Echo Log: 03

Mordicai frowned as he thought to himself, wondering why he had volunteered so… quickly for this recon op. Normally he took a back seat and just worked at his leisure but for some reason he was actually looking forward to getting on the move. He looked up at Lance as he walked past him, his hand clapping on the smaller man's shoulder.

"I look forward to working with you Mordicai." Lance continued walking and Mordicai frowned.

"Same here." He said quietly. He had meant that, and he didn't know why.

Lilith gave her friend an odd look, going to speak when Gaige bursted out. "CRASH THE SYSTEM!"

All heads snapped over to Gaige and Malcolm as they came walking over, their arms full of small, square-ish explosives and the accompanying, rectangular detonator's. "That was Bad-ASS! How'd you do that!" She asked, Malcolm looking particularly pleased with himself.

"Just a program I have been working on. I based it on 24thdimensional diagram algorithms." The man said, his head held high.

Gaige's mouth dropped. "But those haven't been perfected yet."

"Not fully, but I am getting close." Malcolm walked over to the work table and set his explosives down gently. Gaige did not and everyone but her and Lance cringed. Her because she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing, Lance because his back was turned to the duo.

"By the vaults, you're close to completing it?" Gaige felt energy coursing through her body. "If you do, then all robotics, no!" Gaige started bouncing a little, Malcolm's smile widening. "All of technology will be changed forever!"

Malcolm scratched at his face in feigned modesty. "It's not that big of a deal."

Mordicai had no idea what the hell they were talking about and Gaige was bouncing again, which meant it was time to leave. He went to follow Lance, who called out over his shoulder, "Malcolm, stop flirting and get ready to roll out in five."

"Minutes?" Malcolm called back as Lance exited the garage.

"Seconds." Lance called back.

Mordicai watched as Lance brought the strange bracer up to his mouth and said. "Buggy, assault form." Mordicai frowned as he looked at the strange vehicle as it let out a blue glow, it began to extend and expand, an extra set forming next to the drivers and the cock pit grew. The guns on the front grew larger and of a heavier caliber while the back mounted turret did the same.

"Damn hombre!" Mordicai said as he walked up to the buggy, heavier armor digistructing. "Where the hell did you get this!?" Lance smiled as Malcolm came walking out and said.

"It's my own design." Malcolm hopped up on the back mounted turret, buckling himself in. "Glad you like it." He finished.

Lance hopped into the driver's seat as Mordicai loaded himself into the passenger side. "You made this?"

"Indeed, the same with our ship and weapons." Malcolm paused. "Most of them anyways."

Lance started the vehicle and pulled out of the facility while Mordicai and Malcolm continued to talk.

"You built the ship as well?" Mordicai asked.

"Well, it was father's design." Malcolm said as he sighted the turret. "He said it was inspired from something he had seen here on Pandora." Malcolm looked down at his shirt and smiled. "He really liked it."

Mordicai nodded his head as he thought about that. "Damn, muy Bueno." Malcolm smiled and Lance popped out with.

"Don't give him an excuse to brag, he finds those well enough himself." Malcolm smiled wider as Mordicai frowned.

"Who are you two?"

Lance gave him a quick look and a smile. "We are vault hunters."

Mordicai paused before returning the smile. "But, there are no more vaults on Pandora."

"True," Lance started. "But there are plenty of Vault hunters." Lance replied.

Mordicai frowned and gave Lance an odd look. He was starting to understand why he had volunteered for this recon op. These brothers were planning something, something huge and he could feel it in his gut; and more importantly, he wanted to be a part of whatever it was they had planned. A small smile spread over his face, one that he hadn't gotten since he first heard of the vault as a child.

"What are you planning?"

Lance and Malcolm both had a fierce smile on their faces.

~Maya~

Maya was checking the explosives with Gaige as Lilith tapped into the visual feed of the brother's ship, watching as the bandits retreated out of the firing zone. A few still tried to get through the hail of bullets to little avail but the wreckage of their vehicles served as a marker for the guns range.

"I've been thinking," Maya started, catching her friend's attention. "don't those two make you get all excited?"

Gaige and Lilith shared a look before Gaige said. "Our little girl is starting to grow up Lilith."

