Dare awoke to feeling of soft lips lightly pressing against his chest, gentle little touches and the smacking of lips as they repeated the gesture. The last night came back to his mind, and he smiled as he stroked the naked Silver's back. "You are insatiable," He murmured teasingly as her hand slid down his chest and gripped his rapidly stiffening length.
After their bath (which had ended up with them having to replace the water to actually get clean, and an annoyed Wadsworth), they had eaten a good dinner of Brahmin steak and milk, and then had gone upstairs to continue the night's events...which is to say, they had sex for hours before finally falling asleep.
Though he couldn't tell due to being inside, Dare got the feeling that it was later in the morning, much later than his usual up-with-the-sun schedule.
"Ah," Silver grumbled, removing her hand. "You're all sticky...and so am I. We need to clean up."
"What did expect?" The sniper said with a smile. "I wouldn't be surprised if we were stuck to the bed."
She looked up at him with a sultry smile. "Well, if you weren't such a fulfilling lover, that wouldn't be a problem, would it?"
He arched an eyebrow at her, dry look on his face. "Would you rather I be a bad lover?" He asked in amusement.
Her grey eyes flicked up in thought for a second before meeting his again. "On second thought, I can deal with a little stickiness." Silver replied quickly.
Dare gently pushed on her shoulder, rolling the naked woman off of him. "I'll go heat up some water," He said, planting a gentle kiss on her lips. "I'll be back in a minute."
She waved him off, throwing the blanket covering her body away. "Hurry back, Dare! I want to get dirty after we get clean!" She called after him.
"I'll make sure we have enough water!" He replied teasingly.
Dare was very much naked as he descended the steps into the main part of his house. He filled a pan from the sink and set it on the stove, before gathering a few rags and some soap. "Master!" Wadsworth cried indignantly, floating into the main room. "You are nude! And cooking something!"
The sniper nodded in reply, with a small smile on his lips. "Yes, Wadsworth, I am. It is my house, and I can walk around undressed if I like." He said in a joking tone.
"Well, yes, of course, Master, just…" The floating robot seemed to have trouble finding the right words. "My receptors are burning at the sight! Please, gather some common decency!" Having said his piece, Wadsworth hovered away to do something.
As the water began to heat up, Dare looked around his house with a thoughtful frown. He had a home, equipment, food, water, a personal robot butler, the affection of a beautiful woman and companionship with Moira, Lucas, Gob, and now Lucy West. The Wasteland wasn't the best place for anyone, and yet, he'd managed to carve out a life in Megaton.
And right now, all it brought to mind were the men and women he had been traveling with at the beginning. The Slavers had more than likely killed or sold many of them, or worse. The cold burning of guilt began to gnaw at his stomach.
He'd reconned Paradise Falls, gathered information about the bastards who called that place home, and he knew that it was unassailable. Without a large force, he couldn't attack that hive of scum and villainy, and even if he did manage to scrape up a force, and they managed to succeed, the Slavers would kill the slaves out of spite.
Paradise Falls was not something he could attack...not from the outside, anyway. Dare had watched the entrance carefully, and he knew that the guards out front would let in anyone, as long as they looked threatening enough. He had cobbled together an outfit that should pass muster, and he was, admittedly, a sneaky bastard.
Nodding determinedly to himself, Dare straightened his back and created a goal. He would sneak into Paradise Falls tonight, and he would set the slaves free.
Coming back from his thoughts, Dare turned off the stove and took the washing materials up stairs. Stepping into his room, he found Silver stretched languidly on the bed, waiting for him with a smile. She crooked a finger at him, and he closed the door.
After washing up, which had inevitably led to another few rounds and, subsequently, another cleaning session, the two lovers had eaten breakfast, and the sniper was off to see Moira. He hadn't scavenged much the day before, but he knew she would be interested the blueprints he had acquired, probably more so than the few explosives he hadn't given back to Robert; she was eccentric like that.
Cracking open the door to Craterside Supply, the sniper entered the store, finding Moira tinkering with some small device on the counter while the merc leaned against the wall as usual.
"Oh, hey Dare!" Moira greeted him cheerfully. He couldn't help but smile at her. More than a few people in Megaton called her crazy or annoying, but Dare found her to be a happy breath of fresh air in an altogether too miserable world. "What can I do for you today?"
"Well, I had an interesting day yesterday, and I came across something that might interest you." Dare replied with a smile, spreading the blueprints over the counter. "It's an improvised weapon."
"Ooh, the 'Shishkebab'," The eccentric shopkeeper cooed, "It uses gas from a motorcycle's fuel tank to wreathe a blade in fire. That's sounds useful!"
The sniper nodded in agreement. "It's not exactly my thing, so I figured I'd sell it to you. You would find more use for it, I'm sure."
Moira clapped her hands excitedly, bouncing up and down on the spot. "Oh yes, I can definitely make this useful! How much do you want for these?" She asked with a rather cute tilt of her head.
Dare shrugged slightly, not really caring. "Whatever you think is fair, Moira. I trust you." He admitted readily, earning a happy grin from the excitable woman. As she gathered some amount of caps in a bag, the sniper leaned on the counter. "So, have you decided on that job you were thinking about?"
She quirked an eyebrow at him in question, before realization dawned in her soft brown eyes. "Oh, that's right! So, funny story, I was wondering outside of town a couple of weeks ago, and this molerat just jumped out nowhere and bit my arm!" Her hands swung about, miming being attack by an animal, or hugging a very large teddy bear. It was oddly cute either way. "So, I managed to knock it off and killed it with my gun, and after I bandaged myself up and took a dose of Med-X, I got to thinking: What if I had known more about how molerats act? Would I have been able to avoid being injured?"
