Chapter 20: Knew I Forgot Something Important

The plan to kill Courier Six was supposed to be simple, quick, and most importantly, allow his murderer to flee Dawson without anyone knowing who or what had killed Mantle's most wanted or the bartender she needed to replace in order to get close to him. That plan quickly fell to pieces when the Courier had not only drank enough Deathstalker Venom to kill everyone in the quaint little town, but had also managed to see through the disguise his attempted killer's semblance provided her.

His would-be assassin felt that it was nothing short of a miracle that she had been able to avoid being slaughtered by the more dangerous of the odd duo she had attempted to poison, and although she was certain that the target had managed to kill her Queen's other target for her, that was not as comforting a thought as it should have been, especially after Six pulled out Ironwood's infamous hand cannon. It had taken a combination of quick thinking, copious amounts of alcohol, and some silver tongued lies on her part as well as an incredible lack of awareness on the Courier's that allowed her to avoid drawing any suspicion from him.

Thankfully the Courier's obliviousness went beyond his inability to tell a tainted drink from a normal one, and his assassin swiftly made her exit once he seemed far more preoccupied with the cart full of assorted liquors than her presence in the bar or her lacking knowledge of what was in stock. It should have been easy enough for the cat faunus to slip a dagger in between her target's ribs once he had drank himself into unconsciousness, in theory, one that the new ally she had recently acquired was quick to point out once the faunus had safely fled the town now that it was a far-off clod of land shrouded by the blowing sand of the desert behind her.

"Leave it to an animal to be unable to do something so simple as kill one auraless human." The assassin's partner scoffed after hearing about the faunus' failure, trying her best to put the faunus in the place she believed her rescuer deserved to be in.

"Yes, I failed to kill that… thing." The cat faunus hesitantly admitted, unsure of what to call her target. He was supposedly human, although the amount of Deathstalker Venom he willingly ingested suggested otherwise.

The human at her side smirked at the apparent acceptance of her defeat, but the faunus smiled at the obvious arrogance of her newfound ally. Even after being humbled and left for dead, the human woman she had picked up outside of the city of Vacuo was still as easy to manipulate as the everyone else that struggled for control of the area.

"Remind me again how many times you have personally failed to do something so simple as kill one auraless human? Was it two times or three?" She mocked, savoring the murderous look she received. "It's hard to keep track how many times that monster made a fool of you."

"Shut. Up." The assassin's human partner growled with barely restrained fury.

The faunus laughed at the human's response. "Oh my, did I strike a nerve? Why don't you try to lighten up a bit and smile? That Courier already gave you half of-"

Before she could finish the cat faunus could finish that remark, a distant bang came from the town the former had finished fleeing. Although neither of the would-be assassins could see what was happening very well in the billowing moonlit sands surrounding them, the cat faunus could barely make out two groups of figures approaching Dawson from the distance; one whose appearance was heralded by the occasional flash of gunfire while the other continued to lurk on the other side of town in preparation for the role they had been given.

"It looks like that rabbit really did have a plan." The cat faunus mused as the human beside her struggled to see what she was looking at.

"What plan?" The human asked, still glowering at the faunus beside her.

"Oh, nothing you need to worry about." The faunus purred, a sinister smile crossing her lips as she prepared to watch yet another small bastion of humanity make a futile last stand. "One of my Queen's other assets should be able to take care of him, if they don't wipe each other out first…"

Despite the infrequent sounds of gunshots, screams, and the occasional explosion growing more common by the second, Courier Six continued up the stairs to his shared room with an almost lackadaisical air about him. As if he were falling back into a routine he had been longing to return to, he slowly brought out the double barrel shotgun and anti-material rifle he had stored away in his Pipboy and slung each firearm over his back with deliberate precision, the additional weight on his back doing nothing to interrupt his methodical pace.

