//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Midgets take Manehattan part 1 // Story: Borderlands 2 DLC: Vault of the Consular // by NightStream //------------------------------// “God Dammit Torgue…” Lilith groaned as the loud outburst from the macho man who founded the Torgue Corporation still continued to echo throughout the hallway. The last thing that she wanted to do was remind Roland, who she somehow found out was actually alive, of when Jack killed him. Now though, the siren thought that the statement would open up old wounds. Instead though… it just seemed to confuse the soldier more than anything else. “Um, mind filling me in on who Torgue is?” Roland responded “He’s… well…” Lilith took a deep breath before looking back at him. “You remember the Torgue Corporation? They deal with explosive weapons like… well, the only example I could remember was the Undertaker, Friendly Fire, Bastard, and that one weapon that Jaynis Kobb had called the Meat Grinder.” “Don’t forget about the Cobra.” Mordecai spoke up. “Yeah, that too…” Lilith replied back. “Well, Mr. Torgue… and yes, ‘Mr. Torgue’ is actually his first name, was the owner of the Torgue Corporation. However, he did not make himself known until Tannis found another vault on Pandora.” “Wait… there was a third vault on Pandora?” Roland then had to put a hand to his head to understand this. “Don’t tell there are somehow more on Pandora, we went through enough sh*t already with the first vault.” “Yeah… about that…” Mordecai said, before explaining something to him. “Turns out, there’s a whole load of other vaults on a variety of different planets… We only found that out when Lilith tried to use her powers to get rid of the key… but instead, it showed us where a lot more of them were.” “As for the third vault…” Lilith soon interjected to take the conversation back. “It did not have any monsters or anything and had loot, but according to Tannis, the vault could only be opened if the strongest warrior on Pandora feeds it the blood of the ultimate coward… And that was where Torgue came in… because he actually set up a huge deathmatch tournament to try and determine who’s the number one badass… and of course, Gaige and the others came out on top in that. So you don’t need to worry about it.” “Well, I guess that takes a load off my mind about that. For some reason it doesn’t surprise me that there are more vaults out there, it just didn’t seem as if there was only one out there.” Roland just shook his head with a smile. “Damn, you all had a lot of adventures without me huh?” “Well, it’s mostly the new guys…” Mordecai added. “But, in all seriousness Roland, it’s not all fun and games here… I mean… with what’s happened tonight, the least we could do is make sure that everyone’s on the same page. Because if we’re going to be seeing any more of those Guardians again, we should all at least know what is going on.” Lilith nodded at that. “I agree… What do you think, Brick?” “I think I need to go and find me one of those things and use it as a punching bag.” Brick says while cracking his knuckles. “I missed out on some fun, but that’s for later. Right now we need to see if more vault key pieces are around.” That had the siren realize something as she looked back at Roland. “And yes… there’s a vault here. And instead of three pieces for the key, there’s six. One is attached to Axton’s forearm.” “Seriously? Its stuck on him?” is all Roland can say to that, then just shrugged. “I guess that's how it works here.” “True…” Lilith replied back. “Though, since those Guardians went after Axton, my only thought would be that they would want to take it from him… The only question I have though is why they went after Gaige-?” “Someone called my name?” They all heard the Mechromancer, who was in her unicorn form now, speak up. “Oh… um… I’m not interrupting anything now, am I?” “Um… why are you-” “It’s how it works here, don’t ask anymore than that.” Axton said with a flat tone while taking off his band then putting it back on. “Alright then.” Roland simply said. “Anyways… Twilight was going to ask if we were ready to go back to Ponyville,” She said, before looking to Roland. “Plus, it would probably give Roland here the chance to gear up now that Torgue sent that supply drop pod a few days ago.” When Roland tilted his head a little, seeming confused, that was when Gaige began to explain to her. “It’s a contraption that allows for us to access Zed’s Clinic, Marcus’ Munitions and Guns, plus being able to access the vault back in Sanctuary without having to wait for it to arrive like most packages you buy on the EchoNET.” “That’s… awfully