"God-damned, piss-guzzling...jackasses!" John roared out into the darkness of the underground, each word punctured by his rifle sending a bullet towards the barely visible figures moving behind the cover of a pile of rubble. How many were they anyway!? "Cock-sucking, mutant-loving bastards!" The gun clicked empty at the last word, forcing John to duck down behind the cover of the rusty train cart he had stayed behind for the last ten minutes.
He was pissed!
He glared at the wall in front of him it exploded into dust and pebbles from the shots from the enemies. John reloaded, barely feeling the sparks from bullets bouncing off the train cart. God damn these assholes!
Clearing out the museum of technology had been surprisingly simple with Charon's help, and to sleep in a bed at Carol's had been much appreciated after the long time spent on the ground, despite the smell...then things had taken a turn for the worse next day.
It had started with him having an hour long argument with a brotherhood knight to keep him from shooting Charon, an argument that had only been settled after calling Three Dog to resolve it. It had been even more irritating because Charon apparently hadn't found the episode at the least insulting! He had just accepted the hatred of him for what he was! With the same stupid neutral look on his face he always wore!
Of course it had only been the start of John's problems. After spending another hour fixing that stupid relay dish he had finally got to head for Rivet City, having been forced to command Charon to lead him there of all things...only to be stopped by a bunch of trigger happy humans in black armour and obscene amounts of firepower! What was their problem anyway!? They had just started shooting! And after he and Charon had somehow gotten the better of that group...more of them came!
So now they were forced back, to run west instead of south! Back towards megaton! Back the way he'd gone before! Away from Rivet city! "I swear to God I'll shove my rifle up your assess and see how far you fly!" The odd soldiers didn't reply with anything but another burst of bullets. "I'll make you all eunuchs and force you to dance in front of a super mutant! You hear me!? Come out so I can kill you!"
God he was sooo pissed...
Stepping up again John fired off two rounds as quick as the bolt action of the rifle allowed, sending a figure scrambling back into cover with a curse. "You're in my way! Do you hear!? In! My! Way! I'll fucking kill you for that!" He glanced back at Charon, the ghoul busy tying a grenade looted from a super mutant to a string and fastening it to a the other side of the small space between the wall and the broken train cart. "And are you done yet!? Or do you want to take lunch first!?"
The ghoul didn't look up from his work, shielding it from the shower of pebbles coming from the explosions stitching the wall, and not the least affected by how close some of the ricochets came to hitting him. "Almost done master."
"Well get a move on!" John hissed the order before turning down his sight again. "You fucking assholes! What did I ever do to you huh!? Want to explain that!?" He fired off a more carefully aimed shot, getting a curse out of one of the shadowy figures as it stumbled out of sight. "Charon! Who the hell are these guys!?"
"They're Talon company master."
"And that is!?"
"Mercenaries for hire master."
"And what do they want!?"
"To kill you master."
"No!?" John ducked, a ruby laser beam singeing his hair as he went back into cover. "You're sure about that!?"
"Yes master."
It took John all the effort in the world not to turn his gun on the calm ghoul right there and then. Instead he inched around the corner of the train cart and squeezed off another shot. "Why the hell do they want to kill me then!? I didn't do anything to them! I didn't even know they existed!"
"They have probably been paid to kill you master."
"By who!?"
"I don't know master."
"Well ain't that fucking brilliant! I'm chased by a bunch of jackasses who wants me dead because of a pile of caps! Paid by some stranger...oh that son of a bitch!" John fired again, his shot harmlessly whizzing over the heads of the dark shapes moving around the rubble, already moving to reload he growled in a lower voice. "I swear if this is who I think it is...I'm going to find him and strangle him with his own fucking tie!"
Slamming the fresh clip into the rifle he yelled over the sound of the Talon jerks firing: "You hear that you assholes!? I'm going to find your fucking payer and kill him! Then I'm going to take his caps! Then I'm going to use said caps to hire another band of mercenaries to wipe you out!" That got a reaction out of his foes, a muffled chuckle.
Yeah...it was a sort of toothless threat... John calmed down a little as he saw Charon gesture at the improvised mine, showing that he was done. Heh...maybe he should express his irritation with them in a more satisfying way? Grinning in blood-lust John nodded for Charon to move backwards even as he moved to take aim, three quick shots forcing another advancing foe back into cover. "Come on you chicken shits! Show yourself!"