After they were secured to the point that they wouldn't fall onto the ground if shaken too heavily while still remaining loose enough to be quickly drawn should the need arise, The Courier made sure to slip a few spare magazines and shells into his pockets for each of his weapons where they could be accessed just as easily. He tucked Penetrator in its holster right beside them, nearly dropping it on the ground as he did so. Something about it felt… off, but he couldn't quite place finger on what and just blamed his slip up on the booze.

The way he strode through the upstairs hallway, packing more weapons and ammo than an entire squad of soldiers would arm themselves with, might have been enough to terrify any onlookers if there had been any in the upstairs area of the bar, but fortunately for him there were no witnesses who might think he had come to kill them once he cleaned up the unfinished business inside his room.

Six paused as he gripped the handle of the door, the guilt from his actions an hour earlier still fresh within his mind and making him doubt whether or not trying to execute his 'partner' before finding out what the hell was going on outside was a good idea or not. Sure, they had tried to kill each other fairly recently, but that was hardly any reason to make the Courier think twice about speaking to Julia once more. Most of his companions, former companions, had tried or threatened to kill each other on more than one occasion before abandoning him.

The only exception was ED-E, and even that much was suspect as the little robot was a former Enclave machine he had repaired and turned into his closest, and only, unquestionably loyal companion. There was no telling what the eyebot would have been like if he hadn't forcefully reprogrammed it to take orders from him, and after his last few days in the Mojave, The Courier wasn't sure if he could consider something that physically couldn't harm him as someone who wouldn't betray him the moment the opportunity presented itself. That, of course, assumed that Six had properly reprogrammed the little eyebot in the first place…

But ED-E wasn't here, so thinking about the energetic ball of metal was hardly worth the effort as far as he was concerned. He couldn't have the person he wanted most at his side to deal with whatever was happening outside the bar right now, leaving him to either face whatever was outside alone or risk allying with a woman who had dumped a whole magazine full of icy bullets into his face and chest. Considering how loud that initial explosion had been, Six felt fairly confident that whatever was out there was something the locals couldn't handle, especially given how frantically they were firing at their attackers. Whether or not he did have some help from the antlered faunus he arrived with probably wouldn't make any difference anyways, although knowing whether or not he would be better off working with her or putting a bullet in between her eyes now instead of later would definitely be for the best. At least, that is what Six kept on telling himself before finally opening up the door to see whether or not Julia was in any condition to fight.

He swung the door open and half expected to see her still trembling on the bed where he left her, frozen in fear imagining things that even Six didn't dare think about. Instead, he was greeted by a room that was completely barren aside from the few furnishings he had seen when he had first walked in and a few damp patches on the carpet from the melted clumps of ice he had been shot with.

Thinking there was only one obvious place that she could be and why she would be hiding from him, Six frantically leapt to the floor and pulled the bowie knife off of his chest and flung it behind the door. He without so much as looking at where he was aiming as he assumed Julia had been lurking behind the door since he couldn't see her anywhere else inside the room and it was the only place she could hide. Rather than hitting a warm body and splattering the luxurious looking carpet and walls with the blood of his companion like he had expected to, The Courier instead watched his knife bury itself in the empty wall where he had thrown it with an almost comical expression of disbelief hidden beneath his mask.

"Where in the ever living hell…?" He muttered as he scanned the room around him, drawing Penetrator as he looked for his partner.

Six didn't find any signs of the faunus he had traveled with aside from those from their previous scuffle. He was baffled, but as much as he wanted to just forget about Julia and what was starting to sound like the entirety of the town in defending whatever was attacking them, he inspected the room for signs of where the faunus might have been hiding. As much as he was glad to be rid of her, the more pragmatic part of The Courier's mind was hoping to be able to find her fast as he knew full well that an enemy he could see was far less dangerous and easier to deal with than one he couldn't.

The Courier gave his surroundings a cursory glance hoping to see any footprints in the carpet that might have suggested his partner had slunk out of the bar behind him while he was busy trying, and failing, to get drunk like the bartender had also done at some point. He couldn't find any such evidence. Although he was still somewhat on edge that he hadn't found any signs of her, he was relieved that he hadn't missed her sneaking past him earlier while he was preoccupied with threatening the bartender.

