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I pushed open the door to a dimly lit room, taking a few steps forward before stumbling into a stool. I pulled myself up, putting my hands on a hard wood counter. I looked around, examining the dark corners as well as the tables and chairs, neon signs shining bright in my eyes. I looked back down at my hands, torn and covered in dirt. Just then, something solid bumped into my hand, I looked over to see a round glass, full of a dark amber liquid and two ice cubes. My eyes traveled further upward, locking with two more, black like the night, red and blue neon signs reflecting off of them.“Uh, hi.”I stuttered, dropping my hands to side.“Hey to you too, cutie.”Said a raspy voice, an accent I didn’t recognize ringing in my ears. I felt a surge run through my body, my vision turning pink for a millisecond before switching back to into its neutral yellow. I looked back down at the glass, and back up at the eyes. “I can’t afford this, y’know..” “That’s okay.” the voice said, louder now. I looked up to be met with those eyes again, so mysterious and enticing. Except this time it wasn’t just the eyes, but instead a person. I examined them closely, their grey skin and body of scars. “The names Gob-“ said the person, a smirk appearing on his scared face. I looked back down at my hands again, the brown mineral staining the whiteness of them. “-what about you?” My eyes met his for a second, before returning back to my hands. “I don’t know.” “You don’t know?” “I’m just a discarded prototype as far as I know. Some...’thing’ that no one needed.” I felt a hand touch mine, and I looked back up at the eyes once more, seemingly pulling me in. “A pretty face like yours deserves a name.” I felt my eyes turn pink again, so I shook my head, trying to keep it from showing. “Uh, thanks.” “So, you wanna go back to my place?” Gob said, a smile on his face. “What for?” I said, half-expecting some flirty response. “So I could patch up your wounds or whatever those could be counted as.” Gob said, letting go of my hand and folding his arms, leaning back into the wall. “Oh, uh, okay, sounds good!” I agreed, getting out of my stool. As I walked towards the door, I felt the hand in mine again, pulling me to turn around. “It’s rainin out, you shouldn’t go out there so..naked, I guess.” I looked down, examine my bare synth body, the only thing on it being a torn up pair of jeans. I felt a jacket be draped around me, before hearing a door open, the sound of pouring rain filling my ears. “Lets go, it’s just across the street.” I proceeded out the door, the downpour of rain seemingly washing the dirt off my artificial skin. He walked by, ushering me to follow. I followed him into a tall building, up some stairs, and down the hall until we came to a door. He opened the door, taking his hat and coat off and tossing them onto the bed. It was reminiscent to the bar, blue and red neon signs lighting up the room, creating a purple glow. He walked over to a drawer, taking out what seemed to be glue and pieces of scrap metal and plastic. Falling onto the bed, he sat up, tapping next to him, motioning me to sit. I obeyed, sitting next to him. “Are you gonna let me fix you up?” He asked, tugging on the jacket. “Oh, right, sorry.” muttered, moving my shoulders to let the jacket slip off of them. I felt hands on my shoulders, slipping down to my back, tracing down my spine. “Who did this to you?” He asked, fingers tracing the cuts and tears. “Two men, and a woman.” I said, looking down. “I assume they hated me. But...I don’t know what for.” I felt my eyes turn blue. I felt a wetness on my face. “Why?” I asked. “Why what?” I turned to look at this man, this man who didn’t look away or hurt me in any way, shape, or form. “Why do they hate me?” He frowned, his eyes expressing a sadness of his own, what seemed to be a look of experience. “People don’t like different-“ he started. I looked down at my hands. A hand coming into my vision, intertwining it’s fingers with mine. I looked back at him, a smile on his face, a glowing happiness in his eyes. “-but not all people know the difference between different and unique.” My eyes went wide, all sadness seemingly vanishing into nothing. “And I think that you’re pretty unique, probably the most unique person I’ve ever met, Syn.”
Syn.
The word circling in my mind, I stared back into his eyes. What is it, what does it mean, what does it stand for, what does it represent? So many thoughts rushing through my head. I felt his hand squeeze mine, knocking me back into reality. “Is Syn okay? As a name, I mean?” I looked back at him, a smile of my own finally appearing, my eyes flickering a bright green.“Yeah..yeah it’s perfect.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Where are we going again, hon?” I asked, using a tree to pull myself up from the step crater shaped hole I had fallen in, the dead bark cracking underneath my artificial, synthetic fingers. “We’re heading to a settlement not to much farther, they radioed out saying they have all sorts of supplies.” Gob said back, reaching a hand out to me to pull me up. I took his hand, getting distracted by the difference in our skin tones (not to mention condition as well) I smiled, jumping out of the crater and onto the hard, desert-like ground. Being a synthetic human had its perks, one of the biggest being the immunity to radiation. I don’t have to worry about turning into a gh-‘Stop right there.’I look over at Gob, examining him closely. I look at his eyes.‘Those beautiful midnight eyes.’And then to his hands.“I love those hands, I love it when there all over my body, and God, when they’re wrapped around my di-“Uh Syn?” A voice spoke from beside me, Gobs voice. “When they’re wrapped around your what?”
