It had been about an hour since we left the Guardian's base in order to follow the remnants of the Legionaries signal. Everyone was in a great mood. Mark had been singing a song that made me realize how good of a singer he actually was. I had suggested putting his own voice on the Savanna Caller but he shrunk back a little saying that it wasn't that good. Holly started to tease him about it, in her own usual way, while also checking over some of her weapons. No matter how much she joked around and teased all of us, she always seemed prepared for the worst.

Blanche had 'procured' some alcohol from the Guardians and was dancing around and trying to sing along with whatever song Mark was currently singing, but her voice was definitely not one I would recommend to be played anywhere, but we still let her carry on. I don't think anyone wanted to get on her bad side, especially after I told them how she handled those raiders in Darkwater. I had a feeling that if it came from anyone else, they wouldn't have believed it.

Drake was switching between flying and walking depending on if he spotted anyone in the distance. I think he's started to realize that a deathwing, especially in the daylight, was enough to catch attention to us, especially since the Legionaries probably knew about him now. We wanted to get the drop on them so we were attempting to avoid any wastelanders who may give us away. Onion had been keeping towards the front, his scanners actively searching for anything that might have been hostile. I had synced the friend-or-foe program the Guardians enabled on my Pip-Boar to him so that if we located any Guardian forces, we could meet up with them. Chief Lazlo said that he was going to send patrols to make sure that the Legionaries don't try to follow us or attempt any counterattack against the base.

As for Nate, after we had recouped from last night's incident, Lazlo had offered to give us all our own bunkers for the night, and despite the incessant teasing from Holly, Nate and I decided to spend the night together. We both laid in bed just, talking. Even after everything we had been through, he still avoided talking about his Burrow. The few times I tried to turn the discussion in that direction, I felt his body start to tremble, and I quickly changed the subject. In all honesty, he wasn't much of a talker, at least not until we started to talk about tech. Then I couldn't get him to shut up, not that I wanted to. We had spent so much time just talking, that we didn't get much sleep, but neither of us cared. Of course it didn't help that Holly had impeccable timing. She seemed to know exactly when we kissed, because that was the exact moment she came in to 'check' on us. I think she finally got the hint after I fired my gun at her feet. She never came back, but in the morning Lazlo had a little 'talk' to me about discharging my firearm inside the base.

"How far do you think the signal goes Nate?" He had kept beside me ever since we left, and while he had been keeping his eyes on his Pip-Boar, I kept feeling his tail trying to wrap around my waist.

"Can't tell. It's not close, and for all I know it could be originating from far past the Zootopian city limits. There's a lot of highly irradiated water between there and landfall. I can't imagine the signal originating from that far."

"Couldn't we have, I don't know, have Chief Lazlo let us borrow a Tac-Lifter 'livi? That would have made this trip much faster."

"We could have Holly, and I admit the thought had crossed my mind, but we need to try to catch them off guard. As far as they know, we're going in the opposite direction of them. A giant aircraft would have painted a large target on us and tell them: 'hey, we're coming for you, better prepare all your anti-aircraft weapons before we get to you!'."

"Plus those ass-twats have outposts everywhere. You think that once they get a job, they all pile out of their headquarters? No, they send it to whoever's closest to the job goal. Unless the person hiring them asked for a Legionary by name. Some of them try to stick out like that, it pays more."

"Let me guess," I turned to Blanche who had jumped onto my shoulder while she was talking, "you wanted to be one of the ones who 'stuck' out, didn't you?"

"Your damn right! The more caps the better."

"I've heard stories about the Legionaries, about how they're willing to kill children, or even tear an unborn child right from their mother's womb if paid enough. Would you have been willing to do something like that, just for caps?"

Blanche took her time to respond. "The thing about the Legionaries is that while they're highly trained soldiers, just like the rest of the world, they have their fare share of crazies. Yes, those stories are true, and yes, there are some who get paid more just to do those types of jobs."

"You didn't answer my question. Would you?"

She spoke very quietly and answered with a sigh. "No."

"Good. If you'd said yes, I would've fed you to Drake. That's the last type of mammal I want with me."

"Drake. No. Eat. Mouse. Drake. Like."

"Aww, Drake likes Blanche. First Nate and 'livi, now Drake and Blanche, I think we may need some kind of doe-bot for Onion just to make it complete!"

