Death has no Shadow [Ended]

The member 'Game Warden' has done the following action : Chance Roll

'Chance Roll' : 45

The shifting of the barrel from the window had set Kes on the search again, looking for where the shooter might be. The only good places were limited. The edge of the building, where the shooter had just been, the center of the building where the first shooter had been, or one of the windows near the top of the building.

The barely noticeable flash from the center of the building gave the shooter away just in time.

The bullet fired at Kes ricocheted off the rubble before him causing him to duck his head a bit before hopping back on the sights; as always the reaction came more from instinct than true fear.

Why the sniper had decided to return to the previous firing position was unknown, but Kes was not complaining. Taking aim, Kes squeezed off another round. Hopefully this time it would hit.

(Rolling to fire another round at the sniper. Guns 65, -10 distance and weather.)

The member 'Kestrel' has done the following action : Chance Roll

'Chance Roll' : 32

Cross decided to take a peak out, he had heard gunshots but no screams.

Cross saw Happy still charging, trying to reach the sniper, but at this rate he'd get shot. Cross had to do something....or risk Happy getting shot.

Twisting his body as to stay in cover, Cross threw his head so one eye had a peak.

He saw where Kes fired at

And without missing a beat, Cross teleported himself as close as he could get to the Sniper's location. Pressed agaisnt the concrete, he looked behind the wall, he could rush him But he wouldn't be able to reach him without drawing attention to himself.


So he went thought of one his old strategies. If the asshat had instincts that were as good as his aim, this would work

Cross dug around and pulled out a tin can out of his bag, and looked around his spot for rock, placing the rock in the can, and took one last breath and threw the rock-in-a-can around the corner, roaring as loud as he could.

"GRENADE!!!"

Iron went stiff when he heard Cross yell grenade. Not because he thought he was in any danger of being blown up, he heard the can clinking around on the floor downstairs, but because it meant the boy was close enough to be heard. Iron flipped open the crate he had been resting his rifle on and pulled out his backup plan. The sniper out there would have to wait, he would miss playing their cat and mouse game, more urgent vermin were around. Iron hefted his grenade rifle and aimed it so the arc would deposit the grenade just outside of building.

"Goodbye everypony."

The member 'Game Warden' has done the following action : Chance Roll

'Chance Roll' : 78

" Huh wha...." Cross turned over, His vision shook as he recalled who he was and what the buck was going on.

An explosion had thrown him against a wall.

The pony was probably still up there, Cross had to get away. He tried moving but his cape kept sticking to his hooves

' thats not my cape....thats blood...... there was a second floor? huh...how about that.......'

Cross turned, he was now going into shock, he had to move now.

*Flash*

Cross looked around.

"How far did I go? 5 feet....yea thats cool." Cross was only barely past a mound of debris from where he was. He was beginning to lose consciouness quickly...magic didn't help his focus at all, and now his horn flickered like a burned out light.

"Dude, you shot me....." He whispered...."That was gayyyy........."

Trails began to pant as he ran, the building steadily growing in his view as he approached. The occasional crack of Kes' and the Raider's shots ripped through the air. He spurred himself to run faster, this had to end. He saw his shield flicker and die, then Cross appear outside the building in a burst of magic. Now he was running just to get to cover. The an explosion tore through the air and sent Cross into a crumpled heap. The pony teleported a few feet away and then stopped moving.

Trails ran faster than he ever had before and skidded to a halt next to Cross' mangled body. The buck was still alive, barely. Trails hefted him onto his back and ran to the sniper's building, the only safety to be found was in the blind spots right outside. Trails' breath was ragged as he slumped off Cross. He pulled a sack of healing powder out of his vest and rubbed it into Cross' open wounds. This was bad, they needed a medic a damn sight better than Trails and his wasteland remedies.

Trails swallowed and entered the building,pulling out his shotgun. He had to focus on taking out that sniper first. The building was a small office building, three floors tall. The first floor was nothing but rubble, no ponies to be found. He heard the sound of hooves upstairs and walked as painfully slow as he could, sneaking was far from his strong suit. He saw a gray earth pony behind a sniper rifle, the pony was breathing slowly in a far window. Trails leveled his shotgun and fired both barrels.

"Smile you son of a bitch."

The member 'Happy Trails' has done the following action : Chance Roll

'Chance Roll' : 54, 88

Kes had remained glued to his rifle as the other two had advanced on the shooters position. Still managing his breathing and holding his sights on the window that contained the sniper.

