FALLING STARS CHAPTER 3- SURVIVAL OF THE LUCKIEST
Once again, all that was here were authors notes that are now irrelevant. Not to mention they would be misleading since I put things there that ended up changing. In a nutshell all that was here were just random predictions by me.
RESURFACED DREAMS
"Come here I want to show you something." Sojiro said to his now one year old daughter. She couldn't understand him completely but she recognized his hand gestures and crawled across the floor away from her book, "You're Special" A book that told kids they were unique, she just liked the pictures though.
He hefted little Konata up into his arms, she sputtered in baby talk and bopped his face once or twice. He ignored the assault and showed her two pictures that were on his desk. One of him and his late wife standing on the bridge of Rivet City and a framed bible verse.
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." He read out loud. "It was your mother's favorite passage." This passage had inspired her to begin her project.
His dream faded away and he awoke on the naval cot he'd spent the night on, a lot had transpired the day before and today could probably be even rougher. Especially considering his hold lab partner Hiyori had declined his offer to pick the project.
TSUKASA'S SCIENTIFIC SACRIFICE
Tsukasa could only wonder how she got into this mess.
"Go on and drink from there!" Konata cheered on. She was standing in front of the massive undetonated bomb; a large puddle of stagnant, greenish water surrounded it.
"Why do I have to do it?" She moaned.
"Tsukasa, we've been through this." Konata answered.
"No we haven't." Tsukasa cried in protest.
"Yeah I know. Anyways the longer you stand there talking, the longer it's going to take for you to obtain advanced radiation sickness." Konata told her. The first job was for Yui to study someone with radiation sickness and how to possibly avoid it. Konata had volunteered Tsukasa.
Tsukasa kneeled down again and grimaced at the horrible, horrible water. Her Geiger counter was already ticking. Which, she supposed, was a good thing given the circumstances. She cupped the water and took a sip, her Geiger counter exploded in a series of clicks when she swallowed it. Surprisingly it didn't taste terrible, just not good.
"That'll take too long." Konata told her. "Stick your face in, and just gulp it down until you get advanced sickness."
"I-if you say so…" Tsukasa muttered and bent down again. She hoped her sister was having better luck with her job.
KAGAMI'S SHOPPING TRIP
Kagami's task wasn't probably more difficult and she had to go alone, but she felt up to it. Just go into an old Super Duper Mart chain store and check to see how the medicine and food held up, and report how easy it was to obtain. To aid her she brought a stimpak with her along with a Chinese pistol with two clips of ammunition. It wasn't a strong handgun, and she had never fired one in her life, but it was better than nothing.
The trip there only took about twenty minutes and it was a downhill slope. She hopped a rusted fence and jogged over to the building. All of a sudden it didn't look very safe.
Mutilated bodies were hung by the roof by chains and other bits of gore and body parts were strewn about. Judging by the bloody splatters, Kagami guessed that most of the subjects had died from gunshot wounds, then someone body painstakingly hacked them up and put them on display. She felt like she was walking into a one way portal to the abyss.
Out of all the carnage she spotted a lone figure standing next to one of those two-headed cows she'd seen earlier. Next to him was a Mister Handy model robot. When she saw the designs and improved weaponry she corrected herself and realized it was Mister Gutsy model. One used for military purposes.
She braced for the robot to open fire and melt her with its plasma weapons, but to her surprise, the man just waved.
"H-hello?" She stuttered, and walked closer to him.
"Hey, wastelander." He greeted. "What brings you down this way?" He was wearing a heavy jacket and every single pocket seemed to be filled with all sorts of junk.
"I was hired to check out this building." Kagami admitted. She couldn't think of any reason why telling him would be a bad idea.
"Oh, well good luck then. Lots of raiders in there, I'd recommend going stealthy." And with that he walked off onto this next wasteland adventure.
She didn't care much for the advice but it was good to know there may be opposition. That guy Three Dog on the radio would never shut up about how dangerous they were. She would see for herself.
