The Superhuman Gambit

 is a Fallout 3 quest. It is also an Xbox 360/PC achievement and PlayStation 3 Trophy.

Quest Objectives and Walkthrough
The town of Canterbury Commons has become the battleground of two self-proclaimed "superheroes" - the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist. Its inhabitants are not very happy about it and want you to help them get rid of them.

Upon arriving in Canterbury Commons, the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist will be engaged in a brawl. Once the dust clears, Uncle Roe will speak to you, asking you to handle the ordeal. With a speech check, you can double the pay, from 200 to 400 caps. After you have accepted the quest, speak to Derek Pacion. He gives you the best info on where to find them. The AntAgonizer lives in a cave north of town and the Mechanist lives south of town in an old robot factory. (Both locations will be marked on your map.) With the Child at Heart perk, you can ask Derek for their weaknesses. The Mechanist doesn't harm the innocent, and other than the royal guard, the AntAgonizer's ants are weak.

AntAgonizer's Lair
If you decide to take out the AntAgonizer, you head to the AntAgonizer's Lair north of town. Inside, keep an eye out for frag mines. (The path to the right immediately upon entering the cave leads to random equipment that is guarded by a combat shotgun trap.) Down the stairs and to the right is an empty room. A button on the wall lowers a staircase to a cave. Continue through the cave, killing a few ants and you'll soon reach her lair. A flamer is excellent for genocide in the tunnels, and even at level 18 the tunnels are far easier to access than the Mechanist's forge (with sentries, Mr. Gutsys and turrets).

Alternatively, you can sneak in the back entrance - a pipe to the west of the entrance at the top of the same mountain of rocks that the main entrance is on (requires a lockpick skill of 50.) This route bypasses all of the ants in the tunnels. It is also possible to use this entrance if you pickpocketed the AntAgonizer's key during the brawl when first entering town.

Once in her lair, there are no ants to fight, just the AntAgonizer. There are several ways to interact with her at this point:


 * If you have already received the Mechanist's armor and are wearing it, after a brief introduction she will attack the player, believing you to be the Mechanist.


 * If you have the Mechanist's armor, but are not wearing it, you have the option of giving it to her. You will be awarded with the Ant's Sting, a knife that poisons an enemy for an additional 4 damage per second for 10 seconds, and negative karma (as she remains a delusional "supervillain").


 * By firing on her, or speaking with her and being aggressive, you can engage her in battle. Killing the AntAgonizer will not affect your karma.


 * Speaking with her, you can choose to help her destroy the Mechanist. The Mechanist will barge into her lair and you'll have to fight him.


 * With a high enough Speech skill, coupled with her real name given to you by Joe Porter, you have the option to convince her see the error of her ways. This is an extremely difficult speech check and may require several reloads to avoid a fight. Make it easier on yourself and wear items such as the Regulator coat to give you a Charisma boost (on normal difficulty with around 60 speech will get you a 30% chance, so take all the advantages you can). If you succeed, she will give up her career as a supervillian, hand you her costume, and leave quietly. Be sure to keep the costume if you plan to also convince the Mechanist to end his "career" - he will want to destroy it.


 * With the Lady Killer perk you can gain the 'speech' outcome listed above regardless of how low your speech skill is.


 * If you have been to Hubris Comics and read the note to the editor about AntAgonizer's canceled Grognak the Barbarian comic, you can use this to point out that she can still be redeemed. Doing so will yield good karma. This bypasses the gender-specific perk and means you don't need to make the very tough speech check. You will also receive her armor. ( Does work on 360.)

Mechanist's Forge
The Mechanist's Forge is located just south of town on higher ground, inside the Robot Repair Center.

To reach his hideout without having to fight through his robotic security, you can lockpick the elevator near the entrance with a skill of 75 or above, bypassing the heavily guarded stairs. Otherwise, the facility is broken up into four sections: Office (left of Entrance), two Maintenance areas (Sector A and B, which are connected by a control room on the upper level) and the Forge (where the Mechanist is hiding). Sector B is closest to the entrance (metal door past the elevator), and the Forge entrance is on the upper level of Sector A.

The security terminal for Sector B is in the control room on the upper level, which allows you to disable the automatic turrets and security robots. The security terminal for Sector A is located in a small control room near the back of the bay, close to the Forge entrance (upper level). From this terminal, you can disable the automatic turrets in this room, as well as emit an emergency pulse explosion that will destroy any active robots in this sector.

