The plan would have worked. Michael could've easily gotten through Fort Bannister undetected by himself and it would have been even easier were there a distraction outside. He could've taken down Jabasco with little effort and forced a ceasefire. Sergeant Pepper would've brought some possible new blood to the Rangers and, after some extensive cleaning, they could've moved into Fort Bannister. These thoughts passed through the Wanderer's head while he contemplated his, and the Ranger's next move.
The Wanderer assumed that one of the Talon Mercs he allowed to live a few days prior went back to Jabasco, even with the threat of being flayed alive. He made a mental note to find out who it was and make good on his promise. An explosion shook the building he and the Rangers were taking shelter in, signaling their time had run out. He heard Theo, who had just returned from a supply run a few hours ago, let out a string of profanities.
Michael silently hoped that they could hold out against the siege a bit longer, just long enough for the sun to go down. As another explosion rocked the building yet again, he thought back to how they were put into this position.
"Hey everyone, I'm ba-" The words died in Theo's throat as he laid eyes upon the Wanderer at their briefing table. His eyes caught notice of Sergeant Pepper before looking to Reilly, wondering what just the hell was going on. He visibly relaxed when she waved him over.
"Theo, we're just finishing up here. We're going after Talon." Reilly said, pulling him to the side.
Theo was many things. Stupid was not one of them. "So, all those bodies outside.."
Reilly nodded "Talon. Michael- The Wanderer took care of them himself. Pepper was in command, but now he's with us" She said, pointing a finger at the old Sergeant.
"After this, your duties are being reassigned. Pepper is going to take over as Quartermaster. He knows of a lot of Talon cashes around the Wasteland and I aim to take them once they no longer have an owner"
Before Theo could speak, she answered his unasked question "Don't worry, you're not being put on latrine duty again. Since he's former Talon we can't have him or the guys he'll be bringing over running around unsupervised. You'll be in charge of keeping them in line should they step out of it."
Theo's eyes widened at the thought of more Talon Company mercs coming over to the Rangers. Dangerous, yes, but also good for business. More contract possibilities along with safety in numbers. He quickly composed himself and nodded just as the Wanderer walked over to the two Rangers.
"Theo, you'll be with Reilly on this. She'll fill you in on the details while we travel." The Wanderer said, his gruff voice passing through his masked face. Theo nodded again as the Wanderer left the room. To him, 'The Lone Wanderer' was a hero, but also terrifying. He had seen his handiwork twice now and heard of his exploits through Three Dog. He wasn't about to question as to why the Wanderer was leading this operation.
They had just gotten moving when the Wanderer held up a closed fist, signaling the Rangers to come to a stop. The hairs on his neck stood up as he scanned the area. They had only gone three blocks so far and already something felt wrong. Off in the distance a sound was heard that confirmed his fears. The sound of a Fat-Man launching a Mini-Nuke.
"MOVE!" The Wandered yelled, turning on his heel and sprinting back the way they had just come. The Rangers felt no need to doubt him and quickly followed suit. A few short moments later a Mini-Nuke impacted the pavement where the Wanderer once stood and detonated, sending a cloud of radioactive dust and smoke into the air as well as shrapnel from both the bomb's shell and the pavement in every direction. Shortly after a hail of gunfire was sent in the direction of where the Rangers once were.
The Wanderer had gotten the Rangers into a nearby building about half a block from the point of contact, all avoiding injury by only an inch. Michael peeked out of the third-story window and saw a figure emerge from the smoke. Giant, bulky armor with spikes protruding from the pauldrons. An unlit cigarette in his lips and a knife in his hand. From memory the Wanderer recalled all these attributes to line up with the profile Michael had on Jabasco, the current leader of Talon Company. As the smoke dissipated, he could see that Jabasco had brought a sizable force with him.
Pepper blanched at the amount of people with Jabasco. Over half of Talon Company was down in the street, all armed to the teeth. He could make out several faces in the front line, all of which were the guys he had planned to save from the Wanderer. While not regretting his choice to join up with the Rangers, he was visibly upset that he wouldn't be able to save his friends.
