Fallout: The New Arrivals

Jäger was a little surprised when the big pony stepped up between him and Wild. "Damn, shouldn't have been paying so much attention to that other one," he thought to himself as Razor made her announcement. It was an almost insulting, paltry sum compared to what he'd have gotten if he'd just bothered to turn in Wild himself, but when she flipped Slidewhistle over and snapped his arm, that got his attention right quick in a very curious way, the tight leather was just a bonus. But damn it all if he was going to be shown up by her little demonstration of martial prowess and strength, even as sexy as it was. She'd done more talking to Jäger with that one move than she had with every spoken word, and to him it was by far enough to warrant a reply of the most romantically sophisticated manner he could think of on the fly.

Now when making a monster for war, one can't just create something terrifyingly strong and durable, they need to teach it how to properly use such destructive capabilities to their fullest capacity, otherwise it'd be a waste of money. That was something the scientist, officers, and other beings that had presided over Jäger had wanted to reduce as greatly as possible, so when it came to trying to grab the big pony by a combination of whatever he was wearing and the strap that held the Auto-Ax, bringing his metal prosthetic arm about in a powerful punch thrown at the face to stun him, followed by an attempted strong kick to the back of the knee to knock out his balance, before trying to hoist him up and over Jäger, only to be thrown at Razor, it was almost like a trip down memory lane. Sure none of this was likely going to be lethal, but it would be one hell of a demonstration, And if the strap holding the Auto-Ax happened to come loose in his throw and either end up on the ground where it wouldn't be a problem, or in his hands to where he could offer it to the mystery mare as one would offer a flower to another, all the better. To top it all off though was nice, sweet, romantic comment as he tried to throw the brute.

"LIKE HELL SHVEETHART!" he bellowed out with a toothy roar. "Ah, nailed it," Jäger thought to himself as the roar shifted to a slightly lovestruck grin.

"250 would be fair trade if not for two salient facts," Viridian begins to say, just a moment before Jaeger chooses to conduct his demonstration. In reflexes born of slinging guns as well as running guns, she reads the direction of Jaeger's intent and just as he pitches the unfortunate stallion at Razor, Viridian steps in, bodily grabs the mare, and hauls her back out of the wall of the involuntarily mobile thug, and then lets her go. "Would you cut that the buck out?" she demands of Jaeger. "Save the theatrics for when things get really bloodily violent!" She looks at the no-doubt very pissed (or surprised, possibly) Razor and smirks. "Which should happen in about five more seconds. If you'd leave the teeth in, I'd be really grateful; hard to get good dentistry out here."
While her mother is yanking Razor out of the way of the projectile that Jaeger has created, Verde slips a hand down to where she has a knife in a not-very-concealed location and steps over to Bronze. "So... borrowing him. Borrowing him as in, returned in one piece and just as multi-personality as ever, or borrowing him as in, you're not planning to give him back? Because I've got to admit Miss Bronze, ma'am, that violence is a helluva lot less efficient than a quick exchange of words and some fast bargaining. Wastes a lot of time, blood, and effort. Plus opportunity costs, if you understand my meaning." She smiles pleasantly. "I'm sure an arrangement could be made whereby you keep your bits and get extra warm bodies to make your borrowing of Mister Wild Card all the more efficient."

Wyvorn slowly backed away as the bandits came to 'bully' Wild. 250 bits seemed a nice price, but not for a friend. The griffon looked in shock at he saw Slidewhistle point with his gun and pay the price with a broken arm, making Wyvorn cringe. He pondered his options, take 250 bits or end up with a few broken bones of his own. He was not a good fighter, as he usually attacked from behind or above, usually in a way where his target would be subdued or dead before it managed to fight back, and this was not one of those moments. He waited on others' decisions before making his own, and as he saw Jäger toss the biggest pony of the group at the bullying mare, and Verde distracting the other mare, he took the chance and as secretly as he could went for the magnum that Slidewhistle dropped as his arm cracked. Sure, it wasn't a gun of his style, but better that than no gun at all. When he was sure that all three of the thugs were occupied, he dashed in, grabbing Wild by the collar and pulling him over the nearest wall into the cover, opening the magnum to check how many bullets were in it. "I'd say things got pretty nasty pretty fast." he whispered to Wild.

Wild Card, while not always being the most perceptive, could most certainly sense the larger pony standing behind him, and he could guess that this pony was armed with something or other that wouldn't be too fun to have swung at him. Slowly, the pegasus lowered his hand, keeping it in direct line of sight of the tall mare in front of him just to stop her from thinking he was going for the gun at his hip. All the while Wild's minds were running about in his head panicking, well, some were. Others were sitting calmly and assessing the situation before knocking some sense into those flailing their arms about.

