Father, Courier, Exile

by Cobra of England

Rating: teen
Tags: Crossover, Dark, Human
Length: 7073

My name is Carrion. I was a simple Courier, wandering my lonely way across the Wasteland. That all changed the day I heard the broadcast.So here I am, in the middle of the City of the Dead. With a damned unicorn for company. Great.

My name is Carrion. I was a simple Courier, wandering my lonely way across the Wasteland. That all changed the day I heard the broadcast.
Like many others, I was drawn by its siren call.
A place to 'begin again'. I should've known with that nothing like that exists in the Wastes.
I tracked it down anyway, the fool that I am.
So here I am, in the middle of the City of the Dead. With nothing but an explosive collar, a 'Holorifle', a bloodstained white jumpsuit and a damned unicorn with wings for company.
Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Presented from Carrion (The Courier)'s POV.
Cover Art done by myself.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-27 14:54:56 UTC

Not all that glitters is gold...

Carrion's Journal- Entry One, 2nd December, 2284. (Or that's what my Pip-Boy says.)

My name is Carrion. Odd name, I know, but it's a family tradition that apparently stretches back to well beyond when our family lived in Vault 55. I was raised that Vault, the emotionless steel hell that it was.

The only thing that was good about that metal box was that you weren't being shot at quite as often as in the Wastes. Emphasis on 'quite'. Because some asshat in the company of idiots called Vault-Tec 'smashed' our entertainment tapes. So we all became deadeye shots since someone had the inspired idea to break into the armoury and set up a shooting gallery in the entertainment hall. Whoever that person was, the entirety of Vault 55 owes you a debt the size of New Vegas. You have our thanks.

It also had the side effect of making us into perfect Wasteland material. And when the reactor began to leak... Well, we all packed up and left.(I always thought the Water Chip would go first, but life has a way of proving me wrong.) I went south into the Mojave and things went from there. I became a Courier and Merc, doing what I had to do to survive.

Anyway, that's my somewhat dull and boring life before the Mojave, where I am today. Got the Sierra Madre signal, going to follow it to the source. Quite near, its somewhere in the Forlorn Hope battleground. Begin again, so to speak.'

==============================================================

I tossed the old pen into one of the many craters that littered the ground before Camp Forlorn Hope, damn thing had run out of ink. I needed to get another since my Pip-Boy couldn't record anything like data, more Vault-Tec modifications from Vault 55.

I picked my journal up as night was falling on the Mojave Wasteland, the orange sun slowly moving below the mountainous horizon to my left as I observed the battleground before me.

The whole place was covered in craters, a few of which had dead or dying NCR soldiers lying in them. I didn't care for the NCR, and the feeling was mutual. In fact, the NCR was the only reason I was hunkered down in this crater, watching Camp Forlorn Hope through the scope of my Lever-action Rifle rather than traipsing along across the battlefield right now.

Lever-action spares were hard to find in these parts, unlike Idhao. They were all over the place up there. I even tripped over one that had been dumped on the ground when I left my fellow Vault dwellers to seek my own fortune, and it was the same rifle I was currently holding, but with a scope torn off a ruined Sniper Rifle duct-taped over the firing chamber where the iron sights had been.

My trusty pistol rested in my chest holster, the damn thing had saved my life more than once after I picked it up of the corpse of some Raider. Many in the Wastes had laughed when I drew my pistol- it appeared to be little more than your typical, low-powered pre-war Chinese pistol.

But I had made one hell of a lot of modification to it. The Fire Dragon, as I called it, had some strange Chinese name. Zhu Long, or something like that. Anyway, it was a incendiary pistol I had modified to fire the AP rounds found in the Mojave as well as being silenced. Damn good when you hit trouble in the Atomic Wrangler with a over-zealous NCR ranger.

I tilted my had sideways to better shield my eyes from the sun's fading glare as a NCR trooper walked away from the edge of the watchtower.

If I was ever going to get to the Sierra Madre, I had to take a few risks, including being shot at by First Recon. Damn were those guys good, if Boone was anything to go by in Novac. I kind of felt sorry for killing him, but a contract was a contract.

I waited a few minutes more for the sun to drop below the horizon, leaving the Wasteland in twilight. Perfect sneaking conditions for me.

A beam of light split open the night, blinding me for a moment before my eyes adjusted to the light from the darkness. I groaned, trust the NCR to have a static searchlight  at the frontlines.