"Shut up Holly!" I had realized that both Blanche and I had said that simultaneously. We looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Miss?"

"Yes, you can have a doe-bot Onion, maybe Nate and I will make one for you."

"No Miss, I'm picking something up on my scanners."

We all stopped suddenly. I checked my own scanner and sure enough, there were three dots ahead of us. Because of the feature Chief Lazlo activated on my Pip-Boar, Guardians would be green dots, while unknowns would be white. These dots however, were red. Red usually meant danger, so I doubt this was good. We were in a larger section of the city, with buildings everywhere so while we had plenty of cover, it might be difficult to avoid them without adding time to our journey. We needed to get to where that signal originated as soon as possible.

"We have company up ahead, but there're too many obstructions to get a clear look."

"I've been around to be able to recognize every ass-twat here. Drake, give me a lift!"

Blanche jumped off my shoulder and ran over to Drake and grabbed onto one of his claws as he took off. When she first met Drake, she was terrified of him, since when did she get so comfortable around him? I watched as Drake moved between buildings before finally disappearing past another one.

"Is it just me or did she seem much more comfortable around Drake just now?"

"You and Nate were too busy… having fun… to know that for some reason, her and Drake were in the hanger all night. Not sure why though."

"Gah! Nate and I were just… you know what? I don't care anymore. What we do is none of your business."

I felt Nate's tail curl around my waist tighter. I had the urge to kiss him right there but was interrupted when Drake and Blanche returned.

"This is bad. It's those fucking Corrupted Guardian ass-twats."

"Corrupted, Guardians?" I vaguely remember Chief Lazlo mentioning something about not every Guardian was friendly.

"Those guys are dangerous. We had a run in with them once, it almost ended badly for us." Holly seemed nervous when she mentioned them.

"Yeah, it took nearly all our ammunition to take out one of them. Nate, you need to report this to Lazlo and we need to get out of here before they spot us." Mark seemed just as nervous as Holly was about them. Even Blanche didn't seem to want to tangle with them the way she stuck close to Drake.

"Nate, the signal points straight ahead here, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then that's where we're going."

"Are you insane! Those ass-twats will tear us apart the second they see us!"

If Blanche was afraid of them, then they must be trouble. Still, I have been through much worse and come out alive, well mostly.

"You guys stay here. I'm gonna go take a look."

I tried to move forward but forgot that Nate still had his tail around me. I think before he was doing it subconsciously, but now, I knew he was doing it on purpose. He didn't want me to do this, and from the looks on everyone else, neither did they.

"Nate, I'll be okay. I promise. I just wanted to see things for myself. I still have that Stealth-Boar, so I won't be seen."

"I… I'm coming with you."

"Nate! I expect Olivia to do that, but you? That's not like you!" Mark seemed very surprised by what Nate said. Honestly, so was I.

"You don't have to Nate. I can see that you're scared, and I don't want to put you in any position that would end up getting you hurt."

"I… want to keep you… safe. Plus," he took something out of one of his pockets, "I have a Stealth-Boar."

I had the feeling that there was no way to convince him otherwise. After my discovery of me having fox DNA within me, and our talk in the medical facility, he hasn't left my side. I didn't mind it, but a girl needs her personal space here and there. At least he was still too bashful to attempt to follow me into the bathroom or shower rooms.

"I'm not going to change your mind, am I?" Nate simply shook his head. "Well then, stay behind me and keep quiet. Don't worry, I'll bring him back alive."

I took the lead and we made our way to where the three red dots were. I didn't wanna go stealth until I knew we were close enough. Thirty seconds is not a lot of time to do much. Thankfully the entire time only the three red dots were present. I had started to wonder if I was bringing Nate straight into an ambush. A fallen overpass was the only thing left between us and them.

"If we can get up there, we should be able to get a good look at what we're dealing with."

Nate simply nodded. When I told him to keep quiet I didn't think he would take it that literal. Looking at him though, I could tell he was scared. Did he really care that much about me that he would rather put his own life in danger than let me go alone? Even Onion wasn't that clingy. Still, it does make me happy that there is someone who cares that deeply about me. If only he would tell me more of his past. Maybe together we could work through it.

