Heya folks!
Guardian of all that exists: Thanks for the PM. I never thought that you needed help; I just found your review style to be a bit different. Still, it's good to know that you like my story.
Infinitexephos: No problem. Anything for a friend.
Antrxx: I must admit your review did make me smile.
Don Socrates: I'm glad you liked it. I don't know why, but I seem to have an aversion to characters that have had an easy life. A lot of my OCs that I have thought up over time start off all happy but end up getting dark pasts. It's weird.
Sunshine Muncher: Glad that you like it. My humour may be a bit lacking in a few chapters though, usually ones that involve Gen's past.
Ulquioraschiferfan: Glad you like it.
Sorry if you've all been missing me, but my holiday was super packed, school has started again and I've been busy with my new DeviantArt account.
This chapter is not a direct continuation of the last one, but it (and the next chapter) will set the scene for it.
Disclaimer: Colour schemes…..
Chapter 12: The Fashion Guru
Gaige gently knocked on a certain, green-skinned Vault Hunter's door. Ever since he'd opened up to her and Axton about his past, she'd been wondering exactly what his parents could have done to turn him so against them. She also couldn't deny that it had touched her that Gen was willing to trust them with the sort of knowledge he had originally denied them upon their first meeting. When she got no answer from within the room after a few minutes, she frowned and gently pushed the door open to find the room empty.
She slowly made her way into the kitchen area and found the other Vault Hunters, sans the object of her search, sitting around the room.
"Hey, has anyone seen Gen?" She asked curiously, unsure if anyone would be able to help her. With his speed, Gen could be kilometres away by the time someone had told her where they had seen him.
"He was asking where the Quick Change station was earlier." Axton supplied helpfully, "Not sure where he is now."
Even as he finished saying it, the door flew open and a familiar gust of wind hit the Vault Hunters. When it had died down, at which point the room's occupants opened their eyes, Gen was rummaging through the fridge. "Sup peoples."
"Since you don't seem to have changed your look at all, I'm gonna assume that you didn't find a good style at the Quick Change."
"Nope, I just didn't find the Quick Change."
Their jaws dropped. "How can you not find the Quick Change station?! It's practically right at our front door!" Maya exclaimed. The Splicer shrugged and started gnawing at a cold steak.
"I'm directionally challenged." He suggested casually.
"No you aren't," Gaige said, "You found your way around the Dust without any trouble after looking at your map once."
"Hmmmm. I have a short attention span sometimes?"
"You can focus for hours on your experiments."
"I said sometimes."
The Mechromancer rolled her eyes before remembering why she'd been looking for him. "Didn't you say that you wanted my help with some project of yours the other day?"
The Splicer thought for a second, a grilled skag leg in his hand, before saying, "Oh yeah, I need your help with some programming. I'm not very good at it and I figured that, you know, since you built a whole fucking robot you might be."
"Well you came to the right woman of science and ass kickery." She replied smugly, crossing her arms, "Just so you know, though, my services don't come cheap."
Gen opened his mouth.
"You could make a joke; But your silence is better; Or there will be pain." Zer0 said. Gen closed his mouth hurriedly and Gaige gave the Assassin a confused look before realisation dawned and she glared at Gen, who was studiously avoiding her gaze. After a full minute of awkward silence, Gen met her eyes with a hopeful grin.
"Could you show me where the Quick Change station is?" he asked, hoping to avoid her pounding him into the ground. He still remembered the last time that he had annoyed her and didn't want a repeat of that particular scenario.
"No."
"Pleeeeeeease?"
"No." She repeated irritation evident in her voice.
"…I'll buy you a new gun." He offered in a sing song voice.
Her eyes narrowed and when she spoke suspicion was heavy in her voice. "Any particular make?"
"Uhh, Dahl?" He suggested hopefully. She turned away. Gen sighed and started listing off the manufacturers.
"Tourge?"
"No."
"Jakobs?"
"Tempting, but no."
"Hyperion?" he asked, desperation seeping into his voice.
"Nope."
"Maliwan?" He asked, his tone making it clear that he'd seen it coming but had tried to avoid it. She smiled.
"Come on, the Quick Change, and Marcus Munitions, awaits." She said cheerfully, grabbing his arm and all but dragging him out of Raider's HQ.
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"Nope. Nope. No. Definitely not. No." Gen murmured as he worked his way through the disappointingly short list of outfits on the Quick Change station. Gaige was leaning against the wall and admiring her new shock SMG. She glanced up as Gen sighed and turned away from the Quick Change.
"Nothing you liked?" She asked, noting his unchanged appearance.
"There's barely anything on there and none of it's even halfway decent."
"You know, if you want more options you just have to pick up those 'skins' things that are all over the place."
"What do they look like?"
"Kinda like the Runner skin mods that we find, just without the steering wheel."
"You mean like this?" Gen asked, holding up a mod.
"Yeah that's it."
"I wondered what these things are." He muttered before asking in a louder tone, "So how do they work?"
"Just use your ECHO to activate it and it'll be available in the Quick Change."
