Author's Note: Here's chapter three! Sorry for the inactivity, I went up north for a few weeks for vacation. xD. But I'm back now, so, expect updates once more. Oh! And I wanted to address my Anonymous reviewer. (: You brought up a good point, but I didn't want to go into an explanation in the story because it would give away something. However, it's not really that big of a deal. You can guess by now which DBZ character has taken on which Borderland's character. Chi-Chi is the Hunter, Bulma is the Siren, Goku is the Soldier, and Vegeta is the Berserker.
If you've noticed, I've never actually mentioned Goku using any type of 'Saiyan' strength. Just Vegeta. They haven't figured it out yet, but Vegeta's 'strength' has nothing to do with his Saiyan genes. Their Saiyan genes have been taken away from them, all of them. That includes invulnerability and their speed. So when Vegeta uses super strength, it's because he's the Berserker, and the Berserker is physically stronger than the other three characters, not because he's retained some of his Saiyan strength. Vegeta just doesn't know the difference, because...well, we haven't gotten that far yet. xD. So Goku and Vegeta do not have their Saiyan speed, strength, or invulnerability. They cannot dodge bullets, nor can they not be affected by the bullets damages. Hope that clears that up. :3 Anyways, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ or anything related to it. I also do not own Borderlands or anything related to it. Everything belongs to its respective owners. I'm just playing around with it for my amusement.
Keep Your Eyes OpenChapter Three: Skags at the Gate
"How did you know we were vault hunters?" Chi-Chi asked him, placing her hands on her hips. Dr. Zed placed his hands up in defense.
"Ain't hard to tell. You might as well be screamin' it. 'Sides, ain't nobody stupid enough take on Sledge's army without a foolish enough reason, and the vault is certainly a foolish enough reason," he said, eyeing her closely before turning to rummage around in a cabinet and turning towards Bulma. "Need that looked at?" he asked her, motioning to her shoulder. Bulma smiled tentatively and walked around the table, leaning against it so he could take a look at her arm.
"I thought they didn't let you cut on people anymore?" she asked him with a raised eyebrow. He looked at her for a moment and shook his head and laughed a little.
"Miss, if a doctor wants to cut on you for a bullet grazing, you best run in the opposite direction," he informed her. Opening the small kit he pulled out an alcohol swipe and wiped the wound clean, ignoring Bulma as she hissed at him in pain. He dipped a long q-tip into a salve tube and rubbed it onto the wound, and then placed a thin and clear bandage over it. "This salve will do wonders for any wound you got," he told her, putting the stuff away. "All done."
"Thanks you. And it's Mrs., not Miss," she told him with a small smile and heading back over to Goku, who was inspecting the vending machine up against the wall and taking a look at it. Chi-Chi was poking around the next room with Vegeta, pulling back a sheet on the table and yelling out in alarm.
"Why the hell do you have a corpse in here?" Vegeta asked Zed, glaring at him.
"Vegeta, don't be so rude. He's a doctor. It's not uncommon for them to use bodies," Bulma told him, smiling a little at Zed. "That's my husband, Vegeta. He's a bit of an ass. I'm Bulma," she said, introducing herself and ignoring Vegeta's heated glare towards her.
"I'm Goku, and that's my wife Chi-Chi," Goku said with a friendly smile. Zed nodded to all of them all, and noticed Chi-Chi was still staring oddly at the corpse.
"Skag wounds," he said, catching her attention. "That's what killed him. Well, not the wounds themselves, but the infections. Idiot didn't heal himself after being bitten. Figured he wouldn't mind of I used his body to help strengthen the vaccine against skag diseases," he explained. She nodded, not knowing what a skag was but figuring it was some kind of animal, and looked around the room. Her eyes landed on a medium sized dark brown leather canvas bag and her eyes lit up as she grabbed it and brushed the dust off of it.
"Hey, are you using this for anything?" Chi-Chi asked him, a smile on her face. Zed shook his head.
"You can have it if you want," he told her. She thanked him and opened it up, turning it upside town and quickly brushing out any dirt that had collected in the bag. She took out the ammo she had in her pocket and stuffed it into the bag, and then went around collecting everyone else's ammo they'd collected.
