TEMP NOTICE: For those of you who have not read 'Chapter 6: Bring It On' of the mainline chapters, not the one as displayed by the site, then please do so. I've noticed that a surprising number of people did not notice the double upload of an extra and main chapter... as in over half. My bad there!
Chapter 7: Road Rage
"Fuck."
I fucked up, plain and simple. Got way too relaxed once the shooting stopped and now I was staring back at a few tons of metal barreling towards me. Didn't even have to wait until I saw the damn car to know I was screwed, hearing that engine roar to life told me all I needed to know about the world of hurt that was coming my way.
Things were going to end badly and I had no one else to blame for myself for getting cocky again. I wasn't afraid or dying or anything stupid like that, but I knew I wasn't going to get out of this fight unscathed either. Although she was hard to see inside the odd, blocky looking car that was headed my way I could still see it was that crazy bitch Frost driving towards me. Call me spiteful or whatever you will, but I'd rather ask Mr Fisto for 'the works' before I let anyone try fucking me over exactly the same way twice in a row without ripping off an arm or a leg for their trouble.
With the hope of adding another body to Murder Mountain motivating me, I started thinking of all the ways I could win a fist fight with a car. Taking it on in a straight up fight just wasn't happening. That would go about as well as a Jackal trying to take a bite out of a prospector wearing power armor. Since I didn't really have teeth to spare doing something as stupid as that, I suppose not getting my ass ran over would have to do until I had some other opportunity to start fighting back. Of course, playing chicken with a car is a whole lot less fun than it sounds and it was already sounding pretty shitty from where I was standing.
There's no time to move out of the way so I'm getting rammed by a car no matter what, but I still have time to choose where and how it happened. That might not mean much to most people, but to someone who can beat a Deathclaw to death with their fists made all the difference in the world.
I could try leaping to the side or running away from it and hope for the best, but that would just make it easier for Frost to crush me underneath her wheels. Yeah, I might not be that smart but I'm not stupid enough to risk that either. While I would prefer not getting knocked on my ass by a couple tons of Old World machinery, it was better than being squashed open like a can of Pork n' Beans. Hell, I'd be better off just standing still and letting it happen. As much as it sucks to just stand there and take it, if I can't think up anything else then that'll be the best that I can do.
Wait. Think up... THAT'S IT!
With the obvious choice staring back at me now and no time to spare, I braced myself for impact and leapt at Frost's car. My feet just barely clipped the front of her vehicle and I almost celebrated early until I realized that there was more to Frost's car than just the bumper. Yep, I was out of the fire and into the frying pan… at least, I think that's how the saying goes.
After having a couple of cars thrown at me by the occasional extra pissy Deathclaw, I can confidently say that hitting the windshield of a car hurts a whole hell of a lot less than having the whole damn thing land on top of you. I didn't feel much more than a light tickle through my arms as the glass buckled underneath me, nearly shattering from the impact. It was a little disappointing that I only caved in the glass a bit because I had been hoping to crash through the windshield and land right in Frost's lap so I could strangle her, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. Considering that nothing felt broken I'd say I was doing better than I should have.
Lady Luck seemed to agree with me there because instead of sliding off of the windshield as Frost just sat there looking dumbfounded at me as I flipped her off, I bounced up and over her. She didn't immediately stop her car and try to back over me and I could only thank whatever sick gods were out there laughing at my pain for that because I had a whole new problem to deal with. Apparently I hit the car a lot harder than I thought I did, because I was at least a dozen feet in the air by the time I stopped going up and realized just how much my landing was going to suck.
Even if I landed square on my feet it was going to hurt like a bitch, but I wasn't just launched in the same way I hit the windshield. Nooooo that would have been too easy. Instead I was spinning around like a football thrown by a drunk Super Mutant and was starting to really wish I had just let myself get run over instead of trying something fancy.
Like every other person who found themselves spiraling out of control as they fell, I flailed my arms in a desperate attempt to regain control of myself so I at least wouldn't break my neck on the landing. I even added a good bit of screaming too since that is what everyone in those holotapes did. I mean, who was I to say that didn't work when it clearly did? Still, I'm really glad that no one could see or hear any of that because I would never be able to live this down if anyone from the Mojave saw me.
The landing shut me up pretty damn quick on account of the initial impact nearly causing me to bite through my tongue. If that hadn't kept my mouth shut, then there was no telling what might have happened as I kept on rolling. I tried my best to tuck my limbs in close to my chest so that way nothing would get crippled, but even so I was still covered in bruises by the time I came to a stop.
That landing definitely wasn't the softest one I've ever enjoyed, but since I didn't have any ribs playing peekaboo with me and poking through my armor I could hardly call it one of my worst. Still hurt like Mean Sonofabitch, but at least my wounds would heal up quickly thanks to them Good Eatins' from earlier. Blood Sausage and Red Paste were about as good as any Stimpak in my book and they were a whole lot easier to use since they just needed to be crushed to start mending my wounds. Going to the trouble of eating them just made them work a bit faster, thankfully I had enough sense to do that before stepping out of the elevator just in case.
While I was okay at the moment, there was no way that Frost was going to assume that I kicked the bucket without making sure of it. I already played dead once and with her being clever enough to play the same trick on me, that clearly wouldn't work a second time. Besides, even if that did kill me she seemed petty enough to run over my corpse just for the hell of it. I sure as hell know that's what I would do if I were her.
With the prospect of going through that lovely experience again coming up real quick, I scrambled up to my feet as fast as I could. I was a bit stiff and sore, but not so much that it would keep me from moving like I usually did. That was about the only good thing that came from my genius way of not getting run over, because I could see Frost was getting ready to take another shot at running me over.
"YOU FUKCING IDIOT! HOW THE HELL DID YOU NOT SEE THAT COMING? I CAN'T GO ANYWHERE WITH YOU WITHOUT SOME TRYING TO TURN ME INTO SCRAP!" Toasty said throwing his own two caps into the mess I found myself in.
"Would you have rather taken a nice bath like the one the fellas at The Sink were getting ready for you?"
"Hell no!"
"Good, now shut up before I decide to put you out of your misery and turn you into a parking brake!" I yelled back at him.
As tempting as that idea was, there was no way a three pound block of metal could stop another one about a thousand times heavier than it. I could hardly think straight and even I could figure that one out, but thankfully Toasty didn't and he stopped bitching real quick. He shut up just in time too because Frost was coming at me and this time I was looking to end our fight before it even started. Having some chrome plated bastard nitpicking every mistake I made certainly wouldn't have things any easier for me in any case.
