A/N: More action in this chapter, even it is a bit shorter than the last one. The coming chapter has some bigger revelations in it and I wanted to keep that to it's own chapter instead of adding it all together so... But it should be out soon =) and it will probably be a fair length as well =D
*Primm/NCRCF*
Stiles and Scott woke up a few hours later, wanting to head out before dusk completely came around. They packed up their things and snuck out of the hotel, not wanting anyone to see them and make a fuss about them staying in there. Stiles had marked the location on his Pip-Boy, so they headed out into the desert, knowing that a direct route was much faster than following the road, that would mean they'd have to pass the facility and backtrack around to the entrance. They were about halfway there when Scott held a hand out to halt Stiles, nose flared as he scented the air.
They both crouched down as Scott told him what was up, "There are some people up ahead, only two. We're not to the NCR correctional facility yet right?"
"No, and even if we were, I'm sure there would be more than two heartbeats right?"
Scott nodded and Stiles unslung his rifle, the two of them crept closer to the source of the scent. It wasn't long before Scott paused again, his wolf ears coming out so he could listen to what was going on; his eyes narrowed as he listened.
"Couple of Powder Gangers, talking about how they need more supplies before they move out; sounds like they weren't too keen on just sitting around at the facility. What do you want to do?"
"I say we take them out, we have plenty of evidence that they aren't good people, and if there is only two, they don't stand a chance. Plus they might have some good stuff, and we are scavengers technically. Anything goes out here Scott."
Scott nodded in agreement, he usually didn't like killing others, and had never taken an innocent life, but the Gangers were proving to be more of a problem lately. In the same day, two different groups of them attacked innocent towns. And these two were planning on doing the same thing in the future.
Seeing that Scott didn't have a problem with getting these guys out of the way, Stiles crept up onto a nearby boulder and scouted out their camp, seeing that they were both just wandering around, kicking at the ground as they waited for something.
"Want me to just pick them off? I know I can get at least one for sure, but I have no idea what the second one will do once he hears the shot," Stiles commented. He'd already picked out which one to shoot first, the guy in the white tank top was wandering around with a stick of dynamite in his hand… He wasn't going to let that guy have a chance to throw that anywhere near Scott. The other guy didn't have a visible weapon on him, so that made his less dangerous to Scott.
"Let me creep a little closer, so if he decides to take cover by the railcar, I can take him out. If he stays out in the open, take him out and I can start looting."
"Roger," Stiles said. He kept one eye on the two Gangers, waiting until he saw Scott disappear around the far side of the car. Once Scott was in place, Stiles lined up his shot, shooting Dynamite straight through his chest. Like he had anticipated, Leather Jacket dropped to the ground, unsure where the shot came from. From here, he didn't have a clear shot, the brush was blocking him; he knew he could fire off a random shot and hit him, but there was no guarantee that it would be fatal and that would just make it a waste. Stiles rolled off of the boulder, so the Powder Ganger wouldn't see him.
"Up to you Scott, can't get a good shot off," Stiles said aloud, knowing Scott was listening for him.
Stiles was working on crawling closer, just on the off chance Scott might need some backup while Scott worked on scaling the railcar. He peeked over the edge, seeing the guy sprawled out on the sand, a pistol in his hand. Scott smiled to himself, this was going to be easy, the guy was too busy trying to peek through the brush to see Scott. Scott unleashed his claws and jumped off the car, landing directly on the man's back, claws sinking into his neck before he knew what had happened. The least Scott could do was give the guy a quick death, even if the Powder Gangers wasn't innocent he wasn't going to be like Peter. Scott whistled to let Stiles knows the coast was clear.
"Let's hope they have something good, I'd like to get some caps, just in case we decide to not sell that pistol we found," Stiles called from a few yards away as he stood up.
Scott had already started rummaging through the few metal boxes laying on the ground, "Oh, we found something. You're going to like this."