I started to climb the rubble. There were enough paw holds here in order to make the climb relatively easy. I kept finding myself glancing back at Nate to make sure that he was okay. He kept a few feet behind me, but seemed to have matched my own pace. Once I got to the top I saw that the entire road structure was at a slant, giving us good cover from them in case they spot either of us. I folded my ears and took a peak over the edge.

At first they looked like typical Guardian Exo-Armor, but after my eyes focused on them, I saw their armor was heavily modified. Large spikes and chains had been attached all over the suits. One of them, a bear I think, had the skulls of multiple mammals attached to the spikes. Two of them had large rifles that were unfamiliar to me, while the other one, a hippo I guessed from the shape of the helmet, had a very large missile launcher. I backed down to avoid a rather unfriendly meeting of the eyes with them.

"Three big ones down there. Two bears and a hippo I think, all decked out in full Exo-Armor. One has a missile launcher, but the other two, I don't recognize the weapons."

Nate took a quick look and suddenly dropped down. "Those are… plasma rifles!"

"Plasma rifles?"

"They… Th-they're bad news. They can… penetrate most armor and… a-a direct hit will dissolve your entire body into… goo."

Goo? Oh that sounded bad. Yet, intriguing. I didn't know there was such technology out there. It would definitely be best to avoid them, but with this debris everywhere, it would force us to take a much longer route. Unlike other parts of the city, many of these buildings had collapsed, creating large obstacles everywhere. This road was the only clear route through this part of town.

"We need to get back to the others, try to come up with a…" I was interrupted when something hit right next to me, leaving a small green glowing crater. I looked up and saw someone in one of the buildings. Fuck, a sniper! I checked my scanner and now there was a fourth red dot. Where the hell was that fucker hiding?

I went to grab my gun but before I could take aim Nate jumped on top of me before screaming.

"Nate what the hell did you…" I crawled out from under him and saw that part of his leg had been hit by another shot. It must have just missed him, but the smell of burning flesh told me that it didn't miss him enough. The smell caused images to start go flow into my brain, but I did what I could to suppress them. Nate and I were in trouble. Another red dot appeared opposite of us. I just realized that if Nate hadn't jumped on top of me, that shot would have hit me. We had to get out of here.

"Can you stand?"

"I… I think so."

I activated my com-link to Onion. "Onion, we're in trouble! Nate's been shot, tell the others to get the fuck over here!"

"Nate, activate your Stealth-Boar!"

We both activated our invisibility. Nate was able to walk, but he was slowed down by his limp. I helped him as we climbed down the side. The two snipers were still firing, but I could tell it was blindly, since none of the hits came close to us. At least they didn't have any way of tracking us. It took nearly the whole duration to get Nate down to the surface with his injury, but we managed to find shelter behind a large slab of concrete.

I helped Nate lay down as the shimmer wore off of us both. I went over to his injured leg and tore off the pant leg surrounding it. I had no medical training but I could tell that it was just a surface injury, that nothing major should have been affected. If something happened to Nate because of me…

"Nate! What happened!" Mark was in the lead, and I saw him with his medical kit already in paw.

"Get down!"

Mark and Holly managed to duck behind the side of a building just as a plasma bolt hit the ground where they were standing. I tried to see where the snipers were, but it was hard to tell from here, and even if I could, I'm sure they were well out of range of my pistol. A sudden explosion shook the ground around us. I glanced over the concrete to see that the hippo with the missile launcher had just blown a path through the fallen overpass.

There was too much distance between us to have Mark properly tend to Nate's wound without risking him getting shot, and the other three were starting to move on our position. My gun wouldn't do much against these threats, so I needed to find something bigger, and louder, and… my Stealth-Boar had finally cooled down, I had an idea.

"Nate, don't move, please. I'll be right back."

I didn't even give him time to answer as I activated the Stealth-Boar and moved towards where Holly and Mark were keeping shelter. I saw that Onion was with them, but there was no sign of Drake and Blanche.

"Where are the others?" I don't think they saw me because they reacted rather frightfully when I started to speak.

"Fuck… you scared the hell out of us 'livi! Drake and Blanche are trying to get behind them. What happened to Nate?"

"He got shot when he… jumped between a plasma blast and myself. It only grazed his leg, but he can barely move without help."