I charged Frost head on as she continued driving towards me. She seemed quite confident in her driving skills and I was sure that I was the toughest one between us. It was clear that both of us thought we were unstoppable powerhouses ready to take the other one down, but unlike her I already knew who that somebody was.
As she came closer I could see a devilish smirk on her face that was telling me that she also had something planned for our second pass at each other, but it was too late to pussy out now and there was now way I was bailing now. I jumped at her car once more in the hopes of breaking through her already damaged windshield, and sure things just couldn't go right for me. Unlike before when I curled up into a ball to avoid getting ran over, I came at her ready to deliver a True Legion Assault when Frost tried to pull off some fancy evasive maneuvers to try and make me look like an overconfident dumbass. I certainly know that's what I felt like when I was looked at her vehicle only to see the side of it coming at me instead of the front.
Maybe it was just because I didn't have much experience fighting against cars back in the Mojave, but I never expected to see Frost turn her vehicle to the side so that way I would be slamming against the car's armored doors instead of the front window I almost broke through before. She apparently had the foresight to see what I was planning and I could only laugh at how she thought that could stop me. Admittedly, not being able to hit something that was already moments away from shattering was going a real bitch and a half considering what I'd be smacking into instead, but I wasn't too worried. Like all cars, Frost's had more than one window on it and thankfully her side door had one. It was smaller, harder to hit, but had a lot less material to break through as well. At least, I hope it did. Since I already had the aim lined up and had no time to try anything else, all I could do was kick with all of my strength and hope that either the window or the entire door gave out before my legs did.
For a moment, I didn't feel anything in my legs despite knowing damn well that I should have hit Frost's car. A brief moment of terror washed over me as I thought I broke my legs so badly that I couldn't feel them and would need a whole hell of a lot more than some Super Hydra to be able to walk again. Then I heard a yelp of surprise, possibly some pain mixed in there as well, and came to rest on top of some nice leather seating inside of Frost's car. As bloodthirsty as she made herself out to be and as tacky as Mantle seemed to be as a whole, I do have to say that she had some damn good taste in comfort because landing on those seats felt like I jumped into one of the beds at the Lucky 38. I don't know how jumping on clouds was supposed to feel like, but this had to be pretty damn close.
"Get off of me you animal! Get off and get that window out of my face!" Frost shouted.
Hearing her shouts dragged me out of the comfort provided by the crown jewel of New Vegas and back into the death machine I jumped into. I looked over towards Frost to see that her face had been sandwiched between the door on her side and my feet, as well as the window I had apparently kicked out entirely. Feeling like the all loving handyman that I was, I gave her exactly what she wished for by rolling around on my stomach and giving her a mule kick so that way she wouldn't have to deal with that annoying bit of glass any more. The window I knocked out shattered into a flurry of glass shards that would have dug themselves into her face if she wasn't a psyker, but even though her face didn't look like swiss cheese she still screamed that way all the same.
I don't know why she was screaming if that didn't hurt her, but I didn't waste time thinking when I could be doing instead. With Frost reeling from having her request granted like another of my satisfied customers, I quickly righted myself and looked for any weapons she had on her that I could use for myself. All she had was a one handed sword with some notches in it that looked like it could come apart at any moment, quite the disappointment if I do say so myself. It was thicker than a katana and had two sides, but since I could hardly use anything larger than a knife and smaller than a Bumper Sword without looking like a complete idiot I ignored it and just started punching her as hard as I could.
As poor as my technique was, I put as much strength as I could into each fist I threw at her to compensate. Against someone more competent I wouldn't have had a chance to even land a glancing blow, but with Frost tied to her seat and more focused on the odd wheel in front of her than having her teeth punched I could have had two broken arms and she still wouldn't have been able to do anything to stop me. She was screaming and cursing at me with every blow, but I didn't pay attention to whatever it was she was saying. All I could see was a very noisy punching bag that had personally volunteered to have the shit beaten out of it that wouldn't stop asking for more.
After a while she actually started fighting back, if you could even call shielding her face with only one arm that. She tried flailing at me looking more like a toddler than a soldier with her one arm while she kept her other one firmly attached to that stupid looking wheel no matter how hard I hit her.
Whatever that wheel was, it was apparently more important to her than not getting the shit beaten out of her. Maybe it was some sort of super weapon that she was trying to activate to throw me out of her car. Maybe it was some sort of valuable Old World tech that kept the car running. I don't know how cars worked so all I could do was guess, but even I could tell that it had to be important. Every time she turned it the car turned so it obviously had to be used for something with all that shaking going on. I naturally set my sights on that because even with my attempts to cave her head in, I still wasn't doing anything more than slapping Frost around no matter how hard I hit her. That damn psyker bullshit was making me look like a fool again and I wasn't going to take it any longer. A change of tactics was needed and that wheel looked like the perfect thing to ram down her throat.
With a new objective to focus on, I squeezed up beside Frost and immediately got to work trying to wrestle the wheel out of her grip to see exactly what it could be used for. I made the wonderful decision to try that with both of my hands to make quick work of things, but even so Frost was still able to hold the wheel straight no matter how hard I fought against her. How she was overpowering my inhuman strength was beyond me, but considering that the psykers I had seen so far could block bullets and explosions to a certain extent I figured their powers could make them stronger too.
"What are you doing?" She shouted, sounding almost panicked for once after I changed tactics.
"I don't know!" I said as I threw a quick elbow straight at her chin.
My elbow landed and I immediately felt something warm and wet jump out of her mouth and onto my arm as she yelped in pain again and covered her face with both of her hands. Before she could realize her mistake, I planted both of my feet onto Frost's and pulled on the wheel with all of my strength to see if I could tear it free from whatever it was attached to. The car roared in defiance at what I was doing, but that didn't do a damn thing to stop me. Instead, hearing that was exactly what I needed to push me just a little bit farther so I could rip the wheel free from the car leaving only the couple of wires between the two holding them together.
"You stupid animal, why did you-"
Frost started to ask me what I was doing, and to answer her question I slapped her upside the head with the wheel in my hands hoping that it might have had some psyker magic in it or something. Unless that wheel was supposed to make people angrier than they already had been, the wheel did absolutely nothing. Since just about anything could do that, I figured that there was no magic to be found but still held onto it anyways since could at least be used to bash someone's skull in. I never did get a chance to see if it had some sort of magic for that because Frost unleashed a roar of unrestrained fury and finally started to fight back, pushing me away from her with a solid kick before I could hit her again with a back swing.
