Jay stood over Nine-Toes corps, out of breath with some leftover adrenaline still gently ebbing in his system. The cavern felt stagnant with the echo of the fight diminishing no more snarling or gunshots ringing no nipple cone jangles from a man who ate bricks
Lilith pushed herself upright, wincing as she brushed dirt from her arm. "Well," she muttered, "that was a hell of a first bandit boss."
Jay exhaled slowly. "pandora is wild."
Cortana hummed, voice leveling out after combat mode. "Area threat levels reduced to zero. Recommending sweep for loot and cache containers. Also suggesting Jay drink water."
He blinked. "Why water?"
"You're shaking."
He looked at his hands.
Cortana flickered beside his HUD. "Also, reminder: you still have four unspent skill points. I recommend allocating them before the next major encounter."
Jay blinked. "…I completely forgot about those."
…she was right.
Lilith crouched beside one of the fallen skags, nudging it with the tip of her boot. "Shock variant for sure. Would've fried me if you didn't jump in."
Jay shrugged, trying to play it off. "good teamwork."
She smirked.
Cortana cut in, "If we're done flirting, I've got environmental anomalies pinging to the west alcove. Likely his stash."
Jay froze. "…Flirting?"
Lilith coughed loudly. "Moving on."
They headed deeper into the cave, weapons drawn just in case. Scrap lanterns flickered along the walls, and the air grew colder, thinner.
The alcove opened to a crude camp setup—mattress, metal crates, a gutted machine frame, and a cracked chest with a faded red bandit emblem.
Cortana chimed, "Bingo."
Jay knelt and pried it open.
Inside were:
An uncommon shield with a slow health regen An Uncommon Maliwan SMG with an electric module a few wads of cash and a small orb glowing faint blue
Jay picked up the device. "Orb?"
Lilith shook her head. "Looks old. Pre‑Dahl. Maybe Atlas research?"
Cortana scanned it. "Uncertain. Energy signature is unfamiliar. I advise not touching the glowing part."
Jay was already pressing the Orb.
A hologram flickered. Static. Fragmented audio. A distorted voice whispered:
"It's waking up again… the Engine won't… containment… error in the…"
The projection cut.
Jay swallowed.
Lilith stared at him. "…Anything you wanna explain?"
Jay opened his mouth—
Cortana cut in fast. "Not here. Recommend returning to Fyrestone before reinforcements arrive."
Lilith narrowed her eyes but didn't push. "Fine. Later, Jay. You owe me answers."
Jay Shrugged.
The walk back through the cave systems was calmer—eerily so. With Nine-Toes dead, the bandit scurrying had stopped. No more movement. No more shouting.
Jay realized how quiet Pandora felt without violence.
It was almost peaceful.
When they stepped out into the late‑afternoon glow of Arid Badlands, Jay took a deep breath. "Fresh air. Thank god."
Lilith stretched her arms overhead. "Sunlight's rough, but I'll take it."
Cortana materialized in Jay's visor. "Waypoint set for Fyrestone. Auto‑pathing available. Claptrap remains in the town perimeter and won't be wandering into the wastes."
Jay chuckled. "Thank god for small miracles."
Lilith snorted. "You two really don't get along, huh?"
"He tried to high‑five me with a buzzsaw attachment."
"…Okay yeah, fair."
By the time they reached the rusted gate, the sun was dipping low. The buildings glowed orange in the dusty light.
Jay noticed something immediately—
People were out.
Peeking from windows, stepping onto porches, whispering as the two of them entered.
Lilith murmured, "Looks like Zed didn't keep his mouth shut."
Cortana added, "Correction: Zed told three people, who told nine people, who told thirty‑two. Probability of the entire town knowing by morning: 97%."
Jay rubbed his face. "Great."
A kid ran up, eyes wide. "You're the ones who killed Nine-Toes!"
Jay opened his mouth, but the kid ran off before he could even answer.
"…Hero status unlocked?" Lilith guessed.
Jay shrugged. "Better than psycho target."
