1
Michael Masters walked the roof of Tenpenny Towers. The angry ghoul was happy to let 'sheriff' Roy Phillips believe he was going to do something about the Brotherhood of Steel besides watch them not invade under threat of feral ghoul residents not taking it kindly. His companion for nigh on two hundred years was not actually affiliated with these so-called Minutemen. But Roy was once a cop, and that meant scratching for something to belong to so he could justify enough authority for his violent tendencies.
And these Minutemen - if half of the rumors were true, it might work out for the best one day. They had taken entire towns away from the power armor patrols that saw ghouls as an existential threat. It was said that their Admiral was a ghoul, commanding the navy that made up these Minutemen and overseeing his ghoul crew. And if one day was sometime in the next ten years, well, of all people they might be the only ones with the time to wait it out.
So just like all those years ago when Roy could have just let the peace be the peace but didn't and killed all their neighbors - even Herbert fucking Dashwood, it was inevitable that Roy would drag all of them into this situation. The ghoul started flying a Minutemen flag over Tenpenny Towers like it meant something. And when the Brotherhood of Steel found out, it had meant something. Now they were conveniently cut-off from traders and their only way out of the tower was a passage from the basement into the subway tunnels that would be no good the first time they used it. The feral residents seemed to be alright with the loss of calories, doing that sleep forever bit wherever they dropped that did more to scare Michael about going 'that last step' than everything else ghouling had inflicted upon him. But Bessie Lynn and others like them looked at their rations and started having doubts they did not voice.
Roy did get them into Tenpenny Towers after all. And the Brotherhood of Steel was the Brotherhood of Steel, meaning that this blockade could have happened just the same anyway.
Fortunately, the Brotherhood presence was only the armor at the door. No vertibirds had messed with them since the Minutemen had become something Three Dog started regularly accusing of everything under the sun - from one of the Admiral's generals nuking their own land to enslaving Rivet City of all places. Three Dog kept saying the lines of 'ghoulies' not being bad people then promptly telling everyone about the horrible things they must have done, no matter how ludicrous.
But today was different. Today there were vertibirds coming. And that would be the end of Tenpenny Tower. There was no way he could get Roy and enough of a resistance up to the roof to fend them off. And even if he did, the armor would just kick down the door once the sleeping ferals had no one with half a brain left to cover fire for them. And by not trying, instead of defeat from one side they were stuck in a pincer attack that they would not be able to defend.
Michael grimaced. He could still shoot at those vertibirds once they were in range. That would warn everyone else. And even when they lost, there was the secret passage way they would use to escape. The ghouls would live, the Brotherhood would do whatever they were going to do with a tower they proved anyone could just take from them in the middle of a war with the Minutemen, and it would suck but the universe would be in harmony.
So the ghoul waited until he could ensure his shots would actually land on the vertibirds. Yet he was stuck waiting - they deigned to just circle around Tenpenny Tower. They did not even land to resupply their Brotherhood buddies. And that's when the radio started to crackle. Instead of Three Dog's hypocrisy of ghouls being alright and the ultimate threat of the Minutemen, static of interference took up the channel. And then clearly a ghoul's rasp - "This is Senator Roxxy, representative of the Atom Cats of the Commonwealth. I've got on x-ray specs for a sock hop at Tenpenny Towers, twenty one skidoo. Repeating/"
Michael glared out the side of his still somehow human eyes at the radio. Yeah. Right. But the Brotherhood of Steel would have just attacked. And if Minutemen could fly wherever they want, it would explain why no Brotherhood air support had backed up their blockade.
The radio Michael had been listening to was not a cb that could actually talk back. But he shrugged mostly to himself and took up Roy's hastily tied to a mop flag he traded way more quality liquor than he should have Minuteman flag and started waving.
One of the vertibirds approached. A rope was thrown over from the hovering vertibird. The next thing he knew, Michael was staring down the barrel of a plasma rifle wielded by a very much not a ghoul dressed in green. People continued to descend on his roof top, or at least he thought they were people as one of them had some condition that made yellow circles of eyes look like they were mounted in some type of foam or plastic, and only one of these green dressed necomers had the decency to be a ghoul. They were all marked with the Minutemen stars, lightning, and musket pattern but even the flag he was holding was a sky blue and not this green that now occupied the top of Tenpenny Tower.
