This roughly follows a FO3 playthrough, at least at the beginning, but will increasingly diverge later on. Some locations and major characters are missing, some very minor characters are given a much bigger role. The main plot is completely different. I've tried to follow the overall Fallout canon but not so much the Fallout 3 canon.
Disclaimers - Bethesda owns Fallout. This contains a bunch of canon-typical violence.
- "Stanley, you turned the lights on too fast. You blinded the poor kid!"
The lights were indeed turned on too fast, the abrupt change from the complete darkness of a second ago making Amy squint her eyes. The shouts of "Surprise!" startled her too, even though she knew they were coming as soon as she stepped into the diner. She didn't mind at all. The tingling sense of excitement she felt as soon as she woke up this morning kept growing stronger and by now filled her chest so much she could hardly breathe. It was a surprise party for her tenth birthday and so much cool stuff was going to happen today.
The diner was completely filled with people, to the point that the blue of vault suits almost became a dominant color over the usual cheap and cheerful beige and red. It was maybe the most people Amy ever saw in there. Big events like tenth birthdays would often be held in the Atrium but they were doing repairs there or something. It was cool that so many people came but at the same time it was a little too much. Amy felt a bit shy, even slightly close-try-pho... she couldn't quite remember the word and it irked her slightly, sure it was long and complicated but she was usually really good with stuff like that.
The first in the list of things Amy was looking forward to didn't make her wait too long at all. Jonas came in with the big and clunky looking pre-war camera, said his customary 'Say cheese!' as he squatted to bring the camera level with her face and took per picture. Some kids made a silly face but Amy didn't want to ruin the picture so she just grinned happily. Stocks of photographic film were limited and photos were only to be taken on major milestones in a vault resident's life, one of them being your tenth birthday, when you received your first Pip-Boy. The other ones were completing school and there was another one that Amy couldn't remember, she'd have to ask dad. Amy imagined being a grown up and showing a photo of her ten year old self to an equally grown up Amata and Amata saying what a cute kid she was and both of them laughing. That would be too crazy.
It was nice that all these people turned up even if it was a little much but the main thing was that Amata and Jonas were there and of course dad was there too. She would get all the presents then talk to Amata then go over and chat with Jonas or maybe with Paul Hanlon once Amata started her 'mingling'.
Amy spotted Paul Hanlon out of the corner of her eye and her grin grew a little broader, but then faded just as quickly when she saw who he was talking to. Why did they have to invite Wally Mack, he was always mean to her. And of course Butch was there too, who on earth thought that inviting that butthead was a good idea? She felt her excitement starting to give way but then resolved that she wasn't going to let Butch spoil all the cool stuff that was going to happen today. With so many people in the cafeteria it should be quite easy to avoid him. Maybe later Paul would leave them and they could chat a bit about a bunch of stuff.
Continuing to look around the diner she saw Susie Mack together with Christine Kendall and a couple of other girls talking animatedly about something and her mood sunk a little again. She's been nothing but friendly to them but they were always mean to her. Not in the same way that Butch was but they were always saying mean stuff about how she looked, things she did, all kinds of silly stuff. Once she even heard them criticise the way her Vault suit fit her. It was the exact same Vault suit they all had, it was silly.
The saddest part of it was Christine Kendall. They used to be friends, back when they were kids they used to play together all the time, Amy Christine and Amata. Now that Christine started hanging out with Susie she became really distant, standoffish even. When Susie made her unfunny jokes Christine always laughed at them. Amy shook her head and once again said to herself that this was her birthday and it was going to be super cool and she wasn't going to let anyone spoil it. Not Susie, not Butch or Wally or any of them. They could all go soak their head. She even stomped her foot - or rather tapped her toes lightly on the floor, so no one would notice.
Continuing to look around the diner, Amy saw Amata's dad, the Overseer. He was sitting on a bench on his own, staring intently at his pipboy screen moving his fingers rapidly over the controls, pausing only rarely to cast a distracted glance over the full diner. Amy saw how Mary Kendall, Christine's mum, approached his bench, stepping real slow for some reason, then stood there waiting a while. When he looked up from his pipboy she started talking to him about something. She was smiling a lot but didn't really seem happy somehow. The Overseer said something quick, Amy saw him do this quick wave of his hand, like he was trying to shake something off and go back to looking at his pipboy. Mary Kendall walked away, not smiling anymore.
