Chapter 2

"You disappoint me, Axton..." Were only one the many phrases that would repeat constantly in his head over and over again. "...So is this where the line is cut?..."

'The voices...why won't they stop?' Axton thought to himself. It was if that there were things about his past he couldn't seem to fully forget, no matter how hard he tried.

Axton made the selection to go to Overlook to smoke out any sort of Hyperion control from their hands, the last things those poor sick souls need is a fascist, treacherous, asshole dictating their lives and making their lives even more of a living hell than it already is.

"You guys ready?" Axton asked before pulling back the charging handle of his Dahl assault rifle and releasing it. Maya finished spinning the energy fuel cell needed to fire the Maliwan 'Grace' model gun and giving a nod to Axton. Zero slowly pulled out his energized katana from his back before saying in a Haiku.

"Of course I am ready/The scum of Hyperion/Shall be perished"

Salvador was spinning the tri-barrels of his Bandit weapon he ripped from the hands of a Marauder.

"Ready as I'll ever be, Mojito"

Axton then pressed the travel button which digitally warped all of the hunters through a cybernet wave length, before being reconstructed at the Overlook town square.

Axton with haste readied his weapon, but then slowly dropped his guard before saying.

"It's a ghost town...Where are the Loaders? Aren't they supposed to be enforcing the 'law'?"

Salvador walked around shouting "Hello? Anybody home?!"

While Maya just looked at the ground but quickly glanced up with a surprised look.

"Maya! What is it?' Axton questioned noticing her jerk upright

"Hyperion must be closer than we think..." Maya said worriedly

"ERNNNNN, Wrong answer Contestant Number 1! But thanks for playing!" Came the very recognizable cocky tone through the ECHO communicator.

"Jack..." Axton said angrily.

"Awwwwww, y'all remember me! How nice of you! Well actually, my bots are stationed on my giant freakin' "H" that surveys you pathetic little planet! Buuuuuut if I felt so inclined to press this button right here"

*beep!*

"Ooopsie!" Jack said with a faked guilty tone. "Well I guess you guys should get to know each other while we're at it. Robots; meet Dumbshits, Dumbshits; meet Robots! Play nice kiddos!"

"Cocky bastardo, jus' looooves to run his mouth" Salvador said mildly annoyed

Before anyone could concur with Sal, a distant explosion could be heard from the Hyperion base and a giant rocket hurled towards the Vault Hunters.

"LOOK OUT!" Axton yelled before ducking for cover as soon as the giant missile impacted Overlook.

The missile was then soon discovered to be a giant capsule that held several types of loaders, BUL, GUN, PWR, and EXP loaders were the outcome of the aftermath. The robots began to take their shapes before opening fire on the Vault Hunters.

"EXTERMINATE. ANNIHILATE. DESTROY"

"Now the real fun begins" Axton said coyly. "Hey do me a favor bots and stand in front of this for a bit"

Without missing a beat, Axton quickly deployed his Dahl Sabre turret that he specifically designed himself with the sole purpose of 'fucking shit up'. The turret began to rip apart at the Loaders while Missiles deployed finished off the robot.

"Auto gun's chewin 'em up!" Axton said victoriously as he opened fire on another GUN Loader, disintegrating all of it's armor thanks to his Assault rifle outfitted with corrosive bullets that melt away metal in an instant.

"STOP!" Came a voice behind him when he realized Maya Phaselocked a BUL Loader that would have scooped up Axton had she not intervened. She smiled at Axton before hurling the Loader off the edge of the cliff.

"Thanks, I owe ya one!" Axton said happy that Maya saved his ass royally.

"Eh, no worries! Happens to the best of us!" Maya said before chuckling a bit.

"Hey that's my line! Thief!" Axton said playfully, but then turned his head to the side when he heard a very loud shout coming across from him.

"TWO GUNS! MOTHERFUCKERS!" Salvador roared as he opened fire with his two 'Spiniguns' made by bandits on the poor Loaders that were unfortunate to meet face-to-face with a Gunzerker. Axton reckoned he must of unloaded close to 200 rounds on the EXP Loaders blowing them to bits.

"ROCK AND ROLL! AHAHHAHHA!" He shouted while firing the rest of his box magazine in the air.

Zer0 was left to face off with a PWR Loader.

"EXTERMINATE NINJA ASSASSIN" The Loader said while charging his Ion blaster before releasing it on the Assassin.

"And I disappear; / A ghost amidst the combat, / Preparing to strike," was the Haiku Zer0 recited to himself before slicing the Loader into two separate pieces.

"You Lose." Zer0 said in the usual dark voice.

When the threat was dealt with the Vault Hunters rejoiced the fact that once again, they proved that they were indeed a force to be reckoned with.

"Welp, that was unbelievably easy, what do you guys think?" Axton asked stunned that was all Jack sent to kill them.

"Yeah.." Maya said "I feel like Jack should be giving us a surprise right about now..."

"DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! Congratulations contestant number 1! You answered correctly!" Jack jokingly said over the ECHO.

"See?" Maya said annoyed.