Just as he was about to abandon his search, Six noticed that the curtains in front of the lone window to his room were rustling ever so slightly. His instincts drew him over to inspect them, similarly to how his hands went to the MAMR on his back during his approach. When he was close enough to feel the breeze that had been coming from the window, The Courier ripped down the thick pieces of cloth to reveal an exit large enough for him to fit through and cursed under his breath as he pieced together what had happened.

"She jumped outta the window? You have got to be fucking kidding me." He muttered as he stuck his head out the window and looked down at the sand strewn alley below.

Just as he expected, Six could see a small clump of disturbed sand suggesting that something relatively heavy had landed there before moving away as fast as they could.

"Well shit. Guess that's one more thing to worry about then." The Courier grumbled the next time he saw her.

Almost as if on cue, a loud band could be heard coming from below, the same booming noise that Six had made when he first barged into the bar and scared most everyone inside away.

"Then again, maybe not." He mused.

Believing that there was only one person who would possibly have a reason to barge into the bar at this hour, The Courier reached for his double barrel shotgun as he prepared to give his companion the surprise of her life as he slunk behind the open door to his room and waited for her to come looking for him.

He had only lingered behind the flimsy protection of the wooden door before remembering exactly what he had done the moment he realized the room was empty and immediately left his hiding place just in case she came to the same conclusion he had. Without any other hiding place and not wanting to shatter his knees trying to pull the same great escape Julia had, The Courier decided that a simpler, more direct tactic was needed to greet his companion.

Moving with the same carefree attitude he had strode up to his room with, he quietly from behind the door, pulling his knife out of the wall as he closed it, and set the lock with the confidence of someone who knew his assailant had only one way of reaching him and that said way was directly in the line of a weapon powerful enough to take down a Yao Guai with one pull of the trigger.

Whether or not it was strong enough to punch through aura though, that was something he didn't know but eager to find out.

Six carefully bided his time as he listened to his not-so-hidden assailant search for him downstairs. With every second that passed by, he had to hold himself back from running down the stairs and dealing with the faunus trying to kill him using what little self-restraint he had. As seconds turned to minutes and the sounds of so very many bottles of good, unopened alcohol shattering reached his ears, he grew more and more restless but continued to remain still as he waited for his prey to come to him.

After what felt like an eternity, a feeling exasperated by the erratic shouts and sounds of gunshots coming from outside which had almost dwindled into nothingness by now, The Courier finally heard footsteps coming from the creaky stairs that led up to the room he was waiting in. Not wanting to waste any more time letting his attacker look for him, he stomped on the floor loud enough to splinter the floorboards underneath his boots to give his assailant a much needed hint of where to find him. The footsteps stopped for a brief moment and The Courier had to stop himself from laughing at how his companion froze up like a radstag looking down the barrel of a gun.

Luckily for him, his assailant broke out of their stupor soon enough as it sounded like they were running to him with suicidal glee. A brief flicker of doubt crossed The Courier's mind as he wondered how his partner could be so stupid as to fall for such an obvious trap, but the convenience that came from how she now seemed eager to eat a face full of magnum shells helped brush aside those concerns.

That same doubt faded the moment he heard the door knob rattle as his attacker tried to enter his room and completely disappeared when the door bulged and its hinges groaned as they held it in place against the attacker's attempts to enter the room with brute force.

Not seeing any reason to keep the charade go on any longer, especially not when he knew his companion was throwing her full body against the door for whatever reason despite having a key to get inside, Courier Six pulled his shotgun's trigger, sending out a double barreled barrage of lead that punched through the door ahead of him with satisfying ease.

His victim didn't even let out a yelp of pain as they were shot, but the sound of their body collapsing onto the floor told Six everything he needed to know about how effective his shotgun was against aura. From the brand new window large enough to walk through that he had punched through the door, he had the perfect view of the ruined form of his victim, blood already starting to pool from the holes in her black leather armor.

