Competition

Kane sat at the table, quietly eating his breakfast as he watched the two Sirens sitting on opposite sides of the table glare daggers at each other.

Luna and Tannis had taken their food to go, wanting to avoid whatever the fuck was going on between the two women, while Radar didn't care one way or the other.

The tension was so high, Kane could almost feel it, but in the typical Kane fashion, he brushed it aside like it was nothing. Once he finished his food, he stood from his chair before giving both Maya and Angel a wide smile.

"This was fun." He said, deciding to take his leave. Just as he was approaching the door though, he stopped and looked back at the table before saying, "If one of you two is going to be tied to my bed tonight, can you at least be face-up? More things to play with." Then without waiting for a reply, he left the room.

Walking to the lab, Kane Found Radar before they gathered up a number of devices, weapons, ammo, and a few other things they would need to upgrade Marcus' place in Sanctuary.

It wasn't long before they had everything they needed and were ready to go to New Haven to get Marcus, when out of nowhere Maya appeared.

"Hey, mind if I tag along? Need to get out for a while." She asked, looking kind of tired. "Sure. It's how I keep sane." Kane answered, getting a weird look from Maya. "What?" He asked, checking himself to see if he had something on him.

"Not to sound like a bitch, but are you actually sane? You kill people for fun and... I don't know... do crazy weird things. I'm not sure you could really be classified as sane." She said, getting a chuckle from Kane.

"My sanity could be debated, yes, but so what? It's not like I'm looking for anyone's approval. As for killing people for fun... maybe there is something wrong with that, but I got a handle on it. Kill bad guys." Kane said, though one's definition of good and evil could be vastly different from someone else's.

Maya of course knew this, but she chose not to say anything, as she herself could be considered a monster by some, and a savior by others. It was all about perspective really, and in her opinion, Kane was actually a pretty decent guy, he just didn't like taking shit from people, and he usually did whatever he wanted.

In no time at all the three of them were soaring through the skies of Pandora, each of them taking the occasional shot at something down below them.

Maya had taken to Pandora better than Kane would have thought, and he was kind of proud of her. She was way less trusting of others than she had been, and she wasn't so full of herself compared to before either.

Seeing the locals and whatnot might be one of the reasons she never tried to stop him when he killed them for shits and giggles, not that she could stop him anyway.

Before long they were descending down to New Haven, and just like always, it was still a dump. Once they landed, they all began walking towards Marcus' shop, but like always with Kane, he never got more than a few feet before someone came to intercept him.

"Hey, Kane? Can we talk?" Lilith asked, coming into step beside him. Kane never said anything or even slowed down, but he wouldn't stop her from speaking, at least not yet anyway.

"Look, I'm sorry for the other day. Roland and I just want to help these people, and we pushed that towards you. It wasn't fair, and I just want to say, I'm sorry." Lilith said, actually sounding apologetic, not that Kane cared all that much.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm just a little possessive, and overreacted." Kane said, though inside he knew he would react that way again. He was greedy and selfish, and that was just fine with him.

"HA! Understatement of the year!" Maya said from the side, getting a laugh at his 'Little possessive' remark. "Who's she?" Lilith asked, finally taking notice of the blue-haired woman beside Kane.

"Her name's Maya. She's a Siren like us." Kane answered, causing both Sirens to stop in their tracks as they looked at one another. ""YOU'RE A SIREN?!!"" They both asked in unison, mirroring each other's movements.

"I'll let you two chat for a while." Kane said, leaving them there while he and Radar continued on towards Marcus's shop.

Just when they were getting to the entrance of the place, Brick's towering form walked through the doorway, getting another sigh from Kane. "Hey, Brick." Kane said, not really in the mood to go rip someone apart today.

"Sup. Marcus says you're helping him move to Sanctuary today. That true?" Brick asked, more calmly than Kane would have expected from him. "Yup. New Haven isn't exactly defendable." Kane said, pausing to look around at the garbage that people called buildings.