Then it happened, the moment she was waiting for. Amata's dad walked over to her, looking very serious like he always did, said something about vault responsibilities and then gave her the thing that she was maybe looking forward to more than anything else on that day. Her own Pip-Boy 3000!
She used her dad's Pip-Boy a lot of course but it wasn't the same as having her own, especially after she messed up all dad's settings and he wouldn't let her use it for ages saying she'd have to wait until she got her own. Now she could do anything she wanted with it. She even liked the way the strap fit her, not too tight or too loose, just right.
Before the real world started to fade as she became totally absorbed in the bulky new toy on her left wrist she saw Amata coming towards her.
- "Happy birthday! We really surprised you, didn't we? Your dad was afraid you were onto us. But I told him not to worry. You're so easy to fool."
Of course Amy knew the surprise party was coming, she wasn't stupid. She's been to other kids' tenth birthday parties and knew that dad and Amata would throw something for her. Then of course all the time that Amata was spending with her dad in the last couple of weeks and all the conspiratorial looks they kept exchanging was a dead giveaway. Still, she didn't want to disappoint Amata.
- "Great party, Amata. Thanks for doing this for me."
- "It's OK, your dad did most of the work. Guess what I got you for your present?"
- "A date with Freddie Gomez?"
The expression of genuine shock on Amata's face immediately made Amy giggle. She only said it to gross Amata out, the thought of a date, especially with Freddy the Freak was too weird. She immediately told Amata that she was only kidding around, then giggled some more as Amata rolled her eyes.
Moments later Freddy the Freak was completely forgotten when Amata gave her the birthday present.
- "Oh my god, Amata ... are you sure?"
She knew she was getting something cool from Amata, but a brand new Grognak comic is something she wasn't expecting. Apparently, at first all kinds of comics were quite common in the vault, but after generations of vault residents bending and tearing the pages, spilling coffee and who knows what else and just general wear and tear they became increasingly rare and valuable. There was now only a very small stock of still unopened comics and the overseers' daughter was pretty much the only kid in the vault with access to these.
Grognak was Amata's favourite comic book hero but for Amy he was the second behind her favourite, Silver Shroud. A few days ago they spent hours arguing who would win in a fight – Silver Shroud or Grognak? They finally settled on a compromise – Grognak would win up close and Shroud at a distance. Perhaps this was an attempt by Amata to convert her friend to the one true faith of Grognak. Regardless, this was a lavish present indeed. Her birthday just kept getting better and better.
Then there were more presents. Nothing was going to beat Amata's Grognak comic but anything was nice. Amy liked having things she could call her own. You didn't get to have a lot of personal posessions in the Vault, anything of real value was too valuable to be owned by just one resident and had to be requested from the Overseer with a convincing explanation of why you needed it – and then returned promptly. Your clothes, the furniture in your quarters, your Pip-Boy, a few small things – that was all you could expect to own. For a kid of ten that shrunk to almost nothing, so anything, even a silly thing like a wooden cube with a painted letter on it that was yours was a treasure.
Most of the presents were food of some kind, Old Lady Palmer of course got her one of her famous sweetrolls. Beatrice DeLoria, smiling nonstop and looking a little nervous for some weird reason, brought her a poem for her Pip-Boy. Amy thought it was a really cool present – mainly because she now already had something in her personal files on her pip-boy, but when she stole a minute to read the poem, it really didn't sound like it was meant for her birthday. Actually it didn't really sound like it was for anyone's birthday. It was just really really weird. Amy imagined dad reading it and then giving that concerned look when he pressed his mouth a little. Dad did that a lot when he talked about Beatrice DeLoria.
Amy remembered a conversation she overheard between dad and Jonas, about how Beatrice spent most of her ration coupons on alcohol and how it was bad for her health. Dad also said how Beatrice drinking so much and not having a dad was why Butch was such a jerk. "Major contributing factor" he said. That didn't make much sense to Amy, after all she didn't have a mum and she never did the things Butch did, but then dad didn't drink alcohol, hardly at all, and maybe this stuff worked different for boys than girls. Whatever the reason, it didn't make Butch any less of a butthead.
