Borderlands: Eden

Borderlands: Eden

Part 5: Blinding King

Viper (As the Striker)

Viper pushed open the door to the little hut that she had accommodated for herself. She smiled to Twilight and said, "Come in."

"Will do." Twilight nodded politely. She looked around.

Viper liked Twilight. She was the only Tree Hunter she had met that had been openly polite and friendly to her. The other two had simply ignored her when she hopped onto the bus yesterday. No 'how are you?' or 'what's wrong?' Just some funny looks and then ignorance.

She'd never met humans before arriving on Eden. At first, she thought they were pigs due to the lack of fur, but clearly realised her mistake. They were more like shaved monkeys, than anything else.

At the thought of monkeys, Viper's thoughts flashed to her friends and her smile wavered. She didn't know if she'd ever see them again. She didn't know if she'd live to see them again. This planet seemed so stupidly dangerous, it was a wonder that anything could live here.

"So…" Twilight said, breaking the silence. "Nice hut."

"Huh? Yeah." Viper blinked.

"What's with the burn marks?"

"I'd love to know that, personally." Viper said.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Twilight asked, sitting down on a slightly charred couch.

Viper slithered up onto a broken armchair. "Well… remember the bus yesterday? You said how you were stranded?"

"Oh." Twilight gripped her knees. "That."

"Yeah… you can put the gun away."

"Oh!" Twilight blinked. "Sorry." She set the gun down on a nearby table. She also took her pistol out of the spot where she had stretched her dress to accommodate the weapon.

"So… one day, in this town that I lived in… well, more of a village…" Twilight shrugged. "This BnL ship came down and flattened my friend's orchard."

"An orchard? What did it grow?"

"Apples. Anyway, it had this letter on it that said that this place was like a holiday resort."

"Sounds similar to mine already." Viper muttered.

"Yeah… but we weren't interested in a holiday, nor the treasure. I came to Eden to tell BnL that were weren't interested. But when I got off the ship…"

"It took off without warning."

"Yeah." Twilight said bitterly. "So now I'm stuck here until I find the Tree. I mean, assuming that we do find the Tree, what happens? Do we just buy a spaceship back home? Where does one buy a spaceship? Just so many questions, and before I get to answer any of them, I have to throw my…" Twilight frowned, searching for a word. "…Innocence out the window, because apparently everyone on this planet wants me to become a soup of some sort."

Viper nodded. "Yeah…"

"So it was a similar situation to yours, then?" Twilight asked.

"Sort of. I actually wanted to come here. It just sounded so nice. A friend of mine, called Mantis, came along as well… I guess we decided that we could use a holiday."

"Mantis, huh?" A smile tugged at Twilight's lips. "Was he a praying mantis by any chance?"

"Yes. Why?"

"No reason. So…"

"So," Viper nodded, continuing. "The day after we accepted, this giant egg-thing landed on our front doorstep. I was ready to go, but my friends were… kinda paranoid."

"Is that because technology isn't as advanced on your planet?"

"…I wouldn't say that technology is advanced here." Viper said. "More like crazy. But yeah, we'd never seen a spaceship before. My master didn't want me going at first, he was having second thoughts."

"Your master?"

"Oh, yeah!" Viper remembered a particular aspect of her life that she'd forgotten to mention. "Well, you see, I'm a member of the Furious Five, a team of the best Kung Fu warriors in the country."

"Kung Fu…" Twilight tapped her chin. "What's that?"

Viper blinked, then smiled somewhat forcefully. "It's a martial art… you've never heard of it?"

"No… but then again I don't come from where you come from, so…" Twilight shrugged.

"I guess." Viper agreed, although the concept of someone not knowing about Kung Fu was incredibly weird to Viper.

"So you went anyway." Twilight coerced Viper to continue.

"Yeah… it took a lot of convincing…" Viper smiled at the memory of begging Shifu. "But they had a fake image of this place, so that helped."

"Idyllic?"

"Yeah." Viper stopped smiling. "So when Mantis and I landed here, we… were a bit confused."

"And the ship took off."

