Passing Ticonderoga, Nate didn't feel any inclination to enter the building or mention it to Athena. It was Meathead-by-proxy who stood in for him when they needed a hired hand. Even though he shared a memory of the event, the emotions tied to the memory weren't there.

“There's a reason why Hancock and his Goodneighbor buddies were never able to drive these Mutants out of the Massachusetts.”

“I'm sure the reason is astounding,” Nate said, waiting for Athena's explanation.

“It's the Copper Dome.”

“What about it?”

"Exactly. You don't see it like these other idiots see it, you're too smart. The mutants, raiders, scavengers...have you ever in your short time asked anyone what their opinion is of that shiny building is?”

“Can't say it's come up.”

“I'm surprised you haven't heard then, every damn raider in Boston, along with most everybody's auntie and mother all believe that the Gold Dome to the Massachusetts State House is a golden temple. That there's a big load of treasure stashed in there, because of the big shiny dome on top.”

“But it's Copper.”

“Nate. These people you talk to. These raiders, they think smacking their face into a brick wall is an efficient way to brush their teeth. They're violent. You could tell them it's painted wood, too bad, they want the shiny object.”

“So who's all inside?”

“Last on the list, Lake. Big bastard. Ugly. Scars. All Grey, Paranoid. Looks like he spent too much time inside the test-tube. Fights with giant bladed knuckles wrapped around his fists, and I've seen him use a stealth boy in combat. So be prepared for a sucker-punch. He's also one of the monster's I've found along the way that needs to be killed.”

“Mutants?”

“Doesn't matter, this place is a regular revolving door of gangs trying to take it over. It's close to Mass fusion, Goodneighbor, and right in the middle of the route between Trinity Plaza straight on to Diamond City.”

Nate heard the way she said 'Diamond City', she was thinking of a way to capture the whole city, if not take it over.

Gotta catch up, Nate. Gettting Slow in your old age. About to be outmaneuvered by a angry pony and a Wendigo that needs to go. A Deathclaw arm and whatever she's planning with Firelance and Sola can't be good. Can't imagine she'll react well to seeing them in person either.'

Nate scratched at his face with the tip of his deathclaw finger, trying not to scrape the skin away or draw blood. It took a little dexterity and aim, but he was feeling more comfortable knowing he possessed this level of control over the new limb.

“Gunners, Neighborhood Watch, Synths come in from the north, the sewers spit out mirelurks, mutants come up from the south and Trinity Plaza, with Raiders coming in from the West and East. Now you've got the Railroad sitting across the street from the Copper Dome as well. This place is a big whole bonfire waiting to go off. Time the most terrifying person in the whole Commonwealth lit the match.”

“Me.” Nate said to himself, surmising that Athena's plan to transform him into the Commonwealth's Warlord wasn't going to be dissauded anytime soon. But, as much as the Unicorn knew, he had a different set of experience on his side. They both saw value in many of the same things, but Nate couldn't help but wonder if there was a way out of Mona's contract. Something that could give him an edge, a way to stop Athena from constantly using him. He knew exactly where he stood in her scale, and if he didn't do exactly what she said to bring about more change than most people can afford, she would easily kill him with her magic by snapping his neck and moving on. If he died, it would be 'win some, lose some', and not a dark day in Athena's book.

Looking up at the Copper Dome, Athena didn't know how to get inside the New Courthouse, or which ways to approach it.

Nate knew how Boston was designed, and even though it was counter intuitive, Nate lead Athena two blocks away to the North to the corner of a crumbling downtown Welton Hotel with drive-up service and drop off. Leading down into the parking garage, the entrance was mostly intact with minor bits of rubble in the way. Nate went along the wall to an unmarked door, having Athena wrench it open with her magic. Scaling up a set of stairs, they found themselves in a long corridor with dozens of cables hanging down from the ceiling. Here, they found feral ghouls that were dispatched with a single swipe of Nate's claw. This tunnel emerged into a blackened kitchen, followed by more tunnels leading deeper underground. The complex of old delivery routes and maps were partially blocked, or locked at doorways, but Nate was able to find a completely underground path from the Welton to the Copper Dome that put them within a single wall of the Boston Common Park Central Metro station, and Vault 114 and the Railroad, and the underground access door to the Massachusetts State House Utility Tunnels.

“How did you know this path existed?” Athena asked.

“Humans design things to be interconnected. If we can't go top to bottom, then we must go bottom to top.” Nate said, grabbing at the rusted doors. They refused to budge or handles even turn. The frames were compressed around the door, meaning the weight of the building sunk around the door itself, really trapping it in place.

Feeling his claw, Athena looked to him, as if asking, 'Well, let's see you try it out.'

Flexing some blood flow into his hand before swinging, the deathclaw fingers scratched a screeching noise of rending metal as gouges were bore out of the safety door. Attacking the door again, Nate succeeded at widening the holes and with Athena's magic, widened it for them to pass through.

“Mold.” Athena said,

“Yeah, reeks of it down here. Rotten crab too. But this tunnel leads to the State House. I guarantee it.”

“How do you know about it?”

“I got to walk it one time helping set up an event here at this hotel for a friend who was doing business here in the State House. Normally, the path from the hotel is locked, but he had and her friend had a key that let them use the underground corridor. We were moving alcohol and tables...a few chairs as well, long story short, I know a secret route to the State House is here.”

The hallways were long, but winding and had sharp corners that narrowed around doorways. “Mirelurks,” Nate said without thinking, feeling the ground vibrate up through his boots.

“You ever fought big groups of them?”