"Attention everyone, it's time to cut the cake."
In an instant, Butch and most everything else was forgotten. The cake was enormous – almost as big as the one they had for Amata's birthday. It had whipped cream cream on top and the words 'Happy Birthday!' written in big letters made from glazing that were all different colors. It looked delicious.
Amy waited excetedly as Andy the robot lifted its chainsaw arm over the cake. She noticed that the motion of the arm was a little uneven, very slow at first then faster and faster – and then pieces of cream flew all across the diner as the robot brought its arm down way too fast. The wondrous piece of culinary art was now a shapeless lump of cream and and bits of glazing, most of it splattered on the vault suits of the people in the diner.
Amy heard all the voices around her, the exaggerated 'Ohhhhh nnoooo' of Beatrice, Dad trying to sound calm, Stanley saying something about maintenance, something stern-sounding from the Overseer about reliability, and loud guffawing of Wally Mack but all she could do was stare at what used to be her birthday cake. 'It's no big deal, she tried telling herself, it's just a silly cake. She was blinking really quickly now.
Suddenly, Amata was next to her with a plate.
"It's all right, there's still lots left, here try this. I got you lots of glazing and cream. There's
lots left for you, just a bit less for the guests."
As messy as the cake looked now, it did taste amazing.
- "There was too much of it anyway, I told your dad the cake was going to come out too big" – Amata continued at supersonic speed – "If you eat too much cake you could end up like Malvasius."
Malvasius was an evil and morbidly obese king in issue 167 of Grognak the Barbarian, who held constant feasts while his subjects starved. Grognak killed him and put his exiled brother, Evremont, on the throne. Amata puffed her cheeks, spread her arms as if holding something huge and started walking in place stomping on the floor of the diner. Her impression of Malvasius made Amy smile.
Amy had another piece of cake later, there wasn't as much cream but it was still really tasty. It really wasn't so bad, and there were still many presents from others. Stanley, who still sounded really embarrassed gave her a baseball cap. It was really old and slightly too big for her head but Amy liked it and put it on. She decided she was going to wear it for the rest of the birthday. Old Lady Palmer got her one of her famous sweet rolls.
When Amy finally got a break from being a center of attention and snuck to a corner of the diner, she took out the sweetroll from her pocket. She was rather full from the cake but the sweetroll looked and smelled delicious. She was in the middle of contemplating whether to eat it now or save it for later when she found Butch standing next to her. What did the jerk want?
- "I'm hungry and the robot destroyed the cake. Gimme that sweetroll Lady Palmer gave you."
That was so out of order that it left Amy dumbfounded. - "Bbut, it's my birthday" ,was all she could stammer out.
- "Buut it's my byorthhdayy." Butch intoned mockingly, trying to make his voice sound as high pitched as he could. That wasn't a big adjustment - his own voice hasn't broken yet. Then he took a step towards her, balling up his fists and in a threatening tone of voice demanded - "Gimme the sweetroll, now."
Even by Butch's standards, this was low. The complete, grotesque unfairness of him trying to take her present away on her own birthday left Amy speechless. She felt her top lip start to quiver a little. But then she felt a new emotion rising within her. She's had it with this butthead. This was not OK. Like Amata's dad always said, this was unacceptable. This called for the meanest, the most grown-up response she could come up with.
- "You do look hungry", she answered with mocking concern in her voice - "Did your mum drink up all the ration coupons again?"
As soon as she said it she thought that it may have been too much. It sure landed though, a little too well. Butch took a second to process what he's just heard, and then Amy saw anger in his eyes, a lot of anger.
- "Don't you talk about my mother, you punk."
Amy saw Butch move towards her, and then something happened.
Butch's movements slowed down almost to a complete standstill. She could see his fist move towards her slowly. Everything and everyone else was barely moving too, she could almost see the specs of dust hang still in the air which seemed to become thicker. She was aware of everyone else in the room but they weren't important, she was completely focused on Butch. She felt completely calm, or rather she felt nothing, and this was as it should have been.
'Number of hostiles - one, threat level - very low. Enemy attacking with an unarmed attack, chance to be hit - 2.4%. Optimal strategy - dodge the incoming attack.'
