The REALLY Wild Wasteland. (The Fallout RP!)

[wilcoblackflame]

Marlon cursed under his breath as he watched the scene unfold. He'd hoped to get a clean shot at FalloutBob before he managed to suit back up. On the other hand, the way he trailed off his ranting sounded an awful lot like whatever he was juiced up on, buffout, psycho or some combination, had run its course. And as a bonus of..questionable value, the enclave lunatic had set the room he was in on fire.

"Hope Lyons got everything she wanted from this loon, cos I'm gonna cook this tin turkey." he muttered to himself. Spinning up the gatling laser, he decided to take advantage of FalloutBob's momentary apparent disorentiation as the drugs wore off, doing his best to keep him either under heavy laser fire, force him into the fire or if possible both. It occured to him that Frank would probably open with some manner of one liner, but Marlon, prefering to do maximum damage on the initial assault to both Bob and with any luck his weapon and not wanting to give away his presence before the first volley of lasers were well on their way, held his tongue until he was spraying Bob's general vicinity with lasers.

At the very least, he didn't plan on allowing FalloutBob to leave the room and positioned himself near the doorway accordingly, where he could use the sides of it as cover when required. A grin slid across his face. The enclave power armor wasn't quite the same, but it brought back memories of killing brotherhood goons out west. He'd ended his fair share of them and a workshed full of bits of pieces of power armor stood testament in the Van Graff compound to it. He'd spent a lot of time in there, looking over the pieces of the suits, working out how best to damage them, or at least make them extremely uncomfortable to be inside. Time to see if he could take apart an Enclave one.

He glanced momentarily around the hallway at other fallen Brotherhood members. With any luck some of them were still alive, or some of them would be nearby enough to hear him. "ENCLAVE CLOWN IS LOOSE IN ONE OF THE LABS!" He kicked a brotherhood guard who'd been knocked aside by Bob and his door who lay on the ground near his feet. "Get your metalhead ass up and movin'! This stooge needs to fry!"

Marlon didn't waste any time seeing if he'd roused anyone. His attention was firmly on Bob now. Go go laser fight party.

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

How had our Gauss Girl's journey begun?

Essentially, she was a stay-at-home kind of girl who spent her days delving into any piece of literature brought back by her father. She was taught how to shoot and maintain the energy weapons given to her by her parents. Always left alone for extended periods of time. Never quite realizing the true nature of her parents' origins.

Just a few days ago, her biggest concern was haggling a particularly difficult trader over her next meal.

Now she was in the Citadel's infirmary, her eye missing and the scope of her father's final gift obliterated.

[hr]

Lucy aimed her gun at the open doorway, peering down the shaft of her rifle. It was unusual for there not to be a scope. It was even more unusual to have a significantly more narrow field of view. While she used her right eye for aiming anyway, the effect was still rather jarring. For the time being, her abilities to snipe at long-range would troublesome.

However, without a scope, her Gauss Rifle had now become a mid-range, single-shot battle rifle. Considering her condition, there was going to be quite the learning curve.

[hr]

Yet on an emotional level, how has our Gauss Girl changed?

Essentially, our Idealistic Little Lucy gathered her knowledge of the world from books. Upon reflection, written works were often romanticised instead of staying grounded to reality.

Traders were humble people, eager to share what they have found in order to barter at a fair price. Marlon Van Graff had decreased that outlook. Some traders existed to be cut-throat opportunists in a world where they would thrive off the needs of others. Only for a profit at the end of the day.

The Brotherhood of Steel were bastions of hope against the threats of the wasteland. By their hands, the Wasteland would be rehabilitated and restored. Frank Rose had broken those ideals. The Brotherhood of Steel were warriors by nature, obsessed with their technology, their focus was always turned inwards, seeking glory in battle and waging war on anything that opposed them. Ordinary Wastelander's were regarded as nothing more than collateral damage or cannon fodder in battle.

The Undertakers were few in number, yet vast in their noble traits. They existed to show respect to the dead by providing a grisly service for nothing more than a simple contribution. Shifty Mcgee had buried those assumptions. No, they were mercenaries masquerading as Undertaker's. Carrion birds that profited off the dead only to spread a new wave of death with every stride.

Ironically, The Enclave had made more sense in comparison. Initially viewed as savage murderers and emotional manipulators. FalloutBob had smashed that belief to a degree. They had a strict plan, they were the only one's focused on restoring the Wasteland to its pre-war glory. Unfortunately, a wave of militaristic conquest was necessary in order to achieve their goals. She didn't agree with their methods, but they at least had an end-goal.

