Rebel Anarchy

by Kilo8

With no one left and no place to call home, the last surviving rebel fighter from a ruined world begins his journey to avenge his planet and comrades; to Pandora: where he plans to hunt down the leadership of Hyperion, the cause of his misfortune. However, he and the rest of Pandora will soon be thrown into a storm of anarchy when a certain redhead and her robot show up.

10. Chapter 10 The Spirit of Fire

-TRANSMISSION ONLINE-

-Beginning ECHO Review Log-

Once again on everyone's favorite little space station… Everyone is just sitting around.

(Gaige) . . . Sooo BORED!

(Torgue) I haven't blown anything up in % * days.

(Tina) UGH! I can't take it anymore! When is something interesting gonna happen!?

*BOOM*

Everyone jumped as a TIE fighter suddenly crashed into the control room, (While still maintaining a seal from the vacuum of space: force fields and all that jazz). The TIE fighter's window was kicked out as Kilo8 emerged from the cockpit.

"KILO!" Everyone yelled.

(Tina) WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!

(Gaige) And why do you have a TIE fighter?

(Kilo8) NO TIME TO EXPLAIN! I got the new chapter here!

He holds up an old NES game cartridge with the Rebel Anarchy logo on it.

(Gaige) Why do you have it on an NES cartridge? Where did you even get that?

Kilo slapped the cartridge into the console and turned to everyone.

(Kilo8) I'll explain later, now TO THE MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER! GO! GO! GO!

Everyone but Kilo ran from the room after that.

(Kilo8) Now I know all of you viewers have questions about my absence, and I'll answer them at the end of the chapter along with a few other notes and answer a few review questions I have been asked. So with that, please enjoy the new chapter.

-ECHO Transmission interrupted-

X-X-X

Disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands or any of its characters, Borderlands is owned by Gearbox Software and 2K Games, the only ownership I claim is of my OCs. This is a story just for your fun and enjoyment. Please enjoy.

Chapter Beta Read by "Redemption's Avenger"

X-X-X

-Stories text formats-

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Echo/Radio"

'Krieg's inner voice'

X-X-X

Chapter 10

The Spirit of Fire

It had been several days since the Vault Hunters had arrived at Sanctuary and they've mostly been going on random missions, from simple deliveries to hunting down assassins. Currently, Kai, Tannis, and a few other high-ranked members of the Raiders were in the command center chatting with Roland via ECHO.

"And that basically what been going on sir." Finished a Raider named Captain Miller.

"I see. Kai, anything else to report yourself?" Roland said

"Nothing really, other than the fact that the new Vault Hunters and I did clear out those assassins that you posted about on the bounty board yesterday."

"Good, that's one less thing to worry about."

"Speaking of worry, when will you be back sir? You've been gone for over a week now," Miller said.

"I'm on my way back now Captain, I'm just -" Suddenly the sound of gunshots filled the background. "Ah, dammit. I'm being attacked, I'll see-" The transmission sputtered and then suddenly cut to static.

"Roland, ROLAND! . . . Shit! Someone get him back!" Captain Miller ordered.

A raider began frantically typing on a control screen. After several minutes he turned and shook his head. "It's no good sir, we lost the signal."

"Well, what now?" Kai asked.

"Roland left very specific instructions to use plan B if he disappeared," Miller said.

"Isn't plan B that cockamamie idea that Scooter came up with?" Tannis asked.

Kai and Miller looked at each other and then back to Tannis. "Your point?" Miller said.

"Ugh, forget it. Do whatever you need to do, I'll just be in my lab focusing on real issues." Tannis said as she walked out of the room.

Miller turned back to Kai. "You better go see Scooter. I'll keep an ear out here in case Roland calls back."

"Got it, sir." Kai said as he turned to head out.

"Oh and take the new guys with you. They should still be asleep, but they can help." Miller called after him.

"Yes, sir!" Kai said as he already had an idea how to wake them.

Gaige was currently slumped over the workbench in her room having a… mostly dreamless slumber.

"Muuuh, fear my ultimate creation, mmmmh, Mega DeathTrap… Ha... ha... ha." Gaige mumbled. Everything was peaceful and quiet until the silence was suddenly broken by the sound of several shotgun blasts outside of the room.

"AH!" The young Mechromancer screamed as she bolted up, causing her to fall back onto the floor. She quickly scrambled back to her feet, pulled out her Rogue Smuggler, and rushed out of her room into the hallway. She looked around and saw the others were also up. Salvador was dressed and had a Tediore SMG and a Vladof fire pistol in hand. But his hair looked frenzied and he was missing his left boot making Gaige guess he passed out last night. Maya, who had a Dahl SMG in hand was only in her combat bodysuit and was missing her cargo pants. Krieg was dressed and had his buzz axe out and ready. Axton had his new E-Tech pistol out and was only wearing his boxers which had Dahl weapon silhouettes colored in black, green, and brown, to look like a camo print.

Everyone looked around alert and confused until they all heard someone laughing. As one, they all turned to see Kai at the end of the hallway with a Tediore shotgun in hand. "I have to say, I'm impressed with everyone's overall reaction time. Although some of you aren't dressed, sooo, I have to give you all a three point six out of five. *TWACK* OWW!" Kai yelled as Zer0 appeared behind Kai and smacked him on the top of his head with the flat side of his sword.

"Enjoyment from another person's misery / This is unbecoming of a true warrior / Don't interrupt my sleep." Zer0 said. He was already in his suit with his helmet on, which surprised no one. When not on a job, Gaige, Axton, and Salvador had tried several times to take a peek at Zer0 without his helmet. Of course, every attempt has been met with painful failure, from booby traps, bullets, or other sharp instruments. He once even rigged the door to the washroom with a Bandit lectrik grenade when showering, much to Salvador's and Axton's shock.

Axton yawned as he safetied his pistol. "Alright kid, so what's up with the boot camp wake-up call?"

"Roland has gone missing." Kai stated causing everyone to suddenly be alert.

"Roland's gone missing!? How?" Maya asked.

Kai quickly gave them all a quick rundown of the ECHO call and the current situation.

"So what's this 'Plan B'." Salvador finally asked.

"Get the city airborne." Everyone stared at Kai as they waited for the 'Gotcha' but it never came.

"Wait, you're serious? Do you know how stupid that sounds?" Axton asked, astounded at the absurdity of the idea.

"I have to agree with Axton Kai, that is probably the most stupid thing you've ever said," Gaige said.

"And yet it's true." He said as he put the shotgun away. "Believe me, I had the same reaction when Reiss first told me of this plan. Look I'll tell you about details on the way to Scooter's. Go ahead and get what you all need. And Gaige."

"Yeah?"

"You've got something stuck to your cheek," Kai said as he pointed to her left cheek

Gaige brought her hand up to her cheek and felt something stuck to her, she peeled it off and looked at it, it was a lug nut. Her face lit up in embarrassment as she heard Maya let a giggle slip out. "I'm uh... I'm... just gonna go get ready." She said as she backed into her room and quickly shut her door. She then heard several of the others laughing outside.

"I can't believe that just happened," she muttered as she leaned against the door and slid to the floor.

"Well it could have been worse." came a voice that made Gaige jump up and look around.

After realizing no one was with her she randomly asked out loud. "Angel? Is that you? Where have you been? Wait, how are you talking to me? I stuffed my ECHO under my mattress since it kept going off every minute with a new subscriber or a comment.

"I'm connected to your audio implants."

"Wait my Whisper implants still work!?" She exclaimed as she reached for her ear. Several months before the 'accident' had happened Gaige had secretly gotten a new set of Maliwan X9 Whispers, a small set of ear implants that allowed her to listen to calls, music, or any other ECHO hands-free and without anyone noticing… if you were careful. Gaige had spent eight months of her allowance to get herself a pair, against her parent's wishes. But it had only taken them about a week to figure out she had gotten a set. She was grounded for the next month, but luckily they were gracious enough to let her keep them. "I thought they were broken after the train wreck!"

"No, your Whispers were just incompatible with your current ECHO unit. However, I was able to fix that issue with a few program updates."

"Oh cool! Thanks! Now, where have you been? We haven't heard from you since we reached Sanctuary."

"Yes, sorry for not talking to you and the others. I've been trying to figure out the best course of action in regards to finding the Vault. Now what's going on, I only patched myself in near the end of your conversation to see your."

"Please don't remind me. Anyways, Roland got attacked and is now missing, so we're all going to help Kai and this Scooter guy with some plan B which supposedly involves making the city fly.

"Crap. I mean, uhm, darn. If Roland has been captured then the Crimson Raiders won't stand a chance. You and the others need to find him, he's crucial to the fight against Handsome Jack."

"Well, first we have to get this city to… fly. Seriously how does that even work!?" She asked as she changed her clothes.

"I'm sure your boyfriend will tell you and the others." Angel said which caused Gaige to freeze as she was changing her shirt.

"Wh-what did you say?"

"I said your boyfriend will tell you."

"He's not my boyfriend! Why does everyone keep saying that!" Gaige said as her face reddened.

"Well, he is kinda cute. It's not that hard to imagine you two together. Oh, you could even get one of those shipping names, like Kage, no… Kaige! That's perfect!"

