Chapter Text
If one were to ask Porter Gage a few months ago as to how he would envision his death, he would say it would be due to a knife to the back or throat or gut or whatever from one of the Raider Gangs being fed up with his shit and take it out on him. If you told him that he was going to die from a stress induced heart attack caused by his new Boss/Ward/Adopted Daughter doing an extremely stupid stunt like riding a Deathclaw/Alligator hybrid like a bucking bronco, he would laugh in your face, ask what drugs you've been taking and where he could get it, then shoot you in the crotch.
But the sad fact was, that was happening right in front of him. Taylor Hebert, the new Overboss of Nuka-World, just turned 17 was doing just that and she was somehow staying on and subduing the rampaging behemoth. He had no idea how a plan to replace Colter with some new blood ended up like this. Well, he did remember how it started.
)NQ(
Gage was up in Fizztop Grill trying once more in vain to drive some sense into Colter's pea sized brain with minimal success as per usual. Just as he was about give up, the alarm rang out that a new victim was running through the Gauntlet designed by Nisha and her Disciples. He...completely ignored it because only 1% of people made it through the Gauntlet and even then they wouldn't last long in the arena due to how many injuries they sustained while in it. Well he had ignored it until he hear Redeye exclaim in shock,
"Holy Shit!! The vic is going through this at record pace, she's already headed into the homestretch with no visible injuries!"
Gage's eyebrows migrated itself up into his nonexistent hairline as his one good eye widened in shock, mouth hung open agape. Nobody ran through the Gauntlet like that, not with any scratch on them whatsoever. Who was this person?
Colter grinned nastily and said,
"Well it's about time someone made it through again. I've been waiting ages to get me hands dirty."
Gage rolled his eye but kept quiet, his mind racing on how to spin this to his advantage and perhaps get a change in management.
)NQ(
What happened next was pretty self-explanatory, Taylor Hebert came into the arena armed with the super soaker Gage told her to grab and promptly beat the ever-lovin' tar out of him. The beating was so brutal yet so hilarious that it still left Gage in stitches anytime he remembered it.
)NQ(
Gage's mouth was down upon the ground as he witnessed what was happening in the arena. After she disabled his power armor with the thirst zapper he directed her too, she tore him out of the exo-suit and flung him out of it hard against the wall, dazing him as he struggled to get on his feet. While he climbed to his feet, the girl put the soaker away and lifted up her left arm to reveal... a Pip-Boy? Where did she get one of those? She fiddled with it and Red-Eye's commentary cut out and a classical piece he would later learn was called the Can-Can started to play.
What happened next, Gage would swear would bring him joy for years afterward every single time he remembered this. It was a brutal one-sided slug fest, and by god it was hilarious to see. She rang blow after blow onto Colter all in time to the music sometimes with a baseball bat, sometimes with her bare fists. By the time she was done, Colter was barely alive, his face a bruised paste of purple and black flesh, limbs shattered beyond saving, and barely able to speak. She then for the grand finale, lifted up Colter and broke his back. Surprisingly, he was still alive but she ignored him turning to the ravenous crowd spread her arms out and cried,
"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!"
The crowd howled its approval at the exclamation. Gage nodded head at the way the crowd was howling, she seemed to be able to win over the crowd with ease especially with how hated Colter was becoming. Then she held out her right hand and stuck her thumb out. Gage was confused, what was she doing now? She then turned her thumb down and by instinctual urge the crowd hollered its approval. A wide grin stretched over the young girl's face and with no warning she lifted up her boot and smashed into Colter's head smashing it open like an overripe melon. Gage could only think of one thing watching this play out,
'The King is Dead, Long Live the Queen.'
)NQ(
A roar from the Gatorclaw brought Gage from his memories as Taylor stabbed it in its eye as she still was perched upon its back. Gage could feel his hair turning grayer by the minute and as he sneaked a glance at his companion, he could he was feeling the same as well but was also having the urge to cheer her on.
Mason, the leader of the Raider Gang known as The Pack, was here to witness the sheer insanity before him along with various members of The Pack, because the Overboss insisted that if he wanted the territory she was setting to claim for him then he needed to come and earn it and not leave her to do it alone while he sat around doing nothing. Gage would feel more stressed about what she said if this was the first time she said but it in fact was the third time she has done it with the gangs and she has not been shot at or ended up with a knife shoved in anywhere on her person for the sheer disrespect in that statement. But to his surprise the other two gangs agreed, mainly because their pride and integrity were on the line when she challenged them, well the little integrity they had that is since she basically said that if they didn't lend a hand they were no better than Colter in that regard.
Gage had felt a bead of sweat coalesce upon his forehead when he read between the lines and figured what Taylor was not saying when she made her statement. She would keep that territory for herself if they didn't lend a hand and he knew she knew they knew it. Funnily enough this actually earned her respect among the gangs and they decided to not find out if she was bluffing. So the first territory in Nuka World outside of Nuka-Town USA was scoped out by Taylor and the Disciples, the closest to Nuka-Town which happened to be Kiddie Kingdom. It was infested with Feral Ghouls and being continuously sprayed with radiation all across the land, all the while a Ghoul heckled them from over the park's intercom.