"That's not like him. I need to get over there and patch him up!" Mark sounded very anxious to help his brother. I didn't blame him.

"Don't you have an extra Stealth-Boar to sneak over there with?"

"In the bunker, we used the last stand alone one with Drake yesterday."

"Fuck. Holly, you have any grenades on you?"

"Are you serious? Of course I do."

"This is probably a stupid question, but can you blow up a grenade by shooting one?"

"Yes that is, and yes you can. You need a fairly high caliber bullet to do so, but luckily I'm always prepared."

Holly pulled out some grenades and I grabbed three from her. She hesitated when I wanted to take that many from her, but I just said: 'trust me'. Why is it they always say okay, but never look like they mean it when I say that? She then pulled out a rifle with a very short barrel. She told me that this was a smaller more compact rifle, but to me it looked huge, especially compared to my own gun. It was also much heavier.

"Okay, I'll be right back. As soon as I give the signal, rush over and get Nate to safety."

"What's the signal?"

I just smiled at them. "You'll know."

This was a dangerous and stupid plan, but those types of plans usually work best for me. It's the simple ones that end up failing miserably. Once the Stealth-Boar was ready I activated it and ran back to where Nate was. I didn't have much time left so I initiated the first step of my plan. Peaking over I saw that the hippo was in the middle of loading another round into his launcher. This had to work or else we were all dead.

"Pip-Boar, kill."

I had a vague idea where the two snipers were, so once the chemicals were fully saturated in my system, I jumped onto the concrete, still invisible. I tossed one grenade towards the hippo, and the other two in the general direction of where I thought the sniper's were. I left the fist one alone, but then lifted and aimed the rifle at the other two. I took just long enough to make sure my bullets would make contact before firing.

It might have already been daylight, but when both of the grenades exploded, it looked as if the sun had just came for a visit. The blindingly bright flash of light, along with the force of the shock wave the detonation created threw me off of the concert slab and onto the ground. The kickback from the rifle didn't help much either.

Holly and Mark were just staring at me as the invisibility wore off. I gave them a look to tell them that that was the signal. They finally got it by the time the third grenade went off. Mark and Holly both rushed towards Nate. Just as I expected, the explosion had distracted the snipers long enough to make it safe for them to grab Nate and bring him further away from the fight. I ran over to join them just as the concrete slab exploded, causing me to collide with Holly.

"What the fuck! I threw a grenade right at him!"

"Those Exo-Armors are designed to take a grenade point blank. I think the only thing you did was piss him off." Holly was busy trying to hold down Nate while Mark injected something into him.

Well fuck me. At least the distraction worked. My body was sore from falling, twice, but I was uninjured. Once I was sure that Nate was safe, I moved to where I could get a clear look at the incoming armored behemoths. The two bears were moving forward, guns aimed and at the ready, while the hippo was reloading. Thankfully it was a single shot launcher, so it gave me a few seconds between shots. The other two, however…

One of them must have spotted me because it started to fire its rifle. Both shots missed, but they were uncomfortably close. I tried to blindly shoot at one of them, but I was only greeted with the noise of my bullets bouncing off the armor. I needed to invest in a better gun, or at least an additional one.

"Next time I'm at the bunker Holly, I'm ransacking your armory."

"You better not!" I was just joking but Holly seemed serious about her exclamation.

"How do those plasma guns work?"

"Basically, a micro fission core creates bolts of plasma that are discharged through a superconducting barrel. Those things are dangerous and can turn you…"

"Into goo. I know. Let me borrow that gun one more time."

"What are you going to…"

"Pip-Boar, kill."

I didn't even wait to hear what Holly had to say. I figured if it worked with the grenade, that it would work with the gun as well. I also figured that if that plasma really was able to gooify anything, including armor, that this had a slim chance of working. If it didn't? Well, time for plan B. Unfortunately there was no plan B yet, so this better fucking work.

I pointed the large rifle at the nearest bear. I could see a small glow coming from the barrel of his gun, so he must be priming another shot. Perfect. I took aim and fired. Now if I wasn't currently in a chemical induced state that heightened all my senses, I probably would have missed. Thankfully that wasn't the case as the bullet made contact with the plasma rifle's barrel causing the entire gun to self-destruct. Green sludge like material covered the bear and I saw his armor starting to melt away as he fell to the ground. The other one received some splash damage, but it wasn't enough to kill him. It was, however, enough to create a chink in his armor. I took aim just as I could feel the chemical wearing off and fired. It was only his leg, but it was enough to send him falling down, throwing his weapon in the process.

