"My Supermutant brethren have a camp around here." Kyu mused, trying to remember.

"They venture quite far out and nobody hears from them from one month to the other. If we gotta kill them, none of the Supermutants would know for a few months."

"Wouldn't they just... I dunno, not give a shit? Supermutants die every day, couldn't we kill one closer to home?"

"Nah, Shephard's organizing them. If you kill any of his 'field agents' or whatever the shit he considers them as, he'll know and the place will be on high alert. Especially if one of the mutants has no clothes on."

"You erm... Think he's capable of thinking like that?" Hardin found himself sceptical. Aren't mutants notorious for being... well, fucking stupid?"

"If he's so stupid, why did those Lions get eaten?" Kyu pointed out.

"You mean Lyons' Pride and you will refer to them with the respect that they are due, you freak!" Arthur snapped, prompting Kyu to glance back at him.

"My point still stands. They weren't chumps, yet they wouldn't have imagined a smart Supermutant. It's the only thing they couldn't have anticipated. It's why they're dead."

"Yeah, I gotta agree with the kung fu man, we don't know how organized the mutants are now. Underestimatin' them, based off of prejudice, seems kinda... dumb."

Jynx couldn't help but be amused.

"Man, look at you, using big boy words."

"The Boy has a point, Arthur. If we're going to achieve anything out here, we got to be a bit more willing to adapt and think like the enemy, isn't that the whole purpose of bringing the mutant." Durga reminded him, getting a heavy sigh from her supermutant companion.

"Kyu. Worked hard for that name."

"Kyu, sorry." Durga grumbled, noticing its similarity to knighthood. As a result, she found herself respecting his rank, just that bit more.

"What do you plan to do? With your abilities and erm... well, yourself?" She found herself interested, due to the fact that no mutant had ever ditched a life of savagery before.

"Was thinking of getting a job in security, maybe as a bouncer or lawman. I don't like fighting for anything other than self defence or to protect someone else." Kyu shrugged, rubbing his bald head.

"My Master insisted that it was our way. If I ever started picking fights, I'd be no better than I was when he found me."

"Do you... Remember much about back then?" Jynx found herself asking, legitimately interested.

"A bit. I don't like to think about it. I was always a bit different, didn't enjoy the blood shed as much as the others. Didn't relate to any of them. They attacked everyone in sight, I went along with it, cause it was all I knew but I didn't see the point, most of the time. You could tell who would have loot and who was a waste of time, ammo and energy. Well, I could. The others couldn't. They'd chase some dude with nothing but a brahmin skin outfit on his back and a kitchen knife in his hand and wonder why he had fuck all on his person. They also killed inefficiently, it used to kinda annoy me. No point in dragging out the suffering more than needed."

"So you were a reluctant savage?" Arthur scoffed, not seeing anything that differentiated this freak otherwise.

"I guess I was, yeah. But makes me wonder if and how we could stop the mutants from being feral. There's bound to be other ones like me, ones that need to be shown another way. You do that? They can be more." Kyu elaborated, suddenly stopping as he almost fell over Hardin.

"What the- Hey, lil' sherrif! If you're gonna stop, then..."

Kyu glanced up, noticing Vault 97, just up ahead. Tied to a tree was the disembowelled corpse of a woman, torso filleted and her innards exposed to the group. She must have lived through most of it, given the damage done to the tree trunk, where her head, feet and hands were.

"F-Fucking hell!" Jynx winced, noticing the young woman's expression, stuck in a silent scream.

"This is recent." Durga observed, gesturing to the innards.

"Whoever did this is still around."

"Wasn't mutants. Too convoluted, they'd get bored." Kyu insisted, sighing heavily.

"This... This looks like Hamilton's MO." Hardin seemed disturbed by his own theory, as if a boogieman was lurking around the corner and he'd only just realized the possibility. It would make sense for Hamilton to go home, after his failed attack on Megaton.

"It does but... Doesn't. I don't see him doing this, not without a point or a reason. The messed up shit he did was usually for profit or survival, in this case? I think this would cause him more trouble than it would solve."

"A hunter, marking out his territory." Kyu observed, considering it.

"I heard folks talk about this Vault, Cannibals hang around it. Or come from it. Depended on the story and the person tellin' it."

"Whatever it is, it's not our problem. We're looking for mutants to kill." Durga seemed a lot more focussed on the task than the others, who were fixated on the young woman's remains.

"Whoever or whatever this is, it can wait."

"Erm..." Kyu observed, pointing to the Vault entrance.

"I'm not sure it can."

Above the door were a number of severed heads, impaled on rebar, adorning the top ridge of the cliff face. It became apparent to the group, after Kyu pointing it out, that at least three of the nine severed heads were super mutants.

"That camp? Must've been hit days ago. There's only one way to get our armour."

Hardin hated this, he hated it with every fibre of his being. This was the kind of nightmare you'd drink to forget and they were about to jump, both feet, into it.

"Had to be this shit, didn't it?" He found himself grumbling, eyeing the place.

"What if it is Hamilton? How'd we take him?"

"Rush him, he's just one dude, we'd overwhelm him, surely." Kyu shrugged.

"You don't know him, I saw him fight Denis up close. The Lone Fuckin' Wanderer couldn't take him down... Well, he could but... I got in the way. I always regretted that."

"Well... Hamilton doesn't always blindly attack people. Maybe we can convince him to give us the stuff and leave?" Jynx offered, whilst Durga continued to examine the place, observing that the Vault Door was open.

