Xavier set out to Big Town, bringing two of the new agility armors. He had two of the big towners put them on and brought them with him to fetch more. Joseph would be the next Little Lamplighter to come out and join them. That would be in two years. After the Big Towners were suited up he sent them to go get the rest of the town's armor. He ran off to Little Lamplight. He pulled a radio out of his doctor's bag and gave it to the Mayor, "I'll need to know when the next little lamplighter grows out. I'll set up some wiring and connect the antenna to the tower outside, boost the signal to get it to broadcast throughout the Wasteland. If I'm not available, someone else will come along to pick them up and escort them to Big Town. Oh, and the Big Towners have been telling me about some fungus that grows in the caves, you think we could set up a trade deal for that? I bring in needed supplies and get cave fungus in return?"
"Ok Mungo, you got yourself a deal, for each dose of buffout your bring in, and strange meat you bring in, you will get one cube of fungus. See Eclair for the strange meat and Lucy for the buffout." McCreedy declared.
"Ummm... Strange meat?"
"Yeah, it's this meat that we find sometimes, it tastes terrible, but the fungus loves it."
Xavier blinked, "Do you know what animal this strange meat comes from?"
"No, why do you think we call it strange Mungo? Geez, for a smart guy you ask a lot of dumb Mungo questions."
Xavier sucked on his teeth, deciding it was best he not know, "Sure, I'll bring in strange meat and buffout." Xavier went home and back to pick up the broadcasting equipment for the radio. He set up the wire all the way to the tower and set up the antennas. He took out some buffout from his doctor's bag and went to Lucy, trading it for some fungus. He took the fungus, wrapped it up to preserve it and put it in his doctor's bag. He ran back home and put the fungus in a tank with the same water temperatures as the cave. He sighed and went to a place he wiped out raiders and sliced up the corpse. He walked back home and set the meat in the tank, watching the fungus consume it. It was as he thought.
He now had a clean body disposal for the people of the wastes. He remembered a holofilm and books that he had read in the vault, Dune.
They had water shortages on a desert planet, "When he is alive, a man's water belongs to himself. When he is dead, he no longer has use for it. His water belongs to the tribe." He chuckled.
He went to big town and found everyone had suited up in their new agility armor.
"Good, now, there is two radios in each of your helmets, one is one way, for me to talk to you, the other is two way, it cannot cover long distances, it is for local communication only. Go out in groups of two, scour the wastes, if you find a Mister Gutsy or a Sentry bot, disable it, have one stay with is and send the other to find me. If you find a protectron, robobrain or Mister Handy, dismantle it and take the parts back to Big Town and go back out for more. You will eat well from today on. Three meals a day. Around noon, go back to my house and ask one of my Mister Handys to make you lunch. At six, go to my home and ask one of my Mister Handys for dinner. Afterwards, you may go home and rest. Then, the next day, when you wake up, wait for your partner, then go together for breakfast at my house and repeat today's schedule! I will tell you when it is enough. Then you will help me create a more sustainable food supply." The Big Towners cheered, paired up and ran off. An hour later one came back.
"Hey... Uhh, Boss. We found something interesting, come here, you've got to see this." Xavier nodded and followed him back to the corpse of a man.
"What the hell is this?"
"Well, he said that the Wasteland had come back to life. He had a bit of paper on it with some coordinates. The GPS on our units said it was up north." He handed over the piece of paper, "We figured we should ask you about it."
Xavier turned on his end of the one way radio, "Attention all Big Towners. There will be a new marker on your GPS, that will be where I will be now, not Big Town. Back to work." His pipboy sent the coordinates to the satellite and had it mark the spot on everyone's GPS. He ran up to Oasis. Landing on the path outside.
The old man outside explained that they had just been told about him coming up to the path, some deity of theirs told them. They let him in and he had to agree to do this ceremony to meet the deity.
He noticed animals everywhere that he had hardly seen anywhere in the wasteland. So many iguanas, squirrels and spiders. Xavier pulled off his helmet and stripped off his armor, "I have never seen such a place, so alive and vibrant. I thought spiders were extinct."
