Hey guys sorry for the very long delay, I've been pretty sick and had a really bad case of writer's block. Plus school has been annoyingly busy ever since track started. But that's not really an excuse. I know there is not that many of you but I want to know your opinion on some things. But you'll need to read this chapter to understand what I'm asking. So read on!
Chapter 8: Sanctuary
Maddox clung tightly onto the runner that was speeding through the ice cleft. He looked to check if Krieg had fallen off, however he was standing on the top of the other runner like it was an escalator. Maddox's other friend was Salvador as he was also clinging tightly to the runner. Gaige was manning the turret while Maya drove. On the other runner Zero had the turret and Axton drove. Maddox ducked as Gaige swiveled the turret around to shoot at a bullymong. Finally they made it out of the cleft into an open space. Making a small jump onto the ground below them. They made a turn onto a road that led to Sanctuary. Axton saw a bandit that was banging on the gate to Sanctuary.
Axton rammed straight into him. Smashing the bandit all over the gate. The neighbors heard the racket and began to fire at the runners. The two gunners turned and began to shoot at them while everyone else got off and began to shoot them. The bandits were quickly wiped out and Maddox went over to press a green button.
"How many times do I gotta tell you bloodshots. We're not letting you in." A guy over The speaker had said. "Wait a minute you're vault hunters. Roland's been waiting on you. I'll let him talk to you."
"Hey there, I heard about you." A voice came from the speaker which they assumed was Roland. "I used to be a vault hunter like you. Until I joined the crimson raiders." Maddox noticed he said that last part pretty fast, telling Maddox he was proud of his decision. "If you want in you need to prove you can be a raider. Corporal Reiss, we lost contact with him. We need you to go and find him." The speaker cut out.
"Mount up. Let's find Reiss." Maddox said as he climbed onto the Runner. Everyone else began to climb into their places. The two drivers drove one behind the other. They crossed under a small bandit bridge and decided to stop to look for a sign of Reiss. They took out the bandits and Maddox went up to a door, suddenly an awesome psycho and awesome nomad burst through the door, knocking Maddox back into the railing. Maddox dodged right when the psycho swiped at him. Maddox took his Incendiary Sniper and threw it at the psycho. Maddox jumped off the railing and landed on psycho's back. The psycho tried to swing at Maddox with his ax, however Maddox swung under its arm and kicked the psycho over the railing.
Maddox then jumped off the wall as the nomad swung his spiked riot shield at him. Maddox tumbled behind him picking up his Dalh sniper and fired a shot at the nomad. The nomad was set on fire but it continued to try and shoot Maddox with its shotgun. "You know I could use some help up here!" Maddox said looking down at them as he ducked under a spread of pellets. Gaige aimed her Rifle at the nomad and fired the full auto weapon at him. The nomad moved his shield to block her fire as Maddox ran up grabbed his wrist that held the shield and broke its wrist. Maddox removed the shield and impaled the nomad against the wall. Maddox, relaxed on his knees. "Well...That was fun." Maddox looked around as the rest came up. "Oh, there's a chest in the room they came from." Maddox said as he got up and walked into the room. He bent over and opened the chest, "Are you kidding me?" Maddox was disappointed. "It's all crap."
Gaige looked at Maddox as he was hunched over, noticing a gigantic gash on his arm. "Maddox, your arm is falling off again." Maddox looked at his arm which was barely hanging on to him.
"You know sometimes I hate this body. I never know if I get cut or shot when using my ability." Maddox said as the arm instantly repaired.
"You're using your power? Won't that-"
"It doesn't use a whole lot to repair or dampen pain. I just didn't use it back in the Southern Shelf because I didn't know how much I had left."
"Oh ok."
"No sign of this Reiss guy. Let's keep looking." Axton said.
The crew all got back into their Runners and continued to drive around for Reiss. Maya ran into a skag on 'accident.' Gaige looked at the Skag and noticed something kinda blue. "Stop the Runner!" Maya applied the brakes and the vehicle came to a stop. Gaige jumped out of the turret and ran over to the dead skag. She dug in its mouth a but and pulled out an echo device.
"...I got the power core from the bloodshots. They're hot on my trail, I'm going to lose them in the marrow fields." The echo recording from Reiss ended.
"Check the marrow fields, he might be in there." Gaige announced as she got back into the turret. Axton and Maya drove the Runners towards the Marrow Fields.
"We can't go any further, let's go on foot." Axton said as they came up to a claw like ice shape blocking the entrance. Everyone hopped of the Runners and went into the Marrow Fields.
"We got you know you Sanctuary Skaglick." A bandit not to far away shouted.
