Leith hissed between the teeth that he had left. "No amount of caps is worth your life, Kaye. I honestly couldn't care less about my life, as I've lived longer than should even be natural as it is, but it's my responsibility to protect yours--as both a job and your friend. Vaults are unpredictable; one wrong step and you could get yourself killed." He gestured toward the kid and the unconscious man. "Those two obviously know from experience."
"This was actually caused by an unforeseen radiation storm, but okay," Basil replied nonchalantly.
"Shut up while I'm trying to make a point," Leith snapped.
"I was making a point, too," Basil responded.
Leith turned toward him, eyes narrowed dangerously. "Kid, do you even know who you're messing with?"
"A ghoul who is scared of children's stories," Basil replied.
"I swear to God--" Leith stopped himself, forcing down a gulp of air and slowly exhaling before he looked back at Kaye. It'd been a long time since he'd come across someone quite like this one. So...infuriating. Cropping such an attitude with him; it was as if he didn't even care about how intimidating and disgusting he looked. "Anyways, Kaye, I highly advise against this. Who even knows what this 'water purification research' really entails? Sounds like a lot of nonsense to me."

"That's the thing!" Kaye said excitedly. "It is nonsense! It is dangerous! And it screams 'adventure.'" She made air quotes with her fingers. "I am tired of working for that bucket of lard who is so big je can't even get out of bed by himself, anymore. And he always cheats me of my pay because finds some excuse to cut it every time. I killed too many people, I didn't make enough caps, I traded too much...blah...blah...blah. Cry me a fucking river." She walked up to Leith and looked up at him in the eye. Curse her shortness. "I have hereby resigned from this awful job...and I am stealing his caps, supplies, and ole' Bessie and Bob here." She patted the brahmin's head and smirked. "Time to rise and shine, Rotttie! I am going treasure hunting."

Leith stared down at her for a long moment. "Okay, for one, I'll pretend that wasn't offensive in the slightest because you're obviously on the 'Tats again. And two, no. I don't give a shit that you've 'quit,' but I do give a shit about you running into the face of danger just for 'fun.'"

"Then its settled! You will come with us to be the manly man you are to protect the damsel in distress." Kaye smiled at him before winking and turned away from him, petting the brahmin.
Jace groaned softly as he started to come to, feeling as if he had been shot out of a fat man rocket launcher. Everything hurt with a dull ache, but his side was really sore. He didn't remember much that had transpired in the past few hours aside from being sick, but he hadn't known they were travelling. Nothing looked familiar and was wondering if he had actually walked all this way or if Basil carried him. Most definitely the former, he decided.
"Basil?" He slowly sat up and let out another groan. His vision had returned and he could see fine once more. The first thing his eyes fell upon we of Kaye and the ghoul. He tensed and quickly grabbed for his hunting rifle and aimed it at the ghoul first, who looked like the biggest threat.
"Who hell are you?!" he exclaimed, fighting to his feet. He was still extremely weak and fell back to his knees, but kept his wavering gun sights on the ghoul.

"Jace, calm down! I'm right here!" Basil said, carefully putting his hand on the Jace's to get him to lower the gun. Leith already had his gun aimed, though, finger prepared to pull the trigger.
"One warning and that's it. Drop the damn gun," Leith said.

Jace almost jumped out of his skin when Basil spoke, not having expected his close proximity. He spared a glance at Basil, looking him up and down. "Did these people hurt you?"
"Is this any way to treat the people who saved your cute ass?" Kaye said, fake pouting.
Jace looked between the girl and the ghoul."Is that true, Basil?"

Basil glanced at Kaye for a brief moment, and then nodded. "Yes, but...they're not satisfied with only caps for their services."
"I am," Leith argued with a huff, "But she's calling the shots." He cocked his head toward her.

Jace took a long pause before finally lowering his gun. "No," Jace finally said, glaring at them.
"I beg your pardon?" Kaye said, crossing her arms.
"Take your caps and get out of here. You ain't going with us."
"That's funny, you think you really have an option."
"Take your payment and get the fuck out of here. This isn't a tag-a-long party. We have business to attend to." How could Basil make this decision without him? He turned to look at Basil.
"Oh...I get it. You don't want us to intrude on you and your boyfriend."
Jace's face turned redder than a tomato. "I-I am not his boyfriend!" he stammered. "He is my partner! We share everything together and-"
"Share body fluids. It's okay. It is adorable." She loved making him nervous.

