FSE

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In the head office of the former junior high building, two women stared opposite of each other across a desk, one sitting and one standing up casting her gaze along the various trophies and knick-knacks gathered over the years. A marksman trophy here, an endurance record there, strange bits and pieces of collected scrap with some unknown significance to anyone but Jeffries who sat behind the desk, still wearing armour but without helmet always. Paladin Swan in her more fortified power armour simply asked without looking, her voice trebling behind her large helmet. "Have you found anything concerning our project?" "Not yet," said Jeffries, "but we did find something of interest that might be helpful. A scout of ours went to sector 5-B and uncovered an odd place, some former building that might have connections." "Oh?" "He called it 'Red Fearza' according to the sign out front, got no idea what it is but it got some tech inside of it according to his scanner, picked up some odd radio waves. He didn't stay too long on account of unusual vibrations, said he got a bad feeling an' left." "Hmph...you think it's connected?" "I see no other reason it wouldn't be. Transmitting SOMETHING out there at least, could have some connection." "I'll have Hawk locate it and see...you have such a large headquarters for such a small group of people." "Mighty lucky of us." "Possibly...or a complete waste, you have only thirty people in your garrison, or is it twenty?" "Twenty-seven....twenty-two when you last came through." "And your town's population?" "Sixty...approximately." "Tch...more like fifty I reckon." "You know that for real?" "The twenty-seven in your garrison plus the twenty-five civilians I noticed walking around? Yes, I did, just wanted to make sure you did." Swan grazed her hand along the desk, slowly brushing off the dust in absentenia as Jeffries asked: "Have you heard anything from the Elder?" "No I haven't," said the helmeted superior, "why?" "I just haven't heard from them in months, sent out my reports and got nothing back is all." "They're probably busy, you are a small area after all, not considered as important as the ones out northwest." "We haven't heard anything from them either." "Well maybe you don't have anything they want so why should they care about your village? We've got way worse coming up from the far west than you do coming south, a recent herd of Yao Guai decimated part of our garrison." "I told you about the nightstalkers didn't I?" "Yes, and thanks to you we lost ground in the south and a valuable position that could have given us some mobility." "Is that why you act like such a bitch to me all the time?" "...who...do you think you are talking to?"

Swan pushed her hands upon Jeffries' desk, pushing it inwards to slam it against her subordinate's gut. "You realise I outrank you, and that I always have...isn't that right, Knight Commander?" "That's Junior Paladin to you." "No. It's not, this is the problem I have with you. For all the talk you give about respecting others and authoritating the whipcracking here, you've been pulling rank like some entitled shit trying to get daddy's approval." "First of all I have no family in this organisation, unlike YOU. Second of all I passed that test, you KNOW I passed that test and I did everything right." "Well...sadly it could not be made official due to a small error on that test that you input by yourself." "That WASN'T an error Swan, you know why I put that down!" "And that is why you will never make Junior Paladin. You can fool those idiots out there all you want but you can't fool me. I know your dirty little secret." "There is no dirty secret, it's not dirty. There's just you and your obvious cockblocking to try and stop me getting up on your level so I can legally bitchslap you around." "Cockblock...hmph, funny, that's something you would know all about then? ...oh, no, you wouldn't know about it won't you? No matter how much you wish in that sick little fantasy up in your head you never will, ruining that body of yours with-" Darryl slammed the desk back with a kneeshove against Swan's feet, her hands slapping down to push back against Jeffries with a scraping of wood who replied: "This, is NOT any of your concern and never will be, Paladin. So stop trying to make me look like an idiot." "I don't need help to do that, Jeffries." "I will not take back that 'clerical error' as you call it because there IS no error, I wrote down exactly who I am and there ain't no one out there who will ever tell me otherwise." "Hmph...obviously you won't listen to anyone and that is why you won't be getting further in the ranks, I simply pointed out an error to you and then you tried to be stubborn about it, you just can't admit to ever being wrong can't you Knight Commander? Typical...for those like you." "What do you mean 'those like me'? Because you either insult yourself in the mix or you acknowledge who I am, so which is it?" "Me? Like you? I know what I am...problem is you don't, and I don't need fantasists dreaming away their future in this group." "I know EXACTLY what I am," argued Darryl, "it's the rest of the damn world that can't see it." "Well...I hope the rest of the world cares what you think concerning you only ever see the same few dozen faces every once in a while." "A few dozen faces who all love and respect me for what I do." "Well...I don't know whether to pity them or admire them." "How about you do neither and get the fuck out my office." "Don't you DARE talk to me like that you sickening-"

A knock on the door came to interrupt their argument, the paladin Swan crying out: "Who is it?!" "Um it's Squire Campbell mis-...sir!" The senior of the two smirked beneath her helmet with a clear look of disdain upon Jeffries, who simply replied sneering: "...come in." The raptor made his way in and cautiously looked up at both females, dominating above him with armour even moreso as he stood firm and staring from his leather-armoured padding. "I uh, came here to leave a report about um, this barfight I was in." "You...what?" "Listen I know it sounds bad but please lemme explain-" "You got into a BARFIGHT and you dare call yourself a squire under me?! The fuck is wrong with you?!" "SENIOR KNIGHT HAWK WAS WITH ME TOO, HE GOT IN ON IT!" "Wait WHAT?!" roared Paladin Swan with screeching shrill. "There were these assholes, we had a drink at the bar and they tried to start a fight but then Hawk just swings at one and it all kicks off!" "YOU TOOK HIM TO A BAR!? THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" "WH-WH-What did I do?!" "YOU-..." The senior helmeted paladin stared down upon FG with eyes piercing of shaking fury, ones he felt even beneath her steel mask. "If you ever had any regrets, they are nothing compared to this when I am done with you. Where is Senior Knight Hawk?" "...a-at the bar still." "Fuck...Creator dammit, YOU are going to be severely disciplined after I get the story straight from him you little SNAKE! Jeffries! He's yours now, make him learn like a dog and bring him to the training area, is that clear?!" "Perfectly," said Darryl Jeffries. The door soon slammed shut behind him as Swan went storming off down the hallways, his superior sitting before him with a smirk on dark lips. He asked softly: "Did I do something wrong?" "Yes...but you're not in trouble for it yet. Whut happened?" "Me and Hawk went to a bar after I showed him around the place, said he had no one to guide him so we went down after eating lunch and did some shooting at the rifle range, Dagenett was there he'll tell you. Then after that we went to the bar and we start drinking, not too much for me maybe like two glasses of rum but he went and downed four of that Roentgen Rum and just completely tanked. Some guy gets all up in my face about him being noisy and I try to calm him down but Hawk just went out of nowhere and clocked him on the face." "I see. Then whut?" "So it turned into a bar fight, we took them on, five of them came into town and started up trouble, said they were merchants but I don't believe it, they had nothing on them and they had knives hidden on them." "Seriously? You're not shitting me." "We've got four of their bodies down there if you wanna go take a look, it's been sectioned off, the barman'll give the same testimony too and Hawk as well!" "Hmm...what did these five punks even want?" "They said they were part of some gang, I think the Vipers it was?"

Jeffries suddenly turned still with piercing blank stare, hands tightly gripped upon the wood desk before saying softly: "...are you sure about that?" "I'm pretty sure, nothing else it could be." "And...wait...you said five punks, but four bodies." "Hawk had one up in his fist screaming for his life, he begged not to kill him so he just made our dudes open the gate and threw him out." "He WHAT!? HE LET ONE GO!? Oh you fucking idiots, you know what's gonna happen now?! The whole team's gonna come down on our heads, fucking Vipers' nest all up in our shit!" "I didn't...I didn't know, I jus-I thought they were just punkasses not like part of a huge gang." "YOU SHOULD HAVE LEARNED, WE PUT YOU ON A COURSE, DIDN'T WE TEACH YOU ABOUT LOCAL GANGS AND TROUBLEMAKERS?!" "I did, that's how I knew those guys were bullshit!" "Then WHY did you let one leave so he could go back and report on his friends getting killed?!" "IT WAS HAWK'S FAULT," cried FG, "HE DID IT, HE GOT FUCKING DRUNK AND WENT APESHIT, I DID NOTHING! NOT UNTIL THEY STARTED FIGHTING!" "ENOUGH!" The paladin stood up harshly as the chair skidded backwards behind. "We're going down to the training area, when did this happen?" "About...half an hour ago." "You're coming with me to the training area and we sort this out." "But I-GYAH!" His arm was grabbed fiercely as he was dragged along the corridors like an errant schoolboy to detention, panicking as claws skidded on the hall floor before he stood up in full pace, walking behind his superior. Eventually he managed to stand up straight and keep following without need of pulling as they made their way out towards the front training area, the raptor forced to wait until Swan came up with Senior Knight Hawk trudging behind her several minutes later. Hawk looked incredibly out of it, not yet sobered up but somehow unable to hold himself up. "What your squire said was true," began Swan, "it appears you are in threat of an invasion thanks to this ingrate. He has something to say to you." The senior knight stood up best as he could with a rather apologetic turn of his head, flinching from Swan's movements as she raised her hand to place on his shoulder. The raptor noticed a few new dents in his armour he had not seen before. "A-a-ahm shorry," whimpered Hawk, "ah wuzn'...th-thinkin'...wuz mah fault, shoulda...shoulda kept myself good...s-squire Campbell not to blame, he didn' wanna fight." "And what else?" demanded Swan. "W-whu-um...ahll assisht you in the fight cuz Vipers'll really attack us now an' then I can...redeem mahself." "That's better. We'll stay in Beech for a few days so we can assist you with whatever you need, Jeffries." "Appreciate it," said the Junior Paladin, "Campbell you're dismissed, I need to discuss some things with the lookout on why the hell we let Vipers into our base area but you're clear of everything." "Thank you sir," said FG. He headed off quick as he could to avoid any future fallout with the higher-ups as Darryl went towards the town entrance, whereas Hawk and Swan went in their own direction together with the knight hobbling behind her like a lame horse.

