(D.C. Wastelands, 2277. Phoenix's P.O.V.)

I ran out of Vault 101 as the massive steel door closed shut behind me. After making sure the radroaches infesting the Vault were all dealt with and none of Vault 101's security detail or the residents had died, I ran out of the opened Vault door as the security detail tried closing it on me. I sighed as I leaned against the door. "Why did I have to spawn here of all places. Gallio is the Wasteland expert, not me." I stood up and recalled what had happened to me.

A few hundred years ago, for me at least, I was being prepped to become a being who could control the very fabric of reality itself. A being known as a Verser. More specifically, a Metaverser. The beings responsible for bringing me into that situation were known as the Deific Council, Manifestations of the mortal concepts of Life, Death, Science, Magic, Time, Space, Luck, and Fate. They had recruited me to hunt down escapees from the Shadow Vault, an interdimensional prison housing the most dangerous threats to reality itself.

When the true might of our enemies was revealed, it was deemed necessary to transform me into a Verser, but during the process, the Citadel, the location of the Deific Council's chambers, was under attack by the very criminals I was selected to hunt. They attacked when I was at my most vulnerable, when I was in the middle of the ritual Eternity, the Manifestation of the Metaverse, was performing. They destroyed my body after I had absorbed a small portion of the Council's powers, thinking they had destroyed the only major threat to their plans of usurping the Council, but they had done the very thing Eternity needed to complete the ritual. As they destroyed my body, she sent her own power into me, completing the ritual, but there was a complication.

My own soul was against itself wanting to stay and help my new family and wanting power to help me fight the 7 Conquerors, the criminals who killed me. As a result, my soul scattered itself across the Metaverse, a collection of different Multiverses, and I was reborn as several different souls, including this one, the Lone Wanderer of the world of Fallout. Now I need to find a way to reconstruct myself, while training extensively to combat my foes. I need to get stronger, I need to get faster, I need to get smarter, and I need just about every advantage over the Conquerors as I can get. My name is Phoenix Mason, and I am the Metaverser.

As I sat there against the Vault entrance, my thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

"Hello, Phoenix. How were the first 19 years of your life here?"

"Eternity?! What's going on?! How are the others?!" As I spoke, I could here myself several times over and could see myself in several other worlds all at once. "Ok, this is very disorienting." I focused on where this me was and the other versions disappeared.

"That was your omnipresence. It can get a bit hectic for a mortal mind to comprehend all of this at once."

"Thanks for the heads up. Answer my questions please."

"Their fine, they haven't been attacked yet, technically. You were sent to different points in time when your soul scattered. The age old concept of time is taking place with you all at once."

"Is, was, will be," said a female voice to my right.

"A rather confusing concept for normal people to comprehend," said a male voice to my left. I jumped up and leveled my 10mm pistol at the people who appeared next to me. They were a man and woman wearing tan clothing with red hair and green eyes.

"You're Lutece. Why are you here?"

"We're here to give you something you've lost," said Rosalind Lutece.

"Or rather, something you have yet to gain," said Robert Lutece.

"But he's already gotten it,"

"And yet, he hasn't."

"Enough," I shouted out. "Stop with the metaphysical properties of time and all of it's possibilities." I blinked as I heard my words. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"I believe that would be the thinking prowess of science from Gallio," said Rosalind.

"Coupled with the understand of Time from Kira," said Robert.

"Stop with the fake twin talk! I know you're the same person from alternate versions of your respective universes."

"As perceptive and hot headed as Eternity said," said Rosalind. "Quaint. Very well, Robert, you may go." He handed her a small box and vanished. "Now then, I believe you have questions."

"A few. First, what was it you were giving me?"

"I was returning a device you may be familiar with." She opened the small box, and I saw a small watch in it.

"Gallio's PipBoy. I thought he had this in his hand when…"

"I doubt I need to repeat myself from earlier."

"Right." I shook my head and grabbed the watch, attaching it to my left wrist and thankful for a physical right arm for what felt like the thousandth time. Immediately the holo-projector activated and the Hologram of a woman in a blue jumpsuit appeared.

"Phoenix! You're ok!"

"Cortana? Man, am I glad to see you."

