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.

20. Chapter 20 Fractured Dream

-TRANSMISSION ONLINE-

-Beginning ECHO Review Log-

It was once again snowing outside the SOL as all throughout the station, holiday cheer could be found. . . Well, almost everywhere. . . Is no one gonna ask how it's snowing in space!?

Everyone was in the control room dressed in ugly holiday sweaters and had Santa hats on. But cheer was not found on their faces, but instead confusion.

(Kilo) . . .

(Gaige) . . .

(Torgue) . . .

(Tina) . . . Can I hunt him down?

"NO!" Everyone else yelled.

(Gaige) You can't hunt down someone for their negative criticism. Especially when it's so... Minor.

(Kilo) It still surprises me that it has taken this long to receive any kind of purely negative comment of a non-constructive nature. I mean nearly five years, 20 chapter's, over two hundred thousand words, and over a hundred comments and we only got one now... I'm surprised.

(Torgue) Plus this is your first story on FFN.

(Kilo) Right, forgot about that. . . That's impressive. . . Anyways, welcome everyone and happy Mercenary Day, or whatever holiday you and your loved one celebrate. Sorry, it took so long to get this chapter out but it's definitely one of the most difficult ones to write. But we also have a belated Halloween Torgue adventure at the end, so enjoy that. As per usual we will answer any comments and questions from the previous chapter at the end. I also have some exciting news as well. Now then with that over, TO THE MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER!

-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 own OC's. This is a story just for your fun and enjoyment. Please enjoy.

X-X-X

Stories text formats

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Echo/Radio"

'Krieg's inner voice'

X-X-X

Chapter 20

Fracture Dream

It was a hot summer morning as Gaige walked through the house. "Ugh, why does Pandora have to be so hot?" She complained sleepily as she walked into the kitchen. When she walked in it took her several seconds for her mind to process what she was seeing. Standing by the stove with a frying pan in one hand and a spatula in the other was Kai. As for his attire… Oh Murphy, where to start. He had on tight blue jeans that perfectly framed his ass and an apron that said kiss the chef... and that was it. He was ten flavors of delicious mouth-watering eye candy that she couldn't look away from.

"Oh, morning Gaige." He said with a warm smile. "How do you like your eggs?"

"I, umm, uh!" Gaige stuttered until a word finally popped into her head. "Fertilized!" The word was already out of her mouth when she realized what she said and her face immediately turned crimson.

Kai just stared at her with a look of surprise until a smirk appeared on his face that made Gaige nervous yet oddly excited at the same time. "Well, it will take a little more effort." Kai said as he set the pan and spatula down and walked towards her. He grabbed the apron and ripped it off as it blocked off Gaige's sight for a second. When it fell she suddenly found herself in a fancy modern bedroom with a beautiful nighttime view of a sparkling city outside the massive window. She looked down and found herself in a purple deep cut evening gown with a slit that came right up to her right hip. She looked to Kai only to feel her brain melt, Kai was now in a dashing white tuxedo and was loosening his red bow tie as he moved in front of her. Kai wrapped a hand around her back and dipped her onto the bed as he was now over her. "But, I think such a request is well within my abilities." He said in a husky voice as he hooked a finger under one of the dress's shoulder straps and slowly leaned down."

*BOOM!*

"AHH!" Gaige screamed as she jolted awake and rolled off the bed, once again landing on Kai's chest. Both waking him and knocking the wind out of him. The teens lied there for a few seconds as both could hear someone yelling the word asshole outside the house.

"Ugh, Gaige I swear if this becomes a habit then we're going to have some major problems as roommates." Kai groaned.

"It's not my fault…" Gaige moaned as she got her thoughts together. It was then that she suddenly realized that she was straddling Kai's chest… His very bare, and very fit chest. "EEEP!" Gaige squeaked out as she jumped up and bolted into the bathroom across the hall, slamming the door behind her. Kai just sat there with a dumbfounded expression.

". . . . Umm, what?"

In the bathroom, Gaige was trying to calm her racing heart. She thought over what had happened just a moment before, only to then have her dream kick in the proverbial door to her mind. Gaige could feel her face lighting up like a burning red giant as every little detail of her night's dream was permanently etched into her mind. "Dear Murphy, why does this keep happening?"

"You mean it's normal for you to wake up straddling a hunk of man meat." Came a familiar teasing voice that caused Gaige to jump.

"Oh no, don't tell me?" Gaige moaned in impending despair.

"Oh yes. I saw it all~." Angel said.

"Nooooo." Gaige moaned out weakly as she slumped to the floor in embarrassment, mentally wishing she could just sink through it to escape.

"OH, OH, WAIT! I'm patching Maya in on this."

A spike of panic flooded the teen. "Don't you fucking dare!" Gaige said only to hear a click on the other end.

"Maya here, what's going on?"

"Oh, nothing. Gaige just woke up on top of her favorite piece of man meat again."

"Oh? Do tell~" Maya said as Gaige just let out a moan of embarrassment as she slumped to the floor again.

Several minutes later Kai was at the breakfast table outside with Axton, Salvador, and Mordecai. "And she just bolted for the bathroom?" Mordecai asked.

Yeah, and I don't know why." Kai said. "She just fell on top of me, screamed out with a cute eep, and bolted like a rabid Skag after a fat Bullymong."

"Maybe she woke up from a steamy dream about a badass dark-haired rebel." Mordecai chuckled, which caused Axton to choke on his food.

"Dammit Morde, she wouldn't do that." Kai replied.

"Kai, are you saying you've never had such dreams about her?" Mordecai countered, causing Kai to think back to this morning.

Flashback

Kai let out a sigh as he tiredly dragged himself up to the front door. He was wearing a gray business suit with an old black briefcase in hand, and looked tired out. Kai pulled out the keys for his house which sat in a quaint suburban neighborhood. "God my job sucks." He muttered as he entered the house.

As he opened the door he heard a bark, he looked to see a gray husky run up to him with his tongue out and tail wagging. "Hey Hati, did you have a good day?" Kai said, giving the dog a scratch behind the ears.

"Kai, is that you dear?" A familiar voice came from down the hull.

"Um, yeah." Kai answered, slightly confused for some unknown reason.

"I'm in the kitchen dear."

Kai set his shoes aside and loosen his tie as he walked into the modest kitchen only to feel his heart jump up to his throat. Before him, he found Gaige standing in front of the stove stirring a steaming pot of food. But what knocked the wind out of him was her attire, being basically nothing but a white frilly apron and a pair of lacy purple panties. "Ga- Gaige!? What are you wearing!?"

"Oh, just something for my dear hard-working husband." She answered in a whimsical tone.

"Hus- husband?" Kai stuttered out as Gaige fully turned to him.

"Now the question is, what do you want first." Gaige asked as she slowly sauntered over to him. A filling dinner, a warm bath, or." She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him to her level. "Me~"

Slowly they both lean in for a kiss.

*BOOM!*

Flashback Over

Kai sat there for several seconds until he realized he had been quiet for several seconds too long. "Um… no can't say I have."

Salvador let out a snort. "Well, that's a lie."

"Oh yeah, what about you two then?" Kai quickly retorted. Both Salvador and Axton took on thought-full looks.

Flashback, again.

Salvador was standing on the balcony of his mega villa as he watched a distant battle taking place between his elite forces and the Resistance. "El General! El General!" Salvador turned to reveal he was in a white military officer's uniform that was adorned with dozens of sashes, shiny award medals, and dark shade sunglasses on his face with a large cigar in his teeth.

He looked to see his two most loyal lieutenants who were both wearing olive drab military uniforms. The two quickly rush over to him and quickly salute him. "General Salvador, news from the front. Our elite forces are pushing the enemy back." Kai says in a horribly bad Spanish accent.

"Permission to hunt down the remaining malcontents sir!" Gaige asked in an equally bad accent.

"Granted my loyal minions. Go forth and crush all who oppose me!"

"Yes General!" They yelled before rushing out. After they were gone he looked to another pair in the grand room tied to two chairs was Lilith who was in a tight set of army fatigues. Next to her in the other chair was Maya, who was in a sexy french maid outfit for some reason.

"As you ladies can see, your little rebellion will soon be crushed by my forces. And there is nothing you can do."

"Damn you General! You are nothing but a brute! A monster! A liar!" Lilith yelled before receiving a slap to the face.

"I may be a brute, I may be a monster, but I am no liar."

"Curse you general, when we are freed you will pay!" Maya said.

"I think not senorita." Sal said with a grin.

"Salvador, why do you have these women tied up?" Sal looked to see Moxxi dressed in a tight short skirt red dress with a flower in her styled hair.

"Their spies who were trying to undermine my rule. But when I'm done with them, I will have all of the info I will need to control this country."

"Salvador, why would you do such a thing my dear husband, this isn't the man I married!" Moxxi said in an overly dramatic show.

"My name is literally El General Salvador, I mean come on, what did you really expect?"

There was a crash as the set of mahogany wooden doors were kicked in. Standing in the doorway was a man in a black army uniform holding a Vladof assault rifle. "Well if it isn't the traitor, Axton! Come to take me on."

"Axton, save us!" The tied-up woman yelled.

"Haha, save you ha-ha-ha! I'm here to take you, ladies, for myself! I will have all of the Coochie on this island, no in the world for myself!"

"What!?" Lilith yelled in dramatic shock.

"My lord, Axton way?" Maya asked in a dramatically surprised tone.

"Why? Because why not, that's why! Ha ha ha! Now surrender or else your wife gets a new piercing in her pretty little face." He yelled as he aims a Dahl pistol at Moxie.

"So you finally show your true colors punta. Well, that makes this all the easier." Salvador whips out a solid gold Jakob revolver faster than the eye could see and fires at the traitor only for a shield to eat the bullet.

"Hahaha! You fool, I'm invincible now! This shield stops any single weapon fired at me at one time! You have met your match General! Axton gloats.

Salvador pretended to mull the situation over in his mind as he stared at the man. "An interesting toy Axton, however, you have overlooked one key detail."

"And what's that?" Axton asked.

Salvador pulled another golden revolver out in his left hand. "I always carry two guns!" He yelled with a cocky grin before pulling the trigger on both guns simultaneously.

The bullets both fly true and hit Axton in the chest, overpowering his shield and striking him in the heart. "Ahg! Curse you general! You found my one weakness! TWO GUNS!"

Axton falls over dead as Salvador just lights another cigar, he lets out a puff as he looks at the body. "Rest in peace… punta."

"General!" He hears from the three ladies who all come rushing over to him and drape their arms anywhere they can.

"Oh General, thank you for saving us from that lying brute!" Lilith said with praise.

"And for showing us how good of a man you are!" Maya said in a sensual voice.

"I believe we need to reward our general for his bravery, with an orgy!" Moxxi said as all three women stepped back and began to slowly strip.

