[b][u][center]Wasteland Claims Part 2 By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b] Vault 99 was a dead place, and in dead places lurked ghosts. In this case, they were less literal and more metaphorical, but it was still hardly a comfortable place to rest for more than a few hours. Spencer woke from another nap, his pack already prepared at his side and filled with all the harvested ammunition, purified water, and packaged food that he had been able to find. Most of it was made of salt and preservatives, but that was fine. He was good with salt. What he was less good with was his new body. Even in a Vault-Tec jumpsuit, it felt like he was on the verge of ripping through it at any moment, and his arms and legs felt entirely too constrained within the tough material. It had enough stretch to it to cover his seven-foot-frame, but it was hardly enough to make him feel good inside of it. No footwear had been found that was big enough for his feet, though. It would have been exceptional enough to find something that would have covered large, scaly feet that were in proportion to his body, but considering that he had longer than average toes, and that his feet seemed to be longer than average with a powerful set of claws on the toes to dig into things – the ground, he hoped, rather than prey – there was no chance of finding anything in the vault to cover them. He’d taken to wrapping them up in bandages, hoping against hope that he’d just look like a dark-skinned mutant rather than the mostly-reptile thing that he had become. He picked up the pack, startled again by the sheer lightness of it. While he wasn’t as strong as a Super Mutant was – or at least, he assumed he wasn’t – there’d been enough of a shift in his biology to make the normally heavy pack light enough to not even bother him. He shouldered the load, then got to his feet – BANG! “OW OW OW OW OW OW!” And immediately fell right back down, covering his horns and whimpering under his breath. Tears tried to flow as he rolled onto his side, pulling his legs up to his chest and curling into a ball as if someone had just kicked him in the nuts. That was the biggest problem with his new abilities. They’d come with horns that were so sensitive that they hurt if they even lightly bumped against something, and he’d just tried to ram them right through the ceiling. “Nnngh…mmmph…” The reptilian creature rolled onto his side, huffing and puffing as he fought down the nausea that had come with the pain, lowering his head against his pillow and taking several deep breaths. “Fuck…fuck…Need to remember…Need to remember that those are there…” It was a huge weakness. It was one thing to go around without a helmet, as most of the wanderers in the Commonwealth did, but it was another thing to have a giant pair of ‘Shoot Here’ signs pushing out from the top of his head. The fact that they were more vulnerable to pain than his balls didn’t make it any better. If they weren’t so good at picking up information… Grumbling, Spencer waited out the echoes of pain in the tips of his horns before finally rolling out of bed. Keeping his head down this time, he stumbled forward out of the room, ignoring the chilly feeling of the cool steel underfoot against his bare feet. [i]Weapons.[/i] He picked up the modified laser rifle that he’d found after another search, the one that he’d leaned against the wall by the door. It was bigger than average for a person, but it was just the right size for a pistol for someone of his height and build. His arms wouldn’t allow him to snipe properly anymore, but he had the feeling that he’d be a bit safer from a gunfight than he used to be, anyway. Radiation, on the other hand… Well, for the moment, he was deciding deliberately not to think about that. Depending on how much of his mutations were created by radiation as well as whatever they were experimenting on down here in the Vault, his current appearance could be more malleable than the average person in the Commonwealth if he got exposed to too much. He’d need to put a priority on Rad-X and Rad-Away for a while. Other than the problems of being mistaken for a mutant, having horns on his head, and being more vulnerable to radiation, however, he figured that he had a pretty good chance of getting by in the Commonwealth. He’d gotten some advantages that nobody else had, and he was pretty sure that it would pay off in the long run. He hoped. Tapping some ammo into his new gun, he made his way through the corridors of the Vault to the exit. It was time to make his way over to Vault 98, and hope that there was nothing in the way. # “…Well…Good to know the scales work…” He grunted as he pulled himself out of the wreckage of a car, finger-claws finding a few pieces of bullet metal still lodged against his chest. The scales had done their job, keeping the bullets from penetrating, but he could feel the bruises that were already forming. His fingers closed around one of the little bundles of metal, and he pulled. “Nnngh!” It popped free of his scales, the tip flattened out and scarred with the pattern of bumpy scales. He shook his head and threw it to the ground. One down, who knew how many more dozens to go? Spencer looked up from his chest to the bodies of the dead raiders around him. They’d come out of nowhere just outside of Wildwood Cemetery, lunging for him and screaming at the top of their lungs to kill the monster. Not too surprising, considering