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1.41% Steel Waste / Chapter 10: The Smol Spy

Bab 10: The Smol Spy

Backing out of the patrol logs, he selected his father's journal, scrolling up to the first entry of the terminal and selecting it... One thing was for certain, he father was no poet, it was basic and got to the point which was helpful for Afton.

Apparently, they were currently in the Mojave desert, travelling from California under the orders of the High Elder. The purpose of this? To secure technology and territory before the New California Republic could.

Afton wasn't familiar with them as he didn't remember them being mentioned in Fallout 3, regardless of how they functioned and what they stood for, they were now his enemy simply due to their conflict with the Brotherhood.

His father hadn't written down everything, but he'd mentioned some "traitorous heretics" that'd been sent to the Capital Wasteland, Afton himself didn't know much about America as the British rarely concerned themselves with it.

Apparently, the chapter sent to the Capital Wasteland had been outright ignoring orders sent to them, as well as providing "charity" to those in need. Their mission had been to eliminate the Super mutant presence there but they'd not gotten word of how it was going yet.

He continued reading the entries, their focus shifting from duty to his personal life as he found Verna to be pregnant. Afton backed out and shut off the terminal as the journal mostly just contained mentions of how well he'd been growing up thus far.

Afton sat there and stewed for a moment, digesting the things he'd learned... Apparently, they were far away from the Brotherhood of Steels main force, and dangerously close to their enemies territory.

Due to the proximity to the NCR the chapter had been ordered to keep radio silence until the Elder said otherwise. Communication was fairly limited from what he understood, Radio being the primary way of speaking over long distances... The only problem being that this could be intercepted, if the NCR found out about their presence in the Mojave they'd undoubtedly be hunted down and exterminated.

The Brotherhood of Steel may be more technologically advanced than the NCR, but they lacked the number of men their opponent boasted. It was incredibly difficult for outsiders to enter the Brotherhood, as such they'd be outnumbered one hundred to one should they be forced into a direct confrontation.

Afton nodded to himself, reaffirming his determination to get stronger before hopping off of the desk, onto the swivel chair and making his way to the door... Just as it swings open, revealing his father in full Power armour...

They look at each other in confusion for a while before Afton finally decides to move, he raises his arms and waddles awkwardly towards his father, "Dad up" he pleads, the man snapping out of his stupor and picking him up.

"Afton? What are you doing here?... It can't be a coincidence that you'd just walk out of the nursery and into here..." he says while giving his son a hard look.

Afton's heart stops in his chest when he hears this... Could he have let something slip? Was his father onto him?

"You came all this way to see your daddy didn't you? Hahaha! I knew I was your favourite, just wait til I tell your mother!" he suddenly says, bringing Afton to his face and giving kisses to his forehead, his beard uncomfortably rubbing against the child's face.

Afton tries to push the man away but he was no match, if only he wasn't wearing Power armour, he was sure he'd be able to defeat him!... Not. This was a relief though, the pain of being stabbed by the man's stubble was a preferable option to being discovered.

After the man had had his fun playing with him, he delivered Afton back to the nursery where the caretaker had been looking around for him in a panic.

"Oh! You found him, I am so sorry!" she says sincerely.

"Ah, don't mind it... Little tyke probably waited until you were gone, he's quite smart you know?" he says, but the caretaker just shrugs while thinking he's just boasting.

Afton is sat by the other children, one called Melissa Watkins crawls towards him with some blocks in hand and shows them to him, "Play!"

...

He could feel the caretakers gaze burning into his back, causing him to reluctantly nod, taking some blocks and stacking them all on top of each other while the child watches with an impressed look.

He continued building various things with the blocks, eventually gathering a group of children who watched his every move... What was this, lord of the flies? He got up and walked away, not bothering to look behind him at the children crawling after him... He climbed onto the cushions and closed his eyes, wanting to sleep instead of dealing with the annoyances.

The next day after he was dropped off at the nursery by his mother, he was pulled aside by a scribe with short black greying hair and wrinkles wearing the typical red robes. She kneels down to get to his eye level and smiles at him, "Hello there Afton, my names Adah, do you know why I'm here?"

He shakes his head, "Nuh-uh." he says, attempting to seem as innocent as possible.

She squints slightly as he speaks before hiding it, "I've heard many things about you, able to walk so well at such a young age, ability to speak well above your peers... I'm interested to see how gifted you are, okay?"

He gives her a confused look, he wasn't acting either, he really had no idea what she wanted with him... If they'd found out about his unnatural intelligence than he wouldn't put it past them to dissect him...

Adah pulls out some things from her bag, blocks... Each of them are numbered from one to ten, she places them all on the floor randomly and glances at him, "Do you know how to count?"

He scoffs inwardly, of course, he knows how to count... He was sure acting like an imbecile all the time was slowly turning him stupid. His thoughts and emotions were strong towards this matter, so much so that he hadn't realised he had nodded slightly at her question...


PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
Niggross Niggross

Hope you guys like the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.

If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.

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Bab 11: ABC, It's easy as 1-2-3

Adah smirks at him, "Oh? You can count? Excellent, how about you show me with these blocks?"

...

Wait what?... Had he done something to answer her question? This wasn't good, thoughts him of being tied to a table and dissected to see what made him tick ran through his mind...

But... Were his worries really all that founded? He'd learned much about how the Brotherhood of Steel operated, they weren't really in the territory of human experimentation, especially since the organisation was founded due to an incident involving just that.

Maybe showing some intelligence would actually benefit him, it'd allow more time for him to learn and gain skills instead of trying to placate the other potato's he'd been put with...

His hesitation was noted by Adah but he eventually came to a decision, bending down and arranging the blocks from one to ten, looking up at her once he was finished.

"That's... Right, amazing..." she eventually says after snapping out of her daze. "Can, you do it backwards?"

He does as she asks, ten to one and yet again looking at her expectantly.

"Has someone been teaching you?" she asks, the reason she'd asked him to count backwards was that sometimes children were able to memorize the sequence, while not realising the meaning of it.

Afton shakes his head, "No?"

...

"Okay, one last thing..." she says as she takes some blocks and rearranges them, what would you do to this?" she asks after placing two and three next to each other.

Afton walks over and places five next to them, causing the woman eyes to widen.

"Why did you place that?" she quickly asks, trying to restrain the excitement in her voice.

"twooo, threee, is fiiveee" he replies in the most innocent manner he could manage.

The woman after hearing this quickly picked him up and walked over to the caretaker who'd been watching her this whole time, "I need to borrow little Afton for a bit." she says as she slowly bounces him on her arm.

"For what reason?" she asks, not wishing to disappoint Zachary again... Having a Paladin resent you would make your life very difficult in the Brotherhood.

"For education purposes, if anyone asks just say that I have taken an interest in this child development and that they could find us in my office." Adah says before walking out, ignoring the woman's protest.

The duo draws some attention from various people, some of the patrols nodding at Adah as they pass them.

Their destination was further than he'd initially thought, it probably being on the other side of the base to the nursery, the area they reach looks cleaner and in better condition, patrols in Power armour becoming less apparent and instead being replaced by groups of people in scribe robes carrying various things from stacks of papers, to materials, to machinery.

When they get to Adah's office Afton could see various things of interest dotted around it, a few terminals, desks full with stacks of paper, and other miscellaneous things.

She sits him down on an arm chair and looks around for a moment, seeming to be at a loss at what to do next, clearly, she hadn't expected him to show such aptitude when she visited the nursery.

Finally a light bulb seems to light up in her head, picking him up again and placing him on one of the desks filled with paper. She grabs a ballpoint pen and sits on a chair next to him. "Okay Afton, before we can truly discover how intelligent you are, I must first teach you how to read and write... You were able to read the number blocks fairly easily, so I imagine you'll do this with flying colours." she says with the enthusiasm not befitting a mature woman such as herself.

She goes on to tutor him in how to old a pen, how to write various letters and how to speak them. Afton made it look like he had no prior knowledge of them beforehand before eventually picking them up... Three hours of this and he'd "Managed" to completely master how to write and speak half the letters in the alphabet.

Adah herself was beside herself in excitement, giving constant praises at any progress he made, almost passing out when he wrote "A" with sloppy penmanship. She was apparently determined to keep going until he'd completely mastered it, but he was slowly but surely getting tired, not just physically but mentally, due to having to act like he was relearning everything.

It was around that moment when his saviour had come to rescue him...

"Afton?" the familiar voice of his mother asks as she enters the room, glaring daggers at Adah as soon as she spots her.

"Ah-er, Misses Parker? I hope you don't mind me borrowing your son for-THRE-Ahem! Three hours." she says, apparently not realising how long she'd taken custody of him.

Verna crosses her arms with a not so friendly look, "When I heard you'd taken my son out I'd ignored it at first, one hour was fine, two was pushing it, but THREE?! He's just a child! Whatever you're doing with him can't be more important than his health!" she exclaims, furious with the woman.

"Misses Parker, I assure you I hadn't meant to keep him so long, but you so is so remarkable that I'd lost track of time."

...

Verna's expression seemed to soften as the woman complimented him, "And what could be so interesting that you'd keep him for three hours?"

Adah grabs her hand and brings her closer, gesturing towards some paper that had a few badly written letters on it.

"Now what does your horrible handwriting have to do with this?" Verna sneers.

Adah holds back a frown and shakes her head, "I didn't write this... Your son did." she says, stunning his mother into shocked silence.

...

"What!?!" she erupts after retrieving her senses.


PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
Niggross Niggross

Hope you guys liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know.

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