[hr]

Lucy had foolishly believed in good and evil. Brotherhood for the former, Enclave for the latter.
Lucy had foolishly generalized these qualities to the factions as a whole.

Fighting for the Brotherhood had earned her physical trauma, battle scars, broken beliefs and minimal support.
Working for the Enclave as an asset had earned her insurmountable guilt, confusion and frustration.

[hr]

The girl you remember is dead.

Lucy had never belonged to a group. She was not born with their ideals and she will walk the path she chooses.

No! Our asymmetrical anti-hero was done trying to please everyone. She now marched towards her own goals. And she will take advantage over whoever provides her with the opportunity to do so.

[hr]

FalloutBob. His voice echoed along the hallways and her blood had turned to ice. She had never anticipated his escape and while her blood would usually boil at the thought of his very name. The metallic taste of disgust should have grown on her tongue at her next thought: He still believed her to be an asset undercover in the Brotherhood!

FalloutBob, the very man that made her an Enclave Asset and by extension the Enclave itself was the last remaining link to finding her mother, Amy Kane. A family reunion was in order and this dinner party shall not be particularly pleasant.

"ENCLAVE CLOWN IS LOOSE IN ONE OF THE LABS!"

Marlon. This could prove problematic.

Lucy, with cold determination, got to her feet and entered the hallway. The scenery was macabre to put it lightly. Dead soldiers littered the hallway, flames erupted from the entrance to the labs, laser burns scorched the walls and Marlon stood in the doorway, armed with a gatling laser.

Knowing the sound of Bob's voice, it appeared that he was in the lab itself. Which was subsequently being blocked off by Marlon's attack.

Walking towards Marlon with a cold glare set in her eye, she raised her rifle and sent out a devastating bolt through the large barrel of the gatling laser. Shattering the barrel and effectively rendering it as useless scrap.

She struggled momentarily with the reloading of her next shot. Most likely due to her decreased depth of field throwing off her coordination.

Lucy looked up and addressed the merchant coldly. "He is not yours to kill." Lucy's eye narrowed in aggression.

No he wasn't, because she needed him to be kept alive.

 

[ImSkeletor]

Eobard watched as Marlon turned the courner and began following the whacked out Enlave soldier as well. Oh come on! this part was supposed to be easy. All I had to do was follow Bob out of here. But of course this guy shows up. Did Barry ever learn his name? I don't think so...Well atleast Bob is still drugged up. This guy couldn't possibly be dumb enough to try to fight roidrage Bob here."

"...Fallout Bob."

"Seriously. Now? Alright maybe this Brotherhood guy won't notice they wore off."

"ENCLAVE CLOWN LOOSE IN ON OF THE LABS"

"Huh. Well I just need stop thinking things will work themselves out."Eobard thought about how to handle this. He looked down at his bag of explosives. Suddenly Lucy barged into the scene so we can just have a full cluster. She fired a shot which trashed Marlon's gun and said "He is not yours to kill!" He noticed the eyepatch across her face. He thought quickly about what the hell happened to her and why she was doing this. Not important right now. Finally a run of luck for Eobard. A distraction. He pulled out a plasma grenade, set the countdown, and rolled it next to Marlon. See you in hell cowboy.[HEADING=3]BOOM[/HEADING]

 

[The Harkinator]

"Merchants huh? Do you have a plan for every kind of wasteland crazy that turns up?" Said William, suddenly finding himself in a lift with an Enclave superior. This guy was clearly an important figure of some sort, but his comment about the 'boss man' suggested he wasn't the main man in the base. The power armour masked his voice, fortunately.

Unfortunately, William got the sense he was going to be stuck inside this life for a while. Perhaps making conversation would be in order...

"How many assets do we have now?"

"What kind of guy pukes when he hears one word?"

"You planning to keep these ones around?"

... were the questions William asked. Internally he was glad to hear Evan and Dudley had made it out of the base safe and sound but was also worried about the surveillance they were under. When, or rather if William made it out of the Enclave base with the necessary information he may run into some problems returning the information. If Evan and Dudley were being watched travelling back with them would not be a good idea. It would only blow their cover and bring the Enclave down upon them, rendering the mission pointless.

Now if he could find a trading hub and link up with a caravan heading for the Capital Wasteland then William could make it back without them. Of course he hoped they would find their own way back or even shrug off their Enclave surveillance. But for now one step at a time, get to the deep heart of the Enclave base and get that data!

