Chapter 5: Putting Nickoli Together
Angel watched TV until she heard the front door open and looked to see her parents walking through. "Hey Angel." Her dad greeted. "We didn't expect to see you until tonight. Did you have fun on your adventure?" Angel stood up and sighed "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." Her parents face's changed from joyous to concerned. Her mother walked around and sat on the couch next to Angel.
"What happened?" She questioned. Angel took a deep breath and explained everything that happened to her and her friends in the Fridge. Her parents were incredibly quiet and she noticed her father's face was stone cold. She never like seeing that face since it always led to her being in trouble. "Have you told anyone about this?" Her father finally asked.
"Justin's and Patrick's family probably know by now. Other than us and Nickoli, no one else knows."
"Alright, I'll call up Axton and Krieg. See what they know about this. I want to meet this… Nickoli and see what he knows."
Her dad headed for the phone and picked it up. "What's going to happen now?" Angel questioned. "We'll have to tell Lilith about this." Her mother proclaimed. "She has to learn about these… Elemental Men. They are like the creatures here, able to use elements, and we need to learn more about them. I'm sure Lilith will want to meet Nickoli as well." Angel nodded and exclaimed "The hospital said that they would call me when he was out of surgery." Her mother nodded as Angel's dad walked over to them. "Axton and Krieg know about the situation at hand. We'll meet with Lilith tomorrow to discuss the plan for these Elemental Men and see what comes up." He explained.
Angel nodded and went to her room to think about what they would next. She grabbed a book and read for a while until her ECHO went off. She answered "Hello?" A woman's voice proclaimed "Angel? It's Dr. Havoc." She sat up and exclaimed "Is Nickoli okay?"
"He's fine. The operation was a success and he's going to be just fine. He's recovering right now. You can come see him since he should be awake when you get here."
"Thank you Doc. I'm on my way."
Angel walked out of her room and proclaimed "Nickoli is going to be fine. I'm going to go see how he's doing." Her dad got up from the couch and proclaimed "I'm going with you. I want to meet Nickoli." Angel nodded and her and her father went to the hospital. They found where Nickoli was and went up to his room to find him lying in bed with Dr. Havoc sitting by his bed. Angel smiled when she saw Nickoli's eyes lazily open and he smiled.
"There's my little Angel." Nickoli proclaimed in a tired tone. "Here to bring the light to my life." Angel felt a blush reach her cheeks as Dr. Havoc chuckled "He's still under the side effects of the anesthetics, so he maybe a little loopy. I'll leave you with him." Dr. Havoc left and Angel too her place by Nickoli's side. "How are you feeling Nicki?" She questioned. "A lot better with you by my side." Nickoli exclaimed.
Angel brushed some of her hair behind her ear as her dad cleared his throat. "Oh, right. Nickoli, this is my dad." Nickoli lazily turned towards her dad and exclaimed "Hi Mr. Angel." Her dad chuckled and corrected "Its Mr. Zer0 to you. I just wanted to thank you personally for saving my daughter. If you ever need anything, you can come to me."
"Yes Sir Mr. Zer0!"
Angel's dad chuckled and shook his head, exclaiming "I'll be taking my leave now. Don't be out too late Angel. I will lock you out… again." Angel responded "Yes Dad." Her father left and she turned back to Nickoli, who had a large smile on his face. "You're so pretty." He complimented. Angel rolled her eyes and laughed "That just the anesthetics talking."
"I mean it Angel. I think you're really pretty and you're really sweet and…"
"You should get some sleep Nickoli."
"Can you please stay for a bit?"
She looked at Nickoli to see him staring at the ceiling with a sad look on his face. "I don't want to be alone anymore." He cried as he brought the back of his left hand to his face. "I just don't want to be alone." She took his right hand and comforted "You don't have to be alone. I'll stay right here with you." He didn't seem to notice and continued to cry "I don't want to be alone." Angel put her other hand on his shoulder and repeated "I'm right here Nicki. You aren't alone."
