Piper and Nora's journey through the vault was very similar to their journey through the subway. They'd run across a group of mobsters, Nora and Piper would end their lives, they'd take anything valuable they could from the deceased, and move on. At one point, they stopped, overhearing a conversation between two of the mobsters. One of them questioned the wisdom of building a vault in the middle of a subway station; his friend alleged that the entire construction project was likely a scam contrived by pre-war criminals, the finer points of which eluded Nora.
"Hey, fellas, I have a question," Nora said, walking out in front of the two mobsters. "How does a scam like that work?"
"Well, you see —" one of them, a ghoul, actually started to answer.
His friend thumped him on the arm. "She's a trespasser, you fucking moron! Shoot!" He raised his gun and began blasting away, his friend joining in short order.
Nora dove for cover, while Piper was already firing from her place behind cover. "I WAS JUST ASKING A QUESTION!" she hollered at them, furious. She dug within her pockets, fished out a grenade, let it cook for a few seconds, then tossed it. The two mobsters had a moment to holler in surprise before the explosion shredded the upper halves of their bodies, killing them instantly. Nora got up and walked over to the mangled bodies, kicking one hard in the ribs. "Rude motherfuckers!" she concluded.
Eventually, they came to a point where the only way to advance deeper into the vault was to jump straight down a hole, no apparent way back up. Nora looked at it glumly. "I think those dead dipshits were right. This vault is designed for shit."
Piper gave Nora an encouraging whap on the arm. "Come on, Blue, take a chance!" Piper leapt down.
Nora looked down into the hole. "At least I'll die with the satisfaction of knowing that it wasn't just my Vault that was a fucked up piece of shit," she lamented, before leaping down with a squeal.
Both of them managed to land safely, and soon they came to the atrium. Another mobster guy was talking to a prisoner — Nick Valentine, Nora guessed — but she wasn't listening to them very closely as she was eyeballing the architecture of the atrium and inwardly groaning — it definitely wasn't built for anyone's convenience, that was for sure. After making her way around it (and gunning down the mofo who'd been talking to Nick), she finally approached the cell.
A voice called out to her. "Hey, whoever you are, we have about three minutes before the rest of the Triggermen realize muscles-for-brains ain't coming back," Nick announced. "Open this door up."
"You got it, buddy!" Nora shouted back. She pulled another bobby pin and worked the door's lock (giving Piper another sly smile as she did so, making the other woman tilt her new hat down to cover her face to hide the blush), and after a moment the door popped open. She walked into the room a few steps and stopped short when she saw the glowing yellow eyes.
"My knight in shining armor," Nick said, a tad sarcastic. "I suppose the real question is, why come all this way, risking life and limb, for an old private eye like me?"
Nora began to notice more details. The yellow eyes themselves were dead giveaways, of course, but the even deader giveaways were the big holes in his face and neck where a clearly metallic substance could be seen, not even remotely resembling a human skeleton. She walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Mr. Valentine, I'm not sure how to break this to you, but I think you may be a synth."
Nick stared unblinking at Nora for a long moment before shifting his gaze to Piper. "I think I ought to hang up my fedora, Piper, because this gal just became Detective of the Year," he deadpanned. He gently pushed Nora's hands off of him. "Look, I know my appearance ain't all that comforting, but trust me, I'm one of the good guys." He scowled. "What really matters, though, is why you came here, went to all this trouble, just to cut me loose."
Nora looked back at Piper, who gave her an encouraging smile. Nora smiled back, comforted, then turned to face Nick again. "My son Shaun was kidnapped. I don't know who took him, or why, or to where. I did hear from a trusted source that you're the one… man… uh, synth? …who could help me."
Nick snorted. "Well, you came to the right man, if not the right place. See, I was tracking this kidnapped girl down here, only I come to find out she wasn't kidnapped. The girl has a mean streak, and she's insinuated herself in deep with Skinny Malone as his new flame. I've been cooped up in here ever since."
"Ooh, Skinny Malone, classic mafia name," Nora commented.
Nick stared at Nora again for a long moment, before finally deciding it was best to ignore that. He tilted his fedora back and spoke some more. "Look, you've got troubles… some of them probably from a head injury," he said sotto voce. "…and I'll be glad to help, but now ain't the time. Once we blow this joint, then we'll talk."
Nick made to go to the door, but Piper stopped him. "She's gonna want to root around in here," she explained.
Nick looked incredulously as Nora proceeded to go through the desk drawers. "I may be made of metal, but I'm not the one with the screw loose," he remarked.
"Oh fuck yes, a bobblehead!" Nora said, taking a full minute to just bop the bobblehead's head and giggling as it rocked on its neck.
"She's… an acquired taste, I have to admit," Piper admitted.
"You haven't tasted me, Piper," Nora said, having overheard. She looked up from the drawer she was looking through and gave her a look. "Yet."
"Oh geez," Piper said, turning away from Nora to hide the blush.
Nick chuckled. "I never took you as going for the crazy ones," he said.
"Shut up, Nicky!" Piper hissed, refusing to meet his gaze.
XXX
The three of them together made short work of the Triggermen as they tore through the rest of the vault. "I have to admit, I had my reservations," Nick admitted as he reloaded his revolver. "But she's damn good with that long arm of hers."
"GOODIES FOR THE GOODIE GOD!" Nora proclaimed as she looted another pile of warm bodies.
"No matter her other faults," he said, his voice dropping an octave in disapproval.
"Hey Blue," Piper asked. "How is it that we find you so charming despite your bizarre behavior?"
"Speak for yourself," Nick muttered.
"Oh, probably my high Charisma stat," she said off-handedly.
Piper narrowed her eyes, but decided not to pursue that line of questioning. "Yeah, that's probably it," she acknowledged.
