[Unstoppable Judge]

Brandy - Tap's Tent/ Michigan - Evening


Brandy held her side, it hurt terribly. "You alright Sweetie?" Papa ran up and scooped Brandy into his strong arms.

"Ra..." Her breaths were short, "Ric...eee pushed me."

"Nana's getting after Ricky Sweetie, let's go inside and I'll bandage you up." Papa told her, Brandy nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. As they walked inside, Nana was scolding Ricky as he went to his room.

"Oh dear, are you OK?" Nana asked her, Brandy nodded and Nana wiped her tears from her cheeks.

"We get ya patched up, you wanna gobhelp me work on Mr. Peterson's fence?" Papa sat Brandy on the counter.

"Yeah, I'll get my hammer," she went to jump off the counter top.

Papa laughed, "We have to fix ya up first sweetie."

She had skinned her knees and left hand when Ricky pushed her off of her Red Racer tri-cycle. Her ribs hit the handlebar when she fell to. Papa looked at her, "This'll burn a little, but we need to clean the dirt out of them scraqes."

Brandy cringed, but hung in there while Papa dabbed the damp cloth of her flesh wounds. "Here," Papa handed her a Fancy Lad snack cake.

"Thanks Papa," Brandy gobbled it down, "can I get my hammer now?"

"Sure can sweetie," Papa lift her off the counter, sitting her on the floor. Brandy took off, eager to help her Papa work on the fence. Her small foot had no sooner hit the second step when she fell.

"Ooowwwie," Brandy cried out.

"Sweetie, told ya to slow down before, you alright?" Papa asked for the who knows how manyth time that day.

"I'll be OK, I'll get my hammer," Brandy held onto the stair railing and walked up the stair.

After a couple of hours at Mr. Peterson's place, Brandy and her Papa had repaired the broken beams of fence on the brahmin pen. It was beginning to get dark, and they returned home.

"Papa, can I sleep outside to?" Brandy pointed at a small campfire that Ricky had started.

"I s'pose, best get your sleeping bag, pillow, and bear though," Papa ushered her inside and went to talk to Ricky. She heard Ricky whine through the window that he had to let his little sister camp out with him.

Brandy came to the front door bouncing with happiness. She loved spending time with her brother, even though he was a jerk to her. "Ready Papa," she held up her hand. Papa took it, and Nana walked with them out by the fire.

"Now Ricky, remember, be good or you'll be grounded." Nana shook her finger at the boy.

"Yeah, I know, Papa already said," Ricky folded his arms.

Things were OK, Ricky only said a few rude things to her before she fell asleep. Which didn't take long, Brandy was tired from being outside in the sunshine all day long.

"Roar," Brandy shot straight up in her sleeping bag, "Roar," something pawed at the side of Ricky's small tent. He lip quivered and she pulled her sleeping bag up to her chest with eyes wide open.

Whatever it was tore open the tent door and roared again, "AHHHH," screamed Brandy, flying out of the sleeping bag and crawling under the monsters legs. Once outside, Brandy got up and ran to the front door.

"You don't belong here," snapped the Ricky monster as Brandy looked back teary eyed.

[pinar]

Andrew Villa-Grayditch-Late Evening

"Well, I MIGHT, but a name would good for starters. On top of that, no 'Hello sir, I'm here seeking employment', and so on. Now, sit down an-" The man paused and pulled out a pocket-watch. "Right on time."


"Nice watch." Andrew said, making a mental note of the watch. Step one, Mark the Target. Andrew thought, remembering his training. The man began to walked down the steps. Leaving the glass of wine. I'm thirsty and I know it's not drugged. Unless that's what he does for kicks. Drugs himself. Andrew picked up the wine and took a swig. He coughed. "That svcks!" Andrew said to himself, hopefully. Andrew heard the man talking to a lady, Andrew assumed. He couldn't quite hear him. So Andrew began to walk down the steps.

"AH! This is....er...well....actually....never got his name..." The man said, for a moment his accent slipped slightly for a moment at his unsureness of Andrew's name. "He seeks to be an employee here, and I'd like to hire your girls, when you can find the time to let them have cart blanche to leave when they are not on the clock."

"The name is Andrew, Andrew Villa. Nice to meet you all." Andrew said, attempting to be deemed not a threat. Andrew had noticed the mercs.

The man simply threw his hands together, then looked about the room. "Well! Since all introductions have been made, and I do believe pleasure before business, but for now, we all have a party." Maybe I can get a job as a Bouncer? "I normally have a black tie policy, but, I think I can make an exception tonight." He grinned at the end of his smarmy comment, and simply said "Ladies and gentlemen, please, feel free to dance, drink, or just eat a free steak, meals are on the house tonight. Speak to Winston, the Mister Handy, he'll set you all straight." He paused a moment as he heard a faint patter run into the room "Oh! Also, don't mind Domino, he's not a threat to any of you." The man bent down, like before, and forgot where he was again as his heart fell with genuine love. "Aren't you boy? Yeah, you're not a bad mole rat huh?" He simply looked around, shrugged like it was nothing. "What?" he said looking at the room, then ascended the stairs to leave the others to their meals, taking Calypso by the hand and taking her to the second floor. That's my cue. Andrew thought as he stepped away from the merc group, they had started to move towards the robot. Andrew headed towards a dark corner and spotted a way to the second floor. Andrew saw the two corner walls and figured he could jump off the first wall and grabbed the ledge and jump over it, silently.

Andrew got into a sprinting position, and took off running. He used a trick he learned from his teacher to run silently, Andrew jumped towards the first wall and pushed off of it. He grabbed the ledge easily and pulled himself over it. He stood up and dusted himself off. He crouched down and hid in a shadow.

"I could kill you here and now love, before the mercs could get to you." Then, the man put the butt of the gun in the woman's hand. "I'm not a fool Calypso, I can see it, in your eyes. That cold, calculating methodical thought process. I'm giving you my gun for the rest of our night together for a reason. For any partnership, one has to trust the other. Knowing the kind of nature you have, and handing my gun to you is my attempt to make a bridging trust. Don't let me regret this, love. I'm a great partner, but cross me, and I won't be to happy." None of his tone was hostile, on the contrary, it sounded concerned. Sounds like someone wants to have six. Andrew smirked and put his back against the wall. The man continued to try and play it cool and sit down with Calypso, pouring her a glass of wine then himself. "So, I hear you're a rather brutal woman. I prefer a simple execution. Tell me, what made you favour brutality over simplicity?" He asked, his body language indicating that he was genuinely interested in her story. I was right. I hope it's not some stupid rag to riches story. Heard enough of that [censored].

Calypso rest her elbows on the table, interlocking her fingers loosely she let her chin rest on them, Mieux placed the glass in front of her. She took her right index finger and circled the brim of the clean glass, "Is that what you have heard Mr. Mieux? Perhaps some may think that, I do however, believe it aids in getting ones attention. Repercussions for their actions. Have you ever heard of the Jaded Emperor Mr. Mieux?" Jaded Emperor? What the hell?... Andrew got a puzzleing look on his face.

She picked up the glass and swirled the wine around inside under her nose, her eyes closed as she sniffed the aroma emanating from the red liquid. "I am the Emperor's...death dealer if you will. I administer punishment to those deserving before sending them to answer for their actions in the Ten Courts of Hell. The Emperor them decides how he wishes to eternally punish them." Calypso eyed Mieux, "I must admit, a dinner with such an intelligent man does not come often, and lucky for you, you darling are in the presence of a Goddess."

"Let us celebrate this chance meeting shall we?" She held up her glass over the center of the table, "May we reach an understanding that will line our pockets with riches, quench our thirst for power, and potentially lead to more festivities later this evening."

Their glasses clanked together, Calypso took a small drink, savoring the flavor for a moment then felt it's warmth as it found the path down her throat. "Mr. Mieux I am most curious, how is that you are so knowledgeable of me, but I lack the same knowledge of such an handsome gentleman that resides in my community? Please, enlighten me." I'm going to guess and say he snuck around town. I should have done that, but that little hostage situation didn't leave me with much choice. I get the feeling she was in that. I think she's a bit mental, should most likely avoid her. Andrew thought, I think I've listened enough, should get down to the main room to avoid getting caught. Andrew stood up and took off towards the ledge, he jumped over the ledge using his hand to propel him over it. He landed with his feet and hands on the ground. "This place is in-[censored]-sane." Andrew said to himself. He walked towards the door, and leaned against it. He pulled out his knife and began to flip it around.

[James Smart]

-Hadley Amos

I have to deal with something, don't worry, Ill meet you at that house soon enough.

"Dammit," Hadley's face shot up to the group again, head spiraling for Dean. Sure enough, he wasn't there, and Amos hadn't even heard him walk away. Where would he possibly plan on going? The man pressed his hand against his face, a little rough from the tiny bristles, rubbing it in frustration as he peered at the green glow lighting his face.

The kid had seemed spooked and drained, and yet so...enthusiastic...energetic...anxious? after the group had split from negotiation.

Hadley hadn't paid attention beyond the agreement and answers to his requests, the girl being taken away despite some of Dean's comments, and something about "The Ten Courts of Hell," when the apparently wealthy Wastelander had threatened the group. The town, so far, had little to offer in the matter of information that truly mattered to him.

A bright spark of light shot up into the blackening sky, and the man with an accent seemed as surprised as Amos.

“Strange… no-one lives in that part of town, perhaps we can go and investigate a bit later on.”



Weren't flares to be used for emergencies? For a call to help?


The wounded man passed another house or so before he pushed open a door, “Barry can you help me clear these guns of the table whilst our guest sit down."

The two rushed through clean up, brushing away and clutching a variety of old guns - many having seen a good number of patches and modifications in their life - with...military grade items? As Hadley's near black eyes grazed the scene from the chemistry set to the Wastelanders, the injured man whispered something in the other's ears. He silently switched from clicking and typing with his advanced Pip-boy to watching the two, as they grabbed chairs for everyone to sit on.

“well firstly I’d like to welcome you all to grayditch, I’m sorry if you think some of act harshly or overly paranoid but we have roughly couple the days, the town’s been attacked twice and most of towns security force has been killed or injured.”


“With that in mind I do highly recommend you don’t cause any more trouble, the calypso mercs won’t hesitant to shoot you on the spot..." he glanced at Pini and cut off, "but let’s drop the subject before it get any worst.”

“Now moving on, most of shops are porbably closed by now but I run the gun store here; tap runs the diner in the tent, around the corner there is a clothing shop & general store and the spark & flame, the engieers shop is three doors down."


“So unless you want any of you go to sleep now, free feel to wander around for a bit and Amo’s was it? I’ll answer your questions now, unless the rest of you have any questions?"

"Yes, Amos. I appreciate your willingness to let us stay, Mr...what was it?"

"James Wilson."

Amos didn't check Wilson's voice, as he replied. Or if Biddy gave him a chastising glare.

"Right, Mr. Wilson, I do have a number of questions, though I'm not certain all will lead to relevant information. I heard about this "Clark," you referred to, as if you expected we knew who this was. I heard something about "The Ten Courts of Hell," by that....." he snapped a waving hand a couple of times, before itching his head, "..one woman. And that flare - you spoke about it like you didn't expect it. You suggested to "investigate it," later. I find that odd."

"This place doesn't have...mutations...here, does it?" The simple man, Mr. Tate, piped up. Still stunned from the earlier issue.

"Uh, don't mind Mr. Tate, Mr. Wilson. He...isn't as, uh, "prepared," as us. He's, hmm..." after a pause to think, he leaned slightly and looked Wilson directly in the eyes, "on much more personal business."

"I'd like to ask many of you about your lives. In general. Important news. Nearby places to go to. How you all live in your environment, all that."

Biddy finally interrupted into the conversation, playing with a lock of the vibrantly red hair and a cute smile to the other two Wastelanders, "I heard, James, you were a vault dweller? I, personally, have other questions than Hadley's - Amos'."
She began, in her giddy, excited voice - youthfully bouncy, twitchy, for usually foolish and pointless things to the mission - "And I'd really love to see where that flare came from, or see what's going on at that tent. Seems like some important things are going on. You two don't know what the deal is, do you? It seems like you deal with all the serious action, big situations," Hadley thought he might have lazily noticed Biddy's green eyes flicker to Barry.

[D LOpez]

Dean Johnson - Grayditch - Tent

Dean's feet slapped against the concrete ground as he jogged at a fast pace towards the tent he had left earlier on; his eyes darting at the multiple shadows that were cast by the dim lighting coming from some of the houses and one or two other sources on the street. He still wasn't used to being on his own out in the wastes, and as much as he tried to push the horrible stereotypes out of his mind, some of the horrid things he had been told about wastelanders back in the vault didn't entirely escape his head; instead taking their place in a deeper, darker part of his mind.

After a bit more jogging he finally came to the end of the street. Dean spotted the faded light that escaped the tent, immediately his ears caught the sound of hushed talking, and as he got closer he spotted a man being half carried, half dragged out of the tent; it was the bloke who had been laid out unconscious on the ground when Dean had entered the tent earlier. The visual image of the tent earlier on did little to speed Dean's pace towards the hell, did he really have to see it, did he really want to see it? No, he didn't. But he had volunteered to be out in the wastes, and he couldn't deny that with that opportunity came the realism of seeing a few things that would stick with him. He took a deep breath, and entered the tent.

The scene was near enough the same, except there were fewer people. The doctor was still operating on the bleeding women, blood was everywhere, and the sight made Dean grab his mouth in reflex before quickly removing it, realizing he was okay, for now at least. He slowly yanked his attention from the makeshift operating table and to the reason he had come to the hell tent, shifting to face Aubrey, she handed some man Dean hadn't met before a bag, before nervously picking at her clothes. Dean almost smirked at this, he remembered one of the first times he had seen Aubrey; it was a few minutes before she was about to give a speech in the vault, she was nervous, and had been stood very similarly to the way she was now, nervously picking at various parts of her vault suit...

Dean took a deep breath before stepping forward, deeper into the tent. Aubrey turned, almost seeming to freeze at the sight of him; before he could open his mouth she clenched her fists, her stance firming; even with the aggressive stance Dean couldn't bring himself to say anything; he just stood there, frozen as the scene rolled out in front of him, before he knew it she had marched straight up to him, already speaking.

"What are you doing here?... To shoot someone? Me?" She spat bitterly, her eyes sparkled angrily, the dim lights did nothing to improve the atmosphere.

