They arrived in Frostburn Canyon around dusk. They started forward when a group of bandits ran past them, chased by another group of bandits. The group shot at the bandits; they stood no chance against the hail of bullets. They walked forward and saw a dead bandit nailed to a board with his right arm pointing to the right.
"That's weird - the Bloodshot bandit clan seems to be attacking the Firehawk's lair. They've probably left landmarks for their reinforcements - those should lead you to the Firehawk. That, or just...follow the screaming." Angel spoke through her link.
"Charming." Jake spoke, he then said, "Lets keep going."
"Hold on guys I'm getting something big from over there." Zen said pointing off in the other direction.
"Lets split up."
"Zen, Jake, Maya and Krieg will go after the blip, and Me, Gaige, Salvador and Zer0 will continue on. Once you finish up there meet us at the waypoint I just set. Understood?" Axton said, his military side taking over again.
"Yes sir!" they all said and left in their respective direction.
With Zen and company
"It came from just over—Holy crap that is a huge Spiderant!" Maya exclaimed
Indeed it was for standing there was Scorch the giant fiery Spiderant. Kneeling in front of him was a group of bandits, apparently worshipping him. The Spiderant sent out a fiery pulse that ran across the ground as fast as a jaguar. It hit the bandits and incinerated them upon contact. It turned its attention to the group and launched itself at them.
"SCATTER!" Someone screamed out
They all jumped out of the way as it impacted right where they just were standing.
Zen spun around and started shooting at it. Scorch spat out a fireball and hit him in the chest.
With Axton and company
They walked past another pinned sign and up some stairs. They saw a huge psycho drop down. They started shooting at it. Salvador, being the genius that he is pulls out two huge rocket launchers and fires. It evaporates the psycho and they keep moving they made it down to the clearing where the waypoint they set was. When they got there, it was empty besides the few enemies there was.
"Where are they?" Salvador asked
"I don't know. Maybe they got stuck, or something." Gaige said
They saw a group of enemies start running at them, when a huge Spiderant body crushed them.
"THAT WAS FOR MAKING ME DROP MY LOLLIPOP!" Krieg screamed at the body
The rest of Krieg's group showed up, looking more or less beat up. Maya had a few cuts and burns, Krieg had cuts and burns all over his arms, and Jake had a gash going down his face that continued onto his glasses leaving a scratch. Zen was by far in the worst condition. He had small and insignificant burns and cuts, but had a huge burn across his chest and a gash going down his face, mirroring Jake's except going under his glasses.
"What the hell happened to you?" asked Gaige
"I hate spiderants." Jake said simply
"Ditto" Zen said
They kept going and started to enter a cave, when another mutant psycho came from around the corner.
"I got this, I found a new toy!" Maya said, surprisingly being a little more violent.
She pulled out a blue Maliwan SMG that had yellow stripes going down it. It had a fore grip on it. She opened fire and the minute the bullet made contact with the psycho, he started to erupt in flames starting to melt the psycho almost instantaneously.
"Damn what the hell is that thing?" Gaige asked over his dying screams
"It's called the 'Hellfire' and it is a one of a kind SMG from Maliwan." Maya explained
"Fancy" Zen said as he kicked the partially melted skeleton of the psycho.
They kept going and they saw a pipe sticking out of a wall.
"I'd watch out for that." Said Jake wary of any traps the Firehawk may have set up.
They saw another psycho charging at them. The minute he stepped in front of the pipe, fire shot out of it at a speed thought impossible for fire to travel at. It hit the psycho and completely melted his upper body.
"Told ya" Jake said
They kept going, avoiding any traps along the way. When they made it to a huge door that was partially open, they saw there was an ammo dispenser up ahead. They picked up their speed and all bought ammo. They walked forward and saw some huge bandits shooting at something. There was an explosion of purple in between them. When the light died down there stood a women who was about 5'11 and had orange-red hair. She was wearing a brown jacket with an orange under shirt. She had brown pants on that had a tear in the left leg that showed her siren tattoos to the entire world. She wore simple shoes. All of her clothes were a darker shade than what they were originally due to blood and dirt.
