"Hello again, Mr. Briscoe."

Ann and Yusuke entered the Dino Bite Gift Shop, Novac's sole general store. It wasn't much – a bunch of shelves with goods against two of the walls, some locked closet on one side, stairs leading to a vantage point for snipers watching out for any baddies trying to attack the town – the implication was enough for Ann to stay put – and the shopkeeper himself, a middle-aged balding man in a worn gray shirt and jeans, leaning against a wall behind the counter.

"Welcome back, kid." Briscoe greeted her. "And who's the new guy?"

"That's Yusuke," she introduced him. He guessed from the context it was an introduction and bowed. "He was in my group of friends before, well, before I woke up in this fine town. He doesn't speak English, it's a very long story."

"Oh, is he a tribal?" Briscoe asked. "He's well-dressed for one."

"Yeah, something like that," Ann decided to play along. "I was with a group that studied his tribe, which included learning his language, and he decided to go join us to see the world."

"[What are you talking about?]" Yusuke asked, out of the loop.

She turned to him. "[I'm lying through my teeth about your origins so you not speaking English doesn't raise any eyebrows.]"

"[And how is it going?]"

"[So far so good, but we're pretending you're a member of some uncivilized tribe, apparently.]"

"[...this feels xenophobic in some form.]"

"So, now that you have a friend with you, what's your plan?" Briscoe asked.

"Same as it was, sit on my thumbs and wait," she replied. "He's unarmed and as good in a fight as I am. As in, not at all."

"And why did you bring him here? Is it just to introduce him?" He smiled a bit. "Or is he perhaps interested in one of our famous T-Rex figurines?"

"No, not really," Ann replied. "I just wanted to get some cleaning supplies to get my room in order."

"Oh, b-but maybe he doesn't know the T-rexes are still in stock?" Briscoe pushed on, albeit with no confidence. "Ask him."

"Fine." She turned to Yusuke. "[He wants to sell you a T-rex figure. Some tourist tchotchke he can't get rid of normally.]"

"[I am interested]" Yusuke remarked. "[There can be appeal even in mass-produced souvenirs. Can we afford one though?]"

"[I'll haggle.]" She turned back to Briscoe. "I'll buy one T-rex, but for no more than two caps."

"Well, they're a cap a piece, but I can give you two."

Ann rubbed her eyes in frustration. "I'll take one. Also, I'll need soap, some carpet detergent, a mop, a broom and a bucket."

"You can borrow a broom and a bucket from Jeannie May's office," Briscoe told them. "I don't have a mop, but I can find you some rags, and all the detergents I have are on the shelf behind you, below the radio."

As Ann turned to inspect what was available to her, Briscoe turned to the closet by his side and opened it with a key. He pulled out a T-rex figurine and a folded worn-out rag, and put it on the counter, next to the cash register. Yusuke picked the figurine up and inspected it. It was about the size of a small bottle, and light in his hands, probably hollow inside. "[It is rough around the edges and the paint has faded, but it's something I wouldn't be ashamed to own.]" He tapped it with his knuckle a few times. "[I am also pleasantly surprised that it is made of metal as opposed to cheap plastic.]"

Briscoe just stared at him. "Uhm…"

"In short, he likes it," Ann abridged, putting a box of abrasive powder with Abraxo branding on it on the counter. "How much for it all?"

"Five caps for Abraxo, one for the T-rex and one for the rag, so seven in total." Briscoe snapped his fingers as he remembered something. "By the way, most couriers that have packages or letters to Novac just leave them here in the store. If one comes, you could ask them to spread the word around Mojave settlements that you're looking for your friends and that you're safe here. I'd chip in for the fee."

"If one comes?" Ann asked, placing a denarius and three caps on the counter.

"They don't have a set route," Briscoe explained. "They show up when they have to, so I can't promise anything, but hey, it's better than sitting and waiting."

"Thank you, sir," Ann bowed slightly. "The hospitality this town has shown me has been invaluable and I appreciate it immensely."

Briscoe just replied with a chuckle. "C'mon, kid. You're in trouble, so people help you. You'll give back when you'll be able to, but for now, don't worry. Stay safe."

Ann picked up the rag and Abraxo and left, with Yusuke following her with the T-rex figurine in tow. "[I must ask, did you pay for that with bottle caps?]"