"Wanderer" the whiskey-soaked voice of Jabasco echoed throughout the empty streets of downtown DC "Your luck has finally run out. Your desire to save people overextended your own reach, and now you're going to die with the pathetic Rangers"
Brick's face visibly contorted, readying to go out in a blaze of gunfire. The Wanderer raised a hand, motioning her to wait.
"You're going to die tonight. Hopefully last, after me and my boys have our way with that redhead Reilly. I'll tell ya what, you send her out here in the next ten minutes and I might spare ya."
Michael's fist clenched shut and the veins on his arms became visible as his blood boiled.
Jabasco lit his cigarette and took a long drag from it. "Ten minutes. After that, I'll have to bring that building down on top of ya. Even you can't survive that."
Icy blue eyes met green as Reilly made eye contact with Michael. For a brief moment a look of fear could be seen in his eyes, but it was gone so fast she questioned whether it was there in the first place, replaced by a look that told her his wheels were turning once more, trying to find a way out of this unfavorable situation. He held a finger to his lips to signal her to be silent as he shook his head. After looking down to at the object on his arm, he spoke.
"You have twelve minutes before I come out of here. Twelve minutes to leave. Otherwise, I'm going to slaughter each and every single one of you, and the last one left alive will forever wish he was dead."
Unseen by Michael, Jabasco was so shocked at the Wanderer's retort that his cigarette, his last stick of cancer fell out of his mouth. Slowly, what seemed like small, closed-mouth coughs morphed into a madman's cackles as Jabasco clutched his side. The Talon Company mercs behind him looked to each other, not quite sure of their fearless leader's state of mind.
"That's good! Very good, Wanderer. Just as I'd expect. I'll be taking great pleasure in making you watch as I rip the hearts out of all the others in that building."
Unseen by Jabasco, a few of the troops in the back had decided to heed the Wanderer's warning. They left, quickly and quietly.
As explosions shook the building around them, Michael sat quietly on the steps leading down to the street. His eyes were glued to the computer on his arm. Jabasco had gotten impatient, starting the attack three minutes early. Now, the Wanderer found himself praying to whatever higher power that might exist that the building not collapse before the remaining time before sundown was up.
Behind him, he could hear the quiet swearing coming from both Brick and Theo. Shifting focus, he could hear Donovan praying in a language he didn't speak. The two Snipers, though seemingly quiet, were whispering to each other. As the seconds counted down, he could feel himself going through one of his many changes. His senses were becoming stronger. He could smell, beyond all the mildewy smoke, Pepper had decided to light his own cigarette. Reilly was beside him, her head on his shoulder, her arms wrapped around his free arm. He could feel the body head radiating off of her.
Taking a quick glance, he saw that her eyes were shut tight. Everything about her told him she was scared, in fact she was terrified. She didn't want to die, and she was placing all her trust, all of her will to live in his hands. Counting down the final seconds, he kissed her cheek and stood up. Her head shot up, looking at him. She saw him give her a single wink and then disappear seeming into thin air. She looked around and saw she was the only one who noticed. In the back of her mind, she knew something about him was off when she saw his face. It was his, but it wasn't. He was grinning. Not a confident grin, but a feral, bloodthirsty grin. And his eyes were different. Gone were the blue orbs. In their stead, she was red slitted eyes.
As that final bit of information processed through her brain, she heard and felt the explosions stop. The building stopped shaking. For a moment that felt like an eternity, all was silent. The Rangers looked to each other, wondering if they had died and the afterlife was just another wasteland.
That's when they heard it. The roar. A roar that very few have ever lived to remember. A loud, deep, demonic-sounding roar that could only be produced by a beast a hell. The roar of a Deathclaw could be heard by everyone at the scene, and followed by it were screams of terror and pain accompanied by gunshots. Pepper took a chance and looked out of the window, hoping to see something past the darkness. For a split second, he caught a flash of crimson red.
When the front artillery squad had stopped reloading, Jabasco knew something was wrong. He sent the nearest NCO to investigate to witness something he couldn't make sense of. The NCO had stopped mid-sprint for a moment and exploded into blood. He saw it then, a pair of disembodied eyes staring back at him. They glowed a deep red he had seen once before through the scope of a rifle. A Deathclaw's eyes.
