Heart and Claw Update

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“You made it a lot further than I thought you would, Cooper.”

He spun around to face the voice, his headlamp driving back the shadows to reveal Pearl, standing in the threshold of the exit. Her bright eyes were slightly curved at the bottom, as though she was smiling at him from beneath her hood.

“Pearl? What are you doing here?” he asked. “it isn’t safe, there’s still one more of these things around here somewhere.”

“I know, I know, Omega’s the most dangerous one, blah blah blah,” she sighed, waving a dismissive sleeve at him. “You told me to keep my distance, but as I was leaving, I got to thinking. What kind of person would I be if I just let my new buddy walk into the lions den without seeing him off personally?”

“You have to get out of here, Pearl,” Cooper insisted. “Head back to the entrance and… wait. I… didn’t say that it was Omega who was left…”

“Oh, Cooper,” she giggled. “Here I was starting to think you had sharp eyes. Perhaps it’s about time you learned something your precious employer failed to tell you…”

He watched as Pearl brought her sleeves to her hood, pulling the billowy material over her head. His wide eyes were drawn to the floor behind her, the trailing excess of her robe catching on her legs. She pulled harder, and Cooper realised it hadn’t been caught on her feet, but a tail.

The tapered tip splayed out into a curving appendage, thick with fat and muscle, its base wider than the span of Cooper’s hips. There were bony spikes lining the spine of the tail, tens of them coming into view as the robe slowly lifted away. Her feet came next, the three toes capped with triangular talons, splayed out apart to cover as much surface area as a creature of her size needed. The ankles were raised off the ground, the feet tapering into bent, digitigrade legs. Her powerful thighs rippled with muscle as she shifted on the spot, as thick around as tree trunks. Every inch of her body was flush with shining scales, her hide shifting hues as his headlamp played over her pale complexion. The scales began to thin as they reached towards her underside, smoother and finer than the armoured plating on her rough back.

Her waist looked noticeably pinched from this angle, her torso widening as it reached her chest, the robe pulling away to reveal subtle fat deposits there. At first he suspected she had a bosom, but he couldn’t see anything that would suggest she had breasts, just a slight curve that reminded him of an hourglass figure.

Her robe snaked its way over a muscular set of biceps, then up a thick neck, Cooper noting that the spines on her tail continued up her backside, getting bigger as they reached her developed shoulders. The cloth finally pulled over a pair of horns rising from her forehead, sweeping away and then up so they didn’t block her vision. From beneath a scaly brow, two burning eyes emerged, the same amber colour as he’d seen before, but somehow glowing more brightly now that there was no shadow to conceal them.

The edges of her maw curled back and then up as she laughed, revealing a set of chops full of dozens of mismatched teeth, the smallest of which maybe the size of his finger. She flung the robe to the side, revealing a pair of forearms just as built as the rest of her, each finger just as wide around as his wrists, capped with pale claws sharpened into deadly points.

Towering over him at nine feet and change, Pearl was enormous, her tail making her appear much larger as the appendage trailed into the darkness far behind her. Despite her overpowering presence, the shifting hues of her scaley hide were oddly distracting. It was white at a glance, but shifted in pinkish hues as the lamp caught the scales at different angles, reminding him of… well, pearls. He would have found the sight transfixing under different circumstances.

“You’re… Omega,” he muttered, trying to steady his trembling hands as the beast scrutinised him with those glowing eyes.

“My scales twist every time someone calls me that,” Pearl sighed, her voice still maintaining that feminine tone, despite her toothy maw appearing like it could produce nothing more than snarls and hisses. “Seems that you and I have that in common, abhorring our stupid nicknames.”

“We have nothing in common, you animal,” he snarled, aiming his syringer at her chest. His mind was having trouble processing what was happening, but he collected himself just enough to know he still had a job to do, he had to stay focused.

