บท 514: Local.
Afton pokes her in the forehead of her helmet, "Calm down. We'll find her, and we'll kick Elijah in the balls while we're at it, so chill." he says placatingly,
Veronica releases a sigh but doesn't say anything else, instead, turning her attention to the rest of the town. Honestly, there wasn't all that much to see, aside from the sprawling rooftops it was difficult to spot anything that indicated what distract they were in, what building was which, or what wasn't completely covered in fog.
They could see a few streets heavy with fog, but aside from that it was a gamble attempting to enter any buildings. Just opening a door could release fog onto you and burn you to death, so the whole town was basically a death trap.
With nothing else left to do, the trio starts hopping from one roof to another, hoping to find some indication of where Christine was, or where they could even go without being swarmed by Ghosts... Every time they touched the ground, Elijah would activate a siren that would bring more creatures towards them, making it impossible to go anywhere...
Still, at least they now knew that Elijah was in a security station or someplace that allowed him access to the area's systems.
"Urgh! This is getting us nowhere!" Veronica groans, though Afton and Anja were feeling similar sentiments.
"Yeah, but we don't really have any other options, so persistence is key." Afton states.
Veronica just shakes her head, and is about to retort when she spots movement off in the distance... The other's also notice the faint figure, moving swiftly and almost gracefully, unlike how the Ghosts get around...
The figure vanishes into an alleyway and Afton quickly hops to the next roof towards it, "Come on, this might be our key outta here." he says.
The group continues moving across the rooftops, and eventually drop down onto a balcony to see if they could find the figure. Afton pokes his head through the doorway into the building and is surprised to find the entire place rigged with explosives and traps... The stairway has two shotgun traps, and an active mine on the landing. If you get past that you'd find tripwires linked to the pins of grenades that were hanging from the ceiling...
All in all, if you tripped all the traps wall bumbling through here, the entire second floor of the building would explode. Needless to say, it'd probably put any Ghosts who wander up here out of commission and prevent any more from coming up...
Come to think of it, the only reason someone would do this would be to stop the Ghosts from coming up here... Seeing as whoever had set it all up wasn't here, that meant that it was meant to protect something else... Like another path?
Afton pulls back and looks at the others, "Don't go in there, it's rigged to blow to kingdom come with a single mistake..." he says while looking around the balcony, quickly noticing the large sheet of metal linking the balcony to the next one over.
Following it, he looks into the room connected to it and finds that the stairway had been blocked off entirely. However, the place was still empty... Afton walks atop the next sheet of metal linking the balconies, and after finding a few empty rooms, he stumbles across a balcony doorway covered by sheets, he takes a peek behind it and spots lights, meaning the sheets were meant to stop the lights from attracting attention.
"Hello?" he calls out, hoping to not get attacked by a surprised resident.
...
Nobody answers, but he can hear rapid movement, meaning whoever lived here was still inside. "I'm coming in, don't shoot or we'll both regret it." he warns as he cautiously steps through, watching for any traps.
Veronica and Anja trail behind him closely, the latter making sure to utilise the others as human shields.
Soon enough, Afton eventually spots the person living here... A ghoul wearing a ragged black suit, big sunglasses, and a collar? around his neck. He was sat in a chair looking out of a large hole in his apartment wall, there was a chair next to him, and Afton could see a couple wires sticking out from it, meaning whatever was there had been hastily made, or the aesthetics weren't important.
The ghoul turns his head to look at them and was about to speak when he freezes, "W-what are you doing here in those suits of armour!?" he asks, the words unconsciously slipping from his mouth.
"What do you mean? Have you seen those things out there? I'd rather be wearing this than that suit." Afton retorts, causing the ghoul to frown.
"No. That's not what I meant, HE, would have never let you IN... D-did you kill him?" he tentatively asks, but loses hope when his collar buzzes to life.
"*Bzztch!* No. I'm not dead, nor are they able to kill me... Do not speak to them, or you know what will happen.*Bzztch!*" Elijah says through the collar before shutting off communications.
The ghoul scowls and stands from his seat, throwing his glasses at the floor and causing them to shatter, "Oh, you bastard... I'll toss you into the cloud when I find you, chaining me up like a-a dog!"
Afton takes a sideways glance at Veronica, "Another one of Elijah's victims then?" he guesses, getting a small nod but pursing his lips when he thinks to say more. "You heard him, I say anything to you and my head explodes," he taps his collar that's started to slowly and rhythmically beep, "And I know from experience that he does not lie."
Afton frowns, quickly recognising the collar as the one's formerly used at Little Yangtze to keep the ghoul prisoners properly behaved. He cuts out the microphone of his helmet and whispers to Nyx, "Do we have any way to deactivate the collar? We still have those one's that Elijah had altered in the Think Tank, right?"
"We do, sir... If you give me a moment, I could pull up their schematics." Nyx states.