I grabbed by rifle by the barrel in my right hand and began to cautiously move through the mass of craters that blanketed the battlefield, keeping my body low to the ground until I reached a crater next to the searchlight's beam.

I had two options at this point, by my reckoning. Either run through the beam and hope the NCR sentries were drunk, high, incompetent or a mix of the three or I could take out their searchlight and piss them off.

Not one to pass up a chance of pissing the NCR off, I opted for the second option as I brought my rifle up so it rested on the crater's lip.

I pressed my right eye to the sight, this would be a difficult shot simply due to the glare of the searchlight and the darkness around me. If there were any NCR patrols down here I would be dead in seconds after I fired. I lined up the crosshairs over where I thought the bulb was and squeezed the trigger, the bang of the bullet firing shattering the oddly peaceful evening.

There was a loud smash as the bullet struck home and the searchlight shut off, giving me my road to wherever the signal was coming from.

I grabbed my rifle and ran the fastest I could ever remember running across the twenty meters that separated me from my goal, a large crater that presumably had some bunker entrance in which is where the signal was coming from.

Various shouts of alarm and panic reached my ears from the NCR soldiers in the camp, no doubt they thought that was a prelude to a surprise attack by the Legion. I didn't mind the Legion, they were better than the NCR in my opinion- at least they didn't massacre an entire tribes civilian population like the NCR had at Bitter Springs or be riddled with a ruined economy and political corruption.

Sure, they were slavers, but they offered what the Mojave most needed right now- stability.

A bullet hit a rock next to me with a ping as it bounced off while I continued sprinting towards my goal.

I dived into the crater, skidding down the loose sandy side and ending up in a heap at the bottom, with my back against what looked like a sewer grate.

I pushed myself to my feet and dusted myself off, checking I still had all my weapons and ammo in the process. Satisfied that everything was in its proper place, I pulled the grate off, revealing a concrete floor with a ladder leading down to it before I heard a voice croak something in the darkness from in  front of me.

I flicked my Pip-Boy light on, revealing the half-dead form of a NCR soldier, hand clutching a bloody stump of a leg. "Water... Please..." he said weakly as he held out his other hand, begging me to help.

I reached inside my jacket and he smiled faintly, presumably glad a complete stranger was going to help him, before he saw me pull Fire Dragon out.

"No... Not like this... I have a family back home..." he pleaded with me as I levelled the barrel at his chest.

"Then I am sorry for their loss. Better I give you a merciful killing than leaving you to die here of dehydration or for the Legion to grab you, though?"

The soldier nodded slowly as he realised his comrades had no doubt labeled him as K.I.A. "Do... It..."

"Gladly." I pulled the trigger and the 10mm round sped from the gun, ripping its way through his chest and letting blood gush from the wound in a crimson tide, covering his armour and the ground in blood.

I placed my pistol back in its holster inside my jacket as I climbed down the ladder into the bunker.

The bunker was dimily lit with old Pre-War strip lighting along the walls of the room. Other than a empty crate, a headless corpse wearing a white jumpsuit with a red X painted on the back and stairs that had 'Serra Madre' crudely painted in red paint on the wall above with a arrow pointing down, the room was empty.

I wasn't that interested in the corpse, probabaly from some long-dead Raider warband that used this as a base, so I walked down the stairs, my boot heels making loud clangs against the steel floor as I passed a collapsed tunnel and another tunnel, this one with a door in front of it.

I reached over to the door and tried to turn the handle in the middle, but it wouldn't budge and I didn't have any bobby pins on my person, so I continued walking down the corridor until I reached another steel door with a handle in the middle, with the faint sounds of a woman's voice coming from behind it.

I spun the handle and the door slid back into the walls and floor, revealing a strangely styled radio sitting on a small table in the centre of the room,

I walked forwards, curious as to how this related to the Sierra Madre before I felt my foot go down slightly further that it had before.

I glanced down, and saw that I had just stepped on a pressure plate. I looked back up to find that hidden vents were releasing a noxious-looking brown gas into the room before I heard the door shut behind me.

I cupped my hand over my mouth and took a deep breath as I saw my vision begin to haze over. I turned and stumbled towards the door, grasping the handle with both hands as I tried to force the lock.