he hadn’t found any headwear to hide his horns just yet, but… He shook his head bowing down to pick up one of the cowboy hats that one of the raiders was wearing. It wasn’t much, and it didn’t [i]entirely[/i] fit on his head, but it was better than nothing. A lot better than nothing. Despite costing him almost a full twenty shots to get rid of, the raiders had been useful in testing out his new abilities. He’d been able to take the shots from their pistols and their pipe rifles, though the latter had definitely tested his new endurance to its limits. He made a note not to get involved with that again, to take cover if anyone was using rifles instead of pistols. More than that, his other ability had proven rather useful, too. The horns had picked them up before his eyes had, and – There was a buzzing tingle that interrupted his train of thoughts. No more than an instant, but it was enough to stop him in his tracks. Something was up ahead, either at the location of Vault 98 or not too far away from it. And if it was putting off that much electricity, he had no doubt that it wasn’t a living thing. [i]Unintended benefits,[/i] he thought. [i]This thing was supposed to be super useful in the water, but as long as people are active, I guess I can sense them out of it, too…and robots…[/i] That was something that he hadn’t planned for, but he sure as hell was going to make use of it. No need to run into things like Assaultrons or Sentry Bots if he could avoid it, and at least this one was some way off. He was halfway through pulling the bullets out of his scales when he realized that the feeling was sparking up again, and that this time, it was closer. Spencer stopped in the middle of pulling the next bullet out, slowly lifting his head towards the ruined house on the horizon, and the hills between him and his destination. Another spark, and this time he saw the laser shots that were firing over the hill. Someone was running, and they were running towards him. “Ah, shit…” There was only one piece of cover that was at all safe, and that was the ruined house. Whoever was running from the robots would be darting right for it, which meant that its use was marginal, at best, but it was better than running back into the cemetery and hoping for the best among the ghouls. Grabbing his gun, he ran as fast as he could, his toes digging into the dirt and kicking it up as he ran, thrusting him forward at a pace that he could never have matched as a human. He slammed into the side of the building harder than he meant to, denting the side and punching a hole in the rotten wood, but that wasn’t his real problem. The hum of electricity was thick in the air, almost painting a picture of what was coming. Not one robot, or two, but three. Three very high-power Assaultrons, each one powering up their lasers for a bigger attack. And under that, the bio-electric signature of someone that was running as fast as their legs could carry them. He felt her before he saw her, someone small, maybe a few inches over five feet in height, carrying way too much metal for her own good. She lunged over the hill and he got a good look. A little woman, rather than a tall girl. She had hair that ran halfway down her back, and she carried tools that were as jury-rigged as her weapons and armor. In her arms, she had some sort of box or case, and she was sweating up a storm as she came running down the hill. The rumblings of the Assaultrons chasing her told him that she must have picked something that had a lot of value to it, otherwise they wouldn’t be so pissed. That value, and their location, meant that he couldn’t afford to let her get away. If it was something to do with the Vault, then he needed it. If not… Well, if not, it might be useful, anyway, and she might be useful, too. The Assaultrons poked their heads over the hill as the human woman was halfway down it, and Spencer poked his head out of cover. He lined up his rifle for the center head, and took the shot. The hum of the laser bolt caught the central Assaultron right as it opened its systems to let loose its own energy beam, the two of them colliding and sliding off each other before his took it right in the core. The explosion was, to put it mildly, spectacular. It also set off enough signals and electric energy in the air that it gave him the mother of all headaches. [i]Fuck, fuck, fuck…[/i] He pressed his hand to his head, groaning as his horns felt like they were swelling beneath the hat, the pain so extensive that he almost forgot the woman that he had saved in the first place. She was slowing down, panting for breath as she looked over her shoulder, and she’d left herself open. If the raiders had still been around, she would have been easy prey to them. Instead, she was easy prey for him. He stepped out from around the house, holding the laser rifle so that it was pointed right at her head. He had no intention of shooting, but there was no way for her to know that. “Don’t move.” She turned, her eyes going wide for a moment before she groaned. “Oh, come on…What did I do?” “Nothing, yet.” “Are you serious right now? I just outran…ugh. What do you want?” “What’s in the case?” he asked, taking a step closer. “None of your business,” she said, hugging it tighter to her chest. “Pretty much all my business. If you had three Assaultrons angry at you…” “…What are you, anyway?” “You know what, if you figure it out, you’re a smarter person