Once Gaige heard the voice of someone that she thought for a fact was dead, multiple possibilities went through her head as to why Roland of all people would be here. Several of them involved it being an illusion or some kind of trick, but others made her think of the ECHOnet films with someone yelling 'It's a trap!' in the background just when you think that they were going to get a happy ending. Yet, she couldn't exactly think straight given the current situation. She was more focused on these guardians and the likelihood that they wanted to kidnap both her and Axton. Something that she wasn't going to allow. Not by a longshot.
Luckily enough, she remember to add a few of the weapons that just so happened to fall into her hands when Tannis had them go through Digistruct Peak. One such weapon... was the Butcher. A Hyperion Shotgun with a insanely fast fire rate and the potential possibility of regenerating ammo as fast as the amount of ammo she would use. Which was useful in the sense that the fire rate was quick enough to blast off the face of the guardian that was trying to kidnap her. Once on her feet, the Mechromancer called upon Deathtrap to make sure that she had someone to watch her back. "Klaatu Barada Nikto!"
"Gaige, what the hell is going on? We're getting commotion over here about crazy aliens and what not." She heard Maya over her ECHO device.
"Yeah, remember when we were all told about those eridian guardians by Athena? Well, several of them showed up to try and kidnap Axton and I." Gaige told her as she fired another round at an approaching Eridian guardian. "Just keep everyone and don't-"
"BIENVENIDOS A LA FIESTA, AMIGOS!!!"
"-tell Salvador." She sighed, before hearing the sound of twin Unkempt Harolds firing at rapid speeds. "You know what, screw what I said before. Have the princesses calm everypony else down and get the hell over here now!!"
"Anything else you want to add to that?" The sirens question had the Mechromancer thinking for a moment before Gaige decided to speak.
"Yeah, don't flip out once you see who else is over here. I don't even know what the hell is going on at this rate." Gaige said before putting her ECHO away. She knew that everyone in one form or another were going to lose their minds once they find out that Roland was somehow here. But her main focus right now is trying to defend herself...
And have fun while doing it as a bullet ricocheted off one of the statue's in Celestia's garden and resulted in a headshot to a guardian Axton was fighting. "DOINK!!"
"I got some for EVERBODY!!!" Axton yelled out as he swapped to his shredifier and started unloading the magazine into any guardian he saw.
"Be careful not to get too enthusiastic there Vault Hunter." Roland casually called out while standing at his back taking pot shots at Guardians in his line of sight.
"Yeah, yeah." Doing his best not to whip around and ask Roland a very glaring question at the front of his mind.
"Come at me, jokers! The fun's just getting started!" Gaige shouted at the incoming guardians while switching weapons to her Unkempt Harold. Even though she did not see one stray guardian that tried to catch her off guard... another vault hunter did.
"Fear me, bitches!!"
"Nice timing, Maya!!"
One of the Guardians that stayed back and watched could growl out in frustration.
"Retreat, this is a lost cause for now. "All the Guardians in Canterlot stop and start teleporting out. "This is only the first wave, Hunters. " Then the Guardian teleported out.
"Yeah keep running you little Bitches!" Axton shouted, which, caused the Mechromancer and the rest of the Commando's teammates to catch up with him after everything that had just happened.
Yet, before she could say anything to him, Roland or anyone else... Gaige began to feel a little bit exhausted and also sleepy. Which, in turn, lead to her saying one last thing before passing out. "You guys go ahead... I need to take five... uhh."
"Gaige, are you alright-?" Maya asked, before her fellow vault hunter passed out on the ground.
"I guess that took a lot out of her, somehow." Axton commented.
"While that may be true, can either of you explain where I am?" Roland asked for Maya or Axton to explain.
"That... May be a lot to explain... and you might not believe most of it." Maya replied, personally wanting to add on and say how she didn't believe that Roland was not dead, but decided to restrain herself.
"Well, that may be easier than you may think considering the last thing I remember is getting shot in back and now I am here without a bullet wound in my chest." Roland said while cautiously rubbing the area where he got shot. "But care to give a brief explanation before getting into a more detailed version."
"Well, to put it simply for now, we are on a new planet where we got summoned to because a vault appeared here and the locals are all ponies." Axton simply told him.
"That... I don't really know how I'm supposed to react to that." Roland said in disbelief.
"Trust me... Lilith and the others thought the same thing... But Tina's taking it well... oddly enough." Maya added on.
"Wait, Tina's here?" Roland said in shock.
"AW MAN!! I MISSED ALL THE FUN!!!" They all heard Tina shout... seconds before seeing Roland and tackling him to the ground in utter joy. "ROLY POLY!!!"