==============================================================

Sleep did not come easy to Enclave Asset 18 that night, images and thoughts rushed through his head, William shot to pieces in a hail of plasma, William torn apart by a Ripper, William disintegrated into green goo and swept away. With no idea what was going on inside the Enclave Base Asset 18's imagination was running rings around him with worry. In truth, Asset 18 had placed his toolbox next to William's bike to placate Asset 19. That harsh, Brotherhood companion of his was well trained to deal with situations like this, Asset 18 just had humour.

However, this was neither the time nor the place for a joke, besides, his audience wasn't likely to appreciate it. Asset 18 felt around in his pockets for something to occupy himself with, something that reminded him of a few days ago, when he had been just plain ol' Dudley and Asset 19 had been Evan. William had been there too and the three of them had felt like they could take on the Wasteland at that point. Things had gone downhill soon after that and Asset 18 wanted to relive a good memory. Taking his deck of cards out of his pocket he sat down with a "HUFF" next to Asset 19 and started setting up a game...

... Two hours later after an eerie, wordless series of games Asset 18 abruptly gathered his deck together and walked around the campfire to the other side. The tension between him and Asset 19 was high, had he been drinking Asset 18 might have begun shouting.

Asset 18 hadn't been drinking, but he searched his pack and lined up several bottles of alcohol ranging from standard beers to whiskey to vodka to wine to some special homebrew moonshine. Asset 18 grabbed the first bottle of beer and started drinking, downing it in one, he then moved onto the next bottle and the next and the next and then the spirits, then the wine, then the moonshine.

As he drank Asset 18 began planning a long and furious rant. The more he drank the angrier he got...

 

[Souplex]

[Perception]Danielle sees everything.
After Frank's kerfuffle with Mr. Impotent, Mr. Impotent had leaped off of the crab, and was swinging away. Frank was doing his own thing.
"Not if I have anything to do with it."
While dealing with the miniature crabs, Danielle had learned that the new switches on her rifle were to switch to a laser-shotgun, and to disable use of the breeder charge. She liked both of these new features.
[Energy Weapons 100/75]Danielle hit the inhibitor switch, and lined up a shot on Mr. Impotent's grapple-cable...
[Success!]...A red laser severed Mr. Impotent's grapple cable in mid-swing.
Mr. Impotent was hurtling through the air 40-ish feet above the ground, it would be mean to do anything further to him.
[Energy Weapons 100/50]Danielle felt quite mean as she switched off the inhibitor, switched to the underbarrel, and lined up a shot on the center-of-mass of Mr. Impotent.
[Success!]A spread of yellow lasers hit various parts of Mr. Impotent.
Suddenly a large explosion came from the giant enemy crab's weak point for massive damage.

 

[wilcoblackflame]

Things seemed to be going Marlon's way. He had Bob between a torrent of laserfire and a room full of..regular fire. Oh and here comes Lucy. Even better. Another gun to put holes through Bob....or as it appeared, the gatling laser. Marlon was torn between rage and disbelief at Lucy's actions and subsequent statement. The gatling laser being now useless, he settled for snarling "Have it your way." through gritted teeth with a one eyed glare on par with Lucy's own as he dropped the scrapped gat and made to swing the heavy ammo pack off his back.

As he half turned to heft the ammo pack towards the ground, he caught the sight of the plasma grenade rolling slowly up beside him and Lucy. "Shit!" Dropping the laser ammo pack in the path of the grenade to try and block out some of the blast, he dived away from it, grabbing Lucy on the way down to try and pull her out of the blast, even if she had just ruined his Bob BBQ.

The world turned briefly green.

The ammo pack and the gatling gun were now little more than corroded piles of slag. The floor, walls and ceiling had the marks of the plasma blast etched into them. Marlon didn't really notice that so much, as he was a little too busy being incredibly pissed off with the sting of a plasma burn on his arm. "Right. Tinpot's all fucking yours." he growled at Lucy, not bothering to waste the time checking if she was alright. "I'm gonna murder this fucking joker." He pulled himself up, drew his pistols, one plasma, one laser, both fully charged and took off towards Eobard, wasting no time in opening fire.

 

[RobDaBank]

Wayne had made his way slowly through the ruins, and not cone across any threat. Assuming the area was safe he lowered his guard and turned to check on Stan and the ghoul. Suddenly he felt the ground rumble. "Gimme a break" he said aloud as he hobbled over to the corner of a building. As he peered round he saw the Nukezilla, charging faster than before and coming straight toward Wayne. He bolstered his pistol in his pocket and pulled out his rifle, looking down the scope he saw the man that had been controling it swinging underneath, until a red laser broke his grappling line, sending the man flying into the air. The Nukezilla charged straight from a building and from atop a brotherhood looking soldier, like the woman from before rocketed from it's back and through the building.

