Mutatis Mutandis 27
Glade pushed his way carefully through the crowded apartment hallway. He could hear the sounds of a scuffle breaking out on the far side, and he sped up. Between the hostile and obnoxious attitudes of the vault dwellers, and the bitter violence of the Megaton residents, Vault 101 already felt like a powder keg. With Simm's help, the Brotherhood had been doing what they could to keep the piece, but to call any resolution an uphill battle was to be unrealistically optimistic.
Rothchild had made it very clear to the wastelanders that they were guests, and that the vault residents were to be treated with dignity and respect. The trouble was that neither party seemed interested in respect. The vaulties were angry because their home had been invaded, and the wasters were restless and frustrated to the point of violence. Surprisingly, they did not seem to blame the Wanderer, or at least if they held him factually responsible, they did not hold it against him. He had built up incredible amounts of goodwill over the years, and it had paid off.
Glade understood the Wanderer's decision to lock them in. It was to protect them all. There was no way to deny that the Wastelanders needed all the help they could get. All Glade had to do was remember the fall of the Citadel, and his own frustrations would be put to rest as he remembered that things could have been a lot worse. The trouble was that regular Wastelanders didn't know how to cope with the situation quite as well.
The crowd finally parted to reveal two figures standing in front of a locked apartment door. They were caught in the midst of a vicious fight. One of them Glade recognized as Wally Mack, one of the more troublesome residents. The other, to Glade's shame and astonishment, was Paladin Kodiak, who had the vault resident in a chokehold. To his credit, Mack was putting up a pretty good fight. His vault boots were leaving black streaks on the concrete floor as he scraped and scrabbled to get free, however the lack of oxygen was beginning to take its toll as his sporadic punches weakened. A baseball bat was lying on the floor nearby. The crowd was about three dozen strong, split evenly between the Megaton residents and the vault dwellers. Both sides were cheering on their respective champions.
"Greg!" Glade barked angrily stepping out into the semi-circle, "Stand down!"
The Paladin straightened obediently, letting the younger man drop to the cold concrete floor. Mack lay there, curled in the fetal position, gasping for breath. The Megaton residents let out a series of disappointed moans.
"What the hell is going on?" Glade demanded.
"He attacked me, sir." Kodiak reported. "While trying to gain access to this Apartment."
Glade studied the locked door. "Whose apartment is it?"
"Mine!" Mack coughed. There was a series of boos from the vault dwellers. The Megaton residents responded with jeers and laughter.
"What happened?" Glade asked, holding up a hand to silence the watching crowd.
"That bitch broke in and kicked me out." The man named Wally reported, rising to his feet. "She threatened me with a gun!"
Murmurs of anguish and disbelief passed through the crowd of Vault Dwellers.
"It's a bout damned time someone taught you who da fuckin' boss is!" A waster announced. The man was wearing leather armour, and he had the toughened physique of a veteran fighter. The crowd of wasters behind him laughed and jeered, egging him on.
A middle-aged vault dweller stepped forward angrily. "That's my son. You want to start something, you fucking savage?"
"I'm going to need both of you calm down right now." Glade said, stepping between them before they could grow any closer. He confronted the Wastelander first. "Fall back in line. This isn't your business."
"They keep fuckin' walkin' around like dehya're better dan us!" the waster said. Glade recognized the telltale accent of a Raider. This resident clearly had a colorful past.
"Do you live there?" Glade asked, pointing at the apartment door.
"Well, no. But-"
"Then this has nothing to do with you. Get back in line." Glade ordered, settling his hand on his pistol grip. It was a subtle move, but the waster got the message and stepped back into the crowd, glaring at the Star-Paladin. Only members of the Brotherhood were allowed to carry weapons in the confines of Vault 101. It had been one of the first rules instituted by Rothchild, and it was heavily reinforced. Glade watched him for a moment longer, then turned back to the vault dweller. "You are?"
The man stuck out his chin defiantly. "Allen Mack."
"Well, Allen, I understand that this man is your son, but he's also a grown up, and this is between him and Paladin Kodiak. I'm going to have to ask you to step away as well."