It all might have been a hazard to live in, but with it being in the middle of a scrapyard that spanned thousands of miles, it worked out to keep them hidden.

"You wanna race there?" Brick asked, sounding kind of hopeful. Normally in this situation, Kane would think Brick was just using this as an excuse to get more fuel for his ship, but the man just didn't have it in him to lie or scheme. It was one of the things Kane liked about him.

"You know, that wouldn't be so bad. Take this and go fuel up yours and Mordy's ships, and we'll have a fair race, no cheating." Kane said, making a huge drum on wheels appear, with 'FUEL' labeled on the side.

"AWESOME!!" Brick exclaimed, almost lifting the big tank off the ground, despite it being perfectly mobile.

"*WHISTILE!* Come on, Dusty!!" The Berserker shouted, puzzling Kane for a moment. "Who's, Dusty?" Kane asked, looking around for someone to show up.

To Kane's surprise and realization, a little brown dog appeared from the alley of the shop. A real dog, not some mutant hybrid thing. It had completely slipped his mind about Brick getting another dog before the fall of New Haven.

"Where the hell did you get her?" Kane asked, leaning down to pet the thing. "I found her a few days ago in some garbage. Isn't she beautiful?!" Brick said, crouching down to the ground, prompting Dusty to leave Kane and run over to him.

"She is." Kane answered, smiling at the little dog. Seeing the way Brick interacted with it, he almost looked more human than he let on. Hopefully things would be a bit different from the game with Kane here. Brick was one of the very few people he could actually call friend, and he didn't want him to lose his shit.

Soon enough, Brick took off, deciding to push the tank of fuel instead of carrying it, with a little puppy running at his heels. To Kane's surprise, Radar, who up until now hadn't said a word, ran off after the little puppy.

Kane didn't know what her deal was, but it didn't matter all that much. Radar would be with Brick when they were ready to depart, so that was good. With them gone, Kane finally entered the shop, noticing right away how everything was already boxed up in the middle of the room.

"You ready to go, Markus?" Kane asked, looking to the counter where Marcus sat waiting for him. "Yes. I just need you to grab the private stock down in the vault." Marcus said, talking about his alcohol. It was understandable, it being his pride and joy.

"Where's the other guy?" Kane asked, looking around the room for Zane. "How should I know? It's not like I need him yet!" Marcus said, sounding like he wasn't some babysitter for the assassin. "Fair enough." Kane said, following Marcus down to the vault.

Unlike what Marcus was expecting, Kane took the whole fucking Vault itself, not bothering to empty out it's contents.

"Kane... if I ever have something you want, just ask." Marcus said, realizing just how ineffective his vault was to Kane. "Sure." Kane replied, smiling a little at the realization in Marcus' eyes. It was good the man was learning.

With everything in the building stored away inside his inventory, Kane and Marcus both left the building towards the outer part of town where Brick and Mordy had their ships.

When they got there, Kane wasn't one bit surprised to see Roland, Lilith, Maya, Radar, Helena, and Moxxi. Maya and Radar were a given, but the other four were like a cold you just couldn't get rid of.

Ignoring half the group, Kane walked over to the ships, noticing how they were both topped up with fuel, while at the same time he noticed how Mordy's ship was unsurprisingly full of crap, and by that, it had 8 random people Kane had never seen before on board.

Each of the ships could hold about a dozen before they started to get cramped, and about 20 people before they reached the maximum weight you wanted to put in them before they were in the red zone of what was safe to fly.

"I take it, Mordy's not racing with us?" Kane asked Brick, already knowing the answer. "Yup..." Brick answered, shooting a glance at Moxxi then to Mordy, then back to Kane, giving him an idea about what transpired.

The slutty clown stuck her tits in the hunter's face, Mordy being as obsessed with her as he was, he agreed to do what she asked.