“No,”

“They sense vibrations, that's how they hunt. Wait for a group to get surrounded, then come up all at once. That's how they ambush prey.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

They could hear the popping fizz of air bubbles, clacking shells, crusteaceans hard bodies opening and closing. It sounded like walking in an underground beach cavern, the walls were oozing with moist slime and moss.

“How're they for eating?” Nate asked.

“You gotta look for the Queen Meat, much sweeter and saltier. Mirelurk Queen are...propbably the highest price game meat you'll find next to Wild Deathclaw.”

It was seeing the of mirelurk's eyes, their attention turning towards them, claws raised. The white's of the mirelurks underarms clearly showed their range of motion, and rate of growth.

Athena fired a force-field through the air, only instead of blocking Mirelurks, she was using the force-field to bash through the groups of ginormous crustaceans. Flipping them back, she crushed them with her magic. With a jerk of her head, willing the magic in her horn that was gripped around dozens of Mirelurks to crush and grind their faces in.

“Lead the way,” She said.

\111/

The end of the corridor came to an end with three sets of doors right after the other. Old security doors, unmarked and meant to be opened with a keycard, it was easy enough to force them open with no power to the security system. Nate distinctly remembered this bit of the State House, they were on the North side of the building, 2 stories underground.

The Massachusetts State house took up the same amount of space as Goodneighbor, along with the entire tunnel system complex running under the city. “This leads into a hallway that will lead to a set of stairs and elevators that can take us up into the State House. There, we can kill Lake. How do you know he's here?”

“It's his territory, he wants it, same as any other raider gang leader or smart mutant. To use as a base to harass traders and other gangs, force people out, he's able to keep recharging a Stealth Boy, so that makes him smarter than most... And if there were something like that were to exist, capable of recharging and empowering Stealth Boys, why, it certainly would make sense for it to exist in the Commonwealth's State House. So, Nate, give me your old World expertise, where would something like this exist?”

“Governors office...” Nate said, “Meathead would be the one to bring with you on this one, tracking an invisible mutant.”

“Nonsense, you just need to sharpen your senses. It'll be good training for when the synths come after you with a whole surplus, Meathead won't be able to help you Jack-P-Diddle then, Nate. Don't think I haven't already thought about his weaknesses either. He's a good spy, a saboteur, but a soldier and a killer? Less so.”

“So now it's training, is it?” Nate asked,

“Yep, if you want to have any chance of taking on the Brotherhood, or Sola and his Pet Alicorn, then you'll need to step up to the plate and start knocking things out of the park. As angry as I may sound or get, you forget I'm on your side, Nate. I want to see the Commonwealth do well and thrive as much as you do, just not under a Brotherhood flag is all.”

“Which one would you rather see?” Nate inquired.

“I would say my own cutie mark, but that feels too cliché, and been done before. So...how about the image that shows when ever a TV screen still comes to power? Yeah? PLEASE STAND BY. That could be a flag... I could ask you the same, Mr. Vault-Tec. Why do you say Vault-tec calling? You're more than happy to go around in their colors.”

“Have you tried wearing one? They're insulated, and thick like a water and oil-proof Carhart. Tough too, just with we weren't dealing with damn crabs with claws large enough to cleave though my thigh in one pinch.”

The utility tunnels were up to their shins in sea-water that was flooding over from burst sewer pipes and tunnels. The expansion of Mirelurk dens and their digging also pushed and collapsed multiple parts of the block's interconnected infrastructure as well, making the whole area quite unstable.

The room Nate and Athena pushed themselves into was covered with Mirelurk eggs, while Nate wondered what a Mirelurk Queen looked like, Athena looked to the ground, “Mind the eggs, in places like this...there's usually nest watchers.”

Treading through the water, it was inevitable that the Mirelurks felt their approaching footsteps, they were burrowed down into dirt and mud, and rose up with their claws extended ready to pinch and snap at the intruders.

Nate noticed Athena pulling back, pushing him to see his strength, and what he would do, with already having demonstrated she could handle upwards of dozens of creatures at once.

“Fine,” Nate said, with two Mirelurks on him, he turned and dropped his elbows, protected his face, and swung to grab the first mirelurk. One snapped out at his arms, trying to crush them, twisting sideways out of their reach, he slashed and clawed at their weak joints, smashing through them or tearing the limbs in two. Heaving the next mirelurk into the air, he flipped it over and grabbed at the tail, prying it away from the shell, while stomping his weight down into the back,leaving the mirelurk thrashing and wailing as his shell was ripped off. It didn't kill him immediately, the exposed gills, brains, guts, and thrashing mirelurk was all over the place, Nate had to grab the claws of the mirelurk, then slam the crab against a support pillar for its body to break in two, finally killing it.

“Here they come.” Athena said, directing Nate's attention to the 14 mirelurks charging towards them. In the transitioning of rooms, the next one adjoined to them was much more spacious, part of the actual State House, and had proper signs mounted to the walls. Nate was rushed by three mirelurks, all with their heads down. Using his pistol, he shot at their legs, blasting times, chunks of Mirelurks legs and only striking cement once before shoving it back and trying to catch the first mirelurk bearing on him. Slamming into him, Nate was pushed back as the Mirelurk tried to ram him again and pick at him with its claws. Nate put his Deathclaw hand right over the thick part of the mirelurk's skull and crushed it, talons sinking in he scrambled the Mirelurk's brains with the razor sharp tips as he pushed back with his right. Bashing the second Mirelurk, the third Mirelurk got close enough to grab at him with their tiny claws and jab at him, throwing him off balance or risk getting his arm pinched off in a vise.

Smacking the Mirelurk sideways, the third mirelurk spun, letting Nate get behind the creature so he could rip into the backside, tearing at the limbs and tail, cutting through them as the whole swarm of Mirelurks was on him at that point.
The thing about Mirelurks was that they were quick to jab, but slow to move their bodies and swing their arms around.

Nate had to take steps back to keep the Mirelurks from surrounding him, he glanced quickly for Athena, but she was only calmly watching him, hardly exerting enough energy only to keep the Mirelurks off her, but gaze calmly fixed on how Nate moved, his punches, follow thru, and how he reacted.

'Son of a bitch!' Nate thought, Athena's imposing attitude left a lot to be desired, but even he could see that she was watching him the same way a rival boxer searched for an opponents weaknesses and tells. She already knew about so much of Nate's life, and he knew barely anything about her.

Athena avoided two jabs from a mirelurk hunter before bucking upwards with her hoof, splattering the creature's head with a single kick. She only looked to Nate as if he was expected to catch up in experience, and that fighting these was only a game to her. Demonstrating she could easily defeat this entire crowd, she was deliberately leaving Nate to figure out how to deal with these Mirelurks.

Nate dashed around the crowd of Mirelurks towards the stairwell, hoping to narrow them in. Breaking the group up, the fastest quickly caught up, while the other nine were about to be on him in seconds, but Nate sprinted and dashed at the Mirelurk, deathclaw overhead, fingers pressed together like a blades of a shaving razor and he slashed down through the mirelurk. Severing it in half, blue gore spraying out around him, his lungs were pounding, his chest was heaving.

The deathclaw hand was immensely sharp and strong, lightweight to him, but Nate wasn't immune to physics and the toll it placed on his body. Keeping that much muscle sustained and active took great amounts of energy to remain healthy. It was nearly impervious. The Ripper he had was completely dull, the steel teeth ground down to soft nubs. The reason it took so long to cut through deathclaw skin and bone was because of how densely layered it was to prevent radiation from getting it. Laser blasts, plasma, direct radiation from isotopes, it took a labyrinth of nerves to support and feed.

After a dozen swings and using his new hand, Nate realized how quickly he was sweating and panting more and more.

Clenching his giant fist as two mirelurk claws reached out and nipped his tough hide arm, he felt the pincers clench down, painfully like his arm caught in two vises, but he lifted the mirelurk off the ground, shaking it into others.

The bastard had Nate at an angle he couldn't flick his sharp tips down to sever the arm that grabbed him, and he maneuvering a rifle off his shoulder strap with one hand was a effort he was yet to achieve with seven more mirelurks.

“Go for the eyes,”

Even for breakfast, between Athena and Nate the hard bread and fruit they shared was far from filling for either of them. Yet, Athena wanted to get this done as quickly as possible, forgoing even food because she was too focused.

She was dodging any attack coming her way, moving around them like they were standing still as she only struck hard enough to turn them back towards Nate.

After throwing thirty punches, his arm felt like it was reaching a limit, the muscles tightening up and it was harder to force momentum into the limb. He couldn't do power-punches for long.

Using his rifle, Athena finally relented after it was apparent Nate was going to win against the final four Mirelurks, Even though they surrounded him, he was lashing out, taking deep gouges from any who got too close, and only striking at those who came within reaching distance, otherwise it was too much energy. He could barely hold his arm up anymore, let alone throw any more heavy swings. Cradling the rifle, he fired with his right, aiming over his left.

Nate was shaking, having worked out the new muscles beyond their limits and feeling the burn of cells breaking down.

Seven taps against the trigger, and one mirelurk was pecked apart by bullets racing through him. Seven more, and the oversized crab behind the first was stilted into not moving as it too fell.

Keeping his back to the wall, he moved down and away from the last two Mirelurks, all around him, the twelve were ripped to pieces and hacked apart, but these two were at the back of the pack, and still had plenty of energy.

Nate was a sweaty exhausted mess. He couldn't lift his left am, forming a fist was a shaky challenge, all the muscles were burning and crying out from overuse. That was one thing he wasn't expecting, how much physical energy it took to keep the deathclaw arm alive. He was exhasusted and craving something to eat at the same time.

Looking around the room for a defensive edge, he was stepping and moving away, and walked right into a fire-proof box with an old fire extinguisher inside.

Yanking it out, Nate pro-offered it to the Mirelurks. Baiting them, swinging at them with it, Nate made sure that one of them gripped it in their claws before sprinting as hard and as far away as possible as their 1200 lbs of crushing-weight per square inch came clamping down the outside of the pressurized cannister of CO2, causing the Mirelurk's arms to be blown off, concussing and killing the Mirelurk. One left, Nate was spent, but he drew in a loud breath and exhaled.

“Anytime you want to help,” Nate said, face boiling red, looking at Athena and the last approaching Mirelurk. “Don't be afraid to ask.” Facetiously, even Nate's eyes were burning from sweat and gunk he wanted to wipe clear. His left instinctually tried to rise, but he caught himself and switched to his right.

Athena seemed content watching Nate, but with a jerk of her head and a fast bolt of magic, the last Mirelurk's head was blown off in a repelling blast that crushed the Mirelurk's face bones inward, scrambling the brain.

Nate couldn't get a word in edgewise as he caught his breath and Athena spoke. “That's the thing about you Nate I wish I had, your old world knowledge of how all these things are interconnected. How you see how it all fits together.”