Amy moved her left leg backwards and to the left and at the same time bent her torso and her neck away and to the side from the direction of the punch. She was aware that it was thrown clumsily and inefficiently.
'Optimal strategy - turn 45 degrees, sprint towards the bar and take the knife'
Amy was already running towards the bar, her hand already reaching for the big kitchen knife lying next to a stack of paper plates and a couple of small glasses. It was almost the size of Amy's forearm and should really have been used to cut the cake instead of the often malfunctioning robot. Amy's fingers were already shaping to grip the knife handle when a thought made its way to the surface. This wasn't right, this was all wrong.
Amy stopped and shook her head. The weird feeling was gone. Her thoughts were all jumbled and confused but there was no time to make sense of them. Butch was now chasing after her, and he wasn't moving any slower than normal.
Amy shrieked and run forward, towards the imposing figure of Officer Gomez, Freddy the Freak's dad. He was still wearing his security armor even though he was off duty. She heard several voices speaking all at once
- "What the ...?"
- "Butch!"
- "What are you doing?"
Officer Gomez reacted before anyone else, taking a step forward away from Amy rushing at him and back into the path of Butch, so the latter ended up bumping into him. Butch then tried to sidestep and continue chasing after Amy but found the hand of Officer Gomez firmly gripping his shoulder.
- "Let me go!"
- "What's going on here? Are you trying to hit a girl? On her birthday? " There was sternness in Officer Gomez's voice but mostly incredulity.
- "You don't know what she said to me! Lemme go!"
- "He tried to take my sweetroll" - Amy said, her voice shaking a little.
- "Wow, you've just outdone yourself haven't you?" Officer Gomez looked down at Butch shaking his head. "You're in a world of trouble mister. You're coming with me. Beatrice will sure hear of this."
- "Fat lot of good that will do." - that was Allen Mack, Wally and Suzie Mack's dad. Someone shushed him, sounded like Wally and Suzie's mom.
- "What the hell is going on here?" Dad was there now and he looked angry.
- "It's OK James, I'm handling this." then turning to Butch still trying to break free from his grip. "and you are coming with me right now"
- "Lemme go!"
Butch's protestations were followed by a yell of pain as Officer Gomez led him out of the room, now holding him by his ear.
- "Are you all right sweetie?"
- "Yeah I'm OK, just Butch being a butthead" In truth Amy felt shaken and scared, a little of Butch and a lot of the cold scary thoughts she had in her head when Butch tried to punch her.
- "What happened?"
Amy told him everything, except about the feeling when Butch swung for her. She wouldn't know how to describe it anyway. She just said she felt weird.
- "Weird how?" dad asked. Amy just shrugged.
- "OK. I'll talk to Beatrice and the Overseer about Butch, all right? Oh and sweetie? What you said about Beatrice - I know you were really angry, but you shouldn't have said that. OK?"
- "I know. I'm sorry. Just when Butch... " Amy looked up at James. "Dad, did we have to invite him?"
"Sorry sweetie, we kind of had to invite Beatrice, and that meant Butch was coming too. I talked to Beatrice before, if I thought for a minute that he would do something like that ... " Dad leaned closer "He won't be there at your next birthday party".
- "Thanks Dad"
- "Oh and another thing. When you're feeling better, can you go down to the reactor level. Jonas is waiting for you there. We have a surprise present for you. I'll need to go get something, I'll meet you down on the reactor level."
After Dad left Amy stayed behind for a while but at this point the diner started to feel really crowded to her. There were all these people coming up to her and asking her if she was all right and what a complete brat Butch was and stuff like that. Soon repeating the same thing to all of them over and over again started to get kind of annoying.
She didn't mind when Officer Gomez came back and asked her if she was OK. Many of the other kids, especially those that got into trouble a lot thought that he was mean but that wasn't true at all. He was always fair, Amy thought, and even though he could seem mean and a bit scary she could see that underneath he was really nice. He just didn't like to show it. Amy decided that from now on she was going to be nicer to his son, Freddie the Fr ... to Freddie.
Amy waited for the right moment, then slipped quietly out of the diner.
She was already heading towards the stairwell to the lower level when out of the corner of her eye she saw Amata's dad leaving the diner. He walked briskly looking straight ahead seeming lost in his own thoughts as usual, and a crazy thought came to Amy's head.