Wayne began running backwards, the pain in his knee slowing him down. He needed to get to better cover, so he entered an unassuming building, beckoning Stan to follow, the ghoul he was none too bothered about at this point followed anyway.

 

[maninahat]

Moriarty's

Beryl realised they didn't have time to waste, and now that both Johnny and Sylph seemed back to their old, passive selves, they should make a move. She gulped at the prospect, and joined Johnny in guiding Sylph out of the building.

Outside, a dust storm was being kicked up by the swarm of vertibirds overhead. Beryl grimaced against the biting, irradiated dirt that slapped her across the jowls. She guided the other two out through Megaton, where people were running left and right. The only person not in a hurry was some old guy, preaching by the side of the bomb.

"The power of the atom will protect us!".

When they reached the spot where she had left the Brahmin caravan tethered, Beryl grabbed the rest of her gear and moved on. It was too late to save the caravan as well. What a waste, she thought. those Brahmin were worth plenty to the right sort. Finally, they were at the entrance. Ahead, people were surging out into the waste land.

"Thank you for your visit to our town," said that stupid deputy robot to the dozens of people stampeding past. Beryl wanted to shoulder barge him on the way out, but she knew she couldn't do with the added injury. Finally, they were out. Beryl glanced up at the vertibirds, who appeared to have a rather unusual payload.

"What in the world..." Beryl asked herself, before being swept up by the last of the crowd and guided to a safe distance away from the town. Once out of the rush, she did a quick head count, and relaxed to find Johnny and Sylph to be present. Sighing from the exertion, she lit up a cigarette and sat on a rock, watching the Enclave's next move intently.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Just outside Vault 101

"Oh crap," Johnny said as the vertibirds delivered their payload: drop-pods filled with dozens of eyebots. A few of them weren't much of a problem, but each drop pod kept releasing more of the damn things.

"Where the fuck did they get so many of the damn things?" Johnny said, "I thought they stopped making them ages ago."

Johnny preemptively turned away from Beryl, already feeling her cold, accusing glare coming. Instead of offering a weak rationalization for why he might know that, Johnny turned his attention to Slyph.

"Hey there," he said, "Are you okay?"

 

[ImSkeletor]

Eobard watched as Marlon dived out of the way. "The grenade only winged him? Really? Alright time to go punch a guy to death the good old fashion way." Suddenly a plasma bolt hit the wall just above his head as he tried to move out of the way he walked right into a laser that slammed him in the side of his torso. A deep burning sensation grew. He picked up one of FalloutBob's victims and held him as a shield as he dragged himself behind a desk. He thought about what to do. He looked down at his Bro-Fists for inspiration. He noticed a switch that was marked Normal, High, and Overload. "Really Barry you didn't notice this? I should have known. Alright why wouldn't it default to high? There must be a drawback of some kind. Kickback. Maybe the backwards force dampeners can't take the extra outward force emission. Is it worth using?" He saw various lasers fly above his head. "Alright worth it" He pulled up the power armored body using it as a shield again. Then he flicked the switch to high and slammed both fists into the corpses back. The body exploded with a noise that sounded like a clap of thunder. Shards of metal and bone and of course several liters of blood rocketed toward Marlon too fast to avoid completely. Eobard was launched into the desk behind him. This one was thankfully wood. Didn't stop it from hurting when he crashed through and hit the wall.

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

Chivalry, an attribute that men seemed to carry even in the face of conflicting emotions and immediate danger.

The merchant was kind enough to pull Lucy to ground and shield her from the blast of the plasma grenade. So unlike the merchant, she was physically unharmed. Slightly dazed perhaps, but anyone's head that had collided with the floor would have a similar effect.

Not once had she uttered a word to Marlon. She was only going to plead for Marlon to stop for the sake of an apparent further Brotherhood interrogation. However, her murderous history with Bob had served as a perfect cover story.

To her even greater fortune, Marlon had started to run off after Barry.

Barry? That was a wildcard that had worried her to a great extent. She had only recently learned of his ties to the Enclave. Was he truly working for them or was he playing a game similar to that of hers. More importantly, why had he attacked them?

