//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Black Cat // by Rixizu //------------------------------// Scavenger hopped from hoof to hoof in his nervousness. When Bolt Cutter said he found several ponies to fight with them, Scavenger had expected three or four more ponies at most. Twenty-seven ponies huddled outside Bolt’s little hut. Most of these ponies didn’t look like good ones. Many carried angry expressions due to some mistreatment by the Stones, but he also found a hint of greed in the eyes of most of them. The Stones had a huge amount of wealth and these ponies wanted a piece. Scavenger had a bad feeling about this. Some of these ponies looked little better than raiders. The pure greed in Bolt Cutter’s eyes did nothing to ease his worries. If Boomerang and Brights weren’t standing behind him, Scavenger would’ve bolted. Bolt Cutter stood on a small wooden crate and cleared his throat to get everypony’s attention. “You all know why we are here, so I need not say much more. The plan is simple. We sneak up to the hotel and kill everypony inside.” “B-but s-some innocent ponies might b-be i-inside.” Scavenger said in protest. This would be a massacre. Bolt Cutter shrugged. “Not my problem. To avoid detection, we will travel in groups of five.” Everypony seemed to agree with the plan and broke up into groups as ordered. Scavenger found himself in a group with Bolt Cutter, Boomerang, Brights, and one other pony he didn’t know. The unicorn mare had a pink Mohawk and piercings on her lip and eyebrows with a beige coat. Her cutie mark had a buzzsaw on it with blood on the blade. Despite this creepy cutie mark, her name was Bubble Trouble much to Scavenger’s confusion. “Let’s do this!” Bubble said howling at the top of her lungs making Scavenger wince. “C-could w-we keep it d-down?” Scavenger asked. “T-this is a-a s-stealth m-mission.” “Naw, we can’t do that.” Bubble replied. “We need to strike fear into them so they know what they are up against!” She let out a howl again. “No, he’s right.” Bolt Cutter said with a sigh. “Please stick to the plan.” “Fine.” Bubble rolled her eyes. “But I’m yelling after we get into a fight.” “S-so, I-I have t-to ask. Were you a r-raider by a-any c-c-chance?” Scavenger asked already dreading the answer. Bubble broke out into a wide grin. "Yep!" “I-I s-see.” Scavenger replied lost for words. “My so-called buddies kicked me out!" Bubble said more than a little peeved. “Really, why?” Brights asked. Maybe she grew a conscience and couldn't do it anymore? “Would you believe they said we should stop hanging up our victim’s corpses on the wall?" Bubble replied. “They said some nonsense about health and safety. And they call themselves raiders? Ha!” Scavenger gapped. “W-what?” “I know right? They were only in it for the money. I like getting paid and everything, but what are we if we don’t mutilate our victims and display them for everypony to see?” Bubble shook her head. “Just plain old thieves that’s what! It isn’t just a display, but a piece of art. It’s the perfect canvas for self-expression. Painters have brushes, raiders have flayed corpses! It’s so obvious! Some ponies.” I’m walking with a mad pony. Scavenger told himself more than a little horrified. He gave Bolt Cutter a look, and the stallion shifted on his hooves uncomfortably. “We need all the help we can get.” Bolt Cutter muttered. “I suppose it was for the best.” Bubble said continuing. “Things weren’t the same after my husband died. “ “I-I’m sorry to h-hear that.” Scavenger said. He supposed even raiders had ponies they loved and cared for and he sympathized. The Wastelands were a rough place, and you took love and friendship where you could find it. “He was quite the artist.” Bubble’s tone became wistful. “He knew just how to hang somepony’s large intestines.” Nevermind. Forgot she’s a complete nutcase. Scavenger thanked the heavens above when Bungalow approached them providing the perfect distraction from this horrifying and unpleasant conversation. Bolt Cutter accepted the young stallion’s help with no question and Bungalow trotted behind Scavenger. “The safe still isn’t sealed.” He whispered making Scavenger sigh in relief. “They aren’t making much progress, actually.” He ran off wanting nothing to do with this fight at all. Thank Celestia. If only they knew Break’s condition. Please be okay Break. Not much had changed from when he first surveyed the inn from afar. It looked like they hadn’t even changed the guards. They looked bored and distracted. They eyed the ponies moving past them without too much interest. “This will be too easy.” Bolt Cutter smirked. “I have you now Tact Coat.” “Y-you n-never told u-us the s-signal.” Scavenger said. He gripped his double barrel shotgun that they gave him hard out of nervousness. “I have it right