AN: So, the new plot arc really begins here. I really, REALLY hope that this doesn't come off as "edgy" in any way.
Well... Hope you enjoy the chapter.
-December 21, 2278
Despite all of the good, the benevolence, and kindness which man can show to his fellows, there are still the evils which mark of humanity like a pox. Some have a tendency to only see those evils, ignoring kindness and virtue altogether, and yet they still are preferable to those who would ignore all evils. Evils cannot be rectified if they cannot be recognized, after all.
Of the evils which man commits upon itself, like an insane beast clawing at itself desperately for some unknown purpose, there are those which, despite what some may say, are far greater in their scope than others. However, people who I have passed by in my travels have all expressed differing views on which evil is the most horrid. Though, some of them have expressed agreement with my perspective on the greatest evil:
The one which facilitates all others.
"You'd be a lot more concerned if they were human!"
-Trent White-Protester
Chapter 8: A Particular Set of Skills
The Courier continued to scrape the combat knife along the large whetstone, the scraping noise silent against the sounds of midnight in Vacuo's narrows, the stumbling of drunks and glass breaking filling the air from almost a good kilometer around. The occasional vehicle careened past the alleyway, always vanishing off into the night instead of stopping. His mind focused on the sounds around him, listening for footfalls or the sounds of a stopping car, and he ceased his sharpening every time he perceived a sound that broke the silence created by his adaptation to the city noise.
Turning the knife to the other side of the stone once again he began sharpening the right side of the knife for the tenth time, listening as another pair of footsteps passed right on by the alleyway, leaving as soon as they arrived. Leaning back against the dumpster as he worked on his knife, he sighed to himself, clenching his eyes shut. After a few more minutes of sharpening he examined his blade, placing the whetstone to the side. Grabbing a single strand of hair from his head, he touched the blade to it, barely moving the sharp edge before the hair came off. Sighing in content, he placed the whetstone back in his pocket, and the knife in its holster on his left rib. Listening to the environment around him, he continued to hope that the kidnappers would strike the same place twice.
"I-I'm sorry, b-but I-I didn't really get a good look at any their faces," the little faunus girl stuttered out, nervously shrinking beneath the Courier's concerned gaze, his efforts in getting her at ease with the huntsman's I.D. having gone down the drain. The Courier lowered his eyebrows in a sad expression.
"It's fine. Can you tell me where this happened or possibly anything about the event itself?" he asked in a compassionate tone.
"U-um... well" she began, looking at the German shepherd whose intelligent eyes watched the young wastelander with a careful and slightly suspicious gaze. He knew that gaze all too well, having expressed it multiple times towards those whose attitudes might cause his robot child, ED-E, harm. The eyes spoke threats towards others that might threaten those they watched over. "Please pr-promise me you won't... won't take Leo away!"
"I'm assuming Leo is your friend here," he spoke up, nodding towards the dog. She paused a moment before nervously nodding her head, looking downwards. He nodded once before speaking again. "I'm not the kind of person that separates friends from each other. You have my word, Miss Kit, I won't separate you two."
She giggled after he called her miss, and Leo snorted in apparent amusement. A gentle smile crept up on his face as he stared at the two across the dimming alleyway. Humphing once, the Courier nodded for her to continue telling him of her experience the night before. She took a minute to begin speaking again, looking down at the ground, still unsure of what to say.
"I was... trying to find things to sell to that place down the street... the... re-something place. They pay me for any metal or glass I can find." she said. The Courier nodded as he glanced briefly at her hands, which were covered in bandages and old scratches. "Leo needs to eat to stay big! That way he can protect me!" She said raising her arms to the sky. The dog raised his head proudly in response to her statement. "It was really dark, but that's okay! I have night vision," she said in what a child might assume to be a spy's whisper, as if it were some super-secret.
"That's impressive," the Courier said, playing along, hiding his grin by turning his head. Cu explained that bit about faunus shortly after the young wastelander freaked out one night when he noticed glowing eyes staring at him in the dark. Cu noticed the Courier waking up suddenly and had watched him in concern, something which reminded the wastelander of being surrounded by night stalkers. He knew all too well the abilities of faunus, and expressed jealousy on at least half a dozen occasions. Of course, he'd never tell the girl anything about his prior knowledge, taking away the joy of a child confusing something relatively normal for something incredible. That, and he still found the night vision ability extremely interesting and useful. "I'm jealous! Night vision would help me out a lot!"
"Mhmm!" She said proudly holding up her head, before realizing she needed to continue. "Well... ah... It was really, really dark. So I... uh... was rooting through the trash a couple of blocks away... I think it was the dumpster behind the-the uh-the burger place! I remember the smell of rotting meat and moldy bread! Well-Well... I heard a car pull up near the end of the alleyway, and a couple of big guys came out. One of them approached me and acted a lot like you mister huntsman. He was acting real nice to me, offered me a place to stay, somewhere nice and warm." She stopped before looking down again. "But... he wouldn't let Leo come, even though I asked. I told him I wouldn't leave him behind and... well… he didn't stay so nice. When I tried walking past he grabbed me from behind and dragged me to the car! He kicked Leo in the side!"
"That's pretty mean," the Courier said nodding. His mind however filled with profanities and horrid thoughts on the most likely candidates who would attempt to kidnap a homeless child. He hoped that reality differed from his expectations, and desired nothing more than being wrong.
