Arthur shuddered at the sights and sounds of the assembly, the bickering and arguing, that could be heard around the chamber as the votes were cast. This didn't feel real, none of it felt real, today there were two candidates, none of which were a Lyons or a Maxson.
Triston or Rothchild... Both of which insist that they are doing this out of love for Owyn and his daughter, though Arthur didn't see that side of it at all. All he saw were two beta dogs, snapping up at the position of the pack alpha, desperate to benefit from the fall of the Lyons dynasty.
How was everything falling apart? Two years ago, it looked like a bright and rather dull future was ahead of them but now? Now it was all collapsing...
Did nobody care that Sarah was dead? Her body hadn't even been recovered, her friends and family were spending the time that they should be spending grieving infighting over the position that she left vacant.
The mission to eradicate the mutant menace was most definitely a failure, mutant activity was on the rise and yet nobody cared, because the Brotherhood didn't have an Elder. How could it be that Owyn, the kindest and wisest man that Arthur ever knew taught these people nothing?
How was it, after everything that Sarah had taught him, after everything they told him he was going to accomplish, that he was stuck at the back of the room, without a fucking vote, unable to do anything about it!?
Arthur had finally had enough, he stood up and marched out of the council chambers, not even bothering to hear the result, what did it matter? The enemy was out there, the mutants were growing restless with each day, prowling the wastes and looking for captives to drag off to their deaths.
Some chosen one he was... wasn't a chosen one supposed to offer hope? Wasn't he supposed to be leading these people to the Promised Land? No, instead he sat around as a permanent drain on resources...
As he stepped out, into the hallway, he felt his torso hollow out again, he could feel himself going faint with each motion forward as he approached the lab, panting softly until he eventually took a seat on the floor and shivered furiously. He felt sick, angered, afraid, enraged but most of all, it was how isolating the situation had made him.
Both Tristan and Rothchild wanted to hold him up and consider his half-hearted endorsement as 'approval' as they rubbed it in their rival's faces.
Arthur had no intentions of adding fuel to the fires, the divisions were just too much of a distraction. The Mutants were still out there, the ones that killed Sarah, they were still threatening to take settlements and maybe even repopulate and when they were so big in number that they could easily take Megaton, what could be done then?
He looked at his pale hands before burying his face into his knees, taking in several deep breaths as he fought back tears.
Sarah...
Come home...
Please?
"Mister Simms?" A metallic, British sounding voice asked, having to be rather loud to be heard over his thrusters.
"Mrgh..." Harden growled as he buried his head into his duvet, trying to cover himself up to shield his ears from the tiny jet engine burning at the far side of the room.
"Mister Simms, I must insist that you wake up and give this some degree of attention... Even if you're just willing to tell it to bugger off, it would be better than nothing.."
"Harden!"
This got him to sit right up, shaking his head furiously as he looked around the room, noticing that his Mr Handy robot and Jynx were now stood over his bed, looking somewhat intently at him.
"Wh-What!?" He grunted, looking around the room with a sigh as he tried to find some form of device with the time on it.
"What the hell are you... What're you doing here?" He grumbled, throwing his sheets off and getting Jynx to look away in a mix of disgust and decency. Harden definitely needed to learn to sleep clothed...
"Those guys? The ones at Gobbs? They didn't take your threats seriously and they're still there!"
Harden sighed as he slipped a pair of pants on and buttoned up the crotch, Jynx just found herself looking over to robotic butler, with a sigh.
"Is he always like this, Wadsworth?"
"Unfortunately, yes." The Mr Handy sighed as he floated away, giving Harden the privacy that he needed.
"Miss Jynx, would you like a hot beverage to get over the shock out of seeing Master Simms' indecency?"
"Hey! Six months ago, she would've begged to have seen that!" Harden grunted as he threw his shirt over his head and tunnelled his way out of it."
"Harden, believe me... There's nothing remotely erotic or even charming about a guy rolling out of a dirty bed, stinking of booze. I meant, for fucks' sake, you're barely old enough to drink and you already have a problem!"
"I have two problems." Harden grunted as he pulled his Sherriff's duster around himself and pulled at it furiously.
"They're both up at Gobb's place." He added as he grabbed his lever action rifle and loading it, cocking it as he went. He wasn't fully aware but that rifle was Abraham Lincoln's very own repeater, salvaged from the Washington DC museum of natural history.
He and Jynx had been living in this place for two years now, surrounded by various items, weapons and pieces of armour. Few of it could be identified and testing it could have rather disastrous results, so the energy weapons were locked away, back in Denis' storage locker.
