When you wake up, the first thing you feel is the by now customary initial confusion as you slowly come to your senses, so very unlike any state of mind you've experienced ever since your reanimation.
Opening the one singular eye that always seems to grow out of the cocoon, you blink a bit as you take in your surroundings.
Nobody's around right now, it seems.
Hey girls, I'm out again. Anything happen while I was gone?
Hey Gabe. A few things, yeah. Probably best to show you in person, though.
Gotcha.
Clawing your way out of the stringy mass of your cocoon, you decide you may as well take the opportunity to find out a little more about what exactly you just spent a few days inside, summoning Yoshi and Nolan.
"Alright, you two, take a look at this stuff and tell me what you can about it."
"Sure thing, bossman. By the way, any reason ya're naked?"
"Pretty sure my clothes melted inside this thing, but that's also just one more thing I want you to investigate."
Yoshi, meanwhile, seems to be feeling downright sick while you and Nolan were talking.
"What's your power telling you, Yoshi?"
"This stuff is people."
"Huh. Any specifics?"
"No, no, you don't get it, this is people. Like, there's brain structures and nerves inside and everything. This big mass is made of thinking people, and all they're feeling is pain."
"Huh. Neat."
"Hey, you tell the bossman what you been doin' yet?"
"No, I was about to before I realized we're looking at a giant mass of brains made for the explicit purpose of feeling endless pain and despair."
"So, what did you do while I was wrapped in that painball?"
"Do you seriously have to be so flippant about this?"
"Look at the bright side, they're already startig to dissolve. No more suffering for them. Or it, or whatever."
"Ugh, if you have to know, I've been working on those laser rifles, figuring out a few ways to ensure they don't fucking blow up, being fueled by fusion generators and all. That library really made referencing things easier, I'm pretty sure it's got a direct connection to the lab computer, else I have no idea how the search function might work."
Huh. Neat all around, that.
Joining the others downstairs, you're only minimally surprised to see Sarah plugging away at that computer (actual computer) you built, with Nora and Kate sitting at the living room table and discussing one thing or another.
"... and if we added more turrets here, we could- Oh, there you are, Gabe. Had a nice nap?"
"I'd say so, yeah. How long was I out this time?"
"Six days, pretty much. You sure you're okay?"
"Never been better. Got a bag of new powers, in fact. Anything happen I should know before we get to that, or...?"
"We should probably update you on the situation first. Buncha stuff, really."
"Oh, in that case, first thing I wanted to get out of the way, I can go out in the sun now. No all-natural deathrays for me anymore, and maybe also for Kate."
"Huh. That's... good to know, really. I've been experimenting with going out in power armor during the day, Nora was kind enough to lend hers to me, but being outside still sucked even without burning."
"Something to experiment with later. But yes, you wanted to bring me up-to-date?"
"Uh, yeah. Anyone mind if I go ahead?" Kate asks, recieving nods and acceding gestures from the other two.
"Okay, so first of all, the Institute opened communications with us. Those three scientists of theirs are already on building a teleportation beacon that should let them just teleport back and forth, apparently- unless another incident happens that whole issue should be solved just like that."
"We don't talk about the incident."
"Right, right. Next off, those Mechanist bots have mounted two attacks on Sanctuary so far. We've taken to sending our own patrols out to demolish any roving bands of them, and those little bots playing tapes call you the 'Scourge of the Wastes' now."
"Huh. Neat, that. Guess the Mechanist figured out a bunch of their bots are getting demolished and where, but not why. At least they got some awareness of what happens elsewhere?"
"We also had a wave of immigrants into Sanctuary, a lot of which are actually fleeing from the robots. Took a bit to get them to accept our own bots, but it helped they look distinctly different from what the Mechanist uses."
"Sounds like I may need to look into getting a soul for Preston to help him deal with the day-to-day stuff of keeping things running here, then. Do we get enough food and water to feed our growing population, then? How many people are we talking about, exactly?"
"With the amount of production of both you set up, Gabe, we're still far off any real issues on that account. It's only, what, thirty people? Nearly fourty if you count us and the couple kids along for the ride."
"Mhm. All right then, guess that was everything important?"
"Thereabout. We may need a few more computers soon, and that robot dumping ground seems to be pretty empty by now, meaning we'll need a new source of materials if we want to keep building more stuff, though that satellite hangar or whatever we found should do once we got a few more sentry bots built just in case. We didn't want to leave anything to chance, so we've just been working on that in-between hitting up the Mechanist's robots for materials."
Well, that's all good to know. That said, it's probably for the best if you get started on your day; you've missed out on six days' worth of time already, time to get going and do stuff.
Occupying yourself with a swift walkabout inside your inner world, you get through the six fruits that have piled up while you were asleep, as well as have a little talk with several people.
Yoshi's work is in the lab, several fairly clear schematics laid out for your perusal just in case, and you take a moment to look through his other notes, too, while you're at it, mostly ideas on robotics based on your own work and repeated sketches of the insides of a fusion core, feverish scribbles detailing his search for an alternative that doesn't have you put fusion cores literally everywhere.
Hah. As if you would stop, now; you'd continue even if he did find something, just to aggravate him.
A visit to the Dollmaker's has you ascertain he actually finished with the replacement heart for Ivey, and is currently carving out parts of her arm, though very carefully keeping parts of it intact.
He assures you with a wink that keeping parts of the original biological parts around lets him work the best, just before using a buzzsaw to remove a section of her lower arm's bones and replacing them with a small apparatus that clamps onto both ends of the skeletal structure it has access to.
Her screams only intensify, but hey, that's nothing new, and so you leave them to it for the time being.
At least it looks like that powerfist is progressing nicely. Come to think of it, parts of Ivey's chest were metallic, though it looked like the Dollmaker actually deliberately drew the surrounding skin over to cover it.
Anyways, leaving the palace for the time being, you take a deep (unnecessary) breath before just... opening the door and stepping out.
The urge to get right back inside is great, but you persevere nonetheless. It's kind of like...
When you were still alive, and dead asleep, but then the sun shines through your window and burns even through your eyelids. Just like that, just ten times worse.
You can power through it, it's just anything but pleasant.
"Hey Preston, giving you an assistant to help with the whole organization of this place."
"Gabriel, how come you're out and abou-"
"Sorry, not sorry, I overcame my lethal weakness to sunlight, but it's still really fucking irritating."
Simply breathing the soul over to him, you leave Preston to puzzle stuff out by himself as you stumble off to look for that one ex-raider now serving as a Sanctuary-certified engineer. Time to thrall that one insane cowboy-wannabe.
You don't even have the motivation to look around and be satisfied at your minions setting up an actual village through what was obviously heavy use of the BOBs, having assembled several actual buildings, only half of them out of recycled old homes from the suburb you're operating out of.
At least you don't have to look for too long.
"Hee-yah! Hey there bossboy, you already seen my brother-in-arms? We have the same hat and all! It's AAAAAA-MAZINGA!"
"Just... just shut up and let's go inside somewhere."
Why are you so sure this will be a long, long process for you?
"Do we really have to, Gabe?"
"C'mon, Kate, it's just as bad for me, but the sooner we get used to it, the better."
"Fine, fine," Kate agress with a sigh, the test on whether your immunity to the worst of the burn had translated to her own having gone well enough.
"Time to commit to the hardest part of all of this so far... the dread activity of sunbathing. Oh, the inhumanity."
"Y'know, Sarah told me about those war crimes you were committing in that funky world, Thaia or whatever."
"So?"
"Nothing, just wanted to say it."
"Alright, you three, I called you here to try and organize something resembling a work schedule for the souls in here that actually know what they're doing. Mainly as a way to have them be productive in case I actually want something, really."
"In this case, why did you call on me? I would be the first to admit I spent far more effort on the practicalities of war than any intellectual pursuits."
"Just because you're the best of anyone in here in terms of organizing things, which we need someone to do here."
"I swear, this can only end well. Saying it right away."
"Ah, dun' sweat the small stuff, Yo-Yo."
"I told you, don't call me that!"
Completely ignoring Yoshi, Nolan turns towards you. "So, whazza schedule and why's it important?"
Urge to sigh and just give it up rising.
It takes longer than you'd like, but eventually, you've hammered out a rough timeplan that ensures that all your souls of sufficient scientific skills are in the lab a certain number of hours, based on time inside the soul palace to give them some semblance of regularity rather than trying to adjust to real time as you experience it normally.
Phillip insisted on giving them a routine of some sort. Something about the way the human mind works, not that you're about to argue too much on the topic, given your extreme lack of care one way or the other.
Yoshi mainly requires clarification that yes, he can stay in the lab however long he wants, he just has to actually work on the projects you dictate for the time he's scheduled to do so.