I began to feel faint as I saw my hands drop away from the handle before I collapsed to the floor, and all I saw after was blackness.

=====================================================

"Urrrgh..." I groaned to myself as I pushed myself up, my one good eye looking around to see where I was. I was standing in a square, built in a Pre-War style that the Vault history classes had called 'art-deco'. The square was dominated by a large fountain with a blue projection of a old man.

"Are you listening? Good. From now on, when I talk, listen- and follow my instructions, Play stupid, play clever, make the mistake of saying 'no'? That collar on your neck'll go off and take your head with it."

I glanced down at my neck, and sure enough there was one of the explosive collars used on slaves strapped around my neck. I groaned, whoever this guy thought he was, he messed with the wrong Courier.

"How did I get here?" I asked, slightly annoyed both with whoever was speaking and myself for asking how I got here rather than what he wanted me to do.

"Hmm! Get here? You walked into one of my traps in the Mojave... following the Sierra Madre signal. Now you're here, with that collar on your neck. Its like that Pip-Boy on your wrist, except filled with explosives. A little radio of the Old World, just needed some tuning."

"Do what I say, and the collar won't go off... refuse, try and run, disobey me? I'll kill you and find someone else. There's no escape from here until I let you go. The sooner you accept your situation, the better."

"Then maybe you should tell me what you want?." I said, still slightly dazed from the gas.

"That structure you see above the fountain?"

I glanced to where the voice had told me to look, and sure enough a structure that reminded me of the Vegas Casinos loomed over the city. I nodded.

"The Sierra Madre casino... You need to break inside. A...heist. Too many years in the making. But to get inside, avoid its traps... you'll need to gather the team. As I've fount, one cannot do it alone."

"So you need others to carry out this.. heist. Who?" I asked, curious about the help I'd be getting.

"Around the Villa are four other collars like yours- Collar 8, 12, 14 and 53. Find the first three and get them here, to the fountain. Then, we'll talk more. Collar 53 is on the other side of the fountain. And should you get any ideas about killing each other and taking the treasure of the Sierra Madre for yourself- a warning."

"All your collars are linked... one of you dies, you all die. If that's what it takes to make you cooperate, so be it."

"Seems easy enough."

"I've downloaded the instructions and markers onto your Pip-Boy... in case you forget. And yes, I have access to that device on your wrist, Get the other three here, after that.... I'll have more instructions for you."

"Do this, I'll let you go. I'll let all of you go."

"Well thanks." I muttered sarcastically. "Who should I get first?"

"Yes... Collar 53 is in the fountain square with you. I haven't been able to identify what Collar 53 is, yet. Some kind of Longstrider from out east, but it has... interesting capabilities. After that, Collar 8, the FEV reject, the Super Mutant. He's docile, predictable, and provided he's not starving, should be easy to command. I lost contact with him some time ago... probably after he dragged you here from the trap. Find him, he'll follow you, collar or no."

"What even is FEV?" I hadn't come into anyone knowledgeable on the subject but the Old Man seemed like he knew about the stuff, so I took the opportunity.

"A long story. FEV... a virus with a even longer story. It gave birth to the docile one , turned him into a Super Mutant long ago."

"And that is all I needed to know."

"Good. If necessary, I will guide you through the Villa's broadcast systems- if you get lost, return here and I'll direct you. I've downloaded instructions on a audio log to your Pip-Boy in case you can't read."

Did this Old Man just insult my intellect? If he did he would regret it later.

"If you forget why your here, let my voice remind you."

Yes, he was definitely insulting me now. At that point, I noticed something very important. Or rather, the lack of something very important.

"Where the fuck is my stuff?"

"Madre's security system wouldn't let it in,  screens the place for chems, guns, radioactive material. I wouldn't let you go unarmed though- you have one of several Holorifles I made to bypass the security systems."

I glanced around the square as the Old Man's hologram was replaced by that of a beautiful woman who began to say something. I didn't bother to listen, instead climbing onto the fountain and picking up all the poker chips scattered inside.

Never let free chips go to waste. Ever. Even if you are in the legendary City of the Dead beneath a blood-red cloud. I looked up, and sure enough the entire sky was covered by the infamous Cloud.

I de-atomised the Holorifle from my Pip-Boy, and checked the ammo.

