Ch19. Different definitions of the word ‘Mini’.

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"So that's how it is!"

Marcus was sitting near the camp fire while his mutants took turns sleeping and guarding, thankfully Marcus was incredibly diplomatic.

After meeting, Alex sat him down and told him most of what he knew and what he had planned for the ski resorts future.

Finally, Alex asked Marcus if he was interested in forming the town with him, hoping that the Meta human would agree.

"Hmm, it's a tempting offer indeed. Can you guarantee that we can live in peace?"

Marcus leaned forward, slight interest could be heard in his voice.

"Yeah, I have nothing against your kind. You guys make a great addition to any settlement, whether it be a great labor force or amazing defense. Anyone who doesn't visit because you live here is one less problem for me."

Alex was being sincere, he was hoping to take over the resort before Marcus and his mutants arrived, seemed like he was a little late. Yet he wouldn't keep them from settling the resort if they wanted too.

Apparently less then a few hours after they hit the road, Marcus left Black mountain with half his kind. If he stayed a fight that would have seen most of his brethren killed would have broken out.

A win for Alex, if he could talk Marcus into an alliance, then he would have a super mutant army to clear the resort of nightstalkers. Also a terrifying guard force that most would think twice before attacking.

To which he already told Marcus about, apparently their was no issue do to the Nightkin being able to 'smell' the wave length field the nightstalkers use to go invisible.

Probably the radiation from the stealth boys the nightstalkers in the area ate.

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"Very well, we shall join with you. Do you wish to wait until this Meyers and his men reach us? Or would you like to go at dawn?"

Marcus gave the decision over too Alex, who was going to camp here and wait for Meyers and his men to show up after packing all their things at the prison.

"We can go at first light, by then the nightstalkers should be heading back to sleep, that's the best time to hit them, we can't wait for Meyer and risk losing the perfect window."

Alex wanted to hit the nightstalkers den asap, he would use Meyers and his guys for the clean up after the fact.

"Alright, I'll send some Nightkin out to scout and others to guard, keep any threats away. You and your companions should rest… unless your willing to lone us that deathclaw?"

Alex chuckled at Marcus as he glanced at Keres who had been lying down beside Alex, her wary glowing green eyes never leaving Marcus or his kin.

"Got to ask her that, I don't own her. She's her own gal."

Alex reached out and rubbed Keres on her head, making her mewl in satisfaction.

"You sure about that? Seems like she would disagree."

Marcus threw a verbal jab at Alex, making him sweat drop.

"Yeah, more like he belongs to he— ouch, the fuck was that for!"

Cass began to take a jab at Alex as well only for Sarah to slap her in back of the head.

"My hand slipped."

Sarah deadpanned Cass, who simply rolled her eyes and got up.

"Alright everyone, let's go settle in for the night then."

Alex took a glance at Marcus.

"If you or any Meta-human wants a break later, wake me up and I'll guard for a shift."

Marcus gave Alex a smile, or at least Alex thinks he gave him a smile…hard to tell.

"Will do, but I'm sure it won't be necessary."

Alex gave Marcus a nod before heading over to a fallen log where everyone had their sleeping rolls laid out.

Alex laid back in his sleeping roll and looked up at the stars in the night sky as he felt the cool Mojave air fill his lungs, the gentle crackle of the fire occasionally broken up by a super mutant shuffling about the camp.

After a few minutes of his own thoughts a melodious voice came from the sleeping roll beside his own.

"Cap for your thoughts?"

Ava, who had fought a fearsome battle with Asia to claim the sleeping roll next to Alex looked over at Alex's handsome profile, illuminated by the light from the moon and camp fire.

Alex, keeping his eyes locked on the stars above tried to find the words to best describe the feelings in his chest. A feeling he's been ignoring, hoping it would fade.

For some reason he felt like he could tell Ava, that she wouldn't judge him. So he took a deep breath.

