Note from the Author: For those of you ignoring the M-rated chapters, don't fret too much. This is the last time we'll be hearing from Jaden for a while. Galaxy News, here we come!
~Chapter Six: Disco Inferno~
Like I said before, Grayditch turned out to be a major pain in my ass.
The first stretch of tunnel was vacant, thankfully. I don't really like fighting in enclosed spaces, because it's too easy to set up ambushes. That, and there's less room to avoid the colony's built-in flamethrowers.
Once we got past the entrance and started into the main tunnel, the Fire Ants started popping up. There were a few in the train tunnels, but most of the pack found that they enjoyed hiding in the maintenance tunnels, where the salvage was at its thickest. That meant that if we were going to make any money out of this charity gig, we'd hafta push into the bulk of the horde.
"Are there other ants like this?" Kim asked in frustration somewhere deep in the maintenance tunnels. "Ones that breathe fire, I mean."
"Fuck if I know," Jaden answered poetically.
"Not that I've seen," I corrected him.
As we neared the end of the tunnel, a spinning yellow light caught Jaden's attention. "Yo, look at this."
"What?" Kim asked.
"How much you wanna bet there's a cache behind that door?" he retorted.
"Because the light is spinning?" she scoffed. "How do you know that's not the result of some Pre-War glitch?
"All the lights went off when the bombs fell," I chimed in. "The Brotherhood got them working again when they got here. That doesn't mean anything, though."
"I'm still checkin' it out," Jaden shrugged before heading to the nearest door.
"Leave him," I told Kim. "There can't be many more ants left. He can catch up."
"I hope so," she sighed before following me deeper in.
It wasn't long before we discovered that Bryan wasn't the only survivor of the Grayditch incident. As soon as we opened the door at the end of the tunnel we were in, the other survivor practically jumped out of his boots.
"Gah, you scared me!" he cried in what I thought was a rather wimpy voice. "You really mustn't creep up on people like that!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Kim apologized. "I didn't know there was somebody this far in that was still alive."
"That's why I chose this location to further my research," the labcoat-wearing wuss pronounced proudly. "It's a rather secure location, if I do say so, myself."
"I doubt that," I chimed in. "You're lucky they can't open doors."
"HAH! Ants opening doors, whoever heard of such a thing?" Labcoat boy jeered.
"One day, they stroll into town, and the next they're burning the town down," I informed him. "Who knows what trick they'll pick up next."
"They didn't gain their pyrosis by luck of the draw, you silly man," Labcoat boy laughed. "No, this disaster was brought on by mutagenic experimentation."
"What?" Kim blurted out in shock. "You did this?"
"Well, you see, I was trying to generationally reduce the mass of these gargantuans by directly influencing their DNA," Labcoat boy explained, "but I… well, it seems I spliced the wrong… gene."
"You can say that again," I scoffed.
"So, you tried to reduce their size by injecting the eggs with a DNA-restructuring serum, but instead you gave them a jugular gland that secretes fire!" Kim asked demandingly.
"Oh, my, you understand perfectly," Labcoat boy stated in surprise. "Yes, that's just it."
"I'm surprised you didn't try the serum on a control group and judge the results before injecting the entire brood," Kim huffed.
"Yes, you're right," Labcoat boy sighed. "I suppose I was a bit impatient. I… I was just so sure that this would work.
At that time, a sound echoed through the tunnels that made me think of one of the ants doing their 'pyrosis' thing.
"Keep Labcoat Boy talking," I told Kim. "I'll check that out."
"'Labcoat Boy'?" you-know-who huffed. "I beg your pardon! My name is Dr. Lesko, Dr-"
"Lesko, yeah, I caught that," I interrupted him. "Look, tell her how to fix your mistake. I gotta go."
I bolted out of the room and ran down the tunnel, the custom Chinese Assault Rifle gripped firmly as I charged. As it turned out, the sound hadn't come from an ant, though. Instead, I caught up with Jaden as he was exiting the room we left him in.
"Did you hear that?' I asked him.
"What, that fireball sound?" Jaden asked, patting the barrel of his Flamer. "Yeah, that was me."
"What happened?" I snorted. "Or were you just wasting ammo?"
"Pretty much," Jaden shrugged before holding up some lingere. "I picked up this little number in that room, along with parts to repair my Ripper with and some random ammo. Some lug-nut queer caught up to me as I was heading out and told me to hand this piece over. I told him to go fuck himself, and he started catching an attitude. Then he pulled out a gun, but by that time I was already in the process of setting his pubic hair on fire, and he didn't last long after that. So, yeah, I was pretty much wasting ammo."
I stood there, speechless, for a moment after he spoke. "Wha-how… Where was that guy while we were taking hits from those Fire Ants?" I said finally.
"Fuck if I know," Jaden shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe he came in from the Falls Church Station? The entrance is just on the other side of that wall."
I growled at my own lapse of concentration. "How the hell did I miss that?"
Jaden shrugged again, and then started looking around. "Where'd Sexy run off to? I wanna see if she'll put this on for me."
