Happy New Years, ladies! I got really drunk last night and don't remember anything, so good on me. I highly suggest not drinking a bottle and a half of straight vodka to yourself because that shit is potent. (Don't drink your feelings, its a bad idea)
Also, as it turns out, Boone's dad is Chris de Burgh
This is a long one too, thank god for that. The 'Bombastic Annie arc' is going to be a couple of chapters and hopefully it won't bore you to death. Annie's a bit of a handful, isn't she? This is the strategy I (and probably all of you too) took in the game. Terrible plan. I think Niner and Rex actually hated me.
EDIT: I also went back and rewrote a lot of things from chapters 1 to 10! Not massive things, just minor details I wasn't happy with.
They headed to Nellis the day after, Annie waking up with a splitting headache from all the scotch she had ingested the night before. Boone was perkier that morning, even if a little at all. He was glad to get back on the dirt road again, heading towards the strange Boomers who lived in an old air force base. The sun was bright and warm on their backs, tanning the courier's leather and sweating the sniper's skin.
"There's no chance that you somehow keep a spare pair of sunglasses…" Annie whined, holding her flat palm to umbrella her eyebrows. Boone snuffed at her, causing another demented groan to float through the dry heat. "Why did you let me drink so much?"
"You're the boss." He shrugged at her, enjoying her temporary pain.
"I'm only the boss when you don't want to be." She hissed at him, making his lips twitch into a miniscule smile. He dug around in his pack for his spare set, handing them to the courier before she (in her own words) 'gave up and just died'. "Thank you." She pulled them past her ears, sighing at the sudden light shift.
They had stayed up late the previous night, lying together on the old Wrangler bed while Annie told him everything she possibly could about a free Vegas. He wasn't too happy that she seemed to want to go independent, but understood her point when she hiccupped her way past what the NCR would probably do to any unhappy tribes. There was no way in hell that he would help her overthrow the NCR, but he would support her decision as much as he could. It was the least he could do.
It wasn't as if Annie didn't like the NCR, in fact she much preferred them to the Legion. There were only two main factions she could hand the reigns to, and unless the Enclave or Brotherhood renewed themselves suddenly, that's all there really was to it. It was either Annie's uncertain hand or the NCR's boisterous shove… Annie actually had more confidence in herself, which sounded ridiculous.
Boone stopped her a mile short of a man standing in the middle of the road, warily pulling out his rifle so he could scope out the situation. He didn't seem armed, actually holding a pencil and a pad of paper – scribbling down things hurriedly while pacing back and forth.
"Hey!" Annie called, Boone jumping slightly at her sudden voice. The man swung back down to look at them incredulously. "Hey! What are you doing up there?"
"You better head back the other way or you'll get blown up like the rest of the idiots trying to walk into Boomer territory!" He called back, Annie taking this as an invitation to walk forward. She was not in the mood for a smart-mouthed asshole trying to turn her away on her own mission.
She marched right up to him and stood in his face.
"I am not an idiot."
Boone couldn't disagree more, slinking up behind her to keep a wary eye on the older man. George, the man in the cap, grinned down at her.
"Okay little miss, now that I've got your attention, might you be interested in a little information? It'll cost you, but it's well worth the investment."
The girl blinked at him, rattling her pockets for caps before sniffing at the old man in anger. Hangovers did not do her justice in the least.
"Well, you can tell me… Or you can tell the underside of my boot."
George was taken aback by her lack of charm, reeling his shoulders back to hold his hands up in surrender.
"Whoa, simmer down. I'll tell you." Annie smiled, looking up at Boone proudly while the man flipped through the pages of his book. The sniper had to give her some appreciation for the way she forced the information out of the old man like guts out of road kill. "I'm a gambler and a scavenger. I've made some cash from gambling and from… reclaiming goods that are no longer being used. Now do you want my help or not?"
"Depends what it is." The woman folded her arms, back straightened by the heavy sledge strapped to her back.
"Oh, lordy lordy, haven't you heard of the Boomers? What rock have you been living under?" His brow quirked as Annie pulled a cigarette from behind her ear, watching her light it with Benny's old zippo. "They're a bunch of artillery-slingin', grenade lobbin' odd jobs camping out in Nellis. Wander into their territory and you're as good as mincemeat."
"… well." Annie turned to Boone, ushering him to the side as she sucked down a cigarette. "This changes things. If they're going to be hostile than this won't be as easy as I thought it would."
"Don't you know anything about the Boomers?" He questioned, having learnt this long ago. The Boomers were ruthless with any poor soul that wandered too close to them. He had been thinking of a strategy the moment the words had fallen from Annie's mouth the previous night. Nothing had come to him, other than sending gift baskets strapped to robots. There was literally no other way - not without doing a bit of recon before hand - and Annie wasn't into that, much preferring to fall head first into things. It's so much more exciting this way, don't you think? Annie often trilled when Boone got worried.