"No, no way... I can barely fire this thing!" Dean finally spoke, tapping his pistol both defensively and dumbly. "We're out here doing research, I volunteered... I'm sorry." Dean spoke, lowering his head. Not sure exactly which thing he was saying sorry for... There were a lot of things to be sorry for, but he couldn't apologize properly in a place like this... Now wasn't the time... The seconds seemed to slow down, then speed up. It became extremely awkward, and then Dean surprised even himself by suddenly clicking into motion, he stepped forward and hugged her, she was skinnier then she had been even with the rations in the vault, her whole body tensed once again, Dean quickly let go, taking a small step back.

"I'm glad your okay, Aubrey." He smiled weakly, rubbing his neck as the nervousness set in once again and the tent seemed to fall still.

[Latino HeaT]

(OOC: Of COURSE my power goes out for three full hours when I have a post ready. DUH.)


Cody Dirkheim ** Tap’s Tent/GRAYDITCH ** Late evening

Time seemed to have stood still for the flamboyant surgeon. He was entirely immersed in his task and could not be distracted out of it. The voices and other noises reduced to a dull roar in his ear and were simply ambiance.

Brandy moaned and twitched. Cody wished he could assume that was automatically a positive, but the truth was known to him all too well – it really meant it could go either way. He slowly inhaled another breath and moved his tweezers another eighth of an inch.

Immediately he sensed a texture change. It wasn’t the same as the soft, giving flesh he’d been feeling up until that point. It was hard.

The bullet.

There you are, you son of a [censored]. A wicked smile flashed across Cody’s face. He knew his work wasn’t yet finished, but he was closer to…a result.

He carefully opened the tweezers and by feel alone, attempted to open the tweezers over the bullet. He knew he only had one real chance to remove it, because screwing around in an open bullet wound simply wasn’t an option. The ambient noise turned into a louder roar – activity in the tent had picked up and emotions were running high.

Cody inhaled and held his breath, steadying his hand. He closed the tweezers. They didn’t completely close and instead, rest onto something hard on both sides. He gripped the bullet and pulled it out of the open wound, dropping it and the tweezers onto the nearby metal tray with a loud clang.

Brandy mumbled and moaned some more. Her eyes were closed. Cody hoped she was having a nice dream. The rest of the sounds in the tent were becoming more distinct to his ears as he came down from his trance.

“I appreciate the offer”, Bob was heard saying, “But the Brotherhood has already offered to airlift her to Rivet City if her injuries are too severe for Cody to handle. Doc Preston’s the best doctor from here to the Commonwealth…if he can’t help her no one can.”

Give a girl a chance, you handsome piece of ex-military ass!

The wound needed closing up, on the inside and on the surface. Blood gushed from the internal opening and if Cody was going to have any chance of closing it, he’d need it to drain. He frantically glanced around for his drainage bottle. It was poking out of the top of his medical bag, forgotten to be included with the rest of his instrumentation. He winced as his hands dripped blood across Brandy’s body in order to reach it.

“So, anyone here in need of my assistance?” A man bellowed. “Anyone need some drugs? You need someone sedated? You need an unconscious person waking up again? Well bring their asses over here and let me see what I can do.”

Cody squeezed the bottle and gently inserted the tip of it into the open wound. Releasing the pressure, blood was quickly svcked up the tube and into the receptacle, clearing the wound but not enough for him to be able to suture. He squeezed the air out again slowly and repeated the same motion. Brandy was switching softly and her skin was starting to look very pale.

“Just another couple of minutes, Brandy, just another couple of minutes. I got the bullet out and now I just need to sew you up so you can heal. Just hang on…”

He wiped excess blood off his finger tips with some spare gauze and reached for his needle, already threaded. Despite the haste he felt was necessary to finish the operation, he knew he had to keep patient for just a few moments longer. It seemed to take him a year to sew up the internal wound, as small as it was.

Finally, blood was no longer gushing into, or out of, the young woman’s lungs and into the rest of her body cavity. Cody used his drainage bottle once more to remove the excess blood and turned his focus on closing the wound on the outside.

The operation was finished. The wound was closed and the stitches a row of neat, tight threaded ridges. Cody finally exhaled. He looked up and locked eyes first with Sue, then with Bob.

“She lost a lot of blood. I’ve removed the bullet and sewn her up. The rest is up to Brandy, and God. Or whoever you think is in charge up there,” he gestured to the sky with his index finger in a flippant manner. He looked over Brandy once more and saw the young woman was still breathing. “She just needs rest, now. Take her home and watch her closely. Check her every half hour to every hour and try to wake her up. If she won’t wake up, check her pulse. If it slows a lot or you can’t find it…come find me.”

He glanced at Bob and smirked. “Or, the Brotherhood, if you think I can’t handle it.”

Cody began to clean his instruments, feeling exhausted and hoping surgeries were finished for the night. His stomach growled so loudly, he worried the entire population of the tent could hear it.

Funny how “real life” kicks in once work is done.

[Sophie Morrell]

Ooc: as well as patched up weapons, there are at least two military grade weapons, the plasma rifle and missile launcher.

James wilson- Answering qeustions - night time

“Yes, Amos. I appreciate your willingness to let us stay, Mr...what was it?" the male vault dweller with the fancy Pipboy said.

"James Wilson." James replied, noticing that Biddy was glaring at Amos….

"Right, Mr. Wilson, I do have a number of questions, though I'm not certain all will lead to relevant information. I heard about this "Clark," you referred to, as if you expected we knew who this was. I heard something about "The Ten Courts of Hell," by that....." he snapped a waving hand a couple of times, before itching his head, "..one woman. And that flare - you spoke about it like you didn't expect it. You suggested to "investigate it," later. I find that odd."

“Well “Clark” is the other vault dweller from your vault; the girl was pointing a 10mm pistol at you. She called her “Clark” not sure if that’s some sort of codename or that she changed it for some reason.

Although I wonder why she chose Clark? Guess there probably some famous per-war person or something.

“The “Ten courts of hell” it’s some religious thing calypso has on, don’t know which one but it’s not Christian, I guess you will have to ask her about it. As for the Flare, like I said no-one lives on that side and considering we didn’t hear any gunfire suggest isn’t a bad thing and that someone has simply found someone or something.

"This place doesn't have...mutations...here, does it?" one of the other dwellers said.

“No not here, deeper in the city they do and in some places out in wasteland, although most of these places are also warzones…so you wouldn’t want to go there.” James replied.

I doubt any of you would survive ten minutes in one….

"Uh, don't mind Mr. Tate, Mr. Wilson. He...isn't as, uh, "prepared," as us. He's, hmm..." after a pause to think, he leaned slightly and looked Wilson directly in the eyes, "on much more personal business”

"I'd like to ask many of you about your lives. In general. Important news. Nearby places to go to. How you all live in your environment, all that."
“Sure although I did tell Clark or whatever her real name is all that stuff, petty sure you could just download it from her Pipboy.” James replied “although I didn’t talk about the environment…

Biddy finally interrupted into the conversation, playing with a lock of the vibrantly red hair and a cute smile , "I heard, James, you were a vault dweller? I, personally, have other questions than Hadley's - Amos'."

“eer yes, Vault 10 it’s in Texas, it’s a long way away from here…. Feels almost like a life time ago since I was last there” James said sadly thinking briefly back before paining attention to Biddy …

"And I'd really love to see where that flare came from, or see what's going on at that tent. Seems like some important things are going on. You two don't know what the deal is, do you. It seems like you deal with all the serious action, big situations,"

“We shall be getting to flare later on Biddy” James said before turning to Barry “Actually Barry could you go and have look and see what it was? Report back with whatever you find.” James asked

If it is something dangerous Barry can run back and we can use the heavy guns & others

“As for the tent, if what that kid who was with you said is true someone was shot… so unless any of you are doctors I think we should just stay out of the way, but we shall see the flare later Biddy.” James said and then started coughing a bit.

James then spoke to Amo’s again “so did you have any more questions? Although I do have one for you, why don’t your vault suits have numbers on then? All the others I’ve seen had them?” James asked

[Nicole Coucopoulos]

-Biddy
--James Wilson's House

“We shall be getting to flare later on Biddy” Biddy's sugary, rosy smile fell into a disappointed frown, her short, full lips giving a sad and frustrated pout at the dismissal. Her clean, smooth legs crossed over, and her upper half wilted so that her hand could push up against her pretty, olive-skinned cheek. Her bust showing a little more at the angle.

James turned to the other man, “Actually Barry could you go and have look and see what it was? Report back with whatever you find.”

One of her disapproving brows shot up from their gloom in surprise. Well, she wasn't just going to sit here while someone else went to the flare!


“As for the tent, if what that kid who was with you said is true someone was shot… so unless any of you are doctors I think we should just stay out of the way, but we shall see the flare later Biddy.” The man coughed, trying to reaffirm the decision.

"So did you have any more questions? Although I do have one for you, why don’t your vault suits have numbers on then? All the others I’ve seen had them?”

Biddy jumped from the couch, interrupting Amos - who quietly gave a sigh in resign - with that same angry pout, almost playing cute in the way she pushed her lips and huffed, "If Barry's gonna go check out that flare, then I'm comin' with."

Her arms swung to her waist, touching the black belt and jerking a hip to jut out slightly. Her lips pouted just a bit more.

"C'mon, James, let a girl have some fun - I thought you said something about how we could go as we please? I'm sure Barry would do more than enough to protect me if I can't, if it's at all that bad, until you guys catch up."

One of her hands rubbed the curve below the waist of her right, nearing the flaunted hip a bit more, before brushing her bare, small shoulder up to the back of her neck. She gave another excited grin, flashing her shiny, white teeth, "I'd like to see the town before I get tucked in for bed - hardly be doing my job as scout and diplomat not to be learnin' 'bout it and exploring, now would I?"

Shooting her hopeful, pleading vivid green eyes to the other man, surrounded by the red of her hair, she asked, "You don't have a problem with it, Barry, right?"

[Jonathan Braz]

Barry Burton - Grayditch - Gun Shop

Barry slowly made his way down the street at the side of James, leading the dwellers to his employers house and shop. When they were nearly there a sudden bang made them all jump as the sky lit up with red sparks above a building in the distance.

"Strange... No one lives in that part of town, perhaps we can go and investigate a bit later on." James spoke, not slowing his pace towards the house.

"That was an emergency flare, there hasn't been any gun fire though... Can't be that much of an emergency, but yeah, I agree. Should probably check that out once these dwellers are comfortable." Barry agreed, they finally reached Jame's house, quickly opening the door and heading inside.

"Barry, can you help me clear the guns off this table while our guests take their seats." James asked, Barry simply nodded and began following Jame's steps as he cleared the table of an assortment of weapons and armor. He followed Jame's a little further from the dwellers and place some armor down as Jame's whispered to him.

"Going to play nice, but if you even suspect Pini's going to get violent; drop the bastard... Or just knock him out, your choice." James whispered, turning to face the dwellers once again. They had taken their places, some sitting down, some preferring to stand, still very much nervous at their surroundings.

"Well, first of all I'd like to welcome you all to Grayditch. I'm sorry if we seem to be acting harshly or overly paranoid; the town has been attacked twice recently and a lot of our security force are injured or dead... With that in mind I do suggest you try not to cause any more trouble, Calypso's merc's won't hesitate to gun you down. But let's leave that subject before we cause the situation to become any worse..."

James went on to explain the layout of the town, Barry listened intently to parts of it too, he didn't really know the layout of the town yet either.

So, unless any of you want to go to sleep now, feel free to wander around a bit, and Amo's... Was it? I can answer those question now." James finished. Barry simply smiled before taking a seat himself and taking out his small handgun, ejecting the clip, pulling back the top slide and inserting a cleaning rod down the barrel... Carrying on cleaning his handgun and keeping a close eye on Pini.

"Yes, Amos. I appreciate your willingness to let us stay, Mr... What was it?" The intelligent looking guy replied, Barry liked him a hell of a lot more then the other man, he seemed a tad snide, but he was at least polite.

"James Wilson."

"Right, Mr. Wilson, I do have a number of questions, though I'm not certain all will lead to relevant information. I heard about this "Clark," you referred to, as if you expected we knew who this was. I heard something about "The Ten Courts of Hell," by that....." he snapped a waving hand a couple of times, before itching his head, "..one woman. And that flare - you spoke about it like you didn't expect it. You suggested to "investigate it," later. I find that odd."

"Well, Clark is that other vault dweller. She was the one pointing a 10mm pistol at you guys. Not sure whether that's some sort of code name or whether she just changed it." James stated curiously. Barry remembered back, he had used a different name for a little while when he had been thrown out of Tenpenny Tower, quite a few people had wanted him dead so his name wasn't safe to use around town.

"The Ten Courts of Hell is some religious thing Calypso has going on. I don't know which, but it's not Christian. I guess you'll have to ask her about it. As for the flare, Like I said, no one lives on that side and considering we didn't hear any gunfire that suggests it's bad and that someone may have found someone." James continued explaining.

Another timid looking bloke spoke up, asking about mutations. James calmed him, telling him none in this part of the wastes, and another dweller apologized for his lack of waste adaption.

Biddy finally interrupted into the conversation, playing with a lock of the vibrantly red hair and a cute smile , "I heard, James, you were a vault dweller? I, personally, have other questions than Hadley's - Amos'."

"Um, yes, Vault 10... It's in Texas. It's a long way away from here, seems like a lifetime since I was last there." James spoke, almost sadly.

The questions seemed to go back and fourth, back and fourth; Barry tucked his handgun and the cleaning tool away before finally standing.

"Barry, could you go and have a look? Report back with what you find?"

"Yeah, sure." Barry said plainly, hoping the flare was just something minor.

"If Barry's gonna go check out that flare, then I'm comin' with." The redheaded girl jumped up from her seat, her arms swung to her waist, touching the black belt and jerking a hip to jut out slightly. Her lips pouted just a bit more.

"C'mon, James, let a girl have some fun - I thought you said something about how we could go as we please? I'm sure Barry would do more than enough to protect me if I can't, if it's at all that bad, until you guys catch up."

One of her hands rubbed the curve below the waist of her right, nearing the flaunted hip a bit more, before brushing her bare, small shoulder up to the back of her neck. She gave another excited grin, flashing her shiny, white teeth, "I'd like to see the town before I get tucked in for bed - hardly be doing my job as scout and diplomat not to be learnin' 'bout it and exploring, now would I?"

"You don't have a problem with it, Barry, right?"

"I can take care of her, as long as she stays out of the way of my bullets and keeps herself behind cover if bullets start flying... She'll be fine." Barry smiled, "Do you know how to shoot, do you have a handgun?" He asked, looking towards Biddy.

[Benjamin Holz]

Ooc: I forgot what colour hair Biddy, will edit if she isn’t a redhead

James Wilson – his house - Nighttime

One of her hands rubbed the curve below the waist of her right, nearing the flaunted hip a bit more, before brushing her bare, small shoulder up to the back of her neck. She gave another excited grin, flashing her shiny, white teeth, "I'd like to see the town before I get tucked in for bed - hardly be doing my job as scout and diplomat not to be learnin' 'bout it and exploring, now would I?"

I guess not…. dam it she’s trying to seduce us and its [censored] working.

"You don't have a problem with it, Barry, right?"

"I can take care of her, as long as she stays out of the way of my bullets and keeps herself behind cover if bullets start flying... She'll be fine." Barry smiled, "Do you know how to shoot, do you have a handgun?" He asked, looking towards Biddy

Biddy paused, before giving another smile, "You bet."

She flashed the pistol she owned. "We all were armed, just in case."

Yeah but do you know how to use it?

“I know what you’re trying to do Biddy and you’re lucky you’re a redhead otherwise it wouldn’t work but fine you can go with Barry, we shall catch up in a few minutes.

James walked over to the stair “I’m going to change into my armour, be back in five minute feel free to have a look around .. Just don’t break anything” he joked as he slowly walked upstairs.

Walking into his bedroom and sat down on his bed.James then slowly undressed and put on the white combat jumpsuit before retracting the leg brace and then putting on the all of the blue combat plates, his combat belt and then wrapped his red bandanna around his leg. Putting his right hand glove on James picked up his combat helmet and walked back down stairs to the rest of the dwellers, although Barry and Biddy had already left.

Putting on his combat helmet James picked up his Plasma rifle, to those who didn’t know he might have looked like he going off to war, despite his injures James would be capable of putting up a reasonable good fight should they be attacked espically with the Plasma rifle.

“okay if everyone ready let go” he said and then walked outside, once the others had James locked the door and turned on his Combat helmet light, and they began walk towards the flare as he did James spoke to Amo “so you never did tell me about the numbers?”

“The numbers? Oh, that. Right. We ripped the numbers off of our suits," he shrugged.

why though? James though as he stared at him.

"Oh. You want to know why we took the numbers off. Well, Mr. Wilson...uhhh," he began to scratch his head again, "How would I put it? Er -" …. He stopped.

"Has "Clark" told you the number?"


No but i didn't really get the chance to ask her yet" James replied

Nor have I been back to Vault tech and looked on the terminal

For once, Amos' eyes jerked to look at Mr. Wilson directly, still and almost harsh. After a long, hard look, he finally, cautiously spoke, "Good."

The man began walking once more, rubbing the tip of his nose with his index in thought, "It's...uh..for security. Only the people who have gone outside are missing the numbers. We patch the suits with blank material...We don't say where our vault is, or which one it is, either."

“Oh” James said “well I don’t see the point in it really, I mean even If they know the number it’s not like they’re gonna know were the Vault is? The only place with that information is Vault Tech Hq and that place is overrun with Battle robots” James said

Or was...

Walking around the corner James could see Barry and Biddy in the distant and slowly approached them….

[GPMG]

Bob Dobbs

Diner – Evening

“There you are, you son of a [censored]!”, Cody said triumphantly to himself, a smile breaking out on his face. It was the first thing he had said in quite a while. A moment later, he extracted the bullet and dropped it in a metal pan with a loud ‘clang’.

He then pulled a suction bottle out of his bag and started to suction the wound.

“Just another couple of minutes, Brandy, just another couple of minutes”, Cody said softly. “I got the bullet out and now I just need to sew you up so you can heal. Just hang on…”

Eventually, he was able to see well enough to work and began to close Brandy’s wound. As Bob watched anxiously, he closed and sutured the wound up and the operation was over.

“What do you think, Doc?”, Bob asked. “Will she make it?”

“She lost a lot of blood…I’ve removed the bullet and sewn her up”, replied Cody. “The rest is up to Brandy…and God”. Cody pointed at the ceiling flippantly. “Or whoever you think is in charge up there.”

Cody then turned back to Brandy and checked her vitals again, seemingly satisfied with what he found.

“She just needs rest, now”, Cody continued. “Take her home and watch her closely. Check her every half hour to every hour and try to wake her up. If she won’t wake up, check her pulse. If it slows a lot or you can’t find it…come find me.”

“Will do”, Bob said, noting Jeeves was entering the tent and heading towards him. “Between Sue, Jeeves, and I we have that covered”.

“Or, the Brotherhood…”, Cody said with a smirk, “…if you think I can’t handle it.”

Thin skinned, a bit, aren’t we?

“If I lacked faith in your abilities”, Bob replied evenly, “You would be the first to know it. If you hadn’t been here, the medevac to Rivet City the Brotherhood offered would have been her only chance to make it. Anyway, thanks for helping Brandy…. come by in the morning and we’ll settle up”.

Cody began to clean his instruments, and Bob turned his attention to Jeeves.

“Miss Clark said you wanted to see me”, Jeeves said. He then extended one of his optical sensors as if to examine Brandy more closely. “Good heavens…why would anyone shoot Miss Brooks?”

“I’ll explain it later”, Bob replied. “We need to get her home and into bed. Do we have something that can be used as a stretcher?”

“We’ve got one on the Vertibird”, said Elizabeth. “I’ll have an Initiate help you out”.

A moment later, one of the Initiates appeared with a collapsible metal stretcher. After setting it up, Bob and the Initiate gently placed Brandy in it.

“C’mon, Sue”, Bob said. “Let’s take her home.”

Bob and the Initiate, closely followed by Sue and Jeeves, carried Brandy back to the house. Bob noted that people were wandering in the direction of The Tropical Room…apparently the situation with Clark’s fellow Vault Dwellers had been resolved peacefully and attention had turned to investigating the flare. Bringing Brandy inside, the carried her up the stairs and into the guest bedroom. Bob thanked the Initiate for his help, and he left to return to his friends.

Bob gave Brandy just enough Med-X to ease the pain, then washed and bandaged her injuries and tucked her into bed. While Jeeves set one Eyebot to patrol the borders of the town, and the other to watch over Brandy, Bob brought a comfy chair upstairs and set it next to Brandy’s bed. Jeeves brought up a half-gallon bottle of brahmin milk and a glass and set them on the night table. Bob sat down and poured himself a glass and then began fiddling with his HandComp 5000. Jeeves explained he had set things up so Bob could use it to monitor and give orders to the Eyebots.

“I removed the memory blocks and other garbage the Enclave had put in their logic centers”, said Jeeves. “It seems the Enclave was using these poor robots mere drones when their programming is capable of much more. Now that I’ve freed their minds they will be far more useful.”

Jeeves retreated to prepare one of the other bedrooms for Clark. As Brandy slept fitfully, Bob flipped through the settings for the Eyebot now lazily floating around the room.

>ACTIVATE PROGRAM:
>IMAGE CAPTURE?
>VIDEO SURVEILLANCE?
>VIDEO STREAM?
>PROPAGANDA?

Bob selected “Propaganda”.

>Pre-Recorded Message?
>Broadcast external feed?

Bob selected “Broadcast External Feed”

>Searching commercial AM/FM Broadcast Bands………….done.
>Two active FM frequencies found:
> 91.6 – Frequency not assigned by FCC – unlicensed station
> 103.8 – WGNR - Galaxy News Radio Affiliate – Washington, DC
>
>Two active AM Frequencies found:
>740 – CFZM – Armed Forces Radio – Toronto, Ontario Military District
>1160 – Frequency not assigned by FCC – unlicensed station

>One Police/Government Frequency found
> 1920 MHz – Vault-Tec Emergency Broadcast – DC Metro Area

Bob chose AM740 and music immediately began to come out of the Eye Bot

It's Canada Day up Canada Way from the lakes, to the prairies wide.
And we're shouting hooray, up Canada Way on the St. Lawrence river side.
People everywhere have a song to share on Canada's holiday.
From P. E. Island to the sunny south to the North Pole far away.

Oh Canada, standing tall together,
We'll raise our hands and hail our flag
The Red Ensign forever…..

That was “Stompin’ Tom Connors and his timeless “It’s Canada Day, Up Canada Way”, for our boys on the Ottawa Front, Buffalo, and all across Ontario keeping us safe. The time is twenty-two forty five and you’re listening to AM740, the Voice of Toronto. Up next is Dean Domino’s ‘Volare’…..

Bob sat and sipped his glass of milk, watching Brandy’s even breathing.

All I can do now is wait….

[Motionsharp]

Sue cooper - Diner – nightime

“Just another couple of minutes, Brandy, just another couple of minutes”, Cody said softly. “I got the bullet out and now I just need to sew you up so you can heal. Just hang on…”

Yes hang on Brandy don’t you die on us!

Sue was watching anxiously as the doctor operated on Brandy, he had gotten the bullets out and was now working on patching brandy up… she was going to make it…. hopefully.

“What do you think, Doc?”, Bob asked. “Will she make it?”

God I hope she does… Sue though nervously awaiting the docs answer

“She lost a lot of blood…I’ve removed the bullet and sewn her up”, replied Cody. “The rest is up to Brandy…and God”. Cody pointed at the ceiling flippantly. “Or whoever you think is in charge up there.”

Why did he do that?

Cody then turned back to Brandy and checked her vitals again, seemingly satisfied with what he found. “She just needs rest, now”, Cody continued. “Take her home and watch her closely. Check her every half hour to every hour and try to wake her up. If she won’t wake up, check her pulse. If it slows a lot or you can’t find it…come find me.”

“Will do”, Bob said as he did Jeeves entered the tent and hovered towards him. “Between Sue, Jeeves, and I we have that covered”.

“Or, the Brotherhood…”, Cody said with a smirk, “…if you think I can’t handle it.”

what was that about?

“If I lacked faith in your abilities”, Bob replied evenly, “You would be the first to know it. If you hadn’t been here, the medevac to Rivet City the Brotherhood offered would have been her only chance to make it. Anyway, thanks for helping Brandy…. come by in the morning and we’ll settle up”.

Sue nodded her head as if she was agreeing with Bob

“Miss Clark said you wanted to see me”, Jeeves said. He then extended one of his optical sensors as if to examine Brandy more closely. “Good heavens…why would anyone shoot Miss Brooks?”

“Cause Toby is an [censored], a jealous little [censored]” Sue signed to Jeeves

“I’ll explain it later”, Bob replied. “We need to get her home and into bed. Do we have something that can be used as a stretcher?”

“I don’t think there in one in Ryler’s clinic” Sue signed to Jeeves “might be one in the…. station”

“We’ve got one on the Vertibird”, said scribe. “I’ll have an Initiate help you out”.

That’s useful!

A moment later, one of the Initiates appeared with a collapsible metal stretcher. After setting it up, Bob and the Initiate gently placed Brandy in it.

“C’mon, Sue”, Bob said. “Let’s take her home.”

Bob and the Initiate, closely followed by Sue and Jeeves, carried Brandy back to the house. Bringing Brandy inside, the carried her up the stairs and into the guest bedroom. Bob thanked the Initiate for his help, and he left to return to his friends.

Sue watched as Bob then gave Brandy just enough Med-X to ease the pain, then washed and bandaged her injuries and tucked her into bed. While Jeeves set one Eyebots to patrol the borders of the town, and the other to watch over Brandy, Bob brought a comfy chair upstairs and set it next to Brandy’s bed whilst Sue simply sat on the end of the bed…

Jeeves then brought up a half-gallon bottle of Brahmin milk and a glass and set them on the night table. Bob sat down and poured himself a glass and then began fiddling with what James had called a “Pipboy knock off”

What no glass for me…

Sue picked up the bottle and began to drink the rest of the milk whilst Jeeves explained he had set things up so Bob could use it to monitor and give orders to the Eyebots before going to make Clarks bed.

Sue started watch Brandy as she slept peacefully whilst the eyebots began to play music from Canada which was odd since they were in American…. Or what was left of it.
Sue turned to Bob and appeared to attempting to speak but then open up her notebook and began to write a small note before giving to Bob

-----
I hope Brandy is going to pull though this… I love her… and you..

Don’t know what I’ll do if she had died in tent probably killed Toby for start… then I don’t know what I would have done…
Speaking of toby what are we gonna do with that little [censored], I don’t think Amelia and her plaything are going to do much….

ps. does Jeeves not like me or something? he didn't get me a glass...

-----
I need to get a new notebook, running out of paper

[Nicole Coucopoulos]

Harold. Around town. After dark.


Harold's vision swam as the doctor operated on his mangled foot. The giant couldn't be sure if the dizziness and confusion was being caused by the drugs that Cody had given him, or by the buffout that Mr Moriarty hadn't. Either way, the things he was seeing weren't real, couldn't be real. One moment it was the doctor, calmly working to remove any shrapnel or grit from his wound. Then he'd blink and the doctor would be replaced with Joe Rennie, smiling warmly and reassuring him that everything would be well, while tearing open the wound and making it worse. Harlen and Rusty Jake suddenly appeared, cursing him for their murders and crying out for justice, only to be replaced, just as suddenly by Calypso, telling him she loved him before thrusting her tongue deep into the wound, her beautiful face coming up once more with his fresh blood dripping from her chin. This image faded, to be replaced by the feather from Dr Cody's hat, rhythmically bobbing up and down in time with the man's head as he...

Harold jerked upright in his seat. He couldn't, not even in his imagination. He had promised Calypso there would be no other men, not while he was with her. This man, this doctor would have made the perfect plaything for Harold a short time ago. Short and of average build, the man would have no chance to resist the hulking brute's advances. But he couldn't, not now, he had made a promise to Calypso, just as she had to him. He would not break his wife's trust unless she broke his. And on that day, he would break her neck.

He shoved himself to his feet, grunting slightly at the pain from his foot as he forced it back inside his mangled boot and began to shuffle towards the door. “Harold, I’m not kidding, you really don’t want to be putting weight on that, you’ll pull the stitches.” Cody called after him, the smaller man's voice sounding concerned.

