Hello and welcome to Dead Man's Hand! Part 3 in the Shattered Illusions story. If you haven't read parts 1 or 2 yet, well what are you waiting for!? Go read them, this will still be here when you get back. For those of you up to date, it's wonderful to see you all again. I do sincerely hope you enjoy or latest venture with Ava and Knox. So without further ado, I present to you Chapter 1!
May 14, 2280
14:00
REPCONN Test Sight
Nothing made sense.
And not in an, "I'm a little confused by this," sort of way. The current situation defied all probability. Not a single event that had happened in the past few hours could even be remotely described as a reasonable and logical scenario.
It just made no sense.
It didn't make sense that there was suddenly an oddly blue and most inconveniently invisible super mutant trying to kill her. The incoherent ramblings of the blue mutant made little sense either; something about tearing off her wings and eating them, or some such nonsense.
The delusional prophet and his Great Journey were ridiculous. His followers' absolute faith, including those who had no business being faithful, defied all comprehension.
And most of all, the fact that Ava was currently wandering the dismal labs beneath a rocket test site for no other reason than to help a group of hopefully spacefaring ghouls leave this planet behind. That was the most ridiculous of all.
Of all the twists and turns her life had taken, none were quite us disturbingly random as this. It was too damn much for her to handle. If it weren't for Knox…
Knox.
That motherfucker was dead. As in soon to be not living. There was no way he didn't immediately know what the ghouls had meant by "invisible demons". Bastard knew everything about the Mojave. This was his idea of a joke. Ava swore to herself she'd show him her own idea of joke, assuming she got out of this basement alive. It would be so goddamned funny to shove her fist in Knox's mouth and break his nose from the inside of his face.
Fucking hilarious.
Ava grit her teeth as she dived over another of the blue giant's swings with its large, crudely fashioned club. The chunk of cement on the end of the rebar left a dent in the metal wall. Ava glanced behind her. The dent was in the exact space her head had recently vacated. Wonderful.
"Pull out all your feathers! And then eat your feathers!" the mutant bellowed as he lifted it high above his head to smash Ava into little meaty bits, or feathers depending on who you asked. She rolled to the side as the club dropped down. Rising to one knee, Ava whipped Clarity out of its sheathe in a violent, one-handed cross stroke. Blood welled from the mutant's thighs and it howled in pain and anger. Ava jumped up swinging the sheathe and sword in a violent one-two strike. The mutant stumbled back as the reinforced sheathe slammed into its jaw followed shortly by the blade slicing up and across its face, blinding it momentarily.
"Aghhhh! Little bird peck, peck, PECKING! Can't see the bird, can't SMASH THE BIRD!"
Ava jerked back unsteadily as the mutant dropped his club and began waving his arms back and forth, searching for her blindly. She stumbled on her heel and started to fall over backwards, dropping Clarity in the process, but the mutant's groping hands found purchase on her hair and hauled her up by her neatly arranged Mohawk.
Ava hissed in pain and frustration, it had taken nearly an hour to get it up perfect and now the insane mutant was ruining it!
"Hands. Off. The. HAWK!" Each word was punctuated by a sharp punch to the face, but the mutant gave no indication of feeling the blows.
Instead he just held her at arm's length. Her range being significantly less than his, her swings fell on empty air. With his eyes closed, the mutant leaned in towards her and roared, "HAWK! IT IS A BIRD!"
Ava scrunched her nose at the scent of stale meat and rot that leaked out of the mutant's mouth. She reached her hands up to grab onto his wrist and take the weight of her hair and swing her knees up into the jaw of the mutant.
The mutant's jaw snapped shut on his tongue and he released Ava in shock. Ava flipped over backwards, sliding Perforator off her back. She landed hard on her butt in a doorway, but still managed to raise the rifle as the mutant stomped towards her, now screaming completely unintelligibly.
Her finger gently squeezed the trigger and shot after shot rocked into the mutant's body until it fell flat on its face directly in front of her. The floor shook as the hulking figure slammed into the ground. Ava watched it cautiously for a few more moments, making sure it was dead.
Once she was sure, she rose to her feet and gathered up her sword, sliding it back into her belt. She kicked the mutant's corpse and gave it a hearty, "fuck you."
