Adam sighed loudly and then turned back to look at this super mutant conundrum that fell into his lap.
"Tell me, Pearl, what will you do if you were let out of here?" Adam asked bluntly.
"Pearl does not know." Pearl responded. "Pearl is in cage for being bad super mutant, if brothers are dead then Pearl does not know what to do." Adam paused to consider.
"Would you continue to hunt humans?" Adam asked further.
"Pearl…" He began before she paused once more and stopped, seemingly lost in thought. "Pearl does not want to hurt little humans, little humans do not need to be hurt, they are too small, defenseless…"
Adam looked over to Salvatore hoping for some advice but Salvatore had completely disengaged from the conversation and was picking through boxes nearby, close enough to protect Adam if needed but far enough to show he was done with this conversation.
"Would you go find other 'brothers' to live with?" Adam asked.
"Pearl does not know." Pearl said again, clearly giving Adam nothing to work with. "But… Pearl thinks Pearl would be scorned by brothers again if Pearl went to other super mutants. Pearl can't harm little humans and brothers would not be happy with Pearl…" A slow idea was beginning to come into Adam's head as Pearl was speaking.
"Pearl…" Adam began, slowly. "Would you be interested in working with us?" Adam poached, carefully.
"What does humie mean? How does Pearl work with human?" She asked, slowly standing up now, towering over Adam through the cage but not imposingly.
"Well… if you are willing to help humans, big and little, we can take care of you… give you a place to stay, if you can't stay with the other super mutants you can find a place to stay with humans." He offered. "I already know of at least two other super mutants who have decided to live among the humans. So you wouldn't be the first."
"Pearl… Pearl does not know…" Pearl said back uncertainly. "What would human have Pearl do?"
"I don't know yet." Adam said back, honestly. "But I will be making a home for myself soon, a Vault where I was… where I woke up. If you need a place to stay and are willing to work under our rules you can come with us." Adam then looked at the cage door and then sighed quietly. "Or I can just let you out and you can go, as long as you don't plan on fighting us I do not plan to hurt you. You can walk free either way." Adam said as he resolved himself and then walked over to the cage's door and pushed the debris in front of the way and then broke the shabby lock that was keeping it closed. Truthfully if Pearl wanted to she could have gotten out at any time they wanted, truly what had held Pearl in was the very fact they did not want to leave. Probably was too scared.
Pearl hesitantly walked closer, looked at Adam and then looked at the door and then back at Adam.
"Pearl… still not know what Pearl will do… If Pearl comes with human will human treat Pearl good?" Adam nodded slowly.
"If you are willing to follow my rules, and listen to my instructions I promise I will never lock you up like your brothers did. I will help you to find something you enjoy doing as well. And any time you feel you are done working with me, you are free to leave. I will not stop you."
Pearl stood there, in silence for a good few minutes before nodding slowly themselves.
"Pearl understands… pearl will… come with human, Pearl wants to protect the little humans, Pearl remembers… little human crying, Pearl does not want little humans to cry." Adam gently patted pearl's arm with a warm smile.
"I feel the same, Pearl. Let's do our best together to make sure that we can keep the kids from crying."
"You about made up your mind then, kid?" Salvatore said, walking back over.
"Yeah, seems like Pearl here is going to be coming with us."
"How did I know it was going to end up like that?" Salvatore grinned and rolled his eyes playfully. "You are a bleeding heart, that's what you are." Adam smiled.
"Well get to work goody two shoes, we got a lot of loot to parse through."
"Alright Pearl, we are collecting everything valuable here and bringing it to my car nearby, if you can help collect and move things my friends gather that'd be very helpful." Adam said patiently to Pearl.
"Pearl can do that! Pearl is able to move many things, Pearl is stronger than puny human!" She said proudly before walking off to start moving something. Unfortunately what she picked was a piece of sizable and heavy rubble, not valuable at all. Adam turned to Salvatore again.
"Hey Salvatore, do you mind um…" He lightly gestured to Pearl.
"What am I a babysitter now too?" He groaned and then walked over to start better utilizing Pearl's strengths and having her focus on the actual valuable stuff.
Adam would have done that himself, but he had noticed something far more interesting he wanted to focus on first. A suit of Power armor.
He had noticed the power armor sitting idle in the corner of the room that Pearl was locked in from the moment he walked over. In fact the reason he walked over here in the first place was due to the armor. But seeing a super mutant his attention immediately shifted and it became a secondary thing in his mind, but now with that sorted his attention was fully on the armor.
He walked over to it and inspected it. It was standing upright, as all Power armor should be when they were functional, yet another reason he assumed the power armor he had found in the sewers didn't work, it was slumped over.
This power armor was not in pristine condition but it was unused, and untouched, it looked to be the earliest model of Power armor, T-45d, but there is nothing wrong with vintage power armor. Standing at about 7 feet tall, with armor plates covering every possible surface and angle. The helmet full of tech to allow full integration with the suit, the body evoking the image of power even from a distance, it truly was a sight to behold. More than anything, from a visual inspection it appeared to be perfectly functional, there did not seem to be any issues. There was one small problem, Adam didn't have any fusion cores on hand.
However this was easily rectified as there was a fusion generator in the same cell. It seemed that the fusion generator and the power armor were the reason the cage was here in the first place. However, taking out the fusion core now would turn this basement into a starless nighttime in the blink of an eye as there was no natural light down here. So he couldn't just take it out and be done with it. Read full story at 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⟡𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵
Adam spent a few minutes telling all his companions about his find and how he was going to pull out the fusion core and make the building dark for a bit to warn them and then did just that. Pulling out the fusion core immediately set the building into a pitch black state, but Adam's pip-boy provided enough light to be able to function properly.
He wasted no time, slotting the fusion core into the armor and then twisting the latch on the back to unlock the armor. The satisfying sound of the release valves unlatching were heard as the armor opened up as if welcoming him back into its warm embrace. With only a soft moment of hesitation Adam stepped into the Power armor and closed the back in around him. For the first time since Adam went to fight the Chinese he was in power armor, and he felt right at home.