"Got it." He said, bringing up his ECHO screen. Half a minute later, he was done and reactivated the Quick Change. Gaige went back to examining her new weapon as Gen resumed his inspection of the various outfits. After about a minute Gen said, "Hey Gaige?"
"Yeah?" she replied, not looking up.
"Does the Quick Change usually change your entire outfit?"
"Yeah, otherwise the colour scheme doesn't work."
"No, I mean does it usually give you an entirely new set of clothes?"
"No, wh-" she stopped mid-sentence as she saw what Gen was talking about. In place of his usual ensemble, Gen was wearing a black vest with his trademark double helix running in a big loop from just above his left hip to his right shoulder and then back down again to connect back at the beginning. A single bandolier stocked with syringes ran perpendicular to the design. His cargos had changed to a green camo pattern while his boots remained unchanged. His goggles now had black frames and straps and reflective orange lenses. The bracers for his armblades now had a steel plate on top of each of them and a small plate of the same material adorned the back of each of the fingerless gloves that had appeared on his hands. The Splicer examined his new clothes and grinned.
"I like it." He said finally.
Gaige didn't reply. She was staring at the dark green tribal pattern tattoos on Gens arms. "Weird." She murmured.
"What is?" Gen asked, confused. Gaige started as she realised that she'd said it out loud.
"It's just, the Quick Change doesn't usually give new outfits and it's even weirder that it's now giving tattoos."
"Huh?" Gen asked confused before realising what she was referring to. "Oh no, these aren't from the Quick Change. I had them done a few months after I ran away."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
There was an awkward silence for a few minutes before Gen suddenly perked up and asked, "So, do you want to get a new style?"
She shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"
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Gen sighed for the tenth time in two minutes. "Are you nearly done yet?"
"No." Gaige replied. Her companion huffed. A few minutes later Gaige asked, "What do you think of this one?"
Gen looked up to find that she had selected the Horned Child head.
"Gaige, I promise you that if you take that head I will shoot you." He said completely deadpan. She stuck out her tongue at him and went back to looking through the heads available.
"Look, I'm gonna head back to HQ and work on one of my little side projects. When you're done would you come find me so I can show you what I need help with?" Gen said after several minutes.
"Sure." Gaige said distractedly. Gen smiled and walked away.
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Gen sat at the kitchen counter, a welding mask over his face as he used a blowtorch to slowly join the two halves of the device's casing into a single solid shell. The other Crimson Raiders had barred his room when he'd told them that he had something he wanted to work on, claiming that they'd feel better if they could see what he was working on. He'd told them that if they had a line of sight then they were probably in the blast radius. It had turned out to be the wrong choice of words. He paused and idly reached down to the metal band that had been fastened around his ankle, scratching at the itch that was building up around it. A thick chain ran from the band to other rings attached to various things, including the fridge, his chair, the table he was working at and Brick's wrist. For a while he'd amused himself by tugging the chain whenever Brick brought his hand close to his face, thereby causing the Beserker to hit himself in the face. He'd stopped when Brick had threatened to pull back hard enough to rip the Splicer's leg off. Now he was working on the physical side of the project he needed Gaige's help for.
"Hey everybody. What do you think of the new look?" Gaige called. Gen heard the others murmur approvingly. "Aww, thanks. To be honest it was a choice between this and Bandit Blood and Rust."
"Shoulda gone for the other one." Brick rumbled.
"Hey Gen, don't you want to see my new outfit?" she called to the Splicer, who hadn't looked up from his welding.
"One sec. If I get this wrong we can kiss the kitchen, and very likely a large portion of the HQ, goodbye." He replied. A few seconds later he switched off the blowtorch and sat up, stretching as he did so. He turned in his chair and flipped his mask up to see everyone else looking at him expectantly. His eyes found Gaige and his jaw dropped.
"Woah, what outfit is that?" He asked incredulously.
"The hat's called Read All About It and the skin is called Clashing Colours." She replied, grinning at his reaction.
Gen could feel a blush rising towards his cheeks and hurriedly flipped the welder mask down in an attempt to hide it. He didn't notice Salvador sneaking up behind him though. The Gunzerker grabbed the mask and pulled it off his head to reveal Gen's face.
"Now, now, amigo, you can't hide behind this." Salvador teased. Gen scowled at him. His form blurred slightly and then he was gone.
"Wait a second. What about the chain?" Maya asked after a few seconds. They all went to examine the chain and found that it had been melted.
"The little bugger must have had some of that acid with him." Axton suggested. Everybody froze as they heard a clinking noise behind them. In unison they all turned around to find Gen holding several metal rings similar to the one that had been around his ankle.
"Your turn." Gen said, an evil smile gracing his features, before darting forward and slapping a band around each Vault Hunter's ankle or wrist and then chaining the remainder to various heavy items around the HQ. He surveyed his handiwork with a smile before turning to Gaige, whom he'd left unchained, and saying, "Anyway, now that that's over with, let me show you what I need help with."
Well there you have it folks, Chapter 12. Sorry if it's not as good as previous chapters but I was struggling a bit with this one.
Read and Review.
Ciao for now,
Elemental Hybrid