//------------------------------//
// 06: Ghouls and Trauma 
// Story: Bear, Scribe and Paladin 
// by Speven Dillberg 
//------------------------------//

Vault 101, mid-2278

Dom watched as the door to the Overseer’s Office opened, Vengeance pointed through the gap. She had purged the Vault of every single Outcast, she was sure. The Maintenance level, the Lower levels, the Atrium and Upper levels, she had walked through them all, exterminating the power-armoured invaders like one would a Radroach infestation. The residents had been rounded up and placed under something akin to house arrest, locked into their apartments to keep them from causing trouble. 
They hadn’t reacted well to the Lone Wanderer’s return. The last time she had returned had ended in a change in management and plenty of hurt feelings. Finding out she was here to save them, along with a number of radio reports from Galaxy News Radio, was enough to sway a good portion of the Vault’s population, much to her relief. The ones that weren’t, she wasn’t concerned with. 
The Outcast standing at the Overseer’s Terminal looked up. Dom had seen him before. She’d even helped him numerous times. “Casdin,” she growled.
“How do you know my name?” the man asked, sounding panicky.
“What, don’t remember your local scavenger-for-hire?” Dom asked sardonically. “Look how far I’ve come, Protector,” she sneered. “Get out.”
“Out?” he asked. “Out!? The tech in this Vault is incredible! Those savages have no idea what they’re sitting on!”
“Their home. The one place untouched by the Capital Wasteland, until you fuckers showed up. You ruined everything.” Dom stepped closer, pointing the Gatling Laser at his bare face. “You claim to protect technology, to protect it from those who don’t understand. You’re just a pack of Raiders with a hard-on for anything more advanced than a lightbulb.” She let out a stream of crimson fury into the Protector’s right shoulder, melting holes through his armour. As the man writhed on the ground in pain, Dom stepped closer. “You know what I do to Raiders.”
“You sick - ” His last words were cut off as lasers impacted with his face. Sheer chance reduced the man responsible for the attack on Vault 101 to nothing but ash. 
Dom ignored the sizzling sound as she walked away. She sat down in one of the alcoves and took off her helmet. She sighed as she looked at the face of the helmet. In the visors she could make out her reflection. Her dirty face, her unwashed red hair, the scars... Hard to think it had barely been a year since she had been forced out into the Wastes on a quest to find her father. “Am I doing the right thing, dad?” she asked. “I know this isn’t what you wanted for me. You just wanted me to be safe. Now I’m a soldier, fighting a war I never wanted.” She closed her eyes as the tears came. “Why can’t I just let things happen? Why do I have to get involved?”





Dom stomped towards the unicorn, the sword’s tip dragging along the ground. If it was an actual sword it would have been really impressive, but the padding just made things a little bit funny. No-one was in any state to laugh, though. It had taken the ghoul barely three minutes to incapacitate the two remaining Griffons, leaving them both unconscious. One had a broken wing and legs, while the other had been smacked in the head so hard he had simply collapsed. 
Starburst had done what she could from a distance, but there seemed to have been no effect. Every blast of magic seemed to dissipate harmlessly on impact, and every time Dom had laughed. And now, she was coming for her.
Captain Starburst backed away as much as she could, stopping with a frightened squeak when she hit Shining Armor’s bubble. “Stay away from me, you skinless freak!” she screamed, a trace of defiance in her voice. Unfortunately, she had done so in perfect Zebrican.
“Freak?” Dom asked, her tone the kind reserved for divine fury. “Freak!?” She brought the sword and swung it with such force the unicorn was sent flying. “No-one calls me a freak!” she screamed as she began to violently bludgeon the mare.
She stopped after ten swings when she noticed that none of the injuries were permanent. “That’s right,” Dom hissed menacingly. “That little star keeps healing you, doesn’t it?” she asked as she hefted the pony up in a terrifying display of strength. With her left hand she gripped Starburst’s throat and brought her up to eye level. 
As Starburst struggled to breathe, she locked eyes with the ghoul. What she saw in those small, beady eyes was nothing short of demonic. There was no compassion, no love, no joy. There was only malice, hate and anger. All of it directed at her.
Dom’s right hand came around and grabbed the captain’s star on her barrel. With the sound of protesting metal, she ripped it off. “Not anymore!” she yelled maniacally, dropping the terrified mare.
The once-proud Captain Starburst, now a blubbering wreck, tried to get away. But the bubble meant to separate the combatants from the non-combatants was now her prison. And Dom was not the sort to let someone she was fighting get away.
“Help!” Starburst screamed, hammering against the shield with her hooves. “Let me out! She’s gonna kill me! She’s gonna kill me-e-e-e-e!” she wailed.
“Commander,” Grimfeather said, finally breaking his silence. “Commander!” he repeated, this time yelling.
“Huh? Whuh?” Shining Armor came out his stunned state and looked at the Griffon.
“The shield! Drop the bloody shield!”
“What? Oh, right!” His horn lost its glow and the bubble evaporated. Starburst, now with nothing to lean against, landed on her chin before getting to her hooves and galloping away as fast as she could through the crowd.
“Get back here, you sack of brahmin shit!” Dom yelled as she gave chase. Before she could even get three feet, Thomas came out of nowhere and tackled her to the ground. “Oof!”
Before she could do anything, he smacked her in the face so hard he heard her jaw crack. “What the fuck was that crap!?” he screamed. “A friendly fight! What don’t you get about that!?”
His scowl disappeared and was replaced with disgust when her jaw snapped back into place. “Get the fuck off me,” the ghoul growled. “I’m gonna make that fucking horse my bitch.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” Thomas asked, the anger gone and replaced with confusion. “Fucking hell, you’re the Lone Wanderer. You wrote the Wasteland Survival Guide. You’re a fucking hero, for god’s sake. Heroes don’t act like this,” he said, the anger coming back.
Dom’s furious expression evaporated at those words. She recalled something, words her father had said not hours before he had sacrificed himself.
”My little girl, a hero. I’m so proud of you.”
The ghoul blinked as she pushed herself up, the manic energy gone. She stared at the ground for a moment before bowing her head, not saying a word.