"His loss. I got a course all planned out, with a few challenges thrown into the mix. There's even a shooting challenge that was designed with him in mind, but I guess that can be between the five of us." Kane said, exciting Brick for a second before it caught in his throat.

"Five? Who's all in this race?" Brick asked, looking around at everyone around them. "Me, you, Marcus, Radar, and Maya." Kane answered, getting a few different reactions.

"Woah, woah, woah!! I never agreed to any of this!!" Marcus stated, not really wanting to do anything that didn't really have a profit in it.

"Did I mention the winner gets to pick any item from my armory, and a barrel of any alcohol of their choice?" Kane added, getting a shocked response from those who knew just what it was they were getting.

"WHERE'S MY SHIP?!!" Marcus shouted, rubbing his hands in greedy excitement. "Hell yeah!!" Maya exclaimed, coming over to stand beside Marcus. "I want in, Boyo!!" Zane said, appearing out of nowhere from behind Mordy's ship.

"Can I get in on this?" Lilith asked, coming over to the group, only to immediately get pulled away by Roland. "We're kind of in the middle of something here. Do you really think it's a good idea to drop everything for a race with Jack coming for us?" Roland asked, sounding a bit exasperated. And boy was Jack ever coming for them.

Hyperion was promising rewards, a pardon, and a buttload of cash for Lilith and Roland's whereabouts, how to get to them, or just the codes and stuff to New Haven in general.

"It's not like you need me there to move people. Why not have some fun?" Lilith asked, feeling it was just what she needed right now. With the whole of Hyperion about to come down on them, everyone was kind of tense, so blowing off some steam might be just what they needed.

"Hold up! If Lil's goin, then I'm going too!!" Mordy shouted, a little annoyed that Kane was doing all of this just to get back with him for siding with Moxxi, which was probably true in this regard.

"We need your ship to transport people to Sanctuary!" Roland exclaimed in annoyance, wondering if Kane planned this whole thing so they wouldn't be getting any help.

"You wouldn't just leave us, would you, Sugar?" Moxxi asked sadly as she stepped in close next to Mordeccai, causing him to give in to said woman almost instantly.

"You poor bastard..." Brick commented, getting a small laugh from Kane, and a nod of agreement from Marcus. "So, I guess it's just the seven of us, then?" Kane asked, looking around to everyone.

"Alrighty then! For this little competition, everyone is gonna be on a team, except for myself of course. There will be four ships in total... etc." Kane explained the rules, the challenges, and the course outline. The teams were Maya and Lilith, Zane and Marcus, Brick and Radar, and of course Kane.

Rules:

-There was no interfering with other competitors.

-Both members of the team must make it to the finish line for them to win.

-Must record the challenges for proof of completion.

The rules were simple, and something everyone could agree on. The challenges were relatively simple as well, but they would take some time.

1st- They had to take a selfie on top of a mountain.

2nd- Kill a skag with a sniper from over 500 yards.

3rd- Blow up a building or landmark.

4th- Fly over the Dust.

5th- With the finish line being in the town square of Sanctuary, where the team would need to drink a small jug of beer and eat a bucket of chicken wings.

The challenges didn't need to be done in order, but Kane did state that the fifth challenge would need to be done last, as that was the finish line.

The last little bit of the challenge was mostly to rub a little salt into Mordy's wound, making curse the slutty clown under his breath, with Kane's name thrown in there for good measure.

Soon enough the four ships were lined up side by side just outside of New Haven, with everyone inside of them waiting for the starting signal.

Reluctantly and angrily, Mordy stood to the side with a pistol in hand, muttering something under his breath. The only reason he agreed to start this whole thing off was because Kane said he could have some beer once they got to Sanctuary, but that still wasn't enough to make up for the competition of a lifetime.

"3!! 2!! 1!! *BANG!!* GO!!" Mordy shouted, the pistol shot signaling the start of the match. The ships didn't even get the chance to start up before Kane's disappeared into thin air, no one knowing where the hell it was he disappeared off too.