Maya paused as she processed that, and then scoffed. "No, not like that!"

Lilith raised a brow, motioning Maya to continue. Maya furrowed her brow as she thought about what words to use. "This feeling…it's like when I first heard about the Vault."

Lilith blinked while Gaige gave her friend her undivided attention as Maya continued. "A sense of…Adventure unlike anything else." Maya nodded as she picked up her train of thought. "Like they are bringing something great with them."

Lilith smiled to herself as Gaige thought about it. "That was well said Maya, I couldn't agree more." No wonder they had gotten swept up in this. Lilith nodded as she picked up where Maya left off. "The very instincts that make us Vault hunters must have been picking up on something about these two."

Gaige scratched her head and sighed. "Here I was thinking it was because they were hot, but my instincts were what? Picking them up as if they were a Vault?"

Lilith frowned. "That is probably not the best way to put it, but as close to it as we can get right now."

Maya crossed her arms under her fun bags and looked down at her feet. "It doesn't make much sense now, but when they return we'll get some answers and maybe things will make more sense."

Gaige sighed and leaned back on the table, crossing her arms under her sweater muffins and sighed heavily. "Can't a pair of hot guys come and not bring tiding of total Bad a-" Gaige paused and then said. "What the hell am I saying, guys, guns, and killing stuff?"

Maya interrupted with a smile. "It's what we live for right."

Lilith gave Maya a small smile. "So you admit that those two are attractive?"

Maya scoffed in false indignation. "I was sheltered at the monastery, not blinded."

Gaige smiled. "What about you Lilith?"

Lilith looked at Gaige in slight confusion. "What about me?"

Gaige rolled her eyes before she walked over to Lilith and took her right hand in a hand shake. " 'Same here, Muscles McGee.' "

Lilith's face flushed again as Maya smothered a laugh.

Lilith took her hand back and made a fist with it, fire wisping between the cracks as she shook it at Gaige. "Watch it, Gaige."

Gaige giggled as she spun back. "Your blushing Lilith!"

Lilith shook her fist again at Gaige before she turned back to the screen, her eyes catching onto a figure that was simply standing at what she figured was the perimeter of the guns. He was tall, bald and had a horrible scar on his face, it ripped from the top of his scalp all the way down his neck. He was staring right at the camera, Lilith felt like the man could see her. "Who the fuck?" Lilith said to herself.

~Mordicai~

"I see three meandering around the front door, another four passed out and who knows how many inside." Mordicai dropped the rifle from his shoulder as he stood back up. He was on a sand dune a good distance away providing cover for the brothers as they made their way around to the other side.

"Let us know if anything changes." Came Lance's response over the Echo comm.

Mordicai put his finger to the comm in his ear. "I got you covered."

Mordicai looked back through his scope, but his mind was on what the brothers had told him. If they weren't lying, it would make all the vaults on Pandora look like chump change in comparison, if. But they had seemed very honest about this, that and Lance didn't seem like the type to lie. He'd been wrong before.

Mordicai picked up on the brothers, Lance peeking around the side of the building as his brother Malcolm peeked up over a smaller sand dune. Lance made a bunch of hand gestures that translated to Mordicai as, 'Take them out quietly.'

Malcolm shot back with a very easy to read response. He stood up and unloaded his hand cannon into the nearest bandit, a psycho that had been trying his damnedest best not to stab himself in his eye with his buzz axe. The rounds left his gun as gyro jets, the rounds slamming into the psycho before exploding and sending bits and pieces of the poor bastard all over his friends.

"Damnit Malcolm!" Lance's voice carried over the comms as the older brother popped out of cover with his own gun held up and fired upon the cluster of bandits guarding the door. The gun fired in three round bursts and at first he thought Lance was using a normal rifle, he didn't see the signature gyro jets of the Torgue corp, nor the elemental splash of Maliwan, and the paint scheme and design matched none of the other weapon factories. Also he saw the bandits react to getting hit by the rounds, which was odd as usually the bullets would simply rip right through without a reaction. Then he saw the miniature, powerful explosions that erupted from the bandits he had fired upon.

