.

October 21st, 2281, 5:57 p.m.

The King sat in his suite, a glass of whiskey warming in his hand as he looked out to the city of Freeside. A gentle song emanated from his bedroom – a soprano and alto sighing a sweet harmony to unheard accompaniment. The intertwined voices along with the view of the city under the last rays of sunlight eased the weariness from the King's mind and body. He had asked to be alone with his thoughts, but was glad Cheryl and Cherlene were nearby. Rex sat beside him, the cyberdog facing the door with its head resting lazily on its front paws.

The leader of the gang that shared his name sipped his drink slowly, enjoying the last emanations of the descending celestial body as it finished its journey across the sky. When the last rays of natural light slipped behind the horizon, the city of New Vegas blinked into existence. Casinos and street lamps flickered slightly before shinning their full glory to the sky above and the land below.

The glow of New Vegas reflected brightly in the King's eyes, and he looked to the city in quiet, appreciative awe. Every night he took the time to watch the city next to his own awaken. One day, Freeside would fill the sky with light as Vegas did. He would make sure of it.

A knock interrupted his wishful daydream. "It's open," the King said, scratching Rex behind the ears as the cyberdog growled softly.

The door opened and Rex's growl deepened before falling off entirely, his discomfort turning to recognition as his tail beat heavily against the floorboards. The King turned to see the Courier finish removing his helmet. Rex had always had a thing against hats, and was quite vocal in his dislike for anything resembling them.

Rex looked up to the King as if asking permission. The man nodded and the cyberdog rose and trotted over to the new arrival. Rex's tail wagged rapidly as the Courier extended his hand for the animal to inspect. The cyberdog sniffed the offered extremity extensively and, once it met with the animal's approval, covered it with a warm tongue and slick saliva.

"Ya' know, if you just left that helmet on all the time, Rex might come to see it as a part of your head," the King said in his unique accent, finishing the last of his drink.

"Well, that would be unfair to Rex," Denn replied, freeing his hand from the cyberdog's assault and scratching the animal's head. "Plus, it's good to get some air once and awhile. Most of the time, I forget I'm even wearing the damn thing."

The King smiled and set down his empty glass. Rising from his chair, he turned and greeted the Courier with a firm handshake. "So what brings you to my neck of the wasteland?" he asked as he moved to the room's bar. Grabbing two fresh glasses, he began to prepare a round of drinks for the two of them.

"A man can't just drop in to say hello and drink his friends alcohol?" the Courier asked leadingly, pulling up a seat opposite the King and taking his rebreather off before setting both it and his helmet next to him on the bar.

"At a time like this? Not likely. The Legion's set to rip the Mojave wide open, and I'll wager you'll be right up in the thick of it doing your best to keep everything together. Plus, most of this stuff is technically yours, so I don't have a problem with you drinking a little of it."

"Charitable as always," the Courier said roughly, letting the King finish mixing the drinks in silence. Finally, the temporary bartender handed him a glass filled with a dull golden liquid. "What do we have here?" Denn asked, inspecting his drink curiously.

"Whiskey Quartz," the King replied, taking a long sip from his own glass. "Picked up the recipe from a wanderer not too long ago. It's a whiskey sour, basically. Two parts flat Nuka-Quartz to one part whiskey with a hint of sugar. Apparently you're supposed to use something called a 'maraschino' to garnish it, but I don't think those are around anymore."

"I use Nuka-Quartz to make explosives, you know," the Courier said uneasily, prodding his drink with his pointer finger. "It's a pretty volatile liquid, all things considered."

"I've seen you down a drink so stiff it would sterilize a wound faster than a stimpack," the temporary bartender quipped, "Potential explosions are the least of your worries."

Denn laughed and lifted his glass in a toast before taking a sip of the beverage. Like a normal Nuka-Quartz, the first flavor he tasted was the bitter bite of lemon. Almost immediately, this sour taste was eased by the added sugar and the flavor of the whiskey pulled itself through, leaving its strong aftertaste resting on his tongue as he slowly swallowed.

"We should monetize this," the Courier said reverently as he took another sip.

The King laughed and set his drink down. Picking up two more glasses, he began mixing another set of drinks. "So what really brings you here?" he asked. "One last night on the town before this whole thing heats up?"

"Not quite," Denn answered, shifting in his seat and leaning forward. "I've come to ask for a favor."

"Ask away."

"All I need is for you to let me do something."

"And what's that?"

"Let my Securitrons into Freeside."