"Yeah, but Leo, he..." she began, staring at her dog with thankful, but worried eyes. "Leo... Leo attacked the man who grabbed me... he... jumped an' bit his throat!"
"Huh... good dog," the Courier said, nodding appreciatively at the dog. While many dogs attacked the wastelander in his travels, he still held a soft spot for those who walked alongside people rather than attack them on sight. However, a companion whom placed their life on the line for others, regardless of species, deserved nothing less than complete respect. Leo traded glances with him, and relaxed, the two coming to a mutual understanding of each other.
"Mhmm," she happily mumbled, "Leo's always taken good care of me. I just hope I can give him as much as he's given me." She smiled for a brief second before frowning again, her dirty orange hair once again falling in front of her face. "There was a flash of light as he bit in, and the next thing I know Leo's charging at the second man, who pulled out a gun."
"A gun!" The Courier practically shouted, the little girl shrank for a moment before realizing the man held contempt only for her aggressors. "You ran away right? You didn't stay there did you?"
"No, but Leo managed to bite his throat too. I closed my eyes again as a second flash of light happened, but when I opened them the two were sleeping on the ground. We ran off after that, and I think the two took their van and left."
"You did the smart thing, who knows what would have happened if they woke up," the Courier said, before standing up, stretching his limbs to ease them after such a long period of sitting down.
"You're leaving?" She asked, a sad tone in her voice.
"If I'm going to catch these bas-bad men, I have to find this place before it gets dark." He replied, before looking down at her. Reaching his hand for her head, he gently tousled her hair, her ears twitching every time his hand came near them. He dropped the twenty lien bill he hid between his middle and index fingers into the collar of her ragged shirt right before taking his hand off her head, her gaze following it as it met his side. "I'll come and bring you some food tomorrow, so please don't leave. It's safer here than where you were last night."
"What about Leo? It wouldn't be fair if you just brought food for me!" She insisted, a firm tone in her voice for once. The Courier simply humphed a single chuckle in a good-natured and warm manner before speaking up again.
"Don't worry, I will," he said, nodding his head. "I'll bring him steak in fact! How does he like it?"
"Um," she mumbled, seemingly unused to someone outside the small homeless community agreeing with her about feeding her dog. She stared at Leo for a second. "I guess maybe raw I guess... he doesn't like cooked meat." The Courier simply nodded his head once in confirmation before heading off.
Looking once again at his scroll, the time reading just a few minutes past midnight, he humphed, before taking out his Sequoia, thumbing the cylinder release. Taking out the single, non-quick load round he always carried in his front pocket, he filled the fifth chamber, normally kept empty when the revolver sat in its holster, before jolting the cylinder back into place. Placing the revolver on the ground next to him, the Courier leaned his back against the brick wall that stood parallel to an old, pine-green, stench ridden dumpster. Fighting back tiredness, he continued to listen to his environment, the odd distant honking rolling in from better lit districts kilometers away.
His concentration broke when the sounds of steps echoed throughout the alleyway, forcing his body to tense. Silently changing positions, he crouched behind the dumpster, gripping his large revolver tightly, index finger just outside the trigger guard. Thumbing the hammer back, he froze as the footsteps stopped and he heard a soft feminine gasp. Staying tense, he took a deep breath, intending to question her, only to close his open mouth as the sound of a car stopping in front of the alley filled the air.
Taking a peek out from his hiding spot the young wastelander watched as two large silhouettes walked towards the woman who had begun to back towards the Courier. The larger man to the right made a placating gesture towards the woman, who took another step back.
"I think you should just come with us... make it easy on yourself," the smaller man said, his scratchy, high pitched voice contrasting heavily with the underlying demand. The woman, no... The girl stepped further back, her pale face being lit by the pale glow of the distant streetlight. Now lit, the Courier began to study her face, recognizing the soft angles of her face, her orange hair, and her short stature.
Kumiho? He thought, wide eyed at seeing his teammate in the alley with him. How the he- he barely finished the thought before jerking his head towards his side, where his scroll resided Oh...crap He then looked back at his teammate, and realized she was unarmed. OH CRAP!
Shaking his head, he flipped his sequoia around, and held it somewhat up for his teammate to grab, while continuing to hide behind the dumpster. She looked at him for a moment, blinked, and then took on a questioning expression. He jiggled the gun, made a punching motion with his left hand while leaning forward, and tilted his head towards the two men at the end of the alley before finishing with a trigger pulling motion. She blinked a couple of times before taking the revolver with an unsure motion. She pointed the sequoia at the men, making the cocking motion with her thumb, as the Courier unsheathed his knife. He heard the men stop in their tracks, before they both chuckled darkly, giving away their positions in the alleyway. The larger man, as judged by the heavier footsteps, began to approach slowly again.
The Courier jumped out from behind the dumpster as the large man reared the corner to it. Ducking under the man's well aimed haymaker, and cursing how they discovered him through his handing off of his revolver, the young wastelander jabbed the man in the crotch with his right fist. The second the man flinched in agony, the Courier used a Ranger Takedown, tripping him by swooping his legs out from under him with a well-placed leg swipe. The man's head hit the ground, and he grunted, opening his eyes only to be met with the sight of a combat knife jabbing into his neck. The man passed out as a flash of light filled the alley.