He did nothing more than slightly quirk a brow when Cross was introduced to the joy of being shot by a grenade rifle. So the shooter did have a back up plan...not that it helped. In his haste to neutralize Cross the sniper had forgotten about Trail.

The sound of the earth pony's shotgun discharging twice meant that it had proven to be a fatal mistake.

After hearing the blasts Kestrel wordlessly packed his rifle up and began to swiftly, yet calmly, make his way towards the building at the end of the road.

He came up to where Cross was lying broken and unconscious on the ground and gave the unicorn a passing glance before continuing on. He had seen Trails put something on the unicorn to stabilize him on his way over here, but he would definitely need an actual doctor to get back to full health. Kes could attempt to heal the unicorn, but he wanted to be sure that all threats in the area were neutralized first.

That's why the bird walked away from the unicorn without a sound and went upstairs to find Trails and the shooter.

(May edit later.)

" Well that was easy." muttered Trails, kicking Iron's corpse with a foreleg. The sniper was more of a pile of gore than a pony now. There we're holes in the ceiling that let Trails see clear to the top floor, not a creature to be seen. He lit a smoke and started rummaging through the remains of the two snipers. Grinning as he sorted the loot into two piles: mine and other.

Up the stairs, around the corner, and down the hall; that was Kestrels chosen path. Cross would be fine for a few minutes by himself while Kes checked out the buildings interior.

The sharp clatter of metal, dull thump of wood, and other such sounds soon caught Kestrel's ear. He sped up and moved towards the sound, finally finding its source at the end of the hall in the remains of a weathered room. In the center of which was Trail's, cigarette in mouth, happily sorting through piles of what Kes supposed was loot taken from the twin snipers.

'Decent haul' he thought silently letting out a short whistle to announce his presence to Trails.

There wasn't to much of interest to him, however the sight of the last shooter's weapon, a highly modified Hunting Rifle, definitely caught the birds eye.

Loot:
1 hunting rifle w/ scope and upgraded bolt.
1 cowboy repeater w/ forged receiver and maple stock
1 grenade rifle
3 boxes of .308 ammunition
3 boxes of .357 ammunition
6 40mm grenades

"Hey there Kes, just going through what these two left us." Trails said looking up at the gryphon and cocking the repeater. He looked down the sights and worked the action through a couple of dry fires. A solid gun, exactly what he had been looking for. He slung it on his back and stuffed the ammunition in his vest.

The bird gave a grunt and looked over the loot, making a mental list of what he wanted. That bolt gun would be easy enough to strip down of its upgrades, and it would be just as easy to put them onto the gryphons current rifle. With the addition of a scope and bolt his trusty rifle would be fully upgraded, making it into a lovely sniper weapon until Kes could find something better.

"I'll be back" Kes said to the stallion before he turned and left again.

When he got back he deposited the body of their other comrade, Cross, on the floor of the room and then began to gather his chosen reward. Three boxes of ammo and that boltgun.

Without a word the bird began to work. Taking the new rifle apart and upgrading/repairing his old one. The Scope was the easiest part to swap out. The semi-shiny custom bolt was going to be a bit trickier. It had been seated in the stock by someone who knew what they were doing.

Nothing some sharp talons and some know-how couldn't beat though.

"Figured you'd want to strip that baby down soon as I saw it." mumbled Trails through clenched teeth. He was holding onto a shell with his mouth as he struggled to reload his shotgun and search through the remaining supplies at the same time. Most of it was the typical wasteland fair: dirt water, scavenged food, and of course plenty of pictures cut out of long discarded "Wingboner" magazines.

Trails shoved the best of each into his pack, saving them for later and continued his search. He was looking for some stimpacks and med-x for Cross. The buck need both badly and Trails had never gotten into the habit of carrying them. His mom had always been too good of a fireside chemist for them to need to scavenge chems, and the mercs that followed them as guards always had homeopathic remedies from the plants to make up any short falls.

"Jackpot." he grunted holding up a syringe to the light. Trails walked over to the comatose buck and jabbed the needle into his chest. "Welcome back." he joked.

"SWEETBABYTWILIGHT!!!!" Cross shot straight up, heartracinig!! Hefeltsuperhehadneverfeltthewaythathedidrightthen. Washegivenashotofadrewdiline? HethinksitwasAdrenaline.

