POV Rio
We settled the mess with Bobbi well enough. I knew Marowski wouldn't act right away, which meant it was time to weaken him while we still could. To do that, I was given intel on a coming chem deal. To obtain more details, I needed to visit Diamond City and locate Henry Cooke. Hancock told me to deal with Cooke, and I was more than happy to do so. One less informant for the Institute would make things better. It also gave me an excuse to go to Diamond City to open up a major trading center. And to see if Kellogg was still living there. I only want to know because we have seen no evidence that he has arrived at Fort Hagen. I know this because we flew over Fort Hagen and I didn't see him with my Magic Eyes.
'Which begs the question of where that man is hiding.'
If Kellogg wasn't in Diamond City, then I would likely have to hire Nick Valentine to track him down or perhaps use Dogmeat instead. Either would be fine with me. It would give me an excuse to interact with Nick. Now, for the trip to Diamond City, it wasn't too bad. Hancock gave me secret routes I could use to avoid most trouble, and beyond that, it was still too cold for most people to do anything. That and most of the city was vacant due to the Horde of the Century, as many are now calling it.
I could have travelled via Vertibird, but that would be risky as we haven't gotten permission from Diamond City to land inside, and flying through the city is dangerous as is. That, and I wanted to clear out some locations for loot while we were travelling. The first stop was the Boston Public Library. I had a quest to return a book. That and this place had the Intelligence Bobblehead and a perk magazine. And also a crap ton of information.
Usually, you would have to fight off a Super Mutant attack, but this time, there were no mutants as they were all called to Trinity Tower by Fist. Not that it would have mattered, as I could easily deal with a couple of dozen disorganized Super Mutants. With no threats, I decided to upgrade the library security as much as I could. I also moved all the books and the like into my inventory as I didn't want them to be lost, stolen, or destroyed. I did return the book, though. It was the only book damaged or otherwise left in the library, but it was returned. I also recorded the late fee for Dasiy just to mess with her.
Once that was done, I activated the Intelligence Bobblehead and the Massachusetts Surgical Journal Issue #13, Finding Your Funny Bone. The magazine increased Limb Damage permanently by 2%. The Intelligence Bobblehead read: "Knowledge may not be the most powerful magic of all, but it's still magical!"
It gave the following perk.
Special Perk: NOT SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE!
You get triple mana from each stat of Intelligence. You now get 1 Mana point per level. You can now spend time analysing a piece of technology or magic and learn how it was made and how to produce it yourself (Time varies by complexity). Your memory is vastly improved.
'Hmm, that is very useful. That should solve the lack of schematics for a lot of things. And the massive increase in Mana is more than welcome. Now I can actually eventually cast teleportation. And getting Mana per level now is great. It means I can eventually cast really high-level spells. Even if there's only one per level, I will take what I can get. Speaking of levels, I should distribute my skill points.'
I had leveled up 5 times in recent times. Most of it was from the massive Crocodile, and completing some quests, as well as the passive income from Delta Squad.
Skills:
Cracking: 100
Barter: 100
Energy Guns: 1
Explosives: 58 ---> 100
Guns: 1
Magic: 100
Medicine: 100
Melee Weapons: 1
Science: 100
Sneak: 100
Survival: 100
Unarmed: 16 ---> 49
With the Explosives skill maxed out, I put the points into Unarmed. I was right that it would teach me martial arts and CQC. I was far from a master, but that was fine. As for Explosives, I was more than capable of doing just about anything with explosives. I could even create a high-yield Nuclear Bomb if I wanted to. I could also tell the signs or the optimal placement for bombs and bomb traps. I wasn't fully sure when this would come in handy, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have more skills. Also, with Explosives maxed out, I only had 4 unmaxed skills left. From my calculations, I only had 22 more levels before I maxed all of them. Assuming I didn't get more skill Bobbleheads.
As for the Perk Points, I put two into Archmage Legacy to max it out. The increase to Mana regen was useful, but I wasn't sure by how much, as I haven't been in a situation where I had to drain all my Mana in rapid succession. The Temporal Seal, on the other hand, was a great life-saving trump card. Mind you, I hoped I would never have to use it, but it was great to have it when it was needed.
The remaining Perk Points went into a perk called Titan's Mercy, which required me to reach level 50 before it even appeared, along with other perks.
Titan's Mercy
Your rage is a storm barely contained. When unleashed, you become an unstoppable force, a ferocious guardian.
Rank 1: Taking damage builds Rage (up to 100%). At full Rage, melee attacks deal +200% damage. (Can be built with natural feeling of anger and rage)
Rank 2 (Level 50): Unlock Berserk Form: consume all Rage to transform into a monstrous state, increasing health, melee damage massively, and doubling Strength. (Lasts until rage fades)
Rank 3 (Level 55): While transformed, you regenerate health and become immune to stagger. (X)
Rank 4 (Level 60): Once per day, activate Infinite Rage: transform for 30 seconds. Deal splash damage on punches and kicks, immune to bullets/projectiles, and Strength is quadrupled.
I chose this perk as it filled my less-than-great melee options. It also gave me the option to use a second form, which is always nice. I did test the perk a little bit. Building Rage isn't too hard per se, but using damage is not easy. Luckily, the pain from damage increases rage much quicker. As for building it mentally, it is actually not too difficult if I have some time to focus on thoughts that make me furious. Luckily, there are a few things I have seen that cause rage in me.
Now, when I first used Berserk Form, it was something. I decided the perfect enemy to test it out on was the Super Mutants hiding in Trinity Tower. So I tried taking a little damage first, but we killed the Super Mutant guards on the ground floor too quickly. So I decided to think about things that made me mad. So I thought about a particular case of injustice I saw in my past life, where I was accused of treason. And my friend betrayed me.
