Chapter 14

Pandora

Jinx, true to her word, didn't leave the cockpit until the ship was in orbit around Pandora. Gaige had woke early, in no small part to her having gone to bed early, as well as rising late the day before and after a hearty breakfast, had found herself with nothing to do. She eventually settled in the chair in the lounge with one of Hammerlock's books, she had made sure to pick one where the pages where already falling out, so that if it did get damaged as she was looking at it, she wouldn't be responsible for replacing it, and had spent the time reacquainting herself with the wildlife of Pandora.

Eventually ten rolled around and very shortly after that the door to the cockpit opened and Jinx emerged, giving Gaige her first encounter with her since she had carried her back. Gaige was surprised to see that the right side of her face was discolored from a bruise where she had been slapped. Other than that, the only thing that seemed off about her was the dark rings under her eyes. Seeing Gaige look at her she drew the hood of her outfit, which was grey and taupe. As she did Gaige got a passing glance at her new cybernetic, 'Of course she would make herself a pretty purple one' Gaige thought sarcastically, even as she remembered that the other girls favorite color was also purple.

Even as she thought that, she had to admit to herself that it was a truly beautiful shade of purple, on that at least, Jinx had been telling the truth. While the arm itself was thinner and sleeker than Gaige's spiky retrofitted one, it looked nice. The purple seemed to change color as it moved through the light, going from a nearly black in the shadows, to almost magenta on the highlights. Coupled with the fact that she had coated her thumb, first and fourth fingers in a gold, the effect was striking, even though or maybe because it was finished in a matte coating.

'It matches her hair.' Gaige realized before shaking her head and grabbed her things to proceed down to the surface.

A Short While Later

Pandora had always been a shithole, and the years hadn't changed that, the first impression it gave was a desolate wasteland that would drive anyone who couldn't flee it insane. It was only after you spent some time on it that you realized that first impressions were sometimes right.

The two girls stood at the edge of the platform looking out over the dusty, cracked earth, towards the mesas and mountains in the distance. Far off Jinx could see dog-like creatures running and strange things flying overhead. She readjusted the rifle strap on her shoulder and after mentally bracing herself turned to Gaige.

"So now where?"

"Huh? You mean you don't know?"

"You were the one who said that we needed to come to Pandora. I mean if you want to take your time and catch up with someone here, that's fine, just let me know and I'll find something to do."

"Who the hell would I catch up with here? There is literally no one else in sight. Come on, I need to see if I'm still registered in the Catch-A-Ride system."

She started walking toward the back of the building to where a small stand emerged from the dust.

"I suppose you're already registered."

"No"

"What." she said in the most fake sounding surprise she could manage "Something else I've gotta take care of, wow, who would of thought."

The other girl didn't respond, just following along in silence, which caused Gaige to snort derisively and move on to the console. Tapping the buttons, she found that not only was she still registered, but all her favorite presets were still saved. 'Bless you Ellie' she thought.

"All right, I'll Digi-struct us two vehicles, I'll need a Technical so that Deathtrap can ride in the back, so I guess I'll get you an Outrunner… What."

"I, uh, can't drive."

Gaige laughed "What? You can't drive? How have you gotten around?"

"Well, it's, that wasn't quite right, I can drive, I'm just really, really bad at it."

"Like how bad we talkin?"

"Uh…I can usually keep two wheels on the ground?"

"Oh this I have to see."

Two Minutes Later

Gaige was driving them away, not even laughing, just in shock.

"I've never seen anything like that. That was…I don't even know what to call that. I feel a little bad just seeing that. I mean, thirty feet. And I didn't even see a rock there. So how?"

She continued to ramble on to herself as she drove the Technical across the dusty landscape while Deathtrap patted Jinx on the shoulder trying to comfort her as she sat huddled around her rifle in the back with him.

It wasn't long before she started looking out through the armor plates in the sides, at the wildlife that they drove past. The Skags howling and trying to chase after, and the occasional thump as one got in front. The circling Rakks, and the occasional other vehicle, being driven by psychos and bandits in the distance, which they tried to avoid.

Recent events had left scars on Pandora, ones that Gaige could clearly see, and not just that Elpis was gone, replaced with a burning image of the Firehawk, there were smaller things here and there. Old posters and signs for the C.O.V., images of the Callipso twins all of which could be left from their time on Pandora, but some were newer. Replicas of the Firehawk image painted on walls and signs, with an almost fearful reverence. She saw images of Tyreen Callipso with an almost angelic visage, and signs saying things like 'The God Queen Watches Over Us' and "She Will Rise And Devour All' that made Gaige believe that even in death, the Callipso's where still starting cults and spreading crazy, making her wonder what would happen if someone mad or foolish enough claimed to be one of them reborn. She shuddered at the thought.

But the most unsettling thing as they drove through the wasteland was the lack of bandits. As Gaige followed the map on her ECHO, they only had one encounter with them, which after a short pursuit they gave up and went back to whatever bandity things they had been doing. In fact they had more encounters with Skaggs than bandits. Jinx had been watching out the back when she heard the howling cries, and saw the dog like creatures emerge from their dens. Their jaws hinged open as they yowled and took off in pursuit. As she watched the vehicle thump thumped and she saw one of them rolling dead having been under the wheels. The rest continued pursuit for a little ways before turning back.

Truth be, it was a boring trip. So much so that Gaige was beginning to consider striking up a conversation with Jinx, when she saw their destination come into sight. Along one of the rock walls was an opening, well-fortified and next to it a sign reading 'BOOMTOWN' with two of the O's being bunny heads. To both of their surprise, no one had graffitied the sign.

