Author's note: Well it's finally here! I am genuinely sorry that I've neglected this story for so very long, but that's all over now! Holidays are on and so is my story! I have to say first though thank you to all of you have added this story to your favourites list, it was the determining factor in whether or not to discontinue this story, so without further ado please enjoy.

(DC City ruins, Dukov's place)

"Ha-ha! Holy shit Clown shoes you really know how to kick the beehive!" Dukov bellowed as he poured himself another glass of scotch. Alexander, RL-3 and Jericho sat across from Dukov who casually lay down on his heart shaped bed; the three had been looking through the ruins for days but had found nothing but supermutants who were in a less than talkative mood, finally they had decided to swallow their pride and ask Dukov who had become something of an information dealer/pimp over the last couple of months.

"Look Dukov any other time you know I'd take the time to lie about how tolerable I find you but I'm on a tight schedule so have you heard anything out of place or anything to do with Talon or what?" Alexander plainly said as he sat with one leg resting on the other, in his stealth suit it was quite an odd thing to see. Jericho who had been thinking about whether Weld would be able to handle things back in Megaton or not suddenly got a jolt back into reality as he saw something familiar move at the top of the stairs. Before any of the three could react ten Talon mercs came pouring from the woodworks, surrounding the three.

"Something strange you say? Well I was paid a damn load of money to make sure you don't go around asking about Talon, Dukov said with a disgusting smile. Jericho tensed, he had been in bad situations before but this wasn't exactly promising, just when he was about to make a move for his pistol and go down shooting Alexander began to chuckle.

"Ha-ha-ha, oh Dukov it is always a pleasure dealing with you, so conniving, so underhanded, so… predictable." Alexander clicked his finger and RL-3's visual sensors flared with a light as bright as any flash bang by the time the mercs had their vision back Dukov and the three wanderers were gone.

"Shit, this probably means we're not getting paid" one merc said as they looked around in bemusement.

(DC Ruins, Statesmen Hotel)

Burke sat in his armchair and contently gazed out of the window of his suite, he was no longer connected to those despicable medical machines, in fact he was feeling better than ever. He was surrounded by five tubes each glowing with a blue light, they were the stolen tesla cannons from the Brotherhood outpost, stripped to the barest of containment material, emitting it's power throughout the room, Burke stood up and raised his arms above himself his skin was grey and peeling, his eyes were pure white, only a very few strand of hairs remained on his head but such trivialities no longer mattered to him, he was a true child of the atom, the pinnacle of man-mad evolution and soon the world would be his.

"Uh sir if you'll excuse my interruption a situation has arisen"a talon merc said through a walkie talkie on Burke's desk

"Oh and what might that be? " Burke said in the gravelly voice of a ghoul

"Dukov, the one charged with distribution of the… product has been, well kidnapped by the Lone Wanderer, the major is pursuing leads as we speak." The silence that followed was more than enough of hint for the merc to put his walkie talkie down and join the next team that was deployed as far away from base as possible. Burke simply stared out of the window and smiled, the Wanderer was good, but Burke had an ace up his sleeve, two to be precise, he turned on a monitor to see a tied up Brian Wilks and Machete in room that had been modified to hold prisoners, perhaps it was time for Burke to show the Wanderer the other friends that he had made.

(Citadel)

Dukov had a black bag over his head for over two hours now, all he could remember was a bright light and a sharp pain in his head, he was shocked when the black bag was finally removed and he was faced with the intimidating figure of the rebuilt Liberty Prime.

"So Dukov how do you like the place? I know it needs some plants here and there to balance out the all the metal but considering that the selection consisted of burnt tree we decided to hold off until we had more selection to choose from." Alexander casually said as he leaned against the chair that Dukov was tied to. "So ten Talon bodyguards nice, you're certainly moving up in the world, but Burke really? Did you get tired of the world of prostitution because that really seemed to be you're passion."

"Fuck you clown shoes! Burke is going to kill you so badly you will feel the pain for ten lives! He is more than a man now, more than you can even imagine!" Dukov spat at Alexander, his face turning bright red as he struggled against the duct tape he was tied with to no avail.

"Do you know why I chose this room? Well you see this is where we keep Liberty Prime when he's not out, you know killing people, you see if you don't talk then it's going to be up to Liberty here to get the information out of here, have you ever had over two hundred gallons of plasma shot at you? No? Well I can only gather this from the screams of the people I've heard on the field but it's quite unpleasant, so how about you use that goddamn tongue before I shove it up you're excrement where it so surely belongs. What makes Burke more than a man?" Alexander said becoming frighteningly serious.

"I-it's the supermutants, after you shot him he got picked up by supermutants and they did something to him now they follow every word he says, I only know this because I paid one of the mercs to hack that Major's computer, Burke used the supermutants to kill whatever leadership they had left and takeover Talon now he's using whatever the hell those freaks did to him to do it to almost everyone else in the wasteland, make an army of slaves, he said that some would be kept pure, breeders, he said I'd be kept pure if I found a way to distribute the stuff into Rivet City's water supply." Alexander had to step back as it sunk in, Burke was exposed to FEV? God the supermutants were bad enough as mindless idiots but if Burke was calling the shots, dear god. He left Dukov tied to the chair guarded by two knights and went to the pride's den, a plan began to formulate in his head but the others would need to be brought up to speed first.