Found a working time to work on this for a while.
Chapter 17: Build Up
Previously
Maddox looked over to his right and within seconds Gaige's shield went out and eventually she fell over and started bleeding out.
"Mi gniog ot llik lla fo ruoy sdneirf." (I'm going to kill all of your friends.) The entity got a very devious smile. "Eht lrig lliw eb eht tsom elbayojne." (The girl will be the most enjoyable.)
Now
Gaige was out cold and severely bleeding, if she didn't get medical attention she would die. Maddox wanted to go berserk right then and there, but he needed to keep level head to make sure his other teammates wouldn't get hurt. However, nobody was in position to move to her. None of them could peak out of their cover without getting hit. There were just too many of them. The only way they could make it out of this was for some chance of luck or for Maddox to risk his energy levels. Something he wasn't running very high on. Maddox looked around, Axton's shield went out, Maya was too exhausted to use her phase lock. Zero was reserved to hiding behind his cover and blocking the occasional bullet with his sabre. Salvador's left arm was shot, Krieg was… taunting the enemies but immediately lost his shield, and Gaige was bleeding out.
Maddox knew that he could get away, that he could run and survive. But his team wouldn't. There was no way they could. Maddox could easily just turn into dust and float away. But he wasn't going to leave them behind, besides he made a promise to Gaige that he would stay. Maddox took a deep breath and let it out as his eyes glowed red. Time slowed to a near standstill. But Maddox didn't slow time, he made his thought process and his movements to a rapid speed. Even in this state he had to move fast. He couldn't keep up his amp for long. Maddox vaulted over his cover and ran to the nearest enemy, then the next, and the next, and the next until he couldn't keep up his speed increase. He began to get slower, his mind process moved slower and slower to reality speed.
His speed returned to normal, no longer boosted by his power, but he was behind enemy lines. He could start doing some damage back here. Five marauders, all using some kind of AR. Maddox ran at them, his eyes blinked red for a split second. A marauder turned to punch him but Maddox ducked under his arm and kicked another marauder behind the previous marauder. Two marauders came at once and and Maddox moved out of the way so they would punch each other. A fifth marauder began to shoot at Maddox, who grabbed the first marauder and used him as a meat shield. Four marauders were left in this small group. Maddox's eyes flashed red again. He was running low on energy. But he had enough to take everyone out. Maddox allowed himself to be tackled and when he hit the ground he phased right through it. The marauders all looked around confused. A hand reached out of the ground and grabbed a marauder's ankle and crushed it. The marauder howled in pain as he fell and was impaled by a glowing red sword. Maddox popped out of the ground behind the last three and shot one with his arm cannon. The last two turned to face him but were met with hands on their heads. Their heads collapsed and exploded as Maddox squeezed. His eyes flashed red again.
Maddox looked over to wear his team was held up. His eyes grew a menacing angry red color because of what he saw. A lone goliath had it made to Gaige and picked up her crippled body and was ready to slam her on the ground. In the blink of an eye Maddox sped across the battlefield and stole Gaige from the air. He held her bridal style and let out a huff of anger and was using his body to heal injuries. Gaige shifted a little in his arms and opened her eyes to see Maddox's angry red eyes staring at the goliath.
"Maddox?" Gaige spoke up afraid that something was wrong with him. He looked down at her and smiled. His eyes returned to normal and reassured her.
"Everything's alright. Just let me handle this. You need to rest." He set her against the wall and as he turned away his face grew angry and his eyes began to glow again. Like a flash of light Maddox had ran towards the goliath and knocked its helmet off. The goliath's tan skin began to grow red with rage.
"Big mistake, big go-" The goliath wasn't even able to finish. Maddox had reached into its neck and pulled out the skull with the spine attached. Maddox threw the spine at an awesome psycho and instantly impaled it. Gaige felt a powerful wind and watched as dust and some barriers flew towards Maddox. Maddox began to elevate, old cars, dust, even some enemies all flew around him like a destructive tornado. But for Gaige and the rest of her teammates. All they could feel was a soft wind. They weren't being pushed or pulled.
The cyclone began to spin faster and faster enemies were beginning to puke up blood at the speed. Suddenly the center created a powerful explosion. Decimating the remaining bandits and leaving the place and absolute reck. But Gaige and her friends were unharmed. Maddox slowly descended and began to fall backwards. Gaige ran forward and caught him. "You used too much didn't you."
