I've been playing a lot of New Vegas lately and came across this idea I just couldn't leave alone. No idea how long this will be yet, but I'm hoping for at least twelve chapters. We'll see. Enjoy and please, REVIEW!

BLOOD FOX

Vikki and Vance Casino was packed almost to capacity. It was nearly midnight on a Saturday, and the tables were full of people who were either desperate to win back the caps they'd lost the night before, desperate to pay off their loan sharks, or were just compulsive gamblers. The entire building smelled of sweat and alcohol, and Trinity wanted out. Bad. The cashier wasn't exactly brightening her day.

Trinity drummed her fingers on the counter impatiently, waiting for the cashier to exchange her chips. The woman always moved painfully slow, as if she were an elderly woman in a young woman's body. Speaking of bodies, the man waiting behind her wasn't shy about his interest in hers. His gaze remained fixed on her full hips as he contemplated the logic behind her wearing pants that tight in the Mojave. He seriously doubted that anything hugging her curves that tight could breathe in the desert. That, however, was much less important than the waves of black hair that flowed over her shoulders. The lower half of her hair was a vibrant shade of red that had drawn a considerable amount of attention from the moment she'd walked in the door. Hair dyes were practically unheard of in the desert. Catching a glance at the man out of the corner of her eye, Trinity turned to him and scowled. The anger in her brown eyes made him back off immediately. Annoyed, she turned back to the counter rolling her eyes. The situation was pissing her off more than the man was.

'This place would still be a shithole if it wasn't for me, and they have the audacity to charge me,' Trinity thought bitterly.

Even after she'd killed every last convict in the town –with absolutely no help from the NCR, useless bastards- the owners still hadn't seen fit to even toss her the occasional free beer. Granted, she may not have entirely deserved it, having put three twelve gauge rounds in their previous sheriff's head during her little killing spree. As she leaned forward to rest her elbows on the low counter, she found herself thinking. Now that the casino was operational and pulling in some serious caps, it was time she collected her 'reward money'. Watching the woman pull the safe open to retrieve the caps, Trinity smirked. She could see the neat piles of caps within. There had to be hundreds of caps in there. Thousands.

Quietly, she reached into her vest for her shotgun. This would be quick and sweet. No idle threats. If anyone made a wrong move, they'd die. The cashier, the man behind her, the little girl by the door; anyone. She just needed to draw the cashier's attention so she wouldn't close the safe. Too easy.

Turning her head sharply to the left, Trinity's eyes widened with fear. "Deathclaw!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. The level of mass panic that followed was far greater than she'd expected. While the casino was in an uproar, she retrieved her sawed-off shotgun, Triad. The cashier now found herself staring down three gun barrels. Her hands immediately flew up into the air. Immediately, Trinity waved away the rest of the customers and stepped forward, throwing a large empty bag onto the counter.

"Put all the caps in here. And I mean every last fucking one," she growled. "Try anything, and I start redecorating Primm with pieces of your skull. You have less than thirty seconds."

Trinity frowned when she saw that the woman had yet to start moving. With a smirk, she clicked off the safety. "Twenty."

Immediately, the cashier grabbed the bag and began to shovel in handfuls of caps despite her violently trembling hands.

Suddenly, Trinity could feel a revolver barrel buried in her hair. She could feel the cold steel against her scalp. Her world instantly went red. The gun rested dangerously close to the small bald spot on her head where Benny had shot her, not one month ago. Benny. The name itself made her want to cough up her own heart. If anyone had earned a bullet from Triad, it was him. Never had anyone spent so much time building her up to try to gun her down.

'You know Benny would never hurt you, baby.'

'I love you more than anything. You're platinum, pussycat.'

Yeah? Fuck you.

At one time, she'd actually thought she could fall for Benny. He was the sweet-talking, charmer type. Granted, she usually hated men who were attractive and knew it, but Benny knew just when to stop bragging and compliment her instead. It was easy to mistake him for someone trustworthy. He'd bought her hundreds if not thousands of caps worth of gifts. Who would invest so much into someone they intended to kill? Only Benny. HE was the one who suggested she become a courier. HE turned her on to the job that landed her with The Platinum Chip. It hadn't even occurred to him that she didn't know, nor did she care to know what the chip was or did. That she would have handed it over to him willingly if he'd only asked.

'From where you're kneeling, it must seem like an 18-carat string of bad luck. But the truth is, the game was rigged from the start.'

