"Oh, I never thought I'd see that again," Cassie practically darted out of the metro tunnel the moment she saw those cracks of burning sunlight peeking through the decaying gates of the metro. The girl stretched and smiled as the warm sunlight seemed to bring color back to her face.
"Hold onto that celebration for now kid," Jericho snapped looking around to see if any big bad mutants were lurking around the area, something the kid had failed to do when she had rushed into the open, "Check your arm. Are we even in the right place?"
She looked around, "Hmm… broken buildings, cracked streets," She shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head innocently, "Looks like the right place."
"Cut the shit kid and look at your damn arm," He spat, he was still sure that there had to be some form of enemy close by, "I don't want to find out we've wound up in the wrong place aga----DUCK!" He pushed the girl down, rather forcefully, by the top of her head and fired off a few rounds at a super mutant that had wandered up to the escalator stairs outside the metro.
The hulking mass roared out in pain before being silenced and tumbling down the stairs. The girl, still kneeling, turned to look at the dead mutie that had slid down behind her. Falling to her hands and knees, she crawled over and jabbed her finger into it's side before deciding it was dead and stealing it's ammunition, "Well that was lucky, I was almost out of rifle ammo."
"What do you mean lucky?" He released a frustrated kick in the deformed fuck wad's face, "Finding muties is in no way lucky. Now will you look at your mother fuckin' wrist watch or whatever the fuck that pippin' shit is and tell us where the hell we are?!"
Cassie rose to her feet and sniffled disapprovingly before complying, "We're in DC… but we came out a little further south than I would have liked. Come on," She slung her pack over her shoulder and pulled out her rifle for protection, "We can probably still get to Galaxy News before dark," The girl stopped and looked back at him before adding in a bitchy tone, "If that's all right with you."
"Whatever, fuck kid…" He sighed trudging up the stairs after her, "I just thought you'd want to get a move on lookin' for your pops."
As they were walking around, silently because the girl always gave him the silent treatment whenever she was pissed off, Jericho's mind had time to wander. He thought of that nightmare he had in the Metro sending an involuntary shake through his body. He must have been getting old, dreaming of the past was the sort of thing you did when you were old man, or at least, that's what Nathan was always whining about whenever he wasn't gushing over the fucking Enclave.
It made him wonder. Why did Cassie choose an old man like him to accompany her? There were plenty of people wandering around Megaton who would have went with her for less than the thousand caps she paid him. Perhaps he wasn't her first choice. Maybe she only asked him to be her escort because of the situation she'd found him in.
Did this little snot-nosed brat pity him?
"I don't need your fucking pity you know." He mumbled from behind her. She didn't stop, she either didn't hear him or was pretending not to. Instead of letting it drop he called out a little louder, "I'm babysitting your ass not the other way around."
The girl stopped and waved her hand, "Shut up a minute."
The nerve of this little cunt! "I don't care who you are princess you don't fucking tell me to-"
"Sh!" The girl spun around and put her fingers to his lips before pointing over to two super mutants having an altercation with some armored guys with some pretty top-notch equipment, "Who are those guys?" She whispered removing her fingers from his lips, "Are they friendly?"
He hesitated for a moment to get a good look at them, "Psh… Brotherhood of Steel… Yeah they're friendly-ish."
"Good enough for me," She jumped out and ran up to the Brotherhood members as they finished off the muties with ease, "Hey! HOLD UP A SECOND!"
"Damn it kid, that doesn't mean they won't shoot at you!" He rushed out after her, silently thanking whatever deities happened to be left in that irradiated sky that the BOS put their weapons away instead of picking them off like flies.
She stopped in front of another blonde woman who seemed to be in charge. Great, another chick with a superiority complex.
"Yeah, hi," Cassie seemed giddy to see other people out on the wasteland who weren't trying to kill them, "Do you happen to know where the GNR building is? It stands for Gal-"
"I know what it stands for," The blonde woman in the power armor cut her off with a rather annoyed tone, "Yeah we're on our way there now and don't have time to be talking to some uneducated wastelander."
The vault dweller blinked at the rude response and chose to ignore it, "Okay… Well, do you mind if we tag along? We're kind of lost."
