Sorry for the long wait. Sadly, you'll probably have to get used to it. In s short amount of time, I'm going to be bouncing between five different stories. I also have a bunch of school work to do. In fact, one of the things that delayed this chapter was the play I had to write. So yeah. If you're a fan of my other stories, you'll get a more even rate of me. If not, just be patient.
This chapter jumps to a little before the first Borderlands game.
Pandora is pretty uneventful, Angel mused.
Sure, there were a few deranged tribes running about the planet, and the monsters could appear terrifyingly spectacular, but that didn't really do anything to make her less bored.
You can only watch a planet so much before you want to physically experience it.
Her father didn't know about her longing, didn't understand it.
"Angel, you don't want to go down there. You'd probably stay alive, sweetie, but you would go insane. Not worth the trouble. Now be a good girl and scope out the Badlands. I need to get more information about-Nothing, sir! Just crunching some numbers!
Angel knew that her father had plans. Well, she had a general idea about them. He saw the potential in Pandora that others didn't. Angel had to admit, she might have been one of those people.
She didn't know what was in that Vault her father was so obsessed about, but it had to be something important.
She really should try to get more invested, she thought to herself. There was literally nothing else she could do. She was too dangerous.
She thought that would make her ideal to survive on Pandora, but, like her father said, she would go insane with the isolation.
Angel sighed. She might as well keep looking around the planet.
Her observation skills were impressive. She could jump between different devices, looking at the planet through them. It was pretty handy when she could hop in an active drone flying around, but those were usually shot down pretty fast.
She was looking at an a cliff side, using some barely functioning mining equipment to observe them.. On top of the cliff was a group of bandits. Said bandits had acquired a Claptrap unit, and were abusing it for entertainment.
Angel always felt a little sorry for the Claptrap units. They were programmed with a crap AI, so she always felt that the bandits were shooting at children when they used one as target practice. Sure, they were kind of annoying, but Angel thought they had a bit of a charm to them.
She noticed the bandits were communicating about something, but she couldn't hear them. She would have to jump to a something over near them. However, the only thing she could potentially connect to was the Claptrap unit.
Angel sighed. She hated shifting into things that had AIs in them, but sometimes she didn't have a choice. They always sound so confused, and it usually hurts them. However, she was bored, and she never shifted into a Claptrap before.
"Executing Phase Shift." She said, activating her powers.
In a flash of light, she found herself looking through the Claptrap unit's eye. The bandits appeared to be talking about…
Woah, it's roomy in here! Angel did not realize how massive the digital interior of a Claptrap was. It seemed to be connected to some sort of cloud, perhaps a hive mind. Angel never went over the Claptrap blueprints, but she never heard about anything like this. It warrants more investigation.
Forgetting about the bandits, Angel inspect the mainframe of the Claptrap unit. However, something wasn't letting her pass. It was protected by a few firewalls.
Nothing she couldn't handle.
She shifted through the digital walls, only to find herself hit another wall. The rest of the data was in manual digital format. In order to progress further, she would have to activate a VR program. It would stream her conscious directly into the program, and explore in a physical way.
This could be dangerous, but Angel figured she had nothing to lose. Her father would probably want her to investigate this at some point.
She activated the VR program, and closed her eyes.
When Angel opened her eyes, she saw something she wasn't expecting.
Claptraps. Claptraps everywhere. They all seemed to be doing their own thing. Some were dancing, some were screaming, and some were just rambling. Most of them didn't seem aware of the others, while others interacted directly with one another.
To some people, this would be Hell.
As Angel began to walk through the crowd of robots, most of them seem to ignore her. It actually disappointed her. She could have done with some interaction, even if it was with a bunch of robotic perverts.
It was then she saw the second thing that surprised her.
There was another person here.
The young man, around her age, had dirty blond hair and green eyes. He was wearing a green t-shirt, a blue jacket, and brown pants. There was something familiar about him to her.
He seemed to be interacting with some of the Claptrap units, annoyance in his face and voice.
"...It really shouldn't be that surprising to you! You get caught trying to check out naked girls, they're going to dismantle you." The man said to a Claptrap unit.
"But bro! They were hot!" The Claptrap exclaimed.
"You don't have any gentiles." The man said.
"Well, I bet you don't either!" The Claptrap exclaimed.
For some reason, the entire situation this man was in made Angel giggle, causing him to notice her. He looked at her annoyed.
"Oh, not this again." The man said, walking up to Angel. "Who's the wise guy that projected another girl?"
He walked right up to Angel, somewhat invading her personal space. She could feel her physical face heat up a bit.
"What?" Angel asked, confused.
The man looked at her and smirked. "Oh, they made it respond. I have to admit, it does look realistic, whatever that's worth here. Really pretty, too. The figure give it away, though. Too nice. Like out of a fashion site. Here, I bet it's even a hologram."
Angel was a bit distracted by the array of comments when the man attempted to put his hand through her chest.
Obviously, he couldn't.
