Fallout Zoo Vegas

by LadybugKnight

A mercenary and a traveler each remind each other of an old friend... This takes place before the main events of Fallout: New Vegas, crossover with Z & M!

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Christmas

Previously, on Fallout Zoo Vegas... A robot and a traveler met in the Mojave desert, and realized that they were old friends from before the war, who used to host a radio show together. The robot and the traveler (Brass and Akito), now reunited, ventured into a Brotherhood of Steel enclave to hook up in their simulation machine. Meanwhile, Vex, Old Lady Gibson, Mike, HugDoggy, Milk, Zipwok, and a werewolf ran around in New Vegas, then they were sent by Benny on a quest to get a platinum chip (Vex had been showing off a fake one but Benny said that the real one was in a robot outside of New Vegas and that he would give Vex a lot of money for it). Brass and Akito (Brakito) left the Brotherhood of Steel enclave and turned it inside out. Brass, Akito, Vex, Old Lady Gibson, Mike, HugDoggy, Milk, Zipwok, a werewolf, and Lou Cat all met up at a bar in Goodsprings, as around them in the night, Benny and his men approached from the north, the Powder Gangers approached from the south, The Brotherhood of Steel approached from the east, and to the west were cliffs and stuff you can't go that way. Brass and Akito talked about bringing their radio show back to the airwaves, using Brass's platinum chip to enhance a nearby radio station's broadcasting abilities...

Let's go back to Goodsprings now, and see how things develop...

Somewhere In Nevada

Everything was in place for an action packed night full of explosions and surprises. Joe Cobb, leader of the Powder Gangers, looked out at Goodsprings. In his hand was the detonator. He was ready to turn this peaceful sleeping town into a chaotic hell on earth.

Unfortunately the Powder Gangers encountered a scripting error and all waited in place forever. This also caused the Brotherhood of Steel knights and Benny and Louey to all wait in place forever too. Night turned to day. Day to night. Mike thought to use the power of love to make a dog treats tree grow outside of the bar where they were now staying. Eventually in the coming week, snow began falling. Nuclear summer had turned to nuclear winter. Zipwok and the werewolf made a lot of snow men, like, a lot, all with cute animal ears on top. One day, Akito was missing...

Brass had been in the middle of restarting himself when she had disappeared. It had been a pleasant morning until then. He and Akito had been sitting on a bench outside of the bar, really close side by side. Arms around the other's shoulders, heads nuzzling into one another. Dusty snow approached and then slid off of the ankles of Akito's power armor and Brass's robot legs. Vex was in the open area in front of them, helping a local dog get treats off of the dog treat tree.

Brass mentioned to Aki, "I don't think I've done this since you've been back, but I have to reset myself every once in a while. It should only take a minute. It'll be like nothing happened afterwards. Just making sure all of the 1s are 1s and the 0s are 0s. Making sure all the processes are accounted for. Routine off-and-on procedure."

Akito said, "Sure. You could also be cool and not do that because that sounds super boring, but whatever."

Brass chuckled, and took his arm off of Akito's shoulder.

Sitting upright, hands in his lap, Brass began the restart.

The last seconds always reminded of him of back when he used to do a lot of drugs. Looking at Vex and the dog, the two of them seemed like they moved in a sickening type of slow motion: it felt like Brass was falling over sideways as he looked at them, even as he remained upright.

And then, Brass was off.

When he came back on, there was always paralysis. His consciousness came on first, existing in a complete void before any of his sensors had booted back up. Audio came back next: whistling wind, the sound of the Dogs of Freeside going "woo!" and "awooo!" and "yay!" as they made more snow men nearby. Then, the various visualization sensors all snapped on at once. Human-color-range vision, greater-color-range vision, thermals. He saw that Vex and the dog were still playing around in the snow. Vex was wearing a winter hat with a puffy bobble on the top and a big scarf and a puffy jacket and gym shorts and sandals. At this point, for a few more seconds, Brass's motor functions still weren't restored. He could watch, but not do anything. Not even turn to his side and see Aki, or put his arm back over her shoulder again.