Nolan, of course, just sits back and sleeps. Typical, given he's mainly going to be in the dungeons with the Warden anyways.
Still, once that's all done, you keep Yoshi behind for a moment, some issues pertaining to the project currently on your mind needing to be clarified.
"So, you get done with those synth parts?"
"Analyzed and logged in your library, boss. Some of the things can actually stand in for simple nerves, I'm pretty sure, though that's not really my area of expertise."
"Alright. Anything we could implement in our own robots?"
"Eh, kinda? I mean, don't get me wrong, the tech is technically much more intricate, but there's not really much point to it in terms of robotics, I guess. There's better and easier ways to build robots without mimicking human body structure, is all. Maybe if we were trying to construct some kinda vendor bot that has to look human for aesthetics or something."
"Still, see if you can't ready everything we'd need to have the 'bot 'benches produce these parts, just in case they do come in handy down the line."
He just shrugs. "You're the boss."
"Actually, on second thought, you'll get to fiddle things out in a practical setting."
"I am suddenly very alarmed at your expression."
"Oh, not like it makes all that much of a difference."
Leaving your inner world, you waste no time in assembling a little task force to design and produce that new body for Jezebel; you still want that device of hers so things can come to a head with the Mechanist, after all.
Said group consists of Jezebel herself, Yoshi, that one programming nerd you went out of your way to find back home, Imitator and Buffer.
And yourself, of course. Can't forget the brains behind this operation, after all.
"Okay, everyone, time to get to work."
"... and here we go."
"Do you really have to make the outer plating so... curvy?"
"Hey, you said my primitive brain was controlling my actions, your own fault I took the suggestion and ran with it. Bevin, how's the interface coming along?"
"Look, I'm a programming nerd. What I'm not is someone capable of taking a human brain and plugging it into a robot!"
"That was not a report on your progress, Bevin."
"I'm sorry, okay! This isn't easy is all I'm trying to say here!"
Sure it is. Doesn't stop you from poking him on it, though.
Regardless, at the end of the design and construction process, what you have in front of you is a heavily modified assaultron as a base model, just easily identifiable as female, with proper curves and breasts and all, Jezebel's robobrain screwed on top and no weaponry worthy of note installed.
And, of course, a short string of numbers capable of shutting down all non-life-support functionality.
"I have my reservations about this body."
"Too bad nobody asked. Now, you're in your own body, and we even gave it hands. Time to follow up on your side of the deal, and maybe we can find a little time later on to upgrade it with your feedback in mind."
"Yes, yes. I will input the detailed construction method into the robot workbench, given you need to install it into a robot to be used in the first place."
The result of your drone workshop, as Yoshi has decided to call it for some reason, is an improvement on a design colloquially known as 'eyebots', one that you have a bunch of in storage after the protracted wasteland warfare the others conducted while you were cocooning.
Specifically, the changes you implemented concentrated around first improving the optics, letting the thing actually get a decent quality of sight superior to the equivalent of looking through frosted glass without light.
Seriously, for all they're being called eyebots, their eyesight was pretty crap.
Aside from that, the real killer of this occasion was finagling the equivalent of wireless adapters together. Bevin actually came in handy here, apparently much more at home with the equivalent of simple toys than the extremes of posthumanism, though you certainly didn't praise him over it.
Making sure to hook everything up and logging the kind of software this dimension has never before seen once you've booted the computer in your house up, you grin. Looks to be working.
You now have access to all the footage your little drones take, as well as the ability to control them from afar on demand.
Sarah's gonna love this.
Everyone gathers around the institute beacon, the time you asked them to assemble approaching.
"Alright then, everyone ready?"
"Yes, yes." "We made sure to ask them to have someone ready." "Radio's all yours."
Good, good.
"Hello there. Gabriel speaking from Sanctuary."
"This is Institute Control, we got you. A note ahead of time, this conversation is being listened in to on our end."
"Copy that, we're doing the same, in fact. So, with 'official communications' established, let's get to the point, shall we? First off, I wanted to ask how you're planning to get the three stooges here back to the Institute- if you do want them back, anyways. Wouldn't be surprised if you're hesitating."
"Hahah, yeah, that's them, alright. Right now we're working on getting them to assamble a teleport beacon that should, hopefully, let us use our teleporters to just beam them right back to where they came from so they can take their punishment for messing up with the teleporters in the first place."
Forcefully waving them off when they try to complain about their punishment, you nod to yourself. This lines up with what you were expecting.
"Alright. Next off, the Institute is in possession of a lot of advanced technology, some of which would likely be immensely helpful to the people around here. Fuck knows they flocked to Sanctuary once word got around it's relatively protected and has enough food and water. Is there any way we could get you to share blueprints and designs for technology, perhaps in trade for something?"
"Get him to share his computational tech!" "That stuff's insane." ""Yeah, yeah!"
"Huh, alright. I'm not authorized to enter any actual agreements of this kind, but we'll grill the three stooges, as you put it, and get back to you once we've got them back here. In fact, we wanted to thank you about them- without you, they'd likely be dead a dozen times over by now."
"Oh, don't sweat it, it'd be one thing if they were just random wastelanders, but three guys in labcoats are... different enough to be worth investigating in any case."
"No need to be so modest, they actually told us about how you saved them from supermutants only minutes after they fucked up suicidally badly."
Plowing through a few pleasantries and platitudes once you're done with the Institute guy, you excuse yourself and stop broadcasting through the radio device, getting up and looking at everyone that was listening in.
"Well, that went pretty well. Now if you'll all excuse me, I'll be off to uncover the secrets of the universe and control the atmosphere in small and limited ways as I work my way towards being much less limited."
Quietly sitting on the roof of your house, watching the sky as you focus on shaping and moving the masses of gas drifting along and slowly, slowly getting results, you don't move a muscle as Sarah climbs out the window to join you, the souls you summoned to help you train blithely ignored by both of you.
Neither you nor Sarah say a word, just sitting there together and looking up at the sky. It's oddly... peaceful.
A surprising meditative moment that draws out for a long time.
Yes, yes this will do.
"Hey Sarah, wanna cuddle?"
"Mhm."
Hugging your sister close to yourself, you ponder to yourself about how there are worse ways to spend your time.
Much worse. Though you still have to hustle her back inside when dawn threatens to break.
Eating your daily fruit and committing your daily fusion, this time between two of those scouts you ate back in Thule, you exit your inner world to, against your better judgement, go out in the sunshine and grab a bunch of the by now upgraded BOBs to instruct them to refurbish one of the ruined buildings within Sanctuary, then build it outwards in all directions.
And you mean that literally, they are going to dig a decently-sized and fortified basement area, an easy two floors aboveground over the already present ground floor and widen the floor plan by a few rooms besides. You have more than enough materials lying around and those shovel attachments you slapped on the things have to be tested somehow, along with the architectorial modules to let them plan out and fulfill construction orders.
You yourself, meanwhile, shall get back to that drone concept. They're decent already, but they could be getter. Also, you kinda want to see what Geoff can do.
After a few hours of concentrated tinkering, you've got... results. Yeah, the eyebots can now hover higher than eye level, two to three times their previous height, in fact, depending on wind, temperature and other miscellaneous weather conditions that get more temperamental the higher you go.
You also plugged in a simple self-destruct mechanism, essentially bricking the things on demand and melting its insides just to make sure nobody can possibly steal your secrets in case one of these gets captured. The real hammer, though, was Geoff, as the cowboy-wannabe is apparently named, pulling out an interesting little contraption.
"This' a stealth boy, boss. Nifty little mothafucka, can turn ya invis'le for a bit. Figure we can combine these?" The little madman balanced the empty plating of a drone and that stealth boy in both hands as he asked.
And, well, you did, In fact, the drones were filled with so much of your personal attention and technology, they deserved a model name by now, if you had anything to say about it.
Satisfied with your innovations and progress in the field of becoming Big brother (and never has the term be more applicable, given how you then showed off your little spy-drones to Sarah), you send Geoff off with Yoshi and instructions to grab Jezebel, both for her technical expertise and to keep her too busy to get into trouble, to explore the vault right nearby and have Yoshi analyze as much technology down there as possible.
You do remember there being a whole bunch of rather... interesting... cryo-tech down there, as well as that cryo-gun or however it's called, locked away in the clear case mounted on the wall.
A treasure trove of potential technologies, in other words. You, meanwhile, shall busy yourself with randomly flailing your powers about just to see what happens.
Hey, a bit of fun's always a nice change of pace, ain't it?
"Hey Kate, I'm thinking about doing a thing. You want a little more firepower?"
"I'm always up for more shootin'. What you offering?"