So it was. So. It. Was.

There was no chance in hell she was about to be shot in the head again. It was clear to her that out of everyone there, Nash was the only one that would have the balls to do it. Suddenly, all eyes were on them.

"Johnson, your wife is going to become a widow in about three seconds. Don't be a hero," Trinity told him in an unsettlingly calm tone. Nash had only begun to remove the safety when Trinity turned and brought her heavy shotgun across his knuckles, making him drop his gun.

"You don't know how to listen," she whispered harshly, pressing her gun against his forehead. Noting the audience she now had, Trinity turned to speak to the rest of the casino.

"Mister Johnson Nash, ladies and gentlemen!" she yelled in her best announcer voice. Looking the man in the eyes, she hesitated only a moment before pulling the trigger. Screams and startled gasps echoed throughout the room as the remaining pieces of Nash's head splattered over the clothes of bystanders.

"Nash, was a hero.." Trinity started. "I, do not tolerate, heroes!" Everyone took a large step back as she swept her gun back and forth over the crowd. "Every person in here, drop everything you've got and put your hands on the back of your head in the next three seconds or I will assume that you want to be a hero as well." The room obediently complied.

Trinity moved back to the counter and fired a warning shot into the cashier's booth. "Your time is up! Bring me the bag, now! Throw a few hundred Denarius in the bag too. Com'on, move it," she urged. If this holdup took any longer than a few minutes, the NCR up the road would be informed before she could make a clean getaway. The cashier forced the bag through the small opening and immediately hid beneath the counter, out of range. Trinity had to hold back a laugh. People weren't getting any smarter.

The cashier waited, holding her breath. She never saw the live grenade being rolled into the booth until the moment before the soft metal clink reached her ears and her body was filled with shrapnel.

Caps in hand, Trinity carefully moved around the patrons toward the door. She was done here. Every person around her was a statue with living eyes. No one moved an inch. Perfect. Even so, as soon as she stepped out of the door, a high pitched alarm began to sound on all corners of the building.

'Damn. NCR will have heard that already.'

Trinity had a backup plan in place, but it was risky. If there were any high ranking officers currently at the NCR post up the road, she could be spotted and apprehended. Still, it was the only plan she had left.

At the NCR post, a squad of troopers were arming themselves to investigate the source of the alarm from the casino. It was probably just a couple of drunks having a brawl, but with the Legion threat moving closer each day, they couldn't afford to just ignore it. The squad leader looked over his subordinates one final time before giving the go ahead to start up the road. It was at that moment that a woman began to approach him; a Lieutenant from the insignia on her jacket. She swept a stray hair back into her bun before speaking to him. Saluting her, he immediately called for his subordinates to stop.

"Well this inspection is off to a fine start," she said sarcastically. "I just received a report that three armed men have robbed the Vikki and Vance casino and are headed Northwest. Shall I assume that you and your squad will be capable of apprehending them? This area is, after all, your responsibility. If not, I can always request that station Echo handle the situation. Although it is quite out of their way… Won't earn you any favor with the General though."

The squad leader tensed and set his jaw. An armed robbery meant that the entrance guards were sleeping on the job, or the fence had been breached without their knowledge. Either way, it showed a remarkable amount of incompetence on his part. He couldn't allow her to call in another team to clean up his mess. If that happened, at best he would be relieved of his duties. He didn't want to think about the worst case scenario.

"No. We are fully capable of handling this, I assure you," he replied, nervously stumbling over his words. The lieutenant folded her arms impatiently.

"Get to it then," she ordered. Without another word, the troopers took off into the Mojave at top speed. Strolling away from the post, Trinity chuckled and began to take down her bun. NCR was really falling off.

Now the path was clear for her to make her way to The Strip; but she couldn't go straight there. She was confident in her ability to wield a gun and keep desert scum off her back. Despite this, she wanted someone to watch her back. Someone she could count on to land the shots she couldn't, and who would do whatever she asked without question or complaint.

There were plenty of caps at her disposal now, and plenty of time to make herself scarce. She planned to hide out at an old motel to the east she'd heard of called Novac. There were plenty of cheap rooms there. Novac was low profile and discreet; exactly what she needed now. And by the time that squad would return to their post and learn what actually happened, she would be halfway there.

People were definitely not getting any smarter. At least, not smart enough to catch the Blood Fox.