"You are really into this, aren't you?"

"When you're an AI who can access almost everything on the ECHONET and has watched all the good stuff, you tend to run out of good entertainment options very quickly." Angel replied dryly.

"Right…" Gaige said awkwardly, her blush still coloring her cheeks. "Well, I better get going."

"I'll contact you if I have any useful information."

"Right. Thanks, Angel."

X-X-X

After Gaige finished getting ready she came down to find that everyone but Kai was outside the HQ and ready. Gaige decided to try out a new setting on DT and so summoned him.

"Why did you summon DeathTrap?" Maya asked.

"I'm testing out a new low-power mode. It cuts off most of his weapon systems, but it should let him be active for about twenty minutes or so. I just want to test and see how long exactly. Got the idea from Hati's low power mode." Gaige said as she hopped onto DeathTrap's outstretched right claw. DT then lifted her so that she could take a seat on his right shoulder.

"Bow before me! I am your new queen!" Gaige said in a mock royal voice causing everyone to laugh.

"Alright your majesty, enough ordering around the peasants, we got work to do," Kai said as he walked out of the HQ with a small box in hand. He pulled out something from the box and tossed it to Gaige. She caught it and looked to find a ration bar.

"This will have to do for breakfast until we're all done," Kai said as he handed out one to everyone.

Gaige ripped the wrapper open and took a test bite from her bar.

"Ick!" Gaige spat, very unhappy with the bar. "This has no flavor, how can anyone eat this?!"

"It's not that bad, at least they don't taste like wax like the Dahl ration bars. Hey Kai, I'll take another." Kai tossed one to Axton, who quickly pocketed it in his pack. "You each should keep an extra one or two on you, believe me, these things are your friend on long-ass missions or firefights."

"They've saved me on several botched recon missions." Kai said as he tossed an extra one to everyone.

Gaige pocketed the extra bar and looked back to Kai. "So where are we going anyways?"

"Scooter garage, it down by the main gate. Come on." Kai said as they started making their way through town.

As they all walked, Axton went ahead and asked, "So what's the story on this crazy plan you claim to be real?"

"Well you see, Sanctuary is built on an old Dahl mining ship. Their biggest one in fact. Now, the ship is nowhere close to being space-capable any longer after years of abandonment and neglect. However, the main anti-gravity drive is still in good repair. So theoretically the ship should be able to lift the city off the ground and keep it airborne for… Well, years."

"And how is making the city fly going to help?" Sal asked.

"Because it's better to be a moving target than a stationary target," Kai replied as they came to the front of the garage. "Now just a word of warning, Scooter can be a little… Weird... So try not to shoot him. Okay?" Kai said as he grabbed the door and lifted it.

Immediately the Vault Hunters were met with the smell of oil, grease, alcohol, and several other indistinguishable, but disturbing scents. The garage was fairly large and had a second-level area along the back. The ground floor had several wrecked vehicles in different states of repair lying around, and all kinds of tires and car parts heaped up in piles. In the middle of the room, there was a man with his head down sitting on a chair with his legs propped up on a large tractor tire on its side. The man in question was awoken by the door opening and groggily looked up. He looked to be only in his mid to late twenties and had a fairly squarish face. He also wore a green trucker's hat that had the silhouette of a large-bodied woman on its front. He was wearing a dirty old green shirt with a dirty yellow work vest, and tan work pants. He looked around until his eyes landed on DT.

"Oh, crap, is you Hyperion? I heard all of you are robots and you eat metal out of the garbage and stuff. Knew you wired death machines would be coming for me once Roland went missing. If you're here to kill me you should probably know," He then suddenly jumped up onto the tire, pulled out a wrench, and started to threateningly wave his arms about as he yelled, "You'll never take me alive, you robotic sumbitch!"

Everyone just stared at the man as he stood on the tire in what could only be described as a poor attempt at an action pose.

"Dammit Scooter, quit screwing around, we got work to do!" Kai yelled as he walked in.

"Kai? Oh man, if you're here then these guys can't be Hyperion. . . Wait a minute! Well, hang me upside down from a telephone pole, cover me in honey, and leave me to a slow death at the hands of hungry spiderants, you all ain't Hyperion robots, you're Vault Hunters! Just one Vault Hunter is like a unicorn! But with all of you, it's like a herd of unicorns all riding go-karts on a rainbow road through space!" Scooter said with a sweeping gesture.

"Scooter, focus." Kai snapped his fingers several times to get his attention back. "Roland is currently presumed missing, remember."

"Oh yeah. Right. I heard a few of 'em Crimson Raider dudes talkin' about that. Does this mean we're going ta initiate Plan B, or, as I like to call it, Plan Turn-this-city-into-a-floatin'-ass-fortress-of-airborne-awesomeness. B."

"Yes. Yes, it does Scooter." Kai said with a nod.

"Aww sweeeeet! I been dying to do this! But first, we gotta few things that need to be done. I got some fuel cells around here. You'll need those. Once you find them head to the center a' town and plug those fuel cells into the ignition primers," Scooter said.

"You said a few things. What else is there?" Kai asked.

"Oh, and you'll need this here eridium." he said as he pulled out several glowing purple bars.

"And why would we need eridium for this?" Kai asked as he grabbed the Eridium and pocketed it.

"Well, your gon' need a third fuel cell, which is why I gave you that there rid-rock, you can buy the last cell from Earl's black market."

"Aww skaglicks." Kai mumbled as Scooter continued. "If there is something you need, then you can probably find it at Earl's. Careful though, Earl's crazy, he ate one of my cars once." He said to the others.

"Wait, he ate a car?" Salvador asked.

"Yea... The whole car... Just with, like, a fork... It was awesome.

Nobody could respond to that for a moment till Axton finally spoke up. "Whatever, we can all contemplate how a person could have eaten a car later, right now we got work to do. Kai, do you know where this Earl person is?"

Kai gave a small sigh. "Of course I do, he's the same guy I go to for my SDUs. I can get it from him since I know how to deal with him... He tends to be a bit of an asshole." Kai muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"I'll go with him." Gaige said.

"Of course, you would." Axton muttered to himself as he rolled his eyes. "The rest of us will find the other fuel cells and meet you in the town center. Just remember kid, no funny business." He pointed to Kai.

"Are you insinuating that I have a gutter for a brain Ax? Besides she would be better off hanging with me than being around Scooter." He said as he jabbed his thumb towards the man.

"Hey, you're a Siren right, think maybe I could see all your tattoos?" Scooter said with a cocky grin.

Maya just groaned and then walked away, while mumbling something about control and not shooting. Axton looked back to Kai. "Fine! You made your point."

"Thank you. . . And try to make sure she doesn't kill Scooter." Kai said, pointing to Maya. "He still has his uses."

Kai and Gaige soon left the garage and were either walking or floating in Gaige's and DT's case to the other side of Sanctuary. "So what's the story on this Earl guy?" Gaige said

"Crazy Earl? Well, he's crazy if you haven't caught on. He is also a recluse with a heart the size of a walnut, maybe even smaller. And I don't think anyone has ever seen him outside before."

They arrived at an armored door that had a worn-out doormat outside that read 'God bless this house and my' and then had a silhouette of an old twentieth-century rifle beneath that.

"Hmm, cozy," Gaige said dryly.

"The funny thing is, that the most inviting thing about this place." Kai said before he knocked on the door. The sound of someone shifting through junk could be heard with the occasional muffled swear. Then the slide on the door (I'm not sure what you call that part) opened and Gaige could only see the man's eyes from her angle.

"Whatchu want? Oh, it's you." The man said with disdain. "I don't have your order yet so get out of here!"

"I'm not here about that Earl, Scooter sent us, he said you got a fuel cell.

"Just buy somethin' and I'll toss in that crap fuel cell. Just touchin' it made two o' my fingers rot off. And I only accept Eridium, cash is for clowns!"

Kai sighed and then looked up to Gaige, who still sat on DT's shoulder. "I don't need anything here right now so how about we upgrade your ECHO's storage deck? Anything you want, Ammo for a particular weapon, more grenades, backpack space?"

Gaige thought about it for a moment. "I think I'll take an SMG upgrade."

Kai nodded and then inserted the Eridium into a small hatch by the door which snapped shut. A few seconds later it opened again to reveal a new SDU and a very old fuel cell that looked as if it was leaking, considering the amount of corrosion on it. Kai handed the SDU to Gaige but was more than hesitant about the fuel cell.

"Hey Earl, you wouldn't happen to have some heavy gloves… Would you?" Kai asked cautiously.

"Sorry, you're on your own, chumps!" Earl said with a laugh before he slammed the slide on the door shut, followed by the sound of a heavy mechanical lock.

"Dammit, Earl!" Kai yelled as he kicked the door. Sighing, he looked back to the old fuel cell with a look of displeasure. "Well fuck."

"I can hold it." Gaige said.

"Gaige, I'm not going to let you hold an acidic, possibly radioactive fuel cell without some kind of protection."

"Uh, helloooo."

Kai turned to Gaige and saw her waving her hand. Her 'robotic' hand. ". . . Oh. . . That could work."