"Throwin' a useful soul at you. Guy can materialize any weapon he knows well enough, up to two weapons at once. Includes grenades and molotovs, that kinda shit. Interested?"
"Oh Gabe, you know you always make the best presents. So, how we doing this?"
Wordlessly, you step closer to Kate, embracing her and pressing a deep kiss onto her mouth. Some things don't need words, after all.
Next off, time to make your way towards the place Jezebel told you about as the Mechanist's lair, once you've slapped a few of those M-SATs onto a few of your HAMMERs. Best to have a few backups in case they take losses.
Incidentally, Geoff is incredibly smug for some reason about that little project of his he unveils when you tell everyone what you're doing next and want a group for, showing off a handful of robots with his own original leg-designs allowing them to function as mounts through pretty much any terrain.
Said design makes them look more like mobile weapon platforms than mounts, but you aren't going to complain. At least it's an easy way to traverse large swathes of land without having to slow down overly much for any of your more mortal members, after all.
And no, Geoff, a featureless platform with four identical legs, basic optical sensors like a Mister Handy's on the sides and a railing to make sure you don't fall off isn't the perfect mount. Honestly, you may have to actually help him with these, just to ensure they're up to your standards.
Also, while everyone's getting ready and preparing any equipment they need, you may as well take the opportunity to scout ahead of the main group with your own 'Ride-A-Tronic' (seriously, Geoff, there will be words about what you do later) and try eating some of the mutated wildlife to be found without slowing the rest of the group down once they catch up to you.
"What there! Bwahah! Funny humie!"
Not giving the supermutant you chanced upon time to get out more than that, you launch yourself off your robotic ride, landing on him. To his credit, he remains standing, raising a hand to tear you off himself, but you're biting into his throat long before he has the chance to do so, drinking down the admittedly large amount of blood running through his veins.
Tastes distinct from human blood, which remains your favorite taste. Still, the point of this was to test how your newly expanded diet works in practice.
Jumping off the slowly dropping body, you hop back onto your ride, refusing to call it by Geoff's name. Concentrating a bit, you look inside yourself, where... yes, there's a new subsection of your inner world.
Some kind of... mix between a zoo or menagerie and a dimensional portal just opened, letting you home in on what looks like a seperate eco-system meant just for whatever you eat inside youe current dimension; filled with vegetation like you'd see it locally and a few ruined buildings just like you've been crawling through ever since you first arrived here.
Perfect, in other words, to house stuff like this guy without getting in the way of your usual operations inside the palace.
Thankfully, you don't have to wait overly long for the others to join you, noting Ivey apparently fused with one of your sentry bots, judging by the one arm replaced by a giant power fist, the minigun it was housing before shifted to the right arm instead.
You can't see the fusion core heart, but then, you weren't particularly expecting to, either.
"Everyone here? Good, then let's go."
And with that, you're off to fight the Mechanist.
Steadily making your way towards the east coast as a group while all but ignoring any rough terrain as you go, you idly wonder if you may have overdone it as the third group of raiders is shot down by a mix of sentry bot fire and HAMMERs before they can even really understand what's going on, the last one trying to run downright exploding underneath Ivey's oversized powerfist.
Then again, you have to assume you'll face some actual opposition from the Mechanist, so this was really the minimum of force you could bring to bear. Heck, if you had more time, you would've organized some power armors for the others, maybe, though at least everyone but yourself is bearing one of your laser rifles.
Yes, even Sarah. In fact, you're somewhat worried she isn't protected with enormous amounts of armor, but you just didn't have the time to build a mobile Sarahbot consisting of loads of plate armor interposing itself between herself and the rest of the world.
Which is a shame, really. You'll just have to murder anything looking at her wrong in the meantime, you suppose.
It takes you longer than you'd have liked, but eventually, you arrive along the coastline, following it further east until you're fairly sure the coordinates match up.
A Robco sales & service center. Well, it makes a lot of sense, you suppose; if the kind of facility you were described by Jezebel existed, it may as well be hidden underneath this kinda facade.
Now, how are you going to get the sentries through the door...
Okay, good news, your sentry bots made it in. Bad news, there's a big fat hole where the front entrance used to be, but hey, at least Ivey's power fist keeps on proving useful.
Once inside, you set Mush to taking over the long destroyed leftovers of what used to be a terminal showcase (you've made the things even more obsolete than they already were, how 'bout that) as well as any other useful junk he can find to begin building up a stockplie for himself to use a little down the line.
Speaking of down the line, it takes a little more 'enthusiastic redecoration', but in short order you have the whole group down in the basement as you investigate a strange little device looking a little like...
Look, it's just a strange little device, okay? You can make out that it's meant to receive a specific signal of some kind, but it uses both light, radio and quantum wavelengths to make sure only someone with the right 'key' can trigger it. Seriously, a simple ID-card scanner woul've done the trick instead of this convoluted mess.
Then again, this whole dimesnion is kind of a convoluted mess, technologically, so you really shouldn't be surprised.
Waving one of the HAMMERs closer to acivate the M-SAT mounted on it, you observe as a pattern of light is beamed onto the device, and your alternate sight modes let you confirm there's a subtle frequency of heatwaves in play, too.
Seriously. Just, ugh. There are SO many easier ways to do this.
Still, the M-SAT works as promised, and moments later, the wall next to where your bot is doing it work glides to the side, revealing a secure vault door, or rather a series of such, opening in sequence.
There are so many layers to the thing that it takes a good minute or two, in fact, but before long, you see the other side. You are officially in!
Also, the doors are actually wide enough the sentry bots (including sentry Ivey) can maneuver through to the inside of the hidden facility.
The facility itself is... well, preserved pretty well, compared to everything you've seen up above. First thing you see and pass through is a pretty long hallway, lined with pipes of different sizes slanting slightly downwards, followed by... You guessed it, another security door swiftly unlocked through use of the M-SAT.
Take that, you dicks that designed the security here, and shove your retarded schizo-tech where the sun don't shine. And no, you don't care they've all been dead for centuries, you're still offended by their technology.
What follows after is a little area containing what looks to have been some kind of reception, with the uniformed skeleton of the receptionist still lying where it (presumably) dropped at his workplace, as well as a little locker room area opposite which, well...
You're not sure how to describe it, except as another, smaller hallway, filled with these weird arches positively dotted with laser-emitting protrusions.
"Who wants to bet these thinsg trigger some sorta trap?"
"No bet, boss. I recognize dem thingies- we even used 'em ourselves. I say we RIDE RIGHT THROUGH!"
Restraining the crazed wannabe cowboy with one hand to keep him from doing anything unwise, you think about how to get through this. On the one hand, yeah, you could just send a few of your more expendable party mebers through, but maybe you could find another way to pass...?
"Alright, IF we're doing this, we're doing it with the most expendable and easily fixed meatshields available. Meaning... Zombies, line up!"
The next, oh, half hour or so is spent simply sending a zombie into what amounts to fancy laser tripwires, repeatedly triggering a variety of... interesting, traps the Mechanist presumably left in place.
Flamethrowers, laser beams, presumably short-lived waves of radiation and more are hidden along and in the walls, activating every time one of the triggering mechanisms gets tripped. The mirelurk shells you slapped onto the supermutants do some nice work, keeping the worst of the brunt of the damage off the squishier undead flesh underneath, though you still end up having to modify all of your undead several times as they slowly but surely accrue actual damage.
Even those shells have to buckle under enough concentrated energy eventually, though you at least don't lose any of your undead. Still end up with a few too many unarmored parts for your liking, continually replacing pieces from elsewhere across their bodies, but they'll just have to do.
At least you're through now.
By the time the entire group has made its way through the trapped corridor, you've had a little time to take a look at what comes next. Which, as it happens, is a room, one of its walls consisting of metal lattices behind which you can glimpse an enormous, cavernous space, a little movement visible here and there thanks to the way you ignore insufficient levels of light.
Also, yet another security door to be unlocked through the use of an M-SAT. Seriously, if the first two didn't stop a potential intruder, why would this third one do the trick? It just mystifies you.
Potentially more interesting, however, is the door leading right back, looping to a strip of what might have once upon a time been monitoring equipment for the walk of pain, as Kate was joking while you were repeatedl chanting the ridiculously, annoyingly long chant required to shape your undead back together, running parallel to the hallway.
A few of the terminals even still look to be in workable condition, but somewhat more interesting is a wall-mounted one, in a branching little side area... right next to what looks like an equally functioning elevator of all things.
... A quick check shows that no, of course it won't be that easy. The elevator needs to be activated via the terminal, apparently, and the terminal is locked until and unless it's unlocked by at least three senior employees' voices.
... Did you ever mention you're quite exasperated at the security measures in this place? Because you are. You really, really are.
