Wandering Alone Chapter 3

Chapter 3: From the Westside

The Lone Wanderer couldn't believe what he was looking at, he just couldn't believe it, he had followed the tunnel and it opened up into a giant chamber that was under Vault 101, he could literally see his hold home in the rocks above him, but what he saw below him surprised him, even more, a second vault or at least it looked like a vault, it was a giant hangar-like structure the connected to the Vault from what looked like a tube that he guessed was some sort of elevator. 'If I'm remembering it all correctly then that elevator is located right near the overseers' office, could it have been that hidden room? What the hell is this place?' As he hopped down from the tunnel he entered from the ground level when he was there he saw several dead ants on the floor, 'What killed those ants?' He looked around, even though he was underground the moss and bioluminescent plants gave off just enough light for him to the structure below the vault and to see the turrets on top of it. 'Now those are some turrets, they look like they have enough fire power, I see both laser and missile fire turrets. Those explain all the dead ants. I should probably try and not to get too close.' he thought.

Suddenly without warning a camera popped out of the ground in front of the structure and flashed a thin green light that began to sweep across the area. The Wanderer dropped to the ground using a dead ant as cover. The light swept by with no sign of stopping, after it swept the area, the light shut off. "No movement detected," came a robotic voice over the speaker, "Additional scans required."

As several more lights filled the chamber and swept over the Wanderer as he could already tell he wasn't going to be able to hide from every scan, 'Shit, it looks like I'm going to have to fight my way out.' as he readied his pistol. 'I doubt this will be enough but it should get me enough time to run.'

More lights passed by before stopping and narrowing in on the Lone Wanderer. "Foreign metal detected."

"Time to move." as he got up and pointed his gun at the camera.

"Pip-boy detected!"

"Wha?" He stopped himself from pulling the trigger as the lights then focused on his wrist, he held his Pip-boy out as it scanned the device, not dropping his weapon.

"Vault 101 Pip-boy confirmed," said the robotic scanner as it shut off the lights, "Two friendlies in the area no threats detected."

He took a few steps forwards as he looked up at the camera, "Wait two friendlies detected?"

"So that means you from the vault, huh."

The Wanderer spun around pointing his gun at the newcomer, the newcomer was wearing a mixture of armor, using what seemed to be a modified duster covering over what appeared metallic armor over his chest along with leather pants and big boots. Over his head, he was wearing a helmet that looked like the shell of a power armor helmet that still had its bright yellow lenses that seemed to pierce into the Wanderer, wielding a massive sledgehammer, that combined with the man's size which matched his own of around 6 and a half gave him the feeling that this was a man not to mess around with.

'Who is this guy? How did I not see him coming, is he from the vault, that would explain why the security system said he was friendly but does that mean he would be friendly to me?' Thought the Lone Wander.

"Put down the gun brat before you hurt yourself." said the man who seemed to be unfazed by the fact someone was pointing a firearm at him. "Who are you brat?"

"Why the hell should I tell you?"

The man shrugged as he lifted his hammer and rested it on his shoulder. "It would start the conversation or worse comes to worst I'll know what to put on your tombstone."

The Lone Wanderer gave a nervous laugh, "Yeah right, I can easily put several rounds into it before you get halfway to me." He said steading his breathing, 'Why am I breathing so hard, is this guy actually scaring me? No, that can't be it can it?'

The man just sighed, "Okay maybe that wasn't the right thing to say here to move things along. I am not your enemy in fact for a while now I've been trying to keep people from getting to this place, but those damn ants keep re-opening those damn tunnels." He turned and saw the entrance that the Lone Wanderer came from, "And it looks like there's one more that I need to close."

The Lone Wanderer thought for a moment. "Close the tunnels....You not from the Vault are you?"

"No," said the man quickly. "But I have some enemies that have been looking for this place for a while now and I sure as shit was going to let them get a hold of this place."

