The Great Pretender
Rays of morning sunlight crept through the blinds of Alex's apartment windows.
Sounds permeated all throughout the late summer air as Vale awakes from its slumber.
The sounds of birds chirping, rats scattering from sunlight, the homeless joyfully farted, and an unemployed mailman snoring blissfully.
Alex slept like a log that night, too tired from yesterday's events to have nightmares. He laid sprawled out on the couch, legs dangling from the edges, drooling and still clutching a bottle of wine.
Total bliss.
Until the sound of a squeaky bed and loud moaning awoke him.
Alex groggily got up from the couch, slowly making his way to where the sound was coming from.
"Hey! Keep it down in there!" yelled Alex as he banged on the wall.
They did, but only slightly.
Sitting back down he rubbed his eyes
The apartment reminded him of his time in Freeside when he was running errands for the King and collecting money to get on the Strip. Alex was loaded but he could never carry around all his caps before his Pip-Boy was pimped out, he instead stored it in several locations of D.C. and New Vegas, grabbing it only if he ever needed the money.
When he reached Freeside in his pursuit of Benny, he barely had a cap to his name. He instead had to run odd jobs for various people in Freeside such as the Garrets or the Kings, even then he could only afford a dinky little apartment a few minutes from old Mormon Fort.
That was a rough time for Alex, it was all a daze of booze, women, and anger. After his father's death that's all he could remember, the daze, he lashed out at a lot of good people, people that tried their best to help Alex, but he turned his back on them. Some of those people he would never get the chance to apologize too ever again, that hurt Alex more than any bullet wound or super mutant sucker punch. It was the fact that he could never say sorry, never get the closure he desperately needed that seared his soul.
'Goddamnit, this place is making me angsty,' though Alex
It was his go-to response whenever he was in one location for too long.
Suppressing his feelings, for now, he focused his mind on more pressing concerns.
Alex was back to square one in terms of finances, sure he managed to hit a few good scores yesterday, but he wasn't planning on being a petty thief for the remainder of his stay here.
He didn't have any gold bars; those sons of bitches were heavy, and he kept those specifically to finance particularly ambitious company projects.
What he needed was some good honest work.
Not necessarily honest or even morally 'good' work, but simply work.
Alex thought about getting back into contracting work, it was after all what he did best before starting the company.
Besides fighting in major Wasteland wars, he also did private security for local leaders throughout the wastes and important NCR personnel such as senators or Brahmin Barons. Alex also trained military personnel like the Misfits or even the Colorado resistance fighters with the help of some Hoplon Operators.
The problem was that contracting involved a lot of word of mouth, there was also the fact that he never served in any armed services on this world or on Earth. Even if he forged documents it would cause people to look too deeply into his background, they'd want references, people to vouch for him.
He was also back to square one in this regard, not having the repertoire here to do the big money contractor work. Instead, he'd most likely have to do security work for a little, he'd avoid looking for work at the mall.
'Maybe I'm overthinking this,' thought Alex 'I mean shit, NCR let that moron Little Buster run around for a while,'
Vale isn't in the NCR though.
With a frustrated sigh Alex got a shower in and did his morning grooming rituals.
'I'll figure something out, it isn't the end of the world,' thought Alex.
Getting dressed he had laid out a pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a brown bomber jacket the previous night. Benny's suit was little too loud in this part of the city, thankfully he kept an extra set of clothes in case he was ever far from home and in a civilian setting. He kept the black leather boots with the street clothes though, they're sturdy and look nice.
He'd head over to the library today, hopefully, he'll be able to make sense of all the terms and place names he heard yesterday.
Alex grabbed a pair of cigarettes from the counter and his backpack containing his Pip-Boy, he wasn't comfortable leaving it here just yet. Hell, he wasn't comfortable having it off for this long.
Lighting a cigarette as he walked out of his apartment, he walked across the street to the liquor store, on his way home last night he noticed there was a restaurant in the back that served breakfast and lunch. He'd have a quick breakfast before leaving.
Ordering an omelet and some coffee, Alex took a seat in one of the booths. As he ate he watched the boxy T.V. that was set up on the top right corner of the restaurant, the news was on apparently, there was a terrorist attack at the Schnee Dust company offices yesterday, some group called the White Fang started holding employees hostage, it involved deployment of SWAT teams and VAIG units. Police locked down the area and were busy responding to smaller White Fang attacks.
'Well that explains why the police was a no show at the mall and all the sirens,' thought Alex
On a side note, Alex thought the Schnee Dust Company and White Fang were apart of some sort of large cocaine conspiracy.
'White Dust companies, White Fang. Jesus, it's the war on drugs and terror,' thought Alex
There were no mentions of his exploits at the mall, which he was grateful for but he would still keep his Pip-Boy hidden for a little while longer, it'd be an uncomfortable situation if he was recognized out on the streets as the guy who dropped in from nowhere and shot a man in the knees.
There was also no mention of Juniors club that Blondie trashed last night.
'That's strange,' thought Alex
Despite yesterday being a hectic day for law enforcement that shouldn't have stopped the news from jumping all over these stories. Somebody must of went to the media with a scoop. Something was afoot it gave Alex this tingly feeling, it usually meant somebody, or something still had few skeletons in their closets.
Alex pushed those thoughts to far corners of his mind for now, he finished his breakfast and begrudgingly left a tip. Living in a vault you'd never really learned about tipping, there wasn't really many places to get food from anyways. He learned not tipping was frowned upon in the Wasteland, a carryover from Pre-War American culture, he learned that the hard way when his favorite dinner in Rivet City refused to serve him because he never left a tip.
'They're still assholes for that,' thought Alex 'offered to pay double too,'
Making his way to the Vale Downtown Library he used his map and would occasionally get directions from the random passerby.
It was a large building with Greco-Roman Architecture and some modern influences, it looked eerily like the Pantheon. If members of Caesars Legion saw this, they'd probably start moaning in ecstasy.
Walking in, Alex was greeted with the sight of rows upon rows of books.
'Holy shit, this is amazing,' thought Alex
It made him feel a little giddy and a little overwhelmed
He wasn't a book worm per se, but he was excited to vast arrays of books. NCR had libraries but they were never this big and a lot of it is from when the Followers of the Apocalypse was still working closely with the NCR. Even groups like the Brotherhood, who have massive digital libraries, would quite literally kill to gain ahold of these books.
Many ignored him, occasionally someone would notice his rugged features or scars but for the most part, they left him alone.
Alex got to work, he perused the history section of the library and other genres to round out his knowledge of Vales history and culture.
He ate up a lot of the books learning this worlds history, he learned of the Great war, he learned of the Faunus, Dust, The CCT networks, Government, Aura, Huntsman, Grimm. A lot of it was just general history he wasn't analyzing every battle of the Great war for example.
Alex got a real hoot and holler when he read that the year is 1086 signifying the founding of Vale as a settlement and strangely enough, they had the same days and months named as it is on Earth.
There were things that still confused him such as Aura, from what he read it sounded like a bunch of hippie mumbo jumbo, even the authors of the books weren't exactly sure what Aura is. They kept saying it was the soul, and while Alex did consider himself a little superstitious, he still thought what he read was brahmin shit.
'Bet they have Aura massage parlors here, they're happy endings are a spiritual hand job,' thought Alex.
But enough people seem to buy into it, from what he's read it certainly explained why Blondie was able to tank hits or Junior was able to survive crashing into a giant glass pillar. Did fuck all against chemical attacks.
Dust also wasn't the most reliable or powerful of substances, does come in a variety of flavors giving it a slight advantage over regular gunpowder it's also much more versatile. Gunpowder does exist here but it's a very obscure substance that was mentioned in one sentence of a book pertaining to Dust.
Semblances are what basically grants people superpowers and it was either unique to each person or hereditary. The lack of consistency hurt Alex's brain.
You couldn't even have an Aura without having some sort of permit or being a Huntsman or Huntsman in training. It was something of a new law since insurrectionists in southern Vale kept sprouting up and the White Fangs been ramping up attacks. Alex was sure that you could still have someone unlock it for you under the table after all those goons at Junior's had Aura.
On a side note, Alex read that the far south of Vale, Kote Sekirite, is very culturally different from the Capital and it's surrounding regions. They spoke Haitian Creole or at least something very similar, it has a mixed population of Humans and a slightly higher Faunus one, the reason for the high Faunus population is that in the old days of slavery, slaves would often hide in Kote Sekirite thick forests, thus the name. Also, when the Faunus received Menagerie as reparations after the Great War, a lot of them thought it was an overcrowded dump, so they moved in with their cooler older brother.