It still disgusted him that they were shacking up in the Lone Wanderer's house. Originally this was Jynx's place, however, Harden grew tired of living alone. Jynx could see it and since they had been dating for a while anyway, Harden decided that it would be best to move in here, what with the robot butler and everything.
At first, it felt like a new beginning, a new way of life but now? It was nothing more than a horrible mistake...
"Sherrif Simms, might I suggest that you wear some armour-?" Wadsworth's suggestion was cut short as the door was slammed shut in his face, prompting him to sigh.
"Just looking out for your wellbeing, sir... no need to thank me. Or acknowledge me..." He grumbled, in disgust as he hovered away, seeing as Jynx approached him.
"Think I should go after him?" She asked peering around.
"I would, aye... You know, for all the bad-mouthing, he does share a lot of traits with Mister Callaghan."
Jynx couldn't help but chuckle at that, he had a point... That night when the Slavers came, tearing this place apart, Denis cared nothing for his own wellbeing, despite everyone's insistence that he got himself some proper medical attention.
"Alright, I'll get going." She insisted, hopping over to the door.
"You know the drill, right? Don't-..."
"Let anyone in, unless they're you two, yes, I am fully aware!" Wadsworth grunted, looking away, with a scowl.
"Only been living here for decades..."
"Sorry, just... never hurts to make sure." She sighed before rushing out.
Hardin stepped through the streets, doing his best to eye the town, to make sure that nothing else was going on bellow. Thankfully, there were few instances in which he was needed these days, his no nonsense attitude seemed to keep people on the straight and narrow.
When they heard that the sheriff was a kid, some wasteland asshole tried robbing the Brass Lantern, made off with quite a bit of money as well before he was shot in the back by Hardin's Rifle on the way out.
Dumb prick had about 500 caps on him, couldn't have gotten very far with that but far enough, one would think...
Thankfully, most of the scum of the wastes died in Hamilton's raid, though there were resurgent groups forming around the Capital Wasteland. Nothing too major yet though, nothing that had a chance of invading the town...
The thing was... With Jericho, Billy, his dad and most importantly, Denis, gone... Hardin was this town's last line of defence. He alone was all that stood between this town and the world that wanted it dead.
It was quite a lot of pressure, especially considering that he wasn't even considered a 'man' in most people's eyes. However, nobody else would step up to the job. Sure the settlers didn't like having a kid as Sheriff but would they wear the duster? Of course not, that would imply that any of them wanted to be responsible for once in their sad, pathetic excuse of lives.
Hardin paused as he reached Gob's Saloon, taking a deep breath as he placed his hand on the door. He couldn't afford to give people chances, he had to shoot first and ask questions later. His Father didn't do that and for all the moral high ground he gained, he still wound up dead...
Hardin stepped inside the tavern, seeing the two patrons in question, stood at the bar.
"The fuck man!? Moriarity used to let us stay here for free, all the time!" The first Patron insisted, he wore a leather vest, with a white t-shirt underneath it. Both his shirt and his vest looked surprisingly clean...
"Moriarity is dead and buried, this place is mine! You want free room and board? Move in with your parents! We're a business, now pay up." Nova sighed, shaking her head. She was usually the one who was dealing with situations like this, Gob wasn't exactly the most confident of guys, due to how Moriarity used to treat him.
Apparently, Gob used to be a slave, according to rumour. He technically wasn't, through some loose technicalities.
"Listen whore, I ain't payin' to stay in this shit hole! There was a cockroach in my room!"
"Just the one? Huh... We should upgrade that to the presidential suite. Now, pay up, five hundred caps for the bed and the drinks you bought."
"I did not drink five hundred caps worth of swill!"
"Two forty for the two rooms and 250 for the food and drink, we did try to warn you but you got aggressive with us, remember?"
"C'mon Howard, fuck this bitch. We'll just hit the road." The other patron shrugged, rising to his feet and turning around, immediately finding himself standing face to face with Hardin.
"Oh fuck... It's the big bad sherrif!" 'Howard' mocked as he moved forward, eyeing the rifle.
"Get the fuck outta our way, kid!"
"Not until you pay up." Hardin insisted, staring the two of them down.
"You two got guns, you could sell them, along with the bullets to cover it."
"Fuck off kid, then we won't have shit!" The other patron growled, though Hardin didn't seem swayed.
"Not my problem."