Looking up, the Courier dodged towards the smaller man, attempting to reach him before he could finish pulling his gun out, having stepped back in shock at the swift felling of his partner. As panic entered his mind, a glass bottle shattered against the man's head, and the scratchy-voiced man lost the grip he had on his pistol. Charging even faster, the Courier tackled the man, launching him backwards slightly just as he recovered from the impact of the glass bottle. Pushing himself up, he straddled the smaller man, before quickly jabbing the man a few times to the neck, each strike resulting in a bright flash. The man gurgled fearfully before quickly passing out, his head thumping lightly against the concrete.
Standing up the young wastelander moved his right hand through his hair before walking back towards the garbage can, breathing out a sigh of relief. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Kumiho staring at him in a combination of emotions including relief and concerned anger, which he knew unfortunately meant an unpleasant ear chewing. Sheathing his knife, he began looking through the shorter man's belongings.
"Thanks for the help," he said sincerely, before picking up the shorter man's pistol. He looked at the interesting design, before crouching down again to take the holster. "We'd have been in trouble if you hadn't stepped in."
"Uh, thanks," she said somewhat in an unsure tone, before chuckling angrily. "Wait! Wait! No! Why are you out here? How did you know they had aura? Why are you out here? And just what the hell are you doing?"
"You asked why I'm here twice."
"Later," she said irritated, "What are you doing?"
"Searching their bodies," the Courier responded questioningly, as if confronted for doing something normal, like using the bathroom.
"Why?" She asked, shock in her voice.
"They might have something useful on them," he responded in a manner as if doing absolutely nothing wrong.
"... I mean, why are you looting them?"
"I just told you."
"No... What in your head makes you think it's alright to loot a couple of unconscious dudes? Why would you ever think that would be, in anyway an okay thing to do?"
"Because they attacked us?" The Courier asked in a rhetorical manner, questioning her questioning.
"And that makes it okay?" She asked in an exasperated tone. Looking back he noticed her face contorting in disgust at his actions.
The Courier then realized the old wasteland "scavenger's right", so widespread the New Californian Republic's Government adapted it into their ever growing legislature, didn't exist on Remnant. All wastelanders knew the old rule, that if someone attempted to end another's life, the latter immediately gained proprietary rights to their aggressor's belongings if they killed their aggressor in self-defense. He personally obtained his favorite shotgun when a legion assassin failed to blow his head off with it through said scavenging right, as well as several of his other weapons and almost all of his "spare parts" which filled the heaviest of his duffel bags. Of course, the rule also stipulated that outlaws, raiders, slavers and others of their ilk were considered "aggressors" by their "professions", and thus could be preemptively "self-defensed".
The wasteland is a just place, after all.
"Okay, fine!" the Courier said in fake exasperation, as if finally done with being hounded. "You caught me... I'm looking for information. It has to do with why I'm here." Technically not a lie, as information on took top priority in his search, but so did weapons and money.
"Oh? Really now," she said, suspicion in her voice. "And just why are you here?"
"You hear about all of those kidnappings," he said, and noticed her anger fade slightly. "Well, these two," he said pointing at the two unconscious men "Attempted to kidnap a kid yesterday. Some little homeless girl, lives in a homeless commune with her dog." He stood up, having found nothing but some magazines filled with ten millimeter rounds. Pocketing the ammo, he moved towards the larger of the two men, and began rifling through pockets, groping around for anything valuable.
"So," she said, irritation in her voice. "You lied to Cu? You decided to go hunt kidnappers for what reason? Why?" Looking up, the Courier stared at her face, filled with indignation and concern.
"I have to," he said, as he felt a small ring of keys in the guy's pocket. Blinking, he palmed them, shaking them once. "No one else will."
"You think you can do it alone, when even the police can't do crap about it?" She asked, anger fading to worry in her voice.
"I have to try," he said, looking at her with tired, but nevertheless determined eyes. He handed her one of the pistols, which she grabbed hesitantly. He looked her in her brown eyes "Can I get my Revolver back?"
"Uh, sure-Wait! Why are giving me his gun?"
"Because I want mine back?" he asked, as if his statement was the obvious answer. "And I don't want you unarmed... in fact, why are you unarmed?"
"I didn't expect to be mug- well… kidnapped," she said, handing over the revolver nonetheless, grabbing the kidnappers pistol in an informal exchange. "Shouldn't we leave them for the police? You know... evidence?"
And give up free guns?
"No," the Courier said as he shook his head, before holding up the keys. "Besides, I think they'll find plenty evidence enough. Can you tie these guys up, please?" He asked, handing her his knife. "I'm going to check their car."
The Courier waited just long enough to watch her nod her head in acknowledgment, turning around as the sound of ripping clothes filled the alleyway. He approached the van apprehensively, feeling his grimace worsen as his artificial heart reacted to the small amount of tension in his body. Fear and apprehension used to feel different, with massive amounts muscle tension and rapid increases in heart rate, the thumping of his chest beating like a war drum when his fight or flight response triggered. Now, after one too many battles and implanted machines replacing his natural organs, he only felt his muscles tense slightly and his blood quicken by a hair in response, with no heartbeats making him feel as though his chest would burst, or implode upon itself.