"Haha, I love being in charge!" Salvador said as he rubbed his hands together.

*BOOM!*

Salvador bolts up from his sleeping bag and looks around to see a small explosion had gone off on the other side of the cave.

"ASSHOLE!" He heard someone yell.

Salvador let out a sigh after realizing it wasn't a bandit attack, only to then remember his dream. "Dammit! And I was so close!" He yelled in anger.

Flashback, Axton.

An explosion erupted from a room as several henchmen in ski masks were sent flying out. From the smoke, a brown-haired man with a chiseled jawline walked out and adjusted the bow tie on his white suit. He pulled out a Walther PPK pistol and began reloading it. "Sorry chaps, but I have a rocket to catch." Axton said before running down the hall.

He soon came to a massive cavern that was actually a magma chamber of a volcano with a boiling lake of magma beneath. On a massive platform suspended in the center was a massive rocket covered in nuclear symbols with a red pointed top. "AXTON!" He looks near the bottom of the rocket to see his fellow agent, agent 002 Lilith in her skintight catsuit, the alluring femme fatale Moxxi in a revealing red evening gown, and Maya who was in a sexy nurse outfit for some reason were all tied to the side of the rocket. "AXTON, SAVE US!" They all yelled together.

HAHA! So Agent 001 Axton, we meet again." A spotlight turns on above and points at a man standing on a suspended catwalk. The short man with blue pointed hair, a scar over his left milky white eye, and a gray suit while his right pinky was held up pointed to his grinning mouth. In his left arm was a white skin albino Skag pup. "I see you have come to try and foil my latest plot to steal all the coochie in the world!"

"And how do you plan to do that with a nuclear missile?" Axton said.

"When did I ever say it was a nuclear missile?" The top cone section of the missile lifted up to reveal four tentacle-like legs while the nose cone lifted up to show a single red mono-eye. From the body, multiple ports opened up to show multiple arms armed with various weapons from guns, chainsaws, missiles, and even a few butter knives. "Meet my Doomaggedon bot! With this, I shall take over the world and all of the coochie!"

"YOU MONSTER!" Maya screamed.

"AXTON HELP!" Lilith yelled.

"Don't worry ladies, I'll deal with this ruffian." He pulled his pistol and fired one shot at the robot, it suddenly began to vibrate before falling over, crashing into the catwalk causing it to break. Salvador drops the Skag which manages to jump to another catwalk, Salvador grabs the guard rail to stop him from falling into the lava below.

"HOW! How did you defeat my Doomaggedon bot!?" He yelled.

"Simple I shot the big red button on the side that said emergency kill switch that said shoot here."Axton said pointing to a comically large button on the side of the robot that had a fresh bullet hole in the dead center.

"Curse you, Agent Axton! You found it's one weakness!" Dr. Salvador roared as he began to slip. "I swear to you, I will have my REVENEEEAAAAAUGH!" He screams as he slipped and fell into the boiling lake below.

"Hm, I'd say good luck, but it appears you're in hot water." Axton says before turning to the three damsels. Taking his pistol he shot the rope and cut them free.

The three women rushed over to Axton and surrounded him. Oh, Axton, you saved us and the world." Maya said.

"How can we ever thank you?" Moxxi said.

"I know, let's go to Dr. Salvador's emergency escape superyacht and have an orgy!" Lilith said as the other ladies cheered.

"And I thought Christmas only comes once a year." He said with a grin.

"Oh, it will be more than just Christmas when you wake up Axton." Moxxi said.

"Wake up, what are you talking about?"

"I said wake up." Moxxi repeated.

"Bitch why would I wake up, this isn't a dream."

The next second the cave around him seemed to explode in a flash of light and sound as everything disappeared and Axton suddenly found himself smashed into a wall and in pain.

"ASSHOLE!" He heard a girl yell!

Flashbacks over.

Kai just stared at the two men who were staring off into the distance with facial expressions running across the spectrum of emotions. As he observed them he glanced behind them and noticed a new arrival.

"Oh, morning Krieg."

Both Sal and Ax snapped out of their thoughts as they felt a cold shiver down their spines. The two men sat ramrod straight as the psycho bent himself between the two sitting men. "I sense evil thoughts of the fourth gutter that tarnish the virtue of the blue rose." Krieg said as he looked between the two with his singular visible eye.

"What did he say?" Sal asked nervously to Kai.

"He asked if you two numbskulls were having lewd thoughts about one blue-haired siren." Kai translated with a smirk.

"Whaaaat, no! Of course not! No! Never! She like a sister!" Both men quickly spoke as Kai chuckled.

"How was your night Krieg." Kai asked, making the psycho ponder this question for several seconds.

Flashback

"Louis Armstrong - What a wonderful world"

The scene changed to several memories of Krieg who was wearing jeans and a simple white dress shirt and Maya who was in a simple yellow sundress. It began with them both happily walking through a beautiful park as they enjoyed the songbirds and warm wind. The scene then changed to the two having a delightful picnic under a tree overlooking a field of flowers. Finally, it finished with the psycho and Siren dancing under the moonlight as the music came to an end.

Flashback over.

"A dark of bone shivering anxiety." Krieg said in a relaxed voice.

"Sounds like you had a good night then." Kai said as Tina came out of the house with breakfast.

"Gentlemen… Asshole." she said, glancing at Axton who grumbled at the girl.

"That reminds me, so what did Axton do this time to anger you, Tina?" Kai asked.

"Weeeeeell." Tina began.

Flashback

Tina had already awoken Maya and Krieg, and had Bloodwing peck Mordecai awake. Her next Vault Hunter was the, to her, rude commando. Tina found said man splayed out in a sleeping bag in one of the more dryer spots in the cavern.

Yo, Ax. Axey. Wake up." She didn't get a response from the man as expected.

"Wake up." She said a bit more forcefully.

Axton mumbled something that sounded like a 'what' to Tina.

I said wake up!" Tina said, getting irritated at the Dahl commando.

"Bitch why would I wake up." He mumbled out.

A tick mark appeared on Tina's head as she pulled out a grenade. The grenade itself looked like someone wrapped it with a small plush toy that looked like a red angry cartoon bird with no legs around it leaving only the pin and trigger mechanism visible out of the top. She took several steps back before pulling the pin and throwing the grenade at the foot of Axton's sleeping bag and exploded on contact. The man was sent flying up into a rock wall which he quickly slides down. "ASSHOLE!" Tina yells before walking away, leaving the man in pain.

Flashback over.

Kai, Salvador, and Mordecai were all laughing at the man as Axton just stewed in badly repressed embarrassment. "It's not like anyone can control what they say in their sleep!"

"Yeah, but only your mouth has ever led someone to be blown awake three days in a row. Which reminds me, what did you use on him Tina?"

Tina pulled out a red grenade that looked more like a plush bird toy. "I call it the Angry Birdy, it's a simple concussion grenade, good for crowd control and waking up inconsiderate assholes."

"Hey, I'm not inconsiderate!" Axton argued as Gaige, Maya, and Zer0 came to the table.

"Alright, alright, enough kids." Mordecai said with a grin before getting serious. "Now that we're all here I need to inform you that the Vault Key is being moved."

Everyone stopped and looked at the old Vault Hunter. "When?" Maya asked.

"It's already on the move, it should reach the planned intercept point in about two hours. In that time will set up Tina's. . . Badonkadonks and attack the rail. Once the train is derailed you'll move in, find the armored car and take the Vault key." Mordecai said before taking a swig of his booze.

"Sounds simple enough." Salvador said.

"How are we going to get into the armored car?" Maya asked.

"With these." Axton said as he pulled out several canisters.

"Flashbangs? Really Ax." Gaige said.

"Not flashbang grenades, thermite grenades. Specifically, Dahl M50's, they burn hotter than normal thermite. These will burn right through the door release in three seconds." Axton stated as he threw one to Kai. "Hold on to that one."

"Never keep all your bombs in one basket?" Kai said as he looked the device over before pocketing it.

"Exactly."

"What?" Maya asked in confusion as she looked between the two fighters.

"It's an old Dahl saying. Anyways, if we do lose them will have to fall back on DT's laser eye." Axton said.

"The only problem with that is according to Gaige, it would take several minutes to cut through several centimeters of hardened armor. This will leave us vulnerable to Hyperion moon shot reinforcements, so not the best backup plan."

"You know, we could just blow it open in an instant if you'd just let me have back that big shiny new gun I picked up yesterday." Gaige said as she shot Kai a look of irritation.

"And I told you, you are not ready to be using such an OP weapon. Besides we want to open the train car, not vaporize the damn thing." Kai said as Gaige pouted. "Anyways, when do we need to leave?" Kai asked.

"About 40 minutes, so eat up and get ready." Mordecai said.

Thirty minutes later and the gang was near the cave entrance, finishing up their preparations. Kai and Axton were just finishing hefting the second Badonkadonk onto a makeshift backpack Krieg was wearing when Tina hopped over to them. "Hey, big brother." Tina said.

"What is it Tina?" Kai said as he stretched his back.

"Well since Morde or you won't let me join in on the fun-."

"For good reasons." Kai said making the little bomb maker pout for a second.

"Anyway, since I can't go with you I figured I'd at least give you something to help you out against all the Loaders you'll have to deal with. HERE!" Tina held out one of the oddest-looking pistols the teen and everyone else had ever seen. It was a Dahl pistol with a glowing green corrosive barrel, the odd thing was the paint job. Apart from several parts of clean steel, the gun was covered in hearts of various shades of white, pink, and purple. "I call it the Teapot! I made it just for you big brother!"

Kai was a little hesitant at first but soon picked it up and looked it over. "Huh, it suits you." Gaige said with a smirk. Kai shot his fellow teen a glare before looking at the gun again.

"You made this?" Kai asked. "When did you learn to make weapon modifications?" Kai asked.

"Oh, when you live on Pandora and have all the time in the world, it gives you all kinds of chances to learn things. I made it since you seem to have so much trouble with finding a good sidearm, I mean 4 guns in three days! That's crazy."

"Well, I can't help the fact that all the side arms I find are complete shit." Kai muttered.

"True, true. Go ahead, try it out!" Tina said excitedly.

Kai looked around and noticed a pile of half-destroyed Loaders. With a shoulder shrug, he aimed at the pile and fired a two-round burst into the scraps. Both bullets pierced the robot's armor and exploded in a larger than a normal burst of acid that quickly ate the armor. Kai stared at the sizzling metal and then looked at the gun. "Oh, I'm gonna like this gun." Kai grinned as he pulled out his current sidearm, a Torgue Injector pistol, and tossed it away before holstering the Teapot. He then grabs Tina and lifts the surprised girl up and into a hug. "Thank little sis. I'm sure I'm gonna use it today!" Kai said as the girl squirmed.

"AH! HELP, HE'S TRYING TO KILL ME WITH BROTHERLY LOVE AND AFFECTION!" Tina screamed as everyone laughed.