MEANWHILE…
"Congratulations, you now are suffering from advanced radiation sickness. Medical help is recommended." Tsukasa's Pip-Boy told her in a cheery voice. She was soaking wet and laying the dirt, a nap seemed like a good idea right now. Except she had to throw up again.
"Tsukasa?" Konata said and poked her face several times. "Tsukasa~"
"Just five more minutes." She muttered and rolled over.
"Oh, good you're out cold." Konata said, and began to drag her back to the Yui to be a test subject. She felt proud that Tsukasa could be sacrificed to science and not something worse like a bear or a giant scorpion. Or whatever the wastes held.
She also realized that the nuclear bomb just sitting there was actually still quite active and could probably be detonated if someone screwed around with it. Someone should do something about that she thought and carried on dragging Tsukasa.
RAIDERS ARE NOT FRIENDLY!
"Why are you shooting at me!?" Kagami screamed, and took cover behind the customer service counter. Bullets whizzed past her hiding spot, and she kept crawling to avoid being shot into pieces.
The raiders who inhabited the Super Duper Mart had opened fire on her almost immediately. She managed to take cover but she couldn't find an opening to fire back at them. Not to mention the store was dark and she had never fired a gun before.
Tears rolled down her face, Oh god, I'm going to die here she realized. It was a stupid pointless death, she supposed but then again there were worse ways to go. A table in front of her exploded after taking one too many shots, its contents spilled to the ground. In front of her now was prewar food wrappers, empty soda bottles, random scrap metal, oh what's this? She spotted a pistol; no it wasn't a normal pistol. She picked it up and examined it.
Kagami felt she could fare better with a laser pistol. No recoil and she had worked with precision lasers before in vault repair. Yes, this would fair nicely.
DR. YUI TO THE RESCUE
"Oh wow this is great!" Yui exclaimed. "I've never gotten a chance to study some one so heavily dosed. Normally people just yell at me whine and tell me to fix them up, usually with mean, mean words. Hiiragi here seems to be taking it quite well." She typed up a few things on her computer terminal and examined Tsukasa again.
"So, how do you feel?" She asked, eagerly awaiting her patients answer.
Tsukasa muttered something along the lines of "Kill me." But honestly it was hard for either Konata or Yui to be sure.
"I think it adds to her glowing personality." Konata said, and pinched Tsukasa's cheek.
"Aw, that's a terrible joke." Yui replied, sounding like that was a good thing.
After another hour of poking and prodding at Tsukasa's unconscious body Yui finally spoke up. "Well I'll just apply this home made concoction and it should flush all the radiation out of her system."
"You can do that?" Konata asked excitedly. She may not end up loosing her hair after all if she decided to go for a swim.
"We've been dealing with radiation for two-hundred years. We've found ways to counter it. I think this antidote is safe…" Yui explained, not sounding so sure.
She stabbed a few hypodermic needles into Tsukasa, it made her look like a pincushion but it was for a good cause. She also gave her a smiley face band aid where each needle was placed. It was her way of saying "I'm sorry I played with your DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn."
After twenty or so minutes of looking after the younger twin, the older one finally returned for her trip.
Konata gasped when she got a look at her. Kagami was bandaged in several places and the bandages had already been stained red, over her shoulder she was carrying a burlap sack that contained to food and medicine she was sent to obtain.
"Kagami, you don't look so good, What happened?" Kagami ignored her and dropped the bag in front of Yui.
"I would appreciate if next time you tell me if there are raiders when I go on a errand for you." She growled and collapsed in the cot next to her sister, it was tight squeeze on the cot, but she would manage.
"Yeah, yeah, scary people with guns we get it. So what did you find?" Yui asked excitedly.
"I got the food which the raiders were stockpiling, there were some medical supplies but those were harder to get. Oh yeah, then there was a robot." Kagami answered trying her best to sound clear and concise.
"So no prewar food?" Yui asked, she was pretty much ignoring the state of her research assistant.