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be." Six muttered, somewhat disappointed that things had ended so cleanly.

Wanting to make sure he did the job right so as to avoid an all too ironic reunion once he left Dawson behind him, he ejected the spent shells from his shotgun and threw another two in with practiced ease before slowly making his way over to the freshly made corpse. Six didn't even bother opening the ruined door between him and his hooded victim, instead choosing to break through the few splinters that hadn't given way when the oversized pellets tore through the door, aura, and flesh with ease.

Standing over the body of his companion, Six couldn't help but to shake his head at how much of a disappointment she had been. Sure, they had saved each other from a Deathjaw and made one hell of a mess in Vacuo, the city not the kingdom, and even tried to kill each other by the end of things, but that didn't mean he was satisfied with how things turned out. While it was true that he had expected his companion to be a lot smarter than she had been in trying to break down the door to reach him knowing exactly how well armed he was, he was disappointed that things ended exactly the way he expected them to.

He figured that rabbit faunus would have tried something to either recruit or kill him, there were no surprises in that area given the disgust Six felt at having to speak with him, but that didn't make taking out another one his companions any easier. Even now Six almost, almost, felt something approaching pity as he looked down at Julia's broken body. The magnum shells had torn her corpse up badly, leaving over a dozen holes in her chest large enough to stick a finger through and covering the wall behind her with a thick coat of blood.

That didn't stop Six from looting her for all of her valuables like all his fallen enemies, or allies for that matter. The way he saw it, if someone was going to find a use for all her weapons and money and if she died from being stupid enough to fight him, then that meant he got first dibs on all her stuff for killing her.

Not wanting to take too long now that the sounds of gunfire had disappeared, Six quickly got to work patting down the corpse in search of any valuables. It was when he started his inspection of her body that his doubts from earlier cropped back up stronger than ever as he noticed certain oddities about his victim. The first thing he noticed was her sword, or rather, how she no longer had it with her. That alone was odd, but Six shrugged that off thinking that she threw it away knowing it was useless against him.

The next strange thing he noticed was that the leather armor he had always seen her in seemed slightly different than before. He had been impressed at how someone as clean looking as her was able to get her hands on what appeared to be a tailor made suit of armor, especially since he didn't see a single workbench in the Spirit of Vacuo's hideout where one could be made.

The body before him was wearing just one outfit, but he noticed that there were a few more pockets and magazines strewn about it than he saw Julia wearing last. Odd, but not enough reason to be concerned though. He could have just miscounted after all. But it was when Six turned the body over after stripping it of all the ammo and Lien his victim had been carrying that he finally found that his doubts were justified.

The Courier felt that he had a pretty good idea of what his companion had looked like, as he always made note of exactly how a potential enemy's physique would affect their fighting style. Someone built big and bulky like a Super Mutant was bound to be stronger and tougher than most, but lacking in agility due to their hulking frames, Nightkin being an annoying exception. A person like himself who was muscular enough to be an Old World model while being just lean enough to still fit the same clothing as a normal human was not nearly as strong as a Super Mutant, but could easily both beat one into submission with their bare hands and dance circles around them at the same time. Then there were people like Julia, who were leaner than the average person and as a result far more nimble and faster than them too, but not nearly as good at taking a hit thanks to their small frame . Knowing what to expect from an opponent just from their looks alone had helped out Six plenty of times in the past, this most recent incident being no exception.

It was because Six had taken note of what his partner looked like, after performing a thorough inspection of the corpse before him, that he was confidently able to tell that it was not in fact Julia's. There were plenty of smaller details that gave it away now that he took a moment to look at them, such as the body's slightly larger frame, light complexion, and even its larger hands. The most convincing piece of evidence, though, had to be the lizard tail.

Six wasn't quite sure how he missed that before flipping the body over, but was at least graceful enough to accept his mistake with dignity and grace.