"And what's going to happen to him?" Allen pointed at Kodiak. "He punched my son!"
"He tried to hit me with that bat!" Kodiak replied, pointing at the heavy wooden club.
"Quiet, Greg." Glade ordered. "Paladin Kodiak is under my command. I'll take responsibility for his actions, and I'll see to his disciplinary punishment. In the meantime, it would do us all al lot of good to go about your business." He stepped back and addressed the crowd at large. "All of you, carry on."
The crowd dispersed, looks of loathing being cast back and forth between the Wasters and the Vaulties. Glade waited until they had all but gone before he turned back to the two warriors.
"Now…" he said, his patience wearing thin. "What happened. Mister Mack, you first."
"That bastard wouldn't let me into my apartment!" Mack declared, pointing an accusatory finger at Kodiak.
"So you decided to get a baseball bat and try to hit him with it?" Glade asked carefully. "Do you think that was a reasonable response?"
"Well…" Mack hesitated.
"Tell me, if Kodiak had been living here in the vault with you his whole life, if he were one of you, would you have attacked him with the bat?"
Mack glared at him.
"I'll answer for you because we both know the answer." Glade said. "The answer is No. You would have called Vault security. Because those are the rules down here. Let's imagine that the roles were reversed for a moment, and you were preventing Paladin Kodiak from getting into his home. He simply would have shot you. And no one would have thought the worse of him for it. "
The man's sneer disappeared.
Glade continued. "Kodiak would have dropped your body in a dumpster and gone on with his day. Because that is how things work out there. Those are our rules. We're all having troubles trying to adjust and we're all frustrated. I get that. But it doesn't justify what happened here."
"I got threatened with a gun!" Mack exclaimed furiously.
Glade frowned. "Kodiak?"
"Not me, sir."
"It was that crazy lady." The vault dweller exclaimed, "She's in there right now."
Glade raised an eyebrow at his subordinate.
"Three guesses who, sir." Kodiak muttered.
The Star-paladin sighed. "Alright. Let me through. I'll get her out."
"I'd appreciate that." Mack told him sarcastically. "Door's locked, but I have the key." He moved forward and opened it to let Glade in.
"We'll wait out here, sir." Kodiak said.
Glade closed the door behind him and turned to survey the room. The apartment was a small space. There was a kitchen alcove in the corner, and a couch with a coffee table in front of it. A side-door lead to the bedroom area, which is where he found Sarah Lyons.
She was in her recon armour, sitting on one of the beds, staring down at a faded photograph. He noted the Wanderer's Bandana, which she had taken to tying loosely around her throat. Her 10mm pistol was lying on the bed beside her.
"Hi Glade." She said without looking up. Her voice was that terrible monotone which she used almost all the time now.
"Sarah…" he said, his tone one of gentle scolding. "You're becoming a real wildcard, you know that?"
"Hmm…"
"Sarah, you can't just go around barging into random people's homes. It's hard enough trying to keep the peace down here as it is."
"It isn't his home." She said distantly, squinting at the photograph. "He's just squatting here."
"Yeah? Well we were just squatting in the Citadel. But we called that home, didn't we?"
"Have you checked the vault records?" Sarah asked. "This apartment isn't registered to him."
"Well whose is it, then?" glade inquired, a shade impatient.
She handed the photograph to him. "The Wanderer's."
That threw Glade off-balance. He took the photo and stared down at it. He recognized James, standing behind a smiling young boy…
"…Holy shit." Glade took a close look at the happy youth to make sure, but it was the Wanderer. The cheeks were the same. His hair was still that sandy blonde color… the grown-up version was far more tanned, his face had been marked by grit and travel. But it was the same person, clear as day. He even had a little BB gun slung across his back.
Glade felt a surge of apprehension. Standing there suddenly felt sacrilegious. He took a second glance around the place, half expecting to find either the Wanderer, or the ghost of James Howlett to be standing in the kitchenette, staring at him forebodingly.