"If anyone is out there, I need help, noow!" Reiss cried out.
"Come on, we need to move!" Maddox said as he took off into a sprint towards the shouting. Everyone else's followed him, however they all became ambushed by Bullymongs. Maddox turned around to help them.
"No keep going, we can take them." Gaige told him.
Maddox nodded and began to run back up the hill. Maddox saw three Crazed Marauders jumping and hitting a grey figure which he assumed was Reiss. Maddox ran forward and punched one of the bandits out using his power for extra force. The bandit he punched ended up impaled by his fist. Maddox threw the dead bandit at another that was running up to attack him with his shotgun. The third bandit tried to melee him, Maddox grabbed the overthrown fist and twisted it, breaking the bandits arm. The second bandit shot with his shotgun, Maddox grabbed the barrel and aimed it at the third killing him. Maddox ripped the shotgun from the bandit's hands and turned it on him and blew a shell into him.
Maddox dropped the shotgun and ran over to Reiss. "A Vault Hunter? Didn't think I ranked that much of a rescue."
"Sorry not a Vault Hunter. But I'm here to help you out anyways. Where are you hurt?"
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. The bloodshots grabbed the power core. Sanctuary needs that core. Go get it for me."
"Alright, you sure you don't need help?"
*Cough* "Yea, I'm going to take a nap, just wake me up when I'm not on Pandora anymore." Reiss said as he fell limp.
"Reiss? Reiss wake up! Fudge!" Maddox turned the body onto its back and removed the helmet and started doing CPR. Reiss didn't move, he was gone.
Maddox slowly stood up, looking at the corpse in front of him. "Woh ynam elpoep evah ot eid, erofeb uoy tel em ekat lortnoc?" The entity spoke. (How many people have to die, before you let me take control?)
Maddox didn't respond, he looked around to keep his mind off of the body in front of him. He spotted a chest on top of a abandoned building. Maddox went towards the chest and opened it. Finding a Rubberized MIRV inside. He picked up the grenade, going to give it to Maya.
Maddox walked back to the rest. He tossed Maya the grenade. "Where's Reiss?" Axton asked.
Maddox stayed silent. He didn't want to talk. "I think we all know what happened to him." Gaige concluded with Maddox's silence.
"Reiss is dead. Darn, he was one of the first in the Crimson Raiders. There's a bloodshot camp nearby. See if you can find the power core in there." Roland said over the echo.
Everyone walked towards the camp which wasn't too far away. Maddox walked behind the group, his walk slowing with each step. His eyes burned with anger and drowned in grief. Gaige slowed her steps in order to walk with him.
Maddox hardly acknowledged her presence, just kept walking, not saying a word. Gaige wanted to try and talk to him. But she didn't know how to start the conversation.
They continued to walk in silence for some time. Maddox's expression didn't change, and Gaige didn't like it. Even if she didn't know him all that well, she definitely knew about him. Underneath all the pain he had gone through the past three years, there had to be a cheerful sarcastic dork. One of which she had never seen yet. One that she wanted to see at least once. "Can I ask what happened?" Gaige asked.
"He died."
Gaige tensed up but quickly calmed herself down already knowing that he was dead. "May I ask how?"
"Bandits"
Gaige let out a hefty breath. "Could you explain a little further?"
"Bandits beat him to death."
"Was he alive when you got there?"
"Yes."
"Did you guys talk?"
"Yes."
"What did you talk about?"
"Power core."
"Did you try to help him?"
Maddox hesitated the next step and froze. "He said he didn't need any help." Maddox regained composure and walked ahead. Gaige would try to talk to him later. He needed time, Gaige would give him some.
Maddox, Zero, and Axton took sniping positions. Maddox aimed down his scope at a suicide midget. Images of Reiss lying dead flashed randomly through the camp. Maddox shook his head getting the images out of his head. "Do me a favor guys. Keep one of the psychos alive." Maddox said as he shot a midget in the head.
The camp came to life as at least 30 bandits came out of doorways. "That's a lot of bad guys." Gaige said as the massive wave approached.
"Do you think we can handle that many?" Maya asked no one in particular.
"We need to." Maddox simply said. Maddox's eyes glowed red and he put his hand to his chest. His hand started to glow red and Maddox placed his hand on the Incendiary Sniper's Maliwan barrel. The sniper began to turn completely black as the scope stretched into a more modern (our tech) scope. Both ends of the scope glowed red. The barrel stretched and just the part that surrounded the bullet grew even longer. The end of the muzzle then turned into a square rectangle with slots on each side for the muzzle flash. Each one of the slots had a dimmed red glow to it. The incendiary packs then started to glow red instead of their fire orange color. The rest of the sniper remained the same other than its black night color. He fired this time a red streak could be seen from the bullet path.