"Well, crap." I swore as I opened the ammo chamber. This thing used four Microfusion Cells per magazine. I checked my Pip-Boy to see how many MF cells I had, hoping the Old Man had given me a load of them. "And that just makes this even worse." I had 21 MC cells to use. That gave me five reloads and a spare. There better be more weaponry around here or I was going to end up as a bloody mess very soon.

A loud groan broke the stillness of the Sierra Madre and what I can only describe as a logic screwing thing stood up on the other side of the fountain..

I mentally laughed to myself, people had said history wasn't useful in the Vault. I doubted any of them could have named what stood opposite me.

It was a unicorn. A God-damned real, live unicorn. If it weren't for the fact I couldn't remember drinking any booze or taking any drugs for the last two weeks, I'd have sworn that I was drunk, high or hallucinating from lack of food and/or water.

I levelled the Holorifle at the unicorn's body before I noticed a blinking red light, this thing was collared as well.

I lowered the Holorifle, not wanting to accidently kill the unicorn before it unfurled a pair of wings and it's horn ignited in a dark shade of blue.

Winged unicorns? What was the term for one of those? Unisus or Pegacorn?

"It's alicorn, human."

Make that talking, winged unicorns. Could this thing read my mind or something?

"Yes, but some of the things you have in there are... Mildly disturbing, even by the standard of the Wasteland. I think I'll stay out of it while I crush your puny head under my hooves and escape this place." It sounded female, so I labeled it as a mare.

I tapped my collar and pointed to her neck. "The collars are linked. One of us dies, we all die."

The black alicorn turned its eyes downward towards it's neck before it looked back up. "So it seems we are pack mules under the same master. Very well." The alicorn held out a hoof, presumably this was their version of a handshake. "Nightmare Moon."

I walked over and shook Nightmare's hoof. "Carrion, also known as the Courier, but call me Carrion."

"A unusual name."

"I could say the same about you."

"So who put the collars on us, and what do they want?"

I shrugged. "Some Old Man, and he wants us to gather the rest of the collared ones and then break into that." I pointed at the Casino.

Nightmare stared at the Casino before she sighed. "Seems easy enough."

I grinned as I holstered the Holorifle. "That's what I thought..."

"Let's get going, I have a nation to liberate after I've finished business here."

(Companion Perk gained: Machine's Nightmare)

Nightmare's presence confuses the logic circuits of robotic targeting systems, slowing their processing capacity. All machine-based enemies (turrets, holograms, robots) will now deal 15% less damage and fire 15% slower and Nightmare is invisible to machine-based enemies.

Brute Force

Carrion's Journal- Entry two, 2nd December, 2284. (Recorded on my Pip-Boy to commit to my journal if I survive the Madre)

Day one in the cloudy red hellhole that is the Sierra Madre. That old man is a complete idiot, when I get my hands on him I think it's time I put what I learned from the 80s to good use. Also happy that I cannibalised the Doc's Pip-Boy onto my own, or this little bit of text wouldn't be here.

Damned Vault-Tec removing the memory storage from our Pip-Boys! Still, got that memory shoved into my Pip-Boy back in the Mojave, good to see it serves a purpose rather than just making the Pip-Boy more likely to break after I slam it into someone's face.

Meeting up with that reject today, should be easy going, but nothing ever is in the wastes. And especally not here.

============================================

"So, where to?" Nightmare asked me as I looked around the fountain square after I'd finished typing my journal entry.

"I'll look on the map later, just let me finish looting this place." I replied from across the square as I picked up a rusty-looking knife, which I took one look at before wondering if there was any duct tape around. A bayonet for the Holorifle would be very useful later on, if i couldn't scavenge any other weapons from the Villa.

I placed the knife into one of my belt loops before I turned and walked across the square in front of a gate with Cloud-filled air behind it.

"That's the way out- after you break into the Sierra Madre's vault. Try to leave, I'll set off your collar." The Old Man announced over the Villa's speakers.

I rolled my eyes, wasn't it obvious that he'd set off my collar if I or Nightmare tried to leave?

There wasn't anything of note on the other side of the square, just some strange vending machine that I needed to insert my Chips into to get some disgusting Pre-War food from, and I was not going to sacrifice my chips for something as revolting as that.

Maybe if it offered Stimpacks it would be different, but it didn't. No useful medicine there, then, but apparently there was a Medical District. I liked the sound of that.

