AN: Hey guys! So if you have'nt guess already, the refrence of the two last chapters is a saying that the three-time Heavy weight Champion boxer Muhammad Ali said to describe his fighting style. Grats to starfighter-105, Drake Williams, and GJ115 for guessing correctly! Sorry for the long wait you guys for this chapter. It's long as hell so hopefully it'll be worth the wait for you guys!

Enjoy!

Chapter 17

The Vault Hunters then made their way into the pipe via the hole that Kurt just punched in. Most of the slag was drained out due to the pressure breakout that Kurt caused. The slag was completely revolting. It gave off a foul unpleasant smell that was similar to rotting flesh that was left out for 5 weeks, then soaked in wet dog. The hunters were trudging through 3-inch deep slag, whilst gagging and coughing at the same time, mostly Gaige was gagging.

"This stuff is SO gross!" Maya said looking at the stuff she was stepping in.

"Ewwwww, it's soooo smelly!" Gaige said plugging her nose with one hand while using her other hand as a fan in an attempt to get rid of the foul smell.

"All that's missing is a narration from Morgan Freeman..." Axton said looking around the pipes trying to breathe through his mouth, which caused Kurt to laugh

"Yeah seriously!" Kurt said concurring with Axton walking up to him.

"Axton the Commando crawled to freedom through 500 yards of slag-smelling odor I can't even imagine. Or maybe I just don't want to." Kurt said imitating Morgan Freeman narrating Andy Dufresne's escape from Shawshank Prison, which caused Axton to laugh and return with

"500 Yards," Axton said imitating Morgan Freeman "That's the length of 5 football fields, just shy of half a mile," Both of them shared a laugh together before being looked at funny by Maya.

"Who's Morgan Freeman?" Maya asked looking at Axton at Kurt weird. Both of them exchanged glances. How was she supposed to know who a 21st century actor was when she stayed in a Monastery her whole life?

"Ehhhh, nevermind," Axton said turning around to continue to trudge through the thick eriduim runoff.

They continued their small pilgrimage through the slag pipe until Kurt could see the pipe began to make a sharp turn. Maybe they've reached the inside of the blockade already.

"I think I found our exit!" Kurt echoed through the pipe as he punched another solid hole, then plunging his other fist into right next to the whole he made, then grabbing the broken edges, he ripped that piece of the pipe off to reveal a scaffolding that led off to a ladder that presumably led to the other side of the Nexus.

"Found it!" Kurt said looking back at them "We just gotta climb that ladder!" He then said pointing to the nearest ladder he found.

One by one, the Vault hunters climbed out of the pipe, breathing sighs of relief now that they didn't have to breath that foul stench any more, at least until they were shot by a slag gun or something.

"Dear merciful God thank you!" Gaige said between heavy breaths., causing Kurt to laugh at Gaiges over exaggeration "Oh come on! Could have been worse!" Kurt said looking at her funny. Gaige finally caught up with her breaths and stood up, wiping the slag that covered her striped stockings.

"We can use that ladder to get to the Nexus. Let's move." Kurt said climbing up the ladder, followed by the other 5 hunters.

It looked exactly the same as Axton remembered. Fyrestone was covered in the slag compound, decomposing left and right, with junk piled up on nearly every part of the now ghost town. Nothing has changed. Axton could still remember where he perched on the cliffside to provide involuntary sniper support for the four origional Vault hunters. It was all coming back to him...again

"Did this look the same three years ago?" Maya asked walking up to Axton, which he turned around and replied "Sorta, minus the Slag and stuff."

"Hey..." Kurt said "I kept a weapon stash of Thatcher arms in a drop zone near the Nexus. We should go grab it."

"Is it really worth it?" Axton asked looking at him

"Oh yeah.." Kurt said smiling "Their standard issue pistol is worth about 300,000 dollars!" He said causing Axton to widen his eyes.

"Mother of...Lead the way!" Axton said stepping aside, allowing Kurt to pass in front of him.