'Look, we really can't get out of this one, so we're just going to have to hope that our new friends don't ditch us for that money offered.' 'I don't like trusting others, they're not us. At least with us, I know what you'll do. Credit for instance would certainly let us be taken away.' 'No, I'd say three hundred and then it's a deal.' Wild thought to himself as the group of... mercenaries? talked around him, and when the tall mare in front of him called him little, he had to slap another of himself mentally for thinking of a rather inappropriate retort to say at this point in time.

'Two salient facts?' Wild thought, wondering what exactly they were and hoping later to be in a situation where he could ask. Then things happened rather quickly. He could feel the looming presence behind him disappear, he heard Viridian scold Jäger but then in the midst of it all his collar was pulled and he was dragged over a wall. Automatically he assumed it was the one who had called his attire ridiculous - and while it didn't really match right now it was all he had and it had pockets - thus his first reaction was to just curl up a little and keep his head down. That was before he heard Wyvorn's voice. "The fuck are you doing?" "Thanks for getting us out of there." "Shit, the tall one's gonna shoot at us." "We need to hide." "Why didn't we just talk it out?" "If this is what a safe town is like, then I'm curious as to what Las Pegasus'll be like." Wild whispered back with an astounding amount of haste, drawing his own revolver before staring at Wyvorn's newly acquired one. "Where'd you get that beauty?" The pegasus asked.

Dust switched off the safety of her pistol, but lowered it to her side. "I see you have the charisma of a cazadore. Maybe you should go out and make friends with them?" she hissed at Tune, although she climbed down with them.

Strawberry sighed and brought up the rear, going down the ladder to meet up with Frosty. “So… What’s the plan, boss lady?” She asked, looking between the paths before them.

Frosty looked between the paths. On the one hand, they could take the path with the black arrows, leading to the unknown. On the other hand, the red arrows, also leading to the unknown. And on the idiot’s hand, the third option, blocked off and with an ominous warning. “I say we take a vote. Which path should we take?” She asked the rest of them.

"Nah, not in the mood to eat bugs for dinner. But should we run out of food I just might have the flying critters make friends with my best buds. Boom, Boom-Bewm, Kapow, Kablammo, Kaboom and Nuka Junior." He said, tapping each of his grenades with every "name" he mentioned.
It was clear that he was obsessed with explosives. Infact, he was thinking for a moment if his mental conditioning thing had malfunctioned and left him in his current state.
"But seriously, I ain't the smooth talker here. I'll just leave that to our two wondermares over here." He said, pointing at Strawberry and Frosty. "Probably one of the reasons why I'm sticking with em. Alone I might just get shot when I make one too many bad jokes." He then turned towards Strawberry. "Well, I say we go with the red arrow." He said before starting to inspect the third option as much as one could without touching it.

Star rolled her eyes at Dust and Tune for a moment before looking at the arrows and the two tunnels. He looked around the group for a moment then shrugged when Frosty asked which way to go. He then stopped and stared at the earth pony as he named his grenades. "Uhh...Hey mate you okay there? We don't need to knock you upside the head to get you god again right?" He looked at him in slight concern before sighing. "Anyway, I say we split for a bit. Since there's five of us and two tunnels, yanno? Get to the end or something then come back here? Also, I thought at least one of us was gonna stay up there." He said pointing back up the ladder.

"I'd avoid offering warm bodies around Razor." Bronze deadpanned in a heavily accented voice through her face scarf while Razor shoved Viridian off of her, seemingly utterly unconcerned about her unconscious stallion partner or the auto-axe he had dropped at Jager's feet.

"Useless Junktown brawlers..." Razor grumbled to herself as she drew her shotgun from her back and aimed both barrels at Jager. "I didn't come to waste bullets big guy but if you break my guys my bullets break your organs, got it?" She snapped at him before turning her attention to Wild Card. "And I meant borrowing it; the Lords' bounty on him is petty cash to the Bullet Club but he's a meal ticket to get as close to them as we're ever going to get."

"And the closer you are to a Casino Lord, the easier it is to put a knife in their back." Bronze finished for Razor. "My word is probably dirt to you but I don't want to do this. I'd rather do this alone, but I've got a bounty on my head and a friend in danger; desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Yes, glad to see it takes a life and death decision for you to write to me." Razor remarked under her breath, Wild Card and Bronze not able to hear from where they were. "And don't think you're keeping that." Razor snapped at Wyvorn, too late to stop the dragon from grabbing Wild Card and speeding off with him.

