Hey guys sorry again I haven't been doing much with the story. I still am struggling with writers block especially since I don't usually get home till around 8 with school and sports going on. But since it was Christmas break I typed this up within a couple days cause once I start I find it hard to stop. Until I finish the chapter and then it's hard to start again. But you guys are awesome and guilt tripping me because every once in a while I get an email saying someone is following my story and following me and I just feel bad because I have done much. Anyways, those that came for just the relationship between Maddox and Gaige, this one takes a huge step. I originally wasn't planning on doing it in this chapter but I couldn't figure out a better time to do it so threw it in anyway. Anyways enjoy. There's not much plot regarding Maddox's case just the normal Borderlands mission.
Chapter 11: Hunting the Firehawk
"Hey Maddox!" Axton called to him.
"Yee?"
"Take this echo recorder. That way you can hear the same things we're hearing." Axton threw him the device.
"Thanks." Maddox caught it and equipped it.
"Alright guys mount up, we need to head to Frostburn Canyon." Axton commanded everyone else.
They arrived in Frostburn and Angel started to talk to them. "The Firehawk should be around here somewhere. Stay alert!"
They began to fight through the bandit camp and soon realized that there was another bandit faction there. Blood shots vs Children of the Firehawk.
"I'm not sure if it's easier the bandits are killing each other or if it's harder since we have to fight twice the amount of bandits." Maya said as she killed a flame psycho.
"I don't know. But further into this cave is more than the two factions." Maddox said as he scanned through the cave with his X-ray. "I'm seeing some massive spiders crawling around in there."
"Is that it?" Axton asked more for their follower.
"That looks like that's it. But I also don't see Roland or the Firehawk they might be able to hide from my vision." Maddox answered confirming that their follower can simply turn invisible.
"At least we know we're going the right way." Salvador looked at a bloodshot nailed to a wall with his hand pointing in a direction.
They still fought their way through and fought off the nasty spiders that were indeed massive. "Shoot their butt. They basically explode when you do that." Maddox called out.
"These things are gross and nasty." Gaige commented.
"Is there a difference between the gross and nasty?" Maddox mocked as he shot a spiderant in the butt with his SMG.
"Yes. Gross because they look like a cross between a spider and a cockroach and nasty because they smell and are even worse when they explode." Gaige answered him as she blew off the leg of a spider with her pistol.
"Can't argue with that." Maddox replied as he shot a spider that was leaping at Gaige.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
They continued to fight through the icy cold cave. Coming up on an awesome psycho that charged straight at Maddox. Maddox quickly vaulted right over it and kicked it. The psycho lost its balance and tripped over the staircase and plummeted to the floor.
Immediately, it got back up and ran up the stairs towards Maddox, until it found a buzz axe from Krieg in its skull. Yet another awesome psycho took Maddox by surprise and tacked Maddox over the stairs. Maddox felt his shield give out and the Psycho raised his buzz axe to split open Maddox's skull.
The buzz axe quickly headed for his head but just before it reached him Maya phaselocked the psycho. "Fire." She simply said and everyone began firing into the glowing ball that trapped the Psycho. Maddox just watched, stunned by the sudden attack. The phaselock ended and the dead psycho fell onto the ground. Maddox stayed still, not really wanting to move.
"Maddox let's go." Sal spoke to him. He still didn't move. "Maddox? Are you alright?"
Maddox still did nothing. Just stared up at the sky. Gaige went over and sat down next to him. "Hey... is everything ok?"
"Uh… maybe we all should just go on ahead. Leave them alone for a bit." Maya whispered to the rest of them. They silently agreed and so did Krieg surprisingly. Not that he wouldn't agree. Just silence wasn't normal for him. They all went on ahead to continue with the mission. Gaige stayed back to figure out what was wrong with Maddox.
Gaige looked up to what he was looking at and saw nothing. "Is there something you can see?"
