POV Rio
After chatting with Cait, time froze again, but this time, I got a reward. Or rather, Cait and I got a reward. I was quite surprised as I wasn't expecting anything. My reward was the Trigger Rush Perk. Cait's had 10 additional SPECIAL Points that can be distributed. Cait couldn't distribute them herself, so I would have to do it for her, but I could just ask her what she wants.
"Huh? SPECIAL? Like those old Vit-o-matic Vigor Testers?" Cait asks.
"Exactly. You have 10 additional points you can distribute, and I wanted to know where you want them," I ask.
"What are my stats now?" asks Cait.
"8 Strength, 10 Perception, 10 Endurance, 6 Charisma, 7 Intelligence, 10 Agility, 7 Luck. Which I would like to note is all really good for most humans," I respond.
I also found it interesting that with this additional SPECIAL point, she would have the maximum you could usually gain while playing through Fallout New Vegas, 61.
"Can I go above 10?" Cait asks.
"Hmm, nope. 10 is the max," I reply.
"What do you suggest?" Cait asks.
"Hmm, max out Intelligence, Strength, and Luck. Charisma is useful, but nothing insanely useful for you. And just so you know, 10 is considered peak human in not a bit superhuman," I reply.
"Then let's do that. I don't see a need for Charisma anyway. But I guess I want to know, does SPECIAL even affect anything?" Cait asks.
"Yes, absolutely yes. For instance, an Intelligence of 10 makes you a Genius and will make learning magic or new things in general massively easier. A 10 in Strength makes all the melee attacks you do do far more damage. It also means you can perform things you couldn't do before. Like tearing open a door or lifting heavy debris. The other stats give relevant buffs to those actions. Like if you maxed out Charisma, then you would know how best to convince others, how to lie, sweet-talk, flirt, or whatever else you want to do socially. It has almost no combat applications, but the others do," I reply.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. So would that mean I will become an egghead?" Cait asks.
"Hahaha, no, no. Nothing like that. You will have the stats, but it doesn't mean you will suddenly love learning, or science, or even have knowledge on those subjects. It just means you have a more efficient brain and have much greater potential to learn," I reply.
Cait nods and tells me to do it. I distribute the points, and after I am done, her SPECIAL is as follows: 10 Strength, 10 Perception, 10 Endurance, 8 Charisma, 10 Intelligence, 10 Agility, 10 Luck. A near-perfect stat sheet. Cait didn't feel anything too insane. At most, she felt like she was a bit stronger and felt like her thoughts were a bit clearer than before. After distributing the points, we started to loot the Vault completely. There wasn't much that we didn't already have. I fixed the Power Armor so someone could wear it, and we cleaned out the corpses. I even brought a group of Deathclaws to take all the dead bodies so the meat wouldn't be wasted.
The loot we found was mostly more ammo and guns. We did get even more Chems, but I knew that they would only be added to the massive amount of Chems I was slowly selling off to the Settlement System Stores. Honestly, we had more than enough guns and ammo to arm an army of over 30k, but I guess having more stocked was a good idea. And I didn't even have to worry about running out of space, as I could transfer everything we picked up to a Settlement Inventory. I didn't send the Medical Supplies away as I intended to use them.
I had set up a treatment room near the Detox Room where I had everything I would need to keep the summon alive. I had everyone wait at the Vault Door entrance on the surface in case things went bad and I needed to make a quick escape from the Vault. I wasn't worried about getting sick as I was immune to just about everything illness-wise wise and further, the summon was a Low-Threat Summon, which wouldn't make sense if they carried something that could infect me or kill me. As for my plan. I would use magic wherever possible to heal them, and if I ran out of Mana, that was fine, as I could massively increase mana regen by standing still. Thankfully, standing still just referred to walking, so I could move any other muscle as long as I wasn't walking, running, jogging, etc. So while I regened Mana, I would use my hands and the medical equipment to help stabilize the patient.
I took a deep breath double double-checked the items I needed were either in my inventory or nearby, and then pulled out the Low-Threat Summon Ticket. All I had to do was tear it to activate it. I did just that, and with a burst of flames, it vanished. Seconds later, a person appeared in front of me. It was a woman with hardly any clothes on. She was unconscious and, from what I could tell, barely alive. I picked her up with my Telekinesis and put her on the medical stretcher. Then I started to diagnose her.
'High Fever, Lungs severely damaged, massive internal bleeding, damage to the face and throat, and wait... what is up with her skin? Are those... parasites? Well, this is going to be tricky.'
POV Patient
I was in a haze. I could barely understand what was happening. I remember failing. The parasite had mutated and triggered early. I knew I was dying and wouldn't last much longer. But that was when I noticed something odd.
'Where is that light coming from?'
I could see a calming light, and I felt lighter than air. I tried to open my eyes, but everything was blurry. I thought I saw someone over me, but they were... blue. But before I could think more, I succumbed to darkness again.
Several Hours Later...
I awake to the sound of a loud sigh.