Rounding around the raised roof vehicle, he faced its rear, a set of double doors instead of a small, chest like trunk, which defined almost all of the various vehicles the young wastelander encountered throughout his life traveling the roads and ancient, dilapidated highways that ran throughout the wasteland. It took him a good minute to find the right key, and by the time the mechanical click sounded, he could have easily just picked the lock at least three times. Kumiho had even finished binding the two would-be kidnappers. Grunting in satisfaction at finally finding the correct key the Courier opened the door.
He dreaded knowing whether or not his suspicions about the kidnappings would be validated or not, hoping desperately for the latter. He didn't make a single sound as the confirmation of his guesses stared him in the face. He blinked at the sight which met him, registering it into his mind without any emotional response, while listening to Kumiho choking in shock. Along the short walls of the large, closet like space hung various different faunus, a few with traits of animals other than mammals. Shackles kept their arms from falling, and each one of the women looked about as drugged-out as an unconscious Freeside junkie, eyes half lidded, unaware of the happenings of the world around them. Filthy rags covered all of their mouths, to prevent their screaming upon the possibility of becoming lucid. The Courier breathed quickly out of his nose, and took the step in, grabbing the knife from his paralyzed teammate's hand.
He had seen worse sights.
He spent the next several minutes taking the shackles off of the women, handing them to Kumiho, whom he had to gently nudge into focus. She lined all of them against the walls of the alley, having thrown the two kidnappers face first into the sole dumpster. The last woman awoke completely as the Courier made his way over to her, and locked eyes with him. Making gestures and speaking calming phrases he quickly unlocked the shackles which held her in place, gently leading her towards the open back doors. It took her a good five minutes to calm down enough to make the call with one of the myriad scrolls Kumiho found in the front of the Van. By the time the call had been made, the Courier had finished looking over the various women for injuries, and lying them down on the filthy ground to limit their movement, with helping them in mind rather than other things.
"Hey, Ca-"
"Courier," the Courier responded.
"What?" Kumiho responded.
"Call me Courier...er... please" he said, as he walked towards the green tinted car once again. Kumiho stood in front of the passenger side with folded, and stapled sheets of paper in her hand.
"Uh," she said staring at him confusedly, "Okay?"
"Most people call me that... well, before I met you guys they did," he said, looking at the sheet of paper. Gently taking the papers from her hands he opened and looked at them. Instructions on objectives filled the first sheet from top to bottom, with no information other than the kinds of "produce" that someone needed the two to "buy", and what areas contained enough "grocery stores" selling said "produce". Scowling he checked the second paper, which contained what he recognized, to his chagrin, as one long oddly spaced cipher code. He began going over the various common ciphers he learned during his wastes, mostly used to decipher old military documents which might have led to valuable loot, hoping that the code didn't require too much time to decipher.
"So uh, why should I call you Courier instead of... well... your name?" Kumiho asked him, as he groaned, having noticed the edge of a long shaft lodged just out from under the car itself. He sighed upon realizing what kind of cipher code they used. He hit the ground and felt around the object, searching for a trap.
"Because... uhng... We don't want people knowing our names, as other, less scrupulous people could use those to harm us," he said, having realized that no traps surrounded the shaft, but that the object required a key to remove. The Courier slammed his head on the bottom of the car in frustration, denting the smooth metal that made up the bottom of the car.
"Oh," she said, bluntly. Pausing before speaking again. "Okay... Um, what should I be called then?"
"Sorry," the Courier said, cursing as another key failed. "But... you won't be needing one. I'm doing this alone. Sorry."
"What?" she said indignantly. "What the hell do you mean you're going alone? They're obviously heavily armed! You could get killed!"
"Which is exactly why I'm going alone," he replied finally getting the lock to open, and grabbing the edged shaft of metal. "One dead is better than two." Standing up, he turned around to look at his teammate and grimaced when faced with her stare, knowing too well where the conversation was going to head.
"But if I come with you, then the chances of coming out unharmed are raised. Besides," she said, pulling out a card from her pocket. She held it out in front of her for him to see. "Can you drive?"
The Courier opened his mouth to express his absolute desire to avoid riding in a vehicle before hearing the call that the one lucid faunus had finished, realizing the police would arrive soon. Groaning to himself, he gave a look of reluctant acceptance to his partner, who simply gave him a self-satisfied grin while sticking her thumb out towards the car.
The Courier's grunt came out muffled through his helmet, as he spied the building to which the oddly ancient cipher lead him and Kumiho. Through the windshield and the green tint of his helmet's night-vision he could make out the two stories of dilapidated concrete which made up the base of the two men who likely wore handcuffs of tougher material than clothes since the two members of team CRML left the alley. Looking over, his now armed teammate gripped the wheel nervously while staring out the window, her eyes shining like green stars against the pale green background the young wastelander observed.
It took them half an hour to reach the destination, due to their fifteen minute detour to some empty desert patch at the bottom of part of the city's tall cliffs. The Courier had called in their rocket lockers to the small patch as he rode uncomfortably in the passenger seat, knowing full well the Headmaster would ask him numerous questions if they made it back to the school. He stepped out of the vehicle and approached the edge of one of the walls, hiding his body from the two guards that stood in front of the garage doors which led into the building. He turned his head as his teammate walked behind him, crouching behind him.
"So," she whispered, "how are we going to get in?"
"Take out the guards first, then use one of their uniforms, scout the area, then finish off all of their forces. We free their prisoners last," He finished looking at her.