Shaking her head as she climbed to her feet, she banished the unproductive thoughts while gathering her rifle. She could hear the laser fire from Marlon as he rounded the corner, leaving her completely alone. "Run along now, merchant, run along..." Lucy cooed in a mocking motherly tone.

Now she had a significantly more important task to attend to.

Casually making her way to the entrance of the labs, she discovered the eponymous FalloutBob in the flesh...or rather, in full armor this time. A glare was not difficult to form; it had come from an emotional place after all.

She was going to kill him one day, but right now, as much as she hated the very idea of the plan: He was her only available link towards infiltrating the Enclave proper in plain sight, finding her mother and devastating them from the inside out in retribution for her father.

She had friends fighting for the Brotherhood. Yet she did not belong to the Brotherhood.

She had a mother that presumably fought for the Enclave. Yet she most definitely did not belong to them, asset privileges be damned.

If she had learned anything, it was that Lucy belonged to no-one.

Lucy was playing with fire by jumping between either of the major factions. However, she felt that she had already been burned when her family life was ruined.

She dropped the one-eyed glare and a smirk grew slowly. "Your scapegoat and Enclave Asset Unit-08 has arrived." She curtsied as if to illustrate her comfort with the situation, she was not smiling however. "Now, I'd appreciate it if I retained my cover here at the Brotherhood. People will think you overpowered me while I tried to take you on, if anyone asks questions." She grudgingly holstered her rifle. "So to sell the story, I'm volunteering to be kidnapped."

Was this what her Mother had preached whenever she mentioned wits and cunning? Lying in order to further your own agenda?

In Bob's case, this required letting the fearsome dog loose.

"Let's just say that their princess will be in another castle." Lucy added bitterly.

 

[Souplex]

Rose's Thorns were enjoying a nice lunch at the Brass Lantern.
What's that you say? "Who are Rose's Thorns?" I'm glad you asked!

Spoiler: Rose's Thorns

The Rose's Thorns are Star Paladin Danielle Rose's handpicked squad.
Not all of them are necessarily the best in their field: They were selected not just for raw skill, but loyalty, professionalism, compatibility, and various moral virtues.
There are no lone wolves or whiz-bang-shoot-em-up-cowboys. No man gets left behind, the chain of command is always obeyed.

Leader/Sharpshooter: Danielle. We've covered her at length already, and she's not here.

2nd in Command/Heavy Weapons Specialist: Paladin Jacob (Goes by Jake) Schaffer.
Equipment: Gatling Laser + Ammo, T45-D armor.
Perks: [Laser Commander] [Concentrated fire] [Suppression] (Targets fired on with fully automatic weaponry have reduced aim and movement.) [Bigger is better] (Improved performance with large weapons)

Melee Specialist: Paladin Moses (Goes by Moe) Walters.
Equipment: Super Sledge, Glock 86 Plasma Defender + Ammo, T45-D armor.
Perks: [Super Slam], [Unstoppable force], [Toughness] (Rank 2)
Explosives: Paladin Johnathan (Goes by John) Parker.
Equipment: Plasma Rifle + Ammo, Plasma Grenades, (Lots of them) Plasma Mines, (Enough of them) T45-D armor.
Perks: [Plasma Spaz] [Heave, Ho!] [Demolitions Expert] (Rank 3)

Tech Support: Knight Samuel (Goes by Sam) Ackerman.
Equipment: Plasma Rifle + Ammo, Recon Armor, Weapon Repair Kits, Lock-picking supplies.
Perks: [Jury Rigging] [Robotics Expert] [Maintenance] (Weapons of you and your companions degrade slower.)

The day was going well, all things considered, when suddenly Enclave Troops started dropping in.
The first wave were promptly melted by coordinated fire, or smashed.

#87: "Citizens of Megaton, your attention please! This territory is hereby annexed by the Enclave, effective imediately! If you do not get the hell out, we will drop Replicants to MAKE YOU get out. If you still resist us, we will shoot up the down and build on the wreckage and your smoking corpses. You have FIVE MINUTES!"
Simms: "You guys were supposed to deter this sort of shit. I'm not giving up Megaton without a fight."
Sam: "Well that's problematic. Plans?"
Jake: "We get as many citizens as possible to safety, and bunker down."
Moe: "The armory an option?"
Simms: "The armory's a little cramped, and I don't think we have anything with enough punch to deal with that fancy armor."
Mr. Jericho couldn't help but overhear this conversation.
Jericho: "I know a place in town that's filled to the brim with enough firepower to deal with whatever the Enclave throws at us."
Simms: "You couldn't possibly mean..."
Jericho: "That's right; the kid's old place. He had acquired quite a few fancy doo-dads even before we split up, and he probably got more when he started hanging around with ghouls, paladins, and super-mutants. You still keep spare keys to every house don't'cha?"
Simms: "That might work."
Jake: "Thorns! Gather up as many citizens you can, and escort them to the house up the east ramp from the entrance! Time is of the essence."
Moe, John, and Sam: "Yes Sir!"

