Chapter 570 - Punishment, Fit For...

He bends the bars and pulls Veronica through, afterwards grabbing Christine but not letting go... He leans into her ears and whispers, "Listen, I know you're the one who dragged Veronica here, and I hope your short time in this cell has given you some perspective. Aside from your punishment, I won't take this further, but you need to promise me you won't do something so fucking stupid again." he states.

...​​

Christine purses her lips but slowly nods despite herself, "I won't... I'm sorry..." she solemnly admits.

Afton nods, "Good. Otherwise I might be forced to chip you or something." he says as he pushes her at Veronica who catches the stumbling woman with a raised brow.

[Christine Royce has become your Companion!]

[Perk acquired from Companion : Pristine Shot]

[Pristine Shot] : Increase damage of Ballistic weaponry by 50%

Afton stops mid-step upon receiving the notifications. He'd only just realised Christine had never become his companion... Had she just never trusted him enough for it? Or had she been too conflicted between him and the Brotherhood to make a decision? if it's the latter, then wouldn't that mean she's made her decision?

...

Regardless, the Companion Perk he received was pretty op in its own right... Anti-Material rifles would probably disintegrate anyone he hit, and let's not even talk about using explosive ammo...

He recomposes himself and only now realises that the others were ahead of him... He jogs a bit to catch up and eventually begins leading the group again... He pokes his invisible head out of the exit and spots a few tense BOS members lingering around, most likely waiting for Afton to attack somewhere...

"You guys wait here." he whispers as he sneaks up to the few BOS members and cleanly knocked them out. After that, escaping isn't too difficult, they climb up the makeshift wall and Afton helps them down by creating a rope with his plant arm. After that, the group run off into the desert, and once the coast is clear he has Nyx gather the coordinates before teleporting them all back to base.

One day later :

Afton stands outside the doors of Miles' new room, waiting for him to wake up... He'd been medically examined and fed, but was so tired he'd fallen asleep not long after.

*Knock, Knock, Knock*

"Yo, it's me, wake up you lazy bum!" Afton calls out and hears Miles stumbling towards the door after most likely falling out of bed.

The door swings open and reveals a half-naked Miles standing there with a toothbrush in his mouth, "Am I late for something?" he asks, wondering what's the rush.

Afton shakes his head, "No... Well, kinda. I wanted to check that you were up to see it."

Miles raises a brow, "Can you at least tell me what it is?"

Afton smirks, "Well, that would be telling... I'm sure it'd be more interesting to see it first hand."

Miles reluctantly nods, "Alright, let me just get dressed... After this, can we talk about your plans for the Brotherhood though?"

Afton shrugs, "Yeah, apparently we've got news concerning it anyway that we probably need to discuss."

Five minutes later Afton was leading Miles towards the 'composting' area. It's the place where Big Mt dumps its rotten or uneaten food, as well as the faeces from the various creatures. Of course, the faeces is processed to remove all the dangerous pathogens first... Human shit was dangerous enough, not to mention the hundreds of kilograms of Deathclaw shit Borous project produces...

Usually, they'd only have robots working in it as it was an obviously disgusting job that most would refuse to do... Which is why he'd decided to use this place as punishment. Miles squints and covers his nose as they approach, Afton gestures down at the pit where food, faeces, and other compostable material was being piped. He points at the two figures that were different from the robots working down there...

"Is that...?" he mutters, looking slightly green at the sight.

Afton crosses his arms and nods, "Yeah, along with stripping their teleportation rights, luxury food and drink rights, maid service rights, and entertainment rights, I'm having them 'help' the robots with their workload."

Indeed, both Veronica and Christine look as if they are on the cusp of vomiting as they shovel the compost material into the designated areas. Afton didn't have a problem if they did throw up, it'd only add nutrients to the compost after all...

"Is this really necessary?" he asks, holding a hand over his mouth as if to stifle his gap reflex.

Afton nods, "Yeah, they broke the rules, used unauthorized tech for their excursion, got captured and potentially risked top-secret information about Bulwark... Honestly, if they weren't family I'd have them executed or chipped... This is probably good enough to prevent them from doing it again though, after all, they still have a couple days left of 'community service'."

"C-can we leave? I'm feeling a bit..." he admits weakly.

Afton nods again, "Oi! You two!" he shouts over at the shit-covered duo whose heads snap up at him, "Get yourselves cleaned up and meet us in the Think Tank!... Make sure you're smelling nice or I'll add tow extra days of shit-service!" he calls out before leaving.

The girls don't need him to say it twice and immediately throw their tools down and sprint for the exit. Once outside, they leave a trail of fire as they rush towards the showers.

An hour later Afton and Miles were making small talk in the Think Tank main room, two glasses of whiskies sitting in front of them on the holographic map.

*Tuk!*

"Afton..." Veronica mutters as she walks inside while shooting him a pleading look, "Please change our punishment... I'll do anything! Even the Sierra Madre was better than this!"

Afton shrugs and sniffs the air, nodding at the perfume she'd applied to mask whatever taint was leftover from the composting. "You shoulda thought about that before you let your girlfriend run off... Ain't that right Christine?"

Christine just bites her lip and slowly nods as the duo approach the table. "T-the punishment is just... Why have you called us here?"

Afton grins and leans forward on the table, "We're going to decide how we destroy the Brotherhood."