A little further digging through the other terminals reveals the entire facility is in security lockdown mode, not surprising you in the least. Looks like the Mechanist did secure this place as best they could, huh?
Anyways, time to move on. Sending one of your M-SAT HAMMERs to work, you wait until the obnoxiously long unlocking sequence is done with.
Entering the next room, walls, floor and ceiling made of simple concrete and full of various odds and ends, most likely miscellaneous leftovers of whatever else is located further in, you...
Wait a sec, that isn't random trash, though it looks a lot like it is. You recognize those outlines- these are robots made by the mechanist. Why would they simply lie here, discarded and unmoving?
Next thing you know, they start moving. Ah.
"Watch out, bots around!" Pretty clever, to have them hidden like that, simply throwing more junk onto where they're hiding.
One of them, though, is an eyebot, the exact same kind you were told the Mechanist used to spread messages by sending them out with her other bots and later used as a base for your drones. You remember taking out the holotape and everything that let it play them when doing so.
Because this one has all of that, and it's playing a message, for you, even.
"So the Scourge of the Wasteland has finally deigned to intrude upon my sanctum. Fear not, evildoer, The Mechanist is perfectly willing to face you with all his might! Come, my brave robot companions, and let us put an end to this plague!"
Well, so that is... a thing, then. In just that moment, the robots throwing off their junk disguises, you hear the clanking and clacking of more robots from further in- looks like the Mechanist's pulling out all the stops, then. Just looking to drown you in robots.
Too bad you came prepared, huh?
"Zombies up front, fight the robots! Our own robots behind, everyone else behind them! Time to get this party started!"
What happens next, as though waiting for your signal to start, is a heated firefight, with lasers flying everywhere, zombies charging into said lasers to tackle down robots, your own robots unloading wave after wave of shots, Ivey just laying covering fire onto the exit to the room to keep more robots from coming in unchallenged until they begin using each other as shields, Mush stretching his armored tendrils to snatch bots up and, of course, your more or less human companions steadily shooting at all the robots they can see.
It's sheer pandemonium in here.
As for yourself, you just eye that eyebot that announced all of this happening.
"Please, bitch, I'm the one stopping your armies of murderbots of wiping out literally all the settlements." With a sigh at the sheer amount of effort you're unnecessarily expending here, you chant Freeze this thing so it may not move!, watching it simply drop to the ground with satisfaction before turning towards the other robots.
Really, at it would've taken was some basic quality control before letting those robobrains waltz right out of here. Why is it that things always have to be so hard with these people?
It takes you quite a bit longer than you'd like, but eventually the destroyed junk piles up to the point the incoming robots simply can't get into the room, at which point you wave forwards Mush, who has kept growing throughout the encounter.
"Just push eveyrthing forwards hard enough and it'll fuck up anything on the other side."
Doing as you ordered, the moving mountain of trash presses against the mundane mountain of trash, shoving it into the once again downward-slanting hallway beyond. Listening closely, you can make out a decent few sources of sound that entirely cease making noise by themselves, instead joining the resounding crashing rush of the trashheap.
You have to get Mush to shift the junk back upwards to make enough room to actually get down yourselves, but soon enough, you're in what looks like... some kinda mix between a research area, robotics workshop and general storage? Eh, you're not gonna start questioning exactly how they were using these places now of all times. You already got enough stupid shit to rant about if you were so inclined, thank you very much.
Somewhat more immediately interesting, though, is the floating junkbot that apparently just hid back here while the others died, beeping and booping at your HAMMERs before joining their ranks for some reason when they beep back.
Oookay. You, uh, honestly have no idea how to react to that.
"Well, shit." Leaving aside the robotic turncoat for the time being, it looks like next off are some office spaces, nothing interesting in plain view... except, of course, the fucking emplacement surrounding what looks like the stairs leading further onwards.
Seriously, a good dozen bots on the ready, with more reinforcements doubtlessly waiting in the wings already and weapons trained in your direction, protected by a bunch of furniture and metal plates thrown together into actual barrikades.
This'll be somewhat of a tougher nut to crack.
"Alright, give me a second, guys." Turning towards the destroyed robots paving your way in so far, you extend your claws and begin tearing into them. The Mechanist's creations, while specifically cheaply made to save on costs in terms of materials, still need to be driven on just like any other robot, meaning that with a bit of dedicated effort, you soon have a few fusion batteries (basically fusion cells meant for robots) lying before you.
It's the work of a moment to bend a little bit of metal to carry them, and another to pierce them with your claws to turn them into a proper payload. The things are pretty robust, so they won't just explode all of a sudden, but if your knowledge of physics and the way they work is correct... Well, all you need now is an igniting charge.
Luckily, you got some magic hands... That can be electric on demand.
Sticking two fingers into the opening you left, you fire a full blast of electricity through them, once you've had your robots retreat to the other side of the room or just back up outside the room entirely. Leaning around the corner, you lob your improvised EMP-grenade over the barricades, triggering a multitude of beeps, boops, clanks and clonks but aside from a few quick laser shots you deftly dodge back around the corner, the robots don't react much, unwilling to abandon their fortifications.
Next thing they know, a wave of electricity spews forth from your little grenade, entirely frying any electric systems near where you threw and severely affecting the rest.
"Everyone, NOW!"
Overwhelming the rattled defenders is the work of moments, and though more robots stream in from the surrounding offices, your group can make its way behind the barricades faster than they can gather, meaning you're now using their own fortifications against them. Kate seems to be having the time of her life as you do so, enthusiastically shooting any enemy robots showing their frontplates with a satisfied grin.
Within minutes, though, it's over... for now, anyways.
"Man, that was a nice rush. Why don't we do shit like this all the time, Gabe?"
"Because normally, nobody's both good enough to build a robot army and dumb enough to send it against us. Now c'mon, let's see what else the Mechanist's prepared for us."
Ascending the stairs and avoiding the loads of trash lying everywhere, you come upon a small balcony to the side of a small set of stairs leading onwards... looking out to a vast factory floor, conveyor belts dominating it down below and metal walkways leading through it on both sides, though what actually, truly has your attention are the masses of robots being ferried by the (most likely electro-)magnetic conveyor belts on the ceiling.
Oh, never mind, they started dropping down and beeping at you the moment they saw you.
Whelp.
"Alright, fuck it. Fighting retreat, everyone! Ivey, Mush, you go in front, keep on taking anything you can use! Everyone else, focused fire as we keep on moving!"
Trusting Phillip to coordinate everyone's efforts, you step forwards, moving to get Ivey between you and the horde of angry robots. The group as a whole begins to slog through a sea of laser fire, lightning and the occasional slug thrower, a steady stream of robots coming for you.
As you retreat back towards where you came from, using your two sturdiest members as shields, you note that Mush seems to be at a stalemate right now; for every robot and piece of scrap he incorporates, another piece of his already present body is torn, shorn or otherwise ripped off through the sheer volume of fire directed towards you.
He's still better off that Ivey, however, as while she can incorporate technology, she's fairly slow in doing so by comparison, and though the supernatural toughness conferred to her by her armor does translate to an even tougher Sentrivey, a few shots can still penetrate, and they're accumulating fast.
Beep-Boop
Cla-Cla-Clank
Well shit, now they're coming from behind, too. Fucking Mechanist must've kept some in reserve for just this occasion! The backline of your group turns around, concentrating on taking down this new threat, but that just ups the pressure on the meatshields. You need a solution, and fast!
Alright, fuck it, this calls for the big guns.
"Everyone but Mush, get at the ones behind us, we need them cleaned out! Ivey, desummoning you! Arend, fry them!"
Not wasting any more breath, you concentrate on changing forms, letting the magic suffusing you break out and envelop you for the first time in... a long while.
Within moments, your form is replaced with your monstrous, demonic self, crouching a little to fit into the hallway. Entirely silent, you grip the ground before yourself, launching off towards the horde of robots, idly wondering if you can't teach cold circuit boards the meaning of fear.
What came next was a continuous haze of nonstop combat, your body blurring onwards right into the great mass of perpetually replenishing foes.
Clawswipe, jump to the side, turn to bite down on a flyer while your tail throws a few to your side into the next wall. Jump into the largest group of them amassing, grab a large one, use it as a club to smash the others.
Throw weapon at group coming in, keep them back for a sec, vault onto a robobrain, tear head off, throw head at flyer trying to sneak past. Grab robobrain body, body vibrating, throw explosive at group now coming in.
Enage electricity, jam claws in, destroy, drain electricity to recharge, throw at easy target or build up barricade. Jump on ceiling, jump off again for increased impact, grab, drag along wall. Use tail to grab onto something and change direction while weightless, building up momentum.
You simply kept going, trashing robot after robot, over and over and over again. They tried to shoot at you, but the extreme speed at which you kept moving and junking them ensured any damage on your end was kept to a minimum.
The robots, meanwhile, began to have trouble keeping up with your carnage, simply not being transported in fast enough to replace the ones you destroyed.
Eventually, you had enough robot carcasses piled up to move onto the next part of your plan. Balling up a bunch of the smashed up robots really quick, you rammed your ball of blockage into the opening of the robot mag-train nearest to you, neatly holding up the robot that's about to come in next.
You kept on fighting, smashing up more and more robots, had to be a few hundred by this point, though most were pretty simple flyers easy to dispatch, but a few quick looks prove the robots can't come through your improvised robot factory constipation.
Perfect. Repeat a few more times and you win. Hopefully before your time runs out.
With a last mighty shove, you lodged the last crunched robot ball in the last opening, thereby sealing off all direct routes for the robots to receive reinforcements.
Not a moment too early, too, as you began shrinking down into your usual form immediately afterwards.
Shaking your head a little, you take a look around, verifying you properly sealed up all the magtrain entrances around the factory floor. Turning towards where the others are standing, you tilt your head.
"What took you guys so long?"
Only to be silenced by Sarah throwing herself at you, hugging you with all her (not inconsiderable) strength.
"Don't frighten me like that, you asshole."
You just pat her head for a while.
Calming Sarah down like the professional at it you are (you don't raise a kid without getting used to this kinda thing), you're eventually allowed to move again, though Sarah ends up clinging to you for a while.
It's alright, nothing you haven't dealt with before.
"So, everyone make it through alright?" You ask Kate.
"Yup, a few of the bots got a dent or two and a bunch of scorch marks from the lasers, but we managed just fine. That said, you never told me your demon thingy form was this awesome."
"Heh. You just keep on eating well, maybe you'll pick one up for yourself down the line. So, let's keep going, guys."
And thus you set off into the darkness of the factory floor and whatever lies beyond.
A series of underground hallways, walkways, exasperating security doors, dead ends, destroyed walls allowing you alternate pathways and trashed rooms most of which led ever deeper downwards later, you arrive at the next larger section of this labyrinthian underground complex; a bunch of flooded facilities containing storage shelves and lockers leading onwards.
Of course, you had to fight your way past more robots, a bunch coming at the group from behind at the security doors and forcing a fight and more waiting on the other side, aside from the occasional bot on the way.
Anyways, none of them were too big an issue, so now the group is stomping through ankle-high water sitting here probably since the bombs fell.
Man, all this trash's been soaking in this shit for centuries, too. The fact there's even some of that paper left by now probably says something about the manufacturing process, and you're none too sure what.
"Is it just me, or does this look like the perfect setup for a horror movie all of a sudden?"
"If anything, we're the monsters in that equation, so I wouldn't be too worried."
Kate's concerns addressed (or as close as you're going to get anytime soon), you bid the others to stop when the newest room you enter contains a railway of all things, clogged by trash and debris as it may be on one side.
Looking in the direction still passable, you see...
Well, that is a pretty expansive room you can see, peering past the wagon containing a bunch of scrap. A pretty expansive room filled to the brin with mountains of trash and debris, the kind that has you worry and double-check for any recognizable robot silhouettes after the first 'ambush' pulled off like that.
And you see what you're looking for. En masse, at that.
On the other hand, though, this used to be a robot factory, and it wouldn't surprise you if this was some sort of mass robot assembly or repair area.
No, much more worrying than the dozens of robots that may or may not get up and start firing at any moment is the movement you can make out towards the further reaches of the trash landscape.
That is a lot of movement. If you had to guess, the Mechanist just stationed a decent amount of robots right here, the room's big enough to have them make use of their numbers and they do have a sorta natural camouflage in the environment.
You'll need a plan. You're pretty sure those are several robobrains you can see moving back there, and an untold amount of smaller robots.
"Alright guys, there's a bunch of bots deeper in there, but before we start shooting, let me try something."
You'll want to stay (relatively) safe as you do this, so you may as well break out a brand new power of yours... specifically, the ability to turn into a swarm of bats.
Just transforming a bit of your arm for now, you close your eyes for a moment as you acclimatize to also being ten bats in addition to yourself, all of them nearly blind but instead already making use of their echolocation to orientate themselves. On the other hand, they just kinda... emerge from the skin on your arm, leaving yourself like you were beforehand.
Looks like you can transform, to an extent, without actually losing any of your own parts. Handy, that.
"Does that feel weird when you do it?"
"Pretty weird, yeah. I think the normal thing to do here would be to just turn into bats in full, instead of just partially like this. Would make it easier to keep track of what's going on when all your sensory organs are the same, at least."
As you explain the sensation to Nora, your little swarm spreads out a bit, staying as silent and unseen as possible. Taking a closer look at the opposition, while you see many flyers similar to the bulk of the forces you've encountered so far, they're not in the majority for once, loads of what you recognize to be assaultron- and protectron-based robots. And, of course, the trio of robobrains, presumably present to command the horde.
Oh, and a small cloud of eyebots. Looks like the Mechanist really is pulling out all the stops and just throwing anything they have at you, huh?
"Alright, Arend, I want you to shoot as much lightning as you can in that direction, on my signal, okay? Good."
Ignoring the minion in favor of concentrating on the important things in unlife, you maneuver your bat-selves over to where you need them to hit the hard targets, a few landing on the robobrains while the rest splashes into the water near them.
Now, you manage to find out a few things during the next few moments. One, the amount of electricity you can output with you little bat claws is much less that with your actual claws, you can perfectly make up for it with numbers, though you also can't exceed what you can do normally this way by using up all of your charge, either, though you can unload all of it at once with a few bats.
Secondly, you're immune to your own electricity even when it's being conducted by water surrounding you, meaning you don't accidentally fry any of your bat-selves. You were expecting this to be the case based on previous findings, though it's good to have it confirmed.
Thirdly, while the robots you're targeting are pretty robust all around, they can still be fried with sufficient amounts of electricity applied, and the water really helps on that account.
Oh, also, hearing what's going down with both your bat-selves and your 'real' body at once is weird.
All your bodies jumping away from the suddenly vibrating robots, you gleefully watch (or 'watch', given you're using strategic echolocation to keep your bearings) as the explosions blow up a few nearby robots nearby.
At the same time, Arend's surge of electricity jumps forth from in front of him, targeting the biggest cluster of flying bots, bolts of energy jumping from one to another and decisively shutting them off, by and large.
Leaving only a bunch of robots of various kinds, half the fliers left and a load of trash the only thing between you and them.
Also, of course, now they're all coming towards you.
"Alright, everyone fire on the fliers, Arend, you electrify the water on the ground!"
Moments later, battle is joined and by that you mean a disorganized mob of robots bears down on you. The first ones to come within reach are the flying ones, their mode of movement letting them ignore the vast masses of trash lying everywhere and open fire with the various weapons installed as their arms even as fire is returned by your own people, using the zombies and a rapidly growing Mush as shields the best they can.
Arend, meanwhile, has started casting a more sustainable spell, a line of electricity going from his staff straight towards where the bots will be coming from in just a moment- strong enough to hopefully reliably hinder or even permanently stop them, but not strong enough to be an issue to your group or tire him out too fast.
Also, interesting that his control over his magic allows him to keep it from coming towards you. You don't have the time to really ponder on that, though; you got some magic to cast yourself.
Freeze this thing so it may not move!
Hey, it works to actually freeze the water around the spot you aim at. All you need now is to keep going to make the surface as uneven as possible while aiming for incoming robots' legs.
In the end, the fight, while fairly brutal as far as these things go, doesn't take too long; you manage to shut down a decent chunk of the enemy down before they can enter effective range of their weapons while your shooters tend to outdo them quite handily.
That said, that small cloud of eyebots does begin to play another message in unison midway through, though you promptly ignore it for the most part.
"It would seem you are quite insistent, Scourge! However, I and my robot allies shall not be defeated, not on this day nor on any other, for we fight for the people of the Commonwealth, and this striving for justice is what shall see us prevail!"
All such claptrap.
You do lose a few gibbles of zombie flesh to stray shots, and Mush's trash takes a beating, but overall, your losses are quite... acceptable. Biggest deal is one of the HAMMERs' weapon becoming unusable after it takes a laser shot, but getting that repaired shouldn't take long.
Once all enemies are down, your group proceeds onwards, carefully checking to make sure you're not being ambushed by any more bots. In short order, you make your way through the room by accessing the exit actually located above where you entered, using Mush's body to climb up after having him tear off the sheet of metal covering it.