 

[wilcoblackflame]

What a clever method of attack Eobard had found. Marlon would be impressed if it wasn't directed at him. Since it was, anger was his primary response to the blast of guts and steel.

As Eobard shook off the daze of slamming through the desk through the wall, he'd be able to see the results of his work after Marlon picked himself up and continued to advance, this time with a slightly larger snarl on his face.

The usually black combat armor was splattered with crimson as was the uncovered parts of Marlon himself. Several cuts and scratches opened up by the flying shards of bone and metal adorned the armor and his skin and most notably, one the larger pieces of chestplate shrapnel was currently lodged in his already burned arm.

The Van Graff was less than happy.

He wasn't however, stupid enough to walk into those fists and stopped once we reached a comfortable firing distance. His other arm was still working quite well, minor scrapes aside, even if the other arm was too wounded to hold steady for shooting right now.

"Alright you fucking little weasel..." he began, raising the plasma pistol in his good arm. "Let's see how fucking clever you are without those gloves in working order." He opened fire, not willing to risk Eobard having much chance to get out of the wreckage, directing two well aimed shots of plasma onto the gauntlets and applying a generous splattering of hot, melty goop to them, which should certain cause some issues. "Drop the gloves clever boy. And don't move. Or it's your head next." Marlon growled, keeping the pistol firmly pointed in Eobard's direction. "What's your game rat?"

Now if only Lucy would hurry up and finish off Nutjob Bob and get over here, maybe he could go get a stimpak or two from the med bay. Or at least, that's what he thought she was up to...

 

[Generic NPC 22]

Outside Vault 101:

VROOOOM!!! Peeeeeeew!! CRASH! Went Missus Soccer Ball Drop Pod as Sylph watched on in amazement as Missus Soccer Ball Drop Pod gave birth to Tiny Floating Soccer Balls (Eyebots).

"Neat!" Exclaimed the Girl in Red towards Mister Johnny Shakes and Mommy Meryl Barrel, creeping closer towards the Scenic Overlook before a hand belonging to Mister Johnny Shakes pulled her back towards their hiding spot.

"Hey there," he said, "Are you okay?"

Sylphee looked at Mister Johnny shakes for a moment and nodded slowly and gave him a winning smile as she opened up her backpack and found a red hooded cloak cape thing that she was able to wrap around her body, hiding the torn back of her Red Dress.

As she did, she anyone who would have been paying attention, would have noted the network of crisscrossing whip scars that went up and down the girl's back, before they were hidden by the red hood. Watching the Tiny Floating Soccer Balls float around the ruined town of Springvale, Sylph was able to suggest that Mister Johnny Shakes and Mommy Meryl Barrel let her go play with the Tiny Floating Soccer balls when a lady emerged from a small Ranch House near the edge of town.

"Holy Christ!" The Lady managed to exclaim before a pack of the Tiny Floating Soccer Balls turned her into a pile of steaming ash.

"Ouchie! I think that Lady is hurt!" The Red Cloaked girl commented happily as the Tiny Soccer Balls continued to wander around the streets, that was until one of them found a cellar door and started trying to break through it.

"Hey! What's that over there? That would be a great hiding place!" Sylphee said as she pointed at the Cellar Door. Of course there were a number of other hiding places that they could have gone that would have been perfect if it wasn't for the fact that Sylphee had noticed a pack of Mole Rats that was wandering by and had decided to play tag with them and was currently running towards the pack of Tiny Floating Soccer Balls.

"Can't get me! Can't get me! Can't get me!" The girl screamed exuberantly as she sprinted away from the chasing pack of Mole Rats.

PEW! PEW! PEW!

It seemed like the Tiny Floating Soccer Balls wanted to play tag with the Mole Rats as well.

 

[maninahat]

Outside Vault 101

Beryl saw the young waif charge forward.

"Christ, she's back to her old self!" she shouted to Johnny. She was pretty angry that the brat was going to draw the attention of the deadly, annoying army of eyebots, but a tiny part of her was pleased to see that Sylph had gotten out of her slump.

