Justice League of Amazons: Fallout

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Chapter 2

Adam Reeves, or as he was more commonly called, Courier 6, jogged down the streets of this strange city he had found himself. It hadn't been that long ago that he had been in the Big Empty doing a routine check-up of things there. It was when he used his transportalponder that something had gone wrong. The portal projection device was in good repair last he checked, so it made the Courier wonder what went wrong with the device.

Then there was the city he and ED-E found themselves in. It looked… clean. A little too clean. Years of wandering in ruined cities like New Vegas and exploring the regions of the Mojave, the Angel's Boneyard, the NCR and even further to places like Montana where the ruined husks of the old world littered the Wasteland, it was jarring to Adam to see fully intact buildings and even pristine (more or less) cars and vehicles.

There was also that bit of news ED-E had picked up on the radio. From what Adam could gather a virus had been engineered by an Amazon (whatever that was) to wipe out all men. Adam wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, but from his knowledge of science and medicine, to create a virus that would kill all male humans would be quite a feat of biological warfare.

But his scientific curiosity aside, Adam tempered it with the reasoning that men were in fact necessary. Unless these Amazons had developed a cloning program of some kind, then the virus had essentially doomed humanity to a slow extinction. Then Adam was struck with the thought of how he himself would fare against the virus. Was it still in the air? How was it contracted? What were the symptoms? Was it curable? These questions ran through Adam's head as he jogged down the street with ED-E floating alongside him.

As the Courier winded his way down the road, he passed some civilians. Only women and no men it seemed. Adam got some curious looks from those he passed by. Slowing to walking pace, Adam stopped a young woman to ask her some question. She was a pretty young thing, Adam noted absently, honey-blonde hair and spectacles perched on her nose giving her an egghead or librarian type look.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?" Adam asked.

The young woman gawked at him in surprise before saying, "You're… you're a man."

"You sure about that?" Adam replied in attempt to make a joke of the situation.

"Aren't you?" the young woman asked awkwardly.

"Relax. I'm joking," Adam told her. "I'm a man and so far I haven't seen any other men around here," he then said.

"Because of the virus," the spectacled woman told him.

"Yeah, heard something about that," Adam said absently.

"Could you… could you take off your helmet?" Adam stared flatly at the question. "I want to be sure that you are a man."

After a moment, Adam shrugged and put his hands to his helmet. Unhooking the airhose pipe attached to the breathing apparatus, the Courier lifted off his elite riot helmet to reveal his face. Shoulder length black hair matted with sweat and dirt tumbled down his neck and traps. His beard was close cropped with wisps of grey showing him to be a seasoned survivor. His eyes were a dark brown almost black colour. His ethnicity was hard to determine; whether it was the pigment of his skin which was a deep tan almost olive colouring, the shape of his eyes which suggested Asian lineage and other traits that all made it hard to determine the man's race.

"Satisfied?" Adam said looking at the young woman who swallowed a lump in her throat, nodding in response. "Good. Now, you mind telling me what city this? What state?" he then asked.

"Metropolis City, Delaware," came the answer.

"Delaware, huh? Haven't been that far before," Adam remarked in surprise.

"Where are you from? Who are you? What's your name?"

"You first."

"Felicity, Felicity Smoak," the young woman informed.

"Pleasure. Adam Reeves, but most call me Courier 6 of the Mojave Express," Adam said holding out his hand to shake which Felicity took and winced a little.

"Got a firm grip," she observed.

"Sorry. Force of habit," Adam half-lied as he didn't want to reveal some of the augmentations he'd undergone to enhance his physical strength.

"And you said people call you Courier 6 of the Mojave Express?" Felicity asked him. Adam nodded at this. "Can you explain that a little more?" she requested. "And what is that robot doing with you?" she asked as she noticed ED-E floating calmly next to Adam.

"There somewhere we can talk?" Adam replied as he glanced around. "It's a long story," he stated as a fact.

Going into a nearby café that was largely empty, Adam and Felicity sat down at a table. "Would you care for some coffee?" Felicity asked him.

"Yes please. Water will be fine too, if there is any."

"What kind of coffee do you? Cappucino? Macciato?"

"Wouldn't know those are. Always just had straight black coffee," Adam admitted.

"Really?" Felicity raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Just straight black coffee? Not milk, cream or even sugar?" she asked and Adam shook his head in response to her question.

"Well, if that's what you prefer…" A few minutes later, Adam was served a mug of straight black coffee. Adam took the mug in hand and practically skolled the cup down. Felicity and other café patrons all stared at the Courier dumbfounded.

"What?" Adam asked as he wiped chin clean.

"Didn't that hurt? You just skolled hot coffee," Felicity said to him.

"Not really. I'm used to it," Adam replied casually. "Learnt to eat and drink quickly on the go," he said in explanation.

"Because of your work as a courier, right?" Adam nodded his head at this. "So, you said you work for a Mojave Express. Can you tell me what's that about?"

"Well, I'd like some questions of mine answered. For one thing I've never heard of a city called Metropolis and I'd like to know what year it is."

"It's the year 2013, why?"

"2013? Did I somehow travel back in time?" Adam asked himself.

"What year was it where you're from?" Felicity inquired.

"2281 last I checked," Adam replied.

"So, you're from the future," Felicity said in thought.

"Maybe, but there's some things about this time period I'd never heard about before, but there's probably a lot of things I haven't read or heard about in my time," Adam admitted. "For one thing, I'd never heard of any city called Metropolis before," he added.

"And what's the city you're from?"

"I'm from the West Coast of the Wasteland of America, the New Californica Republic or NCR, but the Mojave Wasteland was my home for the past few years of my life."

"Wasteland of America? What happened in the future that turned America into a wasteland?" Felicity asked with mounting dread.

