Fallout Equestria: Baltimare Heights

Gulping down the last bit of my Wild Pegasus, I squeezed my eyes shut as it burned my throat. Once it was gone, I gave a sharp inhale, "Aaah! That'sa yummy drink. Ya'know? I can't figur-t out. Why's thistuffs nottallowed down in our Shtable."

My mom gave a sharp winnie and pointed at me with the neck of the bottle she levitated. "I've got the answer for that one, actually!" Taking a small swig of it, she leaned toward me. "Your dad and several other zebras would brew drinks of all sorts, and the whole stable would partake despite the re-uh.. regul… rules. We would smuggle it around but there were ponies who used our drinks while on shifts." She bursted into laughter, "They blew up a water purring-fires and and… It was grosh! Poop went all over! The whole floor stank for months."

"That'sa shitty situ-" I paused and focused as I tried to sound it out. "Sit-uat-ion, situation! Hahaah! I got it!" I tried to take a drink from my empty glass. Pouted and looked at the bottle mom levitated.

She laughed, "After your first one you said you didn't want to overdo it." She capped the bottle at that point and hid it away in a bag.

I levitated a different bottle from my bag and tried to read it. "Sauvi-gnot Blank, Whiningery of Canterlude. Heh. Sun Butt's Select."

My mom snatched it from me with her hooves. "Sauvignon Blanc Celestia Select. It's a wine from the Winery of Canterlot. Says this bottles almost a hundred and sixty years old." She tucked that bottle into her bag too.

"Hey! Stops that," I told her. Everything had a certain shine to it, like it was outlined in a fuzzy light. I levitated the next unopened bottle I had out and again, tried to read it out loud. "Ah-Hah! I've gots this one! Far Trotters Bourbon."

I gave a little cheer, throwing one hoof into the air as my mom cheerfully snatched that bottle from me too. She tucked the fancy bottle away and just smiled. "You've had enough, and so have I. We shouldn't drink too much of ot or else we both'er get sick and that wouldn't be any fun." She laughed happily. "I never thought I'd get to drink with you. I'm glad we could… Those zo- I mean ghouls were going to kill us and eat us."

Leaning forward, trying on a serious face completed with a furrowed brow of farce anger, "di'they actually say that?"

She gave a solemn nod and began to fiddle with her pipbuck. "Did you get some MAS pipbuck update? Apparently I'm now registered as Chief Medical Director, Silver Torrent." She tapped a few more times, "Any clue what 'caps' are?"

Unsure what they were myself, I shrugged. "I dunno, but that's pretty cool! It called me a Systems Engineer or something like that.”

“Well, that doesn’t surprise me.” I watched as she tried to snatch yet another bottle from my magical grip. I raised it up out of her reach. “Come on, put that bottle away and let’s go do a thing!”

“Okay!” I cheered and put the bottle back in my bag. “I wanna go see what Willow Sky knows.” I realized right then that I hadn’t heard or seen him since yesterday. “Hey… Where is that ugly ghoul guy anyway?”

“We put him in one of the cells. I wouldn’t mind asking him a few questions myself.” Mom told me as I tried to balance a book on my nose. It fell flat on the floor with a solid thunk. “What are… you… doing?”

She turned and started to leave, and stumbled, tripping over that book. I righted myself and grinned happily. My body felt warm and pretty numb. It was great. “I wanna ask him about all sorts of stuffs!”

She just rolled her eyes. No one was around when we left the office. I followed my mom as she guided the way back to the holding cells. “Hey mom, how long do you think it will take for Xeyal to heal up?”

Not missing a step and now taking on a more serious tone, “She’ll be back on her hooves within the next day or so.” She opened the door and inside a warm wave of stink smashed me in the nose. I couldn’t help but gag on the stench, recoiling away from the door.

“Why’sit have to smell so bad!” I asked, trying not to breathe.

“Doesn’t surprise me none,” she told me before turning and going inside.

I sighed, swallowed my vomit and joined her. I could see why it stank. The two ghouls we had killed in here were still here, Willow Sky was in a locked cell and the other cells were left unclean. No wonder it smells so terrible.

Willow Sky calmly sat at the bars that separated us from him. “Well, well. If it isn’t the mare who wanted her mommy… and I’ll guess that you're her mommy, huh?” He laughed at his own bad joke, smacking a hoof off the floor a couple of times. “Did you two ladies come to free me from this life? I really hope that is the case.” His voice grated my ears, smooth yet cracked and broken.

“Shup ut.” I said, giving him the best glare I could. “I have questions!”

