A/n I don't own any of these works, please support the official release.
"Old world blues became a saying meaning hope. Hope that the future will bring good"
-multiple sources
"Okay this is good doctor 0 crank up the power, 8 keep the terminals steady,
Klein hand me the wrench."barked Carter. Carter was known as the courier, a moniker in the mojave that meant he was the messiah of the west. Courier Six the last of strange packages in the mojave express going from a near death experience from the hands of a casino owner, to the most feared man in a matter of months. Currently he was working with the brains of big mountain to create a teleportation system for him to move quickly throughout the world. His goal was to find the commonwealth and make relations to benefit each other.
"Doctor Mobius made the calculations we made the teletransporter a reality, now a multiway transporter!" Exclaimed Carter he could barely hold his excitement.
"But who is to test it teddy bear?" said doctor dala. This would normally be nice but when it was mentioned he was working with brains, it's literal the scientists at big mountain were brains in jars that had robotic life systems, sadly they had no memory of their former pre-war selves. They all had personalities but only remembered pieces of themselves.
"That's a good question..." Carter Thought about it. He hesitated but finally said "I'll do it."
"But teddy bear-"said Dala before being cut off.
"Think about it, wherever I end up I can defend myself and survive. I end up in water I won't short circuit. This is my project, it's only my right."
"He has a point."said Klein and all the brains turned to stare at him in what could be glares.
Suddenly the screen turned on showing doctor mobius "He has survived worse I agree also." He yelled through through the monitor "He is worthy!"
"What's the weight limit?" Asked carter equipping his T-51b power armor.
"If my calculations are correct, which they are, it should be around 250 pounds for anything you take." answered mobius.
"So I can take about 110 pounds of gear with me… well 44 pounds in power armor, two in clothes, a week's supply of food and ammo...damn, I'll be packing light." he went to put stuff into a locker in the lab. "I'll take Lucky, Two-Step, oh the MF.H. and my trusty shotgun. that leaves me to take 40 lbs. of food and ammo enough for another week."
"Please be safe teddy bear," said dala.
"Comeback soon." added doctor zero.
"Come on guys, don't you have any faith?" asked Carter before going into a minor laughing fit. "I'll be back soon."
Boy was he wrong.
Carter found himself 10 feet in the air and falling quickly
"Goddamn it, Mobius!" he yelled as he fell into a river. Luckily it was a river, but sadly he had 46 pounds of armor on making it difficult to swim as water pressure built around him, and the power armor struggled with the drastic change. Accessing his pip boy to equip the pre-war parkstroller outfit, that consisted of a red shirt and dark brown pants and classic shoes with a star on the outer ankle. The cold water rushed against him as his new clothing was formed around his body and the power armor disappeared. He was able to swim to the surface and tore himself free of the dark water, before heading for the shore at a swift pace. Climbing onto the cement ledge at the edge and hungrily grasping for air, Carter let himself fall onto the grass that lined the edges softly and sighed.
His hand grasped the growth under him, feeling it a few times with his fingers.
"Is this?" A cool breeze blew over his face as he stared upwards, and in the corner of his vision he saw structures aiming skywards. Really, really tall buildings.
"What in the…?" He immediately bolted upright, before turning his head left and right. The sounds of talking and some sort of machinery. Above him a few people were walking casually, studiously avoiding his gaze. Looking down, his eyes widened as he saw green plant life below him, not the horrible monstrosities of Vault 22 or the dusty crops of hopeful NCR farmers but very bright, green...plants that seemed to have been placed alongside the river simply for aesthetics.
The river too, was straighter than any natural one, neatly lined with concrete and metal, lined with clean slopes with more plants upon them. Reaching across and above the river like arms were a series of bridges placed at odd intervals, where Carter saw a multitude of people walking across them without nary a worry. Metal machines...automobiles like those strewn across the highways of the Mojave and Divide, and left in pieces in Big MT and Zion National Park. However, here they were working, and while his eyesight wasn't extraordinarily perceptive it didn't look like they were damaged or salvaged. In fact, nothing here seemed to show the damage of the Great War that plagued almost every destination he'd wandered.