here!” Bolt Cutter aimed his gun at one guard and fired. The poor guard never saw it coming and a half of her head exploded horrifying the guard next to her after getting showered with gore. Shouts erupted all around them and their ally’s charged the inn from their hiding spots. The remaining guard was too slow to react still stunned by his friend dying and Bolt Cutter made quick work of her. Scavenger turned away in disgust just knowing this would be a massacre. He wanted no part of this and he moved with his real allies to the bank. Nopony noticed their departure, and they slipped away with ease. “What the heck is going on?” “It’s coming from over there!” “What? The boss is under attack? We need to get over there!” “Where did all these jokers come from?” The Stones made quite the ruckus and just as planned ran to their boss's rescue. The entire town became a war zone. They stayed out of sight of any incoming goons and kept their heads down as they made their way to the bank. Scavenger felt horrible. This whole situation had gone so out of control so fast. He didn't want this. All he wanted was to save his friend. All this bloodshed made him feel ill. Why didn’t he think of this when they came up with their plan? All that matters is rescuing Break. He told himself this repeatedly. Maybe if he repeated it enough, it might come true. Boomerang let out a laugh. “Success! Just as we thought!” When they approached the bank, it contained even less populated than they thought it would be. Just two ponies guarded the front of the bank and even then they looked conflicted about not joining the battle. “H-how d-do you w-want to d-do this?” Scavenger asked. Should they wait for them to leave, or gun them down right now? Boomerang shrugged. “It’s up to you.” “You are the boss.” Brights said looking at Scavenger for guidance. A million thoughts flew through Scavenger’s head. Should they gun them down and be done with it? Even the thought of doing that made him ill, but couldn’t afford to be squeamish. Break needed them now. “I-I guess we do it. Just try it without m-making much noise. W-we can't draw any attention to ourselves.” Scavenger said steadying his voice. He needed to be strong right now. A chilling laugh broke out all around them and they looked from the source of the sound. The guards looked just as confused and tense with nervousness. "Right here, big boys!" Bubble Burst jumped out behind some rubble and threw a grenade right at the feet of the guards. “What the? Run!” One guard said and tried to get out of the way, but the grenade exploded engulfing both them. “That was awesome!” Bubble laughed almost rolling on the floor. “Come out. They’re gone now.” Holy crap. She knows we’re here? They emerged from their hiding spot and eyed the former raider wearily. “W-what are y-y-y-y-you d-d-d-doing h-h-h-ere?” Scavenger asked. “Well, when you guys split up with the party, I had to know why!” Bubble replied. “I was right to do so!” Bubble motioned to the horribly burnt corpses of the guards. “Something fantastic must be in this bank if these guys stayed behind to guard it. There must be like a million bottle caps in there or maybe secret treasures like a super weapon of some kind!” “I-I see.” “Oh, and Bolt Cutter is probably dead.” “W-what?” Bubble scratched the back of her head. “He got impatient and charged the inn and got a nasty gut wound for his trouble. Pretty bad. Dead in about 10 to 15 minutes without treatment I think. Anyway, what’s in the bank? Tell me!” Scavenger gapped. He didn’t know at all how to respond to this. He looked at his friends and they didn’t appear to have any better answers. They couldn’t tell her the truth. She was a former raider for Celestia’s sake! “Just come up with something," Boomerang whispered. "W-well, you'll s-see." Scavenger said. “W-we saw how this p-place w-was p-protected a-and t-thought this is w-where a-a-all the bits are s-stored.” Bubble smirked. “How ruthless of you to use Bolt Cutter and his army as a distraction! You steal all the bits while the others are fighting.” She slapped him hard on the back. “I like you! Let’s check the place out!” She rushed inside with a sawed-off shotgun in her aura eager to face any opposition. Scavenger and the other walked in with more caution. They did a quick sweep of the area and found the building empty much to his relief. “Cement?” Bubble asked confused. She pointed at all the bags of cement around the safe’s door and Scavenger could only shrug in response. “Odd.” Bubble shook her head. “Oh well. Let’s get this bad boy open!” "Right," Boomerang said, "who knows what treasure's we might find in there?" “Right!” Brights said in a far too loud voice. “I’m sure there’s like a bajillion caps in there. We should open it right away!” Scavenger rubbed his temple. “L-let’s