A.N: if you're reading this again, then this is an update of the original chapter. If this is your first time reading this story, then I humbly welcome you to my story. As bad and poorly done as it may be, I do hope you enjoy the effort and time that I put into this.
Grazie.
…The blinding light slowly began to fade as Cole felt his boots land on the steel surface of the Sinks exterior deck. He could still hear the faint buzzing sound ring in the back of his head, a side effect from the Transportalponder deconstructing him in one place and rebuilding him at another. He took a moment to let the sound fade away as he made sure that everything on his person was in order. No missing limbs, none of his inventory items having mysteriously disappeared.
'Good.' He thought. Satisfied that nothing had vanished. He turned around and walked through the door and into the Sink, his sister's personal living quarters. Passing by the inactive personality units without so much as a word and taking the elevator down in silence.
This visit with his sister was an unusual one. Lilly, in all her silent glory, had called him here. Something that his genius of a sister had trouble doing. Even with her own brother. What's more interesting was that she didn't even tell him what she wanted him here for, her message simply stating: 'it'll be a surprise'.
'Let's hope it's better than the last one.' He thought. The elevator making a ding, signaling that he had reached ground level. Stepping out into the crater that housed the science facilities of the Big MT, Cole began the walk to his sister's personal dome. The familiar sounds of gravel crunching underneath his boots, the ambient noise of Lobotomites fighting with each other; listening as it all slowly faded away and into to the background. He breathed shallow breaths as he walked, the irritated air that plagued his world still present, even inside a place as advanced as this. He rolled the awful taste the air left over in his mouth around a bit and spat it out a few seconds later. He pondered what his sister could possibly want to show him. Maybe it was a new weapon? A new suit of armor she'd built for herself? Or maybe something that could actually help him with the situation in New Vegas?
'One can only dream.' He thought optimistically. Nearing Lilly's personal dome. The rotunda was smaller than the Think Tanks main building or even Dr. Mobius'. Despite the lack of size, his sister was probably more at home in the cramped space than she was inside the Sink. Lilly wasn't that big on open spaces and she often sought the confines of her power armor when they traveled together.
She was probably the more intelligent, not to mention most stable, out of the two factions. Often working on projects that were more humane than what the Think Tank had been doing before twins had arrived. She even worked on projects the brains had long since given up on, such as the stealth suit MKIII that he now had in his possession, along with an advanced computer system for her power armor.
The older twin arrived at his sister's personal dome. The metal door letting out a screech as he turned the crank and pushed it open. Upon entering, Cole's senses were assaulted with a buzz of noise. He squinted his eyes as the sounds of saws cutting through steel and blow torches wielding metal stung his ears. Through it all, he looked about the room to see robots strewn about the place, all of them working on a part of a larger machine that sat in the center of the room.
A glass box sat directly in the center of the thing the bots were working on. The corners reinforced with a steel frame and around it sat two Tesla coils on opposite sides. Above it were four conductors that had been mounted onto a track that aligned with the center. The equipment was inactive and Cole wondered just how Lilly had procured so much of it. Not to mention what the purpose of it all was left Cole only to guess.
This couldn't possibly be what Lilly wanted to show him, could it?
The older sibling continued to look about the chaos until his eyes fell upon a lone figure standing by a suit of inactive power armor. Her head of silver grey hair barely came up to the suits chest plate and her silver grey eyes watched the robots with such intensity.
His twin had remained entirely focused on the machines and their work, seemingly having missed his entrance. Smiling to himself, Cole crouched low and maneuvered through the chaos until he was behind the power armor. Stealthily grabbing the suits arms, he moved the lifeless metal appendages to cover his sister's eyes.
"Guess who~?" he asked in a sing song voice.
As soon as he'd finished speaking, Lilly ducked out from under the arms and delivered a kick to the back of his left knee. Following the attack by grabbing the scruff of his shirt and throwing him onto his back, latching on to his right arm and planting a boot down on the joint.
Cole winced and looked up at his sister. Giving his twin cheeky grin while ignoring the pain in his arm. Lilly didn't seem to appreciate this and put more pressure on his shoulder; pressing down until the two could hear various cracking noises.
