[IC] and they were hurricanes ;; dontcallmezelda && eltacotaco

[El Taco Taco]

The world was white and burning. There was a deafening roar, pressing in on every inch of her, blistering in its rage. Everything was spinning. That was impressive. There wasn’t even a horizon to focus on. How was the world spinning? Why? Something flashed in her head—bullets, a sign, enough dynamite to have levelled the Abbey—and her thoughts slipped away like water. ”Take cover! Get ready to meet the missus!” A turret digistructing, spitting an endless stream of bullets—“Come at me, pendejos!” more bullets than she had ever seen before, ripping holes in a loader—the flash of a blade and the whisper of the thing in armor—a round spiraling towards the center of her head, as if through molasses, shifting, watching it soar past—the shiver as she pulled from that shimmering well inside her, tattoos glowing blue, raising her hand to lift the Loader, crushing it in time and space, “Please stop.”—somewhere, the whirring of an buzz saw— A crunch. Something shifting. White everywhere—something yellow and black and smoking. The stench of cooked meat, carbon fiber, metal in her mouth. Something cold brushing against her arm, stinging against her tattoos, melting with wisps of steam. Black again, for a while. Then, the telltale sounds of digging. Her eyes cracked open, lids nearly frozen shut. Her hands planted against the ground—snow everywhere, wind, glaciers in the distance—and Maya eased herself to her feet. For a moment, she thought she might be on Athenas, training under Brother Sophis. Except, she had burned the memory of three bullets through his skull into her memory. Even the throbbing in her head—which she suspected to be a minor concussion, nothing she couldn’t handle—couldn’t make her forget that perfect image. Not Athenas. Pandora, she remembered foggily. I came to Pandora. And some asshole blew up our train. She staggered to her feet, armored hand brushing against her forehead. The little flares of tattoo on her cheek burned, as if trying to come to life. Maya frowned and flexed her left hand. She couldn’t quite touch the shadows inside, and her tattoos glowed only feebly. That was problematic. She took another step, her knee nearly giving out. Up just ahead, amidst the rubble of what had once been a train (Welcome Vault Hunters To Your Doom, the thrill of battle, strangers flowing into combat as if they’d spent years at war together), there were the outlines of what might have been bodies, the outline of something exploring a heap of wreckage. Maya eased herself forward, forced herself to push past the screaming in her joints. “Great—another dead Vault hunter. Handsome Jack’s been busy.” What the hell is that? What appeared to be a small… trash can? On a wheel? was digging through what Maya now recognized as the mangled remains of what had once been people. She repressed her sound of disgust. None of their forms were recognizable. Perhaps, then, the others had survived. “Wait a minute—you’re not dead! Yes! Now I get off this glacier! Claptrap, your metaphorical ship has finally come in!” Maya wasn’t sure what she had been expecting the robot to say—but it certainly wasn’t this. “Allow me to introduce myself! I am a Cl4P-TP steward bot, but my friends call me Claptrap! Or they would, if any of them were still alive. Or had existed in the first place!” Perhaps, she mused, her concussion was worse than she had thought.

[DontCallMeZelda]

