Raphael snorted in annoyance as he watched the stranger tried to strong-arm him and the rest of the group. "Cocky asshole..." He spat at the ground as the man walked away. "New Vegas has a real bad habit of breeding jackasses out of regular Joes." Just then, faint clicking and revving sounded out. "No fuckin' way..." Raphael took his Recharger Rifle out with his right hand and looked at it from the side. "Damn it, the cells are out of place again!" He fought with the rifle for a while, trying to open up the compartment that held the recharger cell in the rifle. The damn thing did this ALL the time. Raphael thought back to when his rifle acted up during a firefight, back when he was running with the Fiends. He was out in the desert with two of people from his gang, Deb and Nelly. Deb, as far as Raphael was concerned, was a babe in every way, and he had always had a thing for her. Never kicked off though, unfortunately. She also LOVED her explosives. Was also cooking up some new toy to use on passersby. Crazy broad. 

Nelly was the kid of the gang; just joined up in the Fiends by the time they went out on this trek. Everyone gave him a lot of shit, as was normal for new additions, but he took it well enough. Raphael and Deb always made fun of his name, as they thought it sounded child-like. Looked like a kid, too, early teens and barely a stubble on his chin. Raphael kinda misses him, oddly enough. They were as much of brothers as two men could get.

So there they were, out in the middle of bum fuck no where, when they suddenly got ambushed by radscorpions. They ran a good distance from the monstrosities before Raphael and Nelly laid down on them with gunfire. Deb lobbed a stick of dynamite into the pack, killing one and critically injuring another. Raphael kept firing his recharger rifle, until he heard that dreaded clicking, and the rifle powered down. The remaining two radscorpions got very close, too close.. Nelly had to reload, and Deb couldn't get out another dynamite without killing them all, so they retreated quickly into a nearby barn. Raphael had grabbed a sledgehammer hanging off of a wall, and stood at the door, plastered against the wall, waiting for the bastards.

As soon as one stuck their legs through the door, Raphael swung down fiercely, crushing the radscorpion's face. Its screech rang throughout the room, accompanied by the shattering of its exoskeleton. Nelly popped up from behind a table, and let lose into the final scorpion, riddling it with bullets until it finally stopped moving. All three of them let out a loud cheer, and headed back to camp after rummaging through the barn. They got back with some new tools, radscorpion stingers that they'd sell for chem money, and a good story to tell at the fire.

Raphael popped the recharger cell back in, and closed the compartment. After flicking a switch, the rifle buzzed back to life, lighting up all down the barrel. "There we go. Good as...somewhat new."