If the car didn't all of a sudden start swerving all over the place just then, I wouldn't have moved more than an inch or two away from her. Thanks to the sudden movement I was instead flung to the other side of the car, able to do nothing as Frost reached for the sword on her hip. I wasn't worried about her having such a small, pathetic weapon on her but still wasn't happy at her being armed with something bigger than my own knife and the wheel I stole from her.
I quickly pulled out my knife to even things up a bit and stood up as best I could to rush her before she could try and stab me with a weapon far too large to swing around in her car, but it was sadly not meant to be. As I left the safety of the soft leather seats the car swerved suddenly once again throwing me against Frost who was conveniently tied to her own seat, the lucky bitch. I scrambled off of her ready to slice her throat before anything else could happen, but was then thrown away from her again. Instead of being thrown to the side this time, I was thrown out of the front window much to my surprise.
I only had a brief moment to pick myself off the ground before I saw Frost's car rolling towards me. It wasn't rolling in the same way it had been earlier. No, this time it was rolling around on its sides instead of its wheels after somehow having been flipped over. Without any time to prepare any chems to lessen the damage that car would cause, I held up the wheel I tore off in my hands to shield hoping that being hit by a car that was moving on its own hurt a lot less than one thrown by an angry Deathclaw.
"Oooh-ooooowwww fuuuuuck... What the hell happened?" The Grimm Wanderer grumbled as he slowly rose to his feet after regaining consciousness.
All it took was one simple glance towards the trail of broken glass and mangled metal bits that led to the overturned car for him to find his answer. The car, Frost, the wheel, deja vu for some reason too; it all slowly came back to him as he took stock of his wounds. The sight of the mangled vehicle did nothing to dull the pain wracking his entire body or make it any easier to stand on what felt like a broken right leg, but it did fill him with some satisfaction knowing that he had been spared from the worst of the crash. Having the whole damn thing roll on top of him wasn't much better than being able to enjoy the entire ride, but since he was still able to walk things weren't bad as they could have been.
Despite being covered in a layer of bruises underneath his armor on his front and his back slick with blood thanks to the bits of metal and glass embedded in it, the Grimm Wanderer was still standing in defiance of Mantle's efforts to subdue him. As far as he was concerned, that was all that mattered. He was bloody, bruised, battered, but not yet broken unlike the numerous troops that had attempted to stop him. So long as he could still stand to fight another battle any wounds he had were of little consequence... even if he didn't have a stockpile of medicine to treat himself with.
Rather than walk, or rather, limp away in victory, the Grimm Wanderer instead made his way to the vehicle he had unwittingly crashed and nearly killed himself with. His pace was slow thanks to his busted leg, but if anything he was thankful for not being crippled. All that did was give him an excuse to take his time and survey the crash as he stealthily fished out a Stimpak from his medicine pouch and jam it into his torso for anyone who was still watching him.
Not only was his sniper still out there somewhere, more than likely deciding whether or not he was still worth recruiting or 'dealing with' as her apparent boss demanded, but he was still weary of Frost. Perhaps it was paranoia after having dealt with so many tough enemies recently, or maybe his gut feeling was right about his fight not being finished yet. Either way, until he saw her corpse and buried his stolen bowie knife in her skull he was not going to let his guard down.
The Grimm Wanderer had already seen some of Mantle's forces survive being blown up, shot, and stabbed without earning so much as a scratch. Seeing one survive a crash that he was also able to walk away from wouldn't be able to surprise him anymore after seeing what they were already capable of.
"Frost, that bitch better hope she is already dead." The Grimm Wanderer growled as he felt the pain in his torso slowly fade as the Stimpak started mending the worst of his wounds. "Because if she ain't, then she sure as hell will wish she was by the time I get my hands on her."
Rather than linger on what exactly he planned to do, beyond making sure she stayed alive as long as possible, he instead focused on the ruined vehicle before him and studied it like it could roar to life at any moment and run him over again. Compared to everything he found in Big Mountain, a car that could flip itself back over wouldn't have even phased him. Unless it could also somehow fly, nothing would have surprised him about Frost's vehicle. Thankfully for him, his worries appeared to be unwarranted.
From what he could tell just by looking at it, the car was an immobile wreck. Even if it was flipped back over onto its wheels, they were all pointing in opposing directions and what was left of the mangled metal frame would never have been able to leave the small crater it had stopped in. That of course, was assuming it could even run at all with all of the broken and missing parts scattered between where the Grimm Wanderer woke up and where the vehicle stopped. Only one thing set him on edge, and that was the missing part that he could find no traces of on the car's underside.
As hard as he tried to look for it, the fusion battery that was standard on all the ruined cars he knew of wasn't there. As unlikely as it was that the volatile power source somehow survived becoming detached from the vehicle without exploding in a radioactive ball of fire, the Grimm Wanderer found himself wondering if it was even a part of the car to begin with. The elevator he had tried to hotwire lacked a similar standardized power source like those found in the Mojave so it only made sense that other machines in Vacuo would be missing them too. If anything, the knowledge that he was far enough away from the Mojave that not even few odds and ends that made scavenging relatively easy for him was something he found himself thankful for since it more than likely meant that the horrors he had grown used also probably weren't anywhere nearby either. Sure, it would more than likely make repairing his current gear difficult as well as putting his stockpile of ammo to use but it was a small price to pay for being miles away from the nearest Cazador nest in his eyes.
Before he could celebrate such wonderful news, he still had one last thing to do. The Grimm Wanderer couldn't see Frost's body and until then, he was not going to make the mistake of assuming she was dead. As living proof that a botched execution could come to bite anyone in the ass, even those that had nothing to do with it, he wanted proof of her demise or to capture her alive for later before moving on to his next target.
With that thought in mind, the Grimm Wanderer was careful not to come too close to the overturned vehicle as he looked inside the partially caved-in interior for Frost. He remembered the sword she had on her quite well, and having successfully ambushed several curious raiders that were once in his current position in the past he was not about to see if she was as clever or resourceful as him. While he had an apparent immunity to bullet-in-head-ittis he had no intentions of seeing if his immunity included anything to do with sharp, pointy objects as well.
His inspection didn't lead to him finding any signs of her. That didn't mean that she wasn't still in there, as there was also a lack of evidence that she had left the vehicle too. The Grimm Wanderer figured that she was still in there, more than likely still alive and injured since she wasn't still trying to kill or screech at him again. That suited him just fine because he wanted her to suffer for what she had put him through and he knew exactly how to coax her out of her hiding spot.
