Authors note: Hello all, this is my first ever attempt at writing fan fiction. I started this to practice and hopefully improve my writing, and because I really liked the characters from Borderlands 2, but was slightly disappointed by the lack of dialogue between the player characters and the world. This is my take on what happened if all six vault hunters started out the journey together. Please review if you can, all constructive criticism welcome!

IMPORTANT: since it's hard to add drama if death is only a respawn, I've decided to completely ignore the Hyperion respawn station things, and later if any other game centric element would interfere with the story I will take them out too.

So you want to hear another story eh?

"Great – more dead vault hunters. Handsome Jack's been busy."

Axton's eyes snapped open when he heard the gloomy robotic voice. Half frozen, and half buried underneath a growing blanket of snow, he could barely make out in his blurry vision the small yellow robot with a shovel. Axton grunted with pain and moved his arms forward a few inches.

The robot dropped its shovel in surprise. "Wait a minute – you're not dead!" The robot instantly became cheerful and loud. "Yes! Now I can get off this glacier! Claptrap, your metaphorical ship has finally come in!"

Axton winced as the obnoxious voice assaulted his ears still ringing from the explosion. He took a couple of deep breathes and pushed himself up. Feeling, most of it pain, was slowly returning to his cold and sore body.

He reached for his Dahl standard issue pistol to silence the chatter-bot. Fortunately for it, the pistol and all his other equipment were gone, destroyed or blasted away by the explosion. He fumed as he thought of the train; how'd he let himself fall into such a simple trap? He should've bailed the moment the killer robots appeared. And he would've if the other three hadn't been there.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the robot continued cheerfully, unaware of its inattentive audience, or the howling snowstorm around them. "I am a CL4P – TP steward bot, but my friends call me Claptrap! Or they would if any of th…"

Axton tuned out the annoying robot and hobbled around the piles of half buried frozen corpses behind Claptrap; he had to find his weapons, or at least his darling Dahl not-so-standard issue Sabre Turret. Ten years in the Dahl military and he'd never been in an explosion big enough to rip that turret off his back; but the force of this blast had even blown away his ECHO communicator.

"I've got something for you!" said Claptrap, catching Axton's attention for the first time. "Here - take this ECHO co-"

"Hey, that's my ECHO communicator!" Axton said irritably, cutting Claptrap off as he limped quickly over and snatched the familiar device. He reattached it and waited for the utilities to boot, but couldn't help feeling bad for the now silent robot. "Thanks," he added, guiltily.

The robot started shouting again, making Axton regret apologizing as he continued to search for his stuff. He spotted his tomahawk lying on the snow a couple of feet to his left and shuffled over to grab it, but when he did the big snow pile beside the tomahawk exploded as a tall shirtless psycho jumped out. Great. This day just couldn't get any better; first killer robots, now half-naked psychos.

Claptrap gave an audible gasp when it saw the stranger. "Another survivor? Could this day get any better?" it yelled ecstatically, before restarting its loud introduction. "Allow me to introduce myself! I am CL4…"

"SH-SHINY MEAT P-POPSICLE!" screamed the shivering psycho through his face mask.

"Why does everyone have to shout!" shouted Axton, agitated. Then, noticing the psycho's buzzsaw axe, Axton brought his tomahawk up defensively. "Bring it on," he said, trying to bluff some energy back into his body.

The two men stood a few feet apart, eyeing each other silently, their quiet hostility disturbed only by Claptrap's continued introduction.

But a girl's muffled coughing broke the two out of their standoff, and both turned their attention to the blue-haired, tattooed woman crawling out of the snow behind the psycho.

"Another one?" cried Claptrap, somehow even louder than before. "How many of you guys are there?"

The psycho immediately leaped towards the woman, filling Axton with a sense of dread. Not wanting his only sane companion to be brutally axed, Axton forced his aching muscles to obey and jumped with an animalistic yell at the psycho's exposed back.

"No!" Axton thought he heard the woman shout, as he himself was engulfed in some kind of dark matter bubble. He watched from his floating prison with relief and increasing curiosity as the psycho helped the woman out of the snow, getting her on her feet.

With a wave of her left arm, the woman dissipated the bubble around Axton and he plopped into the snow. He got up quickly and brushed himself off.

"Wow, that was, yeah. Please don't do that again." Axton now recalled how the woman had used the mysterious power on the killer robots aboard the train. "But that's what I get for playing hero I guess," he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

The woman's face showed a hint of a smile and she said, "Sorry, but I couldn't let you kill him." She motioned at the psycho, who had retreated away from the two and sat shivering alone in the snow.

Claptrap rolled over and introduced himself for the third time, but Axton raised his voice and talked over the nuisance. "So, uh, I never got your name on the train, I'm Axton by the way. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Maya, nice to meet you too," Maya shouted back.

"Is he with you?" Axton asked, pointing at the sniffling psycho. "And aren't you cold?" Maya seemed perfectly comfortable in her jeans and tank top, while he himself was shivering inside his Dahl all-terrain combat uniform.

"No, I'm fine," said Maya, and then hesitantly added to explain, "I'm a siren."

"A siren huh? Cool." Axton nodded and tried not to sound too amazed. What a day: Survive huge explosion, meet friendly psycho, and find one of six existing sirens in the whole universe; he needed to buy a lottery ticket ASAP.

Maya seemed relieved by Axton's tepid reaction, and she glanced over at the sitting psycho. "And he's not with me, but he's okay."

"You know him then?"

"No, well, I guess? When I was boarding the train, I was attacked and he saved me."

"Now that's a story I have got to hear."

Maya shrugged and smirked. "Not much more to say, I guess he snuck aboard to follow me."

"A half-naked psycho stalker. No big deal huh?" Axton remarked with amusement.

Maya laughed. "Well, I am a siren so... yeah, no big deal."

"Wow, you're a siren?" Claptrap asked, excessively amazed. "I know two sirens now! That's so cool!"

"Are you serious?" asked Maya, losing her composure. "What's her name? Where is she? Does she-"

Axton coughed loudly behind Claptrap to get Maya's attention, and then he twirled his left trigger finger in a circle on the side of his head; to drive the point home he also crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue a little.

Maya got the message and sighed, half embarrassed and half frustrated at being taken in by the robot.

"Her name?" Claptrap clutched his boxy head in deep concentrated thought. "Oh man I could never remember her name. Okay, let's see - there was Rolank, and Brice, and Mordesigh…" Claptrap's arms fell to his sides and the robot began moping.

Axton finally spotted the backpack sized storage unit containing his turret, and he soon returned to them with it firmly attached to his back. The blizzard was intensifying around them, and he was about to suggest they move into the igloo shelter thing not too far from them when Claptrap jumped with upstretched arms.

"Lily! Her! Name! Was! Lily!" The robot declared triumphantly. "My central processor may be broken, forcing me to think out loud, but my memory hasn't failed me yet! …I wonder what it's like to have a bellybutton."

"Oh, Lily, that's nice," said Maya gently, humoring Claptrap out of newfound pity; then she shot Axton a quick glare filled with disdain. Axton felt a new wave of guilt and helplessness wash over himself as he tried to mouth an excuse.

"Don't you want to know where she lives?" said Claptrap, innocently taunting Maya.

"Sigh, where does she live, Claptrap?"

"…Er, I don't know. But the resistance will!"

"The resistance," repeated Maya with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, now that I've met some mighty Vault Hunters, I can finally join the resistance in Sanctuary, take vengeance against-"

"I CAN'T FEEL MY FLESHSTICK!" The psycho jumped up and ran for the igloo, seemingly fed up with the cold and Claptrap.

"Hey!" Claptrap shouted after the fleeing psycho. "Don't you dare interrupt me! You hear me buddy? I said, don't you dare interrupt me!"

Axton couldn't tell if his ears were bleeding from the cold or the noise, so he covered them with his hands, solving both problems as he followed the psycho towards the igloo; finding his weapons wasn't worth listening to anymore of Claptrap's nonsense.

"Why don't we talk more inside?" Maya suggested to Claptrap, while thinking to herself how strange this world outside the monastery she grew up in was.

"Good idea minion number one!" said Claptrap, with such optimism that Maya couldn't bring herself to protest the nickname; at least she was number one. "Now – come, come, friend. Let's get you inside."

"Friend," Maya said to herself, as they trudged towards the igloo. She knew what the word meant from books, but finding it used on herself was a new and… happy, experience. She smiled without realizing it as she followed Claptrap towards the two men beating at the surprisingly sturdy igloo door.

Axton turned to greet the two latecomers, but then noticed two other figures approaching as well, veiled by the now raging blizzard. He indicated the potential threats to Maya, who luckily still had her Maliwan SMG.

Claptrap scurried past them to unlock the door while Maya leveled her gun sight at the two approaching shadows and waited. Axton gripped the turret deployer on his back with increasing apprehension. Everyone but Claptrap fell silent as they prepared for battle.

"Woah! Don't shoot amigos, it is I, Salvador," exclaimed the shorter, stockier figure, who with raised arms and open palms stepped into the small circle of light casted by the lamp outside the igloo.

Axton and Maya breathed a sigh of relief when they saw him, and recognized now the other shadow as the ninja.

"Snow in my boots / I am sad and very cold / Go in the igloo" said the tall dark figure, surprising everyone; he hadn't spoken a single word to them aboard the train.

"Was that a Haiku?" asked Maya, catching the ninja off guard.

"I am impressed / Not many understand / But how did you know?"

"Er, wait hold on, I can do this," said Maya happily and cleared her throat. "Locked in a church / I was so bored / read a lot."

"Ah, I understand / what else have you read or heard? / h…"

"Hey, how'd you find us?" Axton asked Salvador aside; the two had quickly grown bored with the conversation between Maya and the ninja as they waited for Claptrap to open the door.

"Hell, it was easy." Salvador replied with a laugh. "I thought we were doomed at first though you know? Me and him, lost in the blizzard and blasted to god-knows-where. But then we heard you guys shouting, so we just followed the noise."

Salvador pointed with his thumb at the psycho. "Where'd you guys find that freaky mother?"

"It's a friend of hers," said Axton, pointing at Maya with his eyes.

Salvador shrugged, and fell backwards into the snow with a sigh of relief. "Now if only I could find my guns…"

"Aaaaaand open!" declared Claptrap confidently for the seventh time. But this time the door actually opened, and the five survivors poured into the warm shelter, pushing past and ignoring Claptrap, who was babbling on about something or another again.

Once inside, everyone but the psycho gathered around the makeshift fireplace in the center. It appeared to be burning a combination of money, scrap metal, and guns. No one cared enough to question how the latter two things were burning, though Salvador scowled every time a bullet ignited. Axton squinted at the fire and wondered if anyone else saw the mercenary remains deep within it.

"You can't do that to guns man, it's disrespectful," Salvador grumbled to himself, as the whistling Claptrap tossed another shovelful of junk into the hungry fire.

Axton took a deep, warm breath and prepared to address everyone. But a faded, fuzzy image appeared on his ECHOnet Heads Up Display, distracting him: that's the smuggest looking angel I've ever seen, Axton thought to himself, and noticed he wasn't the only one seeing something on their ECHO HUD: Maya, the ninja, and Salvador were all staring upwards in that familiar expression of someone busy browsing the ECHOnet. The psycho though was sitting in the corner, quietly looking at his hands.

"I'll explain everything soon," the angel said soothingly. "But know this – you're alive for a reason, and I… am here to help you."

Before anyone could reply to it, the image and voice disappeared, leaving the four troubled witnesses to stare at each other. Maya was first to speak:

"Um, everyone saw that, right?"

"Ai yai yai," muttered Salvador.

"She hacked our ECHO / Not to be taken lightly / Angel or demon?"

"Alright, so we all heard it," said Axton forcefully, putting his meager leadership training in the Dahl army to use. "Let's not worry about that. Right now, we need to focus on getting out of this mess."

The other three reluctantly nodded in agreement.

Salvador yawned and stretched his short, muscular arms. "Don't you dare, don't you dare say it," he said threateningly all of a sudden, surprising everyone, including himself.

The ninja remained silent and Maya looked confused, only Axton seemed to know what Salvador was referring to. "Salvador," he said with a sigh. "That's just a stupid stereotype. No one was going to-"

"WHY'S TRUXICAN NOT SLEEPY?" interrupted the psycho.

Salvador whirled around and leaped at the racist. "Vamanos Puta!"

"I FEEL THE LUCHA! I TASTE THE LIBRE!" shouted the psycho gleefully, as the two men wrestled on the slippery, snow covered floor.

"Hey, bad! No fighting in here! Take it outside!" yelled Claptrap, while slapping the two sweaty wrestlers repeatedly as if they were misbehaving pets.

Axton went to the nearby cards table and sat down. He wiped the dealt out cards to the floor, also causing one of the carefully seated and posed inactive CL4P - TP units to fall from its seat. He laid his head down in his arms and sobbed quietly.

The ninja moved to the shadows and leaned against the igloo wall, leaving Maya standing alone by the fire, studying the chaos. She wore a happy, yet baffled expression. The outside world sure was crazy and loud, but there was something wonderful about that; she couldn't quiet put the feeling into words.

"What's a Truxican?" she wondered out loud.

"Um, Hello? Anybody out there? Hello?" Snow drifted down the side of the metal container as another kick was delivered to it from the inside. The snowy plain returned to silence, only to be disturbed again after a minute by the same voice.

"Hello? I'm locked in here and my arm's broken and I could use some help!" the voice shouted louder, echoing out of the container. "…There was gunfire, and explosions! I know you guys are there!" Whoever was inside began pounding the metal shell repeatedly.

Attracted by the noise, a gigantic four-armed ape known as a bullymong lumbered over and sniffed the box. It cautiously tapped the exposed metal several times.

"Finally! Geeze what took you guys so long?"

The bullymong answered with an earth-shaking roar.

"…Uh oh."

The beast easily picked up the shipping container and tucked it under its arm. The creature let out a triumphant roar and dashed back towards its stash with the prize.

"Yeah, great idea Gaige," said the voice in the box. "Let's stowaway on the mystery train, it'll be fun. What could go wrong? You'll have an adventure!"

The bullymong roared and pounded the metal box like a drum as it ran. Gaige shouted back hysterically, "I HATE PANDORA!"