My talk with the sheriff was an enlightening one. His name was Lucas Simms, the mayor and Sheriff of Megaton. As he dragged my half-dead carcass from the battlefield to the town doctor, we chatted about loads of varying stuff; favorite guns, women, law in the wastelands. It wasn't until we touched the subject of family that the conversation got interesting

"-so I've been hunting for my dad ever since." I said.

"Really? Who's your dad? Maybe one of use has seen him." Replied Simms.

"My Father was James Sypher. A scientist type, hes got dark brown hair with bits of gray, eyes like mine and the same nose too."

The sheriff looked at me with astonishment. "Your Dr. Sypher's kid?" He asked, incredulously.

I returned the funny look, "Yeah you know him?" I asked back.

"Son, your father helped start megaton!" Simms exclaimed, "Your old man is the reason the lot of us have this place for a home."

I thought about it, it sounded like something dad would do. It would explain the fact that the place had a working water purifier. From that point on, for the next five hours at any point, Simms and I shared stories of my Dad and what he had done as long as we had known him. It was fun and relaxing and helped to distract me as the Doctor snapped my leg three times to reset it, and sewed up my chest from where I cut the bullets out. After the extensive work over from the Doc, who refused to be addressed as anything but 'Doc church' I limped over to the Lantern. Mostly because I was sure if I tried to walk back to Moira's house I'd drop over the railings in exhaustion.

The reception at the lantern was as friendly as always, Andy and Jenny cracking jokes while the food was whipped up. Simms joined me for a bit, discussing our favorite methods of aiming, before heading out mentioning something about gathering the 'spoils of war.' I didn't care much, I had my fair share of tools and junk already. I just didn't want anymore raiders getting their hands on the suits of power armor, even broken that shit gave an unfair advantage.

Jenny came up to me with her usual smarmy smile, this time a burger of sorts was on the plate, dripping with juice and a little bit of grease. The meat was tender, fresh, juicy, and delicious. The bread was stiff, and incredibly dry. It still made for a better than expected meal. I was halfway done with my burger, and two bottles of nuka-cola into my meal when my day got a little more interesting. I heard the door open and close behind me, but I didn't pay it any mind. It was that good of a meal.

Jenny noticed, and she whistled for her brother. "What do you want Jericho? We don't want your kind here. Get gone before my brothers make you." She stated coldly.

I didn't bother turning around, Andy had already entered the room with a hunting rifle in his hands. Both of them looked ready to kill.

The guy had a laid back but rough tone to his voice, "I don't want any trouble Jenny-"

"That's Ms. Stahl to you, scumbag." Andy cut in, raising the rifle slightly.

"Sorry, Ms. Stahl. " The guy, Jericho, emphasized her name, "Cant we just talk about what happened?"

Jenny's eyes got cold, and Andy was fingering the trigger. "Just because you were drunk," Jenny spat, "Doesn't mean you can take liberties with me when you want!"

"Jenny-"

"Get out!" Andy yelled.

I sighed and put down my unfinished burger, and took a swig from my third bottle of nuka-cola. All I wanted was a nonviolent mealtime after kicking the ass of a bunch of raiders.

I glanced at Andy and nodded at him to get his attention, he looked at me and I told him straight up, "Lower the rifle and I'll take care of it."

I got up stretching, Simms had taken all of my loose equipment from me and dropped it off at my room at Moira's place. If this got dirty, all I'd have was my fists and my 10mm. I turned and faced Jericho. The guy was about six feet, give or take a few inches. He was old, I could tell that much from the baldness with beard look, and judging from the muscle I could see on his arms and under the leather armor I was in for a fight if he got pissed.

Wisely I tried fro diplomacy first, "Hey buddy, why don't we talk outside for a second, before Andy gets trigger happy."

Jericho had an attitude problem however, "Piss off vault shit. I don't need some pampered vault asshole interfering. I just want to talk to Jenny, clear up some shit."

I stood in between Jericho, Jenny, and Andy. "Listen Jericho, she doesn't want to talk to you. Calm down, we don't want a fight."

Jericho shoved me right around the recently stitched chest wound. It hurt a fuck-ton. I nearly collapsed, and leaned heavily on the stool I was just sitting on.

