Fyrestone

"I thought hell would be a lot worse than this..." Kane thought out loud, the act feeling weird as he no longer had a body in which to speak. It was true, he was now just a soul floating in the void, thinking he was in Hell, because after everything he had done in his life, he figured that was right where he belonged.

Being an assassin for hire, he had killed more than his fair share of people, but that didn't mean he had no bottom line. He picked his contracts carefully, going over their backgrounds, making sure that, in his eyes, they deserved to die. He would never take a contract to kill a child, but he would kill some people who had taken children before.

This however didn't mean he had a clean conscious. In his younger days, he took the only jobs available to him, and some of those he wished he could take back. As he thought back to why he should be in Hell, something happened.

"Well now!! That was quite the show you put on there!" A loud voice boomed throughout the void, breaking Kane out of his thoughts. "Hello?!!" Kane shouted as he tried to find the origin of the voice, but no matter where he looked, all he could find was darkness.

"HA! HA! HA! Don't bother trying to find me, kid. I am everywhere, yet nowhere. No being has been able to glimpse my form before since the creator, and I assure you, no one else could hope to be that powerful." The being called out, it's voice sounding quite amused.

"Who are you?" Kane asked, wondering why such a powerful being would be here talking to him. "Hmmm... You couldn't pronounce my name, so just call me God. The other divine do." God said helpfully.

"Okay. So why are you talking to me? Shouldn't I be somewhere more fiery and filled with screaming for all eternity?" Kane asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"I mean, if you want to, I'm sure I could arrange something like that, but that's not really how this goes. Once a being dies, their soul goes through the cycle of reincarnation after it has been purified. Your actions in your life can affect how you turn out in your next life, but the concept of Heaven and Hell was created by you mortals. As for why I am here talking to you, because I can!" The voice said, sounding a little too happy.

"Once you become a true divine, you are not beholden to the natural laws of the universe, so naturally I can do whatever I wish. I'm usually bored, so I watch the beings throughout the universe to see something entertaining. Some of the best things happen when you find someone who breaks into the divine realm and they think they're God, but then get erased by those who have already achieved a higher power.

Finding something truly entertaining is a rare thing for me, so you can only imagine how happy I was when I saw a little mortal beat the odds time and again and come out on top. I've watched you since you were a child, and there were times where you surprised even me when you lived through those events.

The time when you assassinated that General in the military base should have been the end of you, yet you still made it out alive. The odds of that happening were ten thousand to one!! You were so entertaining, that when you were killed by that fat cunt that double crossed you, terrible way to end the story by the way, I grabbed your soul and brought it here." God explained, causing Kane's soul to momentarily freeze up.

"So that's how I died... I didn't even see the bullet." Kane mumbled out loud. "Indeed, but worry not, she got her due. Without you there to act as a shield, she lasted about an hour before she got her throat slit. Really made me feel better about the whole situation. Back to you though, don't think of this as your end, but your beginning! I'm gonna send you to a world of your choice, and maybe some perks, depending on what they are." God said, getting a look of wonder from Kane.

"These worlds, can they be fictional worlds?" Kane asked, earning a small laugh in response. "Considering I'm going to be creating it, then yeah. Think of the multiverse like a book. Each universe is a page in this book, and I'm simply creating my own page. There are countless universes out there, and when someone is taken by a divine, the original page, or universe is copied by said divine so the being can be placed in it. This way, we don't get other reincarnations or transmigrations in the same universe. Divine don't get along you see, so sharing even a universe is out of the question." God said, getting a look of awe from Kane.

"Okay then, about these perks. Are there any restrictions?" Kane asked, feeling better about his situation. "How I feel about the perk, or wish if you will, is the deciding factor. Asking is free, after all." God clarified.

Taking only a moment to think things out, Kane said "Could I be transmigrated into the Borderlands universe, at the time where Lilith and the other three vault hunters are just arriving in Fyrestone for the first time?"

At his question there was a booming laughter that echoed across the void. "I knew you were the right choice!! Picking a world of mayhem, blood and violence, truly a good find!!" God said, no doubt smiling in a way that no one else could understand.

"Of course you can, I'm actually glad you picked that world." God continued, getting a smile from Kane. After confirming his world, Kane asked, "Could I get like a pocket space to carry things, and an unlimited supply of food of my choice? I have an idea about the food there, and I'd rather not eat it if at all possible."

"I don't see why not. Although I'm gonna make you work for it. I'll give you a store, in which you can buy almost anything from your old universe, other than weapons and some things that I deem not appropriate, otherwise it would kill the story, but as a bonus, you can buy any item from the borderlands universe, although I will make it cost ten times what you would have to pay from someone in that universe. So long as you have money, you can buy stuff." God said, getting a huge smile in return from Kane.