Kote Sekirite isn't recognized as a nation by other Kingdoms despite having its own government, currency, and military. From what he's read even some famous Huntsman were from Kote Sekirite.
Speaking of Huntsman, they unsettled Alex quite a bit.
Huntsman are the rocks stars of this world and are basically glorified mercenaries since they operated separately from the kingdoms.
They reminded Alex of the Landsknechts of his world, extravagant clothing, and extravagant personalities. Becoming a Huntsman is similar to becoming a member of the Eastern Brotherhood of Steel, albeit much laxer, you were either born into it or you had a sponsor that would vouch for your entrance to an academy or primary combat school.
Unfortunately, this sprouted something of a neo-feudalistic society, while Huntsman are mercenaries, they're super-powered mercenaries. They have whole bloodlines that could trace their heritage back to the Great War and they exert considerable amounts of influence over the governments of this world. They could, and often do, barge into police or military operations overriding any and all commands.
It'd explain why the militaries of this world were severely kneecapped except for Atlas, Vale had its army downsized and integrated into the Law enforcement being branded as the Vale Army Intervention Group, like the GIGN of pre-war France. Other Kingdoms had no militaries and instead relied on their own Huntsman or Atlas to come to their defense.
It'd also explain why Huntsman or possible Huntsman incidents are kept quiet, keep on trudging along with the status quo and with the Grimm being attracted to negative emotions he understood why it's preferred.
Alex was incredulous when reading this info from authors praising the Huntsman and often harshly critiquing Atlas for keeping their 'antiquated military' as well as mocking VAIG units.
'Fucking nimrods,' thought Alex
Don't get Alex wrong though, the Wasteland is a good example of the aftermath of a massive military-industrial complex getting out of hand along with some corporate greed, but considering all the Grimm that still prowled outside the walls he'd expect a more militarized society.
Alex rubbed his face, he'd rather have been dumped on an island full of beach blondes and sweet, sweet liquor. Instead, he was dumped into a society with its own slew of complex issues that he'd have to try dodge, for any normal person it would have been easy, just keep your head down and your mouth shut, but for Alex that was like trying to dance Salsa with a Deathclaw. He'd get drag into someone else's bullshit like always. Its what he does best.
After his rundown of the basics of Remnant, he picked a secluded corner to do some good old hacking. He fiddled around with the internet and the computer to get a feel for it, it was little different from what he's used but if he could manage to figure some of the most complex technologies in the Wasteland, then he could figure out how a Remnant computer worked.
After learning about the CCT and by extension the internet, he was excited that he could cut out the middleman of having someone make forgeries for him.
He cracked open the metaphorical windows of the government and slid himself into existence.
He made some stuff up about his parents owning a minor and now-defunct company, being orphaned at a young age, which was sadly true, and left him a few of the company's experimental technologies as an inheritance.
It'd explain some of his gear like his Pip-Boy.
It also explains why he's flat broke.
With that out of the way he now had the arduous task of jumping some hoops of Vale's bureaucracy, he did, after all, put himself down as being 25.
Now he had to obtain copies of the paperwork that he forged and grab his ID.
After making a few bribes and wiggling of his eyebrows he'd manage to acquire all the things he needed to prove he existed here.
It did put him in a few awkward situations here and there, but he pulled through. It also dented his finances down from 950 Lien to 540 Lien. He'd need work soon.
So here he was, a Bonafide and proud citizen of Vale. It was a boring but educational day, he was much more of his current situation, certain things like Aura and Dust still tripped him up but if he smiles and nods, he'll be alright.
He even acquired a new scroll, that he tactically acquired from an unaware citizen, he'd mess around with it when he got home.
On his way home he took notice that it was getting overcast, he stopped by a mini market to grab some bread and jelly, he'd also use the plastic bag to protect his paperwork from getting wet.
Exiting the mini market, it was beginning to drizzle a bit.
Another little curious fact about Vale is that the area he was currently living is called 'The Sewers'
Appropriate.
"Hey! Buddy!"
'Oh, Jesus, not this clown again,'
Alex turned around and instantly regretted it
There was Joey again walking over to Alex with the same shit-eating grin and the same greasy long hair.
