CHAPTER 33: THE POWER PLANT EXPERIMENTS.

"Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters." -Victor Hugo.

Louis took Ezrah's hand and shook it, followed by a few others doing the same while introducing themselves to the BOS man. Once introductions were out of the way, Ezrah pulled up a rolling chair and sat down as everyone else did the same so they could rest their legs after hours of walking. Although Wayland opted to stand near Asimov since the chairs didn't seem strong enough to support his weight. Cavall sniffed out a corner before laying down to rest happily.

"As I've said earlier, you people are certainly an odd mix." Ezrah said to get the conversation going, looking at the wanderers sitting from across. "But I suppose we should start from the beginning, I'd like to know what's your relationship with this Super Mutant is." he pointed casually to Wayland. "I've never seen or heard of his type before, a very odd shade of light green and no uneven muscle structure or deformities."

Joe suddenly slapped his hand on the table, frowning deeply towards him. "First, you answer some of our questions." he spoke rudely to him. "You're a Brotherhood of Steel, yes?"

Ezrah sat speechless for a moment, finding it not surprising that a lot of people have at least heard of the Brotherhood. "In a manner of speaking, correct."

"Then where the hell is the rest of you? I find it hard to believe you're the only one here. What are you trying to get out of these people?" Joe's lapis colored eyes practically bore into him.

"There is no one else from the Brotherhood here." Ezrah answered bluntly, not showing any offense to Joe's attitude towards his creed. "I...left them. It's a long story, but I can assure you that I'm not here to gather prewar tech or muscle our way into a new territory. I'm here only to help these people."

"So you just up and left and came across this place?" Victoria asked, she had only heard whispers of the Brotherhood from slavers and wanted to know more.

"Not right away. I roamed the Wasteland for about three years before coming across this town." Ezrah answered her. "I've been here for almost a year too. Hmm, I just remembered I turn twenty-seven a few months ago..."

"Just roaming around in Power Armor?" Chloe raised a brow in suspicion. "You'd stick out like a sore Deathclaw thumb."

"Indeed I did. But I helped a lot of people along the way, so I've never regretted it."

"How long have the Super Mutants been attacking this town?" Wayland asked next, making everyone surprised he would even ask something like that.

Ezrah hesitated, something at the back of his mind told him the Super Mutant was trying to gather information. Yet he had never met an abnormal type before either, only read about them from the archives of those they dissected. "They've been attacking for months before I arrived. They come and take who they can and kill anyone who proves difficult to capture."

"So a coin toss for everyone?" Radcliffe bluntly commented before Inez's gloved hand slapped him on the backside of his head, making a sharp smack. "What the flying fuck, Inez?!" he snapped while rubbing his sore spot.

"Can you go at least one minute without saying something stupid or insensitive?..." she asked rhetorically.

"I think we should get back on topic..." Ezrah cringed a little uncomfortably. "The Super Mutants have been attacking nonstop as of late and they are completely relentless. They are surprisingly organized and have fought back in clever ways. Just this morning there was a fight. We built a barricade to block them off, but they came in with two big walls made of metal to shield from our bullets. I don't want to think what would have happened if I didn't show up."

"How many are there besides the four from earlier?" Chloe asked with her finger up for a moment.

"We don't know. Kill one, two more replace it." Ezrah's interlocked fingers clenched together tightly, yet his steady face didn't lose composure. "And they haven't gotten any of us in a long time. Which means they are getting people somewhere else."

Wayland suddenly blinked his eyes in realization upon what Ezrah spoke. "Could it be?..."

Louis overheard what he said and looked to him. "Is there something you want to tell us?"

The Super Mutant soon found all eyes on him, feeling a bit cornered for a moment. Deep down it was something he didn't want to tell out of fear for their judgement. "Before you guys found me, when it was just you, Doug, Joe, Victoria, Chloe, and Cavall. I told you I once helped people escape when I could."

"We remember that," Joe shifted sideways in his seat. "And we also remember getting fed to centaurs as well. Good times. But does it have something to do with this?"

"The Overlord always sent away their captured. A large group of Super Mutants from somewhere else would come and take the humans. And they were never seen again, but the Overlord never told anyone where the humans were taken. Only that they will become more of us and send some if we needed more."

"Now that you mention it, once all the Super Mutants were dead we searched the entire town hall and found nothing that could make people into Super Mutants." Doug spoke, reminiscing grimly on that day of being captured by many of the brutes.

"Indeed, they mostly had a ton of weapons and nasty gore bags." Chloe nodded in agreement.

"So what Wayland is saying...the Super Mutants are operating some kind of trafficking ring to make more of them." Louis scratched his chin for a moment pondering.

Ezrah now had a thousand questions buzzing around in his mind. "You all had this Super Mutant with you for how long and never questioned him before?" he almost slapped his hands on the table, anger starting to boil up inside. "Where did this happen?! This information could be incredibly valuable!"

"Easy there, metal man." Louis held a calming hand out to him. "You don't know what Wayland's been through. He wasn't exactly best buds with his kin, they treated him like an outsider."