just get it o-open.” It turned out to be harder to open than expected. It required a terminal to open and none of them had something to hack it. The thing sat on a deck next to the safe and glowed a sickly green color in the almost complete darkness of the bank. The only light came from either the outside lights or the pocket light Scavenger carried with him. Scavenger cursed. If only they had Break’s PipBuck. “This is bad.” Brights said nervous. “How are we going to open this?” “Bombs would work, but I’m not sure where we could get ones powerful enough right now.” Bubble suggested. Why didn’t I think of this possibility? Scavenger thought. He had the skills to hack the terminal, but not with what he had with him. All his hacking tools were in his bunker a few miles away. The blinking password request text mocked them. “Obvious.” Bubble tapped the top of the terminal. “We guess.” “It could be anything!” Brights said. “M-more than t-three guesses wrong and i-it will lock u-us out.” Scavenger wanted to scream. They were so close and this damn computer stood in their way. “You’re over thinking this.” Bubble waved a dismissive hoof and typed in the word “password”. The terminal buzzed in the negative. “What the hay did you do that for?!” Brights said in a panic. Bubble shrugged. “Most ponies don’t pick good passwords.” “Password though?” “You would be surprised.” Bubble typed in 123456. The terminal buzzed in the negative again. “Stop that!” Brights almost screamed. “We have only one guess left now.” Scavenger’s mind raced. There had to be a way to guess the correct password. Maybe it would be something simple. In his experience with cracking terminals, the passwords usually were only a simple word. Bubble wasn’t wrong when she said “password” was a common password. Still, it could be anything. He growled in frustration. He hated this so much. "There's only one thing we can do," Boomerang said, "force Tact Coat to tell us." “W-what?” "Think about it," Boomerang replied, "Tact Coat runs a tight ship. I bet you 50 caps she knows all the secrets in her organization just in case. No telling when somepony might try to double cross her.” “Ah, but the problem is forcing her to tell us.” Bubble said. “I doubt she would tell us even under torture.” “W-We have to try.” Scavenger stomped his hoof on the ground to get everypony’s attention. “Either that or we find her accountant.” Bubble added. “It’s our best option.” Brights sighed. "I hate this plan. Now we have to go back to a war zone." “I know!” Bubble clapped her hooves together. “Isn’t it great?!” “I hope she gets herself killed too like Bolt Cutter.” Brights whispered to Scavenger. "The battle had been going on for some time," Boomerang said, “There isn’t much left of them.” They made their way back to the inn. It was a bloodbath. Scavenger wanted to hurl. The scene was like something out of a nightmare. Bodies were everywhere. Most of them appeared to be members of the Stones, but with a quick mental count, Scavenger identified almost two-thirds of Bolt Cutter's band were dead. Bolt Cutter himself slumped behind a garbage bin he used for cover. Just as Bubble said, he had a nasty bullet wound to the gut, and he wasn’t moving or even breathing. Despite this, the battle was far from over. Bolt Cutter’s rabble were taking pot shots at Stones hiding inside the building trying to pick them off whenever somepony became venerable. Rushing with numbers didn’t work, so they were wearing down the defenses instead. They were being attacked from almost all sides, but they didn’t let this deter them. Scavenger couldn’t tell how many Stones were still in the building, but he counted seven Stones outside. They used whatever they could find as cover. Three of them were using a broken down building. The others were either hiding using barrels or broken down air carts. Bolt Cutter’s rebels were using another broken down building that looked like it was barely holding together and just breathing on it would cause it to fall to pieces. Scavenger counted nine of the ponies left. One rebel poked her head out to shoot at an exposed Stones hiding behind a barrel and got shot through the head for her trouble. Judging from the angle of the shot, Scavenger guessed the shot came from a sniper from an inn's window. “Oh, um, how do you want to handle this?” Brights asked. After seeing that poor girl get her brain blown out, she was in no rush to put herself in danger and even Scavenger was having second thoughts now. “What the heck is that mare doing?” Scavenger asked. Bubble was sneaking along the ground almost crawling on her belly, but she moved like a dart and snuck behind a distracted Stone and grabbed him from behind. She wasted no time beating him to death. None of his allies noticed the sound. The gunfight