Not bothering to start up his ship, Kane made it disappear into his inventory as he moved through the air, reappearing only for an instant before he was gone again. In less than a minute he was over a hundred miles away from New Haven, leaving everyone else way behind him.

His first stop was the Dust, getting the selfie in the skies over the desert out of the way. Next he made his way towards Thousand Cuts, taking a selfie on the big ass mountain there.

With another challenge out of the way, Kane made his way towards the furthest reaches of the eastern coast of Pandora where T-Bone Junction was.

Once there, he followed the roadway until he got to where Moxxi's Underdome was, ultimately planning to blow the place up, but once he got there he felt that he was just being petty.

Deciding against it, Kane put the explosives on the roads leading to the Underdome, and the mountains around it. With a satisfied smile on his face, Kane looked into the camera, then pointed it towards the mountains.

An evil sounding chuckle escaped him as the area lit up like the night sky on the fourth of July, raining boulders all around the area, while the roads leading to the place collapsed into rubble.

Honestly he could play this whole thing off as an accident with how the Underdome was located, but no one would really believe that shit, given how much he hated Moxxi.

Granted, he did leave the actual building completely untouched, it was just inaccessible at the moment. The buildings on the roadway that he blew up would more than count for his challenge, so with that done he moved on to the next one.

Finding a Skagg to kill on Pandora was pretty easy, considering they reproduced faster than bunny rabbits. Picking one at random, Kane set up the camera before getting into position, then popped it's head clean off.

With all the challenges done, Kane made his way towards Sanctuary feeling pretty good about himself. Despite traveling many times further than he needed to, Kane was the first to arrive, which wasn't all that surprising considering the speed he moved at.

It was a good thing though, as he had yet to set up the last phase of the competition, so without further delay, Kane set up four different tables with two chairs beside each of them, save for his own of course.

Next he put out a mug of Budweiser on each table with two glasses, with a plate beside each of the cups. Finally, he put a medium sized bucket of assorted wings on each table, making sure to keep it covered until the others arrived to eat them.

Finally, Kane sat down at his table and began to enjoy himself with lunch.

It wasn't long after he began to eat that Brick and Radar came barreling into the square, little Dusty running as fast as her little legs could go as she tried to keep up with Brick, who immediately took a seat at a table and began digging into the bucket of wings without a second thought.

Radar didn't eat or drink anything in general, so she just stood there and watched Brick devour the wings, bone and all on some of them. Them being here so soon had caught Kane off guard, and combined with seeing the rate Brick was going, Kane began to panic, as Brick was actually gaining on him.

He only had 4 wings left in his bucket when he heard Brick shout, "DONE!!" Looking over, Brick was still holding the empty jug in his hand, and in front of him was a bucket with barely any bones inside of it, making Kane grimace as he realized Brick ate nearly every bone in the damn thing.

"How the hell did you guys get here so fast?" Kane asked, unsure how the fuck they pulled it off. In response to his question, Radar held up the camera, showing pictures of the both of them in the Dust. Them standing on a small mountain in the Dust. Radar killing a Skag in the Dust. And finally Brick blowing up a section of the Hodunk clan's race track.

"You never said we couldn't do them all in one location." Radar informed him, and Kane did have to agree that was in fact, true. "God damn it!" Kane cursed, taking another bite of a wing, the realization that he had lost making him sulk for a moment.

It took about 30 minutes for Marcus and Zane to arrive, followed by Lilith and Maya arriving only 5 minutes after them. With Brick and Radar having won, no one rushed to finish their food, as there was no prize for any place other than first.

Still, no one was particularly upset about having lost the competition, as it was still more fun than they had had in quite awhile. Plus the cool beer and wings were a delicacy on Pandora, especially the quality Kane had provided.

