Tense silence filled the Vertibirds as they made the journey to Raven Rock. The loss of one of the ships, and the troops inside, had shocked everyone on the remaining transports to the core.

Colonel Autumn knew he had to try and keep his Troop’s morale up, but he didn't have the faintest clue of how to manage it. He'd never imagined that one of the Rainbooms would be able to fly fast enough to keep up with a Vertibird, let alone that she'd be capable of actually destroying one with almost contemptuous ease. Thankfully, she had kept her distance since downing the first Vertibird, though Colonel Autumn suspected that that was less to do with any fear or exhaustion and more because she wasn't willing to risk her friends or the G.E.C.K. in a direct confrontation.

"Sir, we're coming up on Raven Rock," the pilot said factually.

"Is the Rainboom still following us?" Colonel Autumn asked.

"Yes, sir," the pilot replied .

Colonel Autumn swore under his breath. "Inform base command there is a bandit on our tail and we have precious cargo on board. We'll need whatever AA support is available."

The pilot quickly relayed the Colonel's request, and base command directed them to the nearest available landing pad. When the Vertibirds came in to land on their designated landing pad, a huge metal platform situated high up on the mountainside, they were greeted by several full squads of power-armored soldiers, many of whom were carrying heavy weaponry.

Colonel Autumn had both Vertibirds open their crew compartments as they landed; the second they touched down all of the soldiers on board disembarked immediately and turned to form a firing line. The Colonel himself waited inside his Vertibird with the scientists until the soldiers were all out before stalking down the ramp to join them. He turned and looked up to see the damnable Rainboom circling high above like a vulture, too far away to be a worthwhile target.

"Colonel!" The Colonel glanced over his shoulder to see Lieutenant-Colonel Strong hurrying to his side. "What's the situation, sir?" he asked, saluting.

Before Colonel Autumn could answer there was a sudden flash of colour and a gust of wind ruffled his coat. His gaze snapped back up to where the Rainboom had been, but all he saw was a rainbow-coloured streak already fading into the distance.

"C-colonel! Take your coat off!" one of the soldiers shouted. Colonel Autumn looked around in surprise just as the soldier grabbed his coat. "Your coat, sir! It's on fire!" A few panic-filled moments followed as the two worked together to rip his longcoat off and throw it on the ground. Blue flames rose from the back of it in the shape of an R. The Colonel fought back a shiver, trying to ignore the cold fear creeping up his spine, and nodded his thanks to the soldier.

"Uh, Colonel? You might want to take a look at this," Lieutenant-Colonel Strong said slowly.

Now what? Taking care to keep his expression neutral, Colonel Autumn turned to see what his subordinate was worried about. His attempt at looking unconcerned for the sake of his men failed miserably barely a second later as he spotted a message written in the rockface above the entrance to the fortress; smouldering letters ten foot tall crudely carved into the rock itself.

Hissed curses and worried murmurs broke out among the soldiers on the landing pad. Colonel Autumn knew he should suppress them, that discipline should be maintained; but in this instance, he truly couldn't blame them. This was way beyond anything they had ever faced before. That Rainboom's speed was on a level that simply disregarded belief. The fact that he and the Lieutenant-Colonel were still alive despite their lack of armor meant that the girl had likely made a conscious decision not to kill them, a fact that chilled Colonel Autumn to the bone.

Lieutenant-Colonel Strong gave Autumn a worried look. "Sir? Just what the hell are we facing here?"

The Colonel shook his head slowly. “I don't know, but by God I'm going to find out." He turned to the nearest soldier. "Get those four offloaded and secured in separate cells. I want the girls especially kept under heavy guard, and make sure they're sedated when they start to wake up." As the soldiers moved to carry out his orders, he turned back to Lieutenant-Colonel Strong and spoke in an undertone, "I'm going to make my report to the President. As soon as those freaks are secured, I want you to fetch your sister and her girlfriend and bring them to me as quickly as possible."