The next day, James was working with Jerry inside an old garage out on the outskirts of town seemingly quaint and uselessly not part of anything. In actual fact it was Jerry's own personal space for tinkering around where he would not be disturbed, a large mechanics shop filled with many strange inventions all of which played some part in his warfare. The main garage had one brutish-looking bike which was a hefty-looking thing sitting in the middle of the large grimy room. A shutter lead to the outside as all three walls around them were chock-full of metal tools. Outside of the garage station were two more bikes of the same motif and a huge garishly-covered bus with faded graffiti and raw dull steel corrugated over its sides heftily, looking more like a battle tank than anything else. The front had been given a cowcatcher-style scoop splitting it promptly down the middle to give a good crushing power with reinforced windows, entirely done by Jerry himself with one or two helpers. James recognised one or two of them but the slightly more unusual ones seemed like impromptu blowtorches using energy cells burning at a much higher intensity than regular flame would. But it certainly helped as he and Jerry began fixing on the bike, the thick-armoured beige beast looking more like some military vehicle than anything else for sport and amusement. He also noticed the engine was much different than the one back in his world, a dangerous-looking fusion reactor now safely contained within the machine's guts. "Oooookay," said Jerry, "the tires are nice and good, did a good job patching that back one up Jim." "I've done it before," said FG, "used to be in bike races a long while back." "Seriously?! Out here in this place, what happened to it?!" "I...kinda crashed it?" "Ah, shit...well, glad you survived the explosion huh?" "Iiiii had a few feet to fly first before it hit me." "Hehehe...what about the muffler?" "Oh that's all fixed, needed to ding out that connector part was all but I made it fit, nice and snug now in the back, also your shock absorbers need replacing on this." "Yeah I know, I just need to find some spare parts on that or at least make 'em myself, not that I mind making some but it's a lot easier if I got a base to work on already good. But the real problem here is we need hydraulics fer the starting motor." "Hydraulics? Isn't this engine kind of a reactor, what you call it again?" "Microfusion yeah, but these are hydraulic hybrid models, same as the ones out there next to the shop, seems like this place was trying to sell 'em at least, Cawthorn Hydraulics says right on here." "So we really can't do anything unless we get some hydraulic stuff? What does that mean?"

"It means that without a starting motor," said Jerry, "it just won't fire up period, no goose no nuthin, and I'm not gonna throw a match in there or sumthin' stupid, we need to go right through the schematics of this properly to make it work. You see that bit?" He pointed at the main frame where his bony finger poked through revealing there was indeed a gap within. "That's where the starter motor goes, it's a hydraulic system of up to four parts including the reservoir, the pump motor, the accumulator and the fluid itself needed to make it all work good and regulate it. If we try to put sumthin' else in, the whole thing'll go kaput, this can't even get off the line the way it's sittin' down here." "Even for a reactor?" "Everything gotta have a start button Jim, you can't just sit on it and make it go shoot." "You can't like make something for it, you know about all these energy reaction things." "Well yeah, but I still need a starting motor fer this thing cuz I'd rather not screw around with the only thing we got made here fer transport possible, I'm not gonna let this thing blow up just because I got curious." "Right right...damn it...where are we gonna find that?" "I dunno but I hope some scouts out there maybe see sumthin' we need, I asked some before they left to keep an eye out on that shit, see if we can't get any parts fer this." "Is that all we need for the bikes?" "The others I checked out too, they all got the same problem mostly, someone stole all the hydraulics from 'em long back fer some reason, so unless we get some these ain't runnin' anywhere." "What about that bus?" "That thing's the same too, seriously it's like a hydraulic crime-spree all out on this, the hell does anyone want with this?!" "I dunno, motors be good for something." "Hmmmm...I got a sneaking suspicion that maybe they were used before I got here to Beech, must have been utilised fer sumthin' like the water supply maybe, but I'm not gonna ask fer it. If we get this stuff running, we can finally ride out an' be a good scouting party, with bus fer pickin' up survivors even!" "Like those slaves I was talking about before?" "You got it, just need to hear back from the Elder, maybe he knows about any good parts fer hydraulics. Anyways there's nuthin' I can do fer now, thanks for all yer help." "No problem dude," said James, "good to get my hands dirty in this again, kinda miss the smell of oil." "Heh...usually that's not a good thing." "No...but it sure helps me feel a lot more useful." "Right right...still dunno where the hell ya managed to find all those energy cells I mean, damn kid you make a good scout!" "What can I say?" James grinned as he clicked his fingers with a small spark of nanos to himself. "I just know how to find lots of shinies. I'm glad that you wanna help me and everything, I really appreciate you trying to push on it." "I did all I can Jim, whatever's next is the Elder's choice now when he gets back to me on that. Communication's fucked out here, like bein' in a marriage." "Hhheheh...you ever been married?" "Once...long ago back when the world wasn't this." "Yeah...hey, wait, you said that you've been living for the past two-hundred years, right?" "Sumthin' like that, give or take a few decades." "You said that's when the world got bombed to the stone age like this?" "Preeeetty much." "...um...wh-what year would that be-" "2077. Why?" "...heh, no reason, just...need to brush up on my history a bit, Diana's learning at school and everything and I wanna just...sorta keep a good timeline on things...I think.." Guess that proves this isn't my world then, thought FG to himself. That's good...maybe that's good, took me kind of a while to figure that admittedly but hey, least that means I won't have to deal with any weird stuff that used to be in my world...maybe. Not sure if I could handle time travel at this point, that shit always turns out really badly. Definitely not my world, my world got nuked 23rd century, not 21st. Maybe- "Hellooooo Earth to Jim?" Jerry's clicking fingers rattled upon his face, making him blink and smirk mischievously. "H-heh, sorry, got lost there for a minute." "You get lost in yer head more than a brahmin does with one head." "...wh-what?" "Never mind listen, don't go into yer head too much it's not healthy fer ya." "Okay okay I just...never mind, is that all I can do?" "Yep, sure does, go take a break I'll holler if I need anything." "Alrighty, later Jerry."

Heading back towards his living quarters, the rundown post-office building with its dirty steps up towards various office rooms, he heard a voice coming up from his apartment room that seemed familiar but muffled. It was certainly a girl's voice but it sounded surprisingly talented as he made his way up further. "Apples coooome in chocolate brooooown, mmmm-mmm, they're wonderfuuuuul! Apples coooome in taffy goooooold, mmm-mmm, they're scruuuuumptioooous! Listen to meeeee, all you folks, hear me when I say, apple bar, apple bar, sends me all the waaaaaaaaaaaay!" Upon opening the door, he saw Diana standing in front of a mirror that had been taken off and placed up against the foot of the wall. She spun briefly before it and began bowing happily before an imaginary audience trapped in the mirror, hissing with mouth open as the crowd went wild in her mind. "Thankyouuuuu thankyouuuuuu." "Encore encore!" cried FG clapping. "EEEH! H-...how long you been standin' there?!" "Long enough to hear you sing beautifully, that was a really nice song!" "YOU...you...you liked it?" "Yeah! Best singing I've heard in like...well, a long time!" "Yer not just sayin' that aren't you?! Like, it wuz really good?" "No no I swear, that sounded really good! Better than me at least, reminds me of...maybe...well either way you sound really good, like you'd be in the fifth round of a talent show or something." "...thanks." She blushed softly rubbing one finger against the other on each hand. "My mom taught me it...she saw it on a billboard and made me sing it with her...back before we got captured." "Aw...you were just singing it to yourself then?" "K-kinda...makes me feel like...like um, maybe things might get-" "Better?" "Yeah." "Huh...it did sound a little jingle-y." "Jingle-y?" "Yeah you know, like an advertising jingle." "Whut's...a-ad-ver-tie-zing jingle?" "...never mind, great song anyway. Did anyone else hear you?" "N-nah uh...Sally thinks I got great lungs though, said I wuz real healthy for 'em considerin' everything." "That explains your talent partially. Heh..." "You alrigh'? You look a li'l beat up." "Just had a fight down at the bar, no biggie. We might be getting into some problems the next few days so I want you to stay here and protect the place, alrighty?" "Whut kinda trouble?" "Just maybe a gang, coming up to the gates, think we pissed some people off." "Did YOU piss 'em off?" "No! Not me, some other guy!" "Suuuuure he did." "No seriously, it wasn't me. For once." "Heh, alrighty..."

The two spent their day whittling away on various activities, with Diana teaching James more about the world around them and how things worked, whilst James in turn played games with her. Occasionally they walked outside to play some baseball after recovering their ball back by unseen hands sneaking out from an unsuspecting neighbour, not that it was the only ball in the entire village. They got better at their game to the point of not hitting anymore houses, while at the same time also keeping score by themselves on who'd hit it best and farthest. After one particularly stunning run of hitting the ball far enough to slam into the lower portion of the fenced area wall protecting the very town, James soon received a visit from the Brotherhood of Steel. Diana worried at seeing the sight of a large hispanic male with soulpatch on his chin in leather armour, asking: "Squire Campbell?" "Uhm yeah?" "We have a meeting with the paladin, come with me." "Alright then. Diana, head back home and keep the place safe, I'll be back." "Kay." Heading off to the junior high building, the entire garrison met at the lunch hall which was large enough to give a presentation. The hall was sizeable but not enough for every seat to be full, the raptor noticing this more now after not having his head buried into a bowl of stew. In fact there was barely enough people to fill even half the hall as Jeffries and Delgado stood at the very back of the wall, making everyone face them. "Alright everyone lissen up!" started Jerry. "We got a security breach, as of this morning, we had spies of the Viper gang masquerading as merchants travelling into our base. Thanks to the USELESS goof-offs known as today's gate patrol, we had perpetrators inside our camp almost all morning scoping the place out. Squire Campbell and Senior Knight Hawk exposed them, but unfortunately one escaped meaning that they will be back with full force. Meaning we've got to get ourselves souped up an' rock 'n' rolling if we wanna make sure not to get killed. Paladin Jeffries will brief you now." He took his spot sitting down nearby as the paladin stood up promptly, a projector being planted far back in the kitchen transmitting a filmy reel of various snapshots of the following. "The Vipers are an old gang of once pseudo-religious people, worshipping a great snake god who harden themselves through rituals of poisoning themselves, until they weeded out the weakest by killing 'em. Now normally we don't get them this far north but as of three months ago we have been, owing to THIS lady." As the slideshow continued showing various references of both Viper gangs and weapons they used, it soon stopped upon one particular woman. A young harrowed-looking adult, her short blonde hair almost making her out as very boyish in a beige jacket and half-torn blue jeans. A knapsack remained on her back with a baseball bat slung across it, showing a vicious-looking long nail poking out from the very top pointing straight upwards, like a bayonet fixed to a rifle. "Their main ringleader, is a new leader having just joined them perhaps three months ago and rose through the ranks insanely quickly, a woman by the name of Mentalia. She is unbalanced, wily and quite frankly suicidal. So she takes no prisoners whatsoever and is constantly high on mentats making her one VERY sharpshooter and fighter. If you take her out then you'll bring the whole complex down since they worship her on a cult-like level, claim that she's some sort of serpent reincarnation or something. Whatever the reason, do not pull back on her." Images continued flickering from photos as James watched aimlessly back and forth, listening as best as he could before the numbing tedium of operational planning began to make him drowsy. Then one name popped up at him. "They will come from the west presumably as that was their last noted location, where we presume their actual camp lies for the time being. Another person to be cautious with is the subordinate known as Delacroix, who-" "DON'T EVER FUCKING SAY THAT NAME!"

