Noble Jasper here with a new chapter! I was feeling inspired this time! And not to mention, my story has over 6000 views! This made me so happy that I did a backflip and then lied to my readers about doing a backflip because I'm lazy as fuck!
Just to make things clear, young Tyr will be referred to as Tyrius.
All skags go to heaven, here's chapter eleven! (Yes, I'm specifically talking about Dukino)
Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands. If I did, Sir Hammerlock would be a playable character.
Chapter 11: Square One
Shortly after leaving his fellow recruits behind and boarding the Vindicators' ship, the young Tyrius was left alone to wander the ship. And wander he did. He spent quite a while walking aimlessly around the living quarters before moving on to the section labeled storage.
The ship, dubbed "Liberty" by the founder of the Vindicators, had a massive cargo space in the aft of the ship. It was beyond Tyrius' imagination the reason it was there. It was so large, in fact, that he had to ask Melchior for a map.
"Try to stay out of trouble, and try not to get lost. And please, try to memorize the layout of the ship. I don't like to waste my time making maps. Please familiarize yourself with the storage area intensively. You will be spending a lot of time in there," Melchior stated plainly as he handed Tyrius a rather well-crafted hand drawn map of the ship. The boy nodded and left the room.
He entered the storage section and began to explore all of its nooks and crannies. Thirty minutes later, he entered a room with a few boxes and a horrid stench. He scanned the room, trying to memorize its layout, when suddenly he was attacked by a shadow and knocked over, losing his grip on the map. As he stood up, he looked around for his map, which was nowhere in sight.
"Oh no," he said out loud.
After a few hours of hopelessly losing himself, he gave up searching for an exit and curled up into a ball in a corner of an empty storage room. He sat there and waited for a long time, hours, when he heard footsteps outside of the room inside of which he waited. He quickly stood up as the door swung open, revealing Amora standing in the doorway. She looked at him and let out an exasperated sigh before entering the room herself and closing the door behind her.
Tyrius assumed that she was going to scold him. He stood rigidly and braced himself for the yelling that was about to come. Instead, she walked to the nearest corner and sat down herself. She looked over at Tyrius.
"Kid, come here." Tyrius obeyed the command and approached the woman. "Alright, that's close enough." He stopped. "So, why do you want to be a Vault Hunter in the first place?"
Tyrius shrugged.
Amora smiled. "Not something you can put into words, huh? I like your answer. It basically means that you can feel it deep down inside of you."
Tyrius didn't move.
"You sorta remind me of my brother. I mean, he's a few years older than you, but you and him could totally match up. Well, I mean after I train you, of course." Amora sighed. "Just like I trained him..."
"Who is your brother?" Tyrius asked.
Amora glanced at him. "'Was' is more like it." She turned away. "His name was Nevis. He...was killed."
"Oh..."
Amora looked back at Tyrius. "He was a genius, too. He created this," she explained, showing him her fan-named Omnibox.
Tyrius had seen pictures of the Omnibox before, but never had he seen it in person, and as far as he knew, he was the only person to see it this close who wasn't a Vindicator already. He felt honored to be in the presence of such a magnificent weapon.
"Whoa...How does it work?"
"It looks like we got ourselves a curious one, don't we?" Amora joked with a smirk. "I guess I can show you, since you're practically a Vindicator now."
"Yay!"
Amora pulled the Omnibox away from Tyrius and set it on the ground. She also reached back and pulled out a strange object that appeared to be some kind of headgear. Tyrius watched in awe as she lifted the headgear above her and placed it firmly on her head. She then looked at Tyrius with a smile.
"Well, here goes."
Suddenly, the Omnibox suddenly began to change shape and size until it resembled a
gun.
Tyrius couldn't remove his gaze from what he had seen. "Wow!"
He went to pick it up the newly shaped weapon when his hand was
slapped.
"Not today, cowboy. You won't be touching this beauty for a long time, let me tell you."
Tyrius sighed. "Aw, why not?"
"Well, for starters, it's not safe since I'm still wearing the headgear. Second of all, it's a gun, so it's not safe in general. And most importantly..." Amora paused, "...you aren't a Covant."
"Huh?"
Amora was shocked. "You don't know who the Covants are?"
The boy shook his head.
"Let me tell you, then. My family is from a planet called Oris. We are the Covant family. Anyway, the reason why that's relevant to that gun is that my brother designed it so that it could only be used by a member of the Covant family. Now that he's dead, the only people left that can use this thing are me and my mother."
"What will happen if I touch it?" Tyrius asked.
Amora shrugged. "Nevis never explained it to me, but he did say to never let anyone who wasn't a Covant touch it. Something about instantaneous death or something..." Amora muttered the last sentence.
"Oh..."
Amora finished her demonstration. "Anyway, long story short, this thing transforms into whatever I can imagine, as long as it's not too big." She picked up the gun and it transformed back into a box. "Yeah, I guess that's it, then." She slid it back into her pocket and did the same with the headgear.
Tyrius' stomach rumbled.
"Ha! You must be starving, huh? It's about time to head back, so we'll eat then, alright?" Amora stated. Tyrius simply nodded.
Geez, this kid doesn't show much emotion, does he?
She opened the door and left with Tyrius closely trailing behind.
"By the way," Amora spoke up, "didn't you have a map? I could've sworn you walked in here with a paper."
"Oh, I lost it when I was attacked."
"You were attacked?"
He responded with a nod.
Amora suddenly perked up. "I think I know what that was. Were you in a smelly room?"