"Jenny, I didn't mean for it to happen like this. Come on! Gimme another chance! We can talk about this." He pleaded.

I saw Andy raise the gun again, this time I decided to push his buttons hard. I drew my trusty 10mm, and pointed it at his chest. "Get lost Asshole!" I yelled.

Apparently Jericho's temper snapped, he backhanded my pistol out of my hands, and slugged me in the face. Normally the stealth suit's visor would have protected me. Instead, it was probably sitting somewhere at Moira's instead of protecting my now cut face.

The adrenaline started pumping in my veins, and my fight or flight response kicked in. I chose fight, I jumped up and slammed both of my feet into Jericho's chest. The old guy hit the Lantern's door, went threw it and rolled in the dirt outside. I hit the floor, and snatched my pistol up. I made a warning shot as Jericho rolled to his feet. The shot hit the dirt but got the man's attention.

"That was your warning shot," I said holstering my gun, "Now can we please talk about this?"

I offered a hand to the guy, trying to be peaceful. He grabbed my hand and we both smiled as he shook it. Then the peace shattered as he yanked my arm, and slammed his fist into my face again and again, and again.

It hurt like a bitch to keep my eyes open, but I did, and I saw an opening and kicked Jericho's legs out from under him. The moment he dropped to the ground I aimed my elbow and dropped to the dirt, ramming it into his chest, then his neck, then his face. The poor sonofabitch threw another punch only for me to grab it and return with another elbow to the face.

He was coughing, wheezing, and had blood all across his face. We both stood facing each other, ready to start swinging. The bastard tossed the first punch. It hurt like I got shot again, and I wanted to shoot him badly but we kept trading blows. Eventually all good things come to an end, Jericho threw one more punch at me and I ducked under it, grabbing the arm. I dropped to my knees, grabbing him by the front of his armor, and I threw that old sonofabitch as hard as I could at the bomb and mud puddle nearby.

The Asshole hit the metal with a loud gong that drew the attention of anybody who wasn't already watching the fight.

Surprisingly we both started laughing. "Damn, you got some bite to you kid!" Jericho called from the dirt, "I'm hitting the saloon tonight and buying you a round of drinks."

"As long as we don't start round two during, its a deal." I yelled back.

I stumbled over to the old fighter, and helped him to his feet. We both hobbled over to Doc Church who just glared at me, "What the fuck was the point of patching your ass up if you just get into a fight Minutes after leaving my clinic?"

"Oy! It's all in good fun!" I replied, "besides, I'm paying you this time."

Five minutes later, some basic first aid, and a jolly "Will you two get the fuck out!" from Doc Church I was right as rain again, and stumbled back into the Lantern to finish my meal. Andy tossed in another two bottles of free nuka-cola for 'entertainment'. Between the doc and the food I was down seventy five caps. I still had over a thousand so I wasn't bothered.

Apparently my show with Jericho had people talking about me again, I was halfway up the ramps to Craterside supply when I mindlessly walked into a random woman. "Sorry miss!" I exclaimed, startled.

She looked at me with big green eyes, she didn't look past her teens. "Wow, your the guy everyone's talking about!" She said excitedly, "Thank you for helping us!"

"Its no problem. I'm just glad to be able to lend a hand." I said honestly.

"Here I want you to have this." She pulled out a small pouch that had something metallic jingling inside, "It's the least any of us could do to thank you."

I shook my head no, "Keep it. I can scavenge what I need. If you've got anything of value, use it for yourself."

She just stared at me, and it felt really creepy.

I walked past her with a casual 'bye.' and finished limping up the ramps to Moira's. As soon as I walked in the door I wish I hadn't. I now know what happened to the suits of broken power armor, they were Moira's new toys. Scattered across the entire workshop were parts of the armors, clustered together by parts from what I could tell. Hanging from three of the walls were various crude blueprints and notes about the suits. Moira herself was running back and forth mumbling to herself, and making rapid notes on a clipboard she had in her hands.

The really bothering part was the look on her face, it was a cross between 'religious fanatic' and 'out of control drug addict'. It was a very, very scary look on the redhead. I swiftly rushed to my room, desperately wanting to not be dragged into her research. Part of me was scared that she was going to test out the armor, with me being the one wearing it.

