Fallout: The New Arrivals

Wyvorn smiled as he noticed the caravan, which was led by friendly ponies. He stayed quiet, letting Wild Card do the talking. After they were done talking, Wyvorn nodded and ran towards the wagon before murmuring "Damn right we're glad." He then sat down next to Wild before looking at the friendly ponies again. "Thank you kindly, indeed!" he said before releasing a small chuckle, knowing that going with this group instead of the other might have been a better idea. "Say.." he began and turned to Wild Card. "What about the others what went astray? Will we just leave them behind, or will we come rescue them later?" he asked while making himself comfortable in the cart.

"I'd prefer a bunker," Viridian comments to the nearby Verde, just loudly enough that their companions would be able to hear her. "One of those pre-war construction projects, like the one out near that military base where we found that functional CNC machine. Concrete, steel, and enough armor to bounce a high-penetration aerial weapon."
"That's still just a theory," Verde points out to her mother. "Like that old fragmented paper pile about Vault-buster missiles or something like that. Never seen a Vault that got it done so I doubt it was ever really a thing."
"Still, a wagon will be nice and letting the two-heads get their flesh stripped off instead of us seems like a smashing idea." Viridian looks to Wild as she climbs into the wagon near him. "So good show, old bean! I knew our confidence in your silver tongue and quick wits were well-placed. C'mon in dear, and remember that we'll need room to spare to carry along that Maker fellow."
"Ya mean the tower of virile stallion power?" Verde asks cheerfully as she climbs in right behind her mother and scoots in to give Wyvorn and others room. "I like the multiple-mind mare and the cute birdy more," she adds, clearly meaning to be heard by Wyvorn. "They've at least got something to say."
Viridian says. "Must you try to antagonize someone as potentially critical to our survival and well-being as our intrepid leader's friend?"
Verde looks towards Johnny and smirks. "Hate to break this to you, Mum, but I think that that fellow is socially armored like one of those main battle tanks in the blueprints room. I'm not sure that me running my mouth means a single buck to him, and I'm pretty sure he couldn't care less what comes out of my mouth, unless it's offensively stupid."
"Let's strive not to risk it." Viridian turns a stern look on her. "I much prefer to be safe than right."

Frosty blinked as the cazador went tumbling noisily down the hill. “Well… that’s convenient... “ She looked to Strawberry, who was holding in a cheer. “Nice shooting. Come on, the cache is right there.” She said. Frosty quickly made her way to the blast door, beckoning the others to follow. Strawberry was right behind Frosty as she opened the massive blast door just wide enough for them to get in. “Inside, everypony.”

When the others came over and entered, Frosty would shut the door behind them and turn on the light of her Pipbuck to lighten the cave. Strawberry would have her gun out still, in case anything was inside and hostile.

Star smiled at little Strawberry as she shot the Cazador dead. He then winced just a bit when it started tumbling down the hill and make quite the racket. "Uh...Yeah." He said as he quickly followed the two mares. He paused for a moment at the dead body of the Cazador just to stomp on it with his foot a few times. Sure he knew it was dead, but he couldn't help himself. He hated their guts. "Damn bugs." He muttered as he whipped his foot against the rocks before sprinting after the group. Once inside, he raised his fists and prepared to hit anything if it attacked him or them. He looked around quickly, watching everything for every single movement.

Tune limped his way past the bug, careful to not trip onto some other hidden cacti, smiling at Strawberry. "Yah, good shot." He said as he made his way past the entrance, slowly getting his ability to walk normally back as the began turning numb to the pain. "Celestia's arse I hate cacti."

When the Pipbuck revealed the interior Tune made sure to put his grenade back into it's sling, careful to not have any unwelcome surprises from the grenades pulling a safety pin by accident. He was in a weapons cache, after all. "Don't want this place blowing up." He muttered to himself.

As it turned out, Verde's words were getting to Johnny. Just a bit. He'd never liked this kind of talk, and now he seemed to have two pent up mares to have to put up with. Fun fun fun...
Giving Verde a quick and simple glare the large stallion slowly and carefully climbed up onto the cart, laying his hammer down on the floor for comfort reasons. He couldn't have it on his back, otherwise he'd have to lay down. Making his large form as small as possible, Johnny did not look very comfortable. But oh well, it meant not having to walk. Closing his eyes, the stallion tried to look asleep, when in reality he was trying to half doze, body asleep while his mind was still very much awake, and thinking. About the information on the notes, the prison, and who he had been beforehand. A mental restart as the drugs lessened in strength across his system. There was a lot of mental paperwork to catch up on.

