In case you wanna picture a human Nick, or a gen 3 Nick, this actor is my top pick in terms of features, age, and voice: Joel Kinnaman.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but my characters and major plot changes.

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"How you doin' in there, Valentine? Feeling hungry? Want a snack?" Dino mocked. From within the vault cell, Nick chuckled darkly, leaning back in the chair and blowing smoke from his cigarette.

"Keep talking, meat head. It'll give Skinny Malone more time to think about how he's going to bump you off," he retorts.

"Don't give me that crap, Valentine. You know nothin'. You got nothin'," Dino sharply states, though he audibly tensed. Nick smirked. He sat up.

"Really? I saw him writing your name down in that black book of his. 'Lousy cheating card shark,' I think, were his exact words. Then he struck the name across three times," Nick pushes in gloat. Dino gawked, then firmly shut his mouth as the detective's glowing eye glared at him from within the darkness of the room.

"I…No…Tha-Ugh!"

And he fell out of sight.

Nick furrowed his eyebrows. Alerted, he rose, fairly surprised to see the sudden appearance of none other than Robert Joseph Maccready (Rob) on the other end of the glass.

"How's it hanging, Valentine?" the tanned, green-eyed, middle-aged ginger-head asked, all armored up in leather and the edge of his hunting-rifle seen by the detective, who slowly approached the glass.

"Maccready?" he uttered in confusion.

The sealed vault door on his left suddenly slid open. A pale-skinned, blue-eyed, blonde he didn't recognize, wearing a black, bullet-proof vest, stepped in. Her eyes slightly widened upon seeing him, a look he knew all too well.

Nick is a synth. A synthetic man. A robot, if you will, at least, that's what he looks like. Most who see him and his kind for the first time get that look on their face. His skin is greyish. His eyes are a glowing gold-color. Where mere scratches were, mechanics beneath. He was not human, and yet, he thought like one, acted like one, experienced emotions like one, and is aware he is not one. He can still feel, taste, smell, see and hear obviously. He doesn't get hungry, but can still eat. He can drink water, and actually benefits from its electrons and ions. And he can sleep, or at least shut-down for a while.

You're probably wondering why…just…why. Well, you'll get that in a bit.

"Detective Valentine?" the blonde, Laura, inquired suspiciously. He was wearing suit pants with holsters up both his white-button-up's shoulders, sleeves rolled up and tattered fedora on his bald head.

"The one and only," Nick retorts. Laura nods whilst adapting to his strange look. When Piper, the journalist in Diamond City, told her about him, she didn't really know what she'd expect to see. The way he actually looked was neither better nor worse.

Laura removes a holstered pistol, besides the one she was holding, on her thigh, and hands it to him. He realizes this is some kind of rescue-party, and is very pleased, but was still irritated by the presence of a stranger, mainly cause he couldn't tell why she was there.

"Gotta love the irony of the reverse damsel-in-distress scenario," he comments. "Question is, why did our heroine risk life and limb for an old private-eye?" he triggered the weapon in his hand.

"I'll tell you as soon as we're not potentially under threat, detective.," she gives a tired smirk, looking out the door urgently.

"Fair point," Nick nodded whilst studying her.

"Time to go, boss," another, English, feminine voice stated from outside. Nick wonders who else is there. Laura turns to Nick once more, and beckons him to move. Nick follows suit, and is surprised by the third face in the team.

"Kat?"

"Hia there, Nicky. Go' yourself in quite the pickle here, aye," the pale, green-eyed raven-head dressed in a black jumpsuit said.

"Man, I knew I was an accomplished man, but to have so many come to my rescue is real heart-warming," Nick smirks in amusement.

"You know this one?" Rob asks suspiciously.

"You don't?" Nick asks perplexedly. Rob shakes his head.

"Met her on the way, said she heard you were trapped and was coming to your rescue," Rob explains, pleased that Kat wasn't lying about knowing Nick and that he didn't have to keep looking over his shoulder around her anymore.