Time seemed to be going by just so slowly. It wasn't funny, so don't even think that. With a soft sigh the young girl looked down to the small picture that she had in her hands and almost got lost in it among the non existent noise that was around her in the small shuttle. The picture was of her family back home. She had only been gone a week or so since the...Science fair, which was still totally unfairly judged by the way, and well having to leave home under these circumstances makes one kind of sad, right? Of course she missed home. It wasn't like she did this everyday. And she couldn't go back either. If she did that then she would be arrested..or something. With another soft sigh she folded the picture up and slipped into any pocket she could find and then let her head rest on one of the windows that was behind her. She looked out into the deep reaches of space and tried her best to see any planets she recognized. She could not recognize any. They all looked like tiny lights. That's another thing; She was headed to a certain planet that had a rather peculiar reputation. She was headed to Pandora, the infamous planet of bandits and murder on a hourly basis. But, the planet was also said to house these things called "Vaults". If one finds such a vault then they were basically set for life right? She had always been interested in that idea but she never actually thought she would be going to Pandora. She had the Science Fair..and Marcy..to thank for that. At that point a small rumble from the ship broke her concentration as she came back from her memory train. The shuttle had broken orbit and now they were rather close to landing on Pandora. The pilot said something that Gaige didn't understand...but that's life right! As they came close to the Plant they eventually got to the point where the ground was visible. She was looking out with wide eyes in anticipation to see the legendary planet of Pandora...only to be a desolate snow covered wasteland. She let out yet another sigh and turned back around to sit down in her seat and wait for the stop. But, before she could get fully relaxed there was a loud bang and the ship was jarred from its course causing it to spin around a few times before recovering. The other people in the shuttle started to panic, and while Gaige was rather nervous she wanted to know what just happened. As the ship came back on its course she looked outside to see a train speeding by with...Bandits attacking it! The bandits had the train almost down it seemed and a few of their forces were aiming artillery at the shuttle. Why was this shuttle flying so closely to the train anyway?! Another blast shook the shuttle as it was hit. Sirens in the shuttle started to go off as the people in the shuttle seemed to be just as confused as Gaige was. After a few seconds of hoping the shuttle would take off again it didn't happen. Instead a burst of static came from the comm in the ship and a small hologram of some..dude was standing in front of them. He gave a small bow that seemed sarcastic in every way. His smile seemed sarcastic too. "Welcome to Pandora, Vault Hunters!" The hologram said before dissipating. What did that mean? Suddenly a large deafening explosion was heard and the ship was taken away with the explosion and sent towards the ground. After what felt like hours Gaige eventually opened her eyes slowly and groggily. She rolled over in the snow and when she did her insides started to ache like crazy. She pushed herself to her feet and started to take slow breaths as she recovered. At closer inspection she realized what happened exactly. The train they had been flying too close to exploded and in turn caused their ship to explode and inevitably crash to the ground. She must have been the only survivor. Well..she had nothing to do now but start walking. With a rather hard first step she set herself in some random direction to start walking. She decided to head towards the rubble of the train and see if she could find just anything. After a few seconds of walking her head started to pound like crazy and when she tried to bring her arm up to comfort her head she realized that...no arm was there. The arm that she had..cut off and replaced with a robotic arm was now gone. This caused her to panic. It was still intact she knew that much, no way some measly explosion was going to mess up that arm she crafted. So it was in one piece, just somewhere. After a few more seconds of walking she started to hear voices. She felt like she was going crazy, as her head was pounding and her muscles were killing her and Oh!, she was missing arm. But you know, no big deal just chalk up hearing voices to that too. She stopped at this though as she had an idea. She built a safety mechanism for this just in case this happened. See her robotic arm was actually the conductor to summon her project, Deathtrap. She had a beacon activator for her arm...if she ever lost it. When she activated the beacon her arm let out a small transmission and Gaige found out that it was actually very close. With a triumphant smile she made her way over to where her arm was and grabbed it out of the snow. "There you are!" She said with a small purr before wiping some of the snow off. The robotic arm gave a few clicks as she moved it around and eventually back into its socket. Once it was there and set she moved her arm and fingers around to make sure everything was okay. She stopped suddenly after this...as she felt a presence. She slowly lifted her eyes up only to see a woman, much taller than her, and a robot near her that seemed to be conversing. Or..until she showed up she guessed. "Umm...uh heh...uh.." She said at an attempt to actually form words. She wasn't expecting survivors out here... Out here..in the cold.

[El Taco Taco]

The little robot was gesticulating wildly, offering her an ECHO device. Maya had been about to take it when the crunch of footsteps told her she wasn’t alone. Her hand dropped to her side, grasping for her trust SMG—which was gone. Right. The train. She turned to take stock of the intruder. Her lips twitched into a frown. The intruder—which was, perhaps, the wrong word to use—was a child. Maya bristled at her own thoughts. The girl looked to be on the cusp of womanhood, but the siren knew better than most that childhoods were often fleeting. Her brow arched as she considered the redhead. She looked as cold as Maya felt. Colder, even, judging by the robotic arm and skirt. Although she couldn’t quite manage to phase lock, her tattoos at least kept her warm. “Another Vault Hunter!” The yellow robot chirped, launching into its introduction again. Maya nodded in wary greeting. “Hello,” she greeted, although her teeth chattered in the blistering wind. “I assume you were on the train as well, then.”

