CHAPTER 19: ROBOT'S DEN.

Once night fell on the group they took refuge in an old hardware store with two stories. The main street they found was near Roscoe like the map showed, but there was still a another two hours or so before reaching Fort Metalstar. They shacked up on the top floor and set up a place to sleep.

Joe started a small fire in a tv. He shattered the screen, take out as much pieces as he could and flipped it on its back and threw in wood to burn. Their meal consisted of canned pork n' beans with Brahmin jerky. Wayland and Chloe quickly secured the area before it was time to sleep. They wanted to get an early start in the morning.

"So how did that electric surge short you out?" Louis asked the Assaultron.

"The magnet in the device interfered with my circuitry, and the electric surge only added more to the problem and deactivated my systems." Asimov answered him. "Thankfully I have a backup surge guard that prevented memory corruption. But I am only working at 91% efficiency. Inez will need to check me before long. If it wasn't for your Pip-Boy reactivating me, there could have been further damage to my operating systems."

"So that means you'll breakdown soon?" Doug asked from the musty couch he was sitting on and appreciating the repairs of his weapons. "That will suck if you fail during the fight."

"I will function long enough until Inez is safe." Asimov walked towards the window and looked out. "You all can sleep. I will stand guard."

"Sounds good to me." Chloe overheard their conversation. She laid down on an old mattress found in the corner. "Need to get to sleep so we can get an early start..."

Wayland came back up the stairs after making sure the fridge they barricaded with the door was secure. But before entering the room where everyone was, he spotted Joe and the faint light of his cigarette glowing in the dark.

"Hello, Joe, are you about to go to sleep?"

The Ghoul took one last drag before tossing the butt to the floor. "I want to have a talk with you..." he spoke softly and gestured him to follow.

The two entered a back room with a window to slightly light the place. Joe leaned against the wall with his right foot propped up and gave the Super Mutant a firm but concerned look that confused the big green guy.

"Listen, I saw you avoid shooting those Raiders back in that town before we came to Trader's Haven..." he began.

"I...I don't know what you mean..." Wayland defended.

Joe switched to his left foot. "Yes you do. You had a perfect shot to kill a few of them several times. But you corralled them like cattle." he gently pushed off the wall. "That is going to get you killed if you don't take the opportunity to kill them first..."

Wayland sighed heavily and looked at the floor. He couldn't bring himself to kill a person. "I have never killed any humans before. If I do...I'll be no different than most Super Mutants."

So that was the problem. Joe sighed a little and began to see his reasons for not taking the shots. "Look, I get idea, and I wish there was a lot more smooth skins that think like you. But the truth is, humans kill other humans for all kinds of reasons. And that means you need to fight back with everything you got! You want to be good to people? Then put our people first, or they will die. And I know you don't want that..."

Wayland's faced dropped from Joe's words. "I...understand..." he spoke hesitantly. "I'll try harder next time to do it."

Joe sighed, realizing he could have worded that all a little better. "For now, don't think about it. Just get some sleep and we'll deal with it when we face those Rust Devils." he began to leave the room.

"How many?" the Super Mutant suddenly spoke, the Ghoul turned his head to him. "How many people have you killed over the years?..."

Joe didn't say anything for a few long moments, the years of fighting running through his head before answering. "More than I can count. And unfortunately those memories are the ones I can't forget..."

Soon everyone was accounted for before going to sleep. Asimov still stood near the window, his red glowing visor had turned black. He set it to night vision mode so he could still keep watch without exposing their position.

"Are you really just gonna stand there the whole night?" Victoria asked as she settled in on her mat.

"I do not require sleep." Asimov plainly answered.

"Well, I know that." the redhead chuckled for a moment. "But how will you pass the time?"

"I run calculations and diagnostics on my systems. I will also run scenarios of our fight with the Rust Devils based on what we've been informed." he turned his head back to the outside. "But it's still not enough data to go on."

"You'll get plenty of data once we arrive." Louis yawned deeply and laid his head on the armrest of the couch. Cavall curled up beside him at the foot of it. "Either way this is gonna be a crazy battle."

Victoria huffed. "Isn't it always?"

"Just promise you won't go off until we're ready. We all want to save Inez." the Vault dweller requested.

Asimov remained quiet for a moment. "I promise I will be here."