"Look," she said, looking at him unamused. "Those clothes may work for you, but what about me?"
"Right," he replied knowingly, checking his various weapons, the number of which Kumiho called excessive. The Courier then spent the minutes long drive to their destination pondering whether or not his habit of carrying a bit over half a dozen weapons truly was excessive as she and others expressed. "They'd see right through it. I guess-"
"Then again," she continued, a playful smirk on her face. "My chest is pretty flat. I could pass as a guy if I disguised my voice.
"There are bigger things than your chest!" the Courier said, an exasperated sigh following the statement.
"That's not saying much," Kumiho responded, with a sardonic grin. The Courier simply responded with an unamused stare, his disappointment clear through even his faceless helmet. She sighed. "I know, I can't exactly hide my tail, so they'd see right through it."
"Er," the Courier began, his confused, dumb looking expression hidden by the helmet. "Actually, I just don't think those clothes would fit you. You're... well... shorter than them."
"Oh I know that's what you meant," she said, in a manner of conveying the obvious, "But you're funny when you're confused."
"Please focus," the Courier said, getting the conversation back on topic. "I figure we need to silently take out the guards. We don't know what's inside, so..." He pointed towards the roof of a building opposite from them.
"Right," she said, a serious and firm tone in her voice, as she moved towards the edge of the wall, switching places with the Courier. "Going in guns blazing'll get us killed. You have a way to take them out silently right... Hey...Where did you go?"
The Courier watched his teammate briefly look around for him, before climbing the fire escape on the side of the building sitting across from their target. Looking over the edge of the building he lied down prone, pulling out the old, silenced, Circle of Steel sniper rifle he found outside of Little Yangtze, the name "Boone" etched haphazardly on the top of the barrel. He humphed and grinned slightly, remembering when he etched the name into the rifle, just the day before parting ways with the companions and friends he had made. He wanted something to help him think back on all the misadventures Boone, ED-E and he went through on their way towards the gleaming city of New Vegas.
He looked through his scope at the building and counted the various guards around it. Counting no more than the two in the front, guarding the closed garage doors which led into the wide building, he held his breath briefly before pulling the trigger. He watched as one of the metal trashcan next to the building toppled over, spilling various refuse all over the sidewalk that ran next to the building. The two guards jumped at the sound, readying their strange shotguns. The one to the left looked briefly at the other, motioning with his head towards the garbage can. As the guard to the right walked towards the trash can, his fellow reached his hand towards a device on his chest. Quickly realizing his intention, the Courier pulled the trigger, abandoning his previous strategy of waiting until one of them reached the garbage can to start taking them down, firing off another Armor Piercing round into the skull of the guard calling in the disturbance. Quickly aiming the rifle at the other guard the Courier pulled the trigger as soon as the reticule passed over the man's chest, before pulling it again as the main made a grunt of pain, his body hurting despite his Aura taking the damage for him. The man collapsed, dropping his shotgun onto the sidewalk for anyone passing to grab. Releasing air he didn't remember breathing in, he stood up and made his way back towards his teammate who simply stared at him for a minute in silent fear.
"I couldn't hear those shots," she said nervously, eying Boone with a frightened glare. "What-what kind of silencer is that."
"A good one," the Courier said, a cool flatness in his voice. Kumiho backed up for a second, looking at the Courier with a large amount of apprehension. Cu told him that the senses of Faunus far outshine most humans', and he figured a silencer that silenced shots to the point not even Faunus could hear them frightened her. After all, if no one heard the shots, then the weapon could kill countless people in the right, or wrong, hands.
Perhaps she thinks the weapon was specifically designed for killing civilians he thought.
"W-well," Kumiho stuttered out, nervously following her team leader as he walked towards the garage doors. "You certainly know how to use it well... Those guards certainly didn't see it coming!" Stuttering out the last bit, the Courier felt her eyes watching him nervously as he lifted up one of the strange shotguns. Studying it for a moment, the Courier shrugged, placing it against the small pillar between the two garage doors, doing the same with his partner's before picking up the closest body.
"If-oof! He's heavy. If Lili used Boone," he said, grunting as he carried the unconscious guard towards one of the side alleys. "She wouldn't have needed to distract them by shooting at a garbage can. I've seen her skill at the range. Can you get the other guard, please?"
She huffed a laugh as she passed him, smiling somewhat as she grabbed the other man and threw him over her shoulder with merely a toss. They carried the two guards to the alley, throwing them into a dumpster whose lock the Courier had to pick, locking it once more after closing the lid. Walking back in front of the steel doors, the two stared at them. Kumiho's face scrunched up in concern, only to find a bandanna being handed to her. When she looked up at him, he simply nodded, making a motion to put it around her mouth. The Courier on the door a couple of times as she tied the back ends together behind her head, getting an odd look from Kumiho before a voice interrupted them.
"Dammit guys, it isn't even the end of your shift yet! You know I can't open the doors, the boss'll have my ass!" The gruff voice said from within the garage. The Courier simply responded by knocking harder, to be met with footsteps approaching the garage doors, and the man responding in anger. "You know, pissing in an alleyway isn't that-oh shi-"
The Courier interrupted the coat wearing man with a punch to the gut and a quick stab to the throat, knocking him out due to the drain in the man's aura from the lethal blow. He caught the unconscious man before he hit the ground, and dragged him over behind one of the trailers of two eighteen wheeled trucks sitting aligned to the two garage doors. After disarming the man, and throwing him into the back of the trailer, he sighed in relief, before looking back at his partner.
