Chapter 2: Quid Pro Quo

Their saviour turned out to be a slim woman that could have been the south side of 20 or a fresh faced 30. She'd tried to wipe off the blood that had splattered her face and smeared her make-up in the process. The mix of blood and black eyeliner drew more attention to her eyes. They were hard, but underneath that was a vulnerability that simply screamed that this kind of warfare was not something she was accustomed to.

The bright blue suit hadn't fared well either. It was covered in blood and dust as she tussled with the raiders that had been trying to breach the room the two had locked themselves in.

'I don't know who you are, but you have some shit timing.' Garv greeted. 'I'm Garv, this is Sturges.'

Sturges nodded to her and resumed his former post, watching for reinforcements.

'Althea Shapiro - story of my life.' She replied hesitantly. 'You're dressed like the people downstairs.' She noted with a creep of wariness. Garv was impressed, she wasn't quite as gullible as he'd taken her for - she still had a tight grip on the musket he'd directed her to grab on her way into the building, too, so she wasn't completely stupid.

'That's because we're raiders.' Sturges chipped in. She looked confused. 'You don't know what raiders are?'

Her eyes clouded as she seemed to consider exactly what to say. 'I'm not from….I...I've been asleep for a long time.' She admitted.

To not know what raiders were? 'How long we talkin'?' Sturges prodded.

'About two hundred years, apparently.' She replied. Her hands tightened on the gun.

Sturges' eyes widened but suddenly, to Garv, it all made sense. 'You're pre-war?!' No wonder she seemed so out of place and inexperienced. She was. 'How?!' He demanded.

Althea shrugged, but wouldn't really make eye-contact. 'We went into a vault. It was a cryo-vault. We didn't even know what they were doing they just - the bombs fell and -' Her breath hitched as she stared at one of the desks for a second before she snapped back. 'I'm looking for someone - my son.'

'I'm looking to live a couple more days.' Garv replied. It was certainly novel to meet someone who claimed to have come from a time before the bombs fell - even if it was just before - but pressing survival meant he wasn't about to be awed by this information. It didn't change the fact that they were trapped in this building - in this room even - relying on an inexperienced, ill-equipped woman.

'What exactly is going on?' She demanded, a hand rested lightly on her hip. 'Why are these people trying to kill you?'

'They're trying to kill us because we're not supposed to be here.' She still looked puzzled. Seriously, this woman was clueless. More than likely going to get herself killed if left to her own devices. 'This is Jared's territory and we're not part of his crew.' He explained slowly.

'Like gang disputes?' She frowned, then sighed. 'That doesn't seem to have changed.'

'Look, all you need to know is that we're stuck and we need all the help we can get.' Garv replied.

Althea looked conflicted but Garv knew the type - a bleeding heart have-a-go hero wouldn't be able to resist helping someone in need - even if that someone was wearing a scuffed Minuteman hat over raider leathers.

Still, even now, when he thought he had the measure of her, she replied 'If I help you out, will you help me?'

'What, help you find your missing kid?!'

'It's quid pro quo.' She replied.

Garv's face twisted up, clearly confused. 'Quid pro what?'

'I do something for you, you do something for me.' She translated.

'You want me to help you find some missing kid, just for helping us with this?' That was the shittest deal he'd ever heard. It was completely skewed in her favour. No way. 'You think that when the reinforcements come that they'll just leave you alone?' He replied. 'You're part of this now. They aren't discriminatory when it comes to putting bullets in people. You made yourself a target by helping us.'

'You asked for help.' She replied. 'That's entrapment.'

'Call it whatever you want, but right now the deal is that we survive.'

'Shit, we got more incoming, Garv.' Sturges warned from his vantage point. 'Way more.'

He stared her down, watching her face flick from puzzled to angry and then a frown. He wasn't wrong, raiders were completely indiscriminate about their victims. They didn't care who was hurt or killed by their actions, so long as whatever happened benefitted them. Garv had been on both sides of the situation. If she chose to walk away at this point, then she'd be dead before she made it out of the nest of boarded up houses surrounding the museum.'What's the plan?' She asked.

Garv froze. He didn't have a plan and Jared clearly wasn't jerking around with how much he wanted the two remaining interloping raiders dead - there was no way that he was letting himself be captured. Raiders could be particularly sadistic, especially when you'd killed more than a few of their buddies.

'I gotta idea.' Sturges supplied.

'What?' Garv demanded.

The ex-handyman pointed up further along the roof to where the rusted tip of a wing could just be made out. 'That's an old military Vertibird up there.' He advised. 'Gotta be something we can use in it.'

'You're just mentioning this now? You asshole!' Garv growled before he forced himself to relax. Getting angry at Sturges wasn't about to help their predicament. Sturges took things like that on the chin. It didn't phase him in the slightest. 'Look, we'll cover you if you want to go see what's there.'

Althea glanced from him to the tip of the Vertibird and back. 'If they're as bad as you make them out to be - extra firepower would be useful.'

Garv snorted - no shit. With nothing else forthcoming from the tense raider, Thea nodded and then made for the door with a determined look. Once she was out of the room, Garv glanced at Sturges, still quite pissed that the man had withheld information that could have helped them earlier - like a lot earlier.

