Because I love all of you, I am giving you both the first fight scene AND the first F3 Side Mission in one chapter!
Another note, I gave Megaton a more interesting system of government than the power struggle between Simms and Moriarty. I think you will like it, as it will add a very cool system of backroom political plays to the story.
As always, I do not own the rights to Teen Wolf, Fallout, or any other pop culture references I have made.
Read and review Beautiful People!
It was madness outside: the relatively flat field out front of Megaton had turned into a warzone, with the two sides presently gunning at each other wildly.
On one side of the field were a group of men and women in leather armor wielding various forms of weaponry, all wildly firing on the other group. Scott knew he wasn't the smartest member of his pack, but he liked to think he was smart enough to recognize the bad guys in this firefight:
A considerably larger group of men and women was storming towards the Caravaneers, wielding some firearms and various blunt melee weapons, like baseball bats and sledgehammers. They were garbed in mismatched metal armor, coated in dirt and blood, and shouting obscenities and horrible phrases towards their entrapped prey.
Lucas Simms has taken cover behind one of the large rocks with several other Caravaneers. Shouting commands and occasionally leaning out of cover to fire off several shots. The defenders had perhaps fifteen members aiding them, alongside Lucas Simms and Deputy Weld, who was shooting… holy shit the robot was shooting lasers out of its' light bulb head! So cool!
The raiders on the other hand were numbering around thirty to forty men and women, all poorly armed and ready to kill. Scott could see a dozen bodies on the ground, meaning that the raiders had been even stronger earlier on.
"Isaac, game plan?" Scott murmured
"I… dunno."
"Here let me help." Came their alpha's voice from behind them.
A loud smacking and the side of his head hurting were to first two things Scott registered, followed by Derek picking him up off the ground and telling him to follow his lead. Scott didn't think it made tactical sense for Derek to hit him before they went into battle, but perhaps Derek was trying to tell him something? Scott needed to focus at the battle at hand.
The first raiders had reached the barricade and were climbing over. One caravaneer screamed as a raider wielding what looked to be a wood board covered with nails brought his weapon down across the man's face. Another woman's knee was crushed by a sledgehammer. She feebly screamed as the raider brought the weapon down upon her head with a sickening crunch.
Derek, Scott and Isaac wasted no time in jumping into the fray. Derek decided to use particular flourish in executing a flying kick to the head of the nearest raider who subsequently crumpled from the attack.
A raider charged at Scott trying to stab him with a rust knife. Scott swiftly grabbed the man's arm and twisted it sideways, before spinning the man around and delivering a knee to his lower back.
The male raider with the nail board took a swing at Isaac, who dodged the blow with grace and proceeded to throw a series of punches to the man's chest, before delivering a brutal roundhouse kick to the man's face.
A female raider wielding a bloody sword moved towards Derek and managed to swing her weapon at him. He sidestepped the blade and delivered a vicious palm strike to the raider's throat. The raider fell to her knees, clutching her throat in agony before Derek grabbed the back of her head and smashed it against his knee.
A group of three raiders charged Derek following his brutal execution. Derek merely scoffed and grabbed the closest raider's face. With a flick of the wrist he had twisted the man's neck completely to the right. The other raider tried to stop his charge, but was too late as Derek had already launched a brutal uppercut to the man's lower jaw. The last raider was armed with a bloody sledgehammer, and he took a bone shattering smash at Derek's face.
Derek moved with lightning speed, moving inside the man's personal zone. Derek performed a sucker punch to the man's face in tandem with a sweep to the man's left leg, which brought the raider crashing to the ground. The man turned over to strike back at his attacker, but Derek had already moved around the raider and was bringing his boot down upon the man's head. With a sickening crunch, the raider's skull caved in.
Simms continued to fire upon whichever raider was closest or preparing to strike at a caravaneer. He barely noticed the female raider creeping up on him with a combat knife. Scott was in the middle of finishing off a raider when he saw the female preparing to stab the sheriff in the back. He shouted at Simms to get down.
Simms, who had survived in the wasteland by trusting his instinct, rolled forward onto the ground. He turned fast enough to see a surprised raider strike at nothing but air. Simms raised his weapon and fired off three shots, all three hitting the raider and killing her instantly.