In my room was my gear and three new bags of stuff. In the first was a minigun with all the 5mm ammo needed to run on a rampage with it so about five belts, or one thousand two hundred bullets. The next bag contained a plasma rifle, switched off. A dozen micro-fusion cells sat in the bag, each good enough for about ten to twelve shots per power cell. The third bag made my day, grenades. Lots and lots of grenades. Also in the bag was a Note from Sheriff Simms, the stuff in the bags was my cut because they were my definite kills. I double counted the number of grenades; twelve incendiary, thirty five plasma, and forty nine fragmentation grenades. I was going to hug Simms to death the next time I saw the man.

I smarted up, at the rate I was gathering materials, I was going to be overloaded unless I left stuff behind or sold it.

My grenade belt held only twelve grenades, the rest I could leave in my new stock pile. The plasma rifle was near mint, no real wear or tear on it. I wasn't to fond of carrying a miniature nuclear power plant with me, so the plasma rifle was either staying or gonna be sold. The minigun was a hell no. Being perfectly honest with myself, I would love to use it. My big wake up call was the thing was fucking heavy and I was going to waste ammo more than anything.

So no going Rambo with the minigun. Shame. It would have been fun the next time I had to fight Yogi, or any other Yao-guai.

I went through an inventory of what I had and what I needed to keep. The pistol, my trusty knives, shock sword, sniper rifle, and a mixed belt of ten frag grenades and two incendiary grenades. My standard travel assortment. I emptied out the four bags, arranging different stashes in my room. About three hundred Bottle Caps were hidden in a footlocker by the bed. Med supplies went in the refrigerator that was stashed in the room. The minigun and plasma rifle as well as the ammo for both went into a cabinet and tool locker both next to my door. I kept twelve stimpacks on me along with a two doses of each drug, as a just in case. I kept all the pistol and sniper rifle ammo, never knew when I might need some or need something to trade after all. By the time I finished sorting out my earnings from the day the sun had already gone down, and I was thirsty.

I figured it was time to visit Colin Moriarty's Saloon.

The bar was kind of Obvious, the two huge signs giving it away. I sighed, Dad was right when he said Moriarty was a drunken ego loaded Irish piss bag. I haven't even met the guy and I was sure the statement was true.

I walked in, getting a hello from a few people and a drunken cheer from Jericho who wasn't drinking so much as bathing in booze. I returned the greetings and took a seat next to My new ass kicking buddy. Judging from his appearance, he had been drinking since I beat his sorry behind in front of the town. "Hows it hanging kid?" He asked, and by god I swear his breath smelled like a distillery.

I tried to answer, but the smell was overpowering. "Barely." I responded, biting back a few coughing fits.

Jericho took another swig of whiskey laughing drunkenly. I made my way to the bar, only to get my first surprise of the night. I try not to be disturbed at what I'm looking at but I thought I was looking at a rotting corpse someone had propped up.

Then it looked at me, "What? Never seen a ghoul before smooth-skin?" The Corpse asked.

My stare lingered for a second longer than was necessary. "Huh sorry, I spaced out for a second there." I reached out a hand in friendly greeting, secretly enjoying the fact that my suit came with gloves. "I'm Louis, I just got into town a few days ago."

The Ghoul accepted the offered hand, shaking it with a stunned look, "Well then smooth- I mean Louis, its a pleasure to meet you. My name's Gob, Megaton's resident ghoul."

"Pleasure to me you. What do you have on tap?"

The ghoul smiled at me, and I tried not to flinch. "Beer is three caps, whiskey is seven, wine is five caps, nuka-cola is three, wasteland water is two, and some purified water for twelve caps."

I thought about it, and pulled nineteen caps from my side pouch. "Gimme a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of purified water."

Gob took the caps and handed me the bottled drinks. I popped the top the water and took a refreshing gulp, I almost did the same with the whiskey until I noticed the seal on the alcohol was already broken. I looked at the booze in the clear colored bottle. I glanced at Jericho's drink, which was several shades darker than mine. I sniffed at the bottle and jerked my head back at the light smell of ammonia and urine.

I turned to Gob, very annoyed, "What the fuck is this?" I yelled, "Why is there piss in my drink?"

Every one of the Saloon patrons taking a drink spit out anything that was in their mouth. A few of the smarter people sniffed at their drinks, a few turned to Gob similarly angry.

