Hey, sorry that I haven't posted. I was at a staff retreat for the camp I staff at during the summer. But the good news is this chapter and the next one are both done and I will upload the next one right after this one. There is a part in this chapter that will seem like it contradicts what happen to Maddox. However, it is not and will be explained later, but if you dig deep enough right now you might see why it's not a contradiction. Incendiary = fire. Electronic = electric. Acidic = corrosive. Weakened = slag.
Chapter 4: Midge Mong
3 years before Maddox comes to Pandora…
"There are thousands of people in this room. We will assign everyone to a specific trainer, the class size will not be evenly spread out. I was lucky enough to hand that job to someone else. X-5 will be doing that." A man in his early sixties came forward. X-1 exited the stage.
"Cortana Johnson, come forward." Cortana had brown hair with bright blue eyes. "X-555, X-2054," X-5 continued to name off numbers. "...X-624…" Maddox heard his number and walked up where the other numbers were walking. A man with a gun came and checked their numbers he came to Maddox.
"Where's your number?" he asked him. X-5 stopped naming off numbers and turned towards Maddox.
"It's right here," Maddox lifted up his circular device that he held in his hand. However, while doing this a glowing red blade ejected from his wrist into the soldier's skull. He had forgotten he was not able to control his power yet.
Maddox immediately bent over as he looked at the cauterized wound. Unable to come to terms he had just killed someone. He sat there for what seemed not only hating himself but saw himself as a monster... a freak.
Maddox was tackled to the ground and someone pulled up an AR and let the bullets rain out on his back. However, each bullet bounced off harmlessly. Finding that bullets would not kill him they took his Ability Blocker and put it back on him. Maddox immediately felt the effects.
"Never mind, X-624, is going with Ivan Miller." X-5 commanded. The soldiers picked up Maddox and took him behind a red curtain. Maddox looked up and saw a man with red hair and brown eyes.
"Hey, Ivan we got a rebel here, we'll let you deal with this." The soldier explained holding Maddox.
"What'd he do?" Ivan asked expecting a direct answer.
"Took off his AB and killed a soldier when we questioned him about it."
"Leave him here." Maddox was dropped to the floor, he struggled to get up, but the power of the AB was too strong. Ivan walked over and took the AB off. Maddox regained his strength and began to get up. However, Ivan put his foot on Maddox. "Don't get up."
Maddox laid there helpless knowing he had no reason to get up, ashamed by his own action even though it was an accident and that it was impossible to try anything stupid with this...this Ivan Miller.
Present…
"Lean him up against the gate!" Hammerlock commanded Gaige.
Gaige set the limp body of Maddox down against the gate that was closed earlier while bandits were raiding the town. "Alright stand back. I don't know how this is going to go."
Gaige stood back uncertain and slightly terrified with what Hammerlock was going to do. Hammerlock went inside and flipped a switch. Gaige heard the gate start to produce power, the gate began to electrocute Maddox, then his eyes started to glow red.
The gate eventually ran out of power. Maddox still remained unmoving, as his eyes returned to their normal hazel color. Hammerlock and Gaige looked at the fallen hero, waiting, just hoping something would happen, a sign that he might still be alive. However, he remained still for several minutes. Eventually, the others had made it back. Axton was carrying a lump of Bullymong fur and it looked like Maya had a shield now.
They gave the hair to Clap Trap who gave them a shotgun. "How's he doing?" Sal asked Gaige.
She didn't answer. She continued to stare at Maddox. "Not good huh." He tried to pry.
Axton ran around the town, picking up ECHO logs that he found and was listening to them. He then ran over to Hammerlock who gave him a pistol.
Axton looked over at Gaige. From the look of his face she guessed he had just gotten another mission.
She overheard him talking to Maya. "Think she should come along?"
"It might keep her mind off of things." She responded.
"I'll let her know."
"No." Maya stopped him. "Let me talk to her. We might need to have a woman to woman conversation."
"She's just a kid."
"Well, we're on Pandora. She'll need to grow up quick." Maya walked over to the 'her' they referred to.
"Hey. You alright?" she asked softly.
"I just… feel so guilty." Gaige admitted. "If I was just paying attention he wouldn't have gotten shot and wouldn't have passed out from so much over use of his power." She had to word this carefully. Not wanting to say he ran on energy like some kind of robot. "Maybe I'm not a fit for this world. Maybe I should have taken whatever punishment on Eden 5 so I wouldn't get more people killed or hurt."