Gaige was about to hop off of DT shoulder's when he let out several whirls and whistles. "Seriously?! It has even been twenty min-" Gaige was cut off when DT suddenly de-materialized into a blue pixelated cloud causing Gaige to fall onto her butt. "Oww. . ." Gaige groaned as she rubbed the small of her back. "Looks like I still got work to do on DT." Laughing, Kai offered the girl a hand.

"Man, this sucks. How do you get Hati to stay active for so long? A robot should be easier than a hard light construct." Gaige complained as Kai pulled her up.

"My mom was the one to do that little bit of rigging. I'll show you what she did later, although, I don't know if that trick will work on DT. But that can wait, go grab the fuel cell, we need to get this to Scooter." With that Gaige went and grabbed the fuel cell with her robot arm. "Awesome. Hey Scooter, we got the fuel cell." Kai said into his ECHO.

"Got the last cell? Kickass. Just jam it in ta fuel injector in the center of town. . . Say, Maya, you look smart, why don't ya stay here and 'supervise'... *BANG! BANG!* AH! IM SORRY! *BANG* OW! WHAT THE HEL- *BANG*." With that, the ECHO cut off.

"Yeah, I figured that would happen," Kai said.

"Why didn't you warn Scooter instead then?"

Kai looked at Gaige and then grinned. "Because it's funny to watch Scooter getting his ass handed to him."

They reached the town center a few minutes later and found the others inserting their fuel cells into the other two injectors. Kai and Gaige went over to the remaining injector: a small hatch on the ground that sat in front of the Sanctuary monument.

Kai popped the hatch and Gaige inserted the fuel cell. As soon as she placed it in the hatch automatically closed and a small pylon raised from the street. "So, do you think this will actually work?" Gaige asked.

"Who knows, but knowing Scooter, this will probably either work or blow up in all our faces."

"Wait, what?"

"Hey, Scooter! We're ready here," Kai said to his ECHO, ignoring Gaige's question.

"Thanks for cyclin' all that stuff for me. Third-degree burns are best taken in shifts. Now, to see the fruits of your loins, this city's gonna FLY!"

The town slowly began to rumble as a low electrical hum began to build in the air and the letters on the center monument began to glow a deep blue. Then a massive jolt shook all of Sanctuary, and the whirling hum started to quickly fade.

"…Or, not. Damn. Well, now we REALLY gotta find Roland." Scooter said.

"So what now?" Salvador asked.

Before anyone could respond Kai's ECHO beeped. "Kai here."

"Kai, you and the Vault Hunters need to get back to the command center. We just got a message that you all may want to hear." Captain Miller ordered, his voice grim.

"Wonder what the message is about?" Axton said as he and Zer0 walked over.

"Maybe it's Roland." Salvador suggested

"If it was Roland, the Captain would have told us." Kai said with Axton nodding in agreement.

They all quickly arrived back at the HQ and made their way to the War Room where they found Captain Miller. "Kai, Vault Hunters, how did plan B go?

"Well as you can tell we're not flying, but Scooter didn't blow us all up, soooo, eh." He shrugged.

"I see. Well, we just received this message a few minutes ago." He said, pressing a button on the holo table.

The voice that came out of the speakers was deep and heavily distorted. "This is the Firehawk. Come to Frost Burn Canyon or people will die."

The room was silent for several seconds until the speakers in the room came on again. "The Firehawk? You mean the mass-murderin' bounty hunter?! Oh, crap! If the Firehawk's got him, Roland is in DEEP. You gotta get to Frostburn Canyon and rescue his ass!" Yelled Scooter.

"Agreed. Vault Hunters, the Raiders will secure Sanctuary, while you go help and rescue Roland. Any questions?" Miller said.

"Ugh yeah, I got one, who is the Firehawk?" Maya asked.

"Who is… Right, you guys haven't even been here very long." Miller scratched the back of his head. "The Firehawk is supposedly this sadistic inhuman monster who hunts Bandits and then tortures them to death."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Salvador said.

"They say one time a random Vault Hunter winged the Firehawk with a bullet, just winged him! And he straight up ate the sumbitch alive. Like NOM NOM NOM!" Scooter said.

Salvador gulped nervously at this thought.

"Right. Anything else we should know?" Axton said.

"Well, Frostburn Canyon is home to a rather… particular bandit cult known as the Children of the Firehawk." Kai said causing Axton to groan in displeasure.

"Don't tell me, they just love their fire weapons and are resistant as hell to them in return." Axton asked, predicting the theme of the bandits. Both Kai and Miller just stayed silent which was all the answer they needed, causing Axton, Maya, and even Salvador to groan. "Son of a bitch. Right, equip your fire immunity shields if you got them." Axton said.

"Is it really going to be that bad?" Gaige asked.

"A frozen canyon filled with fire weapon-loving bandits, then we have to fight a psychotic bandit murderer…" Kai said.

"Sooo, it one of those Tuesday's then?" Salvador said.

"Oh yeah… I fucking hate Tuesdays." Kai groaned in affirmation.

X-X-X

An hour later, the Vault Hunters arrived at Frostburn Canyon.

"Welcome to Frost Burn Canyon, everybody. Stay on your guard because the Bandits here are both crazy and tend to set themselves and everyone around them on fire." Kai said.

"What bandits?" Gaige asked.

Sure enough, there wasn't a sound in the canyon except for the wind.

"Is it just me, or is it too quiet?" Axton asked.

As if on cue there was a massive explosion in the distance that shook the canyon, causing chunks of ice to fall off the canyon walls. Gunfire and more explosions could be heard in the distance, quickly followed by several screams of terror as a Burning Psycho who wore a skull-like mask ran by yelling, "They want to eat my uncooked flesh!"

He was quickly followed by three Psychos with Bloodshot tattoos. "You'll warm our cold bellies!" The lead one yelled as they chased after him.

". . . Now everything's too loud… I preferred it when it was quiet." Axton said, as he predicted that there would be a lot more firefights in the near future.

"Bloodshots!? What are they doing here?" Kai exclaimed in surprise and anger.

Angel said something on Gaige's Whisper, which Gaige quickly elaborated. "Maybe they heard about Roland being captured and are attempting to kidnap him for their own."

Kai looked at Gaige in surprise. "That actually makes sense." Kai said as he thought about it.

"Well, whatever the case is we're going in." Axton said. "Now which way should we go?"

"The Bloodshots probably left landmarks for their reinforcements." Angel told Gaige. "Try looking around for one. Those should lead you to the Firehawk."

Gaige nodded and took a look around till her eyes landed on a wall that had a Bloodshot logo painted on it. "We could follow those markers." Gaige said pointing out the paint marker. Kai was about to say something when everyone's ECHOs crackled to life.

"Step off, Vault Hunters! This is between the Bloodshots and the Firehawk! Once my boys bring his ass back to me, he's gonna pay for every Bloodshot he killed! We're gonna string him up from his own freakin' intestines!" Said Flanksteak, the leader of the Bloodshot according to the ECHO's ID.

"Well, That was… Needlessly graphic." Angel said to Gaige.

"How did he know we were here?" Maya asked.

"Who knows? now come on we're wasting time." Axton said

About thirty minutes later, after fighting off Bloodshots, Children of the Firehawk members, and a lot of hungry Spiderants, they all reached a large open section of the canyon which was filled with all kinds of walkways, structures, and lots of Bandits. There were Bloodshots and Firehawk worshippers all over the place duking it out in a full-on melee.

"That's a lot of Bandits." Stated Axton.

"There must be at least a hundred of them! I've never seen so many bandits in one place!" Kai said.

Gaige observes the whole scene until she notices someone. "Who's that?" Gaige asked pointing out a particular bandit.

Everyone looked to see a large nomad with an old gas mask, brandishing what appeared to be an oversized Bandit spinigun with a belt-fed that was attached to a large metal backpack. He was laughing like a madman as he unloaded at the pyro psychos that charged him. "Suck on lead fire lovers! You ain't got shit!"

"Rad Max! What is he doing here!?" Kai said in shock.

"You've fought him before?" Axton asked.

"About a month after I got here. One of our scouting parties was ambushed by him and a dozen Bandits. He killed three in the scouting party and two more of the rescue team. I took a nice shot to my gut… I was held up at Zed's for almost a whole week." The last comment made Salvador wince.

Just then the fighting was disrupted as a loud booming voice roared out over the sounds of the battle. "WHAT DO YOU WANT KINDLING!?" All of the fighting stopped for several seconds till a burning psycho started chanting. "Matchbox! Matchbox! MATCHBOX! MATCHBOX!" Slowly all of the other members of the Firehawks started chatting as well.

"Uh, Kai? Sal? Do either of you know what going on?" Maya asked nervously.

"No idea, but I don't think it's going to be good." Sal said.

"And I've only heard about this in passing, supposedly, this guy is the right-hand man to the Firehawk or something," Kai said.

Just then a large Goliath landed in the middle of the canyon with an earth-shattering crash. The Goliath had on an orange welder's helmet with blue flames painted around the edges and wore a large silver fire suit that appeared to have been stitched together in several places. His hands were covered in what appeared to be metal boxing gloves with several holes in them. Feeding into each glove were several pipes running along his arms and up his shoulders to what looked like a pair of large upside-down acetylene gas tanks strapped to his back. The Goliath smashed its gloves together with a resounding "GONG" which produced several sparks that ignited a set of fireballs that encased his gloves. "MOTHER! Bless these fists with your fire, so that I may share your warmth!"