"Are you okay?" He asked with concern. Even though she said it had been awhile, she was absent-minded.
Moira gave him a small, genuine smile. "Yeah, I was all better in a couple of hours. Though, I sometimes get the odd craving for human flesh…" At his deadpan look, she waved her previous statement off. "Just a joke! Anyway, I started thinking, there are a lot of dangerous things out in the Wastes, and the common person doesn't know all that much about the things that would gladly kill them! So, I want to write a book about how to survive in the Wasteland!"
Dare arched an eyebrow in question. "And you want my help writing it?" He asked quietly.
She nodded cheerfully. "Yup! You know a lot about surviving out in the Wastes, and I think you could really help me!"
"Well, I would be glad to help, if it ends up saving someone's life down the line." He shrugged in return. "What do you need?"
The excitable red-head bounced in place, clapping her hands together excitedly. "Great! Well, I already have a title, 'The Wasteland Survival Guide', and now I just need an introduction, and then we can get started on the first chapter. So, Dare, my Wasteland Expert, what would you say is the most important thing when dealing with the Wastes?"
"Stay out of them as much as possible?" Dare replied dryly, a small smile tugging at his lips as Moira giggled. "The most important thing when dealing with the Wastes is to be aware of your surroundings. There are a lot of things of there that will kill you, given the chance. Do not give them that chance."
The eccentric shopkeeper nodded quickly as her fingers flew across the keyboard of her terminal. "Second is knowledge. You need to know what you're facing and if you should attack them, or run away." He continued, leaning on the counter. "Also, don't be afraid to run away from something you can't handle; there's no shame in avoiding something that might kill you painfully."
"That makes sense," Moira commented simply, "Who in their right mind would want to fight a Deathclaw?"
"Exactly." Dare agreed with a nod. "And if you need to fight, make sure that the situation is to your favor. I kill things at a range because I'm skilled at doing so, and I know that, so, play to your strengths. Is that good?"
The shopkeeper shot him a wide smile. "Yep, I can definitely work with that. So, the first chapter is going to be about day-to-day problems, like where it is and isn't safe to find food, the dangers of radiation, and how to avoid and even profit from those little landmines people seem so fond of leaving around where might walk on them!" She leaned on the counter, looking up at him happy green eyes. "Sounds like fun, right? Which one do you want to start on first?"
Dare thought for a moment. "I'll start with finding food. What did you have in mind?"
"Well, food and medicine," Moira corrected, tilting her head. "Everyone needs those once in awhile, so they need a good place to find them. There's an old Super-Duper Mart not far from here, to the west. I need to know if a place like that still has salvageable supplies."
That doesn't sound like it will take too long, the sniper thought to himself. "Alright, I'll head there now."
"Okay! Have fun, and if you don't find anything, just come back in one piece!" She waved him as he left the store and headed back to his house to gear up.
…
With his hunting rifle slung across his back, Dare trekked across the Wasteland...for about ten minutes, because when Moira said 'not far from here', she apparently meant it.
The building was intact to a surprising degree, given the state of disrepair, with all four wall still whole. Even the roof seemed solid. Some other people had noticed this as well, and had taken it as a base of operations. Those people happened to be Raiders, though.
Dare had heard two voices chatting about something before he saw anyone, which had caused him to drop into a stealthy crouch and freeze. Hearing that the people hadn't heard him, the sniper slowly crept around the corner of the store and looked around, spotting two female Raiders leaning against the store-front pillars. One was smoking, while the other appeared to be tossing a casually tossing a pistol up and down.
Bringing his rifle up, Dare took aim at the smoking Raider and waited for the other to toss her weapon up. As the pistol left her hand, he fired. The smoking woman jerked as the bullet passed through her skull while the other jumped at the sudden sound, dropping her pistol to the floor. Dare cycled the bolt and shot her in the head as she turned around.
Reloading, he left the bodies where they lay and entered the store proper, pulling out his silenced pistol. The interior of the store was dimly lit with flickering lights, leaving good-sized portions of the floor in shadow.
A Raider wearing a firefighter's helmet strode near the check-out counters with a shotgun held loosely in his hands, while a distant form patrolled over the top of the aisles via makeshift walkways.
Dare hung back in the wide doorway as the Raider passed before sneaking out behind him. As the helmeted man turned back around, the sniper put two rounds through the goggles of the helmet, flinching as the body crumpled to the ground loudly.
"Huh?" The echo of a voice came from the Raider patrolling the aisles, who had apparently heard the noises.
Acting quickly, he dashed to the body and dragged it to a nearby aisle, crouching against the white shelf and looking straight up.
The Raider walked over the makeshift walkways loudly, and upon spotting a pair of boots lying on the floor, she frowned and peered over the edge of the shelf.
Dare shot her in the face and rolled out of the way as the body tumbled to the ground. He secured the rounds from her rifle before moving on, deeper into the store, avoiding the aisles entirely by going down the left side of the store.
As he crept through a darkened section near the bathrooms, another Raider exited the short hallway just in front of him, missing Dare entirely due to the dim lighting and the goggles he wore.
Switching the pistol to his left hand, the sniper drew his knife and ambushed the man from behind, stabbing the blade through the side of his neck and pulling it forward, slicing through his airway and the major arteries in the neck. Blood gushed messily from the open wound, and Raider collapsed and died in a few seconds.
