The Courier was silent; his eyes on his target, not a muscle moving accept his hand twitching slightly over his gun.

"Draw!" A man yelled

and in a blur the Courier drew and fired the Ranger Sequoya the straw head of the dummy exploding in to a few spindly strands. The Courier holstered his gun just as quickly as he drew it a muffled "Click" coming from the holster. The entire exchange took only half a second. The grin the Courier gave was one of smug determination.

"I must thank you adequately for the Training," The Courier said tossing the man a bag with two hundred caps in it, "This will come in handy."

As the Courier left Boone stood up from a chair by the door and yawned stretching, "Enjoy your nap?" the Courier asked putting back on his helmet. Boone grumbled at him and walked out of the door behind the Courier patting his pockets to make sure he still had everything. Outside Veronica was waiting for them the strolling easily in her T-45d power-armor causing a few heads to turn her way, from attraction or from fear was anyone's guess.

"Foods loaded," she said through the helmet before she caught sight of Boone Rubbing his eyes, "So NCR passed out again?"

Boone looked at her, he loathed the nickname she had given him and it was plain to everyone, so of course everyone who knew him used it, those who didn't know him usually said it once, just once, then never again those who didn't get the message or were just too stupid to understand anything said to them stopped talking, permanently.

"Then let's get going," The Courier said his voiced hushed and changed by the Riot helmet, "The sooner we get to Chicago the better."

After a quick goodbye to the town's gatekeeper they were in the covered wagon and on their way.

The Courier had told them that he would be going to Chicago with ED-E to try and make peace between the Enclave, Brotherhood of Steel, and the NCR. Veronica Arcade and Boone had thought it necessary for him to have someone to go with him, so of course everyone did, it had started with Veronica saying that someone should be there to speak for the Brotherhood and soon Gannon had said the same thing. Boone thought that they would get themselves killed without plenty of help and Cass reminded them that she had run a caravan and finally Raul had stated that he wanted to enjoy a little "Vacation" for him to relax. Rex had to come with as he needed someone to take care of them, and no one wanted Lily to have free access of the Lucky 38.

The whole group helped load a wagon that the Courier had found. It had been in an old museum in a section about "Manifest destiny" and he had fixed it up. It looked almost out of the pre-war pictures and books that had been part of the exhibit but for the two giant Robot scorpions he had reprogrammed to pull the wagon.

They were a few days out of the Mojave covering more distance in those few days than they could have made in a week on foot and they were beginning to pass through a plateau filled area.

"Hey!" Cass yelled slightly defining Boone who was sitting next to her, "Anyone else see that odd red cloud over there?" She was pointing to the top of one of the Structures a faint light illuminating the Cloud from the inside with two spot-lights sticking out through the clouds, a faint amount of music could be heard in the distance.

The Courier tensed up and immediately went to the back of the wagon opening a small weapons locker and taking out an old automatic rifle and a Broad machete.

"Don't follow me," was all the Courier said before hopping off the wagon and sprinting towards the cloud.

"I will never understand him," Cass muttered before tipping her hat down and closing her eyes, "Wake me when something interesting happens."

It didn't take long; the group came across a Deathclaw that had been stabbed in the eye a spearhead sticking out of the other side in a ragged hole deciding to investigate they left Lucy ED-E and Rex to guard the wagon. Veronica approached the spear and saw a smear of green slime along with a severed arm covered in a brown sleeve was lying on the ground. The spearhead was a cluster of pointed knifes each one shining and looking like it could cut from a distance. Boone crouched down and with two fingers scooped up some of the green slime and rubbed it between his fingers and thumb.

"It feels like blood."

"Well," Veronica huffed, "Lets' just take the spear and tell the Courier later he seemed to know what is going on."

The group agreed and started back to the wagon when six figures covered in full brown body suit and a gas mask with green glowing eyes. Each one held a spear, some poised to throw and others to lunge and stab. One of the ghostly creatures lunged at Cass with an alarming speed a knife spear clutched in its hand, she quickly raised and fired her shotgun and with a sloppy hit made the person spin around mid air and land on its back. It jumped back to its feet and hopped/walked back to the others like it the green slime already repairing the ragged holes in its suit.