"And then we were stranded." Viper nodded. "Then we found a note telling us to find the Tree, written by some 'Commander Wales' guy."

"I got a similar note." Twilight said.

"We made our way to the nearest… bus stop, I think it was called." Viper frowned as she tried to remember. "But… there were some Bandits there."

Viper found her spirits falling as the memories came to her. "Not just Thugs… there were some shirtless guys with swords… some hunched over guys with these black rags over them… and big, muscular guys with these huge shotguns."

"How many?" Twilight asked.

"Too many to count. We tried to fight but… we'd never been up against people with guns before, we just panicked." Viper shook her head. "By the time we got our nerves back, the Bandits had got into their cars and had started chasing us around.

"I had to go all around the city just to lose them. I managed to knock the one chasing me down, but…" Viper sniffed. "I lost track of where Mantis went. I don't even know if he's still alive."

Twilight was silent for a bit.

Then she said, "Well… if he got the same training you got, then he should be fine. I mean, you certainly are."

"Yeah…" Viper sighed. "I hope so."

"So… you picked up a gun back there?"

Viper nodded. She reached for her S-NET with her tail, but she ended up getting her shield instead. She turned around to see if she could press the required button without moving the shield, but it turned out to be a rather annoying and needlessly complicated task.

"Do you need help?" Twilight asked awkwardly.

"No…" Viper pushed the shield off of the S-NET and reached for the triangular button with the words 'OPEN' on it. She pressed it down firmly.

Immediately, her inventory screen flashed up on her HUD.

She had accidently brought up this screen when trying to put her gun away at first, so she knew how to operate it already. She thought about switching to the 'Inventory' tab and it sorted to the front. She thought about bringing out her new gun and it materialised in the air in front of her, where it fell to the ground with a 'THUNK'.

"Oh!" Twilight looked at the gun. "Why didn't it appear in your tail?"

Close. Viper thought, closing the menu. "I think it only works for hands."

"Probably." Twilight picked it up. "Huh."

Viper read the title card. It was a pistol, called a 'Sane Mosquito' and made by Egghead Inc. It was green in rarity and it was level 3. An additional note on the card read, 'Flipping the switch enable burst-fire mode'.

The appearance of the gun was nothing too special. Half of it was red and the other was bright yellow. It was rather shiny, but also quite featureless. It had a magnifying glass on top of the body.

"Cool." Twilight gave the gun back to Viper. "Nice accuracy."

"Thanks." Viper nodded. She tapped the gun on the S-NET screen and it dissolved back in. She then put the shield back on the S-NET.

"You really need more space on your body, huh?"

Viper blinked. "What?"

"Your S-NET can barely fit on your body already and putting your shield anywhere else will slow you down."

"Oh. Well, yeah."

"How'd you get it out?" Twilight asked.

"The gun? Don't you know…?"

"Tree Hunters!" A voice came out of her S-NET.

Viper jumped and so did Twilight, until they both realised it was just Medic.

At the top right of her HUD, Medic's name appeared in a little box, showing that he was in a radio conversation. Beneath that was Viper's teammate's names.

Viper sighed. "Yes?"

"I require your assistance again." Medic explained. "Some of King's Bandits have set up camp on ze road leading to Tornenhurst. I need you lot to get rid of zem."

"We'll get right on it." Alex said over the radio.

"Shouldn't you ask us, first?" Twilight asked irritably.

"Do you want to do it?"

"No, but what choice do I-?"

"Well, there you go. I say that we meet at the gate."

"Ja, ja. Danke!" Medic said, shutting off the conversation.

"Oh, for-!" Twilight threw her hands in the air. "What is with his attitude?!"

"Let it go." Viper sighed, slithering to the door. "Shall we get this over with?"

"Yeah…" Twilight got up and picked up her guns.

The girls travelled across the town. Viper looked up at the sun. It didn't look like it was going to go dark anytime soon, so the group had plenty of time to complete this latest mission.

Viper didn't like this lifestyle. It reminded her of bounty hunters, who were people who would hurt anyone and everyone if they were paid to. That was not the sort of lifestyle she was prepared to live.