They walked approximately 300 yards from the Nexus going near a corroded bus stop, which was missing a roof. Kurt then walked behind it, feeling around the ground to see if he could find the metal piece he used to indicate his stash zone. As seen as felt a piece of metal protruding from the ground, he began to wipe off the sand that covered that area, to reveal a very large chest that had "Thatcher Armaments" painted across it.

"There it is.." Kurt said standing up "We just gotta get some air support to carry this back to Sanctuary, it's pretty damn big and heavy,"

"No problem," Axton said picking up his Echo and switching the frequency to Brick's.

"Brick, we need a buzzard to pick up heavy cargo at my location. When can you be here?" Axton asked Brick, which he responded.

"My Slab's are patrolling the area near there, so I can get one of them to pick it up for ya. What is it?" Brick asked

"It's a weapon cache," Axton replied.

"Great! My Slabs will be there shortly! Watch the skies!" Brick said turning off his ECHO.

As soon as he turned off his ECHO, a loud whooshing noise was heard over the mountains that gradually became louder as the second flew by. A buzzard came from the distance dropping a steel cable to catch the cache with it's giant snare.

"Alright Slab!" Brick said through the ECHO "Take this to Sanctuary, and don't let me catch you in the city!"

"Alright Mr. Slab King!" The Marauder stuttered out picking up the cache. and flying off to the distance, heading for the floating city.

"He better drop it off there," Kurt said looking at the Buzzard

"Don't worry," Axton said reassuring him "Brick has our backs."

The 6 hunters ascended up the elevator (again) onto the main highway that lead to the Info stockade, only to be stopped by the armies of the Hyperion forces. Jack wasn't going to let them into his Nexus of Knowledge this time around. If they could access the controls to the information stockade, they could wreck Jack's plans for domination of this planet.

"Shit!" Axton yelled taking cover behind a busted car along with the other 5 Hunters "There's too many of them!"

"Don't worry," Kurt said "I've got this!" Him and Gaige were taking cover behind a piece of asphalt that was torn up.

Gaige then looked at his eyes. His green-blue-grayish eyes began to...bleed.

"Kurt.." Gaige said quietly (and concerned) looking at Kurt's eyes "Your eyes are..."

"I know," Kurt said interrupting her.

Kurt's Arms began to make strange noise as he stood up, he held his hand in front of him. One of the soldiers saw this as an opportunity to finish off the relatively good doctor. He loaded up his rocket and fired it in his general direction. As the rocket whooshed towards Kurt, his hands began to glow faintly of red.

"Kurt NO!" Gaige screamed looking at Kurt from the cover. The rocket zoomed at high velocities towards him, but was stopped, by his hand. The rocket was caught in mass-spectrometer beam that stopped it dead in it's tracks, seemingly levitate before his hands, leaving the other hunters to look at him dumbfounded.

"Whaaaa?" Maya said quietly and in total disbelief while looking at him. Kurt didn't look back at their direction, he simply looked back at the soldier who was equally dumbfounded as him.

"Catch." He said hurling the rocket back at the soldier, which blew him to smithereens. The soldiers looked at the man who was blown away by his own rocket. They wanted to run so bad, but the hand stand and fight the bandits, it was their job (And so they can finish their comic collection). They began to fire their rockets at Kurt, only to have them get deflected and sent hurling back at the soldiers. Not even Ion blast could harm him, he would just catch in and send it right back to loaders who shot them. It was total mayhem, Kurt was annihilating everybody with his bare hands, moving forward dodging bullets and reflecting back grenades, rockets and such. The smoke finally cleared as all of the robots and soldiers were eradicated by Kurt. He must've killed at least 50 soldiers and 30 Robots. The five others slowly stood up from the cover to see Kurt took care of every last one.

"Hoooooly Shit!" Axton said wide eyed at the utter chaos Kurt caused.

"Wow...soo...anarchist..." Gaige said looking at the total carnage he caused.

"Yep..." Kurt said looking back at them with blood trickling from his eyes.

"How did you do that?!" Maya said looking at him.

"Oh. Well in my spare time wandering Pandora, I was able to install Zero energy Mass spectrometer manipulation fields on my arms." He said holding his hands up.