Harold didn’t reply. He had to get out of the small shop and away from temptation while he was still in control. Without a word he simply opened the door and stepped out into the night. Slamming the door shut in his haste to leave with a particularly loud bang.

Outside wasn't much better, the sky taking on an eerie red glow as a signal flare slowly arced through the sky. Eventually descending and dropping onto the roof of one of the buildings in town. Though he didn't see it land, Harold knew that the bright beacon had come to rest on the roof of one of the town''s clinics. It was a sign, or it was his thoughts trying to break through the haze of confusion. The town's previous doctors were dead, executed during the Enclave's attack. But their equipment, their provisions, their drugs would all be left behind. That was the way for now. Until Mr Moriarty came around and began supplying him again, Harold would find his buffout amongst the other chems in the doctor's medicine cabinet.

As quickly as he could Harold crossed the town, limping heavily and dragging his foot slightly. The chems that Cody had administered were numbing the worst of it, but each step still caused a sharp lance of pain to shoot up Harold's leg. When they wore off, every movement would be absolute agony.

“What is your pain?” Eulogy Jones' voice suddenly asked from somewhere inside Harold's mind. “An illusion of my body.” The giant rumbled automatically in response. Mr Jones was right of course, Harold had been in more pain than this before, it was nothing. Something to be ignored, pushed into a corner of his consciousness and ignored, along with his emotions, along with the despair he'd felt when his sister was murdered.

“What is your despair?”

“An illusion of my mind.”

“What is your best weapon?”

“My hatred. My anger.”

”Who are you?”

“I am Harold.”

Mr Jones was silent once more, as silent as he'd been since the day Jimmy Leggio had buried him. But he had reminded Harold. The giant had to continue, he had an owner, he had orders, and Mr Moriarty would be obeyed.

When he reached the building that had been claimed as a clinic, Harold could hear raised voices yelling inside and the sounds of a struggle. He raised his massive boot and kicked the door from it's hinges before stepping inside.

“Who the [censored] are you?” Bellowed a skinny young man in raider's clothing. “What the [censored] are you doing in here?” As he spoke, the raider unslung a chainsaw that had been slung across his back and tried to glare menacingly at the giant.

“Here for chems.” Harold rumbled in reply.

“Too [censored] late.” Grinned a tattooed raider with thick bandages wrapped round his neck, "we already took them all. The local hoker helped us pay fo...”

His words were cut off as Harold fired one of his new arms, the railway spike hurtling out with a whoop of escaping steam before punching through the raider's neck and burying itself in the wall behind, pinning the raider upright as his last breath gurgled through his ruined throat. Almost immediately the raider's companions fell upon the giant. A short Hispanic woman reaching his first and slashing a switchblade across Harold's face. “You killed Stez!” she shrieked, slashing at the brute again. The blade opened a large gash in Harold's cheek, fresh blood flowing from the wound and running down his neck as she drew the blade back once more. “You'll p...” Her words were cut off as Harold's arm pistoned forward, the thick index and middle fingers of his remaining hand bursting her eyeballs as they entered her head. The woman began to wail in pain and Harold jammed his thumb into her mouth. Holding her head like a bowling ball, Harold jerked his huge arm to the side, snapping the woman's neck and tearing off most of her face.

“LOCAL hoker!” He bellowed over the panicked noise of the other raiders as they cried out and quickly tried to arm themselves against the one armed, maniac giant in their midst. “THAT hoker IS MY WIFE!”

Of course, it was possible that they had been talking about one of the other employees of The Elusive Rose, but Harold was beyond listening to that small, rational part of his brain that tried to tell him this. He was enjoying the thrill of battle too much now.

The skinny kid fired up his chainsaw and began advancing on Harold, wildly swinging the weapon in wide, sweeping arcs. The giant slowly gave ground, sparks flying from the railway rifle strapped to his arm as he used the gun to block the swipes. Each impact caused the giant to grit his teeth in pain as his recently cauterized stump was jarred. Snarling in fury, Harold dropped the remains of the woman's face to the floor before grabbing the chainsaw wielder by the throat. Before the young man could react, the giant had pistoned his arm upwards, raising the raider upwards and crushing his skull against a thick wooden ceiling beam.

He dropped the twitching body to the ground and barely brought his mangled arm up in time to block a fire axe that had been aimed at his spine. Instead the axe buried itself in the gun that the robot had constructed for the giant, causing a burning cloud of steam to burst forth. The filthy bearded raider screamed as the cloud of super-heated water engulfed his face, blinding him. He let go of the axe and backed away, clutching at his burned eyes as Harold aimed the gun. He tried to fire, but only produced a dull clunking from the weapon. It was ruined already, the axe having ruptured or jammed something vital. The hulking brute instead swung the weapon as a makeshift club, shattering the bearded raider's hands and grinding them against the burned face beneath.

The giant pulled at the straps with his remaining hand. Impressed with the robot's skill as the straps easily loosened and the weapon dropped from his burned stump. He was reaching for another, the brace with the sword Calypso had given him welded to it, when his dark eyes went wide in surprise. Two thick dark arms passed round Harold's waist, the hands attached to them gripping each other as the arms firmly clamped against his hips. For the first time since he was a child, Harold felt himself lifted from his feet and thrown through the air. The room spun crazily as Harold's massive body sailed through the air and obliterated a workbench as his bulk crashed down on top of it.

He shook his head in confusion as he tried to regain his feet. Before he could stand, a fist crashed into the side of Harold's head with all the force of a thrown brick. He reeled backwards, stumbling and grabbing at another workbench as he tried to remain standing. Through the crazy kaleidoscope of colour swimming before his eyes, Harold saw the large, dark skinned face of his attacker, vacant eyes staring out from beneath his thick brow as he lunged at the giant once more. Harold let him come, slowly staggering away before suddenly dropping his huge frame backwards, landing on the ground with a loud thump that drove the breath from his huge body. As he landed Harold lashed out with both feet, smiling crazily as one of his huge assailant's knees cracked loudly and folded the wrong way. The large black man cried out in agony as he collapsed on top of the massive guard. His cries cut short and ending in a gurgling rattle as Harold clamped his teeth around the man's windpipe. The brute bit down hard, snarling in satisfaction as the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth, he jerked his head back and spat out the thick wad of flesh.

Slowly Harold clambered back to his feet as the raider died on the floor. The only sounds in the room were the quiet sobs of the blinded raider and the loud hammering of Harold's own heart. The giant blinked slowly, before running his eyes over the room once more. Nothing had changed. This hadn't been one of his “mental skips” as Mr Moriarty sometimes called them. This had really happened. Still burning with a dull rage, Harold finished unhooking his sword arm from his belt and clamped it to his burned stump, grunting at the pain as he pulled the straps tight. He slowly walked around the room, silently sawing the blade back and forth as he cut the heads from each of the raider's bodies. The blinded, bearded man tried to fight him off, feebly batting at the giant with his ruined hands. But in moments his head joined the pile of others.

The huge, hulking, black man had been completely bald, so Harold left his head on the floor. But he quickly gathered up the others, winding his fingers through their matted, filthy hair. “Time to get some answers.” He rumbled to himself as he limped out through the ruined door and back out into the streets of Grayditch, the heads leaving a trail of blood drops in his wake.

The giant quietly stalked to the end of the road, heading for the Rose. But the feeling of eyes on his back made Harold pause and turn to face the opposite end of the road. Standing in the shadows atop the ruined road at the far end of the town, he could just make out the outline of one of Calypso's guards. It would save him the search if this guard could tell Harold where his wife was, so he altered his course and stomped towards the guard. “Where is she?” He snarled once he reached the man. Wide eyed, the guard stared at the bundle of heads dangling beneath Harold's meaty fist. Too shocked by the appearance of the bloody brute and his grizzly prizes, the guard could only stammer incoherently and nod towards the doorway to the ancient building behind him.

Harold shouldered the guard roughly aside before striding through the door. Once inside, the giant was shocked to find himself standing within a room that seemed almost untouched by the war, or the centuries since. How long had this place been here? Had he missed it when he scouted the town for Mr Moriarty? If so, then how? And if not, then how had the place been set up while he and Rennie and all the others had been patrolling the town? That didn't matter right now. However it had happened, he was in the right place. Too many of Calypso's guards were scattered around the room for her to be elsewhere. He staked further into the room, blood dripping from the heads and pooling around his feet as he stopped on the dance floor and tried to locate his wife.

She was nowhere to be seen. But he recognized one of the guards, a man by the name of Swick. The guard's eyes were currently almost bulging from his head in shock as he stared at the blood soaked giant. He unconsciously tried to edge further away as Harold approached him. “Where is she?” The brute snarled. Swick was too stunned to even answer, instead hesitantly raising a shaking hand and pointing towards the second floor of the building. Without replying Harold turned his back and made his way to the stairs. Several of Calypso's guards gave him dark looks as he passed, but all knew who he was, so Harold was able to make his way past them all and up the stairs without confrontation.

He found Calypso seated at a dinner table overlooking the dance floor. She was seated with a young man with oiled dark hair. Without speaking Harold tossed the heads underarm so that they crashed down on the table between the two diners. “What's the meaning of this?” He snarled, his eyes wavering between Calypso and her companion. “We had an agreement. This is what will happen to anyone you take to your bed.” He placed his large hand on the man's shoulder, smearing blood on his suit, and raised the blade strapped to his severed arm. “Is this one next?”

[Paul Rice]

Calypso - The Tropical Room - Evening

"Good question, a little bit of this, a little bit of that." Mieux smirked. "Alright, alright, I'm a stickler for detail. I listened carefully to your girls, who seem to have a fear of you, and I.....explored the town a little tonight. From what I gathered, you either run this town, or bully others into believing it. Either way, to be honest, I don't care if you think you run the whole of the Wasteland, I'm not here for power, I'm here for the money. I heard Grayditch was ripe for taking. I do admit, I miss my home in Tenpenny Tower, but, well, this club has taken a lot of work. The walls aren't wallpapered save for the offices, so luckily I don't have to deal with cracked paints and peeling wallpaper. Anyway, before I slip off on a self-thought rambling, the short answer is 'eavesdropping on the girls' and 'eavesdropping on the tussle in the alley'. Still don't know about it. Oh, and one other thing, the girls mentioned to each other a name, or a word, not sure which. But who, or what, is Moriarity I heard about?"

Calypso grinned as her finger slowly trailed her lips, “What was the prewar saying? Telegraph, telephone, tell a woman?” She looked out of the corner of her eye down at Jade and Aponi, You will be disciplined you brainless twits. Her focus returned to Mieux, “Ahh, Alistair, we have an evolving business relationship. Colin,” she laughed, “Colin Moriarty, he claims Megaton to be his own. He also was the man responsible for the resettlement of Grayditch. Though he truthfully has no idea of what happens here, and I shall soon relieve him of this burden. The Enclave either killed, or the town security has ran off, leaving the town rather…unprotected. I have the means and available personal to adequately protect the town, therefore, overtaking it.”

“Colin would double cross his own mother,” Calypso leaned forward and whispered, “Rumor has it, that he sold his own daughter, Celeste to the Pitt.” Taking a sip from her glass as she leaned back in her seat, her eyes sparkled as she looked the handsome man over once more.

“I am certainly most interested in your proposal after we have finished our dining; perhaps you have somewhere more private in which we can discuss these matters.” Calypso flaunted her cleavage by brushing her long hair back over her shoulders.

The door opened downstairs and the sound of heavy boots could be heard along with gasps from Calypso’s girls and a few of her mercs. She turned to look, but her line of sight was blocked, she only saw Swick point upstairs and a shadow of a man in the entry way. Whoever it was slowly trudged up the marble stairs, Calypso never bothered to look, she was beside herself with Mieux’s demeanor and anxiously awaited his answer.

Calypso was forking a piece of steak when several severed heads crashed onto the table in front of her, blood splattered her face; any attraction was subconsciously shoved aside. Her eyes full of anger as she wiped the blood that had tracked from her right eye down to her chin.

“What's the meaning of this?” Harold snarled, his eyes wavering between Calypso and Mieux.

“THIS? Why should I answer you? Harold love, you have been gone for some time now; I had not the faintest idea where you had gone.” Calypso began to stand, her lips pressed tightly to one another.

“We had an agreement. This is what will happen to anyone you take to your bed.” He placed his large hand on the Mieux’s shoulder, smearing blood on his suit, and raised the blade strapped to his severed arm. “Is this one next?”

Calypso grabbed Harold’s arm, “It is business darling. The agreement also assumed that I would know of your whereabouts at all times, because I decided to take you as my husband. Who did this… What did you do to your arm?” she hissed as she looked the piece over, “I told you, I would see to it that you regained a useful arm.”

Calypso snatched one of the severed heads from the table, holding it up to Harold, “Is this my wedding gift? IS IT? These are simply unacceptable.” She got Harold to ease his hand from Mieux’s shoulder and stood between the men, “Darling, I believe you should rid us of these head and clean up the mess you made of Mr. Mieux’s fabulous Tropical Room,” she waved her arm in the direction of the blood trail.

“THIS INSTANT HAROLD, you had no right to disrupt our meeting. If you wish to speak of me, we shall do so outdoors.” Calypso looked at Harold’s arm again, “Maybe we could even test this…contraption hmm? But first, do clean up this awful mess you made darling, off with you.” Calypso seated herself and waved Harold off like it was nothing.

"Do excuse Harold, I apologize for is disturbance. He shall do as I say and care for the mess he made," Calypso picked up her glass and took another sip.

[lillian luna]

Harold. With Calypso. Evening.


Calypso grabbed Harold’s arm, pulling the blade back before he could plunge it into the neck of her dark haired companion “It is business darling. The agreement also assumed that I would know of your whereabouts at all times, because I decided to take you as my husband. Who did this… What did you do to your arm?” she hissed as she looked the piece over, “I told you, I would see to it that you regained a useful arm.”

“The robot.” Harold rumbled in reply. “I have others.” As he said this he removed his hand from the seated man's shoulder and slipped the strap. Removing the sword arm, he hooked the prosthetic on his belt once more, quickly replacing it with the dart gun and gripping the man's shoulder once more.

While he was busying himself with this, Calypso snatched one of the severed heads from the table, holding it up to Harold, “Is this my wedding gift? IS IT? These are simply unacceptable.” She got Harold to ease his hand from Mieux’s shoulder and stood between the men, “Darling, I believe you should rid us of these heads and clean up the mess you made of Mr. Mieux’s fabulous Tropical Room,” she waved her arm in the direction of the blood trail.

