Having interviews and flashbacks

“…The next thing I know, I’m waking up chained up in the Amazonian Tribe’s base, being sentenced to eventual **** by Snu-Snu,” you explained to the Rein Corp investigator. In the conference room was also your supervisor Geoff and a Batman hiding a shadowed corner.

“You didn’t think there was anything wrong when the shuttle arrived approximately 4.3 minutes later than it was supposed to?” The investigator (who had introduced herself as Kate Beckett but didn’t look like the character you were familiar with). “Nor when your scanners and navigation started giving odd readings.”

“Well, no,” you answered her. “My experience in StarFleet and other ships made me not think anything of the extra minutes. Minutes of delay is nothing new especially if the autopilot is avoiding something unexpected.”

“And the navigation and scanners?” Interrogated the Batman.

“Didn’t have time, immediately after the shuttle started going down and I had to focus on getting it under control,” you explained once again. You’ve run through your story several times since you’ve arrived at the Rein Corp facility you worked out of. As it seems like they wanted to run through your story again, you thought of your trip back from the Trash World.

After the mechanics and inspectors got started taking the shuttle apart to get the physical evidence, you and Sasha Kuusi (Courier Six) went to one of the ship's bars, sharing stories with Diana and the gathered crew.

“Any luck?” Sasha Kuusi asked as you handed a phone back to its owner. You had been trying multiple times to call Aelita to let her know you were okay but none of the calls have gone through. You would have tried to use your own phone but it got lost in the shuttle crash initially then Gogo said they found the broken parts and used them to build the portable character catching gun.

You had asked why they didn’t try to fix the phone to call for help and it turned out they tried but no signal could go through. Hopefully, the phone company doesn’t jack up the bill for using its data transfer function to send characters from the gun to the storage.

“No, I tried forty times to get through but she never took the call,” you replied sitting next to Diana and Sasha Kuusi (Courier Six). “She must be busy with something.” While you were trying to call home, Sasha had been telling everyone the antics little nine year old James pulled in the Mojave wasteland and not the nice terraforming with magic plants parts.

“Hey, tell us more about how this guy as a cadet rode a karking Deathclaw through the New Vegas Strip with no one batting an eye?” A Rex from Star Wars the Clone Wars asked from his seat at the bar. A scattering of other characters muttered their agreement.

“Well, I had some pull with Mr. House and since the deathclaw was one of the intelligent ones and was willing to wear a collar, everyone but the drunks thought it was a domesticated one,” Sasha explained. “Mini-James would perform with the deathclaw and made a lot of caps that way. The securitrons protected them from the drunks and Mr. House let them set up a little circus when they weren’t doing little quests here and there.”

“Little quests nothing, I was going through giant ant nests and saving people from legionaries!” You protested.

“You had a deathclaw with you.”

“Still.” You pretend to pout. “I left with messiah karma.”

“I had to save your butt from the Legion’s fighting pit when you and Leoclaws got captured and they wanted to test how well a flowery mutant kid could survive the fights,” Sasha reminded you.

“How horrible!” Diana exclaimed. “If these legionnaires show their faces, I’ll show them what an Amazon could do.”

“At least I made some friends?” You shrugged, getting captured because you wanted a Captain Cosmos toy was embarrassing. The Legion only allowed you to live at the time to teach them how to tame deathclaws and when that failed they put the two of you in the arena.

“Right one NCR prisoner, a little kid, and some **** women. I found you having the **** women fawn over you after you gave them flowers and got lucky that some were magic and healed them,” Sasha replied. “Melody is doing well by the way. She has a Brahmin empire now.”

“Good for her,” you realized that you haven’t thought of her in a long time. You were glad she recovered from her childhood and became successful.

“I’m guessing Melody was a ****?” Diana asked.

“Yeah, she took care of some of the Legion’s brahmin animals. I helped her keep her teddy bear safe from the guard dogs.” You informed her.

“How noble of you,” Diana replied. She gave you a kiss on the cheek getting cat calls from some of the crowd.

“Any other stories from when the little bugger was a lad?” A Captain Barbosssa asked, drinking from a tankard.

“Well, there was the time he burned down one of the smaller casinos,” Sasha thought out loud.

“That’s a common theme with him,” Diana chuckled.

“There were more?!” Sasha looked at you with wide eyes.

“What can I say? I was a good student.” You chuckle sheepishly, recalling your first casino raid/****.

(Flashback to when James was about 9)

You stumble out of the Lucky 38 elevator crying a little. You were walking to your room in the penthouse/guest areas of the hotel where the Courier’s companions were staying when someone noticed you.

“Hey, little Jimmy, whatcha crying about?” Rose of Sharon Cassidy (or Cass as she liked to be called) asked as she stopped pouring a glass of whiskey with Boone. The former caravan owner and the former NCR Sniper looked concerned as they saw the tears in your normally happy eyes. Boone also kept a wary eye on the potted plants around as your ‘mutant’ abilities tended to act up when emotional.

“They took Pixel,” you cried, wiping your face and sniffling.

“Your little blue toy thing you’re always taking everywhere?” Boone asked you as he adjusted his sunglasses. “Who did?”