than me.” “That’s not…normal,” she muttered as she looked him up and down. “You’re not human, are you?” “Look. I have the world’s worst headache and more ammo than I’ve had in years. I got lasers to burn. I don’t want to talk. I just want to see what you have. I’m trying really, really hard to be reasonable right now.” “And I’m trying to make a living. Do you know how hard it is to make it as a mechanic after the Mechanist came through?” [i]Well, that explains the greasy clothes…[/i] She definitely looked like she hadn’t been doing well. Not starving yet, but definitely more of a drawn look to her face than a healthy woman would have had in her place. Probably a half week or so without food, pushing herself further and further. Also explained all the metal on her, scrap metal and components that could be slotted into things in an emergency. He nodded down at the case again. “That supposed to be your toolbox, then?” “If it is?” “Then it’s not going to do you any harm to open it, is it?” “…Goddamn it, you’re not going to let me go, are you?” “No. Now, if you please?” It was a bit easier to be nicer as the pain in his horns started dissipating. The fact that the explosion was gone now, and certainly nowhere near as much electric energy in the air, was helping a lot. She took one more look towards the cemetery, then gave up and handed him the case. He nodded, keeping the gun pointed at her as he walked back towards the ruins of the house. She followed, unsurprisingly. He put it on one of the half-ruined counters, flicking it open clumsily with his new claws. It was harder to work them than he had expected, but he managed to get it open. It wasn’t a tool set. It was a demo set. His eyes went wide as he realized that he was holding a giant case of explosives, and he slowly turned to face the human woman again. She had her eyes down towards the ground, and he slowly shut the case, much more carefully than he had opened it, and passed it back to her. “Something tells me that you weren’t just wandering around over there.” “Would you believe me if I said that I was just passing through?” “No. Not at all.” “…Dammit.” “You’re carrying enough explosives to blow up Covenant, or Taffington Boathouse.” “Nothing at the boathouse. The Minutemen pulled out of there last week.” “Oh. Were, uh…” “For a while, but I cleared out when they started getting antsy,” the woman said, shaking her head. “They weren’t too keen on me there, not after the robot stuff with the Mechanist, but I kept their turrets running. That was all they cared about, and they had mechanics in the other settlements. Figured I’d get while the getting was good.” “And the explosives?” “Well…” “Come on. I saved your ass just a second ago. You owe me this much.” “…Would you believe that I found a Vault?” A Vault. He’d been hoping to find it himself, but the fact that someone else had already found it, and more, had a plan for getting inside… “You found it?” “Wasn’t that hard. Dug out of the hills, pretty much, and there’s a ton of robots around,” she said with a shrug. “Robots that probably didn’t like you poking around, huh?” “I was curious! Come on, if you were – oh god, how did I miss that? That’s a PipBoy, isn’t it?” She pointed at his arm, and he nodded. And then raised his arm as high as it would go as she lunged for it, knowing that she would do that before she even did. “Come on! That’s not fair. Let me have a look at it.” “Nope.” “It’s a fucking PipBoy! Do you know how rare those things are outside a Vault?” “Yep, that’s why you’re not getting it.” “But I can – you fuck – give it here!” She kept jumping for it, but since he was over seven feet tall and she was barely over five, there was no chance in hell that she was going to get it without knocking him down first, and he didn’t put good odds on her managing something like that. He chuckled a bit to himself as she lunged one way, then the other, jumping off the ground time after time to try and get it. It was rather comical, but all good things had to come to an end. He grabbed her by the arms, holding her off the ground so that she didn’t keep bothering him, then pushed her further away so she couldn’t just kick him. “Look. I’m heading to the Vault. If you want, I can help you get inside, and if you’re a good girl, I’ll let you have some of the goodies in there. But if you start pushing me, I’m going to take all of it.” “Hmmph. I found it. I should get most of it.” “And if there’s a ton of robots inside the Vault, too, just waiting to tear you apart?” “I…I’ll figure something out.” “Uh-huh. And how are you going to do that? What kinda stuff are you going to figure out?” She didn’t seem to have an answer for that, but she certainly had a pout for it, shaking her head and looking down at the ground. “You’re mean.” “I’m just telling it like it is.” He dropped her, and she barely landed on her feet, stumbling back a few steps and catching herself on the burnt wall. She managed to shake it off, grabbing her explosives. “Alright. Let me make sure that I have this straight. I take you to the Vault. You open it. We split everything that’s inside?” “70-30,” he said. “You’re not getting a better deal than that.” “Not without getting in there on my own, I’m not,” she admitted. “Anything else?” “Yeah. I could use a mechanic. You up for a job offer?” “…That’s not what I expected…sure, why not?” “Heh, not even going to ask the terms?” “Hey, you want a mechanic, I