CHAPTER 24
Soda Killers.
Plaster, sawdust, wood, and chips of boards were all over the place.
There was a giant, mutated insect- that was mutated, on TOP of its already present mutations. It was scrabbling towards them on thick legs, and it had a hide all but impervious to the SMG rounds that Sanford had been forced to use.
The Deathclaw swallowed with a heavy blink as the bug closed distance- her nails, tinted yellow and green from the slicing work she had made of the remainder of the roach's entourage swarm- flicked out from their sheathes in her fingers.
Sanford switched to a fresh clip, and didn't even bother firing at the roach to avoid simply wasting ammo- he checked in his rucksack over his armor's thigh- cursed at the handful of clips remaining inside.
This bug needed something heavy to kill it- and the problem was, Sanford didn't have access to his own submachine gun- which, while it was of later model than the one he held- it also was in better condition, and he had bored the thing himself for high velocity performance.
Sanford wasn't so sure it would outright kill or maim the giant roach- but it would hurt, and maybe that was all they needed right now- to hurt it.
His boots clocked against the pavement, and her heels slid- they backed off with a few steps as the slow, cumbersome and obese freak etched towards them. It hadn't attempted to vomit up acid at them again- it was biding for a good shot, the roach had actually grown intelligent enough to see that Sanford wasn't so clumsy for his suit's size.
"I don't suppose you have some kind of plan, monsieur'?" She grumbled. "My claws could kill it- it's just a question of me surviving long enough up front to hit it."
"We're not going that route," He warned. "I'm not having you get in that thing's face- that's too much risk."
"Concern, hmm?"
"Yeah, concern, deal with it."
"Je suis flatte'," She hummed. "I'm not complaining."
"Here's what we're going to do," Sanford wheeled around to look about the street- he hissed in stress to seeing Gerald still on the ground, rocking in a slight fetal position on the concrete. He noted the Deathclaw's optimistic raise of brows to the Ghoul. "-And no, we're not leaving him as a distraction."
"Disappointing."
"We're gonna' make a U-turn," He looped his free gauntlet. "Run back down the alley- that one, right there across the street- wait for the thing to follow us."
"Then what?"
"We head back inside the basement." He nodded for the still smoke-tinged gash in the lower wall of the steeple by the stoop up ahead.
"Are you insane?"
"Just a bit. No, listen to me- I saw all kinds of stuff him and Fred were working on- weapons and lots of weapons, there is something in there we can use to crack open this bug, I just know it."
"You're confident? No in-the-moment hopes?"
"There are good munitions there, trust me."
"...F-Fine, fine, we'll do it your way."
"Good-" Sanford bent down when their steps took them close enough to Gerald's prone form- he wrapped a gauntlet underneath the delirious Ghoul's chest and hoisted him clean off his feet with a whir of motors in the suit.
Slinging the Ghoul over his pauldron, he gripped his SMG one handed- and pointed over his back with a thumb.
"-I got old' Gerald, let's go, quickly."
Right as the pair turned around- and Sanford's boots started to echo across the pavement- the roach reared back its head, and a cluster of vomited wads of acid were hurled forth into the air with a horrific squelching breath.
Sanford saw the incoming projectiles- gasped- and remembered that dodging wasn't so much an option with the Ghoul out and over his shoulder.
Taking a great risk- he bundled as much of Gerald as he could to his breastplate, wrapped his gauntlets on either side, fell to a single knee- and shielded the Ghoul with his own armored body.
CLKCLKC
CLUNK
-The acid globules smacked and imploded in a disgusting set of blasting slaps that stringed green goop through the air and down the armor's surface- there was hissing, and steam rose from the metal- Sanford grunted as it felt like someone had whacked him in the back with an unfurled gymnasium matt.
Blinking away the discomfort- he started to sprint forwards again, and he managed to duck low enough with Gerald in his arms that the next wad of acid sailed clean over his head and splattered on the street ahead.
"Sanford! Run faster!"
"-Wha-?!" Sanford looked up- and saw that the Deathclaw was already peering from around the corner of one of the houses that was on the other side of the street- she waved a claw at him.
Damn, she was fast.
"-Thanks for leaving me in the DUST!" Sanford cried.
"Run faster, you damned monkey!"
"I may be a monkey- but I'm one TOUGH monkey!"
He wheeled past her and the white colored paneled corner of the house- running straight down a thin incision between two of the structures with a lightening sprint of grunting joints and whirring servos- boots rumbling the very earth.
