The dim light of the yellow moon was hardly enough to light the way over the strange planet that Clap-Trap found himself stranded on. He had been aimlessly wheeling around through the never ending dunes of gray blue sand for days. The cardboard box, that remained taped to his head, was filled with the grainy rock flakes that seemed to fly with the wind. His beloved disco ball, that swung form his antennae, reflected the warm hue from the moon and cast light on the sand bellow.
The bored out of his mind robot heaved a heavy sigh, he was tired of the endless miles of empty dunes.
“This is the worst planet in the whole galaxy...no...the whole solar system...no...the whole stinking universe!” He shouted with aggravation, waving his arms wildly. To top it all off, no one had contacted him about the ECHO he had left on the bounty board several miles back. Despite all the hollow loneliness that open desert gave him, he had decided he would much rather be stranded out here then back with Braden. So he wheeled onward, reminding himself that anything was better than being back at the base with that bimbo of a boss.
Minutes turned to hours and the small round moon began to slip away, swallowed by the night. Clap-Trap had finally stumbled upon another structure, or what appeared to be one. Off in the distance, nestled between two sand banks, was what looked like the remains of a ghost town. Small rickety box like huts were welded together in a neighborly fashion. Tattered cloths hung from windows and open door frames, flapping roughly in the wind. A few overturned chairs just barely peeked out through the sand, and Clap-Trap knew this place was long abandoned. In fact, it had been that way for a long time. This much he knew was true after he found a slumped over pile of bones that seemed to stare bewildered at him. It's clothes were wrinkled, ragged and drooping off the fleshless form.
“You don't look so good.” the robot hummed, taking a seat on a barrel near the skeleton.
“Hello?” Clap-Trap suddenly heard a voice and he quickly snapped his attention down to the corpse.
“Ah, I didn't know you could still talk!” He gasped, but the bones didn't move.
“Hello, I am responding to the Recoverey Mission.” the voice came again, this time his optic lens didn't leave the bones.
“Wow you are really good, talking without even moving your mouth!” He complimented the heap.
“Hello is anyone there?” This time the voice was beginning to sound irritated. Clap-Trap figured he would be irritated too if he didn't have eyes to see, or ears to hear someone respond to his attempts at a conversation.
“Look, I could really use the money. I know someone has to be there...this bounty was just placed up here a few days ago!”
“Bounty?” The robot questioned, what did the skeleton know about his special mission? Common sense seemed to return to him all at once like a bolt of lightening. He quickly realized his mistake and apologized to the corpse. Then he flipped on his ECHO.
“Ah yes, yes I need someone skilled enough to rescue a child from a Hyperion base.” Clap-Trap exclaimed. He retrieved the list of instructions from the box on his head, by now he almost had it memorized.
“A rescue opp huh? Hmmm, I'm not so sure. Give me the details.” The voice urged him to continue. Clap-Trap would have been smiling...if he had a face. He began to read off the note Tabitha had given him.
Not too far off, across the dusty hills of the grey planet, a sniper rifle was positioned just barely over the edge of a jagged rock. It belonged to a rather impatient Dahl soldier who was growing bored with his current mission. His commanding officer was leaning against the same rock, deep in thought.
“Any day now Sarah.” He grumbled, eye peering down his scope. The commanding officer, who had the privilege of also being his wife, cast him a quick glare.
“For the last time Axton, you can't just go around shooting every shady character you see. We have a mission. Once they leave, we can continue.” She hissed. Axton shrugged, refusing to depart from the scope. Out on a far dune was a set of rag tag looking men. They were gathered around a rickety, abandoned structure. One of them, the tallest of the group, was talking through an ECHO he had found on the broken bounty board.
“We've been hiding here forever...the sun will be up soon.” He grumbled, mainly to himself.
