Heeeeeeey bro's! Look I know it's all like "DUDE you can't have two chapters in one update that's crazy shit!" Well I updated Madness like 5 times at once so first of all getthefuckoutmyhouse. Second, I feel like two chapters out of the gate would make you readers very happy. So that is what I will do! Not be quiet and read my wonderful story like a good little interwebz user.

As they say in Berlin: Ich den ein Berliner. Which translates into Back to work! Or jelly donuts. I have no idea, I don't speak foreignese.

The man waited for the elevator to reach the bottom floor, wondering how soon it would be before someone came gunning for his head. His father had run the Raw Border for years, and under him most of the tenants seemed to be pretty civil. But the man did not trust people, and so he had his boomstick with him. His father did not share his lack of body mass: he was a very large man. His hair, which the man remembered had been black once, was now shot through with grey. The boy saw his father getting older and older before him each day.

Reaching the ground floor, he was not surprised at all to see his father still milling around in the lobby of the tower, probably waiting for him. "Dad!" the man called quite audibly, sounding happy-but-exasperated to see his father.

The man's father turned to see his son striding across the spacious room, and gave him a rueful smile. "You sure sounded official on the radio. I don't know why you were so worried," he said innocently.

"Quiet dad, you know exactly why I'm worried, armored, and carrying my boomstick," the man replied, still quite put out with this turn of events. "You could have announced the news yourself. Now everyone will think I'm grabbing for power."

"Yes, or I could've left without any warning at all. Strange how things didn't happen like that, isn't it?"

"Oh be quiet! Just stop speaking, you're making my head hurt!" the man spat venomously, ignoring the stares of the room's occupants.

"Derek, you will do fine. No one here will stand in your way, not with your track record," the father assured him, trying to leave on a good note.

"I'm seventeen years old goddammit! You're not going to tell me that I was meant for this! Killing lots of raiders does not a leader make!" The man was quite surprised that the conversation was upsetting him so much, however, he meant every word he volleyed at his father.

"The reason you end lives so well is because you can command your followers," his father offered soothingly. "Look, I'll send out a transmission in one week to confirm I've set up shop. If nothing's going the way you want it, come and find me, and we'll switch places. "

"Fine. Sorry dad, I'm just not used to so much happening like this…" the man apologized, as was his custom after getting into a heated argument. He wasn't one to hold grudges.

"Don't worry about it. Now then, if there's NOTHING ELSE!" his father shouted to the gathered men, who immediately snapped to attention. "Let's get on! Our destination is the old City Hall, we want to clear out the area for the Brotherhood." Amid grumblings and groans as equipment was prepared and hefted onto strong backs, a formation took hold as the brave souls gathered around the father. "Goodbye son, I'm leaving all this in good hands, trust me."

"Bye dad. I'll see you again soon, one way or the other," the man promised, smiling at his father despite the earlier argument.

"Of course you will!" the father promised in return, before unceremoniously shuffling out of the lobby, his retinue of men and women following behind. The man followed behind them, watching as they made their wait past the reinforced steel doors into the gauntlet of Fountain Square. The idea was to secure the surrounding area of the Old City Hall as a waypoint for those who wished to get to Union Center. There were no metro tunnels in Cincinnati, so travel was strictly above ground, through the maze of cleared roads. Since his dad planned to be there awhile, the idea was that he would clear out a section of the street that was almost a beeline to the Union Terminal. Before, the only way through was to get up onto the Roebling bridge and walk along the highway. That often involved death-defying leaps and scrabbling across wide open gaps to reach them. Hopefully this would allow the brave few who dealt with the Brotherhood to do so in relative safety. Besides that, the Old City Hall was the perfect place to plug a few gaps that Raw Border could not cover: namely, the riverbank itself. Raiders crazy enough could climb down the embankments and take their chances with the myrelurks for a chance to nab a golden-goose rivercraft. There had already been several casualties, and this was the father's way of solving the problem.

"Bye dad…" the man, Derek, whispered, as the doors closed before him. Turning around, his eye twitched slightly as several people approached him. "And the madness, it cometh again…"

First to reach him was a wealthy merchant that resided in the tower. He purchased necessities on behalf of the residents in exchange for a free tenement. "Good Sir Derek, I come to you humble and-"

"Please, skip the nonsense. I'll have eight of you breathing down my neck in the next twelve seconds. State your piece."

"A-as you wish sir. As you know, my tenement states that I procure your supplies, and in-"

"In exchange you get to mooch. Why, do you want a crown and scepter as well?" Derek demanded, a little put out by the merchant's condescending nature.

"N-no, I only want to be sure that the terms were clearly defined-"he began again.

"Yes yes you can stay. Anything else?" the new leader interrogated.

"No good sir. I am sorry to be a bother good sir," the merchant spouted, bowing again and again as he retreated hastily.