I glared at Gob, who was obviously alarmed. The ghoul was stammering protests, "Folks I don't know whats going on! I don't even have a nose to smell the piss with!"

Someone threw the first bottle, and it smashed against the walls behind the bar. That smashing bottle drew my target from the back rooms. Colin Moriarty came from the back room adjusting his pants and yelling with a heavy Irish accent, "Whats going on here? Why's everybody throwing around good whiskey!" Colin yelled.

"Your Whiskey's got piss in it!" Someone yelled.

Moriarty blanched for a moment, then got riled up. "Who's been saying such crap! Tell me is that little bastard Andy spreading lies again?" he bellowed.

I stepped in front of the crowd, "No you Irish piss-bag, we can smell the piss!" I took the bottle in my hand and let it fly, the piss-whiskey bottle hit the doorway above Moriarty and shattered soaking the man with the tainted drink. A few other patron's followed my idea, shattering more bottles near the now soaked asshole.

"Let's kick his piss soaked ass!" I yell out to the crowd. Sure enough the mob mentality takes effect, they block off Moriarty from running out of the Saloon, then proceed to beat the love of God into him.

I chuckle and pop open a still sealed bottle of nuka-cola I swiped from behind the counter. I took a seat by Jericho just in time to hear Moriarty scream, "Not my blarney stone!"

Jericho and I shared a glance and clinked our drinks together, making a silent toast to Colin never reproducing. The public beating continued until Sheriff Simms came in and broke up the crowd. After the mob was broken up most of the people left to return to their homes or tell the rest of the town how Moriarty got the shit kicked out of him.

With the Saloon mostly empty I faced Gob with a deal, "What do you say I give you a hundred caps and you let me poke around the back room a bit?"

Gob gave me a hard look, and for a second I thought he was going to tell me to piss off, "Louis, make it one fifty and half of any caps you find and its a deal."

"Two hundred and one quarter of the caps. If I find any proof of ownership I throw those in too."

"Deal!"

I really doubted Moriarty had any sort of 'proof of ownership' But I was sure a greedy sonofabitch like him would have a stash of all the caps he made somewhere. In the back there was a locked fridge with a ton of drinks in it, another cabinet which had Moriarty's stash of caps and a computer with all the dirty facts of megaton on it. I stole all twenty six bottles of nuka-cola and seven bottles of purified water, Moriarty lost all seven thousand caps he had stashed away in his cabinet, and the password to Moriarty's computer was easy to find out. The dumb bastard had left it in a note taped to the bottom of one of the cabinet shelves.

I gotta admit, most people would never guess 'lotsacaps' for a password.

It seemed Colin kept a record of not only the bar tabs, but a set of notes on each resident. I read all the details I could and loaded the lot of it to my pip-boy. Either great blackmail material or useful info for later. Plus I know a lot of the residents would love to hear Moriarty's opinion of them, if only to have an excuse to kick the shit outta him again.

I kept reading, the incident between Jenny and Jericho was interesting to say the least. However, from the way it sounded at the Lantern I was sure that there was more to the story than what Colin implied.

It was the articles about my Dad that got my attention. I skimmed over the vague recollections about the deals made back when I was a kid. Already knew about it and didn't care. The more important part about Galaxy news Radio, that was far more satisfying to learn about.

My business complete, I switch off the computer. After resetting the password to 'Lots of caps', I figured that would royally piss of Colin after he got back and found his stash and bar raided.

I returned to Gob, informed him of the password change and gave him another two thousand caps as agreed. I could have been a bastard and gave him shit for change but I figured kindness worked better. I left the bar, leaving Jericho sprawled and snoring in the corner. I placed the mother-load of caps with the rest of my lock box stash under the bed at Moira's.

The entries in Moriarty's terminal bothered me, particularly the way Colin phrased it. '-waiting for an opportunist-' was bad enough, but '-he can stay here until that damn bomb explodes in the center of town for all I care -'

That worried me. I never checked the bomb before, I didn't think it would still be active after two hundred plus years of dormancy and neglect. However, Colin seemed to have a way of finding stuff out, and I'd already hear enough about the mysterious Mr. Burke. Enough to know that I don't want to risk the bomb being detonated. The clock on my pip-boy read eleven fifty eight. Most people were asleep, so it stood to reason that nobody would notice me disarming the bomb. Just in case of the weird ass preacher still being awake and irradiating himself, I grabbed my helmet and activated the stealth field, before heading to the center of town to disarm the object of potential doom.

