An Angel and her Soldier

by Midnight Words

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

------------------------------

Everything went by so quickly... Roland thought as he lay on the hard cold ground. Fyrestone...New Haven... Sanctuary... All the places in this god-forsaken land I call home.

"YOU BASTARD!" Lillith yelled and lunged at Handsome Jack, CEO of Hyperion Corp. Jack threw a small collar around Lilith’s neck and grabbed her.

Brick... The big hunk of meat... Mordecai... The drunk sniper, always got your back... And Lilith... I'm sorry... Roland closed his eyes, the cold hand of death brushing pass him, a feeling he was all too familiar with. Looks like this is it, no coming back this time... Vault Hunters... Put a bullet in Jack for me... A bright light made Roland open his eyes and gasp for air. Respawn? But Jack terminated our New-U accounts!

Light... Light poured into his vision, lush green grass and large arching tree were overhead. Heh... I'm alive... He didn't know where he was but he knew he wasn't on Pandora anymore. Something by the edge of a tree caught his attention. A girl with blue tattoos and black hair sitting limply against a tree. "Angel..."

As soon as he muttered her name, she gasped. Air filling her lungs, crisp morning air, for the first time in her life she was out of that damned room, away from a father who would do anything to protect her, kill hundreds of innocent people all for "Keeping his little girl" safe. For the first time she was free.

"Roland? What happened? I'm supposed to be dead." Angel said, weakly. Roland took out a bottle of Dr. Zed's pills he was keeping in his pocket, Zed discontinued it because it was too expensive to make, this was the last bottle on Pandora. Roland offered her the pills and she carefully grabbed it. This was also her first time to physically touch something outside the A.I Control room.

Roland took a seat next to her and sighed. "I'm supposed to be dead too." Roland said. He tapped his ECHO Communications device but it was unresponsive. "I hope the others are alright. The Vault Hunters can take care of themselves, no, I'm more worried that Lillith might overreact."

Angel laughed. This was her first time too; she had done more things in five minutes than in her whole life trapped inside that room. "Thank you, Roland and... I'm sorry for... that one time in Sanctuary... I had no choice." She began to sob quietly. Something Roland almost never saw on Pandora. "How many... How many died?" She asked through sobs.

How many did die? Roland though. They never had a chance to check for casualties... Some leader I am...

"I honestly don't know and before I 'died' Jack kidnapped Lilith and no doubt he's going to her to charge the vault key." Roland said and got up and looked around his surroundings. Trees... Trees... Trees... Rock... Trees... Wolves made from trees... Rocks... Twigs... Wait! The Wooden wolf lunged at Roland and tackled him to the ground, it's sharp wooden teeth bit into Roland's arm. He looked inside his inventory but found that all his weapons were missing except for the Crimson Lance Standard Issue Combat Knife or as he liked to call it "Old Slashy"

Roland took out the knife and stabbed the wolf in the neck. It howled in pain as tree sap seeped from the wound. Everything was gone from his inventory, Shields, Class mods, Grenade mods, weapons, money and most of his echo recordings save for two. The wolf howled again and soon three more of the "Bark Wolves" as Roland called them, appeared and surrounded them.

"Angel... I'll hold them off..." Roland whispered as the wolves surrounded him. "Make a run for it when I give the go..."

"No... I won't let you fight them all by yourself." Angel protested.

"I can handle a few wooded punching bags. Trust me." Roland said and two wolves lunged from both sides. Roland easily dodged and countered by stabbing them in their glowing eyes. Two more came up from behind and but were easily dispatched in the same manner. "Come on you sorry excuse for a skag, come bite me!" Roland taunted. He then saw the two wolves he dispatched earlier start to combine together and turn into a huge-ass version of those Bark Wolves.

A huge paw came crashing down on Roland, he coughed up some blood as the paw lifted and dropped again. Angel took it upon herself to help, she used her Phase Shift ability to confuse the wolf. The mind was like a computer and she could hack it. The Badass Bark Wolf howled and staggered back. She rushed to Roland's side and heaved him up.

Man! You are heavy! She grunted and revived Roland. Roland shook himself up and looked at the giant wolf.

"Thanks! But now let's get out of here before that thing recovers!" Roland yelled and sprinted in a random direction, holding Angel's hand along the way. "Over there!" Roland pointed to an old ruined castle that looked as stable as a bandit with superglue, it was perfect.

The siren and the soldier ran across the rickety old bridge, luckily the giant wolf couldn't cross the unstable bridge lest it collapse. The two breathed a sigh of relief. "You alright?" Roland asked as Angel panted for breath.

"Yeah... just out of shape..." Angel muttered and lied on the grass. "Where are we?"

Roland opened his inventory and looked at the two echo recordings. "Looks like a recording after I died." Roland pressed theplay button on the first tape.

"Lillith... Kill the Vault Hunter." Jack ordered..

"Ugh... No... " Lillith said through a strained voice. A sound and a bright flash erupted and covered the five vault hunters in purple light as they dissapeared.

"Not what I had in mind but close enough." Jack said and then the echo cut off.

Roland looked at the echo device with a worried glare. "I'm playing the second one."

"Dunce Dunce Dunce Dunce Dunce Wub Wub Wub Wub." The original Claptrap sung, the one from Fryestone not the one in Santuary. "Echo log #11324254234212435945.52935/430384533+43232145. I, Claptrap, have found a way to reconstruct my body into a much more terrifing and powerful version of the original vault hunters!"

"This giant machine with painfully reconstruct my body so I can beat the menace known as Handsome Jack and then Lillth will be sure to notice me!"

"GAH! Watch it!" Axton's voice called out.

