Chapter 172: Cashing Out

Chapter 172: Cashing Out

I may have spoken too soon.

All I managed was a measly three shots from the LAER before he closed the distance. Two of the beams impacted against his chest armor amid a shower of sparks, and the third hit his shoulder briefly, before glancing off. Didn't have long to be surprised though, because that massive sword of his was coming straight for my face. And if that weren't bad enough, the sword had set itself on fire again.

I tried to remind myself what Benny had told me, and focus on the fact that it wasn't real. But even if the flames weren't, that fucking sword was.

I rolled out of the way as fast as I could, but I wasn't quite fast enough. The ground under my feet split apart with a monstrous explosion, showering me with sharp rocks and flying shrapnel. I tried to get back up on my feet, hoping that he hadn't expected me to dodge that first strike-

WHAM!

The backhand of a massive fist came out of nowhere and hit me square in the chest with the force of a wrecking ball. I tumbled through the air like a ragdoll, only stopping when I slammed back-first into a huge cliff. I collapsed in a heap. Was that a cracked rib? Feels like a cracked rib.

"GHLK!" A massive hand wrapped itself around my throat and lifted me up off the ground. Lanius' snarling, unmoving metal mask shoved itself in my face as he pinned me to the wall. The edges of my vision began to darken, but I kept struggling and squirming, trying to break free from his grip.

"So... this is the best you can muster, Man of the West?" his deep voice boomed and echoed with an inhumanly amplified depth; it felt like hot coals were being dragged across my eardrums. When he started to laugh, I got a rather unpleasant sensation of dj vu. I had to derail this before it kept going the way I remembered.

"W-wait..." I managed to gasp out. His grip on my throat shifted, but didn't let up.

"Wait?!" he bellowed with disdain. "Did you just say wait? Wait for what, profligate? Wait for me to change my mind? Wait for a few more seconds of life, because you're soweak, you can't bear to see it end?"

"N-n-no..." I coughed out, lifting a hand off his grip to shove my middle finger in his face. He leaned back and tilted his head, apparently confused... and that was just enough of a distraction for an earth shaking growl to come from above. His grip loosened and I dropped to the ground like a stone, just as a mass of scales, teeth, and bullets leapt down from above. Stripe tackled Lanius, and the two tumbled away as I got back on my feet.

"... wait for him to hit you..." I said, rubbing my neck and breaking into a run. I had to get to everyone, and get them back on their feet. Hell, I just had to make sure they were still

"Sheason!" Christine's voice buzzed over my helmet com. "Sound off! What's going on down there? Everyone has gone silent!"

"Can't you tell?" I hacked out between coughs, running straight for Cass; she was still alive by the looks of things. On her knees and holding her head like she had the mother of all migraines, but she was at least trying to get up off her knees.

"There's some kind of dust storm," Boone growled. "Visibility is zero." FUCK!

"Just get down here!" I shouted. "It's an illusion, just look, we need all the guns, alright?!" I finally slid to a halt next to Cass, helping her up as best as I could. "Cass! C'mon, on your feet!"

"What th' fu... th' fuck was that?" Cass shook her head several times, clearly more than a little out of it. "There was some kinda... some..."

"No time to explain!" I grabbed her and gave her a good shake to snap her out of it. "You remember how we took down Panzer?" Cass blinked several times; off in the distance behind her, I saw at least two of the Remnants trying to get back on their feet.

"Wh- a'course I do! Why? Is " I shoved the Jury-Rigger against her chest before she could finish.

"We're gonna be needin' more of the same!" I said, pulling out the Alien Blaster. Cass' eyes immediately went wide.

"Oh, you've gotta be fuckin' with me!" she shouted angrily, taking hold of the rifle just the same. "Don't tell me he LOOK OUT!" The next thing I knew, Cass was grabbing me by the head and shoving me to the ground. There was a loud roar directly overhead. I looked up just in time to see Stripe smashing upside-down into the ground in a flurry of flailing limbs and a giant dust cloud.

"Get everyone moving!" I shouted, leaping to my feet with the Alien Blaster at the ready. "We're gonna need everyone's help to bring this fucker down!"

By the time I turned around to face him, Lanius was already starting to advance on me... but he was very deliberately taking his time with every thunderous footstep. He dragged the tip of his enormous flaming sword against the rocky ground, tearing it up and spreading flames as he passed. His armor didn't even look scratched from his tussle with Stripe.

"Do you really think you can win here?" Lanius' voice echoed as he approached; while he spoke, the sky began to darken again, and the crows started to return. "I have shattered armies. My blade is wet with the blood of thousands who thought to stand against my might. I shall make a cape of your skin... and your skull shall sit mute by my side, forever watching in silence as I set fire to the West!"

"You talk too much... CORAX!" I yelled back at him, firing the alien blaster. He roared in fury, grabbed his sword with both hands, and broke into a run. The energy bolts burst in a shower of sparks and blue flame, which he simply ignored.

"That name -" he charged at me, completely unfazed as the blue fire curled into smoke around him. "- means NOTHING to me!" The jets in my boots rocketed me skyward just as he slammed the sword into the ground. The earth shattered, but I was already in the sky over his head; I kept firing the Alien Blaster until the energy cell clicked dry. The jets cut out; I twisted around in midair, popped out the empty cell and grabbed a fresh one, locking it in place just as I landed about a dozen feet behind him.

"Quite a reaction for somethin' doesn't mean nothin'!" I shouted back at him, pulling the grapnel gun out of my duster. He yanked his sword out of the ground, spraying flaming fragments of rock everywhere, and I just kept shooting at him. The illusions all around us seemed to flicker in and out of sight but, rather tellingly, the flames around the sword didn't.

"Enough!" he yelled, charging through the hail of plasma fire I was sending his way. I couldn't be sure, but it looked like the alien plasma was chipping away at his armor, slowly but surely.

"Face it! You're nothing but a lab experiment, Corax!" I continued to mock, holstering the empty Alien Blaster and grabbing one of my last plasma grenades. "All your strength came from a test tube!" I dropped the primed grenade at my feet.

PKCHOONT!

I began to speed through the air just as Lanius closed the distance, and the grenade exploded under him in a ball of green flame... but I didn't quite time it right. The shock wave from the explosion hit me in midair. I lost my grip on the grapnel gun, and crashed unceremoniously to the ground.

"Your toys won't save you!" Lanius snarled, suddenly on top of me with his armor scorched and blackened from the plasma grenade. I didn't have time to get away before the sword came down, so I did the only thing I could think of: I raised my Pip Boy to defend myself. The thing was strong enough to survive a direct hit from a nuke; it could handle a sword, right?

...right?

My helmet was showered in sparks, and a sharp pain shot through my left arm. The Pip Boy had stopped the strike from cleaving me in half, but the metal had buckled and the screen was cracked from the impact. A British voice inside my head was yelling and screaming about how that wasn't possible, but I was too focused on keeping the sword from going any deeper into my arm to listen.

I grabbed the edge of the blade still buried in my Pip Boy with my cybernetic hand, and tried to throw him off. The blade came free, and I hit him in his helmet with a metal elbow. Something snapped, and it wasn't me... this time. I had to get away before he could swing that thing again. I kicked off the ground and activated the jets in my boots...

"What the " The jets were on full-blast, but I wasn't going anywhere. I looked back, and my blood ran cold: Lanius was holding onto my left jet boot with an iron grip, keeping me fixed in place. Keeping me from escaping.

"Stop buzzing, insect," he growled right before smashing his fist wrapped around the handle of his sword against my rocket boots. Sparks exploded with every strike, and I could feel the metal snap and buckle inward, sending shards of jagged metal slicing into my leg. Before I could grab any of my weapons or find a way to wriggle free, he tossed me aside like a ragdoll... but the jet from my right rocket boot was still on.

"SON OF A BIIIIIITCH!" I screamed, careening through the air wildly out of control. I couldn't get the right boot to shut down...

SCHLUUNK!

"AUGH!" I screamed, as a white-hot pain stabbed through my midsection. It was like that one time in the Sierra Madre when a Ghost Person shoved a blade straight through my shoulder, only about a thousand times more intense. My vision started to blur around the edges, and I clutched desperately at my gut... and the gigantic piece of bloody rebar impaling me. It was clean through my midsection, even breaking through the Gun Runner armor. Off in the distance, Lanius started advancing on me again.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need those right away," I said. I hung my head and sighed, continuing to clutch the wound at my side. The stimpack had only taken me so far, and the hole kept splitting open... But I grit my teeth and ignored it just as I felt a hand pat my shoulder several times.