Next up to bat was the tower's bar and inn proprietor, a man named Owner. The inn was used for those who didn't have a permanent tenement, which was nearly everyone. He charged next to nothing, but still managed to make a killing between selling the space and his bar. "Out with it, I haven't the time."

The bar owner himself was a mountain of a man, over seven feet tall, with bronze skin and a thick accent that Derek would swear was thicker than necessary. "Your father promised a stable environment to do business, I can't work this way. Do you know he-"

"Yes I know the deal you and my father had, and I intend to keep it alive," the man retorted, breaking off the large man's angry tirade. Something odd he noticed, however, was that Owner's hand had very flaky skin. Almost as if-

"And yet you have neglected to remember that my business will suffer for this!" continued the man-mountain.

"If you used your head instead of your rear end to speak, you'd know more instability means more people will be drinking your liquor and renting your nice safe rooms," Derek responded not above petty insults when he thought the person speaking was an asshat.

"And if you had any experience running anything ever, you'd know that instability is bad for business. People will leave thanks to your father's decision to leave. It's a chain reaction!" Owner retorted, openly mocking both Derek and his father.

"Okay, riddle me this oh wise proprietor. Where will the people go? Passtime? There's no room in their walls! East and west and north are no-man's land, and I dare you to find me three people in the whole tower that could afford travel to Louisville, or anyone willing to live in The Pitt. There isn't anywhere else!" the man stated calmly, despite the question of his authority. "Now goodbye, you have a struggling business to run."

Outrage on his face, Owner turned and left, striding away quickly to make his indignity apparent.

The next person looking for a handout was the local Regulator leader. He was a young man, probably in his late twenties. That attested to his skill with the lever-action rifle on his back. He had a mop of black hair on his head, and blue eyes that were a tad hazy. However, he had a quick wit and even quicker reflexes, so the person who believed him out of action was dead wrong, literally. "Greetings. Are you-"

"Yes I'm aware of your arrangement with my father and no I don't want to change anything. Next!"

"-okay out here, or did you want to speak inside?" the Regulator finished, unperturbed.

"Oh, right. No, we can speak here. Sorry, though, things aren't normal right now," Derek apologized, genuinely remorseful.

The Regulator waved the comment away and pressed on. "Well then, since you know about our current arrangement with Raw Border, you'd know we aren't as active in the area as we'd like."

The man nodded: this was very true. Currently, the Regulators were permitted to accept local jobs and provide services, like any other local tenant in Sin'Nati. However, they were not allowed to establish a base of operations in the region, for fear of Talon Company following suit. The father did not want a faction war occurring where he could prevent it. Currently, Talon Company also accepted and completed jobs for money (No complaints about their services yet) and whatever fighting did occur between the rival groups happened without anyone else knowing about it. "Yes, I know all about that," Derek replied, slightly wary.

"Then you'd like to know that Talon Company has a de facto headquarters in the old theater up on Mt. Adams," the mercenary stated matter-of-factly.

Derek, who had been looking for someone in particular, whipped his head around to face the hardened gunman. "Is what you're telling me true?" he demanded.

"I scouted it myself. They're moving terminals, weapons, and supplies there from Passtime. They paid off a few caravans to ferry their supplies. Off the books of course, the Umpire has no idea. He shares your… dislike of violence."

Derek crossed his arms and considered the situation. The easiest way would just be to kill the Talon Company. But then that would leave the corrupt merchants, who would certainly raise hell, or worse, find new clients. Another option would be to kill the caravaners who were dropping supplies off before they managed to deliver them. However, the Umpire would be upset if his caravans began getting killed by Raw Border's sometimes less-than-civil tenants, and a lack of supplies would certainly tip off the Talons. "Here's an idea. How badly do your Regulators want a base up here?" he asked the mercenary.

"On a scale of one to ten?" he responded, curious about this new line of questioning.

"Sure."

"Twelve."

Derek sighed heavily and sat down in his chair in his new office. "Well stuff is occurrin', that's for sure."

"You make it seem like a bad thing," a mischievous voice behind him chirped.

"Of course it is!" the man insisted, not turning around. "Why am I saddled with this crap?"

"Because you're the best man for the job? Why else?" the voice responded innocently.

"Probably because God hates me."

"God doesn't hate you. If he did, I wouldn't be here," came the elated response.

"I think you have that backwards," he replied miserably.

"Oh stop, you know you love me," the voice pestered.

"Just a little bit," he admitted. "Now stop hiding."

"As you wish sire," the cooing voice responded. Its owner marched around to present herself before the new leader of Raw Border. Frankly, her appearance left something to be desired. She was unintimidating, only barely above five feet in height. Her blond hair was straight and bright, and it fell to the small of her back. Though currently she had it tied in a ponytail so it didn't get in her way. Her blue eyes were of keen intelligence, and her smile was wide and truthful. She gave a small growl at him as he looked her over.

"Well Olivia, you're certainly very chipper today. Something on your mind?"

"I was just thinking about the ancient Greeks. You remember those books we used to read? What did the fates always tell Uranus?"

