Chapter 2: Opening Rounds
After a brief walk following Claptrap, the six Vault Hunters, Jedi Master, Dark Lady and Specialist stopped at the edge of a cliff, looking down on a small village. With his obnoxiously cheery voice, Claptrap called out, "Welcome, everyone, to the delightful town of Liar's Burg."
"Well doesn't it look… quaint?" Psion stated rhetorically.
"Doesn't it look infested with Bullymongs, Rakks and bandits, you mean?" Jason snorted, observing the terrain through his sniper scope. "It's a complication we don't need right now."
"What isn't a complication we don't need right now?" Was Psion's response.
Jason shot her a look. "Moving with as much stealth as possible right now would be best for us. Stealth is rather difficult to achieve with weapons usage and Jack will be able to track weapons flares from Helios."
"Define weapons flares, do we mean muzzle flashes, lightsaber ignitions or blaster weapons?" Alex clarified.
"All of the above. Jack knows we're in the area, he'll be watching Liar's Burg very carefully. Anything unusual there and he'll know very quickly indeed."
"Good to know," the two Force Users concentrated then disappeared from sight.
"Force Cloak," Psion said.
"And how are we going to get through to Hammerlock without attracting attention?" Maya asked. Zero has his own cloaking methods, but none of the rest of us do. Not to mention our tracks."
"We'll just have to be quiet, I can use the Force to wipe the snow over our tracks and make it look undisturbed," Alex said. "Psion can focus on using the Force to persuade the Bullymongs to ignore us."
"Or we take another path altogether." Gaige said. She pointed out towards the mountainside. "We could work our way around the cliffs and approach from the far side of the town. It's unlikely anyone would spot us there."
"That works too," Psion agreed. "We'll go that way."
Salvador pouted. "Do we really need to stay quiet and be boring? We can just blow everything up."
Maya rolled her eyes. "Do you want to keep dodging moonshot rounds all the time? Not like you can shoot those."
"And they may adapt to our tricks sooner or later," Psion added.
"Which is why we need to keep a few in reserve. If Jack has any kind of brains, he'll have his satellites watching for us." Axton nodded. "He's not going to miss monitoring some of his biggest opponents if he gets the chance."
"Honestly if I could I would torture him with an old fitting song on eternal repeat," Psion mused whimsically. "Can you imagine him forced to listen to 'Hit the road Jack' All day and night?"
Jason chuckled. "That would be fitting. Take notes, ladies and gentlemen. Never underestimate the value of psychological warfare."
The very douchebag that had just been the topic of discussion suddenly decided to make his presence known once more. "Yo, everyone in and around Liar's Burg, this is Handsome Jack. I'm placing a one million dollar bounty on the heads of each of the nine Vault Hunters that just arrived. Also, don't forget about the bounty on the mass-murdering leader of the Crimson Raiders, Roland. Have fun, kiddos."
"Jason quick, before that transmission ends, give Jackie our little present," Psion said with an evil grin.
Jason cursed. "He must have learnt from last time. Closed the channel as soon as he finished talking. Too risky to try and hack it open right now. But we'll get him next time he tries calling us. I've got a few tricks left to pull, just need to slip them past his defences."
"Damn," Alex grumbled whereas Psion was a little more vulgar in one of the fantasy languages she had learned.
"Nindel s'lozan yacal, has'tras tsossin, vith'ez dalharuk de' natha jaluk orbb's ssindossa. Dorn glit'r tir ukt har lueth jihard nind phor ukt mai, t'yin glit'r doeb ukt ooble' lueth elgluth ukta ulu elghinn. Lu't'yin dorn jihard ukt solen phor ukt t'zarreth ji uk shlu'ta kyorl lu'oh mzilt de' biu bunjiro uk llaar zhah."
Alex blanched.
"Wow, just.. Wow, he must really piss you off right now," he said while cringing a little.
The Vault Hunters looked between the two and elected unanimously to not ask them to clarify. Maya sighed. "Evidently Jack knows we're in the area, even if he doesn't know exactly where, So, do we keep sneaking around or launch a frontal assault on the bandits?"
