Russel Washington

Russel Washington, also known as "The Boss" or "Hades," is a ghoul, later a mutant, and founding member of the Brotherhood of Steel.

Background[]

"You can't save the world, kid. Believe me, I done tried. Fo' every shithead you kill, two more pop up. You just gotta make the best with what you can do and pray there're enough decent people to pick up the slack."

-Fallout: New York "A World's Fair" IV

The Boss was born in San Diego, California. He grew up in a blue collar inner city African American neighbor that was ripe with gang violence. He himself mixed with the gang on his block in order to just avoid getting shot. When he turned 18 he joined the army to escape that life.

He ended up in the Army Special Forces, the "Green Berets," and served with them for eight years. It was during this time that he met his wife, and the two married when he was twenty-four. He briefly left the military to go to college and was very successful, graduating with honors. When he reenlisted, he was made a First Lieutenant of Mariposa Military base for his intelligence and competence, as to oversee the technologically advanced military unit stationed there. By 2077, he was married with three children. They all perished when San Francisco was struck by ICBMs.

He was a core member of the original Brotherhood of Steel, and personally knew Captain Roger Maxson. As a First Lieutenant, he was responsible for training new members. When he was older, he became ghoulified when on an assignment. Maxson offered to kill him, but the Boss declined. He acted as an off the grid asset, assisting the Brotherhood but not directly known by most of it's members, even the majority of it's Elders.

He would work behind the scenes as a force to stop the Master. He built up a strong hatred of the mutants because they were directly responsible for the deaths of many Brotherhood of Steel members. He also has personally suffered at there hands, thus furthering his hatred for them. However, this vendetta against the Master and his mutants, is what caused the Boss to gain large amounts of knowledge about mutants and FEV, as he learned more and more from raids lead on mutant bases and encounters with the creatures. When the mutant threat was defeated, he vanished from the Brotherhood's radar, going into a self-imposed exile.

From then on, his activities are largely ambiguous. There is a time gap in between 2162 and 2268, although he doubtlessly was kept very busy during that time. It is known that he spent part of it learning martial arts in San Francisco from the Shi. He also ventured into the Capital Wasteland for the first time during this gap. It was here the title "Hades" was given to him by the ghouls of Underworld, hinting that he may have been mayor at some point or is even the original founder. In 2268, he explored the ruins of the Enclave Oil Rig, and recovered an aerosol version of the FEV virus. In 2275 he visited one of the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel's bunkers and spoke with Elder Atticus Collins, father of Tanner Collins, along with Paladin Dix. Hades questioned the Paladin about his innate Beastlord powers- how he was granted them and how he used them. Once done, the Boss agreed to find a cure for Tanner's illness. The two set out the next day.

Fallout: Hinterlands[]

The Boss finds himself in the 2253 North Frontier quite on accident, claiming he was battling it out with Enclave soldiers in a Vertibird before he crashed there. The Boss elected to stick around and explore because there may be new technology making a Brotherhood chapter out there worthwhile.

Fallout: New York "At World's Fair"[]

The Boss succeeded in providing Tanner his cure. At the end of World's Fair, the Boss gave his life disarming a nuclear reactor. However, it instead turned him to the powerful, deranged mutant Hades.

Fallout: Prophecy[]

The Boss died during the events of Fallout: Prophecy.

Personality[]

"I don't look like you. I'm just mildly appalling. You look like a whole bucket of ugly hit you in the face."

- The Boss

The Boss is something of a tough nut to crack. On the surface, he is cruel, abrasive, and generally just awful to everyone he meets. He insults with very little wit, instead being very blunt with his insults, simply verbally assaulting anyone he deems worthy of such an attack. This, however, is all to cover up a heart that is much softer than he lets people believe. His insults are limited to people he believes are making poor choices- such as saying something he thinks is stupid, inferring harm to others, or saying something that he doesn't agree with. He follows the U.S Army's ancients codes to the letter, believing that no man should ever be left behind. He always tries to make what he believes is the right choice. He'll risk his life for people who he dislikes or even hates, and has leadership qualities, always making crisp decisions and never questioning himself.

However, the Boss has several flaws. He typically sees things in black or white, there is no gray area to him. Also, he prefers to solve problems with blunt force or violence, the only words he has for enemies being insults. On top of that, centuries of exciting life, and the knowledge that everything he once loved is dead, has taken it's toll on his mind. It is clear he isn't all there, and may be actually unable to refer to people by their names, either since his memory has degraded that it can't commit names anymore or that he knows so many names that he simply can't remember anymore. He treats any non-ghouls as if they were children to him, which they are in a way, such as calling them "boy," or "girl." He even goes as far to call a forty year old man "son." He treats the companions as if they were his soldiers, showing that his perception of companionship has also degraded, and automatically assumed a leadership role. Despite all this, he is generally a good person who attempts to make the best of a horrific post-apocalyptic world he has been forced to live in.

As Hades[]

After sacrificing himself to shut down Clive and save the group, Hades underwent a dramatic change. His overuse of his psyker power did permanent damage to his psyche. Although the extent of what was done isn't entirely evident as of yet, it's clear that a monster worse than Clive ever had been was created in the A.I's place. The Boss, now calling himself Hades, abandoned all sense of morality. He was shown to have absconded normal speech, and spoke using biblical verses. This is likely a result of the voices in his head and a sign of his instability. It also may be that he believes himself godlike, since he calls himself Hades and quotes scripture. To go along with his reworked brain, he already had new motives, which are destructive, but it is unclear what.