“You do, do yeah?” He said breathlessly. Finding a post to lean on, he sweated for a minute catching his breath while Athena critiqued his battle.

“You were starting to lose strength after 20 swipes, two more after that and you couldn't even use your full range of motion.”

“Didn't realize it took so much energy out of me, carrying this thing around.”

“Should've expected Mona to slip that in,” Athena said, “You're part deathclaw down to your core, I'd readily expect various results. You're gonna have to eat like one to keep your arm from shriveling up and cramping.”

“Let's...get out of here, it reeks too much to think. I gotta get some fresher air,” He coughed, searching for a way up and out of the backwater pits. As much as he knew he was walking into another fight, he wanted nothing more than to be somewhere brighter, above ground.

\111/

When Nate found his breath of fresh air, he heard Athena warn him of movement above their heads. “Yeah, I heard them too.” Nate said. “So how do we track down this Lake?”

“I've already told you everything I know, he's either in the area, or hiding, or gunning for us, or watching us. He's invisible. Invisible things tend to be hard to find, so we're going to have to put on our big boy glasses and get looking.” Athena's horn lit up, propelling a fine red mist that dissipated quickly, but condensed like fog.

“What's that?”

Looking for the doors into the wings of the Massachusetts State Building, she kept casting the spell as she walked and talked. “Tracking spell, it tells me if anyone's entered any rooms I've already cleared, and it gives me a larger sense of my surroundings. I've never had an enemy sneak up on me this way.”

“That means they would just have to rush, right?” Nate asked, looking down at her size. Coming up to Nate's head, he knew Athena was a powerful threat, but decades of looking at smaller animals conditioned him to feel as if he could take her in a fight.

“Let's keep moving.”

The route upwards wasn't the most direct, the building was dilapidated and crumbling like most offices, but this government building was suffering from a drastic number of cutbacks long before the Great War.

Plenty of rooms were inaccessible due to the amount of collapsed debris falling inward, making the hallways particularly narrow in some areas. “Still reeks like stale water,” Nate said, sniffing the air.

The floor started giving in, the weight of their feet cracking through the brittle blackened wood.

Hot-stepping over the ground, they made their way to the central foyer, but stopped quickly before falling into a gaping pit stretching most of the whole ground. With enough room to walk around the outside, Nate and Athena could look down two stories into the sub-basements and sewers, where they could hear dozens more mirelurks, and the wafting stench of the rotten shells and sea-slime.

“Ugh, you can hear them all...”

Looking down, he could see plenty of shapes, their shells crawling over one another.

“Betcha there's a Queen down there.” Athena said, “All those eggs in the tunnels, the Mirelurks were spreading out, I guarantee that's their nest.”

“You're not gonna throw me down there and fight it out, are you?”

“No, Nate. I'm not going to throw you down, I don't have enough force to push you.” Athena said.

Nate's heart jumped, he could hear something running towards them, the ground crackling, wood splintering under a great weight. Nate didn't have time to dodge, and barely enough time to brace himself for the invisible mutant to come slamming into him with a the mutant's shoulder and elbow braced and aimed at his torso.

By the time he opened his eyes, he saw the whole basement of the State-House go whooshing by, with Athena staring down at him.

His back hit the soiled water and his shoulder and right arm exploded in pain, rolling and hearing the ground crack. Of all the things he landed on his human side, rather than the left deathclaw side which would've softened the blow.

Eyes wild, senses firing, he scrambled up to his feet, pain shooting off in bursts of white around his eyes as he frantically wiped his eyes to get his vision back, and felt a thick mucus around his fingers and hand as he cleared it.

“Athena, what the hell?”

“Sola and Firelance are far stronger, Nate. Heck, your own Dog's stronger than you, either grow up, or die, Nate!” She yelled the last part down, Nate was still coming to grips with the disorientation, and heard only the last part about dying.

There were more Mirelurks than before, and he smashed into their eggs. He was covered in yolk, and the overwhelming scent of brine, as the enemies swirled around him, Nate didn't know what he was looking for as the first Mirelurk charged at him. Cleaving through the whole body, the shell cracked and burst around Nate. Splattering the blue gore into the murky brown water, several more Mirelurks were quick to replace the one downed. Surrounding him, his sight went up, looking to the perimeters of the room and there he saw a faded black sign that read STAIRS.

Twelve Mirelurks grouped together infront of him like a crowd separated him from a way out. A mirelurk claw lunged out to nip him in the side, a painful jolt to remind Nate he needed to focus. With the twelve in front of him, and another ten behind him, he was trapped. His energy hadn't recovered completely since the fight before, and now he was thrown into another fight so soon, Nate was faced with a sense of panic.

Clattering, the whole building seemed to shake as he was forced to reach out to hold onto something as a 20 foot tall Mirelurk Queen dragged itself up out of the flooded sewer tunnels, up through the ground and into the basement with Nate and the dozens of Mirelurks.

Pinned down, eggs were dropping out of the Mirelurk Queen. She didn't need to move much to get everything she needed, and the nexus of tunnels, pipes, and sewers converging beneath the old capitol building made it easy for her to always have everything flowing down to her.

Nate was charged by five Mirelurks all at once, no coverage, coming straight for him. He cut himself on the spines of their shells trying to break their closing circle around him. Slashing out at one, catching the arm and face of a Mirelurk, but he was tackled with by another Mirelurk with its shell down. Ramming Nate, tripping him backwards. He stumbled half a dozen steps, as he was pushed into a corner, with Mirelurks coming from all sides, and beyond that, the Queen poking her head up through the hole in the foyer floor.

