Chapter 8: Not Again
"Are you going to keep on whining down there or are you going to help me get the hell out of here before someone else tries turning me into roadkill?" I said as I watched Julia continue to writhe on the ground.
"Fuck you." She said as she picked herself off the ground.
"What the hell are you getting angry for? You punched me! If anyone should be angry, it should be me!" I shouted at her.
"You were asking for it and just… just… dammit, what the hell is underneath your mask?" She asked as she stretched her hand, presumably checking to see if anything was broken.
Even though her punch didn't hurt me, I still felt my teeth rattle from the blow. Considering how tough that part of me is supposed to be, I'd be willing to bet that Julia was another psyker because her fingers were still pointing in the right direction after a hit like that. A regular person wouldn't be able to feel their hand if they were lucky, yet she was still moving it around like somebody gave her a little love tap. I'll definitely need to reappraise my evaluation of her Strength and Endurance in case she ever tries aiming for any other part of me.
"Jaw of steel, baby." I said, enjoying that glare Julia shot at me. "Now, how about we start hauling ass away from this place before some more Mantle fucks decide to show up? I don't know about you, but I already got shot enough for one day."
"Fine." She said. "As much as I would love to leave you for dead, we need your help more than anything."
"My help specifically or would any badass do?" I asked her. "I just want to know where we stand before I decide whether or not the people you are working for are worth my time."
If she wasn't angry before, she was practically bursting at the seams with anger now. Apparently I struck a nerve. Lucky for her, I didn't feel like making any more enemies and she was smart enough to do the same.
"You should feel lucky that I'm offering to recruit you. Just because I'm helping you now doesn't mean the others want to." She said, sounding about as threatening as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.
Now let me get this straight: She was willing to track my ass down for who knows how long and fight off an entire army just to offer me a job, but not everyone she is working with wants me to join them? I'm calling bullshit.
"Hold on a moment, let me make sure that I'm understanding things properly first before anything else happens. You are desperate enough to recruit some random guy off the street for this little faction of yours that sounds like it is barely able to stay alive, yet you're still well off enough to bitch about who should and shouldn't join you?" I asked her.
Whatever nerve she worked up to try and intimidate me faded as I told her exactly what it looked like was happening. The gal couldn't look me in the eyes as I tore into her faction, but that glare she had from earlier didn't fade in the slightest. I'd say I hit the nail right on the head if she was as straightforward as I was thinking she was, but I wasn't done with her yet. No, I only had so much mercy to offer today.
"Oh, and don't think I forgot about that sacrifice stuff you were discussing earlier. Killing a whole bunch of people you trust just to save some random, but incredibly talented badass might earn you a few friends but it'll lose you a lot more firepower than you're gaining. I don't know what the hell that Alex guy was thinking, but if people like him are in charge of things then I cannot imagine what other stupid things you're people are doing. You're really terrible at trying to make me want to join you."
Yeah, I remember what that other guy she was talking to said. She might be acting tough now, but she was way too eager to trust some guy that just so happened to have a common enemy with her. In my experience, that usually meant one of two things: either someone was trying to stage a coup against the leader she is trying to recruit me for or these people are all in over their heads with no way out unless a miracle happens. Julia's making it seem like the problem was a lack of firepower and people and that answer could very well be me, but then again I doubt someone as straightforward as her would try and figure out what her problems her bosses are trying to keep out of sight.
I can fix a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them. There ain't no one alive that can fix that. I could probably make whatever miracle that these people needed to happen a reality without too much trouble, but if it was easier to just destroy Mantle on my own then there wasn't much point in listening to her offer any further. It wouldn't have been the first bunch of 'friends' that I've had to put down like feral ghouls.
Hmm… fighting an army with only my bare fists and a bigass knife or having a couple of people to help me out with a few guns I could 'borrow' once they had their backs turned? I could always use a couple of meat shields if the worst came to pass. Guess I'll have to play this one by ear until I see how screwed they are or aren't.
"Forget it, we don't have enough time. I'll take you back to Alex after you take care of Frost. He'll want to see you in person before we discuss anything else." She said, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"Great. I've already taken care of Frost, so all I need is for someone to carry her around. You mind doing the heavy lifting for me? I'd do it myself, but getting hit by a car a couple of times kinda does a number to your leg and I'd really hate to slow you down because of that." I said as I pointed to the unconscious, broken lump at my feet.
"Grimm Wanderer…"
I could tell just by the way that she was growling at me that she was pissed, but even so, I wasn't about to just let some random person talk shit to me all she liked. I was a professional dammit, and I demand to be treated like one!
"I told you to cut this 'Grimm Wanderer' shit out already, Antlers." I interrupted. "The name's Courier Six; the full thing if you're formal, Six if you're feeling friendly, and 'mailman' if you feel like having some emergency dentistry done with a Power Fist."
"Who the hell are you calling Antlers?" She shouted back at me.
"I'm calling you that until you start using my real name… well, the closest thing I have to one anyways." I said, mumbling the last part to myself.
"Whatever. I'll kill Frost for you since it obviously seems to be too hard for you, Courier." Julia said.
I saw what she was trying to do there, but I was still fine going by that name since it wasn't nearly as bad as mailman. Courier actually sounded kind of manly, like someone you wouldn't want to fuck with instead of some random schmuck delivering letters all across the world that any prick in a checkered suit could mug. Even with her showing me the minimal respect that I deserved, I still made sure to stand in between her and my victim when she drew that massive sniper rifle she had been carrying off of her back and pointed it straight at Frost.
It wasn't that I was trying to protect Frost, god no that bitch was going to die one way or another, but not until I had my fun with her first. I don't give a damn who is the one who puts a bullet between her eyes, but I wanted her to suffer and know exactly how I felt getting ran over before she gets buried me feet under. Just dying with a few broken bones and missing teeth would be letting her get off way too easy. One shot to the dome would be a mercy kill at this point. Even Benny didn't get off that easy.
"Woah, woah, woah! I want you to carry her, not kill her! Are you deaf or somehow dumber than me?" I shouted at her.
"We are NOT taking Frost with us. If you're not going to kill her now, then I am. End of story." Julia said as she eased her finger over the trigger of that massive sniper she must have been using earlier.
Huh, looks like I'm not the only one with something against Frost. Looks like that girl treated everyone like shit, not that that was going to change anything between us. But why would Julia hate her more than me? I got ran over by a car for fuck's sake, so why...
Oh yeah, I'm fucking idiot! How could I forget about the only thing that Frost had been yelling at me when I fought her? She has a hate boner for 'animals' that's about as big as the one I had for Benny. Even though I'm still at half mast after rubbing him out, I can still get a pretty good idea of the stuff Frost must have been doing to these 'animals' to piss Julia off so much. She seemed to be one of those animal looking people with those antlers tied to her head so there must definitely be some grudge that's dangerously close to getting settled here.
"Okay, I'll bite. What exactly is it that she's done that's made things personal between you two?" I asked.
"Everything." Julia answered.
Huh, so this is what mindless revenge looks like from the outside. No wonder my 'companions' kept on getting pissed off at me.
"Wow, that really narrows things down." I quipped back at her. "Was what Frost did to you any worse than having a couple of assassinations teams sent to kill you, getting blown up twice, ran over by a car who knows how many times, and having your arm shredded all in the same day?"
"Yes." She growled back at me, no hesitation whatsoever.
"Then why the hell would you want to kill her before you can get even?" I asked her.
And like the sucker she was Julia took the bait hook, line, and sinker. She lowered the sniper down just a little bit and eased that murderous look in her eyes just a tad as she looked at me for an explanation rather than the woman she wanted to kill.
