Disclaimer – I don't own Fallout 3 or any of its extensive, insane or confusing content.
Chapter 15
Kylar woke up, and stared at the ceiling. An intense and uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu swept over him, and it took him moments before he could recall where it was from. Two years ago, and some months. When he woke up as Shift. With Fell. Before this damned mess.
Groaning, Kylar stood from the bed. (See?! No grammatical errors there!) The sun was shining in from a window, and he walked out of his room to go rouse Marisa. To his surprise, she was already awake. And naked. And dressing. Kylar stood there for a few seconds before swiftly turning around, and covering his eyes. Marisa turned to look at the noise. She stared at Kylar, and then shrieked. She slammed the door shut, and blushed furiously.
"Just so you know, I did not know that you were dressing." Kylar called. "Shut up!" Marisa answered, mortified. Kylar chuckled, and waited patiently for Marisa to exit the room. When she did, Kylar smiled. "Alright!" He said, clapping his hands together. "Let's get some food, and head out."
Marisa followed Kylar outside, and frowned. "Head out?" Kylar nodded. "Yup. This is how I pass my free time when I don't have any wood to carve. I scav and explore around wherever I am." Marisa frowned, and the two sat down outside of the Brass Lantern. "Isn't that dangerous?" Kylar looked at her cryptically, and shook his head. "Life in the Wastes is dangerous Marisa. You're going to spend your life out here, I'm assuming, and you'll have to face the facts. Every day of your life, you'll be fighting. Fighting for your life, your friends, and possibly your lover. Or lovers. Or…never mind. You get the point."
He ordered some noodles, and Marisa asked for some fruit. "In fact, you'll be fighting harder than the men. You have to face this too; you're beautiful. Every man in the Wasteland who's ever seen you has contemplated bedding you, and more than one will try it, and if they're turned down, they might follow you into the Wastes." Kylar said seriously. He took a sip of water. "Not to mention Raiders and Slavers."
Marisa turned to look at Kylar, but he just ate his food. "What about you?" She asked. Kylar turned to her. "What about me? I've told you about myself, what else is there?" Marisa let out an exasperated sigh. "I mean, have you…you know, thought about, well, bedding me?"
Kylar stopped eating, turned his whole body and stared into Marisa's eyes. "No matter what I say, you'll be offended and probably hurt me." He said slowly. He turned back towards the table, and went back to his eating. "Excuse me?" Marisa said, confused. "Well, think about it." Kylar started. "If I say I have, you'll think me a pig, and slap me. If I say I have along with the fact that I don't expect it, you'll think that I'm too good for you, get defensive, and slap me." Marisa started to say something, but Kylar held a hand up. "If I say I haven't, then you'll think I don't find you attractive, get defensive and offended, and slap me. If I say it hasn't crossed my mind, you'll think I'm gay, get shocked, lose faith in me, and probably slap me and stalk off."
Kylar took another sip of water. "So I chose not to answer that question." Marisa was about to respond, when she sighed again. "I suppose it's pointless to even try to get you to answer, huh?" Kylar smiled. "Good. You're learning. Now let's go."
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They spent the next hour and a half just wandering around, Kylar commenting and instructing about the Wasteland, it's inhabitants, and the wildlife. At one point, his clothing and arms came up in the conversation. "What do you mean, 'What's with my clothes?'"
"Well, why did you add the head wrap? Why did you change dusters? What's up with the new guns, and the sword?" Marisa asked unrelentlessly. Kylar sighed, and sat down on a rock. "It's always questions with you." He said tiredly. "Alright. I changed my brown duster to the blackish one because the brown one needed to be cleaned." "What?" "Think about it." Kylar said thoughtfully. "The Wasteland is full of dust, so eventually, everything turns brown." Marisa couldn't help but appreciate the logic in that.
"The head wrap I lost while getting to G.N.R, so I replaced it. I replaced the sword because I needed something more concealable for my last contract, and I only used the Mp5k because it's a fairly close quarters gun, and D.C is close quarters."
The SA80 was strapped to Kylar's back, while the sword goes on his left hip, and the silenced M9 on his right. He had a belt of stims around his waist, and various drugs, mainly med-x and buffout. "I usually go around with some kind of assault rifle, a close quarters weapon, and some kind of small firearm. These are the arms that are my preferred choice."
The next few minutes were spent just wandering around, until their path took them to the wooden door of Vault 101. They stopped, and stood there for a short while. Kylar broke the silence. "101, huh?" He whistled. "Impressive door." "Oh, shut up." Marisa said bluntly. "You know it's just a cover." "I know."
They sat down on the nearby rocks, and ate a light lunch. Afterwards, they sat back and, 'chewed the fat,' so to speak. Kylar noticed something out of the ordinary, which was usually bad. Very bad. So he decided to point it out. "Marisa." "What?" She said quickly. She said it not in the manner as in, 'What do you want?' but as in 'I didn't hear what you were saying because I wasn't paying attention, so say it again.' "Your pip-boy. It's…different." It was all he could say. He didn't know how to work the damned thing, and she was the master. Marisa frowned.
"Hmm. Lemme check." The next few minutes were spent checking over the pip-boy when a voice suddenly sprung to life.
"This is an automated distress message from Vault-Tec Vault 101. Message begins:
It feels like you left home a long time ago, but I know you're still out there. I just hope you're still alive to hear this. Things got worse after you left. My father's gone mad with power. If you can hear this, please stop looking for your dad and help stop mine. I changed the door password to my name. If you're hearing this, and you still care enough to help me, you should remember it.