He turned towards her and sniffed "Thank you Angel." She smiled and replied "It's okay. I want to hear a little more about your family. Not your dad, but about the rest of your family. What were they like?"
"Mom was really sweet. She basically raised me and my brother, Zakhar, the best she could since dad was never around. Mom always had to pull me and my brother out of trouble since we got into fights a lot. Me and my brother seemed to go in different directions growing up. I always kept quiet and to myself, but Zakhar was always easy to get angry."
"Was he your older brother?"
"Yeah. He's probably 25 by now, I've lost track of the days since I left. He was a soldier, special operations and could never really talk about work. He always fought my fights for me. Always said I needed to toughen up."
"You are strong Nicki. You were able to survive in the Fridge for a long period of time where most can't survive an hour."
"Thank you Angel."
They continued to talk until they both fell asleep. Angel was woken up by someone pushing on her shoulder. She shot up and heard Gaige proclaim "Sorry to wake you up Angel." Angel rubbed her eyes and yawned "It's okay. What is it Auntie Gaige?"
"I've just got Nickoli's arms ready for him. Could you wake him up?"
Angel replied "Sure." She looked over at him to see him sleeping peacefully with her fingers still intertwined with his. She smiled and pushed on his shoulder, proclaiming "Wake up Nicki. Gaige has your arms." Nickoli groaned "Don't call me Nicki." She laughed "Well then wake up." Nickoli rubbed his eyes and sat up in his bed, grumbling "I'm up. I'm up."
He turned towards Gaige and proclaimed "You have my arms?" Gaige set them in his lap and exclaimed "Yep. Made them from scratch for you." Nickoli observed his new arms and thought "These things are completely different from what my other arms looked like." His others arms were rusted and felt bulky, feeling a tingling in his left hand at all times. These were a dark metal and very shiny.
He picked it up and it was pretty light weight compared to his others. "Here," Gaige proclaimed, "try them out." She reached over and pulled off one of his arms and replaced it with his new arm. It felt so much better than his old one, felt more… natural. Gaige replaced his other arm and he stared at his new parts.
"I had Havoc replace your adapters too." Gaige exclaimed. "So you should have better feelings in your arms. Try them out." Nickoli questioned as he tapped his thumbs to each finger "What exactly are you saying?"
"You have feeling in your arms. You can feel things now, where as you couldn't with your other arms."
Nickoli looked at his hands and thought "I can feel again?" He looked at Angel and brought a hand to her cheek, feeling the warmth and softness of her skin. Her cheeks turned red and he felt her skin grow warmer as he exclaimed "Your skin is so soft. I figured it would be soft." Gaige proclaimed "Then it looks like my work here is done! Have a nice night you two. Angel, your dad has probably locked you out by now, so you are welcome to stay with us as usual and so is Nickoli." Angel proclaimed "Thanks Auntie Gaige. I'll be around soon."
Gaige walked out, leaving the two kids alone in the room. "I wonder what kind of upgrades Gaige put into these." Nickoli pondered out loud. "Why don't we go test them out?" Angel suggested. "The close combat training area doesn't close and no one really uses it at this hour. We'd have the whole place to ourselves."
"Then let's get going!"
Nickoli hopped out of bed and checked out of the hospital. The two headed for the close combat training area and entered the building to find it deserted. Angel walked to the center of the room and drew her blade. She turned to face Nickoli and proclaimed "Are you ready to go?" Nickoli took a fighting stance and declared "I'm not going easy on you."
"I don't count on it."
She shot forward with massive speed and swung her blade at him. Nickoli reacted and blocked the swing with his forearms, filling the arena with a massive clang. She swung to his side and he blocked that blow too. The two continually clashed blows and Nickoli thought "I don't think I can keep this up much longer." She swung at him and he grabbed her blade mid swing.
The blade stung his hand, but he knew there was no damage since his arms were fine. She threw a punch at her, but she ducked under it. She delivered a punch to his stomach that knocked the wind out of him. He stumbled back, trying to catch his breath when he saw Angel start to swing a kick at him. He moved back so the kick just missed him and he raised his arm.