"Sooooo, gravity hands?" Axton said walking up to him

"In monkey terms, yes." Kurt replied, which caused Axton to scoff

'Cheeky Bastard...' Axton thought to himself.

As they made their way towards the info blockade, Gaige caught up with Kurt and walked beside him.

"Hey...So yeah, your a super badass and all...but why were your eyes bleeding?" Gaige asked motioning around his eyes, which he wiped up before continuing.

"It's a reaction from the A.I." Kurt explained

"A.I.?" Gaige asked looking at him, causing Kurt to sigh.

"It's the cost I gotta pay for having these arms. When my arms were installed, they had to put an artificial intelligence inside of me, to help me control my hands. But it's flawed. It'll bind with the preliminary emotion the user had before entering the machine. And remain so until it dies" Kurt explained

"Which was?" Gaige asked

"Anger," Kurt replied. "My hate and resentment for Jack's cruel acts fuel my AI with a persistent rage that I've manage to slightly suppress over the years. He's A nasty one that AI..."

"Wow...So that's.." Gaige said only to be interrupted by Kurt,

"Yes...My eyes bleed because that's my AI trying to take over..." Kurt explained.

"Why can't you just shut it off?" Gaige asked trivially.

"It's not that simple Gaige..." Kurt explained again "The AI is a living tissue, a parasite that latches on to your nervous system. To try and remove the organism would be extremely dangerous. There's a slim to none chance you could survive it. It anybody touches the back of my neck while I'm angry...The parasite will latch on to that new host... Poisoning their minds with the rage I've built up over the years. Removing the parasite from that host, is even more difficult, due to the host not being able to control the parasite as I would. The person would most likely die..." Kurt said

"Wow..." Gaige said "Man, that's heavy..."

"Yeah...It's heavy alright.." Kurt said

The 6 of them finally made it to the top of the tower, killing more and more guards stationed inside of the building. The computer was in sight, and Axton was just edging to find out where Jack kept Lilith.

"Axton, you can do the honors." Kurt said handing him the chip he kept in his pocket.

"Alright...So tell me Jack," Axton said putting the chip "Where the fuck are you hiding?"

"Center of the Eridium Blight..." Kurt said "Why didn't I think of that?'

They stared at the screen seeing the red dot that pointed near the Eridium Blight off to the side. All it would take would be enough firepower to punch through Jack's defenses, and killing Jack. Axton liked that last part of that idea the best.

"Let's head back to Sanctuary, got work to do there." Axton said pulling the chip from the computer.

The fast travel station dropped them off at the Perce Station named after the fallen lieutenant of the Crimson Raiders who was shot in the head by Jack (Apparently her face was all like "PPPPFTHH" when she exploded). The cargo was dropped off right next to station, just as the buzzard was instructed to do so. Kurt decided he'll deal with it tomorrow or something.

"Sooooo," Kurt said pulling out the capsule that contained the sand in it. "I understand you guys have a little tradition involving the chemical Tetrahydrocannabinol..."

'Yeah..." Axton said rubbing the back of his neck "Before we go on the raid, we usually toke up or something like that."

The 6 of them walked back into the Raiders HQ, to see Mordecai and Brick looking over the projector. Both of the stood up straight when they saw Kurt walk through the door.

"Who's this?" Mordecai asked looking at Kurt

"Dr. Kurtis Thatcher, at your service." Kurt said extending out his hand

"Mordecai," He said shaking Kurt's hand "That's Brick," he then said pointing to Brick, which prompted Brick to raise his hand as a sign of a nonchalant greeting.

"When will we get those supplies Axton?" Mordecai asked shifting his attention to Axton.

"Well, supposed to get here tomorrow." Axton explained

"Okay..." Mordecai said "We get the supplies, then prepare for our final assault on Jack, can't wait...But until then.." He then said smiling and pulling out a little bag of green bud "We uphold the tradition..."