"Why to take it and just leave?" asked The Wanderer trying to trip the man up into divulging what is inside.

The man just chuckled, "I see so you had no idea about this place, did you? You never knew what this Vault was built for."

"It's a vault it was made to house people when the bombs fell," he said as if stating the obvious.

"That is what your Vault did yes, but there is more than one reason why these things were built, you see Vault tec was losing money so they sold their vault to different organizations, including the US government. Ever wonder why the overseer had so much power and why whatever the overseer says goes? It's because the residents of Vault 101 were all military and their job was to keep a treasure trove of US tech and arms hidden," as he pointed his hammer at the lower vault. "That right there is enough firepower to destroy this land all over again."

The Lone Wander glanced at the Vault, "You serious?"

"Not a hundred percent I've never been inside, I've only collected records piecing things together here and there."

"Who are you?" demanded the Lone Wanderer.

"Look brat-"

Bang

The Lone Wanderer fired a single shot over the man's shoulder. "Don't call me a brat, now talk before I decide to shoot you."

The man wasn't scared, he wasn't even angry just slightly annoyed by getting shot at, "Look kid if you don't want me calling you brat you're going to need to give me something I can call you."

"I'm just a Lone Wanderer," he replied.

"Lone Wanderer seriously, now I know you’re from the Vault, must spend your time reading the Silver Shroud."

"Grognak the Barbarian, actually."

The man gave the Wanderer a deadpan look before facepalming and slowly dragging his hand down his helmet, "Fine, sure whatever."

"So who are you?"

The man laughed as he decided to put on a bit of a show, "You know even though I'm this far east, it still feels strange introducing myself, I'm quite famous back home, I have had many names, the Khan slayer, demon of California, the Chosen One, the pro-"

"Pfft"

The man stopped, "What was that?"

"The Chosen One, you can't be serious."

"What's wrong with the Chosen One?"

"Well, it just sounds a little ridiculous."

"Oh, and the Wanderer is any better." shot back the Chosen One.

"Well, yeah I mean there are several people wandering around so it's not so weird but the Chosen One? Come on, that kind of sounds stupid." Scoffed the Lone Wanderer not aware of the anger he's unleashed.

The Chosen One flexed his hand cracking his fingers, "Lone Wanderer, who fucked up the second he stuck his head out of his vault. A bit long but I'll make sure it fits on your tombstone."

The Wanderer shrugged, "Looks like these talks are over." He aimed his gun planning to hit the man between the eyes or at least hit the spot between the lens of his helmet. "So long Chosen One." as he pulled the trigger, he saw as the bullet left the barrel of his gun and fly across the area like it did before, where it would hit its target perfectly which it did the only difference this time was that his target moved. In the fraction of the millisecond, the bullet would have needed to hit the man he moved his head to the side at incredible speed dodging the bullet entirely. "...what the...."

The Chosen one looked back for a second, where the bullet flew. "Nice shot, my turn." as he quickly swung his hammer hitting the ground sending a rock the size of a golf ball at the Lone Wanderer's head.

'Shit!' Thought the Lone Wanderer as he quickly jumped backward and bent back to dodge the rock, his eyes focused on the rock as he flew by his face. Realizing that it would have hurt a hell of a lot if it connected, 'This guy...' he wasn't able to finish the thought as he looked forward and saw the Chosen One right in front of him, 'Wha?' Was his only thought before the Chosen One quickly slammed his elbow into his side sending the Wanderer rag dolling to the ground.

The Chosen One stopped and waited for a second as the Wanderer clenched his side as he struggled with the pain, "Well damn, I wasn't expecting you to survive that, either you have some damn good armor or you one sturdy son of a bitch."

The Wanderer took several deep breaths as he looked up at the Chosen one, 'Fuck that hurt, I've never been hit like that before. That one hit made the punches Butch threw look like small pats, what the fuck is this guy made of to toss me like that?'

