While he was pretending to be unconscious, the Courier unknowingly fell asleep whilst being carried by that woman. Thinking about it now, he probably should've tried to run instead of standing there and insulting Blake. Then again, he was under the influence of Psycho so he mentally gave himself a pass for such a bad decision.
The Courier found himself bounded to a table in an annoyingly bright room. Reminded of his time in Camp McCarran, he figured that this must be some kind of interrogation room, though he doesn't know what the purpose of the table is.
He turned to the mirror on the wall; he also doesn't know what the purpose of this mirror is, is it so the criminal can reflect and repent on their past actions? He thought about the dingy interrogation room in Camp McCarran, with its singular chair for the prisoner to sit in with a big-ass window so that the same prisoner can stare and sneer at their captor.
He missed those times in Camp McCarran, sometimes he'd reminisce about the simpler days, where he could just beat up prisoners of war or catch Legion spies instead of helping Yes Man rule New Vegas. He did fuck up in disarming the bomb on the Monorail though, one of the reasons why he sided with Yes Man instead of the NCR.
After many minutes of deliberation just after accidentally blowing up the Monorail, the Courier decided that maybe siding with Yes Man was a good idea after all! He also heard stories of this General Oliver who nobody liked, especially that guy Hsu; he decided that working under such an unlikeable figure would do much damage to his already fragile reputation.
Added onto the fact that General Oliver made his blood boil when he waltzed into the Legion camp with the exaggerated swagger of a nepo baby. It was great fun seeing Yes Man chuck that idiot off the Dam.
The Courier's little memory trip was interrupted by someone entering the interrogation room. A man, probably thirty-ish, walked in with the assistance of his cane, he wore freaky round glasses too small for his actual eyes, and a pretty fashionable green scarf all things considered.
Following him was a woman who glared at him with the intensity of a thousand suns while she fiddled with the riding crop in her hands. The Courier smiled awkwardly as he tried to plan his escape.
The man in the freaky glasses sat across the table from the Courier, while the woman stood behind him, still staring at him as if she wanted him to drop dead this instant, she grabbed the man's shoulder and whispered something to him, the man merely raised a hand and whispered something back.
The Courier felt really awkward sitting there in his Stealth Suit watching his two interrogators argue with one another, he coughed, "So when do you guys start beating me up for information?" the Courier asked, using what little knowledge he had of interrogations, "You can get to it now… if you like… uh…"
"Ah, yes, my apologies, I am Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy, and standing behind me is my assistant Glynda Goodwitch," the man, Ozpin, said, staring directly into the Courier's eyes, "We were wondering if we could ask you some questions Mr…"
"Courrier, John… Courrier, yeah, that's my name, and do I have a choice? Can I say no?"
"No."
"Well alright then, ask away."
"I'll get straight to the point, Mr. Courrier, but you interest me," Ozpin placed his elbows on the table, his hands resting atop one another, "We can't find any record of you in our databases, for all we know you technically don't exist… not to mention your skills in combat."
"Yeah I could see how that doesn't add up," the Courier gave out a nervous chuckle, he's been going with the flow so far but if 'going with the flow' meant becoming an infamous terrorist then no thank you, "Listen, is there any way I can get out of jail legally? You uhh… in need of a spy? I'm a part of the White Fang y'know; I can let you in on all the juicy details, trust."
The woman, Glynda, fumed, "You-" "I'm listening."
"I'm friends with one of the White Fang commanders," Adam definitely didn't consider the Courier a friend but is he here right now? Don't think so, "He'll notice that I'm missing, all you gotta do is put some tracker on me and I'll show you where all the hideouts are."
"After that, go bust them down with your Huntsmen or whatever."
Ozpin hummed, "And why should we trust you specifically? Aside from your connections to the White Fang's higher-ups."
"Yeah that's true; I did beat up one of your students…"
"But I believe we can make it work."
"Damn, just as I thought- wait what?"
Even Glynda looked surprised, was this man an actual idiot? Or does he have some plan in place and this is actually all a part of said plan? The Courier had enough of the scheming types; he liked it when people don't have contingencies, makes it that much easier to take them out.
Not this man obviously, he looks like he radiates paranoia and anxiety. But to trust a terrorist so quickly? Now that was surprising to the Courier.
"You will act as our inside man for the White Fang, in exchange, you'll get a reduced sentence when your work with us is complete," the Courier deflated, he'll still be arrested after this, great.
"How do you know I won't just run off?"
Ozpin chuckled, "Call it trust."
The Courier watched as a policeman come into the interrogation room and uncuff him from the table, Ozpin continued, "Do you have a place to live, Mr. Courrier?"
"No, why?"
"You understand that we can't have someone like you walking around normally, correct?" the Courier nodded, "You'll be provided asylum within Beacon Academy for the duration of your… contract with me, afterwards you'll be handed back to the police to live out the rest of your sentence, albeit reduced."
"So what's my sentence?"
"Life."
"The reduced one."
"Life."
"Shit."
"I can tell that you crave action, Mr. Courrier, something to disrupt the boredom in life," Ozpin stood up and pointed his cane at the Courier, "So either you work with us and we'll give you the thrill that you so crave or-"
"I accept!"
Ozpin smiled, "Wonderful, now if you would please stand up and follow us to the bullhead."
He then turned to Glynda and whispered something to her, she nodded and took her place behind the Courier while he followed Ozpin. A pretty good plan to make sure he doesn't run off, seeing as how the Courier's sandwiched between the headmaster of a school and the disciplinarian of said school.