"Just a sec!" Kurt said running into the other room, grabbing his borworch from his backpack. He then put the sand in a secluded area of the capsule, then began to incinerate the sand, creating a glass, vase like apparatus, with two hole protruding from it. He created another small, tube like thing that fit perfectly into the vase, along with a little circular vase thing he referred to as a "Bowl Piece". After the molding was completely he pulled the capsule off the glass sculpture and blew on it to cool it down, until the redness finally subsided before presenting it to Mordecai.

"Gentlemen.." Kurt said holding up the glass piece "The Bong..."

It was a work of art, a solid foot and a half tall apparatus that was seamlessly made, no cracks, imperfections, nothing.

"Wow...Haven't had one of those since high school..." Axton said looking at the glass piece.

"Damn...How'd you know how to do that?" Mordecai said pointing at it.

"Meh...Just something I picked up over the years." Kurt said shrugging his shoulders and putting the bong on on the table. Maya walked over to it, looked at it for a few seconds, then looked at Kurt.

"What's a bong?" She asked looking at Axton.

"Remember those joints?" Axton explained to Maya,

"Yeah?" she said standing up straight again

"It's like that...But packs a bigger punch and lasts longer, plus it's less harsh on your lungs..." Axton explained looking at Kurt's handiwork, which was being filled with water at this point in time by Kurt, eager to test it out.

"Dude...your weed...first hit's yours," Kurt said handing the bong to Mordecai, which he declined.

"No thanks man, your bong, you hit it amigo!" Mordecai said looking at it.

"Pack the bowl then," Kurt said handing Mordecai the bowl piece

"Kay then," Mordecai said breaking the bud into smaller chunks and putting them in the round circular dish with a small hole on the bottom of it. All the while Maya and Gaige were just looking at it, eager to see what happens with this "Bong" thing.

"Here ya go." Mordecai said handing the bowl back to Kurt, which was packed to the brim. Kurt then attached that to the glass pipe piece, which was submerged in water.

"Alright, light it up!" Kurt said putting his lips over the large glass piece, holding a lighter over the part containing the weed on it, proceeding to inhale, letting the bubbles filled with smoke arise and pop continuously building up smoke in the chamber, until the bong was seemingly colored white. A couple of snaps were head from the bowl piece and small chunks of embered trees passed through the 'Downstem'. Kurt then pulled the bowl piece away from the pipe, inhaling as hard as he could getting the smoke all inside of his system. He held his breath for a few seconds before releasing it into the air. He froze for a moment before coughing a bit.

"Goddamn dude!' Kurt said handing Mordecai the bong "Axton was right, that shit is POTENT!"

Mordecai chuckled a bit, and Gaige looked at Kurt in awe. "Wow...that was sooooo cool!"

"Your turn Mordecai!" Kurt said

"With pleasure!" Mordecai said

He did the exact same thing as Kurt. Holding the flame over the bowl, building up the smoke in his system, until it snapped. He pulled the carburetor, and inhaled all the smoke, holding it in for a few seconds then releasing it into the air...

"Damn..." Mordecai said "That's smooth...Axton here ya go" He then said handing the bong to Axton.

"Shoot..." Axton said putting his lips over the bong, then proceeding to inhale on it, whilst keeping a flame on the piece, then finally sucking all the smoke in, letting out a few coughs before blowing the smoke out.

"Draws like a pencil.." Axton said between coughs.

The circulation continued with Salvador and Brick, who both took considerable size hits. After all, they were relatively big people, so it probably took a lot to get them stoned. Finally, the circulation came to Maya and Gaige. Zero couldn't smoke because of his helmet, despite him wanting to.

"Can I try?" Gaige said looking at the bong.

"You sure?" Kurt asked "Strong shit..."

"I think I got it..." Gaige said

"That's what Maya said..." Axton said "What do you think, pumpkin?"

"DO NOT. Call me pumpkin." Maya warned Axton

"Hon?"

"No."

"Sweetie?"

"No."

"Sug?"

"No."

Axton paused for a minute, trying to think of another lovey-dovey nickname for Maya. She does call him 'handsome' sometimes so it only seems fair.

"Oh!" Axton said "Babe"

"NO." Maya said glaring at Axton. He then let out a sign and finally said said

"Maya?"