A second Mirelurk rammed him, crushing Nate's ribs in a painful squeeze, Nate punched down at the Mirelurk holding him against the wall, and cracked through the shell with his fist clenching hard aronud the forehead. A third Mirelurk clamped down on his deathclaw arm and pinched. It was a painful vise that Nate didn't have a knife to help rip off, he could only shake and pivot until the crab creature let go. It was a dark-magenta purple bruise that showed up instantly on the deathclaw skin.

Both arms were taking a beating, and Nate was seeing his death approaching faster and faster as he kicked at one Mirelurk, shoving it back to give himself some room to think.

Clenching his fist, he heard the deathclaw joints pop and a rush of blood surge to his brain. His vision focused, like he could see further than before. Chalking it up to the adrenalin, Nate held off the burning urge to pee, and sprinted for the Mirelurk Queen, rounding to her side, Nate only had to knock down two Mirelurks and use a third as a stepping stool to climb up the Mirelurk Queen. His deathclaw bore deep into the Queen's side, and he knew he would have less than a second before its massive claws came swinging down to bash his skull in. Using his claw to hook himself higher, he was able to outmaneuver the swarm of Mirelurk and avoid the first swing of the Mirelurk Queen.

Dragging himself up higher, he gripped at the Mirelurk Queen's shell and pulled himself to the Queen's neck, before turning around and jumping to the higher sub-basement level.

Having landed in Sub-basement level 2, the Queen was as tall, level with the foyer floor, but it was too narrow and risky climbing any higher. The Queen spotted Nate and lunged at him. The ceiling tiles, pipes, insulation, wood framing, floor, and linoleum all came crashing down as Nate pressed himself as far against the walls of the collapsed room as possible, shuffling over to a locked door, he yanked and pulled at it. “Come on you bastard.” He reaffirmed his grip, heaving at it with his Deathclaw hand. The door popped free of its hinges and Nate threw himself through the gap. The next thing he heard was a splash of stomach acid being sprayed by the Mirelurk Queen. The spray splattered across the floors and ceiling, Nate felt a tiny bubble lance his skin. Making him jump and roll out of the way.

“Hell!” He said, panting, scrambling away from the Mirelurk pit, he sat against the ground, catching his breath. Nate put another room between himself and the pit before taking a moment to breathe.

“Damn Pony.” He was mostly talking to himself, but this was the first time he had a free moment to think for himself. “What's she expect me to do? See how I do against that thing on one of my off days?”

Standing up, Nate took stock of his surroundings. Dead raiders, partially devoured by Mirelurks, but the commotion sent all of the Mirelurks lower, and would be coming back up into the higher levels in due time. Nate figured he wouldn't have more than five minutes before the first of the bored Mirelurks shifted back down towards a relaxed state since he wasn't bothering their Queen or eggs anymore.

As his breath returned and deepened, he looked upwards, head rolling to the Unicorn and Invisible Mutant roaming around above his head. He would have a few minutes of silence to think, at least.

He would rather drop the whole building on this nest's hole and be done with it. One pass wasn't going to clear out this infestation, it would take years fighting the Boston's Underground to stablize sewers, metros, and utilities. Adding radiation, ferals, mirelurks, and erosion and weather into the mix would only cause a bigger delay.

“And now a pony wants to enslave me.” He said, thinking about Athena's words about Firelance. A Special Set.

It had to be a ruse, or a bad perspective, only partially the amount of facts of a story Athena fed to him to get him to be angry at the Brotherhood, Sola, and Firelance when their paths eventually met. There must be a positive side to them Nate hadn't heard of, or that Athena was conveniently leaving out.

Shaking his head, it was a bold, long story about a duo he'd never heard of before, and Deacon knowing about Alicorns, too? He expected the Railroad to know handfuls of things about ponies, he just never got around to asking every person along the way every little thing! Too much to talk about, never enough time. That's the way things usually go, just to act is an even greater motion.

He had to focus on himself and Lake. Athena was still testing him,

The last time he was here, it had to of been over a decade ago, nearly two decades now. A school trip, and then a business conference, each over ten years apart from the other, but two rare moments Nate was in the original Massachusetts State House before the post-war version he was standing in now.

He was in a basement storage room. One floor above the Mirelurk Den and utility tunnel access, and below Athena and Lake on the ground floor. On the first floor were meeting halls and conference rooms, second floor was offices and secured rooms, with the third floor being all utilities and electrical again, and access to the copper dome.

Picking his way through the storage room, Nate didn't find anything worthwhile except for a long knife off the body of dead raiders that were dragged down and partially eaten by Mirelurks.

Looking above his head he was able to see gaps in the floor above him, and he could hear Athena's hooves moving. They were going further away, but Nate listened for the heavier mutant's steps as well. There were a few thuds, but he was running through the halls, Lake was shaking the floors with every foot fall, but he quickly disappeared.

“That's what I get for going in the backdoor, Screw this cat-and-mouse, time to bring the house down,” Nate said, eyes settling on foundation supports around the room.

The whole building stank, a rotten pore wood that was backwater sitting in puddles. While Nate didn't have a plan for Lake, or the Mirelurk Queen, or Athena, he knew that bringing the roof down on their heads was as just a good a plan as any, only he didn't have any way to muster up the force. He didn't want to go knocking down support beams himself and risk collapsing the building on his own head as well, so he looked for a rope or cable.

Old firehose was especially sturdy, the thick woven fibers proven to be chafe resistant and more durable than any actual metal wire Nate was able to find or yank out of the walls.

