Hi Everybody!

Prophet21: Hello again. Since I PMed you with my reply I don't see the need to repeat it here.

Don Socrates: Yes, yes he is.

Sunshine Muncher: Glad that you think so.

Guardian of all that exists: WAIT AND SEE! AND BUONJIORNO TO YOU TOO!

TheGreenLamp: What are you talking about?

SweetieJack: 1. Thank you. Very much. 2. You read my mind. He shall appear soon. 3. I don't know…..

Saddlecreeperz: Sorry if I disappointed you but things have been hectic lately and I could not find the motivation to make a chapter. Glad that you think so highly of my stories.

Don Socrates: Lack of motivation, school, exams and my fucking email labelling all FanFiction emails as spam saw to that.

Sorry I haven't posted in I-don't-even-know-how-long, but I couldn't find the motivation to keep writing this chapter. Right, so after this I'm finally going to give you all that lovely piece of angsty background for Gen. Also, a small thank you to all the people who keep reminding me of my lack of romance in this fic. I promise that that'll change soon.

Disclaimer: (Insert witty pun here)

Chapter 13: The Gamer

"Okay so what did you need my help with?" Gaige asked casually, ignoring the rather entertaining plight of her teammates.

Gen grinned, slung an arm around her shoulders and said, "Like I said, I need your epic programming skills to help me finish up my latest project. But there's also another project I need your help with."

"What are they?"

"First I need you to help me program this little baby." He said, holding up the device he'd previously been welding. It looked like a metal egg about the size of a melon on three short metal legs. The metal had a layer of clear plastic on it through which a few wires and circuits were visible

"Uhh, what is it?"

He handed it to her and said, "It's a surprise. I just need you to program it to link ECHO devices within a short range and activate files like I'm sending to your ECHO now."

"Okay, shouldn't be too hard. What was the other thing you needed my help with?"

"I've realise that my method of activating my speed formula is a tad inefficient. I want you to program a series of micro injectors to trigger when I want them to."

"Where are you going to put the injectors?"

Gen indicated the bracers on his arms. "I'm planning on lining the insides of these babies with them."

"Well, neither of these jobs should be too hard. I'll probably have them finished in like half an hour tops."

"Thanks Gaige. You're the best."

"I know." She said smugly, walking off. The Splicer smirked, watching her leave.

"Hey grass stain! If you're about done watching her ass could you undo these chains?" Axton yelled. Gen flushed but otherwise didn't outwardly react. Inwardly he was praying Gaige hadn't heard that. When he felt certain that she hadn't, and his blush had faded, he turned towards his teammates.

"I'm sorry, Ax, but I don't have the keys," he said in a mock apologetic tone that contrasted with the mischievous grin on his face, giving them a helpless shrug, "So unless you guys trust me with dangerous chemicals near you you're gonna have to get yourselves out. Didn't Maya have the keys?"

"I do but they're in my back pocket and I can't really reach there." Maya muttered her voice a mixture of irritation and embarrassment at having been put in yet another uncomfortable situation by the green skinned teen in front of her.

"Oh I'm sure Axton could reach them if he tried." Gen said, his grin only widening as Axton and Maya went cherry red. "Maybe if you promised not to Phaselock him he could get you all out of there much sooner and you can all get down to the important but ultimately futile effort to get revenge on me."

Axton swallowed and said hesitantly, "I think I might be able to reach them."

"If you don't try for those keys, I will." Brick growled.

Maya gulped, her blush deepening as she closed her eyes. "Just grab the keys, Axton. But I swear if your hand stays there one second longer than it has to I'll hurt you in ways you can't even imagine."

Gen cackled and said, "If you wanna come looking for me, I'll be in my room. I wouldn't suggest it though. Toodles." He gave them a little wave as he turned and sauntered off.

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Gen nodded along to the beat of Diary of Jane by Skillet, occasionally humming quietly to himself as he poured and measured the chemicals in the various beakers in front of him. He'd heard the others trying to break into his room about ten minutes ago and had silently praised himself for adding the extra reinforcement to the already tough steel door. He looked up as he heard a knock on his door. "Who is it?"

