I'm a Gunslinger not a Mechanic

Kid got more than 200 dollars that were automatically stored in his ECHO wallet when he searched the bandits and their surroundings, not to mention the weapons the bandits had, Kid was happy to be carrying three pistols, a submachine gun, an assault rifle, and a shotgun, not to mention the ammo for each weapon and all this without any weight! He still had six spaces in his ECHO inventory and his backpack so he could carry a few more weapons with him.

His six-iron went back to his waist, ECHO it takes a few seconds to build his weapon besides saving space from his ECHO. A few seconds can define whether he dies like a dog or continues shouting Yippe-ki-yay over the dead body of his enemies.

"Hey buddy, I found a chest here, maybe this will help you with the bandits." Claptrap draws Kid's attention to a red trunk, Claptrap then opens it and two pistols are revealed, with some pistol caliber ammo that is stored in his ECHO

While Kid was busy collating his loot Claptrap was busy trying to open another gate, but it looked like he was in serious trouble.

"These controls seem to be damaged. Have no fear, I'm sure I can do it!" Claptrap starts typing furiously on the console, but upon realizing it wasn't going anywhere he starts pounding on the console. "Argh! This isn't working!"

Kid, seeing that the little robot couldn't open the gate, goes to the runner, takes out the bandit's corpse, and gets in the car, stepping on the accelerator Kid slams the car into the gate, destroying it and opening a passage, but breaking the car in the process.

"Oh... well, this works too." Claptrap is stunned by the man's action but quickly follows behind him.

Kid ends up in the center of Fyrestone where all the bandits were. With fluid movements he climbs onto the machine gun attached to the car and begins his slaughter, the bandits were not expecting this and were killed like flies without any chance to fight back.

['Excellent!' Suddenly the woman's voice sounds again in Kid's head. 'I knew you were the right choice, friend. Now go, I will contact you again soon.']

'Right choice my ass! If I had been killed you would choose someone else to take my place' Kid internally mocks the siren's praise in his head. Getting out of the runner, Kid goes over to the corpses of the bandits to get their belongings.

"Attention citizen of Fyrestone! There is no cause for alarm. This new visitor has resolved the problem" Claptrap begins to calm the inhabitants, but most are too afraid to even respond, let alone leave their homes.

Kid receives an audio call from one of the inhabitants, accepting for ECHO he listens to the resident.

["Well shoot I thought I was a goner that time! Damn, bandits won't leave us alone. Had to lock the place up tight. I'll let yo in. Come on! Damn it. Blasted circuits are on the fritz again. Give it a go from the switch out there, would yo?"] Following what the man said Kid goes to a panel and opens the gate of the house the man was in.

When the gate is fully opened Kid can see a man in a white lab coat with his back turned, The place is messy and there are several instruments that look like they were used in torture. The man then turns around with what looks like a hacksaw in his hands and cuts off the legs of the corpse on the table.

Kid widens his eyes a little at the scene, but the man then begins to introduce himself. "Thanks fer openin' her up again. Name's Zed. They won't let me cut on folks anymore since I lost my license, so now I keep the med vendors 'round-here up and runnin'. From the vendors, you can buy all the healin' you could ever want from a real doc... thankfully without a 'The-Vault-is-a-myth,-you'll-get-yourself-killed' lecture."

"Howdy Zed, You can just call me Kid. Now… how do you know I'm looking for the Vault?" 

"Kid? Doesn't sound like a name to me, a nickname maybe? Anyway, I'm just givin' you may guess, there has been a big influx of wannabe vault hunters arrivin' here in Pandora after some rumors of the Atlas Corporation lookin' for a Vault in Pandora" Zed explained as he dissected the corpse. "Since you are here Kiddo, could you do me a favor?"

"Depends, if you will pay me for it." Kid replied quickly.

