FINALLY! I finally managed to get my brain working long enough to get this done! If it feels a bit rushed, its mostly because of the fact that I don't want to bore you with the EXACT same story line, so I'll have some changes coming next chapter like...umm...idk a sub mission or something, but I'll update as soon as I can. Oh, the censorship in the last chapter was a mistake, so don't expect anymore of it!
To those who are wondering where Salvador and Zero are...well I wouldn't be able to do their characters personality any justice since I don't know them real well. I'm having a hard time with Maya as it is! Anyways, hope you like what I did midway and in the entirety, enjoy!
John quickly pulled Gaige behind some metal scrap to use as cover as Axton did the same on some wreckage while the bandits opened fire.
"What now!?" Gaige asked as she fired her rifle blindly over their cover.
"Take the flank you two!" Axton commanded as he deployed his turret while Maya looked over their cover and blasted a Psycho, who was too close for comfort, with her shotgun and quickly ducked back behind the wreckage. John and Gaige had made it around the bandits and took cover behind a metal divider.
"I can cover you from here." Gaige stated as she checked the mag in her rifle, "Go for the big guy and I'll take out the small fry."
"Alright, but first we need them to scatter." John replied as he pulled out his only frag grenade and tossed it over head. Once the explosion went off, John came around the divider and fired at the nearest bandit he could see while Gaige covered his back, shooting the heads of bandits that tried to hit him from behind.
"Maya, I need you to go around the other side and take them from their right." Axton commanded and Maya nodded in understanding before she left as Axton focused his turret on the bandits in her path. Maya made it to the right flank and started blasting away at unsuspecting bandits, but her success was short lived as a Goliath, who had his helmet knocked off, blindsided her and sent her shotgun flying out of her hands.
Maya hit the ground hard, but quickly regained herself to back away from the Goliath in time to avoid his massive fists. She turned to see that the others were being kept busy by the other bandits and Axton's Turret was destroyed. She tried to Phaselock the Goliath, but every time she did, it would swing at her and cause her to miss as she dodged him. Maya barely had time to realize that she had backed up into a wall before the Goliath raised its fists over head to crush her. She nearly saw her life flash before her eyes, but a thought stopped that from happening as she remembered the pistol Axton gave her. She quickly pulled out her pistol and took a faith shot, which managed to land between the eyes of the Goliath's tiny head, causing him to go limp and fall over dead.
Maya breathed a sigh of relief and looked up in time to see Gaige impale a Psycho on her bayonet and toss him away, John broke another bandit's neck, and Axton shot the last bandit point blank in the head. She let her head hit the wall as she took the time to rest for a bit, but was interrupted, "No time to rest yet soldier!" Axton commented as he held out his hand for her.
"I guess not." Maya replied as she took his hand and he pulled her up.
"I want it!" Gaige shouted, causing Axton and Maya to turn and see her snatch a Tediore rocket launcher w/ bayonet out of John's reach, "Don't worry baby, I'll take good care of you." she cooed to the weapon and John shrugged before returning to searching the bodies.
"Hey Axton...thanks." Maya commented as she showed Axton the pistol.
"No problem." Axton replied, "You know that means-"
"Finish that sentence and I'll hurt you!" Maya snapped and Axton laughed as he put up his hands in surrender.
"So where are we?" Gaige asked as she looked around.
"Looks like Lilith got us to the holding area of the stronghold." John replied.
"What makes you say that?" Maya asked, "Aside from the cells I mean, for all we know it could be their rooms."
"The man sitting on the bed staring at us, probably thinking about why we're debating his release." John replied as he pointed at a closed cell at the end of the hall.
"Oh..." Maya replied, mentally face palming herself.
"So you're the Vault Hunters." the man commented as they approached, "I'm Roland."
"We figured as much." Axton commented as he took a look at the lock. A sudden explosion occurred on the wall behind Roland and a figure stepped through the smoke.
"You're complicating your life Axton." Gaige commented as the smoke cleared and she became visible, holding the rocket launcher she grabbed earlier.
"We don't all have rockets..." Axton mumbled, "You got lucky when you found it."
"You're just jealous." Gaige replied.
"You can continue your debate when we get back." John commented, "Right now we need to get out of here before reinforcements arrive." Something caught John's eye and he immediately snatched Gaige's rocket launcher, hit a button on the side and threw it straight at Roland. Roland saw the launcher take off straight for him like a rocket itself and hit the floor, the bayonet barely missing his head and going a few more meters before hitting the eye on an approaching Constructer and detonating, effectively destroying it. The launcher re-digistructed into Johns hands before he handed it back to Gaige who saw some writing on the side of it.
"'Warning'," she read, "'Tediore weapons explode when reloaded.' Should've read that earlier, BECAUSE THIS IS FUCKEN AWESOME! I get to blow bandits up with the rockets, the launcher itself, and stab them to death with the bayonet which could also be used to jam it into an enemy! I LOVE YOU ROCKET!" Gaige hugged her launcher while the others stared.