Which left him there, shocked, as his hand froze on her chest.
Good looks and some sweet talk can get a man far, but Angel drew the line here.
She promptly punched the man in the face.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Angel exclaimed, her face beet red.
"OW!" The man exclaimed, holding his face. He stopped for a second. "Wait a minute. Ow?" He looked up at her. "You're...you're a person!" He ran up to her and grabbed her face. "Like, a person in here!"
This earned him a knee to the gut.
"Yes. What did you think I was?" Angel asked, looking at the man.
"I thought you were an image some of the disconnected units made. They think they're so funny, saying they're trying to hook me up with something. Pervs." His eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, God. I'm so sorry about that! I must have sounded insane! And like a pervert! I probably still do sound pretty insane."
"...Who are you?" Angel asked.
"Who am I?" The man asked. "Well…"
He suddenly noticed her arm.
"...No way…" He uttered, wide-eyed. He looked up. "...Angel?"
Angel grabbed her arm defensively. "Who are you and how do you know my name?"
The man suddenly grinned and opened his arms. "Angel! Don't you recognize me? It's me! Clyde! Don't you remember?"
"...How the hell do you know who I am?" Angel asked, eyeing the man.
"We met when we were kid! I was like five or something! Hyperion! Your dad! Pandora! You gotta remember! I mean, I might remember a little better then you since, well, I don't have that many memories from before…."
Angel searched the back of her mind. She could vaguely remember his eyes and his grin. It was a memory from before her mother's death. It slowly came to her.
"...Clyde?" She said, looking at the man. "You've gotten...bigger."
"Yeah. You too. Time seems to do that." Clyde replied.
Angel puffed her cheek. "No need to be a smart ass."
"I've interacted with Claptraps for the majority of my life. I think I'm only capable of talking in sarcasm." Clyde responded.
"What are you doing here?" Angel asked. "This is a digital space."
"Well…" Clyde said, looking a little downcast. "We were on Pandora, like I told you we were. One day, from what I can remember, a robot stole me away and brought me to a dark place. It did...something to me, and it took my mind out of my body and put it in here. I don't know why I'm here. Maybe they needed a human mind to moderate all these Claptraps. Crazy right?" He looked at Angel, a sad grin on his face.
Angel thought about it. They could have torn Clyde's mind out of his body, like putting his brain in a jar ,and connected it to the Claptrap cloud.
She could guess that the "they" Clyde was talking about was Hyperion.
"So what about you?" Clyde asked. "What brings you here? It's not that often visited. I mean it. You're the first person I've seen in here."
Angel didn't know how much Clyde knew about his situation, and she knew even less, but she was sure she didn't want him to know about her and Hyperion.
Besides, her father told her not to tell anybody about it. Clyde probably could guess the siren thing, so she could wing it from there.
"I used my powers to come here." Angel replied. "I'm can interact with technology with them. I'm connecting to Pandora through a satellite."
"Huh." Clyde said, looking at her. Something about his body language told her that he still had questions. However, he grinned. "Well, that's neat!"
"Yeah…" Angel said.
Suddenly, she felt her connection fading. The bandits had probably done...something to the Claptrap unit to deactivate it.
"Angel!" Clyde exclaimed. "You're flickering!"
"My connection is fading." Angel said. She frowned. "I think you might be getting another friend."
"...Oh." Clyde said. "You're connecting through a Claptrap. I swear, those things seem to be trying to get themselves killed. I mean, they're annoying as hell!"
"I think they're kinda cute." Angel said with a small smile.
Clyde jokingly smiled back. "Well, don't let any of the one's here hear you say that. You'll never come back!" His smile vanished. "You'll come back, right?"
Angel thought about it. She knew she had responsibilities with her father, but she really enjoyed meeting somebody. Maybe, if she was discreet enough, she could keep meeting with him. After all, all she had to do was shift into a Claptrap unit and she could talk to him.
Those things were everywhere. It wouldn't be had at all.
"Yes." Angel said. "I would love to see you again." She offered up her own grin.
Clyde blushed a bit. "Great! That's great! Well, how about-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Clyde saw Angel vanish.
"...Well, I've got all the time in the world." He said to the space she used to occupy.
"She had a nice ass." One of the Claptrap AI's commented.
"Shut up."
So now Angel and Clyde have met in a more familiar setting. I'm not going to lie: most of the Clyde/Angel chapters are going to take place in the Cloud, since that's the only way they can communicate. Most of the real world stuff will focus on Angel.
The next chapter is the second function of this story. It's not going to be connected to the Clyde/Angel story. Rather, every other chapter is going to focus on the back story of one of the characters from Borderlands, as well as the OCs from Wayward Son. The chapter may take place over several days, it may take place over a few years. It all revolves around a certain moment in the characters life.
The next chapter will be about the original Vault Hunters. I think that, before it was retconned, the original Vault Hunters all grew up together. I like that idea, so I'm just rolling with it this story.