aaaaaaaagh_sky | Museum Station

Annabelle will no doubt recognize the cast of the sunlight and the thin dry feel of the air when she and Ellen emerge at last from the reeking Metro tunnels. They're on the opposite side of the Mall from last time, though, and the steps up on this side aren't anywhere near the same- they're rusted, corroded, two-hundred-year-old escalator steps, frozen in place with the weight of time and decay. "I don't hear too much from here," Ellen reports, "but I'm all out of Stealth Boys, so we'd better be careful. There might be mutants."

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From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

By the time Annabelle gets there, there's only one mutant left; the other two are not so much greenskins any more as they are Extra Crispy Skins. God bless that alien gun.

And God bless that sniper rifle, too; the other mutant was in a frothing, berserker rage, the kind where you just don't notice that your lower leg is no longer functional because you're just that angry. We say 'was', of course, because berserker rage is great but doesn't really cover noticing the absence of most of your head.

"Thanks," says Ellen, looking up. "Um. Is any of that yours this time?"

From:

aeons_crackshot

"You're welcome," Annabelle says with a smile.

"Nope, not this time. A mutant got rather close before I blew his head off," she adds with a shake of her head.

"If I look as bad as I think I do, I'm going to give those mercenaries a bit of a start," she adds with a chuckle.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"I'd say I'd seen worse," Ellen says, "but I don't like lying. Wow. As long as you're sure you're okay, we should keep on moving. Oh, and watch out for trip-wires. I thought I heard an explosion- Reilly's people might've rigged up some traps or something."

From:

aeons_crackshot

Annabelle grins at Ellen's statement that she doesn't like lying. "I'm sure that I'm okay to keep going," she replies.

She nods in response to her mention of trip-wires. "I would have, if I were in their position. I'll keep an eye out for them."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

The hallway itself isn't too bad from here to the end. At least, thanks to Annabelle spotting the dangling bundle of grenades, it's not. The tripwire trigger for the things turns up around the same time Ellen cuts the last one down; that could have been very ugly indeed.

She presses her ear very, very cautiously against the stairwell door to listen for trouble. "Something in there," she murmurs. "I think it's a greenskin, not a tongue monster."

From:

aeons_crackshot

"If you can get the door open for me, I should be able to take it down before it has much of a chance to attack us," Annabelle says quietly.

"I'd get the door myself, but I need both hands to handle the rifle."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Silently, Ellen nods. She'll open the door on three, two, one....

From:

aeons_crackshot

Surprise! Well, surprise for the mutant, anyway. It turns at the sound of the door opening, which presents Annabelle with a nice target.

*Bang!*

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"You'll nevaaaagh...."

As the thing slumps to the ground, Ellen edges past Annabelle to peer up the stairs. "Oh," she says. "There's a dead human up there. And what looks like a big ammo case. I... think we may be down by one Ranger."

From:

aeons_crackshot

They keep saying that, and it's still wrong.

"Damn," Annabelle says, sorrowful. "We should find out who he is, if we can."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen nods and creeps forward, checking up the stairs. Then she nods to Annabelle; there's nothing coming. She settles to rummaging through the dead man's pockets, murmuring her apologies as she rolls him over. He doesn't look good- it was a grenade that got him. Eventually, she locates a stamped metal disc on a chain. "Theo Cheng," she says. "Quartermaster."

She glances up the stairs.

"We should grab the ammo case. If the others are still alive, they're going to need it."

From:

aeons_crackshot

"That would explain why he had the ammunition case," Annabelle says with a nod. "Do you want me to carry it?"

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"If it won't slow you down," says Ellen. "I can handle it otherwise."

Regardless of who winds up carrying it, Ellen murmurs a few final words over Theo's body and nudges the door to the next floor of the Statesman open. She glances ahead, right, left-

"Left is blocked. Ahead has a collapsed ceiling. Tongue monster right."

From:

aeons_crackshot

Annabelle nods and stows the ammunition case somewhere in her pack, so she has both hands free for the rifle.

She's solemn but watchful as Ellen says her piece over the fallen man.

"Business as usual," Annabelle says dryly. "That thing won't be blocking our way for long." Mr. Sniper Rifle is seeing lots of use today.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Just keep that trigger finger ready," Ellen says. "They're never-"

"WE! ARE! THE! FUTURE!"

"-alone. Your choice of target," Ellen says resignedly, and opens fire on the rearmost of the two greenskins who've stepped into the hallway behind the tongue thing.

From:

aeons_crackshot

Annabelle would be tempted to sigh a bit herself, but she's busy firing on the greenskin in the front.

When she hits him, his body will fall backwards, possibly hitting the mutant behind.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

You know, if there were maybe two more of them, it'd be a game of Flaming Mutant Dominoes. Unfortunately it's just a couple of flaming bloody mutants, and the one on the bottom's howl of "GET OFF ME!" is quickly replaced by "PAAAAAAAAAIN!", right before his voice gives out.

From:

aeons_crackshot

"Thankfully, they're not blocking the hallway," Annabelle says as she reloads the rifle.

She steps around the corpse that's still gently burning, "I'm guessing we keep heading this way, at least until we find an intersection."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Normally I'd be scavenging the corpses for ammo, but we just don't have time," Ellen says, wrinkling her nose at the smell. "Dogmeat. Put that down. You don't know where it's been."

The dog whimpers and drops the... whatever it had picked up. It's best not to ask.

"An intersection, or a stairwell that's not blocked off," Ellen agrees. "The one we were in wasn't passable any farther up from what I saw, and we've still got a ways to go. See anything promising- any signs, or anything?"

From:

aeons_crackshot

Annabelle peers down the hallway, looking for anything of potential interest. In the distance is something that might have once been a sign with directional arrows painted on it.

"I think I see something down that way that looks like a sign," Annabelle remarks.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"Let's go, then," says Ellen. "Oh, man, I wish I had a Stealth Boy..."

The hallway is dim, but there's light in a few of the rooms, and that and the Pip-Boy light make it possible to spot a few of the explosive traps the Rangers must've set along the way. The traps are the most prominent danger as they approach the sign; it's got directions to the Alfresco Lounge Rooftop Restaurant on it...

"TIME TO KICK SOME ASS!" Ellen's armor suddenly roars. The chatter of a supermutant's assault rifle splits the air from behind them as she spins around in surprise.

From:

aeons_crackshot

Annabelle would swear when the sound of the assault rifle splits the air, but there's no time. No time to think at all, just act.

Years of combat experience send Annabelle lunging toward Ellen, tackling her and rolling to take the impact from the ground with her own back instead of Ellen's poor ribs. Bullets pass through the area where Ellen's head would have been, if she was still standing...

Once they're both safely down, Annabelle rolls a bit to free up her arms and the sniper rifle comes up. "TIME TO MEET YOUR MAKER, GREENSKIN!" she shouts as she fires.

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

"uk!" says Ellen, or something like it. "ARGH!" says the mutant, clear as day. BANG says the rifle, and BANG says the rifle again, and finally SPLAT! says the mutant's head...

This educational moment has been brought to you by the Children's Radio Workshop. Thank you for teaching your children the sounds of the Wasteland!

From:

aeons_crackshot

Once the mutant is dead and the area is clear, Annabelle is free to worry about Ellen. Her torso is complaining about the impact, but she's gotten through fights with far worse injuries. "Are you okay?" she asks, concerned. "I had to get you out of the line of fire in a bit of a hurry..."

From:

aaaaaaaagh_sky

Ellen's grimacing, but she nods. "Good enough," she says. "Thank you. We should... we should get going. Not much time."

And if the sign is to be believed, the Alfresco is one more flight of stairs away.