Message repeats.
A dead silence passed over the two. The message played twice more, and Kylar waited for his employer's orders. Doubtlessly they would venture into the vault, an event that Kylar somewhat looked forwards to. He wanted to see for himself the place in which Marisa grew up, and the people who she did it with. Growing up, not, well, yeah. You get it.
Kylar cleared his throat, and stood up. Marisa switched off the recording, and looked at Kylar in confusion. "Well, let's get going." Kylar said impatiently. He started for the door, when Marisa spoke out. "What?" Kylar stopped. He turned around, and stared at Marisa. "We're…going into the Vault, aren't we?" He asked, confused. Marisa sat in silence, and clapped her hands together. "Yes. Yes! We are!" Marisa got up animatedly, and got a silly grin on her face. "This is great!" She said excitedly.
Kylar followed her towards the wooden door. "It's good that your home is in trouble that could cause a lot of people to either die or roam the Wasteland, helpless?"
And for the second time in as many hours, Marisa told him to shut up. They opened the door to the tunnel, and walked slowly to the terminal. Kylar felt like he was in some kind of movie, where the protagonist, or protagonist's sidekick, he wasn't sure, was about to make some kind of life changing decision that would permanently change them, for better or worse.
Or he wasn't thinking straight from the sun. Like he said, er, thought, he wasn't sure.
Marisa typed in the password with shaky hands, and the Vault doors opened. A man, whom his name Kylar never learned, ran forwards and aimed a .10mm pistol at them. "Hold on you two. I don't know who you are, or how you got in here but…oh my god. It's you! You…you're alive! How…..who…" He stuttered, and eventually realized he was still pointing the gun at the two of them. "You're not here to cause any trouble are you?" At this, Kylar laughed. It was a few short laughs, but they were laughs. "We're here because of trouble." He walked forwards to the man, and held out his hand. "Kylar Whitlock. At your service." He said politely.
The man looked suspiciously at his hand, and sighed. What the hell. He took it, and pumped it hard, twice. "Officer Gomez. A pleasure." He turned back to Marisa. "Officer Gomez!" She shouted happily. She leaped forwards and gave him a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay!" She grinned crazily, and then her excitement died down. "I got a radio transmission from Amata…she says that there's trouble in the Vault."
Gomez let her go, and his smile died as well. "There is trouble. I suppose you two might be able to fix it, but if you decide to just leave, I'll keep your arrival quiet. If I go on, I can't cover for you. It's all or nothing kid."
Marisa shook her head, rolling her eyes. "What's going on Gomez?" He sighed, and started walking deeper into the vault. "After you and your father left, the Vault split apart. Some people wanted to open the Vault. Some wanted to stay. The rebels, Amata, and hers, want it open. Alphonse, the Mack family, John Kendall out of his family, and the Taylors want it to stay closed."
"Many people blame you for this, you know. I'd stay away from Alphonse's party. They want you dead. I'm assuming you'll be heading to Amata, seeing as she's the one who called you here."
Marisa nodded. "Thanks Officer Gomez." She said worriedly. She walked forwards, leaving him behind. "Hey, wait a moment. Micheal left the Vault after you did. Ever find him?" He asked hopefully. Marisa turned around. "Yup. He took a kick in the face, shattered some bones. He's recovering in a nearby town. He'll be fine."
Leaving an awestruck Gomez behind, they walked deeper into the Vault, and passed Paul Hannon taunting Officer Taylor. "You can't keep us down here old man! We're getting out of here!" Seconds later, he started firing at the Tunnel Snake. He scurried down the tunnel, and they quickly followed.
Marisa started running, and Kylar lost sight of her while disarming the old badger. "Only shoot if shot upon." He scolded. When he turned, he saw that his employer was out of sight. He started sprinting, vaulting around corners, desperately trying to find Marisa. He walked into room after room, hunting unsuccessfully for his employer.
Passing staring faces, he passed through most of the vault before giving up. He stopped, and panted. He saw a face peeking from behind a corner, and Kylar stood up. "Oi. You. C'mere." The face ducked back behind the corner. "I won't hurt you, I need directions." He said tiredly. The person slowly walked out from behind the corner. "W-w-what do you w-want." She stammered nervously. "Directions. Where is Amata?" Kylar regained his breath, and stood up straight. "Why do you care?" She challenged, gaining some courage. "Answer." Kylar said impatiently.
The face gained a superior sneer, and walked behind the corner. And fury erupted in Kylar. He took the blade from the loop holding it there, and walked noiselessly around the corner. He grabbed the girl by the shoulder, and held the blade around her throat from behind. "Where?" He growled. She started to shake, and mumbled directions. Kylar let her go, and left without another word.
Thank you all for reviewing, and all of you for your support. Viva la Wastes!
Apathyninja – Kylar doesn't own his Megaton house anymore because he saw no need for it. Also, he had been technically kicked out of town. The Calling card issue is simple; If you are given one personally, then Kylar owes you something, if one shows up on your doorstep, unbidden, you're fucked.
Mikebenttone – I apologize, but I wanted Kylar to get into sync with his more modern weapons. Plus, Vault 99 was the vault storing all weaponry and armament that that the U.S military could get it's hands on.
JohnLink – I'm somewhat disturbed, or happy, not sure, that you like Micheal being kicked in the teeth.