convenient. Wait, this planet-” “Roland, let me tell you personally... “ Axton began and heaved a giant sigh “Don’t try and add logic to this place, it’s way easier on the mind if you don’t, trust me on that.” Roland tried to continue what he was saying, but Axton just kept shaking his head no, trying to have him drop his train of thought. “Yeah Roland, we ended up here through magical bullsh*t not how the way Mr. Torgue sent his supply drop.” “I keep hearing more and more things that shouldn’t be possible, yet I keep getting proven wrong.” Roland simply said as he rubbed his forehead. “Give it some time, you might get used to it…” Gaige chuckled, before looking to Axton. Axton rolled his eyes and mumbles. “Yeah sure, it’s all sunshine and rainbows and all that sh*t” Brick caught that comment and chuckles as he slaps Axton on the shoulder, hard. “Come on Axton, it’s not that bad.” “I’m not saying it’s bad, just saying I don’t want to get used to it.” Axton replied to Brick’s own comment. “Anyways… Twilight told us that the train will be leaving for Ponyville soon,” Gaige said, before looking back at Roland. “And yes, that’s the town’s name. Don’t ask… So we’ll all be having to go soon. Don’t mind Tina though, she’s just sitting on top of ClapTrap and making him go nuts.” “HELP!! SOMEONE GET THIS DIABOLICAL PONY DEMON OFF OF MY CHASSIS!!!!” They all heard the robot scream while Tina was on top of it’s head and acting like she was on an amusement park ride. “Heh, at least she is having fun.” Roland said as he heard that. “Try telling that to ClapTrap… he thinks that the ponies turned us into this and that we serve a evil princess overlord,” The mechromancer sighed, before galloping to the door. Leaving Axton with the original Vault Hunters as she went to go chase Tina and ClapTrap. “But enough about that. We gotta catch up with Maya and the others at the Station. See you later!” “Come on Slabs, let’s get going.” Brick said as he left to head towards the Train station. “Well, I guess this is one hell of a journey I’ve come back too.” Roland said with a smile on his face. Soon enough Axton was left on his own, wondering what he was going to do now. “Anyway, hey Ro-” Axton then finally noticed no else is around. “OH COME THE F*CK ON, REALLY?!?” Which… only left him with some awkward stares from the ponies that were just coming back in the room. The Following Day When it comes to Pandora, Vault Hunters don’t normally have the luxury of being able to sleep a full on eight hours like how most people would. Normally, that’s because of the fact that bandits could attack at any moment, day or night… but there were two exceptions to that. One, ClapTrap could probably wake someone up with him reciting the newest dubstep song that he wrote. Or Two, Tannis just happened to make a major discovery that she needed to inform everyone about at their inconvenience. And unfortunately, this morning was no exception… because just as the sun began to rise, the vault hunters didn’t have the luxury of a rooster waking them up. They instead had a partially crazy scientist who sounded like if Twilight had a Ph.D, was insanely smart and did not care about other people. Gaige herself had tried to ignore it… but when she did finally wake up, that was when she found Lilith, Axton and a couple others with Twilight as they looked to her. “Ugh… Morning… D-did I miss anything…?” “Other than Tannis waking us all up in order to try and tell us something important,” Lilith said. “But upon hearing about Roland she’s… well, she’s been saying the word ‘Impossible’ now for the last two minutes…” Turning the volume up on her ECHO device, she let the Mechromancer begin to listen in. “Impossible! Impossible… Impossible? No, no, that’s just downright impossible! Why would something so impossible like this happen in such an impossible place?” “It was not something I appreciated hearing this morning, but knowing Tannis, she doesn’t care.” Axton said as he rubbed his head. “What… exactly was she supposed to be talking to us about?” Gaige then asked. “Turns out, she was trying to figure out some kind of plan in order to help us track down the other key pieces. But when Brick said that he was going to get Roland… I think you may know the rest.” Lilith explained. “And here we I thought he would’ve been subtle about that, but nope.” Axton then said. “Technically, us being in our normal bodies already makes us stand out like a sore thumb.” Gaige added. “Besides the fact we look like our normal selves, You think he wouldn’t have said anything about Roland around others from Pandora.” “HEY!! I didn’t think Tannis would be listening in