"Me." Gaige replied, her voice muffled by the thickness of the door.

"Who's Me?" Gen asked playfully, smirking.

"Fuck you, Gen."

"Nope, never met you."

"Gen, unlock the damn door."

"It's not locked and hasn't been all day."

Gaige opened the door and walked in with a confused expression, carefully closing it behind her. "But I heard the others trying to break in earlier."

Gen shrugged without looking away from his chemicals and replied, "None of them tried the door handle."

Gaige face palmed at the how stupid her teammates could be before looking up and saying, "Anyway, I finished those jobs for you. Mind telling me what I actually just programmed this thing to do?"

She held up the metallic egg on a tripod device.

"Wait and see." Gen said, still focused on his chemicals. He paused as the song playing changed to Stand in the Rain by Superchick. "Did you finish the other piece of programming?"

Gaige held up a small chip and said, "Yeah, right here."

Gen finally looked away from his chemicals after setting a flask of turquoise liquid over a Bunsen burner. He smiled and reached for the chip which Gaige promptly moved out of his reach. He raised an eyebrow at her and she smirked.

"What's the egg thing for?" she asked.

"Why should I tell you?" he asked, sitting back and folding his arms over his chest.

"Because if you don't I won't give you this chip." She replied smugly, confident that she had the upper hand in this exchange.

"You forget that I only want that to improve my efficiency when I'm fighting, I don't actually need it." He pointed out, smirking at her, "Plus I could just take it from you if I really wanted to."

"You could try." She said.

"Is that a challenge?" He asked.

She shrugged. A second later she found herself on her back on the floor with Gen straddling her waist and pinning down her arms down at the wrist with one hand while waving the chip in front of her face with the other.

"I tried." He said smugly. The Mechromancer glared at him before it slowly dawned on her that his face was barely an inch away from hers for the second time since she had met him and this time he wasn't hyped up on coffee. The same thought seemed to occur to the Splicer who blushed deeply and stood up hurriedly. He offered her a hand to help her up which she accepted. He sat down on his vacated chair while she perched herself on his bed, both of them still blushing madly. Gen only looked up when Skillet's Awake and Alive started playing.

"That...was...seriously awkward, wasn't it?" he joked, giving her a weak smile.

"Yep."

"Can you give me a hand with installing the programming into the micro injectors?" He asked sheepishly.

She grinned, back in familiar territory, and said, "Sure thing."

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Gen cautiously poked his head into the lounge, expecting at any moment to be suddenly set upon by angry Vault Hunters. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the room was empty of people except for his aunt who was staring at the broken TV with rapt fascination and occasionally laughing at something only she could hear. He trotted in and placed the egg shaped device on the coffee table. Tannis glanced at him and gave him a little wave before turning back to the broken television. Gaige watched the Splicer from the doorway as he made some last minute checks on his machine.

"Just out of curiosity would that thing really have exploded with as much force as you said if you had messed up?" She asked. Gen paused, a thoughtful look appearing on his face.

"Probably not," he said after a few seconds, turning back to his machine, "But then a lot of the things I make aren't supposed to blow up."

"That's…not really reassuring."

"I know." He said cheerfully.

Apparently satisfied that his machine was working, Gen reached out and activated it. The egg hummed and lights played across its surface for a few seconds before it became still with three glowing blue circles on its shiny exterior. Each circle was positioned so that it faced one of the room's occupants.

"Well that was unexpected." Gen said, confused by his creation's actions.

"You said that you wanted it to link ECHOs but I figured that you wouldn't want it to link every ECHO within range so I programmed it to only link ECHOs if it was confirmed that they wanted to be selected." Gaige explained, sitting down next to the Splicer. The green-skinned speedster was treated to a flashback of when he had her pinned and tried desperately to suppress the memory before he did something stupid. He searched around for anything to take his mind off of that particular memory and decided to focus on the device.

