New Perks

"We train" Aaron looked at me "The Wasteland is a dangerous place, and if you want to live then you need to be able to look after yourself"

"What kind of training" I asked a little curious?

"The first thing I will teach you is how to sneak. On our way here if I had not already cleared the area before hand we would have been ambushed at least a dozen times. How to properly sneak is one of if not the most important skill I can teach you."

"Sneaking is?"

"Yes, you can use it to hide from an enemy you don't want to fight or you can use it to get close to them and slight their throat before they ever have a chance to fight back. Knowing how to be stealthy can and will save your life."

"Ok when you put it like that sneaking is pretty good are you going to teach me anything else?"

"Of course over the next 10 years I am going to push you to your physical and mental limits, I will teach you everything I know and then some. Aside from sneaking you will also learn how to use Guns, Lockpicking, Hacking, How to identify edible Food and drinking Water, Crafting, Chemistry, and Hand to Hand Combat."

"That's a lot" I thought aloud.

"Yes it is that's why starting tomorrow you will be training from sunrise to sunset tonight however you need to rest. Go sit down and I will bring you some food."

"Ok."

I walked into the office before sitting down at what used to be the managers desk. With nothing else to do started going through its drawers. The first one I tried was locked but, all of the others opened just fine.

Most of them were filled with nothing but, rotted paper and office tools. The last on I opened though held something I never expected. It was my Pipboy and that strange glowing syringe. I carefully picked up the syringe it was far heavier than expected like it was filled with mercury.

Looking at it more carefully I noticed that it had the Vault Tec logo on it along with the 122 I was so familiar with. I gripped it so hard my knuckles were turning white. It was this syringe, all for this stupid thing my family had to sacrifice themselves.

I wondered how Aaron got it I didn't remember Dante giving it to him. Maybe it teleported with us like it did when they stole it, or maybe he did hand it to Aaron and I just didn't notice it given how unstable I was at the time. That didn't matter though

While looking at it I had an impulse to smash it on the ground but, I held myself back. After all my family sacrificed themselves for it. After thinking about it for a moment I slowly took off the clear plastic cap that protected the hypodermic needle from the elements.

I wondered how Aaron got it I didn't remember Dante giving it to him. Maybe it teleported with us like it did when they stole it, or maybe he did hand it to Aaron and I just didn't notice it given how unstable I was at the time. That didn't matter though

The need sparkled slightly in the light giving off an evil feeling. I held my thumb on the plunger and was ready to stab it into my arm.

"What are you doing" Aaron grabbed my arm.

"Why are you stopping me from doing this is what my Mom and Dante traded their lives for. What would I do with it besides use it" I yelled!

"I just want to make sure you fully understand the consequences of what you are about to do. If you inject yourself with that Vault 122 will hunt you down for the rest of your life" Aaron explained as he let go of my hand.

"Won't I die if I don't take this" I asked confused?

"You will but, as the first subject to actually survive the Institutes testing we have no concrete information about what will happen to you. Make no mistake though one day your bosy will store up too much energy and it will kill you. We just don't know when It could be today, next week, or even as long as half a century before it happens."

"So what even if I "might" be able to life most of my life without this it's only might besides why would I be afraid to take the antidote just because of a single Vault, It's not like they control the world."

"No they don't control the world but, that doesn't mean that you can look down on them. Vault 122 isn't just a normal Vault."

"What do you mean it's not a normal Vault?"

"You wouldn't know much about it since you never really left the house except to study with Dante but, Vault 122 is far more terrifying than you imagine.

Vault 122 was a special Vault built in conjunction with the U.S. government and several of the country's great academic organizations including the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, or CIT which is the Institutes precursor. It was built to house all of humanities greatest minds and to store all the worlds knowledge similar to the Global Seed Vault in Norway.

Which was created to store seeds of all the import plants in the world in case a disaster struck and there was a need to regrow the worlds food supply.

After the bombs fell they didn't just sit and rest waiting for the world to get better they took a more proactive approach. For the last two centuries Vault 122 has never stopped advancing and studying trying to find a way to fix the world and to save humanity."

"Well if they're so great why haven't they done anything to actually help anyone in the past 200 years" I asked confused.

"No one knows they never try to expand their territory or start conflicts with other powers, all they do is sit there I their Vault and continue researching like the rest of the world doesn't even exist.

