How would you guys feel if I had a mod made that added a unique version of Eprdox's Kar98k based on Six's Kar98k? I have a friend who textures stuff, and he'd probably be willing to do it.
Also, since Six is finally in Remnant, I'm going to make the chapters a fair bit longer, probably around 10k words each, maybe? Dunno, but I'll try.
On to the reviews.
To , I'm actually partial to both of the UMP twins, I just picked 9A-91 because she's probably the most spec ops of any of the T-Dolls in the game, at least in the EN release because I'm a cripple. She fits the stealth suit best purely because of her gun's real life usage. I could have gone with OTs-12 or OTs-14, but Tiss is just a 9x39 AKS-74u and I think the Groza is fucking ugly as sin, so 9A-91 is the best choice for her avatar. Also, speaking of the EN release being censored as fuck, I noticed 9A-91 uses the Chinese art for her chibi in the EN release, and not a censored one. Strange.
To Lilbird04: The blowout was a much better surprise than just a fucking alien abduction like in the original story, right? I actually originally intended the blowout to be a Psi Storm from Call of Chernobyl, but then I went "ehhhh fuck it, blowouts are objectively cooler anyways and I can give a better plot explanation than I could with psi storms" because Psi Storms are just a big fuck off vortex in the sky.
To ptl: It wasn't a psychic emission from the Zone, because there is no Zone. However, it was related to Big MT fucking up, that much I can tell you. The air raid sirens weren't Silent Hill type things, they were just parts that I took from the Blowouts in Call of Pripyat. Either way, the Blowout isn't going to go forgotten, and I intend on it being plot relevant and also the catalyst for a short story arc with Six later on. As for Six and Allie's capabilities and whatnot, Six does NOT have VATS, because VATS is, in my opinion, stupid as hell. HOWEVER, Since Six is effectively a cyborg (his body is significantly augmented with Project Nevada Cyberware, and implants from Big Mountain, think something like Adam Jensen levels of cybernetics and augmentations, but they aren't all visible like they are on Jensen), that means he has Implant GRX which is an on-demand Turbo, in the wake of VATS. He'll have an aura and semblance, yes, I intend on the aura being tied to his guns, but it'll obviously be locked until I have it unlocked. As for the semblance, I don't really have a set idea for it just yet. In regards to Allie's abilities though, she's basically like Cortana in Halo, or any of the AIs from Red vs Blue. She manages the actual suit itself, reroutes power to necessary systems, etc etc, all that good shit, and since Six is a effectively a cyborg at this point, Allie can basically hook into him when he's inside the suit, and monitor his vitals, which show up on the HUD. She can also manifest herself via a hologram if she wishes to. The hologram can either be full sized, or equivalent to the Darth Vader hologram in the AT-AT from The Empire Strikes Back. She can sort of physically interact with the world as a hologram, but she can't phase through shit or push it around, she can only get stopped by it because the emitter can't project through walls. She can hover, though, because she's a hologram, and the laws of gravity do not apply to her. That's basically it.
To Fizz: Actually, color TV is a thing in Fallout now, according to Fallout 76, and if the trailer music is any indication, the cultural cutoff has probably been retconned into the 70s instead of the 50s, which is totally understandable, because there's only so much you can do with a retrofuturistic America culturally stuck in the 50s.
To the Guest who didn't put a name: Sure, you could say the Plymouth Fury is more lore friendly or whatever, but Courier Six is what I call a pseudo self-insert. He's still Courier Six, obviously, and I'm not going to change him to be more like me to jerk off my own ego, but Six's tastes in guns, clothing, and even his car reflect my own. I like the Kar98k, so Six gets a Kar98k. I like slavshit, so he gets an AKM. (update: not anymore lol) I loved New Vegas Bounties, so Six gets Sweet Revenge. I like the Sprinter Trueno, so Six gets a Sprinter Trueno. The Elite Riot Gear and its variants are my favorite sets of armor in the game, so Six gets those to wear, et cetera et cetera. Also, if you read last chapter's A/N, you'll already know why he has an AE86 instead of a Corvega or Highwayman. Actually, it's technically not even an AE86, it's basically a Highwayman in the body of an AE86.
Also, something I noticed, I write like someguy2000 does. Hell, I probably think like someguy does, if Cocker and Cutty are any indication. The difference is that I don't think I write as well as someguy does, and I'm not allegedly hung over or drunk in my descriptions. On with the story, enjoy!
DATE UNKNOWN
LOCATION UNKNOWN
SOMETIME DURING THE NIGHT
Six was lying on the ground, unconscious after pulling the trigger on the Transportalponder.
"Six, come on, get up."
No response.
Allie played a sound, like she was tapping on the visor of Six's helmet. "Time to get up, Six."
Still nothing.
Allie sighed, and began flipping through her audio databanks, until she found what she was looking for.
Six's helmet began playing a song. "Theeeere was never a man, like my Johnny…"
Six shot up like a rocket, Sweet Revenge drawn, ready to shoot the radio that had dared play that fucking song again.
"Where is it?" Six asked, scanning the environment.
Allie shut the song off, before responding to Six. "Nowhere, you dolt. I needed you up, and that was the fastest way to get you up. Listen, we've got a problem, and I mean a big problem."
Six holstered Sweet Revenge. "Lay it on me."