Sleep fell onto the group, Asimov kept his word and waited until morning. Every minute passing slowly as he ran scenarios over and over, anything to give them an advantage. But all and all his main concern was always on Inez and how to save her as quick as possible.

March 22/2296

It was early as everyone woke, just like they planned. Joe stretched and gave his old bones some pops and cracks. Victoria yawned and quickly put her long red hair into a messy braid. Cavall awoke and stretched before returning to his usual energetic self. Wayland yawned almost loudly enough to shake the room. Louis awoke to see Asimov still standing right were he was from last night. He truly hadn't move an inch at all like a statue.

"You all have awoken. Good." the Assaultron spoke to them.

"Couldn't keep you waiting forever..." Doug yawned before stuffing some dry biscuits in his mouth.

"So what's the plan when we get there?" Chloe asked them.

"Easy. We hang back and scout the place and wait for the right opportunity to strike." Louis spoke up. Everyone turned to him wondering how he could be so casual at a time like this.

"Louis, you know it's not gonna be that easy." Victoria crossed her arms at him.

"Hey, what else can we do before attacking?" he shrugged.

Joe hummed a little. "For starters, something better than chargin' in blindly."

"I'm ready to fight." Wayland threw on his minigun pack. "No matter what it takes."

Asimov nodded in agreement. "Once again I must thank you all for doing this, despite the risks. Inez will be grateful for this."

Louis loaded his AN-94 rifle. "If nobody stands up to people like them, then nothing will change."

Once on the first floor, Wayland moved the refrigerator that was barricading the door aside. They were greeted by the warm sun and aired smell of various things and continued on the right path to the fort.

()()()()()()()()()()()()

A loud clanging stirred Inez from her sleep. It started again as she slowly opened her eyes and looked up to see Spark hanging off the bars and rattling them. The thin man grinned widely.

"Wakey, wakey! Time to fixey!" he laughed.

Inez slowly sat up, her face a blank stare. "You should be the one in here. You would look like a monkey in a zoo."

"Ooh! Still feisty! I like feisty, my south of the border yummyness!"

Inez took offense to that deeply. "Fuck you!"

Spark showed his dirty teeth. "Hmm, tempting, but we'll have to do that later! Right now, time for you to get to work!" he leaped off and unlocked the cell door. "And just to remind you, if you try anything I don't like, I'll burn that town of yours down. And maybe the next one over for fun!..."

Inez stood up as the cell door was opened. She considered making a dash for it, but odds were there was some Rust Devils waiting. She was lead back into the hangar section where the Sentry Bots waited since the other day. Spark took her to the long table where a variety of tools were loosely scattered on top of it.

"I still don't understand the extent of the damage to these Sentry Bots." Inez turned her head to the mechs. "From what I can see, they look fine on the outside."

Spark smiled and placed something down on the table. It was an old holotape player, he pulled out a holotape from his pouch and inserted it. "This should explain things better than I could. Just listen..." he hit the play button.

The reels in the holotape slowly turned with the crackle of static for a few moments until a voice came from the speaker.

"This is General...well, I suppose that doesn't matter anymore. The worst we have feared has come. We are at war. Nuclear war. Even now I can hear explosions in the distance, the ground rumbling like an earthquake. And the sky is getting brighter by the minute. All the soldiers here have either fled or started killing each other for whatever they can get. I was in charge of this fort. It was the test site of these new Sentry Bot models. But clearly that's not gonna happen now. I don't know if humanity will survive this, but if we do it will be hell on earth. A world of endless bloodshed and struggle for survival in a radiation filled nightmare. Before I leave this base I'm gonna sabotage these robots so nobody can use them. The design is so simple a child could remotely control them. I know it seems pointless, but if these robots never hurt a single person then it will be enough for me. I can't take them apart, there's not enough time, I'll just have to open them up and do what I can. So please, whoever hears this, don't let these things reactivate. Please don't let the sins of our-"

Spark mashed the stop button and pulled the holotape out. "Booorrrinnggg! I mean, talk about a buzzkill, am I right?!" he tossed it into a nearby bin.

"You should listen to his words, these things are nothing but trouble..." Inez frowned at him.

"And here we go again with this..." Spark groaned deeply and leaned back in his seat. "Talk about beating a dead Brahmin..."