"It happened in upstate New York." Victoria answered for the group. "We were passing through before a horde of them attacked a settlement and I ended up abducted along with a few others. Wayland freed me just as my friends came to save me. And even after we got captured, Wayland killed those that were left by-" she stopped herself from speaking any further, remembering they agreed not to outwardly tell people about Wayland's radioactive ability.

Louis mentally sighed in relief before picking up where she left off. "In other words, Wayland proved he isn't like the others. He has a conscience and doesn't needlessly hurt and kill people."

Ezrah's suspicion of Wayland waned for now, but he could tell they were hiding something else. "I see. You all have definitely found a one of a kind with him."

"If the Super Mutants really are trafficking humans across the Wasteland, maybe they're coming here!" Joe tapped his finger a few times on the table to get the point across.

"Right! You said that no matter how many you people kill, more just keep showing up!" Inez said next, the wanderers had told her and Asimov what happened during their trips before they tagged along. "But where could they even do such a thing? I don't know how a Super Mutant is made."

"I too wish to know the process of this incredible metamorphose." Asimov eagerly asked. But his conversation processors went off, indicating that what he said might have been a tad insensitive given the nature. He looked around and found them all staring at him awkwardly and quickly corrected himself. "But only for research to understand and fight it."

Ezrah stood up from his seat and walked towards the map on the wall. He paused for a moment thinking about the countless hours he spent putting it together. His finger landed on the east end of the map, many miles from their position. "Right here. It's an old nuclear power plant that supplied energy to this town. Thanks to some old blueprints the settlers got from city hall, we learned that it was once big enough to employ hundred of people. A countless horde of Super Mutants could easily carve out a den in it. And if what Wayland says is true, they must have somehow set up a system to house the FEV that turns people into them." the more he thought about it, the likelier it seemed. "Yes, it must be. A power plant could easily supply the energy needed to use that cursed virus." his mind became ablaze with ideas and plans, now more then ever an attack was needed to deal the killing blow. "We can halt this operation once and for all. But again, it's the level of organization that worries me. For these Super Mutants to work like this so far from Washington D.C. while creating more of themselves, it's unprecedented. I once tried to bring this up to the Elders of the BOS, trying to reason that the Super Mutants are becoming organized and popping up in places all over the country. But no one would listen and brushed it off."

"So, what, you some kind of special big shot in this BOS or whatever?..." Radcliffe asked halfheartedly. He leaned back in his seat and began to spin around slowly to show just how bored he is.

"What Radcliffe means to say is, you just don't seem like a typical Paladin from what most people have heard." Louis said to clear up the Raider's rudeness.

Ezrah frowned to himself, avoiding their gaze for the moment. "I...was apart of a new special unit of Paladins, ones that are worth a hundred Paladins each. Or at least that's how they, as the saying goes, marketed our new rank. I personally don't want to test that limit." he turned back around and pointed to his armor. "This one is known as the Spartan model. Each one is named after a type of warrior from ancient history."

"Are they all the same or is each one different model?" Asimov asked curiously.

"The same, more or less. But the technology in them is far different than any of our other Power Armor models. But that information is classified." he stood straight and placed his arms behind his waist. Some old habits die hard.

Radcliffe yawned deeply and slowly stood up, stretching his arms into the air. "Well all of this is fine and dandy, but I think we need to get back on track of trading some stuff, find a map and get going."

"Not until we end this threat!" Wayland stepped forward and spoke boldly. "If these Super Mutants are coming from here, then there's no telling how many more will be made."

Louis smiled for him and stood up. "He's right, we can't turn our backs on this, not with so many lives on the line."

Doug almost forgot his sprained ankle before stopping himself from getting up and caused his seat to roll back a little. "We can't just go charging into their den. last time it was more than a dozen or two when we found Wayland." he locked eyes with Louis, despite having to look up. "There could be twice as many in that plant. Maybe even more! For all we know a new batch is being whipped up as we speak!"

"All the more reason to stop it." Louis crossed his arms in determination. "No one should suffer that kind of fate. We just need a plan to get in and go from there."

"I can get in." Wayland held his big hand up. "They will let me into their den and I can search around for ways to stop them from the inside."

"While I appreciate the offer of your plan," Ezrah went back to the table and picked up a folder filled with a few dozen papers. "We've been taking a lot of notes on the Super Mutants from a distance, and they are wary of strangers, even their own kind. Some have even talked about their leader, a type we call an Overlord named, Demon. And it is incredibly brutal and vicious."

"Have you seen this, 'Demon' before?" Chloe asked.

"Only from a distance and very briefly. It never leaves the power plant. But they follow its every command with another as its general calling the shots on the outside." he held up a paper sketch of the Super Mutant, the one with an axe replacing its left hand. "This one goes by the name, Splitter. And as you can see...it fashioned an axe to replace its hand. Another detail of their unusual level of ingenuity."

Louis came and took the picture to look at it more closely and chuckled. "Wow, talk about going mediaeval."