"Hey Buddy, how's it been!" said Joey
"It's been good, now fuck off," said Alex
"C'mon you don't have to be rude now! I even have a little surprise for you," said Joey
In the Wasteland that meant they either wanted to show you their dick or want you to follow them into an alley where you'd get mugged.
Alex sighed "Look I'm not interested pal, really,"
"No, no, c'mon look!" said Joey
Alex didn't know what compelled him, but he looked, he was basically asking for his eyes to be seared at the sight of a homeless man's penis.
But that's not what he saw
Instead, it was a necklace, a necklace with a wooden carving of a bear.
Was that Yews bear charm?
Upon closer inspection he noticed that it was indeed the same charm, taking notice of all the nicks and lumps of the wooden bear.
His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
He thought he'd lost it forever, he threw it somewhere in Big MT in a drunken rage, during that time he wanted to leave D.C. behind and any relics of his past would get him moody, then he'd start drinking, then he'd get angry and start throwing things around mumbling to himself.
With the encouragement of Boone and Veronica he returned to D.C. a few years ago, while he was there, he learned that Yew was inspired by his adventures in D.C. and left Oasis at the age of 15 to venture the wastes. She died defending a town from raiders.
"Where did you get that," said Alex stepping in to take the necklace.
"Hey not so fast buddy," said Joey quickly stuffing the charm back into his coat.
Alex was pissed off beyond belief, he wanted to punch that fucker right in his swollen red nose, he started shaking in anger.
Before Alex could say anything, Joey spoke
"Look, I know this probably means a lot to you but all I'm asking is for a drink with you, we have something of a little community here in The Sewers and I've taken it upon myself to vet out newcomers, so all I'm asking is I'd like to get to know you," said Joey losing his usual smile.
Alex was taken aback, admittedly he also felt a little bad for acting like an asshole, only a little though, if some bum rushes up trying to take you to a titty bar, you'd be suspicious and gruff as well.
"Yeah, well, some community you have here, saw a couple trying to kill each other last night," said Alex
"Eh, we all have our character flaws," said Joey
"Hmph, sure,' said Alex
Alex paused; rain was starting to fall a little harder. he hoped he doesn't come to regret his next decision.
"Ah, sure why not, I'll have a drink with you," said Alex
"That's more like it! C'mon it's not too far from here," said Joey adopting his smile again
Entering the strip club, the first thing Alex noticed was the smell of sweaty feet.
Turning to Joey Alex looked at him with a deadpan stare and said
"It reeks," said Alex, he felt bad for being an asshole to Joey earlier, but he wasn't planning on giving him bullshit either.
Joey took it in good humor and chuckling said "Hah! Sorry, this ain't the 5-star brothel you've been looking for,"
Music was playing in the background as a stripper danced to the music, the music was synth-y and slow, made the stripper look corny and lame but hey blame whoever is playing the music.
They took a seat at the bar ordering their drinks from a topless Faunus woman, Alex wasn't really paying attention to the woman, oh sure some of them were beautiful but he was put off by the stench, he was also engaged in a conversation currently.
"I never got your name," said Joey
"It's Alex…Alex Guerrero," said Alex
"So, Alex Guerrero, what brings you to this part of our illustrious city?" asked Joey
"Just came in from Vacuo, did some contracting work, and right now I'm kinda in between jobs," said Alex
They went back and forth getting to know each other, turns out Joey was also a merc back in his youth, he did some stints with the Atlesian military and guarded some big wig chief over in Menagerie for a little while, as to why he was homeless in the first place… well, they didn't know each other quite that well.
The beers didn't do anything for him, he was just keeping pace with the old-timer, but he wasn't that bad he was even sharing a few laughs with him. Alex had to change up some of his stories of course or embellish a little for things to make sense, it was a bit of dance that he had to do and some praying. Alex would be vague about locations and even throw in a few place names like Goodsprings, thankfully Joey wasn't too inquisitive and even seemed to enjoy some of his tales in 'Vacuo' even if he thought it was just big talk.
Occasionally one of the strippers would walk by and Joey would try to woo a damsel but then bumble over his words and say something like 'and oh how your ass glitters in the moonlight' and other lewd comments.
Usually, though they would come to talk with Alex, he looked a lot better than Joey but was a little more than distant with people.