"There's a whole lot more you can do to Frost than just killing her, you know." I told her.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Whatever the hell you want it to mean once you carry her all the way back to your hideout. Right here, right now, the worst you can do to her is just kill her. Back at this little hideout of yours, however…" I partially explained, hoping that The Voice would sell it the rest of the way, "Did you know that the average person can lose half a' gallon of blood, have all of their limbs torn off, AND most of their skin peeled off before dying? The human body can survive quite a bit if you can treat it... carefully. I should know, because I am very, very careful when it comes to people that go out of their way to piss me off."
That murderous look in Julia's eyes quickly faded away, soon replaced by a flicker of fear as she tensed up a bit after hearing me out. For a moment I thought I was the one who was going to get shot, but thankfully Julia had enough sense in her to holster her weapon before anyone got maimed.
"Okay, we'll take her back with us. Alex might be able to make an example of her." She conceded.
"Good, it's settled then. Lead on Antlers, and don't rough up my welcoming gift to this Alex guy too much on the way."
"Who said that I'd be carrying her?"
"But… but my leg…"
"You were able to beat Frost just fine. Was tying her up too much for you?"
This bitch...
"...this is payback for punching me, isn't it?" I asked her.
Julia didn't bother answering me, instead she just turned away and started heading off to wherever this hideout of hers was while I scrambled to find a way to carry Frost and limp behind her without falling behind. Damn it… she had better hope that they can offer me something worthwhile for helping them.
"Huh, so you guys are using the old 'secret sewer tunnel entrance' to get into this hideout of yours, I see. It's not bad, not original, but not bad." I said as I tried to break the silence that had fallen between us.
After having followed Julia down a manhole into a sewer with pipes and tunnels about half as wide and tall as the ones beneath New Vegas, I was desperate for something to take my mind off the smell and my aching leg at this point. It wasn't the half hour waddle that managed to beat me down so bad, no, if anything it probably had to do with getting no help climbing down a ladder that did it. It was less of a climb, more of a fall.
I got lucky and landed on top of Frost who woke up after acting as a nice, bony cushion for me. She wasn't the most comfortable landing pad, but she was a whole hell of a lot softer than a slab of solid concrete. She didn't share my opinion and started moaning in pain and trying to shout even with her voice as hoarse as it was from earlier.
After shutting the bitch up with a quick kick to the head again, the rest of the journey had been surprisingly quiet. There were no radroaches, no R.O.U.S.s, and no feral ghouls roaming around beneath the city making the place feel unnaturally lifeless. It wasn't too surprising considering how well of the rest of Vacuo seemed to be compared to the Mojave, but after only being able to see from the lens of my gas mask that hadn't been blown out and my only company being a woman that sounded like she would rather shoot me than help me I wanted something familiar to help distract me from all the shit I've gone through. Even if whatever it was inevitably tried to kill me, at least it would be better than the dead silence me and Julia had been enjoying until now.
"It's the best we can do with how tight of a grip Mantle has on the city. I'm SO sorry if wading around down here is too much for someone as delicate as you." She sneered at me.
"Hardy har har, very funny. I'm not ragging on your choice of travel or anything, okay? Hell, this is actually a whole lot better secret route than half of those I'm used to stumbling onto that were nothing more than a whole in the wall a couple feet away from the main roads." I honestly told her.
Yes, whoever could forget the 'secret' NCR relief station in Freeside, or those Powder Ganger camps on the side of the road? No wonder I managed to clear out those idiots so quickly. How the hell did they ever pull off a jail break in the first place? Oh right, the only ones with any brains set up shop in Vault 19.
"Really? I doubt that." Julia said.
"Believe it or not, it's the truth. Just don't be thinking that I'm stupid enough to expect that shit to work around here though. You Europeans seem to have a better handle on just about everything compared to where I come from."
"What's a European?" She asked me.
"It's uhh… it's kind of what you are." I said, before trying to figure out how to unfuck myself after revealing I wasn't a local. "At least, that's what we used to call this place before everything went to shit. You know, I've been meaning to ask, where exactly are we anyways? I can hardly seem to remember a damn thing between going for a night out with Toasty and waking up in a dumpster."
"Toasty?"
"Yeah, Toasty. The toaster I've got on my shoulder, duh. You couldn't stop staring at him a while ago!"
"Oh… that…"
"Yeah, I don't know why he's not talking now but considering that he usually never shuts up I'm not going to complain about it."
"Right, your best friend has an off switch. All of them probably do..." She quietly muttered under her breath.
Quietly, but not quietly enough.
"What's so wrong about that?" I asked, feeling like she was making a fool out of me.
So what if all of my friends were appliances with artificial personalities or whatever the hell made them more interesting than half of everyone in the Mojave? To think that a woman with antlers on her head would have anything to say about how strange some people looked...
"It's nothing. Forget about it. What was it that you wanted to know again?" In an obvious attempt to steer the conversation somewhere else.
You know what? Fuck it. I've got bigger things to worry about right now and with some luck I can finally lay a few of them to rest now that nobody is trying to kill me any more.
"What exactly is this place, this continent, rather. Where I come from it's called Europe… maybe Asia if the commies are as active as one of the frie… people I know, say they are." I said, before noticing the odd look she was giving me.
As much as I like No-bark Noonan, there was no way I wanted to be associated with him in public. Even when I was probably a few thousand miles away from him, I was taking no chances of someone thinking I was another old guy that talked to inanimate objects. Only crazy people do that, and I'm not crazy. All the appliances I talk to say something back.
"Considering how you don't sound like you have ever heard the word before, I'm guessing that's not what you call it here. Guess we have different names for the same place on the other end of the world then." I explained, quickly trying to gloss over anything associating me with No-bark.
"Ah, you must be from Mistral. That would explain a lot." She said.
I don't know where Mistral is, but seeing how being from there would explain things a whole lot better than going telling Julia the truth about how I went on a chem fueled blackout rampage for a few days I was going to try my damndest to convince her I came from there. Even if she didn't think I was a random chem addict after telling her the truth, between explaining how I spent two months either in the craziest place in the world or losing my fucking mind after touching a satellite, I figured it was just easier to bullshit my way from here on out.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Think Tank messed with my mind by doing more than just removing my brain now that I think about it. Making me think up different names of a few continents made a whole lot more sense than me ending up on one that never existed before the war. It definitely seemed like something they would do for the sake of SCIENCE! or some other bullshit like that. I can't remember there ever being a place called Mistral from before The Great War, but I can't remember there not being one either. The only thing I was sure of was that I probably wasn't from there.
Probably.
"Yeah, I'm from Mistral, a little place called the Mojave to be specific. Big desert, whole lot of nothing, just about everything there trying to kill you, and everyone in charge has their head up their ass. There is no place like home… thank god for that." I lied, trying to sell the Mojave as a part of this 'Mistral' place as best I could.
"I heard that things in Mistral were bad, but I didn't think they were that bad. Anima really has it rough." Julia said, her genuine sympathy sounding a little demeaning but not bad enough that I couldn't stomach it.
"You said you were from a desert in the eastern region of Mistral, right?" Julia asked, sounding more curious than disgusted for the first time since we've spoken.
"Yeah, the Mojave to be specific. You happen to know where the hell that is so I can start making my way home after I beat a few skulls in for your boss?" I asked.
"No, not exactly. I only know a little bit about Anima, but if you're really from the eastern side of the continent then I can only imagine how you arrived here with everything that Mistral has been doing lately." She said.
And there she goes again. Anima or Mistral, pick one dammit! Wait, maybe the people there have a better naming sense then the people of Vacuo, Vacuo. Anima sounds like it's the name of the continent and Mistral definitely sounds like it's another kingdom… Anima sort of sounds like America too. Did Europe just come up with different names for everything like they did with all their guns and ammo? Maybe they swapped East and West around too. It would at least be consistent with everything else I've seen. Might need to remember that for later if I ever get my hands on a decent map.