Jay walked around seeing the town oddly populated "this is so much weirder now that its more realistic so it would make more sense for people to exist apart from zed and the fucker"
"what do you mean?"
"well in the games this town doesnt have any probably because the game needed to be kept small and walking NPC's would drain it a shit ton" he continued to mutter while exploring "theres even some stuff that was cut from the final game like the mechanic shop which is more centered around appliances and housing than the wack cars"
The clinic door creaked as they stepped inside. Zed turned, elbow‑deep in someone's chest. "Oh good, you're alive. Hold on—" He yanked something metallic from the patient. "—there we go. You'll live. Probably."
The patient groaned.
Jay stared. "…Is that a… brake pad?"
Zed tossed it aside. "People put weird things in their bodies. Anyway! You two look like you got chewed up and spit out. Nine-Toes do a number on you?"
"More like his pets," Lilith said.
Zed waved a hand. "Eh, skags. I got ointments for skag bites. Ain't got ointment for bullet wounds, though. Those you just walk off."
Jay blinked. "…That doesn't sound right at all."
Zed shrugged. "And yet you're alive."
Cortana quietly murmured, "He isn't the most qualified medical practitioner."
Jay whispered, "He's the only medical practitioner."
"Precisely the issue."
Zed clapped his hands. "Well, since you cleared out Nine-Toes, the town can breathe again. Bandits will scatter for a bit. Not forever, but it'll do."
Lilith nodded. "Glad to help."
Jay leaned on the counter, lowering his voice. "Listen… there was something in his stash. Some old tech. You know anything about pre‑Dahl artifacts around here?"
Zed scratched his chin. "Eh… not my area. But there are some ruins north of here. Old alien stuff. Eridian. People've been pokin' at it for years. Nothing good ever comes of it."
Jay exchanged a look with Lilith.
Then Cortana added quietly, "Jay… we're being monitored. Same signature from before."
Jay stiffened.
Lilith's gaze sharpened immediately. "Cortana, where?"
"That's the problem," Cortana replied. "It's not visual. It's audio and environmental."
Jay's eyes narrowed. "Angel."
Lilith blinked. "Who?"
Cortana hesitated.
Jay answered softly, "Someone who should've been spying on us much earlier. Let me quickly discuss something with cortana be right back"
Jay jogs over to a corner peeking around for any cameras or frankly anything that is wired "cortana she was meant to be monitoring the player before even leaving the bus maybe you only picked up the spying now?"
"me the sentient AI from a much more advanced universe not being able to detect a blaring signal coming from off planet and actively searching for radio signals from your voice tune"
'touche but this is so much different than the timeline I am used to but not to the point of my knowledge being useless yet" jay sits down grabbing some metal and beginning to draw a line in the sand "as long as we have the equivalent of main points to follow it should be fine right?"
Far above Pandora—on the fractured moon of Elpis, inside a sealed Hyperion prototype facility—Angel hovered in a containment cradle of soft blue light. Conduits pulsed along the chamber walls, feeding data directly into her mind, her body suspended like a living node in Jack's growing network.
She opened her eyes.
Nine-Toes' death registered as a tremor across the surveillance lattice—a ripple of combat markers, elemental discharges, and a strange, Eridian‑coded flare tied to the artifact Jay had triggered.
Angel whispered, "There it is again… that anomaly."
Footsteps approached on the metal gantry behind her.
"See something interesting?"
She didn't turn. "He's accelerating. His growth curve doesn't match any Siren profile."
Jack stepped into view, leaning casually against the console. His mask flickered with soft teal light—less refined than the one he would wear years later, but unmistakably his.
"Great," Jack said, waving a hand dismissively. "We need someone who can handle the mess down there. If the kid survives long enough, he might actually be useful."
Angel's expression tightened. "Or he'll burn out. Or be killed."
Jack shrugged. "Then we pick someone else. Come on, cupcake. Pandora's full of idiots lining up to die."
Angel looked back at Jay's signal—faint, unstable, threaded with something paradoxical.
Quietly, almost too soft to hear, she whispered:
"hopefully you guys live through this"
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