Stiles jogged up as Scott held up a scope, big smile on his face. "No way, a scope? That's awesome, it will make using this rifle so much better. I still miss my old rifle, but this is the next best thing!"
"Yea, I figured you would enjoy that, other than that there is some ammo for our pistol, and some Rebound. I'm sure we can find someone that might want that," Scott said, carefully picking up the drug pack.
Stiles agreed, Rebound was some strong stuff. Neither of them liked to use it, although they had in the past. It was a good drug to use when you needed to focus, and it was better than a regular shot of Jet since it lasted longer. Still, Jet was addicting and neither of them wanted to head down that path, so they rarely touched the stuff. It was usually good for a fair amount of caps though, so they collected it when they came across it. Stiles sat on the ground and pulled out his weapon kit, quickly fastening his new scope to his Varmint Rifle, making sure everything worked and was sighted correctly.
"Alright, with a scope, getting into the correctional facility will be even easier now. With this we can pick off anyone assigned as guards," Stiles said, standing up again.
The boys walked a little further and scaled the side of a semi-steep hill, finally coming up to the facility. They laid prone at the top of the hill, not wanting to be spotted, and tried to gather how many inmates there might be. There were 6 guard towers, and at least 4 of them had someone standing at the top, Scott couldn't see anyone along the two at the back of the facility. There were also quite a few guys just milling about in the yard, probably just trying to kill time before night fell.
"I can take out the guy in the nearest tower, and some of the guys in the yard… this isn't a sniper rifle, so it's not quite as loud, but odds are still high that they are going to hear it. You ready?"
"Yea, you focus on taking out the towers and the guys in the yard, I'm going to change places and make sure no one is doing an area patrol. Would hate for someone to try and sneak up on us."
Stiles nodded and waited a bit for Scott to get a little further away to give him time to scout. He looked through his scope and decided to take out the guy in the nearest guard tower first, he was the most likely to spot him so might as well eliminate that threat. With even breaths, Stiles slowed down his heartbeat and pressed down on the trigger, ducking behind the boulder as soon as the shot rang out. Even with his limited Human hearing, he could hear a few concerned shouts coming from the guys in the yard. He counted to five and set up his second shot, going for the next watch tower, thankful that these shots didn't echo across the small valley. The second guy had to be shot in the head, blood splattering everywhere, they'd gotten their hands on the bullet-proof vests, this was going to be a bigger hassle than he'd originally thought. With the two nearest towers taken out, Stiles began picking off the guys in the yard, managing to kill all three before they ran inside to warn anyone. As he ducked back behind his small boulder, he heard some growling and then a few shots ring out.
Scott had come across a patrol, not too far from Stiles's position, they were bound to hear the shots and come investigate. He ran up to them, catching them off guard and tackled the larger of the two, claws tearing out his throat before they even hit the ground. The second let out a cry of surprise and held up his gun and Scott let out a loud growl, amber eyes glowing. Scott knew that at this range, it would be hard to dodge a bullet, so he jumped up in the air, making the Ganger flinch and fire prematurely. Scott snarled as the bullet entered his thigh, but he landed on the second man and dispatched him as easily as the first. He was using his claws to dig out the small caliber bullet when Stiles appeared in front of him.
"You good?" Stiles asked, needing to hear Scott's voice to relax. He always got worked up when Scott got hurt, despite the fact that he would heal. There was always the possibility that someone was carrying around Wolfsbane bullets and Scott would need more serious attention.
"Fine, just one shot, to my thigh," Scott told him, holding up the bloody bullet. "And now we also have some disguises. This should at least get us in so we can find Meyers right?"
Stiles smiled and rubbed Scott's head, "Atta boy, good thinking. Here I was, ready to just barge in there and hope for the best."
It only took them moment to strip down the two dead men and change their clothes, making sure to pack their original garments into Stiles's pack. Once they were ready, they climbed down the hill and walked towards the entrance of the gates, doing their best to look like they belonged.
