Ch22. WinterHaven (pt1)

Tapping his fingers on the table as Marcus sat beside him, Alex couldn't look the two women in the eyes.

Finding his sight wandering all around the room but refusing to land on the two.

"I do apologize for my friends behavior, my names Marcus. May I know yours?" Marcus asked nicely, amused at the fact this girl has stumped Alex.

"My names Katie Oliver and this lady beside me is Caroline. We were sent this way to keep an eye on both Alex and this town, but I got bored and couldn't hold back any longer." Katie smiled as she stared at Alex.

His reactions were always so cute, she couldn't understand why everyone thought of him as so scary when he was like a little kitten in her hands.

"I-Ge-get that, but why did you bring her?" Alex pointed shakily at Caroline, seems the emotions and memories of the body were still effecting him.

That's great, two lifetimes of shit to deal with.

Caroline lowered her head at being pointed out, unsure of how to answer.

A fact she was spared from as Katie chuckled while pulling a document out and sliding it across the table, confusing Caroline because where was she keeping that?

Alex glared at the paper before picking it up to read it, his eyes darting from line to line as he absorbed the info it held.

His eyes grew bloodshot as his teeth clenched, after he finished he lowered the paper with a defeated look.

"Seems I owe you an apology Carol…" Alex whispered as his mind wrapped around the info he learned, wanting nothing more then to bring back the former Alex to beat his ass for hiding his background.

One of the main reasons that fat fuck even acted, great…another thing to weigh down the current Alex.

Seriously, this seemed like a bad anime plot… like some god was sitting on a cloud laughing at his misery.

"Although I am particularly responsible for what happened, the fact that you never told me the truth and defended that bastard, even if it was for me…was still a betrayal." Alex sighed as an awkward silence filled the room.

Marcus began to think maybe he should have went to the quarry instead…this was becoming super uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry…" Caroline couldn't look away from Alex…forcing herself to look at the hurt on his face.

"Don't be, apologies are words that are forgotten by time. I don't hate you anymore, but I don't love you anymore either." Getting up from the table, Alex walked out of the room.

"I'm going to go to the armory to prepare, Katie…tag along?" Alex asked as he reached his front door.

"Marcus, can you show Caroline back to the town hall while I have a word with my sister?" Alex asked out hearing a confirmation grunt from the Meta human.

Marcus looked at the downtrodden young woman who's shoulders had slumped, her eyes watery as the one name Katie left with Alex….wait? Did he say sister?

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"Wow baby brother, that was cold hearted..even for you!" Katie jabbed Alex on his shoulder as a smile betrayed her words.

Looking at the bubbly sadistic pixie in black armor, Alex couldn't recall a single memory where she wasn't tormenting him in some way.

"Never thought you could be in the same room as her either? The first time I mentioned to dad I was in love you took a whole squad of valkyries and wanted to kill her for taking what was 'yours'." Alex rolled his eyes at this idiot sister of his.

"Hehe, may have over reacted a wee bit! I admit, but can you blame me? Have you looked in a mirror? No way I'm gonna let some random hussy steal away my baby bro from me!" Katie pumped her fist as she nodded.

Alex let out a chuckle, this sister of his was definitely bipolar! One second happy, the next a raging death machine and then cool as a cucumber….she was terrifying!

"So why are you really here?" Alex looked at Katie who looked to be in her own world.

"Hmmm? Oh! Yeah dad asked me too head up to Foxtrot and keep an eye on you and report back, keep you out of harms way if I could…the usual."

Alex sighed at his family's over protective nature…honestly confused him though.

Like one month his father sends him behind enemy lines, the next he's worried about him starting trouble in his own town?

He felt like there was something someone wasn't telling him…and it bothered him to no end.

"Oh we're here!" Alex shook of his wild imagination and looked up at the reinforced bunker built into the mountain, a small shelter the resort built for its high rollers just in case.

Now it serves as a large warehouse and armory for the town.

Walking up towards the guard post, Alex saw the usual super mutants and former gangers on guard. Meyers men now clad in leather armor with combat armor pieces attached to them.

Even the Metas had some newly forged plate armor covering their vitals, seemed some of the old convicts knew blacksmithing and used those skills to the benefit of the town, taking on apprentices as well to increase their craft's workforce.

A pleasant surprise to both Alex and Marcus, who immediately put them to work increasing the town's defense in any way possible.

"You have quite the fighting force little brother…" Katie admired the mutants who weren't attacking and screaming about meat like the ones who usually roam the wastes.

Alex could only nod and smile, he and Marcus put quite a bit of effort into rebuilding their town, and after a couple months it had made a name for itself.

"Yeah, the first caravans that showed up to trade shot at them out of habit. Now most just keep a wary eye as they trade with us."

Trade was a huge factor for WinterHaven's survival in the early stages.

Now they openly traded with the Crimson Caravan Company and others like it in the Mojave. Usually trading quarried stone, timber, food and bartered items that they got from scavengers.

