Peacock's Story

After the milkshake, a baseball flew out and struck Claptrap right in the lens.

"There, that should add some variety!"

Over in one corner, a young lady clad in a fuchsia dress is quietly puffing a thick cigar, clenched between a beartrap grin. She adjusts her stovepipe top hat with a big white-gloved hand on one of her mechanical eye-lined arms. The other hand is clenching an oversized revolver, with fresh smoke coming from the barrel.

"AAHHHHH!!! I CAN'T SEE!!!!!"

Claptrap waves his arms widly and runs around in circles before he trips on the floor. Leilanie snickers at Claptrap's misfortune before takes a bite out of her sundae. Claptrap is getting up and takes the baseball out of his eye, but yelped as he sees Peacock carrying an oversized revolver.

"What the hell is your problem, lady?! You just spoiled my good mood right after I greet the villagers."

The young lady, Peacock, stowed her gun away behind her back (literally).

"Geez, can't ya take a ball to the face like a man?" Peacock snarked. "Heh, guess they cut some corners when they made you."

"OR they would've made better design choices for your arms! Besides, I am a highly advanced robot! All CL4P-TP general purpose robots are capable for self-defense. They can us as shields, but they can't take away our dignity."

Leilanie scoffs at Claptrap's "defensive statement".

"If you are capable of defense, then why did you run around like an idiot thinking that baseball would kill you?" Leilanie questioned Claptrap.

"Oh. That's more of a strategic method called 'playing dead'".

"MY arms?" Peacock retorted as the robotic eyes on her arms all leered at Claptrap. "I'll have ya know these beauts see EVERYTHING. And they can fry everything if they wanted to."

"Why can I have something like that???" Claptrap asked Peacock. It seems like he wants something similar to her's.

Peacock chuckled at Claptrap's complaint. "Well hey, not all bots are created equ - "

Just then, the news came on on the TV.

"A strange symbol has been discovered by explorers. They say that the symbol is unknown, but it may have the key to something whether it is good or bad. But its purpose remains unsolved as we have no idea why it's there. That's all for today- and now we will resume your program."

This news has caught Peacock's intrigue, that's for sure.

Leilanie hears the news of a strange symbol. She gets off her seat and left her sundae alone. Whatever she hears about a mysterious object, that catches her eyes. She brushes off herself with a small smile on her face.

"Forget the sundae~ there's a sweeter thing going out there. And if any of you guys try to get to Mt. Moon before me..." Leilanie pulls out her dagger, "-Oh, you don't want to go there. I promise you all that~"

Leilanie leaves the cafe and is now leaving Tracgam. She is on her way to Mt. Moon. Meanwhile, Claptrap sees opportunity when he hears the news of a mysterious symbol. If he can't be respected as a mere robot, maybe he can get respect as a fabled, yet dependent treasure hunter.

"That's it! That's the answer to all my everyday problems!" Claptrap spoke with an idea, "I will begin my quest for power, glory, and respect! I just need to find out what that symbol is all about. Can it be that it is the start of a treasure... or better?! Who knows?! I must go out and find out!"

The same commoner throws a second milkshake at Claptrap.

"I appreciate your feedback, fleshbag! But things will about to change when I claim it all!"

Peacock wasn't scared at all by Leilanie's threat. If anything, it just made her even more intrigued in the treasure.

"Wise guy, are ya? Well, she just put me in the mood for some treasure acquisition!" Peacock stated, twirling her gun. "Hey, Canner! What say we beat that smart-aleck to Mt. Moon? I've checked it out before, so I got a first-class route to it!"

Peacock shut one eye, summoning a portal in the floor in front of herself and Claptrap.

"Hey! Wait for me! I got a destiny to fulfill!"

Claptrap enters the same portal that Peacock went into. The commoners in the cafe show their disbelief that Claptrap will succeed. As for the fabled explorers, their journey is about to begin...

"So long, palookas!" Peacock hopped into the portal as well, which closed up behind her.

A hole-like portal opened up on the mountain's exterior. Out of it came Peacock, hopefully followed by Claptrap.

"Okay, so don't get me wrong - I'm fully capable of gettin' that treasure myself. However, you looked like ya needed a lift for your spirits, so I...Listen, if you tell anyone I was nice to you, then so help me...!"

"Okay okay! Don't use your surrealist pectorals on me! But still- this could be my biggest moment! An endangered Claptrap unit is on a quest for the biggest badass discovery in history!" Claptrap is excited to hear this. But he hears a voice from faraway.

"Heyoo!"

There is a rather unique bandit who happens to be Claptrap's friend. His name is Steve, and despite him saying "heyoo" all the time, he likes to tag along with Claptrap. They sometimes have their differences, but they are actually best friends.

"Steve! You're just in time to join the beginning of our epic quest! I have indirectly recruited a minion that will help me progress our quest to discover... err... Seriously, what's with the symbol?"

Steve is about to answer, but Captain Qwark arrives all by himself. Maybe he should've brought his cadets along, but he is too excited to find out the mysteries of the symbol. But one

"The symbol calls for the hero's arrival." Qwark assumes, "And it has reserved the spot for yours truly."

"You? Hah! A real hero would have to wrestle a spiked flaming Skag with hand tied behind his or her back!" Claptrap backsasses Qwark like he wants to deal with him, "Besides, you have to have a better weapon than just your flimsy primitive ray gun."

Then Leilanie Sowanaga arrives in the scene of the meeting. She crosses her arms in front of the others with a cocky look on her face. Claptrap, Qwark, and Steve respond her gesture with their own; Qwark raises his eyebrow and give her the snarky look, Claptrap shows the "loser" gesture, and Steve shrugs off and speaks out "Heyoo!".

