Hello loyal fans, sorry for the late update on this story, but I do have some other stories that I am writing as well, so I will be putting up new chapters when I can do so. Anyway, Alex and Nora will be helping people around the Commonwealth. I will also include the DLC places and scenarios as part of the story (Far Harbor, Nuka-World, Vault 88, and the Mechanist's Lair). Anyway enjoy the next chapter and don't forget to read and review, also don't forget to submit your OCs using the form at the end of Chapter One (the second chapter posted on the story's summary page) via reviews, or PM and I will do my best to do them justice, though don't expect me to write them in a homosexual romance as I do NOT write like that, so sorry if you want to have a gay or lesbian couple involving your OC.
2287 AD, The Combat Zone, Commonwealth
After Alex and Nora reunited with Nick Valentine, even though he was now a Synth and he had told them about how he had seen Shaun with Kellogg as a ten year old boy for some reason, though the three of them had at least a sneaking suspicion that the reason why Shaun was taken was to try and replicate the Super-Soldier serum that flowed through the Oeder family's blood, so that they could create an army of Super Soldiers, and that pissed Alex off to such a degree that Nick had to take Piper and Ellie out of the office until Alex calmed down remembering what the other soldiers saw him do to the Chinese during the Liberation of Alaska, while Nora stayed behind to help him calm down in the only way she could outside of sex, which was to hug him and speak comforting words to her husband, and once Alex calmed down Piper suggested that the couple head over to the Combat Zone to liberate the top cage fighter, who was an Irish woman named Cait O'Brien telling the couple that she was extremely handy with a baseball bat and a shotgun, which is how Alex, Nora, Nick, and Piper ended up killing a bunch of Raiders who were trying to get in the firey Irish woman's pants to which she replied with a very well placed swing of the baseball bat to the offending Raider's balls causing him to scream in agony as well as buckle to the floor while holding said area. Once they four person group finished dealing with the Raiders, the owner of the place, a Ghoul named Tommy, offered Alex and Nora the opportunity to buy Cait's contract and therefore hire her and possibly make her go sober from all the Psycho, and the Booze she was addicted to, which not even Addictol could cure for her, anyway after discussing the offer with each other, Alex and Nora agreed to take over her contract, and then told Cait that she was going to help the group take down the Institute which made Tommy widen his eyes in pure shock, as he exclaimed, "Are you FUCKING nuts!?"
"Tommy, those bastards took their son, who is also Nick's nephew, plus this is General Oeder that you're talking about," Piper said which made Cait and Tommy look at the synth detective who simply nodded saying that he would recognize both his sister and her husband anywhere.
"Well now, guess I'm a part of yer army now, huh, General Oeder?" Cait said almost mockingly still upset about Tommy selling her contact off to the people who destroyed her only source of Caps which she used to buy booze and chems.
Seeing Cait upset Piper told her, "You'll be fine. I bet you'll be able to get even more Caps than you would being here, no offense Tommy."
"None taken, Piper. I ain't like that pussy of a man you call a mayor," Tommy said as he politely asked the group of five to leave after thanking Alex for his military service and said that he hoped that they found Shaun and blew the Institute to hell for pissing off America's greatest modern hero.
2287 AD, Goodneighbor, Commonwealth
After the group added Cait to the group Nick told Alex and Nora about an ex-gunner turned mercenary named Macready that they could hire to help kill Kellogg. Cait was against the idea as she didn't like Ghouls, but put up with the slight detour, so once they entered the city they were accosted by a thug, who Nick identified as Finn, saying, "Well, well, welcome to Goodneighbor. Since you all, save for Robodick here, are new to the city, you're going to need insurance..." but was interrupted by Alex who had drawn the American Edge and held the tip to his throat and said, "We don't need your 'insurance' since we have mine, and mine is a lot longer and a lot sharper than yours." Finn visibly gulped and nodded while Cait made a sex joke about it, but nonetheless Finn nodded and walked away from the very intimidating and obviously better fighter.
As Finn was fleeing the scene, a Ghoul wearing John Hancock's Colonial garments stepped out of the alley and said, "Nice job chasing that extortionist off, though I would have preferred ya kill him, but at least ya told him that ya ain't taking his bullshit! The name's John Hancock, and I'm the mayor of this friendly little community, and our motto is 'By the People, for the People', ya feel me?"
