last shot, hitting the Vault Map.

"Woah!" Troy expressed shock from feeling the wind of an oncoming bullet, "Holy shit!"

For once, Tyreen's eyes widened when she saw the Vault Map get shot. To their surprise, the Vault Map did not fall to the ground. Instead, the Map flew right out of Troy's hand and hovered itself right over the fatigued Outsiders. Troy and Lilith stared in awe as the Vault Map started spinning rapidly by itself, unleashing four streams of energy of various colors, each latching onto specific Marines; Cyan to Kane, green to Wilkes, blue to Fisher, and red to Grimm. Lilith stood up in confusion as she witnessed each of their arms glow in their respective colors in the shape of tattoos…kind of like a Siren. But these were different. Usually, the glowing tattoos appear on one side of Sirens, typically their left arm, but with Zeta Squad, it was both their arms. Troy also expressed confusion since the four were all men. Sirens were usually women. He only had his powers because of Tyreen, who told Lilith just a few minutes before that he was just a parasite.

Just barely hanging on by a thread while awake, all of Zeta Squad looked at their arms, all of which were glowing under their armor. They all tore off their sleeves to get a better look of what was going on with their arms. In tearing them off, Zeta Squad got to see their new tattoos glow in all their glory.

"What the fuck!?" Grimm asked out loud.

"What the hell is this shit!?" Wilkes looked to the Calypsos.

"This is different." Kane tried keeping cool.

Kane's cool paled in comparison to Fisher, who didn't show an inch of emotion as he looked down at his arms.

"What's happening, Lilith?" Fisher tried asking the Firehawk as calm as possible.

Lilith could not answer his question. She was just as confused as them and the Calypsos. All she could do was stare at Fisher and fellow Marines, none of whom were able to comprehend the strange things that were happening to them.

Soon, the streams of energy faded into thin air. The Vault Map that had hovered above the Outsiders fell right into Troy's giant hand. As the streams stopped, one-by-one, each member of Zeta Squad passed out onto the ground after taking in such huge surges of energy, with the exception of Fisher, who was strong enough to stay awake, but even then was barely hanging on by a thread. He slowly walked up to the Calypsos with Kane's rifle in hand, still wishing to follow the mission by killing the Twin Gods. However, Fisher struggled with even the simplest action of pointing the gun at Tyreen's face. His hand shook as he aimed Kane's rifle. But, making use of the last of his draining energy, Fisher grabbed Tyreen's glowing Siren arm with his left hand.

Tyreen's eyes widened again as the same red energy that left Lilith's body and into her own started coming out of her. In that moment she quickly realized Fisher was absorbing some of her power into his own. She also noticed her Siren tattoos dimmed and felt slightly less powerful as this "transaction" was happening. Coming to this immediate conclusion, Tyreen released her hand from Fisher's grip. Fisher, who barely had any idea of what was happening, finally pulled the trigger of Kane's rifle to put an end to at least one menace to society. Too bad he didn't account for how many times Kane fired his gun prior to grabbing it. The single bullet he used to shoot the Vault Map was the last round.

Just as he realized he was out of ammo, Fisher finally succumbed to his fatigue. The Cold Support fell to the ground, dropping Kane's rifle just before he collapsed on his back. Seeing how the Vault Map was working, Tyreen and Troy did their usual bullshit in front of the camera, which had recorded the entire ordeal for all the Borderlands to see. Despite Troy's protests, he and Tyreen left the Outsiders and the Firehawk to their own devices. Getting some of Tyreen's newly-acquired power and seeing that the fight had garnered a billion views in just a few minutes was enough to shut him up for the time being. Besides, with the Map in their possession, the Great Vault and godhood didn't have to wait long for the two.

After the Calypsos left, Lilith slowly approached the collapsed Marines. The Firehawk stared down at the four in awe and confusion after what she witnessed. She cared very little for the Vault Map in that moment, for the events were too bizarre to put to the side of her mind.

"You've got a lot to answer for, Outsiders…"