[u][b]Jimmy - Four days later - near I-76 and Brimfield, OH[/b][/u]

As the first rays of dawn came, Jimmy, finally satisfied with his arrangements, settled into the hollowed out log he had found to pass the day. There was a deserted farm nearby that would probably be more comfortable, but the Bosses had driven home to him the point that trying to hide in buildings, especially isolated structures, was a good way to be killed by ferals or Mutants, or trapped by search parties.  

He pulled one of his last three pre-war military ration bars out of his satchel and unwrapped it, then after he tucked the wrapper back in his satchel, slowly began to eat it. They were amazingly still edible, after two centuries, but slightly stale and nearly tasteless. He'd eaten worse, especially in his brief time in The Pitt before he was chosen by the Bosses to be sent to Cleveland to work the port....there is a God after all....but the Brahmin jerky that made up the bulk of the food the Bosses gave him would keep fine and tasted better. 

Suddenly, the branches at the mouth of the log rustled. Jimmy grabbed his pipe revolver and as he leveled the muzzle at the far end of the log, between his spread feet, something small and furry wriggled up to his side, then began furiously purring as it snuggled up to him. Both relieved and annoyed, He let the muzzle droop.

"Damn cat..", Jimmy exclaimed quietly. "You scared the shit out of me!" 

He had found the cat in Akron, or to me more precise, the cat had found him, the only bright spot in what had been turned out to be a huge mistake that had nearly gotten him killed....if he was lucky. The Bosses weren't sure what the situation was in Akron, but some of them were hopeful they had held out. The harsh truth was....they hadn't. The Mutants had taken Akron, and set up there a factory of sorts....turning people they had captured into feral ghouls. Then he got spotted trying to get out of town....if not for the cat and the out of the blue explosion from the area of the "factory", he'd have been killed or worse, gone into one of those cylinders. He picked up the pipe revolver and grimly examined it. He wasn't going into one of those things....he'd blow his own brains out before he allowed that to happen. 

Meanwhile, the grey tabby cat began butting his head up against his cheek, clearly wanting attention. He offered it the last inch of his ration bar. After sniffing it suspiciously for a while, the cat eventually ate it, licking the last traces of it off his fingers, then returned to snuggling up against his side. He settled back, suddenly feeling very sleepy. 

"Pervitin crash", Jimmy sleepily thought to himself. "Bosses warned me what to expect from this shit." The Pervitin was wildly expensive Pre-War Vault-Tec shit that had been scavenged from a Vault somewhere. Sick Vault-Tec fuckers put them in rolls like candy...these days you could feed a family of four a month on what a single roll would sell for. Bosses had given him three. Basically Jet minus the worst of the physical side-effects is how it had been explained to him. Still addictive AF, but at least it doesn't rot your teeth. But what goes up, must come down and after four days he was coming down....which is why he spent most of the previous night finding this spot. After that, Jimmy drifted off to sleep, musing on the irony of the Bosses, of all people, being the primary defenders of mankind from the Mutants....and resolving to get through so he could join them.

After Jimmy drifted off to sleep, the cat stirred then climbed up on Jimmy's chest, sitting facing him, it's legs curled up underneath it. It stretched it's head forward then began licking his cheek for a good ten seconds then stopped, studying Jimmy's face. After a few minutes, Jimmy slipped into a deep sleep. The cat was unfazed as the arcing and crackling of static electricity built up around them, until suddenly, with a loud crack, Jimmy, the cat, and the log were somewhere else. 

[u][b]Institute, Operations Room[/b][/u]

Dr Ayo, looking over the shoulder of the synth at the control panel in the dimly lit red light of the Operations Room,  watched with smug satisfaction as video from a Watcher crow showed the log the subject had concealed himself in relay out in a blast of electricity. Unlike Holdren and his vanity projects...like those absurd gorillas...[i]his[/i] synth projects had [b]practical[/b] applications. Deviant or no, Binet's team had outdone themselves with the synthetic cats. It was totally worth dropping the issue of the synth escapes and writing it off as evidence destroyed in the chaos of Loken and Biggs' temper tantrum. Nathan kept his side of the bargain and escapes plummeted to acceptable levels. That was when he realized Nathan was there to stay and fighting the inevitable was foolish. Without waiting for orders, the synth pushed some buttons and one of his monitors changed to the Main relay, in time to see the unconscious subject be extracted from the log and placed on a stretcher. Before the Gen 2 synths could wheel him away, to Medical, the cat jumped on the stretcher and curled up in the subject's lap. A call came in, Main relay announcing the subject had arrived, Ayo acknowledged curtly and pushed down the cradle, releasing it and dialing a new number. 

"This is Dr Ayo", Justin said when the phone was answered. "Put me in touch with the Director at Nuka World, or the senior Courser there available. Call this number once you have made a connection. That is all." He then hung up and dialed a new number.  

"Alana, this is Justin", Dr Ayo said, "The subject has just been retrieved. Head to Medical and supervise the brain taping. Remember, per the Director he is not to be harmed. Our friends in Pittsburgh will be notified of his retrieval once recording is complete, we don't know how long we'll have to debrief him once he wakes. Thank you."