“Jeez, can't you be patient for once in your life?” Sarah sighed, rubbing her temple. Axton ignored the comment and watched as two of the members started to wrestle. “It would be so easy” he thought, “to just snipe them from here. Then we can finally start tracking down that Hyperion base.” He mulled it over in his head for several minutes before deciding to take matters into his own hands. He gave in to his trigger happy finger, sending a bullet flying over the dunes. By the time the group of men heard the echoing shot, one of them had already collapsed, dead on the ground, a round bullet wound directly between his eyes.
Frantically they pulled out their weapons, searching the open desert, but there was no one. Another bang rang through the air, another man dropped dead. Only two were left, and they opted for running in opposite directions, hoping to find cover. Unfortunately there was no where to hide, and soon the group of ruffians were wiped out.
“That has got to be record time!” Axton laughed. He checked his watch and made a note of how quick he had taken them out. Sarah had her hands over her head, a long sigh escaped her before she jumped up and threw her arms in the air.
“What is wrong with you!? Can't you just listen for ONCE?” She screamed from pure frustration.
“Oh come on, it's not like they were innocent. Practically everyone on this planet has a bounty on their head, and these didn't exactly look like “friendly” people. Besides, I did us both a huge favor. Now we can finish the mission.” Axton smiled, strapping his gun onto his back.
“There could been more of them not far from here...what if they heard the gun shots?” She barked.
“Then we'll deal with them too.” He rolled his eyes and hopped over the rock, trudging towards the dilapidated building.
“Where are you going?” She called after him.
“Gotta check the bodies, who knows what cool guns these guys may have been carrying.” He shouted back. If she had not been a commanding officer, Sarah would have stomped her foot angrily. Sure she used to love Axton, she had married him after all. He could be sweet, gentle and funny. But, she was beginning to realize that her hate for his other qualities outweighed her love for him. His obsessive pursuit for glory led him to constantly disregard orders. Due to this, most of his missions were a flop. They were poorly executed which threatened the lives of his fellow team mates. Sarah had thought that maybe if he did missions with her alone then things would change for the better, but they didn't, they were worse.
“You just had to show off, had to beat your headshot record.” She called after him. His chuckle, which used to make her smile, was now the fuel to her growing frustration. Reluctantly she followed him over to the lifeless bodies sprawled in the sand.
“Well, hello there loot.” He smiled to himself, picking up a wad of cash from one of the bodies. Sarah let her arms cross together, casting a judgmental glare as he relieved them of their money, ammo and weapons.
“What happened? Are you still there?” Both Sarah and Axton spun around to face the static ridden voice. Their eyes fell on the ECHO poking out of the sand where it had been dropped. Sarah shook her head,
“We have a mission.” She reminded him. Completely ignoring her, he scooped to pick up the device.
“Uh yeah, I'm still here...” he said with hesitation.
“Of course. Why wouldn't you pick it up? It's not like you don't have a vigilante complex.” Completely exhausted with his constant distractions, Sarah slumped in the sand, back against the metal hut. Might as well let him get this out of his system.
“Oh good, I thought you might have died there for a second or something.” The voice joked. Axton chuckled,
“Nope...still here. What were we talking about again?” He feigned forgetfulness. Sarah rolled her eyes, she couldn't help but listen. There was something oddly familiar about that voice on the ECHO, but she couldn't place her finger on it.
“I have a mission for you...remember? I need you to break into a Hyperion base and rescue a child without anyone knowing you were there.” Immediately Sarah was on her feet, snatching the ECHO from her husband.
“A Hyperion base you say? Where is it?” She demanded to know.
“Wow, your voice changes a lot, that's so cool. Can you do my voice?” The ECHO asked. Sarah gritted her teeth.
“Didn't you have a mission? I except your mission. Please give me the coordinates to the Hyperion base.” She urged the speaker on. There was a short pause, Axton shot her a questioning look.
“Oh you'll do it? Great. So the base is on the neighboring planet, Hestias. The base itself is in the eastern canyon. Now, after you rescue exper...” Sarah smashed the ECHO, chucking the pieces over the dune.