To the gate where Alex and Bane were waiting for them. Bane had his new shotgun ready and was also holding a short sword in his other hand. Alex, meanwhile, was holding a gun with a cylinder on top of the body and an elongated barrel.

"What's that?" Twilight asked, surprised at the latest gun.

"A sniper rifle." Alex said, smiling at the gun. "It's by no means perfect, but it'll do."

Viper was slightly surprised at the fact that he smiling.

Viper looked at the title card for the weapon. It was called a 'Critical Long-Range Lancer' and it was made by a company called Mann Co. It was level two and was green in rarity.

"It's for long distance fighting." Bane explained.

"Interesting." Viper said thoughtfully. "So… shields ready?"

"Fully charged." Twilight confirmed.

"Only one way to find out." Alex said. "I bought some health syringes from the med vendor beforehand, so in the situation that the shields don't work, then we have a way of making sure that everyone stays alive."

"Good." Bane said. He flipped his sword to that he was holding it upside down. He handed it to Twilight. "Here. You need a melee weapon."

"Uh… thanks." Twilight took the sword. "This is a… sword?"

"Kukri." Alex corrected. "Although that's basically what you'll use it for."

Bane gave Twilight a makeshift sheath, which she put on immediately. She sheathed the kukri and frowned at it. "…Works, I guess."

"Shall we?" Alex gestured outside the town. "We've wasted enough time."

The Tree Hunters walked out the gate and looked at the signpost next to the road. After a bit of reading, they started to follow the road to Tornenhurst. The sun beat down on them as they walked, heating them up in the harsh desert.

Viper was able to ignore it, but she wondered how Alex and Bane were doing, since they were wearing pure black.

The weight of the S-NET and the shield combined were starting to become a bit more straining after a few minutes. Viper tried to ignore it, but the feeling was combining with her newfound thirst and the realisation that she hadn't ate since yesterday.

That hunger disappeared when she saw a Howler next to the road eating a dead Thug. The bandit had clearly been there for a while, because it was half-decomposed and was collecting flies. The Howler Pup noticed the group, finished chewing its mouthful, then snarled at them.

Bane raised his shotgun, but Alex gently pushed it down, saying, "Save your bullets. If you kill that thing, then its buddies will come running."

So they ignored it and it went back to its rotting dinner.

Finally, they saw the Bandit camp on the road. They had set up a few chairs, some chests, some crates and a Speedie was next to the camp, presumably not being used at the moment. About half a dozen Thugs were standing around, chatting to each other.

"Take cover." Alex muttered. "Let's see what we're up against before we charge in."

"Good thinking." Bane said, ducking behind a rock on the side.

Everyone else took a rock for themselves. Viper chose one that looked a bit like a rabbit head.

Alex peeked out from his rock and took aim with his Lancer. "I'm counting seven. Four normal ones, two Raiders… hm. There's another stronger variant."

"Stronger armour?" Bane asked.

"Better gun as well. A shotgun. Dunno about the rarity."

"What do we call this one?" Viper asked.

Bane thought about it for a minute. "Murdering?"

"…That'll do."

"Anything else?" Twilight asked.

Alex frowned. "One of the normal thugs has this pistol that has some orange, glowing bits. Dunno what that means."

"Can you see the title card?"

"I think that only works at a certain range."

"What about shields?" Bane asked. "If we could purchase them, then there's no reason that the Thugs can't purchase them."

"Can they do that?" Viper asked.

Alex cursed quietly. "About half of them have shields, including the tough guy."

"Great." Twilight said bitterly.

"That all?" Viper peeked over her rock.

"Yep." Alex confirmed.

"I'll take the gran matón." Bane said. "Alex, stay here and support us via sniping. Twilight, can you handle the Raiders?"

"I think so." Twilight nodded.

"So I'll take the normal ones?" Viper asked.

"Only if I don't kill them first." Alex told her.

"Let's go." Bane said, getting up from behind the rock.

"Aim for their heads." Alex advised. "The shield will work overtime to keep one's head intact, so that will drain it faster."

Twilight stood up and advanced, Woodpecker in hand.

Viper slithered over with them to the camp.