"What in the goddamn… the fuck is going on here?" I asked myself after looking over the corpse again to make sure I wasn't hallucinating from the stuff the bartender gal added to make my drinks glow.

When I blew a hole through that door, I expected to kill that antlered bitch as she tried and failed to sneak up on me. I don't know who this random shithead with the lizard tail is or how the hell I didn't notice that giant slab of meat between her legs earlier, but this clearly ain't the girl I was expecting to fill full of lead.

Eh, it's probably the cracked lens that faunus gal gave me earlier fucking with my Perception. Thankfully it's not as bad as before I got my first implant from the Followers of the Apocalypse clinic. Man, was life rough back when I only had the one good eye to work with.

Now as glad as I am to have dealt with the problem that was little more than a blood sausage waiting to be squished underneath my feet, I am a little worried at how this piece of shit and Antlers were dressed up the same way. Might be some sort of uniform the Spirit of Vacuo uses, or maybe it's just one hell of a coincidence. That's not going to stop me from shooting first and asking questions later though.

Seeing no point lingering around my freshly looted kill after having taken everything of value from it, I slowly made my way back down to the downstairs bar with my shotgun at the ready. I wasn't scared, but rather cautious since it was clear something screwy was going on. Until I knew exactly what I was dealing with, there was nothing I'd rather want between me and an unwelcome surprise that two barrels full of 12 gauge pellets.

The majority of the bar downstairs was an absolute wreck, more so than when I last saw it that is. It wasn't unexpected since I pretty much listened to the late lizard tailed chick rummage around it for a while, but I was still surprised to see how much damage she had caused in so little time.

There wasn't a single stool, chair, or table that wasn't either torn to pieces or soaked in alcohol. The bottles I heard being destroyed were little more than shards that crunched underneath my feet with every step I took towards the counter as I looked for any signs of the bartender. I had to stop myself from slipping over the slick pools of liquor on the floor that not even the once dry wooden floor had been able to soak up completely as I passed by the counter and made my way into the kitchen where I found something that made me even more confused than I already was.

Laying down with their back against the wall and that sexy looking fire axe laid across their lap was the bartender. They weren't looking like the average girl for Gomorrah either or giving me a headache from just looking at them this time, but was actually the big ol' Yao Guai of a man I had seen. The only difference between when I first saw them and now was that they had their skull cracked open and covered from head to toe in their own blood.

That was definitely weird. I don't remember hearing lizard girl fire off any shots or see any weapons on her that could have cracked the bartender's head open either. I bent down on one knee to feel both the axe head and the bartender's terminally splitting headache to see if they matched up because I refused to believe this giant of a man had somehow been overpowered by someone half their size. I had to peel my hand away from both the weapon and the corpse, the blood having already half dried in the time since the bartender had been killed which raised even more questions than it answered.

"Dried already? That's way too quick." I murmured. "Should have at least taken a couple hours, maybe even a day before that happened."

I also reached down the corpse's pants just to see if this guy really was the chick I had been talking to earlier and… well, let's just say rigor mortis is one hell of a thing sometimes. The bartender was definitely this guy, had been dead for quite some time, probably had a very happy spouse, and his killer had apparently taken the time to lay down the axe they used to kill him in his hands for some reason.

If I ever see that cat faunus again, I'm going to have to ask her a few questions. Preferably while I hold the same axe she used to murder this sad son of a bitch against her throat. That'll show her for making a fool of me.

"Hey, Luna, what's taking so long? Did you find anything worth taking or not?" A rough, demanding voice called out from beyond the kitchen.

"You better not be getting drunk before we get back to camp!" Someone else shouted out. "You know we don't have enough time to do this before the Grimm start showing up!"

Looks like lizard girl wasn't alone. Probably more of these assholes out there too if I were to take a guess. Nice to know. Good thing I have a barrel of aura piercing death for each one of these assholes in the bar.

