Courier woke up the next day in his room which he returned to the night before. He got up and dressed up in his clothes and armor before grabbing his pistol and putting it on. He left the rest of his items in the room planning to teach Chrysalis how to shoot a gun. He knocked on the door to Chrysalis's room and waited. "Please wait a minute." She called out. A couple of minutes later and Chrysalis opened the door. "Yes?" She asked him.

"I'm heading down to get some food. Would you like to join me?" He asked her. She thought about it for a minute before nodding. "Grab your laser pistol and the mirofusion cells for it. I plan have us stay in town for a day to teach you how to use it. While I would like to go after the checkered man you learning how to shoot is higher on the list and doing it here will be safer." He told her. Chrysalis was surprised by what he said but after thinking about it had to conclude that he was correct. Besides things may end up with her having to to fight at range and she would not have to rely on just her magic when the time comes.

After she grabbed the pistol and cells the two headed downstairs. They checked the room where the tables were but found it as it was the day before so they headed to the kitchen. Courier checked the food before grabbing a box of Yum Yum Deviled Eggs, Gecko meat, and Banana Yucca fruit. He past a fruit to Chrysalis before he started cooking the eggs and meat eating a fruit as well. A few minutes later they where done and he put them on two plates and set them on a table. Chrysalis grabbed two bottles of clean water. As the two ate some of the townspeople joined them heading into the kitchen to make food before picking a table to eat at while talking to each other.

They were joined by Beagle. "You mind if I join you?" He asked them. When they nodded he sat down. "So what are you two going to do now?" He asked them.
"I'm going to teach Chrysalis how to use a gun. There isn't many from where she came from thus the sword she has." Courier told Beagle which he figured from what little Chrysalis has said about it. She nodded in agreement as she thought about telling Courier more about herself later and the fact she is more than likely from another world than this one.

"I see. Well if you are going to do it out of town be careful. We get ferals wondering in from the desert from time to time from the sounds of our town, hell I'm not going to be surprised if we get a good number during the next few days from the gun shots of the fights during the last couple of days." Beagle said unhappy with the thought of dealing with ferals wanting to relax and things to settle back down.

"If we encounter any we'll deal with them." Courier told him. Beagle give a nod of thanks before leaving the table.

Courier and Chrysalis left the hotel and headed out to the desert around the town carrying a couple dozen cans and bottles. Courier set them up at different locations at different ranges for Chrysalis to get the idea of the range of the pistol. Chrysalis held the gun as she was shown with Courier correcting the location of her arm to her body. The two did the practice for a couple of hours when suddenly.

"GROWL!" Was heard when a trio of ferals appeared from over a nearby hill running at them. Courier pulled out his 10mm pistol and fired hitting one on the leg making him go down. Chrysalis reacted in surprise and fired without aiming but got lucky with one of her shots it hitting a eye and then the brain of one of the two remaining ferals. Courier aimed and fired a double tap into the last feral still standing killing it. Courier fired another shot to the head of it to be sure it was dead as Chrysalis pulled out her blade and stabbed the one shot in the leg which hit the knee forcing it to crawl in the head.

Chrysalis looked at the ferals with shock on how they looked. "Yea. It's not a petty sight to look at them. Most are those from after the great war when they weren't killed by the bombs while the rest are those who were unlucky to end up irradiated badly. It's believed they were people who didn't have much food to find and went mad because of hunger or the high amount of radiation did cause them to go feral." Courier told her. "I say a combination of both." He spoke. "So do you want to keep practicing or stop?" He asked her. Chrysalis thought about it before putting her sword away and picking up the pistol which she dropped as she shook her head no as she pointed to the cans which could barely be used as targets anymore. The two returned to the town.

The encountered Beagle when they entered town. "Hey go to see your ok. How did it go?" He asked the two.
"It went well for the most part till a three ferals appeared and attacked. No injuries but we decided to stop in the event more came, plus we where going to have to stop for we were almost out of targets to use. Plus it's past noon." Courier replied to him.

