Love. A chemical, nothing more, nothing less. Our brain's way of fooling us into hoping for something better, a happy existence. You can't find that in the Wasteland. You just hope you survive. So... why do I even give a fuck about this girl? With death staring me in the face, why can't the wretched tears stop?

My name is John Crench. I was born in Fort Independence. Those Outcasts, they tried a little to treat me like family, especially after my parents died in the field. But I was always defective. My right arm, struck by a barrage of bullets from a frankenstein's minigun when I was 15, had to be amputated from the shoulder. I never felt right, afterward. I was desperate to fix myself, to become valuable again. After five long years, at the age of twenty, I perfected a mechanical arm, built from remnants of Robco tech. It was the happiest day of my life. Until Casdin booted me out. Too much interacting with the locals, he says. Well, screw 'im. Who needs the Outcasts, anyway. I'm whole, now. Got a gun, and a gas mask. So I'll be fine.
At least, that's what I told myself as I hid from the sadistic pricks after me.

"Come on out, freak! It's dinner time, and I'm hungry!"

I was lucky. Only one raider. My Wattz 1000 had enough juice for about five shots. It would be enough.

"Hey sicko. You ever seen actual tech before? Aside from that shitty pistol of your's."

I flashed my robotic hand, and pulled it back, two bullets flying after it. I dived to the other, into a crouch, took aim, and fired a shot, frying his head.

"Hmph. At least it was only one."

I walked toward his corpse, looking at what he had on him. An N99 10mm pistol, armor made from leather, a scarf, and a couple caps. I stripped off his armor, eager to put on something more substantial than my Specialist gear. I paused at the scarf, but took it anyway. Winter was coming, so I needed to bundle up.

"Marty, you around here?!"

Another raider. My luck couldn't get any worse. I crouched down, slinging the corpse over my shoulder, and crept into the decrepit bones of a pre-war home. A women appeared from down the road, brandishing what looked like a Norinco Type 56.

"Marty, stop hiding and come on out here! We found a little girl! I know how you much you love kids."

She cackled, but she was obviously getting nervous. My fingers tightened around my gun, and I switched it over to my right arm, allowing me to fire it one handed. I threw the corpse behind the car, alerting the women. When she walked over to investigate, I stood up, firing a shot at her head, missing.

"What the fuck?!"

She pointed her rifle at me, emptying a magazine, and I felt two bullets hit my abdomen. I gasped in pain, firing blindly, getting a shot into her arm.

"Agh!"

She dropped her rifle, staggering back and clutching at her arm. I took the moment to fire the last blast into her screaming mouth, and looking away from the resulting mess. My chest was constricted, the pain making my breathing difficult. I pulled a set of tweezers from my bag, and slid the armor off to take a look at the wound. The leather had stopped a bullet from fully penetrating, sticking out halfway. The other was deep in near my hip.

"Damn it."

I removed the first one easily, and stopped the bleeding. Replacing the energy cell in the Wattz, I set it ti low power and cauterized the wound, almost screaming out in pain. After stapling it, I moved onto the harder task. I jammed a rag from my backpack into my mouth, and after counting to three, plunged the tweezers into the entrance of the wound. My muffled howl sounded, and it continued as I let my right arm do the work. I felt the bullet, pinching it hard and wrenching it out.
The blood was beginning to seep out in torrents, so I set my arm to maximum strength and pinched the wound closed, applying pressure until it stopped. After cauterizing and stapling it as well, I rose to my feet, in extreme pain. I snatched a syringe of morphine from my bag, jabbing it into my arm and sighing in peace, applying a stimpak afterward.

"Now, let's go see what goodies they were stockpiling."

I hobbled down the road, seeing the makeshift cardboard hut they must've been living in. I kicked in the door, pointing my Wattz at any occupants lying in wait. Instead of a raider, though, I found a little girl. Hmph, this must've been the girl that the women was talking about. She was unconscious, with a small bruise on her forehead. She looked about nine years old, and she was a cute kid, with short black hair, wearing some sort of trench coat made from scraps. I ignored her, stepping over and looking through the medkits and ammo boxes. I came up with three stimpaks, and a few bottles of water. Plenty of food, but nothing good.

"Aiiieee!"

I turned, raising my gun at the intruder behind me. It was the girl, awake and terrified.

"D-d-don't kill m-m-me...!"

