//------------------------------// // Day 8 part 3 // Story: Dark Wanderings // by ed2481 //------------------------------// Edited by TacoTown Day 8 part 3 Supertramp was bored. So she decided to create a little art project. Now the statues of the Anchorage war memorial were decorated by severed raider heads. She would’ve preferred to use innocent people, but the only ones around were two sex slaves and a drunk idiot. Not that she had anything against killing drunks and sex slaves (she was an equal opportunity insane killing machine after all, and would never avoid someone because of their race, gender, physical appearance, or mental status. In her eyes they were all dead anyways so why worry about a little thing like the way someone looks?) but she felt like those people were miserable enough without her help. Besides, if she wanted to smell like beer and semen then she’d wait till she celebrated her victory with Burke, and then kill him… slowly… with her hand… She stepped back to survey her work. The once gray statues were now covered in blood and were wearing necklaces made out of the entrails of the raiders, while the bodies were piled up around their feet. Yes it was a good day to be Supertramp. *** “Alright. Cassie, you and Dusk are going to go to the roof of that building over there and take shots at her when you see an opening, or one of is about to die. Arcade you shoot her with the Pulse Gun, which will hopefully (although I wouldn’t count on it) force her to restart her systems. Meanwhile, Veronica, Shining, and I will keep her busy at close range while Sparky evaluates how things are going and occasionally hits her with the magics.” Ethan said, going over the plan one final time. “Ethan, please don’t refer to my magic as ‘the magics’.” Twilight told him with a frown. “No promises Sparky.” Ethan replied with a grin. “How about my sister goes with your wife? I don’t want her getting hurt.” Shining asked Ethan. “Shiny, I’m perfectly capable of defending myself.” Twilight told him sternly. “I don’t care Twily, you’re not fighting with us.” Shining said looking down at his sister from his greater height. “Yeah, um, no, I’m going to be fighting with you whether you like it or not, end of discussion.” Twilight replied. “Dammit Twilight, I am your brother and you will listen when I tell you that you can’t fight someone!” Shining shouted. “Both of you shut up.” Cassandra said stepping between the two unicorns. “You two are wasting our time. Shining, your sister will assist Ethan in whatever way she thinks she is capable of. You will keep your mouth shut and be thankful about it.” Cassandra continued, while staring into Shining’s eyes until he was forced to look away under the force of her glare. “Now get your ass in gear soldier!” She told him forcefully before walking over to where Ethan had stepped away and was now admiring his wife. “Years of dealing with the NCR?” He asked with a wide grin. “Yes, it does make you rather good at ordering soldiers around and the unicorn is definitely a soldier.” Cassandra replied with a smirk. Ethan gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “For luck.” He explained with a grin. Cassandra pulled him into a far deeper embrace, which left those around them looking away uncomfortably. “For life.” She said once she pulled away. “Well after that I’m definitely ready to keep on living.” Ethan replied happily with a smile. “If you two are done making the rest of us feel awkward about our lack of sex lives then maybe we could do this?” Arcade asked dryly. “I don’t know, I think we could fit some casual sex into this, what about you Cassie?” Ethan asked with a grin. “Ethan, I sometimes wonder why I married you…” Cassandra replied dryly, but the others could tell that she didn’t mean it by the look in her eyes. “Because of my raw animal magnetism of course.” Ethan replied with a large grin. “Yeah, that’s it.” Cassandra smirked. “Alright people, you know your orders. Dusk, you’re with me.” Cassandra said, before heading towards Dukov's Place. “Are you sure the owner won’t mind us barging into his hotel? Not that I really care, but I don’t feel like wasting the bullets.” Dusk asked, and Cassandra chuckled. “Don’t worry about Dukov, I’ll handle him.” *** Supertramp was lying on a bed made from freshly slaughtered mirelurk corpses when she noticed the sound of three pairs of feet (along with eight pairs of hooves) walking up the steps of the Anchorage War Memorial. With a sound that was a mix of an ecstatic squee and a feral growl she rolled to her feet. Ethan stood at the top of the steps, flanked by Twilight and Veronica while Arcade stood slightly behind them next to Shining. “You made it! Aww, I wanted to kill more people.” Supertramp said with a pout as she stepped forward. Then her gaze settled on Twilight. “Nice upgrades, although personally I think you would’ve looked better with stumps.” “Personally, I think that you would look better with your severed head adorning my horn, but we can’t always get what we wish for can we?” Twilight replied with a grim grin. “So are we going to fight, or are just going to exchange witty banter? Not that I’m not a fan of witty banter, but I really want to kill you.” Ethan asked. “I was waiting for you to ask!” Supertramp said excitedly as she drew her laser pistol and shot a bolt of dark blue energy straight at Ethan’s head. Before the bolt could travel all the way two magical shields popped up. Shining’s was in front, while Twilight’s was half a