Wrapping bowline knots around the support beams, Nate used his Deathclaw strength to pull at the rope and collapse them. Pulling every third beam in this room, the whole ceiling was leaning and sinking in visibly, boards were moaning at the newfound weight straining to bear the load.

When he made it to the ground floor again, he was careful to mark his steps, keeping his ears out for either hooves or heavy footsteps.

There was suddenly a burst of static phasing into Classical music screaming over the State House's intercom system. It's not that he didn't care for Beethoven, in fact he really enjoyed the musician. However, the old rusted speakers playing it as loudly as possible weren't doing any honorifics for the deceased artist.

Nate's ears were ringing in seconds, and all he could think of was how it was Athena antagonizing him again. Now he knew Lake was running around, looking for him. He would have less than a minute he expected before the invisible mutant Lake came bearing down on him again.

\111/

The second conflict with Lake only lasted twenty seconds before Nate lost sight of the mutant again, but Nate squeezed off four rounds with his revolver. Lake was carrying a small machine gun that barked a dozen bullets back towards Nate, but the muzzle flash clearly distorted the invisibility spectrum emitted by the Stealth Boys, making it deadly at short range. But Nate moved faster than Lake could track, and the mutant was oft to let the recoil shake his aim upwards towards the ceiling, spraying bullets in large bursts in directions his prey was in.

“How do I deal with people like this?” Nate asked, looking up, he saw the third-floor atrium walkway, and put on a burst of speed to take the high ground. Up the stairs he dashed from the ground to the second floor, he knew this was where Lake kept to, as shown by signs of junk piled and gathered. Stacked and sorted in a way that showed people were here not to long ago trying to make sense of the mess. Plenty of dried blood caked plenty of surfaces, it was a clear sign that there had been multiple fights over decades in these halls, but never a janitor or steward to clean up.

Nate could hear Lake's footsteps come up the old marble steps, the rubble and cracked floor beneath the larger mutant's making noise beneath his feet. The stairs were groaning and could be heard above the noise of the music echoing around the chamber. The old Sate House still had a number of signs and icons posted around, Bathrooms, Exit, Atrium, Park Exit, Security, and others in various places, but Nate saw one icon for Security Robots on the second floor, and took off like a robot to reach those rooms.

Nate tore open a door to a security office, and slammed it shut behind him. He had a moment to lock the door before Lake was already on it, pounding against the wooden frame.

In the security office, there was a door behind a desk counter that stretched the length of the small room, that Nate jumped over the desk and through the door to the inner office. Getting inside as Lake bashed down the first door, Nate was already inside the inner office, door locked and desk being dragged into place to prop the door shut.

It was here Nate saw two pods, one with a Robco Securitron, and the other, a disabled Utility Securitron, but nonetheless, Nate's hands immediately went to the On switch to power the robot up for service.

This was good, Nate thought.

The old terminal still had power, and nobody had touched this room in a long time, gauging on the dust built up everywhere, but it gave him a small sense of protection. That he could use this securitron to distract and lure out Lake, giving him an advantage to take it out.

As the securitron stepped out of its Pod, it scanned him for a moment, then made Nate jump as it shouted, “Halt! This area is under martial law by order of Provisional Governor Graham! Chinese infiltrators are known to be operating in this area, please provide proof of identity. Be advised I am authorized to use deadly force if you fail to comply.”

“Fucking Graham-” Nate said, thoughts immediately awash to his last few weeks pre-nuked having to deal and listen to Governor Graham's crackdown on Boston in the month of October.

It'd started with government checkpoints, all routes leading to and from the state capitol, then it quickly spread to mobilization of the national guard.

Recruiters were calling Nate daily, wondering when he was going to come back, offering jumps in rank, promotion, salary, if he put the uniform back on for another tour of duty.

Then came the roll out of the Robco and General Atomics Robots. From October 2^nd, to the 23^rd, hundreds of robots were rolling out into Massachusetts to maintain martial law. The factories were overloaded with metal coming in from across the country and overseas because of prices and contracts surpassing the will of the people who needed food or fuel. Workers were flocking to find a line-maintenance job for a factory that was largely automated.

The last day Nate drove his car with Nora from their house, to a restaurant in East Boston along the waterfront, they passed three checkpoints, roadblocks with Tank-bots primed and ready to launch missiles at any Chinese Communist spy.

The roadblocks became so tedious and annoying to the traffic commuters who were already paying high inflation prices on fuel for cars and public transit, even metro lines where people complained that the screening process took too long, that a common phrase emerged to quickly determine Communist spies from local residents who knew why their commute was being congested.

"Fucking Graham," was a passphrase.

The Securitron blinked from red, red, to solid steady green. This was one of the many sub-routine phrases accepted to confirm a persons identity.

Nate's heart crawled back into his chest, shocked for a moment that he nearly forgot about the bastard who enacted martial law on the whole state.

Things were looking pretty hairy on the 22^nd off October, Nate remembered thinking. He was getting notes ready for a speech, he and Nora were heading to a Fraternity banquet hall the next morning. The news he listened to that day coming in on the radio, the blurbs from the newscasters, it was just the worst doom and gloom you could imagine. Complaints all across the state about Governor Graham and his robots impeding people's lives, being callous in their use, and overdemanding in their I.D. Requirements.

Nate didn't even think about the name until that robot told him.

“Analyzing, American colloquilism confirmed. Probability of use by Chinese infiltrator...zero point three percent. Thank you. Report any suspected Communists to your local authorities immediately. Have a nice day.”

