The shack was silent except for the snores of two men, one of them was a Caucasian with brown hair, the other was an African American man with black hair. Other articles around the room included two assault rifles, one was of pre-war United States origin, the other was one that had been used by the Chinese against the US. Also in the room were two sidarms, one was a 10mm pistol, the other was a .44 magnum revolver. The revolver belonged to Lawrence Rhodes, the African American man. The 10mm pistol belonged to Alexander Carter, the Caucasian. Also in the room was a flamethrower. Outside, a twig broke, but it was unheard by the sleeping men. The sounds of the landmines outside being disabled also went unheard as the men slept soundly. Finally, the door opened up, and a man with a completely bald head and black eyebrows opened the door and walked in. He was wearing a white business suit, a white dress shirt, and a red tie. His suit was perfectly clean, which was unusual for the wasteland. His emerald eyes examined the room and spotted the weapons, he walked over to them and silently unloaded all four. Afterwards, with the assault rifles and the 10mm pistol loaded with empty clips and the magnum holding blanks, the bald man left the room. He activated a landmine and walked a good distance away before throwing a rock at it. The landmine went off and the men woke up from their slumber.
"What the hell is that!?" asked the African American.
"Grab your gun!" yelled the Caucasian.
They both grabbed assault rifles and ducked down, aiming them at the door. The door opened and the bald man walked in with a smile on his face and a fully loaded 10mm pistol. The pistol was suppressed, and the men looked at the man before pulling the triggers.
"You know what I love seeing?" asked the bald man, "The look on men's faces when they realize that their weapons aren't loaded..."
The bald man raised his silenced pistol with his right arm and smiled at the soon to be dead men.
"My name is Solomon Kaine, so that you have a name to tell the ferryman," said Kaine before firing on the Caucasian, striking him in the heart, he then aimed at the African American.
"Don't shoot! Don't sh-" he was cut off by a bullet striking his neck.
"Be silent," said Kaine before walking up to the dying man and putting a bullet between his eyes. Kaine then examined the room before walking outside, he came back in with a black briefcase. After putting on a pair of work gloves, he pulled out a sharp knife. He cut off the fingers of the dead men and placed them in a plastic bag, he cut off their ears as well. Afterwards, he placed the plastic bags in his briefcase. Afterwards, he grabbed the .44 magnum, the only weapon in decent condition, and put it in there as well. On his way to the door, he placed a fusion charge near the flamethrower. When he was a good distance away from the house, he put on a pair of blood red sunglasses and detonated the house. The resulting explosion was quite beautiful as it tore the house apart and vaporized the bodies inside. He then turned and walked to a large cave. Inside was a well-made dune buggy with the driver's seat protected from the dusts and radiation of the waste. Kaine placed his briefcase in the trunk and got in. He flicked several switches that started the vehicle up and drove off towards the north with a smile on his face, he loved his job.

pretty good

Good piece of work. Keep it up. :goodjob:

As the dune buggy cruised across the harsh wasteland, Kaine took the occasional glance to see the typical creatures of the wastes. Radscorpions, bloatflies, giant ants, and many others went around, but none could get close to Kaine's buggy without being blasted by the automated turret on the top. After a long hour of driving, Kaine finally reached his destination; a large military base. At the gates were five men. Kaine drove to the gate, which the sergeant outside signalled to be opened, and Kaine pulled in. The somewhat large fortress was unlike most areas in the wastes in that it had grass and purified water, this was due to the small GECK that had been used to create it. The commanding officer of the fort, Colonel Winston Rhodes, was from the Commonwealth, and the institution had finally unlocked the secrets of the GECK, allowing outposts to be set up throughout the wastes. The two men that Kaine had killed had deserted their posts to become raiders, and Kaine had been ordered to find and try to convince them to return to the fort. Major Lawrence Cooper was waiting in the courtyard when Kaine got out of his buggy.
"How did your mission go?" asked Cooper.
"It went fine," said Kaine.
"I take it that they didn't want to come back," said Cooper.
"Tried as I did, they just wouldn't budge," said Kaine.
"Too bad," said Cooper before handing Kaine a bag full of bottlecaps, "Barbaric currency, but it's the only one out here. Commonwealth Dollars are worth about as much as a brahmincrap pie out here."
"In that, you are correct," said Kaine as he opened the briefcase, he handed Cooper the plastic bags containing the ears and the fingers and Cooper handed him the sack of caps. With most contract killers, Cooper would have scanned the fingers to see if they actually belonged to the targets, but Kaine had a good reputation. The scan could wait.
"A pleasure doing business with you," said Kaine before turning and walking towards the buggy. He had no desire to meet with Rhodes, he had his money.
"Sure you don't want a glass of water?" asked Cooper.
"Very," said Kaine as he closed the door on his buggy and turned around, driving out the gate and back into the wasteland. His next stop would be Paradise Falls, which was thirty miles from his current position. The several batteries that powered his buggy would last for almost two hundred, and he had quite a few spares back in his base of operations in the deep Fairfield Caves.