The Grimm Wanderer approached the rear of her vehicle without any real urgency and grabbed one of the sides that didn't look like it would crumble underneath his grip. From there he used his inhuman strength, augmented by the various implants he had installed and only partially dulled by the chems still plaguing him, to flip the vehicle back onto its wheels with little effort. Once it was right side up he ripped off both of the rear wheels to ensure that there was no chance of Frost running him over again.
With the car thoroughly immobilized, the Grimm Wanderer once again rounded the vehicle to inspect it once more when he finally saw Frost stepping out of it. Other than a small trickle of blood that had poured from her nose down to the neck of her uniform, she appeared to be completely unscathed. To anyone else the sight of a six and a half foot tall blonde amazon glaring daggers at them would have been somewhat intimidating, but to the Grimm Wanderer. Even though he found himself uncomfortably beneath her gaze, he stood his ground and returned her icy glare with one of his own.
"How the fuck are you not even injured yet?" He shouted at her.
"Because I am not an animal like yourself." She replied, unsheathing her sword as she did so. "But of course, savages like you would never be able to understand that."
"Wha- savages? You think I'm a SAVAGE?" The Grimm Wanderer shouted, trembling with rage.
Frost flinched at the sudden change coming from him, but quickly brought herself under control. For just a brief moment she believed herself to be fighting a true monster, but believing him to be no better than a feral animal barking against something it should rightfully be afraid of restored her confidence. Even though she didn't expect him to say anything worthwhile, she still listened to whatever nonsense he would surely bark at her.
"You government types are all the same, sticking your hands in places they don't belong and 'helping' people that were doing just fine until you came along." He said, his tone tired but no less menacing.
"That's what I would expect from an animal like yourself. The people here were content with living under the strongest, cruelest people in the kingdom until we liberated them from you animals, but now that has changed." Frost said, slowly starting to circle the Grimm Wanderer as he matched her pace despite his injured leg. Even as they prepared to restart their fight, Frost did not stop preaching to her opponent.
"We have brought law and order to this hopeless kingdom. We have saved this land from itself, and with the combined powers of Mantle and Mistral nothing will stand in the way of freeing ourselves from the threats that endanger people everywhere. Nothing will be able to stand against us. Not the Grimm, not the King of Vale, and certainly not animals like you. Mantle will-"
"Animal this, animal that, what the hell are you talking about? I don't know what the hell someone's clothes have to do with all the shit you're talking about. I don't know why people choosing to wear animal tails and ears is so important, even if I did I wouldn't care." The Grimm Wanderer growled. "All I see right now is some arrogant piece of shit stroking their own ego instead of doing anything useful, so are you going to keep on bitching like a wild mutt or are you going to stop acting like an animal and fight me already?"
Frost didn't even let him enjoy the satisfaction of provoking her into making the first move, as she started swinging her sword at him without even bothering to move in close enough for it to strike him. At least, that is what the Grimm Wanderer thought when he saw her winding up her first strike before his instincts started screaming at him and he raised an arm in front of his head just in time to prevent Frost from decapitating him with her sword as it lashed out at him like a whip.
"Damn psyker bullshit!" He shouted as he felt over a dozen small blades bite into his arm.
The Grimm Wanderer tried to reach for the weapon that wrapped itself around him and failed, giving him the perfect view of Frost holding a long serrated whip instead of the sword she had earlier. Before he could make sense of what he was seeing, Frost flourished the whip and he saw the small metal bits reform themselves back into a sword.
"Woah, woah, woah… what the fuck is that shit?" The Grimm Wanderer asked.
His answer came when Frost took another step towards him and swung her weapon at him once again. Once again it turned into a whip and lashed out at him, but this time he was expecting the change to happen. The Grimm Wanderer was able to catch the bladed whip that flung out at him by letting it wrap around his left arm and pulling it with all of his strength. This sent Frost sprinting towards him, almost stumbling from the unexpected strength that the Grimm Wanderer pulled her with, but able to use the extra momentum to close the distance between them even faster.
The Grimm Wanderer blocked the kick that she aimed at his head and reached out to stab Frost's outstretched foot with his knife, only to miss when she turned back away from him. Frost transformed her weapon back into a sword, the portion that had been wrapped around the Grimm Wanderer's arm digging into his arm as it retracted to her. With his arm free, he sent out a heavy left hook that she easily evaded and responded in kind by stretching out her left palm towards him.
Unsure of what she was trying to do but knowing that it couldn't be good, the Grimm Wanderer brought his arms in front of his face just as several shards of ice shot out of her palm. They didn't do much to his armor, although the portions of his arms that had been exposed earlier became ice cold and the blood that had been covering them froze solid in an instant. The Grimm Wanderer gawked at his ice covered arms and chest, brushing off small chunks of bloody ice with his knife to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
"Oh come on. That's just cheating!" He shouted as he ducked underneath Frost's next attempt to decapitate him while he was distracted
Frost remained silent to his protests and changed her weapon back into a whip in the hopes of catching her opponent off guard again. The Grimm Wanderer heard her weapon transform, and not wanting to see what that weapon could do once it was wrapped around his neck he raised up his arm to intercept her weapon and pulled Frost towards himself yet again.
Frost pushed off the ground as he pulled and flew towards him believing that the fight was almost over. She saw him glaring at her as he reared back his knife and Frost prepared to take the blow thinking she could knock him out after her aura deflected what looked like a slow, weak attempt to fend her off. It was only a last second decision to deflect his knife with her arm and focus her aura around it that prevented Frost from making a fatal mistake.
The Grimm Wanderer's knife easily tore through most of her aura and nearly sliced through her arm, but her remaining aura was barely able to push back the point of his dagger away from her skin just in time. Frost barely repelled his attempt to tear through her arm, but she still found herself wanting to cry out in pain as her arm burned from where her aura had been partially pierced through. Despite how slow he was moving compared to her, he still had a monstrous amount of force behind him and Frost moved quickly to prevent him from trying anything else.
Not expecting his downwards thrust to be repelled by her aura, the Grimm Wanderer had left himself open and unable to do anything to her. Frost swept her leg at the Grimm Wanderer's, hitting him in the back of his knees and for a moment feared that he was tough as he was slow. She felt a dull pain spread throughout her entire leg once her shin connected to his, her remaining aura disappearing from the blow, but putting the last of her aura into the attack gave her just enough strength to make her opponent's legs buckle underneath him and making the Grimm Wanderer lose his balance. He caught himself on his hands and knees, desperately tried to push himself back to his feet but instead flung himself onto his back as Frost's sword nearly cut him from chin to nose.