“Oh, what? That wasn't cool! Why did you break it?” Axton crossed his arms in a pouty manor. “I could have done the mission on my spare time.”
“Ugh, sometimes you can be so difficult.” she shook her head.
“Yeah but you love me.”
“Anyways... Didn't you recognize that overly obnoxious voice? That was a Clap-Trap. He was dumb enough to give us the coordinates to one of their hidden bases. I'll relay this information to DAHL.” She thought aloud, not really trying to answer his question.
“Yeah well you could have let him finish talking.” Axton grumbled.
“The more we know about this “rescue” mission, the harder it will make it for us to destroy the base...if it ever comes to that.” She reasoned. “Now we've done enough side tracking, are you done looting yet? Can we finish the mission?” She placed her hands on her hips aggressively.
“Of course.” He gave her a playful smile before bounding down the sand dune.
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Clap-Trap wasn't sure why the ECHO had stopped working, but there wasn't really much he could do about it. He had a terrible feeling that maybe something had gone wrong. He glanced down at the corpse a bit nervous.
“They understood the mission right?” He asked the pile of bones. Of course, there was no reply and he was left alone with his thoughts. The instructions Tabitha had given him didn't say anything about what to do in case they accept the mission and don't listen to all the instructions. Maybe they had decided the mission was too hard and left. He tried to pick up the signal from the other ECHO, but nothing came through, not even static. Something wasn't right. Not sure what to do, and with not too many resources of his own, he turned to his own ECHO. He needed help.
“Tabitha?” he called the mechanic.
“Clap-Trap? Did you set out the ECHO I sent you?” She immediately questioned, desperate to know how the plan was coming.
“Yes I did. And now I'm stranded here on some planet that I don't know the name of. There is nothing out here but sand and bones. I set out the ECHO and someone accepted the mission, but their voice kept changing. I gave them the coordinates but then something happened and I couldn't explain the rest of the mission to them.” He frantically waved his arms, as if to show how upset he was by it all.
“What? You're stranded? And are you saying the ECHO I gave you stopped working?” She was beginning to sound worried.
“Yes! I can't get out of this place, and I have no clue if it stopped working or not! I don't even know how to get back to where I put it! I'm lost in this stupid giant sandbox!” He shouted at the sun as it began peeking over the horizon. There was a moment of silence as Tabitha tried her best to solve this issue.
“Ok...look don't freak out. I can take a day off soon and I'll head back to our base. Clay had a tracker for you...it's probably in his old office somewhere. When I get your coordinates I'll come get you and i'll bring a new ECHO, we'll figure this out together.” She sloppily flung a plan together, she had to make this work.
“So...am I just supposed to wait here?” Clap-Trap huffed.
“Yes. Please don't wander too far, I don't want you to get broken. I won't be long.” She assured him.
Clap-Trap sighed as the ECHO shut off, he was left to his own devices.
“This absolutely sucks.” he grumbled to the old corpse. “At least I have you.”
A sharp wind zipped over the dunes, making the bones rattle quietly.
“I'm going to call you Troutman...” the robot hummed. “Well Troutman, it looks like we'll be room mates for a while. I hope you don't mind. I hope you don't mind if I clean up the hut a bit, it's literally covered in sand...you're a real slob you know that?” Clap-Trap huffed, folding his arms as he wheeled about the abandoned camp.
“Yeah...I think I can make this work.” He turned back to Troutman, “Are you prone to seizures? How do you feel about LED lights?”
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It had been five minutes and already he was being called back for training. 'A' let a long sigh escape him, it was a force of habit. He pushed himself out of the cold corner of the lab that he had been napping in. Hardie had him going through vigorous training and it was beginning to take a toll on him. Already he was sore from the development enhancers and healing surgical wounds, but now he was physically exhausted.
“Hurry up and get back to your training. You won't be the perfect assassin if you sit around all day.” Braden approached him from the far side of the lab. 'A' refused to speak a word to the man, he wasn't worth the thought.
