DISCLAIMER- only gonna say it once -
Do not own. Additional information is given at the bottom. Canon breaks are 'usually' explained there as well, corresponding with the numbers of * there are.
Any questions you have should be answered in following chapters, but it will sometimes be difficult keeping the individual plot-things straight. Sometimes cannon needs to be twisted a little, so expect a little of that.
Also, no beta. Raise any editing issues in the comments and I'll fix it.
Enjoy~
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*DIAL CLICK*
*static fading into upbeat music*
Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: HUMANS -KRTZ-
One day, WAR broke out between the two races.
After a long battle, they were victorious.
They sealed the -KRTZ- underground with a -KRTZ-
-garbled noise-
*radio static*
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Rin frowned, pushing up her sweaty goggles to stare at the rolling static of her Pip-Boy screen. Just when she found a station that broadcasted something other than some 'classic' station, her Pip-Boy glitches. All 'Boys flickered from time to time - no matter the level of care and maintenance, they were old machines. Glitches like this have occurred from time to time, but this static felt... different.
(She firmly ignored the ache in her chest the words on the radio caused.)
Regardless of 'feelings', whatever was wrong with it would have to wait until there was time. The open roads of the Wasteland were no place to fix her precious equipment. She'd crack it open to examine the components when she could, but she needed to be in a secure location first. Fortunately, for now, there was a simple fix.
With a liberal use of percussive maintenance, the screen flickered back to normal. Turning off the radio to the sound of patriotic tin flutes, Rin adjusted her goggles and the rifle slung over her shoulder before whistling sharply.
Running up to her side from behind, her faithful companion Dogmeat chuffed happily at her. In a blue bandana, custom leather armor, and goggles, her canine companion was the only one who stayed by her side when she left Washington. Patting his head fondly, the one known as the Lone Wanderer continued down the broken asphalt road of the highway.
Meanwhile, the overhead traffic road signs were unreadable static, flickering black and white with occasional flashes of letters. The sign suddenly flickered slowly to a stop: Ebott, XX miles.
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*Many years later...*
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Sitting up with a start, Rin aimed her pistol into the empty room. After several moments of aiming her gun, she lowered her weapon with a sigh. Setting the gun on the mattress, she yawned before rubbing her eyes tiredly. Shes stood up from the somewhat-clean mattress (totally clean beds were, unfortunately, a rare luxury), and stretched her back.
Suddenly, the room shook with the sound of an explosion outside. Swearing, she grabbed her gun and snuck to the window.
The empty roads of the cul-de-sac shook as the large, horned lizard beast raged. Pacing the streets, the grey-colored deathclaw suddenly picked up a car. Letting out a thundering roar, the beast threw the chunk of steel into a house, demolishing it instantly. Her Pip-Boy hummed on her wrist and identified it as a legendary. How wonderful.
The neighborhood was at the base of a large forested mountain with an inactive satellite tower atop it. An empty house was a convenient place to sleep for the night - after clearing out the infestations of bugs and mole rats, the peaceful feeling of the valley was almost comfortable. She had intended to activate the tower before heading to the city to scavenge for ammo and caps, though, judging by the high-level deathclaw outside, she would have to rethink that plan.¹
Watching from the second story window as it circled the neighborhood, Rin grimaced as it threw a rusted chunk of metal at an empty building, destroying it completely. She needed to leave without taking on the beast outside, because she was desperately low on ammo. The rounds she had left for her rifle and handgun had no chance in hell for taking that monster down, and using the last Fat Boy round was a last-ditch measure: if it didn't kill it in one shot, it would mutate it, making it much, much stronger², which would be a disaster.
The deathclaw chucked another car, roaring angrily as it collapsed another building. She decided she needed to leave immediately, or else the beast would bring the building down on top of them. Coming down the stairs, she was met by Dogmeat panting anxiously. She shushed him softly as she continued on to the back door. Grabbing the handle on the back of his armor to keep him close, she opened the door quietly and moved with him across the yard.
They ducked behind the white picket fence line right before the building behind them exploded: the deathclaw charging through, destroying the house in seconds. Sneaking along the fence line with Dogmeat, Rin ran her free hand her grenade pouch. With the these, make it into the mountain's tree line
Hearing the thundering footsteps coming close, Rin pulled the pin and threw behind her as far as she could. Six. Sneaking along the fence line until she was as close as possible, five, she paused and started to think.
Four. The tree line was at least. Which was bad.
Three. The beast would definitely see them running in the time it took. Even worse.
Two. They would just have to run very, very fast then, wouldn't they?
One. The grenade detonated, attracting the raging beast's attention. It charged towards the site, ground quaking beneath its feet.