"[That's the currency here for some reason]" she explained. "[There are also these silver coins and-]"

"[Hold on]" Yusuke interrupted her, then focused on something. "[Do you hear something buzzing?]"

The courier took aim with Akira's rifle at one of the two (visible) radscorpions in the distance.

"I…" Makoto said, trying to make small talk, "I know for a fact that a bunch of convicts had gone down this road earlier today. They must've been lucky enough to go through before the scorpions showed up."

The rifle fired with a sharp crack (Sneak Attack Critical on Radscorpion) and the courier rapidly moved the bolt back and forth with his palm. "What do you mean 'know for a fact'?" he asked.

"When I… reached Primm," Makoto explained, as the courier fired again, "I accidentally convinced a few convicts patrolling outside the Bison Steve to leave town peacefully and head somewhere else. Westside, they called it?"

One of the radscorpions turned around in the direction of where the bullets came from, and got a third .22 to the stinger. Both it and the other critter started approaching the group's position on the roof.

"Yeah, a bunch of less aggressive ex-cons set up shop there," Whitmeyer explained. "The way I've heard, Westside is able to grow enough crops to feed themselves and sell the excess." Fourth shot hit the already-wounded radscorpion. "But they need protection from the raiders around the corner, so some of my old cellmates organized there into a militia." He turned to Akira. "The guys I told you about, holed up in that shack near where you found me? They're from that group."

A fifth shot sounded out. "Right," the courier said, removing the now-empty magazine to reload it, "one of the creepy crawlies stopped moving. The other one's getting in your range though."

Without a hurry, Akira, Makoto and Whitmeyer approached the edge of the building and each fired a bunch of shots at the other radscorpion from their handguns. It died fairly quickly, and one good shot from Makoto blew its stinger to bits.

"Nice," the courier said. "Let's reload the empty mags and keep going."

"What if there's some more wildlife near the gas station that we can't see from here?" Akira asked, reaching for his ammo box.

"Depends," the courier replied. "Now that there are two radscorpions less waiting for us there, we might have a chance against an animal or two. Failing that, we'll just run back here. If I remember right, no wildlife here can both do serious damage and outrun a sprinting human."

"So, uh," Whitmeyer said, "we're all trusting the memory of a guy with literal holes in his brain?"

"I remember most things," the courier protested. "And I am eighty percent sure that nothing in this part of the Mojave can't be gunned down or outran by the four of us."

"And what about the other twenty?" Akira asked.

"I'll be the distraction and you shoot the fuckers."

The barracks of the Mojave outpost came with a bar, which also dealt in other goods.

Akechi shoveled the acquired supplies into his duffle bag and tied it closed. "Thank you, ma'am," he told the young woman behind the counter. "Have a nice day."

"Same to you, kid," the bartender replied.

Akechi put on the duffle bag and turned to the exit. "Leaving already?" Tomas asked him, a bottle of cola in his hand. "Stay for a drink, it's on me."

"I'd rather not waste time."

"Then have one to go," Tomas insisted, putting the caps on the counter. "Another Nuka-Cola for… what was your name?"

"Not important."

Tomas didn't relent. "For the hero that saved my life," he told the bartender

Akechi barely repressed the urge to mock him to his face. Mostly because pulling out his rap sheet in the middle of a military outpost would've most likely gotten him apprehended on the spot. "Fine then." He took the bottle of warm and flat Nuka-Cola from the bartender and walked to the door. "Thanks for the drink. Pick your traveling partners better in the future."

Tomas chuckled, taking the barb in stride. "Good luck to you too, Not Important."

Akechi left the building, sticking the drink into a trouser pocket big enough to fit it. The Mojave outpost consisted of two buildings on top of a hill – the main headquarters where the commanders of the NCR forces dealt with all the paperwork, and the barracks that Akechi had just left. Outside of those two buildings were a bunch of uniformed and armed soldiers – most carrying some wood-furnished AR-15 pattern rifles, but there were some exceptions here and there – a bunch of civilians of all stripes waiting for Godot, and a few inexplicably two-headed cows used as pack animals by some caravaneers.

