A/N: I saw Tales From the Borderlands Episode 4, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If any of you have seen it, I think you would definitely enjoy it too. And you also need to see if before you see the Borderlands 3 sequel. And that is a definite work in progress. I kind of had to make it up as I go along, but I did the same thing with this, and it turned out pretty good. Now, I'm only doing the side missions that lead to us getting legendaries. The list includes: The Good, The Bad, and the Mordecai, The Clan War(killing the Hodunks, but instead of the Chulainn, we get the Maggie from him and the Slagga off the Hodunks, which Krieg receives), BFFs, The Bane(Just cause), and Slap Happy. Everything else I'll cut out.
2 months later...
I stood in front of Hammerlock with an even look on my face. I helped him with quite a few more jobs the past 2 months.
It took forever for me to get to a point where I could do a job and not pass out. Zed diagnosed me with sleep deprivation, undernourishment, and overexertion on the body. Trying to kill Handsome Jack nearly killed me. But that was my fault because I couldn't take a fucking break.
Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai began handling the responsibility of cores for Sanctuary, bandit control, and particularly dangerous enemies, I figured it was beneficial to focus on getting paid. I took Hammerlock's jobs as well as a job in Lynchwood about a giant skag, Maya helped with Scooter his jobs, and Krieg helped Zed with his jobs because he's the one keeping Ivana alive, who still hasn't woken up. Speaking of Krieg's family, he hasn't had a chance to confront Tina about him being her dad. I'll be pretty amazed what happens.
"Thanks for your help this past week chum!" Hammerlock exclaimed to me jovially. I nodded at him with my 'business look' my face. Serious, emotional, and not personal
"Glad to be of service. Anything else?" I asked him.
"Just one more thing. Have you ever wondered why I don't go out into the field?" Hammerlock asked me. That a was a questioned that actually made me furrow my eyebrows. Why didn't Hammerlock go out into the field? I would think those metal limbs would be useful in combat.
"Why not? I would think those limbs are useful for you to be active," I explained to him.
"Under normal circumstances, you would be right. But these particularly limbs are only used for minor movement. Not for mercenary work. Only the more technological limbs can work like that," Hammerlock explained. But the answer to how I got these limbs is Old Slappy - A thresher that nearly killed me. Science demands I forgive it. Vengeance demands I kill it. Today my friend, you will be my vengeance. Take my hand."
He then removed his metal right hand and gave it to me.
"Ok. Why do I need this?" I asked him.
"Old Slappy removed several of my limbs the last time we met. One hopes the scent of my extremities will lure him out of hiding. Make him eager to finish the job as it were. Plant my arm outside Slappy's lair in the Highlands," Hammerlock told me.
I nodded and went to the Fast Travel in Sanctuary and traveled to the Highland coordinates Hammerlock sent me, which was at the Hyperion station I went to when trying to get Sanctuary back on the Fast Travel Network.
The coordinates pinpointed me to a lower area in the base with a small puddle of water all over the place. I assume Hyperion trapped Old Slappy like this to prevent him from escaping. Which meant there were subterranean traps in play. Clever.
I jumped down into the area where he was trapped and attached Hammerlock's arm to a pillar in the center of the arena. As soon as I did that, the ground began to shake.
"That's right Slappy. You smell it, don't you? That's the scent of a gentleman," Hammerlock said.
A few seconds later, a gigantic Thresher came up out of the water and roared in the air before sinking underground again and then coming back up.
I drew my Striker when Slappy rose up and I began shooting the numerous tentacles trying to kill me. The stopping power of the Striker, the amp damage, and numerous pellet count was able to hit critical spots pretty easily.
"Beware Slappy's tentacles! You can blast them in half, but they'll regenerate sooner or later!" Hammerlock warned me.
"Yeah, I've fought threshers before," I told him. Feeler threshers had the same mechanic. A shield that I took off Hunter Hellquist called the Bee, which amplified the shots that I had and made it much easier to kill things. This shield was much better than normal amps because it didn't take capacity to fire an amp shot. But I hated it because 1, it was Hyperion, and two, they had generally low capacity. But I had to admit, this shield was perfect for this.
"The eyes! Go for the eyes!" Hammerlock exclaimed at me. From my fight with Terramorphous, I figured out that threshers hated being shot in their eyes. This information was not new, but merely a reminder, to which I appreciated anyway.
