The following story is a crossover between Fallout and the TV series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daria

War. War never changes. Humans are stupid creatures for countless millennia humans waged in ever more destructive means of conflict. It finally reached its peak in 2077 when the world was plunged into an abyss of nuclear fire. No body knows who struck first but it doesn't matter every body lost. In the two centuries that followed humanity fell into darkness what was left of it anyway. In a suburb of Baltimore called Lawndale a community of survivors makes its way in the wasteland of the new world created more then two centuries ago.

Daria struggled to pry open the rusted hood of the old semi-truck. She'd been struggling in vain for the past ten minutes to open the hood but so far it hadn't budged. She'd ask Jane for help opening but she was busy watching the horizon for trouble. Right now she regretting turning down Tom when he offered to help that morning. She liked him well enough but lately whenever they hung around her mother was always butting in with snacks or meaningless interruptions.

Helen was convinced if they were left alone for more then ten minutes she'd be a grandmother. It also didn't help that the last time She; Tom and Jane went off somewhere they got separated. She and Tom ended up stuck on a roof The Zon all night with a eight-foot radscorpion down below waiting outside the entrance. They finally managed to escape after she built some improvised explosives from materials they scavenged from the club, which included the old pyrotechnic systems, some shotgun shells she presumed belonged to the owner and vodka a whole lot of vodka. When they returned home, disheveled, tired and smelling of vodka everyone assumed they'd slept together. Her father threaten Tom with a shotgun ironically taken from the ruins of The Zon a decade earlier and threatened to kill the boy if he didn't marry her. After much struggle the hood finally gave way and popped open sending Daria rolling off the truck landing with a thud.

"You alright?" Jane asked helping Daria to her feet.

"Nothing hurt aside from my pride" she replied dusting herself off. "And my ass."

"Better then your head" Jane laughed.

"Unless your my sister." Daria smirked while going to work dismantling the engine. "She doesn't have anything up there to harm."

"So why are we out here again?" Jane questioned. While her friend tossed an obscure part of the engine away.

"Because if I can pull the fission cells from this thing we can power our lights, the water purifier and a few of my experiments."

"Wasn't there a truck closer to home you could scavenge from?"

"I've checked countless vehicles and only a handful had engines I could even begin to take apart if I can pull the cells from this my generator can be finished."

"And no more blackouts from your experiments?" Jane recalled walking the halls of the old school in the middle of the night when the power went out. Nothing like stumbling over yourself in the dark.

"None" Daria answered. After more then an hour of swearing, loud banging Daria finally gained access to the fuel cell container. She then slipped off the truck and starting putting on a yellow radiation suit. It was awkward to move around in so she didn't want to be wearing while trying to take the engine apart.

"Try not to blow us up" Jane was only half joking. These decaying engines from 2077 have a habit of exploding if you put enough bullets in them.

"Relax Jane so long as no one shoots the cells we'll be fine." She pulled the first glowing cell out and put it into a lead lined case. "These nuclear engines only explode from weapons fire never from simple impacts."

"And yet your wearing a radiation suit"

"I didn't say this job was completely safe did I?" Jane couldn't see it but knew Daria was smirking.
Jane scanned the horizon and in the distance saw one of the more common creatures of the wasteland a giant molerat. "Say Daria you want to come over for dinner tonight?"

"Sure what are you having?" he muffled voice replied from inside the engine block.

"Molerat" and with one well-placed shot the two-foot rodent fell dead. "Be back in a second, I'm going to fetch dinner." As Jane approached the fallen mole rat she heard a faint sound like music and the lyrics. I don't want to set the world on fire; I just want to start a flame in your was music she realized. She looked down the ruins of Interstate I-295 and through the dust clouds blowing in the wind she could see two figures approaching. The first was a tall man wearing a stetson hat and a duster coat over some form of body armor. She could clearly see he was heavily armed. Slung over his back was a rather large an intimidating looking weapon easily a meter and a half long. In his arms at the ready Jane could identify a plasma rifle by the faint luminescence green on the barrel. She could make out a bandolier with grenades or possibly just additional ammo. He also appeared to have other weapons at his side and inside the coat. The second figure was clearly a cybernetic dog, which trotted along side it master. Jane and only heard of such creatures from Daria who read about them in some pre-war books on science in law enforcement.