The gang soon made it to a building near the rail bridge and Kai, Krieg, Axton got up to the roof to set up the Badonkadonk. "Okay the missiles are in placed." Kai said.

"Just poke their bellies when you want me to set the 'splosives off." Tina cheerfully said.

Kai and Axton each poked the stuffed bunnies which beeped. "Okay, they're armed. Now where's the detonator?" Kai said.

"Wait, she didn't give it to you?" Axton asked.

"No."

They both look to Krieg who looks between them. "Firecracker gave no ramen bowl of boogers!"

The Vault Hunters looked between each other in panic. "So if he doesn't have it, or you, then who-"

"Sorry bro, forgot to tell you, I gotta do it remotely." Tina added.

Kai and Axton both let out a sigh. "Oh, okay. You had us worried there for-" before Kai could finish a train horn could be heard off in the distance.

"Oh snaps, son! I hear the train comin'!" Tina said. "Counting down! Ten! Nine!"

"RUN!" Kai yelled as the three turned and bolted for the ladder, but before they could make it to the edge of the roof both missiles ignited. The backblast threw the three Vault Hunters off the edge, they landed on the ground in a heap in front of the others. Meanwhile the missiles flew around for several seconds making sharp turns and loop de loops before flying off into the sky.

"Ouch." Kai moaned as he picked himself up. "Okay...Tina… WHAT THE FUCK!?" Kai yelled, disregarding his language.

"Eh, I got bored."

"Tina! You blew your brother off a roof." Gaige yelled.

"PFFFT. Please, like a little backblast is gonna hurt him."

Just then the first missile shot down from the sky and impacted the bridge, causing it to collapse. The second missile flew behind the glacier out of sight and hit a few seconds later the sound of screeching metal could be heard as a train car came flying over the cliff and plunged into the river. A second one flies over and hits the support strut on the bridge causing it to fall to one side.

"Ahahaha! BURN ALL THE BABIES!" Tina yells as the locomotive screeches to a stop on the edge of the blown bridge. It sits there for a few seconds before everyone could hear metal groaning and see the remaining rail track give out. The locomotive fell over towards the river only to get caught on part of the cliff.

"Well, that's one way to hijack a train." Roland said. "The armored train car that has the Vault Key's still up on that ice shelf. Better climb that wreckage to get there."

"Climb the pipe to the train, or you'll go insane. Wut-wut. That's a rap song I wrote." Tina said.

"Tina can you please stay off the line, they have work to do."

"Sorry, Roland. Hey Kai, knock'em dead!"

Kai just let out a sigh as the ECHO cut off.

The gang climbed the bridge and started working through an ice canyon that was littered with burning train cars and half functional Loader Bots which Kai quickly dispatched with what was clearly becoming his new second favorite gun. They all soon found a large iced-over pond where the bulk of the train cars were strewn about with some half-sunken in the ice. "Oh shit, tell me that isn't the armored car." Gaige asked pointing to a mostly sunken train car painted black and yellow, unlike all the Hyperion yellow cars they had seen.

"Looks like it." Axton said with a sigh. "Fuck, this is gonna be a pain."

"Tell me about it. This is gonna be just like the Ny Trondheim Fjord fiasco." Kai sighed.

"What happened?" Salvador asked.

"We attacked a Hyperion arms shipment, but one of the drivers of the convoy decided to try and run. Ended up hitting another truck, and crashed them both into the fjord. Myself and five others were... volunteered to recover the guns… So cold, so much shrinkage." Kai muttered causing both Sal and Axton to wince.

"So how will we get in?" Maya asked.

"Well if we're lucky, the car is still sealed. Meaning we just have to cut it-"

"Why is the train car raising?" Gaige asked.

Everyone looks over to see the armored car slowly raising from the water. "Oh son of a-" Kai began to say before the car was launched towards the group. Everyone jumped out of the way as the train car crashed and bounced up into the cliffs behind them, getting wedged above the canyon's entry.

"What the hell was that!?" Sal screamed.

"Oh no." Kai said as he got up himself. "It's Wilhelm!"

Coming out of the water was a four-meter-tall cyborg with his lower half being the legs of a badass loader. His torso was ripping with muscles while a set of large Exo arms. His face had a set of implanted camera eyes in his left socket, with a larger one in his right eye. On the back of his right shoulder was a large cannon that shot a beam that caused a pair of large Surveyor drones to Digistruct. "Roland, do you read me? The train is guarded by Wilhelm! Repeat, it's being guarded by Wilhelm!"

"WILHELM! Shit. Abort the mission, soldiers! I'm sorry, but you can't all handle Wilhelm, trust me!" Roland yelled.

"We're well aware Roland!" Axton yelled back as he looked to see Wilhelm shoulder cannon fire a dozen small missiles. "INCOMING!" Everyone ran to cover, or at least tried to as several rockets landed near Krieg and threw him into the air and into a snowbank.

"Krieg!" Kai yelled before Zer0 grabbed Kai and pulled him behind a steel wall before a rocket could hit him. "Fucking hell!" Kai yelled as he quickly pulled out his ECHO. "Roland, Lil, we're pinned down!" Kai yelled over the ECHO as another rocket landed near him and Zer0.

"Kid, Wilhelm nearly killed us all in New Haven without taking a scratch, you guys need to get out of there!" Lilith yelled.

Kai looked out from his cover to see a rocket smash into the canyons wall and knock the armored car down, causing the path out to be blocked.

"Yeah, not happening the damn train car blocking our only exit. We're stuck here with the giant cyborg murder Loader!" Kai yelled.

As this was happening Gaige and Maya were taking cover themselves behind an ice-encrusted rock. Gaige was taking shots with her Commerce Beta, but all the shots were being eaten by Wilhelm's shield. "The guy's a walking tank." Gaige yelled in frustration.

"Yeah, Roland's right. This guy is too strong." Maya said as she ducked down. "I just tried phaselocking him and it has no effect apart from sapping his shield some."

"Roland is wrong, Vault Hunter! You CAN defeat Wilhelm, I promise you!" Angel stated.

"Angel, are you crazy, look at this monster!"

"And look at all you've faced since arriving on Pandora. You've faced vicious creatures, violent bandits, giant robots! You both can do this, all of you together can do this." Gaige and Maya looked at each other. "Plus that train car he threw blocked the only exit so running isn't an option anyways."

"This is gonna suck." Gaige muttered.

"Yup, now here's the plan, you get to Kai while I go help Krieg out of the snow." Maya said as she got up.

"Okay, and then what?"

"No idea, I'm just making sure you stay close to your boyfriend who knows how to fight." Maya said before bolting from her cover.

"WHAT! Maya get back here!" Gaige yelled in anger. She let out a groan as she slid back behind the rocks. "Of course, she would find a way to tease me in the middle of a fight. She moves to glance over the rocks to get an idea of where everyone was. Axton and Salvador had taken cover behind a broken section of track but were currently laying down covering fire as Maya was digging Krieg out. She heard the sound of a sniper going off to her left and looked to see Zer0 shooting from cover. She sees a hand passing him a grenade which Zer0 threw at Wilhelm. "So that's where he's at." She muttered.

She stood up and took several steps back from the rock. "I really hate this planet." Gaige muttered before she charged forward and jumped over the rock. She sprinted towards Kai and Zer0's position, however, Wilhelm noticed her. He turned and brought his shoulder cannon to bear on her.

Zer0 shook Kai's shoulder and pointed to Gaige. Kai looked around the metal wall and saw Gaige running towards them. "FUCK!" Kai yelled as he scrambled out of the cover towards the redhead.

Gaige was panting now but was about thirty meters from the cover when she saw Kai rush out towards her. Gaige was wondering what was wrong when she felt both a heat and heard a whoosh behind her. She glanced in the direction the feeling came from only to see a red laser bolt smash into the side of her. The force of the hit felt like someone sucker punched her, but thankfully her shield held at 70 percent. "FUCKING HEL-" Another laser hit her and knocked her several meters across the ice. Gaige looked to see Wilhelm aiming at her again. "Oh son of a-"

*BOOM!*

An explosion went off against Wilhelm's shield, while not damaging him it did knock him off target as the laser bolt flew over Gaige by several meters. Gaige sees a rocket strike the cyborg as Kai slides next to Gaige with a Tediore launcher in hand.

Kai fired another round before jabbing a button on the side of the launcher causing it to rocket off wildly towards Wilhelm. The rocket hit Wilhelm's shield with no effect but the Launcher smashed into the ice at his feet. The ice buckled from the impact and under the weight of the cyborg, causing the man's left foot to break through making him fall over. "Come on!" Kai yelled as he grabbed Gaige and pulled her back to his and Zer0 cover.

As they ran Wilhelm set his two Surveyors after the teens. They fired several energy bolts with one punching Kai in the back. "KAI!" Gaige yelled in worry.

"I'm fine! Keep moving!" He said as he shrugged off the hit as the Surveyors came around for another pass. Before the drones could fire a green tracer smashed through the lens of the closest surveyor, which was immediately followed by a second round that blasted the left wing off the remaining surveyor. Both Surveyors crashed as Kai and Gaige made it to a waiting Zer0 who had a Maliwan corrosive sniper in hand. "Thanks for the cover Zer0" Kai said as the teens slumped against the steel wall.

"So, does anyone have any ideas?" Maya said over the ECHO.

"I tried calling Roland to get a tactical missile strike on the bastard." Kai stated.

"Wait, that's an option?" Axton asked with hope and excitement in his voice.

"It would be, but the guy whose job it was to clear the ice off of the silos this week is lazy as hell… I'm so kicking Grif's ass later." Kai muttered.

"DAMMIT GRIF!" Both Axton and Salvador yelled.

Another explosion went off near their cover causing Gaige to flinch a little. "Well, what else can we do?" Gaige asked.

"Shoot him."

The teens paused and looked over to their ninja friend as he was looking around the corner. "What do you mean?" Kai asked.

Zer0 signaled them both to come look. The teens both moved over and looked over his shoulder to see Maya firing away with a Torgue assault rifle as Krieg was trying to flank the Cyborg. The Psycho pulled out a sticky grenade and slapped it on his buzz ax before throwing the weapon towards Wilhelm. Upon impact with Wilhelm's shield the grenade exploded in a burst of Slag, while also taking out a small chunk of his shield. Before Maya and Krieg could do anything else a power Loader broke from beneath the ice behind the siren and attacked her with a nasty backhand. While Maya's shield tanked the blow it still knocked her several meters. Krieg saw this and to rush to help her, abandoning all their progress on the cyborg. At the same time, Wilhelm pauses to Digistruct another two drones which immediately begin to project energy into his shield, rapidly recharging it.

"Shoot all the Drones / strip the machine of protection / then rain the lead." Zer0 stated.