"I'm willing to bet that old man Mack got tired of his son living at home and booted him into the nearest empty place after James left." Sarah said. "Neither of them have any right to this place."
"Why are you defending his honor or his property? I thought you hated him for locking us in here…"
"I don't hate Jason. I'm trying to…" she waved her hand vaguely. "Forgive him. For all of this. I guess Bloomseer Poplar was right."
"Who?"
"Never mind." She said, irritated.
"Sarah… bottom line is that no matter who technically owned it before, someone is living in it right now. And he's the son of one of the troublemakers. Of all the things to argue with the Vaulties over, this is among the stupidest. And I don't know him as well as you do, but I think that the Wanderer would tell you the same thing. It doesn't matter."
"It matters to me."
"Look, Jason locked us in here so one day we'd be available to fight the muties, right? Now this place is a powder keg. When it goes, there's going to be a lot of fighting and a lot of violence, and the war out there, however it might be going, is going to lose a lot of potential troops. There's no point in fanning the flames. When Jason opens the vault, let him deal with it."
Sarah reached out and took back the photograph.
"I miss my father." She said, examining it.
Glade sighed and strolled over to the bed, taking a seat beside her. He was reminded of all the times he had done this during Sarah's youth. He carefully picked up her pistol and held it in his hands.
"I do too." He admitted. "And Dusk. And Vargas. Colvin… Gallows… all the rest."
"It's just you a Glade, huh?"
"And you."
She chuckled. "I think we both know that time has long since passed. I don't know what I am anymore… Where I fit into things."
Glade put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a comforting hug. "You'll always have a home with us, Sarah. No matter what happens. No one's kicked you out of anywhere."
They exited the suite a few minutes later. Sarah walked right past Wally Mack without giving him so much as a glance. Glade stopped in front of him. "Your apartment is yours again. She shouldn't give you any more trouble."
"Much appreciated." He grunted sourly, stepping inside and shutting the door in Glade's face.
Kodiak let out a long breath. "Wow… that nearly blew up in our faces…"
"Yeah. Incidentally, Greg, in the interests of keeping all of this from going any further, you're on cleaning duty. Go get a toothbrush and start on the men's toilets."
The younger soldier groaned. "Oh, come on!"
When Jason came to, he was bound to a chair. He could hear the sound of running water nearby, and a steady pounding noise. His chest was aching fit to burst, and he couldn't shake the memory of the rocky spike forcing its way through him. Breathing was difficult, and he began to cough wildly, which only doubled the pain.
"You are a fascinating creature, Wanderer." Said a calm deep voice.
Jason opened his eyes and stared into his own rippling reflection. His chair had been placed in a pool of the strange glowing water. the puddle was several inches deep. He was seated in a large, darkened room somewhere in a vault. Probably 87. He couldn't make out any ceiling. The walls and floor were green, slick with slime and moisture. An unpleasant musky scent hung in the air. Seated on a much larger chair, directly in front of him, was a dark-skinned supermutant with intelligent eyes, and the careful muscle control which Fawkes and Leo had both managed to master only through years and years of daily practice. The mutant was heavily armoured, and had an enormous sword slung across his back. He carried himself with the composure of a king. Jason's Chinese assault rifle was slung over the mutant's right shoulder, opposite the hilt of the massive blade.
"I am Brutus." The Supermutant told him. "It is nice to finally meet you in person, Wanderer."
Jason let out a roar and tried to launch himself towards the mutant, yet he only succeeded in making his chair rock back and forth, sending ripples across the small pool.
"Calm, Wanderer, calm." The mutant scolded lightly. "You do not want to go tipping over, now. That water is tainted with the FEV II virus."
"What do you want with me?" Jason asked hoarsely, struggling with his bonds. They were far too tight. The Wanderer was strong, and superhuman in many ways, but he did not possess super strength. Even with the Ant Might upgrades Doctor Lesko had given him, he couldn't break the tight leather bonds.
"I want to punish you, Jason. For bringing so much death upon my kind." Brutus told him quietly. "You've killed Alpha. Our greatest hope. Yet I want you to know that whatever happens, you will lose. I want you to have time to consider that fact. I want you to acknowledge it. Not to me, but to yourself. You are doomed, as is your wasteland."