"Hold up, what's going on here?" a guy said, standing guard at the door.
"We came across those guys patrolling, took some shots at us before they realized we were part of the Gang. Luckily no one got hit. We were hoping to come back in real quick, got some business inside," Stiles said.
The guy looked them over, probably trying to recognize them, but he pulled a keycard and unlocked the door for them.
Stiles and Scott nodded in thanks and headed into the building, so far so good! They scouted their surroundings, noticing about 5 guys just milling about inside, none of them looking up at the newcomers. There were some small round tables spread out in the room, for the visitors to sit at while they were here talking to loved ones. Stiles also noticed the Sasparilla dispenser along the wall, walking over to it and grabbing a soda for them both as they scouted out the men.
"Hey, is it just me, or does that guy look like he doesn't belong?" Scott whispered, tilting his chin in the direction of a man with a tattered cowboy hat. He didn't seem to have the same aura as the rest of the guys.
Stiles led the way over, casually sitting down at the small table, "Hey, would you by chance happen to be Meyers? Or know where we can find him?"
"Yea, that's me, what can I do for you?" Meyers replied, looking up at the boys.
"We wanted to ask you a few questions, is that alright?"
"Didn't think anyone would just willingly walk into this place, not unless they were looking for trouble; all to ask me a few questions? Might as well ask then, since you came all the way here."
Stiles and Scott looked at each other, did he know they weren't a part of the Gang? Scott cleared his throat, "What did you do before you ended up incarcerated?"
"I was a Sheriff, but justice is slow, so I sped up the process sometimes, some people in the town didn't like that. I thought it was a fair trade," Meyers told them, leaning back in his chair.
"Okay, wait, the PGs have taken over here… why are you still here, why haven't you left?" Stiles asked, might as well give up the act of belonging if he saw through their outfits.
"I'm sure the NCR wouldn't just welcome me with open arms, being an escaped convict and all, so I figured it's just best to stay right here."
Stiles and Scott looked at each other, wondering if maybe he's not too crooked for Primm after all, so Scott decided to ask, "How would you feel about becoming Primm's new sheriff?"
Meyers gave them a look, "Assuming an NCR pardon comes with the job, that would be great. Even better would be a guarantee that I can do things my own way. Due process has its place, but I need to be promised that I won't end up back in prison for doing my job."
"You mean taking the law into your own hands?" Scott wanted to clarify.
"When I need to, yes."
Scott and Stiles look at each other, they'd have to talk this over with the NCR… no way were they making a deal without having a pardon ready, they told him they'd have to think about it.
Meyers nodded his head, "Understandable, I'll be here when if you decide to come back with good news."
Stiles and Scott nodded their heads and stood up, looking around once more; an idea popped into Stiles's head, "Why don't we look around a bit. I mean it's not like anyone here knows we don't belong, well besides Meyers. We can at least grab some of the stuff from the guys in the towers."
"Always thinking of ways to push the envelope Stiles… But I agree, I'm sure these guys have some good supplies, considering it all used to be NCR stuff. Let's go," Scott said, rolling his eyes at his brother.
Together they made their way to the back of the visitor center, heading out into the fenced in yard, thankful that no one else had come out here and noticed the few dead bodies. They hurried over to the right, heading up the nearest tower and grabbing the spare clips from the dead guy's waistband.
"Think we should look in the different buildings as well, I'm sure they'll have ammo… it's always good to stock up, we go, well I go through a lot of ammo out in the Wastes," Stiles asked, looking down at the two other buildings in the yard.
"Yea, we did go through some the other day in Goodsprings… we picked up a lot from the dead Gangers, but not a lot of it was the right caliber. Might as well take advantage."