"I've done a lot in my life, good and bad, sometimes good people got hurt, sometimes I'd regret it after the fact. It's not easy waking up everyday to the same old sky, only to do the same old things, expecting something to change. Don't know when it started but day by day I felt myself begin to die inside, little by little I was less me, and more what others wanted me to be."

Ava's heart clenched as a minuscule tear shined with moonlight as it slid down Alex's cheek.

"It was terrifying, stuck in that prison. Knowing that nothing would change, and if it did, that I would hurt those I care about. That I would betray their expectations of me."

Alex smiled as he reached up and grabbed at the stars.

"Then I woke up, surrounded by the dead, I was given a new life. Another chance to be what I always wanted to be! I swore to myself, this time I will be free."

Alex lowered his hand.

"No more cage."

Alex felt Ava put something on his chest, looking down he saw a rusty Nuka cola cap sitting over his heart.

"I'm a girl of my word, the cap is yours. Do spend it wisely."

Ava gave Alex a cheeky smile, one filled with appreciation.

Alex felt a painful tug at his heart, he knew she loved him. Yet he never saw her in that light, even before the transmigration…

"Ava, liste—"

Ava reached over and covered Alex's mouth before he could speak the words she knew were coming.

"I know, just let a girl dream won't you?"

Ava quickly turned over, turning her back to Alex and ending the conversation.

Yet Alex made another promise to himself that moment.

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"Ugh…"

Waking up to a kick in the foot, Alex looked up only to see a pissed off Sunny.

'The hell, why is she so angry all the time.'

Alex sat up and gave Sunny a glare only for her to roll her eyes and walk away, mumbling under her breath about Alex being a womanizer and scumbag.

Loud enough for Alex to hear, something he guessed was on purpose.

One self deprecating smile later, Alex got up and started to help pack up the camp.

An awkward silence filled the air as all the girls seemed to ignore Alex, or give him pity glances every now and then.

Alex looked around and finally settled his eyes on Keres, who saw him and suddenly looked away…

'Et Tu Keres?!'

Alex was confused, until he walked over to Marcus and received a shock as the large super mutant gave him a gentle hug suddenly.

"Often heavy is the burdens one carries unspoken, the demons we fight so hard to destroy being the ones that make us feel the safest."

Marcus soothed Alex and pat his head while giving him a fatherly look.

"Eh?"

Alex was honestly stupefied at the big green guys actions.

"It is alright Alex, many in the camp heard of your struggles last night as you spoke to the silver haired one, you will face no judgment from us."

Everything suddenly clicked for Alex, it explains the awkward atmosphere and the glances yet avoidance of the girls.

'I swear I'm not a fragile doll! Stop making me feel awkward damn it' was all Alex could scream in his head.

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"We're sorry for eavesdropping…" Asia gave Alex a pitiful look as the group neared the road towards the resort.

Looking over at Asia, Alex let out a smile. Asia was the first to make her way over to him and 'attempt' to confront him.

"It's all right, not like I planned on keeping it some kind of big secret." Of course Alex wasn't going to say he was talking about his old life before he came to this world.

Let them misunderstand, the puzzle piece still fits, so not his problem. Just a wee bit awkward with everyone looking at him openly now.

"Everyone thinks we're a burden now, they won't say it but I know they think it. Hard to be free when your leading and saving all of us from our own demons." Asia took a slight satisfaction at the shocked face of Alex after she spoke.

"The hell did that come from?" Alex collected his jaw off the ground and poked Asia on her forehead causing her to giggle.

"Call it a need to save my savior, even from himself. Plus I ain't got no one else, so you're pretty much the only family I have now other then Meyers." Asia let out a sad smile as she nudged Alex's arm.

"You have plenty of people, Sunny, Ava, Cass, Keres and Sarah. We're all your family now." Alex pat Asia on her head as a more genuine smile graced her lips.

"Speaking of…what do you think are my chances of wooing Cass?" A mischievous smile and lewd look appeared on Asia's face as she glanced back at the beautiful red head.

Alex went pale as he stared at Asia dumbfounded, "you and Cass?"