"Sup." Was all that she said, before she collapsed.
The group all jogged over to the woman to see if she was all right.
"Howyadoin'. The bandits call me the Firehawk, but the name's Lilith. I'm with the Raiders, like you - I keep the bandits in line so Roland can focus on taking down Jack. Anyway, long story, lots of internal bleeding." She said woozily
"Can you grab me some Eridium from my strong box over there?" Lilith asked after Jake helped her up.
Zen walked over to the strong box and tried opening it, when it didn't budge.
"Lilith how do I open it?" Zen called out to her.
"Just push the green button!" She replied
"I tried that it is not working!"
They would have continued to bicker if not for the explosion above Zen.
"Shit, the Bloodshots are attacking, and I'm in no condition to fight!" Lilith cursed
"Jake catch!" Zen called, throwing the strongbox over to him.
He caught it and grabbed Lilith leading her to cover. He gave her the box and took cover with his sniper taking shots at the attacking bandits.
"Axton throw out your turret!" Zen called
He did so and the turret unfolded showing off its brand new model, which consisted of a larger ammo box, meaning it could stay out longer. It also had a longer barrel, meaning it had much more velocity. It opened fire on some marauders, tearing them to pieces. Salvador pulled out two Vladof Spiniguns mowing down bandits left and right. Zer0 disappeared and then a bandit was sliced in half, but his hologram did not disappear instead it reappeared where he killed the bandit.
Gaige made the motion to summon Death trap and out came a modified Death trap. It had a minigun installed on its right shoulder; it also had digistruct claws. The gun started up and started to mow down bandits. It sliced through bandits like they were wet tissue paper. Maya Phaselocked an enemy drawing in more, right as they made contact, it exploded in cloud of electricity, acid, and slag.
It was an all out battle that was in the bandit's favor, due to the sheer numbers alone, just to protect Lilith while she opened the box. Zen pulled out two pistols, and opened fire on the bandits.
Krieg sprinted into the fray and started to spin with his axe in his hands. It was a tornado of death. He and Zen started to get pushed back, and Salvador saw this.
"OVER HERE PENDAJOS!" The midget screamed flipping the bandits off.
They all focused on him, and he took all of their bullets like it was the wind hitting him. Zen finally catching a breather focused on his hand. A round ball appeared, he threw it and it landed right in the middle of the group. When it made contact with the ground it exploded in a huge dome of ice, trapping all of the bandits inside.
"All right!" Zen exclaimed wiping the blood from both of his nostrils.
A huge crack appeared in the dome, startling the Vault hunters.
"OH COME ON!" Axton yelled as the wall broke revealing a very large bandit with a spiked shield. He then swung his shield making the hole in the wall bigger.
Jake reacted by clapping his hands then slamming his hands onto the ground, spikes shot out of the ground and started impaling bandits.
He wiped a bit of blood from his nose and said, "Hell yeah."
They all heard another explosion and out came an even bigger bandit. He stood around 8'3 and held a giant sword and shield.
"Jesus Christ!" Axton exclaimed
As he took a step forward the ground shook. They heard the sound of something opening; they turned and saw that Lilith had opened the box. She grabbed the Eridium and it absorbed into her skin. She disappeared from view and reappeared behind the giant. When she appeared an explosion rippled throughout the surrounding area. The giant was sent sailing toward the group. He went flying over them and hit the wall and dropped to his death.
"Thanks for that." Axton said
"No problem, killer." Lilith said adding the nickname almost as an afterthought.
"Before the Bloodshots grabbed him, Roland was getting intel on the Vault, and what Jack plans to do with it. You have to find him. I gotta head back to Sanctuary, keep the city in one piece while Roland's away. But first, I'm gonna teleport you into the Bloodshot Stronghold - that's where they're keeping Roland. You'll catch 'em by surprise and have a real advantage. It'll be great. Hold still."
