The REALLY Wild Wasteland. (The Fallout RP!)

[SamtheDeathclaw]

Stan was touring the front building of the manufacturing plant- mostly accountants and engineers, it would seem- when he heard a scream from the exterior. He glanced out the window and saw the large nukalurk. Even Stan couldn't miss it. He didn't see Wayne, but he was pretty sure it had been him. He drew his revolver, and ran for the door. He reached it at the same time as Wayne's robobrain, and exited just behind it.

He saw Wayne crawling towards the door, and the nukalurk clambering back to its feet not far behind, a hatchet lodged in its knee. Stan brought the pistol up and fired all five rounds at the beast, and made it readily apparent why he was more of a talker than a shooter. One bullet grazed the 'lurk, while the rest scattered widely. Stan sighed, and reloaded with quick motions. He raised the gun, took a breath, and fired again. Bingo. The small-caliber round punched through the nukalurk's weak joint armor, at the tight joint, above the hatchet. A lucky shot if there ever was one, but Stan was a lucky guy. The nukalurk went back down, hard. It wasn't dead, but it bought them a couple of second.


Stanley sprinted out, and stood over Wayne. With a wry grin, he extended an arm to help him up.
"Have a little fall there, pal? Upsadaisy, easy as you like." By the point the robobrain had rolled over to them. Stan didn't know why it hadn't helped its master fight. He'd only ever seen a couple of robobrains, and those had deadly hand lasers.

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

---------------------------------------------

"She'll be safe there, Isaac, you know that! She's my daughter too, you know." Amy's authoritative tone had made its way through the house, despite Lucy's locked bedroom door and desperate attempt to focus on her book, Nikola Tesla and You.

"She turned 19 a few months ago, she's a great candidate for recruitment. She's a bookworm, cunning, charismatic and she's even been trained to properly handle certain energy weapons with ease, by both of us for that matter. She's perfect." Amy was clearly winning this exchange, Lucy covered her ears with her hands. She hated the constant fighting. She just wanted a happy family...

"You want to turn our daughter into a soldier, I won't have that! She's been taught how to survive, she's good with her words, let her be a trader, let her be whatever she wants to be. Just keep her out of our mess!" Isaac's voice could not match Amy's even in the slightest.

Amy was relentless with her verbal assault and continued.

"Your mess! I'm the only person keeping you alive at this point. Far too many shipments have not arrived and they have all been linked to you somehow. I can only cover up for you so many times. They're already getting suspicious."

There was a clear level of contempt visible in her following words.

"...I can make the order to have you permanently removed if I have to. I won't hesitate if you keep playing this game, Isaac. I won't make an exception, not for you, not even for Lucy. Our cause...what we're fighting for, comes first."

"You've been spending far too much time with the Brotherhood, even running errands for them too..."

---------------------------------------------

Penises. Lucy awoke to the sight of penises. Sure, it had been awhile, but what the hell?

These consecutive noodles were connected to two very large, very naked men, thankfully their jiggly bits weren't disembodied as her mind had accidently processed. Clearly she still had Blamco Mac and Cheese on the brain.

Lucy felt wood, under her, that is. She was inside what she assumed to be a coffin, it was strangely comfortable and Shifty had indeed left the lid open for her. The coffin, however, was facing what appeared to be a very strange battle between two men with their exposed fun-sticks.

She squirmed slightly, pushing the lid open and she spotted Shifty with a huge bone. For what purpose, she had no idea. Inspecting the area around her, it appeared that she was going to get ridden by Shifty, on the back of what she thought was a cute bicycle.

Lucy was still really stiff, but her "nap" had made her feel somewhat better. She turned her attention to the fight and noticed the discarded power armor and weapons. It couldn't be...

Thrusting her body upwards, careful to move the lid with ease, she slowly wrapped her hand around the base of her rifle. She lifted it gently and moved it towards to her face, peering through the scope to get a better look at the scene.

Tightening her grip, she spotted a pale-skinned bear of a man. Putting the raging clues together, she slowly opened her mouth, "Is that you, Frank?" she uttered in complete surprise. She grew extremely worried, recalling Frank opening up to her not too long ago. She planned to reveal everything to him when they got back, no holding back...about her Mother and Father. Her consciously suppressed memories seemed to be cumming coming together, she just needed some insight and someone to talk to, before this all...exploded in her face. She thought it would be better if she should also cum come clean in front of everyone.

She would accept the punishment, however rough it may be. Elder Lyons would have to know.

She knew she had wanted to see Frank's eye's one day, but apparently that included seeing the one-eyed snake as well.

The other man could only be FalloutBob, the nearby Enclave armor had hinted at that much. Bob had his disco-stick proudly flaying around during all the rumbling and tumbling. This would have been somewhat kinky, had that man not killed her father and if both men were replaced with females with their Iguana-Bits and two pairs of Sugar Bombs on display.