that well.” Brick chimed in. “This is Tannis you’re talking about, she always listens that well…” Gaige added. “Umm… Shouldn’t we actually listen to what she has to tell us?” Twilight spoke up as she looked at the other vault hunters. “That depends… Is Tannis back to being herself?” The Mechromancer asked, shortly before hearing the voice of the scientist on the other end of the ECHO. “Hello…? Are any of you still listening? I’ve been hearing you all mindlessly ramble on for the last five minutes and it’s making me want to vomit more than when I am being forced to participate in social interactions with other people.” “Yeah, that sounds like her…” Lilith replied back. “Well then, Tannis what did you want to tell us?” Axton then said. “About time!” They hear her say, before clearing her throat. “I hate it when I have to wait on others in order to tell them about my intellectual discoveries… Anywho, I’ve been trying to come up with a tracking system in order to help you find the rest of the remaining pieces of the vault key you are looking for.” Gaige looked to Axton for a moment, before looking back at her ECHO device as she then spoke up. “A tracking system? What kind?” “I think that’s a bit of a redundant question given the circumstances.” “Well, what have you got so far then?” Axton said. “Also, how many books did you have to go through anyway?” “After looking through numerous ECHO libraries, records and… ugh, research blogs… I’ve created a tracking system that informs you if the presence of a vault key piece is nearby. This was created using the energy from not just the key itself, but also the energy found in eridium. I’m sending the application to the ECHO devices of Maya, Gaige, Salvador, Krieg and Zer0.” “Why not Axton?” Gaige then asked. “Because of the fact that he already has one, energy from another vault key piece and the one he already had would conflict with each other. Especially since I believe how this works is one part per vault hunter.” Tannis clarified. “Well at least that makes it easier on me.” Axton then turned toward Twilight. “Well at least you can get your books back.” “Yeah… That’s a good thing at least.” Twilight nodded her head. “Despite how complicated it was to believe that such a different species would actually be able to help me on this, I find the research you present quite… informative.” Tannis then added. “I… think that was a compliment?” “Coming from Tannis, that was a compliment. Trust me on this, she rarely, if ever, gives them out.” Axton said to Twilight. “I heard that.” They heard the scientist groan. “So, did you find anything?” Gaige then asked. “Well, so far I have been matching only a few signals and the only thing I’m getting is something to the northeast of your present location. In a huge urban area…” The scientist then added. “Hey Twilight, what’s to the northeast of here?” Axton asked. “Only thing I can think of is Manehattan.” The Alicorn replied back, scratching her chin with a hoof. “It’s a big civilian area with a lot of shops and destinations for tourists.” “Great, the next place we need to go to is a god damn city. Sounds like a game of who can find it first.” Axton commented. “Hey it can’t be that bad.” Brick then said. “Yeah, knowing our luck it could be in a f*cking museum on display and then we would have to wonder how the hell to get it out of there.” Axton grumbled. “Hopefully this place would not be like Opportunity.” Gaige grumbled. “Same… Even though it was fun to make those home videos.” Lilith chuckled. “Those were a blast to make, but I really don’t want to be another Opportunity. That’s one of the things I don’t want to happen again.” Axton said. It was around that time that Gaige soon happened to notice Twilight talking with one of her friends outside. The fashionista named Rarity. And there was one detail that she overheard that really caught her attention. “You’re going to Manehattan?” “I was invited to come see Coco Pommel and some of the work that she has been doing, but I’m unsure if I should go because of all the craziness recently. I mean, with the attack from those things the night before and that mechanical monster as well, it’s almost as if barely anywhere could be seen as safe nowadays.” That… had a bit of a lightbulb emerge in Gaige’s head as she walked over to where Rarity and Twilight were. “If it’s protection you need, I can help.” “R-really?” Rarity said, shocked to see Gaige out of the blue before looking around. “Are you sure that you don’t have anything else that you need to be doing today?” “Well, one of our friends back where we are from-” “I’m not a friend.” Tannis interjected. “-said