AN: I own only my own OC's and lore
"Quick move!"~ Person talking
'Bang'~ telepathic communication
"Time to attack."~ Synthesized voice
"Three dog here./ Daddy!/ Report in."~ Radio/Shade/Comm. Speech
Critical Systems failure~ Computer text/ Speech
Chapter 4: Big problems in Little Lamplight
(Jason, Little Lamplight)
I'll be one of the first to admit that I'm not perfect. Such as I wasn't the greatest close combat fighter, I couldn't win a game of poker to save my life, my poker face sucked, and I had a strange irrational fear of the color pink, to name a few. And just like you would guess Alex had his imperfections, most were pretty minor like mine but he was currently displaying his more explosive of personality ticks.
"YOU DAMN BRATS! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING SHOOTING AT SOME RANDOM PEOPLE THAT COME WALKING INTO THIS CAVE! DO WE EVEN LOOK LIKE SLAVERS YOU DAMN BRATS!?"
He had a tiny anger management problem.
"Up yours jackass!"
I sighed irritably, "Despite what you may think or what my irritable friend may lead you to believe with his attitude, we do not wish you any harm."
"Do you think I'm stupid?" the boy yelled back. I shot Alex a quick glare,
'Not. One. Word.' I heard my armored friend growl but otherwise made no sound.
"Listen we just need to come inside. We're looking for a girl. Goes by the name-"
"Like hell you stupid mungos! There's no way in hell I'd let you in MacCready would have my head if he ever came back!" Alex and I looked at one another for a moment.
"Mungo?" he said carefully, as if he was making sure he had heard right. I nodded "Mungo."
I turned back to the AK wielding children. "Who's MacCready? Your leader?"
"None of your business!" The child yelled back.
"Yeah, he's their boss." Alex deadpanned.
"You idiots!" yelled a second voice, this one distinctly feminine, "We need help! And I'm not letting you scare off them like you did everyone else who came into the cave!"
"But-"the boy began but he was cut off by the girl, "NO! Put those things away!" Something akin to a whimper echoed from the other side of the gate and I heard a number of clicks. Both Alex and I peaked over the side to see a young girl, probably nine years old, her messy brown hair held out her face by a hair band. The girl smiled as she looked at us.
"You're funny looking ones." She said. "I'm Lucy, the doctor for this town." I raised an unseen eyebrow that someone her age could be a efficient doctor but didn't say a thing. Now wasn't the time to satisfy my curiosity.
"Listen. I heard how you're looking for someone but you see information is precious." I narrowed my eyes.
'A trade then.' Alex thought.
"We might be able to help you find who you're looking for, but the two of you'll need to help us. As the genius probably implied…" she lazily wave a hand off to the side, gesturing to the unseen boy.
"Some of our people were captured by slavers. If you could help free them, we would be grateful and could help you with find this person."
"Do we have a choice in this?" Alex asked, although I could tell he didn't expect an answer. He turned to me. "Well?" I sighed heavily; we couldn't leave people in the hands of slavers, much less children. Ak-47 wielding children but children none the less. I looked back at Lucy as she stared at us.
"Where are they?" I asked. The brown haired girl smiled.
"While we don't know exactly where they went, as we never leave little lamplight, we do know that they are somewhere off to the north-east, in a place called 'Paradise Falls'." I snorted at the name; leave it to slavers to pick an ironic name, probably to draw in unsuspecting victims. I made a motion for Alex to stand as I did so myself.
"We'll get your people." Alex said, "Just be sure to help us when we get back" He turned and began to walk back to the tunnel entrance. I started to sigh but stopped myself and just settled for grunting.
ΩΩΩ
(Alex, Wasteland)
We didn't make much progress before night fell, so we decided to look for some shelter, we continued north east and came across a hill overlooking a field of blackened and overturned trees. A large open van off in the distance, and an over turned car not much further out. I turned to say something but movement caught my vision, and apparently Jason's as well as we both dropped to the ground. My visor compensated for the low light and zoomed in on the figures. The suits onboard computer took an outline, then in seconds small lines of code zipped over my screen as the suit checked the Gatekeeper codex, the source of all things they knew of the multiverse. Soon in the corner of my vision the image of a large burly, yellow skinned human, his head bald, muscles bulging, his teeth exposed in a permanent snarl as it looked as if his lips had been removed. Under the image in bold lettering two words were displayed.
"Super Mutant?" Jason asked, getting the same information in his HUD.
"Says that they are the result of something called an FEV, and more than a little of radiation. Also that they are highly aggressive, and almost always move in groups, varying from two to fifteen. Favored weapons include, sledgehammers, super sledge, and Chinese assault rifle, rocket launchers, and occasionally miniguns." I said as I read off the list. I continued to look over the expanse, my computer picking out four other mutants on the prowl. From the scans my suit was running all of them, the first we spotted had a sledgehammer in hand, two of them had assault rifles, but the fourth one however, had a rather large and threatening rocket launcher.
