Super Mutants left Ghouls alone, that was the theory. For the most part, it was true. Underworld never had any problems with their sort. They seemed to have a mutual understanding to just leave each other alone. An idea was tossed around that something more might be possible, a friendship between those generally looked down upon by the smoothskins.

This thought was brought up by a woman that had recently arrived in Underworld, and had taken it upon herself to see if such a thing was possible. Of course, she made sure to hire someone for protection first, she wasn't a complete fool. That was where he came in.

Charon had been stuck as a bouncer in The Ninth Circle for years, silently loathing every minute he worked for Ahzrukhal. The day that woman walked into the bar, gave him a curious look and somehow talked Ahzrukhal into selling her his contract was one he'd never forget. Not only because it was the day he'd given his former employer what the bastard greatly needed, a shotgun blast to the face, it was also when his life got much more interesting. Not that it took much to top standing around looking menacing for hours on end.

Although he'd worked for dozens of smoothskins and ghouls over the past hundred-something years, Charon couldn't think of anyone similar to this woman. She was intelligent, cheerful, and optimistic to a fault. What really caught his attention though, was that she didn't carry a weapon. At least not one he could see. He'd had employers that prefered to stay out of combat before, but every one of them carried a gun just in case. Going into the wasteland without one was suicide.

Tempted to bring it up, he chose not to ask her about it. Not only because he normally kept his opinions to himself, he didn't know how she would react to being questioned by a hired gun and there was no telling how long they were going to be stuck together.

The moment they stepped out of The Ninth Circle together, she started talking. Saying how nice it was to find someone new to watch her back since her previous bodyguard was, rather unfortunately, vaporized on one of their little outings. Just that made his normal calm waiver for a moment, though he didn't let it show on his face. It wasn't because of the thought of dangerous work, he was looking forward to that, it was the way she had said it. Brightly and with a grin on her face all the while. Something was not right about this woman.

After spending the next couple of nights in Underworld, the idea of ghouls and mutants living together peacably was brought up when his employer was chatting with the other resident ghouls. They were skeptical about it, but Charon got the feeling there was no hope of the idea being dropped once his employer had walke off, arms folded and muttering to herself as she seemed to do when in deep thought about something.

The next morning, as he expected, she put the plan into action, telling him they needed to go out and see if any of the Super Mutants were interested in becoming friends with the Underworld ghouls.

That's what brought them to where they were now... taking cover behind an old stone column in the Museum of Technology.

"Don't be like that, there must be something I can do to convince you it would be mutually beneficial arrangement!" His employer called out from behind the pillar, though Charon doubted the mutant could hear her over the whirring fire of its minigun.

"I'll RIP your SKIN OFF with my TEETH!" The Super Mutant roared as it reloaded.

She peeked her head around the side of the column. "That seems a tad extreme. Besides, I don't really have that much left-"

Her sentence was interrupted by Charon grabbing the collar of her RobCo jumpsuit and pulling her head back just as the mutant opened fire again, pieces of the stone barrier getting blasted away right where she had been leaning out.

Shaking her head, she looked over her shoulder at Charon. "The poor dear jusr won't listen to reason. I'm beginning to think there's no other choice."

Only beginning to? He wondered, shifting his grip on his weapon and waiting for a lull in the gunfire. Once it ended he stepped out from behind the column and discharged a trio of shells into the mutant's torso, dropping it like a rock.

His employer frowned, joining him and looking down at the dead mutant. "Oh, I still wanted to try talking with him... guess this is for the best though. He didn't seem very reasonable. Hopefully the others will have a little more patience."

"Others?" Charon asked before he could stop himself.

She looked up at him and smiled. "Well, of course! You did think I was going to stop at the first little bump, did you? There are plenty of Super Mutants in D.C., we're bound to find a few that'll listen."

She started up the staircase deeper into the Museum and Charon glance from her back to the pillar they had been hiding behind, or what was left of it after the mutant's onslaught. The fact that she still wanted to try negotiating with them after that made him wonder all the more just how crazy she really was.

"Oh, look! An exhibit about Vaults!" She exclaimed, dashing ahead. "The audio for the tour is even still working, this is amazing! Let's go through, Charon, it's bound to be educational!"

Heaving a sigh and wondering how she could switch gears so quickly, he hurried to catch up with her. "Coming, Moira."