She tried to teleport them, but they ended up being moved like ten feet.
"...I just moved you, like, ten feet, didn't I? Sorry. I'm still getting used to this. Reminds me, though - Bloodshot Stronghold is full of real tough customers - you might wanna train a bit before you take 'em on." She said " Where are the other two?"
They looked around, but couldn't find Zen or Jake.
"Uh guys why am I in Lynchwood?" Zen asked
"Speak for yourself I'm in the… Caustic Caverns. I think I'm under Sanctuary." Jake said
"Uh yeah sorry bout that." Lilith said
"I'm fine there is a door separating me from anything there is down here." Jake spoke
"Guys, the Sheriff is staring me down." Zen spoke
"Bandit lay down your weapons and come peacefully, or you can fight back and I will kill ya. There is always that option." Spoke the Sheriff through Zen's ECHO
With Zen
There was a showdown going on. On one side was the Sheriff and her posse of about twenty men. On the other side was Zen and a tumbleweed that was next to him.
"So what will it be bandit?" the Sheriff asked
"How about… BOOT TO THE FACE!" he asked as he threw a random boot at the Sheriff's face. It made contact with a crunch, signaling a broken nose.
"AGH you asshole!" she yelled but by the time she had moved her hand out of the way, the tumbleweed and him were gone.
"Why did he take the tumbleweed?" One of the deputies asked
With Zen, again
He sighed as he walked off the train after about a five-hour ride, and into the dust.
"Why did I grab the Tumbleweed?"
"Cause I am Roberto the super spy" said the tumbleweed
"…Did you just talk?"
"Nope, you are just going insane."
"Oh, that's fine." Zen said as he walked to the nearest Catch a ride, a shotgun in one hand and Roberto in the other. Zen spawned in a car and started driving wit Roberto sitting in the gunner seat.
"So what do you do for a living Roberto?" Zen asked, seemingly okay with the fact he was insane.
"I work for Jakobs and I was a spy that was assigned to spy on Lynchwood."
"So you really are a spy? That's-" Zen started but was interrupted by another car crashing into him. Zen looked over and saw that it was Salvador, who couldn't see over the wheel.
"Sal?" Zen asked
"Amigo?" The Gunzerker asked
"Yup that's me. Now can you please stop ramming me into a wall?"
"Oh sorry!" he called out and took his foot off of the gas.
"Salvador where are you?" Zer0 asked over the ECHO
"I found Amigo Zen!" he called back
"That's good we thought you had died when your ECHO cut off." Krieg said
"Where are you guys?"
"In Ellie's junkyard." Maya responded
"Who?"
"Oh Scooter's sister." Axton explained
"Is Jake there?"
"Just got here. Why?" Jake responded
"Remember the lady from Eden-13 saying I would go insane, by coming in contact with the law?"
"Yeah, why?"
"She was right. I'll explain when I get there."
Him and Sal drove to the Junkyard and then climbed out, Zen of course grabbed Roberto.
"So when my ECHO went out I threw a boot at the Sheriff grabbed the tumbleweed and ran. When I got off of the train I realized that I had grabbed the tumbleweed, then I asked why I did. Not expecting an answer I was surprised when the tumbleweed did do just that. He explained that I was going insane."
"Damn you get all the fun." Jake said depressingly.
They ignored the two obviously insane members and handed in all the parts needed for the huge truck that they were building. Once that was finished they all climbed into two trucks. Jake and Zen in one and everyone else in the other. They started driving and reached a very long bridge that reached all the way to Three Horns. After about three hours of driving the reached the entrance of the dam.
Lilith came over the ECHO and said, "Drive up and honk your horn. They should let you in now that your ride looks all Bloodshot-y."