Relieving the bleeding corpse of its pistol ammo and wiping his blade on the clothes, Dare retraced the Raider's steps back into the bathroom, finding that it had been converted into a small den, with a mattress on the floor and table shoved in a stall. Atop the table was a few things, including a syringe of Med-X, a bottle of scotch along with some caps and a half-full bottle of Buffout, a painkiller that was taken orally.
He took the goods and went back to the main floor. Behind a counter in the back sat a pair of beds, one empty and the other bloodstained and occupied by a headless corpse, along with a Raider who was cuddling with it. Dare shook his head in disgust and shot the man.
There was a door nearby that was locked tightly, and the sign next to it read 'Pharmacy'. I'll find the medical supplies there. He could barely hear the sounds of conversation echoing down a hall nearby, so he left the door and went to secure the rest of the store.
Creeping down the hall, Dare heard a pair of Raiders conversing. "When the hell are the others getting back?" One groused sourly. "I'm so damn bored!"
"Oh shut the hell up, will ya?" The other replied in annoyance. "If you're so damned bored, why don't you go patrol around this place? It's fuckin' quiet in here."
Steeling his nerves, Dare swung around the corner and shot one of the Raiders in the neck before charging at the other, landing a kick between the legs that made the other drop to his knees. He happened to be kneeling in the position that let the sniper fire a round into his head.
After patting the corpses down, he looked through the nearby ammunition boxes, finding a good amount of ammo and a key that looked to be to Pharmacy door. One of the boxes contained a trio of frag mines, while two lunch boxes strapped with electronics sat on the counter and on the table. They seemed to be some sort of mine and when shook (lightly), they rattled with sound of caps.
It seemed that some Raiders had improvised mines using bottle caps and lunch boxes. Shrugging, Dare took the frag mines and hopped the counter and, since the store was now empty, ran to the front of the store. At one entrance, he dropped the frag mines in a staggered line in the doorway, two hidden by the wall. At the other, he retrieved a pair of his own improvised trip-mines.
The trip-mines were made from parts taken from the explosive slave collars, along with a tin can that was stuffed with turpentine-coated gravel. The explosive was a small, shaped charge that was designed to explode in one direction. In a slave collar, it was directed inward so that if it went off, it only exploded the head and not the people around it. In the mine, the charge was flipped so that it faced up at an angle with a thin wire attached to breaker, with the gravel stuffed in over it. The can was then closed and the wire was stretched out across the doorway and secured with gum or any other adhesive. That way, if someone pulled the wire, it would set off the charge, which would explode up and out, spraying the victim with flaming rocks and pieces of metal.
Dare rigged two to the other doorway, and dropped a bottle-cap mine near the check-out counter.
Heading into the back again, he came across a fridge stuck into an open refrigerator unit at an angle. Upon opening it, he found it to be brimming with scavenged food. There's the food, now for the medicine.
Dare unlocked the pharmacy door, and his attention was drawn to a counter, where a first-aid box sat on the wall, next to what looked like a miniature nuke, a handful of grenades and a terminal with a few ammo boxes stacked nearby. And next to that was metal pod with a window looking in, showing the form of a Protectron inside.
He stepped into the room and went for the terminal, finding a personnel card on top of it. As he turned the terminal on and booted it up, something came around his neck.
The cold metal of a rusted length of pipe dug into his throat, cutting off his breath. Dare struggled against the assailant, throwing his head back; but whoever held him tilted back, tightening their hold on him.
As darkness began to creep up on the edges of his vision, Dare could only struggle and imagine how his death might affect his friends.
With his breath gone, his consciousness followed.
…
(I just want to warn people, you might not like what happens next. Look for the '...' to signal the end)
The first thing Dare felt when he awoke was small waves of pain emanating from his neck, and sharp prickles dancing about in his skull. Then came...pleasure? It was mixed with pain and came with the sharp slap of skin meeting skin.
His eyes snapped open, immediately landing on the woman bouncing harshly on his lap, moaning and groaning in pleasure. His back rested on a mattress, and his arms were pulled out and tied down with chains.
Apparently, there had been a Raider woman hiding in the Pharmacy storage, and she was the one to choke him out. And she was now using his body for sex. Without his consent, though should have been implied by 'choke him out'.
The woman hadn't bothered to undress fully, only discarding her lower clothing, pulling his pants down and opening the front of his armor. She had thrown aside all of his weapons, though.
Dare grunted in discomfort as the Raider slammed down on his length, noticing that her captive had awoken. "Ooh, you're awake, are ya?" She grunted, her deranged eyes and pink mohawk glinting in the dim light as she slowed to stop, straddling his hips. "Well, be a good boy and just lie there. You'll never want to leave when I'm done with you."
Then the Raider went back to it. Dare scowled and shifted, kicking his pants off to free his legs, bucking slightly. "Oh, that's right! Get into it, big boy!" He was definitely not getting into it with her.
Pulling the chains tight around his wrists, he pulled and pushed his back down while reaching up with his legs, getting his feet around the Raider's neck. Then Dare pulled with his legs while pushing his back up, throwing her from his body and into the nearby counter.
...
She would be dazed only for a little bit, so Dare roughly pulled on the chains holding him down. The meat hooks that some poor soul had been hung on had been pushed into the ground and stomped on, and the tiles they were hooked to were loose from age. With a few strong pulls, the hooks were pulled out of the ground.
Now free, Dare discarded the chains and rolled off the mattress, scrambling across the dirty floor to the pile of pouches and weapons that had been taken off of him. The first thing he managed to grab was his revolver, and he pointed it at the Raider, making her freeze in place.