Once they were within seeing distance of the Thugs, they started firing, Bane shooting his shotgun at the Murdering Thug, Twilight aiming at the Raiding Thugs and Viper immediately striking forward towards a random Thug.

She slithered up his leg, around his torso and made it to his neck, which she promptly snapped. While the Thugs were still disoriented, she struck towards another, flicked his pistol out of his hand, jumped up into the air and smashed it into his face.

"Who're these assholes?!" One of them shouted, firing rapidly and fearfully at Viper's lightning quick form.

"Tree Hunters!" One of the Raiders growled as Twilight shot at him. "Kill 'em!"

The Murdering Thug (Level 5) was wearing a lot of armour that made him almost certainly too hot. When Bane fired at him at point-blank range, the Thug just ate up the shots and returned fire.

Twilight was having a bit of success on her part. She was firing in short bursts at them, assuring that her accuracy remained as good as possible. Eventually, one of the Thug's armour failed him and the bullets pierced his chest and killed him.

"Hey! I liked that guy!" The other Raiding Thug shouted angrily, attacking in earnest now.

Meanwhile, Viper was dodging shot after shot. Eventually, she moved in to whip one in the chests. Unfortunately, she'd left the ones with the shields last, so his shield protected him from the brunt of the hit. So Viper had to knock him off of his feet first.

Thankfully, the other Thug Viper was facing had his shield prematurely drained thanks to a headshot by Alex. The Thug stumbled a bit, due to the bullet not being completely destroyed upon contact with the shield. Another shot and the Thug was down for the count.

Twilight found that she'd run out of ammo again just as her shield had started to lose power. She cursed and started to reload, but before she could finish, the Raiding Thug fired a few more rounds into her, draining her shield completely.

A few bullets passed through her stomach, causing her to gasp in pain and fall to the ground. Desperately, she grabbed the closet loaded weapon she could find (the pistol that had orange, glowy bits) and fired it at the Thug.

The first two rounds caused him to back up in pain. The third set him on fire.

Viper noticed this just as she finished up with the last normal Thug. Both she and Twilight stared in shock as the Raiding Thug screamed, "OH, CRAP! IT BURNS!" Then he fell over, died, and disintegrated into ashes.

Viper would've stared at Twilight's newfound pistol with marvel if Bane wasn't having such a hard time.

The Murdering Thug's armour managed to protect him from several shotgun blasts, headshots by Alex, and, once his shotgun ammo depleted, assault from an assault rifle.

"Oh, now you're pissin' me off!" The Thug snarled, swinging his rifle at Bane. In response, Bane backed off to dodge, then punched the Thug in the face, spinning him around to the ground.

As Bane took aim again, Viper noticed that the Thug had grabbed a nearby axe of all things and prepared to swing it at Bane.

Viper did some quick calculations at light speed. The axe was long enough to hit Bane's neck, which was a problem. Bane's shield was also flashing, which it wasn't doing before, so Viper naturally assumed that that wasn't good. Another thing: Viper did not have any confidence in Bane's agility. The final dilemma was the Viper wasn't about to let him die.

So she dived forward in a green blur, sweeping Bane's legs out from underneath him just as the Thug swang and just as Bane realised what was about to happen.

Bane hit the ground with a grunt. The Thug stumbled a bit when he missed, probably because he couldn't have prepared for that no matter what.

Taking advantage of this, Twilight fired five more pistol rounds into him, setting him alight on the second one. Before he could die due to being on fire, Alex fired at him from faraway, a red cloud bursting out of the other side of his head. He fell over, dead.

Viper panted a bit, trying to regain her bearings.

She looked at Bane, who was getting up, and asked, "Was… was your shield out?"

"Yes." Bane said. He looked at her with his usual frown, but with a twinkle of gratitude in his eyes. Muchas gracias, Víbora."

Viper blinked, then smiled at him.

Alex ran over to them, looking at Twilight, who was clutching her stomach where the bullets had entered.

"Ow…" She muttered dazedly. "Did… did I just set a guy on fire?"

"Yep." Alex looked at her new pistol with interest. "Interesting…"

"Oh, Celestia…" She groaned. "I'd throw up if I wasn't bleeding to death."