"Well I am called Psion for a reason," the Sith Lady said as she reached into the bandit's minds, then poked around to trigger their aggressions at each other, then she sat back and watched the carnage and shooting start. "The Force can have a powerful effect on the weak minded," she said with a vicious smirk.
Axton shrugged. "Guess that works as well as anything. Now we can just slip around the edge and go see Hammerlock."
"Works for me, you really are an artist with the mind powers my dear. Certainly explains your fetish for naming ships," Alex said with a teasing grin at his wife.
The Dark Lady just rolled her eyes and ignored him before setting off down the hill to avoid the carnage.
Gaige glanced at Jason as they followed the others. "You knew these two before coming here?"
He shrugged. "Yeah. If you're asking if they were always this crazy, the answer is yes. But I pity Jack. Psion has a very firm idea on taking revenge and a full desire to exploit it. Great to have those two on your side, but it's a full time job stopping them from killing the wrong people, or indeed each other."
"I heard that!" Psion called back.
Jason continued as if she hadn't said anything. "Sometimes, the best way to do that is to give them another target. They mostly have some restraint when it comes to their friends. Mostly."
"And when they don't?" Gaige asked nervously.
Jason cracked a grin. "But that's the fun part, finding out how far you can yank their leash before they turn around and snap at your head."
"I suppose so," Alex said, patting Jason on the back firmly with a smirk.
"Suffice to say, Gaige, these two keep life interesting. Can't really ask for much more than that."
Gaige chuckled slightly. "I'll bet. But then you're half crazy yourself. You'd have to be, hanging around those two."
"You might also want to take the sign of your nickname off your back that I know he put there!" Psion called.
"Nah, I'll leave it for a while. Revenge is a dish best served cold and I already have a few ideas on that count." Jason shrugged. "Besides, I can't upset his Lordship, he might lose his temper."
A massive snow wave launched itself at Jason in response from the Jedi. A wave of Jason's hand and a burst of blue energy redirected the snow up and over, back on top of Alex, before falling on him. An application of the Force compressed the snow into a ball which was then flung back at Jason. He caught it and packed it around his water bottle.
"I hate drinking warm water, thanks for that Alex." The grin was obvious even without looking at him.
"No problems Marsupial," he replied.
Jason shook his head and turned back to Gaige. "Of course, they try and rattle my cage as well. However, it takes more than a few words to set me off. But that doesn't mean I forget about them, either."
"Such is the Koala-ty of Jason Davis," Alex chimed back.
Gaige and Maya raised an eyebrow at Jason. He shrugged. "Being rather simple-minded, he tends to go after the same theme of insults, doesn't even try to mix them up at all. Honestly, it's more boring than insulting now."
"Jason," Alex said.
Jason ignored him. "But enough about us. We do have places to be, after all." Jason glanced at the sky. "How long do you think until sunset, Salvador? 20 hours or so?"
The Pandoran native took his own glance and nodded. "About that, amigo. Why?"
"Because I think we'll want to move under the cover of darkness as much as we can. So, I suggest we get to Hammerlock, get the misfiring hunk of scrap metal fixed up and do some odd jobs around the place, because there will certainly be some. Then we can get back on the move after nightfall. Hopefully, I can take some time to hide our ECHO's locator signals, give us more of a chance to evade Jack.
"Then we should do that, I do have some mechanical knowledge, as does Psion," Alex said.
"What annoys me most, is that we don't have the means to make more, so we need to save what thermal detonators we have," the Sith Lady said as she returned to rejoin the group. "I can replace my red and blue ripper bladed disks easily enough.
Axton shrugged. "The Raiders would have to have some kind of weapon smith. With his help, we might be able to work something out. Still, there are still some grenades around."
Psion pulled one out and tossed it to him gently.
"Do you know what kind of explosive you're holding there Axton?" she asked.
His deadpan look was spot on.
"That's a thermonuclear weapon," Psion said with an evil smirk.
The Vault Hunters spun around and stared at the innocent looking silver sphere.
"That's bullshit." Axton said flatly.
"Scan it," Psion insisted.
Zero stepped forward, pulling out a scanner and inspecting the thermal detonator. The sudden sharp step backwards he took immediately afterwards was clear enough as to the result of the scans.
"Told you so," Psion said with a grin.
Jason shook his head. "Just have to show off your toys, huh? What do you even need something like that for anyway?"
"Better overkill than no kill," she replied taking it back and hooking it in place. "I also have weapons I based on the Ripper disks from UT."
"Hey, give me those." Jason held his hand out.
Psion passed him three disks, one with a white center, one red and the other blue.
"Whites are just sharp disks you fling, reds have a small ray shield generator inside to make them bounce before it fails, blues have small explosives within, aside from that blues are like the whites. I have 36, 12 and 18 respectively."
Jason grinned. "Gaige, we've got a little project now. Got to get these so we can mass-replicate them. The red ones are especially deadly. You can clear a corridor with those."
"You like, don't you?" Psion asked with a grin.
Jason shrugged. "I do like, but I have some other thoughts on these. Imagine these with multiple elemental abilities. Say, slag and corrosive combined."
"Ooh very nice," the Sith agreed. "Problem is you'd have to make seperate disks for those. I barely managed to get a small ray shield generator in the reds and they cost 20,000 credits each. I could get 10 thermal detonators for the same price."
"Which is why all the elemental gear is built into the weapon, not the projectile. It coats each projectile just before firing. It's not exactly massive, the limiting factor so far has always been the bullet is too small to coat with multiple elements. That's not going to be an issue here."
"Right, the current version is more a stealth weapon rather than something that fires a bunch of bullets or accelerated blades at supersonic velocity."
"Huh, always preferred it as an area-denial weapon. Prevent an enemy from advancing or sets an ambush for them to walk into. Still, I think we can make this work. Anyway, we should get to Hammerlock, it can't be far."
"Not at all." Claptrap's cheery voice rang out. "It's just down-AARRGGHH!" Claptrap's voice faded as he fell off the cliff face.
Psion and Alex facepalmed at the same time.
"I've seen less dense Jedi," Psion grumbled, making Alex roll his eyes at her behind his palm.
"And I'm sure Alex has seen stupider Sith too." Jason commented. Sighing as even the simple-minded bandits and bullymongs turned their attention towards the racket Claptrap was making, he shrugged. "I guess there goes stealth. Catch you down there." With a quick couple of strides, Jason leapt off the cliff after the miserable robot, firing as soon as he hit the ground.
"Perhaps a better comparison would be the B1 battle droids," Alex suggested to his wife as they jumped down and began firing their weapons as well.
"... You're right, come to think of it, the B1's are more tolerable than bloody Claptrap."
The confused Vault Hunters, with the understanding that such craziness was likely to become a daily part of their lives, set their own confusion aside and swept into the fight. Maya and Gaige stood back to back with Jason, proving to be a formation that unleashed immense firepower. Zero joined the two Force-users in sweeping through the battlefield, driving the remaining enemies towards Krieg, Axton and Salvador. Caught on three sides, neither bandits nor beasts survived to demonstrate their own stupidity further.
"You stupid droid, must you make a nuisance of yourself ever single kriffing second?" Psion snarled at him.
"Before you answer that," Gaige said, "I suggest you don't."
Amazingly, Claptrap proved he can listen to advice and stayed silent, rolling wobbling towards a nearby compound, clearly demonstrating someone with greater wealth and social status than was the norm on Pandora. "Hey, Hammerlock old buddy, open up. It's your old friend, Claptrap and his new m-, escorts." He hastily corrected himself before arousing Psion's ire further.
Psion just glared balefully at Claptrap as she waited to see if Claptrap would get zapped.
The voice that came back was clearly distinguished and gentlemanly. "Blast. First, bandits and bullymongs, now Claptrap and his delusions. Very well, the gate is unlocked for you, Claptrap. The rest of you, please wait a moment."
Given that the fence was still electrified, none of the Vault Hunters had any interest in going anywhere near it, although the resulting screams as Claptrap was forcefully thrown back 30 feet were highly enjoyable to some of their number, Psion most of all.