I lowered the pistol, holstering it.

"I'm not going to kill you. I don't kill kids."

She stopped her whimpering, slowly trying to move backwards, toward the door. I couldn't care less about her leaving, as long as she didn't try and screw with me.

"HUMANS!"

Great. A Frankenstein. Just perfect. I glanced at the girl, who had move away from the door, now shaking.

"Hey. Girl. Get over here."

She looked frightened, but she complied. Anyone's chances would be better with me than with a Frankenstein.
I closed the door, listening quietly as I prepared my last resort.

"These humans... Sleeping?"

"No, stupid, they're dead!"

"Hahaha, stupid humans!"

I rolled my eyes, supressing a sigh of frustration at having to listen to this stupidity. I hated the things. They wouldn't stand a chance against me, anyway. I armed the grenade, listen to the loud, high pitched whine that signaled it's status as armed.

"What that sound?"

I threw it, smiling sadistically as I did so, and ducked in cover. Without realizing it, I grabbed the girl, too. Didn't want her to get fried. That created quite a mess.

"Black... ball?"

The grenade sent out it's first wave of lasers, low power, spraying the mutants with red hot beams.

"AAAGHHH!"

It became more intense, and the screaming was beginning to get less frequent. Finally, it exploded, punching holes in the walls of the house I was hiding in.

"AAAAIIEEE!"

This scream was right beside me. I looked over, seeing a deadly burn on the little girl's left arm. I swore under my breath, feeling guilty. Stupid kid, shouldn't have been caught by the raiders in the first place. She was writhing in agony, crying and clutching at her arm.

"Girl, listen to me. This was my fault, I accept that. Let me patch you up, ok?"

She was crying too much to hear me, so I fished out my last bit of morphine, plunging about half into her thigh to compensate for size. Taken by surprise, her face froze, and grew peaceful.

"Stupid wastelander kid. Can't stay out of trouble, gotta make my day terrible. As if my bullet wound weren't bad enough."

I took a look at the burn, fearing the worse. I could see a flash of white, bad sign. At least she wouldn't feel pain after the initial agony. The muscle was seared almost completely, and I knew that her arm would be weaker for the rest of her life. I took out the small roll of tools I always carried around with me, and some scrap metal and electronics. Cutting off the dead, useless skin around the burn, I got to work shaping it into an almost ovular wound. My hands worked quickly, confidently, as I constructed the mechanical muscular supplement that was my pride and joy. The sun left without a word, and came back to check on my progress. The girl's condition had stabilized by then, but I had a short window of time before infection set in. My hands fumbled at the final, small screws to complete my work, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hah... see, I did it. Those stupid Outcasts. They threw away a genius."

I carefully placed the piece of tech over the scorch, and taking note that she had fallen asleep, plunged it inside. Her eyes flew open, the pain probably unfathomable. I activated the supplement, and it dug deeper, spreading out and attaching itself inside. She flinched several times, in reaction to each circuit installing itself into her body.

"Don't forget to breathe, kid. You haven't come all this way just to suffocate, have you?"

She forced air down her lungs, and the supplement finished it's job, reducing itself to a metallic patch on her arm.

"That should fix you right up, little girl. It relies on your ability to feed yourself, so the more you starve, the weaker it will be."

I stood up, and walked through the door, hopefully to find something on one of those frankensteins that was useful.

"Wait."

I stopped, glancing over at the small voice.

"Can I come with you?"

"Why?"

"You fixed my arm. And you killed those super mutants."

I shook my head, exasperated by the whole entire day.

"No. You can't come with me. You'll just slow me down."

I continued walking away, spying a discarded Wattz 2000 laser rifle. Hmm, finally, my luck seems to be turning. Too bad I don't have the luxury of microfusion cells.

"Please?"

The girl was still there, and her voice quivered, a pulley straining from the weight of the plea. I sighed, the sound muffled by my gas mask.

"Ugh. Listen, you can stick with me until we find any major settlement, or something. But that's it. I don't want to end up spending too much time with you Wastelanders if I can help with. Got it?"

She gave me a small smile, clearly happy with the terms.

"Ok."

Hrm. Great. I got a flea, now. This day really keeps getting worse, doesn't it? After collecting the laser" rifle, which I noticed had some damage from the grenade, I marched onwards, determined to find a place to sleep before the sun went down. At least, one that wasn't filled with corpses.