Lucy was at that age, she couldn't help it, she did grow rather flustered as she realized she was staring with her head slightly tilted to the side, mouth slightly open and her eyes were glazed over with wonder.

She swallowed...and cleared her throat loudly, trying to get the nearby Shifty's attention. Her butt was hurting and she knew it would be difficult to walk straight, so she was content to sit here while Shifty jerked her around. She waved and gave him a tired yet radiant smile. She found that in the short time that she had spoken to Shifty, she found him infinitely more intriguing by the minute. It was probably the articulate speech, the way to her heart is with big words. A good sense of fashion doesn't hurt either.

Adjusting her grip to the thick shaft of her rifle, she laid it between her legs and waited for Shifty to come back.

The familiar zap of a laser rifle interrupted her, she hadn't seen Elder Lyons and the several Brotherhood soldiers approaching. Her mind was...elsewhere.

"I hate to interrupt such great entertainment, but there's a madman with some giant mutants at large and we don't have time for this shit. You men, take this man away and put him in a cell, triple-guarded. Frank? Take a bath. You need it."

So that *was* Frank, she was still worried, she'll check up on him as soon as she was feeling better.

This had snapped her out of it though. Bob, locked up in a cell...Her hands closed into fists, yet there was no strength behind them.

She sighed in frustration, she despised how her body could fail her at this point. She just needed a stimpack or two, maybe med-x...maybe. That's not a combination she enjoyed.

However, if she could just hold off long enough or recuperate and still get to Bob...Well, there's no telling what she'll do. She could feel the rage starting to boil again, yet this instantly made her light-headed, so she decided to focus on Shifty, the only person around that could make her feel comfortable right now.

She gave him another smile and held her arms out, signalling for a hug.

He did take care of her after all and she felt extremely grateful. She hoped she could spend more time around him...

 

[Souplex]

Frank was displeased.
His armor was damaged, so he couldn't avoid the voices.
We're here to help, just talk to us.
He didn't get to tear Bob's heart out.
Your Eagle Claws were sloppy Ladybug.
He wouldn't get to work with Bob's snazzy armor.
That armor was pretty snazzy.
And he was stuck dragging a dead Paladin.
Frank checked the Paladin's holotag.
"Paladin Chris Carlson. I'm gonna have to take your armor for spare parts. Sorry."
Frank continued to trudge, when he saw Lucy sitting in a coffin of all things, along with the man who sold him the bike.
"Ah, Mattie you're alive! And you're with the ass-hat who tried to rob me. Be a dear and stab him, would you?"

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

"Owie owie owie ouch." Lucy winced in pain as she got out of her coffin, "I really did hurt my everything."

She looked down at her Lucy-sized coffin, she liked it for some morbid reason, but she also felt a bit guilty about abandoning it after Shifty's hard work. She still had caps, perhaps she could buy it off him or do him a favor of some sort to repay the debt. She holstered Vikki's SMG, her Gauss Rifle and adjusted her backpack.

"Ah, Mattie you're alive! And you're with the ass-hat who tried to rob me. Be a dear and stab him, would you?"

"I tend to avoid death these days, I realize the irony, getting out of a coffin, making friends with an Undertaker and all."

She noted Frank's damaged armor, recalled their previous conversation about how he hadn't taken it off, the worried expression was not something she could hide.

"You know, Frank, I would do a lot for you, but I'm not about to stab the illustrious Shifty Mcgee, Professional Undertaker of the Wasteland." she paused for a moment and she sheepishly muttered "He took care of me when I passed out. Told you I'm squishy."

Lucy motioned for Shifty to follow her, with a smile of course and proceeded to take the wrist of the dead Paladin and pulled his weight as much as she could along with Frank. She may not be contributing much, but maybe the gesture would be appreciated.

"I made another friend, he joined us abruptly on the Vertibird, he's in bad shape. Name's Barry Allen, he's with Paladin Gilford, he rushed in here wanting to help out the Bro-hood basically. Is there anything you guys can do for him?"

"Listen, when we get some downtime at the Citadel, there are some private things I really want to talk to you about, if that's okay?"

Making their way into the rather desecrated courtyard, Lucy couldn't help but notice more casualties than she would have thought. It was a shocking site and it kicked her back to reality.

It took her awhile to say this, "Thanks for doing what I couldn't, beating the crap out of FalloutBob, or at least hurting him. He was responsible for, you know, what happened to me. I'm not sure if you noticed my little...tantrum."

She was happy to be around Frank, but she felt something was off about him, besides for the obvious, so she just went ahead and said it "Your armor, Frank. I still remember everything you told me. If you want to talk - well, I'm worried."

She realized she was rambling as usual, half to make Frank feel comfortable and half to distract herself from her aching body. She let a few minutes pass before talking again, "I blew up a behemoth!" she positively beamed with joy. "And no broken ribs this time, I'm getting better!"

 

[Souplex]

"You know, Frank, I would do a lot for you, but I'm not about to stab the illustrious Shifty Mcgee, Professional Undertaker of the Wasteland." she paused for a moment and she sheepishly muttered "He took care of me when I passed out. Told you I'm squishy."
"Who knows what else he did while you were passed out."
"I made another friend, he joined us abruptly on the Vertibird, he's in bad shape. Name's Barry Allen, he's with Paladin Gilford, he rushed in here wanting to help out the Bro-hood basically. Is there anything you guys can do for him?"
"If I don't know how injured he is, I can't tell you. My best bet is probably."
"Listen, when we get some downtime at the Citadel, there are some private things I really want to talk to you about, if that's okay?"
Bow-chicka-bow-wow!
"Sure. We can talk while you lend a hand on repairs to my armor. I'm not all there right now."
I'd say this qualifies as a little more than "Not all there".
"Thanks for doing what I couldn't, beating the crap out of FalloutBob, or at least hurting him. He was responsible for, you know, what happened to me. I'm not sure if you noticed my little...tantrum."
"'Fraid I didn't notice. Had other things on my mind."
Lots of things.
"Usually when I beat up someone who's been a jerk to a girl, I get the privilege of feeling her up. ...Ah youth."
Now you're going after outsider girls? You're better than that.
"Shut up dad."
"Your armor, Frank. I still remember everything you told me. If you want to talk - well, I'm worried."
"As I said, we'll talk while we work."
"I blew up a behemoth!" she positively beamed with joy. "And no broken ribs this time, I'm getting better!"
"Unfortunately, if we don't kill this doctor schmuck, there are going to be a lot more of them."

 

[RobDaBank]

The creature squirmed on the floor in pain at the lucky shot
from Stan. Wayne was more concerned with the rest of the
shots that had almost hit him though.




Have a little fall there, pal?




"No, I just fight better on my ass..." Wayne said, trying to
sound sarcastic. He didn't really want to insult the man that
was helping him. "Listen, open up the chest on this useless
piece of shit and get a stick of dynamite, here's my lighter"
he said to Stan, motioning to the Robobrain whilst holding
his lighter out. "Get it to land right under its feet, I'll
grab its attention.




The creature had risen to its feet by now, it stood snapping its claws, looking to intimidate the pair. It didn't charge though, perhaps the damage to its leg was too much. Wayne pointed his revolver and began circling the Nukalurk, working his way toward his rifle which was at a right angle to the line between the Nukalurk and Stan, he didn't want the boys from inside to come out, all guns blazing while Wayne was directly behind it. "NOW!" He yelled as he fired his revolver, aiming for the other knee. Missed! He fired again, *click*. "Fuck" With all that was going on he had actually forgotten to reload.


The creature was more than angry now and began throwing itself forward to finish Wayne off. There wasn't much time, Wayne rolled over his rifle, picking it up and finishing in a kneeling position, aiming straight at the 'lurk. As soon as the dynamite landed he was going to shoot the creatures other knee to make it land on top of it.


It was upto Stan now, hopefully he could throw better than he could shoot...

 

[The Harkinator]

Wow, this place was textbook interrogation chamber. Dark and dank, yet still with the bare lightbulb for an intimidating glare. Maybe they would even make it swing to and fro to intimidate him.

Turns out William's Enclave was in another base. This one was some secret breakaway movement. Obviously the Brotherhood didn't know about this, of course they probably would very much like to, but right now it looked a bit doubtful that William could just leave and tell them the Enclave was split right at its centre.

Nope, this Captain was asking for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But William was not too inclined to spill the entire story, instead he went for an edited version:

"Well perhaps I am an incredible spy with information worthy of a complete idiot? You see I was simply trying to get into the Enclave base here, the REAL Enclave base. You see, I'd found the way in, I just didn't know about your splinter group.

You see the... organisation I work for wants to know about the Enclave, so they sent me to meet a man with the location of your secret way in. Obviously he's dead now. Can't have too many people knowing important information, the more people know the greater the risk of discovery.

Anyway, I'm here to find out how powerful the Enclave is, what they have at their disposal, how well dug in they are, what they plan to do next. Then I was supposed to put all of that information on this pip boy here and return to my normal life until somebody from my organisation arrived. Then I would give them the Pip-boy and receive payment.

Of course things do seem to have gotten out of control a little bit. I was skulking around here and that is when our paths crossed, Captain." Said William, aware of how she liked to be addressed.

William only then realised how far-fetched his story sounded.