Isaac was busy dealing with two raiders, one armed with a revolver, the other with a pool cue. The revolver raider tried to aim at Isaac, but Isaac moved to fast and jerky for the raider to get a proper bead on him. Isaac dodged a blow the cue raider had thrown his way, while grabbing the hand of the revolver raider the twisting it violently. The raider screamed in pain and dropped the gun, which Isaac deftly caught and turned on the pool cue raider. Isaac fired once, twice, three times into the raider's chest, bringing him down. The former revolver wielding raider had unsheathed a knife from his belt and dived at Isaac…
Only to jerk unevenly and tumble off to the side. It took Isaac a moment to realize that the raider had been shot. Isaac whipped his head around the front gates, where a burly man with a shaved head and a mustache was looking down at the raiders and picking them off with careful shots from his assault rifle.
A man next to him was wielding a deadly looking magnum revolver, which had a gigantic scope on top of it. Isaac found this especially humorous as the wielder of this piece had an eye patch over his eye. Isaac stopped smirking however when the man fired off four consecutive rounds into the chests of four different raiders, killing each with blinding speed.
The raiders numbers had been cut in more than half since their attack on the caravaneers, and arrival of the new fighters had sent them into a full blown retreat. One of the male raiders trying to run away was tackled by Derek, who took the opportunity to tear his throat out with his claws. He retracted them and turned the body over, moving back towards his betas, the Sheriff, and the surviving caravaneers.
The days casualties had been pretty bad, but they would have been far worse without the aid of Derek and his betas. The Caravan had lost seven of its' members, and Deputy Weld had taken a particular nasty hit to the head.
The raiders had numbered thirty two dead. Derek had personally taken out seven of those, while Isaac had a modest three. Simms notched an additional five marks into his Assault Rifle, with was covered in similar notches. The bald man and Mr. Eye Patch each had four kills. The shaken Caravaneers had only managed to kill six raiders between the fifteen of them. Scott had not actually killed any raiders, but had merely used suppressive methods to disable them. Weld had managed to bring down three raiders before being cranially damaged. All in all, it was a solid victory.
Mr. Eye Patch had since moved over to Lucas Simms and was whispering to him, Derek overheard the two talk about holding a council meeting tonight. Simms sighed but told him to go collect the other councilors and meet at the Church of Atom.
Mr. Eye Patch nodded and headed back into the town. The caravaneers were looting the dead raiders and piling anything of value with their own supplies. So far, it was a small pile.
Lucas Simms trotted over to Derek. Scott and Isaac had stood behind Derek, feeling the need to protect their Alpha.
"You boys have done all right today. I have to admit young man, your combat skills are top notch, and your friends were impressive as well. As fancy fighting as it was however, it only stands as further evidence that I don't need you in town any longer than you should be. In an hour there will be a meeting in the Church of Atom with the ruling council of Megaton. You and your companions will attend, and we will decide what to do with you."
To the side the caravaneers joked and made their way into town, not even glancing back towards the chaos they had caused mere moments ago.
The events of today must have made Scott particularly perceptive and alert, because he immediately questioned Simms.
"We just threw ourselves into a fight for which we had no business in, helping out of bunch of strangers who have given us no thanks by the way, and who are waltzing into town with no one breathing down their necks. Why are you treating us this way Sheriff?"
Derek allowed himself to smirk, slightly. He was glad Scott owned up to the fact that he did not have to endanger his life for these strangers, and that Simms was giving them preferential treatment.
Simms didn't even flinch at the accusations. He calmly replied to Scott. "I am aware of your actions today. And I am aware of how eager you seemed to fight. Why should I trust some bloodthirsty kids to play nice in my town? I know those caravaneers are simply going to drink and wench and eat and sleep. What they aren't going to do is attack my townsfolk. I know how to handle caravan merchants and their bodyguards. You all are an entirely different story. You have an hour until a meeting will be held to discuss your fate here in Megaton. Someone will fetch you when the time has come. Don't keep us waiting."
And without another word, he moved back towards the gate.
The others had quietly assembled onto the balcony near the front entrance, and only had to wait a few minutes before Derek, Isaac and Scott joined them.
"All right then. Let's share what we've learned shall we? Allison, you guys are up first." While Derek had already learned the truth about their environment, he wanted to see how much he would have to break to the rest of his pack. It was Lydia, not Allison who responded.
