AN: Alright my people, something I forgot to mention last chapter. I'm a big fan of the Borderlands games and have one, two, and the pre sequel on both PC and PS3. If anyone wants to do some multiplayer send me a message about which system and I'll try to find a time when I'm not writing, working, or doing school to set one up. Also, for those who want to send me a friend request on Steam, my username is the same there as it is here, 'TheSilverboar'.
AN2: Here are the heads and skins I'm using for the different canon Characters right now in the story.
Axton: Head- Roguish Renegade, Skin- Black Ops
Maya: Head- Maya, Skin- Violent Violet
Salvador: Head- A Sense of Dread, Skin- Black is Back
Gaige: Head- Grease Monkey (without the spade tattoo), Skin- Gaige's school uniform
Krieg: Head- KREIG!, Skin- THE DARK LEAKS OUTTA ME
Now keep in mind these are, for the most part, NOT the final Heads and Skins for these Characters. When a Character Changes Heads of Skins, which will involve certain parts of the story, I'll inform you and tell you what it's changed to (and usually why)
AN3: I have some specific items planned for my characters to have in this story. Other guns will be either ones I've gotten as drops or one's I know the names of. Added to that Gaige and Harry both have a Laser weapon, something that isn't available on Pandora, and it's a gift from Zero. Equipping Levels won't be that big of a thing weapon wise in this story.
AN4: I feel I need to mention that the two 'OC' children of Moxxi aren't fully OC's. In Borderlands 2 she mentions having four kids and I'm just making my own idea for two of them as we only ever see Ellie and Scooter.
AN5: A final note is something about the pairing. The plan since I first thought of the story was Harry with the OC daughter of Moxxi but recently I've been torn between that pairing and pairing him with Angel. I'd like some feedback. I don't mean voting but actually feedback on what you'd like to see with reasons. Anyone who wants an idea of what Moxxi's daughter will be like to make a more informed decision can PM me and I'll give you a small bio.
Deadshot
Chapter 2
-Harry-
"See anyone coming?" Harry asked his sister as he craned his neck around some crates to look right, his sister checking left as they snuck around the Hyperion Controlled Pandoran train station. Their transport had experienced a systems failure a few miles away from the station causing them to crash land. If it hadn't been for the luck of being near the station, and for Hedwig spotting it from the air, he wasn't sure he or Gaige would have lasted long.
"We're good here." Gaige whispered back, her goggles on her forehead and the wraps handing around her neck "Nobody in sight."
"Alright…go." He hissed as he gripped his sister's hand tightly, pulling her along as they rushed through the platform to sneak onto the Pandoran train that would hopefully get him to one of the few…hospitable settlements the planet had. Getting to the first car he found the door locked as he pulled out his tools, Gaige copying him as they removed the cover on the electric door lock and hacked into it to get inside. Partway through the process he heard the sound of heavy footsteps down the platform as his eyes went wide. "We got company inbound," he hissed, redoubling his efforts to get inside "and I doubt they're friendly."
"Ya think?" Gaige snarked back as they managed to get the last bit of the lock to disengage and slipped inside, sealing the door again and hoping nobody would notice the small uncovered circuit board.
Panting he leaned against the door of the train car, Gaige sitting next to him with her head on his shoulder while Hedwig rested on a nearby chair, "That…was…close…" he panted softly as Gaige gave a weak chuckle at how they had almost gotten caught.
"What was?" a new voice asked as they both shot to their feet, staring in wide eyed panic at the previously unknown person in the train car. The man was tall and clearly strong, paired with the stance the man had Harry would guess military training. The man was dressed in various shades of black with short cropped hair and a well maintained beard. The only accessories on the soldier were a chain that held what looked like a wedding ring and some dog tags along with a leather cuff on his left wrist. It took a split second to take these details in as he moved his sister behind him protectively.
"Whoa!" the soldier called out, the man holding his hands out to placate them and to show there were no weapons in hand "Easy there half-pint. I'm guessing by your reaction there you aren't really supposed to be here."
"Maybe," he responded warily "maybe not. What's it to ya?"
The soldier kept a blank face up for a few seconds before grinning, "You got spunk kid so I'll cut you a deal. You tell me your story and I won't rat you two out."
"That all?" he asked, not sure if he should trust the offer.
"Kid, it's boring as hell in here." The soldier groaned "I could use something to do so listening to any kind of story would definitely help pass the time. Name's Axton by the way, I used to shoot stuff for DAHL but they decided I was too much trouble and discharged me. I bailed before I could have a little meet and greet with the firing squad which ended up with me being stuck here in the outer worlds. Okay, your turn now." Snorting at the somewhat childish man he began relaxing a little. He wasn't as good as reading people as Zero was but he could do enough to get by and he could tell that this 'Axton' was being sincere.