It made Joey laugh his ass off
"Woah! Watch out their lady killer, you'll talk the girls to death," said Joey
Alex was talking how he normally talks with strangers, friendly but brief, he'd only go on long-winded rants with close friends. If wanted to get into someone's pants he'd just go see a lady of the night.
"Not for a lack of trying, problem is that you folk consider it aloof," replied Alex
Which is common for Wasteland adventurers, didn't really talk much, but hang around for a while, share the struggle alongside them and they'll be your most stalwart friends.
Joey kept laughing taking another swig of his beer.
Alex heard the door swing open, somebody was rushing in and sobbing. Joey and the other inhabitants didn't have the same enhanced hearing that Alex had, even before the cybernetics he's always had something of a great perception of his environment.
In comes this lady, her sobbing more audible, Joey sees her before he hears her, but he can tell something is wrong immediately.
"Hey Iris, what's going on?" Joey asked.
"Oh my gods Joey I've been looking all over for you," said Iris.
Her eyes were bloodshot from crying, sadness and fear were evident in her eyes.
"What happened? What happened?" asked Joey.
"They took my boy! They took my baby boy and my sister!" said Iris.
The strip club-goers were shooting looks over in their direction wondering what all the ruckus is all about.
"Calm down, Iris, calm down, who took them?" responded Joey trying to keep from freaking out.
"The White Fang! The fucking White Fang! They took my boy! My sister!" screamed Iris.
There was a rustling in the club, bringing up the Fang in this part of town was like invoking the name of the Burned Man in Legion territory.
One of the Faunus bouncers came up to them, older lupine feller, there was certain understanding and empathy in his eyes.
"Hey, if you need to talk about it go in the back please," said the bouncer.
Joey, comforting Iris rubbing her back, simply nodded.
It was strange seeing this much compassion, especially in a strip club, back in Vegas they would have been told to get the fuck out with their bullshit.
'These Vale folk sure are strange,' thought Alex
Joey did say they're a community, never expected them to be all hugging and supporting.
"Alright Iris lets go, oh, and Alex I know it isn't any of your business, but I'd appreciate it if you came with us," said Joey
It wasn't any of his business, but he's been getting that itch on his ass since Iris walked in, it was a nervous tick that'd cause him to do some dumb shit in the past, but it'd drive him mad if he didn't do something and he was never one to rest on his laurels.
"Um…yeah, sure," said Alex.
"Ya don't have to if you don't want to," said Joey.
"No, no, I'll go with you," said Alex.
They walked to the back of the club towards the security room.
Once they got into the room Joey sat Iris down.
"I'm sorry Joey, I'm really sorry," said Iris her voice weak.
"Nah, don't worry about it, it's fine, but tell me what's going on? How'd Reggie and Bonny get mixed up in this?" asked Joey.
"Well," Iris cleaned herself up a bit, a bouncer passed her a box of tissues "Reggie was getting bullied by this Faunus boy at school and Reggie is a good boy you know that, but he'd be getting bullied by this Faunus boy and the boy would say mean things to him like calling him 'Human trash' and other horrible things,"
Iris took a moment to collect herself.
"Sorry," said Iris.
"Don't worry," said Joey "take all the time you need,"
"Um… well, he at first he would just ignore him, but it started getting worse, the boy would start getting physical with him, and one day he came back with bruises and he refused to answer to who was doing it, finally after sitting down with him, he told me everything. The next day I went with him to school and talked to the principal and he gave the boy after school detention for the rest of the month. That only made the boy more aggressive, and he ended up fighting Reggie, but Reggie beat him up and the boy said he was going to 'go get his brothers and deal with him' after that they both got suspended and a few days go by and nothing happens,"
Iris starts tearing up again
"Then I get a phone call from Bonny, I pick up the phone and I hear a man's voice, he says that he's got my boy and my sister at her house and that they want 5,000 liens by tomorrow morning, and he said that if police show up they'll kill them,'
Iris cries, gasping for air in between.
Joey rubs her back telling her that 'it's gonna be okay,'
"I-I don't know what to do I don't have 5,000 Lien, Joey what am I'm gonna do I-I-I…" stuttered Iris, sounding defeated.
"Hey, don't worry about it, we'll round up some ransom money from the folk around the neighborhood don't worry," said Joey
Joey sounded a lot softer and fatherly than his usual attitude; it was a nice change of pace from the waster bum trying to frisk you persona.