"Yes."

"Fine..." Axton muttered "I'm high as fuck right now..."

"So can I try?" Gaige said looking at Kurt.

"Fine, but go easy on it.." Kurt said with his bloodshot eyes, she noticed Kurts eyes were seemingly red. Was he angry again?

"Why are your eyes red?" Gaige asked looking a Kurt's eyes, which caused him to grin devilishly.

"You'll see..." Kurt said "Now out your mouth over that piece and just inhale. I'll carb it for you since it's your first time,"

Gaige did exactly what Kurt instructed and began to inhale, while Kurt held the flame over the weed, keeping an ember while she sucked in the smoke, he finally carbed it and let her inhale the smoke. She coughed out the smoke and proceeded to do so for a very long time.

"Good job, Gaige" Kurt raid rubbing her shoulder "Take pride in that!"

"Wow," Gaige coughed out "I feel...funny..."

"Here we go..." Axton said smiling

"I feel like...I feel, Like I can conquer the world!" Gaige shouted, causing everybody to laugh.

"Gimme that bong." Maya ordered Axton motioning with her hands in the 'gimme gimme' fashion. "Yes, Ma'am," Axton said handing it to her.

She took relatively the same size hit. She was nearly new to this as Gaige was. Axton helped her carb the bong in the same sense as Kurt did. She coughed out all the smoke she inhaled, before giggling to herself lightly.

"Hahahha, conquer the world!? PFFFTTT HAHAHAHAH" She said before laughing uncontrollably on Axton's shoulder, she let out a small sigh and looked into Axtons eyes.

"Hey Axton?" Maya said not shifting her vision from his bloodshot eyes

"Yes, Maya?" He responded looking at her. She leaned in closer to Axton,

"You can call me 'babe' if you want..." Maya whispered in his ear.

"Meh...I like Maya better," Axton said smiling at her, only to be interrupted by Gaiges ranting,

"Whooooooo!" Gaige said "Let's watch a movie!"

"okay..." Kurt said laughing his ass off, along with Mordecai and Brick. This must've been the first time Axton's ever seen Brick laughing this much since he got here. All he could remember was it being one of the funniest things he's ever seen.

"Imma go get a TV," Kurt said walking down the steps to find one.

"We have a TV?" Axton asked looking at Mordecai,

"Nah Man..." Mordecai slurred out, sitting on a couch, nearly falling off.

"Kay I'm back, and I set up the TV downstairs." Kurt said walking up stairs with a stupid-looking grin on his face.

"Yayyy!" Gaige said happily running downstairs, leaving Mordecai bewildered and to ask him

"Where'd you find a TV?"

"Stole it from Marcus' store!" Kurt said laughing loudly, causing Mordecai to join in on his little laughter session.

Kurt then walked downstairs to see Gaige, sitting on the couch staring at the blank TV screen like she was just risen from her own grave.

"This is the best. Movie. Ever." Gaige said looking at the screen, which caused Kurt to laugh loudly

"Nothing's playing Gaige!" He laughed while stumbling over to the couch.

"Oh yeah!" Gaige said laughing so hard she was snorting, immediately covering her mouth. Why did she have to snort in front of Kurt.

"Did you just snort?" Kurt asked

"No!" Gaige said embarrassed,

"Well I think It's damned cute!" Kurt said taking a seat on the couch. Gaige was blushing extremely after hearing that statement. He just called something she's been embarrassed with her whole life cute? That meant something to her. He actually paid attention to her. It couldn't get better than this.

"Hey, what are you watching?" Axton asked walking down the steps with Maya by his side.

"Enter the Dragon." Kurt said, which caused Axton's eyes to slightly widen, despite them being pretty dilated at this point.

"No Way! That movie's awesome!" Axton said taking a seat on the couch, with Maya sitting (very) close to him.

'Double Date?' Gaige thought to herself. She has to tell Kurt how she truly felt about him soon. Nobody ever seemed to pay attention to her in real life, except her Dad. She wanted to tell him how thankful she is for have meeting him. She couldn't have asked for a better companion in this hellhole of a planet.