"Was there any doubt?" Zer0 said also annoyed that Jack has to comment on virtually everything that they do.

"For answering the question correctly, you get a prize! Heads Up!" Jack said before cutting off the mic.

Once again, another capsule was launched from the space station, but this time, it was much smaller than the other. It also made virtually no explosive impact on the ground. instead it bounced off the ground for a bit then finally rolling towards the vault hunters. They noticed that the capsule had a giant 'Pull Me' sticker taped onto it with a red latch holding the door closed.

"Probably a trap," Axton said "Ahh hell, I'm pulling it anyway."

Axton pulled the red lever anticipating that bomb could go off or a timer or something, instead it was a door that opened up to reveal a peculiar object inside.

"What's inside?" Maya asked.

Axton then reached in then pulled out what was inside. His face turned white and his eyes were shocked to say the least.

A little stuffed Giraffe was inside. One that Axton had past experiences with.

"...Daddy...?" was the constant voice that kept playing in his mind over and over again as he tried to process the situation.

"Eh...Is uh... that a Giraffe?" Salvador asked confused.

"Yeah..it its" Maya said equally confused "Why the hell would Jack send us a stuffed Giraffe?"

Axton, finally snapping back into reality before saying to them.

"I uh...I dunno, you're right, it is weird," said Axton trying fake his confusion to not make anybody suspicious, which worked.

"We best head back to Sanctuary and report our ass-kickery to Roland, he's gotta know about this" Axton said grabbing the stuffed Giraffe and standing up.

"Aight," Salvador said "Drinks are on me!"

"Sal, you always get free drinks because you're nice to Moxxi," Maya said to him.

"Eh, can't hurt for a guy to offer right Amigo?" Salvador said before laughing to himself.

Axton was staring at the stuffed Giraffe with a grief-stricken look on his face prompting Maya to ask worriedly.

"Axton...Are you alright?" She said worried and concerned.

Axton, once again snapping back into reality quickly responded to Maya.

"Yeah Maya, I'm fine" Axton said faking a smile on his face. "Lets get back to Sanctuary."

Maya then looked at him with a concerned face before saying deeply, almost as if it were a whisper, "Alright..."

Axton walked over to the Fast-Travel station then punched in the coordinates for Sanctuary.

'Jack you motherfucker...' Axton thought to himself while gritting his teeth together 'I swear to God I'll kill you, you'll wish you died in that crash.' then pressed the 'Travel' button to head back "Home".

All of the Vault Hunters were digitally reconstructed back at their vulnerable home of Sanctuary, which was built off the Dahl corporations finest Excavator meant for mining crystals. They all went back to the Crimson Raiders to speak to Roland about the situation.

"Well, what have you got to report, soldiers?" Roland said

"He means 'Good work taking care of the Loaders in Overlook guys, swell job!'" Lilith added acting as his 'courtesy coach'

"Oh sorry," Roland muttered bashfully. "Good job...So what do you have to report"

"Well the attack wasn't too bad, only a couple of capsules were launched from Hyperion's base, so it wasn't a problem," Axton said summing up their mission.

"Sooooo, care to explain why your carrying a stuffed Giraffe with you, Killer?" Lilith said confused.

'Back to 'Killer' now?' Axton thought

"Well," Maya said scratching the back of her neck, "The final capsule Jack sent contained this Giraffe in it."

"Why the hell would Jack send you a Giraffe?" Mordecai asked confused

"Das' what I was tinkin'!" Salvador said

"Well, it certainly ain't a bomb," Roland said "Well good work on taking care of the Overlook situation, at least they wont have to hear the drones for a while."

"What's the difference?" Mordecai added "All of their brain cells are practically dead from the Eridium radiation being given off from the mining."

Lilith then said to the Vault hunters "Well you guys can relax for the day, have a drink or something at Moxxi's"

"You had me at 'drink' Lil'!" Mordecai joked before taking a huge swig of whiskey.

Axton then went to his room then put the giraffe on his shelf then staring at it for a while.

'Daddy says you're a bad person!' Was what he kept hearing in his head before being interrupted by a voice behind him.

"So are you gonna tell me about the Giraffe or what?" Maya said behind him, causing Axton to snap out of his trance.

Axton tried to play it off by saying "What?" Out of faked confusion.

Maya then scoffed then said "Oh don't play 'Stupid' with me Axton, I know you have a connection with that thing, now are you gonna tell me or what? I'm starting to get a little worried,"

Axton then looked at her for a few seconds. He sighed and said to her "Maybe some other time, Maya,I'm a little tired."

Now it was Maya's turn to stare at him for a few seconds.

"I'm going to Moxxi's for a quick drink and maybe stop by Marcus', wanna come?" Axton then said to her.

"No thanks," Maya said, "I think I'll just stay here and relax."

Axton then looked at her before saying "Okay, I'll see you in a hour or two."

Axton then followed Salvador, Mordecai and Roland out of the door to go to Moxxi's, Axton took one glance at Maya then went out the door.

'What are you hiding from me, Axton?' Maya thought while holding the Giraffe and staring at the door.