Hey bros (and people who tell me they're my bro but are really lying just to get some) what's up? Hopefully I can finish this for you by Tuesday, but maybe not.(I didn't, I have failed you yet again my bros.) I have school, among other things. But only a few days left! X3 So hopefully without further ado:
LET'S GET BACK TO WORK!
Derek twirled his crowbar idly and stared at the Yao-Guai. "Well, come on you ugly thing, we need to get back home sooner or later. Just charge us so I can kill you." But the mutant didn't seem interested in the pair of humans at all. It seemed much more at ease ripping the flesh off of the Chimera it had killed and digging in. It was a gruesome sight, the large beast chomping mouthfuls of dark meat off of the dead animal. But it was distracted for the moment, and that was what Derek needed to gain time to think. He strode over to Olivia, who was reloading her SMG. "Listen short stuff: Yao-Guai will attack most creatures on sight: the fact that we're not on its list is nothing short of a miracle. It's possible this one is smart enough to see we're friendly, or maybe it's just meat hungry more than it is blood hungry. Either way, it's giving us a chance to prepare ourselves for what happens," he told her.
"So what's the plan boss?" Olivia asked, putting away her gun and beginning to clean her Ripper.
"The first order of business should be to collect the heads of those dead raiders. Maybe skin a few of the Chimera as well: something to prove we did the work. Plus, more caps is never a bad thing," he told her.
"But you're getting paid tons of money from all the major tenants of the tower!" she protested.
"Okay, so I like to scavenge and sell whatever I can get my hands on!" he retorted. "I'm neurotic about not being wasteful, thank you very much for mocking my illness! You will burn for it… Turner's," he told her, knocking her short stature.
"Hey! You told me you liked short girls!" she protested again.
"Only when they're not mocking me," Derek pretend-sulked. "Now watch the bear and I'll get to work." Over the next several minutes, Derek rushed around the concrete basin and decapitated/stored any raider skull he could find. The unfortunate hat-fillers found their way into a large sack, followed by the pointy skins of the Chimera that had killed them. What space was left was filled with the meat of the Chimera that was now open to the elements. After tying the sack at the neck and hefting it, Derek turned to notice that Olivia and the bear-thing were closer than the last time he had glanced at them. Alarmingly closer. As in, she was touching it! "Olivia! Are you sure that's safe?" he demanded, whipping out his boomstick and stepping to the left for a clear shot at it.
The Yao-Guai growled and glared at him, staring down the offending weapon. Olivia shifted so that she was standing in Derek's line of shot, then turned and glared at him. "Don't shoot our friend Derek!"
The young man scoffed and holstered his boomstick, but kept his crowbar at the ready. "Fine, I'll just club it to death," he asserted, striding forward.
Olivia stubbornly kept herself in harm's way, both by keeping between Derek and the Yao-Guai, and by being close to the creature at all. "She does not need to be killed, she needs to be thanked," was the surprising response.
"Olivia, what's to stop…her… from eating us the moment our backs are turned?" Derek demanded, glaring at the ugly creature, then staring at the treatment it was getting: she was actually petting the thing! Rubbing its snout, scratching its… well, those spire-thingies. "Oh come on Olivia! This is a dangerous wild animal we're dealing with here!"
"The only thing dangerous here is you," Olivia argued. "You and your prejudice."
"If you remember correctly, the last Yao-Guai we met almost killed us! I have the scar on my arm to prove it!" he responded, exasperated. "Every time we meet local wildlife, it tries to kill us!"
"Not this time," the girl cooed, kissing the mutant's snout. "She just wants some looove. Don't you? Don't you want some looove?" Olivia's voice grew into a babying momma's voice, and apparently the Yao-Guai loved it. Her ears perked up, and she attempted to lick Olivia's face with a black, barbed tongue. "Whoa there girl, easy now," she stammered, stepping away from the show of affection. "Those will rip my face right off. You don't want to hurt momma do you? Ooof course not!"
Derek groaned and sat down, turning away from the sorry sight before him. 'When you die, I won't save you," he grumbled at his partner.
Despite his constant, adamant protests, somehow Derek allowed Olivia to keep her new pet. ""Where will she stay? What does she even eat? Can you house train her?" were all viable questions that Olivia waved away as unimportant. "At least tell me you have a name for her!" he demanded.
"Ummm… how about Panama!"
"Panama? What the heck is that?" he really didn't sound upset anymore, he was just taking it all in stride. Better for his migraines that way.
"Oh silly, you know what it is! The archives talked about it! It was a North American country that was south of the old U.S."
"You mean Mexico."
"No, Panama!'
"So you mean to tell me you name a giant walking tank-bear-spike-thing after a southern North American country that isn't even Mexico?"
"Mmm, yup!"
"You know, just because you're three years my senior doesn't mean you get to make all the decisions!"
"We could name her Kitty instead!"
"Panama it is!" he asserted enthusiastically, defeated yet again.