The Grimm Wanderer knew what Frost would try next and quickly rolled out of the way as she plunged her weapon into the ground where he had just been. He scrambled back to his feet knowing it would take time for her to free her weapon, allowing him to get a good look at her weapon buried into the ground.
"What kind of psyker bullshit is that?!" He shouted as Frost pulled her weapon free.
"Will you stop barking like an-"
"'Animal'. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it already." He mockingly interrupted. "Will you quit calling me that already? You sound like a fucking broken record… or some sort of sex freak. You're not into that kind of shit, are you?"
Hearing this, Frost shot the Grimm Wanderer a disgusted look which caused him to break out in laughter.
"I don't know why I thought I could talk some sense into you." She said, barely resisting the urge to wrap her whip around his arm again.
"Yeah I think I'll pass on some alone time with a woman like yourself that has a thing for whips and acting tough. I've already met a woman like that and I'd rather not come anywhere close to another."
"Will you shut up already and- WHY ARE YOU TAKING OFF YOUR PANTS?" Frost shouted as The Grimm Wanderer pulled his belt free from his waist.
"Relax, it's like you've never seen a guy take off his belt before with the way you were bending over backwards for your boss. Don't worry, I won't be flashing you my Ironwood anytime soon." He said as he started wrapping it around his left arm.
"Now come on and fight me… unless you really are into kinky shit like this. I'm pretty sure I know a guy or two that would be willing to hire either way." He taunted.
Before she could reply to more of his ridiculous taunts the Grimm Wanderer suddenly darted towards her. He abandoned his knife in favor of both of his fists, a suicidal act that Frost could only scoff at, and leapt at her in an attempt to kick her with both of his feet. Frost carefully stepped aside to avoid his legs and attempted to slash at him after he landed, but instead had her weapon batted aside by the Grimm Wanderer's right hand and found his other one grabbing for her legs. He managed to land on his side and looked like he barely stopped himself from losing his head and Frost raised her foot to break his grip on her sword. She tried to stomp on his hand and successfully managed to do so, but rather than recoiling from the hit he managed to keep his grip on her weapon and clamped down on her foot with his other hand.
The Grimm Wanderer pulled her down to the ground with him and threw himself on top of her, pinning the woman larger than him underneath his legs in one swift motion. Before she could try and push him off her, The Grimm Wanderer started wailing on her with reckless abandon as Frost did her best to protect herself from the flurry of fists that were assaulting her. Without enough aura to fully block his attacks she was completely at his mercy, still coming to terms with the sudden burst of speed he displayed and how he still managed to pack more of a punch with his bare hands than with a knife. Although his fists wouldn't leave her with any broken bones, she knew that she would be covered in bruises for weeks once she killed the Grimm Wanderer.
If she killed the Grimm Wanderer...
With every blow he landed, Frost lost her earlier confidence as her attempts to push the Grimm Wanderer off of herself proved to be useless and allowed him to hit her unprotected head with ease. It only took a few seconds for her vision to start swirling and the man wailing on her to grow fuzzy, and the burning sensation from her aura to fade away as it grew weaker with every blow it could only partially stop. Not wanting to see how much longer her aura would hold, something that hardly mattered anymore in her eyes due to how was outright ignoring it with his bare hands, Frost placed both of her hands on his chest and created an enormous icicle that forced the Grimm Wanderer off of her.
The sudden appearance of a three foot spike of ice sent him flying away from her, tumbling to the ground far enough away from each other so that they could both get back to their feet before the other could retaliate. Upon seeing the jagged ice that was fixed to the Grimm Wanderer's chest, Frost thought she had finally wounded him. The moment didn't last for long, because he immediately set to removing the extra weight from his chest as soon as he stood back up.
"How the hell do you keep on doing that shit?" The Grimm Wanderer angrily shouted at her as he shook off the last few shards of ice from his armor.
"That's my Semblance, you stupid animal. I can manipulate any Ice Dust around me, and there is a lot of it still lingering in the air." Frost shouted, created a small cloud of ice above her palm to demonstrate. "But a savage like you wouldn't know anything about that."
"Bitch, I don't know how the hell I even got here. Of course I won't know jack shit about anything you psykers do!" The Grimm Wanderer shouted. "Right now, all I know is that this is the biggest biggest bunch of bullshit I have had to deal with since I nearly got killed by the biggest bloatfly I have ever seen. And let me tell you, you are NOTHING compared to that behemoth of a bug. Yet, here you are still acting like you're some tough shit just because you got some toys and powers I ain't ever seen before. If I had even one of my guns on me right now you would have been splattered across the pavement a long time ago!"
"Quit barking nonsense already, animal. Stop making excuses and fight me you coward!" Frost shouted back at him.
"Coward? Coward? YOU ARE CALLING ME, THE GUY WHO HAS YOUR ENTIRE KINGDOM PISSING ITSELF A COWARD?!" The Grimm Wanderer roared. "I AM GOING AN ICICLE SO FAR UP YOUR ASS THAT YOU'LL BE ABLE TO TASTE YOUR OWN SHIT ON IT!"
With that unique battle cry, the Grimm Wanderer charged at Frost much like one of the monsters he shared a title with. Frost went to cut his arms expecting him to block her weapon in its sword form, but the Grimm Wanderer raised his belt covered hand and caught the weapon instead. He pulled Frost by her sword so he could land a brutal right cross gut punch on her, dropping her to her knees and trading his grip on her sword to her freely hanging blonde hair instead, preventing her from moving away from the knee he threw into her face. Her aura shattered from the blow, the sound of her skull cracking from the blow and Frost almost passing out from the sudden wave of pain that slammed into her head.
Fearful of taking another hit that would instantly end the fight and barely clinging onto consciousness as her vision swam around in her rattled skull, Frost made a desperate attempt to force the Grimm Wanderer away from her by using her semblance once again. Fully expecting his opponent to try to impale him with another impossibly large piece of ice, The Grimm Wanderer backed off immediately after watching her gesturing to the ground with her hands to see jagged pillar of ice shoot up exactly where he had been before it immediately exploded into yet another cloud too thick to see through. He grimaced and covered his ass with one hand seeing just how close he had come to an ironic defeat, but remained focused on the ice cloud for any signs of Frost.
