Chapter 2: The doctor is in
Plasma bullets, those were new. Refined eridium plasma blasts blurred past my skull in a rush and I wish I could go one day without seeing purple. Just how the bandit got his hands on E-Tech I'd never know, but damn did he knew how to use it. Violet bullets pepper the ground of the ramshackle camp and we scatter like rats, the six of us taking cover behind metal crates and fallen nomads shields.
We were here to settle something for our own merciful butcher Zed, find a gun and gut some nomad, but I'd been on edge since the word 'doctor' and was still having trouble even looking at the guy, a name like 'Mercy' or not. My axe was up ahead, thrown haphazardly and stupidly in the panic and lodged in the skull of a psycho at Doc Mercy's feet, buzz saw still whirring in the grey matter.
Damn it. I was naked without it for all I cared and all I'd brought besides that was the Tinderbox, a firearm smaller than my hand we'd kept as a joke. Not laughing about burnt sausage now, are we? He smacks his knee in frustration and mumbles something about making a Jimmy Dean's breakfast massacre before reluctantly drawing our joke of a pistol.
If the Doc cared about his allies he didn't show it, cackling from his spot above the battle and unloading another clip into the back of an unlucky marauder that splattered to the ground between our crates. Across from me Gaige's eyes bulge from the shock of it thudding to the ground and she jumps.
She should be used to this, I think; shaking my head trying to get a good grip on a pea-shooter, wondering why my meat mitts are so stupidly big if not for bloody axes.
Still crouched and reloading her rifle Gaige lets out a string of panicked curses while her pigtails are clipped by bullets. Her colorful swearing is almost muted under the hum of action but we still chuckle, test-aiming down the sights of our own gun before vaulting out of cover and into the fight, laughing all the way.
"Say hello to the missus!" I heard the clunking of metal and the hose of bullets to my right, the commando's laughter scuttling over it all, cozy behind his turret. I could tell him about the suicide psycho on his ass but that would take time and lung space and instead we rush ahead, snatching a psycho axe off a corpse as we go and headed straight for the doctor.
"I love you!" The fuse runs out on the sui-psychos dynamite and I cup my ear mid sprint to hear Axton's dumb ass hyperventilating before the blast.
I rush into the fray and let the axe do the talking; the sweet rush of the voices in silence as the blood flies, reveling in the roar of battle and screeching with joy.
"GIMME A SMILE, PASTY CAKES!" There's a crack and whirr as we bury our toy in a bandit's mouth and I wonder if my teeth are that white. The little meat chunk howls with half a face and it's a bad trip to the dentist, anesthesia not included. We tear away and give a good bash, molars and grey matter splattering on the borrowed axe.
"Get it DT!" Gaige shouts and her kill-hogging trashcan hovers past in full swing, spraying my side with gore as it met a nomad and gutted it mid–air. Maya runs alongside it, a short-lived smirk on her lips that vanishes as she's splashed. She's prettiest in red and it spurs me on, whistling as she passes and hollering in her wake.
"Come on out BOYS!" Mercy's baritone resounds ahead and it only takes a second before more creeps pour out of the ramshackle buildings and the chaos starts fresh and I lurch past them, eager to light up the doctor's medical blue smock with burning red.
Fiery blasts from my pistol bounce off Mercy's regalia like blood on ice and I almost chuck the useless bandit tech at his fat head, opting instead to jam the barrel under a bandits jaw and light his head up like a jack o lantern just to feel the fire on my skin. Tossing the body aside and riding the high as the flames lick up my arm I slash through the fodder and try to keep the flames going. Fire's a Band-Aid and here I was in front of the doctor after all, ready to tear off the bandage and show him my wound, wrap my crispy paws around my own surgical tool and start cutting.
Charred bandits screech and crimple beside me and the high has my senses dull because I spin on a heel and meet the business-end of Mercy's gun, blasting me into a daze and shattering my shield in a bright second. I'm knocked off my feet and back onto my sorry ass but all for the better because I land in puddle of brain matter and reconnect with my pointy friend. "It's time for a DIRTY lobotomy!"