Once you enter the forge, activate the coffee maker to reveal the Mechanist's lair. You then need to activate one of the little gears to the right of the door. Lying, Congressional Style is sitting on the desk in this room. While you're here, there's a huge amount of scrap metal and energy cells to be found in the facility (including a Nikola Tesla and You book in Sector A). The book is on a desk next to a toolbox on the ground floor next to the conveyor belt. On the desk there are two already dead Protectrons. There is also a larger than average wrench in his room.

The sequence of numerous hidden doors opening to reveal the inner lair is pretty fun (six, including the initial bare wall), a homage to MST3K.

Once in the Mechanist's lair you have several options that echo the interactions with the AntAgonizer:


 * If you are wearing the AntAgonizer's armor, he will believe you to be her and attack you.


 * If you are not wearing the AntAgonizer's armor, but have it in your possession, you may give the armor to the Mechanist. The Mechanist will give you Protectron's Gaze, a laser pistol that fires bursts of laser fire like a shotgun, and you'll receive negative karma (as he remains a delusional "superhero").


 * Attacking the Mechanist or using threatening speech, will of course result in the Mechanist turning hostile and fighting you. Killing the Mechanist does not result in negative karma.


 * If you choose to help him defeat the AntAgonizer, she will appear in his room and you will have to fight her.


 * Convincing the Mechanist to end his superhero career and leave the town alone will grant you his suit and positive karma. The Black Widow or the Child at Heart perks give a dialogue option to tell him he is scaring the whole town. With that, he will give you his suit and leave.

WARNING! If you plan on taking the Mechanist's or the Antagonizer's costume using a speech check, make sure you do not wait too long or else the Mechanist(or Antagonizer) will disappear and you will not be able to receive their unique weapon.

Completion
Once you defeat either superhero, return to Uncle Roe to receive 200 caps. [400 if you got successful speech]. If you speak with Uncle Roe after dealing with just one of them, the other will disappear. If Uncle Roe has been killed somehow, talking to Derek Pacion will allow you to claim your reward.

Should you succeed in talking both of them into ending their "careers" (or just leaving Canterbury Commons) you will receive 200 more caps; 400 even if you didn't succeed in the speech attempt when given the quest, or 600 if you did.

Alternatively, you may kill one or both immediately upon entering town (they're invincible for a short time while talking, but can be harmed soon after). Doing this grants you whatever that one had on him/her, as well as 400 caps from Uncle Roe (without ever needing a Speech check). (Alternatively, you can sneak up to both of them, and reverse pickpocket mines or grenades. Regardless of how far along they are in the scene, they appear to be vulnerable to this 'attack'.) NOTE: You will NOT receive the experience reward for this quest if you use this method before talking to Uncle Roe. This is most likely because you didn't officially receive the quest before solving the problem. It is possible to immediately run to Uncle Roe's house and get the quest before their brawl has started, leave, and immediately kill them.

It is also possible to successfully talk to both parties by talking them out of their fighting ways and collecting both sets of armor off each one of them, however, you will not be rewarded with any weapons nor can you find these weapons in their lairs.

Alternately to what is written above, you can take out one party, retrieve their armor and give it to the opposite party for the weapon you want. Then kill the party to whom you just gave the armor and loot the corpse. It should have both costumes on it for you to take, as well as one of the special weapons for you to take.

Finally, if you wish to end the quest as quickly as possible, simply kill one (or both) of the heroes (sustaining a karma loss) when you first encounter them. If you do so, Roe will comment on this when you speak to him, but will still give you the reward.

Obtaining both costumes and both rewards
This method will get you both the Ant Sting and the Protectron's Gaze, as well as both costumes and an extra helmet for each one. This also gets you some bad karma, but nothing that can't be easily fixed with donations to churches or water beggars. You will need two sets of armor with a DR above 12 and two sets of headwear with a DR above 4.


 * Go to the Mechanist and talk to him. Do not convince him to give up his ways or agree to help him. Reverse pickpocket a set of armor and headwear on him, then leave and come back. His attire will change and you will be able to pickpocket his special armor and helmet.
 * Go to the Antagonizer and talk to her. Be sure to drop the Mechanist's armor and helmet before speaking to her. Do the same thing as before and reverse pickpocket the other set of armor and headwear. When she puts it on, you will be able to pickpocket her special armor and helmet as well.
 * Pick up the Mechanist's armor but leave the helmet where it is. Talk to the Antagonizer and give her the armor. She will reward you with the Ant's Sting. She will leave to wander the wastes. You MUST kill the Antagonizer in order to complete the quest at this point. When you loot her body, you will find the Mechanist's armor with an extra helmet to go along with it.
 * Go back to the Mechanist with the Antagonizer's armor in your inventory. Give him the armor and he will reward you with the Protectron's Gaze. Kill the Mechanist and retrieve the Antagonizer's armor with an extra helmet.
 * Talk to Uncle Roe at Canterbury Commons to complete the quest.