"Wait... Her nickname for you is... Roly Poly?" Maya asked, sounding rather surprised to hear that.
Roland just lets out a small sigh and chuckles. "Yeah, that's her nickname for me." As he then gets up and puts her on his shoulders.
"Well, whatever works for her I guess." Axton comments. That soon lead to Maya noticing the other vault hunters coming over... and then Twilight and her friends as well. And when Roland saw Lilith... the first thing that the siren did...
Was slap him in the face. "You have a LOT of explaining to do..."
"Lilith, calm down just a moment..."
"Calm down? First I hear that Guardians were coming out of nowhere and trying to kidnap you two and now I find out that my thought to be dead boyfriend is still somehow alive!" The siren snapped as Maya looked back at both of them.
"Look, even he doesn't know how he ended up here, so just calm down a moment..."
"Yeah, Lily!! With Roly Poly and everyone else here, we got the ENTIRE FAMILY!!" Tina declared as her wings extended forth and a shower of sparkles were released from her horn. Just causing Maya to facepalm herself in response.
"Right..." The siren replied for a moment. Yet, as she motioned her left arm to where Gaige's metal arm would be, that was when she noticed that her tattoo's were beginning to glow. "O... kay, that's never happened before. My arm's never reacted to her like that, not even on Pandora."
"Seriously? That's just... weird." Lilith then said. "Whatever the case, you three are going to need to explain to the princess' why you had a series of guardian corpses drop all over her outdoor garden faster than when shooting at Rakk."
That was when Axton, Maya and Roland looked to see Princess Celestia... who was standing next to Salvador of all people... staring at the carnage that stood before her with extremely wide eyes, one that was twitching as well, as she was trying to show some form of non existent restraint. "Explanation... NOW!!!!!"
"Aw shi-"
For the Mechromancer, she personally can't think straight right now with the inside of her head pounding like crazy. However, when she woke up, it wasn't in the Princess' gardens... but in a densely populated forest. Something in which looked very disturbing and had the makeup of a low budget ECHO horror film. "Ugh... Why can't I just have an aspirin and go on with life like a normal person?" she groaned, trying to make sense of where she was while her head continued to hurt.
Farther ahead though, she saw what looked to be a soft light. Something in which helped her see what was in the darkness... and something that Gaige began to follow. "Over here... This way..."
"O... kay, why am I getting Bunkers and Badasses flashback's now?" She asked herself, but decided to follow anyways since she had no other options at this point. As she followed the light though, she found herself appearing in the same place that Axton had found the first piece of the vault key here. But things were awfully quiet. No strange noises or anything.
"Thank you for believing me... However, this isn't the end of your journey just yet."
"Wait... Are you-?" Before Gaige could even speak though, a bright flash of light went off, blinding her instantly as she tried to make sense of what was happening in that moment.
It was after this that Gaige woke up with a startled gasp as she tried to make sense of what she had just seen… as well as make sense of where exactly she was right now. Everything seemed... unfamiliar. Especially with the amount of books that were in the room that she woke up in. "Okay... did someone forget to take me to an infirmary and took me to their library instead?"
"You're actually in my old room." The Mechromancer turned around to see Twilight at the door as she looked back at her. "I'm glad to see your okay... Lilith and Maya were a bit worried for you after you passed out."
"Seriously? Why would they be worried? I think they both know I could handle myself." The Mechromancer replied back.
"Honestly, I don't know... Everyone's still a bit surprised about what happened, including your friend Axton," She replied, before sighing for a moment. "At least everything's over for now."
That... had Gaige raise an eyebrow in response. "Wait... For now? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Axton said that the guardians that retreated mentioned something about this being only a first wave. Something that is still mind boggling in itself." That... only caused Gaige to groan even more at the sound of that, confusing Twilight. "What?"
"Twilight, that just only means that there"s going to be more of those freaks showing up later. A wave of guardians is another way of saying a pack of timberwolves." She told the alicorn. "Where the hell is Axton?"
"I can go get him for you if you like..." That soon lead to Twilight leaving for a moment... before Gaige soon heard the Commando sounding like he was getting dragged through a hallway.
"YOU KNOW I CAN DO THIS MYSELF JUST FINE!!!" Axton yelled out. "I DON'T NEED THIS SH*T FROM YOU AS WELL!!"
"Good to see that you are awake as ever." Gaige replied with a chuckle.
Axton then looked toward Gaige. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway how are you feeling, you were out for a few hours."
"Fine... Wait, hold up. A few hours!?!" Gaige snapped. "How the buck was I out for that long?!"