"Ax?" the Courier said, getting Kumiho's attention, "I need you to cut the tires on that truck. We need to make sure they can't escape." Kumiho simply nodded her head in response, taking one of the pen-knifes from the toolkit that laid on top of one of the sets of drawers that stood on the other side of the garage. The two spent a good minute and a half stabbing the tires of both vehicles. After finishing, and joining his partner at the door leading to the inside proper, he pulled out Boone. Holding his breath, the Courier opened the door before looking
Muffled cries of excitement could be heard throughout the building, alongside a pungent odor composed of a mixture of sweat, oil, blood and fluids which brought the Couriers mind to horrible places. Rusty metal doors lined the hallway on both sides of the grimy hallway, and the cries emanated from behind each and every one of them. A lone guard fidgeted slightly at a cross section between hallways. The Courier threw a small lug-nut from the ground of the garage to the side of one of the doors closer to him, catching the guy's attention. Sticking to the shadows, the man didn't notice as the Courier aimed his silenced rifle at his head. He continued being oblivious up to the point the bullet actually smacked against his noggin, causing the man to collapse. Advancing through the hall, Kumiho following just behind him, he made his way to the unconscious man. He pointed towards the man, and then thumbed back towards the garage, giving Kumiho a gaze at the end. Nodding, she picked up the man and carried him back as the Courier advanced to a crossways between the current hall and another, which made a cross shaped intersection. He briefly wondered about the original purpose of the Building before backing against the left wall. Inching towards the edge he noticed the side of a man watching the hallway that intersected with his current one.
The Courier breathed in before getting on his stomach and quickly looking down the half of the hallway opposite to the one with the guard, grimacing when another met his vision before pulling himself away from where either of the guards could see him. Sighing to himself, he took aim at the man down the right path, biting his lip as he pulled the trigger. The man collapsed as he rounded the corner, pulling the trigger as soon as the next guard's chest met the scope, felling him as well. The Courier breathed out a sigh of relief as he walked over to the second guard and picked him up. Noticing Kumiho rounding the corner he pointed towards the other end of the hall, getting a nod in confirmation. It took them both a few minutes to carry the two bodies back to the garage, and they reentered the silent hallway, staring down the first half of the hallway leading from the garage.
The Courier crouched down and motioned for his teammate to do the same. Stalking quietly, the young wastelander pointed to the left, where the sound of grunting and cheering came from the now unguarded door. While his partner crept towards the left door, he crept towards the one on the right, from which nearly silenced shouts of anger came from, occasionally being broken with the sound of a blow being made. The stench of blood came in through the crack below the door. Gripping his knife tightly, he opened the door silently, as his teammate did the same from across the hallway.
"So Billy goat gruff," the burly man just a few meters in front of him said, as the wastelander snuck in, closing the door silently behind him. In the bright light of the room he found himself staring at two standing men, neither looking towards the door, while a third sat handcuffed to a chair. The third man's shirt had been taken off, and the two standing men had given the man heavy beatings, as bruises and cuts covered his thin chest. The man in the chair glanced oddly at the Courier, showing him two flat bloody circles on either side of his forehead. The main raised his eyebrows before focusing on the man in front of him. "I'll ask this once more before I cut your balls off. When and where are your asshole friends going to show up?"
"I-ugha!" the man coughed loudly, filling the room with the sound of phlegm being spread everywhere, continuing as the Courier snuck up behind the closest torturer. Covered by the sounds of loud coughs the Courier began strangling him with the barrel of his hunting shotgun, moving backwards so the current interrogator couldn't hear the gurgling. The torture victim only stopped coughing when the Courier gently placed the unconscious man on the ground next to the door.
"I told you," the victim spoke up again, his deep voice filled with pain. "I'm here alone. They don't even-AGH!"
The torturer kicked him in the groin stopping the man's statement, which the young wastelander assumed the man gave before. When the interrogator pulled out his knife, the Courier tripped him. As soon as the man's head hit the ground, the Courier smashed his right hand to the man's neck choking him, while using his left hand to keep the knife away. The Courier's right foot kept the man's left hand immobile as he choked the consciousness out of the man. After a few moments the man's body went limp, and he dropped the knife. Making sure the two men stayed down, the Courier stomped on their heads, cracks and blood indicating their depleted auras. As the Courier walked around the man, he spoke up.
"Ugh! I feel like slab of meat at a butcher's shop! Who are you anyway? You don't look like you're one of my brothers."
"Hmm... Just a friend I guess," the Courier hummed in response as he began picking the lock to the handcuffs. "So, here to help save them?"
"Yeah," the man laughed out cynically as the Courier finished picking the lock, taking off the Handcuffs. "Though I don't know what I was thinking, taking on this place alone. I guess I deserted for nothing. Thanks for the help, though."
"No problem. Here" the Courier said, as he pulled out the strange shotgun, handing it to the odd man, who took it with less hesitation than Kumiho. "I think you might find some use out of this. Also, you should probably take their clothes, bound to help you blend in better than going around shirtless."