I didn't answer him right away. To be honest, I was still trying to assess the problem that another entrance made. "…oh, what? Kim?" I asked finally. "She's off talking to Dr. …some labcoat boy down the tunnel. Turns out the whole dragonbreath thing was his idea."
"No shit?" Jaden laughed. "So what's the plan, we just pop Labcoat boy in the ass and get the hell outta here, then?"
"He was trying to… make the ants smaller somehow, I guess," I grumbled, having not caught onto most of the previous conversation. "He just fucked it up or something."
"That sucks," Jaden smirked. "So, what is the plan?"
"Fuck if I know," I sighed. "Let's meet back up with the brains of the group and figure this shit out."
"Fine by me," Jaden said. It didn't take us long to catch up with Kim, who, by the time we got there, had agreed to help Dr. Lesko with his ant problem.
"What took you so long?" she asked when we got back.
"It was just Jaden," I sighed. "So what did he say?"
"He wants us to take down the ants that are blocking the way to his primary research terminal," Kim explained. "Once we take those out, he can use that terminal to activate his Inhibitor Pulse, which will cause the ants above us to frenzy."
"You wanna run that by me in English?" Jaden scoffed.
"We go further down the tunnel, kill what ants are left, then Labcoat boy goes to play with a computer and the ants topside kill each other off," I explained, getting the gist of what Kim was saying.
"Sweet!" Jaden smirked, apparently in love with the idea. "Let's get it done, then."
Kim smiled and shook her head at Jaden and me as the three of us headed toward the nest.
Despite Labcoat Boy's experiments on them, the ants were still unintelligent insects. But if that wasn't the case, I would have laughed at their stupidity. The entrance to the Queen's chamber was practically irradiated with smoke. At the time, though, it told me what the scientist already explained – that the ants' pyrosis began in the nest.
Jaden took point, with Kim behind him making sure he didn't go firing off randomly. I took up the rear, keeping an eye behind us for no other reason than to justify my natural paranoia. Suddenly, I wanted one of us to stay behind at the makeshift laboratory in case the raider Jaden killed had friends that cared enough to come looking for him. But despite that concern, I didn't trust Kim to stay with Labcoat boy, because there's no telling what crazy ideas they'd come up with together. I didn't trust Jaden with the scientist because he'd probably get bored and start attracting too much attention to himself. On top of that, I didn't trust him to be alone with Kim because… well, let's just say it's for 'obvious reasons'.
Jaden signaled for us to stop, which broke me out of my tactical contemplation. I looked over at Kim's shoulder as she stared at her Pip-Boy. Her compass was pointing out the guardians we were meant to destroy with quest markers, and one of them had a red tic over it – which must have meant that one of them was close.
Jaden readied his Flamer – he must have noticed the oncoming foe before he told us to stop.
"Those things breathe fire," I pointed out. "What makes you think they'll be weak to it?"
"Yeah, they should be resistant to heat, since they were born with the ability to breathe fire," Kim added.
"We won't know unless we try," Jaden retorted, "and I'm gonna try."
"So, this is why he wanted to take point," I whispered to Kim in jest.
"Yeah, probably," Kim whispered back without emotion. I sighed. My opinion of you just keeps changing.
The sound of moving fire echoed in the tunnel before I knew what was happening. The look on Jaden's face as he swapped fire would be terrifying if I thought for a second that he wasn't a complete goofball.
"Burn, baby, burn~" Jaden sang as the Flamer exchanged red death with the genetically enhanced insect. Kim crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently, and I couldn't help but sympathize. "Are we gonna sit around here all night, or…" I groaned.
Jaden growled, as if making the Flamer work required some great effort on his part outside of pulling a trigger. The words "Hurry the fuck up, and…" escaped his throat before his free hand slipped into his pocket.
"Fuck it," he spat before firing the custom .32 caliber pistol at the skull of his target. The ant's pyrotic spray arched upward as its skull flew up and away in a spiral, forcing Jaden to lean back and turn his head to the side. It wasn't until he was able to shift his body back into place that he released the trigger of his flamethrower.
"Well, now we know," he grumbled as he put the big weapon away.
"Sorry," Kim pouted. I wasn't as sympathetic, though.
"One down, four to go," I sighed, bringing my Xuanlong Assault Rifle to bear.
"Hold on," Jaden smirked, pulling a Missile Launcher out of his pack. "I'm not out of tricks, yet."
"That looks entirely unnecessary," Kim pointed out.
"Nah, not at all," Jaden smirked. "Let's see one of these motherfuckers resist this!"
Yeah, that'll kill few ants. Nevermind the fact that it could cause a cave-in and kill ALL OF US, IDIOT!
Despite my mental raving, we continued our spelunking in silence. After a minute of walking in complete quiet, though, I just had to get something off of my chest.
"He's got a thing for big guns," I whispered to Kim.
"Yeah," she whispered back. "He's probably overcompensating for something."
I chuckled at that thought, and let it at that. It didn't take long for us to find our next ant, and it took even less time for Jaden to send it to hell. I have to give Jaden this much, he's pretty efficient with that Missile Launcher.
"Okay, I can't take it," Kim huffed. "You're just gonna get us killed using that."