"Heh, if you think that's bad then you don't have a damn clue. I just told you about the stuff normal people have to deal with. The shit I've seen from that place would be enough to break anyone." I said.
"Really? Is it bad enough to make you start talking to toasters?"
"Very funny, jackass. The shithead will talk when he feels like bastard usually never shuts up when he finds something murder, so consider yourself lucky for enjoying a rare moment of silence." I snapped back, tapping on Toasty a bit too to see if he would finally stop feeling shy.
Wait… he was running low on battery earlier. He didn't really run out of battery power, did he?
"What I'm really talking about is stuff like suddenly waking up with a bomb collar strapped around your neck miles away from home or waking up one day to find somebody cutting you up piece by piece and feeling every moment of it until they notice you're awake." I said as I continued following behind her.
Julia stopped and I just about took her down with me when I knocked into her. Luckily I landed face first in the nice, soft sewer water so I didn't have to worry about the wounds on my back getting more infected than they already were. I wanted to say something to her as I picked myself and Frost out of the slop, but after seeing a horrified look on Julia's face that told me she might have had some first experience with what I was telling her about, I decided to hear her out first before giving her a piece of my mind.
"Is that why your eye is glowing?" She asked me.
"Eye is glowing- what the hell are you talking out?" I asked her.
"Nothing." She said, spitting her answer out far too quickly for my liking.
I don't remember my eyes ever glowing. Sure, they had a bit of a red tint to them after I got my vision fixed up by the Followers of the Apocalypse, but barely anyone noticed the difference… aside from the obvious one. If my eyes did glow, I'd crank that shit up all the way right now so I could actually see more than a couple of feet in front of me. Maybe the Think Tank did more than just replace my brain, heart, and spine after all. I never did find a mirror to see how badly they fucked up my body back then and it wouldn't surprise me if they 'improved' my perception implants for the sake of SCIENCE! That would explain why Julia and a few of those Mantle fucks kept on giving me strange looks wherever they saw me know that I think about it...
"You know what? Forget about it. I can see what you're talking about once I finally get my hands on my mirror. If those fuckwits replaced my eyes after removing my heart, spine, and… other bits, then I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest." I grumbled.
"Removed your what?" She practically shouted at me.
Oh yeah, that's right. People don't normally survive stuff like that. I almost forgot about that after killing at least a dozen other people like me every day for a few weeks.
"It's a long story. You know, the kind you tend to not want to share with people you hardly know so don't be expecting much of an explanation anytime soon." I said, hoping she would drop the matter entirely.
Whether or not she intended to didn't matter, because as soon as I finished brushing off her question the sewer tunnel suddenly came to a dead end. At least, that's the way that it looked with all the rotted boards barely covering the gaping hole in the wall in front of us. If I was the one taking the lead, I would have tried turning back around since I didn't want to go through the trouble of removing a few scrap pieces of wood to hit another dead end. Without knowing if there was anything beyond those boards, there was no way in hell I was going to waste time moving them for no reason. Julia apparently knew something I didn't however, because instead of turning back she reached around the side of the hole and picked up a crowbar before getting to work on opening up a path for us.
I don't know why she didn't just use that sword on her hip to pry them open, but I guess if she wanted to spare herself some maintenance by using a spare tool that was lying around then that would work too. It wasn't what I would have done, but then again I wasn't in much of a position to do anything either.
I didn't say anything in the hopes that I stay in that same position. Carrying Frost with two hands was bad enough. Carrying her with one hand and having to tear down a shoddy barricade with the other would have been hell unless I got some more Super Hydra in me. The only reason I didn't already go for another dose of the good stuff was that I didn't have many on me. The people Julia was taking me to would have a doctor's bag and some tools I could borrow to patch myself up, so there was no point of using a dose of something now when I could save it for later. My current stock of chems and medicine were limited and as high as that limit was, I didn't want to use anything I couldn't replace.
Hopefully they had an auto-doc, else I'll be needing to use a bone saw on myself and I really don't want to have to do that again after Doc back in The Sink made the whole process of fixing up broken limbs so painless. Trusting some other random wacko that might have been as competent as Fantastic back at Helios One was a no go. After all that shit I went through with the Think Tank I don't think I'll be letting anyone else operating on me. I'm missing enough squishy bits as is, thank you very much. I'd rather not lose the ones I still have left.
"Are you going to keep standing there or do I have to call someone down here to carry you the rest of the way?" Julia shouted at me, pulling my train of thought back on track.
"I'm coming, I'm coming. Don't get your fucking panties in a bunch." I yelled back at her as I limped back behind her.
I'm fairly sure I heard her calling me something or under her breath as we kept on moving forwards, but I didn't bother figuring out what it was now that I wasn't knee deep in sewage. Let me put a little something I found out just now: wading around in fresh sewage is a whole hell of a lot worse than messing around with the fossilized stuff down underneath New Vegas. Walking down there was not much than treading through Zion River, complete with drinkable water and plenty of snacks if you didn't mind raw rat meat. I don't know exactly what I had been wading in earlier but whatever it was, I'd definitely be needing some new boots because I don't think that smell is ever going to come out. I know the stains won't.
It didn't take long for the sewage that I still had clinging on to me to be the only thing I could smell as we continued down the pathway Julia opened up. While that hole definitely looked like it formed naturally over years of being ignored from the outside, after walking down a ways I could clearly make out some signs that the tunnel we were in now was man made, and recent at that. Instead of the smooth, curved walls that could typically be found in the caves I had grown used to exploring in the Mojave, the ones I was limping beside were all rough to the touch. Couldn't quite say what kind of tool had been used to make this little tunnel Julia was leading me down, but whatever and whoever made it definitely made sure that it would be wide enough for people to move in and out at the same time. Being able to stand up and carry Frost like luggage instead of hauling her over my back was a welcome change of pace.
Still, I wasn't just idly following my supposed help to who knows where without making plans in case things went south. The lack of any fresh debris in the tunnel meant that it had been made quite a long time ago in case the rotten boards they used to seal this place up weren't just for show. This hideout I was being led to obviously had been in use for quite some time. That meant either Mantle never bothered checking the city sewers for Julia's people, which definitely could be the case considering how shit they were at everything, or Mantle has a few spies working against them.
If it's the former then no there's no surprises there, if it's the latter then that opens up a whole can of Radroaches that I don't want to deal with right now. There can only be so many reasons why a faction that is well off enough to have spies able to sabotage their enemies is begging random strangers for help and none of them ever end well for most people involved.
I'm looking at you NCR, Legion, Brotherhood… hell, just about everyone in the Mojave had that going on now that I think about it. Expect you, Boomers. You guys were nice. I'm still sorry about the maize if that matters anymore.
One problem at a time Six, one problem at a time. The Mojave, Boomers, and all of that can wait until you figure out what the hell is going on around here, if it's even possible to go back to that shithole in the first place. ED-E might miss me and I… I already miss that kid something fierce, but he's already been without me for a couple months and probably hasn't even noticed I'm gone with Yes Man and all the casinos on The Strip to keep him busy. Yeah, The Mojave can wait, dealing with Mantle comes first. Speaking of which…
******************************************************
* The Morning After -/- Completed -/-
* _X_ Find out where and what Mantle is.
* _Failed_ Kill anything that has to do with or is allied with Mantle.
* _X_ Find allies to help you destroy Mantle. (Optional)
******************************************************
* With Friends Like These…
* _ Talk to Julia
* _ Talk to Alex
* _ Decide how to deal with the new faction
******************************************************
Can't let the old quest log stay out of date for too long, now can I? I think it's safe to say I can consider my first quest completed since I did do everything I wanted to… within reason.
Caesar's Legion wasn't built in a day, and it sure as hell took a lot longer than that for me to cripple it. I was probably looking at something similar here too, maybe worse if Mantle had someone else to lead them after I kill whoever is in charge of them.
