The shadow of the Colossus cast over Megaton as it slowly strode down the approaching, giving little care as to what he stood on or knocked over, what he crushed or killed. It was hard to tell if he lacked the mental capacity for it or if he simply didn't care.
Perhaps he knew the pain he caused and revelled in it.
Hardin took several deep breaths, sliding his rounds into his rifle as he shuddered furiously, trying to keep his rifle from rattling from the shakes that had overwhelmed him.
As he found himself overwhelmed by the creature's shadow, he found himself closing his eyes and retreating to the inner recesses of his mind. A place that he didn't even know existed, until he entered it out of sheer desperation.
He saw his Father in this place, for the first time in nearly five years. Not as he remembered him but how he actually was. They were inside his house, such as it was, enjoying a Salisbury steak that he'd managed to score a few days ago. There was no Denis to ruin it, as he was back in his hole, underground. There was no Hamilton to terrorise the town or Mr Burke to destroy it, life was... simple...
There was this one time, 'Thanks Giving' he called it, where his Dad said that they had to pray and be thankful for what they had. Every year they had the best meal they could get and would thoroughly enjoy it before Dad would pay Moira to hook up a projector to the back of the room and they'd watch a movie in his house.
They only had the one movie, about a cowboy. Hardin was adamant that this is what inspired his get up as the movie was about a little girl, who hunted down a guy, who killed her Dad. There was this guy in it, who his Dad called 'the Duke,' a title that Hardin hadn't heard of before but it sounded important.
His Father explained that he was in a lot of movies like this, back in the day. Usually appearing as a hero, who saved the day. He was a Mountain of a man, big strong hands and a strong face and had a deep, calm and heroic voice. In the movie that Hardin saw him in, he sported an eyepatch, however, Hardin's Dad said that he didn't wear it in other movies, so he must've gotten that injury later on.
At the end of the movie, the Man would ride off, cheering happily in response to being told where he'll be buried, when he died. Hardin considered that to be an... odd reaction, to facing one's mortality but perhaps it was the certainty that he would get a grave at all, a permanent monument to his existence. You see, the Wild West, as his Father called it, was a lot like the Capital Wasteland. There was no law and order and it was up to people like his Father, Jericho and Hardin himself to ensure that the peace was kept.
By any means necessary...
The best part about the whole night was how his Dad was, when the movie played. How Hardin was...
It was like they were both twelve year old kids, laughing, shouting 'pew pew!' whenever the bad guys got shot. One time, his Dad pretended to ride the chair, like it was a horse.
It was... oddly comforting to see his Father, the most disciplined and serious man he knew acting like this. It made him a bit more human in Hardin's eyes and his only regret was that nobody else really knew about this.
Moira sort of knew but she didn't stick around for the movie, she has the attention span of a gnat with attention deficit disorder, so she'd just go back to her shop and go back to tinkering. That suited Hardin just fine, not that he didn't welcome anyone into his home at the time but... it was a special day for his Father and him to just be themselves.
Being himself... Now there was something he hadn't done in a long, long time...
Ryu roared, furiously, leaping up on the railings and throwing himself across. His two, large hands, caked in Super Mutant Overlord blood up in the air and at the ready as he threw himself at the Colossus's face, grabbing on tight as the giant stumbled back.
The Karate student's fist was repeatedly slammed into the monster's face, hitting it again and again, almost immediately drawing blood. He gave out an earth shattering roar as he stumbled back, reaching up and desperately grabbing at the smaller Mutant, wrapping his large fingers around his back and tugging at him furiously.
Ryu got a few more shots in before he was eventually torn away, much to his annoyance as he drove his fist down, into the creature's hand, in an effort to try and spring it open. Though he understood that human hands (or equivalents) weren't exactly like bear traps, brute force was all he had.
It was at this point that Hardin scrambled to his feet, noticing that the shadow had cut out after swaying for a few seconds. The unnatural sounds that it emitted seemed to be coming from further and further away. Hardin raised his repeater rifle, which, despite its monumentally old age packed one hell of a punch.
He blasted shot after shot, aiming for its midriff, trying not to hit Ryu in the process. It kind of frustrated him that the woman, aiming the laser rifle above his head was having an easier time of shooting the monster than he was but maybe it was because she had years of experience on him as well as professional training.