As it turned out, he wouldn't be able to do that anyways.

Akito wasn't there.

Brass, disappointed, looked around, poked his head back into the bar, wandered around out front of the bar to see if he could spot her in the distance anywhere. The Dogs of Freeside were having a snowball fight, but Aki was not among them.

Brass approached Vex, and asked, "Did you see where Akito went?"

Vex, who was on the ground petting a dog, looked up at Brass, and said, "I was clearly doing something more important, away with you robotpants."

Brass wandered melancholically around town. He stared sadly at abandoned buildings filled with snow. He pensively stood and looked into the downward sloping hills to the east, where the brotherhood of steel knights had icicles hanging off of their armor as they swayed back and forth in place waiting.

Evening came, light slipping from the town like a cello's last resonant note fading away when the bow has stopped touching the strings. It was a nosedive towards silence, or, here, darkness.

Trudging around in the snow in front of Doc Mitchell's house in the sunset, he then heard her voice.

Chipperly, she called to him from a distance, "Hey robot!"

Brass's head perked up to where she stood, in front of the Goodsprings Gas Station.

"Friend!" Brass shouted, and began running up the hill towards her. When he arrived, he embraced Akito in a hug, and said, "I've missed you so much. I thought you had left forever..."

Akito asked, "What?" She did hug him back. Then when they had stepped back from one another, she said, "I was only gone for like two hours!"

"It was longer than that," Brass said, and then played back his memory of the time since she had disappeared. "It was twelve hours and twenty one minutes."

"Oh my god whatever, I was here the whole time."

"What happened?"

Akito held a Stealth Boy up, and said, "I snuck away from you to work on something."

"Oh?" Brass asked.

"Something special," Akito said. "Something for us."

Brass would have blushed, if he was able to.

Akito took Brass by the hand, and began leading him into the gas station that sat atop the hill in Goodsprings.

As they were nearing the door, Akito said, "You can add your own decorations too, of course. This is just... to get us started."

Akito lead the way in, and pulled Brass in behind herself.

There in the gas station, all of the dirt had been cleaned off of the walls and floor, and the clutter had been cleaned up. The walls had been painted blue. In one far corner of the room, there was a big mattress with magenta bedsheets, and a nice nightstand of finished oakwood beside it. There was a desk against another wall, and two dressers side by side. And, about half of the gas station-the frontmost half, that Aki and Brass came into first upon entering the front door-was a workshop. There were tools and screws and wires, all the kinds of things needed to work on robots, weapons, power armor, anything at all.

Brass began, "Is this..."

Aki nodded, and said, "A place for us."

Brass and Akito hugged.

Akito mentioned, "I wanted to show you this, too..."

Taking his hand again, she lead him farther into the renovated gas station, back into the bedroom area, and took him to one of the walls. On the wall, there was a gigantic white sheet of poster board. In fancy writing at the top of it, were the words, Our Dream Board.

"Oh, Aki..." said Brass.

"Let's imagine... our future," said Akito.

Akito handed Brass a marker, and held one of her own as well.

Brass began, writing the words, "Zoo & Me on the radio," and saying, "I want us to bring our show back into the world! We did so much good with it back before the war, and the world needs love in it now even more!"

Akito nodded, and then wrote down, "Snuggling." She stroked a power-armored hand against his mechanical side, and said, "I want us to snuggle as often as we can at night. I care about you, and I think that snuggling is a good way to show you how much I care."

"Oh Aki, I agree."

From outside, romantic guitar noises could be heard in the room. Someone nearby had evidently begun playing.

Brass wrote down, "Reminiscing." He explained, "We had so many amazingly funny moments, and amazingly touching moments, back before the war. I want us to talk about them. I want us to share all of the things that we remember."

Akito drew a heart next to Brass's "Reminiscing" on the board. She then added the words, "Talk about kissing animals." She explained, "I think it's really hot that you're a zoo. I'm a zoo too, of course. We should talk about all of the fun sexy animal stuff we've gotten up to while we were apart. We should help animals cum together. Me and you on either side of a horse penis, helping a fella out. I think that the relationship between us also includes the relationship that we have with all of the four leggers of the world."

Brass drew a heart next to Akito's idea.

The romantic guitar continued to play.

Brass wrote down, "Devotion." He explained, "Even as we help animals cum, I want us to put you and me first. Aki, I never want us to be apart for 200 years ever again. I promise to you, forever, I will love you and cherish you, support you and be with you."

Akito gently rubbed her hand down the side of Brass's face. She then turned towards the door, and mentioned, "Ugh! What is all that RUCKUS!"

Very close by, two Goodsprings residents named Konny and Cookie were sitting on their extendable porch, which had all of the snow shoveled off of it. They lived in an RV that was parked right next to the gas station. In order to settle in, they had taken strings and attached a bunch of little papers, making each string into a different pride flag, and had fastened one end of each string to their RV and staked the other end of each string into the ground. All around them on the porch were potted plants and little crafts that they had made themselves or gotten from friends. The two of them were each holding a guitar, and both strummed in tandem as they sang.

There's a doggy in the kitchen
Dear Mary Dear Mary
There's a doggy in the kitchen
Dear Mary, a dog

Then pet him, Dear Henry
Dear Henry Dear Henry
Then pet him
Dear Henry Dear Henry, the dog

There's a kitty on the sofa
Dear Mary Dear Mary
There's a kitty on the sofa
Dear Mary, a cat

Then pet him, Dear Henry
Dear Henry Dear Henry
Then Pet Him
Dear Henry Dear Henry, the cat

There's a horsie in the stable
Dear Mary Dear Mary
There's a horsie in the stable
Dear Mary, a horse

Then pet him, Dear Henry
Dear Henry Dear Henry
Then pet him
Dear Henry Dear Henry, the horse

Akito and Brass walked over to Konny and Cookie through the snow.

Akito said, "Hiii we're your new neighbors. We need everything to be quiet 23 hours and 50 minutes of the day, you can have 10 minutes of noise each day."

Cookie said, "Oh no."

Konny said, "No, please."

Just then, Mike and Vex and Old Lady Gibson and Zipwok and a werewolf and Milk and HugDoggy came over, marching through the snow up the hill.

"Awoo," Mike said.

The Dogs of Freeside all started chatting with Konny and Cookie, while Brass and Akito looked on. After a little while, Zipwok had pulled up a chair and was singing with Konny and Cookie, who were both pretending they had forgotten about what Akito had said.

There's a raccoon on the table
Dear Mary Dear Mary
There's a raccoon on the table
Dear Mary, a racc

Then pet him, Dear Henry
Dear Henry Dear Henry
Then pet him Dear Henry
Dear Henry, the racc

Akito started reaching down to pick up a rock, but Brass said, "Wait, I have an idea."

"Oh?" Akito asked. "What is it, my dearest Brass Bulldog? What have you thought of in that brilliant head of yours?"

"We're going to bring Zoo & Me back to the airwaves, right?"

"Uh huh."

Brass elaborated, "What if we asked all of them to come on and play songs, and cohost now and then?"

"Hmmm," Akito said. "I like the cut of your jib. I'm picking up what you're putting down. I capiche what you're c'sayin."

"So, should we ask?" Brass queried.

Akito raised the volume on her power armor's voice speakers to be able to interrupt everyone, and said, "HEY, ANIMAL FUCKERS."

The Dogs of Freeside and Konny and Cookie all turned and looked at Akito.

"WE'RE MAKING A RADIO SHOW ABOUT LOVING ANIMALS, DO YOU WANT TO COME WITH US?"

The Dogs of Freeside and Konny and Cookie all looked around among themselves, and nodded and said things like "oh sure" and "yeah that sounds good."

On behalf of the group, Vex sauntered over to Akito, threw an arm around her neck, placed their other hand on the very hot metal of her chestplate, and said, "Kill yourself."

With her power armor's speaker volume still at max, Akito asked, "IS THAT A YES?"

Vex reeled back as their eardrums were pounded, and they shouted, "Ow, fuck me! Yes, that's a yes, you maniac!"

"OKAY COOL THANK YOU."

Akito and Brass turned away from the group, and faced the snowy mountains in the distance, where their radio-station-to-be was located. In the hills surrounding Goodsprings though, there were Benny and his goons, the Brotherhood of Steel knights, and the Powder Gangers, all lying in wait.

Vex began throwing little pebbles at Akito and Brass's backs. Zipwok snickered quietly, and then buried his face in the werewolf's tummy to muffle the sound. The werewolf gave calming pats to Zip.

Akito said, "Hmmm. How are we going to get out of here? I think you and I could make it through, but our new FRIENDS-" With that Akito put a hand behind herself and caught Vex's latest pebble. "We might not be able to escort all of them successfully."

Brass said, "Hmmm. I wonder if we have the resources to build the radio station right here. I haven't necessarily seen an abundance of metal lying around, but if we scavenge we might be able to pull something together."

Just then, they felt a rumbling in the ground.

Brass wondered aloud, "Earthquake?"

Just then, right beside them, something emerged from the snow. Everyone stepped back, and faced the creature. Covered in dirt, holding a shovel, it was Brass's friend, Tarro the raccoon from Novak.

Tarro said, "Hi I secretly can talk and also stayed up for the last two weeks digging this tunnel under Goodsprings because I heard that you were in trouble, it goes right to the radio station on that mountain over there I hope that's okay."

Milk said on behalf of the group, "Oh that is very okay thank you. I like your shovel."

"Thanks!" Tarro said.

Tarro and Brass and Akito and Vex and Mike and Milk and HugDoggy and Old Lady Gibson and Zipwok and the werewolf and Konny and Cookie and a few of the feral dogs from Goodsprings all went into the tunnel and came out at the radio station in the mountain range south of New Vegas, which was surrounded by collapsed buildings and rubble. Tall snowdrifts had formed against all of the structures.

HugDoggy remarked, "Well I think it could use a new coat of paint, or for some areas maybe kerosene and a match would do the trick, but the station building looks like it will keep standing for at least another week or two. With some love and kindness and extensive use of power tools, I suppose I could repair her and make her just like new again. The question is, are the electronics inside still interested in singing to all the cars and alarm clocks and Pip Boys in the world, or have we come all this way just for the exercise?"

They all approached the radio station, and walked up the exterior stairs to the second floor. Vex pretended to pick the lock in two seconds and then opened the already unlocked door, and they all went inside.

Brass went ahead of the group, as everyone else stood around nearby the door. As he walked, he opened the small compartment on his chest, and removed the platinum chip. With the chip in his mechanical fingers, he ran his sensors all over the electronic components in the room. Computation towers, monitors, a few microphones, collections of audio tapes. When he spotted a slot on one of the towers that the chip would fit into, he walked up to it, slotted it in, and then listened as electronic chirping began spreading across the room's devices like a flock of digital birds startled into flight. Brass went to the tape reader on one of the towers, took a tape out of another secret slot on his arm, put the tape in, and hit play.

In the room-and to every radio clear to the Pacific coast that was tuned in to 99.9-Brass's voice was heard, saying, "Good morning Massachusetts! The weather this morning is a hot and humid 92 already, and will only be getting hotter as the day goes on. Today might be a good day to take a break from long walks and vigorous fetch activities..."

Akito came over, rested a hand on Brass's shoulder, and said, "We did it."

The two of them faced one another. Akito took off the helmet of her power armor. Brass rested his hands on Akito's hips. Akito nuzzled against Brass's mechanical face, and then planted a kiss on his metal cheek.

THE END