drowned out the noise. She left there sight for a moment and reappeared shooting three ponies from behind with her shotgun. They didn’t even see her coming. She waved at them with a big grin on her face. "That solves one issue I guess," Boomerang said with a shrug, "let's help them finish the remaining Stones outside.” “Ambush?!” One Stone pointed at Bubble and opened fire on her. She ducked behind a window just in time and avoided getting hit. One rebel saw her opportunity and ran behind one of the crouching Stones who Bubbles had distracted with her unexpected attack. The mare was hiding behind a barrel and gasped in surprise when somepony attacked her from behind. The Stone got shot in the throat, but not before shooting her enemy back with a shot of her own. They both collapsed dead moments later. The two remaining Stones saw their terrible odds and ran inside the inn. This act caught the rebels off guard for the moment and they got to safety before their attackers could respond. They had no difficulty getting back inside with the door being little more than a thin shot up piece of wood. One rebel, a mare with a cream colored coat and strawberry red mane cursed. She gestured to Boomerang as he approached. Scavenger believed her name was Iron Coat or something. “Where the hell have you been?” Iron growled and aimed her gun right at Boomerang’s head. Scavenger hid behind a nearby sky car and Brights hid right behind him. “My friend lost the stomach to fight and…” Iron poked the barrel of her gun into Boomerang’s nose. “Not good enough.” For a terrifying second, Scavenger worried she might fire. She looked more than eager enough to do it. “I lost several friends because of you.” The mare continued. Boomerang winced when the barrel dug into his skin. “You have three seconds.” “It wasn’t…” Boomerang tried to say, but Iron interrupted him. “One second.” She moved her hoof towards the trigger. “There’s a bank vault we found we wanted to open.” Boomerang blurted out desperate to save his own skin. “It needs a passcode and only Tact Coat has it!” Iron stopped moving towards the trigger and thought on this. “Ah, I see. Was that your plan all along? Use us a diversion while you plundered their riches?” Boomerang screamed when the mare lowered her gun and shot right under his barrel almost hitting him. He shook in terror and couldn’t stop staring at the hole Iron’s gun made. “I should kill you, but I won’t.” Iron smirked. “Shooting you in the head right now would be too good for you. I think I have another use for you.” Before Boomerang could say anything, Iron threw a gun into his hooves. “Do your best to clear them out, won't you? Throw him inside." To Scavenger’s horror, two giant stallions followed her orders and threw Boomerang head first into the inn’s front door. “If you survive, consider your debt paid.” Iron yelled at him. “How could you do that?” Brights stared at the mare in horror. “The weasel deserves it.” Iron replied. They could hear gunfight coming inside the inn. Scavenger thanked Celestia Boomerang hadn’t died almost immediately and was holding his own. “W-we have to h-help h-him.” Scavenger said. Sure he had not known the stallion long, but he was a friend of Break’s and he fought to save her life. He couldn’t just abandon the guy. “No.” Iron replied and aimed her gun at them. Scavenger froze in fear. “We’ll wait for the firing to stop, then come in and help him.” “But he might be dead!” Brights almost screamed. Iron shrugged. “Not my problem.” “Talk about cold.” Bubbles said. “Can we go in already? We can’t let Boomerang have all the fun!” "Oh, we will." Iron promised. “Give him few. Scavenger looked back and forth between the inn’s door and the mare. So far the fighting inside hadn’t stopped, but who knew how long it would last. Scavenger wanted to run and help, but the mare’s gun made it clear. it would not happen. After a few tense minutes, Iron relented. “Still not dead huh?” Iron shrugged. “Oh well. Let’s go.” “Yes!” Bubbles jumped with joy and before anypony could do anything, she jumped into the inn’s door headfirst. Everypony stared at this mouth agape. “I just.” Iron seemed lost for words for a moment. “Whatever, let’s go in.” Scavenger tensed. He was not ready for this even a little, but he needed to do this. Maybe the fighting was almost over and they wouldn’t need to fight? Iron ordered them not to go in the front door and went around the back instead using Boomerang and Bubbles as a distraction as they went in the rear. The back door was locked, but one the bigger earth pony stallions broke it down with little difficulty. The wood wasn’t in the best shape to stop him. They found themselves in a corridor filled with inn rooms. Nopony was in sight. Iron ordered half of their group to split up and Scavenger and