As for things that I still have to do, the update my Pipboy that will let me start fucking with Mantle's systems whenever I feel like it can wait. Getting WiFi capabilities will be important, but not nearly as important as figuring out what to do with this new faction I'll be getting introduced to. First impressions counted, and if they want to last long enough for Mantle to be the ones to stomp them out then they had better make a damn good one. I can only hope Julia was one of a kind, or else they are making a huge fucking mistake trying to recruit me.
With my Pipboy tracking the newest quest added to it, I set my focus back onto Julia while I still could. While I still don't know much about her, apparently this 'Alex' character thinks she's about as useful as a small army. I don't know if that's saying more about her talent or her faction's incompetence, but either way both him and her must be bigshots of some kind to be able to make that kind of decision. I don't know who is in charge of things or even if they'll know what these two are planning, but since I already have a long track record of 'replacing' people in charge I doubt I'll have much of a chance to meet them on friendly terms.
Just because I might be getting asked to 'replace' Julia's boss didn't mean that I shouldn't get to know her though. Life had a funny way of sticking me with people like her and I'd hate to end up with another Sierra Madre on my hands while she is still unsure of whether she should kiss me or kill me. Getting to know her might help me out in the future, whether it's by making another companion or weaseling a few secrets from her instead.
"So, about these people you want me to meet… who are they exactly?" I asked her.
For a moment, she turned around and looked at me like I just grew a second head. It was only after I locked eyes with her that she turned away and kept on moving forwards, probably to hide that shudder that ran down her spine. Not sure why she did that, but I damn well knew that I had to find a mirror before the day was over in case something my eye really was that freaky looking.
"You're new to Vacuo, aren't you?" She asked with that same tone that people use when answering what they believe is a stupid question while trying to be nice about it.
Wow, was it that obvious? Didn't I just ask her for the name of this fucking continent a few minutes ago? Hell, didn't she sidestep my question and ask me where I was from instead? Damn, I need to improve my interrogation techniques. I can't beat the shit out of everyone I meet… not that I can't try.
Odds are that if I were either a local or at the very least didn't wake up in a dumpster on a completely different continent I'd have been treated like a complete idiot. Thankfully she believed I was a foreigner from Mistral, wherever and whatever it was, and didn't treat me like a complete idiot because of it. Although 'foreigner' was just another word for idiot as far as I was concerned, it wasn't nearly as bad as being treated like I was brain dead.
"Yep. One moment I remember I was about to get high and drunk because life sucks and next thing I know I'm in the middle of some invasive surgery staring back at my own heart and spine. Things get a little crazy after that and I don't really know what the hell did and didn't happen, all I know for certain was that when I woke up face down in a dumpster earlier I felt like absolute shit and was more pissed than a Deathclaw Matron watching her youngster's heads explode in front of her." I told her, more or less telling her the truth about my whole trip to the Big Empty.
I wasn't lying, and apparently she didn't think I was either. While I definitely didn't say everything in the order it happened and left out the details about the flying brains in jars and all the other shit that would have made her thought I lost my fucking mind, I told her as much of the truth as she needed to know about me. It was true that there were some things that I wasn't sure about being hallucinations, 'complications' from my brain not being inside of me, or general mind-fuckery of some kind, but I still knew enough to know that I was probably not from some place called Mistral, Anima, or wherever I told her I'm from.
But didn't Julia just say that she heard news from Mistral though? I sure as hell know any of the big players in and around the Mojave have heard words from across the sea so surely America, isn't Anima, Mistral… whatever that place is. Then again from what little I can remember about the Capital Wasteland, they don't know about us in the Mojave… or anything west of The Pitt for that matter. Maybe things are just worse in the west than they are in the rest of the world, that would certainly explain things.
I'll need to ask about how common psykers are supposed to be in Mistral because that would definitely settle it. Psykers are rare wherever you go, except in Europe apparently. If they are common in this Anima and Mistral then that would prove I'm not from there. Of course, I'd have to do that in such a way that I won't out myself as a liar now...
Fuck, I should have thought this through more before saying anything.
"Mantle has been testing out their new augments on Faunus from what I've heard. Maybe you're one of the lucky ones that survived?" She said, sounding disgustingly optimistic for a change.
"Yeah, lucky. That's what you'd call having your spine, eyes, heart, and who knows what else ripped out in front of your face before someone notices you felt them rip each and every one of them out of your body." I grumbled back to her.
Not wanting to end the conversation there, I kept on talking before either of us weren't in the mood to talk anymore. "Well, I think that's enough about me. How about you Julia? It'd be a shame to not know anything about the person who... sorta helped save my ass." I said.
"Maybe later. Right now, I don't even know what Alex will want to do with you." She told me.
Nice try, but I'm at least getting something out of you before we part ways.
"Mind telling me a bit about this Alex guy then? The only thing I know about him is that he wouldn't think twice about getting a few people like yourself killed just to rescue some random guy who's good at killing things until they piss him off. I really hope there's more to the guy than just that." I said to her jokingly.
Julia almost immediately tensed up the moment I mentioned the conversation that I hijacked earlier. To get that kind of reaction, he obviously had to be pretty important to her. Whether that was because of personal or professional reasons was beyond me, but she clearly held some respect towards him if she was getting embarrassed over something he said. I could leverage that for more information, but since Julia sounds like she is warming up to me a bit then I better not push her too hard.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'm sure I just joined your call at a bad time." I said.
"No, it's fine. Alex has been… 'stressed' recently thanks to a certain someone causing Mantle to crack down on us and forcing us to retaliate against them." She said as she shot a glare towards me.
Well, I might not be all here in the head right now, but I think I probably know who that someone is…
"Ah, so that's why you wanted to shoot Frost so badly." I said.
I don't know why, but she scoffed when I stated the obvious to her. I know that might have seemed like a stupid question to ask for her position, but you'd think she would cut some slack for someone that just came from another country and/or continent, right? It's not like I'm the one that's been fucking with their shit this whole time…
I was about to ask Julia why she was treating me like an idiot for giving her the right answer, but just before I could speak we came to a stop in front of a sturdy looking iron door. It was nothing compared to the doors I've seen Vault Tec install for their royally fucked up experiments, but I doubted that even I could knock the thing down in my current state. I could definitely manage it with a bit of psycho helping me out though. The door looked sturdy enough to protect a secret hideout, but as far as camouflage was concerned it would have blended in better if it was covered in neon rainbow paint.
Yep, this place screams 'secret hideout' just by looking at it. There's definitely some sort of shenanigans going on here if something this obvious was able to be set up in a city big enough to make New Vegas look small. Really raises the question of why the hell these people are so desperate for help if they can hide something like this in plain-ish sight. Whatever the answer is, it can't possibly be good.
"We're here. Hand me your weapons before we get any further." She told me.
"I would if I had any on me. Believe me, I really wish I had something to give you right now." I told her.
All of a sudden, I found myself feeling like I was back on The Strip getting ready for a night of losing all the caps I ever found in one of the casinos, because Julia was looking me over with the same eyes as every bouncer I had ever met. Her gaze scanned every nook and cranny of my armor, although she did make sure to avoid looking me in the eyes thanks to whatever the Think Tank probably did them. I didn't feel too worried because I thought I had that bowie knife tucked in my long coat pretty sneakily, but apparently I still had a few things to learn about sneaking things around people.
I don't know how she did it, but she sniffed out that knife without it so much as leaving a crease in my overcoat to show that it was even there. Maybe her antlers weren't the only animal part about her, because she sniffed out that six inch steel blade way too fast and… oh, who am I kidding. I could hardly sneak a pair of brass knuckles into a casino. There was no way in hell I was getting a knife past someone.