A few more hallways, security doors (man, that M-SAT really did speed this up, in retrospective) and rooms, sparsely populated by a few more robots, and you arrive at somewhat of a split in the path in another more open room, with two walls made of metal grates... and an opening in the same.
To your right, leading back into more concrete rooms you can see a placard declaring what lies onwards to be the Research Wing, while on your left there are several metal walkways leading off into a big central room you've seen through a few metal grates before.
Choices, choices...
Waving everyone else along, you lead them towards the left, a ramp constructed of more metal walkways leading ever downwards in a wide spiral making full use of the circumference of the room. You're pretty sure, you see movement down on the ground as you go, but there's nothing to be seen by the time you arrive.
Well, looks like you guessed right, after all. Setting foot on the concrete floor all the way down, you approach a wide pane of glass, its bottom beginning about two meters above the ground.
You're looking up at a costumed figure, a vaguely robotic-looking 'armor' shrouding their features.
"Well, well, well. The Mechanist, I presume?"
"You would assume correctly, villain."
"...Ok no, stop, we are going to sit down and talk like goddamned adults-"
"Wha-"
"-because this whole situation is so incredibly stupid I feel like its evidence that god exists and he is just fucking around."
"Wait a-"
"First off, your robots? They have been slaughtering innocent people all over the wasteland, me and my troops are the only reason the new settlements around Sanctuary have not been slaughtered by your army of killing machines. Did it never occur to you to monitor their actions in any way!?"
"No, no, wait a second. I ordered them to help people, why would they kill people that aren't raiders?"
"Basic logic error. The robobrains decided that the best way to 'help' people is to kill them all straight away."
"No, but- god, that makes far too much sense. Dammit, I knew I should've gone full hog on formulating their orders."
Sighing, a strange sound through the voice modulator apparently built into the helmet, the figure on the other side of the glass reaches for something, the omnipresent vibration you'd noticed once you set down on the actual ground in this room ceasing.
"Suppose I should apologize, then. Do you mind coming on up, first? It's really hard to understand people through all of this stuff, and the helmet doesn't help, admittedly."
One of the metal panels making up the walls next to the glass opening falls off the wall at that, revealing itself to be a ramp meant to access what lies behind it. Nodding, you bid your own robots to stay behind for a moment, along with most of your companions save Sarah, Kate and Nora.
Time to get up close and personal.
Entering a room filled to the brim with robobrains typing away at little terminals with little miniature arms and hands presumably made for that specific purpose, you ignore them in favour of observing the Mechanist.
Who, as it happens, has taken off her helmet and is currently wrangling with her costume.
"Man, this whole superhero idea sure didn't work out, huh? Um, name's Isabel. Isabel Cruz. Nice to meet you, I suppose."
Shaking her hand, you automatically respond.
"Gabriel, pleasure to meet you."
"Yeah, word of advice, superhroics suck in real life, as you already found out. Doesn't mean you can't still do good, though."
It is at this point that you use your telepathy to speak to the girls at your side.
Mind taking over in a sec? Point is to subvert her and get this facility working for us.
"In fact, I myself am the leader of a growing settlement to the northwest from here, Sanctuary, and I figure you could make up for the people you accidentally killed by working together to make the Commonwealth just a little safer."
"I- I think I'd like that. We still have this whole pre-war factory, we may as well use it for good, right?"
Mhmm. Looks like she was relying on that helmet to hide her insecurities, huh? You can work with that.
"Hey Gabe, why don't you go take a look at the damage to the factory, see if we can help fix it up a little or something while us girls have a talk?"
Ah, Sarah. Still with all the verbal subtlety of a sledgehammer, and just as effective.
"Sure, why not. Do we have a map of the facility here somewhere, so I can take Geoff and the others to see about fixing or at least cleaning up a bit?"
"Oh, uhm, yes, there's a map here by the back. Would you three like to, uh, come to my room?"
Aww, she thinks they may become her friends. How cute.
And hoo boy, this is just the central section of the underground facility, you're pretty sure you barely saw half of it on your way down. This may take... quite a bit of time, huh?
You may need to create a big abomination just to move all the wrecked robots you left on your way in, not to mention the debris filling up so very much of this place.
But for now, you can at least rest easy in the full knowledge that this facility isn't spitting out more and more bots to be thrown at you. Instead, you can throw them at your enemies now!
It didn't need much effort for your models to prepare everything you needed them to, thankfully, simply requiring a clean cloth and both of them to pose for a moment, the scene permanently burned into your mind just the same everything else that you've experienced ever since you rose from the grave is.
Of course, you don't simply leave it like this, but the reference image is quite helpful as you use what supplies you have available to sketch out a scene; A Maid body and the Siren, meeting at the riverside for a pleasant picnic.
Of course, the seemingly nice scene is quite dissonant with the fact that the river is made of blood, you went ahead and added the outlines people the Siren is drowning with the tentacles not currently holding her teacup (and staining it with the omnipresent blood on her lower body), them desperately struggling for air, said desperation visible on the few faces to be made out, as well as the bloody whip resting by the Maid's thighs as she sits, the whipped naked slaves chained to the trees in the background contrasting nicely with the happy smiles on the two manifestations of the palace' smiles.
Yeah, this is a work you can be proud of. Why, you'd almost say it's one of your best so far! All the small, unimportant details in the background really work to bring out the actually interesting parts of your models.
At a later time, after the Master has already left the Residence, Maid silently approaches the Workshop, stroking the work surface to silence its grumbles at being a little untidy at the moment.
Wordlessly promising it to clean it up later, Maid reverently picks up the Master's latest work, her eyes shining at being thought of so highly to be subject of His passions.
She would have to show it to Siren before securing it safely in her secret rooms.
Leaving your latest work in the workshop, where you were drawing it, you have the nearby Maid body bring you over towards the library, your first time actually entering the place for yourself.
It's a seemingly endless room, filled with rows upon rows of books, meticulously sorted and labeled. Remembering the descriptions of this place, you step towards one of the bookshelves.
"Could I have the memories of those that used to be here, but aren't anymore?"
Almost before you've finished talking, a shudder runs through the shelf, before the books recede into it, only to be replaced by other books entirely.
Picking up 'A Guide To A Successfull Workplace', you leaf through what you soon realize are the memories of that one soul, Kerry, you first lent to Kate and later just gave to Henley. Specifically, detailed here are the memories she had about work, and how she detested the people working with her as parts of the merchants back when she was alive, all the ways they could've done better, etc.
Looking over the books, her memories are divided into more technical and instructional parts and her personal memories, touching upon each other in practice but detailed in different books for ease of reference, further subdivided into different categories such as 'childhood memories' and 'The Successfull Lie'.
Looks like people really can fill books if you take everything about them. Of course, all of this is also summarized in a single bookband, 'All Things Kerry'.
Looking over everything the library has to offer you, you really did give away quite a few souls, huh?
Now then, your curiosity sated for the time being, it is time you go on ahead and proceed with the next experiment.
Meaning, time to fuse a dude to that supermutant you ate and see what happens. For this prestigious role you have chosen one of those soldiers you ate in Thule (and man, the sheer amount of them you ate makes them pretty useful whenever you need some fodder for stuff like this).
Notifying the Maid which one you want, orientating yourself based on taste as you often do where the faceless mooks you ate are concerned, you have her bring yourself over, too.
Standing back where you started just a little while ago, you wait for your subjects to arrive, the Siren poking out of the bloody river with a disgruntled expression.
"Is anything the matter?"
"There is, but it can wait until the usual business is done with, mylord."
Hoo boy, something really got her panties in a twist.
Still, before long, both the unlucky wretch you're using for this and the green giant arrive, the latter of which busy trying to eat the Maid... and failing quite handily.
You sigh.
"Let's just get this over with so I can get to fixing whatever's wrong with the river."
Both Maid bodies nod, before physically grabbing the two souls and throwing them inside the Siren's domain... quite the amusing sight, given the supermutant is approximately twice the size of a Maid.
What comes flying out of the river this time is a half-naked green giant, muscled just as much as what came in, but with the features of the man involved, hands and face just a little finer and much better defined.
"So, you still in there?"
"I- I am. Ugh... What'd you do to me? My head..."
Ignoring the successfull fusion, you turn back towards the Siren.
"So, what's going on?"
"Mylord, a group of inmates is staying upriver, polluting the water's purity with their... fluids. Might'nt I trouble thee to have them removed?"
"Alright, I'll go have a look."
Wandering upriver, you soon come upon the disturbance the Siren was talking about; five of your souls, four of them even fused ones, which would handily explain how they even knew about this place, busy gangbanging that one female fusion you made out of a male and female soul.