Helmet glancing about- Sanford gave off a tiny- 'Ah-ha!'-and ran over to the back porch of the house they had rounded- he opened the flimsy back door, glanced inside for roaches, and laid Gerald on the floor before shutting the door after him.
The wood made hollow, deep clunks as his boots took him from the door, down the steps, and back onto the lawn where he waved her on.
"C'mon, it's the best we can do!"
"I'm not sure whether to hope the house is still clear or not..."
"Don't be like that! He's whiney, that doesn't warren him DYING, Ms. Anger-Management."
The roach screeched in the backdrop- and the whole side of the house they stood behind rumbled- kicking off a faint coat of dust from every flat surface all at once.
It looked like the house's ghost or something left its physical form for a brief second before fading away in the wind- the roach was following them- it probably couldn't get between the buildings.
To confirm- she turned around, and slowly glanced over the paneled corner of the home- she saw the giant roach at the end of the little alley between it and the house next door- it had made a oval-shaped indent in the very structure of both building's corners in an attempt to squeeze through.
It chittered- saw her- and she jumped back when a blob of acid smacked into the paneling with a crack of plaster and wood, and splatter of goo.
"Yeah, the thing's following us." She frowned. "We're going through the yards in a U-turn?"
"Yeah, that's the plan. This way- through the fence!" Sanford turned, bunched his arms over his sides, and sprinted in a rumbling torrent towards the old fence that sealed this yard from the one next to it.
He put out his shoulder pauldron- and rammed straight through the flimsy wood with a burst of splinters and dust- catapulting boards away on either side of him, and folding both halves of the severed fence towards the ground of the neighboring yard.
Still moving- he didn't slow, and she heard the wooden scream of another fence being breached.
At least he was determined- and, she comically thought as she slipped through the new gap after him- at least no one was living here anymore to worry about property damage.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Relocating was always hard whenever he and Hancock had been in a combat situation- it wasn't exactly easy to shift from one position where you had your head down, to another where you had proper protection from weapons fire, and you were able to do that WITHOUT being seen in transit.
The problem was when you switched cover- people would see the movement, and you would be out in the open, and people would obviously take the opportunity to shoot at you.
Sanford had been in hundreds of firefights, and at that, it was HUNDREDS- he'd been living in the Commonwealth for over a decade in its post-War state- and shockingly, out of all that time, the worst injury he had ever suffered, was a few animal bites and some buffs and scratches.
He'd never been caught on the business end of a blade, the only bone he had ever broken was his wrist in a bad fall, and most impressive of all, he'd never really been shot- and that was the largest risk in this dump.
He worded it- never REALLY been shot- because he had been grazed before, twice, in fact.
A round glanced his thigh one time- it didn't stop bleeding for awhile after the fight- and the only thing that saved him from that was constant hand compression and stimulation injections- and one time a bullet punched into the bolt of a rifle he was holding, ruined the gun, but saved his life.
Sanford had run into close calls with death a whole bunch of times- and shockingly to anyone in a more calmer lifestyle- he talked about it pretty openly and dismissively.
Rounds had flew past his head, shrapnel had flown past his head, rockets or grenades went off close enough that he was knocked off his feet- yadda-yadda-yadda, in the Wasteland, no one cared, because no one was there to listen- so Sanford got used to the knowledge.
Some of those close calls, had happened while he had been relocating- and not so shockingly, when he and the Deathclaw were sprinting through the backyards- the roach was trying to keep up with them by peaking into alleys they passed.
Acid slapped into fences nearby, it flew over or past them- and the more and more yards they crossed into- the more and more it was apparent that the roach wasn't stupid enough to just follow them blindly.
It was actively trying to keep at their flank- staying on the opposite side of the houses that they had cross to get back towards the steeple.
"This-ISN'T-working-!" The Deathclaw snapped mid-stride ahead of him. "-Need-another-PLAN-!"
Sanford was in shock at how fast she ran- and, nothing that was in front of her even hindered her movement.
A metal roundabout was built into a small lot of sand in one of the yards- rusted, with handles missing and a dull shade of silvery gray- she just planted a palm over one of the handles and vaulted clean over it, no problem whatsoever- even rolling across the ground ahead in a blink of movement.
Stunned to the display- Sanford ran around the old metal playset- and followed.