Go. Rin ran for the treeline; Dogmeat needed very little encouragement to sprint beside his master. But, even at a full sprint, they were still only halfway through the tree line before she heard the deathclaw discover her.
The trees would hopefully stop him. Judging by how intent the deathclaw seemed to eat her face, however, she guessed that this was not the case. They would just have to keep ahead of it, and it would hopefully lose interest in them... probably.
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*Mt. Ebott*
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Coming to a stop in the shade of a tree, Rin put her hands on her knees and started to gasp for air. Catching a glimpse of the Pip-Boy screen, she groaned. She had been trying to escape that bastard for five fucking hours. After her initial escape, the grenade distraction method unfortunately never worked again, which left her with only one grenade and one very pissed off ten-foot-tall lizard monster.
This particular deathclaw was dead set on killing her. Every time she hid, it takes her, destroying everything in its path to get to her. She needed to dodge flying trees more than once. It didn't help that the trees seemed to become incredibly thick the further up the mountain she went, to the point that it forced her to go downhill.
'Which about describes my life right now.' She snorted at her own joke, causing another harsh coughing fit. As the fit subsided, she decided that she needed to keep moving - it was probably ridiculous to assume the deathclaw was still hunting her after getting away, but she would rather be safe than dead.
What she really needed to find was a way up the mountain to get to that radio tower. There had to be a path up the mountain, though she had not seen any during her escape. Her best shot was probably making her way to the base of the mountain to look there.
Looking for her dog, she found him a small distance ahead, panting tiredly on the clay of what looked like an obvious trail up the mountain. Rin looked at Dogmeat blandly, to which he thumped his tail on the ground happily. Crouching down, she rubbed his head fondly before grabbing her canteen and taking a long, heavenly drink.
Cupping her hand to let Dogmeat drink for a moment, she stiffened slightly when she heard crunching footsteps and rustling from the bushes further up the path. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced and saw a head of hair disappearing behind some tall grass. If this was what she thought it was, then she was probably in a lot of trouble - it would not be the first time she had literally, and unknowingly, stumbled into some sort of ambush. But this time, she wouldn't let them act first.
"Hey boy," she whispered softly at her dog, who looked up at her intently. She nodded slightly toward the bushes, "Fetch."
Dogmeat got to his feet in record time before sprinting at the bushes, jumping into them and knocking over whoever was there with a satisfying thump. After securing her canteen while shaking her other hand dry, she then loosely aimed her handgun and started to approach the shuffling brush.
Pushing aside the dry foliage, Rin found Dogmeat standing over a child, snuffling around their face with an occasional lick. As amusing a scene as it was, she was simply stunned. It had been a long, long time she had encountered any friendly people... well, friendly as in anyone who wasn't trying to kill her, at least. But a child, especially since they were in the middle of what was essentially nowhere, was concerning.
With that thought in mind, she shook herself out of her stupor. Holstering her weapon, she went around the bush and snapped her fingers sharply. "Dogmeat, come!"
Her faithful companion literally skipped to her side, before bounding excitedly back over to the child, knocking them over again as they attempted to sit up. She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She supposed she couldn't have expected anything else, really. Her big, strong, and dangerous dog loved children.
Grabbing his armor handle, she pulled him off. Now that Dogmeat wasn't hovering over them, the kid sat up and gave her a wary look. She gave them a smile - and internally grimaced in concern. They were maybe eight or nine with a sickly-looking yellowish skin. Though the large dirty blue-and-purple striped sweater hid most of their frame from view, judging by their thin, slightly-sunken face and eyes, they were definitely starving, and probably dehydrated. This exceeded all of her medical knowledge, but she could help them until they got to a doctor.
Holding Dogmeat firmly behind her (he whined pitifully and struggled), Rin crouched and offered the kid cautiously watching her a smile. The kid looked like they were about to run at the slightest hint of trouble, so she had to approach this carefully.
"Hey sorry kid, my dog here just ran away from me suddenly. Guess he was really excited to meet'cha, huh?" The kid nodded with a slight smile as they got to their feet. "I was kinda surprised to see him run of like that. He didn't hurt ya, did he?" A hesitant shake of the head. "That's good then! I'm... well, you can just call me Rin, and ya might have heard that this dork's name is Dogmeat." She said fondly, shaking him lightly by his armor. "He's not usually that much trouble, so I'm real sorry 'bout that. But between you and me, he's really just-" Dogmeat suddenly pulled.
Crouching while keeping hold of a dog is, upon reflection, a very bad idea³. Off-balance, Rin tipped sideways into the brambles of the bushes that the child had originally hidden behind.
Swearing under her breath, she finally stood out of the uncooperative foliage, she started to pull loose branches out from her armor as she found Dogmeat wagging his tail happily. The stood next to him, petting his neck softly. Feeling her anger melt away, Rin huffed and glared playfully at her dog. "I was going to say attention hog, but I can think of a couple of other things to call you right now. You're really proud of yourself, aren't you?"
