Broken hearts part 2

As I laid there on my ass, with helicopter assaulting the armored infantry covering our flank. My jacket, the rookie was the only thing standing between me and an immortal kid, who wielded a massive axe.

I had no idea on how to kill this thing and yet I have to. I turned to the rookie and gave my orders. "Keep that psycho kid distracted!" The soldier responded with action.

He rolled to the side giving the girl an open to assault me. I would have felt dread if I didn't know what he was planning.

I quickly reached for my 9mm at my thigh and aimed it at the girl. With the same dexterity she displayed last time, she spun her axe to create a sort of shield. The rounds just bounced off, harmlessly deforming at impact and doing no damage to her or her weapon. I let out a disgruntled sigh and lowered my gun.

She stopped spinning her weapon and raised her eyebrow. In a nanosecond, my lips formed a smirk and I was able to glance her widen eyes at my ruse. A six-foot-tall powered figure smashed into her side and the sound of crunching bones filled my ears. "That's good kid keeps breaking bones as they reform. We don't want an angry mutant on our hands eh."

The Rookie just nodded and brought an armored boot down onto a spindly arm. *crunch*

I wiped out my radio and tried making contact with 101. "Yo, I need to know if this is hopeless and we might as well retreat with our a bullet in our ass."

She responded with a winded voice. I could also sense an amount of frustration as well. "No! We have hope but we're going to need those heavy weapons teams to open fire as soon as possible. What the hell is there ETA on those verti-birds."

I gritted my teeth at what I had to do in order to give some relief to our guns. "The deathclaws should be taking out the heavy gun suppressing them. I just hope they don't hesitate in killing their first man. I just wish they had a few more years to enjoy their youth."

"My god man!" 101 said with unbridled fury. "They are nine feet tall genetically engineered killing machines! You should be hoping they don't eat the corpses! Now grab a plasma grenade and shove it down that emo kid's mouth and watch her atomize! And if she screams, I want you to record it."

My face contorted in confusion. "Why?"

This time her voice was low, not a deep bass low, but it was unnaturally calm for the situation. "So I can rock myself to sleep, hearing the bitch who cause this scream."

"Sure…" I just didn't want to dive deeper in that conversation.

"Hey, rookie. You got a plasma grenade on you." I saw him bring a foot down on a regenerating leg. Pretty much snapping it in half. The girl just poured out some words of gratitude and weirdly enough praise. She was speaking on how her god was going to reward me for this brutality. I sneered at the comment. I didn't if I was disgusted at the fact that was a god for this sort of thing, or this girl seemed to be taking this beating in stride.

I didn't matter as the rookie unhooked a grenade of armor and tossed it towards me. I caught it without much trouble and I dash towards the girl, I was stopped at a burst of fire towards my feet. I raise my head to see the same green dude from before fire towards me.

This seems also catch the attention of rookie and he moved in front of me. I second burst of fire quickly followed. Their rifle rounds merely bounced off his plate and I had to give it to this bastard. The green dude was able to distract my jacket from his duty.

The little girl soon got up from her injuries. They were regenerated in front of our eye's. Bone knitted together, muscle grew back and the skin came back pristine and without any signs of the beating, she was received.

She charged with her axe up high, ready to split me in half. Lucky for me, her obsession in brutally murdering me, blinds her to another surrounding.

Rookie intercepted her with a sideways swipe. His chainsaw machete grinding against the massive axe and causing a massive stream of sparks to fly off. They quickly parted and just as quickly regained. I saw my highly trained, cyber modified, elite trooper, fight to a standstill against a little girl with an oversized axe. I'd be disappointed if it wasn't for the fact that, we were most likely fighting an immortal satanic worshiper. Heh, maybe I can trick her in believing I was her god.

I jumped to the side as a burst of fire landed, where I was previously standing. I quickly drew the All American carbine marksman rifle. I looked through the sight and was able to quickly aim for center mass. I squeezed the trigger and a piece of lead quickly spiraled out of the barrel, moving at mark 3. I saw red fly out of him. Whether I killed him or not is still debatable, but I know I have knocked him out of the fight.