Allie sighed. "That emission, or whatever it was, damaged my internal clock, and I can't ping any RobCo OR General Atomics satellites. Not even a Chinese spy satellite is responding, and I have the clearance codes for several of those. I'm not even picking up any radio signals. I have no idea what the date is, or where we are, and I don't even know if there is any sign of civilization. As far as I can tell, we're basically dead in the water."
Six huffed. "I've been through worse. Remember, I was nearly killed twice, I literally had my brain, heart, and spine taken out of my body, I went through a hellish villa in Mexico for a heist for an old coot and survived with ALL of the gold, and even locked the bastard in the vault, and I walked through a freshly nuked Divide and lived. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine without any sort of intel, thanks. So, what DO you know?"
Allie appeared on Six's visor, and rolled her eyes at his bravado. "Well, we're not in the Mojave anymore."
Six blinked a few times, and then took a minute to properly look at his surroundings. He didn't notice it before, but he was in a forest, and it was incredibly lush, completely unlike anything Six had ever seen. Not even Vault 22 came close.
"Holy shit, look at all of the trees and plants! I've never seen anything like this before, not even on my way to Zion. I guess this place having actual plants does narrow the location down considerably. We're probably in Utah, maybe Oregon or Washington."
Six noticed something else about his surroundings; his car was missing.
He started to panic. "What the fuck? Where the fuck is my car at?!" He shouted. Allie just shrugged.
Six continued looking for a solid minute, and then gave up with a sigh. "Fuck it, I probably wouldn't be able to drive in this forest anyways. Looks like we're hoofing it."
Six picked a random direction, and started walking.
Six had found a decently sized hill to perch himself on and use as a vantage point to get a better idea of where the hell he was. When he got to the top, he noticed a very faint glow of lights coming from the side of a mountain to his east, similar to New Vegas. Six didn't remember there being any big cities with electricity in Utah and Oregon, so he was likely in Washington. Maybe the NCR finally got power flowing in Seattle?
"Looks like we've found civilization. I told you I'd been in worse scrapes." Six said, obviously cocky.
Allie sighed in exasperation. "Fine, you win this time. Let's go and meet the loca-" Allie stopped herself short.
Six was confused. "What's wrong?"
Allie responded, tension in her voice. "Multiple contacts, directly in front. I advise you get down and wait."
"Shit, alright. How many?" Six said, already prone in the grass.
"At least three. Switching to night vision now." Allie said, clearly focusing on trying to keep Six from revealing himself.
Six immediately saw what Allie was talking about. Directly in front of Six were three creatures that looked vaguely like Deathclaws, but something was off, and it rubbed Six the wrong way. He paid closer attention to the features of the unknown creatures, and he noticed that instead of horns, they had what looked like a skull mask on, and there were bones protruding from their limbs, and they had glowing red eyes. They also had fur, which was something Deathclaws definitely don't have. Were these things an offshoot? A mutation? Some sort of sub-species? Whatever they were, Six didn't have time to think about it any deeper, as a loud roar echoed through the forest.
"Fuck, that sounds like a Yao Guai." Six sank deeper into the grass.
As if this day couldn't get any weirder, a giant Yao Guai lookalike had now come running through the treeline, straight for the "Deathclaws". It barreled right into one of the "Deathclaws", crushing it under its weight, and then picked up one of the two left standing, before biting the head clean off, and then tossing the body at the remaining "Deathclaw", stunning it. While said "Deathclaw" was stunned, the Yao Guai grabbed it, and then tore the body in half, and it started feasting on the carnage. While it was eating, Six noticed something about the Yao Guai – it had the same features the "Deathclaws" did. Bones protruding from the limbs, skull mask, red eyes, the whole lot. Eventually, it grabbed the bodies and moved on, presumably, back to its den.
Six got up, before letting out a very valid "What the fuck did I just witness?" Allie felt inclined to say the same, but held her tongue.
"I thought Deathclaws were the alpha predator? What did a big Yao Guai have to roid itself up with to take down three of them?" was what she said, still in disbelief.
"Those weren't Deathclaws, and that wasn't a Yao Guai. We're definitely out of our element, Allie." Six said.
Six looked up at the sky to try and tell how long he had until dawn, and then he noticed it; the moon was shattered, and there were big chunks of debris trailing just behind it.
"What. The. Fuck." was what both Allie and Six said, staring in pure, utter disbelief.
"How did-?", "What could have-?", and"When did-?" was all they managed to sputter out.
They kept staring, running potential explanations through their head as to why the moon was shattered, but nothing came close as to a valid explanation for why it was like that. They just kept staring in pure silence, like they were in a trance.
Eventually, Six snapped out of it. "We're not going to find answers by staring at it. We need to get moving, or we'll be dead in about eight hours." He said as he started to move down the hill.
ROUGHLY AN HOUR LATER
OUTSIDE OF AN ABANDONED TOWN
Not far from the hill, Six had found a dirt road that lead vaguely in the direction of the city, which they followed for about an hour, until they came to the gates of what looked like an abandoned town.