They made quick work of heading up to the other vacant tower but didn't find anything worthwhile, much to Stiles's dismay. Once they were back on the ground, Stiles made his way into the first building, the door labeled Cell Block A. Inside was dark, there weren't any windows and the small area was cordoned off into three different rooms, each with 2 bunkbeds. A few of the bunks were occupied and there was one guy sitting at a table in the center, just reading a magazine. Scott nudged Stiles and shook his head, with this many people in here, asleep or not, they weren't likely to get away with stealing anything.
"Let's check the other side of this building, I saw a second door when we were in the guard tower and no second door from the inside," Stiles commented as they left the room.
"Yup, Cell Block B," Scott read as they came up to the second door.
Stiles rubbed his hands together, hoping they'd have more luck in here. It was immediately clear that this room had few people in it, and more supplies; Stiles saw that one of the room had the cell door closed, a lot of metal boxes inside of it. Jackpot; now they just had to get inside. As they wander further into the room, wondering just how they'd get in there, one of the men stood up, glaring harshly at the boys.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Carter, look at these two idiots," he said, standing up from the table.
The guy named Carter turned his head to look at them from the corner of his eye, "Shot 'em, they aren't any of ours."
Shit… clearly Carter had a better grasp of PG's members than the guy at the gate. Stiles dove to the side and pulled his pistol from his hip holster, easily shooting the first guy in the neck as he slid across the floor. A third guy ran out of a side room as Scott tackled Carter, table flipping as they rolled across it. Luckily for Stiles, the new member decided to focus on Scott and was wide open, Stiles's first few shots going into his hip and bringing him down. Stiles was up and across the room, pistol whipping the guy on the ground, effectively knocking him out so he could go check on Scott.
But Scott hadn't needed any help, he was standing there, a slice across his cheek already healing and a key in his bloodied hand. Before they could go see what was in the locked cell, the door flew open and 4 more men ran into the building, having heard the gunshots from right next door. Scott cried out in pain as he was caught by surprise, shotgun blast hitting him right in the chest and knocking him to the floor; Stiles whirled around and started firing, one guy going down. Thankfully Scott had given Stiles the vest, it effectively protected Stiles from the first few shots that came his way. He knew he was going to bruise from those hits, but the shotgun wielder was far enough away they the pellets had lost a lot of their power. Stiles dove behind the upturned table, praying that Scott was alive… Wolves could come back from a lot of wounds, but Stiles always wondered if this was the time Scott's luck would run out. After a quick break in the gunfire, knowing the others needed to reload, Stiles popped up and took out another of the shooters, 2 down, 2 to go. As the second barrage started, Scott suddenly rolled to the side and flung a knife at the doorway before he threw himself into one of the open cells. Stiles cheered when he heard one of the men cry out in pain, Scott's knife had hit.
"Found a gun in here Stiles, good to go," Scott called out.
"Let's do this," Stiles called out, knowing at least one of the shooters was distracted because he was screaming out in pain still.
In unison, Scott and Stiles leaned out of their hiding places and emptied their clips in the direction of the last two people. It was unlucky for them that they didn't have an open cell door to dodge into, and they hadn't been smart enough to just go back outside- both of them got hit and fell to the floor. Now that the coast was clear, Stiles looked over at Scott, noticing the bloody hole in his shirt. Stiles felt his chest tighten, Scott was okay… he'd been playing dead while he waited for the wounds to heal, but it had been too close for comfort in Stiles's mind.
"Dammit Scotty, that was too close. That wasn't supposed to happen," he whispered, going over to Scott and pulling him into a hug.
"It was just a shotgun blast, from like 10 feet away, no way that was going to kill me. I'm glad you're safe… this was why you got the vest. You're a lot squishier than me Stiles," Scott replied, hugging Stiles back.
It took a moment for Stiles's heart to calm down, now that he knew Scott was okay, they could move on, continue to loot this room and leave. They gathered the shotgun and some slugs from the dead mean, Scott stooping to pull his knife out of someone's eye, before moving on to the locked big cache. Scott took out the key he'd got from Carter's body and opened up the supply cell, the boys spreading out to search faster. Stiles had to pick a few locks, but nothing too difficult for him and it wasn't long before they'd looked through everything; they took stock of what they'd found.