"I know this is already a lot, but could I get some powers?" Kane asked once again, getting another chuckle from God. "Getting greedy are we. Sure, but it depends on the power." Answered God.

Thinking about the power he wanted, he decided to pick one that wouldn't let him break the world, but would still make him powerful. "Could I get the powers of a Siren, but could I pick what I want my ability to do? Like a spatial manipulation and teleporting ability?" Kane asked, earning a thoughtful hum in response.

"That sounds alright. You being an unknown could work out perfectly." God said, getting a "Fuck Yeah!" From Kane. "I'm gonna be the 7th Siren!" Kane said, to which God replied, "You keep telling yourself that."

Taking a moment to think about it, Kane said "There is Lilith, Maya, Angel, Amara, Steele, Tireen, and the leach Troy, but he isn't a full Siren, just leaching off his sister. There can only be six Sirens at any given time, so would I not be the 7th Siren?"

"The universe is a big place, so there being unknowns is almost a sure thing. There were also those Eridian writings talking about an elusive 7th Siren, one which must never be found, but I can pretty much guarantee that you won't run into her. Anyway, this is where we depart. You'll appear at the bus stop 3 hours before the others do, so you can get familiar with yourself. Enjoy, and do things your way. I prefer that over anything, and above all else, be entertaining!!" Those were the last words Kane heard before he disappeared.

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Appearing next to an old cracked road, Kane was momentarily blinded by the bright sun that shone down on him. Blinking away the brightness, Kane finally got a good look around him. Behind him there were large boulders and a small rocky cliff, and in front of him was a the biggest dump yard for a town he had ever seen.

He couldn't actually see the town, it being surrounded by walls made of tin, but he had an idea of what to expect from the game. Plus the sorry excuse for Fyrestone Hotel, was just shelter from the elements. No beds or anything else.

Looking down at himself, he realized he was wearing the same clothes he was wearing when he was killed, minus the blood from when he died. He almost cried out in joy when he found he had most of the items he had as well.

He was still in his assassination getup, equipped with his two twin Glock 17 pistols, 20 magazines, each filled with 18 rounds, 3 flash grenades, two long knives, one strapped to his leg, the other behind his back at his waist. There was a small pouch with some salves and bandage wraps, but other than that, all his other stuff was missing.

Walking over to a broken down shack, Kane inspected it for a moment. In the game, people hid loot everywhere as even your best friend would kill you and take your things if you had something nice, so he began looking around. There were a few boxes, in which he found $93 dollars, and 6 shotgun rounds, but other than that it was all junk.

Getting an idea, he scaled the the building until he was to the top, and much to his satisfaction his guess paid off. There was a long red chest sitting in the middle of the roof, and when he walked over to it, he was surprised that it didn't require any key or passcode. 'I guess I'm really in Borderlands' Kane thought as he opened the chest. Inside there was a grey shotgun, a sniper rifle, 12 sniper rounds, and 12 pistol rounds.

'Guns and ammo are the most valuable thing in this world, so this doesn't really surprise me.' Kane thought as he picked up the sniper rifle and checked it over. As he checked it over, he noticed how it was printed with Vladof on the side. 'From memory, the Vladof corporation was known for fire rate, which will work for me. Although I'd prefer a Jakobs.' He thought as he checked the magazines.

After going over his stuff, he realized that he should have some bonuses from God. The first thing he did was remove his clothes from his upper body, including his mask and Kevlar vest until his was naked from the waist up. Inspecting himself, he looked at his tattoos, which were actually pretty cool if he was being honest with himself.

Pulling out one of his knives, he used the blade as a mirror and checked out his face. The tattoos crawled up the left side of his body, then they split off at his neck. One line went up around his ear and came down through his eyebrow and stopped right above his eye, while the other line came up under his ear and curved down then up and ended below his eye.

Other than the addition of his tattoo's, he looked the same as back on Earth. Standing at 5 feet 11 inches with nice hazel brown hair, cut military style. His dark blue eyes were accentuated by his tattoos, but other than that they were the same. There was no excess of muscle on him, but he kept in really good shape, having a decent amount of stamina.

He did some experiments and found he was able to teleport by channeling a weird energy he could feel within himself into his tattoos. The first time he teleported he was looking at a place a few yards away from him and when he teleported, he miscalculated and appeared a few feet above the ground, landing uncomfortably, but still safely.