that something we’re looking for is in Manehattan,” Gaige finished, ignoring the offshoot comment by the wacky scientist. “So, some of us can come along… as long as we aren’t used as models for dress up. We don’t want another incident regarding the ‘tux’ shirt that Brick had.” The last part she said with a bit of caution in her voice, just so she did not happen to mess things up on accident. “I… see that as reasonable,” Rarity replied. “As long as you don’t do anything embarrassing, I’m fine with it.” “You say that now, but don’t be surprised if it comes back to bite you.” Axton comments as he gets ready. “I know for a fact that I will NOT be grabbing this piece of the key.” “You don’t have to come along if you don’t want to.” Gaige added. “Oh, just because I’m not going to grab the piece doesn’t mean I won’t come with.” Axton then rolled his shoulder. “Besides, there might be more of those guardians there as well so we would need more.” “And just when I thought he would be appreciative of taking a break from the craziness…” Gaige thought to herself. “Come on now… After how we kicked their ass last time? Highly doubt it.” Axton then stopped for a couple seconds comprehending what she said. “Well, can’t blame you there. But hey just in case.” “Sure…” Gaige replied back, rolling her eyes before looking back to Rarity. “So, when do we leave?” “Do you want to leave now or wait and get some stuff ready?” Axton asked. “Oh, I’m ready whenever you are, darling.” Rarity replied back, even going as far as winking at Axton. “Uh… alright then I’m ready right now so we can leave now.” Axton hesitantly said. “Anyone else want to come along? Maybe Brick or Lilith?” Gaige asked. Before Axton got a word out, Brick answered for him. “You know, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I wanna come with, see the sights and all that.” “If you don’t smack someone first.” Axton muttered. “Oh you wanna be a volunteer for that?” Brick said with a smile on his face. “Heh, but only if they deserve it or piss me off.” “Well, it would be better than just sitting around and doing nothing.” Lilith then added. “So yeah, I think it is safe to say we are all ready to go then.” Axton said after that. “Splendid! I’ll go get the tickets.” Rarity said, trotting out of Twilight’s castle with the four vault hunters behind her as her… entourage, so to speak. Manehattan “Wow… this definitely does not look like Opportunity at all.” The Mechromancer said upon first stepping out of the train and having a look at Manehattan. “Yeah no kidding, this just seems… I don’t know kinda normalish in a way.” Axton commented afterward. “That’s because this is normal, darling,” Rarity soon spoke up as she approached the two of them from behind. Saddlebag on her back as Brick and Lilith were following them. “I’m not sure what this Opportunity that you speak of is, but Manehattan is nothing like that. “She’s got a point… At least we don’t need to make any home videos with one of Moxxi’s camera’s here.” Lilith snickered, before adding onto it. “Or blow stuff up.” “Yeah well, even though this place is normal, just looking at it gives me vibes of when I was back home on Eden-5 and the last time I was there, I had to evade arrest when Deathtrap accidentally blew up my former rival at school and I got a one way ticket to Pandora in order to get out of there.” The mechromancer told them, just as the five of them were beginning to walk away from the train station and begin to follow Rarity. Who just happened to have a few questions for Gaige regarding what she just said. “Uh dear… what do you mean by ‘accidentally’ blowing something up?” “Yeah, blowing someone up does not sound like something that would happen on accident.” The siren added as they took a left and began to walk down the street. Passing through some shops on the way over. “Well, originally, I was there for the science fair that was going on and I was showing DT as my entry for it. However, some snub named Marcie just happened to bribe the judges and have me go in third place. What made things worse was that she was the one who tried to rip off my designs,” The Mechromancer explained, groaning a bit as she recalled what happened. “After the fair though… that was when Marcie did the last mistake she could ever make.” That had Lilith raise an eyebrow as she looked back at Brick and Axton. “What would that be?” “Pushing me… and in doing that, Deathtrap identified her as a hostile,” She replied back. “I thought I had it’s claws set to stun in order to pacify targets, but instead, a miscalibration lead to Marcie exploding all over the place… including onto her parents. I