The puny creatures had been following her for close to an hour. After leaving all the blood and carrion, she had decided to travel north, to what had been her den. She had left her litter of cubs for food, and had returned to find them all killed and devoured! Fraught with fury, she had tracked the pack of Chimera to Their den, and had come upon then about to devour more defenseless creatures! She growled again just thinking of it, though then the rage had blinded her, as it often did to her kind. She had sought only to kill them, even with their numbers. She had almost been killed herself, though the tall, noisy stick creature had used its clap-maker to save her from the final blow. These small creatures were somebody's' cubs as well, and she wasn't going to let them die on her watch.
"Okay, where is she taking us? Oy! Panama! Do we have a destination?" Derek demanded, suddenly amazed he was talking to the creature. "I must be off the deep end…" he muttered, picking his way through rubble and slipping down into a caved-in hole, probably the remains of a storage basement. "Why I bother to put up with-"
"Derek!" Olivia hissed from the darkness ahead of him. "Stop whining and come see this!"
Grumbling, the young man stepped into the dim opening and turned up his Pip-Boy light. "Wow…" was all he could manage as he surveyed the carnage before him. Strewn about the cave were the body parts of several Yao-Guai cubs. From the looks of it, there had been about four in the litter. What remained of their bodies bore gnaw-marks, evidence of rival animals raiding the den for food. "Olivia, look at those scratch marks on that one's-" he stopped, a tad sickened, "on that one. Looks like a Chimera knocked it over. There's even a few claws left in the hide…"
"Was it the same Chimera we killed?" Olivia wondered aloud, striding back and forth collecting all the pieces.
"…I wouldn't doubt it. Yao-Guai are always fiercely protective of their young. Revenge killing wouldn't be out of the question." Derek turned to Panama and stared at her, curious. "Just how smart are you?"
"Hush child," Olivia commanded. "We're going to burn these cubs, as is proper. Now help a defenseless girl pick up the icky icky gore."
After cremating the remains of Panama's litter, the daring duo, now arguably a trio, started their long trek back to the Carew Tower and Raw Border. Surprisingly, Panama had tried to lift the sack into her mouth. Derek had stopped her before the thing had ripped, and instead tied it to her neck. "At least we get a pack-mule," he said to himself, though the creature did growl at him. Startled, he fell back and scrambled away from the offended beast of burden. "S-sorry!" he apologized.
After a largely uneventful patrol through the downtown area, the trio made their way back to fountain square. Derek had the good sense to stop and think of a plan to tell the snipers on lookout duty that the animal following them was friendly. "Okay, so how will we do this?" he asked Olivia and Panama, eyeing them both skeptically.
"We could tie a piece of Chimera skin around her neck," Olivia suggested.
"Unhygienic and smelly. Perfect!" was Derek's response. After carving up a piece of the skin and stitching it to some of the scraps of armor they had taken from the raiders, Olivia had successfully fashioned a collar of-sorts that was looped around Panama's neck. The result was actually pretty effective: no one would mistake the Yao-Guai for a wild animal at least.
"Now that that is over and done with, can we go home now? I want to sleeeep!"Olivia complained.
"Fine, sure, let's just get everything put away an-" a mechanical humming noise interrupted Derek's orders, and he spun to see a figure rapidly moving toward them. "Oh, crap. Mato!"
Speeding toward them was Derek's own personal (he had built the damn thing) sentry bot, Mato had been little more than a rusted-out shell that housed his primary systems before being found by Derek's father. Over a period of two years, Derek had collected the necessary parts to restore his limbs to working order (Myrelurk shell was a great steel replacement). The result was a sturdy, reliable substitute for a tank. "Mato, stand down," ordered Derek in a panicked voice.
"Stress levels above normal parameters detected. Enemy physiology assumed source. Recommended course of action: destroy target," whirred the machine, leveling its precision gatling laser at Panama. The Yao-Guai growled out a challenge and planted herself firmly in the line of fire. She wasn't backing down from this threat.
Looking much too calm in response to this turn of events, Olivia stepped delicately into Mato's line of fire. "Stand down you silly machine," she cooed, giggling absurdly at her own danger, "this is our friend Panama. She rescued us."
Mato whirred, then zoomed forward and focused its infared beam on Panama's face and neck. "Yao-Guai physiology detected. User input necessary: Yao-Guai are friendly?" The startled animal swiped at the invasive machine, which quickly switched into reverse to avoid the blow.
"Negative, Yao-Guai physiology is to remain hostile. Find a distinguishing characteristic," ordered Derek, relieved that his creation may not end up killing them all in the near future.
Mato buzzed, then wheeled around to scan Panama's neck once more. "Distinguishing object detected on hostile physiology. User input necessary: distinguishing object designates friendly physiology?"
"Affirmative. The distinguishing feature, designated Panama," Derek ordered in clear, succinct language, "is overriding of enemy physiology. Confirm input."
Mato's systems buzzed as he accepted the command. "Input confirmed: Friendly Panama detected and is now under this system's protection."
"Well I've never tried that before," Derek admitted, patting his robot on the head. "Okay Mato, take us home."