The voice came screaming in from his darkness, hearing a shriek from downstairs waking up from his bed. The moonlight glinted blearily in from outside his bedroom window, looking eerie in the fog of pollution above the city. The raptor in just a pair of shorts waddled his way down awkwardly. Slowly, cautiously checking his steps on the wooden staircase, he leaned through towards the front area of the bar seeing Sarah argue with someone, a taller brown bear who simply cowered at her voice. "I-i-i didn't-" "You only ever say her by our codename for her, you do NOT bring her name around to my place DO YOU HEAR ME?!" "S-sorry sorry j-just, slipped out I swear." "Well you better be or else my bullet'll just 'slip out' on yer foot an' you'll be limpin' around on benefits fer a good month! Now...what's our status?" "The...demon, was last seen out by Roberts' two nights ago, said he saw a girl matching her description." "Is he certain that was her?" "Totally, said she was too clean-looking for our area, got those marks on her face too." "And where did she travel to?" "Somewhere up near the ol' gas station, the one we don't use anymore." "Hmph..." She leaned back against the bar thinking to herself, arms crossed furrowing her smooth melon brow. "Won't stay on fer too long there, needs to keep moving, she won't stay if she feels she can't get nothing the first two nights out here. Tell the locals if they need someone to babysit then to call me personally, I'll find someone so she doesn't cut in again." "We...we didn't think she could-" "I don't care what you DIDN'T think!" shouted Sarah. "I only care about what we DO think and what we WILL do once we shut her down! That bitch is playing with me an' after coming into my town fucking with MY neighbourhood, I will not take this lying down!" "She's playin' with you?!" "YES SHE IS, she breaks into my phoneline and pretends to be one of us just to spite me, she almost caught one kid and she KNOWS I'm the one that's running this place which makes her far too smart and dangerous to be around here and I will NOT let that...thing...exist in my town, not one moment. She...she coulda just moved on like any other but she stayed out here...she knew, because she had someone to play with finally." "What makes you different from anybody else out there?" "Because I'm the only one that's ever stopped her from claiming another victim. That's it. She has me marked now fer whatever reason, and that's gonna be the day when I can-" BANG.

James ducked panicking as a shot fired across the room hitting way off course but making jump and kneel against the stairs. Sarah had turned immediately from the bar with a revolver pointing high up near the doorframe just under, smoking muzzle tip. "F-FUCK'S SAKE!" "What the hell you doing spyin' on me?!" shouted Sarah. "Y-YOU WERE SHOUTING YOUR HEAD OFF YOU DUMB CRAZY BITCH!" "DON'T insult me, I am your boss and caretaker now go back to bed!" "Who's this collie bitch anyway?! Why's she fucking with you like this?!" "Because I'm the only one that's able to stop her, didn't you hear me?!" "What...do you know her or something?" "No. And I'm glad I didn't, cuz I don't wanna know a thing like that in my existence. You need to stop listening out fer this an' just go back to bed, this is nothing to do with you." "Why won't you tell me?! Why am I not even in your gang or something, I could be useful! I work for you already in this dump!" "You could also be DEAD, I'm not having this discussion with you when I'm busy with something!" "YOU'RE ALWAYS BUSY WITH SOMETHING! What about ME, what about my purpose here, what if I can help you fight this bitch?!" "You have no idea what yer getting into, you stay up there an' hide away from everything until I tell you when it's over!" "I've been hiding up there for six months, what the fuck is your problem?!" "I FEED you! I give you a place to STAY! I gave you a JOB and a life to be free enough to go screw around with illegal races even when I tell you not to!" "Yeah, a JOB, so you trust me enough to run this place without you so why won't you let me be in your gang?!" "IT'S NOT SOME CLUB KID, THIS IS SERIOUS!" "I KNOW THAT!" "NO YOU DON'T!" roared Sarah. "You know what we do everyday just to keep this city running?! This whole neighbourhood runs on us stretching over thirty blocks depending on us to keep them safe! We get our hands dirty killing thieves, murderers and drugrunners just so that the police have a better time trying to focus on easy shit cuz they don't have enough funding! They handle all the stealing and petty stuff so then they look good, they get MORE funding to manage themselves a lot better and WE feel a lot more safe running justice here, and we risk our lives doing it! What I do may not be legal but I'm doing it fer the same reason they hold the peace!" "So what, you run the place sure, what about everyone else who works for you, none of them died yet!" "These are professionals, hardened criminals not like you, you balk at the sight of seeing David's leg getting blown off last week! You know what happened?! Do you know WHY his entire left leg became fucking chunks barely holding on together wrapped around two broken BONES?!" "I-I JUST ATE, I WASN'T READY FOR THAT SHIT, THAT WAS ONE TIME!" "No...and you never will. Not this way." She turned herself back towards the bear subordinate who stood waiting patiently without word, the raptor smouldering behind her on the steps laced with teenage hatred. A selfishly-absorbed amount, but a good deal of it nonetheless. He did not move from the steps as she turned back towards him seeing his reluctant stubbornness. "You wanna know why I don't let you into this group?" He said nothing as she walked towards him. "Because...I don't see you able to handle all of this. You think any of us were dealing with this back your age, I don't employ some kid into this group-" "I'm NOT a kid-" "Shut up. You are barely fifteen, that's not even legal for a lot of things." "Pfft...you're one to talk about legal issues." "Lemme tell you something about this woman I'm following. Do you know why I'm chasing her down specifically?" "Because she...killed a lot of kids?" "Yes. Do you know why she killed those kids?" "Cuz she's a sick fuck?" "Hmph...kid's good." She said this turning towards the bear back at the bar before placing her hand on the wall besides James. "You got that right, but maybe you don't know how sick she really is...do you really wanna know?" "...wh-what?" "...come with me."

She took his hand slowly and walked him down towards an underground basement. One of several that used to be the wine cellar in older days separate from the storage room, he knew it was generally the most usual meeting place for the Fishnet gang to reconvene on their plans. A large wooden round table had been placed, with two maps of the city showing different areas and venn diagrams of influence and known locations of criminals. There also were several telephones placed along a long desk, marked with district numbers. "Why do you use landlines," asked James, "everybody uses digital." "Exactly," replied Sarah, "everybody uses digital which means that everybody knows how to use it, hack it, infiltrate it. Nobody notices the old landlines, cuz whoever uses them must be too poor or stupid to upgrade to new-world tech. This isn't Johannesburg where everybody wears a suit on streets you can eat off of clean and sleek, this is the old world and an old city. But people like me who stuck to the old-world technology...are exactly the kind of people no one notices." Amongst these old wired phones was a tape recorder hooked up to one professionally, for recording calls. She beckoned James to sit down on one of the table's seats and listen. "This tape," began Sarah, "contains the first call I got from her directly towards me. If you can listen to this for the next five minutes without breaking...then I will let you be a part of our gang. That a deal?" "Yeah. Deal, go ahead, try me." He sat back with his arms crossed as she played the tape. The first voice was distinctly of a French accent but much more odd in its enunciation with a somewhat-playful mirth that brinked on disturbing. "Ello?" "...who is this?" replied Sarah from the recording. "Is this the lady that I met back last week or two?" "No, just her friend. You found the phone line I see." "An' used it well! Very crafty you are miss..." "I know your name, Delacroix." "Oh good, my reputation precedes me! Who is the admirer?" "No one. No one admires you." "Iiiiii am not so certain of that, I am not the only one here you see. Say hello to the nice lady for me." "H-...hiiii." A girl's voice came on the recording. James tightened his brow as he intensely stared at the recorder playing as Sarah's voice came next. "...where are you?" "A-ah-aaah," said Delacroix, "that would be telliiiiing." "Why are you-...don't you have the police to taunt like some cheap villain, what do you want?!" "Ugh, police are so boring, they're all about procedure an' wiretapping an' dumb stuff, not like you! Not like someone who I assume is a great criminal mastermind holding the entire city in her grasp...issat right?" "I don't know what you're talking about, I serve drinks, not sentences." "Pfft, do not play with me. I do not play, children play. And this little girl of mine, Sandra her name is, lovely little human, pale with nice red cheeks, has a perfect face for the news, she is...well, we are going to call this the last game for today. Because you're really tired now aren't you and you have to get to bed soon hmmm?" "A-ah huh," said the girl fearfully, "c-can I go home?" "...you'll be going soon." "I-i want...I'm cold here miss, I don' like it here, I'm scared." "You won't have to worry, you'll feel very warm in a bit once I...hmhm, play our special game with you." "Don't," said Sarah. "Whatever you plan on doing, just leave her out of this. Do you want to negotiate?" "Nnnno," said Delacroix flippantly, "I just wanted to hear something from you." "What's that?" "...I want to hear you cry, Sarah King. I want to hear you sob, an' beg, because you had the audacity to actually try an' stop me from doing what I want. What I NEED. You could have been like all the other selfish people an' just flick over the channel sayin' 'hawhh poor girl' an' then never think about her again. But not you. You wanted to get involved an' be like some hero...but you are not...this little one's hero. Time for bed now dearie, say goodnight to miss Sarah King now!" "G-good-" stuttered the child, "g-good...h-help me." "Sh-sh-shhh-" "M-miss Sarah help me, help me please help me, help me-MMMMPH!" "S-stop it," whimpered James. "S-stop, what is she doing?" "I think you can guess," said Sarah to him. James heard the girl crying out muffled by something, seeing it in his head and cringing with legs tight against his body. Suckling filthy moans of an older woman as the girl sobbed and pleaded struggling to speak. Sarah did not move a single inch other than with an eye twitching as she listened. James felt sick to his stomach as the sounds started becoming something else. Bestial. Unwanted. Wretched. "Stop, s-s-stop it please, just-turn it off I don't wanna hear this." "No," said Sarah firmly. "You want to be in my gang, you need to know exactly what kind of people I'm dealing with. Now shut up and listen." "No." "Listen." "No, I don't want this!" "Stop talking and listen." "I don't wanna hear this!" "Listen to her." "NO! I DON'T WANT IT, I DON'T WANT THIS PLEASE, TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF FOR GOD'S SAKE TURN IT OFF!"