"Of course not!" Kagami snapped. "It's a large retail store near middle class suburbs, it would have been completely looted a week after the bombs hit" She had come to the conclusion that Tsukasa and Konata probably could probably do a better job coming up ideas to obtain food this than this chick.
Yui guiltily picked up the bag and went away to take notes.
"You saw raiders? What were they like?" Konata asked, and jumped up and down in excitement.
"They were wearing very revealing armor, and they shot at me. A lot." Kagami muttered, and closed her eyes to try and grab a nap.
"Oh by the way?" Kagami asked.
"What is it my battle-worn tsundere?" Konata answered cheerfully.
"Why does Tsukasa smell like vomit and stale water…also if I move my left arm towards her, why does it triggers my Geiger counter?" Kagami asked, in reality she actually didn't want to know the answer. She knew it would upset her.
"Welll…" Konata began. "Yeah…anyways what was fighting raiders like?"
Kagami wasn't quite expecting an answer anyways. "I pointed my gun at them and I shot at them, they did the same thing. Sometimes I missed and sometimes I didn't." She made a gun with her fingers and pointed it at Konata, "Pew pew pew." She muttered and dozed off.
Konata came to the conclusion that was the cutest thing she had ever seen her friend do.
"I know I'm hard on you sometimes." Kagami continued, Konata began to wonder if she was okay or not. In the head, not the body. "But you're my best friend, sure Miyuki and I shared common interests but we all secretly know she's a closet sociopath and will probably kill and eat all of us one day." Konata blinked at her.
"Good to know?" She answered, she a little surprised at her friends behavior. "Say, Kagamin, are you feeling alright? You seem a little…not normal."
"Me?" Kagami yelped like Konata had said something extremely cruel and harsh. "I'm just fine. You are the not normal one."
"Anyways." Konata said instantly changing the subject. "We need to find adequate shelter, sure sleeping in the dirt for one night is fine but I doubt we can keep that up." But the one time she was serious, Kagami seemed completely out of it.
"The ground is comfy though." She muttered for a reply.
"Kagami, what happened to you? You've engaged in role reversal with me, and really that's not good for the survival of our group." Konata said still, sounding serious.
"What do you mean?" Kagami replied defensively. "I told you. I had a fire fight that I barely remember, and then I looted the place and took two stimpaks. One of the ones I took though looked odd though."
"Do you still have the empty needle?" Konata asked, she believed she was onto something here.
"Yeah it's in my bag." Kagami replied. Konata found her messenger back that took with her. She found a hypodermic needle which was much larger than a stimpak and much dirtier and looked held together with electrical tape. Her detective skills were paying off. She quickly found Yui.
"Hey can you tell me what this is?" She said, holding out the needle for Yui to examine.
"Oh that's Psycho, I don't recommend messing with it." She answered, barely taking her eyes off her notes.
"Psycho?" Konata replied raising an eyebrow. Was Psycho being used as a noun or an adjective in this case? She wondered.
"Right, you're new. Sorry forgot." Yui shrugged. She was having a tough time remembering these research assistants were new to the wastes. It felt ironic using them to write a survival guide on. "It's a drug that pretty much makes that part of your brain that restrains you blank out for a few hours." She replied and went back to writing about how preserved food was relatively easy to obtain if you were willing to be shot at. Konata rushed back to her friend share the news.
"Kagami…" She giggled. "That wasn't a stimpak you used."
Her tsundere friend glared up at her. "Oh, then what was it?" Kagami could detect an air of arrogance like she knew that she was instantly correct.
"Drugs!" Konata cheered, like it was all of a sudden something worth celebrating. Kagami rolled over to hide her blushing face.
After a few hours Tsukasa finally woke up and Kagami sobered up. Yui thanked them and presented some rewards for their efforts. Fifty bottle caps; a medicinal IV needle and bag used for clearing radiation, aptly named RadAway by whatever company had previously designed it. They also got a banquet dinner of squirrel stew and 200 year old Salisbury stake that had somehow managed to be preserved. All the food contained minor radiation.