Max brought his gun to bear on the Goliath named Matchbox and started firing at him. Matchbox rushed in at Max with no regard for his safety or the bullets flying at him. He pulled back his fist before he threw a flame-covered fist that slammed into Max's gut and sent him flying back a good ten meters. Max dropped to one knee as he clenched his abdomen, but Matchbox quickly followed up with several rapid one-two punches. After the fourth set of punches Rad Max was set on fire, he dropped his gun and stumbled back in panic as he attempted to put the flames out.

"This one is for Firehawk!" Matchbox yelled before he leaped into the air several meters and came down with his right fist pounding the ground causing a large blast of fire to explode out and engulf everything in a three-meter radius, including Rad Max. When the blast died down everyone found Matchbox standing in the middle of a blackened circle with his right foot resting on the chest charred remains of Rad Max.

"The nonbeliever is now one with the flame! WHO'S NEXT?!" Matchbox yelled casing the Firehawk Bandits to cheer.

The Vault Hunters just stared in shock at the crazed Goliath. "Okay, does anyone have any ideas so that we don't get viciously murdered by the fireboxing Goliath?" Gaige asked.

"Well, we could scale the pipes over there and try sneaking around them." Maya suggested as he pointed to some large pipes.

"Hmm, that could work… Alright then. Zer0, start looking for a way up, Sal I want… Where Sal? Axton asked as everyone looked around.

"Uh, Axton." Gaige said, tapping on the Commando's shoulder and pointing down the hill.

Everyone looked to where Gaige was pointing only to see that Salvador had charged about twenty meters down the hill in front of everyone with both his Dog shotgun and a Ferocious Minigun held up in his hands. "HEY FEO! I'LL TAKE YOU ON!"

Matchbox turned to the new challenger. After staring at the small man for several seconds Matchbox turned and slammed his fists together again. "VAULT HUNTERS! Burn them from the sacred home of the Firehawk we must!" Matchbox yelled causing all the children of the Firehawk to look at them, as well as the remaining Bloodshot Bandits. Salvador just grinned from ear to ear before letting out a battle cry as he ran into the canyon with his guns blazing.

"Dammit, Sal!" Axton yelled as he pulled out a Dahl assault rifle before chasing after him.

"Save some blood candy for me!" Krieg yelled as he followed suit.

Everyone else just stared for several more seconds till Kai let out a sigh.

"What's the matter?" Gaige asked.

"Oh, just lamenting the fact ever since you guys got here it's just been one crazy thing after another. Then again it could just be because it's Tuesday." After a few seconds of silence minus the sound of fighting just ahead, Kai shrugged before he pulled out a purple-grade Maliwan corrosive SMG. "Screw it. LERROOOY JJJENKIIIIIIN'S!" Kai yells as he charges in.

Gaige and Maya looked to Zer0 only to find he had already disappeared, they looked at each other, and Maya finally shrugged. "What the hell, come on Gaige, we can't let the guys and your boyfriend have all the fun." Maya said as she ran in.

"WHAT! He is not my boyfriend!" Gaige shouted as she chased after Maya.

They both rushed over to the leftmost platform. The walkway in question had over two dozen Bandits from both the Bloodshots and Children of the Firehawk trading blows. Without even hesitating Gaige blasted the closest Psycho with two shots of her recently acquired green rarity double-barreled Jakobs Shotgun. Maya quickly followed up and shot up a Burning Psycho with her Corporate Commerce SMG, the electric rounds that impacted the Psycho started to shock him for several seconds until he was de-atomized into dust that floated to the ground.

"Duck!" Gaige yelled, causing Maya to drop as Gaige blasted another Bloodshot psycho who was about to attack her. Maya stretched her arm in Gaige's direction as her tattoos glowed and a small sphere of energy formed in her palm. Gaige heard the familiar sound of a Phaselock and a panicking psycho being hoisted into the air behind her. Gaige whipped around and blasted a trapped Firehawk Psycho that had tried to rush her in the face. The Psycho's head exploded and the body immediately fell to the platform.

"Thanks." Gaige said as she began to quickly reload as they both ducked behind some cover.

"So... why did you call Kai my boyfriend, I mean, you're the second person to say that today." Gaige asked, blasting an uppity Psycho.

"Who was the other?" Maya asked as she chucked a grenade over the cover before loading her gun.

"Angel, she patched into my ECHO and WHISPER units. She was even trying to come up with a couple's name for us." Gaige said as she stood up and fired several times at the group of bandits before ducking back down.

"What, like Kaige?" Maya asked, sending a barrage of bullets downrange, and was rewarded with several screams of pain.

"That's exactly what I suggested!" Angel said as her voice suddenly piped in on Maya's ECHO.

"Oh hey, Angel. Good to hear from you. So you suggested Kaige as well?"

"Yes, I did, I think it's cute."

"Great, now I have to listen to this in stereo." Gaige mumbled as she swapped to the Rogue and popped two Bloodshot Psychos in their faces. "Do you two have to gossip right now?"

"Oh come on Gaige, we're just messing with you," Maya said before she Phaselocked a suicide Psycho. The grenade he had primed fell to the ground next to a Nomad and a marauder, and exploded a second later, launching both bandits off of the platform and off the cliff. "It's all in good fun, even though you two would make a cute couple."

"She's right, you two would be adorable."

"Come on, you're seriously doing this now." She said suddenly as she grabbed a Bandit who jumped over their cover. "In the middle of a FUCKING. FIRE. FIGHT!" She yelled as she punctuated the last three words with a robot arm-powered punch to the Bandit's face before tossing him off the side of the platform with the cliff.

"I think someone is trying to cover up the fact she has a crush~." Maya said in a sing-song tone as she pulled out a Vladof TMP and unloaded it into a flame Nomad trying to sneak up behind them.

"I do not have a crush, nor have I ever had one!" Gaige yelled as she unloaded her shotgun into a Bruiser and then swapped to her SMG to finish him off. Of course, Maya noticed something else during this.

"Wait, are you blushing? Oh my gosh, Angel she blushing! She actually blushing! That's adorable." Maya gushed.

"Mayaaa!" Gaige whined.

"Girl, I'd hate to interrupt, but DUCK!" Angel yelled. Both women ducked as several rockets flew over them and nailed a group of Pyro Psychos instead. They looked to see a Nomad with a Bandit rocket launcher.

Maya activated her power and trapped the Nomad before he could fire again causing the Nomad to panic.

"What is this crap!?" The Nomad yelled in panic and confusion as he was lifted into the air. Gaige shot at him with her SMG but then the magazine ran out of ammo, so she drew her Rogue and finished him off with several quick bursts, as soon as the Nomad died the Phaselock broke and his body fell back onto the platform. "Alright, let's save the talking for later." Maya said.

"Agreed."

"I hardly call it talking." Gaige grumbled as they continued to move.

As they progressed forward across the platform Gaige heard someone yell behind her. She whipped around to see a pyro Psycho about to club her face in when a snap and splat filled the air as the psycho's head exploded in a blossom of blood. Gaige looked to the source of the shot to see Zer0 up on a high cliffside house, holding his Fremington's Edge sniper rifle. Gaige was about to wave thanks when she noticed a Bloodshot Psycho sneaking up on Zer0.

"BEHIND YOU!" Gaige yelled as she pointed at the Psycho. Gaige saw Zer0 turn in time to see the Psycho's buzzaxe coming down at him only for the weapon to pass right through him causing the Psycho to stagger in confusion. A second later a blue-edged blade pierced through the Psycho's torso. The Psycho looked down at the blade and yelled "INCONCEIVABLE!"

Zer0 then pulled the sword out and quickly side-kicked the psycho in the back launching him off of the edge of the cliff. "My whole life was a joke!" the psycho yells before impacting the ground.

Gaige saw the whole thing and was awestruck by the show of badassery. "I really need to ask Zer0 to teach me some moves."

"Gaige! Focus!" Yelled Maya as she Phaselocked a Marauder while shooting another charging Firehawk Psycho at point-blank in the chest.

"Oh, sorry!" Gaige said as she raised her left arm and deployed DT. "Alright buddy, let's get to work!" Gaige said as she and DT rushed back into the fight.

As Gaige and Maya fought up above, Kai was fighting below with Axton and Krieg on the ground. Currently, they were dealing with a large group of Bloodshot Bandits who had them pinned. "Can someone tell me why these bandits seem coordinated!?" Axton yelled as another grenade exploded nearby pelting them with snow and dirt.

"There must be a commander or someone leading." He was interrupted when his shield suddenly broke which was followed immediately by a loud *TWANG* "AHH, SON OF A BITCH!" Kai yelled as he fell over grabbing the right side of his face.

"Kai! Krieg cover us!"

"There's no barbecue until I say there's a barbecue!"

Axton looked over the wound which consisted of a good-sized cut across the right side of Kai's face. "Hold still!" Axton said as he took an insta-heal and shot some of it into the wound. Kai winced at the pain as quickly began rapidly healing the wound. After about thirty seconds Kai gave his healed jaw a quick roll to test it.

"Thanks, Ax. Where's my gun?"

