The first shot managed to reach the head, cleanly entering the dummy's head and exiting through it to leave a hole in the center. The second shot struck a little lower, at a spot where the jaw would go flying. The third spot is already overkill, hitting straight in the right eye and blinding the victim. The fourth miss, though it does leave a slight singe on the right cheek, and Max grunts before pulling the bolt back, already preparing to take the fifth shot.

"You know, he's probably dead by that point, right?" Emma sat next to her, keeping her ears covered whenever she'd shoot. "No point in putting in any more bullets to the head," When Max stared back at her like she'd gone insane, the military woman rolled her eyes. "No, I mean that if you were fighting a hypothetical Legionary, he'd be dead."

"Yeah… But I want to see how accurate I can be with constantly hitting the head." Max took another shot and stopped herself from swearing when it struck the right shoulder instead. Once more, she pulled the bolt back and a smoking cartridge flew to land at her feet.

"Sure, but consider that it's not the best training. Hitting a dummy's head is pretty easy, but your enemies will be looking to be hard to hit. Don't always try to shoot them there constantly when you can strike the chest!" Emma rose her hand to tap her shoulder, where the bullet would've hit. "For instance, a bullet to the shoulder means that the arm's probably weakened or useless. It's good for you because that Legionary is less of a threat and will need to heal or back off… but he'll probably keep charging. And the best part is that hitting the torso isn't really a bother. They don't wear armor there," Max lowered the rifle once again: True, the Khans and Fiends weren't wearing much to shield themselves from gunfire there. "Not like ours is better, I'll agree, but at least we're not baring our chests to bullets."

"Sure, but… I'd like to be the sharpshooter you described," The young woman glanced in embarrassment at the dummy. "If I miss… nearly half of every shot I take on a standing dummy's head, what chances do I have of hitting a mobile target?"

"Pfftt, consistency is important. You still landed three headshots and landed one on the shoulder. The guy would be dead at the first one. Besides…" Emma pointed to the other sharp-shooters in training, currently in the middle of showering a dummy with lead. Another was being a lot more methodic, even as the bullets somehow whiffed past the target every time. "… Yeah, you're not the worse." Max shook her head at that and realized that the lesson was over when her friend got up and began walking away. Slinging the rifle across her right shoulder with a strap, the NCR soldier bothered to pick up her discarded cartridges to later throw them away. Or didn't they "recycle" them at the Gun Runners?

"I only look good when put next to the worse," She tempered, sticking close to her friend. "That's not really reassuring."

"Those guys are pretty damn close to average here. Focus on landing your shots, okay? Not necessarily to the head, but to the body in general…. Hey, you ever shot before? Even with like, a toy gun?" Max tilted her head at the question and looked up at the blue sky. The sun quickly made her regret this and so she looked down at the ground, putting her helmet up with her other hand.

"… Nah. I was pretty awful at first, remember?"

"Maybe. That doesn't mean you're not good now. Oh, and by the way when you use an action-bolt rifle, always reload before-" Max glanced to the left. Not because she was uninterested in Emma's teaching, but because a familiar figure was walking to the left. The raised hood was already a hint, but she recognized the dirty robes, remarkable in a field of brown uniforms. Was that…

"Veronica?" Max waited for her to turn around, half-anticipating her guess to be fake, but the person who turned around to greet her was indeed her friend from the 188 outpost. Well, friend was maybe a big word, but they had traded their names and beliefs so, hey, they were friends right? The mechanist, upon hearing her name, glanced behind her and blinked twice in surprise at the sight of the duo. Now having visual confirmation, Max waved cheerfully at her, whereas Emma gave her a curt nod. "Hey, Veronica! Didn't expect to see you there! You huh… bringing something?" She looked down at a small brown bag Veronica was carrying and instantly retched back, the stench of the bag overwhelming her. Worryingly enough, she instantly recognized that particular stench: Death.

"That's a head." Acknowledged Emma, looking plainly at the bag. "… I'd never thought the rumors were true. We're hiring bounty hunters now?"

"Oh hey, Max! It's surprising to…" Veronica stopped for a very short moment and shook her head. "Itsthemainbaseofthencr it's not surprising to see you but it's still a pleasure nonetheless!" She smiled at Max, who tried to smile back smell notwithstanding, and kept it on for Emma. "Well, it's easy caps and I don't think that you guys would be sad to see these guys go, right? They lead the Fiends. Well, much as they can lead when they spend half their day gobbling up enough chems to kill a Deathclaw!"

"Yeah. It's why they're hard to kill for a bunch of soldiers, let alone some gal who sells cars. How'd you venture out in Fiends territory like that?"