"What happened?! I saw those Conquerors destroy you."

"They did, but Eternity was sneaky. She managed to send her power into me as they blasted me."

"And that made you a Verser! Did she know they were going to attack right then and there?"

"I have no doubt about that," said Rosalind. "She is the Manifestation of the entire Metaverse, after all."

"And who are you?"

"Right," I said. "Cortana, meet Rosalind Lutece, a traveler of the Metaverse and an expert in the Multiverse Theory."

"An oversimplification of what I do, but accurate."

"She's the one Eternity sent to return the PipBoy to me."

"I also have a message from her as well. The Council will be safe for as long as you need them to be. But do not take too long. Eventually, you need to come back and deal with the Conquerors."

"More like Freaks if you ask me."

"All that knowledge in your head and the best you can think of is 'Freaks'?"

"I am who I am." I started toggling with the PipBoy and was slapped by Cortana.

"I can feel that! Watch your hands!" She said as she appeared to be blushing and covered her chest.

"How was I supposed to know you could feel me doing that?!"

"You could've asked!"

"I don't know how incorporating an A.I. as advanced as you with Gallio's tech does! Hell, I don't think he even knows!"

"Just… tell me what to do, and I'll handle it. Keep your hands off."

"Fine, fine." I turned to Lutece to ask her if there was anything else, only to see she was gone. "I hate it when people do that."

"So, where are we?"

"Fallout Variant. Capitol Wasteland, 2277."

"Oh, great. From one bad situation to an entire world of them. So what now?" I thought for a bit before I concentrated on the other versions of me and projecting the PipBoy to each of them. Cortana shivered as she felt multiple versions of herself appear at once. I closed us off from the other versions.

"Sorry, I imagine that would be what Rampancy would feel like. I didn't think of that."

"It's fine. Just warn me next time you do something similar."

"Will do. Well then, hold on." I uncoupled the PipBoy 3000 from my wrist, after dropping everything stored inside, and store it and my stuff in Gallio's PipBoy. "God, that feels better. Thank you Gallio for your improbable tech. Now if only he could've done something about the holo-projector."

"Actually, hold on." Cortana disappeared and ejected one of the repaired scouting drones and had it project her image around it. "Is that better?"

"Yeah," I said as I lowered my arm. "Can you still access the PipBoy?"

"Of course. Don't doubt me, Phoenix. I am the most advanced A.I. in the Metaverse."

"Well, you're certainly the humblest. Come on, we have to find my 'father'."

"Doesn't that seem trivial. He's not exactly you're father."

"Well he is, and he isn't. He did raise me for 19 years until this morning when he ran from the Vault. Plus, me searching for him and progressing the events of this world will help me train. Giving me survival instincts and hardening me enough for everything I need to face, hold on." I unzipped my jumpsuit and looked at my chest as the marks of the Daedric Princes appear on my chest. "Ok, training under them is still on. That's good. I need all the help I can get." I didn't notice Cortana staring at me as I rezipped the Vault Suit.

"What's the plan, boss?" said Cortana.

"Well, first stop is Megaton. That's the first stop for most Lone Wanderer's. What weapons do I have?" I saw her project a cycling screen in front of her.

"Taser knuckle dusters, 10mm pistol, baseball bat, BB gun, plasma rifle?" She materialized it and I caught it.

"Oh yeah, this was the weapon The Master dropped back in the Shinigami throne room." I aimed and fired a blue plasma bolt at the wall behind her, turning the rock into slag. "Whoo! This thing has some power!"

"And an Infinite Energy Drive."

"You mean like what was in the Androids in the Dragon Ball Multiverse?"

"More like the very same. It's most likely from Zamasu's World. Wonder who Zamasu killed to obtain it."

"Doesn't matter right now. We've got a long journey ahead of us. A very long journey. We should head out. Switch out the rifle for the Knuckle Shockers."

"Knuckle Shockers?"

"I know, not the best name. But I can't think of anything else to call them. You should equip a weapon yourself. I'm sure you've learned a thing or two from the Master Chief."

"I learned how to use UNSC standard weaponry, and Covenant shock trooper weaponry, these are none of those."