I began using Jakobs' legendary finger trigger fire rate to make Old Slappy suffer by repeatedly shooting him in his eyes with an amp boosted Striker.
He stomped the ground and I was sent into the air and halfway broke my shield, which made me unable to use amp damage until it recharged.
As I was falling, I went for Old Slappy and stabbed my sword in one of the eyes I didn't hit with my Striker before tossing a MIRV grenade inside of there and Old Slappy groaned from the pain. If Threshers relied on organs, that would've killed him.
Instead I settled for it being stunned for a period of time, to which my shield finally filled back up and I could tear back into him with the amp powered Striker. A couple more shots, and then he finally fell. With that gear, that wasn't a very challenging fight.
"Yes! You've killed the creature who's removed my various limbs! I feel... Well, slightly underwhelmed to be honest. Mayhaps, vengeance isn't all it's cracked up to be. Still, not your fault. Retrieve my arm and return at your leisure," Hammerlock told me. It seems he isn't one for vengeance as much as the rest of us are. Maybe it's because he's a scientist and the rest of us are killers.
Nevertheless, I grabbed his arm from the post and used my Siren powers to teleport to the Fast Travel before using it to head back to Sanctuary. I then walked in Moxxi's bar and handed Hammerlock his arm back.
"Scientifically, murdering Old Slappy was probably a bad idea. Vengeance-stically, I thank you for your help," Hammerlock told me after handing me a new shotgun. Wouldn't be better than my Striker, but it would make some decent cash if I tossed it towards Marcus' way.
"No problem. I'm happy to help," I told him. "Now, there's something I need to do. It involves a giant skag, and..."
"Ah. No further explanation is needed chum. Go on your merry way and kill said skag!" Hammerlock exclaimed happily.
"Thanks," I said with a small smile before heading to the Fast Travel and heading to Lynchwood. The place was occupied by bandits now that I cleared out Jack's grip on Lynchwood. I was more than happy to kill the bandits that got in my way and headed to the old mine that Dukino led me to. Oh, this couldn't be good.
When I went down, I noticed bandits were attempting to stop the skag, and losing miserably. But I quickly spot Dukino running around among all the chaos.
"Oh, crap. Remember when I said that little skag's mom must've abandoned it? Well, I think she found him again!" Scooter exclaimed. "I hear skag moms eat their young! You got to take her out man!"
"Aw, hell. This bitch is huge," I said aloud. No joke. This thing was half of the Warrior's size. At the very least a third.
I noted that the skag seemed to have armor on it rather than it's traditional rough skin. Which means anything corrosive would be more effective on it.
So I pulled out my Hornet and teleported up to the high ground and hung on to a section on the rock structure while firing at Dukino's mom from my vantage point, hitting the occasional shot in her mouth. But she didn't seem bothered at all by my shots.
So I made my Hornet disappear and summoned a corrosive Phasebomb before tossing it at her.
This was a bad thing as it ignored the last 3 bandits that were shooting at it and focused its attention on me from the Phasebomb's superior and more noticeable strength to my Hornet shots.
It fired a beam toward me and I had to pull some Matrix shit and run across the wall using Phasewalk and managed to jump from the wall and jump into the skag's mouth, shooting out a corrosive nova wave when I landed and teleported before the skag could even have a chance to crush me with it's big ass jaws.
Now the skag has its attention firmly on me and was majorly pissed off. She jumped in the air and landed with a shockwave stomp that knocked me into the wall and nearly drained my shield.
I responded by throwing 2 more Phasebombs which didn't managed to break her armor, but damaged the armor to the point where it was piercing into the skag's skin and was doing more harm than good. I decided to take advantage of that.
So I went into another Phasewalk on the wall and jumped off toward the skag. The force was enough to knock it down and dent its skin. It started howling because the armor from its own skin was impaled in its hide like a shiv. Time to finish it.
I imbued my hands with fire and corrosion and jumped on the area where the armor was piercing the skag's hide and began mercilessly punching the armor deeper and deeper into the skag while separating an area where I could just pound the open wounds the armor had made.
My natural strength was dealing a bunch of damage to her open wounds as well as the elemental damage began spreading inside and the outside of Dukino's mom. Eventually the skag couldn't take anymore and fell over, dead.
"Good job saving your little skag buddy man. I feel logistically that makes you its new mom or something. I don't know. Heh," Scooter said, making me look curiously at the skag who had come up to me and started rolling around on it's back with its tongue out. Somehow, this skag managed to make it look adorable.