Axton looked around and found the gun in question, which from what he could see part of the casing had been ripped off by the bullet and had then struck Kai. "Damn, and I just bought that yesterday too." Kai said as he pulled out his Clementine.

Just then they heard Salvador yell, "HEADS UP!" Kai and Axton looked up and Krieg turned to see a large fireball flying at them.

"Balls of cooking!" Krieg yelled.

"RUUUN!" Axton yelled as they all scrambled to dodge the fireball. When it hit it exploded with the force of a Torgue grenade and threw all three men into the air. They land on the ground several meters away and start to pick themselves up. "So this is why you hate Tuesdays." Axton groaned as he brushed himself off.

"Hey, Axton."

"Yeah?"

"I found their commander."

Axton looked to see a Nomad Taskmaster who was wielding a Torgue assault rifle and a massive shield.

"More meat bags!" Krieg said as they were also flanked by a dozen Bloodshot Psychos and Marauders. Kai, Krieg, and Axton got back to back, both Kai and Axton raised their weapons while Krieg pulled out his buzz ax in his left hand and his Judge pistol in his right. "Yup… This is exactly why I hate Tuesdays." Kai said as he pulled Hati's photon projector out.

"GET'EM!" The Taskmaster yelled causing all the psychos, bandits, and the three Vault Hunters all open fire on one another.

As that fight was taking place Salvador was duking it out with Matchbox, or was trying to. Both opponents were of such a difference in size it caused the match to drag on. Salvador was smaller and faster than Matchbox, however, Matchbox's large size seemed to make him able to take large amounts of damage, and from what Sal could see, he would also set himself on fire periodically, which seemed to regenerate a little. But on the other hand, Matchbox was slow and primarily used his boxing skills to attack. His only ranged attack were the fireballs he could launch from his gloves, and a pyro ground pound which shot out a fiery shockwave.

"Quit dodging heretic!" Matchbox yelled as he performed another ground pound which unleashed a pyro blast that Sal barely dodged.

"No thanks compañero, I don't want to end up like one of me abuela's roasted skags." Sal retorted as he pulled out his Vladof assault rifle with his Three Dog he already had out he started Gunzerking. As Salvador unleashed a lead storm at the Goliath, Matchbox raised its fist to guard his face. Matchbox then started to charge at Sal who realized this and tried to move out of the way. However, Matchbox managed to wing him as he passed which threw Salvador several meters into the air.

Salvador slammed against a large pipe with a thud before sliding to the ground. "Ugh, I'm gonna feel that… oh, mierda." He said as he looked up to see Matchbox charging him again only this time he swung a fired-covered left uppercut. When the punch connected it launched Sal into the sky again. He flew up for several long seconds until gravity slowed him down and started pulling him back to Pandora. "OH SHIT! HEADS UP!" He screamed.

This caused Maya, Gaige, and the remaining Bandits on the walkway to all look up. Sal slammed down on the walkway which caused it to groan for several seconds before the supports gave way, making it collapse and everyone on it to fall onto Krieg, Axton, Kai, and the bandits they were fighting. After a minute, the dust and smoke cleared, revealing a pile of scrap metal, wood, crushed Bandits, impaled Psychos on bars and scaffolding, and a pile of tangled Vault Hunters.

"Ouch, my back." Said Axton.

"Does anyone see the piece of metal poking me?" Kai asked.

"Sorry, that's my arm, ouch." Gaige moaned.

"HEY! Who touched my butt!" Maya said.

All the Vault Hunters were suddenly thrown away in different directions as Krieg burst from the bottom of the dogpile. "WHO WISHES FOR A BLOOD SALT SANDWICH!" Krieg yelled in anger.

DeathTrap, who avoided the fall thanks to his anti-grav unit floated down to help Gaige up, giving her a worried werble. "I'm fine DT." Gaige said as she got up.

Kai was watching this nearby and turned to Hati who had also dodged the collapse and was currently snickering at Kai's expenses. "Seriously, why can't you be a bit more considerate like DT over there?" Hati gave him three small barks in response. "Well screw you, man."

"Uh, guys?" Maya said alerting everyone.

Everyone looked around to notice that the Taskmaster and two Bruisers were pulling themselves from the rubble. They all then heard something behind them and turned to see Matchbox standing about twenty meters away. "Mother has blessed me with this holy mask." Matchbox said as he pointed to his mask. "And in return for her blessing, she demands that I burn all the unbelievers. To fuel her rage. To-"

"OH JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" Sal shouted as he fired his shotgun… Which nailed the mask and knocked it off of the goliath's head. Everyone was frozen in shock as they stared at Matchbox who stared at the now mangled mask.

"Sal, tell me you did not just-" Kai started to say before he was interrupted by Matchbox screaming to the heavens

"AAAAAAARG!" Matchbox yelled as his body began to bulge. "You broke my prized possession! That, makes, mE... ANGRY!" He screamed out as his neck extended out and his head ignited in flames, yet didn't seem to burn him. "BURN FOR ME!" He yelled as jumped into the air ten meters and slammed onto the ground causing a massive fire Nova which knocked everyone back several meters. It also managed to cause both Hati and DT to time out.

"DAMMIT SAL!" Axton yelled as he scrambled to get back up. "Did you have to blast the Goliath's helmet off!"

"Sorry, I was angry with all the Rakk shit he was spewing!"

"Maya, Sal! Deal with the assholes on our six." Axton said as he tossed out his turret. "The rest of you, with me!

"Let's start the hurt party!" Krieg yelled as he charged forward and lept at Matchbox with his ax raised over his head. Matchbox, however, blocked the strike with his metal glove and countered with a heavy left hook, knocking Krieg away.

Gaige and Kai moved to the left of Matchbox, Gaige was firing away with her Shock SMG while Kai was using the Clementine. Axton flanked right and was peppering away with his assault rifle. In response, Matchbox began shooting fireballs from his gloves which Axton proceeded to dodge by jumping behind a tent. Several shots then nailed Matchbox in the shoulder as Kai tried to draw his attention.

In response, Matchbox turned and punched out two fireballs at Kai. Kai dodged the first one but the second fireball hit him square on. His shield took the brunt of the damage but it still knocked him back. Gaige had switched back to her shotgun and was peppering Matchbox with shots as Axton also joined in. The raging brute then did something surprising. He ran forward towards the Vault Hunter before leaping into the air and bellyflopping onto the ground. The three Vault Hunters stopped as they stared confusingly at Matchbox as the goliath lay there unmoving for a few seconds.

"Okay, that just happened." Gaige said. Just then they saw a shield form around Matchbox's body as he began to get up, upon rising he revealed to everyone that a Tediore shield and a Torgue shield were now embedded into his chest.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Axton yelled.

"This is a new one." Kai said worriedly. "Gaige! Get your SMG back out and strip those shields quickly!"

"Got it!" She responded and immediately pulled out her shock SMG and started unloading.

Kai also fired with his Clementine at him, and while most shots were soaked by the shields, several shots managed to pierce the shield and inflict damage to Matchbox directly thanks to the weapon's extreme projectile velocity. Of course, this is only marginally effective since with the two shields combined only about two out of every eight shots were making it through. Axton threw out his turret and began firing with his Dahl Heavy Carbine, combining his fire with the teens. The three Vault Hunters quickly depleted the Tediore shield which seemed to anger the goliath as Matchbox let out a roar and charged at Kai and Gaige. But with the boxer closing the distance it made it easier for Gaige to land shots with her shock SMG which depleted the other shield even faster. That was until it did deplete and all of a sudden there was an explosive shockwave that engulfed Matchbox and launched both teens back.

"GAIGE! KAI!" Axton yelled as the teens fell to the ground. He chucked out his turret and ran left to set a crossfire and get Matchbox's attention.

As that was happening Kai and Gaige were picking themselves up. "Kai... what the hell was that?"

"A Torgue Nova shield. Once depleted they set off an explosive elemental nova in all directions." Kai said as he picked up his rifle.

"For the last time, explosives are not an element." Gaige said.

"What DT's stats?"

"Still needs another 3 minutes. What about Hati?"

"Two minutes." Kai said as he shot a full clip at Matchbox. "At least with his shield down we can damage him now."

"AHHH!" They both looked to see a Bruiser suddenly crash into Matchbox knocking them both over. They looked over to see Sal and Maya standing over the corpse of the Taskmaster and the other bruiser with Sal holding a smoking Bandit rocket launcher in hand. "Oops." was all Sal said.

"Well, that was helpful." Gaige said.

"No. No, that's the opposite of helpful!" Kai said with a horrified expression on his face.

"What do you mean?"

They both heard a scream as they looked to see Matchbox standing over the weakened bruiser with Matchbox's arms raised over his head. "DIE FOR ME NON BELIEVER!" Matchbox yelled before he brought down his fists and slammed the Bruiser's head. What shocked Gaige and the other Vault Hunters, other than Kai and Salvador, was when Matchbox suddenly grew a quarter in size and all of his wounds started to rapidly heal up.

"Uhm, okaaaay… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" Gaige yelled in panic.

