“So we need to break into that not at all creepy hotel for some crazy old guy in hopes he lets us go and doesn’t decide to detonate our bomb collars…” Anne recapped just to make sure she heard what her friend explained.
“Pretty much.”
“Well then, hopefully they have blackjack, I got kicked out of the ones in The Strip and I can’t play anymore…”
Twilight didn’t even want to know how she got herself kicked out of shady looking casinos, but she doubted that the Serria Madre would have any open tables.
“I only have one more person to collect and then hopefully we would almost be done with all this stuff.”
“So now even the radios are trying to kill us…” Anne grumbled through her gas mask as she flicked the power button on the side of a small ham radio on a table, always keeping an eye on the nightkin inside one of the cells of the police station they were in incase he tried to get out. Chains were wrapped along his body and a bear trap was biting into the skin of one of his arms.
“Could be worse…” Twilight said looking around, pulling out a small revolver from a drawer and looking it over. It used .387 rounds like Lucky did but the barrel was quite short and the gun was very compact.
“Twilight, I’ve melted slightly in my suit, I don’t think it can get much worse for me.” Anne said flatly as she went to look for the armory for anything other than a revolver she wouldn’t be able to reload herself.
Sighing Twilight looked around until she found a staircase that went downwards to the basement of the. Walking down the stairs she went into the rusty metal room, jumping slightly as a low deep voice came through the intercom. “Knew you would come, below the cage... down to where I am. Maybe you saw the letters I scratched on the Villa walls.” It said. After a few moments when nothing else was said she went deeper into the basement.
“A little farther. Follow my voice... that's it. The one in the cage? Dog. I had to lock him up. He keeps... disobeying me.” It returned, causing the pony to look around as a shiver went up her back.
The further she walked the more the voice spoke to her until she got to a room with an old table against the wall. After turning off the ham radio on it to stop the beeping from her collar. Once it was turned off she spotted a tape on the table.
“That's me, there, on the table. The disk. Can't take any chances, though... you may be some victim who simply stumbled down here. If so, can't let you let Dog out... no, not yet. If you're who I think you are, you came to fetch Dog, use him to drag others here. Now I'll use you - and that Pip-Boy you're wearing. You're smart. Clever. The key to Dog's cage is simple. Take my voice to the cage above. Let me speak to the beast inside. Then you and I... we can talk.”
Twilight could tell after that the voice was a recording since she wasn’t wearing a pip-boy like her friend upstairs, it must be referring to Anne.
Going back upstairs she looked around for some way to play the tape by the cage the nightkin was inside huddled in the middle of the cell, lash marks carved into his back flesh. “Hey Anne! I have a table that I need played!” Twilight yelled out.
“Coming!” Came a reply before a shrouded person came down the stairs with a very large looking rifle in her arms, although only one hand held the handle while the other just had the gun rested upon it. “What tape?”
Twilight holds up the tape in her magic which gets snatched out by Anne. Resting the gun against her leg she clicks open a hatch on her pip-boy before clicking in the hatch again.
As soon as it clicked in the deep voice came from her pip-boy in a tin voice. “Dog! Back in your cage!” It bellowed.
The super mutant on the floor sat up, getting to his feet and facing the two. On his chest carved into his flesh was the single word, DOG, with chains around his neck and arms.
“You are not who I was expecting.” The mutant said in the same deep voice. “I am disappointed. Still... even if you aren't my intended guest, you take direction. Good. You can't have been an idiot to figure out how to release me from my cage... or perhaps you are, with that leash on your arm and the one around your neck... with our collars and manacles, why, we may as well be kin.” He said in a slightly mocking tone of voice.
Twilight and Anne didn’t know what to say to the mutant, Twilight speaking first and just saying. “That carving on your chest… Are you dog?”
He glanced down to his chest. “The carving's a reminder, for mirrors and for Dog.” He said before his face twisted to one of disgust. “Dog, who you heard coming in, howling and hungry, as always. I've been trapped in here for some time, then you come along and let me out. So... you opened my cage for a reason. Now... I want to know why.”
“He has Multiple Personality Disorder.” Anne whispered to Twilight to clarify.
“MPD? That causes from massive amounts of trauma…” Twilight noted.
“Trauma… Yes as a manner of speaking.” The mutant stated before point down along his body. “Do you see the wounds covering his skin? The beartrap on his arm? He put his hand into it. The name he carved in his chest? To remind him of who he is, he inflicts pain on himself to silence me, when all I try to do-” He said before grunting in pain and shaking his head. “He cuts, hurts, and tries to murder me out of him. He won't succeed, just makes me angrier. Dog is a beast, we simply change cages, like the ones here.”