I turned and saw rookie still fighting against the little girl.

They were both a whirlwind of axe and machete. They both blurred in their movement, my augmented eye's noticing that they were both striking three times in a second. They were both landing blows but both fighters were receiving them differently.

The little girl was waving away from the chewing teeth. The thing barely nicked her, causing small cuts that would regenerate quickly. A few times I did see rookie land a good blow that would end the fight if it were a normal human. The girl just laughed it off and proceed to ignore it.

The rookie in the other hand was doing everything he had to avoid getting a direct hit from the axe. At worst he got glancing blow that would peel off a chunk of already thin armor. His jackal would stumble but quickly recover. It did show he was tiring.

I looked at the grenade in my pocket and I knew what I had to do. I slung All American on my back and drew Maria and grabbed the grenade. I kneeled and waited for a split second. I jumped into action as soon I saw a small opening. The girl had her back to me and I need to take advantage of it.

The rookie saw me and decided to follow my lead. He moved forward in an overhead strike. The girl used her axe handle to block it. The teeth locked on the handle but couldn't dig. In a second the machete's teeth started to unravel and the chain holding them together broke.

The girl knocked the ruined weapon of the rookie's hands and giggled at him. Her cock laugh soon disappeared when my barrel of my 9mm met the side of her jaw, a round of equivalent sized tore away the flesh holding the low half of her teeth to the rest of her skull.

Before she could react, I shoved the grenade down her throat that was unprotected by her jaw.

Before I could pull the pin and end this. I felt, what I could assume is a full metal jacket round impact my shoulder. It didn't mushroom or shattered like any other round, so it had to be. I fell onto my back, meeting the blue sky in an unexpected meeting. I didn't wait to gawk at its beauty and rose to a seated position.

"Injecting both a stimpack and med-x" Cutie responded in a worried tone. "Please don't die on me, I don't want to have another owner other than you."

I smiled and grabbed my pistol with my left hand from my limp right. It's going to take a little while before implants fix it. I looked at the area where the bullet most likely came from. I saw what I could assume is either a young looking boy or girl. I leaned towards the girl and aimed my pistol towards her. I unloaded rounds at her general direction and fired.

I was a good shot, hell better than most crack shots, but I could land a target from that far away with a handgun. I just hope they would whiz past her and she would instantly take cover. The result was that they all flew past and I knew she had her rifle trailed at my head.

The rookie was moving at my general direction. I didn't want him to save me. Instead, I wanted him to finish the job with the girl, who was still attempting to remove the explosive out of her throat. Her healing powers most likely repaired the damage done to her jaw and it trapped it in her throat. At least I knew he stupidly overpowered regeneration bought us a few seconds. Still, I needed the rookie to detonate the weapon. I even aimed my gun at her the last second, hoping he got the message.

Instead, I get the image of his powered armored back facing me and the sound of rounds bouncing off his armor again.

I felt the bullet that entered my shoulder, pop out. I a quick lighting motion I drew All American out and lead out of my human cover, Already had the scope aimed at the woman's head and I fired.

I knew I got a hit when I saw a large spark and then form of the woman falling backward. I tried switching to the back of the neck of the girl, in hopes of the bullet penetrating the meat and hitting the grenade. Detonating it and finally ending this outdrawn fight. But… I could find her.

I wondered where she could be at until I heard the sound of metal tearing metal and warm blood coating me. I slowly raised my head to see the girl gagging out the grenade and tossing it aside.

She used the tattered remains of her cloth bracelets to wipe away the drool. "Hmph, you're lucky I don't have a gag reflex or you might have choked your partner with your toys." She said with a smile.

I jumped towards the grenade, firing the carbine at the same time. She just stood there and took it. Smiling at my futile actions.

I had to kill her and this grenade wasn't the easiest way to do it. I won't be able to shove it down her throat again. My best bet was to throw it at the right time and have it explode in front of her. I can't let her enter in melee combat with me because that would be a death sentence. My gunfire might as well be tickle her. This was a game of cat and mouse.

I readied myself and had a finger in the pin. The girl smirked and attempted to remove the axe at the still standing corpse of my man. Instead, she received two hands clasping her arm. The rookie was still alive. The kid was most likely drawing his system with stimpacks in order to remain alive, what's moving his limbs, must be an indomitable will.

I got up ready to make sure his action wasn't in vain but I saw his back glow. My eyes widen as I knew he was overloading his power armor generator and the explosion will leave fifty meters wide crater.

I just legged it, moving with speed I didn't even know I had. I turned my head to see what the girl was doing. I saw that she was set on fire by the heat radiating off the most likely dead rookie's armor. At least he was dead, I would want him boiling himself inside his own armor.

The girl was still struggling against the man's grip. Her form was now completely burnt at this point. Leaving her body to still move even though that was not possible. Her arm finally gave in and is separated from her body from the socket. She was finally able to run but her injuries slowed her significantly.

She only got a dozen meters away before the armors generator went critical and exploded with the power of a tiny sun.

I fell forward, the heat washing over my body. I was able to make it out of the blast zone by a few meters but it didn't stop it from burning me. I impacted the ground with burnt flesh that varied in severity.

The ammo and grenade didn't detonate thanks to pre-war engineering. If large atomic bomb couldn't set them off, then a fission generator explosion would fare little better. I laid there in pain, my implants going into overdrive to heal my injuries and Cutie injecting cocktails of drugs into my system to keep me awake and healing.

My durable radio crackle on. The voice of smile's the intelligent deathclaw came through. "Were on the tails of the mooks, ya dig?" He said with the lingo of the tops. He always loved their singing shows.

I was able to rasp out the order. "Rip and tear. Make these guys pay for costing me."

The radio responded with a beastly roar.

[JSDF defensive position]

Kurokawa was in the back of the armored jeep, attending the bullet wounds of both Itami and Kobayashi. Her Lt. was in the corner, his arm bandaged from a bullet wound. He was surprisingly ill by the injury. It was a few minutes of attending his injury was when she discovered that is was irradiated rusty full metal jacket round.

For now, she stabilized her CO but Kuribayashi was another matter. The bullet penetrates her steel plate and now the bullet fractured into her friend's stomach. She already pulled most, if not all the fractured pieces and was currently treating the injury. She's just afraid that her friend might have lost too much blood.

Then she heard it. A massive sounding explosion.

It was loud enough to drown out the sound of the machine gun suppressing the newcomers. She almost slipped up and spilled the entire bottle of disinfectant into her friend. She gave a sigh of relief but it was short-lived as she heard a roar.

She saw a massive clawed reptile appear out of nowhere behind pops, who was manning the machine gun. It reached out with it a massive clawed hand and yanked pops out of the gun. He screamed in panic and soon in pain. The thing smashed him against the truck over and over and then grabbed him with both clawed hands. It just snapped him in half. He squadmate scream one last time before he fell silent.

That thing then threw him at the front windows of her truck, with enough strength to shatter the window completely.

She reached to her side and grabbed for her rifle. She quickly brought it up to bare but the thing disappeared once again. She didn't know where it was going to pop up until she heard screaming and tearing flesh.

She quickly spawns around and aims her gun. She hesitated once she saw what was happening.

There was three of them this time. They were intermingled between people, swinging their claws haphazardly, killing someone every time they did so. Civilian and soldier alike were ripped apart in their wake. Every time a soldier fired their rifle and made a shot, it either bounces off their steel-like skin or did next to no real noticeable damage. Then the beast would kill them. One soldier who was far enough away fired his gun in hopes to kill the thing. The bullets did next to no damage and then the monster did something she would never forget.

It opened its jaw wide open and it revealed a sort of device that looked a bit of a tiny radio disk. She heard a weird vibration from it, almost something out of an old sci-fi movie and it shot out a wave of visible sound. It flew towards the soldier, screeching as it did so and when it made an impact against his head. It causes his skull to explode in a mist of blood and gore.