"Yeah, I feel you, Mayor Hancock, I've always been for that, since it's a major part of the Constitution that's implied in the opening statement which says, 'We the People of the United States...' and all," Alex said to the Ghoul who laughed and said that he was sure that the two of them would get along just fine then asked for Alex's name to which he said, much to the shock of the Ghoul mayor, "I'm General Alexandre C Oeder of the former United States military and the woman hugging my left arm is my wife of 211 years, though 210 of those years were spent in cryogenic stasis thanks to Vault-Tec, Nora Valentine-Oeder, and before you ask yes Nick and my wife are siblings." John gaped in shock at seeing one of the most famous Pre-War generals to bring America to victory during the Liberation of Alaska from Red China. Nick then told John that they were there to hire Macready to help find Alex and Nora's son who had been kidnapped by the Institute using Kellogg while the three of them were in cryogenic stasis, causing John to nod and say that they had Goodneighbor's full support and also said that he would go talk to Macready and explain the situation to him.
After John left, Nick told Alex that Macready was at the Third Rail which was a nightclub, albiet without strippers, but was still a nice place to go and get a drink and a bite to eat, so the group headed over there and when they did they saw two Gunners, according to Nick, harrassing the man that the group came to hire as the Gunners said his name and were making some threats to him, but then John appeared and told the two Gunners to go fuck themselves and get out of the city.
After doing that John said to Macready, "Hey, Macready! I got something I want you to do." As he said that he pointed out Alex's group and said, "You see those five people over there?"
"Yeah, Hancock, I see them. What you want me to work for them or something?" Macready asked John as he nodded then told the mercenary who Alex was to which Macready asked, "Did you take some bad Jet or something, because if I remember correctly, General Oeder lived over 200 years ago and unless he became a Ghoul after the Great War then he ought to be pushing up daises right now, or whatever they mutated into anyway, so did he have a good explanation for why he looks like he hasn't aged a day since the bombs fell?"
"That he did and it's only two words: Cryogenics experiment," John said as Macready remembered his time in the Capital Wasteland when Albert Smith, the man who brought clean water to every person who needed it and crushed the Enclave after he left Vault 101 in which the experiment for that vault was to never be opened, so Macready could see how it was possible, but in order to be sure he decided to Alex if he and his family were accepted into one of Vault-Tec's vaults and what it was numbered.
"So you have doubts about my identity and that of my wife, Nora, right, Mr. Macready?" Alex asked as Macready walked over to them which surprised the mercenary who could only dumbly nod and asked his question about whether or not they were in a Vault-Tec vault to which Alex responded, "We were accepted into one of the vaults, and that vault was Vault 111 which was a cryogenics experiment, but apparently after exactly 200 years of being cryogenically frozen, Kellogg came in and tricked Nora into giving him Shaun after which he pistol-whipped her and knocked her out before we were refrozen for ten more years, and the rest you can probably figure out." Macready nodded and then asked Nick why he was helping the Oeder couple out to which he said, much to the shock of the mercenary, that he was Nora's brother which by extension made him Alex's brother-in-law, and Shaun his nephew.
"So, Nick you're telling me that you're helping them out because you're all family!? Please don't tell me that the rest of you are secretly related to these two?" Macready asked, though fortunately for him Piper and Cait said that they weren't, and stated their reasons for helping while Mörder barked as if telling the confused mercenary his reasoning for helping the couple. Finally Macready said, "Alright, I'll help you out as well, I mean, I can't just sit here and do nothing to help without feeling like a heel, and besides that, if we can bring Kellogg down then that will strike a massive blow to the Institute whom I am going to assume were the ones who told Kellogg to grab your kid." Alex simply nodded and said to Macready that he was glad to have an extra gun to help with killing Kellogg and whatever army the Institute gave him. After saying that the six man one dog squad left Goodneighbor and headed back to Diamond City to go get Kellogg's scent to track him down and kill him.
