Cliff nodded and dug out the armor while emptying the caps he had into a bag that he set on the counter. The metal armor was in truth just a Kevlar biker suit with metal sewn to it. The metal wasn't even clean machined stuff but just roughly shaped things put in place to offer a bit extra protection. Jess slipped it on over her vault jumpsuit and adjusted the latches to get it to fit her tightly. The metal blades on the shoulders gleamed in the dim light of the room.-
"Those shoulder blades are kinda pointless aren't they? Pun not intended. They LOOK cool but I don't think they actually serve a purpose beyond that." I pointed out.
"Intimidation maybe?" Cliff offered with a shrug.
"They might serve as decent deterrent to being grabbed by anything large enough to do so. Like a Nightkin." Adam chimed in.
"Hmm, hadn't considered that. Could well be true though. I can see some careless brute reaching for her only to get poked in the palm." I said nodding as I imagined it.
With that taken care of we split up for the night to rest so we could set out first thing in the morning. Boone still had a room here that he went to and Jess and I went to the one we'd opened up before. Unlike before we didn't have to pay this time either since one, Jeanie May was dead. And two, we still had the key to the room and they couldn't stop us if they wanted to. I just chose to sleep on the chair since Jess refused to take her new armor off even when sleeping. Nothing funny happened the last time we shared a bed but I didn't exactly want to scrape against the rough edges of the armor if that changed.-
The night passed quietly and in the morning I suited up again and we set out.
"Why are we not taking your bike again?" Jess asked as we walked.
"Because there is not enough room unless you want to sit on someone's lap. The bike is barely big enough for two, add a third and things move into the "definitively awkward" category." I said without skipping a step.
"Still sucks. We were going so fast with that thing. Now it's going to take all day to get to Boulder city." she complained.
"You could summon a mount." Adam whispered in my ears from the suit.
"I could but then I'd have to explain where it came from." i whispered back.
"You are being unreasonable about this. You have this armor, you have magic. What's stopping you?" Adam pointed out quietly.
"I am one fucking person Adam! In case you haven't noticed I still need to eat, shit and sleep, I have weaknesses. Right now i'm a curiosity, not a threat. I start busting out my magic and that changes real fast unless everyone else is a retard." I hiss slightly louder than I intend.
"What are you two talking about over there?" Jess asked curiously.
"We are discussing which sort of fruit might best ruin electronics. In a bit of a snag between melons and coconuts." I lie casually.
"If you remove the water in a coconut the melon would, if you don't the coconut does." Boone weighed in stoically.
"How the hell did you even start talking about this anyways?" Jess asked shaking her head.
"Well it started with talking about animals and the damage they can cause and eventually shifted to this." I lied without even a tiny bit of hesitation.
"Wildlife is one of the biggest problems the NCR regularly has trouble with for this exact reason." Boone said seriously.
"Oh I don't doubt that at all. Something gets into the armories or pantries and it would probably cause absolute chaos." I said with a nod.
Adam picked up the message hidden in my words and chose to let the actual conversation drop. Still the idle chat as we walked took our focus on how miserable it was to trek this road.
"Legion three O'clock." Adam said suddenly.
"Boone, use me as cover from returning fire!" I barked as I crouched to one knee and pulled out my pistol already aiming for the red blurs way out in the distance.
The man was a credit to his profession as he didn't say a word before getting behind me and resting his rifle on my shoulder in a crouch to take aim.
"BANG!"
A sharp crack of a bullet fired out from his gun and one of the red blurs drops. The rest speed up their approach and bullets start pinging off next to us as the legionnaires rain bullets in returning fire.-
Jess has also moved behind me without being told to and is shooting glob after glob of overcharged plasma from her rifle at the increasingly clear legionnaires. Boone fires off another shot without his breathing changing even once as another of the red wearing group falls dead. I take aim with my left hand and fire off the entire cylinder of my pistol at their legs that are the least protected part of them since I can see the exposed skin of most of them. There are screams of rage as my bullets bite deep into this soft tissue and they fall as their legs give out mid step.-
Didn't mean they stopped coming though.
Quite the opposite really as they went practically feral as they pulled themselves up from the dirt and limp/ran at us with machetes drawn.
"Put these dogs down." I said as I reloaded my gun.
Boone popped one of the the remaining fours head while Jess vaporized another. My Skirge shot off my shoulder and promptly got cut in half by one of the lucky remaining two. I finished my reload, aimed and fired my pistol dropping the last two.
"All legionnaire's eliminated." Adam reported calmly.
"Grab the guns and ammo. Let the crows have them. Can't believe they killed my damned bug! I liked that fucking thing. Rest in piece little buddy, you will be missed." I said and my two companions joined me in a brief moment of silence for my fallen creature.
Maybe they thought it was a creepy pet but I was kinda attached to the murderous little insect and it died in the line of duty so even a little feigned respect was called for.
"Couldn't you just resummon it once you get another of it's card? You do still have a pack opening token left." Adam said quietly once the other two were out of earshot.
I shook my head "That would only be true if it were a legendary named card. Anything not that is merely one of a theoretically infinite number of the same type of creature. I won't ever get that exact same bug back again unless I get lucky and pull a resurrection card of some sort. I won't gamble on it over something that I've only had for a bit over a week. I liked the bug but hadn't had it long enough to get that attached to it yet." I say with a sad sigh.