Dogmeat whuffed in agreement, making the kid laugh as Rin scowled at her rather intelligent companion. Her dog usually seemed to understand what she was saying, and followed any orders he was given given - but he was also extremely mischievous. But he also had a big weakness.
"That's fine then," Rin said with exaggerated distain as she turned away. "Just for that, I'm going to have to share my extra deer jerkey with someone else."
The canine whined pitifully as the kid giggled softly, consoling Dogmeat by petting him.
Suddenly, an angry, echoing roar shook the forest, scattering the ravens in the trees with a shower of dirty black feathers. Dogmeat was instantly on alert, standing in stoic silence as the small child hugged his neck tightly.
Rin froze in place as she started working the problem frantically in her mind. From what she could tell from her earlier run, the path she was on was probably the only path that led further up the mountain. And until she got to the mountain top to check, she would just have to assume this was the only way up - and the only way down.
However, judging by the two answering roars echoing from downhill that shook the earth, going up was going to be their only option.
Grabbing her rifle from off her back, Rin crouched in front of the crouched again. "We don't have much time, and we're going to need to move fast. Think you're up for a piggy back ride, kid?"
They looked surprised before nodding. Running around, they jumped and latched their small arms around her neck in a death-grip. Standing, she helped the kid adjust with a wince - they had a surprisingly strong grip. Then, she started to run, Dogmeat faithfully at her heels.
After a few minutes of running in silence, Rin cleared her throat. "So, uh anyways, I just realized I forgot to ask you your name back there. I won't be able to get away with calling ya 'kid' or 'hey, you!' forever." She joked.
She felt them giggle beforem becoming quiet. She waited a long moment, and was about to break the silence when the kid whispered their name softly. "Frisk, eh?" She said with a small smile. "I think that's a very nice name."
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*21XX*
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They had been on the trail for a couple hours, and had been making good distance away from the encroaching monsters. At least, that was until the trail hit a dead end.
Frisk jump off her back as she came to a stop, though Rin felt it over the growing pit of icy dread her stomach had become. When they had been running the path, she noticed that the mountain had many more cliffs and sheer drops than she had expected such a mountain to have. Unfortunately, while the path had led to further up the mountain, the trail ended at a rock wall. Though there was a small cave, from what she could tell it went nowhere.
They were trapped. And they were still being hunted.
Swearing, she quickly searched her Pip-Boy for anything that would help, but came up with only one option. Equipping her seldom-used mini-nuke launcher, Rin rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath in and out. Even though it was an extremely powerful weapon, using it was like a double-edged knife. If fired wrong, users could misjudge the warhead's blast, killing the user and the target⁴.
While loading her launcher, she decided to address her temporary charge. "Alrighty then kiddo, I'm gonna tell ya what's about to happen." She looked up. "We're gonna move back-" Her throat suddenly closed.
Standing at the edge of a hole inside the cave, Frisk stood precariously close to the edge of a large hole. Initially dismissed, the small cave ended at the hole in the ground. They stood unnaturally still for a moment before starting to sway forward.
Dropping her weapon to free her hands, Rin suddenly moved. Running over to the hole, she slid and grabbed Frisk around their waist and pulled them into a firm hug. The kid struggled fiercely in her grip as she pushed herself away from the hole. When they were a small distance away from the hole, she stopped and held the struggling child and waited.
When Frisk stopped struggling to get out of her hold, she slowly started releasing her firm hug. Rin sighed and held them in a regular hug for a moment before releasing them completely. Grabbing their upper arm, she picked them up and placed them on their feet before spinning them around (so they could no longer see the hole). Grabbing their shoulders, she shook them firmly.
"What the hell, kid?!" Frisk's glassy eyes blinked up at her for a moment before they shook their head. Rubbing at their eyes, they offered a quiet apology. Rin frowned in concern and hugged them.
Dogmeat growled angrily from the mouth of the cave, startling both of them. She cursed - out of time. Feeling the approaching footsteps, Rin stood and whistled for Dogmeat who quickly jogged over. Ushering him next to Frisk, she had them place a hand on his back handle.
She gave them a tight smile at their confused look. "Whatever happens, just... keep him right behind me, ok?" They nodded, and she ruffled their hair. Grabbing the launcher, Rin placed herself between her two charges and the cave entrance.
Their tension as the earthquake-like footsteps outside stopped suddenly. Aiming the nuke launcher at the entrance, Rin cautiously moved the group a couple steps backwards (unfortunately towards the hole). After a couple moments of silence, long fingers snaked around the rock and curved around the mouth of the cave. Rin held her breath as the deathclaw who had started the chase started to slowly round the corner as well
Without warning, the wall of rock on the either side of the natural doorway exploded inwards. Two deathclaws barreled through the solid rock, running straight towards the small group.