"Not a bad bit've work, I'd say," Cass laughed, giving my shoulder a shake. I wobbled unsteadily, but did my best to retain my balance. Cass furrowed her brow at me and looked concerned. "Y'alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied through my teeth, just as the marching boots got louder and louder. Eventually, the owners of the footsteps emerged from behind one of the walls and into view. It was a platoon of NCR Rangers in Black Armor, flanking a tall man with a large beer gut and wearing a General's uniform complete with peaked cap, an officer's long coat, four stars on his collar and an NCR bear tie clip keeping his olive-green tie from flapping in the wind. Even though it was obvious who he was, the nametag above his left shirt pocket identified him as "OLIVER" just the same.

General Wait-And-See himself had finally deigned to make an appearance. Typical. The NCR doesn't show up in force until all the hard work is done. Time to take these fuckers down a peg or three.

"I got this," I said, waving Cass off, and moving forward to meet the General halfway. He surveyed the carnage all around us, and let out a satisfied whistle.

"Been a long time since I've seen the kind of work you've laid down here today," he said, clearly working under the misapprehension that we were allies. "Damn long time. And the screams of those Legion bastards as they kicked dirt, running East? Like a choir of angels to my ears!" I held back a smirk. Guess nobody told him that I wasn't taking prisoners. "Speaking of that crazy lightshow over the Fort? What the fuck was that? Some kind of thumb from God you called down? Amazing. Fucking amazing."

"I know," I said simply. He laughed, apparently not understanding that I was making fun of him.

"Could use a hundred of you!" he continued. "Just scatter you over the East like jacks, give those plumed fucks the what-for!"

"Yeah, you think that's great?" I chuckled... which ended up being more of a cough, really. "Trust me Oliver... you won't believe what happens next..."

Precisely on schedule and exactly what I was hoping for when I had Yes Man send them this way a good twenty or thirty securitrons all seemed to appear from nowhere. The Rangers in Black Armor seemed to look around nervously, as they realized their escape route was now effectively cut off. Oliver's eyes went wide in confusion and alarm.

"And... uh..." he coughed nervously. "Well. These, uh... are these boys with you?" He cleared his throat again, tugging at his collar. "Uh... hello there, uh, smiley."

"Hello!" Yes Man's voice sounded off from a securitron directly behind me. Oliver laughed nervously, walking closer to me. Maybe he thought they wouldn't fire if they were worried about collateral damage? He cleared his throat again, and started to reach into his coat as he spoke.

"Guess it ain't no secret how you..." he froze mid-sentence when he realized that the securitrons behind him had all draw their weapons. "Uh... I say, can you ask them to put their weapons down? Was just... reaching in my coat to give you a cigar, that's all." As if to prove his point, he pulled out his hand, clutching a metal cigar tube, and held it aloft. I looked back at Cass, who just smiled and shook her head.

"Listen, Oliver," I coughed again, and I could start to feel a bit of blood pooling up inside the bottom of my helmet. "The Dam is won... for Vegas. The NCR was already in full retreat by the time I showed up, so I'd say you and the Legion have both lost. I suggest you leave before my 'boys' open fire on your men."

Oliver dropped the cigar in his hands and looked at me with shock and indignation. His mouth curled into a snarl, and his brow furrowed into a nasty scowl.

"I would sooner spit on the grave of my dead mother than let some courier-walk-the-wasteland-fuck like you talk to me like that. Who the fuck do you think you are? You looking to 'cash your chips' to the sound of NCR bullets, huh? I can oblige." I sighed. Of course the shithead wasn't going to do this the easy way.

"Last chance, Oliver," I grumbled. "Leave on your feet... or leave wrapped in your flag. Your choice." Oliver clenched his teeth. Obviously, he wasn't used to people disregarding him with such contempt.

"Do you really want to do this, sonny? You really think I'm gonna make tracks out of here, head back West with my tail between my legs with nothing to show for it?" he growled at me through his clenched teeth. "No. I came for a fight today, and if you're lookin' to make me budge, then you better have a damn good left hook, because I'm not going anywhere." I chuckled and shook my head, which just seemed to piss him off more. "Something funny?"