"Well enjoy the food and hope the practice goes well." Beagle told them as he sighed looking worn out.
Courier decided to ask him what's up. "You alright?" He asked Beagle.
"It's not easy doing this by myself. Used to be me along with the sheriff and another deputy but now I'm having trouble keeping up with things around here. Add in the people killed by the convicts and the NCR pushing to take over the town and I'm not having a good day." Beagle told him.

Courier thought to himself for a minute when he remembered the protectron in the casino. "If you want I can work on the protectron and turn on the law enforcement protocol and make it so it will deferred to you as it's commander and those who take over as sheriff after you along with leaving the punishments to you as well." He told Beagle.

"If you can do that it will help a lot. I can deal with the internal problems while he deals with the ferals and other problems from the desert." Beagle replied with a smile. Beagle lead them into the Vikki and Vance casino. Courier went to Primm Slim and after a couple of hours work stopping only for lunch it was done.

Two days later...

Courier checked his supplies as he got ready to head to the outpost before heading to Nipton and then Novac. He left the room and found Chrysalis and ED-E waiting for him in the hallway. Courier had repaired ED-E the day before when he saw the bot in the Mojave Express when he meet with Johnson and asked but it. He decided to try his hand on it and had the things needed for a near full repair aside from a fried data bank.

The three exited the hotel to the road east. It was a few hours of walking the only form of trouble was a group of raiders who were hiding out in the old Nevada patrol station. Courier took out the two outside which brought the rest of the group inside out. Nine raiders came running out into the fire of the three Courier killed two with his rifle while EDE killed another three one turning into a pile of ash and Chrysalis killing the rest three by laser and the last was beheaded after she ducked and swing her blade at him. They had came to the intersection that leads to the outpost and Nipton. They were going to head to the outpost when Chrysalis noticed something. "Courier. Does that look like smoke to you?" She asked him.

Courier turned and saw the smoke she spoke of. "Ah hell. That's likely coming from Nipton, that the only reason for so much smoke to be coming from that direction, the town must has been attacked." He said with a grim look. "I'm going to ask to see if there any men the NCR can spare for when we get to the outpost when we check out the town tomorrow, it's getting dark." He told her. She nodded and the three headed up hill. She did ask one more question.

"Do you know who could had done that?" She asked him. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"From what I have learned and remember, two groups. The Powder Gangers or the Legion, I'm hoping it's the former because if not it won't be a pretty sight, plus the Legion hasn't been this far west before from what I remember." Was all he said. They two made their way up to the outpost as Chrysalis turned into her human form. As they walked through the outpost Courier noted the caravans in the pens and Merchants and their hired guards loitering the area.

The two enter the headquarters and Courier walked up to the desk. "I need to speak with your commander. Nipton has been attacked." He tells the man behind the desk.
"Shit. Follow me." He said and lead them into the building. The two were brought to a man in a uniform that Courier knew was a ranger with some of the additions he saw to the outfit. "Sir! This man says Nipton as been attacked." The Major told him.

He looked at me. "Do you know who the attackers are?" He asked me.
I shook my head no. "My friend and I came from the north. We saw at least two plumes of smoke coming from the town in the distance from the intersection." Courier explained to the ranger.

"And if you are able to see the smoke from that far then it must be a fair size blaze to never the less which around here is only something that is possible from a building being burned down or worse." He said with a shake of his head. "I'm guessing you want to have some men go with you to check it out?" He asked Courier who nodded. "I would have to follow orders but a attack on a town is something I won't let by. You'll get three squads of men and one ranger as back up. Check out the town, find any survivors, and kill the ones who done the attack if their still around. Understood?" He asked Courier.

"I do. We won't be returning to the outpost after we check Nipton. We need to head to Novac for a job." Courier explained. Jackson nodded in understanding.
"Go get some rest you two. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day and the trip to Novac will be longer after you finish." He told the two. "You can sleep in the barracks." He said as he turn to leave. The two headed for the outpost barracks and claimed a pair of beds.

Author's Note

All I can say is life likes to keep you busy for the amount of time for this to be posted.