A/N: Myst III: Exile/Marvel crossover. Spoilers for Exile Ages: Edanna, Voltaic, Amateria, and J'nanin. AU, no Atrus, no Saveedro, and no Narayan. Obviously, this means that the messages will be different, as will the journal parts. rating for language and explicit threats of violence.
"Either you are with us, or you are against us," Fury stated.
"I see. You, and whoever you work for, can't stand the thought of me operating in my jurisdiction, exercising my rights as I choose. Very well, Mr. Fury. Please follow me. I have something to show you. I can assure you that it is safeā¦so long as you don't try anything amazingly stupid," I stated, rising from my seat behind the desk.
We entered my special private elevator, after I punched in the security code. When the elevator reached the bottom, another code was required to open the doors again. When we reached the end of a long and intermittently lit hallway, I entered a final code.
"Very few know of this place, Mr. Fury. Fewer still have experienced it." The door had opened to reveal a book in a strange, egglike cage made of brass, with a large enough opening in the front to reach into the cage, and withdraw the book. There was a strange apparatus built into the book that made it very difficult to remove the book, yet allow easy access otherwise.
"This is a linking book. It is something that I alone can create. Even the other wand wavers haven't the ability to create such as this. I've used it many times, and I can assure you that it is perfectly safe. To use it, simply place your hand on the moving image in the book," I explained.
"You do it first," Fury growled.
I shrugged. "Fair enough." I opened the book, placed my hand on the panel, and vanished from the room.
After several seconds standing alone at the arrival point, Fury materialized nearby.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"The island of J'nanin," I answered. I casually spun an optics post, then peered through it at the deactivated light filter. "Well, have fun." With that, I began running, and I didn't stop until I had reached the tusk in the center of the island, and slid the deadbolt behind me. After that, I opened the door into the observatory, and closed it behind me, just as Fury began pounding on the outer door. Eventually, he gave up on the pounding, and walked away.
The room I was in was a circular room, with a railing around the center of the room, which dropped down about ten feet, and didn't look at all pleasant to land in. The railing was open on one side, and there was a machine on one side of the railing, and a blue button on the other end of the railing.
The button would cause a recording to start playing, and the machine would scan a sheet of paper, looking for one of three special symbols.
In the center of the dropped floor was a brass egg cage, with a book on the platform inside. The first symbol in the machine would raise the egg, the second would open the egg, splitting it vertically in four pieces, and the third would extend a walkway to the open egg.
I proceeded to enter one of the three symbols, and waited as the egg rose, and a projection of me appeared in the ceiling, and chattered on. I didn't pay attention, as the recording was for the benefit of other people.
I entered the next symbol, and the egg split open while my projection chattered some more, and then I entered the final symbol, which caused the walkway to extend towards the egg. This then, was the point of no return. Once the walkway only had its own weight again, the system would reset, and the symbols would have to be entered again. For this reason, I waited for Fury to show up. I wanted him to see me leaving.
I started pacing, but stopped when I saw the elevator car arrive. But it was turned the other way, so I settled in to wait some more. Again the elevator arose, but it was still facing the other way, so I smiled to myself, and kept pacing. The elevator came up a third time, but I was next to the door, so I could easily see that while Fury had obviously figured out the workings, he hadn't been inside to test it. A moment later, the elevator descended, then came up again, the fourth trip since I had locked myself in here. I was ready though. I stepped onto the walkway, placed my hand on the book, and returned to my office.
A/N: Care to review? I'd love to hear what you believe I've done right, wrong, or strange.