Gaige parked in front of the well-fortified door and noted that there was another CatchA-Ride station across the 'road'. She turned and led the way in, past the large barricades designed to keep vehicles from ramming their way in, and through the round doorway. Inside they found a small ramshackled town of sorts growing out and around what appeared to be a mix of building and shipping crates. The haphazard design spilled out over the cliff edge, with some of the buildings appearing to be hanging on for dear life, and others standing on top of them. Near the top of the tallest mess of a building was another sign declaring BOOMTOWN. Behind the building Jinx could see something that looked like the pedestal and feet of a statue.

Gaige casually started to wander off throwing an offhand "Immana find someone I know." that felt like a 'Don't follow me' as the town's residents seemed to be giving them the evil eye. Jinx stood there for a moment feeling a bit lonely, before heading around to look at the statue. What she found was a giant bird made out of bronze. As she went to look for an inscription, she sensed something moving on her peripheral. Spinning she drew her back up piece as a psycho landed on a crate near her.

"Don't move lest you go B to the OOM." The psycho rambled at her. Jinx looked at the crazy over her gun, not having much experience with the psychos of Pandora, she didn't know if this was, well, normal for here. But the psycho was wearing armor, as well as bunny ears, and lots and lots of bombs. The last part was normal for psychos from everywhere.

Just as she was about to squeeze the trigger she caught movement on the other side of her and as fast as she was didn't quite get her other pistol up before she heard the familiar sound of a sniper rifle cocking and a gruff voice say "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

She shifted slightly so that she could see the man with the rifle. She was genuinely surprised to see a skinny man with a long curved beard sticking out of what appeared to be a Truxican wrestler mask. If it wasn't for the fact that he was holding a very well maintained rifle, and that he spoke in complete sentences, she would have thought that he was also a psycho.

He looked past her without his eyes leaving her and called to the crazy "Yo Tina, you good."

"Damn it Mordi, we supposed to use code names."

"We're in town Ti…I mean 'Boom Bunny', seriously can't you come up with a better name, I feel ridiculous saying that."

"Shut it Mordi. Nnng, this barrel, so big, I wanna put my finger in it, I wanna I wanna I wanna." she said while her finger inched towered the gun aimed at her.

As she did, Jinx tensed and as she did so did the wrestler, just when it seemed that it would end badly for everyone involved, a massive shadow stepped around the building. Jinx took one look at the towering mountain of scars and muscle and slowly raised both guns while uncocking the hammers.

"Why'd you react that way to him but not us?" The bearded man, Mordi grumbled.

"Because I get the impression that shooting him would just piss him off." Jinx replied matter of factly.

The big man laughed "Hell yeah it would, you seem smart. You must be Gaige's little friend.
Names Brick."

"That makes sense, names Jinx"

"Wait Gaigey Girl is here?" the rabbit nearly shouted happily reaching up and sliding her mask to the side revealing a young woman, who still looked fairly crazy.

"Right hear." came the reply from behind Brick. Gaige stepped out before seeing Jinx with her guns out and glaring at her "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What? Someone wearing a psycho mask drops next to me and you think I'm gonna react differently?"

"Hey, psychos don't wear bunny ears like the great Boom Bunny Tina does." came the reply
from Tina.

"You've obviously never been to the Mynas system, both the Jugger clan and the Puff Puffs wear bunny ears."

"What! Oh tha's it, we goin there an straightinin them ladies out, no one copies Boom Bunny,
no one."

"Calm down Tina we got"

"SHUT UP MORDI, I AM HAVIN A MOMENT!"

"Yah, quiet Mordi."

The sniper tossed his hands in the air and walked a few steps away. As quickly as it began Tina turned to Gaige "So girly, haven't seen you in a hot minute, what brings that fine ass to Boomtown? I still wanna see which finger fits in that barrel, by the by." she said as one of her eyes drifted toward Jinx who quickly holstered her guns.

"We need to get in touch with Sanctuary, thought you guys might know how."

"Us…Guys? Does this sweet ass package look like guys to you? Nah, I just screwin wich you playa, it's good, though not so good for you."

"What Tina's trying to tell you is that while we might be able to get in contact with Sanctuary, we won't be able to help you for a little while." Mordi said.

"Why not?"

"Oh oh, let me tell, let me let me let me come on come on please pleasepleaseplease."

"Fine, jeez you can get annoying."

"Shut it! We can't cause, it take time foo. An we got this super totes important thing we be doin. B-TEAM! So we can helpz ya when we back, or you can come wich us an helpz us out."

"I think we'll pass." Jinx replied dismissively

"Wait, you can do that?" Mordi seemed genuinely surprised "I just, I don't think anyone's ever turned one down before."

"We're in a bit of a hurry, so if you can't help us, is there anyone else who can?"

The big man stroked his chin "Hmmm, you could try Vaughn, he should be at Roland's Reach, he might be able to contact them."

Gaige's eyes narrowed in concentration "Vaughn? Roland's Reach?"

"We'll ECHO ahead to let him know you're on your way, and let me mark it on your ECHO" Mordi said "Man, it's been a while since I last got to do that."

Gaige nodded "Thanks you guys, and Tina, was great seeing you again. I'll need to come back sometime and catch up. You still down for tea and crumpets?"

"You know it boo."

Gaige nodded and turned to Jinx, her voice and look cooling considerably. "Let's go."