Happy Thanksgiving to the United States and Canada
S.P.E.C.I.A.L: Courier Six: (Intense Training: Rank 5 + Implants)
Strength: 7 (Implant)
Perception: 6 (Implant)
Endurance: 9 (Implant)
Charisma: 6 (Implant)
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 8
Luck: 5
S.P.E.C.I.A.L: Joshua Graham (Official)
Strength: 6
Perception: 7
Endurance: 10
Charisma: 7
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 8
Luck: 5
S.P.E.C.I.A.L: Ulysses (Official)
Strength: 10
Perception: 10
Endurance: 10
Charisma: 11 (Apparel Bonus)
Intelligence: 10
Agility: 10
Luck: 10
I am now referring to Joshua Graham as 'Graham' most of the time
Chapter 5:
"God, this is worse than the damned children of the waste…" Six grumbled as he tried to swat away the annoying crowd of students that were constantly pestering him about his weapon.
"At least they actually tried to rip me off…" he groaned as a student waved some lien in the air, constantly requesting if he could purchase the weapon.
"Damn stupid kid and his damned 'toy'… Sell me a toy for 1000 caps will you…" he sighed at the memory of Max in Freeside when the little kid tried to sell him a toy gun for 1000 caps. Turns out that 'toy' was actually a targeting device for one of the most devastating weapons Six knew existed.
That night...
The dorm room had fallen silent for most of the hour, so Six decided to strike up a conversation.
"Do you ever think we could get used to this?" he asked, eyes fixed on the door by the foot of his bed. Graham and Ulysses looked over to him.
"I mean, I'm used to moving around, used to being on the run. I've never stayed in one place for more than a day, never had a home and yet here I am, living in conditions far superior to even the strip."
"These people are living the high life," he continued, "Whilst we were running from our fears in a baron wasteland filled with nothing more than death. From what I hear, we never had the worst of it. From what I've heard, D.C is a real dump, mutants everywhere, mercenaries being hired to kill everyone in sight. The Enclave."
"I agree," Graham spoke, "These people have been living in quite… luxurious conditions. Still though, it is best we keep our true origins from these people whilst we remain here."
Ulysses spoke next, "I believe that may be a difficult task to complete, I have been watching a group of students who seem rather anxious about us."
Six gestured for him to continue
"Black hair red highlights, white hair, black hair, blonde hair, all girls. Don't know their names."
"Those the girls with the weird uh… colour code thing that bothered you earlier?"
"You saw?" Ulysses tilted his head slightly
"He saw," Six pointed to Graham, "He saw, not me. He's a little more perceptive than I am."
Silence followed for a brief moment before Joshua Graham spoke up.
"Either way, these people wouldn't be able to comprehend the horrors of the wastes." He held a bandaged hand in front of his face, scorched fingers breaking the clean white bandages.
"We'll just keep our secrets under wraps." Six said, earning a glare from Joshua, "Wrong choice of words…"
"May God keep our secrets safe." Graham concluded, now staring dead center of the door.
The conversation in the room fell silent once more as Weiss pressed her ear harder against the door to the Wastelanders' dorm room. The rest of her team stood behind her, eager to hear the conversation.
"What are they saying?" asked Ruby from beside her
"Shh!" Weiss hissed, "I'm trying to listen!"
Silence
"It's completely quiet!" Weiss hissed again
"Well, what were they saying earlier?" Yang whispered
"I don't know I couldn't hear!" Weiss retorted
"Did you at least get the subject?" Blake questioned
"Something about where they came from." Weiss said
"What about their weapons?" Ruby inquired
"Ruby!" Yang shouted only to realise that she had raised her voice a little too high. She clamped her hands over her mouth just before the door clicked open and Six was standing in the doorway, the door now closed shut.
"Problem?" he asked
"No…" Team RWBY responded simultaneously
"Questions?" he asked
They nodded
"About?"
"Weapons!" Ruby squealed, fist flying into the air above her head only to be pulled back by Yang when she started hopping towards Six.
"What was your name?" asked Weiss, arms folded as per usual
Six tilted his head, "Was?"
Weiss sighed, "Is," she corrected herself
"Better. Name's Six."
"Six?" questioned Yang, "That's an odd name to have."
"More of an alias." Six explained, "Not my given name."
"What is your given name then?" Yang asked
"Next question."
"What's your na-"
"I said next question" he hissed
"Alright alright, sheesh," Yang raised her hands in self defence
"Are you okay?" asked Ruby, "You seemed kind of happy and jumpy in the forest but now you're all… dull."
"I don't usually trust strangers." He replied, "And when you say happy and jumpy, take a look at yourself. It is beyond me how you all remain so happy…" he sighed, disappearing into the Wastelanders' dorm room
Team RWBY just looked at each other and shrugged, mentally agreeing that 'Six' was an asshole.
Even Six was confused. Why was he suddenly such an asshole? Six had always managed to remain positive, even after being shot in the head. Twice! Perhaps it was the feeling of anger and hatred towards these people who had lived such a beautiful care-free life, safe from harm all huddled up inside their walls. The wasteland had no walls, no happiness, no joy, no prosperity. It was always kill or be killed, scavenge to survive, live on your own piss and shit if it came to that. And yet here these people were, a healthy meal each day, parents still alive (unless they were one of the unlucky few), going to school, a privilege that had been taken from the people of Earth long ago, when the bombs dropped.
Six wondered what the reaction of these children would be if they ever learned about the Wastelanders' past. The horror, the gore, the pain they all endured whilst these people sat around shooting the odd animal that got too close with their fancy looking guns or whatever they had.
The looks on their faces would be priceless.