He took deep breaths as he fired this time, doing his best to reduce his hand shake as he did so. He took several deep breaths, sighing heavily after every couple of shots before eventually reloading the rifle.
He had around ten .44 rounds left, he knew that he had to make them count but he knew that doing so, without hitting Ryu was going to be incredibly difficult.
"Hardin!" A voice called to him, getting his attention rather quickly, finding himself coming face to face with a girl, just younger than he was. She seemed to be wearing a Merc Crusader outfit and was holding a scoped magnum, close to her chest.
"Maggie?" Hardin winced, looking around.
"What're you doing down here!?"
"I was in the Brass Lantern, when that thing came through the gate... Figured I'd be safer inside, until you showed up. Is there any way that I can help?"
Hardin looked, in truth, he didn't like putting Maggie in harm's way as he had been doing his best to protect her, since Billy died. Still, he struggled to think of a scenario, where they could win with less guns.
"Could you cover these guys? Don't leave this spot, unless you have to, I need to go back to the house for something." Hardin winced as he heard more gunshots.
"Erm... I'm not Billy, I don't think I can shoot so well." Maggie admitted, looking down to the magnum on her hip.
"I'm not asking for anything other than cover fire, you don't even have to hit anything. I just need them to see and hear gunshots, okay?" Hardin assured her, stepping over to the Brass Lantern's counter.
"O-Okay..." Maggie murmured, taking a deep, sharp breath.
"Whatever you're getting had better be good!"
"It'll win us the fight, just keep him busy!" Hardin warned as he began he broke across the courtyard, hopping over the railings and making a hasty ascent. Maggie took in a deep breath before peering around and firing off, shot after shot. The Titan was a pretty easy target but his buddies would prove to be a little more challenging.
"You like that, dip shit!?" Ryu yelled, thrusting his fist into the Titan's face and resulting in it roaring in response, it reached up and grabbed a hold of Ryu, throwing him across the landscape, to the point that he nearly hit the nuclear bomb at the center of town.
He landed with a gravelly skid, the tough skin on his arm cracked as it grazed against the stones and the impact made his shoulders kill a helluva lot but thankfully, he landed in a sort of ball, minimalizing the impact damage to his head and limbs.
He put his hand down, hitting the floor and creating a loud splash as his hand found itself submersed in the radioactive waters. He grumbled in frustration, knowing that his robe's sleeves were now going to be damp, which was just the splooge cream on his diahrea shake of a situation.
Stumbling to his feet, he noticed how many of his 'brethren' were stumbling through the gates and he was aware that it was only a matter of time before even he would have to fall back. Each of them raised hunting rifles and crummy, American made, assault weapons. They were at least smart enough not to go toe to toe with him, when it came to hand to hand or melee combat.
The Titan continued to stomp forward, making Ryu realise that a frontal assault wouldn't work. Instead, he opted to take a right and followed Hardin up the Ramparts, he hoped that he could get in behind them.
"Fuck!" Durga hissed as she went back to ducking down behind cover.
"Everyone is quitting the field, Arthur, we need to leave, now!"
"No!" Jynx snapped, much to the former Quarter Master's annoyance.
"Hardin hasn't 'quit the field,' he's going back to the house!"
"What!? WHY!?" Durga yelled, failing to see any possible tactical advantage of letting the mutants gain further ground.
"Denis' supply cache, he had weapons that even the Brotherhood couldn't match! He had stuff like Tesla Cannons and mini nukes, that could kill a beast like that! We just need to hold it off!"
Durga scowled again, another example as to why Lyons' compassionate bullshit was going to doom us all, apparently now everyone can keep experimental Brotherhood technology under their beds.
"Alright, I'll hold them off for as long as I can but if they reach the nuke, Arthur and I are getting out of here!"
Jynx nodded, figuring that was more than fair enough, she found herself looking around the railings again and seeing that Maggie was now the front line of defense.
"Shit! Look how close they are! We need to keep the pressure up!" She insisted, readying her rifle and firing off shot after shot.
Arthur nodded and gestured for Durga to get back up onto her feet, she found herself slightly annoyed that she was being ordered around, by a bunch of kids but at least the orders were agreeable...
For now...
By now, Maggie was looking like she was going to make a break for it and who could blame her? Durga felt like doing the same thing before this shit even began and now, she could see that the Titan was mere feet away from the device that could turn this entire shit hold town into a burning, irradiated crater.