"If the person on the holotape damaged those Sentry Bots beyond repair, then there's nothing even I can do!" Inez tried to change the subject.

Spark spun around on his seat and placed both elbows on the table and supported his chin with his hands. "Now don't say things like that!" he giggled. "I don't know what I would do if those things aren't working again! I get very emotional when things don't go the way I want. So enough chit chat! Let's get to work! And by 'we', I mean-"

"I get it, asshole!" Inez slammed her palms on the table, shaking all the tools.

She spotted her tool belt and took it, she was glad to see that none of them were taken and put it on. She marched up to the first one on the right. The ten Sentry Bots were perfectly lined in rows of five across and two down. There was a stepladder nearby, Inez grabbed it and opened the legs while going behind the first one she chose. The back panel of Sentry Bots was the quickest way to get inside them, it was meant for quick maintenance and routine checkups.

Inez climbed up the stepladder, grabbed the thick bar and lifted the heavy back panel and locked it in place. The inside was a forest of wires, components, gears, and other parts well known to her. Upon first look, she easily saw that the insides have been intentionally damaged. Many of the wires were ripped and cut, components dislocated, and the parts housing the power core at the bottom suffered from what look like blunt damage.

She had only worked on a business security model once a few years ago. And it was mostly scrap that she took apart to sell the pieces off. And these new Sentry Bots were far more advanced as she thought they would be. Inez's glanced back to the Rust Devil leader, his eyes never left her since she started. Once these things were fixed, there's no telling what he'll do with them. Inez decided there and now that she needed to make sure they never turn back on, she had more then enough experience to make them self-destruct and take the entire hangar down with them. Even if she had to sacrifice her life in the process.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The fort finally came into view for the group. It took a little longer than planned after being attacked by three large radscorpions on the way. They stopped to hide in an old building to start getting a lay of the land. There was almost nothing around the fort other than the barbed wire fence and the road connecting to the entrance.

"So has anyone infiltrated a military fort before?" Doug asked the group.

"I did once a year or so back." Chloe raised her hand up for a second. "But it was completely empty and wasn't full of these dipshit Rust Devils..."

"We would have gotten here sooner if it wasn't for those damn radscorpions." Joe pointed out to them. "It's always one thing after another."

Cavall carried a large section of a radscorpion's leg in his mouth, chewing on it happily like a toy.

Louis pulled out his binoculars and scanned the area and spotted a number of Rust Devils and some robots wandering the grounds aimlessly and unorganized. "Hmm. These people are all over the place. If it wasn't for that fence they would be easy targets for an ambush."

"Except we're only a handful." Victoria stated before sighing. "There's gotta be a way in without being spotted. And we don't know where Inez is."

Asimov was using his long range scans to try and pick up her biometrics. "I can't pinpoint Inez from this distance. But I calculated she is being held in the hangar behind the main building..." he pointed to it.

"All we need is one opening to get in." Joe said while finishing his cigarette and flicked it. "I've fought countless Raiders over the years, and I hate Raiders with themes. And if there's one thing I know about Raiders, it's they fall apart very fast when the leader dies."

"If we can even spot who it is. I doubt the bastard came with the Rust Devils that attacked the town." Louis checked the area again with his binoculars. He suddenly stopped moving his head around after spotting something. "Hello...looks like we have an opportunity here..."

Everyone else turned to him for a moment before turning their heads to the sounds of footsteps. Loud and heavy footsteps of people wearing metal armor.

"Why do we have to go scavenge for food?" a gruff male voice asked.

"Because we're hungry, and it might be best to stay away from Spark for a bit. He could throw a temper any moment." another male voice spoke.

"I say we just leave." this time a woman's voice spoke. "Spark is completely out of his mind. We were better off before joining the Rust Devils. This damn metal armor chafes all over me..."

The Rust Devils coming right towards their position.

"Hide!" Doug whispered loudly.

The group scattered all over the place, hiding behind rubble and rusted cars. The three Rust Devils came marching through their area moments later, still complaining and arguing with each other. Louis peaked his head up from the crumbled wall and signaled to Chloe and Doug. The two saw his gesture and picked up what he wanted them to do and started to move out from behind the old car.