They've been watching the movie starring the greatest kung-fu legend who lived during the 21st century. He dealt lightning fast punches, kicks, and various karate moves that not even a camera running at 200 frames per second could catch. They were at the final fight between Bruce Lee and Han. Han was knocked down to the ground by Lee's sheer force. The camera zoomed up to Lee's face, and as quick as lightning, even before Han could act, Lee crescent kicked him across the face with force and speed similar to a gunshot, hell, it was probably as strong as one.

"Holy Shit!" Axton said baffled by the speed of his kick. "Imagine getting kicked by that!"

"You'd probably explode," Kurt said chuckling a bit "What do you think Gaige?"

Kurt didn't realize it, but Gaige has been asleep on his shoulder when Lee started fighting Han. She looked damned cute when she was sleeping Kurt thought. Something about her seemed so attractive. He decided that he'd ease up on the arm, make it seem more human like, and continue to watch the movie with Axton and Maya.

'Best. Pillow. Ever.' Gaige thought as she nestled her head closer to Kurt's body, feeling the warmth he was giving off.

As soon as the movie was finished, Kurt decided not to wake up Gaige so she could go to sleep. He took his arms and put them under her legs and shoulders, then scooping her up into his arms while she was still asleep. He carried her over to her bed and placed her gently on the bed, making sure not to wake her up in the process. He pulled the covers over her shoulders so she would freeze to death (It got cold at night on Pandora).

"Goodnight Gaige," Kurt whispered in her ear.

Kurt then proceeded to walk upstairs, presumably to find a place where he could rest his eyes. Leaving Axton and Maya alone on the couch. Maya then curled up closer to Axton, "Why can't you carry me to my bed?" Maya asked looking at Axton, he laughed and said

"I did remember?" Axton said looking at Maya's beautiful eyes.

"Oh yeah..." Maya said quietly to herself.

Axton then looked at her a second then settled back down to watch the credits roll of the movie.

"That was an awesome movie.." Maya said snuggling in with Axton,

"It sure was..." Axton said quietly "You should go to sleep, got another big day tomorrow,"

"Kay..." Maya said quietly "Carry me..." She said smiling which caused Axton to groan

"Really?" Axton said grinning

"Yes." Maya said to Axton sternly.

"Fine..." Axton said faking his reluctance, he wanted to do this. He scooped her up in the same fashion as Kurt and carried her bridal style over to her bed. All the while he was hoping he'd be able to carry her bridal style someday...as a true bride...

He laid her down on the bed and pulled the covers over her shoulders. She snuggled up in the covers and let out a small grin.

"Still my Angel Axton..." Maya said quietly "Goodnight Handsome..."

"Yeah.." Axton said quietly as well "Goodnight Babe..." he said kissing her lips before heading back upstairs to begin to saw logs.

As soon as Axton got up to the final step, he was greeted by Kurt, Mordecai and the rest of the hunters packing another bowl in the bong Kurt just whipped up. They were all gathered around the holographic table so they could see how the bong could function.

"Bedtime Bongies!" Kurt said looking at Axton and handing him the glass vase with the lighter, all packed and ready to go. Axton took one look at the bong before laughing to himself.

"Shoot." Axton said before sparking the bowl and inhaling.

An: Holy weed jokes Batman! You guys asked, and I gave you a chapter where they get high once again! I'll have to admit, it's quite fun to write the stoned dialogue for some of these scenes! If you're wondering why I chose Enter the Dragon as the stoney movie night is because of 3 simple reasons:

1. It has Bruce Lee

2. Bruce Lee was a bad-ass

3. Refer to points 1 and 2

Now that I knocked out another incredulously long chapter, I hope to post another one relatively soon. I'm trying to keep somewhat of a schedule so I don't leave people hanging and then ultimately hating my guts for being a lazy asshole for not keeping up to date with this story due to the eager audience.

POP QUIZ: What artist wrote the title to this chapter? Guess right and you'll win a shoutout or a roundhouse kick!

Please review and Fave if you enjoyed my story so far! It really helps!

Thanks!

-LT