I can understand that he likes to see the look on men's faces when they blahblahblah, but if he was such a professional wouldn't he just kill them both in their sleep? He didn't know that they didn't have any grenades hidden on them or have pistols under their pillows (as anybody living in such a hostile world would). Also, any idiot can tell if his rifle is unloaded (a full magazine is much heavier than an empty one). That part doesn't make any sense to me.

Other than that, not bad.

I've read a lot of fics with hitmen, assassins, etc, over the years, and it seems to me that they always seem to start out with the same cliche intro. Character is introduced, executes some people, is shown to be a cold hearted, unfeeling person, then walks away with a dramatic explosion behind him. I hate that. Assassin characters are generally very hard to write, because they very rarely develop from the cold, unemotional trope of a hitman.

That aside, there's nothing obviously wrong with your writing.

Don't worry, this gets way better. If I made him a hitman for the whole story this would get rather boring. XD
Unfortunately, there is a chance that I won't be able to write this weekend because I'm heading to my dad's house. :shrug:

As the buggy cruised over the harsh terrain, a few people watched. Commander William Larson, leader of the Redfield Company, was perched at the side of a mountain. With him were ten men.
"Fire!" yelled Bill.
The soldiers, several of whom had missile launchers, released a massive barrage of ordnance on the buggy. The first three missile shots didn't penetrate the armor, but they did make his buggy tumble for about twenty yards before a mini-nuke went off where his buggy used to be. Kaine tried to restart the buggy, but it was no use. He immediately got out of the buggy and opened a compartment that held several weapons. He grabbed a sniper rifle and examined the horizon, searching for the attackers. Another rocket came, and with inhuman speed he shot it while it was flying at him, causing it to explode in mid-air. He fired again, striking the man with the missile launcher. Several missile launchers then fired at once, and Kaine didn't even attempt to shoot them. He quickly ran to the side, dodging the explosion, and aimed. He fired and missed. Suddenly, a loud shot rang out and Kaine's leg was torn open by the powerful bullet. Kaine yelled in pain as he fell to the ground, trying to keep conscious. He crawled to the underside of the buggy and opened a medical kit. He then grabbed a syringe containing some med-x and injected it into his leg. The pain did not subside completely, but it was numbed. He then grabbed a stimpack and injected it as well. The combination made the pain more bearable, but the bullet was still in there. The bullet, however, was not worrying him. What was worrying him was the fact that nine raiders were approaching with plenty of weaponry. Kaine crawled to the opposite side of the buggy and opened the other compartment, which contained several charges, grenades, and mines. Kaine grabbed three plasma grenade and tossed it over the buggy to where he expected the raiders were. He heard a "Crap! Incoming grenade!" before a large explosion was created. He threw the other two plasma grenades before being knocked out by a stomp to his face.
"Jesus, son of a [censored] didn't want to go down," said Larson after stomping Kaine's face.
"We lost Jose, Eric, and Roger," said Larson's second in command, Lieutenant Henry Johnson.
"Those losses are worth it for this guy," said Larson, "Frisk him and tie him up."
"Yes sir," said Johnson as he grabbed some rope from his belt and began tying Kaine up. Afterwards, they loaded him into a cargo truck and drove off.