"Should we go around?" Jason asked.
I shook my head, "No, if we play this smart we can take out these things won't know what hit'em."
I reached for my sword and soundlessly pulled it free of the magnetic lock.
"Are you battle ready?" Jason asked as he pulled his rifle free. I gave him a look but he wasn't deterred. With I sigh I held out my unoccupied left hand and focused. Soon a familiar silver glow encompassed my closed fist and a warm feeling rushed over the enclosed appendage. As I felt out the energy that I could currently control. I faintly recalled one of the things Daegor had taught me in the month long period we were on Gateway, Drakyllen. It was one of the only words of his people that was within reach of the vocal abilities. And ironically it was the name his people gave to those like me and himself. Meaning 'Dark Ones'. I shook my head lightly clearing my head of its thoughts and focused on the feeling. Gauging by the mild work out I had been conducting for the majority of the day I guessed that I had one, maybe two concussive blasts in me.
"Yeah." I finally replied, "Just enough to do some damage."
Jason gave a quick nod as he turned back and aimed down at the Super Mutants through his scope.
"How we gonna do this?" he asked.
"You take out the one with the launcher and one of two with the ARs, I'll handle the other two." I said, Jason only grunted in confirmation. "On my mark." I pushed myself upwards into a slightly crouched position. "Three." Jason loaded his rifle, "Two." I pressed the trigger on my MDB, the blade emitting a low hum, signaling its activation. "One." I took in a breath.. "Mark."
I burst forward, kicking up dirt as I sped towards the hammer wielding mutant. Not one second after my sudden departure the thunderous crack of Jason's rifle, followed soon after by the unmistakable squelching sound as the rocket launcher wielding Super Mutant's head exploded. The remaining mutants reacted frighteningly fast as the three remaining spun around, ready to attack. I was still too far away to take any of the mutants on physically, so whipped out my pistol and fired three shots. In a rather predictable fashion two of those flew by the yellow giant harmlessly, but the third impacted it right in the chest. While the damage done wasn't significant but it was enough to throw it off balance. This was all I needed as I closed the distance and gave a horizontal swing of my sword. There was little resistance as the blade cleanly cleaved the muscle bound giant in two. I spun around and aimed a focused blast at my second target. The attack left me feeling slightly weak and gave me a headache but it did the job of launching the AK wielding Super Mutant onto its back. I quickly holstered my pistol and took a firm hold of the sledgehammer still held in the hands of the first mutant and yanked it free. I ran forward and brought the hammer down onto the fallen mutants head with a satisfying crunch. Unfortunately I gauged the amount of strength I put into the blow wrong and ended up snapping the weapon in half. A thunderous crack and pained yell signaled that Jason had taken out the final Super Mutant. I looked back and saw that he had actually blown a fist sized hole in the mutant's chest, just about where its heart should have been.
I stood straight and signaled Jason down. Now we had to loot the bodies and use the van as a kind of cover for the night.
ΩΩΩ
(Angel, The next day, Rivet City)
Angel giggled as she sat firmly on Scooby's back as he carried her to the science lab, four Rivet city guards close behind them, weapons at the ready. They had been understandably reluctant letting the giant and dangerous animal on the ship. Truth be told they would have killed the creature by now if it were not for Angel. What unnerved the guards was the fact that her protector was what they would thing was a Deathclaw. It looked almost exactly like the hulking monstrosities, but only in body shape, whereas Deathclaws were sandy brown in color, Scooby as Angel called him, was black as sin. Also he was damn near impossible to see in any low light environment. Then there was the fact that they saw the creature had the ability to literally turn itself invisible. Not like stealth boy invisibility where there was a shimmer around the form, but 100% invisible, not one trace could be seen. Then it could breathe fire and to top it all off it had claws that looked like they could turn a Super Mutant into steak tare tare.
Take all this into mind and one could be quite easily shocked that the Omegaclaw, as some had taken to calling it, was so gentle with the young girl, and that it listened to anything and everything she told it to do. Said case was proven when she told him to roll over, play dead, and sing. The guards cringed slightly at the last one. It had sounded like someone was running nails along a chalk board. Then there was how the creature just turned into putty whenever Angel scratched it in the right place.