"What, you think these robots are the only Ace up my sleeve?" I asked with a laugh that gave way to a cough. "If you think that's true, then you really are as dumb as you look!" Oliver sneered at me in disgust.

"Yeah, well, right now, they're all that's standing here 'cept for the corpses." He snorted derisively and folded his arms across his chest. "So, that's your plan? Hold the Dam here all by your lonesome?"

"While the Boomers fly west in their fully armed B-29?" I shrugged, chuckling again. "Yeah, that works for me."

General Oliver's jaw dropped, and all the color seemed to drain from his face.

"They... they wouldn't," he practically whispered. I shrugged again.

"Are you so sure about that? After all, I only suggested they come down to visit Hoover Dam, and then, the next thing you know..." I mimed an explosion with my hands. "Boom." Oliver's eye twitched. "Face it, Oliver. I'm holding a Full House, and all you've got are a pair of twos."

"This has been a fuck of a day," he muttered under his breath before shaking his head and attempting to rally one last time. "Do you know what you're doing? Making a nation like you think you're doing ain't a walk in the park, boy. Think you got the guts to carve out a frontier? Build towns, protect the roads, run supplies, train troops?" I just laughed again.

"Can't do a worse job than you idiots, that's for damn sure," I said, clutching my side again and hoping that I wasn't being too obvious. It was really starting to bleed badly again.

"You motherfucker..." Oliver said, backing up again but not so far that he wasn't able to point at my face. "You need to seriously think about what you're doing here. Because you're not just pissin' on me you're pissin' on the Bear. The claw of the Bear cuts deep... and I think you've been far enough West to know just how far that claw stretches. When the NCR comes at you again and we will we won't stop coming until we get what's ours. So you best pray you're ready, because if our situations are ever reversed, I'll see you hang." I shook my head.

"Nuts," I sighed, turning to the large and imposing robot next to me. "Yes Man? Please throw the 'good' General off the Dam." Several of the Black Armor troops started to raise their rifles only to be turned into superheated piles of ash by the securitons all around. The rest dropped their weapons and put their hands in the air.

"Gladly!" Yes Man said, rolling around me with his claw arm outstretched. Oliver started backing away again.

"Wh- what the hell?! No, get get away from AGH!" His frantic screams were suddenly muffled as the claw wrapped itself around his head; Oliver started squirming as Yes Man picked him up and started carrying him away.

"Hello, General Oliver!" Yes Man said happily to the man struggling against his metal grip. "The disappointment you are about to experience delights me!" It didn't take long for the muffled screams of Oliver to fade away as he was carried off into the distance. One by one, everyone seemingly started to disperse, while I stood fixed in place.

I don't think I could've moved if I even tried. I was finally starting to feel extremely dizzy. The blood was really flowing heavily out of my gut wound now. Behind me, I heard Cass laugh out loud.

"Fuck me, man!" Cass said, between bouts of laughter. "Remind me t'get you some polish later fer those massive brass balls o'yers! Fuck sake!" Eventually, her laughter began to die down before coming to a halt completely. "... Shea? Sheason? Are y'alright, man?"

That was around the time I lost my balance, and fell flat on my back. I hit the ground with a loud, heavy thud. But it didn't really feel too bad... probably because I'd lost a lot of feeling, along with all the blood.

"Oh, fuck! Sheason!" I heard Cass say from somewhere above me. As I laid there against the ground, I felt hands clutch at me. "Shea! Say something?!" The hands reached up and unbuckled my helmet, pulling it free of my head... but I could barely see anything. My vision was too cloudy with blood.

At first, I couldn't speak. I was too exhausted. And this ground was really comfortable. Cass took my face in her hands, and lifted me up off the ground; I looked up at her and gave her a weak smile.

"S'been... hell've... ride..." I muttered weakly. I tried to lift my hand, but I was far too weak to move. I was just so tired...

"God damnit! Don't you even think about it, you selfish fuck!" she shouted, holding me close; with every second, her voice seemed to grow more distant. "No! No, we ain't done yet, you son of a bitch! Sheason! Sheason!? Fuck sake!"

My vision faded into darkness. Every sound around me drifted away into silence. Every part of me turned cold.

I just wanted to sleep.