AN: To those who read on, I know that you can't blow up a gas tank and have it explode unless you have tracers. Still I like to use some movie physics LOL. Enjoy

Bren ran up the hill to the large mansion and he could tell this place has been around for a long time.

"Well I better see what's going on" Bren thought and he stepped in just as he saw a Ghoul in a White Business Suit and glasses just do an over the should throw on a man in strange clothing. One of the two dogs that Bren could see tore the man's throat out.

The ghoul turned to Bren

"Get in here, before those cocksuckers kill you too" The ghoul demanded and Bren ran towards him

"What the heck is going on?" Bren asked

"Fucking Tribal's that's what, I can't hold them all off at once, give me a hand and I will explain everything" The ghoul explained

"Right, names Bren" Bren said

"Desmond, now head on into the other room, I will keep watch over my security cameras" Desmond explained and Bren nodded as he ran to the next room which he assumed was a Breakfast Nook

"Now where are they?" Bren wondered but his train of thought was stopped when he heard an explosion and two men in the same kind of garb stepped out of the ceiling in the Dining room next door.

"Found one!" One of them said and he ran at Bren with his axe, Bren quickly fired his magnum into the man's chest sending him to the ground. His friend pulled out a small knife and threw it at Bren grazing his cheek

"Damn it" Bren said firing two shots on the man taking him down. He then wiped away the blood and continued onwards into the mansion

"Bren you got two more coming your way" Desmond said over a speaker and Bren prepared himself and he saw two more tribal's both with axes

He took aim and killed the first one and the second one ran at Bren and swung his axe to the other side and nearly beheaded Bren, but he was able to get onto the ground and shoot the guy in the face.

"Impressive" Desmond said over the mike

"Desmond what am I looking for?" Bren asked

"Something to cave in the hole in the ceiling, oh yeah I left some bottles of gas around the area, try shooting them so they explode" Desmond explained and Bren figured that could work

Bren continued onwards and Bren felt something wrong when he went past a room, the door crept open and Bren barely had time to dodge from a vertical swing from an axe from a large tribal man

"You will feed the punga" The man said in the low tone, he smacked Bren to the ground and pulled out his axe from the ground

"Die!" The tribal said and Bren quickly slammed his foot into the man's lower leg forcing him to the drop the axe

Bren quickly got up and kicked the man in the chest

"Bring it" Bren said, his gun and magnum were on the ground and he wouldn't be able to grab them in time in these close quarters

The tribal cracked his neck and knuckles then sent a flurry of punches at Bren but Bren was able to do a well placed kick in the leg

He then got close and pulled out his combat knife from his back and he jabbed it right into the man's neck killing him.

"Now that was impressive, I haven't seen fucking moves like that since 2148 when I faced a super mutant who had a super sledge and all I had was a dull knife, but I digress, hurry onwards" Desmond said and Bren grabbed his shotgun and magnum and continued onwards when he reached a new room and Bren could see five tribal's next to some gas

"Get him, he will make fine food for the punga" A woman shouted and Bren quickly fired at the gas tank and an explosion rang out and killed the five and the room caved in just as Bren ran out

"Alright head on back, I need you to take care of another fucking problem" Desmond said and Bren ran back to the main hall

"Alright Bren head on to the other side of the house and do the same thing, they have another damn hole in the roof" Desmond said annoyed

"On it" Bren said as he ran to the other side of the house, he was about to cross the hall to the next room when he heard a cracking and he looked down

"Son of a-"He couldn't finish his curse as the ground below him fell and he fell to the basement two stories down. It was a good thing three mattresses were piled under the landing zone for some reason or it would have been the end of this story.

"Ohhh my back" Bren moaned and he looked around. He saw enough wine to make Jericho happy for two years. This must have been the mansion's wine cellar.

He got off the mattress and checked himself; he would be sore but nothing serious, thank god for stimpacks

Bren walked up the stairs only to be met by a tribal with two knives, one in each hand and he had a crazed look in his eye. He might have been on psycho, Bren remembered fighting a raider with Rommel and Fawkes on the way back to the Citadel from Raven Rock, a raider who injected himself with the strange drug and he fought harder then before

"DIE!!!" The tribal said literally foaming at the mouth, swinging wildly at Bren with the knives

"Shit" Bren swore as he barely had time to dodge the man's fast swings

Bren had his back against the wall as the man was about to do the final blow but Bren grabbed a nearby bottle of wine and threw it at the man who swung down.

Red wine and broken glass flew onto the man and he swore

"Take this!" Bren shouted firing a shot from his magnum. He then reloaded the magnum and stepped over the glass and wine covered corpse.