"-Let's try- THIS way-!" He pointed down one of the alleys- it looked like the roach had slowed in trailing them.
"The BUG is that way!" She stopped in a skid across the dirt- turned around, and stood there, wide eyed, panting from the run. "It'll shoot us if we cross the street, monsieur'!"
"It's a risk we have to take!" He said. "If we don't get back to the steeple, we don't have the equipment to kill it!"
"Maybe we can trap it," She tried. "Get it stuck, then get behind or on top of it and I'll make mince meat of it!"
"Where are we gonna' get it stuck, huh?" He held his arms up with a whir of motors. "In a HOUSE? It'll tear the thing down before we can-"
CRRSSM
BMMM
-The house of the yard they stood in, the rear of it- exploded in a cloud of wooden destruction and airborne boards- the wall popped outwards, and through the ragged crevice- the bulbous head of the roach jutted outwards.
Sanford and the Deathclaw held their arms up to shield their faces from some of the smaller debris that flittered out from the burst- the roach snapped more boards hanging on the edges of the new hole it made in the house with its bulbous legs.
Shrieking- the insect put holes in the porch it stepped through with cracks of splinters- one foot hit the grass before Sanford and her took the opportunity, to run directly past it, along the side of the home.
"See THAT, monsieur'?" She laughed over her shoulder- ignoring the gradually distancing screeches of the giant bug. "I'm not that crazy!"
"Fine! You were RIGHT, happy?!"
"VERY!"
"Let's get to the steeple!"
The Deathclaw zoomed around the bend of another house- darting straight to the left, and Sanford practically felt his lungs give off a petrified wheeze as he struggled to keep up.
The systems in his suit limited the amount of fatigue on him- but, heaven almighty, long runs like this were still a killer- he supposed it beat being without the exoskeleton and exposed to the acid spit the bug had, though.
The Deathclaw hopped over a small, closed garden fence that locked the alley between the two houses from the street ahead- it looked like she had just stepped over it with how fast she covered the parkour- and Sanford just battered through it with a slam of wood.
This street was one behind the road next to the steeple that they had first started to run from- and on cue, Sanford glanced to their left to see the giant Radroach crawling towards them in the dark from down the street- its legs giving off thuds with each fall.
"Come on, monsieur'!" The Deathclaw barked over her shoulder when his sprinting slowed.
The roach saw where the Deathclaw was headed- and Sanford felt his heart drop into his feet when the bug skidded to a clabbering halt- wheeled around and started to head for a merging lane that connected this road, with the one next to the steeple.
It was working to cut them off again- this was ridiculous, if he didn't kill this bug now, there would be an endless game of cat and mouse- it was only a limited time before they would be forced to get close with it and fight it.
"Go to the steeple's basement!" Sanford did the last thing either of them expected- he swung left, and started running towards the roach. "Find a weapon! Find the NUKALIZER, find anything! I'll distract it!"
"NO! I'm not doing that!" She cried. "You get back here NOW!"
"-Listen to me, it'll keep cutting us off!" Sanford stopped only briefly, body and suit still angled towards the roach's direction. "GO! I'll be alright! I'm not gonna' let a fuckin' bug eat me!"
"Sanford!" She wasn't having it. "No! I REFUSE. Jamais'!"
"You don't have a choice." He stated. "I'm done debating this- we're both dead unless you find something in there that can kill it... Now go, go!"
With that, Sanford wheeled over and ran with echoing, metal clacks against the pavement- he followed the intersection lane with a turn in his sprint- and soon, as she stood there watching, she heard the roach screech, and Sanford faintly laugh at it.
With a twitch in her jaw- she bit- hard -on her knuckle, threw her claw down, and turned around to run towards the steeple.
-0-0-0-0-0-
So out of all the things that Sanford had run into- giant things, like, things as big or bigger than a car- were not on the commonality list.
He and Hancock had encountered some pretty big Mirelurks, big scorpions, big Yao Guai, and they'd heard about really big wild Deathclaws- but this roach took the cake, in size, anyway.
Sanford was dwarfed by this abomination- in his Power Armor or not, the Radroach was four or five heads taller than him- it had a humped, large thorax attached to an even larger, bulbous abdomen- and the small head with two buggy eyes was always angled down as it followed him.
Running out into the center of the street- Sanford had raised his arms as best he could in the restrictions of the suit's pauldrons- he called up to it.
"Hey! Fartsalot I'm down here! WOO!"