"Oh, right. Sorry about that. Kinda got used to the weight after so long that I hardly noticed it was even there." I said as I passed her the knife, handle first so as to keep her from getting the wrong idea.
She snatched it from me pretty quickly, probably thinking that I wouldn't try anything without having a real weapon on me, and turned towards the door. Apparently she thought I wasn't the type of person who would pull a few nails and shards of glass out of their back just to stab someone with 'em. If that's so, then she is really underestimating me. Just because I didn't have any real weapons on or in me didn't mean that I didn't have any stored away in my Pipboy either. If she isn't going to ask for those then there is no way I'm handing them over. I don't think I'll need 'em, but then again, I didn't expect to piss off another army immediately after dealing with the Think Tank and look where that got me.
I set Frost down on the ground and kept my hand hovering over my Pipboy in case I needed to pull a weapon as Julia approached the iron door. Odds were that I wasn't going to be surrounded by an army decked out in full power armor rushing out that door, but even so I still felt my stomach lurch when she got ready to announce our arrival by banging on the door. Sure, call me paranoid, but gut feelings like those saved my ass more times than Ganon's so called 'common sense' ever did.
*Knock knock-ity knock, knock knock*
"Oh, a secret knock. How cute." I grumbled, making sure I was loud enough for her to hear me.
Judging by the way she flipped me off, I'd say I was plenty loud.
Yeah, I think I see why whoever this girl is working for needs my help. If 'shave and a haircut, two bits' is how they identify each other around here then it's nothing short of amazing that they haven't been wiped out yet. That shit is about on par with Mantle's network security, and I cracked that wide open in under a minute.
Before I could voice any other opinions on yet another bit of shitty security, a small little window opened up on the iron door at eye level. I immediately tried to size up who the doorman was, but the moment I locked eyes with him I found myself wondering if I had somehow inhaled some Jet while following behind Julia. Blaming some chems would have been the easy explanation for what I was seeing, but then again I was probably half-way across the world right now so who knows at this point?
What did I see that made me think I was losing my shit for a moment? It was because the doorman had fucking snake eyes. I'm not fucking around here, the doorman had actual goddamn snake eyes instead of normal ones. These weren't the New Vegas Snake Eyes you found on dice, but actual fucking snake eyes like you would find on a rattlesnake or something. For a moment, I thought I was staring back at a man-sized Nightstalker again and almost materialized Maria so I could blind it before everything went to hell. Thankfully, the doorman said something before I could pull out a gun and somebody got hurt.
"Julia, you're back. And you brought… guests?" He said, the doorman sounding more tired and curious than intimidating.
"Yes Giles. One guest, one monster." She said.
From the way she was looking back at me, I have a gut feeling that I wasn't the guest she was talking about.
"I see. So this is the Grimm Wanderer that has been causing so much chaos on the surface? I thought he would have been bigger." Giles said.
Okay, just because I ain't the titan that Legate Lanius supposedly is doesn't mean that I can't kick your ass buddy! Big things come in small packages, Snake Eyes, and all it takes is a thumb sized serving of lead to shut those eyes of yours permanently.
"Yeah, and I didn't expect some chick with antlers to take me on a tour through the sewers just to listen to play a game of twenty questions with you, Snake Eyes." I spat back at him.
For a moment, the two of us locked eyes and tried to make the other one back off. I nearly looked away just thinking about what kind of mutant could possibly have reptilian eyes like that, but after becoming friends with a omnicidal toaster and a few other appliances I had experience remaining motionless in the face of complete insanity. This time was just one more among many others from the past few months.
"Ah, so he's an asshole." Giles said, his eyes looking like that was supposed to mean something.
"And don't you fucking forget it!" I shouted.
Julia flipped me the One Finger Salute once again without even looking back at me.
"Can we trust him?" He whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear him.
Are you fucking kidding me? You really just asked that after I've been led straight to your front door knowing that I am strong enough to pry it off its hinges the moment I feel like it? What the hell is this, some sort of shitty drama holotape? Come on!
"No, I don't, but Alex trusts him and I trust Alex." She said.
Whelp… I suddenly regret making fun of that guy earlier. If this Alex guy's name carries enough weight to get someone like me a free pass then I might have shot myself in the foot back then. I wonder if he's the guy in… no, oh god no, I don't even want to think about that.
"That doesn't make me feel any better about letting him in here." Giles told her.
"He's one of us, Giles, and I think Mantle… 'changed' him." She whispered back to him, whatever that meant.
Apparently I needed to figure out whatever the hell they were talking about fast, because the intense look in the snake eyes that had been staring me down softened as Giles thought things over for a bit. Now, while I don't know exactly how Mantle 'changed' people, apparently whatever the Think Tank did to my eyes wasn't too far off from what Mantle does to be believable. And another thing; why the hell is Julia saying she is like Snake Eyes? Last I checked, wearing antlers didn't make you a fucking mutant!
Ah well, I suppose I can figure all of that out later. If everyone here is like these two, then I feel a bit better about my odds of bullshitting my way into this faction and all the way home.
"Oh, so that's why his eye looks so creepy." He said.
Yeah and you're one to talk, Snake Eyes!
"Hey, are we just going to keep on whispering sweet nothings to each other or can I go inside and get a fucking bath and drink already? I don't know about you guys, but I feel like absolute shit, am covered in shit, and would like to get some liquid painkiller in me before I start repairing my armor." I hollered at them.
The two of them froze up for a moment as if they somehow forgot I was there a moment, before Giles the doorman took the lead.
"Sure I'll let you inside in a moment, but first you'll need to talk to the boss before you can do anything else. He has been waiting to see you for days now, and he does not like to wait for anything." He told me.
Oh great, another head honcho with his head so far up his ass that he can't be bothered to do anything himself. How typical.
"Sure, fine, whatever. Any chance I can hand Frost to you for safekeeping and get that drink to go?" I asked him.
"I can handle Frost, I'll leave the rest up to Julia." He said as he pulled open the door.
I turned my attention to Julia in the brief hopes that I might be able to convince her against the impossible, but I could just tell from the way she was glaring at me that it was never going to happen. That didn't mean I wasn't going to try just to piss her off though. I needed something to take the edge of my aching leg and if that distraction wasn't going to be some half-decent booze, then petty revenge would have to do.
"So, about that drink…"
The odd pair moved quietly across the worn wooden floor of the Spirit of Vacuo's hideout. Julia's hostile aura from earlier slowly faded away with every step she took through the familiar halls surrounding her, although she never lowered her guard with Courier Six following close behind her. The sniper rifle on her back had been cast aside at the door, and she let her hand rest on the hilt of her sword as they moved forward. Neither the sight of familiar faces nor the new supplies that they had gathered since her departure days earlier could distract her from the menace behind her as she escorted her prospective new recruit to the leader of her organization.
As for the menace in question, he found himself lost in thought as he surveyed the rooms that they passed by. While the sight of barren hallways and general disarray of the rooms he passed was nothing new to a man who had explored everything from the deepest of caves to the most fantastical wonders of the Old World, what he saw now was more than enough to amaze him.
At one time he thought that the soft, velvety show floors of the casinos on The Strip were the pinnacle of luxury. From the worn yet respectable and familiar atmosphere of The Tops, the den of debauchery that was The Gomorrah, the mind numbingly expensive and gaudy decor of the Ultra-Luxe, and perfectly preserved lounges of the Lucky 38, Six was no stranger to the best that the Mojave had to offer.
Yet now, he found himself staring at something that he never believed he would ever see. That something was the clean white carpet he saw glimpses of in a scarce few rooms. While that might not have been what most people would have considered to be noteworthy in Remnant, Six was not from Remnant. He was from a world that had grown stagnant after the Great War, where the few relics that survived the cleansing atomic fires and the passage of time were mere shadows of their former selves. To a wastelander like him, the only things that could be considered 'new' were ancient caches of technology that had been preserved since the Great War without succumbing to rust. There were a rare few lucky rediscoveries of chems and medicines that had occurred naturally, but those were solely from the result of humanity's innate ingenuity and willingness to try eating or smoking anything.