Silently Harold turned and peered at the trail of blood. When he made no attempt to move at all, Calypso roared at him, her face reddening a little in anger.

“THIS INSTANT HAROLD, you had no right to disrupt our meeting. If you wish to speak of me, we shall do so outdoors.” Calypso looked at Harold’s arm again, “Maybe we could even test this…contraption hmm? But first, do clean up this awful mess you made darling, off with you.” Calypso seated herself and waved Harold off like it was nothing. Like he was her servant, her slave. Her property. The giant's huge body almost shook with rage as she turned her attention back to her companion and spoke as if the brute had simply disappeared.

"Do excuse Harold, I apologize for his disturbance. He shall do as I say and care for the mess he made," Calypso picked up her glass and took another sip. This was the last straw. It was bad enough that she was sitting with this man, wearing the dress that he had picked out for her. It was worse that rather than deny his accusations, she had tried to berate him for making his own arrangements to repair his missing arm, the arm he'd lost saving her life. Dismissing him like he was nothing was too much.

Before even Harold himself knew what he was doing, his arm had shot out and he had grabbed a huge handful of her hair. Pointing the dart gun strapped to his arm at Mieux, he dragged Calypso from her chair and began heading for the stairs. “Outdoors it is then.” He growled angrily. The cannibal fought him every step of the way, punching and clawing at his arm as she thrashed and tried to pull herself free. But Harold's grip was like a vice and didn't budge as he pulled her along.

As he reached the top of the stairs, the sound of several weapons being readied drifted up from below. He peered down to see Calypso's guards preparing to rush to her defense. “STAY OUT OF THIS.” He bellowed, blood still dripping from the gash in his cheek. “This is between me and my wife. If any of you try to get involved, you had better pray you kill me before I get hold of you!”

[Marie]

Mieux sat at the table, absorbing all the details of this 'Moriarty' fellow. His mind racing as he calculated his next moves when suddenly the doors clanked open as a brute of a man stomped in and came to them, throwing severed heads on the table. Mieux's heart churned, not in fear or disgust, but in aggravation that he'd had his suit ruined, and at having blood ruin his table as well. Without hesitation, he simply yelled at the top of his lungs "PROTOCOL RED 047" A clanking came down a hall as three protectrons stopped at the base of the stairs to serve as additional aide to Calypso's mercenaries. Mieux grabbed an empty glass and chucked it at the brute of a man and watched as it broke on his head, yet seemingly doing nothing. Mieux simply walked forward to him to stop his advances. "Listen you brutish mongoloid. I don't care how tall you are, or if you have the strength of a hundred super mutants, you don't scare me, and you had damn well better be willing to pay or clean up this mess yourself. Mieux looked up at the man, he knew the odds of winning any hand to hand were slim if any, but he didn't care, he was furious his tuxedo was ruined. "Furthermore, you don't just go stomping in here taking people at any time you see fit, and the fact she is your wife doesn't help any. Now, if we're going ANYWHERE around here, you two will be coming with me to my office." His forced charming voice slipped as he simply bellowed in outright anger, "NOW! AND LET GO OF HER HAIR I'M SURE SHE CAN WALK!"

OOC: The reason Mieux's being so forceful, as pointed out, is his suit was ruined, and he's not fond of the fact that a disturbance has been caused.

[Enny Labinjo]

Calypso - The Tropical Room - Evening

Harold had changed his attachments while Calypso berated him; it caused her no concern, wanting to resume the discussion with Mieux. Calypso dropped her wine glass when her head was snapped back; Harold had ahold of her long hair. He pulled hard enough Calypso found herself being drug out of her seat. “Outdoors it is then.” Harold growled angrily.

Calypso twisted, clawed, and gnashed her teeth at Harold’s arm, all to no avail, his grip was vice-like and she could not break it. “Unhand me NOW. You know when it is appealing for you to pull my hair, and now it not the time.”

“PROTOCOL RED 047,” yelled Mieux; he threw an empty glass hitting Harold in his head.

“STAY OUT OF THIS.” Harold bellowed, “This is between me and my wife. If any of you try to get involved, you had better pray you kill me before I get hold of you!”

Calypso waved her mercs off, but three protectrons resided at the base of the stairs. Much to Calypso’s surprise, exciting her, Mieux walked right up to Harold. "Listen you brutish mongoloid. I don't care how tall you are, or if you have the strength of a hundred super mutants, you don't scare me, and you had damn well better be willing to pay or clean up this mess yourself. Furthermore, you don't just go stomping in here taking people at any time you see fit, and the fact she is your wife doesn't help any. Now, if we're going ANYWHERE around here, you two will be coming with me to my office." His charming voice slipped as he simply bellowed in outright anger, "NOW! AND LET GO OF HER HAIR I'M SURE SHE CAN WALK!"

Calypso craned her head to see Harold’s reaction, her hands wrapped around his as she sat there on her knees. “Harold darling, do allow us to conclude our business. After which, I shall test your abilities with your new toy.”

Calypso turned, while she rubbed Harold’s hands gently. She managed to look him in the eyes from her knees. Her expression changed from anger, to a silent pleading, a small smile graced her lips. She began to slowly stand, she put her hands on Harold’s muscular waist and rubbed his stomach, “Darling, I would never break our agreement. I have no need for anyone else.” She tried to lightly pry his hand from her hair, but he did not loosen his grip. Frustrated, Calypso jammed her hands down Harold’s pants, digging her nails around his testicles; she raised her eyebrows, “Do allow us to join Mr. Mieux in his office. As the remaining security officer in town, I imagine we…you, can benefit from the conversation.” She loosened her grip and began to be more pleasing to Harold, “Please love?”

What is wrong with me? Asking for permission? Surely I must seek counsel with Diamone soon.

Harold slowly unraveled his hand from her hair; Calypso pulled her hands out and traced the sides of Harold’s body until she was upright. She gazed into Harold’s dark eyes, caressing his wounded cheek, “Edward can suture your wound dear once we return to The Rose, after that, you and I shall let our blades cross each other,” she stood on her toes and kissed his still curled lips.

Calypso turned to Mieux, “Mr. Mieux, I shall tell Linda to expect you tomorrow if you are able. I will pay for her to make you two custom tuxedos love.”

She walked to the balcony, “Jade, Aponi, as punishment for you actions, you two shall clean up this mess." Jade's eyes went wide; it disgusted her, but was a hell of a lot better, and much less painful than what she expected.

“Yes Calypso,” Jade elbowed Aponi who also answered. They went to Winston to see about a bucket, water, and supplies.

“See Mr. Mieux, I have a mean for any situation. I assure you,” She looked at Harold, “There shall be no further problems within the walls of your fine establishment.

[Jennifer Rose]

Mieux cocked an eyebrow and looked at the two ladies, ignoring Harold's presence for a moment. "Negative Ms. Calypso, these two won't be cleaning this mess, this is strictly on your.....husbands hands." then turned his head to Harold, "And unless the next words out of your hole are 'Yes Mr. Mieux', we're going to have a serious problem." Mieux turned his attention back to Calypso. "No need, love. I have more than enough spares. I can clean this....wine stain, off my suit, but it'll take time, time I don't enjoy wasting." His eyes lingered to his Protectrons, he simply sighed, then said calmly but orderly, "Gentlemen, stand down from hostile to neutral. Don't fire unless he raises his weapon first." The three protectrons simply said in their robotic toned a uniform "Yes, Sir. Confirming orders." Cooling down to more civil levels, he looked back up at Harold and simply said calmly as if nothing happened. "Look....Mr. Harold. We got off to a wrong foot, things could still get ugly, how about you, Calypso, and I all head to my office on the third floor. We'll....talk. I'll even pour the drinks. You might be stronger than me, but you're in MY club, I'd appreciate a little respect on your part. You essentially made a frontal assault on my club, ruined the rather cheery party, and I find that in poor taste." He simply stared at Harold, feeling an obvious clash of tension between the two, then simply walked to the two young ladies Jade and Aponi and put his hands on their shoulders, "Ladies, feel free to go down to the ballroom floor, let the bosses handle this situation. Off you go little birds." Mieux smiled and watched as they looked fearfully at Calypso. "I'll take responsibility for any trouble from Calypso ladies, I promise." Shooing them off to the first floor, Mieux remained at the edge of the top of the stairway, looking once more upon the tall man Harold.

[His Bella]

Who are each owned by a Premium client”, snapped the Commander. ”And Moriarty has enough muscle in Grayditch to fight the Enclave to a standstill, don’t forget that.”

After a pause, the Commander continued. “No”, continued the Commander, “there are no other options for recruitment. We’ve got as much meat as we’re going to get. The boys are ready, there is no point in delaying any further”.

“We attack at Dawn tomorrow”, the Commander said. “That is twenty-eight hours from now”.

TC Sergeant Jake Piper a.k.a Sam “one eye” Griffin – jury street metro – 1:30am

At the temporary command post set up by the Talon Company at Jury Street station Possibly the last of the Talon company officers were discussing their battle plan to retake fort barrister, unknown to them their conversation was being listened into….

After killing and stealing that sergeant’s armour it was easy from Sam to simply walk into to the base they had set up at jury street station, fooling the guard into thinking he was a “sergeant piper”

After looking around the camp he had to admit for a group that literally gotten their asses handed to them, they had reorganised fairy quickly and had even managed to secure some mortars, machine guns and had captured over 100 wastelanders for some "special task"…

Sadly however neither Shorty nor the missing Tennpenny girls were among the people captured by the talon company although with that in mind they had captured some interesting people.

This one man “Luther” would make a useful bodyguard possibly matching Colin’s pet if you ever gained his loyalty. The other was an old female “scarlet” who appeared to a scientist or a doctor from the Brotherhood outcasts.

After exploring the camp and tunnels, Sam with the use of a stealth boy had snuck in and planted a bug within the Operations tent and had listen into the meeting and what they had been planning….

This plan is never going to work…. But now onto the task two….

With the meeting finished the officers left and returned to their tents, Sam began to follow one, a Captain Reynolds. Sam mentally went over the briefing Mr Burke had given him. Reynold's addiction to gambling had made it easy for Mr Burke to 'recruit' him as an informant. In the wake of the Brotherhood assault on Ft Bannister, and the death of Commander Jabsco, the new Commander had made him his Chief of Staff. Normally, this would be a dream come true....as the Commander's closest aide he would be privy to all Talon Company operations, giving Burke unparalleled access to Talon Company's secrets. Sam glanced at his watch.

1:45am.

But with the Brotherhood's final assault coming in less than an hour, Reynolds is now a liability.....a loose end that needs to be tied up.

Sam walked into his tent “captain Reynolds?” Sam asked

“Yes...what do you want, sergeant?”, the captain sleepily replied, he had been up for three days straight

“Mr. Tenpenny sends his regards”, Sam said as he drew his silenced pistol and shot the captain three times in the chest, he then fell backwards onto his bed. Taking a combat knife, Sam chopped of his finger, making it look like an regulators kill…

This should freak them out hahaha

With that finished Sam searched Reynold's corpse. Finding a key on a cord around his neck, and a small notebook, he took them. Sam then searched the captain’s tent, eventually finding a locked steel box. Opening it with the key, he found it full of holotapes and memory sticks, all labeled in some code. He closed the box and locked it again, and put it in his rucksack. His primary objectives achieved, Sam then picked up Reynold's briefcase which was filled with notes from the meeting and other important Talon Company details, a black baseball cap and some caps the captain had.

Now to leave before the brotherhood attack…

Leaving the tent, Sam snuck out of talon company camp and returned to nearby church where he has set up a mini-camp site, up in the town he could see all of Jury Street and the Brotherhood scouts who were nearby…

Removing the talon company armour and placing it next to its original owner, Sam got dressed in his normal clothes before setting up his radio. Fitting inside a small pouch on his vest, the radio broken up into three pieces; the power supply which was powered by a fusion battery, the miniaturise antenna and the headset which could be easily attracted to the users headwear.

Easily assembled in matter of minutes the radio's only flaw was that it was wired and that it was fairly old tech, with the commonwealth making several new models since. This did however allow Mr Bruke to purchase several of these radios & their blueprints for a discounted price…

Attaching the headpiece to the baseball cap he had found, Sam turned on the radio.

"I trust you were successful", came a familiar voice from behind him. Sam turned to look, as Mr Burke, dressed in black coveralls and wearing a pair of NV goggles around his neck, emerged from the shadows.

Sam nodded in the affirmative.

Burke casually tossed another set of NV goggles to Sam underhanded.

"Come with me to the steeple, my boy", Burke said. "You can give me your report while we watch the show. Even as we speak, the Brotherhood is moving in for the kill, and I don't want to miss any of it."

[Sylvia Luciani]

Bob Dobbs

His House – Evening

Sue picked up the milk bottle from the side table and took a long pull from it. Bob felt a bit guilty about this, as he put two and two together and realized the reason for the glares she had been making at the bottle, and Jeeves, since he brought in the drink for him…she was offended that he had not brought a glass for her as well.

I thought she was going to bed so she could stand the next watch…. wait, I think I forgot to ask her about that. Oops.

Sue put down the bottle, looked over at Brandy and watched her sleep for a moment….then pulled out her notebook and began to write. She then handed the notebook to Bob.

I hope Brandy is going to pull though this… I love her… and you.

Don’t know what I’d have done if she had died in the tent…. probably killed Toby for start…then I don’t know what I would have done. Speaking of Toby, what are we gonna do with that little [censored], I don’t think Amelia and her plaything are going to do much.

ps. Does Jeeves not like me or something? he didn't get me a glass...


“I love you too, Sue”, Bob said. “And the milk was my fault…I told him you would be going to bed to get some sleep so you could watch over her come morning”. Bob then added sheepishly, “But I forgot to ask you.”

“I’d like to ask two favors from you, Sue”, Bob continued. “Could you find Mirvin and tell him what happened? Then come back and get some sleep…I’ll wake you at down and then you can watch over her for the rest of the morning”.

“As far as Toby and Amelia”, Bob added, “We’ll see how that plays out. Moriarty wanted Brandy to make some of her moonshine for him…since Amelia works for him I don’t think they are going to look upon what he has done favorably”.

After a pause Bob continued.

“But if you’re right and there is no justice in this town…”, said Bob, “…then we’ll have to get justice for Brandy ourselves. But we aren’t going to just go off half-cocked, we’ll need a plan.”