The bug was but a few feet away from him out in the open of the street- and instead of shoot at him with the projectile acid like he thought it would- the bug clambered over, and rose one of its chitinous, insectoid legs- the left front one.
Sanford watched in something like a parody of slow-motion, this big leg rise up into the night sky- seeing all the little barbed hooks across the toe. He gulped, tensed, and gasped when the leg shot down in his direction.
"-CRAP-!"
BMK
-He stumbled off to the side, and the foot smacked into the pavement with a hollow crash, and it rumbled the earth beneath his boots.
Screeching- the roach then swung outwards with the same leg, and Sanford felt his breath leave him as he backpeddled, and bent his head and shoulderline over his tailbone as far as the armor would allow- he heard the air soar, and the leg flew right over his helmed face.
Stumbling back onto steady footing- he was forced to jump again when the OTHER front leg smashed down to counter his recovery.
The beast was just trying to step on him- he really hoped Ms. Deathclaw hurried her tail up.
-0-0-0-0-0-
She had to squeeze through the tear in the steeple's lower level to even peak inside the dark basement chamber.
Her vision allowed her to see in the blackness as she could in broad daylight- so, she carefully shoved herself past some boards with croaks of wood, and grunts of effort- within a few seconds, the concrete floor pattered with her clawed feet landing on it.
The Deathclaw had to duck a little to prevent her spines or her horns from dragging on the wooden ceiling- or the crisscrossing concrete support lattice that meshed between a series of support pillars dotting the center corners of the chamber.
The wall of smashed machinery that Sanford had stumbled upon- unknowingly to her -came to light as she examined around the room briefly- forgetting, only briefly, the distant thuds and screeches the roach was making outside.
She scanned about for any sign of the poisonous fumes this creature was capable of producing- and she came up with nothing as she glanced about. The thing just HAD to have tried to use that stuff on Sanford... Maybe, in its projectile form, the stuff dissipated after a bit? Who knew.
She probed along the wall of smashed computers- finding nothing of interest- and she couldn't exactly pick up any of the broken apart guns that were lying on some of the desks- because, she saw one of them, zipped over in a hurry, and was disgusted to find the weapon snapped in three pieces with parts missing.
The Ghouls had said that they MADE their own weapons down here... But so far, all she was finding was garbage, and parts of things.
Frantically- she tore over to one of the metal desks and used her fingers to sift through some of the metal clutter on its top- she picked up a round... Cylinder... THING, between two of her nails, looked at it, and grunted in frustration before tossing it to her right where it clattered onto the floor.
There wasn't even a trunk or some kind of crate in here for these mythical weapons to be- how was she supposed to find ANYTHING in this dump? Everything was broken!
Everything was broken, all the machines were useless, and there weren't even whole normal guns lying around! This was all just a giant cluster-fu-
-...And... And what was that terrible smell?
Suddenly getting a wash of nostril clinging disgust- the Deathclaw stopped in her tracks, and gave a whiff.
"Ugh!" She reached up and pressed her palm over her snout- comically giving off the appearance of a splaying set of five dark lines from her head in the blackness- like giant whiskers.
"Odeurs comme la mort'..." She grumbled. "What IS that?"
A few seconds ago she had been in panic- and, well, she WAS still in panic- but this odor just distracted her- she didn't know why, she'd smelled a lot worse that she didn't even blink towards in the past.
Turning around, she was made aware of a stairwell that lead up into the steeple- concrete steps, wooden walls leading upwards in angle on either side- that must have been where Sanford had tried to get out before he was THROWN out, literally.
So that meant, that this side of the room must have been where the roach, like, started, before the fight began.
-This was confirmed from possible hunch, to fact, as she stepped forwards, and found the undeniable source of the horrible smell she had been encountering.
"Ugh..." She repeated, looking down.
There was a gigantic pile of, well, basically and bluntly? Shit.
It was a mound of orange-tinted, blackish goop- it was like mud, but a bit like a membrane you'd find in a cracked open egg, or like a torrent of mucus from someone's nose. The stuff was awful- and it REAKED.
It was in a large quantity too- it spread a few feet in the rear center of the basement floor- it was piled high enough to match her knees.
"Saint-Christ." She tore her head away and made to step back towards hopelessly searching through the refuse of the basement- but, as she turned, she saw something.
It was a glittering motion- like, when someone turned an object made of metal in their hands, and overhead sunlight gave off a reflective sliver, or a light fixture above them hinted a sheen. That caused her to stop and turn back around.