Cross got up and started looking everything, nervous and paranoid there might be more enemies. But then he saw Kes, Keswasn'tnervoussowhyshouldhebe??? Cross quickly trotted over and grabbed the weapon that injured him, the grenade rifle

"I'll be taking tha-oowwwwww" Cross's head starting twisting over itself, if he was healed why did it hurt so badly? nonetheless he loaded up the rifle and placed the ammo in his pack.

The bird gave a grunt in response to Trails' comment before speaking aloud to the unicorn. He may be healing up, but potions take a sec to work and med-x makes ones head spin for a bit.

"R'lax Red" Kes said, not even bothering to look up at the unicorn as he finished upgrading his rifle, then quickly chambering a fresh round with the satisfying, distinct, sound of a smooth operating bolt.

Nice, very nice.

Trails laughed at Cross' nervous scatter brainedness and put on his saddlebags. "I remember my first beer." He joked. "Think we should head out soon as this storm passes. I'll get a fire going up stairs, recon you could use some rest and warmth Cross."

"Warmth...?" Cross looked at Trails, with a shocked look.

"Um sorry to tell you this Happy, but I'm not all into the whole Brokeback deal...not that I have anything agisnt you..." Cross hurried on downstairs, his wounds were beginning to hurt again, and he wanted to get some sleep while he still had some meds pumping through his body.

"Umm you know what.." Cross came back up remembering Trails mentioned a fire, "I misheard you, a fire would be nice"

Assured that his primary weapon was in proper working order and up to par with his standards the Gryphon secured it onto his back. The rifle finding new home in the comforting grip of one of Kestrel's slings.

His gaze focused out the window of the room he was in, watching the wastes get pelted and cleansed by the storm outside. He had always liked rain, it...soothed him in a way.

The bird would journey upstairs a while later, joining the other two by the fire. Till then, he just sat silently staring out the window; mind wandering who knows where.

Trails had made a large pile of various bits of garbage and some hedge apple wood he'd managed to keep dry. He poured a few drops from his flask on the pile and flicked the but of his cigarette onto it. The pile ignited instantly with a whoosh and was soon crackling happily. He walked over to the window and watched the rain pour on his brahmin's corpse.

"End of that chapter." He mumbled and leaned against the sill. "What should I do?" He took out a small badly burnt pre-war bit and flipped it. It landed on its side in a crack and stayed there. "Thanks for the guidance, universe."

Kes had found himself a nice shadowy place amongst some rubble near the fire. The big bird let himself relax just a bit, even going so far as to lie down for a bit. He was not all that tired really, but until Cross was back up to full speed, and Trails' finished mumbling to himself, Kes had nothing to do except wait.

As universe would have it, in moments like these, the small skirmish was observed from a nearby ridge by a brown unicorn, hidden in what meager vegetation the Wasteland provided.

"What a great start..." ,he grumbled to himself, already considering how many kinds of stupid was the idea to join the scavenger corps. Nonetheless, there was still his somewhat hastily sworn duty, and as he was very well aware to himself from the time spent in the stores of Stableton, great need for additional old world technology back home, so running away was not yet an option.

As the shooting died down, being coronated with grenade explosion, he weighted his possible approaches to surviving strangers along the road. "Well... they probably won't shoot me on sight, at least the ponies not, knowing they obviously seen each other for the first time and even then didn't murder the hell out of themselves. The caped one is clearly knocked out, so they probably won't want to risk shootout either... And the griffin is probably aware of my presence anyway, and even if not ,I doubt I'll appear as a threat to him, so what the hell, nothing ventured, nothing gained".

Taking the first few steps in the direction of the derelict buildings, his analytical part of mind decided to have one last argument to throw in the discussion.

"Damn it all you idiot, you're really going to go there, aren't you?"
"I suppose, I mean, what's th- a'right, I won't say that..."

As he approached to a range he was sure that they'll hear him, he shouted:

"HELLO THERE, WOULD YOU MIND IF A FELLOW TRAVELLER JOINED YOU FOR THE NIGHT?"

immediately realizing how ungodly stupidly that sounded, expecting a swift bullet death in his direction.

Trails' ears pricked up at the sound at of another pony's voice. He pulled out his pistol and nodded to Kes. He walked down the stairs, taking his time and peeking around the corners before committing. He saw a lone figure, a unicorn. They seemed minimally armed if at all. Trails decided there had been enough bloodshed for one day and holstered his pistol.

"Hey there, stranger." He called. "Come into the light so I can get a better look at you."