"What's your name?"

The girl tugged at my sleeve, trying to keep up, asking her inane questions.

"John. My name is John."

The only sounds were that of our footsteps, and they were annoying companions indeed.

"My name is Jade."

Jade. Strange name, never heard anything like it.

"Jade, please, stop talking. I'd like to walk and think. These thoughts are valuable, you know."

She became silent, but her small hand tried to slip into my own. I clenched my fist, to deny her that. She held onto my fist, anyway.

"I'm sorry, but is it in your nature to be so fucking clingy? Are all you Wastelanders like this?"

She looked hurt, her eyes moving to the floor. She dropped her hand as well. Whatever, the brat was getting on my nerves. Seriously, why is she so touchy?

"Hmph. Ok, I'm sorry for being pissy. You just... need to stop being a little girl."

I noticed a power station in the distance, probably a mile away.

"Hey. We're going to sleep in there, ok?"

She nodded, still sullen. The sky overhead rumbled, and rain began to fall. I was beginning to think this girl was a bad luck charm. The stump of my right arm began it's horrible aching, and I quickened my pace. The station was nearing, and I was overjoyed to see a bulwark of safety, finally within grasp.

"Hurry it up, now. I'm fucking tired."

I burst through the door just before the storm hit it's apex of misery, calling it's friends thunder and lightning. I threw my things to the floor, breathing a sigh of relief as I plopped down into a chair. The girl stood there, dripping, staring expectantly at me.

"What? You want food?"

She nodded, and her stomach mewled, voicing it's support. I sighed, throwing a can of pork and beans. It landed at her feet, and she stared at it, despondent.

"You can open that, right? It's pretty simple."

She shook her head, and I got up, exasperated. I peeled the top using the pin, and set it down in front of her, surprised with the voracity with which she wolfed it down.

"So how old are you, girl?"

She looked up, bean sauce covering her cheeks.

"10."

"How were you stupid enough to get caught by those raiders? They didn't seem like the sharpest tools in the shed."

She fell silent, and I started to feel just a tiny bit guilty for all the hassle I was giving her.

"Well, I guess it wasn't your fault. It's not like they weren't armed, or anything."

I turned away, pulling out my project from my pack. It was a work in progress, one I started around the age of 12. A human sized robot, one I kept in pieces while I lugged it around. I had dubbed him Cosmos, in a fit of childish excitement, but over time, his title became Casm. Because of him, I didn't have much room for essentials, but it would pay off once I finished. He was almost functional, only needing some work on his joints. I would probably end up holing up here in this power station in order to finish him.

"What's that?"

Jade's grubby face hovered over me, still covered in sauce.

"Agh, clean yourself, will you?!"

I threw a rag at her, intent on finishing my project before dawn. Assembling him fully, he was a head taller than me, thick and heavy. The storm rumbled, and my stump ached as I worked, my fingers flying as I connected the circuits of his knees together. I had modeled much of his body after human biology, but not completely, leaving room for the flexibility of turning his limbs in impossible directions. A lot of his parts came from scraps of power armor, broken suits scavenged from the Outcasts. The one, rare component I had, though, was an AI chip that I had stolen from the Brotherhood. While they were busy studying some large war machine, the Outcasts had snuck in and stolen a LOT of tech. The Pentagon was ripped with Pre-War secrets, but my treasure was the single AI chip. It was blank, with no information, no knowledge. I would have to teach my creation how to walk, talk, fight. But it would be worth it.

"It's amazing, mister."

The little girl's face was bright with admiration, and I grinned.

"Of course it is. It's a work of love and labor that's 8 years old."

"That's almost as old as I am!"

I ignored her, connecting up the rest of the joints, and testing the flexibility.

"It's set up! Now, the AI chip."

Carefully, hands shaking, I opened up the compartment on the back of his head, and found myself gazing at the empty port I had fashioned to integrate with the rest of the body.

"This is it. After 8 long years, I'm finally finished."

I sighed, chuckling, while rubbing the metal plates that I had made so long ago.

"I can't believe it. I'm really going to do this."

Taking a deep breath, I slid the chip in, slapped some electron charge packs inside, and powered it on. Casm began to whir, and his eyes sparked up, blinding me. I crouched down, stunned by the light.

"DAEDALUS ACTIVATED."