"Oh CRAP! He went badass!" Kai said. Just then both of Matchbox's shields recharged and covered him up. "Correction, a badass with fucking dual shields!" He yelled as Matchbox kicked the corpse of the Bruiser which flew and slammed into Krieg knocking him down again. Maya then throws a Phaselock around Matchbox and traps him in a sphere of spacial energy… for all of two seconds before the boxer flares his gloves which causes a fire Nova that explodes and frees him from his prison.

"Crap, Phaselock doesn't work on this guy!" Maya yelled before she rolled to her right to dodge a fireball Matchbox had thrown with twice the speed as before. He then lunged at Salvador with a burst of speed and brought a killer uppercut to him launching Sal up at and then through a platform wood until he came back down with a resounding thud top of a metal platform. ". . . Ow."

Gaige and Kai had ducked down behind a large pipe as Matchbox began throwing fireballs in every direction. "Okay, again, what the hell just happened?!" Gaige yelled at Kai.

"Well, as you saw earlier when a goliath's helmet is knocked off they go into a blood rage. As an added bonus, the more opponents they kill the stronger and bigger they get. It's like that old movie, you know with the magic knights who all fight each for power and love to yell when they kill someone. High something? HighSword! Yeah, that's it." Kai said as he swapped out his current grenade mod for a Tesla mod. "Found that out my first day here on Pandora." He stood up and threw the Tesla to the Goliath's feet where it deployed and began to consistently shock him, but to very little effect.

Matchbox jumped and landed near Axton and Krieg and performed a ground pound. The fire nova that ensued blasted them both back. "FUCK! That didn't even phase him." Kai said. Suddenly both of their ECHO beeped, the teens looked at each other and grinned.

"Party time?" Gaige asked with a grin.

"Party time." Kai affirmed as he held up his holo sphere. They both jumped over their cover and deployed their partners. "Get him Hati!" Kai yelled as the wolf materialized into existence, ready to rip flesh free from its bones.

"Rip him a new one buddy!" Gaige yelled as DT charged forward.

Both constructs reached and surprised Matchbox who was turned away at the moment as Hati went for his right arm and DT tried to stab his left with his digistruct claws. Matchbox shields took most of the damage but they still held as Matchbox quickly countered with a left cross that knocked both constructs back. DT immediately reacted by firing an electrical laser from his eye, at the same time Kai and Gaige began attacking again, forcing Matchbox to stumble back. Hati took this moment to charge a Mjölnir and fire it at Matchbox, the combined attack not only took out the first layer of his shields but also overloaded the Tediore shield as its primary core exploded in a small fireball leaving a charred piece of scrap embedded in Matchbox chest.

"UuuuuUUUUAAAAGH! I'LL BURN YOU ALL TO ASHES AND DUMP YOUR REMAINS INTO THE WELL OF INFINITE FREEZING!" Matchbox screamed. Gaige and Kai looked at each other for a few seconds before they both shrugged and continued to fire. At this point, Maya, Axton, and Krieg also joined in with them as they all concentrated their fire on Matchbox.

"Everyone get back, his last shield is almost depleted, watch out for the Nova!" Axton yelled as everyone slowly backed up.

"DAMN YOU CURSED VAULT HUNTERS!" Matchbox yelled before he jumped straight up into the air a good ten meters.

"He's going for a slam!" Maya yelled.

"Not on my watch!" Salvador yelled as he started to Gunzerk with his weapons.

"SAL NO!" Axton yelled, but it was too late. Just as Matchbox came down to perform another Nova his Torgue shield was depleted by Sal's gunfire. Seeing this Kai yelled "GET DOWN!" before he and Gaige jumped behind a nearby rock. The result of the shield and the attack was a massive explosion of fire that engulfed everything within ten meters and sent a shockwave all around the canyon.

Kai slowly got up from behind the rock he and Gaige ducked behind and checked the area. Everything was either blown away, burned to a crisp, or both. It looked like a bomb went off.

Which is basically what happened. Kai thought as he watched both DT and Hati dematerialize. He then looked down to check on Gaige, "Hey, Gaige, you okay?"

"Ugh, did we win?" She asked as she uncovered her ears.

"BURN FOR ME INFIDELS! FOR I AM THE FIREHAWK'S DIVINE WRATH AND SHE DEMANDS YOUR INCINERATION!" An unscathed Matchbox yelled as he started to run towards the two teens.

"CRAP!" they both yelled as Kai fired his Clementine and Gaige drew her Rogue, yet their weapons were having little effect in stopping him. Matchbox was now only six meters away when a large amount of gunfire started to strike his right side making him slide to a stop. Everyone looked to see Axton with a common Vladof assault rifle out with his turret deployed next to him and Krieg firing away with a bandit SMG. "STAY AWAY FROM MY MURDER BUDDIES!" Krieg yelled.

"Uh, yeah what he said!" Axton yelled.

Matchbox turned to face the larger threat as he prepared to charge when Gaige realized something as she looked at the Goliath. "Kai! The tanks! Shot the fuel tanks on his back!" Kai immediately understood as they both raised their weapons and fired like crazy. At first, their rounds seemed to just bounce off the tanks until one round hit the fuel connector that linked to both tanks at the bottom with a resounding metallic ping.

The bottom of Matchbox's fuel tanks suddenly ignited in a violent plume of fire that spewed out of the damaged pipe. This sent Matchbox into a panic as he looked left and right in an attempt to see behind him. "WHAT'S HAPPENING!" Matchbox yelled as he began to shake violently. The flame kicked into high gear as the pipe failed and ignited both tanks into a thunderous jet of flames that detonated in a blast of superheated smoke. In reaction to this, Kai quickly grabbed Gaige and threw her behind a collapsed platform before throwing himself over her as a wave of superheated smoke and fire washed over them.

After about ten seconds the flames stopped and the noise died down. The wind soon blew away most of the smoke to reveal that both Kai and Gaige were unscathed. Kai slowly got up and looked at Gaige. "You alive?"

"A little crispy," Gaige groaned as she noted that her shield only had about five points left on its current capacity out of its full twenty thousand. "But alive." Gaige looked at Kai and noted that her HUD showed that his shield was barely holding even with the fire immunity she knew it had. It then occurred to her, that had he not thrown himself over her she surely would have been burned, if not worse. "Uhhh, thanks for the save Kai."

"You would have done the same." Kai said as he helped her up.

Gaige looked around to see the now scorched ground all around them, she also noticed all the other Vault Hunters were picking themselves up. But what she didn't see was Matchbox. "Uh where's Matchbox, did he explode?" she asked as they both looked around. After a few seconds, they both heard a loud but quickly growing distant laugh as they both looked up and went slack-jawed.

"MOTHER HAS BLESSED ME WITH THE FLAME WINGS! I ASCEEEEEND!" Cried out the ecstatic Goliath as he quickly flew up into the sky.

"... Well, now I've seen everything." Gaige said as she stared at the accelerating Goliath while also pulling out her ECHO to record the sight.

"Gaige, believe me when I say, that phrase means Jack fucking shit on this planet." Kai said as they both continued to watch as Matchbox flew into the sky. Soon the others all come over to also watch as well.

"Damn, for a big guy, he sure is going high." Sal said.

"Just how much fuel does that thing have?" Maya asked.

"I'm more interested in what he was packing in those tanks." Axton stated.

"Meatman flies like an unladen swallow!" Krieg said.

They all continued to watch until they could no longer see his vapor trail. "You think he made it to space?" Gaige asked. Not even two seconds went by before the entire sky was lit up by a massive blinding flash of light, causing the Vault Hunters to cover their eyes. After about twenty seconds, the light died down some and the Vault Hunters were able to open their eyes. To everyone's shock, there was now an ever-expanding fireball in the sky. After about another minute the explosion died off leaving a massive red and orange transparent nebula in the sky.

". . . Well, that just happened." Kai said.

"That's all you have to say?! That was fucking awesome!" Gaige yelled.

Their ECHO's suddenly came to life as Scooter's voice came on. "DUDES! What in tarnation was that! I thought the world was coming to an end!"

Kai activated his ECHO and spoke up. "Scooter, we live on Pandora. If the end of the world did come to this shithole we call home, it would be something far more epic than just a simple nuclear explosion. Now as to what just happened, we just launched a Goliath into space, and from the looks of it we added a new stellar phenomenon to Pandora's upper atmosphere." Kai said.

Scooter was silent for a moment until the next thing he 'yelled' was so loud it caused everyone to wince. "DAMN~! You guys are FREAKING CRAZY! Did you find Roland yet?"

"Not yet, we got held up by the locals here and some visitors in the area." Kai said as he and everyone checked their ears.

"Well, I think I got plan B almost ready." The sound of something being electrocuted could suddenly be heard in the background, followed by a high-pitched yelp of pain.

"Ugh, Scratch that, Claptrap just tried to... 'integrate' with one of ta generators. . . Yeah, this is gonna take 'ah while. Scooter out!"

"Well, that was interesting." Zer0 said.

"Yeah… Wait, ZER0! Where the hell were you during that fight?!" Axton inquired after his initial surprise.

Zer0 merely pointed his thumb behind him towards the entrance to the canyon which everyone looked to. There were well over seventy sliced-up Bloodshot bandits and mutilated Spiderants all over the place.

"AW MAN! You're beating my kill count!" Salvador yelled only to receive a wink face emoji in return.