She told herself that it was a really bad idea. First, Jonas was waiting for her on the reactor level, she shouldn't keep him waiting. Also, if she got caught she could get into so much trouble. But she found herself completely unable to resist the impulse. It was OK she thought, this is going to take hardly any time at all. And so she started sneaking after the Overseer.
She knew that her fascination with getting to places she wasn't supposed to be without anyone noticing was strange, couple of times it almost got her into trouble. She would sneak up on someone and just watch them going about their business, then sneak away, without them having a clue she was there. Amata didn't get it. Amy showed her once but she made so much noise they were almost found out and called it 'weird' and 'silly'. Amy did feel a little silly, she was far too old now to be playing hide and seek, but she just couldn't help herself.
Crouched down, moving on the balls of her feet and sticking to the beige painted concrete wall of the corridor, making no noise at all, Amy sneaked after the Overseer. Someone who wasn't good at it would say that you couldn't hide in a corridor, there were no places to hide, but Amy knew it wasn't true. There were places where the corridor twisted to the side a bit and she shadows there were a little deeper, or where it sloped downwards and there were spots where lower down you could be mostly out sight of someone higher up the slope. There were also all sorts of little nooks and crannies and rooms which were empty most of the time. Still, it wasn't the best place to hide and Amy was lucky that it was mostly empty now. The Overseer didn't seem to be paying much attention either, although it was difficult to keep up with his brisk pace and still stay quiet.
Amy made it as far as the entry to the upper level but then she heard a man's voice, sounded like one of the security officers. The ladder to the upper level was ahead, the officer must have been standing on the top of the ladder so she was out of his line of sight, but going any further he would see her. Ah well, she needed to go see Jonas anyway. Still, she could at least listen in on him talking to Amata's dad. Maybe they wouldn't talk about anything interesting but still it would be fun. Amy took a deep breath as quietly as she could, closed her eyes and focused on the sounds ahead of her. The sounds of footsteps immediately got sharper and clearer. That was another cool thing that Amy was good at. Sometimes she could do that without closing her eyes but it was harder.
Amy could hear the Overseer's footsteps stop.
- "Good evening sir, back from the party?"
- "I only came because Amata is friends with the brat. Give it another half an hour and then get everyone cleared out, it's gone on for too long."
- "Yes sir."
Amy could hear the Overseer going up the ladder to the upper level. She turned around and crept back where she came from, then once she was out of the earshot straightened up and started walking. Her eyes were starting to sting a little and there was as lump in her throat. Why was everyone so mean to her on her birthday? Why did everyone hate her? Butch and all the boys in the silly 'gang' of theirs and Susie Mack and the girls who hung out with her. Now it turned out Amata's dad hated her too. Why would he hate her? She hardly ever got into trouble and she was always nice to him when he spoke to her. Would he make Amata hate her as well? That was so unfair, she's never done anything to any of them.
When Amy got to the reactor level she saw Jonas standing there, leaning against the stairwell. She felt a bit guilty for making him wait so long. She said hi and saw Jonas turn towards her.
- "What are you doing here missy, kids aren't allowed on the reactor level."
- "But ... Dad told me it was OK."
- "Hey, I'm only kidding with you. Now that you're ten, you don't have to take guff like this from the grown ups anymore. Got it?" Jonas took a step towards her. "Hey, are you all right there?" He looked a little concerned though the ever-present smile was still there.
- "I'm fine, thanks." Amy sniffled. "But ... Jonas, why does everyone hate me?"
Jonas' jaw hung open for a second.
- "Huh? Uh, Amy, most everyone loves you. And I mean everyone. Ask anyone in the whole damn Vault, they all love you." He then made an angry face though it was extremely unconvincing. "Except for me. I just can't stand you. Begone from my sight!" he extended his arm dramatically, pointing up and away from Amy.
Amy smiled a little but still didn't look very happy.
- "That's not true though. Butch and his 'gang' all hate me. And Susie and Christine Kendall and a bunch of other girls. And Amata's dad too."