The next moments felt as if they were in slow motion.
Rin re-aimed the launcher even as the ground beneath them started to crack with the force of the deathclaws' steps. As she pulled the trigger, she felt Frisk grab her jumpsuit and pull backwards. Off-balance, launcher lifted as it fired. Rin watched in the same horrified awe one has as watching a train wreck - she couldn't tear her eyes away even as she felt her body begin to fall.
The nuclear warhead sailed past its targets - and instead hit the ceiling. The sharp crack of the rock was audible above the sound of the blast.
The shockwave approached and knocked her into the inky blackness of unconsciousness even as the Deathclaws bellowed angrily.
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*Ancient legends say that those who climb the mountain never return.*
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1-inspired-inspired by an actual Fallout event I experienced. Cleared out a neighborhood, went to sleep on second floor, and boom- hardass deathclaw outside, and I woke to the shaking the ground of angry deathclaw... who threw several cars when I first tried to run. I eventually killed him with literally all of my grenades, rarely-used explosives, and bullets I had on me, but it was mostly out of spite at that point.
2-honestly, if this was true, people would have to stop killing Deathclaws that way. Personally, if i see a Big Boi Deathclaw like that charging at me, i just distance myself, pull out my Fat Man launcher, aim, *wa-funk*, BIG BOOM, dead. So, it's a bit of a headcannon. Besides, legendary enemies in 4 always 'mutated' if not killed in the first couple shots (explained in my AN).
3-a very bad idea. I can still feel the almost-rugburn the cement gave me as i held onto my dog's collar. He had something in his mouth, I grabbed his collar, crouched to grab it, and continued to hold onto him as i looked at it. And when he tried to run around me to get to whatever-it-was, i fell rather hard. An unfortunate experience, but... Ehh... Knowing is half the battle i guess? Not going to do that again.
4-yea, nuke launchers are always hard to use, mostly from almost always killing myself by using them. First time it did, I kinda went 'well duck you too!' and sold them afterward for awhile. I stopped eventually when I realized how useful they were, but they are frustrating sometimes.
AN:
The Wanderer is based on a mixed setting survivalist mode: needs to sleep, eat, and drink, altered carry weight, and a similar repair system from 3, though Other Things are still being internally debated and decided later. The whole Fallout element will be a mix of 3 and 4, if only because I liked some things they did in 4 than in 3 and vice versa. Basically, a pretty reasonable survivor who travels lightly because of [REDACTED]... reasons.
And yes, she had a mini nuke launcher. If you want it justified, then A) see 2 above, and B) you CANNOT tell me that you have never done the same thing. I've kept a launcher and one or two nukes-and sometimes fast travel to get more of a particularly insane boss/enemies are absolutely flippin destroying me. Stated before, it's always a last-resort type of thing, and has honestly saved my sanity when i get situations such as the "oh shit, I've walked straight into a boss fight and he's super strong" or "I've been destroyed by these (insert enemy/enemies here) for literally an entire hour and I'm going insane".
The incredibly motivated to kill you Deathclaws featured here are also inspired by New Vegas, in which I, the low-leveled and incredibly unlucky bastard, literally stumbled into two (when another came out from behind a pipe to became three) and, naturally, quickly died. Quicksave then brutally screwed me over by saving extremely close. In the end, only one saw me and ended up chasing me. I saw a little broken shack in the middle of nowhere with an Interior, so I entered it to escape. It was actually pretty well stocked, so i went around and started to loot.
Then I heard the door open. Guess who followed me in and saw me immediately. After that death (because i stood zero chance in my tiny gladiator ring), I loaded inside the building and immediately prepped it for a fight - aka minefield galore. And then, of course, that fucker never came in that time - because deathclaws don't use doors, except apparently when they do.
Frisk will be kept gender neutral, mostly because I'm just not gonna head into that rabbit hole. On that note, i am also looking for some gender neutral descriptive terms for them, because i can't keep using child and kid every time. It's boring.
Everything should become pretty clear after awhile, too. Though i haven't quite decided the level of Awareness that they have on [REDACTED], though I believe that [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]- *FNAF 2 static*
...*cough*
Ah right. The rules. Sorry, but such spoilers are against my programming, and Reactions are harmful to my systems! But do not worry, because my normal hueman functions well be online shortly.
Ah speaking of!
ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMER:
And to all those who look at odd crossovers and shake their heads - whatever! I like odd crossovers, so long as they're done well. I'll try to keep it pretty realistic and true to form, though you really cannot keep everyone happy if you want to be sane. They're two different types of games fer fucks sake, not even the same graphics.