Squinting at the mound of offal- she noticed something... Some THINGS, not quite right with it.
It was... Chunky.
-Now hold on, before it could be written off as the roach having a constipation problem- it wasn't THAT kind of chunky.
She leaned closer and held her breath- and what she saw jutting from the mound almost made her gag.
It was a six barreled, circuit-laden, handle-gripped object- and even though she didn't want to admit what it was exactly, she knew, and fate apparently knew- seeing as SHE was the one who had to dig in and get it.
The Nukalizer had seen better days- the six barrels were worn and stained with roach poop, the crank on top was turned in the wrong angle, and the three ammunition insertions were empty. The weapon was rather big, bulky- Sanford could wield it no problem, but, she couldn't.
"The things I'm put through." She grumbled. "Merde'..."
The Deathclaw took a breath, and then all at once, jabbed her other claw down and stuck her fingers around the gun's barrels- she felt the warm and sickly goop sift about around and even IN her grip.
"Agh!" She tugged it out with a repugnant shift of material- it didn't spatter everywhere, it didn't even make a mess- it was like tugging the gun from a pile of wet clay that gathered in some chunks on the weapon's surface- horrific.
Holding it as far from herself as she could- she pinched the barrels between two fingers and draped it by her side.
She had acquired the gun- but... Where was the ammunition?
This thing obviously didn't fire bullets, or rockets, and she didn't see a fuel canister anywhere... The three loading cylinders on the back took some kind of ammunition.
But this place was empty- if there had been any ammunition, it wasn't here anymore.
Sanford would figure it out. He always figured it out.
...Right?
She didn't have time for this- she clenched the Nukalizer one handed, cringed, and ran for the gap that had been torn in the steeple's wall above.
-0-0-0-0-0-
The roach almost hit him a few times.
He was getting slower, because he was getting tired. Actually, Sanford was amazed at either how skilled he had become after such a short time, or by how much luck he had been gifted tonight- either or, the roach was swinging its legs and the best it had done was glance his armor a few times.
CLK
"-AGH!" Sanford stumbled in his latest duck from the lumbering limbs- the side of one of the roach's legs brushed by his breastplate, and with enough force that he almost lost his footing.
The roach screeched, and it jabbed its head forwards with open mandibles- giving Sanford seconds to gasp, tear his arms away from his midsection on either direction- and watch as the acidic-dribbling mouth parts clapped emptily in the space just before his chest.
Taking the moment- Sanford raised both his fists- and planted them downwards, aiming for the roach's eyes.
BM-BM
-Both his fists bounced off of the black, beady structures- and the roach made an awful screech- different from the ones it had been making.
The ground rumbled, and the large creature reeled back from the hits- its antennae jabbed around, and one of its front legs rose to consistently shove past its small head in a brushing motion- the roach gathered a few feet away from his stance.
Sanford reached by his hip, unclamped his SMG- and aimed for the bug's face when it put down its leg eventually.
CLCKALCKLCKLAKCLKALCKCLK
-He drained the whole clip, and for the first time in the fight- he saw blood.
crkr
There was a crunch of chitin, and the roach hollered with a thin arm of whitish-yellow trailing through the air its head swung through, before splattering onto the pavement.
Sanford switched mags' and saw that he had shot one of the Radroach's bulbous, black eyes- and that there was a gaping gash that was raggedly torn into the center of the rounded organ. Blood was stringing from the wound as the roach swung its head about rapidly.
"Take that, bitch!" Sanford laughed- frightening himself for how Hancock-ish' he sounded.
The roach surged forwards all at once- and Sanford didn't even have a blessing of reaction time, before both frontal legs swung in an upwards cut- and slapped into the metal of his breastplate.
BM-BMMM
-It wasn't enough to send him off his feet, but the impacts made Sanford stumble backwards with panicked servos and whining creaks of steel- he planted his boots hard enough for footing, that he left small spider cracks in the pavement.
Sanford cursed wildly, he almost dropped his only gun- and the roach kept coming- battering forwards, now partially blind, and flailing its head about with the seeming intent to use it to ram him.
"SANFORD!"
"-Wha-?!"
The shouting behind him distracted him- the roach's head made contact with his breastplate.
CLUNG
-The roach screamed, and Sanford was knocked clean on his backside from the hit.
BMM
CRK
-The pavement cracked and a hollow thrum sung throughout the armor when his backside made contact with the street.