Well, you honestly don't give a fuck, but at least they're not raping her, the act of doing so not physically possible inside your inner world, you still need them to do this elsewhere.
"Hey you fuckwits, don't fuck around near the river. Weird shit can happen if you do."
"Pleashhe, fuck meee!"
"I won't, you slut, and neither will anyone else if I end up throwing you into the dungeon for solitary confinement until I need you."
"Bwut we godh powehs from dhis!"
"Could you idiots stop fucking her while I'm talking? That wasn't a suggestion, by the by." Forced by your command to stop what they're doing, the pleasure-drunk souls take a few steps back, none of them daring to look in your eyes now that they realize who you are.
"Better. Now, what's this about powers?"
"We got, uhm, powers a few hours after we started, sir."
You sigh. Just your fucking luck they would do this and risk being melted into the river or something but actually strike it lucky instead.
"How are you even here, Skidmark? I thought I left you in the Warden's care!"
"I was let out for good behaviour, sir. A 'reward' for going 'with the program', I believe. Also, would it trouble you to please refer to me as 'Sebastian', instead? I have come to identify with this name much more than any previous one."
You just facepalm. You really don't want to have to deal with this shit.
Rattling off your list of new 'projects' for the Warden (and Nolan, you suppose) to take care of, you leave the rest to the Maid and the guy himself as you return to physical reality, mentally running through the List Of Things To Get Done At Some Point.
Well, one obvious item to scratch off that list would be those 'Ride-A-Tronic's.
Yes, it is high time you had a talk with Geoff about those things.
"HEY boss, whazzup?"
"You and me, Geoff, we're about to have a talk. Together with a few of the others."
Geoff just keeps grinning.
Finishing up with your improvements to Geoff's design (and giving it a superior name, not that anyone agreed it was strictly better), you bid everyone farewell, ordering Yoshi to go scrounge up a few robot parts and apply the changes to your current batch of the things, even as you signal Isabel to stay for a moment.
"Uhm, what is it? Oh, before you go ahead, I really, really wanted to apologize for what I did. The others told me about how much of a menace my robots have been."
"Don't worry about it. You didn't intend for them to go around shooting anything in sight, and now that we have the situation under control again, we can see about making up for the damage you did."
"Mhm. By the way, I've already changed the factory's settings so any new robots we make here won't obey any of the robobrains already out there. Do you think it'd make sense to keep on producing more robots for now?"
"I think it'd be better if you waited on that for a bit. While having more bots around would be nice, the materials would be better used once we have time to program my own designs in."
"So they really are yours? That's amazing! I only really ever re-used designs already there. The furthest I went into orginial work was the tankbots, and those were really just roobrain bodies, just bulked out."
"Oh, don't sell yourself short. You singlehandedly got a centuries-old factory operational again without any instructions or anything."
"Oh, it's really not all that impressive. It was basically just repeated trial-and-error until something worked. With the whole factory in place, I had as many tries as I could have wanted. If anything, it just shows how I can't do anything by myself without some way to show me how to do it, and even then, I still fucked up by trusting the robobrains.
Heck, even the whole Mechanist persona I was using was just stolen from some old pre-war comic books. You know, with superheroes and stuff. It's what inspired me to try being a superhero myself in the first place."
Sighing, she rubs the back of her head. Ah well, looks like a distraction's in order, and look, you were planning to do this at some point, anyways!
"Actually, what'd you say about actual superpowers for yoursellf? Who knows, stuff might work out for you in the end."
"Wait a sec- Really?"
"Yep, I can give actual superpowers. Didn' the others tell you?"
"They mentioned to ask you about something in that direction, but they never- Are you for real?"
"Absolutely and completely. All we need is a bit of time and you not having a weak stomach."
Isabel gulps. "Not too sure about that second requirement."
"Alright, I don't like being out in the sun, but whatever. Let's keep searching until we find something to practice on, everyone."
And by 'everyone', you really only meant Nora, you just decided to try being inclusive as you kept your souls summoned in advance. Time to practice your hemokinesis on live targets.
Adapting the basic VI used for most robots around here for use with your TORPIDs was somewhat of a challenge, requiring you to rely on the knowledge of your souls for a bit, but eventually, you get the pathfinding to stop sucking for even small distances and integrate the ability to ignore and even use obstacles on its path.
Also, actually aiming those lasers. Can't forget those.
Still, you're done and it's about to be nighttime. Perfect time, in other words, to get a move on.
"Wait a moment, I'll unlock the freight lift so we can go straight outside instead of going through the whole factory. Uhmm... May need to get creative with the door outside up there, though- I think there used to be some way to open up the wall to move large amounts of material through, but I never got it to work."
"Oh, don't worry about that- I can be quite creative whan it comes to opening stubborn doors."
"Also, do I really have to come along? Couldn't I just... stay here?" Isabel finishes lamely, willing to come along but nevertheless hesitant to leave what has become her trusty home.
More an issue of confidence again, given you're leaving a bunch of robots behind just in case.
"Of course you have to, how else can we keep on working on designs together? Just think of it as a change of pace until we get everything we need to get the facility up and running better than ever before done."
It took a bit to get everyone settled in once you arrived and made sure Sanctuary hadn't blown up in your absence, but before long, the TORPIDs were sitting near the edge of the settlement in standby mode and Isabel, it was decided after a short discussion, would live in your house, as she's only staying temporarily anyways.
You, of course, kept on training throughout the night, largely ignoring Sarah sitting in your lap to use you as furniture and the jokes at Isabel's expense traded between your three lovers.
Now that the sun's coming up, though, you take a moment to think about your current overall situation. Things are coming along just fine; Sanctuary's growing, the Mechanist is no longer a threat and there's no indication of any other threats on the horizon.
Time to formulate a plan for what you'll do in the short to mid term. You have a lot of training to get through, especially after your latest cocoon-stint, and there's a lot of things to get done for your growing network of small settlements. May as well think things through now that you have a moment to breathe.
Okay, scavenger bots. Based on your previous roll, you have 84 points for it.
Internal sorting mechanism, letting it take more junk with it (2 points)
Extendable feet spikes, letting them climb vertikal surfaces when need (caution, do not use when carrying heavy or delicate loads) (3 points)
Aesthetics (1 point)
Internal storage compartment for BATs (drone bots) (2 points)
Add to BAT network, letting them use information gained by drones to seek out valuable/high-priority junk (4 points)
Deconstructor beam (basically just a focused, sustained laser beam meant to cut apart large pieces of steel or similar for transportation) (3 points)
Replace basic laser weaponry with high-calibre lasers (2 points)
Internal Sorting Mechanism 2
Add to BAT Network 4
Internal BAT storage 2
Deconstructor Beam 3
Aesthetics 1
The next five days were spent on a wide variety of training, mostly; you oftentimes stayed inside and trained away whenever you didn't need to go outside for a particular training.
You made significant progress, too, both in terms of general powers and your cryomancy. The latter, in particular, found some great use during this time period; a small band of raiders Sarah had alerted you to through the drone network she'd taken to overseeing and directing made some very close acquaintance with your ice beam.
Turns out humans aren't meant to be subjected to sudden, immense cold flash-freezing parts of their bodies out of nowhere. Though trying out your Barrage spell was also quite fun; the razor-sharp icicles figuratively cut the two survivors of the beam into ribbons with the sheer number of them you could call forth at once.
In the meantime, you'd taken to delegating most tasks regarding your developing little power base to Preston. The little guy seemed to be so keen on it, he may as well put in some work, not that he had the decency to be appropriately chagrined at all the work you had him do.
What this meant was that someone was around to actively organize things as sixteen new settlers came to Sanctuary, attracted by the continued broadcast from your radio beacon. They seemed to be rather gobsmacked by the structures and robots in place, not that you particularly cared- most of them arrived sometime during the day, and you weren't too keen on playing welcome committee under the sunshine.
Aside from that, he'd apparently arranged for some of the new people under your control to be sent towards Tenpines Bluff and your mirelurk farm, along with a few robots constructed expressively for this purpose, joining those places as additional farmers, guards and generally whatever.
Look, there's a reason you left it all to Preston, alright?
Incidentally, he also left a report for you about a place called Abernathy Farm, apparently some kind of family farm that stayed around for more than a single generation, making it stand out from most other dirt farmers in the area, joining your little realm once Preston convinced them you had taken out the raiders that murdered their daughter or something.
What this meant was that Preston sent out more bots and a pair of people, turning a pretty massive amount of land into more farmland. Of course, with the sheer amount of farming bots being output on his orders, you had access to far more simple food than your peasants could ever eat before it goes bad, so after a short discussion with you and your little council of wives, you had him organize a few trading runs, using your TORPORs and a few people, running off towards places like Diamond City, Goodneighbour and any settlements in reach, selling some of the water and food surplus you couldn't throw at the traders that had begun regularly visiting Sanctuary by now.