Ezrah shuffled some more of the papers around in his hands, running it through his mind why they would help. "I wouldn't force anyone here to take part in such a dangerous mission with little to go on. Let alone complete strangers. So why do this?"

"Because it's the right thing to do." Louis gave his simple and usual answer. He looked back to the rest of his friends. "Well, it's pretty clear Wayland wants to do this no matter what. But as before, I won't force any of you to do this either. If any of you want to sit this out, then that's fine."

A silence fell on the room, each person looking to each other as if they could tell their answer by thought. Victoria was the first to give her response and stood up. "You know, sometimes it's amazing how you make a life or death situation seem like no big deal. I'll come help."

"Same here." Joe muttered and slumped in his seat, already hating the idea. "You'll die if you go alone."

The rest soon offered their vote of support, all of them but Radcliffe. "That's good and all, but I didn't get out of Paradise's Raid just to go on a suicide mission."

Ezrah ignored him for a moment and looked at the strangers volunteering to help the settlement that he spent a year protecting. "I honestly don't know what to say, it's not often one comes across people like you. And I promise you will be rewarded for your efforts."

Radcliffe's attitude shifted to positive the moment he heard 'rewarded' for their effort. "On second thought, let's do this shit!" he slapped his hand on the table, causing everything on it to rattle.

"Subtle, Radcliffe, very subtle..." Doug remarked.

"This surely is an unprecedented change of pace." for once in a long time, Ezrah began to feel not only a ray of hope for the people he protected, but also the kindness in others. "One minute I'm thinking of ways just to survive the next day, and now I'm putting together a plan to end this nightmare so these people can have a future. That's why I left the Brotherhood to begin with."

"What can we do to help prepare for this fight?" Louis asked again.

"Due to this unexpected change, I'll need to rethink some plans. And I need to update everyone here as well." Ezrah placed the folder of papers back down on the table. "They need to know about this too. And I'm sure they want to know what's going on with the Super Mutant here, too."

"Still, let us give a hand. There might be something we can do." Inez raised her hand up again quickly. Her eyes fell on the open Power Armor standing across the room. "I can give that a tune up. Ever since I've heard of those things, I've wanted to get my hands on one!" her attempts to hide her eagerness began to easily fail.

Ezrah looked to his suit and placed a hand over his left shoulder and squeezed it. "Well...the left shoulder does hitch a lot. But have you handled anything like this?"

Inez stood up, already starting to select her tools. "I'm probably the best one for the job. My parents taught me everything I know, and they pretty much rebuilt Asimov from the ground up."

Asimov raised his hand with five fingers up and waved it lightly, showing one of the many examples of his remodel work.

Ezrah stood convinced. "Then by all means, please help. I'll move it to the work shop."

"Must be a real bitch to move that big heavy armor around all the time." Radcliffe spoke.

Ezrah turned his head back with an unamused look. "Not as much as you think. Spartan, defensive position!"

The Power Armor suddenly jerked and the panels closed up. The armor moved on its own and turned around to face them while raising its fist up in defense. The wanderers exclaimed ecstatically at the Power Armor not needing someone inside it.

"I've never heard of them doing that before!" Louis wanted to come up and get a closer look, but worried it might attack in response.

"One of the many perks of being a new Power Armor model." Ezrah chortled in his troat, remembering the first time the people of the settlement saw it move on its own. "It has several commands, including sentry mode, guard mode, and scout mode. You might think what's the point of having a person inside, but its abilities are limited. Think of it as being an extension of myself, and it only follows my voice commands."

"This is quite the advancement," Joe took out a smoke and placed it in his mouth. "What other tricks has the BOS been up to?"

"Again, that's classified. But I can assure it doesn't affect anyone in the Wasteland. Which, again, one of the reasons I left." Ezrah sighed heavily in his mind and looked back at the armor. "Spartan, stand down and follow." the armor did as command and kept itself at a reasonable distance. "I'll show you all around, we can fill in Hiromi and the others on the plan."

"Can you also promise Wayland's safety while we're here?" Chloe asked him, in case there was some people coming up with their own plans to attack him.

He thought about it for a moment, not entirely sure if he could honestly answer that. "I'll take care of everything. Just give everyone their space when he's around."

They all left the command room and began to tour of the Super-Duper mart. First was the back section where things like guns and machinery were fixed, ironically it was the section where home appliances and hardware was once shelved. Ezrah lead Inez and Asimov to a nearby table and deactivated his Power Armor for her to work in peace. The young Hispanic woman felt right at home surrounded by people tinkering away on their own projects.

He gave the quick rundown of where and how she could start opening his armor up to fix the shoulder hitch. He didn't know it from head to toe, even the advanced circuitry went over his head. But he watched the Brotherhood mechanics work on them enough times to at least get her in.

"I'll be back when you're done. So take your time on this, I'm sure you'll enjoy it very much." Ezrah said while stepping back for her to work.

"Oh, I plan to take my time." Inez grinned with a wrench in one hand and a screwdriver in the other.