In moments, the three were only a few feet behind them, but a single sound could give them away if they weren't careful. But Doug's boot kicked up a rock that was a lot larger than it looked under the dirt. The pebble skittered across the ground as if it was almost pond skipping, the Rust Devils stopped and looked for the source of the sound.

Wayland was watching from his hiding spot ahead and quickly leaped out to distract the Rust Devils. He slammed his feet into the ground and bellowed with all his might.

"I am a Super Mutant! I'll make you all into gore bags!" he screamed and banged his chest.

The Rust Devils started to freak out and reach for their weapons. The three behind them sprang into action, Doug and Chloe were able to tackle their targets to the ground as the last one turned around just in time for Louis to crash into him. The two slammed to the ground and rolled. His fist collided into the Rust Devil's face, but the man wore a hollowed out Eyebot as a helmet that protected his face. Louis' fist exploded with pain upon impact, but at least the inside of the face cover slammed into the man's face.

Doug rolled on top of the Rust Devil he fought and grabbed his shoulder straps and lifted his upper body up before slamming him back into the ground over and over. Chloe snaked her way behind the woman and put her in a choke hold. She flailed around trying to breath, but darkness soon took her into deep sleep.

Louis finally pulled the Eyebot helmet off the Rust Devil and smashed his forehead into the man's nose. A loud crunch rang as the Vault dweller butted him again in the forehead, more blood being drawn. Finally after one more blow to the forehead the Rust Devil was knocked out cold.

Louis rolled off him and held his bruised knuckles. "Holy fuck! Who the hell wears a robot as a helmet?! My fist is killing me!" he rubbed his knuckles.

"Who punches a guy with something like that on?" Doug huffed in annoyance, catch his breath from the scuffle.

The rest of the wanderers came out from their hiding spots, Louis, Doug, and Chloe started dragging the Rust Devils into the shaded area to come up with the next part of the plan.

"You know, if it wasn't for Wayland, you three would have probably been screwed..." Joe said to them. "Why didn't you all just shoot them?"

Louis kneeled down and picked up the eyebot helmet. "Because for starters..." he looked it over, the antennas were broken off and almost completely hollowed out with some padding placed in. "I didn't want us to get blood on these suits."

"Oh, god, you're not thinking..." Chloe began to say.

"Yes. We're gonna dress as them and sneak inside." Louis tried the helmet on for a moment.

"But what if they realize you're not one of them?" Joe asked.

"Louis might have a point." Doug said as started stripping the Rust Devil he knocked out. "We can at least track down Inez and get a better idea on how to bust her out."

"And we should wake these assholes up." Chloe grabbed the woman's collar. "Let's make them talk..."

The three Rust Devils were stripped down their underwear and dragged into the building with the collapsed wall. Their wrists were bound to a exposed pipe lined inside a crumbling wall with some rope. The three looked over the Rust Devil armor before hesitantly putting them on. They stripped to their underclothes and fitted the mismatched robot pieces on to make them comfortable enough to tolerate. Doug wrapped the lower part of his face with the scarf and placed on a capped helmet made from the faceplate of a business model Sentry Bot. Chloe's armor was a little more difficult to put on, there was, in her opinion, way too shitty spikes in weird places.

Louis undid the latch of his Pip-Boy and sighed while looking at the screen for a moment. It was next to impossible to separate himself from the device since he and Doug started out. And of course it went without saying that the Pip-Boy was the only thing they had to lead them to the end of the signal. He finally put it away in the backpack along with his Vault jumpsuit and trench coat. Doug and Chloe also stuffed their clothes in and handed their weapons to the group to hold on.

"So once we get you guys inside we'll get our weapons back." Louis began to explain the plan. "We'll locate Inez and alert her on what's going on. With luck we can escape without them noticing we have her in tow."

"We still need to find out what they want with her." Asimov stepped in. "They took her for a reason and I doubt it was for anything good."

"Which is why we have these assholes to talk to..." Joe stood over the middle Rust Devil and kicked the man right in the stomach. "Shithead! Wake up! All of you!"

He swiftly kicked the other two as well. The Rust Devils snapped awake from the painful kicks and turned their eyes up at the wanderers.

"You fucking bastards! Untie us, now!" the one in the middle shouted and tried to free himself.

"You'll regret this! All of you!" the man on the left spoke next.

The woman spotted the Super Mutant standing with them. "Oh, fuck! That monster is with you people?!"