He leaned away from us with a hoof held before him. “Is she drunk? How many hooves do you see?”

“Actually, we both are and I have questions for you as well.” My mom told him. She was now sitting, fiddling with her pipbuck. “I’ll let her go first, since this is her first time drinking, she doesn’t seem to have much patience.”

Prancing in place, I hummed a little tune. When my mom prodded me twice in the side with a hoof, I paused mid-step and looked at her. Mom swooped her hoof, pointing at ghoul. “Oh, right. Questions.” I took a sitting position and cleared my throat in my hoof. I levitated a bottle from my bag and offered it to the ghoul. “Will you drink with us?”

My mom face-hoofed, slapping herself in the forehead. She shook her head in disbelief or disappointment, but I felt that the ghoul needed it as much as we did at this point, so why not share? Besides, I still had plenty. He took the bottle in his hooves and pulled the cork out with his teeth. He dropped the cork into his breast pocket. “Thanks for the wine. However, I am going to refuse to answer any other questions.”

While the ghoul drank the wine, I asked my first question. “What’re caps? Some sort of currency?”

Gulping down his wine, he tilted his head slightly and his ears twitched a bit. “Caps are bottle caps. Ya’know, the little metal bit on soda bottles?”

Feeling a little dumb, I bit back my immediate response, opting to think of another question instead. “What do ponies today use bottle caps for?”

Giving us a shrug. “Ponies started using them because they’re everywhere and nobody is making more of them.” He went about taking another drink of wine.

I had my next question. “Where are we? I know it’s an MAS tower, but like where in Equestria are we?”

“This tower is in a city called Baltimare. Use your pipbucks. They have maps for that, you dumbass.” He retorted with a venom in his voice.

My mom looked over at me with an eyebrow risen. “I could have answered that one for you, Glimmy.”

I sighed, "I already knew that too." Pressing on I asked my next question. “What is this tower used for?”

He took a big drink of wine. “I won’t tell you that.”

I gave an agitated whinny. “Fine. Why are there so many skeletons in the main lobby?”

Speaking solemnly, he didn't blink or break eye contact. “They were killed by that toxic irradiated fog that filled in from the ocean. It was fast and extremely painful. They were my friends and co-workers… Each and every pony and zebra who were here back then had a bright, brilliant mind.”

Mom replied before I could, "Why haven't all of you left the tower? What's kept you here?"

Willow Sky didn't answer immediately, finally after a bit of thought he started slow. "We all have our own reasons for staying. We're safe here for one thing. Since we don't really need food, water or sleep anymore, we can find ourselves lost in our work. The job's all we have left. Doing our research and maintaining the security of our experiments has kept us sane all these years." He put a hoof to his chest, "I personally love the work I do here and I don't want to go anywhere else in this forsaken city."

Mom stepped forward, lowering her head as she stocked closer to the cage. Her ears folded back and teeth on display. "Do all of you spite us for being trapped in Stable 109?"

The ghoul took a step away from her, leaning back, his ass almost touching the floor. He stood with a hoof guarding his breast and his jaw working like he was trying to find an answer for her.

His silence dragged on too long and she snapped at him again. "You ghouls were all set to turn our lives off! You wanted to shut down the stable entirely, cutting us off! Do you realize how many ponies and zebras are down there? Do you!?"

She didn't give him a chance to answer. "I recognize and sympathize with all of the horrors you and the others here have endured, but this hasn't been a cake walk for me, my daughter, my father, his mother, or anyone else down there!" I watched as she fumed, I couldn't recall ever seeing her this angry.

She continued to vent on him. "We've strived in mundanity under rules of iron to keep ourselves contained, coordinated and alive! We've strived for the hopes and dreams of those who came before us. We all have lived and died in that stable, and you all are up here slaving away in routines just to keep sane. Yet you wanted to turn our livelihood into a coffin fit for well over five hundred souls!That goes against everything Twilight Sparkle would have wanted."

She turned to me and I could feel her gaze burrow into my soul. "Come on, let's go."

With that and without a reply she turned and left, leaving me to follow in a stumbling hurry. Once I caught up to her in the hallway, "Wow Mom. Never seen you so mad."

She stopped and turned to me. "I wanted to kill him just then for even trying to orchestrate sabotage like that. To think all they needed was our pipbucks to override the terminal lockdown procedure."

I sighed, "Yeah… I didn't want to do it, but they gave me no choice. Even before I knew they were just ugly ponies… I didn't want to kill them." I felt a pang of sadness as I thought about the ones I killed.