"Hey, Asimov, please make sure she doesn't take it all apart." Louis called to the Assaultron, in case Inez got carried away. Which in all honesty believed she would if no one was around to monitor her.

"Oh, c'mon, I wasn't gonna take it all apart." Inez spoke defensively.

Ezrah moved over to another table with something large on it, covered by a big tarp. "While we're on the subject of fixing things, would you mind giving this a look? Everyone else has tried but can't get it fixed." he grabbed the end of the tarp and pulled it off.

Inez gasped, excitement washing over again from what lie before her. A Gatling laser, one that she had always wanted to work on. Several of its parts laid near the main body of the weapon, showing that it had been worked on a few times. And all of them failed attempts at that. It's design was far more complex than the average mechanic in the Wasteland would know. Thankfully, Inez more than happily felt up to the task, having worked on very complicated machinery many times with her parents and Garry.

"A few months after I arrived here, the Super Mutants attacked one day and I ended up having a building collapse on me after they blew up the first floor." Ezrah placed his hand on the Gatling laser and pat it lightly. "I got out before the whole place could bury me, but the Gatling laser ended up damaged. I've tried to fix it myself with some of the others here but to no avail."

"Just let me work my magia on them." Inez cracked her knuckles. "First the Power Armor, and now a Gatling laser. This is turning out to be a good day after all."

The group left Inez and Asimov to work and proceeded to the next location. Another section of the mart that had been closed off and converted into a medical facility, once again the irony was that it used to be the pharmacy of the store. Inside the facility, the people from the fight earlier laid on beds and cots salvaged from hospitals and clinics. All of them were in stable condition with bandages wrapped on their wounds, most either knocked out by morphine or some form of iv drip pumping into their veins to take the pain away with doctors checking regularly.

Doug sat on an exam table with his foot raised up, a young doctor tending to his swollen ankle. She slathered a strange, yellowish gel around the swollen area with a small brush and letting it set for a few minutes before gathering the bandages. The farmer winced in pain from the sting and lowered his leg, placing his foot back on the cold linoleum floor.

"So, what's this suff suppose to be?" he asked, never seeing something like the yellowish gel before.

"You could call it a home remedy..." the doctor replied, getting the bandages ready. "If there's one good thing about this radioactive land, it has created all kinds of new herbs and plants for these kind of things."

Louis stood next to him, waiting for the doctor to finish. The rest waited outside with Wayland, figuring it was best the people recovering didn't see a Super Mutant while still in a half daze from the medicine. Cavall also waited outside with them simply because they didn't allow animals in the medical facility. But that didn't stop the large canine from standing on his hind legs and watching the two from the inside, happily panting away against the glass. Louis turned his attention back to Ezrah and Hiromi talking to each other from the other end of the room, and it seemed to get heated with each passing minute.

"No! This is a huge mistake!" Hiromi stated, pointing his finger at the floor. "Letting a Super Mutant stay here, we can't trust it!"

Ezrah raised his hand out in defense. "I know how you feel. All of you. But we have a prime opportunity to end this once and for all." he said, trying to make him understand the severity of the situation. "I'm not asking you to like or even trust the Super Mutant, but trust in me. And we need all the firepower we can get from anyone willing to help. Just give us time to put together a strike on the power plant."

Hiromi exhaled heavily through his nose and looked back at the door, seeing Wayland through the glass. "The very moment this is over, the very second...I want that thing gone! I don't care if the people with it stay for a bit, but I want it out!" he turned to leave before saying something he might regret.

He soon found himself coming pass Louis and Doug, the doctor had started wrapping bandages tightly around his ankle. But he stopped and looked at the two with all kinds of mixed emotions in his face.

"Got something to say?..." Doug asked, stating the obvious.

"I think you people are damn fools to be traveling with that monster." he answered him. "One way or another, it will turn on you all."

Before he could even get one step away, Louis lashed out and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, forcing him to turn back. "If you...or anyone else tries to make a move on Wayland, you're gonna have to deal with all of us." the Vault dweller sternly warned, gripping the jacket collar more tightly.

Hiromi tugged away from his hold and scoffed, marching off and out of the medical facility and slammed the door behind him while avoiding the eyes of everyone near. Silence struck the room, even the coughs of the patients seemed to cease as Doug noticed the doctor had stop her work for a moment before continuing.

Ezrah soon approached them, hands behind his back with the knuckles touching. "Please, don't judge him too harshly. He's been through a lot."

"I'm guessing he lost someone to the Super Mutants?" Louis asked, thinking it was the most obvious answer.

"Yes. His younger brother to be exact." Ezrah answered, taking a breath before continuing. "His name was, Haru. But I never met him because he was taken a month before I arrived. And then, two months later, we had our first major victory against the Super Mutants. We maneuvered them into a street where we set up a killing floor and slaughtered them all. It was the first time they had lost so many of their kin in one battle and gave everyone the morale boost needed."

"How does this connect with his brother?..." Doug asked before another twinge of pain made him hiss.