“Animal?” Pearl echoed, putting a clawed hand on her chest in mock-outrage. “Would an animal talk? Discuss its hobbies with its would-be killer? I told you that you were underestimating my pack.”

“Your packis out cold,” Cooper replied defiantly.

“A fun little side show,” she giggled. “I was wondering if you’d do things the easy or the hard way, if your craving for money would convince yourself to just off my pack and be done with it, but you showed restraint, which is lucky for you. If I’d heard a gunshot, or watched you spill our blood, well…” She bared her ivory fangs. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Cooper shifted, wondering if she’d been following him through the mine the entire time. Why had Hendrix not told him these things could talk and act like humans?

“At a loss for words, Cooper?” Pearl asked, grinning toothily. “You were talking a big game on the way here, is my body really that upsetting to you?”

She cocked her hips, turning in such a way that only exaggerated their curves. “I saw you catching an eyeful when you thought I wasn’t looking, you know. You thought I was a Super Mutant, you cheeky thing, so why should me being a deathclaw change anything?”

“You are Omega,” Cooper said. “The thing I’m being paid to bring back to its cage.”

“So it’s really just all about the money with you, is it?” she asked, shaking her head. “After all we’ve been through, that’s all you can think about? And here I was just starting to like you, little hunter.”

Cooper didn’t answer, reaching over to adjust the pressure valve on the syringer. Despite lacking pupils, she rolled her eyes at him, splaying her legs out wide as she exhaled.

“I guess talking it out isn’t really your style,” she relented. “You want to bring me back to that lodge by force? Go ahead and try.”

She held her arms out to either side, the palms facing cooper, exposing her paler underbelly. The scales looked thinner here, but would his darts penetrate her hide?

“Give it your best shot,” she challenged, gesturing at him with her long arms. Cooper hesitated, expecting some sort of trick, but she really was letting him have the first move, her legs arranged in such a way she wouldn’t be able to dodge out of the way easily.

He squeezed the trigger, the weapon hissing gas as he sent all six darts her way. He watched with narrowed eyes as she stood fast, the beast flinching as three of the darts wedged between the gaps of her scales, the rest bouncing off and dropping to the floor. Hendrix had said Omega would take more tranquilizer than the packmates to knock out, but maybe four would be enough to slow her, and give him an edge?

He held his breath as she looked down, her chest bristling with feathered darts. She pulled one of them out, resting it in her palm as she examined it. She flexed her fingers into a fist, crushing the dart like it was a clump of snow, the creamy fluids of the sedatives leaking between her digits.

“I’m pretty sure I said shot, not shots, plural,” she grumbled, turning her glowing eyes on him, pulling her chops back in a snarl. “Oh well. My turn.”

She dropped to all fours, zig-zagging across the room towards him like a giant serpent. She was faster than any of the pack, crossing half the space between them in the time it took Cooper to blink. He hit the eject on the dart tray, slamming in a fresh one, his heart hammering in his chest as she lunged at him. He fired off another dart, but the shot went wide, and the weapon left his hands as she swiped it out of his grasp. She threw the weapon over her scaly shoulder, where it clattered into the darkness. She’d moved like a flash, why wasn’t the tranquilizer slowing her down?

The deathclaw, if that was what it was called, planted a leg in the ground, pulling her arm back and forming the claws into a fist. He barely had enough time to raise his arms to protect himself as she attacked, his metal arms ringing loudly as she struck with enough force to send him reeling. He could feel every plate in the power armour vibrate as he hit the ground, the servos screaming as they compensated for the heavy fall. He peered up at her through his visor, seeing the beast rear back on her powerful legs, so impossibly tall.

“Not bad for a tin suit,” she said. “hit like that would paste a brahmin. Let’s see how it holds up to my claws.”

Brandishing her left arm, she gave her hand a flex, and five claws slid out of their sheaths on her fingers, easily the longest claws out of any he’d seen. If they were to impale Cooper’s chest plate, the tips would probably poke out of the other side.

