Return to Sender

by Chemtest

Quests

He pushes open the hotel door as the moon rises.

‘Brown Dusk:

Find Deversorium after the sun sets.

Deal with the Manticore pack.’

He then starts to move towards the Everfree, his eyes quickly adjusting to the night.

He steps into the forest, his boots stomping down any foliage in the way.

———

Webs cover the ground and trees, a giant network of webs spans above. On them crawl spiders, who hiss and scatter from him as he shoves the webs out of the way. Webs can’t stop him, cannot even slow him down. If he could wade through blood and bodies stacked to his torso, then he can move through some webs.

Two spiders rush to the mouth of a cave, wearing light armor, and having spears attached to their sides. They hiss and stand their ground, even as they see the glowing embers of a cigarette grow closer.

He breathes in the smoke, and throws the last bit of the cigarette on the webs. A fire starts instantly, but some spiders come and stamp it out.

The two spider guards hiss at him, “Who is man-blood?! Why man-blood here!?”

The Courier smiles, “You know my species, do you?”

One spider guard takes a small step back, “Kin-blood on Earth-Realm, hear of man-blood and Great-War! Hear of Bull and Two-Bear!”

He nods, “Yeah, yeah, all that’s old news. Perhaps the better question is, have you heard of me? I’m the Courier, the one who sliced the heads off the Bear, and bathes in the blood of the Bull.”

The other spider steps forward, “Why Courier-Man here? Earth-Realm far away.”

He sighs, “Huh, sounds like you don’t know who I am. If you did, you would be running away or bowing down.” He pulls the revolver out of his pocket, “I’m here for the heart of your King.”

One spider guard laughs, “Venom-Fang not open to suitor-kin.”

The other one doesn’t take it as lightly, “Kin-blood, defend Spider-King!”

The Courier smiles, and fires off a shot at the guard. The spider explodes, and the explosion kills the other guard.

He then points the revolver at the trees, killing five spiders in one shot.

He fires four more times, until he runs out of ammo. He completed his objective, and can continue with what he has planned uninterrupted.

He takes a Molotov Cocktail out from his pocket, and tosses it onto the webs and trees.

The smoke immediately begins filling the air, and spiders screech as they are burned by the spreading fire. This allows ample time to complete the mission without being ambushed.

Spiders get in his way as he moves to the throne room. Yet all are dispatched. Either by revolver, grenade, rocket sledgehammer, or simply getting stomped on.

But all spiders stop as he finally enters the throne room, instead trying to flee the caves.

He enters, and only one spider is in there. One who is easily as tall as the Courier, and is as wide as three securitrons. It hisses, “I King Venom-Fang! You kill kin-blood, you will pay!”

The Courier shrugs, “Sorry, but I have a quest to complete.”

Venom-Fang bares down on the Courier, “Civilization, thousand-moon old! You come and destroy to finish quest!? Millenia progress! Gone because of you!”

The Courier points his revolver at Venom-Fang’s head, and fires. A good amount of the King disappears, and the Courier smiles, “Done it before, done it again. Bull, they deserved it. Bear, they did something to me. And Spider, well, you got in my way.” He plunges his arm deep into the dead King, and takes everything he can.

‘I Heart You.

Kill the Spider King and take his heart.

Give the heart to Hastam before morning, and cook it yourself.’

Something shines in the back of the room, and it appears to be a chest. The Courier loots the inside, and picks out quite the good loot.

A sword, perfect for Lilly. A fancy shirt with some family crest, very late fifteenth century looking. A strange looking whip, like some sort of morning star, maybe Veronica would like this. And last is a very sharp wooden stick, with some dried blood on the end of it.

The Courier looks at the initials on the chest. ‘T.B’ it says. He closes the chest, and moves to the one next to it.

He opens the other chest, labeled ‘the King’s treasurey’ and takes from the inside of it.

‘Red Dawn.

Kill a Timberwolf and take it’s blood.

Get the vial of blood stolen from the King to Hastam.

Blue Night.

Get the heart of a hydra.

Return the heart you stole from the King to Tectum.’

He smiles, and moves back through the caves.

When he exits, he can’t see the fire burning anymore. The running spiders must have stomped it out.

Yet, one sound does reach his ears.

The screaming of children.

His mind is suddenly overcome with pain and fear.

He grabs his head, smelling deep the smoke, and begins to scream.

Visions. Visions appear in his mind.

A town burns. People scream as the ones next to them are executed. Women, children, men, all are killed and left to burn.

But then another bang sounds out, one of the executors fall over. The rest all turn around, and quickly gun down the kid that just shot their comrade.

He shouts out, “You fuckers! You’re all going to pay for this! I’ll find you!”

They turn to face him. Their brown armor covers them, and a two headed bear stands proudly on front of their armor. They all laugh at the man, and shoot the woman next to him.

He cries, “You bastards are all going to burn in Hell! You fucking cunts are all going to die!”

The leader of the crew laughs, and nods to his comrades as they kill the last person, “Leave him alive. We’re going to make him suffer.”

They pour gasoline all around, and eventually throw a match on it. The entire town ignites, and they leave the man tied and bound.

The fire grows closer, and the man throws every insult he can against the NCR. But they don’t untie him, they don’t spare another word.

Smoke fills his lungs, and the screams of the children fill his head.

The Courier smashes his head against the trunk of a tree, finally snapping out of the vision.

He holds his hands up, and slowly takes his gloves off.

He was just trying to learn how to throw a grenade, right? An explosion gone wrong?

The burns on his hand don’t clear anything up. The burn reaches up to his wrists. It must be from a mistake, something when learning timing.

The screaming children continue, sounding more distressed than before.

He slips the glove back on, and rushes through the forest to their call.

‘Started: Platinum.

Find out what the visions are.

Save the screaming children.’