Bronze sighed and slapped her left hand to her face in exasperation; oddly there was a metal clang against her goggles when she did so. "This is getting us nowhere..." She grumbled, seeming more frustrated at Razor's abysmal negotiation than anything but not having it in her to truly take Wild at gunpoint, even before the dragon had sped him off behind Slidewhistle and Bull Lily's cart as a hiding spot.

"Don't think I won't shoot through that." Razor called to them, levelling both barrels at where she roughly guessed they were.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The tunnel was fairly quiet all things considered, the racket from above not reaching far down into the tunnels apparently. They were surprisingly neatly dug, suggesting a professional job whenever they had been made; the group hadn't gone even a few steps when a low, drawn out groaning noise echoed from down the tunnel being marked by black arrows, the sound of a stallion in pain it appeared.

Going back was no option and the boarded off pathway didn't look inviting but what if the moans were a trap? The red path would let them avoid it entirely, but what if somepony actually needed help?

Jäger hadn't intended to miss a beat in his pursuit of romance, and using the already slightly hunched over position he was in thanks to throwing the brute, Jäger scooped up the auto-axe while taking a step forward. Righting himself for the charge forward, the sight of two shotgun barrels aimed at his body didn't even so much as phase the monstrous thing barely resembling a pony and about to let out a roar in his exhilaration of such fun and romance. "RO-.. vhat?" Jäger asked kind of stupefied at the sudden appearance of Viridian who he just then bothered to actually notice, but also the words both she, Razor, and Bronze were speaking.

Slowly and hesitantly, Jäger lowered the newly acquired weapon to his side, still affixing both his group and the new ponies with a confused expression. "Vait, ve ish not fightink now? Und hyu haff ay bounteh on hyer 'ead? Hyu vouldn't be lookink to hire shome neh mushell shinch hy took out dey lasht von, vould hyu? Hy might effen vork fer dishcount for shuch ah shveethart?" Jäger added the last bit with a wink towards Razor.

Viridian lets herself be shoved away, taking a step back as Razor does so that the shove has next to no effect or momentum. "No, Jaeger, we're not fighting now," she sighs. "Because it appears that we have nothing to fight about. The fine mares here are desperate mares driven to desperate measures, and it so happens that we're looking for a useful and worthy cause, have only a few bits to rub together, and in this wasteland there's more plots needing kicking and assholes needing killing than gangs needing arming or bits needing stealing."
"Basic translation, ladies," Verde adds, taking her hand off her knife and crossing her arms under her somewhat exposed breasts. "You've just served us up an interesting cause on a golden dish and it's looking really appetizing. It's a hell of a things, having a price on your head. Hell of a thing being driven to desperate measures too. Been there, took a bullet for it, didn't like it much."
"Took two," Viridian adds. "Liked it less."
"And way back when, when we were taking bullets because of a price that a cheating little shit customer put out instead of paying up, some useful folks stepped in to help out. Made a gift of it then, said they'd call the chips later. Got their asses shot off because we offered to cash in and they said no."
"Hanging debts to dead folks who did you a solid is bad business and really bad kharma," Viridian says. "Then up you and your attractively violent partner pop, and you've got a price on you and driven to be desperate about settling the matter. The chip's burning a hole in our collective pocket."
"Time to go all in and call." Verde smiles to them. "Don't know about the rest of them but if you two want a couple of extra warm bodies to stick a knife in this Casino Lord's back..."
"...just say the word, and these warm bodies are yours for free," Viridian concludes. "Helluva more clear and useful goal than going gambling or doing shit jobs for shit bits. And maybe by doing this thing for you, we get one step closer to the big tough guy who needs killing especially bad."
"Kharma can be pretty awesome that way." Verde grins.

Strawberry looked down the black arrow tunnel, nervous about what could be making that noise. “Should we still go that way? If you want, I can scout that route. Star, wanna come with me? I could use a bit of backup. A better pair of eyes, if anything.”

Frosty shrugged. “If you wanna take a look, go ahead. The rest of us can go down the other path. I know you’re a fast one Strawberry, so if there’s any trouble, you can catch up quickly.” She said, starting to walk down the tunnel with the red arrows, motioning for the others to follow. Strawberry started sneaking down the black arrow path, wondering if Star would follow.