The teens looked at each other before looking back to the masked man. "So you literally just want to bullet hose the guy?" Gaige asked with a deadpan look.

Zer0 swapped his sniper rifle out for a rare Vladof Guerrilla assault rifle which he cocked. "Hai." He said as a winky emote appeared on his face that made Gaige facepalm.

Kai just stared at that man for several seconds. "Right… You guys get that?" Kai asked over the ECHO.

"Blast the robots, then blast the shield and finally blast the estúpido. Now, this is a plan I can get behind!" Salvador yells.

"Beats the hell out of hiding." Axton said as the sound of a rifle being cock over the ECHO could be heard.

"Alright then here's the game plan."

X-X-X

Krieg was not having a good day at the moment. Several Loaders had decided to pull themselves from the ice and had managed to surprise his beloved blue flower.

Maya was still shaking off the hit as Krieg was bashing the infernal machines. A gun loader was panicking as it tried to spray the psycho with his machine gun, but Krieg smashed his ax into its gun arm, ripping it off. He brought Shotgun 1340 up and blasted it into the Loader's face as the gun yelled. AWESOME!

A Power Loader with only its left arm remaining rushed and tried to slash him with its claw. Krieg paired the claw with his ax before firing two shots into its hip, splitting the bot in two. "Who next feels my tempered meat!" Krieg yelled.

"Umm, boss. Behind us." 1340 said in a worried tone. Krieg stiffened as he slowly turned around and looked to see Wilhelm looming over him lifting his arms to strike.

"... Crap basket." His inner voice said.

An electrical explosion erupts behind Wilhelm that causes him to stagger, followed by several more such explosions. At the same time, a crossfire of bullets focused the Surveyors, which quickly brought the drones crashing down. Wilhelm recovered from the electrical burst and turned to try and find the source, only to be met with a hail of blue tracer fire. Krieg looked to see Gaige, Kai, and Zer0 all holding shock elemental SMGs and Assault rifles. EAT ELECTRIFIED LEAD BOLDY! Gaige yelled at the cyborg.

At the same time, a second hail of bullets came from the left as Axton and Salvador fired at the man. "Time to DOUBLE DOWN!" Salvador yelled as he started Gunzerking with a Vladof spinigun in one hand and a bandit SMG in the other. Wilhelm tried to form another drone but it was quickly shot to pieces by Axton's turret. Wilhelm let out an electronic growl and turned towards the source of the gunfire. In an instant, he leaped and landed in front of Kai, Zer0, and Gaige, who let out a scream in panic as the cyborg lifted his right arm. Kai grabbed Gaige and pulled her away as Wilhelm swiped with his right arm, missing them but heading straight towards Zer0, However Wilhelm's metal fist just flew through Zer0's head. This left the cyborg confused for a second until a single gunshot punched the side of his head taking out a chunk of his remaining shield. The cyborg looked to his right to see Zer0 holding a smoking Jakob revolver with a winky face emote. Wilhelm throws a punch in anger at the assassin only to once again find nothing but air.

Wilhelm let out a yell of anger before turning to the teens who were picking themselves up. "AAAARH!" He roar as he charged the teens. Gaige who was being helped up by Kai saw this and raised her left arm. "GET'EM BOY!" Gaige yelled as DT formed in front of them and caught Wilhelm's outstretched fist in his left claw. DT quickly followed up with a digistruct claw swiped with his right, knocking the cyborg back.

As DT was distracting Wilhelm, Kai got Gaige back on her feet and moved away from the monstrosity. "You know, now might be a good time to send Hati out."

"I would if he was here."

"What do you mean if he was here!?"

Kai held up Hati's Photon pack, only for Gaige to realize it wasn't DT's pack but a realistic paper mache copy that Kai crushed in his hand. "Then where the hell is that wolf?"

Back at Tina's place.

Hati who was in his puppy form was cowering in a corner as a shadow loomed over him. "Now, now, little cutie. Don't be like that. We're going to have soooo much fun today Tina said as she held up a small dog-sized bee outfit in one hand and a sailor's outfit in the other. Hati gave out a scared whimper as he drew further back.

'Why me!?' He thought.

Back at the fight Gaige just facepalmed. "Of all the times Tina." Gaige muttered.

"It's fine, look at your HUD, Wilhelm's shield is on its last leg." Gaige glanced at it and sure enough, his shield was only at about ten percent.

"Looks like it's time to finish it then. DT! ONE TWO BOOM!" Gaige yelled

DT smashed his fist into Wilhelm knocking him back several feet thanks to the ice. As Wilhelm was pulling himself up the other Vault Hunters began pelting him with gun fire, much to his annoyance. With Wilhelm distracted, DT brought his claws together, arcs of electricity began to spark between his hands as a sphere of energy began to grow. After several seconds of charging DT released the sphere which flew slowly forward. Wilhelm saw this and stepped out of the way as everyone watched the slow attack with perplexed looks.

"... You gave DT a copy of the Min Min Lighter?" Kai asked perplexed.

"Fuck no." Gaige said as she pulled her Rogue Smuggler and fired at the sphere. When the bullet hit it the sphere exploded in a massive burst of electricity that engulfed Wilhelm completely. His shield flared for a second before it shorted out.

"Huh, well that was cool." Kai said.

"Enough talk! OPEN FIRE!" Salvador yelled as he hefted two rocket launchers.

Without giving the cyborg a moment to think everyone fired with everything they had. Sal with rockets, Axton with his Dahl carbine and his turret, Maya with a corrosive SMG, Krieg with Shotgun 1340, and Zer0 with a Vladof sniper rifle. DT was firing his eye laser and was focusing on the spine. Kai had the Fast Talker with a corrosive barrel on it and was focusing on Wilhelm's right arm. He looked over to Gaige and noticed was messing with her ECHO. "What are you doing?"

"I got over a hundred stack of Anarchy, and I'm gonna use it!" Gaige said with a cocky grin as she suddenly pulled out a rusty machine gun that Kai recognized. "Gaige no!" Kai said in a panic.

"GAIGE YES!" She yelled as she hefted the CHOPPER in Wilhelm's direction and pulled the trigger.

*BRRRRT!* The noise was deafening as hundreds of bullets sprayed out from the bandit spin-gun and pelted the Cyborg. Half of the bullets bounced off the cyborg after damaging him and then bounced off of other surfaces to only bounce back and hit him again. However, this quickly changed as the intense recoil made Gaige lose her control over the weapon. It kept whipping left and right as she attempted to wrestle control of it, all the while bullets were bouncing around the area, sending bits of dirt, rock and ice into the air. "Gaige! Stop shooting!" Kai yelled.

"I've already let go of the trigger! It won't stop!" Gaige yelled, to which Kai's eyes widened at the realization.

"SHIT, IT'S A RUNAWAY!" Kai yelled as everyone scrambled for cover. Bullets were bouncing everywhere as the gun spat four bullets a shot. Kai rushed behind Gaige and wrapped his arms around her and grabbed the rifle to help stabilize it. "KEEP IT POINTED AT WILHELM!" Kai yelled over the gunfire as they shifted to the smoke cloud where the cyborg was. The gunfire continued for another ten or so seconds before finally running dry. It took another five seconds before the bullets stopped bouncing around the place. Both Kai and Gaige had ragged breaths from the moment as the entire area around them was filled with dust clouds and smoke.

"You okay?" Kai asked as he could feel Gaige jittering in his arms.

"Ye- yeah. I-I just can't feel my arms… Or legs." She said shakily as Kai helped her kneel to the ground so she could support herself.

"Well let this be a lesson. Don't get cocky kid."

"I oughta smack you for how corny that Star Wars quote was… But I think all the screws in my robot arm are too loose to survive the hit." Gaige said, still jittering as Kai just chuckled.

He turned to the debris clouds. "Hey! You guys dead?"

A chorus of yes's and groans came from the cloud. However, after a few seconds, the wind blew the cloud off the nearby cliff to reveal something that put fear in everyone. The monstrous Cyborg was still standing with his left arm missing and his shoulder cannon broken apart with only a few wires holding it to his back. His physical body was bleeding profusely but he still held a determined look of anger.

"Systems… Fa-Fa- Failing."Wilhelm said in an electronic voice. "All sa-sa safety protocols deactivated… Termination protocols... activated." He said as his left eye behind the now cracked goggle lens glowed red.

"That doesn't sound good." Kai said as he picked his Fast Talker up and pointed it at Wilhelm.

"RAAAAAAAAAAH!" Wilhelm screamed as he looked like he was about to rush forward only for a small pop and blast of smoke to erupt from his right eye implant. Wilhelm froze in place with his mouth agape. "A- a- a critical failure has occurred… System… shutting... down." He said before falling back on the ice, with several pieces of loot coming out.

Kai and Gaige just stared at the broken cyborg with looks of absolute confusion. "Wha- What the fuck just happened?" Kai asked.

"If I had to guess, he had an electrical short that fried his system… To think, what took him down was the robot equivalent of a brain aneurysm." Gaige stated.

"Well, that and about ten thousand rounds of ammo." Kai stated plainly. "Which reminds me now that he's dealt with." Kai suddenly turns and begins pinching Gaige's cheeks. Not hard, but enough to spaz the girl out.

"OW! OW! OW! WHAT DID I DO!?" She cried as Kai held her.

"You went and used and or applied your tech to weapons without testing them again." Kai berated. "I mean just look around!" He yelled as he let go of her cheeks and then motioned to the surrounding area. There were hundreds of large and deep bullet holes and impact craters all around the area. One particularly shot up train car's door fell open as several crates and an active Hyperion fast travel station fell out. "Seriously, we're lucky nobody got shot!"

A cough drew their attention as the teens turned to see Axton holding a damaged portion of his turret with a bullet hole in it.

"... Well, no one that mattered."

"Oi!" Axton yelled in protest.

"Oh come on, name one other time I've done such a thing." Gaige countered.

"Well let's see, there was the time at South Paw where you first used a Vladof sniper, in an enclosed space with Close Enough active. Mind you, everyone but you were hit."

"The first offense doesn't count." Gaige rebuttaled.

"Then there was the time you nearly brained Axton with a laser."

"I go on record to state that I didn't have close enough activated. Plus he had a shield."

"Noted. Continuing, the second time we went to the Bloodshot dam, you infused a bouncing Betty with Anarchy. Granted it did make short work of those mutants, but we were nearly turned into swiss cheese ourselves."

"Umm. Okay, I may have underestimated the potential power." Gaige said a little hesitantly.

"Then there was when you somehow bounced a rocket launcher, not a rocket, but the whole launcher, and blew off the bow of the Soaring Dragon… With us still on it."

"That was just a fluke! Also who would have guessed my Close Enough counts Tediore launchers after being thrown as a projectile."

"And then yesterday, you blew up an entire Varkid nest!"

"So?"

"With what, eighty Anarchy stacks?"