Bugs

 * Sometimes the Mechanist's sentry bot will stay in the same position for the rest of the game, it can be handy as it makes a very efficient guard for the town (PS3 or 360)
 * If you have gained the Mechanist's suit and wear it in the AntAgonizer's lair AFTER convincing her to give up and gaining her suit, she will STILL attack you thinking you are the Mechanist and claim to be the Ant Queen (without her outfit), even though that part of the quest has been completed and she has supposedly given up her ways. (unconfirmed)


 * There have been reports that if you do not stay to watch the event between the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist and then immediately speak to Uncle Roe, that all three characters disappear. If this occurs, the quest can not be finished. (Confirmed XBox 360)


 * Sometimes when following the AntAgonizer after she leaves her lair, she may just wander off west and loop around south toward the capital. (unconfirmed)


 * The AntAgonizer's health sometimes won't decrease despite being hit numerous times. This occurs even in her lair. Only known fix is to continue hitting her until she randomly dies. (confirmed XBox 360, PS3, PC)


 * If you enter Canterbury Commons and kill either the AntAgonizer or the Mechanist immediately (or both), Uncle Roe will thank you and give you 400 caps but you will not get the achievement on the Xbox 360 version; additionally Three Dog will continue to report on the situation at Canterbury Commons as though nothing has changed and neither the AntAgonizer nor the Mechanist have been killed - continuing to report that there are "a couple of costumed kooks," etc. An easy way around this is to go into Uncle Roe's House before they are finished fighting receive the quest then go back outside and kill one or both of them.


 * When first meeting the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist, if standing near the AntAgonizer, graphics seem to stretch back and forth. This may be due to a overload or just a bug never fixed. (unconfirmed)


 * If you were to get a one-hit kill on either the AntAgonizer or The Mechanist while they're babbling at the beginning of the quest, the ants and the robots will act very odd, often wandering around Canterbury Commons, getting stuck. They more often than not won't all follow their respective leaders back to their respective lairs. (unconfirmed)


 * It is possible to get the AntAgonizer to give you two sets of AntAgonizer's Costume if you have the Lady Killer perk. Do this by first making her realize the error of her ways with the Lady Killer speech option. When she thanks you, tell her she won't make it without her costume. She will say, "Oh no!," and end the conversation. You can now talk to her again (unlike if you choose the "You will be fine in your new life" option). Make her realize the error of her ways a second time, this time using a normal speech check (the Lady Killer speech option is gone). It is possible this only works after you have helped her defeat the Mechanist in her lair. (unconfirmed)


 * On the Xbox 360 version after you convince the AntAgonizer to leave, she will travel to Megaton. If you have blown up Megaton before this quest, she will enter through a door inaccessible to those not able to enter the door underground (all aside from PC users). This will make the optional objective impossible to complete (kill the AntAgonizer).


 * On the Xbox 360 version, as far as I know, after killing the AntAgonizer without talking to her, if you leave via the ladder in the back the game will freeze. This cannot be fixed; it can only be bypassed by going out the front entrance.


 * When you first come to Canterbury Commons and you see the Mechanist and the AntAngonizer fighting, when you target the ants, they will have no name and be blank. (Confirmed XBox 360)


 * If you start out in Canterbury Commons with the two fighting and Uncle Roe is out, you can still talk to Roe and have him talk as if everybody had just left. Even after the conversation, they still duke it out until they need to stop. (unconfirmed)


 * There have been some reports on the Xbox 360 version that when you team up with the Mechanist and you have to defend the Forge, he will wander off and disappear. When you talk to Uncle Roe after killing the AntAgonizer, it shows you that the Mechanist has died; therefore you are unable to receive the Protectron's Gaze.


 * The AntAgonizer has been seen near Vault 106 with some ants (seen on PC and Xbox)


 * The Mechanist, upon the PC's entering of his forge, may find that he is inside a wall.