//------------------------------// // Chapter 30: Breakout // Story: Borderlands 2 DLC: Vault of the Consular // by NightStream //------------------------------// Starlight could only let out a deep breath as she watched everything that was playing out. She was thankful for Shining Armor’s help on the matter and that he could keep the town safe. But what came afterwards was going to be the hardest part of the plan. Right from the get go, Gaige’s part in all of this was to have Jack’s attention be focused specifically on her. Even with a mechanical army and several pegasi from the Wonderbolts acting as aerial support, it wasn’t going to be enough if Jack happened to have some unseen tricks up his sleeve. So, it fell on her and a couple others with her to handle another side to the plan. For Gaige’s full on assault was the perfect cover to try and sneak in… and get everyone else that was already held captive out. And unlike with the changeling kingdom, there weren't any sort of problems that prevented them from using magic. At least, as far as they knew. As they got closer, it didn’t take long for them to try and find where they might be. Because as they got closer, they heard the voices of two things. Angry and irritated psychopaths… and a particular commando trying to pick a verbal fight with said psychos. “I THINK YOU MEAN YOU ARE GOING TO DIE TODAY, NOT TOMORROW!!” “NO NEED TO SHOUT!!” “I’M NOT SHOUTING, I’M YELLING!!” “WHY ARE YOU YELLING?!” “I WANT TO USE MY OUTSIDE VOICE!” “STOP LOOKING AT ME!” Such a conversation was enough to throw everypony that was coming in off guard, “Starlight, is that…?” “Where the rest of Gaige’s friends happen to be?” the unicorn sighed, before looking at Trixie, “That’s a yes.” “So, what exactly is the plan again?” Another pony that Shining Armor happened to know and had stationed in Ponyville, Flash Sentry, asked quietly, “Go in, let them loose and get out?” “Somewhat… but even though we know where Gaige’s friends are, we don’t know where Twilight and the rest of the girls might be,” Starlight pointed out, “The hope is that some of them could possibly help with that… somehow.” It was a fair point, and one that Trixie herself didn’t want to admit. Though, the showmare still had doubts on whether or not this was a good plan or if Starlight was out of her mind. Especially considering who they were going to rescue first. “Well, this is a change of pace,” Another oddly familiar and irritated voice echoed as the three of them started to hug the nearby wall, “Normally, we’re the ones killing idiots like this. Now, we’re being ridiculed by them. Nice going.” As Starlight looked down at the grated floor under her hooves, she could see some figures inside, but two stood out. The first was a familiar blue haired siren, while the one across from her was a disgruntled commando. There was also the impatient alicorn who just wanted to explode things. “Come ON! Nothing’s gone ka-boom in days! Can’t we just strap a ba-dongo to the gates and let it go off? I’m sure no one will notice.” “Tina, I like your thinking,” the siren, who Starlight now recognized as Maya, grumbled, “But I doubt it would be that easy. We don’t know where Lilith, Brick and the others are, and even if we did, the Sheriff’s probably keeping a close eye on them. Honestly, I can’t believe she of all people is still alive, even after robbing her town back home and beating her in the shootout she challenged us too.” “Who?” Flash asked, only to be silenced by the two mares as a pair of Psychos passed by them. Though, it was at that point that they heard the siren pose a question to the other cellmate. “Speaking of which, since we have nothing else going on, let’s address the elephant in the room. What the f*ck did you do that got us into this mess?” “Well do you want the short and sweet answer that will get me punched in the face and quite possibly KABOOMED by Tina or would you want the slightly longer version where you will have a better understanding, but you will still punch me in the face and Tina might only blast me without killing me?” Axton posed the question, simply waiting to hear her out. “I want the simple answer and no bullshit,” the siren retorted, “I know you shot someone, but what we don’t know is why.” “Well that does narrow it down a lot.” Axton just sighed heavily as he sat down. “Something just didn’t feel right with Roland coming back. Don’t get me wrong, it was great to see him again, but I thought it was just some imposter or something like that. So after our round of Bunkers and Badasses, I took Roland outside for a walk and then I found out my worries about him were not only true but It got a hell of a lot worse.” He then just waved a hand around the cell. “Which is as you can see, it is.” “WILL YOU SHUT UP!?!” One of the Psycho’s screamed from outside the cell, “I’M TRYING TO MEDITATE WITH MY MEAT GRINDER!!!” “I can’t wait for Gaige to come up with