"... 62." Gaige muttered."

"And you wanted to blow the train open with the same weapon, with what, twice the Anarchy now?"

Gaige let out a defeated sigh as her head and shoulders fell. "Okay, you made your point."

"Look Gaige, there may be times you have to throw caution to the wind, but you should test all your weapons beforehand. Or at the very least think about how your tech might affect something. Okay." Kai said.

"Yeah, okay." Gaige said with a dejected voice as the others approached.

"Now makeup and kiss." Maya said before making a kissy face.

"SHUTUP!" Both teens yelled causing the siren and Salvador to laugh.

"If you all are done we still have a job to do." Axton said.

"Right, I'm going to secure the cyborg, make sure there is no more danger." Kai said as he walked towards Wilhelm.

Axton looked back at the others. "Is there any way we can check for the Vault Key?" He asked.

"Indeed there is." Came an excited voice over the ECHO.

"Tannis? Why are you on the line?" Axton asked.

"I have a vested interest in any mission that involves the specific use of Siren powers or the Eridians. Anywho, Maya, I need you to focus your powers and pulse the energy inside of you.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because your powers should be able to resonate with any nearby Eridian artifacts, leading you to the closest or strongest source."

"Wait, was this why you specifically asked me to find all of those stolen artifacts that were hidden in the Rust Well Commons? I had to find eighty damn artifacts over the course of three Pandoran days, and still never found the bastards who stole them." Lilith said.

"Oh, I actually hid them myself, I was having you test a theory for me." Tannis replied uncaringly.

"FUCK YOU TANNIS!" Lilith yelled. "It took me a week to wash the grime out of my hair! . . . *Sigh* She is right though, you should be able to sense the Key if it's nearby."

"Okay, but how?" Maya asked.

"Just focus on the power in you. Imagine it's a flame, then feel what direction it begins to be pulled to. Should lead you to the most powerful Eridian source nearby." Lilith said.

Okay, let me try." Maya closed her eyes and focused. After a minute she began walking towards a pile of wreckage which she quickly cleared with her powers. Beneath the pile was a Hyperion red chest which she opened. What they found were two Eridian relics and a purple-grade Vladof pistol.

That's it?" Salvador asked as he picked up one relic. "It's just an aggression relic. Increased sniper damage, anyone?" Zer0 raised his hand, to which Sal tossed him the relic before grabbing the other. "Proficiency." He looked at Maya before handing it to her. "Might help with your powers. Dibs on the pistol."

"What? But I found it?" Maya said in irritation as Sal grabbed the pistol.

"Appraisal fee." He answered not missing a beat.

"How do you know so much about relics anyways?" Gaige asked.

"Hey if it makes me stronger for no damn reason, I will go out of my way to learn about it." Sal said proudly as the two women of the group stared at him.

"This coming from the same guy who thought listening to Claptrap was a good idea and tried running through an electric fence… Twice." Gaige said, holding up two fingers for emphasis.

"Maya, do you sense anything else." Tannis asked over the ECHO.

Maya paused for several moments before shaking her head. "Sorry. These were the only Eridian source I could sense." Maya said.

"Hmm, shame." Tannis said uncaringly.

"Well, that's a bust. Vault Hunters, go ahead and search the other cars and the area. There may still be some useful loot at the very least." Roland said.

At the mention of loot, Salvador ran towards the dropped loot like a rabid skag! "DIBS!"

"Oh hell no!" Axton yelled.

"Get back here you damn midget!" Maya screamed as she and Krieg chased after them, leaving Gaige and Zer0 watching her run after them.

"Here we go again." Gaige said.

"The draw of treasures / a song ever so sweet / truly a cold living."

"Hm…" They were both quiet for several seconds. "I'll trade you any shotguns for any snipers I find."

"... Deal."

As the others were looting, Kai had put a bullet from the Teapot into each of Wilhelm's leg joints, and the remaining arm to disable them. Now he was looking over the remains of Wilhelms shoulder cannon. Wilhelm suddenly let out a struggled gasp causing Kai to jump back with the Teapot out and pointed at the cyborg. Wilhelm slowly looked around for several seconds until his eyes landed on Kai. "Ha… So this is the end… Figures."

". . . I- I didn't think you could talk normally." Kai said cautiously.

"Kind of hard when your brain is being controlled by a hardwired combat AI for several years." Wilhelm said.

"You had no free will? So you're telling me you've been mind-controlled and forced to kill people, like with the New Haven attack?"

"Ha. Mind control or not I would have killed them anyways, so long as I get paid." He said.

Kai stared at the man in shock at the statement. "Wow, you're a real piece of work… How are you even alive?"

"My bioregulator has a backup power cell, however, it's failing so I have maybe a few minutes at best."

Kai was silent for several seconds as he stared at the man. "I'm not going to help you. Unless you want a bullet… Do you?"

Wilhelm let out a raspy chuckle. "Not really, plus I know what I am. Anything else is now between me and the robot policeman."

"Right, should have figured you'd follow that religion as well." Kai muttered.

Wilhelm looked back up into the sky and let out a tired sigh. "I know I'm a monster, but could you grant a dying man one last favor?" He asked somberly.

Kai was hesitant. Usually, he would never have even given a Hyperion employee the time of day. But looking at the bleeding and shot-up cyborg he couldn't find any reason to not hear him out. "Depends." He said with obvious apprehension laced in his voice.

Wilhelm nodded in understanding. "In the back compartment of my shoulder cannon, there's a red and blue heavy SDU marked W&S."

Kai walked to the cannon and quickly found the device. He pulled it out and looked it over, he noted it was a military-grade SDU. "What is it?" He asked looking back to the cyborg.

"My partners. . . I'd hate to let them rot away in the tundra. Find them a good home."

Kai looked at the SDU again before nodding and pocketing the device. "Well… I'll be honest, I'm not used to… This kind of situation... Sooo… any regrets?"

"The only regret I had was not being able to wring that backstabbing plastic face-" There was a pop that caused Kai to jump back as Wilhelm jolted before letting out a pained gasp.

"... Fucking bastard." Wilhelm muttered before going limp.

Kai stared at the corpse for several seconds before turning and walking away. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this." Kai muttered.

With the others, they were picking through the loot seeing what was good and what was trash. Gaige had just finished putting a Dahl SMG away before letting out a sigh. "There's just nothing interesting here. I figured there would at least be a few good weapons or something."

"Gaige, you found two rare guns and just packed away a very rare Dahl SMG." Angel's voice said in her ear.

"Your point?"

"Your sense of worth might be a little warped from finding that Legendary weapon yesterday."

"I guess you make a good point." She looked around the ice.

"Hang on, my sensors are picking up a large power source nearby… in the crater to your right.

Gaige looked around till she noticed said crater. She walked over and looked in to see Wilhelm's lost arm and a power core. She walked in and picked up the core. "Oh cool."

"My sensors tell me it's a one-of-a-kind power core." Angel said. "Wilhelm must have dropped it during the battle. If you bring it back to Sanctuary, their shields may never need to be recharged again."

"Well, that's worth keeping." Gaige said before a familiar boom echoed across the tundra. Everyone looked up to see several moonshots heading towards them.

Kai, who had been looking at the approaching threat, turned to everyone and yelled. "Time to go!"

"To the fast travel station! It's the quickest way out of here!" Axton yelled as he pointed to the fast travel that had fallen out of the armored train car earlier. Everyone bolted and quickly gathered around the station as Axton punched in the coordinates. The hologram kept flickering as Axton tried hitting the enter button. "Come on, come ON!"

"What's wrong?" Kai inquired.

"The damn thing isn't working!" Axton muttered as he punched the coordinates in again only to be met with an error message.

"We got about thirty seconds!" Maya said, looking over her shoulder.

Axton tried twice more to no avail. "Stupid piece of Hyperion-" Before he could finish a metal arm punched the side of the machine leaving a large dent and causing the hologram above the station to stop glitching.

"There we go." Gaige said as Kai just chuckled.

Axton just hit the enter button and immediately the group turned into a cloud of pixels that disappeared a second before the first moonshot landed.

Ten minutes later.

The gang made their way to the HQ where they found Roland and Lilith on a vid-call with Mordecai. "Hey, guys. Sorry about the bad intel, everybody. I really thought the Vault Key would be on that train. I'll make it up to you all later, next time I'm in Sanctuary, the beers are on me. Whatcha think, Bloodwing?" Mordecai asked, receiving a screech from the bird. "Will talk to you guys later."

"Hey Morde, tell Tina I'm coming back for Hati this afternoon, okay." Kai said.

"Will do amigo." Mordecai said before the Hologram flickered off.

Roland turned to the Vault Hunters. "While the mission may have gone south you managed to kill Wilhelm. It may not be the victory we wanted, but it's a victory we will take. Feel proud of yourselves, we've just knocked off a major obstacle."

"Still feels bad coming back empty-handed." Maya said.

"Hey, cheer up girl, you may have not found the Vault Key, but you did learn a new cool trick." Lilith said.

"Plus we didn't come back empty-handed." Gaige said drawing everyone's attention.

"We didn't?" Kai asked, looking at his friend who pulled out the power core.

Gaige handed the core to Roland who looked it over. "Woah, never seen a power core like that." He said as handed it back to Gaige. "Take it to be installed in the generator. The power core you guys brought back after Reiss's attack is nearly used up. Only has about a week on it. With this Sanctuary will be safe a little longer."

With that Gaige and Kai made their way to the guard station near the bridge that connected the town to Three Horns. "Hey, Davis!" Kai yelled as the teens walked up the stairs to the post.

"Hey guys, heard you went after the Vault key. Any luck?" Davis asked as he got up from the table.

"Nah, no key. But we did kill Wilhelm." Kai said nonchalantly.

The green armored Raider looked at him for several seconds. "You're shitting me?"

"No, it was a surprisingly easy fight. We even got a new power core out of it." Gaige said, holding up the new core.

"A new power core?" Davis looked the item over. "Woah, that looks like it could keep our shields up for months. Years, even!" Davis said excitedly. "As much as I hate using Hyperion tech, that core your friends brought back is nearly burnt up. Why doncha pop it out?"

Gaige walked over to the shield generator and deactivated it. The holder opened up and ejected the old core which clattered to the ground. Kai eyed the old core with a hint of detest as Gaige readied the new core.

"Now, shove in that new core you found harder than a shiv into a Truxican's sternum." Davis said. Kai and Gaige stared at the man for several seconds in silence.

"You know Sal would probably start beating the shit out of you if he heard that." Kai stated bluntly causing Davis to look away with a slight bit of shame.

"Sorry, old Crimson Lance saying."

Gaige shook her head before locking the core in and letting it power up.

"Okay, I think we are in bus-" Davis started to say before a loud screech erupted from the generator. It lasted for several seconds leaving everyone shaken. "What the hell!" Davis said.