"Oh yeah, a vault hunter didn't come to Pandora to do charity, did he? I want you to bring me 5 skags, preferably dead ones, Claptrap will show you what they look like. I'll pay you 60 bucks a pop for each."

"Consider it done." Kid first goes to get his jetbeast in front of Fyrestone before some bandit steals it. He leaves it in the center of Fyrestone as he might need it, after that he calls Claptrap to show him where he could find the skags. Claptrap then takes Kid to the back of Fyrestone, the place is a graveyard with a gate.

Claptrap then goes to open the gate, but a car with some thugs stops in front of the gate and hits a shoot in the poor robot, The thugs waste no time and jump the iron walls. Kid doesn't stand still and kills them all before they enter Fyrestone.

"Oh, my god. I'm leaking! I think I'm leaking! Ahhhhhh, I'm leaking! There's oil everywhere!" Claptrap begins to weave as if he is bleeding to death. Kid just rolls his eyes, wondering what he should do with the robot now.

['Oh...! That poor little robot needs our help. Would you kindly give him a hand?'] The siren appears again, her voice soft, advising Kid. ['That little robot is hurt. He isn't going to last very long without attention. Why don't you look around for something to fix him up?']

["Hey Kiddo! looks like you got under Nine-Toes' skin. Don't worry he'll get what's comin' to him! I assume you are still alive if you are listenin' to me?"] Zed speaks on a call as he notices the sound of gunfire coming from the graveyard.

[Yesh, I'm alive, but our little friend Claptrap is about to meet robot heaven here, do you have anything I can use to fix him?] Kid sends an audio ECHO to Zed, hoping that the unlicensed doctor has something that can help him. Not a bit worried about having a bandit by the name of Nine-Toes going after him.

["I am a doctor, not an engineer, Go to Marcus' store, maybe he has somethin' useful there, otherwise bad luck for Claptrap."] Zed replies in a monotone tone, although Kid could swear he heard a laugh coming from Zed.

Kid goes to Marcus' store, fortunately, it isn't too far away, The place was closed but there was a toolbox outside, that might do the trick.

Returning to the graveyard, Kid goes to the fallen Claptrap, a large oil slick had accumulated under the robot. Checking the damage, Kid opens the toolbox and tries to fix Claptrap.

['Do you need any help with Claptrap, I can help you by guiding you where you should move and what tools to use'] The siren again told Kid.

"I would appreciate it, I know how to fix some things, but Hyperion robots are not one of them" Kid replies but Claptrap finds it strange he is talking to himself.

The siren then guides Kid, Claptrap is fixed and with a jump, the yellow robot gets up and goes to the gate.

['He seems to be okay. Now is the time to get moving and play your part in the journey to come'] The siren then says goodbye.

"Annnnnd open! Haha" Claptrap opens the gate and shows the place where the skags were, they didn't have to walk far because there was a nest right next to the road, Kid reloads his gun and kills them quietly, and goes back to Fyrestone to get his jetbeast to take the skags' bodies.

[1/40]

He drives again to the center of Fyrestone and stops in front of Zed's store, unloading his jetbeast, Kid delivers the bodies of the skags and receives 300 dollars from Zed.

"I guess those skags didn't give you much trouble, eh? You clearly know how to handle a gun. That's good, real good. You're gonna need it, 'cause I've got somethin' else for you to help me with" Zed takes the bodies of the skags and talks about a new job. "Of course, I will pay for it."

"Cool, what do I have to do?"

"If you're going to leave town, you need a shield. A shield forms an invisible barrier around you that absorbs damage. Normally, you'd buy one from the med vendor here, but this one took a bullet during the bandit raid. Fortunately, it just needs a new power coupling, and it so happens there's an old vendor we can use for parts. It's right outside of town, down the road east. Go grab the part, install it into the med vendor, and buy yourself a shield." Zed patiently explained he was happy that a vault hunter had shown up.