Asia simply smiled before turning and running back towards the others before leaping into Cassidy's arms yelling 'catch me'. To which Cass started to cuss Asia out, yet failing to hide the smile forming on her lips.

This made Alex who had glanced back smile and chuckle, he hoped they made it, they deserved to be happy.

Even if they have feelings for Alex, he'd hope that they'd come to realize that they were more of a brotherly bond then a sexual one.

Alex had long made up his mind, and unrequited love was a dangerous thing, especially if the other party has a gun.

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"What do you think?" Alex turned and handed the binoculars over to Marcus, who then placed the tiny items up to his large head, nearly making Alex laugh out loud at the hilarious scene.

Thankfully Alex managed to stop by nearly biting his tongue off, a close call.

'Note to self, find more mini items for super mutants to use.' With that thought Alex was addressed by Marcus.

"I see only a dozen of the creatures guarding the nest, the others must be inside the building resting or feeding." Marcus pulled his eyes from the large dilapidated presidential villa near the back of the resort.

"What's the plan then?" Alex looked over at Marcus, wanting to know if he had one or if they were going to go with what Alex had planned on doing.

"Hmm, I'll send the Nightkin first, before they reach the building I'll have a few of my kin fire rockets to soften up the opposition. After the Nightkin with flamers engage, I'll have them fall back drawing the creatures out so that we can rain on them with mini guns while you hit the real sneaky ones with your rifle."

Alex nodded in approval at the plan, it was better then his plan of fire…a whole lot of fire. Alex doesn't like snakes.

"Alright, let's start then." Alex pulled his Gobi Mk2 out of his inventory and placed his R91 over his shoulder just in case.

Marcus backed away and began to organize his men as Sarah waltzed up beside Alex.

"Not adverse to working with super mutants?" Alex glanced at Sarah who kept eyeing him.

"Not all of them are savage, knew an intelligent one named Fawks back home, Nice fella." Sarah looked over too Marcus and let out a sigh.

"As long as they have an intelligent leader, the super mutants can be pretty docile." Sarah put her attention back on Alex and smiled.

"Hope this town of yours can bridge the gap between our kind." Sarah turned around and walked away.

Alex wanted to say something, but he knew her history and how hard she was trying…she still seemed uncomfortable around Marcus and his kin, but at least she didn't blame them for her friends death.

Turning his attention back towards the large resort villa, Alex zeroed his rifle. Then he poured a few rounds out on a cloth beside himself for quick load chamber fire.

After a short ten minutes of him preparing he suddenly spotted about twenty Nightkin slowly making their way down the mountain.

When they reached about 400 meters they stopped before one raised its hand, with this action the sound of nearly 15 rockets screamed through the air.

*BOOOOOM*

All the rockets hit nearly the same time, spread out in a 100 meter radius. The shockwave caused most of the villas still intact windows to shatter as the left half of the villa suddenly collapsed.

Small and large bits of dirt, rocks and nightstalkers flew in random directions, raining down on the resort.

The grand display made Alex let out a short soft whistle, he was somewhat of an explosive enthusiast himself you know.

However there's no rest for the wicked, and as soon as the fire ball dissipated a massive hissing sound could be heard.

Alex quickly shouldered his rifle and steadied his breathing as he aimed at the villa in anticipation.

One, five, twenty, fifty, one hundred, a whole fuck load, and then some came rushing out of every opening in the villa.

Half of the nightstalkers began to shiver and disappear in the light, it was an unerring sight that made Alex's skin crawl.

Suddenly four of the Nightkin holding heavy flamers let loose, spitting molten hot flames into the massive horde of nightstalkers.

The Nightkin began to slowly back up as the other 16 used large military super sledge hammers and bumper swords to keep the stalkers off of them.

After kiting them back far enough, a whirling sound began to rise over the hills. Almost like a fleet of virtibirds where swooping down from the mountain peaks.

Looking further down the hillside In amazement, Alex could see more then fifty super mutants wielding 5mm personal carried Vulcan miniguns.