something to get us out of here.” Axton rolled his eyes at that. “Jack just leaving her for dead has got to be his biggest mistake since he came back.” That at least confirmed a couple of things for Starlight. For one, there were a few obstacles in the way that needed to be either dealt with or avoided before they could get everyone out… and from the sounds of it, even if they did manage to free the vault hunters, there were still other things that could prevent them from getting out safely. “Well, guess there’s no time to waste,” Starlight mumbled, before looking at Trixie, “Hey, Trixie. Do you still have some firecrackers on you?” “Starlight, who do you take me for?” Trixie raised an eyebrow, “Trixie always-” “I need you and Flash to light and throw them as far as you can,” the unicorn instructed them, “If you can do that, it would provide enough of a distraction so that I can unlock the gates of their cells.” Both ponies looked at one another, conversing to themselves first before looking back at Starlight as the pegasus replied back. “I-I think we can.” “Okay… On the count of three,” By then, Trixie already was in the process of getting the firecrackers out, “One… two… THREE!” As Flash and Trixie hurled the Firecrackers, a loud BANG went off. Startling the Psycho’s as they tried to make sense of what was happening around them. As this was going on, Starlight immediately went to work on the gate as a blast of magic from her horn broke the lock. Much to the surprise of the Vault Hunters inside, the gates were now wide open. An invitation to leave this hellhole. “Well, time to start a riot.” Axton said as he got ready for action. “Haha, WE’RE FREE SUCKAS!!” Tina immediately stormed out, before noticing Starlight, “Oh hey, glim glam. Whatcha doing here?” The unicorn blinked, not even bothering correcting her, “Getting you out.” “Well, I for one am thankful for that,” Maya said, her siren tattoos glowing as she stretched her arms, “Where’s Gaige? Isn’t she here-?” “She’s… well, she phrased it as ‘creating as much anarchy as possible’ outside,” Flash interjected, “The plan was the longer she could distract them out there, the more time we have to find and get you out.” “What? Just by herself? Come on now, that’s ridiculous.” “Well… that Torgue guy kind of gave her an army.” “So he gave her his leftover Loaders?” Axton just raised an eyebrow. “Actually knowing Mr. Torgue and her, that plan checks out.” “By herself though?” Maya questioned. “Well… she had help from something she said Tannis gave her,” Starlight told her, “Something called ‘Angel’. Not sure what it is, but… it’s been helping us with everything so far.” “Hold on a minute, Angel?!” Axton had to shake his head a second. “Know what, questions for later.” “You know about them?” “Yeah, long story short, Angel was Jack's daughter and was also a siren. Didn’t know about that until we found that part out in person.” Axton briefly explained. “Now, either walk, talk and shoot our way out or we have a little powwow on finer details. I for one want to do the former.” That was something they could all agree with. Especially since finding the others and getting out was not going to be easy- “WOOHOO, PRISON BREAK!! LET’S FLIP THIS BITCH!!” “Well, you heard the little lady. Time to bust outta this joint.” Axton said with a mad look of glee on his face as he followed Tina out of the Prison. “Hey, Trixie doesn't want to sound like that mare,” she emphasized, “But didn’t they take your weapons-?” “THE SHEEP ARE FREE!?! GET BACK IN YOUR PENS, LITTLE LAMB-!!” As a trio bandits tried to get the jump on the group, Maya moved her arm and caught them mid-air in a phaselock… before tossing them out the window. “We do what we always do,” the siren said, grabbing a gun off the ground that they dropped, “We improvise.” “I mean just look at them, they are basically giving us free weapons.”  Maya ignored what the commando said, for when she turned around, she realized that Tina had already gotten a head start. At the far end of the prison, the other prisoners woke up to the sound of explosions and Tina’s declaration of war. “Hold on a moment, I hear Tina and explosions….” Brick started then jumped up “HAHA IT’S A F*CKING PRISON RIOT HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!” The moment Lilith began to register what was going on, she couldn’t help but smirk, “About time,” the firehawk said, before extending a hand forward as the lock on their cage was beginning to melt. “Now, let’s find everyone and get out. We got a score to settle.” “HELL YEAH, TIME TO BUST SOME SKULLS!” Around the same time, as Jack was trying to contemplate what exactly was charging towards him, the sound of alarms echoed throughout his base of operations. “Oh, son of a taint. What now!?” “Sir, there appears to be a security breach.” A loader bot said. “I can see that, you imbecile. WHY!?” “Clearly, it’s a diversion tactic,” another voice on the