Chapter 121: Revenge
Tony Cole had been a regular guy who'd been down on his luck, not long ago two NCR mercs had infiltrated his buddies gang known as the Powder Gangers. He didn't know exactly what'd happened as he had been halfway between Nipton and Primm as it was going on.
Once he got back he found the whole place was crawling with NCR, not to mention the many corpses of his friends he could see through the barbed fences... It was at that moment he decided he would hunt down whoever caused this and get revenge.
He'd managed to find a hideaway he'd left just in case for this very situation. It contained a 10mm pistol, some dynamite, food, water, and spare clothes. Taking it he immediately headed back to Nipton to try and cut off the two merc's who'd done this.
The journey was difficult and he'd needed to stay off of the main road due to the colony of ants he remembered being there. The canyon paths were hidden but already mapped out by the Powder Gangers to allow easy access. The only problem was that Nipton had apparently been destroyed during his absence... Everyone was dead, even the the whore's which he often visited.
He didn't have enough supplies to continue like this so he'd been forced to scavenge the place... Fortunately there'd been some food and water left behind by whoever did this. Not to mention a large expensive book called "The Big Book of Science". He tucked it away into his gear to sell it for caps later.
Tony had just walked around Camp Searchlight and headed to Novac, he had to avoid it due to the radiation and encampment of NCR soldiers there. He was beginning to think continuing to wear his Powder Ganger outfit was a bad idea.
Eventually he reached Novac and booked himself a room before going around and asking the residence some questions. They were wary of his outfit but he just stated that he'd scavenged the clothes off of a corpse. They seemed more negotiable after learning that and told him everything he wanted to know about the mercs who were apparently staying here.
Karl Martin. Bastard. Tony always knew something was off with the fucker, the fact he wouldn't touch any of the girls they caught and didn't seem to care for caps aside from the alcohol they could potentially buy.
He'd not attack this man first as he knew of his skill... No, he'd need to go for the other one first. Afton Parker.
Little snot had a few rumours going on about him, Tony only knew him as an alright doctor and semi-alright shot. He wasn't sure whether to take the rumours of him being the "Fastest Shot in the Mojave" seriously. Regardless, he knew what he needed to do, it was fortunate that the kid was apparently working on something during the night.
Afton was heading back to his motel room after spending the day fixing up the motorbike with Daisy. He was pretty exhausted but felt satisfied at the progress they'd made.
The tiredness in his body vanished in an instant when he felt the barrel of a gun pressed up against his back. He hadn't expected this and had to suppress himself from spinning around and unloading his revolver at the perpetrator.
Whoever it was had some talent in stealth apparently, he'd not noticed them sneaking behind him... Though, that was partly due to how comfortable he'd gotten in this town, not having expected someone to want to harm him with all the help he'd been giving. "What do you want?"
"Revenge." Tony states, prodding Afton in the back to get him to start walking.
Afton starts walking, changing their route minutely. He knew the man probably wanted to get him outta town to kill him without alerting the whole place... But the man probably didn't do his research.
Tony grinned to himself as Afton continued walking like his personal pet. They'd just passed that giant dinosaur eyesore and were standing on a small hill opposite it. He had his "Pet" stand on the hill as Tony grinned at him. "It was dumb of you to follow me out of here. I was never going to let you go for what you have done."
Afton keeps his expression tame, he needed to know who this was, if he had any companions, and whether or not this'd be a recurring thing. Held his hands above his head while sending a hidden thumbs up to whoever was in the dinosaur right now, he needed them to wait for a moment before acting. "Well, before I die... I'd like to know what I did to deserve this." he asks.
Tony scowls, "Have you committed so many atrocities that you can't recall them? Bastard, I'd shoot you where you stand if I didn't enjoy the fear coming from you... The Powder Gangers, you wiped them out after joining them, there's nothing worse than a betrayer!"
"Hmm, even if I managed to escape, you have friends ready to help right?"
Tony growls at him, "No. You made sure of that by leading the NCR to us."
Afton raises a brow, "In that case-" his hands turn into a blur has he draws Lucky and fires six shots into the man's chest. A shot rings out from the dinosaur and splatters the Powder Ganger's grey matter across Afton's face, causing him to grimace.
He wipes his face off and looks down at sorry bastard who thought he could get one over on him. At least there wouldn't be anymore Powder Gangers hoping to attempt the same thing. He'd also want to thank whoever's in the dinosaur for their help. Having that extra line of defence was more for reassurance than anything else.
Afton looted the body for caps and equipment, grinning to himself as he found a Big Book of Science in their possession.
[+3 Science]
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Niggross
Niggross Ya, Tony wasn't all that impressive. Just another mob NPC lol.
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.
Chapter 122: What Gun?
The day after Afton had killed the stray Powder Ganger bent on revenge he decided to visit the dinosaur, he wanted to speak to whoever had been watching his back.
