Piper stayed with Nora in the simulation for hours. Nora showed the variety of different enemies the simulation could create — most, if not all, of the hostile fauna present in the Commonwealth, as well as a variety of super mutants, ghouls, and robots, not to mention human foes. (Some of the more exotic options really gave Piper pause — an alien? Really? Why a made-up creature alongside all the real ones?) Piper noticed that a Gunner merc was one of the options, and again asked Nora what she knew of them. Nora knew next to nothing about them — she'd heard a little from Preston, but had never met one in person before. Piper kept trying to press Nora for answers as to how she'd known how to build this, as well as whatever else she'd been alluding to before, but her constant changing of the subject finally convinced Piper to lay off for the time being.

Then, Nora began to show off the different worlds available to experience. The desert island one was the most alluring — the warm sun on her face, coupled with the cool sea breeze, and… and there wasn't an ever-present smell of ash. She'd lived with it her whole life and had taken it for granted, but the entire Commonwealth had a charred odor to it, layered over everything. It was simply absent in the desert island (and, well, also in the so-called 'grid world', although that was lacking in everything else too so it didn't count). She quickly fell in love with kicking off her boots, letting her feet soak in the virtual ocean, and taking in the salt water smell.

The Capital Wasteland was the third virtual world the simulation had to offer, one Nora hadn't personally visited yet… except in real life, apparently . "It's the Galaxy News Radio plaza!" Nora said in surprise, looking all around. "I remember this place!"

Piper had heard of it — occasionally from travelers who'd been there, but mainly from Travis Miles, the host of Diamond City Radio. He'd learned the ins and outs of running a radio station there — at least, that's what she'd gathered from the bits and pieces she'd gotten out of the painfully shy young man. "Are you talking about before the war?" Piper asked.

Nora shook her head, then frowned. "No… no, I never visited Washington, DC, in my life." She looked around the area. "Maybe it was a dream I had?" she ventured, sounding unconvinced with her own explanation.

Piper frowned. More mysteries. "Forget it, Blue. You said there's one more world?"

"Yeah!" Nora said, forcing a smile, forcing some enthusiasm to come back. "It's a real winner!" She gave an exaggerated thumbs up.

The atomic crater was self-descriptive: a desolate wasteland where a nuclear explosion had obviously occurred. Piper wondered if it was anything like the one that must lie at the heart of the Glowing Sea. There was nothing remotely fun or cheery about that one, so Nora quickly returned to the ubiquitous computer and exited the simulation.

Piper found herself staring at the metal egg — the virtual reality pod — once more, watching it crack open and allow Nora to escape. "So, what did you think?" Nora asked.

"It's… it's pretty incredible, Blue, I have to admit," Piper said. "There are a lot of possibilities — combat training and recreational relaxation are the two that immediately come to mind."

Nora gave her a sly smile. "I can think of one other thing," she said.

Piper furrowed her eyebrows. "What's that?"

Nora looked down. "Piper, where did your boots go?"

"My boots? I'm still —" She looked down and saw her bare feet. She looked back up to Nora. "…Did you have somebody come by and steal my boots?"

"I'll do you one better. Follow me." Piper followed Nora out the shack, down the sidewalk, and back to the central workshop. Nora walked up to the power armor and inserted a fusion battery into it, then gestured to it. "Hop in," she said.

"Uh… can't you?" Piper asked. The thought of getting into one of those things made her a little nervous.

Nora rolled her eyes. "Piper, how am I supposed to get into a VR pod while I'm wearing a suit of power armor?"

"Uh… good point," Piper acknowledged. "How do I, uh… how do I do this?"

"Oh, you've never used one of these before! Well, let me just open the back hatch for you…" Nora gently helped Piper into the suit, instructed her how to operate the opening controls from within the suit, then closed it back up behind her. "Now, follow me. Slow, careful steps, like you're chest deep and wading upstream through a river. It takes a bit getting used to, but you'll find your footing faster than you expect."

Piper found herself relaxing more and more as Nora talked her through operating the power armor's limbs. Even as they approached the VR pod, she still retained some of that calmness. Maybe whatever happened wouldn't repeat itself? Maybe being inside the power armor would stop her from somehow being drawn into the simulation?

Her speculation was dashed to pieces as she again found herself in the desert island world. Nora rapped on the helmet piece. "Okay, Piper, time to eject from there and put your boots back on!"

Piper did so, letting out a little sigh of relief as the suit opened up and she stepped backwards, out of it. Abruptly, Nora shoved Piper's boots into her hands, before making a mad dash towards the computer terminal again. Piper watched in confusion the whole time, until she again found herself facing the VR pod's exterior in Sanctuary Hills. She looked down and saw that her boots were still in her hands; then, more importantly, she realized the suit of power armor was gone.

"What the fuck?" she muttered. She'd been in the simulation, what, thirty seconds? She quickly peeked behind the VR pod, even though there was no room to hide a suit of power armor there, then quickly dashed outside and did a circuit around the building. No power armor in sight. She marched back into the shack, where Nora was already out of the VR pod and grinning like a maniac. "What the FUCK?" Piper yelled.