Ten minutes later, Shining had managed to get the humans into a small, secluded part of the barracks, a meeting room or sorts.
“Mind telling me just WHAT THE HAY HAPPENED!?” Shining Armor screamed at the still-desolate Paladin.
“Go easy on her, Shiny,” Thomas said nervously.
“Shut up,” the stallion said harshly. “I may not like Starburst, but I hated seeing her traumatised like that. And your ‘friend’ here is responsible,” he finished, jabbing a hoof at her violently.
“I... I’m sorry,” Dom said quietly. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Uh...” They all turned to Veronica, who had until this point remained completely silent. “I think I do.”
“What would you know about ghouls?” Thomas asked. “You lived underground.”
“I was also the ‘procurement specialist’. I went topside all the time. Met a few ghouls.” Veronica stood up from the chair and began to pace the small room. “There’s two main reasons a ghoul will turn feral.”
“Feral?” Shining asked, not liking the implications. 
“They become mindless animals. Every ghoul fears that,” Dom explained. “Ferocious post-necrotic dystrophy, if you want to be fancy.”
“The main one is isolation. Doesn’t help that ghoulification does things to the brain to start with, but with no-one to talk to you’re bound to end up feral,” Veronica said, ignoring the others. “The other is, well, kind of ironic.”
“Ironic?” Thomas asked. “What do you mean by that?”
“Radiation.” The other three stared at Veronica dumbfoundedly.
“That’s bullshit,” Dom said. “Radiation heals ghouls, how can it turn us feral?”
“You’ve seen glowing ones, right?” the Scribe asked. When the Paladin nodded, she went on. “And how many weren’t trying to rip you apart with their bare hands?”
Dom blinked as what she was saying sunk in. “Oh god. Oh god!” she exclaimed. “Radaway! Give me some fucking Radaway!” she started yelling. Shining backed away, worried that he would get hit, but also a little upset that he was partly responsible.
“Calm down!” Veronica yelled, pushing the panicking Paladin back into her chair. She grabbed Dom by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “The main thing that stops ghouls going feral is willpower.”
“That explains Bright,” Thomas muttered.
“All you have to do is want to stay sane. It’s just like chem addiction.”
“When the fuck did you get so serious?” Thomas asked. 
“I only make bad jokes when it’s appropriate,” she retorted smartly, before turning back to the panicking ghoul. “Being around people you can trust will help as well.” Her tone had turned from serious to calm, gentle, something one would use to reassure a frightened child. “From what Sentinel Lyons tells me, everyone in Washington likes and respects you, even if they’re too scared to show it.”
“I... I guess they would, huh?” Dom asked, her voice shaky and full of false confidence.
“You defused a live nuke, saved a town from Super Mutants, wiped out slavers, helped escaped slaves, and toppled the Enclave,” Veronica said warmly. “Of course they do.” Without warning, she leaned in and hugged her. 
Dom stared across the room for a moment before returning the gesture, despite the fact that Veronica’s T-51b meant she couldn’t feel it. “Thanks.”
“Okay, I call bullshit. Defusing a nuke?” Thomas asked loudly, destroying the happy moment. 
“It was Chinese, the Chinese made nothing but junk.”





Author’s Notes:
Originally, it was gonna be Dom bitch-slapping the everloving crap out of the bigot pony. Then I realised that was bad. And wrong. It was badong.
And the reason Dom had such an easy victory over even deadlier foes is because she has experience that Thomas simply doesn’t. Anchorage, the Pitt, Point Lookout, Mothership Zeta...