Someone left it open, the last time they visited this God forsaken place.

"Password protected... If this thing closes, it ain't opening again." The Knight Captain commented, eyeing it.

"Nobody touch the pannel."

"Wasn't planning on it." Arthur murmured, trying to figure out what that psycho could possibly have used as a password. Jynx, Durga and Kyu had ventured inside, leaving Arthur and Hardin, studying the console, as if the password would show itself.

"This place has made worse monsters than 87 Arthur, I'd be careful." The Sheriff seemed somewhat sincere in his warning as he picked up the pace, Arthur almost retaliated to perceived mockery but stopped as he realized his error.

This place was a charnel house, a museum exhibit, dedicated to butchery, violence and inhuman cruelty. Corpses were violently torn apart, heads were missing, where the floor was dented and only scorch marks and dents remained.

"We just need to find a spot where the armour would be kept and we can get the fuck out." Durga murmured into her hand. This place stunk, the stench of rotting persisted, even years after the massacre.

Out in the open, these would be bones by now, however, they were protected by the Vault and were therefore much slower, when it came to decomposition.

The self cleaning floors seemed to be trying their damndest but they didn't seem to be designed with the intention of cleaning up a human being's digestive tract, as it was spewed out all over the floor.

"Hamilton killed all of them?" Jynx found herself asking, knowing the answer but finding it impossible to believe.

"I don't think he planned on surviving. I think that part was an accident." Hardin answered as they entered the Atrium, only two bodies were found here.

Arthur glanced up and observed the opaque outline of a man, watching them from afar. He darkened the oval window the Overseer's office. He stood, like a ghost, completely still...

"Guess we found our resident..." Hardin mused, readying his rifle.

"Think he's... Think he'll talk to us?"

"I don't especially want him to. I just want the damn armour." Kyu grumbled, eyeing the doors around them.

'Cells, Processing, Residential, Armoury.'

"Armoury seems the most promising." Arthur gestured, glancing back up to the Overseer's office and noticed that the figure was gone.

"Overseer offices are known to have tunnels in them." Jynx mused, considering it.

"He could be anywhere in the Vault by now."

"We'll stick together then, Kyu and Durga can take point." Hardin insisted, getting a glare from Kyu.

"Oh, thanks for Voluntelling me."

"C'mon! Who the hell will jump you? Besides, you're a brawler, what would you even do at the back? Give 'em the finger?"

"Fine... Jeez, I get yer freakin' point." Kyu sighed, rubbing his head.

"Just don't shoot me in the back, techno bigots."

"Don't give me a reason to and I won't." Arthur said, his tone was rather dark.

With a thump, the control mechanism to the armoury activated and the door slowly opened. It was hard to say what was to be expected from such a place but it was still a little surprising, how there were few firearms on display.

Most of it was loot from the many victims of the Velvet Man's little program. A person's entire life sorted into neat little piles, all of which had gone undisturbed, save that of Thomas Hamilton and his lover.

More recent victims were closer to the front, namely the super mutants and a few unfortunate travellers. It was strange that they bothered to take all of this stuff, most of which couldn't be worn or was inferior to what the Vault 97 Dweller would have.

The gear was kept like a trophy, it was the only logical guess that any of the companionship would venture.

"Get the gear, Jynx and I will cover the door." Hardin said, gesturing to said mutant attire. He got a glare from his Brotherhood companions, though they were quick to comply.

The Sheriff noticed Jynx's focus was stuck on the piles of clothes, at the center of the armoury. To her, they were more than clothes, they were people once. The thought of them being grabbed and experimented on, in such a horrific way...

"I wouldn't think about it." Hardin advised, keeping his focus on the hallway behind him.

"What's done is done."

"If this is what he went through... I'm starting to get it." Jynx sighed, glancing back to Hardin.

"What the hell did they put him through? Put others through and forced him to watch..."

"I don't give a shit. Don't forgive what he did."

"It's not about that." Jynx sighed, leaning back against the doorframe.

"I mean, look at you. The alcoholism, your thing with Denis and that time you..."

Hardin's eyes fell on her, with a stern glare. He seemed to be ready to hear what was coming next and his prepared reaction didn't seem like it was going to be a calm one.

"I would've thought you'd understand is all..."

"I don't. Shit I've done is to myself and people who got involved with me. The latter I gave a way out. I don't level cities, enslave people or butcher families and then cry about the past."

"That isn't what you said before. That night you grabbed me; you were a lot more..."

"I was drunk."

"You were angry."

"What're you bringing this up for? I don't..."

"Because that night, you sounded like you felt that the world owed you something. I can see why you'd think that."

"I don't. It's not my way. Dad taught me better than that."

"Yep. Though there's a lot that you do, that your Dad taught you better than."

"Yeah? Well, he's dead so... Maybe I don't want to be too like him, right?"

Jynx nodded as the others approached from behind, she noticed a faint bit of movement from down the hall. The outline of a man came and went.

"Shit, I think that..."

"Got it." Arthur assured them as Kyu stepped up, donning the armour. He looked like any other mutant now.

"Good, we can move. I think I saw our asshole, down the corridor. He's likely stalkin' us."

"Great... That's not... Terrifying." Jynx murmured, rubbing her neck.

Hardin was the first to step forward, loading his gun and peering down the corridor.

"Kyu, I got you."

"Mrgh... I need a pistol, so I don't have to go first every goddamn time." The Mutant grumbled, stomping off ahead, looking oddly strange in his more savage attire.