The Boss' decision to turn himself into a psyker is extremely questionable. When the Boss decides to do so, it is entirely unnecessary and he only decides to do it because it will make him stronger and give him supernatural abilities. However, without his psychic powers, the Boss would've been unable to shut down the reactor powering Clive. Despite the heroic nature of what he does, the Boss became a psyker for selfish means, and arguably did more evil than good as he ended up turning into Hades.

At the end of Fallout: Prophecy Hades fully betrays who he was by committing acts of violence against the Brotherhood of Steel. The Boss saw the Brotherhood as his legacy and even as a father might see his children. This, and his becoming a fully fledged mutant, another thing the Boss disliked, pretty demonstrates the complete severance of ties with his past. When Tanner cures him he is shown to be thankful to Tanner for putting him out of his misery, just as Tanner assumed he would be.

Skills[]

The Boss is a talented hand-to-hand combatant, having received Green Beret training, limited martial arts experience, and a lot of time spent punching his way across the post-apocalyptic United States. He's a talented marksman as well, specializing in his use of his signature weapon, the Almighty. The Boss was notable for having a serious case of Old Man Strength and could more or less put the hurt to anyone who got in his way.

More or less what made him such a threat was his incredible propensity for violence, intelligence, ruthlessness, and determination. He always fought to kill and rarely showed mercy. The Boss typically forced himself into leadership positioned and could reliably get others under his sway through force of personality.

As Hades[]

Following his dip in FEV, the Boss became the psyker known as Hades. A mutant abomination, the Boss gained the ability to recover from any wound, an ability that was accelerated by nearby radiation or corpses that he could absorb. He also possessed telekinesis. Hades was only defeated by Tanner when the younger psyker used a facet of his photokinesis on Hades.

The power Hades' telekinesis was directly tied to the amount of pain he was experiencing. The more damage he suffered, the more powerful his telekinetic abilities became. As his Glowing One physiology allowed him to regenerate lost tissue endlessly, this meant in any fight he grew rapidly more powerful, as well as more enraged.

Trivia[]

It is hinted that he has had some kind of advancements to his physique. He does not fall to a gunshot as a human normally would and he heals uncannily quick, able to completely recover from a bullet wound in a matter of minutes using some kind of intravenous drug which he calls his "juice."
The Boss is something of a movie buff. He uses references to films like Terminator or Blade Runner to express concerns of his and insults Urban Kriegz by calling the man "Quasimodo" and "Igor." This knowledge of films is further expanded by his referring to Peter Pan as "some Disney film".
The Boss lived for 257 years.
The Boss had a bad feeling about Clive from the start.
There are three different personalities to the Boss. There is Russel Washington, his human persona. There is the Boss, the person the Boss becomes after turning into a ghoul and is who he truly is. And Hades, the insane, erratic mutant he becomes after being exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus.
The Almighty is the Boss' weapon of choice.
The Boss acts as something of a guardian angel for the Brotherhood of Steel. He is one of its original founders, but hasn't been an active part of it for some time. Instead, he appears when needed to protect it, such as curing Elder Atticus Collins' son of cancer.

Quotes[]

The Boss was known for swearing often and repeatedly and his speak was thick with ebonics, due to a childhood in the inner city.

"If you've got a problem with me, boy, your fist can say it."
"How do I know you're not some kind of sociopath who was locked in there for the right reasons? And I don't know a Kent. What, you think I walk around fucking greeting people?"

"If I don't like your face when this door opens I'm going to break it."
"Hey! Whose the son of the bitch who shot that?! Motherfucker, you ain't safe nowhere! Come out!"
"Fuck off you nappy-headed sack of shit! Or I'll gouge out your eyes and skull-fuck you!"
"Give me a day, I'm good. Give me a week, I'm great. Give me a century? I'm unbeatable."
"You motherfucka's ever seen whatever... this thing is before? He's a robot with a face. You know what happens in Terminator?"
"Sweet baby Jesus. Time to put you sorry fucks out of your misery."
"Alright, Edward Scissor-hands. Just what on the Lord's earth is happening here?"
"No I haven't 'fetche' it yet, dickwad. But it wouldn't be a surprise if it's crammed up your ass behind that stick."
"Notre Dame is that way, Quasimodo. Get walkin'."
"So you like the feel of tongues on your ass hole? You some kind'a rimjob loving?"
"You think you're something, Pinocchio? I once used defibrillators on myself. I've put shards of glass in my fuckin' eye. I've jumped from a high-rise building using only a raincoat as a parachute and broke both legs upon landing- I still had to pretend I was in a fucking Cirque du Soleil show!"
"Always a smart man who shows his enemies respect. Keep's you alive when they finally catch you and hold the knife to your throat. But then, I suppose you wouldn't know that, being a stupid robot and all. You probably won't even give a shit when we do unplug you."
"Get yourself together, woman! This ain't how a soldier of your caliber acts. You panic any longer, and I'm gonna end up carrying your ass. And I ain't got the back for that, so I'll make Rock do it. Point is, cool it. You got a full team of heat-packing motherfuckers on your side, you'll get your eyes back."
"I'm going to get shit to make a raft out of, you dumb animals. You lazy ass holes better help a whole lot because only people I like get to ride."
"Shoot it with what, your dick? You see any guns laying around?"

Russel Washington

Contents

Background[]

Fallout: Hinterlands[]

Fallout: New York "At World's Fair"[]

Fallout: Prophecy[]

Personality[]

As Hades[]

Skills[]

As Hades[]

Trivia[]

Quotes[]

Appearances[]

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