"S-so I just touch the circle?" he asked with only the ghost of a tremor in his voice. Thankfully Gaige seemed not to notice.

"Yep." Gaige replied, leaning forward and tapping her own circle, which winked green and disappeared. A yellow circle appeared at the top of the device and pulsed gently. The Splicer quickly tapped his own circle, which also disappeared.

"So now what?"

"Now you just tap the yellow one. That basically means that you've added all the ECHOs you wanted and it can start up."

"Gotcha." He said, the yellow button winking green as he touched it. The teens' ECHOs sprang into life a second later, a small panel appearing just under their hands and a screen hovering in the air a few inches from their faces. A long list popped into view.

"What are all these?" Gaige asked, reading a few of the names aloud, "Halo, Mass Effect, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock…"

"They're video games." Gen supplied helpfully, grinning like a child at Christmas, "I found them in some of the archives I may have illegally hacked into."

"Why would it be illegal to hack into an archive with this stuff?"

"There was a whole bunch of other stuff in there that was apparently 'classified' and even if there hadn't been I was a wanted fugitive by that point."

"Oh, oka- Wait, what?!"

The Splicer looked awkward. "Uh…Oops. Can we forget I said that?" he asked hopefully.

"No. Gen, what do you mean you were a wanted fugitive?"

The Splicer gave a tired sigh and his voice sounded slightly defeated when he spoke, "I don't want to talk about. Can we just play the games?"

"….Fine. But don't think I'm letting this go."

"Great!" he said, good cheer instantly restored, "How about we play Team Fortress?"

"Are you sure you're not bipolar or something? Because you act like it."

Gen gave her a dismissive wave. "I probably have a whole host of mental problems that I haven't noticed yet. Let's play!"

Tannis shushed them. "Quiet. This is the best part."

"You do realise that the TV is broken, right?" Gaige asked.

"What is your point?"

Gaige opened her mouth to reply but Gen held up a hand to stop her. "Just leave it." He mouthed. Gaige rolled her eyes but remained silent. Gen smiled and selected Team Fortress from the list of games in front of him.

"So what do you do in this game anyway?" Gaige asked.

"It's a team game-"

"No really? I never would have guessed with a name like Team Fortress." Gaige said sarcastically.

"Look, do you want to know what the game is about or what?" Gen retorted. Gaige stuck her tongue out at him but otherwise didn't respond. "Thank you. In this game two teams face each other in a series of location with multiple game types. There are nine classes to choose from."

"How can we play if there are only two of us?"

"The rest of the spots will be filled by computer-controlled characters. So you wanna be on the same team or different?"

"Different. I'm gonna kick your green ass!"

"You're on!"

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An hour later Gaige deactivated her ECHO and gave the Splicer in incredulous look. "How are you so good at this?!"

"Let's just say that I did my research." Gen said smugly.

"What have you two been up to?" Maya asked, walking into the room. Despite her cheerful tone Gen went pale and shot out of the room in a blur of green and black. Maya gave Gaige a confused look.

"He's probably still worried you're gonna attack him for the whole chain thing." Gaige said, shrugging.

Maya rolled her eyes. "He should have realised by now that I don't hold grudges. Especially after the Coffee Incident."

Both of them unconsciously shivered as they remembered Gen's coffee-fuelled rampage through Sanctuary. His targets had turned out to be far more numerous than was first thought as it was discovered that he had hung Scooter by his feet from one of the steel rods protruding from the bottom of Sanctuary, had raided Marcus' gun safe and used the weapons to make multiple life-size statues of the weapons dealer, tied up and gagged Zed and left him in one of the many lockers around Sanctuary and hidden all of Moxxi's panties in various place around Sanctuary. Some of the more interesting hiding places had included the CD slot of Moxxi's sound system, on the head of one of the shoplifters in Marcus' firing range, under Scooter's hat and in Zed's mouth after they had been used to gag him. People were still turning up at the bar with more panties that had been found in odd places.