"We are in Washington DC, in the year 2277. The world was devastated by nuclear fire two hundred years ago during a massive exchange by the United States and China. Since then the world has slowly crawled out of a pure cluster fuck and into a slightly nicer one. Also, Moira is most likely taking uppers of some kind." Lydia merely smiled and scanned the faces of the rest of the group. Allison and Jackson were quiet. Scott and Isaac were shocked, but Danny's group only looked somewhat surprised.
"Erica. What did you learn at Moriarty's?" Derek asked, trying to gauge how much they had learned.
Erica spoke up. "Lydia's spot on with the History lesson. What she does not know however, are the sheer extent of creatures in the wasteland. The barkeep at Moriarty's in fact looks like a walking corpse. He's very friendly and doesn't have a mean bone in his body, which is not what I can say of Moriarty himself." Erica scowled. It had taken a bunch of finagling and all of their "Pre-War Money" to calm Moriarty down to the point where he would let them leave the bar in one piece.
"Anything else?" Derek asked, ignoring the rest of his pack, who were still trying to wrap their minds around the idea of a skeleton serving drinks.
"Yeah, those two headed cows are called Brahmin, and they are basically like normal cows, except well..." Erica put her head on Boyd's shoulder and mooed, causing the rest of the pack to laugh, Derek excluded.
"All right, Scott-?"
Danny piped up at the last moment, cutting into Derek's talking. "Oh yeah, and the financial system is based around bottle caps. Our money is rated 1:2, so every one of our dollars is worth two of their caps.
"Nice work Danny and Erica. Scott? Isaac? Learn anything today besides self-control?"
"Well, we learned that we weren't in California..?" Scott offered weakly.
Isaac rolled his eyes and carried the flag for his meek partner. "Weapons aren't illegal in Megaton like Simms makes them out to be. Everyone around here carries some kind of knife or firearm on their hip, and other members wear rifles openly on their backs. We also learned through a nice old lady that Megaton is in dire need of repairs-"
Isaac was cut off by Mr. Eye-Patch coming around the corner and staring right at him.
"Would you happen to be Mr. Isaac?" Mr. Eye Patch asked.
Isaac merely nodded.
Mr. Eye Patch nodded and introduced himself. "The name's Billy Creel, Isaac. I'm not the Megaton Council, and I've been asked to fetch you all for a special session. If you will follow me please."
Derek and the group silently followed the Billy down the main road leading into the crater and around the bomb, towards a medium sized building right out front of the crater, A sign on the top read:
Church of the Children of Atom
Derek didn't like this at all. If Simms didn't seem like such a high handed moralist, Derek would have sworn they were being lead into an ambush.
Billy led them up the ramp and into the building.
Inside was a room clearly meant to serve as a mass hall for the church. Along the front was a long banquet table where nine chairs were arranged, eight of them occupied.
The chair on the fair right was empty, which must have belonged to Billy. Next to Billy's seat was an older man with grayish white hair and a blue jumpsuit on. He seemed tired and weary and looked as if he wanted to go to sleep, rather than be present at this evening council meeting. Next to the old man's seat was a younger man in dressed in a dirty white shirt and a leather vest. He was frowning at the group that had come in. Next to this man sat an elderly woman in rags. She was smiling to an area behind Derek. He could hear Scott and Isaac murmuring to each other. Next to the older woman sat Lucas Simms. Next to him was a younger red headed woman also dressed in a jumpsuit. She cutely waved to an area behind him. 'This must be Moira Brown.' Already he felt as though he would dislike her. Next to Moira sat a middle aged man who was eying over the group with keen interest. His eyes flashed between Derek and each of the girls in his pack. Already Derek could feel himself disliking this man. Next to the lecher sat... Doc Church?
Derek did not even bother to look at the next person in line; he merely stormed towards the table and asked, rather pointedly at the doctor. "Why are you not in the clinic, why are you not looking after Stiles?" Derek was fuming. How could he be so irresponsible?
The doctor looked unfazed, even slightly disappointed. "Your friend (There's that tone again, thought Derek) "Is under the care of my assistant, Miss West. He will be fine, and if something should go wrong, she only has to run less than a minute and I'll be back there to make sure the situation is at hand."
