I groaned as I got up off the ground, looking over to Rhys and Vaughn.
"The list of things that could kill us keep getting longer... I haven't even thought about Moonshots." Vaughn said.
"Rhaks, scags, bandits, dehydration, heat stroke, regular stroke, stroke stroke. What ever that is. That murder pile."
"It's a Rhak hive." I mumbled for his clarification.
"The list just keeps getting longer.... I've never felt so alive!" Vaughn finished, jumping off a mirror stand.
He laughed at the sky. "This is awesome!"
I nodded, cause that was pretty awesome.
"That's the spirit buddy." Rhys told his best friend.
"It's just. I know it's weird to say. But I am having a great time." Vaughn tried explaining himself.
I got up. "So am I!" I gave him a high five.
"This is what I'm talking about! Mixing it up with Hyperion. Teaming up with grifters and a Vault Hunter?" He laughed. "These are stories we're going to tell our children when we're millionaires."
"We just survived moonshots man! Freakin moonshots!" Vaughn said happily.
But then he proceeded to tell at the sky. "What is he yelling at?" I asked Rhys.
"Hyperion, it's that big H in the sky." Rhys thoughtfully explained to me, understanding that I don't really 'get out much'.
Something beeped. "Ah what the hell was that." Vaughn cried, right after saying how he wasn't afraid.
"Relax it's Yvette." Rhys said looking at his arm.
"Oh oh okay. I have to pee. And not because I was scared. I had to go anyways." Vaughn said still startled, walking behind the boulder.
"This is perfect timing." He says as Yvette showed up on his screen.
"Oh, Rhys you alive! Thank God you guys are ok. I thought that was it for a second there." Yvette said sincerely. But in my opinion that sounded like she wanted them dead.
"Oh we're great. Vaughn is having the time of his life and Will? How do you feel about this predicament?" Rhys turned towards me, me seeing a look of confusion on Yvette's face.
Kinda didn't want her to see my face Rhysie.
"Time.of.my.life." I said with a bit of gritted teeth.
"Tell her to send some supplies!" Vaughn said from behind the boulder.
"Dude dont.. don't talk to us while you're peeing!" I said in disgust.
"Sorry! Almost done." Vaughn finished.
"Anyways I got them to stop shooting but I can't keep Vasquez for wanting to take you out." Yvette explained.
"We could use some wheels. Vasquez's car is long gone. Oh and we're stranded out here in the desert." Rhys explained.
"Look. Im able to track you so I'll send what I can. Stay safe for now." Yvette said and hung up.
"Cooollll....." Rhys said with a tad bit attitude.
I turned around to see Vaughn.... With a freaking eight-pack.
"Hopefully she can help us out. We can't keep walking in the desert for too long. I mean not without water." Vaughn said.
"Um Vaughn. Should I call a doctor?" Rhys asked.
"What why?" Vaughn asked worriedly.
"Cause you are all cut up." Rhys answered impressed.
"What? Im bleeding? Where? Where?" Vaughn said worriedly.
"We're saying... We're saying you're abnormally buff." I finished for Rhys.
"I put an exercise bike in my office a few months ago. Don't worry about it."
"Right."
"Ygahh!" Rhys said as he looked over his shoulder.
"Look, now's not really a good time." Rhys said to, what it seemed, was nobody.
"Cause we're stick in the desert and we got to get a move on and you're just complicating things." Rhys answered his own questions.
"Rhys who are you talking to?" I asked him, seeming to get him out of his trance.
"Remember earlier when I said I could see Handsome Jack?" Rhys said.
"This apparent guy who ruled Hyperion?" I answered him.
He looked at where 'Handsome Jack' was apparently. "I dont know why she doesn't know you ok? I don't care if she looks familair either."
"Getting back on track, you said you could see him right after you hit your head. You just hit your head falling off the Caravan too so that explains why you can see him." Vaughn explained. I believed him though. People with Tech implants need to stick together.
"But I can see him right now and he's standing right next to you." Rhys explained to Vaughn. He looked besides Vaughn and said, "Hey! Stop looking at her face."
"Right. Right. So Handsome- HANDSOME JACK, is standing right next to me." Vaughn freaked out a bit.
"Yes."
"And I can't see him, but you can. And also talk to him."
"Correct." Rhys paused. "Vaughn.. Will... You believe me right?"
"Shut up! Oh not you guys sorry." Rhys turned to us.
I started to say, "I believe you." As Vaughn asked, "Okay. Ask him how many fingers Im holding up."
Rhys waited a second before saying "Yeah just say how many? Three. You're holding up three fingers."
