Guns For Hire (R J MacCready)

I'm The One You're Looking For

"Don't you worry, you'll fit right in. All we gotta do is get you into some more appropriate clothes."
Mayor Hancock stood with his irradiated hands placed upon his hips, an inquisitive gaze fixated on my body. I had often been accustomed to many a glance when I'd begun filling out as a child, but this was unlike any other experience. Hancock was trying to help me improve my looks so that my time making money behind the bar would be a breeze. The whole thing was making me feel a little uncomfortable.

"OK, OK, we need something that's gonna make you shine. We don't wanna go overboard so that you take the eyes offa' Magnolia, but you need to catch the eyes all the same. Hmm." He paced around, looking through a selection of clothes his bodyguard, Fahrenheit I think she said she was called, had fetched for us.
"Who's Magnolia?" I asked.
"You'll meet her soon enough. Ooh, what about this one?" He reached into the pile and pulled out a short dress. It was a scarlet red, with a cream coloured apron fastened round the front. On the back was the Nuka Cola rocket girl, the brand advertising the product clear as day. My heart stopped upon seeing it.
"Yes, this is the one! Go put it on!" He came over, placed the dress in my hands and shoved me in the direction of another room that had been deemed the changing room.
"No, don't you have anything else? I don't want to wear this one."
"Do you want the job or not? Trust me, this'll get you the caps that you need, and you'll also get my business boomin' more than she already is."
I sighed in defeat, glancing down once more at the outfit before stepping out to put it on.

The cracks in the mirror held the dust from decades of neglect, the reflected shine dull beneath the accumulated dirt. My small frame stared back at me in the scratched eyes of the mirror, the dress, much to my disdain, revealing a great deal of my legs. The sight of the Nuka Girl on the back made my gut wrench. Attempting to release some of that worry in a sigh, I slipped on a pair of dirty white trainers and headed back to the room Hancock patiently waited in.

"Wow! It actually really suits you! Hey, Fahrenheit, come look at my little protégé." Hancock chuckled, grinning at me as if I were his masterpiece. Her eyebrows rose and she nodded her head, agreeing with him.
"I'll admit, you look good. Gonna have a hard time keeping the men off ya, but I suppose ol' Charlie will sort 'em out if they cause you any trouble." The bodyguard said with the hint of a smile.
"Who's Charlie?"
"You're about to find out. Let's go, Beautiful, you got a new job to start."

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The walk to the Third Rail was shorter than I'd expected. We left the Old State House and turned around the corner to the bar's hidden location. You could have walked straight past the building, unaware that a speakeasy-like bar lay deep inside of it. A few curious glances were cast our way as I walked with the mayor and his bodyguard, though I wasn't sure if it was because I was new to this city or because of the outfit I was wearing. I prayed it was the former.

Fahrenheit opened the large metal door for the mayor and I, greeting us with the second human ghoul I'd ever seen. This one's name appeared to be Ham and he was suited in a tuxedo.
"Any friend of Mayor Hancock is welcome to the Third Rail, come on in." He smiled with the tilt of his head, stepping aside to allow us to proceed. The stairs led down to an old underground metro station, which is the place they'd transformed into a bar. Deep, rhythmic sounds of jazz filled my ears as we made the descent into the crowded bar, smoke hanging in the air like a wispy fog, accompanied by the lustrous smell of alcohol and cigarettes lingering in the room among it's inhabitants.

"I see you looking round, the corner".

My attention immediately drew itself towards the female singing beautifully upon the makeshift stage.