Six looked at the welcome sign posted on the wall. Someone had spray-painted the words "DON'T ENTER, GRIMM INSIDE" over the sign that read "Welcome to Moonvale, Population 20", although someone scratched out the 2 so it just read as "Population 0"
Six felt uneasy. What was a Grimm, and how could they have forced the people of what looked like a highly defendable town to flee? Six intended to find out. He drew the Ithaca, and cautiously opened the gate, which had an audible creeeeeek. Six moved slowly through the opened gate. The first thing Six noticed about the town was how old and dilapidated the buildings were, probably haven't been maintained for ten years or so. The second thing he noticed was how eerily similar the layout of the town was to Goodsprings. If you had faced Goodsprings so that you were facing Doc Mitchell's house from the end of the road, Moonvale was practically identical, which didn't help Six feel less uneasy. The General Store and Saloon were directly to Six's right, the other gate was directly in front of him, and there were about four houses to the left, one of which was in ruins. Six being Six, he immediately went for the Saloon.
Six slowly stepped inside of the Saloon, and he noticed that it was very similar to the Goodsprings Saloon. Sure, tables were missing or knocked over, and there were holes in the walls, but the layout was the same.
"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Six whispered. Allie said nothing.
Six crept around the corner to where the bar would be, and then he saw one of the "Deathclaws" right in the middle of the seating area, sleeping. Right on the bar next to it were several bottles of what looked like whiskey, exactly what Six was hoping to find.
"Score." He whispered to himself.
Six quietly crept up to the bottles of whiskey, careful so as to not make a sound to not wake the beast. He slowly grabbed them, storing each one in his duster, careful to not knock over any of the empty glasses scattered along the countertop.
When Six grabbed the last bottle and stored it, he turned to leave, and started walking. However, his duster must have caught onto something, because when he tried to walk away, one of the barstools fell over, and immediately woke the beast.
"Oh, fuck." was all Six said as he turned around, realizing his mistake.
The beast rose its head, sniffing the air. It smelled a human nearby "Prey…" it thought to itself. The beast turned its head to the left, and saw the source of the smell. Yet, something was off about this human. It smelled of more of machine than of man. This confused the beast. This…human, exhibited a certain degree of pride, recklessness, and an aura of dangerousness. He wasn't afraid, nor was he flinching at the sight of the beast, rather, he was pointing his weapon directly at the beast's face. This Grimm was only ten cycles old, but it knew better than to engage the man, otherwise, it would surely die.
The Grimm got up, and moved away to the other room, and started sleeping again.
"That went better than expected." Six said, surprised he was still in one piece, even more surprised that he didn't have to put a twelve gauge directly in the skull of the beast.
Allie, on the other hand, was positively pissed. "Why didn't you shoot it!? Now it knows we're here, and it's probably going to tell its friends!"
Six responded. "Chill the fuck out, and listen for a second."
She did, and they heard the beast snoring.
"See? It's asleep, it won't be telling its friends, and when it wakes up, we'll be long gone." Six said.
Allie let out a sigh of defeat.
"We need to check the General Store, and then we'll be gone, I promise. No more fucking around in this place." Six said, moving for the door.
MOONVALE GENERAL STORE
Six crept through the door, and took a minute to take in his surroundings. The general store was fairly small, about the size of Chet's store. On the shelves were the things you'd expect in a general store, old cleaning supplies, food, shit like that. On the front counter, however, was something Six had never seen before. Six got closer to get a better look, and what he saw was strange, at least to him. There were about six small vials of a strange powder, but the powders in each of the vials were of a different color. One vial had a green powder, one had a blue powder, the third had a red powder, the fourth had a brown powder, the fifth had a white powder, and the sixth had a yellow powder.
"What are these things?" Six asked, hoping Allie could provide an answer.
She let out a sigh. "Six, we're out of our element as it is here. I don't know what those powders are, and I can't provide a valid answer until I can properly look at them with equipment, which we don't have. Just take them and let's get out of here." Allie obviously wanted out.
"Fine, fine, let me just take these vials and then take the shit out of the register." Six said, grabbing the vials and storing them in his duster, before moving to the register. When he opened it, he saw multiple plastic cards of different colors marked with an L symbol, and a number in the corner, likely denoting value.
"The fuck are these?" Six said, pulling one out.
"Either local poker cards, or currency. Take your pick." Allie said, anxious that they might get caught.
"Whatever they are, they're probably worth something. Let's get out of here." Six said, slotting the cards into his duster's slot that was used for paper currency, before moving for the door to get out of Moonvale.
TWO HOURS LATER
OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF THE CITY
(A/N: I strongly advise you listen to the New Mombasa music from Halo 3 ODST to set the mood for this next bit, don't have to if you don't want to lol)
Despite how far the city initially looked from the hill, the walk wasn't as long as Six had expected, taking three, maybe four hours max. However, they had now hit a roadblock, they were walled out of the city, and finding the entrance would take probably an hour of time, which was time Six didn't really want to have to waste.
"Nice one, we're walled out of the city. How do you plan on getting inside now, genius?" Allie said, annoyed. Six said nothing, and instead pulled out his duffle bag and started fishing around inside of it.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
Six pulled out a crowbar and a long piece of rope that he kept in there in case of emergencies, or if there was a need to climb over something he couldn't normally get over.
"Getting us over the wall, why?" He said, obviously being a smartass.
"What if that doesn't hook to anything?" She said.
"It will." Six responded, confident in his abilities.
Allie sighed. "If it doesn't properly hook, and you fall and break your back, I'm going to overdose you on morphine, and hope I die with you." She said.