Beryl bit down onto her cigarette, and snapped the firing pin back on her thompson. She might as well get the first shot on the robots, before they figured out where she was too. She squinted down at the sights and aimed right at the nearest eyebot. Controlled bursts she thought to herself, knowing that Sylph was running dangerously close to her line of fire. Controlled bursts...controlled bursts.... Beryl took one last drag of her ciggy and pulled the trigger.

With a deafening roar, the gun rattled off a volley of bullets. It bucked and kicked in Beryl's hand, and she found herself uncontrollably staggered backwards against the constant force. Her finger still on the trigger. The devastating gunfire continued to rip into the air in wide sweeping arcs. Beryl tried to compensate for the recoil, dragging the weapon down towards a level position. She overdid it and ended up firing into the ground instead. She swore in anger, but her words were drowned out by the weapon's endless report. Unable to see for the dust and gun smoke, she finally gained the resolve to release the trigger.

Beryl took a clumsy step forward and peered through the rising dirt. Ahead of her was a swarm of entirely unharmed eyebots, and every last one of them had turned to face her. Beryl's face dropped. This was a calamity. Even Sylph was untouched.

Beryl found herself running hobbling for cover. She swung the tommygun over one shoulder and squeezed off a few bullets, without looking back. One of the eyebots took a round to the front right, de-pressurised ambucator, and fell to the ground with an anti-climactic pop and a crackling, discordant verse of the Star Spangled Banner. The old woman had just enough time to get behind a convenient piece of post-war wreckage to avoid the first wave of laser fire.

NEVER SHOW KINDNESS TO LITTLE GIRLS, she reminded herself, as the brick work around her began to plink away.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Outside Vault 101

That fucking idiot. Johnny thought as he rushed to Beryl's aid.

"You fucking idiot!" he shouted at her as he grabbed onto her arm and started dragging her towards the cellar that Slyph had found, "All you had to do was follow Slyph quietly into that cellar, and then we could've waited for this to blow over!"

Johnny stamped his foot a few times as he kept dragging Beryl towards the cellar, "But no, that's not good enough for you, YOU wanted to showboat everyone else. YOU wanted to prove how much better a shot you are than everyone else. YOU just had to get their attention!"

Johnny shot Beryl a hateful, accusing glare as he continued to drag Beryl along, "Well guess what dumbass! That cellar is STILL our only chance of surviving this, but now, instead of hiding out, we're going to have to hold-out until we kill every single eyebot that the Enclave thinks is worth sending in after us."

Johnny thought he heard Beryl starting to complain so he cut her off, "Oh what, you have a better idea? Little miss gung-ho? How fucking stupid do you have to be to take on an army of eyebots? And who knows how many other troopers are headed for Megaton now. So yeah... YOU have a brilliant idea? What is it? Getting us into Vault 101? Well unless you have the fucking bypass code hidden behind the stick up your ass, that's not going to work. So just... for once... shut up and be grateful that I have no idea why I'm not just letting you die."

When he and Beryl got to the cellar, the eyebots were almost on them.

"Slyph, open it up!" he called out to the Red Princess, "We need to get in there pronto because of this idiot."

 

[ImSkeletor]

Eobard's eyes opened. His vision was blurred and his ears rang. His back ached like someone had jackhammered it. He realized he was laying in a pool of water. His vision finally returned and he saw a busted in wall with several exposed wires and a cracked water pipe. He brought himself back to a sitting position. "No matter how bad you're hurting he's got to be hurting worse"
Then his eyes fell apon a man soaked in blood guts and shards who was walking towards him. "That settles it, he's a freaking terminator." Marlon proceeded to shoot him in his Bro-Fists. He yelled some things at Zoom but he only heard pieces because of the whole ears ringing thing. He got the gist though. Explain himself and take off the Fists.. He held his hands open and said, "Easy there. These things are difficult to pull off as is. Even without having to avoid plasma burns. Give me a second" he pulled them off and tossed them to the side. "Well, once upon a time there was an a man with a beautiful wife. And they created a son together. However, the process was too much for the poor woman. She passed away. As god gives with one hand and takes away with the other. He raised the child as best as he could, and read comics to him every night. When he was old enough he trained the boy to defend himself and he helped him with his natural running abilities. They became traders moving from town to town. Long story short, the father was burned alive infront of the child, the child became an addict, the child tried to kill himself and he woke up..." Eobard stalled until his head ache calmed down enough to think. He looked down and notices the water had reached the man's feet. He became very glad he was wearing leather. He grabbed a wire and rammed it into the water. High volts, Low amps. This would be extremely painful, but not deadly. Zoom obviously did not know this. for all he knew Marlon may have only been stunned for a few seconds. or he could be dead. Or anything imbetween. Zoom did not want to take the chance. Marlon shook wildly and collapsed to the floor. Weapons broken. Injured. Time to remind everyone why they call him Zoom. He pulled himself to his feet grabbed his fists and bolted down to the lab with Lucy and Bob, he made it to the door. He slammed his fist through the console and moved to the inside. He quickly locked Marlons way in with the interior console. He looked to Bob and Lucy, "I would normally try to say something clever, but lets GTFO"