To my surprise, someone else was already tinkering on the bomb. A man in a greyish tan suit, dark brown hat, and glasses. A man fitting mister Burke's description.

I drew a dagger from a boot and my trusty pistol. Quietly as I could I crept up to the mysterious bastard. With only a few feet in between us I rushed him, kicked his legs out, placed my dagger to his throat with my arm around him, and forced my gun into the small of his back. The close contact disrupted the stealth field, forcing it off.

The man dropped to his knees from the assault but I held him firmly. I didn't want to risk him getting lose and returning the favor.

"What were you doing to the bomb?" Burke stayed silent, I dud the knife into his throat, "Answer me!" I demanded.

"You just made a powerful enemy, best watch your back kid." He said simply, his voice drawling.

"Answer my question Burke." I dug the knife in deeper, drawing a bead of blood.

"Why do you knuckle-draggers insist on doing things the hard way? Very well."

"what-" the mysterious bastard spun, slicing at me with a hidden knife, I fired three shots the moment he moved. The first missed, the second and third shots caught him in the stomach. The man's facial expression didn't change. He just looked at me bored.

"I just had this suit tailored." He stated calmly, as if I had just spayed him with mud, not bullets.

I stared at him in shock, the bullets in my gun were armor piercing. They should have gone straight threw the guy and killed him. The suit wasn't even stained with blood.

I aimed and fired, five more shots entered his chest. With not a single drop of blood. The man sighed, and punched me in the guts. The blow knocked nineteen years of air from my lungs and I felt ready to pass out.

Burke stood above me, looking down on me in disgust. "You know what the difference is between you and me?" he asked, "I make this look good."

I tried a surprise jab at his guts, hoping I could make the bullets hurt. Instead my fist hit steel. The Armor plating of something absolutely bulletproof.

"Do you like it? Its something Alistair Tenpenny gave me for being his right hand man. A prototype power armor breastplate. Nothing prewar could pierce it. But so far, nothing can remove it either."

I cradled my hand as the bastard mocked me, he was sure I was going to die. That he was gong to kill me. Burke drew a gun from his jacket, a silenced 10mm like mine. Just as he loaded a fresh clip into his gun, I sliced at legs forcing him to jump back, then I emptied my clip directly at his face. The move caught him by surprise and two shots drilled him threw his face. The shots tore off his right cheek and pierced his right eye, turning his face into an ugly resemblance to a ghoul.

The bastard somehow smiled anyways, even with the blood pouring out of him. "It doesn't matter. Any moment now, you'll be dead! Are you excited to see what that's like?" He laughed.

I loaded another clip in and shot him again in the head. The fresh 10mm bullet entered his forehead and splattered his opened skull on the dirt.

I checked the bomb. A device had been rigged to it. A device with a ticking down clock on it. Explosives were never my forte. I was always better at fixing things like computers or guns than messing with any sort of bomb. I knew that if I ran I'd be dead before I got even close to vault one-oh-one.

I took a tool kit off of Burke's corpse, and removed the silencer on my pistol. I pointed it straight in the air and emptied the clip. The staccato of gunfire woke up a lot of people and drew them from their homes.

"Burke set off the bomb!" I yelled as loud as I could, "Get out of the town! The Bomb is going to blow!" The people got the message and started screaming and yelling. I ignored them, the time read five minutes twenty-three seconds. I opened Burke's tool kit and started taking apart the case and connections between Burke's Device and the Megaton bomb. The circuits were advanced, and the screaming wasn't helping my concentration. The device was simple to take apart and remove from the detonator, however the activation signal had already been sent. I kept the timer going, now reading three minutes and seven seconds, and started on directly disabling the bomb. The prewar tech was complex but wasn't intended to be tamper resistant. It was designed to be dropped from a plane or launched to explode. The lack of tamper proof design didn't make it any easier. I had to physically fit myself into the bomb to pull out the actual detonation switch. I heard an electronic sigh and a disarming clank and hoped to god I did it right. Just in case I pulled the detonator caps from the bomb. It was impossible to rig now.