The pendant in his pocket would activate when it needed to, when the storm hit, to shield them and the cart from the stinging sand. But the rune wouldn't last without shots of magic here and there, but Johnny could provide that when needed.

Strawberry and Frosty smiled at their find. “Well, even if those crates turn up empty, we have a safe place to rest for the night. I’d say that’s pretty good.” Strawberry said, going up to one of the sleeping mats and shaking some dust off of it. She then took a piece of firewood and put it where the campfire no longer exists. “Anypony got a match? Or a lighter? Or a couple of sticks and some good rubbing skills?”

Frosty set their blanket full of stuff down near Strawberry. “Nope. Nothing from me. Though if you do get a campfire going, here’s the food.” Then she turned the Pipbuck’s radio back on to see if she could pick up anything interesting-or anything at all-from in the cave. Lastly, she checked one of the wooden crates for anything in it, whether it be supplies or ammunition. While checking, she called out to Star and Tune. “Hey, could you two help check around for anything in here? Weapons? Armor? An actual fucking bag?”

"A safe place to rest for the night with mild annoyance from the buzzing cazadors outside, but safe nonetheless." Star said as he ears flopped down against his head. Oh how that buzzing was going to drive him crazy. But if he focused on something else it might be bearable. He blinked at Strawberry when she asked if any of them could make a fire. He shrugged at her. "Eenope. Give me a gun and a target and I'll shoot it. Give me two sticks...And I'll beat the crap out of the target. But I did know someone that told me about how to make a fire. Didn't pay much attention really. Though they did say something about tinder." He shrugged again before looking at Frosty. "Aye." He walked over to another crate and cracked it open, looking over it's contents.

"Oh hyu know, dey hyus-hyual dinks," Jäger said as he sat in the cart and it rode onward. "Shure vas a luckeh break runnink into hyu lot," he continued while looking about and listening to the various introductions going about. "Dey namesh Jäger," he said with a gesturing point to himself. "Ish a pleashure to meet hyu," he concluded and then resigned to silently ride in the cart as it went on. He kept eyes and ears open though, trying to listen to the sounds of anything outside the current group and the winds of the incoming storm. If he wasn't addressed, Jäger would continue to simply and quietly ride in the cart until his stomach started to rumble a little. "Does hanyvone haff sometink to eat? Hy didn't get breakfasht dis mornink?"

Wild Card nods to Viridian politely and with a smile at her compliment of his speech skills, and then shrugged at Wyvorn's question, honestly not having much of a clue himself but feeling that he needed to come up with something quick. "Well, I'm sure they'll be alright. I mean one had a pipbuck and those things come in pretty handy for survival. They also seemed pretty well armed, though I'm not too sure about that keeping them for long, ammunition is kind of necessary and such. Either way, they should be fine. Hay, we may even see them again. It's a small wasteland, as they say." "Who says that?" "They." "Who's "They"?" "I don't know, they're just They, I suppose..." He said, trailing off at the end as he argued himself into a corner.

Wild then chuckled at what Verde had to say about Johnny, who he quickly glanced at an could see was a tiny bit annoyed with her, though luckily not enough to have a hammer thrown at anyone. "Well Johnny is used to having random crap strewn about vocally. He sticks around me for starters." "That is not the best thing to say..." "Shush. But anyway, all serious face now, Johnny's pretty calm with all that stuff, helps that he beat the shit out of those radroaches to begin with to be honest." He said happily to the mares, before turning his attention to the two ponies who had so kindly given them a lift.

"Nice to meet you, Mr Bull, and you as well, Mr Whistle. I am Wild Card. As for what we're doing, well, we're not too sure about why we happened to be in this area. We all sort of... just were. I for one want to find out why we all are here, though finding a place to search for answers first is going to be difficult I think." The pegasus answered plainly, taking the time sitting down to root through a few more of the pockets of his Duster to see if anything else was there while also taking out the deck of playing cards he had put into one of them for the journey, depending on the other people's moods, to either play by himself or with the others in the wagon.

Wyvorn blushed when Verde called him a 'cute birdy' and he smiled at her in response while trying to hide the said blush. "C'mon now, those silly names can be used later, can't they?" he said and chuckled as he watched the huge stallion place his weapon in the middle of the cart and climbed up himself.

"I hope you're right..." the white griffin responded to Wild and sighed. "They seemed like a nice bunch, it'd be a shame if we lost them." He then listened to merchant and traveler's introduction.

"My name's Wyvorn... Wyvorn Whitewing. It really is a pleasure to meet you, Lily and Slide... Hope you don't mind if I call you by your first names.. Anyway, I don't really know what to do just yet, so for the time being, I'm just following Mr. Card here. Watch for opportunities and all that, but seeing as what happened to this place, I doubt there'll be many, so the probability of me following Card is currently rather high." he finished as he looked around. At that moment the griffon would be up for anything that passes the time before they reach their destination.

"Ach, I once knew a fella who could make a fire out of nothing but 2 stones and a stick. That was a long time ago though... Don't even remember his name." Tune remarked as he started searching around the crates for something that might help them start a fire. "Come on, there's gotta be a lighter around here..." He said as he went to yet another crate and opening it.
"I'd rather not have to start a fire with our gun's muzzle flare. Ammo is a bit tight. Though hopefully these things have something to help us out on that front."

In the back of his head, he thought that maybe the next time they went out, he could throw the cactus that stabbed him in the foot at the Cazadores if they tried to come after him and his friends when they decided to go back out into that wasteland. "Give em a taste o'their own medicine. Sure, they didn't put that there, but they might as well have. Damn bugs."

Star blinked at the vests as he opened it. "Huh?" He had on a confused face as he just continued to stare. Soo....This was just a crate full of vests...Surely there must be more to it! He huffed a bit as he started to move the vests aside to look under them for anything. His eyes lit up as he spotted the revolver. He quickly picked it up and aimed it at a corner where no one was in the way. He grinned silly as he laughed a little. "Yes! Now this is something I can work with." He then took a moment to check how much ammo was in the revolver and grinned even more when he found out it was full.

He lowered the gun and looked back at the other ponies with him to see what they found. "What'd you guys find? I found lots of utility vests and a gun." He said as he leaned against the crate for a moment. He looked at the other crates that were still closed and shrugged. He walked over to another crate and opened it to see what was inside. Maybe another gun? Maybe some more ammo from his new magnum? He was really hoping for ammo.

"Sweet mother of Celestia..." Tune said as he slowly lifted a can of food he found in the crate.
"CANNED BEANS!" He let out as he held it reverently... Before he burst out laughing.
"And matches. Aye, this crate is full'o'the good stuff. Looks like there's a tent and some utensils here too." He then inspected the erectable cloth that would shield from outside elements. "Looks like it only fits two, though..." He tossed the box of matches to Strawberry. "Here, that should get us a fire going." He said as he inspected the cans. They seemed to be undamaged and unlike the other ones, this one wasn't surrounded by creepy-crawlies. He then took out the tent and spread it in an open area, looking for the supporting sticks. "If nothing else, this can work as a bag when we don't need it."

Despite the blatant size issues Jäger beheld as he looked at the collection of clothes dropped before them, he still shifted about a couple for a moment of two with his flesh and blood arm. With a little digging though, he saw something that made the monstrous being's face spread in a wide and disturbingly gleeful grin full of sharp, pointed, and not quite meshing together teeth. From the assortment of clothes, he withdrew an old military service cap. A little dinged up, rough around the edges, but the emblem on it shone fairly well. Closing his eyes as he savored the moment and motion, Jäger slowly lowered the acquired hat onto his head, and once it was on he'd flash a happy grin to all around him. "Dere ve go, hy've got ah hat again," Jäger said still obviously very happy by that fact. Then he leaned back in the wagon as it rolled on, tipping the hat down so that it covered some of his face, or at least his eyes from the harsh sun, apparently going on with the notion of sleeping on the way.