'I think the girl's got about as much chance as a cat in the doghouse.' He replied, seeing Garv's look. 'Saying that, I'd give the same odds on us living through this.'

Yeah, Garv thought so too.

She was back within five minutes and seemed genuinely excited about something.

'What did you find?'

'What does this place run on?!' She rushed. 'I heard the recordings - this place has juice. It can't be hooked up to the main power because they wouldn't be playing. What does it run on?!'

Garv took a step back, alarmed clearly by her excited nature. She must've seen his reluctance as not knowing. She then turned to Sturges.

'Runs on a fusion core I think. It's down in what's left of the basement but the door's locked - why?' The handyman frowned in curiosity.

'Brilliant!'

Garv did not deal well with not knowing. It was letting things out of your control that got you killed out here. 'What the hell did you find up there?!' He demanded.

'Anybody got a bobby pin? On second thought - doesn't matter, I think I have one.' She began to root around in that impressive head of hair.

'I'd rather know now!' Garv replied angrily, blocking her way as she made to get around him.

'It's power armour.' Thea replied, perfectly serious.

Garv's eyebrows lifted. 'Holy shit - real power armour?'

'Yes!' She smiled. 'I'm amazed it survived this long. But it's core is completely burnt out - I need a new one.'

'The one from downstairs.' Sturges grinned. 'I'll be damned.'

'Yes!'

Garv had never seen someone so excited by the prospect of crawling into a 200 year old tin can but it would definitely give the other raiders something to pause about. Nobody messes with someone wearing two inch thick armour plating.

'You sure you can pick that lock?' Sturges asked doubtfully. 'Looks awful tough,'

Her face fell as she pulled the pin free from her hair. 'You think so? I'm not a criminal mastermind.'

'Not like Garv then,' Sturges laughed but the burble died a horrific death between them. 'He's not - we're not -'

'Sturges…' Garv groaned. 'Do you have a solution or not?' Knowing Sturges, there was always a solution. The man would not present a problem unless he had already found a solution. It was what kept him alive for so long in Wire's gang. You don't shoot the guy that can fix something you can't and can think his way around anything.

'Sure do, boss man.' The ex-handyman grinned and pointed to a dented, dusty computer sitting on a desk. It looked like one good sneeze would make it collapse onto itself. Garv had ruled that out of his immediate universe because apart from bludgeoning someone over the head with it - computers had never amounted to much. 'I took a poke at it, but it definitely isn't going to go down for ol' Sturges. You wanna take a crack?'

'Will it open the door downstairs?' Thea wondered, approaching the centuries old thing.

'Y'know, I haven't got the faintest. But it's worth a try just so's you don't ruin that pretty hairdo.' Sturges drawled and Garv had to resist rolling his eyes. Even as a fully kitted up raider - there was something just so country-boy and out of place about Sturges but it got a smile out of their new friend nonetheless.

'Whatever you're doing, I'd hurry. They're almost on us.' Garv reminded her.

With that little threat over her head, Thea approached the terminal and booted it up. Green and black glow ran down her face as she swiftly moved through the operating files, looking for that one key word that would gain her access.

Garv situated himself against the old, crumbling plasterwork of the balcony doors and listened. He could faintly hear the shouts and carousing followed by a bullet or two of decent aim pinging off the brickwork.

Seconds later, Sturges was right beside him. He risked a glance outside the balcony and whistled. 'Awful lotta partygoers.'

'We need that Power armour.' Garv glanced at Thea. In the gloom it looked like the information was rolling down her face. 'Hey Vaultie, how's it coming?'

She glanced up at him in surprise and confusion. 'Vaultie?!' She demanded, her hands paused on the keyboard.

'Keep going!' Garv roared.

She jumped and turned back to the computer. 'It's going,' She growled 'And that isn't helping me. You can't rush hacking.'

'I can if it means I won't get my head blown off in the next five minutes!' Garv snarled back.

'Mom, dad, can y'all just stop the bickering?' Sturges interjected. 'In case you haven't noticed - we got problems.'

'No! Really?!' Garv demanded. The lynching party was getting close enough now that their aim was improving - more and more bullets were pinging off the brickwork.

'Shee-ite. Even with the armour it looks like it's gonna be dicey to get outta here, Garv.' Sturges murmured as Thea slapped the computer in anger.

Yeah. He knew it probably would have been. Jared was throwing everything at them.

'Yes!' Thea exclaimed suddenly from the other side of the room. Both men snapped to her fist-pumping.

'You're in?' Garv demanded.

'I'm in!' She laughed in shock. 'And I can open the door!'

'Then what're you waiting for?!' Garv roared angrily. 'They're going to be at the doors any minute! Do you want to go and get it while they're shooting at you?!'

A/N: I forgot to mention on the first chapter that since this is an AU - a raider AU no less - that I'll be getting comfortable with the character. I've changed some things about him - after all, he's a raider now - but I'm not completely changing him into something unrecognisable (hopefully). I was never very good at beginnings, so please bear with me as I get the initial quest chapters out of the way.

The interest in the first chapter alone is motivating. I hope that this chapter proves just as interesting as the first. I'm always open to constructive criticism!