I climbed out of the bomb, feeling soaked in radiation despite the suit's filters and protections. I needed a double dose of rad away.

I Collapsed on the ground, worn out and weary of the renewed pain in my ribs. The dead bastard Burke had to have snapped the cracked bones. Doc Church was gonna be pissed I was back in his clinic in the morning.

After an hour or so of silence from the Abandoned streets of Megaton, Sheriff Simms cautiously approached me. "Sypher? What happened with the bomb? Did you disarm it?"

I Nodded, and gestured to Burke's corpse. "Burke rigged the bomb. Tried to blow up the town. He mentioned something about a guy named Tenpenny."

Simms grabbed my arm and helped me back to Moira's, meanwhile I was busy injecting myself with stimpacks and med-x with my pip-boy.

By the time Simms helped me kick back in my room the drugs were luring me to sleep. I tried to resist, but the bed was comfy and I was exhausted. I kicked off my boots and and helmet then started snoring into my pillow.

The next day was bright and sunny, the usual for the wastelands. I made mental checklist of what I needed to do.

First I had to find out more about Galaxy News Radio. Dad left me a trail of bread crumbs to follow, and I already knew that if worst came to worse we were to meet at the Jefferson Memorial.

Second I needed to find more ammo for my rifle, I had only two spare clips and what remained in the rifle.

Third was to get a few travel supplies besides the medicine.

Fourth was to pick out a trustworthy traveling companion. If the Enclave were about it could only mean trouble, they never played nice before and I would be an idiot to think that they were going to be nice now. Also I couldn't forget about the raiders and scavengers that would be drooling over the prewar tech that I was carrying on me. I would be a complete idiot to not have at least one person guarding my back.

Plus I knew the road would be boring otherwise.

My search for ammo led me to a very bad situation, I had to talk to Moira again. She was the town's resident merchant and ammo seller so I had to ask her.

"Moira?"

"Yes Louis?" she asked in that cheery voice.

"Do you have any .308 caliber bullets? Of any type?"

"I have only fifty-eight bullets. They cost five caps apiece."

I did a quick bit of mental math, "Two hundred and ninety caps? You've got to be kidding! Three caps each."

"No dice Mr. Sypher. Bullets for that rifle are rare. In fact the only thing harder to find would be BB pellets and .44 magnum rounds."

"Oh come on!" I protested, "Can't you order them? Or at least make me some ?"

Moira looked at me amazed. "Make ammo?" She questioned.

Her eyes widened and I realized I had made a very, very bad mistake. Her smile brightened and widened so much I thought her head would split. "What a Marvelous Idea Mr. Sypher! I could corner the production on wasteland ammo! I could make thousands of caps and fund my research!"

I groaned, and cradled my head. I had created an unintentional monster. Moira ignored me as a potential customer and started tearing apart and reorganizing her shop. On a workbench she stuck together a bunch of odd parts and tools. It took a few minutes until I realized what she was making, A crude reloading bench.

After an hour of her tinkering and me doing maintenance on my guns she yelled up the stairs at me.

"All done! We can trade now!"

I returned to the combination store and workshop lugging the minigun and ammo with me. I also had the plasma rifle in my bundle as well, however I kept the micro-fusion cells in my room.

"Okay Moira, " I placed the heavy artillery and ammo on an empty table, "What can this stuff get me?"

Moira looked it over and I swear she drooled on the plasma rifle.

"I'll give you all my .308 ammo for the minigun and two hundred caps for the belts. Gimme that plasma rifle and I'll make the 5mm into more ammo for your rifle at half cost."

It was fair terms. Both of the heavy weapons were useless to me. We shook hands on it and she passed me two bags, one with the loose ammo the other held the caps.

"Pleasure doing business with you ma'am."

I went back to my room and started reloading my empty clips with the normal .308 bullets. I felt better with four more fresh clips for my rifle. I loaded together my standard gear and left the loose materials behind in the appropriate places in my room.

I walked outside the Craterside supply just in time to walk right into Jericho. The aged survivor barreling me over.

I shook my head to get the stars out of my eyes. At the rate I was sustaining head injuries I started to plan constantly wearing my helmet.

Jericho helped me to my feet, "Come on man, Simms wants to see you. Something about a reward."