"Sup bitches, looks like you're having some trouble there. Some technical problems maybe. Understandable, after all, a bunch of filthy bandits wouldn't know how to handle such an advanced piece of Hyperion tech."

"JACK!" Kai yelled in anger. "What are you doing!?"

"Me? Oh I'm just sitting back, up here in my big shiny space station watching you idiots making fools out of yourselves… With snacks of course, I finally got some good pretzels."

"I wouldn't be talking Jack, considering we just off'd your personal cyborg attack dog." Gaige retorted.

"Oh, you killed my best man. Congratulations, good freakin job you crazy psychos, give yourselves a nice big pat on the back." He said tauntingly. "Well, seeing as you did defeat Wilhelm I think you all deserve a little reward. I think it's finally time to tell you that little secret. Angel's working for me."

"What!?" Gaige muttered which Kai heard.

But before he could inquire about it the screen on the generator monitor flickered to show a young woman with black hair "... Lowering Sanctuary's shield, Jack. Executing phase shift." Angel said.

The power core exploded, throwing Gaige straight back into Kai, knocking them both over.

"That's not a power core!" Davis yelled in panic as he activated his ECHO. "Raiders, the shields are down, the shields-" Before Davis could finish a moonshot artillery impacted right where he was standing. The shockwave blew the teens off of the building and onto the frosted ground.

"DAVIS!" Kai yelled as he looked at the burning guard post.

"Nicely done, Angel! Now let's kill ourselves some Vault Hunters!" Jack shouted excitedly.

"What the hell? Did something just get through the shield?" Roland yelled over an open frequency.

"Shield's down, Roland! Oh, man, somebody start getting everybody underground." Scooter yelled as more mortars began to rain down on Sanctuary.

"How!?" Roland yelled.

"The core was rigged Sir! Someone by the name of Angel got into the control and ruptured the whole shield network! And LT. Davis is dead sir!" Kai responded as he pulled Gaige up.

"Angel!? How in the world-"

"There's no time Roland." Lilith interrupted. "Everybody! I've got a really bad idea! Scooter, get Sanctuary in the air! Roland, get me some Eridium!"

"Pretty sure we can't do that without killing, I don't know, everyone in the city! It ain't ready to fly, Lily!" Scooter countered.

"You've got your orders Scooter, MOVE! All Raiders get the civilians to cover and watch for Loaders." Lilith yelled.

"Vault Hunters, meet me in the center of town, now! I'ma need your help real bad!" Scooter shouted.

As this was happening Kai and Gaige were running back to the city with weapons out. All around them mortar shells were hitting buildings and the streets. A few shots deployed Loader bots that were engaged with the many Raiders who were out to defend the town.

One Raider in pink armor was shooting at a Loader, unaware of a Power Loader behind him when Kai yelled. "DONUT DUCK!" The man let out a girly yelp as he ducked, just barely dodging a swipe from the Loader. Kai shot several bursts from the Teapot into its eye, quickly killing the bot.

"Thanks, Kai." the man said with a slightly effeminate voice as he got up. "I owe you one."

"Later Donut, get with the other raiders, you're a sitting duck if you stay out here alone. And find Caboose! Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Kai said as he and Gaige continued forward.

"Yes sir! I get right on top of that!" He yelled overly excited as he ran the other way as the teens kept running.

"Did that sound…" Gaige started to asked.

"Yes, now keep moving." Kai said as several explosions go off on the street from moonshots.

"Oh man this is great, it's like an old Micheal Bay film." Jack taunted. "You Vault Hunters want to know something, you all only survived your train ride together because I wanted you to. Five years ago, Roland and his friends opened the Vault because Angel and I tricked them into doing it. Everything you Vault Hunters have ever done, it's all part of my plan. I'm such a rock star." He cheered and laughed.

"SHUT UP ASSHOLE." Kai yelled as he and Gaige jumped over a dead body on the ground. Gaige looked back at the body and felt a pang of guilt as they continued forward.

They got to the center of town to find the other Vault Hunters either directing civilians, keeping Loaders away, or helping Scooter cycle the primers. Lilith was pushing her Siren powers into the monument in the center of town. They could see portions of the monument and the area around it beginning to open up.

"Alright, we're primed! Everybody get ready!" Scooter yelled from a nearby control.

The city began to shake as the letter on the side of the monument glowed. "Ah, son of a…" Roland cried over the ECHO.

"Roland, what's wrong?" Axton yelled. I'm pinned, soldier, I can't get the Eridium to Lilith! Get to me, quick!"

"I need that Eridium! Get to Roland!" Lilith yelled.

"We got it." Gaige yelled over the noise.

"Where is he?" Kai asked.

"In the top level storeroom at the back! Get moving or we're dead!" Lilith yelled with gritted teeth.

"On it." Kai answered as the teens bolted for the HQ.

"Man this is exciting, watching you bandits flail around like scared ants in panic as your city crumbles to dust around you… Man, I wish I had some popcorn… BLAKE, get me some popcorn! With extra butter!" Jack yelled.

Kai and Gaige quickly rushed into the HQ and climbed the stairs till they got to the top. The building rumbled as a mortar hit nearby. "Which way?" Gaige asked.

"Left!" Kai yelled. They twisted between the halls of bunkrooms, ammo stores, and other utility rooms till they turned and saw an open door at the end of a hall where they could see Roland pinned under a layer of debris. Several eridium shards were scattered around the room. "Roland, you okay!?" Kai said as they reached him.

"Don't worry about me! Grab as much Eridium as you can and get it to Lilith!"

The teens nodded and gathered as many shards before running back. They got back to the stair only for Kai to bolt past them. "Where are you going!?" Gaige yelled as she chased after him.

"We're taking the express route." Kai yelled as they ran around the command table in the center and rushed for the doorway towards the balcony.

"Express route?"

"JUMP!" Kai yelled as they both jumped over the railing and to the street below. They landed and quickly picked themselves up.

"Holy Robot-"

"GO!" Kai yelled as they rushed to the center of town. They reach the monument which Gaige now realized was actually a massive anti-gravity generator

They ran around it to Lilith who saw them coming. She pulled her hands off the generator and took a quick breath of air. "Good, now gimme the Eridium!"

"Lil, have you ever used this much rid-rock before?" Kai asked as Lilith began to quickly absorb each chunk of rock they handed her.

"Honestly no." She said as Gaige handed her the last shard. "You might wanna hang onto something." Lilith said as she absorb it.

Kai and Gaige stared at her for a second until they both suddenly realized what she was about to do. "Oh shit, EVERYONE HANG ON!" Kai yelled as both teens turned and ran.

The teens and the nearby Vault Hunters all attempted to rush to anything they could hold onto but they were each engulfed in a purple flash. They all suddenly found themselves falling several meters to the snow-covered ground outside of the city. "What just happen?" Sal asked in pain.

"I think Lil just warpped us again." Gaige said as she got up, holding a hand to her mouth.

"Sorry, kid. That was an accident." Lilith said over the ECHO. "I'll see you on the other side, though, I promise. Hit it, Scooter!"

The ground around the group began to violently shake. "What's going on!" Axton yelled.

"LOOK!" Maya yelled pointing to the city.

Chunks of ice and concrete were falling off the walls all around the city as they all soon realized the city was slowly rising up.

"Holy shit, it can fly." Axton muttered as they all gawked at the sight.

"Haha! Man, this is one of them moments." Scooter laughed before taking in a deep breath. "CATCH A RIIIIDE!" He screamed as the city rose out of its hole and flew up. However, more moonshots fell onto the city as it rose.

"That's the best you got? A flying city? This is pathetic! What else could you chumps POSSIBLY have that makes you think you've got a chance against me?" Jack said.

"A Siren." Roland said.

"'Sup." Lilith said before Sanctuary suddenly blasted out of existence causing a shock wave that swept over the tundra.

"Hunh..." Jack said before he cut his ECHO.

The group continued to stare at the sky for several more seconds until Kai looked at everyone. "Okay can anyone tell me, who the fuck is Angel."

"Um, she's an AI who has been helping us since the train wreck." Gaige answered.

"Okay, second question… WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU TRUST A RANDOM AI!" Kai yelled!

"I- uhh." Gaige stuttered in shock.

"Woah! Kai, this isn't her fault." Maya said.

"Your right, you all blindly trusted that AI!" Kai yelled at them all. "Also, why didn't you tell me about her?"

She said it was better if nobody knew." Axton said.

Kai stared at the man in disbelief for several seconds. "Seriously? Did any of you ever wonder why she didn't want to be known? Hell, do any of you even know why she was helping just you and not the Raiders? Did any of you think to find out what her stake was in this war?" Kai said looking at each of the Vault Hunters.

"Uuuh." Maya and Axton looked at each other and both looked unsure as Gaige shuke her head. "I never asked."

"You never asked! Dammit! How could you be that stupid!" Kai said.

"Well She's been helping us for weeks now! She got us through the wasteland to Liarsburg, helped us with jobs. She even got us the New-U accounts."

Kai just stared at her for several seconds. "Are you KIDDING ME!" He yelled. "Are you telling me that little fact never set off any red flags with any of you!? A normal run-off-the-mill AI has no hope of hacking the New-U system, even a high-grade combat AI would be extremely hard-pressed to get in unnoticed!"

"You can't know that!" Gaige countered hesitantly.

"I do know that. Tobias, a team of twenty-three hackers and five military-grade AIs managed to get into Hyperion's system once after thirty-one hours of hacking. They only managed to stay unnoticed in the system for two minutes before Hyperion cyber security booted them! Dozens of hackers, several AI's, and nearly a day and a half for two minutes. If it takes that much for just two minutes then no single AI can hack into the New-U unless they have premissions!" Kai yelled.

"This is just great! I just love the way you Vault Hunters just up and trusted Angel. Never occurred to you that she was working for me, did it?" Jack said over the ECHO.

"This is your fault Jackass!" Kai yelled.

"Woah, woah! I admit that I may have gotten the ball rolling on this little deception. But it was your trusted friends that bought my little lie and doomed you're raider buddies." Jack laughed. "I did the same thing to the last four Vault Hunters, but I'll be entirely honest, tricking you guys this time? Way funnier."

"Shut Up Jack! Don't talk about Roland and the others like that." Kai growled.

"Hey, I'm just saying it as I see it. Your friends let this happen, plus they never trusted you to let you in on their help friend. Had they trusted you, this all could have been avoided. But unlike you, they're not here to avenge your planet or protect the Raiders. They're all just greedy little vault Hunters who want loot and cash."

Kai was seething in rage at this point as he stared into the sky right at Helios station.

"Plus seeing as your so-called new friends just let your other friends most likely die, it kind of makes you wonder, just who can you trust, hmm?" Jack said.

Kai yelled in fury before he started marching towards the main gate.