He enters the door and is greeted by a man sitting behind a front-desk, he was bald and heavily tanned with a bored look on their face. They straighten their back when Afton comes through the door though. "Welcome to the Dino Bite gift shop, my name's Cliff. If you're looking for the Dino figurines then you're in luck, we've still got a few left." the man says jovially.
Afton raises a brow at him, "Got a few dinosaur figures left? Don't tell me people actually buy those things..."
Cliff shrugs, "For your information they're the best selling thing I got. People usually want them as mementoes or gifts, not many things quite like them so I think its a good choice."
"Uh huh... You sell anything else or..."
Cliff nods, stands, and unlocks the door behind him. "Depends what you're looking for."
"Well, I'm not actually here to buy anything but if you have any weaponry I might take a look."
Cliff walks out with a wood platter, ontop of it were a few common weapons that didn't interest Afton at all. 9mm pistols, .357 revolvers, 10mm pistols, even some shotguns that look to have seen better days. "If these don't tickle your fancy then I've got one thing I haven't managed to pawn off yet." he says, reaching out and grabbing a strange weapon.
It was black with a wood covered handle, the metal looked weathered but not damaged. It had a small LED light on it that was currently red... Cliff dropped a few 5.56mm bullets on the counter, this was a shock as they were typically only used as ammunition for rifles.
Afton picked the gun up and checked it over, discovering it had a revolver cylinder with five openings in it. He slotted them in and closed the cylinder, causing the red LED light to turn green, signifying that it was loaded. He checked his Pipboy to see if it was actually any good.
[That Gun]
DMG : 30
Crit dmg : 30
Crit mult : 2.5x
Strength req : 6
AP : 19
Value : 1750
In comparison to other .357 revolvers it shat all over them... It was actually almost identical in stats to Lucky, with the exception of the five bullet capacity. Not to mention that 6 strength requirement, the reason for this was probably due to the rifle bullets it used, it'd do hell on your wrists if you lacked the strength. This'd also mean it was better than lucky at penetrating armour.
Due to his Gun skill he was already knowledgable in the typical 5.56mm pistols, but Afton had never actually seen anything like it in his old world. It was like a mixture between old western revolvers and modern weapons.
"How much do you want for it?" Afton asks, not wanting to show that he knew its worth yet. From his time with Karl he knew that Bartering was about controlling the conversation and judging what the other person was willing to endure.
Cliff shrugs, "I've been tryin' to get rid of that old thing for years now... Two thousand caps would be a good price, I've even added a discount for all the work you've done for the town."
Afton shakes his head, "See the weathering on the metal? It might not look to bad to an untrained eye but that causes what you call 'Micro-fractures', this harms the structural integrity of the weapon and will eventually cause it to majorly malfunction. If someone tried to use it without fixing it up first it might just explode in their hands." he explains, adding as much believable bullshit as he can... This was one of the bonuses from maxing out Repair and Guns. You knew exactly what'd cause their value to drop.
"Now just you hold on there, I've shot it many times myself and have never run into a problem."
Afton's eyes go wide, "Then you must be the luckiest son of a bitch alive, I'm surprised you still have your hands." he says unloading the gun and looking inside the barrel, spotting a thin scratch that he could take advantage of. "See that?" he shows Cliff, "That's a compositional fracture, means whoever created the weapon didn't temper the metal well enough, weakening it. Without proper repair it could explode on its next shot."
Of course, the reality was it was just a scratch on the metal, but it wasn't like Afton had to tell the man that.
Cliff paled slightly at the explanation but quickly recomposed himself like any good trader should. "I see.. I didn't know that, I suppose I could part with it for one thousand five hundred caps."
Afton sighs, "I appreciate you trying to bring down the price, but it'd probably take me eight hundred caps to get it fit for use... I'd literally need to rent a forge, deconstruct the weapon and redo everything. If I added in the cost of my own labour it might just be cheaper to make another." he explains.
Cliff chews the inside of his cheek, "Fine. I'll give it to you for a thousand, I can't go any lower otherwise I won't be able to feed myself."
Afton nods, "Deal." he sorts out a thousand caps and hands them to the man, replacing his non-unique .357 revolver with That Gun. He also purchased a good amount of 5.56mm ammo for it before looking up at the stairs leading to the mouth of the dinosaur. "Anyone up there right now?"
"Yeah, Manny's on break so Craig's up there right now... I doubt he wants to be bothered though."
"Who was up there last night?"
"That'd be Craig, man doesn't seem to need sleep. That or he naps most times he's on break." Cliff says with a shrug.
Afton nods, "Alright, thanks for your help." he says, wanting to leave the store before Cliff realises That Gun's weathered metal had begun to repair itself due to his [Mechanicus] Perk.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross
Niggross
Hope you guys liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.
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