 

[Generic NPC 22]

Springvale: The Cellar Door

Chaotic. That's how Sylph would have described the scene that had broken out in Springvale if she knew the meaning of the word (Really, she didn't know what the word Chaotic meant). There you had Mister Johnny Shakes and Mommy Meryl Barrel and the Red Hooded, Red Dressed Girl in the middle of a town that was going crazy, the type of crazy where you had a horde of Cutey Wooty Mole Rats attacking a horde of Tiny Floaty Soccer Balls and vice versa. You had BOOMS! and PEW PEW PEWS! and SCREEE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE noises going on all around the ruins as the air filled with the smell of burnt circuitry and burnt Cutey Wooty Mole Rat meat.

"Slyph, open it up!" he called out to the Red Princess, "We need to get in there pronto because of this idiot."

And that's when Mister Johnny Shakes found himself on the ground looking up at the Red Princess, whose face was absent her usual smile as he found that his hand was no longer on Mommy Meryl Barrel's arm but being twisted in Sylph's unusually strong hands. It wasn't painful but then again, it wasn't comfortable either.

"Mister Johnny Shakes! Don't you be calling my Mommy Meryl Barrel an idiot! She's the nicest most lovingest, most perfectest mommy in the whole wide world. I love my Mommy Meryl Barrel and don't you forget it Mister Johnny Shakes." She scolded him before the smile returned to her face as she released him.

"Awww the poor Cutey Wooty Mole Rats." The Girl in Red said as she watched another horde of Cutey Wooty Mole Rats get fried, causing another wave of burnt Mole Rat flesh to assail the trios' nostrils. However they weren't the only one to smell the smell of cooked Cutey Wooty Mole Rat Meat.

"Hey look! It's a rad scorpion. Why's it white?"

 

[wilcoblackflame]

Ow. Or at the very least, that's what you could sum the agonised snarl of noise, a mix of cursing and plain old yells, coming out of Marlon's mouth as he toppled over as. That crafty little weasel. If Lucy got dibs on Bob, Marlon was sure as shit gonna call dibs on that prick the next time he saw him.

Between the electrocution and the fairly nasty arm wound, he wasn't in much shape to get up again and certainly not in any condition to give chase at the same speed.

For the moment, Marlon put his efforts into dragging himself behind some of the rubble, where he was out of sight if Eobard were to double back, and set about trying to get his breath back.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Outside the Cellar

Johnny wordlessly scraped himself from the ground, took a look at the critters already calling the hole in the ground home. He aimed his lever action rifle at the albino radscorpion and fired several times at it. Johnny was having more and more trouble empathizing with anyone in this group now. The kicker for him at this point is that he knew that he'd need both of them, well... more Slyph than Cold ***** over there... if he wanted to make it out of this Enclave Rave party or whatever the fuck was going on at Megaton. So, he grabbed both of them, and dragged them into the cellar, then locked the door behind them.

Then Johnny sat down in a corner, dropped his rifle in front of him (no farther than a quick grab away), and started chugging what was left of the whiskey he'd managed to "save" from Moriarty's. He was hoping that he'd manage to knock himself out before either of the two women started grilling him about his past... and hoped, most likely in vain, that this time that all of the alcohol coursing through his system would finally manage to blot out his entire life this time.(1)

(1) No such luck, Mr. Truant.

"Oh go fuck yourself," Johnny yelled at the ceiling before taking another swig, "I've ha-ha-had it with you and your non-stop ccccccommmmentarrrry on my fffucking lifffe! Jjjjuuust shshsut the fuck up for once!"(2)

(2) No. -Ed.

Johnny turned away from the other two in the cellar to hide the fact that he was crying. (3)

(3) Well, that was futile. I'm certain they can hear your delightful whimpering and sniffing.

Johnny let out a drawn-out, sobbing scream.