After fighting through another few waves, Nick stopped them. "Skinny Malone and the rest of his boys are waiting for us, somewhere up ahead," he said. "The name's… ironic… but don't let that fool you, he's dangerous."
"Ah, classic ironic mobster name," Nora said cheerily.
Nick sighed. "Of all the dames in all the world, I'm rescued by the one who escaped from the booby hatch." They approached another door, and Nick took position at it before Nora had a chance to. (She pouted at not being able to show off her 'nimble fingers' to Piper). "Alright, I hear big, fat footsteps on the other side of this door," he said, working the lock. "Once we step through, be ready for anything."
Skinny Malone was indeed waiting for them on the other side, dressed in a fancy mobster tuxedo and matching black hat. His girl Darla (Nick had mentioned her name at some point on their flight through the vault's bowels) had on a lovely blue sequin dress and cradled a baseball bat like it was her baby. Two more anonymous Triggermen stood ready behind them. "Nicky?" he called out, angry. "What do you think you're doing? You come into MY house, shoot up MY guys? Do you have any idea how much this is gonna set me back?"
"Point of order, Mr. Malone," Nora interrupted. "But your men were disrespecting you and your choice to let Mr. Valentine live. Our killing them was really our effort to uphold mafia honor code."
Skinny and Nick looked at Nora like she'd just announced that brahmin only had one head, then wisely ignored her. "I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for that two-timing dame next to you, Skinny," he explained. "Maybe if she wrote home more often, we wouldn't be in this mess."
"Aww, poor widdle Valentine," Darla mocked. "Ashamed you got beat up by a girl?" She humphed. "I'll just run back home to daddy, shall I?"
"That would be very helpful," Nora said.
"Shaddup, you dumb broad!" Darla snapped. "Ain't nobody asked you!"
"Should have left it alone, Nicky," Skinny said, almost regretful. "This ain't like the old neighborhood. In this vault, I'm the king of the castle, and I ain't letting a private dick shut us down now that I finally got a good thing going!"
"I told you you should have just killed him!" Darla said, verbally lashing her 'flame'. "But no, you had to go and get all sentimental! All that stupid crap about the 'old times'!"
"Careful, Darla, you're coming dangerously close to violating mafia honor code," Nora warned.
"Darla, and… whoever the hell you are… I'm handling this! Skinny Malone always gets things under control!" Skinny stomped his foot for emphasis.
"Skinny, if you have things under control, then what's this broad doing here, huh?" She gestured to Nora with the bat. "Valentine must have brought her here to rub us all out!"
Nora smirked — Darla was kind of hot, and that line had some possibilities, but figured hitting on Skinny's girl in front of him was probably a poor move. "Look, Darla, listen to me, woman to woman: You have a home to go back to. You don't want to throw your life away with these thugs." She broke eye contact as she remembered the state of her own household. "Go, Darla. You never know what might happen to your loved ones, or when."
Darla's hands tightened on her bat, then loosened, letting it clank to the floor of the vault. "I… you're right! What am I doing? I've gotten all mixed up!" She turned and began walking hastily out of the vault.
Skinny turned to watch her. "Darla? Where are you going?" he called after her.
She turned to face him one last time. "Home, Skinny. Where I should have been all this time." She turned away and continued walking. "This is goodbye."
Skinny turned back to Nick and Nora. "Come on, Nicky!" he said, halfway between rage and sadness. "You cost me my men, and now your friend costs me my girl?"
"My friend did you a favor, Skinny," Nick finessed. "You always did have bad taste in women. Now that she's not around to feed your temper, maybe you can see some sense and let us walk free?"
Skinny looked down and grumbled to himself for a moment, then looked back up. "Alright, you got to the count of ten. If I still see your face after that, I'm shooting it right off! That goes for both of you!"
Nick and Piper didn't waste any time as Skinny began his countdown — they booked it right through the opening — but Nora walked up to him and stopped for a second. "Mr. Malone, I'm sorry again about your men and your moll, but might I say it's been a real pleasure to meet a genuine, real-life old timey gangster!" She reached out a hand to shake his.
"Five," he said. "Six."
"Fair enough!" Nora said. She grabbed his Tommy gun by the barrel and gently shook it, then made haste out the vault.
Skinny watched her go, then looked down at the barrel of his gun, astounded the daffy broad had had the guts to actually shake it like it was a hand. "Let this be a lesson to you boys," he told his two remaining henchmen. "Dames are all fucking crazy."
XXXXXXXXXX
This chapter was just a delight to write, with Nora managing to drive both Nick and Skinny crazy with her antics. She really does have a high Charisma stat, which is how she's able to get away with so much nonsense. (Not that I have an actual defined character sheet for her, haha — I may have mentioned before that this isn't a LitRPG, so don't go expecting anything like that. And I also don't know if I've specified it, but Nora's appearance is the bog-standard default one, hahaha).
If you let Skinny live, you can apparently run into him again in a random encounter later on in the game. Will this Nora meet him again? Maybe! It all depends on if I can think of a good place to insert him, narratively, and also if I can make it funny or very dramatic or whatever. (Although imagine if I had him show up and they just sat around discussing the most boring shit imaginable for fifty pages, like the implications of an introduction of a trade tariff of mutfruits exported from Boston to the Capitol Wasteland. God, even thinking about making such a stupid scene has me imagining them rapidly growing bored and hopping into the nearest available bed together.)
Fun anecdote: Last time I did a proper playthrough of Fallout 4, I brought Piper into the Vault with me and talked Darla into leaving. When Skinny started doing his countdown, Piper just…stood there, and wouldn't follow me out. (It Just Works). I shrugged and left her to it, hearing gunfire in the distance as I made my way to the exit. (Fortunately, companions respawn back at base when the 'die' on Survival mode).