"I gotchu." Zen said
They honked and the gate lowered, before anyone could react Zen fired a saw blade cutting through the chain holding up the gate. It collapsed and Jake floored it, smashing into some bandits and swerving to give Zen the best shot. He fired again cutting through a couple bandits like they were nothing. While all that was happening the other Vault Hunters were just staring in shock at the efficiency of the two.
"Just like shooting bandits in a barrel!" Zen called
The original six Vault Hunters finally moved after what seemed like forever when the Ice user came running up to them and said, "Lets go get some blood on our boots!"
They all got out and ran over to a giant drawbridge. A huge Nomad dropped down and he had three midgets tied to his huge shield. Their HUDs said he was called 'Bad Maw'.
Krieg ran up to him and cut the ropes holding the three midgets to the shield, right before he punched Krieg away. Jake exploited this and fired at the hole in his shield. Bad maw took some damage before he started shooting back a Jake. Zen ran in front of Jake and his shield ate his bullets like they were nothing. The psychopathic prisoner turned back to Big Maw and charged him. He threw a punch and Bad Maw blocked it with his shield.
"ROBOCOP MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!"
Knowing that Krieg was talking about him, Zen jumped out of the way as Krieg came down from on top of the building cleaving Bad Maw's arm clean off.
"ARGHH" Bad Maw screamed
Zen charged at Bad Maw with his Scythe in his hands. He swung and stabbed Bad Maw's gun and ripped it from his hands.
"BATTER UP!" Zen called
He swung his scythe but his blade was not facing him, instead the blade was facing backwards. The back of the shaft hit Bad Maw in the face sending him flying backwards into the bridge. He bounced off of it and flew back to the ground, but by that time Jake had ran up underneath him and fired his SMG upwards causing Bad Maw to be suspended in the air for a little longer.
Bad Maw hit the ground; the group could tell he was barley alive.
Krieg called out, "LAST ONE TO THE SHORT BUS IS A LOSER!"
Krieg started running and jumped off of a rock and landed on Bad Maw's head, reducing it to paste.
"Oh, YOUR ON!" Zen yelled chasing after him.
Jake grinned and started sprinting after them calling out behind him, "LOOKS LIKE YOU GUYS ARE THE LOSERS!"
The rest of the group ignored them and walked at a normal pace into the bloodshot stronghold.
They followed the trail of destruction, following after the three members. When they reached a little pool of spiraling water with a giant chunk of ice sticking into the wall. Next to it was a giant spike of metal that had impaled a very large bandit and lying next to them was a bandit, missing his head, due to Krieg they were guessing.
"Holy dolphin with a laser gun, Batman!" called out a voice that they were assuming belonged to Jake.
They jogged up a ramp and saw that the three Vault Hunters were pinned down b a large bandit wielding an equally large rocket launcher.
They were about to act when they saw Zen bolt out of cover. He ran toward a dead bandit and rolled over him, grabbing his metal shield in the process. Zen slammed it down and blocked the next volley of rockets from the bandit.
Jake used this time to run up beside Zen and said to him, "Cover me!"
Zen nodded and pooped up from the shield and fired his assault rifle chipping away at the bandit's shield. The bandit turned to Zen and was about to fire when the rest of the Vault Hunters started firing, excluding Jake.
The Alchemist ran up and slid up to a wall and slammed his hands into it. Lightning shot from the point of contact. Then part of the roof shot down like a rocket, completely turning the bandit to a puddle.
Jake stood and wiped the blood from his nose as the rest of the group caught up.
"Now that was, smashing!" Zen joked. Causing everyone else to groan.
They sighed and walked forward past the newly formed pillar.
"Hey it wasn't that bad was it?" Zen called after them.
They proceeded for a little while, killing the occasional bandit.
"Huh, for a bandit stronghold there aren't many bandits." Stated Axton
"I know. I got a bad feeling 'bout this." Zen said looking around, slowly reaching for his SDU unit on his thigh.
