Borderlands: Eden

by SirPotato

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Comedy
Length: 33770

Four unwilling treasure hunters search for Eden's mystical Tree.

An cold, professional warrior. A kind-hearted tree snake. A Spanish criminal superhuman. A naïve, well-meaning princess. Are these seriously the next people to hunt for Eden's mystical Tree? Contains unoriginal content, multiple crossovers and… to be honest, not much brony material. Read at your own risk.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-02-11 00:19:13 UTC

The Doctor is In

Insert copyright stuff here.

Borderlands: Eden

Part 3: The Doctor Is In

Alex (As the Shadow)

Oh, please.

Alex was fed up with his companions already. The moment Twilight had killed the Raiding Thug, she had collapsed to the ground crying. He knew that it was her first kill, but still. When he had killed for the first time, he hardly batted an eyelid.

It occurred to him that this was because he had gotten actual, military training, but he pushed that thought out of his mind. He was determined to stay bitter. He had every right to; he had just came back from a war and now he had to fight a different one, except against people who pretty much insulted his skill.

He was even paired with such people. So far, the only person who came across as an equal to him was Bane. Viper couldn’t even hold a gun and Twilight…

Alex looked at her. Yep, still crying.

Viper had slithered over, trying to console her. “It’s alright.” She said gently. “You had no choice.”

“I know… but…” Twilight choked.

Alex turned to Bane and gestured to Twilight. “What is she, a child?”

Bane grunted ambiguously.

Turning back to the two, Alex said, “Get her up.”

Viper glared at him furiously. “She needs to rest!”

“Can’t.” Bane said bluntly. “There’ll be more Bandits.”

“Can’t you two see-?!”

“I’m fine.” Twilight sniffed, when she quite clearly wasn’t. She stood up shakily.

“Good.” Alex said.

Bane picked up the Submachine Gun the Thug had dropped. The title card read Purebred Woodpecker. It was level one and the manufacturer logo appeared to be some sort of face with an overlarge moustache.

Egghead Inc. Alex decided.

Bane handed Twilight the gun. “Here.”

“I- I- !” Twilight backed away from it.

“Your kill, your trophy.” Bane said forcefully. “Besides, it was a good kill.”

Alex looked down at the Thug. There was a nice, clean hole in the middle of his helmet. The bullet appeared to have gone right between the eyes.

“Clean headshot.” Alex decided. He looked at Twilight. “If it makes you feel better…”

“It won’t.” Twilight retorted, holding the gun.

“…Then he probably didn’t feel a thing. He would’ve died the moment the bullet passed through the other side of his head.”

Twilight rubbed her arm, doing anything to avoid looking at the person she had just killed.

“Uh…” Claptrap rolled over. “Should we continue now?”

“Yes.” Viper said, still glaring at Bane and Alex. “Let’s go.”

“You’re injured.” Bane pointed out.

Viper looked at her tail. The bullet had blown the tip of her tail clean off. She was obviously disturbed by it.

“I’ll be fine.” Viper said.

“Ooo! I could take you to the town doctor!” Claptrap said.

“You have a doctor?” Twilight asked.

“It’s not that unusual.” Alex said.

“Yes! Assuming that the Bandits haven’t killed him yet, that is!” Claptrap said in his ever-present cheerful tone. “This way!”

Alex really hated these things.

He and the others followed Claptrap down the road, their weapons ready. They had wisely decided that there were going to be more Bandits, so they had to be prepared.

Alex was certainly prepared. He had stocked up on pistol ammo before he left for the planet. He had to spend his only galactic dollars on Thomas’s stock before he could, but it was probably worth it.

At the thought of Thomas, Alex’s bitterness increased. Why did he have to bring up Maleviolent? Why did he want to go this planet of all places just to make a measly profit? Why did he need Alex along for the ride?

He shouldn’t’ve agreed to this. He didn’t know why he did. Maleviolent would be just as sceptical about the Tree as he was. This whole journey was completely pointless. He had come to this dusty, sandy planet for nothing.

He almost didn’t see the Bandits.

Luckily, their presence was announced by Claptrap’s screaming of, “AH! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING I’VE EVER DONE!”

This pulled Alex back into reality. He spied about four normal Thugs and a Raiding Thug on the far side of what looked the town square. He whipped up his pistol and immediately shot the Raiding Thug through the head. Best to eliminate a problem before it gets out of hand.

Bane fired a bunch of rounds into about two of the thugs. He seriously looked like someone who had some sort of criminal or ex-military career in the past, definitely something that required killing.

“Hold on!” Twilight said, raising her Woodpecker. “Let me!”

Alex, at first, was pretty sure that she’d miss at the very last second. However, after a few seconds of aiming, Twilight fired a burst into a Thug’s chest, downing him instantly.

Alex found that he was slightly impressed. She still started crying, but at least she wasn’t sobbing.

Viper sped up to the last Thug. She flicked him into the air, then smashed him back down, breaking his neck. To Alex, she seemed like she had gotten professional training in some sort of martial arts. The fact that she didn’t use guns annoyed him though.

Bane turned to Twilight. “Good shot.”

“Thanks.” Twilight muttered. She was wiping tears out of her deep purple eyes. “Doesn’t make me feel any better, but thanks.”

Alex frowned at her. He guessed that she was some sort of witch or magician, because she radiated Pure Magic. Not Dark Magic, the type he had grown up with, Pure Magic.

He had taken an instant disliking of her the moment she stepped on the bus, and he was pretty sure she felt similarly.

To test this theory, he told her, “You take too long to fire.”

“Well, excuse me if I’m not used to killing people!” Twilight snapped.

Yep.

The Claptrap unit recovered from his meltdown and rolled over to the group. “Good work on killing those Bandits! Let’s go on!”

“In a moment.” Bane walked over to a container and prised it open.

“What’re you doing?” Viper asked.

“Looting.” Bane replied simply. “We’re going to need supplies, like ammo and money.”

“Stealing money?” Viper looked almost as uncomfortable as Twilight did when she was asked to kill someone. “Well… I guess if we have to survive…”

“Exactly.” Alex walked over to a chest with a glowing green light and opened it. He immediately found $10 and a bunch of shotgun shells. He picked them all up and stored them in the S-NET.

Twilight went to a cylindrical container and opened it. She hesitated for a good while before picking up some green notes and SMG ammo.

Viper slithered over a body and picked up some money. She did the same thing to another body before deciding that enough was enough.

After a bit more looting, during which Alex and Bane took most of the spoils, the group continued on.

“The doctor’s hut is just next to the football field!” Claptrap announced. “And that’s just over there! We’ll have your injures fixed in no time!”

“Bet they’ll be more Thugs.” Twilight muttered.

As the group walked down the street to the doctor’s hut, Alex looked up at the sun. It appeared that it was close to setting. Or it could be rising, Alex didn’t know which direction the sun set on this planet. He couldn’t even tell what hour it was due to the lack of a clock.

Alex blinked at that thought, then asked Claptrap, “Hold on. Why don’t these S-NET things have digital clocks?”

Claptrap turned to him and shrugged. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t built by the Scaleskin Corporation.”

“Then who were you built by?” Viper asked.

“I was built by the Hyperion Corporation!” Claptrap said proudly. “My product line was cancelled and all my brothers and sisters on Eden were killed by Bandits!”

This didn’t surprise Alex one bit.

“That’s horrible!” Viper proclaimed.

“Tell me about it!” Claptrap huffed. “If I sound pleased about this, it’s just because this is my default tone of voice. I’m actually quite depressed!”

“Let’s move on.” Bane said.

“That’s the football field?” Twilight asked, pointing to a square of solid rock. “It’s not even made of dirt! How is it safe?”

“It isn’t!” Claptrap said happily.

Twilight sighed. “I guess that can be expected.”

“Bandits.” Bane said, jerking a thumb to a hut on the other side of the field.

There were about three thugs, all gathered around the hut. They seemed engrossed in it. The hut in question had a giant medical ‘+’ on the top. It couldn’t be more obviously a place for healing if it had white paint on the hut.

Twilight sighed and readied her SMG. Alex held a hand up. “Wait. Let’s get in close.”

Twilight frowned in confusion, then in alarm when Alex pulled his sword off of the magnetized leg plate.

Seeing her expression, Alex rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. It’s no different from shooting them. They still die.”

“At the very least, don’t do anything too violent.” Twilight ordered.

Alex glared at her. “You have no authority over me.” And with that he walked towards the Thugs, ignoring Twilight’s protests.

As Alex closed in on the Thugs, he heard them talking to the hut door, presumably talking to the person inside.

“…We jus’ need all your bitches to come out to help us, ‘kay?” The one closest to the door was saying. “You don’ wan’ me to go get King, do ya? Open the door!”

Alex walked over to the one furthest from the door and cut off his head. The other Thugs took a moment to react. By the time the lead Thug had pulled out his pistol, Alex had slashed the throat of the other guy and whipped out his own gun to point at the Bandit’s head.

“Don’t move.” Alex said coldly. “If you shoot me, then my friends will shoot you back.”

On cue, Bane stood next to Alex and aimed his ASULT-RFL at the Thug.

On the other side, Twilight leaned up against the wall staring at the severed head while Viper looked away and tried to get Twilight to do the same.

The Thug gulped and put away his pistol. “O- Okay. Wha’d you want?”

“Your boss.” Alex said. “Tell him to stay out of the way of the Tree Hunters if he knows what’s good for him.”

The Thug’s eyes widened. “You fools are Tree Hunters?”

“Yes.”

A retching sound came from Alex’s left.

The Thug turned to the source and asked, “Even her?”

Alex closed his eyes and said through gritted teeth, “Yes. Even her.”

“Yup!” Claptrap rolled over. “These guys are certified Badasses, Bandit! That oughta teach you to attack us!”

The Thug snarled. “You losers are hangin’ with a Claptrap?!”

Alex pushed the barrel of his Revolution into the Thug’s forehead. “Focus.”

“Okay.” The Thug said quickly and fearfully. “I’ll give King your message. Can- can I go now?”

“Yes.” Alex said, grabbing the Thug and shoving him off. “Make sure you sound terrified.”

The Thug nodded quickly and ran off to a vehicle parked nearby. Alex saw that it was dark red, the same colour vehicle that had attacked them earlier. The Thug climbed in and drove off as fast as he could.

Bane frowned at Alex. “That was unwise. You just declared war.”

“It’s going to happen anyway, why delay it?” Alex muttered, putting his sword back on his leg and storing his gun in the S-NET.

Twilight had finished throwing up, meanwhile. She glared at Alex, wiping vomit off of her mouth.

Ignoring her, Alex rapped on the door of the hut. “Open up!”

No response. Of course. The doctor probably thought that they were more Bandits.

Claptrap rolled over to the door. “Attention, citizen of Bycroft! There is no cause for worry! These new visitors have eliminated the

threat!”

There was a bit more silence, then the door opened up and the doctor stepped out and looked at them all. He was wearing a brownish-white coat covered with blood splatters that covered a white shirt and red tie. He wore red surgical gloves and had a short-trimmed, black haircut. On his shoulder was the Red Cross.

“Vell,” The Medic said in his German accent, adjusting his glasses and grinning. “Zhis is intervesting.” (Get on the operating table)

“It is?” Bane asked.

“Of course!” Medic spread out his arms. “It’s been a long time since zhis town has had any visitors.”

“Can’t imagine.” Twilight grumbled.

Medic looked at her critically, noticing the puddle of vomit. “Stomach pains?”

“No.” Twilight shook her head. “I’ve just never seen a severed head before.”

Medic sighed. “Shame. You vould’ve made an interesting specimen.”

It took a moment for that to sink in for everyone.

“Specimen?!” Twilight spluttered.

“…Um… are you a doctor?” Viper asked.

“Vell, I lost my medical license after a certain… inzident.” Medic admitted. “But I do heal people who pay me vell. I alzo keep ze Med vendors working.”

“Right.” Alex muttered. He pointed at Viper’s tail. “How much would it cost to fix that?”

Medic looked at it. “Hmm. Zhat vould require surgery. Maybe… two hundred dollars.”

Alex looked around. “Do any of you have two hundred dollars?”

He was greeted with a collective shaking of heads.

“Great.” Alex muttered. “Well, guess you’ll just have to live with it then.”

Viper nodded. “Okay.”

“C’mon, doc!” Claptrap implored. “These guys killed all the Bandits in town! Plus, they’re Tree Hunters! You gotta help them!”

Medic’s eyes lighted up in a suddenly boosted interest. “Tree Hunters?! Vell, vhy didn’t you say so? Come in, meine freunde!”

Alex raised an eyebrow, then gestured for the others to follow.

The hut was full of cupboards with various bottles of liquids. Some looked like medicines while others were definitely poisons. In the middle of the room was an operating table with a fresh body on it.

Twilight and Viper stared at it.

“Zorry about ze mess.” Medic said, calmly pushing the body off of the table. “I’ve been trying to bring zhis body back to life, but it hasn’t been going vell.”

“Why would you want to bring it back to life?” Twilight asked, looking like she knew she’d regret asking.

“I need a test subject for my zombie virus.” Medic replied. “Somevun who von’t object, zat is.”

Viper turned around to slither back out, but she was blocked by Bane, who glared her back inside.

“Just lie here.” Medic said, patting the table. “Now, let me just find ze donor tail.”

“You have a spare snake tail?” Viper asked, lying down on the table.

“Not exactly.” Medic pulled a black, barbed tail end. “Zere are some Nightmares zhat live on zhis planet called Vhippers. Zey sort of resemble snakes. So ve’ll just attach zhis.”

“Whippers?” Bane asked, looking at Alex. “Anything we should know about them?”

“Yes.” Alex frowned at the tail. “Their tail is poisonous.”

Medic gestured to one of the bottles in the cupboards. “Don’t vorry. I extracted ze poison.”

“Even so… is it safe to attach the body part of a Nightmare to a non-dark creature?”

Medic chuckled eagerly. “Actually, I have no idea vhat vill happen! Zhis is all adrenalin-pumping!”

“You know what?” Viper said, grinning nervously. “I think I can survive without the tail. It’s no big deal.”

“Don’t vorry. I may not look like it, but I am a professional.” Medic assured her. “Now zen, miss…?”

“Viper. Actually, we haven’t asked your name yet.”

“Kristof Sankt.” Medic smiled like he was sharing a private joke. “But I vould prefer it if you called me by mein job title, Medic.”

“Well, looks like everything’s under control” Claptrap clapped his hands together. “I’m going to go tell the other townsfolk that everything’s safe!” He turned around and left.

Medic smirked. “I vish him luck. Last time I checked, zere were only three people living here. I vouldn’t be surprised if zey died or joined ze Bandits.”

“Only three?” Bane frowned. “What happened to everyone else?”

Medic got some bright red sewing thread. “Zey all died. Some of zem did join ze Bandits.”

“Sorry.” Alex said bluntly.

“No matter.”

“Why are you helping us?” Twilight asked.

“Because you are Tree Hunters.”

“Right. So why are you helping us?”

Medic raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Very vell, zen. You know how ze Tree is considered to be a myth?”

“You mean it is a myth.” Alex grumbled.

Medic ignored him. “Vell, ze people who hunt for ze Tree are responsible for most of ze trouble that ze W.A.R. has to put up vith.”

“There’s a war going on?” Viper winced as a threading needle penetrated through her skin.

“Nein. W.A.R. stands for Veapons und Armour Reservation. It’s a division of ze…”

“Buy n’ Large Corporation” Twilight said.

“Quite.” Medic nodded. “They put ze division in charge of maintaining law on zhis planet. Zey haven’t succeeded, but zey don’t really try to.”

“Let me guess.” Alex said. “Corrupt?”

“Maybe, alzough I suspect zat zey’ve simply given up.” Medic shrugged.

“So Buy n’ Large own the planet.” Twilight said angrily. “What else is new?”

“Anyvay,” Medic threaded through the last hole he had made and cut off the string. “Ze more trouble zat is caused by us, ze more often W.A.R. has to report to zeir superiors. Und ze more often zey get reports, ze more likely zey’ll consider leaving ze planet alone.”

“Is that good?” Alex asked.

“Ja.” Medic got a red syringe out of a drawer. “Zey treat everyvun on ze planet as Bandits, even zose who aren’t. Plus, zey demand zat ve pay bills.”

He pushed the syringe into Viper, ignoring her grimace, and injected about a third of the stuff into her.

“Zere ve go.” Medic said, satisfied. “Your body vill now treat zat tail like it vas never blown off.”

“…This is so weird.” Viper muttered, staring at her new, black tail.

“What’s that red stuff?” Twilight asked.

Medic held up the syringe. “Zhis is mein own concoction. It heals vounds of any type or size save for ze severing of limbs. Zo bullet vounds, blade vounds, etcetera.”

“…Can we have a few?” Bane asked. “We’re going to need them.”

“Nein, but you can buy zem from mein Med vendors.” Medic said. “Zey have all ze healing you can expect from a real doctor,

zankfully vithout ze ‘Tree-is-a-myth-you’ll-get-yourself-killed’ lecture.”

“That’s a shame.” Alex muttered. “I was hoping to find someone sane.”

At that, Medic laughed. “Good luck! Zere isn’t vun person on zhis planet zat isn’t insane! It’s an occupational hazard!”

Viper slithered down from the table. “Not one?”

Bane looked at Viper, as if remembering something. Then he asked Medic, “Something else.”

Medic raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“We need a way for her to hold a gun.” Bane pointed at Viper. “Do you know anyone who can help?”

“I don’t need a gun.” Viper protested.

“You can’t fight this whole planet close-quarters.” Alex replied. “That’s how you lost your tail.”

Medic tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Vell… if ze Engineer vas still here, zen he could build a pair of limbs… but no-vun here can build zomething like zat.”

“Do you know anyone who can?” Bane asked.

“Ja, but zey’re not anywhere near here.”