"What are these guy's problems?" Bren thought continuing onwards, he then found the hole in the ceiling and once again fired a shot from his magnum to destroy the gas tanks and run back to Desmond

The ghoul didn't look happy

"Something wrong?" Bren asked

"Damn right something is wrong, they are mounting up for a final assault, take some of those mines and set them up. Quickly before they come" Desmond said arming himself with a hunting rifle

Bren set up the mines and he was ready for them to come.

They heard the sound of a banging on the front door

"Steady, remain calm" Desmond said to his dogs and Bren. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a ripper.

The door swung wide open by a large tribal with a sledge hammer but he was quickly taken out by a well place frag mine

"Fire!" Desmond shouted and Bren and the foul mouthed ghoul open fired from behind the sandbags at the invading tribal's

They then heard the sound of another banging

"Fuck, they are heading upstairs" Desmond said reloading and Bren ran from behind cover up the stairs and saw two tribal's looking at him.

"Take this!" Bren shouted firing his shotgun twice, both sprays hit their mark's and killed the tribal's

"Gahhh!" Desmond shouted and Bren could see from the top floor Desmond in a headlock by a large tribal

"Let go of me you fucking piece of shit" Desmond shouted and Bren ran down the stairs and fired a shot from his magnum hitting the tribal's arm

"Got you now!" Desmond said and he pulled away from the tribal's now weakened grasp and took out a hidden combat knife and stab the man's heart

He pulled out the knife and licked the blood off

"Great job Bren" Desmond said kicking the body

"Why were those tribal's attacking you?" Bren asked

"Those mud-lovers want me dead, and they haven't extended the common fucking courtesy of telling me why." Desmond said in his usual way of being crude

"I see, so what would have happened if I hadn't come?" Bren asked wondering

"I would have had to use the fucking failsafe" Desmond replied slightly annoyed

"What kind of failsafe?" Bren asked

"The type that kills everyone outside of my safe room and leaves a hell of a mess to clean up. Standard type" Desmond explained

"I see" Bren said

"Right, you got some real ball you know that? I been around for a long time and let me just say, men brave as you are hard to find" Desmond said to Bren

"A long time you say? What exactly is your story?" Bren asked

"My story? Tell you what, kid. My story's a lot like a Deathclaw's tongue. It's long, messy, and you don't want to get too personal with it. Understand?" Desmond said pulling out his knife and pointing it at Bren to make his point

"Alright I get it, sorry, still I'm glad to help" Bren said

"Right, I suppose you did save me the time to clean up a bunch of shit, I will teach you a few tricks to stay alive." Desmond said

"How do I know you have the right experience to me?" Bren said on a slip of the tongue, Desmond looked very angry at this

"What's the difference between you and me, kid? What makes a gifted killer like yourself into a rock-hard bastard like me? The answer is TRAINING you ignorant FUCK! I've got a hundred years of experience on you, and don't you forget it!" Desmond shouted at Bren and Bren nodded his head in fear. This was one Ghoul who you did not want to piss off.

"Right now do you want the tricks or not?" Desmond asked

Bren nodded his head

"Alright, now then for starters I noticed your hand to hand combat. You move pretty fast but to really make an impact you got to learn how stay in one place and remain strong like a statue. Go ahead and try to knock me down" Desmond said and Bren tackled Desmond only to be stopped by the surprisingly strong strength of the ghoul. In which Bren moved back

"How did you do that?" Bren asked

Desmond grinned a sinister grin

"By focusing my energy to my leg, I'm able to keep my balance up and remain on the ground. I once stopped a raging Brahmin with his move." Desmond said

"Next you will want to do this…." Desmond's lessons went on through the night and soon Bren was good enough to be considered a Superior Defender.

"You are quite a learner, reminds me of a man I met back in California, funny thing he had an outfit on just like yours, only with the number 13. Go figure" Desmond said to the worn out Bren. It Bren a while to get used to the hand to hand combat but he was a lot tougher now.

"So Bren want to help me figure out what caused those tribal's to attack me?" Desmond asked and Bren nodded his head

"Good, now then I want you to head to the old Ark and Dove Cathedral. There I want you to join their ranks and learn more of them" Desmond explained and Bren nodded his head

"On it" Bren said walking out, he munched on some food provided by Desmond on the way and soon make it to the Cathedral, he wondered if it was the right place as the Cathedral seemed abandoned

"Hmmm" Bren wondered but then a voice came on the nearby intercom at the gate

"Ah a traveler. Does this one wish to enter?" The voice asked, his voice was Shamanic and smooth

"Uh yes" Bren replied to the intercom

"Well then you must pass a right of initiation to join us. Go west into the Swamp, there you will find the Sacred Bog. Find the Mother Punga Seeds, you will then be tested and once you have been, you may come to us. Go now and may the Punga show you mercy" The man said and Bren sighed and continued onwards.