Giving off a- 'Oof!'-from the fall, he had to fight the suit's bulkiness to scramble backwards with his legs and arms- the suit sparking with grinding drags on the concrete.
"Sanford! Monsieur'!"
"-A-Angrypants?! Is that you?!" Sanford couldn't look over his shoulder in the suit- but he heard the Deathclaw growl from where she was behind him, somewhere near a group of houses. She'd come back, that was good.
"CATCH! You ingrate!"
"Insulted!"
clak-clak-ck
-A big, bulky, metal and plastic object clattered about his ankles on the suit- it bounced about, and settled between them in a diagonal jut, with six barrels pointing upwards at the night sky.
Sanford blinked, and smiled heavily.
It was the Nukalizer. She'd found it.
"Ha-HA! Oh YES!" He cried, looking up at the roach, who, now, was starting to come towards him again with bore mandibles. "I'm gonna' flatten you, you shit!"
Sanford stood with a cumbersome few kicks of his boots, and presses of gauntlets to the street for support- the armor moaned and creaked, the systems were giving him alarms, but he didn't care.
He held the Nukalizer by its wooden-detailed handle, he reached up, and gave the crank on the top of the weapon a rough turn- and saw that the six barrels, three over another three- turned and shifted, so that the barrels on the bottom level, rotated to the top- like a wheel.
shm-CLM
-The Nukalizer steadied- he reached down and saw what looked like a safety bolt, and yanked it back.
Strangely, the three tubes sticking out the back made a clicking noise- and as Sanford raised the weapon towards the roach- he got a brief glimpse inside the tubes- and his toothy grin was shot right off his face.
...Because, well, the tubes were... Empty.
Wait a minute...
Where's the bloody ammo?!
"-Oh fuck!"
BM
-A roach leg impacted him dead center his armored gut- and Sanford was stumbling back again.
It was a good thing he partially blinded it- at least that meant that it would be less inclined to shoot-
SHSKM-SLLM
"WOAH!"
-Alright, he took that last part back.
The roach couldn't aim, at least- so the acid globules flew PAST him, and not close enough that more nasty roach residue would stain the plating.
Sanford kept hurrying backwards, now gazing in a dumbfounded way to the interior of the empty loading cylinders.
"You got me a gun with no AMMUNITION?!" He screamed- now turning, and seeing the Deathclaw standing by the sidewalk, arms now raised in annoyance. "There wasn't anything FOR ammunition! Y-You don't have anything in that magical rucksack of yours?!"
"Who do I friggin' LOOK LIKE?! Houdini'?!"
"Quelle'?! Who the hell is that?!"
"-I-I... Oh for shit's sake, NEVERMIND!"
"Hey-! Mr. Sanford-man!" Came a third voice from the outskirts of the engagement.
"Who-?" Sanford wheeled to his left, and through the shadows of the night, he saw a humanoid figure standing just before the sidewalk- waving an arm at him.
At first, he thought it was Gerald- but, squinting, and giving his suit's vision-filters a second to adapt- he proved it was not Gerald that was the Ghoul hailing him- it was Fred.
"Mr. Sanford-man! CATCH!"
"Catch what?!"
Fredrick reared back with his left arm- and loosed off a torpedo-looking shadow into the night air for Sanford's direction.
Sanford raised his chin, and watched the elongated, cylindrical object sail in a vertical spin through the sky- contrasted from the black, by only brief flickers of reflection from its glass surface.
Whatever it was, it was falling short.
"SHIT!" Sanford surged forwards with a few clamps of boots- and held out his gauntlet in some hope of catching the thing.
CLINK!
The object gave off a high-pitched chime as he balanced it in his grip, fumbling, and almost dropping it before steadying himself, and his arm.
"Ha! I got it! I really got... It..."
Sanford looked down at it- and was stupefied by what he was holding.
...It was a Soda bottle.
Actually, it was a Nuka-Cola bottle, with glass fins and missile-likeness in its shape and everything- even the label was still there, matted, tan-colored, and spelling out in red letters- NUKA-COLA- QUANTUM!
Nuka-Cola...?
Fred just ran out into a firefight... To throw him...
...Nuka-Cola?
Sanford looked up, and saw Fred standing there proudly.
Sanford was so shocked, that he was unable to comprehend the Deathclaw screaming at him that the roach was recovering, and coming at him again from behind.