She hesitated still. She was a combat medic meant to a healer first and a soldier second. If she open fire and it would do nothing and bring the attention of the monster towards her. She didn't know what to do.

That was when the door to her jeep swung open and Kurata sat in the driver seat. He turned the key to the armored car and started it. Without hesitation, he started driving, smashing her against the rear doors and throwing the limp corpse of pops off. Itami didn't fare any better as was thrown onto the floor alongside with Kuribayashi.

She rose her head to talk sense to the private. "What are you doing, our squad is back there!"

"They are already dead! We can't do anything against those things! Our guns can't even scratch them. I'm getting out of here and I'm not dying like the rest. I'm going to live with my body whole!" Kurata said with a voice on the verge of tears.

Kurokawa knew they should turn back and help their teammate but… those monsters would have ripped them apart. No. She can't panic as well. She could at least check if anyone in her squad was still alive. She took her radio out and spoke.

"Recon team three is anyone still alive! Recon team three, please respond." The radio only gave static and her heart sank. She just looked at Kobayashi and move to tend to her wounds.

[Heavy weapons teams: Italica's walls]

The screams that came a few minutes past has stopped. Then she heard triumphant roars that came from massive throats filled the air. The pet deathclaws of her boss most likely finished off the lot who were pinning them down.

He thoughts moved to assessing the damage of the beaten platoons. Then she realized her allies were holding off the flying enemies assaulting them. Their own verti-birds fell back to resupply and grab reinforcements, as soon they have dropped us off. For now, they were left without any support. She grabbed the radio from her belt and gave the command. "Anyone capable of commanding, organize your squads and get these guns firing. Get the heat off our boys in power armor!"

A whale of confirmations responded to her. The men and women who made up the platoons and the odd ghole moved quickly to man their stations.

Any weapon of the range was maned and was put to use immediately. 50 cal. Bullets were fired towards the green factions verti birds that carried their troopers. Firing into the compartments and hopefully hitting a target.

However, the flamers and riot shotguns were practically useless in the fight. The soldier could do was load up the slugs and carefully fire single shots towards the flying vehicles. The laser weapons were another matter.

After she was attached to the courier as a companion, she was taught quite a few things about weapons and armor. She learned that ceramics were best at disbursing energy based weapons. When she asked it was because metals kept in the heat and started melting after a few shots.

She quickly formulated a plan and radioed into her troopers. "Marines and vegas swords alike, if you hold a laser rifle or laser RCW, concentrate your fire on their tails."

They followed the command without delay. The swords responded the fastest. Their veterancy in fighting the tunnelers makes them adept at reacting in split seconds do or die moments. The marines fire was far more disciplined. Hitting their target in a smaller circle of spread.

The damage was starting to take effect. The verti-birds that they were targeting started in increase height and allow their cargo room to breath. This did give their heavier armed cousins that held missiles and multi-barreled machine guns to aim their guns towards us.

My eyes widen at the sight and I screamed to get to cover.

I was able to get to the stairs and duck my head but most men and to cover themselves with the stone battlements. Then the enemy birds open fire with machine guns and explosives alike. The large caliber rounds tore through the stone and shredded dozens of troopers. The missiles in the other hand rocked the walls and outright destroyed entire sections.

The things kept firing until the destined sound of explosive plasma cut them off.

Then I heard the whining of blades and sputtering of engines. After that, the loud smashing of armored plates signaled our cue to come back up.

I moved quickly to gain a glimpse. I saw the brotherhood paladins and knights frantically loading another plasma motor into their back-mounted grenade launcher and I saw the remaining armed green verti-birds turn to open fire on the vulnerable brotherhood soldiers. Their lighter variants started descending.

She gritted her teeth. Her groups lost weapons in the previous barrage. She was completely useless in the current situation.

No.

She may be new to this whole commanding thing but the fight hinged on this moment. She had to do something.

Her troopers joined her, the remaining ones at least. They were looking to her for commands and she didn't know if she had them. Ever since the commanding officers died when they were first suppressed. She was forced to take command.

She had only one choice. "Anyone left alive, grab use your laser weapons and fire towards the green verti birds about to open fire! Anyone without one, grab one from the dead!"