***

"Wake up," said a voice, "Now."
Kaine woke up and looked to see a man in a dirty white suit staring at him.
"Where the hell am I?" asked Kaine.
"In the back of a cargo truck that is currently in the center of a convoy," said the man.
"Who are you?" asked Kaine.
"You can call me Burke," said the man, Kaine then realized that Burke was not tied up. He was currently examining Kaine's pistol with his left hand, his other arm was in a sling.
"This is a nice weapon, I might just keep it," said Burke.
"You can have it?why did you capture me?" asked Kaine.
"Your talents are required for a little job. You see, I'm not really?allowed in Megaton anymore and I need somebody to?purify it?for Mr. Tenpenny," said Burke.
"I'm afraid I can't do that," said Kaine.
"Why?" asked Burke.
"Because I currently have a small gun pointed at you," said Kaine.
Burke didn't have time to react before Kaine used his big toe to pull the trigger of a small one-shot firearm hidden in his shoe. Burke was shot in the stomach (the sound was muffled by the loud engines of the trucks) and Kaine quickly lunged forward, shouldering the injured Burke in the face and knocking him out. Kaine then reached his tied up hands into Burke's jacket and, to his happiness, found a switchblade. After cutting his bonds he picked up his silenced pistol along with the few clips that Burke had. He then turned and walked to the back of the cargo truck. He opened the tarp and saw that there was a truck driving behind his. He turned back to look at Burke and saw that his white suit resembled Burke's. The only difference was the black tie rather than Kaine's red tie and the fedora that Burke wore. After putting on the fedora and putting on the tie he realized that there was one major difference between him and Burke; Burke had hair. He used some wonderglue that was in one of the crates with a switchblade to form a makeshift wig. It was not perfect, but it would work at long distances. Afterwards, he put on Burke's tortoiseshell glasses. Satisfied with the disguise, he walked to the front of the truck and knocked on the sliding metal door. The door was opened and the man in the passenger's seat, Commander Larson, took a short look at Kaine before turning back and looking out the front.
"Did he agree?" asked Larson.
"Of course," said Kaine, imitating Burke's voice to the best of his ability.
"Good, you will pay us what you owe then?" asked Larson.
"Mr. Tenpenny will pay you what we agreed, I must take Mr. Kaine to Megaton," said Kaine.
"We'll be at Springvale in ten minutes, we'll let you off there," said Larson.
"Good," said Kaine before going back into the back of the truck. After shaving Burke's head completely, Burke actually looked a lot like Kaine. The plan may actually work.

Nice job with the Burke stuff up there

The convoy stopped and Kaine stepped out with Burke unconscious. The drivers in the other trucks had no idea why Kaine would be unconscious, but they didn't say anything; it didn't matter to them. The convoy pulled off and Kaine looked around, Springvale was a somewhat suburban town before the war that was away from the bustle of DC. Kaine dragged the unconscious Burke into the only habitable house and heard a noise. He quickly drew his silenced pistol, aimed, and saw a woman standing at the ready with a .32 pistol.
"This man is my friend, we were ambushed by raiders," said Kaine convincingly.
"What is your name?" asked the woman, still holding her pistol at the ready.
Kaine lowered his pistol as a sign of trust.
"My name is Robert Wesson, this is my brother, Jeremy Wesson. We were ambushed by raiders, barely escaped," said Kaine, "Can you lower the pistol?"
Hesitating, she lowered the .32 and smiled.
"My name is Silver," said Silver.
Kaine raised his silenced pistol with lightning speed and shot Silver in the arm, the .32 fell to the floor and Silver fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Kaine walked over to her and shot her in the head to silence her screams. He then grabbed the .32 and examined it. It was in somewhat decent condition with four bullets.
How the hell did she expect to ever survive out here with four bullets?
Kaine put the .32 in his pocket and turned back to Burke. He was off the road, and in case any of the Redfield Company, or the occasionally hired Talon Company, came through, Burke would not be found. Kaine took the suit off of Burke and shot him in the head. Afterwards, Kaine ripped the makeshift wig off of his head and put his white suit back on, throwing Burke's suit, fedora, and glasses on his body. Afterwards, he searched the house and found a sack containing 400 bottle caps.
These should come in handy...
After searching the house for anything else of use, Kaine walked outside and made his way towards Megaton. Lucas Simms would be warned, and if he was lucky, he might get a contract.