"I guess," the odd man said crouching over the larger unconscious man. The Courier barely turned around when he heard the distinct sounds of a knife stabbing into flesh. The Courier shrugged, and walked out the door, only to see his teammate throwing up on the ground. He rubbed her on the back reassuringly as she hacked the contents of her stomach all over the concrete floor. She looked up at her leader with eyes filled to the brim with horror, hidden under a heavy mountain of anger.
"Ca-Courier," She said, tears forming from the acid burning up her sinuses. "They're... They're-"
"Slavers," the Courier interrupted in a quiet blunt tone, "I know. I can smell what's happening, what they're doing. I've fought savages like them before. I'm sorry you had to find out like this."
"Why?"
"Their choices," he began, "For whatever reason. Money, power, pleasure. They find it easy so they do it, losing themselves to-" He looked down at her scrunching face, sadness etched on it. He closed his mouth and frowned under his helmet. He placed his hand on her shoulder, patting it a couple of times, calming her down slightly. The odd man exited the room shortly thereafter, a frown on his face as he looked down the hall, his nose scrunching from the stench.
The Courier didn't blame him; the smells of sexual fluids reminded him too much of the horrors he experienced in his life on earth. He growled as he took a peek into the room Kumiho came from, and smiled at the unconscious bodies. Looking forward he matched his gaze with a girl, drugged out staring right back at him, her eyes only containing a brief hint of lucidity. He brought himself over to her, carefully, and stared through his visor into her eyes, never looking at anything below her cat like eyes. He looked briefly above her head before bending down, noticing only one cat ear, when there should have been two.
"Help'll come soon," he said gently, as he picked her up, her eyes lolling over him before she went limp from exhaustion, only her gentle breathing letting him know she still lived. Carrying her out of the room he listened as some conversation between the other two died as he moved her into the other room. The two men who he knocked out lay dead on the ground, in pools of their own blood. Gently, he set the woman down near a corner, facing away from the two dead men, before heading out of the room.
"He's better than your 'brothers and sisters'" Kumiho said, her sadness replaced with aggression. "At least he's-"
"Don't you ever say that again!" The man the Courier saved practically yelled, causing the Courier to wince and look down the hall. "I know damn well none of them give a crap. He's probably...Alright," he said looking at the young wastelander with murder in his eyes. "Why the hell are you here? Huh?"
"Be quiet! We-" the Courier began whispering.
"Don't you da-" the man started to shout before the Courier threw him against the wall, his knee in his crotch and his hands on his mouth and right arm.
"Don't yell," the Courier whispered flatly, "We have an advantage. It'd be best if you didn't throw that away for us." The Courier let go of him and the man growled at him in utter hatred. "I don't know what I did to piss you off, but can we save it for later. We have to take care of these rooms. Okay, you're going to ha-"
"I'm, going upstairs. If you children" the odd man spat, "actually manage to get through more than one room, don't bother coming upstairs. I don't want your help."
You seemed pretty eager for it earlier the Courier thought dryly as the man snuck off angrily, shotgun in hand. The Courier sighed and palmed his helmet, knowing the man might just get them all killed through his actions before looking over at his partner. Opening his mouth before closing it in reconsideration, he exhaled through his nose before walking on, shrugging before gesturing for his teammate to follow.
"Freaking asshole," she said, disgust in her voice, before shooting the Courier a sympathetic glare. "Sorry I-."
"Shh," the Courier whispered nodding understandingly, before looking down the hallway with a grimace. He shook his head no while placing a finger over the mask component of his helmet. He then pointed to the left door again, and his teammate nodded, a determined expression in her eyes.
"He at least cares enough to come here," The Courier whispered as he dumped yet another unconscious goon into the small pile. He handed another firearm to his partner, who then took it into the opposite room, into another pile, which a small group of faunus laid across from.
"I thought you didn't want to talk?" Kumiho asked, her hand on her chest, as they reentered the now empty hallway. The Courier simply pointed in the direction they headed towards, where only a wall met them. He smiled under his helmet, genuine pride in how his teammate lost track of their own progress over the past fifteen minutes, not realizing they had finished clearing out the last hallway of the bottom floor. "Oh... Did we miss any rooms?"
"Nope," The Courier answered tersely as he locked the last door, breaking off the key so that no one could enter unless they busted the door down. The Courier frowned to himself as he looked down the hallway. They encountered little resistance, most of those they knocked out were unarmed, indicating they came to the building as customers. The few guards they did encounter who noticed fell unconscious too quickly to actually stop the two huntsmen in training. They even managed to make it through the entire compound in just under fifteen minutes, only two or three close calls when some of the "customers" exited the rooms.
It all seemed too easy.
"We need to head upstairs," he said simply, figuring the man upstairs might encounter problems soon. He nodded his head towards the stairs and motioned for his partner to follow him. After reaching the top, Kumiho gasped, letting out only a brief scream before the Courier hugged her, her back to his chest, and covered her mouth with his hand, silencing her scream. A corpse lied in a pool of blood just in front of them, the work of the man they freed. The Courier sighed, wondering why she cared that some slaver died, rather than scream at the sight of the slaves' torment. He held her like that until her breathing stabilized, nodding in apology as he motioned for them to continue on.
As they walked on, noticing several rooms had been skipped over, the Courier cursed the man's inability to hide bodies properly. He figured that whenever the guard shift occurred that they'd notice the corpse and start shooting to get the attention of everyone in the building. As soon as that thought left his head, a body burst from the door with a loud crash. As he looked down, noticing the straining form of the rude man, his face took on an exasperated expression, and he rolled his eyes as if his two allies could see it.