Arthur observed himself, wishing that he could pitch in in some way or another, sadly though, he wasn't able to do much but spot. It was frustrating to be the only kid with combat training as well as the only kid without a gun.
He kept an eye out for any more incoming mutants but sadly found himself struggling to see anything, behind the Titan. It slowly marched, unfazed by the hundreds of bullets, flying into its chest. The Mutants around it seemed to be targets that were easier to kill, harder to hit though, given their smaller size but somehow they didn't seem like they were as big of a threat.
Four of them surrounded the Titan, escorting it as it made its descent...
As Durga assessed the threat, she noticed that Ryu had emerged from behind the mutants and was slowly creeping towards them. She could see his plan, take them out as quickly as possible, hopefully before most of them knew he existed.
She opted to start firing at the four mutants, drawing their fire, which was incredibly unfocussed and inaccurate. The gunshots, combined with the occasional roar, of the titan created enough noise to drown out Ryu's footsteps and the oncoming projectiles were a nice little display to keep their easily distracted minds at bay.
Ryu took the opportunity to slip out of cover and grab a Supermutant from behind, wrapping his left forearm around his face and pulling him down. Ryu was pretty large and bulky, even for a super mutant as he spent a lot of time training and working out, so he had an advantage of strength but he also had the advantage of knowing how to kick someone's feet out from under them. Ryu pulled up, resulting in a knuckling crack that sent the Mutant's neck limp as it was released and dropped to the floor, this prompted him to move onto the second mutant, who was still returning fire to the Brotherhood Warriors above him.
Ryu opted to sweep in, attempting to do something similar to him but finding that this one had a bit more strength than the last one. Though his head went back, he quickly started putting up some resistance and knocking him off of his feet didn't seem to work.
He saw the beast's large, lumbering hand reach over his shoulder for the martial artist, prompting him to reach up and snatch it in place.
Seeing now, that he had the mutant in a headlock, he began to put some pressure on, stopping the mutant from yelling out to his comrades. It was likely that they would hear his cries, if it came to that.
The strong hands of the karate master were wrapped around the Mutant's face and with a twist, he heard a loud crunch, sending the abomination down to the ground.
By this point, Ryu was fully aware that the Titan's advanced guard would prove to be difficult, he knew that taking one down would mean that the other would be alerted. This was the ideal situation to have a partner in, one where they could each take a mutant down before either of them knew that they were there.
Sadly, this wasn't an option on the table...
By this point, Durga had grown a little more frustrated, due to the fact that her energy cells were being eaten up by cover fire of all fucking things. She honestly thought that she had enough to last the trip but now? She would be lucky if she had any left, by the time this stupid fire fight was done...
Durga readied another EC and this time scanned Ryu's immediate surroundings, glancing up to the gate. It felt like a formality at this point but as she looked up, she saw several bulky figures, marching through the dust.
Eight or so Super Mutants were marching through the dust clouds at a time, row after row of them entered the city and began to draw their weapons. Despite their large numbers, the thing that disturbed Durga the most was the mutants on the far end of each row, each one carrying a banner, that they swung in the air with a sense of pride.
This wasn't just some dirty, bloody rags that hung from them either. A symbol had been painted on in blood and the way that it was tied to the large pole that was attached to it indicated only one thing...
This wasn't an assault or a pillage or a raiding party... This was an invasion.
"Durga! Look!" Jynx yelled, seemingly in blind panic as the Titan was now stood over the nuclear missile and was slowly reaching down to pick it up. Durga quickly turned her attentions towards the beast and began firing at its face, she hoped that shooting it in the eye or the mouth would at least cause it to pause for a few moments but unfortunately, the monster seemed ignorant to any damage even done to its face or was just able to push past it.
Maggie peered from behind the Brass Lantern's counter, revolver at the ready, it was at this point that she noticed the large mutant from before, sneaking up on attacking Supermutant to the Titan's right. Being so close to the one on the left, she knew that either she or the Martial Artist risked discovery and that he needed someone to take the Monster out, who slowly shuffled in front of her.
The Beast was far too focussed, shooting upward, trying to hit the source of the lasers coming from outside Moriarity's old place.
With a deep breath, Maggie fired a shot off, hitting the Supermutant in the side of its head and causing it to stumble backward, shaking furiously as the .44 remained lodged in his thick skin, possibly even touching his skull. This didn't seem to be enough to kill him, however, it seemingly just made him incredibly angry as he turned his attentions to her.