Only after these marines were very much in charge of the rooftop did the other vertibird fly over. More green clad soldiers added to the takeover until finally, a girl dressed very much for a retro sock hop dance slid down the rope. The most beautiful ghoul he had ever seen, with a full head of fried hair, and skin more like burned leather than...well, missing walked up to him.
"Supermergatroid how bashing ears on the squacker shook out.", the girl growled to him. "Roxxy, glamming your peepers."
Michael's jaw dropped.
One of the smooth skins in green warned him. "The council woman just talks like that. Every one of the Atom Cats does."
"uh huh."
2
Roy was mad. Not quite feral like some of the others in the tower, but certainly well beyond angry. The Brotherhood of Steel was staring him in the face on the ground floor. And he had heard the tell tale sounds of their vertibirds overhead. But Michael would only say that Bessie and he needed to see for themselves.
"Got the zorros under the squeeze of the Brotherhood?", a ghoul he didn't recognize asked him. She was striking, with a full head of downshifted hair and her skin a tough leather instead of the typical...missing. It even covered the damaged cartilige of her nose and ears, and heightened her deep burgundy eyes.
Roy shook his head. "Uh, the Brotherhood. Yeah, they've been blockading us for/"
The ghoul snapped her fingers. A firing line of people in green uniforms bearing the same insignia of the flag he had hung opened up on the Brotherhood of Steel guarding the gate of his home. They were soon joined by the Brotherhood's (?) vertibirds pounding the same position. By the time Roy shook himself out of his stupor, there were no more Brotherhood alive to continue their siege.
"Dibs on the tin threads, daddy-o.", the new ghoul declared.
Roy had had it. "Who the fuck are you?!", he yelled. Bessie had both hands on his chest trying to calm him down even before the full complement of weapons these people were wielding were pointed at him.
"Roxxy, strutting for this Commonwealth's Atom Cats Garage.", the ghoul replied. "Your metal woes are Fat Town, if'n you can make with the king's jive and razzle my berries."
Roy's red black eyes narrowed. But Bessie calmed him down. "She's from the place the Minutemen came from, like we wanted. She just wants you to impress her."
Roy walked to the edge and looked down at the ground now littered with power armor. He turned back to Roxxy. "Sorry...it's been a time with the damn smooth skins."
"A cough, I say.", Michael warned.
Roy turned to him and in doing so scanned the ghouls Roxxy had brought with her. They weren't ghouls. At least one of them had skin so smooth it looked plastic. "Alright, what kind of ghoul army is the Minutemen?", he demanded.
Roxxy said something completely incomprehensible...to him. Bessie told him "The Minutemen aren't a ghoul army - they're the defense force for the nation of the Commonwealth." She turned to Roxxy. "Nation?"
The ghoul nodded and replied.
Bessie continued. "The Commonwealth isn't a league of ghouls, roy. It's a country of cities that have all signed the same constitution. The Minutemen work for their council."
"What council?" Roy didn't bother addressing Roxxy instead of Bessie.
After a moment, Bessie attempted to translate. "The one she's on. Each community gets to send a representative to a committee so they can decide on policy together - she represents the Atom Cats Garage. The flag you started flying is that of the General, who is in charge of the Minutemen and keeps their council together."
Roy looked to Roxxy. "So you're here to..."
"Check if you cut the mustard.", she replied.
He looked to Bessie. "See if we qualify for becoming one of these communities of the Commonwealth?"
She nodded.
Roy nodded. "Fine. Then we need to talk come on down and we'll find someplace comfortable."
"Total perspiration to all that static." Roxxy objected.
And Roy realized. "How long have you been a ghoul?"
"Since the Rains.", Roxxy admitted.
Okay, that made some sense. Her appearance. Her POODLE SKIRT. "Don't worry. The ferals who live here will only tear them to pieces but leave us alone. It'll be fine."
"Baby sitter's not lettin' off the leash."
And Roy was back to speaking bitterly. "That's exactly what I was concerned about. We can't speak openly with the smooth skins breathing down our necks."
Roxxy tried to roll her pupiless eyes and explained to Bessie.
Bessie nodded. "She means that she promised the other people in her government that she wouldn't go anywhere without her escort. And that includes the vertibrids. She's the highest ranking person here and the marines and Minutemen are for her protection."
"Ugh.", Roy complained. "Alright. Michael, would you kindly bring all of us some chairs?