He still said nothing. She decided to get directly in front of him. However, it seemed like he wasn't there. His body was here but his mind was somewhere else. He just continued to stare past her.
Maddox was trying to figure something out. Looking up at the sky remembering flying over this portion of the planet when he entered the atmosphere. His car had suddenly detached from him and had fallen towards the planet. If he could find out where his car may have landed, it would make things a whole lot easier. He was totally oblivious to Gaige, even when she blocked his vision he was locked in his memories trying to figure out where and when the car detached. However, he had no luck in the matter.
Gaige decided that she should shake him and so she did. Quite violently. Maddox shook his head. "Pandora to space cadet." Gaige called him.
In shock Maddox grabbed her arms and screamed a little. "Oh my gosh, how long have you been there." His eyes went wide as he realized where he was.
"I've been here for like 5 minutes. What happened are you alright?"
"Yea, I'm fine. Why?"
"Well I don't know maybe because a psycho and you just fell off a cliff and you didn't get up. I was just worried and so was everyone else." Gaige said a little agitated at him.
"Oh… sorry. Yea I was trying to figure something out."
"Yea whatever. Come on let's catch up with the rest." Gaige said getting up obviously not in a good mood.
Maddox wasn't going to let her walk off with her being angry with him. So he caught her human arm and pulled her back down. "Gaige… I'm sorry ok. I didn't mean to scare you like that. I didn't realize you were on edge, I was just trying to figure out where my equipment may have landed when I entered Pandora. Normally something like this wouldn't set you off. Is there something else going on that I should know about?"
She didn't move and began to break. "I'm just really tired of fighting. I hardly can sleep anymore because whenever I try I just see every masked face of everyone I've killed. On top of that I really don't want this mission done because it means we're closer to finding Roland and the faster we find Roland then the closer you are to leaving and doing your own thing. It's just all really stressful and hard to deal with. A girl like me should be in high school and finishing her Junior year and have a scholarship from the science fair then going to college and having a nice stable family. But instead I'm stuck here on Pandora where I have to kill people to survive or I'll die and it's so hard knowing that you're going to leave and I want you to do your own quest. Find this other person like you. But I also want you to stay and just help us beat Jack, I just don't know what to do." She held back tears. She didn't look at Maddox she just looked at the ground as she hugged her knees. Her sadness and anger burned inside her so much, that she even took off her cybernetic arm and threw it. She didn't watch to see where it landed and she didn't really care either. Maddox looked over at the one armed 16 year old girl. She was fighting back tears. Her life had took a twisted direction and she wasn't prepared for any of it.
Maddox simply walked over to her side and pulled her into a hug. She wrapped her one arm around him and buried her head in his neck. She began to softly cry. Maddox rubbed her back up and down. He didn't say a word and knew he didn't need to. "Maddox… I think right now is a good time to tell you. I think. Maddox, I like you. It's fine if you don't feel the same way about me. I just felt like I should tell you now because I don't know when else I'd get the chance."
Maddox smiled and just hugged her tighter. "Well, I like you too Gaige."
Gaige pulled away slightly to look up at him. "You do?"
"Yes."
"How could you? I only have one arm because I was stupid and made a cybernetic one. I'm just a one armed idiot."
Maddox looked up and saw her cybernetic arm on the ground a few feet away. He used his power to cause it to float toward him. "Well, you may only have one arm." He grabbed the cyber arm. "But that doesn't mean that this one still isn't part of who you are." He reattached her arm.
She looked at the arm, then at her flesh arm, then back at her cyber arm. She looked back at Maddox and stared into his hazel eyes. She wrapped both of her arms back around him and leaned up against him. "Thank you… for everything."
"Thank you too."
"So… are we uh thing now?"
"Only if you want."
"Well… I do."
"Then we are."
"You're my first boyfriend. It's funny. I didn't think my first boyfriend would be someone who didn't know how to reload a gun."