"I'm full of guns," Veronica tapped her chest. "Below those robes? All guns. I just shot every Fiend in sight!" Emma raised a single eyebrow, visibly unamused. Max at first laughed only for it to die very quickly when she realized that her friends were having an argument. "… Actually I punched them to death, yeah. Me and a very friendly guy decided to run in Fiends territory with our fists. He's a new buddy, by the way. He's shy. Very shy. Wouldn't appreciate being sought out shy!" She gave Max an insistent wink with each "shy", and the latter nodded.

"Not a good enough buddy for you to bring along, huh?"

"G-geez Emma. I'm going to think that you're getting jealous of Veronica!" Muttered Max, getting in between the two. To her credit, Veronica looked calm, if very slightly amused, but Emma had the face she put on when someone was going to die. "We've got somewhere to go, right? Let's not… keep it waiting! And we'll get to kill more Fiends than Veronica and her new buddy! It'll be… great!"

"... Yeah, let's not let get beaten at our own game by bounty hunters." Emma spat close to Veronica's feet and gave her one last glare before being pushed along by Max. The younger woman was still embarrassed to see that moving Emma when the latter didn't want to get moved was well beyond her current strength, but was more ashamed of her friend's current behavior. As they both started leaving, she gave Veronica one last wave and an awkward smile. The merchant returned it in kind, waving away at her.

"Don't worry, I deal with unreasonably angry people a lot! Take care!" Emma visibly twitched at that before being brought away. Veronica was a hundred percent sure that, had the mission not been a higher priority, she'd find herself brawling with that woman. But she quickly brushed that aside, and instead observed the fading silhouettes of the two women and those of all the soldiers currently training, patrolling, or gathering for a mission. The NCR being the NCR, not a lot of the soldiers were being used to do anything at the moment. But still: That was a lot more troops here than in McNamara's most nightmarish descriptions. No wonder they couldn't hold Helios ONE. Perhaps she should bring it up to…. Noo, he wouldn't get it. That and, well, that was a rotting head in her bag, and she wasn't sure the sun was doing wonders to it.

Veronica set out.

…

"Can you imagine that? Bounty hunters. Fucking bounty hunters. The kind of guys who'd hunt their own mama if there was money to be found. 'Cept she probably blew her head off when she learned what her child's been doing! Geez…" Emma mimicked putting a gun to her head and fired. Right as she did that, a few of the other soldiers in the truck began to shoot at a pack of nearby Fiends lying in ambush. Both groups proceeded to repeatedly fail to hit one another, lasers and bullets flying around without hitting anything of note. Max grabbed her gun, in the hopes of contributing, but chose to better hunker down in case of a stray shot. Emma remained completely unfazed by the violence, stopping in her rant to briefly acknowledge it with a glance but otherwise not reacting.

The truck eventually went past the Fiends, driving too fast for them to accurately shoot. The drug freaks nonetheless kept at it until the snipers in the tower above finally managed to strike them in the head. Max, upon seeing this, gave her friend a glance. "Well…"

"Well, what? Train them to shoot well!" The other soldiers looked willing to argue with her for a moment before being placated with a glare. "Get us to hunt these Fiend leaders instead of hiring bounty hunters! Like, look at us! We've killed the Great Khans at Boulder City and slaughtered a Centurion's entire squad! We can take some chem addicts with a fucking golf club!"

"Well, you caught the centurion, I wasn't a part of it," Max said, hoping to steer the conversation. "You…"

"But noo! Better waste our momentum hiring some used car saleswoman and her shy friend! It's an occasion to show to them that you don't mess with the bear, Maxxie! We get there, we shoot everyone, and the rest of 'em think twice about snorting Jet because they know it means getting shot by NCR troopers! What's the message we're sending right now? Please don't mess with us or we'll pay some people to go after you? We'll-we'll-" Max raised her two hands, instructing her to slow down. "-ask Randall or other guys to come after you? Hell no! We gotta make killing the Fiends an NCR victory!"

"It's still a victory if they all die, right?" Max said, too casually for her tastes.

"Yeah, but we need to make it clear that it's us who did it and-"

"FIENDS AHEAD!" Emma snapped to action this time, getting up despite the increased speed of the truck and raising her rifle high. The three Fiends ahead didn't even get to shoot their weapons before being promptly cribbled in the torso by bullets, making them fall down to the ground. Instead of applying double-tap with her rifle, the dark-haired woman pulled out her handgun and, after the gun skipped past the trio of writhing raiders, finished them off with a series of clean shots to the head... For her performance, Max awarded her with a thumbs-up and only briefly glanced at the corpses this time. The other soldiers skipped past the applaud, stunned by the sheer lethality they witnessed.