"Doesn't mean you can't adapt. I mean you are 'the most advanced A.I. in the Metaverse'."

"Don't turn my words back on me." I chuckled as she glared at me before choosing to use the 10mm pistol. "Not a lot of ammo."

"We'll find more in the Wastes. We might want to check out that Raider inhabited school to find more weapons and caps."

"Caps?"

"Bottle caps. Currency for this multiverse. They haven't made a transition to something more practical."

"Wonder why?"

"Doesn't occur to them to." We made our way out of Vault 101's cave and waited for my eyes to adjust to the sudden shift in lighting. "I need to do something about that."

"You need to find sunglasses. Those eyes of yours are a dead giveaway for anyone trying to identify you."

"I forgot about them." I went to the puddle by the entrance and looked at my reflection. I saw my white hair and silver eyes, my left eye was silver with a red ring around it, and my right was a silver clock. I concentrated and made the clock look like my other eye. "A little better. I'd rather cover them up, but nothing I can do about that now, Hunter Armor was busted in the fight and my mask only works with the armor. Speaking of which, are they in my inventory?"

"Just the mask, along with the tattered remains of your outfit from the battle, and a purple and gold ring. I think those appeared in other worlds as well.

"Their Daedric artifacts housing the last of the Dark Seducers and Golden Saints from the Faded Elder Scrolls world. The other artifacts must be with another version of me." I heard a noise and reacted, swinging my fist at a mole rat as it jumped at me, shocking it on it's second setting. Cortana shot the beast in the head, killing it.

"Nice reflexes."

"Kinda happened on instinct. Not sure how I could do that."

"Could it be something you got from the other Council members? Spatial awareness from Tyra, or Soul Detection from Gareth?"

"Please, if I got anything from those two, it's how to be annoying."

"I think you beat them out in those categories already."

"Oh, very funny." We made our way down the hill and started walking to the large walls made of scrap metal. "A lot bigger in person."

"I think you'll find a lot of things you've only seen in video games are always bigger in real life."

"You're telling me." We made our way up and were greeted by Megaton's gatekeeper a protectron named Deputy Welds.

"Welcome to Megaton. The bomb is perfectly safe. We promise." I look at Cortana as she watches the robot amused.

"Text to speech processors? Guess they weren't designed to be anything other than security guards."

"Y'all be careful with that thar weapon, ya hear?"

"Whatever you say, Deputy. Come on Cortana, let's get in there." We waited for the gates of Megaton to slowly open before going in. We were approached by a man with a white Stetson and a brown duster.

"I'll be damned. You're from that vault, Vault 101." He chuckled as he walked up to us. I noticed that Cortana changed her appearance so that she's wearing a Vault 101 jumpsuit instead of her usual attire. "I ain't seen one of those jumpsuits in a long time."

I shook his hand when he offered it. "Nice to meet you, friend. I'm Phoenix."

"Names Lucas Simms, town sheriff. And mayor too, when the need arises."

"You must lead a busy life then."

"No busier than anyone else in the Wastelands."

"I'd imagine. Say, Lucas. I was wondering if you could help me. See, I'm looking for my father. He left the Vault in the middle of the night and I'm looking for him. Maybe you've seen him?"

"Can't say I have. But you might want to ask Moriarty. He knows just about everyone who passes through town. You'll find him at his saloon at the back of the city. Oh, and just so we're clear. Don't be causing any trouble around here. This is my town, and these are my people. You so much as breathe wrong, and I'm gonna fuckin' end ya."

"Duly noted Sheriff."

"Sheriff Simms," said Cortana.

"Yes, young lady? How can I help you?"

"That protectron said something about a bomb?"

"Oh, that thing. During the Great War, a bomb dropped here, but never went off. Not long after, people started building around the bomb, they guessed it would keep them safe from raider attacks. Soon after the first settlers took up shop, the walls came up, but there's still fear of that bomb going off at any time."

"Mind if we take a look at it? Maybe we can disarm it."

"You're welcome to try, just be careful. Don't want that thing to go off while you're tinkering with it."

"We'll be careful. If it seems harder than we can handle at the moment, we'll back away."

"Good to know."