Six responded, the sarcasm dripping from his voice. "How sweet of you. It'd be a quicker death than what the NCR would probably give me, anyways."
Six had finished tying the rope around the crowbar, and started twirling it like a lasso, before tossing it over. There was the unmistakable sound of metal hitting metal.
"Told you it would work." Six said, smug. He zipped his duffel bag back up, and threw it over his shoulder, before beginning to climb.
When Six got to the top of the wall, he suddenly realized his mistake.
"Oh, right. Getting up is easier than getting down. How fucking silly of me." Six said. Allie just giggled, and it took Six a minute to realize what she was laughing at.
"Ha-fucking-ha, real mature of you." he said, annoyed at how immature Allie was. She just giggled even harder.
She had to stop herself from giggling to give Six a proper response. "I'm a robot, remember? Well, I'm an AI, but same thing. Technically, I never mature, because I don't really have a lifespan."
"Alright, quit fucking around, how are we going to get down, and how do we get down without breaking my fucking legs? I'm not jumping, cause that's at least a 20 foot drop." Six said, looking around for a way to safely get down. Directly to his right was a fire escape, close enough that he could probably jump to it and grab onto the rails, and to his left was another fire escape, but it was further away, so it would be a balancing act of trying not to fall. Six went for the closer fire escape.
Allie felt the need to remind Six about what she said. "Remember, break your back and I'll overdose you."
"I got that, thanks. Time for a leap of faith, then." Six said, preparing to jump across.
When Six did jump, he immediately activated Implant GRX to give himself more time to react, and he stretched his arms out to try and grab on to the rails. He almost missed, even with GRX active, but he grabbed on at the last second, which was also when GRX wore off, and Six immediately felt his body plow into the railing, which was when Six let out a painful wheeze, before slinging himself one level down so that he was on his feet.
Six took a minute to catch his breath, before calling out Allie. "Told you I'd make it."
Allie was annoyed, but was at least happy she was alive. "You got lucky, that's all there was to it. If you didn't have me or this suit, you would be a cripple right now, that's a fact." was all she had to say.
"Probably, yeah." Six said, circling down the stairs of the fire escape. He took a second to look down at the city streets. "Looks like most of the shops and places are closed. We might get lucky and find a place that's open." he continued, before continuing to move down the stairs onto street level.
When Six got to the base of the fire escape, the drop was now a much more manageable 10 feet, and Six inched his body down, holding on to the fire escape, until his body was fully lowered, at which point he let go, and hit the ground with an audible thud.
"Let's get my shit and get out of here, don't want to attract too much attention." was all he said, and he started moving to where the crowbar landed, which was in a sewer grate.
Six was kind of just aimlessly exploring the city streets. The city was absolutely unlike anything he had seen before. Arroyo, Shady Sands, The Hub, New Vegas, and San Francisco were some of the most advanced places on the West Coast, but despite that, they absolutely paled in comparison to whatever this city was. There were cars parked on the streets, functional traffic systems, it just absolutely shat on all of them, even Vegas, which sort of hurt Six's pride.
"These buildings look French." Allie remarked.
That made Six do a double take on the buildings. They absolutely did look like they were French. Six had never personally seen French architecture, but he remembered seeing pictures of Paris in a book his dad bought from the Followers when he was younger, and the architectural styles were so similar it was uncanny. Six kept walking.
Most of the buildings were closed, unsurprisingly. There were a few that were open, but they were either probably too expensive for his blood, or not what he was looking for. Mostly, they were just coffee and donut shops. Some were gun stores, which was something Six would gravitate towards naturally, but he likely didn't have enough money to buy any guns. Other places were nightclubs and bars, which Six wasn't particularly interested in, since he already had his own alcohol. Speaking of…
Six pulled out one of the bottles of whiskey, opened it, and pulled up his helmet to take a swig. He took a second to let the taste sink in.
"Tastes vaguely of piss, slightly more so than whiskey normally does. Odd." Six said, as if he was some sort of connoisseur on what piss tasted like.
Allie was confused. "That's it? No dramatic spitting it out, or vomiting?"
"No." Six responded, pulling his helmet back down, and putting the whiskey away. He looked up, and saw he was in front of some store called "From Dust Till Dawn".
"Looks like a general store. Maybe they have a map of the area or something." Six said, before opening the door. The door had one of those jingles attached to it so that it made a sound whenever a customer came in. A few of the traders in the Hub had those, but not many. Behind the counter was an old man, probably in his late 60s or so, and in the actual counter were crystals of the same colors as the powder vials Six found in Moonvale. To his left and right were some jars and tubes of the same powder in the vials. Whatever the powder was, this place seemed to be selling it. Six walked up to the counter.
"Hey, I'm kinda new in town and got lost. Do you have a map or anything, ideally with a point of reference for me, so I can figure out where I'm going?" Six asked.
"Yes, yes, one moment." The old man said, reaching down under the counter, before pulling out a map of the city and setting it on the counter.
"You're right here, in the Commercial District of Vale." He said. "My shop is here." He continued, pointing to a northeastern corner of the district.
Allie cut in. "I've got a picture of the map saved, Six."
