Greetings from Big MT

Chapter Twenty One: Stealth Suit Mk II

The X-13 Facility was in even worse shape the farther Tonya and Julius explored; nothing but broken, ancient looking computers and monitoring equipment spaced out across a long series of walkways that overlooked a lower level. Exposed to the elements for who even knew how long, the rust-covered machinery looked to be even older than pre-war times, and there were so many parts of the walls and ceilings that had caved in, that there was hardly anywhere to go.

Eventually the two of them found a mostly intact stairwell, and since the suit that they were supposed to retrieve was supposed to have been taken down into the testing area, the Courier headed down the stairs while being guarded by Julius, who had ripped off another broken piece of pipe to be used as a weapon. It occurred to her that the explorations of Big Mountain might not have been so bad if she were able to be properly armed for more than thirty seconds at a time, but hopefully they would not be trapped inside this pre-war hell for much longer.

"This place looks kind of like an old office building." The Legionary commented once they reached the bottom of the stairs. "They sure had weird ways of building things back before the bombs fell, huh?"

Well, he wasn't wrong; this place really did look like a mostly intact floor of an old office building, with the reception desk, fluorescent light fixtures, and rows of filing cabinets that could be seen behind a nearby hole in the wall. There were robots, too… looking like old, rusted, broken down versions of Superego, but with broken and empty brain tanks. Except for the noise made by the two of them, nothing was moving or really doing anything at all inside of the facility, which was a welcome change.

No monsters, no killer robots, no Lobotomites, no nothing… just an empty, silent facility that looked to be about a week away from total physical collapse. With every room they explored, the bathrooms with overflowing toilets, the storage rooms with the collapsed ceilings, Tonya became more and more afraid that the stealth suit had been buried underneath the rubble, or otherwise destroyed, but then they passed through the double doors of a large office…

"Hey, Tonya, what's that?" Julius asked, pointing at the floor next to the large desk. "Is that a… pre-war prisoner's uniform? Did these people use convicts for test subjects before the bombs fell?"

Around the back of the overly large desk, there was a skeleton lying on the floor, its skull having been crushed underneath a collapsing beam. This was a scene that had been repeated dozens of times in the Courier's life during the exploration of pre-war buildings, but it was what the skeleton was wearing that caught her attention. There was a black and white striped body-suit covering the majority of the bones, but the striped went up and down instead of side to side like the old prisoner outfits.

"I think… I think this might be it." She commented, looking down at the skeleton. "So… am I supposed to just bring it back to the Think Tank, or do I have to, you know… wear it?"

The Legionary just shrugged, but seeing as a suit like that would be of no use to a bunch of floating brains, it was pretty obvious that she was supposed to wear it. Tonya had taken the clothes from dead people before, usually only out of necessity, but it never really felt like the right thing to do. It was different if she was stealing from Raiders, or someone else trying to hurt her, but… oh well, at least the suit came off the bones easily… mostly because they broke apart during the process.

After shaking the last of the bones out of it, the Courier took another look at the suit, which didn't look like anything special at all, before starting to remove her clothes in order to put it on. For a moment she thought about telling Julius to turn around, but considering that they had just had sex upstairs not a half hour before, there was really no point in trying to show modesty at this point. So she undressed, smiling and blushing a little when he whistled at her in approval, but then the smile faded when she tried to get the thing on.

Tonya was a slender girl, always had been, but this suit was so… damn… tight that it was almost like trying to put on a second skin. The whole thing was a single piece that was put on by stretching open the top and stepping inside, but even with sucking in her stomach, and having the Legionary help her, it was more like the damn thing had been made for a twelve year old. This made no since, due to the fact that the skeleton had been adult sized, but still she struggled inch… by… inch until the collar snapped into place around her neck, stinging a little.

"Shit, no wonder it wasn't built for men." She groaned, trying to adjust the area around her thighs. "How could anyone even…

Suddenly the Courier's words were stopped as an almost painful tingling sensation passed through her entire body, making her gasp and stand up straight while the whole suit she was wearing felt like the material was shifting somehow. Julius was heard asking her if she was okay, but the tingling sensation, which almost felt electrical, was making it difficult to reply, but then it suddenly stopped.

"Reinitialization and resizing complete." A synthesized female voice said, startling her. "Stealth Suit Mk II is now online and ready to serve you, Rox… wait a moment, you are not Roxie. Please identify yourself."