Basil flushed deep-red, quickly shaking his head. "We do nothing of the sort!" He then looked back at Jace, and whispered in a panicked tone, "And...and we don't have enough. She doesn't want to trade, and you would have died if I hadn't...I mean, what could it really hurt to let them come along? They only want..." He paused. What if they happened to stumble upon the G.E.C.K. or something related to it, and wanted to keep it for themselves? He was fine with them taking the littler things, even if those things were worth many caps, but he couldn't allow that to fall out of his hands after all this time, work, and pain. Not after Jace almost died. They probably wouldn't even know what it was--they'd just notice that it looked complicated and assume it'd sell for some good money, even if only because someone was curious about it.

Even as Jace listened to what Basil had said, he was still blushing madly. He couldn't believe someone was so audacious to say such words, especially this little girl. Was she even old enough to know of such things?
"I don't trust them," he whispered back to Basil, giving him a stern look. "I do not care if they saved my life; our mission is too sensitive to allow room for such nuances...that is the right word...right?"
"Can you believe this guy?" Kaye said, pointing at Jace and shaking her head in exasperation. She then looked at Jace, suddenly serious. "Listen now. You have not paid us and we will get our payment whether you like it or not. We are coming with you or we will shoot you dead where you stand and drain your blood to get my radaway back."
"You would really go that far to get your way?" Jace wasn't frightened, just disturbed at tje image. If it had been Basil they were threatening, though, that would be a different story.
"Me? God, no. That would be too disgusting."
Jace fell deadpan, not understanding this girl at all. This girl must have fried her brains on chems or something...

Basil's gaze flicked nervously between the three. Kaye was as domineering as before, Leith looked both terrified and murderous, and Jace just looked confused and wary. Finally, he whispered back to Jace, "Is there really a choice in the matter for us, though? That Leith guy is kinda scary, to be honest. Maybe they'll part ways if we just take them there, and won't bother us when we're excavating? It sounds like they only want stuff worth money, anyways, so I doubt that they'll bother reading any notes or terminals or the like."
"Your friend, the short-stack, claimed to be interested in 'water purification,'" Leith mentioned, cocking his head to the side curiously, "So I assume that you're looking for a G.E.C.K., right? That's the only reason I can think of why someone would be crazy enough to go searching through Vault after god-forsaken Vault."

Every muscle in Jace's body tensed when the ghoul mentioned the G.E.C.K. He spared a glance at Basil, glaring at him angrily for a moment before looking at the ghoul as emotionless as possible. "There are no more G.E.C.K.'s in this region even if we were looking for one."
"I am lost. What is this G.E.C.K.?" Kaye asked, looking Leith. "It sounds important."
"They are only rumored to exist. If anyone has found a working one recently then chances are they are lying."
"Yeah, but what is it?"

Flinching when Jace glared at him in such a way, Basil eventually said when Kaye persistently inquired, "They're not just rumors. They...they do exist. It's safe to consider them responsible for the wasteland even being remotely possible to inhabit."
"Kid's right," Leith said after a moment. He glanced at the taller one, who didn't look very pleased at all with these developments. Ungrateful brat. "It stands for Garden of Eden Creation Kit, Kaye. Certain Vaults were equipped with them, at least the ones that were planned on ever being opened. They're designed to purify water--large deposits of it--in order to give way into safe agriculture, clean drinking and medicinal practices, and the like. While this isn't exactly what I'd call 'Eden,' some of them did work. The Capital Wasteland is a recent example of that, if you believe the stories of what happened there a couple years ago."
"Yes, Project Purity," Basil dropped in, pleased to have finally found someone who had a degree of knowledge on this sort of topic, "Some of the scientists there are said to have purified the Potomac River. And they did it through a G.E.C.K., so if we could find one, then...maybe we could do the same."
"Kid, a G.E.C.K. will likely be needed if you plan on trying to save the world or something," Leith said, "But even those scientists struggled for well over two decades to accomplish such a feat, a lot of 'em dying through the process of it. And the G.E.C.K. was just their final step to finish what they'd started, so if you don't have some theories, research, or resources of your own to begin with, then the G.E.C.K. may not be of much use to you, even if you were to find a functional one. And to be honest, you look pretty young--are you educated on this sort of thing at all? What's the likelihood of you blowing yourself up, rather than actually solving any problems?"
Basil frowned, and was about to speak again, but Leith pushed forward, "I don't intend to squash your dreams underneath my boot. But don't go rushing into matters that you know too little about to fully understand. Science is designed specifically to kill those who try fooling with it when in that sort of mindset."