"What… how… what the fuck 'livi!"

"What? You never killed someone with their own weapon before?"

"Not like that!"

I walked past Holly and just patted her on the shoulder. I went to the other side of the shelter to check on the hippo. It seems that while he didn't get hit with any of that plasma, it did cause him to back away from his now dead friends. He was staring in my direction. I didn't know if he saw me or not, but he was now aiming the missile launcher right at us. Fuck.

I went to warn them that we needed to move, when I saw a shadow fly overhead. Please tell me that's Drake. I looked back over and sure enough, Drake had just flown over to the hippo, causing him to move his launcher towards the new target. He went to fire but before the hippo could, Drake swooped down and grabbed him, lifting him up. I could tell that it was near, if not over Drakes carrying capacity, because he was struggling to get the armor clad hippo off the ground, but it succeeded in making him drop his weapon.

Drake could no longer support the weight, and dropped the hippo. It was only a few feet, so I knew that wouldn't have injured him much. I had to get to the launcher before he did. I activated the Stealth-Boar, not knowing if the snipers were still present, and rushed towards the launcher.

The hippo, surprisingly, was much quicker and reached it first, but as he bent down to grab it, he suddenly stopped moving and collapsed next to his weapon. When I got over to him, shoved the heavy weapon away, but he wasn't moving. How the hell did he… That's when I saw something white crawl out of the Exo-Armor.

"Blanche?!"

"Who… where… Olivia is that you? You're invisible, aren't you?"

"Yeah but more importantly, why did you just crawl out from inside the armor?"

"All these fucking things have exhaust ports, and the bigger the suit the bigger the…"

I didn't realize that my Stealth-Boar had worn off until a green bolt of plasma hit the left side of my head. The vision in my left eye went black as I fell down, the feeling of burning in my cheek. I heard my name being called, but I couldn't tell where it came from. I could, however, see where the shot came from. I tried to reach for the gun, any gun, but with half my vision gone, I wasn't able to see where they landed. I saw movement near me as the missile launcher started to move.

Seconds later I heard an explosion. The window, along with the entire wall around where the sniper was exploded. I tried to get up and with my good eye I saw Holly was haphazardly holding the missile launcher. It was nearly as big as she was, and must have been heavier than that, but she still managed to get a shot off.

Everything suddenly became quiet as I saw Mark rush over to me. I saw them speaking, but for some reason I couldn't hear anything.

I was surrounded by silence, and finally, darkness.

—

Fallout: Zootopia After Show

Featuring:

'Stripes in the Morning'

[Stripes]

"Good morning Zootopian Wasteland! This is Stripes with today's installment of Stripes in the Morning! On today's show we have a special guest, but I can't seem to remember it for some reason. Max? Where is that darn fox. I think I have some notes around here… ah, yes, here we go. Let's see now. It looks like today's special guest is… no, this can't be right, but it says so right here. A… radroach? Hmm. Must be a… oh, hello there. Well folks, I know you can't see this but it looks like a very large radroach just skittered up to me. Guess it is a roach after all. Kinda, odd, but I'm known for doing an odd show here and there. So, without further ado, let this… show begin. I think. Um, hello Mr. Roach?"

[Radroach]

Clicking noises

[Stripes]

"Yes, well um. I have no idea how this will work. You probably can't talk, can you? I mean if there's a deathwing that can talk, isn't there a remote chance that you could? Maybe? No?"

[Max]

"Stripes! What the heck are you doing with that giant walking disease factory?"

[Stripes]

"Max! There you are. I was just attempting to get today's guest acclimated to the show."

[Max]

"Guest? What the hell are you talking about? Our guest is right here."

[North]

"He always like that?"

[Max]

"You don't know the half of it...You're probably better off not knowing now that I think about it."

[Stripes]

"But the papers you gave me said 'radroach'!"

[Max]

"What papers? Let me see those. Hmm… Well, I was right. You are an idiot, you know?"

