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Cooper felt like he was being buried, opening his eyes to see a long, cloaked arm draping itself over his chest. He followed the limb along with his eyes to see Pearl was practically spooning up against his flank, her body must have been drawn to his natural heat during her sleep, as he was practically boiling after spending hours underneath her insulated clothing.

He reached out and gingerly removed her arm, being careful not to wake her as he scooted away. When he rolled out of her cloak, Pearl muttered something in her sleep, shifting onto the spot he'd just been sleeping on, then switching to her side as she wrapped her arms around herself.

His pack was nearby, and he reached inside it to pull out his breakfast, munching on a piece of salted Salsbury meat as he contemplated his next move. He had to admit, despite his freezing wake-up call, he was feeling quite refreshed after last night. Sharing a bed with someone was good for the mind, even if said someone was a Mutant.

He glanced over at his sleeping companion, chewing slowly as he examined her physique, or at least the profile of it. With most of her robe rolled out in front of her, the rest of the garment clung to her figure like a second skin. Her thighs were as thick around as his chest, joining into a beautifully wide set of hips, the curve of her buttocks rising high into the air. Her hips tapered into a slightly pinched waistline, then curved into a slim stomach, her robe sliding across a flat torso that expanded as it reached her chest, Cooper's imagination convinced her abdominal muscles were full and developed. The robe concealed her completely, but that only seemed to entice him further of what her true physique entailed. Her pose reminded him of the Old World model magazines he'd picked up over his travels, her curves purposefully silhouetted against a brighter background. There was definitely a woman under all that fabric.

He had to admit, he was curious as to what she looked like underneath all that fabric. He'd heard tales of Super Mutants of course, giant green humanoids built like trucks, but stories were one thing, and the curiosity was nagging at him.

He reached out a tentative hand, praying the little sounds of the motors wouldn't wake her up as he drew closer. Her hood was riding high on her face, the fabric roiling as her deep breaths crystalized the air. He'd just have to pull the hood up an inch or two, and he'd see her face. He could probably pass it off as him waking her up if she took offence.

As his fingers hovered inches above her hood, he hesitated. She'd said that she'd created her cloak to hide her true form from others, maybe she was a little conscious of what she was, and that's why she'd hidden herself from him so far, afraid he might take offence. He couldn't care what she looked like, but he didn't want to invade her privacy...

He drew his arm back, giving her outstretched hand a gentle pat, then a harder prod. "Hey, Pearl, wake up."

"Whassat?" Pearl slurred, her glowing eyes peering up at him from beneath the hood. "Oh, morning tin man, how'd you sleep?"

"Great, thank you. We should get moving soon."

She sat up, stretching her long arms over her shoulders, bundling her excess cloak about herself as he fetched her another of his rations. She replied with a sweet _thank you _as he passed over her breakfast, Cooper making conversation as she ate.

"You should really pack more food if you're going to and from the Abbey so often," he said. "Especially when it's winter, you'll burn twice as many calories if you can't keep warm enough."

"I guess I'm lucky to have the best hunter around to pamper me," she replied over a mouthful.

"Best?" he chuckled. "I wouldn't say that, I'm good enough to eek out a life, that's all."

"Don't be so modest. You're out here hunting big game by yourself, oozing confidence from beneath that armour. I don't think you'd have been hired to do this job if people didn't know you were pretty good."

"I have earned a bit of a rep in NCR, I suppose," he replied. "People I don't even know have heard of my nickname, like Hendrix for example."

"What's your nickname?"

"Promise not to laugh?"

"Pinky promise."

"It's... tracker."

Pearl snorted, then lasted about two seconds before breaking her promise, Cooper shooting her a glare at her bobbing hood. "Th-That sounds like a character from the cheesiest movie ever!"

"Hey I didn't pick it," Cooper complained. "What's a movie anyway?"

"It's a thing from the Old World, think of it like a... a bunch of images projected onto a screen, all blurred together to make it look like the pictures are moving. They used these little slips of paper called film, which are projected through another thing called a camera, which is full of magnifying lenses that... You have no idea what I'm on about, are you?"

"Sounds a little far-fetched for me."

"If you actually read some books that aren't about skinning animals and wearing their guts or whatever, you might actually know a thing or two about Old World technology."

"You ready to get going?" he asked, noticing that her breakfast was all gone. She nodded, and the two rose to their feet, setting off in the direction of the tracks once again.

***

"And these have to be wolf tracks, right?" Pearl asked, her cloak bundling around her feet as she crouched in the snow. Cooper spent most of the day teaching Pearl the basics of tracking game as they followed in the pack's footsteps. He'd never had the opportunity to pass on his skills to another, there wasn't exactly an abundance of students, and while it helped pass the time, it also made him feel good to know that Pearl wouldn't be lacking for food once they eventually parted.

"Good job, see how large the prints are? Easy way to tell a mutt from a wolf, as mutts are way smaller. How old do you think they are?"

Crisscrossing over the tracks the deathjaws had made was a set of canine prints. Cooper had no intention of following them, but it did provide a nice opportunity to test Pearl's skills.

"Well, it must be newer than the pack's prints, or else they'd have diverted, they wouldn't have given up a tasty snack. The snow looks disturbed here, so I'd say... a day, maybe less."

"I'd go even lower than that, but you're right," he said. "We could probably find it, but the wind's blowing the way it went, it'll smell us before we see it."

"By us, you mean you, right?" Pearl joked, holding a hand up to her nose. "Doesn't that thing come with inbuilt air scrubbers? A can of deodorant maybe?"

"I don't exactly live in a bathing house, Pearl," he replied annoyedly. "At least not yet."

"Where is your home anyway?" she asked, the two leaving the wolf prints behind, Cooper examining the beast's prints before replying. The pack had stopped to rest at around this point, Cooper guessing they were maybe two days old at this point. He was making good progress.

"You slept under it last night," he answered, gesturing at his bedroll. "I've slept in motels and inns when I've got the cash to spare, but I've spent as many nights in this bedroll as I've had hot meals. I travel too much to call a place home."

"What about NCR?" she asked. "You grew up there, right?"

"Yeah, but... it's changed a lot over the years. People squabble over every inch of land nowadays, especially after the brahmin trade opened up, and the taxes started rolling in. If you couldn't afford to keep up with the fees, the council would seize your house and toss you into one of the publicly owned inns. That's what happened to my parent's home after they passed, and I took on the debts. That was when I was... eighteen, nineteen, maybe."