"Name's Harry," he offered, "my sis and I ran from our home world due to the fact that a rich brat got killed because of her own stupidity and we were going to take the fall."
"What she do?" the soldier snorted "Juggle with a grenade or something?"
"No." Gaige pouted, still upset at having come in third place "We were at our planet's science fair and she won because her dad bribed the judging panel. During the award ceremony she was gloating and shoved me in front of the combat robot Harry and I built that we had already explained would attack anything it saw as a threat to whoever it's geared to…so Deathtrap made her explode…"
The soldier paused and blinked at that, "Wait…did you just say 'explode'?"
Gaige wilted and he would swear he saw a depressed little cloud over her head at that, "The digistruct claws got miscalibrated causing them to make her explode when he slashed her." Harry answered, patting his sister's back sympathetically.
"You plan to keep them like that?" Axton asked curiously, "Making people explode would be a useful effect for a weapon."
"Causes too much strain on the claws." He said in the negative "I don't want to have to repair or even replace them every couple hours."
"That sucks." Axton groaned as they all moved and got settled in the train car "Well a promise is a promise, I won't sell you two out. Where are you heading anyway?"
"We were actually thinking of becoming Vault Hunters." Gaige admits, getting out of her funk at the prospect of talking about their plan.
"Huh, small world." Axton grinned, "This train is picking up a few others that got hired by Hyperion as Vault Hunters. I guess we'll just have two more."
"And you trust Hyperion?" Gaige asks with a raised eyebrow "They aren't exactly known for employee satisfaction."
"It's less a matter of trust and more of a matter that I need money to survive and action to stave off boredom." Axton shrugged "If they prove to be assholes I can always shoot my way out. Make for a badass story at least."
"Assuming you live to tell it." He snorted as the trio fell into silence. For the rest of the day and well into the night the train sped across the Hyperion landscape, the Grassy plains giving way to sand as they entered into a desert that seemed to be full of nothing but Rakk and Skags. It was noon the day after he had boarded the Hyperion speed train when they began to slow and eventually stop at the local train station.
"Greetings mi amigos." The apparent vault hunter to be greeted them cheerfully. The man was short but had arms that looked like they could rip apart a Hyperion Loader. The diminutive Pandoran Native wore all black clothes and had his hair tied back in dreadlocks.
"Sup." Axton greeted, throwing up a piece sign, "Name's Axton. These two are Harry and Gaige." One angry hoot later from Hedwig and Axton hastily finished the introduction, the ex-Commando having grown wary of the snowy owl after she pecked him for irritating her earlier in the train ride.
"Por favor, call me…Salvador." The tiny man said happily, shaking their hands before asking their stories. Salvador was an attentive audience and was clearly an eager story teller when it came to his turn. "So I am from here on Pandora," the muscular man said "born and raised in the village of Ovejas. Recently though they tried to hang me for murder because I killed some bandits that tried to kill me Abuela."
"Seriously?" he asked "They sound like assholes."
"Nobody's perfect." Sal shrugged "The hanging was interrupted when some Hyperion guys came thinking it was a bandit town and shot it up. I killed most of them but let the last one crawl back home."
"Wait," Harry interrupted "Hyperion shot up your town?"
"Sí." Salvador nodded.
"Then why are you working as a vault hunter for Hyperion?" Gaige asked, having shared his confusion.
"It sounded like fun." Salvador shrugged unrepentant.
"Can't argue with that logic." Axton nodded in agreement, the soldier having bonded with the diminutive 'Gunzerker' rather quickly as they shared a love over their philosophy of 'Killing bad guys is always fun'.
"Is everyone on this planet nuts?" Gaige asked him with a groan.
"If they are what does that say about us?" he snarked back to his sister as the two adults laughed. The rest of the trip to pick up the final Vault hunter was spent laughing, telling stories, and playing cards. Or more accurately trying to find new and creative ways to cheat at playing cards while stopping everyone else from cheating at the same time.
The final stop was at the edge of the dessert before they hit the snowy mountains and seas full of glaciers. At this stop two people boarded the train, the first being a beautiful woman with violet hair and siren tattoos and a massive psycho with black tattoos covering his body.
"Sup." The siren greeted, sounding rather laid back "You guys the other vault hunters?"
"Got it in one," Axton grumbled, the soldier just having lost, again, at poker "name's Axton. This lot are Salvador, Harry, Gaige, and Hedwig."
"I'm Maya," she greeted with a nod "and this is-"
"STRIP THE FLESH!" the psycho yelled in his own greeting causing Salvador and Axton to jump startled.