- "Amata's dad? Oh you mean the Overseer. Look, he ... he needs to be completely impartial to each and every Vault resident so he may make decisions for the benefit of all" Jonas's voice took a more formal and pompous tone. "And it's necessary to project authority and yadda yadda and so on and so forth. Point is, he's like that with everyone. So don't take it personal." Jonas looked at Amy conspiratorially "Between us, he is kind of a total ... not a nice guy. I mean he makes Allen Mack look like the nicest guy in the world. Just don't tell Amata I said that, OK? I don't want to be on toilet scrubbing duty for the rest of my life."
- "Sure, but Amata doesn't tell her dad everything."
- "Good for her." Jonas nodded approvingly. "As for the kids ... " he paused, then squatted in front of Amy. "Let me tell you a big secret. Kids do dumb stuff sometimes. But they'll grow out of it when they get older."
- "Only kids?"
- "All right then you little smartass." Jonas grinned "Yeah grown ups do dumb stuff too. But don't you worry. Me and your dad, we'll set them all straight." He tousled Amy's hair through the baseball cap she was still wearing. "And you will too, when you get a little older. It'll all work out fine in the end, you'll see."
- "Thanks Jonas." Amy smiled.
- "I'm just telling it like it is, that's all." Jonas looked at his pipboy "All right, Your old man should be here any minute now. You excited about your surprise present?"
- "Yeah. I guess" Amy shrugged.
- "Don't worry, you'll like this one. I think. Doc thinks you'll like it."
Amy was feeling a little excited now but also a little confused. Why all the secrecy, why did they need to go all the way to the reactor level for this? What could this special present be? What if it's ... a Giddyup Buttercup? 'Come on Amy, get real.' she told herself. Not even Amata had one. As far as Amy knew, there have never been any in the Vault. She only ever saw it in pictures in the pre-war books and in her mind. How amazing would it be though. For a while Amy drifted away into Giddyup Buttercup related fantasies.
Dad came a bit later and they went to a little utility room by the reactor. Amy has been all over the vault in her sneaking expeditions before, but she was never in that particular room before, so this was already exciting. She could kind of see why it she never knew about it. When Jonas opened the door it was pretty rusty on the inside. The room itself was all bare concrete, it looked like someone painted the the wall nearest to the door and then just gave up on the rest. There wasn't much room for storage, not that anything was stored there. There was nothing there except three large metal discs attached to the top of metal poles at the far end.
Amy could see that Dad was holding something behind his back, something quite large. Finally, when they they all stepped into the room and Jonas closed the door behind them Dad took out the mystery present.
- "Here you are, sweetie. Your own BB gun. Whenever you're feeling restless you can come down here and shoot any time you like. You know, blow off some steam. Happy Birthday."
Amy smiled, trying hard to hide her disappoinment. Clearly Dad and Jonas went to a lot of trouble getting her this present. She had no idea at all how they managed to get a whole room on the reactor level as her personal space for shooting. And the BB gun itself - Amy never heard of any kid in the Vault who had one. In fact she was pretty sure Amata's dad, the Overseer wouldn't never allow it and any kid who was caught with something like this would get into loads and loads of trouble. Dad and Jonas must have built it themselves so they could give it to her. But why? Why on earth would she want a BB gun? And now she would have to keep coming here and shooting the stupid BB gun just in order not to disappoint Dad. This birthday just kept getting worse and worse.
- "Thanks Dad" - she managed. - "I'm .. just not that into shooting things."
- "That's OK sweetie. Try it though, you might be surprised how much you like it."
The expression on Dad's face was a little strange, Amy thought. She went to the targets Dad and Jonas set up for her, thick metal disks attached to long bits of pipe bolted to the floor at the far end of the room. The middle one was a little larger than the others, someone crudely drew three concentric circles on it.
- "You shoot with that end" - Jonas flashed a toothy grin.
- "I kind of guessed, thanks" - Amy rolled her eyes.
She held the BB gun uncertainly, closing one eye as she took aim. At first holding the thing against her shoulder felt all weird and uncomfortable. She missed her first shot completely, the BB round ricochetting off the wall with a loud noise that made her scared someone would hear. Great, I can't even use the stupid thing, she thought, but she tried again. The more she held the BB gun the more it started to feel ... right, as if she was shooting it for ages. After a couple more missed shots she aimed it, closed one eye - she did it without thinking, aimed the BB gun which at this point felt like an extension of her arm and took a shot at each of the three targets. When they stopped spinning she could see that she hit each one dead in the middle, right inside the innermost circle.