"Don't kill me, please! I'm just so lonely, all I want is to be loved!" She pleaded as he stood in front of her, pantsless. "You wouldn't kill a lonely woman, would you?"
"You raped me." He replied dryly, pulling the hammer back. The sniper didn't appreciate her attempt to appeal to his sentimentality, not after knocking him unconscious and having her way with his body. And she was wearing an armored top that a belt around the middle, which had a trio of dismembered hands hanging from it.
She was taken aback by his reply, immediately switching tack. "We can make this place our base of operations! There are plenty of places nearby that are full of women we could steal and make into slaves!"
And now, she's trying to appeal to my sexuality. Dare thought blandly. The revolver kicked in his hand, the .357 bullet tearing through her skull and splattering her brains on the floor. "No." He said simply to the corpse as it fell.
Rolling his neck, Dare looked around the area, finding himself near the Pharmacy. The Raider had apparently dragged him out of the back room and onto the empty mattress. Finding a half-empty bottle of vodka, the sniper took a few gulps of the clear alcohol before upending the rest of the contents on his crotch. Better to deal with the pain then possibly contract something from her.
Hissing at the stinging, he quickly rinsed himself off with a bottle of his water and put his clothes back on. Truthfully, Dare was lucky. Sure, he had just been having sex against his will, but at least the Raider hadn't wanted to cannibalize him or skin him alive. And wasn't male. And it wasn't his first time waking up with a woman he didn't know riding him, though he sincerely hoped it would be the last.
After stretching and vowing to clean himself further, Dare took a pill from the Buffout bottle to deal with his possibly bruised pelvis and went back into the Pharmacy to finish his job. Getting back to the terminal and accessing it with the key card, he found that it contained very little in the way information and the option to activate the Protectron nearby.
At that moment, a series of explosions and screams of pain echoed through the store. Smirking to himself, Dare waited for a second, and upon hearing no other noises, figured that the returning Raiders had all been killed in his traps. Another explosion rang out, and then the store fell silent.
The Pharmacy room contained several bottles of drinks, including vodka and scotch, and about eleven bottles of Nuka-Cola and four bottles of the same drink that glowed purple. Along with that were a few bottles of Buffout, Med-X and Rad-A-Way, which he took. The first-aid box held a good amount of medical supplies, which Dare used to refill his own stocks, and a few ammo boxes that contained assault rifle ammo.
And what looked like a miniature nuke turned out to be just that, a mini-nuke. Dare was unsure about what he would do with it, but he was unwilling to leave it lying around where anyone could pick it up.
After looting most of the store and the bodies, the sniper went around the front and found the remains of the Raiders that had stumbled into his explosive surprise. It looked like five bodies, but there were many pieces scattered around. The force of his trip-mines had knocked a pair of doors off their hinges, and little bits of smoking rock were lying everywhere.
Most of the equipment was broken, though a few pieces had managed to survive. After scavenging what he could, Dare noticed that a room nearby was open and lit, and looking over the counter, he found that it had some things that looked interesting.
Sliding over the counter, he found an empty bottle next to what looked like some sort of gun. He'd seen one before, being carried around by Moira and in her stocks. She'd identified it as a 'Laser Pistol', which, as he inferred from the name, probably shot lasers. It looked more complicated than the good-old-fashioned bullet-shooting weapons, so he had moved on.
The Laser Pistol was blocky and rectangular, and the one Dare examined seemed to be in poor condition. A quick check of the room brought up a handful of energy cells and another less-than-mint condition pistol.
Shrugging, Dare put them with the other weapons in his pack and left the Super-Duper Mart, heading back to Megaton. Looking up, he noticed that the sun was crossing over into dusk territory, which meant he had a another hour or so before he had to leave for Paradise Falls.
Stepping into the town, the first person he came across was the Sheriff Lucas Simms. "Hey, Sheriff," He paused, noticing that his voice was rough and gravelly, like he had inhaled a handful of dirt. That might actually help my disguise.
The older man arched an eyebrow at him. "You look like you've had a rough time of it, son. Were you out scavenging?"
"Yeah, I went down to the Super-Duper Mart nearby for Moira. That's actually something I wanted to talk to you about." He withdrew a bottle of water and took a long drink as the Sheriff crossed his arms.
"What about it?"
Dare coughed lightly. "Well, I noticed that it's held together pretty well, and besides the front entrances, it's also secure. I was thinking it might make a good settlement."
Simms hummed. "Like that school you cleared out that's becoming a trader outpost?" He asked, interested.
"Sort of," Dare replied slowly. "I was thinking, more like a small town. With the right use of the space and some fortifications, it could be easily defensible."
The older man nodded slowly. "I think I see what you're getting, at son. I tell you what, I'll bring it up at the next town meeting, see if I can drum up some interest in the project, and I'll let you know. Sound good?"
"Sure does, Sheriff." He said with a nod of his head. "I've got to ge see Moira now, and then I'm heading out."
"Where to?" Lucas asked, adjusting his hat. "Going back to lookin' at Paradise Falls?"
A dark look crossed the Dare's normally placid visage. "Not just looking, this time." His tone, while dry and rough, bespoke the murderous intent behind his words.
"I see," The Sheriff murmured. "Do you want any help?"
The sniper shook his head firmly. "No. I can't ask anyone else to risk their lives like this. I'm going it alone."
Simms nodded with a sigh. "I can see I won't be able to change your mind on this son, so, just be safe, and come back in one piece, you hear?"
"I will, Sheriff. Have a good day." Dare left the man behind and strode to Craterside Supply, finding Moira sweeping her shop. "I'm back."