My first instinct was to rush out of the kitchen and try to take whoever else was in the bar out before they knew what hit them. I was just about to make a run for it too when I realized I not only didn't know if there were only two people waiting for me out there but I wasn't sure what kind of weapons they were packing either.

If they had something weak like submachine guns, pistols, or a couple of sledgehammers then I would be fine. If they were packing the local magic bullshit rounds, dust rounds I think they're called, then that would be a different story since some of those things are great at punching through armor.

Damn, gonna have to play this one smart. How long has it been since I had to do that? Not since I started hunting down those 1st Recon fucks. Hope I haven't lost my touch.

Not wanting to rush out to my death or wait long enough for my unseen enemies to stumble on their friend's corpse and ruin the element of surprise for me, I looked around for something, anything I could use to grab their attention. The only thing I had to work with was a corpse, an axe, my guns, and a bunch of broken bottles. It wasn't much to work with, but not the worst crap I've ever been limited to either. Good thing these amateurs already think the girl they're looking for is getting drunk off her ass right now. Speaking of which, I wonder…

It was a stretch, but the only real option I had to work with short of charging at them like a Fiend high on Jet, so not seeing anything else I could do I picked up the least damaged bottle I could find and threw it against the wall as hard as I could. The bottle shattered spectacularly, sending shards of glass flying against my armor and into the bartender's body while making one hell of a racket.

"Of course she'd be in the kitchen. Why do we even bother?" The first guy said, sounding just about as amused as I was at how my bait actually managed to grab their attention.

Wanting to give the two chucklefucks I knew were about to see me one hell of a surprise, I loosened up my grip on the shotgun so I was holding it steady with one hand while still able to pull the trigger while I shouldered the fire axe and got ready to pounce the moment I saw something to maim.

I didn't have to wait long before I saw a pair of men clad in black leather armor stride into the kitchen. Neither one of them had their weapons drawn and ready to fire as they saw me, giving me a few precious seconds to line up a headshot with my shotgun on the guy on the right and turn everything above his neck into a fine red mist that splattered the slack jawed face of his partner.

"Oh my Brothers!" The surviving man shrieked as he cowered away from his companion's headless body as it flopped onto the floor.

That was a rookie mistake on his part, as rather than make an attempt to reach for his own weapon or run for his life, he threw himself against the wall and gave himself nowhere to run as I swung my newly acquired fire axe at him with all of my strength. I buried it deep in his chest with a satisfying crunch of broken ribs, the bastard's bullshit aura and leather armor doing nothing to protect him against my unexpected attack. The guy coughed up blood and tried to gurgle out what I could only assume to be a cry for help, but I didn't let him get much farther than that.

I yanked my axe back towards me, dragging my victim to the ground along with it before putting a boot on his head and ripping my weapon free. There wasn't much life left in the sad son of a bitch's eyes as I reared my axe up to end his misery, just like there wasn't much of his head left after I brought it back down and coated everything below my knees with his blood.

That was going to be an absolute pain to clean, but I suppose that's just one of the things you have to look forward to when you're a Bloody Mess like me.

"Hey, what's up with all the noi- HOLY SHIT!"

I looked up from my latest kills to see that my earlier suspicions were now proven correct as someone else wearing a suit of black leather barged into the kitchen to see the carnage I had caused. Unlike my most recent kills, she was not nearly stupid enough to stand idly by as I prepared to cut her down like some cheap lumber, instead literally tucking her wolf tail in-between her legs and running for the exit as she cried for help.

I chased after her, not even bothering to waste time reloading my shotgun as I knew I only had a few scant seconds before she got enough distance from me to put that rifle slung across her back to good use. Instead, seeing no other alternative, I flung my fire axe at her skull and hoped to whatever cruel god loved torturing me so much that it would bury itself deep in her skull.

Sure enough, I hit the gal square in the head, but much to my surprise it bounced off of her. Apparently her aura was a lot stronger than the others I had killed since it kept her alive, but it was not nearly good enough to keep her from crashing to the ground just outside the exit from the force of the impact.