Sanford was so shocked, that he almost opened his fingers and let the bottle shatter on the street.
Sanford was so shocked- that he became almost enraged.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "YEAH! Yeah! Yeah that's a real fuckin' treat! Thanks for the fuckin' energy drink MID-fight! Yeah man! YEAH! You got skills! YEP!"
"What was that?!" Fred called, bunching his hands on either side of his mouth. "I didn't hear!"
"SON OF A BITCH-!"
"No-no! You gotta' stuff it in the ammo tower, Mr. Sanford-man!"
"I SHOULD'VE LET THE MAL-FUCKIN' ROACH EAT BOTH OF YOU! I SHOULD'VE- ...wait, what?"
"The Quantum's the ammo, -man! Use the Quantum!"
Sanford looked down at the gun, and then he lowered that, and he looked at the luminescent blue Soda inside the Quantum bottle- gave it a good shake for measure, and watched the liquid slosh around.
Then he looked at the gun again.
And then he looked at the bottle again.
And then he looked upwards, in a convenient angle for full presentation of his helmet, and chuckled lightly.
"I must be some kind of an asshole to not see that one coming, right?"
"LOOKOUT!"
There was a wet clapping sound right behind his head- and Sanford spun around just in time, to see the Radroach's giant mandibles clenched in front of his helmet from where they had been stopped from biting the headgear itself.
The Deathclaw had to have jumped, like, ten or twelve feet through the air- because she leapt from one side of the two-lane street, and she soared over both lanes, the sidewalk and landed on the roach's back.
She clattered against the chitin- wrapping her arms over the roach's thorax, and shoving backwards with her entire body, forcing the roach to rear its front legs into the air and screech repeatedly.
The Deathclaw got a firmer grip- and started slashing with one of her claws- and her nails tore through the bullet-resistant exoskeleton like tinfoil.
CRRRK
SPPAHSSH
-A great trench was torn into the roach's thorax flank- a four-lined cut that eviscerated the shell, dug into its soft innards, and skewered everything that the nails dragged past. White bile bubbled and ejected from the wounds in hurried squirts.
The roach was bawling- it was screeching and screaming, and it mandibles were flared and open- it swung left and right, and the Deathclaw had to fight to keep her stance atop the bug- she wrenched her arm free with a final tug, and swung it through the air to loose off all the blood on it.
Sanford looked down at the Nukalizer, he took a deep breath and blinked- concentrating.
He reached up to the center storage cylinder- peered inside, and shook his head when he found a literal corkscrew mechanism at the farthest interior of it, right at the end of the tunnel.
Taking the Nuka-Cola Quantum in his other gauntlet, he formed a fist over the butt, and shoved the cap-end into the tunnel, where he felt a magnetic tug.
"Twist it!" Fred called over.
The roach- still reeling from the Deathclaw on its back- gave a furious hiss, and threw itself face-first towards the street- its abdomen swinging with the momentum, legs bucking to rear its backside into the air.
The mass shifting about- coupled with getting butted by- ironically -the roach's BUTT, caused her fly off the monster's back, directly over its head.
Sanford had just given the bottle a twist- and he heard the satisfying- CSHHK -of the carbonation leaving through the opened nozzle- he heard a clinging song by his boots, and glanced down to see the cap flittering away.
Right as the Deathclaw tumbled across the street with pocks of dust, thuds of swinging limbs- she came to a halt, and was scrabbling to her feet- the Nukalizer became active.
WHMMMMM
-It made a revving sound, and the crank mechanism quivered, the Mr. Handy circuitboard lit up with a few small, green lights.
BING-BING! -Rang a tiny chime.
Turning to view the Deathclaw- she was still standing up, and the roach was still screeching- now bleeding from its eye and the ragged wound on its side- it turned towards Sanford, and opened its mandibles, giving off a ragged hiss.
Sanford got a terrible sneer on his features- he held the Nukalizer one handed, and actually ran TOWARDS the roach.
"You like screaming, huh?!" He ducked, and a leg flew over his suit's shoulder pauldrons, whistling through the air. "You like screaming at me?!"
The roach tried to rear its head back- but Sanford hopped upwards with a creak of steel- and he slapped his gauntlet over the hole in the roach's eye.
PLK
-The insect hollered- and the entire, gigantic mass shifted downwards as Sanford tugged the roach back towards the earth.