Asimov kneeled down in front of them, his visor starting to glow again. "I will only ask a few simple answers. And you will answer them. What have you all done to Inez? what do you want with her? Who is your leader? And what are your names so these three can get into your base. Answer, now."

"We don't answer to robots! You robots answer to people! So go screw yourself!" the middle one shouted.

Asimov responded by pinching his nose and squeezed it hard. "I only answer to Inez. Now talk before I crush your neck."

Joe tried his luck by putting the barrel of his combat shotgun to the other man's head. "Hey, pal, unless you want your brains all over the place, I suggest you tell us what we want to know."

"Go jump in a pool of radioactive sludge! You fucking burnbag!"

The Ghoul responded to that by smacking him on the head with the barrel. "Real charmer, aren't you?"

Wayland watched them try to extract information from the Rust Devils, but it was clear to him they weren't going to talk. So the Super Mutant decided to take Joe's advice and put everyone's safety first and help get information out of the three.

He moved passed everyone, which earned him confused looks from the wanderers. The three Rust Devils instantly shut up after the lumbering green mutant towered over them and cast a terrifying shadow. Before they could say anything or react, Wayland reached down and grabbed the middle man by the leg and pulled him up. He cried out in pain as the ropes tying him to the pipe prevented Wayland from lifting him up any farther, but it felt like his leg was about to be ripped out from its socket.

"We're not playing around here! Tell us what we want to know or I'm gonna keep pulling until either your leg comes off, or your arms! Which will it be?!" he reached and grabbed the other leg. "Let's make it both legs! Start talking!"

The Rust Devil screamed and begged the Super Mutant to stop as his comrades voiced their complaints. Everyone else was about to try and stop him, but to their surprise Joe held his arm out to stop them from interfering with his work.

"Joe?! What the hell are you doing?" Doug asked in surprise.

"Wayland, why are you acting like this?" Victoria was shocked by his sudden change in behavior.

"Yeah, we can't get any information out of them if you rip his limps off!" Louis pointed out.

"Don't worry, smooth skins. Wayland knows what he's doing." Joe said, still facing towards the Super Mutant.

The Rust Devil felt like his legs and arms would rip off any moment. So he finally caved in with a pained moan. "Alright! I'll tell you anything! Just get this monster to let me go!"

Satisfied, Wayland dropped the man and let him land hard on his ass. They gathered closely to hear what he had to say after the pain in his limbs faded.

"Okay...our leader's name is Spark. And he's a fucking ass psycho. He might be a bit on the skinny side, but he fights like a rabid Deathclaw. Especially if he's drunk or high on chems! Which is usually all the time..."

"Spark?..." Louis raised a brow. "What kind of stupid name is that?"

"He goes by it, idiots! In fact, he has us all go by some weird tech name because he wants us to 'embrace the technological way' or some stupid shit like that!" the other man said.

"Yeah! If he finds out you people aren't one of us, there will be no mercy!" the woman spat.

Chloe loaded a round into the rifle of the woman's weapon and pointed it at her head as a warning. "That's our problem. We've been in quite a few scrapes before. So a bunch of Raiders playing with robots won't be much of an issue."

"So stop wasting our time and tell us your names so we can go in already before I blow your brains all over the wall!" Doug said as he pumped a round into the man's worn out shotgun. "And where's the girl you guys kidnaped? Where's Inez?!"

The middle Rust Devil cleared his throat. "She's in the hangar, and that's all I'll say about her. I go by Gizmo. And the guy here is Plating. And this woman is Wheel."

"You squealing pig!" she shouted and feebly kicked his side. "If Spark finds out about this he's gonna pull your entrails out! One foot at a tme!"

"Thanks for being so cooperative." Louis rolled his eyes at them. "We'll come back for you when we're done. If we remember to."

"Hey! Come back here! Don't leave us like this! We could be attacked by wild animals!" the Rust Devils began to panic.

"Then keep your mouths shut so they don't hear you!" Louis replied with a chuckle.

The wanderers left the Rust Devils behind with their cursing slowly fading from their range of hearing. Soon the fort was within their sights. Louis, Chloe, and Doug checked themselves one more time to make sure they were enough presentable as Rust Devils. The Vault dweller put the Eyebot helmet on, the sliver openings of the grill like front was the only way for him to see out of it.