"What?" I asked confused, "What reward?"

"Will you move your heroic butt before I shove my boot up it?"

"Alright, alright! I'm going!" Jericho still gave me a kick in the ass anyways.

Simms and most of Megaton were gathered around the Bomb, a few started applauding when I got to the middle of town.

Simms was in the middle right in front of the bomb that almost killed us all. "Louis, you saved us all from the bomb exploding. We would all be dead if you hadn't stopped Burke. As a reward we want you to have the home by the gate. No charge."

The crowd cheered, and I gratefully accepted my new Megaton home.

I managed to choke out a stunned "Thank you." before Jericho and Simms dragged me over to the Bar outside the Lantern where Andy Stahl was already busting out drinks.

The town celebrated their survival with me, Jericho and Simms starting the festivities. To my shame my insides failed me and I fell off the stool after the fifth shot kicked in.

My thought as I hit the dirt was that Jericho would never let me live it down.

A few hours later and some bottles of purified water, my head was clear and on to the next part of my list. I needed info on Galaxy News, food supplies for travel, and a partner to watch my back.

At the moment I thought of it Jericho and I were heading towards Moriarty's Saloon to see if Gob wanted to join us in our second round of drinks.

"Jericho, want to do me a favor?"

"What do you want now Sypher?"

"Wanna travel with me? Think about it, tons of caps, lots of shooting, and the possibility that we'll blow up at least one building!"

Jericho looked at me disbelieving. "Your shitting me right? Why in gods name would I wanna travel the wastes with you when I can got this place to rule?"

"I'll pay you a thousand caps and a share of any loot while we travel."

"Deal."

"Really?"

"Dammit Sypher! What did I just say? Now lets go get Gob before I sober up and tell you to fuck off."

I laughed, I had an unlikely partner in the form of an ex-raider mercenary. I'm either an idiot or a genius.

Moriarty's Saloon was empty apart from Nova and Gob. Somewhere in the back I could hear Moriarty cursing with his Irish accent in full blaze. Apparently, Colin found out about my little prank, and was not to happy about it. I looked at Gob. "How mad is he?" I asked.

Gob looked at me and grinned. "Absolutely furious Louis. He's been robbed, beaten to an inch of his life, and locked out of his own personal computer."

I looked at Gob with a straight face. "Really? I'm sorry to hear that happened."

Gob and Jericho kept a straight face for only a few seconds longer, before we all started laughing at Moriarty's expense. It was a long and hard laugh, which was no surprise when the noise we made drew Colin from the back rooms.

"What the fuck are you chumps laughing at!" He yelled.

"A very pissed off Irish guy." I said.

"Whats the matter, lose your lucky charms?" Jericho jeered.

We started laughing again, even Nova joined in, which just made him angrier. "Don't you bunch of shits laugh at me!" He screamed, and swung at Gob. His fist missed and over extended, Me and Jericho both swung at him. We both slammed him in the face and ribs. The Irishmen dropped arse over teakettle and was furious. He reached under the bar and drew out a shotgun, black iron with a twelve shot cylinder clip.

I acted fast and snatched a frag grenade from my belt, I popped the pin out but held the explosive firmly the trigger would be released if I let go. Moriarty leveled his gun at me, his eyes widened at the unpinned grenade.

"Looks like we got a stalemate. You kill me we all die, I kill you we all die."

"Put the pin back in buyo. You don't want to die anymore than I do."

"Try me Moriarty. I'd love to see you escape before the grenade pops. Even if you did the bar would fall apart when the rest of my grenades go."

"Your bluffing."

"Try me. I'll meet you in hell."

Gob tried to take a swing at Moriarty, the blow catching the Irishman in the head. The Man staggered but didn't drop, and leveled his shotgun at my ghoul friend. Jericho took the opportunity and smashed a bar stool into Colin's skull. The bar owner dropped to the ground, bleeding from the skull.

I put the pin back in the grenade before turning to Nova and Gob, "Guys, want to own a bar?" I asked them.

I explained to them my plan. We tied Moriarty up in a chair, keeping only his right arm free. Then we grabbed a pencil and paper and sat around playing card games till the Irish asshole woke up.

When Colin came to, it was nearly an hour later and I was fifty caps in debt to both Nova and Jericho.