 

[SamtheDeathclaw]

Stan pulled open the chest of the robobrain and retrieved a stick of dynamite. He couldn't admit to having all that much experience with dynamite. Or explosives in general. But he wasn't bad at throwing things, having spent a great many hours playing catch with people during childhood. He just hoped he still remembered it... And that playing catch with a ball is anywhere near comparable with throwing dynamite. Somehow, he doubt it.

He flicked the lighter open, flicked the wheel once, twice, three times before the flame sputtered to life. He held the fuse into the flame, looked up, judged the throw, and...
The stick of dynamite struck the nukalurk full in the chest- Yup, throwing a ball does not prepare you for throwing dynamite. Who'd have thought it.- and fell near his feet. Close enough. He hoped. It sure as hell wasn't an arc, but hey. Who said throwing dynamite overhand isn't a valid combat strategy? ...Pretty much everyone who would be in a position to know.
Oh well. It worked out. He hoped.

And now it was up to Wayne. Stan had no idea what he was planning. Stan hoped it was something good! Otherwise they'd likely die horribly.

 

[wilcoblackflame]

Well well well...Now here were some developments. More people. Even better, they didn't look to be either Brotherhood or Enclave. That's a good start. And you know, the Mutant and subsequent Enclave attack had been fended off, with the added bonus of seeing Frank get a battering. Marlon felt all warm and fuzzy about that part. Sort of anyway. He doubted it'd make him any less of a pain to deal with, but it was kind of enjoyable to watch.

On a happier note, it looked as if Lucy was okay. So that was good. Granted he had to wonder here and there whether she'd pull a gun on him if Frank asked her to given the group...dynamic. But hey. Cross that bridge when he came to it.

He made his way down from the battlements to see who the new arrivals were, waiting by the gate as those in the field were on their way back. Besides, it gave him a good chance to look this Enclave guy over.

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

"Unfortunately, if we don't kill this doctor schmuck, there are going to be a lot more of them."

"You're right, I think we all have a personal reason for taking that jackass down." Her mind fluttered to the imagined hardships that Vikki had to endure because of this man.

Shifty had stopped them and laid out a stretcher for the dead Paladin. "Pragmatic." She commented with admiration in her tone, this had dropped quickly as she watched Shifty cross the Paladin's arms and close his eyes.

"Respect for the dead." She realized how she must look, merely dragging a corpse nonchalantly, such a normal thing to do in the Wasteland. "I apologize, Mr Mcgee, if we are going to be moving or tampering with this man's body, then we can at least treat him with a measure of dignity."

She wished someone had shown her Father's corpse some dignity. The few days she had spent in recovery at Megaton, it had been picked apart and desecrated by various creatures of the wasteland. The sight of her father's ruined body had made her breakdown at the time.

She shut her eyes tightly, shaking her head slowly, trying to rid the image from her mind as she helped with the carrying of the Paladin.

Frank had guided them though the hustle and bustle of one of the crowded entrances, she could hear groans and even screams from the wounded. Orders were barked from those in charge and plea's were made from loved one's and friends. Making their way deeper into the Citadel, Lucy had failed to acknowledge the extent of The Brotherhood's losses. While she was, relatively, safe inside the Vertibird, taking what she thought were glorified potshots at a behemoth. She had forgotten about the outside world upon seeing FalloutBob again, she had become unfocused and blinded by rage.

It was more terrifying than anything else, to discover that she was even capable of such emotion.
She worried for her own humanity.

Pleasingly, Shifty had followed, with her coffin no less. She nodded at the coffin and looked at him directly, mouthing the words "Thank you" followed by a smile of sheer admiration. This moment was ruined as she stubbed her toe on the entrance to what looked like an empty workshop. Her hair had flown into her face and she decided to do a dramatic hair-flip.

At least her sense of humor was returning.

They cleared out a table full of tools and equipment for armor and weapon repairs. There were even basic medical supplies in case of an accidental injury. They laid the Paladin down on the table gently. With plenty of space to work and fairly secluded from all the action. They would have no distractions.

She had left Frank to his thoughts during their trip here, not wanting to interrupt him processing anything, especially after he said "I'm not all there right now."

"Mind if I help myself?" She motioned towards the stimpacks in one of the nearby medical cabinets, there were about 6 neatly arranged. She was banged up, bruised and cut, but nothing was broken thankfully. "I only need about two right now, at most, if that's okay?" she paused "Maybe you should have one as well?" she held one out to Frank.

She could talk to Frank about sensitive matters and include the illustrious Undertaker as a sign of good faith, not out of professional courtesy, but as a person. She turned her attention to the Paladin.

"So where do we get started?" She looked expectantly at Frank and Shifty.

 

[RobDaBank]

The dynamite landed at the Nukalurks feet, Stan had played
his part perfectly. Wayne aimed through the sight of his
rifle and took a deep breath, just like his father had always
taught him to do before making a life or death shot.