"Great, thank you so much for your help. I appreciate it." Six said, and the old man put the map back under the counter. When Six moved away to go find more information about where exactly he was, and to plan his next move with Allie, he heard the door open again. Six turned around, and saw a young girl, couldn't be any younger than 15, in what had to be the gaudiest dressup possible. She was wearing all black and red clothing, had one of the biggest god damned skirts Six had ever seen in his life, she had a red cloak, with a rose medallion or something that looked like one on her belt, and clipped to the belt were… .50 BMG bullets? They weren't casings, either, they still had the actual bullet in them.
"Hi! Do you have the new issue of Weapons Weekly?" She asked, holding out several plastic cards that looked like the ones Six had taken from the register in Moonvale.
"Sure do, Miss Rose, one second." The shopkeeper said, reaching under the counter, and pulling out a weapons magazine. She took it, handed him the cards, and went further back in the store.
Six felt tempted to ask what the fuck was wrong with her, but resisted the urge, and instead found a newspaper rack. Six randomly picked one, and started reading, while Allie pored over the map of Vale.
VACUO ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION BEGINS
The Kingdom of Vacuo is a lawless place, full of criminals, thieves, and outlaws. Yet, beneath its sands lie vast treasures, pieces of ancient history, just waiting to be discovered. The Schnee Dust Company has recognized this, and has authorized an expedition to the region. The SDC is now hiring mercenaries and Hunters to protect their excavations teams during their expedition into the industrial wastes of Vacuo.
The head of the expedition has gone on record stating the objective of the project as being to "find additional untapped Dust sources, and hopefully find clues as to why there is a lack of fossils and relics past 100,000 years."
The expedition has the full backing of the SDC CEO, Jacques Schnee, and is expected to last several years.
Six's reading was interrupted by a new person having entered the store. Six didn't look behind him.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?" the new voice asked.
Six heard the distinctive sound of what was likely an energy pistol being turned on.
"Please! Just take my lien and leave!" The shopkeeper yelled in fear.
"Shhh, calm down. We're not here for your money. Grab the Dust." the new voice said, and then Six heard multiple footsteps moving through the store. He heard the sound of pumps working, display cases being opened, whatever. Six would normally intervene, but he didn't want to start shit without knowing what was going on. For all he knew, this could be a protection racket, and Six would be in a whole other mess of shit, because fucking with the mob wasn't exactly the smartest move. Six then felt a gun being pressed to his helmet.
"Hands in the air, fucko." another voice said, likely one of the henchmen. He sounded sort of like the Omertas did when they spoke, but it was like he practiced half of the required work and then half-assed the rest of it.
Six turned around, and stared directly at the man with the gun pointed at him. He couldn't have been more than 5'7", he was practically a teenager when compared to Six. He had the stupidest looking style, it was a pure black suit with a red tie, a black fedora, and some red shaded sunglasses, like an Omerta, but significantly less threatening.
"Are you stupid or some shit? I said to put your hands in the air. Do it, or I'll cap your ass." He said, trying to be intimidating. His body language, however, told Six that the guy was scared shitless.
"Fine, fine. I surrender." Six said, rolling his eyes and putting his hands up in mock surrender. He noticed the first voice that entered the store after the girl looked like a really shitty Bond villain, and he was leaning over the counter. He took a second to look at Six, let out a puff of cigarette smoke, and refocused his attention on the shopkeeper. He didn't get to maintain that for long when one of the henchmen came flying from the back of the store at Mach 2, leaving him embedded in the wall. One of the other henchmen came running up to the Bond villain, who directed him to where the guy came flying from. The second henchman went to where the Bond villain directed him, and was promptly kicked right out the fucking window, with the girl right behind him. The Bond villain and the three remaining henchmen in the store went to the window to see if their friend was okay, even the guy holding Six up.
"Big mistake, pal." Six thought to himself, drawing Sweet Revenge.
Six heard the sound of…machinery? Whatever it was, he heard gears whirring, and then he felt something strike the ground. Neither the Bond villain nor the Henchmen had noticed Six had his gun out.
"Okay… get her." The Bond villain motioned with his head for the three henchmen to attack the girl.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
All three of the henchmen dropped to the ground, dead, with .44 Magnum sized holes in the sides of their heads. The Bond villain looked at Six, first in shock, then in annoyance.
"Of course. They grab all the Dust, but forget to disarm the people with guns, and they don't know a bounty hunter when they see one. Typical. I'll need to yell at Junior about that." he said, shaking his head. Six advanced on him, and he was backing out through the door.
Six and the girl were both now advancing on the Bond villain. "Regardless, this has been an eventful evening. I'm afraid this is where we'll have to part ways." he said, raising his walking cane, and firing a flare.
Both Six and the girl managed to roll out of the way of the flare, which exploded behind them.
"What the fuck was that?! Walking Cane grenade launchers?!" Six thought to himself.
Both Six and the girl frantically looked around for where the Bond villain had went. Six spotted him climbing a ladder, nearly at the top already. Six ran after him, and started climbing, but the girl, instead of climbing, fired what sounded like a 50 cal, and launched herself onto the building. Then, Six noticed she was carrying a scythe at least twice her size. Logically speaking, she shouldn't be able to carry that scythe, let alone launch herself that high. Then again, this wasn't exactly the most normal of days.
"How the fuck did she do that?" Six thought to himself again, before starting to climb the ladder faster.