Afton nods in agreement before turning his microphone back on, "What's your name?"
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บท 515: Temporary Ally
The ghoul chuckles and shakes his head for a moment, "Hehe, I'll never get used to people asking me that... Dean, Dean Domino." he states with an outstretched hand.
Afton just shakes it with a raised brow, why wouldn't people ask him that? Is he some kind of hermit or something?... He's a ghoul so it's possible?
"Name's Afton Parker, she's Veronica, and that's Anja." he says while gesturing at each of them respectively before continuing, "Also... What's the deal with all those traps? Is it just for the Ghosts, or something else?" he asks, more to keep the conversation going so Nyx could pull up the collar schematics.
Dean's eyes squint meaningfully as he shakes his head, "That's not something I can say." he states.
Veronica speaks up, "Have you seen anyone called Christine around here? Blonde hair, blue eyes... cute face..." she adds with slightly reddening cheeks.
Dean shakes his head again, "No, even if I did, I wouldn't be able to say." he taps his collar, as if asking them to stop this before he makes a slip.
"Sir, I've received recovered the schematics. Would you like to jam its signal?" Nyx asks.
He nods, and once the signals jammed he steps towards domino, an especially designed hole on the palm of his right gauntlet allowing him to form a wood-like screwdriver, "Hold still, I've jammed Elijah's signal, but I don't know how long that'll last." he states.
Dean's eyes widen and he doesn't back away as Afton starts fiddling with the collar. Elijah seems to have welded metal over the screws of the collar to prevent easy access to the inner components... Fortunately, it's incredibly easy for him to tear the plating off... The next obstacle was the peculiar and unique screws used that seemed designed to counter any regular screwdriver you might normally find... Again, Afton's abilities allowed him to morph his arm into any shape, making it incredibly easy to create the proper tool for the job.
He'd already read the schematics before, so having it on his hud now was more to shake the rust off than anything... There were a number of components to it, among them were the three separate and intricate triggering mechanisms, a signal receiver, voice modulator, and the other number of things Elijah might have added... However, the most important thing that seems to have stayed the same, the actual explosives contained within the collar... This itteration appears to have just been stuffed with small amounts of C4 in separate hidden parts of the collar...
Afton was honestly working overtime to remove all the C4 as their hidden compartments were so numerous and well hidden, but eventually, he'd removed all of it. And after double-checking the collar for anymore he puts the collar back together and backs away while hiding the C4 he'd collected.
Dean Domino would still be unsure if the operation had been a success, but he'd been using a handheld mirror to watch Afton work, and as an explosives expert himself, he was sure that was all of it.
They'd finished just in time too since the collar started rapidly beeping, indicating that Elijah knew something fishy was happening.
Once he'd returned however he'd found Afton and Dean still in conversation...
"Why are you being kept here anyway?" Afton asks.
Dean shrugs, "What you believe that I'm just trying to take what's rightfully mine?... Other than that, I suppose 'HE' needs me alive for something."
Afton grins under his helmet, "If he needs you alive, why are you worried about him killing you? I'd bet that collar of yours is a dud." he explains.
...
Dean shakes his head, keeping up the act, "No... I wouldn't put it past him, but... He's given me more lenience than many of the other's he's brought here... Maybe your words have some truth in them." he says, but the quicker beeping of the collar indicates that Elijah highly disagreed.
"Come with us, we could use your experience around here... We might even be able to help you find what you're looking for." Afton offers and Dean nods.
"*Bzztch!* You will not! You're life means little to me in the grand scheme of things, and I would not hesitate to end you should you prove a threat!*Bzztch!*" Elijah threatens from the collar.
Dean shakes his head with a chuckle, "You know as well as I that my 'status' within the Casino makes me too valuable to remove. Without me, any hope of finding the treasure will be lost." he looks to Afton, "I'll accompany you, but be warned, this place is far more dangerous than you know." he states, and the beeping slows until it becomes an occasional update of the collars existence.
Afton nods, "Alright, now, do you know anything about Christine Royce?" he asks.
Dean shakes his head, "I haven't seen them, nor have I seen anyone resembling her among the many dead former captives." he explains.
Veronica breathes a sigh of relief behind Afton at this, at least it wasn't certain that Christine was dead yet.
Afton nods, "And the traps?" he asks again, hoping to get an honest answer from the now 'freed' ghoul.
Dean frowns, "It isn't only the ghosts the dwell in this haunted city... There are also Holograms programmed to kill any they see, they shoot lasers from their eyes that are even capable of disintegrating the ghosts... If you see blue turn red, run." he says before continuing, "... Of course, the holograms aren't the only blue menace running around here... The one who calls himself, Dog. A big Super Mutant that is under 'HIS' control, he's the one who brings in the new collared captives..." he explains.
Afton raises a brow, "I see... Well, what do you know about this town? What districts are there and where might our friend be?"
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