Alex handed her a health syringe. "Here. Stab this into yourself and push…"

"I know how to use a syringe." Twilight muttered. She inserted some of the red liquid into her body and she sighed in bliss. The bullet wounds closed up, but her shirt was stained red with blood.

"Wow." She said. "That stuff's something…"

"I'm going to need that vial back." Alex said bluntly. "I only bought three of those things."

"Sure." She handed it to him.

"Interesting weapon." Bane said.

Viper read the title card. It was called a 'Detailing Friendship' pistol and was green in rarity. Part of the description read 'Incendiary bullets: super effective against flesh'. The pistol was made by a company called 'Sparkle Conglomerate'. Its logo had those words on it in capitals, with the A's replaced by pink, six-point stars.

"'Detailing Friendship'?" Alex said in confusion. "What sort of a gun name is that?"

"…I know that symbol." Twilight said in a perplexed tone.

"You do?" Viper asked.

"Yeah… it's my Cutie Mark."

This elicited some stares directed at her.

"…Right." Alex said. "Is this a stupid name competition?"

"No, I… okay, look; I know that symbol, and it's weird, okay? Let's just go with that."

Bane looked around. "Take what you need. These Bandits might have something useful."

Viper slithered over to a dead Raiding Thug and looked at his equipment. He was carrying a Scaleskin Ind. 'SL-DG Standard Better Shield' that was level 3 and white in rarity. It had more capacity than her current shield, but it also had a lower recharge rate.

She still wanted it though, but she wasn't willing to struggle with her shield quite yet, so she turned her attention to his gun.

It was a Buy n' Large submachine gun, called a 'UFO TRI-MCHNE GN'. It was also level 3 and white. It was clearly quite old and unreliable, as it had rusted into a reddish brown colour and its logo had faded.

Viper frowned. She knew that she needed to take what she could get, but she was unwilling to touch something with that logo on it. That said, she looked at the price tag on it and it read $345.

Deciding that she could sell it somehow for some money, Viper took off her shield and put it into her inventory. Then, she put the SMG into her inventory and attached her new shield to her body.

Viper took a look at the others. Twilight hadn't picked up any weapons, but she had collected a lot of ammo, a box of dollar bills and a sack filled with some clanking things.

"What's in there?" Viper asked.

"Some canned food." Twilight explained. "At least, I hope it's food. I haven't eaten since yesterday.

"Me too." Viper's hunger suddenly came back.

"What kind of food?" Alex asked, coming over with a metal rectangle on his shoulder.

"Howler meat." Twilight said, looking slightly nauseous.

"Not safe." Alex said immediately. "The amount of Dark Magic in Nightmares can poison you several times over."

"It was prepared by the Campbell's company, if that means anything."

Alex frowned. "…In that case, it should be good, but exercise caution."

"And what're you carrying?" Viper asked, staring at the object.

"A radio." Alex replied. "It's good to know what's going on the planet."

At this point, Bane walked over carrying a new shield. It was a 'NK-DG Standard Bunker Shield', made by a company called the 'Acme Corp'. It was level 3, white and it had what looked like a firework attached to the top of it.

The description read, 'REDUCES damage taken from EXPLOSIVES!'

Bane switched shields, while Viper envied him and the others for having more room on their bodies.

"So," He said. "Does everyone have what they need?"

"I got a bunch of ammo." Alex said, chucking Bane some shotgun shells and assault rifle rounds. "Plus about a hundred bucks."

"Good." Bane nodded. "Now, let's-"

Suddenly, a conversation bar appeared in the top right of Viper's HUD. In it was the word 'King'.

"Hello?" A male voice came out. "Hello?! Tell me we got it right this time!"

The Tree Hunters were silent. They hadn't expected to talk with the Bandit Lieutenant already. In fact, they hadn't expected to talk to him at all.

"Oh, come on!" He said in the sort of voice royalty would use. "This is the umpteenth time that I've tried to call you Tree Hunters! This shouldn't be this hard! Hello?!"

Alex was the first to respond. "What do you want?"

