Fall of New Haven
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!! IN NEW HAVEN!! HURRY!!" Kane was momentarily stumped at Mordy's words, but it was only for a second.
Jumping out of bed, he raced out of his room, appearing down the hall in a blink, fully clothed this time.
"Radar!! We gotta go!!" Kane shouted, quickly moving towards the exit. Radar would have heard him from anywhere in the base, so the fact that it wasn't anywhere in sight wasn't that big of a problem.
Kane wouldn't bother bringing anyone else, as it was more of a risk than anything. Angel was straight out of the equation, with Jack thinking she was dead and all that, and he wasn't sure she was ready to face him just yet.
Tannis was out, bringing nothing to the table when it came to a fight with Jack and his goons.
Luna was also out. Despite not being too bad in a bad situation, Kane couldn't get as ruthless and bloodthirsty as he wanted if he had to devote most of his attention to making sure she was okay.
Plus she was a Siren, and with Angel no longer under his thumb, Kane figured Jack wasn't just going to kill Lilith anymore, rather he was going to take her down. Though he wondered why Jack was doing all of this right now and not waiting until after he had the Vault Key.
Maybe he was trying to get the key's whereabouts from Lilith, as not very many people knew she had it, and the ones who did still had no idea where the hell she was. It was one of the reasons Kane was glad no one knew where Paradise was.
As for taking Maya with him, the thought did cross Kane's mind, but ultimately he decided against it. She could definitely hold her own, that was for sure, but she would become a target the moment Jack learned she was a Siren.
Plus he would need to go get her, and that would alert Angel to the fact that they would be going to kill her father, and he didn't really want to deal with her wanting to watch, or see if she wanted to be the one to kill the man.
Though if he filmed it, he figured that might be just as good for her. With his mind made up, Kane would only take Radar with him for now. With that in mind, he waited until she appeared by the door, then grabbed her hand before they disappeared from view.
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(Brick POV)
"Get back here you stupid cunt!!" Brick shouted angrily towards the retreating figure of a woman in a cowgirl hat.
(A.N. For those who don't know, it's Nisha, the Lawbringer from the Pre-Sequel!)
The attack had come without warning less than 20 minutes before, and already there were over a dozen corpses scattered about on the streets, and that wasn't even mentioning the people dead in the collapsing buildings.
Brick had already destroyed over 100 robots, but there was a never ending stream of the damn things. Still, he was doing pretty good for the most part, at least until that damn woman showed up.
She had shot him in the left shoulder from behind when he was ripping this guy in a bodysuit apart, and since then he had been chasing her down, but she had been running like a bitch, taking the occasional shot at him, but he kept dodging.
It wouldn't have been too much of a concern if his shield hadn't been crushed by that big ass robot earlier, but it was either take the hit or let it destroy one of the support pillars to the building Mordy was camped up on.
Ignoring the hole in his shoulder and the gash on his right hip from where a bullet had grazed him, Brick began to make his way back to where Mordy was. Roland and Lilith should have gotten most people out of the city at this point, so Brick was thinking it was about time they try and get the fuck out of here as well.
He didn't know if there was even an end to these damn robots, but from the looks of things he doubted it.
Walking back, Brick saw the mangled corpse of the man he had been ripping apart before that bitch had shown up, and a thought occurred. Walking over to it, he dug around until he found the piece of the man where a shield was attached, and with a smile, he ripped it off before hooking it on where his old one had been.
Thankfully there appeared to be a few charges left in it, and though it looked like it might only be able to stop one bullet before it needed to recharge, it was a whole hell of a lot better than nothing.
With that done, Brick continued on a bit further until he made it to where Mordy had been, though from the looks of things he wasn't there anymore.
Letting out a tired sigh, Brick was about to head for the North gates of the city when he saw a familiar little ball of brown crawl out from under a pile of garbage.
"Dusty! There you are!!" Brick cried out in joy, running over and grabbing the little dog with such speed that you would never have guessed that he had been shot. "Let's go find Mordy!!" Brick said to the little dog, getting two high pitched barks in return.
With that, Brick continued on towards the North gate where Roland and Lilith had been moving the civilians. As he got closer to the North gate, Brick could hear heavy gunfire and explosions going off, causing him to speed up.