The got to the holding cells and walked around looking for the right one. They searched all of them until they came across one that was secluded from the rest of them. They walked up to it and saw a black man lying on the bed. He stood at around 6'0 and was wearing a pinstripe shirt with the left sleeve rolled up revealing a skull tattoo on his arm.
A gauntlet holding spare ammo, in pouches across it, covered his right arm. He wore camouflaged pants and boots, with a piece of armor covering his right ankle. His SDU was strapped across his chest.
"Vault hunter! It's an honor to finally meet you in person." He said as he stood up, apparently having heard the group coming.
The wall behind him exploded and a BUL loader came rushing through the wall and plowed into Roland sending him into the bars behind him.
"This'll just take a second." Roland stated calmly as he stood.
A GUN loader came forward and Roland grabbed his arm and ripped it off and shot the remaining loaders with it.
"Well - that's that. Now, let's see about getting out of here—" He had started to say before he was caught by a huge constructer dubbed 'W4R-D3N' in a beam that sucked him back and into a cage made of the same beam like thing.
Before The Leader of the Crimson Raiders could say something the constructer sped off.
Salvador reacted instantly, by shooting the cell lock and kicking it open.
"Lets move, Amigos!"
"DON'T WORRY FAIR DAMSEL I, SIR LANCELOT, KNIGHT OF THE RAD TABLE SHALL SAVE YOU!" Krieg shouted in pure joy as he sprinted out the hole in the wall.
"COME, MY FAITHFUL COMPANIONS WE MUST HURRY!" he called behind him.
The group just stood there for a second before Zen and Jake chuckled and ran after him.
"You heard him let's go!" Jake said
They caught up with the three atop a staircase, in front of some vending machines.
Jake was buying some health.
Zen was buying ammo for his revolver.
Krieg was, well he was sitting atop a pile of bodies petting a shotgun.
"I have been expecting you." He stated calmly
Before any of them could say anything else an explosion blew up the ammo machine sending Zen backwards. Unfortunately he tried grabbing Jake to stop himself, and ended up pulling Jake with him, into Krieg and down the staircase.
"AW COME ON!" Zen shrieked as he fell down the stairs.
"Who shot that rocket?" Jake asked as he pushed Zen off of him.
The group looked over to see a Hyperion Constructer, seemingly cooling down from firing something large.
"Oh I am going to turn that fucking tin can into a pile of scraps." Zen grumbled as he tried to sit up only to fail, due to the two people lying on top of him.
"I got this. I have been experimenting with DT!" Gaige said smugly.
She summed the large robot and it proceeded to fly towards the giant robot and then did something surprising, it clapped.
The second the two giant metal hands hit each other a large blast of pressure tore through the shell and internals of the constructer.
"Thatta boy, Deathtrap!" she called to it.
"Target eliminated, your Mechromancerness." Spoke the giant floating machine.
"Umm, what did he just call you?" Zen asked as he stood up.
"Pssssh, I don't know what you are talking 'bout." Deflected Gaige
"Look, if you bandits are done making small talk I would like for you to meet a new friend of mine." Handsome Jack suddenly spoke through the ECHO.
A large pod shot down from the space station. It impacted the dam and made the entire structure shudder under the force. A figure walked out from the wreckage, once he got out of the smoke, the group had a look of shock on their faces.
For stood in front of them was a man around the age of 50, was there guess due to the graying hair. He wore bloody medical clothes with a surgical mask that strangely had a mustache on the outside of it. Atop his head was a glass jar with a brain sitting in it. It had a small radar dish attached to it.
"Oh come on am I really alive again, for the third time?" Groaned the man
"You like it? You see I was digging around in the records when I stumbled upon something interesting. Around five or so years ago, your dear Claptrap tried to stage a revolution. Yadda, yadda, yadda… Your buddies stopped him, reset him, and took him away and that was the end. Or so they thought, cause the former head of Hyperion got his hands on the device Claptrap used to bring former bosses back to life. Unfortunately we are still missing key parts, but there were some left over devices. One body snatching spree later and we found some old friends of you Crimson Raiders. Let's see we got here, Ned, Sledge, Skagzilla... Oh that will spoil all the surprises I have for you in the future." Jack spoke arrogantly.