ECHO line that Roland recognized as Nisha, the sheriff of Lynchwood, heard, “Whoever’s trying this is going for the divide and conquer approach. Trying to distract your forces out here to avoid any detection on the inside. Clever.” “It’s annoying is what it is,” Jack immediately snapped, “If this festers out of control, then everything we’ve done to get here would just be pointless! Wilhelm, deal with the showoff outside. Nisha-” “Already on it. By the time I’m done, there will be a gallery of tombstones with their names on them.” That just left only one other figure. Roland. But before he could move, Jack whipped around and pointed the same pistol he used to kill him the first time directly at him, “Oh, don’t you think that I’m letting you wander off anywhere… You wanted something like this to happen. But I’m not letting you out of my sight! Not this time.” “That may be so Jack, but don’t worry about a thing.” Roland simply just stood a little straighter. “I’m not going anywhere.” “I’ll be the one to judge that.” “So it seems. In the meantime we’ll just have to see the show play out, right?” Motioning with his chin towards the carnage the Mechromancer was currently causing. “Yeah, down with the system, asshats!!!” Gaige rallied the bots by her side, charging farther into the fray as gunfire erupted towards them. Even though this was meant as only a distraction, she couldn’t help herself. After all, what would be the point of all this if there wasn’t some fun to be had with killing Jack a second time. Still, despite how many of Jack’s loaders she killed, there was still a lot more that Gaige could do to cause some damage. So… to take a page from Tina’s book, she brought out a giant Tediore Rocket Launcher called the Bunny, aimed it at where she thought Jack was hiding and pulled the trigger. “HIPPITY HOPPITY, JACKALOPE!! COME JOIN THE REST OF YOUR PROPERTY!!!” As Jack soon found out… what Gaige took as a guess for where he would be turned out to actually be where he was hiding. Something he realized when he turned around and found that a rocket… and a Tediore rocket launcher, was barreling straight at him. “Son of a Taint-!!” “Well sh*t!”  The explosion was enough to leave behind a giant hole in the wall that was once there as both of them now had a different view of the battlefield below. Yet, for a moment, Jack saw something different… something that made his blood boil. From Gaige, there were silver markings that ran along her mechanical arm and a single wing. It did not help that the Mechromancer’s next words struck a major nerve. “When are you going to stop being a coward, asshole!?” As Roland looked at Jack, he looked furious. “No… No! NO! NO!!! That bastard!!! THIS ISN’T WHAT WE AGREED UPON! ALL FORCES, KILL THAT VAULT HUNTER NOW!! I WANT THEIR REMAINS SCATTERED ACROSS THE BADLANDS!!” Yet, when Roland saw Gaige… he saw something different. And could immediately see the reason behind Jack’s fury. “Well this is definitely not the way I imagined seeing you again, Angel.” Likewise. The single word was the only thing Roland heard, before Jack stormed his way out of the room… and the hulking mass of metal known as Wilhelm stormed out to the battlefield instead. “You and I both know how this is going to end, Vault Hunter,” He growled, “With you dead on the floor and the psycho’s using your spine as a back scratcher!” Gaige remained unphased by that. If anything, she just tilted her head. “Didn’t we murder your ass already once before? To be honest, you were a f*cking pushover.” “I’LL SHOW YOU PUSHOVER, YOU BANDIT PUNK!!” “So, are you sure we’re going to just leave Gaige out there on her own?” Mordecai asked as he dodged a bolt of magic from Starlight that blasted a psycho out of a window. “I’m pretty sure I just heard Wilhelm of all people screaming just now.” “That… could be a problem,” Lilith said, before looking at the whole group, “Some of us should go help. Any-” “METAL LAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER!! LET THE BLOOD SING TODAY!!” Krieg shouted, before immediately jumping outside through that same window to join the fray. “I, for one, am in full support for what Krieg did.” Brick said as he then bulldozed a psycho who came up behind him. “TIME FOR SOME PAYBACK, YOU METALLIC ASSHAT!” “Well, I think it’d be better if they at least had a helping hand,” Maya said, before going up to the ledge and looking at Axton, “You wanted a chance to prove yourself? Then show it.” “Fair enough, besides the more the merrier right?” Axton simply said as he followed alongside Brick. Maya chuckled at that, “Let’s show these asshole’s who they decided to pick a fight against.” As they charged in, Lilith looked back to Starlight as the Vault Hunters that stayed inside descended further into the cell block. Looking around every corner for Twilight and her friends… while expecting a conflict of their own against the one that resided over their prison.