Father, Courier, Exile

Carrion's Journal- Entry two, 2nd December, 2284. (Recorded on my Pip-Boy to commit to my journal if I survive the Madre)

Day one in the cloudy red hellhole that is the Sierra Madre. That old man is a complete idiot, when I get my hands on him I think it's time I put what I learned from the 80s to good use. Also happy that I cannibalised the Doc's Pip-Boy onto my own, or this little bit of text wouldn't be here.

Damned Vault-Tec removing the memory storage from our Pip-Boys! Still, got that memory shoved into my Pip-Boy back in the Mojave, good to see it serves a purpose rather than just making the Pip-Boy more likely to break after I slam it into someone's face.

Meeting up with that reject today, should be easy going, but nothing ever is in the wastes. And especally not here.

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"So, where to?" Nightmare asked me as I looked around the fountain square after I'd finished typing my journal entry.

"I'll look on the map later, just let me finish looting this place." I replied from across the square as I picked up a rusty-looking knife, which I took one look at before wondering if there was any duct tape around. A bayonet for the Holorifle would be very useful later on, if i couldn't scavenge any other weapons from the Villa.

I placed the knife into one of my belt loops before I turned and walked across the square in front of a gate with Cloud-filled air behind it.

"That's the way out- after you break into the Sierra Madre's vault. Try to leave, I'll set off your collar." The Old Man announced over the Villa's speakers.

I rolled my eyes, wasn't it obvious that he'd set off my collar if I or Nightmare tried to leave?

There wasn't anything of note on the other side of the square, just some strange vending machine that I needed to insert my Chips into to get some disgusting Pre-War food from, and I was not going to sacrifice my chips for something as revolting as that.

Maybe if it offered Stimpacks it would be different, but it didn't. No useful medicine there, then, but apparently there was a Medical District. I liked the sound of that.

I spent the next few minutes hunting through the square for anything useful for me or Nightmare, but the only useful things I found were a roll of duct tape (which was now attaching that Cosmic Knife I found earlier to the barrel of the Holorifle), a few bottles of Wonderglue (weapon repair kits, the most valuable things in the Wastes) and some La Fantoma! which were always a entertaining read.

"We heading out yet? I have better things to do with my life than watch barbarians like you scavenge in the rubble." Nightmare complained.

"Oh, shut up." I replied as I finished taping the 'Cosmic Knife' to the end of the Holorifle's barrel. "All done." I picked the Holorifle up, and satisfied that the bayonet wouldn't interfere with the accuracy or sights of the rifle,I  began to walk towards the street on the left side of the fountain as Nightmare flew over to join me.

"So what exactly are you?" I asked Nightmare as we walked into a small square, dominated by a dead tree. My Pip-Boy was telling me to go left, but I noticed some planks between two balconies. And in the wastes, planks normally meant something useful like ammo or a gun was up there. Maybe if I was really lucky, I'd even get a Stimpak.

"I'm a alicorn, one of only two in the whole of Equestria." Nightmare raised her head haughtily, like I was supposed to be impressed by it.

Instead, I simply snickered. "Equestria? What kind of shitty name is that? Sounds like you let some idiot Super Mutant come up with it."

Nightmare turned around, anger visible in her eyes. "Never insult my nation like that! The only thing preventing me from planting that ugly one-eyed head of yours on a nice spike right now is these collars."

I chuckled at Nightmare's brazenness. "I'm the one with the Holorifle, remember?" I waved the strange rifle at Nightmare, trying to goad her further. I couldn't wait to see her when she got properly angry with me.

A dark blue glow enveloped the Holorifle and yanked it from my hand, throwing it up into the Cloud-choked sky.

"Oops." Nightmare laughed. "What are you going to do now, tough guy? Punch me?"

I stared up into the sky while I thought about the current situation. "Nightmare..." I muttered to myself. "Do you realise what you've done?"

"Took that thing away from you before you hurt me with it?" Nightmare's laughter died down into a low chuckle.

"No... You just destroyed the only fucking gun we have between us, and there could be FEV infected Deathclaws with Stealth Boys here for all we know!" I shouted. "I'm going to find another weapon. Stay here- if you don't, I'll brain you, collar or not."

I wasn't actually that bothered about the loss of the Holorifle, I never liked energy weapons. What bothered me was that I had no weapon at all. And for all I knew, there could be Deathclaws with Stealth Boys in here...

"Don't even think about it Carrion..." I muttered to myself as I grabbed hold of the planks and hauled myself onto them. "You know what will happen if you think about it..." There had to be a weapon up here, there had to...

If not, I was definitely dead meat. If so, I could threaten Nightmare. I might have to use those tortures from the 80s sooner than I hoped...

