"Right. Anyway, I told her it wasn't Lung who did it, but this new cape, calling himself Courier." Ethan leaned over the table, his expression deadly serious. "Apparently, she's familiar with the guy. Told us some interesting stuff. For one thing, he's barely alive, at least by whatever standards her power uses to qualify something as alive."

Piggot paused, raising one eyebrow.

"Explain."

"The kid wasn't exactly forthcoming with information," Assault muttered, "But apparently under that jacket of his, he, and I quote, 'makes fucking Bonesaw's victims look tame by comparison.' unquote." Assault paused, and then added, almost as an afterthought, "Also, he apparently doesn't have a brain."

"No, she said his brain isn't in his head." Battery interrupted, turning to the Director. "She very specifically mentioned that not only had his brain been removed, but that he kept it in a jar that he carried with him." The room went quiet, every person laser focused on the cape duo's tale.

"You're certain?" Piggot finally asked.

"She was." Battery grunted. "Apparently, both the brain and his head had matching scarification and other signs of trauma. If it was enough to convince her, I'd say it's probably the truth."

The room was deathly silent. Velocity looked a little green under his mask, and the rest of Protectorate capes weren't much better. Even Armsmaster's jaw tightened at the revelation.

"...Trigger event?" He muttered, voicing the same thought running through everyone's head.

"I'll be damned if it isn't related." Assault replied, all traces of humour gone from his voice.

-

Well, more or less.

Oh geez, you didn't ask how to keep in contact with courier, assault? Oh lordy.

Fear Piggot.

"You know about Vegas?" Six's voice was curious.

"Know about Vegas? Who hasn't heard of Las Vegas?" Victoria gave him a quizzical look. "Why? I haven't heard about anything happening to it. Or about these 'Deathclaws' of yours, for that matter."

"I mean, Last I heard, Vegas was in the same state as usual." The cape shrugged. "Mostly irradiated wasteland, but not as bad as some other places I've traveled. Also, we call it New Vegas now."

"Irradiated? From what?"

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe the nukes?" Six shrugged. "House might've kept Vegas intact, but even he couldn't save everything the day the bombs dropped."

"Wait, wait. What?" Vicky held up both hands in a slow down gesture.

"What do you mean, what?" His tone was bland. "2077, the day the world ended? Look, I get you guys have, like a cult or whatever that tells you that it's 2011 and punishes anyone who disagrees, but I promise I won't turn you in to the local Enclave or whoever that's running the show here."

Victoria was quiet for a moment, eyeing the cape incredulously.

"What… I didn't understand any of what you just said. 2077? Nukes? Are you high?"

Six stared at her silently, muttering under his breath.

"...Yes." He finally said, his voice monotone. "I am totally high off my ass. You should just disregard everything I just said."

-

Ohngeez, he still doesn't get it.

But leastbhe got away relatively unharmed .

I can't believe he headbutted her. XD

Lol

Y3ah, snake eggs taste like chicken if you use enough syrup

Oh, shrunk his coat lol

And he might meet armsmaster.

"Wait, 'Pre-war'?" He held out a hand in a 'slow-down' motion. "What war?"

"The Great War. What other war would I be talking about?" Six said matter-of-factly. They stared at him blankly. He face-palmed. "Oh c'mon, I thought I was the one with amnesia. Who the hell doesn't know about the global nuclear war that killed off most of the world's population? Hello? October twenty-third, twenty-seventy-seven? Any of that ringing a bell?"

Taylor and Danny gaped at him silently.

Global nuclear war?

Suddenly, she didn't feel so hungry anymore.

"I'm… Afraid I don't quite understand what war you're referring to," Danny said quietly, "You do know we're in the year two-thousand-eleven, right?"

Six seemed to freeze, the entire room silent save for the sound of spaghetti being slurped through his mask. Finally sucking the last strands up, Six looked down at his empty bowl, silent.

Straining, Taylor thought she heard him muttering something among the lines of "-ucking cults…" before looking back up. The three of them; Six, Taylor, and Danny, all stared at each other in an awkward silence, only growing more awkward as the silence lengthened.

"SO!" Six slammed his hands on the table, making Taylor and Danny jump. "Let's not talk about anything before about, oh, let's say… two-hundred years ago?" Six nodded to himself. "Yeah, let's go with that."

Taylor turned to look at her father incredulously.

Danny chose to avert his eyes, focusing instead on how his spaghetti and meatballs formed such interesting geometries.

-

Spaghetti and meatballs.

Marvelous yeah, it would be a dinner worthy to save someone's life.

And does he realize now, he's in another time, if not world?

"Oh! Oh… It's that kind of healing."

Amy rolled her eyes. And, there goes the other shoe. Yes, super-powered healing. Honestly, not to sound too egotistical, but who hasn't heard of Panacea by this point?"

"...Sorry kid, but you're not really my type."

What.

"What? No! Not like that! God, get your head out of the damn gutter!" Amy grabbed at his arm, pulling off his glove. "Just-"

Amy froze, the complete biology of Courier Six crashing into her mind. All she knew was what her power told her, and her power told her that the man- No, the Thing sitting next to her had neither a heart, nor a spine, nor a brain; at least, not as such. He had so much artificial Tinkertech stuffed into him that her power seemed to be having trouble with whether to even call him a living thing.

Amy stumbled back, sickened, at the kind of cruelty that Courier Six must have endured, to end up so horribly disfigured. She couldn't begin to imagine the kind of pain he must be feeling.

"Hey… You alright kid?"

She realized that he had stood up, and was crouched over her. She tried to say something, but one question repeated over and over in her mind.

"Wh-" She gulped, her body shaking in sympathetic agony. "Where… Where's your brain?"

"My brain?" He cocked his head. "Oh! Yeah, hold on."

Amy watched in mute horror as he dug around in his jacket, slowly pulling out a sealed glass jar, one that contained, unmistakably, a human brain.

And then she started screaming

-

I never expected this, and I love it!

This is very interesting

is this coming back?
its really good

Really good story. There was a while there i wasn't sure how things were going to go but once six and Taylor team up the story gets really good and engaging

an excellent read.
I recommend await more.

Why is he not mentioning the f**king gun that he needs repaired? That's the whole f**king point of him going to Armsasshole in the first place! Why are you wasting so much time with this other shit?

I hope we can get an update to this sometime soon, really enjoyed reading it.

Cool story I NEED MORE. Fantastic stuff, super enjoyable to read and well written

more?

Ace combat based trigger? Flightline!

Shiny!

While you might not have been happy with the chapter, I absolutely loved it. Instead of the usual throwdown, we got a right proper nerd-out.