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Location: New Vega, Abandoned Apartment Complex.

Time: 12:00pm.

Year: 2245, January 11th.

There was little or no distance between both rooftops, making my job that much easier. My pistol was held in my left hand, and I had shut out almost everything that surrounded me, both mentally and physically. All I could see was the three-man crowd below me, still unaware that I was right above them in midair. My pistol followed them as I soared overhead, keeping my breath quiet, and my eyes half-closed.

I finally made contact with the ground, using my spare right hand to keep balance and break into a roll to cushion the impact. The group had just started to notice me, by which time I was already up and taking cover behind a nearby vent shaft. Everything came back to me instantly, and I was fully aware of what was going on. Beyond the vent shaft were two mechs, and one thug dressed in standard Scarecrow armor. I had enough experience with taking out mechs; the only problem was the 'Scarecrow'. I had little or no experience in fighting with them from a distance.

The thug was distracted, but the mechs were already firing on the vent shaft I was behind, sending bullets and fragments of metal almost everywhere. I saw another shaft to my left, and between my cover and that was a few meters of open space; I decided to take that small advantage and twist out of cover immediately after the shooting had stopped.

Luckily, the group was closely packed, and I had already unleashed three shots, tearing through the metal of the two mechs, severing one leg and a head to go with it; by the time I was back in cover, the group had been reduced to one Bear and a small white scrap heap to go with it. I pulled out my crowbar and listened to the sounds being made, shutting out everything around me except for me and the Bear. My mind slowly went into a state of blunt thoughts as I listened hard to the point that I could hear the ringing that went on in my ears.

The soft sound of my back rubbing against the vent shaft; beyond that, hard and heavy footsteps being made; the assailant, making a deep but quiet sound...laughing...I begin to tense, keeping my crowbar by my side, ready to twist out. Finally, I strike.

Everything came back in another instant; I had caught the assailant's large rifle with my crowbar, and had forced the palm of my hand right into his jaw, forcing him backwards as he let go of his weapon. I took this opportunity and dropped the rifle, bringing out my pistol again and shooting him in the kneecap. The Bear fell over in a large heap, gripping his leg as I watched his hands begin to soak with blood. As I walked closer, the Bear started to back away in fear; I could see that clearly, beyond the pain and anger he showed me. I walked up to him and bent down on my knees.

"Tell me where the Red Fox is, now." I ordered, slamming my fist into the bear's rib cage. The bear grunted and started to breathe heavily, almost gasping for air.

"...I don't know." The bear grunted, still gasping for air, still giving me an angry look. "Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

"I'm asking you a question!" I growled, getting up so that I could force my foot into his ribs a few times. I heard a small crack, telling me that I had broken one of his ribs. "Answer me; you ass!"

I kept forcing my foot into his chest, hearing two more ribs break; it didn't stop me, though. I kept kicking him, waiting five seconds for him to answer; every time that he didn't say anything, I'd kick him even harder. I eventually stopped when I saw that his face was entirely blank; his eyes were wide open and not moving at all and his body had become loose. I cursed out loud and slammed my fist against one of the torn up vent shafts.

I looked around wildly until I found the door that led further into the building. I figured that the Red Fox had to be somewhere inside, as well as the shipment of Aura that I was supposed to pick up in the first place. After kicking the wooden door off its hinges, I continued down into the complex, still breathing rapidly and quietly and keeping my pistol raised up to my head at arms distance.

The staircase was almost pitch-black; probably since I had been outside for so long. I slowly descended, keeping one hand against the wall to keep balance. From the creaking that I was hearing, the stairs were made of wood, meaning the building had to be much older than I thought; though I could barely hear anything beyond the creaking, meaning this place was either abandoned, the thugs had closed up shop, or it was a trap. I guessed that it was the last two; they had left the building, but probably left me a few treats.

"Let's see what I can find, then." I muttered to myself, eager to see what was in wait for me as I stepped further down, meeting another door. This time, I slowly opened it, keeping quiet as I forced it open slowly with my pistol.

The room was illuminated with a single light bulb overhead, and below that, just an empty room, only filled with torn up wallpaper and blank floorboards. It was similar to a square corridor, in the sense that all the walls had a one or two doors attached to each. I kept my pistol loaded, and quickly bolted into the room, continuously rotating around and keeping an eye on all doors in front of me. It obviously felt like a trap; all that was needed was someone to spring it.