After an hour of practice, he had gotten the hang of it, being able to teleport anywhere he could see within 50 feet. He tried teleporting objects, and it worked too. He threw a knife, and he was happy to see that when he teleported it, the momentum from the throw carried over if he tried hard enough.

He was also happy to know that when he threw an object, he didn't have to make it go in a straight line, allowing him to throw in one direction and have it fly in a completely different one. He was also happy to find out that he could cancel the momentum for himself or objects if he chose to, it was just a little more work.

After teleport practice, Kane was feeling a little hungry so he took this time to try out the store that God had given him. After concentrating for a few seconds, a white screen appeared in front of him, showing a list of all sorts of things. There were categories he could go into, like Transportation, Food, Drink, Weapons, and other such things.

Selecting Weapons, it brought up some sub-categories. There was every kind of weapon you could buy from a weapon vending machine from the game, and you could further narrow it down by selecting weapon manufacturer or type of weapon you were looking for. There were of course knives, axes, swords, spears, ammo, grenades and other various weapons, but with just a glance, Kane realized he wouldn't be able to afford anything anytime soon.

He was a little dejected to learn he couldn't sell things to the store, but that was only fair. He wasn't some cheatbag in a pirate world after all, plus why would an all powerful God want trash?

Experimenting with his inventory, Kane realized it was huge. Like beyond huge. He didn't know the limit, or even if there was a limit, but he could only find out when or if it actually filled up. Anything he put in his inventory came out the exact same way, which was awesome. 'No food going bad on me.' He thought as he looked through the food menu.

He found that a five gallon barrel of water was $50 dollars and 1 gallon was $10. The price for food was better than he thought, and looked quite a bit cheaper than the food was back home. Buying ingredients was far cheaper than buying premade meals, but even the most common meal wasn't all that much.

He figured food was this cheap because literally everything on this planet would be trying to kill him, and a delicious final meal would make the death a second time more bearable than if he had eaten another person or a mutated dog leg.

After sorting everything out, Kane purchased 2 meals for $20, then took another look around. He had about an hour until Lilith and the others got here, so he figured he may as well explore for a bit. He teleported over the tin wall, then quickly hid behind cover. He looked around, and instantly spotted some movement.

He counted 7 people, all wearing masks and goggles, and he couldn't help but notice how they all acted strangely around each other, like at any moment someone would attack them. As his gaze wandered, he noticed a fire with a piece of meat roasting over it, and the meat looked oddly like a human leg.

'Explains why they're so jumpy. They don't wanna be next.' Kane thought as he spied on them for a bit longer. He waited until they all devoured the leg, then split up from one another, at which point he began killing them off without alerting the others. Compared to some of the jobs he had done in the past, this was like a walk in the park.

The whole ordeal only lasted a few minutes, and after he walked around, taking the weapons, ammo, and money, while also storing the corpses away as well. His thoughts went in the direction of using the bodies as a distraction in case he needed to make a getaway, or as bait to lure in some creatures.

He also managed to find another gun chest, but this one only had two pistols and a 8 magazines. Testing the pistols out, he realized they were of poor quality, and their power definitely wasn't the power of a Jakobs pistol, or that of his own. He was however happy to find out that the bullets in this world were compatible with his Glocks, but the magazines weren't.

Continuing on his way, he teleported over another tin wall and killed a few more people until he got into town, where he killed the last of the bandits. Reloading his pistols, he began walking over to a building and knocked on the door. He was a little startled when he heard a deep gravely voice shout "Get outta here, ya fucking bandit!!"

The voice seemed calm for the situation, but also familiar. 'Same voice as the game. Interesting.' Kane thought as he shouted, "Hey, I'm not a bandit! I just killed the last of them. I'm actually a Vault Hunter! Could you tell me where I am?" He knew perfectly well where he was, but this would be a way to calm Zed down.

"A Vault Hunter? 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 ya in." Zed paused as he tried to open the door, but Kane heard some shouting from inside the building. "Blasted circuits are on the friggs again. Give it a go from the switch out there, would ya?" Zed asked, getting a chuckle from Kane.

He walked over to the big garage door and pushed a button, causing the door to slide open. As the door opened, he got a glimpse of Zed. The man looked just like his game counterpart, only he was a real person instead of a cartoon drawing. "Hey! Name's Zed." Zed said, extending his hand to Kane.

"Name's Kane. Pleasure to meet ya. Since I got here, all I've seen are bandits that wanted to eat me. It's nice to have a real conversation." Kane said, getting a chuckle from Zed. "You must be new to Pandora. Common occurrence here." Zed stated, getting an understanding nod from Kane.