No one on Pandora had eaten real chicken in probably ever, but Zane did comment that it tasted a bit like people. As they ate, everyone played the footage they had taken of the challenges, and as expected, Kane's footage took first place for being the most over the top.

Lilith did comment how Moxxi wouldn't be all too happy about what he had done near the Underdome, but Kane didn't care. It would be destroyed in less than a year anyway by Jack, and he wasn't sure if he even wanted to let her live that long.

With the competition over and done with, Kane led Marcus to the area that he had picked out for his shop. With Radar's help, she and Kane got to work upgrading the shit out of things.

Reinforcing it to be able to handle a nuke was one thing, while also outlining where it would break apart should Sanctuary ever go airborne.

Below the shop, Kane made it so it had its own personal little launching station, putting in a tiny escape pod so Marcus could get away if he ever needed to, which the old weapons merchant was extremely thankful for.

Aside from that, Kane equipped it with a few turrets, bio-scanning features, and voice recognition. Unlike what Jack had for the BNK-3R in the game, Kane had retinal scans as well, with his password.

By the end of it, everything about the shop was completely decked out.

The building itself could actually break off from the rest of Sanctuary and be its own little mobile ship, though it couldn't go to space, and it only had about 10 hours worth of juice in the tank before it would plummet to the ground, but that should be more than enough time for Marcus to get away if things got too bad.

When it came time for Zane to try and break in, let's just say he had to do a few repairs to his drone, and he almost died a few times.

He did get mad towards the end and tried to blow the place up, but that backfired and the automated defenses almost ripped him apart. The bomb didn't even have a chance to go off before it was disposed of.

Even when he tried posing as a client and using a bomb that was on his person didn't work, the system reading the threat and knocking him out cold, though that was simply for the test run. The real thing would most likely kill anyone else.

"I call this a complete success!!" Marcus stated, raising his glass into the air for a toast. Kane and Zane toasted in kind, but Radar just fist bumped the glasses, her being mostly machine and all that.

They celebrated the completion of the store for about an hour, then they reluctantly went outside once they got word that a few people had in fact made it into the city.

Helena Pierce actually made it this time, her being on a air-ship rather than a train full of idiots. Apparently while Kane and Radar were busy helping Marcus, Lilith, Brick and Maya decided to help Roland bring a few loads of people over.

There were still a little over a hundred or so people in New Haven, but they couldn't bring everyone here at once. Sadly for them, they had run out of fuel again, only this time Kane didn't have a reason to give it to them. At least until Brick walked over to him with a wide smile on his face.

"Kane, can I buy some fuel off you?" Brick asked plainly, still smiling. "Sure." Kane answered, it being a perfectly reasonable request.

Roland and Lilith who were standing a few feet away face palmed, realizing that the answer was pretty fucking simple with Kane. "I can't believe it was Brick that had to point that out!" Lilith whisper-shouted at Roland, though Kane still heard it.

Their stupidity wasn't his problem, but someone else's was. "We might have a problem." Radar said, coming to stand beside Kane while holding out an ECHO device that was showing real time footage of something that made Kane frown.

"Fucking idiot!" Kane growled angrily, then began to flip through the files until he got a location. Making a take of fuel appear, Kane walked over towards where Maya was standing. "We gotta go!" He said, grabbing her hand before looking over at Brick. "I'll get the money later!!" He shouted, then disappeared from view.

"I wonder what that was about..." Mordy said as he looked into the sky, though he knew Kane was already long gone from sight. "We'll find out later." Brick said, figuring he could just ask Kane when he came to get the money for the fuel.

"How much is all of this stuff anyway?" Lilith asked, realizing that Kane hadn't actually said. "Don't know, but expect it to be about 10 times what it actually costs." Brick answered, having a pretty good understanding of the way Kane did business by now.

Elsewhere on Pandora, Kane, Radar and Maya appeared next to a large shack out in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere.

A few hundred yards away from the shack, a small red and gray rocket was in pieces, it being the basic delivery model for the universe.