"Where do you think you are running off to, sweetheart?" I mocked as I quickly loaded a couple shells at random into my shotgun while I walked up to her.

"HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! IT'S HIM!" She frantically cried out as she tried to stumble back onto her feet.

A swift pull of the trigger stopped her in her tracks, as well as taking off one of her legs at the knee and part of her tail along with it. The girl let out a pitiful yelp as she collapsed on her stomach and tried to pull herself away from me in a desperate adrenaline fueled attempt to extend her life just a few seconds longer. Unfortunately for her, I wasn't going to be having any of that shit today, not after my previous mistake.

"Ahhhh… somebody… help…" She mewled as she fought for breath and purchase on the sandy streets as she crawled away from me with her three good limbs.

"Oh, just shut up already and I'll be sure to make it quick and painful." I said as I pulled out Penetrator from the holster on my hip and reclaimed my axe. "Although maybe if you tell me a little about why you're here, I might just feel generous enough to let you live."

I already had her head directly in my line of fire as I said that just in case she tried anything funny like Antlers did. I also gave her a moment to see whether or not she would try to plead for her life and maybe tell me what the hell was going on in exchange for not splattering her brains all over the place if she was stupid enough to take my offer despite having no reason not to. I was going to shoot her no matter what she told me, but I wasn't about to tell her that or pass up on the opportunity to milk this girl for everything she was worth before stripping her corpse for any valuables.

The woman turned around to face me and her eyes lit up as if she were looking upon her salvation and for a moment, I thought I was going to learn what the hell she and a few of her friends were doing here and dressed up like my own companion. I barely had time to notice she was looking past me instead of at me before I felt something hard and heavy slam against my head and knock me down to my hands and knees.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The bastard who landed that cheap shot taunted as my vision blurred back into focus. "Looks like there was at least one human in this place that knows how to put up a fight after all."

I didn't stand up to face the shithead that was making fun of me on the off chance his aura could hold up against more shots than my hand cannon could hold. Instead, I stomached my burning desire to punch the guy's face in and looked up at him and the almost comically oversized hammer he tried to bash my head in with as I prepared Penetrator for a quick draw as I scanned for any other targets I would have to deal with after blowing a hole through that shit eating smile of his. There were far more people to shoot than there I had magazines prepared, dozens of leather armored people packing better weapons than most NCR assassination squads backing up the cocky bastard who thought he had got the better of me with a single hit. Looks like the girl that almost got away from me was able to call for help. Fan-fucking-tastic.

For a moment, I was utterly baffled at how a practical army had managed to sneak up on me before I managed to put two and two together. Now that I could see what looked like a well armed group of what was more than likely all very angry and very well armed faunus in a town that had been alive with the sound of gunshots until recently, I suddenly felt like I should have payed a bit more attention to Julia when she said we should have left this place be.

Whether or not she knew something like this would happen or not, I really should have seen this coming after the bartender mentioned something about bandit troubles after Mantle left places like this town and the burnt out ruins we stumbled across on their own. Caesar's Legion did the same shit after I started sabotaging the NCR before they caught on to what I was doing behind their backs. Don't know I didn't expect why a couple of crazies that woulda made ol' bunny boy look competent wouldn't do the same. Fucking savages.

"So, how do you want to do this?" The leader of the faunus bandits asked, resting his hammer on his shoulders as he looked down on me. "Do you want me to kill you now or would you rather try and make a fight out of it and put up a show for us?"

"Actually, I think I'd rather do this." I said as I drew Penetrator at his head and fired before he could react…

*click*

…only for nothing to happen?

*click*

The fuck? This can't be happening.

*click* *click*

"You stupid mother fucker." The bandit leader growled as he readied to swing his hammer at me.

*CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK*

Sitting there, desperately trying to get my gun to fire before I was hit by a hammer that even a Super Mutant would have struggled to swing yet this bandit was able to carry with ease, two things suddenly hit me. The first was obviously the giant fucking hammer that sent me flying through the air. The second was the reason why my plan to blow the bandit's brains failed from the very beginning: I forgot to reload the fucking thing after loading an empty magazine earlier.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

If I ain't dead by the time I hit the ground then I'm gonna enjoy killing these fucking savages one by one.

Special thanks to most good ones were taken for beta reading my madness once more.

Author's Corner:

Better late than never, eh? I would have liked to have finished this chapter sooner, but two certain events kept me from doing so. The first was the whole Ukraine invasion and likelihood of that mess escalating, killing my enthusiasm about writing anything involving Fallout after hearing nuclear options being debated.

The other is… well, Elden Ring. It's just that good. Oh, and fuck THAT ONE chest in Lake Agheel. Whoever had a hand in that chest's creation is pure evil.

Comments:

Maglad: (I'm not typing this huge review out in its entirety.)

Some other, thin skinned authors might have deleted this comment on sight because they can't take the criticism. I'm not one of those authors… I think. As tempting as it is be a vengeful grammar nazi, I actually want to take the opportunity to address a few points made in this review since replying gives me the perfect opportunity to do so.

The courier is a fucking coward that ran into drugs to try and forget about how fucking terrified he really is about getting out of bed every morning, and comes off as an insufferable edgelord…

Once again, the character is roughly based on my own F:NV playthrough and what I think a character whose first thoughts after getting told they were shot in the head and buried alive are "I'm gonna find the asshole that did this to me" would do. Such a person is likely not the most sane individual, especially considering how they more or less end up single handedly conquering an entire nation in the process.

As for the cowardly use of chems, remember that there is some video game logic at play here. If taking a whole bunch of 'buffs' before a fight to turn things in your favor is cowardice by video game logic, then I think we are all cowards. Throwing fear and fantasy aside for a moment, there are also other, psychological reasons a person might turn to drugs. Escapism, pain relief, depression… too many to count really.

The very first description the author gives us for the 'heroine' is 'she has super huge tits so she's hot amirite guys?'. Honestly, the bartender is more interesting than Julia. Less cliché and less sexualized to boot.

To explain my thought process here, considering how most armored female NPCS (bandits, Khans) wear either leather bikinis or human shaped tanks in various states of disrepair, I thought Six noticing a tailored suit of leather armor that wasn't falling apart at the seems or jury rigged back together would be worth noticing.

Same goes for the physical description, as I wanted to portray Six focusing on her body to infer on how she would fight him and how much of a threat she would be, something he has done to most every character so far. Guess I fucked that up big time, even though my description is pretty damn tame compared to other, professional and hobbyist authors as another commenter noted. Also of note is the description you are citing is the polar opposite of how I described Julia… and which just so happens to match the character you were praising.

'word diarrhea' (I fucking laughed after reading this beautiful phrase)

I have no defense here, although the particular instance you used alluded to wasn't my worst offense in my opinion. Not only do I regularly write this while buzzed in the dead of night, but as of recently, I have lost a lot of the time I would ordinarily spend writing this story thanks to continuous fucking overtime. There was a reason I was looking for a beta reader, and I can not thank them enough for the abuse I put them and the English language through.

The Pros: Original story, Interesting use of RWBY background setting, Gets much better in the later chapters.

The first two were exactly why I wrote this story, since there is a lot of material in RWBY that is begging to be used and isn't for whatever reason. As for the later, even though I am 22 chapters in… the plot has not really advanced beyond the prologue. Think of where we are right now as midway through Act One, with plenty more Acts on the way. Background behind Six's current behavior and the revelation of the what is going on in Remnant as a whole will be revealed in time, but for now, I will continue to show what a post-apocalyptic 50's sci-fi survivor will do when thrown into a modern fantasy world without any idea of what the hell is going on.

Well, that's it for me. As always, thanks for reading and I hope to see all of you again in the future!