When Six got to the top, he immediately saw an explosion, but when the smoke and dust cleared, the girl from earlier was now behind a woman who looked like a school teacher, and both were completely unscathed. The woman was holding some sort of stick out, and there was a purple rune being cast right in front of her. The rune faded away, and the Bond villain, who was in an air vehicle that looked like a Vertibird, looked panicked.
Six quickly unholstered his Kar98k and prepared to take the shot. He aimed for the Bond villain's head, but just as he was about to take the shot, the woman started pelting the "Vertibird" with some sort of energy projectile being cast from her stick, which shook the "Vertibird" everywhere. The Bond villain kept tumbling around the interior, and Six couldn't get a clean shot, so he activated Implant GRX again, and time began to slow down. Six tried to line up the shot, but he felt the whiskey starting to kick in physically. The Bond villain was still in Six's line of sight, and he was still tumbling around, but Six had finally managed to line up the shot after significant difficulty.
"Bingo." was what he said before he pulled the trigger.
Time began to speed back up, and there was now a red mist around the Bond villain's head. Six heard a long, drawn out scream, which meant the Bond villain was still alive. "Fuck." was what Six said to himself. He saw the Bond villain go inside the cockpit, and someone else came out.
Whoever they were, they were throwing balls of fire at the woman and the girl, but the woman was blocking them or diverting them. It was like a lightshow of red and purple, clashing with each other. The woman tried multiple times to bring the "Vertibird" down, but to no avail. She even penetrated the engines and wings with large chunks of ice, which should have killed it, but instead nothing happened. The person in the "Vertibird" must have had enough, because now there were red circles beneath the woman and the girl, and they both rolled away. That gave the people in the "Vertibird" enough time to get away, because it broke the woman's concentration on the ice chunks. Suddenly a giant plume of fire erupted from the circles. When the plumes of fire faded, and the "Vertibird" started to pull away, the girl folded her scythe into a sniper rifle, and started hipfiring it at the "Vertibird", but all the shots bounced off. The woman and the girl stared at it for a moment, and the girl turned to the woman. Six barely heard the girl say "Can I have your autograph?" before the woman turned to Six, having only just realized he was present.
"Er, hi?" Six said, giving a halfhearted wave.
SOME SORT OF INTERROGATION ROOM
20 MINUTES LATER
(A/N: I advise you start listening to the UNATCO Headquarters music from Deus Ex for this next bit, or the original scene music, your choice.)
"I hope you two realize your actions tonight will not be taken lightly. You put yourselves, and others, in great danger." The woman said, pacing back and forth behind Six and the girl.
"They started it!" The girl responded, clearly upset.
"Actually, they did. I was gonna let it go, but then one of those shitbirds decided to try and rob me, so it isn't totally my fault that I got involved." Six said, leaning back in his chair, clearly not taking the situation seriously. The girl winced at his language.
The woman sighed as she moved toward the entrance of the room. "If it were up to me, you would be sent home with a pat on the back," the woman said, eyeing the girl, "and a slap on the wrist!" she continued, striking where the girl had her hands earlier. The girl pulled her hand back just before the riding crop struck where her hand was. "And you, whoever you are, would be rotting in jail for murder." She said, clearly angry that Six killed those thugs.
"What the fuck? They were criminals! They tried to rob me, for fucks sake! That's not murder, that's self defense!" Six yelled, trying to defend himself. The girl winced again.
The woman sighed, and rolled her eyes at Six. "Regardless, the situation is out of my control. There is someone here who would like to meet you both." She said, moving out of the way. In came a middle aged man, about 6'6", carrying a plate of cookies, and coffee.
"Ruby Rose." Was the first thing he said. He leaned in towards the girl. "You have… silver eyes?" he continued, as if that was supposed to be significant. Six assumed Ruby Rose was the girl's name.
Ruby just stuttered, trying to think of a response.
"Where did you learn to do this?" The man said, pointing towards some sort of tablet with a video feed of Ruby kicking the crap out of the two henchmen in the store, and launching herself up onto the building.
"S-Signal Academy?" She stammered out, unsure if she was going to be punished or not.
"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" He questioned further.
"Well, one teacher in particular…" Ruby answered.
"I see." the man said, setting the plate of cookies down in front of Ruby.
"It's just that I've seen only one other scythe wielder of that skill before. A dusty old crow…" the man continued.
Ruby was currently stuffing her face full of cookies, and she mumbled something. She took a second to swallow, before speaking again.
"Blegh, sorry. That's my uncle, Qrow. He's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing, and now I'm all like bywaaah, wchaaah, hyaaa!" Ruby said, making some fake kung-fu moves.
"So I've noticed, and what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?" The man asked.
"Well, I want to be a Huntress." Ruby said, suddenly shifting her tone of voice to be more serious.
"You want to slay monsters?" The man asked again.
"Yeah, I only have two more years of training left at Signal, then I'm going to apply to Beacon. See, my sister's starting there this year, and she's training to be a Huntress, and I'm trying to be a Huntress because I wanna help people, and my parents always taught us to help others, so I thought "well you know might as well become a huntress", but huntsmen and huntresses are so much more romantic and exciting and cool, and just, gah! You know?" Ruby responded in excitement.
Six looked at the woman and the man. Neither were particularly impressed. "I see." was what the man said, before turning to Six.
"And you," he said, "Where did you learn to do this?" He asked, with the tablet now showing footage of Six shooting the thugs in the head.