"Ah, so this is working!" King said happily. "Splendid! You don't know how many times I've tried to call you lot!"

"Answer the question." Bane said coldly.

"Straight to the point, huh?" King sounded amused. "Very well then. Tree Hunters have a very good reputation on this planet. After all, who wouldn't want to annoy WAR, hmm? But the problem us Bandits have with them is that you keep killing us, reducing our numbers day by day, night by night!"

"Because you'd kill us and desecrate our corpses otherwise." Twilight pointed out.

"Fair point, but still." Viper could hear the shrug in his voice. "We don't want you here. So I have a proposition for you: leave the area, or at the very least stop killing my men, and I will pay you handsomely for your cooperation."

Viper blinked. This guy was paying them to stay away?

Alex frowned. "How much?"

"Roughly… hm… Jester boy!" He shouted to someone out of the conversation. "How much money can we spare for these Tree Hunters? ...Yes, as much as we can give away while still having enough for ourselves. Ah, okay." He spoke back to them. "Four-hundred thousand dollars. Roughly."

The group was silent for a moment. Compared to what they had right now, $400,000 was a lot of money.

"…We'll think about it." Alex said finally after a long silence. "Expect an answer in the morning."

"Wonderful!" King said happily. "I expect you to make the right choice!"

With that, he hung up and ended the conversation.

"We're not accepting." Viper said immediately. "No way."

"I don't know…" Alex frowned. "Four-hundred is a lot… we could make everything a lot easier…"

"I am not accepting money from a criminal!" Twilight snapped. "Not today, not ever!"

Ignoring her, Alex turned to Bane. "What do you think?"

Bane frowned, deep in thought and arms crossed. Viper could tell that he was comparing all his options.

"I don't know." He said finally.

"Let me make the decision easier for you." Viper said, glaring at him. "If you accept King's offer, then I'm leaving."

Bane and Alex looked at her.

"…Come again?" Alex asked.

"I'll leave if you accept King's offer." Viper repeated firmly. "Killing people to survive is different from accepting money from a criminal."

"Same here." Twilight added.

Alex looked at her in alarm. "You too?! Did you organise this?"

"No." Twilight said simply. "I just not willing to work for murderers."

"Don't bother saying that you'll survive without us." Viper said. "Bane wouldn't be here if it weren't for me, after all."

Bane frowned at her. "He's offering a lot of money."

"I know."

Alex and Bane looked at each other.

"…Very well." Bane said. "We'll ignore his offer, then."

"Good." Twilight nodded. "Shall we tell him?"

"No." Alex sighed. "We'll just continue on our business and keep killing Bandits. In the meantime, let's go get paid, shall we?"

"Yes." Viper nodded. "Let's do that."

And so they walked back to Bycroft.

That night, the Tree Hunters ate dinner. They all sat around a campfire in the middle of the football field, eating the Howler meat that Twilight had found. There wasn't much, but there was enough for all four of them.

Viper and Twilight were chatting to each other about menial things in an attempt to forget about their current situation, if only temporarily. Bane was merely sitting down and eating his dinner in silence, as was his usual policy. Alex was fiddling with the radio he'd stolen, muttering to himself as he tried to get it to work.

"…So you press the triangular button and then your inventory flashes up on your HUD." Viper was explaining to Twilight.

"Okay." Twilight pressed the button. Viper couldn't see her inventory, but she did see Twilight blink. "Whoa."

"Does it work?" Viper asked.

"Yeah… depressingly empty, though. Hey, it shows you how much money and ammo I have!"

"This thing really is handy, isn't it?" Viper said happily.

"Tell me about it."

Viper turned to her food and was about to swallow another chunk when she realised that a piece of barbed wire was poking out of it. She sighed in annoyance and ripped it out with her mouth.

"You'd think that they'd have the hindsight to remove the wire when they were making this safe to eat." Twilight said as Viper ate the actual meat. Viper nodded while swallowing.

Some music suddenly blared from the right. Viper winced at the sound, as it sounded like metal being screeched across a stone bench.

"There we go!" Alex said, satisfied. "It's working."

Okay, so the radio was a box that played sounds. What else was new?