I rubbed the top of the skag's head comfortingly before I began to walk out. But the skag seemed to whine and move closer to around my legs. I guess he wanted to come with me. First, I wanted to see if this skag was well behaved and knew how to listen.
"Sit," I commanded to it. It did just that.
"Jump," I commanded again. It did just that. It seemed it would listen to me.
"Eat the bandits if you want, but don't eat the loot," I told it as I went to check if Dukino's mom ingested anything useful. I saw a Vladof rocket launcher that looked above average to normal Vladofs. I noticed one of the almost ingested objects in her stomach, which I had to cut into to get some of the loot, and it looked like a type of ID. Guess this thing got around.
Other than the rocket launcher, nothing seemed really special. I would give this to Krieg. I didn't really have need for a rocket launcher. And it came in the fire element, which was useful. Dukino didn't eat the loot of the bandits, but he might as well have done it. No wonder they weren't doing anything to it.
Dukino followed me loyally all the way back to the Fast Travel and I had to carry him when we needed to get back to Sanctuary. When we arrived, I gave Dukino the rundown.
"Do NOT eat anyone here. They are all friends. If they try to hurt you, you come to me. Ok?" I told Dukino. Dukino turned his head at me which I assumed was a confirmation from him. I smiled and gently scratched Dukino on the side of his head.
That made him turn over on his back in enjoyment and I began to love this skag as a pet. I'm sure this is a fraction of what Mordecai felt for Bloodwing.
Dukino followed me back up to the dorm and I gestured for him to rest on the bed. He gladly did so and I decided to sit down on the edge and enjoy myself with my ECHO playlist that I had to restore.
Ya left me
I'm like I don't know why
Ya came back
And gave it another try
But Im caught up
And my old habit's a lie
So we stop...
And now were sayin bye bye
By then, I heard that another voice had joined in with me singing and I looked over to the doorway to see that out of all people, Maya had joined in. I simply smiled and kept on singing.
Both of us: If ya ask me to kill
I would
If ask me to steal
I would
If ya want me to love ya
I could
But we're so misunderstood
Maya: Me and you together ain't really good anyway
We could break up or just break out in a heated argument on any given day
I'm impossible
Bein with me is an obstacle
Women of the world
I got lots to pull
But we closer than most
Especially with our clothes on the floors
I only give a dose to them hoes
And without you is the one thing I hate
Together our fate
But if ya ask baby I would jump in a lake
And I cheated
You stayed faithful
And I'm ungrateful
And I act so damn hateful
And over and over and over the sofa, finito
Cause I ain't seen when they get control of my libido
Forget about it
Cause I mean the world of you
I was just playin with them girls baby I love you
I know I messed up with ya baby I owe you
If we break up I'm a die or you
I was hella impressed. Who knew Maya could rap?
Both: If ya ask me to kill
I would
If ya ask me to steal
I would
If ya want me to love ya
I could
But we're so misunderstood
Me: Baby this is too hard
The fightin and the fussin and the cussin and ya bustin me in my mouth
Girl I just want ya heart
I'm tusslin with the fact that ya want me to get out
But I ain't leavin
You will listen to me now
If I gotta hold ya down (down, down)
We're so misunderstood
Ya familly wonderin why ya still keepin me around
Both: But if ya ask me to kill
I would
If ya ask me to steal
I would
If ya want me to love ya
I could
But we're so misunderstood.
The song ended and I stopped the playlist to look Maya with a surprised expression.
"You listen to this song?" I asked her.
"When you're brought up by a cult all your life, you find entertainment in whatever you can. Music was one of those things. Immersing myself in combat training was another. As well as the knowledge in books," Maya explained to me.
"So just how much do you know about music?" I asked her.
"Just about every song known to man it seems. I didn't really have to much to do. I spent all 30 years of my life in captivity on Athenas. The only action I saw was in training," Maya said, making me give her a look of disbelief.
"What life have you been living?" I asked in disbelief.
"You sure you want to hear my sob story?" Maya asked me. I sat on the couch in front of the safe and patted the seat next to me.
"I got time. Plus I don't know too much about you. Perfect opportunity to start now," I reasoned with her.
Maya shrugged and sat down next to me and began to start her story.
"I never knew my parents. No one seemed to know anything about them. They just kind of disappeared off the face of the Earth. I was raised into this cult who bred me as a warrior for this planet. They filled me with stories that I was going to have to protect my planet from an evil. When I first heard those words, rather than being scared, I was ecstatic. I was born for an opportunity to protect my planet and the people who raised me," Maya explained.