Zed explained some things to him, and even gave him an echo-communicator so he could stay in communication with certain people of Pandora. They talked for a bit before they heard the roaring of some cars, which prompted Zed to slam the door back down, while Kane teleported to the top of the roof of the building.

Kane waited until the vehicles approached, then with a few well placed shots, all four drivers were dead, while the bandits in the gunner seats were decapitated mid drive. The cars kept going forward until they crashed into Marcus' building, destroying the door in the process. 'I'm sure he'll forgive me.' Kane thought as he teleported down to the cars.

With a quick glance, he found all four vehicles were still in great condition so he stored them inside his inventory, plus 6 corpses. After storing the vehicles, he walked closer to the door to Marcus' shop, then pulled what was left of the door off it's hinges. Walking inside he saw the two gun and ammo vending machines.

Looking in the gun machine, he found some crappy guns, if the information that was provided was anything to go off of. 'Marcus really knows his guns!' Kane thought as looked at the fire rate of the guns, and the stopping power. He could tweak the gun's to get the accuracy up a bit more, and the reload speed was entirely up to the wielder, not the guns.

Looking at the item of the day, Kane was a little surprised when he saw a Malliwan SMG that could deal fire damage. The fire rate was pretty good, so he checked the price. '$2,650 huh...' Kane paused to check how much he had.

After looting over a dozen bandits, the surrounding buildings, and the vehicles, Kane had a grand total of $1,465, 21 guns of what he considered poor quality, a few hundred pistol, sniper, SMG (Sub Machine Guns) and shotgun rounds, 17 corpses, and 4 vehicles.

Knowing he couldn't afford the gun, he checked his own store to find the same gun. After a few minutes of browsing, he found the gun and wasn't at all surprised to see the price was $26,500 dollars, literally ten times the price that Marcus was asking. 'It could be a hell of a lot worse.' Kane thought, being more optimistic than some people would be.

He was a little dejected, but that was only until he noticed something about the weird vending machine. There was a storage room connected to it, and a scanning device with a sign above it saying, "Place gun here!" With an arrow pointing towards a small platform. Not really seeing the harm, he brought out one of the worthless guns he had looted off a bandit and placed it on the platform.

As soon as he did, a blue light washed over the weapon and a moment later a screen next to the platform he hadn't noticed before came to life, showing how much he could sell the gun for, which was $206 bucks. Thinking he wouldn't use any of the shitty weapons, some of which looked like they were made of scrap metal, he loaded up the rest of the weapons on there, save for the nicest sniper rifle of the bunch, and sold them all.

After everything was gone, his new total was now $6,090, bringing a small smile to his face. He tried putting the shotgun ammo on the scanner, but the screen notified him that it was invalid. He guessed that the machines wouldn't sell anything they couldn't make a profit on, and ammo was touchy. Someone could have emptied the casing of the powder, causing their death if they were in a pinch. This could lead to word getting around that Marcus didn't sell proper ammo, thus ruining a profitable business.

Needless to say, Kane wasn't getting rid of the ammo to any of the machines. He also decided to hold off on buying the new SMG even though he now had the funds, cause he had two guns he was very intimate with already, plus he would stay away from any situation where he would need to use an SMG if he could help it.

Feeling pleased with his easy money, he made his way back over to Zed's, then gave him the all clear knock. "Could you hit that switch again?" Zed asked, getting a chuckle from Kane as he flipped the switch. "What happened?" Zed asked as he looked outside. "They drove off. Took a few shots at them, but after they crashed into Marcus' shop, they vanished." Kane said, not telling the truth, but not completely lying either.

"Don't worry about that. Marcus comes by every week to restock the machines. Little heads up, don't try to mess with the machines. Marcus put in some fail-safes so if people try to steal from him, they die." Zed warned. "Understandable. I wouldn't want people to steal from me either." Kane said matter-of-factly.

Looking over, Kane's gaze locked onto Zed's own vending machine. "What do you sell?" Kane asked curiously, again, knowing full well that the man sold some shields. "Blood and shields. Shields are awesome, and unless you're crazy, I'd get a shield. Even the best ones can only stop 3 shots, those are three shots that would have killed ya." Zed said, getting a curious look from Kane.

Zed then explained how if you were walking around, and someone fired a shot from a sniper at ya, the shield would stop a bullet, warning you of the danger and allowing you to get to cover. "You said the best ones can block up to three shots. Aren't there some that can block lots of shots?"

Zed was confused at Kane's question, so he said "Here in Fyrestone I only got a few that can block 1 shot before they need recharged. I've worked with shields for years now, and I've heard rumors of some being able to block 4 shots, but those would be legendary shields. Shields differ in quality, ya see. There can be some that stop a shot, but then they recharge super fast, or can stop more than 1 shot, but recharge super slow.