"After the fight, we began stripping the Super Mutants of their weapons, ammo, and armor. No sense in letting valuable resources go to waste. Hiromi was searching around before screaming out in horror." Ezrah paused for a few moments, both to let it sink in and bring himself to continue. "Haru had a tattoo of two Brahmin skulls on his chest near his heart. I don't know if you all knew this, but a great deal of people from Asian decent face persecution even to this day since it's highly suspected the Chinese might've been the first to strike. But who can really say at this point? Needless to say, Hiromi and Haru were always very close. That's why he got the tattoo, a Brahmin is better with two heads as Hiromi's brother would say."

"We've actually heard of that." Louis interrupted for a moment. "And what's worse, people who aren't Asian don't even know there's a lot of different cultures to that race. Being Chinese or whatever is just a nationality."

"Indeed. Differences are only skin deep and they don't matter in this day and age anymore. Not that they should to begin with." Ezrah agreed before continuing. "As I was saying, Hiromi suddenly cried. He stood over a Super Mutant with a strange, dark gray and black distortion on its chest near the heart...just like his brother. Whatever it was, it wasn't natural for a Super Mutant to have."

Those words made Louis and Doug understand Hiromi a little better and his hatred for Super Mutants. "I feel for him, I really do." Louis spoke to break the silence. "But even so, humans can be just as bad, if not worse. But that doesn't mean you have to hate all of humanity. Wayland isn't like the rest."

"And I'm taking you at your word." Ezrah nodded to him. "Just please keep in mind of Hiromi's pain and reason for his distrust in your companion. Everyone here is doing all they can to hang on, you don't know how close they were to giving up before I taught them how to fight back better."

"So why stay here?" Louis asked, wanting to understand their commitment to the town.

"Because they have nowhere else to go. They all came from other settlements that either had to be abandoned or destroyed by attackers." Ezrah looked towards the medical room window and watched the people doing their tasks. "It's not often such a large group of people come together. And this town is greatly intact, they can even get water and power fully running once the Super Mutants are gone. It's a golden opportunity to get a piece of civilization back and have a good future."

"Then that's all the more reason to help." Louis smiled, thinking back home. "I come from a Vault, and Doug comes from a town near it. We all know what it's like to fight for our land and family."

"My father would always say, 'the land won't become fertile unless everyone pitches in'." Doug spoke just as the doctor finished. "Hey, how long is this gel gonna take to heal?"

"Shouldn't take long. Maybe a day or two. Just don't put any weight on it." the doctor answered while packing her things.

"A day or two?! I don't have that kind of time!" Doug groaned, rubbing the temple of his nose.

Louis placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't get so worked up. Just give it the night and we'll see what it's like in the morning."

"Speaking of which, I feel that it's best we do this attack tomorrow." Ezrah spoke to them. "Give us some time to rest and get ready. The Super Mutants will need to reorganize after today's attack. And until then, please make yourselves at home. We'll show you a place to sleep."

"We appreciate that, Ezrah. I'm sure we'll have a great night's rest." Louis thanked before they began leaving.

The doctor offered Doug a pair of crutches for him to finally walk on his own again as they headed out the medical facility and let Ezrah continue the tour of the Super-Duper mart and everything it had to offer.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

If anyone happened to come across the power plant, they would instantly feel a pang of dread and fear wash over. The place had been turned completely inside out by the Super Mutants who turned it into their den of macabre and nightmares. Guards stood at busted windows and patrolled on the outside, the rest were inside mulling about or growing restless with each passing day or finding some mindless game or task to keep themselves occupied. The one with the axe arm named Splitter and the surviving attackers arrived only minutes ago, and needless to say it was seething with rage.

The first thing Splitter did was scream and raise its arm up and brought it down on a set of pipes against a wall. And it continued with several more swings until the sliced pipes clattered onto the floor, leaving huge cuts in the concrete wall and a heaving Super Mutant panting for breath as its kin stood as far as they could away from its wrath.

But soon, the Super Mutants near it found themselves fearing something else. The dark halls only seemed to darken more as their leader came walking through, sending a chill down every spine that tried avoid its gaze. One thing made the leader stand out among the rest other than its well made armor and numerous scars on its body was a jagged piece of curved metal sticking six inches out of its forehead high above the right eye, earning the name, Demon. The wound around it had long since healed and scabbed over.

Splitter turned just in time to see its leader practically standing high above it. Up close, Demon's right eye gave an odd twitch every now and then. In fact its body always seemed to jerk or twitch every now and then or move awkwardly while walking, all thanks to the piece of metal sticking out of its head. Despite surviving the injury that would normally kill any living creature, Demon was left with a lot of neurological problems to its nervous system. Including even more unpredictable and volatile mood swings with its temper.

"You! You fail again, Splitter!" it accused, poking its thick finger into Splitter's chest. "You lose many of us again! Why should I keep you as my right hand?! Do you want to lose that too?!"

Splitter's right hand flinched to the side for a moment before answering. "The Metal Man showed up again! He always around! Always helping those weak humans! Everything go wrong since he came! We can't get to him!"