"Don't let it bug you, we have to do what must be done to save the ponies we love." She put a hoof gently on my shoulder and I immediately pulled her into a tight hug. After a moment we separated and continued on our drunken way. She levitated out my bottle of whiskey and took a drink before offering me the bottle.

I happily grabbed it in my magic and took a drink as well. I looked at the mostly gone bottle of liquor. "I wanta get to the bottom of this. Shurely, not all of them are bad ponies."

She gave a hearty laugh. "I'd agree. They probably aren't all bad. hopefully we've given that one something to think on."

"So, do we go exploring?" I offered her the bottle after taking another sizable drink. Only a good bit remained.

She took it and finished it off. "No, we need to stay here."

"Awe, come on!" I whined, hoping for the best. "Please?"

Tucking the empty bottle in her bag, she stood firm. "I said no. We need to stay here for when everyone else comes back with the supplies."

"Not fair. I wanta put this time we've got together to good use. There's gotta be some way to talk with the stable now that the powers on. Besides, I need to check in on things and stuffs." Prancing in place, I tried to think of what else it was I had to do.

She didn't try to argue. Instead she turned and led the way back to the main office space. "Besides, we still need to figure out that note with the key. It might go to something here."

I perked up at the mention of that. Bouncing happily ahead of her toward that room. "Oh! I may actually already have the answer to that!"

She paused and just stared at me as I opened the door and smiled back at her. "C'mon, It's your turn to experience Crispy Snowball."

She didn't smile and her eyes never left mine. Once we were in and the door was closed, she locked it. "You'd better stay in this office."

"Here, this one first." I had scooped up one of the orbs in my hoof and gently tossed it onto the couch. I wasn't sure which it was, but I hoped it was the vacation one.

"You'd better keep an eye on me, because you were out for a while." She got onto the couch and got comfy. She levitated the orb for a moment before it dropped back to the cushion. Her head lowered and she seemed to be asleep.

I watched her work her jaw as she slept and opted to instead browse the folders from the safe. As expected, everything seemed pretty orderly. Organized by dates. There were five folders; one for incident reports, one for personnel complaints, another for acquisitions and artifacts, and two for investigations.

I opened and began reading the first folder. This one being for an investigation into the zebra infiltrators within Baltimare city.

Ministry Mare Pinkie Pie has come to the conclusion that a secretive group of zebra sympathisers has been operating within the city of Baltimare. She has requested that all Ministry personnel be put on high alert and report any and all suspicious activity. All personnel will be required to file daily reports and security personnel will be required to maintain higher security protocols around the clock.

~M.M. Twilight Sparkle

Pausing, I levitated all the paperwork out and counted the report headers spanning more than three years worth of documents. "Fifty-two reports in all." I grumbled feeling exhausted just thinking about that.

I had given up on reading and decided it was much more fun to take a drink each time mom spoke in her dreams. Mostly just mumblings about the beautiful sky. I opened a small bottle of Flaming Saddle spiced rum and was now four drinks in.

She should be almost finished with it. I hated waiting, but I did so impatiently as my mind wondered. I thought about the last two days, reminiscing on how much I've changed in such a short amount of time. Then I shifted my mind back to the memory my mom was currently experiencing. I wish I could have seen that place with my own eyes.

With a little groan or a yawn, mom woke up and shifted to a sitting position above me. I was laying on my side with my back against the couch, my tail neatly around my hooves. I was comfortable and didn't want to move.

I looked up to see her looking down at me. I smiled and offered her the bottle I'd opened. "What'ya think?"

She took the bottle in her magic and took a small drink, crinkled her nose for a moment then took another drink before passing the bottle back. "Beautiful."

I grinned devilishly, "Next orb!"

"Not yet." she said as she got off the couch and carefully levitated the orb back to the desk's drawer. She then took the other one and put it on the couch. "What did you notice about that memory?"

"That his wife was pregnant? That some ponies refracted light? That Snowy wanted to shop too? That they were going to the big crystal palace for dinner?" I could have kept guessing but I couldn't be bothered to think on it any further.

"All true, but had you noticed the thing they called a recollector? I'm guessing it's the device that records the memory." She paused as I laughed. "What?"

I kept laughing and it quickly became hysterical. I laughed so hard I couldn't maintain my telekinesis and had to put the rum bottle down. "Silly hat!" I managed in between gasps. "It's the funny hat! It looks as goofy as you think it might on him." I slapped at the carpeted floor with a hoof as I tried to curb my laughter "Next orb, next orb."