The Lieutenant-Colonel saluted. "Yes, Sir! Uh, may I ask what you need them for, Sir?"

"Those two are the only people in Raven Rock who've seen all of the Rainbooms in action and lived to tell the tale," Colonel Autumn replied. "I want to know exactly what these girls are capable of."

The corridors of Vault 87 were eerily quiet. The only sounds that could be heard were Fawkes's heavy footfalls and the occasional drip of blood from the vile sackfuls of gore strung up from the ceiling. Nevertheless, neither Sunset nor the others dared to drop their guard despite the almost suspicious lack of Super Mutants they had encountered. Shephard was still out there, somewhere, and there was no telling who, or what, else could be lurking in the Vault.

Even with the group obsessively checking every shadowed corridor, it didn't take long for the girls to retrace their steps back to the corridors that led to Little Lamplight's secret entrance.

"Phew, here we are," Pinkie sighed as they stepped into the abandoned generator room.

"Yeah, now we just have to figure out how to convince Mayor Macready to let Fawkes in," Sunset reminded her. "Any ideas?"

Pinkie hummed loudly and tapped a finger on her chin. "We could try asking nicely?"

Sunset and Fawkes just stared at her blankly, and even Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at her. After a moment, Sunset shrugged. "Eh, I guess it's worth a shot." Lacking any better ideas, she stepped forward and knocked on the door to the tune of 'Shave and a Haircut', then pressed the button that opened it.

Mayor Macready was standing ready on the other side of the door. He relaxed and lowered his gun when he saw the girls, then snapped it back up the second he spotted Fawkes, promoting Pinkie to jump protectively in front of him. "Wait!"

"It's okay, he's not an enemy," Sunset said quickly.

"Bullshit!" Macready spat. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, bringing a fucking Super Mutant here!?"

"He's friendly," Sunset insisted. She shouldered her assault rifle and held her hands out placatingly. "Look, our friends have been taken by the Enclave and this guy's helping us get them back. We just want-"

"Don't fuck with me!" Macready shifted to aim at her instead. "This and Murder Pass are the only way anyone except the Super Mutants can get in or out of the Vault, and you can be damn sure no Mungos have come through Little Lamplight except you fuckers! I ought to blow your fucking heads off right now!"

Sunset swallowed and tried not to look at the assault rifle pointed at her face. "The Enclave got into the Vault through the main entrance. The radiation wasn't enough to stop them. Rainbow has gone after them, her magic can get her through the radiation, but we have to get back outside to meet her when she gets back. We just want to pass through, and we want Fawkes to come with us. I'll vouch for him."

"We all will," Pinkie put in.

Macready glared at the four of them. After several tense seconds he shouted over his shoulder to someone else, "Hey, Joseph! Get your ass back to the others and tell them to arm up and hunker down! We've got a freak coming through!" When Joseph agreed Macready stepped back to let the group through the door, though he didn't lower his rifle. "As for you, you go straight from here to the front door, you get the fuck out of here, and you never drag your sorry asses back here again, you hear me?"

Sunset sighed and nodded. "I, we understand."

Glaring suspiciously at Fawkes, Macready gestured for the group to come through with his rifle. "Get moving. Any of you so much as step out of place and I'll shoot your fucking faces off!"

The girls stepped through first. Fawkes followed after them slowly, treading carefully and taking great care to keep his new weapon pointed at the floor in a vain attempt to make himself look less threatening. Macready used the terminal to close and lock the door into the Vault then followed the group, keeping his assault rifle trained on Fawkes' back.

The journey through the caves of Little Lamplight was almost as nerve-wracking as exploring the Vault had been. Macready frog-marched them along while watching them like a hawk, and the kids that they passed either ran away in fear at the sight of Fawkes or clutched their weapons tightly and watched the group warily until they had passed.