tried telling them that it was an accident, but it lead to me getting expelled and then arrested for doing that. Luckily, my dad made a distraction involving a golf cart and a lot of gasoline and I was able to hitch a shuttle to Pandora… and ironically, it was the same one where I met Axton, Maya, Zero and all the other Vault Hunters.” “So that’s how you ended up being with them.” Lilith spoke up, now understanding what Gaige was saying. “I was quite curious as to how the six of you all ended up together in the first place.” “Well, we didn’t really ask each other why we were on the transport then… and the only thing I know is that Krieg looked to have been going on a joyride,” Gaige shrugged. “But perhaps we can talk more about that later. Where was it that your friend lived at, Rarity?” “Not far over. Just a couple more blocks.” The unicorn told the vault hunters that were with her as they reached what looked like a rather luxurious apartment complex as they trotted on inside… Even though Brick was originally stuck in the door and the only way that it was possible to pull him through was for Gaige to use her magic. “Thanks for that, now I have to say this is kinda more fancy to my liking.” Brick commented when they got inside. “Yeah because where you lived before you moved back into Sanctuary was basically a canyon.” “At least this place was not like the Helio’s station, that’s for sure.” Lilith said to herself as they walked towards what looked like a set of elevators. Ones that were actually big enough to fit all five of them without getting too crammed in there. Upon entering, Rarity herself hit the button for the fifth floor as the elevator soon went up. Upon reaching the floor of their destination, the doors parted open and everypony was able to step out. “Alright… let’s see,” Rarity said to herself, looking at what looked some kind of small notebook that she was holding with her magic before closing it. “Fifth floor… room 48. Should be over here.” Upon hearing that was when Rarity went to the right, followed by Axton, Brick and Lilith. Gaige however… still found herself looking around and after a bit, realized that everypony else disappeared. “Oh come on, seriously?” The Mechromancer groaned, hearing hoofsteps from the other end of the hall and galloping down the hallway to catch up. “Hmm, Gaige, did you seriously get lost in here?” Axton said as he cracked a smile. “What? I always like to look at my surroundings. We do it all the time when we look around and open crates for ammo and such,” The mechromancer snapped. “Not to mention that sometimes we get the occasional loot midgets.” That herself had Rarity stop for a moment, before looking at Gaige with a raised eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but what was that I heard about midgets?” “Well… back on Pandora, they’re smaller versions of the typical bandits and psychos that we normally come across, but are just as crazy,” Lilith tried to clarify for the unicorn. “The one that Gaige was referring to are the kinds of midgets that sneak into crates, chests, lockers, dumpsters, cardboard boxes. You name it, they can hide in it.” “Oh… that just sounds rather disturbing… I mean, having yourself hide in there for who knows how long until some unfortunate soul opens it up. That must drive them crazy.” “Technically, they were already crazy to begin with.” Gaige corrected her, before noticing something at the end of the hallway. Which caused her to speak up as she pointed out one of the door in the hallway that had the number 48 boldly emblazoned on the plaque that was there. “Would this happen to be your friends place?” The unicorn soon turned to notice the door that she was pointing out to her, before nodding as her expression changed almost instantaneously. “Why yes it is! Hang on just a minute…” Rarity chimed, knocking on the door with a hoof as she waited for the mare inside to come to the door and open it. As the door opened, Gaige soon saw the pony that she believed was this ‘Coco Pommel’ that Rarity had mentioned earlier. A cream colored earth pony who’s mane and tail were two different shades of light blue and her cutie mark looked like that of a lavender hat. Her eyes also matched that of her hair as she was wearing what looked like some kind of lavender sailor collar with a crimson tie and a tri shaped mane clip on the back of her head. “Oh hello Rarity,” The mare replied calmly, before noticing Gaige… and her metal arm. “Um… who-?” “Oh right, I almost forgot,” Rarity replied back, before motioning a hoof to Gaige and a few other of the Vault Hunters. “These are some new… friends of ours that have