foot behind. The beam smashed into and splintered Shining’s shield, passing through without much resistance. But when it hit Twilight’s shield, the beam was redirected back at Supertramp who ducked just in time to avoid having to go to the trouble of healing a major head wound. “Twily?” Shining asked in confusion. “You can’t just block something like that Shiny, you have to redirect it.” Twilight replied. Meanwhile, Supertramp had unleashed another shot of her pistol, sending the beam of light arcing towards Veronica who dodged to the side, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid the beam completely. With a horrific sound the beam sliced through the right shoulder guard leaving a large black hole. Veronica was fine, but she had no idea how she’d patch that hole… Ethan opened up on Supertramp with his 12.7mm, sending wave after wave of ammo into the woman who came running at him, her own laser pistol blazing. The 12.7mm bullets slammed into Supertramp, causing huge holes to appear all over her body, but they quickly began to heal. Ethan had avoided the majority of the lasers, but one had caught him in the chest, carving a hole out through the back of his chest. Ethan grimaced in pain as his skin reknit itself and recovered in time, unloading a full clip into Supertramp’s head as she came in to engage him in close combat. The woman was thrown backwards by the force of the bullets, but landed in a roll and quickly regained her footing. Twilight shot a lance of fire at the woman, who absorbed the fire with a smile on her face, before firing a laser at Twilight who deflected it right back at her. Supertramp allowed the beam to slice through her spine, and smirked at the horrified look that overcame Shining’s face as her organs healed. Then with a loud laugh, Supertramp pulled her missile launcher off of her back and sent out a barrage of missiles at the group. Ethan ran forward, ducking under the missiles as they streaked towards the others and drew his shock sword. Two matching domes of magical energy shielded the rest of the party. This time with Twilight’s on top. The missiles impacted with a tremendous explosion that shattered Twilight’s shield, but Shining’s withstood it with only a ripple. Shining sent her a smirk, his sister may know how to deal with smaller problems better, but he was the one to call when overwhelming force was required. “Okay that’s it, unicorns are hax!” Supertramp shouted as she ducked underneath a blow from Ethan’s shock sword, and delivered an uppercut that snapped Ethan’s neck and sent him stumbling backwards. Ethan recovered, and sent out a blisteringly fast slash that cut deep into Supertramp’s arm. She let out a scream of rage, and sent Ethan flying with a punch to the stomach that succeeded in knocking the wind out of him long enough for her to grab him by the front of his duster and smash him into the ground with enough force to dent the concrete. “Any last words?” She asked as she pointed the laser pistol at his head. “Yeah, Arcade please shoot her.” Ethan said calmly. Arcade shot Supertramp with the pulse gun. The beam of bright blue energy enveloped Supertramp for a fraction of a second before it disappeared hissing into nothingness. “Did you really think that that would hurt me?” Supertramp asked as she looked down at Ethan. “Na, but I figured this would.” Ethan replied, just as a large 50. caliber bullet smashed into Supertramp’s chest, from which it sent out a small eruption of flames that coated the woman’s body, melting through her armor, flesh, and muscle. Supertramp flailed her arms in an attempt to stop the flames, but another bullet slammed into her chest, igniting another blaze. Ethan joined in, rolling back to his feet and sending a full clip of 12.7mm ammo flying into the woman. Veronica took the initiative and ran at Supertramp, delivering a powerful one-handed blast of ballistic fist to the face. Shining and Twilight added their own contributions in the form of blasts of energy that vaporized what little skin was left. The burnt body fell to the ground, clearly dead. “Well guys good work, that’s one less insane psychopath to deal with.” Ethan said turning his back on the corpse. Twilight let out a gasp and Ethan sighed. “She’s regenerating isn’t she?” He asked dryly and received astounded nodes from the rest of the group. Ethan turned around to find that yes indeed Supertramp’s burnt body was already regenerating itself and waves of silver liquid streamed across it, rejuvenating the destroyed flesh. Instead of waiting for the process to continue, Ethan shot the body with his 12.7, but it didn’t have much effect on the swirling silvery liquid, which seemed to ignore his efforts as it went about its work. “Ethan, what do we do?” Twilight asked hesitantly. “Keep killing her till she stays dead.” Ethan replied with a shrug before turning back to Supertramp, who was standing behind him entirely naked. “Hmm… it’s been awhile since someone managed to force a full on regeneration. I think I’ll actually have to start trying now.” She said with a wicked grin as her leather armor appeared again (apparently it to was made of nanobots). *** “Damn!” Dusk whispered from her vantage point next to Cassandra. The two women were lying side by side on their stomachs with their rifles poking over the side of the building. They’d just witnessed something absolutely impossible. Even Cassandra was shocked by what she’d seen, and that was impressive in and of itself. “He needs me down