"This is so stupid, I can barely see anything." he adjusted it a little better.

"Just please be careful, all of you." Victoria said to them, hiding her worry. "You'll be surrounded by the enemy."

"We will. Just wait for our signal." Chloe nodded to her. "And keep my plasma rifle safe."

"If things get out of hand, just run away and we'll think of another plan." Joe said, turning his head to the fort for a moment.

Cavall walked up beside Louis and whimpered in concern. He could sense something dangerous was about to happen.

Louis reached down and petted his head to calm him. "Don't worry, guys. They won't even know we're there." he assured the group before they started marching for the gated fence.

It was up to them to find Inez in the hangar and get out while uncovering what the Rust Devils wanted with her. Unfortunately the first part was still the hardest, they needed to get in without being found out.

()()()()()()()()

Inez sighed and wiped the sweat from her brow. She had just finished fixing the fifth Sentry Bot and closed its back hatch. Her plan to blow up the military robots had not gone the way she planned so far, she was constantly watched by Spark and a few other Rust Devils that were screwing around with their boss. It was possible to blow the machines up, but the parts she needed were on the table with all the other tools. And unlike Spark, his second in command known as Gears was near the table while fixing a device of his own.

It was a terminal that she had never seen before. It stood much larger than normal operating terminals, resembling the ones military command bases would use. Four screens hanged above it on swivels with a wide keypad and control sticks at both sides. At the base was a rolling pad and a long cable hooked up to a small generator.

Gears never stopped watching her since she started. Unlike his boss, he could tell she would do something the moment she had the chance. He even watched the things she used to fix the Sentry Bots, so her plan was already starting to go off the rails.

"And so I set him on fire! He ran around screaming longer than I thought!" Spark shouted with a roaring laughter, followed by the group of Rust Devils.

Inez scoffed in disgust. All Spark talked about the last few hours was the horrible things he and the Rust Devils have done. He was polishing the head of a police model Protectron, the police symbol was on the side of the glass cover head. At the far end of the room was a shelf filled with rare robot parts and other odd collectibles.

"Ah, nice and pretty again." Spark placed the head and rag down on the table. "But I would so kill for a fully working Securitron! Or better yet, a Pip-Boy! That would be the centerpiece of my tech collection!" his twisted smile soon dropped. "But Vault dwellers are so hard to find and would never part with one."

The Rust Devils that abducted Inez went quiet, even Gears stopped his work on the terminal. One of them raised his hand up, he had oil painted on his forehead and around his eyes.

"Uh, boss, didn't you say Vault dwellers wear blue jumpsuits?..."

"Yes, that's right, they do..." Spark answered after coming back from placing the robot head back on the shelf. "Why?"

"Well, we actually saw one when we took that Inez chick." he rubbed the back of his head. "There was a Vault dweller looking guy with a trench coat in her shop. He had some people with him, even a Ghoul, a gigantic dog, and a Super Mutant if you can believe it!"

Like his namesake, Spark seemed to light up and soon stood in front of the man. "You saw a Vault dweller?! And you didn't tell me?! Did he have a Pip-Boy?!"

"Uh...no, I didn't see one of them around..."

Wait, what the hell are you talking about?" Spark blinked in confusion. "Them who? He should have had one around his wrist!"

"Around the wrist?..."

"Yes! Around the wrist! Pip-Boys go around the wrist!" he smacked his wrist as a demonstration.

"Around the wrist? You mean a Pip-Boy is a device?" he took a step back in fear.

"Yes! Of course it's a device!" Spark threw his head back in anguish. "What in the flying fuck did you think it was?!"

"I..." he stammered. "I thought it was a boy..."

Spark blinked as his face went dumbfound. "I'm sorry, what?..."

"Well, when you told us about keeping an eye out for Pip-Boys, I thought it was some kind of peppy boy a Vault dweller keeps. Like a slave or something. I didn't hear you explain the full details of it, but you mentioned a Pip-Boy being some kind of helpful tool, I didn't know it was something Vault dwellers wore..."

The room was dead silent, Inez felt a cold chill go down her spine. Something bad was about to happen.