She sighed and looked at it skeptically. "That orb concerns me considering how you reacted to it."

I finally stopped laughing and immediately began blushing. 'It's not as bad as you think, granted it is very… hot." I grinned at her.

"Have fun!" I told her as she got back on the couch. "I'll only drink if you talk or make noises." I held up the bottle only one third emptied.

She simply rolled her eyes and magically entered the orb. She subconsciously got comfortable and so did I reclaiming my position lying in front of the couch.

It didn't take long for her to start quietly muttering to herself. I took a small swig; I was going to have to make the bottle last.

"Aw… cute…" she mumbled, shifting to lay on her side, her back toward me. I looked up at her over my shoulder. Her tail was gently moving as she relived his proposal.

Nothing happened for a while, she was silent, and I patiently waited for it to happen, then I heard it. she gasped, a sharp inhale "oh!" she said, clear enough for it to be easily heard "My… yes."

I took two drinks then a third as she gave a slow groan. She shifted on the couch above me, her breathing became heavy.

She snickered in her sleep. Probably at the goofiness of the recollector. It didn't take long for the heavy breathing to return though. "Mmmm…." she hummed with it catching deep in her throat. She stretched her hind hooves out, into the back of the couch. I could hear the cushions compress as I took another drink.

A little more time passed, and she had begun to pant in her sleep. Eventually she grumbled and sat up on the couch. I stood, albeit with a little wobble. "Did you notice it?" I asked her as she sat up on the couch.

"No… notice what?" She asked with a drowsiness to her slow reaction. She rubbed her eyes. "That… yeah… no… huh?"

I rolled my eyes and held up the bottle of run that was now only a third full. "The house, the picture over her couch? Didn't you read the note Crème left with that key?"

She sighed in thought and mumbled. "I wish he had kept that silly hat on a little longer. I don't even care that I was him and not her." She rubbed her temple with a hoof.

She stood and returned the orb to the drawer. I laughed, noticing the wet spot on the couch. She levitated the note and quickly read it. "So, you think the key goes to something in her home? Well, no point in having it then."

She dropped the key and note into the drawer and closed it. "Damnit, now I'm frustrated."

I walked over to join her, opening the drawer and I took the key. "Never know what'll happen next. I wanna keep it!"

I put the key in my bag and turned to her. "Why are you frazzled?" I asked with only a little slurring.

"Shut up." she told me in a matter-of-fact tone. "I need to work this out. Go and sort ammunition or something."

I laughed and trotted to the door. "You do you. I'mma go play with guns while only a little drunk." I told her with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

Closing the door behind me I saw that no one was here. I went one office to find Xeyal still on the table but as I closed the door behind me, her head turned to me. "Hello, Glimmer."

"So you are awake, I was coming to check on you. Want anything?" I asked trotting toward her. I stopped at the edge of the desk and levitated a bottle of water over to us. "Here, drink up."

She did so and with that she sat up, letting the blanket tumble down her back. I could see where the bullet had dug in just above her collarbone. She took a deep breath. "Your mother is a life saver. Where is she so I may thank her."

I wanted to burst into laughter, but I restrained myself the best I could only letting a small smile across my face. "She's currently busy with something private, but if you're doing well enough, we can get your gear and you can help me out. I gotta organize everything they pulled outta the armory."

Xeyal gave me a nod and hopped down from the desk. She stumbled and I caught her on my shoulders. "Why you so tall?" I asked as she corrected herself.

"Thank you, again." she mumbled. Clearing her throat, she looked around the room. In the chairs that had been moved aside had her armor and bags. She walked over to it and found her Stable 109 jumpsuit had been cut off, it was laying on the floor next to the chairs. She picked it up with a hoof and looked it over. A massive bloodstain surrounded a pair of holes. "How fortunate of me to be alive…"

I could tell she had more thoughts on it, but she dropped her jumpsuit and proceeded to get her body armor and bags on. "Ready," she announced as she turned toward me, she cocked her head with a questioning look.

"What?" I asked her. "What's with the look?"

"You are red in the cheeks. Very red. Are you feverish?"

It dawned on me that I was blushing and very drunk. I looked around, at anything but her. "I uhm… No fever, just a, erm.. nevermind me, let's go."

Leading the way out of the room the zebra kept pace with me out and over to the literal pile of weapons and boxes. "We need to organize this stuff. Weapons by types and bullets for 'em."