Brights ended up in Iron’s group. How wonderful. They wandered the corridors for what seemed like forever until they found a staircase and an elevator. “Bingo.” Iron said. “Knowing Tact Coat, she’s on the top floor. It’s the best defendable spot.” She motioned them to the stairs, and they crept up them trying to make as little noise as possible. The stairs were unguarded which wasn’t surprising considering the dwindling numbers of the Stones. They made their way to the third floor with no difficulty. There was nopony to greet them as they entered the third floor. This floor was not much different from the first one. It was your typical low rent inn with walls in bland colors, countless doors, and an ice machine. Scavenger realized an issue they were facing almost immediately. Tact Coat could be in any of these rooms. If the gang leader was smart, she would make sure it wasn’t obvious what room she was staying in. While under attack, she would make herself as hard to find as possible. They couldn’t check every single room and Tact Coat and her remaining goons would be sure to be heavily armed. Didn’t Break mention something about the Stones attacking her with a minigun? The gun could tear through these thin walls with almost no difficulty. He gulped. If they weren’t careful, the situation could go bad very quickly. “W-we should try not t-to make t-too m-much n-noise.” Scavenger whispered. “I-I think t-they m-m-might have s-some h-heavy w-weapons.” Brights went pale, but Iron just shrugged. The rest of her posse didn’t seem too worried. They continued searching the floor and found nothing. There were no guards guarding any of the doors. The whole floor was just empty. So empty it was eerie, and it gave Scavenger a bad feeling. Iron wasn't happy in the slightest at the lack of signs of their enemy. She wasn't too eager at the prospect of checking each room. All the rooms were locked, and they had no way of opening the doors without making noise. Even if they were skilled at picking the lock, he doubted they could do it without getting noticed. “Wasn’t a Stone sniping from the top floor?” One posse member asked. “Yes, but he moved around a lot and switched rooms often.” Iron replied. “Not sure how. Maybe they’re connected somehow?” “The shooting was from the north side of the building right?” The posse member said. “I say we check there and strangle him into telling us where his boss is. We might get lucky and find Tact Coat, anyway.” “Good idea.” Iron said. “There aren’t many rooms facing the north. I say we bust in them all at the same time. Sure we make some noise, but we will get the bastard.” There were four northern rooms, and they split up into groups for each one. They tried to pair a pony for each door, but they didn’t have enough for two for each door and they had one left over. Scavenger was the lucky one to get a room all by himself. The others were to come running if any trouble started. Scavenger gulped as he approached his door. It was hard not to think about how much his comrades didn’t care if he got himself killed. They put him alone because he was the most expendable. Scavenger wanted to turn around and leave but reminded himself of his mission. Sighing, he examined the lock. It wasn’t anything special. If he had proper tools, he would have this open in seconds. Time was good to the lock, and it was in great condition despite the years. The door wasn’t bad either. The door and lock might be a good salvage. Ponies underestimated how valuable a good door and lock might be. Come on focus. Pay attention. This minor distraction probably saved his life. A few seconds after he considered kicking the door down, there was an explosion. Scavenger’s ears rung from the proximity of the explosion. He ducked and covered his head too stunned to do anything. That moment everything went wrong, he looked to see a green maned unicorn come out of a nearby door and run towards the other groups. He had a shotgun in hooves and sniper rifle holstered on his back. Shots fired and ponies screamed. Scavenger poked his head out to get a look at the enemy and gapped. The unicorn had used the surprise of the explosion to ambush the other and they didn’t stand a chance. Four of his allies were already dead. Two were shot to pieces while they were recovering from the explosion. The wreckage of the explosion was horrible and there were the charred remains of the two poor ponies that tried to open their door. From the return fire, Scavenger saw only two other ponies that came up with him were still alive. They were hiding in a corner for the hallway broke into two opposite directions. The Stone used a room with a broken door as cover. Dear Celestia. What was he doing here? He wasn’t Break. He wasn’t strong like her. He could barely hold his gun straight. He