Most people would have stopped to assess what the hell was going on, but Brick wasn't most people. Without thinking, Brick jumped into the fray, mowing one of the small loader bots to the ground, then proceeded to rip it's arm off and shoved it through it's power supply.
Leaving the arm where he had impaled it, Brick tore off one of the loader boots legs to use as a make-shift hammer, then started swinging at the nearest piece of metal that moved.
Off to the side, he could see Roland and Lilith getting pinned down by a guy that looked more robot than human, but he definitely had human features.
(A.N. Wilhelm! The Enforcer!!)
'Kind of like Radar!' Brick thought, wondering if the guy was half as terrifying as Radar was. He certainly seemed like it, looking as though it was a minor problem to almost kill both Roland and Lilith.
Running over to the side of a nearby building, Brick put Dusty under a massive steel beam to keep her out of harm's way while he went to go help Roland and Lilith.
He was in such a hurry, Brick didn't notice the barrel of the pistol that had been trained on him the entire time, but rather shoot him, the wielder of the gun made her way towards where he had stored the little brown puppy.
As she moved the steel beam aside, she saw the little brown puppy causing her lips to turn upwards into a sadistic smile, and Brick was completely unaware of what was happening.
The big berserker was currently ripping robots apart, while throwing the occasional metal object towards the cyborg looking guy. Just when he was about to throw the torso of a loader bot towards the cyborg, an RPG shot landed a few feet from him, blowing Brick on his back.
As he looked up, Brick saw the all too familiar barrel of Mordy's rife perched on top of the building he was by, raining cover fire on whoever the fuck it was that had shot a fucking missile at him, making him smile. He could always count on Mordy.
Getting back to his feet, Brick quickly jumped through the door of the closest building, then ran through a few rooms before barreling through the wall on the far end nearest to where Lilith and Roland were holed up.
Behind the building, Brick grabbed a chunk of iron that had been used as a portion of a wall, then using it as a shield he began slowly walking towards Roland and Lilith. Once he got to them, he slammed it down to give them a bit more cover, then almost fell on his ass to catch his breath.
"We gotta get out of here!!" Roland shouted, looking to Lilith in the hopes that she could Phasewalk them out. Shaking her head, Lilith answered, "I don't have nearly enough power to take people with me yet." She seemed angry at the words she spoke, almost as if she was mad at how weak she was.
"I'll cover you, just start moving!!" Brick shouted as he got back back to his feet, ready to pick the iron wall back up. Both the Siren and Soldier agreed, giving him a nod before they turned and started running towards the outer perimeter of the city, taking the occasional shot over their shoulders.
Meanwhile, Brick was slowly inching his way backwards with his iron wall, trying to get to the edge of the building so he could make his way back to Mordy and Dusty before they too got the hell outta this shithole.
With the cyborg's full attention now on him, it took a bit longer to make it back to where he could drop the Iron wall, then started running back through the same building as before, the sounds of gunfire ringing out all around him.
When he finally got to Mordy, Brick kept himself out of sight of the gunfire, breathing a bit heavy and covered in blood, most of which wasn't even his.
"We gotta go, Mordy!!" Brick stated tiredly, looking over to the sniper in question.
"I know! I just called Kane! We're gonna need his help to get out of here. I don't know if you looked, but we're surrounded!! Ain't no way we're getting outta here by ourselves!" Mordy said, fully agreeing that they needed to leave, even going so far as to have called Kane.
Brick was surprised he hadn't called Kane. He would have loved to be here, and with his help they would no doubt be dominating this.
"Did he say when he'd get here?!" Brick asked, sounding like he had gained a SecondWind and was raring to go for another round.
"No, but I called him about 2 minutes ago, so in about a minute or so." Mordy answered, getting a wicked smile from Brick in return. Said smile vanished however when he heard something that made his eyes widen.
Loud high pitched puppy cries echoed out over the area, only muffled by the occasional gunfire off in the distance. Snapping his head up over the edge of the building, Brick saw the cowgirl bitch looking up at him with Dusty in her hands.