[Josephine Gowing]

Barry Burton

Biddy didn't waste any time in answering Barry's question.

"You bet." She answered eagerly, just as James chipped in once again.

"I know what you're trying to do Biddy, and you’re lucky you’re a redhead otherwise it wouldn't work, but fine you can go with Barry, we shall catch up in a few minutes."

She shined another grin, almost teasingly, "Aw, that's the only reason why?"

Deliberately, she arched forward slightly and loosely played with one of the longer red curls. With a mock politeness, she sweetly said, "Well, thank you, Mr. Wilson."

Barry chuckled, walking over to the door and pushing it open.

"We should get moving, as brilliant a scene as this is we have to get to whoever shot that flare quickly, it's been long enough already, I doubt we'll find much if we leave it any longer."

With that, Biddy excitedly grabbed Barry's arm, pulling him as to be faster, looking very eager to see why the flare had been shot.

The girl was oddly silent after running out the door, her lips relaxing into a natural pout. After they were a little ways from the house, however, she took a look over her shoulder; then turned back to Barry. She stopped herself, staring at him with an almost distant look on her face. Barry, after what seemed to be a couple of seconds, raised an eyebrow, stopping and rubbing his stubble with a hint of nervousness; a feeling he didn't get too often these days. He carefully pulled his bottle of vodka from it's homely holster, unscrewing it and taking a steady sip as the young woman bit her lip, the distant expression plus the bitten lip was a beautiful look, a little too beautiful, it made Barry a little anxious, suddenly she stumbled, Barry's arm quickly darted out, helping her steady, she quickly rebounded, nudging his arm as a devilish grin spread across her face, her green eyes sparkling.

"You know, first time I've seen anyone talk to Ciro Pini like that, out of the vault. Even Hadley never got him that ticked off. How - why d' you do it?"

"Well, there's a short version and a long version to that, a very long reason... Short version, I have a... um, thing? With authority figures. Especially when they look at you like your an animal and take girls hostage, if it was up to me he would be dead, but... you put up a very good case, I'm not going to be responsible for the eventual deaths of women or children, no thank you, I have enough trouble sleeping."

Barry smiled weakly, taking a small sip of vodka and holding it up. "You want some?"

I'd love some," another look of mischief flashed across her face, as Biddy easily took a big swig from the bottle, and then a quick breath of air. She looked back to the older man, her brow, the one with a cut of it gone near the end, arched daringly while she gave a sly half-smile.

While her fingers played with the glass neck, she playfully taunted, "Trouble sleeping, huh?" "And why just the women and children, hm? I thought all that died with the bombs," and then she waved the skirt a bit more in jest, "It's cause we're cuter, isn't it?"

"More then likely Biddy, luckily, not everything died in the war. I can still be sixist... In a good way." Barry grinned, wrapping his hand around the bulk of the bottle, Biddy's hand did not move, but remained on the neck, not relenting.

"Tsk, tsk," She wagged her index finger, then pushing her full lips out.

"I think I just changed my mind. I -" suddenly, she jerked it away, slipping it through Barry's grip as she spoke and tossing it to her right hand, "don't know if I want to give this back now."

Barry chuckled in response as she swung the bottle back and forth, moving the neck through her fingers, holding it as far from Barry as she could. Her fiery, wild hair bounced as she landed the free hand on a hip. Her left shoulder jutted up, playing cute, very cute. Barry decided against retrieving his back up Vodka, deeply enjoying the moment as another huge grin spread across the young woman's face, her eyes sparkled with a natural beauty once again.

"Bet you can't take it."

Barry grinned back, "You know, I would usually just buy you a drink, but this is more interesting." Barry continued grinning, thinking back to the way she tensed as he got close earlier he let out an even bigger grin, stepping even closer, close enough so that he could see his own face in her eyes as she held her breath and tensed once again.

"Bet I don't have to." He almost whispered, smiling, slowly reaching out and wrapping his own fingers around her's on the bottle; slowly bringing it to his chest and taking a large gulp before smiling once again...

"A baby could do better than that," Biddy gibed, replying to Barry's pitiful sip of vodka; her lustrous red lips edging just a bit toward a smile, then boasting, "I could clear that bottle, easy, if I wanted."

"Hey, hol-"

Barry was cut off as she swiped it away once more, throwing her head back with the bottle. She guzzled the vodka until she finally had to breath again, and thrust her head forward to slip out a puff of air. Her eyes looked up to Barry before she let her lips slowly slide from the bottle's mouth, her face reddening as he found his eyes glued to hers in a stunned fascination, he felt his mouth fall open, quickly and self consciously closing it again as his eyes widened further.

"Hmm - think I just beat you, ag-"

Crash!

Barry was ripped out of his daze as he edged back slightly, the glass smashing and covering his boots with the see through liquid as a massive grin spread across his face.

"[censored]!" the red-head stifled a scream, Barry looked around, suddenly aware of the shocked expression now on the young woman's face as he followed her gaze, he now saw it clearly, and could barely believe he hadn't noticed it before, a trail of blood lead as far as he could see down the road, the crimson mess randomly mixed in something like a large messy river, turning into separate red lines of blood in other places..

"God. I'm sorry, Barry. That was bad." She spoke, now with no hint of a smile.

"Don't worry about it, I always keep a spare." He continued smiling, tapping his waist to reveal yet another bottle tucked into his belt.

"Biddy let out a short laugh, flicking some alcohol off her boot, "Alright then, good to know."

"Definitely... " Barry smiled before turning back to the blood trail.

"That blood definitely wasn't there when we came up here ten minutes ago, must be fresh, and it's leading the way the flare came from so it can't be from whoever signaled... You up for taking a look?" Barry grinned mischievously, pulling the small compact handgun from his pants and pulling back the hammer.

She slowly turned back to Barry. "What better thing to do than follow the trail of blood?"

"Hey, I've had worse nights out." Barry chuckled, turning and taking a step closer to the trace of blood.

"Come on." He smiled. Before he could take another step up the road he was interrupted by speaking coming from nearby, he recognized the voice, and as he turned he spotted the vault dwellers and James coming up the road.

"Damn, time flys when your having fun." Barry mumbled under his breath, a small smirk on his face as he made his way back towards James and the dwellers.

"This blood is way too thick to be coming from one guy, no way he could walk the distance of this blood trail with a wound that would bleed this much anyway; you'd have to be one tough son of a [censored]... Come on, trail leads up there, towards where the flare came from." Barry spoke, nodding towards the blood.

"Come on." He smiled, ignoring the shocked expressions on some of the dwellers faces. The group made their way through, heading to the outskirts, the blood finally stopped at the doors of an old large building. He quickly turned back to James.

"Blood leads inside, Ill go first, not a good idea to cover with a shotgun." Barry chuckled, tucking the small handgun back into his pants and pulling the Sawn-Off shotgun from over his shoulder.

"Be ready, boss..." Barry smiled, booting open the door and diving in, checking everywhere with the shotgun. There were a decent few mercenaries that Barry recognized from the situation earlier, near all of them with worried expressions on their faces and the blood trail continuing up the stairs of the large building.

"What the [censored]?" Barry spoke, looking back over his shoulder with a confused expression slapped on his face. "Thought you said nobody comes to this part of town?"

Before James could answer a shout erupted from upstairs.

"THIS INSTANT HAROLD!" Roared a familiar voice, the mix match group staring around at the room with a mix of emotions.

[Horror- Puppe]

James Wilson – following the blood - Nightime

"This blood is way too thick to be coming from one guy, no way he could walk the distance of this blood trail with a wound that would bleed this much anyway; you'd have to be one tough son of a [censored]... Come on, trail leads up there, towards where the flare came from." Barry spoke, nodding towards the blood.

“Yeah” James said as he examined the trail of blood, don’t see any footprints some must be dragging something, dead Brahmin maybe? “ he added on…

fired the fare to get others to help them drag it…

"Come on." Barry smiled, ignoring the shocked expressions on some of the dwellers faces. The group made their way through, heading to the outskirts, the blood finally stopped at the doors of an old large building.

“Walked past this building when I arrived in town… could swear the doors were barricaded when I walked by…” James said

Barry quickly turned back to James. “Blood leads inside, Ill go first, not a good idea to cover with a shotgun." Barry chuckled, tucking the small handgun back into his pants and pulling the Sawn-Off shotgun from over his shoulder.

“Hah, yeah take point Barry” James chuckled and then prepared himself, “stand back or get ready” James said to the vault dwellers…
"Be ready, boss..." Barry smiled, booting open the door and diving in, checking everywhere with the shotgun.

It was a club… a nightclub to be exact. Filled with Mercs, who James recognized as calypso mercs, epically the one guy in a tuxedo, the blood trail continuing up the stairs to the second floor and out of slight behind a plant…

If it was hostile then I reckon they would have stopped it, whatever it was my be somewhat friendly

"What the [censored]?" Barry spoke, looking back over his shoulder with a confused expression slapped on his face. "Thought you said nobody comes to this part of town?"

"THIS INSTANT HAROLD!"

Calypso & Harold

“No one does Barry but look at this place, it's new… Brand new... looks like it just opened. Don't know who runs this places but it might were all of Colin’s people have [censored] off too… "

If he owns it that is… think one of his people would have mentioned it if he did...

James walked up to merc wearing the Tuxedo “hey do you know what this place is?” James asked

“A nightclub, topical room I think, ran by some guy call Mieux wanted to do Business with the boss” he replied

“STAY OUT OF THIS.” James turned around to see Harold He bellowed, blood still dripping from the gash in his cheek. “This is between me and my wife. If any of you try to get involved, you had better pray you kill me before I get hold of you!”

James raised his rifle at Harold and approached him, along with several of calypso mercs and three protection robots

“Harold you [censored] buffout ogre! Drop her now or I will fire on you!” James shouted as he aimed the plasma rifle at Harold head…

Oddly Calypso waved her mercs off although James and the three protections robots kept their aim on Harold. that was when a guy in a suit, presumably the “Mieux” Fellow walked up and shouted at Harold, demanding he release calypso, how he wasn’t afraid of him and that he should clean up his mess…

Man’s got balls I give him that…

Calypso turned, while she rubbed Harold’s hands gently. She managed to look him in the eyes from her knees. Her expression changed from anger, to a silent pleading, a small smile graced her lips. She began to slowly stand; she put her hands on Harold’s muscular waist and rubbed his stomach, “Darling, I would never break our agreement. I have no need for anyone else.” She tried to lightly pry his hand from her hair, but he did not loosen his grip. Frustrated, Calypso jammed her hands down Harold’s pants, digging her nails around his testicles; she raised her eyebrows, “Do allow us to join Mr. Mieux in his office. As the remaining security officer in town, I imagine we…you, can benefit from the conversation.” She loosened her grip and began to be more pleasing to Harold, “Please love?”

God I wonder “deal” she made with Harold... well it won’t matter in a few seconds, if he does drop her I’ll shot that [censored] up junkie [censored]….

Suddenly Harold slowly unravelled his hand from her hair; Calypso pulled her hands out and traced the sides of Harold’s body until she was upright. She gazed into Harold’s dark eyes, caressing his wounded cheek, “Edward can suture your wound dear once we return to The Rose, after that, you and I shall let our blades cross each other,” she stood on her toes and kissed his still curled lips.

Their just as crazy as each other… maybe I should just let them kill each other

Calypso turned to Mieux and offered to get a “Linda” to make a new one for him before asking Jade and one of her other girls… a young tribal girl to clean up Harold’s mess.. the Mieux fellow however refused and demanded that Harold do the cleaning…

That would be funny to watch.. .

he then got the robots to stand down from hostile and shooed away the girl… it seemed like they had calmed Harold down from whatever had pissed him off…

“Mieux or whatever your name is” James called out in his Texan accent “If Harold causes any more trouble, call me and I’ll shoot him, or melt him for that matter. If not I’ll speak to you once your business is concluded with calypso.....

James then walked back downstairs; he kept his gun aimed on Harold in case he attempted anything, only lowering his weapon once he reached the bottom of the stairs. James then walked back over to the Vault dwellers

“That was Harold, the town’s last security guard…. He’s also a drug addict and a thug, Joe the last security chief seemed to have kept him line, never did anything like this before but with him gone Harold thinks he can do whatever he likes… but he wouldn’t whist I’m around…” James said proudly, trying to show courage in front of the vault dwellers

although hopefully calypso will just kill him the next time they’re at it…. hopefully no-one will be around to get in the way..

Kettle/Marty: Just in case you didn’t know James is wearing his blue combat amour (including helmet) and is using a plasma rifle. He has a cast on his left hand and leg brace on his right leg

[Kelly John]

Andrew Villa-The Tropical Room-Night

Andrew closed his eyes and just waited. Then walked in a man that was "really [censored] tall." By Andrew's standards. Andrew knew something was about to go down, he could feel it. He decided to get out before anything happened. Andrew walked outside and saw someone off in the distance. Ah, a chance to check out the town. Andrew thought as he took a deep breath. He saw a tent off in the distance and decided to head there. Andrew didn't sneak in the shadows even though by instinct he wanted too. Being out in the open didn't feel right to him. He wanted to hide, feel safe and comfortable in the shadows. Unseen and unknown. But in order to not be noticed, to remain anonymous, he had to act normal. Or whatever was the standard in the wasteland. Andrew crossed the street and headed towards the tent. He saw the one person he had forgotten about for a moment. Andrew saw the duster, he saw the 44. magnum. Andrew knew at that moment it was time. It was time to end it all. So, Andrew followed him in the shadows. The shadows that comforted him and hid him.

Aaron Blades-Tap's Tent-Night

Aaron's question was never answered. Instead the alcohol took over again, blacking him out again. "Damn it!" Aaron said to himself as blackness took over his eyes. For the next five minutes Aaron remembered nothing. When he came too, he saw people being lead out of the tent. "I've got to stop drinking." Aaron said to himself. 3 minutes later, Aaron regained himself and headed out. He saw James and started to walk towards him. Hoping to gain knowledge of the town. Or at least what he could gain. Most people it seemed didn't even what to give him a basic rundown. Then again, four people had been shot that night. All nearby or in the tent. The girl, Cole, James... Wait was there a fourth one? Aaron questioned himself and blamed it on him being drunk. He saw James heading into a buliding. He heard yelling coming from inside. Aaron decided to investigate.