Jane looked worriedly down at her hunting rifle held together mostly by duct tape. And her raggedy leather armor made from Brahmin hide.(two-headed mutant cows). If he decided to get nasty there wasn't much she could do about it. Her weapon was little more then a Varmint Rifle perfect for small critters or an unarmored human but it bounce of this guy. Daria's shotgun might be more effective assuming she brought the slug rounds and he was standing five feet away. Jane nervously lowered her weapon deciding she didn't want to get killed by a paranoid trigger-happy mercenary.

"No need to wet yourself kid, I'm not going to hurt you." The man's face came into view as the dust cloud blew away he looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties with red hair. The shadow of his Stetson hat obscured his eyes. He leaned the plasma rifle onto his shoulder. He was now standing right before Jane and he looked just as intimidating now as he did partially obscured.

"Happy to hear that, it be quite a mess." Jane joked holding up her patchwork rifle for better viewing. "What's is that on your back?" she asked gesturing the sizable weapon on his back.

"It's called a Gauss rifle." The man answered to which Jane simply stared at him blankly "Like a rail gun but a magnetic coil instead of two rails."

"Oh now I understand." Jane lied, she'd ask Daria about it later.

"So what brings two kids this far out into the wastes your two or three hours from the nearest settlement Lawndale, in that direction." the man asked pointing past the wrecked trailer of the truck Daria was working at towards there home in Lawndale.

"What brings a walking Arsenal down this road." Jane countered. It bothered her that this man knew the location and distance of her home. Maybe she and Daria weren't worth robbing but he could be trouble back home.

"Arsenal?" the man smiled. "I like that, Arsenal, to answer your question I'm mapping the roads from DC to Baltimore scouting out the best possible routes for trade caravans." He gestured to the wrist computer on his right arm that Jane recognized as a pipboy and the source of the faint sound of music.

"Jane who is this?" Daria questioned. Jane nearly leapt out of her skin eliciting a laugh from both this stranger and Daria. "Some lookout you are, what if he was a distraction while his friend snuck up behind us." She joked. A loud bark caused both Daria and Jane to leap into the air. They turned around to see the cyberdog panting. They looked to the dog who only stared back panting as if to say gotcha.

"You can call me Jack." He extended his hand.

"Daria, and you've already met Jane." She answered accepting the handshake.

"If you excuse me I have a long walk ahead of me, and my route needs to be suitable for heavily loaded pack animals" and with that the man tipped his hat and left.

"Come on Jane, I finished extracting the cells and putting them into the case, we might be able to take the short route but that thing is heavy" The duo returned to the truck after Jane cut some choice pieces of meat from the fallen molerat.

They each grabbed a handle and started the long walk home. It was heavy though; they managed to drag case out there all right but loaded down with the cells it was twice as heavy. Now they both wished Tom was there. They were almost home the sun was high so it must have been around noon. When a gunshot rang through the air. They dropped the case and dove for cover the sound of two more gunshots filled the air along side sadistic laughter. They looked up to see nearly a dozen armed men in patchwork armor made from scraps of metal and leather. They had assault rifles, shotguns and even a flamethrower. Daria and Jane knew immediately it could only be raiders.

"What do we do?" Jane whispered fearfully

"Drop the case and make a break for it, if we're lucky they'll be more interested in the that then in us we don't have anything worth stealing."
Jane bit her tongue to stop herself from mentioning that they were both women, which were always valuable to the nefarious types in the wasteland. Despite the rumors she was sleeping with Tom, Jane knew Daria was rather innocent about those things. She'd never think they'd value her as a girl.