It didn't take long for something to stir from within the cloud out, that something being a whip that wrapped itself around the Grimm Wanderer's arm once again. He let the weapon pull itself free this time, smirking as he watched the small blades threaded on the whip coil around his arm and tear into his belt leaving it a frayed mess. Losing his belt that way was a small price to pay for preventing his arm from earning yet another set of gouges and an even smaller benefit compared to the opportunity that its destruction opened up for him.
Emboldened by his partial success and far too furious to think rationally, the Grimm Wanderer recklessly charged into the ice cloud. He could barely make out where Frost was when he saw her whip coming for him once more and even though there was no way she could see it, he gave her a shit-eating grin as he prepared to intercept her weapon.
In one fluid motion he pulled off the belt wrapped around his arm and held it taut, directly in front of his face, and let the whip wrap itself tightly around his makeshift shield. The moment the bladed whip hit the belt, the Grimm Wanderer immediately bunched his belt tightly around the whip and along as much of it as he could before Frost pulled it back. He immediately heard the sound of moving metallic parts come to a grinding halt as her weapon caught on the frayed bits of cloth small chunks of leather he wrapped around it as well as Frost cursing under her breath at the sight of her weapon. The Grimm Wanderer could only laugh at how Frost had fallen victim to one of the most common and embarrassing problems that everyone from the Mojave had experienced at least one.
He was a little surprised to see such a clean looking weapon get jammed like that, but after seeing how everything else of Mantle's seemed to be shoddily made his expectations had been thoroughly met.
The problem with all machines, especially those with lots of small, exposed moving parts were that they tended to jam quite easily. Most of the time, all it took was a bit of tender love and care applied through a firm slap to resolve the problem for a few minutes until some professional maintenance could remove the issue entirely. When the problem was with a motor or generator, regular TLC was the go to method that most wastelanders chose to keep things running. It was only when the problem was with a gun or piece of Old World tech that such repairs could spell disaster in the brief moment it would take for any percussive maintenance to take place.
The Grimm Wanderer was very familiar with how important it was to take good care of his weapons, having had many of his guns jam in the middle of a firefight in the past. After nearly being put back into a shallow grave one too many times thanks to a malfunctioning firearm, he made sure to take precautions against such jams by removing any possible causes. The first of many modifications made to his arsenal was the removal of all the duct tape he had used to keep his guns held together. While duct tape worked as a good adhesive that kept his guns held together, all it took was a stray strip or sticky fiber to find its way into the firing chamber for his gun to become unusable until he could find and remove the offending piece of tape. Other modifications also included the use of several 'unorthodox' repairs that removed parts that he deemed useless as well as carrying several replacement parts that would work just as well as any proper one.
It was only after plenty of trial and error that he turned Jury Rigging into a fine art like no one else ever had. While few people could ever figure out how to use a BB gun to repair an anti-material rifle or use brass knuckles to fix a Ballistic Fist, the Grimm Wanderer knew and no matter how much he explained it to his companions none of them could ever figure out how he did it. After making tens of thousands of caps in profit through such repairs, he was okay to be the only person with such profitable knowledge. Some people said that knowledge could cause chaos when in the wrong hands, and seeing as how anyone a competitor with his skills could cheat him out of thousands of caps he was inclined to agree.
While guns were what jammed the most in his experience, he also had seen plenty of chainsaws, both the industrial variety and Legion's favored ones, catch on some loose clothing or inside their victims until they stopped working altogether. As grizzly as the latter was to witness first hand, that knowledge kept him out of harm's way plenty of times thanks to how some of their users became so eager that they often didn't notice what they were tearing into until their weapons were stuck inside their companion's guts. While a bladed whip that could contract into a sword wasn't quite a chainsaw, the Grimm Wanderer believed that it would share the same problem as any other weapon with a similar amount of moving parts.
With the way Frost was frantically tearing at the belt wrapped around her weapon, it appeared that the Grimm Wanderer was right.
"No, No! Not now!" Frost shouted.
Although she was difficult to see, the Grimm Wanderer could still see her trying to pull the cloth and leather tangled between the teeth of her weapon after she tried to turn it back into a sword. He could only laugh at how earlier she had just how rightly terrified she had been when he removed his belt, even if it was for the wrong reason.
Not wanting to waste the window of opportunity he had in front of him by gloating, the Grimm Wanderer threw out a lightning fast right jab at Frost that hit her squarely in the temple. She reeled away from the blow, dropping her weapon out of either surprise or frustration knowing that anything else she did to it would be a lost cause, but the Grimm Wanderer quickly grabbed her by the hair with his free hand as she turned away from him and pulled as hard as he could. Some of her hair had been pulled free from her scalp, but most of it came with her until she came to a stop when the Grimm Wanderer drove a knee directly into the small of her back.
Frost howled in pain as she dropped to her knees, but the Grimm Wanderer did not relent now that he finally had her where he wanted her. He stomped down on one of her legs hard, crushing the bone underneath his boot and threw her face down onto the ground as hard as he could while Frost's scream grew even louder. She tried to grab at her broken leg, but instead felt something in her chest brake as the Grimm Wanderer stomped down on her back and grabbed hold of one of her arms and started to pull.
It didn't take long for a sickening pop to echo throughout the empty parking lot, nor was it long before the Grimm Wanderer decided to fill the silence by punching the dislocated arm as hard as he could leaving a bony protrusion underneath Frost's uniform where he struck. Even though she had fainted at having her arm pulled out of its socket and had no chance of fighting back, the Grimm Wanderer was not finished with her yet.
After having been run over twice, thrown in what he considered a sex dungeon, and caused him to nuke himself he was not anywhere close to letting her die or able to walk away until he could finally exact his revenge. All it took popping her other arm out of place for her to wake back up and start letting out mournful wails that were like music to the Grimm Wanderer's ears.
With her awake and fully aware once more, he finally stepped off of her and let her try to crawl away. Frost could hardly move a few inches away from where she lay, instead only able to squirm in pain without the use of either her arms and only a single leg.
"How does it feel Frost? How does it feel, writhing around on the ground in your own blood like the filthy animals that you hate so much, knowing that one of those filthy fucking animals that you hate so much is what left you like this?" The Grimm Wanderer gloated, kicking her over onto her back before she could answer.
"What's wrong? You were acting like the goddamn second coming of the Vault Dweller earlier. Go on, stand up and fight me you coward. You're not scared just because I broke your arms and a leg, are you?"
"Y-Y-You're... a m… monster…" Frost rasped in between pained gasps.
"A monster? That's cute. You think I'm a monster. "The Grimm Wanderer said, his voice now eerily calm and even more intimidating than it had been earlier. "A monster would kill you right now."
The Grimm Wanderer stomped down on both of Frost's knees, earning yet another tortured wail from her.
"I'm not a monster. I'm the thing that monsters are afraid of. And you?" He said, stepping off her ruined legs and driving the heel of his boot into her teeth. "I've seen plenty of monsters, killed 'em too and let me tell you, you ain't shit compared to any of them."
"Don't give me that look. Now, I don't know what the hell a "Grimm" is or what this shitty nickname you've given me means, but I know exactly what game you Mantle fucks are trying to play here. I've only seen a little bit of what you people are doing here in Vacuo and even I know that I ain't the worst thing to happen to this city in a long time. Hell, even when I was blackout drunk and strung out of every chem known to man I still had enough sense to shoot you people first and ask questions later. So let me ask you a little something now, are you afraid right now?"
Frost tried to say something, but instead coughed up blood out from between her teeth onto the boot that had smashed into them. The Grimm Wanderer lightly pressed down on her face and she quickly confirmed her fear with her frantic eyes alone.
"Good." He said, leaning down and savoring her fear up close. "You should be afraid because I won't kill you. No, I have something far more personal planned for all the shit you people put me through. You had better hope to hell that the other people you've fucked over in this city are a lot more merciful than I am and put you down before I do, because I have a lot of things I want to do to you and all the time in the world to do them."
"Sweet dreams, princess." He growled at her.
Frost tried to scream for help, hoping against all odds that someone might come to save her from the madman in front of her. Her calls for help were silenced quickly with a single kick to the side of her head that knocked her unconscious and sent the teeth he had shattered earlier flying out of her mouth as well as a small bit of blood.
"That felt so fucking good." The Grimm Wanderer said as he took one last glance at the woman that had managed to humiliate and capture him before getting to work.
"Holy shit. That was fucking AWESOME!" Toasty shouted as I got to work tying up Frost's limbs together with her own weapon.
"The bitch had it coming. She deserved that, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels that way." I said as I checked to make sure she was breathing again. She was, but only barely.
Now ordinarily, I would've been thinking long and hard about what I did that made Toasty sound proud of me. Since Frost had made things between us personal and seemed like the person that would have done the same to me if our roles were reversed, I meant every word I said to the appliance on my shoulder.
"Sure, she kicked your ass up until the end there, but you still showed her why I'm riding on your shoulder and not hers. Not bad at all, my minion. Not bad."
"You just had to ruin the moment, didn't you?"
"Well, she did nearly end up kicking your ass until you locked up her weapon."
"So what? I was just… waiting, yeah, that's it. Just needed the right moment to appear so I could break her was all." I said, trying to brush off Toasty's whining again. "Besides, even when her whip brushed up against my chest it couldn't pierce through the metal plates I have covering me. Hell, not even that icicle she tried to impale me with could do anything more than dent a few bits of iron. Frost never had a chance of taking me down."
I was bullshitting of course. I expected to just be able to beat Frost down into the ground after taking out her car, not end up having one of my arms shredded by a weapon that could double as a premium service at the Gomorrah.
I don't know what that idiot was thinking about using a whip as a weapon, but I have to admit that the whole two-in-one weapon thing Frost had going on there was a nasty surprise. She might have done a whole lot more damage if I was wearing some weaker armor, but thankfully my Desert Ranger gear was mostly intact around the arms aside from where that whip got me. Even then, I was naturally thick skinned and thanks to a couple of implants the worst she could do was slit my wrists. If I didn't have any Stimpaks on me to seal up the wound I might have been walking around with one foot in the grave thanks to Frost's whip. Then again, it did look like it was almost sunrise and a nice bit of sunlight would have patched me up too, so who knows what would have happened.
Now as far as whips go that has to be the deadliest one I have ever seen, and that ain't including the whole changing into a sword part. The worst thing any whip ever did to me was sting like nothing else when I got a taste of the Cazador poison coated ones after a Legion slaver showed me exactly how they kept their slaves in line until they got some collars on them. Frost's whip was leagues more painful than the ones used by the Legion, but still nowhere close to a Cazador sting.
Fuck Cazadors. Fuck them and Borous for making them.
"So… is there a reason we aren't killing her?" Toasty asked me.
I noticed the hesitation in his voice, but decided to ignore it when I answered. "Yep. Don't want her to get off too easy, and killing her now would just be doing her a favor."
"Oooh. I think I get it now." He said. "You don't want to make the same mistake that you did with Benny, am I right?"
"Toasty?"
"Yeah?"
"Say that bastard's name one more time and I will drop you in the first bathtub I find. Got it?" I growled.
"Y-yeah. Got it."
"Good, now be a good Toaster and shut up." I said, hearing some footsteps coming from behind me. "Sounds like our little helper from earlier has finally decided to be useful again."
I didn't bother to turn around to see her, and since she didn't try shooting me the moment she saw me that probably meant that I was right about her being the sniper from earlier. I think her name was... something that started with a 'J', and judging by how she hadn't decided to do anything after Frost tried running me over, I'd say she thinks I'm still worth talking now that I've proved my worth or some bullshit like that. Considering that she had enough sense to think for herself and didn't abandon me completely, I might as well hear what she had to say.
"Hey, you took your sweet-ass time getting down here. There a reason you didn't help me out with the wannabe zookeeper here?" I hollered at her.
That wasn't the best way I could have opened up a friendly conversation, but I really wasn't feeling none too friendly either. Waiting for the gouges in your arm to seal up while hogtying six and a half feet worth of bitch on top of nursing a bum leg is enough to make anyone feel a whole lot less hospitable than most people naturally are.
Besides, apparently this gal has been stalking me ever since I crawled out of that dumpster. Not sure if she knew whether or not it was me that blew up the moon, even I don't know if that was me, but if she was willing to go through all the trouble of tracking me down for at least a whole night knowing that then whatever she wanted me for had to be important. She needed help and I damn well needed some friends to make a whole hell of a lot easier for me now that I have a whole kingdom gunning for me, but I wasn't about to do whatever she told me to do either. Something smelled fishy and after getting fucked over time and time again in the Mojave I wasn't going to just lie down, roll over, and do whatever some random jackass wanted me to do. No, if this chick and her boss wanted to use me then they had damn well better be able to stomach their pride and get treated like the incompetent assholes that they probably were.
"You looked like you had it handled." She said.