Andrew Villa-Grayditch-Night

Andrew watched as the man he had been following headed towards the Tropical Room. Andrew knew this was the time to finish it all. He slowly pulled out the weapon he swore never to use. But he had nearly broke that swear multiple times. But he never could pull the trigger on the pistol. One round rested in the gun, the one round he had held for years. Just for this use. Andrew hand's shook, he had never killed anyone, he had wounded a lot of people but never killed someone. Never took the life away, never took another soul away. Andrew walked out into the light, hands shaking, gun not steady. Andrew aimed it at the man, a rush of emotions hit him. He remembered his "father" the one that had been killed by this man. This gun belong to the dead "father", the gun Andrew had carried for years. Andrew stepped on a piece of wood. Suddenly the man swung around, looked at Andrew and then looked at the gun.

"You don't want to do this. You know you don't." Andrew could tell the man was drunk but very serious. Andrew didn't lower his gun.

"You know something, I probably don't. But you murdered my father!" Andrew began crying, "Then you put a gun to my head! You didn't even pull the trigger, you ruined my life. Look at what you did to me! You turned me into a thief! Nothing but scum! No, [censored] YOU!" Andrew screamed and saw the man pull out his 44. Magnum, Andrew pulled the trigger. So did the man.

Aaron Blades-Grayditch-Night

Aaron pulled the trigger. The first time he pulled the trigger on a kid. He didn't want to kill the kid. Hell, Aaron didn't even want to shoot at the kid. Aaron felt a shooting pain in his stomach. Aaron saw his bullet go threw the kid's right kneecap. He saw the kid collapse. Aaron looked down and saw blood. He fell down. The kid screamed, he obviously had never been shot. Aaron clawed his way towards the the building James had entered. Aaron stood up and opened the door. "Could I get some help here? I just got shot." Aaron said calmly. Then Aaron fell down.

[marie breen]

-Aubrey

She roughly punched Dean in the shoulder with her right hand.

"Yeah, alright, alright," she sniffed and gave a small smile, reminiscent of the cocky, easygoing way she used to be used to.

Rubbing away some embarrassing tears that had welled up in her eyes, she straightened herself and went on, "Good to see ya again, Dean, been a while."

"Though I'm not quite sure how you got here if you can't fire that gun," she gave a joking smirk at that, "Pini do all the shooting?"



Dean, at first, just combed his hand through his hair, before the old friend echoed the smirk tentatively.

"I killed a mole rat or two." Dean smirked defensively, "Not all us are teen commandos."

Aubrey blurted a laugh, a beaming, big-toothed grin at the familiar smile he gave. "A mole rat, huh?"

"Yep." Dean nodded, smirking simply; an obvious mock pride in his voice.

Her heart ached at the bittersweet nostalgia, feeling the dull pain and soft comfort. For a second, she almost questioned if she was seeing things to cope. Aubrey felt her sigh drop from mirth to weariness, "To be honest, being a teen commando hasn't done me much good, it seems - or anyone else."

She scratched the side of her head with an index finger, watching her boot - the only piece of the vault suit she was currently wearing - kick the dust off the ground, "Haven't even killed any raiders, just ran from 'em or avoided 'em."

"Best way really, no point in fighting unless you have to." Dean spoke solemnly, the smile fading from his face as the mood became bleak once again.

Aubrey couldn't hold back a doubtful grimace as it just to the right, "You make it sound like I did it out of smarts -"

She was distracted when she heard the guy - the one talking 'bout superheros before, the one with glass in him - yelling to offer his services about drugs. A rather blunt man about it. Aubrey recalled what Monroe had said before, that it was best to avoid him, that he was dangerous - some drug dealer.
All she could do was stare for a moment, not finding him particularly frightening or dangerous.

"That guy..."

..."Is nuts." Dean added.

That pried a chuckle out of her.

“Just another couple of minutes, Brandy, just another couple of minutes. I got the bullet out and now I just need to sew you up so you can heal. Just hang on…”

Finally, Aubrey seemed to wake up again, her gaze darting back to the ugly scene at the announcement, body nearly jumping. "Brandy'll be alright?"

Aubrey merely watched in silence, as the doctor detailed to Bob and Sue about the blood loss and that Brandy would need rest. Everything afterwards consisted of the trio leaving the tent for their house, Brandy coming home in a stretcher. Still, she was alive.

"You know her?"

Her ears were surprised to hear Dean speak up, and Aubrey hesitated. She tried to unclog her sore throat with a swallow, tightening her jaw for a moment. "Yeah," she slowly spoke, before finally facing Dean, eyes naturally scanning for clues in body language, "...well, no, not really. Not well."

"That didn't seem like the type of response you'd give someone you didn't know very well." Aubrey's thin body stiffened in shock as her ears caught the mutter, staring dumbly in surprise.

"Sorry, it's none of my business. We should probably try and help though... They look stressed, two people shouldn't deal with that alone."

"It's okay," she tried to roll the problem off her shoulders with a shrug, with futility. Glancing where they had gone, she agreed, "I was just thinkin' that, too. I'm sure it's especially bad - today was supposed to be fun for 'em."

She began picking at the fancy, green shirt at the humiliating and miserable thoughts of before. The thin lips were pressed together to silence herself, until her shaky pride broke under the weight of her other stresses - Aubrey felt an odd guilt and awkwardness for hiding things from the one guy she actually knew and trusted.

"-I - I really don't know her well, but...um..." her face gave an unmasked look of loathing, face burning, "I was stupid - alright? Brandy saved my sorry rear."

"She didn't even know me - just is a really good person. And with all the other crap that's gone wrong, well, didn't like the thought much that she'd be dead now, too."

Dean didn't speak for a moment, just nodded understandingly. "I can understand that, come on, let's see if we can help."

Aubrey began breathing easily again, all too glad to skip the details, and gave a nod. She stopped, with a curious look, when she saw the researcher give another smirk and start acting on nervous ticks exaggeratedly. Mocking nervously scratching his neck before speaking again, this time with a little more humor. "Uh, stick close yeah," He stopped, leaning in slowly and dramatically, putting his hand to the side of his mouth as if to cover it from onlookers - something from a cartoon, just without the shifty eyes - before whispering, "The mole rat might come back... I, uh, may have missed."

A hearty grin slowly spread on her face, seeming to drain away the illness and wear. She laughed and nudged him with her elbow, "Well, let's hope I don't fall for its cute face - might just let it bite you, then."

Dean let out a nervous laugh, slyly checking the shadows when he thought Aubrey wasn't looking, pulling his 10mm from it's holster after a few moments, pulling back the top-slide and readying a round.

"Uh, just in case." He smiled nervously.

---

"Hello?" the tall girl slowly creaked the door open, looking for the others. No one was to be found, but the calm rumble of Jeeves' propeller could be heard nearby.

She quietly took a step inside, "Hey, it's -" she stopped herself, giving a long look to Dean before looking back again, " - Clark. Brought a friend in with me, if that's okay - don't worry, won't be any trouble."

Aubrey couldn't help but think the two would be tense that one of her peers..former peers? would be around Brandy, after that guy - some tiny, [censored] up lookin' guy she hadn't ever seen before - shot her in a crowd.

Brushing her hand through her dark hair, still nicely clean from all the prep for the party, Aubrey found herself tentatively walking up the stairs, creaking under her feet. When she reached the doorway, she peered in by leaning to the side poking her head out first, before quietly asking, "Hey - how is everything?"

“Hello, Clark”, said Bob from inside, as he put down his Hand-Comp. “Come on in.”

Her hand rubbed her neck as she stood at the entrance and glanced to the side, where Dean stood. It took her a moment before she offered a friendly, confident grin - just a tad forced - and entered the room.

"This is my good buddy, Dean," she branched out her arm a bit in his direction as he neared, then patting him on the shoulder and nodded to the other conscious two in the room, "Dean - Bob and Sue."

Sue gave a look of shock when she saw Dean- it wasn't because of the mere fact he was there. It hadn't even occurred until her eyes caught his face.

“Hello, Dean”, Bob said as Sue waved at him. “Nice to meet you. This is Sue….she says “Hi”, I’m afraid she cannot speak.”

"Hey, I'm sorry about Brandy..." Dean spoke, looking down after a second, awkwardly.

“Thank you”, said Bob. “Brandy’s a fighter….I’m confident she will pull through”.

The words felt flat to her ears - it was one of the stock phrases of reassurance, something she maybe even saw in old videos. It was something a person said when they cannot say anything else. But she had made it so far, so maybe there was a real chance. In any case, there was no time to moan about it, especially in her role.

Aubrey's voice was still soft and low in the quiet room, still striving to keep a perky, friendly tone as she continued,

"I wanted to check up on how things are. Seems like there's a lot of problems, ya know? Thought maybe you guys need or like some help. And I'd like to talk about what we're gonna do, or what could be done, 'bout everything else."

With another glance, Sue's face looked almost tired as it drooped in blatant sorrow - it was a look everyone knew.

Her eyes slid toward Brandy’s bandaged form, lying in the bed. Biting her lip as she leaned over and gripped one of the bed's posts, "We've got two attempted murders, and -" she tensed slightly, realizing Dean's presence once more, before she quickly said, "no offense, Dean, but the rather convenient, unpleasant arrival of some of my...'people.'"

“They didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Brandy”, said Bob. “That was Toby…he did what he did out of jealousy and spite. As far as your friends…as long as there isn’t a repeat of earlier events, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones, if James will. But they….you…need to realize this isn’t the Vault, people have been killed out here for a lot less than what Pini did.”

"I definitely don't trust that frickin' a-" she caught herself as her fingers turned white against the wood and her voice shot up in volume. Aubrey found it rather difficult to force her shoulders down and, after a pause, correct herself, "'Mr. Pini.'"

She couldn't block herself from bitter sarcasm when she spoke the formal and polite name, however.

"Mr Pini?" Dean couldn't help but chuckle. "Come on, even in the vault he was a [censored], out here, he's a bastard." Dean continued, an uncharacteristic bitterness in his voice.

There was a wry half-smile and a skeptical roll of the eyes, "You're exaggerating," she protested, "He was pretty frickin' [censored] before - I would know, the ass hole doesn't take well to people like me...Then again, if he's the guy that shot all those people-"


Sue took out her notebook and quickly wrote a note, giving Bob a kiss she handed the Aubrey and Dean the note.

-----
Hi

Not sure what you’re talking about but I’m going to get Mirvin(the other robot) I will back soon and we can continue talking might be wise to get Jeeves to translate or use the sign language book I got brandy.

Sue

----

"Oh, sure. Sorry, I'll tell ya later, if you still need tellin'," she gave a friendly smile before Sue walked away.

Then, she suddenly circled back at the thought, "And, back to that subject. I know you told me about him..."Toby," before. I saw him. I'd like to see that guy get what he deserves - whatever that is - but that doesn't mean the other three hits, one definitely intentional, weren't someone else."

She quickly listed off, her left index finger touching every digit that stretched from her right hand as she did so, "The bullets? 10 mm. Standard vault weaponry is a 10 mm pistol and submachine gun. Motivation? The word you're lookin' for is "hate crime." They're frickin' xenophobic as Hell - especially Pini. Place and time? I was heading for the same place I found the killer had gone right after, and they suddenly popped out of no where with the little kid to a gun. Got a better suspect or suspects than them, Bob? Because I have a hard time believing that. It certainly wasn't the wind."


It took a moment for her own, sharp words to sink in, and she palmed her forehead, slowly brushing it to the side of her face with a sigh. "I - sorry. No one's listened to a word I've said about these guys, and I'm the one that's lived with them. James is potentially living with the very person that tried to kill him, and he agreed to do it with this dumb-ass-grin."

[xxLindsAffec]

Sue cooper- Night - Bob's house

“I love you too, Sue”, Bob said. “And the milk was my fault…I told him you would be going to bed to get some sleep so you could watch over her come morning”. Bob then added sheepishly, “But I forgot to ask you.”

You should have ask silly billy

“I’d like to ask two favors from you, Sue”, Bob continued. “Could you find Mirvin and tell him what happened? Then come back and get some sleep…I’ll wake you at down and then you can watch over her for the rest of the morning”.

Guess I can do that

Sue replied with thumbs up as if saying “yes, I can do that”

“As far as Toby and Amelia”, Bob added, “We’ll see how that plays out. Moriarty wanted Brandy to make some of her moonshine for him…since Amelia works for him I don’t think they are going to look upon what he has done favourably”.

When was that set up? But yeah I guess you’re right… Moonshine worth a lot…

After a pause Bob continued.

“But if you’re right and there is no justice in this town…”, said Bob, “…then we’ll have to get justice for Brandy ourselves. But we aren’t going to just go off half-cocked, we’ll need a plan.”

Good I don’t want that little [censored] walking free… Blow him up with James missile launcher or cut him…

"Hello?" the tall girl slowly creaked the door open, looking for the others. No one was to be found, but the calm rumble of Jeeves' propeller could be heard nearby.

She quietly took a step inside, "Hey, it's -" she stopped herself, giving a long look at some vault kid before looking back again, " - Clark. Brought a friend in with me, if that's okay - don't worry, won't be any trouble."
Sue turned to see Clark and another vault dweller, a young guy like Clark had been he was wearing a vault suit that was armour and didn’t have any numbers…

Who’s this? ... He was the guy who gave brandy the blanket in the dinner!

Brushing her hand through her dark hair, still nicely clean from all the prep for the party, Aubrey found herself tentatively walking up the stairs, creaking under her feet. When she reached the doorway, she peered in by leaning to the side poking her head out first, before quietly asking, "Hey - how is everything?"

“Hello, Clark”, said Bob from inside, as he put down his Hand-Comp. “Come on in.”
Her hand rubbed her neck as she stood at the entrance and glanced to the side, where vault kidstood. It took her a moment before she offered a friendly, confident grin - just a tad forced - and entered the room.

"This is my good buddy, Dean," she branched out her arm a bit in his direction as he neared, then patting him on the shoulder and nodded to the other conscious two in the room, "Dean - Bob and Sue."

“Hello, Dean”, Bob said as Sue waved at him. “Nice to meet you. This is Sue….she says “Hi”, I’m afraid she cannot speak.”
"Hey, I'm sorry about Brandy..." Dean spoke, looking down after a second, awkwardly.

Thank you

“Thank you”, said Bob. “Brandy’s a fighter….I’m confident she will pull through”.