“That’s okay. I can wait.” Viper said.

Alex raised an eyebrow. She seemed really desperate to avoid guns.

“Well, are we done here?” Twilight asked awkwardly.

“Yup.” Alex said. “Let’s go.”

“Vere’re are you going?” Medic asked.

Bane frowned, then shrugged.

“This was your plan, coming here.” Alex said coldly. “You should know where we have to go next.”

“I suggest staying in Bycroft till tomorrow.” Medic said, gesturing to the darkening sky. “It’s getting late.”

“I agree.” Viper said. “We should take time to plan our next move.”

Alex frowned. He didn’t want to stay. He wanted to get going and avoid wasting any more time.

“Agreed.” Bane said finally.

“I’d like to rest on a bed.” Twilight said. “Any objections from you, Alex?”

“Yes.” Alex said bluntly.

“Majority vote.” Bane said. He turned to Medic. “Where do we stay?”

“Ask ze others. See who died and who didn’t.”

“Understood.” Looking at the others, he said, “Go on ahead. I need to ask the doctor some questions.”

Alex sighed irritably and followed the group. No sense going on his own.

Rest would be nice, but Alex just wanted to get this over and done with. He didn’t want to drag this on for any longer than he had to.

As they walked towards the town, a face appeared in the top right of his HUD. It was emerald green in colour, female and was clearly the same figure that had appeared earlier on the bus.

“Good work.” The figure said, smiling. “I knew I choose correctly.”

Viper jumped in alarm, then shook her head. “This place…”

“Who are you?” Bane asked over the radio.

“Seriously!!” Viper exclaimed, probably in alarm at hearing Bane’s voice come from nowhere. “What is with this place?!”

“I don’t have a proper name.” The figure said. “But you can call me Ivy, if you like.”

“I feel like I should know you.” Alex said.

“…No. We don’t know each other.”

“I know, but… I dunno.”

“You say that you want to help us.” Twilight said, stopping and folding her arms. “How’re you going to do that?”

“Advice. Directions. Information. That sort of stuff.”

“Do have any for us now?” Viper questioned.

“Yes: you’ll need the local’s help if you want to find the Tree.” Ivy said. “I’d suggest helping them with some of their problems.”

Alex groaned. “Labour?”

“They’ll pay you well for it, trust me.” Ivy assured him. “I’ll contact you again soon.”

She disappeared from the HUD.

The Tree Hunters looked at each other. Alex shrugged and kept walking. The others followed.

Eventually, they reached the town where they met Claptrap, who was standing there awkwardly not really doing anything.

“Uh… hey!” Claptrap scratched his head. “Um… the population’s a lot lower than I remember.”

“How many people are there?” Twilight asked.

“Uh… including us? Six.”

Alex did some calculations. “So there’s only one person in this town.”

“…Yeah.”

“You mean Medic?” Viper asked.

“Yeah.”

The others stood there in silence.

Alex shrugged. “Well then, any hut is fine. I’ll wake you guys in the morning.”

Alex walked to the nearest hut, opened the door and closed it. He then lied down on the bunk and looked at his interior.

It seemed relatively tidy. He could only find one thing that was arguable, and that was the calendar with the pin-up girls. So he promptly tore it down and threw it away somewhere.

Alex lied there for a while before standing up and deciding to go through the draws and boxes. The previous tenant of this place had managed to save about $40 and apparently owned a few rifles, because Alex found sniper rounds and assault rounds. Not much else from that.

Alex sighed and flopped down on the bunk. It had been an interesting first day.

With nothing else to do, he willed himself to fall asleep.

The next day

So like, eight or ten hours later

“Rise and shine, Tree Hunter!” An overly cheerful voice said into Alex’s ear.

Alex woke up immediately upon hearing that voice, but that didn’t mean that he wanted to open his eyes. So instead, he said, “Get out.”

“Don’t be like that!” Claptrap said. “You’ve got a whole new adventure today! Life’s a-waiting!”

He rolled out the door, so that was something at least.

Alex groaned and got up. No sense wasting time.

Activating his S-NET, he called the others. “Wake up. We’re going soon.”

Alex equipped his gun and walked outside. He leaned against a wall and waited.

He looked up at a watchtower to see Bane emerge from the hut at the top. He couldn’t see very clearly from this far, but he assumed that he had slept well. He briefly wondered what Bane had talked to Medic about.

On the other side of the street, Viper emerged from a hut blinking and rubbing her eyes with her tail. She jerked her tail away though, presumably due to it being barbed and everything.

From the door right next to him, Twilight emerged, rubbing her eyes and looking significantly dishevelled.

“A brush.” She muttered. “My kingdom for a brush.”

“It’s always about appearance with women, isn’t it?” Alex asked sarcastically.

Before Twilight could get too outraged, Viper shouted in alarm. Alex looked at where she was looking at.

Bane, for some incredibly moronic reason, had jumped off the watchtower.

Fully expecting him to smash into four million pieces upon impact, Alex backed up to avoid getting too much blood on his face. To his bewilderment though, Bane landed on the ground with little to no injuries.

This was sort of the final straw for Twilight and Viper, with the latter’s jaw dropping open like she was about to eat a mouse while the former backed up with her hand to her head.

“How… what…” She stuttered. “Not… possi…”

“This planet has weak gravity.” Bane explained. “We can jump from large heights without any injury.”

“…Interesting.” Alex was mildly impressed.

The girls took a while to recover from this latest mind-breaker (Twilight took longer and a bit of provocation from Alex). Once they did, they started suggesting ideas.

“I say that we get out of here.” Alex said. “The sooner we figure out what a waste of time this is, the sooner we can leave.”

“Ivy said that we should try to earn the trust of the locals.” Twilight disagreed. “So I say that we help Medic with whatever needs doing.”

“A waste of time.” Alex said.

“He might actually be able to help us.” Twilight said argued. “We don’t know.”

“I agree with Twilight.” Viper said.

“Thanks, Viper.” Twilight said gratefully. “Good to see that someone is open-minded.”

Alex scowled.

“Well, I think that we should help him out of the goodness of our hearts.” Viper said. “Not just a need for help.”

Alex looked at Bane. “What say you? We don’t even know if they can help us.”

Bane appeared to be thinking. He was definitely a tactician. Alex could practically hear the gears inside his brain whirring.

Finally, he spoke. “It’s worth the gamble. They would be grateful, after all.”

“Wonderful.” Alex muttered. “Outnumbered again.”

“Good.” Twilight said. “Let’s go see what we can do.”

Alex sighed as the others left for Medic’s hut. This was going to be a long quest.

Howlers at the Gate

Borderlands: Eden

Part 4: Howlers at the Gate

Bane (As the Crusher)

Bane did a quick analysis of his teammates as they headed to Medic's hut, wanting to make sure that they would be able to stay with him.

Alex seemed to be extremely competent, although his attitude needed severe working on, preferably via a pair of pliers and a beating. He was also completely disbelieving in the Tree's existence. Fool.

Twilight looked like she had recently graduated from high school in Bane's opinion. She was not fit for this type of work, but she had a grudging attitude that said that she was doing what she was doing because she had to, not because she wanted to.

Today, she had dark circles under her eyes, so Bane assumed that she had had nightmares last night. Good. Nightmares helped people toughen up.

Viper was the most unusual of the group, mostly because she was a snake. A talking snake at that. When he had first met her, her translator had acted up, so she had spoken a string of angry Chinese on the bus before becoming depressed. Other than that, she was extremely competent in martial arts.

All in all though, they were not the sort of people that Bane would have chosen ideally. Still, they were more tolerable than working with el payaso.

They would have to do though. If Bane was to get that treasure, then he needed their help. One person wouldn't be able to traverse this planet alone.

He had managed to increase his personal finances in what had been the Sniper's tower. He had collected some ammo and about $43. There had been a lone sniper rifle in the room, but long-range weaponry wasn't Bane's style. There had also been a small vial of red liquid that looked similar, but not the same as what Medic had used yesterday.

He wished he had gotten more money though. He needed to convince Medicto do his favour.

As they advanced towards Medic's hut, Bane pulled out his rifle, just in case more Bandits came by. Thankfully, there was no sound that suggested that.

When they reached the hut, Bane put away his rifle to remove any sense of hostility. He rapped on the door sharply. "Médico! It's us!"

"You're Spanish?" Alex asked.

"Is that a problem?" Bane asked as Medic opened the door.

"No." Alex shrugged. "Just something I should've picked up on."

"Ja, ja, fascinating." Medic was scowling, but Bane didn't think about that it was about their conversation. "Come in."

The Tree Hunters walked in. The dead body had disappeared completely, but nothing had been tidied up. Bane suspected that this was what his hut commonly looked like.

"So vhat do you vant?" Medic asked aggressively.

Twilight winced. "Is this a bad time?"

"Nein." Medic replied. "Vell, ja, but it's nothing zhat you should concern yourself about."

"Well, we came here to see if you needed anything doing." Viper said. "We figured that we should make ourselves useful."

"Vere to start?" Medic asked bitterly. "Zhis town has been nothing but bad luck for me and mein teammates."

Bane pinpointed the problem. "We… apologise for your fellow men."

"Don't be." Medic waved his hand. "Instead, convert your sorrow into hatred towards King."

"King." Alex frowned. "He's the Bandit leader?"

"Nein, he's just a lieutenant." Medic gripped the table. "But, Gott im Himmel, he vill feel mein wrath!"

"Just a lieutenant?" Alex's face fell. "You mean these Bandits have a chain of command?"

Medic raised his eyebrow. "Vhy vouldn't zey? If zey didn't, zen you'd have Bandits running all over ze place with no meaning or purpose."

"…I guess." Alex sighed.

"So who's the big boss?" Twilight asked.

"I believe it to be a man named Victor, or somezhing like zhat." Medic replied. "I don't know, I'm not a Bandit."

Bane frowned. "So… do you have any jobs for us?"

Medic looked thoughtful for a bit. "Vell… actually, ja. But it's no more zan pest control to be honest."

"Great." Alex muttered. "So it's trivial."

"What's the job?" Viper asked.

"Vell, zere's a pack of Nightmares zat live at ze front gate of ze town." Medic explained. "I don't believe zat zey have the right to be zere. Mein job for you lot is to get rid of them."

"A pack?"

"Right." Alex nodded. "Let's go then."

"Hold on." Bane said. He turned to Medic. "What do we get in return?"

Medic sighed. "Of course you vould ask zat question. Well, you'll be paid for it. I don't have much, but I believe I can spare $20 for each of you."

Twilight shrugged. "That's reasonable I guess."

"Go on outside." Bane said. "I need to speak to el médico for a moment."

Bane ignored the curious looks of his comrades and waited for them to leave. Indeed, he waited until he could see them at the opposite side of the football field before he closed the door.

"I'm assuming zat zhis is about your request?" Medic asked.

"You said yourself that you can make chemicals." Bane said. "This is no different."

"True… true. But vhat do I get in return?"

"We'll do tasks for you, no matter how menial. On top of that, we'll kill King for you."

Medic blinked, then grinned. "Now you are speaking mein language." He then frowned in thought. "It'll be difficult zough."

"I know." Bane said simply.

Medic grinned sadistically. "Very vell, zen. If I am satisfied vith you lot, zhen I vill try to make zhis 'Venom'. I vill need the formula zough."

Bane nodded. "Do you have something to write with?"

Medic nodded and gave him a pen. After shaking it a few times, Bane wrote down the formula.

"I previously took a much stronger drug than this." Bane said. "But it gave me permanent memory loss, so I can't guarantee the accuracy of this formula."

"Zat's fine." Medic looked at it interestedly. "It looks potent. I don't know if I can get a hold of ze ingredients, zough. I'll see vhat I can do."

"Thank you." Bane nodded.

Babe walked outside to find the other Tree Hunters waiting patiently for him.

"What did you talk to him about?" Twilight asked.

Ignoring her, Bane walked to the front of the group and said, "Let's go."

Alex nodded and drew his pistol. Viper followed and Twilight grumbled, pulling out her SMG.

As they walked towards the gate, Alex started grumbling. "I can't believe that we're running pest control. This is just incredibly…"

"These Nightmares are dangerous, aren't they?" Twilight asked scathingly. "Isn't that actiony enough for you?"

"Actiony?!" Alex snapped. "What the hell does that even mean?!"

"Quiet." Bane ordered. "We accomplish nothing by arguing."

The group reached the gate in silence.

Before they exited, Bane turned to Alex. "What do you think these 'Nightmares' will be like?"

Alex frowned in thought. "Well… Medic said that there was a pack of them. So that narrows it down to about two possibilities…"

"Which are?" Viper looked around outside.

Bane looked around as well. There were several dugouts in the rock that were like miniature caves.

"There's Rippers." Alex looked at the dugouts. "But judging by those caves, I'd say that we're up against -"

A shrieking howl interrupted him.

Bane spun around in the direction of the howl. On top of one of the dugouts was a dark blue wolf-like creature. Its eyes were bright yellow and vicious, while its teeth were about as sharp as a cutlass. It was small in stature, a bit like a puppy. Several strands of barbed wire poked out of its skin like stubble.

The Pup Howler shrieked again, alerting the rest of its friends. (Secretly in love with the moon)

"…Howlers." Alex finished.

The Pup Howler jumped down and ran towards the adventurers. Bane dispatched it with a few rounds of his ASULT-RFL, but its friends had crawled out of their dens, blinking in the sunlight and glaring at the Tree Hunters.

Viper readied herself. "This is going to be tough."

Alex pulled out his pistol. "They'll howl when they get angry. Take advantage of that."

Twilight aimed down her sights. "Sorry Fluttershy…"

Alex blinked. "Who and what?"

He paid for his distraction with a Howler jumping on his face. He snarled as he hit the ground and stabbed the Howler through the throat and shot at a few more Pups.

Bane shot a bunch of Pups as they ran towards him in single file. One managed to get close to him, so he kicked it away and shot it in the face.

Twilight seemed to be having an easier time killing today. She didn't start openly crying, she just did what she had to do and shot at the Pups. She quickly switched to her Handgun, presumably to save ammo.

Viper was actually doing pretty well. She didn't have any gunfire to avoid, so she was doing well with the horde of Howlers, snapping necks and kicking Pups into other Pups.

After a few more kills, the group had finished with the pack.

Twilight wiped blood off of her face. "Was that it?"

"Looks like it." Viper said. "Why do they look like wolves on Earth, though?"

"I don't know." Alex said. He turned to Twilight. "Who's Fluttershy?"

Bane noticed something poking out of a Howler's mouth. On closer inspection, it looked like the butt of a gun. He ripped it out.

"…Ew." Viper winced. "What's that?"

Bane looked at the gun. It was a civilian shotgun, single-barrelled. Like Twilight's Handgun, the gun was a dull grey and it was scratched all over. The title card read 'Crit-Boosted Shotgun'. It was Level 2, white in rarity and it was made by Scaleskin Ind.

"It's called a shotgun." Bane explained. "It fires a spread of pellets instead of a single bullet."

Twilight looked interested. "Huh. Is it powerful?"

"At close range, yeah." Alex said. "But at long range…"

"The pellets would've spread out too far and thin to be of any physical effect." Twilight nodded.

"Good to see that you understand this stuff."

A low growl alerted them to another threat.

Bane turned around to see another Howler on top of the den, but it was bigger than the Pups, the barbed wire had grown to wrap around its body and it was also rather fat.

The Adult Howler jumped down and growled again. (Level 5)

"…Erm…" Alex started backing away. "I think we found the mother."

"Is it pregnant?" Viper wondered aloud.

"No matter." Bane raised his new shotgun.

This movement prompted the Adult into rushing Bane and knocking him back a bit.

Dazed, Bane shook the stars out of his vision, got up and started firing.

This thing seemed to be able to absorb bullets like a sponge, because the others were firing heaps of bullets into it to no avail. Alex was scoring headshot after headshot, but he eventually cursed. "Out of ammo!"

Twilight was switching between SMG and pistol, panicking and running whenever the Howler ran for her. Viper wasn't having much luck with her melee strategy, as the thing was hard to approach. Alex, without much of a choice, ran in for sword slashes.

Bane shot at the Howler again and again, to little avail though. The creature seemed to have a tough hide that was difficult to get through.

Eventually, Twilight ran out of ammo as well and she cursed in anger. It was then that Bane realised that Twilight needed a melee weapon, like Viper needed a way to shoot a gun.

The creature wised up to the melee antics and kicked Viper and Alex away, sending them sprawling. It then walked towards Bane slowly.

He kept firing at it, since it was bleeding all over. It couldn't have that much health left by now.

The Howler snarled at him as he reloaded and howled into the air.

Seeing an unguarded spot underneath its face, Bane spotted his opportunity, switched to the rifle and fired six rounds into the monster's head.

The bullets passed straight through the Howler's brain and out the other side of its head. It staggered for a bit before falling to the ground, dead.

Alex and Viper staggered up and looked at the body.

"…Seeing how that thing reaches up to Alex's chest in height," Viper said. "That was a lot harder than it should've been."

"Good work, Bane." Alex muttered. "Screw you, Twilight."

"What?!" Twilight burst. "What on Eque- Eden did I do?!"

"You stopped attacking once you ran out of ammo!" Alex snapped.

"I don't have a weapon for close combat!" Twilight shouted furiously.

Alex opened his mouth, closed it, frowned, then said, "Good point."

"We'll figure out that problem later." Bane said.

"Hey guys…" Viper frowned at the corpse. "Some money fell out."

The group looked at the dead Howler to see that indeed, some money had fallen out of its mouth, along with some ammunition.

"Huh." Twilight frowned. "Maybe it ate some Bandits."

"Shame that it didn't eat a weapon." Alex said.

"…Shall we go get paid?" Bane asked.

"Yeah…" Viper frowned. "I feel like a mercenary."