Maggie slipped back into cover as various hunting rifle rounds were blasted at her, the ballistics exploded on impact and showered her in sparks, that flew up into the air and fell down on her, like confetti.
The Mutant continued to fire off, resulting in two more shots, whittling past her ears and another exploding above her head, similar to the first. It was at this point that the mutant was forced to reload.
"The Master lives!" He screamed, feeding a magazine into the gun and pulling the latch back, only for his head to explode as another .44 round went careening into it, hitting him, square between the eyes and blowing a large chunk of his face off.
Sighing with relief, Maggie slipped back behind cover, opening the spool on her revolver and taking the time to reload.
How much longer was this going to take? Hardin could've been there and back, three times in the time that it took for him to get this one, stupid item. It'd better be a fucking mini nuke or something...
She watched as the large mutant grabbed hold of the bomb, realising that she was seconds away from being vaporised or worse. Without thinking, she spun out of cover and fired, upward, at the monster's face, hitting it four times, without much luck of hurting him.
Growing quite distressed, she decided that the best thing that she could do was use the scope and go for the eyes. They were such small targets though, that she feared that it would be fruitless...
Still, the worst thing she could do was nothing and so, she lifted her magnum up and closed an eye, carefully looking through the scope and seeing what was at the center of the crosshairs. She found that her hands were trembling and that the monster was swaying as a result. Still, she kept her focus up and slowly wrapped her finger around the trigger, taking a deep breath.
"C'mon..." She murmured, gently squeezing the trigger as she remembered what Billy taught her. Damn, Billy could've done this! Why couldn't he have been here? If he couldn't survive the last raid, that was simply a group of men, just what chance did she have?
She did her best to swallow her doubt and kept up the pressure, eventually firing off and watching as the balistics exploded around the eye socket, causing a small bloody explosion. The Titan let out an earth shattering roar as he stumbled back, gritting his teeth together as he backed away from the missile and turned his attention to Maggie.
She gasped as she saw what she had done to him, seeing that his eye socket hat been completely shattered and that the eyeball itself had been shattered. What was left of it, dangled precariously from a tendon.
The Titan didn't seem very forgiving and proceeded to march forward, readying his hand as he grasped at the roof to Doc Church's shack and tore at it, ripping the rusty nails off with ease as the large piece of sheet metal was pried. He grasped it with both hands and lifted it over his head, barely even flinching as the last of Maggie's .44 rounds hit his brow before driving it down on her.
At this point, Maggie's legs had locked in place, her hands were equally as stiff, wrapped tightly around the gun as she irrationally pulled at the trigger, hoping that a magical 7th bullet would appear and save her.
All she could do at this point was watch as the large, metalic plate made its descent.
The Fuck is she doing!? Ryu thought as he watched the large beast approach her, brandishing a colossal, metallic shield-like weapon, which he was ready to drive down on her with the full extent of his force.
Considering that this mother fucker just ripped a roof off, like it was nothing, it kind of spoke volumes about how much damage it would do to this little snowflake, the second that the two collided.
The Mutant decided that it was kind of up to him, he figured that he'd be the brave one, since everyone else was too far away or chicken shit to help. He burst out of his prone position and charged into the fray, snatching Maggie up, a nearly grown woman was just as easy to pick up to him as a cat would be to your average human.
He leapt aside as the club struck at the earth, making a permanent indentation in the earth, left like a scar on the town's surface. The Titan roared in frustration at the lesser mutant's audacity as he swept his mark up. He had already bolted across the courtyard, heading to what used to be the Church of the Children of Atom.
He ducked down, using it as a makeshift foxhole as the club shattered over his head and caused the outer rim of it to crumble, like a sandcastle.
"Th-Thanks!" Maggie called, rolling onto her stomach and emptying the cylinder.
"Less praising, more shootin'!" The Mutant snapped, scrambling upward and pulling himself to his feet before rushing back into the fight.
By now, more mutants were pouring into the gates, covering the Titan as he grasped the atomic bomb and slowly routed it up, out of the ground. It was wedged in pretty tightly but not tight enough to stop the Titan from claiming it anyway, it merely delayed him as earth slowly crumbled beneath the impact spot.
"Our bomb, dipshit!" Ryu yelled, jumping into the radioactive pool at the center of town and hiking his way up the buried bomb, leaping up onto the creature's colossal, bulky arm and beginning his ascent.