Gen poked his head in. "So I'm not in trouble?"

"Well, not from me. I'm not sure about the others."

Gen plopped down on the couch. "Good enough for me. Wanna play?"

"Play what?"

"Depends," he said, bringing up his ECHO, "You feel like Halo or Team Fortress?"

"What and what?"

"They're video games he found." Gaige explained.

"Oh. Halo sounds interesting."

Gen grinned. "Sweet! Let's play!"

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Gen turned off his ECHO and glared at the two girls opposite him who had completely innocent looks on their faces.

"…I thought we said no ganging up." He said after a few seconds of stony silence.

The girls looked at each other then back to Gen and grinned.

"Oops, forgot." They said in perfect unison.

"And butter wouldn't melt..." he muttered sulkily.

"Aww, what's the matter Gen? Poor loser?" Gaige teased, smiling.

"Yes, actually." He snapped, still slightly angry but a small smile was starting to tug at his lips even as he spoke. Gaige suddenly noticed something behind him and blanched. "What?"

Gaige pointed behind him. The Splicer turned and paled as he saw Axton and Salvador in the doorway. To everyone's surprise the Splicer stood up, stretched and yawned before calmly saying, "Nice timing you two. I need to blow off some steam."

Salvador laughed and said, "You think you can handle us both on your own, amigo?"

Gaige stepped up next to him and grinned. "Who said anything about alone?"

Axton and Salvador's eyes narrowed. "You sure you want to get involved in this Gaige?" Axton asked.

"What's the matter Axton? Scared of little old me?" Gaige teased.

The Commando's jaw clenched. "It. Is. On." He growled.

"About time. I'm gettin' old here." Gen muttered.

Gen clenched his fists as his formula entered his system, Gaige raised her arm to summon Deathtrap, Salvador whipped out two shotguns and Axton reached for his turret's digistruct deck.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Lilith chose that moment to walk in. The red-haired Siren took one look at the scene before yelling, "STOP!"

Everybody froze except for Gen, who was vibrating on the spot. Lilith glared at them and said in a tone that brooked no argument, "You wanna fight, you take it outside. We just rebuilt this place after your ," at this she pointed accusingly at Gen, "little rampage."

"To be fair, that was Axton's fault." Gen said quietly.

"I. Don't. Care. Get. Out"

They all nodded and bolted for the door.

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"So…Are we actually gonna fight or not?" Gen asked. The four were sitting on the platform in the centre of Sanctuary.

"Nah."

"Nope."

"Uh-Uh."

"Oh. Okay. In that case, see ya." He said, waving as he began to walk away.

"Where ya goin'?" Gaige called.

"I don't know. I think I'll just wander around Sanctuary."

"Okay. See ya."

The Splicer grinned and waved again before departing. He knew Sanctuary wasn't a big place and he'd seen it all before but he liked walking. It helped him relax. He walked up to the edge of Sanctuary near Moxxi's bar and took a deep breath, savouring the feeling of the cool air as it blew past. He smiled in contentment and stepped back. He turned and trotted back the way he had come, still smiling. As he walked around the corner he bumped into a man.

"Oh, pardon me." The man said with obviously forced politeness.

"Chill, it was my bad." Gen said cheerfully. He looked up at the man and froze, the colour draining from his face. The man's hard green eyes narrowed.

"What are you looking a-"

"Jonathan!"

My first cliffhanger! Woo Hoo!

Sorry again about going missing you guys.

There's something I have to ask you guys. I've been considering scrapping this story and starting anew. The reason, before you all track me down and kill me, is because there are a lot of story elements from the game that I want to include but can't because I fucked up the storyline. The reason I fucked up the storyline is because *Deep breath* up until I had written and posted Chapter 7 I had never even played Borderlands 2.

Anyway, tell me what you guys think. Was this chapter worth the wait? Is my idea good or bad? Should I stop asking so many questions? Read and Review.

Until next time (Hopefully not so long a wait)

Elemental Hybrid