"Sounded like they made it sound like you were destined for great things," I told her. Maya chuckled hollowly before continuing.
"Yeah, it sounded like that. But that wasn't the case. I spent 27 years trained as a warrior, but also to be a weapon. Something to be feared," Maya explained.
"You keep talking about this cult holding you back and keeping you prisoner. How exactly did you get out?" I asked her.
"I'm getting to that. One day Brother Sophis, who was the leader, brought a man for me to execute. The man was practically begging for his life. Sophis just asked me to execute him. Not to question or anything. Just to follow orders. Then the man spoke up and promised he'd pay his tithe. Turns out he was just using me to maintain the fear of this planet. To control it," Maya explained in a bitter tone. Upon hearing this, I shook my head in disgust.
"Bastard. I sincerely he's missing entrails right about now," I said in a venomous tone. Maya seem taken aback at my anger.
"You went from 0 to 100 real quick," Maya said, making me smile at her reference to the song. "Ok, back to 0. Are you bipolar?"
"No. It's just words that have meaning behind them will change my attitude just about instantly. This is one of those times. I can't believe the manipulative nerve of some people," I said in an irritated tone.
"Yeah, well, he's dead, so I'm not too worried about it anymore," Maya said, before smiling. "Now, I got a question for you in return."
"Shoot," I told her.
"It's none of my business to pry, but... how exactly did you fall in love with Angel? The two of you only met once. So... how did that work?" Maya asked me.
I admit. I was caught off guard by the question, but I decided to give her an honest answer.
"I don't know. It's like... one of those things that just happens. I met, or at least was introduced to Angel when I managed to survive a train explosion. The entire time I was trying to get to Sanctuary, she was there all the time in a way. Like a Guardian Angel," I said, smiling at the irony of the phrase. "Anyway, I don't take idle information and ignore it. I actually ask about the person themselves because I actually care. I guess things sort of worked from there. I felt like I understood her and she understood me."
Maya seemed to ponder my answer with an even expression. Then I saw her shake her head.
"I don't really understand love in general. I was raised in a place where there was nothing but obedience. Must be nice," Maya told me.
"Love isn't always what you think it is. It can be incredibly painful too. Trust me. I lost 3 loved ones in the span of a few weeks on this damned planet, and it nearly broke me to pieces. Roland was my friend, but... it just didn't compare when I lost my parents and Angel. It was terrible. Felt like someone ripped my heart right out of me," I explained to her, my tone remorseful. "I don't expect you to understand, but..."
"I don't. I'm just going to lay it out on the table. I don't understand. But I hope to eventually understand during my time with you all," Maya said with a smile. I smiled back and gave her a hug. It felt slightly awkward from the angle I had on the couch, but it was a warm hug nonetheless. I held Maya by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eye.
"As far as I'm concerned, you're family. And around here, family is held in the highest regard. We will do anything for family. We will die for family. And you'll learn what it's like to be loved around here," I promised her. Maya smiled at me.
"I know the feeling that I have now. Acceptance. Which is something I haven't felt in a long time," she admitted to me.
"You're gonna get it here. Let's start with a drink," I said, rising to my feet and gesturing to follow me. "How about it?"
"Suits me just fine. Note the fact that I don't drink much and if you get me drunk and make me do something I will regret, I will turn your bones into a puddle," Maya threatened me. I simply laughed good naturedly at her threat and raised a surrender gesture.
"Hey, you won't get it from me. I'm not that guy. Come on. It's free," I said, walking out. I figured now was the best time to make our ties now while we had the chance. But all of a sudden, she stopped me at the door.
"Oh, I almost forgot. This was one of Hyperion's best weapons. Since you killed Jack, Lilith thought you would have rights to it," Maya said, using her ECHO to summon a black and red Hyperion shotgun. "You want it?" I shrugged and grabbed it.
"Hell it'll be useful. Now come on," I said, continuing down the stairs.
A/N: If Maya was raised by a cult that fits the description of the Order of the Impending Storm with no family in it, there would be absolutely no love in it. People selflessly caring for one another is something that she's not used to. So it'll be a slow build up to Maya actually caring for everyone more than she cares for herself, so there's that. We still got more chapters to come. Those missions that I was talking about and maybe a few bonus ones before the Hammerlock's Hunt version. Hope everyone enjoyed this.