When the group arrived at the science lab Angel was immediately greeted by Doctor Li while she stood a respectable distance from the girl's protector. The people of Rivet city learned quickly that anyone who got within the Omegaclaw's six foot reach was free game. The first unfortunate victim to learn this was a man by the name of Zimmer, he was just some bitter old man. He had called Angel a freak of nature. Angel naturally didn't take to well to this and looked on the verge of tears. Scooby defiantly didn't take to it as he felt his charge's sadness and understood the man caused it, so he did what any one would have done: he ripped Zimmer apart and ate his corpse. While this didn't sit well with the guards Angel promised that Scooby wouldn't do it again, although if everyone was completely honest no one was particularly broken up about the old man's death. From then on Scooby was like a coiled viper waiting to strike at whoever got to close to his charge.
Li was one of the few people that the Omegaclaw tolerated, and even then it was only because Angel told him that he was to never hurt her. That didn't stop him from snapping at the doctor whenever she tried to take tissue samples. Still today Angel was in for another check up with the doctor. Li was mainly interested in the substance that flowed through the girl, and strangely enough the Omegaclaw as well. Some kind of genetic compound that strangely originated from some foreign mass in her stomach of all places, unlike Scooby's supply which remained flowing through his circulatory system. When Li went about trying to remove the object all attempts cause Angel extreme pain. And that was more than enough reason for Scooby let the heads roll, of course he would have had the guards not pumped him full of enough tranquilizers to put down an elephant. This gave the doctor the chance to see how the two substances were related. She found out that with great surprise that the two substances were, as far as she could tell, one and the same. When she brought the two samples close together the bit taken from Angel pulsed once before the second pulsed right after it.
What this could mean Li could only guess, but it obviously had mutative qualities if Angel's appearance and Scooby's abilities.
Today however Li was just giving the girl a check up while looking for a way to safely remove the mass from her body. Li noticed however that Angel's usual million watt smile was an extra thousand watts brighter.
"Did you get Scooby to do a new trick?" the doctor asked as the girl hopped down from her perch.
"Nope!" Angel said happily. Li arched an eyebrow in question.
"Then what's got you so happy?" Angel bounced up and down as she continued to smile.
"He's here." She said happily. Li sighed, Angel was a sweet girl but getting information out of her was like pulling teeth out of a Behemoth.
"Who's coming honey?"
"My Daddy." Li froze the second those two words left the ashen girls' mouth. Her father? How could she possibly know he was coming?
"How could you possibly know that?" Angel shrugged her shoulders, being about as useful to the woman as a sack of potatoes.
"Sometimes I see daddy in my dreams, fighting monsters. Then there's daddy's friend. He's funny." Angel said as she rambled on, she did that a lot. Li was going to suggest that they get back to the check up when the little girl spoke again. "Daddy said about going to someplace called Paradise Falls." For the second time Doctor Li froze. How could the girl know that name, as far as she knew Angel had escaped from her captors out past Old Olney and according to her she went out past Canterbury, and entered the city from the east, she never came close to that slavers den.
Li then began to run the scenarios in her head, and every single one came back to the substance. Maybe it caused some form of instability in the mind, and was feeding her information she had heard while sleeping. But it could also have to do with the fact that Angel might have come across a map a labeled map of the wasteland when the girl had hacked into their terminal grid. While she was ditzy at the best of times she had proved that she was a genius when it came down to technology. Although whenever Li asked about this Angel just said that she told the machines to tell her things.
While Li was curious to the implications she needed to get it back on track, she'd file this away for later now she needed to check the girl over, so she ushered Angel to one of the tables. She would file this away for later.
ΩΩΩ
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
We had been walking for the majority of the morning after we left the place where we had camped back where we killed the Super Mutants. The Sun was now high overhead and by some twist of fate, Jason had gotten bored.
"Are we there yet?" he asked again.
"No."
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"Are we there yet?"
"No." I growled out more forcefully
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"Are we there yet?"
"No!" I snarled as I turned my head sharply at my friend. He was quiet for about fifteen more minutes before he opened his mouth to speak.
"If you say one word I will break my foot off in your ass." I growled. There was an audible click as he shut his mouth tightly. Not five minutes later I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Alex-"
"NO! We are not there yet so shut up!" I yelled as I spun around to face him.
Jason simply raised his right and pointed. "Actually we are." He deadpanned.
I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a structure about a kilometer away, while it wasn't very tall it had a large circumference. I grit my teeth and glared bloody daggers at Jason.
"Shut up." I growled out as I turned and began to walk up as to get a better look at the slaver settlement, ignoring Jason's distorted laughter the whole way.
Yo people what is up! Arokhsteel is in the house! The newest chapter of Angel in The Wasteland is here! Sorry for the long wait, but now it's out and we can rejoice!
Also I took the Poll down and there were a grand total of 7 votes.
...
Baby Godzilla's having a feast tonight.
Anywho the vote was for not continuing by one. So I guess I won't be doing that story any time soon, maybe after I've gotten all my stories sorted out. But thanks for keeping with me.
Right so remember to Review or I will strangle all of you with the intestines of a goat! :D
Arokhsteel out!