"-y'see, he wasn't totally a dick, though. You would have thought that, but the guy jumped the gun too fast, tried to sell too hard. That was his real downfall. Anyway, long story short is that dude had a HUGE gun and I wanted it. But I didn't have the caps. That was when it hit m-"
"Phoenix, SHUT the FUCK. UP!" A raider snarled at her. You wouldn't have recognized Arianna save for her chipper voice. She was clad in stolen raider leathers, not that this troupe would have known. The mission was easy. Get into the middle of the raider lair, disable the turrets, signal Jonathan. She'd have to find a password on the leader and steal it from him since she was bad with computers. Huh, ironic.
None suspected a thing from her, thinking she was just another rookie waiting to make their first kill. Their stupid asses would probably put her on night patrol, too. Fucking morons. The platoon she was travelling with almost all synchronically rolled their eyes at her and muttered disapprovals. Her ruse was working.
When the patrol finally stopped inside of an old diner repurposed into a hideaway, the gang all set their gear down. Arianna was fine as she was, having only a few choice knives and a .44 pistol to carry. "Boss is comin'." One lanky raider noted to his stout partner. As if cued, a hulking mass entered noisily, power armor wheezing with the effort. Arianna recognized instantly that the poor thing needed repairs. Good thing she needed him dead.
"You're late." He noted gruffly, voice aged. Ah...so he was at least in his sixties, if her sensors were processing that stereotyped vocal chord correctly. This would be easier than she thought.
"Sorry, boss! We got a little tied up with a pack of fer'l mutts on the way up!" Ari piped up. "Got 'em good though!" She smiled widely, staring intently into the now enraged leader's eyes.
"Who the fuck are you?" She grumbled into her face, breath smelling of smoke and halitosis.
"Wanna find out~?" She wiggled her eyebrows and rotated her hips just enough to allure his attention. He smirked and dismissed the rested guards to their duty stations. He then led the synth up to the higher level. Perfect position to throw him from the roof, she noted. After he stepped out his suit, she bolted like lightning. Her smallest – poisoned – knife found a home deep in his eye socket. Her other, slightly larger butcher's knife was lodged into his throat. Finally, her third knife, a bowie knife, became acquainted with his entrails. She silently allowed his leaking body to rest against the wooden deck and removed her knives one at a time.
She had fun fulfilling her fantasy from the previous night before making quick work of perusing and pilfering the deceased leader's items. The password was found quickly enough. A couple taps...and...there! The turrets shut down, earning several confused noises from outside. She grinned menacingly and leapt from the window.
This landed her into a junk fence accompanied by the lanky raider from before. What a shame. She looked straight in his eyes before ripping his jaw off. I mean, really, how DARE he try to scream for help? The signal, ofcourse, was to TOSS THE BODY OVER THE JUNK WALL. A perfectly discretionate action, and so perfectly natural. She felt alive. She felt so-
"Phoenix, catch!" Dylon was tossed up, whom she caught easily.
"Awright, Dragor, ya got about six minutes 'fore this place gets reinforcements!" She carried the boy into the room she had leapt from before, then set him in front of the terminal. He already knew the goal and worked like lightning. Good boy, always keeping their techs in checks. "Haha...checksy techsy..." She muttered to herself as she took post, guarding from potential gunfire.
Below them, a green blur caused massive explosions and painful death.
"Fenrir, if you wouldn't mind hurrying, I see lights dipping up and down on the horizon."
"Yeah, I'm getting it." The ghoul brushed her off with a wave of his hand. A few (thousand) more rapid taps, and he was in. A holotape popped out and he snatched it. The duo ran down the stairs and across the bloodied flaming courtyard, hand-in-hand. Well, really, more like hand-dragged-by-other-hand. Dylon raced to keep up when they heard potshots being fired. Jonathan took this as his cue to pick up the boy and synth and bolt – burst violently if you will – through the junk gate and away from the scene behind them.
"Ye-hah! Y'all are the best damned brothers on the face of this planet!" The synth girl squealed and squirmed happily. Well, also uncomfortably. Being sandwiched in super-man-meat isn't the most ideal proposition.
Dylon sighed, "Anything for you, Ari." A genuine smile crossed his face. "I hope you enjoy playing Neuro-Defenders 3000 on your new pip-boy tonight. We've got...what...three more hours until Gust promised it'd be done?"