"Oh, goodie! How was the scavenging?" She asked excitedly, before frowning at his battered visage. "I thought the Mart would be empty. If I had known it wasn't, I would've told you."
Dare waved her apology off. "Don't worry about it, I won't hold it against you." He began pulling out the loot he had acquired and set it on the counter. "So, I found that the Super-Duper Mart was being as base for a small band of Raiders. They were using it to store a good amount of supplies including food, medicine and some weird kind of Nuka-Cola that's purple and glowing."
Moira picked up one of the glowing bottles and turned it around. "Yeah, it's called Nuka-Cola Quantum. I've tried it before, and it's not bad, but it makes your pee glow. I heard that someone is trying to collect a lot of them."
"Well, I've got five of them." Dare replied dryly, putting the soda back in his bag.
The eccentric shopkeeper made an excited noise upon spotting the pair of laser pistols, then groaned in dismay at their condition. "Some people have no appreciation for technology," She groused to herself, before looking up at the sniper. "So, you found a good amount of food and medicine at the Mart, but how did you get around the Raiders?"
"The Mart wasn't all that well lit, so I hid in the shadows and took them down one at a time. I also heard a pair of them talking about a group coming back, so I planted a few mines near the entrances." He took a few parts from the guns he collected and used them to fix up his own. "I also found a Protectron still sealed in a container."
"Really?" Moira asked with excited, sparkling eyes.
Dare nodded, a small smirk playing about his lips. "Yup. It's locked up with a terminal close by, so I grabbed the key card." He handed it off to the ecstatic woman, smiling as she squealed happily.
"Oh, thank you so much! I've always wanted a little robot of my own!" She pulled half-way over the counter, squeezing him tightly."Simms wouldn't let me tinker with Deputy Weld, but now I can just tinker with my own! I'll even call him 'Tinker'!"
Patting the excitable shopkeeper on the back, the sniper extricated himself from her grip. "Well, it's sitting in the back of the Super-Duper Mart for the taking." He told her, gathering the bag full of caps she passed him and storing it in his pouch.
"Right!" Moira clapped her hands together, before pointing at the merc. "You, come with me. Dare, take this." She presented the small device she had been working with earlier. "It's a Food Sanitizer, just put it in with your food and it should them more…"
"Sanitary?" Dare offered with a small smile, examining the device. It was a small black box with a fan on top of it, and a grill on the side.
"Yup!" She replied, stepping around the counter and shooing the sniper out, "I'll talk to you about the other stuff later, okay? Bye!"
Moira hurried off with the disgruntled merc trotting behind her, giving a short wave. Dare shook his head at the excitable woman and walked calmly to his home, entering to find Silver tapping away at her terminal.
He spun her chair around and pulled her up, pressing a firm kiss to her lips, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing her gently. After a minute, he pulled away and buried his face in her silver-blonde hair, inhaling her scent.
Silver was mightily confused by this turn of events, but was not unwilling to return the hug.
Dare sighed softly. He'd been 'used' once before, and just like then, he felt a sense of sliminess and somewhat greasy, dirty in a way that the Wasteland couldn't compare to.
After what might happen tonight, he suspected he would need a very hot bath.
Silver pulled away slightly, looking up at him with a bemused smile. "Not that I mind, but what is this about?" She asked quietly.
"Well, I'm going to Paradise Falls, and I'm going to go inside." He replied with a heavy exhale. "And I'm going to free the slaves there, one way or another. I don't know how it will end, so…"
She pressed her lips to his, cutting the conversation off. "I won't stop you," Silver murmured, breaking away, gazing up into his eyes with water in her own. "Just...you're important to me, okay? So, just….come back."
Dare nodded silently, "I'll try." Hugging her once more, he turned to Wadsworth. "Wadsworth, I need a haircut."
…
The man that trekked across the dry, grey dirt of the Wastes did not look like Dare at all. He wore a heavily patched and reinforced blueish-grey jacket with matching pants. The high collar with a metallic breathing mask helped hide his bruised throat, and his hair had been cut into a rough-looking mohawk, and he had taken a handful of dirt and rubbed it into his face to enhance the look. He had an assault rifle slung on his back and his revolved on his thigh, with his knife on his belt and the silenced pistol hidden in his clothes.
In other words, Dare looked like any other Slaver trotting the Wasteland.
As he approached Paradise Falls, the guard at the entrance looked up with a sour visage. "Whaddya want?" He barked gruffly.
Dare scowled at him. He had noted that most Slavers looked pissed all the time, and by having to deal with them, it was an easy look for him to pull off. "I'm here to buy some damn slaves. You gonna let me in, or what?"
"Name." The grouchy bastard grunted at him.
"Guile." It wasn't as if they would know the meaning of the name, and those that did would probably take it as a joke.
"Well, 'Guile'," The guard said mockingly, "I can't let just anyone in. How do I know you even have the caps to afford one slave, let alone more than that."
I figured this would happen. Dare though, withdrawing a small bag full of caps, dropping it on the small table. "Everyone has a price. How does five-hundred caps sound?"
The guard swiped the bag off the table and stashed it away. "Sounds like enough to let you in." He said, scowling at Dare. "You can go in."
Nodding, the disguised sniper made his way up the winding bath to the main entrance. Looking up, he saw the dilapidated arch proudly stating 'Paradise Falls Shopping Center', which was decorated with the skeletons of some poor souls.
Before he could take another step, the double-door from a train car that served as the entrance was flung open, and a young man in simple clothes came bustling through. As he ran, his eyes met Dare's.
