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Disclaimer: Prepare yourself.

Chapter 8: The Conversationalist

"I don't know what you're complaining about, Gaige, this stuff isn't half bad." Gen said, sipping at the fizzy liquid in his cup, chair leaning on its back legs and feet on the table. The two were hiding out in Moxxi's bar, or rather, Gen was hiding and had dragged Gaige along for the ride. She shrugged.

"It's okay, I guess." She murmured reluctantly. Gen cocked his head at her tone. He brought his feet and gave Gen a concerned look.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

She quirked an eyebrow at him.

"A girl can't just not like her drink?" She asked playfully. At that he grinned and leant back, propping his feet back up on the table.

"Phew. For a second I was worried you weren't enjoying my company." He joked. She rolled her eyes at him, causing him to grin in reply. His eyes suddenly darted over her shoulder and he groaned.

"Don't look now, but somebody's built up enough liquid courage to try and make a move on you." He said, acting as if he hadn't noticed the person. Gaige looked over her shoulder. The man in question, though he looked barely older than her, gave what he probably thought was an alluring smirk. Gaige just raised an eyebrow and looked away. Gen muttered a curse under his breath and said, "Great. Now you've encouraged him."

A few seconds later, the man appeared at their table, positioning himself between the two Vault Hunters and pulling that same expression at Gaige. She suppressed a shudder as his eyes ran up and down her body.

"Hey babe, why don't you ditch this freak-show and come sit with some real men?" he said, his breath stinking of what Gaige recognised from her time with Mordecai as rakk ale.

She gave him a sweet smile and said brightly, "Well if you find any, be sure to tell me and I might consider moving."

She turned back towards Gen. "Where were we?"

"Fuck you! Anyone ever mistake you for a robot, bitch?!" the drunk snarled. Gaige saw Gen digistruct a revolver and hold it in his lap.

"Anyone ever mistaken you for a man?" She retorted, smirking and not even glancing at him. The other patrons, who had taken a keen interest in the exchange, roared with laughter as the drunk turned bright red. Gen was chuckling quietly as he raised his glass for another sip. The man swung towards him, thinking him an easier target than Gaige.

"What about you, asshole? You some kind of experiment?"

"You could say that." Gen replied amicably, smiling over his glass. The man went even redder, this time with anger.

"Fuck you!" he yelled, shoving Gen's shoulder, causing some of his drink to spill on his shirt. Gen looked down at his now wet t-shirt. He looked up at the drunk, expression serious.

"Don't do that again or I'll hurt you."

"Don't do what? This?" the drunk growled, moving to shove Gen's shoulder again. There was a flicker of movement and the drunk collapsed, screaming, to the ground, his hand cleanly severed at the wrist by one of Gen's armblades.

"Uh, uh, uh." Gen tutted, pointing his revolver at the drunk's companions who had risen to their feet, hands reaching for weapons. The Splicer swallowed the last of his drink and carefully set his glass down on the table before reaching down and hauling the still screaming drunk up by his stump. The man suddenly went silent as Gen placed his revolver against his crotch. The green-skinned Vault Hunter nodded towards Gaige. "You insulted my friend. Say sorry."

The drunk craned his neck around to look at Gaige and whimpered a soft "I'm sorry."

Gen nodded, a pleased expression on his face, and said, "Very good. Now maybe this will make you think with your head a bit more often instead of your dick." He then pulled the revolver's trigger and let the man collapse back onto the ground, clutching at the bloody remains of his manhood. The Splicer tossed the hand over to the drunk's companions.

"If you hurry, Zed might be able to reattach that." He said helpfully before continuing in a hard tone, "Now get out before I start chopping things off of you."

The two hurriedly dragged the now unconscious drunk out of the bar.

"Impressive." A sultry voice purred from behind Gen.

He tilted his head back until he could see Moxxi's face, a grin plastered on his own. "Sorry about the mess, Moxxi."

She shrugged and replied, "It happens, Hon'. At least you didn't kill him."

"He's just lucky that my revolver didn't decide to activate its elemental effect."

Moxxi looked up and asked quietly, "You wouldn't happen to be hiding from the other members of your little gang, would you Sugar?"

"As a matter of fact we are. Why?"

"The short one is standing in the door and he looks far too pleased to see you two."

Gen and Gaige slowly turned to look at the doorway. Indeed, as Moxxi had said, Salvador was standing there with an evil grin on his face. Gen was sizing him up, hand already reaching for his speed formula, when Maya appeared in the doorway as well. Gen jabbed the needle into his arm and said, "Time to go, Gaige."

She shot him a dirty look and asked irritably, "Why do you insist on dragging me down with you?"

"One: this whole mess is partially your fault for making me spill the chemicals. Two: I like having someone to talk to who isn't either me or imaginary."

Gaige groaned and whined, "Can't I just stay here?"

Gen grinned and replied, "Nope."

Everything seemed to happen very quickly to Gaige after that. She saw Maya raise her arm, tattoos beginning to glow, and vaguely registered Gen's now empty chair lifting into the air. Then she felt somebody pick her up and the landscape blurred as Gen ran straight out of the other entrance to Moxxi's bar, narrowly avoiding a collision with Axton and Lilith, the former of which swore and took a swing at Gen as he went past and the latter who simply watched them go impassively.

Gen came to a halt at the Fast Travel station, gently setting Gaige down to work the machine. He tied a dark green bandana with a fanged, skeletal jaw design on the front over his mouth and nose and snapped his goggles over his eyes. He held a black bandana out to Gaige.

"If you're coming, you might want to put this and your goggles on."

She snorted. "So now I have a choice all of a sudden?"

She got the feeling that he was grinning under his bandana when he replied. "Sure you do. The others are pissed off enough without you telling them that I kidnapped you or something."

She raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged and said, "I'm just thinking of all the possibilities. Now are you coming or not?"

She tied the bandana over her face and asked, "Where are we heading?"

"Atta girl. The Dust is our destination."

"Then what are we standing around here for?" she joked, reaching past him and pressing the button that would take them to the Dust.

So, how'd I do? This is the longest chapter so far, 1213 words of story. That's got to be a good sign for my writing.

Read and Review, I love getting Reviews. Except if they're flames because flamers are trolls. Legitimate criticism only.

My offer still stands for somebody to draw Gen. Once again, if you're interested PM me or leave a review and I'll do my very best to get back to you.

C'ya

Elemental Hybrid.