"Well, we better get moving." Axton said.

"WAIT!" Salvador yelled.

"What now?" Axton said as he turned to the short man.

"What about all the loot?!"

"What loot?" Maya asked. "Matchbox's last nova and his lift-off blew away any- *THUD* . . . Loot?" She looked down at her feet to see a common Maliwan slag SMG had just fallen in front of her. Maya and everyone then looked up to see a small cloud of loot falling from the sky all around them.

"Huh. . . That's new." Kai said.

So with that everyone quickly began running around and gathering up what loot they could find for the next several minutes. Kai just watched as nothing seemed to catch his eye. "Hey, Kai why are you not grabbing anything?" Gaige asked.

"I don't really need anything right now, plus I don't see anything of interest."

"What about a new SMG? Isn't that one on your back damaged?" she said as she pointed out the damaged corrosive SMG.

"Maybe, but then again I don't see any blue or purple-grade SMGs lying around."

"Ain't that a little stingy of you to discredit all these other weapons?"

"What can I say, I have high standards and expectations for the tools of my trade." Kai said with a shrug.

Gaige looked around until her HUD marked a weapon as blue. She ran over and picked up an SMG with a set of magazines coming off of the body on either side. The front of the SMG's body was a bright blue which faded in a checkerboard pattern into a solid maroon with a hexagonal pattern at the rear. "How about this?" Gaige yelled back to Kai as she picked up the gun and held it up for him to see.

Kai took a quick glance at the gun before giving a frustrated sigh. "Gaige, how many times do I have to tell you? Bandit weapons are no good."

"I know, but it sooo cool looking, and it…. Wait this says it was made by Scav… What's Scav?"

This piqued Kai's interest, so he walked over to Gaige who handed him the weapon. The weapons stat appeared on a holo-screen in front of him and stated that the weapon was called the 'Skavenged Fast Talker'. As he looked down the list of stats he noted some interesting things, such as the ridiculously high ammo capacity and fire rate. He also noted the fact that the weapon had a red text tag on it which from what he learned during his tutelage with Mr. Dixon told him that the weapon had been heavily modified and could have a special trait. Eventually, he reached the bottom and sure enough, the Scav logo was posted in the corner. "Well I'll be damned, it is a Scav weapon."

"But what is a Scav?"

"Scavs or scavengers are basically bandits who live on the Elpis, Pandora's moon. From a few reports the Raiders have received from some people the Raiders know up there, most of the Scavs have been killed off by Hyperion after the Lost Legion was uprooted. Their weapons are a little bit better than the usual run of the mil bandit gun, but that's mostly because they made them from starship-grade parts which have a higher quality. Still cobbled together scraps mind you, but it's a better quality of scrap. Although this one seems a little more-"

Before he could finish a badly burned and bloodied Rad Max suddenly burst from some nearby wreckage. "DIE!" He screamed as he fired wildly with his machine gun. Before anyone else could react Kai had shouldered the SMG he had in hand, aimed, and fired… Everything. The moment Kai pulled the trigger the SMG unleashed a storm of lead that had no end in sight. Max was feeling every bullet as he was being pelted by more than a dozen bullets every second, causing blood and bits of flesh to splatter all around.

After about eight seconds of continuous fire, Kai's SMG finally clicked empty as the last round was spent. Kai lowered the weapon as he and Gaige took a good look at what remained of the still-standing nomad. Max's torso was riddled with more holes than a block of Swiss cheese, with blood dripping out of each one. "I'm… gonna… slaughter you… all… ugh." Rad Max quietly said before falling over dead. As soon as he hit the ground several pieces of loot fell off and around his corpse. Kai just looks at the SMG in his hands.

"Uh, could I maybe have that back?" Gaige asked hopefully.

Kai gave Gaige a deadpan glance. "You want me to give you a weapon that not only has an OP fire rate but a has a magazine the size of Salvador's ego?"

"HEY!" Yelled Sal nearby as he was already trying to pick up Rad Max's machine gun.

"Especially after that "Near Enough' mishap back at Southpaw."

"It's called "Close Enough" not Near Enough! And it still needs to be tweaked." Gaige said with a cute pout.

"Yeah, well until then no high mag weapons that can kill all of us. Besides, I think I'm starting to like this gun." Kai said with a dark grin that promised pain and destruction to all those on the wrong end of the barrel. "Especially after I start tinkering with it."

"Fine… But I call dibs on all of Rad's loot. Minus that big gun." Gaige finished as Salvador finally managed to lift said gun with the ammo backpack on only to fall on his back because of the sheer weight. Gaige then ran over and started looking through the loot, as Maya walked over to Kai's side.

"Good call about not letting her have that gun. I can still feel that ricochet round that hit me in the arm." Maya said, rubbing her arm.

"At least It was just your arm, she nailed me twice, and one almost got me in the balls." Axton said as he and Krieg walked over while looking at a Corrosive Tediore SMG he had in hand.

"Is Red scavenging a good brain fart?" Krieg asked.

"Oh relax man, they're bandits, I doubt she'll find anything that danger-"

"HELL YEAH!" Gaige shouted as she suddenly jumped up with an assault rifle in hand. It was a Rare Vladof spinigun but this one was painted a sage green and had a large red star painted on the body just behind the grip. There was also a reddish-orange glow on the barrels and at several other spots on the body which indicated that the weapon was a fire type. "My first assault rifle! This is some metal!" She said as she shouldered the weapon and started looking for a target.

Krieg just looked to Kai who had a blank look. "Of course, I could be wrong."

"Easy Red, let's not get too carried-" Axton started to say only for Gaige to shoot off several lasers. One round bounced off of a pipe thanks to her Close Enough skill and flew right past Axton and singed his hair some. ". . . Away." Axton finished with a slightly cracked and nervous voice.

"Huh, an assault rifle that shoots lasers… That's interesting, if not worrying." Maya said as she observed Axton's still smoking hair.

Gaige, on the other hand, had stars in her eyes as she looked at the weapon in her hands again. "Hoh! It shoots lasers!? This… This is… This is AWESOME! Thank you, almighty robot policeman!" She cried out as she started hugging the weapon.

This comment garnered a few raised eyebrows from everyone as they watched the happy teen. "Ugh, Gaige, I thought you weren't religious… and who the hell is the almighty robot policeman?" Kai asked who received a confused look from the girl in question.

"... Ugh, I don't know. It just sort of, came out."

Everyone stared at the redhead until Axton let out a sigh. "Screw it, we got a Resistance leader to save." He said as he motioned for everyone to move out.

"Ugh, guys? A little help here?" Salvador said as he tried to lift the machine gun. "Guys?"

Fifteen minutes later after, killing some badass psychos, avoiding several fire traps, and finally convincing Sal to abandon the oversized machine gun, the gang was now restocking their ammo at some conveniently located ammo and medical vending machines in a cavern.

"So what's the plan?" Maya asked as everyone finished reloading.

"I was thinking we go in as two teams. One will focus on distrac-" Before he could finish the sound of several explosions suddenly reverberated through the cavern alongside the screams of dying Bandits.

"This way!" Sal yelled as he started sprinting towards the sounds. Everyone else quickly ran after him leaving Axton alone.

Axton stood there for several seconds until he sighed. "Or we could all just follow the crazy midget that smells like a Chuna 2 mega dump… HEY GUYS, WAIT UP!"

It took a minute to reach the end of the cave which led to a cliff that had several round platforms suspended off of it. There were signs of a fight all around as there were Bloodshot corpses, scorch marks, and lots of spent bullet casings. "Alright, everyone stay close and watch for hostiles." Axton said as everyone nodded.

They slowly approached the main platform and could hear the occasional burst of gunfire which was followed by the screams of death. There were also random purple and red flashes that lit up the area, each accompanied by a scream, which unnerved most of the Vault Hunters.

As they approached the main platform they could see two Bruisers looking around in every direction.

"Where she go!?" One of them asked. "I don't know!" The other yelled as he fired several shotgun blasts in random directions.

Everyone then heard a rumble that began to quickly build up when a red and orange flash suddenly struck between the Bruisers. The following shockwave caused both Bruisers to explode into bits, as blood and body parts flew all around. However, what really grabbed the Vault Hunter's attention was the woman who appeared where the flash had occurred.

She was crouched down on her left knee and had her left fist bashed into a small crater on the ground from where she hit it. Her body was glowing in a fiery orange and had a pair of fire wings coming from her back. The glow around her body started to subside showing her pale skin. She stood up and turned around to the Vault Hunters revealing a familiar set of tattoos on the left side of her hip and her left arm. Her hair was a deep scarlet with it lightening up near the ends, with her eyes being pink with a slight glow. She had on a maroon tank top with a shortcut, a brownish-grey vest that was cut at the midriff and wasn't zipped up, and a pair of brown fingerless gloves. She wore skin-tight pants with knee-high combat boots with metal guards tied to the front of them.

"It can't be." Angel said in Gaige's Whisper. "The Fire Hawk is-"

"Lilith?!" Kai suddenly asked.

Lilith just looked over the Vault Hunters for a few seconds till a cocky smile graced her face. "Sup."