‘Oh shit, I said that out loud
.’
“Uh, n-nothing! I was just mumbling to myself!” I saw, his face telling me that everything I’m saying is not being believed. “Syn, you do realize your eyes are pink, right?” He says, putting his hands on his hips and cocking his head to the side, smirking a little. I hold a hand over one of my eyes, seeing the pink light illuminating from the corner of the one currently not covered.
’Damn.’
Gob chuckled, adjusting his hat and backpack before doing a 180 degree turn and continuing down the Commonwealth. As he started walking, I followed, taking in my surroundings as we walked. Dead tree, dead tree, dead tree, etc. Eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime of walking, I jumped from a loud slamming, lifting my head up to see Gob knocking on a big metal gate. As Gob backed up from the gate and back to beside me, I was further examining the gate, which actually revealed that the place was really heavily guarded by different types of turrets as well as actual guards and even some Deathclaws with color coded collars. (The most interesting in my opinion.) A man jumped down from the gate, my hand by instinct/surprisal steadily inching towards my knife. I felt a hand touch mine, and looked at it to see none other than Gob’s, my eyes trailing up to see him wink, and then look back at the man walking towards us with a smile on his face. “Hey bud, hows it going?” Gob said, raising his arms up in what seemed to be a surrender of sorts, maybe to prove he was weaponless, which of course was false, he actually still had his combat knife, and the extra 4 throwing ones in each of his boots. The man walked up to him and held his hand out, obviously waiting for Gob to grab his hand, Gob chuckled, then shook his head. “Oh man, you just had to go and do it didn’t you?” In an instant Gob had the man on his knees, knife against his temple, a small stream of blood already running down the dudes cheek. “W-wait man, let’s talk about this!” He pleaded, obviously taken aback by the pure quickness of Gob’s movements. “Tell your men to back off-“ Gob leaned in right beside his ear. “-Or I make sure this knife makes it all the way to the other side of your skull.” The man nodded softly, slowly getting up as Gob’s grip loosened. “Good boy.” Gob said as the man walked back towards his large gate. Just then a sensor went off from my left, and as my eyes shot up to meet what it was about time seemed to slow, everything happening at half the speed it was before. It was here I realized I had the ability to alter the speed of how fast I can react, how I perceive speed or how far I can see or how quiet I can still hear things, something that involved the alteration of the way my 5 senses work. (Touch, taste, sound, sight, smell.) As I looked up, I was met with the sight of a bullet flying towards my head. Using my newly acquired skill, I was able to put my arms up to catch the flying projectile, Catch of course meaning, throwing my arms up so they could take the bullet instead, protecting the vital parts. As the bullet came into contact with my arm, the world seemed to snap back into its normal speed, my body skidding backwards a little because of the power of the bullet. It was then the man tried to pull his gun only to be met with two shots to his knees within a second and a half. As Gob put his revolver back into its leg holster, he walked up to the man, lifting his chin up. “I told you to call them off, and you just HAD to go and disobey. Why?” Gob said, shaking his head with a slight frown. Gob moves his hand up into the guy’s hair, twisting it in his hand and yanking the man to his feet. Gob turned the man around, placing a knife to his neck. “Now-“ Gob yelled, looking up at the multiple people pointing guns at him. “-If you want this guy’s back with his neck ‘not’ cut open, you’ll put your guns down.” The men atop the gate looked at each other, then back at Gob. They lowered their guns, and the gate started to open.
“Wonderful.”
Gob said with a smile. Kicking the man to the ground, Gob looks at me, motioning toward the man. I give him a small scowl. “Please hon?” He mouths silently. I smile back him, walking over to the man and grabbing him hoisting him over my shoulder effortlessly. Synth strength, also a upside to being artificial. I follow Gob as he walks through the gate, hands in his pockets, almost like he was taking sole casual stroll through the park, albeit a incinerated, radiated park. Observing my surroundings my eyes focused on one thing, a giant sign hanging from a bridge that connected to two large buildings. The sign swayed slightly in the wind, chains squeaking with each rock. And in bright, red, neon letters it read
“IMPERIUM”