How to Hug a Deathclaw
-Notes-
Fun Fact: MacCready loves rock and roll. Also I'm not kidding about his age, I really wish I were. According to the wiki page, that's what Bethesda says it is.
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Chapter 3: Babysitter
Ho-ly hell. When MacCready accepted Sole's caps that fateful day in Goodneighbor, he entered in with the assumption that she knew how to use a goddamn gun. She might as well have been closing her eyes and randomly shooting with the way she was aiming, or rather missing, at everything. When she got frustrated with bullets, she would just throw her gun to the side, take out her knife and start slashing at whatever attacked them! Threw it to the side! Like a barbarian! How she even made it this far was beyond him. The only thing going for her was her element of surprise. Had raiders not been confused by her absolutely psychotic behavior, charging at 7 of them who were heavily armed with only knife, then her approach would have definitely been the cause of her demise. Lucky for her, he had fast reflexes and a rapid trigger finger. It definitely would definitely save her ass like 90% of the time.
Even right now, they were sneaking up on a raider camp holed up in one of the Boston homes, speak of the devil. Sole insisted on going this way, claiming she knew the way back to Diamond City. She was wrong, of course. MacCready had made the trip numerous times, but would she listen? No.
"Okay MacCready here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna go in and quietly kill these guys on the ground floor. There's a turret up on the adjacent house so I want you to take it out. I think there's a guy up there also, if you could get him too that'd be great." Sole whispered, readying her combat knife.
He already knew that concepts such as 'stealth' and 'planning' were lost on her. This was going to be fun. "Boss, we're in a terrible location right now. I need to be up higher in order to have the advantage." He explained.
Sole smiled and patted his shoulder comfortingly, "I'm sure you'll do fine."
MacCready furrowed his brow. It's okay. Breathe in. Breathe out.
"Listen. I don't want to die here okay? Here's a better plan. We find a way up to the top of the building over there-"he pointed to another building that would have a good view of the camp, "and kill them all from afar before they knew what hit them."
She followed his fingers to the building and scrunched her face up in consternation. *sigh* He could basically tell what she was thinking: 'Eh, too far. It'll take too long.'
"Eh, it's too far. It'll take too long." She complained.
"You know what else is fun when it's longer?" MacCready asked with the most sarcastic tone he could muster.
"Your dick?"
"What? No! What? Your life! What's wrong with you?"
She clapped her hands to his mouth as she shushed him. Quickly poking her head around the corner to make sure none of the raiders had heard them, she turned back towards MacCready. They were safe still. They continued in hushed voices.
"MacCready how old are you?" Sole leaned in, interrogating.
He despised that question. Even though he physically could not speed up time faster, whenever someone heard his age, nothing else he said mattered. It was as if that somehow disqualified his skill.
He sighed in resignation, "22. Why do you ask?"
"Geez, you really are a twerp. Okay, well seeing as I have 3 years on you, we're going to go with my plan."
"That's not even a valid reason!" He hissed.
She waved her hand in some sort of weird signal and then took off from their hiding place before he could stop her. Dammit! He huffed in frustration and readied his sniper, leaning up against the corner of the brick wall. He could see Sole out of the corner of his eye as he peaked around. She was nearing the entrance of the first floor. There was only one guy inside, and one on patrol in the alley separating the two buildings. If she did this right, it could work. MacCready was placing another another .308 in the chamber when…
CLANG!
MacCready spun his head around towards where Sole was. He could see her shocked expression as she fumbled with a pot, but more importantly, so could the raider. Shit! The raider twisted around and lifted his gun to eye level pointing directly at his boss.
BANG! MacCready was faster. The raider's head blew clean off, splattering blood all over Sole, who had, in a panic, rushed towards the raider in hopes of killing him first. They heard a mechanical whirring and Sole sprung back, to hug the wall. Ratatatat! The turret's machine gun went off at the ground level where Sole was and he heard two shots from a hunting rifle, which he could only assume came from the patrol.
So much for a quiet approach.
Sliding out of the corner so that he could see the turret, MacCready steadied his aim through the scope and shot it. It exploded into a heap of scrap and flames. Raiders never could get nice things anyway. The patrol woman finally seemed to take notice of him because she stopped firing at Sole and started firing at him. Bullets grazed the edge of the wall he crouched behind. The raider then ran to a little shack across the narrow alleyway. He took his chances and bolted inside the house across, feeling a bullet whiz by his cap. Crouching, he looked around. Where the hell was Sole? When he heard another bullet hit the window sill, he whipped his gun back up. He didn't have the time to play babysitter right now.