"Apologies, but I'd rather not have anymore of my brain cells commit suicide by Claptrap than absolutely necessary and his talking is not particularly helpful in that regard." The voice continued.
"No arguments whatsoever," Psion agreed.
The gate deactivated and swung aside. "I shall be out directly."
As the Vault Hunters moved through into the compound, a door in the building ahead opened and a tall cyborg emerged from inside. "Greetings, Vault Hunters. I am Sir Alistair Hammerlock. Welcome to Liar's Burg, or what is left of it after the bandits massacred the local townsfolk."
"Sir Hammerlock, I am Lady Darth Psion," Psion introduced herself.
"Jedi Master Alexander Moreau."
"Axton, former Dahl commando."
"Gaige, badass bot builder!"
"Maya, Siren, and this is Krieg." Maya said with a quick gesture.
"NOT MY TONGUE, PAPA! I NEED IT TO SALT THE WOUND!"
"Salvador, senor."
"Zero."
"Jason Davis." Jason finished with a slight nod.
"Well, you certainly fit the appearance of badasses that Pandora needs." Hammerlock commented. "And you were most definite in your takedown of the local ruffians."
"Well ruffians is one word for them," Psion said with an amused roll of her eyes.
"Indeed. Perhaps you'd all like to come inside." Hammerlock offered.
"We'd be delighted." Jason smiled.
"Indeed," Alex said. As the group moved towards the house, Jason blocked Alex from entering.
"Unfortunately, you have to get Claptrap and bring him in. Thanks for volunteering, Alex." Clapping him on the back, and placing the sign at the same time, Jason closed the door in Alex's face.
Psion gave Jason a gimlet stare before smirking.
"You're more evil than me."
Jason gave her a blank look. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Claptrap's heavy and Hammerlock needs to fix him and we don't want to put our host out by forcing him to work outside." However, the effect was slightly ruined at Gaige's chuckle and his mouth twitched as he attempted to control his expression.
A moment later the door opened and Claptrap was flung bodily towards Jason, who neatly sidestepped the attempted murder weapon.
"I hate you!" Alex exclaimed.
"I thought hate was of the Dark Side." Jason said mildly. "Be careful, old man. You wouldn't want to fall now."
"Jason," Alex said.
Jason simply turned and bowed slightly to Hammerlock. "Our thanks for your hospitality, Sir Hammerlock. I apologise for my companion's bad manners."
"Inflicting Claptrap on anyone is worthy of sitting on the Dark Council and rivals Sidious," Alex replied.
Continuing to ignore him, Jason continued. "Despite his wife's best efforts, he still remains a child at heart and is somewhat prone to unleashing his temper at inappropriate times."
Jason felt a tight grip on his throat.
"But there's only so far I'll let you tease him," Psion said warningly.
Gaige raised an eyebrow as she moved to stand beside Jason, whose eyes had now narrowed.
"That's my job," Psion finished as she released Jason with her powers.
With a slight cough, Jason straightened. "All I was doing was levelling the score. Don't like it, don't push your luck." Turning back to Hammerlock, Jason shrugged slightly. "I imagine you hate the idea of helping Claptrap as much as anyone else, but we need Claptrap working to get to Sanctuary."
Hammerlock's expression could be best described as looking like he was having his teeth pulled.
"Of course, we could leave him offline while we do some odd jobs around here for a bit," Axton suggested.
"Please do," Psion requested. "There's only so far my patience will stretch."
Hammerlock's grin was instant. "That does sound like an acceptable compromise. As it happens, I do have some small jobs that need to be done."
Over the course of the next 24 hours, the Vault Hunters completed a number of small missions, clearing out bandits, fixing up the town, tracking down recordings and locating shields. Perhaps the highlight, however, was finding and killing a bullymong that had a midget riding it. No one seemed to know that bullymongs could be tamed like that. While Hammerlock did seem to think it was worthy of further research, no one else was particularly interested in getting close to something so smelly and hostile. Finally, the moment they dreaded came, repairing and reactivating Claptrap.
With distaste, Hammerlock pounded Claptrap's eye back into place without much care for precision or grace. With a small hammer, he then pounded Claptrap's top, reawakening him.