"Don't say that. We're all glad you're here and that you came."
"Can you speak for him? All I've done is freak out when I killed someone, get him shot, and probably even got him killed. What reason would he have to be happy I'm here?"
"I… look it doesn't matter what 1 person thinks. If he doesn't like you, you've got 5 others who do. So it doesn't matter. Now how about we go on a mission? We are going to hunt ourselves a unique Bullymong."
"Mmk." Gaige said as she stood up. Stealing one last glance at Maddox.
"Axton, want to pass out the pistol, shotgun and the stuff in the porta potty?" Maya asked.
Axton threw the shotgun to Krieg. "Maya is this pistol better?" Axton threw her the pistol.
"Yes. Much better." She kept it.
Axton gave Sal a Electronic launcher. "That was it. So now we're all going to got and kill a Bullymong, but this bullymong has a midget riding him. So we'll need to take out both." Everyone started heading back out to the bandit fort earlier. Gaige looked at the dead bandits everywhere. She saw a black scorch mark on the ground where the bandit nearly blew her up. Gaige stared at the mark for a few seconds 'till she felt Maya's hand on her shoulder.
They kept walking through a a divide in the ice wall. Bullymong corpses that had no hair laid here. The small divide led to a cave that went all the way through to the other side. They went through the cave and were met by more bullymongs, but they were easily wiped out. Then they got to a very large bandit base. Where a moving platform connected to the base. They all moved onto the platform and pulled a lever for it to go.
There was now just a drawbridge however Zero began to snipe the bandits near the bridge that hadn't noticed them. They raised the drawbridge and began to cross the deadly freezing river below them. Gaige proceeded forward with her shotgun. Axton was close behind her with his pistol. Axton fired a shot at an unsuspecting psycho midget and hit its arm. All other bandits heard this and began to fire at the 6 of them. Gaige and Axton ducked behind cover and as did everyone else. Gaige switched to her AR and peaked around the corner. She aimed her Rifle and killed the psycho midget Axton hit earlier.
Axton, Maya, and Sal, all peaked over their covers and fired at Marauders. They hadn't killed any, but most were injured. A shotgun midget came out of the doorway next to Gaige who slammed its head into the ground killing it. Gaige took in a deep breath knowing that right now was not the time to grieve. Zero fired off a round and killed a crazed marauder.
Krieg charged forward and used his Torgue shotgun to blast a psycho to pieces. Gaige decided to cover him with her Longrider and killed a marauder the was trying to melee him. Krieg ran off as a psycho ran at Gaige. Gaige tried to shoot him but missed.
"YOU'RE GOING TO BE MY NEW MEAT BICYCLE!" The psycho screamed. The psycho knocked Gaige over and raised his buzz axe over his head and began to cut down at her. Gaige raised her left arm to try and catch it. However, she was surprised when her robot Death Trap digistructed. DT sliced at the psycho and started floating around for the next hostile. Everyone else had seen this, Axton was finally able to get his turret out and it started shooting at the bandits. Maya had trapped a bandit in purple energy and killed it. Sal pulled out both his launcher and pistol, dual wielding and killed more bandits. Zero started doing a bunch of sword tricks. Killing nobody. Krieg was able to turn on the axe as the blade started rotating he threw it around and sliced bandits up with it. Zero suddenly appeared from thin air with his sword through a Marauder.
Gaige saw a porta potty and opened. She found 4 shields inside. "Krieg." she said as she tossed him a shield. A bandit hit Krieg and burst into flames. She threw a shield to Axton. Gaige saved a shield for Maddox. She kept the last one for herself.
"Ok, looks like there's lots of ships over there. Midge Mong maybe over there. But he also could be a couple levels above us. So we'll need to split up, we need to get this done. Gaige, me, and Maya. We'll head upstairs, the rest of you head towards the boatline." Axton commanded. Sal, Zero, and Krieg all left to do their part. Everyone else headed up the first flight of stairs where they were met with more bandits.
Gaige used her Rifle and killed a psycho who started to tumble down the stairs into the water. DT showed up and shot his blue eye laser at a marauder killing him. They came up to the third level, fighting off more bandits.
DT destructed and they had to fight without the help of the death robot. Luckily the last few enemies were easy to mop up. "There are more stairs over here." Maya announced.
