“If you insist on continuing your mad pursuit of the Vault you should visit Patricia Tannis. I spoke with her and she seems eager to meet you. In fact she showed an unusual interest in a particular member of your group that concerns me as it is out of character for her to speak so highly of anyone.” Pierce was saying as I walked in.

“You could call it mutual appreciation for a fellow researcher. We happen to share a particular field of study is all.” I say casually drawing attention to myself.

“I feel there is much you are not saying but unless it’s a threat to the people of New Haven would prefer not to know.” Pierce said sternly.

“No threat to New Haven unless you all have a rather profound secret of Eridian origin. Some offense meant but I highly doubt that.” I said dismissively.

“New Haven is a fine and orderly settlement I will have you know.” she said clearly very offended by the implication I gave.

“Perhaps by your standards but it’s literally located in the midst of mountains of trash. That doesn’t even begin to fucking cover how in disrepair everything is. I haven’t seen a single damned building of proper maintenance since we arrived.” I said scathingly.

“Enough!” Roland said firmly. “Unless you’ve forgotten we need her help to find the rest of the key fragments as well as the Vault itself so keep your disapproval of the living conditions here to yourself.” he said with a stern look right at me.

“Hai hai, play nice with the backwards locals I get it.” I said with a sarcastic tone but let the conversation drop anyways.

Pierce looked was red with anger at that last barb but I just cocked my head at her mockingly since we both knew she was going to lose that argument. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before addressing Roland since he had taken charge.

“Your friends confrontational habits aside you are free to stay in New Haven until you inevitably move on to the next place your mad pursuit takes you to. While you are here however I expect each and every one of you to respect the laws of the town and my authority over it. Am I clear?” she say pointedly looking at me.

“We’ll be on our best behavior while we are here, even him.” Roland said sternly giving me a look.

“See that you do.” Pierce said before shooing us out of her office.

Once we were out of earshot of the woman Roland confronted me “What the hell was that!?” he demanded.

I chuckled “That was me knocking her down a few pegs. Perhaps you might not have really cared but she treated us like dirt from the moment we first came face to face with her. She acted like she was so much better than all of us and that she had any right to treat us like dogs to be beaten into submission and humiliated. I refuse to just sit back and take it, that’s what that was.” I said firmly.

“He’s right man, Pierce hasn’t even tried to play nice. He might have been a bit harsh but he is right to be angry, hell we all should be.” Mordy said backing me up.

Roland looked at Lil and Brick as if hoping one of them would say something to the contrary so he wasn’t alone in his chastisement of me but both of them just shook their heads at him. 

I reach up and remove my mask much to everyone’s surprise. I look him right in the eyes “Look man I get that to a soldier like you used to be her attitude was not all that strange but we aren’t soldiers and she isn’t a commanding officer. We were just strangers new to town and rather than welcoming us the first thing she did was try to humiliate us to establish her authority. It wasn’t right and you know it.” I say seriously.

He looks back at me with a conflicted expression before sighing and nodding in agreement. “Your right, I’m sorry for attacking you like that.” he said sincerely.

“Apology accepted. Now lets find a place I can set my house down so we can talk about our next move.” I said with a grin before I put my mask back on.

“Why do you wear that mask all the time anyways?” Lil asked curiously as we walked through town in search of a good spot.

“Besides the fact it protects my face from bullets mostly because I unnerve folks with it off. My glowing tattoos and the way my eyes and teeth are because of my powers makes it hard not to see me as a monster even if you know better. With the mask though it’s obvious that it’s just a mask so nobody bats an eye at it unless I pop up out of nowhere.” I said honestly.

It was true too as thanks to the changes my powers caused my eyes were slitted like a reptiles and had the same piercing quality an eagles might. My teeth were also shaped in such a way that they could tear through, flesh, bone and plant alike with ease and gave them an inhuman quality as a result.-

Add on the constantly glowing green tattoos and yeah sitting face to face with me unnerves the ever living fuck out of people. Wearing my mask is as a result simply better for everyone. This was something I had long since come to accept after these changes first started to appear months back. Even with this downside to my powers I wasn’t upset about it at all as I really didn’t mind so long as I didn’t look like a human blobfish. I can stand being scary to look at but being hideous was an entirely different thing, absolutely unacceptable.-

“Makes sense.” Brick said with a nod.

Behind Marcus’s shop we came across a face we hadn’t expected at all, Zed. he apparently had a whole ass two story building to himself as a clinic that was LEAGUES better than the borderline shack in Fyrestone.

“You have a clinic here? I thought you were in charge of Fyrestone?” I asked surprised to see the doc in this shit hole at all.

“I do and I am, spend most of my time there but make regular visits to New Haven to treat those here. Well I used to before the fast travel went down that is. Most the time though it’s the Medtrap that does it.” Zed said nodding the the primarily white with a red stripe across the middle claptrap that muddled about the clinic.

“Did they make a version of those bots for fucking everything?” I asked incredulously.

“They tried, “A bot for everything” they advertised but when the things really came out the personality matrixes had glitches that made them clumsy, brash or frightful rather than useful in nine outta ten cases. Medtraps useful but of a frightful disposition so it’s best left in a clinic like this away from anythin that might set it off.” Zed said with a shrug.

“Hey do you use that second floor up there for anything?” I asked changing the subject.

“Not really, kinda forgot about it ta be honest.” he said with an embarrassed look.

“Mind if we use it then? Can pay you too.” I offered.

“Now that ya mention it I could use some fresh samples for my research. Tell ya what, ya’ll bring me some bandit corpses and I’ll lend to place to ya for a bit.” he said and we agreed without hesitation.

Finding bandits was pathetically easy as literally right outside of the town across the dirt road at the back of the town was a small encampment of them. Six bandits total there, a bruiser, four marauders and one flaming psycho. We tied all of them together and dragged them back into town in under fifteen minutes. Pierce looked like she wanted to say something until she saw where we dragged them to and chose to turn a blind eye as a result. Clearly this was not the first time Zed’s done something like this which was a little bit worrying to be honest.-

“Thanks for getting these for me, as promised the upstairs room is yours for now.” Zed said as he eagerly took the corpses into a separate room.

We all silently agreed that we would collectively rather not know what he was going to do with the corpses and just headed outside and up the rickety metal stairs to the second floor room. Opening the door we weren’t met with any odd smells or anything thankfully and if anything the room was almost entire empty. There was a couple pieces of clearly forgotten medical equipment with dust settled over them but that was it really.

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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro

_______________________________________________

Alexander Drake

Lifeforce: 591,366

Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade], [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Omega body-Rare grade]x4, [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Bone regeneration-Uncommon grade], [Corrosion resistance-Uncommon grade], [Energy projection-Epic grade]x4, [Superior vitality-Epic grade],[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade], [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X2, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [True omnivore-Rare grade], [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Hyperflexibility-Rare grade], [Strong circulation-Epic grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Uncommon grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3

Stored traits: [Fire resistance-Uncommon grade]X5, [Omega body], [Supreme armored hide], [Powerful vitality], [Energy projection-Epic grade], [Minor regeneration],[Gun expertise-Uncommon grade],[Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade],[Mechanical engineering expertise-Uncommon grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade], [Mechanical Engineering expertise-Rare grade]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep