Hi. Sorry that this took awhile. My muse wasn't speaking to me. Karma Police fixed that.

Now, folks, time for the disclaimer!

DISCLAIMER: No.

Wait, what?

DISCLAIMER: No.

Aww crap, it's broken!*sigh* Well, I guess I'll have to post it at the end. Enjoy

DISCLAIMER: No.

Will you stop that?!

Thomas looked at his Pip Boy again, which told him that an hour had passed, and that it was still night. Back in the day, these tunnels had been used by all to get to work, school, or wherever they needed to be. Trains sped people beneath the crowded city, making what would be a 2 hour commute by car a short 10 or 20 minutes at most. Now, Thomas mused, all those trains were doing was slowing him down. Said trains were blocking every path he tried so far. His Pip Boy, however seemed to realize when a path was blocked and made a new one. Unfortunately, all the paths were dead ends, and he was now lost. The machine was leading him in circles. He felt like he had passed the same escalators ten times, and the radio channel it put on really wasn't helping.

He looked around the tunnel he found himself in, incase he missed something earlier. He was just about to give up when a man sized hole in the wall caught his eye. Unlike the others, this actually seemed to go somewhere. Thomas walked through it and found himself in what looked to be a closet. A door was right ahead of him, but that wasn't what caught his eye.

It was the messily painted arrow with "GNR Outpost" above it that did. Thanking God, the former vault dweller walked through it.

After a few more hours of walking, jumping, hopping over traps, rummaging through cola machines, tapping to some spiffy songs, listening to some advice on how to deal with Raiders, and more walking, Thomas finally found himself at the entrance to the Chevy Chase. After climbing up the broken escalators into the heart of the once great city, something caught his eye. This thing looked like a man, but was two heads taller than a man and as thick as a car. It had yellow skin and bulging muscles. Thomas realized what it was.

"A super mutant…" he breathed.

"WHAT?! WHO SAID DAT?" yelled the mutant, turning around. Thomas remained frozen on the spot. It saw him.

"A HUMAN!" it yelled, and pulled a rifle off its back. Thomas' eyes widened, and he turned around and leaped down the stairs as the shot rang out. He landed awkwardly on the 7th step, and fell, rolling down a few more. Within seconds he was up and at the bottom of the stairs, rifle clutched shakily in his hands, crouching behind the things that separated the different escalators. "HA! PUNY HUMAN SCARED!"

Yes, he thought. Very. Suddenly, he heard someone yell, "Mutant!"

Thomas heard shots being fired, and saw flashes of red over his head.

"Kid, come on out!" Thomas walked back up the stairs and was greeted with the very welcome sight of a squad of Brotherhood soliders.

"Hey kid," said one of the helmeted warriors. "You ok?"

"Yes, thank you. Do any of you know how to get to Galaxy News Radio?"

The blond haired woman who Thomas guessed who was in charge stepped forward.

"That's where we are heading now. We need to help our brothers stationed there."

"Can I come along?"

"What, are you kidding me? You looked like you've never seen a Super Mutant before!" chimed in one in the back.

"I haven't. That was the first one." He said, pointing to the ash pile that used to be a thing that used to be a man.

"Yeah, sorry kid," said the blonde. "Too dangerous for civis. You"

"But I've killed a Deathclaw!" The woman's eye's widened, and he could hear a few murmurs from the group. A couple of them started clapping.

"Um, wow." The woman looked unsure for a moment. "Fine. Just don't get in our way, or—

"YAY! Thank you, armor lady."

"It's Sentinel Lyons. Never call me that again."

"Aye aye, sir." Thomas gave a mock salute, and got an eye roll from the Sentinel.

"Alright," she said, turning to her men. "Move out!"

Billy walked over to the counter and sat down, ordering a bowl of Sugar Bombs. As he was waiting, he spotted someone sit down out of the corner of his eye.

"Hello again, Mr. Creel," said Thomas' father.

"Howdy."

"Has my son arrived yet?"

"I believe not."

"Do you know the memorial nearby?"

"Jefferson's? Yeah. What about it."

"Well," he began, "back in the day, I worked on a project there. It was abandoned when Thomas was born, but I want to finish what I started."

Billy raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?"

"The memorial is where the project was located. Unfortunately, it is now occupied by Super Mutants."

"And since you're a scientist, you want me to go in there and evict those Mutants?"

"Well, I'm not too bad with a gun, but I'd get murdered if I went in there alone. You seem like an able gunslinger."

"So what's in it for me?"

James shrugged. "The satisfaction of know that you played a major role in helping people?"

Billy grinned. "You sure know how to make a deal."

The group ran out of the alleyway into what used to be a playground. Two mutants in the windows of the ruins in front of them opened fire upon them, forcing the paladins to stop and shoot back. Thomas slid behind a car that some idiot drove into the playground and peeked over the side, bullets kicking up the dirt where he just was a second before. While the paladins were busy taking out the ones in the windows, 3 more were coming out of the door, armed with hunting and assault rifles, and heading towards him. Oh shit.

Thomas realized just what he was taking cover behind, and took a grenade from his belt. Pulling the pin, he dropped it on the car and sprinted towards the Brotherhood's soldiers.

"Fire in the hole!" he said as he dived into the dirt and shielded his head.

In what seemed like a split second later, the grenade exploded, with the car following suit, wiping the Super Mutants off the face of the Earth. The soldiers wasted no time in running into the what could only be a school, cutting through them like knives through butter. Thomas ran after them, taking shots when he could, trying not to trip over all the desks and bodies. Within minutes, they had gotten to the GNR Courtyard, where more Super Mutants were exchanging fire with a group of Brotherhood. Thomas could see a few dead soldiers. Lyon's group quickly cleared the area. The Sentinel told her men to make sure it was secure and to collect the dogtags of the fallen.