The Chosen One shook his head, "Staring ain't going to fix shit, action is your only option in a place like this."

"Thanks for the advice," as he got to one knee before pulling out his pistol and started firing the weapon, and just like he predicted the Chosen One dodged each and every bullet.

"That's something but it ain't going to prolong your life by much." as the Chosen One dashed forward with impossible speed for a man his size and before the Wanderer could dodge grabbed him by his collar in one hand and raising his hammer in another. "What did you think that would accomplish boy?"

"This," as the Wanderer suing his police baton that was cracking with green lighting as he focused as much of his strange power into it as he could.

Time slowed as the baton closed in on the Chosen One's helmet, as it closed in on the helmet a small spark of lightning jumped from the helmet to the baton. The baton made contact with the helmet shattering against the helmet forcing the Chosen one to let go of the Wanderer as it pushed him back several feet, dropping his hammer but didn't cause the man to fall.

'Are you fucking kidding me!' Thought the Lone Wanderer as he screamed inwardly, but knew he didn't have time, he rushed forward knife in hand using his power to slow time down aiming right below the chosen's one helmet and above his chest piece, 'It's now or never.'

The Chosen One saw this and quickly moved his hand upward catching the blade with his hand stopping the Wanderer's first attack, but in the corner of his view he saw the Wanderer's fist coming from the other side cracking with green lightning, "Nice try," as he then caught the fist with his own hand covered in the green lightning, "But you didn't honestly think you were the only one with that trick."

The Wanderer felt his strength fade as he saw the man also had the same strange power he had. "How?"

"Rad lightning is what we've started calling it," said the Chosen One as the lightning increased around his arms, "Here let me show you what we can do with it."

The next thing the Lone Wanderer felt was pain rushing through his entire body as he felt the lightning crack inside of him before the final surge sent him flying across the chamber, but by the time his body had hit the ground, his mind had already gone dark. In its stead flashes of his life appeared before him as his father spoke to him.

The Chosen One looked over at the body seeing the smoke coming off of the arms, "Oh shit, are you dead?"

"AAAAAHHHH," screamed the Lone Wanderer as he writhed in pain on the ground.

"Guess not," as he looked over as the Lone Wanderer slowly rolled over while trying to hold in the pain. To the Chosen One the sight was just sad, "I guess I should apologize," said the Chosen One but got no response, "Look I just was expecting there to be one of us this far out East."

"I....I..." the Lone Wanderer tried to speak between his heavy breathing but it was difficult between the pain from his arms and the clearly broken ribs in his chest. "I...am..."

The Chosen One sighed, "Just stop I-"

"Alpha...and Omega."

"What?"

The Lone Wanderer raised his hand to the sky. "The beginning ...and the end!" as he slammed his fist into the ground, pushing against it. "I will...give...unto him," as he was able to get one knee under him. "That is a thirst" as he was able to plant his other foot flat on the ground.

The Chosen One put his hand on his hips as he watched and noticed several syringes fall to the ground as the boy tried to stand. "Stimpacks, huh must of jabbed yourself with one as you were coming at me with the knife."

The Lone Wanderer staggered as he tried to raise himself only to stumble a little, "Of the...fountain of water.." He then was able to stop but swayed as he tried to stand tall, "of life freely."

The Chosen One then crossed his arms as he looked at the walking corpse in front of him, "Revelation 21:6, didn't take you for a bible boy."

"Never read it," said the Lone Wanderer through heavy breaths, "I only know that part, it was my mother's favorite part." as he looked at his foe, 'There is no way in hell I can kill this fucker, I don't have a snowball's chance in hell beating him one on one, but maybe I can at least get him to leave the vault alone, what a minute the Vault...'

"Stop right there," said the Chosen One getting his attention once again, "You’re planning something stupid but I've made it clear you have no chance, you will die if try anything else. Surr-"

"NO!" Yelled the Lone Wanderer, "I ain't dying here, I still have so much of this world to see, I still need to find my dad, I still have to live for my mom and I still need to return to AMATA  ALMODOVAR!!!"