"She's going to kill us." Axton joked while Roland turned to John.
"So you're the most serious of these Vault Hunters?" he asked and John nodded, "Figures, anyway I need you all to listen up, we've got intel that Jack is not only looking for the Vault, but trying to control it."
"Control?" John questioned as the others turned their attention to Roland.
"Yes, the Vault doesn't just contain weapons and riches, but a creature that brought about destruction on Pandora long ago." Roland explained, "It's called The Warrior, and not only that, but Jack has the key to the Vault."
"So we need to find where he has it and steal it?" John replied, mostly stating rather than asking.
"Yes, luckily I have an inside man. His name is Mordecai, you'll find him at Tundra Express" Roland replied, "You may need to wake him up though; he drinks heavily when he gets good info. The sound of some Varkids on fire should get his attention. You'll need a fire elemental weapon."
"Someone say...fire?" Gaige asked with a flame of excitement in her eyes.
"Uhh...are you sure that's the only way to get his attention?" Maya asked.
"Yeah, Mordecai's a heavy sleeper and Varkids screech real loudly when they're set on fire." Roland replied.
"Does anyone else think this is going to end badly?" Axton asked.
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After escorting Roland to Sanctuary and making their way to Tundra Express, the four of them began to attack the Varkids in the farm at Tundra Express. Unfortunately they ran into some problems and the swarm of Varkids was one of them, but also...
"Alright, who was in charge of getting the fire weapon!?" Maya asked as she blasted a Varkid with her shotgun.
"Let's just let it go and find another way to wake up Mordecai!" Axton replied.
"I suppose that's your way of saying 'it's my fault'." John asked, "Wait, where's Gaige?"
"BURN MOTHER FUCKERS! HAHAHAHAHA!" Gaige's voice shouted and John managed to see her pushing buttons on a pole nearby.
"GET BACK!" John commanded as he ran full speed at Gaige and pulled her away before she became soaked in gasoline. Axton and Maya retreated in time before a spark lit the gas and set several Varkids on fire. The screech of all the Varkids burning alive nearly burst their eardrums, but at the top of the tower structure in the middle of the area was a figure extending its arm so that a hawk could land on it before he took a sip of a bottle in his hand.
"Whoa, I guess I celebrated a little too hard last night." Mordecai's voice came through their ECHO Communicators, "So you guys are the ones that Roland sent? Well I've figured out a few things, but the most important is that the Vault Key is being transported on a Hyperion train today."
"Ok...so how do we stop it?" Axton asked.
"...we could short circuit the rail, or access the controls from an external source." John suggested.
"I don't think that we could do that so easily," Maya replied, "can you?"
"...no, not without...her..." John replied, trailing off at the end.
"Her?" Gaige asked.
"Never mind, what if we just blow the rail?" John asked.
"We would need precision and great knowledge of explosives." Maya replied.
Roland's voice came through the ECHO, "Why don't you visit my friend, I've helped her out and she's helped me. I'm sure she'd help you out on my behalf. You'll find her in a cave on the other side of the rock structure."
Everyone looked at each other and shrugged in agreement before making their way around the mountain-like rock structure and found the cave. A voice of pain caused them to hurry into the cave as the voice became shouts.
"Let me go and I'll kill you quickly!" a bandit shouted. He was tied to a wooden pole as a little girl, no older than thirteen, skipped around him singing a modified version of "Pop goes the Weasel" before she pushed a detonator when she sang "POP!".
"Oh hey! You guys must be Roland's friends!" the girl commented, "Name's Tina. So, I hear you are going to hijack a train."
"That's...yeah that's the idea." Axton replied.
"Cool, I'd love to help!" Tina replied before entering her workshop as the others followed closely until they stopped in front of the workbench with two stuffed bunnies, "This is and this is Feliciasexopants. These fine ladies will help you stop that train, but some bandits came and stole their budonkadonks."
"Budonkadonks?" Gaige asked, confused.
"Yep, so if you want to stop that train, you'll have to get them back." Tina replied.
"So where are they?" John asked.
"Bandit camp behind this mountain.' Tina replied.
"WE JUST PASSED THAT FUCKEN CAMP!" Gaige exclaimed.
"We got to do what we got to do." Axton commented as he led the way. Gaige had to dragged back out that cave by John.
"You whine too much." Axton commented.
"Excuse me for not being military trained or part of an endangered race...no offence." Gaige shot back as John dragged her by her arm.
"I'm kind of worried about Tina." Maya commented, "She's a little...overjoyed. Considering she lives here, surrounded by a bunch of bandits."
"It looks like she knows how to handle herself." Axton replied, "Right Roland?"