"And that's why you're risking your life now?" she asked. "You hope to buy back your childhood home with the reward?"

"No, they knocked the house down years ago, now a Brahmin Baron lives on that spot, last I checked."

"That's terrible!" Pearl muttered. "A lone hunter with no place to call home. No wonder you're out here, putting your life on the line in order to live a life of vice in Reno. You've never had the chance to settle down."

Her words couldn't help but inspire a measure of shame in his chest. People often claimed to want to be able to live as he did, out in the wild, away from the taxes and laws and raiders, but they never truly appreciated the fact that living by oneself didn't just shake off all responsibilities. Cooper still had to pay for things like books and equipment, which needed constant maintenance that he couldn't sustain without bartering for goods. To live in a community was to be privileged, and Cooper wanted in on it.

"I think you're reading too much into it," he said. "I'll have all the money I'll ever need soon enough anyway, just need to keep going."

"And what if you fail?" Pearl asked. "what if your armour and weapons aren't enough to take down the pack?"

"Everyone dies," Cooper said dismissively. "if this pack is my match, then that's all there is to it."

"You could turn back," she suggested, but Cooper shook his head.

"To what? I've come too far to back down now, and I gave my word I'd see this through, both to Hendrix... and myself."

***

They spent the following night much like they had the last, this time Cooper a little less hesitant to lay down with Pearl, knowing her robe would keep him comfortably warm during the plummeting temperatures of the night. She still wrapped him up in her arms without his consent, but she just couldn't help herself, and Cooper found it easier to just let her touch him than to argue. They woke up early and increased their pace a little, every step forward bringing them closer to the pack.

With the proximity of Omega drawing closer, their conversations dwindled, the tension palpable after Cooper deduced the prints were only a day old at this point. The pack must have slowed down considerably after clearing out from the lodge, lacking in energy after being fed scraps during their capture, maybe.

Pearl kept herself occupied with his handbook, asking the occasional question or needing him to elaborate on one of his handcrafted notes, but on the whole it seemed she'd caught onto his lessons very well, maybe even a little better than _he _had back in his youth...

"You'll be confronting the pack sometime tomorrow," Pearl began, she and Cooper sitting round their fire. "They're not far off now, you go any further and they might pick up your scent. This could be the last chance you'll get to back down."

"Still doubt I can do it, huh?" he asked, prodding the embers with a stick. "Who's the expert hunter here, me or you?"

"Expertise doesn't guarantee success," she replied. "You're going up against way too many unknowns, can't you see that? Plans never survive contact with the enemy, as they say."

"I can't go back, even if I wanted to," he replied. "I'll either go back to NCR a rich man, or not at all, and that kind of risk suits me just fine. What about you?" he added. "it's going to get much more dangerous from here on out. I'd start circling to the west if I was you."

"I'll join you for a while longer," she said. "Once I know where the pack is, I'll know where to avoid on my return trip."

The implication that she thought he would die tomorrow wasn't lost on him, but he shrugged it off, pointing at the handbook in her lap. "Fine. Don't stay up too late reading that, we're moving at sunrise."

***

One more uneventful night and a few hours of walking through the dawn later, and the pack's footprints started to change. The tracks began to snake away from one another, overlapping with older and new ones, the latter of which moving in the direction Cooper had come from. The land was flat here, dozens of trees dotted about in every direction, the empty spaces between the mountains making Cooper feel exposed.

"We're getting close now," he muttered, Pearl watching him as he unslung his rifle. "Call out if you see anything."

"Will do," she whispered back.

They stalked between the trees, the constant wind sweeping curtains of snow into the air, obscuring the horizons. With the lack of hills present to buffer the gale, the wind swept across the plain unfiltered, Cooper shivering beneath his armour as he pushed on through the sparse forest.

Everything around him was pure white, except for the occasional rocky overhang adding a splash of grey to the scenery. Even the trees had taken on a muted hue, as if the snow itself had been absorbed into the bark. It was getting on in the day, and they'd been walking since sunrise, but they couldn't afford to stop, not out in the open anyway.

The wind here had swept most of the original tracks away, but it seemed there were plenty to go by around here, the pack must have found someplace to hold up nearby if they were overlapping so much. Cooper was constantly turning his head, checking to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them, every creak of the branches keeping him on edge. Even in his experience, he'd never hunted something he'd never actually seen before, just how accurate had his assumptions been? He'd find out soon enough...

"There!" he said. "Something in that mountain up ahead."

He kneeled behind a rocky outcropping, Pearl joining him as he peered out into the haze. When the powder cleared, the foot of a mountain gently revealed itself through the gloom, maybe a hundred meters away. Near the base of its sloped body was a splotch of darkness, surrounded by a framework of wooden planks. Below it was what looked like a pair of metal lines built into the ground, leading into the darkness beyond the mouth of the cave. It looked tall and wide enough to accommodate a caravan with one of Hendrix's cages on top of it, more than enough space for Omega...

The prints led in and out of the entrance, confirming his suspicions. He wasn't too sure about their sleep cycles, but hopefully the creatures had taken respite during this windstorm, and if they were nocturnal, all the better.

"I believe we've found Omega's den," Cooper said, turning to his companion. "You should probably get out of here, Pearl, I'd hate to see you get caught in the crossfire if things start to get hairy."

"You're going in there?" she asked, as though it wasn't obvious enough to her. "Cooper, that looks like a mineshaft to me, they'll tear you apart in those tight hallways."

"This ain't my first den," he said, his armour creaking as he shifted his weight. "I'll take the den one quarter at a time, then place mines on the spots I've already cleared.

"You're still thinking of them as simple beasts," she grumbled. "What if your conventional tactics don't work? What if they're not even in the den right now?"

"Then I'll mine the entrance, and let them come to me."

"You act like this will be trivial," she continued, her sleeves crossing over her chest. "I haven't known you for very long, but I'd hate to see you die because you underestimated these creatures."

"I stopped being afraid of death a long time ago," Cooper replied. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to be reckless. I know more about these things than you do, Pearl, I've hunted beasts my whole life, you don't have to worry about me."