Thomas noticed a body near the statue, next to a weapon that looked way to big for a human being to carry. Ignoring the humongous weapon, he said a small prayer, took the dog tags off, and handed them to the Sentinel who just nodded and bowed her head in respect for her fallen comrade. Thomas followed suit. He was just about to say something to lighten the mood (maybe comment on how the buses blocked off the street) when his thoughts were interrupted by a yell, a loud roar, and a crash.

Thomas looked up and saw a behemoth of a Super Mutant swatting aside a paladin with a fire hydrant like she was a fly and the hydrant a fly swatter. Thomas stepped back as Sentinel Lyons ran across the Courtyard, opening fire with her laser rifle. The mutant was barely fazed, instead focusing on the Vaultie and stomping towards him.

Acting almost on instinct, Thomas pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, and lobbed it as hard as he could in the beast's direction. It instead bounced off the statue separating the mutant and him, doing jack squat to prevent the mutant from killing—

The grenade went off, detonating the nine miniature Thermonuclear Bombs the Fat Man was holding, destroying the Behemoth, the statue, and sending and sending Thomas flying into the wall behind him.

He was knocked out instantly.

He opened his eyes, but could only see black. Was he blind? He bolted up, ignoring the piercing headache he had and looked around. No, he wasn't blind. He was in a dark room (barracks, maybe?) with a few other sleeping paladins. He looked at his Pip Boy. Almost midnight, same day.

Wait, what happened? A subway, a big mutant man, a Lyon…

"Oh yeah!" he said aloud.

This earned him a boot getting thrown at him by one of the paladins, mumbling something about sleeping.

His curious side kicking in, he got up from the bed quietly, and moved to the door quieter than a fox, a skill honed by the many nights of him sneaking out and going to the Vault library. Peaking out the door, he saw a couple of paladins standing watch at the foot of some stairs. Closing the door behind him, he walked into the room. One of the paladins pointed upstairs. Before Thomas could ask him to clarify, he said, "Three Dog, the DJ, wants you." Thomas nodded and took the stairs two at a time, yet still quietly. He was in "sneak out at midnight to do a random thing and don't get caught by dad" mode.

His head still hurt though.

He came into a large room. Fancy looking equipment lined one wall, while junk was piled on one small desk, probably taken from the school across the street. Scribbled notes were on one wall, with a few childish drawings thumbtacked on another.

The most noticeable thing in the room was not the drawings, nor the equipment. Indeed, the most interesting thing was not a thing, but a person, who stepped out of the shadows, wearing a head wrap and sunglasses even though it was night.

"The look on your face says it all. You're wondering who the heck this guy is and why you should even care. Well, prepare to be enlightened."

Thomas raised an eyebrow.

"I'm Three Dog- bow wow-, jockey of disks and teller of truths. Lord and master of the finest radio station to grace the Wastes. Galaxy News Radio."

Thomas was just about to introduce himself to the man, but Three Dog already knew what he was going to say.

"And you, well… I know who you are. Leaving the Vault, diffusing atom bombs, and wandering the wastes like a lone ranger… Just like dear old dad, hmm?" Thomas nodded. "Met him already."

Thomas was amazed. "Your that guy from the radio…"

"Yep!" Three Dog replied, giggling. "Guilty as charged! I usually don't get this kind of exposure to the public. It is nice to know that someone's listening. Make fighting the Good Fight a whole lot easier."

The piqued Thomas' interest. "Good Fight? What's that all about?"

"Well I'm glad you asked! Imagine a picture, okay? A picture of the Capital Wasteland. All that brick and rock. A whole lotta nothing, right?" Thomas nodded.

"There's people out there trying to just barely make it by day from day, fighting just to stay alive and make something of what they got. But then you've got all kinds of shit, like the Super Mutants, who all want a slice of the pie too, and aim to take it by force. Now, alone I can't do much. However—

"With this radio station, you can broadcast hope throughout the wastes," Thomas finished.

"Well Ho-Lee-SHIT! Aren't you a chip off the ol' block!" Thomas shrugged.

"Well," Three Dog mused. "Your father wasn't quite a lonesome wanderer of the wastes, killing deathclaws and behemoths, now was he?"

"WAIT A MINUTE!" the DJ said suddenly. "That's perfect!" The man practically skipped over to the mess of a desk and started rummaging through the piles of stuff on it. After a few moments of searching, he just shoved everything off the desk in frustration, clearly not being able to find what he was looking for.

"Need help?" Thomas asked, still a bit confused.

"Nah, I'm sure I must've…" he trailed off mid-sentence and opened one of the drawers on the desk, pulling out a small book (a journal, maybe?) and opened it.

"Oh." With that he found a random page and scribbled down something Thomas couldn't see. He slammed the book shut and put it back on the desk.

"So, you want to find your Dad, eh?" Thomas nodded. "Well, there is one rule in the Good Fight: You want help, you gotta contribute!"

Oh no. Stop it good nature. Don—

"Whatever I can do to help!"

DAMNIT!

And that's the end of it folks! Sorry it took me so long to get this out. Between the Hurricane and helping people who have been affected by said Hurricane, I've been busy.

Wow, another 2000 word chapter! That's going to be my standard from now on! Since I don't have school for the next 4 days, I'll probably be able to get out another chapter.

So stay tuned, folks!

~Thomas