"I've got one grenade." Daria breathed, "If they follow, I'll throw it maybe buy us enough time." Jane only nodded before they leapt to there feet and took off running towards home. They looked back hoping against hope the raiders were more interesting in the case than them.

"[censored] they're still chasing us." Jane sighed. Daria pulled the pin on the grenade and chucked it as hard as she could in the direction of the pursuing raiders. As they hoped the raiders scattered for cover. Though the grenade exploded harmlessly it did buy them some time. Unfortunately not enough time they had just reached the top of a hill when a bullet grazed Daria's leg ending her tumbling to the ground. Jane stooped down to carry her but was stopped.

"Jane, they want us alive our best chance is if you go for help if you stay we'll both be captured." Tearfully Jane nodded and embraced Daria fearful this would be the last time they saw one another. In truth Daria had no idea what they wanted but there was no use in them both getting killed. As Jane ran for help Daria managed to get to her feet. Even if she couldn't get away from them she could at least limp and buy Jane a little more time. And the sawed off shotgun would certainly help. If the raiders wanted them dead they'd have fired a lot more bullets. So Daria knew her best chance was to buy Jane as much time as she could.

Daria open fire on the first raider who popped his head over the hill she'd fallen from. The raider quickly ducked down and Daria took that moment to reload the shell. She could hear them arguing just over the hill but the voices all blended together. Finally a mountain of a man came over the hilltop, unlike his fellows who were half covered in scraps of metal this man's armor was composed of metal plates bolted together complete with a helmet on top. Daria knew her sawed off stood little chance of penetrating those metal plates, but she could slow him down a little and buy Jane more time to escape. She unleashed both barrels and the spray of lead bounced off the armor as she expected but the force made him stumble back. The armor offered decent protection against the two-century old jury-rigged weapons most wastelanders possessed. She really wished that Jack fellow was around. Against his military grade hardware that raiders metal armor would be little more then tissue paper even if it was pieced together from the latest in pre-war steel. Daria reloaded her the gun as the man slowly drew closer.

"Surrender girl, you've got no chance." The raider spat while Daria hid behind cover.

"You're going to need to get real close to capture me, and I've loaded two slug rounds just for you." Daria lied but the bluff gave the man pause. A slug around could certainly prove fatal if only she had one.

"Drop it" a sinister voice from behind ordered. Daria sighed the big guy was just a distraction while his friend snuck up behind her. Daria turned around see a smirking raider holding an automatic to her head. Jane kept on running, she'd never run so fast in her life. If she made it back quickly there was time enough to save Daria before the raiders got away and sold her off some slime-ball or worse. She had just reached the sign that said welcome to Lawndale when she tripped and all went black.

To be continued

Fallout Lawndale Part II

Daria sat tied to a parking post next to a dumpster in the raiders makeshift camp in back of the Goodtime Chinese Restaurant. At least they fixed her leg she mused looking at the bandages. Daria tried to keep her focus on her pain rather then her fear of what might happen to her. She'd been there for hours, it was already dark and there was no sign of Jane or anyone from home. Maybe they couldn't find her; maybe they'd never find her or worse what if Jane didn't make it. From where she was tied up she could hear a conversation between a few of her captors.

"So, are we going to ransom her back, sell her into slavery or have some fun with her?" One of the raiders asked the big guy in metal. Daria presumed he must be the boss.

"Or some combination of the three" suggested another. Of the team he smelt the worst so Daria named him stinky.

"I vote have fun with her, ransom her, go back on the deal then sell her" suggested a third. This one was missing an eye so in her mind Daria called him Cyclops.

"She's worth more as slave if she's unspoiled." The boss answered.

"How do we know she's unspoiled and if we check would that spoil her" that raider was swiftly smacked upside the head. Daria dubbed him [censored]. She might have found him funny if they weren't discussing her.

"How much do you think she's worth?" Stinky questioned

"Hmm" the boss mused, "she's young healthy, but fairly plain a five, so two hundred caps to a distributor, four-fifty directly to a consumer tops"

"Nah" argued [censored]. "She hides it deliberately we fix her up pretty I'd call her seven and a half easy."