“Yeah, who we need to bury in a ditch?” Cass asked, having a defensive attitude towards the kid after he saved her from a cazador swarm with his Deathclaw friend. A Deathclaw friend Cass was now worried was gonna attack the Strip; that could interrupt her 12:15 pm whiskey bottle! She was already splitting her 12:05pm bottle with Boone.

“The new arcade in Freeside, they let me play the card games unlike the other casinos,” you explained, wiping the tears in your eyes. “I thought I was winning but then they told me a rule and I lost! They took Pixel because I was too stupid.”

“It was bound to happen, sometimes you get dealt a bad hand,” Cass told you, ruffling your hair. As she straightened up, you saw curious looks on Boone and her faces. “What rule did they say got ya?”

“A pair of 3 diamonds is better than a pair of 4 clubs because diamonds are better,” you explained.

“Yeah…them slimy snakes definitely cheat ya, the bastards,” Cass told you as Boone got his sniper ready. “Well, I need to restock on my whiskey anyways. Come on, let's go get your toy back.” Cass and Boone started making for the elevator while you just stood there in surprise.

“Really!” You cheered and ran after them. As you got in with them, you looked at Cass and corrected her, “Pixel isn’t my toy. She’s my best friend!”

“Sure she is, kid,” Cass replied. Soon, you were walking through the Strip with Cass, Boone, Lily and Raul. Lily and Raul overheard and decided to join up in teaching the bastards a lesson. Especially Lily who was sending NCR Troopers into a panic as she loudly growled and had her Super Sledge at the ready. Soon they were standing outside of the new Freeside Arcade.

“Something smells burning?” Boone stated as they saw a large scorch mark on a corner of the building. “Maybe someone got here before us.”

“I got angry and a Fire Flower sprouted. One of the Kings put it out though,” you admitted.

“Well a little bit of arson is alright if it's in the name of wasteland justice I always say,” Raul comments as he took a puff of a cigarette.

“Yeah, it's not arson if they were cheatin’ ya,” Cass added on as she adjusted her hat.

“Yes, Miss Cassidy,” you say, readying your baseball bat.

“NOW LET'S GET LITTLE PIXEL BACK!” Lily shouted in her SuperMutant voice. Just as the team was going to barge in and demand Pixel back, a man was thrown through the dusty and stained window front.

“What is that thing!” Someone shouted from inside. Looking through the window, you saw the various slot machines and regular cabinet games were pushed to the side while several customers and the owner of the place were taking cover. In the middle of the whirlwind, was a very familiar form.

“Pixel!” You shouted as you climbed through the window.

“Ra Ralts Ral!” The little Ralts exclaimed as it walked on its little legs towards you. The two of you met in the middle and hugged each other.

“I’m sorry I lost you.”

“Unless that last bottle was a bad batch, I think James was serious about Pixel not being a toy,” Cass said in disbelief at the damage the young Ralts did to the place.

“Take it, take that thing away from here!” Shouted the owner as James stood up with Pixel in his arms.

“BEFORE WE LEAVE WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT LYING TO AND CHEATING CHILDREN!” Lily shouted as she waved her SuperSledge around. The owner of the place gulped as the Supermutant Nightkin, ghoul, former caravan owner, and former NCR Sniper surrounded him.

“The King of the Kings gave me a quest to find out what happened to the arcade/casino which led me to finding out what had happened with James,” Sasha explained to the crowd.

“I would’ve done the same,” Diana said. “No one would cheat children when I’m around.” You gave her a kiss on the cheek as the whiskey and brandy flowed.

Eventually after several hours of storytime and the crowd changing as breaks ended and shifts changed, the ship had all the teams back and they had made their way back home to Prime Earth. You took a shuttle with Diana, Gogo, and some of the shuttle team (Keira, Sabine, and Rein Corp inspectors) to meet your supervisor and got sent directly to the interview room where you have been ever since.

Flying in, you had noticed massive stacks of character shipping crates situated in a corner of the parking lot with streams of characters being led inside. You had winced at the sight knowing that with the Amazonian tribe and all the other characters found on Trash World, the office and all the others are going to be swamped with work.

Especially since a majority of the tribe is going to have to be in the quarantine wing for the foreseeable future according to Rein Corp doctors. They had found something in their blood that raised concerns. The last time you saw the doctors and medical personnel so serious was when they quarantined you and Aelita for nearly a month after getting exposed to mutant Lust Dust in the Breach’s pocket dimension; it felt so long ago but was practically seven months ago.

Other than Gogo and Diana, Ranko, Mirajane, Himiko and the shuttle crew were fully cleared through, the investigators said the shuttle crew will have to stay until they finish their investigation, you can’t take them home yet.

“I think we’ve been through this enough times,” supervisor Geoff said after you went through the story a final time. “How about we have James here take a break while we review the other interviews?”

“Fine,” Batman stated as he glared at you. “Do not leave the facility.”

“Got it sir,” you said as you straightened up and stretched your aching legs. It felt like hours and your buzz from the 3S ship’s bar has long since faded away. They let you leave the room with no issue and you started walking down the hall, hoping to find where the others were.

You were heading to intake to make sure the tribe were marked as your finds and that your girls didn’t get mixed up with the others. You passed by a break room with loud music playing inside when pink arms poked out and pulled you inside.

“Hey James-jam!” Human Pinkie Pie shouted while gripping your shirt and had you nose to nose.

“Hey Pinkie…”