A/N: I could make an entire FO3 screenshot album of nothing but Charon attacking super mutants with his combat knife even though I've given him massive guns and ammo. No idea why.

Super mutants using wire to tie prisoners is from the game, and in game it looks to be fairly fine in gauge, even though this would arguably be very difficult for super mutants to use considering the disproportionately large size of their fingers. But then, it's also canonical that Fawkes can use a computer with human-sized keys, and I still have no idea how that's possible (in TFW: Thistle I just assume he hunts and pecks with one finger at a time, but even that seems unlikely).

19

Perhaps thirty miles North of the grocery store, Xen caught sight of a looming shadow. A few minutes later they came to rocky ground. A miniature badland loomed out of the dry landscape, jagged peaks standing up ten or fifteen feet. Changeling's mapping had no topographical features, and there was no way to know how far it stretched to either side. The outcroppings of dull brown stone went on as far as Xen could see. The risen moon gave enough light for her to see a long way with her goggles off.

Xen's first reaction was relief, gratitude for some structure to break up the terrifying, endless sweep of dark sky overhead. Then thought overpowered the agoraphobia and she realized what an obstacle they presented. She looked at the sharp rocks with some dismay.

"A small additional power expenditure would enable me to gain enough altitude to survey the area," said Changeling.

"Cloak your sensor light," Xen said.

"Acknowledged." The light dimmed, and there was a soft whuff-whuff-whuff as Changeling's exhaust jets fired alternately. The cargo net tipped back as the packbot rocked to one side, then shot upward with an additional jet. She stabilized at about twenty feet up, rocking awkwardly.

I didn't give her much in the way of attitude jets, Xen recognized. But then, it's already a pretty sophisticated use of her existing power sources to get even that high when I didn't design her to fly.

The robot jerked in a rough circle, cargo net swinging precariously, then sank slowly back to her normal altitude.

"The outcrop continues for several miles to the North, West and East," Changeling said. "We could circumvent it to the West with the least loss of time, but it would still be a detour of some hours."

Xen twitched at the sudden movement as Charon whirled the shotgun off his back.

"Dis place is not safe," he said.

"Can we afford the delay, Changeling?" Xen asked quietly, looking around. She couldn't see any unfamiliar heat signature, but anything could be hiding back in the rocks, out of sight and cloaked by that enormous thermal mass.

"Affirmative," said Changeling. "Particularly since time would certainly be lost in climbing the rocks and treating resultant injuries to you. You are inexperienced, and Charon will only be able to assist you so far."

"Around it is," said Xen. They turned to their left and followed the long line of the rocks. A rough foot path was evident in the dust. Others had apparently found this route easier as well. One or two hoofprints suggested pack animals might have been the reason. Charon did not put away his shotgun. His attention seemed to be mostly on the rocks to their right. Out to the left stretched the Wasteland between them and the distant Metro station. It was bare of anything but small rocks and bushes, hiding nothing.

Then Charon said, "Be cautious," and turned to climb up into the rocks.

"Wait!" hissed Xen. "What is it?" Her frantically searching eyes could find no heat signatures, no reflected gamma. There might have been a movement just there...

Charon turned, squatting on a boulder. "Mutants," he whispered back.

"Should I run?" Xen asked.

"It will do no good," said Charon. "Dey will certainly be faster dan you. Please let me deal wit dis."

Please?

"Do it," Xen said, feeling her stomach churn. "Come back alive."

He turned and vanished into the rocks.

"Changeling, full stealth," Xen whispered, and huddled down against a rock. The packbot went transparent as she engaged the chameleon field, making her nearly invisible against the landscape.

A minute later, Xen heard the loud report of the combat shotgun. There was an answering roar, a guttural sound that seemed to fill the world and shake the ground under her moccasins:

"FOUND YOU!"

She heard the sound of giant feet running from somewhere out in the rocks as she crouched against the cold side of her boulder. Noise echoed from the stone and made direction impossible to determine. There was shouting, shouting in inhumanly deep voices with short, rough words. She dared not move far enough to look, and she would not be able to feel a warm body until it was right in front of her.