One of the bandits had his arm blown apart, bone splinters and gore raining around him as he gushed blood like a faucet. Mordicai could hear him scream from here. The next one had taken the rounds to his stomach and was nearly torn apart from the explosions, what was left of his organs rushing to fill the void that was originally his gut.

The third had been smart enough to wear a shield and it took the brunt of the damage. The bandit ducked against a set of crates that he had been lounging upon. He fired over his cover, Lance pulling back around the wall as Mordicai lined up a shot on the bandit.

His round slammed into the bandit's weakened shields before ripping through it and slamming into the bandits ear. The round ripped through the ear canal before it smashed into the bastard's brain and out the other ear. His blood splattered over the crates as the round left a hole through said crates and finally hit the ground a good distance behind Lance.

Malcolm had hopped over the dune, stomping over what was left of his victim's intact corpse as he fired at one of the once sleeping bandits, who were now just beginning to groggily wake up.

The smg in his left hand tore at the bandit's chest, leaving him looking like swiss cheese as he pressed the wheel release of his hand cannon and flicked his wrist to open it and shaking the spent casing from their respective slots. He fired upon the next bandit as he held the empty gun with the bullet wheel facing up, new rounds beginning to digistruct above a bullet slot before it fell into place. He whipped the revolver to the side, the bullet wheel slamming shut as he pulled the hammer back with his thumb.

Mordicai aimed at the next bandit, who was up and had a light film of blue appearing around him as he readied his gun to fire on Malcolm, his finger pulling twice on the trigger at incredible speed. The first high caliber round slammed into the bandit's shields, making a hot white flare of light spark from the force, the shield dropping with the round as the second bullet took the bandit under the right armpit.

The round slammed through the bandit's rib, the impact not slowing or altering the rounds trajectory as it ripped through the lungs, bit through the back of the man's heart and the rest of his body before puffing into the sand. The bandit didn't make nary a sound as he crumpled to the ground.

Malcolm let go of his smg, the gun de-structing instantly as Malcolm reared back his arm and formed a fist, the gauntlet having a fiery red lightning begin dancing around it as three massive claws formed. The forward halves of the claws were made of a deep red lightning while the base half were formed of a fiery substance. The final Bandit had managed to scramble up; his shield formed and was firing wildly with his smg at Malcolm who had a devil-may-care smile on his face.

A few rounds bounced of his shields as Malcolm rushed forward, using his right hand to bat the bandit's gun aside, leaving his chest open. Malcolm thrust forward with his claws; lightning dancing off as they easily penetrated the shield and tore through the bandit, who released a guttural scream of agony as the claws sunk in to the hilt. Fire and Lightning danced inside the bandit as the claws passed through, stabbing through his back and many of his organs and extending a good distance out from the bandit. Malcolm grunted as he pulled up, slicing the bandit into three parts from his sternum up and walked away as blood sprayed out from the trisected bandit, steam rising up as blood drops fell onto Malcolm's shield.

Mordicai brought his eye from his scope and blinked in surprise at the sight he had just witnessed. He had seen some pretty nasty shit in his time on Pandora and while what Malcolm had done didn't rank all that high on the list of 'fucked up' the fact it had been the happy, cheery young man doing it with that fierce smile on his face the entire time threw him off. It had been actual glee on Malcolm's face. Mordicai frowned then put his eye back to the scope, the kid fit right in here on Pandora. Lance was another story.

Lance trudged over the bodies of his kills without a single expression on his face, his gun held up and ready as he focused entirely on the surrounding terrain. He had a very soldier-like quality about him that reminded Mordicai of…

"Jesus." Mordicai said as he let his gun drop down to his side. "No wonder Lilith made an ass out of herself."

~Lance~

Lance had his teeth clenched as he scanned the area, looking for more bandits and seeing none. He was sure there were more of the bandits inside the facility, and shouldn't they have come running out when they heard the gun fight?

Lance relaxed a bit, letting the gun drop from his shoulder as Malcolm walked over to him with a smirk on his face. Lance frowned at him. "Couldn't help yourself huh?"

Malcolm shrugged as his smg digistructed on his left arm again. "What do you want me to say?"

