A/N: This is something that I've been working on for a while now and finally got to a spot where I'm comfortable enough to publish it. Odds are it's going to be a one off, but if it gets enough positive reviews I may continue it. I'm still working on my other story, which will likely be done before the beginning of June. I had hoped that by working on something else it might provide inspiration for my other story, and it has. So hope everyone enjoys this little tidbit.
I gave a smirk as I stared down into the Cola-Cars arena. A man in rust brown power armor was talking to another in a bright yellow metal harness. I had made quick work of their so called 'Gauntlet', making sure to keep my powers hidden. I wanted to enforce how terribly they had messed up when they 'trapped' me in their web.
"You got me all wired up, Gage?" The power armored man spoke in a thick Aussie accent. I could sense the trepidation of the other man as he fiddled with something the back of the armor.
"Yeah Boss, you're all set." He said with a faint southern accent. He took a step away from the 'Boss', who turned to face him.
"Good, now go shut off that damn alarm." He barked at Gage. He obliged his boss and retreated through a security gate. "Now where's my next victim?" He said, turning to look up to where I was stood. I felt his eyes roam over my body. My disgust for this crude man multiplied tenfold. "Hmm, such a waste that I have to kill that pretty face." He chuckled darkly, to which I responded with silence. "Here's how this is gonna work. You're gonna go get stocked up, and then we're gonna give these folks a show." He paced forward slightly, hoping to intimidate me. "A show, where I paint these here walls with your lovely, lovely brains. Thanks to this suit" He banged on the chest piece once, "I'm the only one that wins this fight. Period." He began to walk away from me, back towards where Gage had disappeared. "All right Gage, let her through." He gave a sinister chuckle just before he shut off the intercom. I huffed and pushed the door open. There were several weapons along with a decent amount of ammo laying around in the sparse lockers. Sure enough, Gage's voice came over the intercom once more.
"Well look who made their way through the Gauntlet." Gage said in an almost proud voice.
"Far from the hardest thing I've done in my life." I told him truthfully. Honestly compared to the things I did when I was still in the U.K. this was beyond easy.
"Yeah yeah, good job. Now listen up. This fight coming up, is rigged."
"Anything he can throw against me I'll be able to handle." I said confidently, which apparently wasn't the right thing to say to Gage.
"If you wanna live through this you'd better listen up." He said tersely. "Overboss Colter, that's the asshole in the power armor, he has it set up to where his rig draws power from the arena. Damn thing's invincible. Missiles, miniguns, grenades. You name it, someone's tried it."
"I'll be fine." I said, and proceeded to tune out the rest of his speech. After a few minutes, loud cheering could be heard from further in the arena. Taking that as her queue, she proceeded deeper into the arena, arriving at a security gate. On the other side, Colter was standing in the middle of the arena, trying to pump up the crowd. His power armor covered with arcing electricity. I doubted it would stand up to my power. It was almost disappointing how easy the coming fight would be. I delved into the raider boss's mind and discovered everything your atypical raider would desire. Blood, money, killing. It was despicable. I decided to take a page from my old master's book. A wicked grin split my face as the door to the arena opened and I slowly strode out into the center. Seemingly confused by my passiveness, Colter started jeering at me.
"Aww, what's the matter, love? Too scared to even try to fight me?" He taunted, despite the grin on my face. After a few seconds, he took my passivity as a sign of submission and opened fire on me with his assault rifle. The pain from the bullets was negligible, but seemed to cause a ruckus in the arena as boos from the crowd started rising over the din of gunfire. The gun clicked empty and I figured I'd better play up the whole "being shot" thing. I fell to my knees and then collapsed to the ground in a slowly expanding pool of my own blood. Loud booing could be heard coming from the crowd. The announcer came back on the intercom.
"I guess that's it folks. A pretty fucking lackluster performance from our newest vic. She didn't even try to fight back." I took that as my queue to get up. Slowly, the blood began to seep back towards my body as the bullets were spit out of the rapidly healing holes. Using my unnatural power, I rose, seemingly in rewind of my fall. Colter hadn't seen it yet, but the audience had. Gasps of surprise and terror slowly grew louder as I rose to my feet. For effect, I let out a low, sinister chuckle. Colter froze, and slowly turned around to face me, all my previous wounds completely healed. The look on his face was most definitely worth the miniscule amount of pain I felt from the barrage of bullets.
"What the fuck!?" Colter yelled and hastily reloaded his assault rifle. I would deny him the chance. My shadow arm darted forward and grabbed the armored man, shoving him backwards into the security door with a loud clang of metal on metal. He sunk into the door about a third of a meter before stopping. His assault rifle was laying on the floor five meters in front of him. Slowly, I sauntered forward, making sure to crush his weapon with my armored boot on the way. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Gage staring on in abject terror. I laughed again, this time much louder, and gripped the metal plate on the chest of his armor with my free hand. With a loud metallic screech, I tore it off and cast it aside. Next, I pulled the helmet from the man, careful not to damage him. His grungy face was wrought in a terrified stare. His eyes bugging out and his mouth open with a silent scream.