Interestingly enough, the first thing he saw when he looked through his scope was a flash of a little blue vault suit sneaking up on the patrol woman from behind. Dunno when she managed to creep out of the house, but right as she was tiptoeing up next to the unsuspecting raider, he pulled the trigger. BANG! He sniped the head clean off her before Sole could. He smiled. She was clearly not happy with her new shower of gore.
"MACCREADY STOP STEALING MY KILLS!" She bellowed, throwing down her knife in frustration.
"You gotta be faster boss!" He called back, loading more rounds in his sniper. The house shook with a low rumble. He froze. They weren't alone.
Staying low, MacCready dashed out of the house and across the alley to the shack corner where Sole was. Her face was so red with anger, or blood, or both. How cute. Apparently she hadn't heard the movement because she opened her mouth to yell at him but he pressed a finger to her lips, mouthing 'Shh! Listen!'
Silence. But it was an uncomfortable silence; the one that made your skin crawl. Then they heard a clicking, like the fastening of clasps, followed by a thud so loud that it shook the ground. Something had just jumped down from the second story of the building they were just in, but what? Or who? The pair peeked their heads around the corner. The footsteps grew louder. Hydraulics. MacCready released Sole, his fears becoming reality as a raider in a full-bodied power armor suit came charging towards them from the opposite end of the alley.
He and Sole glanced at each other simultaneously. He was hoping she would have the same fearful look that meant 'run' as he did, but was surprised when he saw her look of wild excitement.
"This one's mine!" She pulled out a grenade. His eyes widened at the impending danger as she coiled her arm back. "You won't kill him before me!"
"Stop! Don't throw that! We're in an alley you crazy lady!" He yelled at her as the thunderous footsteps rapidly encroached upon them. Too late. She pulled the pin and threw.
They bolted. When it went off, they were at the edge of the blast radius, and were thrown forward. Apparently the grenade she used wasn't terribly powerful seeing as his ears weren't ringing that badly. As the dust settled around them, MacCready grabbed his throbbing head. Sole was still sprawled on the ground but managed to turn herself over with a pained expression.
"You-why are you so crazy?" He managed to cough out as he stood up.
"That's not how you pronounce awesome" she groaned, closing her eyes. He extended an arm to her, which she accepted, and pulled her to her feet. He started dusting the rubble off her suit as she adjusted her armor. She reached up to brush the debris off his cap.
"Well that's one way to kill 'em." He chortled at the ridiculousness of their situation. I guess it wasn't all that bad. They were alive after all. At least he was most definitely assured that their time together wouldn't be boring.
Sole's lips curled into a smile, "Yeah I guess so."
Once they had gotten themselves situated, the two swept the now empty building of any valuables it had: just some ammo and a few caps on the bodies. What a waste. He noticed her shoving some random junk into her bag. What for? He hadn't a clue. Probably going to make an altar and pray to the loony gods or something. Slinging their packs on their back, MacCready and Sole exited the way they came.
As they were walking away, MacCready spoke first, "Next time, let's go with my plan before you go off on another suicide run. Are you ready to listen to me now? If you want to go to Diamond City, we've been traveling in the wrong direction for the past three miles."
"I know where I'm going!" Sole stubbornly protested "You should learn to respect your elders, you little twerp."
"At least I'm a twerp that knows how to shoot."
"I know how to shoot!"
He laughed. Oh, he laughed. He laughed so hard that he doubled over and wiped a mock tear from his eye. He kept laughing for a good solid minute as Sole's face turned red with embarrassment. She glared at him.
"Ha ha. Oh man! That's a good one. Well, thank goodness you're pretty."
Sole's head reeled back appalled, mouth dropping in horror at this insult. She was only stunned momentarily before socking MacCready's arm with all of her strength. He flinched away from the pain but continued laughing.
"You're so rude! I didn't pay you to be rude!" She hollered.
MacCready rubbed his arm, still trying to suppress a fit of giggles as they walked off into the sunset.
"Sure. Whatever you say boss."