The man to who sat next to Doc Church began mumbling as if in prayer. He then shouted: "Praise be Atom, for he bathes our souls in the glow of warmth and healing."
Derek wanted to rip this man's throat out. If Lydia was correct, and nuclear war had indeed devastated the earth, then what good came of praying to an atomic bomb? He knew that if he thought of Stiles, he would only be more incensed by how insane this man was.
The older man in the jumpsuit cleared his throat. "I believe introductions are in order?"
Simms nodded. "The man with the eye patch, you have met. His name is Billy, and he is my human deputy."
Billy nodded at the teens.
"The man next to him is Walter. Walter is in charge of the water treatment plant here in Megaton, and he is also responsible for the repairs that need to be made around town."
The older man briefly nodded.
"This young man here is Andy Stahl, proprietor of the Brass Lantern, Megaton's local restaurant.
The scowling young man continued to scowl, not ceasing in his activities for a moment. The lecher also looked displeased, as though Simms had reminded him of a trashcan that had not been emptied in several weeks.
"This lovely older lady is Manya Vargas, First citizen of Megaton."
"Good evening children." Manya smiled at the teenagers. "Hello again Scott and Isaac." Scott and Isaac waved meekly back at her
"You all know me, and some of you have become well acquainted with both Moira Brown" He waved to the red headed girl in the jumpsuit. "And Colin Moriarty." Simms pointed to the middle aged lecher.
"Doc Church requires no introduction." To which Simms gave Derek a frown. Derek ignored it easily.
"And lastly, Confessor Cromwell, the local leader of the Church of the Children of Atom. Now that we have gotten the introductions out of the way, allow me to state the purpose of this meeting: You came to us earlier today, bearing one of your own in a highly injured state. You have then proceeded to a stay in the town, but not without disturbing the peace at Moriarty's saloon."
Derek glanced over at Danny, who looked awfully sheepish at the moment, with his hands in his pockets and his gaze firmly fixed on his feet.
"Threatening the Town Doctor."
Now it was the groups' turn to stare hard at Derek. His standoffish attitude certainly wasn't helping their situation.
"And lastly, displaying extremely violent and unorthodox behavior during the defense of Mega-"
"Oh come off it you sod. You gonna give them a Demerit for not letting Raiders overrun the town?"
"Don't interrupt me while I'm talking Moriarty."
"And don't you ignore me Simms. I'm no fan of these little hellions, but I'm not going to fault them for being good at what they do."
Simms merely grumbled and continued with his speech. "Therefore, this council seeks to learn more about you before it decides whether you will leave, or heaven forbid, if you will stay. Now where are you from?"
The group began glancing at each other. Isaac whispered to Derek: "Play along with me, and please keep the continuity."
"We've come from California. We were on our way to New Durham when our caravan was ambushed. Since that attack we've been wandering through the wasteland, attempting to find shelter." Isaac pleaded, trying to make garner sympathy from the council.
Simms looked unconvinced; Andy Stahl scowled; Colin Moriarty's scowl made Andy's scowl look downright friendly; Moira looked slightly confused, and eyed Allison warily; Billy Creel and Manya Vargas nodded sympathetically; Doc Church looked suspiciously between the various teenagers, as if something could be gleaned from the looks on their faces; Walter yawned and looked as if he were ready to fall asleep; Confessor Cromwell stared intently at the teenagers.
All in all Derek was not feeling very confident in the Council's opinions of the group. These were working people; every single one of them pulled several jobs in the upkeep of Megaton. Manya was perhaps the only person there who did not have an active job within the town, Derek noted. He looked to Isaac, who looked back to him and yielded the floor.
Derek began. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Council. I wish to apologize for the behavior of both my- Caravan and myself. You have kindly taken us in, and we have repaid you with little more than insults and indifference. We are a diverse group, with many talents. Perhaps arrangements can be made for an exchange or services for room and board."
Derek hated having to suck up to authorities. Only years of acting as other individuals had made him even remotely decent at hiding the level of disdain in his voice. Alphas groveled to no man. Still, his Stiles had shown Derek the tactical advantages of playing along. Simms was expecting defiance from Derek at every turn, and it only fueled his fantasy of being the righteous lawman. If Derek were to appear subservient, Simms would revel in his victory over Derek, and relish the power of his authority.