need a place to work on machines. Long as you pay me [i]something[/i] and give me food and board, I’m not going to complain.” “Well, you’ll get all that. And more.” He looked her up and down. Despite himself, he had to admit that it’d be nice to have a little company with whatever settlement that he managed to set up. The Vault back home would probably be useful once he was sure that she could be trusted, turning her into something that would be able to survive the Commonwealth that much more reliably. That said, he imagined that she could do better than most the way she already was, so… Well, he’d see how it went. Maybe he’d even get a little fun out of her. “So, Taffington Boathouse is abandoned, huh?” “Yeah, cleared out last week. Why?” “We’re gonna need a place to stay while we clear out the Vault. Guarantee you that it’s not going to be a one-day job.” “Been in many Vaults lately?” “Yep. It’s got more stuff in it than you can haul away in a week. We’re gonna want a safe place to stash it all.” “…Let’s hope that they didn’t rip all the goods out of the house, then. You know the way?” Spencer nodded. “Then let’s go. I’m Nic, by the way.” “That short for anything?” “Maybe I’ll tell you later, if you pay me what I’m worth.” # The boathouse was better off than he thought it was, though Nic seemed to have a great deal of complaining to do about the way that the Minutemen had left the place. All the turrets had been scrapped for parts, though the machineguns looked like they’d be set up again before long. The water purifier in the river was dead in the water, and the power generators to keep it going were shot. That said, there were still some mutfruit trees in the front garden, and there were some pumps for water when all was said and done. Not great, but better than the nothing that Spencer had been expecting from what she said. A bit of exploration did reveal one slight problem, however. There was only one bed, and there were no immediate ways of making another. He looked down at Nic, and she looked up at him. “No way am I staying on the floor [i]again,[/i]” she said. “I’ve been sleeping rough for nights. I get the bed.” “You might want to remember that I’m the one that saved you.” “What, you get the bed then? Fat chance.” “You know, we could share it.” “…” She looked him up and down, then up again, then down again. He knew that the jumpsuit that he was wearing was tearing, but he didn’t think he was quite that on-display just yet. “You want me to sleep with you?” “Not [i]quite[/i] where I was going with that, but I’d not complain if you were willing. I mean, you don’t look bad yourself.” As soon as the compliment was past his lips, she was burning bright red, turning her head away and staring at the floor as if he had said some unforgiveable insult rather than a simple statement of truth. And she did look good. Yeah, she was dirty and she needed a bath, but that was hardly an unforgiveable crime. Hell, he probably did the same at this point, particularly after getting shot up as bad as he had been. “Something the matter?” “Just…mmph. Shut up.” “What, for calling you pretty?” “Shut up…shut up…” She blushed worse and worse every time that he gave her a compliment, and he smirked a bit at her. “Oh, is something the matter?” the great lizard said, pinching her cheek with two clawed fingers. “Did nobody call you pretty before?” “God…you…I swear, you call me that again, and I’m going to shoot you in the stomach!” “Preeeeetty.” “GAH!” Instead of shooting him, she threw herself on the bed, burying her head in the single pillow that they had. She muttered something, something which could have been ‘I’m not here,’ and Spencer did the only thing that he could think of at that point. He laughed. It only seemed to make Nic burrow further into her sheets, grumbling under her breath, her boots barely sticking out from the bottom of the blankets. He reached down, pulling the blanket off of her as he continued giggling, and rolled her over. “God, you…you’re just precious, aren’t you? Are you that sensitive to compliments?” “Well, nobody’s given me any…” “And you’re just going to be that cute about it?” “Well, come on. I’m just a greasy woman. Not like anyone wants someone like that, except to fix stuff.” “Heh, well, if you’re willing, I got something you could ‘fix.’” He nodded down towards the crotch of his jumpsuit, and her eyes followed. Just as soon as she did, they went wide. “Oh…my…god…” “Heh, well, I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d sleep with you, if you wanted it. Might threaten you for some goods, but not the raping sort. But if you want it…” He smiled, the great, horned reptile flexing his crotch muscles. Normally, it would have just made an already-hard cock bounce. In this case – RIIIIIIP! The simple flex made his dick rip right through his jumpsuit, leaving the crotch completely torn. He probably shouldn’t have done that, but the suit was already ripped to hell and back anyway. He doubted that they’d be having much in the way of visitors, and he doubted that any of them would expect a ‘beast’ like him to be wearing clothes, anyway. His cock, a shaft that stood out about thirteen inches from his crotch, was covered in little ridges running down the side of it, little whorls of flesh that made it thicken and then pull in, making for a number of different little features to someone that happened to ride it. There was a hint of a knot at