After going underneath the Reunification Movement, Akechi began to march down the sloped road leading back to Nipton. He didn't walk far before hearing a gunshot somewhere far away, to the left of him. Then another one. He turned towards the source of the sound and saw a small building in the distance, with some barely visible people on the roof of it, taking potshots at some fuck-off big scorpion. Existence of animals like this was promptly added to Akechi's list of reasons to hate this fucking place.

One of the things he had bought in the outpost was a pair of binoculars. The Nipton Town Hall was high enough to offer a good vantage point, and he had thought he could ask one of the ex-cons to get up there and keep an eye out for more goddamn raiders trying to attack what was left of the town. Wanting to get a better look at the group on the roof, he pulled out said binoculars, put them to his face, and then let out a word in his native language:

"...konchikushō."

As he lived and breathed, Amamiya and younger Niijima, accompanied by two locals. All armed, as far as he could tell. The cons have mentioned they had encountered Niijima before, but with all the other things on his plate he did not think about the implications of her being within walking distance, and now there she was, with Amamiya in tow. Two out of the eight Phantom Thieves in one spot. There was a pit in his stomach as he briefly wondered about the potential fates of the other six. At least they didn't have to witness what happened in Nipton, they would've taken it much worse than he did. Maybe they wouldn't have walked out of there alive, the stupid, bleeding-heart…

He took a breath and focused. Amamiya and Niijima must've been heading in the direction of the outpost, and so he had to get the hell out of dodge, quickly. Niijima was too Lawful Neutral to actually hurt him if he hadn't provoked her, but after everything he had done to Amamiya, he would put two bullets in his skull without hesitation. And the wounded in Nipton were waiting for the supplies he had acquired, he had to follow that thing through since he had already gotten involved.

He couldn't die just yet.

And so he ran, as fast as he could without falling and rolling down, towards the transporter and his mole rat, setting up camp at the base of the hill. "Hey!" he called for him. "I gotta get back to Nipton, quickly."

"You know my prices, traveler," the transporter replied. "Fifty bottle caps."

"I, uh…" Akechi pulled out the few caps and denarii he had left over. "I have twenty or so caps in mixed currencies?"

"I am already offering you a discount," the transporter said, politely. "Fifty caps or no service."

Akechi let out a groan. "[God-fucking-dammit, I didn't want to do it.]" He then reached for his 10mm pistol, unholstered it, and displayed it to the transporter. "I have this N99 here. I blasted someone's gun out of her hand with it, so it's reliable enough. It has to be worth fifty caps."

"You seem very desperate," the transporter pointed out the obvious. "Will you have anything to defend yourself with if you give me that gun?"

"Yeah, yeah," he pointed at the other holster with his free hand. "I have a nine-mil Sig here, I bought the ammo for it in the outpost." I have no spare mags for it though, he added to himself. But that's fine. I can do a lot with fifteen bullets.

"Right. Since I already offered to make an exception, I will accept the gun instead of payment. Just this once," he emphasized. "Give me the pistol, then get on the rat."

"Thank you, sir," Akechi replied, handing the gun over without a fuss. A moment later, the giant mole rat with two people on top departed towards Nipton.

Focused on other things, Akira's party didn't notice it.

Raul and Neil entered the shack. "The receiver's up and running, naranjita" Raul announced.

Futaba glanced at her charging cell phone. Twenty percent. "All the pieces are in place." She turned back to the computer and typed in a command. "The moment of truth." She slammed the Enter key and after a few seconds, the screen displayed the words "PHONES IN THE AREA" in a monospace font, and below it, six rows of text showing the parameters of, well, the phones in the area she had managed to pick up.

"You look dissatisfied," Neil pointed out. "Something didn't work?"

"It works fine," Futaba replied, processing the data in front of her. "It just doesn't pick up everyone I hoped to pick up, and also gives me one… unexpected result." She reached for her phone without unplugging it. "Screw it. I can reach some of my friends now, that's the priority." She dialed the first number from her list and put the phone to her ear.

"[Do you hear something buzzing?]"

Ann, in fact, felt the buzzing in her pocket. She pulled out her phone and glanced at the screen. While the caller ID wasn't shown, the name of the service provider in the upper left hand corner now read "Oracle :3".

"[Well, I'll be darned.]" She picked up the call. "[Hello? Futaba?]"

"[Yep]" Futaba replied on the other end. "[How it's hanging?]"