"Oh yeah." Roland replied through the ECHO, "Tina may be a bit odd, but she's the best explosives expert on Pandora."
Once they reached the bandit camp, Tina came up on the ECHO, "Yeah that's right, my big bruddah is gonna teach you some MANNERS! NOBODY STEALS FROM AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!"
"Who the hell is ?" a bandit asked as he came out the door before getting a hole blown into his chest by Maya.
"I got one!" Gaige called out from a distance. She was next to a work bench, holding a missile in her hands.
"Hey! Give that back!" one of the bandits shouted as he charged at her, only to get Gaige's foot in his face then Deathtrap's claw through his chest.
"Take that one back, I'll get the other one." John ordered.
"You sure?" Maya asked, only to have her question answered by John breaking though the bandits, punching two in their faces, shooting down another, then using a Goliath's head as a stepping stone to jump behind them while placing a sticky grenade on him. John quickly grabbed the missile as the grenade went off, clearing a retreat path, and sprinted towards the others.
"They're still coming, we better go now." John suggested.
"Get moving then you guys!" Axton ordered as he jammed his tomahawk in a Psycho's head. Once outside the perimeter, the bandits sent out Buzzards to give chase. One of them went low to try and grab the missile Gaige had, but was shot out by Mordecai.
"Gotcha!" he cheered through the ECHO, "You can thank me later."
"Pff, show off." Gaige mumbled. Another Buzzard came low, but with the full intention of ramming into them. John quickly grabbed Gaige's rocket launcher and stepped in front of her, kneeled down, and fired at the oncoming Buzzard, disabling one of its engines. Time seemed to slow down as John hit the reload button, lifted Gaige onto his back, threw the rocket behind them (as it ignited to take off as a rocket itself) at another low flying Buzzard they didn't see, disabled it, and jumped over the Buzzard in front of them causing it to smash into the one behind them and creating a spectacular explosion just as John landed back on the ground in front of the cave entrance with Gaige on his back and the launcher re-digistructed in his hand.
"...AND THE CROWD GOES WILD WITH THAT FUCKEN AWESOME EXPLOOOOSIOOOONNNN!" Torgue's voice came over a radio inside the cave followed by the roar of a crowd.
"That was FUCKEN AWSOME!" Gaige cried out, "Let's do it again!"
"I'd rather not." John replied as he put her down and gave her back the launcher.
"You guys got'em?" Tina asked as they approached her workshop.
"Yep, here you go." Axton replied as he handed over the missiles.
"Alight now let me work on these." she added before a small silence took over.
"Aren't you going to...?" Maya asked.
"Get out." Tina replied and Axton lagged behind out of confusion, "Get outta my shop, or I'll kick your butt. That's how Tiny Tina roll." she sang.
"Fine fine." Axton replied and a metal shutter closed the way in, followed by the sound of a blow torch.
"Squishy...squishysquishysquishy." came Tina's voice followed by a bang, "Uhh...whoops."
"So, What do we do while we wait?" Axton asked.
"How about we find out...WHATYOULOOKLIKE!?"Gaige shouted as she pulled John's helmet off and she looked at him expectantly before her face became one of disappointment, "ARE YOU FUCKEN KIDDING ME!?" Axton fell over laughing and Maya looked at John in confusion.
"You...wear a helmet...under your helmet?" she asked.
"...I didn't even know." John replied with a shrug.
"Will you ever show us what you look like?" Gaige asked.
"Not likely." John replied as the shutter opened up and revealed Tina with the two missiles on each side of her.
"That's right, twins man." Tina commented, "Take'em. Take'emtake'emtake'em!" John grabbed one and Axton took the other. "Just place them near the train rail and push their little tummies to activate them, I'll handle the rest."
"Can I shoot one of the missiles!?" Gaige quickly asked and Tina thought for a moment.
"What makes you think you're qualified?" she asked and Gaige pulled out her launcher, "Good enough, I'll allow it. NOW LET'S FUCKEN BLOW UP A TRAIN!"
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"Alright, we're in position." Axton called over through the ECHO before kicking a bandit off the balcony they were on and dropping a grenade after him.
"Alright, just push their bellies and well light up that train." Tina's voice commanded through the ECHO and Maya activated the missiles, "Oh, I hear the train coming. Counting down, ten...nine..." One of the missiles suddenly took off without warning followed by the second missile shortly after and collapsing the train rail, causing the oncoming train to fall into the glacial canyon while the first missile hit the rear cars, "I got bored."
"Aw man, I wanted to get the first hit." Gaige whined and Tina laughed.
"Not when I'm here!" she replied.
"Alright, let's not waste anymore time." John commanded, "Gaige, get here as quick as you can, we're going to get a head start to the train."
"Alright." Gaige replied through the ECHO.
"Get your but, to the train, or you'll go insane. Wut wut." Tina sang, "That's a song I wrote."