there.” Cassandra told Dusk softly. “Go, I’ll keep you covered.” Dusk replied fitting another clip into her rifle. Cassandra nodded, and took the most direct route possible. She quickly clipped her anti-material rifle to her back, steadied herself for a second and then sprinted off the building while her red hair glinted in the sunlight. She landed in a crouch and sprinted towards the battle with her automatic riot shotgun out and ready to go. Dusk returned her gaze to the battle looking down her scope to see how things were progressing. *** Ethan’s blade dug into Supertramp’s chest, but couldn’t seem to find any purchase and instead slipped out without causing any harm. She countered by unleashing a lightning fast series of blows to his chest, which sent him backwards, coughing. Supertramp lunged in for the kill, but was stopped by a sudden force blasting her off of her feet. She rolled back to them in time to see Twilight’s horn stop glowing and let out an angry battle cry before charging at the unicorn, only to run head first into Shining’s newly erected shield. To both unicorns’ considerable surprise, Supertramp pulled back her fist and smashed through the barrier with a sickening crunch that caused every part of her hand to disintegrate, before it began to reform seconds later in a cloud of silver. Supertramp continued towards Twilight, who quickly sent a wave of fire-laced force at Supertramp, which passed over her, covering the woman’s body with intense burns. But Supertramp ignored them, and continued on her way. Veronica came in from the side and attempted to uppercut the woman while she was focused on Twilight, but Supertramp pulled out her pistol and shot Veronica in the chest. The beam burned around halfway through the chest piece of her T51B, sending the ex-Brotherhood scribe stumbling backwards in pain as the heat of the beam burned into her breasts. “Ow, ow, ow, hey watch it, I need these!” Veronica shouted as she stumbled away into the waiting arms of Arcade, who stuck a super stimpack into the proper receiver on her armor. “Be more careful, we only have a few of these.” He admonished her before pushing her back towards the fight. Supertramp jumped forward at Twilight with a wicked grin on her face, but suddenly found herself held in midair in a magical grip. Twilight raised an eyebrow mockingly at the woman before smashing her into the ground and throwing her at Veronica, who punched her in midair with her ballistic fist, sending the woman flying into her own art project where she landed with a wet sound. “And it’s good!” Ethan shouted, running up behind Veronica and charging towards Supertramp who had nimbly risen to her feet with a wild snarl. Cassandra came up unnoticed from behind the crazed assassin and unloaded a full clip of dragon’s breath riot shotgun ammo into Supertramp’s back, causing her to be engulfed yet again in flames. “What is it with you people and fire?” Supertramp shouted as her flaming body ran at Ethan who unloaded another clip of his 12.7 into her with little to no effect. He dove backwards to avoid her fist as it whistled through the air where he’d been standing moments earlier. Seeing that her shotgun was just annoying Supertramp, Cassandra turned to her favorite weapon for support. Without warning she pulled out her light machine gun and opened up in a whistling hail of 5.56 bullets that drove through Supertramp and reduced her torso to a silvery mess as her nanobots repaired her. “Now you’ve gone and made me mad!” Supertramp shouted, and before either Ethan or Cassandra knew what had happened the woman had her impossibly strong hands around their throats. Supertramp’s arms had extended several feet in either direction, catching both the Wanderer and the Courier off guard. Cassandra struggled in the mechanical grip, but it was proving impossible and even her advanced body was beginning to lose the fight for life. Ethan was in the same position. Twilight and Shining Armor unleashed a barrage of spells but they all glanced harmlessly off of the woman. Arcade shot her with his plasma defender, but the bolt simply dissipated off of her metal laced skin. Veronica charged and slammed her ballistic fist into the woman’s face, but she only laughed and tightened her grip. *** Dusk frantically looked through her pack for another clip of .308. Things had gone to hell and it looked as though the impossible was about to happen. Ethan the Lone Wanderer (and insufferable asshole) was about to die. Well not if Dusk had anything to say about it! Her hand grasped onto another clip and she quickly retrieved it. To her surprise the clip had a sheet of paper attached to it. When the impossible is about to happen, and only a sniper can decide who wins and who dies, use this to make history. You have one shot, don’t miss. .W. Dusk stared at the note for a second before she tore it off and jammed the clip into the rifle. She brought the scope up to her eye and viewed the situation with the detached feeling of an experienced sniper. Dusk saw Ethan’s face beginning to turn blue, and Cassandra’s wasn’t far behind. the rest of the group where doing whatever they could to dislodge the woman, but nothing was having any effect. Dusk briefly considered letting Ethan die and then taking the shot, but she dismissed the notion, it wasn’t the Brotherhood way. Dusk lined up the crosshairs over the laughing woman’s heart, and pulled the trigger. The bullet exploded out of her rifle, and almost seemed to be howling in