"Oh hey, score so far, got some frag grenades, like 3 pairs of sunglasses, about 200 caps, and a super stimpack," Stiles said.
"Good enough haul for getting taken by surprise, ready to get out of here? Might as well go back and talk with Lieutenant Stilinski about Meyers right?" Scott proposed, tucking the new supplies into their bags.
"Agreed, let's go."
Scott poked his head out the door, wanting to make sure there weren't any other guys waiting for them, but the coast was clear. He gave Stiles the all clear and they walked to the visitor center, not wanting to give the other tower guards reason to suspect them. They smiled at each other as they opened the door, this hadn't gone as bad as it could have.
"Hold it right there!" a voice rang out, the sound of a pistol hammer being pulled back.
Stiles and Scott both dove back out the door as the firing began, ducking around to the side of the building. Knowing now that their cover had been completely blown, the boys tried to calm down and think of a plan. Someone else from Cell Block A must have warned the others and they'd been lying in wait to see who came out victorious.
"This is bad Scott, how are we getting out of this one?" Stiles asked as he reloaded his pistol and rifle.
"With a lot of planning and luck, that's how. We survived our run in with Peter, we're not going down here!" Scott growled as he followed Stiles's example.
They were ready by the time a few of the guys came around the corner to look for them; Stiles advised Scott to aim high, since some of them were wearing vests. When they realized that no more of the Gangers were going to pursue them, they ran for cover in the next building, thinking that everyone had been holed up in the visitor center. They entered the administrative building and knew they were in trouble. Immediately two men were staring at them, eyes wide; there was a slow moment as they registered each other's presence. Stiles watched as understanding dawned on them and they reached for their guns. He reached into his pocket as Scott dove forward, snarl tearing from his throat and he attacked the men.
Scott's bloodlust ran higher when he heard Stiles cry out in pain, a wild shot must have winged him- he refused to think anything else might have happened. As the two men below him turned into gory messes, Scott stood up and charged at the next wave of men that came rushing at him, this time with the newly acquired shotgun in his hands. He blasted a few of them away before he heard a two-toned whistle coming from Stiles- grenade! He flung himself into an open doorway and covered his ears, knowing that Stiles had waited a few seconds to throw it.
As soon as Scott was clear, he lobbed the grenade and ducked under the nearby desk as the explosion ripped through the small room. As soon as the blast died down, Stiles was on his feet and charging into the debris, gun ready to clear out any survivors.
"You asshole, what do you think you're doing?" a voice rang out, just as Stiles heard a high pitched whine.
He'd barely had any time to react, throwing himself to the side as soon as he heard the voice.
"Jesus!" he cried out as the laser blast went flying past him, burning a path across the outside of his arm.
He heard some other shots, most likely from Scott and the last man was down, an eerie silence filling the building now.
"Tell me you're okay," Scott called out. He was standing at the stairway leading to the second floor, wanting to make sure no one else snuck up on them.
"Yea, got grazed when we first came in, no biggie there, just across my shin; it was that last asshole that got me in the arm with his laser pistol. Good thing it's automatically cauterized right?" Stiles answered, looking down at his arm and wincing. "It didn't get me that deep, mostly just a bad burn. Clear over there?"
"Yea, no more heartbeats in the building," Scott replied, finally coming over to Stiles and helping him to his feet. "Come on, this room here is the medical bay, noticed the gurneys when I dodged in here, bound to be something to help you out."
Stiles let himself be led into the room, sitting down on the small stretcher as Scott opened up one of the medical kits. He hissed as Scott put some burn cream on his wound and then bandaged it to make sure it wasn't going to get infected. He also grabbed 4 stimpacks and 2 doctor bags to take with them, never know when you'd need some. After that they silently searched through the pile of limbs and torsos, looking for anything else them might as well take.