'Remember son, there ain't many people making ammo these
days, and most things don't take kindly to gettin' shot at,
so make each shot count so they won't be able to fight back.'





He fired, the knee cap practically exploded on impact and the
creature fell right on top of the dynamite. 




"Get down!" Yelled Wayne as he dove to the floor and covered
his head with his hands. He felt the thud of the explosion
rattle his belly through the ground and when he looked up he
saw chunks of 'lurk flying through the air.




This time his knee was in severe pain, all that rolling
around had taken its toll and with the adrenaline wearing off it was fast becoming unbearable. He crawled as fast as he could to the Robobrain, pulling himself up on it and reaching into the chest cavity. He pulled out a stimpak and 3 doses of med-x, falling to the floor afterward. He quickly injected all of them into his leg and slumped back, letting the drugs circulate through his system. They weren't as effective any more, probably due to overuse, but they still helped, and without them Wayne would have gone insane a long time ago.


He sat on the floor in a dazed state, unable to fully focus. Hopefully nothing else would attack him until he came back around.

 

[SamtheDeathclaw]

Stanley kept his revolver out, watching for any threat. He approached Wayne, who appeared to be in fairly bad shape, writhing in pain even after three med-x shots. It was worrying.
He crouched down next to Wayne.
"You okay? Do I need to see about getting a doctor?" he asked, genuinely worried. He had already decided he and Wayne were pals, and he didn't like seeing his pals in pain.
"That was some brilliant work, anyways. I couldn't have done it, that's for damn sure."

[sub][sub]Captcha: look out! Fuck. Jack, what do you have planned? You diabolical person.[/sub][/sub]

 

[Souplex]

As they walked, Frank gained the massive experience boost from the whole siege/fight ordeal.

Spoiler: Level up!

As usual, points were divvied, and a perk was taken.
Bonecrusher: Unarmed and melee attacks do massive limb damage.

"Oh... Mister Frank... I should mention that I'm terribly sorry about any misunderstandings that we might have had earlier. You see, we Undertakers aren't Medical examiners and our volume of business dictates that we need speed through the initial transactions as quickly as possible. When you were... launched... by Gigantor over there, I figured that you were a dead man. I even kicked your body to be sure. All things being as they are... I only took the standard 202 Caps from your body, leaving the remainder of your purse on you. Imagine my surprise that you not only survived the impact of your travels ... but you were able to move around. Long story short... and a reiteration of this on my part. I must humbly apologize if I ... scared you or inconvenienced you in any way."
"If you feel so bad, give me my money back."
"I apologize, Mr Mcgee, if we are going to be moving or tampering with this man's body, then we can at least treat him with a measure of dignity."
"I don't think he's in a position to really care. Corpses are corpses after all."
"Mind if I help myself?" She motioned towards the stimpacks in one of the nearby medical cabinets, there were about 6 neatly arranged. She was banged up, bruised and cut, but nothing was broken thankfully. "I only need about two right now, at most, if that's okay?"
"Go nuts."
"Maybe you should have one as well?"
"I suppose."
Frank removed his helmet, releasing a very potent smell that was acquired over a year of being in an airtight container.
[Medicine 40/25][Success!]Frank stabbed the stimpack into the right side of his neck, and injected it.
"That's good healing."
"So where do we get started?"
"Step one: Get the armor off this corpse."
Frank removed the armor.
"Step two: Get the corpse off the table."
Frank picked up the corpse and tossed it in Shifty's direction.
Frank removed his armor, once again revealing a very naked, very large, very pale, very hairy, very smelly man and put his armor on the table.
"Step three: Gut out the broken bits."

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

"I don't think he's in a position to really care. Corpses are corpses after all."

This had irked Lucy somewhat, "Dead or not, he's one of your own. You can't possibly be that emotionally disconnected."

She had taken the two stimpacks and decided on a duel injection, she sat on another table for this and felt her body go numb, the pain rush back and healing process slowly begin. Discomfort was very clearly displayed on her face, she had her eyes shut as she listened to Frank's instructions.

She heard clanking, thuds and a throw of something large pass her by. She decided to open her eyes to a penis.
More accurately Frank's penis. "Gut out the broken...bits...got it." she realized she was addressing the lower half of his body and grabbed the chest-plate from the table.

Laying it down on a separate table, she sighed and decided to swallow her pride.

She started to pull at her skin-tight armor, slipping out of it with a slight struggle to reveal smooth pale skin, courtesy of staying indoors and reading a lot. Plus matching black underwear, lacy, and courtesy of Moira when she was apparently supposed to "feel frisky", she never quite knew what she meant by that, but it was comfortable nonetheless.