"HEY!" James woke up with a start from his reverie as Jerry shook him hard by the shoulder. "Storytime's over, get up an' walkin'." "Y-yes, okay, yes sir." "...you alright, you look like yer cryin' about sumthin'." "H-huh?" "Yer eyes look a li'l more red than usual." "No no I just um...really, tired, dust an' everything, hadn't had a good...sleep I think." "You look fine to me, normally fer sleepin' off during briefing I'd slap you down for not disciplinin' yerself, but because you helped me with the bikes I'll let you off this time, now move out." He got up from the meeting room which was now almost empty, wiping away tears from his eyes sprouting as if from out of nowhere. He couldn't believe he had slept the whole way through and nobody had noticed. His memories were the main focus of his thoughts however, stumbling his way through the corridors of the burnt-out school feeling as bad as they were. I haven't thought about that in years that...god dammit, why do I think about it now, why is it just lately I'm reminded a lot of things Sarah had to do? I guess I just never heard one person say Delacroix once my whole life since back then. Hmph...kinda amazed that fuckin' town didn't drag it up on me to rape my ass about, considering all the other shit about Sarah it had for me. God...just...god I'm a mess, I just want to sleep. And so he did, dragging his feet away back home to sleep off on a mattress, suddenly exhausted by the sheer weight of a past unearthed. He knew however from listening around the camp that people were very anxious about a possible invasion, all of whom were getting ready to gear up over the following next day with security tightened around the village region. The day soon came however as warnings from the watchtower summoned the garrison out with a secret messenger group swiftly running through the village gathering people, lithe senior squires wearing light leather armour. "Everyone please remain in your houses, this is not a drill, repeat not a drill so stay in, shut tight and bolt down safely, let's move it people!" The civilians barred up their houses with self-maded barricades over doors as the runners stormed up towards the HQ to alert the commanders. Jeffries, Hawk, Swan, Delgado and Crow began taking up their places, with James somewhere around the small garrison of grunts heading straight for the front door waiting for the attack. There was no alarm, no siren, just simple quiet orderly fashion to make sure the enemy did not know that they were prepared. The watchtower had seen a dust arising on the hills to the southwest knowing that a horde was the only one capable of doing such. James sat readily awaiting behind one corner of a house with handgun equipped, the big brutes of the garrison out in front as he realised how pathetically small their army was. Without including the civilian-based Scribes and such, the military force of this village only really amounted to about 20 people. Not including Hawk, Swan and Crow, the former of which was waiting on the opposite end of the street with rifle ready to go staring across towards James, calling out huskily to him. "H-hey." "Hmm?" "Listen um...I'm sorry about, that fight and everything, th-this is all my fault." "S'alright," said FG, "just hope no one dies from all this." "Yeah...me too, it's all gonna be on my head for this." "They're assholes anyway, they'll get what's coming to them." "Just...I didn't mean to get you into trouble." "No look I've been through stuff like this before, it's fine...just keep focused on not getting killed alright?" "Heh...yeah. Same to you. Alright, let's do this here they come."

As if on cue the sounds of a rushing horde came trampling along the dunes heading up towards the guarded encampment. James had no idea how many were outside as he simply waited, gripping his gun firmly and waiting for the first break-in through the gate, not that that was going to happen as they most likely would have to climb over the walls as a voice screamed outside from them. "PEOPLE OF BEECH, LISTEN UP! YOU HAVE COMMITTED A GREAT INJUSTICE UPON OUR CLAN AND WE DEMAND SATISFACTION FOR IT! WE HAVE TWO DEMANDS! FIRSTLY, YOU GIVE US THE TWO PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING OUR FELLOW TRAVELLERS! SECONDLY, YOU HAND OVER HALF YOUR PROFITS TO US, AND WE PROMISE THAT YOU WILL BE PROTECTED AGAINST ALL EVILS ACROSS THIS LAND!" On the watchtower was a lone guard, possibly the one James had seen on first visiting Beech several months ago, replying: "YOU REALISE YOUR PEOPLE TRIED TO CLAIM THEY WERE MERCHANTS, WHEN THEY HAD NOTHING UPON THEM?!" "THAT IS SIMPLY A TECHNICAL MATTER," roared back the Viper delegate, "WE JUST WANTED TO ARRANGE A TRADE OPERATION WITH YOU, BUT NOW THAT YOU HAVE INSULTED US WITH THIS ATTACK ON OUR PEOPLE, WE DEMAND REPARATIONS!" "A TRADE OPERATION YOU COULD HAVE MADE UPON FIRST ENTRY, MY MEN WERE TOLD A CARRIAGE WOULD BE COMING TO US AND BY THE TIME THIS...UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT HAPPENED THERE WAS NONE! ALSO CIVILIANS HAVE CLAIMED THAT YOUR PEOPLE WERE RUDE, BRASH AND INTOLERANT! WE DON'T WANT THAT ATTITUDE IN BEECH!" "IF YOU DO NOT GIVE US THOSE RESPONSIBLE WE WILL TAKE THIS CAMP BY FORCE! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!" "YOU WANT THIS VILLAGE, YOU CAN TAKE IT FROM OUR COLD DEAD HANDS!" The first light of battle soon came in the form of a fiery cocktail flaming high up in the sky, a bottle streaking its orange tail towards the watchtower as the guard quickly evacuated before the burst of flaming shrapnel shattered on impact. Paladin Jeffries alerted everyone nearby the moment they saw more bottles flying over the walls. "TAKE COVER!" In the midst of the garrison suddenly splitting up to hide from the flaming onslaught, explosive small IEDs cracking upon the hard soil and bursting within a dozen flames of something much more powerful than simply alcohol or diesel. One unfortunate junior squire was caught in the burning rain, screaming as her hair set itself alight and her face began to melt horribly from some burning chemical mix. One of the scribe doctors hurried to grab her out of harm's way, hastily taking her somewhere safe to try and heal her growing burning wounds as fires started growing.

Water was pumped out sluicing across the soil sharply from a placed valve to try and disperse the burning chemical path, as the Brotherhood of Steel reciprocated with their own chemical archery in the form of either grenades, or bottles. A few screams and blasts on the other side of the wall gave them some satisfaction, as well as snipers on the taller houses overlooking beyond the wall taking crack shots at the enemy. They were also able to count off the size of the horde as one male ghoul hollered down towards Delgado with: "THEY'RE PUSHIN' AT THE GATES, MAYBE FORTY OF 'EM!" "DID WE HIT ANY?!" shouted Jerry. "I SEE A FEW OF 'EM BLOODIED, MAYBE FIVE DEAD!" "GOOD, KEEP SHOOTIN', FIND THE LEADER AN' KILL HER!" "THE FIRE'S REACHED THE GATES!" screamed a guard. "WHAT?!" While most of the flaming chemical mix had been slushed away by water, it had not broken down completely enough to stop burning, and instead it rushed its way towards the gates themselves. The steel fortification was in no danger, but the tightened ropes that maintained the pulley system to keep them closed were soon starting to fray and burn. By the time they even noticed having more paid attention to the sky and raining flames on them, the ropes had snapped loose and the door began to open. "EVERYONE, WEAPONS FREE!" roared Jeffries. "LINE ONE, WHEN I GIVE THE ORDER YOU FIRE YOUR ENTIRE CLIP DOWN ON THESE JACKALS! LINE TWO, WHEN YOU HEAR ME SAY THE WORD YOU DO THE SAME WHILE LINE ONE RELOADS! MELEE FIGHTERS, STAY BACK AN' PICK OFF ANY STRAGGLERS THAT COME RUNNING, READY?!" They nodded together as Darryl hunkered down within Line One's proximity to the door, making a horizontal row along the houses closest in waiting. As soon as the door opened, the paladin screamed: " FIRE ONE!" A violent barrage of bullets and lasers blinded FG temporarily, seeing the door light up upon opening with green, purple and white flashes all around it in a psychotic frenzy of cracking booms and shrieking whines. The first group of Vipers, jacket-wearing punks with fierce curled lips and snarling eyes went down shrieking with fingers clenched on the trigger, firing out with handguns, shotguns and the odd assault rifle, all of which soon met Paladin Jeffries' shotgun pumping through at least two pairs of ribs from behind a corner, shattering hearts through back of their spines in showers of white and red.