Viridian and Verde look at one another, visibly struggling not to smirk as Wild has an argument with himself about the phrase 'they say' attached to random sayings.
"You know, I've always wondered that myself," Verde says after one of the voices trails off at the end. "I mean, there's clearly a 'they' and this 'they' clearly likes to dispense and pass along morsels of faux wisdom entirely at random, but no one seems to have ever met them. Clearly, this 'They' is a really clever chappy and amazingly charismatic if she's gotten all the world to endlessly repeat her too-clever-by-half musings without really thinking about it. Even better, she's totally anonymous so no one can blame her by name for something 'They' says that's really dumb and since 'they' is so generic, the 'they' that is being blamed is whomever the blaming party has in mind when they blame."  She pauses and grins at Wild. "'They' is my new hero."
Viridian eyes her daughter as Verde chatters on the matter before looking to Bull and Whistle. "A pleasure to meet you as well, Mister Whistle, Mister Bull. I'm Viridian Rain and this is my daughter, Verde Tin. It happens that our party is in this area because a series of unfortunate events led to us ending up in the abandoned lock-up near where you picked us up. Robbery and assault and all of those unfortunate wasteland experiences that you no doubt hear about all the time."
"Oh, hey, threads!" Verde exclaims happily, barely letting Jaeger pick out the cap from the bag before she started digging in. "Hmm... ugly... shapeless... roughly-made..." She looks up to Slidewhistle and Bull Lily with a sincerely appreciative smile. "Awesome stuff, thanks! Brings back some fantastic memories..." She pulls out a loose shirt and a pair of rough and roughly-worn pants and immediately starts slipping out of the prison orange, somehow managing to do this without doing much more than lightly brushing against other occupants.
"VERDE!" Viridian looked aghast as her daughter's rapid progress uncovered the extremely plain bra and panties that look like the standard-issue prison underthings they are.
"Ain't nothing they ain't seen before, Mum," Verde says cheerfully as she tucks the jumpsuit under her and pulls on the shirt. "Ain't something they ain' gonna see more of," she adds as she pulls the front tail of the shirt up and tucks it through the front of the collar, converting the old clothing that would render her practically shapeless into something that bares a very trim midriff and pleasantly emphasizes that she might be on the slightly small size of the curve spectrum but still has a lot to offer.
Viridian groans and facepalms. "At least be practical!"
"I'm planning to be," Verde says as she maneuvers the pants up her legs and over her hips. "But since we're not going to be exposed to the elements here--you two are awesome, Mister Bull and Mister Whistle--I might as well have a bit of fun like this." She scoots a little to free the jumpsuit. "Knife?" When handed the knife by Viridian, she starts cutting long strips out of the jumpsuit and begins fastidiously braiding them into what is clearly intended to be a belt of sorts when she's done.
Viridian shakes her head in exasperation and pulls the bag closer to herself, rifling through the collection until she finds something that looks like it's the dirtiest and ugliest stuff but also, quite heavy and durable. Unlike her daughter, she takes the clothing and rolls it up into a tube of sorts to wait for an opportunity to put it on with at least a semblance of dignity. "If you don't mind the question, Wild Card, how did you come to meet and befriend a gentlestallion of Johnny's impressive... talents?" She smiles. "I should like to hear of it over some casual solitaire or something else of pleasant mindlessness... I'm afraid I've nothing to wager in an actual game of cards and I suspect that a stallion named Wild Card has some special talent in the area of card games."
Verde, meanwhile, turns to look at Wyvorn, sitting at just the right angle that he could see slightly more of what's sort of covered than someone looking straight on at her. "Silly names are appropriate for every occasion, up to and including funerals, and cause me no end of amusement. So it's always time for a silly name, or general silliness, especially if we're all about to die horribly because if you're going to buy it, buy it happy."

Wild Card started shuffling the cards in hand with surprising speed, using several different techniques to shuffle them but making it all seem fluid and effortless. He gave a nod to Wyvorn and started dealing out a few cards for a game of poker. "Hope you know how to play poker. And yeah, stick with me. I'm planning on heading to Las Pegasus anyway, just to see what has happened there without me." "It's always good to have friends with you, even if it is just for conversation and another gun to ward away beasties." He said cheerfully to the griffon.

The pegasus then chuckled at Bull Lily's question about Jäger's speech patterns. "He said his name is Jäger, and that it's a pleasure to meet you." He responded happily, before giving a large grin to the hulking monstrosity of flesh when he got his hat. There was an amusing tone to the sight of the large, imposing and distorted creature being happy about headgear, and it simply made Wild chuckle to himself. "He also asked about breakfast and if there is any food available." He added.