As she telegraphed her strike, Cooper reached for his waist, producing his sidearm in both hands. He dumped all nine rounds in the mag into Omega’s chest, dark blood spraying the air, the room lighting up in sharp instances by the muzzle flashes. She flinched away, covering her head with a giant arm as she snarled through her teeth. He struggled to a knee as the weapon went dry, his hand once again flaring in pain as she knocked the gun out of his grip. Rather than cast it aside, this time she slammed down on the weapon with her foot, obliterating it under her talons.

He spied the syringer between her legs, laying on the other side of the room. He would have to circle around her to get to it, but even with her chest riddled with holes and darts, Omega didn’t look fazed in the least.

“Not bad, little hunter,” she said, Cooper watching with wide eyes as she dug a nail into one of the bullet holes in her bicep. “What’s this, ten mil? Maybe you should try your rifle next, that might get through.”

She would probably snatch the rifle off him if he pulled it off his shoulder. Instead he reached for his last resort, brandishing the Old World sword out in front of him with both hands, angling the tip towards her face. Just like she had when she’d first seen his syringer, she snorted, her nostrils flexing as she gestured with a claw.

“Wow, seriously? My man wants to take me on hand-to-claw? This’ll be interesting…”

Summoning all his strength, he flexed his powered limbs into a thrust, driving the point of his weapon towards her chest. Omega sidestepped out of the way before he could pierce her scaley hide, and Cooper almost lost his footing as he steadied his lunge. Before he could recover, she dug two of her claws into the ground, then brought them up in an uppercut motion, her claws sweeping his leg out from underneath him.

His suit clanking, he crashed onto his rump, the suit’s servos whining in complaint as he rolled onto his front.

“I can hear you panting beneath that helmet,” she growled. “Not such a dumb animal after all, am I? Perhaps if you apologized, I’d consider sparing you…”

He’d been a fool to ever consider her intellect as anything but as good as his own, but she was being brash, toying with him, he could use that to his advantage.

Feigning tiredness, he struggled to one knee, then slashed out with his sword, meeting resistance as he cut into one of her calves. It glanced off her scales, little more than a flea bite to Omega, but she flinched back in surprise, giving Cooper the room to climb to his feet.

He cleaved through the air with another jab, the blade whistling as Omega dodged away. He used the momentum to follow through with another strike, slashing the sword from right to left, aiming for Omega’s neck. She didn’t dance out of the way, but rather, she brought one of her arms up, blocking the blade with the flat of her wrists, the scales stopping the blade from digging into her.

Almost like she was dancing, she swung her hips, and her tail arced into view, slamming into his chest, packed with so much muscle that his power armour buckled as though the joints had come loose. Like being hit by an angry brahmin, Cooper was lifted into the air, the strike sending him crashing against one of the support columns in the room, snapping it into two pieces.

Gasping for air, Cooper braced himself on his knees, blinking his wonky vision clear, his adversary watching him struggle to his feet.

“That armour is giving you plenty of endurance,” she marvelled. “do you have as much stamina without it, I wonder?”

Putting her inhumane swiftness on display, she was on him in a moment, Cooper holding back a cry of alarm as she seized his pauldron, posing like she intended to rip his arm right out of his socket. Instead, she pulled down in a sort of peelingmotion, and the sound of searing metal filled his helmet as the plates of his gauntlet began to break. The sound was horrible, like fingernails scratching against a chalkboard, the metal stripping apart as Omega’s powerful nails rended the steel apart.

With a final metallic groan, his gauntlet was stripped away, Omega holding the bent metal in one hand as she admired the result of her efforts. His limb had been stripped of its protective plating, the wireframe base of the power armour exposed to the air, Cooper’s arm visible through the seams. He felt vulnerable, his body so acclimatized to the suit’s coverings that seeing his own limbs felt wrong.