Jace gritted his teeth in anger, hating the fact that the ghoul knew more about the G.E.C.K. than he did. He knew he wasn't a genius, but as he shared a sidelong glance at Basil, he saw the excitement and looked impressed by the guy's knowledge. He managed to stand up on staggering feet, feeling his strength coming back a little more. He turned away from them all and slowly staggered off.
"I won't be far. You seem to have things under control here," he said before walking towards the ghoul. As he passed, he paused beside him and turned to glare in his direction. "Basil isn't a naive child. he knows what he is doing...I think, and the next time you mock him I will peel the rest of what skin you have left off your slimy bones." He then continuef to walk off, not even sparing him a glance. How could Basil give them any information about their mission? He didn't trust them any more than he could throw them and in his current state, that wasn't far.
Kaye didn't even pay attention at his retreating form as she was intrigued, listening attentively. "You mean there is hope for this dry hunk of dirt?"

Basil worriedly watched as Jace wandered off, having no idea where exactly he even planned to go, but knew that he wouldn't want him to question or follow him when he was in such a mood. Finally, he nodded at Kaye, and said, "Yes. Once we find a G.E.C.K., I plan on setting up...somewhere, and beginning the project. Considering how rare they are these days, and how it's vital, we thought that should be the first step--I wouldn't want to work for years on the purifier, only to die when trying to find the G.E.C.K. I would prefer to get that out of the way before I wasted my time."
Leith was quiet for a moment, also peering at Jace as he shambled away, and said to Basil, "So you have a notion of what to do?"
"Yes," Basil quickly said with another firm nod.

"So you and your boyfriend are going to save the Deeper South?" Kaye said excitedly. "This G.E.C.K. sounds really important. Do you think it is really going to work?" She then leaned forward to Basil and whispered, "just my opinion, I don't think would allow Mr. Broody over there work on it. It could just be me, bit doesn't look like he has much upstairs if you know what I mean."
Once Jace walked off, he let out a stream of curses at the given situation. he couldn't believe Basil had took it upon himself to tell these complete strangers about the G.E.C.K. He knew that it would benefit in the well-being of all of them in the end, but he didn't trust scavengers and merchants for they were ever only in it for one thing and one thing only...caps. Money did odd things to people and turned the purest of individuals into cold-hearted snakes. And he simply did not want to compromise this mission more than it had to be.
He didn't know how far he had walked off, but he kept turning around occasionally to make sure Basil was still within sight. Deep down, he wished they tried something just so he had the chance to blow their heads off their shoulders. As they were mere ants in the distance, though, he doubted he would be able shoot them at this distance. So he started his slow trek back, gun in hand.

"As if you have any brains," Leith muttered, glaring at Kaye. He shook his head; if she was even remotely smart, she wouldn't be trying to involve herself in their hero's quest just for the potential entertainment. The kid looked entirely serious, even if he was naive; Kaye didn't have that sort of dedication for anything but herself. She wouldn't last for even five minutes trying to save the world before she got bored.
Basil quickly shook his head, "No way, I'm not leaving Jace. And you're not giving him enough credit. He may not know a lot about science or anything, but he's really smart when it comes to other things. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have lasted this long."

Kaye gasped and turned to glare at Leith. She crossed her arms to prevent from slapping him. "I am plenty smart, thank you! And you are not here to offer an opinion; that is my job! You are here to be quiet, dumb, and pull that trigger when needed!" She knew she was being an ass but so was he! Unlike him, though, she would feel guilty for it later when she came down from her high.
She then turned to look at the other guy. "To me...it looks like he wouldn't have lasted this long without you." She gave him a small smile that was actually genuine. "Can I ask you a serious question? Are you sure nothing is happening between the two of you?" For once she wasn't speaking in a mocking tone.

Basil was quiet for a moment, and then said, "Well, I've never really thought about him in the way that you're suggesting. But we've been close friends for years now, so in that regard, yes." He shook his head. "But I don't quite see how that is relevant, and furthermore, how it is possibly any of your business."
"Damn, he got you, Kaye," Leith said, whistling in an impressed tone. Karma was a bitch, after all, and he'd gladly serve as her hand. He wasn't there just to look pretty and menacing for her, like a pitiful with a rhinestone collar; he had other attributes, too, that were worth mentioning.

"Well, you did tell me how you felt so you obviously didn't mind answering the question." She then fell silent for a moment before adding, "just to let you know...there is more to the story than you realize or care to comprehend. I see how that guy looks at you...that isn't just friendship..."

Jace had been lounging behind a tree nearby enough to hear what they had said. He clenched and unclenched his jaw a few times, feeling a wave of embarrassment wash over him. He didnt know what to think of that statement, but didnt appreciate a stranger saying such things about him when he wasnt present.
'Dammit...I am not in love with my best friend...
"I am ready to get on the road, Basil," he said, not looking at any of them. He decided it was easier to ignore it rather than have to confront it.