//------------------------------// // Ghoul Problem in Old Boston (Fallout 4 - Pt. 4) // Story: Sunset's Isekai // by Wanderer D //------------------------------// Sunset's Isekai Ghoul Problem in Old Boston (Fallout 4 - Pt. 4) By Wanderer D "The poor girl was captured by raiders?" Piper asked, eyes wide. "No wonder the place was destroyed. I'm surprised Snarky survived, but then again that little weasel didn't die until a couple of months ago in Goodneighbor." "It's funny tho," Cait said, leaning back and studying Nick. "I never heard of anyone called Olaf Brutalhammer. And I had the misfortune of getting to most of the bastards near Diamond City." "Well, what can I say," Nick said with some amusement, "this one was before your time." "So, if I'm understanding this correctly," Danse said, "the girls held a concert, and both Olaf and Snarky got into a fight over the lead singer?" he chuckled. "Sounds exactly like Boston." "You aren't going to tell us that times were different back then and raiders knew mercy, are you? Because then I'll know yer lyin'." Cait snorted. "Of course not, if anything they were worse. Now-a-days most raiders just try to take over each other's territory," Nick said, chuckling, "back then, they were fighting to build it in the first place. They saw more betrayals than the entire works of Graham Greene put together." "I don't understand that reference." "Never mind. Old world literature. Anyway, they just picked her up and assumed everyone was dead because Sweetie had pretty much destroyed the place already." "So a little girl wrecked a gangster's bar, which I guess I could see if she was on Psycho and armed to the teeth, but you really want me to believe that you had a genuine Irish girl with you, do you?" Cait insisted. "Not even the tin cans—" she ignored Danse's annoyed glance "—ever made it to Europe." "Well, no," Nick conceded. "Ha! I told you didn't I? I'm—" "There were two Irish girls, Cait: Robyn and Mebh." "You did mention her, didn't you?" she grumbled, crossing her arms. "The one that turned into a wolf." "That's the one." "It seems Cait's attempt at catching you lying didn't work out," Piper said, leaning across Danse to kiss the other woman on the cheek and pat her head. "Nice try." "Dryshite." "In any case," Danse spoke up, gently pushing both ladies away from each other. "It's not that I fully believe you, but what happened next?" "Well, I was worried…" My first thought was to assume the girl was already dead, or worse. Olaf Brutalhammer was not particularly friendly at the best of times, and he was infamous for having a bad temper even among Raiders. However, looking at the place, it was clear that the damage hadn't been done by raiders. They tended to be more… haphazard. However traumatic it had been for Snarky—who was already in the process of trying to block the events that had transpired here—the damage was relatively contained, and it was obvious that the violence that had taken place inside the Lady's Knickers was very intentional. Raiders would have thought nothing of destroying the stage, for example, but it had been left free of damage, while the bar, and the 'meeting' rooms behind it were thoroughly destroyed. Raiders would have blown up the walls if they had started the fight, but the building itself was mostly still operational, even if it would require a lot of cleanup. Most of the furniture was little more than kindling now, except for the one frilly sofa that seemed to have been spared because it fell into a category that could arguably be called 'cute',  especially in comparison to the rest. Whatever had happened in Snarky's bar, it hadn't been the raiders that had cleared up the place and almost done him in. And I was conflicted. Part of my  mind told me the girl was in danger, but my instincts told me that we all were. And I could only assume that she was in danger if I willfully turned a blind eye to everything I had witnessed so far. It was easy to say that the girls were exaggerating… if it weren't for the fact that they could fly, some weren't human at all, and some could transform into wolves and talk to animals. I had seen that, and yet my mind rebelled against it. It went against everything I knew and believed to be true… and here I was, regardless of my beliefs, with a couple of self-proclaimed witches, a giant wolf, a ghost, and an Irish girl with a crossbow and a hawk. When overwhelming evidence challenged my preconceptions, would I delude myself into thinking the world worked in the way I wanted to? Or would I, despite being a Synth, have the open mind to acknowledge the fault in my logic and accept that there was much, much more to the world than I thought possible? "So what do we know about this Olaf fellow?" Robyn asked, then smirked. "Put him on the hot spot? Have him bathe in sunlight?" "We can be almost sure that he loves warm hugs?" Luz suggested. "Maybe we should hug him until he gives up Sweetie?" "I dunno. He sounds like he'd melt under pressure," Dani scoffed. "Really girls?" Lena groaned, while Mehb the wolf simply snorted. "I don't follow," Nick said, giving them an unamused glance. "It's probably for the best," Lena said with a sigh. "Seriously, everyone. The fate of the world, anyone? Sweetie could really mess this place up." "Right, right," Luz said, nodding sagely, then turned to face Nick. "So, where is his camp?" "I believe it's a bit North of here, near Charlestown Highschool, towards the Boston Harbor," Nick said, already heading for the door.  