"Then, I guess your course is set," Pearl said, an air of finality about her as she rose to her feet. "Hey, why don't you walk me to the Abbey? It's only a few days, and the pack's not going anywhere."

This might be his last chance to back out of the job, and he couldnt deny Pearl's company wasn't unpleasant. But no, he'd heeded all the warnings, and it was do or die, and he figured he should just go ahead and do.

"I'm sure you'll manage without me," he said, swearing he could see Pearl's shoulders sagging beneath her robe. "It was nice meeting you, Pearl. Maybe I'll stop by once I've got my reward, buy you a book or two?"

She huffed in amusement. "I'll hold you to that, Cooper."

She looked like she wanted to add something, but instead she leaned down and gave his pauldron a pat, her glowing eyes meeting his for a fleeting moment. As she turned around to leave, she stopped abruptly. "Oh! I almost forgot."

From her sleeve she produced his handbook, holding it out to him. He looked down at its bright cover, and then shook his head.

"You keep it," he said, Pearl recoiling as though he'd said something absurd. "I've memorized that book from back to front, no use for it."

"What? Oh, no, Cooper, I couldn't accept this..."

"You need it more than I do," he replied. "When we met, you were out of food. You shouldn't have to ever go a night hungry again as long as you follow my notes in that book, Pearl. I want you to have it."

"Seriously?" she asked, clutching the handbook in her arms. "Look at me, the new owner of Cooper's first edition hunting guide."

"I usually call it a scrapbook," he chuckled. "but, I like that name better."

She lingered there for a moment, then came over and hugged him from behind, bending down so she could reach him. Her robe enveloped him, Cooper feeling the flesh of her bust yielding against his armour, his cheeks burning as she nudged her head against the side of his helmet.

He felt a tinge of disappointment at not being able to return the gesture with his arms holding his gun, the feeling only growing when Pearl parted, beginning to walk back into the snow the way they'd come.

"Thank you, Cooper. Take care."

"... You too," he said, watching her vanish into the white haze, her silhouette soon fading. A part of him felt the need to follow her, but he had to remember his mission came first, and soon his thoughts turned solely on the den, where his ultimate goal was hiding.

Taking a moment to check for movement, he vaulted over the rock, moving cautiously towards the entrance of the den. As Pearl had said, the mouth was the entrance of what appeared to be a mine, the rough walls held in place by wooden beams, grafted onto the rock to form supportive wireframes. The wind screamed down the passage, shaking loose a few errant pebbles.

Cooper stepped over the tracks trailing out of the cave, the metal strips buried beneath snow in places, the servos in his suit echoing down the mineshaft as he stepped inside.

The tunnel went deeper into the mountain for a ways, before abruptly turning to the right, Cooper using his headlamp to cut away the shadows, the light of the sun losing its influence on the turn. He turned to look back out over the snowy landscape, stooping to one knee as he fished inside his pack, withdrawing a bundle of landmines from the front pocket.

These weren't the typical fragmentation mines that was common throughout the Wastes, although he had those as well, but a more personal invention. Spike mines would send out a spray of rounded bullets in an area, crippling anything that triggered the blast. These mines tended to maim rather than kill, but that didn't make them non-lethal. From all accounts, Omega would need a lot more than spikes to be brought down, but if any of the pack was outside right now, the blasts should warn him of anything coming up behind him.

He placed one to the left of the tracks, another on the right, and one more between the rails, priming them with a flick of a switch on their sides. He placed another one down further inside, ensuring that even if they somehow missed the first three, the fourth would certainly detonate.

His back secured, he took a deep breath as he plunged into the mine, his headlamp providing a pool of light in an otherwise pitch blackness, the shadows so strong he couldn't even see his feet. Cooper prayed his lamp would see him through until he was done.

As he neared the bend, the texture of the ground shifting from snow to gravel, he saw more evidence of Omega pack's presence. The rail lines bolted into the ground were scratched, chunks of the steel scored clean away, as though a beast with claws had come and gone many times. He was starting to wonder if power armour would be enough to protect him.

He proceeded around the bend, shifting his head out of the way of a few errant planks dangling from above. He could hear flowing water from somewhere nearby, could this place be the source of the river he'd been following?

He soon came across an intersection, the path splitting into three directions, each passage framed by more support beams. Here would be a good spot for a spike mine, but the rotten wooden supports gave him pause. The last thing he needed was to trigger a cave-in and be trapped in here with these things. Maybe mines weren't such a good idea after all...

He picked the passage going left, the gloom so oppressive his headlamp could scarcely penetrate a few meters in front of him. There seemed to be a layer of moisture clinging to the walls, the sheen reflecting the light of his headlamp. The water source must be nearby.

The passage turned into a blind corner, Cooper aiming his rifle around the bend from the safety of the wall. His favoured weapon wasn't designed for close quarters engagements like this, not that dealing with these pack animals in the confines of these tunnels was very appealing to him.

The suit's servos echoed eerily down the tunnels as he shouldered his rifle, bringing the syringer to bear and checking the dart tray. Time to see if the tranquilizer worked on these beasts, if it didn't, he'd have to resort to the sword.

As he walked deeper into the tunnel, he soon passed a minecart toppled onto its side, its wheels clogged with dirt and rust, Cooper shimmying around it. It was so quiet, his heartbeat audible in his ears as every inch of revealing shadow threatened to hide one of the beasts.

When he spied the tunnel branching into a junction ahead, he heard it. He stopped, the motors in his suit sounding very loud in the ensuing silence, occasionally broken by a drip of distant water. He held still, straining his ears, waiting for the noise to repeat.

He walked deeper into the tunnel, and he soon passed a minecart toppled onto its side, its wheels clogged with dirt and rust, Cooper shimmying around it. It was so quiet, his heartbeat audible in his ears as every inch of revealing shadow threatened to hide one of the beasts.

As he spied the tunnel branching into a junction ahead, he heard it. He stopped, the motors in his suit sounding very loud in the ensuing silence, occasionally broken by a drip of distant water. He held still, straining his ears, waiting for the noise to repeat.

Then, a solitary footstep, loud and heavy, coming from ahead of him. He shone his headlamp down that way, but the light only reached so far, the tunnel as dark as the maw of a monster.