Despite their lesser, or perhaps equal armour compared to squires like FG, they were strong enough to fight back as they pushed through, aiming for headshots and taking down half of Line One with brutal shots flying back and forth. Blood spilt across the water drying out upon the main thoroughfare of the city, bodies falling down in both armour and jacket as Line One clicked on empty. The brief lull of gunfire from within the Beech's walls made the horde pour through and set foot upon the inside, with Delgado standing up crying: " FIRE TWO!" Jerry blasted his laser rifle with piercing shot straight down into a woman's head, her skull exploding in a vicious laser show briefly dancing around inside her head before her body fell decapitated showered in blood. Darryl ducked down with her clip emptied, seeing the barrage of Line Two picking up the fight sending down hails of bullets as Line One's survivors backed off and rerouted away from the violence, reloading whilst moving and ducking down to their ordained hiding spots branching further out from the entrance. Hawk was on the ball with his assault rifle, the silver sword-like gun cracking down upon enemies with shots to the neck, guttural shrieking gargles coming from at least one person who crawled forwards at the gate, before being trampled by his allies. James only shot when he had to, not risking when it wasn't clear enough to do so as the remaining Vipers piled in firing on all corners. Two more members of Line Two were taken down hard, a squire who fumbled reloading meeting a violent end breathing blood down his torn throat when a baseball bat snapped it out of alignment. In the midst of the Viper horde, James saw the woman from the mission briefing with short blonde hair and a wild look in her eyes, her beige jacket streaked with blood. As she climbed to the top of a building in the ensuing chaotic horde and hopped from the backs of one of her crew, she swung herself up and quickly disposed of the sniper ghoul with a surprise attack from behind, cracking the back of his head with the bat before ramming the huge nail at the top of her bat straight through his eye. "SIR!" roared FG. "UP THERE, THAT BITCH JUST KILLED OUR SNIPER!" "WHAT!?" cried Jerry. "HAWK, SHOOT HER, THAT GIRL SHE'S ON THE ROOFTOPS!" "YES SIR!" The senior knight swung round fast and took a potshot at her, firing at her knapsack as she stumbled forwards hard from the impact after something pinged off the bullet from within. She turned and shrieked before running towards them, dodging his shots before leaping off the building hard with baseball bat high above her head. Hawk did not realise his clip was empty until the fourth shot aimed at her, before the bat came down on his head with a cracking snap, the wood somehow surviving impact as the heavy blow knocked back the steel-armoured Hawk.

He stumbled hard with dizzying head, but swung back with his fists roaring with blind fury at the absurdly fast Mentalia. She dodged the first two strikes before blocking the third with her bat, smacking it furiously strong and stunning it briefly before swinging a home-run of a smack across his face once more dealing further damage towards his senses. Jerry was too far away to get in and personal and instead decided to focus on the coming horde to stop them from heading further into town. "JAMES!" roared Jerry, "STOP HER, HELP HAWK!" The raptor leapt into action and brought out his scissors fast before swinging at the wild woman, but she felt the sudden presence of someone coming up behind and spun hard fast with violent crack of wood upon steel. At that moment, she froze completely upon seeing the raptor with sharp green eyes upon her, scissors scraping up against her fortified bat. "...you...h-hoh god it's you." "What?" "You...m-master...why are you...wait...you...you don't smell like...like...hee...hhhehehe...hhhahahahaha...hhhhehehahahahahaaaaAAAAAAA_AAAAARGH!_" Shoving the raptor hard with insane strength, she swung her bat high above and slammed violently down upon his head, the raptor dodge-rolling to one side and swinging out his scissors towards her leg. She hopped away upon immediately seeing him roll, jumping over the blades and stopping them with one whack of the bat trapping them upon the ground. James pulled out his handgun and fired only a second after she ran forwards and kicked it right out of his hand, before shoving the sole of her boot straight into his face and sending him tumbling backwards. Jerry risked a laser shot at her, but she ducked as if somehow knowing he would fire at her before dodging to one side behind a house. The Vipers continued their onslaught towards the centre of the town, the Brotherhood pushed back bit by bit as they regrouped constantly through small alleyways trying to take potshots at the group. Even the one or three supermutants they had within their group were getting hard pressed to fight back and focus against every single Viper now splitting up throughout the town. The fight spilled out further into the lower districts, as five Vipers armed with three classic double-barrelled shotguns, a rifleman with a trail carbine and a machete-wielder soon found an obstacle before them. Nearing the training grounds of the former golf course, was a lone dominating figure with gas tank on his steel power-armoured back. "GET 'IM!"

The machete-wielder went charging full force, purple mohawked hair stiff upon the breeze as the shotgunners spread out, making sure their shots would not hit each other as the rifleman took point. Soon as he was within range, the power-armoured man turned fast with blade in hand and thrust deep into the Viper's heart, fully impaling him upon a rusted steel sword. Before he had a chance to comprehend what had happened, he heard a click as if a lighter had gone off, as suddenly the blade burned with vicious smouldering fire pouring deep inside his body. "Wretched tribal." Hearing those last deep words from behind the steel mask, he shrieked in anguish as his heart was burnt out from the inside, blood simply coagulating fast and hardening in his veins by sheer pulsing heat. When the shock of seeing their friend impaled and burned like a wicker man wore off, the shotgun blasts came brutally upon Crow who simply grabbed the machete and hurled it at the nearest thug, slicing deep into her arm. She screamed as the blade viciously lodged straight beneath the shoulder as she fell from shock, he threw the burning corpse of their friend towards another shotgunner. The panic of seeing a smouldering corpse made him click fast on the trigger by accident, blasting the dead body into blackening chunks before his eyes right before he saw Crow charging right behind it. A single brutal fist of iron went straight through his skull, caving it in hard enough to crack the nose and spill blood vomiting. The flaming sword rose high above his head before suddenly cleaving down upon his downed friend, the punkish woman finding her bald head severed from the rest of her body, the second shotgunner panicking with fear as the dark oscillating voice said beneath the mask: "Don't." "Wh-wha-huh?!" "Don't. Fear. Kill me. Show me your worth on this battlefield." "Wh-wh-wh-hh-h-h-h-h-hhhh...h-hoh god, oh god please-" "Worthless." The second fist that came slamming went straight to his neck, snapping it violently fast as he lay gasping struggling to breathe back the blood-drenched air he sorely needed, dying within the next five minutes as Crow walked away. The rifleman however and the third shotgun-wielding Viper still posed a problem, as Crow simply picked up one shotgun and snapped the barrel downwards, wrenching the steel within before hurling it at the rifleman. The rifleman dodged and kept firing, but he did not notice the grenade that had been forced into the twisted barrel. The sudden explosion at his side made him scream with surprise, as well as losing his right hand and half his right leg before falling to the side. The third and last shotgunner tried to fire back his entire ammo clip, but Crow simply picked up the other shotgun at his feet and fired back with stone-cold precision. The Viper tribal wasn't able to handle the recoil like him, well enough but nowhere near as accurate as soon as he felt the buckshot shatter through his shoulder and right kidney, gasping as he stumbled back. Crow did not even feel recoil, holding it like a child's toy.

As a result, despite the spread of the scattershot he was able to wound enough of the invader to send him down on his knees, throwing away the shotgun after the only two shots it had before kicking the Viper's face. Slamming hard on his back, he barely had time to scream before the sun was blocked out by a large steel boot and the last coldest words he ever heard from a human being. "This is your future." His brain suddenly collapsed outwards, along with bits of skull but only after the third brutal stomp after which Crow scraped his foot clean. The last rifleman sobbed pleading with half a leg gone and his wrist bleeding without a hand. "I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY PLEASE LET ME GO!" "You are a warrior, not a cowardly snake now fight me!" "P-please NO!" "STAND UP! NOW!" "I CAN'T, MY LEG IS FUCKIN-" " GET! UP!" He struggled to stand panting, hobbling with only one leg before he decided kneeling would be a much better act of subservience, head bowed and whimpering as he tried to revere him with one hand of prayer. "I GIVE UP, YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME I GIVE, I SUBMIT I SURRENDER YER BETTER THAN ME!" "I'm glad you understand...it is the only truth you ever stuttered in your miserable life, tribal." "S-so...d-does that mean I can go? O-oh god my leg, my leg f-fuuuUUUCK!!" "Do you know what happened the last time we let one of you...people...go?" The thug heard the sound of burning flames licking across a steel tip, but was too afraid to look up at him. "...o-oh god...oh god please no, I'm sorry, I'M SORRY, PLEA-" One swing of the firey blade was all he ever heard, the smell of gasoline forever burned inside his memory for those last few seconds of painless sorrow. Fighting soon broke out all over the other side of the Beech, the former post office soon readying themselves best as they could for a fight to protect civilians inside of it. Diana saw the chaos from outside and readied herself as best as she could. Stores were broken into, barricades broken through to pieces by shotgun blasts as people screamed all around her. She felt fear creep into her heart, a fear of a past repeating in on itself again. She wasn't going to repeat the end result as she heard boots trampling up the hallway outside and breaking into her room. The moment a jacketed individual came through the door she fired without warning straight through the chest, the scream of a young male in swept-back hair as he clutched his waist desperately. "AAAAAAAARGH! YOU FUCKING SHIT!" Wielding a large machete as he swung in through the doorway he cleaved down on the floor as Diana dodged back screaming with gun firing off at the invader without stopping. The next two shots missed on account of him dodging left of her, but the third, fourth and fifth managed to go through his thighs upon rushing for her with cleaver held high. He fell hard as she was pushed back into the toilet closet, trapped like a cornered mouse as she fired at his head. Click. The gun ran on empty as the male Viper crawled towards her with bleeding legs. "I...will fuck you up...little bitch."