wanted to fight back and take down this foe, but he was too scared and shaky. He worried he might end up killing the others by mistake. He put his gun to the side and put his face in his hooves and curled himself against the doorframe trying to become a smaller target. “Scavenger! Help!” Brights cried out. Indecision hit Scavenger like a wave. What should he do? Think what Break would do in this situation. He had a clear shot and all he had to do was stallion himself up and shot the thug as they poked out to shoot. Scavenger wasn’t even sure the pony had even noticed him. He forced himself to steady his hooves and fired when the stallion readied his shoot. It wasn't even close and destroyed a light over the Stone's head and it shattered raining glass on him. He yelped in alarm but got his bearings quickly. He backed into the room disappearing from sight. Great. Now what? Scavenger didn’t want to dive in after the stallion. There was a clanging sound and Scavenger yelped in fear and panic as a grenade landed next to him. He ran in the opposite direction grabbing the pineapple in his magic throwing it towards the window on the other side of the hallway. It flew out the window and exploded thankfully it didn’t blow him to bits. However, the whole building shook, and he fell to the ground in fear. He poked his head out of his hooves and his eyes widened in horror as he saw the barrel of a gun pointed right at him from the doorway the Stone disappeared behind. Scavenger rolled out of the way in time just avoiding getting his hoof shot off. He scampered away to get far away from the doorway forgetting his own weapon. Brights and Iron ran towards him gun at the ready. They approached the doorway with caution and Iron gave him a dirty look and kicked his gun towards him. She gestured towards the door with her head. Scavenger picked up his weapon and nodded. He had no clue if he could even do anything, but decided it would be best to follow this order. The order proved to be pointless. When they burst into the room, they found it empty. Stunned for a moment, they searched the room and found how he escaped. There was an open window, and the stallion took the leap to the ground below. It would be a little painful, but the jump didn’t look too bad. Scavenger thanked Celestia he hadn’t left more nasty traps for them. “You have got to be kidding!” Iron threw up her hooves. “So why didn’t he stay and fight?” Brights asked confused. “He just wanted to soften us up.” Iron spat on the ground. “Now he can get reinforcements at his leisure. Tact Coat wasn’t even on the floor. She might not even be in the building anymore. “ This was really bad. They had almost nopony left on their side now and who knew what happened to Bubbles and Boomerang. Not that Scavenger wanted Bubbles back, but they were desperate at this point. Brights looked down downtrodden and defeated. “Maybe we should just cut and run. Sorry Scavenger, but maybe your friend can’t be saved.” Iron stared at them confused. “What?” Brights didn’t seem to hear this and continued on. “We did our best. Break won’t have wanted us to die to save her. We should find Boomerang and leave town.” Scavenger understood the logic, but they had gotten so far and they were so close now to saving Break. They couldn’t just run now. “I know that look, and I don’t want to run either, but I don’t know what else we can do.” Brights said. Iron looked down at them with a haughty look. “I’m not leaving without Tact Coat dead. This is my best chance to get at her. You are coming with me. Refuse and I will shoot you dead right here.” Scavenger couldn’t nod fast enough. Brights followed soon after. What the hay was with this mare? He knew better than trying to cross her. “S-So what now?” Scavenger asked. Iron closed her eyes and thought long and hard about it. Scavenger felt tempted to make a run for it, but Iron pointed her gun at him as soon as he moved away from her. He swallowed and made a nervous laugh. “I wonder.” Iron trotted towards an elevator and hit the call button. A few minutes later there was a ding and doom flew open. She poked her head in and grinned. “Just as I thought!” Iron said. “There is a basement. That is where we are going.” “Why?” Brights asked. “If Tact Coat is still in the building, I bet she is really hiding in the basement.” Iron replied. Scavenger wasn’t so sure about this. “I-I don’t k-know. S-she c-could be on the s-second f-floor.” There was almost the possibility she actually was on the third floor and the sniper was there as a distraction. “We are going to the basement.” Iron made her point have no room for argument. Scavenger sighed and followed her down the stairs. Taking the elevator would have been stupid. Hoping they wouldn’t get ambushed along the way. This was such a bad idea.