He levelled his syringer, but then another footstep gave him pause, this one coming from back the way he'd come. He was surrounded, had these beasts sniffed him out the moment he'd entered the den? He doubled back, trying to move as quietly as he could wearing the heavy armour. The footsteps weren't getting faster, but they were inching closer. His only chance was to use that minecart to hide. He'd been told these things were fast, and he couldn't risk taking on two at once.

He moved back to the minecart, inching over to the side the bucket was facing, kneeing inside it, pausing to listen to the footsteps. They were drawing close enough that he could hear the pebbles being kicked up by their feet. The cart was just big enough to allow him to squeeze his armoured shoulders inside, Cooper holding his syringer at the ready, the gun shaking in his hands as he waited.

It only just now occurred to him that his headlamp was on, the light would give him away. He reached up to switch it off, grimacing as the little following _click _bounced off the walls. His world turned to darkness, so much so that he couldn't even see the outline of the visor he was peering out of.

The footsteps were now chased by a quiet huffing, one of an animal scenting its prey. Did these things have the ability to see in the dark? They must have, Cooper praying they didn't spy his boots lying in the gravel.

The pair of scenting animals were meters away now, each step carrying enough weight that Cooper felt the ground rumble. The beasts sounded like they were snarling through their chops, deep and powerful, Cooper sensing their menacing presences approach the minecart.

He held his breath, nearly releasing it when there was a loud clang, Cooper looking up to see a hand sliding against the rim of the cart, directly above his helmet's cranium.

Each finger was as long as his hand, covered in fine, brown scales, their arrangement reminding him of a serpent's hide. Each finger was tipped with the biggest claw he'd ever seen, easily doubling the length of each reptilian finger, the claws ending at wicked points. The hand was conjoined to a dark, towering mass that was leaning over the minecart, Cooper resting his finger on the trigger of his gun.

He could _feel _the beast start to haul over the minecart, the metal creaking under its immense weight, its snarling taking on a strange rhythm as it neared its kin, the other beast responding in kind. Once there was room, the second beast wound its way around the minecart, this one not deigning to place a hand on his hiding place, perhaps because it was smaller and could squeeze through.

Small or not, the beast was incredibly tall and powerful, its sheer presence enough to inspire a primal dread inside him. Cooper's chest began to tighten as he refused to exhale the breath he'd been holding, peeking over the lip of the cart, his eyes starting to adjust to the darkness. The one going back the way he'd come had horns on its long head, the little points scraping against the stone ceiling. As it rounded the corner, he thought he could make out what looked like a tail protruding from its rump, the appendage arcing around the corner for a moment as the beast slunk out of sight.

The other one was too absorbed into the darkness for him to see it, but its footsteps had grown faint. Still there, but lowering in volume, Cooper sighing as quietly as he could as he rose from his hiding place, thanking his stars the beasts hadn't sniffed him out.

He readied his gun, mustering up the willpower to follow the beast moving away from the entrance. He'd have a better chance taking it by surprise while behind it, he just had to be wary of any others that could be wandering around.

He set off after the thing, keeping his headlamp off, as he couldn't risk shining a light and giving himself away. He used the sound of its footsteps to help guide his way, Cooper holding a hand out so he didn't bump into anything. The thing veered off to the left, and he strained his ears to their absolute limits before following it around what felt like a turn.

The passage opened up into a chamber on the far end, the ceiling extending maybe ten or so meters above his head. There were wooden platforms hugging the walls to the left, joined to the floor by rickety staircases, likely used as spots for miners to access mineral deposits before the Bombs. Running through the middle of the floor was a river of trickling water, illuminated by shafts of light slipping through cracks in the ceiling.

Sitting in the middle of the chamber was a hunched figure, its back to Cooper, his heart pumping as he tried to examine it through the gloom. He could see several small spikes running down the length of its massive spine, the breadth of its muscular shoulders wider than his power armour. It was leaning over the little stream of water, Cooper hearing it slurp loudly at the liquid. His eyes had begun to adjust to the dark, but without the lamp he couldn't make out much more detail.

He levelled his syringer, his movements microscopic, worried that any sudden moves might alert the creature. He eyed the contours of the chamber with his eyes, confident he'd caught the beast alone. The tunnel behind him would provide a good bottleneck if the beast alerted its packmates, now was his best chance.

Exhaling a shaky breath, he pulled the trigger, his patchwork weapon filling the chamber with the sound of releasing gas, three red-feathered darts soaring towards the creature, impaling it just above the base of its tail.

The beast stirred, whirring around and glaring at him with a pair of creamy, grey eyes, flashing with wild fury. Rather than unleash a bestial roar, it twisted its torso around like an uncoiling snake, climbing to its feet. Its eyes towered into the air, the creature almost twice his height, beginning to walk towards him at an almost leisurely pace.

He fired off another dart, this one impaling it in the chest, and its eyes seemed to dim, the beast holding out its hands as it leaned forward. It took one lumbering step, and then its legs gave out, the beast eating the dirt with a puff of dust.

He turned his headlamp on cautiously, and sure enough, the beast was lying on the floor as though it was resting, its bright eyes only open a sliver. The tranquilizer had worked exactly like Hendrix had told him, Cooper refilling the dart cartridge with a satisfied expression on his face.

Checking the passageway behind him, he moved over to the slumbering beast, finally able to examine one of these things in earnest. It was eleven feet of scales and muscles, its arms and legs tipped with black, cruel-looking claws. Its underbelly was a creamier colour than the rest of its brown body, like a beige, the scales finer and smaller. Two swirling horns protruded from the top of its head, sweeping to either side of its snout, the tips sharp enough to suggest the thing could skewer prey on them. Yellow teeth poked out from a pair of long chops, too many for Cooper to count, a dull snout and a pair of large eye sockets making up the rest of its elongated face.

Its chubby tail flicked idly behind it, the thing so long it trailed into the stream behind it, adding five or so feet to its overall length. It was the biggest creature he'd ever seen, no wonder these fighting pits Hendrix mentioned coveted them so much.

Working up the courage, he gave the beast a kick to the stomach, his hands ready on his rifle should the thing start to wake. His worries were in vain, the beast not so much as flinching as his armoured boot collided with its hide.

Satisfied he could turn his back on the thing, he returned to the passageway, continuing straight on once he reached the intersection. He stopped to set down a spike mine, then continued, his headlamp lighting his way. Like the rest of the mine so far, the floor was occupied by more tracks, the metal strips reflecting the glow off his headlamp. He wasn't sure if it was just his mind or not, but the walls seemed to narrow a little closer together in the next passage, close enough that the shoulders of his power armour almost grazed them.