the base, something that would probably get bigger over time. Not that he knew for sure, as he hadn’t experimented with it since the transformation, but… He moved a bit closer, and she didn’t pull away. If anything, she seemed more fascinated with it as she leaned in and touched it. No sooner had she put her hands on it, though, than she groaned, panting softly as she pulled them back. Some slime stuck to her fingers, and he smelled her get more…interested. Hell, he could almost feel it as her bio-electric signature changed a little bit, getting more excited, more active. “Mmmph…That’s…that’s huge…and…God…what is this…” “It’s just a bit of slime. Good for lubrication, but…well, kinda good for getting people in the mood…and a little suggestive.” “Great…you got a…a date rape dick,” she said, her eyes half-closed in what looked like tiredness, but with a groan of need that was slowly pouring from her lips, too. “Damn…You know…now I have to…” “You don’t have to do anything…but you sure as hell want to…” He smiled, hooking his fingers into her pants. “And so do I.” It didn’t take long to get her out of her clothes, to have all that pale flesh properly exposed. For all that she had been living in the radiated wasteland of the Commonwealth, she must have been living inside or underground for a long time, because she was pale as one could possibly imagine. As she spread her legs, showing off curves and softness that were a perfect invitation to any rough male, he smiled and slid between them. “Wait, wait,” she muttered. “What?” he asked, a bit surprised that she could hold back. “Just…let me get in a different position…doggy works better for me.” “Heh…want to be taken like the pretty bitch you are?” She blushed, but didn’t disagree as she got on all fours. She arched her back, spreading her legs, her ass giving the slightest of jiggles. She must have been fairly well fed at one point, particularly since she’d lost some weight in her face but not down there. Well fed, but not fat. Just enough to have some ripple to her in the best places. And considering their size difference she’d need the cushion for the pushing. He slid his cock between her thighs, and she moaned, her back arching slightly, her folds dampening as he brought his cock between them. The soft flesh was so different from his own hard scales, and the contrast in and of itself was enough to turn him on all the more. He felt her shivering under him, particularly as he gripped her with his claws. Her eyes widened, her pussy drenched. “Mmm, you like it rough?” “Mmmph…it’s…it’s in a fantasy or two, yeah.” “Heh…tell you what. I’ll go rough as you like if you tell me your full name.” “Nnngh…you’re asking about that now?” He rubbed his cock against her sex, and she gasped again, her eyes going wide as he teased her, the fluids coming off his cock and even off his hands starting to sink into her, filling her with need. But it was more than that. He had asked the machine back at Vault 99 to give him that little mutation, to turn the fluids that came off his hands, feet, and other membranes into something that was soporific, a bit hypnotic. However, he hadn’t quite expected it to become something that was this [i]arousing.[/i] The way that it turned her on was getting to him, too. [i]Gonna need to be careful. If I can control people that easily…[/i] It would be good to keep things running smoothly, but he didn’t want to be that kind of boss. He just wanted things to be good. Give people somewhere safe. But if he could have a little fun, too… [i]No. She didn’t started wanting it when she saw it, not when she touched it. This isn’t THAT. Not this time.[/i] So, he lowered himself down over her, bringing his cock against her sex, and he slowly, ever so teasingly, pushed in. He felt her spreading, felt her gasping as her body was made to take something that it probably had never felt before. Spencer reached around her, fondling her breasts. “Come on, tell me,” he whispered, rolling her breasts against her chest, against his hands, letting the chemicals seep in and arouse her a bit further. “Tell me, or I’ll pull out.” “Mmmph…goddammit, you son of a bitch…” “You want to be used hard?” “Yes…” “You want me to make you feel like a good little bitch? A pretty little slut?” “Nnngh…you know I do…” “Then tell me what your name is. Just let me hear what Nic’s short for, and I’ll give you everything you can handle.” “Fuck…fuck you…Fine! It’s Nicola, happy?” “Heh…I like Nic better. But you know what I like best?” “Mmmph…what?” He leaned in, gently stroking his claws against her neck. She shivered, clenching down around the head of his cock, her breath catching in her throat. Chuckling, he whispered right beside her ear, taking a gamble. “[i]Slave…[/i]” “Ah!” She sucked in a breath, her eyes going wide…and she [i]came[/i] right then and there, her pussy clenching down on the head of his cock as she squirted onto the bed. She immediately went red, apologizing. He couldn’t have that. Slamming in so hard that she fell over, face in the pillow, he took her, rutted her, let her feel how it felt to be taken by someone that could read her every response, sense how her body was building up the pleasure, how she needed to be used. He didn’t believe in true slavery, not the way that raiders did, but…she had definitely liked the idea. Maybe it was something he could build on over time. [b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]