"A thousand caps direct to the buyer." smiled Cyclops. "You going to make her pretty using those pre-war fashion magazines you read."

The whole gang save [censored] erupted in laughter. Despite the dire situation she was in Daria couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of a raider beautician.

"Hey!" [censored] yelled. "How many of you [censored]s can actually read." silence followed. "What none of you? I thought so the next time you want my help fixing your guns you can just kiss my ass." In another life Daria thought [censored] could have been a friend. But in this one she'd rather just shoot him in the head.

"Ok were sorry, tell ya what if we don't decided to sell her unspoiled you can have first go" The boss offered.

"Thanks" [censored] replied.

Now Daria really, really wanted to shoot him in the head. As much as Daria hated to admit it to herself she was terrified but she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her squirm like some damsel in distress.

—

Jane groaned as she slowly returned to consciousness her head was throbbing and she could here people arguing around her.

"Jane what happened, where's Daria" said a panic stricken Jake.

"Is she alright" mirrored an equally worried Helen. Jane groaned and tried to sit up but she couldn't move and her vision was blurry.

"Jane you need to tell us what happened" came another voice Jane recognized as Tom's.

"Would you smoothskins all calm DOWN!" came the eternally aggravated voice she recognized as belonging to DeMartino. "She may have a concussion, SCREAMING at her won't help her and it certainly won't HELP your daughter."

Jane's vision slowly came back into focus; she was lying on a table, looking around what she recognized it as the cafeteria of Lawndale High. In the years following the Great War a group of survivors made the old ruins there home. This was mainly due to the old principle had spent most of the educational budget on security. Which included metal shutters to block the windows. New walls to completely in close the courtyard and several security robots. According to DeMartino she was a soulless, self-righteous, iron-fisted tyrant who had no respect for the students, even the few worthy of it and routinely abused everyone in her employ.

"Daria!" Jane cried sitting up. "She's in trouble, raiders they took her." She recounted the story through half-chocked sobs and her guilt at leaving Daria behind.

"Its alright Jane if you stayed you'd both be captured and we'd have no idea what happened." Helen soothed through her own tears.

"We need to after her we have to find before those raiders…." Jakes panic quickly devolved into him hyperventilating.

"How did I get here?" Jane asked.

"A man my father hired to plot caravan routes found you at the outskirts and brought you in." Tom answered.

"We met someone out by I-295 by that name."

"Yo" Jack called solemnly he was sitting in a chair with his feet up on a second seat, his faithful cyberdog curled up by his side. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to save your friend."

"One man against a dozen?" DeMartino scoffed, "Who do you think you are the Lone Wanderer? You could have held off a dozen armed men yourself."

"Enough" Jake yelled. "Daria is out there somewhere having god knows what done to her!"

—

"So tell me again how Eric got knocked out by a 98 pound girl who's tied to a post?" the boss laughed. Daria may have had a real name to go with the man curled up in a fetal position but to Daria he'd always be Nutcracked. Thank god for steel toed boots.

—

"Alright so we divide into teams and scout the area along the western edge of town, its after dark so they probably went to look for shelter." DeMartino explained as the group looked over a hastily drawn map of Lawndale.

"Could your dog track down our daughter?" Helen asked turning to Jack.

"Maybe" Jack answered. "He's trained to search for weapons and ordnance. I haven't tried humans."

"Well its worth a try, I'll get something of Daria's" Helen left through the corridors towards of the old high school. She was always worried when Daria and Jane went off alone. It didn't help that just a few months ago she was almost killed by a six-foot radscorpion that wandered in from the open wasteland. Daria was sixteen now and would need to survive the wasteland. She soon arrived at the room Daria and Quinn shared their space, mismatching room dividers gave them some semblance of privacy from one another. Quinn was with her friends the fashion club making new clothing.

"Mom did you find Daria?" Quinn mournfully asked.