An enormous shape, more than ten feet tall and wider than Xen's height, sprang from among the rocks.

"HEY!" snarled a thunderous bass, and a giant hand snatched her up as she made to scramble away. "I found another one," the super mutant said, only a little more quietly than before. Xen could not cover her ears; his grip pinned her arms to her sides and there was no way to move them, no way at all.

"Firing," said Changeling's voice, and the mutant grunted as the laser made a thin red line between its head and the invisible packbot. Xen gasped as the giant's grip tightened, squeezing the air out of her lungs. One more second and her ribs would crack -

The super mutant relaxed its grip slightly as it turned and bounded away into the rocks, still holding Xen. She stared up at the steaming black mark on its bald skull. Its skin was green, stretched tight over its bones and its enormous musculature. Up this close, it stank of something strange and chemical, like an uncontained acid/base reaction or an organic distillation left too long. The wound hardly bled at all. The laser had cauterized where it cut, though it seemingly had not penetrated far.

A lipless mouth grinned down at her. Its teeth were oddly straight and even beneath its yellow slit-pupiled eyes. "Better keep you fresh," it told her. Xen stared back in fascinated horror, struggling to breathe as the mutant scrambled up and through the maze of stone. After a moment it let go with one hand so that it could assist itself to climb, but that didn't do anything for Xen. Its other hand was big enough to fit all the way around her waist, and its grip was stronger than a robot's. She pawed at its fingers without effect. Xen was glad she had been walking with her goggles off. They would surely have been shaken free from her head instead of just bouncing around her neck.

It's moving fast, she recognized, with the small part of her mind that had not yet given in to total, petrified terror. Changeling won't be able to catch up in this terrain. And I haven't heard Charon's gun go off again.

I may just be about to die.

But apparently that wasn't the mutant's plan. After a minute's frantic scrabbling, with Xen's world a shaken kaleidoscope of brown stone and dark blue sky, the mutant climbed down into a clear space. Weeds had been trampled down all around, so Xen could clearly see the white bones that lay here and there. Some had bits of red gristle stuck to them still. A net bag full of unnameable wet red things sat in a lump off to one side. The scene was stark and terrible in the moonlight, but Xen could not smell any stench of recent death. She couldn't smell anything except super mutant. She didn't even feel nauseous until she noticed the pile of bloody clothes with the guns, ammunition and stimpaks laid out neatly on top of it.

The mutant must have felt her shudder. It laughed, an indescribably and painfully loud sound. "Got plans for you," it said, and thumped her down onto the ground so hard that she bounced. She came down on one shoulder blade, powerless to stop her head from snapping back against the hard ground. For a dizzying instant, she was sure her skull had fractured. When her vision cleared, the mutant was holding her hands behind her with one finger and thumb as it wound something around her wrists with the other. She was on her knees without being sure how she had come there.

Wire, Xen thought, and felt it dig in cruelly as the mutant tightened it. Waves of pain radiated through her skull, sapping the strength from her legs.

"Huh," grunted the super mutant. A giant finger swiped at her bonds, and she stared dumbly as it lifted a black smear of hemolymph to its tongue. "Tastes bad."

"What you got?" demanded another mutant's voice, and a second creature leaped down into the hollow with an earth-shaking thump. It held a rough club made of wood in one hand. The weapon was longer than Xen was tall. "Can't catch that other one. Too fast."

"This one's got weird blood," reported the first mutant. "We better take it to the Vats, see what - "

Xen had never been so glad to hear the combat shotgun. The second mutant staggered back, roaring in pain and fury, and then there was a second shot and its eye exploded in gore. It charged around in a full circle, bounded against a rock, and fell on its back. It did not get up again.

"Whatsa matter?" demanded Charon's voice from behind her. "Can't stand da sight'a yer own blood?" The voice was not Charon's ordinary one. The accent was heavier.

