Scrapyard Revisited

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The cool indoor air of Milliways abruptly gives way to the blazing dry heat of an August afternoon. The only thing between the sun and the ground here is a couple of circling scavenger birds; it's been a long while since rain fell on the scrapyard that sprawls in all directions. Mostly the sun beats down on the gutted, rusted wrecks of what used to be cars, but there are former cargo trailers and the remains of trains and trucks scattered about the place as well.

"The people we're going to cover up are off to the right," Ellen warns quietly. "Just so you know."

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All right, then," Ellen says. "Let's get started."

It's a long trudge through the dusty desert sands and scrubby, twig-dry brush of the Wasteland, but it's not as if they have any other opportunities, is it. And at least the building is getting closer, even if they do have to climb up a long, twisting path to get to the top of the ridge. In better times it was a paved road; now it's all broken. At least it's mostly flat.

When they reach the top, there's an open plaza with a leafless, long-dry tree in the middle. A column with bits of brick poking out of it gives mute evidence to the location of a long-ago office complex's presence. Some yards away, there are mostly intact buildings.

And, in the open street between the buildings, there are voices:

"-never get away with terrorizing this town! Not while it's under the protection of the Mechanist!"

The speaker is a man in crude silver and black armor, and a helmet that looks as if it just wants to go back to being a bucket. He's flanked on one side by a hovering robot with three dangling arms and three perked-up optic sensors all coming off a central olive-green ball the size of a human torso, and on the other by a brushed metal robot with a vaguely humanoid upper body balanced on three equally spaced legs, each terminating in a wheel. Behind him, a third robot resembling a tin can on tire treads, with what appears to be a human brain under a dome of glass, waves its floppy hoselike arms threateningly. The speaker is addressing someone across the street, a woman in ...

... er.

Well, The Flea would recognize the design of her helmet, but the rest of her outfit just screams 'villainness with a glue gun and a lot of time on her hands'. She's surrounded by ants. Big ones. Bigger than Dogmeat. And she tosses her head back and sneers: "You and your pathetic tin cans are no match for my army!" before laughing.

Tyler's heard that laugh before. Zodon was a prime example.

[basic_powers]

...Tyler is thinking only one thing right now and it mostly involves kicking the multiverse in general in whatever it calls a shin. And staring, because these guys are making Captain Chronos look like the very perfect picture of mental health.

"Ellen?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The citizens of this town have nothing to fear! The Mechanist is here to protect them!"

"... I don't know either, Tyler."

[basic_powers]

"...they're both crazy Ellen. Very. Very. Crazy."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'd noticed," Ellen says.

"Ha! We'll see about that! Attack, my ant soldiers! Destroy this fool and his tin toys!"

"I kind of think everybody on the surface is, at this point."

"Go forth, my steadfast creations! Show these vermin humanity's true power!"

As the robots open fire on the ants, Ellen adds, "Maybe they'll kill each other. Then we can start trying doors."

[basic_powers]

"These two are a special different kind of crazy." Tyler replies, backing up as the explosions begin. "The kind you want to be at least fifty feet away from."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Sounds like a good idea," Ellen agrees, and starts backing up.

"Face it, Mechanist! Humans and their toys are done for. They killed themselves off with their petty wars!" shouts the woman in the ant getup- from the opposite side of the street from the ongoing battle.

"Humans may be weak sometimes, but our creations are strong and pure- something you'll never be!" the man answers, as the hovering robot sets an ant near him aflame.

"Fool! Humanity's creations were the seeds of their undoing. And now, the world will belong to the AntAgonizer!"

"You'd think she'd notice that the ants are all dead," Ellen observes.

[basic_powers]

"It's a supervillian and a superhero dialogue." Tyler says wearily. "They have to trade threats before they part ways."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

And parting ways is exactly what they do- the AntAgonizer bolting off and away to the north, the Mechanist staring for a second, shaking his fist briefly, and then running southward with his robots in tow. In the silence that follows as Ellen stares, a bald man in a threadbare but still respectable pre-War blue shirt and pair of faded pants jogs up. "Are you all right?" he asks. "You aren't hurt, are you?"

[basic_powers]

"...no...but I really, really need to use the bathroom." Tyler replies looking up at the man uncomfortably.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Not a problem," says the man. "Right this way- there's a working latrine just off Joe's Diner." He starts leading the way into town. "I'd like to apologize for the rude welcome, by the way. Those two have been a bit of a... um... problem, lately."

"It's all right," says Ellen. "Where are we, please?"

"Canterbury Commons, for what that's worth," says the man. "Name's Roe. Uncle Roe, to most. You?"

"Ellen Park. From Megaton."

"Oh, where Moira Brown went?" says Roe. "I haven't been there in years. And yourself?" The last is directed at Tyler.

[basic_powers]

"I'm Tyler Marlocke, sir."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Roe nods. "Good to meet you both," he says. "I-"

He pauses; he's peering at Ellen's forearm. Her left forearm, specifically. The one with the Pip-Boy.

"O-ho," he finally says. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but Megaton's not your original home, is it?"

"No, sir," Ellen admits, "but... well, Three Dog..."

"Yes, we started getting Galaxy News Radio broadcasts again a while ago," Roe says. "You're a bit of a celebrity around here, you know."

"I was kind of afraid of that," Ellen says resignedly. "Can we talk about this after we find the bathroom?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," says Roe. "Here you go, Tyler."

[basic_powers]

"Thank you, Mr. Roe, sir." Tyler says hurriedly, hustling inside of the...

Oh. Oh MAN.

He's just going to do his business in the porta-potty as quickly as possible, before he fails a saving throw against throwing up from the stink.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

By the time Tyler emerges Ellen is deep in conversation with Roe, who's explaining about the escalation of fights between the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer. She does, however, look up. "You okay, Tyler?"

[basic_powers]

"I'm a lot better now, thank you." He does look quite a bit more relieved. "Do those crazy people in costumes come around often?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All the time," says Roe gloomily. "It's getting worse these days, though. They're scaring off the caravans, at this rate."

[basic_powers]

"Hasn't anyone tried asking the Mechanist to stop?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Nobody's had much luck finding him," says Roe. "You might want to talk to Joe at the diner about him, though. Or my nephew Derek. He's a little younger than you. Claims he knows everything there is to know about them. Are you offering?"

That might be a hint of desperation in his voice.

[basic_powers]

...oh great. Tyler looks up at Ellen for a moment, before looking at Roe.

"I don't suppose you've got a helmet and some padding in my size?" He's pretty sure he's got a spare toolkit in his backpack somewhere...but armor would be really nice.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"As a matter of fact I do," says Roe. "Crow, the armor merchant, leaves part of his inventory here in town during some of his trips around the Wasteland. I believe he's got a few items that should fit you just fine. I was going to offer you two hundred caps for getting those two lunatics to stop their fighting, but I think I can see my way clear to throwing in armor and a helmet as an advance."

[basic_powers]

"Thanks." Tyler glances up at Ellen again. "I think I've got gear to handle robots...but I'm not carrying much that could kill giant ants."

Ellen want to take on the giant ugly ants and Tyler can take on the hero?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"As long as they don't breathe fire, I can handle them," Ellen says. "Joe, you said?"

"Indeed I did," says Roe. "Thank you both, by the way. This is going to make a big difference to this town, if you can pull it off."

[basic_powers]

"I don't doubt that." Tyler says looking over at where the battle was met. "Where's Derek?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Hanging around the garage about this time of day," says Roe, indicating a dilapidated building down the street from the roofless, half-rusted Dot's Diner. "Try not to get him too excited, though? He gets ideas into his head sometimes."