"SALT THE WOUND!" Harry yelled back as the psycho turned towards him and nodded, Gaige just sighed, and everyone else gaped.
"He…speaks psycho." Axton deadpanned, the soldier likely having trouble grasping that concept.
"Took two years of it back at School." He shrugged as Gaige snickered and they got the newcomer's stories. Krieg's was simple, having just wanted to follow the 'Pretty Lady' while Maya's was more complicated. The Siren had been 'raised' by an order of assholes who were using her to intimidate and extort a planet and when she find out she decided to come to Pandora to learn more about her Siren heritage.
"You know," Gaige told him as they looked at their new 'colleagues' mingling "I think we might actually like our new lives. And who knows, maybe Hyperion won't be so bad?"
-Axton-
Groaning, the ex-DAHL soldier forced himself up and out of the snow. His nose was filled with the acrid smell of smoke rising from the remains of the blown up train. Hearing a second groan from nearby he looks over to see his vertically challenged new friend, Salvador, struggling to get out of the snow that came up to the Gunzerker's waist.
"Hold on Sal," he groaned as he limped over and pulled the fighter up "I got you."
"Thanks Amigo." Salvador nods, "Did the others make it out?"
Eyes going wide he looks around, "I don't know." He said, hoping that Harry and Gaige were alright "YO! Anybody else make it?!"
"I'M THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN!" echoed out from closer to the train car while he heard Gaige yell "We're alive!" from the opposite direction.
"I think they made it." Sal grunted as the duo made their way over to the voices, meeting up with the other four in the 'center'. The other four had already met up by the time he and Sal joined them giving him a chance to assess their condition.
Maya looked the worse off of the group, her legs apparently unsteady as Krieg was supporting her, the left side of her head having some blood coming out of it as Harry wrapped the injury with some makeshift bandages. Krieg had several cuts and scrapes along with more than a few burns but seemed otherwise alright.
Gaige seems mostly unhurt so he guessed that something shielded her from the majority of the blast and the impact but her robotic arm seemed twitchy.
As he looked to Harry he finally took the time to really take in the young man who was apparently trained by an elite assassin. The kid was walking with a limp, probably having used his own body to shield Gaige from the blast, but Harry was apparently able to ignore any pain he was feeling to focus on the task at hand. Harry's pants had some rips in them but his shirt seemed unharmed and his trench coat had no visible damages which he thought was odd. Finally, the goggles Harry kept over his eyes had a crack in one of the lenses but Harry hadn't removed them.
"Alright," Maya said once he and Sal reached them "what's the game plan?"
"Inventory first." Harry spoke up before he could, "We need to know what we have, and what we need. Does anyone have any weapons on them? Gun or melee it doesn't matter so long as you can kill something with it."
"I got my axe." He nodded as he showed the standard DAHL issue weapon, "And I have my turret but I'm pretty sure it got damaged in that blast."
"I know my arm did." Gaige said, nodding at his last statement as she gestured to some sparking wires in her mechanical arm "It still works as a prosthetic but I'll need to fix the digistructing system."
"I have this." Sal showed a pair of bronze knuckles and seemed completely unconcerned at how ineffective they might be. Krieg just grunted and showed a buzzesaw axe while Maya demonstrated a weird energy punch.
"Okay," Harry nodded thoughtfully "We'll split into groups of two. I'll go with Sal and Axton, Gaige you go with Maya and Krieg. Look for anything that can be used as a weapon or that may come in handy. We'll meet back here in thirty minutes. Hedwig," the boy turned to his pet owl "take to the sky and let me know if anyone or anything starts heading our way."
"Um Harry," he said with a frown, "what are you and Gaige going to use as weapons?" The two teenagers grinned before pressing a button on a pair of identical bracelets they had as the small gem in each began digistructing something. When the digistructing was finished his jaw hit the floor as he saw the two very rare DAHL weapons they had. "T-those are the ZX-1 and the Cat of Nine Tails!" he exclaimed "Those are some of the rarest DAHL lasers in the six galaxies!"
"Hell yeah." Harry grinned, hefting the dangerous fire weapon "Now let's go find some guns for the rest of you guys.
AN: Alright, here are the pairings I have in mind for the story. Keep in mind these can change if I feel another would work better or I feel a character should die for the story.
1. Harry with either Moxxi's younger daughter (it says in the game she has four kids so It's not a full OC) or Angel
2. Gaige with Moxxi's younger son
3. Axton with Captain Scarlet
4. Zero with _ (you aren't going to find out that easily)
5. Roland with Lilith
6. Mordecai with Moxxi (seriously, those two need couple's therapy)
7. Maya and Krieg
8. Athena and Springs
I also really want to ship Tannis with somebody so suggestions will be appreciated.