Kim pushed Jaden aside, but I stepped up before she could take point. "If we're going to do this, we should do it together," I pointed out. "Like I said earlier; we work together if we work at all." In truth, I didn't want her taking the lead because I knew she didn't have any weapons that were strong enough to take on what we were facing, but my point was still solid.
"He's right," Jaden added, pulling his .32 back out. "Next one that comes out, we all shoot."
"That goes for all of our targets," I demanded, pulling my Scoped .44 out as well. I was saving the Xuanlong for the Muties, and I sure as hell wasn't wasting the Gauss on a bunch of fucking ants.
"Alright," Kim sighed, pulling out the .32 Hunting Rifle that she picked up from the Raiders at the Super-Duper Mart. "But this tunnel's not wide enough for us to go side-by-side."
"I'll stay behind," I told her.
"Dude, she's got the rifle," Jaden pointed out.
"I've got the only weapon with a scope, and I've got a lot more experience with this gun than she does with that gun," I retorted, keeping my eyes on Jaden. "No offense," I added and shifted my gaze to Kim.
"It's alright," Kim nodded before turning to look at Jaden. "I'd feel better knowing he's the one playing sniper."
Jaden turned away from me, but I could tell he was scowling. "I'm glad YOU trust him." Feeling's mutual, asshole.
The next two ants were a cinch to find, but they were right next to each other, which meant that they could lay down suppressing fire with greater efficiency. Having Jaden and especially Kim standing between me and them only emphasized my distaste for enclosed-space combat, but with the three of us shooting, it WAS easier. But since Jaden's gun had less kick than Kim's (a LOT less), I had to cover him more, despite what my instincts were telling me. I tell ya, being human can be a burden sometimes, but it sure as hell beats the alternatives. Well, I can't really say that, since I'm understandably biased towards humanity.
Jaden proved himself a liability as we enclosed upon our last target. "Holy shit, that's a big motherfucker."
"That's not a target," Kim tried to explain.
"Looks like a target to me," Jaden sneered.
"That's the queen," Kim warned him. "Not a target."
"Look, if we get rid of the queen, the colony dissipates," Jaden shot back. "Problem solved."
"That's not what we're here for!" Kim argued. "Destroy the queen, and we lose the ability to make the ants smaller! Dr.-"
"Fuck that faggot, I thought you were doing this for that little kid!" Jaden shouted. I had to holster my revolver and grab both of them by the shoulders to get their attention."
"No. Means. No," I growled quietly. "Now, both of you, shut up before-'
At that exact moment, I was very grateful for the time I served as an Initiate in the Brotherhood of Steel. Had it not been for that basic training, my instincts might not have been able to keep up with my hearing. Hell, I might not have even heard the ant's sharp inhale and been able to enhance my grip on the two in front of me, bend my legs down, and jump back, pulling the pair with me as we barely dodged the inferno that threatened to consume our bodies.
I growled breathlessly as my right arm bent, my hand searching for my weapon. Once my fingers wrapped around the stock of the revolver, my arm jumped, the barrel of the gun instantly pointing toward the enemy. My right eye squinted instinctively as I felt my index finger tighten around the trigger.
"Before exactly that happens," I managed to say before the gun went off.
Now, I'm not exactly a spiritual person, but I'm certain somebody was looking out for me, because that one bullet somehow managed to fly through the ant's open mouth and catch it right in the gland responsible for its 'pyrosis', causing its head to explode entirely.
To be honest, I was so shocked by my good fortune that I forgot being angry at my companions. I didn't even look down the scope, for crying out loud.
Jaden and Kim got up slowly. I think they were just as surprised as I was.
"So, that solves it," Jaden sighed.
"That solves it," I reiterated. "Now, what say we get the hell out of this tunnel?"
"Let me talk to Lesko," Kim said. "Then we can leave."
We headed back in silence, managing to slip out of the ant queen's field of vision entirely. The doctor was ecstatic to learn that we did as he asked, and offered to inject Kim with a Mutagenic something or other.
"I can give you Ant Might, which will improve your physical strength, or Ant Sight, which will improve your hand-eye coordination and perceptiveness," he said.
"Thank you, but…" Kim trailed off. "…uh… I don't… really… need a reward. Kindness is its own reward… y'know?"
"I see," Lesko sighed. "I understand." He suddenly regained his smile as he looked at Jaden and me. "How about you two, then?"
"Oh, hell no," Jaden chuckled. "There is no fucking way you're sticking any kinda shit into me. Fuck that!"
I thought about what happened in the tunnels, how we scraped by thanks only to sheer luck. I wondered if I could have improved our narrow escape if my senses here just a bit sharper. I thought about that, and decided that if I could make myself better, I should.
"Ant Sight," I said as I took the nearest seat. "But you'd better know what you're doing."
"Of course I know what I'm doing!" Labcoat Boy scoffed defensively. "Now sit still while I administer the serum."
I closed my eyes and allowed time to pass around me as Dr. Lesko injected me. My senses started going crazy, so I tried hard to shut them off, and must have worn myself out in the process.