Both Twilight and Anne looked unsurely at Dog as they lead him to where they needed to go since the other; which they called ‘God’ since it seemed to be opposite of Dog. God refused to go to where they needed to go so they had to play an audio of the old man to bring out the beast since he would listen to them.
But Anne didn’t like how Dog was always trying to sneak a bite out of the woman, he seemed to like the ghost people’s taste… That was rather clear when he rushed ahead of all of them to tear apart a ghost person, tearing an arm off with his bare hands and immediately eating the flesh from the bones.
But one thing they didn’t expect was a rusty fire extinguisher go flying past them and before exploding. Looking where it came from they saw another ones of the ghosts, a bit thinner and more feminine than others bring their arm back to throw another. Before it could happen Anne pulled out a pistol she had strapped to her leg and took a shot, bullet impacting against the side before exploding in its grip. The body got flung to the side and slammed against the wall, arm blown clear from the body.
Blowing the smoke out the end of her barrel she grins before looking down at Twilight. “Can you reload for me?”
God wasn’t happy when he got switched back to at the place he needed to be which was a small area with half a dozen old rusted switches, fused shut and they didn’t look like they would move again. A rusty door that looked fused open to the stonework to go to the switches hung in its frame.
“Now that we’re here what do you want me to do?” God asked glaring at the pair.
“We just need you to wait here for the Gala Event to begin to pull the switches.” Twilight said with a shrug.
“You can lead me to water... no, being trapped in this courtyard while lights are flashing and sirens are screaming... I can survive one or two of the inhabitants, more than that, even Dog would have to work to keep full without being carved to pieces. And the gate here, if it somehow got locked, it'd be the holding cell at the Police Station again, except with no way out.” The mutant stated.
Before the princess could answer Anne spoke up, resting the barrel of the large machine gun on her damaged arm while to hold it steady while the other held the handle. She was scanning around their behind in case any of the Ghost people tried to come. “I don’t care if I sound like a dick here but I’d much rather have to deal with a sane super mutant as opposed to one that wants to eat me.”
Twilight rolled her eyes.
The mutant’s eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. “Really, and why is that? Dog is much more... docile. Obedient.”
“Let’s face it, Dog isn’t that smart, I’d trust someone who knows what they’re doing to be manning the switches.” Anne said glancing over her shoulder at the two before snapping back the way they came.
The mutant stays silent for a few moments before saying. “You're right, but trust? Trust is such a... harsh word. I prefer... mutual need, It's more honest.” He stated looking over at to some scrawling on a brick in the wall. “No, I can help you. These wiring diagrams... I know how to operate the switches in sequence to make fire appear in the sky. I... we just need to make sure that Dog doesn't surface before that happens. To do that he'll need to be fed, that makes him stay in the Cage.”
“You are not eating me!” Anne yelled out turning herself around.
“Not you.” He stated. “Dog has torn apart a number of the inhabitants of this town. While he doesn't prefer them to... other flesh, it'll do for the time being. Find some of the inhabitants, it'll require some hunting on your part. Kill them, take some of the remains inside them, and bring it back here. They're not easy to kill. But... I have faith in you, and the beast must be fed if you want him to stay in this cage.”
“Okay, we’ll get you some lunch!”
“I thought it might be easier than this.” Anne stated as she used an old rusty knife to carve through the flesh of the dead ghost person. “I really don’t think we should stay around that pink cloud thing for too long, if just a short amount of time kinda melted my suit to my leg I don't want to guess what happens to long term exposure.”
A sick looking Twilight looked away from the gruesome sight of cut up ghost not witness it and a bit to make sure they didn’t get snuck up upon. “I don’t want to know…” She said but she knew she was about to find out.
“There are no organs in this thing, everything has just melded into one large hunk of meat, no wonder they don’t go down if you stab them a hundred times they don’t go down… there's nothing vital in there!”
“Why do they go down if you cut down a limb then?” Twilight asked.
“I dunno, I think I’ll just take out a large chunk and we’ll move onto the next one.” Anne said.
Hearing a loud wet squishing sound made her cringe but the pony heard her friend get up with a groan. “All done, let’s get going.” Anne said.
Twilight turned around and grimaced at the state of Anne. The vest she had on was stained with the light yellowish green blood along with it dripping off the rubber glove and some on the stump of the missing one. A heshen sack was held over her back with her one arm, dripping with the same yellow liquid.
Sighing they went onto the next one.
“Have you gotten the meat?” The mutant asked as he turned away from the rusty switches along the wall.
“Will this do?” Anne asks holding up a large dripping wet sack to God.
“You're good at fetching... this should keep him where he belongs, for now. I'll wait... send the signal and we'll be ready.”
“So this is where I'm supposed to put on the show? Played better venues, let me tell you. What's that there? Wiring? Looks... looks like it's tied to the sound system in the Villa except for that snipped section there.” The ghoul stated as he looked over the edge of the rooftop the three were stood upon to the ground down below, pink cloud blocking out the end so it made it look endless. “So what? I stand here, hold the two ends in my hands and tap them together like cymbals?”