"Hey," I said. "We've got some extra stuff we don't have any need for, got any advice?"

"You could try talking to Moira Brown over at the Craterside Supply. She'll be the one to talk to about buying and selling stuff here in Megaton. Just don't be too put off by her. She can be a bit… odd."

"We'll keep that in mind," I told him. I brought up my wrist to mess with the PipBoy and noticed Cortana slightly fidget next to me as I scrolled through the items. "Oh, yeah. What is used as currency around here?"

"Oh right. You wouldn't know, being from a Vault and all. We use bottle caps as currency out here in the Wasteland."

"Bottle caps? Like from soda and beer bottles?"

"Yep. Don't ask me why, I haven't the foggiest."

"Right. Well, we'll get out of your hair, Lucas."

"Don't blow us all up now." He tipped his hat and continued his patrol around the town. I turned to Cortana and saw her glaring at me, blushing heavily.

"Sorry, gotta make sure no one knows about this not being your average PipBoy. That means I have to…"

"You have to do nothing. I'm using one of your holo-projectors to make this body appear. I can use another to make it look like you're messing with the PipBoy while you touch nothing."

"And if I need to see what's in the inventory without having you pull up the, very noticeable, holo-display?"

"I'll figure something out." She smacked my shoulder. "Just keep your hands to yourself."

"Yes ma'am, whatever you say. Let's just get to Moira and sell our stuff."

"Remember what I said, Phoenix." I just nodded as I went to the building with the sign saying 'Craterside Supply'. We went up the ramp and saw two kids run out of the store and passed us. She watched them run and looked at me. "You'd think she wouldn't want kids running around her store."

"You haven't looked up much about this world but the technology, haven't you?"

"No. Why? Should I have?"

"You'll see." We walked into the store and saw a man leaning against a wall. He glared at us and made it clear he was watching us by tapping the revolver on his hip. I nodded and looked around. "Hello?!"

"Be right down!" called a voice from above us. I looked up and saw a woman in a jumpsuit tinkering with some chemicals as they exploded in her face. She shouted in surprise and toppled over the railing. I acted fast and moved under her, catching her as she fell. She coughed for a few seconds, soot covering her face, before she looked up at me. "Oh! Welcome to Craterside Supply! And thank you for catching me! I would've been fine though, happens all the time!" Cortana looked to her bodyguard and saw him nodding.

I put her down and chuckled. "If you say so. Moira Brown, right?"

"Yep! That's me!"

"Nice to meet you, I'm Phoenix, this is Cortana."

"Nice to meet both of you! How can I help you?" she asked. That's when she noticed my Vault Suit. "Oh! You're both from the Vault, aren't you?!"

"Yes, we are," said Cortana. "We were looking to sell a few things."

"Oh! I can do that! There isn't anything I won't accept!"

"Good to know. Looks like we'll have to come here for repeat business."

"That's good to hear!" I looked behind the counter and saw the Armored Vault Suit.

"Hey, what's with the Vault Suit behind the counter?"

"Hmm?" She looked at it before turning back to me. "Oh! That thing! Someone else left the Vault a few years ago! He asked if I could alter his Vault Suit into a more protective version, but he never showed up. Tell you what, you two do me a favor, and the Vault Suit is yours. If you have another Vault Suit I'll even modify that one as well."

"Oh," said Cortana. "That's really not…" I interrupted her.

"You've got a deal. What can we help you with?" Cortana looked at me annoyed for cutting her off.

"Here's the thing. I sort of… had an incident with a Centaur I tried domesticating. It went berserk and attacked my last body guard."

"Sorry, we're new to the Wasteland, did you just say a centaur? Like a half man half horse?"

"No," said her body guard. "She doesn't. Since you're just out of a Vault let me tell you one thing about the Wastes. There are a lot of strange and deadly beasts out there. Raiders, Radscorpions, malfunctioning robots, Yao Guai, and the worst, Deathclaws. That's outside the ruins of D.C. Inside, and sometimes far outside as well, there these things called Super Mutants. They come in two varieties; the normal ones, standing at 10 ½ feet tall, then there are even larger ones, Behemoths. Their rarer than your normal variety but twice as deadly and stand at about 20 feet. Be careful if you ever encounter just the Super Mutants, they're deadly in their own right. Beside them are their… I guess you can say attack dogs, Centaurs. These freaks are… different. They're just a jumble of limbs that look like they're all melted together."