Star froze for a moment, his ears perking up at the groaning noise. He raised an eyebrow at looked at Strawberry as she asked if he wanted to come. "Yeah sure. I'll come." He said simply, raising his gun slightly and walking after the mare, sneaking along with her. He would have been slightly hurt by just being asked to come for his better eye sight, but it was true, so he couldn't object. He kept his eyes open and his ears perked for anything more as they went down the path.

"I'm not so sure they'll be able to stop me," Dust hissed. At the sound of the groan, she unholstered her pistol again. "Lemme guess, fucking ghouls. Just what I needed. How about you go first?" she asked Tune.

Tune froze as well, the groans sounding like a tormented soul in purgatory, eternally forced to endure unbelievable pain until the end of time.

Or it sounded like a pony who ate too much cooked radroach meat in one go and now has tummy issues. Regardless, he quickly sprinted towards Strawberry and unhooked one of his grenades.
"Hey, take this, just in case there's lots of em." He whispered so he wouldn't possibly alert the suspected ghouls, handing the grenade over to the mare. "Just be safe, ya?"

"Slidewhistle, he won't need it anymore." The white griffon answered Wild, satisfied with the amount of rounds in his newly acquired gun. He heard Razor's words and frowned in his cover. "If you mean my friend here, then fuck you, I'm not giving away my friend!" Wyvorn snapped back at her. "If you mean my new gun, then still fuck you, I'm not gonna be wandering around wastelands unarmed!" he added in angered voice, sliding down more, almost going prone behind the cart and using his claw to urge Wild to do the same if he wants to stay in cover. His heart was racing, he was not complying to orders from bandits at gunpoint and possibly just made the situation worse with his damned mouth. 'Where the fuck is that power armor guard now? Those two mares look like they're asking for some serious asskicking to put them in their place...' griffon whispered to Wild, hoping the shotgun-carrying Razor won't shoot. Then again, they want Wild alive, don't they?

"Well I bloody well hope he's okay with you having it when he notices." "Or, he could keep it and just not tell." "Stealing?" "Wyvorn needed a gun." Wild Card mumbled to himself, before listening to Razor and Bronze's words. Slowly and with purpose, the pegasus then stood up from his crouched position and dusted off his clothes. "Wyvorn, I think we should probably show we mean no harm. They haven't actually fired at us and after all, I'd rather not test out the cart's ability to protect anything against shotgun shells." He said calmly, wandering back into view with his hands visible to the mares.

"See, unarmed, gun's in the holster." "Jäger, don't go selling yourself off to pretty mares as soon as you meet them." "So you're telling me, that the bounty isn't the main reason for wanting me. You only want to get near a Casino Lord? To do that you need me? Well why can't we figure out another way of doing that without using me as live bait that will end up dead because of it. Because I don't know if you've noticed, I like living." Wild Card said politely. "I was already planning on going to Las Pegasus anyway, but I feel I could be of more help if I wasn't just tied up and thrown at them to draw them out for you." "Hell, who needs to draw them out, could kill them where they sit." "What?" "Just an idea, given we don't like theirs much what with the whole "being bait" thing." The stallion then reached into his pocket until he found the small stone which he held up in plain view for Razor, Bronze and the group to see. "Now this was given to me a little while ago, and I overheard mention of the Bullet Club so that's why I'm showing it now. It has the Bullet Club's emblem engraved on it and everything, see." "Anyway, I just wanted to show it to you to let you know I have it, seeing as you're in the Club. But which Casino Lord are you after, even? There's four of them, unless you want to take them all down, but then Las Pegasus and the Wastes would fall into even greater anarchy..." "You think. Who knows, things might continue on as normal. Bandits and Deathclaws, crazy ponies, murder, stealing, yada yada." "Yes, but the frequency at which those things happen would probably increase."

((Please note; due to internet problems, StrawberryGamer/Sunneh is currently not able to post. Star Sentinel, Brother Roga and CynicalWhovian should assume their characters to still be with the group and acting as support))

Down the hall of black arrows that Strawberry and Star Sentinel had started down was a stallion slightly ahead of them, lying in the center of the tunnel and dressed in simple slacks and a shirt, the sort of casual clothes one would expect from a merchant in a settlement or a local chef, not a stallion in the middle of a mineshaft full of abominations of the insect kingdom.

The stallion was making an odd, strangled noise somewhere between a sob and a moan while clutching at his face with both hands, curled up almost into the fetal position. Down the end of the hallway there was a doorway leading to the first signs of natural light since they had entered the cave.