“Well I’m looking someone with a collar like ours.” Twilight said tapping her large bulky collar and looking at Anne who had a bulging rubber neck as her collar was under the suit.
“It's close. Closer than I'd like...” He said. “Dog's been into things, needs to think before he eats, chew before he swallows. He's... eager that way. Now the collar's a part of me, inside. I can feel its electronic heartbeat, clicking and burning down below... like before. It was cold and heavy before going in the cage... now you're here, and it's pulling and kicking again, tugging like a leash. Interesting.”
Twilight grimaced at the thought of swallowing an explosive collar and she could guess Anne did the same although it wasn’t visible.
“We… Need to get out of here then…” Anne said.
“You need to distinguish yourself from the other ghosts, Dog will try to eat you.” The mutant stated.
Anne paused for a moment. “I guess I’ll be right back then.” She said walking off.
Turning back to the mutant Twilight sighed tiredly. “I need to get you out of that cage to follow me.”
“No... No, I don't think so. Even in here, I have more control than you do. I'm not leaving until the one who controls the collars shows... not his voice, not his hand, not his lackey... him. And when he comes to see me, we'll settle things. So go on, go back to your master, and tell him I'm waiting for him. Dog may follow him. I won't.”
“Look, our collars are tied together, if you don’t come he’ll kill both of us.” Twilight pleaded.
“Then I still win. I'd rather die in this cell than have Dog follow him any longer, follow his orders, his commands, desperate for recognition. The Old Man... He has the need to hold on, to the past, to the Madre... I'd rather be free, let go of this shell than have it cage me any longer.” The mutant said.
“Sounds like dog would be more willing to get out.” Anne said returning. Twilight looked at her in confusion, the woman was now wearing what looked like an old vest over her chest with the word SECURITY blazed upon the chest and back in bright yellow lettering.
The mutant smirks, which unsettled the princess. “Dog? You're not talking to him now are you? No, even if you could drag Dog out of his cage you still couldn't get him out of this cage. I put him here for a reason... if he could have escaped he would have. So here he stays.”
“You wouldn’t have locked yourself in there without some form of key with you in there.” Anne stated crossing her arms over her chest.
“The key? Why it's the Old Man, the one who brought us here. I hid the key on me so Dog wouldn't know... I just need the Old Man to show up, so he and I can talk. If Dog was in control when the Old Man appeared... well he would just do whatever he commanded as always. And I can't have that.”
“Dog... obeys. Yes. Why... do you have some means of contacting the Old Man?” The mutant asks unsurely.
“I have his voice in the logs of my Pip-Boy” Anne stated holding up her arm.
“You wouldn’t dare!” He bellowed. “If you do that I’ll find a way out of the cage and when I do I’ll shatter your bones and murder you!”
“Calm down, if you follow willingly I won’t do it.” Anne said.
“No, you wouldn't.” He said calmly. “If you did, you won't escape this place alive. I'd shatter every one of your limbs to splinters and leave you here. You think I'm afraid of your collar exploding, killing us? No, I'll leave you breathing, then keep walking until my collar goes cold. I'll prop your broken body in view of the Sierra Madre so you can see what you came to steal... forever out of reach as you die.”
“I have the power to let Dog out of his cage. I'm going to prove it by not doing it” Anne said smugly.
“Hnh, No... No, you're not. Even though Dog's more docile... easier to control. You may regret this. This place... this place is where creatures like Dog can survive. The people that fill its streets... He is as vicious, more vicious than them. His hunger can help you more than I can. When I am in control... this shell is difficult to... fight in.”
“I’d rather someone who can see reason.” Anne stated.
The mutant was silent for a moment before a deep laughing came from his maw. “I am not sure you belong here. No, you don't belong here yet... you came this far. And I'm not interested in remaining here any longer. I'll unlock the cage.”
Reaching along his leg he pulled a small rusty key that was stabbed into the makeshift shoe he was wearing before going over to the cage. The door opens with a screech of metal on metal the mutant steps out.
“We’ll meet at the fountain in the middle of the villa.” Twilight stated.
“Good, well done... now, for the festivities, and your parts in all this. The owner of the Sierra Madre... for whatever reason... keyed the Grand Opening to the Gala Event itself. It needs to be fired off in order for the casino doors to open. As I've discovered one person can't do it. So, get your team into position indicated on your Pip-Boy, then trigger it properly. You're so close now, don't let me down. Otherwise, I'll have to rely on the next team.” The five heard from the floating image of the old man above the fountain in the middle of the villa before disappearing.
“Well…” Anne said muffled through the mask. “Ain’t no rest for the wicked.”