"Wha- Kai. KAI! Wait up." Gaige yelled as she and the others followed him. He went out of the gate and to the catch-a-ride where he summoned a basic runner.

"Kai, where the hell are you going?" Gaige yelled as he jumped into the vehicle.

"Anywhere but here, since you all let my home blink out of existence." Kai stated.

"You don't know that they're gone." Gaige said.

"And you don't know if they're even alive!" Kai yelled back with both anger and fear in his voice. "I trusted you guys, and what do you do, you let that son of a bitch waltz in, and kick us all in the damn nuts!"

"So what, you're just going to leave us, your comrades, your friends, ME?" Gaige nearly yelled in anger.

He stared at them for several seconds before letting out a tired sigh. "Comrades trust each other… I don't know what you are." Kai said before he pinned the gas pedal to the floor and raced off.

"Wait, Kai! KAI!" Gaige screamed out after him in anger and pain. She watched as Kai's runner disappeared in the distance as she felt cold tears fall down her cheeks. "Don't leave me." She quietly pleaded as she slumped to her knees. Maya moved to the teen and drew the girl into a hug as she cried. "Maya, what have I done?" Gaige asked weakly.

"Gaige it's gonna be okay." Maya said as she comforted the girl.

The guys of the group all looked to each other. "Well, what do we do now?" Salvador asked.

"Well, we can't stay here, and I doubt Tina's place will be a safe place." Axton said.

"It a mountain cave base with a blast door, how would it not be a safe place?"

"Something tells me if when Tina finds out we had a hand in Sanctuary's disappearance then will be running for our lives." Axton stated.

Salvador thought about it for several seconds before he realized what the commando meant and nodded in agreement. "Good point. What is our other options?"

"Well we either set up shop in Liarsburg, or we head to the Raider base at Hollow Point." Axton said as he rubbed his chin in thought.

Before anyone could say anymore, Axton's ECHO came to life. "Vault Hunters, can you hear me?" Angel's voice said over the ECHO.

"What the hell do you want you lying perra!" Salvador said as a number of the other Vault Hunters had frowned on their faces.

"Look, I know you're angry at me right now, but we don't have a lot of time. I'll explain everything, just get to The Fridge."

"And why would we do that? Why should we trust a lying bitch!" Axton said with burning anger.

Angel was silent for several seconds. "I- I've detected traces of Lilith's powers in the Highland area. I- I believe that's where Sanctuary will appear when Lilith does appear again." Angel stated.

The Vault Hunter's all looked to one another. "And why specifically the Fridge?" Axton asked cautiously.

"Because it's the safest place for you to travel through without Jack trying to drop half of Helio station's Loader supply on your heads once he decides to! Knowing him it will only be a short time before that happens."

The Vault Hunter's looked at each other. "I mean do we have a choice." Maya asked.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going." Gaige said with an odd of conviction as she stood up

"Woah, hold on Gaige." Maya motioned. "Just think about this, she just betrayed us. Why should we trust her now?"

"I never said I trusted her, but if it helps us find Sanctuary… and bring Kai back then what choice do we have."

Maya just stared at Gaige for several seconds before letting out a sigh. "Well, who am I to stand in the way of true love." Maya said.

"I never said that." Gaige said in a monotone.

"You didn't have to." Maya said with a smirk only to see Gaige look subdued. "Oh shit."

Seeing this Axton turned to the Catch-a-Ride. "I guess I'll spawn us all a Technical." Axton said.

"Either way this is gonna be fun!" Salvador said. "Also, I call shot-"

"Shotgun." Zer0 interrupted.

"Hey!" Salvador yelled in indignation.

Gaige continued to stare off at the direction Kai had driven off in. She let out a small sniff as she just stared. "I'll fix this Kai, just you wait." She said quietly.

X-X-X

Kai had just reached Tina's cave and entered and tiredly walked in feeling both the physical and emotional drain of the day. "Hey Morde, I'm back, and I got some bad… news." Kai said as he looked at the sight in front of him. Everyone was at Tina's table in various costumes with a Bunkers and Badasses game set out. Tina was in a black hoop skirt dress with hot rod flames stitched in and a crown made from a large shell casing, Hati was dressed in a court jester costume while still being in his puppy form and Mordecai was in an orange jumpsuit that looked like a Rebel pilot's outfit from Star Wars.

Everyone just stared at each other. "Okay, we can explain." Mordecai said.

"I'm sure you can… I just want to know why the hell Bloodwing has a tiny pimp hat?" Kai asked as he pointed at the bird. Said bird was sporting a very stylish small purple and gold-trimmed hat with a peacock feather in its band as he stood on the back of a gold-painted chair with fake rubies glued on it..

Bloodwing just lets out a cry that Hati translates for him with his barks. Kai just raises an eyebrow at the wolf before looking at the bird. "What the hell is a grandmaster of the seventh order of the pimps?"

Bloodwing just lets out several caws that Hati translates leaving Kai with a twitching eye before letting out a tired groan. "I'm too tired for this shit."

X-X-X

Torgue Mini Adventure

Chapter 7

It was a quiet moon lit night as a large full moon hung over a foggy old forest on some out-of-the-way colony world. A screech pierced the night as it was followed by a scream of terror.

Billy was running through the dark forest as fast as he could with Remmy right on his heel. "Come on, we have to move!" Billy yelled to Remmy as a scream could be heard in the distance.

They ran for several hundred meters until they found a dry ravine to hide in. The two quickly jumped in to hide as they waited. About thirty seconds later they heard several footsteps run by them. Another two minutes passed before Billy let out a sigh.

"That was too close." Just then, two tall figures jumped into the ravine, making Billy let out a girly scream of panic. The first one was a man in a black and red sweater with a brown fedora on and His hands had long metal blades attached to them. The most disturbing feature was his skin looked as though he lost a fight with an oil fryer and cheesegrater. The other man was towering over them. His clothes looked old and worn with an old beaten brown jacket over a faded blue shirt, and old weathered jeans with heavy boots. In his right hand was a blood-covered machete, and he wore an old hockey mask over his face.

"Holy shit, Freddy, Jason, you guys scared us! I thought you were one of those monsters!" Billy said as the two took a seat across from him.

"Sorry about that. We got jumped by several of those fucking monsters and had to run." Freddy said.

Jason started signing out something that Freddy quickly translated. "The others have a trap set, we just need to attract the monsters to the spot they set up at."

"Okay, and how do we do that?" Billy asked.

They both looked at him. "Simple, Torgue said your suit has a built-in loudspeaker."

"Well yeah but… Wait, I'm the bait!?" Billy exclaimed in panic.

"Don't worry, We will be right there with you. Now here's what you're going to do."

Five minutes later, several shadows were lurking through the woods as they hunted.

"HEY!" They all turned to see Billy, Remmy, Jason, and Freddy. "We think that The Last Skywalker is a perfect example of over-thought political ideology and should be used as an example of what not to aspire to! Plus it sucks!" Billy yelled through his loudspeaker.

The shadows let out an ear-piercing screech before they began rushing the gang. "RUN!" Freddy yelled as they bolted through the woods.

They dashed through the woods, all the while Billy would yell more things to bait them. "I CHOOSE NOT TO TALK ABOUT MY POLITICAL IDEOLOGY! CHRIS PRATT WAS A TREASURED ACTOR! ORGANIC SOY LOTTE'S ARE BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!"

More screams erupted from the forest as more shadows appeared, angered by Billy's words.

Jason let out a few questioning grunts. "We're almost there, I can see the old farm now!" Freddy yelled as an old farm came into sight.

They ran between the buildings and silos until they saw a long trench. "Jump in!" Freddy yelled. All four of them quickly jumped in as the monstrous shadows closed in.

"NOW!" Someone yelled. A rocket flew up from behind an old tractor that had a steel rope attached to it. It quickly pulled the line taunt which pulled a snare trap around the shadows, quickly pulling the lot of them into the air. A second line was pulled tight before the rocket could fly too high, causing the rocket and its cargo to be spun around like a lasso. After several spirals in the air, the rocket exploded releasing the captured shadows towards the old barn. The group smashed through the roof, immediately the sounds of multiple angered animals could be heard raging from within. Soon the shadows were individually shot out of the barn doors, covered in feathers and hay. They all flew onto a grain conveyor where they were carted up and dumped in pairs into several tractor tires waiting below.

"HA! IT F*CKING WORKED!" Came Mister Torgue voice as he and a man in a faded blue jumpsuit wearing a white rubber face mask stepped out from an old grain silo.

"Of course, it worked T, between our combined technical know-how and insanity there was no doubt it would work."

"Damn straight! Up top Micheal!" Torgue said hold a hand up which the now name Micheal high-fived.

"Hey, guys!" Everyone turned to see a man who wore a face mask that looked like sewn old leather in a suit and loose tie and another man in a long hooded black robe wearing a ghost face mask came out from behind a grain silo, each was escorting a restrained person, a man, and a woman dressed like farmers. "We found these two trying to run in a truck, luckily Ghostface has gotten good with knife throwing and took out their tires before they could get away."

"And you guys said it was useless to learn such a skill." Ghostface said with a shrug.

"It's old farmer John and Mary!" Billy exclaimed in shock as Ghostface and Leatherface shoved the two people with the shadows. "I thought the shadows killed you."

"Nope, they faked their deaths, pretty convening too if you pulled one on us." Leatherface stated.

"Alright, but why do that, and who are the shadows?" Billy asked.

"Easy." Micheal said as he approached each of the shadows. He pulled off each of their hoods revealing a dozen teenagers with an assortment of bright dyed hair and smug looks that said they thought they knew what's right.

"SJWs, I thought these types of people died out after the fourth world war against the mutant Gorilla Nazis?" Billy said.

"That's where these two come in." Leatherface said as he and Ghostface each pulled a mask off the farmer's heads, revealing two well-groomed adults.

"Who are these two?" Torgue asked.

"Their forgotten Hollywood B-list actors/influencers from the early 21st century, the second dark age, who probably we're probably frozen to keep them from ruining some production. Then they were accidentally thawed and left to try and influence today's youths to try and earn ECHO clout." Ghostface

"How dare you! I'm no B-list actor. I was supposed to be the lead for a live-action remake of My Neighbor Totoro!" The woman said.

Billy just stared at the woman. "Okay, first, who would be insane enough to try and make a live-action version of that film… Is that even a thing?" Billy asked.

"It was proposed back in 2033… But then anime fans caught wind and staged a war against all of Hollywood that led to anime fans taking over and establishing a strict code on proper story development and outlawing remakes." Leatherface said.

"Okay, second, aren't you a little old to be playing one of the main characters for that movie?" Billy continued.

"It was supposed to be an all-inclusive reimagining that shows the power of a grown woman as she is given everything she is deserved for no reason." The actress said pridefully.