The knight shrugged, "I'm too busy looking after my own men to watch you and your dad's asses. If you want to follow us then fine but don't expect us to shed a tear when you get yourselves shot."
This lady was really beginning to piss him off, "Look you tin-plated bitch I-" He was cut off by the girls hands clamping over his mouth and her laughing nervously.
"That's okay by me," Why was she letting this bitch treat her like this? If he had said something like that Cassie would've smacked him and refused to speak to him for a few hours, "But don't think we can't take care of ourselves," She slowly removed her hands from Jericho's mouth and gave him a look that said, 'Keep your mouth shut, would ya?', "We may end up being the ones who save you." She turned and offered the Knight a cheerful smile.
The woman seemed offended by the idea of being saved by a couple of shabby-looking wanderers, but just laughed it off, "That'll be that day… Whatever, let's get moving." She motioned for her paladins to follow and headed off deeper into the ruins.
Jericho was surprised at how close they actually were. There were a few muties on the way but the brotherhood knights made quick work of them, he couldn't even pop a round off.
Eventually, they came to clearing, well not a clearing, but a clearer part of the ruins with a fountain standing out in front of a massive building with a radio tower and the letters GNR standing out clear as day.
The kid couldn't help but let out a cheer as her eyes settled on the building.
The woman, Sentinel Sarah Lyons, ordered her troops to spread out and secure the area, "Vargas," She motioned by the doors, "Over there. Initiate Reddin, ove--" Before she could even get the words out of her mouth the largest super mutant Jericho had ever seen busted through a barricade of cars and slammed his giant makeshift sledgehammer down on the one they called 'Reddin'.
The slam of his weapon made the ground shake and knocked everyone off balance, Cassie ended up on her ass, her eyes as big as saucers, "W-what the hell? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" Jericho pulled back, along with the knight woman they were emptying clip after clip at the behemoth. The bullets seemed to just barely pierce the things thick flesh.
"God damn it," He turned to Vargas who was banging on his jammed mini-gun, "You mind helping out with this son of a bitch?"
"Hold on damn it!" He shouted back, the worthless piece of machinery suddenly sprung to life and began whirring as it prepared to unleash a volley of bullets. The behemoth, as if it were aware what was happening, turned to Vargas and raised it's super sledgehammer. He had no time to move. The Brotherhood of Steel knight closed his eyes tight, there was no way the damn mini-gun would fire before the thing hit him. He needed a miracle. ANYTHING AT THIS POINT WOULD BE WELCOME!
"HEY ASSHOLE!" Jericho watched, in disbelief, the young and seemingly innocent vault dweller as she was crouched by Reddin's lifeless body tossing the dead initiate's grenades at the super mutant behemoth's feet. Annoyed but unaffected, the behemoth's attention was successfully drawn away from Vargas long enough for him to fire a large burst of ammunition straight at the thing's chest.
It howled in pain as the barrage of bullets broke through his three-inch-thick skin and obliterated his mutated heart. The thing teetered forwards and backwards and fell directly on top of the fountain with an earth shattering thud. The kid got up and dusted herself off before bounding up to Jericho.
"Well, that was different." She laughed. Cassie lost her smile and turned to Lyons, holding out a pair of dog tags, "I'm sorry. Miss Reddin didn't make it ma'am."
Sarah took them and shook her head solemnly, "Don't be sorry, she died as a brave soldier of the Brotherhood and will go down in our history as the heroic Paladin Reddin." Cassie seemed confused by this reaction.
"What does giving her a promotion fix?" She asked in that agitated tone she normally used with Jericho, "Giving her a bright and shiny new title isn't going to make her feel better. She's still dead and I'm pretty sure dead people don't care about promotions."
Lyons let out a low growl under her breath. Something about uneducated wastoids not being able to understand or some bullshit like that.
Cassie brushed past her and approached the intercom, "Hey, anyone listening in there? The big bad beastie is dead and I have some business with the D.J.!"
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Authors note:
I giggle at the dad comment.
I've never liked the Lyons. Not Sarah, not her father. Fuck 'em. When I first got to the GNR plaza and saw my first behemoth I nearly cacked myself! Since then, I love lookin' around for 'em.
(if you want I suggest going on you tube and looking for something along he lines of "Behemoth vs. bottle cap mines ^_^)