This is also on my Wattpad account, OkamiWolf87

"No. It was just me and Kiki." I replied. "My dad, Yvette, and Rhys knew I was here. Yvette wouldn't step here, and my dad is too scared to come here. At least this far anyway. Rhys is back in Haven, working on a project of his."

A whistling sound is heard and my eyes go wide.

"Get down!" Jack yells and I take a running dive to the side, finding cover as a rocket whistles past to go flying out the window into the mountain beyond. The room shook.

"That's not a bandit. They don't have the money to finance a rocket launcher." I commented. "Kiki!" I call and the Skag bounds over. "You okay, girl?" She softly barks.

"We need to get out of here." Jack tells me. "You die, I die. Grab this first though." He points to something sticking out of the pile of rubble. A bit of tugging and I pull it free. It's a shotgun. Jack drifts over to a spot and looks into a hole. "Good, crash didn't fuck this up. Come on, down here." I go over to him and notice the hole wasn't caused by the crash.

"What is this?"

"Secret escape."

"Of course." I looked at him, amused, as I went down the ladder. I already knew Kiki had left the office and would be looking for a way to me.

"You're mocking me."

"Nah." I drew the word out. "Bad guy having a secret escape in his lair. It's cliché, is all."

"You should have seen it before Helios crashed. This whole passage had lasers, buzzsaws, sawtoothed doors, the works." He looks around. "I guess the crash disabled all of that."

"If it was your secret escape, why have all that?"

"Keep anybody from sneaking up on me."

"Must have been a hell of a gauntlet." I commented. Looking down to gauge how much distance was left, I let go and dropped, landing in a neat crouch.

"Nice landing."

"I've been doing that for years." I rose and looked around. "So where are we now?"

"Prison cells."

I rolled my eyes. "And we complete the cliché." I drawled.

Jack looks back up the passageway. "What about your pooch?"

"Kiki? She'll be fine. We've become separated during our adventures on more than one occasion. We know how to handle it." Lifting my robotic arm, I held my palm up and activated the program that would activate Kiki's locator. "The collar Kiki wears? It houses a device inside near her ear that, when activated, allows her to find me by beeping in a frequency she can hear. The faster the beeps, the closer she is to me."

Jack leaned closer to examine the screen that had popped up from my palm, showing Kiki's location on the floor above us and the surrounding area in a blueprint design. "Nice. You design that?"

"Yup." I grin proudly. "Took us forever to find the right frequency that isn't audible to the human ear. Sometimes, it was too high, and it hurt her ears, other times it was too low and I could hear it. Took months to design the device so it fit in her collar without any interference and then weeks to find the right frequency."

"And this allows you to keep track of her."

"And let her know if she's going the wrong way." Closing my palm, I let the program close and a minimap opened up in my ECHO eye, allowing me to keep track of Kiki when I had to use my hand. "Since my ECHO eye is connected to my hand, I'm able to call up a minimap, which enables me to keep tabs on Kiki's position, and meet up with her if need be. It's configured so that if I'm not focusing on the map itself, it appears invisible, remaining active while still allowing me to see with that eye." I hefted the shotgun. It's black with some red detailing. Not a big fan of shotguns, preferring to go for assault rifles, pistols, and sniper rifles, but I sort of liked this one. And not just because of the color and the fact that I found it in Jack's office. It had a powerful 'I am badass, fear me' vibe to it. "Now that we have a few minutes, what's this?"

Jack smiles proudly. "That, pumpkin, is the Conference Call. A gun so badass, you'll want to call everybody you know and tell them about it."

"Hence its name." I nodded. "I'm more partial to assault guns and pistols with the sniper rifle being my overall favorite, but I'm willing to give it a go and see if it's as badass as you say."

"You'll enjoy it, babe, trust me." He promises as we walk down the corridor. "You mentioned something about you leading Atlas alongside Rhys. So the kid found the document after the crash, huh?"

I nodded. "He told me that his dream was to become the CEO of Hyperion and that got screwed up when the CEO he had been kissing ass to got murdered and some dick took his place. He tries to screw him over by taking his deal only to find out the object of the deal was fake, sending him and Aunt Fiona on this adventure to get back the money which ultimately leads to you trying to take Rhys over with a mechanical body, only for Helios to come crashing to the ground with the ensuing fight, taking his dream with it. Remembering about the title you had to Atlas, he retrieves it and returns to Haven to restart Atlas. It's now back to its former glory as one of the leading weapons manufacturers on Pandora." I lift my head proudly. "I lead the Weapons R&D department, designing and testing every weapon."

He points to the pistol strapped to my thigh and the sniper rifle at my back. "If I'm not mistaken, that pistol is a Maliwan Incendiary and the rifle is Hyperion make. I didn't know Hyperion weapons were still about after this long. I figured everybody got rid of them, especially after what happened."