Soon enough they arrived back at the makeshift gates of Little Lamplight with a pair of armed kids standing guard. Both of them paled with fear when they laid eyes on Fawkes.

"Stacey, Caps, get that fucking gate open!" Macready barked, making the two of them jump and hurry to obey. As soon as the gate was raised he turned back to the girls and pointed outside with his gun. "Alright, now fuck off and don't come back."

Fawkes, Pinkie and Fluttershy stepped through quickly, but Sunset paused on the threshold and looked back over her shoulder at Macready. At the very least, she felt he deserved a warning. "One last thing, it looks like some of the Super Mutants have got their hands on some magic of their own. I don't know what they can do, or what it's capable of, but somehow I doubt it'll make them any less dangerous. Be careful."

Macready raised an eyebrow, and for a second she assumed he was going to arrogantly brush it off, but instead he nodded grimly. "Thanks for the heads up. Now go on, get out of here."

Relieved that he wasn't blaming the Rainbooms for the Mutants' magic, not yet anyway, Sunset quietly followed the others through the tunnel that led out of the caverns. None of them spoke as they tramped up the rocky path, through the flimsy door at the end, and out into the morning sunlight.

When they finally got outside, Pinkie wandered over to a blackened picnic table and flopped onto the bench with a huff. "Well that could have gone a lot better."

"It could have gone worse, too. At least the mayor didn't realize that it's our fault that the Sup- um, that the Meta Humans have magic now," Fluttershy put in, echoing Sunset's earlier thoughts.

Fawkes sighed sadly. "I apologize. I did not wish to cost you your allies."

"It's fine," Sunset told him. "If you're really as benign as you say you are, then I'd rather annoy them by setting you free than to keep them happy by leaving you to rot." Fluttershy and Pinkie both nodded vigorously at Sunset’s comment.

Fawkes opened his mouth to reply, then closed it and just looked down at the floor instead. Fluttershy stepped closer and placed a hand on his elbow, misreading his silence. "Um, Mayor Macready didn't upset you with the, um, with the mean things he was saying, did he?"

Letting out a soft chuckle, Fawkes shook his head. "No. I was prepared to face such reactions from the people of the Wasteland. I was merely… I was just…" He sighed heavily. "It seems I am a little overwhelmed. The kindness you have all shown me means more to me than I can truly articulate."

"Awww, cheer up, big guy; it's what we do!" Pinkie called out as she jumped back to her feet. "Don't you worry. As soon as we've rescued the others from the evil fascist organisation that wants to subdue and control the descendants of all of the innocent civilians they abandoned two hundred years ago, I'll make sure we throw you a nice big 'Congratulations on escaping Vault 87' party! Pinkie Promise!" She frowned and tapped a finger on her chin. "Speaking of the Enclave, what are we going to do now?"

Sunset shrugged. "I'm not sure there's much we can do until Rainbow gets back. We may as well wait here and just hope that she doesn't take too long."

"Um, what do we do if she does take a long time to get back?" Fluttershy asked uneasily.

"I guess we'll just have to set up camp here," Sunset replied, gesturing to the derelict picnic area that surrounded them. "It's either that or find a way to leave a message for her and head back to the Citadel."

None of the others particularly fancied going back to the Citadel and risking missing Rainbow, so instead they all found a place to sit and tried to make themselves comfortable. They talked while they waited, the girls telling Fawkes all about their home and Equestria while, in return, asking for everything he knew about Shephard, which unfortunately wasn't much.

The group had only been waiting for around twenty minutes when, to their immense surprise, they saw Rainbow approaching from the North. The four of them clambered to their feet as she banked around in a wide circle and came down to land.

"I know where their base is," Rainbow said without preamble. She turned and pointed back the way she'd came, "It's pretty much a straight line in that direction, but it's going to take a while on foot, and there's some freaky radar stations and a few sketchy-looking places we're probably going to have to avoid which are going to slow us down even more."

Fawkes grunted and hefted his weapon. "It doesn't matter how far they run, they will not escape their retribution."

