Turn 69

--- Maya ---

(Nice.)

“Yes it is.” She couldn’t help but nod as she looked over her now finished power armor.

(Or rather the frame to a power armor.) Her inner logic corrected as they set down their tools.

“I had to start somewhere.” She reminded herself, walking up to the armor before opening the various latches to get into it.

(Gah, this is taking so long…) Her inner child whined after the five minute mark.

“Yeah, probably going to want to do something about the latches at some point.” She agreed, locking her legs into the armor. “But that can wait until we get the armor to something worth using all of the time.”

(True, as is depending on the situation the frame could be something of a hindrance rather than a boon.) Her inner reason added.

“Mm, yeah, movements have a bit too much resistance at the moment.” She nodded, her arm moving ever so slightly slower with the armor than without.

(Well, are we at least stronger with it than without?) Her inner madness asked. (Because if this is going to be one of those ‘early game sucks, late game OP’ things, then it’s not going to be much help with the Bloodhounds.)

(A valid point.) Her inner logic admitted as she picked up a stone. (Though I’m fairly certain we’ll have to spend an amount of time improving it one way or another.)

“Still we’ve got to start somewhere.” She told herself, before crushing the stone in her hand. “I’d say this is a good place to start.”

---

“How are you two still going?” She gasped, forcing herself to remain standing after following Ying and Izzy for so long.

“I run every morning?” Ying told her as if the other teen didn’t understand what the big deal was.

(Lies! She absolutely knows what the big deal is! Look at that amusement in her eyes!)

“So do I, but you’re not even breaking a sweat yet.” Izzy argued, looking at the older girl.

“Mm, part of that is that you’re still a child with a fair amount of growing to do. Give it a few years and you’ll be able to handle far more than you can now.” Ying pointed out before tilting her head. “Truthfully, you probably shouldn’t be ‘training’ as much as you are at your age.”

“I’ll stop training when I’m better than you.” The younger girl challenged.

Ying stretched her arms above her head. “I’m sure you will be one day, but sadly for you that is a long long way off.”

“Don’t patronize me.” Izzy glared.

“Oh, I’m not.” Ying frowned. “It’s just I still have someone I need to surpass myself before I even think of taking it easy.”

“Who’s that?” She couldn’t help but ask, unable to think of any of their friends who were better than Ying. (At least when it comes to physical stuff anyway.)

Ying seemed to smirk to herself as she cryptically answered, “A dragon slayer.” and refused to elaborate.

---

“Alright… pull!”

LCM-1A stomped on the makeshift catapult they’d built for this, before realizing he weighed too little and draggin 1B over to help him. Eventually launching a small bit of rubble through the air for her to shoot at.

“Aim and… fire!” She flexed her wrist and sent out a small blast of lightning, shooting the rubble and shattering into dust. “Yes!”

(Hax for the win!) Her inner passion cheered at their victory.

(Perhaps we should fire the next one a little faster before we go cheering our victory.) Her inner reason warned her.

“Ugh, killjoy…” She groaned to herself before going to the LCMs catapult and messing with a few of the parts. “Alright, that should launch things just a little faster.”

(You know we really should build the LCMs their own defenses in case things with the Bloodhounds goes wrong.) Her inner madness suggested with surprising reasonableness.

“She just wants to build more dakka.” She pointed out, as she loaded another rock into the catapult.

(Ah. That tracks.)

(Our babies dakka to defend themselves!) Her inner child defended.

“Pull!” She told her minions, deciding to ignore her inner madness for the moment.

The LCMs both nodded before jumping on their pressure pad and sending the next rock flying notably faster than the last one.

“Aim and… fire!” She yelled flexing her wrist once more as she shot the rock, only to grimace as her shot just barely missed.

(Hmm, it seems like your ‘Hax’ can only hit things moving slowly.) Her inner logic informed them. (Meaning once again, improving your actual skill proves the more favorable answer to this problem.)

(Gah, Maya ‘s right you are a killjoy.)

---

“Elizabeth!” She called, trying not to go too far into the Dead Woman’s territory in case she was in one of her moods again.

“Maya?” Said Dead Woman asked, appearing behind her.

(Do ghosts have to make the scariest entrance?)

(Given popular myth, I believe so.)

“Hi, Elizabeth, how are you doing?”

“I-I’ve been a good girl!” The Dead Woman assured her, “Th-that means I get to see my little meadow flower, right?”

“I… The doctors are still working on the paperwork.” She lied to keep the other woman calm. “And well, you know how slow the doctors are with their paperwork so it might take a little bit longer.”

“Oh…” Elizabeth blinked, her eyes seemingly glazing before the Dead Woman shook her head and locked her ghastly green eyes onto Maya’s as she smiled. “But, I will be able to see her soon, right? I mean you, you said you’re a hero, and heroes help people!”

“As soon as we can manage.” She promised, feeling like garbage by just how much of a longshot all of this is. “But why don’t you tell me about her?”

“Tell you about her…” Elizabeth repeated before smiling wider than human as her eyes began to glow even brighter. “Of course I’ll tell you all about my little meadow flower! She’s such a smart baby, paying attention to everything you say and even talking back to you! I mean she’s talking baby talk of course but she’s still oh so smart! And beautiful, she’s got these beautiful green eyes so much prettier than mine… And, and she has the most adorable laugh you’ve ever heard!”

“I’m sure.” Maya nodded, holding back a grimace.

“Oh, I hope I haven’t missed her first words.” Elizabeth told her with no small amount of distraught. “Given how long I’ve been here she might even be walking already!”

Swallowing down her feelings about the fact that Elizabeth’s baby was more than likely walking and talking given how many years it’d been since the hospital had been shut down, she instead told the worried mother that, “It doesn’t matter how much time you two have missed, what matters is that you two have plenty of time to make up all of it.”

An idea that she kept repeating to herself to justify tracking down Elizabeth’s daughter in the first place.

“Y-yeah, you’re right.” The Dead Woman nodded, looking just a little relieved.

“That reminds me, you keep calling your baby your little meadow flower, but I don’t think you’ve told me her real name yet.” She pointed out, hoping that her baby’s name could help her in her search.

“Oh, I haven’t, have I?” Elizabeth smiled in an embarrassed fashion. “My meadow flower’s real name is Audrey.”