"Yeah… I did. Really would have liked to have liked it if you would have blown this fucker's brains out before she ran me over, but I guess we can't always get what we want all the time." I said, smirking as I imagined the look on her face right now.
"So, Alex or whatever his name was said you had some sort of job for me or something like that if I remember correctly. Is that right?"
"Yes. I hate to admit it, but we could use someone like... you." She said, sounding disgusted just mentioning me or needing my help.
"Ooh, I like that honesty of yours. Kinda refreshing to hear someone speak their mind for a change instead of bending over backwards while they wait to stab me in the back."
"Don't test me, Grimm Wanderer."
There's that name, title, or whatever it is again. Maybe everyone is just calling that to recognize my general badassery like they right should, but knowing my luck that is probably about as flattering of a title as 'child killer' is. Probably should get people to stop calling me that now before it sticks… if it hasn't already.
"Before we get any further, let's cut out this Grimm Wanderer shit here and now. I don't know what the hell that means, but unless you want me to start calling you 'Animal' I think some introductions are in order." I said as I finished securing Frost's arms and legs together. "Now it's not that I don't trust you and don't want to go first… but you did kinda leave me to get my ass ran over, twice, and this would be a good way to start making up for that."
I could hear the gal behind me stomp her feet in frustration, and for a moment I thought long and hard about how likely I was to be able to stab her before she tried shooting me in the back. Luckily, my worries were misplaced because I apparently haven't pissed her off that much… yet.
"Julia Summers. Now, what can I call the idiot that has managed to become the Grimm Wanderer of Vacuo after only a few days of fighting against Mantle?"
Huh, so 'Grimm Wanderer' is a title? Nice to know, although the 'of Vacuo' part kinda bugs me a little. I might not be the only badass wreaking havoc around here, but then again maybe if there are other Grimm Wanderers they might also have a grudge against Mantle like me. Definitely going to have to ask about that latter.
But first, I wanted to at least give Julia my name before getting ahead of myself. I really don't want my name to become yet another pointless title. Being known as 'The Fucking Mailman' back in the Mojave is bad enough as is.
"Well, Julia, it's… not horrible as it could be meeting you." I said as I turned around to finally take a look at her. "The names Six, Courier… Six…" I would've said more, but the very sight of her struck me silent.
Now, I ain't one to normally find themselves at a loss of words after staring at a lady for a little while but the woman in front of me drew my attention the moment I spotted her rack. Everything else hardly mattered compared to the way those things were pointing at me, but even then I made sure to size the rest of her up all the same.
Julia was about as tall as me and dressed in dark leather armor that covered every inch of her body quite well. It was a far cry from Fiends that looked more prepared for some late night services at the nearest whore house or most prospectors I met that wore scavenged uniforms that clearly weren't made for them. She was definitely wearing that because it was what worked best for her, not just because that was all that was available. Having worn something similar myself on my first journey to New Vegas, I can testify some reinforced leather armor could be. My guess was that either she was rich enough to buy something tailor made for her or someone else was and valued her enough to spend a few thousand caps getting something that nice made especially for her.
Then again, some crazies would even try raiding one of the casinos on The Strip if it meant seeing a girl in full leather. Not quite sure what was going on between Julia and that guy of hers who hated my guts already but if silver hair, smooth face, green eyes, and dark skin were his kinks then I can't imagine he would be disappointed with her outfit, or any other one. She looked about as old as Cass too, although without all the signs of being a longtime depressed alcoholic. As for the things that really mattered, Julia definitely looked stronger than the average person but didn't have anywhere near enough muscle on her to overpower me. She could probably run circles around me as I am right now, but once I get myself cleaned up I'd probably be able to keep up with someone of her compact build again.
Whether or not she would try something like that was up in the air though. She already proved herself smart enough to back away from a fight she didn't need to be involved in, but from the way she was fidgeting to that hateful look in her eyes as she studied me, I could tell that she was judging how a fight between us would go. I've seen that look before plenty of times so I know she was definitely looking for any signs of weakness should we ever have a reason to start trying to kill each other. Usually I only saw people staring at me like that when they thought I wasn't looking, and she earned a few more brownie points for being open enough to do that right in front of my face.
And then like any other man in my position, I found myself drawn back towards that magnificent rack of hers. They were bigger, pointier, and much more natural looking than any other I had ever seen before so I sure as hell took some time to make sure that what I was looking for were the real deal and not just some sort of mutation. Julia clearly noticed what I was looking at, and she did not look too pleased to see me staring at her rack.
"What the hell are you looking at?" She asked me.
"Nice rack." I blurted out.
She looked absolutely disgusted with me, even more so than she did earlier. Why she did so when I was giving her a compliment was beyond me. Maybe it was a European thing or something that no amount of Meeting People: European Edition magazines could prepare me for. Maybe some people just didn't like you talking about their rack. I didn't know why she seemed so appalled, but even I could tell that I struck a nerve when I saw her preparing to punch me in the mouth for my little outburst.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I said.
I didn't do anything wrong, so I wasn't going to stop her from making the same mistake that ol' Ironcock did earlier. I could tell Julia was aiming for my jaw, so I just let her sock me in the mouth and let her deal with the consequences of her action.
"SON OF A BITCH!" She shouted as she nursed what had to have been a few bruised knuckles.
"I told you not to do that." I said as I just watched her scowl back at me.
Geeze, some people. You try and be nice and compliment the antlers they're wearing and they get all pissy with you for some reason…
Author's Corner:
Here's just a friendly little reminder that the M rating for this story is here for a reason, in case that hasn't been made clear already. If it isn't obvious yet, let me say now that Six is not a nice person. As for anything else about him… I'll leave that up for debate. Trust is hard to come by in the wasteland, and something similar could be said about Six and the truth.
One of the major challenges I had while writing this, and all fight scenes in general, were how to take SPECIAL and skills into account. In fact, drawing up a few tables of them kinda kept this chapter from coming out a few days earlier. I don't want them to be an end all to every fight… yet still have a master in some form of close quarters combat absolutely mop the floor with anyone that isn't able to keep up. At some point I will be adding little references to certain character and creature stats if I don't outright list them, but not right now. I can't be revealing all my cards quite yet now can I?
Lastly, a little status update for the current story arc. This is about the 2/3rds mark if everything goes as planned. Remnant is a big world, and it would be a shame to only let Vacuo have a taste of Six...
Ah well, that's enough rambling for one story. Thank you all for making it this far and I hope to see you again in the journey ahead.