Mindgames

Eddie was sitting on the floor behind his upturned desk, warily sending glances at the barricaded door, all the while chewing through his nails so fast that he almost had none left. He hadn't anticipated that the NCR would actually attack them, he knew it couldn't be a coincidence either, they attack while a large portion of his men were out raiding? Bullshit.

There's only one explanation for this, betrayal. Karl, and his new fucking boytoy Afton Parker. They must be responsible for this, they provided the information that had him send his damn men out after all!

Not to mention they'd been attacked the night those two came back, once he got his hands on them he'd use his knife to mash their faces so badly even their mothers wouldn't be able to recognise them!

Eddie glanced at the three other men in the room with him, each held various weapons, A sawn-off shotgun, 9mm submachine gun, and an NCR service rifle. Each also wore bulletproof vests that used to belong to the prison guards. They weren't kitted out like the Brotherhood of Steel, but it was enough to hold back the NCR until the rest of his men returned... Hopefully by then they'd be able to drive these fuckers out.

"Eddie, you think they'll be able to get through the barricade?" one of his men asks warily.

Eddie shakes his head, "Nah, if they try just blast 'em." he confirms, but starts to hear a vague hissing sound... Did someone bring a snake inside?

*BOOM!*

An explosion rocks the building as the desks and other furniture used to barricade the door rockets around the room, peppering two men who weren't in cover and knocking them to the ground with various injuries.

The door was also blown off of its hinges, had Eddie not been behind a desk it would've taken his head off. Eddie shakes his head and takes another dose of Jet before standing and firing his Plasma pistol through the door, the large green projectiles colliding against the walls and floor as there doesn't seem to be anyone in the hallway...

"COME ON YOU FUCKERS! I'M RIGHT HERE! COME GET SOME!" he roars at them, taunting them to show their faces so he could get a clean shot.

The rest of his men slowly get to their feet, but most are disoriented by the earlier explosion and are struggling to quickly recover themselves. A shows itself in the doorway and they all start shooting at it, sadly their reactions times weren't good enough to catch it... Hang on, it seems to have thrown something.

It lands on Eddie's desk and is already hissing, everyone notices t hat its a stick of dynamite with its fuse almost out. All of them had a a lot of experience with this particular weapon, and immediately hit the deck as they wait for the explosion...

While this was happening someone walked through the doorway, it was that fucking Afton kid. They wore the dirty leather suit with metal plates covering it, a holster holding two weapons sitting on his hip along with that strange leather satchel. He seemed to falter midstep before instantly drawing his weapon and putting bullets into two of his men's heads.

Eddie couldn't help but think of how stupid this kid was, didn't he know this place was about to blow?...

...

The stick of dynamite shoulda gone off by now, he was behind the table so he wouldn't get shot, but he only had one man left due to that stupid kid. His bodyguard decided that getting a face full of dynamite was better than getting shot by the kid, standing up and unleashing a spray of bullets from his 9mm submachine gun.

Afton threw himself backwards out of the room as the bullets start flying, sparks let them know that a bullet had been deflected from one of the metal plats he was wearing, hopefully that wasn't the extent of the damage though.

In the hallway Karl gives Afton a hard look, "You alright kid?" he asks while looking him over.

Afton nods, "Yeah, didn't even scratch me." he says but gets cuffed on the ear by the old man.

"That was stupid and reckless, stick with the damn plan for fuck sake." he growled, promising pain if he tried that again. Sure he may have picked off two of Eddie's men, but why risk your life when they literally have an army at their disposal.

Karl looks to one of the NCR soldier who was accompanying them, "You sure you want Eddie alive? Bastards tough enough to deal with even with these restrictions. That dynamite coulda been live and we coulda been headed home."

The soldier nods, "By order of Emil and Hayes, the Powder Gangers aren't just causing trouble here, but further north as well... They're hoping to get some intel about them from this, Eddie."

Afton shakes his head, "There's only one bodyguard left and Eddie, any ideas on how to deal with them?"

Karl sighs as he goes through a couple plans in his head... "That might work" he mutters to himself, pulling out another stick of dynamite and cutting the end off with his knife. The woodchip-like insides drop out into his open palm and he seals it just before all of it is gone.

He does a couple more things to it like forces the fuse into it more so it was guaranteed to blow before handing it to Afton. "It'll explode, but they won't be expecting it." he grins.

Afton nods, lighting the fuse and tosses it in, the dynamite going over the table and landing next to Eddie's foot.

"You think we're fuckin' stupid!?" Eddie shouts, stamping on the dynamite and expecting it to completely crumble underfoot... Paling slightly when he feels something still inside it.

*Bang!*