"Yes."
"Then there's no doubt. That was Eve's cat."
"..."
Amora noted his lack of response and glanced over at him to see he was looking down, most likely in shame. She decided to try and cheer him up.
"Don't beat yourself up about it. That cat has never showed itself to anyone without the presence of Eve. The fact that it attacked you means that it likes you enough to come out of hiding."
It seemed to work a little bit, since Tyrius' scowl vanished and was replaced by a look of confusion. "What happened to Eve?"
Amora chuckled. "There you go, being curious again."
"Sorry."
"No, don't worry about it. It's not really a bad thing. I think I'll tell you about Eve some other day, okay?"
"Alright..."
"We should pick up the pace, we don't want to miss dinner, do we?"
• • •
It seems the boy is practicing with a gun. He also seems to be trying to impress that girl with him. How amusing. What will he do when he sees me again? I can only begin to imagine how entertaining his reaction will be. But what am I standing around waiting for? Why not witness it right now? The Eradicator laughed. This is going to be fun.
He jumped high into the air. His trajectory was flawless, as determined by the fact that he landed ten feet in front of Tyr.
The Eradicator was right. Tyr's reaction was truly enjoyable to watch. At first, he froze. He didn't move a single inch, didn't say a single word. If it was even possible, the Eradicator would've been grinning maniacally at this point. However, Tyr stayed frozen for far too long, and the Eradicator grew bored.
Maybe he'll come to if I touch his emotional side.
The Eradicator turned his head toward Gaige. That alone was enough to bring Tyr back to his senses. He immediately dashes toward Gaige and stopped between Gaige and the Eradicator.
"You won't lay a finger on her," he said with an edge in his voice.
The Eradicator finally spoke.
"I find you...intriguing."
Shocked, Tyr dropped his gun. "You can talk?!"
"Of course I can talk, boy. Who said I couldn't talk?"
"Well, I figured that since I couldn't talk while I was in your body that you couldn't either."
"Um, Tyr?" Gaige muttered.
Tyr looked back at her. "Yes?"
She whispered, "what the fuck is going on?"
Before Tyr could reply, the Eradicator spoke once again. "I am here to merge with you once again. If you decline my offer, I will force you to merge with me like the last time. You have thirty seconds to decide."
"Hold on for a moment. Why did you come back?"
"That is not your concern. Twenty four seconds."
"Will I be able to talk?"
"I can teach you to speak using plate vibration. Fifteen seconds."
"Can I separate from you when I need to?"
"I suppose we can take occasional breaks. Seven seconds remain."
"Then I'll do it on one condition."
"What is this condition of yours, boy?"
"I'll need your help whenever we're separated, so you'll have to obey me."
"Very well."
Tyr was taken aback by his response. "Wait, seriously? You're fine with this?"
"Stop wasting time. Let's merge now."
Tyr was undoubtedly excited. "Okay!"
"Hang on a sec!" Gaige cried out. Tyr turned around and was immediately met with a hug. He blushed slightly, and returned the hug, her hair in his face. He silently inhaled. She smells nice, he thought. After releasing her he looked deeply into her bright green eyes.
"I'm going to always protect you, do you understand?" She nodded. "Besides, this is most likely the best way to do it, wouldn't you agree?" Tyr added.
Gaige shrugged. "Sure, I guess."
"Then it's settled." Tyr turned and walked to the Eradicator. "Let's do this."
The Eradicator nodded. Its chest suddenly opened up. Simultaneously, Tyr's body began to disintegrate and flow into the Eradicator's open chest cavity. When his body had completely vanished, the chest closed.
"Physical merging complete. Commencing neurological merging."
The Eradicator suddenly appeared to shut down, and its entire body went limp for a fraction of a second before it suddenly jumped back to life.
Gaige watched with her fingers crossed. When she saw the suit of armor jolt awake, she sighed with relief. "Tyr, is that you?"
Tyr gave her a thumbs up and she smiled. "Can you talk?"
He shook his head.
"Oh..."
Suddenly, there was a voice behind Gaige. "So you got your armor back, huh? Nice." Gaige turned around to see all the other Vault Hunters standing by. She recognized the voice that spoke as Axton's.
"Oh, hey, what's up?" said Gaige.
"We've come to a general consensus. We're leaving Liar's Berg tomorrow. We have to move if we're going after Handsome Jack," replied Maya.
Gaige nodded. "Gotcha. Anything else?"
"No, that is all," said Axton. "Anyway, I'm headed to bed. See you guys tomorrow at sunrise." Axton walked away and the remaining people stood there awkwardly before following suit.
• • •
Lucy was sitting in her booth in Liar's Burgers, as usual. It was very late, and everyone had gone to bed. Well, mostly everyone. She could hear Tyr off in the distance, making noises that over time had begun to sound more and more human, and less like a cow choking on a watermelon.
It sounds like he's slowly learning how to talk with his armor. That's good.
Her thoughts continuously drifted back to Tyr. After hearing his story, her interest in him significantly increased. He was a Vindicator.
She thought back to her own past and came to a single conclusion:
I miss my cat.
• • •
What's the meaning of this?! You already had a feeling this was the case, you say? Are you saying this is unoriginal and cliché? Oh well.
Special thanks to dadman9994 and QueenLlama for your reviews, and thanks to everyone who is reading these words right now, because it means you read this far. Or cared enough to skip this far. Either way, your continued support is gratefully appreciated.
Noblinguism Jaspernitio, out.