Rainbow glanced sidelong at him and smirked. "Careful, if you keep talking like that I might actually start to like you." She flicked her hair back and looked over at Sunset. "So? When do we leave?"

"Right now," Sunset replied. "We'll eat on the way, the only problem is how we're going to deal with the soldier’s' power armor when we get there." She turned to Pinkie, who was staring silently at the head of her pickaxe. "I hate to say it, but I think you're the only one who can hurt them."

Pinkie nodded grimly and twirled the head of the pickaxe, sending out a cascade of glittering dust. "It's okay, I can do this. It's just like the trope; let's get dangerous."

Tara hummed thoughtfully as she read through the communiqué she'd been given. It had been delivered by a cadet shortly after she'd gotten back to the dorm room she shared with Becky. Tara had been content to sprawl out on their bed and take her time with it in order to try to take her mind off the stress of recent events.

"Anything interesting?" Becky asked from where she was lounging on a chair in the corner of the room.

"Actually, yes," Tara replied. "Evans and Pickering are going to be sent to Project Exodus within the next hour along with a squad of soldiers to replace Squad Sigma." She sat up and tossed the communiqué onto the bedside table. "It looks like they've sent us a doctor called Whitley from the Adams Air Force Base, too. He'll be at the Exodus building by the time we get back."

Becky gave an impressed whistle. "I've heard of him, he's apparently doing some pretty impressive stuff with eyebots and AI."

"Er, right." Tara tucked a stray hair behind her ear and tried to keep her expression neutral. The truth was that the Enclave already had an incredible AI; one far, far more powerful than anything Whitley had created, and much closer to home. Unfortunately, that fact was also highly classified.

Thankfully, the women’s conversation was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. "Come in," Tara called out. The door opened almost before she had finished speaking and she was surprised to see her brother duck through the door before it was even halfway open. "Andrew? What's wro-"

"Both of you need to come with me, right now," the Lieutenant-Colonel cut in.

Before anyone could respond, the facility's PA system crackled into life. "This is President Eden. As of this moment, this facility will be going into complete lockdown. All personnel are hereby ordered to follow established lockdown procedures and all military reserve personnel are to be on standby and ready for immediate activation should the necessity arise. I repeat, this facility is going into immediate lockdown and all personnel are to follow established procedures. This is not a drill."

The PA system clicked and the two women jumped to their feet. "What the hell is going on?!" Tara demanded.

"We've got a fucking huge problem coming our way, that's what," Andrew replied darkly. "Colonel Autumn just got back from Vault 87 with his strike team. They managed to capture the son of that scientist from Project Purity and three of the Rainbooms."

"What?!" Becky and Tara yelled in unison, making Andrew jump back in shock. "You mean he's brought the Rainbooms here?!" Tara snapped.

Andrew nodded quickly. "We've got them secured in cells upstairs. The problem is one of the others managed to follow the team here, apparently she even took out one of the Vertibirds singlehandedly. She's gone for now, but we strongly believe that she's going to return with support and attempt to assault this facility." He gestured to the two women. "That's why you have to come with me. Colonel Autumn wants to speak to you; you two are the only people here who've seen them in action."

Tara and Becky shared a worried look. It appeared that their treasonous actions back at Project Exodus had been all for naught. "H-have the captive Rainbooms said anything yet?" Tara asked.

"Not yet," Andrew replied to the relief of the others. "They're still frozen from the cryo grenades used to capture them, it's going to take a few hours to thaw them out."

"Shit." Becky wrenched open the top drawer of their dresser and pulled out a laser pistol with its holster, which she attached to her belt under her lab coat. "Okay, take us to see the Colonel."

As she followed the other two out of the room, Tara managed to catch Becky's eye and give her a determined nod. One way or another, it looked like she was going to have to save the Rainbooms again.

She just hoped she could manage it without getting herself, or the people she loved, killed.