"AAALLLLLLRRRIIIIGGGHHHHTTT!" Claptrap screamed and was rapidly greeted with multiple groans and muttered complaints.
"You are all a lot uglier and ruder than I remember. Almost as bad as that Hammerlock dude."
Psion couldn't quite restrain her snickers. It was left to Jason to respond.
"Don't worry, you still take out top place in both those categories on Pandora." He snarked.
"Definitely," Alex agreed.
Gaige raised an eyebrow. "We did save your life and repair your eye. Perhaps you could tone down the attitude somewhat."
"Be smart Claptrap," Psion added with a glower at the robot.
Claptrap stared at the group, all looking unimpressed by him. Maya's arm was glowing slightly blue, Krieg was calmly fingering his ax and Salvador was stroking his guns longingly. Gaige's hands were clenching while Axton's eyes were narrowed on Claptrap's figure. Zero's arms were folded and Hammerlock was glaring in dislike. Jason's expression was a mask, but his hands were resting on his weapons. Alex's hands were resting on his dual lightsabers while Psion's hands crackled with Force Lightning.
Jason spoke quietly. "Hammerlock, I'm assuming that you would know how to reach Sanctuary yourself, am I right?"
"Naturally." Hammerlock replied. "I have been there on several occasions."
"Right. That means, Claptrap, that your usefulness and irritation value are now much closer to being balanced than they were. It also means that we have a lot less reason to keep you functioning. You helped us at the train wreck, for which we thank you. We also helped you get your eye back, so I think we're square. I think that, for your own sake, continuing to irritate ten people that are fully capable of dismantling you into your various components is something that needs to stop, right now. We're happy to help you get to Sanctuary, as long as you don't irritate us to the point where our willingness to help you is outweighed by the sheer level of annoyance that you seem to naturally generate. Try not to aggravate us, comprende?" Jason's voice was low for the whole time, but contained just a trace of malice.
"Jason is right, and how intact those components we reduce you to will depend on how annoyed we are. If you want a chance to be rebuilt if you keep annoying us then turn your vocal processors off unless there's something you feel that we need to be aware of," Alex added while Psion stared at him with her sulphuric eyes.
Claptrap looked around the group, clearly nervous, before nodding.
"Now Sir Hammerlock, if you would be so kind as to point the way so that we can make our way to Sanctuary, I'd be quite pleased," Psion said.
Hammerlock looked a little nervous. "About that. There's a slight problem. Claptrap used to have a small ferry business that he operated between here and Three Horns, but Captain Flynt stole the ship to use as his own longboat."
"I heard somewhere that Captain is actually his first name and not a title, that true?" Psion asked.
"In fact, I believe that is actually correct." Hammerlock said with some surprise. "Certainly he could not have earned the title in any other way."
"I keep my ear to the ground for interesting tidbits on those who could be trouble. I am a practitioner of the Force technique of Dun Moch. We use our words and powers to get into the mind of our opponents and destroy their will to fight, either effectively or altogether," Psion offered.
"Either way, it looks like we need to go pay the good Captain a visit." Axton said. "I think I'll enjoy introducing him to the missus."
"And he glares at me when I call his turret that," Alex joked with a mock pout.
Maya shrugged. "Guess he's sensitive about that one."
"Right, time for Captain Flynt to go up in smoke," Psion quipped.
With a grim chuckle, the group moved down towards the old ferry terminal. As we'd come to expect by now, there were a group of bandits who'd decided to set up camp in the abandoned buildings.
"Dear god it's like cockroaches each time," Psion grumbled to herself.
Alex smiled. "Perhaps you should show them how you deal with cockroaches, then."
Psion smirked as lightning built up between her hands with a snarl of fury, the bolts of energy shot forth, scoring stone and electrifying any metal, frying the bandits down below.
"A Force Storm, interesting," Alex mused.
"Certainly, that was an electrifying experience," Maya quipped.
"Indeed, a bright and/sparkly show that has left grave/consequences here." Zero commented.
"GRUMPY WITCH KNOWS HOW BEST TO FRY FRESH MEAT!" Krieg screamed his own approval.