After a few moments of silent pacing, he reached another intersection, this one in the shape of the letter X. When he reached the epicenter of the passageways, the muscles in his chest tied into knots. He could hear more footsteps, pounding against the stone. Cooper wheeled round, pointing the syringer back the way he'd come, the noise picking up in speed.

His headlamp barely cut back the darkness at all, each passage just a stretch of inky darkness. It was getting closer now, echoing off the walls to make it sound like ten of the things were rushing him down. Cooper couldn't tell what direction it was coming from, but then with a start, he remembered the flare gun Hendrix had given him.

Sticking the syringer to his belt, he shrugged off his pack, aware of every precious second wasted as he plucked the flare gun from his belongings. He let go of the bag, the pack hitting the floor with a puff of dust, Cooper picking a direction at random, brandishing the colourful pistol. With a clack, the flare discharged, a plume of sparkling smoke arching down the passage, the walls turning crimson as their wet sheens reflected the light.

The flare clicked against the ground, skimming along the rocks for a few feet as it sizzled away. Cooper's gaze was drawn up to a pair of glowing eyes just lingering out of the flare's influence, the two orbs reflecting the bright light, shifting hues as it angled its head.

His wild shot with the flare hadn't come soon enough, the flickering light blocking out as the beast lunged over the flare, indifferent to the sudden influx of light, its eyes rapidly growing in size as it charged Cooper down. The sight reminded him of the time a yao guai had charged him, the only real difference being the stone walls of the mine trapping his world to a handful of suffocatingly narrow passages.

He produced the syringer, filling the passage with darts, knowing the beast was right in front of him, but made invisible as it crossed the threshold between the light of the flare, and his headlamp. The dart tray ran dry, and he knocked it aside, his heart thumping in his ears as he reached for a spare. He couldn't tell how many darts had found their mark, so he unloaded every dart in this mag too, and he was rewarded with a wailing groan from the beast, the thing stumbling into his headlamp's light, its chest and shoulders bristling with darts.

It looked almost identical to the one in the river chamber before, albeit a little on the smaller side. It still towered over him at eight feet and change, with arms as long as he was tall, its scales a deep brown, likely to help it blend with its environment whenever it wasn't snowing out in the Wastes.

He watched it fall to one knee, then to both as the tranquilizer started to work itself into its bloodstream, its eyes lidding into slits as its chin hit the ground, the beast opening its jaws wide in an oddly human display of tiredness. It gave him a lingering glare, and then went still, its tail folding over one of its legs as it succumbed to sleep.

Cooper couldn't hear any more noise, but didn't take a chance for a breather, instead using his time to reload his syringer and flare gun, which he'd dropped in his haste. The gas-powered gun was silent for the most part, but the popped flare would travel far in the mine, and he had to assume he couldn't rely on stealth for much longer.

Once he was set, he moved up the passage the beast had come from, the light from the flare petering out as he approached, the world plunging back into darkness. Keeping his weapon trained on the beast, he stepped over its outstretched arms, then its legs, the thing bulky enough to plug the passage like a cork in a bottle.

The path bent a little to the left, eventually opening up into a wide room after a few moments of walking. There were crates of rocks stacked up to one side of the space, the tracks splitting into two sets here, one of which trailed towards said crates. The other track continued through the middle of the room into a collapsed wall, the adjacent passage plugged with boulders as big as the torsos of the beasts that now occupied this place. He couldn't be sure, but it looked like someone had been trying to clear the rubble, using the crates to keep the rocks stored. He briefly wondered what lay behind the blocked passage, and then his thoughts were interrupted as he felt the hairs on his neck stand on end.

He turned around, and saw another one of the beasts was standing behind him.

Its wide, unblinking eyes had no pupils to speak of, yet Cooper could feel it making eye contact with him through the visor. There was intelligence in its gaze, more than he'd expected from an animal. He could read the question in its gaze, what are you?

The creature's long arms were splayed out to the sides, almost as though it was preparing to trap him in its embrace. Fearing any big movements would set it off, he turned the barrel of his syringer up. Like a snake zeroing in on movement, its predatory gaze angled towards his gun, and the thing snarled, instilling a kind of fear in him that Cooper hadn't felt since the days before he started hunting.

It took one step forward, Cooper feeling the ground shake beneath his suit. He wasted no time, bringing his weapon up with practiced speed and firing, three of the darts peppering it along the arm and neck, the last three going wide. The thing had ducked out of the firing arc, closing the distance between them on its digitigrade legs, Cooper feeling his lungs empty of air as the thing crashed into him.

He felt his boots leave the ground as he was sent flying backwards, metal grinding against rock as he crashed into the stacks of crates, Cooper's gaze blurring as a rock bigger than his head tumbled onto his helmet, the metal ringing in his ears like a gong. As the boulder tumbled away, his headlamp illuminated the beast, its giant shadow dancing on the ceiling above it as it slammed one of its feet on his chest. Each of its three toes was capped with a talon longer than his forearm, their colour almost matching the dark scales covering the rest of its leg. The talons buried into his chest piece as though the steel wasn't there, slicing through the metal and inching their way towards his vulnerable body.

The beast slowly raised one of its arms, flexing its hand to reveal the long claws sheathed in its fingers, its hungry eyes still locked to his helmet. It would rip him right out of the frame in a second, but his weapons were below his waist, and he couldn't move his arms around the foot pinning him down. The only thing in reach was the rock sitting by his helmet.

He scooped the rock off the ground, the servos in his suit whining as he threw all his weight into a swing. It would have been unmovable for a human, but with the armour, the stone weighed as much as a pebble, Cooper snarling with effort as he struck the beast on the knee. He felt as much as heard the resulting crunching of bone, the beast unleashing a furious roar as it staggered away, Cooper scrambling to his knees as its tremendous weight was lifted off his chest.

He launched for his discarded syringer, slapping a fresh tray into the mag well, then rolled onto his back to face the beast. Its movements were sluggish, the limp in its leg and the tranquilizer from the darts finally taking effect. It made to wrench open his suit with its claws, but it was close enough now that Cooper didn't miss when he pulled the trigger.

Two more darts joined the rest on its body, and the beast once again voiced its frustration into a snarl, the noise tapering out into a whimper as the sedatives sent it crashing to the floor, fatigue washing over it. It swiped at him one last time, but it was too far away that the movement was in vain, the beast going still save for the slow rise and fall of its chest.

Cooper released the breath he'd been holding, cursing himself for letting things get so dicey. He peered into the passageway as he reloaded, sweat drooping from his brow and into his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to take a breather, but he still had two more beasts to deal with, not including Omega. He considered the possibility that he may have already taken out Omega, but he had a feeling he'd know the pack's leader when he saw it.

The adrenaline in his veins spurred him on, Cooper leaving the blocked passageway behind as he returned to the intersection, once more stepping over the beast plugging the shaft. He briefly wondered why the thing had watched him rather than just pounce right away, maybe it didn't know what he was? Maybe it had seen its sleeping counterpart, and it had been curious as to what could have brought down its kin?

He pushed these questions to the back of his mind, picking the passage that led further away from the entrance, hoping his mental map of the place was correct. As he walked through the winding path, he felt a tremor in the earth, but he couldn't hear any footsteps. One of his mines at the entrance must have been set off. He kept still, waiting for more to detonate, but nothing happened, maybe he'd crippled one? He'd have to investigate once he rounded back.

He continued on, noting that there were lightbulbs spaced throughout the shaft, connected by long copper wires to form a sort of grid. There might be a way to power on the circuit and help light up these tunnels, but Cooper thought that would be a bit much to hope for, considering the circumstances.

Soon the mine widened out into another room, this one more spacious than any of the others so far. There was a great machine off to one side of the room, and it almost looked like a vehicle, except it was supported by tracks rather than wheels, and the front of it extended out into the shape of an arm, with a scoop on the end, the bucket currently filled with rocks. There was another of its kind a little further in, painted a faded yellow, sitting flush against a wall of minerals that looked like it had been chipped away in places. Sitting next to the outcrops of rock were handmade tools, drills and pickaxes, along with tall, tubular machines as big as a man, wedged into the crevices of rock. These were more drilling machines, if Cooper had to guess. This must be where most of the mining was done here.

Like the room with the stream, there were gaps in the ceiling, allowing shafts of light to brighten up the room. Sitting right in the middle of the little pools of light was what appeared to be a haphazard bundle of fabrics. Cooper could see mattresses, blankets, pillows, the sheets stained by the abundant presence of dirt.

Two of the creatures were sitting on top of the nest, their tails swishing along the fabrics as they lounged together. Had these things dragged the bedding here from someplace? It was unusual to see wild animals prefer fabrics rather than just the ground. Then again, Cooper thought, this hunt was the most unusual one he'd ever taken.

He thanked his luck these things appeared to have not heard him fight the last beast. He could see movement in the mound of fabrics, the two beasts were shifting together, the sight coming off as rhythmic. They were awake, then, maybe stirring up from a rest?

As he took aim with his syringer at the seemingly oblivious creatures, he felt a little off-put by how simple this was all turning out to be. For creatures bigger and tougher than anything else in the Wastes, he had managed to get the drop on most of them so far. He'd have to give Pearl a big _I told you so _if he ever saw her again.

He sprayed the nest full of darts, and the reaction from the beasts was immediate. Two hulking figures rose to their feet, turning their bright eyes in Cooper's direction. One appeared to be maybe seven feet tall, while the other was eight, and it looked like the latter of which had been laying in front of the other, Cooper noting its back was covered in darts while the former looked unharmed.

The big one stepped in front of the other, opening its chops wide to unleash a blood-curdling snarl, approaching him swiftly on all fours despite the sedatives pumping into its body. It leapt from rock to rock like a pouncing cat, coming in too fast for Cooper to reload the syringer in time before it was on him. Instead, he drew the flare gun, firing a powerful light straight into the thing's face. Like any animal, having its senses overloaded with smoke and sparks sent it reeling, the beast clutching its horns in its hands as it snapped its eyes shut, stunned just long enough for Cooper to reload, and plug its chest full of tranquilizer, the beast dropping with a groan.

With the big one down, Cooper turned his attention to the remaining beast. It took one look at its fallen kin, and then turned on its heels, its fat tail winding behind it as it raced towards a passage on the far side of the chamber. Cooper aimed, a wave of pity coming and going as he zeroed in on the frightened creature. For something so big and deadly, it knew when to flee, the act betraying the kind of intelligence Hendrix had warned him about.

Two darts hit it in the leg, the creature hitting the ground hard, Cooper feeling the vibrations of the impact travel up his legs even from this distance. He crossed the chamber, noting that the beast was trying to pry the darts out of its scaley hide, succeeding in tossing one aside. Before it could work on the other one, Cooper emptied the rest of the sryinger into its flank, and the beast went still.

Cooper sighed through the rebreathers, allowing himself a moment to catch his breath. He'd downed the whole pack with only a few scrapes to show for his troubles, but again, there was no time for celebrations just yet. These two were much the same build as the others, so the last beast must be Omega. He was starting to tire out, but he had to push on and find this thing before_ it found _him.

Checking his ammo and dropping another mine, he moved on from the chamber to where the smaller beast had tried to flee, the walls narrowing into the passages once more. All these tunnels looked the same, with the evenly spaced out wooden frameworks, the walls covered in a layer of moisture, the lightbulbs swinging gently as his heavy suit disturbed the earth.

The path soon wound towards the right, and Cooper found himself back at the first junction near the entrance, the mine threading around in an almost circuit-like shape. The last path must be where Omega was holding up, unless it had managed to get behind him at some point...

He fired a flare down the mineshaft he'd come from, but saw nothing, so he proceeded into the unexplored passage, noting that the walls here began to part to a more comfortable distance, big enough that two minecarts side by side could pass through with room to spare.

The path split into two directions after he ventured a little deeper, one going forward, the other leading left into an offshoot, the latter projecting a loud crashing noise. Was that a waterfall, the source of that stream maybe? He made to investigate, but then stopped, a peculiar sight in the passage ahead catching his attention.

There was a great breach in the ceiling, as though the miners of the Old World had taken a massive auger to this spot and drilled right to the surface of the mountain, a circle of cloudy sky visible to Cooper as he stood in the pool of light.