Approaching Megaton, Kaine saw the protectron robot he had seen several times going into town. The protectron was Deputy Weld, one of two robots used by Lucas Simms to keep Megaton safe.
"Welcome to Megaton. The bomb is perfectly safe, we promise. Please hold for threat level assessment," said the protectron before examining Kaine, "Threat level minimal. Open the gates. Open the gates. Welcome to Megaton."
Kaine walked through the opening gates, he had no idea if anybody had ever been rejected by Deputy Weld, but he really didn't care. He walked through the gates and down to the center of town where the rather large, famous, and dangerous unexploded nuclear bomb rested. Around the bomb were several people that called themselves the Church of Atom. Kaine scowled at them as he turned and walked up a large ramp. Once at the top, he had a good vantage point. He looked around and saw that Sheriff Simms was standing near Craterside Supply. Kaine walked back down the ramp and up another one. After walking across the roof of the clinic he reached another ramp that led to Craterside Supply. Kaine swiftly climbed it and found Sheriff Lucas Simms looking out over the crater.
"Howdy stranger," said Simms as he turned around, "Wait a minute, I think I've met you."
"Yes you do, though I havn't been here in quite some time," said Kaine.
"You got a name?" asked Simms.
"Solomon Kaine," said Kaine.
"Yes, I seem to remember you leaving the night Richard was killed," said Simms.
"Richard was killed? Shame, I liked that man," said Kaine.
"Don't get smart with me," said Simms, "If I had strong evidence, then your sorry hide would be dead."
"Stop talking about something that happened four years ago. Now, I have a something to warn you with, and you can do with it what you please," said Kaine, "I am not sure if you've heard of a Mr. Burke."
"How could I not? He has a house here in town, down near the bomb," said Simms.
"He was planning on destroying Megaton via the bomb in the center of town," said Kaine.
"You got anything to back that up?" asked Simms.
"Nothing but my word, which is strong," said Kaine, "I have been called a hitman, a mercenary, and an opportunist, but never a liar."
"You say he was, did you stop him?" asked Simms.
"His corpse currently resides in Springvale," said Kaine.
"I must thank you then," said Simms.
"I happily did that for free, but his boss, Mr. Tenpenny, still lives. Tenpenny gave him his orders," said Kaine.
"Could you convince him not to do it?" asked Simms.
"That would require quite a few caps," said Kaine, "I don't work for free."
"How much?" asked Simms.
"A thousand to talk to him, which may not and probably won't work. Two thousand to kill him, which will work. I'll take my payment up front if you agree," said Kaine.
"You aren't cheap, are you?" asked Simms, "Fine, I guess I can scrounge it up."
"Get scrounging, I'll be waiting in Moriarty's," said Kaine as he walked off towards the saloon.
"

I lolled @ the 1000 and 2000 caps thing. He wouldn't even give me 500 caps for the bomb!! Cheap bastard.

There is absolutley no way Lucas Simms could pay even 1000 caps. That is almost twice the combined wealth of everyone in town.

Not really. Moira's got at least 1000 caps. The Stahls in their safe has 200 caps. Moriarty and gob have combine nearly 200 caps.The doc has like 100 caps.

That's why they are going to have to do some heavy scrounging. I mean like...sell everything but the clothes on their back when I say scrounge.

This is pre-Lone Wanderer Moira. She has next to nothing before the LW comes along and starts pumping caps into her store.

Nobody in Megaton is going to hand over every single item in their possession so Lucas Simms can give it all to some random stranger who walked into town claiming this and that without showing any proof of anything.
If Lucas walked into anybody's shop or home and told that story, they would laugh in his face. (then make a joke about his hat)

This isn't pre-lone wanderer. If it was, then I would have caused a massive time paradox by killing Mr. Burke. This is after the lone wanderer assuming that he didn't do certain things (like help Silver out, he hacked the terminal or payed Moriarty instead), he also ignored the Power of Atom quest, and as such Mr. Burke finally got impatient and sought out Kaine. After Kaine was ambushed and his buggy was destroyed (that pissed him off), he killed Burke and even he doesn't want to wipe out one of the few remaining strongholds of humanity, so he will instead assassinate Mr. Tenpenny for Megaton. And the results still havn't come back, they may not be able to get enough to pay Kaine. You'll just have to wait and see.

I accept your rebuttal.

That doesn't mean anybody is going to give all their caps to Lucas though.

Perhaps the next chapter is about how Simms persuaded everyone?

Knowing the amount of caps in Megaton's treasury, Kaine knew that Simms would be unable to acquire as much as he had asked for. However, it would mean that he would get as much as possible. After two hours of waiting and listening to Galaxy News Radio, the door opened and Kaine heard spurs.
"Hello Sheriff Simms," said Kaine.
There was no response, and Kaine turned to see three Regulators standing in the doorway. Kaine knew that they were either after him or Jericho, the local ex-raider. Jericho, who was sitting in the corner, didn't know that Kaine was there, and naturally thought that they were after him. He jumped behind the wall and readied his Chinese assault rifle as the Regulators walked in with their weapons at the ready. Jericho jumped out and opened fire, making the three turn and begin firing at him. He jumped back behind the wall as Kaine spun around on the barstool and fired off three rounds from his silenced 10mm pistol, ending the lives of two of the Regulators. As the remaining Regulator ran out the door, covering his retreat with shots from his combat shotgun, Kaine jumped behind the bar.
"[censored], they after you?" asked Jericho.
"That is a possibility," said Kaine as he jumped out from the bar and looked outside. The Regulator was now running across the roof of the local clinic. Kaine ran forward and jumped over the rail, performing a roll as he landed on the metal roof below. He then ran forward and dropped onto another metal pathway before jumping off onto the dirt of the crater's bottom. He then ran forward as the Regulator stepped down next to the Brahmin outside the clinic and fired. The short-range weapon missed Kaine, but Kaine's shot didn't. He fired off his pistol, striking the Regulator's arm. He dropped his combat shotgun and yelled in pain, giving Kaine a chance to close in. As the Regulator recovered, he regained his awareness of the situation and drew his 10mm pistol, but Kaine was now very close and easily shot the Regulator's other arm. The Regulator gave out a final scream before being executed with a shot to the head by Kaine. Kaine then picked up the combat shotgun and examined it. The Regulator had kept it in decent condition, and he decided to keep it. After grabbing the shotgun shells and the clips of 10mm ammunition from the corpse, he walked back up towards the saloon.