Then Wild saw the clothing put in front of them, and his eyes shone as he spotted something very, very nice. Listening to Verde talk about "They" with an amused expression on his face, the stallion rummaged around to pull out a smart shirt, black trousers and a black belt that looked like they was once a part of a suit, though the jacket and any ties were nowhere to be seen. He put down his cards and quickly started to change out of the vault clothing - having to take off the duster and gun holster to do so - and got into the clothing he had picked out. Sure it wasn't the whitest of shirts, nor the best looking, but that just made it not look too out of place when coupled with the duster he put back on, the gun holster soon after as well. "Ah... I guess we could keep the vault-wear for makeshift bandages or something if we get hurt." Wild said idly, picking his cards back up and mentally smiling at the sight of them.

Though during his own clothing change, he did happen to notice Verde doing the same thing, which certainly sparked a few thoughts in his minds and caused one of them to take a mental picture to keep. "How'd I meet Johnny? Well, Las Pegasus was where we first met. In one of their casinos when I decided to have a go at making some money from it. After winning a lot, obviously the guys working there accused me of cheating, and the guns were drawn on me. Fortunately though, Johnny over there was fixing a bunch of their slot machines nearby, and given the fact he's got a keen eye for detail and doesn't much like it when bits of brain and blood are over the carpet when it shouldn't be, he vouched for me. After some time, through persuasion and being searched for any hidden cards, of which there were none, I was finally allowed to leave with my winnings, though they didn't want me back for obvious reasons. After that, I guess I just kind of became friends with Johnny." He said to the mare with a smile. "It helps to have a friend who can not only vouch for you, but can look intimidating at the same time." Wild joked with a small laugh.

Griff nervously chuckled at Verde's sight during dressing and after, as he had a pretty nice view on her. However, he attempted to not pay it much attention, even if she was sitting right next to him. He focused his attention to Wild, who dealt his cards for poker. He lightly frowned at the cards he got, and when Wild put his cards down to get some of the clothing, he did too.

He reached into the bag and pulled out a long blue scarf and a dark brown coat with pants of equal color. He made sure to dress up swiftly, putting the prison jumpsuits on the side for the bandages, as Card suggested and picking his cards back up, again frowning at their sight. "Well, since we don't have any cash, we'll play without it." he said and waited for other cards to be put down.

Bull Lily nodded at the strange group as they mostly talked amongst themselves; considering they were out in the middle of nowhere, it was good to see that some folks still had the sense to band together in times like this, especially when the princesses were no longer around to teach how important such values were to ponies. Bull Lily was old enough that he could still remember when the disappearance of the princesses was fresh in the minds of many.

Bull Lily pulled himself up into the front of the wagon when Verde and the others began changing, giving them some privacy. On the outside of the wagon Slidewhistle let off a few rounds of his shotgun, scaring off what looked like a small cluster of giant ants; a sickening squishing sound confirmed at least a few of the shotgun shells had found their mark.

It was almost dusk by the time the group reached a large, circular collection of not so much walls but simply mountains of junk metal and random garbage piled high in a rough circle shape; just outside the rough circle of junk there was a small shack that may once have been a snack bar which now was being used to organise a series of wagons and travelling caravans.

"Here we are folks." Bull Lily announced as Slidewhistle stopped the horses. "Junktown; like the name implies, it ain't the prettiest place, but wherever you're looking to go, these folks can get you there, or at least close." He assured them as he jumped down from the wagon. 

Slidewhistle approached the back of the wagon and gruffly pulled several bags out of his pouches, handing them one each. "Five hundred caps each." He grunted through the gas mask, ushering for them to get out of the wagon. "Those caps will take you as far as Las Pegasus or get you a room for a week." He said simply, before wandering off along with Bull Lily to a unicorn standing near the shack; the unicorn in question had a long dark brown mane and a white coat that looked impeccable, his power armor was painted golden and had an orange emblem of the sun on it.

By the shack there was a listing of various towns and the routes to them.

((A list of the towns available:

Las Pegasus: Self explanatory, ruled by the four Casino Lords, ponies made powerful by their connections. Going here will allow you to explore the main plot along with side quests.

Ponyville: one of the few standing farm communities, always looking for workers to protect them from raiders. Going here will allow you to pursue the main plot.