[u][b]Nuka World - Reflecting Pool[/b][/u]

Nathan, wearing a urban camouflage Minuteman uniform without rank insignia and navy blue combat armor, the standard these days for every Minuteman, stood at the edge of the massive reflecting pool, looking at the burnt out ruins of Fizztop Mountain. The restaurant had been a favorite of Nora's and behind it were multiple convenient make-out spots for the two of them. But that was a past that was now dead and gone, living only in his own memories and the fading photos in the albums Codsworth (bless him) had saved all those years for him. The "Overboss", and the most vicious gang...the 'Disciples' if he recalled correctly...made their last stand. With multiple LMGs, they held off RJ and his men for two hours before they could move up their howitzer battery into range. The guns made short work of the plaster and cinder block "Mountain". The subsequent bayonet charge RJ led personally behind the barrage finished the Disciples themselves off. RJ's report indicated any surviving Disciple was promptly shot ("because they were sick fucks and deserved it" was scrawled in RJ's spidery hand in pencil on the margins of the copy he sent to him personally). The other survivors were put to work repairing the rail lines leading West to Pittsfield then North to Albany, and from there West towards Scranton, and Pittsburgh's rail net. 

As he mused on the vagaries of the past, a sergeant ran up and stopped next to him. 

"Begging the General's pardon", he said after he saluted, "The Colonel sends his regards and requests you join him at the old Nuka-World offices."

"Thank you son", he replied as he returned the salute, "Lead me there."

[u][b]Nuka World - Bradburton's private vault[/b][/u] 

Robert (RJ) MacReady fidgeted in his chair, partly bored and partly fascinated, as he watched the three way conversation unfold in front of him. Ironically, he knew two of them from DC. George was somebody in the Brotherhood, before Sutler wiped them out. He'd come to Lamplight once, nosing about for pre-war tech. As Mayor, he told him to get fucked, nothing personal, but mungos are mungos. Fortunately he didn't push the issue  and left. He'd gotten to know him a little in the years since they came here...he was a OK guy. Their story was sad, they had really tried to help make the Capital Wasteland better, and their reward was to lose everything to that prick Sutler. The woman was a surprise, he remembered Sierra and her crazy museum up North, near that creepy Dunwich Borers place. He and the guys he ran with after he aged out of Lamplight made some caps finding Nuka Cola stuff for her on occasion. Back in those days her teeth were in better shape and her tits perkier, but other than that she's still not bad looking....not that he'd ever say it out loud...Cait would never let him hear the end of it. With that said, she's crazy as a bedbug though. But to make it out of the Capital Wasteland, and survive here with the Raiders for years, she had to have more lives than a cat. The third guy, really a disembodied head, was Thomas-Caleb Bradburton, apparently the guy who invented Nuka Cola back before the War. The story he gave was that...surprise...the Army had screwed him over. Nathan would love this once he learned about it. He knew him well enough to know where he would be...so it shouldn't be long.

Soon enough, as Bradburton and Peabody went round and around, with Bradburton wanting to shut his life support off and Peabody refusing on principle...with interjections from Sierra, who clearly regarded Bradburton with the reverent zeal of a Child of Atom finding a nuke...he hear stirring outside the open Vault door and then Nate poked his head in the room, waved at RJ then turned to George.

"George", he asked, "Could I speak to you for a minute?"

George excused himself, and exited the room. Ten minutes later, he re-entered, followed by Nate. Whatever had been said, George was furious, and doing his best to hide it, though from his body language not at Nate himself it seemed. 

"I apologize, Mr Bradburton", but I must take my leave", he said politely, "General Sullivan, here, will take up where we left off."

"Mr Bradburton?", Nathan said as he grabbed a chair and sat facing him, "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"What?", Bradburton replied, taken completely off guard. He then began to study Nate's face, "Sullivan....wait, I remember you! Memorial Day, 2062...Security caught you behind Mad Mulligan's Minecart Coaster getting fresh with a young woman. Disgraceful! I suspended both your park privileges for a year!"

It was all RJ could do to not laugh. Thankfully, he hadn't been drinking anything at the time. He remembered this story...Nathan had been really drunk when he told him about it at the Third Rail. They got caught making out and got banned for a year. It wasn't the kind of thing he talked about when sober, even with him. The fact Bradburton was still mad about it centuries later was hilarious, though.    

"Well, sir", Nathan said with a chuckle, "In my defense, I did marry her in '63, right before I enlisted in the Army."

"Good", Bradburton replied. "At least you did right by her. But that leads to a question.....you're older, clearly, but if the information on my servers is correct, you are over 250 years old. How have you lived so long?"

"Vault-Tec froze me, cryogenic suspension was Vault 111's Experiment", Nathan said, "Woke up little over ten years ago." 

"Why am I not surprised", Bradburton replied, rolling his eyes, "I should have taken their offer. It would have been better than this. Fucking Pentagon."

"Not by much", Nathan said, I've crawled enough dead Vaults to know they were just as bad. There is but one functioning Vault in Massachusetts, and that was because the Overseer betrayed Vault-Tec. The price I paid to be sitting here in front of you is almost more than I can bear."

"What about me, then?", Bradburton asked, "I'd rather be dead than trapped plugged into this contraption. Your friend George spoke of a group called the Institute that he is a member of, can they help? If you want my cooperation, you can either kill me, or offer me an acceptable way out of this nightmare." 

"There are options available", he slowly replied. He looked at Sierra, who was on the verge of tears, terrified of what he might do to Bradburton. RJ, as expected, was calmly waiting to see what he would do so he could back him up. "RJ, would you take Sierra up to Cappy's Cafe stand her a Quantum or whatever else she might like?     

After several minutes assuring her nobody was killing Bradburton, she finally left with RJ. He pulled a communicator out of his pocket and spoke into it. 

"This is the Director", he said, "put me in contact with Dr Higgs at Vault 75. The matter is urgent. I also need to speak to Miss Cruz at Robco Facility A. Both of them are to be given priority 1 for Relay transit to and from my position once they are ready."

"I'm a soldier and an Administrator, not a scientist, I'm afraid. Dr Higgs will explain to you the science behind what we propose", Nate said to Bradburton, "Miss Cruz is the best technician we have access to, if there is a way to move you to a more suitable location, she will find and implement it."