The three went up the stairs and the double doors flew open. Sure enough it was a Bullymong with a midget riding on top of it. The mong lashed at them while the midget began shooting as well. The mong then jumped over them. Gaige fired her Rifle but the bullets bounced off the armor. "Someone get behind it, it has armor." Maya and Axton managed to get around to the side and began unloading their mags into it with burst fire. The mong shrugged off the bullets as the midget turned to shoot at Axton.
Axton failed to get out of the way as the bullets slammed into his left shoulder hitting the shield protecting him as the shield gave out. Gaige adjusted her aim and fired her AR at the midget riding on top of it. The midget wasn't killed but mortally wounded and was hunched over making inaccurate shots at the three. Axton fired his Dahl pistol at the midget with his burst fire and killed it.
The mong was sent into a fit of range and swiped at Gaige. Her shield gave out and a booster pack was produced by the shield. Maya tossed her the shield and her shield recharged just before the mong could swipe again. This time Gaige managed to dodge the swipe she quickly changed to her shotgun and fired a burst. The mong staggered a bit and jumped away to a nearby building. Axton's shield recharged and he shot the mong. His amplified shot caused the mong to stumble and fall. Maya finished the mong off with her pistol.
The mong had dropped an Electronic Vexation. Gaige went over to pick it up. She decided to keep it instead of the shotgun she carried. She saved the shotgun for Salvador. Gaige walked up the stairs and two awesome marauders came out of the doorway in the back of the room the Midge Mong came from. The two immediately noticed her and started shooting at her. Gaige took cover behind the doorway and aimed her new smg at one of them and fired a few bolts and ducked back behind as they fired at her again.
Gaige decided to summon DT and he charged into the room and was attacking one of them. Gaige switched to her AR and began to fire at the other. The one Gaige shot at was caught by surprise and quickly took a lot of the hits from the Rifle.
The other marauder was struggling to fight the robot. Gaige fired more shots at her marauder and has finally managed to kill it emptying her mag. She switched to her smg and fired at the other marauder and was able to kill it. She noticed a chest and decided to open it. She found 4 more shields. She grabbed them and saw that Maya had opened a chest finding 1 launcher. They all also grabbed various loot they found and decided to sort it out once they were back in town.
They met up with the other half of the team and Gaige gave Sal the shotgun. They all traveled back to the town. "Alright let's distribute. Sal found a launcher in the chest on one of the boats. We also got this Negotiator pistol Sal gave up to keep his shotgun."
"Ok." Maya said. "Money for Axton, me, and Sal. Med Hypo for Zero. Money for Krieg. Med Hypo for Gaige, and Maddox. Incendiary Aegis for Axton. Ammo for me. Med Hypo for Sal. Money for Zero, Krieg. Gaige another Med Hypo. Money for Maddox."
Maya took a deep breath. "Ok the Negotiator, goes to me. Boom goes to Maddox. Weakened Topneea for Axton"
"I'm putting this Anaconda in the pile." Axtons said.
"Anaconda goes to Zero, as does this Nova Shield. Maddox can get this other Nova Shield. Gaige is it better than his Turtle?"
"No."
"Ok, he can decide what to do with it when he wakes up. Axton check this Adaptive Shield."
"Crap."
"Sal check this Turtle Shield."
"I like it."
"Ok that's it. We will start moving out tomorrow."
Everyone nodded and Gaige looked over at Maddox. He still hadn't moved.
Ok hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next chapter is going to reveal quite a bit about Maddox as it is entirley about him. One more thing, when a character gets something and I don't say what they do with it (i.e When Gaige gave the shotgun to Sal) assume the character sold it.
Inventory Update:
Axton
Weakened Topneea- Vladof Launcher
Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol
Amped Shield- Hyperion
Maya
Troublemaker- Valdof Pistol
Negotiator- Dahl Pistol
Standard Shield- Tediore
Salavador
Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun
Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher
Turtle Shield- Pangolin
Zero
Callipeen- Jakob's Sniper
Anaconda- Dahl Pistol
Nova Shield- Torgue
Gaige
Rifle- Vladof AR
Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG
Booster Shield- Dahl
Krieg
Pounder- Torgue Shotgun
Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher
Incendiary Spike Shield- Maliwan
Maddox
Boom- Torgue Launcher
Biggun- Tediore Pistol
Turtle Shield- Pangolin