Down in the very lowest levels of Raven Rock, Doctor Turner stared up in awe at the subject he had been assigned to wake. At first glance, it simply looked like an oversized suit of Enclave power armor strapped into an immense docking frame, but those who were aware of the Enclave's history would know that they were in the presence of something far greater and more terrible than a mere suit of armor.

Frank Horrigan.

The name was a dark legend among the Enclave; a brutal monster who had once been the most deadly entity ever to stalk the wasteland.

Born and raised an ordinary human, Horrigan had been accidentally exposed to a variety of FEV while on a mission on the West Coast. Sensing an opportunity, the Enclave's scientists had performed innumerable experiments on him, ranging from surgery, to genetic manipulation, to mental programming.

When they were finished, Horrigan had become a nightmare; a mutant abomination that stood over twelve feet tall. Permanently bonded with customized power armor that doubled as a life support apparatus. Horrigan had been given his own unique weapons and unleashed on the wasteland, carving out a blood-spattered legend of epic proportions.

The comatose remains that stood before Turner now were a pale shadow of that once unstoppable monster.

Defeated in a cataclysmic battle on the old Poseidon Oil Rig, Horrigan had lost everything below his waist and the majority of his skull and brain stem when his armor’s power system overloaded.

His legend would have ended there had a fleeing group of soldiers not dragged his bloody carcass away before the Rig was destroyed under the assumption that they would be rewarded for salvaging what remained of his armor. It wasn't until a team of scientists examined the remains later that they discovered that his armor's life support systems were still functional and that Horrigan was, in fact, still alive.

For the past thirty years whole teams of scientists had been working to rebuild Horrigan.

Turner stepped forward and carefully examined Horrigan's new armor. Constructed entirely of Duraframe, it was the single most advanced suit of armor the Enclave had ever created. The legs were robotic, to replace Horrigan's original ones, and the helmet contained an advanced variety of the biogel, found in Robobrains, to protect and regrow the remnants of Horrigan's damaged brain.

Unfortunately, despite the vast amount of resources and effort put towards bringing him back, nothing had so far succeeded in waking Horrigan up. His brain had largely regenerated, but even so, he remained in a persistent vegetative state that he just couldn't be broken out of.

Doctor Strong herself had spent a year working on him. Her idea of using computer chips to stimulate his brain and artificially implant memories had been a stroke of genius, but even that had failed.

Now, though, the Enclave had something that might just work. Turner just had to wait and see if his ideas would bear fruit. As if summoned by the doctor's thoughts, the door of the lab opened and a technician entered carrying a small box in his hands.

"How did it go?" Doctor Turner asked. "Did the centrifuge work?"

"It actually worked perfectly, Doctor." The technician opened the box and showed him the contents; eight small vials. Seven of them each contained a different colour of brightly glowing magic, while the last contained a swirling white mixture. "It separated them all right out, except for that little bit in the last vial."

"Excellent!" Doctor Turner beamed. He had never really expected something as simple as a centrifuge to work, but it had. And it also handily proved his hypothesis that the white magical mixture he had smuggled into Raven Rock had been a combined mix of each of the Rainbooms' magicks. "Have the radiation experiments been set up?"

The technician nodded. "The rest of your team are working on them now. You were right, they're getting more of… whatever this stuff is already."

Doctor Turner hummed as he took the box from the technician. "Good, good, and have any of them started getting darker, do you know?"

"Not yet, Doctor," the technician replied. "They've been keeping the exposure levels small,.like you requested. It seems to be working so far."

Doctor Turner grinned and turned back to face Horrigan. "Perfect. I want the first new batch brought to me as soon as we reach the projected quantities." He looked up at the tubes that fed into Horrigan's armor, each of them ending in a socket that the vials he now held would fit into perfectly. "I wish to begin the experiments immediately."

Chapter is here!

Many thanks to Mocha Star for the reminders of military protocol on this one!