Lance sighed and looked up towards Mordicai's vantage point and motioned him to come in. The two waited until their companion arrived and he gave them both a quick nod of acknowledgment.

"You made short work of the bandits, Hombres." He said.

Malcolm let out a quick laugh. "These chumps are nothing compared to what we faced on Destriuos 7."

Mordicai frowned. "Destriuos 7?" Lance frowned at Malcolm for revealing that.

"Isn't that the Prison Planet that got taken over by the prisoners and became black listed as a geniune hellhole?" Mordicai asked, though he already knew the answer to the question.

"Yes." Lance said while he gave his brother a hard look. "Anyways come on, we need to get moving." Lance walked over to the entrance to the facility and the door slid open to reveal a long corridor. He readied his weapon before walking down the hallway, Malcolm falling close after with Mordicai pulling out a large Jacob's Revolver and following after.

The corridor lead to receptionist's office with a Hyperion robot behind the desk, or what was left of one. It was missing an arm and had bullet holes riddled over it with a scrap of paper with some woman's face on it stuck to the front with a sign hanging from it reading.

"Welkum Hom, leef guns heer" In red paint?

Lance raised a brow before brushing past it to the door at the far end, stopping before he reached it to look back and put a finger to his lips. "Shh." It was directed to Malcolm who nodded in response. Lance walked up to the door, sliding into cover on the left side as Malcolm did the right. Mordicai pressed himself to the wall next to the wall next to Lance before the door slid open to reveal a bunch of bandits attempting to hide horrible, one a psycho who had stuck a lamp shade on his head and was standing completely straight.

In the middle of the room.

The room wasn't particularly large, enough to hold some thirty to forty people with lots of smaller boxes and desks that had the remains of computers on them. There were no office dividers, those long destroyed and used for kindling by the looks of the remainders of fires around the room. How they hadn't burnt themselves to the ground yet was an oddity that the three didn't stop to consider.

Lance peeked around the corner and paused before letting out a short, quiet. "Uh." His brows furrowing slightly in confusion before he heard Malcolm let out a snigger.

Lance watched as the bandit lifted up the edge of the lamp shade to peek out at him before quickly dropping it and attempting to stand up even straighter. Lance blinked before he looked back at his companions, Mordicai shrugging as Malcolm did his best no to laugh at the sheer stupidity of the bandits. Lance peeked back out to count how many bandits there were, about twenty five from what he could see from the parts of bandits sticking out from behind the makeshift cover.

Lance sighed as he pulled out a long Grenade and tossed it up into the air before catching it again and using his teeth to pull the pin. He quickly tossed it into the room before pulling back into cover and waiting. The grenade landed right in front of the Lamp shade Psycho, who pushed the lamp shade up to look at the device. It beeped twice before large screen emitted from the grenade that showed a heavily cartooned version of Malcolm's face with a cigar held in the pearly white teeth of his excessively large mouth and his voice came out in. "Get ready for an extra-large load ladies." The grenade busted out into nearly twenty different types of grenades that spread all over the room. Some sticking to whatever they touched, some homing in onto the nearest target, another releasing even more, smaller grenades as it flew through the air, others glowing green, red, blue, purple. "Don't get any in your eye now, it'll burn."

The explosions rocked the building to its core and drowned out the death cries of the room's inhabitants, a disembodied arm flying down the corridor they had just walked through. After the explosions died down; which took a bit, the trio walked into the room and Mordicai whistled.

"Dios Mio, looks like someone carpet bombed the place." He said and Lance looked at Malcolm.

"Nice grenade Malcolm, though a bit excessive don't you think?"

Malcolm Shrugged. "Got the job done didn't it?"

Lance couldn't argue as he looked at the craters made into the floor and walls and nodded before he walked over to the far wall, which was oddly untouched. "Yeah it did." Lance placed a hand on the wall and paused as his instincts warned him to back up. It was too late as a massive hand punched through the wall and grabbed Lance by the throat before a massive, shirtless psycho crashed through the wall, a tiny arm on his left side as he slammed Lance into the ceiling head first. The rifle dropped from Lance's hand before he was tossed behind the Super Psycho into the hole in the wall. From said wall flooded out a tide of Bandits as the super Psycho charged at Mordicai and Malcolm.

~Mordicai~

"Lance!" Malcolm called as he instantly set to firing upon the bandits, Mordicai ducked into the remnants of cover that remained in the room. He popped up to shoot at the charging bandits while Malcolm charged back, his smg forgotten and the massive claws already formed and tearing into the massive Psycho while he avoided the massive sweeps of said monster's massive arm.

Mordicai grimaced as he kept the bandits of the enraged brothers back as he fought the massive freak, seeing muzzle flashes from the hole in the wall and hearing the screams of death, seems Lance wasn't going down as easy as they had thought. Mordicai quickly fired of a series of three shots into a marauders face before giving another bullet a home in the knee cap of a advancing suicide psycho, who fell directly behind the super Psycho. His grenade exploded, killing him and knocking the super Psycho off balance. Malcolm took the opportunity to sweep his claws low and sheared of one of the freaks legs.

The freak fell to his side while Malcolm slammed forward with a knee, catching the monstrosity in the face, causing it to snap back with a sickening crunch. A Purple flash and a bestial scream came from the room Lance had been tossed into, causing Mordicai to pause for a quick second before he returned to shooting.

Malcolm fired his hand cannon into the face of a bandit while he impaled a charging Psycho on his fire claws which instantly set him on fire. Malcolm kicked the psycho into another one, which caused him to light up before receiving a bullet to the frontal lobe.

Mordicai snarled as he hopped over his cover, putting a round into a bandits groin before pulling out his knife and finishing off the poor bastard with a quick thrust. He popped out the bullet wheel, emptying the spent cases before pulling out a speed loader and quickly slamming the bullet wheel shut and cocking the hammer. "Come on!"

Mordicai rushed towards the hole in the wall, the sounds of fighting having died down a moment ago.

"Wait!" Malcolm called as Mordicai rushed into the room and came to a screeching halt. The smell of blood, shit and death meet him so fiercely that it was like a slap in the face and Mordicai began coughing as he covered his mouth and nose with a hand.

"What the…!?" Mordicai said as he looked about the room, Malcolm following close after him, his face set in a grimace.

"Well, you were gonna find out sometime." Malcolm said.

The room was covered in Blood and entrails, the sound of groaning, half dead bandits filling the air of the dimly light room. A Psycho was crawling towards him, his intestines and organs trailing behind him as he desperately screamed out. "The unicorn shits loot!" Before dying. Mordicai looked at the devastated bodies on the ground, most were torn asunder, limbs missing, guts strewn about, some twisted in horrible fashions that humans were never meant to be, and in the center of the room stood Lance, his back towards them.

Mordical was stunned; Lance's entire Right arm was encased by a transparent, purple energy that formed into a massive three pronged claw that reached down as far as his ankle, the fingers of said claw stabbed through a gurgling Goliath's chest, his funny little head flailing about as he gripped at the massive energy claw in vain. The tattoos on Lance's arm glowed a bright, pale blue through the haze of the energy.

"Mios Dio…" Mordicai said quietly to himself, and Lance looked back at him over his shoulder, his face being illuminated by the glow of his arm. Mordicai flinched as Lance's now deep purple, glowing eyes pierced him.

"Hello Mordicai." Lance said, his voice rough yet still polite.

End

So yeah. That happened.

Anyways, that was the big reveal of Lance's special ability, or his 'Action Skill' As it is called in Borderlands, and also for those of you who noticed what I did in the chapter good job, for those of who didn't go back and read it again until you get it.

Please.

I can be civil if I want to be.

If.

/../';,'.;,'/.,,":"?":';'/.'.'/';';'[]'];.';.'.

Cause I felt like it, that's why.

So I realize there wasn't any dick jokes in this chapter like I promised there would be and I apologize for those of you who were looking forward to it but hey. What can ya do? Oh yeah, I decided to chang this stories picture because I found a really good one that features my favorite female characters in Bikini's. Except for Tiny Tina because that is pedophilia and wrong.

Also, I thank you for reading this sincerely, I put these stories up for your entertainment and for you to be reading them is the biggest compliment I can receive.