"That don't change the fact you ran again! Ran like coward!" Demon bellowed abruptly, any louder and the walls might have shook. Most of the other Super Mutants dashed off in fear of getting pulled into the middle of the fight. "That man is like a can of food! So rip that metal body open and take out what's inside!"

"Then you come and fight! Come help us kill him before other metal people show up!" Splitter spat out, the room went quiet after it said that.

The second in command received a hard shove to the chest, making it stumble back into the wall. Demon's anger practically burned with fire in its eyes. "I stay because I need to lead." it shoved Splitter again. "I stay because I overlook everything!" another shove. "So that we can have more of us made!" yet another hard shove. "And we will not let a metal man ruin everything! And you will not fail again or else!"

"Enough!" a strong and powerfully clear voice cut in between them.

The hall went quiet again as their attention went towards the one that spoke. Out from the darkness another Super Mutant stepped in, but not like any kind before. Its skin was pale as an albino, ghostly white with dark purple eyes focused and hard. Its dark blue veins could be visibly seen under the skin once up close to it. Everything about the albino Super Mutant showed it was far different from the rest besides its skin color. The long pants made of thick leather, boots with plates of metal, armor around its waist. The torso covered with a black leather shirt with no sleeves, and the forearms wrapped in gauntlets of welded metal and chains.

Demon's temper slid away for the moment as its attention turned to the new one. "Al...what do you want?" it asked with a deep growl in its throat.

"To see if you two could actually nag the peeling paint off the wall." Al answered sarcastically, knowing they wouldn't catch on. "And I thought you assigned some kin to fixing the lights in these dark halls." he pointed up to the ceiling. "All they have to do is screw in some lightbulbs. It's not that hard."

Demon's finger suddenly pointed towards him. "You don't order me around! I give the orders! And we don't need to make this place all fancy!"

Al frowned deeply but kept his anger from surfacing. Instead, he walked up and got eye to eye with the leader. "We need this place to be in as top shape as possible. We need this place to supply power to the chambers to make more Super Mutants! And that includes having as little problems to deal with!" he soon stood almost chest to chest with Demon, the tip of the metal almost touching his forehead. "So, if you would kindly...go over the tasks I have laid out so we can keep this place running like clockwork and increase our chances to keep this power plant working as long as possible..." even though he didn't show any sign of anger, his voice had a cold sting to it, showing he wouldn't tolerate anymore delays.

Demon seemed to finally back down. For the moment. It marched off before finally snapping into a blind rage. Splitter soon followed right behind it, giving Al a quick sneer before continuing to follow its leader at its side. Al huffed in annoyance and began following them, he still had a long list to go over with them and an even longer time to get them in the mood to do it.

The three Super Mutants marched through the power plant with no particular direction at the moment. However, Al kept making a mental list of the things in need of work. The ceilings dripped all kinds of liquids, cracks on the walls seemed to get bigger by the day, loose cables hung and sparked every now and then, garbage and filth littered the floor, and an annoying smell that no one could truly get used to clung in the air.

"The humans are whining for more food!" Splitter spoke as they entered an open area filled with Super Mutants mulling about with meaningless tasks to pass the time. "It's getting annoying!"

"Then feed them. And give them more water as well." Al suggested with a scoff.

Demon suddenly stopped and turned sharply to him. "We are not here to take care of them like pets! They hungry all the time because they're weak!"

Al rolled its eyes but held his tongue for a moment while thinking of a better way to convince Demon. "How many times must I explain it? We need to keep the humans well fed and hydrated. The better shape they're in, the better chances they will turn into strong Super Mutants once exposed to FEV." he pointed down at the floor, deep below where the holding cells were. "We are sitting on over two hundred humans just waiting to be turned into Super Mutants. Which brings us back to what I was talking about earlier with keeping this place maintained. The chambers need to be in working order!"

"I know they need to be in working order!" Demon roughly defended. "But we don't have enough food for them! And anything else isn't good enough!"

"If by 'not good enough', you mean inedible for them. Rotting carcasses and insects aren't exactly good for anyone." Al stated.

Splitter's fist clenched up, it hated the way Al spoke, it couldn't stand being talked down on by anyone that wasn't Demon. "We wouldn't need to waste time looking for food for humans if your science man wouldn't take so long! Most of those humans have been here for weeks! And our...uh...our..."

"Gatherers..." Al corrected before they ended up waiting all day.

"Yeah! Gatherers!" Splitter said as if having a brilliant realization. "Our gatherers have been reporting in less and less! They go too far out or go off as their own pack! Even our gatherers in update net pork haven't contacted us in weeks either!"

Al groaned and rubbed the side of his temple. "For the love of- it's New York. Upstate New York to be exact. And that will all be irrelevant once the 'science man' completes his project."

"Project! Project! Project! That's all he ever tells!" Demon growled and waved its fists in the air. "You promised us five years ago that if we helped, we would create more powerful Super Mutants! We deal with human telling us what to gather! What to do! Talking all fancy! We want more of us! We-" it suddenly began convulsing as a burning pain surged through its skull near the metal shard and began to spread. Its eyes twitched and placed its big palms to the sides of the head to make it go away.