"You seem to know a lot about the Wastes for a bodyguard," said Cortana.

"What, you think I was always a bodyguard? No. Used to be a part of a mercenary group. Talon Company. Left a few years back after settling my debts with them. Found a job protecting Moira a few years back."

"Anyway," said Moira. "After that, regrettable, accident with my last bodyguard, I was inspired to write a journal warning people about the dangers of the Wastelands. I just need to complete three chapters and the book's done."

"Is this going to be dangerous," asked Cortana. Moira's bodyguard snorted at her question.

"Shouldn't be too dangerous. The first chapter I need you to help with is about finding food and medicine, dealing with radiation, and dealing with pain."

"Lovely," said Cortana as she turned to me. "You can't be serious about doing this, Phoenix."

"Relax. We'll be fine. So, what do you need?"

"First, I you need to collect food, purified water, and medicine for wounds and infections."

"You mean that haven't been collected already? It's been 200 years since bombs dropped, wouldn't everywhere be picked clean?"

"You would think so, but scavengers keep finding more and more resources from derelict buildings, sure some of the food is irradiated, but some of the water they find is easily treatable."

"And the medicine," asked Cortana.

"Some of it is still usable. While we don't have some of the old remedies, Rad-X, Radaway, and Stim-packs, are still viable."

"So where would you suggest we look for resources," asked Cortana.

"You could try the Super Duper Mart Northeast of here. I think there's still some supplies there."

"Anything we should look out for?"

"Nothing but Raiders around this area," said the bodyguard. "Just watch out if you get close to the river, Super Mutant patrols are seen there sometimes."

"Thanks for the tip, we'll be sure to avoid the river as much as possible. Hey, any advice for if we encounter your Talon Company buddies?"

"Yeah, stay out of their way and if they're after you, shoot first, ask questions never. And they're not my buddies, just former brother's in arms."

"Why'd you quit?"

"Was tired of that life. If you encounter Jericho while here, you'll find he has the same story, just involving the Raiders."

"Thanks for the tip." Me and Cortana sold our stuff and left the supply store. We were halfway to Moriarty's bar when she turned to me. "Why did you offer to do that?"

"Moira's quest sends us to various places in the Wastes and teaches us the dangers out in the Wastes. The bodyguard never spoke up, but that's the difference between a game and life, certain things tend to be different." I led her to a secluded spot and told her to bring up the map of the Wasteland. We saw three spots marked outside of our immediate area, and one close by.

"What are those markers over?"

"One is the Super Duper Mart, for Moira's Quest One looks like it's by Old Olney. Wonder why the PipBoy is leading me there. That last one seems to be a roaming target, one I have no idea what it could be. We won't be able to catch up to it, we'll just have to monitor it's path, if it's a machine, we'll be able to predict it's projected path, if it's human, we watch for a random pattern."

"How do you know this?"

"I think a version of me is going through rapid training with Hircine, tracking, hunting, patience, natural stealth. All of this information is coursing through my brain, it's like a shared experience."

"So everything you learn is shared with every part of you?"

"That's what it feels like."

"That must be disorienting."

"It would be, but I think the modifications my mind got from Gallio's Bio frame and the Soul Magic from Sarah, combined, making me able to adapt faster now with the change to… what I am."

"You're still coming to grips about all of this, aren't you?"

"That I'm basically a god, now? Yeah. I'm still a mortal at heart and lived as a mortal. Everything I know of has to be explained in a way that mortals can understand. I'm still not getting over the fact that I exist in multiple worlds all at once, let alone that everything I learn from each world gets shared between every version." I gripped my head and slid to the ground. "I can't do this. I can't be going around training while the Council, while the girls, are in danger."

"They will be fine. You're training to get enough experience to beat the Conquerors."

"Freaks."

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"Names have power, give something an intimidating name, you start to fear it, decide not to name something, you fear it even more. Give something a humiliating name, and you don't take them seriously, taking away their power. It's psychology."