There was no need to interrogate Snarky any further. The man had already lost his mind and Nick would be surprised if the memory loss from earlier wasn't a new, permanent scar on the man's psyche. The despondent ruins of the Boston Wasteland welcomed us into their cold, radioactive embrace once more. My memories of the place—or rather the real Nick Valentine's memories—were a sharp contrast with today's Boston. There was no green to the streets to make them prettier, and no people walking on the way to the public market. No children talking excitedly to their parents, and no tourists trying to find the Freedom Road. No, Boston had become something that would have horrified any of its old residents unless they had time to adapt, like some ghouls. The girls, however, took it in stride with the confidence of someone who had seen worse. "Alright! So North it is," Robyn said, getting her bearings almost immediately as she studied the landscape and quickly heading in the right direction. "Hopefully we can get some tracks or scents to follow." Nick followed behind Robyn and Mehb alongside the other girls, keeping his eyes on the buildings around them as he gave instructions on which streets to take as they moved towards the Charles River. "Ugh, smells like rotting meat," Robyn groaned. "I think it's more of those zombies from the other day." "Ghouls, remember?" Luz chided. "We spoke with some of the sane ones, they're not too bad." "Yeah, yeah," Dani muttered. "The problem isn't them, it's their crazy naked cousins I'm worried about. You know, the green glowing guys that just run at us like perverts." "Don't remind me." Robyn shuddered. "At least their bites don't turn you into ghouls." "They're not Wolfwalkers." "Har. Har." As if summoned by their argument, they heard a long, suffering howl and seconds later several ghouls rushed out of nearby buildings. Nick quickly backpedaled to put some distance between himself and the rushing creatures, while Luz jumped on her staff and flew up to hover alongside Lena, while Dani sank underground. Robyn jumped on top of Mehb as the large wolf ran in a half-circle around the approaching ghouls effectively breaking their rush as they stared, confused, at all the available targets before splitting into smaller groups, going after Nick and the Wolfwalkers, and ignoring the flying girls. That was their mistake. Gigantic plants broke through the street, slamming with punishing force against four ghouls and basically splattering them on the side of a building. A flash of light caused several others to slow down until they stopped and their bodies hardened into solid stone. Nick and Robyn stood side by side shooting at the nearest Ghouls, while Mehb snapped and scratched and pushed back at any that got too close. "Why isn't she biting them?" Nick asked when he got a moment's respite. "They taste horrible!" Robyn replied. "I bit one the other day and it was absolutely disgusting! That, and Lena had to purge my body of radioactive poisoning! It's not fun!" Despite himself, Nick had to chuckle at that. "I can see how that would be annoying." Between gouts of flames, ice, giant plants, stone spells, the ground opening and splitting under their enemies to swallow them, Dani's strange, almost radioactive-looking green fire… and the occasional shots from Nick whenever he wasn't gaping at the impossibility of the situation, the group made short work of the otherwise massive amount of ghouls. Even though they were pressed for time to find Sweetie Belle, they decided to investigate quickly to make sure no more ghouls were around. Dani quickly floated up into the air to serve as a lookout as they took in the area. A quick glance around revealed the origin of the creatures to Nick: an old, large church with still-slightly-golden columns and gaudy inlays of a heavy-weight man speaking to a large crowd at the top of the columns, still visible in parts, almost like it was trying to imitate the Parthenon in an almost disrespectful mockery of what the place itself was supposed to stand for.  Following the trail of the ghouls, they had found a makeshift heavy door at the back, still bearing the logo of the church and its owner, leading deep down under the building itself, identifying the building as the origin of the mass of ghouls. Most likely the devoted had fled into the church and down into its basement in a futile attempt to save themselves from the bombs. This area of town had been bathed in radioactive fallout, not enough to blow away the structures, but more than enough to soak them in the toxic wastes that turned these people into mindless creatures. Here and there posters inside the church proclaimed that the word of God was more powerful than any weapon made by man. That the church was the only safe place for people to not only survive, but flourish. While they made sure to clean up any stragglers, he grimaced at the littered floor of the basement, where old, empty cans, empty bottles of water