Ellen Park, the Lone Wanderer

"Oh, I leave them precisely where the colony's queen lays them- in the hatchery," says the man. He eyes Spoon uncertainly before continuing. "Unfortunately it seems my calculations contained an error that caused the specimens to develop a new biomechanism, pyrosis, rather than reducing them to the size of ordinary ants- an ability which makes it more than a little difficult to reach the majority of my equipment."

"Wait," says Ellen. "You seriously think you can make these creatures' next generation that small?"

"Well, perhaps not the next generation, but one extremely proximal to that," says the man, adjusting his glasses. "I estimate a likelihood of about five generational turn-overs before the current oversized cohort is completely replaced by specimens of less than an inch in length."

Ellen glances over at Val, who she knows is far better educated than she- for all the Vault's trying- and then back to the man. "How do you expect something like that to even work?"

"A modified strain of something called the Forced Evolutionary Virus," says the man proudly. "I obtained a sample some time ago and have been attempting to modify it from producing monstrous mutants to rendering organisms significantly smaller and more tractable-"

He goes nattering on, but Ellen turns to the others. "I think we need to find the hatchery," she says, "but I think we also need to be very, very careful what we blow up. If he's using a virus to change these creatures, and we blow stuff up without making sure it all burns, we could get exposed."

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magic_ferret

One of Yuuno's best friends was abused by a mad scientist. Spoon's not the only one with issues.

"Let's- let's just shut this down," he says then taps his headset, "I'll keep an eye out in case Spoon runs into anything that gives him serious trouble."

Then he ducks out to keep watch on the werewolf.

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"Some people," the werewolf says to the boy, "need to fuckin' contract a serious case of fuckin' dead."

There are a number of less structurally sound bits of wall than there were when he came out.

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magic_ferret

Yuuno attempts a should bump to Spoon. It could have gone better.

"Not for us to decide," he says, "All we can do is try and minimize the damage."

Sometimes being support instead of command sucks.

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Spoon takes it in the spirit offered. "Innit the truth."

When he was human, if Yunno was an adult, this would be the point he offered a fag. He doesn't smoke anymore, so he offers a stick of gum instead.

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"... so anyway," says Ellen, cutting off the man's flow of information. "How do you plan on fixing all of this?"

"Well, if I can reach my equipment, I can issue a chemical signal that will cause all the ants of the current brood to immediately begin attacking one another instead of humans- or anything else, for that matter," the man says. "It's the ant queen's nest guardians that make this so difficult, you see. There are five of them- filthy little abominations."

"When you say little-"

"Well, that isn't precisely correct. They're only little by comparison to the queen. I'd say any one of them is probably about as big as your red-skinned friend there."

Ellen winces. "Can they breathe fire too?"

"Oh, most indubitably. But if you can just take out the five of them and come back here, I'll issue that inhibitor pulse and there won't be any more trouble from these creatures what-so-ever."

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"Only five?" Red grins. "Piece of cake."

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time_dancer

Val's been listening to the man and it all sounds reasonable except..."I assume you have a way of keeping the virus from mutating? You are sure it can not infect humans or other animals? And how far away is the nest? Is it easy to get to from here?"

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"Oh, the FEV is highly resistant to the random vagaries of simple mutation," says the man. "It requires deliberate manipulation or exposure to massive quantities of radiation before it mutates on its own. This particular strain has been tailored solely to latch onto insectile DNA, since I'm only interested in working with the ants. As far as the nest goes, it's through that door right there-" He gestures to the door in the opposite wall of his overstuffed, tiny little lab. "Down the long corridor, to the left, and then through the gap in the wall that leads into unfinished stone tunnels. You can't possibly miss it."

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"Depending on the size of the lair... I can make it cave in with a few detonations in the right places." Squish queen.

The talk about this 'FEV' thing? Way too creepy to be commented on.

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"No caving anything in until he's issued that pulse," says Ellen. "If he can really make the ants kill themselves from that terminal, we won't have to fight our way through them to get out of here."

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Tanya raises a brow at Ellen. "Of course." Specially since making the queen's lair cave in would mean being there...

Already past any guardian ants.

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"So let's go do some pest control."

Sticking his head out of the lab he calls out, "Hey, Spoon! We got some guardian ants to take care of. Big like me, outta be fun."

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time_dancer

"Yep, he's just like Uncle Ben," Val thinks as she checks the charge in her armor, which is doing well.

"If the Guardian's antennas are injured will they react like the scouts and soldiers?" she asks the scientist. "I'm ready."

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"Sounds like a plan." Spoon agrees, putting the pack of gum away and stretching.

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"Oh, any ant specimen will react that way when deprived of their primary organs of lateral sense," says the scientist. "At least in my own experience thus far."

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Tanya listens, pondering what would happen if she shot off, say... the left antenna and a right leg.

She plans to find out. "Never imagined I would be doing bug hunting with firearms."

"Or almost having fun with it."

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"Really? I mostly learned how to shoot by hunting radroaches," says Ellen. "They're about the size of one of my calves... if everyone's ready, let's go."

The other door out is unlocked whenever Hellboy or Spoon opens it, and leads on into another maintenance tunnel like the one they just left. The air here is more chill and stale, and the fungal patches on the walls aren't always glowing- although there's still enough dim green light to see by before Ellen turns on her Pip-Boy's flashlight.

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"Only 'almost'?" Red grins at Tanya. He's obviously having quite a good time.

Opening the door he steps out and starts moving along the tunnel.

"Hey, Ellen, these glowy plants, are they toxic or anything?"

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"Not that I know of," Ellen calls back. "Out here they're probably irradiated, though, so don't eat them unless you want to go through decontamination and chelation when this is all over."

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"Lass, you have got one fucked up world." Spoon murmurs, gliding along behind Red and flipping through vision modes.

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time_dancer

Val follows along taking up the rear as before and on guard. She start to imagine shapes which could be useful against the ants and then remembers a video game her brother Franklin played.

If anyone could tell when Val makes her force fields, they'd notice she is now holding one shaped like the "swords" used in Final Fantasy. It's not very sharp but still, it'll crack ants well enough.

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There are a handful of ants in the maintenance tunnels- they're about Ellen's size or a little larger, so they're obviously not the nest guardians. But they're still there, and at the sight of the oncoming humans (and others) they start bracing themselves to spit fire.

This is probably a very bad day to be an ant.

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Tanya's gun whispers a little song of death, and four bullets fly, expertly aimed as far away from Spoon as possible and perfectly at antennas and leg joints.

Two ants should be finding the day even less fun now.

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