"Your foot is in my mouth!" Gaige spat. Loud rumblings were heard inside Claptrap's machine.

"Get your ass out of my face before I tear if off" Salvador threatened. Some parts began to come off.

"Hey! Watch where your hands are going!" Maya yelled, her face Reddening as she kicked Axton in the balls which he gave very high pitch grunt.

"MMMPHHPMMPHPMMPH!" Zero tried to speak but was covered by several rolls of duct-tape.

"Huh. Guess those bodies weren’t dead after all." Claptrap commented. The entire machine then exploded sending pieces of scrap everywhere and sending the five vault hunters sky high.

"Echo log #11324254234212435945.52935/430384533+43232145 was a complete success. Now where can I hide this?" Claptrap wondered and the echo ended.

Angel laughed. "I love those funny little robots." She said.

Roland scowled. "Yeah, but we need to find a way out of this place and get back to Santuary. Jack would attack it while there wasn't a siren protecting it." Roland got up and looked around the ruined castle, broken stained windows lined the walls and over grown vines grew from the cracks in the wall. "Come on. Maybe we can find out where we are, I sure as hell know we're not on Pandora anymore."

Angel got up and followed Roland through the dusty catacombs. A few bats hung upside-down on the ceilings and looked at the two humans as made their way through another dimly lit hallway.

After an hour of walking they found what looked like a door that leads to a library, if the giant wooden doors with book motifs were to be believed. They opened the door and stepped through. They coughed and covered their mouths because of the dust, books lined the library but were near unreadable.

"This was a waste of time." Roland said as he touched a book that turned into dust.

"Maybe not." Angel said and picked up a dusty map of the castle. "Says here that there's an armory close by. Maybe we can stock up before we head out?"

On one hand, they need the weapons, on the other hand, it could all just be dust and might make their stay inside the dusty castle much longer then it needed to be.

Roland sighed. "We do need weapons. Lead the way."

They left the library and headed to the armory that was just in the other hallway. The bat seemed to thin and avoid making contact. "I don't like this."

They reached the door to the armory and the door opened by itself. Two glowing glass cases were at the end of the room. The two explorers slowly made their way towards the cases.

Both the cases held two weapons; a knife and a crossbow, One was glowing red and black while the other glowed a soft purple and white. They opened the cases and reached for the weapons. The knives felt right in their hands while the crossbow felt like an old friend.

"Finally!" A voice called out from behind. A giant bull standing on two legs and an eagle-lion thing came forward and pointed sharp weapons at them. "Give us the artifact, monsters." The bull yelled.

"Or we'll rip your throats out and feed them to the bats." The bird thingy cawed.

The crossbow began to shape-shift and change into a beautifully familiar metal grip. An Assault rifle and an SMG, both bore an image of the Vault and the knives as well.

"Lookie here. The valuable artifact are also magic. Maybe we can sell for a bigger price." The bull laughed and came closer to the two humans. "Give us the weapons and we won't kill you today."

"Or we could kill you and take the weapons from your dead bodies, whichever way it didn't matter." The bird said and examined her own blade.

Roland looked at Angel who was stareing down the bird with venom in her eyes. "Kiss my ass!" Roland yelled and fliped his middle finger up in a rude gesture.

The bull huffed and charged at Roland knocking him back and shattering the glass case. Roland slumped over tighting his grip on the rifle, waiting for the bull to to come closer.

"Pathe-" The bull's insult was cut short by a barrage of bullets hitting square in the chest. The bull gurgled and slumped over dead.

Meanwhile the bird had Angel in a choke-hold. "Last chance, give me the weapon."

Angel's eyes began to glow and sharp wings errupted from her back. The bird dodged, only burning a few feathers. Angel squezzed the trigger and impacted the bird in the head.

"Elite my ass!" Roland taunted at the dead bodies. Roland dug around their dead bodies and found herbs and a sack of gold. "Guess this all the cash we have for now." Roland put the rifle away in his inventory and Angel did the same.

Angel looked around the room but only found these four weapons and nothing else. "Remember; we don't have much ammo so we should try to save it for emergencies only."

"Yeah. Let's get out of here and make camp upstairs." Roland suggested and Angel nodded.

They went back upstairs and saw a present by the door. A red chest with a note stuck on it.

"Impressive." The note read. Roland and Angel opened the chest and two shields came out, they were weak shields but weak shields were better than no shields so they took the shields and equipped them.

"I'll go get some firewood." Roland said and took out his new knife. He left through the door and found the nearest tree. Snapping off the brances and cutting off the ones that were more stubborn than the rest. His mind began to wander on where the were they and how the hell can they get back?

First things first. Make a shelter. Roland came back inside the castle and placed the firewood in a neat stack. Roland began to rub two sticks together and created a spark that turned into a flame.

"I don't think we're alone here." Angel said.

"Like something dark and brooding looking at you? I got the same feeling." Roland said and looked around, not finding anything then bats and rats.

And just like that it all stopped, the wind, the sound and the feeling all stopped like it just left.

"Get some rest. I'll keep watch." Roland said. Angel didn't complain and rested her head on a rock.

"Not a five-star hotel but..."

"Not a bandit shithole either." Roland finished.

"You should go to sleep too, Roland." Angel said.

"*yawn* Maybe you're right." Roland lied back on the ground and stared at the ceiling... What the fu-

*BOOM*

Comments

[Edward_Richtofen]

This story had better include something. ALOT of that something.

EXPLOSIONS?!

[Gunflame345]

Great start, it really does sound like Roland talking, I feel you used his in game quotes perfectly and I could hear them in my head!

I don't see any issues with the format or blatant Mary sue syndrome, I'll keep reading and see if find any of the problems you had concerns with.