Denis Callaghan

Denis, also known as 'The Lone Wanderer' is a Regulator from the Capital Wasteland, previously known as Washington DC. Denis is a justice driven humanist, who does everything in his power to ensure that he improves the quality of life of everyone he meets, unless they are Raiders, Slavers, atrociously evil or beyond reasoning.

Denis, in spite of his good intentions, has possibly one of the highest kill counts in the Capital Wasteland, due to his time spent as a regulator. Not all of his kills are just, however, as Denis has had a few accidents and has even committed murder in the heat of the moment.

History
Denis was born in Rivet City in 2257 and though his birth bought great joy to both of his parents, his mother died in labor. His father, James, saw fit as to smuggle him inside a local vault, which hadn't opened its doors since the great war began.

Denis grew up in Vault 101 and over the course of 20 years, he had a close bond with Amata and a bitter rivalry with Butch. He ended up receiving his dream job as his Father's apprentice in the clinic and had a bright and prosperous future ahead of him as a doctor.

However, this life would abruptly come to an end in 2277, when Denis' father fled the vault, accidentally unleashing a plague of radroaches in his wake and earning his son the Overseer's suspicion.

Despite his little combat experience, Denis fought his way out with a 10mm pistol and a baseball bat before confronting the overseer directly. He convinced the Overseer to let him leave, with little incident on the grounds that he'd hurt his daughter if he didn't. (It was unlikely that Denis would have gone through with it.)

Denis entered the Wasteland and immediately went over to the small rustic heap in the distance, Megaton. It was there that he discovered the truth about his origin, that he wasn't in fact born in the vault. He also made his first friends and enemies and even saved the town from the nuclear bomb that it was built around.

He proceeded to search the rest of the Wasteland for his Father and with the help of his family's old friends, he proceeded to search in the Jefferson Memorial, learning about his Father's true ambitions of creating a giant Water Purifier, producing gallons of free water for all.

Denis' trail eventually lead to Vault 112, a Vault dedicated to being a mad genius' playground, where he got to live out his sadistic torture fantasies forever. Denis managed to crack the code and trip the failsafe, killing all of its residents, finally releasing them and freeing them from Braun's own personal nightmare.

After being freed, his Father was relieved to see Denis but curious as to what he was doing there. Denis explained his situation and demanded answers from his Father, wanting an explanation for his sudden disappearance. James explained that the place in the vault was for Denis, not for him and that he didn't want this life for his son.

This was quite confusing for Denis but he accepted it as it was for the good of humanity overall. The Regulator agreed to assist his Father in finishing off the Water purifier, clearing the memorial building of Super Mutants and helping his Father get the purifier online.

Denis continued to work to his Father's instructions, when he found that vertibirds began to descend on the Memorial Building. He quickly returned to his Father, only to discover that he was being held at gunpoint, trapped in the purifier itself.

The Vault Dweller watched, helplessly as his Father was threatened by the Colonel, who demanded that he assisted them in finishing the purifier to their specifications. James chose to sabotage it, knowing that it could be used as a weapon of genocide in their hands.

The Colonel and James both fell to the radiation inside the chamber, setting the Enclave on high alert and forcing Denis and Dr Li Madison to flee for their lives. Denis, Madison and several other survivors fled the compound and took refuge in the Brotherhood of Steel's citadel.

The group arrived at the Citadel, where they were personally greeted by Owyn Lyons, who offered them shelter inside the compound and assisted them in finding and defeating the Enclave as well as restoring the purifier.

After retrieving the components necessary to get it up and running again, Denis took the fight to the captured purifier and retook it from Enclave control, though he took a number of his friends with him, they were forced to part ways before they entered the rotunda.

The purifier was set to release a deadly amount of radiation if it was tampered with, activating it would surely kill the user but it was surely going to explode if the code wasn't entered.

With no way of reaching his friends, Denis and Sarah Lyons, Owyn's daughter and head of Lyon's pride were left with the hardest decision any of them had had to face. Who would go in...

Denis elected himself to start the purifier, unleashing the radiation into the chamber of and risking his own life to do it. However, this was not the end of Denis' tale...

Broken Steel
Denis awoke, two weeks after the Brotherhood's victory at the purifier, with the Capital Wasteland changed and new threats arriving from Adam's Airforce Base, Denis proceeded to assist the Brotherhood, at first voluntarily but then he found himself conscripted against his will as the Enclave threat proved more real.

He found that he was beginning to see a darker side to the Brotherhood, the way that he was manipulated and eventually forced into killing dozens of Enclave soldiers on their behalf. Though Denis was cooperative, he left as soon as the war was over, deciding that he would never become a soldier.

He then went on to join the Regulators and continued to serve the Capital Wasteland in his own way...

Personality
Denis is a kind, warmhearted, facetious, humanist with a strong sense of justice. He cares about everybody, individually and works tirelessly to helping everyone he comes across. Denis is energetic, eccentric and highly intelligent, he is fast on his feet but not very athletic, though his physic is better than it was, when he first set out of the vault.

He has an affinity for bullets as opposed to laser weapons and doesn't like to weighed down with armour, though he owns several suits of power armour, he seldom wears them.

When dealing with other people, he has different ways of treating different people, depending entirely on their ethics, morals and way of life. He is unforgiving to Slavers or anyone who profits immensely from the misfortunes of others and wouldn't hesitate to put someone down so long as he felt that they weren't capable of change.

Denis' biggest priority is to improve the quality of life for every person he encounters, even if it leaves him in a worse off position. He is a firm believer in the philosophy that those who can easily replace what they give should give more. He would gladly put his life on the line for anyone, no matter how important they were, even with no promise of a reward.

Like anyone who lives in the Wasteland, Denis does have a dark side. After his Father died, he became a little bitter, treating everyone around him with scorn and eventually punishing a 'traitor' by blowing her head clean off with his shotgun, an action that he'll forever regret.

Denis' persuasive nature can also be used to manipulate others into doing things that they wouldn't normally do, resulting in several people's demise. The Regulator blames himself for these instances and grows more and more weary of using his powers of persuasion as he gets older.

Appearances
Iconoclash: Chapter 3 - Recovery

Iconoclash: Chapter 4 - Eviction (Mentioned)

Iconoclash: Chapter 5 - Adjustment

Iconoclash: Chapter 6 - Conundrum (Mentioned)

Iconoclash: Chapter 7 - Home

Iconoclash: Chapter 8 - Enroachment (Mentioned)

Trivia

 * Denis' favorite alcoholic drink is Scotch, just like his Father.
 * Denis has a faint scar, running under his hairline from where Tobar the Ferryman gave him a lobotomy.