"Don't worry about it." Alex said. "A few weeks in this place and the distinction between soldier and mercenary will disappear entirely."

"Oh, wonderful. You're clearly a fountain of inspiration."

The group walked back into Bycroft, wiping Howler blood off of their bodies. They had looted the corpses and arrived back in Bycroft significantly wealthier.

When they got to Medic's hut, they found him tying a noose to the roof of his front porch and measuring it as well.

He scowled as they approached, but not at them. "Um Gotteswillen. A mere two inches."

"Sorry?" Twilight asked.

"King's noose." Medic explained without turning around. "It's two inches too long."

"…Right." Alex shook his head. "Well, before you embark on an odyssey of revenge, could you pay us for completing the task?"

Medic looked at them and saw the blood on their clothing.

He blinked. "You did it? You killed ze Howlers?"

"Yeah." Viper smiled. "It was… difficult, but we did it."

Medic looked at them and smiled. "Vell… I'm a man of mein word. Hold on a minute."

He walked back into his hut and came back with four wads of money. When Bane received his, he did a quick count to find that he was a dollar off. He shrugged. It was close enough.

"Thanks." Twilight said respectfully.

"Muchas gracias." Bane said, storing the money away.

"Thank you." Viper had some difficulty putting the money away due to her lack of arms.

"Appreciated." Alex said simply.

"Your velcome." Medic nodded. "By ze way… could you do me anozer favour?"

Bane nodded.

"What do we get for this one?" Alex asked immediately.

Medic smirked. "Vell, I can't offer you money… but I can offer you a free shield."

"A shield?" Twilight asked. "I don't know if that and a gun would work in conjunction…"

"An energy shield." Medic corrected her. "It forms an invisible barrier avound you and protects you from solid objects, like bullets, rockets, rocks, and ze like."

"…Sounds interesting." Viper said. "And useful. What do we have to do?"

Medic gestured for them to follow him round the back. They did and found a vending machine with a cartoon, anthromorphic syringe on the front. It looked like a recent car-crash victim. On the side, it read 'Medizin-Verkauf' in stylish writing.

"Zhis is a Med Vendor." Medic explained. "I earn most of mein profits from selling medical equipment from zese."

"Cool." Twilight looked at it. "How does it work?"

"I'll show you vhen you fix it." Medic replied.

Bane raised an eyebrow.

"It vhas broken during ze Bandit raid yesterday." Medic said. "Fortunately, it only needs a new power coupling, and ve have an old vendor on ze outskirts of ze town. Your job is to get the coupling from ze old machine and place it on zhis vun. Can you manage zat?"

"Sounds easy enough." Viper said. "Is it anywhere near a Howler den?"

"Not zat I'm avare of." Medic replied.

"Right." Alex nodded. "We'll be right back. Let's go."

The gang walked back outside the town, avoiding the Howler corpses.

Twilight looked up at the sky and frowned. "Hey, does anyone know how long the days last around here?"

"Somewhere around eight or ten hours." Bane replied. "We don't have to worry about daylight running out anytime soon."

"Which way's the old machine?" Viper asked, looking left and right.

"Let's try the left first." Alex said. "That way, if we have to go back, it'll be a short trip."

The Tree Hunters proceeded to the left, searching for the med vendor. They all had their guns out, just in case some Howlers were nearby.

A couple of minutes passed before they saw a rectangular prism lying down in front of a fence. They approached the med vendor, satisfied that they found it.

"What does a power coupling look like?" Twilight asked.

"Like a long tube." Alex replied. "It'll be glowing."

"So it's that thing." Viper poked a blue rod on the side of the med vendor.

"Yeah."

Bane reached for it when he heard a soft sound. It was a car engine, an engine that sounded way too similar to the engines of the Bandit vehicles.

And it was getting louder.

The gang spun around to see two of the Bandit vehicles rushing up to them. Each one had three Thugs clinging to it, whooping crazily and brandishing guns.

"Off the road!" Alex yelled, diving to the left and onto the dirt. Bane rolled to the side as well and Twilight jumped on top of the vendor. Viper simply flattened down, and the vehicles zoomed right over her.

The Bandit Speedies did some screeching U-turns in order to try and run over our heroes again. (Gotta go fast!)

The excess Thugs jumped off, half of which were Raiding Thugs, who welded SMGs. They immediately started firing at the Tree Hunters while the Speedies rushed forward in an attempt to hit something alive.

This turned out to be bit of a mistake, as Viper jumped up onto one Speedie and hit the driver in the face. She then bit him in the neck, smashed his head into the steering wheel and dived into the other Speedie.

Bane saw this as a good opportunity to test his new shotgun against Bandits. He fired at a Thug a few times. It took a bit due to the pellet spread, but the Thug did fall dead eventually.

Alex, meanwhile, had shot the Raiding Thug and the other normal Thug both in the head without much effort. It honestly looked like it was too easy for him.

Twilight whipped out her pistol and shot the last Raiding Thug over and over again until he fell dead. Bane was impressed by how far she had come, and in such a short time.

Hearing a crash, Bane turned to see Viper land from jumping out of the last Speedie before it crashed.

"That wasn't too much of a spectacle, was it?" She asked.

"Dunno." Alex replied. "We were paying attention to something else."

Bane noticed that Viper was holding a gun in her tail. "What's that?"

"I stole it from the driver." Viper replied. "It was to stop him from shooting me."

"You may as well keep it." Alex said. "If just to tell people that you have a gun."

Medic's voice came on over the radio. "I heard zome shots outside. Is everything…?"

"We're fine." Twilight assured him. "We were just attacked by some Bandits, that's all."

"Hm… ho, ho, ho!" Medic chuckled. "Looks like you got under King's skin. Vhich is good! He knows zhat his end is coming!"

"…Right." Alex said when Medic left the radio conversation. "Why does he think that we'll kill King?"

"Because I told him we will." Bane replied, walking over to the vendor.

Twilight and Viper's eyes widened. "What?!"

"Well, that figures." Alex said drily. "Why did you commit us to this without consulting us?"

"I need something from him." Bane took the coupling off of the vendor.

"YOU need something from him?!" Twilight shouted. "What about us?! What do we get?!"

"You get assurance that we get to the Tree." Bane replied.

"You should've told us first!" Viper snapped. "What if we can't?"

"We will."

"And if we don't want to?"

Bane regarded her coldly. "I am here to claim a prize. I don't care what you say, I will make sure that will happen no matter what."

"What do you get if you do?" Alex asked.

"Complete dominance of the criminal underworld."

"Oh, so you're a criminal, are you?" Twilight demanded. "Explains a lot."

"And what do we get?" Viper asked angrily. "Assuming that you want all of that treasure."

"We will split it." Bane replied. "You two will get enough to get home. I'll take the rest."

"This is assuming that the Tree exists." Alex grumbled. "Look, we got the coupling, let's just get back, okay?"

The girls glared at the other two for a while before grudgingly following them. The guys ignored them.

Trudging back in silence, they found Medic testing his noose with a dead Howler from the front. He pushed the body off of the roof and its neck broke with a sickly snap.

The girls winced.

"Perfect!" Medic said, climbing off of the roof. "An excellent length!"

"Why's he using a…? Never mind." Alex shook his head.

"Médico!" Bane shouted, holding up the coupling.

Medic turned to the Tree Hunters, saw the coupling and grinned. "Wunderbar! Follow me."

Around the back, Medic gestured to the machine. "Just take out ze old coupling and replace it."

Bane did so, throwing away the broken part and placing the new coupling in the machine. Immediately, it glowed to life.

"Good, good!" Medic nodded. "Now zen, you asked how zhis vurks, Fräulein Sparkle?"

"Yeah." Twilight frowned. "Actually, did we ever get around to telling you our names? How'd you know mine?"

"Herr Bane told me." Medic replied.

"Oh." Twilight glared at Bane. "Another thing he didn't tell us about."

Bane ignored her.

Medic looked back and forth between them, detecting some anger between them. "Erm… anyvay, you press zhis button here," Medic pointed to a green button on the vendor. He pressed it and a holographic display opened up. "And zere you go!"

"Is your blood entirely out of your body?" The machine said in a pre-recorded voice belonging to Medic. "Zen step right up!"

"Huh." Twilight looked at it. "A projection."

"It's called a hologram." Alex said irritably.

"From zhese machines, you can buy Heath Vials, Shields and I'm thinking of adding anozer product to zhese… speaking of shields zough…" Medic made some sweeping motions into the hologram, moving through the tabs until he got to one marked 'Payment'. On it were four pictures of some shields.

"Those are ours?" Viper asked.

"Ja."

Bane read the title card. The shield was called a 'SL-DG Standard Good Shield'. It was Level 2 and was white in rarity. The next one was the same and so were the other two.

"Sorry about ze lack of variety." Medic apologised. "WAR is running a monopoly on ze health and gun trading. Business isn't going so vell."

"So that's why you want Buy n' Large out of here."

"Ja."

Bane purchased a shield from the vendor, prompting another pre-recorded message: "Zat'll keep you alive for a bit longer!"

The others brought their shields immediately after. They watched Alex apply his shield in a similar way to how he applied his S-NET device, except he put it on his waist. Bane shrugged and attached his to his left bicep. Viper sighed and applied hers on top of her S-NET. Twilight put hers on the other side of her hip.

When he applied the shield, his HUD flashed with the words 'Optimising shield display module'. When it was done, a blue bar flashed on top of his health bar with the number 120 on it. Presumably, that was how much power it had in it.

"I'll try to stock mein machines with better products, but for now, you have zose." Medic said.

The group said their thanks.

"Don't mention it." Medic waved his hand. "Danke, though. I'll tell you ven I need somezing else zat needs doing."

"Very well." Alex looked at the others. "What now?"

Twilight shrugged. "Dunno. Relax, I guess."

"Will do." Viper sighed. "Hey Twilight? Want to talk in my house?"

"Sure." The girls left the hut.

Alex looked at Bane. "Did you have any guns in your cabin?"

"A sniper rifle." Bane replied.

"Belonging to vun of mein late friends, no doubt." Medic said. "Incidently… vhat is ze name of ze gun?"

Bane frowned. "It was made by a company called 'Mann Co.'"

Alex shuddered. "Those idiots have set up shop here?"

"Most of mein team's… mein late team's weapons vere made by Mann Co." Medic explained. "Vhat rarity is it?"

"…Green." Bane said after a bit of thinking.

"Zen it is fine." Medic said to Alex. "You can have it. Sniper had no love for zat particular rifle."

"Good." Alex said, smiling a bit. He left the hut.

"Now, Bane, before you go…" Medic said.

"Yes?" Bane turned to Medic.

"I know vere to find ze chemicals zat you need."

"Excellent." Bane smiled.

"But I can't get to zem."

The smile evaporated immediately. "…How do we get to them?"

"Vell, zat's the thing. You can't either."

Bane glared at Medic for an explanation.

"You see," Medic sighed. "Zere's anozer village nearby, vun of robots."

"A village of robots…" Bane said.

"Ja. It's called Tornenhurst. Zere's also a WAR research facility nearby as vell. It has ze chemicals zat I need."

Bane nodded.

"So, ze robots can somehow get in and out vithout getting noticed. Zat is how you can get your chemicals. But it's not just you zat needs somezing from zem." Medic said.

"Oh?" Bane asked.

"I remember zat vun of zem is rather good at mechanics. He could probably build a vay for your serpentine friend to hold a gun."

"Anything else?" Bane asked.

"Vun of zem knows a bit about elemental veaponry. That's it really."

Bane raised an eyebrow. "Elemental weaponry?"

"He'll explain." Medic said. "If you survive, zat is. Zey don't really take kindly to humans."

Bane frowned. "So we'll have to gain their trust."

"Unfortunately. It vill take time."

"We have plenty of that." Bane assured him. "Shall we go as soon as possible?"

Medic laughed nervously. "Ha, ha… nein. Zey vere attacked by Bandits a few days back… zey're probably still twitchy. My recommendation is to vait until tomorrow, zen go and meet zem."

Bane nodded and turned to leave. "Understood."

Medic blinked and added, "Ze biggest obstacle vill most likely be ze guard. Be vary."

Bane walked outside. "Muy bien."

Blinding King

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.

Bonus 1: Alex's Quotes

Alex

Killing People in Rapid Succession

• Goodnight.

• And now, you die.

• To Hell with you.

• Farewell your souls.

Critical Kill

• Headshot.

• (chuckles) Sucker.

• Eh. Probably didn’t feel a thing.

• Efficient and clean.

Spotting a Badass

• Good. A challenge.

• We have a badass.

• This’ll be fun.

• Watch out! Badass!

Killing a Badass

• Now that was an opponent!

• Well, that was fun.

• (laughs)

• Nothing like a little challenge.

Entering Fight-For-Your-Life

• Oh, no you don’t…

• No! Not now, not today!

• I’ll get you for this…

• Huh… so this is death I’m feeling.

Being Revived

• (sighs) I guess I owe you now, then?

• Thank you.

• Appreciated.

• I could’ve saved myself… thanks.

Second Wind

• NOW you pay!

• Prepare for a world of hurt!

• And now… my revenge.

• Gods never die! …This reflects badly on me, doesn’t it?

Reviving Someone

• Get up.

• You won’t die today.

• This is what I get for believing in you…

• Hold on, there.

When Joining a Game

• Let’s just get this over with…

• Okay, we’re going to fight someone tough, right?

• I’m ready.

• Let’s see who gets more kills, shall we?

When Issuing a Duel

• Fight me. I dare you.

• Shall we see who the better fighter is?

• I challenge you.

• One-on-one?

Duel Win

• The result was predictable.

• Don’t feel bad. Happens to everyone.

• A worthy fight.

• You did well. You lost, but you did well.

Duel Tie

• Whoa, whoa… back up, what?

• This… hasn’t happened before.

• Huh.

• Well, that’s a shame.

Duel Loss

• Dammit!

• Impressive.

• I- I- I’m not in the zone right now. That’s all.

• …Never mention this to anybody.

Spotting Items

• Well, well, well.

• (short laugh) Worthy of my personal armoury!

• Interesting.

• Now this is a tool.

Summoning Archeaus

• Rise, Archeaus!

• Archeaus! Destroy them!

• I summon Archeaus!

• Little help?

When Archeaus Kills Someone

• Good work, Archeaus!

• Ouch.

• And now you know why I don’t summon him too often.

• That’s right. Go nuts.

When Archeaus Dies

• Well… crap.

• Huh… Didn’t know that was possible.

• We’re on our own, now!

• That is not a good sign.

When Time Runs Out/When You Recall Archeaus

• Dismissed.

• You may return to Hell, now.

• Excellent, Archeaus. You’re free now.

• Job done.

Throwing a Grenade

• Grenade out!

• Heads up!

• Catch.

• Clearing them out!

Levelling Up

• I feel my power increasing…

• Excellent.

• This just got more fun.

• *yawn* I’m going to need stronger enemies.

Ramming Enemies While Driving

• Get out of my way!

• Move it or lose it!

• How does my bumper taste?

• *chuckles*

Ramming Another Player While Driving

• Dammit! I’m going to have to clean that…

• Oops.

• Well, maybe if you hadn’t been staying still…

• Erm… sorry about that.

Idle

• I usually have to spend a lot of time staying still when tracking down a target… but this is just ridiculous.

• It’s at times like these when I wonder why the hell I came to this planet…

• Why am I just standing still? Is it winter, or has my armour locked up, what?

Completing a Challenge

• That’s one hurdle behind me.

• Done. What’s next?

• That was easy. Fun, though.

Looking at the Inventory

• Let’s see…

• Doesn’t this just feel bitchy.

• Alright, pros and cons…

Looking at the Map

• Alright, where am I?

• So the objective is there, and I’m here, so…

• Lot of ground to cover. Should be fun.

Trading

• I have something that you might like.

• So… what’s in your backpack?

Respawning

• Bloody hell…

• That was downright embarrassing.

• Goddammit.

• I… I don’t even…

Aquiring Alex’s Own Hunting Rifle

• Yes… I have missed you…

Two Jobs for Freddy

Borderlands: Eden

Part 6: Two Jobs for Freddy

Twilight (as the Princess)

Twilight did not get a restful sleep.

She had spent the majority of the night thinking about her new gun, the one that shot fire. She couldn’t believe that she had killed someone in such a painful way. She knew that the guy probably deserved it, but still… how much had that hurt?

Then there was the company that made the gun. ‘Sparkle Conglomerate’. Not only did they use her Cutie Mark, they also used her last name as part of theirs. Finally, the name of the weapon was friendly and revolved around the very concept of friendship, much like where she came from. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Who were these guys? What was the connection to her? Why did the gun shoot fire? Why would they choose such an ironic name? How long would it take her to go insane in this place?

So when Alex called her on the S-NET, told her to get up because they were leaving in twenty minutes, she got up in the foulest mood she’d ever experienced for herself.

She dragged herself out of the too-big bed she had found and groaned. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she picked up her S-NET, attached it to herself, strapped on her kukri and grabbed a can of Howler meat for breakfast.

She forced herself to eat it, desperately ignoring the fact that she was once a herbivore and this went against all her evolutionary responses. She managed to eat it after telling herself, ‘This is what you have, and this is what you eat.’

After meeting with the others, they had set off to the sound of Claptrap (“Good luck, travellers! Please don’t die!”) and Medic (“Good luck, Söldners!”) wishing them luck. Then, they headed back out into the desert. The Howlers left them alone aside from the occasional growl and the Bandits had abandoned the post that the Tree Hunters had attacked the day before.

As they passed under the makeshift tent, Alex took off his sword and started scratching into the road.

The others stopped and looked at him questionably as Alex dug into the concreate and drew a circle with a line down the middle and a rectangle down that.

Alex reattached his sword and stared at the Tree Symbol. “Well… fear will make them a tad easier to fight. Let’s see if this works.”