Nora once again shrugged. "Magic!" She stretched her hands out to her sides and did jazz hands.

Piper let out a growl of frustration and stormed out of the shed. An experiment occurred to her — Garvey had apparently been in this VR world too. If he could be convinced to give it another try, she could have him go in her stead the next time Nora entered the pod. Piper would stand away, far enough away to not get 'sucked in' or whatever was going on, meanwhile Garvey would be slipping into the power armor in the desert island world. When Nora exited VR and Preston woke back up… if he woke back up suddenly wearing power armor where moments before there had been none… She shook her head and forced herself to forget about the experiment, at least for the time being. If she watched a suit of power armor magically appear on someone, she would have to hang up her press cap and check herself in to that old insane asylum in the northern part of the Commonwealth. She could only accept so much bullshit at a time, and it was better to hold onto the slight chance that Nora was pulling some elaborate trick then to prove beyond any doubt that she had some bizarre techno-magical physics-breaking device.

XXX

Piper and Nora left Sanctuary Hills together with Preston Garvey. A messenger had delivered news that Oberland Station was requesting help, and Nora decided to badger Garvey into accompanying them, pointing out that shit had gotten really dicey the last time he'd sent her out on a mission so it was only fair to have backup. They had just passed Drumlin Diner when a strangely familiar person walked up to them. "Hey there, I don't think we've met, but your timing's impeccable!" he greeted the three of them with what Nora could only define as swagger. "Preston Garvey, of the Commonwealth Minutemen!"

Nora smiled, turning to the real Preston who accompanied them. "Wow, Preston, do you hear that? This guy's with the Minutemen too! And he has the same name as you!"

The man blinked rapidly a few times and opened and closed his mouth once or twice. "Uh, well, I see you already know about us…" he said, nervously trying to get back on whatever script he had prepared. "You might have heard we're making a comeback. The General sent me to collect donations from concerned citizens like yourself." He licked his lips, and his swagger had almost made a comeback. "Help us out, and you can count on the Minutemen to be there when you need us. Can I put you down for… a hundred caps?"

Garvey's face bore an angry snarl and he began to raise his laser musket; Nora, however, had other ideas. She walked forward, grabbed the false Preston by his shoulders, and gave him a hard, passionate kiss. "Preston, my lover, I'm so glad you've been following my directive to raise money for the Minutemen — since I'm the general and all — but I think I'd rather you accompany us to Oberland Station and help us with the settlers there." She gave the fake Preston a big, scary grin. "I mean, I'm sure they were exaggerating when they said something about 'a whole nest of deathclaws'."

"General, are you kidding me?" Real Preston said, the unimaginative turd. "That man is clearly not me. His uniform is all wrong, he's obviously trying to scam people, and I'm standing right here."

Nora looked over at Preston. "Of course you're right there, Preston, and of course you're out of uniform — you only have the one uniform. You can't wear your uniform and also wear your uniform at the same time. That'd be crazy!"

Preston exchanged a look with Piper, who just shrugged, unsure if this was Nora just jerking everyone's chains or if she'd genuinely gone off the deep end. (Piper probably should have been more alarmed at how often she had to make the distinction). "General, that man is an impostor," he repeated.

Nora looked shocked as she looked from Preston to Fake Preston and back again. "Preston!" she declared to the real one. "Are you telling me that you were an impostor this whole time?" She dramatically put the back of her wrist against her forehead. "Of course! I should have known that nobody would make a 200 year old lawyer the general of an entire militia!"

Preston frowned in frustration. "No, general, you… I mean… I'm not an impostor! I'm really a Minuteman! Him… he…" He gestured futilely at Fake Preston, trying how best to get his point across without triggering some rhetorical trap of Nora's.

"Okay, then it's settled," Nora said, patting Real Preston on the cheek and cutting off his effort. "You, Piper, you, and I will take care of things at Oberland, and then you and you can go back to Sanctuary Hills while I tend to my business in Diamond City."

"Uh… don't I get a say in this?" Fake Preston hesitantly ventured.

Nora shook her head. "Preston, we can't let you go off on your own. It's a dangerous wasteland out there, you know? Anything's liable to happen to you… like, say, someone could smash in your kneecaps and leave you screaming and bleeding until God knows what comes along and makes you its dinner." She gave his face a loving caress. "We wouldn't want that to happen, now, would we?" Her tone said 'Let's make love right here and now', but the look in her eyes said 'I am 100% not fucking around, asshole. Come with us or you die screaming.'

"N-no, uh… general…" Fake Preston acknowledged. "I'll gladly accompany you and… uh… me… to this Overband place."

Preston sighed and massaged his temples. "I wonder if it's too late to run off and join the Gunners," he quietly mused.

XXXXXXXXXX

Again, it's hilariously broken bullshit that you can store physical objects in VR.

The game restricts you to one follower, which is a little silly but understandable for balance reasons. I don't have to worry about game balance, so Nora will be stacking the deck frequently!

There really is a random encounter in the game where you meet a fake Preston Garvey stumping for donations. Sadly, real Preston doesn't have a reaction if he's present for this, and you can't recruit him either. (Again, not a problem for Nora, who is the bull to the china shop that is social conventions, hahaha).