"Well, not here wanderer, now come, we must do the ceremony. Drink of the sap."
Xavier did as he was bid, he felt light headed and began hallucinating. The lights were brighter, the greens greener, he felt so warm. Their ceremonial speaking faded into the background as he drifted to sleep.
He woke up to see a tree with a face, "Oh dear," he tutted, "That is an odd mutation. A very interesting one however. I assume you seed as there are so many trees around here."
"Yup, I flower and seed, once a year... Me and Herbert here..." He laughed, "His name is Bob, but I call him Herbert because I think it's funny."
Xavier began recording, "Is your origin human or plant?"
"Pardon?"
"Before you were this, were you a human or a plant?"
"I was human once... Me and a friend of mine were sent out on a job because caravans were being raided... We ended up at some military base, somewhere... Mariposa I think it was called... Anyways... My friend was knocked into this vat of green stuff and I... I blacked out... When I came to weird things happened to me and eventually Bob grew out of my head... I wandered around for a while, and eventually Bob got bigger than me... And made me stuck here... Probably for calling him Herbert all the time... I've been here ever since."
"I see... And you said you seed once a year?"
"Yeah, little flowers grow on Bob, then little seed pods come out and eventually a breeze comes along and blows them away..."
"Remarkable... Your followers said that you told them I was coming. How did you know I was coming?"
"Well... I don't know if it's me just losing my mind or not... But if I concentrate real hard... I can see through the other trees... I think it makes Bob jealous because he used to be the only tree in my life..." He chuckled.
"Amazing... So, Bob is the name of the tree, what's your name?"
"Harold."
"Ok, so Harold. Your followers told me you wanted me here for something, what is it?"
"Ah, yes... I want to ask you a favor... Could you please kill me?"
"Kill you, why should I kill you?"
"I've been here for 20 years, unable to eat anything, no one to talk to but these weirdos... I'm just so tired of it..." Harold explained.
"I'll need to think about it... You, god or not, are a miracle... Are there any of the treeminders that you like talking to?" Xavier asked.
"Well, I like the little one... Yew... She lets me talk about things I want to talk about." He said.
Xavier left the grove and found where the Treemother and Treefather were arguing, "Uhh... Harold makes unusual requests..."
"I know, and unlike what my wife thinks, I think you will do what is right by us. Please, keep Oasis from spreading."
"You want to contain this miracle for yourselves? Surely the great one can gather followers to protect himself."
"Calling Xavier, Calling Xavier, we have found a sentrybot, there are a lot of trees where you are and not much visibility. Should I come in?"
"Actually yes, I wanted to make a point and you have great timing, come right to me."
Sticky sailed in over the trees and landed next to Xavier.
"This is Sticky. He works for me. We were working on a way to clean up the corruption of the Wasteland, beyond the slow move of the Brotherhood of Steel. I alone was able to wipe out the slavers of Paradise falls. We will be cleaning up the Wasteland. And Sticky, message received about the sentrybot, meet up with Red, set a GPS marker on the bot and I will get to it in a short while."
Sticky leaped away, leaving.
"Well, I hope you see the vision within his branches." the Treefather held out a vial, "This is the sap you drank, it will prevent his influence from spreading to the wasteland if you put it on his heart."
Xavier took the vial, he would want it for research later.
The Treemother was next, "I heard what you said, I knew that you would be here to help us. Here, this liniment will increase the speed at which the trees grow throughout the wasteland, just put it on his heart. Thank you." Laurel smiled.
"Ah, thank you, I will need to take care of something urgent, but then I will be back. Where is his heart located? I would assume not inside his chest."
"No, no, it is underground, the last Treeminder we sent down there never came back... That is why we wanted to wait for you, outsider."
"I see... Well, I will take care of that upon my return... Oh, and one more thing. Harold said he wanted to spend more time with sapling Yew, something about molding her into the next leader of the Treeminders himself." He patted Laurel on the shoulder and leaped through the trees, leaving the rocky area surrounding Oasis. He landed outside by the time the map marker showed up on his GPS. He ran to it, reprogramming the sentrybot to go to Megaton. He would redirect one to Oasis as soon as he analyzed the liniment and sap.