Diana readied herself for that moment she always hoped for, seeing the man crawl closer as he grabbed at her dress, dragging her towards his face as she panicked briefly, whimpering frightfully with one hand inside her dress. But the moment he was within range her face suddenly turned from fearful innocence, to deadened merciless as she grabbed at his cheek with her free hand. "You won' do shit." Her other hand flung out from the dress to ram the knife deep into his throat, lifting his head up instantly to shank brutally through his windpipe as he gargled horridly, eyes rolling back as blood dripped down on her blue dress. The cleaver fell out of his hand against the nearby toilet, Diana backing off and kicking him away shaking furiously with the knife dripping in one hand. Then she heard someone else enter the room quickly getting up, adrenaline still surging through as another, female Viper came in. "Wha...the FUCK, YER DEAD LITTLE-AAAAUUGH!" An explosion of blood came from the door deafening both Diana and the intruder who fell into the room, her left arm and leg shattering off into dozens of pieces or simply hanging off from flesh like a broken neon sign. Shivering from hot pain as the bone twisted exposed out towards the air with flesh torn open in twain, she heard the thick boots of a well-armoured justicar come down upon her hearing. Staring up she saw Paladin Swan, a cold unflinching helmet bringing up a riot shotgun with thick round barrel magazine pointing towards the Viper's face. "Hh-hhhh...hhh-hhhhh...the f-fuck are you-" "Vermin." One shot was all it took to render her head into a paste of blood on the wooden floor, spraying outwards from a thin puddle of flesh and sinew formerly a human skull. Swan looked to where Diana stood waiting to fight, knife dripping upon the other Viper's corpse. Diana looked back to see the word " DOMINION" written on the side of the shotgun's barrel-length. She slowly nodded at the child before leaving, saying: "Stay here, there's more coming but I'll keep you safe." "W-wait, um...I don't...um..." Swan stopped before leaving at this question unfinished. "Yes?" "You got any...ammo on you?" "For what?" "...nine-millimetre." Smirking from within her helmet, she walked over as she pulled out two clips fitting most handguns of this calibre, nodding once more as she said: "Keep this place safe. If you need me I'll be outside." "Yes, sir." With a salute and a nod between two warriors Swan headed back out of the room and began searching for more enemies, whilst Diana simply cleaned her blade and waited reloading her gun. Hearing the screams and gunfire outside didn't scare her as much as it used to, now that she was able to make one person at least scream less in the chaos.

James hurried after the leader of the group who seemed determined to lead him away, armed with no long-range weapon as she hid behind a corner waiting for the raptor to come running up. Soon as he turned the corner she swung her bat hard as he ducked underneath, seeing her shadow cast out in the desert sun brutally punching her in the gut, heaving hard before she slammed the bat sideways on his throat to push him back. The raptor swiftly brought out his scissors and prepared himself to fight, realising he lost his handgun in the frenzy of battle as he watched her eyes sharp and piercing right at him. Her hand twitched as if desperate for a fix, and he almost saw the look of fear in them as he slowly began to circle her. The two appeared to be in some sort of back-alley scrapyard next to the walls themselves, various twisted and torn machinery parts piled up around each other as he taunted: "Dead or alive, you're coming with me bitch." "H-hhhh...s-so you...you're here too then, h-huh?!" "What?" "Following me or just...me following you? I guess your mark did something to me after all...hopefully." "What mark, what are you saying?!" "I know who you are, I know what you did. You...smell different, not...not like death. Eyes not black, black like moonless night. So...hehehehee...you're not him truly at all, aren't you?" "Wha...the hell are you talking about?" "Scissoraptor...that was your name for me to say...master." He backed off slightly with a sudden shiver in his very being. Even worse he felt the same shudder of pleasure and delightful glee on recognition of the demon inside of him, gasping sharply as his scissors twitched against his will. It was in that brief moment of weakness that Mentalia struck, swinging hard with a sudden leap down onto James' head who dodged just barely enough to avoid being hit, struck hard upon the right shoulder which rattled with dull vibrating pain. She smiled with a crooked glee, giggling to herself as her bat swung out once more. The raptor ducked underneath before slamming his fist freely into her jaw, but the woman dodged back with absurd reaction speed and jabbed forwards with her nail-bayonet. Thrusting underneath his arm, she stabbed once before swinging right across his head before the raptor brought up his blades and clashed with her. She didn't wait around to grind wood upon steel, using the recoil of the clash to swing back once more. Horizontal blades upon vertical bat, rebounding off to strike once more in a diagonal cross scraping hard before a third recoil brought the scissors vertically against the horizontal bat. "You're not him but you wear his FLESH!" shrieked Mentalia. "I'm not afraid of your skin, OR your teeth!" "Stop talking like a crazy BITCH!" "HAH, they don't know you like I do, I know HIM inside you, I know your soul and I know your true teeth! He marked me, so deeply he marked me by your body...such weak flesh you have now...I will prove to you how strong I became thanks to you. Thanks to your MARK." "Y-you...you don't know anything about me, just leave this place now, or else you die." "SCISSORAPTOR!" "SHUT UP!"

Slamming his scissors hard enough to strike the bat back against her face, the woman yelped from the sudden pain of her throbbing nose before dodgerolling to one side as James sliced across for the face. Kneeling in mid-roll, she swung hard at his back smacking against leather armour as the wood cracked on his spine making him buckle hard and fall forwards. The perfect chance for her to strike, she rushed forwards and brought down her needlespiked tip of the bat down upon James who hastily flipped up onto his back and shot a blast of flames at her face. It was enough to make her dodge and only scrape the nailspike across his thigh, grunting as he got up with a slightly wounded leg. With scissors raised he thrust for her chest, but she dodged in a stumbling rush and shrieked as he stabbed through the beige jacket, scraping down the side of her waist as her head collided hard with his stomach and the two fell onto a wide steel surface. But it was deceptive for its weight and suddenly collapsed underneath, the two falling further down into a hole with corrugated iron walling off the entire place. In the shade of the pit, Mentalia swung forwards hard with shrieking vengeance, spinning twice fully in a circle the moment she came close enough to strike James as he guarded once. The strength of the first strike knocked his scissors hard to one side as he expected it to, the raptor ducking beneath the second swing and striking upwards at her face, scarring her chin and cutting the lip. Stumbling back as blood spilt from her split lip, the woman shrieked and panted as she thrust hard with the nailspike tip. James dodged it once but she thrust forwards once again in a feinting strike, right before she hurled it forwards like a javelin underarm to make him panic before a sudden thrusting kick went straight for his stomach, knocking him down hard to his knees. She grabbed the bat on the ground in passing and struck upwards across his face, scraping across the top of his head as he was smacked to one side. The leader of the Viper group backed off slowly, her eyes starting to flicker slightly and turn muddy as she blinked rapidly. Seeing she had a chance to recuperate, she swiftly pulled into her backpack and slipped out a small silver box containing one last pill. Looking up fearfully, she hastily swallowed it before her eyes turned piercing sharp once more, ready with her fierce baseball bat as she beckoned James to come close. "Just needed a little focus...my so-called master." "I'm NOT...your master, now stop taunting me and fucking FIGHT!" Redoubling her efforts she striked hard upon his blades, diagonally crossing once then twice in opposite directions, upper left then lower right he clashed against her solid wood. Despite his sharp steel the wood was able to not become so chipped enough he could simply carve through, but he had an idea. Waiting for her to clash once more, he let her swing a home-run strike horizontally before striking down hard from above, smacking her bat to the ground as he opened up the scissorblades threateningly before her.

But her reactions were abnormally fast, ducking immediately with the bat as the scissors went lunging past her hair snipping the very tips at the back. James immediately slammed the flat of the blade down upon her head to bring her down on the floor as she fell crying out, grappling her bat before she swung it upwards at his crotch. Almost missing his jean-clad crotch with the nail, the blunt tip of the wooden bat striked right up against his cock, as James gasped with staggering pain and wilting legs looking shaky in front of the girl. It gave her enough time to step up and shoulderslam into James hard, knocking him back as she went into full running gait, screaming with bat high above her head like a bone club. But the raptor in mid-roll stopped himself short and used the momentum to swing his legs straight up to meet her. His natural wicked sharp claws dug hard into her stomach, both feet slamming full force as claws sunk into the jacket scraping viciously hard enough to pull her down as his claws got caught in the jacket. Jerking her back as she tried to escape, he swung his scissors low at her legs knocking her knee down hard. As she fell groaning from the pain of her knees being brutally slammed into, the raptor leapt on top of her back and pinned her arms down to stop her moving, hard upon her shoulders as he breathed into her ear: "YOU...are really starting to piss me off girl." "Hhhhmhmhmhm...even...without his death...scent...you are still good at fighting." "Stop talking about him...you don't know anything about him don't you dare talk about him." "Why? Are you...a victim as well?" "...what?" "I saw that fear in you...that...fear when you...heard me say his name...do you know, what he has done?" "That's not important." "Yes it is...if it wasn't important, you wouldn't be afraid of him." He struggled not to gulp dryly at being forced to reminisce, shuddering slightly but she heard it well. She heard everything, even the tiniest murmur underneath his breath, perception sharp as glass in the heat of the sun's rays. But she knew it would not last forever. "How..." "Hmm?" "...how...do you know about him?" "He made me...I was...I was too weak to fight him, too...too stupid to fight back when he...killed my friends." "What?" "He made me his...s-servant...marked me for my loyalty. My soul is...I feel it cursed. Cursed to...be forever known I was a traitor to my own species." "What did you do?" "...I gave him the lives of many." "...h-how...how many?" "Thirty...maybe more? I don't...I don't remember back then, it was all so...muddy without my...my pills...I need my mentats I can't...everything's so much clear when I've got...jesus help me..." Slowly she began to break down as James laid on her, cautiously keeping his voice as cool as possible despite her able to pick up the tiniest tremble. Her world in that moment was iridescently bright, sensing every small motion upon the wind, every trickling of watered dust, every grin, every soft tone underlying beneath the voice. She tried to look back at him asking:

"Do you regret...what he did?" "...I do. I do regret. I...I didn't know there was that many I thought...that there might be three or so but I didn't think..." "I'm sorry...I just...I'm so sorry I ever met him, maybe...there might have been less if I...hadn't." "Why did he let you live?" "I don't know. I wish he never had now...now I wish...just things got out of hand and I couldn't...stand up to him, he...he was terrifying. He murdered so many and...th-then there was the hospital, it was empty but...he changed after that." "What?" "He changed after finding nothing there, thought it...was still standing but the hospital had...already been destroyed by something...I don't know what was going through him but he...let me live with this look in his eyes. Like he...like he didn't understand something. Like...maybe it was...a kind of sadness in him." "What do you mean? That...that makes no sense." "I know I know just...maybe if I'd used my mentats back then I might have...I just wanted to be strong for one moment by myself but I couldn't-" "Were you...were you always the leader of this gang before he came along?" "No...I-i...I just wandered through the desert north after I ran away, from him, he...let me live, just...let me run off as if he...didn't want to look at me. I just felt as if his mark upon me was...death and...immunity at the same time. I still hurt, I still felt pain, but the more I felt the less I...cared. I was so stupid, but now I was less cowardly. I joined the Vipers looking for a place to live and they made me their leader when I...god the things I did to prove to them and they thought I was crazy...too crazy to live. I drank poison raw from the snake itself, I spent nights in dens where mirelurks slept, I even...burned my entire chest." "Jesus...why?" "...I just didn't care anymore." James somehow felt pity for this woman, too much to simply kill her as it is. A victim perhaps, or a perpetrator of evil but either way he felt as if he had been personally responsible in passing of his demon's self, gently getting off of her. He let her stand up with him, taking her hand as he smiled at the girl who didn't return it back. He softly said to her: "I'm sorry. For what he's done to you. I just...I didn't want to die either...I can't judge you for wanting the same reason." "It...it's okay...I don't deserve apology for what I did, people...people stronger than me were sacrificed and I don't deserve this." "You can be stronger. The way you fought was insane, I mean you were crazy fighting...why don't you join us? Maybe, we could take care of you, hopefully use your skill, bring on the other Viper dudes we can team up." "M-maybe...not them though they...they're too stupid, too greedy. I was just crazy to not care what they did to people..." "Listen, just...if you surrender I promise we'll look after you, I mean it. The boss here is good, he can help you, just...look." The raptor sheathed his scissors away fully without riposte, simply backing off in good conscience as he saw her eyes start to turn faded and muddy, her loss of focus seeing a different person return. "I'm not gonna fight. I just...I just wanna-" "It's okay." The woman looked up at something briefly before she threw her bat away to the side, hurling it far enough to clonk against the wall as she grinned for the first time in earnest. "You're not the monster here." "No?" "I see...I don't feel that same evil from you as I felt from him. Do you...know how to stop him?" "...I just...keep feeding death to him from people who deserve to die, take their souls from them and that helps...keep him sated I guess. I try not to think about it." "I guess...u-um...do you have a name?" "Yeah...it's James." "Hah...yeah he...he mentioned that name." "What's yours? Really?" "...Ramona."

It was only then that a huge shadow dropped down upon them, crumpling into the pit as James suddenly got knocked back by a sudden fist to the face of pure steel, before seeing something charge at Ramona. Huge and hulking power armour, screaming as a flaming sword rose high above them. "NOOOO!" Before he could stop him the blade would come down. He couldn't see what had happened until the steel monolith stepped away from where Ramona stood. She didn't even feel the moment when she fell forwards onto the dirt, minus her head that simply laid its side with burning charred throat. Her neck severed fully to lay on the ground not even having her face retained with dignity. Crow turned back towards FG before simply sheathing his sword as he slowly walked past him. Shock came to him, mumbling beneath his breath as he kept trying to form words rapidly, stuttering with eyes wide in horror at the instancy of it. "...she...sh-she...she surrendered." "Hmm?" Crow turned towards James' back. "...she...she surrendered. You killed her." "What are you babbling about?" "YOU! YOU KILLED HER! SHE GAVE HERSELF UP, SHE WASN'T FIGHTING ANYMORE WHAT THE HELL?!" "She was still dangerous." "NO SHE WASN'T, SHE HAD NOTHING ON HER LEFT WHAT THE FUCK'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" "Are you questioning my actions?" "YES, YES I AM, YOU MURDERED A DEFENCELESS WOMAN WHEN SHE GAVE HERSELF UP YOU BASTARD! I PROMISED HER! I PROMISED SHE WOULD BE SAFE AND YOU MURDERER!" Suddenly Commander Crow grabbed at James' throat much faster than he anticipated, choking him hard in mid-bullrush as he pushed him to the ground and bore weight on him fully to stop him from getting up. The hulking power armour was impossibly thick, sturdy enough to feel as if a tank was crushing his chest as he panicked and clawed at the man's face, steel helmet resisting as he brought up his sword against James' face. "Don't. Ever. Question me you worthless thing." "Wh-wh-you-" "Shut up." He clicked on the brake handle of his hilt as the blade began igniting, a roaring whoosh as the flames licked their way down along the rusted steel tip, pointing directly at his face. Like a candle suspended over his eye, it threatened him with a drop of wax hovering at the very tip, gasoline burning harshly at his nostrils. "I will not have some creature pretending to be a part of us start questioning my command. You have no idea what you've just walked into, do you? I have seen many creatures out on these wastes but none as strange as you, and while your paladin may be ignorant enough to be desperate for more numbers I am not." "B-but she...she wasn't...she wasn't a-" "Do you wish to test my patience still?"

The blade pushed close to the raptor's eye almost fully blackening out his vision with a hot flame as he struggled to blink at it, feeling his eyelids start to turn and fray with a flickering steel tongue of flame. "I am the only one who knows what is best for this wasteland in order to revive itself again, and with those such as that tribal woman we cannot afford to leave any such degenerates no matter how innocent they look. I hope you understand that at least." "But...I don't-" "If you want to plant a garden, James...you must forcefully tear out every single root no matter how small and insignificant it may look, so that we may in due course create a most beautiful land once again...in our vision." "Y-y-y-...b-but...but she-" "WHUT THE HELL'S GOIN' ON DOWN HERE?!" Paladin Jeffries' voice roared out from behind them, seeing the underarea of the scrapyard the sight of a most grisly battle now ended. Commander Crow whispered harshly to FG: "Make one protest and you will die with that girl." Slowly he got up off of him and hilted his steel sword after letting the flames die out, before stating: "Your squire here was just in need of assistance concerning our new casualty, taken some rather nasty hits from the fight." "Whut?! ...that-...that the leader of the Vipers?!" "Indeed, and I have exercised my full authority so I'll just be leaving now. The rest of the Vipers have been exterminated thusly, and there is nothing more I can do for this place." But Darryl seemed to see more than just a first impression, seeing that Ramona's weapon had been flung far off from the side and James' harrowed brutally beaten face behind Crow shaking violently hard in disagreement, before asking: "Whut exactly happened?" "I took her down," said Crow matter-of-fact, "she was a threat to all of us, clearly wired off her head high on some addiction and brutally attacking your dear squire." "...that's a nasty mark he got on him." "Indeed." "Looks like a solid punch he got." "She is strong, for a tribalwoman." "Was she armed at the time?" "Yes, hence the bruising on his face from the bat across it repeatedly, is that not right, squire James?"

James shook "no" until Crow turned back to him to which he froze solid. He did not move a single muscle until the commander bore down on him with hidden piercing eyes before the raptor feebly nodded. Darryl was not convinced, simply crossing arms as Crow walked away from FG and soon straight past Paladin Jeffries who stopped Crow with: "I never seen a bat flung that far out of an attacking victim's hands." "You weren't there, were you?" "I dunno, were you?" "...are you implying something?" "I want you to be absolutely honest with me, Paladin Commander. I trust you, but I don't trust this scene." "Then do not trust it, trust ME." "Do you swear by the Creator that is whut happened?" "Yes...forgive me madame but I-" "Sir." "...what?" "It's. Sir. And I think you swore that oath a little too quickly for my liking." He cocked his head slightly and leered over Jeffries, his height just enough to stare down upon the lower paladin as his voice growled deep with contained fury.. "... I don't have time for this." "I ask, tha-" "Be, QUIET, WOMAN! _" His voice roared like the sun had exploded. "YOU are testing my patience, you and your subordinate with your USELESS caterwauling when there are bigger things to settle on this misbegotten earth, I don't care for whatever title you force others to give just to satisfy your own misconceptions, you are not a paladin, you are not a SIR, you're not even DARRYL and the only reason I haven't stripped you of your rank for falsity is because you're the only one stupid enough to still be with this forsaken place! **_UNDERSTAND?!**" The paladin stared as hard as she could before struggling to shake away from his stare unseen, piercing with pure furious authority, before Jeffries simply bowed her head and stated firmly: "......yes...sir." "Good...you are dismissed...Knight Commander-" He whispered one last thing just low enough for James to not hear, a sudden shock coming over Jeffries' face who quivered with disgust and horror turning away hard for FG to not see. Crow simply walked out, leaving the two alone to themselves struggling to contemplate what had just happened. The raptor heard Jeffries shudder a hot breath back in the throat, seeing head hung low before asking: "...sir? Wh-...what did he...what do we do about him?" "We do nothing." "What?" "We don't...do anything, just clear the mess up and forget everything." "B-but he...he murdered that girl, she surrendered, she-" "Do NOT, QUESTION MEEEE!"

