Chapter 635 - Brutish

In response to the auto-turrets firing at him, he just raises his arms and activates the shield-projectors hidden in his wrist plates. The shield is big enough to encompass the front of his body, while also preventing any stray bullets from flying towards the Supermutants behind him.

The shield ripples like water with each shot that hits it, but maintains its strength the entire duration it takes to finally reach the entrance. Fortunately, the Auto-Turrets count as enemies, allowing Afton's Perks to activate.

[John Wick Style is in effect]

He isn't sure how strong the entrance will actually be, so to boost his strength further, he has Nyx apply another of his inventions... A small syringe filled with trace amounts of pure uranium. The material is injected into his leg, causing damage just from its presence alone, while also irradiating his body. When you add the additional chem cocktail contained within the sample, Afton's strength rockets to levels he'd never reached before.

[Grit is in effect]

[Atomic!] is in effect]

He doesn't have time to check his status, but he was absolutely sure he'd reached at least twenty Strength at this point! A laugh escapes his mouth as he revels in the feeling of absolute power, deactivating the shield and allowing the bullets to pepper his armour as he strolls over to the metal entrance of the facility.

He forces his fingers into the gaps of the door, bending the metal from the sheer force of his actions. He then uses his plant arm to gain leverage over the systems keeping the door locked, and once done, he wrenches the doors open with strength alone, slowly overpowering the defences.

Metal and mechanics squeal as he breaks them, forcing them open... And with one last roar, he slams the entrance open, causing the lights of the facility to flicker due to how many internal electronics that he'd broken from that simple act alone.

Inside, he's greeted by a long hall wall with stairs at the end of it... The hallway was filled with upturned desks that were used as cover by the hundreds of NCR troopers, all of which were pointing their weapons at him.

"Er, you guys know where the toilet is-" Afton starts but has to shield himself as the group opens fire on him, the shield deflecting them and causing them to ricochet right back down the hallway.

*DAGAGAGAGAGAGAG!*

*PING!PING!PING!PING!PING!!!*

Soon enough the gunfire ends, the soldiers realising that they were literally just shooting at themselves while Afton's shield was active.

Seeing the soldiers wait for his shield to wane, Afton just tosses a smoke grenade at them, using his Stealthboy once the soldier's vision is obscured... Of course, they all begin firing through the smoke, but he just ignores it and walks past them, allowing the Supermutants to deal with them.

While Afton was invisibly searching through the facility, Marcus and the other mutants had finally arrived at the entrance and were all taking cover from the soldiers after destroying the auto-turrets.

Marcus begins to plot out how they'll assault the trooper's defensive positions, but is cut short when some stray Nightkin randomly charge them. A barrage of bullets crash into them, bouncing off of their chainmail and helmets, but occasionally wounding their limbs were the armour wasn't as thick.

Marcus just shakes his in exasperation and charges with them, the hundreds of supermutants all sprinting down the hallway like a green and blue wave of death.

Not a single mutant is lost in the assault, and only a couple were injured in any meaningful way... Though, their unique biology would have them healing from their bullets wounds in a couple days or so anyway.

Elsewhere :

While Marcus and the mutants were drawing all the soldiers attention, he continues to creep through the facility checking each and every room for Doctor Usanagi, and the man called Macka Bree, whose supposed to be responsible for his father's condition.

He wanted to capture the man alive so he could get some payback with a side order of torture, but he also needed the man's expertise to help return his father to normal... If that wasn't possible, well, maybe having his father eat the man's flesh would bring him back to normal...

Unfortunately, he hadn't yet found the man. The only people he'd actually encountered(other than the few NCR troopers) had been the scientists that were hiding in their respective laboratories... Afton wasn't sure what do to with them to be honest... He could leave them here, which would result in the Supermutants killing them, or he could try and capture them, all while possibly revealing his presence in the facility...

On that subject, he also needed to figure out if there was a self destruct button for this facility or not... Most bunkers had it, especially the ones that kept confidential information and research. Urgh, just another thing to add to the list then.

He ignores the scientists and continues looking around, electing to try find Usanagi, Macka, or the self destruct button before anything else.

The sound of gunfire and screaming gets louder as the Supermutants reach the first level of the facility, pushing Afton to search faster than his earlier more cautious pace. The facility itself is a sprawling maze without signage of where you actually are...

Afton is eventually forced to hack into a terminal simply to find where the fuck is he. Obviously the scientist nearby didn't take kindly to that, forcing him to paint the floor and walls with the man's brain in response.

Once hacked into the terminals database, he found that he's on the first floor out of three, which each led deeper underground than the last... The third is where the test subjects were supposedly kept... And! There wasn't a self-destruct switch anywhere... Apparently... Hopefully?