The three left the police station, a car was waiting for them at the front, Ozpin sat in front while the Courier was stuck with Glynda in the backseat. The ride was uncomfortable, what with Glynda constantly sending him death stares while he looked out the window.
They eventually arrived at some landing pad with a Vertibird parked in the middle, Ozpin turned to the Courier and motioned for him to enter the vehicle, "Your assignment starts now, when you're in the bullhead, the pilot will give you a map of suspected White Fang hideouts and a tracker, seeing as how you're a member of the White Fang, you probably won't be shot at when you get close to one of their hideouts."
"Once you're there, tap the tracker twice and that'll send the coordinates of your current location back to us," the Courier nodded and climbed aboard the 'bullhead', but before the doors shut close, Ozpin said to him with a smile on his face, "Have you ever birdwatched, Mr. Courrier?"
"Sometimes, the only ones I see are usually crows."
"Then you should have experience then."
"What's that supposed to mean-" whatever the Courier said was drowned out by the loud engines of the bullhead as it prepared to take off, scrunching in face in frustration, the Courier re-equipped his duster, beret, and Lucky Shades.
After attaching the tracker to the inside of his duster, the Courier looked at the map he was provided with; some spots were marked with an 'X' and a question mark to indicate the possible locations of these hideouts. But what really grabbed his attention the most was the geography of this place, mostly wide forests with some mountainous areas.
Obviously, this stood out as a shock to the desert-dwelling, sand-huffing, and cactus-drinker Courier, who only ever knew of trees through incredibly rare pre-war textbooks that were luckily not burnt to a crisp. The Mojave was also incredibly flat, with only a few hills here and there, so seeing something like mountains or cliffs really surprised the Courier somewhat.
He tried to remember all the places he had visited and connect them with what he saw here, the mountains were bigger than the ones he saw in Montana, probably because they weren't bombed to hell and back. There are actual rivers here instead of big-ass lakes; he did visit a place called the 'Illinois River Correctional Centre' before but the Illinois that he visited didn't have any rivers, just really large ridges that looked like the canyons of Zion.
Though it could be a dried up river… or a series of craters from the nukes.
While on the bullhead, the Courier also mentally thanks whatever god was watching over him because in his time here, no one had bothered to ask where he was from. He probably should've gotten a map of the place instead of joining a terrorist group but hey, things happened alright?
Besides, it wasn't like he wanted to join the terrorist group! They just made some really good points and did things that he could get behind! They also were the first ones to actually find him so there's that as well.
They're probably not that evil. Adam seemed nice enough, aside from his weird obsession with that Blake girl.
Speaking of, what happened to her? The Courier honestly could not remember a single thing during his Psycho rampage; he might need to apologize to her later though. If she's not dead that is.
Not like it was any different than in the Mojave, everything here just seemed more civilised, more put-together so to speak. But all the shenanigans that he went through here were basically the same as his time as a Courier back in the Mojave.
Accidentally joining a terrorist group? Helping the inhabitants of Vault 19 solve their disputes without knowing they were Powder Gangers. Same thing really. Even when he blew up that train it reminded him of the monorail at McCarran! Though it wasn't his fault that the bomb was set to blow two minutes before he got to the station in time.
The Courier turned to look out the window, noticing a crow following the bullhead; it probably isn't anything so he just ignored it.
He sighed; here he go working for other people again. Even when he took over New Vegas there was always something someone wanted him to do for them. Followers of the Apocalypse, his friends, Yes Man, whoever, whenever.
When he kicked the NCR out of the Strip completely, he felt a massive weight was taken off his shoulders, and that the Mojave would be better without the governance of two different systems grappling for power in the desert. He thought that going independence was the best possible solution.
Well, that's what the Courier thought before being informed by Yes Man. The Securitrons, while being very powerful in their own right, were limited in their numbers. There were thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Securitrons hidden in the fort, but that much alone can't possibly keep peace all over the Mojave just yet.
The Strip was fine; Freeside was safe again, but the Mojave? Now without the NCR to straighten things out on their end and the Legion to scare away competitors in theirs? Probably will be overrun with different tribes or factions looking to expand their territory.
It'll probably be the Khans; the Courier did convince them to stay at Red Rock after all. Argh! All this thinking about political and geography and smart shit is making the Courier's head hurt! After he was done with this assignment, he's gonna go to the nearest casino and bankrupt them as soon as possible!
Or maybe go on weeklong drug-fuelled benders with random people in the city! That sounded fun!
Maybe he'd start his own chem empire! Or his own terrorist organization! Hell! Maybe even start his own school!
He wondered if the Transportalponder still worked, he thought about using it a couple of times now but he never did simply because he was having too much fun here. Where else could he go where no one knows who he was? He can't just walk to Montana where everyone there doesn't know that he was the Courier!
…
On second thoughts, maybe he shouldn't go to Montana… But there was Illinois! No one knew who he was there!
Possible places for him to travel when he got back that is, for now, he'd stay here and enjoy himself, sure his friends will miss him, sure Yes Man will miss him, but they'd understand! After all, they willingly became friends with the Courier! They knew what they signed up for.
And that's another chapter done.
Sorry for not responding to the reviews, that's because FFNet is fucking up again, what a shame.
Honestly man, for a website that was created in the mid 90s, you'd think they modernize already!
I can't see any of my story stats and there are 5 reviews when it said 9!
Anyways, back to the AN.
I want to make the Courier more believable by having him basically fuck up a run for the NCR and having to salvage the save by doing Yes Man instead.
Because that Monorail mission made my blood boil with how much waiting you have to do.