"Should be..." She hopped down when they slowed to a stop. They were now two or three miles from the camp they had just left, far out of harm's way. "Wanna go take a look-see around the market to double-triple-quadruple check if there aint anymore gear we could want before movin' on up?"
"Yeah, just don't expect bottlecaps from me again." The mutant huffed at her. "You're a fucking mooch."
"You're a fucking parasite! Die, villain!" She unsheathed her bowie knife and stood as though they were to fence. The mutant unholstered a massive bastard sword from his back and took position.
Dylon sighed. Just another day in Dead Man's Valley, Georgia.
Hancock watched Daisy carefully as she slept close to K-L-EO. They had dodged raiders, super mutants, more raiders, fucking children with guns (who's kids are they anyway?!), yao guai, feral EVERYTHING, and more. They rested, now, just south of the Diamond City gate. Hancock had watched since dawn the next day for any sign of Valentine. He was beginning to lose hope.
He gripped his musket harder and hissed inwardly when he heard a crunch. More mutants? More animals? He didn't want to deal with this. He was tired from carrying extra weight and fighting literally all day. He cocked his gun and aimed for the door. A figure swept into the opening. He pulled the trigger and-
Shit, fuck, was he out of ammo?! Fuck fuck fuck fuck...
"Mayor Hancock? Thought you had died in town."
He could have cried if he weren't numbed by the double-dose of jet he had taken earlier. Hancock noislessly nodded and relaxed against the wall. With no fire to illuminate him, he hadn't recognized Valentine, but his piercing, glowing yellow eyes peered at him from under the fedora.
"You're lucky I didn't shoot ya'…"
"No, I'm lucky you had no ammo, friend. C'mon, I'll get you into the city, but you can't speak to anyone about it, under any circumstances, ever, got it?" He glared at the ghoul, a mutual trust being acknowledged between them, and peered at the heaping mass in the corner.
"Thanks, man, just...I can't really accept. Y'see, K-L-EO, she-"
"I already know. Your obliterated town is my current case. Bring her anyway; she's in stand-by mode, and can't reactivate until she receives maintenance." The synth easily hoisted the deadly bot into her resident wheelbarrow, then covered her with a sheet. "Alright, put on these bandanas, and follow my lead."
Getting up to the gate was easy. Hancock awoke Daisy, ordered her to remain perfectly silent about this whole busniess, got her cover tied onto her face, and they formed a 'caravan'. Nick identified himself, then insisted they be allowed through. Something about evidence, and needing to solve the case. The guards wouldn't budge until nick pointed out that any remaining family or people (the guards were unaware of the actual state of the town) would immediately come en masse to Diamond City. Therefore, he concluded, the guards wanted to help him not hurt him. They ought to recognize when a case would affect them, right? Damn Valentine and his silver tongue were good. Real good. Too good.
Yeah, now they had guard company to Valentine's agency. He shooed them away and got the wheelbarrow inside – with effort and perspiration ofcourse. This was when he truly began to examine K-L-EO. Sure enough, the back of her head looked tampered with. Someone had somehow managed to – without her knowing – slide the compartment cover to her delicate wiring out of place just enough to expose her sensory wire.
This led to a malfunction in identifying friend from foe. Nick sighed and clenched his fist. What sick bastard would do this? To K-L-EO of all people? He tilted her heavy head back up and felt around. He had to push the panel completely back, but he found it, her drive port.
This was the assaultron equivalent of a synth component. It held all commands, orders, functions, and otherwise 'extra' software that would have made K-L-EO, well...K-L-EO. It, ofcourse, came in the form of a nifty little holotape. The holotape was unlabelled, but worn. However, still in perfect running condition. Nick sat down at his seat with a heavy sigh.
"Well, we've gotten 'K-L-EO' out of K-L-EO. Any alternate bodies? They have to be undamaged. Any sort of damage will send the personality back into wack." He looked to Daisy and Hancock for their opinions. Ellie still hadn't returned, though he sort of wish she had. She would have had a clever idea. "Otherwise, I'm gonna bunk you up in Kellog's old shack up the way. No one will look for you there."
"I like that plan better." Daisy stated quietly. She seemed distant, lost in thought. "Can we go now? I don't wanna get kicked out of Diamond City twice."