"So...let me see if I can understand this shit. You thought a Pip-Boy was some kind of slave child that follows a Vault dweller around? And you have never bothered to just find out what one actually is?!" Spark's right eye twitched, it looked like he was about to go crazy. But instead he took a breath before starting to chuckle. "Wow! I mean, wow! I've heard some crazy things before, but I've never heard of someone thinking a Pip-Boy was a little kid! It's actually pretty funny!"

Spark laughed like wild, the tension faded and all the Rust Devils but Gears began to laugh. The leader walked up to the man, a tear from laughing too hard fell from his eye as he patted the man's armored shoulder.

"Oh, god! This is funny! I needed a good laugh!" he took a moment to catch his breath. "Tell me, what's your name again?"

The man stopped laughing for a moment. "It's Oilslick, sir."

"Well, Oilslick, we're gonna be laughing like this for quite a few days." Spark reached out to the table and grabbed an Assaultron blade. "All of us except you! You stupid motherfucker!"

Before anyone could react, the blade was plunged into the man's stomach. Blood sprayed out and painted the floor, Oilslick collapsed from the pain. Spark then sat on his stomach and drove the blade over and over into his chest, more blood flying all over the place and on him . The Rust Devil leader ignored his weakened pleas of mercy before going limp under him.

"You dumb motherfucking bitch! You guys had a Pip-Boy right under your noses and you didn't see it?! Now I may never get a chance to find one! Die, you fucking idiot! Your name is Bloodslick now!"

Finally, Spark grew tired of stabbing. His face and upper body was dripping with blood, he tossed the blade aside and stood up and spit out some of the blood that landed in his mouth. "Gears! I am holding you responsible for this too! You knew I wanted one of those!" he pointed accusingly at him.

"Boss, there wasn't enough time to check him over and take Inez at the same time. It was more or less a blur." Gears firmly defended. Unlike the rest, he wasn't that afraid of his leader.

Spark howled in rage and picked up his bat. With a mighty swing he struck the table and sent tools flying. The rest of the Rust Devils stepped back to stay as clear as possible. "I don't care! You know how bad I want one! And that Vault dweller is probably long gone by now! Fuck me! Fuck this day! Fuck my life! Fuck everything!" his tantrum was like that of a spoiled child. The table was soon covered in dents by the time he was done.

Inez's body trembled, her knuckles were white from holding the rails of the stepladder. Spark tossed his bat onto the table and sighed, he figured any chances of finding the Vault dweller was long gone.

"I want all of you to go. All of you but Gears and a few stay here to keep your eyes on Inez. I'm gonna so get cleaned up." he spoke flatly and cold before turning to the young mechanic. "You can take a break. You're lucky to see a Vault dweller, I really wish I could meet one..." the Rust Devils didn't waste a second to leave.

He walked up the metal stairs leading to the second floor of walkways where his living room was. After he was out of sight, Inez slowly climbed down the stepladder and sat on the foot of it, still trembling slightly. After seeing just how insane the Rust Devil leader is, she was now reinvigorated to put a stop to his mad plans. She had made peace with what she had to do.

()()()()()()()()()()()

The three wanderers approached the side gate where small cars used to come and go. A Rust Devil sat in the booth, leaning back into his chair and drinking from an unlabeled bottle of booze. He looked sauced and a little red at the cheeks, hiccuping a belch before looking at the group.

"Here comes the first hurdle, guys." Louis whispered to them.

"Didn't you guys go out to hunt?" the man slurred.

The Vault dweller cleared his throat and tried to disguise his voice. "Uh, we were. But we saw a few Deathclaws around and hightailed it back..."

The drunk belched loudly. "Shit. A Deathclaw tore up two of our bots a few months back..."

"Yeah, so open the gates before we get torn up!" Doug chimed in with his voice changed a little too.

"Whatever, hold on..." he fumbled with the controls and pushed the button sluggishly.

The old booth guardrail lifted up as the thick gates screeched open. They didn't waste a moment and came in, now they were in the Rust Devil's den. And there was only a few ways of escape, most of which weren't good for them.

"You're a real stand up guard." Chloe said to him disapprovingly.

The man just slouched back in his seat. "Blow me..."

Now they were in, surprisingly easier than expected. But it was only the beginning, surrounded by Rust Devils and their robots, one mistake would ruin everything before they could even find Inez and free her from the madness all around.

"No turning back now..." Louis said to them.