"That's-a what you think!"

Wario skidded in on his bike. It was a rather rough skid, though, resulting in him getting toppled off his ride. "Oof - !" Fawful rode in on his rocket-pad.

"{sigh} Your feeble attempts for coolness are highly laughable," Fawful remarked.

Peacock pointed at every opponent present. "Alright, listen here!" she hissed. "If any of you mugs think you're gonna beat OUR team to that treasure, you're sorely mistaken!"

"Then I'm afraid that you have to take back ya said, sweetie!" Then came into the scene is Big Bandit Pete, the leader of the Meanie Bunch, "This here's treasure is gonna be ours, while you get diddly squat!"

"I should've expected you be here, Pete." Leilanie is not very happy to see him, "Whenever something big and epic is coming, you and your cronies came in at the worst possible time. Everyone knows that the treasure belongs to me."

"I think you need to snap yourself into the darkest parts of reality, girl! The treasure will bring me the boobies!" Claptrap speaks.

"No way, the treasure is supposed to help me get back on the right track," Captain Qwark remarks, "Also, they are expecting a VIP treasure hunter like myself."

"No, this treasure belongs to me!" Pete yells.

"It's mine!" Leilanie screams.

"The treasure calls hears my voice and wants me to come over" Captain Qwark claims it.

"I guess we must settle this conflict in a MEXICAN STANDOFF TO THE DEATH!!!" Claptrap calls this moment and he and the treasure hunters pull out their weapons. But Claptrap doesn't have any. "STEVE!" Claptrap cried, and Steve pulls out the bazooka and aims at the group.

Just as Steve aimed his rifle, a nearby rock turned from gray to red, and unfurled - wait, it's not a rock! It's a cloak! And its wearer has come out of hiding, leaping toward Steve with twin-blades blazing!

"How selfish of you all!" she shouted as she struck Steve's rifle back. "You've all such petty reasons. I don't see how any of you can be trusted with such a haul - "

She was soon interrupted by Peacock, whose gun protruded a large red robot arm, striking at her left arm and knocking away her blade. "That's MY lackey yer strikin', Hoodie!"

Wario and Fawful turned their attention to Leilanie. "Well, they're busy. What say we give-a the lady a proper greeting, eh?" Wario said to Fawful. "I say yes!" Fawful replied. Wario charged at Leilanie while Fawful flew at her with his rocket-pad, phaser at the ready.

Leilanie jumps over Wario to dodge his attacks and took out her kunai to toss them at Fawful's rocket-pad. With the rocket-pad impaled by the kunai, it explodes greatly that causes Fawful to fall off. Big Bandit Pete cracks his knuckles as he is about to pummel Claptrap. His victim starts to panic since he is does not have any weapons, so he cowardly run around in circles. With Steve as Claptrap's bodyguard, he tackles Pete. Captain Qwark gives Peacock an uppercut of justice.

Fawful leaps off his rocket-pad and fires several homing star shots at Leilanie. Wario leaps up and grabs Leilanie by the leg. "Gotcha! Ahahaha!"

Struck by Qwark's uppercut, Peacock is launched into the air. "Why, I oughta...!" From out of nowhere, she pulls several "George" bombs and hurdles them below toward Qwark.

"So presumptuous..." The cloaked lady aimed a finger at the lost blade, causing it to hover and fly back to her, striking anyone that tries to get in its way. She catches the blade, and rushes at Claptrap and Steve.

Captain Qwark catches the bombs and throws them back at Peacock with style. But he is caught off guard by Big Bandit Pete, and another bomb hits Qwark. Pete puts Qwark down and charges Peacock with his big fat fist. Claptrap screams in fear as he runs for his life and trying to get away from Red. Steve also runs, but throws a sticky grenade at Red. Leilanie pulls Wario with her leg and uses him as a human shield. Wario takess damage from Fawful's homing star shots.

As they continue to brawl over who gets the treasure, Leilanie senses that the symbol is glowing. The symbol from the ground is displaying holographic icons. The hologram's icon is a tree with the infinity symbol. Then the icon switches into a depressed ghost. Leilanie guesses that the clue is located in the Shadow Forest. There is a key visible on the symbol which can be obtained to the quickest treasure hunter.

To escape, she quickly makes her way to the key from the symbol and captures the for herself. Then she pulls her smoke bomb out of her pocket and throws down on the ground, creating a large smoke around the group.

"Heyoo?" Steve spoke.

"I can't see a thing!!!" Qwark coughs, "And I thought robots are supposed to have manners!"

"I RESENT THAT REMARK!!!" Claptrap screams.

The cloaked lady slides under the sticky grenade and launches a large blade of water magic at Steve. Peacock bats any incoming bombs back at Qwark and Pete. Wario gets hit by Fawful's shots, the latter becoming embarrassed by this mishap.

Then, the symbol glowed. This caught the cloaked lady's attention.

"(Tree...infinity...somber ghost...)"

Right about here, Leilanie swiped the key and made her smokescreen escape.

"!!!" The cloaked lady veiled her face with her cloak, blocking out the smoke. "{cough} Unfortunate..." However, she pondered over the clues presented by the emblem.

"(Let's see...a somber wooded area with the illusion of infinity...Ah! The Shadow Forest!)" She turned back to the others (Peacock, Wario, and Fawful were stunned by smoke). "Well amateurs, this was fun, but it seems the Red Riding Hood must be moving now, too!" With that, the lady, Red Riding Hood, veiled herself in her cloak and dashed off into the distance.