"There. Now we can carry any supplies we get in here," she told them, lacing her fingers with Goku's and leaning against him. This was all still crazy to her, but she was getting the hang of it.
"What do you know about the vault?" Bulma asked, crossing her arms and leaning against the vending machine, which appeared to her to be broken. Dr. Zed looked at her with almost lazy eyes as he went back to looking at something on his table in a dish under a microscope.
"I know that people die when they start lookin' for it," he told her. "The vault is said to be somewhere on Pandora, and to hold many things within it. Nothin' I've ever been interested in, mind you. Then again, I'm not looking to get myself killed."
"Good thing we aren't looking for your permission," Vegeta said hotly, earning a glare from Bulma. Zed looked at him out of the corner of his eye and chuckled a little, and Bulma wondered what kind of expression he wore underneath the large medical mask he was wearing.
"Don't matter now does it? You can't get anywhere near the vault with Sledge running the show," he told them, as if that was supposed to mean something.
"Sledge?" Goku asked, raising an eyebrow.
"He's the head of all the bandits in Fyrestone and…well, damn near everywhere else for that matter. 'Course the bastard holes himself up in his warehouse, keeping the key to the warehouse location in the safe house, which is in the Arid Hills. And that's not including Nine-Toes and Bone Head that are right here in Fyrestone, two of his head bandit leaders. I would say that Bone Head is the more dangerous threat as he's pretty much next door, but I still think that damn Nine-Toes in the Skag Gully is causing more problems," Zed finished.
"None of that makes any sense," Bulma told him, unable to hold back some of her annoyance. Zed let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and staring at the four travelers.
"I suppose you'll learn of it one way or another. Especially if you're looking for the vault. Look, no matter what you're wanting to do, the gate that leads to the rest of Arid Badlands has been closed off," Zed told them, shaking his head a little. "There's a damn skag den right outside, and trust me, you don't want a pack of skags roaming around."
"What's a skag?" Chi-Chi asked him, her eyebrows furrowing a little. Zed eyed her like she had just grown two heads.
"Where the hell are you guys from?" Zed asked, grunting as he stood up and went into the next room. He rummaged around for something and then came back in with a medium sized skull of…something. None of the four travelers knew what the hell it was, to be honest. "This is the skull of a skag," he informed them, pointing towards what Bulma assumed was it's jaw and teeth.
"They're four legged animals, scavengers, vultures, and aggressive as all hell. They eat everythin'. What they can't digest gets thrown back up. They form dens and packs and defend the area with everythin' they got. Skag pups are pretty small, but still can cause you some problems. That's not including the larger skags, the spitter skags that shoot venom at you, the elder skags which got this long ass tongue they use as a whip, the alpha skags which are skags on steroids, and the badass skags, which use elemental effects on you," he finished.
"They sound horrible," Chi-Chi said with a frown. Dr. Zed placed the skull down and went back around to the table, shrugging a little.
"Alright, so where do we start?" Bulma asked him.
"First thing's first, you'll need to open the gate at the end of Fyrestone. It leads out into the rest of the badlands, but it's been locked up tight. Like I said, Bone Head is right next door and there's a skag den right outside the gate. Take care of them for me, and come back. Then I'll see about hooking you guys up with some shields," Zed said, shaking his head. "Damn morons, runnin' around without shields. Askin' for death," he muttered under his breath. Goku smiled a little and shook his head. He was starting to warm up to Zed. "Claptrap should lead you to the gate, not that it's that far," Zed said with a shrug, going back to his work. The four left the Doc's place and headed back out into the small town. Apart from Zed, the group guessed that he was the only one still there.
"I liked him," Goku said suddenly, a smile on his face. Vegeta rolled his eyes.
"Of course you do," he muttered, noticing Claptrap wheeling up to them.
"You have your first mission! Now that you have one, you will notice a new icon has appeared on your Heads Up Display. That's a waypoint, the waypoint will tell you where you need to go, depending on what mission is currently active. I suggest you keep a mission log!" Claptrap said, sounding overly excited. "Now that we're done with that, please follow me, and I'll open the gate for you," he said, turning to wheel around and go the other way. The group followed him, wary of what was ahead of them. The gate wasn't really that far away, but directly away from the 'houses' was a graveyard of sorts. Instead of headstones, however, lay crosses made of sticks and tires. Once they had reached the gate, Claptrap moved to head to the keypad, until shooting could be heard.