The right corner of Al's lip turned upward for a moment before reaching into his side pouch and pulled out a capped vial of greenish liquid and held it up. "I know you have to fight your every instinct to not hurt or kill the human. I know you feel sick to your stomach knowing that he walks around freely doing as he pleases." the Overlord eyed the vial as if it was a bottle of water after being stuck in the desert for days. The albino began to slowly twirl it in his fingers before holding it out. "But remember this...you'd be dead by now from that piece of metal sticking out of your skull." he withheld saying the word, empty. "It's thanks to his medicine you've lived and grown smarter over the years. And all he asks is a little more patience. Trust me, we're all gonna get what we want in the end..."

Demon took the vial and carefully pulled the cap off. It had crushed several vials in the past thanks to its big fingers. In one swig it swallowed it all and even smacked its lips to a new flavor. "It taste different than before..."

"He added some strawberry extract for flavor to help it go down better. Like?..."

Demon just wiped its lip and handed the vial back. Its headache going away as if it was never there. "We'll get the humans more food and clean water. But you tell that human to get the chambers ready. We're losing too many of us thanks to that metal man. We need more of us soon."

"We'll be ready soon. If not by tomorrow." Al put the vial away and began turning to leave. "Just be patient and go about your day." he started walking and waited until he was out of hearing range. "Which is just you sitting on your ass on your little throne..."

The albino Super Mutant began his walk back to the lab, passing the others and paying them no mind. Trying any form of interaction with them was futile and often left him with his own headaches. All of them were simple minded brutes, if they weren't talking about how weak and pathetic humans are, they obsessed over weapons or ate like pigs at the trough. Except pigs didn't stuff their faces with raw bloody meat.

Al passed an open area with a production floor below, he watched the Super Mutants for a few minutes with contempt for their crude ways. The floor acted as a place for them to organize and fix their weapons, although Al wouldn't call it fixing and more like banging and clumping things together. It made the albino wonder how they could ever be a threat to anyone without killing themselves all the time with their heavily worn and torn weapons.

The other thing that annoyed Al is how they used the floor as a very crude and unsanitary medical facility. If it could even be called that. He watched as the ones who were injured earlier in the fight tend to their wounds by using dirty or blood soaked rags as bandages and duct tape to keep them in place or any form of alcohol to clean their wounds. And an even more crude method of digging the bullets out by using any thin and slim pieces of metal as primitive implements or simply squeezed them out like popping a zit. The air had a sickly smell of burning Super Mutant flesh, they used hot irons to sear the wounds close with a symphony of screams.

Al sneered again in disgust and continued on, ascending several floors until reaching the top level. At the end of dim hall laid a special room, one with a heavily reinforced metal door with a number of locks and even a key panel next to it. Al came up and typed in the code to unlock it. The door buzzed and the locks clicked open and went in and shut the door behind.

Inside held a laboratory, one that was almost impossible to find in the Wasteland. Tables of chemistry sets bubbling with many colors of strange and dangerous liquids flowing through a network of glass tubes into many different beakers resting on Bunsen burners. Another section was littered with equipment meant to analyze genetics and DNA, racks of petri dishes held an endless variety of samples and other weird bacteria and viral cultures growing in them, several fridges contained hundreds of samples and vials put away for tests later. Half of the fridges were for labs, and the other half normal fridges found in homes. Another section had seven terminals scrolling endlessly with text, all of it that would go over anyone's head. Only the best and brightest of biologists would ever understand. Countless holotapes littered the table, all of them containing years worth of information with labels that only the scientist knew what each numbered holotape contained.

Al stopped for a moment and turned his head around to look at the guard near the door. It stood stiff and still as a statue, a Super Mutant type not found from any form of FEV. Its skin was dark green with a hue of black and thick orange veins that looked like roots could be seen pulsing under its skin. The shoulders were massive and broad, far more broad than any other Super Mutant with long arms and fists clutched tightly near the knees. It wore simple black slacks that had a kind of plastic look to it with black slip on shoes of the same material. Its neck was short and thick, and its eyes had a vague empty look with the irises very dim in color.

Al slowly held his hand out until it was inches from the unknown Super Mutant's face. He began waving his hand back and forth, expecting some kind of reaction from it. But the Super Mutant did nothing, its eyes never flinched and its stretched lips never stopped baring its teeth.

"You know they're not blind." a voice suddenly spoke from the corner of the room. "Their eyes adjust to different levels of light and dark..."

The albino turned away from the abnormal and looked to the man coming in on a rolling chair. "Well, these defects are creepy, and standing around all day gets frustrating to look at."

The rolling chair came to a stop near the row of terminals. A slim man, wearing a pressed lab coat and normal clothing that was the common fashion of a scientist, including a pocket protector and very nice loafers he kept clean. His skin was pasty from lack of sunlight over the years. And even when he went out it was only to the roof for awhile for some air. His hair was black and a little slick and pulled into a small ponytail with several strands hanging limply in front of his face. Dark bags lined under his bluish-green eyes that were still alert and focused despite the lack of sleep.