"Possibly." he said smiling. His eyes continued to blink red, much quicker than before. " just go get Tina's badonkadonks."
"Stay here."
"Planning on it."
Maddox could feel himself slowly slipping into unconsciousness. He watched Gaige run off with his other teammates further into the stronghold. "I got you through the front gate. You guys can handle the rest." Maddox slumped over, his eyes slamming shut.
"Emit dna emit niaga, uoy syawla dne pu kcab ereh." (Time and time again, you always end up back here.) Maddox could hear his prisoner speak.
"Tuc eht rettahc, s'tel tsuj teg siht revo htiw." (Cut the chatter, let's just get this over with.)
"Ho, M'i ton gniog ot thgif uoy, I t'now niw." (Oh, I'm not going to fight you, I know I won't win.)
"Neht tahw od uoy tnaw?" (Then what do you want?)
"Ekilnu em, uoy t'nac ees otni eht erutuf, ereht si a emit gnimoc erehw I lliw evah lortnoc." (Unlike me, you can't see into the future, there is a time coming where i will have control.)
Maddox could see his world start to burn brightly. He put up his hands to try and block the light. Soon the light faded and he opened up his eyes to a wonderful sight. Gaige was sitting down next to him. His head was in her lap. She hadn't noticed that he was awake yet. She seemed to be lost in thought and Maddox began to wonder what was going on in her head.
"Hey." He said softly.
Gaige looked down and smiled. "Hey."
"How was the mission?"
"It went pretty well after you did your cyclone. The leftover bandits were all to injured to put up a decent fight. Tina said that we're way ahead of schedule so she sent us on little missions to get a tea party. We had to get guests, one of them was a bandit so the rest of the bandits tried to come "uninvited." Then now is now."
"Wow, I was out for a while."
"Yes you were." She slugged him in the shoulder as hard as she could.
"Oww, what was that for?" Maddox complained holding his shoulder.
"Don't ever scare me like that again."
"Huh?"
"You used too much energy again and when I came back you had passed out and I thought you were gone."
"Oh… sorry"
"You better be." She said smiling.
"I'm sorry I sold out your family pleasaaaaahh," a captured psycho screamed in pain as he was electrocuted. Maddox stood up looking at the fried corpse of the bandit. Tina's face was also a different expression. She didn't have the usual crazy smile look on her face. Her face was twisted in sadness and anger. Maddox suddenly, caught visions of the girl he saw in his vision.
Gaige could sense that an alarm went off in Maddox's head. She went up to him and leaned on his shoulder squeezing his hand. "What is it?"
"Its Tina… she looks just like that girl in my vision."
"Its ok, it probably isn't her. That girl is probably dead. She just makes you think of her because their aren't that many young girls running around on Pandora."
"Yea.. you're probably right."
"Hey Maddox?"
"Hm?"
"I've been thinking, if the vault monster that Jack plans to awaken isn't the monster that you're looking for, then I'm going to help you find and defeat the monster that you are seeking after."
"Thanks for the offer, but it's too dangerous for you and for anyone else. He could kill me or worse… bring It out."
"It?"
"Something I should have revealed a long time ago. The crystal inside of me doesn't just keep me alive and give me power. My crystal is a prison cell. One for a creature way more powerful than the beast I'm hunting. The power I have comes from It. The crystal harvests Its power and allows me to use some of Its. But like all prisons there's a way out. If I take a penetrating hit through my torso then It gets out. It uses my body to destroy everything."
"Even more the reason why I'm going to help you."
"You can't, if you got hurt because of me…"
"Alllrrright the train is almost here, lets go hijack a train!" Tina shouted excitedly.
"We'll talk about this later." Gaige said as she walked away.
Maddox followed them up to a platform where two large dolls were strapped to the "badonkadonks."
"3! 2!" Tina shouted as the missiles fired off. One missile flew off into the track causing it to break while the other disappeared over the cliff. "I got bored." The second missile exploded and the train barreled into the river below. They all ran up the train where the latest missile hit.
Fighting their way through the wreckage wasn't hard. Most of the loaders were already damaged. But the big fight was still coming.
Cliffhanger! I'm not good at those.