"DUSTY!! YOU LISTEN HERE, BITCH!! YOU LET HER GO OR I'LL RIP YOU APART!! Brick cried out, looking very much like he was about to jump down there and fight the woman, which was exactly what she wanted.
"Come get it!" The woman taunted, waving the little puppy back and forth, paying no mind of it's yelps of pain. Seeing Dusty like that, Brick didn't hesitate to jump over the side of the building, landing hard on the ground as he dashed towards the woman, only to be blown back into the very building he just jumped down from by a powerful crushing force.
Pulling himself out of the rubble, Brick saw the Cyborg staring at him, it's eyes glowing yellow, it's expression almost dead.
"I guess you don't want the poor puppy!!" The woman shouted, at which point Dusty began yelping even louder, making Brick's eyes widen in horror.
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
*BANG!!*
The area went silent as the woman fell to the ground, her head completely blown apart. Standing above her, Radar reached down and picked up the little puppy that was still held firmly in the now dead woman's grasp, bringing Dusty up close as she pet her softly.
"There's my sweet girl! Who's the cutest little puppy?!!" Radar cooed, completely ignoring the flabbergasted looks from those around them as the little puppy licked her face.
The cyborg that was only a few feet away from her brought the shotgun it was holding around to face her, but it barely had the chance to move before both it's arms fell to the ground and two very familiar glowing blades came out of it's chest.
"KANE!!" Brick cried out, more happy to see Kane than ever before.
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(General POV)
"Sorry it took so long. We killed a little over a hundred of these damn robots before we found you!" Kane said, storing Wilhelm's corpse in his inventory before looking at Nisha's corpse that Radar was standing over.
'The Enforcer and Lawbringer were nothing like I expected! They should have been way stronger!' Kane thought, a little disappointed at how easily they had died, but then again, he was pretty fucking awesome!!
"Dusty!!" Brick cried out, moving over to the little puppy, who didn't even hesitate to jump away from Radar and into his arms and begin to lick him.
"Hey, guys... Where's Roland and Lil?" Mordy asked as he came to stand beside the group, getting everyone's attention.
"They took off out beyond the walls last I saw of em!" Brick answered plainly, his attention still on Dusty.
"I think I know where they are." Radar said, pointing to where the Loader reinforcements were being deployed off in the distance.
"I knew there was a reason I waited for this!!" Kane said, pulling out a detonator from thin air, then pressed it. Brick and Mordy looked around in wonder trying to figure out what it was that Kane just detonated, not having been able to hear any explosions go off in the surrounding areas.
"Up there." Radar informed them, pointing towards the Helios space station way the fuck up in the sky.
Even from where they were, the lightshow from the Moonshot cannon being ripped apart, as well as a good portion of the space station itself flying apart could still be seen. Brick looked like he was tearing up at the sight, like it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
"I love you man!" Brick said, holding his fist out towards Kane. "I know! I'm awesome!!" Kane stated, reaching out and fist bumping Brick in return before pulling everyone into a spaceship, then launched towards where Roland and Lilith should be.
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(Handsome Jack POV)
"Did you really think you could hide from me, Bandits?! After what you did!!" Jack shouted in a mixture of victory and anger towards the prone Roland, who was being shielded by a badly wounded Lilith, who was now wearing a metal collar around her neck that was giving off a weird bluish purple glow.
"You bastard!! Go to hell!!" Lilith screamed, looking as though she wanted to burn Jack alive if she could, but sadly, things were never that easy for her.
"Ah, language! We'll have to work on that over the next few months." Jack said, smiling triumphantly as he ordered some of the bots around him to go grab the downed Siren, who suddenly began to writhe around in agony.
However it was at that moment when the sounds of reinforcements landing on Pandora from the Moonshot cannon stopped, and Jack's ECHO device started going off like crazy.
Taking a glance upwards towards Helios, Jack's eyes went wide in alarm as part of the space station literally started falling apart due to a huge explosion.
"No no NO NOOO!! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!!" Jack screamed in horror, completely ignoring Lilith and Roland as he ran towards his nearby spacecraft.
"Wilhelm!! Nisha!! We need to get back to Helios! Now!!" Jack shouted through his ECHO, but got no response.