"See? Easy!" Emma sat back down and began to reload her guns. "The wasteland… It only obeys violence. So it means that being strong is a good way to get some real respect. The locals will bend the knee if they see that messing with us means dying. But they won't if we hand our problems off to other guys. Like… Who'd you respect more? The badass guy with a gun or the sniveling bureaucrat who hired him in the first place with his money? For sure the former, he's doing all the hard work!"

"Well… It kills Fiends, and besides, huh, can't we lie and say that our soldiers did it? Also, you've been a bit rude to Veronica here. She's a sweet girl and an awesome mechanist and-" Emma made a dismissive gesture, and Max instantly shut up. "… But still, we bring peace and civilization, so we have to show flexibility. I'm sure the locals would like us if they see that we're bringing actual civilization to their land, you see? We need to make a point and show them that soldiers like us only have their best interests in mind."

"… Heh, sure. Let's go your way. At Freeside, you'll be the nice cop and I'll be the bad cop, alright? You're all sweet while I get physical if needed. We'll see which approach gets them to talk," It was Max's time to frown slightly at the challenge, but her friend held her ground. "You'll see that handing out… candies and promising happy dances 'round the bonfire doesn't work and I get to beat up ungrateful locals. It's a pretty sweet deal, right?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Max slumped against her side of the wall and folded her arms, bearing down at Emma with an angry expression. The taller soldier returned the stare for a very brief moment, and before Max could contemplate apologizing, promptly laughed.

"… It's like being threatened by a baby Gecko, haha!"

"I-I was just kidding, geez!" Max prepared to protest further before the pointlessness of the staring contest caught up with her. The youth laughed as well. "… Alright, I'll take you up on your challenge. You'll see I get more information my way and… huh… in exchange, you'll write Nolan a love letter with your signature on it!" Far from being destabilized, Emma merely shrugged.

"Oh, like I did yesterday?"

"You wh-"

"FIENDS AHEAD!"

…

"That's four Fiends ambush on the way to Freeside. I guess that they've gotten less aggressive today."

"Hm." Before Max stood absolute squalor. Such that she couldn't quite hear out what the other soldiers were currently saying. The NCR government… liked to embellish a lot of things, but it didn't look like they were wrong about the state of Freeside. People in rags wandered around ruins filled with sharp debris, discarded syringes or canisters, or even corpses and sometimes looted the bodies when they weren't digging their hands into those sharp messes to try and acquire some loot for themselves. Then, they returned to the flaming barrels where the rest of their groups gathered or risked being mugged for what they had acquired by slightly more desperate hoodlums. Some of them weren't even wearing clothes or wielding proper weapons, though the syringes or sharp stones proved to be effective substitutes. Did people really live like this? Is this why so many of her compatriots left their home state? It seemed like insanity.

"The lights of Vegas don't shine on that heh?" Emma taped Max a little over the chest with the back of her hand, meaning to wake her up. "You look like you've seen a ghost! Relax, it's the locals' way of life, hunting for caps and food in House's own little front yard."

"… It's worse than I thought, really."

"Yeah, but don't get hung up over every little injustice. Our priority is to… interrogate folks and uncover mysterious vanishings." She sighed. "Major Kieran said that there were fewer heads to collect food for the third day in a row. Poor guys…"

"What do you think caused this?" Asked Max, both women wandering a bit deeper into town. The other NCR soldiers had split into pairs that would scour Freeside as a whole: Out of "sensibility", they would mostly stick to the lower levels for now, where the violence was at its peak. Apparently within Freeside resided gangs that kept their part of town relatively clean, compared to the absolute hell found elsewhere. Mugging was still common and it was hard not to accidentally stab a foot into something sharp, but order was provided. The only downside was that said gang, the Kings, disliked the NCR's approach to things and forbade them from attempting to make the law on "their" territory. It wasn't a threat in the early years, since the Kings weren't even big enough to fully protect Freeside, but having one more enemy to deal with was seen as foolish even by Oliver, especially when so many citizens of the NCR were heading to New Vegas or were stuck in the Strip with no cap to return home. Well, that was his excuse, but apparently, it came down to Freeside being too chaotic to pacify while juggling several raider gangs and actual invading armies. Should the Republic take over, and it will, then Freeside was much more liable to be "pacified".