She turned to address Shifty and slid her modified leather-armor over the table to him, "It looks somewhat damaged and more of a liability than protection , my hands have never been good with precision work on armor, more on energy weapons." now she realized how stunning her smile's could be, a charismatic trait taught by her mother, but with a playful smile, a slight tilt of her head and a pale body in black underwear, "Could you perhaps fix this up for me...Please?"

Working on the chest-plate, she noted that the outside had a large indentation, so she started hammering it back into place from the inside, removing broken circuitry in the process and laying it in a pile. She decided to address Frank while she worked.

"The Enclave man, FalloutBob..." she didn't know where to start.

She was saying this loud enough for both of them to hear, curious and fearful of both their reactions to her. "It was a few days after the attack on Springvale, I went back there." she paused, scrambling for the right words "Bob was there, waiting for me actually. He beat me up and explained how my father was not the man I knew and that I had to repay his...debt."

This was difficult for her to get out. She had finished with the chest plate, removing useless circuitry, even shifting the inner layers of plating to cover a smaller area while bolting it in place. Direct impact to these reinforced area's won't be taken down too easily. Practically stronger than before.

She continued after grabbing one of shoulder-pads, "Anywhere my dad had gone as a trader (she said the word "trader" with visible fingerquotes), Megaton, Rivet City, The Underworld and even the Citadel. I'm given time to report my findings to any Enclave member and they'll pass it along to Bob." she sighed heavily "I was known as Enclave Asset Unit-08. I think there's more people like me...I'm meant to report rumors, defenses, what people know of the Enclave and information that can aid them, you get the idea."

She turned around and faced Frank and Shifty, "He said they would burn these places to the ground and start killing people just like they did to Springvale if I didn't report in time."

Her voice trailed off, "I was scared and angry that I was dragged into a mess that didn't belong to me. Plus, thanks to my little nap earlier, I remembered some buried memories about mom"

"Seems like Mother dearest is Enclave too, and a higher-up to boot." she paused "I'm not working with those monsters, he promised me information on my dad, but that was before I heard what the Elder told me...so he was probably playing me."

She now waited, oddly comfortable in her underwear, for her friends reactions...

 

[Souplex]

Frank received a refund from the creepy fellow who robbed him. He was now removed from Frank's mental kill list, and placed on Frank's mental list of weirdoes.
"Dead or not, he's one of your own. You can't possibly be that emotionally disconnected."
"It's not about emotional disconnection. Without your mind working, you're not a person anymore. You're a thing that resembles the person you used to be. He's an ex-person."
"Gut out the broken...bits...got it."
"I know it's quite spectacular, but I'm up here."
Lucy also began to undress.
Saying "Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow" would be a little too on the nose.
"Step four: Gut take the parts we gutted from my armor out of the spare armor."
Frank began to work on Paladin Carlson's armor.
Lucy then gave her big confession about the Enclave.
"How did you report back to them? Did you just inform a nearby Eyebot of your findings?"
She's Enclave. Can't be trusted. Kill her.
"Shut up dad!"
"I suppose since we're doing confessions, it's my turn."
Frank paused to scratch himself. It had been too long since he had been able to scratch himself. It felt good.
"Before I start, you got any Brahmin jerky left? I want to be able to taste some solid food before I seal myself back up."
Back in my day, there was this jerky vendor out west in Junktown. He made the best Brahmin jerky. He could always haggle for the best price.

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

Lucy almost grew teary-eyed over the fact that someone had understood her predicament and had accepted it so easily. She lived in fear of exposure and intimacy since she did not want to endanger anymore loved ones. So to hear Shifty's reasonable and rational acceptance, this had thrown her into hugging him, disrupting his needlework in the process.

"Thank you, Mr Mcgee. I-just...You have no reason to-...You know it's something special when you make me equally speechless." she realized how she must look at the moment and she sheepishly returned to the armor work, she whispered to him. "Don't, for a moment, think I did not notice the trembling hands..." adding a mischievous smile. "I propose that we get some drinks after this, I know I could use a few."

The tone had changed when addressing Frank.

Lucy was surprised she didn't have a gun pointed to her head or being restrained by Frank after everything she had just confessed to. Although the imagery of a naked Frank pinning Lucy to the ground would look rather awkward, to say the least.

"I know it's quite spectacular, but I'm up here."

"It's a spectacular display of shrubbery! And my eyes are up here too, you know. You need a good waxing or at least a large dose of radiation to sort out...all of you." she teased Frank by pointing in all directions of his hairy frame.

"How did you report back to them? Did you just inform a nearby Eyebot of your findings?"

"I had to report directly to an Enclave patrol, which meant finding them, a move which would get you killed 9 times out of 10." she paused, remembering details "I had to surrender my weapons, declare my title, they would search me, I would report my findings in 4 minutes or they pull the trigger on one of my legs. Then came the beating and the cheery goodbye."