"Good new everyone!" Yui spoke up halfway through their meal. "Tomorrow we can finish the first chapter of the book!"
Konata cheered at the new, the Hiiragi twins groaned in unison, considering both of them were exhausted from today's work.
Yui allowed them to rest for the night in her store, the ground was terribly uncomfortable but it would have to do. Konata noted Kagami's deredere side come out as she let her sister use her lab coat as a blanket. The next day Yui woke them up bright an early at the crack of dawn.
"For a long time dormant landmines have been a real big problem." Yui said, explaining the next part of the chapter. "People get careless and loose a leg a lot. So this part is going to be about the dangers of landmines and how to avoid them."
"So what we just study landmines and then say how to disarm them or something?" Kagami asked. This job sounded easy, prewar technology was her specialty after all.
"Now a controlled environment would hardly be the grounds for good advice at all." Yui told her. "So the three of you will travel northeast over the Potomac River into a little old town called Minefield.
"Potomac River…does that mean we're in Washington DC?" Kagami asked. She instantly felt stupid for not once even beginning to think about where they were even at on the globe.
"It's called the Capital Wasteland for a reason." Konata told her.
"Come on even I knew that." Tsukasa inputted. Kagami remained silent after realizing she was the only one out of them who hadn't picked up on it so far.
"Anyways…" Yui continued. "This little old town is positively covered in old landmines. So you just get in far enough to get good data on avoiding them, the playground in the center should be far enough. Oh yeah and there's legends about a ghost who haunts the place too."
"Ghost?" Tsukasa shivered. The last thing she wanted to hear was that the Capital Wasteland was infested by the undead.
"Wait, how are we even supposed to know where landmines are?" Kagami asked again, as far as she knew landmines were usually buried.
"Oh you'll know." Yui answered and left it at that.
INTO THE WILD AND WOOLY WASTES
"I don't get why everything here tries to kill and or eat us." Konata remarked after the crossed a dried up part of the river. "I always considered myself a generally likable person."
"Considering you haven't been harmed in anyway yet you don't get much of an opinion on that subject." Kagami replied. In their hour long walk they had already been attacked by rabid dogs and horribly large, mutated mole-rats. Konata had been impressed with Kagami's skill with her newly obtained laser pistol. Kagami just told her it wasn't much different than using a laser weld the ludicrously small components of a Pip-Boy together for repair.
"Look over there!" Tsukasa shouted and pointed at the burnt remains of about a dozen houses in the distance. She made almost a full recovery from her radiation poisoning and managed to keep all her hair and skin from falling off, but the stagnant water had given her dysentery.
"That would be it." Kagami replied and looked at the map her Pip-Boy had drawn up of the surrounding fifty miles. She marked its location and typed in "Minefield". Typing on a Pip-Boy could only be described as being trying to text on a cell phone designed by Satan himself. All she had to work with were three buttons and a scroll wheel.
"Do you think that legend about ghosts is true?" Tsukasa asked as they began their approach. The three of them were eyeing the ground carefully for any signs of explosives.
"Of course not, that's completely ridiculous." Kagami answered, and left it at that.
"Don't be so sure Kagamin." Konata spoke up; Kagami knew she was going to correct her in some way. "I talked to Misao, she said the legend is true. A ghost haunts the ruins of municipal building and kills any who enter the town. He makes their heads explode with his ghostly powers."
"That's something Tsukasa would believe, but you Konata, are smarter than that." Kagami scolded as they reached the remains of a paved street. The street winded into the town and up to the remains of skeletal building that was at least three stories high.
"There!" Konata, shouted and pointed at a glowing orange dot in front of them.
"Well this'll be easy if the mines just glow like that." Kagami said cheerfully. "Just walk around them and it'll be a synch." Her glee was shattered by a gunshot. Smoke puffed from the ground next to them.