anger as it flew towards its target. *** Twilight watched in horror as the life began to leave Ethan, and the man began to slowly stop struggling in the woman’s cold steel hand. Then a sound like a thousand screeching phoenixes diving towards someone antagonizing their chick reached her sensitive ears. Supertramp noticed it a few seconds later. “The hell is that?” She asked before a bright light arced into her chest from on top of a nearby building. The bullet slammed into her chest, easily pushing aside the nanobots that rose up to stop it until it reached her heart, where it stopped dead before dissolving. A look of intense pain came over Supertramp’s face and she dropped both Ethan and Cassandra who fainted into unconsciousness. Then Supertramp began to scream. “What’s happening? I can’t hear my bots! What did you do to me?!” She screamed, a wave of orange flowing over her body, destroying any silver that it found along the way until every nanobot in or on the woman’s body had been destroyed. Twilight’s face became a wide, bloodthirsty one as she realized what had happened. She grabbed Supertramp in her TK and brought the woman over to hang in the in front of her. “I don’t have very long until the initial impact of the bullet kills you, but I think I can get my money’s worth.” Twilight told Supertramp with a bloodthirsty grin. Without another word Twilight ripped the woman’s leg off. Shining stood paralyzed in surprised horror. Twilight casually looked at the limb in her magical grasp before she brought the jagged piece of bone up to Supertramp’s eye. “There’s an old human expression, an eye for an eye. I’d say that it’s appropriate in this case.” Twilight said before she drove the bone into Supertramp’s eye. Supertramp’s body fell lifelessly to the ground, and Twilight looked at it impassively before spitting on it and walking over to Ethan’s body where she put an ear to his chest to listen to his heart. “Twily…” Shining said in open mouthed shock. “Let her be.” Veronica said, coming up behind him and pulling the stallion away. “But-” “Let her be.” Veronica insisted, her eyes hard. Shining sighed and did as the scribe commanded. Twilight took a stimpack out of her pack and pressed it into Ethan’s neck before pressing down the plunger. Out of her view Arcade did the same with Cassandra, whose white face immediately brightened as it regained color. Ethan however didn’t respond, and Twilight began to beat on his chest with her hooves desperately trying to revive him. “Dammit Ethan, don’t you dare die on me!” She shouted as she inserted another stimpack into the man. When nothing happened Twilight laid her head on Ethan’s leather clad chest and began to cry softly. “Geez Sparky relax; I’m hard to kill remember?” Ethan’s voice suddenly said. Twilight looked up in surprise to find that Ethan’s eyes were once again open, and a large smile was on his face. “Were you just playing possum?” Twilight asked softly. “If you mean pretending to be dead in order to get a reaction out of you, then no I wasn’t.” Ethan told her with a grin. “Goddesses dammit Ethan, you had me worried!” Twilight shouted but Ethan just gave her that infuriating smile of his. “I didn’t know you cared that much Sparky, but I’d just like to remind you that I’m not into that kind of thing.” Ethan told her, causing Twilight to snort with unexpected laughter. “So how’d we win? Because last time I was conscious it looked like I was going to be dead pretty soon.” Ethan asked. “That would be thanks to me.” Dusk said, coming up from behind them. “Then you have my thanks.” Ethan said as he rose to his feet and held out his hand to the woman, who clasped it in a grip hard enough to almost make Ethan wince. “How’d you do it anyways?” Ethan asked. “Magic bullet.” Dusk replied with an odd expression on her face. “What do you mean?” Ethan asked, with an interested look on his face. “I mean a bullet that I’ve never seen before appeared in my pack with a note telling me to use it to do the impossible.” Dusk said, handing Ethan the note. “It’s signed W.” Ethan murmured with a frown. “Do you remember anyone going near your pack while you were at the Muddy Rudder?” Ethan asked, changing topics. Dusk thought about it for a second before a look of realization crossed her face. “Now that you mention it yes, yes someone did! It was some blonde woman with really old looking eyes. I’m not sure how I forgot, because let me tell you that woman was beautiful.Not that I'm a lesbian, but she you don't forget someone like that even if you are straight...” Dusk said trailing off with an uncertain look. “Alright, someone is fucking with us.” Ethan said, turning to Twilight. “Yeah that sounds like the same person who sent the mercs after us, why would she give Dusk a magic bullet?” Twilight said, scrunching up her face as she tried to figure it out. “You had mercenaries after you!” Shining shouted in surprise (he’d just begun to get over the fact that his sister had torn off someone’s leg and used it to stab out their eye). “Yeah, it wasn’t a big deal.” Twilight replied with a shrug. “Not a big deal, Twily you had professional killers after you, how is that not a big deal?” Shining asked incredulously. “Well judging from how fast I killed them they obviously weren’t very good.” Twilight replied with a shrug. “I’m going to need therapy.” Shining said shaking his head despairingly. “I could do it, I’m certified.” Ethan replied giving him a grin. “No thanks, I’d probably be better off with Discord.”