I yank the badass nomad down to my level by his coat and he bends at the knee as I sink my trusty rusty friend into his shoulder and give him a sweet taste of iron.
"HOPE YOU'VE HAD YOUR SHOTS." I parrot Zed in a breathy growl and struggle to gain purchase on the doctor as he struggles and levels his bastard gun at my exposed chest. Oops.
He doesn't pull the trigger before Maya makes a lucky entrance, electricity pistol out she all but leaps on top of the good doctor, combat boots sinking into his gut and springing her upwards. Pandora's gravity will forever be a mystery and with a jump and she's in the air above him, blasting Mercy's shield to smithereens before rolling to the ground behind him.
"GAHH, SIREN BITCH-," The Doc croaked out the word and I spit, yanking the axe from his shoulder and tossing him behind me, down metal steps into the arms (or claws) of Gaiges floating Frankenstein.
"AWW HELL" were Mercy's last words. Digistruct claws shine with an electric glare in the sunset and the doctor can't scream without a gullet. Dropping to his knees he sputters and hisses before a blue of a different shade catches his eye.
"Thanks for the gun." Maya cocks the pistol at Mercy's forehead, a glint of fire and delight melting in her steel eyes before the gun goes bang and all I think is 'Burn me baby.'
-_-POV break
The bastard dropped cold and DT digistructs away as pixels trail into Gaige's metallic fist."Seriously? It's over? Lame." The kid strode up the steps with bouncing pigtails and gave Mercy a little nudge. "Hey! Be better next time."
Maya giggled, "He can't hear you with a bullet between his ears."
"Whatever." Gaige retrieved the plasma gun and turned it over in her hands, aiming through the sights and firing at the rakk circling overhead. It didn't faze them but the purple was undeniably pretty against the blushing sunset. The others gathered at the peak, meandering around bodies and snatching up the spoils as Krieg sat and smoldered in a pool of blood, looking comfortable.
"Pssht, weak sauce." Gaige tossed the E-Tech over her shoulder and it landed in a black-gloved four fingered palm.
"Hmmmm," The assassin inspected the rifle with scrutiny, flashing a curious question mark over his mask. "Interesting tech, a bit too flashy for me, more your style, Ax."
Axtons voice was gruff and tired, "Give it here." His backside was blackened and Krieg giggled from his spot on the floor, watching the others play pass the kill-stick and chuckling at the commando's burnt ass. Ax's face lit up when he got the gun in his hands,"Ooh," he looked up at Zer0 with an eager smile, "It's Dahl tech."
Gaige and Axton started to bicker over gun brands and even though Krieg had a say firmly in Torgue's corner on account of explosions he kept his mouth shut and stood up, dusting his ass off, tuning out their banter and looking to the valley from the dead doctor's old vantage point. The guy had a good view. Skags receded to their dens with the coming night, and the last bit of sunlight sliced across his one-eyed vision. He raised a hand and averted his eyes downward, Mercy's jacket catching his attention, the clean crisp white under the gaudy blue smock starting to seep red with blood.
He crouched and fingered the fabric, unsure of his commitment to undressing a dead man.
Maya sighed and kept quiet as Gaige and Axton debated the quality of Dahl and the need for galactic military at large. All the concepts were foreign or unimportant to her and she just wanted to get the quest done with and out of her log. She was a completionist after all and they were wasting daylight.
"If these idiots could bicker anymore…" she murmured, her thoughts straying from the scene as she paused to enjoy the dying sunset over the semi-frozen plains. Maya mused that a planet with two suns should have more daylight but was interrupted by the sounds of a struggle behind her. She turned to see Krieg, fumbling on the ground, desperately trying to get Mercy's jacket over his massive shoulders.
This was a bad idea. We're gonna fall off the overlook at this rate and then the jacket won't even be clean. Krieg grunted and protested outwardly, irritated and disappointed and not ready to admit defeat before a soft voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Uh, want some help?" Krieg got the jacket down just enough to see Maya crouched in between his splayed out legs, elbows on her knees, smiling at him."You know, it would help if you unbuttoned it first."