A distant sound of echoic yelling became audible all of a sudden from the lower level near the entrance-way, and the four tensed.

"Get cover, now!" whisper-yelled Laura. The four made their way into the short, adjacent hall and hid behind its white walls. Kat and Rob end up next to one another near the further wall, and Nick and Laura together on the other.

"Yeah but who the fuck took them all out?!" one of the voices angrily said.

"Could have been more than one," another states.

They are coming closer. Laura turns and her face is suddenly in Nick's, who moves back slightly as she looks past him to Kat behind Rob. She signals for them to ready, and Kat warns Rob. Laura looks to Nick, and he nods as well.

"Shit, they got him out!" a man states anxiously.

Now.

The four appear half-ways from behind cover, and all begin to shoot at Malone's men, taking out six together from that high-up vantage point.

When there are only three left, they move out and finish them with ease.

Things go quiet, but all are well-aware that more would come. Nick sighs in relief. "I've been cooped up in here for weeks. Feels good to get some action," he says, moving towards the stairs and descending them while the others followed.

"Yeah, what the hell were you doing, Valentine?" Rob asked irritably.

"What do you think, genius? I was on a case. Turns out the runaway daughter I came here to find wasn't kidnapped. She's Skinny Malone's new flame, and she's got a mean streak," he explains, tone wavering at the last statement as he smirked sheepishly, considering she knocked him out with a baseball bat of all things.

They reach the lower floor and jog after Nick to another locked-tight vault door.

In case you were wondering what is meant by vault, allow me to explain. You see, the year is 2287. Nearly 200 or more years ago, a nuclear war emerged that left the Earth in a state of a wasteland. Leftover radiation was all around, in the soil, the water, the god damn air. It affects some so much, that their skin starts to fall off, and they are dubbed Ghouls. Before the war, underground Vaults were built to save as many people as possible from the occurrence, but most vaults were actually experimental facilities that trapped and tried horrible things on unaware civilians. Sounds fun, right?

"Locked tight. Not to worry. I should be able to get us through." Nick rips off the rusty control panels and fiddles with the wires. As Kat and Rob kept their distance, the curious blonde stood behind Nick, observing his work. Catching her with the corner of his eye, Nick says: "So, you got a name, doll?" He snatches her focus.

"It's Laura. Laura Main." The door slides open.

"Well, that never gets old," comments an impressed Rob.

"And are you gonna tell me why you're here, Miss Main?" Nick adds, moving forward with gun in hand and caution.

"I need your help finding someone," Laura vaguely states.

"Ah. Another missing person. Well, you came to the right man. If not the right place. And what about you, Maccready?"

"She hired me," Rob retorts, following the group up a set of stairs.

"God, more stairs? Who the hell built this vault, a fitness instructor?!" complains Kat. Rob chuckles at the comment.

The group hear more voices and align themselves to the wall in haste. They strategically and carefully make their way through more of Malone's men. Along the way, Nick notes Laura's movement. Spending so many years in the precinct, before the war at least, it was easy enough for him to recognize a fellow cop or officer, and she was certainly one. This, of course, perplexed him, considering there haven't been cops in decades, their tactics were almost history now. He felt the Pipboy on her arm held the answer, and made one thing certainly clear: she was from a vault. Unless she stole it off a vaultie, then his deductions fall back to square one.

If you're wondering if Nick and Laura have been alive for over two hundred years, that's a no, and no…You'll get their stories soon enough. And a Pipboy is used like an old-fashioned IPad worn as just a really big watch.

Nearing the exit, there's another thing Nick noticed that he simply had to comment on. "You know, I figured at some point you two would cross-paths," he says to Rob and Kat. Rob scowls as Nick approaches another locked door and begins to fiddle with it.

"Why the certainty?" she asked.

"Well, working with you both, I figured you'd make a good team."

"Please," Rob comments in distaste.