"What kind of music is that?" Twilight asked.

"Dunno." Alex replied, bending down and messing with the knobs. "But I'm looking for something else…"

The sound coming from the radio shifted back and forth as Alex messed with it. Finally, he seemed to find what he was looking for and let go of the knobs.

"…So Hillsoar can expect some Nightmare attacks in the next few weeks." A deep voice said, coming out of the rad "Make sure to buy some guns to defend yourselves! After all, we don't want another Applebrook."

"Who's this guy?" Viper asked.

"Someone called Mark." Alex shrugged. "He's the local news guy."

"Speaking of guns, though," Mark continued. "A new weapons merchant has showed up on Eden, called 'Thomas'. Us here at Mark's Corner encourage everyone to buy from this new guy. After all, a pissed-off WAR is a good WAR. Erm, Buy n' Large WAR, that is. Not actual war. That'd be nasty.

"His business is suffering, as is everyone else's, but he's doing his best to make money and sell merchandise. Plus, he advertises here, so that's cool. He declined an interview with me, but he did tell me that he'll be putting up some gun vendors soon, so stay hyped for that!

"In other news, and by news, I mean juicy rumours, four Tree Hunters have apparently arrived in the Badlands."

Viper's eyes widened when she heard that. She looked at the others, who looked similarly amazed.

"Exact details aren't known at the moment, but we do know that they've killed a bunch of King's Bandits, so... good work! That King guy is quite the douche."

"We've only been here for two days!" Twilight exclaimed. "How do people know about us already?"

"News travels fast." Bane shrugged.

"If the Tree Hunters are listening to this, then please; continue the good work. The more impact you make, the angrier WAR gets. And the angrier WAR gets, well… the happier we'll be, because then they'll want to leave! So keep going!

"But wait…" Mark suddenly whispered. "Who are these new Tree Hunters, I hear you say? Well, lucky for you, I have secured an interview with Thug Randal, the sole survivor of a Bandit raid that the Tree Hunters utterly annihilated. So, Randal, how're you doing?"

"Good…" The voice of the Thug that Alex had threatened the day before came out of the radio, sounding a bit nervous. "Erm, could you avoid insultin' King? He don't like you when you do that."

"Just doing my job, Randal. So, what can you tell us about these new Vault Hunters?"

"Well, there're four of 'em. There's this guy in this black, metal clothing with a sword, like a big sword and sharp too. Then there's this bigger guy with a mask and these HUGE pecs. There's a green snake too, dunno about 'er…"

"A snake? Are you sure?"

"Yeah… and then there's this chick in purple who chucked on the ground near where I was… and that's about it. They all had white guns."

"Mm, hmm. And are they dangerous?"

"Oh, hell yeah. Wrecked everyone in the raid…" A faint knocking could be heard in the background. "Er, hold on… what? What do you want?"

Someone said something in the background, too faint to be heard properly.

"…No…" Randal sounded slightly scared. "Nah, just… I have a cousin in Hook's gang… no, really, I'm not… NO, I SWEAR IT WAS JUST FAMI-!"

A gunshot was heard, following by a sickening gurgle and crumpling.

Twilight and Viper winced.

"Uh…" Mark said awkwardly. "Looks like Randal can't talk to us anymore, ladies and gentlemen. So instead, I'll end this interview with a hopefully collective wish that these new Tree Hunters last longer than our previous ones. God speed, Tree Hunters.

"After the break, I'll be interviewing DAWN, our friendly traitor of WAR, on the subject of the rumours of Buy n' Large not knowing about WAR's atrocities. Then, I'll hand the mic over to Garrick to discuss the weather for this continent, but until then… enjoy the ads."

"…Erm… what did he mean by us lasting longer than the previous ones?" Viper asked the group at large.

"I'm guessing that the previous Tree Hunters were unprepared for this planet." Twilight shrugged.

"That's pretty close." Alex said.

Suddenly, a green, female face appeared in the top right of Viper's HUD, causing her to sit up straight in alarm.

"So," Ivy said. "How're you guys going?"

"Ivy." Alex said curtly.

"Hi." Viper said, calming down.

