Teaching a Robot to Love

-Notes-

Woo! Broke 200 views in a day, last chapter posted. I absolutely adore all of the commentaries I have been getting from you all! I was so insecure about this story since it's my first fanfic but your support has meant so much to me. As much as I try to build up realistic tension both sexually and plot-wise, I have absolutely no idea what it looks like to other people so I VALUE all the input! Thanks (:

Chapter 11: A Storm is Brewing

"Ah Dr. Ayo, I'm glad to see you" Father said, hands folded behind his back as the bald head of the SRB entered his quarters.

Ayo folded the black sleeves of his lab coat together in consternation. "What is this about Father?" he asked, tapping his foot. "I just received disturbing news that there might be an issue with one of our top coursers. You can imagine how unsettling this is for me."

Father turned around slowly so that he was facing away from Dr. Ayo, looking down to the rest of the Institute through the large Plexiglas in pensive thought. "Yes. As much as it pains me to say this, we have noticed some irregularities in designation X6-88's behavior. Seeing as he is the one I authorized to watch my own mother, I am sure you can imagine my concern."

"Well I don't know what you want me to do about it. Reprogramming is Binet's responsibility" Ayo said irritably.

Father sighed, "I hope it won't have to come to that." He pivoted around and approached Dr. Ayo with a gravely serious look in his wise brow. "We cannot do anything based on speculation alone. I want you to send a courser to covertly investigate this allegation. Anything unnatural I want reported to me immediately, is that clear?"

"This is ridiculous! X6-88 has come back with nothing but positive reports. He's our most prolific courser for gods sakes! My training is absolute. I cannot believe that you are questioning the integrity of my department" Ayo vehemently protested.

Father's eyes turned as cold as ice as he dropped his voice and leaned into Ayo. "I am willing to overlook your obscenely insubordinate tone but if it happens again the SRB will no longer be your department" he threatened. Ayo's face fell, turning as white as a sheet. Father continued "I will not have a repeat of Codename Alpha under my command and for that to happen, I must question every lead. It is not easy being in my position but I do what needs to get done for the integrity of the Institute."

"A-Apologies Father" Ayo stuttered, intimidated by his inflection.

"Coursers need to obey the will of the Institute. They are a representation not only of our ideals, but our strength and superiority over the surface. If one fails in their duty then we all fail. That is why we need to make sure that he is doing what he is trained to do. I sent mother on a mission to the glowing sea to secure some data that we have had some trouble collecting in the past. Send a courser after them. That is all" Father explained.

With a wave of his hand, Dr. Ayo bowed slightly and quickly exited the room. After the doors shut behind him, Father turned his weary eyes back down over the Institute with a heavy sigh. In part, he knew that his mother had something to do with it. She was still allied to the Railroad and now her personal courser was being investigated for dissent. Father would not see his organization fall to ruin, even if it was at the hands of his own mother.

Sometimes, Sole liked being in power armor. It was the only time that she was ever taller than X6-88 and could look down at him for a change. Their destination? The glowing sea. Sole hadn't been back here since she returned the serum to Virgil. The insane amount of rads made her feel sick to her stomach, not to mention the plethora of beefed up nuclear monsters roaming about.

Trees bent outward from the age old nuclear blast and Sole's Geiger counter started to sound off the closer they got to their target area. X6 was in a radiation helmet as well. He didn't need it, as coursers were immune to radiation, but Sole insisted just in case. The air was muggy and heavy, making walking cumbersome.

"Hey X6, have you ever thought about taking a girlfriend? I mean, I'm totally available just saying" Sole teased, her voice metallically muffled through her armor.

"Ma'am can we please focus on the mission?" X6 said flatly.

That was the seventh time she had made a pass at him today. He was starting to regret showing her affection. Typically, she bombarded him with questions throughout their travels but ever since Christmas, she seemed to be turning a majority of those inquires towards their relationship. Perhaps it was partially his fault. The longer he spent with Sole, the more he felt like he was falling into her stride.

Sole continued, "Just think about it, if we get together, you'd get to be Father's father. Like being called daddy?"

"…Stop."

Even though the glare of the radiation helmet hid his face, his head visibly recoiled in sheer disgust. Sole burst out laughing, bracing herself on her armored knees for support. Two feral ghouls poked their heads over a hill at the noise they were making at made a dash at them. Still laughing, Sole whipped out her gun. Within seconds they were down. Not too bad. That was until the hoard of about 14 more came barreling over the hill.

"What's wrong X6? Can't handle what's being thrown at you?" Sole shouted over the blasts of lasers and howls from ghouls.

X6 snorted humorlessly, "If you're worried I won't be able to keep up, don't be."

Bam! Bam! Ten more of them hit the ground. The two did their best but some of the scrawny rapid zombies made their way past their defense. One dove straight for Sole, who murmured a profanity before taking out her sword and spearing the creature before it could touch her. She threw the wriggling ghoul down on the floor, dead. Just then, a large glowing hand gripped the top of the hill. The two turned their attention towards it. Shit. A glowing bloated ghoul stumbled to its feet, like a dazed bull. Those things were hard to kill.