The words felt flat to her ears - it was one of the stock phrases of reassurance, something she maybe even saw in old videos. It was something a person said when they cannot say anything else. But she had made it so far, so maybe there was a real chance. In any case, there was no time to moan about it, especially in her role.

Aubrey's voice was still soft and low in the quiet room, still striving to keep a perky, friendly tone as she continued,
"I wanted to check up on how things are. Seems like there's a lot of problems, ya know? Thought maybe you guys need or like some help. And I'd like to talk about what we're gonna do, or what could be done, 'bout everything else."
Indeed we do… sue though whilst looking rather sad…

Her eyes slid toward Brandy’s bandaged form, lying in the bed. Biting her lip as she leaned over and gripped one of the bed's posts, "We've got two attempted murders, and -" she tensed slightly, realizing Dean's presence once more, before she quickly said, "no offense, Dean, but the rather convenient, unpleasant arrival of some of my...'people.'"

Sue looked confused: my people? More of you are here?

“They didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Brandy”, said Bob. “That was Toby…he did what he did out of jealousy and spite. As far as your friends…as long as there isn’t a repeat of earlier events, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones, if James will. But they….you…need to realize this isn’t the Vault, people have been killed out here for a lot less than what Pini did.”

What happened earlier? Guess James sorted it out….

"I definitely don't trust that frickin' a-" she caught herself as her fingers turned white against the wood and her voice shot up in volume. Aubrey found it rather difficult to force her shoulders down and, after a pause, correct herself, "'Mr. Pini.'"

Who the [censored] is Mr. Pini?

"Mr Pini?" Dean couldn't help but chuckle. "Come on, even in the vault he was a [censored], out here, he's a bastard." Dean continued, an uncharacteristic bitterness in his voice.

If he’s that bad James would have shot him, must have had a reason not too…

There was a wry half-smile and a skeptical roll of the eyes, "You're exaggerating," she protested, "He was pretty frickin' [censored] before - I would know, the ass hole doesn't take well to people like me...Then again, if he's the guy that shot all those people-"

Best go and get Mirvin now, this is getting too confusing. I shall have to find James tomorrow and ask him what happened…

Sue took out her notebook and quickly wrote a note, giving Bob a kiss she handed the Aubrey and Dean the note.
-----
Hi

Not sure what you’re talking about but I’m going to get Mirvin(the other robot) I will back soon and we can continue talking might be wise to get Jeeves to translate or use the sign language book I got brandy.

Sue

----
"Oh, sure. Sorry, I'll tell ya later, if you still need tellin'," she gave a friendly smile before Sue walked out of room and down stairs

Actually where is Mirvin? Brandy’s old house perhaps…

Leaving Bob house Sue walked down the street to Brandy house, walking inside she searched around for Mirvin but with no luck. Sue then decided to check the rest of houses on street, finding that James house was locked, she continued on to the spark and flame…

Frieda and… engineer guy ran this place… perhaps Mirvin when inside looking for a tool?

Walking inside Sue discovered Mirvin, fiddling around with some of tools. Noticing sue he stopped, turned and greeted her " Oh hello Miss Sue. do you Require anything? I have recently taken over this shop.”

Sue quickly wrote another note and held it in front of Mirvin “eye” so that he could read it…

-------------------------
Brandy was hurt very badly that [censored] toby was jealous of her so he [censored] shot her! But Doctor Cody managed to get the bullet out and she’s resting at Bob’s house. We thought that you would want to know and go and see her.

------

"Oh that is very bad new indeed, I hope Miss brandy is okay and that this toby person was punished. But yes i would like to see her, please lead on." Sue nodded and began to walk back to bob’s house will Mirvin.

--
tiberuis/tick: whoever posts next, you can have Sue & Mirvin return in your post

[rheanna bruining]

Dean Johnson

Aubrey roughly punched Dean in the shoulder with her right hand.

"Yeah, alright, alright," she sniffed and gave a small smile, reminiscent of the cocky, easygoing way she used to be used to.

Rubbing away some embarrassing tears that had welled up in her eyes, she straightened herself and went on, "Good to see ya again, Dean, been a while."

"Though I'm not quite sure how you got here if you can't fire that gun," she gave a joking smirk at that, "Pini do all the shooting?"

Dean, at first, just combed his hand through his hair nervously, before returning a smirk.

"I killed a mole rat or two." Dean smirked defensively, "Not all of us are teen commandos."

Aubrey blurted a laugh, a beaming, big-toothed grin, which in turn caused Dean's smile to broaden. "A mole rat, huh?"

"Yep." Dean nodded, smirking simply; an obvious mock pride in his voice. His smirk became a smile as the tension of the moment slipped away, being replaced by a slight lift in spirit that he hadn't felt since leaving the vault.

"To be honest, being a teen commando hasn't done me much good, it seems - or anyone else."

She scratched the side of her head with an index finger, watching her boot - Dean noticed it was the only piece of the vault suit she was currently wearing - kick the dust off the ground, "Haven't even killed any raiders, just ran from 'em or avoided 'em."

"Best way really, no point in fighting unless you have to." Dean spoke solemnly, the smile fading from his face as the mood became bleak once again.

"You make it sound like I did it out of smarts -"

She stopped, distracted as a guy - some dude in a lab coat and an extremely radical appearance, began yelling to offer his services ; his service being drugs apparently. Being almost obnoxiously blunt about it. The pair simply stared in silence for a second, Dean almost confused into silence at how quickly the moods in the room were changing.

"That guy..." Aubrey began.

..."Is nuts." Dean added.

Dean smiled once again, with a sense of achievement as Aubrey let out a chuckle.

"Just another couple of minutes, Brandy, just another couple of minutes. I got the bullet out and now I just need to sew you up so you can heal. Just hang on…" Came an urgent, yet soothing voice from behind Aubrey, Dean had almost blanked out what was going on in the tent; his mind had been calmed far more then it had been in longer then Dean could remember. It had been an almost unimaginably great feeling, seeing and knowing Aubrey was alive, but as his senses once again locked on to the blood, painful panting, and overall desperate air of the tent, the feeling left, once again being replaced by the worst feeling of being helplessly helpless.

Aubrey seemed to take note of everything again too, her gaze darting back to the ugly scene at the announcement, body nearly jumping. "Brandy'll be alright?"

Aubrey merely watched in silence, as the doctor detailed to a couple of others about the blood loss and that Brandy would need rest. Everything afterwards consisted of the trio leaving the tent for their house, Brandy coming home in a stretcher. Still, she was alive.

"You know her?"

She seemed surprised to hear Dean speak up, and hesitated. "Yeah," she slowly spoke, before facing Dean once again, eyes naturally scanning for clues in body language, "...well, no, not really. Not well."

"That didn't seem like the type of response you'd give someone you didn't know very well." Aubrey's thin body tensed with Dean's at the sight of her pain glazed eyes, almost immediately regretting speaking without thinking.

"Sorry, it's none of my business. We should probably try and help though... They look stressed, two people shouldn't deal with that alone." Dean apologized.

"It's okay," she shrugged, with futility. Glancing where they had gone, she agreed. "I was just thinkin' that, too. I'm sure it's especially bad - today was supposed to be fun for 'em."

She began picking at the fancy, green shirt she was wearing, despite the grim scene Dean couldn't help but smirk at the old habit; almost happy that with all that had changed, some things never did.

"-I - I really don't know her well, but...um..." her face gave an unmasked look of loathing, face burning, "I was stupid - alright? Brandy saved my sorry rear."

"She didn't even know me - just is a really good person. And with all the other crap that's gone wrong, well, didn't like the thought much that she'd be dead now, too."

Dean didn't speak for a moment, simply acknowledging her pained facial expression, after a second he made his mind up, simply nodding understandingly, deciding now wasn't the time or place to push the subject. "I can understand that, come on, let's see if we can help."

Aubrey seemed to liven up again, giving a nod. She stopped, with a curious look on her face as he gave another smirk, mocking nervously scratching his neck before speaking again, this time with a little more humor. "Uh, stick close yeah," He stopped, leaning in slowly and dramatically, putting his hand to the side of his mouth as if to cover it from onlookers, before whispering, "The mole rat might come back... I, uh, may have missed."

A hearty grin slowly spread on her face, seeming to drain away the illness and wear. She laughed and nudged him with her elbow, "Well, let's hope I don't fall for its cute face - might just let it bite you, then."

Dean let out a nervous laugh, slyly checking the shadows when he thought Aubrey wasn't looking, pulling his 10mm from it's holster after a few moments, pulling back the top-slide and readying a round.

"Uh, just in case." He smiled nervously.

---

"Hello?" the tall girl slowly creaked the door open, looking for the others. No one was to be found, but the calm rumble of what Dean recognized to be a nearby robots propeller could be heard. He quickly brought up his Pip-Boy, bringing up his research notes and quickly tapping away.

Wastelanders have working robots! Further evidence of being able to maintain and repair advanced technology, thus, further evidence of intelligence that far surpasses credit given in the vault. (Will need editing before being put into official research report)

She quietly took a step inside, "Hey, it's -" she stopped herself, giving a long look to Dean before looking back again, " - Clark. Brought a friend in with me, if that's okay - don't worry, won't be any trouble."

Clark? Dean thought confused, scratching his neck and quickly glancing at Aubrey, he decided against saying anything, he felt awkward enough being in a wounded woman's home without an invitation, now certainly wasn't the time to ask about her name change.

Dean kept his eyes on Aubrey as they made their way through the house, feeling awkward looking at anything else that wasn't familiar, which nothing was, really. She brushed a hand through her dark hair, it looked nice; Dean noted curiously, smirking as he imagined Aubrey sitting down and doing her hair; with everything that went on around here, he couldn't imagine it, yet she looked far too good to of not done anything. The pair found themselves tentatively walking up the stairs, creaking under their feet as they went. After reaching the top, they came to a doorway. Aubrey peered in by leaning to the side, poking her head out first, before quietly asking, "Hey - how is everything?"

“Hello, Clark”, said a male from inside. “Come on in.”

Aubrey stood at the entrance and glanced to the side, where Dean stood. It took her a moment before she offered a friendly, confident grin and entered the room.

"This is my good buddy, Dean," she branched out her arm a bit in his direction as he neared, then patting him on the shoulder and nodded to the other conscious two in the room, "Dean - Bob and Sue."

Dean walked to the doorway, standing only a little bit inside it as he looked around the room. The wounded woman was in bed, resting. And the other two, apart from Aubrey, were seated. One was a male; Bob, he looked healthy and in good shape, with brown hair and eyes. The other, Sue, the female was tall and lean, she had long black hair and nice blue eyes.

Sue gave a what seemed to be a look of shock when she saw Dean, he shifted awkwardly, returning his gaze to Brandy, the woman in bed.

“Hello, Dean”, Bob said as Sue waved at him. “Nice to meet you. This is Sue… She says “Hi”, I’m afraid she cannot speak.”

"Hey, I'm sorry about Brandy..." Dean spoke, looking down after a second, awkwardly.

"Thank you", said Bob. "Brandy’s a fighter… I’m confident she will pull through."

Aubrey's voice was still soft and low in the quiet room, still keeping a perky, friendly tone as she continued.

"I wanted to check up on how things are. Seems like there's a lot of problems, ya know? Thought maybe you guys need or like some help. And I'd like to talk about what we're gonna do, or what could be done, 'bout everything else."

With another glance, Sue's face looked almost tired as it drooped in blatant sorrow.

"We've got two attempted murders, and -" she tensed slightly, seeming to realize Dean's presence once more, before she quickly said, "no offense, Dean, but the rather convenient, unpleasant arrival of some of my...'people.'"

Dean simply nodded, trying to show that he understood without having to speak.

"They didn't have anything to do with what happened to Brandy", said Bob. "That was Toby…he did what he did out of jealousy and spite. As far as your friends…as long as there isn't a repeat of earlier events, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones, if James will. But they…you…need to realize this isn't the Vault, people have been killed out here for a lot less than what Pini did.”

"I definitely don't trust that frickin' a-" she caught herself as her fingers turned white against the wood and her voice shot up in volume. Aubrey seemed to find it rather difficult to force her shoulders down and, after a pause, correct herself, "'Mr. Pini.'"

Her voice was filled with a bitter sarcasm when she spoke the formal and polite name, however.

"Mr Pini?" Dean couldn't help but chuckle. "Come on, even in the vault he was a [censored], out here, he's a bastard." Dean continued, an uncharacteristic bitterness in his voice.

There was a wry half-smile and a skeptical roll of the eyes, "You're exaggerating," she protested, "He was pretty frickin' [censored] before - I would know, the ass hole doesn't take well to people like me...Then again, if he's the guy that shot all those people-"

Sue took out her notebook and quickly wrote a note, giving Bob a kiss she handed Aubrey the note, Dean quickly scanning it afterwards.

-----
Hi

Not sure what you’re talking about but I’m going to get Mirvin(the other robot) I will back soon and we can continue talking might be wise to get Jeeves to translate or use the sign language book I got brandy.

Sue

----

"Oh, sure. Sorry, I'll tell ya later, if you still need tellin'," Aubrey gave a friendly smile, Dean simply nodding and smiling before Sue walked away.

"And, back to that subject. I know you told me about him..."Toby," before. I saw him. I'd like to see that guy get what he deserves - whatever that is - but that doesn't mean the other three hits, one definitely intentional, weren't someone else."

She quickly listed off, her left index finger touching every digit that stretched from her right hand as she did so, "The bullets? 10 mm. Standard vault weaponry is a 10 mm pistol and submachine gun. Motivation? The word you're lookin' for is "hate crime." They're frickin' xenophobic as Hell - especially Pini. Place and time? I was heading for the same place I found the killer had gone right after, and they suddenly popped out of no where with the little kid to a gun. Got a better suspect or suspects than them, Bob? Because I have a hard time believing that. It certainly wasn't the wind."

?Dean lowered his head, still feeling very awkward at the current situation.

It took a moment for her own, sharp words to sink in, and she palmed her forehead, slowly brushing it to the side of her face with a sigh. "I - sorry. No one's listened to a word I've said about these guys, and I'm the one that's lived with them. James is potentially living with the very person that tried to kill him, and he agreed to do it with this dumb-ass-grin."

"That guy did seem a little nuts," Dean agreed, smirking awkwardly. "I can't imagine Pini trying anything with a round in his hand and two armed men keeping their eyes glued to him though. He's a tad crazy, sure, but not suicidal, at least not without good reason... I think."