With that, she condemned her troops to death. They would most likely gain the attention of the heavily armed birds and the ones carrying the infantry compliment would finish them off, but she knew the brotherhood soldier were key in surviving the battle.

The men followed their orders and started firing at the same manner they have last time. Aiming down the tails and hoping to do enough damage to make the enemy rethink their course of action.

They didn't, instead, they continued to turn and aim their weapons to the Brotherhood soldiers. She looked around her and found a vegas pattern RCW, she armed herself with it and took aim. When she fired there was no recoil and the laser was pinpoint. The beams struck the tail and the added heat was enough to strain the mechanisms to their limits. A loud clunk sounded and large amounts of smoke burst out the vehicle's tail end and the machine started to spiral out of control.

The thing moved towards its fellow verti birds and nearly crashed into one, but it was able to jink out of the way in the last second.

It crashed on the ground, kicking up mounds of dirt. It dragged itself leaving a scar on the earth until it came to a stop.

The lightly armed very-birds carrying their troops started to send a small contingent of them to the down vehicle. Their cousins started to move aim guns to the brotherhood soldier but a small figure rose in a pillar of fire and landed on top of one of them.

She knew who it was.

101 must have jumped on one of the last three armed birds, to buy a second more and boy was she wrong. The brotherhood elder instead, swung her power hammer into the cockpit of the machine and shattered the armored glass with ease. She reached in and pulled out a pilot out of his seat and tossed him aside. She then started to reach in to grab the second man out but the green verti-bird started to spin.

The last two remaining green verti bird moved away, to make sure they weren't clipped by its teammates tail. A mistake as they both went up in green plasma. The Knights took the opportunity to knock both of them out of the sky.

The men cheered for a second until they came under fire by the last remaining birds. These ones only had troops and a few miniguns to harass us, what did worry me was 101 and her act of bravado.

I was only able to get one last glimpse of her throwing the last pilot off before I ducked down.

The bullets pounded the cover we had and a few large caliber rounds punched the stone to nearly impact our already beaten platoon. She was forced down and unable to peek out. She no longer can do anything fight these things. She can only hope that the courier was still out there, that bastard always had an out.

[The families in front of Italica]

The courier watched the green verti-bird that 101 boarded go down with her. He doesn't know if she is still alive and he has to check later. The last remaining troopers were pinned down again and the brotherhood soldier was too loyal to their elder to provide any form of assistance.

Man, that pissed him off, those bastards should pull their heads out of their asses and help their buddies. Then again, they are the brotherhood. You only had to know the name, to understand what they thought about anyone outside what they thought of outsiders.

"I know what you are thinking and I don't believe you have anything on you that can bring those verti-birds down." Chimed Cuite.

"Heh, I knew I should have brought my gauss rifle," I said with some amount of guilt in my voice.

They didn't have much time left before the guns finished them off. He notices that out of the four of them three broke off to target the Brotherhood soldiers. They must have noticed what was the bigger threat.

I stood up in pain as my body may have healed but not enough to remove the pain. I grabbed the radio and warn the brotherhood of the impending action the green faction was planning to do.

With that, I turn to the remaining bird that was suppressing my troops. I grimaced at what I had to do.

I drew all American once again started sprint towards the single green verti-bird. I had no idea what I was planning to do. I was formulating a dozen plans in my head. I thought of going to the downed armed green verti-bird and grab one of its missiles. I quickly threw that plan away. Might be able to grab one of the downed knights miniguns and using it. Then I remember that people in power armored barely could fire it in a stable platform. The plasma guns were stuck on the arms so that was out of the question.

I just resided myself at shooting the damn thing with all American.

I aimed the rifle towards the passenger compartment and aimed for the troopers inside. I saw three I could hit with my rifle and two more behind glass. I started firing, I let out one round aimed towards the leg of a soldier and once it impacted him, he fell to the floor screaming in pain. The two I could see turned to return fire but I was able to take the first one down with a round to the shoulder. The second I didn't have time to respond so I activated V.a.t.s.