I spent the next few minutes hunting through the square for anything useful for me or Nightmare, but the only useful things I found were a roll of duct tape (which was now attaching that Cosmic Knife I found earlier to the barrel of the Holorifle), a few bottles of Wonderglue (weapon repair kits, the most valuable things in the Wastes) and some La Fantoma! which were always a entertaining read.

"We heading out yet? I have better things to do with my life than watch barbarians like you scavenge in the rubble." Nightmare complained.

"Oh, shut up." I replied as I finished taping the 'Cosmic Knife' to the end of the Holorifle's barrel. "All done." I picked the Holorifle up, and satisfied that the bayonet wouldn't interfere with the accuracy or sights of the rifle,I  began to walk towards the street on the left side of the fountain as Nightmare flew over to join me.

"So what exactly are you?" I asked Nightmare as we walked into a small square, dominated by a dead tree. My Pip-Boy was telling me to go left, but I noticed some planks between two balconies. And in the wastes, planks normally meant something useful like ammo or a gun was up there. Maybe if I was really lucky, I'd even get a Stimpak.

"I'm a alicorn, one of only two in the whole of Equestria." Nightmare raised her head haughtily, like I was supposed to be impressed by it.

Instead, I simply snickered. "Equestria? What kind of shitty name is that? Sounds like you let some idiot Super Mutant come up with it."

Nightmare turned around, anger visible in her eyes. "Never insult my nation like that! The only thing preventing me from planting that ugly one-eyed head of yours on a nice spike right now is these collars."

I chuckled at Nightmare's brazenness. "I'm the one with the Holorifle, remember?" I waved the strange rifle at Nightmare, trying to goad her further. I couldn't wait to see her when she got properly angry with me.

A dark blue glow enveloped the Holorifle and yanked it from my hand, throwing it up into the Cloud-choked sky.

"Oops." Nightmare laughed. "What are you going to do now, tough guy? Punch me?"

I stared up into the sky while I thought about the current situation. "Nightmare..." I muttered to myself. "Do you realise what you've done?"

"Took that thing away from you before you hurt me with it?" Nightmare's laughter died down into a low chuckle.

"No... You just destroyed the only fucking gun we have between us, and there could be FEV infected Deathclaws with Stealth Boys here for all we know!" I shouted. "I'm going to find another weapon. Stay here- if you don't, I'll brain you, collar or not."

I wasn't actually that bothered about the loss of the Holorifle, I never liked energy weapons. What bothered me was that I had no weapon at all. And for all I knew, there could be Deathclaws with Stealth Boys in here...

"Don't even think about it Carrion..." I muttered to myself as I grabbed hold of the planks and hauled myself onto them. "You know what will happen if you think about it..." There had to be a weapon up here, there had to...

If not, I was definitely dead meat. If so, I could threaten Nightmare. I might have to use those tortures from the 80s sooner than I hoped...

I shook my head, pushing away the thoughts as I walked into the room which the planks led to. It looked exactly like your typical Pre-war apartment, TV, sofa, table- everything someone from the Old World needed to have a comfortable life. I wasn't interested in any of the ruined furnishings, however- I was more interested in the rusted gun cabinet leaning to my right.

I threw the doors open and let out a cheer of joy as I saw what was inside.

A scoped .44 Magnum, still in its holsterwith two ten-round boxes of ammo lying next to it. It appears today was going mildly better than yesterday, despite being kidnapped by a old guy and stuck in the Wastes own little Purgatory with a arrogant alicorn thing that proclaimed itself the ruler of a place named after something that sounded like it was out of a Pre-war cartoon.

By Caesar, for all I know, it might be.  Dismissing the completely useless line of thought, I quickly pulled the holster over the dirty white jumpsuit while I slid bullets into the Magnum's cylinder before I sprinted back out onto the balcony and jumped onto the street below.

"You are one lucky thing, Nightmare, or maybe I'm the lucky one and you're the annoying thing that is way too arrogant." I called out to Nightmare as I walked over to where she was lying down by a long-dead tree. "Come on." I poked her in the head with the barrel of my Magnum, causing her to open her eyes to find me leering down at her while I pointed a gun at her face.

What I would have given to see her line of thought at that point.

I pulled the Magnum away from her face and reholstered it. "I want to be at the Station by... Eh, I don't really care. As long as we make it out alive."