While a few lucky individuals had managed to scrounge up enough scrap and old technology to reproduce some simple firearms and other necessities of the apocalypse on a wide scale, not everything could be revived from the ashes of nuclear armageddon. Even chems, although not a necessity to most, had been reproduced as opposed to the luxuries that could only be found in the ruins of the Old World.
Having prospected dozens of buildings across the Mojave and Zion, Six knew what to expect and what not to expect when looking for items that could earn him a quick profit for the trouble of fighting off whatever abominations laid claim over them. Energy weapons that wouldn't consistently detonate in their users hands, large and complex firearms, silver and gold, and the occasional knickknack that the odd yet incredibly wealthy collector sought were all things that he had seen time and time again on his travels.
Clean, white, and above all else, brand new carpet was not one of those things. Yet compared to the occasional pair of extra ears, arms, and even the wagging tail he saw from the people he passed by, nothing stood out more to him than the best damn carpet he ever saw. While some might call him crazy for focusing on such a small, insignificant detail, Six had always found that those were always the details that mattered the most. A man could make a grand show of their magnificence from on top of their golden throne, yet all it took was one look at the rotted wood beneath the throne's thick layers of paint to tell exactly how much its owner valued presentation over practicality.
Whether it was a tyrant surrounded by a mountain of skulls with a Auto-Doc tucked behind the flaps of his personal tent, the whispers of despair within the barracks of the mightiest army of the West, or a self proclaimed autocrat's inability to act without a fool to carry out his will, Six was very familiar with how important the small details were when dealing with people. Someone who could only focus on the bigger picture, yet fail to plan for anything beyond that, was easy to deal with. Someone who could find the time and resources to provide something unheard of throughout the Mojave to their subordinates was someone quite capable and willing to make things happen.
With this thought in mind, as well as the prospect of acquiring a few weapons with similar attention to detail, Six re-evaluated his earlier appraisal of Julia and her people. While he no longer had any intention of needlessly antagonizing someone rich enough to maintain cleaner carpets than those found in the Lucky 38, he was not about to bow down and do whatever was asked of him. Apparently Julia's boss was well off enough to have a well stocked base with luxuries that everyone could enjoy, yet desperate enough to recruit anyone that was good at killing to their cause. Declining what was looking to be his most lucrative job ever wasn't going to happen, but there was no way Six was going to agree to anything before finding out exactly why exactly things had reached the point where someone like him was being recruited.
Then there were the people he passed by that also leaving him with even more questions. Despite the carpet catching his attention earlier, the people he passed by did not go entirely unnoticed. One of them was the doorman he handed Frost to who was mostly human, much to his surprise. Only his eyes revealed that he wasn't entirely human, and after following behind Julia for a minute he saw that Giles' odd trait was actually one of the less noticeable ones.
Every now and then, someone would peer through a doorway in order to satisfy their curiosity as to what the most wanted man in Vacuo looked like in person. The man in question found himself returning the same curious glances that covered him, studying the occasional patch of fur on a few people's limbs, the occasional pair of extra ears belonging from one animal or another, some others with tails, and even a guy with a pair of wings attached to his back.
It seemed to him that everyone in the hideout possessed some sort of extra appendage or body part belonging to a random animal, confirming his previous thoughts as to the kind of people he was joining and exposing a very worrying trend as well. While Julia's antlers could easily be written off as an intriguing fashion statement by some, Giles' eyes and the inhuman limbs he saw couldn't. They were clearly real, as he 'accidentally' discovered after stepping on someone's tail and hearing their accompanying shout of pain.
A large number of the people gathered around Six were mutants, that much was obvious. Who they were fighting against and why they had all come together was also clear thanks to a common enemy that he also shared with them. Maybe it was just because Vacuo was meant to be some sort of settlement for mutants, much like the Bright Brotherhood that he found at the REPCONN Test Site, although he had his doubts about that. Even if that was the reason for why everyone around him was a mutant of some sort, that didn't explain why there were so many of them gathered in a place with so little fallout.
After travelling to Zion, a place mostly untouched by the horrors of the surrounding wasteland, Six knew what to expect from a place that looked as unscathed from war as Vacuo: clean water, little radiation, plenty of people unaffected by radiation or mutations, and animals that had only a few minor mutations compared to those found in the Mojave. So far he had seen plenty of evidence of each, with the noticeable exception being the lack of pure humans. The only humans he had seen were those soldiers from Mantle that had been hounding him ever since he woke up, and the ones he saw when he first crawled out of that dumpster.
He had seen plenty of mutants and regular humans inside of Vacuo, but there was a clear division between where each of them lived. He still remembered how the drastic change in the people he saw after ramming through that fence and meeting his first Mantlesian soldier, from the streets filled with humans going about their day to the mutants surrounding him in a place that made Freeside look cozy. Something was clearly happening, and he had a feeling that Mantle was more than likely involved somehow.
To him, it looked like someone was trying to keep them separated on purpose. Why anyone would do that and why the division seemed to be mutually enforced was beyond Six, although he had a feeling that people like Frost more than likely had something to do with it. Regardless, Six continued following behind Julia so as to avoid anyone wondering what he looked like underneath his tattered armor. If the sneaking suspicion he had about the city's current state was right then he did not want anyone to discover the truth.
Six set aside that thought and continued to follow Julia as she led him through the winding halls for what seemed like an eternity before coming to their final destination. Six found himself being led into a neat looking office that had a different air about it compared to the rest of the hideout. While the other rooms and halls looked very lived in with no expense spared in maintaining them, something that could hardly be said about the clothes and equipment of the people, the room he was currently in looked far more ornamental in nature. From the paintings and furniture decorating it to the suit wearing man with bunny ears sitting in the center of it all, the whole place looked less like a room and more like an exhibit.
To some it would have looked magnificent and stood in awe at the man sitting behind the oak desk as Julia walked to his side. To Six it looked like he was standing in the middle of a throne room and he looked no more impressed now than he did earlier. Rather than a look of awe or surprise, he looked almost resigned.
That was because with just a single look at the man in front of him, everything he had seen earlier finally made sense. Healthy, athletic, clean shaven, and sporting a perfectly chiseled face that wouldn't have looked out of place on a sculpture from a few of the books he read, and giving out an impression of absolute authority. Six found himself holding back a snide laugh at seeing how the leader he was brought before was everything he wasn't. It was exactly the kind of person he hated the most, but one that he couldn't afford to give a piece of his mind either.
Six already regret meeting the man before him before either of them had a chance to speak.
"Welcome, Grimm Wanderer, I have been expecting you. Let me be the first to welcome you to the Spirit of Vacuo. I'm glad you were willing to listen to reason long enough to come here."
"Yeah… I really wish I could say the same to you, Mr…?"
"Right, introductions, of course. I'm getting ahead of myself. I thought you would have remembered me from earlier."
"Really? I can't say that I remember meeting you before. Do… do I owe you money?"
"...excuse me?"
"Do you owe me money?"
"Julia, why does this stup...endous person you've brought me here have a toaster taped to him?"
"He says it's-."
"Oh shit. You're Alex…"
"Yes, I am, and I must say that I have been waiting to meet you for quite some time now."
"Dammit. I should have listened to you when I had the chance, Toasty."
"Did… did you just talk to the toaster?"
"He says it's his 'friend', Alex."
"You are friends with a toaster, Grimm Wanderer?"
"Yeah, I am. There anything wrong with that?"
"You can't be serious."
"Alex, I think you should know that he is… not from around here."
"What would that possibly have to do with anything right now?"