2287 AD, Fort Hagen, Commonwealth
After a few hours of tracking Kellogg from his Diamond City house to the former US Army fort, Fort Hagen, then proceeding to enter said fort, the group of five humans, one Synth, and one dog went through the fort 'killing' any Gen 2 synths they came across, while Kellogg said through the PA system, "So, I guess you two made it after all, but then again I really shouldn't be too surprised, I mean after all you are the only two Super Soldiers that the Institute don't have in their custody." This made Macready and Cait confused, so Kellogg said, "Really, General Oeder, Mrs. Oeder, you never told your comrades what you really are? Well, I guess I'll have to tell you then...well all except for the runaway reject Synth, anyway. Before the year 2072 General Alexandre C Oeder never existed, but then suddenly somehow he did and from there, he joined the United States Army and quickly rose through the ranks to become the man who you all know and hero worship to this day! Oh and in case you are wondering, the Institute made a copy of Nick's memories and boy were those eggheads surprised to learn about the Multiverse and about how General Oeder has been a Five-star General twice! Now don't get me wrong, I honestly don't care if he was a fucking woman who got a sex change or something like that, but I have to try to stop you from reaching me and all the Institute's dirty little secrets that are in my head."
Alex, Nora, and Nick were horrified to learn that the Institute got to Nick's memories and found out Alex's true origins, but while Macready and Cait were shocked and pissed to learn the truth about Alex they knew that he must've had a good reason for keeping it a secret from everyone including the US Government, and that they could always ask Alex to share his life story with them after they killed Kellogg and got the location of Shaun from him, so while Kellogg continued to speak to the group from the PA system, they pressed on.
WARNING TORTURE SCENE AHEAD! SKIP TO THE END IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH!
Eventually after several hours of killing Synths and listening to Kellogg spill the beans about Alex and Nora as well as why the Institute kidnapped Shaun, which made Macready and Cait understand why Alex and Nora kept Alex's true background a secret from everyone, which was that they knew that if the government found out about the Super Soldier serum and how to replicate it, then the government would force their soldiers to take it to create an army of them, which was something that Alex was determined not to have happen, so he destroyed the actual formula, though not before memorizing it, and made sure that he never offered himself as a donor for anything that needed one, anyway the group made it to Kellogg where Alex immediately grabbed the bald, scarred man by his face and smashed him into a desk then jammed a combat knife into his knee, which made the Synths with him attempt to attack Alex though that didn't work out as well as they had calculated as Nora shot them all, a look of pure maternal rage on her face which Nick, Mörder, Cait, and Macready all noticed and decided not to interfere with the obviously extremely pissed off parents who were about ready to brutally murder Kellogg.
"WHERE IS MY SON YOU MOTHERFUCKING MERCENARY!?!?" Alex shouted as he twisted the knife that was in his kneecap slowly as Kellogg gritted his teeth in pain as his kneecap was getting closer to being popped off by the angry general but refused to talk, which made Alex say darkly and with venom in his voice, "If you won't talk, then we will see just how much pain you can take before you beg for death, and trust me I know how to guarantee that you will be in as much pain as possible and still have the misfortune to live." Nick was shocked at the extreme 180 turn Alex's personality made, but just chalked it up to an extreme anger and a past experience with such a situation, which he hoped wasn't true on either end of it, but with his luck that hope was in vain, as for Macready this situation reminded him of Vault 87's Super Mutants, and for Cait well, she was reminded of how Raiders treated their prisoners before executing them and displaying their bodies for all to see, and it sickened her so much that she had to leave the room and was quickly followed by Macready and Nick, the latter because he didn't want to have to see Nora acting like that, and Macready left because he was experiencing some really bad memories.
Alex continued to torture Kellogg asking him the same question over and over again. The first things to be separated from Kellogg's body were his kneecaps after that he was castrated with a rusty coat hanger, then Alex ripped out Kellogg's fingernails one by one followed by his toenails, it was after Alex decided to skin Kellogg alive while pouring lye over the wounds that Kellogg spilled everything to them starting with how long ago the kidnapping happened, which was ten years prior to them leaving the vault, and then telling them that the Institute has so far failed to replicate the serum as Shaun's blood would decay faster than they could read the DNA strands to get the formula from it, finally they were told that the Institute has been teleporting it's synths to the surface. After Alex and Nora got all of the information that they needed to get Alex beheaded Kellogg and took his head, put it in an airtight jar and carried it away from the now lifeless fort and as they were leaving they saw a giant blimp-like airship fly across the sky while a loud voice bellowed saying, "Attention, Citizens of the Commonwealth, we are the Brotherhood of Steel! We are here to help you destroy the Institute! Unless you want to help us, or join us, please don't interfere with our operations!"