"We can agree on that, at least." Nightmare muttered as she got to her hooves and stretched her wings before we headed under the planks down the next street.

The next square was equally uninteresting, until I spotted a skeleton with a spear wedged between it's shoulder blades and wandered over towards it before the Old Man interrupted me again.

"Watch out for the Villa inhabitants, they're... Difficult to kill unless you chop them apart... If you can, blow them up, or disintegrate them."

Hooray, the Old Man was actually providing helpful advice for once! And I couldn't disintergrate them, because Nightmare destroyed the Holorife! Double hooray!

I yanked the spear out of the skeleton and spun it in my left hand. "Nightmare," I asked. "Are you any good with any weapons except your wierd blue thing?"

Nightmare rolled her eyes. "It's called magic, you foal. And as for weapons..." She shrugged. "Just give me the spear, I can defend myself. Not that I ever needed your help with anything, I could get myself out of this fine without you."

"Just keep telling that to yourself, Nightmare, just keep telling yourself..." I muttered as I threw the spear to Nightmare, who caught it with her 'magic'.

I had already mentally called bullshit on that, magic my ass. It was probabaly some implant or manipulation of radiation or some other scientific crap like that. If it wasn't useful to me now, I didn't need to know.

I turned around and out of the corner of my eye spotted a small brown suitcase poking out from behind a archway on my right. "What do we have here?" I asked myself aloud as I walked over to the suitcase, and opened it.

My first thought as I opened the suitcase was "Holy shit!", which was soon followed by "Fuck yes!".

Crammed into the small suitcase were what appeared to be a damaged Caravan Shotgun, several boxes of various Pre-war foods, two bottles of dirty water and a collection of .44 bullets and 20 gauge shells.

I holstered the Magnum as I picked up the shotgun and slid two bullets into it before I flicked the barrel up.  The food would be useful later on as I doubted that there would be much edible food around here.

Satisfied with my newfound gear, I wandered back over to Nightmare who was waiting impatiently by the stairs leading up to the next street.

"Let's move." I said as I motioned for her to follow.

The next square was much less intresting, dominated by a chip-filled fountain and a lone terminal. After I had gathered up all the chips while Nightmare looked on with bemusement, I fired up the terminal, and spammed the enter key in a vain attempt to gain access to the options.

After about a minute of hammering away fruitlessly at the keyboard, I was no computing genius after all, the OS finally booted into action and I was rewarded by a single option in the screen: Activate Hologram.

I shrugged and hit enter once more before I turned to look at what it had done. A holographic figure of a Pre-war man stood above the fountain, the emitter casting a faint blue glow over everything while Nightmare looked at me questioningly.

I simply shrugged and said "Old World Science." Like that would mean anything to her, but it was the best explanation I had.

I readjusted the place of my Magnum before I walked through a archway opposite where we had entered the square, coming out into a rubble-filled street. I could clearly see the sign for the Police Station at the end, so I broke into a run towards it. Nothing bad had happened yet, and I didn't feel like upsetting that record quite yet.

When Nightmare and I reached the Police Station after our dash across the street, I threw open the door and walked inside while Nightmare followed behind me.

I found myself in a large room, dominated by a single massive cell where a hulking grey figure was squatting, rocking backwards and forwards gently while it clutched it's head in it's hands.

The rest of the room was mostly empty, except for a few tables cluttered with the usual Pre-war junk.

"That's Dog?" Nightmare hissed. "He's a ugly one, isn't he?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but the Old Man interrupted me.

"Speakers and radios interfere with the bomb collar frequency, and can trigger the detonators...prematurely. It is a unfortunate side effect, one I did not anticipate. I was unable to calibrate the collars to block the signals- so you'll have to make do."

I pulled out the Magnum, and immediately set to work ridding the place of radios. I spotted one lying on the desk straight in front of me, so I aimed the Magnum, pulled the trigger, and sent the radio up in a shower of sparks.

I turned, saw another one lying on a desk on the opposite side of the room and blew that one up as well

"Nightmare, if you see anything that looks like a speaker, hit it with your spear." I warned her. "I don't want to set off that dead man's switch."

Nightmare nodded in agreement as we walked across to the other side of the room, the lack of beeping from our collars showing there were no more radios in the near vicinity.