"Stop! It's gonna-." Cole's pleas were cut off as his twin dislocated his arm. The older twin grit his teeth and groaned loudly into his other arm. Only slightly regretting his decision to try and surprise his sister.
Finally, after releasing his damaged arm, did the younger sibling return his grin; satisfied with having taught her brother a lesson about sneaking up on her. She reached out a hand and pulled him up. The grin fading as she watched her brother relocate his arm with a blank stare; the two listening to the various cracks and pops as he realigned the limb.
Letting out a satisfied sigh at one loud snap, Cole shook his head at Lilly: "Is that how you treat your own brother?" he asked rhetorically. Feigning disappointment and giving her a sad look.
Lilly didn't say anything, merely shrugging and giving a playful punch to the arm she'd hurt. Cole winced from the slight jolt of pain and continued to rub the joint of the arm. Even though his little sister's hits were light, least by comparison to his wife's, they could still leave him hurting at times.
"So." he coughed into his right hand. Turning their attention back to the reason he was here: "What exactly was it you wanted to show me?" He asked. His question caused Lilly to gesture at the machine the robots had been working on when he'd walked in.
She held up a finger in front of him, the sign they'd agreed on to mean "wait", and began typing something into her Pip-Boy. A moment later, all of the robots stopped what they were doing and powered down. Looking up from her wrist mounted computer, Lilly then gestured for him to follow her. His twin turning around in a hurried blur and accidently running face first into the back of her power armor.
Cole bit his lip, trying to hold back his laughter as he watched his sibling begin whaling on the still suit of armor. Throwing punches and kicks at the steel frame, only for her to hurt herself and mutter silent curses from doing so. After giving a huff, and a final kick, she collected herself and the two walked towards a hub-like room. As soon as they'd stepped inside, Lilly handed him a card that read "control room".
The small center they now stood in directly faced the machine the bots had been working on. It housed the various consoles and monitors, all of which were blinking or showing a reading for the device they were connected to. Cole had to admit, the sight of so many computers running all at once was astonishing to say the least. Not to mention the fact that Lilly of all people was the one to get all of them up and running.
His twin tapped on his shoulder and handed him another card: "This is the reason I had you called here." Cole raised an eyebrow at that and Lilly pointed out at the machine. He gave her a nod, asking: "So what is it?"
Her answer was to rematerialize her own copy of the Transportalponder. Gesturing at the machine and then at the portal gun. She placed the gun down on a nearby computer and pulled out another card; scribbling something on it then handing it to him: "It's like this…" the card began, looking up to see Lilly pointing at the device in her hand and then back at the machine: "…but bigger." The card finished.
Cole pocketed the card and pinched his chin between his thumb and index as he thought. So, Lilly had spent all these months working on something that would take them back to the Big Empty and nowhere else?
How useful.
"Okay. So this is the surprise, I get that. But how exactly is this thing supposed to help? And more importantly, how does this help New Vegas?"
"This device…" another card read: "…will let us transport anything, anywhere, in the Mojave at a moment's notice." She beamed up at him once he'd finished reading; a wide smile spread across her face.
Cole had to admit, that did sound useful. He could concede that point. But it wasn't exactly what he had been hoping for. Sure, they could get supplies to the areas that needed them most. But that would mean they'd have to send most of their supplies to Big MT and then to the location. And that seemed very impractical.
"So we'd need to move things here before we could transport them to a destination. That sounds just a little unfeasible for something meant to get things to a certain place instantaneously." He voiced his thoughts.
At this, Lilly shifted on the spot. Her expression changing from excitement to hesitant. She nodded and pulled out another card: "I will admit, it does sound impractical. But think of all the good we could do? We'd be able to get things from here to anywhere in the Mojave! Someone in Westside needs medical supplies? Here they come!"
Still, he had his doubts: "Have you even tested this thing at all?"
The question made Lilly's outward demeanor drop all together. Her shoulders sagging as she shook her head. "I wanted you to be here for the very first trial." Her next note read. She looked up at him through her bangs. Her eyes, the same color as his, conveyed just how much this meant to her.
Closing his eye and sighing, Cole spoke again: "Alright. Let's just see if this thing works before we start using it." He stopped to watch her reaction. "How's that sound?"