"There something wrong with your face, Mickey?" she retorts. Laura smirks and Nick chuckles.

"Just wondering if Nick's lost a few screws," he glares at the detective.

"Well, fuck you too, Maccready," Nick grins, rising after unlocking the door, but not opening it. "Alright, this is the entrance to the vault itself as you all know, so I've got a pretty good guess that Skinny Malone's right behind this door."

"Skinny?" Rob asks curiously. Kat chuckles and he turns to her.

"Yeah, real skinny," she comments sarcastically. Nick grins. Rob is still confused. Laura wants this over with.

"Anyways, you all just let me do the talking, alright?" The others nod and he does too contently, then turns to the door. "Okay," he whispers in assurance to himself.

He opens it.

The four are greeted with the sight of a mob made of seven. The one in the middle, the chubby one, that's Malone, and beside him is a young woman wielding a blue baseball bat.

Noting 'Skinny Malone' wasn't so skinny, Rob goes: "Ohhh," and lightly chuckles. Kat follows suit. Everyone ignores them and Laura tenses, gripping her firearm firmly in preparation for any sudden moves.

Nick confidently takes a step forward. "Took you two weeks to get here, Malone?!" Nick scolds.

"Sorry, Nicky. Was caught up; you know the business," Malone shamefully replied. The others certainly didn't expect him to be friendly. The woman beside Skinny sharply turns to him.

"Is this really the time for chit-chat?! This man tried to kidnap me!" she insists.

"I was trying to take you home, chica. Your family hired me, and they were worried sick!" Nick defends.

"Was it not clear she didn't wanna leave, Nick?" pushed Malone.

"Course it was, but I think my head suddenly mirrored a baseball, cause she came at me with the bat and all lights were out! Next I knew, I was in a cell waiting for your highness to decide what to do with me!" Nick sarcastically elaborated. Rob shamelessly laughed out. Laura glared at him.

"Shut it, Maccready," she warned. Kat grinned as he raised a hand in apology.

"I wouldn't have had to knock you out if you'd have just left!" the woman, Darla, declared. Getting sick of the pointless back and forth, Laura, turning from Rob to the audience, said:

"Okay. Mister Malone, this is clear a misunderstanding," she offered. Nick wished she hadn't said anything.

"Who the hell are you?" Skinny irritably interrogated. Before she could answer, Darla spoke up again.

"This bitch and her skanky friends killed your men!" she shouted to fuel his rage. The four opposite them glared heatedly at her, all picturing vicious ways of shutting her up. Evident rage made itself present about Skinny. Nick spoke quickly.

"Malone, they didn't know, they just thought I was in danger. I didn't even know they were coming, and if I did, you know I would've stopped, you know I wouldn't have let it get this far," he pleads, wanting badly to avoid more bloodshed. Not that he liked Malone at all, but he was seriously exhausted and was concerned for his teammates.

"Someone's gotta pay for the casualties, Nicky!" Malone wrathfully demands, his men aiming up and Nick's doing the same.

"You had the man locked up for two weeks. I'd say that calls it even," Rob pushes in angrily.

"Yeah, Mick's righ'," starts Kat. Rob glares at the nickname. "You go' a lot of people worried sick abou' him."

"Others, much less capable ones, were ready to come after him. Their lives would have been at risk and all for what?" Laura adds sternly, shooting a pointed glare at Darla. Nick wonders who she meant by that. Malone clearly mules over their words. Nick is hopeful, and Darla can see. She snaps at Skinny.

"Are you actually gonna let them just walk?!" she viciously yells.

"Shut it, Darla! This is between me and Nicky!" he sternly tells. Darla wrathfully shuts her mouth and continues to glare daggers at her new, idiotic boyfriend. He ignores her, and continues to study Nick, and the calming blonde beside him that didn't look like she meant any trouble, ignoring the two evident mercs behind them.

This wasn't right…

Malone growls irritably.

…

…

…He lets them walk…

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