"Well, House did tell me a few things but I wasn't too sure if I should trust him or not." George was watching them curiously, a few steps away. She shuffled on her feet, looking forward to the warning signs that stuck unhealthily in the Nevada sands. "Probably should trust House's intel though… Do you think I could climb up that rock and take a quick look?"
"With your eyesight that sounds like a great plan."
"Cut the sarcasm, asshole." She scoffed at him, heading towards the rock face. Sticking her foot into one of the crevices, she hoisted herself up until she could just peek her nose over the top. From what she could gather, there was a chain link fence guarding what seemed to be a small town thriving in an abandoned army base. Her partner was already fasted to the rock wall, peeking around the side to take a quick sweep over the situation. It seemed dire in the least.
"Now, see, I don't think that's a good idea-" George drawled, Boone cringing internally at Annie's lack of self-preservation. A shot sounded from the distance and Annie jumped back down, the string of smoke tunnelling towards their general direction. The shell hit 100 metres away, throwing up sand and rocks and lighting the air with a loud, sickening explosion. "That was a warning shot."
Annie was rattled, clinging to the rock with the blood draining from her cheeks. This was going to definitely be harder than she had expected. The sound from the shell had turned her hangover into a splitting headache, ears buzzing with white noise. Boone looked at her expectantly.
"… Is there anyway to get past this… problem?" She turned back to the black man, feeling bad for attempting to bully him even though he had fairly warned her in advance.
"There is a way, and I'll tell you… for a little wager?"
She groaned. "How much?"
"Think of it as a bet, not a payment." He put his hands on his hips, standing over the two of them with a higher sense of authority. "Three hundred caps, and if you make it alive I'll double your money."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Annie moaned as she gestured for the coin purse shoved in the bottom of Boone's bag. "Three hundred… Three hundred caps for my life." She laughed to herself before rubbing her palm on her aching temples. "You've got yourself a bet, old man."
"Anna…" Boone chimed behind her and she waved him off, taking the purse from his hands.
"I'm the boss, remember?" She shot at him over her shoulder, turning back to the man. "You wait here with him to make sure he doesn't run off with our caps. I'll be back as soon as possible."
"Remember when you told me to stop you from making bad decisions?" He asked, taking the purse back once she had nearly emptied it into the dark man's hands.
"I think the question here is, Boone, why not? We can't exactly snipe them if we want to make friends, can we?"
"Possibly."
"I've already given him the caps, it would be a waste of money not to try his idea…"
"It would also be a waste of money if it got you killed." Point.
She shot him a dark look, much preferring death by explosion than a day of Mother Boone's story time whilst hung over "Maybe a wager will keep me running through til the end – keep me motivated. I won't leave you a penniless widow, Boone." She sniped, agitated that he decided to assert his authority now of all times. "I can run, I know that. They've got a big heavy gun that's hard to aim with my agility. I'm little so I can fit and hide behind things, and I can climb fast if it's needed. So cool down, sport, I think this can work."
The sniper sighed, giving up on trying. This was it – this was the day Annie died. He couldn't go in after her and pull her out kicking and screaming, because that would kill them both. Then again…
"Alright." The man handed Annie a note torn from his book, the paper worn and well-thumbed. "Here you go. That page has the details, but it's all in the timing as you move from building to building." The girl opened the page, skimming over its contents before handing it to her partner. He read over it tiredly, passing it back when done with a nod signalling it was legit. "I'll be here watching, so I'll know if you've made it to the gate or not."
Annie rubbed her face, shaking her arms like noodles to try and get pumped up. Nothing was working and she felt sluggish and gross, although not tempted to walk all the way back to the casino for a sleep. It was now or never, and she had already given up a majority of their travel caps.
"My father used to say something… Don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side…" Boone said quietly as she stretched her back, touching her toes to limber up.
"Well~," Annie looked up at him, eyes ablaze with sudden adrenalin. Her body had finally realised that she was getting ready for something big, sending waves of morphine and energy from head to toe. "it's a little late for that now. Unless you want to beat the shit out of him and take all of his caps regardless."
The old man in front of them paled, making Annie grin widely. Taking one last look at her partner, she patted him on the cheek lovingly before sneaking up to the rock face once more.
"So you're just going to run?" Boone called again as she pressed herself against the rock, reading over the note with hazy eyes. She looked up at him, waving her hand dismissively to quietly ask him to pipe down.
"It will be fine." She told him, chucking him her pack and sledge (which bounced merrily with shockwaves) before flattening her back against the rock wall. "I have a really good feeling about this." She watched his face twitch and she grinned. "Trust the boss, Boone."
And then she sprinted, shrieking when she heard the boom of the howitzer fire. Her boots slipped in the dust, heart jumping into her mouth and spilling out the cracks of her lips. The boom of the first rocket hit close to her, sending a wave of dust and rocks her way. They pelted against her armor as she ducked into a lip in the hill, the ground shaking under her feet as the shells fell around her. She slid down to a crouch, trying to avoid even the slightest amount of shown skin.
Three, four, five, six... Reload
The ground shifted under her feet and she stumbled, falling to her side to catch her shoulder on a jagged piece of debris. The pain was exhilarating, but she had missed her cue, the explosions now ricocheting against the cliff face she was hiding beneath. She had never felt her heart race so fast.