"Every time I get excited about something someone shoots at me!" Kagami screamed and dived behind a burnt out car. The others followed suite.
"The ghost has gun!" Tsukasa cried. Kagami was forced to smash her palm into her face at that.
"Okay you two just stay here; I'll peek out and see what's up." Kagami ordered, and unholstered her laser pistol. Secretly Konata was getting a little tired of her trying to play hero.
Kagami stood up and moved into plain sight trying to see if she could see where the shot came from. She didn't have time to lament about how stupid standing out in the open was before a .308 round tore through her.
"Kagami!" Tsukasa screamed as she saw a spurt of blood erupt from her and watched her fly backwards. If the circumstances weren't so dire Konata would have noted that may have been the first time she heard Tsukasa actually use her sister's first name.
Konata rushed out and grabbed her wounded tsundere, Tsukasa aided in dragging her behind a ruined house.
"No ghost, just a sniper." Kagami managed to say through the pain, and blood dripping from her lips.
"Tsukasa you have to play nurse while I rush to the playground and back." Konata ordered. Tsukasa nodded, she just accepted the fact that this was a terrible idea and Konata would surely get killed. But still she had more knowledge on first aid out of the three of them, and could treat her sister just was well with or without Konata's help.
Before she could say anything Konata bounded off into no-mans-land. She let it drift away from her mind, for now she had a job to do.
Tsukasa tore both sleeves off her 101 jumpsuit and tied them together to make a suitable bandage for her sister. The bullet had gone right through her left a whole about five centimeters wide. She didn't know if it had penetrated any vitals or if stimpaks could even fix that.
She applied two stimpaks from the bag Konata had left with them. Back when she learned first aid she was told that multiple stimpaks should be applied depending on the degree of the wound. Tsukasa concluded that this wound required more than one.
After applying them she hefted her sister onto her lap and hugged her stomach tightly, her sister flinched but realized Tsukasa was applying pressure to the wound.
"Thanks…" She managed to mutter. In the background they heard a series of explosions go off.
THE GAUNTLET
Dodge the orange dots and avoid getting shot. Her mission was simple. She sprinted through Minefield, hopping over cars and fences to reach the center. Every time a shot was fired off she nearly soiled herself. One shot had been enough to down the mighty Kagami-sama. She didn't want to think one would do to her.
The objective was in sight. Konata sprinted towards the playground, hopping over land mines as she went. Luckily they were proximity based, Konata was glad whoever designed them wasn't great at trap making. When she got too close they would beep loudly for three seconds than detonate.
One of the sniper's shots managed to puncture the dormant fission battery of a prewar car causing it to detonate…which detonated another which detonated another. Soon a chain reaction of cars and landmines were exploding around her, blasting the blunette with heat and shrapnel.
Eventually the explosion managed to knock her off her feet. Konata scrambled to get mobile again when she felt a shot whiz pass her face; she could even feel its sting.
Amidst her sprinting she felt her face where it was stinging. Her finger was decorated with a spot of blood from that. The thought of knowing that a bullet nearly took her head off was nerve wracking. Konata realized after a second of prodding at the scratch under her left eye where exactly that shot had grazed her.
"You shot my beauty mark off!" She screamed at the direction of the shooting. It didn't matter now though, she had reached the playground. Konata tagged a rusty slide and began sprinting back.
REGROUP
"Still no broadcast from Vault 101." Kagami said, she managed to sound more frustrated than hurt or scared, as was the common emotion for most people who took a bullet through the stomach.
In silence, she had been debating whether she should cry and let it all out. It could either show Tsukasa that being afraid in this new world was okay, or it could show Tsukasa that her big sister was having a nervous breakdown and couldn't handle the wastes. The latter damaging both of their outlooks. But then again not crying bore its own problems. Staying strong could possibly inspire Tsukasa to stay strong or set some unrealistic standard which would crush her if she couldn't live up to.