As we walked under the archway, my collar started to beep, so we began to look around for the offending radio. Nightmare spotted it first, sitting on a table to the right of the arch, before she smashed it with a hoof.

From there, we bypassed the smaller cells and instead headed down into the basement.

As we headed into the basement, a voice I didn't recognize spoke out from somewhere.

"Knew you would come, below the cage...Down to where I am. Maybe you saw the letters I scratched on the Villa walls. A little  farther. Follow my voice...That's it. The one in the cage? Dog. I had to lock him up, he keeps...Disobeying me."

I shrugged it off, whoever this guy was I wouldn't be ordered around by two arrogant cowards. The Old Man was bad enough, but this guy didn't even offer a suggestion of what to do.

Since NIghtmare didn't seem even mildly irritated by the new voice, so we quickly ran through the rest of the basement, not bothering to check for any loot- not there would be much down here besides cleaning equipment and the like. Eventually we came to the end of the basement, where a holotape sat in front of a radio.

Deciding the holotape must be the 'voice' the other guy was talking about, I blew the radio out before I grabbed the holotape and sprinted back upstairs, Nightmare in tow.

As we approached Dog's cell, I loaded the Holotape into my Pip-Boy and played the file.

"Dog, back in the cage." The voice from earlier said through my Pip-Boy.

The reaction from Dog was immediate. The Super Mutant stood up and turned to face me before he spoke while Nightmare looked over his ruined form, remaining silent. I was grateful for her silence, Super Mutants were notoriously easy to aggravate.

"What have we here? You weren't who I was expecting. I'm disappointed." Well, it appears I had found the voice from earlier. It was rather unexpected as well, it didn't have the same stupid tone as that of a Super Mutant. You could almost call it civilized.

"Still...Even if you aren't my intended guest, you take direction. Good."

Was this Super Mutant stupid, or just arrogant? I was my own man- I only followed orders when it suited me to do so.

"You can't have been a idiot to figure out how to release me from my cage..." Well, at least he doesn't treat me as a idiot like the Old Man does.

"Or perhaps you are, with that leash on your arm and the one around your neck, and so is your companion..." He gestured towards Nightmare before he began to ramble on again.  "With our collars and manacles, why, we may as well all be kin."

"What's with your voice? You don't sound like a normal Super Mutant." I asked, it was really beginning to get on my nerves not knowing.

"I'm the voice of reason, or God. I sleep sometimes...Down in the basement, in the cage. Now that I'm awake, Dog goes back in the cage." So, this wasn't Dog.  So then, who was it?

"Dog knows I'm here, but he can't do anything about it. I'm his...Conscience. Keep him tame, keep him from hurting us...Doing foolish things. I've been trapped in here for some time, then you come along and let me out. So...You opened my cage for a reason. Now... I want to know why."

I wasn't really sure I wanted to answer that question, so I asked a diversionary one instead. "You have multiple personality disorder. Some trauma caused this?"

Nightmare turned her head sharply towards me and narrowed her eyes in anger, before she turned back to Dog. I shrugged, before the 'Voice of Reason' continued.

"Trauma...Yes, in a manner of speaking. Do you see these wounds of his, covering his skin...The bear trap on his arm? He placed his own hand in it."

I stared at the maze of scars that criss-crossed Dog's chest, around his name while Nightmare gagged quietly next to me.

"The name he carved on his chest? To remind him of who he is, he inflicts pain on himself to silence me, when all I try to do...Hrrr! He cuts, hurts, and tries to murder me out of him. He won't succeed. Just makes me angrier. Dog is the beast, we simply change cages. Like the ones here."

"So..." I wiped a spot of sweat off my forehead. "Why did you lock yourself in the cage?"

"No...Why did I lock him in the cage. I locked him in because I could feel him...Getting hungry again. There wasn't much time. If Dog roams, he gets into trouble...Eats things he shouldn't, listens to others he shouldn't...So he's safer in here. We're safer in here. I hoped if I locked him in here,...The one he obeys would come for him."

"Instead, I get you."

"Forget it." I waved my hand."I had other questions."

"Of course you do. And so do I. Like your companion there..." God pointed to Nightmare. "Who. and what, is that?"

"Who? Me?" Nightmare turned back to Dog. "I am Nightmare Moon, future ruler of Equestria, the Mare in the Moon and bringer of eternal darkness. And you should learn your place...Reject."