Lined up in neat rows of five evenly spaced to avoid friendly fire, all the miniguns began to come alive before abruptly beginning to sing the end of the nightstalkers.

A wall of lead descended upon the nightstalkers, the mid and back of the horde were being slaughtered as the front tried to push against the flames and melee weapons of the Nightkin.

It was at this moment a slight shimmer in some dead grass caught Alex's attention, no more then 100 feet to the side of the furthest left Nightkin with a flamethrower.

Some snow had stuck to a stalker that was inching closer towards the Nightkin, Alex moved his rifle and took aim.

Watching as the dead grass slowly flattened out, Alex aimed a few inches above the grass as it was pressed down, moving his finger he gently squeezed the trigger and felt the kick of his rifle.

A mere second later a puff of red/browm mist sprayed the grass as a nightstalker appeared. It quickly let out a yip as it bit at its wounded hind leg.

Unfortunately for the stalker, this caused a Nightkin to notice it, who then gave a slap to the shoulder of his kin holding the flamer and pointed at the creature, the Nightkin proceeded too turn and sprayed the direction of the wounded beast.

The most shocking part was that as the flames engulfed the dry grass nearly 15 other stalkers Alex never noticed began to screech in agony as the flames attached to them, running out of the grass on fire and towards the Nightkin who showed no mercy as they brought their weapons down on the creatures, putting them out of their misery.

After that display, Alex began to religiously check every area around the Nightkin to insure no stalker was hiding in wait.

Occasionally he took a pot shot at the horde when one of the Nightkin seemed overwhelmed, thankfully it didn't seem like it mattered as the battle began to slow down.

Most of the horde had been decimated, those still alive were quickly falling to the miniguns and flames, those still brave were quickly dispatched by a well placed strike from a supersledge or bumper sword.

The smell of cooked meat and smoke began to fill everyone's nostrils as the flames began to die out, revealing piles of charred nightstalkers.

A few cowardly stalkers ran for the hills in the opposite direction, most likely heading for the caves on the mountain to hide.

Alex made a note to wipe them out and take a few samples that would be needed in the future to cure the Nightkin of their schizophrenia brought on by the stealth boys.

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*RUMBLE*

"Huh?"

A loud rumbling sound brought Alex out of his thoughts as he looked through his scope at the villa.

The collapsed half began to suddenly shift and crumble further before…

*SCRRRREEEEE*

"Oh fuck"

A massive Nightstalker suddenly bust out of the wreckage, nearly 17 feet from its shoulder in height and twice as long.

It's massive jaw opened wide as it let out a menacing hiss, hatful eyes narrowing as it took in the sight of its nest's destruction.

Alex took a look at his Gobi Mk2 before clicking his tongue and a blue flash revealed his Anti-material rifle and three stimpaks.

Quickly loading five .50 cal blue and black tipped rounds in the magazine, Alex quickly chambered a round and took aim.

*BANG*

Alex fired but nearly cursed as the round went high and to the right, reaching up a few clicks were heard at Alex fixed his rifles zeroing.

Looking back through the scope, Alex's breath hitched as the Nightstalker den mothers slit pupils were gazing at him menacingly.

*HISSSS*

Letting out a blood curdling hiss that was so loud it could probably be heard in red rock canyon, the Den mother lift herself up from the debris revealing a sight that made Alex shudder.

Her belly was bulging, the thin skin nearly see through, revealing hundreds of fist sized eggs sloshing about.

Under her massive body laid the broken bodies of dozens of people, ripped apart and rotting in a near half foot deep puddle of congealed blood.

Nightstalker eggs could be seen placed in the mass of gore, eager to hatch and consume the pile of flesh.

In the corner laid dozens of creates smashed open revealing hundreds of chewed up Robco Stealthboys Mk2.

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Thankfully Alex's shot managed to distract the Den mother long enough for the Nightkin to book it out of her immediate vicinity.

Leaving the seething monstrosity to gaze at the side of the mountain Alex and the others were residing on, letting out a deafening hiss the beast took a step out of her nest.

Taking a sniff of all her dead, the den mother let out a howling hiss laced with anger and sorrow before she began too run towards the mountain everyone was on.

She ignored the minigun fire and kept pace, aiming to kill the one who first fired on her.

The same one who at this moment fired again, his round hitting the creature in her right eye making her tumble and fall as she hissed and howled in pain at her now destroyed eyeball.

Pulling back the bolt, Alex chambered another round and took aim, hopefully destroying the beasts sight would slow it down enough to give them time to properly kill it.

However at this moment, Alex felt a large hand on his shoulder.

Looking back he saw Marcus and what he was carrying, an item that made him gawk in fright and wonder.

"Is… is that a Fatman?" Alex knew it was most definitely a Fatman, he just asked do to his brains inability to register the weapon out of awe.

It's the second one he's seen, the first was unfortunately destroyed by Keres at quarry junction.

They were incredibly rare and near legendary weapons, the ammo for them even more so, a fact that the games never shared.

The old world military sent almost all of them across the ocean to use against the Chinese, so having one was a game changer.

Marcus simply chuckled as he loaded the catapult mechanism with a mini-nuke.

"Got this baby back in the masters army, first time I'm going to get to use it to be honest, let's hope for the best shall we?" The super mutant laughed with joy as his eyes shined in anticipation.

At this point the den mother had regained her sanity and shook her head, fighting the pain in her eye.

However, she quizzically looked towards a mountain as a whistling sound caught her attention.

A small pebble like item flew towards her that nearly caused her to sneer in dissatisfaction, she took a few steps as the now ball like object got closer and closer.

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*PING*

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*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

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Alex watched in awe as the mini-nuke soared in a beautiful arch towards the den mother, however soon came to his senses and hit the dirt as the early morning sky seemed to darken, a bright flash so illuminating that it dimmed the rising sun.

In an instant it felt like Alex had been tossed in an oven after running a marathon wearing a snowsuit, the heat on his skin making him grit his teeth.

All sound came to a stop for almost two seconds, not even his own heartbeat could be heard before a massive shockwave and deafening boom shook the mountain causing multiple avalanches.

The rumbling of the earth causing dust to rise before whipping it around in scorching winds.

Alex for a split second could see the bones and veins in his arms like his skin was made of clear glass, after he was sure he was still alive he took a peek a boo and nearly came.

This was one of them moments, like the first time you hold your newborn child, or first time your father told you he was proud…

The sight of a darkened sky and large kilometer tall mushroom cloud roaring high above the mountain tops would be burned into Alex's soul for years to come.

"Beautiful." The only word that could escape his lips as he looked up at such a magnificent sight.

"I am become death, destroyer of worlds." Marcus spoke out while gently putting the Fatman down.

A shiver ran down Alex's spine as he realized this was just a 'Mini' nuke. He couldn't have fathomed October the 23rd 2077, how anyone survived that day would always be a mystery to him.

Both sat and watched the glowing mushroom cloud in awe, unaware that it would be just the beginning of the rise of WinterHaven, the beginning of the end for the wasteland.

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☢️Fallout: NUCLEAR WINTER☢️

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(Author Thoughts)

Introduction chapters are done! Now begins the kingdom building, exploration, and story arcs!

The first arc will be 'A Better Wasteland!'

This sees Alex traveling the Mojave recruiting unique individuals and exploring unique locations to gain valuable tech as Marcus and the girls lay the foundations of WinterHaven.

Alex will use all his wit and resources to help guide his and Marcus's new settlement to the top of the Mojave.

Will also see to the closing of many already introduced character arcs such as Cass, Asia, Ava, Cassandra, Kendra, Caroline and Carla Boones.

Oh yeah and the return of Boone who will be a more permanent traveling companion until his wife gives birth.

That's all I'm willing to spoil, so stay tuned because it's going to get way, way more interesting from this point on!

- Love Shadow, the second most handsom son according to my mother.

Ps. This chapter was 4072 words long not counting this sentence… Bye!