and worse, the bones of much smaller people… what could only be children… rotted away in small piles. Worse, Nick's human memories gave him more details… pastor Oswald Sephtis was a popular TV celebrity, always inviting people to join his church, to donate, and to liberate themselves. He shook his head. He had never had time for faith. Neither him nor his human template had found any use for it, especially knowing that the 'pious' pastor actually had lived in a huge mansion nearby while his devoted made do in the attic of the church, and probably the basement before the bombs. His rhetoric had always incited borderline violence against others for any number of reasons, be them political, religious or financial. The 'others' were always the enemy, and no matter what the pastor did or said, his flock backed him regardless of evidence or discourse. They had followed his orders to the day the bombs fell, and when food ran low they had fed from each other until driven mad and turned into ghouls. He was almost cynical enough to say that there was almost no difference from before the bombs. But the better part of him reminded him that these people had been scammed and abused. Still, he was glad this temple to xenophobia and hate was no longer active. Even if people now had found other things to hate. "Let's keep going," he muttered, leading the girls out. Being here and reminiscing about the hate and hubris of humanity was not helping his state of mind. Nick's memories of the world before the bombs were full of marches and violence perpetrated by that group, and even as optimistic as he could be, there was only so much he wanted to remember. "There's something you should know," Dani said, floating down to hover just a couple of feet above ground. "I saw some explosions near the river, and now I can only see a column of smoke from where that happened." Nick grimaced. "Is it in the direction we're headed?" Instead of answering, Dani simply pointed, drawing a sigh from him, Mehb, and Robyn. "Yep, that's North alright," the hunter girl muttered. "And I wouldn't be surprised to find that Sweetie was behind that." "Well, that's not a comforting thought," Nick responded. He felt a pat on the back and glanced over to Luz, who gave him an unsure smile. "Hey, come on, Detective, you feeling alright? Where's that dogged persistence gone?" Nick chuckled. "With the last bottle of Scotch I left in my office." Robyn snorted. "Scotch, is it? Why bother with that when you can get some of O Cahanes? Best whiskey in the region, according to my father." Nick gave her a look. "I don't mind Irish Whisky, whenever we can find it, but I never heard of that one." "You haven't, have you?" Robyn shook her head. "Weird. It was still going strong in 1650." "It's 2287," Luz countered. "Wasn't it 2077?" "No, that's the other place with Tokyo in Los Angeles." "Huh, weird. I kinda thought we were in the wild areas that Panam talked about. You know the ones, don't you?" Lena sighed. "Yes, I know the place, but this is not it." Nick allowed the girls to walk past him as he followed them at a more leisurely place, chuckling and listening to their completely unbelievable conversation and lightening his heart in the process. The world was constantly surprising him, even though he had grown cynical about a lot of it even before being made into a synth. Or rather, just being made. Even though he kept himself occupied and did his best to help the people of Diamond City, there was always this underlying feeling that humanity never changed, and the world just suffered for it. Every now and  then he'd witness something heroic, or selfless or simply beautiful emerging from the ugly and it would remind him that yes, it was worth fighting for them. But it wasn't until now that he understood how small his world was, and rather than feel intimidated by the vastness of it all, or the overwhelming difference of the unknown out there, it revitalized him. He had seen the worst of humanity chase down and destroy others based on religion or even skin color. The Institute abused that fear—knowing that isolationists and fear mongers would use any difference, abuse any little detail to feed fear into the hearts of the credulous and alienate others with rhetoric and violence—to control the population of the Commonwealth and keep them weak and vulnerable. Nick's views of the world had been dark. And he was sure that in days and years to come, he would be tested again, but looking at these girls who were complete strangers to this world, brought him joy. Because there was more out there, and he was sure it was not only out in space or other worlds, but here in the Commonwealth too. One day things would change for the better, and he would see that welcoming camaraderie between synths, humans, ghouls… hell, even Super Mutants and robots. All he needed to do was keep an open mind. He glanced back over his shoulder at the destroyed church as they rounded a corner. "Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt, huh?" he muttered. "You said something?" Luz asked, turning around to face him as she walked backwards, albeit a little slower. "Nah," Nick responded, walking a bit faster to catch up to her and walk together. "Just thinking."