Landing on his feet, with the giant's legs scurrying and thudding all around him- Sanford pressed the three barrels of the Nukalizer towards the roach's mandibles- he jammed it forwards, sticking it between the multi-layered mouth pieces.
Finally, with the beast furiously, and fruitlessly- struggling with his grip, Sanford shoved the whacky-looking weapon forwards one last time- and as if sensing the game being over- the roach actually stopped moving.
With the barrels buried in its mouth pieces- Sanford laughed.
"WELL, FUCK YOU TOO!"
He compressed the trigger.
CHK
BBBBBAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH
-A pillar of glowing, blue fire shot forth and burst from the insect's upper thorax in a dazzling display of illumination, that lit up the entire street, and highlighted the Deathclaw's features a faint blue as she stood in shock to what she was seeing.
In the backdrop- Fred was screaming at the top of his lungs.
"It's so BEAUTIFUUUUUUL!"
The flame that was being shot through the roach's body looked like it originated from a humungous bunsen-burner- it liquidated the beast from the inside out, gradually turning the ragged surroundings of the volcano-hole erupting from the bug's back a molten orange.
The entire insect looked like it was turning black- the hide became charred and flaky, the head and neck area vanished in the Godly pillar of blue fire that belched from the whining Nukalizer- it sounded like a small jet engine was screaming.
The roach's huge legs were still curling at its side- when the insect exploded.
PLLLLAAAGGHHHHUUHHHMMMPPP
-Half of the monster Radroach's body vanished in a disturbance of tan and yellow that misted throughout the air- the abdomen slouched back, raggedly burnt, and separated from the disintegrated space that used to sport the creature's thorax.
What was left of the roach's 'Ankles'- collapsed onto the street in two small, shriveled piles that thudded onto the pavement and lay still, steaming.
Chunks of roach meat fell all over the place in wet thwacks and kicks all about the pavement and off the roofs of houses with hollow thuds against the shingles. A bunch of windows on the street's homes were broken when crispy roach bits flew threw them.
For what looked like nearly a half-mile- there were tiny blotches and particles falling across the town in the backdrop- and as Sanford stood there, frozen, with the gun still pointed upwards from where the mouth of the monster had been- it was clearly evident, that the roach was dead.
The flame building from the Nukalizer subsided with a small- WHHHhhiiiirrrr... -Sound, the chime noise gave off a- BEEP...BEEP...BEEP- and Sanford slowly, but surely, lowered his gauntlet that was holding the weapon aloft.
The street, all around him- was spattered a burnt white- all of Sanford's armor, his helmet, his breastplate and pauldrons and legs- were stained burnt white. The Nukalizer- the ENTIRE gun, save for the tips of the barrels, which were black- were stained, BURNT WHITE.
In the moments of silence following the roach's demise, Sanford heard dripping- and he realized that slivers of the bug's guts and blood were still bunched and falling from his suit.
He couldn't bring himself to unfreeze from his half-kneeled position.
...This was... Awesome, after all, he killed it in the most spectacular way possible but... Jesus Christ, this was also disgusting.
"...I...I think... I think I'll suffer PTSD from this..." He mumbled to himself. "...My soul... Good lord, my poor virgin soul."
"Sanford! Monsieur'!"
Sanford started to relax a bit when the Deathclaw hurried up next to him- she had wide eyes, hunched shoulders, and despite that tumble there wasn't a scratch on her.
Though, there were flecks of yellow and white all over her hide- but she seemed too concerned for him to notice- of course, that was mitigated, when Sanford's helmet slowly creaked to face her, his body still immobile.
She saw for the first instance how... CAKED, he was in roach innards.
"...Oof." Was all she hissed, cringing.
"...I'm still beautiful on the inside... Just, don't judge me." He sighed lowly. "My life, she is flashing."
"Are you hurt, monsieur'?"
"...My pride is rather in pain."
"You'll live," She breathed out tiredly. "I can't believe that worked."
Fredrick made himself known with a few hurried footfalls on the street- he ran up to the sidewalk, and held his arms aloft in a great cheer.
"THAT WAS THE CRAZIEST SHIT, I HAVE EVER SEEN! AND,I DIDN'T GET HIT WITH ROACH GUTS! YEEEAAHHH-!"
PLK
-A whitish roach blob slapped into the cap of his hairy head.
Fred stood there, still smiling, eye twitching as a trail of goop slithered past his right nostril- and he dropped his arms with an exasperated- "-Shit."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-