Oh yeah…"Hnnng! The flesh sweater is a size to small for THIS GRINCH!"
He wriggled further and Maya covered her smile, "Oh stop it, come here."
"-And furthermore, who says we even need a government?" Gaiges voice cracked in the delivery but that didn't stop her, as if anything could stop a righteous eighteen year old with an opinion. The heated argument continued in the background as Zer0 and Sal played rakk-paper-scissors to split the last shotgun and made snide comments about the moment between their comrades, Ax and Gaige screaming and Maya trying to get a jacket to fit the distorted body of a jumbo psycho.
"Oh, um, lemme think, THE UNIVERSE?" Axton shot back authoritatively, "Gaige, unless you wanna end up like the savages on Vulcan 8 you better check your tone."
"Yeah like you know you, you middle-aged turret-humper!" Gaige crossed her arms and turned away from Axton in a huff, facing the overlook.
"Grandpa-fucker." Axton spat back as a convincing closing statement, pausing to stroke his turret, "Shh, its ok," he whispered, patting the metal "she doesn't mean it." Gaige giggled behind him.
"OK sorry if it's wrong to love your turret but that one was a joke and-"
"I'm not laughing at you, doofus. Look." Gaige patted his shoulder and he turned.
Kriegs head popped out of the jackets collar and he looked down at himself in awe as Maya tried to pat out the wrinkles, snickering at the tears around the biceps, unable to be contained.
"HA! THE DOCTOR IS IN!" He twirled around, laughing triumphantly and maybe too much, "AND HE'S READY FOR DATE NIGHT." The comment made Mayas cheeks red and she snorted a laugh into the back of her hand. Krieg looked ready to pick the siren up and spin her around but a voice interrupted, cracking through all of their echoes simultaneously and drawing them back to the task at hand.
Zeds ambling accent came through loud and clear, "If I'm gonna treat people shot by E-tech, imma' need way more wounds to practice on. Now that cha got that there E-tech gun, why doncha' test it on the local bandits?" Axton's face lit up like a kid with a shiny new toy and he was the first to respond.
"Yes sir! Ha-ha!" He practically skipped down the steps with the E-tech in his hands; the others following him while Kriegs excited hands were still frozen poised over Mayas hips, caught in the moment and suddenly embarrassed looking down at her.
"C'mon big guy," Maya sighed, brushing off her excitement as she retreated and tugged his hand, leading him down the stairs and after the others. "We don't want to be late for, uh, you know," She licked her lips and threw a look over her shoulder, cheeks still red, "-date night."
Krieg watched the dying sunlight play on the patch of fluffy blue hair at the back of her neck as she went ahead, stuck in his tracks and unable to tell if she really winked at him or if he imagined it.
"Hnnngggg," He groped his chest, "There's a fire in me." And I don't think it's the jacket either…Something sharp was poking out from the fabric and Krieg pawed further, surprised to feel a burning lump in the right chest pocket, metallic and sharp. Or maybe it is?
Slowly he fished out the little gift and the gun practically fit in his palm, but somehow it was prettier than his dumpy Tinderbox, eye-catching. An incendiary pistol with a little squiggly painted on the side.
That's an "infinity" symbol.
The echo sounded in his pocket and Mayas voice came through, "Krieg!" The siren called his name over the roar of bullets and bandits, hopefully not having gone too far, "Get over here! We're testing the gun and you're missing the fun!"
Jamming the pistol in his belt, Krieg gave a hum of excitement and gurgled laughter, thinking it was a shame that while he never really liked pistols. But he knew someone who did.
He walked unhurriedly and thought of her soft hands and burning eyes, he savored the look on her face when she executed Mercy and tried to burn it into himself for a second, remember it. She burned him up so deep he should be ash by now but somehow this feeling rekindles every time he sees her. He loves nothing more than fire but Maya and fire aren't mutually exclusive and she burns him up just as sweetly.
Kriegs finger traced the infinity outline and he thought about it, the foreverness of the symbol and the fire that she made tingle in his chest. He pointed the gun upwards and pulled the trigger, enjoying the light and warmth of embers falling down, thinking of her and what infinity meant.