"Well right after the Guardians left you just became exhausted and passed out." Axton said calmly. "Then we brought you here to rest up, Got Roland caught up with all that happened since his death and apparent rebirth, and got bitched out by Celestia. Man I can still feel some ringing in my ears." He then started to rub his ears.
"Well, you're not going to like what I have to say then..." The Mechromancer sighed. "That attack that happened last night... it's only the first."
"Yeah I figured that already." Axton then brought out his piece of the key. "I think it would be safe to say they were after me because of this and we can expect them either coming after us or guarding the rest of the pieces." Axton then looks at Gaige. "However that doesn't explain why they were after you."
"Honestly, I'm not sure why either..." She sighed, before thinking to herself. "But I might know one possible reason... one in which he wouldn't really believe at all."
"Well we might be able to find that out in the future. But for now, you good to walk?" Axton asked as he got up and waited by the door.
"Yeah, I think so." She replied back, getting up from the bed. "How"s everyone taking the whole... well... Roland situation?"
"In their own way. Tina's overjoyed and Lilith, well she is taking somewhat well." Axton sighed heavily, before letting out a smile. "But overall they are happy he is back."
"Well, we'll need all the help we could get if we're going to find the rest of those vault key pieces..." The Mechromancer sighed. "And when I meant everyone, I also meant Tannis."
Axton just lets a big smile at that. "As much as this might bite me in the ass later, I can't wait to see how she will react when she gets here."
"If she gets here..." Gaige reminded him. "Right now, the situation's not too extreme to the point that we need her to be right here with us... also, her social etiquette would not work well in Ponyville since she doesn't do well with conversations."
"Good point, and now there is only one other person who still needs to meet Roland, Gaige you still have Mr. Torgue on the ECHO?" Axton asked her as they were walking.
"Yeah, I probably do. He self added himself on my contacts and he's in my call history on my ECHO."
Mentally preparing himself Axton simply said. "Call him." Gaige nodded, doing so for a moment before they heard another voice shout on the line.
"SWEETIE! IT'S YOUR ECHO DEVICE!!"
"HOLD ON, GRANDMA! I'M ALMOST THERE!!!"
"Uuuh, I know I shouldn't question that, but yet why does his Grandma have his ECHO?" Axton simply said.
"Maybe he's visiting his Grandma's house?" Gaige asked, shrugging for a moment.
"OH HEY GUYS!! I WAS WANTING TO SEE HOW YOU WERE DOING, BUT MY GRANDMA NEEDED SOME HELP WITH HER BRIDGE GROUP AT HER RETIREMENT HOME!! AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE F**K BRIDGE IS!!!" They heard Mr. Torgue shout as his voice echoed throughout the hallway. "ANYWAYS, HOW ARE YOU DOING?!!"
"We're doing good Mr. Torgue, just we have some news for you, and it would best if you are sitting down when we tell you."
"Yeah, what we need to say may surprise you." Gaige added.
"OH COME ON NOW! BARELY ANYTHING IS SURPRISING TO ME!!!"
Meanwhile...
"So the old team is back together... just like old times." Mordecai spoke up as he looked back at Brick and Roland. "I would question how this is happening... but then again, there's a lot of things we aren't understanding right now."
Roland then goes over to Mordecai. "Hey Mordecai, I have to ask this why don't you smell like Rakk Ale as much?"
That had the hunter chuckling a bit before he answered his friends question. "Well... after we took down that Handsome son of a bitch, I happened to find an egg that was of the same species of bird as Bloodwing. I named him Talon and since I'm raising him like he's my own kid, I thought I would give up on drinking so I could be a good role model for him."
"Heh, well I have to say good for you."
"Yeah true, but then how long until you start drinking again?" Brick chuckles.
"Well right now, I'm trying to be sober and stay that way Brick. Even Moxxi's in support of the change." Mordecai replied back. "Though, she didn't want me bringing Talon into her bar after he started trying to tear out her customer's hair."
"I hope you can stay sober then Mordecai. Still though, it feels a little weird being back and all, mainly on this planet I mean, not of course seeing you guys." Roland awkwardly says.
"Well, it's good to have you back," Lilith replied with a smile. "At least no one else is going overboard on this-"
Of course... that was followed by hearing a familiar voice boom all the way across the hall. "WHAT THE F**K DO YOU MEAN THAT YOUR FRIEND IS ALIVE!!? HE GOT SHOT BY THAT F**KING, NO GOOD, C**K S***** HYPERION D**KWAFFLE!!!!"
Which... only left Lilith with saying something else to finish her sentence. "God dammit, Torgue..."