"Huh?"

"Passcode accepted!" said the robotic voice of the lower vault.

"What?" as the Chosen One went on high alert as the Vault's Ai spoke. 'The AI responded to that, then that must have been the current Overseer's audio passcode.'

"Eat shit Asshole!" The Chosen One looked over to see the Wanderer tossing a grenade at him but at an arch.

'What at that angle I should be able to catch that with ease," Thought the Chosen One before noticing that the Lone Wanderer is charging right at him, on instinct the Chosen One backpedaled away, 'What is he doing? Tackling and using the grenade to kill us both?'

"Made ya flinch," as the Lone Wanderer raised his leg activating his power for aim.

The Chosen one watched as the Wanderer then proceeded to kick the grenade like a soccer ball, sending it directly at him, 'No way,' The Chosen one activated his ability trying to slow things around him to dodge but what he saw made him realize it was too late, 'A timer! This is a raider grenade he must have taken!' as the grenade exploded before it even touched him sending him down to the ground, singed. "Grrr, Okay brat," as he got up, "You better have more stim- Huh?" He looked up expecting to see the Wanderer shooting or attacking him but instead he saw nothing until he looked over to his enemy was running towards the vault, 'What the....is he running away?' He then noticed that their was something on the wall of the Vault, 'A terminal! When did that get there!'

The Lone Wanderer made it to the terminal first and quickly began typing away, 'This is exactly like the Terminal me and Amata found years ago the only one that would work the Overseer's password. I still can't believe that he put his daughter's name as the password of all things, though I guess I can't complain now.'

"Target parameters changed," came the robotic AI, "Execute defense protocol!"

"Yes," Thought the Wanderer before turning to see that the Chosen One was in mid-air right behind him with his sledgehammer raised making it clear that if that hit him, 'That will kill me.'

BOOOOM

The Wanderer quickly braced himself as a rush of air and dust flew by, he quickly realized that something hit the Chosen One and sent him flying. "Well talking about cutting it close." as he turned to see a modified Sentry bot with missile launchers. "Thanks for the backup."

"Scanning...Scanning, one friendly and one hostile detected." said the Sentry bot.

"Detected!" He turned to see the dust clear and when the Chosen One's body was visible he saw it sit up. "Are you fucking kidding me, HOW?"

The chosen one then took out a syringe from his side as he held up the empty Stimpack, "You're not the only one that knows that trick."

"Eliminate hostile." as the Sentry Bot began to fire its weapons. The Chosen one dove to the side as he took out his pistol, a custom Desert Eagle. as he dove to the side he fired four shots, one hitting the sentry bot's main camera, two for its legs, and the last one hitting its primary missile launcher. "ERROR RECALIBRATING CAMERA AND WEAPON SYSTEMS."

"You're shitting me!" said The Lone Wanderer as he saw his ace in the hole damaged so easily.

"I admit you did good," said the Chosen One as he took something out of his pocket, "but you are a hundred years too early to be fighting me." Then the sound of the turrets whining up as eight different turrets aimed their sights at him, "Can't believe I'm wasting this right now." as he dropped the device and within a second the device activated causing a wave of electricity to envelope the chamber shutting down the turrets.

The Lone Wanderer watched as the Sentry Bot shut down. "Fuck-ack" the Lone Wanderer was snapped back into reality as he felt The Chosen One grab his neck and slamming him hard enough against the wall of the vault to make a large Wanderer shape indent into the wall, before pointing his gun right at his face.

"Now then, I've got questions and you're going to answer them, or else I'm going to shoot you," Threaten the Chosen One. "You've fucked with me enough as is try and give me any bullshit and you going to get a new hole."

"How about you drop him and you don't get a new hole." The Lone Wanderer and The Chosen One both turn to look to see two people pointing strange guns in their directions at the Chosen One.