"Got another key here, let's go see what it unlocks," Stiles said wearily. This hadn't turned out at all like he'd planned.
Scott finished packing away the laser pistol and a submachine gun and followed Stiles up the stairs. It was pretty barren up there, most of the ceiling had collapsed, leaving just two rooms clear of rubble. It wasn't hard to figure out which one the key opened… there was only one closed door. Inside was the gun depot though, Stiles and Scott both grabbing as much ammunition as they could as well as a few more grenades. They also searched the desk and found some Psycho, yet another drug they tried to stay away from.
"Come on, let's clear our way out of here, however many they still have inside the visitor center and get Meyers out of here. We'll just take him with us to the NCR to talk about the Sheriff situation."
"Yea, then after that, I'm going to bed," Scott complained. As much as he wanted to kill Peter, the trail could wait until tomorrow.
They did a quick weapons check and Stiles took a grenade out, Scott cracked the door to the visitor center and rolled it in, knowing that would take care of anyone waiting right in the hallway. As soon as the blast went off, the boys were inside, guns up and bodies low. They stayed half hidden by the wall as they picked off the last remaining gang members, Stiles standing up suddenly and cursing.
"Son of a bitch! Meyers is dead!"
"What, I didn't shoot him, I know I didn't!"
Stiles kicked the nearest dead body, "No, he was dead when we came in, I never saw his hat when we started shooting. I was hoping he'd just been taking cover, but he's got a bullet hole, right between his eyes."
Scott slid down the wall, exhausted now as the adrenaline left him, he couldn't do anything but watch as Stiles trashed the already messy room in his fit of anger.
"Now we have no choice but to go to the dumb outpost and talk to Knight about getting Stilinski another squad! God, this trip was literally for nothing Scott? Dammit!"
"Well, we learned to not always take the easy route, sometimes it's a trap," Scott said, eyes closed.
"That's not a lie," Stiles answered. He slid down the wall next to Scott, holding out another soda for him. "Here, drink this, you'll need it after healing from the shot to the chest."
Scott took the bottle with a small smile, even in his fit of rage, Stiles thought of him and wanted to make sure he was healthy. They both sat there awhile, just letting the anger fade while Scott drank his Nuka-Cola.
"Come on, let's head back," Scott recommended. He didn't want to be here much longer, at least if they made it back to Primm, they could sleep on a mattress again.
Stiles sighed wearily but got to his feet and followed his brother out the front door. Neither of them remembered the one guy that was standing guard, running into him as they opened the door.
"Hey!" he called out, not liking their lack of attentiveness.
Stiles blinked and then reached up with his knife and jammed it into his throat, he really just wanted to go to bed… How had the guard not heard all the commotion going on inside? Did he seriously have no idea? Before Stiles could wonder about it too long, another guard, one still standing in the tower, saw what happened and called out to them. Stiles and Scott booked it, tearing off to the right, zigzagging as they ran through the brush. They continued to run, even after they knew they were well out of range, just to discourage anyone from following them. It wasn't until they came up to the highway that they stopped, taking deep breaths.
"Dammit, we went the wrong way… Instead of running towards Primm, we heading back towards Goodsprings… Talk about rotten luck," Scott complained.
"Yea, and actually we're closer to Sloan than we are Goodsprings. I know Melissa told us it was dangerous, but let's just head to Sloan and see if we can't score a bed for the night. Surely they'll take pity on two road-weary souls."
Scott groaned but knew Stiles had a point, they were better off just heading to the nearest would-be town and begging for a place to stay at this point. Hopefully the people in Sloan were as nice as the people of Goodsprings. Maybe they could even bargain their way into cleaning up whatever crittters were causing problems in exchange for a bed to stay in.
A/N: Thank you for waiting so patiently for this update, I'm still really loving this idea and where I've got plans for this story to go! Thanks for sticking with me and supporting these characters.