"What? Not gonna flip it… the bird?" a voice drawled out of her PipBoy's radio, followed by chuckles.
She was right. Knox thought this was all hilarious.
"Fuck you too," she spat back at him before turning her radio off. She found a camera pointed directly at her and gave it the finger instead. Bastard was probably watching her do all the heavy lifting.
She turned her back on the camera and stepped through the doorway she'd fallen in. She gave a startled yelp as another mutant materialized out of thin air in front of her. Man, that was jarring. Did people feel like that when she decloaked in front of them?
The mutant swung a massive arm at her, connecting solidly in her chest. The air whooshed out of her lungs as she flew back into the hallway and collided with the wall. She slid down to the floor, dazed.
"Huh. I left a dent next to the dent," she slurred as she looked up at the pair of dents on the wall with swimming vision. As the mutant stepped into the hall with her, her eyes focused right quick and widened as it hurled its club at her. She twisted to the side, narrowly dodging the heavy projectile and scurried to her feet, tearing off as fast as she could from the mutant.
She twisted and turned through the myriad corridors until she was able to duck inside an open door and hide behind its frame. Her eyes flicked to the side nervously waiting for the blue monster to follow her in, but instead she heard the sound of its heavy foot plants go right by the door.
Ava let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding.
Until she heard, "What's that, Antler? We have a visitor?"
Her eyes slowly rose to meet the startled gaze of yet another mutant.
Well, fuck.
Earlier that day
09:00
Novac
Beds were undoubtedly the best thing in existence.
At least this was what the semi-conscious mind of Ava Mitchell decided as she snuggled deeper into the mountain of pillows and continued to drool the morning away in blissful sleep.
Nothing could beat beds and nothing could get her out of this bed.
Rapid knocking on the door shattered that wonderful dream real fast.
Ava buried her face into the bed and groaned, hoping that the knocking would go away of its own volition. That was not the case. If anything it got louder and even faster. With another frustrated groan she tossed the covers off herself and stretched languidly like a cat. If the knocking wasn't going to stop then it sure as shit was going to wait for her to be ready.
With a sigh and one last longing look at the pillows, Ava got out of bed and crossed the room to the door, pulling her underwear into its intended position as she went.
As she walked, her toes splayed out on the plush carpeting of the Novac bungalow and she daintily stepped over the various gear strewn around the room. It was remarkably well kept. The owner must have kept it readily maintained.
The night before when they'd arrived in town Knox had pulled a key out of one of his many pockets and ushered her in. However, she suspected the room was not always his. It was far too cleanly to belong to the Courier. However, his or not, Knox had kindly enough let her have the bed and he'd crashed on the couch. That being said, he was nowhere to seen at the moment and she had a growing suspicion that it was him tapping on the door as obnoxiously as possible.
She grabbed Perforator which was propped up next to the door with one hand and ripped the door open with the other. She stumbled back, staggered by the bright morning light and quickly retreated to the dim recesses of the room.
"Good morning, Ava," Knox greeted cordially, "Nice, to see you awake on this fine day." He crossed the room and plopped down at the small table next to the kitchenette. He dropped a greasy, brown paper bag on the table and began pulling his gloves off.
Ava struggled to reply with a half-hearted, "I'm gonna hurt you," but the threat was interrupted by a large yawn as she slid back into the bungalow's bed still clutching Perforator.
She quickly closed her eyes again, but soon she heard the crinkling of the bag and a wonderful smell assaulted her nostrils.
Ooooh. That clever bastard. Oh no, she wasn't going to fall that easily. She'd resist. Her stomach growled loudly, easily audible in the quiet room.
Traitorous body.
Ava lifted her head from the pillow lightly to glare at Knox who was smiling broadly at her while pulling sandwiches out of the greasy bag and two cups of what smelled like…
Coffee.
Her eyes brightened as her gaze locked on the coffee Knox had. Having caught her look, Knox lifted one of the cups and said, "Oh don't let me bother you, go right back to sleep. More for me."
As he went to sip from the paper cup, Perforator puffed once quietly. The bullet tore through the cup and spilled hot coffee into Knox's lap.