Guess everyone's got a soft side.
While it shouldn't be any of his concern, that itch on his ass was raging up again. It was his ass tick mixed in with this self-righteous attitude he developed when he ventured out into the wastes for the first time, thinking he could save the world.
Alex was also wary, it was always situations like this, the small little dilemmas that broke the Brahmins back. It'd open the floodgates and drag him into a major and complex conflict between warring factions when it happens to you enough times you start getting superstitious. Hell, he might have already broken the Brahmins back just by existing here.
He hadn't planned on playing hero for these people, he just needs some cash to cover his traveling expenses. All he needed was one good score and he'd leave this place forever; the Wasteland had its own sets of troubles and he'd rather not be invested in the affairs of folks here.
Or so he told himself.
In truth, he was a big sucker for people that needed helping, if they had everything then they had everything under control. Joey and Iris were already making plans as to who they were going to ask for help. He'd rather not see these folks get conned from a couple of terrorists. Then again, they could just be some hooligans planning on scaring this poor lady and her family, but he did read that White Fang often splinter off and do petty shit like this all the time to grab some quick cash.
With all this in mind only one thing popped into his head.
'Fuck it'
Clasping Joey on the shoulder Alex said, "Don't worry about the ransom Joey, I'll get Reggie and Bonny back,"
"Huh? You're gonna go in all by yourself?" said Joey
"Yeah, like I said, don't worry, I've done crazier shit than this," said Alex
Joey had a skeptical look plastered all over his face but relented.
"Alright well whatever ya do just make sure Reggie and Bonny are okay and here the necklace," said Joey
"Thank you," said Alex
Alex got the address before departing, Iris was in too much distress to really respond and just barely managed to choke out the words. It was a 30-minute walk from the strip club, blue house, single story.
As he neared the house he went into a secluded alley, Alex slipped on his Pip-Boy and started de-materializing gear he needed for the raid.
He'd be running a much more bare-bones setup than he usually does with Hoplon Operators. He stripped off things like med-packs and other gear on the back of his multi-curved plate carrier only leaving a crowbar, he was running three 5.56 magazine pouches and a flashbang on the front of his armor. For headgear, he was using an Ops core maritime helmet with integrated comms and a balaclava, his favorite piece of gear attached to his helmet is the panoramic night vision goggle, fresh off the press. Under all his equipment he was wearing P40 all-terrain pants and a Winter combat shirt all ranger green.
His weapon of choice this time around would be the BCM AR, with Eotech, suppressor, vertical grip, and AN/PEG slapped on the right side of the barrel. Like his All-American setup with slight differences. He also had a minimalist battle belt, running a Glock 17 as his sidearm and having stimpacks and flex cuffs on his belt.
Slinging on his rifle he slowly approached the house in the cover of darkness, Faunus may have natural night vision, but Alex is very stealthy, also doesn't hurt that he's running his stealth bots.
The tricky part was that he didn't know how many bad guys were in the house or even where the hostages were being held.
Fortunately, he had just the solution.
Activating his bionic eyes his thermal vision was able to see through walls, he had to angle it just right not to get it mixed up with other heat signatures from other buildings. Again, with the redundancies but his eyes had thermal vision and they could see through walls, gave him a wicked headache after prolonged use.
He picked up 6 signatures in total, two remained still, possibly watching TV, he could hear laughter and cartoonish sounds. Another was patrolling the house checking out windows. The last three were in the furthest corner of the house, that's most likely where the hostages would be alongside a guard.
Deactivating his Thermal vision, Alex pushed down his night vision goggles and got to work.
Earl was nervous, they've never done something this high stake before. Usually, they'd just rob a store on a Thursday, steal a couple of cases of beer and call it day, but last night they got the call in from the Lieutenant, he said that since they didn't do shit yesterday to help with the Schnee hostage operation that they would have to pull in a bigger score.
Ever since Adam came to Vale shit's been ramping up, usually they'd just do some robberies, show up to protests as extra muscle, and that was it. Now that Adam and his posse are here, he's been on a warpath, he tried to start an uprising in Kote Sekirite but they kicked his ass all the way to the north, there are even rumors going around that his girlfriend bailed on him during a train heist and he's been losing it.
