Rivet City loomed like a rusted god, its hull creaking, its decks buzzing with life. For Ash, it was unlike anything he had seen — Megaton was home, but this? This was a fortress, a city, a world floating on the bones of the old.
He walked the market deck with his pay jingling in a pouch at his hip. Caps. His caps.
Crow had disappeared to trade, the guards had melted into the bars and beds, and Ash found himself alone among the shouting vendors and clatter of boots.
A stall caught his eye — racks of coats, dusters, and patched leathers. The merchant was a wiry woman with a rasping voice.
"Looking for something practical, kid? Or just something to make you look taller?" she teased.
Ash studied the rows until his hand landed on a long, dark coat. Reinforced stitching. Heavy, but not too heavy. The kind of thing that flowed when you moved. He shrugged it on. It fit like it had been waiting for him.
Next, a hat. Wide brimmed, shadowing his eyes. He tilted it low in the mirror shard the woman held up, the faintest smirk tugging his lips. For the first time, he saw not a boy, but the shape of a gunslinger staring back.
He paid without haggling.
Whispers of Flesh and Steel
Later, over a drink of clean water at the market bar, Ash overheard a conversation. Two mechanics hunched over their cups, speaking low.
"—telling you, he's out there in the broken half of the ship. Some say he was a pre-War doc, others say Enclave. Works on flesh and machines both. Says he can put steel in your bones if you've got the caps."
The other scoffed. "Or take 'em out of your corpse after he kills you. Man like that don't live on the edge of the world unless he's hiding somethin'."
Ash sipped his drink, silent. Flesh and steel. He filed it away, a seed for another time.
Back to the Road
By the third morning, the caravan was loaded again. Crow barked orders, the brahmin groaned, and the city gates creaked open.
Ash walked at the flank once more, revolvers steady, coat swaying with each step, brim of his hat cutting the morning light from his eyes.
He was no legend. Not yet. But when Rivet City's guards watched them leave, they muttered to one another about the kid with the strange guns and the long coat.
Ash heard none of it. His eyes were already on the road home.