"I am going to end you."
Behind Jason, he heard more pounding, and the sound of pouring water.
"Perhaps." the mutant smiled. It was the strangest thing Jason had ever seen. "But even if you do, you will still lose." With a sudden burst of motion, the mutant rose and with one hand, he flipped Jason around to reveal the rest of the chamber. It was filled with yellow barrels marked with Hazmat warning symbols. Two supermutant Masters were hard at work, punching holes in the tops of each barrel. Beside them was an enormous water pipe. A hole had been torn in the top, and they were pouring the bright green contents of the barrels into the water line.
Brutus spoke calmly as they watched the mutants work. "To be honest, I am tired of watching my brothers get killed fighting this war. Luckily, another solution has presented itself. You see, that little creek, that river beside us… it leads directly into the main water basins underneath the Capital Wasteland. I am going to pour every drop of the FEV II virus into that waterline, Wanderer. And when I do, the Wasteland's entire water table will be tainted. It does not take much to turn a human. Anyone who drinks from any pool or fountain anywhere in this part of the world will become an FEV II mutant." Brutus bent down until his mouth was right next to Jason's ear. "Think about it, Wanderer. Every Wastelander. Every adventurer. Every warrior, scholar, tinker, tailor, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Every man, woman, and child… Even your precious Talon Company and the innocent residents of Vault 101. They will all get thirsty eventually. Everyone who wanders this Capital Wasteland will have no choice but to join our army. We will be truly unstoppable. And you?"
He walked slowly around until he was at the edge of the pool, framed by the light of the barrels. He stared down at Jason. "You will bear witness to our birth, Wanderer. It begins here. in this very room…"
Brutus reached over his shoulder and pulled out the Xuanlong assault rifle. "This is a very good weapon. It has served you well against us. I don't know how many mutant lives it has ended."
"I lost count around six hundred!" Jason snarled.
"Six hundred…" Brutus' eyes shut for a moment. The mutant licked its lips and stared down at the rifle, a look of mourning on its face. "And now it will serve us. You see, before he died, Burke told me many interesting things about you. You can heal from anything. Yet only after being exposed to either four hundred rads, or sunlight." The mutant smirked. "There is no sunlight down here, Wanderer." The mutant produced several empty packets of Rad-away, waving them before Jason's eyes. "And right now, you are completely radiation free. " He raised the rifle and fired a single shot.
Jason huffed as the force of the bullet tore through him, knocking the air from his lungs. The bullet tore through his abdomen, leaving a bloody, ragged hole behind. He gasped, trying to regain his lost breath, and fighting back the sudden waves of overwhelming pain. Blood poured down his side, soaking his ruined clothing and mingling with the glowing waters of the shallow pool. He could hear the sound of the red droplets hitting the water. On the far side of the chamber, both of the Masters stopped to watch.
"Are you paying attention, Jason?" Brutus snarled violently, striding forward through the pool. The mutant laid his hands on Jason's shoulders and leaned down until they were face to face. "There is no sunlight. But this pool you're sitting inches above is irradiated. Getting up to Six hundred Rads takes time. To heal from a wound like that takes longer. Do you have time, Wanderer? Or will you bleed out before you get there?" he grabbed Jason roughly by the hair and held his gaze steady, more than matching the Wanderer's hate-filled glare. "If you want to live, you're going to have to drink from that pool, Wanderer. But if you drink from that pool, you'll become one of us." He stood back and spread his arms welcomingly. "I give you a choice. Your fate is in your own hands, now. That is freedom, Wanderer. That is freedom." He met Jason's cold, defiant glare with a look of amusement. "I'll leave you to ponder, Wanderer. I'm off to D.C. to rally my forces. Then we'll crush Jackrum's resistance. I'll be back to check on you after that is dealt with."
so this was supposed to be a triple update, but the last chappy ain't quite done yet, and i ahve too many things going on IRL to finish it this weekend. Hope you guys enjoyed what I have down here anyway...