Then they continued down the path to Tornenhurst.

As they walked down the road, Twilight took a moment to consider her teammates again. Bane and Alex were silent, as per usual. Twilight guessed that anti-sociality was part of their previous lifestyles, which she assumed involved killing. After all, they seemed so easy with it. Twilight only killed because she’d die otherwise.

Viper was good at killing too, but she, like Twilight, wasn’t eager to do so. That’s what Twilight like about her. She seemed to be the only one in the group who understood emotions beyond coldness and anger. She was also had standards, as Twilight learnt yesterday.

Twilight looked at Viper. She still shivered as she did so, but she was getting used to working with her. She was just as nice as her other friends, who were probably worried out of their minds because she’d been gone for three whole days.

Twilight shook her head, trying to get those memories out of her head. She didn’t want to get depressed. She was going to see them again.

Deciding to start up conversation, she turned to Viper. “You know… I forgot to say yesterday.”

“Hmm?” Viper looked up.

“You stood up to them pretty well yesterday.” Twilight said, smiling. “Pretty brave, saying that you’d leave.”

“And I would’ve.” Viper nodded. “But I doubt it would’ve had as much effect if you hadn’t joined in.”

“It wouldn’t’ve.” Alex muttered from the front. “Twilight’s the only reason we didn’t kick you out.”

Bane grunted in agreement.

The girls ignored them.

“So thanks,” Viper said. “Thanks for helping me.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So… what was your life like before this?” Viper asked.

“Um…” Twilight scratched her head. She didn’t want to just say that she was a princess. After all, she

didn’t want to seem like she was bragging. “I lived in this town…”

“Bane…” Alex nudged said wall of muscle. “You think that’s it, up there?”

Twilight turned to where Alex was looking. At the top of a hill was a small hut with a figure at the top. Connected to the hut was a fence that went in a circle around what Twilight assumed was a small, hidden village.

“Probably just the entrance.” Bane replied.

“…I don’t see any doors.” Viper pointed out.

“Probably to stop the Bandits.”

“Who’s the guy up there?” Twilight frowned.

“Let’s go find out.” Alex said, continuing his path.

As they neared the hut and Tornenhurst, Twilight could see that the fence was dotted with messages that she couldn’t make out at the current distance. The figure looked like he or she was slumped forward, sleeping even. There were also a few metal rods with human skulls jammed onto them.

“…Urrg.” Twilight groaned.

“Well… it keeps the Bandits away.” Viper said.

When they were at the gate, Twilight could read the messages clearly. They read dark things such as ‘GO AWAY’, ‘PIS OFF’ and ‘Do u want piza?’ There were some other, more threatening messages, but most of them were incoherent, save for one message, right at the top of the fence.

“‘This is the entrance to Tornenhurst.’” Twilight read aloud. “‘Stay away if you like having limbs.’”

“Joyful.” Alex said sarcastically.

“Perfect grammar and punctuation on that one.” Twilight noted. “Promising.”

“Except for the ‘having limbs’ part.”

Twilight looked at the prone figure. It was slumping forward in a chair with a shotgun by its side. It seemed to be covered in a red felt-like material from the top and a brown material down the bottom.

The stuff was ripped in several places though, including the entirety of its bottom legs, revealing a metal frame that Twilight assumed was this… thing’s version of a skeleton.

It had a hook in favour of a right hand and its head resembled a fox. One of its eyes had a metal eye patch covering it and its jaw was hanging open loosely. Its ‘fur’ had faded from sun exposure and the lower half of its body was dotted with sand.

“What is this thing?” Twilight asked the group at large, walking towards the thing.

“An animatronic.” Bane said. “They use them for entertainment.”

“They’re pretty much robots, except they can’t think for themselves.” Alex tapped the creature on the head and lifted up a panel on the back. “This one doesn’t have an AI chip, so it can’t be controlled.”

“So it’s broken?” Viper asked.

“Looks like it.”

“Is it possible that the village is populated by animatronics?” Bane asked. “Médico said that this was a village of robots.”

“Well… there was this incident on the planet where I was born…” Alex looked thoughtful. “There was this restaurant that sold tacos… one of their animatronics became self-aware.”

“Tacos?” Viper tilted her head to the side.

“A type of food.” Twilight explained.

“Yeah… so their robot realised that he was only designed to sell fast food, became depressed and so he killed himself.” Alex said bluntly. “Pretty traumatizing for the kids at the time.”

“…Dark.” Viper winced.

“But in answer to your question, I doubt it though.” Alex shrugged. “Animatronics are extremely simple in terms of intelligence. It’d be extremely rare for one animatronic to become self-aware, let alone a whole village.”

Twilight lifted the head of the animatronic. Its jaw was filled with sharp, dangerous-looking plastic teeth with a secondary set of teeth inside the mouth. The eye that wasn’t obscured by the eye patch looked dull and was cracked.

“Looks like nothing can survive on this place without getting damaged.” Twilight said.

The moment the last word escaped her lips, the eye lit up.

The robot moved so fast that Twilight couldn’t react in time. Its hooked hand pierced her shirt and lifted her up while the other hand grabbed the shotgun and pointed it to her face, all the while shooting straight up from sitting to standing.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she was lifted into the air. She grabbed the hook, trying to find something to balance herself with. From her left, she heard Viper’s cry of alarm while also hearing the sounds of a pistol cocking and a shotgun pumping.

The creature spun around to face them, giving them a perfect view of Twilight’s back as she was whirled around.

“Git outta ‘ere, ye land-lubbers!” Foxy snarled, pressing the barrel of the shotgun up against Twilight’s head. “Not unless ye want ye friend to lose a head!” (Yar, Har, Fiddily De!)

“Let her go.” Twilight heard Alex say from behind.

“Only when Oi can’t see ye no more!” Foxy snapped back. “Git goin’!”

“We haven’t done anything to you!” Viper shouted.

“Ye’ve intruded upon this place! That’s wot ye’ve done wrong!”

“Let her go now, or we will shoot you.” Bane said coldly and clearly.

“Sure.” Twilight could hear the sneer in Foxy’s voice. “Go ‘head. Me crew will just attack ye back, ye thievin’ scallywags!”

“Thieving-?!” Viper spluttered. Then she seemed to understand, because the next thing she said was, “No, no, we’re not Bandits. We’re Tree Hunters.”

“Sem bloody difference!” Foxy replied. “Everyone tries to kill us, including ye fancy-pants ‘Tree Hunters’! Now git away from ‘ere!”

That went well. Twilight thought sarcastically, trying to kick Foxy in order to make him let go. He barely reacted though.

“Okay, listen.” Alex said. “We’re not like the Tree Hunters you’ve seen previously.”

“How so?”

“We’re not assholes.” (Twilight rolled her eyes) “We just want to help you. We don’t want to kill you all. We just want jobs.”

“Oh yeah? Then why’ve ye still got ye guns out?”

“That’s a good point.” Alex replied. The sound of the gun digistructing back into the S-Net followed his statement. “Bane? If you could put away your gun.”

After bit of a delay, there was another digistructing sound.

“…Ye actually did it.” Foxy sounded surprised, confused even. “That’s never happened before.”

“Can you let her go now?” Alex asked.

Twilight really hoped that Foxy was going to say yes. This position was starting to get uncomfortable.

After a bit of silence, Foxy said, “Follow me. Freddy’ll want to see ya.”

“Right.” Alex sighed. “Why?”

“If ye really want jobs, then maybe ‘e’ll give ye one… if ‘e’s in a good mood.”

“And if he’s not?” Viper asked.

“Ye die, landlubber. Why even ask?” Foxy replied, pushing open the gate like a catflap.

Foxy let Twilight go, pushing her inside the village. She stumbled backwards, the others following her inside.

Taking out his shotgun, Foxy growled, “Move.” and aimed at them.

The group walked through the town, looking at the different animatronics that were standing around. They stared at the Tree Hunters as they passed, some of them looking curious while others were more hostile.

Foxy guided them towards a worn-down and slightly destroyed restaurant. According to the giant sign at the top, it was called ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria House’. Outside it was a large pole with a ladder and a noose at the top.

Once inside, Twilight saw that it was a kid’s restaurant, except it had been repurposed as what looked like a war room, with various weapons just lying around the place.

“Sit down.” Foxy said, gesturing to a large table. The group sat down.

Foxy walked off into the dark, maybe to get someone.

After waiting in a dark room with only a table and a bunch of chairs for company for about a minute, Foxy came back, along with a bunch of other animatronics.

One of them was a purple rabbit with an assault rifle that had a body with felt like Foxy. Another looked like a chick in the body of a young woman, who was holding an SMG. Unlike the other one, this robot was made out of some sort of plastic.

The last one was a bear in a top-hat with a revolver. He had brown felt covering his body, although there were a few bullet holes in his chest.

They all looked different, but they all looked damaged, with their bodies falling to pieces in some places.

The bear looked at the Tree Hunters for a few seconds, then he turned to Foxy. In a light tone of voice, he said, “These them?”

“Aye.” Foxy replied.

“Right.” The bear leaned onto the table and glared at them. “I’m Freddy. You have ten minutes to explain why you’re here.” (It’s not me. It’s you.)

“We’re Tree Hunters and we’re here to help.” Bane said bluntly.

The rabbit made a sound like an amused snort. “Yeah, right.” It said in a male voice.

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Twilight asked.

“Why?!” Foxy snarled. “Do ye want me to bring up me first mate?!”

“Foxy, go back to your station.” Freddy ordered.

“Why? Capn’ Foxy’s got a score to-”

“I know, but I need you watching out in case King’s Bandits attack, now go!” Freddy snapped.

Foxy grumbled, but he walked down the room and out the door regardless.

“So…” Viper said nervously. “Nice room.”

“What do you mean, ‘you want to help’?” Freddy asked, glaring at the group.

“We want to do some jobs for you.” Alex said uninterestedly. “Killing Bandits, monsters, even WAR if you

want.”

The chick looked at the rabbit. “Why would we want to attack WAR? At least they’ve left us alone.”

“Quiet.” Freddy raised his hand. He looked back at the Tree Hunters. “And you want nothing in return? Nothing at all?”

“Well…” Alex scratched his head. “There is one thing…”

“I knew it.” Freddy said in disgust, standing up. “Forget it.”

Alex sighed. “You don’t even know what we want.”

“We’re not paying murderers. Period.” Freddy said bluntly.

“Hey!” Viper snapped. “We are not murderers!”

“Then explain this: a year ago, a group of you ‘Tree Hunters’ came up, attacked our town and killed one of my own citizens. There was no provocation, no reason, just a straight-up murder.”

“…Oh…” Twilight suddenly wished that they had just gone ahead and attacked King already.

“That wasn’t us.” Bane stated simply. “We arrived three days ago.”

“Cop-out.” The chick muttered.

“Can you prove this?” Freddy asked.

“Grab any random Bandit and interrogate him.” Alex replied. “We’ve had a few run-ins with them.”

Freddy glared at them. “How do I know that you aren’t Bandits?”

There was a moment of awkward silence from Alex. “Well… we can’t prove that we’re not… but you can’t prove that we are. A Bandit would’ve opened fire on you guys on sight.”

Freddy seemed to be sorting through his decisions.

“What exactly are you planning to do?” He said finally.

“We want to kill King.” Twilight said.

“Really?” Freddy seemed sceptical. “What reason do you have for wanting to do so?”

“King has something that we want.” Bane replied. “Part of the key to the Tree.”

Freddy seemed to frown, although his mouth couldn’t actually move.

“Just let us shoot them.” The rabbit said. “It hasn’t worked out badly yet.”

“I’m thinking about that.” Freddy muttered. “Trouble is that if they are telling the truth…”

“Who cares? If it’s not King, it’s Joy-Kill, or the Shell Lord himself. Our situation isn’t getting any better any time soon.”

“That’s not a given.”

“Look, how about this? The first few jobs we do, you don’t even have to pay us for.” Viper suggested. “That way, you lose nothing.”

Freddy crossed his arms, tapping them in thought.

“Freddy, remember the bots we lost in this hellhole?” The chick said. “That was the work of Tree Hunters.”

Freddy looked at the chick, back at the Tree Hunters, then back to the chick. He nodded. “Yes… you’re right.”

In retrospect, Twilight would be thankful for Foxy bursting back through the door at that moment.

“Foxy, I told you-!” Freddy started.

“Bandits!” Foxy said quickly. “Six of ‘em!”

Despite the lack of facial movement, Twilight could see the alarm in the bots faces. It was mutual too.

“Bandits?” She said. “How many?”

“Like oi’d tell ye!” Foxy snarled. “Ye’re probably the ones who led ‘em here!”

“No.” Bane said bluntly.

Foxy raised his shotgun, but quickly put it down when Freddy snapped, “Stop!”

Freddy turned the Tree Hunters. “You say you want to help? Prove it.”

Twilight interpreted this as ‘kill all the Bandits’.

“Got it.” Alex nodded. He turned to the others. “Let’s go.”

The group ran outside and through the town with the bots following them. The other animatronics they glimpsed were either hiding in their houses or pulling out weapons. Twilight didn’t spare them a second thought as she ran past.

The Tree Hunters were pulling out their weapons as well. Alex pulled out his Revolution, quickly checking his ammo quickly, then snapping the gun back. Bane got out his ASULT-RFL, spinning it in the air as it unfolded. Twilight pulled out her Friendship, hoping that the first shot lighted her target.

Viper just blinked and frowned.

They reached the gate, pushing it open like it was a dog-flap. There, they saw a Speedie, occupied by two Thugs. There were four other Thugs, most of them regular except for one Raiding Thug.

When the Raiding Thug saw them, Twilight could see him smile underneath the balaclava. “Ah, the Tree Hunters!” He said. “I take i-”

Alex interrupted his sentence by shooting him in the face.

Stunned for a few moments, the other Thugs just jumped back. Twilight took advantage of this by shooting one of the other Thugs, thankfully lighting him up and causing him to scream in pain and shoot wildly. Viper shot forward and bit a Thug in the neck, causing him to bleed, then she snapped his leg, felling him. Bane just filled the remaining Thug full of bullets.

Recovering from this, the driver of the Speedie backed up rapidly, with the gunner firing at them randomly. The three Tree Hunters with guns fired back, killing the gunner with a mixture of bullets. Viper rushed forward to the driver, who had just decided that running was his best chance of survival. So he spun the car around and sped off.

Viper probably would’ve got him, but Twilight said, “Let him go.”

Viper looked at her quizzically.

“We need to show King what we thought of his offer.” Twilight explained.

“Ah.” Viper said.

The group turned back to the animatronics, who hadn’t gotten the chance to fire a single shot during the fight.

Now they were just staring at them.

“Oh, King asked us to take a sum of money and leave.” Viper elaborated to them. “But we ignored him.”

“…Uh, huh.” Freddy nodded.

Alex put away his gun and looked at the dirt in front of the gate. Then he looked at the gate.

“Do you have any paint?” He asked the robots.

“So… let’s get something straight here.” Freddy said to the group when they were all seated back in the room.

“Why did we come back here?” Viper asked.

Ignoring her, Freddy said, “I don’t trust you guys yet. No-one does. But we can thank you for defending us from the Bandits.”

“You’re welcome.” Alex said drily. “Any other jobs you need doing?”

“Ye just killed ‘alf a dozen Bandits and ye want to start killin’ again?” Foxy asked incredulously. “Ye lot are either-”

“Foxy, station.” Freddy said.

Foxy spluttered for a bit before leaving, grumbling to himself.

Now that the animatronics knew that they wanted to help, Twilight figured that she could say more daring things to them. So when Foxy was out of earshot, Twilight said, “Who are you guys anyway?”

Freddy probably would’ve frowned at her. “We’re the mascots for Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaria.”

Bane was the only one who recognised the name. “Of course. That restaurant.”

“What’s special about it?” Alex asked. “I wasn’t around in that time period.”

“It got a lot of attention in the media due to a few murders that happened there.” Bane replied. “I don’t know the specifics though…”

“Murder in a restaurant?” Twilight found the idea repulsive.

“Children.” Freddy said in disgust.

The Hunters turned to Freddy and the other two robots. They all looked like they were remembering something unpleasant.

“…Come again?” Viper asked.

“The victims were children.” Freddy said, clearly still very angry about it. “Some staff member lured them backstage, killed them, then shoved the bodies into four of us. The place got shut down after that.”

Twilight must’ve looked horrified, because the bunny nodded at her.

“…Oh…” Viper said in a small voice.

A silence settled over them for a few seconds.

“So…” Viper must’ve decided to change the subject. “If you got shut down, then why’re you here?”

The animatronics looked at each other.

“That’s not important.” Freddy said. “All you need to know is that we’ve been here for a while, trying to survive in this hellhole.”

Alex frowned. “I have a question. How’re you lot alive right now?”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no way any of you are in any working condition.” Alex stated. “I checked Foxy myself, and he has no AI chip. There is no way that he should be functioning, and yet he just walked out the door a minute ago. And you lot probably aren’t that much different. So how’re you standing right now, talking to us? With proper sentience as well?”

The temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees. The rabbit and Freddy’s eyes suddenly went dark, with only pure white irises showing. Their jaws dropped open and blood slowly dripped from the open mouths and any rips in their suits. The effect was amplified by the lights in the room flickering during the event.

The Tree Hunters had completely frozen during this show. In contrast, the chick rolled her eyes at the two.

During this, Twilight felt something else in the air. It felt cold, damp and strangely intimidating. It wasn’t physical, she could tell that it was magical, or supernatural.

Ghosts.

Then everything went back to normal.

“…You’re possessed.” Alex said. He looked quite surprised.

“Yes.” Freddy did not sound very pleased. “A side effect of the body-stuffing. It gets worse at night. We get overpowering desires to kill.”

“Right.” Viper said. “So don’t come at night.”