He struck a nomad that was ordering around other bandits and the plasma must have went straight through his head as it also killed a marauder behind him. The bandits began to fire in their direction now knowing Maddox's general position. Everyone else began to strategically run forward into the base. Axton began to shoot with his Incendiary Aegis and killed a suicide psycho running towards him. As the psycho dropped the grenade, Axton dived for it and threw it at a Shield nomad stunning him. Axton took this chance to finish the rest of his Incendiary mag into the nomad which had killed him. He quickly reloaded the Maliwan Pistol and ducked behind cover as a psycho ran up to him with his buzz ax. Axton dodged the fatal blade and grabbed the psychos wrist and flipping him over his body. Axton finished it off with his pistol.
Maya was using her Dahl Pistol and trapped a nomad in phaselock as she killed a marauder with a couple bursts to its chest. Maya jumped and kicked the nomad out of the phaselock who landed on a suicide midget killing the midget and causing its bomb to detonate which also killed the nomad.
Salvador missed a shell from his shotgun and the short man had to tuck and roll to avoid the spiked shield. Salvador shot again but the shield was still taking the pellets. Salvador decided to try something different, this time he grabbed onto the spikes as the shield was swung. Salvador used this momentum to swing around to the nomad using it and was able to hit the awesome nomad at point blank range with his Longrider. "Midgets are awesome you stupid shield holding amigo" Salvador spat. Salvador noticed a crazed marauder shooting him with his shotgun. Salvador ran at him his shield taking all the different pellets. When his shield let out its nova the marauder was knocked against the wall and Sal grabbed his shotgun and aimed both shotguns at marauder and let both shells tear him apart. Sal dropped the shotgun that wasn't his and looked for his next target a nomad that was screaming at a midget. Sal went towards them and took the nomad by surprise and killed him.
The midget however was still a bandit and began attack Sal. Which Zero prevented by shooting it with his Sniper. Zero scoped in at a marauder as he was falling from his ledge he had managed to climb. Zero fired his weapon killing the marauder as he landed. Zero looked around for another enemy when he ducked under a awesome nomad swinging its spiked shield. Zero proceeded to aim his sniper at the nomad but the bullet found a metal shield instead. Zero had to pull out his sword in order to protect himself from the next swing. Zero was knocked onto the ground and rolled out of the way when the nomad tried to smash him. Zero grabbed his sword and jumped to cut down his enemy. However the nomad put his shield up and Zero landed on it like it was a platform. Zero raised his sword and was able to pierce it through the shield into the nomads body. Zero caught himself as his platform faltered and looked at Krieg.
Krieg swung his buzz ax up and cut a marauder's arm off. Quickly then throwing it as it began to grind deeper into a psychos skull. Krieg ran and bulldozed a marauder to the ground, quickly grabbing him and throwing him to the ground near the psycho that was being grounded by the buzz ax. Krieg ripped the ax out and swung down at the nomad. The ax ripped at the clothing and flesh eventually killing the struggling nomad.
Gaige fired her Maliwan SMG at a marauder, the marauder could be heard shouting insults at her for every time she missed. The marauder fired at her taking out her shields and Gaige tried to fire at him again. Finally a bolt hit him and he screamed in agony as the bolt fried his leg. Gaige finished him off and moved on to a suicide midget. She froze only for a second remembering the last time she faced a suicidal bandit. Quickly firing and praying she'd hit something knowing that her anarchy was throwing everything off. Luckily a bolt had hit the grenade in the midgets hand and caused it to explode in its hand. Gaige turned just in time to see a psycho trying to swing its ax at her. Gaige knew she had no time to dodge and brought her cybernetic arm up and the ax dug halfway into the arm. Gaige felt her left hand go numb as the circuit nerves were cut, still feeling her left arm she brought it to the ground taking the ax away from the psycho. Gaige punched the psycho with her right hand and put a crack in its mask. Gaige used this to take the ax out of her arm and swung the ax at the psycho and hit its neck. Gaige relaxed and looked at her destroyed arm, knowing that it wouldn't be repaired until she had the parts. Parts she wouldn't get until she was in Sanctuary.