"Carter?" Dare muttered as time seemed to slow down. Carter was one of the people traveling with the caravan that brought them to the D.C. Wasteland.
Carter's eyes went wide, his mouth opening...then his collar beeped, once.
And then his head exploded.
The sniper blinked and flinched as blood splattered over his face. Horrified, Dare watched as the headless body of one the people he had come to rescue tumbled to the ground.
Clamping down on his emotions with his Sniper's Mind, Dare sneered and nudged the body with his foot before walking in to Paradise Falls proper. As he expected, the place was rather messy, with mercs and slavers lounging around at the bar, the sign newly repaired.
His eyes fell on the bartender, another person he recognized. Some brute of a man wearing spiked metal armor was shouting at him with a thick accent, and although he was definitely a slave, Frank refused to stand down.
So, the bald, thickly bearded man snatched the super sledge off of his back and brought it down, pulping Frank's head.
Rage began to build in Dare. He had just infiltrated Paradise Falls, and two people he knew, personally, had been killed right in front of him. He had to keep how felt hidden, though he made a note to shoot the bastard in the back of the head.
Dare quickly strode past the body and the slavers, past the cages containing three kids and four adults, making his way to the place he had seen the Slavers' Leader come from. At one point, it had been movie theatre...now, it was the home of the ruthless slaver.
Opening the doors, Dare found the man he was looking for. He wore a clean crimson suit and a dark purple shirt underneath, with matching pants and shoes and superior look on his dark-skinned face. "Oh? Someone new?"
"Guile." Dare introduced himself with a short nod. "I'm here looking to purchase some...workers."
Smirking, the man held his hand out. "Eulogy Jones. I run this place."
Dare had to retrain himself from shooting the man in his smug face as he shook his hand, though the sight of something that came into view as Eulogy lifted his arm nearly sent him into a fit of rage.
It was a simple looking pistol, looking like a bulked-up 9mm or a trimmed-down 10mm, painted dark grey with a thick stripe of crimson on the side. That was one of Dare's guns. More importantly, that was Dare's mother's gun.
To avoid the temptation of pulling out his knife and jamming it into Eulogy's throat, the disguised sniper turned his attention to the two women flanking the Slaver. One had short brown hair and a similar skin-tone, wearing a dirty dark-red dress that bared a good amount of leg and cleavage. Her dark brown eyes met his, a spark of defiance flickering in their depths.
On the other side was a woman with lighter skin, her off-white hair cut into a mohawk-like shape. Her almond-brown eyes also had a similar spark of defiance, though her's was more muted and slightly crazy. She wore a similar dress, though her's was pink.
Both had slave collars firmly locked around their necks.
Following his sight, Eulogy smirked. "I see you've noticed Clover," He said, gesturing towards the woman in pink. "She's one of the finer products I'm willing to sell."
"Oh?" Dare arched in eyebrow in question. "And why would I want to buy her?"
Eulogy threw his arm over the sniper's shoulder, the other pointing at Clover. "I'll tell you why: because Clover is the craziest girl I've ever seen." The woman puffed her chest out proudly, her eyes fixed adoringly on her master. "And I'm an expert on crazy girls. Crazy in a fight, crazy in the sack, crazy every which way but loose!"
Dare was more on-edge than he ever had been before, hiding his hand in his pocket so that they couldn't see that he was clenching it tightly into a fist, restraining himself from attack the man with his arm around him.
"But most of all," Eulogy continued, noticing the slight shaking. "she's crazy in love with whoever's holding her leash. And, for the low cost of a thousand caps, Miss Clover could be crazy for you."
The sniper had taken a large amount of his caps in preparation for time like this. He was prepared to buy all of the slaves and set them free, but if Clover's price was any indication, that wouldn't be enough. However, if Clover really did fall in love with whoever owned her, then she might now have any problems helping him kill every Slaver in Paradise Falls.
"You've got a way with words." Dare said with a smirk, turning to the black man and holding his hand out. "I'll take the crazy bitch."
He handed Eulogy a pouch containing a thousand caps easily. It wasn't as if he wasn't going to get them back soon enough. "Good choice," Eulogy uttered with satisfaction, weighing the pouch in his hand. "Clover! This man here, he's your new master! Grab your shit and get ready to leave!"
The pink-dressed woman fixed adoring brown eyes on Dare, completely ignoring her old master. "Grab your crap." He ordered bluntly, before turning back to the Slaver Leader. "Do you mind if I take a look at your stock? And do you have a clinic or something?"
"Go ahead, just come back if anyone strikes your fancy, and yes, I do." The leader answered. "Cutter's Clinic. It's right across from here. I noticed you shaking a little. Feeling the sting of withdrawal?"
Dare snorted, shaking out his hands. "Took too much damn Jet, so I get the shakes if I don't get a little more."
Waving to the man, he left the building and was joined by Clover, still in her pink dress, but now wielding a Chinese Sword on one hip and a sawed-off shotgun on the other. "I'm ready to go wherever you want, lover." She said happily, her eyes fixed on him.
Gesturing for her to follow, Dare led her into the clinic, finding it to be an old shop that might have been a clothing store at one point, though he couldn't make out the sign. Upon entering, he found a room with two smaller ones connected, part of it separated from the rest by an opaque partition, two blurry figures behind it and a merc holding his arm nearby. "Whoever the hell you are," A scratchy female voice called, "Wait a damn second and I'll be done. Now, hold still!"