I shook my head, pushing away the thoughts as I walked into the room which the planks led to. It looked exactly like your typical Pre-war apartment, TV, sofa, table- everything someone from the Old World needed to have a comfortable life. I wasn't interested in any of the ruined furnishings, however- I was more interested in the rusted gun cabinet leaning to my right.

I threw the doors open and let out a cheer of joy as I saw what was inside.

A scoped .44 Magnum, still in its holsterwith two ten-round boxes of ammo lying next to it. It appears today was going mildly better than yesterday, despite being kidnapped by a old guy and stuck in the Wastes own little Purgatory with a arrogant alicorn thing that proclaimed itself the ruler of a place named after something that sounded like it was out of a Pre-war cartoon.

By Caesar, for all I know, it might be.  Dismissing the completely useless line of thought, I quickly pulled the holster over the dirty white jumpsuit while I slid bullets into the Magnum's cylinder before I sprinted back out onto the balcony and jumped onto the street below.

"You are one lucky thing, Nightmare, or maybe I'm the lucky one and you're the annoying thing that is way too arrogant." I called out to Nightmare as I walked over to where she was lying down by a long-dead tree. "Come on." I poked her in the head with the barrel of my Magnum, causing her to open her eyes to find me leering down at her while I pointed a gun at her face.

What I would have given to see her line of thought at that point.

I pulled the Magnum away from her face and reholstered it. "I want to be at the Station by... Eh, I don't really care. As long as we make it out alive."

"We can agree on that, at least." Nightmare muttered as she got to her hooves and stretched her wings before we headed under the planks down the next street.

The next square was equally uninteresting, until I spotted a skeleton with a spear wedged between it's shoulder blades and wandered over towards it before the Old Man interrupted me again.

"Watch out for the Villa inhabitants, they're... Difficult to kill unless you chop them apart... If you can, blow them up, or disintegrate them."

Hooray, the Old Man was actually providing helpful advice for once! And I couldn't disintergrate them, because Nightmare destroyed the Holorife! Double hooray!

I yanked the spear out of the skeleton and spun it in my left hand. "Nightmare," I asked. "Are you any good with any weapons except your wierd blue thing?"

Nightmare rolled her eyes. "It's called magic, you foal. And as for weapons..." She shrugged. "Just give me the spear, I can defend myself. Not that I ever needed your help with anything, I could get myself out of this fine without you."

"Just keep telling that to yourself, Nightmare, just keep telling yourself..." I muttered as I threw the spear to Nightmare, who caught it with her 'magic'.

I had already mentally called bullshit on that, magic my ass. It was probabaly some implant or manipulation of radiation or some other scientific crap like that. If it wasn't useful to me now, I didn't need to know.

I turned around and out of the corner of my eye spotted a small brown suitcase poking out from behind a archway on my right. "What do we have here?" I asked myself aloud as I walked over to the suitcase, and opened it.

My first thought as I opened the suitcase was "Holy shit!", which was soon followed by "Fuck yes!".

Crammed into the small suitcase were what appeared to be a damaged Caravan Shotgun, several boxes of various Pre-war foods, two bottles of dirty water and a collection of .44 bullets and 20 gauge shells.

I holstered the Magnum as I picked up the shotgun and slid two bullets into it before I flicked the barrel up.  The food would be useful later on as I doubted that there would be much edible food around here.

Satisfied with my newfound gear, I wandered back over to Nightmare who was waiting impatiently by the stairs leading up to the next street.

"Let's move." I said as I motioned for her to follow.

The next square was much less intresting, dominated by a chip-filled fountain and a lone terminal. After I had gathered up all the chips while Nightmare looked on with bemusement, I fired up the terminal, and spammed the enter key in a vain attempt to gain access to the options.

After about a minute of hammering away fruitlessly at the keyboard, I was no computing genius after all, the OS finally booted into action and I was rewarded by a single option in the screen: Activate Hologram.

I shrugged and hit enter once more before I turned to look at what it had done. A holographic figure of a Pre-war man stood above the fountain, the emitter casting a faint blue glow over everything while Nightmare looked at me questioningly.

I simply shrugged and said "Old World Science." Like that would mean anything to her, but it was the best explanation I had.

I readjusted the place of my Magnum before I walked through a archway opposite where we had entered the square, coming out into a rubble-filled street. I could clearly see the sign for the Police Station at the end, so I broke into a run towards it. Nothing bad had happened yet, and I didn't feel like upsetting that record quite yet.

When Nightmare and I reached the Police Station after our dash across the street, I threw open the door and walked inside while Nightmare followed behind me.

I found myself in a large room, dominated by a single massive cell where a hulking grey figure was squatting, rocking backwards and forwards gently while it clutched it's head in it's hands.

The rest of the room was mostly empty, except for a few tables cluttered with the usual Pre-war junk.