been staying in Ponyville recently. Everypony, this is Coco Pommel. Coco, this is Gaige.” “Yo.” Gaige introduced herself, and caused Lilith to roll her eyes. “Lilith.” “Sup?” The siren was next to introduce herself to Coco, just before Rarity turned to Axton and Brick. “And these two are Axton and Brick.” “Hi there.” Axton said while Brick just nods his head. “H-hello,” Coco mumbled, almost caught off guard by how huge Brick was compared to everypony else. “W-would you like to come inside?” “Don’t mind if I do.” Brick said as he tried to go inside, only to roll his eyes and take off his band to turn back into a pony. After he did so, which he barely was able to get in, Axton followed right behind. Gaige and Lilith still maintained their pony forms as they were able to easily trot on through the door without any problems. “F-feel free to make yourselves at home.” Coco offered, looking at her guests as there were still a few more boxes and other things scattered around. “I still haven’t had the chance to unpack after moving here…” It was then that they also heard the sound of what was supposedly a tea kettle whistling on top of the stove as the earth pony rushed over to turn it off. “Would you like some tea? Maybe something to eat?” “Just some tea for me.” Axton said, only to receive a questioning look from Brick. “What, I drink tea as well sometimes.” “Never thought of you to be the gentlemanly type. I would only think Hammerlock would be the kind of person who would drink tea.” Gaige chuckled, while also noticing Lilith roll her eyes. “What? You have to admit, for being a huntsman and an archeologist with a metal arm, he does act like a gentleman.” “You mean gentlecolt?” Rarity asked. “Tomato, tomato, they both mean the same thing.” Gaige shrugged as she looked at Axton. The mechromancer used this opportunity as a chance to look around the small apartment to see if there seemed to be anything… out of the ordinary to her. “Looking for anything in particular there Gaige?” Brick asked as he tried to find a place to sit. “No, I’m just looking around… Coco did say to make ourselves at home.” She told the slab in response. “That I did…” Coco then spoke up, finishing with pouring the tea into cups as she brought them over to Axton. Rarity herself also helped, given how holding things using magic was far much easier than trying to carry it by hoof and mouth. “Here you go, sir.” “Thanks.” Axton then took a drink of the tea as Brick still shook his head as he finally found a place to sit… not to mention the fact that it did not break under him when he sat down (like most of the feeble chairs in sanctuary). Gaige herself… just thought that they were having tea without it being a party and without Tiny Tina. “So Rarity, why were you visiting Coco anyway?” Axton asked when he wasn’t drinking his tea. “Well, the two of were going to talk about a few things regarding the boutique and some other things, but I was a little bit surprised to hear about the new apartment.” Rarity added. “T-thanks… Though, there were a lot of boxes that the last owner had in here, some that I haven’t had the chance to move out.” Coco replied back to her. While they were talking though, Gaige was personally looking around as she was trying to have a look around. Yet… as she came across one particular room, the tracking system on her ECHO device began to pick up something. “Wait… Here of all places? How in the world could it be here?” She thought, taking a moment to look around as she found more and more boxes spread out everywhere she looked. In the back of the room though, that was when she saw something… odd. It looked like a chest, one that seemed to have been locked with a key. And as Gaige stepped forward, her hoof came into contact with a possible key. The closer she got to the chest, the stronger the signal on her ECHO was. And by the time that she was unlocking the lock, it was going off like crazy. “This… feels almost WAY too easy… Why do I get the feeling like this is some sort of-” The top of the chest immediately sprung open, knocking Gaige back as she fell onto the floor. “... trap.” Shaking her head, she soon had a look at what the hell just sprung out of the chest and she was surprised by what it was. A loot midget… and on the back of it’s pack, it was a piece of the key. “Oh hell…” “Hey Gaige wha- WHAT THE SH*T!?” Axton yelled as the Midget ran out of the room, somehow in pony form, yelling in pyshco speak and laughing manically. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL STANDING AROUND FOR, GET THE F*CKER!!!” Brick said as he ran out of the room after the midget, also laughing with glee.