Maddox fired again. A red streak going through a thick metal beam and killing the marauder behind it. Maddox fired again. This time the red streak went through a nomad's spiked shield into its head and coming through the other side hitting an awesome psycho in the leg. The psycho collapsed to the ground and looked at his wound. The red glow from the plasma began to spread. Soon his whole leg was glowing red and starting from where the wound was it began to disintegrate. The whole psycho was soon nothing but a pile of ash and dust. Maddox stood up knowing there were 7 more bandits still alive. Maddox looked at the metal beam he had shot earlier. Seeing that it was weakened from the living plasma. The plasma would soon be dead from its exposure to the outside world. As it was no longer safe in its capsule. Noticing 5 bandits under the platform the beam supported, Maddox used the damaged beam and lifted his hand up and caused the remainder of the beam to collapse on itself. The 5 bandits underneath were killed and Maddox looked around for the last 2. Seeing there was one psycho and a marauder still alive. Maddox began to walk down into the camp. Knowing that the other 6 could easily take them out.
He made it into the camp and sure enough the marauder was killed. The psycho however was tied up against a pole. "Gaige remembered that you wanted a psycho alive." Axton explained.
Maddox had forgotten that he had requested such an action. His blood lust had taken over his memory and all he knew was kill. "Thank you. I forgot I asked you to do that. Did someone find the power core?"
"Yea, it's right here." Maya held up the cylinder object. "Why did you want the psycho alive?"
"I'm about to interrogate it. My methods of interrogation are unique. You won't find anyone else in this universe that interrogates how I do. But you wouldn't want to watch. I don't know what happens when I do, but it's not pretty."
They were unsure of what he meant. How could you not know what you're doing when you're the interrogator? They all watched Maddox walk up to the psycho. His hand glowed red and his eyes began to glow a bright red when Maddox touched the psycho. The psycho shifted, it began burning and freezing all at once. Even though it was a psycho it screamed in agony. Bits of red dust flew into the psycho's eyes. It's skin began to melt and freeze off. Leaving exposed muscle tissues that began to freeze and melt as well. Gaige looked away, he was right. It wasn't pretty.
Maddox saw himself seeing all the way through the psycho's life up until this moment. However, he only paid attention to one segment. Rewinding the memory over and over getting all the details he could. Hyperion. Test subjects. Slag experimentation. A young girl clutching to her father's leg and mother's dress. Noticing the weird looking grenade hidden in the folds of the girls dress.
Maddox understood. Sad seeing a little girl and her parents possibly have perished. This psycho must have survived the experimentation and just went insane. Maddox's eyes stop glowing red. Seeing the corpse in front of him. It's flesh was burnt and parts of the outer layer was frozen off in chunks. Maddox knew when he looked into someone's memories it did horrific things to them. But he never knew just how horrific it was. The psycho's mask was burnt off and sealed into the flesh of its face. The visor was broken however. It's eyes, the psycho's true eyes that were always hidden behind a mask. They were morphed and changed as well. But they looked peaceful. There was no iris or pupil. Just a black void with tiny dots. Tiny dots that one could mistake as stars. But Maddox knew those dots of light was where Maddox's conscious had entered into the psycho's soul. Being the literal window to a soul.
Maddox looked at the group. Seeing Gaige had turned around completely, Maya was clenching her eyes shut, Zero had his head tilted away, Salvador stood wide eyed, Axton looked like he was about to throw up, even Krieg looked uneasy. "Sorry you had to see that. Let's search the camp for any loot, then head back to Sanctuary."
Zero found a single chest, "Nothing here."
"Alright off to Sanctuary." Axton said holding his stomach.
There you have it, chapter 8. So what did you think? Again sorry it took so long to get it done. Now before I go, If you are interested in knowing how Maddox's sniper works with it being living plasma would you like me to explain how it works as an author note like I do before and after each chapter, or do you want me to have Maddox explain how it works with dialogue? Also how about the gore, is it too much, not enough, or is it perfect?
Inventory Update:
Axton
Electronic Strike- Dahl Sniper
Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol
Amped Shield- Hyperion
Sticky Lobbed Standard Grenade- Tediore
Maya
Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher
Negotiator- Dahl Pistol
Standard Shield- Tediore
Rubberized MIRV- Torgue
Salvador
Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun
Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher
Nova Shield- Torgue
Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof
Zero
Sniper- Dahl Sniper
Anaconda- Dahl Pistol
Nova Shield- Torgue
Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof
Gaige
Rifle- Vladof AR
Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG
Booster Shield- Dahl
Acidic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade- Maliwan
Krieg
Pounder- Torgue Shotgun
Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher
Incendiary Spike Shield- Maliwan
Electronic Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl
Maddox
Boom- Torgue Launcher
Incendiary Sniper- Dahl Sniper
Roid Shield- Bandit
Incendiary Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof