Travellers' Tales

by Elemental Hybrid

I don't know how or why this happened, but it did. We've been thrown into a whole new world and been saddled with a responsibility we could never dream of. And my only company is Don, who seems to have made it his life mission to annoy me and chase anything with a skirt that's vaguely attractive, and Alec, who actually seems bored at all this. Great, just great.

Hiya folks. Listen, this is a message for the readers who have been with me since 'A New Vault Hunter". Lately I've found it difficult to focus on the latest chapter. My computer crashing and losing all 7000 words of it didn't help much. As such, I've decided to take a bit of a break from it and try my hand at a new fic.

And now to any new readers… HIYA! Welcome to my second story ever! Here's the deal folks, I plan to do this little baby in collaboration with my good friends infinitexephos and Don Socrates. So, tell me what you lot think of it. I will be making use of various OC ideas that I haven't put into use yet but don't worry, I'll be happy to explain if you don't understand something.

EDIT: Through mysterious means my lost chapter has reappeared…

Disclaimer: All POVs were written by the respective authors, with minor editing by me. Don Socrates, infinitexephos and I do not own any of the fandoms that will be mentioned in this fic.

Chapter 1- Arrival

Jamie (Elemental Hybrid) POV

I groaned as a light assaulted my eyelids and tried to roll over in the hopes of blocking it out with a pillow. Then a thought penetrated my bleary mind: There was no pillow. In fact, I couldn't feel my bed at all. I couldn't feel anything around me. I slowly opened my eyes and felt my whole brain lock up in protest to what I was seeing.

I was floating in the centre of what appeared to be some kind of round tunnel. It made my brain hurt to look at the walls for too long but from what I could see they seemed to be made of flecks of colour, primarily yellow with patches of blue, pink, green and every other colour I could think of.

Of course the one piece of my brain that was still functioning could only come up with, "I wonder if it really was such a good idea to eat that old slice of pizza before bed?"

…Fuck you, brain.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

I sighed for what must have been the millionth time since I woke up in this weird tunnel. I'd been floating for I-don't-know-how-long and I'd grown bored about ten minutes after my brain started working again. I'd discovered that being in this tunnel was like what I imagined being in zero gravity was like. I could rotate myself, but that was about it. I'd been moving along at a steady pace ever since I woke up, or at least I think I had. The constantly shifting walls made it difficult to tell. Another sigh escaped me and I ran a hand through my dark blond hair before starting to do lazy backflips in the vain hope of entertaining myself. So of course, as soon as my back was towards my direction of travel the tunnel ended.

…Fuck you, tunnel.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

I gave a loud groan, partly because I was just waking up, partly because there was a bright light shining through my eyelids and partly because I seemed to be lying on a very uncomfortable surface. I shifted slightly in the hopes that the vague movement would make my resting place more comfortable.

"Get up. Slowly." A voice said nearby. A voice that seemed strangely familiar according to that piece of my brain that always seemed to function no matter the circumstances. I was just amazed it was being useful for once. I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it as the harsh light practically blinded me, prompting another groan.

"Get. Up." That same voice ordered, irritation entering the speaker's tone. I was feeling fairly irritable myself at this point so I reacted exactly as I would if anyone rudely woke me up before I was ready with no good reason.

"Go fuck yourself with a horseshoe." I grumbled, waving a hand in their general direction.

I regretted it about three seconds later as a pair of hands grabbed me and threw me off my resting place. I was so shocked I didn't even react until I'd landed, when I gave a yelp of pain and scrambled up. I shook my head to try and chase away the fogginess of sleep from my mind and glared at my assailant. And for the second time, my mind froze up.

There, dusting his hands off and watching me with a raised eyebrow, was none other than Genesis Da Omega, commonly known as Gen and my OC from my fanfic! I decided to react in the calmest manner that could be expected of me.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

…Nailed it.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

It had been at least an hour since I'd woken up. I'd been dragged off to a room inside Raiders HQ and locked inside. I guess they were trying to figure how I got here, which must have been so much fun since not even I knew that. Before waking up in the tunnel my last memories were of watching a webseries and then going to bed. Another weird thing was that when the tunnel ended it changed what I was wearing. When I woke up there, I was in long PJ bottoms. I didn't notice at the time, but when I woke up in Sanctuary my clothes had changed completely.

A set of heavy duty goggles with grey frames and solid red lenses had appeared on my forehead and a grey bandanna was tied around my neck. I had a thin, dark green hoodie on underneath a darker grey vest with a bright blue almost turquoise crack pattern dividing it into small, uneven sections. Some thick, dark grey gloves with white-blue patterns on them and pale green, almost white jeans tucked into black and red boots completed my look. The whole outfit seemed familiar in a vague sort of way but I'd given up trying to figure out why about 5 minutes into my impromptu incarceration. It's not that I wasn't curious; I just don't have a very good attention span. My last thought on it had been, "What's with all the grey?"

Predictably, that was from the ever-functioning portion of my brain.

I started as the door swung open, revealing Gen. The Splicer stared at me with a curious look for a while, making me fidget, before asking, "How did you get here? Why are you here?"

I paused for a second before leaning toward him and beckoning him to come closer, putting on a grave face. He stepped up to me and I made out like I was whispering.

"What?" He asked, leaning closer. I'm pretty sure he actually thought what I had to say was important. How cute.

I grinned widely before throwing my arms out to the sides and saying in the most cheerful tone I could manage, "I have no fucking idea!"

Gen gave me a deadpan look before turning around and walking out. A moment later the door closed and locked again. I sat back down and started watching the door.

"Should've gone with the whole 'why are any of us here' speech." The Ever Functioning Portion commented. I made a mental note to think of it as EFP from now on.

"Yeah," I replied out loud.

I was jarred out of the faint stupor of boredom I was entering by the door opening yet again. It was Gen who walked in. In his hands were a notebook and a fist sized pouch, both made of some silvery material. Gen watched me expectantly.

Finally I said, "Okay, I give up. What the hell are they?"

He raised an eyebrow at me and asked incredulously, "You really have no idea?"

"No, I just want to fuck with your mind." I replied sarcastically.

He shook his head and chuckled, tossing the items to me. "When you appeared right in front of HQ, these things were attached to your belt. We figured we'd confiscate them in case they were dangerous."

"Oh yeah, because a book and a tiny bag are so scary." I drawled sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"Well, they gave me a nasty electrical shock when I first tried to take them off you, so I just thought we couldn't be too careful." He suddenly snapped his fingers and said, "That reminds me, who's that guy you were with when you arrived?"

"What guy?" Now I was confused.

"The one you were asleep on top of. Now I, as a rule, don't judge but…" He left the sentence hanging. Asshole.

"I have no idea who you're talking about. I also have no idea how I got here. Can we stop talking now, my attention span is running out and I'm getting the urge to attack you, which will only end badly for me." I said, deadpan.

The Splicer laughed and gestured to the open door. "Lead the way."

"…I don't know how to get around the building, remember?"

"We led you through." He countered.

"My brain was still a bit frozen at that point." I offered with a weak smile.

"Is that why you looked about ready to start drooling when we brought you in?" Gen joked, chuckling to himself. He turned and started walking down the corridor, beckoning me to follow. After attaching the book and bag to some handy hooks on my belt I complied.

After a few seconds I asked him, "You said there was another person, right?"

"Yeah, why? Remember something saucy?" He joked, waggling his eyebrows mock suggestively.

"No. But maybe they know what's going on. Maybe they have some of the answers we're both looking for."

Gen was quiet for a second before saying, "Well then, it's a damn good thing I'm taking you to see him."

"Maybe it would be a good idea to stick with them." EFP suggested.

"No shit." I muttered under my breath.

"Huh, what?" Gen asked, shooting me a sidelong glance.

"Nothing." I replied a tad too quickly.

He shrugged and muttered, "And people say I'm weird."

"Oh, I never said I wasn't weird."

He laughed and stopped next another door. "Here we are. The others should be bringing your friend here in a bit if they haven't already."

He opened the door to reveal the War Room, though not the one from the game. This one had a long, rectangular holotable in the centre; there were a whole bunch of chairs all around it for when the Raiders had meetings. There was already someone seated at the head of the table and as we walked in they stood and fixed me with a piercing look. Sweet merciful whatever-you-believe-in, I'd heard about 'soul-piercing gazes' but I'd never believed they actually existed! This of course prompted the ever-functioning portion to ask, "But does she technically exist? Isn't this still the world of the fanfic you wrote?"

…Shut up, EFP.

I sighed, resigning myself to getting nothing useful out of that piece of my brain anytime soon. I looked up at the person at the head of the table. Watching me with the same look as before was the original Siren: Lilith.

"aka The Firehawk." EFP commented. I actually found myself smirking at that. Maybe EFP wouldn't be so bad to have around after all. At least he was entertaining, when he wasn't being annoying as hell of course. Then I paused as I realised I was describing a piece of my own mind like it was a separate entity. That probably wasn't a good thing. Now that I think about it, EFP described me as if I was separate entity. Somehow, that was worse.

I shook my head to clear it and returned my gaze to Lilith.

"Right, so, this is-" Gen began.

"Lilith. Siren Phasewalker. One of the four original Vault Hunters who found the first Vault. Can essentially teleport using her powers. Can supercharge her abilities through the use of Eridium. One of the only reasons Sanctuary made it into the air and managed to survive a lunar bombardment. Current leader of the Crimson Raiders due to the untimely death of Roland, the founder of said organisation, at the hands of one John Winters, aka Handsome Jack. No war plans visible so either Jack is dead, in which case congrats, or you don't trust me, in which case screw all of you." I barely even registered that the words were coming out of my mouth until after I'd finished my speech. EFP, I swear to whatever God or gods there are, I will have you surgically removed! By Zed!

An oppressive silence settled on the room, making me fidget as I realised I probably should have kept my mouth shut. Of course, EFP kept working along and threw up a rather startling conclusion: If this was my fanfic, then it was further ahead than I'd even written yet. Hell, I haven't even thought this far ahead.

I was startled out of my thoughts when somebody else entered the room. Two people actually, a boy with longish, straight, brown hair and Gaige the freaking Mechromancer! I swear, I nearly had a, dare I say it, fanboy moment right then and there.

"Try not to do something stupid." EFP advised dryly, "You know, like stare."

I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes in aggravation. Now my own mind was making fun of me. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Then my attention span ran out and my mind wandered to clips from the movie Full Metal Jacket, specifically the one where the drill sergeant is screaming abuse at the Privates for the first time. I sniggered a bit as I imagined the drill sergeant screaming, "Out-fucking-standing! I will PT you all until you fucking die!"

"What's so funny?"

My head snapped up at the unexpected question and I found myself being watched curiously by both Gaige and Gen. It was kind of disconcerting to have that much green and orange in my field of view to be honest. I leaned back a bit before hesitantly answering, "Just remembering a movie."

The figure behind Gaige abruptly stepped into view and as soon as he did I felt my jaw drop.

"Alec?!" I exclaimed, staring at one of my best friends in sheer shock.

"Jamie?!" He exclaimed back.

"GEN!" Gen suddenly yelled, throwing his arms in the air and giving everyone in the room a shit-eating grin. I actually heard Lilith facepalm, groaning. Gaige simply reached out and slapped Gen upside the head. It was hilarious, mainly because she used the robot arm and Gen ended up face planting on the floor.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Alec (infinitexephos) POV

"I was cold! I felt around for my blanket and found that it wasn't there... in fact neither was my bed! I opened my eyes to find myself floating in a tunnel of blue and purple. At first I dismissed it as yet another one of my elaborate dreams. But whilst floating around waiting for something to happen, I began to notice that this felt too lifelike to be a dream. For example I could feel the roughness of my skin, I felt hungry and I had the need to blink. The main point of realisation was when the tunnel ended and I landed flat on my face! You then dragged me in here and that's all I remember." I was tied to a chair in the crimson raiders HQ trying my best to explain to Gaige (the Mechromancer) how I got here.

"Seems pretty farfetched." she said

"Believe it or not but that's the truth." I told her, trying to fold my arms before remembering I was tied to a chair.

"Okay. Fine. Where are you from?" she asked

"Earth." I replied

"What is your name?" she demanded

"Alec" I replied "is there anything else you would like to ask because I would like to get this over with."

"In fact there is; why are you here? How old are you? Can you shoot a gun? And do you have a special ability?" she pressed

"Dunno, 15, no and not that I know of," I said swiftly, "Now it's my turn to ask some questions. Who are the others that arrived with me?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that" she said

"Will you at least take me to them?" I asked

"I will once we're finished here" she said.

"No! You will take me now or I will refuse to answer any more of your questions."

"Fine, I will" she muttered, adding under her breath, "If only to make you shut up."

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Jamie POV

"Please tell me you'll take this guy off my hands. He's starting to annoy me. I summon Deathtrap on things that annoy me." Gaige said dryly.

I was silent for a moment, processing that comment and all the horrible things it implied.

"Got it. " I said uneasily, not sure whether I should edge between the two or back the hell away from Alec.

"Right, so you two do know each other?" Gen asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, we're friends." Alec said simply. He always fairly set on keeping conversations as short as possible.

"Great! Now that that's sorted, what did you find out?" Gen directed that last part at Gaige. To be honest I was curious about that myself. Did Alec know any more than I did?

"A big, steaming pile of fuck all," Gaige groaned, "Not for lack of effort though."

"Same on this end," Gen agreed. He turned to Lilith and said, "I hate to tell you this Lil, but these guys are as clueless as we are as to why they're here."

"My guy said something about a tunnel." Gaige offered half-heartedly, "Said it was purple and blue."

"Could this have a connection to Eridium?" Lilith asked.

"No," Everybody turned to look at me and I continued, "I was also thrown through a tunnel, but mine was like a rainbow vomited down it; all colours and faint movement."

I started pacing back and forth, a habit that helped me think better. "If this was connected to Eridium my tunnel would have been similar to Alec's but it wasn't. That suggests that there's something else in play here. But what?"

I looked up to discover everyone watching me silently. "What?"

"…That's some interesting deductive work there." Gen complimented cheerfully, "Not a lot of answers, but at least we've got a few questions we could answer. As for me, interrogations always make me thirsty. Moxxi's anyone?"

"I'm in." Gaige said, stretching.

"I could use something too." Lilith said, smiling wryly.

"Count me out." Alec muttered, shaking his head.

"Me too." I said, "I don't drink."

Once again, there was silence as everyone (except Alec, who seemed to be doing his best to ignore all of us) stared at me. "What?"

"How old are you?" Gen asked slowly.

"…17." I offered hesitantly.

"And you don't drink?" Gaige asked incredulously, one eyebrow raised.

"No."

"…You're weird."

"I wholeheartedly agree with that statement." I retorted, "But I still don't drink."

"Regardless," Gen practically yelled, interrupting what could definitely have become an argument, "Let's go to Moxxi's. I'm sure she still has some of that non-alcoholic stuff."

I sighed as I realised that I wasn't going to get out of this one. "Fine."

Gen abruptly whipped out his ECHO and said, "Yo guys! Anybody wanna hit Moxxi's with us."

He nodded at what I could only assume were a whole series of replies. "Sweet! See you guys there."

He turned to all of us and said, "Alright, let's go."

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

"So Jamie, what do you do back where you're from?" Gen asked curiously.

"School, mostly. I write stories for a hobby."

"An author, huh? Cool, cool. What types of stories of do you write?"

"Oh you know, this and that." I replied awkwardly. How the hell was I supposed to explain that the stories involved all of the Raiders and, in fact, were probably the sole reason he existed in the first place.

Gen seemed about to ask something else but was interrupted by none other than the steroid-munching midget himself, Salvador.

"Hola, amigos. What's this guy doing here?" He asked bluntly. Looking me up and down. Or, at least, he would have looked me up and down if it weren't for the major height difference. So I guess he just looked me up and further up.

"Lil thinks he's trustworthy so we thought we'd show him the sights, beginning with Moxxi's." Gen explained.

Salvador gave me a critical examination before finally saying, "He looks like he wouldn't last five minutes on Pandora."

"At least I'll be tall enough to look what kills me in the eye." I retorted, immediately regretting it as Salvador started glaring at me.

"I give you five seconds to run, puta. Then I'm going to kill you. Painfully."

I started sprinting like hell. Moments later I heard Salvador start yelling as he gave chase. I was really hoping to be able to outrun him, but then I remembered where I was. There was nowhere to go; we were on a flying city. Of course those thoughts distracted me just enough to lead me to the original entrance to Sanctuary, which now only led to a long fall and a sudden stop at the bottom. I turned to go back but Salvador was already there.

"Oh come on! How the hell are you so fast?!"

Salvador just chuckled evilly and approached me, cracking his knuckles. He knew there was nowhere I could run. To be honest, I'd just started to resign myself to whatever horrible injuries I was about to suffer when something strange happened.

I heard a sound like rustling pages and without any conscious thought on my part my hand reached for the book on my belt. I opened it and a pen appeared in my other hand.

"Writing your will, pendejo?" Salvador mocked.

Not a bad idea that, if only for the humour. I actually put the pen to the page with the full intention of trying that, purely for shits and giggles, but something completely different ended up written there.

There, staring back at me from the page, were the words, "And then a storm cloud appeared and Salvador was struck by lightning."

…Fuck you, EFP.

"It wasn't me." EFP protested.

I sighed, and looked up to find Salvador just two meters away from me. I swallowed and closed the book with a snap…

And then a storm cloud appeared and Salvador was struck by lightning.

My jaw dropped as Salvador collapsed to the ground, smoking and giving the occasional spasm.

"Well… That happened…" I muttered incredulously. I started as Gen threw an arm around my shoulders and gave a low whistle.

"That was pretty damn impressive, dude. How'd you do that?"

"I… I have no idea. I just wrote it in this book and it happened."

He was silent for a moment before saying, "I guess that makes you the most badass author I've ever met. Now, come on! Moxxi's awaits!"

And with that, he started dragging me along to the bar as if nothing had happened.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Don (Don Socrates) POV

Well what the fuck? One minute I'm dancing with this incredibly hot girl, vodka in hand and the next minute I feel like I've fallen through the world's biggest huff tunnel, but wait there's more! That's right, to top off the shit storm of a night I've just experienced, I'm looking around and finding myself in a video game. Welcome to Pandora kiddos!

Or it had been going something like that until I picked my six foot seven inch tall useless body off the ground and decided that if I've been drugged, then hey, I might as well make the most of it.

"I heard something over there, go check it out!" I heard a gruff voice call out behind me. It doesn't help that this is the middle of the night and pitch black. Despite the odds being against me, I managed to recognize this place as being Sanctuary. I guess whatever primordial deity there is above the clouds doesn't completely hate me. I get thrown into a universe where I just happen to find myself on the most dangerous planet ever known to mankind, but on the bright side I land on the one somewhat safe area.

I ran until I found something that I recognized more than just side streets.

"Marcus Munitions. Wait, nah, guy's a prick, and he shoots a customer for like no reason. Ooh, Moxxi's." I said, seeing my choices of refuge.

"Possible gunshot wound… Tits… Being shot… TITS!" Tits always win in my books, always. I ran through the doors of Moxxi's bar and found myself face to face with a number of the people I had come to know very well.

"Who's the midget?" I asked with baited breath.

"He's a Vault Hunter, so I'd be careful with what you say to him citizen." Moxxi gave me a warning glare.

"No shit huh, Vault Hunters? That's cool I guess. That being said I'd be happier not being subjected to dwarfism, but whatever." I said as I sat down casually on the bar stool, awaiting the man I knew to be Salvador's reaction.

"You have a death wish mi amigo?" He asked me as he stood up from the booth. It wasn't much of an improvement.

"This guy has some serious stones." I heard a female voice call out.

"Careful Sal, you've already challenged a newcomer and lost. Twice. Once to a crazy scientist and again to an omnipotent author." Axton warned him. An omnipotent author? That kind of sounds like a friend of mine who has this book that, oh never mind, it couldn't possibly be him, this is probably just some kind of weird dream anyway.

"Listen to your friends, Frodo, I'm not your everyday enemy." I told him with a good natured smile. It seems that my only power is the unnaturally heightened ability to piss people off.

"You got some serious nerve to challenge me, puta." He started raging.

"Now listen, don't get short with me." I told him. Hushed giggles came from the table the vault hunters were sat at.

"You. Me. Outside now, all fisticuffs!" Salvador screamed at me. I shrugged.

"Hey, if I beat him can I have a free drink? I kind of just appeared here and have no money." I asked Moxxi who shrugged.

"Sure. If you beat him." She winked. Damn, I'm going to try my honest to god hardest to sleep with this woman. That is my sole purpose in this universe as of now.

I followed the Vault Hunters and it was only then that they seemed to have seen how big I am. I towered above the rest of them, apart from Krieg who was only just shorter than me.

"On my go." Gaige sound off, her mechanical arm keeping us apart. "GO!" And that was it, the enraged tubby charged at me. I only had to dodge him. If it came down to a full on battle of strength, I very much doubt I would win. Unfortunately, Salvador was a lot faster than he looked and I had no time to anticipate the rocket powered punch that he sent to my abs. The world seemed to shake but I stood perfectly still. The punch tickled.

"Oh wow, dude was that seriously a punch? I didn't feel a thing." I told him, I wasn't really taunting him; it was more a curious hue that had escaped into my tone.

"What kind of trickery is this?" Salvador said in frustration as he punched at me again, this time it served to do even less damage than the first one. The punches weren't weak by any means, I could feel the force he'd put behind each and every one but for the life of me, they just had no effect. Am I indestructible? It would make sense if I was dreaming and thrown into Borderlands. It would almost be like I took on the qualities of my OC. I decided to test it out. I let out a punch that went a lot faster than I thought I could throw one and a second later Salvador was on the floor, groaning.

"Ugh, whoops, didn't really mean to do that. Don't know my own strength." I shrugged.

"Nice, you gotta be packing some serious muscles if you can do that." Axton smiled brightly.

"Hi, name's Don, Don Socrates." I shook his hand, just then the guy that hadn't said anything paled at my words.

"What did you just say your name was?" He asked me. He wasn't one of the Vault Hunters, I'm almost certain of it.

"Don Socrates, why?" I asked him curiously. He whispered something into another guy's ear. This one though seemed strangely familiar. You'd have thought that I'd recognize someone with green skin and orange eyes, OH MY GOD THAT'S GEN!

"Hold up, I know you!" I shouted, pointed at Gen. He's an OC character written by my friend, Elemental Hybrid. Gen nodded to the guy I didn't recognize and in a blur of movement, he rushed forwards and injected a viscous blue liquid into my thigh. The world began to spin around my dazed head.

"What the furk? You little green bastard." I giggled as I fell unconscious.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Jamie POV

I was listening to Hard to Find by Skillet (courtesy of Gen) when he woke up. I stopped the song and watched the person claiming to be Don Socrates slowly return to the land of consciousness. The Raiders had wrapped six sets of chains and manacles around each arm and leg, on my recommendation. Judging from what I had seen in his brief brawl with Salvador he was a lot stronger than he looked and I was a bit scared he'd become like Ten. If he really had, I doubted the chains could hold him for long. I just hoped they could buy me enough time to get the hell out of there.

With a groan he raised his head and stared at me with confused brown eyes.

"Uh, hi." I said awkwardly, to no reply. The silence left me fidgeting and I continued, "So, uh, sorry about the chains and all but I wanted a chance to explain a few things without you attacking me or anything."

Again no reply. This was actually starting to get annoying.

"You were pretty damn talkative before. What, did that formula dissolve your tongue or something?" I growled irritably.

He smiled smugly and said, "No, I just wanted to see how long it took you to crack."

I glared before an evil smile graced my lips and I said, "You realise I'm the only one with the keys for those shackles, right?"

He shrugged casually and replied, "So? You realise I could just bust out of these myself, right?"

"I call bullshit." I'd seen the muscles in his arms flexing against the chains. He couldn't get out of them. "Tell you what, promise not to attack me and I'll let you out and explain a few things. Deal?"

"…Fine. Now get me outta here."

I set about undoing the various shackles and unwinding the chains. It took me a while, but it was done at last and 'Don' was towering over me. I'd never been very tall, but bloody hell I felt tiny.

"So, what do you want to explain?"

I stuck out my hand and said, "First, introductions. My name's Jamie."

He shook my hand, "Don, but you know that."

"Hang on, let me finish. My name's Jamie, but you know me better," I paused, suddenly unsure if this was a good idea before continuing, "as Elemental Hybrid."

He went pale.

"…What?"

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

I'd managed to bring Don up to speed on what was going on and then convinced him to come talk to the Raiders. As far as we could all tell, all three of us had been thrown here with no warning but at approximately the same time. Then the Raiders had thrown us out the room to talk strategy. And I literally mean they had thrown us out. Brick had physically lifted us and tossed us out. Assholes.

Which of course left us sitting in the corridor outside. Well, I was sitting. Don was trying to listen through the door and I wasn't entirely sure if Alec was still awake since he'd lain down, closed his eyes and barely twitched since then. Leave it to Alec to get thrown into an alternate universe and just decide to take a nap. Personally, the only reason I wasn't chomping at the bit to explore Pandora was a very simple one: Salvador had been right. I wouldn't last five minutes down there. I was just lucky to land on the sanest place on this planet. Then I remembered that Krieg lived here. And Salvador. Okay, so maybe not the sanest, but it was still safer than other places.

"Well, might as well think of something to do." I chided myself. I abruptly stiffened as I realised that I was passing up a great opportunity. I was actually inside the world of Borderlands. If I couldn't think up some ideas for my story here, then there must be something seriously wrong with me.

With that thought in mind I pulled out the book, pen once again appearing in my hand, and was just about to start writing down a few ideas when I froze.

"The last time I wrote in this book, I summoned lightning," I thought, "What could happen if I start writing a story about Gen and the others? Would they start acting it out in there? Or if I wrote a bit that occurred in the past, would it change this place?"

I groaned aloud. Why did I always have to overthink things?

I froze as I heard a very unexpected, not to mention very unwanted, sound: the sound of a pen on paper.

"Oh crap. Please don't tell me I wrote without meaning too." I pleaded silently, afraid to look at the book. When I realised the sound had stopped, I took a deep breath and slowly lowered my gaze to the pages in my lap.

There, written in a flowing script that was nothing like my own messy handwriting, were the words, "Greetings Traveller."

For what feels like ages, all I can do is stare at the words. I shook my head and started to examine the writing. It wasn't my handwriting, too neat and ornate. So whose was it? None of the others had come near me. So, unless Zer0 had developed an interesting sense of humour, the only other explanation was…

"The book wrote in itself." I whispered, my tone part shock and part… something else I couldn't identify. Wonder maybe.

"Hm? What?" Don asked, curiously.

"Some words just appeared in the book."

"So?" He asked slowly, raising an eyebrow sceptically at me.

"I didn't write them. They just… appeared in here."

He opened his mouth to say something else but I shushed him as I heard the sound of pen on paper again. I looked down at the page again to see that the previous words had disappeared and were being replaced by new ones. The words looked as if they were being written by an invisible hand. I look up to find Don crouching in front of me, peering at the book, and I return my own gaze there.

The writing seems to have finished and the words stare up at me, "Traveller, are you getting this?"

I glance back up at Don, who shrugs.

"Are you gonna reply or not?" Alec asks calmly, making us both start. I hadn't even heard him moving and, judging by his reaction, neither had Don. He's right though, I should reply.

"Uh… Yes? We got your message?" I offered out loud, though in my nervousness it sounded more like a question. Then we waited.

About a minute later, the mystery message faded from the page and a new one began to be 'written'.

"If… you… are… receiving… this… write… something… in… the… Book." I read aloud as the words appeared. There was pause before I facepalmed.

"Idiot." I muttered. Of course we had to write in the book to respond, the bloody message was in writing!

"Dude! Answer!" Don says impatiently.

"What do I say?" I asked, hesitant to start writing.

"Ugh. Give me that." Don snatches the pen from me and immediately drops it, yelping and shaking his hand in the air. I don't blame him; I heard the zap of electricity from here. Whatever else this book could do it didn't seem to like parting with me, even if it was only the pen he grabbed. I'd hate to see what would happen if he tried to take the book itself off me like Gen apparently did.

I slowly picked the pen up off the ground, half-expecting a shock of my own. But, when nothing happened, I gave a slight sigh of relief and wrote, "I got the message."

My message faded almost as soon as I had finished writing it and was quickly replaced by a new one from our strange… 'friend' on the other end of this conversation. This one read, "Are the others with you?"

"How many of us should there be?" I wrote back.

"Only three."

"Then yes, we're all here."

"Good. Move to the centre of the city you are in, open the Book and write, 'The Lantern illuminates the path.' This will cause the Book to send off a beacon I can use to home in on your location. Understand this, though, Travellers: the Beacon will undoubtedly attract other beings as well. Our Enemy will send his agents to kill you when he realises where you are."

"Why should we do this if it puts us in danger? If it could get us killed? What gives you the right to ask us to do that?" I was pretty angry now, which only made my handwriting worse. Who was this guy to order us to throw ourselves in harm's way?

"It is vital that I find you. I need your help to stop this Enemy from destroying everything there is."

We all looked at one another. How do you argue with something like that?

"Fine." I wrote, "But I want answers. And they'd better be good ones."

"I promise I'll do my best to answer your questions. Now go."

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

I looked around with satisfaction at the people around me. We'd explained to the Raiders what had happened and they had agreed to help us deal with anything that came after us. Whoever or whatever this 'Enemy' sent was in for a nasty surprise if they came after us.

"Thanks again for this. It means a lot to know some of the finest fighters on Pandora are on our side." I said to Gen, who gave me a thumb up.

"No problem dude. Anything that steps into Sanctuary without our permission is going down hard."

Gen's confidence was infectious and I couldn't help but grin. With him and the Raiders on our side, what could go wrong?

Of course that was when EFP decided to point out all the times Gen's experiments had gone horribly, horribly wrong in my story, along with all the times things had gone wrong with the Raiders in both the game and my story.

…Fuck you, EFP.

"Hey! We doing this or not?" Don called out to me. He and Alec were standing by the town centre of Sanctuary, Alec looking around absently and Don tapping his foot impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on." I yelled back. Gen patted me on the back before turning away to take up position with the other Raiders. He would be providing sniper cover with Zer0 and Mordecai.

I suddenly remembered something and called out to him. When he turned back I asked, "Where's Monty?"

He gave me a confused look and said, "Who's Monty?"

"…Nevermind. I got confused with something else." I mumbled.

He gave me a sceptical look but turned and resumed heading for his position. I waited a moment before walking towards Don and Alec. When I reached them Alec tapped me on the shoulder.

"It's a good thing the Raiders agreed to help us. I'm not really a fighter and with the book occupied sending off the beacon you'll lose your only effective source of offensive attacks."

"Oh please, I could take them." Don boasted confidently.

"Maybe if you had all of Ten's power, which you don't if those chains from before could hold you." I pointed out. He flipped me off for that, but it was true.

I took a deep breath and turned away from them, unhooking the book from my belt.

"All right, let's do this." I said with more confidence than I felt.

I opened the book and the pen materialised in my hand. I took another deep, steadying breath and put the pen to the page to begin writing. Seconds later the phrase 'The Lantern illuminates the path' stared back at me.

And nothing happened. And continued to happen.

"…Well," Alec commented sarcastically, "This is exciting."

"Yo, what's the holdup?" Gen asked over the ECHO. He'd equipped each of us with one so we could all communicate in the fight we were expecting.

"No idea," Don replied, "Book did fuck all."

I tuned them all out as I thought about what could be wrong. I remained in deep thought for a while until it clicked in my head.

"Hang on, guys. I think I know what to do." I reported over the ECHO.

"What? You think there's something else?" Gen asked, "It's not some kind of freaky sacrifice thing is it? Last time I went to something like that, I was the sacrifice. Not fun."

"No. When I used the book to get Salvador struck by lightning it only worked after the book closed. Maybe that's how it works with anything I write in here."

"Well then, what are you waiting for puta? Get on with it." Salvador growled over the ECHO.

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to mention how you kicked his ass." Alec commented, smirking.

"Shut up, Alec." I retorted.

I shook my head and looked down at the book. Before I could psyche myself out, I snapped it closed. The effect was instantaneous. The book began glowing and flew open again, its pages turning so fast they blurred.

"How are there that many pages in such a thin book?" EFP wondered. I was too busy watching the book, which had now floated out of my hands and was hovering about a meter in the air in front of me. Seconds later a pillar of blindingly bright white light engulfed the book and shot into the sky.

"Well, if nothing else, that will certainly attract someone's attention." Gen commented dryly.

"No shit." Gaige replied.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Don POV

Well… That happened. Let me clarify; ahem… WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!? One moment Jamie was flicking through his book figuring out what to write, Alec was busting out some wicked yawn that made me certain he was about to collapse, and I was standing there looking like the badass that I am…

OK, I lied. I was trying to look badass, but Jamie had to go and ruin it. The man burned the shit out of me. I don't know what it was before that gave me that wicked strength, but when I needed it to break out of those chains, it just wasn't in me. I need to get that strength back, if only temporarily, to prove that I wasn't making it up. I mean, I can't have been because they all saw me trash Salvador in one punch. Back to the crisis at hand, I managed to get my eyesight back from 'Fuck no!' through from 'Shit still be fuzzy dude.' And back to a respectable, 'Yeah, we can see now.' And that was what was up; a blinding light had erupted from the book and… Yeah, I reached for it because I got the overwhelming feeling that it was about to explode and right as I closed the thing that white light erupted from my vision.

"Hello in there!" I heard a feminine voice call out. Is that Gaige? What does she mean in there? And why is it suddenly so dark? When I woke up again it was morning surely? Oh my god, I'm so fucking confused!

"Ugh!" Was all I managed to say. Nice work brain.

'You're welcome.'

"Fuck you."

"What the fuck was that?" I called out from wherever I was currently placed, which I assure you, was not where I had been moments prior to touching that book.

"Oh my god. How the hell is he still alive?" I heard Lilith call out. Why do they sound so far away?

This time it was Jamie's voice that spoke up. "I have a theory about it. But give it time and I'm sure he'll figure it out as well." His voice was muffled. I realized that there was a small amount of light protruding from the end of where I was sitting. Wait, why am I sitting down? I quickly scrambled towards the light before realizing that I was not in the courtyard, not yet at least. I climbed out of the hole my body had made.

"That book-" I began with a pant of breath as it started to glow once again, it seemed that it was going to try and complete whatever it had started beforehand. "WAS MADE BY SATAN!" I shouted in anger as a deep fury welled up from within me. My eyes felt hot but in my adrenaline high I hadn't felt any pain. I did notice Alec and Jamie move away from me quickly though.

"What?" I asked them, regaining my calm composure.

"Ugh, I think you're starting to adopt more of Ten's qualities. You didn't like… Hear any voices when you were blasted through that wall did you?" He asked me seriously.

"No I…" I thought about it briefly.

Flashback bitches – Fuck yeah!

'Nice work brain.'

'You're welcome.'

"Fuck you."

Flashback over – It was shit, I know, get over it.

"Nooooo." I said as slowly as possible, though it showed because I'm not entirely certain what that could have been, though I am certain that if it was a demon, I would know.

"Well if you think anything like that is happening. You MUST let us know." Jamie scolded me. I pouted and folded my arms.

"Yes MOM." I replied with a huff right before I felt a colossal pain across my face.

"What…" I managed from my position on the floor.

"WAS." My voice steadily began to rise as the anger started to well up inside me.

"THAT FOR!?" I demanded as I reared up. My body towered over all of the Raiders and my friends. Jamie looked confused; it wasn't any of them that had hit me. Just then I noticed a shadow come my way in the shape of a fist.

"Oh no! Not again!" I shouted quickly side stepping and grabbing the shadowy fist. The Raiders initially must have thought I was insane right up until I grabbed the shadowy figure by the wrist and shook it as hard as I could before slamming it down into the ground. It was evident that my entire 'Ten mode' was coming into play, though I'm not sure whether or not it's actually going to help me or just get me into more trouble. An eruption of darkness swept across the ground from the point I'd slammed the shadow into it before the wave of darkness faded from view completely.

"Jamie, Alex, we're under attack." I told them firmly.

"It's Alec." He corrected me instantly.

"I actually knew that, I don't know why I said that. The point still stands, I think we should-" Boom, my friends were falling towards the planet very fast. No. No, that's not right is it? Sanctuary doesn't fall, it's a flying city. Oh my god. I've just been uppercut so hard that I'm in the air. I hope to god they can handle themselves against whatever the fuck these things are. I'm not exactly setting records for killing them, but at the moment I seem to have the strength and endurance of Ten, though I am absolutely one hundred percent certain that it's going to wear off right when I need it the most. I'll need a gun when I get back down there. Speaking of which, I've just started to fall again.

"AIM FOR THE BUSHES!" My voice was heard across Sanctuary. I'm sure that if we weren't under attack I would have gotten a few laughs from that. Where am I falling to? Bright neon lights, a few X's. Right, I know where I am. TITS!

CRASH. Straight through Moxxi's roof.

"Ugh." I groaned from the floor.

"What the shit! You better pay for that!" She demanded as I shakily stood up. I noticed the gun fire had started.

"Can you not tell this is a warzone woman!?" I stood tall, easily towering over her, yet her own gaze almost made me immediately get on all fours and purr. Wow, that's horribly kinky. I bet she's into that though. I haven't forgotten the promise that I made myself.

'Entry number 1. I will sleep with Moxxi no matter how much it kills me.'

Yes thank you brain, or whatever horrible demon I've instilled upon myself from my extremely OP writing. If this is really happening and I've become infused with Ten's power, then whatever God is watching over me right now has made sure that I only have access to said powers when I don't actually fucking need them!

"You owe me a drink woman." I stated calmly before walking over to the slot machine and kicking it. Luckily I still have some of that excess strength left over. The slot machine crumpled under the force and just in time. I felt my muscles tense up before relaxing back to what they usually are. That's the indication that I get when I'm no longer in 'Ten mode'. Great, so if I get hit now, I'll die. Happy fucking thoughts.

'Entry number 2. I should stop swearing so much.'

'GET THE FUCK OUT, NOW!' I mentally screamed back at whatever the hell that is. I know for a fact that it's not my own brain, and I know that I'm not insane.

Pulling apart the wrecked metal of the machine I pulled out a very nice looking pistol. I recognise this gun. It's called the Marge or something right? No, that's not right, it's called the Maggie. I don't have an ECHO unit or anything so I can't actually see what it's capable of doing, but a gun is a gun, I can get some extra bullets later.

"Fine, but just this once, you pay in the future." Moxxi told me sternly as I noticed her eyes wander slightly before returning back to that old gaze.

"Give me the strongest thing you've got." I told her calmly as I looked down my sights. Luckily I've got combat experience in real life as well, this helps a lot. Being familiar with most hand guns I managed to fire off a couple of rounds into the fast approaching shadow. It blew up before long. I'm not as proficient with revolvers, and even less so with one of such a… calibre. I wasn't expecting to fire eighteen bullets with only three hammer strikes. All's well that ends well.

"Skag tequila." She told me as she poured a shot. I laughed at the shot and took the bottle instead.

"Hey!" She tried to protest.

"You owe me a drink, not a poxy shot. Come now Moxxi, you'll learn to love me, I guarantee." I told her with a confident wink before leaving to go and fuck more shit up in the same state as I was when I got here: Completely wrecked. Hopefully I don't shoot my friends.

I ran around almost blind from the tequila shooting at everything before I heard a gruff complaint.

It was Salvador. I'd shot him 'accidentally' a few times.

"Guys, more enemies in bound, can you finish up later?" Axton broke through as he got in between us. I laughed like the drunken maniac I am when a far more solid shadow tried to stop the fighting.

"Enough!" It shouted only for me to empty my clip into it, obliterating whatever it had been. A lieutenant or some shit most likely, not any of the big dawgs orchestrating this attack.

"Whoops, did I just accidentally end a war?" I asked with a huge grin spread across my face. Alec casually walked up to me looking at me with a frown.

"I think you've had enough Don. Rest now." He said as calmly as ever before taking the bottle out of my hands and smashing it over my head. The dark of unconsciousness began to cloud my vision and I could vaguely hear Axton and Alec speaking.

"What did you do that for!?" Axton shouted in confusion at a very bored looking Alec.

"Have you not noticed that every time he wakes up he managed to work himself up into an uncontrollable state? Be it hysterics or anger. This is the only reasonable way to calm him down again." Alec shrugged.

"Yeah but Gen has formulas for that. You just bottled the biggest guy here." Axton stared in astonishment as Alec once again just shrugged his shoulders and kept moving. And then, finally, I fell into the sweet dark embrace of unconsciousness. I'm here more than I'm awake as of recently.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Jamie POV

A few minutes earlier, just after Don got punched by the first Shadow…

Great. Abso-fucking-lutely great. First the Book borderline blinds me then some freaky shadow creature punches Don off into the sky. I'm feeling surprisingly calm about all this, to be honest. At least I was, confident that the Raiders could deal with this, until I turned around and saw one of the Shadows leaping right at me.

The thing sent me flying away from the book and Alec. When I landed, I sat up to find it prowling towards me. The thing looked like something out of a nightmare. It seemed to consist of a body of pure fucking darkness shrouded by black and dark purple smoke. It was crawling towards me on all fours and I could make out sharp claws on every foot.

"How cute, they match those spines on its back." EFP commented dully.

"Not. Helping." I hissed, scuttling back from the thing as it approached. I needed a weapon, anything I could use against this thing. I heard the sound of stone on stone and felt a rock in my hand. Fuck it. If I'm going down, I might as well go down having done something. So I swung the rock straight into the thing's head. Only I wasn't holding a rock; my entire arm from just below the elbow down had turned to rock.

"Wow. That was some right hook." EFP commented, impressed. I wasn't really paying attention to be honest, too busy staring at my arm. I could still feel it, still move it like it was flesh and blood, how fucked up is that?

"I guess we know what the outfit was all about now, at least." EFP continued. And that was when it clicked.

"Guys! I've got good news and great news." I called over the ECHO.

"What's the good news?" Alec asked.

"It's been bugging me all day that this outfit I woke up in seemed familiar and I finally figured out where I've seen it before." I replied cheerfully.

"…And the great news?" Count on Alec to not be fazed by my randomness in the slightest.

"I can do this!" I yelled before slamming both hands down on the ground in front of me. Things got a little hazy but I registered a brief moment of excruciating pain and a bright flash of light and when I stood up again I had changed.

I don't mean like an 'Oh I'm a better person now' or 'I know what I have to do' sort of change. I mean I had literally transformed into something else. Both my arms from just below the elbow down had changed into large constructs of stone and I could see frost forming in the gaps between some of the rocks that made them up. As for everywhere between where the rock began and my shoulder; it had been replaced by what appeared to be intense tornados. My torso seemed to be hard packed gravel and from the waist down I was black volcanic rock with lava visible at the joints. I had no idea what my face actually looked like, but if it was anything like what my original idea for this form was then my face had been replaced with a smooth, shield shaped mask of grey rock with a rectangular slot at eye level where two glowing, solid red eyes stared out. A quick check with my hands confirmed that my hair had changed into vine-like dreadlocks.

I probably would have kept looking myself over but another one of those shadow things from before hit me in the chest. Next thing I know I'm on my back with this thing pinning me down. Then it bit my shoulder.

Almost immediately it shot back, letting out this horrible, high pitched screech. I didn't need a degree to know that this ugly fucker was in pain. I had no idea what could have caused it, but I knew a reprieve when I saw one. I couldn't feel the wound in my shoulder but I knew I should take a look anyway. What I saw made me want to scream. There was hole in the rock layer of my shoulder and as I watched a tongue of blue white flame burst out for a second before retreating. I clamped a hand over the hole and moments later I felt a weird pulling sensation in my palm. When I lifted my hand there was a gap in it and the hole in my shoulder was smaller. Cautious, I placed my hand back to the hole and waited until the pulling sensation had stopped. When I looked again the hole in my shoulder was gone and my hand seemed to be missing a chunk of the rock that made it up. Holding it against the ground seemed to rectify that problem.

"Cool." I said then froze. Even my voice had changed, becoming deeper and, pardon the pun, gravelly. I wasn't entirely sure how I was talking but oh well. Shaking my head to clear it, I turned back towards the creature that had attempted to eat me. It seemed to have gotten its bearings and was hissing contemptuously at me.

"That wasn't very nice, you know, trying to eat me. We haven't even gotten to know each other yet." I admonished jokingly, wagging a finger at it. The only response was a screech. Trust my smartass side to take over now.

"Yeah, fuck you too." I replied before taking one step forwards and throwing a punch in its direction. The thing was still a good two meters away but that wouldn't be a problem if I was right about what I could do. Which I was. My stone arm shot away like a rocket, slamming into the shadow's head and killing it. It was shame the arm then broke apart into smaller pieces of stone but a new one had already formed from my surroundings to replace it.

"I'd say I take no pleasure in what I'm about to do, but it would be a lie." I've always wanted to say that. I charged straight at another Shadow, fist raised. But then I spotted another one sneaking up behind Alec, who was watching the battle with a look of bored indifference.

"Alec! Behind you!"

He turned and his actions at seeing the creature were enough to make me pause. He smirked at it. Half a second later the creature was tackled in a blur of silvery metal. I shot my head around to keep track of it and if I'd had a jaw it would have hit the floor. There, standing proudly in a small impact crater, was a robotic skag.

"Hellhound! Return!" I heard Alec yell out and the roboskag immediately trotted back to him.

"…Alec."

"Yeah?"

"Where the fuck did that thing come from?"

"I just stamped the ground and he burst out and started killing things."

"…I'm slightly worried that I do not find that strange in the slightest."

"You should be." EFP replied.

"Shut up." I shot back mentally.

"Enough!" An unfamiliar voice roared and I turned just in time to see Don obliterate a much larger shadow by emptying a revolver into it. He then stood there looking incredibly proud of himself until Alec wandered over and smashed a bottle over his head, knocking him out cold. I spotted Gen jogging over with a huge grin on his face.

"Holy shit, man. I knew you were a badass." He complimented.

"Thanks." I replied with a nod, "You're not bad yourself."

He shrugged mock modestly and said, "I try, you know?"

"Okay boys, we get it. Your egos love to be stroked. Move on." Gaige commented dryly.

A deep thrumming sound interrupted what promised to become a fun conversation and everyone turned towards the Book. As we watched the pillar of light seemed to thicken at ground height, growing wider until suddenly it gave a huge flash, even brighter than before.

"Seriously? Again with the blinding?" Alec muttered irritably.

It took me a second to realise that I could see perfectly fine, which of course made me just a tad smug.

"Really? I can see just fine." I commented, my tone one of pure innocence.

Okay, I lie. I was very smug.

"At a guess, I'd say that rock form you're in doesn't have rods or cones in the eyes to overwhelm like we do. It would explain why that flash didn't really affect you." Gen suggested, rubbing at his eyes.

"Well, either way, since I'm the only one who can actually see I'm going to check it out." I suggested. I turned towards the Book and was about to start walking when a wave of dizziness hit me. I collapsed to my hands and knees as a wave of pain engulfed me. Seconds later I registered a flash of light. I think I'd just transformed back into my regular self.

"Thanks for that." Alec growled sarcastically, "I really needed to be blinded again since I'd just managed to get my sight back."

I barely managed to hear him, the pain making it hard to focus. Whatever was happening I didn't like it one bit. I saw drops of blood hitting the dirt in front of me and it took me a few seconds to realise that it was from two steady streams coming from my nostrils. Yep, definitely back to my normal self. Seconds later darkness claimed my vision and I blacked out.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Alec POV

Well that's just great, Don and Jamie were unconscious and I had apparently been voted as the designated "babysitter". I decided to use the peace and quiet (which seems to be a very rare thing on Pandora) to my advantage and further examine my skag-like pet/bodyguard, which I have decided to call Hellhound.

He/she (I couldn't really tell, but we'll assume it's a male) seems to be made out a dull grey metal that as far as I could tell was indestructible. His top layers are pointed armour plating that slopes towards his rear end so that if you were to run your hand from head to toe would not actually harm you, but if you were to do it the other way ... yeah, don't do it the other way! It appears that he is bound to me and only appears when I stamp my right foot on the ground but he doesn't disappear if I do it again, he just simply vanishes after a certain amount of time (about five minutes or so).

"Ahhh, what the hell happened?" moaned Don as he regained consciousness.

"Oh crap", I thought to myself "He is so gonna kill me"

But surprisingly he didn't seem to remember anything and just walked straight past me, towards Moxxi's. He had a massive bruise on his head but I decided to let him figure that out for himself. I made no attempt to follow him just in case he started to regain memory.

I then decided to play a little trick on Jamie and went to go find a permanent marker.

I don't really regard myself as a person with much artistic talent but I can draw one fancy moustache if I do say so myself. The eye patch was a nice touch too.

Jamie didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon so I went and asked Salvador to carry him to his room. He refused; maybe waking him up from his siesta was not something that worked in my favour.

I then decided to take matters into my own hands. I managed to find a rope and tied on end to Jamie's foot and the other end to Hellhound. I then pointed him in the direction of the HQ and told him to gun it. Somehow he managed to steer Jamie into every single obstacle in-between me and the HQ, yet he still didn't wake up. By the time I had caught up to them Hellhound had disappeared so I pulled Jamie the rest of the way up the stairs and into the HQ. He was pretty bruised with a few grazes here and there but it was nothing that Zed couldn't fix. I then left Jamie in the capable hands of Patricia Tannis, she muttered something about a probe but I ignored her and went to bed.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Jamie POV

What. The honest. Fuck. I feel like I'd just been hit with a train before having my head sat on by a giant. I could hear an argument going on nearby and forced myself to focus on that instead of the massive migraine.

"You are not putting a probe in him!" I heard Gen yell.

"But it's for science!" Tannis retorted irritably.

Probe? What are they talking about? Taking a quick glance around me I see that there's no one else in the room. Which can only mean…

"Fuck! NO!" I abruptly yelled, jumping off the table. An action I immediately regretted as a wave of dizziness and nausea swept through me. Gen quickly grabbed my arm and helped me balance. As soon as I thought I could stand I shrugged his hand off with a muttered "thanks".

"What the fuck happened?" I groaned, sitting on the edge of the table and rubbing my face, "Last thing I remember is that second bright flash from the book and a whole lotta pain, then nothing."

"You blacked out on us. You were bleeding from the nose and you had a few burst blood vessels in your eyes but an Insta-Heal patched that right up. We left you with Alec, figured he could be trusted to watch you while you were out. He had that robot of his drag you here then left you with Aunt Tannis, but not before drawing on your face a bit. Aunt Patricia was just prepping a probe when I walked in. Good timing, huh?" Gen explained.

I didn't reply. I'd been surprisingly calm since waking up to find myself in a world I'd only known through videogames. I'd discovered some cool powers, fought for my life and had a fuck-ton of new info heaped on me, and I hadn't cracked. At that moment I realised why. My natural defense mechanism for something that I can't handle is to repress the stress it gives me. Now all that stress I'd forced down was breaking loose and changing into undirected, irrational anger. I could feel my temperature spiking as my grip on the table tightened and my vision turned red. Literally. A wave of red flame had covered my entire being. How did I know this? I have no idea, I just did.

A few seconds later the flames died, along with my temper. That's one good thing about me: my rage fits are usually pretty short. Of course, I do tend to hold grudges a lot longer. I was gonna get Alec for this.

"You done?" Gen asked, poking his head in the doorway. He'd obviously zipped out in time to avoid my flames.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Cool. One hell of a way to get rid of marker on the skin."

"Huh?"

He pointed at my face, explaining, "All the drawings are gone. Guess you burned 'em off with that fire burst."

"Oh. Cool, I guess. Where's Alec?"

The Splicer grinned at me. "Planning a little revenge?"

I matched his grin with my own. "How'd you guess?"

"That look in your eye. Salvador gets it whenever I fuck around with him too much."

"Kinda worried that I can be compared to Salvador in any way, shape or form but oh well. Now, any ideas for what I can do to get my own back on Alec?"

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

I slowly stepped into Moxxi's, already scanning around. My first instinct was to do what I always do in a large social situation and disappear. I basically do my best to fade into the background, wandering around and not really interacting. But right now I had a reason to be here: I needed to find Don. And there he was, leaning against the bar and trying to chat up Moxxi. Idiot. No chance there if I had to guess. I'd had a lot of practice watching from the side-lines and I could see that while Moxxi found him amusing there was no way in hell she'd really sleep with him.

Wait a minute…

I'd never been able to really psychoanalyse anyone properly, no training. How the hell did I know for certain that right now Moxxi only saw Don as an amusing distraction? Especially with only a glance? Something was seriously wrong here.

"Another question for that weird oke who contacted you." EFP commented.

"Oh great, you know slang now." I shot back mentally as I weaved towards Don. Moving through a crowd with little to no interaction was another talent I'd perfected.

"Of course I do. I know everything you do."

"Fair enough."

I stepped up next to Don silently. Judging by the lack of reaction he hadn't noticed me yet. I saw Moxxi glance at me and open her mouth, probably to tell Don I was there. Before she could I put a finger to my lips. I wanted to see how long it took him. She gave a tiny almost imperceptible nod then turned back to Don.

I stood there silently for what must have been at least five minutes before I got bored, at which point I decided to see how many ways to get Don's attention I could think up. Each one became more ridiculous than the last until I finally grew bored of that. I slowly began to snap my fingers, zoning out as I escaped into my own mind. Now that was something I was very good at. Often enough I became completely unaware of my surroundings. Which probably explains how I didn't even notice that I was surrounded in flames again. I only zoned back in when Don dumped a bucket of water on me. Or he tried to. It sort of froze and then flew into a nearby wall instead of dousing me. But it did pull me back into reality, so that's something. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings and another few to realise I was on fire again but I got there in the end. I distractedly snapped my fingers again and the flames vanished. Another snap brought them back. Snap, gone. Snap, back. Snap, gone.

"If you don't stop snapping, I'm gonna start slapping." Don warned.

"Try it. See what happens." I shot back without even thinking. Me and my big mouth.

"You know he might actually punch you right?" EFP sounded worried.

"Not helping." I shot back to the annoying voice in my head.

Thankfully Don didn't take me up on that thinly veiled threat and simply laughed. Somehow that was worse. Like he didn't think I was capable of even saying that sort of threat, let alone carry it out.

"Just do what you came to do." EFP advised.

I buried my anger (for now) at those words. He… It… Whatever the fuck EFP was, the voice was right. I should just do what I needed to do.

"Hey Don. That's a pretty impressive bruise on your head." I commented.

"Yeah. No idea how I got it but it's there."

I feigned confusion. Of course he didn't know. He probably would have attacked Alec if he did. I was gonna change that. "It's probably from when Alec smashed a bottle over your head."

"Oh." He was taking this too well for my liking.

"Let me clarify. He smashed your bottle over your head."

"Okay." Still too calm. Damn it. Then it hit me, the perfect way to get Don mad.

"Your half-full bottle of booze."

He froze up at that. "Where is that little bastard?"

I shrugged. "HQ, I think." He was out the door by the time I'd finished the sentence.

"…That was mean." Moxxi observed.

"Alec left me at the mercy of Tannis while I was unconscious. She was gonna do something to me that involved a probe." I retorted dryly.

Moxxi mulled it over. "In that case, nevermind."

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

"Jamie!" Gen yelled as he dashed into Moxxi's. It had been about half an hour since I'd set Don on Alec and so far I had heard no screams. It was bit disappointing.

"Yeah?"

"You're gonna want to see this."

"What is it?" I asked, curious. Gen seemed really worked up. Even Moxxi was interested enough to leave the bar in Hammerlock's care and follow. When we got there I couldn't help but stare. A shimmering portal had speared right at the spot where we had activated the book. It was ringed with white fire and the inside seemed to by a strange shimmering blue, almost like it was water.

"That is potentially the most cliché portal ever." EFP commented calmly.

I shook my head and it was then that I noticed the others there. Don and Alec were being kept separate by Brick who had positioned himself between. All of the Raiders were present, all watching the portal. We all just stood there in silence. This of course made me uncomfortable enough to want to break it.

"Well, I guess the Book worked. So who wants to go first?" I commented cheerfully. I had to resist the urge to flinch as most of them suddenly focused on me.

"What do you mean?" Lilith finally asked.

"Think about it. The guy told us to send the beacon so he could find us. We arrived here through mysterious means. I'd bet that he can make portals, which means that since he's not here, whoever he is, he must want us to go through the portal." They were all silent at that so I repeated, "So, who wants to go through first?" It was directed at Alec and Don.

Without a word, Don darted around Brick and grabbed Alec by both arms. He then lifted the smaller boy off the ground, to stop him from summoning Hellhound presumably. And then he threw Alec headfirst through the portal. I was laughing so hard I could barely stand; the look on Alec's face had been priceless. I laughed even harder when Brick stepped forward and shoved Don though the portal. I stopped laughing when I realised that that left only me. I slowly turned to find Gen looking at with a far too cheerful smile.

"Uh oh." EFP sounded resigned.

Then Gen grabbed me by the belt and my collar and swung me into the portal. This was gonna be interesting.

So, what do you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Read and review guys. Read and review.

Until next time, this is Elemental Hybrid, infinitexephos and Don Socrates signing off. Sayonara!