"And I was to be a lost Jedi in a new Star Wars universe as he explores his sexual identity while running from an oppressive government who wish to quell his open-minded thinking! It was the film that would have saved Star Wars from those… Pompous old fans and brought back the glory of the TRUE sequel trilogy " The actor said with disdain.

Everyone stared at them for several seconds until Freddy looks at the gang. "Wow, glad someone put these fucking pansy's ass bitches on ice!"

"Okay, but why do all of this?" Billy asked.

Jason let out a grunt and walked over to several silos. He pulled out a machete and cut a cable which caused one of the silos to open up and reveal an avocado tree. "Avocados? They did this for f*cking avocados?" Torgue asked.

"Not just any avocados, fucking organically grown avocados!" Freddy translated for Jason as he signed. "They are the primary food for SJW's and B-list actors who think they're greater than everyone. So they would go about scaring off anyone interested in buying the farm so they could keep their food source and plan on spreading their diluted influence through the ECHOnet."

"And we would have had all the freshly grown avocado toast if it wasn't for this damn boyband and those meddling corporate dogs!" Said the actor.

"Welp gang, it looks like the Slashstreet Boys have solved another mystery." Freddy said as he translated for Jason. "Thanks for the help Mister Torgue and Billy."

"Not a problem guys!" Torgue said.

"I've been meaning to ask you guys, could I have your autographs?" Billy asked.

"HAHA! Billy, will do you one better!" Ghost face said. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, the Torgue crew got dozens of photos with the Slashstreet boys taking all kinds of poses together, which they all signed once the photos were printed.

"This has been one of our coolest excursions yet!" Billy said as he got the last photo from Leather Face.

"Hell yeah, but we need to get back to the stars, thanks for the adventure guys." Torgue said.

"Not a problem, it's always cool making new friends." Michael said as he fist-bumped Mister Torgue.

"What about you guys?" Billy asked as he picked up Remmy.

"We're in no rush so will stay here and deal with these guys." Ghostface said giving a thumbs up.

"Well, see you all on the flip side." Torgue said as the gang left down the old road back to town.

"That was awesome… So what do you think they'll do with those SJW nut jobs?" Billy asked as they walked.

"Oh, I think they'll get the justice they deserve." Torgue said as they disappeared into the mist.

Back at the farm, the gang of slashers turned to the captured teens and the discredited actors from a dark age. "Well, go ahead then, try and call the pigs on us! We have an overpriced lawyer with no morals." The woman said.

"YEA! Fuck the pigs!" The teens cheered.

"Yeah about that." Freddy said as he bent down to be eye level with the actress. "You see while also being part of a popular award-winning music group with trillions of dollars to our names we also are special agents for InterGalactic Space Police, with special judicial rights."

"What the right to be a corporate slave who oppresses people's choice." Yelled a crooked nosed teen with too much eyeliner.

"HA! That's funny, now I remember why people hate these guys." Ghostface said as he balanced a kitchen knife on his finger. "No, we are normal people… Well reformed normal people. We don't care who you are, what color you are, what class you are, or even what way you swing. Because at the end of the day it's nobody else's business to say what you have to choose to be, just like every sane person in the known universe. But you guys, all you do is spout what's right and what's wrong and belittle everyone else who doesn't agree with your own opinion or follow your social ideology. All while you then go off and try to speak on the behalfs of minorities who didn't ask to be spoken for."

"You are just a stupid right-wing republican pig, we know what's best." Yelled a pink-haired teen.

"Right there, case and point." Ghostface said. "You guys are so out of touch. There hasn't been a Democrat or Republican party in nearly five hundred years! Not since the Earth was destroyed by global warming."

"It wasn't globel warming Ghostface, it was nuclear war." Leather Face said.

"You're both wrong, it was mutant space clowns who destroyed Earth." Freddy said.

"The point is!" Ghost face interrupted. You guys are not above the law. Especially considering you've all murdered thirty-four people including the old couple who use to own this farm."

"But they didn't grow organic soybeans! That's a crime." The male actor yelled.

"Maybe in that twisted little world, you call a brain." Freddy said. "But to the rest of the universe, it's not a crime. But even you bitches should know murder is a crime which we find you guilty of." Freddy said with a sly grin.

"Fine then, send us to prison." The actress said.

"Oh, we're not sending you to prison. Remember those special rights we mentioned before?" Micheal said as he held up his knife while Jason pulled out his machete.

The actors and teens looked at the others. Ghostface was twirling his knife as Leather Face was revving a chainsaw. They looked back to Freddy to see him looking over his claws. "Good night for a full moon, wouldn't you guys agree?" Freddy said with an evil grin as his bandmates gathered behind him. "It's gonna be just like the old days back at Crystal Lake."

X-X-X

-Link Re-establish-

(Kilo) And that's a wrap. Man, that was a difficult chapter to write. I swear, I did not expect the Wilhelm fight to be such a pain to write.

(Tina) You sure did spend a lot of time on this one.

(Kilo) And for good reason. Now before anyone asks, yes I've changed some things around with how the Wilhelm fight is perceived. The fact everyone assumes immediately that Wilhelm was there means there's no Vault Key seems a little presumptuous. After all, if I had to move my very important relic that was key to my plan I would have my best cyborg death bringer guarding it. So in turn as a person planning on stealing it, I would also assume it's guarded extremely well by someone.

(Gaige) Make sense to me.

(Kilo) Really this boss fight in the actual game is very… Forced in Jack's grand plan if you ask me. Heck, Wilhelm is considered a campaign boss fight in the game with his own Legendary loot pool, yet he doesn't get an intro card like other characters.

(Tina) That's very odd.

(Kilo) I know! I can't think of one other campaign boss that doesn't have a card, in any game! So it's obvious from a storytelling standpoint that something was off about this fight in-game. When you think about the fight, all the stories of Wilhelm and Jack's whole plan it becomes obvious that he did something to Wilhelm to make it easy for the Vault Hunters to win and get the core.

(Torgue) Huh, when you f*cking put it that way it makes sense.

(Kilo) RIGHT! Now then for the big news. I'm opening a Discord server!

(Tina) Seriously!?

(Kilo) Yep! The SOL II! A place where you'll be able to get more info and facts on the story as it develops, hang out, share ideas or suggestions, and help out by posting about mistakes. As well as share your own stories and or ideas for stories, and get input for their developments. We can even play some borderlands, after all, sometimes it's good to have a few extra Vault Hunters to team up with when researching the game. Who knows, maybe something insane will happen and it ends up being used for the story!

(Gaige) This is gonna be awesome! I'm grabbing my shotgun after this.

(Kilo8) The link to the server is below, please note I had to break up the link so that it could be posted. Just remove the spacing and wording in the brackets to remake the link and put it in discord. If there's any issue joining just PM here on FFN.

HT TP (Colon Double-slash) discord . gg / DwKfm3qv

Now with that out of the way lets move on to the comments.

So first is Spartandude928, glad you enjoyed the Flesh-Stick arc. As I said before I'm making this story immersive, so having a few characters showing new emotions is just part of that. Plus who would expect a psycho to have such a history?

(Torgue) I never did. That came out of left f*cking field for me!

silentslender, good to hear from you again. I'm glad you liked the Angel dialogue, I hope to start including her in the story more now that she is known by everyone… As well as have her teasing a certain redhead more often.

(Gaige) Oh, screw you!

(Kilo) Sorry Gaige, but the fans love it. As for the lack of Borderlands stories hopefully Tina's new upcoming game should help fix that.

(Tina) Theres gonna be so much, magic, friendship, junk food, and EXPLOSIONS!

(Torgue) HELL YEA!

(Kilo) Moving on. JoshDaDirt, glad you like the last chapter. As for your disappointment with the TF2 bonus… Who said it was over, you'll be seeing more of those lovable idiots in the future.

7thManiac, glad I can still surprise you man. I feel the sign of a good writer is one who can subvert the expectation of the readers, but in a way that isn't totally unwelcomed and even more, is happily accepted.

Blaze1992, yeah it can be annoying to watch two crushing teens unknowingly tiptoeing around their feelings. But that's also what makes it so great. At least they're not being totally emo or overly dramatic about it.

(Tina) Gaige being emo… Goth maybe but emo, hell no.

(Gaige) Ditto.

(Kilo) Boosted Knees, sorry for disappearing for such a long stretch, between life and this part of the story it's been hard to find the time and motivation on some days. But I will not stop.

Nemisis420, glad you like the RvB references. Those jokes are always fun to sneak in, some are obvious, some aren't but we love them none the less.

And finally Mpower0438… Okay, I respect your opinion, but I really don't see the issue. As I believe I've stated before, the first time when Gaige decked Kai was because it was payback he agreed to. Did I have to write it out as her knocking him out? Hmmm, no… But it was a good transition to the next chapter. The second time when Kai was about to go to war with the Bloodshots, Gaige was just knocking some sense into him. After all, sometimes a person needs a good smack or punch to the face to get them to realize their stupidity or to see their folly. Especially right after someone close to them is killed and they have the name of the son of a bitch who did it and access to military grade hardware… Please note, I do not condone such mentality outside of the BL universe or in any other universe for that matter. And finally the upskirt incident.

(Gaige) Please don't remind me of that.

(Kilo) That was more of just a reaction out of embarrassment… Plus it's a throwback to the classic anime trope. On top of that Gaige does apologize for her rash reaction.

(Gaige) That I did.

(Kilo) Look, the point is, this is my story to write, and I'm proud of it and if anyone doesn't like it. . . So be it. I do this for fun, and I've spent nearly five years on this, why the hell would I stop now?

(Torgue) So when will we be seeing Chapter 21 then?

(Kilo) As I have made it very clear in chapter one notes I don't keep any kind of upload schedule, my only consistent upload is a Holiday release every year. But I have a much better idea as to how the next phase will progress and am excited to get on it. Plus with the discord now open it will be easier for you all to check in on any progress.

(Gaige) Good to know.

(Kilo) Well with that out of the way I believe that is it for this chapter, please leave a comment as they are very much appreciated and help motivate me. Also, remember to follow so that you don't miss any future chapters. And with that, I'd like to remind everyone to stay safe and enjoy themselves. So have a happy Holidays Vault Hunters.

"HAPPY HOLIDAYS!" Everyone else yells before Tina hits the button.

-ECHO Review Log Terminated-

RA Loot Guide

The Angry Birdie

Manufacturer: Tiny Tina

Weapon type: Grenade Mod

Weapon Grade: Unique

Flavor Text: Sometimes, when I get mad, I tend to explode.

Appearance: The Angry Birdie takes the shape of a standard US Army M67 grenade with an Angry Birds red bird plushie covering it. There's a picture that's pretty easy to find, look it up, it's funny.

Description: A grenade of unknown make, the Angry Birdie is while capable, a mostly none lethal concussion grenade that can throw a grown person several meters if it goes off near them. Great for crowd control and waking up lazy basterds.

Stats: No stats currently available.