"The son shall surpass the father, Derek quoted effortlessly. "I know I know, whatever possessed him to think-"

"-that you were ready made him undoubtedly insane. To think that you could possibly amount to something, is pure fantasy," the girl finished for him sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant…" he began, before sighing and shutting up. "I guess, all I can do now is make the best of it. I'll never live it down if I step away from this now."

"That's a good boy. Now then, what's our first order of business?" Olivia demanded of her new commander. "What shall we do first?"

Rubbing his temples, the young man wracked his brain for ideas. "The first thing would have to be a show of force. Something I can do to send the message of 'Don't fuck with me' to everyone else. Sort of cementing my rise to power and influence."

"I hear there's a turf war going on between some raiders and a pack of Chimera up by Washington park. Should we grab Mato and go?"She asked, sounding excited at the prospect of some action.

Derek shook his head. "Let him sleep, those Yao-Guai hunts are brutal. We can handle this ourselves. Go get your crap and we'll meet down at the lobby in eight minutes."

"Fine! See you there!" Olivia chirped, skipping off."

"When I come back, I need a cold shower," Derek told himself, watching her bounce.

After trekking through the abandoned maze of streets that was Cincinnati, and moving through several buildings that bypassed concrete barricades altogether, the pain finally came upon what looked to be a battlefield. Blood was everywhere, as were the remains of what appeared to be humans. The debris in the area, mostly scraps of armor and crude weapons, proved that these had once been raiders. "Well, one side is done with. But where are those Chimera?" Derek asked aloud, his boomstick cocked and ready to fire.

"Maybe they regrouped to lick their wounds," Olivia suggested, her SMG cocked and ready. The pair were in a concrete basin, the streets blocked except for two exits, one behind them, the other to their left. The collapsed buildings served to surround them from all other directions. No sooner had Olivia spoken than several chimera appeared on top of these buildings, growling and snapping their jaws at the intruders. "Or… not."

"Olivia, come over here behind me," Derek ordered, slowly backing away towards the center of the basin. "If you see one of them make the slightest movement, you tell me right away," he ordered.

"Yes sir," came the shaken response. The pair stood back to back, each counting the enemies they could see. Derek counted four, Olivia counted another three. So there were seven large, pointy creatures in total. Not exactly the greatest of odds.

"Olivia, let's start back to the streets. Maybe they'll let us go." Cautiously, both of them took baby steps towards the opening in the debris that would return them to Fountain Square, neither one turning away from the feral beasts that surrounded them. All at once, however, Olivia stopped in her tracks, letting Derek bump into her. "Olivia, we can't do this now. We need to move, fast!" Derek pressed, desperation in his voice.

"We can't… look…" came the subdued reply. A lower, more guttural growl than a Chimera accompanied her warning.

Glancing at their means of escape, a knot formed in Derek's stomach when he spotted the Yao-Guai that was now between them and safety. "Fuck!" he hissed. "I think we have to fight our way out."

"No kidding," Olivia responded, raising her SMG at the nearest Chimera.

"Don't fire, let them come to us!" he whispered hurriedly. "Leave the Yao-Guai for last: it will take down one or two of-" Suddenly, with a challenging howl, one of the largest Chimera he'd ever seen charged forward and leapt off the concrete barriers, its lunge aimed straight at him. "Here they come!" he warned, before stepping forward to meet the animal's challenge. Calmly standing before the rapidly descending monster, he suddenly sidestepped and yelled "Batter up!"swinging a long titanium crowbar and catching the beast on the side of the head, eliciting a sickening crunch and pained yelp from his opponent. Not skipping a beat, he turned and blasted the monster point-blank with his boomstick, boring two large holes in its ribcage. "And it's good!"

Olivia had remained at his back, and was peppering any approaching chimera with bullets. So far, one had already fallen, and two others were sporting several bullet holes between them. Suddenly three Chimera charged her at once, and her SMG was not going to hold them all back. Squeezing the trigger to keep her fire up, the girl drew her Ripper and revved the small motor, then charged forward and sliced through the eyes of one of her attackers. The beast howled in pain and lashed out, catching another of its comrades in the shoulder. The assaulted creature turned and lashed out in retaliation, and suddenly both were locked in a fight to the death. That just left the one who wasn't blind or distracted by friendly fire to get finished off by plentiful SMG holes.

Boomstick reloded, Derek twisted and fired almost subconsciously, his shells knocking a Chimera off the struggling Yao-Guai, it landed dead next to the struggling mass of flesh and claws. The one remaining Chimera could not keep the Yao-Guai pinned and was upended, then pinned itself and swiftly killed. The only one unaccounted for was disemboweled already by the mutated bear. "Well then, now we have one more problem to deal with," Derek mused, twirling his crowbar idly.

Well bro's, there you have it, my first two chapters of good awesomeness. Review and junk and I can make stuff more better! Also, I have a few questions for you the readers. PM me for details.