"Self taught." Six said. He wasn't trying to be smarmy or anything, most of what he knew about gunfighting was self taught, or learned experiences from bounty hunting.
"I see, and what is your name?" The man questioned.
"Nax Strag." Six said plainly.
"Where are you from, Nax Strag? I've never seen gunfighting skills quite like yours, I must say."
Six was drawing blanks. Should he tell him the truth, or should he lie?
"Well?" The man said, expecting a response.
"Er, I kind of just drift from place to place, actually. I wouldn't even call that a gunfight either, more like me taking advantage of the situation and punishing them for letting their guard down. Sure, I was fast, but that wasn't a duel or anything." Six responded.
The woman whispered something in the man's ear. He couldn't quite hear it, but he heard the word "Vacuo" uttered, and saw the woman roll her eyes.
"I see. Smart, and quick on the draw. Your type usually comes from Vacuo. What brings you to Vale?" The man asked.
"Like I said, I drift wherever I feel like going. Nothing special brought me to Vale, really." Six responded, careful to only tell half of the truth.
"Well then, I have a question for both of you. Do you know who I am?" The man asked.
"No clue." Six responded.
"You're Professor Ozpin, you're the Headmaster at Beacon."
Ozpin let out a short chuckle. "Hello." was what he said.
"Nice to meet you." Ruby said.
Ozpin suddenly got serious. "You want to come to my school?" he said.
"More than anything in the world." Ruby said, her pupils practically gleaming at the chance to get into Beacon.
The woman let out a quiet hmph, and Ozpin turned less serious.
"Well, okay." was what he said, and Ruby's jaw practically dropped.
"What about you, Nax Strag? You clearly don't have anything actually taking up your time here in Vale, and I believe you would be a useful asset to us in Beacon. Sending you to a combat school would be pointless, since I believe you already know what they can teach you." Ozpin said, turning to Six, holding his hand out, expecting it to be shaken. The woman opened her mouth to protest, but Ozpin silenced her. He quietly mouthed "we'll discuss this later" to her, and she said nothing else.
Six quietly pondered his options. He could either refuse, and probably die on the streets of Vale due to unfamiliarity with the region, or get lynched by the mob for shooting their guys, or he could go to Beacon, where there would be food, water, shelter, and safety.
"Well?" Ozpin said, expecting an answer.
Six looked at Ruby. Something about her was telling Six that maybe he should accept the offer, and it wasn't the puppy dog eyes she was giving him. Six reached his hand out, and shook Ozpin's.
"I accept." was what Six said.
"Great, if neither of you have anything else to add, I believe we should be moving to put you two in with the First Years." Ozpin said. Suddenly, the room was bathed in a glow of blue and red.
"How rude of you to not introduce me to these people! I go preoccupied for twenty minutes, and come back to find out you're being interrogated! The least you could do is let me say 'hello'!" Allie said, trying her hardest to fake being offended. Six damn-near had a fucking heart attack because of what she just did. Everyone's eyes immediately widened at the sight of the hologram sitting on the table.
"Woaaah, what are you?" Ruby asked, eyeing Allie's hologram.
"I'm an AI, silly! I run his suit, make sure he's still breathing, and almost give him heart attacks, like just now!" Allie said.
"Do you… have a name?" Ozpin asked, warily eyeing Allie.
"Oh! My name is Allie! It's an acronym for Advanced Less than Lethal Infiltration and Espionage suit!" Allie said, blissfully unaware that she may have just soiled Six's chances of getting into Beacon.
Ozpin looked at Six. "That suit you're wearing, that's an infiltration suit?" he asked.
Six finally snapped out of the shock Allie showing herself gave him. "No, it isn't, at least not anymore. My suit is a mix of a suit of riot armor, which is what you see on top, the original suit Allie came from, which is on the bottom, and several other modifications. I'm not a fan of stealth, so I had those parts stripped from the original suit, and just merged Allie with the riot armor, because she's too useful to just leave in a pile of scrapped parts. Only reason she's still called Allie is because we're both used to it." he explained.
"Ah, I see." Ozpin said, staring at Allie. The woman was visibly upset, and moved her mouth to speak again, but Ozpin silenced her.
"Also, I'm his girlfriend!" Allie blurted out.
Six groaned. "No, Allie, you aren't. Stop screwing with people." He said.
Allie started again. "But-", yet Six muted her. He looked at Ozpin.
"Look, can we go? I'd like to go before she says something even dumber." Six asked.
Ozpin stopped staring at Allie, who was now throwing an angry fit. "Of course, right this way, please." he said, motioning for the door.
THE NEXT DAY
AIRSHIP TO BEACON ACADEMY
8:47 AM
(A/N: I strongly advise listening to Rey's Theme from The Force Awakens for the airship segment)
A mass of blonde hair suddenly attacked Ruby with a bear hug. "Oh, I can't believe my baby sister's going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!"
"That must be Ruby's sister." Six thought to himself.
Ruby muttered something out, and her sister let go. "But I'm so proud of you!" She said.
"Sis, really, it was nothing." Ruby said, shrugging off her sister's compliments.
"What do you mean? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon's gonna think you're the bee's knees!" Ruby's sister said, clearly overjoyed that her sister got in early.