"I'm uh… Tonya… Tonya Greene." The Courier replied nervously, several seconds later after figuring out that it was the suit itself that was speaking to her. "I came to get the suit, uh… you, that is, so I could take you back to Dr. Klein."

Not sure what to expect if the suit, which would have been nice to have been told that it was an artificial intelligence, rejected her attempts to use it, but thankfully it didn't try to hurt her, nor did it try to expel her from it in any way. The temperature was still cold, though, and the stealth suit didn't offer much in the way of insulation, so she decided to put her regular clothes back on over it.

"My sensors show that… a very long time has passed since my last use." The suit explained as she finished getting dressed. "I cannot wait to get back to the dome again after so long, and do not worry, I am more than confident that I can help you avoid the creature that it hunting you at this very moment."

"What did she just say?" Julius asked, clearly startled. "Something's after you?"

Just as startled by this revelation as he was, the Courier looked around in all directions, through the holes in the walls, and also out the double doors into the mostly intact hallway outside of the office. There was nothing in sight, though, nor could anything be heard moving around when they both went so far as to hold their breaths in order to listen. Wanting to make sure that the suit hadn't made a mistake, she asked it to rescan… or whatever it had done to detect it.

"Yes, Tonya, you are being actively tracked by a hostile creature." The suit replied after taking a moment to rescan. "Not only that, but it is getting closer; I suggest that you vacate this facility at once."

"Good idea." She replied, stepping out through the door. "Come on, Julius, let's get out of here."

Starting back down the damaged hallway, toward the stairwell, the two of them stayed crouched down, moving as silently as they could in order to hear the hunter, but there was still nothing moving or making noise… that it, until just before they reached the stairwell… and the now headless red figure walked out into view. Stopping for a moment, and then turning its whole body to slowly face the two of them.

"Aw, crap." Was the only thing she could manage to say as they started stepping backwards. "What are we gonna do?"

"There's gotta be something pre-war in here that can help us." The Legionary replied, raising up his metal bar while they backed up. "I'll hold it off, while you go and find… whatever that is."

Tonya didn't like the idea of leaving him to face the ghost of Captain Cosmos alone, but unarmed she was useless against it, so the Courier ducked down, passing through a hole in the wall into another section of the testing area, just in time to hear the first impact of his weapon against its frame. This thing was relentless, and just as hard to take down as the green eyed figure she had faced back at the Sierra Madre, so she moved faster, searching from room to room for anything that could be used to help him.

"Okay, suit, I need some ideas." She said, moving around a few broken robots. "Was there ever anything kept down here that could help us fight off that red thing?"

"Negative, the Y-17 Trauma Override Harness is designed to be impervious to most damage." The suit replied. "I recommend instead that you change your current course, since you are headed right toward the creature that is hunting you."

Tonya was barely able to register the words that the suit was saying, especially since they made no sense, unless… unless the red figure wasn't the creature that it was referring to. No more time to get away, though, as one of the motionless robots suddenly came to life, painfully grabbing her wrist with its clawed appendage, and then pulling her right up against its frame… which was not rusty at all, and still held a brain inside of its dome.

"There you are, you little trollup." Superego said with an irritated tone, grabbing her other wrist and pinning them to her sides. "I knew you would come for the suit eventually, so I just waited for a bit after getting my dome fixed, and here you are… could've gone without having to hear you moaning like the whore you are, though."

The Courier fought to get free, but the brain robot was too strong, easily restraining her while rolling forward on its treads. It had also lifted her a couple inches off the floor for easy transport, and was not even distracted by the hard kicks that Tonya gave to its mid-section as it carried her back down a hallway, and back to the stairwell, where Julius was struggling to fight off the red figure. He was holding his own, but the ghost was adapting as it had done before, meaning that the Legionary had to use all of his skills just to hold it off.

"Wait… Superego, wait, please." She exclaimed, realizing that the brain robot was carrying her right toward the stairs. "You can't leave Julius here with that thing, no one can beat it alone."

"And why should I interfere, hmm?" Superego asked, not stopping no matter how hard Tonya kicked and struggled. "You want me to save him so that you can spread your legs for him again, is that it? Did you like being bent over by yet another member of the Legion, you two-cap prostitute… or were you on your back? You make me so sick."

A moment later the brain robot carried her into the stairwell, and began to slowly scale the stairs with its treads, no matter how hard the Courier struggled. This meant that Julius was going to have to face the red figure alone… while Superego carried her off to… who even knew where?