Kagami regretted being born thirty minutes before Tsukasa. Being the big sister was difficult.
"You think Kona-chan is okay?" Tsukasa asked, she was trying to change the subject away from anything that hinted at them not being able to go home.
"I still hear gunshots so I assume so. The little brat can take care of herself." Kagami answered and stood up and stretched, her abdomen flared in pain but the bleeding had stopped. As much as she hated to admit it, Konata seemed far more adept at keeping her blood inside her body.
Kagami couldn't help but notice how pale Tsukasa was with the sleeves of her 101 jumpsuit gone. She knew she was just as pale but it was still a major contrast to the sunburned residents of the Capital Wasteland.
Waiting for Konata to return was agony for both of them. They had no way to tell if she was alive or not since the shooting and explosions had stopped. The two had nothing to really talk about or discuss so they just sat there in silence. Tsukasa passed time by taking off her bow then putting it back on over and over again; Kagami kept taking the energy cell battery out her laser pistol and placing it back to kill time herself.
The cellar door which neither of them noticed burst open, the two of them jumped to attention. Kagami swore silently as she dropped the energy cell battery when she stood up.
"War ensemble!" Konata climbed out smiling her cat grin at the twins; besides a small little scratch on her face she looked perfectly fine. She was carrying an armful of stuff.
"Kona-chan!" Tsukasa squeaked, and hugged her friend fiercely.
"And how exactly did you get in there?" Kagami asked skeptically, but she knew that she shouldn't be surprised about this kind of thing when it came to Konata.
"Front door was open." Konata replied, and dumped her loot in a pile for them to see. "I scored big!"
She had found a hunting rifle with a case of .32 rounds to accompany it, a disarmed landmine, a prewar magazine called "Nikola Tesla and You" and a miraculously preserved stuffed bear.
Konata passed out the stuff between them, the rifle for her, the landmine would go back to Yui for proof and possibly research, the magazine went to Kagami who was puzzled about why Konata thought she would even want it, and the teddy bear went to Tsukasa.
"You mean this little guy's been alone in that house for 200 years?" Tsukasa asked while cradling her new friend. "Onee-chan isn't that sad?" Kagami had to stifle laughter at the fact that her sisters eyes were actually beginning to tear up.
"You're such a kid." She said and ruffled her hair. She leafed through the magazine and found it was mildly interesting; it was just articles about various models of prewar energy weapons. There was a particularly long essay on plasma weapons which she supposed could be a good read later.
"Sun's going down." Konata remarked. She was right; none of them had realized how long they had been out here.
"We don't have to go back in the dark do we?" Tsukasa groaned. The thought of walking back at night with all sorts of nocturnal creatures hunting them was not a pleasant one. Yui had briefly listed off all kinds of monsters that hunted at night. Giant mutated albino scorpions, people who were so irradiated that they had become mindless near invincible killing machines, Mutants that dragged people off and did god knows what with them and could take multiple shots to the head with a shotgun at point blank. Just to name a few.
"We could always spend the night here." Konata said knocking on the houses wall.
"That's a great idea." Kagami replied, Konata was happy that she agreed with her for once. "If you want us have our throats slit by that insane guy who gave a courtesy shot in the stomach!" Konata's happiness was short lived.
"But you forgot one little detail." She said pulling on Kagami's twin ponytails.
"What's that?"
"You have me!" She knew that Konata had a plan.
WASTELAND SLUMBER PARTY
It wasn't an elaborate plan but it would do. Konata just armed the landmine and place it on the narrow stairs which led upstairs to where they slept. It would beep is the sniper came to close. Konata had become adept moving quickly enough to disarm it.
The place had a minor radroach infestation which they promptly cleared out. Upstairs they found a king sized mattress which was a little worse for ware but would suffice. Tsukasa managed to cook them up radroach steak which the three of them agreed was the most disgusting thing any of them had ever eaten. Yui, however, would probably love to hear about that.