"Lucky.. guess."
"You know it's not."
I nodded.
"Cmon let's get out of the sun." Rhys told us.
"I don't Understand."
"Join the club." Rhys and I said at the same time. He looked a little spooked and looked at where Jack should be.
"Let's go."
We started walking into the abyss of the desert.
"Im not sure if I'm crazy or you're crazy." Vaughn stuttered, still confused about the whole thing. We walked to this water tower thing.
"Man.. what are the odds.." Vaughn started.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Of all the people that Handsome Jack could be appearing to- it just had to be the guy who's obsessed with him. It's crazy. It's like destiny." Vaughn explained.
I laughed a bit.
"I guess I'm just lucky. Handsome Jack has always been an inspiration to me." Rhys explained himself, looking behind him.
"I have no idea what he did so I have no room to judge." I explained.
"I guess he must be. You got all those Handsome Jack posters in your office dude... I think that's a little weird." Vaughn explained.
"I think they're like the cat posters. Like 'hang in there!'." I defended Rhys.
Rhys looked next to Vaughn. "Dude she's 21, that's you being pedophilic." He explained to 'Jack'.
"Maybe it has something to do with the Nakayama drive." Vaughn suggested.
"I did shove a bunch of data, you know, into my head." Rhys realized.
"Oh man. Hyoerion would kill to get their hands on this." Vaughn thought out loud.
"This?" Rhys asked.
"You! Your head, body or whatever Jack is in." Vaughn explained.
I laughed at the innuendo.
"We can't take Jack back to Hyperion, he's too dangerous." Rhys explained.
"Yeah.. you're probably right." Vaughn agreed.
We continued walking and reached the water tower.
"About time." Vaughn said as he looked at the sky. I turned on my echo eye and looked to see that it was a red Hyperion car.
"Shit." I said as I put my mask up, covering my face.
"Thank you." Rhys said and we walked towards the car.
"Im tired of walking." Vaughn groaned.
"It's coming right for us.." Rhys said as he and Vaughn jumped out of the way of the car that was about to run them over.
The car went near the nearest set of mountains and served, racing to where we were. Meanwhile, Rhys was looking at the car, looking like he's seen a ghost.
The car stopped right in front of us, getting dirt in Rhys's and Vaughn's face. It wasn't in mine since I had my mask on.
The window rolled down the show a, about 30 year old Caucasian man with black hair and a beard.
"Nice sock." The man said, gestering to Rhys's missing shoe.
"Um who are you?" I asked him, his face starting to show annoyance.
"Who am I?" He got out of his car and shut the door.
"Im Hugo Vasquez, the guy they" he pointed to Rhys and Vaughn, "stole money from and Im here to have them pay."
He brought out a gun as I held my repeater at my back.
"Fancy meeting you here." Vasquez said to Rhys and Vaughn.
"So I'm guessing Yvette sent you?" Rhys asked.
"What no way." Vaughn cried.
"I knew it!" I said.
"That girl you keep calling? No. No need." Vaughn explained, "You're Hyperion property Rhys, and Hyperion doesn't loose its property."
He advanced on us, making me want to bring out my pistols. "Look, I know we had a deal...-"
"Hey I tur-" Rhys got interrupted by Vaughn saying, "We did!"
We looked at Vaughn in betrayal. "You convince me to double cross my friend and the day isn't even over when you're double crossing me?"
"The-uh- what?" Rhys asked.
"Should've known better than to trust a snake like you." Vaughn said.
I started to block them out. All they were doing was having a testosterone contest. I looked over to see Vasquez grabbing to shovels from his trunk.
"Um, I don't have a shovel for you because I kinda didn't know you'd be here. But if you want to, after I kill these two fools, you can come back with me to Helios and.." I punched him in the face.
"OW! I want you all to dig your graves!" He turned to me. "I don't care you're going to have to share with someone."
He pointed his gun at us. "No way I'm digging." Rhys said.
"How about I gut shoot you and your friend and girlie friend can watch you bleed out." Vasquez put it simply.
"We dont want to do that." I told him.
They started to dig as I started to scan everything around me.
"Dig faster, time is money Rhys." Vasquez yelled at him.
"You want me to dig my grave faster?" Rhys laughed. Vasquez went over and headbutted him.
I pulled out my gun and shot him in his hand, sick and tired of his bullshit.
Vasquez then held his hand and screamed in pain.
"Cmon sweetie no need to shoot that at me you BITCH!" He yelled at me.
"Im sick and tired of you trying to boss us around." I told him as he aimed his gun at Rhys.