"X6!" Sole called worried.

"Already on it" he replied.

The two focused their weapons on the huge beast and resorted to melee techniques when the rest of the straggling feral ghouls came too close. The glowing demon shook off their lasers and roared menacingly before charging at them. Sole's gun stopped firing; empty cell magazine. Shit. Shit. Shit.

She rapidly slammed another cell cartridge into the holster and rose up her aim when a sharp object collided with the back of her head. It felt like a bowling ball! Stumbling forward on the murky dirt, Sole whipped around to see a giant radscorpion predator that had snuck up behind her.

"What the hell? Where did you come from?" Sole cursed at the grotesquely large arachnid that was starting to circle her predatorily. She shifted her attention between the radscorpion and X6, who was single handedly trying to kill the bloated ghoul, nimbly avoiding the meaty swings of its arms. He almost looked like he was enjoying it, squaring off against the monster all by himself.

Radscorpions were relentless. They wouldn't let their prey go until one of them was dead. Time to kill this fucker. Right on cue, the beast charged at her, striking with its tail. Sole really needed to pay attention to its stinger. That single hit to the head had depleted her helmets defenses down to 48%. This was no time to mess around. Bam! Bam! Bam! She fired at its face, blinding it enough to put some space between them. Or at least between her and its stinger.

Running backwards and firing, she had an idea. She led the radscorpion over to where X6 was engaged in his battle. This was going to be tricky. The insect hissed as it charged at her again. Just in time, Sole darted under the bloated glowing ghoul swinging at her partner who had already jumped out of the way. Her plan was a success! The scorpion had chased her directly under the blow, causing the ghoul's fists to collide with its armored body. Perfect!

The radscorpion writhed and hissed at the blow, obviously losing energy but still in attack mode. Forgetting about its previous prey, the arachnid struck at the monstrosity with its tail. The ghoul bellowed in pain, swinging its glowing arm back at its attacker in retaliation. Good. Distraction complete. Sole jogged to catch up with X6 so they could watch the tumble of the beasts.

She didn't even get a chance to rest before an earth shattering roar shook the ground violently. X6 and Sole had to stabilize their balance. Shit. Fuck. That could only be one thing. Sole turned her head to meet the rapidly charging alpha deathclaw heading directly towards her.

"Holy fu-"

In that split second before they collided, Sole thought back to a pre-war time when she had visited the ocean as a little girl. It was a strong tide that day but she still adamantly wanted to play in the water. She had only turned her back on the ocean for a second to pick up a seashell. But the second she turned back around, a wave twice her size was already upon her. All she could do in that moment was brace herself as the ocean ripped her from her spot, tumbling her violently around and around until she could remember which way was up again.

She likened that moment to now.

Especially as she flew through the air, having been tackled by the deathclaw. Eventually gravity helped her find purchase as she tumbled many feet in her power armor.

"Sole!" she thought she heard X6 yell. But she couldn't really tell over the blaring alarms on her suit that meant that her defensive capabilities had been severely weakened. Her helmet defense read 0%.

It was like being hit by a semi-truck, except if that truck had sharp teeth and claws and continued to hit you after you were down. Sole had all but merely placed her hands on the radiated dirt to push herself up when she felt herself being picked up upside down by a large hand. Like a toy, the deathclaw shook her about, causing her body to slam against the inner walls of her suit. She grunted in pain.

Just then, she was slammed back down on the ground, pinned by the death claw that jumped on top of her. Where was her gun? She frantically scanned around but could find no trace of it. The deathclaw picked her up, and then slammed her down. Then picked her back up again, and slammed her down. Sole gasped for air. The pain was horrendous. Every blow felt more severe the more her suit weakened.

It was in that moment that Sole felt like she was going to die. Really die. Was this the way it was going to go down? Rip! The deathclaw tore the metal arm of her power armor clean off and threw it to the side. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Left arm – 0% gone, Right arm – 2%, Head – 0%, Left leg – 1%, Right leg – 0%, Chest – 13%. The alarms screamed in warning. Blood rushed to her ears.

She was going to die.

Her vision started fading out as she struggled to breathe. The deathclaw picked her up once again and tried to rip off her chest plate with its teeth. The metal plating screeched.

12%...11%...10%...9%...8%...7%...6%.

Well this was it. At least she had found Shaun. Soon she would be resting alongside Nate. Shaun would join them soon enough anyway. She closed her eyes.

4%...3%...2%...1%...

"SOLE!" someone screamed.

Who was that? Was that X6? No. It sounded too desperate to be X6. He never screamed. Besides, he never called her by her name. Just ma'am. Maybe it was Nate, beaconing her from her subconscious.

The last thing she heard was the hinges breaking off her chest plate and a very large boom as she fell straight to the ground and blacked out.

(EDITED)

As a user beautifully pointed out, the first draft posted had some misspelled and redundant words (i.e. obsolete instead of absolute). I fixed it so hopefully more people get to read the improved draft. Note to self: stop writing stories past 12am.