I patted the rifle fondly. "She was my first find. I restored and improved her."

"Let me see." He requested and drawing the weapon, held her out for his inspection. "Yeah. Uh-huh. Very nice. It looks good. I can tell the improvements." He praised. "Why'd you change the color though?"

"Hard to blend into shadows when your gun sticks out like a sore thumb." I shot back.

He chuckled. "Good point."

"Other than a few improvements to the performance and aiming mechanisms, I didn't mess with anything else." I slipped the gun into its holster over my right shoulder. "I mean, why mess with a classic when it's already powerful?"

"Hyperion did make quality weapons back in the day."

"Original by Hyperion, enhanced by Atlas." I smirk.

Jack gave me a look. "What the hell is that? A sale line?"

I giggle. "Kinda. It's a pet project of mine, finding old Hyperion weapons and shields and improving them."

"Why though?"

"In it's prime, Hyperion was THE company. The best of the best. If you weren't working for Hyperion, you knew people who did. If you were lucky enough to work for Hyperion, you kissed ass to get higher up the ladder. You were a lucky son of a bitch and the envy of all around you if you got to work with one of the leaders of the company."

"You talk as if you know."

"Rhys told me Atlas is the same in that regard. Since I work directly with Rhys, and being his niece, I have had people kiss my ass left and right, for one of two reasons."

"To date you has to be one of them." Jack commented. "I mean, look at you, a hottie like yourself leading one of the biggest companies on Pandora. You must have guys falling at your feet left and right just for a glance."

"Glance, all the time. Date, not so much."

Jack shifted so he was laying on his side as he floated beside me. "A gorgeous girl like you? Why not?"

"Me and Kiki make an intimidating pair. Not many are brave enough to approach a woman who not only plays with guns for a living, but knows how to use them, and has a Badass Skag at her side. Just her size alone scares most guys off."

"You must hate that."

"Not really. It can get a little lonely sometimes, especially when I'm in my lab alone late at night and I have no one to talk to. I can talk to Kiki, but she can't converse with me like a human can. And besides, if a guy is intimidated easily, then he's not for me. I don't want a guy who wants me for what I am, doesn't want me because I'm the CEO's right hand and niece, I want a guy to want me for WHO I am. A guy who I can adventure with, go treasure hunting with. A guy who isn't afraid of facing danger with me." I stop and look at him. "What about you?"

He rolls onto his back and lacing fingers together behind his head, gets a faraway look in his eyes. "Had two wives, and a couple girlfriends. Nothing seemed to work out right for me."

"That sucks. You'll find that right girl some day."

He stood and gestured to himself. "Look at me! I'm a friggin' hologram! Who's going to want me now?"

While he ranted and raged, I turned away, biting the tip of my thumb as I felt my cheeks heat up. I didn't care if he was a hologram or not, I wanted Jack. He was charming, funny, and appreciated my talent. And he didn't feel intimidated by me and Kiki. We could probably talk all day about one topic or another and never get bored with each other's company. I knew I would never get bored of hearing his voice. It had this silky smooth tone that just washed over you. He had that air in his voice that promised you he could turn your greatest dreams into your worst nightmares if you ever got on his bad side.

His voice, his walk, the very air with which he carried himself, told one thing: Handsome Jack was not a man to be messed with. He could fuck you up in a heartbeat if he so chose.

Guys who had sought my affections had been set with standards. Standards only one man could meet. Without knowing it, until now, the standards with which I measured my suitors matched Jack himself. And no man could match the former Hyperion CEO.

"Jack." I decided to speak up and ease his fears. He kept pacing as he ranted, now starting to repeat himself. Moving to be in front of him, I snapped my fingers in front of his face to catch his attention and he stopped, blinking to refocus on me.

"I don't care if you're a hologram, Jack. You're charming, funny, and appreciate my talent. I haven't known you long, but I get the feeling that I can be someone other than the genius prodigy niece of the Atlas CEO. I can be normal. You're not intimidated by me and Kiki."

"It's going to take more than a beautiful woman and her pet Skag to scare me." He replied. "I've faced worse than you." He blinked. "Wait a minute. Don't tell me Rhys fed his crush to you."

I shook my head. My crush on him didn't come from Rhys, it was my own. "I respected the man you had been. You may have been a bit of a dick in your method in which you did it, but there's no denying that you ran things well and knew how to get things done. Hyperion flourished while you were CEO." I unfocused my ECHO eye to bring the map into focus and check Kiki's location. We had stayed in the same area as I explored so I could investigate while waiting for Kiki to find me. She was steadily working her way to me.

Jack folds his arms across his chest. "You just criticized me, praised me, and used flattery in the same shot. Not many can do that and make it sound good." He mused. "I'm liking you more and more."