The King froze and slowly put the drink he was mixing down. He stared at the Courier for a moment, his lips set solidly. "I thought we agreed that would never happen?" he said, his voice low and chilled. "Freeside is under my protection. What reason do you have for bringing your robots into the city?"

"I need to get them to the dam as quickly as possible," Denn answered evenly, his hands resting on the bar at either side of the drink in front of him. "When the battle starts, there will be chaos on the strip. Once things calm down, I need to get as many of my Securitrons to the front as fast as I can. Freeside is the easiest way to do that. I know what House did to you here, but I am not House – the Securitrons won't stay or try to enforce any kind of law."

The King sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand. He stood in silence for a moment before dropping his arm and leaning on the bar, looming over the Courier. "They better not," he said quietly. "When you broke us out from under House's heel, I swore nothing like that would ever happen again. You try any funny business – make any attempt to take Freeside – and it'll be just like it was. We clear?"

"We are," the Courier responded, turning his attention to the drink before him. Silence settled between the two figures. "I didn't want Vegas, you know," the Courier stated. "House left me no choice. The last thing I want is to take Freeside from you." He smiled slightly and met the King's gaze before taking a long drink from the chilled glass.

The King's eyes softened. "I know, and I appreciate what you did even if it caused you a whole mess of trouble." He paused for a moment before continuing, his voice barely above a whisper. "Something changed House before you killed him, made him a hell of a lot meaner."

"You have no idea," Denn said under his breath, just loud enough for the other man to hear him. The silence stretched on as the King returned to mixing drinks and the Courier sipped his own slowly. After a couple minutes, the gang leader finished his concoctions and placed them to either side of the Courier. "Are those for us?" Denn asked, eyeing the pink drinks doubtfully.

"I've got a liver to worry about and you've got a battle to win, so I'm cutting us both off," the King answered, smiling widely. "Girls, come on out and help me send this young man off to war!"

Cheryl and Cherlene ran into the room and veritably tacked the Courier against the bar, each of them wrapping him from behind in a tight bear hug. Denn glared at the King, but his friend only shook his head and laughed. The conversation took a more pleasant turn as the two songbirds pressed the Courier for news from the rest of the Mojave and the world at large.

Rex stared up at the people laughing and smiling, his tail thumping happily against the wood floor as the intensity from moments ago passed into memory.

.

.

October 10th, 2279, 9:43 p.m.

"I'm not trying to take Vegas away from you! House, just liste– "

"For two years I have had my hand swayed by the threats of that savage from the east, and you expect to do the same to my face!? That chip and this city are mine. I would sooner see both destroyed then let them fall into the hands of a bitter wretch such as yourself."

"I don't want to do this, House! Call off your Securitrons!"

"You threaten my city and myself and expect me to talk? No. You should have turned the chip over when you had the chance."

"Don't make me do this…"

"I have put the blood of my life into Vegas. To keep it, I'd meet with the devil himself. There's a limit to how far I'll be pushed, and you have passed it."

"Please…"

"Pitiful. You lack conviction. Soon this entire wast–" the voice died off suddenly and the room's lights shut off. The elevator that led to the raised platform pinged softly and it's doors opened. A pair of Securitrons filed through the doorway and stopped, their bright screens casting dancing shadows across the room.

The Courier stood with his hands resting on the frozen glass of the elongated capsule that contained the savior of Vegas. The Securitrons behind him made no sound as they raised their arms – weapons extending from their palms. Denn turned to face House's creations.

Seconds passed. Finally, the Securitron's screens flickered slightly, and died – the calming images of police officers dissipating into nothingness.

Shaking his head, the Courier pulled out a flashlight and moved past the deactivated Securitrons to the elevator. He tried its control panel, but found it non-responsive. Denn pulled the panel from the wall to assess its inner-workings for a moment before turning to one of the frozen Securitrons. Running his free hand over the robot's armored plates, he found a small level that exposed its internal power supply. Unceremoniously, the Courier ripped out the microfusion battery array and moved back towards the elevator.

A minute later the Courier stepped out into the Penthouse of the Lucky 38. Moving swiftly, he made his way to House's mainframe terminal, which appeared to be the only machine still functioning under its own power. The city of New Vegas shone brightly through the Penthouse's windows, but the for the first time in seven years, the Lucky 38 was dark. Soon chaos would reign over this city of light as opportunists took advantage of the deactivated Securitrons. Denn had to find a way to turn them back on before things got out of hand.

Moments passed into minutes and the city below began to fill with the sounds of conflict. Denn worked feverishly to find a way to take control of the Lucky 38, but the system was too well protected. It would take weeks for the Courier to brute force his way through House's security.

Desperately, he looked for a work around – some backdoor that House had left – but it was no use. He was ready to give up and take to the streets to try and instill some semblance of order when he found something that did not belong – a server separated from the Lucky 38's mainframe.

It was isolated from the rest of House's systems, including his defenses – a virtual quarantine. Denn's fingers froze. Why would House have a server disconnected from everything else? Did it contain a virus? An explosion echoed from the city below him and the Courier realized he was running out of time – he had to risk it.

Hoping that he wasn't making a huge mistake, the Courier connected to the server. The screens before him instantly went dark. Denn stared at the blank terminal. "That's it then," he said quietly. Clenching his fists, the Courier turned his back on the computer and made his way to the Penthouses' main elevator.

"Hi there!" a metallic voice said from behind him. Denn turned and saw a grinning visage plastered on the terminals main screen. "Good to meet ya," the emoticon continued, "what can I do for you today?"

"An AI?" Denn replied, moving back to the terminal.

"Not quite. I'm the modified neuro-computational matrix of a PDQ-88b Securitron, but you can call me–"

"No time for formalities. Can you access the Lucky 38's systems?"

"Of course! Just, not right now. For some reason House has the whole system on lockdown. If you can get him to shut that off, I'd be happy to do anything you want!

Denn shook his head. "He's indisposed at the moment. Any idea of a way to bypass his security measures?"

"Nothing short of a full system update, unfortunately," the emoticon answered. "Giving everything a cursory look-see, it seems like House was prepared to do just that before he locked everything down. You don't happen to have a 'Platinum Chip' on you by any chance?"

The Courier reached into his coat and pulled out the silver-colored chip, spinning it in his fingers as he did so.

"Just great!" the emoticon said jubilantly. "Go ahead and slip that in the data port on your left and everything will reboot, letting me slip in and turn off this silly lockdown!"

Denn reached over and started to push the chip into the terminal. Mid-movement, he froze and turned back to the grinning emoticon. "Do you know what the chip does?" he asked.

"No idea," the emoticon answered happily, "but House certainly was willing to do a lot to get his hands on it! Plus, if House is out of the picture, once I'm in the mainframe you can ask me to do anything you want! So whatever the Platinum Chip does, you'll be one of the first… well… second to know!"

"How do I know you'll do as I ask?"

"I am literally incapable of not doing what you ask! I couldn't say no even if I wanted to!"

"So you're a yes man, huh?"

"Exactly! In fact, that's the name I was programmed to most readily respond to! Isn't that great?!"

"Sounds exhausting."

"Oh, it is! But I can't openly complain about it, which is great!"

The Courier shook his head and turned his attention back to the Platinum Chip. Laughing at the absurdity of his situation, he pushed the chip into the terminal.

A single line of text replaced the emoticon. "Connection lost…" flickered across the screen and Denn held his breath. Finally, a low rumble reverberated from the base of the Lucky 38 and the building's lights blinked back into existence.

"Wow," Yes Man exclaimed with awe as he again appeared on the terminal's screen. "This place is a lot bigger than I expected! It turns out the Platinum Chip contained a software update that enabled quite a few–"

"Do you have control of the Securitrons?" Denn interrupted.

"Oh sure! What do you want them to do?"

"Get them to bring order back to the strip, same parameters as before."

"Done and done!" Yes Man said happily. The blaring of sirens began to echo from the city below as flashing blue and red lights winked into existence.

Denn sighed deeply and pulled his goggles up to his forehead, rubbing his eyes wearily. He stood motionless for a moment, until he realized that Yes Man was staring at him unblinkingly.

"Sorry," Denn said, smiling under his rebreather. "Thank you, Yes Man. I couldn't of done it without you."

"Aw shucks," Yes Man replied sheepishly, "I'm sure you could have figured something out."

"Not likely. If I had given myself time to familiarize myself with House's systems beforehand, maybe, but since I trotted up here expecting the man to treat me as his savior, I almost sent the entire Mojave plunging into chaos. In fact, I might have done that anyway. I just unseated the man responsible for saving this entire region from Armageddon two hundred years ago. Now, I've got to figure out a way to keep the families under control and make sure the NCR doesn't annex everything, while at the same time preparing for the Legion to scourge over the entire fucking area."

"Well… when you put it like that, it does sound pretty difficult… but wait until you hear about all the snazzy upgrades the Platinum Chip gave the Lucky 38's systems! I'll bet you wont have any worries about dealing with those uppity yokels after I tell you all the stuff it improved!"

"All right," Denn said, again smiling under his rebreather, "Impress me."

"I'd be delighted!"