"That's Dog?" Nightmare hissed. "He's a ugly one, isn't he?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but the Old Man interrupted me.

"Speakers and radios interfere with the bomb collar frequency, and can trigger the detonators...prematurely. It is a unfortunate side effect, one I did not anticipate. I was unable to calibrate the collars to block the signals- so you'll have to make do."

I pulled out the Magnum, and immediately set to work ridding the place of radios. I spotted one lying on the desk straight in front of me, so I aimed the Magnum, pulled the trigger, and sent the radio up in a shower of sparks.

I turned, saw another one lying on a desk on the opposite side of the room and blew that one up as well

"Nightmare, if you see anything that looks like a speaker, hit it with your spear." I warned her. "I don't want to set off that dead man's switch."

Nightmare nodded in agreement as we walked across to the other side of the room, the lack of beeping from our collars showing there were no more radios in the near vicinity.

As we walked under the archway, my collar started to beep, so we began to look around for the offending radio. Nightmare spotted it first, sitting on a table to the right of the arch, before she smashed it with a hoof.

From there, we bypassed the smaller cells and instead headed down into the basement.

As we headed into the basement, a voice I didn't recognize spoke out from somewhere.

"Knew you would come, below the cage...Down to where I am. Maybe you saw the letters I scratched on the Villa walls. A little  farther. Follow my voice...That's it. The one in the cage? Dog. I had to lock him up, he keeps...Disobeying me."

I shrugged it off, whoever this guy was I wouldn't be ordered around by two arrogant cowards. The Old Man was bad enough, but this guy didn't even offer a suggestion of what to do.

Since NIghtmare didn't seem even mildly irritated by the new voice, so we quickly ran through the rest of the basement, not bothering to check for any loot- not there would be much down here besides cleaning equipment and the like. Eventually we came to the end of the basement, where a holotape sat in front of a radio.

Deciding the holotape must be the 'voice' the other guy was talking about, I blew the radio out before I grabbed the holotape and sprinted back upstairs, Nightmare in tow.

As we approached Dog's cell, I loaded the Holotape into my Pip-Boy and played the file.

"Dog, back in the cage." The voice from earlier said through my Pip-Boy.

The reaction from Dog was immediate. The Super Mutant stood up and turned to face me before he spoke while Nightmare looked over his ruined form, remaining silent. I was grateful for her silence, Super Mutants were notoriously easy to aggravate.

"What have we here? You weren't who I was expecting. I'm disappointed." Well, it appears I had found the voice from earlier. It was rather unexpected as well, it didn't have the same stupid tone as that of a Super Mutant. You could almost call it civilized.

"Still...Even if you aren't my intended guest, you take direction. Good."

Was this Super Mutant stupid, or just arrogant? I was my own man- I only followed orders when it suited me to do so.

"You can't have been a idiot to figure out how to release me from my cage..." Well, at least he doesn't treat me as a idiot like the Old Man does.

"Or perhaps you are, with that leash on your arm and the one around your neck, and so is your companion..." He gestured towards Nightmare before he began to ramble on again.  "With our collars and manacles, why, we may as well all be kin."

"What's with your voice? You don't sound like a normal Super Mutant." I asked, it was really beginning to get on my nerves not knowing.

"I'm the voice of reason, or God. I sleep sometimes...Down in the basement, in the cage. Now that I'm awake, Dog goes back in the cage." So, this wasn't Dog.  So then, who was it?

"Dog knows I'm here, but he can't do anything about it. I'm his...Conscience. Keep him tame, keep him from hurting us...Doing foolish things. I've been trapped in here for some time, then you come along and let me out. So...You opened my cage for a reason. Now... I want to know why."

I wasn't really sure I wanted to answer that question, so I asked a diversionary one instead. "You have multiple personality disorder. Some trauma caused this?"

Nightmare turned her head sharply towards me and narrowed her eyes in anger, before she turned back to Dog. I shrugged, before the 'Voice of Reason' continued.

"Trauma...Yes, in a manner of speaking. Do you see these wounds of his, covering his skin...The bear trap on his arm? He placed his own hand in it."

I stared at the maze of scars that criss-crossed Dog's chest, around his name while Nightmare gagged quietly next to me.

"The name he carved on his chest? To remind him of who he is, he inflicts pain on himself to silence me, when all I try to do...Hrrr! He cuts, hurts, and tries to murder me out of him. He won't succeed. Just makes me angrier. Dog is the beast, we simply change cages. Like the ones here."

"So..." I wiped a spot of sweat off my forehead. "Why did you lock yourself in the cage?"

"No...Why did I lock him in the cage. I locked him in because I could feel him...Getting hungry again. There wasn't much time. If Dog roams, he gets into trouble...Eats things he shouldn't, listens to others he shouldn't...So he's safer in here. We're safer in here. I hoped if I locked him in here,...The one he obeys would come for him."