Omega’s chops curled into a smile as she tossed the armour away, the metal arm bending at the joint as it vanished into the dark. “I knew it, you’re a softie under all that metal, Cooper. I could carve my name into your skin, that’s how tender you look…”

“I don’t need the armour to bring you down,” he growled, readying his sword again.

“There’s the confidence I was starting to miss. Come on, then.”

He charged toward her, dipping into a roll as she swung her tail at him, the appendage cracking over his head as it whipped through the air. The muscles in her legs bulging, she spun on the spot, readying a claw for an overhand strike, but Cooper was quicker, darting in and slicing her across her waist, drawing a line of blood across her scaled armour.

Like the other deathclaw that he’d struck with the stone, she opened her mouth and roared in pain, half hiss, half cry of a giant beast, the sound chilling his blood. She backhanded him with a claw, the blow making his ears ring, but Cooper pressed on, intending to impale her through the stomach, using his sword like a spear and driving the point home.

She blocked with her clawed hands, encompassing the entire blade within her palms, intending to snap the weapon clean in half. Thinking quickly, Cooper thumbed the little button that would electrify the weapon. He could see the blue glow filter through the grooves between her fingers, the arcs of energy shining through her skin, her expression shifting to one of alarm as the beast jerked her hands away like she’d just touched a hot stove.

The blade flickering with arcs of lightning, Cooper swung the blade up, catching Omega on the chin, the strike sending her sprawling back a few feet, the sound of a zap filling the room. Her tail dragged across the floor, keeping her balanced, but without it he was sure she’d have collapsed under the sudden electrical discharge.

Hissing through bared teeth, Omega, or Pearl, furrowed her brow at him, a wild fury that betrayed her predatory urges overcoming her.

“Nobodyshocks me, Cooper,” she snarled. “The last person that did, I gutted like a fish.”

She was on him in a second, Cooper batting one of her swipes away with his still-armoured hand, using his electrified weapon to ward her away. He couldn’t be certain, but he thought he could see a flash of fear in her eyes each time the sword almost made contact with her. Was that a primal fear, or something more?

She pivoted on the spot, the turn of her hips betraying her next attack, Cooper bracing himself for her tail. The appendage rose up like a giant tentacle, but she pulled it back at the last second, delivering a swipe from the other side, claws aiming for his face. He recoiled, reaching up on instinct to clutch his temple, the helmet clinking as it got in the way. As he tried to blink his vision clear, he swiped out wildly with his sword, praying for a lucky hit, yet all he could see was darkness.

He blinked again, and realised the world was cast in shadow, even when he was certain his eyes were working. The walls of the room were obscured, and Omega wasn’t anywhere to be seen, what had happened?

The clinking of fallen glass drew his gaze down, and although he couldn’t see, he deduced those were shards, formerly part of his headlamp. Omega had shattered his only light source. He reached up to flick the lamp switch, knowing it was a futile gesture but trying anyway.

“Haven’t you done enough to us?” Omega’s voice asked, Cooper holding his sword out defensively. The electrical lances created a small pool of blue-tinted light around him, but anything beyond a few feet in front of him was pure darkness, he couldn’t see where she was in the room anymore. “You should just leave, the pack won’t follow you, you’ve made sure of that.”

“I’m not leaving without dealing with you,” he replied, suppressing his fear as he wheeled on the spot, slashing out at where her voice had come from, hitting nothing but empty air. He walked back to where he thought the exit was, but instead he bumped into the corner of the room. The walls hadn’t been this far apart, had they?

He heard the rumbling of footsteps as she approached him from the side, Cooper yelling out as she grabbed his arm. She could have dragged him into the darkness and devoured him, but instead she did the same as she had last time, tearing apart the armour on his limb until the frame was exposed, shooting off into the darkness before he had realised what had happened.

“Three thousand caps?” she asked, the sound of clanging metal informing him she’d discarded his armour. “Is that what your life is worth to you? You’d die for the chance to get rich?”