Journal V: The Duel and a Fool
Hank sighed, having seen enough for the day, but he still had to continue, walking through the hallway and further into the Vault. He made it to a door that said, "Experiment Sector Part B." He readied himself, and opened the door. Hank walked into it, and he quickly saw it was overran with minotaurs. There were dead ones on operating tables in the center of the room, and Hank had read a note that was attached to one of them before the minotaurs saw him that said,
"I don't know what I did last night, or, more importantly, HOW I did this, but note to all future historians looking back at this day in this dust covered Vault. SCIENCE CAN MAKE MYTHOLOGY REAL! No fuck that, I MAKE IT REAL! Impossible to splice two species together with them still being alive, they said, completely immoral and you'd probably fail, they said. BUT WHO'S LAUGHING NOW? Note, remember the process I did that I can't remember because I was drunk last night. I think it's obvious that it's a Vault Dweller, plus preserved Bull DNA, plus a tad touch (well maybe a lot) of FEV. I just have to remember how I put the puzzle pieces together and made them alive. Though, they can reproduce, so it's not like they're gone after the original ones die."
Hank quickly made a dash through the lab, evading minotaurs, when he got to the door that led out, he dived through it, and quickly closed it behind him. Hank sighed, as the minotaurs would surely be waiting for him on his trip back through. He passed several other doors that led to other experimenting sectors, the all of the doors were sealed. Then again, maybe that was for the best of everyone. After a bit, Hank made it to another stairwell. He walked down the first few, and came to another message from Edward, and some more journal pages attached to the wall with a knife.
"The tribe, needed to die, that was obvious. What Hank made them...what you, made them...I apologize, I've had these words locked in my head for so long, I forget I'm actually... leaving these messages for you, now. What you made them into, was a violent disease, that would have spread until it infested every place, corner, cave, metro, building...until everything else died. I... had to stop it, other factors joined in, some that I caused, some, you yourself caused. We will both die Hank, I assure you."
Hank shook his head at the insane sounding messages, and grabbed the journal pages. He began to read through the journal pages like all the others.
"Today, I finished my creation. The Deathclaw Gauntlet. It took some tweaking, but I finally finished it, and made it perfect for my right arm. Not only that, I reinforced my tribal armor with some of the deathclaw's hide. Thick, durable, and of course, light. Good, as most of our tribe wears light armor. Then the teeth, I ripped them out which took much more effort than I thought, and put them at the ends of new spears. If they can tear through flesh with their teeth, then why wouldn't we be able to use their teeth at the end of spears to fuck up an enemy? Very effective, but as I previously explained, why wouldn't they be? Might even change the tribe's name at this rate. As we're going to start using these creatures for all our tribe. The meat...no good, though if it really comes down to it, and we run out of our normal food, we'll turn into very small helpings of it. Keep it not spoiled using pre-war freezing machines we scavenged and kept. The bones of the mother...I'm still thinking of a way to make them useful. My best friend thinks it's barbaric, but they're mindless beasts! We need to keep their numbers down anyways, but by this, I'm also helping out the tribe. Though all of that aside, now, one of the other tribes, are knocking at my gate, demanding a duel. The Blood-Spillers' best warrior, against our leader...myself. How primitive, but I will give them what they want, plus, it's a good time to test out my gauntlet."
(the next pages detailed what happened afterwards)
Men in red, light, and metal armor stood in front of Hank's tribe's base, pounding on the gate.
"We challenge the leader of your tribe! Our best warrior stands ready to spill his blood all over the grass of this land! Win, and we will you be. Lose, and you must give us a worthy offering or else. Be a coward however, and stay behind your walls? All our warriors will return with us, and take it down! Brick by fucking brick!" The Blood-Spiller chanter yelled.
Hank, the Caretaker, and Jero were all in Hank's quarters. The Caretaker and Jero were simply standing and waiting for Hank to finish preparing himself.
"Could be a trap." The Caretaker said.
"Trap or not, we need to answer fucking soon." Jero said.
"I will give them my answer in person." Hank said, stepping into the room Jero and the Caretaker had been waiting in, now fully donning the first suit of deathclaw armor, and the first deathclaw gauntlet.
"You look...very fucking terrifying, but I'll still punch you in the fucking mouth, you whelp. As I know what you're going to do, you're going to go down there, kill their warrior, make a whole fucking show of it, and then declare war on the Blood-Spillers." Jero said.
"I still don't think using that Deathclaw mother's carcass like that is right." The Caretaker said.
"Right or not right, it doesn't matter. And Jero, all I'm going to do is give them a message." Hank said.
"If you write down "fuck you" and send it as a message to somebody, most likely it's going to start a fight. If you dismember a Blood-Spiller and send their limbs back to Reaver, it most likely will start a whole fucking tribal war." Jero said.
"Let them start a war, I'll kill each and every fucking one of them. Their tribe is nothing but savages." Hank said.
They call could hear the Blood-Spillers' consistent yells.