"I'm still in the dark about all this. My Father had some kind of debt with the Enclave, but he had ties to the Brotherhood. My Mother has not, conveniently, visited me since the attack. She's clearly Enclave." she then proceeded to tell them about the "Plasma Factory" and her planned "recruitment".

"The thing is, I can interact with them, without getting killed...If I can be used, somehow, to the Brotherhood's advantage. They still think I'm an asset, I'll be doing something good, unlike my family." she pleaded.

Lucy had finished with the chest-plate and shoulder-pad repairs. She also moved all the broken circuitry into one arranged section and had salvaged any working components, grabbing a cloth to clean them off. She decided to work on the back-piece in the meantime.

"I suppose since we're doing confessions, it's my turn."

All eyes were on Frank as she absentmindedly tried pulling out some rather stubborn broken circuitry.

"Before I start, you got any Brahmin jerky left? I want to be able to taste some solid food before I seal myself back up."

She dug around in her backpack, pulling open one of the inner zips, a large chunk of Brahmin Jerky was still there. She handed it to Frank.

 

[RobDaBank]

The sun was beaming hot, hotter than he had ever noticed before, sweat was running down his face, a single stream of blood trickling from a small cut on his head, nothing too serious. He was looking down at the sand he was sat on, exhausted and in extreme pain. He would have carried on crying if it weren't for the dehydration taking over. He took a deep breath, placed his hands on the floor at each side of him and shoved himself backward. Looking up he could see the trail he had left, a line in he sand stained with blood. Blood? Where was it from? Confusion was setting in. The last thing he remembered was being charged at by them. Where were they? He scanned the horizon and saw a Deathclaw, stood atop a rock face, he must have been out of its territory for it not to chase him down.

He was safe, from the Deathclaws. Not the world. The dehydration would get him soon, if the bleeding didn't get him first. The bleeding. He focused and remembered. It was his leg, everything below the knee was loose. Not connected.

'Fuck it' he finally said. His first words since the adrenaline had worn off and had found himself crawling away from the quarry, leaving the bodies of his friends and family, his father, behind. He had decided it was futile, there was no hope. He lay back and waited for death to come.

He closed his eyes, and prayed for it o be quick, when the sun suddenly became dim. 'Need some help friend?' Came a voice. He looked up to see Stan.

Stan? Wayne snapped out of his nightmarish reliving of that horrendous day to see Stan standing over him. His mouth moving. What was he saying?

I couldn't have done it, that's for damn sure. Some kind of complement?

"Don't mention it" Wayne croaked. "C'mon, we gotta get inside before more of these things show up" he said as he hauled himself onto his Robobrain, tapping at his Pip-boy to make it go back to the door of the Nuka cola factory. "I ain't got all day!"

 

[Souplex]

Frank took the jerky and began to chow down. It was pretty good. He had forgotten how much he enjoyed solid food.
"Step five: Take the replacement parts, and put them in the armor."
Frank got to work on the armor, cutting his finger on a sharp piece of metal.
"The sooner I stop being fleshy, the better."
Why haven't you killed her yet?
"Shut up dad!"
Frank continued working on his armor.
"So I omitted a detail when I was telling you why I'm me."
Frank took a heavy sigh.
"The reason I started wearing my armor non-stop, is because since I killed my dad, when I don't, I hear the voices of my dead father-figures. I'm a pretty sane person, sane people should not hear voices."
Being sane is overrated. If you were sane, you would have settled down somewhere, gotten a boring job, and slowly had your soul crushed by tedium.
"So, you know how to track down Enclave patrols? We'll have to kill a few later."
The repairs on the armor were finished. Good as new.
That's some mighty swanky armor.
Frank walked towards the door, still quite naked.
"I'm heading back to my room to take a shower and a dump before I seal myself back up. You're welcome to join me for the shower Mattie."

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

Lucy had listened to Frank with concern, she noted him actively shouting to himself, yet she felt compelled not to interject. She knew enough about Frank at this point, to know that he isn't a man of many words, so when he does open up, the information is always valuable.

"Have you considered talking to one of the Brotherhood doctor's? Surely there's a Brotherhood psychologist around here that could help some-..."

She realized the silly approach she was taking, of course Frank would consider professional help, or at the very least, it would be mandatory.

"So, you know how to track down Enclave patrols? We'll have to kill a few later."

"I can possibly approach an Eyebot, request the Enclave's attention with new information on the Brotherhood. I could lead them into a trap, we could ambush them..." at this point, her mind fluttered to FalloutBob and her heart grew cold. "Take hostages, torture them, extract information. This list goes on."

WHAT ARE YOU BECOMING?

