"Mmmm, kinda. You'd be down for longer than me." Thek looks at their joined hands. "You're really hanging in there, huh?"

"You didn't give me a name yet."

"Kin usually pick their own names."

"Kin?"

"Synths! Kin. My kin. Everyone here picked their own names."

An entire town of synths and the Institute only knew about Thek. Huh.

K9 ponders for a moment. "Kin."

"...yeah?"

"No, I like Kin. For a name. I like the word."

"Ahhhh..." she looks over at Fred. He shrugs. She shrugs back. 

She turns a huge grin on K9- on Kin. "Okay! Kin it is. Welcome to the family, Kin."

"Thank you, Thek."

They shake hands.

Elsewhere...

“Hold her still,” the bandit orders, laughing.

His friends barely have to move. 

The ghoul barely stirs, focused as she was on sucking every bit of air from the Jet inhaler. It hadn’t lasted very long, why is it Jet never lasts? Never enough in the capsule. 

The leader laughs at her struggle. She wasn't a pretty thing, ghouls are horrible to look at, but she was pliable enough. Wasn't fighting back.

Made things easier.

He steps between her legs, her dress already hiked up around her waist.

"There's none left!" Leena yells, throwing the Jet inhaler at his head.

"Agh, fuck!" She manages to hit him directly in his eye. "Hold her still. Fuck!"

A little cut bleeds straight into his eye.

Leena doesn't fight when the bandits pull her arms down, she just huffs grumpily.

"You said you had heaps," she pouts.

"You're lucky I don't fucking kill you for that," the bandit says. He's wiping blood out of his eye, cursing the whole time.

"I wouldn't have done it if you gave me the Jet you said you had."

The bandit grabs her face and forces her to look at him. "What the fuck do you think this is? You think you get to tell us what to do? Look at your fucking situation, zombie. You don't have any power here."

"I don wan powah, I wan Jeht," Leena says, muffledly.

The bandit growls, and raises his hand to slap her when-

There is a loud, terrifying roar.

Leena giggles. "Oooooooh, that doesn't sound good."

"What was that?" One of the bandits says, already loosening his grip on Leena.

The lead one scoffs. "Nothin' that can get to us here. S'probably hunting some ferals." 

He steps back between Leena's legs, tugging her closer.