There were pieces of string attached to either side of the vertical tunnel, just high enough that Cooper would have to stand on his toes to reach. There were things attached to it, shirts, pants, coats, slightly swaying as the air filtered down from the open sky. Had someone been camping out here before the beasts had moved in? He didn't envy being in their shoes, waking up to find your home had been made into a den.

He moved beneath the clothesline, the rushing water fading behind him. After a few moments, the passage opened up into a vast room, maybe ten meters across and twenty deep, the floor made level by strips of wooden planks, arranged almost like pathways as they snaked to the corners of the room.

There were columns of carved wood holding the tall ceiling aloft, covered in scratch marks and rot, but still holding firm. There were no cracks for light to sneak its way into the room, but there was a lightbulb on the threshold, and another deeper in, suggesting whoever had lived here didn't do so in complete darkness.

To one side of the room were a pair of tables, the desks stacked with odd trinkets, Cooper moving over to examine them. There were wooden figurines that looked handcrafted, along with stacks of paper, held down by stones so they didn't flitter about.

The workspace was a mess of scrunched-up parchment balls, most of it littering the floor around an upturned chair, Cooper's curiosity overpowering his adrenaline as he stooped to pick one up, unravelling the parchment with a gauntleted hand. There was something written on it in black ink, but someone had crossed over the words with several lines to make it unreadable. Unravelling another ball proved they were all the same story.

Dropping the paper on the desk, he moved around it, spotting a small pile of books by one leg of the desk. The covers were frayed at the edges, but not as dusty as Cooper would have guessed they'd be after sitting in here for who knows how long. Omega's escape had been quite recent, he supposed. Perhaps he could dig into them later, see if anything worth selling had survived.

He neared the far end of the room, where more workbenches were stacked up against the stone walls. Bundles of clothes sat off to one side, with pairs of scissors and sewing kits sitting on top of them, but Cooper was more focused on the centermost table.

A single wooden bowl rested on its surface, Cooper catching a sliver of white beneath the rim. Wide, flat rocks were sitting in a messy pile, slightly overflowing from the bowl. As Cooper leaned in closer, he noticed they weren't rocks at all. Their surfaces were bumpy, with white and brown stripes creating patterns across their hard surfaces. Were these... clamshells?

"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, his alarm fading. "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 of the bunch, blah blah blah," she sighed, waving a dismissive sleeve at him. "I was gonna take your advice and stay clear, but as I was leaving, I got to thinking. What kind of person would I be if I just let my new best buddy walk into the _lions den _all by himself? I need to help him complete his job."

"You have to get out of here, Pearl," Cooper insisted. "Head back to the entrance and... wait. I... 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. I think it's about time you learned something your precious employer didn't 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 long legs was flush with shining scales, her hide shifting hues from white to pink 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 flanks.

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 breasts, but he couldn't see anything that would suggest she did, 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 length 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 capped with dark claws sharpened into deadly points.

Towering over him at ten 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 tones 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? Told you that you were underestimating my pack."

"Your pack is out cold," Cooper replied defiantly.

"A fun little sideshow," 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 an explosion, 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 _such _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 her 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 boy, 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.

After a tense pause, 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 tranquillizer than the packmates to knock out, but maybe that 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 it 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, shaking out the hand she'd punched him with. "hit like that would paste a brahmin. Let's see how it holds up to my claws."

Brandishing her other arm, she gave her hand a flex, and five claws slid out of their sheaths on her fingers, easily the longest claws out of all the packmates. If they were to impale Cooper's armour, 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 done 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, Cooper putting to much force into the lunge and losing his balance. 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 legs 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 this time, but rather, she brought one of her arms up, blocking the blade with the flat of her wrist, 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 peeling motion, 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 hide.

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.

"Nobody shocks 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 open. 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. "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 tore the armour off 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?"

"Yes! I told you that already!" he shouted into the shadows. "I haven't got anything to go back to, it's do or die for me."

He put his back to the corner, holding his sword out to illuminate as much as possible. He'd known there'd always been the possibility he'd be literally backed into a corner during the hunt, but that didn't mean he'd lay down and take it, he'd give this beast, Pearl or whatever it was, as much trouble as he could manage.

Like a striking snake, she leapt out from the shadows, clamping her powerful claws around his leg, the armour peeling away as she retreated immediately back into the darkness. Warning lights were flashing inside his helmet, the systems informing him that his armour was compromised, as if it wasn't obvious already. He delivered a swift kick to Omega's temple before she could disappear, the beast grunting in pain as she slunk deeper into the room. Cooper struck out with his sword, but all he saw was the point of her tail, and then she was gone again.

As much as she might have feared the electricity, this was her domain, and Cooper was literally fighting blind. The shadows at the edge of the sword's influence played tricks on his eyes, each minute movement convincing him Omega was nearby, but she never revealed herself, toying with him as she bided her time.

The next strike came from the side, Omega moving so quickly she was nothing more than a blur of scales. With one clawed hand she speared into his chest piece, her fingers slipping into the grooves, using her momentum to pull the armour apart. The cuirass stripped away, bolts and joints flying, Omega dropping it by his feet as she disappeared, the armour clattering as it settled. Cooper could see most of his underlying clothes now, there was nothing to protect him from being skewered on the spot.

"Just give up, you can't fight me," she growled, Cooper unable to tell which side of the room her voice was coming from. "You're stumbling around in the darkness of _my _home, and your armour can't protect you for much longer. You still hell-bent on capturing me?"

Cooper removed the stifling helmet, and flung it into the shadows, hoping he might luck out and hit her. He heard it bounce off what must be the wall, rolling away somewhere to his left.

"I'll take that as a no..." she whispered into his ear.

Something pushed into him from behind, and he hit the ground, his sword tumbling out of his grasp, the electric blade cutting off as it clattered against the floor. His world turned to black, Cooper's heart racing as he brandished his rifle, fitting his finger into the trigger well and firing wildly into every direction. Muzzle flashes lit up the room in milliseconds, the crack of each bullet making his ears ring. He felt something stomp towards him, the ground rumbling beneath his back, a mass encroaching over him.

His rifle was plucked from his hands, and a weight was pressed onto his stomach, his lungs emptying as he searched for his killer. Warm breath on his face assured him she was right in front of his nose, but he couldn't see anything. He winced away, waiting for the final blow.

Then, there was nothing.