She nodded and we set to work. My body felt hot, like really warm and I couldn't keep myself from watching her work as she sorted ammo boxes. All I did was lay there and organize the guns with my magic.

Time seemed to pass quickly and then a door clicked close behind me. From Snow Crisps room my mom joined us. Xeyal turned to her and gave a broad smile. "Mrs. Torrent, I owe my life to you. Thank you for mending my wounds."

"You're welcome, I'm not one to let my saviors die when I can help them. We're lucky there was so much liquor here to sterilize my tools." She walked over and joined us. She smelt sweaty but seemed overly calm. Then she turned to me. "You ought to go get some sleep. I'm sure tomorrow will be a busy day. Xeyal and I need to go talk to that ghoul."

I couldn't argue, instead I gave a big yawn and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan. If'n something happens, come wake me up."

Standing up, I looked over our work, the guns and ammo had been organized and we had quite the arsenal here. I turned and walked towards Snow's office. Once inside I found myself a spot behind the desk with one of the pillows off the couch and fell right to sleep. My warm, numb body didn't resist one bit. It was nice.

Someone shoved against my shoulder before prodding me in the ribs. "Glimmer! Wake up!" The voice was an urgent whisper against my ear. My head pounded and my stomach hurt.

"Glimmer Stone!" The hushed voice came again, "get up, we have to move!"

I stirred, finding the energy to sit up and look at the pony who prodded me awake. I rubbed my eyes with the back side of my hooves and saw Coffee Bean standing beside me. "What's happened?" I inquired.

He kept his voice low, "So, you've been asleep for a while. My dad and the others have finished locating and moving the materials down to the main lobby. Sprocket and Rust have finished repairs on the main generators and the water filtration systems." He glanced back over at the door and back at me. "I don't really know what's going on but your mom and Xeyal are making their way down to the main lobby now. We need to get down there."

I quickly got my bags on as I moved for the door. "Why are you being all quiet?" I asked him, but a shotgun blast splintered the wooden door's latch. Fear forced my heart to leap, and I staggered backward away from the door.

"That's why!" he shouted before pulling his pistol out and taking aim over the wooden desk. Turning my E.F.S. back on I could see… a sea of red dots.

"Crap, that's a lot of red." I muttered, just as a pair of metal apples were lobbed into the room, both at angles to maximize damage. "Hide!" I shouted at Coffee Bean as I tucked my shotgun away.

Focusing on myself I imagined myself on the desk that Xeyal had been laying on. My magic went off and I found myself standing on top of that desk in the office next door. I actually managed to teleport for once!

Pulling the shotgun out, I jumped off the desk and rushed out the door to find the main office had five ghouls in it. The two closest to me had a shotgun levelled at the door and the one next to him dropped a pair of metal pins when he saw me. "What the hell?" he asked just as I activated SATS. and watched as everything came to a crawl. I toggled in two rounds, one at each of their heads.

Letting the targeting spell end, I took the shots just as the room exploded. Both shots hit their marks, dropping the ghouls in that split second. I found myself panting as the other ghouls are pointed weapons my way. At once I dropped to the floor and scurried forward to the closest desk. A shot rang out and hit the wall next to the door I had just exited. "Come out girly!" came a grossly distorted voice. "We're not bad ponies, but we don't need rats like you snooping around our home."

I could see them on my EFS but couldn't judge their distances. I peeked over the desk toward the voice and saw him moving toward my desk. I ducked just as he fired at me. Hearing a spray of rounds hit the desk and the floor and wall in front of me made my heart thump harder and my headache intensified with all the noise. Hearing the blood roar in my ears I squeezed my eyes closed and pictured Coffee Bean in my mind. I tried to teleport, but it didn't work. "Well shit." I muttered

Swinging the shotgun around the edge of the desk I peeked around the corner to see him. I fired and missed. He fired and missed. I could see the other two dots moving as well so I moved around the opposite side, staying low. I checked my SATS. to see it was still useless to me. "Fuck it!" I dropped the shotgun and pulled out the .45mm revolver, poking my head up. I took aim as quickly as I could and fired two shots, thankfully, the second one hit the mark and buried into his neck, just below his jaw.

He barely reacted to it, instead he whipped around on me and fired his automatic. I ducked and dashed along the length of desks. I skidded to a stop as I neared the far end of the room, SATS. was available again so I used it. The room came to a crawl and I targeted the one that had just fired at me. I could see that my chance of hitting him were lower than the others. I toggled two shots and let it loose.