The Wanderer couldn't believe it as he honestly didn't believe he would see them for a long time. "Amata....Susie?"

"Oh hey dumbass," said Susie, "You left for only a few days and already need saving."

"Let him go, now!" repeated Amata as she aimed her sights on her high-tech gun at the Chosen One. "I have no idea what this is capable of but I'm sure it will hurt, so drop him."

For a moment everyone thought he was going to drop him but instead he started laughing. "Your joking, you have no idea how out of your league you are," he then shifted his pistol slightly in their direction. "I could kill you both in a second."

"Don't-ah" The Lone Wanderer couldn't speak as his throat was pushed in and his with a bit of lightning as the Chosen One showed his powers.

"Oh fuck he's a freak as well," said Susie as she saw the lightning, causing her to lower her gun slightly out of caution.

"Susie!" snapped Amata.

"What you can't deny that's freaky, could his dad do that as well, is that why my dad kept saying James brought crazy to the vault," asked Susie.

"Now is not the time Susie," yelled Amata.

"Wait what did you just say?" asked the Chosen one as he stopped his powers and lessened his hold on the Wanderer.

"My dad hated his dad and I'm sure he would hate you too," said Susie as she pointed her weapon at the man.

"His dad's name is James?" asked the Chosen One.

"Yeah James he was our doctor," confirmed Amata, "From my dad's records he was from outside the vault, was he a friend, is that why you're here?"

The Chosen one was silent as he lowered his gun slightly and looked directly at the Wanderer, "And his mother?"

Both girls glanced at each other for a moment, "Dead, or that's what James said" said Susie.

"She died giving birth to him," said Amata hoping that this was a peaceful way to resolve the situation. "Her name was Catherine, if their friends of yours then please let him go."

"Catherine." the man dropped the Wanderer as he stared off into space, the Wanderer sat against the Vault. "Catherine." Both girls kept their guns trained on the man as he took a few steps back. "Catherine," he repeated.

"You knew my mom?" asked the Wanderer as he stared up at the man.

"Knew her?" as the Chosen One started to breathe harder and harder. "no...no, no, no, NO!" as he then punched the side of the Vault so hard it indented the side of the Vault.

Both girls instantly pointed their guns at the man ready to shoot at any second, but the Wanderer had no strength left to do anything except just watch the man standing above him and realize he knew his parents. "Who are you?"

The Chosen One looked down at the Wanderer before removing his fist from the wall and taking a few steps back from the Wanderer as he looked at his shanking hand, "I'm going to kill him, I'm going kill him."

"Stay away from him." Yelled Amata.

"Put that down, your no killer, and I'm done here." said the Chosen One as he took a few steps back, "You brat, catch." as he tossed a small object at the Wanderer's lap.

The Wanderer looked down to see it was a pair of tinted sunglasses that covered even the sides of someone's eyes, with the number 13 engraved on the side. "Sun....glasses?"

"Those were my grandfathers," said the Chosen One as he started walking away, "Don't let anyone see your eyes, keep your face covered, and if you care about anyone here then keep your distance, you have the power they don't. I'll leave these tunnels to you." as he left down the tunnel he came from.

Susie went forward making sure he had left. "Okay, who was that?"

"He called himself the... Chosen....One..." said The Wanderer before falling over on his side, he blinked as he realized that black spots were dancing in his vision, 'Shit, I took too much damage, even though I've pumped myself with all of my Stimpacks I still took too many hits,' he realized as he started blacking out not before seeing Amata holding him calling his name, 'Amata, I'm sorry...'

~o~

A figure was walking to the top of a destroyed highway in the Capital Waste, it gave him the view to see around the wastes and to see the river that ran by the abandoned elementary school. The large man stood tall wearing an old T-51 power armor that was worn and was clear that it was patched up several times.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

"I know that scream," The figure turned to see a man walking along the riverbank, "After all this time, it seems he needs me."