Ignoring the rocket, Kane and the others made their way towards the shack in a matter of seconds, at which point Kane kicked the door down. Inside the shack, the first thing Kane noticed were the heads of certain creatures mounted on the walls.

Ignoring those for now, Kane scanned the room with narrowed eyes, not seeing his target at the moment. Just when he was about to go searching in a different room, he heard footsteps approaching their position.

It wasn't much longer before a man in a ragged, futuristic version of a Victorian adventurer's outfit appeared. He had dark skin, a wicked awesome looking mustache, and wore what Kane could only guess was a hunter's hat that went with his clothes.

The man had a rifle raised towards Kane when he entered the room, but he at least wasn't in a rush to start firing when he walked in the room.

"Oh my! Who might you be?" The man asked, still keeping the gun raised towards them. "The name's Kane. This is Radar, and she's Maya." Kane answered, introducing everyone, cause why not?

"A pleasure to meet you. I am Sir Hammerlock! Hunter, Scholar, and Gentleman! At your service!" Hammerlock said, finally lowering the gun.

"That's good and all, but I just need you to tell me where the hell those two threshers that just arrived on Pandora are!" Kane said, surprising the man. After all, they had literally arrived less than an hour ago, and he was just doing some research on them.

"How did-?" Hammerlock asked, only to be interpreted as Kane walked past him into the room he was just in, at which point a stream of loud gunfire was heard for a few seconds before it stopped.

Walking back out of the room, Kane tossed the man an ECHO as he walked towards the door.

"If you try and introduce that species onto Pandora, thousands will die, and that will be on you." Kane stated, leaving the place just as quickly as he had arrived.

Sir Hammerlock stood their dumbly, not quite understanding just what the fuck happened. It wasn't until about a minute after Kane had left that he looked down at the ECHO in his hands before pressing the play button on it.

Video footage of the threshers on Elpis appeared, explaining all about their growth, how quickly they reproduce, how they eat almost anything, and how their tunneling completely changes the land around them.

There were even studies of how gravity affects them, and needless to say it was quite the eye opener for him. Had Kane not interfere, it wouldn't have been long before the two threshers got too big to contain, at which point they very well could have ravaged Pandora.

"Well... Bollocks." Hammerlock said, realizing that all of his plans were doomed to fail. Still, he didn't let it get him down for too long, choosing rather to find out more about that strange man who appeared out of nowhere.

---------

Back in Paradise, Kane and the others were sitting at table telling about their day to Luna and Angel, Tannis not particularly caring about something so trivial as she ate her food, her attention focused on her ECHO device.

"Can we do a competition like that?!!" Luna asked excitedly, it sounded like a good way to kill some time.

"I don't see why not. We could make this like a monthly thing, then tally up the score at the end of the year where the one who has the most wins gets a grand prize." Kane answered, getting nods of agreement all around.

"That means I'm currently in first place." Radar informed them all, getting a few protests from Luna and Angel, them complaining that they weren't there so it didn't count, but Radar informed them that they had the option to come, they just chose not to, so the score would stay as it was.

That reminded Kane that he did owe Brick an item from his armory. Radar didn't need anything from the competition, as she pretty much could get whatever the hell she wanted, and Kane was more than okay with that.

Her value to him went far above anything he owned, so if she needed something, he was more than happy to give it to her, and both of them knew that.

Once they finished up with Dinner, everyone went off to bed. As he walked back to his room, Kane saw Angel follow Maya into her room, which would mean this would be one of those few nights that he had to himself, and surprisingly, he was okay with that.

After a long shower, Kane flopped onto his bed, passing out in seconds. A few hours later, Kane woke up when he heard his ECHO device going off, and reluctantly, he did answer it.

"Wha-?" Kane started to ask, but was cut-off when Mordy shouted, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!! IN NEW HAVEN!! HURRY!!"