Ending the spell the shots fired in rapid succession and his head was hit twice. Sheer luck. I didn't wait, having seen the other two running toward me. I pressed my back to the desk, trying to stay low. Over taxing my magic made my head spin, but I focused on my pipbuck, finding the .45mm rounds in my bag. The pipbuck's sorting magic made it easy to scoop it from my bag. I quickly reloaded the chambers all in one go and gave the revolver a spin before snapping it shut.

Just then a ghoulish mare with no lips smiled at me. "I've got chya!" She shouted, taking aim and firing. As swift as I could manage, I pushed off the desk and propelled myself away from the desk. Her shot caught my right flank, peppering it with a pain that felt like fiery needles all stabbing me at the same time.

I screamed and rolled onto my left as I landed. "Celestia's shit that hurt!" I shouted as I took aim, unloading three shots at her head. I didn't bother with aiming but was happy to see her drop as one of the three shots hit her in the left eye.

That leaves me with only one. I tucked my injured leg in and ground my teeth on pain. I saw him taking cover off to my left so I limped as fast as I could back the way I came, keeping low behind the desks was difficult and when he popped his head up, I fired a shot in his direction. He dipped and I watched as his dot moved parallel to my own movement. I fired another shot across the room at him as I passed a gap in the desks. Scooping my shotgun back up I stowed the revolver.

"You guys are scientists and researchers! Why are you trying to kill us?" I shouted, pressing my back to a desk, I examined my flank. I was bleeding profusely and it looked just as bad as it felt.

I could hear him walking now. He was moving quickly toward me. I jumped up, planting both my forehooves on the desk and took aim right at him. "Tell me!"

He wore a snarl, a grimace that suited his flaky skin and glowing eyes. "We all hate you for existing this long!" he shouted at me and took aim.

I didn't give him another moment. "Then die." I told him in a cold quiet voice. Magically pulling the trigger, the slug dug into the end of his muzzle and devastated his face as it sank in and his weapon hit the floor. The moment slowed to a crawl as he stood for a moment before dropping to the floor. Black ichor pooled around his head, but I ignored him. I ignored the other four lifeless ghouls too.

I staggered a bit as I limped my way back to the Snow Crisp's office. Putting my gun away, I entered the now destroyed room. Small fires were burning but the room's sprinkler system was dousing them. The room was blackened by the incendiary grenades, everything was rocked by the blasts and left charred. I rounded the desk to find the rear of a pony sticking out from under the desk. "For Celestia's sake, you'd better be breathing…" I whispered.

I used my magic to move the desk away from him. The desk had shielded him from most of the blast but his chin, some of his chest and forelegs along with the whole right side of belly and rump were missing hair entirely. His tail had completely burned away, his skin was boiled and melted. but he was breathing.

I tried to do what I could for him. Drawing out all my healing potions and rejuvenation potions I drink one for my leg. After that I slowly trickled the other into his mouth and helped him to swallow it. After that I readied some medical bandages and soaked them in a rejuvenation potion before I began wrapping his burns. After that I helped feed him the last rejuvenation potion.

His breathing had deepened and steadied but he was still out cold. I couldn't cover the burns on his chin and neck or forelegs. Looking at my EFS I could see there were still a lot of red dots moving around. I took the moment to reload both the shotgun and the revolver, I also opted to check the ammo on both the other pistols I'd acquired. After that, with all my weapons loaded and ready, I sat and waited. I desperately wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I needed to be strong right now.

I could feel the tears forming as I sat there watching Coffee Bean breath. I focused and tried to lift him in my magic, but he was heavy and that made it even more difficult, but I managed to get him onto my back. With some difficulty, I walked out of the blasted office, making my way quietly out into the hallway. Peeking around corners and moving as quickly as I could manage.

I supposed luck to be on my side as no other ghouls came across me as I made my way to the elevator. I pressed the button for the elevator and quickly realized that there were a pair of red dots very close to being in front of me. "Crap." I struggled a great deal at this point, my brain felt as though it were melting but I levitated out the pair of pistols and readied myself to use SATS on them.

As the elevator doors opened, I dropped into the targeting spell and saw their faces slowly turn into angry surprise. They both wore proper body armor but neither of them had their faces protected. I allocated two shots, one for each face and released the SATS.

Their brains painted the back of the elevator, before I stepped in and turned around between them. Hoofing the ground floor button, I stowed my weapons and waited.

Footnote:
Level Up! Lv. 4
Perk Unlocked - Pressure Controlled
When under pressure, you will find it easier to stay level-headed.
+1 Perception
+25% SATS Accuracy