While he was at it, you also wrote a note for him to organize scavenging runs using a few of the respective bots around the raider bases you'd gone ahead and taken out so far. Once you finished improving on the scavenger robot design you had Yoshi throw together over a few days, having found it somewhat lackluster. It did what it was supposed to do, yes, but there were some improvements you could think of.
Thus you now had a bunch mobile BAT drone carriers directly wired into their network, autonomously using what the drones saw to decide where to grab loot unless actively directed otherwise, with internal sorting mechnaisms based on the robot arms you'd already found so useful for internal operations in the model they were based on, with a little deconstructor beam to boot, going around and gathering more raw materials beyond what you had gotten from trade, the traders visiting quite helpful in telling you how to get whole shipments of various materials delivered through spending enough bottlecaps.
Also, the currency of this wasteland would never get old.
Most of the engineers in your employ, meanwhile, were busy designing another model of BOB, one meant for heavy-duty construction work just like the previous one, just centered around the use of concrete and building actual roads.
That's right, you were looking into getting some actual infrastructure rebuilt. Though you didn't actually use them anywhere, yet, simply having ensured you had the capability to launch large-scale construction whenever you wanted.
Isabel, on the other hand, surprised you by merely needing to meet and discuss your manufactories twice before presenting you with a whole new version of the things, with a rebuilt robot workbench integrated capable of simply constructing a robot in parts inside the main manufactory area, then assembling and programming them with a few mechanical limbs to the side of the output area, the design 'software' integrated into the interface already in place.
Suffice to say, you were quite happy with the results, even if it still needed a bit of finetuning to make sure it didn't clog the machine's processors during extended operation before you had Yoshi go on ahead and convert the other manifactories inside the bunker, in effect making the robot workbenches obsolete, though you kept one as a backup just in case instead of recycling it like the others.
Incidentally, it was during this time that Yoshi saw it fit to inform you of his power evolving, giving him the ability to imbue minor effects into items he creates- making stuff glow in the dark, keeping it warm or even hot to the touch, that kinda thing, but the effects take mana from him and only last until he's desummoned. Still, potentially quite useful if you really need any specific thing real quick.
Oh, speaking of which, you also revisited the robot factory during this time, massively improving on the central computer of the place, getting started on fixing up a few machines and adding a manufactory nearby the central area you faced Isabel in for ease of later repairs with the help of a bunch of your souls.
And, naturally, you kept on eating your daily soul-apples or however you should describe them and fusing souls, as well as the occasional checkup with the Dollmaker.
The girls, in the meantime, all kept busy in their own ways; Sarah took to controlling the BAT network, supervising efforts elsewhere and sending people (including yourself and the others) to deal with issues as they cropped up. On a side note, she also kept pestering you to invent microphones 'and stuff' to let her talk through the BATs, that or improve the maximum coverage of the network- as it is, the things can 'only' reach towards Lexington, in terms of range.
Sarah seems to be getting a kick from supervising all of this area, funnily enough.
Kate, of course, had a blast driving around in her TORPID and mopping up any threats looking to move into the area, from the odd group of ghouls to small gangs of raiders or the few mirelurks apparently breeding in Walden Pond and wandering northwards despite the relative scarcity of water nearby.
She also raised the idea of keeping a few of those molerats and breeding them for meat instead of killing and butchering them all the time, a proposal pending review for now. Few of the locals seemed particularly keen on the idea, though that was apparently more the constant bad experiences with the wretched things.
Nora sometimes joined Kate in her killruns, though she also took some time to talk to the people in Sanctuary, somewhat letting you gauge people's thoughts and opinions. Not that you were particularly interested in those as such, but it was useful as a gauge of how people would think going forwards.
Of course, given that you'd basically given them paradise on earth compared to their previous lifes, you weren't too worried about dissatisfaction for the time being. Instead, you'd begun thinking of ways to enable them to use their free time for more than idle fucking, now that they had free time for the pertty much first time in their lifes so far, completely unprepared to deal with it, ironically enough.
And hey, you weren't complaining about them breeding like rabbits for a while, fuck knows it would take some concerted repopulation efforts to bring your private little empire to the point you wanted and the wasteland had more than enough space to be filled, perhaps going out of your way to arrange for a... shooting range, or something, would be worthwhile.
At least they'd be better shots eventually.
It is as you check your to-do-list off, having made an actual physical list despite your mental capabilities making it more a vanity than necessity for you nowadays simply because you found it amusing, that a sudden change comes over the until then more-or-less peaceful Sanctuary.
Mainly in the form of three excited nerds in labcoats storming your house while babbling wildly.
"It works! It works! "We did it, and we did it better than expected!" "Screw the unbelievers, we just cut half the work out and it works fine!" "Tested with a tato, other side thought whatever we sent was horribly affected, but it turned out fine." "We can finally go home!" "Clean beds!" "Decent food!" "Dunno, I kinda liked some of those tato recipes." "Ditto." "Traitors!"
You just sigh. So much for peace and quiet as you kept working on the secrets of the universe.
"So, so, here's where the teleportation happens." "Just flip this switch and stand in the marked area." "We showed 'em! We showed 'em all!"
You can't suppress the rising eyebrow at that last sentence, nor at the cobbled-together nature of the contraption before you.
"And you actually tested this thing with more than a tato? Because don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't trust teleportation tech until I've tested it on a human, and maybe not even then."
"Good idea" "Need a test subject, test subjeeect." "Maybe we can catch a molerat and use it for the test?"
Well, that or you could 'volunteer' one of your bloodbags. Or one of them.
"I got a better idea. Wait a moment, be right back."
Leaving the labcoat trio and their unstoppable babbling behind, you get back to where you just came from, grabbing a piece of paper which you note something onto, then get down to the basement to randomly take one of your bloodbags.
Using a bit of duct tape, you fixate the note onto his forehead, then casually snatch him up to carry him off. Time to actually test this out properly.
The three musketeers are still talking in their usual manner when you arrive back, giving each other weird looks when they see what you've brought along.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
And wonder of wonders, they can collectively talk like normal people, too.
"Not like I'm particularly trying to keep a secret, and I can always replace it if it turns out the teleporter can only work with smaller objects and deposits it in tato-sized bits."
"Alright, alright." "Time to do SCIENCE!!!" "Best give 'em a call beforehand, just in case."
Nodding towards that last, actually sensible pronouncement, you activate the Institute Beacon, not taking long before someone on the other side answers.
"This is the Institute, how may I help you?"
"This is Gabriel, the three special cases here told me they actually managed to construct a functioning teleporter."
"Gimme a sec... Oh for- Look, guys, just because you can potentially cut a bunch of parts out doesn't mean you should! They're there for a good reason! And why whoever was on this end then allowed you to even try it out in this state is beyond me, too."
"So, anyways, I was thinking we test it out with a disposable human, see if they arrive alive, and go from there."
"...Are you sure? I mean, I don't want to question your methods, but human life is to-"
"Don't worry, it's just a raider. I can always replace it easily enough."
"Okay then, uh, just try teleporting them and I'll have someone observe the receiving room."
Throwing the bundled up, crippled former person into the marked area, you give the three scientists a thumbs-up. Time to do this.
And the note reading 'Bloodbag, Property of Gabriel. If lost, return to Sanctuary.' should be clear enough either way.
"... Okay, looks like we got the package. Unless he had clothes on beforehand?"
"Nope, that's why I added the note, to see if nonorganics make the trip."
"Sending him back now, then. Please confirm if he arrives as intended."
A bright flash comes from the marked-off teleportation area, revealing the bloodbag to have returned safe and sound.
"Alright, got it right here. Looks to be alive, too. Just let me stow it away real quick, then we can see about sending these guys back home for their punishment for screwing up in the first place."
"Do we really have to?" "Now I want to stay here, after all..." "Man up, guys. We had to do it sooner or later."
Why is it that dealing with these three is always so exhausting? At least you'll be rid of them soon.
A few quick telepathic calls later, everyone that should know about the situation does, and you're back at the teleportation shack. Though calling it shack is perhaps a little uncharitable, given it has solid walls and everything, but the name just kind of stuck after the first place they worked in was replaced.
"So, everything ready?"
"Yep, decontamination procedures are ready. Looking forward to seeing them in action, actually, I worked on them myself."
"Hear that? They're looking forward to having you back."
"Hah! I wish. But no, we all know the three troublemakers well enough. Oh, before I forget it, I was told to offer you to come along if you want; apparently, people are interested in discussing potential agreements in person, and this way we just have to run the decontamination procedure once."