Adam arrived a bit later at his safehouse and told Pearl to wait outside, after all she isn't on the system so she would be shot at by the turrets if she walked inside. Without Rae he'd have to do it the long way and it was not worth the effort since he was uninstalling them.
Adam began to uninstall them in the simplest manner possible, leaving them wholly intact just powered down and removed from the ceiling. However he eventually decided to leave one turret here. If he wanted to use this place as a safe house one turret was more than enough to give him significant cover fire as well as deter less heavily ard intruders. 4 was overkill. At least, this was the way he was rationalizing this to himself.
He left one of the two that were in the main room where it had the biggest field of fire and loaded the rest up in the back with Pearl. The entire process took a decent chunk of ti but it was entirely mundane work, which was almost a nice change of pace considering how much running around trying to make these plans was driving him crazy.
Eventually he finished and headed right out, grabbing a quick bite to eat from so of the MREs he had in storage in the back. He also shared so with Pearl, she ate 4 alone. Which was fine all things considered, mostly just interesting.
His next stop was the place he very much didn't want to go. Hell. He dreaded that he planned to do this, however he knew that there were plenty of people there that might put self-preservation high enough to help. It could backfire, he could be inviting psychopaths into his plan. But he wanted as much help as he could get, and no matter how rowdy, unkempt, and uncontrollable the raiders were, they had guns and were willing to fight. He needed every single one of those types right now.
Rolling up close to Hell he made sure to park far enough away so his APC wouldn't be spotted. However, just to be extra sure he locked it up tight and took the ignition key with him in case during the short ti he was gone soone tried to take it.
He took Pearl with him, obviously, however he did spend a long few monts considering whether to wear his power armor when he went in or not. It would send a ssage, it would not only work as an intimidation factor but also as a good ans to keep himself safe. However ultimately he decided against it for the sa reason he almost brought it in. It would send a ssage. His worry? It might send the wrong ssage.
Power armor screams power, obviously. But it is effectively a full tal shield, for people who made their lives off killing others and throwing their lives into reckless endeavors wearing power armor might signal that he is too scared to walk around without it. It was pure supposition of course, but he wanted to show he was unintimidated. It was all a gamble but he was going to keep his head on a swivel and stay sharp, and with Pearl at his back he was not especially worried about anyone individually trying anything. It was the groups that concerned him. Still he was stalling, he needed to go in.
Pearl and Adam approached the location Eve gave him a while back, seeing a forrly tro map sign now painted over in a suspicious hue of red with the single word HELL. He was in the right place, there was no doubt.
There were so… reprobates standing outside the stairway leading down, they were clearly raiders, judging by the way they were dressed, however none of them did more than give Adam the stink eye. They seed to be relaxing on their own, chatting, smoking, or gambling on the street. They were clearly not guards, if there even were any for this place, which he doubted, they were clearly just minding their own business, and Adam was content to leave them alone, and, luckily, they were content to do the sa.
Once Adam had pushed past the heavy tal reinforced entrance to Hell he was t with an interesting sight. The entire subway had been transford into a town. String lights were hung up on the ceiling, beds were laid out in so of the service areas. The singular Subway car at the subway station he walked into was converted into a restaurant of sorts. There were vendors, sitting on cloth mats on the ground, selling everything from guns and ammo, to jewelry, to even so… questionable at. There were n and won all over chatting amicably, arguing, one even small fight over in a corner that was actively being broken up by two of their friends. It truly felt… normal… ish. It still had that brutal feel to it, like he needed to watch his back but considering what he was seeing it could have been much much worse.
Adam had expected this place to be full of paintings in blood, carcasses hanging from the ceiling, people stabbing each other left and right, but no. It seed rowdy, yes, but it seed to be a town like any other. If not for the fact that nearly everyone here seed to be dressed like so kind of raider he would not think anything of it.
The fact that this place seed far more normal than he was expecting actually cald his nerves, he was expecting the worst and found sothing mildly mundane. Of course he had no intentions of letting his guard down, but knowing that this place was not just a murderer's hangout spot and instead a slightly more normal town did a lot to make him less worried.
Of course all of this ca to a sudden halt when one of the raider looking people walked over, his nose turned up at Adam while he hunched over, perhaps from a back injury, an interesting position to be sure, but it was clear he was looking for trouble.
"You new here?" He asked, grinning.
"Yes." Adam said with a confident tone, deciding that giving an inch would only offer them an opportunity to exploit his weakness. The most update n0vels are published on N0v3l.Fiɾe
"Oh, well welco to Hell, I'm the official welcoming committee, and as part of that you gotta pay 100 caps as a newcor, dig?" He put on a shit eating grin as he looked Adam over, sohow completely ignoring Pearl's presence, which was almost impressive in its own way.
Adam glanced around the room subtly. There were several eyes on them now. Watching. Waiting. He felt like an animal on display. How he reacted here was going to reflect on him. So he did what he thought was best. He hit the guy. Hard.
Adam landed a solid blow to the man's stomach causing him to clutch it in pain and fall to the ground. Adam took a deep breath and then yelled to the room:
"Anyone else want my caps?!" His shout got a few chuckles from the crowd and a single cheer from one of the onlookers. After a few more monts the eyes watching him went back to their business. It seed like he passed this first test. All he had to do was act like an asshole.
He then knelt down next to the guy on the ground, still clutching his stomach and then grabbed him by the hair forcing the guy to look him in the eyes. Adam hated this, he was not a fan of acting like a thug, but even he had to admit he was pulling off the swagger quite well right now. Still if this was a place full of raiders, he needed to act the type to not stand out. So he needed to keep this facade up for as long as he was here. At least these were markedly bad people, he didn't need to feel bad about being an asshole to them.
Adam pulled at the man's hair to ensure he had his attention.
"Bring to the bar. Now." He said with a cold tone to him.
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