"… No idea. The trouble is, it's Freeside. It's a place where people go missing all the time, so fiindng out who did it is going to be difficult." Emma held a hand out towards an alley, where Max, to her horror, could see that some of the bodies were shoddily stored. "The Kings won't help us and the locals… Bah, we could try to squeeze some intel out of them. We could go see Kieran's men but they operate at the edge of the safer side and they don't patrol the place here. It's why it's a hellhole if you ask me." Max glanced to the right, as a young boy ran after a rat that was nearly as big as him. They both ran about for a minute before an adult man arrived with a knife and brutally stabbed the rat. Once the creature had ceased moving, the father then stood up and paced around, looking to stab any opportunistic fool as the kid knelt in front of the rat and-

Max glanced away and put up her face wrap, though it barely blocked the stench. "Ew!"

"It's going to be a tough case. We've got almost no lead, no informant, and half the population is drugged out of their mind and the other hate the NCR… But I'll walk away from this with the murderer, whoever they are. And I know how I could start fishing him out." The older soldier pointed to a set of possible witnesses in the ruined hall of a building: Three thin men, wearing bloodstained rags. The way they shook constantly, even when standing still, didn't encourage Max one bit. And she couldn't even tell where they were looking, with their eyes dug so far into their orbits like that. And was it facial hair or a bush on their face? Emma had a disgusted sneer on her face, but Max looked a bit more forlorn. Poor souls… She figured that a slower approach would work. With fragile bodies like that, and cardiac degradation thanks to Jet, getting too jumpy could be bad for them. To avoid freaking them out, Max holstered her rifle to her back and approached the trio slowly, with her hands held up to signify harmlessness. All three of the old men snapped their heads her way in a synchronized manner.

"Hello," Max spoke slowly, to better have every word heard out. "… I'm Max, from the NCR Army. I'm not here to hurt you, but we've heard that a bad person has hurt some of my countrymen. Would you be willing to help me out with this? I'd need to know if you've seen anything suspicious involving… three men and one woman. You might-"

"Drown in shit and die." The men lowered their heads and mumbled to themselves again, taken in their reverie. Max stumbled back, looking so hurt that Emma's smug smile faded almost instantly. Before the young soldier could attempt to re-establish dialogue, the black-haired woman walked to the man in the middle and wrapped her hands around his withered throat to hoist him up. The man on the left clumsily began to swing his fist, but a mere shove from her freed hand pushed him down to the ground. And as for the one on the right, a mere glare convinced him that it was a fight he'd do better witnessing.

"Very poor choice of words, beggar. Tell us what you know or I'll finish what the chems started." The man's eyes grew wider than the plates back at McCarran, and he pointed east.

"A-a-a-a-a… I heard a squatter will tell ya! For sure! Heard he saw what went down!"

"And nobody else did The more names I get, the fewer teeth I'll knock off with my next punch," The man, seeing that Emma was fully capable of carrying out her threat, shook his head.

"Yeah! A long-haired guy with black hair and-and a long beard! He was hanging out when this happened. Most of us… We avoid the gangs when they get going. Besides, it was a zombie who was in danger, so we weren't about to risk our necks for one of those. It was… just down the street by the way! Then there were screams and when some of us gained the courage to see what happened, they were gone."

"And what about the scene itself? Did you see anything that was out of the ordinary?" Max walked up further, grabbing Emma's arm in a futile bid to hold her friend back should she decide to go ahead with punching. They both knew that she couldn't stop a punch from her, but the old man would probably feel a bit better seeing that he had an ally on the other side.

"You don't survive Freeside by poking around. Whatever killed those guys, I didn't want it to kill me next! I… I guess whatever it was, it was alone though. I didn't see big groups moving about before or after the showdown. There were gunshots involved too. Must have been revolvers or something…"

"That's useful to know! Is there anyone who'd fit the description? A single marksman… Somewhat homicidal… All of that?" The man prepared to sneer, but remembered the grip on his neck and once more shook his head. "Nothing I know of! B-b-but I'm sure the shop over at Mick and Ralph would know! They sell guns and all! I-I'm a friend of them too! Go over and tell them the password "Starfish" and they'll tell you anything!"

"What's a starfish?"

"… Hell if I know! But it's what makes it a good password!"

Emma rolled her eyes and dropped the man, who looked like he could barely stand on his legs after the fact. The older woman briefly loomed over the hapless trio, her eyes cold. "I suggest you run away quickly now. If none of your leads yield anything useful, I'll take my time with you three," She snarled. "There won't be any mystery over what happened, got it, old man?"

"… I'm 30, in fact. The chems-"

"I don't fucking care! Go!" The trio immediately scattered about, and Emma sighed before adjusting her helmet a little, giving Max a bit of a side-eye while doing so. "Geez, Max, you're a soldier of the NCR or a carpet? Those guys would've walked all over you if I hadn't been around… or if one of those spineless weaklings back there was tasked with helping you out," She gave a glance at the horizon, acting like those eyes of her could see their fellow soldiers' clueless searches around the region. "You'd have no lead."

"I'd have found the sh… I bet I could've…" Max groaned, seeing how irrefutable it was. "Yeah, but intimidating people isn't really my thing, see? I'm not as tall as you or as muscled, for that matter! What could I have done if those guys blew me off? Yank them by the neck?" In an attempt at easing the mood, she motioned grabbing the air with big awkward movements with her arm. Clearly unamused (which in itself annoyed Max, who found the motions quite charming), Emma glanced at the pistol holstered on her friend's belt. After confirming that her friend wasn't merely checking her out, the brunette put up an indignant expression. "You want me to point a gun at them?" Emma sighed.

"Damn it, Max! Every time you take a step forward, you feel the need to take three back! Yes, you'll threaten them with a gun, because it's what it takes to be heard here! You can't go anywhere by being compassionate, it makes you a target! If you want to be so damn nice, then point a gun at them first. They'll obey you and you can pretend that you got them to talk because of your people's skills!" Max grimaced and several replies formed in her mind, aiming to shut down Emma's argument before she could take over. Rationality quickly dictated her to drop the discussion while she was ahead, but the need of a comeback of any sort, a verbal victory over Emma, stuck in the back of her head as she somberly nodded.

"… Say, there were guns involved, right? That means there must be blood to track, right?" Emma nodded.

"Yeah. That's what I thought… I don't really trust what those guys said, though. They didn't check? None of them did? No mention of a blood trail? It looks like they're glad the squatters are gone more than anything. There's no guarantee that the witness guy and the shop will be of any use to us too. They might've rattled them off to trick us…" Emma stopped walking and glanced backward at the ruined building they had just left. "… I'm going to kick their asses for that."

Max walked in front of Emma and tried to get her to turn around, unsuccessfully struggling along. "Shouldn't we check for Mick and Ralph's shop though? It does seem like they sell weapons, so if someone shopped there, maybe they'd know? It also took place close, so maybe they saw something. And hey, that means that if someone bought guns at their place, then they're definitely guilty! We will need to split up and search at both places until-"

"No. We're not splitting," Emma gave a dismissive hand wave, shushing Max instantly. "You can't handle the thugs here and you'll get distracted trying to help out a hobo. We'll go through these places as a duo. If you complain, then be my guest, but remember that it's because you weren't too stellar during our little interview. Seriously, how much would ya know if I hadn't been around? And you'd want to strike out and go solo? You go to that shop and you ask nicely and they tell you they've never sold guns to anyone around. You leave. That's what happens." Max's right eye twitched at the words spoken to her, but that was Emma being concerned and meaning well, so it was better to nod and accept it.

"… You're right. Let's go see them then." Emma nodded and lead the way, heading for the shop down the street. Max caught herself sending a glare at her back before she reconsidered and followed her along.

…

The shop was relatively clean compared to the rest of Freeside. "Relatively" in that, it was still a dirty mess, but that was already better than the slums outside. Mick and Ralph were also clean, shaved, and polite enough for one of them to greet the two women with a salute. "I salute the soldiers of the Republic. And humbly ask how I can help them as they enter our humble abode. What can Ralph do for ya?" He motioned at another man in the back, Ralph by elimination. The rest of the clients in the room stopped shopping or talking to him to better stare at the duo, in total silence, apart from the occasional violent coughings of addicts.

"Do you take care of the guns?" Said Emma, addressing a glare of her own at the entire room.

"No, you gotta ask Ra-"

"Then shut the fuck up." Emma answered, heading to the back of the room. Geez, Max thought as her friend walked to Ralph, shoving her way past any obstacles. Never saw her in such a sore mood before. Politeness obliged, Max quickly approached Mick's counter and put up her best smile.

"Sorry! My friend is wound a little tight today! On behalf of every trooper in the Mojave, I'd like to apologize." Mick gave her a bemused stare but shrugged.

"I've been told of my mother's sexual escapades thrice this morning alone, and told to shut the fuck up… about once a day. I don't mind the quota being fulfilled early," Max offered a polite chuckle. "… Say, I've heard that the desert takes its toll on you guys sometimes. Would you like some clean water? I can guarantee it's radiation and sickness-free, and because you've been polite, I'll give you a discount. Four caps, how does that sound?" Max contemplated the offer and reached for her pockets, meaning to pull out her money. Then, an idea appeared in her mind, and she triumphantly smirked at the shopkeeper.

"Starfish."

"… You'll need to go further west to see those, ma'am. And I'm sure they're extinct anyway." He said, after a moment of genuine confusion. Blushing furiously at her mistake, Max gave him the needed caps, grabbed the bottle of water, nodded profusely to express her thanks, and took off after Emma as if a Super Mutant had just entered the store. The other owner of the establishment, Ralph, was standing his ground very well against Emma, who had already decided to take a harsh tone with him. Unfortunately, what could intimidate an addicted hobo in the streets didn't work so well against someone with the wits and will to set a shop in Freeside.

"You deal in weaponry, so you know why I'm here. Tell me everything about any recent client you might have encountered a few days ago, and I won't arrest you, which, by the way, I can do as a legitimate representative of the Republic of New California." Ralph looked unintimidated by the offer and gave her a short shrug.

"I haven't sold revolvers in the last few days. I keep after my reserves and I know that it was probably no local who did that. I heard three shots, so whoever you're searching for probably has solid enough aim to hit his targets. Most of the people here are too weak, drunk, or high to properly wield a weapon, let alone aim it accurately. My guess is that someone from outside Freeside did it, so you better not arrest someone innocent to placate your superiors at McCarran."

"Could it be that a King could've done it? Or a Van Graff?" Max almost squealed when two pairs of eyes turned on her. This caused Ralph's eyes to soften very slightly, but Emma remained impassable. "… I mean, they don't really like our presence here and…"

"The Van Graffs deal in energy weapons." Emma rolled her eyes. "… The Kings are a good lead though. Those guys have been roadblocks for a while. And what's a little vanishing in Freeside? Or so they thought because the Republic keep a closer eye on its citizens than it seems." At the realization that she might have given Emma enough ground to go antagonize the nearby gangs, Max sprung forth to grab her friend by the arm.

"W-wait! We can't just go confront them like that. We need to consult evidence, huh, see if it's not… a random stranger from the wastes, for instance! Mister Ralph, did you see anyone suspicious before the attack? A stranger who'd have entered Freeside and went there to buy food or ammo?" Ralph smirked at the honorable name thrown at him, but he made his answer clear by shaking his head.

"Unfortunately, most of the people who come to Vegas prefer to take the North gate. King's territory is pretty safe, the Followers are nearby if you need anything and it's closer to the way to the Strip. And very few people come to Freeside because of its wondrous architecture and friendly inhabitants… Which is why we should probably have set up shop there!"

"Ah, we get plenty of clientele, Ralph! Don't try to point fingers!"

"… Well, anyhow. I'll be blunt, but you're searching for needles in a haystack. The NCR doesn't get much love around here and vanishings are already pretty common. Some squa… people suddenly vanishing off the face of Freeside? That happens pretty often around these parts. Enough that they might mistake it for another case. Or won't bother helping you. And there's so much that intimidation can do around these parts. I'd recommend searching further north, but you might stumble into the Kings. And if you get your guy… Good luck arresting him."

"Let them try. I've killed a dozen raiders the last couple of days. I'm not scared of greasers with… handguns and knives." Emma glared, and Max knew that it wasn't a boast to try to look good or anything like that: She meant it. This was a problem, because as strong as Emma was, she doubted that the two of them could win in a shootout against a dozen gang members.

"Well, you do you. Even if "being you" means a shootout with a gang., Ralph sighed. "If you'll excuse me, I've got work to do.

"So do we. Let's go, Max."

…

"… You know, I can't help but feel that he's right. It's kind of a big place and it's apparently one guy who did that. We don't know his face, his voice… For all we know, it's not even a he!" Max held the door open for Emma and stuck around, to let a few customers leave or enter the shop at the same time. Most didn't even acknowledge it, a few glared, but it still felt nice enough. As soon as no more people were around, she stepped off… only to notice someone walking towards the shop, with a determined expression on their face. Because she was polite, she held it open with two fingers, not budging as they walked at a slow pace to their destination. She noticed that it was a ghoul, of small height, dressed in a very damaged business suit with a skirt. The "roulette" walked towards the shop, stopped to glance at Max in silence. "Haha, don't worry, ma'am! I'm not going to bite you!"

The ghoul stared at her with her good eye, the other having sunk in its right orbit, and walked away, giggling to herself. Maintaining her chipper attitude, even as she very much wished to chide the woman for her behavior, Max walked out to find Emma standing near an alley, brooding. The temptation to cheer her up came to mind, but with her current behavior, who knew what'd happen? "… Hey, erm. You know, if you've got something on your mind we could-"

"Imagine coming here," Began Emma, speaking with enough authority to get Max to back off immediately from her attempted speech."Imagine struggling to find caps and shelter in a slum where all the locals are hostile to you and not even your fellow citizens are not being too kind. You scrounge for caps or stuff to sell the day, and the night, you sleep with one eye open because a thief would cut your throat otherwise. The folks call you squatters and enjoy it when a maniac stroll down the street to kill ya…. And the truth is, those slums are probably better off for you than the desert outside. Lots of bad stuff can happen on the way to the Crimson Caravan and those vultures will want caps to bring you home. Sure, there's food and water, but then you're out on your own again."

That was not her usual behavior: Whatever was going on, it was disturbing her profoundly, far more than the usual blood and massacre in the Mojave. "Em, I-"

"… And then you see soldiers of your nation strolling in. Sure, they can't get rid of everything happening around yet. But it shows that the Republic cares. That they want to help you. So we need to do something. Not just investigate and then leave empty-handed!" She turned to face Max, her eyes ablaze with fanatism. "We need to do that not for the top brass or for my ego, as you may believe, but because those people need our help. I'm going to reach shoulder-deep into this mess if I need to, but I'm coming back to McCarran with a criminal instead of going back empty-handed."

"But what if we don't guess right? What if we catch someone innocent?" Max pleaded. "We can't get imprudent, Em! Those people don't like us, what'll happen if we take the wrong person and piss off their buddies? It's the NCR citizens who'll suffer for it!"

"No one's innocent in these wastes and these fucks will find any reason to attack our people anyhow. Might as well…" Emma glanced to her left when she heard a little noise, and noticed that a small troop of children in rags was coming their way, quickly surrounding the two adults. They looked thin and malnourished, and only a few in the dozens of kids looked properly healthy enough to be roaming a place like Freeside. Their wide eyes were settled on the duo of soldiers, silently pleading them for help. Emma stayed unfazed by the display but put her hands on her hips, to defend her guns or current possession should the children attempt to steal them. Max considered doing the same, but when one of the children silently reached out for her, she reached for her pockets… to better pick up an NCR dollar, which she politely handed to the kid.

"Here, there's a shop nearby where you can buy-"

"Buy what? You can barely sell that for a single cap!" Said the little girl that had received the dollar, dropping the sweet air to wag the dollar at Max's face. "You'd be better off wiping your ass with this! You've handled me green toilet paper, you useless bitch, gimme caps now!" Stunned by the sheer insolence in front of her eyes, the younger woman stuck in place, too baffled to properly retaliate. Seeing this, a boy who stood near her back reached for her back pockets, and another girl tried to swipe her bottle of purified water. Both attempts would have been successful too if Emma hadn't quickly stepped in to trap the guilty hands in a severe iron grip. Surprise by her speed and strength, the two kids yelped in pain and Max hurriedly glanced backward to see Emma lift the children by their arms and toss them away. Chaos briefly ensued: Most of the kids, realizing they weren't dealing with their usual class of victim, very quickly fled into the alleys or dark corners. A few older ones instead reached for tiny knives or switchblades, intent on using numbers to win.

"Wait! Don't! Stop!" One of the kids ignored Max's protest and stabbed at her stomach with her switchblade… But the small knife, carried by a malnourished child, nonetheless failed to pierce through the leather protection. Aware that she had been attacked, the young woman's instinct took over and she swiped at the guilty party, striking them square in the face and hurling them to the ground. Immediately after this, the brown-haired woman reached for her pistol, only to stop mid-motion when she realized what she was doing. Unsure of what to do next, the soldier allowed the kid to get up and run away, feeling guilt instead of relief. Good god, was she seconds away from pointing a pistol at a kid? The one she'd hit previously? Of course, he had tried to stab her, but that was still a minor she had struck. Glancing back at Emma, Max's eyes widened when she realized that her friend wasn't sharing her scruples: About four of the children, including the one who had spoken to Max earlier, were bitterly regretting their decision to fight her, as did their four fallen comrades.