Psion smirked under her hood and went down to begin looting the bodies. Perusing the various bodies and weapons in the toilets, the redhead chucked a bunch of useless guns on the ground before taking a nice new assault rifle. Then holstering a new fire pistol in her belt a moment later.
"Well I found a bunch of crappy guns in the toilet!" She called.
Jason shook his head. "These guys seriously need to have lessons on the proper storage of firearms. No wonder they can't shoot straight, they probably have trouble firing because of the smell right in front of their face."
"No arguments," Alex agreed as he went to find a decent SMG and pistol for himself. Under a tarp he found something, a Tumtum Kull Terror Jakobs sniper rifle, decently specced for the job immediately at hand. "Hey Jason, over here!" He called.
Jason strode over, still keeping an eye on their surroundings. "What'd you find?"
"Something for you," Alex said, taking out and presenting the sniper rifle to him. "Let's hope your performance is as constant as we believe."
Jason grinned as he accepted the rare weapon. "Watch and learn old man. You're in for a treat."
"How is such a great sniper such a horrible driver?" Psion sniped.
"I'm an excellent driver. I just use everything to my advantage, rather than restricting myself. If you have someone shooting at you, there's nothing quite like a big lump of fast moving steel to distract them from trying to kill you."
"If only it worked like Halo," Psion grumbled under her breath.
"Don't pretend you're any better. Alex has told me plenty of stories as well, remember?" Jason snarked.
"See I wouldn't mind ramming things if a) it didn't throw off my aiming and b) it actually did meaningful damage."
Jason rolled his eyes. "Then when we get some vehicles, we'll have to see who's more effective."
"Sounds like a plan," Alex agreed, having been exposed to the evil that was Jason's Borderlands 2 driving "skill"
The original Vault Hunters just looked on, equal parts bemused and horrified at the blase discussion in front of them and made mental notes to try to avoid getting into a vehicle with any of the newcomers until they'd had a chance to actually see if they were as bad as the other had made them out to be.
Shaking her head, Psion continued on through the area, looking around for other gear before picking up a few grenades. This time, Jason took the lead, new sniper rifle in hand. As they approached the next settlement, a roar from a lot of bandit throats alerted them to the fact they had been seen. With a small smile, Jason lifted the sniper to firing position, aimed and fired, cleanly shooting off the helmets of a pair of goliaths, who then swiftly distracted the remaining bandits by beginning to tear them to pieces.
"First rule of Fight Club?" Alex quipped, getting smacked upside by Psion.
"You're not funny."
"Humour us." Maya asked.
"Just a movie reference," Alex said.
"Don't say it or you're sleeping under the bed again," Psion warned.
Axton laughed and slapped Alex on the shoulder. "Better not upset the missus, that doesn't end well. Last time I did, I ended up having to run from a firing squad." His voice trailed off slightly, concealing a degree of pain before he focussed back on the battle ahead. "Looks like they've done a good job of cleaning themselves up."
As the group looked ahead, this was proved to be very true. Only a handful of bandits were still standing, including both goliaths who were still tearing into the other bandits rather than each other. Within seconds, the goliaths had downed the remaining bandits, before turning on each other, leaving only one winner from the resulting slugfest. With a snarl, the goliath turned towards the Vault Hunters. "I'M SO GODDAMN ANGRY!" he screamed before charging.
While everyone raised their weapons, Gaige stepped forward, a fire in her eyes. "I've got this."
Deciding to let Gaige have her fun, Alex and Psion let the young girl have at it.