"We're not leaving until you at least fucking answer us!"
Hank walked out of his quarters, and headed for the gate, with Jero and Caretaker following him. Hank signaled to the tribals standing in front of the gate, and they pulled it open for Hank.
"Well, well, well! So he decided to show his face after all!" One of the Blood-Spillers laughed, having heard the gate open, then, he and the rest of them saw how Hank looked.
"What hell did you put on your armor...? And do you have a Demon claw as a hand...?" A surprised Blood-Spiller asked.
"Part Demon, or no, my spear will pierce him right through his heart." The Blood-Spiller warrior said, ready to duel.
"You wanted a duel? Then let's have one." Hank said.
"Brave! Hah! Stupid." Another, but yet much more stupid Blood-Spiller said.
"Alright, come on, dead man!" The Blood-Spiller warrior taunted.
The other Blood-Spillers backed up, and so did Jero and Caretaker. Hank was already prepared and ready for the Blood-Spiller warrior, and knew that he was going to instantly try to charge towards him. Predicting his move correctly, Hank stepped to the side. The Blood-Spiller caught himself before he ran into Jero and Caretaker, and roared with rage. He swung his spear for Hank, but he was too agile, comparing to the Blood-Spiller warrior.
"Quit moving coward!" The Blood-Spiller warrior yelled. Hank continued to dodge over and over again. Eventually the Blood-Spiller began to feel fatigue, as Hank's speed burned the warrior's stamina off.
Hank laughed, as it was finally time to test out his gauntlet. He ran around behind the Blood-Spiller, and swung the claw as hard as he could towards his back. The claw got through his armor, and blood began to leak from the openings in his back armor.
"Agh! You little asshole! How did...my armor..." The Blood-Spiller mumbled, and then let out an angry yell, still not done. He charged towards Hank, but Hank simply stood and waited for him. This confused the Blood-Spiller warrior. When he got close enough, Hank brought the claw up at the right time, as if he was doing an uppercut. The claw went up and through the Blood-Spiller's throat, killing him instantly. The warrior's corpse fell right onto the ground.
"You...you killed him. He brought down a whole attacking tribe's army by himself!" One of the Blood-Spillers exclaimed.
"Two choices. One, you absolve yourself of the Blood-Spillers, and pledge loyalty to our tribe. Two, you don't, and I kill you." Hank said. "Actually...you, the little one. Go back and tell your tribe of what has happened here. No secrets, no lies. The one who does lie and hide, will die. It's one of our codes we live by." Hank said.
"I join Demon Claw." The much more stupid Blood-Spiller said, kneeling to Hank. "Not fear, but, respect Demon Claw." He said.
The others exchanged looks of uncertainty with each other.
"He will kill us for returning as failures." One of them said.
"And then feed our corpses to his dog." Another Blood-Spiller said.
"Not to mention the part where I kill you before you even make it back to be killed by your master, and then fed to his dog." Hank said.
The Blood-Spiller soldiers were both silent, but after a few seconds, they knelt to Hank as well.
"You know that this will only result in war, right?" Caretaker said.
"I killed their best soldier, already, in one on one combat. What are their normal warriors going to be like?" Hank said.
"Hey! I fight good!" One of the surrendered Blood-Spillers said, resenting Hank's comment.
"You fight good...for a Blood-Spiller, but now you Bear the Claw. Now, you are a Claw-Bearer." Hank said.
"Our tribe finally has a name again? Last one died with your father...literally, as I don't even remember it." Jero said.
"No! We shouldn't get yet another name for our tribe! If we don't have a name, then we are just a community to others, making it less likely for a war!" Caretaker said, resisting this idea.
"Communities, are destroyed, and burned away. We are the Claw-Bearers, and we will be until I'm done as leader!" Hank yelled at Caretaker. "...Come on. We will burn your dead comrade, like everyone else. Honor even our adversaries after they lose the ability to live. Another code, we abide." Hank said, taking the new Claw-Bearer initiates inside, with Jero and the Caretaker.
The Caretaker stopped following them however, and then went to his home. He opened the door and ran to the deathclaw egg as soon as he noticed the tiny claw that had broke through the eggshell. The baby deathclaw completely destroyed it's egg, wanting freedom. The baby deathclaw's eyes opened, and it saw the Caretaker. As if it was not what it expected to see, he scurried through the remains of his egg and away from the Caretaker, as if afraid of him. The Caretaker had an idea. He quickly went to his food container, opened it, and grabbed some frozen mole rat meat. He put it over a flame, until it thawed enough. Then he extended the mole rat meat towards the baby Deathclaw, and it acted as if it was unsure of the Caretaker's intentions. But eventually it ran to it, and took it from him gnawing on it.
"See...? I knew you wouldn't be that bad..." The Caretaker said.
Journal V: The Duel and a Fool
Getting a little bit tired, I'm not even going to lie...
Adios, and onto the next one...
~TGG333