Fillydelphia: A city which has cordoned off a small section of itself as habitable, the rest is overrun by Deathclaws. This is a city for side quests.

Ale Aces: A town of mercenaries and drunks. Going here will allow you to pursue the main plot along with side quests.

Camp Everfree: A large camp ground for travelers and merchants. This is a town for side quests.

Junktown: You are here. You can advance the main plot.))

As the sound of the cazadores got louder, some panicked yelps and footfalls could be heard as well. Soon, unicorn, carrying a smallish gun, came over the ridge. It was hard to tell exactly what colour they were, though, considering they were covered in...dust...

They soon seemed to spot the opening in the rock, saying something inaudible to themselves before galloping for it.

Jäger had lightly dozed through most of the trip as none had seen fit to address him, though he showed no issue waking up almost as soon as the carts had stopped, springing to standing and smoothly hopping out of the transport. Once there, Jäger stretched until bones cracking and popping could be heard right along with the strain of the mechanics in his prosthetic arm and wings and the content sighs that escaped his maw. "Dank hyu fer dey ride," Jäger stated before he was handing the bag of caps which he regarded curiously. "Und dank hyu again, hyu ish nishe poni," he said before looking about his new surroundings.

"Vell dis ish ah jange ov shcenery," he went on looking about the cobbled together shops and their wares. Then Jäger's eyes fell on the map and he took a couple steps so he could get a better look. "Hmm, vhere do ve vant to go?"

"Intimidating is certainly the word for him," Viridian says with a returned smile. "I'd personally call him 'impressive' and leave it there, for there appears to be quite a bit more to him than simply being tall, powerful, and projecting threat without actually threatening. That talent with making things, for example, is difficult for me to fathom--and I've seen quite a bit of this insane waste as I and my daughter have gone from place to place."
"Yup, seen quite a bunch," Verde adds as she somehow squeezes her way over to perch just behind her mother and slightly up on her knees so she can look over Viridian's shoulder. "Giant bugs, small silly lizards exploded into big and silly and a whole lot of threatening, and something that looks like it was made to be the top of the food chain but some half-wit let it off its leash. At least Johnny seems to be a mad experiment that worked perfectly and won't squish us for looking at him funny."
"He still might if you continue to speak so loosely," Viridian tells her dryly, sweeping up her dealt hand and examining the cards. "Yanno, funny thing about being out in the wastes for long enough and not being really into casinos in the first place... knowing buck all about cards from the start and then losing what you have over time."
Verde leans slightly around her mother and points at a trio of cards. "Those are good. You should keep them. Have him hit you for the rest."
Viridian looks over her shoulder at her daughter. "I'm not quite sure what would be accomplished by him hitting me, dear."
Verde sighs. "Poker term, mum... it means you put down the cards you want to trade in and he deals you two more to replace them."
"Oh." Viridian frowns, shrugs, and puts the two that Verde didn't point at face-down and slid them towards Wild. "Hit me then, I suppose."

When they arrive and disembark, Verde slips around her mother and jumps out before either Wild or Viridian can and turns to offer a hand to whomever might need it to get steady, although if Wyvorn is the one out, he might get the feeling that Verde's purpose in offering the hand to him is more along the lines of touching him in some way rather than being helpful. As her mother gets out, she grins. "I'm getting a feeling why casino goons wanted to make pulp out of that stallion's face," she says as Viridian tucks her selected clothing under an arm and looks for a place to change. "Every single bucking hand. I mean, who draws a high royal flush right out of the deck with out cheating?"
"Out intrepid leader, apparently," Viridian chuckles, seeming to be completely unbothered by getting her flank kicked by Wild. "It doesn't matter, we've nothing to bet, he has nothing to bet, so the game was just fun and a learning experience. Now, I'm going to get out of these clothes and into better ones, and whomever wants to keep all the things presently protruding off their body intact won't follow or cop a look." She walks off to behind a building to do just that, making sure whatever light there is falls on the fact that she's pulled out her knife and is keeping it in hand.
While her mother changes, Verde wanders up beside Jaeger and looks up at him. "Vell, vey shertinlay vant a jange o' shcenery o'er dis heap o' junk, nishe as er tis. Ah tink..." she looks over the map thoughtfully "...dis E'erfrey place. Oocha tink?"