“Go on now.” Braden folded his arms. The experiment wasn't sure why he was so demanding towards him, he was headed to the gym anyways. Not wanting to look at Braden longer than needed, 'A' turned his head and ran for the GYM sector. He had to remind himself that the whole reason he did any of this, was so he could see Clay again. After all, Braden had promised him. However, the young experiment was beginning to realize that Braden couldn't be trusted and his word wasn't worth dirt.
'A' stopped, why was he still listening to that monster of a man? He clenched his fist, taking note of every pain and ache he was experiencing. All of it, his heart break, his scars, his anguish, was all caused by Braden. He could feel his anger boiling and he suddenly wanted nothing more than to tear the scientist's throat out. However, that would be impossible, Braden was a prepared man. He always carried weapons on him, and 'A' was beginning to think maybe there was something more to him.
Anger and fear swirled around in his mind, fogging his reasoning. He had to get out. 'A' gave one look towards the GYM and immediately bolted in the opposite direction. Why hadn't he tried this before? He could escape, he could find Clay all on his own. There was nothing left for him at the base, Clay and Tabitha had left, and even Clap-Trap had somehow disappeared. It had been nearly a week sense he last saw the purple robot.
'A' dashed out of the lab and barreled down the halls and into an open elevator. He didn't have a plan, he didn't even know where the exit to the base was, but he didn't care, he had to get out. He took the elevator up to the top level, surely he could find a window or something. When the doors opened he didn't even get the chance to step out when his arm was grabbed and he was yanked into the hallway.
“What are you doing!?” Braden's voice sent a shiver down his spine. He hated to admit that Braden was the cause of his never ending nightmares, but it was hard to fight that chilling fright when the angered scientist was able to track his every move.
“WELL?” Braden jerked his arm up, pulling his feet off the floor. “Answer me!” Braden demanded. A's eyes were wide, his mind was racing to come up with an explanation, but he didn't have one.
“I....I....I...” He stammered, but no words formed. In a panicked attempt to free himself, 'A' swiped his claws at Braden, slashing a nasty gash over the mans face. Braden reeled back, shouting in pain, but his grip never loosened on the experiments wrist. Braden held his free hand up to the wound, staring bitterly at the crimson smear it left on his fingers.
Braden was fuming and 'A' realized he had messed up. Braden didn't hesitate and socked 'A' hard across the jaw, causing the poor experiment to lose his footing and stumble. However, Braden was still holding him up, causing a sharp pain to shoot through A's arm.
“You think I'm an idiot don't you. You were trying to escape, big mistake.” He hissed, dragging him back into the elevator. “You can't escape, you can never run. I see every move you make. But I guess that won't stop you from trying.” Braden grumbled. He pressed 'A' against the elevator wall, looming over him threateningly as the doors closed shut behind them.
“There are always consequences for stupid actions.” The scientist hissed. The blood that trickled down his face made him appear fierce, like a wild beast. 'A' gulped, his skin began to pale.
Braden pulled a small pistol from his pocket and A's heart dropped. He could feel himself shake, desperately 'A' tried to pull his arm away from the scientist, but his grip was like a vice.
The gun clicked and Braden held it up, aiming right for the experiment's head.
“You won't make this mistake again will you?” Braden's voice was a rumble. 'A' desperately shook his head, his eyes staring down the narrow barrel.
“N-no!” He assured the man, speaking to him for the first time in months.
“Damn right you wont.” Braden laughed, then he pulled the trigger.
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Tabitha: Hey boss can I have the day off? I don't feel too good.
Everett: Oh, uh, but we have a meeting with Jack today.
Author: Ok, we get it, you worship Jack. Just tell him you love him already.
Everett: WHAT!? W-who are you even??
Author: Your worst nightmare.
Everett: H-huh...
Tabitha: So...uh can I have the day off or..?
Everett/Author: NO!
Author: btw...RIP 'A'
Tabitha: Wait what...647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6sm33u4ewT