"Wilhelm?!! Nisha?!!" Jack tried once more, but again he got no answer.
Thinking that maybe something was interfering with their ECHO devices, Jack decided they could handle themselves here for awhile, but he needed to see what the fuck was going on up on Helios.
With the Moonshot destroyed, there should be a number of Loader bots still up there that he could use to fight whatever threat was attacking.
Meanwhile, he gave the order for the loaders to apprehend both Lilith and Roland and bring them to a secure facility. With the collar on Lilith, she wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.
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(General POV)
It took a little bit longer than Kane thought it would to find Roland and Lilith, but once he decided to look for someone, odds were better than not that he would eventually find them.
When Brick and Mordy saw the condition the two were in, they got quite pissed off, while Kane and Radar took the whole thing in stride.
It only took a few minutes before all of the robots in the surroundings were in pieces, and an unconscious Roland and Lilith were laying down inside Kane's ship bound for Sanctuary, Lilith no longer wearing her collar. All it took was a simple touch for Kane to remove it from her, then it was off to Sanctuary.
They did find a few of the people who had managed to escape New Haven, and despite his reluctance, Kane did pick them up. Most of them anyway.
There was a group of 5 people who were all munching on the 6th member of their group, and Kane couldn't bring himself to pick them up, despite how common that sort of thing was on Pandora.
It didn't take much time to get to Sanctuary, at which point everyone was forced to get the fuck off Kane's ship. He didn't like most of these people, so having them anywhere near him was already an annoyance.
Brick and Mordy were pretty depressed, both of their ships having been destroyed during the attack, and Kane wasn't really feeling in the mood to give them new ones, and they sure as hell couldn't afford one.
They met Zed, and for a guy without a medical license, he sure patched Roland and Lilith up pretty fast, and correctly for that matter. When Lilith woke up, she was glad to see that they were okay, and even more glad that she didn't have that damned collar on anymore.
She thanked Kane about a million times, though whether it was for removing the collar or saving Roland, Kane didn't know or care.
Seeing as how everything was fine, Kane left the group to go and see Marcus. Walking into his shop, Kane wasn't the least bit surprised to see Zane seated on one side of the wall, and he absently wondered how long the guy was going to stay here.
"Hey, Marcus. How are things going?" Kane asked, coming over to lean against the counter as he surveyed the items in the room, which were kinda shit in his opinion, but some of them were still better than what most people in this crap-hole used.
"Not too bad. Sales are already doing pretty good, but it will take a bit of time to get back to where I was. Speaking of where I was, I heard Hyperion leveled New Haven. How'd that go?" Marcus asked, getting a simple shoulder shrug in response.
It really wasn't anything for Kane to brag about, regardless of having killed one of the most deadly assassins in the universe (Wilhelm) and killing a shit ton of armed robots. He would have preferred to have killed Jack as well, but he didn't want to go into space just yet.
Seeing as how Kane wasn't in a super talkative mood, Marcus shrugged his own shoulders before looking back at some papers for a minute, then looked back at Kane.
"You up for a game of poker tomorrow night? High stakes, $50 thousand dollar buy in, can't leave the table until you lose everything or win it all!" Marcus said, getting a quirked brow in response from Kane.
"Who's all going to be there?" Kane asked, curious as to who else but him and Marcus could afford a game like that on Pandora. "Moxxi, that bird lover, the big brute, this guy," Marcus paused to point a thumb towards Zane, then continued. "Luna, and most importantly, me!"
Kane almost choked on air when he heard Luna's name in the lineup, but he really shouldn't have been. Despite her age, she was one of Marcus' only friends, which was kind of sad, but then again he wasn't really in a position to make fun of the guy.
He didn't exactly have people lining up at the door to be his friend, not that he would have trusted any of them.
Hearing that Moxxi was going to be there almost made him want to decline the offer, but how often did he get to play poker with people he wasn't sleeping with that already had most everything they could ever want.
"Sure. Add in another seat or two as well. Radar and one of the other girls might want to come." Kane said plainly, agreeing to the game. If anything it might actually turn out to be quite entertaining, if the attendees were anything to go by.