Rumble
Veins pop on my head, and my form starts to increase in size. My armor enters my inventory, and blood rushes to my eyes, making them appear red. I fall to all fours, and my clothing almost tears apart, but luckily remains. Then I throw my head back and scream.
ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!
The roar is so loud it shakes the entire tower, and it can be heard throughout most of Boston. If Super Mutants could crap themselves, their britches would be soiled right now. But I quickly noticed a slight downside to this form. I had to constantly fight down my rage to not consume me, but I also could let it go away completely, or else I would leave the form. And the size, I was too big for the elevator. But both were solved the same way, by climbing the building to kill every Super Mutant I could find.
POV Fist
After the loud sound, I started to hear something else odd. It sounded like metal getting crushed, and a faint rumbling was felt.
"Hmm, what was that?" I ask aloud.
Distant Banging
"Hmm, Brothers, we have a guest. They kill the weakest of us. Now show them the strength of Super Mutants. If you cannot kill one puny human, you are less than nothing," I scream over the metal voice thingy.
My confidence starts to fade as I hear screams of terror... But not from the puny human, but rather my brothers. Then the building starts to shake more and more, and I keep hearing the yell of some creature.
"Did human bring monster with him? Hah, that only shows how weak they are. Super Mutant, no need monster to kill," I say with confidence.
Rumble
The ground shaking doesn't stop and only gets louder. And I hear fewer and fewer screams of my Brothers. Decide to look over the side of the building at the sounds from below, and what I see makes me look twice.
"What? Little Horse is moving? But Horse is toy? Toy can't move," I say while scratching my head.
The thing climbing the tower breaks through a wall, and I hear the screams of my Brothers. I even see one fly.
"Huh? Brother fly far..." comments another Brother.
"Hmm? Brothers Little Horse Toy is attacking us! We now go crush it, then eat it!" I scream.
"Huh? But can toy be eaten?" Asks Dumb-Dumb.
"Hah, that is why we call you Dumb-Dumb, you ask stupid questions! We eat Horse! We Super Mutants! We Are Unstoppable!" yells another Brother.
We all start running towards the sounds of fighting.
POV Rio
I smash the head of another Super Mutant into a paste, but I feel my rage get triggered again by the annoying sounds of screaming brutes. Then they shoot me, which makes me angrier.
"RAAAAARRRGH!!!!" I scream back at them and lunge at them.
I identify the leader because he has the minigun that annoys me the most. Over a dozen Super Mutants get in my way, but I just smack them away. More than half are launched from the tower to their deaths. The other half gets smashed into walls or furniture. Fist, the leader never stops firing even after I grab the minigun and go to rip it from their grip. They surprisingly let me take it. I find out why as they then charge at me with their fists. I grab his arm and then give him the Loki treatment.
SMASH x 8
I smash him from left to right over and over again until he stops moving. I would have stopped there, but then more Mutants came rising into the room. So I got much angrier and decided to end this now.
"UNITED STATES OF SMASH!" I scream as I hit a Super Mutant with all the remaining energy I have.
BOOOOOOOM
The entire side of the tower I hit shattered and collapsed, killing everyone caught in the blast. Including me. But that was fine, as I just shattered into crystal and ran away. Luckily, even while I was enraged, I made sure to aim for the part of the building that didn't have the hostages. But with all the obstacles dealt with, I could walk to the prisoners.
As I get up there, I do note one strange thing.
'Where is Strong?'
The cage only had Rex Goodman, a Bobblehead, and a radio. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to get my answer from Rex. The answer was a bit disappointing. Strong was thrown off the building several weeks ago. It was used as a game to attract the Super Mutants from the rest of Boston or as a morale booster; either way, I wasn't surprised. Fist wasn't going to keep a Mutant like Strong around wasting resources. Rex at least brought in more humans.
I did take the Melee Weapons Bobblehead and activated it. It read: Another adventure awaits...
It increased Critical Melee Weapons Damage by 25% as well as increasing the Melee Weapons skill by 15 points. After that, I helped Rex out of Trinity Tower. There was only one slight hiccup. The tower had no way up or down anymore. In fact, the building was likely to collapse very soon. So I had to princess carry him. Turns out he is scared of heights. And he was going to try to recite poetry to me to calm himself. I thought it would have been really bad, but to be fair to Rex, he was a great actor; even in such a situation where he was exhausted and scared out of his wits, he recited poetry with flair.
Once we were away from Trinity and I was sure my companions were also away, we started to leave the area completely. It seemed we had perfect timing as Trinity Tower collapsed only a few short minutes later, sending a cloud of smoke through several blocks of Boston. As well as likely killing any Super Mutants I missed or anyone unlucky enough to be near it when it collapsed.
Rex thanked me and promised me a reward. I asked if I could buy his radio station and give them employment for my new radio station. They would have better facilities and reach more people while being safer. When he heard it, he was excited but said he couldn't agree without the approval of the others. We decided to meet each other in 3 weeks at the WRVR broadcast station. We then went our separate ways. I was a little worried he wouldn't get back safely, but Rex assured me he would be fine. I just left him with plenty of supplies and hoped he made it back.
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Author's Note:
Not sure if anyone will get the reference in the title, but oh well. Just so you are aware, yes, Rio can control the transformation; it just makes him angrier and uses that to fuel his strength. The United States of Smash was done by channeling the anger from the transformation and amplifying it with Mana. Rio did this somewhat subconsciously. This form is not like Hulk, where he gets stronger the angrier he gets, nor does Rio lose intelligence or his mind while transformed. Until next time, Ciao.