The last part was directed at her patient, who gave a muffled grunt of pain. Grabbing Clover by the arm, he pulled her into one of the empty rooms. "Okay, listen to me," He whispered quickly. "My name isn't Guile, it's Dare, and I'm not here to buy slaves, I'm here to kill all of the Slavers, okay?"
The spark in Clover's brown eyes crackled, but her expression didn't change from it's adoring look. "Whatever you want to do, lover, I'll do it gladly."
"We're going to wait until night falls and everyone's asleep, then we'll sneak around and kill every slaver in this place." He explained his plan briefly, listening to Cutter berating her patient. "First, I'll take you to the gun shop and get you some actual clothes, okay?"
"Aww, aren't you sweet?" Clover murmured happily, her hand rubbing his chest.
A little disturbed, Dare stepped back into the clinic as Cutter came out from around the partition, leading a child by the arm. "There, all better, you little brat. If you don't want to get hit, don't stand next to the gate, dumb-shit." She pushed the little girl away, and the merc grabbed her roughly by her bandaged arm and pulled her out of the building. The older woman turned to the newly-formed pair with a small scowl. "What do you want?"
With a small, nearly inaudible ping, something inside of Dare snapped. Heat and pressure thrummed in his head, and the hammering of his heart-beat thundered in his ears. Calmly, he held up a finger, before turning to Clover. "Clover...change of plans."
His right hand slid into the jacket and smoothly withdrew his silenced pistol, casually bringing it up and unloading a round into Cutter's head. Before the body had a chance to fully fall, Dare turned and strode from the clinic, his visage and body language completely calm despite the furious heat in his blood.
Stepping out, he saw two slavers exiting the barracks, their movements slow, like the air had been turned to tar...except for him. Within a second, two bullets pierced their skulls and Dare moved on at a walk, negligently shooting a merc stepping out of the gun shop in the throat.
Coming around the corner, he found the main group standing from their seats at the bar and around the pool table, grabbing at their weapons. But to Dare...they moved so slowly.
His eyes landed on the bearded bastard who had killed Frank, his pistol coughing as a pair of rounds ripped through his neck. Moving faster than ever, Dare's gun snapped to another merc, a bullet punching through one of his eyes, before snapping to a woman in a leather vest holding a shotgun, shooting her twice in the chest and one more to the head.
Someone screamed, "Father!" and the sniper smoothly stepped back as the wide head of a super sledge swung down in front of him. He dropped the pistol as it was hit by the hammer, and it was brought down to the ground and smashed into pieces.
Following through, Dare spun on his heel and slammed his elbow into the back of the blond man's head, sending him stumbling away. Judging by the armor and the cry, he was the bearded one's son.
As the hammer-wielding man stumbled away, Dare locked eyes with the dirty man in combat armor. He was the one who had been poking the kids with the stick. He was going to die.
Suddenly, Dare's revolver was in his hand, kicking as a trio of bullets punched through the man's shoulders and his chest, sending him back into the electrified fence. The man began to spasm and jerk as thousands of volts flowed through his body, smoke rising and the smell of burnt flesh permeating the air.
Turning to deal with the blond, the sniper found Clover clubbing the slaver over the head with the butt of her shotgun before blowing his head into pieces with the pull of the trigger. "Nobody hurt my lover!" She called angrily, turning as the guards from the entrance of Paradise Falls burst through the door, firing off a shot that stumbled one.
Dare capped the other guard in the knee, kicking the gun out of his hands before executing him with another shot. Quickly, he pulled the bag of caps out and put it back in his pocket. "Clover," He said quietly as she stabbed the other guard with her sword. "Grab whatever gear you want...I'm going to see Eulogy."
"You are so nice to me, lover!" She said happily, moving to the headless corpse of the blond man.
Stepping towards the former theater, Dare flicked the cylinder open and emptied the spent shells on the ground before quickly and efficiently reloading it. Kicking open the door, he dived and rolled away as a rain of bullets ripped through the door.
Coming up, his heart pounding in his ears, Dare saw the woman in the red dresses aiming at him with a 10mm SMG while Eulogy stood behind her, pointing his mother's gun at him. Fury raced through his veins, and he shot the SMG out of the woman's hands before shooting the slaver in the wrist, the force of the bullet tearing his hand clean off.
Two more .357 bullets tore through his knees, leaving the man in the red suit kneeling on the floor in a spreading puddle of his blood. Crimson, the other woman, upon seeing her master down, stopped charging at Dare and stood between the two hesitantly.
"Get him you stupid bitch!" Eulogy shouted in pain.
Crimson turned to look at the kneeling slaver, before looking at Dare. The spark in her eyes roared to life like a bonfire and she sneered. "Not a damn chance, 'daddy'." The word was spat like it was acid.
Nodding to her, Dare stepped past her and picked up the dismembered hand holding his mother's gun, discarding the limb like it was trash. Holding it in his hands, Dare released a heavy, thankful sigh, before turning on Eulogy. "Where did you get this gun?" He asked calmly, his voice low.
"Fuck you!" The man shouted, clutching the stump of his wrist.
Shrugging, the sniper retrieved the SMG and fired it into the ceiling, emptying the clip. Grabbing the slaver by the neck, he tilted his head back and pressed the steaming barrel to his forehead.
Eulogy screamed in pain as Dare barked, "Where did you get it?!"
"A couple months ago!" He shouted, recoiling as the sniper released his neck. "Some guys came by with a group of slaves, and one of 'em had it on them, and I bought it because it matches my suit! That's all!"
So I won't find my father's gun here. Dare thought with a scowl. "Where were they going?"