Top it off with the bustling town center that had over a dozen shops raking in caps from visitors, WinterHaven could now be considered a valuable ally to any faction in the Mojave.

"Can't believe that this resort had so much near perfect tech just sitting around, if the NCR knew then this place would have been a high priority long ago." Katie sighed as a sentry bot mk3 scanned them as they entered the bunker.

Looking at the laser Gatling and missile launch arm turrets that the heavy armored bot carried would dissuade any would be thieves.

"You got that right!" Of course Alex wasn't going to mention that every last robot on the mountain was purchased by him through the federal store, he nearly completely drained all his banked exp to date to by them and so, so much more.

Stepping pass the large vault door that just swung open revealed a large room with hundreds of shelves stacked up to the roof laden with all kinds of pre-war goodies and tech.

Quite a bit was already here from the resort, some from the loot Alex 'liberated' from those who learned the golden lesson of 'fuck around, find out'.

The rest was purchased in 'platoon bundles' meant to equip a squad of pre-war soldiers behind enemy lines with gear.

Each bundle came with a set of combat armor mk1, one AER9 laser rifle, 100 micro fusion cells, 5 stimpaks, and 10 MREs (x15.)

All for only 250 exp, so Alex bought a literal fuck ton and equipped most of his forces with it.

"Um..little bro? You plan on going to war with god or something?" Katie asked as she stared out upon the vast arsenal in the armory…

If only she knew that this was only ONE of two bunkers that were filled.

The second being the old Enclave remnants bunker that Alex had his men crack open, granting them 10 suits of X-02 power armor, 3 sets of Tesla power armor 30 T51b power armors and enough energy ammo and weapons to make the Brotherhood cream their armored panties.

Oh and TWO fully functional vertibirds fully loaded with onboard weapons systems and smart autopilot controls.

It took awhile but thankfully Sarah managed to get everything under control and now if anyone tried to take it back, the bunker would go boom!

"Just being prepared for any unforeseen circumstances sis." Alex walked along the catwalk on the side of the room, after a few seconds coming to a room with a keycard lock.

Alex took out his keycard and swiped it, opening the door revealing his own personal armory filled with the 'good stuff'.

In his pip-boy these weapons were considered legendary due to the fact they had been heavily modified by various parties over the years.

Usually distinguished by their different appearance and 'name' in the pip-boy.

Alex collected most of them without realizing it and now hoarded them like the good little loot slut he was.

"Ouuu, look at all these beautiful babies! Alex~~~" Katie immediately bound around the room poking and picking at every shiny little murder toy she could see.

Sigh*

"You can have ONE!" Alex spoke as Katie's eyes got watery and she began to tremble…

"Okay you can have two, but no more then that!" Alex spoke with finality, yet Katie just trembled more as she raised three fingers.

"Pwease bro…I won't ask for anything else ever again!"

Alex felt his eye twitch at the front put on by this grown ass child he called 'sister'. He wasn't so stupid, she was obviously bullshitting and playing his feelings and he knew it!

"Fine." The will was strong, but the flesh is weak. Alex stood no chance.

"Yay! Your the best!" Katie smiled as she took a deeper look at all the toys that go pop and pew respectfully.

Alex shook his head as he walked over to his personal locker and took out his rifle, ammo, chems and other necessities.

After putting it in his pip-boy storage, he grabbed a few other weapons off the shelves like a 10mm SmG, a 5.56 self loading revolver, his R91 now cleaned up and customized for infiltration.(Infiltrator R91)

After picking up some grenades, ammo and survival gear, Alex turned to his sister who now held approximately 8 different weapons in her hands and arms.

"I couldn't choose and these babies deserve love too." Katie answered with a straight face making Alex sigh, this girl was his bane.

Sure he could say no, but that would lead to violence. Too which he would be on the receiving end. He knew this, she knew this.

"Fine, not like I'd use em anyways." Alex looked at the weapons and his heart bleed.

"Thanks! I love you baby brother! You always spoil me!" Katie smiled and acted like Alex had a choice.

"Still though…you got a lot? You preparing for something big?" Katie narrowed her eyes as Alex chuckled.

"Old man never told you huh?" Alex simply left the room as Katie followed behind him.

"Huh? Tell me what?" Katie asked as the door closed behind her, holding her new weapons as close to her as she could.

"The NCR is gonna lose, The Legion will win the next battle for Hoover dam…" Alex dropped a bomb, even if Katie knew it was bad…how bad could it actually be?

"Why you think that?" Katie asked as they came to the large vault door and left out of it, leaving the bunker.

Alex looked at his sister and smiled, making the girl blush and smile back.

'Time to drop some game knowledge on her I guess'

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Just as Alex was blowing Katie's mind, Ava was sitting at a counter top outside doc Henry's clinic having a chat with his assistant.

"So you and Sarah cleared the mine already?" Calamity asked in her usual raspy voice as Ava sipped on her Nuka cola Quantum.

"Yeah, don't know why he needed those samples though? Sarah seemed happy with it though." Ava spoke nonchalantly to the ghoul girl, contrary to popular belief ghoul's didn't start to smell rotten until after they went feral. They may look like walking corpses but they weren't.