"God it feels like Nova busted me head with a nail bat again." Moriarty mumbled. We started snickering, with Gob and Nova high-fiveing.

"Wake up ugly, "I said slapping the man a few times, "we got business to discuss."

Moriarty's eyes met mine, "You! Sypher's brat! What is the meaning of this?" He demanded, trying to struggle out of the ropes.

I pulled one of my knives out, it caught his attention instantly. "Were going to discuss the price of your bar. It seems I have all the dirt you have on the town-people, and the bunch of us," I gestured to the group, "have all your savings."

Moriarty's face turned an interesting shade of red, I idly wondered if it was a mutation. "What's it gonna cost me to get out of this alive?" He growled out.

"Nothing much, " I stated, "Just your Signature and the Bar."

"Never!" He barked out.

"Either you do it and live, or you don't and we kill you and say you did." I stated. "Either way before you leave, the bar is gonna belong to Gob and Nova."

He spat in my eye, "Your gonna have to kill me you little whore-son! This is My Bar! No little son of a slut is gonna take that from me!" He screamed.

I slugged him as hard as I could, and relished in the feeling of the man's teeth coming loose under the force of the blow. "Insulting me is fine, but don't go there or I will end you."

The piss bag spat blood at me, "Your mother was a whore you fuck-head! I mounted her myself more times than the rest of the waste-"

I silenced him with a fist to the throat, "Sign the papers or I will kill you." I drew out his shotgun, cambering a round deliberately in front of him.

I pushed the quickly written bill of sale in front of him, and he signed it. The moment he was untied the bastard tried to swipe the shotgun from me, I felt no regret when it tore his left arm into Limburger.

I turned to Jericho, "Find Simms, tell him Moriarty made a play on my life."

Jericho nodded and ran out the door. I handed Gob the deed, pointedly ignoring Moriarty's shaking form. "I think this belongs to you now."

Simms and Jericho made it back within minutes, both training Chinese assault rifles on Colin. "What happened here?" Simms questioned.

I gestured to Colon, who was still screaming on the floor. "We were buying the bar from him, he double crossed us and was going to kill us and keep the caps. I took his shotgun from him and blew his arm off."

Simms nodded to me, and questioned the other two. Everyone agreed with the story except my victim who yelled that I was a lying psycho-path. Simms believed us, and started escorting the crippled Moriarty to the town gates.

"Why's Simms taking Moriarty to the gates?" I asked Jericho.

"You break a law in Megaton your either dead or run out of town." He replied. "Its the law of the wasteland."

I nodded, satisfied. I didn't see a jail anywhere in town after all.

I whistled a merry tune after leaving the newly named 'Gob's Saloon' and went to the brass Lantern for Dinner. Andy Stahl was going to be on an all time high when he heard Moriarty was kicked outta town with his arm blown off.

Three hours later I staggered back to my New home after celebrating with Andy, Jenny, and Leo. Leo was pretty pissed when Jenny let slip that I force-detoxed him, but he laughed about it later without a care. I pulled out the key to my place, and walked into my house to the most screwed up thing I had ever seen since I showed up.

All my belongings were piled up on a couch, the whole house was furnished like a scrapped vault project, there was a refrigerator and other working prewar tech in the place. None of that was what was bothering me. What surprised me beyond anything I could comprehend was Moira Brown working on a Mr. Handy in nothing but her underwear. Both pieces a clean shade of blue.

"Moira? What the hell are you doing here?" I questioned loudly.

Moira jumped, flipping a switch on the robot causing it to spray her with water. Very cold water if her screaming was any clue. "I can explain!" She said, after turning off the spray. I vaguely noticed the lack of a sugary sweet tone in her voice.

"I really wish you would Moira, Cause this just hits my weird shit tolerance level."

"I was gonna ask if I could move in with you?"

I sighed, "Why?"

"I kinda need the room in the store for the new munitions factory I'm making. I had to move the other projects to the bedrooms."

I cradled my head in my hands."Why my house?"

"Why not?" She countered.

'Why not indeed...' I thought a little bitterly. I could think of a few ways that it could be worse. The moment the thought crossed my mind, my drinking buddy walked into the house. I was wondering how badly my Karma had fallen.

"Am I interrupting something?" Jericho asked.

"The Death of my sanity."