"Master, I'm in position." Looking back John nodded at the ghoul leaning against the corner further off down the tunnel.
Keeping down in a crouch John carefully stepped over the wire across the opening, the dread of the grenade going off beneath him was quickly replaced by glee at the thought of it going off beneath them instead. He hurried the last steps, quickly slipping down unto his knees behind Charon, using the Ghoul's leather clad arm for support he leant forward to look past the corner and down the small space.
The Talon company soldiers were still shooting at the wall where he had stood, probably thinking they were keeping his head down while they advanced. Loosening the SMG on his side John also went to reload his rifle, making sure he had a full clip in it. Ah man...he was actually looking forward to this! Venting a little frustration would be good! Especially on thugs like these!
A head popped up behind the train, an odd squarish rifle...ah, laser rifle...pushing forward ahead of the man.
The curse of the man was barely audible over the boom of Charon's shotgun going off. The spread of the pellets not lethal, but probably enough to leave a bad scar as the man scrambled back out of sight. "What the hell!? I thought we were supposed to let them walk into the trap!?" John tugged at Charon as he hissed the question.
The ghoul turned to look at him, making John recoil as he realised just how close he was to the sickening face. Charon merely looked evenly on him though, not a hint of irritation over John's reaction as he said: "It would be advisable to make our resistance believable so they do not notice the trap master."
"Ah, my bad." John caught himself grinning, buffing Charon on the shoulder. "See? Those are things I love you to tell me."
"Yes master." Charon had already turned back to the task at hand, another round tearing up the corner of the train cart. A moment later an assault rifle showed up behind the flayed metal skin, indiscriminately emptying its entire clip in their general direction, forcing both back behind the corner. John snorted, were they trying to scare him or something?
In a different world...
"Come on! At least try to hit me!" John snapped before coming around...aiming low he saw the shadow of a movement under the train cart, between the rusty and broken down wheels... His shot missed, though someone cried out in pain all the same, the ricochet? Meh, probably just a flesh wound, though it was satisfying... "Or I can sit here and strip piece by piece off you! Sounds fun doesn't it!?"
Another flurry of shots, this time coming from three weapons at the same time and John was forced back behind his cover.
BOOM!
The sound of the grenade going off was instantly followed by muffled curses and the heart-wrenching scream of a man about to die. John and Charon moved as one, John quickly dropping his rifle and going for the SMG while Charon flicked two new shells into his shotgun and took the lead.
Around the corner the space was filled with grey dust and blood, the train cart on the right had a new dent in it, marked red by gore...John felt revulsion at the sight of a leg covered in blood lying on the ground between them and the slowly dispersing cloud from the explosion...it didn't make him break his stride however.
The laser rifle armed man had been the one breaking the string and was missing both legs...where the other one was John couldn't tell. The guys weapon was a broken piece of bent metal and his mouth was still moving in a scream...though no sounds left it anymore. Rushing after the surprisingly fast Charon he jumped over the corpse...and through the cloud of dust.
Behind the cloud three other Taloners stood. The one to the left, standing on the 'sidewalk' of the tunnel, was stumbling back, a large piece of rusted steel lodged in his right shoulder and his arms hanging limply by his sides as blood poured out of him. A shot from Charon sent the man flying back, his torso torn to shreds.
The second one had escaped relatively unscathed, the shotgun in his hands was lowered though as he wiped at his eyes, his face covered in soot. To his honour he did make an attempt to raise his gun at them, his tearful eyes blinking away the filth in them. Then John's SMG tore up his shoulder, making him stumble back...and then collapse as Charon's shotgun tore off his right arm by the elbow.
The last one lay on his back, his eyes wide in shock. His hand still clutched around a pale looking assault rifle resting against the ground...he made no move to aim it at the two of them, his lips trembling. "Guys...guys...I can't see."
John slammed a foot down on the assault rifle, pinning it to the floor. His face broke into a gleeful smile while he put his other foot on his foe's chest. "Ah, well that makes things easier." The man screamed, realising what was going to happen, then his head was torn to pieces as John emptied the rest of his clip into the mercenary's face.
Rubbing off the gore on his foot against the rail John looked over to Charon, the ghoul already looting the body of one of their foes. "Hey? Think Mr headless here would miss his armour?"