Emma swung her fists with precision and, most importantly, with strength. The children tried to use their agility to avoid the hits, obviously, but they simply weren't up to the task against someone bigger, stronger, faster, and with a habit of fighting up close. Every punch or kick landed, knocking the kids unconscious (or so she hoped). Their every feeble attack was intercepted by the armor or simply parried before it could land. She was fighting as if those were full-grown Legionaries, not starved kids, and as a result three of the four remaining children were very soon defeated, and the last one was well on her way to rejoin them by the look of things: Emma had caught her neck in a steel gripe, effortlessly lifting her up despite the futile stabs at her right arm. The fight was over enough as it was, but to her horror, Max could see that she was preparing a punch, even as her opponent was all but defeated. The youth leaped to grab Emma by the shoulders, refusing to let the situation degenerate any further. "Holy shit, Emma! She's a kid, just drop her!" When her friend plainly refused to even acknowledge her, perhaps driven by sheer frustration, Max's instinct took over again and she threw her entire upper body back in an instant, while still holding onto Emma's shoulder, before slamming her forehead into her friend's right cheek. The blow, done with all of Max's available strength, merely staggered Emma, but it did get her to let go of the small girl, who scampered off to safety.

Max watched her go by and tended to her own forehead. She'd need a mirror, but she could feel the blood going down her face. Which she didn't care too much about: The image of Emma glaring furiously at her was scarier than any wound she might have received from her headbutt. Small bruise aside, Emma looked like she hadn't even been hit, to begin with. "It's as I said! One step forward, three steps back! What the fuck are you doing?!"

"I'm saving a bunch of kids from you! Emma! What are you doing?! I know they tried to rob us but it's not like they could harm us both!"

"There's no point in holding back in a real fight. They shouldn't have messed with us," Dismissed Emma. "… They're knocked out, anyhow. Don't worry, they'll grow up to be junkies, drug dealers, or violent criminals just fine!" Max glared, but that was ignored too. "Let's get to the NCR soldiers. I was expecting use out of the locals but they're all useless."

"No no no! We don't up and leave while those children are out cold!" Max said, approaching Emma to try to intimidate her. The woman pointedly kept her cool, not budging an inch. "We'll get them somewhere safe and-"

"In Freeside?"

"… Well yeah! We can't beat them up and leave them stranded like this! Gimme a hand!" Max crouched to grab the body of one of the children but Emma didn't and instead tapped her on the shoulder. Irritated, Max looked up. "Help me yo-… ?" Noticing that Emma was pointing at something, Max turned to see that a crowd of locals was currently coming their way. Some unharmed, some toting rough weaponry like pipes or wooden clubs. Most of them looked high on chems but had enough of a presence of mind to glare at the duo.

"You hittin' kids now?" Addressed the leader of the group, a middle-aged man with a great beard and many, many scars. Max backed off, but Emma simply smiled at the approaching crowd, preparing herself for a fight.

"Yeah, I hit kids." She said, widening her arms. "So that means I won't hesitate to beat the shit out of you if you try to mess with us!"

The crowd reacted in indignation to the boast, a dozen voices speaking out in anger, horror, or outright fear for some. The only man to remain truly silent, as he contemplated the situation, was one with black curly hair and a long beard, who was observing the situation from an alley near the duo. He had hoped to speak to those two soldiers but… well, everything else happened, and now he was standing there, wondering what'd happen next. Would the mob tear apart the two soldiers? Or would their superior weaponry proves efficient in neutralizing everyone? Either way, "fate" or whatever Wayne believes in wasn't working out too well for him!

"Mom always said it'd catch up to me". He thought. "… Hmm, wait, maybe I could use this to my advantage!"

"I'll fuck all your moms if you take one step closer!"

"Or not."

…

Rumors say that an eminent leader of the Fiend, Violet, has been slain by the NCR in a fight. This lovely woman apparently liked dogs and various drugs as much as she hated her fellow man, which proved to be troublesome for the forces of the Republic, who were tracked and hounded, pun entirely assumed, by her canine companions. Nonetheless, it appears that brave soldiers have managed to fight their way to her location, deep in Fiend territory, and put an end to her reign.

However, some claim that those "soldiers" are actually bounty hunters hired by the NCR to track down and kill Fiend leaders. In answer, the NCR has quickly declared those rumors to be slender. "We've defeated the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave, The Khans, repelled the Legion, squashed the Powder Gangers, and just got done slaughtering the Reavers in the Frontier. The Republic doesn't need Bounty Hunters to do its job of repelling raider scum." Has answered a source within the Republic. "And you better prepare to announce the deaths of other Fiends soon on that radio!"

Challenge accepted! But while we wait for them to deliver… How about we let listen to some Frank Sinatra?

…

Here's one more chapter! I've tried to make it shorter. What do you think? Sometimes I make chapters too long, IMO, but that's just my opinion. I'd like to get feedback on that tho! I just like writing but sometimes get carried away.

What did you think of the chapter? Did you like it? Once again, I love feedback! Oh, and speaking of feedback, I'll admit the radio at the end is inspired by a fic "Sheason's Story" which had these. I'm glad you like them though! I really want to keep using those.

Well see ya later!