Things were going well, they were clearing out the park of the Ferals with some difficulty but it was mostly from the locations they were encountering them in. Mostly the "Funhouse", seriously who designed that thing? They managed to track the Ghoul leading the pack to the castle. On the roof, they confronted him and that is where it all went to shit.
)NQ(
The Disciples, Nisha, and Gage stood on the roof of the castle behind Taylor as they listened to the ghoul, Oswald blather on about his circumstances and how his wife was searching for a cure and they weren't leaving until her return. Honestly Gage was tuning him out, until he saw their Overboss stiffen and went ramrod straight. Her voice which Gage knows for being warm but also having a level of snark, came out cold and cruel hissing out,
"What... did you... just say?"
The Disciples and Nisha stilled when they heard her tone of voice. In the week they had known her, cutting and hacking their way through Kiddie Kingdom Taylor had been, not exactly trusting but more like japing and being snarky that they slowly got used to it and began to do the same with her. To hear her normal warmish snarky voice go cold? It set them all on edge. Oswald smirked thinking he gained a small victory, unheeding of the red flag her tone of voice raised and repeated himself,
"I said you know nothing of what it is like to suffer, to know what it's like to be an outcast."
If she was still before then she was a stone statue now, she made no moves her body frozen. Her head was tilted down and her voice cold hissed out,
"I know nothing of suffering? Perhaps then, me hearing my mother's final words to me as she got into a fatal car accident over the phone wasn't suffering? Perhaps then, while grieving for my mother my father sent me off to summer camp drawing deeper into his grief and deeper into a bottle I wasn't suffering dealing with my grief? I suppose me coming back to find out my best friend who I saw as a sister turned on me without a single warning turning me into a social pariah with her new best friend breaking my bones and almost putting me in the hospital several times would just be a minor inconvenience to you wouldn't it? Since I know nothing of what it is like to suffer.
"I saw the last remnant of my mother destroyed right in front of me leaving it beyond repair and yet I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO SUFFER?!?!"
Her chest heaved with that declaration as the ghoul had taken several steps back and eyed the girl nervously during her rant. The raiders looked uneasily at one another, yes they had all some type of tragedy in their lives but never to this extent. They would have broken and given in if they were in her shoes. To hear what she had gone through, and was still kicking, still fighting? That just earned her their respect and loyalty, they were not going to be the ones to break her and she had inexplicably began to trust them in the time they were together. Well it made sense to them, they were fighting their way through this radioactive hellhole and the strongest bonds are formed in the heat of battle. She had more than proved herself in the eyes of The Disciples, and now they were going to prove themselves to her by sticking with her no matter what.
But she wasn't done, not by a longshot,
"And YET that wasn't the worst thing, Oh no far from it. You see I couldn't even tell my own father about all of this because he fallen so far in his grief that he completely forgot about me in the process. I lost her too dad, you're not alone in your grief..."
She took a deep breath and dropped one last bombshell,
"As if that wasn't bad enough, on the day I was transported to this godforsaken wasteland that traitorous bitch Emma and her two cronies filled my locker with enough female waste products that it could have been classified as bio-terrorism! They stuffed me inside my locker and locked it, laughing all the while and walked away. I was trapped in there for five hours before I inexplicably found myself transported to the Commonwealth and managed to survive on my own for over a year, before I found my way here. So tell me Mr. Magic Ghoul? Do you still think I don't know suffering?"
She stared at the ghoul with such intensity that it was a wonder he didn't burst into flames there and then. When he remained silent, the Nuka Queen laid out an ultimatum,
"I will give you one last warning, get out and take your 'friends' with you or nothing will stop me from wiping out every last one of you. I will give you a five minute head start, then all bets are off. So what'll it be?"
Oswald apparently didn't like his chances as he promptly disappeared in a cloud of smoke, taking the remaining ferals with him. Kiddie Kingdom now belonged to The Disciples and they would protect the one who gave it to them. They didn't care about the bloodless solution to this debacle, because to be honest she proved that she wasn't a coward who relied on others and that she could use fear as a weapon. That she managed to send someone running with pure words alone? That was pretty awesome and somewhat terrifying. Just how The Disciples liked it.
)NQ(
The Gatorclaw fell with a thud, the life void from its eyes. Gage just shook his head at how nonchalantly Taylor looked, dusting off her hands as she jumped down from the corpse.
"That's the last of them." Taylor decreed, "So you sure you have no problems with letting Cito stay, Mason?"
"Yeah I got no problem with letting him and his family stay, thanks again boss. It was quite a thrill to hunt with you boss. Need anything else?" Mason replied.
"Nothing at the moment," Taylor shook her head and then said, "Actually after you guys are done setting up here, I'm calling a meeting between the three gangs here to discuss things going forward, now that all gangs have one park each. I'll pass the word around to expect a meeting on Fizztop next week at noon, so don't be late."
"You got it boss." He said with a mock salute as Taylor went to go raise the flag declaring Safari Adventure to be Pack Territory. As he watched her leave he saw Gage gesture him over. Curious, Mason walked over and Gage leaned in and whispered iin his ear,
"Private Meeting between me and the leaders tonight at Cola-Car Arena. Nisha has some concerns that need to be addressed. It concerns the Overboss, but not to her detriment."
Mason raised an eyebrow at this statement. What concerns could Nisha have about the Overboss that required a private meeting between the three of them?