"At least we know the collar works!" Olivia chirped.
After the tense standoff with the security drone, Panama's reception at Raw Border seemed almost jovial. After it was explained to the gate-guards that Panama was apparently a freak among freaks of nature and did not want to kill everyone, she was allowed in. Everyone else just assumed that, if the gate-guards hadn't fired any shots, and the creature was surrounded by Derek, Olivia, and Mato (especially Mato) and not full of holes, then it must not be a threat. And just like that, Panama was effectively made a member of Carew Tower's society. Not bad for an afternoon's work.
A word about the inner-workings of Raw Border. Past the stainless steel gate and concrete defenses is a constant power-struggle for control. But no one was killed within these defenses. There would be no point in having them if everyone inside was just seconds away from assassination. So the inhabitants had settled on a cop-out long ago. If you were the strongest, you were on top. Normally, this meant killing your competition. But again, no point if there was no-one left to rule over. The earth's population wasn't exactly exploding. People in Raw Border settled for showing off their skill. If the boss wanted a job complete, the first to do it would get the recognition.
Say, for example, two men want to prove who should be in-charge of a particular group of wastelanders living in the tower (happens often enough.) They both listen one morning to the leader reading off the bounties, and see there's a request to kill off a troublesome group of bandits. So, they both go out and get to work. Whoever kills the most bandits, or the leader, or some combination of the two gets most of the credit, right? Of course he does! So, the winner makes the biggest impression upon the gang of scavengers, so they pick him to be their leader!
This is how things get done in Raw Border, and has been for as long as most residents can remember. The father killed off a fucking army of raiders (no one knows how, and no one is brave enough to ask) so he was named leader-chief-headman-ruler-for-all-eternity of the tower. With his absence, the power vacuum is almost palpable, and certainly some dissatisfied customers will soon come out of the woodwork, demanding that they get theirs.
Keep in mind, however, that this is by no means a perfect system. Humans are not predictable, and rarely will all of the sheep blindly follow the herd, so to speak. Most often, two long-time rivals will simply grow tired of each-other's power games. So, they go out west for one last round to-end-all-rounds. Always, one challenger will return and assure the tenants of the other's demise. So far, no one has been proven wrong.
This grand scheme of things is Derek's motivation for foraging out into the wastes. No one likes a weak leader, and there is no shortage of strong replacements in a place like Derek's tower home. So, there would be challenges to undertake in the future for him. But for now, a little show of force would suffice. Thus, Derek heaved his sack of heads and skins and armor scraps onto the bounty-claim desk, then walked around to the other side and started counting out his earnings. Normally, a portion would go into a separate box that the current leader collected. However, since he had an 'in' of sorts with that crazy bastard, he just kept all of the caps for himself.
Business done, Derek's next job was to figure out where in all hell Panama was supposed to sleep. "You're no help!" he cried after a retreating Olivia. "Fuck," he cursed under his breath as he turned to the large animal. "No going inside the tower for you," he mused, equally to himself and the creature.
But the bear wasn't really paying attention to him, and was much more interested in the myrelurk meat being pulled through the steel doors. "Fine," Derek allowed, patting her side in what could've passed for affection. "Go munch. Tell them I'll pay for whatever she eats!" he called the shippers who looked around, startled. Almost like she understood, Panama hefted herself onto all four feet and padded towards the now-quivering shippers.
Finally, his work done, the Yao-Guai roaming freely in the commons outside his tower, and Olivia nowhere to be seen, Derek pronounced his day finished. Indeed, the sun was setting, and soon the scaffold-bridge lights and the tower lights would come on and illuminate Fountain Square. Making his way back to his room, Derek paused near a particularly dim hallway. "Come out," he called, only half-expecting anyone to actually respond.
Much to his surprise, several intimidating individuals stepped out of the shadows to his left, all wearing the same purple-black armor of Talon Company. "How did you know we were waiting?" demanded their leader, who's armor bore a red border that split the purple and black.
"I didn't, but when you stepped out of the shadows it kind-of gave something away," Derek told him truthfully, leaning on his crowbar as the picture of nonchalance.
"The Talon Company demands a word about our future employment," responded the arrogant man.
"Okay, two things. One, you do not demand anything in my tower," Derek told him, putting authority into his voice. "Second, as I told your Regulator friends, things will be as they always have been: you both will seek out jobs and contracts on an individual basis. No wars will be fought within these walls."
"Boy, you will not stand in the way of my superio-" was all the farther the man got before Derek's boomstick was pointed in his face.
"One more word of superior authority over my tower and I will personally throw you out said tower. Through a window. Then I will tell your superior authority that the Regulators will be receiving very accommodating deals within my walls. Now Get! Out! My sight!"
Stammering, grasping for dignity, the Talon leader motioned for his men to move away from the angry Derek. The retreating mercenaries mumbled threats and promises of vengeance to the young man. Sighing, Derek pulled out two shells and loaded the boomstick. "Good thing they're idiots."
"Yep, a very good thing," mused a voice behind him.