Walking forward slowly towards the charging beast, Gaige grinned to herself, fingering her Tediore SMG. "This should be fun." She whispered, before whipping up her weapon and firing at close range. As she expected, the fire didn't slow the goliath much, though the explosion when she threw the nearly full SMG at it and detonated it did cause it to stagger somewhat. With an insane grin, she clenched her fist. "EXTERMINATE!" she yelled, as Deathtrap erupted from her arm and into attack position. With an electronic roar, he swung into action against the incensed goliath, slashing at its limbs. Gaige, showing excellent flexibility and dexterity, dived under the whirling mess that was the two combatants, swinging her trusty and ever-present hammer at the exposed ankle of the goliath, while thrusting her SMG up into his groin and fired, before reloading and diving away once more. Unsurprisingly, the goliath collapsed to his knees, the sheer agony that he was now experiencing overrunning even his rage, with the watching males flinching in sympathy. Deathtrap wasted no time in ripping off the arms of the fallen beast and beating him around the head with them. At a word from his mistress, he retreated slightly, allowing her to step up and level her SMG at the goliath's head. "Was it good for you?" She quipped, before blowing its brains out. With a shudder, she looked at her shoe, now coated in what little brains the goliath possessed. "Ugh, I've got brains on my shoe." She sniffed slightly, then shrugged. "I like it!"
"Huh, I'm surprised they had anything that high up in the head," Psion quipped.
Jason shook his head. "Make a mental note, boys. DON'T piss off the young one."
Axton shuddered, still holding his hands protectively. "I don't think I'm going to need to; that image is going to be embedded in my brain for the rest of my life."
"It's like a young Dana," Alex said to Jason very quietly.
"Don't remind me." Jason replied, equally softly.
Salvador was cheering. "Now THAT, la amiga, was BADASS!"
Maya wore a large grin on her own face. "That's going to take a while to top."
"Impressive." Zero commented.
Gaige turned to them with a massive grin. "Now, THAT was fun! Where's the next one?"
Jason shook his head walking up to her and patting her shoulder. "Be patient, little one. There'll be some more soon enough."
(Author's Note)
W: So, yes, it's been quite a while. Over two years since we first released this story and only now are we putting out the second chapter. Regrettably, I don't think we really have much of an excuse. We've done a lot on other projects, both individually and together, but we never actually got back to this for some reason.
SE: I do, I don't know about you, but I've been up to my eyeballs in schoolwork. Seriously I had to work through the night Tuesday to finish some things.
W: I guess I've had work to blame, night shift's no fun. Still, we finally pulled it together to get this done.
SE: Better late than never and all that :). I dunno, speaking from the perspective of a reader, even if the author puts up say… a plot summary for an abandoned story, it just doesn't feel as satisfying imagining the ending compared to how they would. Maybe it's just me, but I like new chapters from the authors, just an aside :).
W: Yeah, I can get behind that. A plot summary never really has the same effect as a full set of chapters.
SE: I can think of a few authors pulling stupid OOC stuff then abandoning the story for whatever reason without anything else to follow. That I really hate. But seriously, who here wants Psion to use Jack as a lightsaber practice dummy?
W: 'Raises hand' I think Jack deserves a massive amount of pain, which I know several people will be more than happy to give to him. Mind you, that will be the least of Jack's problems.
SE: He's got a Sith, a Jedi, and a N7 Sentinel plus the Vault Hunters gunning for him, which btw sooner or later someone is going to figure out we know more than we're letting on. Game mechanics or not, none of these characters are stupid.
W: I'd be stunned if they hadn't started to work that out already. That's going to make things interesting and fun when we get to it.
SE: Especially if Jack figures it out.
W: He'd absolutely freak, either with excitement of fear, I'm not sure which. I like this idea.
SE: What, that somewhere somehow there's a computer game out there where the goal is to kill him as many times as you want? I think fear would be his go to thing.
W: Except that he's an opportunist, so he might think he can exploit it and have more people to rule.
SE: Could he make a dimensional travelling machine? Problem is the sheer scope of the multiverse, good luck finding the right one.
W: Can you see him, with his ego, not thinking he can do it?
SE: True enough, I really hope he runs into Avernus, in D&D, would love to see what he makes of Tiamat.
W: Hmm, maybe one idea at a time, that's enough of a challenge. Anyway readers, we haven't forgotten about this and we still have big plans for where this is going to go. Hopefully, it won't take as long to get the next chapter done.
SE: True enough we'll do our best, don't hold your breath readers, we want reviews and nobody dead from oxygen deprivation :P :P :P.
W: This is a fair point. Please every, read and review, hit those favourite and follow buttons and we'll try not to make you wait as long for the next one. Until next time.
SE: Bye all, stay safe.