Had they even ever seen a Wastelander before? A dirty, homeless, bum who had managed to wander far enough to the west? A fully armoured walking bringer of death, bearing energy weapons of unimaginable proportions.
Had they ever seen the creatures of the wastes before? Radioactive, mutated monstrosities that looked to prey on the flesh of humans, sometimes even throwing their basic animal instincts to the wind and working together to achieve a common goal, kill the human. Had they seen a Deathclaw before? Claws long and sharper than razors, legs faster than the wind itself. Mouths and eyes of demons.
He let out a low growl.
"Calm down." Joshua Graham said, hand rested on Six's fully armoured shoulder, "They obviously haven't seen people like us before. They obviously don't know a thing about what we've been through."
Six shrugged Joshua's hand off his shoulder and went to pick up his plasma rifle, heading for the door once more. Joshua Graham sighed, looking himself over again.
|-LINE BREAK?-|
Night fell quickly and Graham stood alone on the rooftops of Beacon Academy, only the subtle, cool breeze to accompany him. He had longed to feel the touch of the air upon his bare skin once again, but this would have to do. His eyes were closed and he focused on the sounds of the night.
The sounds were silent, only the swaying of the breeze could be heard. A light tapping overruled the whistling winds for no more than a second before stopping. Someone was on the roof with him. Graham ignored the noise for a moment and continued focusing his senses on the night, feeling the air against his scorched fingers, tasting the sweet taste of freedom, smelling nothing at all. His mouth grew into a small smile beneath his carapace of bandages and he turned, opening his eyes and drawing A Light Shining in Darkness.
He held the .45 pistol limp at his side as he stared across the rooftop and down the sealed stairwell. His gaze pierced through the closed door and into an empty stairwell. Graham raised his pistol, aiming directly at the stairwell, then shifted the barrel's gaze slightly to the right, into the shadows near the stairwell. His finger squeezed on the trigger and the gunshot rang out, only to be drowned out by the deadly silence of the night.
A shuffle was heard, then a thud before a young girl appeared from the shadows, hands slightly raised in surrender. Her hair was long and black; she wore a black and white outfit and a bow upon her head. Graham recognised her as one of the girls who were pestering Ulysses the previous day. He lowered his unique weapon but kept the gun levelled at waist height.
"Why are you here?" Graham inquired. The girl lowered her hands.
"We just wanted to learn more." She replied, calm tone in her voice.
"We?"
"My team."
Team? How can one be so trustful of a group of others?
"Your team." Graham started, "Do you trust them?"
"Of course," came the raven-haired girl's reply.
"Would you trust them with your life?"
"…Not yet." Her reply was hesitant.
"…With your secrets?"
'Could he know?' the cat faunus thought to herself, alarm racing through her head, 'No, it's impossible.'
The girl remained silent as her hair swayed gently in the breeze. Graham holstered A Light Shining in Darkness, a click sounding as the pistol slid into its holster.
"Run along," he said, "A girl such as yourself will not find any happiness in a man like me. Just pain to be had here."
Joshua Graham turned around and looked back out to the world below Beacon, all of it still encased in and endless shroud of darkness, occasionally broken by the odd light on the street or a lit up monument. By the time he turned back to the rooftop, several minutes later, the raven-haired girl had dulled her presence, disappearing from the rooftop completely, only leaving the faint smell of lavender drifting about in the air where she once stood, unmoved by the wind.
He pondered thoughts in his mind. Why are they so trustworthy? What is the military presence of this place?
One thought overruled them all.
'Why are we such a new presence? All we did was walk west. Surely there must have been other Wastelanders who have passed through.'
Graham dismissed the questions to be answered later. What he really needed now was sleep. So he did just that.
Ulysses sat undisturbed in the library, book in hands, arms resting on a fine wooden table. The feeling of polished wood was so unfamiliar to his skin, it felt nice to feel the touch of money against your skin, especially when dirt was all that was rubbed in your face as you stalk the Divide, waiting.
The book he held was entitled 'Nature's Mysteries'
There were many intriguing creatures featured in the book. A never before seen Grimm, some sort of giant fish that was found in a large lake named 'Missle Lake'.
But it was a strange creature that bore a striking resemblance to humans that caught his eye. Black scaly skin, piercing white eyes that stood out in the darkness like lighthouses, gruesome black claws nearly smothered in blood.
The image was hazy and unprofessional, but Ulysses had the perception of an eagle. The well-known form of a Tunneler was present in this book. Mutated humans of Hopeville that took refuge underground during the Great War, radiation got to them, turning them into the Tunnelers that Ulysses knew too well.
The Tunnelers had no known contact with surface-dwellers for centuries. That was until the Courier unintentionally detonated the Hopeville nukes. Tunnelers had never been seen outside the Divide before.
Why would they be here? Why not the Mojave Wasteland? Even so, it was only predicted that they would reach the Mojave by 2281.
Ulysses kept the book in his possession. He would read it every day, trying to find more creatures of the wastes. It would be kept hidden from the other members of his party for the time being. They did not need to know yet; neither did the children in this school.
The children seemed adventurous enough to go out looking for something they know they'll never find. They didn't need to go looking for radioactive creatures that posed a threat far superior to their 'Grimm'
Whilst the Grimm had their sights set on the destruction of humanity and the creatures of the wastes didn't, they still seemed to outmatch these creatures of darkness, both physically and mentally. Grimm learned from mistakes, so did the creatures of the wastes, except the mutant creatures are born with superior knowledge.
Either way, the creatures of the wastes were not something these people wanted to deal with on top of their Grimm problem.
Sorry this took so long, had to re-write the chapter as I didn't believe it to be good enough and I just really haven't had the knack for writing this particular story the past week. I will try to keep updates frequent, hopefully weekly.