"How the hell did that just shrug off a 12 gauge round?" Cass muttered unsure, "I have seen People in power armor go down from a hit like that."

"Let's see just what they can take," Raul said before pulling out a .44 magnum and firing twice into the chests of one of the ghosts. The creatures reacted badly twitching erratically and as one they started lumbering in to the fight. Boone had his rifle up and fired a round into the head of one of the creatures the .308 round hitting the beast in the head and causing a neat hole to appear in the creature as the round passed all the way through.

"Holy shit," Cass gasped as the green slime once again seeped into the hole and repaired the damage to the creature.

"Well, we're dead," Gannon stated his emotionless tone showing that he had thought of what they could do and finding more options.

The group huddled close wondering what would happen to them as the eerie noises of the area were broken by the loud chattering of machinegun fire one of the beast being ripped limb from limb from the hail of bullets. As one the creature tried to look for the source of the sound and lose another of their group when the chattering came again and blew off the head and right arm of the creature. Out of the red cloud a short distance away the Courier came running and fired the Automatic-Rifle In one hand catching one of the beasts in the chest with a five round burst knocking it to the ground, quick as a Deathclaw the Courier jumped on top of the Ghost and brutally hacked its head from the body along with both the arms, "Veronica punch off something, Boone take a piece off one with your machete, and for god's sake Cass, Aim for the head!" The Courier screamed before dodging another spear and decapitating the wielder with one stroke of the Broad weapon.

The Companions followed the Courier's orders and in a matter of seconds the ghost people were dead lying on the ground in various states of dismemberment, Veronicas was missing a leg, arm, and its head, Boones just had lost in forearm the creature having enough function to thrash around for a few seconds before collapsing, and Cass's was missing its head and a sizable chunk of its neck.

"I may not talk as much as I used to but for fucks sake when I do listen!" The Courier practically yelled, "These ghost people are the biggest threat here so don't go wandering off!" The Courier stomped off after this, with a few shocked companions to his back.

"He has never raised his voice before at any of us," Veronica muttered feeling ashamed, "but we didn't know what was out here, so we couldn't have known, Right?"

"It's okay, the Boss just seems to have a lot on his mind, let him go through with his thoughts, then judge his actions," Raul said as they walked beck, "Besides he seems to know this area better trust him, he hasn't lead us wrong yet."

-In the capital wasteland—

Kelly Carefully attached the stolen Stealth-Boy to her arm Vanishing with a faint hiss as the light bent around her, she sighed wondering how long it was gonna take her to get used to walking without being able to see her own feet. She snuck past the half observant guards, some of her old squad mates Linda and John, who seemed more interested in each other than the area they needed to be watching.

'This is too easy' she thought as she slipped out the front gate and made a run for it. She had a serious disagreement with Elder Lyons a few days before about what the Brotherhood stood for, she had read the Codex, everyone had, but she seemed to be the only person at the Citadel who noticed that, "Help a bunch of starving savages" was not anywhere in the old musty thing. That night she had snuck out for the first time, trying to think about what to do to try to get the brotherhood back on track, after all she was a knight in the Brotherhood she had some say in what went on. After a while she had realized why she was the only person in the Citadel who seemed to care. All the others had joined the outcasts, and now so was she.

She crept silently down the slope and made a break for it, running through a raider nest in the nearest bridge startling the guard and those sleeping, and felt a few low caliber rounds Ping off her armor. It was a short trip to the area she needed to be, where outcast patrols came once a week, as reliable as a clock. She just had to stay hidden tonight and she was home free. She picked a well defendable building and shut then barricaded the door and cleaned her sniper rifle before she slept, it had all gone perfectly.

Well that's chapter three, hope you enjoy. Next chapter will get back to all the characters and see what happens to Kelly one of my OCs. Please review good or bad I want to know