"Rhys Im gonna shoot you first so then Vaughn can load it in the car."
"What?"
"Yeah they want this idiots head for something important up there. Something important inside his little noggin."
He turned to me again. "Do I know you? You look like someone I know. Maybe one of their kids."
I groaned and scanned his gun, it jamming in the process.
"You don't even know how to use that thing." I told him, getting ready to jam it.
"Is there a problem here?" Vaughn asked.
I got out of my echo eye.
"I just wanna get the maximum damage out of this thing." Vasquez said.
"I know my guns and guns only have one setting on power." I told him, my gun still out.
I quickly got onto my echo eye and hacked Vasquez's Overcompenstor subsystems, making the gun overheat. To Rhys and Vaughn they probably just saw a flash of blue on my mask.
Then the gun blew up, knocking Vasquez off his feet. Rhys then got up and raised his hand, like he was laughing at him.
"What are you doing with your hands?" Vaughn asked.
"Im not doing that!" Rhys said alerted.
Rhys put his palm out."Fine bit we gotta go." I told them.
"This is my head. Get out!" Rhys said as he punched his head. It seems like that's what get Jack out of his head.
We started running away from Vasquez, who then got into his car, which is probably way faster than our own feet.
"Im going to kill you!" I heard from behind me, right as LB came and picked us up, Bubbles coming from behind him.
"Loader Bot!" Rhys yelled as I yelled out Bubbles name. Then Vasquez got out of his car and shot Bubbles to pieces.
"Screw you!" I yelled at him as we got away.
I looked at LBs arms to see Rhys and Vaughn talking.
"I missed you." He told us.
"I missed you most!" I told him, kinda upset about Bubbles.
I sat on LBs back as Rhys and Vaughn talked about his betrayal. At the time they were done talking I asked them, "Can you explain who Handsome Jack is?"
"How about after we head towards where we need to go." Rhys explained as I nodded in agreement.
"Well where are we going? Shadow Point or Old Haven." I asked them.
"We'll meet them at Hollow Point. Then we'll go there, like a family." Rhys said.
"To Hollow Point." LB said as we blasted off.
"Okay. Now the story off Handsome Jack.." Vaughn started. He shook his head. "I think you should say it bro." He told Rhys.
"No you bro."
They brofisted then brofisted me.
"Bro. Bro."
"Bro bro bro bro."
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"Bro, bro, bro-" Fiona kept saying.
"We did not talk like that." Rhys defended. She continued with the bros.
"Unbelievable!"
I looked through my scope to see a bandit checking his car. "Got one."
"We should probably let him finish." Fiona said.
"Fine." He turned to me and Rhys. "Im curious. Why would you go to Hollow Point? What do you have to gain?"
"There was nothing to gain. It was just the right thing to do." Rhys explained.
"Oh please. Don't be to eager to fall on the sword." Fiona groaned.
"We had Loader Bot. What exactly could our angle been?" Rhys asked her.
"It's not like you came and saved the day."
"We all have our reasons. It seems like yours are good enough." ••••••• said.
"If they were, we wouldn't be here." Fiona said.
"A man can only take so much." Rhys said.
"Luckily you're a safe distance from a man." Fiona insulted.
"We were stranded in the middle of a desert. You had a car. Did ypu even think about getting us?" I asked, eyes still fixed on my target.
"We had our own-" she was interrupted by me shooting my target. I was getting tired of her talking.
"One of you will have to change a tire." ••••••• said to Fiona and Rhys as I got up.
Fiona walked to get it.
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"LB let me down here." I told him as I saw Sasha and Fiona being chased by a person with a shield.
As he was landing I got down and hit the woman's shield, sending her back.
"You can go back. I'll deal with her. Just wait a couple minutes before you guys leave." I told him as he nodded. I jumped after the Hunter and landed near a bar called The Purple Skag. "Who are you?" I yelled, my mask covering my face.
"I can tell a good soul when I see one. Im Athena. I was hired to help those two 'reach their full potential. But they keep running away from me cause they think Im going to kill them." She said.
"Don't worry. Im Willa and I'll try to tell them." I told her as I waved bye and went back to the shop they told me to meet at.
I walked through the door to see Rhys, Vaughn, Sasha and Fiona standing at the door with Scooter. "Now who is she?" He asked accusingly.
I took off my mask. "Scooter! My boy!" I high fived him.
"Little Willa? Is that you?" He asked me.
"Yeah boy!"
Everyone stopped going to the Caravan and looked at us weirdly. "Oh he's Mad Moxxi's son." I said and started towards the Caravan."See you later Scooter."