God seemed remarkably unfazed by this, which was strange. Super Mutants were easy to provoke; perhaps he was, as he had said, the 'Voice of Reason'.

"You are a strange one, Nightmare Moon. You throw those words at me like they should mean something, but they do not. Anyway..." God turned back to me. "Your turn."

"You wouldn't have locked yourself in there without some key to let you out." I pointed out.

"The key?" God scratched his chin. "Why, its the Old Man, the one who brought us here. I hid the key on me so Dog wouldn't know...I just need the Old Man to show up, so he and I can talk. If Dog was in control when the Old Man appeared...Well, he would just do whatever he commanded, as always."

"And I can't have that."

I nodded along in agreement. "Well, I need to get you out of there."

God shook his head vigorously. "No...No, I don't think so. Even in here, I have more control than you do. I'm not leaving until the one who controls the collars shows...Not his voice, not his lackey...Him, in person."

"And when he comes to see me, we'll settle things. So go on, go back to your master with your little friend, tell him I'm waiting. Dog may follow him; I won't."

I thought for a moment- maybe if this stubborn asshole wouldn't follow me, his 'other side' Dog, would?

"I could let Dog out." I threatened. "I'm sure he'd obey me."

God laughed, a harsh, rasping sound. "Dog? You're not talking to him now, are you? No, even if you could drag Dog out of his cage, you still couldn't get him out of this cage. I put him here for a reason...If he could have escaped, he would have. So here he stays."

"The key's in there; with you and Dog." I responded, glad that I had made him let that crucial piece of information slip earlier. I glanced down next to me, to find Nightmare was now leaning against a wall, miming a yawn to me before God let out another ear-destroying laugh.

"Yes, but Dog doesn't know that. We don't share everything. Sometimes it's a blessing...Sometimes, it causes difficulties. Now, I think it's a blessing, it keeps you on the right side of the cage. Now...You go fetch. Find your master, bring him here so we can talk."

"Something tells me I could walk Dog through unlocking a door."

"Yes...You could. And once he was out, all starving and hungry...What do you think he would do then? Be careful what cage you open, because he won't go back in it without a fight. He'll tear you and Nightmare apart, and he won't care if it kills you three."

"But...If he hears the Old man's voice, he'll do what the Old man says."

Dog...Obeys. Yes. Why...Do you have some means of contacting the Old Man?"

" I can play his voice, yes. I have a audio log from him on my Pip-Boy." I glanced down at the screen to check, and there it was- 'Elijah Command tape." Funny, I hadn't seen it before- must've downloaded during the walk here, and was the Old Man called Elijah? Well, at least I could name him now.

"You...Don't play it." God began to panic. " If you do, I'll find a way to get out of the cage, crush you, end you. I'll murder you, crush your arms until..."

"Well, goodbye, God." I grinned. "I'm going to led Dog out of his cage." I slowly brought my right hand down towards my Pip-Boy, finger extended and ready to press play.

"No! No,no, don't! I'll make you suffer for this, I promise you. Although it may not matter...I suspect the Sierra Madre will be reward enough for ones like yourself."

I pressed the button.

"Master?" The voice had changed now, to a tone more expected of a Super Mutant. Dog was out of his cage, and then I could rest and go get the next collar tomorrow. "Dog not hear you come in...Too hungry, now...At cage door? Master, Dog is listening now you are close and he can hear you over hunger."

"Dog, hidden on you is a key. Find it, and toss it to me."

"Dog? Dog doesn't have a..." Dog began to brush himself over, searching for the key until he pulled one off the chain that was wrapped around his neck. "Hnh. Here it is." Dog held out the key, tiny in his massive hands. " Dog...Dog didn't know it was there. How did it get there?"

"Shut up, reject, and give me the damned key. Now." I snapped, I didn't have time for this.

"Yes Master, Dog doesn't want to make Master angry with Dog..." I snatched the key from Dog's hand and unlocked the door with it.

"Dog, we're going to be staying here until tomorrow. Master wants you to rest."

"Dog needs rest...Needs rest so Dog can eat..." Dog collapsed to the floor outside the cage while I sighed. That had been more difficult than I expected, but I hadn't been attacked yet, which was good. I walked over towards the smaller cells, pulled one of the decaying mattresses out and placed it on the floor in the front room before I collapsed onto it, and was quickly asleep.