Gang Up

As I flipped off Joe Cobb, Trudy was wondering where a well armed courier came from. She thought that she would have at least seen him coming into town before he got shot. But, that was a thought for another time. "So kid, mind helping our little town out?"

"Welp, seeing as that you might have a bit of trouble with Joe Cobb and his gang, I'd be more than willing to help kill the sonovabitch. Not for free of course." I say.

Trudy turns around to Sunny, who is looking really pissed, and whispers something to her. Sunny nods and motions for me to follow her outside. As we headed up the hill to the gas station where Ringo is hidden. We opened the door to see a young man about 25 years old with a caravan shotgun pointed at the door. "Damn it Sunny, I thought me being here was a secret?" He says accusingly.

"Well Ringo, this here is likely your only hope to get out of this mess. His nickname is Courier 6, on account of the delivery order he made before he was shot a two nights ago. He has so willingly agreed to beat the hell out of the Powder Gangers with you. And, Obviously I will help you out cause Joe Cobb is a bandit and an asshole." Ringo's face lit up like a Christmas Tree hearing that he had people to help him.

"Well my finely dressed friend, the names Ringo and I work for the Crimson Caravan Trading Company. With your help I just might be able to sneak out of town." He reaches out to shake my hand, and I oblige with a carefree smile.

"Well Mister Ringo, since me and you have a common enemy let's talk shop, How much are you willing to pay me?" I ask after the formalities.

"Well, Fact of the matter is, I ain't got much on me right now. How about I give you 200 caps after i get back to the Company HQ?" He says uncertainly.

"C'mon Ringo, You are a merchant. Would no insurance make you wanna risk life and limb for some schmuck you don't know? No, So hows about 150 now and 150 later?" I haggled.

DING

Check failed!

"No how about 100 now and 150 later?"

"Here's to a good partnership," I say reaching down for a whiskey bottle on the floor, taking a swig and handing him the glass. He takes it with relief and downs the rest and we head out the door to see Trudy. As we walk up to the Saloon we hear a gunshot and rush in to see Trudy holding Cheyenne and Joe Cobb with his pistol out. All I hear after that is a roar from behind me as a dust covered girl lunges for Cobb. She lands on him with a vengeance like God on the Flood as she claws and punches him to a pulp. He throws her off and fires a shot in my direction, Seeing this from a mile a way, I duck behind the door frame and see off in the distance that 7 more Powder Gangers are gonna show up in about 15 minutes thanks to my perception.

As I looked around the corner Joe Cobb fires off a shot from his 357 Magnum and splinters the old wooden door frame. I hear a click and he has a squib round and I make a mad dash for the scared man. I leap over a chair he threw at me and grab his wrist and twist as hard as i can felling his joint tear from the strain. With a scream unfitting of a grown man he goes down and I drag him out from behind the counter. Sunny looks at Cheyenne with the most sorrow I have seen in either of my lives. After dragging Cobb out I yell to Sunny to get ready cause more Powder Gangers are on the way.

Cursing my luck I shout to everybody, "Get down or get out here and help me fight these pieces of shit outside." Running out of the back I see Easy Pete Run to me with his gun drawn. "What the hell happened Youngster?"

"No time to talk, go get ready for the Powder Gangers, they'll be here any minute!" I Shout as I run to the front of Chet's store and burst in, "Chet, I need some of the Frag Grenades you have is storage. I will Pay you back." I don't wait for a reply as i tear open the broom closet he keeps as a "Stockroom". Grabbing the only two grenades I ran back outside to take cover behind an old motorcycle.

Looking out to the road I see the most ragtag group of people that can be called "gangsters", as they rounded the bend heading up by Pete's house. Pulling the pin on the first grenade i throw it towards the guy who has what looks like a rifle to scare him. I threw the grenade right to his left to keep the group from taking cover by the old fuel tank across the street from the saloon. The guy, if he could even be called that, didn't even look old enough to grow a beard. He didn't see the grenade and as he turned to look, it exploded. Taking with it his left leg and shredding his body. I struggle not to throw up as I see Sunny, Pete, and Trudy firing back at the four closest. Wait, four? Where are the other two? I feel a sharp pain in my left side and see an older guy and a younger kid looking at me with the hatred of a thousand souls as they got their melee weapons ready for another go. I quickly change to my shotgun and blow the old guy to shreds and hit the kid with the end of my stock knocking him unconscious. I see that Sunny is using poor Joe as a meat shield and boy is he riddled with holes. Prick deserves what he got. Two more see what i did to Goons A and B and loop around for cover. Pulling the pin on my final grenade I throw it and use VATS for the very first time.

People wonder what it is like to have bullet time. Would you be all cool and shoot all the outlaws dead like some old John Wayne film? The reality is not how we always envision it, I used VATS to shoot the grenade midair above the other Powder Gangers. And let me tell you, Slow motion bodies being torn apart by shrapnel is the most harrowing experience a man can go through. And with my Perception, I didn't miss a single detail as red hot shrapnel and flames tore through a man's face. He didn't even have time to scream as the force took his head and snapped it to the side and his head was eviscerated by the flaming metal and left grey matter all over the old concrete.

Sunny was an experienced woman. There wasn't much of the Mojave she hadn't seen outside of Goodsprings and Primm, but seeing a twenty year old kid take out four men in the span of 30 seconds was astonishing to say the least. But after those thirty seconds, a look of horror came up on the Chase's face like he had done the worst thing he had ever done. The poor kid...

After the fight was over and the last two were killed, I doubled over and threw up the gecko steak I cooked up with Sunny at the Source. Seeing something so gory as a kid who just reincarnated here for naught but half a day, was scary. This isn't a game, this is real life. There are consequences to my actions... I don't like this... Then I felt something warm envelop me and I passed out from the stress and fell into a nightmare filled sleep.