It was a good thing that Bren made friends with the Catcher Clan as he could see some Swamp Folk stare at him. But they smiled and went on their business.

It didn't take long for Bren to make it into the bog entrance and he figured by the large amount of punga fruit, it was the right place.

"Well here goes nothing" Bren thought and he went inside.

The water felt hot from the radiation and Bren stepped out of the water and onto land.

"Oh man, what did I get myself into" Bren thought.

He heard the sound of clicking and clacking and saw a large shelled creature. A Mirelurk, and it saw him

"Fuck" Bren said firing three shots from his magnum, but it wouldn't pierce the shell

The Mirelurk came onto land and head butted Bren into the ground, it then grabbed Bren's right arm and began to squeeze

"LET GO!" Bren shouted and he fired right into the Mirelurk's exposed face with his magnum. The Corpse let go and Bren was relieve to find his arm wasn't broken or cut.

"I better be more careful" Bren thought and he continued onwards.

He was thankful for the training Desmond gave him as he took on at least 10 more Mirelurk. Two of which nearly killed Bren.

"I'm gonna kill the guy who thought this was a good test of faith" Bren muttered to himself and he made it to the large Punga Fruit.

"Damn, that is huge, could even feed Fawkes for a week" Bren said chuckling and he touched the seed he was supposed to take back but then he felt a mist spray out of the seeds

"Shit it's a trap" Bren said and he felt drowsy…..sleep took him….and soon he fell to the ground.

He awoke but he didn't feel the same. He was naked but in the swamp

"Where am I?" Bren asked himself but he got no response

Bren stepped into the water and felt no burning, it was weird. But what was really off was a large red saw cutting the ground….wait large red saw?

"Ok this is weird" Bren thought looking at the saw, he then saw a large bobble head. It looked normal but on closer inspection it said it was a Schmault-Tec Bubblehead

Bren read the inscription of the Intelligence one.

"Tsk. Tsk. Walked right into another trap. Exactly how stupid are you?"

"Huh?" Bren thought, what did it mean. The Bubblehead disappeared with a pop and Bren continued onwards.

He then came up to another Bubblehead, Strength

"This is one situation you're not going to be able to fight your way out of." This one said and it disappeared in a blaze of fire which didn't hurt Bren

"This is getting very weird" Bren said walking forward, he then saw a large needle sewing the ground. That was very odd.

Bren continued forward and he saw the next Bubblehead, Endurance

"Keep it up, you're almost there... wherever 'there' may be... probably nowhere." Was written on the bottom and it melted in Bren's hand to nothing

Bren walked forward but then noticed some Nuka Cola which was purple in clear bottles and in a tree, he never seen something like it but he saw thirsty so he was about to go grab one when they fell of the tree and explode into fireworks

He then saw the next Bubblehead which appeared after the Nuka Cola exploded

Agility was what it was, "Isn't it funny how everything you get close to ends up leaving?" was wrote, mocking Bren and it zoomed into the air flying out of the sight of Bren.

"What the hell is going on?" Bren shouted and he walked forward but then something was off, he felt something was wrong and he looked up to see….the ground, he was walking the sky

"What the hell?" Bren asked and he saw the Perception Bubblehead upside down with him, it wrote to Bren "This doesn't look right, not right at all." And shrunk and shrunk until it became nothing

Bren walked forward and found the ground was normal but what he saw shocked him, it was the corpses of his friends and family all over on the ground but what caught his attention was his mother on a hospital gurney, her monitor was still on and beeping

"MOM!!!" Bren shouted and he saw another Bubblehead, it was Charisma

"What do you have to say?" Bren said angrily and it said, "Blech. If my kid looked like that, I'd abandon it too" before Bren could strangle the Bubblehead it went through an orange portal and shouted "Cake!" and the portal closed

The heart rate monitor went flat lined and Bren cried

"Damn it what the fuck is going on!!??" Bren shouted with his tear running across his face, he pushed forward and saw a man right in front of a large nuke, his had an outfit like the Late Mr. Burke. Next to him was a Luck Bubblehead

"Dead mother, life in a post-nuclear Wasteland and not a friend in it. Yeah, you aren't exactly blessed" It said and Bren was shedding tears as it shattered into pieces and the pieces disappeared

"Who are you?" Bren asked the man

"Mr. Break, now hold still or you are gonna get hurt" He said and all of the sudden the Nuke exploded

Bren awoke in front of the bog entrance, he had everything with him and he clutched his forehead.

"Ok that was a weird dream….how did I get out of there? Never mind might as well head back" Bren said walking back to the Cathedral, little knowing that something was amiss.