She noticed her neatly folded armor out of the corner of her eye, she took it in her hands, stretching it out, it looked practically new. She decided to start slipping into the armor, always a tight fit, her hands closed around the studded fingerless gloves. "Thank you, Shifty. Beautiful work, not something I could ever do. Even with just needle and thread, you weave with a sense of grace that goes unparalleled." She replied despondently, the sentiment was there, yet her voice seemed off...disconnected. "After this, I want to find FalloutBob...or you choose a method to distract me, whether that includes those drinks I mentioned or otherwise...You choose my immediate future, before I make a somewhat rash decision." Her voice was monotone, her eyes were dull.

Lucy felt something wrong with her thought process, she couldn't emote properly. It was almost as if her emotions had developed their own restricted tunnel-vision. So this was her aggression trigger, she mused. Her mind raced back to the screaming and manic version of herself not too long ago, driven by murderous rage. A shell of her former self. She at least grew frightened at the thought of that side of her erupting again.

STOP ME!

This was why she was requesting help.

"Although there is something I want to do first, come with me to visit a friend in the medical wing, if she's still alive. She has something of mine..."

Rage was slowly building under the surface.

With her back turned to Frank. "Before you leave, do you know where they're keeping FalloutBob, and finally, why haven't you killed me?"

WHY DO YOU WISH FOR DEATH?

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

Lucy had only realized that she was standing in the hallway with her hand gripped firmly in that of the Illustrious Undertaker, Shifty Mcgee's own pale hand. She broke off the physical contact slowly, still rather disconnected from her surroundings, she put her hand to her forehead and leaned against the wall. Taking a deep breath, she took the tip of Shifty's fingers within her hand, guiding him momentarily before falling into step, side-by-side.

Making their way to the Medical Wing, Lucy finally spoke up, the dull tone was still very much apparent, like she was reading from a shopping list. "Her name is Vikki, a semi-mutant. We bumped into each other not too long ago, kindest soul I've ever met, first friend I trusted in years. We also met Frank that day." She then proceeded to tell him about their attack on the raiders and their first encounter with a Duper-mutant. "Skipping some details that I'll tell you about later, we got into a fight with our first Behemoth. Vikki and I were both injured quite badly. Vikki, well, she's stuck here, as far as I know."

Entering the Medical Wing, she discovered it to be empty except for one bed, filled by her yellow-skinned friend. "Lucy! You're alive, what's happening, I'm hearing screaming and I heard explosions and -" Vikki looked visibly frightened, but she was awake and alert. She had put her hand up in order to stop her, but no smile had crossed Lucy's face.

"Three behemoth's, they all had mini-nukes. I ended up taking one down in a rather spectacular fashion. Frank is fine and I made it out in one piece" She motioned towards the Undertaker behind her. "Shifty Mcgee, Undertaker of the Wasteland. Don't worry, you aren't dying." She couldn't even muster a smile with that.

Vikki had smiled nervously and spoke politely "A pleasure to meet you, Mr Undertaker man." Her attention was turned to Lucy though. "Are you okay? Something's wrong. I can see it."

Lucy responded by reaching to the bedside to reclaim her combat knife, hovering above her momentarily, she wished Bob was laying down right here. Now this must look rather disturbing from an outside perspective, Lucy gripping a blade pointed downwards towards her friend for a short period of time that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

She shakily holstered the weapon and laid Vikki's SMG back in its place. "Thank you for your assistance." she nodded towards the SMG. "Goodbye Vikki." she attempted a hug, yet her speech and movement was far too formal and distant for it to feel even remotely affectionate.

Leaving the Medical Wing rather quickly, she spoke more to herself. "At least someone didn't die around me again."

She walked briskly, trying to find a pattern to the crowds that were forming, separating shouts of pain and the bark of orders from those of jovial cheering from the crowds. She had discovered a Brotherhood bar of some sort.

She entered without a moment's hesitation, took a seat at the bar and spoke directly to what she believed to be the apparent Bartender "Vodka. I want the bottle. I blew up one of those Behemoth's from a Vertibird, my friend here assisted me. I think that warrants a few free drinks before we have to start paying."

Receiving two glasses and bottle of Vodka that was roughly slammed on table, she filled half her glass and quickly downed it, feeling her throat burn and her stomach complain as she hadn't eaten beforehand.

"I do apologize for the sudden shift in tone and demeanor, Mr Mcgee." She was starting to feel somewhat better. "My mood was a product of feeling overburdened and overwhelmed by all this combat, commotion and emotional turmoil." She felt somewhat pleased that she could stretch her vocabularies metaphorical leg's at this point. "I can handle a few energy weapons rather well, I'm charismatically inclined and I can do a few odd repair jobs. I am not built for warfare, it seems."

Apparently alcohol had an effect on her charismatic abilities.

Her tone had dropped and she addressed Shifty with a more direct gaze "I am simply emotionally drained and somewhat despondent. Yet listen to me ramble about my negativity...tell me more about yourself."

She paused and added "I'm intrigued." with the smallest of a smile forming.