"Ack! You malicious bitch!" he cried hopping out of his chair and dashing to the sink, as Ava slid out of bed and sat down at the table to begin eating her breakfast.
The bread was slightly stale and the meat was of an unknown origin, but in short it was definitely a much more delicious way to wake up than say a tin of InstaMash. Knox cautiously approached the table, wiping his front down with a damp rag. He was leery of her spilling more hot beverages on him. To put his mind at ease, Ava reached for the now lone cup of coffee and took a sip from it.
Knox sighed in relief and sat back down at the table to help himself to his own sandwich. They munched in silence for a few seconds until Ava had had sufficient time to demolish her meal (all of a minute).
As she finished chewing she asked through a mouthful of food, "What's the plan today?"
Knox took a moment to swallow and clear his mouth before answering, "Well, we're headed to the 188 Trading Post. I've got someone I want to meet. She should be there."
"Ooooo, a she? Got a special lady?" Ava teased.
Knox gave a short laugh. "She's not my type, or rather, I guess I'm not her type. Anyway if we make good time we can hopefully make it there by the end of the day."
"Sounds good, are we-"
Ava's question was interrupted by yet more knocking on the door. However, in stark contrast to Knox's repetitive rapping, this knock was just three short bangs.
Raising an eyebrow and glancing to Knox, Ava asked, "Expecting someone?"
Knox shook his head, one hand already straying towards his pistol. Ava rolled her eyes and pushed herself away from the table to go answer the door.
"You paranoid maniac," she called Knox, before stumbling over her backpack on the ground. Quickly righting herself, she grasped the door handle and opened it once more.
Standing slightly bewildered on the step was an olive skinned man, sporting a thin goatee and a red beret. His eyes flicked down to Ava's breasts and hovered just long enough for Ava to notice.
"Eye's up," she snapped.
The man's eyes returned to her face with a bashful look. However, Ava could tell the look wasn't genuine, not mention he kept sneaking glances. Maybe she should put pants on.
"Er- yeah, hi, how you doing? Is Knox here?"
The man rattled through the pleasantries rapidly to get to his question. His eyes had also resumed their roaming.
"Why do you want to know?" Ava asked sharply, wrapping her arms over her chest and staring the man down.
"Hm?" the man said distractedly. "Oh right, one of the merchants said Knox bought some supplies from him this morning. I was hoping to have a chat."
"Is that Manny Vargas?" shouted Knox from the back of the bungalow.
Ava looked to the man questioningly. He nodded. "Yeah, it is," she called back.
"What's he want?"
Again Ava looked to Manny. Manny rolled his eyes at the ludicrous form of communication that the Courier and some strange girl were putting him through, but answered nonetheless.
"I'm looking for a favor."
"He said he's looking for a-"
"I heard him!"
Knox was silent for a few moments. Manny shifted uncomfortably under Ava's unwavering gaze. The two of them waited for Knox's answer.
"Tell him to go fuck himself!"
Manny's eyes widened in surprise and he opened his mouth to protest, but Ava put a hand on his chest and pushed him away.
"Sorry, you heard him. Go fuck yourself," she said cheerily and waved farewell as she shut the door in his face with a loud bang. She turned to Knox. "So who's Manny Vargas?"
"I'm the guy still standing outside your door," came Manny's muffled voice through the door. Ava kicked the wood to silence him.
"He's the guy who likes holding information over unfortunate amnesiacs' heads until they do something for him," explained Knox.
Ava cocked her head to the side as she rummaged around on the floor trying to find her stealth suit. "Amnesiacs? Wait a minute… you?"
"Bingo."
"Hey, he wanted to know where someone went, I asked him to check out some ghouls before I told him," Manny's voice pierced the door again. His self-defense would have been more admirable to Ava if she wasn't watching Knox make a gagging face as he crossed the room.
"Manny wanted me to oust some sort of harmless cult."
"A harmless cult that you didn't oust and now people are going missing! Wouldn't it have been great if you'd just done the job properly the first time? Now I have missing people to deal with."
"Manny, if you don't leave or just shut up," he said as he drew A Light Shining In Darkness and aiming it at chest height at the door, "I'm going to start shooting through the door. Again, it's your choice. I don't really care what you do as long as I don't have to keep hearing your voice."