"No sweetie, but we're sending out the search parties. That traveler who brought Jane in has a dog so we're going to see if he can sniff her out." Helen marched over to Daria's bed and grabbed some of her dirty clothes. Helen decided to spare Quinn the nightmares about her sister being held by raiders.

"I hope your sister is alright." Stacy said.

"Yeah" added Tiffany.

"Thanks Stacy, but it will ok maybe she's stuck on a roof making out with Tom." Quinn tried to perk up but couldn't.

"I hope not" Sandi smirked "Tom's cute it be a shame if your dad came at him with a shotgun again. None of us have had the chance to try dating him yet."

When Helen returned their master of arms Timothy O'Neil was passing out the better weapons they kept in the armor in the event of just such an emergency. Two drum loaded combat shotguns, three R93 Assault Rifles and a Type 93 Assault Rifle.

It wasn't much but it was better then the regular weapons they carried. Jane was having a heated argument with her brother Trent.

"I'm going and that's final." Jane yelled.

"No your not." Trent had no hint of his normally laid-back voice. "You might have a concussion." The argument continued back and forth, with neither side. It finally ended when DeMartino snuck up behind her and cuffed her to a chair. It ended the argument but not Jane's indigent yelling.

She noticed Tom's parents had arrived along with their bodyguard Tommy Sherman clad in reinforced combat armor. The man gave her and most women the creeps but there was no denying his ability so she'd put up with him until Daria was safe.

"Angier, Kay what brings you here?"

"Mr. Ruttheimer, radioed us the news about Daria so he came to lend our support." Angier explained.

"And the use of Mr. Sherman in the search." Added Kay.

"No need to worry I'm the best fighter in Lawndale, I'll get your daughter back no problem." Sherman gloated. "Second best" he corrected when Timothy O'Neil walked by.

"I appreciate any help you can offer thank you." Helen smiled.

"It's the least we could do our Son is quite taken with your daughter." Said Kay.

"And if we don't do something our Son will insist in going out looking for raiders himself." Added Angier.

"I am going!" Tom stated firmly walking up in a suit of combat armor, lighter then what Sherman wore but better then most of the equipment around here. Tom's parents had given it to him simply for his own personal protection.

"Its to dangerous." Angier argued.

"Excuse me." Jack walked up, interrupting an argument before it could begin. "He'll come with me, I'll be responsible for him." He placed a hand on Tom's shoulder to empathize the point.

Kay and Angier looked to one another for a moment then nodded, much to the surprise of Helen and Tom. "Alright, Jack so long as he's with you we don't mind."

"Here." Helen said handing Jack one of Daria's shirts. He then knelt down to let his dog get a good whiff. As Helen left to find Jake and begin there own search she wondered whom this Jack was. If it was Tom held captive by raiders there was no way on gods brown earth she'd let Daria go looking so easily. She son found Jake and along side DeMartino headed out to search.

The search parties scattered in-groups of three or four, with only the full moon and a handful of flashlights to see by. A worry on many of their minds was even if they found the raiders in time what then. Could they fight a dozen armed men without losing one of their own, and if they fought what was to stop then from killing their hostage.

Tom followed closely behind Jack and the cybernetic dog. They seemed to be walking in circles for a while but eventually the dog started barking excitedly.

"Do you have her sent boy?" Jack smiled, "Come on where is she?"

It wasn't long before they found the camp built into the parking lot of the old Chinese Restaurant. A hastily constructed wall using overturned vehicles and other scrap provided some protection. After telling his dog to stay they climbed into the roof of a nearby dry cleaners for a better look.

"Is that them?" Tom questioned Jack who was looking down a set of binoculars. Jack handed Tom the binoculars so he could see them himself. Between the moon and the campfire he could make out the forms of a dozen raiders heavily armed.

"Crap" Tom muttered, "Is that a minigun and a rocket launcher?"

"Yep" Jack answered solemnly. Tom had a brief flash of how destructive an assault would be. He imagined a hail of bullets and explosions tearing people apart. Beating the raiders wasn't' the problem. Doing it without losing a dozen or more people in return was another matter. He scanned the camp looking for any signs of Daria, he saw her dimly lit by the campfire. She was still tied to a yellow parking post right next to an old dumpster.