The electronic single stimulated my brain and with the active upgrades of cutie, it was further enhanced. I was able to get percentage above eighty at over sixty meters.

I let out a volley of and most of them did miss but a single round impacted the man's chest.

Without any more human targets, I decided to see what kind of damage I could do to its fragile areas. I let out multiple rounds into the windows but the bullets only bounced off without any considerable damage. Then I aimed for other parts of the bird only to be met with the clink of the round bouncing off armored plating harmlessly. I test other areas of the armor, attempting to find a weak point but I ended up wasting ammo.

My hands tightly gripped my rifle in frustration. He had no areas that he exploits to take the metal beast down.

He had nothing in form of a plan and he was running out of time. Then a strained voice cracked through his radio. "Careful, that birds are coming down in atomic light."

I had to raise an eyebrow at that. Then I realized what she meant and my body went into overdrive. My legs started moving as fast they possibly can. My heart started to beat faster and pump blood across my system. My muscles were given extra blood in my sudden sprint.

Then I heard the crackle in the atmosphere and a slight change in the night's temperature.

I spotted a lance of blue atomic compressed light, arc across the sky. Once it impacted the green verti-bird it causes an explosion. It left a massive chunk missing from it and an emp wave from the hit fried any remaining electronics. The flying vehicle smashed onto the ground completely wrecked.

I tracked the beam back to its point of origin and from two hundred meters away. I found a massive multi-legged tank. I've seen one from Big .M but this one was armed to the claws. Beside it was a unit of brotherhood tanks aiming their plasma cannons. The remaining green verti-birds are in their sights.

I saw the war machines fire three miniature green suns at blurring speeds. Each one made impact and melted the green vertibirds and soldier alike. Then, they exploded in a blinding ball of light.

My arms, in reflex, moved to shield my eyes from the blast.

Once the sound of explosion died down, I removed my arms and took in what happens. Most, if not all of the green factions forces were wiped out. If any of the troopers survived they'll be unable to do any real damage. That is if they haven't already retreated and move to tell their masters of us.

I let out a tired sigh and looked towards the horizon. The heavy armor moved towards us in force. Commonwealth APC,s threaded behind them holding more troops to help reinforce them. Well, they'll have to do it on their own now. The original force is nearly decimated. He'd have to get a head count and ask 101 if she'll be able to lend a hand. Speaking of which. He grabbed the radio and brought it up to his mouth. "Yo, are you still alive. If so get off your lazy ass and help me introduce myself to the leadership."

101's response was… less than friendly. "WHAT! Don't you dare bring up that tone with your elders! Especially after they took a fall in a burning bird to SAVE, your squads! I am your eighteen years older than you and have eighteen years worth of respect more than you!"

The courier just shuts off his radio for a moment so 101 can cool off. She never liked being poked fun at after a heroic injury. Her pride always irked him, but her pride was why she was able to command respect for her soldiers. It was also something he feared of her. He knew there were limits to her patients and in his laps of judgment, he broke it. Lucky it was just an ill-timed comment when she was already injured.

She won't let it get in the way, at least he hopes so. He waited a few minutes until he reactivated radio. She was still ranting. "Can you ever show any restraint when someone isn't in the mood! I should drag you by the balls into the sparring ring and beat you blue!" She let out a sigh of relief and continued. "That's better. Now you were talking about meeting the mayor of this fine city."

I was somewhat surprised at her quick recovery "Really, you had a verti-bird drop on you and you get up like you just drank a fresh cup of coffee?"

101 snorted at my observation. "I'm wearing power armor and I landed on top of the bird. I'm fine. Which is good since we just grabbed two sample for 111 to study. Mine is somewhat intact and if I had too. I could probably rebuild it with the proper engineers. The one your tribal girl took down has its tail melted but in better shape than mine. Its pilots were rescued by the lightly armored ones. They are long gone now."

I dismissed that quickly "Eh, our spies should be able to gather enough information on their own. For now, I wanna know if your coming."