"I'll get you!" said the super mutant, and leaped to its feet, scooping up its fallen companion's club.

"Keep firing," said Charon in a very different accent, and the shotgun boomed again. The mutant threw up an enormous arm to protect its face, and a tiny fountain of gore exploded from its biceps. Xen could not get her legs under her. The best she could do was scramble back against the nearest rock, out of the way. She looked up again in time to see Charon step onto the flat with his combat knife in his hand. His lips moved in some ongoing internal dialogue, but she couldn't hear it over the mutant's thunderous breathing.

Xen stretched her hands against the wires. Her fingers were wet.

I'm bleeding. This isn't heavy-gauge wire, I wonder where they got it...

The creature had been in a hurry when it tied them. Maybe she could get free. She squirmed, trying desperately to get loose without drawing attention. There wasn't much danger of that. The super mutant was trying to club Charon. The big Ghoul ghosted easily out of the way, and splinters flew as the club hit a rock instead. Charon darted in and inflicted a broad slash on the super mutant's upper leg, cutting through its rough trousers and green flesh in one blow.

"Ya like dat?" Charon snarled at the mutant. It roared in response and tried to stamp on him. Xen's hands were slippery with blood, but she had managed to slide one free. She shook the wires off the other, wiped both hands awkwardly on her shirt, and stumbled toward the pile of discarded clothes.

I have to do something, she thought blurrily. It will kill him. She snatched up the pistol from the top of the pile. It seemed ridiculously heavy. She had to use both hands to hold it. She cudgeled her reluctant brain as she stared at it, trying to remember what she'd read.

The hammer has to be back. Which part is the hammer? She finally settled on the little metal tab on the back of the barrel. It clicked satisfyingly into place. Charon had just tried and failed to hamstring the super mutant. Xen forced herself not to wince in sympathy as it succeeded in hitting him a glancing blow, knocking him back against a boulder. She heard the breath leave his lungs with an oof. Even then, he did not drop the combat knife.

"Charon!" screamed Xen. He was doubled halfway over and didn't seem to hear her. The super mutant turned ponderously to stare at her. "I'm tired of having nightmares about things you kill!"

Time stopped. She knew her heart was pounding, yet she was certain a second passed between each pair of beats, so slow and clear she could tell systolic from diastolic. The mark where the laser had hit the mutant seemed enormous under the waning moon. It filled her universe, one black pit in an acre of green skull. Xen hauled the pistol up as high as she could in both hands, pointed it as if it were one of her digits, and jerked at the trigger with slippery fingers.

The blast nearly deafened her, the flash turned her vision to strobing black and white, and the thing kicked in her hands as if it were alive. Time sped up with that one impact, stunning her. The gun jerked straight up, yanking her hands back over her head. She regained her balance just in time to be knocked over by the earthquake as the super mutant hit the ground.

Xen lay curled on her side for a moment. She was dimly aware that she was still convulsively clutching the gun. Her vision seemed to flash on and off in time with the pain in her skull. Her hands shook as she forced the fingers to let go of the hot metal. She took a deep breath, coughed at the stink of gunpowder, and shoved herself up on one elbow. Her whole body felt bruised. Vision wavered again, steadied on a pair of worn leather boots.

Charon went heavily to one knee in front of her. Shotgun and knife were present, sheathed and clean. Heat radiated from him, impinging on the fact that she felt suddenly cold. Xen looked past him at the grinning face of the super mutant. It had a much larger hole in its skull than before.

"I hit it," she said. She sat up all the way, wrapping her arms around herself. She looked back at Charon. He still knelt there, just looking at her. His temperature was a little higher than normal, and a glow of heat around his chest said something was wrong there. "You're hurt," she said.

"My injuries are minor," said Charon. He shook his head, dislodging one last flake of dry skin from his cheekbone. His face was raw and glistening under the distant moon.

"Good thing I ordered you to stay alive," Xen said.

She giggled. There was only a little hysteria in the sound.