He could see the lasers from the balcony fly over his head, though this didn't exactly discourage him. Not yet anyway... He could see the mutant reach over for him, rather frustrated with the martial artist's constant interference. He knew now that, were he to get caught, that he would be one hundred percent fucked. Thus, he used the creature's forearm like a springboard and leapt upward, climbing up to the creature's chest and hanging on for dear life as the monster's God-Like hand wrapped around his waist and tried prying him off.
By this point, Maggie was ready, with her revolver, taking a few shots at the monster's face but sadly finding that she wasn't able to hit his eyes or pierce his thick skin. As a result, the Titan was able to lift Ryu off, like a fly that was crawling around his shirt and grasped him in his hand.
"Hands off, you big green fuck!" He snarled, beating his fists down on the giant's hand. It occurred to him that something sharp would be beneficial, right about now, too bad he hadn't thought of that until now. Not that he liked using weapons of any kind but he equally didn't like being crushed either and this was technically cheating, being ten times bigger than he was.
He could feel the pressure on his body, his pelvis felt like it was on the verge of folding in on itself and this was just the first bit of pressure, that was applied to him. He knew that even he would struggle to hold out against this thing's tree trunk-like arms.
The lasers and bullets combined were enough to liquefy any other form of super mutant but this Titan son of a bitch barely even reacted to it. It was like attacking a dinosaur with rubber bands on somehow even more stupid as Dinosaurs at least felt some semblance of pain, this thing took having its eye shot out like one would a paper cut.
This made it even more surprising, when he heard a laser fire off from behind and the monster immediately roared. He heard another shot and another, followed up by the entire world spinning out of control as he felt himself fly through the air, uncontrollably, straight into, what used to be, Mr Burke's shack.
He crashed into the roof, leaving a large dent in it before rolling off and eventually landing with a heavy thud on the floor, in front of the doorway.
The Titan felt a great burning sensation hit his lower back and shoulder blades, he thrashed around to deflect and shield himself from the onslaught of energy blasts but found that it was no use. It seemed to do just as much damage, when hitting his arm as it did his chest.
His mutant brethren could do little but watch as he was bombarded by ten, energy blasts, causing him to eventually start glowing as his skin cracked up. The colossal being turned back around and thrashed at the mutant invaders, seemingly looking for their help, what little they could offer but at this point they were too afraid of being crushed, when this beast inevitably toppled over.
The Beast's hand dissolved to ash as he reached out, scattering in the summer breeze and blowing back into the faces of his lesser mutant brethren. His entire arm, his hip and one of his legs had dissolved by now and he was losing more of his body to disintegration by the second. As his vitals also deteriorated, what remained fell down to the ground, dispersing into a colossal ash cloud, moments before impact and eventually creating a huge dust pile at the base of the ramp.
The Mutants, despite the fact that they were no longer in danger of being crushed, continued to run for their lives. Maggie emerged from her hole, somewhat tentatively as she still feared that she could get shot but none of her enemies were even looking at her at this point.
Everyone of them fled into the wasteland and within seconds, the invading party had scarpered, leaving nothing but their fallen comrade's corpses and a few vanquished enemies as proof of their assault. It would seem that, without the titan, they were forced to fall back and come up with a new plan.
By this point, Hardin stumbled down the approach, panting heavily as he raised his grey, space pistol. He kept his sites on them as they fled but thought better than to shoot them in the back as ammo for this weapon was incredibly rare, in fact it was impossible to find any more at this point and the less than 100 shots were all that he had left.
The young sheriff lowered his pistol and sighed heavily, shaking his head as he turned back, to see Maggie, crawling out of the hole in the ground. Without a second thought, he rushed to her side, to help her, kneeling down and taking her hand to help her get back onto ground level.
"You... You killed it? H-How?" She stammered in disbelief, prompting Hardin to draw the laser pistol from his pocket and show it, cautiously.
"One of Denis' old toys..."
Within seconds, he noticed some movement, descending from the path, prompting him to holster the weapon and wrap his coat around it to ensure that it stayed hidden.
"You..." Gob began, getting everyone to grind to a halt.
"You did it, we're saved!"
This was followed by a cheer at some of the settlers at the back, somehow, Hardin didn't feel like cheering after all of the death and destruction.
In fact, he felt like getting another drink...