It's been a little over three years. I am making a new commitment to finish projects that I start, so here goes. More adventures with the favoritest character that I have ever written.
On the way out of Goodneighbor, the mayor, Hancock, attempted to engage our hero, Captain Scruffy, in a conversation. Scruffy felt the game's camera involuntarily swing toward the ghoul leader.
"Whoa, I like you already! Walk into a new place, make a show of dominance. Nice," Hancock lauded Captain Scruffy.
Scruffy guessed that he was referring to the remains of Finn, cast all over the ground in front of them. However, that particular murder was already forgotten as he advanced in his mission toward total Commonwealth domination. He figured that Goodneighbor would be part of that some day, but Scruffy mostly wanted to leave it alone for now. The place seemed icky.
Our stalwart, brave, benevolent hero ignored Hancock and stepped into KL-E-O's shop. KL-E-O was an Assaultron arms dealer who seemed to have a flair for sultry sadism. In another life, she and Scruffy would be great friends. However, for now, all he wanted was to see her metaphorical weapons rack and be on his merry way.
He lamented that he wasn't at a high enough level to see a Super Sledge for sale quite yet, so he settled for 9 fragmentation mines. Just in case he met danger in the Glowing Sea, he could run backwards while throwing the mines and hope that whatever pursued him would explode into at least three pieces. Since the game had already thrown a Deathclaw at him fairly early, he shuddered at what may come next. However, he had just installed a Mod that made dismemberment more realistic and capable of happening before an enemy's death, because of course he did. He was looking forward to seeing what combinations of gore he could come up with.
After the transaction, Scruffy sprinted out of Goodneighbor and fast-traveled to the closest place to his Power Armor, which happened to be Diamond City. He warped in, immediately turned 180 degrees, and made a beeline out into the Fens. It was a dark and stormy night. Settlers huddled in their homes, or underneath whatever piece of rusted sheet metal they could find, and waited out the gale. Somewhere in the Commonwealth, Preston Garvey complained that it was raining. The Captain hightailed it through the Fens, looking for the exact spot he left his armor. Strong followed close behind. After a couple of blocks, the two were ambushed by some Super Mutants. Scruffy heard the characteristic beeping of a Super Mutant suicider. This mutant held a mini nuke in hand, intending to detonate it once it got close to its quarry. The thought of meeting his end in such a humiliating fashion terrified Scruffy. Naturally, he let Strong blaze ahead, sledgehammer in hand.
The explosion rocked Western Boston. The mushroom cloud cleared. The dust settled. Strong was still alive! He was down on one knee, breathing heavily. Scruffy realized that companions must be entirely impossible to kill in this iteration of Fallout. The thought filled him with glee. He shoved a stimpak into the small of Strong's back and let the big guy go for a second round. Through the power of teamwork, and friendship, they dismantled the rest of their super-foes. In fact, Captain Scruffy managed to knock the head off of a Super Mutant in just one furious punch. This had been a lifelong goal of his.
Captain Scruffy found his Power Armor on one of the main streets and clambered up into it. After an uncharacteristically prudent stop in Diamond City to buy a couple of spare Fusion Cores, he was on his way. What followed was a rather boring ten minutes of walking through the wastes, to the edge of the Glowing Sea. Not much of note happened, but Scruffy did see some of the bodies that he had created while following Dogmeat a couple of quests earlier. He remembered the violence fondly. Our brave and noble hero avoided marked locations during his stroll, figuring that they could be filled with enemies who would distract them from his mission. Not that Scruffy was afraid, no. Scruffy was never afraid, he reassured himself in the first person. Eventually, he reached the edge of the Glowing Sea.
The air turned green. Trees were strewn about in every direction like somebody spilled a box of toothpicks. For some reason, the wind picked up and random lightning strikes began occurring on the edge of the landscape. Had Captain Scruffy been of a more philosophical bent, he probably would have paused to reflect on the devastation. However, since he was the opposite of philosophical, he plunged on, hell bent to find Virgil and punch him until he cooperated. In order to pass the time, he turned on Diamond City radio and was greeted by the familiar tune, "Anything Goes."
During his stroll through the chaotic nuclear wasteland he never encountered anything more deadly than a Bloatfly. At one point, he noted a Deathclaw fighting a Radscorpion on top of a distant hill. He decided to avoid that hill, and let the two work out their personal differences by themselves.
A couple of doses of Rad Away later, the Captain saw his HUD light up with a new notification: Discovered, Crater of Atom.
These guys. He had heard of these guys. Hanging out in radiation, worshiping the atom. He hoped he didn't have to do some stupid quest for them in order to find Virgil. He checked his menus and saw that he had been playing for 6 hours so far, and still wasn't through the first act of the game. Tedious. Still, he knew that this was the only way forward. He strolled on up to the leader, labeled Isolde.
"Stop right there, stranger. You approach Atom's holy ground. Why? State your purpose, or be divided in his sight."
"Nice, opening with a threat. I like your style. Anyway, let me choose an actual, game-approved response: You people live here? This place is a dump." Once again, Scruffy was pleased with Fallout 4's negative dialogue options.
"You are not one of Atom's chosen. Save your judgment for those who care what mortals think-"
Scruffy skipped the rest of the dialogue by mashing the X button. He was pleased to find a quest marker leading straight to Virgil appear on his compass. He thanked the weirdos for their time and jumped up the side of the crater, like some kind of crazed mountain goat. Eventually he found himself near the mouth of Virgil's cave, where he noticed a sleeping Deathclaw in the distance. He decided to let sleeping Deathclaws lie. Huffing some jet, he sprinted into the cave before the thing could wake up and shred him. He was running low on 5mm ammo, after all. Once inside, he took a breath. He wasn't being cowardly, he told himself, but merciful. That Deathclaw would have been absolutely destroyed, he told himself, even though it appeared to be a few levels higher than him. Anyways, he thought, back to business.
He ventured further into the cave and came face to face with a monster.