"But shouldn't you take them seriously?"

"Only in a fight, any other time, no. I'm not about to fear them. I need to beat them."

"And fear is a great motivator."

"Not in a fight. Fear brings up three responses, fight, flight, freeze. I'm not running, and I'm not freezing in the face of danger."

"Was that another piece of information from your training?"

"No. It's common sense." I stood up and looked at her. "I have to treat this like a bully situation, Lord knows I've had plenty of those in my… first life. God, that's still weird to say. Fear gives an enemy strength. Take away the fear, take away the strength."

"You're not going to try and be fearless, are you?"

"No. I know how to keep fear in check, that's all. I just don't show that I am afraid. It's called confidence, I know John 117 had plenty of it."

"John was fearless, all of the Spartans were."

"If that were true, they wouldn't be as intelligent as many of them were. Fear and intelligence go hand in hand, to the point that most cowards tend to be the most intelligent people in the Metaverse."

"At least you're using the proper expanse when describing scale."

"Gallio and Gareth are to blame for that. First month in Tsukiko's world was spent waiting around and them drilling into my head how to scale things now. It was annoying."

"But necessary. You needed to understand the scope of what you're fighting for."

"I just wanted to get it over with. I didn't sign up to fight some of the worst villains throughout reality."

"And yet, here you are. A Verser, training to defeat those same villains you didn't sign up to fight."

"I'm fighting them because they beat me. I'm fighting them, because they tried to kill me. And I'm fighting them, to protect the ones I care for. I don't have a choice anymore. I need to either put them back in the Shadow Vault, or I need to wipe them all out."

"They were locked in the Vault because they couldn't be killed."

"They couldn't be killed by the Council. I'm not a part of the Council. I don't have to follow their rules to get things done, and I have the power, or at least I will have the power, to kill the Freaks."

"But should you?"

"Why not? They're a threat, to me, to the Council, to reality. They're more dangerous alive than they are dead."

"Think about it. What would killing them solve? Yes, they'd be gone, but what about others that come after them, or someone who sees how you handle things and tries to stop you?"

"I don't know. I'm focusing on the more immediate problem, not something that probably won't happen for years."

"Phoenix, it's smarter to make allies, not enemies."

"Given my line of work, avoiding contact as much as possible is the best solution."

"Isolation isn't a solution, nor is it possible given your presence in certain Worlds."

"So, what? Just drag people along with me on my training and hope they don't get killed because of it?"

"You'll most likely be fighting wars, which means death is inevitable."

"So is the chance for losing who I am."

"Then make sure some of the Worlds you're in are a civilian life, a place where you can just be normal."

"Live a life of equal amounts of hope and despair? Something's gotta give eventually."

"It's better than constant fighting. There have been plenty of soldiers who've lost themselves from doing nothing but fight and kill. Which, most likely, is what you're going to be doing in this World alone. Just listen to my advice, alright?"

"Alright, Cortana. I'll listen."

"Good. Now, let's see this Moriarty and find out where your father went."

"Oh, I know already. He's safe, just locked in a simulation while his body is kept in stasis."

"So, you're in no hurry?" If we follow the trail set before us, he'll already have left for his next destination. Megaton to GNR, to Rivet City, to the Jefferson Memorial, location of Project Purity, to Vault 112. We won't ever cross paths, fate never allows it, James is destined to follow this path with no variation in every World."

"How are you sure?"

"I'm not. But changing his fate leads to a lot of uncontrolled variables that make things more difficult for us in the long run."

"So that's your plan? Make things easy?"

"As easy as life can be. Come on, we're burning daylight, and I'd rather not have to pay 100 caps just to stay in Moriarty's Pub."

"That seems expensive."

"Well, until we get a permanent home, either here, at Tenpenny Towers, which means blowing up Megaton, or find an abandoned place to call ours, we kinda have to divvy up caps for a place to sleep. I know you don't need it, but I do."

"You kinda don't."

"And when I get used to not following a typical human's behavior, I'll keep that in mind." We made it to Moriarty's Pub, ready to begin our adventures in the Capitol Wasteland, and without any clue how difficult it actually would be to live there.