"I do so love the look on the faces of my victims before they die." I said with such finality that the man screamed out loud. He flailed for the intercom button, finding it shortly.
"Get in here and help me damnit!" He begged, his voice cracking unnaturally for such a large man. Gage and anyone who was listening obviously ignored his pleas.
"Sorry boss, you're on your own." Despite witnessing a ton of metal and man being handled like a doll, his voice was unnaturally calm. Realizing his predicament almost instantly, Colter bellowed.
"You fucking bastard! You set me u- " Colter's sentence was interrupted by me spearing him through his chest. Gagging noises replaced angry screams as blood began to seep from his mouth. With a tug, I pulled back, the entirety of Colter's heart grasped in my still flesh and bone hand. He looked down at it in complete terror as I crushed it before his eyes. He bled out mere seconds later. Feeling him relax against my grip, I withdrew my shadow arm and reformed the illusion around it. Colter collapsed in a heap, a puddle of blood rapidly forming around him, much in a mirror of what happened to me only minutes ago.
"What the fuck was that!?" The announcer of before shouted. "That wasn't how it was supposed to go down!" The crowd agreed, but kept their voices quiet out of fear.
"Hey, we talked about this!" Gage yelled through the intercom. "She survived the Gauntlet, and she killed Colter. She didn't take my advice, but look at him! Had his fucking heart torn right out of his chest! We got ourselves a new Overboss." Gage said with a finality that mollified the audience.
"Well if she isn't inclined to kill us all, then she has my backing." A blonde woman who could be described as posh-looking if she wasn't decked out in metal armor spoke.
"Agreed," A similarly dressed man added, then followed the blonde out of the room they were in. The crowd beyond the protective glass slowly dispersed. Eventually leaving myself and Gage alone.
"So," Gage started tentatively, as if saying the wrong thing would set me off. "You got the job if you want it." His eyes wandered to where I still held the scraps of Colter's crushed heart. His lips twisted in a grimace. "You aren't a… cannibal, are you?" He asked tentatively. My red eyes fixed onto his as I dropped the meat onto the ground carelessly.
"No, I'm not a cannibal." I told him, a smirk still on my face. I kicked the corpse of Colter to the side, metal screeching loudly as he went. His body stopped about ten meters away, softly impacting a bumper car. He left a wide, bloody streak as he went. Gage stepped away from the deformed door, evidently knowing that I planned to open it. Using my shadow arm, I gripped the handle and pulled. The door came off with some difficulty. I would have to find someone to feed on soon if I wanted to avoid being hungry. I tossed the door aside and strolled through the opening. Gage had a firm grip on his sidearm and a wary look on his face. I made an effort to shake most of the blood that was still on my hand off, but left most of it as it painted a grim picture. It was also something that the raiders would remember, after all it wasn't every day your former boss had their heart ripped out and crushed in front of their eyes.
"So, you're in I take it." Gage said as he warily walked behind me towards what I presumed was the exit to the arena. Some of the oddly dressed raiders were still leaving and all but fled at the sight of me. The masked raiders I noticed were staring at me, for some reason. Gage noticed my confusion at them and spoke up. "Those are Nisha's Disciples. They love that blood and guts shit. You're probably a walking wet dream to them." We eventually made it outside into the unsurprisingly poorly maintained Nuka Town U.S.A. as it was so called. People wearing bomb collars flitted about to and fro, worried and defeated looks on their faces. I spotted the familiar flannel that Harvey was wearing. He noticed me approaching, noting the blood on my arm, and promptly fled into the center area of the town.
"Yeah Harvey always was a chicken shit." Gage's deep voice drawled from behind me. "Probably saw what you did to Colter and figured you were comin' for him next." Gage had obviously gotten comfortable enough to acknowledge the fact that I wasn't going to kill him straight away, and motioned for me to follow him. He led me through the town to a moderately sized artificial lake. On the other side of it was a mock-up mountain with some sort of building anchored to the peak of it. "Those are your new digs, The Fizztop Grill." I gave a hum of acknowledgement and we continued, eventually reaching a construction lift that took the two of us to a ramshackle balcony that was attached to one of the blown-out windows.
Gage plopped down into a chair he was obviously familiar with and cracked open a Nuka Cola. "Well, make yourself at home, Overboss." When I didn't move, he grew nervous. "Look, I know you didn't follow me up here just to kill me, so what is it you're after?" It appeared that the man was smarter than most raiders that I had encountered. "Hell, I don't even know your name." He added after a moment.
"It's Seras," I said dryly, the beginnings of a smirk forming on my face.