I should have left him tied up the Courier thought as he forced his teammate and himself against the wall. He then stared at the door as a broad, blue dressed man walked out, staring at the injured torture victim with annoyance. The man held a long, odd looking nodachi, with many mechanical parts near the end of the handle. On his back hung a quiver of arrows, a large, blood-soaked rabbit ear hanging like a necklace off of its side. A dim light faded as he cracked his neck, and breathed out before walking forward with a similar swagger to Jacob Frost.
The Courier's neck hairs stiffened as he carefully took out his customized LASER, the huntsman pointing his nodachi at his ally's neck. Aiming carefully for the center of the nodachi, the Courier's eyes widened before rolling to the side, an arrow striking and embedding into the wall behind where he crouched.
"Don't think I don-" the man began before being hit by a blue laser, causing him to miss the next shot with his nodachi-turned-longbow. The man began to dodge and fired off an arrow, hitting the ground underneath where the Courier rolled from, causing a small explosion which sent the Courier flying into a wall. Recovering steadily, despite dozens of cuts in his arms and legs, the Courier rolled once again to the side, firing off a shot into the man's arm, causing him to miss, creating a hole in one of the walls. Charging to just behind the intersecting hall's wall, he motioned for his partner to take the unconscious man away from the battlefield. Reloading his LAER he fired blindly at the man, causing him to take cover in one of the rooms as his partner threw the unconscious man over her shoulder, carrying him into the room he had been launched out of.
Hearing doors open from his right the Courier sprinted to the other side before pulling out his revolver, firing off a round into the head of the first man to pop out of one of the doors, knocking him out quickly. The next few men exited guns blazing, shotguns shells hitting his armor with enough force to stun the young wastelander. Sidestepping to keep his balance, he fired once into each of the guards heads. Stepping backwards and with his right foot at an obtuse angle, he swung his revolver sideways as he turned his body, pistol-whipping the grunt coming up behind him in the right eye, causing him to recoil in pain. Turning the young grunt around, the Courier used him as a shield, backing towards his corner, shooting the last two rounds into the head and throat of the two guards who rushed him. Smacking his revolver into the back of his living shield's head, and knocking him out, he turned around only to duck from a slice aimed at his neck.
Dropping his revolver, and dodging to the side, he avoided the man's powerful kick. Not fast enough, the Courier felt the blade cut into his right arm, causing a sharp bolt of pain to fly up his arm. The Courier felt a brief gush of blood flow out, before slowing down slightly. Dodging the downward thrust by rolling backwards into a standing position, the Courier grabbed the LAER he dropped when he switched sides from the hallway. Firing as soon as the laser-plasma hybrid rifle was at waist level, he hit the huntsman square in the stomach pushing him slightly back. The Courier slowly moved backwards, feeling the PHOENIX Monocyte Breeders beginning to close up his cuts. He fired off another shot, the beam hitting the man just as the man dodged. The Courier managed to finally aim his gun at the man's head only to feel the familiar blow of a baseball bat to the back of his head.
Stumbling forward, the Courier drunkenly dodged to the right as his assailant made a second downward swing, only to go wide-eyed. Dodging backwards and looking behind him, he smirked in relief as his partners massive two handed ax met the nodachi, saving his life. Dodging another swing of the baseball bat, the Courier grabbed the barrel of the bat with his hands, dropping the LAER in the process. Shoving hard he smacked the knob of the bat into the man's, causing him to release his grip. Twirling the bat in his right hand, the Courier gripped the handle tightly before swinging the bat in a wide arc towards the man's head. The barrel met the man's face, forcing him into the wall as the swing continued, despite both the head and the bat's momentum meeting the wall. A loud crack sounded out as the wooden bat broke in half from the impact, followed by a dull thud as the man's unconscious body fell to the Ground. Looking at the now broken bat, the top only hanging on by a small series of string like pieces of wood, the Courier hummed. Placing it down carefully he then picked up his LAER and turned to help his partner before pausing.
She met the man's horizontal slice with an upward swing of her ax causing the man to adopt a panicked look as his she launched his blade into the ceiling. Spinning in almost a circle, her right foot stepping towards the man, she, a glowing purple haze enveloping her arms, swung her battle-axe under her, ripping through the concrete floor and striking the huntsman in his chest as he tried to dodge backwards. Thrown by the blow he hit the wall, only barely getting up as she fired off the multiple shotguns which made up the top of her ax's haft, sending him once again flying into the wall, only to flop onto the ground unconscious.
"That was some good work," the Courier said sincerely, an impressed smile hidden by his helmet.
"Same to you," she said turning around. She closed her eyes and exhaled in relief before giving the Courier a concerned glare. "However..."
Uh oh.
"Don't think I didn't notice you bleeding after taking a hit. You have explaining to do," she said with a heavy emphasis. The Courier opened his mouth, only to pick up the very distant sounds of sirens. Grimacing as he looked towards the stairs, he sighed in frustration at the way the mission went.
"Yup."
AN: The Courier isn't a pacifist, but he is practical, and in this one specific case, knocking them out took less time than killing them. And yes, I am going the route of Taken, in terms of what the villains are doing.
Hope you like horrible implications!
As always, thank you for reading!