Vegeta tensed and looked around, aiming his gun. A vehicle drove by and shot a large rocket out of a cannon and the four ducked to the ground. Claptrap, unfortunately, wasn't as lucky. The gate got a lot of the rocket, but a section still smashed into the center of the robot and sent him onto his back as four bandits climbed over the walls and started shooting at them. A few metal sheets were standing up in the ground that the four took for cover, Bulma eyeing Claptrap. Vegeta shot around the corner of the metal sheet and shot the bandit, the bullet hitting the bandit in the chest. Goku ducked out as well and ran towards one of the bandits, ducking underneath the guy's gun and jumping onto his chest, the bandit's back hitting the ground and Goku landing on top of him.
"Sorry!" Goku yelled, pointing his revolver at the guy's neck and pulling the trigger with a disgusted face.
"Don't apologize to the enemy!" Vegeta yelled at him, shaking his head. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Vegeta asked, throwing a bandit over his shoulder that jumped to attack him. The bandit that he threw landed back first against the metal sheet the girls were crouching behind, Chi-Chi jumping clear over it and roundhouse kicking the bandit. She shot him in the chest twice as Bulma made her way over to Claptrap, ignoring the commotions around her. Vegeta killed the last bandit as Bulma looked at Claptrap. It looked like the rocket had an electrical effect and caused the Claptrap's wire to circuit out. However, it was still activated and moaning, as if it was in pain.
"Claptrap?" Bulma asked him, pulling back the chest plate covering a section to look at the wiring. She ignored the dull throbbing the electric wiring caused against her fingertips and took a look inside. She had seen a similar design, and she had a feeling she could fix him. Goku winced in pain and stumbled backwards, his hand gripping his head for a moment.
"Goku?" Chi-Chi asked, eyes worrying as she approached him and placed a hand on his arm.
"I'm alright," Goku informed her, turning to look at Vegeta who had a knowing look on his face.
"There should be something around here to fix Claptrap," Goku said out loud, walking back towards the small town. Bulma looked at him with a frown and then down at Claptrap.
"Could you take a look then? I'm going to stay with him," she called out.
"You get attached to robots more than you get attached to animals," Vegeta grumbled out, stepping closer to his wife and crouching down next to her to take a look at the damage. Bulma smiled but didn't disagree.
"Shut it, you wouldn't have me any other way," she countered. She took his silence as a confirmation, but he quickly came up with his own come back.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. If it were the other way around, you would insist on getting as many as possible. At which point I'd have to kill them, and possibly you, too," he answered. Bulma glared at him slightly.
"If you haven't killed me yet, you're not going to," Bulma retorted, earning a snort from her husband.
"You just haven't outlasted your usefulness yet," Vegeta responded. Chi-Chi stood behind them and shook her head.
"You guys are the weirdest couple, ever," she announced, feeling content and happy that she had Goku as her husband. Bulma laugh but didn't disagree. She and Vegeta weren't exactly 'normal' when it came to their relationship. Goku came back with a rusty toolbox in his hand, setting it next to Bulma.
"Wow, good find Goku!" Bulma said smiling, opening up the kit and pulling out a few tools. This would definitely be enough to patch up Claptrap. Bulma went to work, zoning out everyone else around her. Vegeta watched quietly, not really interested, but having nothing else to do. Bulma wouldn't leave until Claptrap was fixed, and Vegeta wouldn't leave unless Bulma was leaving with him. Meanwhile, Goku and Chi-Chi headed to the gate that was a few feet a way, taking a look out. It looked like the town did, only even more like a wasteland. There was a patchy road in front of the gate that led left and right, and in front of them was a small bowl shaped crater in the ground, a pile of rocks with a hole in it the center of it at the back of it. Goku frowned while looking at it, noticing an odd looking creature coming out and circling around.
"I think those are the skags," Goku said quietly, motioning towards them. Chi-Chi looked out as well and frowned, taking in their appearance.
"Their hideous, and they look mean," she whispered, remembering what Dr. Zed had said about them. She couldn't deny that she was a little afraid of them, and she gripped Goku's hand for a moment. He pulled her away from the gate and closer to himself, bringing a hand up to cup her face as he leaned in and kissed her softly for a moment.
"I'd never let anything or anyone hurt you, Chi. You know that," he said quietly. Chi-Chi smiled and kissed her husband again, regaining her calm one more.
"I do know that," she told him after pulling back, smiling up at him. Goku gave her his signature grin, causing her to laugh and shake her head as the walked back to Bulma and Vegeta, Bulma taking a handful of tools out and picking through the rest with disproval.
"Chi-Chi, could you place these in the bag? So we have them just in case?" Bulma asked, handing her the tools in her hands. Chi-Chi opened up the bag and took the tools from her, and Bulma closed up the casing over Claptrap and tapped on the screen. The light dulled for a second before brightening, and Claptrap sprang up from the ground, startling even Bulma, who laughed, however.
"Sweet! I fixed him!" Bulma said with a proud smile. Claptrap thanked Bulma, and then wheeled over to the gate, whistling a tune as he opened it up.
"Ta-da! Thank you for visiting Fyrestone! Farewell traveler, and be sure to say 'hello' to all the friendly Claptraps that await you on Pandora! I shall not continue my fascinating research on the wondrous properties of sand!" Claptrap exclaimed, saluting the group before heading back towards town. Vegeta stared at the retreating robot and shook his head.
"So much for fixing him. I think you made him crazy. Your talent, after all," Vegeta said with a smirk, unable to resist the urge to anger the blue haired heiress. Bulma, in return, glared heatedly at Vegeta and crossed her arms.
"I promise, if I can rewire Claptrap to be crazy, I can rewire you to be my obedient little puppy," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. Before Vegeta could respond, there was a low growling behind the group, and they turned to see a skag standing in front of them. Light brown in color and covered in dark brown armored scales on their head and upper body, they looked fearsome, and a little gross. And then it opened its mouth and let out a startling roar, making Bulma and Chi-Chi take a step backwards. Vegeta, however, looked puzzled.
"It's mouth…it looks like…" he started, trailing off and not finishing his sentence. The skag pounced at them and the group backed up, shooting at it. This caught the attention of the other four skags in the den, sending all four of them rushing towards the group. They were all the same size, however, so Bulma hoped it wouldn't be too bad. These must be the whelps or adolescent type skags. Honestly, they were no bigger than full-grown lap dog.
"This isn't so bad, if we shoot at long distance," Chi-Chi said, backing up and taking another shot. The armor around their heads and upper body worked well, but the skag that was stalking Chi-Chi gave up on the stalking and suddenly leaped. It was such a distance that Chi-Chi wasn't expecting it, and screamed as the skag opened it's mouth and nearly took a bite out of her shoulder. Fortunately, Goku's close proximity allowed him to react quickly as he shoved the butt end of his gun into the side of the skag, sending it crashing to the ground and shooting it in the back, where it was uncovered by the armor. That being the last one, Goku gave it a weird look.
"Is it just me, or did the mouth look like a—" he trailed off; noticing Vegeta was nodding his head with a disgusted face.
"But with teeth," Vegeta said, looking down at the dead creatures.
"Gross. You alright, Chi?" Goku asked her. She nodded.
"Yeah, it just startled me. I didn't know they could jump that far," she answered. "Anyways, I guess we should go back to Zed. I don't think those shields are a bad idea."
"I agree," Bulma said, looking towards Chi-Chi. "I also think we need to find some sort of small carrying case for all four of us. You can have all the supplies and stuff in your bag, but we each need to find something that'll carry ammo for our guns," she suggested.
"How long is this going to take?" Goku suddenly asked, raising an eyebrow. Bulma shrugged.
"How should I know? Let's just get going," she said, turning and walking back through the makeshift graveyard. The others followed her, Chi-Chi getting one last look at the dead skags and frowning. Goku had asked a good question. The Vault was, undoubtedly, very hard to find. If it existed at all.
Just how long were they supposed to keep this up?