Turning hard towards him screaming with fury he saw that tears were coming down her face streaking harshly. The raptor stepped back nervously whilst struggling to keep grouind on his point. "I-I'm not questioning you, I'm questioning HIM! He murdered that girl, she'd given up and everything, I saw the look in her eyes she didn't wanna fight, she gave up dammit!" "I don't care, she's dead and whatever you say will not bring her back!" "YOU CAN'T LET HIM JUST WALK OFF WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT, NOT AFTER THE WAY HE INSULTED YOU!" "WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHUT TO DO, YOU'RE JUST A DAMN SQUIRE AND NOT A VERY GOOD ONE THE WAY YOU BACKTALK ENOUGH! NOW CLEAN THIS PLACE UP OR ELSE YOU FUCKIN' PAY FOR IT!" She walked off furiously stomping off but the raptor was not finished. As scared as he was of Crow he was less scared of his own paladin, his arrogance slowly welling up as he sneered with disrespect. "...you know what?! All this time you keep telling us what to call you, and yet the one guy who doesn't do what you say, you just get a pat on the head!" "Don't push it Campbell!" "You try so hard just to be a man all 'sir' this and 'him' that, but when it actually matters, all you do is take it like a BITCH!" It was at that point that James knew he had crossed a terrible line. Not because of the way her hand flinched slightly at the side, not because of the stiffening of her neck. But because the moment she turned, she fired her shotgun dangerously low towards James' foot, aiming just well enough to wound his foot bad enough to send him crashing down onto the floor. Screaming from the sudden pain, he was surprised to see his foot hadn't been blown off completely as he shrieked clutching it hard, feeling blood trickle down from the scattershot wound ricocheting expertly. "A-AAAAAAAAAAGH! MY FOOT, YOU FUCKING BITCH YOU SHOT MY FUCKING FOOT JESUS CHRIST! NO, NO NO PLEAS-GRK-RRKH!" His voice trapped itself inside his throat as he felt Darryl's fist tighten around his neck, hunched down on top of his chest and pulling the shotgun slowly towards his face still warm from the first shot. He could smell the smoke wrap itself around his nostrils as a familiar sensation came back to him, seeing down the barrel of a long Pancor Jackhammer "...say that again." "GHK...I-i...I-" "SAY IT!" "You...th-the fuck is wrong with y-y-you-" "Say it one more FUCKING TIME you-" "-worthless little SHIT!"

Light filtered in badly from the thick bar windows, revealing the one who had grabbed him hard by the scruff of his T-shirt. A woman of grey rubbery-looking skin and a long bottle-like snout, eyes worn down by age with the slightest of crow's feet, but plenty of ferocity within. She smiled with one smoking revolver in her right hand, aiming it straight upon James' face as the shocking pain of a sharp bullet came through perfectly in his memory as he screamed from pain. "A-AAAAAAH! FFFUCK, FUHUHUUUCK!" "Awww what's the matter, you gonna cry now kid?! Just cuz you can't rob a bar with an old lady inside it? Maybe you should try robbing older ladies than me out on the street just before you practice-" "SHUT UP! ...nnnngh...for fuck's sake, I just want some money and you shot me in the FUCKING F-FOOT, JESUS!" "Why, so you can hoard it all up for a nice li'l meth collection?" "Fuck no!" "Then what?!" He said nothing out of arrogance but felt the warm rub of the muzzle against his temple, making him answer her question. "What. Do you need money for, boy?" "I...I-i just need it to live like, some food or maybe a blanket or something." "Why can't you steal it then?" "Th-the food store's too tight for me, a-a-and I dunno where to find a blanket!" "Steal it from someone's house." "You ever tried to take a blanket out someone's house, that shit gets caught on everything!" "Well...how 'bout you get a job like everybody else?" "FUCK YOU! I TRIED, I FUCKING TRIED BUT NOBODY WANTS ME! They all think I'm some punk who'll steal from the cash register first chance he gets!" "And look how I found ya." "TH-TH-THIS IS NOTHING, IT'S CUZ I'M DESPERATE! I don't wanna do this, this is my tenth place, I cut a guy's face when I raided his apartment, I dunno if he'll even see from it again!" "...wait...was that the Davidson house?" "...y-y-yeah?" Pressing down on his chest hard with her knee, she put the gun in his mouth as he panicked shivering from both fear and rage, smiling with a temptatious glee. "Well well weeeeelllll...so you're the little thief I've been waiting for." "Mm-mwuh?!" "You have no idea what you just brought yourself into...Li'l Rex." "Hwuh!? Ah dun-glk...d-d-dun do ih!" "Why shouldn't I just put a bullet right down your throat, you look like you need more iron." "N-NUUUH! NUUUUUUUUUH!"

He suddenly began to weep, sobbing down his cheeks as for the second time in his life he felt the prospect of mortal fear and death come upon him. He couldn't stop himself from crying, choking back on the gun in his throat as Sarah slowly pulled it back out from his mouth, the raptor laying down foetal position on the floor and covering his face, his leg bleeding out from a bullet wound beneath the knee spilling droplets out behind him from his stumbled run, loose change all around him left glinting upon the floor. "P-please...I just...I just need some...s-some food...I'm cold, I got noplace to go I lost everything!" "Tough, that's life." "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I'm not even from around here!" "I could tell from the accent, plus the fact you were stupid enough to try and rob ME, you really got no idea who I am round here dontcha kid?" "N-no!? I...I ran away, I couldn't live with my family anymore!" "Whysat?" "CUZ FUCKIN' HUMANS TOOK THEM AWAY FROM ME! THEY...th-the neighbours...they talked bullshit about...me bein' molested, social services brought in just to fuck with us but THAT'S A LIE, FUCKIN' LIES ALL OF 'EM, racist fucking assholes just didn' wan' some zoo in their nice perfect little white-fence neighbourhood, I WAS HAPPY GOD DAMMIT! I had a good mom an' dad fer once an' they took them away from me...they didn' wan' me to be happy...f-fuckin'...fuck everything, fuck you...fuck all of you." He could only clutch at himself like a boy with a scraped knee, showing off his youth moreso with tears of pain and rage as the dolphin sighed to herself, shaking her head as she walked back over to the bar. She came back with a medkit, bending down beside the raptor to start working on the wound. "Wh-wh-what are you doing!?" "I know a kid like you does not need a limp out on the streets. Let me help...unless you want another bullet to match the one inside you." He said nothing and let her work, stinging with pain as she began slowly lifting his leg up above his chest, applying a pressure bandage to the wound after dabbing with antiseptic. "Wh-why are you lifting my leg?" "Need to keep the wound above the heart, don't want any blood loss coming down from it...keep this up here. I gotta say I thought at first you had balls to come raid my place, nobody here ever does." "Whysat?" "Let's just say I'm the local neighbourhood watch captain." "So where you from really?" "Why should you care?" "Well I am the one fixing the leg I just shot, but I could just do this." She pressed down on the wound with a finger and made the raptor shudder with agony. "H-HHHHAAAAAAAAAH! Fffffffucking biiiIIIIITCH!" "Now, tell me where yer from before you start limping fer the rest of your life." "London, okay?!" "Huh, quite a trip." "Yeah, things were...well, yanno." "Got a name to that ugly mug of yers kid?"

He simply turned away, insulted by this interrogation from his would-be-victim of theft, but she turned up the heat with another wound pressuring and he screamed: "AAH-AAAGH, AAAARRGH JAMES, IT'S JAMES!" "James what?" "JAMES FUCKING CAMPBELL OKAY, STOP IIIIT!" "There we go....that wasn't so hard wasn't it, James?" She stopped hurting him and began to examine the wound further, checking on where the bullet went. She decided not to risk it and silently wished she had aimed it lower.. "Don't be surprised I know how to fix these wounds, this IS a bar after all." "Why you tryin' to fix me up? You want your bullet back that badly?" "Because I pity you now, kid like you on the streets, yer parents probably worry every night sick for you." "That'd be hard for them, cuz they're dead." "...huh...London orphan, becomes a thief...you ever read Charles Dickens?" "Who the fuck's he?" "...forget it...listen, you got a place to stay?" A sarcastic gaze from the raptor gave her an answer. "Right, of course so why don't we make a deal? What sayyyyy...you come work for me, as my assistant or minion or whatever you wanna call it, $4 an hour." "Four bucks?! Even I know that's bullshit." "Well you also got a free bed to stay in, my spare room upstairs fer all you want, no rent no need just do the jobs I ask ya to." "...and if I say no?" "Then yer off to jail fer breaking an' entering and soon you'll be able to fit a sack of oranges up yer ass within a week after good time with yer cellmates." "....why are you even giving me this?" "Because A, I can't seem to get anyone who wants the job, and B, you can't seem to find anyone who wants you for the job. Sounds like a perfect combination to me. Plus...do you really wanna miss up the opportunity of a free bed and some money compared to prison?" As ignorant as James was of Dickens and 98% of literature in the world, he wasn't stupid enough to take that offer against the alternative of prison. He slowly nodded, holding back his frustration like an irritated child made to do chores. "Fffffiiiine...what do I do?" As the dolphin began to finish bandaging the wound after making sure that no further bleeding would occur luckily, she replied: "First, you call me Boss until I say otherwise. Second, you do whatever I tell you to, cleaning glasses, bringing in crates, cleaning the bar. It's not a big bar, so it's not that big a hassle for ya." "I...guess not." "Good. So why dontcha go to bed upstairs and we start on yer first day? And you better rest that leg too." "Um...a-alright...what's yer name?" "I'm Sarah. Sarah King. And you better get used to hearing me a lot around here." "Wha...whysat?" "Cuz round here, I'm the one everybody calls boss so-"

"-you better say sorry...or else I'll find a new squire after I'm done with you." He stared back towards Paladin Jeffries, reality coming back to him as he blinked softly. There were tears in his eyes as he tried to focus on him, gasping with regrets from his bared throat. "...I'm...I'm sorry." "Hmm?" "I'm sorry s-...sir. Please...I was out of line, I...I shouldn't have spoken like that, I'm...sorry for everything." "...alright then. That's better. I'm glad you understand, now...clean this up, and report back to me. I'm sentencing you to one week in solitary for backtalk and insubordination and you will not say one word about it. Is that clear?" "...yes sir." "Good. Dismissed." He slowly stood up before walking away, the hulking metal armour belying whatever body laid within that still confused him. James whimpered from the wound in his foot, but it was superficial and nowhere near as bad as the one he remembered from years ago. He softly got up with a bloody limp, hobbling over towards Ramona's body and cautiously picking it up before feeling himself stumble hard. He slowly picked up the baseball bat first and dug it back into her backpack, staring down upon her head lying still beside her body. He couldn't stop himself from falling to his knees and weeping softly for her. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."