“But this is irrelevant to our current situation.” Freddy said. “You said before that you wanted to kill King. How exactly do you plan to do this?”

Twilight suddenly realised that Medic hadn’t explained that to them. All he had told them was to meet the bots at Tornenhurst. He’d left out other details.

“We’ll explain in due time.” Twilight decided. “In the meantime though, we have a favour to ask of you.”

Freddy looked quite annoyed. “Yes?”

“We need a way for Viper to hold a gun.” Twilight gestured to the grass-green snake.

“W-What?” Viper blinked.

Freddy nodded thoughtfully. “I was wondering about that.”

Bane nodded. “Yes. We can’t afford to have any weakness on our team.”

“Well, yeah.” Viper smiled nervously. “But, you know… no rush.”

“Big rush.” Alex retorted. “If we’re going to take on King, we need you to be ready.”

“Well…” Freddy stroked his chin. “Foxy could probably build you something…”

“Foxy?” Twilight asked, surprised.

“He’s a pretty good mechanic.” The chick said. “Sure, he’s a bit hard to get along with, but I reckon that he could do something.”

“Great!” Twilight said.

“…Yeah.” Viper mumbled.

“Go ask him.” Freddy said. “He might not do it, though. He has a grudge against Tree Hunters.”

“We noticed.” Alex replied, standing up. “Let’s go.”

The Tree Hunters left the building and through the village.

Now that Twilight wasn’t under any pressure, she took a good look at the town. Most of the buildings seemed to be constructed from sheet metal and garbage, although that seemed like bit of a theme on this planet. The animatronics looked really curious now, no doubt due to them saving the town from Bandits and all.

After deciding that the town wasn’t very interesting in terms of appearance, Twilight turned her attention to Viper. She seemed very uncomfortable for some reason, like she was about to do something unforgivable. Twilight assumed that it had something to do with holding a gun, but she couldn’t figure out why she’d be uncomfortable with that.

Twilight couldn’t figure out why she’d be uncomfortable with holding a futuristic weapon designed to kill people from the far side of a football field.

Twilight rubbed her forehead. She needed to get off this planet.

Eventually, they reached the flap that led outside. Bane pushed it open, holding it for the others to walk through. Twilight looked over to Foxy, who had taken up the position he had before, slumped forward in a chair pretending to be deactivated.

Bane cleared his throat.

Foxy opened his eyes and looked at them. “Wha-? Oh. It’s yer lot.”

“Yeah.” Alex said. “We have a request for you.”

Foxy gave him a blank stare. “Wot?”

“We need you to build a way for Viper to hold a gun.” Bane gestured at the said snake.

Foxy scratched his head with his hook. “And yer askn’ me?”

“We heard that you were a good mechanic.” Twilight shrugged.

“Aye.” Twilight could hear pride in his voice. “Oi helped build the Rocket-Ride ‘ere, oi have! Can ye name anyone else who could do that?”

“No, we couldn’t.” Twilight said, having no idea what that was. “So… can you help us?”

“But no rush.” Viper said quickly.

"Well…” Foxy seemed to consider it. “Ye did kill those Bandits a bit ago… so oi guess oi owe ye…”

“Good.” Alex said, satisfied. “Then we-”

“On the other ‘and, ye lot are Tree Hunters.”

Alex sighed a frustrated sigh. “As we have stated before, we are not affiliated with the ones you knew before.”

“Even so. Oi don’ trust ye.”

“You don’t have to.” Bane said.

Foxy rubbed his chin, turning to Viper. “Ye’d be the one called ‘Viper’?”

“Yes.” Viper nodded.

Foxy stood up and walked over to her. Kneeling down to eye level with her, he gave her a critical look, staring at her long enough for Viper to become noticeably uncomfortable.

He stood up and backed off so that he could see them all. “O’right. Oi think that oi can do somethin’ for yer lass.”

“Really?” Twilight asked.

“Aye. But oi need ye to do somethin’ fer me, first.”

Alex sighed. “Of course you do. What is it?”

Foxy turned and pointed down the hill. “Do ye see that Howler nest down there?”

Twilight walked to the edge of the hill and peered at what Foxy was pointing at. “Uh, huh.”

“Do you need us to wipe them out?” Viper asked.

“Nay, we need the Howlers.” Foxy shook his head. “Fer when night comes an’ we lose our minds.”

Alex frowned at him. “Then what do you…?”

“The little bastards down there stole me booze a few days ago.” Foxy growled. “Oi know tha’ it was them, ‘cause it was before any Bandit attack an’ Bandits only take money an’ guns. Oi need ye lot to go down there, find me booze, an’ bring it back… unless they’ve drank it already.”

The Tree Hunters stared at him.

“That’s it?” Alex asked. “You want us to find some alcohol for you?”

“Aye.”

The look of confusion on Alex’s face was priceless.

“…But you’re an animatronic.” Alex said.

“So?” Foxy shrugged.

“So… you can’t…” Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Never mind. Couldn’t you ask one of your friends in the town to do something this menial?”

Foxy gave a short laugh that sounded a bit like a bark. “They wouldn’t give a damn. Freddy’s policy is that if ye screw up, then ye fix it. But if oi leave me station fer just a few minutes, then Freddy’ll be yelln’ at me louder than a Bandit hooker durin’ ‘happy hour’.”

“So we have to fix this for you.”

“Aye.”

Twilight felt rather underwhelmed by this latest quest. “Alright… so, let’s go.”

“Thanks, laddies!” Foxy said as the group walked down the hill.

As they walked down, Twilight pressed the OPEN button on her S-NET and brought up her HUD. Switching to the inventory screen, she took stock of how much ammunition she had. There was a bunch of ammo for weapons that she didn’t have, like assault and sniper rifle ammo, but she also noticed that she was running a bit low on pistol ammo.

Closing the menu, Twilight tucked her pistol into her dress and took out her SMG from the other side of the dress.

An idea occurred to her. She frowned in concentration and thought, secondary. Her pistol disappeared from her dress and went into her S-NET while her Woodpecker stayed right where it was, in her hands.

She smiled a smile that died a few seconds later when she heard a howl.

She looked down at the nest. A bunch of small Howlers were gathered around in a group, or pack. There were a lot of Pups, but some other Howlers that were larger than the Pups, but smaller than the Adults. Twilight decided that they were adolescents and named them ‘Mutts’.

“I’ll stay here and act as sniper.” Alex said. “That way, I can take out any Howlers that bother you guys.”

“And avoid getting hurt.” Twilight pointed out.

“It’s a strategy.”

“A coward’s strategy.” Viper muttered. Alex ignored her.

Bane got out his shotgun. “It’ll work. Make sure that you land hits.”

Twilight advanced towards the Howlers. There were about six of them, although Twilight was sure that more would climb out of the dens that were scattered around. She decided to be the one to open hostilities, so a bit later, she opened fire on one of the Pups.

The Howlers immediately barked and ran at the Tree Hunters. Twilight fell another Pup, then opened fire on a Mutt. It growled angrily, but went down a bit later.

Bane was firing a shotgun blast after shotgun blast at the small horde, kicking away any Howlers that got too close to him. He seemed to be holding his own rather well.

Viper was having a bit more difficulty. Without a gun, she found herself having to constantly dodge all the snapping teeth in between the strikes. She almost got herself bitten in half, but a rifle behind them cracked and the offending Howler went down.

As more Howlers climbed out of the dens, Twilight shouted to Bane, “How do we find the alcohol?!”

“We’ll search the bodies and the dens when we’re done!” Bane replied.

“Right!” Twilight turned her attention back to her attackers. She fired a few more rounds at the Howlers, but then a Mutt jumped her from behind.

The teeth bounced off her shield, but she still stumbled from the attack. She tried to turn around, but she ended up falling flat on her back. The Howler then jumped on her in an attempt to bite off her face.

Unable to get to her SMG, Twilight reached for her kukri, but the Howler bit deep into her arm, stopping her motion and causing her shield to start draining at an alarming rate.

Fully panicking now, Twilight tried to punch the Howler in the face to get it off, but it was too busy mauling her arm. She hit it again and again and again, to no avail each time.

It wasn’t until the shield depleted completely and Twilight felt the teeth sink into her arm that she lost control completely.

She punched the Howler again, only this time a bright flash of purple-pink light caused the Howler to fly off of her and into the sky.

Twilight blinked and stared at the speck in disbelief, then at her uninjured hand. It was tingling a bit, but otherwise it looked normal.

She got up and looked around. Apparently, the others hadn’t seen what had happened, probably because they were wrapped up in their own conflicts. There were a few more Howlers around, but most of them were pups.

Twilight grabbed her SMG, wincing at the pain in her arm. Her HUD showed that the injury wasn’t too critical, so she decided to ignore it for the time being and shoot the rest of the Howlers.

Turning on burst-fire mode, she got a couple of headshots while Bane took down the ones around him with his shotgun. When the level of Howlers was down to one, Viper whipped it upwards and slammed it back down into the ground.

With the battle over, Twilight put away her SMG, wincing and clutching her arm. Viper slithered over to her in concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll survive.” Twilight replied. “Did you guys get injured?”

Viper shook her head. “I got scraped by one of their claws, but most of the blows glanced off of my shield.”

Bane walked over to them. “A few scratches. Nothing major.”

“Yeah, the shields are useful.” Twilight muttered. “The Howler probably would’ve ripped off my arm if I didn’t have it.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed Alex walking up to them. His face was covered with black soot and he looked extremely annoyed. His sniper rifle was strapped to his back and he was holding a health vial in his hand. When he reached the group, he gave it to her without a word.

Twilight jammed the syringe into her injured arm. Immediately, the gashes closed up and the skin healed. She felt a tingling feeling go through her body.

She glared at Alex angrily. “What were you doing when that Howler was on top of me?”

“I was attempting to reload my rifle.” Alex replied coldly.

That reminded Twilight to reload her weapons. She clicked the switch near the magazine and it fell out. A quick thought command and she was able to shove another clip into the gun.

She did this with little to no difficulty.

“And that was difficult for you, because…?” Twilight said.

Alex unclipped his Lancer, turned around and fired it into the ground. Then, Alex turned around, smacked the butt of his gun and threw it away like a javelin.

It hit the ground a fair bit away and exploded.

Twilight and Viper jumped. Bane just frowned. They turned to Alex just as the rifle was re-forming out of nothing back into his hand.

“Apparently, Mann Co. thought that it’d be a good idea for that to happen.” Alex grumbled. “It blew up in my face when I tried to reload up there.”

Twilight chuckled. “So, wait… it blew up-”

“In my face, yes.” Alex snapped.

“Let’s find the alcohol.” Bane interrupted, no doubt wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.

“Yeah.” Viper nodded. “You suppose that we’ll find it in one of the dens?”

“Probably.” Alex agreed. “We’ll each search one; there are only five holes here.”

Twilight, still smirking, walked over to the closest den and looked in it. She couldn’t see a thing, so she stuck her arm in there and felt around.

She got some shotgun shells and pistol rounds, and she did manage to get another health vial, but there was no sign of Foxy’s booze.

Twilight looked at the others. Viper, being the smallest, was able to get into the den without any problem, but she came out empty hand- without finding anything. Bane came out with a cowardly Pup Howler and a couple of extra dollars, but nothing bottle-shaped.

Alex came out with a new assault rifle. He smirked as he looked at it.

The group walked over towards the last den, hoping to find the item/s and get this over with.

Twilight took the chance to look at the title card for Alex’s new gun. It was made by Egghead Inc. and was called a ‘Crossbred Tiger’. It was level 3 and was white in rarity. It was red and yellow, just like Viper’s pistol.

Viper ducked into the den for a little while. Then she called out, “Found it!”

Twilight knelt down and tried to see into the gloom. She spotted Viper pushing a bottle out with her head, so she reached in to help her.

Pulling out the rather light bottle, she showed it to the others.

“Rum?” Bane raised his eyebrows. “Strong stuff.”

“I don’t even know how he manages to drink at all.” Alex muttered.

As Viper slithered out, Twilight asked, “Was there any more of them?”

Viper shook her head. “Just the one.”

Twilight looked up the hill, where she could vaguely see Foxy watching them. She held up the bottle for him to see. In reply, Foxy waved one of his hands.

“Shall we?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah.” Alex muttered.

The group trudged back up the hill.

As she walked, Twilight thought about that blast of magic back there. She was sure that it was magic, she couldn’t think of any other explanation. But how had she been able to channel that magic in human form? Nothing like this had happened in the alternate universe she’d visited before.

This newest revelation brought up a lot of questions. Would she have to learn how to use magic all over again? Probably. She only used magic back there because she panicked. She needed to learn how to control her magic in this form, because she could easily hurt someone if she lost control.

So how would she go about with that? She’d have to start with the basics, so torchlight and levitation… but how would the others react to her being able to do magic? She recalled how Alex summoned a pistol from smoke back on the bus. Bane and Viper had reacted violently at best. She doubted that they would be supportive of purple light and levitation.

On the other hand, Alex probably wouldn’t give a damn.

They reached Foxy’s hut eventually. He was standing up, his shotgun on his chair behind him. When Twilight got up to him, she noticed that he was giving her a strange stare. She realised that he probably would’ve seen what had happened below.

Oh, great. Twilight thought depressingly. Already I’m being judged.

She handed him the bottle of rum, which she suspected was at least half-empty.

Foxy looked at it critically. “This be all of it?”

“Yup.” Alex nodded.

Foxy sighed in annoyance. “Damned monstrosities…” He then brought the bottle to his mouth and poured the entirety of the contents down into his body.

Twilight couldn’t really see the point of that. From what she could see, the rum simply ran down his exoskeleton and into the dust underneath him.

After the bottle was finished, Foxy threw it to the ground and looked at them. Although his face couldn’t form expressions, Twilight swore that he seemed to be grinning.

“Aye… that’s the stuff! So ye wanted me to build somethin’?” He said to Viper.

“Yes, but you don’t have to do it, like, right now…” Viper protested.

“Don’t be a fool, lass!” Foxy swung his hook at them alarmingly. “Everythin’ on this planet be wantin’ te kill ye! Best to build ye somethin’ roight now, Oi say!”

“…How strong was that?” Bane asked, gesturing to the bottle.

“Oi only buy the strongest poison in the land.” Foxy’s metaphorical grin stretched even further. “Oi work better when Oi’m tipsy, ye see.”

“Uh, huh…” Alex said. “So that would mean that you can perform miracles when you’re pissfaced.”

“Exactly!” Foxy said enthusiastically. “Besoides, Oi’ve got a great oidea for te lass!”

“Alright…” Viper sighed. “What is it?”

“Well, Oi’ve got some spare robot shells in me hut.” Foxy explained. “Me plan is to build ye a body from one of them, ye see. Ye’ll be movin’ it with a system that operates similarly to the S-NET telepathic circuits. That way, ye’ll be able to control it without any of them fiddly levers an’ buttons. It'll have some motor hinges on the chest so ye’ll be able to get out at will an’ get back in whenever ye like. Yer S-NET will automatically connect to ye when ye place it on the body, so ye won’t have to worry ‘bout that. Complete motor functions, built-in gun-usin’ tutorial an’ to top it all off, Oi’ll paint it an emerald green.”

Foxy looked at them. “That sound good to ye?”

The Tree Hunters stared at him, a tad overwhelmed by the intelligent talk.

“…Sure.” Viper nodded dazedly. “That’ll work.”

“Good!” Foxy said happily, turning around to his hut. “But Oi’m going to need ye to come with me, lass. Goin’ te need ye measurements.”

Viper slithered in after him, seeming more than a little nervous as the hut door closed behind her.

The rest of the group stood in place for a moment, unsure of what to do.

Bane decided for himself before the other two. “I need to speak with the oso for a minute.”

Twilight nodded. “Sure.” As Bane walked away, Twilight asked Alex, “What does ‘oso’ mean?”

Alex thought about that. “Either dare, or bear.”

“Oh.” Twilight watched Bane walked away.

Realising that she had a headache, Twilight sat down on Foxy’s chair and sighed. Then she realised that she hadn’t had anything to drink of water in a while, something she needed to survive. She needed to find out where to find some water…

“So you are a magician.” Alex said suddenly.

Twilight blinked. “Huh?”

Alex looked directly at her, arms folded. “Back there, when the Howler was on top of you. I saw you use magic to propel it into orbit. So you’re a magician.”

Twilight could make out a hint of hostility in his voice, and she really didn’t want to deal with this at the moment. “So what if I am?” Twilight asked wearily.

“Magicians are rare, especially ones who practice Pure Magic.” Alex said. “I want to know where you come from, whether there are other magicians like you and how much of a threat you are.”

Twilight glared at him. “Why do you care? And what’s ‘Pure’ magic?”

“The polar opposite of Dark Magic.” Alex replied. “What I use. As for why I care, I want to know why people still practice in Pure Magic at all. After all, it’s next to useless unless you only care about the basics.”

Twilight’s temperature rose. “Alright. I come from a planet with an atmosphere that turns you into a pastel-coloured horse. There are three races, one of which can naturally use this ‘Pure Magic’. We are ruled by a white mare who is rumoured to be the goddess of the sun. One of our country defenders is the god of chaos. I’m a princess who is powerful in using magic and we revolve everything around the concept of friendship.”

Alex didn’t even look phased. “The universe has spawned weirder things. So the entirety of the race you belong to can use Pure Magic?”

“Yeah.”

“One of which is a Goddess?”

“That’s just a rumour.”

“And a God of chaos is one of your defenders?”

“Yes.”

“Whoop-de-doo.” Alex muttered. “More Gods for the hit-list.”

Twilight’s temper went up another notch. “Excuse me?!”

Alex glared at her. “Gods cannot be trusted, only destroyed. If there’s any wisdom I know of, that phrase is right up there with ‘don’t trust politicians’.”

Twilight stood up, enraged. “So you would kill someone who is basically a queen just because you don’t like gods?!”