Funny enough, Zane was thinking the same thing only a few feet away from him. "Excellent! Be here tomorrow night at 7:00 pm. And don't forget to bring your cash!!" Marcus said, excited to have the additional money on the table.
Kane made small-talk with Marcus and Zane for a bit, then decided he didn't want to be in Sanctuary right now. He had yet to even have his morning coffee, a shower, or even breakfast, so his mood wasn't all that great to begin with.
Leaving Marcus' shop, Kane made his way back to where he had last seen Brick and the others, knowing full well that Radar would be wherever the little puppy was.
He didn't quite understand that, but for some reason Radar was extremely obsessed with that dog. They had encountered hundreds of different species already and not once had Radar shone the slightest bit of interest in them, not even in Kane's own pets. However this little dog seemed special, and for reasons unknown to Kane, seemed to get all of her attention.
As he walked down the street, Kane could hear screaming off in the direction he was currently walking. It sounded like a guy from the pitch of the screams, but they were getting higher by the second, and Kane wondered what the hell was going on.
Moving quickly, Kane appeared on the roof of a building overlooking an alley where Brick was currently torturing a guy that had blood leaking from his eye sockets. Radar of course was only a few feet away, playing tug-of-war with Dusty with a smile on her face, completely ignoring the brutal scene that was going on within arms reach of her.
Kane was about to ask what the hell happened, when all of the sudden the guy's head exploded due to Brick having popped it like a grape.
"What the hell was that about?" Kane asked calmly as he appeared down beside them, looking at the mangled remains of... he didn't know who that was.
"This is the guy that sold us out to Hyperion!!" Brick stated, looking disgusted at the very sight of the guy, and it wasn't because his head was split open.
Brick's words reminded Kane of the part of Borderlands 2 where the Sheriff of Lynchwood explained how once Brick escaped from Hyperion, he tracked down the guy who betrayed them and killed them, though he couldn't for the life of him remember who the hell the guy was.
"Oh... Wanna get some brunch?" Kane asked, not bothering with this anymore. The guy was already dead, so it's not like he could change anything even if he wanted to, which he didn't.
"Sounds good to me!" Brick stated, following alongside Kane as they disregarded the corpse and continued on their way like nothing had happened.
They made their way into the little dump of a house that Brick had claimed for himself, then sat down on the make-shift chairs to eat some food that Kane pulled from thin air.
He also pulled a small pink bag that he extended to Radar, who had to read over the label to find out what it was before she took it. She sat on the ground feeding Dusty puppy treats while Kane and Brick ate pancakes, eggs, and bacon.
It wasn't until they finished that they sat around, Brick going on about the robots he killed, and Kane laughing at how Brick had killed some of the engineers in the power suits.
They sat there and talked for a bit before the door swung open, and in walked a pissed off Roland. "What the hell, Brick?! You didn't have to kill Shep!!" Roland shouted, pointing a finger in Brick's face.
Before anyone could say anything, Kane snapped his finger before exclaiming, "Shep Sanders!! That's the little bastard's name!!" He would have just asked Brick or Radar what the guy's name was earlier, but he didn't really care all that much, at least he thought he didn't.
Not knowing the name had been eating him at the back of his mind, and now that he remembered it, he felt like a small weight had been lifted from his mind.
Seeing as he had all eyes on him, Kane made a shooing motion before saying, "As you were." Roland and Brick both turned to look at each other, their gazes both hard as they glared daggers.
"I know I didn't have to! But I did it anyway! He sold us out!" Brick stated, leaning back in his chair with his arms folded over his chest.
"He was a kid, Brick!! And you killed him without a second thought! You're nothing but a bloodthirsty psychopath!!" Roland shouted angrily, his words having the effect of making Brick shoot to his feet.
"I didn't hear you complaining when I saved your ass earlier today! Twice!!" Brick shot back, a little more angry than he had been moments ago. Probably because one his friends called him a 'bloodthirsty psychopath', something he took to heart.
Brick didn't care what the world thought of him, but he did care what his friends thought. Friends had your back no matter what the situation was, and it was very common to argue with each other and even call each other names in good humor, but Roland wasn't joking when he called Brick that, and Brick knew it.