"Six is apparently from Mistral, as far as he can remember. From what he told me on the way here, he was kidnapped by Mantle and more than likely was a test subject in The Camp before he broke out three days ago and started killing every soldier from Mantle he could find until he was recaptured again."
"Yeah, that sounds about right. I uhh… I really don't have a damn clue how the hell I ended up here in all honesty. One moment I was trying to get fucked up by taking every chem I had on me, next thing I know I'm face down in a dumpster trying to figure out who the hell I am and how the hell I ended up here. There's a few other things as well, but I'll do you a favor and spare you the details."
"Oh, so Mantle made themselves another monster? That would certainly explain his eye."
"Another monster? You mean there's more than one Grimm Wanderer like me out there?"
"If the rumors are to be believed, yes. It depends on whether or not you trust what little news escapes Solitas' shores these days."
"Well shit, sounds like I might need to be making some friends in Solitas then, wherever the hell that is. I don't know who this other person is, but if they can kick ass like me then I'm sure we'll be able to do quite a bit of damage to these Mantle fucks."
"Right, because all Remnant needs is two Grimm Wanderers working together and causing as much chaos as possible."
"One man's chaos is another man's freedom, Alex. Also, cut it out with that Grimm Wanderer shit. Unless you want me calling you 'Bunny Boy' from here on out then you'd best be calling me by name."
"Bunny Boy? I don't think I've heard that one before, Grimm Wanderer. So, if you would be so kind, what would you like me to call you?
"The guy that will kill every last person in this building if you try pissing me off just to see what will happen."
"Alex, I told you that we should have just let Mantle handle him."
"Julia, silence."
"Yes sir."
"Grimm Wanderer, don't think you can do whatever it is that you feel like now that you are among allies at the moment. All it would take is one shout for those allies to turn into enemies. You wouldn't want that to happen, now would you?"
"Is that supposed to be a threat? Bunny Boy, all I need is a half decent pair of brass knuckles to fight my way out of here. You're going to have to try harder than that to make me suck you off on request like Antlers over there."
"Why you-"
"Hah, do you really think you can manage to kill everyone here when you had to limp all the way here? Look at you, you can't even stand up straight. You wouldn't last longer than a minute if I wanted you dead."
"Do you think I can't kill you before then?"
"You wouldn't dare to try that, Grimm Wanderer."
"Wanna bet on that?"
"..."
"Go ahead, MAKE MY FUCKING DAY."
"A-Alex…"
"...it would *ahem* seem that w-we, uhh… might want to retry our introductions, it seems."
"Sure, call it whatever you feel like."
"S-so Grimm Wan-"
"Don't. Call me. THAT. The name's Six. Courier Six."
"Courier Six… that is your name."
"No, of course it fucking isn't! Unfortunately, the only goddamn thing I can remember about myself other than the last job I took is that I'm apparently a natural when it comes to making the most out of whatever I have on me, shooting things, and beating people to death with my bare hands."
"You're a mailm-"
"UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO SHOVE MY FIST SO FAR UP YOUR ASS THAT I'LL TURN YOU INTO MY PERSONAL SOCK PUPPET, YOU HAD BETTER NOT FINISH THAT FUCKING SENTENCE!"
"Okay… duly noted. So you were a courier before Mantle got a hold of you? That would certainly explain your… expertise."
"Yes it… wait, really?"
"Yes, it's a dangerous world out there. Any m- COURIER, any courier that finds themselves outside the walls of a city as well defended as Vacuo would need skills like yours to have any hopes of survival. Grimm, bandits, humans, those are only just a few of the threats couriers have to deal with on a daily basis. It would be nice to have someone as honorable as a courier joining the Spirit of Vacuo."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Your profession is quite respectable, dangerous, and necessary for people like me."
"Huh, I guess you're right. Can't remember my own fucking name, but I'm so dedicated to my job that I can't forget it even after being shot… full of whatever stuff made me forget who I am from those Mantle fucks."
"It sounds like you have forgotten more than just that, but I would be more than willing to help you however I can if you were to join me."
"Well, now you have me a little interested in this little faction you're running here. I wasn't entirely sold when Julia damn near left me to die when fighting Frost, but I suppose I could be convinced to join."
"Alex, I can explain-"
"Don't even bother, Julia. I let you make that judgement on your own, so I will happily pay for your mistake."
"..."
"Uh-huh, right. I hope you are willing to put your money where your mouth is, because my help don't come cheap."
"You seem to be mistaken. I'm not offering you a job."
"And you seem to be more mistaken, Bunny Boy. I don't do charity work and I could fuck off to wherever the hell I wanted to if I felt like it. Unless you can make it worth my while, then we're finished here."
"I don't-"
"If you're still thinking I'm going to be working for free like everyone else here, then I am walking out of right now."
"Fine. I can only imagine what a man of your expertise is usually paid, but I'm sure we can come to an agreement."
"Alright, sounds fair. First things first though, if I'm going to do a job for you people I'll need some supplies before I even think about doing anything. As you already noticed, I'm nursing a bum leg and my armor is all torn up to hell. I'll be needing to raid whatever medical supplies you have on hand to patch myself up and access to some of your guns too, no questions asked. Consider that half of your payment, up front."
"That… will do. I'll have Julia lead you to one of our doctors-"
"No doctors. Just let me take what I need to treat my leg and back on my own. I've… had enough doctors messing around with my body for one lifetime."
"Ah, I understand. My apologies. Now as for arming yourself, I'm afraid we are running low on both firearms and ammunition. I don't have any working weapons that I can spare for you, but if you are able to repair any of the ones the ones laying around in storage, you are free to use them."
"Alright, and what about the sniper that Julia here brought in with her? She was absolute brahmin shit with it, so I doubt that it's hers."
"Take it. Consider it a sign of good faith."
"Okay then."
"Was there anything else that you needed?"
"Yes, two things actually."
"What are they?"
"First, I'll need maps of wherever the hell I am right now. City, kingdom, country, continent, any of them you can let me see. My Pipboy can copy them, all I need you to do is let me see them."
"Your Pipboy?"
"Yeah, Pipboy. You say that like you've never heard of 'em. Do you people not have 'em around here?"
"No, I cannot say that we have."
"Oh, well shit. Uhh, anyways, you see this computer thingy on my wrist? That's a Pipboy. It works sort of like a portable computer and backpack, but the backpack part isn't working quite right and I'm too afraid to try and fix it in case I make it any worse than it already is."
"How is it like a back… no don't answer that. I don't want to know."
"Oh, do you people not have anything like it here?"
"Actually we do, but it's called a Scroll. I thought those were supposed to be hard to come by outside of Mantle. They've been keeping their new technology tightly guarded amongst their higher ranks for years. The only reason I know about them is because I managed to take some off of a few of Mantle's officers who won't be needing them any more… and I think I see how you managed to get one now."
"Well, I don't know what a Scroll is, but since it sounds like it works the same as a Pipboy I won't explain what it is any further."
"And what was that other thing you wanted to know?"
"Other thing? Oh yeah, how stupid of me. What exactly are you people?"
"...could you say that again?"
"Yeah, let me rephrase that. Why does everyone here have an extra set of ears, tail, fur, and other stuff that doesn't belong on a normal human. I… uhh… I already said that I don't remember much and what little I do remember doesn't involve guys with rabbit ears and chicks with antlers."
"Oh… that is… interesting. Very, very interesting."
"I can't believe this."
"Well believe it or not, Antlers, but it's the truth. You two have already seen just a little of how much they fucked up with my head, and let me tell you, the eye is just one of the many things that they fucked around with. They did a whole lot worse to my memories than they did to my looks. Don't even get me started on the zombies, robots, brains in jars, and other shit I've seen. At least, things I think I've seen. Kinda hard to tell what things I remember did and didn't happen."