“Sounds about right.”

“Unbelievable!” Twilight shouted. “You are beyond infuriating! Is this what happens to people when they use Dark Magic?!”

“That’s just a stigma.” Alex said bluntly.

“Oh, and being a god isn’t?!” Twilight snapped.

Alex glare turned into a snarl. “You are ignorant.”

“I’m ignorant?!” Twilight could barely form a reply at this point. She’d never gotten this angry this fast before, but the heat, the killing, the frustrations from the previous days and Alex’s comments were combining into a furious mess inside her brain.

She probably would’ve continued shouting if it weren’t for a loud horn that sounded from behind her.

Alex and Twilight turned towards the source of the noise. It was coming from the bottom of the hill from a large object, probably a vehicle. She recognised it, of course. It was one of the first things she had seen on this planet.

It was Thomas’s bus, spluttering its way up the path to the town.

Alex rapped on Foxy’s door. “You might want to see this.”

“Oi’m busy, matey.” Came the muffled reply.

By now, the bus was pretty much at the front gate. Thomas honked the horn again, louder this time.

Foxy burst out of the hut and stared at the bus. “Wot the-? Wot be this?”

The bus doors opened, with Thomas walking out of them whistling merrily.

“Oh, Thomas!” Twilight smiled forcedly. “Hi!”

“Yello!” Thomas greeted. “Told ya we’d meet again!”

“Thomas.” Alex said curtly. “How is the gun business going?”

Thomas waved his hand dismissively. “Eh, you know. ‘Bout as well as it can go on this planet. Tryin’ to kill your teammates already, huh?”

Twilight looked at the ground. Alex shrugged and said, “I was merely making an example.”

“Erm…” Foxy walked over to Thomas. “Who be ye?”

Thomas blinked at him. “Er… the name’s Thomas. I sell guns and ammo.”

Foxy seemed to frown. “How do Oi know ye ain’t a Bandit?”

“What, do I look like I’m trying to kill you?” Thomas asked. “I just need to give some stuff to ya.”

“Stuff?”

“Vendors.” Thomas gestured to two large metal boxes on top of his van. “Ammo and guns. You can buy em’ from these.”

Foxy still looked suspicious. “Fer free?”

“Well… not exactly. If you want the said ammo and guns, then you’ll have to pay for them. But it’s okay! I’m not supported by WAR or anything. But, now that you mention it,” Thomas snapped his fingers at Alex. “I got some free stuff for you guys.”

“You do?” Twilight blinked.

Opening his chest compartment, Thomas brought out a sack filled with round objects.

“Protean Grenades, my friends!” He said, giving the sack to Alex. “Figured you guys could use some explosive stuff.”

Alex opened the sack. “How many are in here?”

“Well… the max amount of grenades the S-NET can hold is four. So… there’s about sixteen of them in there.”

Alex took out one of the grenades. It was a grey orb with a few buttons on it. It didn’t look too spectacular.

“How do they work?” Twilight asked.

“You press the blue button, chuck it at someone and it blows up.” Thomas replied. “Oughta be a blast. But enough about you,” Thomas turned back to Foxy. “What say you? Can I sell my crap here?”

Foxy scratched his chin. Turning to Alex, he said, “Could ye take him to Freddy? Oi need to keep workin’ on ye teammate.”

“Sure. Thomas, follow me.” Alex said, pushing open the flap.

“Okay.” Thomas shrugged, walking through the flap. “What does the symbol on your door mean?”

“Tree Hunters.” Alex said as the flap fell back down behind them.

After bit of a silence, Foxy turned to Twilight and said, “Well… if ye get bored out here, ye could help me with yer teammate. It be good to take breaks in between first-degree burns.”

“…I’ll be fine.” Twilight assured him.

“Ye sure?”

“Yes.”

Foxy shrugged. “If ye say so. Oi should be done soon. Just need to reroute some wires and put on the paintjob.”

Twilight blinked. “Already? You just started!”

Foxy grinned again. “Oi told ye. Oi work better when Oi’m drunk.”

Foxy walked back into his hut, leaving Twilight alone with the bus.

With nothing to do, Twilight sat back down in the chair and groaned. Her headache had worsened with her argument with Alex. She rubbed her forehead and sighed.

Twilight looked down at the ground, boredom already settling in. Trying to find something to do, she opened up her inventory and took out her Friendship pistol. She reloaded it, taking out the revolving magazine and replacing it with another one.

She looked at the bullets that had fell to the ground and a thought struck her. They were rather small. Easy enough to lift. She could use them as practice…

Frowning in concentration, she searched her mind for the mental switch that allowed her to access her hidden potential. It was difficult, as the switch was cloudy and dense. She delved deeper, trying to get it to flip.

Click.

Twilight smiled in the purple light.

Reasons

Borderlands: Eden

Part 1: Reasons

From ToonTown Adventures (My own thing)

25 November, 1918, Earth

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the Great War had finally come to an end.

The soldiers on the western front had come back as different men than what they were before. Most of the wives and girlfriends didn't even recognise their men for what they were. The horrible experiences had scarred everyone who had fought on the hellish front.

Well, except for one guy, but that was only because he had seen so much warfare that he had become dulled to the effect.

His name was Alexander Campbell, the very first one at that.

Alex had been looking forward to a long period of relaxation after WW1. God knew he deserved it.

Of course, he didn't get said relaxation.

He was sitting on his bed reading something he had borrowed from the local library when he heard someone knock on his door.

At first, Alex ignored the knocking. He assumed that if he ignored it long enough, then whoever was at the door would assume that he wasn't here right now and would come back later. Or, even better, they though he had lost someone in the war, that he was grieving and they would come back in a few months.

The knocking was persistent though, and got louder as Alex ignored it.

Finally, Alex gave up and walked downstairs, muttering, "Alright, alright."

He opened the door a bit. "Yes?"

"Alex!" Thomas said excitedly. "You are not gonna believe what…!"

Alex closed the door in his face and started to go back upstairs.

Thomas started knocking again, this time a bit louder than before.

Alex growled and opened the door again.

"Ha, ha." Thomas said sarcastically, unamused. "Very funny. Jackass."

"If you want me to go fight another invading army," Alex muttered. "Then you can go screw yourself. I just got back."

"Trust me, you'll wanna do this!" Thomas barged in, pushing past Alex and into the living room.

Alex rubbed his eyes wearily. "What do you want?"

"Read this!" Thomas shoved a piece of bright, white paper into Alex's hand. "I got it in the mail a while back!"

Alex looked at it and started reading, trying and failing to look interested.

'Dear Mr Thomas,

It has come to our attention that you want to expand your weapon supplying business beyond the planet you are currently on.

We have a solution for that. We are giving you an opportunity to migrate to the planet of Eden. It's a planet that exists in a pocket universe where time is a meaningless element. It's a dangerous planet, so you will have plenty of customers for your merchandise.'

"Eden." Alex said in disbelief. "You know that's bandit country, right?"

"Keep reading." Thomas insisted.

'The only promise we will require from you is the promise that you will sell products manufactured by the Buy n' Large Corporation. We can assure you that this will be very beneficial for both of us.

If you need further convincing, then there is an urban legend that a mysterious treasure is hidden on Eden. If you travel here, then you could be one of the many people who are currently searching for the treasure trove.

If you wish to accept this agreement, then please send this letter back to the post office. Then, arrive alone in your nearest park at night to travel to Eden.

Sincerely, Brian Uturn.

Buy n' Large Corporation.'

Alex looked at Thomas. "You're buying this?"

"Come on, dude!" Thomas said in ecstasy. "I can sell loads more guns than I already am! You could spread your company's gun trade!"

"No." Alex said bluntly.

"Oh, come on! What do you know about Eden?"

"For a start, it's a border planet." Alex said. "Bandit country. There's no government, no army, nothing that suggests social order. It's in a pocket universe on the edge of ours where people from different time streams can visit each other. No-one ages in that universe."

"And the last point? The one about the treasure?"

Properly exasperated, Alex let his arms swing by his sides as he stared at Thomas in the eye. "The Tree. Do you seriously believe in it?"

"Well… sorta."

"It's an old wives tale. In fact, it's not even that. It's a story a drunkard probably told in order to get one last drink."

"Yeah, those kind of stories don't usually reverberate across the universe." Thomas replied. "Think about it. Imagine the treasures that could be in it!"

"If it were real."

"Oh, lighten up." Thomas said crossly. "It could be real. Real treasures!"

"I doubt it."

"Who cares? The joy is in searching for it! I mean, sense of adventure and all that!"

Alex gave Thomas a cold look. "My sense of adventure died about four years ago, along with everyone else's. So thanks, but no thanks."

Thomas really wanted Alex to come. He wanted to have an awesome adventure, but he knew that he wouldn't survive long without Alex. He would have to rely on luck.

So he decided to start pressing Alex's buttons.

"Y'know…" He said. "Maleviolent might search for the Tree."

"Then he would be setting himself up for disappointment, wouldn't he?" Alex replied.

"It could be a Shade artefact." Thomas said.

Alex closed his eyes. "You don't know that."

"Just saying… it might not even be a treasure. It could be a superweapon, or a doomsday monster."

Alex processed this for a few minutes.

He sighed. "Alright, fine."

"WOO!" Thomas punched the air.

"But I don't want you selling to any of the corporations." Alex added.

Thomas shrugged. "Eh. They're the ones selling to me."

"Whatever." Alex muttered. "And I won't join any military guys either. I've just about had enough of big-headed idiots telling me what to do."

"Sure, sure." Thomas said. "Uh, can you give that back to the post office? I dunno how to get there."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Fine."

From Kung Fu Panda

Ancient China, Valley of Peace

The Furious Five didn't usually get letters. Po's dad was close by, in the town below and he didn't know anyone else. The other four occasionally got scrolls from their families who were further away (except for Tigress, who ignored this fact for the most part). Otherwise, they had contact with only themselves.

So naturally, it was a slightly suspicious surprise when a messenger arrived with a letter for them.

Monkey and Crane had been outside having a minor dispute over what kind of food article Po made best when a goose had arrived with a scroll in his mouth.

When the goose landed, he took the scroll out of his mouth and said, "Message for the Furious Five."

"That's us." Crane nodded. "Uh, which one of us, though?"

"Just the Five in general."

"A letter for all of us?" Monkey asked, taking the scroll and having a good look at it.

It was certainly the most bizarre scroll he'd ever seen. The parchment was blindingly white and the ends seemed to be made out of a metal rather than wood. Even more oddly, the ends of the scroll each had a glowing blue ring around it and in the very middle of it was a red oval with white shapes and a blue circle in the middle of it.

"…Peculiar." Crane said, looking at it.

"Do you know who sent it?" Monkey asked the messenger before he left. He was given a shrug in response.

Deciding that the others should probably be told about the weird scroll, Monkey and Crane took it to the training room, where, luckily, the others and Master Shifu were. They gave it to Shifu, who frowned as he opened the scroll. The others stopped their training to see what the scroll said.

"To the group known as the Furious Five…"Shifu read aloud. "We at the… Buying Large Corporation formally invite you to the planet of Eden…"

"The planet of Eden?" Viper asked curiously.

"…To participate in a treasure hunt to find the mystical Tree, a vault filled with ancient treasures and relics."

Po perked up slightly at that. "Treasures?"

"Eden is planet of paradise and vacation, where time is a meaningless value." Shifu continued. "Even if you do not wish to search for the Arch, we can set up a vacation home for you in the nicest place in Eden."

"I wouldn't mind a vacation." Mantis said.

"Should you choose to accept this invitation, then please leave this scroll outside Jade Palace in the morning tomorrow and we will arrange transport for you. If not, you may do what you wish with this scroll. Sincerely… Newton Oxford, Buying Large Corporation." He frowned a bit on the last line. "Odd name."

"I don't trust it." Tigress said immediately. "Something isn't right about that scroll."

"I agree." Shifu said. "It doesn't seem to make the slightest sense."

"What was that bit about treasure?" Po asked.

Tigress raised an eyebrow.

"I mean… what do we do with it?"

"Well… it said that we should leave it outside tomorrow morning if we want to go." Crane said. "Otherwise, I guess we could just burn it."

"It could be some sort of practical joke." Monkey suggested. "Although, I don't know anyone who'd go to that much trouble making a scroll like that just to mess with us."

"Eden sounds like a nice place." Viper said thoughtfully.

Shifu frowned at the scroll for a bit more before saying, "We'll leave it outside until tomorrow. If nothing happens, then we'll get rid of it. If something does happen… then we will send one or two of us to this 'Eden'. It doesn't sound too dangerous."

"Oh! Could I go?" Viper perked up. "I mean, if anyone else doesn't want to go, that is."

Shifu shook his head. "I personally do not want to leave."

"I don't trust this 'Eden', or this scroll Tigress said.

"Hmm…" Mantis thought about it. "I think I'll go. This vacation thing sounds nice, even if for one or two days."

"Not much of a chance of anything happening." Crane decided. "You can go."

"I'll pass." Po said. "Y'know, Dragon Warrior and all that."

Monkey held up his hand. "I'll be fine."

"So it's settled then." Shifu said. "Viper and Mantis shall go. I'll place this outside and we'll wait to see if something happens."

Once they did place it outside, everyone agreed that they shouldn't worry about it until tomorrow morning. It was on their minds, but they found something else to occupy them. Mainly, a small bandit attack on an outskirts village.

Tomorrow morning though, Viper was the first one up. She had a slight case of stomach butterflies that she was trying to kill, as she didn't want to set herself up for disappointment.

She yawned a bit, then slithered out to the front. She opened the door, expecting to see the morning sun on the horizon.

She blinked about four times.

The scroll was gone, having disappeared, but that wasn't the impressive part.

No, the impressive part was probably the giant, floating, white, egg-shaped metal thing right in front of the stairs.

Viper stared at it for a few moments before calling into the building, "Guys?!"

From the Batman series

Blackgate Prison, Gotham City

Blackgate Prison was notorious for the guards.

They were ruthless towards the prisoners, to the point of almost being worse than them. They were mostly the reason why people tried so hard to stay out of Blackgate afterwards. The exceptions were those who were mentally damaged.

The guards weren't total monsters, though. They were capable of fear, and they happened to fear three things: the Bat, a prison revolt and Bane.

Bane had become accustomed to the prison by now. The security had become much more hardened with the threat of the Bat, so breaking out was going to be much harder.

Plus, Bane's Venom had been destroyed. The only strength he had now was that which he had trained with. And that wasn't going to be that useful against steel bars and guns.

According to the smuggled letters from the outside, the Bat had destroyed the written formula for the TN-1 drug. In a way, Bane was grateful for that. Not only had Bane forgotten Batman's true identity, but he had also forgotten parts of his personal life. Those were worth much more to Bane.

A guard came up and rapped on his cell. "Hey, you have a visitor."

Bane didn't expect that. Who would want to visit him?

"Who is it?" Bane asked, sitting up from his bed.

"Hell if I know. Just some person. You have ten minutes."

Bane glared at the guard as he opened his cell. He couldn't make any moves, unless he wanted to get shot to pieces. He decided to go along with it.

The guard pointed him past cells of other criminals. A while later, Bane had reached the visitor rooms. The guard opened the door and motioned for Bane to go inside. Bane obliged, giving the guard a look of loathing before doing so.

The man already sitting in the room was dressed in a black suit with a white undershirt and a red tie. Bane already decided that he didn't like the visitor.

As Bane took a seat, the man said, "Ah, Bane. Delightful."

"Who are you?" Bane asked.

"Of course. My name is Matt Peterson." He extended a hand.

Bane didn't shake it. "What do you want?"

Matt raised an eyebrow and retracted his hand. "Straight to the point, eh? Very well. I'm from the Buy n' Large Corporation."

"The appliance manufacturer?"

"At this point… yes."

"Then this is a waste of my time."

"I can see how you may think that. You see, I'm actually a representative from the future Buy n' Large Corporation. I come from a time period where Buy n' Large controls most of the planet's economy."

Bane decided that he could be doing more important things than this, and expressed his thoughts in his glare.

"Don't believe me?" Matt reached into a briefcase he had at his side and brought out a white, metal oval. He pressed a button on the side.

Parts of the oval expanded, turned and folded inwards, eventually forming a gun that looked a bit like a rifle.

Bane looked at the weapon. He was surprised, although he didn't show it.

"This is an assault rifle manufactured by my company in the future." Matt explained, giving the gun to Bane. "This particular model is called the BULET ASULT-RFL."

Bane looked at the gun in extreme interest. "Is it loaded?"

"Goodness, no. I would never have gotten it in if it was."

Slight disappointment, but now Bane was properly intrigued. He set down the gun and looked at Matt again. "I ask again: what do you want?"

"Well… there's this planet, you see? It exists in a universe where time is meaningless. You can go there and never age and live forever… so long the bandits don't kill you."

Bane nodded.

"Eden, I think it's called. Well, my company wants you to go there."

"Why?"

Matt shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just a messenger, really."

Bane frowned. "What motivation do I have to go there?"

"The Tree." Matt grinned. "A mythical vault that's said to contain the most priceless relics from ancient alien races."

"Mythical." Bane repeated.

"Well, it would be." Matt said. "If my company didn't know the approximate location of the Tree."

"…Go on."

"We've noticed several instances of valuable minerals in one area of the planet." Matt explained. "Just one. Can't be a coincidence if you ask me."

"And what do you want me to do?" Bane asked.

"Well, buying some Buy n' Large products would be nice. But apart from that, nothing. So if you agree, then we can arrange… ah… a bail for you."

"I've been refused bail." Bane pointed out.

"We know. And if you refuse our offer… well, I'm sure you'll find some other way to get out, but it'll take much longer."

Bane thought about it for a few seconds.

"Fine." He said. "I agree."

"Good!" Matt picked up the rifle and compressed it back into an oval. "Pleasure doing business with you, Bane."