There were even more rumors about Adam and how he liked them young, but no one mentioned it around him if they liked keeping their head on their shoulders.
The others mulled around watching cartoons and drinking soda, Sill's little brother came to them the other day crying about some human kid beating him up, but Sill told him to stop acting like a little bitch and to beat it. With the call in though Earl and the rest of the gang decided it be best to kill two birds with one stone.
So here they are, Earl and Sill being the only ones taking this seriously, Daff and Aryl just lounging around waiting for the big payday.
*SNAP*
"Huh? Did y'all hear that?" asked Earl
"Calm down Earl it was nothing, it's gonna be an easy score, we had that bitch quivering in her boots," chuckled Daff.
"Still, I'm gonna take a gander," said Earl
"C'mon dude, even if they did send the cops, we got Aura now, we can take care of it," said Aryl.
"Still though," said Earl
"Fine, fine, go have a look if it calms you down, jeez," said Daff
Earl heard the sound coming from the bathroom, as he approached the door, he drew his pistol his heart was racing, and his palms were sweaty. He twisted the doorknob then quickly pushed the door in pointing his gun into the bathroom.
It was empty
Then he started squinting at the toilet, it looked a little distorted.
That's when he felt a knife jam into his throat completely penetrating his Aura and slicing across.
Earl choked and gurgled on his blood, panicking he dropped his gun and tried to keep the blood in his body.
His life ended with a knife to his temple.
'Lights out,' thought Alex.
He never slit someone's throat from the front before, on the account of it being extremely fucking difficult. Also, there's something deeply disturbing about staring someone in the eyes as they died. He may have killed thousands of people, but very rarely did he look them in the eyes before they died. In this case, they were covered by the terrorist's mask.
He gently laid the terrorist on the ground, Alex wiped the blood off his knife on the man's body
"Earl? You alright bud?" called out Aryl
The only response he got was an object thrown into the room followed by a *BANG*
A flash of bright white light blinded them, and a loud ringing sound disorientated them severely.
Alex rushed into the room shooting them three times in each of their heads, they went down, guess gunpowder did a hell of a walloping against Aura.
"Earl?... Daff?... Aryl?..." said Sill
He heard a lot of loud noises and gunshots.
"Hey…What's going on?"
No response.
"Anybody out there?"
Still no response.
"Who the fuck is out there!" he was starting to get nervous.
Silence.
The only thing he could hear is the pattering of rain on the rooftop.
It was driving him mad.
He grabbed the boy Reggie beside him and put a pistol to his head.
"I got hostages in here asshole! Don't try anything funny or I'll blow their fucking heads off!"
More silence.
The man grew hysterical
He threw Reggie to the side, yelling at the door
"WHO THE FUCK IS OUT THEIR,"
He got his answer when the wooden door was sent flying, knocking him down to the floor. Before he could push the door off him a series of gunshots went through the door killing him.
Kicking down doors like that was something of a party trick he learned when he first got his cybernetics.
Looking over towards the hostages Alex sheepishly said
"Sorry about your door,"
He took out their gags and the cut their ropes.
"Oh my gods, you saved us," said Bonny.
'What a cliché thing to say, the fuck is this, some shitty romance book,' thought Alex.
"Are you with the VAIG?" asked the boy.
"Uh, no. But you should exit the house and call authorities, don't look at the bodies on your way out," said Alex.
Bonny did as he told grabbing her phone and Reggie on her way, she was little more than squeamish but she tried not to think about.
Alex crept out the building and materialized into his normal street clothes.
He ran off to play hero today, he could already feel something in his gut, like he just opened the floodgates.
He took the long way home; he could already hear the sirens blaring in the background.
It rained heavily that night.
AN: Another night, another chapter. This was originally going to be much larger but as I was writing this chapter and adding new parts in, I decided to cut off after the hostage rescue and save the rest for the next Chapter. A few things I want to mention is the gear I've described will simply be referred to as 'Hoplon Gear' from now on, I had a specific image of what it would look like but it felt a bit much explaining it in such length. Another thing I want to mention is that after chapter 5 I plan on slowing down releases to once a week because honestly I've been writing and powering through chapters from 9 pm to 7 am, so I want to take the time to fix my sleep schedule, have surplus chapters, and generally allow me to edit and clean up chapters because I notice that the chapters have been very hot off the press. Anyways I hope you have a good one.