"Instead, I get you."

"Forget it." I waved my hand."I had other questions."

"Of course you do. And so do I. Like your companion there..." God pointed to Nightmare. "Who. and what, is that?"

"Who? Me?" Nightmare turned back to Dog. "I am Nightmare Moon, future ruler of Equestria, the Mare in the Moon and bringer of eternal darkness. And you should learn your place...Reject."

God seemed remarkably unfazed by this, which was strange. Super Mutants were easy to provoke; perhaps he was, as he had said, the 'Voice of Reason'.

"You are a strange one, Nightmare Moon. You throw those words at me like they should mean something, but they do not. Anyway..." God turned back to me. "Your turn."

"You wouldn't have locked yourself in there without some key to let you out." I pointed out.

"The key?" God scratched his chin. "Why, its the Old Man, the one who brought us here. I hid the key on me so Dog wouldn't know...I just need the Old Man to show up, so he and I can talk. If Dog was in control when the Old Man appeared...Well, he would just do whatever he commanded, as always."

"And I can't have that."

I nodded along in agreement. "Well, I need to get you out of there."

God shook his head vigorously. "No...No, I don't think so. Even in here, I have more control than you do. I'm not leaving until the one who controls the collars shows...Not his voice, not his lackey...Him, in person."

"And when he comes to see me, we'll settle things. So go on, go back to your master with your little friend, tell him I'm waiting. Dog may follow him; I won't."

I thought for a moment- maybe if this stubborn asshole wouldn't follow me, his 'other side' Dog, would?

"I could let Dog out." I threatened. "I'm sure he'd obey me."

God laughed, a harsh, rasping sound. "Dog? You're not talking to him now, are you? No, even if you could drag Dog out of his cage, you still couldn't get him out of this cage. I put him here for a reason...If he could have escaped, he would have. So here he stays."

"The key's in there; with you and Dog." I responded, glad that I had made him let that crucial piece of information slip earlier. I glanced down next to me, to find Nightmare was now leaning against a wall, miming a yawn to me before God let out another ear-destroying laugh.

"Yes, but Dog doesn't know that. We don't share everything. Sometimes it's a blessing...Sometimes, it causes difficulties. Now, I think it's a blessing, it keeps you on the right side of the cage. Now...You go fetch. Find your master, bring him here so we can talk."

"Something tells me I could walk Dog through unlocking a door."

"Yes...You could. And once he was out, all starving and hungry...What do you think he would do then? Be careful what cage you open, because he won't go back in it without a fight. He'll tear you and Nightmare apart, and he won't care if it kills you three."

"But...If he hears the Old man's voice, he'll do what the Old man says."

Dog...Obeys. Yes. Why...Do you have some means of contacting the Old Man?"

" I can play his voice, yes. I have a audio log from him on my Pip-Boy." I glanced down at the screen to check, and there it was- 'Elijah Command tape." Funny, I hadn't seen it before- must've downloaded during the walk here, and was the Old Man called Elijah? Well, at least I could name him now.

"You...Don't play it." God began to panic. " If you do, I'll find a way to get out of the cage, crush you, end you. I'll murder you, crush your arms until..."

"Well, goodbye, God." I grinned. "I'm going to led Dog out of his cage." I slowly brought my right hand down towards my Pip-Boy, finger extended and ready to press play.

"No! No,no, don't! I'll make you suffer for this, I promise you. Although it may not matter...I suspect the Sierra Madre will be reward enough for ones like yourself."

I pressed the button.

"Master?" The voice had changed now, to a tone more expected of a Super Mutant. Dog was out of his cage, and then I could rest and go get the next collar tomorrow. "Dog not hear you come in...Too hungry, now...At cage door? Master, Dog is listening now you are close and he can hear you over hunger."

"Dog, hidden on you is a key. Find it, and toss it to me."

"Dog? Dog doesn't have a..." Dog began to brush himself over, searching for the key until he pulled one off the chain that was wrapped around his neck. "Hnh. Here it is." Dog held out the key, tiny in his massive hands. " Dog...Dog didn't know it was there. How did it get there?"

"Shut up, reject, and give me the damned key. Now." I snapped, I didn't have time for this.

"Yes Master, Dog doesn't want to make Master angry with Dog..." I snatched the key from Dog's hand and unlocked the door with it.

"Dog, we're going to be staying here until tomorrow. Master wants you to rest."

"Dog needs rest...Needs rest so Dog can eat..." Dog collapsed to the floor outside the cage while I sighed. That had been more difficult than I expected, but I hadn't been attacked yet, which was good. I walked over towards the smaller cells, pulled one of the decaying mattresses out and placed it on the floor in the front room before I collapsed onto it, and was quickly asleep.