As his shock disappated, an idea bloomed in his head.

“Securitron, I saw a someone who might be a Communist hiding here in the building.” Nate said, thinking about how to word this scenario right.

“Acknowledged, Communist threat presence in building. Elevated threat level. What is location and description of Communist infiltrator?”

“Second floor, tall grey giant man, carrying a gun. He's trying to attack Provisonal Governor Graham in his office!”

The Securitron lumbered into action, from the room they were in, a hallway connected to the right corner of the room, then turned 90 degrees, down another stretch of hallway with a door locked from their inside latch. Pressing against it, the Securitron walked into the corridor connecting all the parts of the State House together, with Nate practically stepping on the robot's heels. Moving in sync with the robot taking the front, Nate was able to watch the area behind them at all times. It was hard, listening for a sound above the classical music, but with even the securitron providing a momentary distraction when it came to the next confrontation, Nate felt that the odds weren't stacked against him. This time, he would be able to get a bead on Lake before the mutant disappeared again.

Nate wasn't feeling too strong, but he could get at least one good swipe in with his claw. He was saving his energy for that case, until then he walked checking his back all the way to the Governors office, the securitron leading.

Nate couldn't see, but he could sense that Lake had a clear line of sight on him, but the robot directly behind him, Lake didn't charge.

Right into the governor's office, Nate eased the door shut, but the inward swinging doors were left open just a crack. Nate pulled the right door open, then wedged it firmly into place so that it was only 30 degrees inward.

Letting the securitron wander through the office, as Nate quickly scrambled for the garbage can, and set it right on top of the lip to the left door, leaving that pulled inward only 10 degrees.

Leaning the garbage can against the top of the frame. It was posed ready to fall and strike whoever walked through and pushed it the left door open first.

Placing a chair behind the right door to properly wedge it from being opened or closed, Nate climbed up ontop of the door, then gripped the wall. It was a precarious perch, standing on top of the door, looking down at the Governors office, but it was an area most gunmen wouldn't think to shoot towards. While most were aiming chest-height and down to the ground, posed ready to drop down on the mutant felt as clever as a hawk spotting a giant mouse.

He didn't have long to wait. As the door he was standing on top of shifted ever so slightly from the weight being pressed against it, Lake's hand was testing the door.

A spray of bullets went through the office doors, and the securitron was kicked into action. The movement alerted Lake and he fired through the office doors again, “Intruder! Hostile detected! Use of deadly force authorized!”

Lake pushed open the door, causing the garbage can to fall, clattering against his head he wasn't expecting it. Nate saw the outline and dropped down on the mutant as his attention was shifted towards the approaching securitron.

Slashing down at the shoulder to spine, Lake cried out in horrid pain as he dropped the smg to the ground, hands thrown up and back in anger and clenched muscles trying to retract severed nerves. The invisible mutant threw his right arm against Nate's chest, slamming him backwards into the wall and corner. His head hit the carpet but he bounced back up immediately, eyes following the lines of blood up the rapidly shifting torso and legs.

“Got you!” Nate shouted, feeling his fingertips drag through the thick meat of Lake's calves and thigh. Deep three-inch gouges with bright red gore bubbling up and welling over like a waterfall down Lake's leg.

Nate felt the mutant grab hold of his arms, then swing his whole body weight through he air. He was sailing, hurled through the air where he finally slammed into a wall, dropping against a desk then landing headfirst on the floor.

“Auow!!!” Lake shouted, one hand clamping down on his leg as he thrashed around, frantically searching for something to stop the bleeding and revealing his location.

The second throw took a bit longer to recover from, as the securitron stepped in and clubbed Lake, Nate panted to get his head straight and a rush of oxygen through his blood again as the securitron missed and couldn't locate his target for a moment.

Lake swung his mighty fists at the robot, cracking its dome, bending its arms and casing. The securitron cackled with electricity as sparks coarsed over its body to deter attackers. Lake pummeled the robot, punching and striking at the machine until oil and warped metal were being ripped off the frame.

In the room was a flag pole with a pointed tip, Nate grabbed the flag-pole, pointed it down like a spear, and ran straight for Lake's body.

There was a long moment of pushback before the spear pierced through the chest cavity and out the back of Lake's spine. With the target right in front of him, Nate fired his last two shots point blank into the invisible mass, watching the blood spray and give Lake more features as he bled out.

"Fuck you, Athena," Nate said.

Retreating away, Nate stepped away from Lakes body, and listened for any other surprises. Sensing none, he quickly thought of the next task in mind, the Governor's computer.

The classical music finally cut out a few minutes later, and Nate suspected Athena was on the move again. Without his Pip-boy and only one hand suitable for typing, it took longer than he wanted to access the top terminal in the land, but Nate realized he wouldn't get any other chances, nor would anyone else think to do what he's about to do for another three-to-four years.

Governor Graham loved his patriotism to a blinding degree. He thought the more patriotic he appeared, the more power he would have during post-nuclear war. In actuality, it made him extremely predictable, and shallow. While showcasing his inability to run state finances, and borrowing endlessly with no regard to debt or consequence, he picked a password that Nate was able to guess on the third try.

The accepted message appeared on the screen, and Nate shuddered as lines of data and messages appeared.

Command codes, terminal actions, typing as quickly as possible, he found the prompts for the robots in the Commonwealth.

At his fingertips was the emergency martial law protocols enacted by Governor Graham 210 years ago and still in effect today. Everything he was reading told him this was the hub for all the robots in the entire Commonwealth.

