Claptrap froze in place, his face paling. He turned to address the voice.

"Jack." He said, attempting to sound calm. "Been a while- What the hell happened to you?!" He suddenly exclaimed once he saw him.

It had been over a year since Claptrap, or anybody for that matter, had seen Jack. HE was mainly the voice and brains of the robot army. It made sense, considering that Jack refused to change his main platform, the old Claptrap unit.

The unit was looking really beaten up. It was missing two separate corners, the paint was scratched off, and the red glow of the eye was flickering. Jack's mask, which was positioned in front of the red eye, was cracked and worn. Originally, it would move as if it was an actual face. Now, however, the mouth only moved up and down as Jack spoke.

"You blew me up." Jack replied, with an eerie calmness in his voice. "Remember that, junior? When you blew up my moon base, which was an integral part of my strategy for years? Yeah, you really did a number on your old body."

"Doesn't...bother me." Claptrap muttered, although it did make him cringe a bit to see his old body like that. There was still a part of him that was worried he was looking a mirror.

Jack chuckled, as he began wheeling toward Claptrap. "You know, if I were still human, that would have really set me off. I had quite a temper when I still felt emotions. I think that was the main reason I lost last time. I let you bandits get under my skin. I wanted to keep you alive just to kill you myself. Now I realize how stupid that was."

Claptrap backed away from Jack. "But being human is great! Sure, there are some hard parts, but I would never want to go back to being a robot!"

"See, the difference between you and me, brat, is that you're an idiot. You didn't know how good you had it." Jack countered. "Emotions suck. I had to care about things! Remember Angel? That messed me up!" He laughed, slowly backing away from Claptrap. "Now, though, that wouldn't affect me one bit."

"I don't even think you're Jack anymore." Claptrap stated.

"Is that really such a bad thing?" Jack asked, spreading out his arms. "Now, are we doing this or what?" He laughed. "Sorry! I forgot. You have to die first! I can arrange that!"

Suddenly, a large mech suit landed next to Jack. It was twice the size of Brick, and had blasters in both palms. It had the same paint job as a Claptrap unit. It lacked a head, but it had a square opening in the center.

The mech picked Jack up, and placed him in the square opening. There was a hiss of air and a whirling sound. The arms began to move more fluidly, and Jack opened his palm at Claptrap.

"So you need my help with the dying part, junior?" He asked, as energy began to concentrate in the palm of his hand.

Claptrap gulped before standing against Jack. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

'I think you should handle this.'

With pleasure.

Clyde opened his eyes.

"I'm going to enjoy this." He said, as his markings began to glow.

"Oh!" Jack exclaimed. "I didn't realize Junior was actually in control! Sending a kid to fight your battles? That's just wrong, Clappy!" He fired at Clyde, who easily dodged the blast. "Not that I have any problem with killing children."

Jack continued firing at Clyde, who sprinted around the mech. When he managed to get behind Jack, Clyde jumped forward, fist reeled back to punch him.

However, Jack grabbed Clyde by the fist and swung him forward, slamming him into the ground. Jack reeled back to punch Clyde, but the siren emitted a blast of energy to distract the robot, giving him time to put some distance between the two.

A small fleet of drones flew onto the battlefield, surrounding Jack with the idea of defending him. One of them appeared to have a brain case connected to it. It began to speak.

"Hello, Jack!" It greeted the large mech, who didn't appear to be listening. "It is I, Professor Nakayama, your most faithful follower! Can I just say I feel so honored to have been resurrected to serve in your army! I assume you heard about my stint as arch-nemesis to the Vault Hunters! I almost got the chance to fight them! You probably also hired me because of my earlier dealing with Claptrap, who really hindered my attempts to clone you. Let me just say that-"

The professor was suddenly grabbed by Jack, who threw him at Clyde.

Clyde destroyed the drone with a slash of energy. The drone uttered a quick "ohgodwhy?!" before it was destroyed.

Jack continued throwing drones at Clyde, who continued to deflect and dodge them. As the last one came flying toward him, Clyde jumped up and kicked himself off of it. He grabbed himself in a light phaselock midair, and threw himself down at Jack.

Jack attempted to shoot him down with both hands, but Clyde managed to keep himself between the two beams. His punch landed on the shoulder of the Mech, causing one of the arms to become loose. Clyde grabbed this arm and pulled on it. In a rain of sparks, the arm was ripped off of Jack, who backed away a few steps.

"Now, thing about humans is that they would be out for the count if something like that happened to them." Jack said, as he charged up a blast in his remaining arm. "Good thing I'm not human. Now, do me a favor, and die!" He exclaimed, firing at Clyde.

"Sorry, but I'm already dead!" Clyde responded, as he fired a matching blast out of the arm he was holding. The two blasts collided between the two fighters, the power of the beams matched.

Clyde began to glow, and the Vault door they were standing on began to shake. The energy of Clyde's beam began to overtake Jack's. It traveled toward the robot, who decided stop his beam and attempt to dodge the blast.

He wasn't very successful, in that regard.

Clyde walked up to Jack, whose legs had been blasted off. He was crawling forward with the one hand, which was missing most of its fingers. The mask on Jack's face was almost destroyed, as the top left corner of it had cracked off. The red eye beneath the mask was cracked and flickering.

"You think you beat me?" Jack asked, as he stopped crawling. "You do realize that, even if you destroy me, I'll just go to the cloud and come back in a stronger robot. I can keep going, kiddo. I don't think you can."

"...You're right." Clyde said, as he put a hand on Jack. "Guess there's no choice."

Clyde flashed.

"Executing Phase Shift!"


The next chapter will be interesting. I like the image of Jack's mask being destroyed the more he loses his humanity. You'll understand why next chapter.

I don't know how I feel about the action here. On one hand, there could have been more of it. On the other hand, I didn't want to drag it out. I also think Clyde might be a little overpowered. I could probably have had him take a few more hits.

Don't ask me why Nakayama was resurrected. Rule of funny, I suppose.