In the next moment, there was a flood of yellow light, Cooper peering up to see a lightbulb dangling from the ceiling had turned on, Omega tugging the hanging string that powered it. She wasn't attacking him. Cooper held up a protective arm as she crouched down beside him, crossing her long legs as though she was about to start meditating.

"There," she said. "problem solved."

"What?" Cooper asked, his fear slowly ebbing away to leave him confused.

"Problemmm, sooolved," she repeated, slowly annunciating each syllable. "Your armour is knackered, and you've been thoroughly disarmed. You have no means to fight me, so now we don't have to."

"But, you could have ended it," he said, his mind having trouble processing this turn of events. "You had me pinned, you could have just killed me!"

"I never wanted to kill you," she replied, raising a hand at him. "It was _you _who wanted to kill _me, _and you wouldn't listen to reason, so I had to neutralize you. Therefore, problem is solved."

Cooper looked at her warily, his distrust palpable. She'd been playing him for a fool for days now, was this some kind of trick? No, she could have finished him off the moment he'd set foot in her lair. Even with all his weapons and preparation, nothing had seemed to put a dent in her except for the sword, he was nothing short of being at this thing's mercy.

"So what now?" he grumbled, his suit creaking as he sat up. "You gonna feed me to your pack when they wake up?"

"Why would I do that?" she asked, cocking her head in confusion.

"Why would you do any of this?" he shot back, raising an arm to count the points off his fingers. "You threaten to kill me and then didn't, you pretended to be someone you weren't, traveled with me, and ate my food for the past three days!"

"I was bored," she explained with a shrug of her scaly shoulders. "You think it's fun being able to talk, but have nobody around to speak to? The moment I heard that gunshot out in the valley, I just had to find the shooter, and I'll admit, you were a pretty fun diversion. You should be glad you fed me," she added. "After you told me you worked for that dick Hendrix, I might have made a meal out of you if you hadn't shared."

She began to laugh, throwing her horned head back to the ceiling.

"I had to struggle to contain myself every time you said you'd take Omega down no sweat, almost let slip a chuckle a few times. I'll admit, when you went off to take out my pack, that was a bit of a wildcard moment, but it went according to plan, which is more than could be said for you, eh Cooper? You thought this would be like any other job, but the reward blinded you from seeing that your Omega was sleeping right next to you the whole time!"

She held her belly with a clawed hand, eventually getting her amusement under control.

"So no, I'm not going to eat you or let my pack feast on you. I wanted a bit of excitement, and I got more than my fill. For that, you can go."

"... Fuck you," Cooper snapped.

She narrowed her eyes, fixing him with a cold stare. "What did you say?"

"Fuck you!" he said again. He got to his feet, jabbing his finger in her face, Pearl blinking as she glanced between him and his extended digit. "Where am I going to go? I have no home, and I spent most of my money stocking up to hunt _you. _I've barely got enough to feed myself for a week, tops. I was going to walk out of this rich, or dead, not this... in between bullshit."

"But you are a hunter!" she protested, so close that he could feel her warm breath on his hair. "You don't need money to survive, I've seen your tracking skills."

"I don't want to survive," he spat. "I want to spend my days behind ten-foot walls, where I don't have to watch my back every minute of the day. I want to live where I don't have to worry if I'm gonna starve the next night, or spend another day out in the freezing cold. None of that's possible without money."

"There's other jobs out there," she tried. "someone of your expertise can't be that short of work..."

"It's not that simple," he said, folding his arms dejectedly. "Every day I'm hunting further and further from the cities, and one day I'm gonna slip up, and be too far away to get help. Something faster, or smarter than me is going to get the drop on me, hell _you've _already done that, and then I'll die out there in the Wastes... alone."

"We're all scared of that happening," she said, her tone sympathetic. "I know how much roughing it out in the wilds can take a toll on the mind."

"You should just end it," he said, turning away from her, his voice wavering. "I'd rather die here on the hunt than returning empty-handed."

"Don't be like that," she sighed. "Look, go use my shower, run your head under some cold water, you'll feel better. Trust me."

"Sh-Shower?" he asked. He'd gone from bracing for death, to being offered relief, his mind couldn't process this sudden shift.

"Yep. You're a mess, and you could use a good wash. It's just down the hall to the right," she said, pointing a claw over a shoulder as though there was nothing strange about their situation. "It's not really a shower per se, but it's clean, and it's the least I could offer after intentionally leaving you at the mercy of my pack."

When she didn't elaborate, she nodded towards the exit with her horned head. "Go on then, a good cold splash will clear your head."

Cooper walked past her, keeping a constant eye on her in case she suddenly attacked him while he was distracted. What was going on? They'd been at each other's throats a second ago, and now she was offering him hospitality? Her glowing eyes tracked him as he went, her chops still pulled up in a smirk. As he reached the passageway, he turned, the maw of darkness giving him pause.

"It's too dark," he complained.

"Oh, right, forgot you humans don't have nightvision. Turn on the generator on your left. No, other left."

Somehow he hadn't even seen the bulky machine on his way in. It looked more or less the same as the ones in the lodge, albeit a little on the smaller side, with less protective panels encasing the machinery. A long metal tube trailed from it to the ceiling, probably as a means of transferring all the waste chemicals out of the mine. As he flicked the on switch, he noticed there were a couple of discarded parts on the ground nearby, one of them catching his attention. It was a rotor, rusted around the edges and badly in need of maintenance. He could see another one in the generator, and it looked perfectly functional, the machine beginning to jostle on the spot as the motor started chugging.

"You stole this rotor from the lodge," he pointed out.

"Yep," she chuckled. "Was looking for a replacement, happened to catch my eye during my little escapade."

A little click down the passage drew his attention, Cooper turning to see the mineshaft become bathed in the light of more bulbs. They flicked on one by one, revealing the way he'd entered up until the junction. He'd seen the lights during his clearing of the mine, where they all controlled from this generator? And had this beast set them all up? How?

He had no idea what was going on right now, this beast was no beast, and it was offering him a shred of comfort after he'd tried to kill it. Everything had been so crystal-clear the previous day. Tranquilize the beasts, then shoot the flare gun and wait to get paid. Now he didn't know what to think or do.

Perhaps he should just splash his face with water, like she'd suggested. He might even wake up from this crazy dream once he did.