Ava smirked as she finally found her clothes and began to dress herself.
"It's obvious you don't care, Knox. That's why I have a cult kidnapping people!"
Knox pulled the door open and put the barrel of his pistol to Manny's forehead. To his credit Manny did not blink and stared Knox dead in the eyes.
"You are an appallingly manipulative person, you know that right?" Knox said to Manny.
From inside the Bungalow Ava called, "From him that's quite the insult!"
Knox pursed his lips, but didn't fall for the taunt. Instead he focused on Manny again. "I want you to know, I'm not going to go check on the cult because you asked me to. I hate you. I'm going to on the slim chance that what you're telling me is true and I can help Novac. But if I go up to REPCONN and everything is fine, I'm going to come back here and punch you in the face as hard as I can and I am really looking forward to that."
Manny shrugged with a contented smile. "Fine by me. I'm not exactly worried about getting punched. I hope that tells you something about the gravity of the situation."
Knox thought on that for a moment before nodding and conceding the point to Manny. "True. Maybe I'm not going to get to punch you after all. Hmmmm."
Manny smirked smugly. Knox looked back into the bungalow.
"Hey, Ava?" he yelled.
"What?" she replied.
"Manny wants to know how much a night with you costs.
"WHAT!?" screamed Ava.
"What?" asked Manny in total confusion.
Ava stormed out of the bungalow, pushing past a childishly grinning Knox and slugged Manny across the cheek. The startled man fell backwards into the dirt.
Ava leaned down over him and yelled in his face, "I'M NOT A WHORE!" before stomping off out of the hotel area.
Knox stepped over the downed man, tipping his hat in farewell and followed after her. Manny lay in the dust for a few moments trying to process what the hell just happened. His mouth fell open and closed a few times. He shook his head in disbelief.
Those people just made no sense.
13:30
REPCONN Test Sight
"Just head down to the basement, I'll keep chitchatting with Chris and see if I can find anything else out," Knox's voice crackled from her PipBoy as Ava walked down the stairs to the REPCONN factory floor. "Check it out and report in, sound good?"
"Yeah," she agreed. "Have fun talking to Chris." Ava switched her radio off. She smirked to herself. Knox had to talk to a total lunatic while she was hunting imaginary, invisible demons. This was the easiest assignment ever.
As she walked she cracked the fingers on her right hand and stretched them out. Her hand had been all manner of sore after decking Manny Vargas in the face, but just a few minutes in the presence of Jason Bright and she felt like a million bucks! The ghoul was like a radioactive pick-me-up for her. It almost made it worth it to stand there and listen to his delusional ramblings about the Great Journey.
Religion was a sore spot for her after having part of her brain removed by a hallucinogenic plant worshipping cult. At least the Bright Brotherhood was mostly harmless. Just annoying.
Ava approached the stairs to the basement and hesitated at the top. The lights on the stairs were flickering menacingly and she couldn't make out the door at the bottom. Swallowing any nerves she felt, she flicked on her PipBoy light and took the first step.
And immediately fell. Her foot slipped out from under her and she skidded down the stairs until coming to a very painful halt at the bottom. She got to her knees, her PipBoy light reflecting off the liquid she'd slipped in… oh… wait a minute.
Ava looked around her once more.
That was a lot of blood.
The walls and floor were drenched in it; as if some monstrous creature had just beaten a corpse into oblivion and forgetting (or not caring) about the meaning of overkill.
She looked at the locked door and felt the key in her pocket. She gulped again. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to do this cloaked.
And that had been the plan until she'd knocked a bottle over and alerted the mutants to her presence. And then she'd basically walked into the back of one. And now here she was staring like an idiot at another mutant, this one having what seemed to be a rather urgent conversation with a Brahmin Skull.
She sighed. She blamed Knox for this.
He really was an utter prick sometimes.
AND BOOM! Chapter 1 dunzo. If you have any thoughts or comments please I urge you to leave a review or send me a private message. Anything from "great to be back" to "I hope they do x in this part" and of course the inevitable "why is the Lone Wanderer cited as a character". It just never gets old having that asked. Read PART ONE people. Ha ha. But all kidding aside I adore hearing from you guys. So let me know what you think and I will see you next time.