He was hoping Gaige included his energy guns in his new arm, but what he got was very different. His hand opened up into a cannon and it was pointed directly at Angel. He threw his hand up and the cannon fired, making a very large hole in the ceiling of the building. "Are you TRYING to kill me?" Angel barked. "It was an accident I swear!" Nickoli defended.
"You blew a hole in the ceiling!"
"It was that or I shoot you and I REALLY didn't want to do that!"
Angel pinched the bridge of her nose and grumbled "Can we try this again without you trying to shoot me?" Nickoli sighed "Alright. And sorry about almost shooting you." The two took fighting positions again and charged each other. Angel swung her blade and Nickoli deflected it then tried to swing at her. She ducked under the punch and delivered one to his stomach again.
"Man I just don't learn." Nickoli thought as he doubled over. Angel delivered a knee straight to his face and knocked him flat on his back. He was going to jump up but Angel jumped on top of him and put her blade to his throat. "I win." She proclaimed with a smug smile. "Alright. You win Angel." Nickoli chuckled.
She got off of him and held out her hand to help him up. He got up to his feet and asked "Is there any place we can get something to eat? I'm pretty hungry." Angel answered "I'm sure there's someplace that is still open. Let's go grab some food." The two left the area in search of any food purveyor that was still open. They found a burger joint that was still open and grabbed a bite to eat.
The two sat on a bench and ate their food and chatted. "So your parents are Maya and Zer0. The Vault Hunters that brought down Handsome Jack and brought the Crimson Raiders to power." Nickoli confirmed. "Yep. Mom and Dad started dating a little bit after the fall of Handsome Jack. It was a year later that I was born." Angel explained.
"So all of your skills with a sword come from you dad?"
"Yes, and Mom is going to teach me a little more about my Siren powers soon."
Angel held out her arm and displayed her tattoos to Nickoli. "Child of an assassin and a Siren. Having qualities of both. Amazing." Nickoli proclaimed. "Yep. I'm sure that you have some qualities from your parents too." Angel assured, nudging him with her shoulder.
"If only it was my dad's brain to help with my robotic parts."
"No, but you are sweet like your mother."
Nickoli looked at her with a raised eyebrow and questioned "How do you know my mother is sweet?" Angel answered "Because you told me she was. And that your brother, Zakhar, is Special Forces."
"When did I tell you this?"
"When you were high off anesthetics."
"Did I say anything else?"
Angel felt a blush creep across her face and exclaimed "You also said that I was pretty, and that I was your little Angel that brought the light into your life." She looked at Nickoli to see his face was pretty red as he scratched the back of his head. "You were pretty loopy." Angel exclaimed, trying to break the silence. "Saying crazy stuff like that." There was silence between them again until Nickoli proclaimed "I wasn't really speaking crazy." Angel felt her face turn a bright red as Nickoli went on "I… I really like you Angel. I think you're smart, you're sweet, an amazing fighter and… I also think you're really pretty."
Angel couldn't look up from her own feet, especially since she knew what she was about to do. "Nickoli," Angel sighed, "thank you for the compliments, but I just don't feel the same way about you." She heard Nickoli audibly sigh as she went on "You are a really great guy, but I just don't think of you in any other way other than a friend." Nickoli grumbled "Really should have just said that it was the anesthetics talking."
"Sorry about all that."
"It's okay."
He put a hand on her shoulder, causing Angel to look up to see his smiling face. "I'm perfectly happy to just be friends." He added. Angel smiled and proclaimed "Good. We should probably head over to Aunt Gaige's and Uncle Axton's since we have to go talk to Aunt Lilith tomorrow."
"Alright. Lead the way."
The two got up and Angel led the way towards their home for the night.
So there you have it! A little deviation from the original story, but have no fear! I have a plan (sort of) for the two of them. You all know the drill, review or PM any thoughts or suggestions on the chapter or what you want to see.
- Chief