From the My Little Pony series

Ponyville

It was a generally accepted fact that Ponyville was weird central.

There was the Everfree Forest, which spawned monsters like supermarkets spawned savings, then there was a Princess's castle that, for all purposes, was right next door and the God of Chaos occasionally stopped at the bakery for cupcakes.

The spaceship was new, though.

Applejack, a member of the local farming family, had been bucking some apples out of trees when a large object had fallen out of the sky and almost flattened her. Naturally, this had been enough to send her into a panic, so she ran out of the farm and into town, stopping only one to make out what had almost killed her.

She didn't need to run far to find her friends. Everypony in town had heard the crash and were running to the farm to see what it was.

Applejack almost ran into one of her friends, a cyan Pegasus named Rainbow Dash, who, the moment she saw her, asked, "AJ! What the hell happened over there?!"

"Big… metal… thing!" Applejack gasped. "Almost… flattened… me… this… way!"

And with that, she ran right back, the rest of the town in tow.

The population had formed a very large ring around the object. They knew better than to just run up and start poking it, although some parents had to keep curious foals at bay. The mayor was at a complete loss, so she just went along with what the local alicorn Princess was saying.

"Alright everypony, don't worry!" Twilight Sparkle shouted. "We'll figure this out; you can all go home for the moment!"

"Yes, let's get home now!" The mayor agreed. "Nothing to see here! The Princess and her friends will sort this out!"

Once the crowd had dispersed and there were only the six local heroes left, they started talking about it.

"So… what is it?" Rainbow asked, poking it.

"I'm not sure." Twilight frowned. "Applejack, you said that this object fell from the sky?"

"Yup." The farmer replied, looking extremely annoyed. "And crushed whatever was under it at the time."

"Hmm…" Twilight thought.

"It can't be dangerous." Rarity, the seamstress unicorn said. "Otherwise, it probably would've done something by now."

"It can't be Discord's, either." Said Pinkie Pie, the self-employed party planner. "Or it probably would've blown up. Or sprouted wings or something."

"I think this thing is alien in origin." Twilight deduced. "It would explain why it fell from the sky."

"Oh yeah? Where's the explanation of why it had to land here?" Applejack demanded. "Do aliens think that apple trees grow in a day?!"

"Maybe they do where they come from." Pinkie suggested.

"Maybe they crashed." Fluttershy suggested softly. She was the animal caretaker of the town. "They could've had no control over where they landed."

"I don't think so." Rainbow said. "I mean, if they were crashing, then this thing would probably be nose down."

"I think that if there are aliens, then they've probably came in peace." Rarity decided. "If none of you mind, may I make first contact?"

"Go ahead." Twilight said. "Once you figure out how to open it."

"Oh, there's a button on this side."

And there was. It was a big, blue circular button at that. Rarity pressed it with a hoof.

A part of the ship opened up, revealing a ramp that lead into the relatively small compartment. Only enough room for one person.

Pinkie grinned. "This is so exciting! I'm going to say hello to the aliens!"

"Pinkie, Rarity wants to…" Twilight began, but gave up once she saw Pinkie dash inside in a pink blur.

A few seconds later, she popped her head out again and said cheerfully, "It's empty!"

"Empty?" Rarity walked up to it. "So there's nothing in it?"

"Well, there's a bunch of metal things, but nothing alive. Oh! And there's a message for us!"

"A message?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yup! It says 'We at the Buy n' Large Corporation would like to invite you to the planet Eden for a national goodhearted treasure hunt on a paradise with various holiday homes.'"

She said this at about a hundred miles per hour.

"…How'd you know that it says that?" Rainbow asked.

"It's written in Equestrian!" Pinkie replied, waving a bright white note with writing scribbled on it.

"…A treasure hunt?" Twilight said. "And we've been invited?"

"Well, y'all can count me out." Applejack said flatly. "I ain't goin' anywhere 'til I've replanted those apple trees."

"While a holiday home sounds nice, I fear that I have a few orders to complete." Rarity said. "And I have no need for treasure."

"I don't need any money! I'm already rich in sugar!" Pinkie said, walking out of the ship.

"Yeah… I don't need any treasure." Rainbow said. "Besides, I've got to practice for stuff."

"I don't need any money." Fluttershy murmured.

"Neither do I." Twilight said. "How do we tell this… corporation that we're not interested?"

"Uh…" Pinkie looked at the message again. "I think that we go anyway then tell that we're not interested, then come back."

"Hm." Twilight frowned. "That's inconvenient."

"Why do we have to?" Rainbow asked. "We can just leave it here."

"It's polite, Rainbow." Twilight said. "I'll go. You girls stay here."

"Are you sure?" Asked Fluttershy.

"Relax. I won't be gone for long." Twilight smiled. "What could go wrong?"

Fresh off the Bus

Insert copyright stuff here.

Borderlands: Eden

Part 2: Fresh off the Bus

Twilight Sparkle (As the Princess)

Twilight had not been expecting to change form once she left the planet. At all.

But here she was, sprawled out in a human form, unconscious on the floor after some considerable pain.

She came to, grimaced and got back up. That had been nothing like teleporting to Canterlot High School in the human world. What she just went through HURT.

There were a few, other, small differences. She wasn’t in a teen’s body. Instead, she appeared to be in a body more suited to her age. Twilight looked in a convenient mirror. She guessed that she looked twenty-four.

Another difference was that her skin wasn’t lavender for some reason. Instead it was a creamish colour. Her mane (she guessed it was called hair now) had remained the same colour, so that was a plus.

There had also been no clothes that had magically appeared on her. Great.

Twilight looked at the sliding door behind her. She had done some searching before she took off just to make sure she knew what to do. She read the manual and pressed the designated buttons. She had also found six sets of clothing that, at the time, didn’t seem like they would fit. Now, Twilight knew exactly what they were for.

She opened the doors. Buy n’ Large had clearly expected one of them to go, because each set seemed to be tailored towards them, although how they knew what they’d want to wear Twilight had no idea. She took a set off the rack and looked at it for a moment before deciding that she wanted it.

After a bit of fiddling, Twilight was dressed up in a white button-up shirt, a light-purple woollen vest, a navy skirt, two purple stockings and some black, lace-up shoes. She was satisfied with it, but still didn’t know why she changed form. Maybe there was some sort of magical barrier around the planet…

She couldn’t put much thought into that idea though, as a message flashed on the on-board screen.

Planet Eden approaching. It read.

Twilight was surprised at that. She must have been out for a while. Or this ship was incredibly fast. Either one.

Please read the instruction manual. The screen flashed.

Twilight reached for the booklet and opened it. Flipping to the pages concerned with landing, Twilight read that first, she should spread out a mattress and lie down on it as the ship entered the atmosphere in order to avoid passing out due to the pressure.

Huh… that would probably explain why she passed out the first time.

Once she landed, she then needed to install a chip into her head that hardwired her brain for English, the major language on the planet.

Upon reading that, she read a bit further ahead to see if there were any ways to remove the chip once she was done with it. There was one.

And that appeared to be it. Seemed simple enough. Twilight assumed that she only had to do the same thing once she wanted to get back.

Twilight opened the sliding doors again. There was a rolled up mattress on the bottom of it. She got it out, spread it across the floor and lied down.

She thought about what she was currently doing. The thought of being in space made her giddy. She was actually beyond the final frontier! She was going to places that Celestia’s sun had never touched!

As that thought crossed her mind, she suddenly realised something. She had forgotten to tell Celestia what she was doing. She would have no idea.

As Twilight worried about that, she realised something else: her friends would probably tell Celestia. No need to get worked up, all they would have to do was pop around to the library and…

Then Twilight realised something else: she had forgotten to tell Spike where she was headed.

She winced. That was incredibly thoughtless thinking on her part. Spike would’ve had no say in it and might have wanted to come had he been at the site instead of sorting out misplaced fiction books.

As the ship entered the atmosphere, it began to shudder. Then, Twilight began to feel a crushing pain.

She gasped. It wasn’t unbearable, but it really, really hurt. She couldn’t see why the Buy n’ Large corporation couldn’t come up with a way to avoid this.

Maybe this rocket was really cheap.

The pain continued for five minutes, which felt like a longer time than it actually was to Twilight. Then, it stopped with a jarring crash.

Twilight lied there for a bit more, trying to recover from the pain. Once she had managed that, she stood up, shakily.

She looked at the screen again. It read, Planet Eden reached. You may exit the vehicle.

Excited at the prospect of being on an alien planet, Twilight jumped up and was about to press the door button before she remembered the rest of the instructions. She reached for the metal instrument labelled in the manual and put it to her head. She pulled the trigger, as the instructions read.

“Ow!” Twilight jumped back, almost letting go of the object. She waited until the pain died down before removing it. Touching her head, she felt a bit of blood, but not enough to cause any concern.

With that done, she pressed the door button. It slowly opened, allowing Twilight to admire the scenery at it was revealed, bit by bit.

Twilight stepped out of the ship and onto the planet, where no pony had been before. She looked around the landing pad she had landed on, looked at the scenery beyond it and took it all in.

Then she said, “This is paradise?”

The landing pad was situated near a rough, tarmac road. A cart stop with a bench was on the other side. On the pole was a piece of paper that might be a letter. Everywhere else resembled Apploosa: dry, western deserts with giant plateaus dotted every few hundred kilometres.

There was no grass in sight, no trees, nothing that could suggest paradise in the remotest sense.

Twilight looked at the letter found on the ship. Then she looked back at the landscape surrounding her. There had to be some sort of mistake. This couldn’t be Eden.

Twilight turned back to the ship, hoping to find some answers on board, but she found that the door had closed on her.

Twilight frowned, pressing the button that opened the door. Nothing happened.

Then the ship started to shudder. The ground beneath it started to glow with heat. Then, the ship started to take off.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she realised what was happening. She quickly backed off from the ship as smoke poured from the bottom of it. It rose upwards, leaving her on the landing pad.

“Wait!” She shouted desperately. “You forgot me!”

This was to no avail though, as the ship simple rose and rose until it was completely out of sight.

Twilight stared upwards in hopelessness and horror as she realised that she was marooned on an alien planet with no idea how to get around and where she was.

How would she ever see her friends again?

Was she going to die out here?

What is this planet even like?!

Twilight looked around. With nothing else to do, she went over to the cart stop and sat down on the bench.

Staring at her surroundings, Twilight saw that the message was bright white, while everything around her looked worn down and out of shape.

She took the paper off of the pole and looked at it. With mild surprise, she saw that her name was on it.

She read it.

'Miss Twilight Sparkle,/Miss Rarity Belle,/Miss Rainbow Dash/Miss Applejack/Miss Fluttershy,/Miss Pinkie Pie,

Thank you for letting yourself get tricked so easily.

If you ever want to see your friends again, then find the Tree. A bus will arrive in a few minutes. Get on it and help the other three find the Tree. If you don’t do this, then you will never escape this planet alive.

Commander Wales, Buy n’ Large Corporation, Weapons and Armour Reservation Division

P.S. I can’t guarantee that my soldiers won’t attack you.'

Twilight read it a few more times, just to make sure that her anger was justifiable.

This guy tricked her?! He dared to threaten her?! What kind of psychopath would just dump her on some alien planet to hunt a tree of all things?!

Twilight threw the letter onto the road in a fit of temper.

Seriously angry, Twilight sat there, barely registering anything.

She did, however, register a sound that was coming from down the road.

She looked to the side. She could make out an object that coming closer. It looked a bit like a rectangle.

As it approached, Twilight saw that it had wheels, windows, doors, everything that made it a bit like a cart. It quite clearly wasn’t though, because Twilight could see that it was made out of metal and there was no underprivileged group of ponies driving it.

She stared at it in amazement. What was this thing?

It stopped in front of the cart stop. The doors opened, revealing the driver.

It was humanoid in appearance, except it was made entirely out of a grey, shiny metal. Its limbs, body and head were squares or rectangles, with some orbs apparently holding it together. It looked at her with two eyes that had electric blue irises.

They stared at each other for a moment, Twilight in amazement, the metal creature with raised metallic eyebrows.

Then it said to her, “You getting on or not?”

Twilight blinked. “Uh… where are you headed?”

“To Hornsby.” The thing replied. “Gonna make a few stops though, just for your lot.” He frowned. “You are a Tree Hunter, right?”

“I… what is it with trees around here?” Twilight asked, confused.

The creatures sighed impatiently. “Listen sweetheart, the Tree is a mystical vault full of alien treasure. Those who are looking for it are called Tree Hunters. Do you want to search for it?”

“Well…” Twilight’s face dropped. “A note said that if I didn’t…”

The creature’s eyes lighted up. Literally. “Oh, just like the snake. Alright, hop on.”

“…Snake?” Twilight asked, suddenly tense.

“Relax, she doesn’t bite.”

Reluctantly, Twilight hopped on the bus. She looked down the row. There were several seats and the back ones were occupied by some of the strangest individuals she’d ever seen before.

Sitting on Twilight’s far left was a muscular pale man. He might’ve passed for being made of metal, since his suit was made of it. It shone black with some dust on it. On his left bicep was a zigzag ‘S’ with a line scratched through it. His jet black hair was also dusty. Attached to his leg with no visible sheath was a katana sword, which was also black.

At the far end of the bus was another muscular man, although he was much large than the other one. He had a black and white balaclava on, a leather vest and some leather pants and odd boots. The weirdest thing about him though was the fact that there tubes on the vest and going into his body. They were clear with no apparent purpose.

The last person made Twilight shudder. It was a long, thin, green snake with various markings flowing along its body. It had two lotus clips attached to the back of its head and its eyes were cyan. Not the iris. The eyeball. Twilight probably would’ve jumped off the bus if the snake didn’t look so miserable.

“Take a seat.” The metal thing said.

Twilight looked at the thing. “Uh… who are you guys?”

“Well, I’m Thomas, nice to meet you, yadda yadda. And those guys you see before you,” He pointed to them. “They are your fellow Tree Hunters.”

“…Oh.” Twilight said. She couldn’t picture herself working with them. “Are you a Tree Hunter?”

Thomas chuckled. “Nah, I’m a weapons merchant. I sell guns, grenades… that kind of stuff.”

“Guns.”

“Yeah.”

“Grenades.”

“Yup.”

“…What are those?”

Thomas stared at her blankly, then waved her off. “Okay, just sit down.”

Twilight walked down the bus, trying to figure out where to sit. The guy at the very back was being intimidating without even trying, so Twilight immediately ruled him out. The guy in armour was giving her a critical, cyan stare, which made Twilight feel uncomfortable so she wasn’t going to sit next to him either.

The snake however seemed safe. While Twilight was terrified of snakes by default, this one looked like it needed someone to talk to. So, ignoring her immediate fears, she sat on the seat next to the snake.

The bus lurched forward with a few coughs of the engine. Then, the scenery started moving forward and they were on their way.

“Okay, everyone!” Thomas shouted from the driver’s seat. “Next stop, Bycroft! I hope that you’re all ready to search for treasure!”

Thomas turned on the radio and sound started blasting out of it. It appeared to be some sort of song.

Twilight looked at her fellow Tree Hunters again. No-one seemed to be making any attempt at conversation.

Twilight decided to start with someone who might be the friendliest.

“So… hi.” She said to the snake.

It jumped, blinking up at Twilight. “Huh?”

Twilight almost jumped too. She had not expected the snake to talk in a female voice.

“…Hi.” Twilight repeated, more nervously this time.

“Oh… hi.” The snake smiled, although it was quite forced.

And that was about as much conversation as Twilight could go before looking away.

“Oh, I don’t mean to be rude.” The snake said quickly. “I’m just a little… upset.”

Twilight was reminded of Fluttershy.

“No, no, it’s fine.” Twilight insisted. “It’s just that… I have ophiophobia.”

“Huh?” The snake cocked her head.

“Um… fear of snakes.” Twilight explained awkwardly. Then she added quickly, “Like, an irrational fear. One that doesn’t make sense.”

The snake’s expression was unreadable. Then she said, “You’re sure it’s irrational?”

“Yes! Of course.”

“Alright.” The snake relaxed. “My name’s Viper.”

Not very original. Twilight thought to herself. “Mine’s Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.”

Viper giggled at that.

Twilight frowned. “What?”

“Oh, nothing. Nice name, that’s all.”

“Hippie name, more like.” The guy in the armour muttered. He said it like an insult.

Viper gave him an irritated look. “What does that mean?”

“That’s it’s a stupid name.” The guy replied.

Twilight glared at him, slightly angry. “What’s yours then?”

“I’m not giving my name to someone I just met.” He replied.

“His name’s Alex.” Thomas replied from the front. “Alexander Ortis Divore Campbell if you want to annoy him.”

Alex closed his eyes.

Twilight studied him. There was something different about him. It was like he had the aura of a unicorn in the sense that he radiated magic. But it wasn’t the kind of magic that Twilight detected on a daily basis.

It was more close to the sort of magic she had felt when she encountered King Sombra. Dark Magic.

She took an instant disliking to him.

“I am Bane.” The guy in the back said in a rich, Spanish accent. “And I am only telling you this to stop you from asking.”

“Right.” Twilight said. “Sure.”

“So… do you know anything about this planet?” Viper asked Twilight, apparently trying to start up a conversation.

Twilight shook her head. “No, I just arrived.”

“Damn.” Viper muttered. “So we have no idea where to go.”

“Bycroft is a good place to start.” Bane spoke up.

Viper looked at him. “How come?”

“It’s where the first mining operations started.” Bane replied.

“Mining operations?”

“You two really don’t know anything about this planet, don’t you?” Alex asked.

Twilight glared at him. “Enlighten us.”

“A corporation known as the Chemit Corporation used to hold operations on this planet.” Alex explained. “They were searching for valuable minerals and used criminals as a cheap labour force.”

Twilight was interested now. “You mean, like slaves?”