She juggled that offer with a dozen other chores she needs to do in the aftermath of this battle. After a minute she gave her decision. "No. These people are scared and I am not good at working with scared people. I tend to lend to end up helping them, regardless of alliance. We can't afford that. You in the other hand are perfect for this. I'm giving my blessing leaving this to you."

I smiled at that. This means I don't have to hold back and I intend to let 101 know that. "Well, I bet smiles would love trying out his people skills."

101 was shocked at my comment. "What! You let those thing negotiate!"

I couldn't believe that 101 couldn't see the advantages of talking deathclaw. "Hell yeah, I do! Who's the best at getting us what we want from people? A nine-foot-tall radioactive dinosaur with a voice smoother than a silk, that's who!"

101 could only grunt at my understanding of people. "You know what. Just don't fuck up. I'm going to tend the aftermath. I'll also love it if you leave Lucy with me. She's grown quite talented in making split-second decisions and I'll like to talk to her about performance in her."

I had no objections. "Alright, go at it. Just tell her to reattach herself to my squad when we're both done."

I clicked off. I had a single last glance to the field before him and spotted a glint in the rising sun. It was the axe of the little girl. It was nearly spotless. The only indicators of any battle damage are the suit it's covered in and the melted saturnite on its blade. It took rookie overloading his generator to stop the girl and her axe is okay. He wonders if she survived. If she did then she must be pissed and very resilient. If he can't kill her in atomic fire, then he'll have to atomize her. It was a possibility. He could ask 101 for an alien pistol and that would do it. At least that's what he hopes.

I moved to grab the little girls axe. She must be someone important. Taking the axe as a trophy will definitely give me some weight in the negotiating table.

Once I reached it, I grabbed its handle and tried lifting it. It was heavy as it looked. I just straighten my back and lifted with my legs. I swung it across my back and position it at an angle to be easily carried.

Cutie chimed in. "Your luck you have implants, anything less and you would have thrown out your back. Then you'll be stuck in a bed and I'll be left in your locker forgotten."

I smiled. "What! No, I'll just toss you in the washing machine and put it in the spin cycle."

Cutie gasped in what sounded like horror. "You very much know I'm only able to be hand washed. Anything else would ruin my stealth fibers."

I chuckled at her reaction. "Hehehe, kidding. Anyways we should go meet the owners of this fine establishments." I said while turning to the city. I had to wonder what exactly they are going to think of my methods.

[Mansion of Italica]

In a small, nearly bland throne room. Sat a young duchess of the city. Next to her was one of the terrified princesses of the empire. Servants and the remaining Rose knights surrounded them. They have all retreated to this room to both hide from the demon army and to show reason to the young duchess.

"Please, you must flee with us! You don't know what this beast will do to you!" Princess Pina screamed in fear.

"I can't. I the leader of my people and I would only slow you down." The duchess said.

The words touched Pina. She may be only a few years old but she is acting like nobility. She had potential. The kind of potential they'll need to rebuild the empire if they survived this war. Then she bit her lower lip. Survival. That words sounded more and more like fantasy.

She gave a look to her mentor grey for any support. He had his arms locked together, staring intensely at the two. He did so for a second and only shrugged.

The princess knew this was bad. It was of utmost importance to get the duchess out of the city as soon as possible. She didn't know which army won but, either way, they'll both by coming for blood.

She sent the JSDF into the thickest of the battle and hope they would have been able to slow down bandit army. They seem suspicious of them but she promises that the bandits would have been all they faced. Then those demons attacked. Now it seems she sent them there to an ambush. Wose of all, they had an apostle, Rory the reaper.

The demons in the other hand would do everything to make them suffer and probably more. Those things always thrived in the suffering of others.

She gave a worried glance to the door. She was worried about the forces of either faction bursting in and assaulting them. She was determined to get the Dutchess Myui to the capitol.

"Listen, we cannot leave behind anyone of importance. You'll be crucial in rebuilding Italica when we recover it with the armies of the empire at our backs." Pina said without any confidence in her words.

The princess didn't believe that even if they had a hundred thousand men at their commands, they would be able to take the city back. Not when those people commanded iron pegasus or armored ogres.