[Stripes]

"I haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about."

[Max]

"This is a pre-war flier for a Buga Burger's combo meal! One bottle of Rad! Cola and a Roach Burger, a… Rad! Roach meal."

[Stripes]

"Let me see that. Oh, yeah I see it now, guess I missed the exclamation mark. Whoopsie."

[Max]

"'Whoopsie'? One of these day's you striped bastard. One of these days."

[Stripes]

"Well now that that issue has been corrected, let the real show begin! Today we have with us a very special guest indeed. Mr. North West! Good morning Mr. West, how are you doing today?"

[North]

"Morning? It's nearly four in the afternoon."

[Max]

"Don't even try to think about it. It's always morning for him."

[Stripes]

"Indubitably. Now Mr. West, you're a trader by occupation, is that correct?"

[North]

"Yes, I deal in a bevy of commodities. Need a certain food? I can get it for you. Need a rare gun or collectible? If I can't get it, for a small price I can tell you exactly who can get it for you."

[Max]

"This is an interview, not your personal advertisement broadcast."

[North]

"Not gonna pass up this opportunity to promote myself. The more caps the better I always say."

[Stripes]

"We'll let it slide for now. We can always charge you for it later."

[North]

"That wasn't part of the deal!"

[Max]

"The deal was you agree to do this interview and I don't turn you over to the Quill you stole those caps from."

[North]

"Yes, that deal. Okay, fire away zebra."

[Stripes]

"Just gonna ignore what Max said… Alrighty then! So, North, you being a ghoul and all, can you tell us any about your past? I know some ghouls often can't remember it well, do you remember yours?"

[North]

"Not really. Just remember waking up one day looking like this. I remember feeling… sick, and sad, but it was just probably the radiation pouring over me. Can't even remember where I was when I woke. I just started to… wander. Eventually I ran into some traders and talked them out of some pretty good stuff that I ended up reselling for a crap ton of caps. Figured I'd must have had a silver tongue in the past, and despite it looking like the inside of a corpse, it still works wonders in getting what I want. And what you need. Tell you what, for just a penance of fifty caps, I can get you anything you want. How 'bout it?"

[Stripes]

"Well, Max has been keeping…"

[Max]

"He doesn't want anything. Trust me. Whatever he thinks he wants, he doesn't need."

[Stripes]

"You can't go around telling me what I can and can't have!"

[Max]

"Oh? Wanna bet? I've already had your little BunnyBurrow cache confiscated and hidden away where you won't find it! AND the Producers gave me control over the finances...FINALLY, after they saw the last three expense reports I had to file due to your, extracurricular activities."

[Stripes]

"Ahem, yes. So, back to the interview. Mr. West, Care to tell me your thoughts on this 'Hero of Hope', Miss Olivia Springs?"

[North]

"Carrots? Yeah, she's something all right. I've never seen a rabbit, hell any mammal with such a death wish trying to help everyone she sees. I tell you, if we still had an actual police force around, she'd make for one hell of a cop."

[Stripes]

"Funny you should mention that. There are some that think that maybe, at one point, you might have been a cop… what's your opinion on that?"

[North]

"Seeing as I can't remember who the hell I used to be, that's always a possibility, but I highly doubt it. I'm a hustler, and some would even call me a con-mammal, although I usually find those terms a bit harsh. Experienced Trader sounds much friendlier don't you think? Anyways, I highly doubt someone like me could have ever been a cop. Who'd even want to partner with a hustler?"

[Stripes]

"You'd be surprised. We got time for one more question. I'm sorry if it's a personal one, but I have to ask, your clothing, it seems very faded and torn. I've seen ghouls who have near pristine clothing on, why haven't you changed into something a bit less… destroyed?"

[North]

"Eh. I think these have a bit of a flair to it. It just feels… natural to me. Plus, who cares what I wear. There are two kinds of mammals out here. The ones who will shoot a ghoul just for being a ghoul, and the others that don't give you the time of day unless you have the caps. I'm not here to impress, so why should I dress the part?"

[Stripes]

"Fair enough. Well folks, looks like that's all the time we have for today. Tune in next time when we delve deep into the background of… well, that would be a spoiler, so until then, I'll be doing my best to find everything that matters, no matter how much it hurts. Take care everyone!"