The reason why robots were attacking people randomly across Massachusetts were all from this one computer, and before Athena could know what Nate was up to, he sent out the signal to disengage the Martial Law. It was a two-part command, as this also deactivated the Emergency Broadcast being sent out through Trinity Tower, but there was a intertwined subroutine with miles of wire connecting the State Building with the Trinity Tower servers, hosting the Emergency Broadcast Beacon.

That message was switched off, and the Brotherhood of Steel's distress signal went booming out over the airwaves, striking Philadelphia, D.C., all along the East Coast. From this terminal he saw that the emergency broadcast was going out, but he could just as easily cut the broadcast and switch it over to the local radio station, 97.3 FM aka Diamond City Radio.

There was quite a lot of power wired through the Governor's computer, files on Mass Energy, files from all the thousands of businesses from all around Boston and the Commonwealth area. It was all here, and Nate without a Pip-Boy to transfer access to his own device.

The slow approach of hooves coming down a hallway towards him sitting there in the governors office announced the presence of Athena.

When Athena found Nate, he was away from the desk, standing in the center of the room. He didn't even acknowledge her until she fully stepped into the room, and over Lake's body close by the door. She looked down at the body, and surmised the angle of attack.

“I don't appreciate what you did, letting him get behind me like that.”

“I warned you he was invisible and dangerous. You got the drop on him. What made you think to go high?”

“Birds. A lot of people don't often expect a predator to swoop down from above,” Nate replied.

“Then congratulations, you're better at fighting in three dimensions than I thought. Most tend to ignore the airborne combatant. You deserve a rest,”

“Tell me, what's this deal you had with Lake before bringing me here?”

“This is building is a meatgrinder, Nate. Nature at its fastest and most primal, a connection to Mona's powers. This place is oozing with Wendigo magic, to induce fear, to draw people in, to get lost and go insane. Here, many people meet their demise, and ending Lake means taking away power from Mona as well.”

"That's what I thought. Especially after you betrayed me and let me get thrown down a murder hole."

"I was just standing there-"

"Doing nothing. That doesn't explain your relationship with Lake.”

“He was a butcher, Nate, I told you that he was dangerous and invisible. You're not the first human I've tried putting faith in, Nate. This was his hunting grounds where he got to play primal predator and create endless fear for Mona to feed on. Lake was too paranoid or schizophrenic from using his Stealth Boy all the time to listen to any of Mona's commands.”

“Stealth Boys cause brain-damage?”

“For how much he was using it all the time, yes. And would you believe there's a threshold of intelligence and above that creatures need to have before they're able to be influenced by Mona? Too low, too stupid, or brain-dead, insects and lower animals, and it's not worth Mona's energy. Too intelligent, to critical of a thinker, to reasonable, and her influence only affects you so much. While all the other Mutants on the list were on the higher end, Lake however was the only exception where he was definitely on the lower side.

“First it was Hammer, you said something to him while I was sneaking into his bunker that would've made him run straight back and report it to Fist. Now, Lake was willing to go along with this setup to the point of death with you, and not even a hint of resistance. What's got them so wrapped around your hoof?”

“It's simpler than you make it out to be Nate, for a long time now, ponies had a unique standing with mutants of not being considered a threat, and even trade with them. Dozens more are intelligent with great reason, but Hammer, Lake, Big Mack, Rage, Strong, and Fist were all set free by the Institute long ago, along with too many countless others that have come and gone, or vanished into the wastes, they all were son to big daddy Institute, Mona taps into their emotions to control them, and over time they became smart enough to consider why bother taking orders.”

“So a cabinet purge?”

“It's where Mutants like Strong are going to fill the power gap when they're all gone, Nate. Mona keeps the stupid ones in line, but the ones that rise up need a common face they can trust until the damn Institute can be stopped from pumping more of them out. Strong will be a place holder in this battle, to keep other intelligent mutants in line. Once the Institute is dealt with, then we will deal with every last one of the Institute's creations, and kill him.”

“Nullus Amor?” Nate said, softly under his breath.

“What was that?”

“I said no love for your enemy, Athena? Even I'm getting tired of these aggressive attacks against mutants and being thrown to the sharks.”

“Alright, I hear you, Nate. No need to shout. We'll rest here.”

“There's the Boylston Club down the street, it's less likely to collapse than this whole building is, and doesn't have as many Mirelurks sleeping underneath either, so all the same, I'm going there.”

“Fine, Go ahead and enjoy your rest. I'll come get you when I need you. But, while you're at it, you might want to take a look out the front door and see who's sitting there at the bottom of the courthouse steps, waiting for you...” Athena said.

“What?”

“Oh...for the last several minutes now one of your buddies has been engaged with fighting a Courser in the Boston Common.” Athena said, staying exactly where she was and taking a relaxing breath as Nate went to go check out what she saw.

"And you couldn't of told me this sooner!?"

"You said you were tired and hungry! So I was done waiting for you to finish so I could tell you." Athena said,

"What kind of game is this to you, Athena?" Nate asked, moving past her and hastily walking towards the door.

"The one where you realized some-time yesterday that you could kill a Courser with your bare hand. All this chatting? It's coming out of your break-time. Your friend still needs help, too so I'd get moving if I were you."

'Slave driver' Nate thought, this was one uncomfortable one-sided working relationship. He was putting in all his effort into surviving at her side, while she barely ever broke a sweat. Reminding himself that she had played the role of slave-driver before, he wished that wasn't the only role she knew.

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Next Chapter: Ch. 88 Iron-Palm of Death! Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 11 Minutes