"I have an idea." Tom smirked.

—

As grim as it was hearing the raiders discussing sometimes in graphic detail what they should do with her. It paled in comparison to when they started singing drinking songs. The raiders drunken songs abruptly stopped when the distant sound of an explosion filled the air. The raiders leapt into action heading to the ramshackle walls looking for the trouble. From the corner of her eye Daria saw the dumpster lurch forward.

"Tom" she whispered as the boy in question crawled out of the hole previously hidden by the dumpster. Another explosion this time closer to the walls kept the raiders attention while Tom cut the ropes. When Daria followed Tom through the hole it became evident why the raiders just didn't use the building for shelter half the roof had collapsed creating something of a ramp. Limping on her good leg Tom helped her to the top of the ruined building The air was now filled by the sound of gunshots and plasma fire along side the screaming battle cries of the raiders. The raider Daria nicknamed [censored] poked his head through the opening in the wall they used to escape. He was about to yell something when Daria grabbed the 10mm submachine gun Tom had clipped to his belt and opened fire driving the raider back

"What now?" Daria asked, a little disappointed she'd missed.

"We run." picking Daria up he leapt off the back of the building landing with a heavy thud. Tom figured Jack's distraction would only buy them a few more seconds before he was forced to retreat. Wasting no time he took off running east with Daria in his arms. She wasn't sure how long he could keep up this pace, but with level streets and plenty of buildings for cover and with the raiders distracted she was hopeful they could make it. Tom made it a couple blocks before they rounded a corner taking cover behind an old barbershop somewhere off Dega Street.

"Tom what happened back there." Daria questioned as he sat down with Daria in his lap.

"Jack that guy you and Jane met on the road provided a distraction while I snuck you out."

Daria felt a little flustered at Toms daring rescue. Even with the distraction he easily could have been killed. She felt an odd feeling in her gut and decided to follow it before her brain squashed it. She leaned up and kissed him briefly.

"Damn" Tom grinned stupidly.

"I liked it too." Daria grinned back.

"I wonder if Jack's ok?" As if in response to Tom question the raiders were now screaming in terror.

"He sounds fine." They kissed a second time this time for longer. It as at this moment her parents showed up. They had heard the sounds of battle and came to investigate.

"Daria your alright!" Helen exclaimed.

"Kiddo!" Jake smiled. Then realized what they had been doing. "Get your hands off my daughter."

"Jake put the shotgun away they were just kissing!" Helen scolded. Jake snorted putting his weapon away. Helen and Jake knelt down and helped them to their feet. Daria put an arm around Tom's shoulder for support.

"No need Tom I can help her." Jake shot him a menacing glare. He didn't like the idea of that boy so close to his little girl. He was still convinced they had slept together the night they claimed to have been trapped on the roof of the Zon by a Giant Radscorpion despite seeing the corpse. Jake might have believed the protests of innocent If not for the fact that Helen and Jake used a very similar excuse in their youth.

"I could use a little help" coughed Jack as he limped up. His coat had quite a few holes in it and his armor was covered in dents. His dog simply panted wagging its tail, a little bloody from chewing on some raiders but uninjured.

"Dear god, are you alright?" Helen exclaimed.

"I was shot to hell and set on fire but otherwise I'm ok." Jake quickly moved to catch him before he collapsed to his knees. "The armor stopped the bullets from penetrating but it still hurts."

"You know, my plan was for you to distract them" Tom smiled.

"I took your plan and went in a different direction"

Slowly they limped back to the Lawndale High. Where much to Daria's discomfort they were greeted with hugs and tears. She could live with Jane's. Tom was actually kind of nice. She'd tolerated her parents for years. But beyond that it was just embarrassing being hugged by everyone. Jack was also uncomfortable reciving bear hugs from various residents but Daria figured that may have more to do with the multiple bruises and possible cracked ribs