"This is complete nonsense. He's fucking with us Alex."
"Julia, silence."
"..."
"Will that be your final question, Courier?"
"No, not unless you can tell me where I can find The Major so I can give him some payback for locking me up in that sex dungeon he dragged me back into."
"And if I could tell you where to find him?"
"I'd call that full payment if the first job you hire me for ripping the stick out of his ass and shoving ramming it down his throat."
"Good, I think I'll… keep that in mind. Anyways to answer your previous question, we are Faunus, a race that is identical to humanity aside from the faunus traits that you so keenly observed earlier."
"Enough of the sarcasm, jackass. Now tell me, are you people some kind of mutants or were you born like that."
"I can't believe I'm listening to this."
"We were born like this, all of us. Even yourself, although I have no doubt that the humans saw to it that your faunus trait was removed, like they do with everyone that they capture."
"Oh, oh right… so, how do you feel about humans?"
"I thought you didn't have any more questions for me."
"Me too, but now you've got me curious. From the way I've heard Antlers here spit out the word 'human' the same way a few other people have been saying 'animal', I just want to know who exactly the Spirit of Vacuo is fighting against."
"Humans have always been at odds with Faunus ever since the dawn of time. What is going on in Vacuo now is just history repeating itself. What we are trying to do is fight back against humanity and history, to fight back against those that would see us all in collars here the same way they have us collared in Solitas. Do you remember much about the way they treated you back in Mistral, Courier?"
"A bit, although the part of it that I come from cares more about what you can do more than how you look, so long as you don't look like you're ready to eat somebody alive and halfways competent at doing something."
"Wherever you come from sounds like a pleasant place."
"Wait until you see some of the wildlife. We got ten foot tall lizards, Deathclaws, that can outrun a man, cut through solid steel with their bare claws, and travel in packs."
"I think you mean Beowolves, not Deathclaws. They're a type of Grimm, you do remember what a Grimm is, don't you?"
"Do Beowolves lay eggs and shrug off anti-tank rounds to the face like they're nothing?"
"Oh my god…"
"Brothers… no wonder Mistral was so eager to ally themselves with Mantle."
"Funny thing is, they aren't the worst things out there. I haven't even told you about Cazadors yet. Those bugs are the worst! I'd take a pack of Deathclaws over a hive of Cazadors any day."
"What is a… you know what, don't answer that. I have enough to worry about with Mantle so close to having complete control over Vacuo as is."
"Which Vacuo, Alex? The city or the kingdom?"
"The city, Mistral has been occupying the more rural parts of the kingdom in their never ending quest for Dust mining."
"Shit, sounds like you've got friends all around you."
"Yes, the humans have always wanted this. I can only imagine what they would do if they had complete control of the city so they could do whatever they wanted to us."
"And I wonder what would happen if things were the other way around."
"We can only hope that I can make that a reality. Anyways, I'm sure you are ready to treat your wounds I'll have Julia escort you-"
"You know, you never did answer my last question."
"And I don't believe I owe you any answers either."
"Fair enough. Now if it's all the same to you, I'd rather go to your hospital room, or whatever you call it, alone. Trust me, what's underneath my armor isn't pretty and I'd rather not show it off to anyone if I don't have to."
"Very well, our medical supplies are on the second floor in the first room on your right. No one should be in there at the moment, so feel free to take as much time as you need. I'll send Julia down in an hour to show you our stockroom so you can keep yourself occupied and maybe find yourself a working weapon while I try to figure out what to do next now that we have you with us."
"Great. I'll head over there right now. Thanks for the business. I'll just leave you two in here for some alone time then."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Don't think I haven't been seeing the way Antlers here has been staring at you. Ah well, I better be off before I finally bleed out then."
Alright then, the door is shut, thirty seconds have passed, and those two have no reason to think I am waiting outside their door. Let's see what kind of impression I left with them after that.
"I was expecting a lot out of our Grimm Wanderer. He is so much… 'more' than what I had been expecting, but he'll see reason eventually. I'm sure of it. Either he will join us, or he will be like all the others."
No surprises from Alex. The guy definitely has an ego, but whether or not this is his Rome has yet to be seen. I don't have high hopes for him though.
"He's willing to help us. Isn't that enough?"
Now Julia's a bit tricky to figure out. On one hand, she's as stubborn as a Bighorner and just about as thick headed. On the other hand, she's definitely doing what she thinks is right even if she's blindly trusting Alex's view on things. That guy seems to know it too, although I don't know exactly how much he's taking advantage of her. The gal's naive, willing to fight for what's right, and possibly able to kick some serious ass; I'm getting a real bit of déjà vu from her.
"For now, yes. But how long will that last?"
"He will come around, he has to. He's one of us."
"Tell me, what would you have me do with him if he doesn't?"
"I… I don't know."
Well, shit. I guess some things never change. First the NCR, now these fucks. Gimme a break.
"Neither do I… but I'm sure a man of his temperament will find himself getting killed by someone far less compassionate and far more direct than us. Until then, keep an eye on him Julia."
"Understood."
And on that note, I decided to finally tip toe my way away from the door before they caught me listening in on them. Never a dull moment whenever I'm around, whether it's trying to 'assassinate my own 'assassins' in the middle of the road or somehow determining the fate of an entire tribe. I don't know how I do it, but it seems I've found myself in the middle of another goddamn war. Hopefully I'll be able to get the hell out of Dodge before shit hits the fan like it did in Zion, but I'm not counting on it. At the very least, I'll have some reputation built up with the Spirit of Vacuo so that way they'll at least some of the grunts will hesitate before trying to kill me.
Then again, maybe they won't. The NCR didn't after I put that McLafferty bitch down for all the shit she pulled, even after I gave them proof of what they did to those caravans. They wanted justice, and I dished it out. It ain't my fault that they wanted to piss around with fines instead of doing something useful. Ain't my fault I kept on killing their assassination squads either.
Hoh boy, this just keeps on getting better and better. Another day, another race war. REPCONN, Black Mountain, Zion… Jesus Christ, I've been in a lot of them. I really need a goddamn drink once all of this is over.
With that thought in mind, I stopped for a moment and fell to my knees as I remembered what I needed most now that it was too late.
"GODDAMMIT! I FORGOT TO ASK FOR A FUCKING DRINK!"
******************************************************
* With Friends Like These… -/- Completed -/-
* _X_ Talk to Julia
* _X_ Talk to Alex
* _X_ Decide how to deal with the new faction
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Author's Note:
Ah, the joys of perspective. You never can tell if you're ever getting the full picture when only listening to one side of the story, especially when the narrator telling it is high and unreliable at best. Maybe one character thinks they are an unstoppable badass when everyone else thinks they are an idiot, or that everyone is out to get them for no reason when in reality they are just facing the consequences of their actions. You never know sometimes…
So yeah, after trying to come up with a talk between Six and the one of the many factions that have their eyes on him, I finally ended up with a version I liked after a week and five failed drafts. Trying to strike that delicate balance between 'I need any help I can take' and 'no gods, no masters' against another character with a very… 'authoritarian' attitude was tricky without going too far outside the intended scope of the story for now.
I'm also going to take this moment to address a concern raised in the comments/reviews by softpaws88, and yes, I do read them. Concerning the current direction of the story, there is a hard plan and goal for everything. As of now, Six knows little about the world he is in and so it would hardly make sense for him to know what he wants to do in it on the grand scale of things. Somebody is shooting at him, so he is shooting back. Once the shooting stops, however, that's when he'll have a moment to think things clearly. At least, as clearly as a chem addict can think.
Well, that's enough rambling from me. Thanks for sticking with the story so far everyone, and thanks again for those of you who helped this story hit 200 follows! I really appreciate the support! Anyways, I hope to see you all on the long journey ahead.