The Good, the Bad, and the Insane

A Fallout/Myst Crossover

Prologue

Six was dreaming. Not what you would call an unusual occurrence, but the content was something of note this time around. Six's run-of-the-mill dreams were the common sort for someone who had seen as much as she had in her lifetime. Blood, guts, screams, and walking into a meeting with the bloodthirsty warlord of Caesar's Legion sans clothes. Stuff like that, but this time was something that reminded her strongly of when she went on the Sorrow's spirit quest to slay Ghost of She.

The colors were saturated and melted together as she walked along an ever changing landscape. Desert into beach into snow into crystal caves into a drowned forest with healthy green trees that soared far above her head. Six watched as they moved and twisted together to form one great tree big enough for a whole race of people to live and thrive on. With no warning it burst into flames. The ashes fell from the sky as the tree disintegrated and formed a new desert. Six continued on the path because she knew she shouldn't linger long. Forward, always forward. At the end of the twisting road was a young tattooed woman who looked for all the world like she had been waiting there for an eternity, or maybe no time at all in the grand scheme of things. Six opened her mouth to greet her, but a thunderous noise and a red flash cut across the heavens.

Courier Six woke up.

An alarm shrieked its banshee song loud enough to drown out the annoyed shouts coming from the various machines that called the Big Mountain's Sink their home. Six jumped out of bed, or tried to. Her feet tangled in her blanket and she ended sprawled across the metal floor instead, the curses spewing from her were lost to the chaos. She shoved the blanket away, and made a second attempt to get to her feet with much more success.

Six found herself glad she hadn't bothered to get undressed before succumbing to the bone tiring exhaustion that had caused her to make a tactical retreat to the Sink lest she collapse in the middle of the Mojave. All she needed before running out the door was her signature duster which she had tossed on the table with her bag when she had stumbled in hours before.

As she was leaving the Sink, Roxie darted up to her and followed hot on her heels as the cyber dog usually did when Six got it into her head to have one of her rare visits to the research facility. Rex would have been right with her if he and pups weren't off visiting Joshua and the Dead Horses in Zion.

The alarms appeared to have only been going off in the Sink because the hallway was dead silent once the door to her living quarters was shut and effectively blocking the noise. Had the doors leading into the Think Tank been the type you could kick down they'd be off their hinges with a new boot print decorating the white metal. Instead, Six settled for the most pissed off face she could muster as she slammed the button to open the door.

The Think Tank was quite simply a mess, and the nut job brains running the place were suspiciously absent amid the chaos. The usually pristine and organized lab was a clutter of thick metal cables, tesla coils, and so many random bit and bobs it would have made any prospector go weak in the knees. In the center of it was an ugly looking machine that stretched all the way up to the ceiling. The thing was throwing out sparks like it was New Years on the Strip, and smoke spewed from every point the cables joined to it. A great ball of static sat in a cylindrical chamber near the base, twisting in a mesmerizing dance. The whole room felt as hot as the Mojave at high noon.

Six shook out her stupor to dart for the cluster of computers that she hoped were the control consoles. Roxie barked in alarm as she ignored the sparks showering down around her. Once there, she took one look at the large switch stuck in the 'On' position, and flipped it down. Relief washed through her when the thing started to slowly settle.

"What have you people done now?" Six groaned, rubbing her eyes. Images of the cazadores and nightstalkers filled her mind only to have them morph into some horrifying hybrid of a deathclaw and a fire gecko. Maybe it was just a death-ray? She could work with that. Crossbred monsters that could easily escape captivity? Not so much.

She looked up towards the elevated part to see the doors to the scientists' quarter were shut and probably locked. One glance at her pip-boy clock confirmed they were getting their batteries charged. Stupid bastards hadn't even heard a thing.

Roxie barked again, and wandered towards the machine with her nose to the ground. She stopped and then straightened up with her head cocked to the side. Before Six could say anything at all, Roxie broke into a run. The Courier could only watch with her jaw hanging open as the cyber dog rushed into the ball of dwindling electricity in the center of the machine. The thing thundered out a deafening bellow as the dog passed through, and for the briefest of seconds Six saw a desert just as the dog disappeared.

That had to be a trick of light.

Six stared down the power switch, and then back up at the slowly dying machine. Shaking her head was the only outward indication that she knew what a bad idea it was to turn the thing back on. She did it anyway.

The thing hummed, getting louder and louder as power surged back through the cables that fed it. The machine gained more momentum turning on than it did power down. The whole thing was alive again and looking ready to explode in seconds, and that was all it took for Roxie to reappear back into the Think Tank.

The switch was jammed back down with so much force it was a wonder it didn't snap off. "Roxie!" Six shouted, more terrified than angry. The dog just wagged her tail and bounded up to her, a thick book in her mouth. She dropped it at her master's feet and sat down with her tongue hanging out and panting. Clearly, she was fine.

"Boone told me teaching you guys to hunt down books for me would one day get us in trouble. I never believed him until now. Seriously Roxie, what the hell? Jumping into one of the Peanut Gallery's creations when we don't even know what it does is just plain dumb," Six ranted as she picked up the book. Roxie went through all that trouble, might as well have a look. It was leather bound and had definitely seen better days. She ran her fingers over the spine, she had never seen leather like it before. "Myst, huh?" Six flipped open the cover, and nearly dropped it. A moving picture was inside of it showing a flyby of a strange island, it went by faster than any vertibird she had ever seen.

Cautiously, Six reached out a hand and touched the picture...and disappeared from the Big Mountain Research Facility.

Prologue End

Author's Note:

Yeah, it's not the best start. I'm always terrible with beginnings, but bear with me. I swear this is going somewhere.

Anyway, this is just something I'm doing for fun in my spare time. Don't expect consistent updates or anything like that, it'll be updated when it's updated. On the note of doing this for fun, this is going to be a very AU version of Myst. It'll start out much the same way as the game did, but it's going to branch off as Six does things her own special way using her own special skills. Also, its been a long time since I played any of the Myst games so locations aren't going to be one hundred percent accurate. But don't worry! I still remember the plot, characters, and the general feel of the various ages. I'm also using various Myst Wikis to jog my memory for the things I don't remember too well. If you see something that is different just remind yourself this is an AU.

Thanks for reading,

Home On The Wastes

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!