Kagami had to compliment the sturdiness of prewar fission generators, even after this long most of them could still be reactivated. She reactivated the one in the basement and was able to give them light. None of the light penetrated the boarded up windows, so the sniper would have no idea they were there.
"I need a shower." Kagami muttered. She found the bathroom mirror was still intact and took a good look at herself. Her hair was matted and dirty, she cleaned most of it up but it was still worse than it had ever been. The rest of her body was stained with red-brown dried blood and scabs from where there stimpaks had healed over her wounds. The sink still worked but, as expected, the water caused that irritating ticking from her Geiger counter.
"Do you always sleep in your undies or is this just a special occasion?" Konata asked when Kagami collapsed on the mattress wearing nothing besides her panties, she hadn't been wearing a bra when they left. Instead of replying she pointed at her neatly folded armored jumpsuit. Konata caught on to what she meant, the suit was covered in jagged scrap metal designed for protection. It probably wasn't most comfortable sleep attire.
They sat in silence listening to the radio off of Konata's Pip-Boy. There was so much all of them wanted to discuss, but none of them could muster up any way to say it.
"It's Three-Dog!" The radio shouted as the DJ shouted introducing himself. "Hear me and obey. Oh wait that's that other radio station." He said referring to the Enclave station. Kagami had listened to that station once; it was just some pompous man sitting behind in his fortified bunker guarded by soldiers preaching about things he didn't understand.
"I got some news for y'all." He continued. "You all know those big fancy shmancy vaults? No not those creepy underground ruins filled with all sorts of ghoulies!" Kagami wondered if he always addressed imaginary responses like that. "Apparently there was still a vault right near ol' Megaton. With people living there and everything. Well someone decided to pack up and leave, and then we got three more people leave later that day. I talked to our old buddies in power armor, the Brotherhood of Steel, and they said that vaults got some serious privacy issues and don't let people in or out except for one occasion a long time ago. So what's going on then? Are they sending out scouts to plot their world domination? Civil uprising and revolt? Somebody fart? You're guess is as good as mine. Until next time this is Three Dog, awroo! And you're listening to Galaxy New Radio, now for some music."
Kagami crawled over a sleeping Konata and turned off her Pip-Boy radio to prevent her from having to hear Chris Cornell scream on about some guy that had something to with something about spoons. She wondered if Three Dog was always that hyper and obnoxious, or if news was so slow he had to report on something as minor as the three of them leaving. She didn't really think their presence phased the wasteland at all.
Her mind wandered and she thought about Konata. Part of her hated herself for how much she scolded and yelled at her for everything. She knew it would be easier and probably more cheerful if she just went along with her nonstop jokes and nonsense. When they first met nearly a decade ago she would do that but after awhile it just got old. If she had to face the remnants of the apocalypse trying kill and/or eat her, she was at least thankful she could face it with her friend.
Eventually she dozed off to sleep. All she wanted to do was finish this stupid book and get the money from that irritating little Misao. Find Konadad and go home and get back to her life where she completely each day with the same amount of blood than she had in the morning.
DREAMSCAPES
Kagami was back in the vault. She didn't remember showing up there but there she was. For some reason it didn't comfort her.
"Kagamin~" Konata chimed in a sing-song voice and approached her. Something about this situation was terribly, terribly wrong. "I'm so glad you decided to take my hand in marriage after all these years of playing hard to get." Konata said and hugged her apparent waifu.
"What!? Married!?" Kagami shouted, and tried to squirm away. She found she couldn't move from the spot she was standing.
"Yes married, silly. You were the one who got down on one knee!" Konata smiled, and kissed her on the cheek.
"We can't be married, we work opposite shifts!" Kagami argued, for some reason that was the only argument she could come up with.
"Remember you quit your position to as a fry cook to have the same hours as me. Tsukasa's your boss!" She answered. The thought of Tsukasa being her boss scared her almost as much as being married to this blue haired fiend.
"Now we can move on to baby making!" Konata cheered.