I heard one of the doors start to creak quietly; upon hearing that, I instantly pointed my pistol up to the hanging light bulb and squeezed the trigger, sending shards of glass to the floor in one small shatter, and sending the room into complete darkness. Even through the darkness, I could roughly remember where things were; it took me less than a second to conceal myself in one of the corners whilst I sat back to watch the trap spring itself.

A single person burst into the room from a door to my left; from the light that shone from the door, I could clearly see that the thug was wearing Scarecrow armor, possibly with the build of an average Wolf. I stayed calm and brought my pistol down to my waist, aiming at the assailant's foot, and preparing to fire. Unfortunately, the Wolf had already started moving again, and looked as if he had clearly noticed me.

"You're not that subtle, you know." The Wolf said, not looking at me, but inspecting the door to my right. "You should have shot me when you had the chance."

The Wolf immediately spun round, forcing the door into me as I tried to run up to strike. The impact of the door forced me back into the wall, and almost completely broke the door into pieces. My mind was starting to blur along with my vision, and by the time I started to regain focus, the Wolf had already leapt on me, pinning me to the floor by my arms. Struggling would be meaningless, so I just lay there, keeping quiet.

"Hmm, so you're the White Fox that she's so worried about." The Wolf said to himself, just so that I could overhear him. The Wolf started to loosen his grip on my left arm slightly, giving me the opportunity to point my gun right into his side.

The Wolf backed away slowly; I didn't bother shooting him, but gave him a chance to run; he took that opportunity and slowly backed away, suddenly twisting around and sprinting out of the broken down door. I could tell that it wasn't out of fear, but probably because he needed to do something; something that would probably bite me in the ass later on. Either way, I didn't worry about it, but focused on what I still needed to do. The Red Fox was still around, and I had to find him.

I continued off from where I left myself and got up, deciding to make sense of everything when I got back to the club. In the meantime, however, I twisted around the doorway that the Wolf had come from and listened closely for any voices. Unfortunately, the only thing I heard was the high pitched humming of light bulbs overhead. I would end up searching with my eyes and wasting even more time than I thought.

I didn't bother searching every room that I had come by; just the locked or boarded up ones. This proved to be quite a problem, seeing as I wasted more time in prying the doors off with my crowbar or shooting the locks off with my pistol; and the process took me through three corridors filled with empty rooms before I had finally met a dead end. I was at the last door, which was boarded up, locked, and even had a few chains around it to top it off.

"This should be interesting." I muttered, bringing out my crowbar again to pry off the wooden boards as a starter, then continued to shoot off the links of the chains until it all fell to the ground, by which time I was already out of ammunition, and the locked door was all that was left.

"Well, if you can't blow it open..." I muttered, taking a step back just so that I could force the door open with one swift kick. "Kick it down."

I slowly walked into the pitch black room, only illuminated by the light coming from the corridor. It just looked like any other room that I had seen in the building; blank wooden floors, torn up wallpaper. I walked further in and tried to make out what was in the dark; but the only thing I saw was more littered wallpaper and broken up floorboards. I stared at the ground in despair, just noticing a small bloodstain on the wood. I leant down slowly, taking a close look at the stain; it looked old, probably a few hours, or even a day; but there was no body to go with it.

"Poor sod..." I muttered angrily, slamming my fist against the wall in frustration; "Where did you go? How? Why? When? Shit, shit, shit! The Administrator won't like this. Damn it."

I paced back and forth, clenching and unclenching my hands and trying to make sense of everything, but failing. It was always like this whenever something went really bad or wrong; don't get me wrong, I can easily adapt to situations; but people disappearing was just plain frustrating. They don't just go; they leave evidence, a trail, something; but there was just the bloodstain. I slammed my fist into the wall repeatedly until it started to bleed, and the wall was cracked and broken. I tried to calm down and focus, taking deep breaths in and out, trying to keep my cool; but something had put me off.

I heard a few voices coming from below me; possible the lower floor. It sounded like Enforcers calling out to each other. I started to panic immediately; my frustration had become instant fear, and I started to show a scared face. I kept spinning around looking for an exit; even though I could clearly see the way that lead out to the rooftops, I was blinded with fear. I didn't even know why; I could easily take care of Enforcers.

"Crap! Shit! Damn it!" I whispered to myself, starting to shake; "What the hell should I do?!"

Unfortunately, there was no one there to give me an answer...but me...

I was all alone, up against something I was unreasonably terrified of...without knowing why...