Calamity looked at Ava as she spaced out, getting up and leaving her to her day dreams…

Thanks to WinterHavens policy on equality of race, something Marcus was proud that Alex kept his promise on, the town had a large population of ghouls, super mutants or Metas as the now liked to be called and humans.

At first it was awkward as word spread most came seeking refuge from the harsh wastes, as word spread that the town wasn't a hoax and was really as great as the radio broadcast made it out to be, many flocked to get a piece of the new pie.

After the first month the population had soared to nearly 4,800 people from all walks of life.

Thankfully the resort town had been built with quantity in mind and could easy hold up to 30,000 even after the mini-nuke took out a sizable chunk of buildings.

With those numbers came problems though, first was law and order, which was solved pretty quickly due to the heavily armed metas and Keres.

The second was food, but due to some old blueprints they found a well stocked bunker and Alex also bought some from something called 'The Federal Store'.

That was honestly shocking and put quite a bit into perspective, yet also raised quite a few questions. Especially from Sunny who asked why he hadn't used it to escape from the Legion and save her sister to which Alex replied nonchalantly that he just couldn't.

Then came the spy's. NCR, Legion, The Strip families, other towns and organizations including trade caravans, even the Brotherhood sent someone, according to Alex her name was Veronica.

A nice girl, got along really well with Sarah to the point the two now live together in Sarah's villa.

Made sense considering Sarah's background and that both girls had similar ideals.

Alex even gave Veronica a welcoming gift in the form of a cool displacer glove he called Pushy.

Mumbling on about happy coincidences and saved time as he spent a few days happily walking around stealing glances at the Brotherhood spy…kinda pissed her off.

She wished there was another tacky snow globe for her to throw at him, not to hit him but to break it considering how distraught he was when she broke the damn thing.

Next problem was trade and that was easy enough to fix considering the vast forest that the mountains protected from nuclear Armageddon, also the quarry that they started on one of the old slopes.

The NCR bought most of the stone and timber at a discount thanks to General Oliver and his 'relationship' with Alex.

Cells were built in the quarry to force law breakers to work off their sentences with hard labor, but unlike the NCRCF the prisoners were treated well and often could learn skills if they proved to be actually repetitive. He even paid them 40 percent of what the regular workers made so they had caps to use when their sentences ended rather then resorting to crime once more.

Alex's way of rehabilitating them and making them more loyal to the town rather then making them hate it even more.

All in all over two whole months the town had become quite prosperous, the newest attraction was the best however and had taken the Mojave by storm.

'The Thunderdome' as he called it was an old outdoor Olympic swimming pool surrounded by stands that could seat 5,000 viewers.

Refitted with a caged ceiling and vendors that sold food and drinks, Alex sent word to a place called The Thorn and made a deal to promote each other.

The Thunderdome would only have human, meta and ghouls fight in gladiator style tournaments and keep away from creatures that were The Thorns specialty.

People could bet and so could the fighters on various odds.

Particularly rich high rollers could pay the house to add in risks and rewards as the fight took place. Like non-lethal weapons and handicaps, or even set new rules for the match like Ava's favorite.

Pound for pound was a neat rule that had you exchange blows but if you hit your opponent you couldn't hit them again until you let them hit you. The cost of that rule was 900 caps.

Their were plenty others that changed up the fights and always made them interesting, because of that The Thunderdome became a smashing hit and even the Thorn began to use Alex's idea's which lead to another 'nuisance' for Ava called Red Lucy.

Sigh* Alex was too damn much sometimes…

"Ava?" A sudden voice shook Ava from her thoughts and made her blood run cold.

Suddenly looking up, Ava saw Marcus standing beside an NCR female soldier and her pupils dilated as her blood began to boil.

'The fuck is she doing here!!!'

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(Author Notes)

The next few chapters will be various POVs around the new town as it grows.

It's been two months since Alex told the girls no means no and they cleared the town.

This is when much of the lore will start to really change and I'll start making it my own, including new areas and characters that I've completely built from scratch like the Nightkin Clive who's intelligence is on par with Marcus and came from out east as a vault-tec FEV experiment.

Also there will be drama and some day to day life including stuff outside of WinterHaven that pertains to said town. All in an attempt to flush out the town even more.

Mixed in will be Alex's first true adventure out into the Mojave, the destruction of the Fiends and the recapture of Vault 3… Alex has decided to tackle the vaults first!

Also POV changes across the Mojave that will start plot-lines that Alex will eventually stumble across, most will only take up a chapter or two and most chapters will be small time jumps between quests!

Alex will also be using his pip-boy more and will start to upgrade his body through pre-war FEV enhancing serums(basically they increase his S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat's which will rise above 10…

Anyways I also will be releasing two new auxiliary chapters, one for original lore and character backgrounds to better explain them and one for Q&A and rants.

So if you have questions go there and ask and I'm more likely too answer.

Remember folks, flat is justice! -Shadow❤️