Hello to all my readers, new and old.

Saddle: You wouldn't happen to be saddlecreeperz, the creator of the masterpiece that is Love on A Place like Pandora, would you? I'm glad that you like Gen and that you agree with my shipping. Do you really think that my chapters are short? Do you know anyone who could draw Gen for me?

Antrxx: I agree, Lindsey Stirling is awesome. His experiments are pretty dangerous, I guess. You'll just have to wait and see, now won't you? I just figured that the mask was a pretty logical thing. I mean, I'm sure Gen wouldn't want to suck dust as he runs.

xX Ivy XxD: Thanks for your continued support, I appreciate it.

Izzy26: Thank you. I'll keep posting.

My exams are coming up so I probably won't be able to post again for a while. My parents would kill me if they knew I was typing this up now.

Disclaimer: Everything will look brown for a while.

Chapter 9: The Happy Camper

"Ahhh, The Dust. A place where you can find all of about 50 shades of brown, three quarters of which you've made up or imagined out of boredom." Gen said happily as he dropped down on the metal bed Gaige was currently using as a seat. She rolled her eyes at him.

"It was your idea to come here."

"I know. Who said I was the bored one? Plenty of bandits to fight, loot to grab and a plentiful supply of furniture to make this place even better." He said, gesturing to their accommodations, a large cave they'd had to liberate from the hands of bandits. It had turned out to be a large supply cache and Gen and Gaige had spent the rest of the first day sorting through the guns, grenade mods, rations and shields looking for anything useful. Gen had spent their second day there rigging up a rudimentary trap system. When Gaige had asked about it he had said that it involved "lots and lots of dangerous and quite possibly illegal chemicals."

They were on to day five with no sign of the others.

"You know, I don't think they're even bothering to look for us." Gen said. Gaige looked at him sceptically.

"Why do you say that?" she asked, looking back to the circuit board she was working on for Deathtrap.

"Well for starters we haven't seen hide nor hair of them for five days, and two I think they don't think they'd want to find us."

She gave him a sharp look.

"Okay, okay, maybe they just don't want to find me." He said, placating, hands held up in a gesture of surrender.

"Why wouldn't they want to find you?"

"Think about it. If I'm out here, then that means that there's less risk of another room getting blown apart in one of my experiments."

"…True."

Gen's ECHO started beeping. He pulled it off his belt and checked it, allowing a large grin to spread over his features.

"What's up?" Gaige asked, peering over his shoulder.

"It's an alarm I rigged up to warn us if anyone was entering the cave." He replied, trying to ignore how her breath tickled his ear and sent a slight shiver up his spine.

"Okay, so why are you grinning like that?"

"I set up a series of microphones and cameras to watch my traps at work and make sure that nothing made it through."

"…You're kind of messed up, you know that right?"

"Yep." He said without even a hint of hesitation or offense. He switched on the cameras for the first stretch of tunnel and his face fell. "Fuck."

"What?"

He wordlessly showed her the image on his ECHO, which showed Salvador, Zer0, Axton and Maya moving down the tunnel. He took it back after a few seconds and grinned when there was a scream.

"Who was that?" Gaige asked casually.

"Some bandit that followed them in. He ran right into the Acid Pit trap I set up." Gen crowed, fist pumping into the air.

After a few minutes the two runaways could hear the voices of their comrades approaching. Gen stood up, winked at Gaige and jogged out of the room. He had only just vanished into another section of their subterranean temporary home when the other Vault Hunters walked in, guns ready.

"These bandits must be pretty smart to have rigged up all those traps." Axton was saying as he walked.

Maya nodded and said, "Yeah. Did anybody else notice that pretty much every trap back there was corrosive-based?"

"Indeed it is strange; Perhaps a cult has started; And this is their base." Zer0 murmured his voice quiet as usual.

"Or this is where Gen and I have been staying for the last five days." Gaige called out. She had to duck as Salvador opened fire out of reflex with two machine guns. When he realised it was her he stopped firing and gave her a slightly sheepish apology.

"If this is where you two have been staying, then where is that little grass-stain? I got a few things to say to him." Axton growled.

"I kind of hoped that you would have forgiven me by now, Axton." Gen's voice came from all around them, disorientating everyone except Gaige, who had seen Gen setting up the hidden speakers two days ago.

"Come out so we can talk amigo." Salvador called out in a friendly tone, which was at odds with the two machine guns still in his hands.

"Not until you guys promise not to attack me. I mean, for pity's sake, it's been five days! Haven't you people ever heard of forgive and forget."

The other Vault Hunters grudgingly promised that they wouldn't attack him.

"Good. Now, not that I don't trust you but I don't, you're going to say that if you should happen to break that promise I can have a portion of all your loot for the next two days."

The others clearly didn't like that idea, judging by all the shouting.

"Okay, okay, fine. You can keep all your loot. But if you attack me, don't expect me not to get revenge."

Gen walked out of the tunnel the others had appeared from earlier. He was holding a dismembered skag head in his hands as he snuck up behind Axton. He raised the head to be about eye level with the Commando before yelling, "Hey guys!"

They all swung around, Axton nearly falling over as he stumbled away from the skag head right in front of his face. Gen cackled and dropped the head. He stopped laughing when Axton levelled a shotgun at him.

"There's lots of loot here. Too much to carry in one trip." Gaige was telling the others, ignoring the tense staring match that had developed nearby.

"Well then, let's get started." Salvador said, clapping his meaty hands together in anticipation. They all ignored the gunshot and Gen yelling, "You missed."

So, how did I do? Read and Review, people, Read and Review.

Antrxx: don't worry, you'll find out Gen's favourite ride at some point.

I'm thinking of doing a bit more character development for Gen next chapter or the chapter after. Anyone interested by that? It may get a bit angsty though, so watch out.

Until next time,

Elemental Hybrid