*************

Razor wheeled on Viridian with her amber eyes burning and her teeth gritted; for a moment she looked almost feral, savage, a far cry from the somewhat cold and professional manner she and her friend had been keeping up, then again right from the start it had seemed at least somewhat like a facade. Bronze's maintaining of the act had also slipped but unlike Razor who looked ready to literally sink her teeth into the nearest pony, the cyborg looked apathetic, almost tired.

"The casino lords wouldn't kill you." Bronze chimed in to Wild Card, keeping her gun trained on him very half-heartedly. "Most likely they'd take your eyes and tongue and let you onto the streets of Freeside as an example." She said casually, as if she was describing a dentist procedure to a foal who ate too many sweets.

"We'll put a bullet in them for every one of those poor bastards." Razor snarled to no one in particular. The mare trained her shotgun onto Wild, aiming it right at his knees, moving her finger to the trigger...

The purple maned thestral visibly swore in a manner that would've terrified a dock worker as she emptied her buckshot on either side of Wild Card in frustration, the pegasus being left unharmed but still staring down two now smoking barrels.

"If any of you ruin this I'll shoot my way out of Tartarus and take you back there with me." Razor growled as she reluctantly holstered her gun. Bronze for her part looked extremely relieved and walked over to the purple maned and foul tempered mercenary, pulling her into a calming hug which the violent one somewhat reluctantly returned. 

"Well, if you're willing to trust that we're all on the same page for now...." Bronze said, nodding to the wagon Wild and Wyvorn had been planning to take to Las Pegasus; the driver and his salescolt must've been especially money hungry, as most had cleared out of the square in the commotion but they had remained. 

"Oi!" Slidewhistle had risen to his feet, holding his arm which looked sore but evidently not broken. "You running with the Bullet Club now?" He asked Verde and Viridian, looking less offended and more surprised. "Just remember me envelope alright? It's important!" He called to them before wandering back to find Bull Lily; evidently Slidewhistle had had enough chaos for one day.

(Who says I can't post? It is just harder to.)

Strawberry heard the stallion before she could see him. When she did see him, that part of her brain she never listens to protested against going further. She decided to humor that part this time. She raised her pistol, keeping a close eye on the stallion. Taking a look behind her to see if Star had her covered, she spoke up. "Um, hello? You okay over there?" She asked, really hoping to not shoot another living pony. Even if he was a stallion.

As for Frosty... I dunno. She started humming or... something.

((the GM would like to amend that he is a derp))

Star looked closely at the stallion on the ground, raising his magnum and pointing it at the stallion. He glanced over to Strawberry for a moment before looking fully on the stallion again. He took a deep breath to steady his aim, making sure if he needed to fire he would do so as quickly and accurately as he could. He really hoped they could maybe help the pony...but it was the Wasteland. When has it ever granted anyone's wishes. This was just a disaster waiting to happen, but he didn't voice his opinion quite yet.

Tune was just about to turn and go back to where he was when he noticed the pony in the fetal position and, more importantly, the natural light that was in the distance of the Black Arrow Tunnel.
"Eh?" He looked at the display before him. The pony in the chef outfit looked like some uppity chef in a Stable was bucked six ways from Sunday by Ram Chef both verbally and physically.
"Really not a productive line of thought." He figured before shaking his head and trotting back to Frosty. "Hey, Frost, I think I see some light coming out of that black arrow tunnel. It could be a way out and clear of those bugs."

Jäger let out a sigh, not obnoxiously large, but more for just some missed opportunity. One minute everything had been nice, simple and fun. There was a new group, he'd introduced himself to one of them, and made one hell of a show of effort towards flirting with another. But now everyone was just talking about debts to dead ponies, and some big hotshots in a few casinos. Though with how things seemed to be wrapping up, it looked like they'd all be traveling together now, which was fine by Jäger, who was still trying to come up with something to actively pursue in this new, masterless world he found himself in. Philosophical inquiry aside, there was one question that did manage to force its way to the forefront of Jäger's mind. "Sho, vhat ve doink now den? Ve huntink cashino lordsh or just moar vanderink?"

Dust glared at those raising their weapons and approached the stallion cautiously. "I'm a doctor. What's wrong?" she asked quietly, but was prepared to jump back if need be.

Wyvorn covered his ears and almost flattened himself against the floor as he heard the gunshots that were previously aimed at him. He slowly opened his eyes and looked for the holes in the wagon he was hiding behind, then at the pegasus who stood up, and then at himself. 'Did both shots miss? Were they intended to miss, or are we just lucky for its inaccuracy?' Wyvorn thought to himself, continued lying still behind cover until he can be sure it's safe to come out without a shotgun aimed at him again.