“That seems to be the plan.” Twilight said unsurely, grabbing Anne’s arm to look at the map on the Pip-boy to make sure they were in the right place.
Yanking her arm back Anne grumbled.
“Do you think you’d be able to that safely?” Twilight asked looking at the two sparking ends of the wires.
“’Safely’? That isn’t a word that comes cheap.” Dean stated as he straightened out his old dusty looking black suit. “Look... I strike up the speaker system, there's going to be ghosts all over this place. Any change in the sounds around here, the Ghost People are not big on talking they are big on listening. Hunting. Killing. More vicious than music critics, trust me.”
“Well what if we clear them out for you so they don’t come?” Twilight offered.
“No, you want to know why? Because there's more beneath the streets, in the buildings, and oh - everywhere else. They hear anything out of the ordinary, especially ‘music’ screaming through the speakers when I close the connection? They'll be here fast.”
“Well the Villa has holograms in that big fountain thing, would it have any more around we could use to distract them?” Anne offered speaking up.
“Well... yeah. If the Hologram systems still work that'd do the trick. Okay, all right, you call up some of those Old World stiffs, that'd be an audience I wouldn't mind having below.”
“Well that settles it, we’ll turn on the holograms and you can stay here.” Anne stated.
“If I remember correctly, there should be two Holograms you can switch on in the area... just don't remember how. Do that, and I'll consider waiting on the rooftop. Maybe.” He stated as he went over to a wall before leaning against it. “Chop Chop, before I change my mind.”
“Why couldn’t it have just been a switch that we could have flicked for that lazy ghoul?” Anne grumbled as they made their way back towards Dean where they left him by the wires.
“He isn’t that bad…” Twilight said softly, although even she knew she was lying when she said that, Dean was very abrasive.
Getting back up the stairs to the roof they saw as Dean sat against the wall smoking a cigarette. “Everything done with?” He asked dropping the butt to the ground before grinding the cinders with his old dress shoe.
“The holograms are hooked up.” Twilight stated, knowing her companion would have less favorable words that would have gotten the ghoul to do the opposite of what they wanted.
“You powered the Holograms up? Well... yeah, that's pretty good protection. Sure worked at the fountain, Vera kept the Ghost People away. But, uh... how do I know the power won't suddenly go out? And... I don't know, this still sounds risky to me. For me.” He stated.
“That will not be happening!” Anne yelled out pushing Twilight out of the way to point a finger angrily at the ghoul. “It has been running for hundreds of years and the one in the fountain still works so why won’t these ones? And have you forgotten that our lives are tied together?!” Anne yelled.
“Well… You have a point.” Dean stated. “I guess I can stay here for a little while. But if you think about going into the Madre all by yourself you need to think otherwise.”
“This looks a bit more complicated that I thought…” Anne stated rubbing the back of her head with a pistol in her hand.
The three, Anne, Twilight and the mute looked over the massive hall with broken electrical equipment piled up around down below the catwalks they were on with a thick concentration of the pink smog down below like a sea of death.
“Well I hope what we need you to do isn’t down there.” Anne stated kicking a bit of rusted metal to the pit down below.
The mute shook her head, grimacing at the prospect of maybe having to go down into the death.
“There must be a ventilation of some kind considering this place is underground, if we activated it we it would be safer to go through.” Anne noted.
“I could try to float one of you over and you could turn them on on the other side.” Twilight offered.
“Float me over princess, I’ll switch the fans on.” Anne said taking her bag off to make sure that she wasn’t as heavy to lift across the quite large gap.
Twilight took a few deep breathes to prepare herself before charging up her horn. A light surrounded the rubber covered woman, her body getting lifted up into the air before she started hovering her way across the gap. Everything was going well until two loud beeps in rapid succession filled the room and a turret that had long rusted away and barely looked functional flared to life and sent one beam of pink energy right at the pony before it exploded into a puff of old metal chunks and wires.
Letting out a cry of pain twilight recoiled as it struck her directly in the chest, causing her to get pushed over and leaving her fur scorched and flesh underneath an angry red.
Twilight’s eye went wide as she snapped herself out from the pain, just in time to hear a loud thud come from down below in the thick cloud.
“Anne!” Twilight called, about to dive herself down to try and rescue her friend but was yanked back by the mute before she could. “No! She’s still alive down there!” She yelled as she tried to pry the woman off her, tears building in her eyes.
The woman pulled Twilight to her chest, hugging her to try and comfort her as she broke down into sobs. How could Anne be gone? And all because of her? If she hadn’t even opened her stupid mouth this wouldn’t have happened.
A soft thudding sound could soon be heard after a minute coming from the other side of the hall, from the stairs that led from the heavy fog. Whipping her head around to look at it she saw a ghost person staggering their way up the stairs from the fog. She thought it was just another ghost until she saw the missing arm.
“Anne!” Twilight said, smile from ear to ear as tears of joy came from her eyes.
Anne didn’t say anything, just weakly waving before she staggered along the walkways and opened a rusted door before disappearing further into the complex and after a few more minute longer a loud humming could be heard along with a wind filling the air and the cloud faded away and left nothing more but a red stain on the rubble below.