He couldn't speak. Couldn't yell. He found himself frozen in place as they came closer to him. The men around him seemed to also be entrapped by the gaze from the red eyes. One of them managed to break free just moments before his arm was lopped off, managing to squeeze the trigger on his 10mm pistol three times, causing the rest of the front line to break and the following lines to start to panic, as they could only see and not hear what was going on, the cloudy moonless night doing them no favors.
Eventually Jabasco was able to direct his men to fire at the creature, though it seemed like no bullets were making contact. The thing moved like the mist, ignoring the laws of physics as it cut and slashed it's way through the mercenaries. It would appear behind someone who it was just directly in front of with a clawed arm sticking through the poor bastard's chest. Any outstretched limbs were almost immediately forfeited, littering the ground with hands, arms, and legs.
Up in the building, no Ranger knew what was going on down there. So far, only Reilly and Pepper had noticed Michael's absence. Neither one of them believed the monster on the ground to be him though. The Wanderer was a force of nature, but not even he could cut through that many men so easily. Right? They heard, over the screams and gunfire, Jabasco calling a retreat. Pepper's eyes widened further. Jabasco had never called a retreat. It wasn't his style to give up. He'd rather go down fighting than look like a coward.
The clouds gave way to a sliver of the moon, allowing both Ranger and Talon alike to see past the first two feet ahead of them. Radioactive rain started to fall, quickly soaking the dried up wasteland. In the midst of the standing Talon mercenaries, a figure could be seen. Before the moonlight became hidden once more, they saw as it pulled a clawed hand out of the chest of the man in front of it, tossing the body aside as if it weighed nothing. Once the moonlight was gone, another howl could be heard. This time, a howl of victory. The howl a Deathclaw makes when it bests a Yao Gai or opposing Deathclaw. A way of showing dominance to any creatures around that may think to challenge it.
The noise only spread panic faster among the Talon ranks. They were practically scrambling over each other to get away. Gone was the gunfire, leaving only people screaming and crying in agony as they laid on the ground, often missing limbs. The radiation-soaked raindrops burned their skin, adding to their suffering.
Minutes of relative silence passed before the Rangers heard anything new. They were quick to aim their weapons at the stairway when they heard something - or someone stumbling up the steps. One landing down, they saw Michael. When he collapsed, they quickly forgot the events that had just transpired. As Reilly was the first to approach him she was the first to confirm that whatever they thought was down there was actually Michael, as he was soaked in blood. On the end of his arms, there were large claws. From a Deathclaw.
That's when she noticed it. Michael's breathing was shallow. She took a closer glance at his form to see that he was also riddled with bullet holes. In a panic, she pulled open the duster to see what the damage was.
It was bad. From what Pepper could tell, the kid had taken over a dozen slugs. Arms, legs, chest, everywhere. Multiple grazings were also on his body. He saw the Wanderer's eyes open. Blue, not red.
Michael tugged his hand out of the gauntlet and brought it up to Reilly's face, who was sitting over him. A genuine yet pain-filled smile crept onto his face as she held his hand and leaned into it, not at all deterred by the blood. On the other side of him, Kilo and Miles were trying to figure out where to start to patch him up. They were too focused on their job to hear what was said between the other two. Downstairs, Theo and Donovan were keeping watch. Talon wasn't stupid enough to come back after that massacre, but there's always the chance of supermutants and raiders coming to investigate noise when in downtown D.C.
The Wanderer was pale. Although Kilo and Miles were doing everything in their power to keep him alive, he was simply losing too much blood. Tears welled up in Reilly's eyes as Michael's breathing became even more shallow. He was dying and there was nothing she could do about it. Then, the building rumbled around them. The structural integrity of it was failing due to the damage at the base of it.
"We need to move, now!" Pepper shouted, moving to pick up the Wanderer. Reilly nodded and helped him, draping one of his arms around her neck as Pepper did the same. As they descended the staircase, the building's shaking became more intense. They had just gotten outside when the building finally gave up, collapsing onto itself with a loud crash. It was still raining and they needed to find some shelter from the acidic, radioactive rain.
They quickly carried the Wanderer to a nearby overpass. When they laid him down, however, they noticed something spectacular. A slug from a 10mm pistol or SMG was pushed out of the wound it caused, the flesh behind it sealing up. Although the Rangers had never seen anything like it before, Pepper had.
It was a mutation, caused by exposure to one kind of radiation or another for too long. It was rare for a mutation to be beneficial, but it was known to happen. A thought crossed his mind. Just how beneficial was this mutation?
"Stop" He said, hesitating for a moment "Put him back into the rain."
Brick shot him an incredulous look, but complied anyways. As the rain fell onto him, they watched as one by one bullet slugs were pushed out of his body and wounds were sealed shut. The rain should have been burning his skin, but instead it was giving color back to it. Kilo checked his pulse to find it was much stronger than it was before.
"That should be enough" Pepper said, pulling the Wanderer back under shelter "Don't want to push it too much. Not sure how much radiation his body can handle."
Brick spoke first "What was that? How did that happen?"
For a moment, Pepper thought about ignoring her question. After lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag, he decided to answer "You were Brotherhood. Protected from the elements. Protected from the wasteland, yet still exposed to radiation. Your body became used to the detrimental effects"
Pepper gazed on the Wanderer's still form. He continued "He grew up in a vault. No radiation down there. No exposure means no way for the body to become accustomed to it over time. I'm willing to bet when he disarmed that bomb in Megaton a few years ago he soaked up a lot of RADs. Probably got sick from it"
He sighed, taking another drag from his stick of cancer "His body probably processed it differently than most, having been exposed to so much all at once. Combine that with all the weird shit he's done and been through and it's not hard to accept that he's just plain different from us. He's lucky, though. Most mutations caused by radiation don't end well."
Pepper's words weighed heavily on the other Rangers. Was the Wanderer really so different? Almost collectively they thought back to the screams of terror, the flashes of glowing red eyes. He was definitely different, and it put some of them on edge. Should he decide that the Rangers are enemies, or should he break mentally, many of them doubted the Capital Wasteland would survive such a creature.
Reilly was unperturbed. She didn't care how different he was, how deadly he was. Their connection seemed to completely eliminate any negative ideas of the Wanderer. For now, she was just grateful that her and the Rangers were once again saved by him. With his disappearing act, he could have easily left them all for dead. He didn't. Instead, he took it upon himself to take on an entire battalion of Talon mercs.
To her left, Pepper was hard at work trying to get a fire going with what little tinder they had available. It was getting colder by the minute and the rain didn't seem to be letting up. Theo, who was resting against the overpass wall despite the night's activities could be heard muttering in his sleep. Despite his youth, he was the second most at-ease, next to Pepper, of the Wanderer's capabilities. Brick and Donovan were a good six feet away from the Wanderer. Over the rain, their harsh whispers could be heard. They were afraid. Kilo and Miles were on overwatch. While it was unlikely Talon would come back for round two, curious critters might have been attracted to the sound. Or Muties.
Reilly checked Michael's pulse once more. It was strong. His breathing was no longer labored. It was as if he was just in a deep sleep. She knew then that death would not claim him that night. With his raw display of power and skill, it was possible Death simply wasn't prepared to take him. Maybe it was afraid. Or on the flip side, maybe the Wanderer was simply an instrument of Death bestowed upon the wicked of the Wasteland. Whatever the case, Michael would live to see another day.
In the back of her mind, Reilly felt that this wasn't the worst of what is to come for him. She muttered an oath just loud enough for Pepper to hear; whatever is to come, she'll be there with him to ensure he knows that he's more than a weapon, that someone cares for him still.
Hearing this, Pepper lets out a tired sigh. "Gonna be a long ride.."
A/N: I apologize for both the long delay of and the lack of content within this chapter. I've been in the middle of moving for the past few weeks and have just gotten enough time now to bring this chapter to a proper endpoint. I made a promise to provide frequent updates and I was unable to deliver upon that promise. Please stay with this story while I get my living situation sorted out. What you see in this chapter is but a glimmer of what I have in store for the future of Michael's Rangers.