“Exactly like slaves.” Alex said. “No pay, no health insurance, no safe work conditions, nothing.”

“That’s horrible!” Viper said.

Alex rolled his eyes. “It’s life.”

“While mining for minerals, the workers came across some odd artefacts.” Bane said. “They hushed it up from their superiors, but they did mutate the workers both physically and mentally.”

“…Really?” Twilight asked.

Bane nodded. “Colonists were lured here by promises of a fresh start,” Bane waved his hand to the windows. “But were rewarded by this.”

“Eventually, the corporation abandoned the planet, since they didn’t find any minerals.” Alex added. “So they left the colonists and the staff they left behind to the mercy of the convicts.”

“You mean… the ones that attacked me were prisoners?” Viper asked.

“Attacked you?” Twilight blinked.

“No.” Alex replied. “All the convicts either overthrew their superiors or made negotiations with them to go free and became Bandits instead.”

Viper gulped. “Um… how many convicts were there?”

“Think along the lines of a whole planet’s worth of criminals.” Alex said. “That’s pretty much what we’re up against.”

“…You’re kidding me.” Twilight said.

“And then there are the local monsters.” Bane added.

“Ah… those.” Alex said bitterly. “I ran into a few of those myself.”

“What were they like?” Twilight asked.

“They had varying appearances. But they all have barbed wire on them somewhere.” Alex described. “That grows naturally.”

“Yikes.”

“My race created them.” Alex added. “How they got here, I’ll probably never know. But someone ought to get punched in the face for letting them near the planet.”

“…It really isn’t a paradise, isn’t it?” Twilight sighed.

“You don’t say.” Viper agreed.

“So… I guess we have to find this Tree thing?” Twilight said.

“I guess so.”

“I know where it is.” Bane said.

Everyone looked at him. Except for Thomas, who was entertaining himself by running over a wolf-like creature on the road.

“You do?” Viper exclaimed.

“Great, job done.” Alex said. “Let’s go home now.”

Bane glared at Alex. “If it were that easy, I would’ve claimed my prize already.”

“And I can’t go home.” Twilight said. “I’m stranded.”

“You too?” Viper said.

“You mean… you’re stranded as well?”

“Yes! I was tricked and-!”

“The Tree,” Bane interrupted. “Is a large chamber. It’s currently locked and nobody has the key.”

“…Oh.” Twilight said. “So, we’re searching for the key.”

“Sort of.” Bane said. “According to a lunatic I interrogated, the key is in three pieces. So we have to find the pieces before we open the Tree.”

“You legitimately believe that the Tree exists.” Alex said.

“Yes.” Bane said coldly.

“If you don’t, then why are you here?” Viper asked.

Alex jerked a thumb towards Thomas. “Because the idiot driving insisted that I held his hand when he came here to sell his merchandise.”

“Don’t mind him.” Thomas called. “He’s just bitter.”

“So the place we’re going…” Twilight said.

“It’s where the key was first found, yes.” Bane said. “At least, it was found in the general area.”

“So when we get there, we search for it.” Viper said. “Sounds straightforward. Probably isn’t.”

“We’ll be fine.” Twilight said. “There are four of us.”

“Sure. Four of us.” Alex said. “Against a whole demographic.”

“Do you see any other Tree Hunters?”

“No,” Alex sighed. “And that’s part of the problem.”

“Do you lot have guns?” Bane asked.

“Um… no.” Twilight said. “Is that going to be a problem?”

“YES, that is going to be a problem.” Alex said in disbelief. “Guns are the only way to defend yourself on this planet.”

“What’s a gun?” Viper asked.

Alex raised his hand.

Dark smoke appeared out of nowhere and formed a metal object in his hand. It had a long tube in the front, a barrel in the middle and a grip for holding.

Twilight was only mildly surprised, due to her detection of Alex’s Dark Magic, but the other two had more violent reaction. Viper jumped backwards in her chair and Bane stood up, his face in a snarl.

“How’d you do that?!” Viper asked.

“I’m a Shade.” Alex replied. “Manipulation of Dark Magic is one of my natural powers. But that irrelevant. The point is that this is a gun.”

Bane sat back down, his frown deepened. Viper tentatively poked the gun with her nose, as if she was afraid it would bit.

“This is one of the miniature cannons the Bandits were using.” She said nervously.

“Oh Gods, it’s called a gun.” Alex said impatiently.

“Yeah, I don’t have one of those.” Twilight said. “I get that Thomas sells them, but is there any other way to get them?”

“You could find one in someone’s chest.” Alex said. “That’s to say, a treasure chest. Or a box.”

“Isn’t that stealing?” Viper asked.

“Have you got a better way to find things without spending money?”

“What model is it?” Bane asked.

“It’s an Angsty Revolution, made by Campbell’s.” Alex said.

“…That’s seriously its name?” Twilight asked.

“I know.” Alex muttered, the gun dissolving back into smoke.

Bane frowned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white circle with the Buy n’ Large logo on it.

“Where did you get that?” Twilight demanded, her eyes widened.

“Unimportant.” Bane replied.

“What is it?” Alex asked.

“A communicator. It’s vibrating for some reason.”

“Get rid of it.” Viper said, giving the communicator a dirty look. “I hate that company.”

Ignoring them, Bane pressed the logo down.

A green, see-though figure appeared above it. Twilight and Viper jumped back, while Alex rolled his eyes and Bane ignored them all.

“Don’t tell anyone you can hear me.” The figure whispered so that Thomas wouldn’t hear.

Twilight looked towards Thomas, who seemed focused on the scenery around him.

She looked back towards the figure. It was humanoid and female in appearance and looked quite pretty. It was naked, although no defining features could be seen on her. She had a blank face and a pony tail. Foreign symbols flashed along her body.

“I’m not from Buy n’ Large.” The figure whispered in a deathly quiet tone. “I’m here to help you find the Tree.”

The four looked at her. They were doing their best to remain quiet.

“When the bus stops, you’ll find a helper that’ll give you some of the essentials. Listen to what he says. You’ll understand when you meet him.”

She looked at them all, going around in a circle. “You have no reason to trust me, I know that. But you have to believe me when I say that I want to help.”

The figure disappeared.

The four looked at each other, not really knowing what to say.

Twilight started to say something, but Alex shook his head and gestured to Thomas.

The bus stopped.

Twilight looked out the window. They were near what looked like a settlement. There was a sign that read ‘Bycroft’ outside the bus.

“That’s our stop.” Alex said, walking towards the doors.

Twilight thought about what the figure said. How could they trust her? Twilight had learned a mere ten minutes ago that stuff from Buy n’ Large wasn’t to be trusted. On the other hand, Twilight figured that they could use a guide.

“Take care, jackass.” Alex said to Thomas.

“Love ya too, buddy.” Thomas replied. “Er… in a bromance sort of way, that is.”

Alex ignored him.

Bane said nothing as he walked out. Twilight and Viper went up to Thomas.

He turned and looked at them. “What’s up?”

“Just… to say goodbye and thanks, I guess.” Twilight said.

Thomas waved his hand. “Ah, don’t worry with all that goodbye BS. I’m sure we’ll be doing this all again soon enough.” He laughed good naturedly at that, as if sharing an inside joke.

Then, immediately reverting to serious, he said, “Get off my bus.”

Twilight stepped off with Viper and watched as Thomas drove off into the sunset.

Twilight frowned. For the first time, she realised that she was actually going on a quest to find a vault full of treasure. She was actually going to stay on this crazy planet.

“See ya next time!” Said a high-pitched, synthetic voice.

The four turned towards the sound of the noise. Alex’s shoulders slumped and he said, “Oh no.”

A robot was standing on the other side of the road, waving the bus off. It had a body in the shape of a trapezoidal prism, a long antenna sticking out of its top, two thin metal arms and one singular, blue eye.

“Ha ha!” Claptrap laughed. (The Fates are cruel)

He turned towards the ground and whirred forward on his singular wheel for a leg. “Welcome to Bycroft!” It said to them. “I am CL4P-TP. You may call me by my locally designated name ‘Claptrap’. Before continuing,” It reached into its own body and produced four rectangular devices. “Please accept these S-NET communication devices and heads-up displays, provided free of charge by the Scaleskin Corporation.”

The four stared at the robot, slightly overwhelmed. If Twilight found that if this S-NET thing did something wacky and odd, then her brain would have a technological meltdown.

“Um… thanks.” Twilight took one.

Viper took one as well, with some confusion. Bane stared at his, frowning.

Alex took one and immediately attached it to his right bicep.

Bane took after him and attached his S-NET to his back.

Viper looked at her thin body and the device again before settling with putting it on her back in the middle.

Twilight attached hers to her hip.

Immediately, she decided not to learn anything about technology on this planet.

Words immediately hovered in front of her. They read ‘BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED’ and were accompanied by a bar that slowly filled up. As it filled, a red bar in the lower left of her vision appeared as a ‘Health Bar’ and a ‘Weapon Display Module’ appeared on the lower right. Then a digital bearing module appeared on the bottom, allowing Twilight to see what direction she was pointing at.

“Great!” Claptrap said. “I detect that your S-NET devices are fully functioning. This way please.” He turned and rolled off.

“I hate these things.” Alex growled.

Viper, once she had gotten over the shock of words appearing in her face, said, “It doesn’t seem too bad.”

“Trust me, after two days of hearing this thing talk, you’ll want to commit suicide, or worse.” Alex assured her.

“Do we trust the hologram?” Bane asked.

Twilight knew that he was talking about the green woman.

“Well, could we manage without her?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” Alex replied. “But this planet is foreign to all of us. We could use a guide.”

“Agreed.” Viper said. “So what now?”

Bane shrugged. “We talk to the residents of the town. See if they know anything.”

“Hey!” Claptrap shouted. “Over here!”

“Come on.” Alex muttered. “Let’s go see what this thing wants.”

They followed Claptrap to the front gate of the town. Along the way, Bane walked over to two dumpsters and began opening them.

Viper eyed the trash. “Um… what are you doing?”

“You never know what you’ll find.” Bane replied. He picked up some green notes and a green box full of gold, thin objects.

Turning to the next one, he opened it. He blinked and grinned when he pulled out a long, polished brown ellipse.

Twilight blinked. A box just appeared on her heads-up-display. It had the words BULET ASULT-RFLE written on it in deep green.

“Uh… some words just appeared on my display.” She said.

“That’ll be the name of the gun.” Alex said.

“That’s a gun?”

Bane pressed a button and the object unfolded into a long rifle.

“Oh.” She read the ID card a bit more. Under the gun name, it read Level: 1. Next to that, it read Assault Rifle. In the bottom right corner, the Buy n’ Large logo could be seen.

“Huh.” She said as Bane slung the gun over his shoulder. “Neat.”

They reached Claptrap at the gate.

“You’ll love Bycroft!” Claptrap said cheerfully. “It’s a town that’s survived many Bandit attacks and sieges thanks to the local Badasses!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“That’s just what we call people who are really awesome at fighting.” Claptrap explained. “We don’t have many of them on Eden though. I think that…”

A growling sound filled the air. It was faint and high, but it reminded Twilight of the sound the bus had made.

“Wait… is that…?” Claptrap looked around in fear. “Oh no, not again! RUUUUUUUUUNNNN!”

And with that, Claptrap ran into a little shed.

A shadow passed over Twilights head and landed in the form of some sort of vehicle.

The Tree Hunters jumped back as the vehicles leapt over the fence and into town. Twilight couldn’t get a good look at them due to the dust clouds they made, but one of them, which was a dark red, spun around and started shooting at them.

Twilight had never been shot at before in her life, so this was a new and terrifying experience.

After a bullet whizzed past her ear, she ran towards a wall and hugged it. Viper followed suit, although she did so dodging every single bullet that came her way in graceful form, despite the fact that she was scared as well. Bane and Alex followed soon after.

Bane readied his assault rifle, but Alex raised his arm.

“Save your ammo.” He commanded.

A few more bullets whizzed by the gate, apparently being fired for the hell of it. A large explosion sounded from inside the town. Then there was nothing.

Claptrap peered out of his hidey hole. “Are… are they gone?”

Alex peered around. Twilight couldn’t see what he saw, but he nodded. “Looks like it.”

“Phew!” Claptrap said, relieved. “Those Bandits really have it in for us Claptraps.”

“I wonder why.” Alex said sarcastically.

“Yeah. Being used as target practice is not part of our programming!” Claptrap moved his way to the gate and pressed a few buttons.

“That was terrifying.” Twilight said, her heart thumping.

“Get used to it.” Bane didn’t put away his rifle. “There are going to be a lot more Bandits like those.”

“Will we… have to kill them?” Twilight asked in a small voice.

“Looks like it.” Viper said sadly. “I tend to avoid killing people, but sometimes I have to.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Twilight held up a hand. “I don’t think I’ll be able to do this. I’ve never killed anyone before.”

“Then we have a weak link.” Alex said drily.

Twilight was too terrified of the concept of killing someone to be angry at that.

Bane frowned at her. “I suppose that we’ll have to teach you then.”

“It’s easy.” Alex said. “You point a gun at someone you don’t like and then pull the trigger.”

“Mentally.” Bane said. He looked at her. “Do you have a family?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“Friends? Boyfriend?”

“Yes, no.” Twilight wondered where Bane was going with this.

Bane gestured to the group. “Pretend that we are them.”

Twilight looked at Bane. Then she looked at Alex. “That’s going to be difficult.”

“Start small, with Viper.” Bane said. “Imagine that she’s someone you love.”

“Uh… now?”

“When the Bandits attack again. Imagine that the Bandits are attacking someone you love. That’ll help.”

Twilight nodded uneasily. “Uh huh… but…”

“If that’s too hard, try this: it’s either you kill, or you get killed.” Bane said. “And if you get killed, then you will never see your friends and family again.”

That made sense. It didn’t make it any easier for Twilight, but it made perfect sense.

“Uh… could one of you look for a piece of paper in my shack?” Claptrap asked sheepishly. “I forgot the passcode.”

“Oh, for the… Viper, you’re small enough.” Alex said.

Viper gave Alex an irritated look, then ducked inside the shack. “The password is 0-5-9-2-3.” She called out.

“Got it!” Claptrap hit a few buttons. He then spread his arms out wide and said, “Aaaaaaannnnnnnnnnndddddddddd open!”

The gate opened. The Tree Hunters stepped into the town of Bycroft.

Twilight saw what the others didn’t. She tapped Bane (who happened to be closest) and whispered, “Guys!”

They looked in her direction.

A bunch of bandits were walking down the road. They all wore ripped t-shirts with varying designs and jeans that looked either too big or too small. They all wore flatcaps and had balaclavas on. They looked a lot like teenage criminals, except they were adults. One of them noticed the group.

“Look! More looting material!” The Thug shouted, levelling his pistol. (His times of trouble are over)

“AH!” Claptrap screamed, running off. “Oh no! AHHHHH!”

Twilight ducked behind a wall when the Thugs started shooting. Alex and Bane pulled out their guns and started shooting back. Viper started strafing around, dodging all the bullets the Thugs had to offer.

Bane fired a few rounds into the chest of one of them, making sure to spare some ammo. Alex shot one of them through the head with a single shot. Viper slithered towards the last Thug at an incredible speed, getting in close for some quick melee attacks and a neck snap.

Twilight stepped out from her cover.

“Nice shooting.” Alex said to her sarcastically.

Twilight did her best not to look at the others. She had never seen anyone kill people that easily. She definitely didn’t want to look at the corpses.

Bane picked up a pistol from one of the corpses. Twilight thought that he was getting it for himself, but then he chucked it at her.

She barely caught it.

“Use this.” Bane ordered. “You need some way of defending yourself.”

Twilight looked at it. The title card read Enhanced Mag Handgun in white. It was Level 1 and the logo was a snake in the shape of an ‘S’. Next to the snake were two words that, when combined with the S, gave the words ‘Scale Skin’.

Twilight swallowed nervously. She didn’t know if she could kill someone, even if they were trying to kill her.

Nevertheless, she held the gun properly and looked down the sights. It seemed simple enough to use. The weapon module showed how much ammunition was in the gun and how much she had in reserve. Currently, the gun was more or less full, with eight rounds in the gun. She had no ammo in reserve.

She looked at Viper, who looked at a box with a green light on it. She opened it and pulled out a few boxes. The HUD registered a yellow box as pistol ammo.

“Hey Viper, could I…?” Twilight asked.

“Sure.” Viper threw the box to Twilight. “I don’t have a gun, anyway.”

Before Twilight could catch it, the box turned into a collection of cubes and flew into the S-NET.

Twilight jumped.

“Oh yeah!” Claptrap rolled over, apparently having gotten over the fear of the Bandits. “The S-NET has a system where anything you want to keep, it absorbs into its internal digital backpack! The ammo just digitalised.”

“Digitalised.” Twilight said. “Right.”

Viper just stared at the spot where the ammo box had turned into cubes and disappeared.

“When you’re done,” Alex called back. “We have more Bandits incoming!”

Twilight looked up a hill and saw a few more Thugs.

“WAH!” Claptrap ran off again.

Alex and Bane immediately started firing at them. Viper rushed forward, dodging the bullets.

Twilight swallowed. What better time to test her gun than now?

Twilight levelled the pistol at a Thug that wore some mismatched hockey gear. His title card read, ‘Raiding Thug’. He seemed stronger than the others. He even had a gun that fired at a rapid-fire pace, except it was smaller than an assault rifle.

Alex and Bane dove behind cover, avoiding the fire. Viper, meanwhile kept going at him.

Shooting at Viper, the Thug managed to get a lucky shot and a bullet hit Viper’s tail. She yelped and dove behind a box.

Then the Raiding Thug turned his attention to Twilight.

In that moment, Twilight took Bane’s advice and imagined that she was fighting for her friends and that she was attacking someone who she loathed.

She pulled the trigger and a bang echoed in her ears.