Four, five , six... Reload
Breaking into a sprint again, she hurdled over the remnants of old buildings and the dead body of a Brotherhood Paladin. She would have stopped to check it out but the bombs were back, nearly catching her feet as she belted towards the chain link fence.
"Should of-" Another explosion burst a few meters away "listened to Boone!" She called to no one in particular, lunging out of the way of a burst of energy. The impact threw her off of her feet, rolling her onto her side as her hearing burnt into static and her eyesight faltered. Boone's extra glasses crushed with Annie's impact with the ground, pressing broken glass and bent metal into her face.
They had stopped to reload when she staggered back up, her boots slipping on the chunks of gravel and cement that had been thrown around with her. "Don't shoot!" She called, stumbling all the way to the chain link fence - her ankle screaming in pain while her shoulder cried along in sympathy. "Don't shoot or you'll kill yourselves!"
"Hold it right there!" Annie slammed against the fence before letting out a whine of exhilaration. "Don't you dare move!" The boomer with the big gun apprehended her, the large barrel staring her in the face. Her body was shaking with so much adrenalin, barely feeling the pain that was swelling in her right shoulder. "How the hell did you survive that bombardment?" The man asked, his helmet falling askew on his serious-looking head.
"Now–" Annie hunched over to catch her breath, curling her hands in the fence to hold a finger to him "I didn't fucking run all the way through the artillery to have you grill me. I'm here to see whoever is in charge." She stood straight, pushing her sweaty hair off of her forehead and rolling her shoulders - a large crack reverberating from her injured arm. "Jesus, that hurts."
Maybe it wasn't the best idea to run straight at a howitzer, but then again she wasn't dead, had successfully proved Boone wrong and had won an extra 300 caps in three minutes. It was either sheer luck or sheer stupidity on her part, maybe both.
Boone had set up camp at the lip of the rock, red beret off and tucked into his pocket to keep the visibility low. His eye fell from the scope, pulling up onto his knees to let his heart rejoice. She hadn't, for some reason, died. It was a feat in itself to even get as far as the first dip, but she had done it. She had actually lived (although she nearly lost a foot a few times) and was walking back to him to tell the tale.
"Boone!" Annie's voice burst from down the hill. It was faint, but he still heard it over the rushing wind. "Boone! Get the money off of that slippery gypsy and get your ass down here. I'm not walking back up that hill." She was louder now, Boone peeking his head around the rock to see her form a few yards away. It was the happiest (just bordering content) he had been in a few months... not that he let it show.
"You know, she's the first person to make it through without dying? I've never seen a thing like her before." The old man shook Boone's hand, handing over his coin purse to him before the sniper hiked both packs onto his shoulders, briskly walking to meet the girl. "And she ran for it too-" George was still calling to him. "you should be proud to have tamed yourself a little reckless lass-" Annie sledge was heavy in his hands but the moment they met in the middle of the path he dropped it at her feet.
Annie gave him a corked arm the moment she saw him, grinning ear-to-ear with her hair styled by a cyclone. She had blood running down her temples and under her neck, her shoulder a little out of place but technically not too bad. She literally looked like she had crawled out of hell, the wild, fiery look in her eyes reminding Boone why he liked her so much in the first place. The look was no longer one of pure evil, but one of excitement. He understood that now.
"Look at me now, Boone!" She threw her good arm around his shoulder, her heart still thundering like a drum. "I told you I had a good feeling about this. Did you get the money?"
"Yes." She pulled her pack from his back, wincing at the weight but taking it all the same. Boone handed her the cap purse, allowing the girl to sift through the bag before taking it back off of her a moment later.
"Good, great! Now the chieftain wants to see us, but I figured I'd better come and get you first." She began to limp back to the base on her twisted ankle, thankful for her boots stable sides. "This is the most fun I have had in a long time." She told him as he helped her through the gates, refusing to let her walk on her sore leg. The cuts on her forehead dripped dry, the boomers watching the two outsiders like vultures on a summer's day. "Remind me why we spend most of our lives in a hotel room?"
"You tell me, boss." He sniffed at her, making her laugh quietly as the rush darkened down inside of her. The pain shooting up from her ankle was stinging and the nicks on her face were biting, her energy zapping as the realization of a hangover and a massive beat down sunk in. Boone's extra sunglasses crushed under his feet as he walked, already destroyed and not worth the effort of fixing. They hadn't lasted long with her.
The sun bit them like a raging dog, the rays heating their cheeks and burning their hands. It was a particularly hot day in the Mojave, made even worse by the abandoned fires dancing all around them. Annie was picking broken glass from her cheeks, aching for a medic but too stubborn to show Boone that he was right. He was always right, as it seemed, but Annie always made it through sheerly based on luck. She had been shot in the head once, too, but nobody would have expected her to claw her way back to fighting fit within a matter of weeks.
Their partnership sat on a set of scales and Annie was finally eye level.