"Whew, finally got her stabilized. God, wherever those parasites came from, I don't want to visit. Hmm, now that I think about it, they seem familiar," says a male voice.
I pretend to be asleep and see if they say anything further.
"You can stop pretending. I know you're awake," says the male voice.
I wait for a few seconds before finally opening my eyes. I looked down to see I was covered. I panicked for a second, but then I realized something odd. I wasn't suffocating. I also felt strangely great.
'Wait, the parasites!"
I looked at the voice, but I froze seconds after that. What sat in front of me in a doctor's scrubs was the most bizarre creature I had never seen before. It had an equine face with a horn on its forehead, and it was a dark blue with a black mane.
"Yeah, I know I am quite the strange sight, but didn't anyone tell you it's rude to stare. And if you are worried about being contagious, don't be. It wasn't easy, but I got rid of that nasty parasite that was eating your lungs. The damage to your face will take time to heal. I don't have a spell for fractures or hair regrowth. Apparently, fixing hair with magic isn't well studied. I am not sure what happened to you, but from my scans, you took some heavy blows to your head and your body started to... cannibalize itself to fend off the hostile parasites. As for the neutral parasites, I had to get rid of most of them. The skin ones were particularly nasty. That's why I had to bandage you. Restoring skin via magic is intensive and drains a lot of Mana and needs to be done in batches to avoid your body draining itself dry or having a rejection," says the male, or at least what I assumed was a male.
I hesitate to speak, so I decide to use sign language. I rarely used it.
"Who are you? Where are we?" I ask.
"Sign language, huh? Lucky for you, I know it. I am Rio. We are currently in Vault 95 in the Commonwealth in the former United States of America. The year is 2287, and the world destroyed itself via nuclear war 200 years ago," Rio says.
I freeze and process what he is suggesting. If what he said is true, then I have traveled 300 years into the future. I wasn't even sure if what he said was true, but then again, I wasn't sure how else I could explain his existence.
'Maybe he is an escaped lab experiment, and he found me. But then why is he trying to make me think it is 2287? Is he perhaps crazy?'
I look over him, and from what I can tell, he doesn't seem crazy or delusional. I was also fairly sure he was the one who rescued me.
"You keep saying magic, what do you mean?" I ask.
"Magic is the use of spells to do things. It can be offensive, elemental, illusory, runic, and many other types. I used many healing spells to save you," Rio says while showing examples of each spell with his horn.
I was even more shocked by what he just did, as it was really hard for me to find a reason why it might be fake or some sort of advanced technology. I wasn't the most knowledgeable person, but I was confident that I had great eyesight and could spot deception quite well. I looked around to see if I recognized the construction, but noticed that it was also foreign.
"Why did you save me?" I ask.
"It was purely random. I summoned you, but I had no control over who I summoned. Nor what condition they would be in. Heck, I don't even know who you are," Rio says.
"I am... Quiet," I reply.
"Nice to meet you, Quiet. Would you like to come with me? If not, then I can at least give you some supplies and let you go wherever you want," Rio says.
"I will stay with you," I reply.
'For now.'
---------------
Author's Note:
This new companion sure is Quiet. Ba dum tss. I am sure many people know who the new companion is. I also want to make it clear that she will likely be the only summon in this entire book. It was either Quiet or the Japanese Battleship Yamato. I wanted the reward to be related to the fact that Rio was ambushed by a Secretive Military Organization. And the fact that Rio had to survive some stupidly stacked odds to survive meant I wanted the reward to be worth while.
Now, if anyone is curious why Quiet was summoned when the summon was supposed to be Low Threat, the answer is simple: the threat level was assessed based on the level of danger to Rio at their current state. So, since Quiet was summoned on her deathbed, she was practically no threat to Rio. As for the Vocal Cord Parasites, they were no threat to Rio as they couldn't even infect him in the first place. They would be considered a foreign substance that and the original parasite was heavily modified to affect humans and humans alone. It wouldn't make much sense for it to affect someone with a more Equine composition.
It should also be noted that Quiet lost most, if not all, of her superpowers from Rio healing her. She still has her skills of being an XOF agent, but she isn't crazy powerful. Her stats would be something like as follows: 6 Strength, 12 Perception, 10 Endurance, 4 Charisma, 8 Intelligence, 12 Agility, 9 Luck. So pretty great, but not superhuman for the most part. I kept the above Human Agility and Perception as I thought these would be among the few abilities she would keep.
Now for the reward Cait got. In my mind, Cait is now free from the effects of addiction, which would likely lead to an increase in SPECIAL. It is also a reward for someone making a good karma choice. Also, in case it wasn't clear, 10 is generally the max Special a Human can have. Some unique cases can exist, but that is the general rule. Other species can be above 15. For instance, Nick has an Intelligence of 16, which is tied with Codsworth for the highest stat of any companion. Unless you are the Resident from Fallout 76, in which case you get a 15 in SPECIAL stats. Until next time, Ciao.