Kid then sees that he received the information in his ECHO, and a mark then appears on his compass at the top of his vision. Kid becomes more and more surprised at the many features of the small device.

Going to the location on foot Kid leaves Fyrestone, he walks down a road to the end of the line, the road is blocked by an iron wall. Arriving there Kid finds a fallen Zed machine, Kneeling down Kid takes the power coupling and goes back to Fyrestone. Some skags tried to chase Kid but were quickly killed.

Arriving back in Fyrestone Kid goes to Zed's machine and puts the power coupling on the machine, making it work again, he buys a shield which seems to be the special item of the day, and he connects his shield to his ECHO interface.

[Shield: |100%| RD(Recharge Delay): |1.7s|]

[BI: |86%| Condition: sick - dying]

'Cool, now I have my own shield! In Gehenna I had heard about this technology but never paid much attention to it, Who needs shields when almost can't hit you?' Kid comments to himself, that he would now pay more attention to recent discoveries in the area of technology. Although he didn't show it on his face, he was seriously impressed by the little Claptrap robot, for its A.I. seemed quite advanced compared to what he had in Gehenna.

[-$800 dollars]

[Wallet: $7,777]

Hopefully, the investment would pay off. The shield he bought could charge faster when his energy field was broken. There was also one that could increase the metabolism and thus the natural regeneration of the body, but for Kid this was unnecessary since he could regenerate without the need for any technology.

"See it little Kiddo? You don't need a PhD to do my job. I guess people just feel more comfortable with my honest face and bedside manner. Feel free to sell your items at the med vendor and buy some First Aid Kits for later." Zed comments on watching as Kid acts like a little boy opening Christmas presents. "But a word of advice, don't rely too much on shields, I can't tell you exactly how many bullets they can hold, but it's common sense that shields only stop one sniper or shotgun round at close range, and also keep an eye on the Recharge Delay of the shield, I've seen idiots die because they thought it was loaded when it was not. So, watch out 'cause they won't save you from certain death, extra care with rocket launchers, and falling from deadly heights, and shields are charged with energy from your ECHO so always keep your ECHO on."

Kid's joy is then destroyed upon receiving the sad revelation. "Why do shields need an ECHO? this seems to be limiting the use of shields if I lose my ECHO or it runs out of power at a critical moment?"

"That's the point, if shields could be used by anyone the soldiers would be at a disadvantage against criminals, or more specifically Pandora's Psycho. Of course, it's no surprise to anyone that some criminal bigwigs and their affiliates have shields and ECHO, corruption is still a thing around here."

"Now let's start the real work, Nine-Toes placed a few men at a small outpost outside of town, across the road and west. Those men report every move we make, so our next move should be to make them dead." Zed speaks as if he hasn't broken another man's joy.

"Finally some action, I'll be back in a moment." Kid then picks up his jetbeast and heads to the bandits' settlement. Halfway through he receives another call from the nameless Siren.

['People don't yet trust you. If you're going to ever find the Vault, you'll need the aid of the people. Helping Doctor Zed with Nine-Toes' problem is a good move. But you will need companions to help you in combat as well, Some vault hunters are arriving in Fyrestone, and with their help, you will be able to reach the vault without problems.'] The nameless siren warns Kid, but he is not happy to hear that more people are joining the treasure hunt.

"I don't normally like working in a group, most are just good for taking my share and running off with their tail between their ass in the action. I'm not sharing my Vault with a bunch of goofballs." Says Kid with frowning eyebrows.

['I can assure you they are worth the price, anyway, the journey to the Vault will be long and deadly, if they are not fit they will die on the way and not get their share of the Vault.'] Punctuating her words the siren falls silent, making it clear that she was no longer present.

"I deserve it!" Snorts Kid didn't much care for the addition of more people, in the end, it was nice to socialize with people after so many decades of living in seclusion

"I just hope they have some pretty women..." Kid shakes his head and speeds up his jetbeast, his adventure becoming more and more complex.