Eulogy whimpered in pain as the sniper dropped the SMG. "They said something about a 'pit', but that's all I know, I swear!"
Huffing angrily, Dare brought his revolver up, pointing it at the slaver's head. Wait...He stopped as a sudden thought occurred to him, the echo of a man's voice coming back. 'Vengeance is for the weak...Justice is for the mighty. Is this justice...or vengeance?
"Are you gonna shoot me?!" Eulogy yelled at him, his face pale from bloodloss.
"No." Dare stated firmly, to the shock of Crimson, Clover and the kneeling slaver. He turned to Crimson, flipping the gun so that he was presenting the grip to her. "You've suffered under his ownership. You deserve to kill him."
Her dark brown eyes flicked the gun and Eulogy indecisively. Coming to a decision, Crimson took the offered gun and pointed it at her former master. He looked up at her with narrowed eyes. "Crimson, do what your daddy says, and shoot the son of a bitch that gave you the gun." He ordered firmly.
The woman in the red dress twitched as months of abuse and conditioning warred with her desire to be free. Her hand shook with her hesitancy. "You…" She whispered, her eyes going from Dare to Eulogy and back again.
"Dammit, Crimson! Daddy said shoot him, you stupid bitch!" The crimson-suited man screamed, spittle flying from his mouth.
Crimson pulled the trigger.
Eulogy looked down at the new hole in his chest in shock, before looking up at the woman, furious tears trailing down her dark cheeks. "You...you are not my daddy!" She whispered through gritted teeth. "And I am not your slave!"
Crimson shot him again, his head jerking back as the bullet passed through his brain, his body slumping to the floor a few seconds later.
The woman dropped the revolver to the ground, openly sobbing in a mixture of grief and relief. Quietly, Dare retrieved his weapon and holstered it, patting the crying Crimson on the shoulder. He turned and saw Clover, standing behind them wearing metal armor, having equipped herself with it, a shotgun and a super sledge, looking confused and happy at the same time. "What now, lover?" She asked quietly, a change from her usual firm tone.
He shrugged. "All the slavers in Paradise Falls are dead. All that's left is to free the slaves." Looking down at the corpse of Eulogy Jones, the former Leader of the Slavers of Paradise Falls, Dare was struck by a sudden urge. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled the battered box of cigarettes the stranger had given him and flipped it open, retrieving one of the smokes and sticking it in his mouth. Searching the body, he found a gold-plated lighter and used it to light his cigarette.
He pulled his hat, the battered fedora having been stuffed into a pouch, and stuck it on his head, the urge to hum a few bars of a strange song striking him.
…
Approaching the fenced-in cages that held the slaves, the smoking, burning corpse of the merc still slumped against it, Dare switched off the generator electrifying the metal and shot the lock off.
"You're free." He stated simply to the former slaves, their necks collarless.
…
…
"Good morning, children, it's Three-Dog, Awoooooo! From Galaxy News Radio, the only voice of truth in the D.C. Hellhole! Now, so good news from Paradise Falls. I know what you're thinking, 'that wretched hive of scum and villany? How could there be any good news coming out of there, unless all the bastards living there are dead?' Well, that's just it, children. Believe or not, I had a hard time, but Paradise Falls is slaver-free! How did this come about, you may ask? Well, I managed to meet a former slave all the way down here, in my mutie-infested bunker. She told me how a guy dressed as a merc came into the place, apparently looking to buy some 'workers', even meeting with the lead bastard, Eulogy Jones and leaving with a new follower. Then, she told me how that merc stormed out and took out every slaver by himself, wielding only, and I', quoting her, a 'gun made of light'. Now, I'm thinking she might've been dehydrated and hallucinating, but still, someone with balls of steel infiltrated the slaver Paradise and killed all of them, by himself. I don't know how much of her story is true, but whoever you are, Gunslinger, wherever you are...thank you."
"And now, some music."
…
….
….
A/N: And there we go, chapter five is done. This one is so long because it's the last chapter.
Hah! Joking! It's actually the penultimate chapter of the beginning arc, which I've tentatively labelled 'Who Dares, Arc'. It's the action finale of the chap, so I made it a lot longer than usual, and the next chapter, the full-on finale, will be regular length.
So, I feel the need to explain a few things. First off, the events in the Super Duper Mart. Yeah, I don't like rape and I sure as hell don't like writing it, but I felt like it was necessary to illustrate that the Wasteland is not. A. Nice. Place. And that this story is firmly in 'M-Rated' territory. As if the blood and gore wasn't enough for that.
Also, settlements. Someone asked me about them, as they're going to be a feature in Fallout 4. Now, while I'm not going to be doing that exactly like that, I'm not against it. So, the cleared out Super Duper Mart might become a new settlement, and so might Paradise Falls.
And by 'might', I mean yeah. Waste not, want not.
Also guns. Besides the dog-tag with his name on it, the sniper rifle that was his dad's and the handgun that was his mom's are the only things Dare has left of them, so he'll want to get them back. I also have interesting names and abilities for both of them.
So, how'd you like the chapter? Why not review and let me know?
Stay Awesome.
~Soleneus
P.S.: I don't know why, but I don't like using numbers in sentences. Unless it's like, a gun (10mm), I typically don't use them, like 'and there were 10 guys standing around' because it just feels...lazy, I guess. And the presence of numbers in the middle of letters throws me off, and my weird, Grammar-Nazi-esque sensibilities come out and I just want to correct it to 'ten' instead. It's kind of weird, as I said. Something to think about.
Stay Awesome Some More.
~still Soleneus