Maddox laughed. "Wow. Ok. I didn't think my first girlfriend would have a pet robot."
"I'm your first? I thought you dated someone before me."
"Nope. She never knew how I felt about her. I don't even know how she felt about me."
"Hmm. Well… I don't know what to say to that."
"You don't need to. Besides we should probably catch up with the rest of them."
"Yeah, of course." The two got up and ran to meet up with the rest. Finally catching up as a battle had ended and one of Axton's turrets shut down. A flash of purple appeared and a woman with tattoos like Maya appeared from the purple. She had yellow eyes, very pale skin, and red hair.
"Could you fetch me another eridium chunk?" She asked no one in particular. Maya handed her a chunk. "Yea, that's the stuff."
"Did we miss something?" Maddox asked for him and Gaige.
"Yea, turns out the Firehawk is actually Lilith, an old partner of Roland." Axton pointed out.
"'Sup. Who are you two?"
"I'm Gaige, this is Maddox."
"Cool. Now let's go and save my boyfriend… well… ex boyfriend. Lemme go ahead and teleport you all to Sanctuary."
"She can teleport? I can't even do that." Maddox smiled.
They all got enveloped in a purple energy and in a flash they teleported… to a ledge not far from where they just were.
"Oh well so much for that. Uh I'll meet you in Sanctuary." Lilith said slightly embarrassed that her teleportation has failed.
The seven of them kept walking and found a chest. But like normal waited until Sanctuary to figure out the loot.
They eventually got back and sorted everything out.
Axton got a Grenadier and Tactician class. However kept his Veteran class mod. He also got a Weakened Homing MIRV grenade mod and replaced his old one.
Maya had found a Homing Incendiary Effect Grenade But got rid of it. She also got an Electronic Butt Beeter but kept her Negotiator. She replaced her Rifle with a Electronic Minigun and kept her Fox class mod.
Salvador kept his Longrider and Electronic Homing Effect Grenade.
Zero kept both of his pistols and kept his grenade which was the same as Salvador's
Krieg had ended up keeping his Pounder.
Gaige kept her Weakened Animosity and her Electronic Vexation. Gaige also kept her Sticky Homing Standard Grenade
Maddox had decided to keep his Incendiary Provocateur and kept his Optical Zoom.
So now you have it. Gaige and Maddox are officially dating. Obviously the others don't know yet but I'm not concerned if they know or not right now. Maybe they should know later but right now I'm keeping it low. Anyways time for the Inventory Update.
Inventory Update:
Axton
Pooshka- Vladof Sniper
Competition- Hyperion Sniper
Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol
Adaptive Shield- Anshin
Weakened Homing MIRV Grenade- Torgue
Veteran Class Mod- Faster reload and larger magazine
Maya
Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher
Negotiator- Dahl Pistol
Electronic Minigun- Dahl AR
Standard Shield- Tediore
Rubberized MIRV- Torgue
Fox Class Mod- higher burn chance and damage
Salvador
Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun
Gatling Gun- Jakon's AR
Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher
Standard Shield- Tediore
Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof
Beast Class Mod- more health and faster reload
Zero
Sniper- Dahl Sniper
Incendiary Fighter- Vladof Pistol
Electronic Troublemaker- Vladof Pistol
Nova Shield- Torgue
Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof
Gaige
Rifle- Valdof AR
Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG
Weakened Animosity- Maliwan Pistol
Booster Shield- Dahl
Sticky Homing Standard Grenade- Tediore
Catalyst Class Mod- more team elemental damage
Krieg
Pounder- Torgue Shotgun
Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher
Lance- Torgue AR
Acidic Nova Shield- Maliwan
Electronic Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl
Maddox
Boom- Torgue Launcher
Callipeen- Jakobs Sniper
Incendiary Provocateur- Maliwan SMG
Acidic Spike Shield- Maliwan
Incendiary Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof
Optical Zoomer Class Mod- can see further with all weapons