Each shield has a recharge delay, meaning the time it takes before the inner mechanism registers the shield is depleted. Some shields can only be recharged so many times before they stop working all together, thus they require some maintenance. Here's where the legendary shields come in. These shields were created by beings that were far beyond in technology than what any man can create, and no matter what, they can't be duplicated no matter the research that goes into it. They will last indefinitely from what I've heard, but I've never seen one, so I couldn't tell ya." Zed said explaining how shields worked.

'Guess it's not as simple as the game made it out to be, but close enough.' Kane thought. "So can I buy a shield?" Kane asked as he walked over to the machine. Looking a little sheepish, Zed answered "Afraid not. Ya see the power core here? Well it ran out, and until I get a new one this machine is out of commission." Zed pointed out where the power core was, as he explained.

"What if I get you a new one?" Kane asked, knowing full well it was coming. "That's a great idea!! There's an old machine not too far from here, and it should have a working power core. You get me that, I'll give ya $118 dollars and repair the machine so you can buy a shield." Zed exclaimed excitedly. After getting Zed to show him how the map worked on his echo-communicator, Zed marked where the old machine was, then sent Kane on his way.

Teleporting up onto the rocks, Kane made his way towards the where the echo said to go, and after a few minutes he could see the old vending machine laying down on the ground. Looking around, he could see some armored dog-like things. "So these are Skaggs…" Kane mumbled as studied the creatures.

The heads of these creatures had a thick armored hide, while everywhere else on the things was fairly vulnerable, reminding him of a hairless cat. Some of the creatures could spit an acidic substance at people, and some of these things could take on the properties of certain elements, but one thing all of them shared was their weakness. Attacking the inside of their mouths would deal a critical strike every time, if you could hit the spot.

Deciding it was best to use the old tried and true method, Kane pulled out his long knife, then teleported down, stabbed the first one right in the spine, then teleported back to his vantage point. When he looked down at the thing, he realized he had killed the thing quite easily. Looking at the remaining four skags, Kane teleported down and made swift work of them, then grabbed the power core.

Before he left, a thought struck him. He put the old vending machine into his inventory, figuring Zed might buy it off him. Finishing up with his task, he made his way back to Zed so he could buy a shield, then he would be off to do his own thing.

Getting back to Zed, Kane found there were four additional people in Fyrestone. Looking at the four people, Kane recognized them right away. 'Mordeccai the hunter, Roland the soldier, Lilith the siren, and Brick... as himself.' Kane thought with a chuckle.

Even though they were easily identifiable, they looked a bit different than their game counterparts. Brick was tall, like really tall. He was easily 7ft 6inches, he had a neck for one thing, but it looked like someone got a slab of muscle and shaped the man. Covered in scars, he looked like he could put the hulk to shame.

Mordeccai wasn't as scrawny as he looked from the game either. He looked like a professional swimmer, about 5ft 10inches tall, and had sharp eyes. He was the first to notice Kane's approach, but other than making sure his rifle was easy to get to, he made no other move. Roland was about 6ft 2inches, carrying himself like a proper soldier. He was like a mixture of Brick and Mordeccai, but couldn't match Brick for strength or Mordeccai for agility.

Finally there was Lilith. She was smaller than Mordeccai, about 5ft 7 inches, well toned, but her most noticeable feature would either be her striking red hair or her blue siren tattoos. 'Now that I think about it, I don't think anyone will think I'm a siren because my tattoos are black, cause as far as I've ever heard, Siren's have all had blue tattoos. We'll get to that if it comes up.' Kane thought as he approached the group.

"Hey, how's it going? Name's Kane." Kane said as he greeted the four Vault Hunters. "Name's Roland. This is Lilith, this is Brick, that's Mordeccai, and that's his pet Bloodwing." Roland said, pointing to each person and finally a bird-like thing sitting on some boxes out of Kane's view.

"Nice to meet ya. Anyway, I gotta get this medical vending machine fixed up." Kane said as he walked past them and gave Zed the power core. A few seconds later and Kane, with the help of Zed was putting on his new shield. It could only block one shot, then would need about 2 minutes to recharge itself. It could be depleted 15 times before it would wear out, and he would need to get a new one.

"Nice shield." Lilith said as she purchased a shield for herself. The others all got a shield, then were interrupted as a little robot thing with one wheel came up to them, instructing them to head to the gate. Kane watched them go with a smile as he thought 'So the story begins.'