Don't take that as them being weak though. Once 50 years ago the Enclave had apparently found records show what 122 was used for and where it was so they sent an entire army division there to seize it."

"What happened?"

"No one knows the whole army just seemed to have disappeared in one night. After that no one not the Brotherhood, the Enclave, or even the Institute dared to have any ideas about 122. So after knowing all that do you still want to use that syringe?"

I looked down at my hand and thought about what it would be like being enemies with such a frightening place. I almost gave it back to Aaron but, then I remembered my Mom and how she looked at me just before I teleported away.

I couldn't do it I can't just throw away my families years of effort just because I was a little afraid. Gripping the syringe I jabbed it into my thigh a pushed the plunger. I could feel it pumping into my leg.

For a moment It seemed like nothing happened when a crippling pain came out of nowhere. It was like every part of my body was being pierced with a red hot needle. A whaled in pain as Aaron came over to me. I thought he was going to help me but he only shoved a dirty cloth into my mouth to silence my screaming.

I looked at him with hate in my eyes.

"Don't look at me like that you made your choice and now you have to live with it good luck" he replied while walking from the room and closing the door.

The pain seemed to last for hours or maybe it was only a couple of minutes I honestly couldn't tell. Not long after though I lapsed into sweet unconsciousness once again.

When I came to I found that I was lying in the old couch in the corner of the office. I could see Aaron putting together what look to be some kind of revolver.

"You must really like passing out" he commented.

"How long was I out this time" I asked while holding my head trying to recover from the massive headache I had.

"14 hours this time you're lucky that I'm around to keep you hydrated or else you would have long died by now Aaron replied.

That's when I remembered that I hadn't eaten or drank for well over 3 days. I nearly doubled over in hunger.

"There's food over there" he said pointing to a small table beside the couch.

I looked over and there was indeed a large piece of meat placed on a small yellow plate. I grabbed the plate and prepared to dig in when I wondered.

"What kind of meat is this" I asked slightly afraid of the answer?

"Do you really want to know" Aaron raised his eyebrow?

"Yes" I answered unsure of myself.

"It's dog meat" he curtly responded.

"Do you mean its dog meat or is it Dogmeat dog meat?"

"What" he looked at me like an idiot?

"N-never mind" I said a little embarrassed about my stupid question.

Looking back at the meat I tentatively cut off a small piece and put it to my mouth. It didn't smell like anything unusual and it looked fine but, I was still on the fence about eating it. However a powerful growl from my stomach silenced all of my doubts.

After taking a bit and finding out that it wasn't half bad and I managed to scarf the whole thing down.

When I was finished I let out a hearty burp and patted my stomach feeling quite content. That's when I thought about the Syringe what did it do to me? I stood up and started feeling my body, nothing felt different and when I checked my stats they were all the same too. I kept feeling that it had to have done something to me.

Then I had the idea to check the Perk Chart to see if it unlocked anything new for me. It might have given me some new skills and I just didn't get the system prompt since I was knocked out. I opened the Perk Chart and was instantly stunned not because I had any new Perks but, because there was a whole new Perk Tree besides the normal one I was used to.

That's when a new message in the familiar green color popped up in front of me.

______________________________

Congratulations

Due to a mutation caused by a modified FEV virus you have become a Psyker(1) and unlock your minds latent potential. As a result you now have access to tons of new Perks and abilities.

______________________________

It was a short message but, a shocking one none the less. I could see Dozens of new perks on my Perk Chart. They weren't neatly aligned from top to bottom like the normal ones. These ones were scattered all over the place and connected to each other by dozens of crossing lines. They actually looked a lot the Skill Trees from Skyrim.

One thing that made me a little sad though was that I still hadn't leveled up that feeling went away quickly though when I saw all of the crazy things the new Perks could do.

There were tons of new abilities Like Telekinesis, Mind Control, becoming an Empath, and all kinds of elemental powers. One other interesting thing I noticed was that the new perks weren't assigned to any of the SPECIAL stats and were only dependant on my level

It was so much new information to take in and it completely ruined my plans on how to level up. I had absolutely no idea how I was going to choose which Perks to use now.

(1). Psyker is the name for people with psychic powers in the Fallout world.