"Ogres, my dear Al. I call them ogres. I find it fitting." the scientist gestured to the other seven ogres standing at the corners and walls of the large room while spinning around to the third terminal to type on it for a bit. "I'm guessin' you got done giving that meathead Demon the weekly medicine?"

Al held up the empty vial. "Yes, although it seemed to not be a fan of the strawberry flavor."

"Hmpf. If that's how it feels, perhaps I'll add some coconut flavor next time. I hate coconut..." he rolled away from the terminal and to the genetic table and placed a petri dish under a microscope before looking into its lenses. "How are the next subjects fairing? I know the conditions are miserable at best..."

"I checked down there some time ago. Other than the usual begging for their lives or trying to break out of their cages, they're doing fine for the most part, Thaddeus..." Al reported.

"It's Dr. Scharp when I'm working." Thaddeus corrected through gritted teeth, turning away from the scopes. "I prefer to be professional with my work."

"Always taking everything so seriously." Al huffed and moved forward to where Thaddeus sat. "But know this, Demon is growing more restless by the day. It already hates the fact that you are making demands with it and its right hand mutant, Splitter. Even with everything we've done, they show their gratitude with impatience and threats."

"They won't matter once I complete my research." Thaddeus rolled away from the genetic table to the chemistry table. "This power plant can burn to the ground for all I care. And the Super Mutants and my next batch of test subjects are all just a means to an end."

"You've been researching for years, even before we convinced these imbeciles to let us work without interference. Or attempts on your life." Al turned his attention to the far end of the room where Thaddeus slept and ate.

A long table rested in one corner with a messy cot and side drawer. The table had piles of papers with notes scribbled all over and a desk lab that was still on. The albino's eyes fell on a strange device with a rectangular body laid on the table, creases lining the outside suggested it open like a briefcase. And every time it started beeping, Thaddeus would freeze up in fear, even when he was in the middle of something.

"Have they...contacted recently?" Al asked, and as expected, the scientist froze for a moment.

Thaddeus placed the two beakers he was holding back in their slots and sat silent for a moment. He stood up and spun the chair around and sat back down with the backrest in front. He crossed his arms over the top of the cushion and gave off a sigh.

"Not for the past two weeks. Which is unusual for him." Thaddeus picked up another vial and began slowly pouring it into an open beaker sitting on a burner. "I suppose he knows I'm busy. Last time I reported in, I told him I was on the verge of a breakthrough and need some time."

"And again, you've been saying that for years as well." Al bluntly stated.

"And if it takes more years again, then so be it!" Thaddeus' hand slapped the table, rattling everything on it. "I am on the verge of completing my work! I'm not just some cog in the machine, I am a big part of this grand plan! I've lost so manycolleagues, so many years, and so many people I cared about! And I'm not gonna let a bunch of mutated neanderthals screw it up!"

Al huffed in his throat. "Ironic you should say that considering your research involves Super Mutants to begin with."

"And, again, they are just a means to an end. Those inferior byproducts of the gene pool are all my test subjects. Why else do you think I've been dosing up that brain skewered Demon?"

"Speaking of which, I believe we might have reached the end of that experimentation. It was a short trip."

"I figured as much." Thaddeus spoke while rolling over to one of the fridges and took out a yellow metal cylinder around the size of a fire extinguisher with two tube ports on the top and bottom. He rolled back to the table and placed it down gently.

He screwed open a side hatch and stood back for a moment to let the foul smell of strange chemicals brewing in it to waft away. He grabbed a beaker on a burner filled with a blue chemical and poured it into the cauldron. The black chemical inside started to turn into a greenish color and began to boil. Quickly, he rolled back over to one of the fridges and took out a vial of a genetic sample that was reddish in color and zoomed back to the cylinder and popped the cap off. Gently, the reddish sample slowly slid out like gel and plopped into the bubbling batch and closed the lid shut tightly as the chemicals began to brew.

"There! I get to test my next major experiment, and Demon gets a new thrall of Super Mutants. Everyone wins." Thaddeus smiled with pride. "Just got to let this stuff stew for the night before hooking it up to the chambers."

"And will we finally be able to leave? I grow tired of being surrounded by these brutes that devolve by the day." Al asked as he picked up the canister and looked it over carefully.

Thaddeus switched around in his seat and leaned back, a finger and thumb under his chin. "We'll see. I'm waiting for him to contact me again so we can discuss the next part of our plan. I just don't want him to send his messenger...that freak creeps me right out!"

"What would you do if he was standing in this room right now and you didn't know?..." Al asked, a playful grin starting to spread on his face.

Thaddeus ignored him and carried the canister to the fridge and placed it in to keep it stable through the night. He looked at it one more time before closing the door. Years of his work was on the line right now, and it was still only another big step towards his true goal. A goal where they could change everything all around. His eyes bore into the fridge, almost finding it funny that his work and research was chilling out before his tired mind focused again.

"Soon. Very soon, we will reach our dreams. I will reach my dreams..."