Derek's tactic seemed to have worked. Walter had perked up from his near slumber; Moira had gone from looking suspicious to looking very interested in Derek's proposition. Moriarty stopped scowling, if only to give Erica a rather sickening look, as if she were a cutlet of lamb.
"As the Sheriff and his Deputy have witnessed, several members of our pack are quite adept at hand to hand combat. If these particular skill sets do not necessarily please the Council then I will allow my companions to speak of their skills." Derek knew one of his betas would be the first to reply to his verbal cues.
Sure enough, it was one of his Betas. Just not the one he was expecting.
"During my time in California, I worked on a ranch, and I was also an assistant to the town's physician."
Alarm bells went off in Derek's head. He was proud of Scott for displaying ingenuity in the heat of the moment, but the moment Scott had to deal with real patients who weren't household pets, Church would know that the jig was up."
"Our friend Danny is a brilliant hacker." Isaac helpfully provided. Moira seemed very interested in that tidbit.
Danny nodded, but Derek could smell nervousness rolling off him in waves. Why Danny hadn't embraced his gift for cyber based infiltration was both logical and stupid: Yes, it was illegal to break into computers. But by the same token, Danny's crimes paled in comparison to the shit Derek and his Betas had done just in the name of defending their unknowing human society. If anything, Danny should be proud of his skillset not ashamed by it.
"My father was an Engineer. I'm a good hand at mechanics."
'Atta girl' thought Derek. Erica could be impulsive at times, but she knew how to work information to her advantage. She connected dots quicker than even Stiles could, and she had picked up on the town's failing machinery.
Walter had gone wide-eyed at Erica's statement. Walter leaned into Billy's ears and whispered his approval at the group.
The Lydia dropped the proverbial bomb:
"I know how to diffuse the bomb."
The entire table, which had been chatting quietly amongst themselves stopped and turned to look at the redhead.
The rest of Lydia's pack turned to look at her, incredulous. Derek knew that this moment would either make or break the group.
Most of the table looked at her with something akin to awed shock. Only the Pastor on the left was not gawping at Lydia. Instead he was glaring, furiously at her.
"HERESY! This girl speaks of murdering the beloved Atom, father of light and giver of warmth!" Cromwell was spitting his words at Lydia. She was unfazed.
Simms shook himself out of his stupor and began asking questions.
"How could a little girl like you possibly know how to disarm an Atomic bomb? Give me one reason I shouldn't throw you out myself!" Simms felt as though this group was pulling his leg, and he was not about to give them the satisfaction of taking him for a ride, as his father was wont to say.
Lydia coolly replied to the Sheriff. "My father was a demolitionist in the NCR's military. Things that go boom and how they tick are a family trait."
Jackson piped up. "Lydia knows her way around explosives."
Derek's face remained stoic, but he was going to kill Lydia when he was done with this meeting.
"The Council has agreed to take a vote." Simms intoned. "For the staying of the…" Simms gestured his hands before Boyd supplied an answer. "The Beacon Hills Caravan Company, sir."
"Yes, for the staying of the Beacon Hills Caravan Company. All in opposition vote nay."
"Nay." Came the response from Andy Stahl, Sheriff Simms, Confessor Cromwell, and Doc Church.
"All in favor vote yea."
"Yea." Came the reply from Manya Vargas, Billy Creel, Moira Brown, Walter, and perhaps most disquietingly Colin Moriarty.
Simms merely sighed. "Vote passes in favor of Beacon Hills Caravan Company. Tonight you may lodge in the common house. In the morning, you will be sent to your various jobs." With a last pointed look at Derek, Simms grumbled. "Don't make me regret it."
The Council adjourned and began to depart. Billy strolled up to the group and replied. "I'll show you all to the Common House; it's on the route back to my house."
The group departed without another word, aware that they had cemented themselves in business which could prove to be very divisive, both amongst themselves and within Megaton.
All right! Now we have a real challenge proposed to the BHCC! How will they fare?
The next chapter will take place right before the start of our first Side Quest: The Wasteland Survival Guide (1/3)
I've posted two polls on my profile: One of them is directly tied to the story, the other is not. Both will determine different aspects within the story, so make sure to go an vote!
Chapters 8 & 9 will be up tomorrow.
Thanks for reading! And make sure to review! :)