The Dutchess Myui was about to respond but the screams of Norma and Hamilton sounded through the doors. Then there was rustling of bodies and then silence. Everyone stood in silence for a few tense seconds.

Then something impacted the heavy wooden doors and they were thrown off their hinges. They reached to the feet of the Dutchess and she jumped on her seat when they did. Everyone else readied in a battle stance. Their swords were up, ready to fight off whatever monster that came to attack them. What they saw was exactly what they were expecting from a demon army.

It was large and covered in dark red scales. With two massive black horns protruding out of its thick skull. Its body was lean but very muscular. Its arms followed this pattern but they were also long, longer than they proportionally should be. They ended in massive clawed hands covered in dried blood. But all of these features pales compared to its face. There were large sharp teeth being covered by closed lips. A metallic object seemed to be stuffed down its massive mouth, but none of the group could get a proper angle on it. What was disturbing was the scar. It was two large cuts, formed at the ends of the jaws and then extended to horns of the beast. It almost looked like a massive smile.

Then came in three men.

The first two had staffs like the ones the JSDF used. They also dressed Simerly but these ones had visible metallic plates. Their faces were covered in glass visors. Pina and her knights looked perplexed at this. These were obviously men. Then they saw the third.

He was covered in what looked like cotton clothes. He had a chest piece that must have been armor. He looked normal for outworlders standers. He would have been if it wasn't for his head. It was smooth, with a round object where the mouth should have been. Strange ropes were attached to this round object. Then came the big green glowing demonic eye.

Then every empire soldier and civilian in the room froze. He was carrying the Axe of Rory across his back. It was being held in one hand and in the other was her two knights. Norma and Hamilton were dragged by their colors, unmoving…

The man stopped and tossed the two to the feet of the Pina.

"I believe these two are yours." He said deadpan.

The princess looked at the man with complete disbelief. Out of everyone that she had to face, it was the demon king himself. Those giant green eyes and the fact he defeated a demi-god proves it. How else could he be holding that axe?

The demonic king turned to the horned beast and in the language of the empire, he spoke to it. "Well Smiles, I'll leave the talking to you."

It nodded its head and opened its massive maw. "Who is the leader of this city."

Everyone was dumbstruck. None of them believe that this monster would speak. They all thought it was another monster meant to guard its master. They were wrong and now one of them has to step up to speak to such a monster.

Pina turned to the eleven-year-old Dutches and found her in a ball. Shaking in fear at the sight of the beast. Her courage was completely shattered and now it was up to Princess to settle this matter. She swallowed hard and stepped up.

"I am Princess Pina Co. Lada. The eleventh daughter of Emperor-" The monster cut her off by waving its massive claw.

Then it spoke again in a claim tone. "We know that the girl in the chair is the leader of this city. I just asked to be polite. You don't have to give me your entire backstory.

Pina was completely caught off guard by its lax posture. Then it continued. "Heh, this is where I'm going to be firmer. Right now the autocratic nation of new vegas owns this city. If any of you have any objections then let me assure you… You don't. You're all happy about your new leadership and you're all excited about the future of this fine state of affairs."

Pina was about to speak up but the beast cut her off. "If anyone wants to correct that fact, then we have a problem. The Nation of New Vegas cannot recognize that train of thought. If we cannot recognize it when we have to correct it. If we have to correct it, then we're going to need to…" The beast flicked its hands and its claws "Erase it. You dig people." It said in an extra low tone.

No one stepped up to correct the monster.

The Courier smiled under his cowl. It was time for step two. He walked up had placed his free hand on his hip. "Great how about a bow to seal the deal."

The group was about to protest but then the massive intelligent demons lizard growled. Almost in a flash, everyone seem to think it was a fine idea and they got on their knees.

The courier smiled and then walked to the seat where the Myui was seated. She got off and also got on her knees. The courier nodded and walked to the throne and sat on it. "Good." He said.

"Then let's get to work in rebuilding this city. Bigger, flasher, better and with some New Vegas Flash, you dig!"

No one native to the get got that last part.