AN: I decided to update this story and Mad Arc on account of the recent trailer for Borderlands 3 as well as the release of the game of the year remaster for the original Borderlands. Got it on the Friday after it came out and powered through a Mordecai playthrough of main story and Jacobs Cove in that same weekend. Loving the remaster and the 'Violence' revolver is one of my new favorite pistols. Although I also found out something weird. Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel? I'm a damn good shot with a sniper riffle most of the time, and even at my worst I'm decent. But in the original Borderlands? I SUCK with the sniper riffle but am frequently sniping with a friggin revolver of all things all throughout the game. After a bit, my fiancé and I just accepted it as yet another weird thing about me and moved on. Anyway, on with the story!
Deadshot
Chapter 5
-Harry-
Bang! The sharp kick of his riffle's recoil slammed into his shoulder as a bandit dropped like a rock, a new hole in his chest. Beside him, the baby bullymong cheered happily at the battle while his friends were down in the abandoned town, firing at bandits and Bullymongs alike.
"Very nice." Angel grinned as he saw her face appear in his vision, "You're quite the shot."
"I live to please." He smirked, shouldering his riffle as he scooped up the happy baby bullymong, "Impressing a lovely lady is always a sign you're doing something right."
"Try more headshots, less chest hits. Maybe then I'll be impressed." Angel laughed, her smirk teasing.
"Ouch," Harry began climbing down the bluff to meet his friends in the town as they looted the dead bandits "the lady's more than just bark."
"Trust me, you can't handle my bite." Angel winked before disappearing.
"Be still my beating heart." Harry chuckled to himself as the bullymong baby leapt down from his arms to go play with Krieg. "Alright Losers, find anything good?" he called to the others as they began dividing up the guns.
"DAMNIT!" an angry bandit's voice came out over the ECHO channel "This ain't over, grinder!"
"Hey, Hammerlock!" with the gunfight over, Claptrap felt secure enough to pop out from cover and wheel over, bumping into walls and tripping over bandit corpses "Since my minion just saved your town, you wanna do your bestie Claptrap a favor and repair my eye?!"
The Echo caller changed to show a picture of a man with a monocle and a very impressive mustache "Yes, I suppose I am in your debt now, aren't I?" a voice with what sounded like a British accent sighed "Come to my shack, and I shall restore Claptrap's sight. First, I shall shut off the electrical fence for you. Please stay back Vault Hunters, let Claptrap go first."
"Hu-hah!" Claptrap cheered, wheeling over to the fence that Harry could see was still sparking "I knew Hammerlock would come around eventually. Me and him are like two peas in a pod! Two bullets in a mag! Two cannibal midgets in a fat guy's ribcage!" with that, Claptrap hit the fence and began twitching and jerking before falling to the snow.
"Apologies," Hammerlock called them again, sounding cheerful "but whenever Claptrap speaks I feel my brain cells committing suicide one by one. I will be out directly!" looking through the gaps in the fence he saw the steel door to the shack open up as a man happily marched out, the limbs of his right side mechanical while the 'monocle' was revealed to be a pair of round lens glasses with one lens broken. "A pleasure to meet you, Vault Hunters. I am Sir Hammerlock." The man snapped to a smart salute, "At your service."
"A pleasure to meet you old bean." Harry called out cheerfully, happy to hear the familiar sound of a British accent.
"Ah, a man of refinement!" Hammerlock smiled happily and jogged over, pulling out a remote and clicking a button as the fence stopped sparking. "It's a pleasure to meet a fellow gentleman."
Gaige let out a very un-lady like snort at that statement, "Watch it sis." He scowled at her playfully, deciding to be the mature one and ignore her sticking her tongue out at him.
"I came out here to research the Bullymongs for my almanac, but Captain Flynt's men trapped me o this glacier. Many thanks for disposing of them by the way. To survive a direct run in with Handsome Jack AND defeat Captain Flynt's Bandits? Unheard of!"
"Handsome Jack?" Harry feigned ignorance, "Who's that?"
"Pointy chin, heterochromia, apparently he really likes Halloween given that he never takes off that mask." Gaige pipes up.
"Oooooooh, you mean Average Joe!" Harry made a 'eureka' tone and slammed a fist down into his palm.
"Yeah, isn't he a Janitor for one of the companies?" Axton mused thoughtfully, "I heard he tried to apply as a toilet scrubber for Bandit, but they turned him down so now he works emptying garbage cans at…what, Maliwan?"
"Nah, I heard it was Jacobs." Maya frowned with mock seriousness.
"But have you seen the size of his Station?" Sal jerked a thumb at the Helios moon base, "And I thought I tended to compensate."
"BORING MOUES MAN GO SQUISH UNDER THE POOP TRAIN!" Krieg, the ever soft spoken master of eloquence, added with all the dignity and grace of a seasoned master of scholarly debate.
"Long live the poop train!" the rest of the Hunters cheered, even the baby bullymong making happy squeaky roars.
"…You people are very strange." Hammerlock shook his head, holding out a hand for Claptrap's eye. "I saw the Bullymongs outside town." Harry grunted, cracking his neck, "Pass me the sniper rifle shells. I'm going to climb the main building and take them out. The rest of you, go door to door to make sure we don't have any other bandits hiding out inside the buildings."
"Right." The rest nod, dividing into groups while Gaige remained with Hammerlock to protect him if need be. Scaling the building, Harry set up a little crowd nest as he looked out, getting an amazing view from the gulley bellow the town, to the graveyard, to the shore outside the town.
"Alright Angel," Harry smirked as he peered through the scope at the biggest bullymong "time to impress."
-Roland-
"So, Jack left them all to die in the snow huh?" the ex-Lance soldier frowned as he cleaned his riffle, his ECHO currently active with a call from Sir Hammerlock.
"indeed." Hammerlock gave an amused huff, "Although the group have apparently taken to calling him 'Average Joe'." Roland coughed roughly as he worked to stifle his amusement.
"You need help getting past Flynt?" Roland frowned and started feeding bullets into a magazine "If the Captain is anything like the Baron…"
"I believe they'll be fine." Sir Hammerlock responded after a moment's silence, likely considering the matter "They're a large group and are well armed. I'll have them clear out Midge-Mong's town and then I'll go with them to take out the rest of the Ripper clan. Just be ready to let us into sanctuary…and have a lot of drinks ready, it'll be a long boat ride with only ourselves and claptrap for company."
"I'll have a crate of Moxxi's strongest reserved for you." Roland promised as the call ended. Loading his riffle, Roland started a new ECHO call, the ECHO profile images for his old team popping up for the conference call. Lilith picked up but showed no sign of speaking, Brick's went to voicemail, and Mordecai was as drunk as he always was now. "Alright guys, I just got some interesting news. We've got a new set of Vault Hunters and these have actually managed to get Jack's attention." Shouldering his riffle, Roland began loading his pack for his upcoming recon mission, telling his team about what Hammerlock had just reported to him.