- "Would you look at that, she's a natural" - Amy could hear the amused surprise in Jonas' voice. She looked up at Dad, expecting him to be all proud of her but he had the same strange look on his face as before, like he was happy but not happy at the same time. Well, he was the one that got her the stupid gun in the first place.
Dad and Jonas left shortly after, Amy stayed to practice her shooting. She seemed to be really good at this, to her surprise. She tried to shoot from further away, after a couple of misses she was hitting the targets dead in the center again. She took a few more steps back, still after a few more tries all the BB rounds were hitting the center circle on each target. In the end she was shooting standing with her back almost touching the wall furthest from the targets. From so far away she couldn't hit the center each time but she could still hit it most of the time.
Her arms were getting a bit tired so she took a break. She sat on the floor resting the back of her head against the wall and once again tried to make sense of this present.
Why would Dad give her a BB gun? Was this about Butch? Did Dad want her to take the BB gun and shoot Butch in the face? Now Butch was a complete assface and he could totally go soak his head, but she would never do stuff like that. It just wasn't her. So what was the point of this weird present? Amy thought about it for a while but in the end she had to add it to her 'Grown ups do weird things sometimes' list. Sometimes she felt that this list was growing uncomfortably long.
She shot at targets some more but now she was getting a bit bored. She didn't want to return too soon, but there wasn't much else to do here. Well, there was one thing she could do.
Amy narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips together, then tried to make her voice sound as deep as she could
- "Step out from your hiding spots villains, we've infiltrated your nefarious layer. Surrender now or face the justice of the Silver Shroud!"
She took a quick step to the side and continued in higher pitch. - "And I am Mistress of Mystery, his constant companion."
- "We ain't scared of you!" - trying to sound as deep and gruff as her ten year old voice would allow - "Don't you know who I am? I'm ..." - Amy paused for a few seconds, trying to find a suitable name - "I'm Guff McGrubbin, the biggest mob boss in Boston!" - She shot a quick slighly embarrassed glance at the door of the utility room. It was fine, she was alone here. - "Minions, kill these two saps!"
- "Very well," - she assumed her sternest expression again - "Death has come for you, Gruff - uh - Guff and I am its Shroud!"
Making loud 'pew - pew' sounds Amy shot the targets, then announced in her Shroud voice
- "Justice has been served once again, Mistress."
- "Yes, these murderous mobsters will menace the good folk of Boston no longer."
The party must have finished by now, she should probably head back, Amy thought. Just as she was about to open the door, she had the weirdest feeling. Then in her head she heard a serious-sounding baritone.
- "Wait! Surely there is much more you could do to improve your mastery of marksmanship."
Amy froze in her tracks, her mouth open. She quickly looked around the room - was someone playing a prank on her? The small room was empty, just like before, but that wasn't the main thing. She knew that voice. She heard it in her head every time she read a Silver Shroud comic. It sounded exactly like she imagined Silver Shroud's voice. How was this happening?
- "Are you .. Silver Shroud?"
- "Yes, it is indeed I."
- "Am I crazy?" Amy wondered out loud.
- "I am certain you are of a totally sound state of sanity."
- "Uh OK. Um, do you think I ... " Amy tried to gather her thoughts together and make some kind of sense of what was happening. It was no use, they were spinning wildly in all directions. The excitement overwhelmed her completely. - "Do you think I could be your Mistress of Mistery? Or just, you know, your sidekick?"
- "Hmm. Fighting crime in Boston is dangerous work. My sidekick would need some serious skills. You must be able to infiltrate the villains' hideouts, shake scum down for information. If all else fails and we end up in a gunfight your aim must be true."
- "I can do some of that, I think. I'm only little. But I can train to get better."
- "Very well. I would be happy to provide assistance in that matter. Now, do you think you could hit that target while moving? I believe it would be prudent to get closer."
- "OK." Amy nodded her head vigorously and run towards the center of the room. At that point there was only one thing she understood. This was totally awesome. This ended up the best birthday ever, after all.