"Bye!" I went into the new Caravan, leaving awestruck people trailing behind me.
Then the van started and we left Scooters place, him suggesting us stop at his Catch-a-Rides when we see one.
We drove from the Badlands and into a more grassier part of the planet, skags racing in the distance, arriving to Old Haven.
Rhys and I got out of the van, Sasha following.
"Oh, I hope there aren't any bandits." She said in a semi-joking mood I walked away from them and scanned my surroundings.
"Bandits?" Vaughn said worriedly.
"They haven't lived here for years." Fiona reassured him.
"The Crimson Lance massacred them. Some say their spirits still habit these roads for vengeance..." Sasha left.
"Sasha..."
I walked further down the road, still scanning. "Not to be a downer, but this place doesn't look like an Atlas facility," Vaughn said, "Im just seeing dry trash."
"Would it be so hard, for something, just once, to go according to plan." Fiona said.
"Alright guys. I know it's not a fancy resort town but if it was a resort town wouldn't everyone be here and the Gortys Project be found?" I told them.
"Don't worry. We'll figure this out." Rhys reassured them.
He looked at the power cords leading to the wall. "Now that, looks interesting."
We walked towards it. "Guys, Cmon check this out," He said, "the whole grid leads to right here."
"With all these power cables going everywhere, they've got to be connected to something right?" Vaughn asked. I nodded and went off to turn the power box on near Vaughn.
Rhys pulled a billboard over to reveal a power box. Fiddling with it, he turned on the satellite. He then walked over to Fiona and Sasha, talking for a bit and them giving him is boot back.
He then walked over to a trash bin in an alley, getting up on it and getting his foot stuck.
"Haha!" I laughed up at him as he got it out and almost slipped.
He glared at me and got up near a billboard, a panel right next to it.
He walked towards it and started messing with it, until I heard him say, "and there!"
He jumped down from there and walked to where the strange wall was, me following in close pursuit, as it started to rise.
"Old Atlas, nice." I mumbled as the initials GP showed up on the building.
The building was huge.
Right in front of us was an enyrance with the word Atlas Infront.
The others came up behind us as the gates opened. "What? There was a secret entrance there the whole time?" Vaughn yelled confused.
"And that must be our facility." Fiona pointed out. No shit. It's not like it has humongous words saying Atlas and Gortys Project.
"Underground hidden doors. Ha! Atlas man.. So what's next?" He looked at Vaughn as he finished.
Sasha pulled out her gun. "Alright everyone the key to this is stealth..." I started to walk away, knowing his plan was crap.
"I wish you guys would stop doing that." I heard Rhys mumble, following us into the building.
As we walked into the big Atlas foyer I had an idea. I turned to them. "Hey, I need to check for somethings, I'll be back soon."
I then ran over the security bodies, running to one of the back rooms. I skidded past one room that held a lot of robots.
I walked into the room. Seems like security ones. Didnt seem like they did their job.
I walked towards a couple, ready to wire. After a couple dozen I decided I wanted to paint them.
"Where oh where is the paint." I mumbled as I walked the halls, until I finally saw some in a room. All six colors.
"Thank you." I grabbed three buckets in each hand and a brush in my mouth. I know that's low, Im just desperate.
As I walked back into the Security Bot room I started to paint some bots in rainbow order. As I got to purple one, the loudspeaker came on, saying the Gortys Project was starting.
"Shit!' I told Blue as I sat up from my seat.
"You guys stay here. I have to go but I'll definitely be back to this facility." I told them as they beeped and I ran out the door.
As I was running to the foyer I pulled out by two swords and put up my mask. "Shit shit shit." I mumbled as the alarms turned on and security bots ran past me, into the foyer, some of them stopping at me.
"Step out of my way!" I said as I started to cut through them like paper. After I cut through the last one I then ran out to the foyer, hell breaking loose.
I cut through a lot of those bots, one after one after one. As I was about to cut through a group of security robots a boulder fell on them. I looked to where it came from to see Rhys, Fiona, Sasha, and Fiona flying out on LB. Then I got hit with a laser.
Shit.
"I shot so many of you today! Do you want to be another number?" I yelled at them as they beeped away.
I looked to see Vasquez and August running outside. Get back here you Jackass Assquez.
I walked up the ramp in Decepti0n, sneaking up on everyone outside, including an old lady. "Wait, where's that scary lady? She was with Rhys and Vaughn before." Vasquez said alarmed.
"Hey Jackass!" I said as I got out of Decepti0n and pulled out my gun. Everyone looked surprised that I was there.
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