"We can't have kids. Even you should know that's biologically impossible!" Kagami argued, but she should have known Konata had a plan. Konata always had a plan.
"Biologically impossible but not scientifically." She answered. "You see with science we can take my DNA and imprint with some stimcells and some other scientific-mumbojumbo and pretty much create the chromosomes and other stuff you need for baby making and place it in you. I don't know all of the details but with that you have a baby with me being the mom-dad-person-thing. SCIENCE."
Oh god she's right! She Kagami realized, she had read something about prewar scientists figuring that out around 2050. Religious people had pitched a fit about it since it was grossly against the bibles rules about god and creation.
"Now just sit back and relax and this will be over before you know it." Konata said with a benevolent grin.
TSUKASA'S SURPRISE
Tsukasa curiously watched her sister toss and turn in her sleep. It was around 10 a.m., Konata had gone out to see if she could check out the other houses for stuff too. Tsukasa had tried to sleep in but found she couldn't do it. Now she was content just watching her sister squirm and talk in her sleep.
"This is in no way consensual." Kagami muttered. This caught Tsukasa's interest. "I don't remember signing that…" She went on. Tsukasa giggled while she began thrashing around more violently.
"No! Don't touch me, get away…what are you doing with that turkey baster?" This dream of hers must have been interesting.
"Konata's going to be my baby's mom-dad-person-thing!" Kagami screamed in an ear piercing screech, and jumped up. Her and Tsukasa's eyes met.
"No, no, no, no Tsukasa don't look at me like that! It was a dream and it's…it's not what you think!" She stammered and blushed to the point where it looked like her face was going to hemorrhage.
"Don't worry onee-chan. My lips are sealed." Tsukasa said blankly in a stupefied daze. "That reminds me, I need to tell Kona-chan something. Let me go and find her." She got up and head off to find her, with the exact same expression glued on her face.
"No! Come back, you didn't hear enough of the conversation to make an accurate judgment!" Kagami cried in vain and chased after her.
50/300 CAPS
So ends another chapter of the girl's wasteland adventures. And with it comes my usual ramblings to clear up everything I left out and things for people not familiar with Fallout 3. I did cut out my really big stupid typo at the end of this, the world shall forget it ever existed.
Some of the technology does seem unrealistically convenient for them I know but that's just straight from the game. Just before the Great War fission energy was discovered and it pretty much runs indefinitely with almost no maintenance needed. Stimpaks are also pretty cheap since they make everyone nearly invincible unless they get a limb taken off or killed before one can be used. The drawback is that the average wastelander has no idea what they do. Joe Scavenger may find a first aid cache with stimpaks but he's going to skip out on the needles for the gauze and RadAway.
Konata's leaping and bounding through the explosions and gunshots is how that part goes for me no matter what I do. It starts off as me slowly disarming the mines until that bastard starts taking shots, cars start exploding and it turns into a mad dash for the playground with explosions.
Those enemies Tsukasa vaguely described are the three strongest enemies that appear in the game. That generally appear after you're level twenty if you have the expansion Broken Steel. They are Albino Radscorpion, Feral Ghoul Reavers, and Super Mutant Overlords. Each one is equally un-fun to fight and make me want to throw my controller. The latter two appear later in the story to cause havoc, mainly for Kagami.
Konata's explanation on using science for babies is a play off of "science baby" threads online where people draw doujins of Konami with kids and just call them science babies. That whole explanation was just me bullshiting like crazy.
There is no explanation on how some of the prewar food is preserved.
Three Dog makes references to the story and quests you do throughout the game. My favorite line is probably "I have a theory, Vault 101 is actually hell." After I roughed up quite a few people I deemed unworthy. And also, "Only you could start a forest fire in the wasteland, only you 101."
The really embarrassing typo has been conveniently removed.
My inspiration song for this chapter would have to be Beginning Of The End by Nine Inch Nails. What better song for foreshadowing the wild adventure this turns into?