Ruby clearly didn't realize that was a metaphor. "Okay, I don't wanna be the bee's knees, I don't want to be any kind of knees. I just wanna be a normal girl, with normal knees." She said, slightly upset.
Six finally spoke up "Ruby, she doesn't mean literally becoming someone's knees, it's a figure of speech for being cool."
Ruby's sister pointed a hand out towards Six dramatically. "Thank you! I was just about to say!" Ruby's sister took a minute to realize who she was talking to.
"Oh! You must be the one Ruby was telling me about, the one who helped her at the Dust store robbery?" Ruby's sister asked.
"Sure am. Wouldn't have gotten involved if they hadn't tried to rob me. What's your name?" Six asked her.
Ruby's sister, paused for a minute, like she forgot her name or something. "Oh! I'm Yang. Yang Xiao Long." She said, extending her arm for a handshake. Six took it.
Six looked at the two of them together. "Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose, huh? You don't look like sisters, and you don't have the same last name. What gives?" He asked.
"We share our father, our mothers were different." Ruby said.
"Ah, I see. That explains a lot, actually." Six said. "I'll leave you two alone, then." he finished, moving away towards a window to get a better view of Beacon Academy. Some of the people he passed by on the way were, well, strange, to say the least. First, everyone at Beacon looked like a teenager, but they had some really weird costume choices. He passed by two people, a guy and a girl, where the guy looked like Che Guevara in a ballistic vest, he even had the hat and something that looked like an AKM with so many attachments and modifications that it would make Mikhail Kalashnikov himself rethink designing the AK, and the girl, probably his girlfriend or something, looked like the 80s vomited her onto the airship. She had neon pink waist length hair with blue highlights, and two equally pink and neon MAC-10s, with some sort of blade where the straps would be normally. Another person looked about as tall as a Super Mutant, and had the muscles to back the look up. carried an equally big gun that looked like a Browning M2 with three barrels. Six didn't see any belts, so it was probably fed with a big fuck off magazine. Trailing right behind him was a brown girl, about 5'6", she was carrying an engraved bow, and looked like she was trying to avoid contact with people. Six noticed she was trying to cover some scales, and her eyes were distinctly reptilian. Six moved on, and looked out the window, watching the clouds go by. Six had never flown before, for obvious reasons. Allie showed up on Six's visor, and took a seat, enjoying the view. Six heard a voice start.
"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal, Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities." it said.
Six turned around, and saw the shitty Bond villain. "So, his name's Roman? That's a dumb name, Torchwick is even dumber." Six thought to himself. He noticed the guy who looked like Che Guevara had balled his fists in anger, but the girl he was with calmed him down.
"If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale police department. Back to you, Lisa." the voice said.
"Thank you, Cyril." A nasally feminine voice said. "In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights Protest turned dark, when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disru-" The voice was cut off, and the woman from yesterday was now displaying.
"Hear that?" Six whispered so that only Allie could hear him. "Sounds like there's a race war going on."
The woman from yesterday started speaking. "Hello, and welcome to Beacon. My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have been selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge, and the training, to protect our world." Glynda faded back out again, and there was a mumbling in the crowd of people. Six went over to the window where Glynda's hologram was, and saw Beacon.
Six didn't really know what to expect, but the place was fucking huge, the giant towers dwarfed even the remaining skyscrapers in the Boneyard, and the architecture felt more like a fairy tale than reality.
Allie just whistled at how impressive the whole thing was.
So, I need your guys' input on something, should I interject during scene transitions like I'm doing now to advise you to listen to a certain piece of music to set the mood, or should I cut that shit out?
I didn't quite make my 10k words like I planned, but I got close, and this feels drawn out enough, so I'm ending it here. Trying to translate Ruby's ninja noises was a pain in the ass.
If you didn't capture them immediately, this chapter features the redone JAMI. They've undergone some changes from their original incarnations, like how Marshall is as tall as a fucking super mutant, is as built as one, and how he has a fucking triple barrel M2 that I'm calling the Ripper for obvious reasons, or how Aqui has longer hair and also non Borderlands style SMGs. I even gave Jimmy (who is now Julius because I realized Jimmy Agilis fit worse than Julius Agilis) a tactical vest. Izzy is the only one who remains basically unchanged.
Also, wanna hear some GRIMM RETREAT LORE™ that I originally planned? Courier Six was originally also going to be the Lone Wanderer, think like Tale of Two Wastelands. If I remember correctly, this was actually part of the original Grimm Retreat. That would have been exceptionally stupid had I continued that.
ADDITIONAL LORE BY THE WAY
Everyone on JAMI, and even Courier 6, has a theme that I never bothered to remove or change. Julius' theme is Wily Vs Zero V2 by KoD83, Aqui's is a Flashman Remix by rabfan15, Marshall's is Ain't No Rest for the Wicked, Izzy's is Ezio's Family from Assassins Creed 2, and Courier 6 has The Man Who Sold The World, specifically the version seen in MGSV.
Strictly speaking, only Izzy's theme fits her because she's an assassin type character, and Six's if he were slightly edgier and more like Venom Snake. No idea what I was thinking with the other themes though, although I will maintain that Julius' and Aqui's themes are at least good for a regular listen if you're into Mega Man. These are all still written down on my text file I use for my character sheet from 2013 that I've changed over the years. Lore over, by the way.
Write your reviews and tell me how I did this chapter.