When he got no response became frustrated
"Hello!? You know it's rude to ignore someone when the are talking!" He ranted
"Uh they all fell asleep." Ned spoke
"HEY ASSCLOWNS WAKE UP!" Jack roared through the microphone.
The eight Vault Hunters jumped at his sudden increase in volume.
"Ugh, that was almost as boring as High School math classes." Jake complained with everyone nodding in agreement.
Before anyone else said anything, a bullet tore through Zen's right shoulder.
"AGH! Bitch! I wasn't paying attention, redo!"
"There are no redoes." Ned spoke as he raised his gun again.
The group of Hunters opened fire on the re-re-animated zombie man. The bullets tore through him like he was made of wet tissue paper. Unaffected by the bullets he continued to fire at the group.
Taking cover Axton called out to his fellow Vault Hunters, "He is unfazed by the rounds! Is that even fair?"
"I don't know but I am going to get even with him for that unfair shot!" The Ice user called back.
Zen vaulted the cover and sprinted for Ned under a rain of constant, he slid and slammed his hands onto the ground, causing large walls of ice to rise and grow large spikes on them. They flew forward and crushed Ned in between them.
"That was anticlimactic." The Blonde Alchemist said
"Yeah I guess-"
The walls started to shake and out shot a grotesque looking arm, it looked like it was made out organs and other human body parts. The rest of the walls shook and finally broke apart revealing the new form of Ned. He looked like he was stuck in a wood chipper and super glued back together along with the parts of five others.
"HOLY F*#KING SHIT!" Zer0 exclaimed
They all looked over to him in shock.
"What?"
Zen went flying past the entire group and off the side of the dam.
"ZEN! SONOFABITCH!"
They turned back to Ned and started shooting at him with everything they had. Jake pulled out a rocket launcher and fired three rockets in rapid succession. A large cloud of dust rose up from the blast zone. Everyone stopped shooting to see if there was any movement.
"Did we get him?" Gaige asked
A hand shot out of the cloud and was about to impale Maya when it got cut off.
"DON'T TOUCH PRETTY LADY OR YOU GET THE HOSE AGAIN!" screamed Krieg.
He started running towards Ned and ducked under a swipe from his recently regenerated arm and swung again. The saw blade cut through Ned and kept going, Ned completely ignored the injury and swung his arm again throwing Krieg flying back. Jake glanced back at the part of the railing Zen went through and saw his scythe sitting there. He ran over and grabbed it spinning it like he used it for years.
He looked up and saw that the group was getting completely destroyed. He looked to his right and saw that there was a building that led behind Ned. He ran up to it, climbed it and ran behind Ned.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"
Ned turned his head only to meet a boot to his face. His head snapped to the right and then felt a blade enter his chest, then travel up and split his entire upper body.
Jake landed and sighed in relief.
"Finally, god that sucked." Jake sighed in relief
"Uh, Jake turn around."
Jake turned and tried to block with Zen's scythe only for it to snap in half and then sent flying, with him going straight into a wall.
Axton taking advantage of his enemies' distraction ran up and tagged a sticky grenade to his head.
"Boom." He said as he walked away from the explosion lighting a cigarette in the process.
Gaige had stars in her eyes by the end of it.
"OH. MY. GOD. THAT WAS AWESOME!" She exclaimed
"Let's go we still have to save Roland." Jake said.
I am back, so yeah. I have a poll on my profile, it is asking whether Zen should be with the Sheriff or stay with the original pairing of Angel.
Cause I had an idea pop into my head that it would make a good pairing. Yes I know she is Jack's girlfriend but I have a plan for that if she wins.
Leave a review below with suggestions and ideas!
May the Gods of Explosives be with you!