Lilly beamed at him. Lunging forward and giving him a tight hug. Upon his release, she excitedly typed on her Pip-Boy again and the robots outside resumed their work. The two looked on, the noise muffled by the walls of the control room, as the bots laid the finishing touches on the machine. "This is something that will surely help the people of the Mojave. I will prove it to you." Her last card read.
Cole felt apprehensive about the whole thing. Something about all this still didn't feel right to him. Call it his "wastelander intuition". But despite his uneasiness, he continued to watch as his sister began typing on one of the consoles. A couple of the screens showed a map of the Mojave, a crosshairs settling over Westside.
She looked to him for a second and Cole gave her a small smile, mostly for her sake. He wasn't able to bring himself to voice anymore of his thoughts about this project that his twin had poured so much of herself into.
"What's the worst that could happen?" he silently half joked. Watching as the bots outside moved a wooden crate into the glass case in the center of the device and closed the door, sealing it inside.
Lilly pressed a button and the faint hum of electricity could be heard around them as they watched the Tesla Coils begin to generate power. The hum in the air caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand at attention, further increasing his uneasiness about the whole thing.
Shifting his weight from leg to another, he and Lilly watched as sparks began to jump upward from the coils and at the conductors, which had begun to spin on the track they were aligned upon. The momentum causing a funnel of power to slowly obscure the crate from their vision in a blue haze.
Everything seemed to going fine, until one of the robots suddenly went flying into the vortex; effectively being smashed into pieces.
Cole raised an eyebrow at the display: "I take it that wasn't supposed to happen?" He asked. Looking back to see his sister throw herself at the consoles, her hands moving across the buttons so fast they were almost a blur.
Warning symbols began appearing all along the monitors. Some read "power influx" while others showed random information that was mostly nonsense to him.
Cole narrowed his stare at the machine as he felt a light tug on his body. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that everything in the room had slowly begun to slide towards Lilly's machine. Just like the robot, anything that wasn't bolted down would be sucked in.
Including them.
Sparks suddenly flew out all over the place, lashing out at the remaining robots as the strength of the vortex intensified. Cole could feel the machine's pull on his body strengthen, and his survival instincts began setting off warning bells in his head as he watched more and more spare scrap-metal get sucked into the funnel.
Deciding that he would deal with her anger later, Cole moved to grab his sister before they could be sucked inside. The older twin had just about reached her when a steel beam inexplicably came flying towards them. Cole pushed off the floor and jumped at Lilly; shielding her as glass shards pelted down upon them. The two looked up to see the beam impaled right through the wall; they had just narrowly avoided being impaled.
With the glass protection gone, the noise from the machine flooded inside the room. The sound from the machine sounded like a cross between a turbine, mixed with the static of electricity.
Over the noise Cole shouted: "We have to go!" he didn't wait for Lilly to answer as he picked her up and started for the door. As soon as he'd stepped out of the control cube, the machine nearly sucked them in right then and there. His boots slid on the stone floor and he tried to get some traction for them to get to the door.
Unable to do so, Cole franticly looked around for something that could help them. Seeing Lilly's suit of power armor still standing in its place.
He rushed over to it the suit while keeping Lilly shielded from all the tools and scrap metal that flew around them. Upon reaching the armor, he opened the back and pushed Lilly inside, much to her silent protests. The pull on Cole's body was stronger now; to the point where he had to hold onto Lilly's armor just to avoid being sucked in. climbing on her back, he pointed to the door and the two slowly began to make their way to it.
As soon as they were within arm's reach of escape, Cole was pulled in. The older sibling desperately tried to latch onto anything. All in a vain attempt.
The last thing he saw before everything turned into a blinding white, was the sight of Lilly falling over and being dragged into the vortex as well.
A/N: This is an update of the Prologue as I ran into a bit of writers block concerning the next chapter. (Don't worry, I will still be working on it.)
If you guys want the already existing chapters to be revised like this one then go ahead and leave a review saying so. Though I will mostly still be trying to get the next chapter of this done as well.
I hope you guys liked this revision and I will see you soon.
Ciao.