The two patrons grabbed their guns, raising them up towards Hardin as they got ready to gun the Young Sherriff down, however, Hardin had already drawn. He shot at the two patrons, blasting them clean away with two harsh and quick shots.
He managed to take them both down, with only one of them being able to fire a shot off but completely missing and shooting upwards at the ceiling as he flew onto his back, landing with a heavy thud on the floor, groaning loudly as he lay there and prompting Hardin to wander over to him, pulling the latch back and ejecting the empty case onto the floor.
Gob found himself looking away as Hardin towered over the fallen rabble rouser, knowing that it wasn't his place to comment or protest but also knowing that Hardin wouldn't listen. Instead, he elected to simply do his best not to flinch as he heard the finishing gunshot.
He failed...
The shot was amplified by the metallic walls, causing everyone to wince as they heard it. The thunderous vengeance of Megaton's sheriff was heard in every room on the upper level, awakening several patrons.
Hardin said nothing until the spent shell casing fell to the floor, rattling on impact as it did its dance before he turned back to the bar.
"Get me a drink. Somethin' strong." He demanded, a demand that was met with a stern look of confusion before Gob eventually nodded and went straight to the back for some of the good stuff. Hardin's eyes tracked him as he left, sighing heavily as he placed his rifle on the counter top as he twitched his nose, eventually rubbing at his face, furiously.
"Sorry you got dragged into this kid." Nova said, in a soft, quiet tone. It was obvious that it was out of guilt, the same guilt that Hardin always had inflicted on him, when doing his job.
"I ain't... it got me outta bed." Hardin shrugged, looking back over to the bodies on the floor of Gob's tavern.
"I'm more sorry about the mess." He sighed, kicking the fallen patrons boot.
"I'll see 'bout getting them cleaned up."
"If you could, the only corpse I want to have to lift is my boyfriend, these guys look like they weigh a lot more as well." Nova agreed, gently kicking them.
"Here Sheriff, it's on the house. Least we could do after all that you've done for us this mornin'" Gob said, sliding a drink across to him, to witch Hardin merely twitched his mouth in a way that vaguely resembled a smile.
"Thanks..." He murmured, knocking it back, barely wincing as the burning liquid cascaded down the back of his throat.
"Nobody's giving you two shit or anything are they?" Hardin asked, eyeing Gob as he put the bottle back.
"Heh, nah... Been a while since we had any problems on that front."
"Yeah, Gob's been scaring them off, ain'tcha?"
Hardin attempted to appreciate their affections for each other but struggled, it seemed incredibly off to him that the most desirable woman in this sinkhole was with the least desirable being.
That includes the Brahmin...
It wasn't just that though, he was most certainly jealous of their situation, a situation where they had everything they needed and were happy about it but Hardin found it hard to grow complacent. Four years ago, he was the Sherriff's Son, two years ago he was the deputy ad now?
Now he was the worst sheriff this town has had in his lifetime, he was a drunk with no ambition and little conviction.
He wasn't even a good shot, like Jericho, at least that made him worth something to someone but Hardin had nothing to offer anyone, the sooner the town discovered that, the sooner he'd end up exiled or dead.
"I gotta go..." He sighed, rolling around his bar stool, pushing his empty glass away.
"Got some patrolling to do."
He approached the door, with some form of hesitation, just wanting to go back for another drink... Just a few hours away from all of this, it seemed worth the consequences of those shameful looks and social indifference.
His mind was made up for him as the door swung open and a girl in metal armour forced her way in.
"Hardin! We need you!" Jynx spluttered, instantly getting his attention.
"Why? What's...?"
"Super Mutants... Well, A Super Mutant has entered the town!"
"What did he want?" Hardin asked, curiously.
"I don't fucking know!" Jynx groaned.
"I didn't even know they talked!"
"He attacked anyone yet?" The Sherrif asked as he heard rifle rounds being fired off, followed by a couple of screams.
"I'll take that as a yes." He sighed, drawing his gun.
"I might need backup on this, Jynx."
"When did I become deputy!?" She snapped, sighing heavily as she knew she probably would need to, being one of few able bodied people left in the town.
"Fine, where do you want me?"
"My side, we're going to surround him and see if he's willing to talk. I ain't a fan of shooting at something, where bullets will just piss him off."
"Alright... Just... If he grabs you and separates you from your joy department, don't go, blaming me, okay?"
Hardin sighed, appreciating the vote in confidence as he stepped out, pulling the latch down on his repeater, ready once again to throw himself into the chaos.