"I must say, you're doing well." Ivy said, sounding impressed. "Of course, your journey's barely begun, but still. Only the strong survive on Eden."

"Bit of a misnomer, Eden." Alex grumbled. "So… I take it that you're here to tell us something?"

"Yes, two things actually." Ivy confirmed. "First of all, there's this town to the west, called Tornenhurst."

"We know." Bane said.

"Well, you should go there tomorrow. The locals have some stuff that can help you."

"Like?" Viper asked.

"For starters, one of them is a good mechanic." Ivy explained. "He could build you a way to weld guns."

"Oh! How… nice."

"They also have some equipment that can help you kill King."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You want us to kill King as well?"

"Yes." Ivy said. "Which brings me to my next point."

"We're already decided that we're going to kill him." Viper said, casting a glare at Bane.

"I know." Ivy replied. "I'm explaining why you have to kill him."

"…Okay." Bane nodded. "Why do we have to kill him?"

"King has a piece of the Tree Key." Ivy explained. "Killing him will get you one step closer to opening the Tree."

"Oh, please." Alex muttered.

"Thanks." Twilight said.

"You're welcome." Ivy said, smiling. "I'm also thinking that you guys should have a symbol. A sign of the mighty Tree Hunters."

"A waste of time." Bane dismissed.

"Not in the long run." Ivy replied. "Trust me. Here, I came with this."

An image flashed up on Viper's HUD. It was a circle with what looked like some sort of tree in it.

Alex frowned. "What use would this serve?"

"It'd work as a calling card." Ivy explained. "Wherever you go, whatever you destroy, you can leave this symbol behind you at the scene. Do this enough times and the Bandits will learn to fear you."

"…I don't know." Twilight said, rubbing her arm. "I don't like being feared…"

"Relax." Ivy assured her. "It'll make your task easier. Besides, it looks cool."

"We'll think about it." Viper said.

"Good. I'll contact you guys later, but until then, make sure that you get to Tornenhurst." With that, Ivy disappeared from the screen.

The group sat in silence, each thinking, with the radio going on in the background.

Viper could handle killing King. After all, he was a Bandit, through and through. He was [probably] just as bad as his minions. Her conscience wouldn't suffer for it.

On the other hand, there was the problem of the gun welding thing. Viper didn't like guns. She had seen a bigger version of them once before, and it had almost obliterated the art of Kung Fu. She was not keen on holding those sorts of items.

And yet, she had picked up two guns already, one because Alex had suggested it and the other because she wanted to sell it. And she couldn't survive on this planet without some decent firepower. But how could she incorporate guns into Kung Fu?

The other thing was the 'calling card'. That reminded Viper too much of this one criminal who left an asterisk wherever he murdered someone. Viper didn't want to descend down that that sort of level.

Giving up trying to figure out her thoughts, Viper turned her attention to the radio.

"Here at Scaleskin Industries," A confident-sounding man was saying. "We pride ourselves on making high-quality weaponry, vehicles and machinery. And now, you can enjoy that quality at a much lower price than ever before!

"For the next few weeks, whenever you buy a Scaleskin firearm from your nearest weapons dealer, you'll save a whopping twenty-five percent on your purchase. That's right, twenty-five percent! So buy a Scaleskin Industries gun today, and remember…"

Another, deep-voiced man said, "There is no safer manufacturer."

"…I'm heading to bed." Alex muttered, standing up and leaving.

"What about the…?" Twilight started.

"We'll talk about it in the morning." Bane said. "We should rest in the meantime. We have work to do tomorrow."

"Yeah." Viper realised. "We'll have to earn the trust of locals there as well."

"I wonder what menial tasks they'll have in store for us there." Alex said as he walked off.

Viper smiled at Twilight. "Goodnight."

Twilight smiled back. "'Night."

So Viper slithered away from the campfire and to her little hut. A few hundred thoughts were going through her head, but she managed to put them to rest as she entered through the door.

She jumped onto the bed (if it could be classified as a bed) and lied there. She briefly wondered what the inhabitants were going to be like and how they would react to them.

Tomorrow was going to be an eventful day.