For someone that he considered a friend to say that to him, hurt the big man, regardless of how unfeeling he seemed at times.
"It doesn't matter, Brick!! You took things too far!! If we're going to try and make Pandora a better place, we can't be worse than those we're trying to fight against!!" Roland said, rubbing his hands over his face in frustration.
"You need to leave Sanctuary, Brick." Roland said tiredly after a moment of silence.
Brick didn't get the chance to say anything before Radar chimed in, "How does that work? You didn't help us clear out Sanctuary from the Bloodshots. As far as things go, Sanctuary belongs to Brick, and if you have a problem, you should be the one to leave. Or did you buy it off of him and Mordeccai?"
She had an excellent point in Kane's opinion, and if anyone had to leave, it was the people from New Haven, not Brick. "Forget it!! I'm outta here!" Brick said, apparently not in the mood to fight Roland over this place.
After letting out a low growl, Brick grabbed his big ass hammer that was behind an old couch, then let out a whistle as he exited the building, little Dusty hot on his heels.
Outside, Mordy who had heard everything was leaning on the side of the building off to the right of the door shook his head. He knew Brick better than anyone, and also had an idea of what Brick was going to do now that he was leaving Sanctuary, and he wasn't going to let him go alone.
"Hold up, Brick. I'm coming." Mordy said, falling into step beside the big man. "You got all your stuff?" Brick asked, smiling as he looked over to Mordy.
"Yeah, but do you think we can do it?" Mordy asked, wondering what Brick's plan was to get in. "Leave it to me!" Brick stated, then pulled out his ECHO device.
It only took a second before the familiar holographic image of Luna appeared. "What's up, Brick?" She asked, wondering what the occasion was for the call.
"Roland doesn't want me in Sanctuary anymore. Can me and Mordy come live in Paradise? We already got rooms there!" Brick asked hopefully.
Had he asked Kane, the answer might have been no, but Luna loved them, and Kane loved Luna. If she was the one to ask him for them, their odds would go up dramatically.
"I'll have to ask Kane, but I don't think that should be too big of a problem! I'll call you back in a minute!!" Luna said excitedly, then ended the call. "He might kill us now." Mordy said, getting a shoulder shrug from Brick.
Back inside Brick's house, Kane and Radar were looking at Roland like he was a dumbass. "What a moron." Radar said, not one bit shy to voice her thoughts about the soldier.
"Yup. Get rid of your strongest and most loyal allies! That's how ya win a war!" Kane said sarcastically, throwing a little fuel on the fire.
To his credit, Roland just stood there and let them insult him clear up to the point when Kane's ECHO device went off.
"What's up?" Kane asked once the holographic Luna appeared. "Hey, can Brick and Mordy come live with us in Paradise? Apparently Roland has a stick so far up his ass, he can't see straight and kicked Brick out of Sanctuary. Mordy didn't want to leave him, so he left too. Can they?" Luna asked, her eyes going wide to an inhuman degree.
Kane wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh, especially since Roland heard everything that she just said, or start yelling at the fact Brick went behind his back like that. Granted it was the smarter move, but damn if he wasn't going to get mad about it.
"They can stay with us for the remainder of the time we're on Pandora, then we'll see what happens later." Kane said, agreeing to let them come stay at Paradise, then ended the call.
"Bastard! This has Brick's name written all over it!" Kane said in annoyance as he got to his feet. "Look on the Brightside! Dusty gets to come live with me!!" Radar said cheerfully, not helping Kane's mood in the slightest.
The two left Roland there in the building, walking outside and immediately being greeted by Brick and Mordy, who were both smiling happily at them.
"Fuck you guys! That was dirty!!" Kane stated, flipping both of them the middle finger. "Oh come on, Kane! Wasn't it you that told me it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?" Brick said, repeating back the words Kane had told him as a joke around the time they first met.
"Yeah, yeah!! Whatever! Let's get the fuck outta here!" Kane said, figuring this was bound to happen anyway, so he may as well not prolong it. Plus it might be nice to have some guys there to bullshit around with. As it was, he was outnumbered by women, not that he was complaining.