Lucas Simms stepped into the saloon and examined the bodies. Moriarty was standing next to them, as was Jericho. Kaine had yet to return from killing the third.
"These men were Regulators, I knew them," said Simms.
Kaine stepped through the door with a combat shotgun in his right hand.
"He dead?" asked Jericho.
"Of course," said Kaine, "Did you get the caps yet?"
"I just can't get enough, most I could scrounge was seven hundred," said Simms.
"Well, that is unfortunate for you," said Kaine, "I can make you a deal, but you will have to speak to Miss Brown about part of it."
"What do you have in mind?" asked Simms.
"Give me one of the homes in town. Then have Moira give me access to her stock. I need one DKS-501 sniper rifle, one R91 assault rifle, a pair of brass knuckles, a Stallona combat knife, a set of combat armor, a knapsack, and enough rations to last two days," said Kaine.
"Is that all?" asked Simms sarcastically.
"No, then give me three hundred caps when I return," said Kaine.
"If it was anybody but Moira, I'd say it was impossible. But, she's a bit unpredictable, so let me go speak to her," said Simms before walking out the door.

***

Thirty minutes later, Simms walked out of Craterside Supply to see the three bodies burning on the crater's floor. He silently said a prayer for the fallen Regulators and walked back to Moriarty's. Inside, Moriarty was beating Gob with kicks to the ribs for spilling a drink.
"Easy Moriarty," said Simms.
"Oh! Hi there sheriff!" said Moriarty in his Irish accent, he gave Gob one last kick before walking over to his computer to make an entry on "Kaine". Simms saw Kaine sitting in the corner and walked over to him.
"Well?" asked Kaine.
"Well, she agreed after some heavy persuasion," said Simms, "Go on over and pick up your stuff, here's your key. You'd better pull through."
"After I'm payed, I always get the job done," said Kaine.
"So I've heard," said Simms before walking outside.
Kaine picked up his combat shotgun from the wall next to him and walked up to his new house. He unlocked it and walked in to see a Mr. Handy hovering down the stairs.
"Good Afternoon Sir!" said the Mr. Handy, "I'm Wadsworth!"
"Shutdown code 324-923-627," said Kaine, knowing the master shutdown code for Mr. Handy robots. Without another word, Wadsworth travelled to his charging station and shut down. Kaine placed his combat shotgun in one of the lockers. He then walked outside, locked the door, and made his way to Craterside Supply.

Nice! I like it. But 1 thing i didn't get were those regulators hired?

Upon entering Craterside Supply, he noticed a mercenary standing in a shadowy corner, an armored jumpsuit that Kaine recognized as a Vault Jumpsuit, and a dead molerat. Moira was nowhere to be found.
"Moira is out for a few minutes, she said you can stay here. If you touch anything though, you'll be dead," said the mercenary.
Kaine nodded, drew his silenced pistol while turning around, and aimed it at the mercenary's head.
"Threaten me one more time," said Kaine.
The mercenary said nothing, but held his hands up.
"Good," said Kaine before walking up to the mercenary and pistol whipping him in the temple, knocking him unconscious. A few minutes later, a woman entered the shop and saw the unconscious mercenary.
"What did you do to him?" inquired Moira.
"He'll be fine, he had the bad idea of threatening me," said Kaine.
"Well, alright then! Good to meet you, I'm Moira Brown!" said Moira.
"Show me the gear," said Kaine.
"Alright then," said Moira as she walked over to a cabinet and opened it up. Inside were several weapons and a suit of combat armor. Kaine took the armor and changed into it. He then grabbed the brass knuckles and placed them in one of his pockets before buckling the Stallona combat knife. Afterwards, he put on the backpack and strapped the rifle onto his back. He then grabbed the rest of the weapons, along with ammo for all of them, and took them back to his new house.

Kaine looks more and more like a stereotypical invincible super-assassin. Add some actual conflict instead of him just running around slaughtering his enemies without breaking a sweat, the story is more interesting that way.

That's what I've been planning on...><

Just wait, this is only the beginning of the story!

Lol, anyways besides what tayroc said, it's quite a good story.