X-X-X

-Omake-

As Matchbox flew higher and higher, he kept laughing. So many things were happening to the happy Goliath, he was flying, he was leaving that forsaken planet he had called home for the last twenty-three years, and he was doing it all on the flames of the Firehawk! "Thank you, mother! Thank you for this blessing! Let me spread your words of warmth to the universe!" He yelled as he shut his eyes to bask in the glory of his god's blessing. . . Only to then slam into a low orbit Hyperion observation satellites which caused him to explode into a massive nuclear fireball. An effect that many people saw, or felt.

On Helio station, Handsome Jack was working on some paperwork in his office when there was a flash of light behind him that lit up the whole room. He turned and looked out the window to Pandora and saw a bright flash of something.

"What the?" He mumbled before reaching for the intercom. "Sweet cheeks, get me the station control room on the phone… Sweet cheeks? Hey! Are you even listening to-" Before he could finish a jet of Raspberry jam shot out of one of the many compartments and splashed Jack with the equivalent force of a fire hose. The force was so great that it knocked him out of his chair and into the window. After several seconds he slowly slid down the glass and onto the floor, he lay there for several seconds before he wiped the jam off his face.

"I… hate… raspberry." Jack muttered with detest.

In another part of the Galaxy in a stuffy board room. "And so we have seen a four percent increase in sales in outer colonies in sector seven." Droned on a boring-looking businessman to a room with a dozen old, well-dressed but equally, or in a few cases, even more, boring businessmen, save for one man.

This man had no shirt on and looked like he could bench press a bus was drumming his fingers on the table in boredom. He gave a small sigh as he wished for something AWESOME to happen as the one businessman continued to talk about another financial report. That was when he felt something, a disturbance in the universe, a disturbance so big it had to be one of the craziest, most badass of awesome things to ever happen in the known universe! And as he had learned, crazy and badass things like this are always followed by even more crazy and badass things. He knew he had to seek out this epic source of badassery.

With that, the man suddenly jumped up and ran for the door, but just before reaching it someone spoke. "Mr. Torgue, just where do you think you're going." Said a stern voice that belonged to the company president Smith, the current head of the Torgue corporation.

"I JUST FELT A DISTURBANCE IN THE UNIVERSE MR. SMITH! THERE IS SOMETHING SO F*CKING BADASS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, THAT IT DEMANDS MY IMMEDIATE PRESENCE!" Mr. Torgue screamed.

"Mr. Torgue, you cannot do as you please, and you are not allowed to leave. We have several armed guards outside to make sure to stay in this meeting, and even then we can't allow you to go gallivanting through the universe for a... Feeling. Now please sit down, we have to discuss our next promotional which involves you working with our company's new mascot. Billy the Bullet." Mr. Smith said gesturing to a guy in a cartoonish bullet suit.

". . . . . Hmm."

Outside the building on about the 284th floor of a massive skyscraper in the middle of a megacity Billy the bullet suddenly came flying out of a window with the large muscle man now identified as Mr. Torgue surfing on Billy's back. "F*CK YOU LOSERS. TIME TO FIND THE SOURCE OF ALL THAT BADASSERY! WEEEH WAWA WAAAAAAH!"

Back on Pandora, in the frozen wilds of the Tundra Express, Mordecai was watching the explosion above him in total shock. "I really need to lay off the rakk ale." With Bloodwing chirping in response.

Next, to him, a young wide-eyed girl stared at the spot where the largest explosion she had ever witnessed had just occurred a moment before. With a hint of maniacal glee in her eyes, a large and happy smile graced her face. "Do it again! Do it again! DO IT AGAIN!"

X-X-X

-LINK REESTABLISHED-

-Resuming ECHO Review Log-

(Tina) Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! OHMYGOSH! I got into the chapter!

(Torgue) We both got in the F*CKING chapter!

"BO-YEA!" They shout before high-fiving.

(Gaige) Okay, that was awesome. And I'm no longer bored. Although I'm curious as to your absence Kilo?

(Kilo8) Yeah, sorry about that. This chapter was… A little harder than I thought it would be, I can't go into details as it would ruin future chapters. It also got a little longer than I had originally planned. On top of that, my usual Beta-Reader was unavailable for some reason.

(Gaige) I see.

(Kilo8) However, I luckily had another Beta-Reader by the name of "Redemption's Avenger" come in and save the day. Thanks again for the help Redemption's Avenger, you saved me a lot of headaches. I was afraid I would have to release the chapter without a Beta. Hell, he even managed to toss in a few funny suggestions.

(Torgue) It sounds like you might call on him again.

(Kilo) Most definitely, of course, if my other Beta-Read comes back I'll probably have both of them help. Anyway till then the work will continue. And I have a few other story plans in the future here so keep an eye out, everybody. That actually reminds me, as of this chapter, Rebel Anarchy has just reached 100k in its word count and, albeit a month late, the first anniversary of the story's release.

Everybody cheered in celebration.

(Kilo8) Now then, to celebrate this milestone I'm going to address a few questions I've been asked.

(Tina) So what? Like a QA.

(Kilo8) I guess we can go with that. I might just make it a thing at the end of future chapters. Anyway some quick change notes, a few of you might have noticed that I have added a few things to the Clementine. I did this after I looked at a few Weapon reviews by VinylicPumaGaming on YouTube and if he reads this great work man, huge fan. Anyway, I realized that the Mythic weapon I created was nothing more than a 'slightly' boosted Hammer Buster rifle that used more ammo and had a B0re ability. So I've upped the damage some more and added an extra ability you may have noticed in the chapter 5 stats I gave, and the Clementine now has a chance to be able to penetrate shields. Of course, it also has a few restrictions on it in that case and some new Crit bonuses. See the changes at the end of Chapter 5 for full details.

Now onto some Questions. Spartandude928 has asked do I plan on bringing Athena and Janey into the story.

(Gaige) Good question, those two are awesome.

(Kilo8) Well, Spartandude928 I do plan on getting both characters in, however, it won't be anytime soon sadly. Plus with BL3 recently "Officially" confirmed, will have to see how that story plays out when it is released.

(Kilo) Next question asked by Blaze1992 a good while back was, is Gaige gonna be somehow related to Sakura from Naruto since she is beating up the only guy who has the hot's for her. . . . Gaige.

(Gaige) DO I LOOK LIKE THAT SELFISH PINK-HAIRED FLAT AS A BOARD BITCH WHO USES PEOPLE AND PUNCHES EVERYONE BUT THE ONE PERSON WHO DESERVES A GOOD BEATING OFF HIS HIGH HORSE! TELL ME, I DARE YOU! NO, I TRIPLE DOG DARE ANYONE TO TELL ME I'M LIKE THAT FREAKIN FAN-GIRL WHO ONLY CARES ABOUT THAT DAMN COPYCAT EMO TWIRP WITH THE DUCK ASS-HAIR!

Everyone was silent as they stared at the redhead who was breathing heavily.

(Kilo8) You good?

(Gaige) Yea… I think so. Please continue.

(Kilo8) Right. *Cough* While I can see where you might draw similarities I'd like to point out that the first two incidents were a case of A, a case of payback for his deception which Kai did agree to, and B she attacked him since Kai basically goad her into it and she was trying to stop her friend from doing something stupid. And as for the whole "Upskirt" incident in the last chapter, do I really need to explain her actions there, plus she later admitted it was partially her fault for putting him in that position. Something that Sakura isn't known for doing. On top of that, it hasn't gotten to the point where either character is in "love" with the other yet. Will, there be times in the future when Gaige throws a punch or two at Kai, maybe, will she beat him to a bloody pulp like that pink-haired bitch or tell him he is a loser, or is whatever else Sakura has told Naruto, hell no. I look at it like two rowdy friends.

(Tina) Yeah, it's like me and Mr. T playing rocket tag in the hangar.

(Kilo8) Exaccccc, wait a minute. . . Rocket tag? Is that why the hanger bay looked like a Michael Bay movie set after the final shot?

". . . . Noooooo." Mr. Torgue and Tina say together.

(Kilo8) . . . Will talk about this later. Well with that I believe that wraps everything up here. If any of you have any other questions, please feel free to post them in the review section or PM me… Right, that also reminds me. Do any of you use the PM system on the Fanfiction phone app, I've noticed it is completely separate from the main website PM system, I've gotten a few PMs on it and I have responded but I'm not sure if those I sent the replies to ever got the messages. The app doesn't even alert the user, you have to remember to check it yourself.

(Gaige) What an odd system.

(Kilo8) It definitely is. Anyway, I figured I'd ask all my viewers if they had any insight on it. Well, everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please remember to follow and leave a review. So till next everyone. This is Kilo8 signing off! Tina, HIT THE BUTTON!

(Tina) LATER SUCKAR! *SLAM!*

(Kilo8) Well, that was fun.

(Gaige) So where did you get that TIE fighter anyway?

(Kilo8) Oh yeah, that's a funny story. So it started about a month ago with this monthly poker game I attend with Darth Vader, Deadpool, the Ghost of Sergeant Avery Johnson, and Hellboy. So I'm telling Vade-

(Torgue) Ugh, guys, why is the transmitter light still on?

(Kilo8) What the?

(Gaige) I got it. *WHAM!*

*BZZZZT*

- ECHO Review Log Terminated -

-Updated 1/21/24-