[DontCallMeZelda]

Gaige kept her head down somewhat as she focused on the small robot that was speaking rather fast to her. He was spouting something about Echos..and things that she knew about but listening to him say it made her feel like she was losing some brain cells. She didn't know what it was...it was just hard to focus. Maybe the robot's voice? Wait a second...what was this robot doing out here anyways? And this..woman too. The woman then spoke to Gaige, asking her if she was on the train when the explosion happened. Gaige tilted her head up and wound her mechanical arm a bit as to try to get it back to its right alignment. "...No..no I wasn't.." She said through her teeth chattering and her body shivering. Her choice of attire didn't exactly match the current climate so she was having a rather hard time adjusting to it. This woman wasn't wearing clothes to acclimate to the weather either so she didn't feel that stupid. "I was..I was on a a shuttle that had an idiot of a pilot and when..the train? Exploded our shuttle was sent off its trajectory and crashed near the train." Gaige then brought her hands up and started to rub her shoulders to try and generate some heat to course through her body. "Stupid...stupid.." She muttered to herself. She cast a quick glance down to the little yellow robot that was handing her something. She grabbed it and recognized the item as a echo device. Oh, she was familiar with Echos. She made the necessary adjustments and saw a few things pop up for her. She felt a small surge of heat go through her body and it actually..made her smile a bit. But she still wanted more warmth. Gaige then looked over to the woman and still held her shoulders. "What about you? Were you on the train? Also.." Her awkwardness was about to show as she pointed to her sleeveless arm that was covered in tattoos. "Those tattoos are very..very pretty."

[El Taco Taco]

Maya accepted the insistently offered ECHO communicator reluctantly, turning it over in her hand before clipping it to her belt and slipping in the ear piece. The heads up display was a little disorienting. Athenas hadn’t been in the Stone Age, but their tech hadn’t been nearly as… integrated. She’d certainly never seen such a crisp prosthetic in the Abbey. Of course, she hadn’t seen much of anything in the Abbey. She’d read about other worlds, but it was something else entirely to see it. “Ah,” Maya said simply, eying all the wreckage. If there had been a shuttle, it was indistinguishable from the rest of the rubble. At the girl—woman’s compliment, Maya frowned a little. She glanced to her arm, trying vainly to flare the tattoos to life. No dice. Maybe her injuries had thrown her off kilter? “Thanks?” Maya couldn’t help but sound a little wary; she’d seen the wanted posters in the spaceport when she’d first arrived on Pandora. Bullets and her phaselock had dealt with the idiots that had attempted to collect thus far. She disliked having access to neither of these. “Your… arm is interesting.” She paused for another beat. “I’m Maya.” Smooth. “Now, come, come, friends! Let’s get you inside!” Maya glanced to the redhead, shrugging a shoulder as if to say ‘well, we don’t have any other options’. She set off after Claptrap as it wheeled away surprisingly well, considering all the snow. The robot chattered away above the roar of the blizzard, its voice surprisingly irritating. “Man, this is great! Now that I’ve met might Vault Hunters, I can finally join the resistance in Sanctuary, take vengeance against Jack for killing my product line, and repair my central processor so I can stop thinking out loud! I wonder what it’s like to have a belly button.” She had been about to ask the little robot about the resistance when a small feed popped up on the, weird as all hell, display. It was grainy, as if the video feed was corrupted, but the smooth feminine voice in her ear was crisp, as if she were only paces away. “I’ll explain everything soon, but know this—you’re alive for a reason, and I…am here to help you.” Maya’s eyes narrowed. “I hate cryptic bullshit,” she muttered darkly, raising a hand to shield her face against snowflake ineffectually. She glanced to her companion, who looked as though she might crystallize at any moment. “Did you get that message too?”