"Well, that all goes back to the Sino-American War," Adam replied. "In the year 2077, the Great War happened when Communist China launched an all-out nuclear bombing of America and its states, targeting places like Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles and other places of interest," he explained.

"So, nuclear war happened in the future?" Felicity asked with horror in her eyes.

"Maybe? Not sure," Adam said. "I'd need more information of where I am to answer that. So, I overheard on the radio that an Amazon engineered a virus to wipe out all men. Can you explain what that's about?" he requested. "What is an Amazon even?"

"Well, Amazons are a race of warrior-women who worship the Olympian Gods of ancient Greece. They live on a hidden island and have a real dislike of men," Felicity informed the Courier.

"Warrior-women, huh? Are they like tribals in a way?" Adam asked quizzically.

"Maybe? I really wouldn't know how to answer that," Felicity confessed. "But as Amazons, they're supposedly blessed by their gods to be far stronger than regular humans and have great combat prowess and abilities beyond mortal men," she explained.

"So, a race of warrior-women who seem to have it out for men. Good to know," Adam remarked dryly. "And they decided to wipe out all men?" he asked lightly.

Felicity shook her head at this question. "No. Only one Amazon decided to do that. The rest of the Amazons prefer to stay out of Man's World with only one of their number, Wonder Woman venturing to Man's world to aid it. The other Amazon was a war orphan taken in by the Amazons and taught Amazon beliefs which she took to the logical extreme."

"And Wonder Woman herself? What can you tell me about her?" Adam asked.

"She's a superhero."

Adam raised an eyebrow at this and said, "A superhero? Like Grognak? The Silver Shroud? Fights evildoers and criminals?" Felicity nodded in confirmation at this. "Are there others superheroes around?"

"Yeah, there were," Felicity replied. "There was Superman, an alien from the planet Krypton. Batman from Gotham City. The Flash of Central City. Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and others besides," she said.

"Were, past tense," Adam noted. "Let me guess: they died to this man-killing virus?" he asked tersely.

"They did, they were among the first victims of the virus and now only the female heroes are left," Felicity said bitterly.

"Right." Adam filed that information away in his head for later contemplation. He hummed in thought before saying, "I'm starting to think that I'm not in my earth's past, but on another version of earth."

Felicity nodded in agreement at this and said, "It makes sense. From what you've told me, your version of earth went through the worst case scenario of nuclear war. And you definitely don't know who the likes of Superman are."

"No, I don't," Adam confirmed with a nod of his head. "Question is: how do I get back to my own world?" he wondered.

"How did you get here?" Felicity asked.

"This." Adam held up the transportalponder. "It's a portal projection device. I was using it to leave Big MT in the Big Empty," he said.

"So you have a portal gun?" Felicity asked in interest as she eyed the device in the Courier's hand with interest.

"If you wanna call it, sure," Adam said with a shrug of his shoulders. "It was in good condition last I checked, but something has obviously gone wrong. I'd need to take to the nearest scientific facility to get it looked at," he stated.

"I work for STAR Labs," Felicity suddenly said to the Courier. "We're among the foremost scientific research facilities in the world. We could definitely take a look at that thing and see what went wrong with it and if it's possible to send you back home."

"What's the catch?" Adam asked cynically.

"C-Catch?" Felicity asked, looking very nervous.

"What is it you want in return? You wouldn't offer to help if you didn't want something in exchange," Adam pointed out to her.

Felicity sighed and replied, "Well, given that all men have died to the virus and you seemingly being the only man alive, we'd probably want to run some tests to see how you're still alive. Get some blood samples. See of a cure or vaccine can be made." She then looked at Adam earnestly and said, "I know this is a lot to ask, but would you consider helping us out? You could be this world's only hope at fixing the mess that's been made."

Adam looked at her for a long moment before saying, "Guess I'm a sucker for pretty faces. I'll help however I can, but I'd like to get some kind of contract written up first. I don't really trust verbals agreements after all I've been through."

Felicity exhaled in relief and grasped the Courier's hand. "Thank you!" she whispered to him.

"Okay then. Take me to this STAR Labs and I'll see if I can help or not," Adam said as he stood to his feet. "But if you plan on strapping me down to a table to crack me open and poke around in my guts, then I'm out. Understood?" he asked looking at Felicity who nodded her rapidly in answer to the Courier's warning.

"Let's go." Adam put his helmet back on, hooking up the air hose to the breathing apparatus. With a pneumatic hiss and metallic click, Adam breathed in the filtered air and began to check over his guns, making sure they were loaded.

"Are we going into battle?" Felicity asked cautiously.

"Never hurts to be prepared," Adam replied as he checked the magazine of All American before holstering it over his back after making the clip was fully loaded. Checking Medicine Stick and Lucky, the Courier made sure the actions were running smoothly before holstering them. Finally the Maria pistol was checked; working the slide a few times, Adam nodded in satisfaction before putting it away. Then pulling out his bowie knife, Blood Nap, the Courier ran the pad of his thumb across the razor sharp of the blade, scraping a layer of skin as he did so. Nodding at the fact the knife was still sharp, Adam looked at Felicity and said to her, "Ready."

The young woman then led the Courier out of the café and together, they headed for STAR labs where they could hopefully fix whatever was wrong with the transportalponder device and perhaps figure out how Adam was immune to the virus that lingered in the air.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: There! After almost 2 years of not touching this story, I finally got around to updating it. I apologise for the lengthy wait and for perhaps the lacklustre quality of this chapter and the short length of it, but hopefully I've shown that I'm not dead in this story.

Next chapter, when? Don't know, but consider this update a Christmas present from me.

Be kind to one another,

Angry lil' elf.