"Another New Vegas?" Carter asked himself rhetorically as he ascended the slope and made his way onto a street, causing some people there to jump back in alarm and hurry away at his sudden and wet appearance as he gazed around dirty and unshaven, relatively clean to the wasteland but unknowingly giving off terrifying signals as he looked about like a predator, his person seeming more like an uncivilized vagrant. What made it worse was that he had a stupid smile on his face, under a couple days stubble, as he took in his surroundings. He found place untouched by war, and it was gorgeous. Big flashy buildings, holograms advertisements, brightly lit streets, and no thugs in sight, the only feeling he had was bliss. He decided to take a walk around the area. He saw things he had never seen before, like a store filled to the brim with prepackaged food that looked appetizing, and what's more they let anyone in! But he decided against going in the way he looked.
Most people in the city were well dressed and cleanly shaven and when the walked near him he could feel they were avoiding him. He noticed different uniforms and guessed they were part of factions within the city and none of them seemed to have hate for each other.
"Hello friend!" someone called out loudly.
"Huh?" he said turning around seeing a young man in leather pants and jacket with a t-shirt. His mind immediately realized what this person wanted upon looking him over carefully.
"Me?" he asked the teen
"Yes. Are there any other americans here?" said the teen with a bit of an eastern accent.
Carter laughed at the question before realizing what the teen said was true none of the looked like anyone from the mojave. 'Maybe somewhere in america people look entirely of asian descent, but why would he single me out?' he thought before giving his attention to the young man.
"You look like you need a place to stay the night." said the teen as cheekily as he could.
"Mh-hmh, it is getting pretty dark out, you know a hotel or someplace?" He asked
"Yeah I know a great place, and you can stay for cheap," he responded overly cheerful. 'Stupid people fall for this gag all the time,' the teen smirked to himself 'That smart-watch means he's got some serious dough, a real payout.'
After a few minutes and lots of alleyways later they came up to an abandoned building. It was windowless and and seemed to have been abandoned midway through its construction.
"Nice place! I like it, no registration and free rent right?" Carter asked rhetorically with a creepy smile.
"Right, thing is you just have to pay an entrance fee. Come on out guys." he said as a group of five other bigger teens joined with him.
"Don't worry, we'll leave you here when we're done." said the first thug with a smile.
"Get him" said another one in a language carter didn't understand.
He put his right hand up in a taunting gesture and smirked "I have taken a bullet to the head, walked miles with crippled limps, killed creatures three times your size, torn trained soldiers apart with my bare hands, even been lobotomized as they removed my spine and my heart and yet still today I stand. I am known as the Monster of the Mojave, for laying waste to the armies to the east and west single-handedly. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"If half of that is true, you'd be dead." said the teen unimpressed.
'Well so much for talking my way through' thought Carter as he brought up his fists and got into a fighting stance.
"That smartwatch looks valuable. I get to keep it cause I scouted him, got it!" said the teen to the others in the same unintelligible language. He pulled out a switchblade tucked into his waistband and looked to the others who had pipes and knives to fight.
The boy swiped at him, probably going for pain and not lethality considering the pains they'd have to go through in hiding a body. Carter threw his arm up, intercepting his knife-hand and throwing a kick into his knee. A sturdy kick shattered the bone and the boy let out a scream that was cut off as Carter disarmed him and slammed a practiced fist into his jaw in a brutal uppercut. He stumbled back, before falling as two others approached, mumbling something about making him pay.
Intercepting his a bash from a pipe by using his Pip-Boy as an impromptu shield before grabbing his arm, he slammed three repeating punched into the thug's chest, forcing him to drop the pipe. Carter swept his leg under the young man and watched him fall, before grabbing the pipe and facing the other man, who'd been joined by the other three and looked prepared to charge.
The man rushed him holding his 'weapon' like a spear, but Carter sidestepped and parried, before turning around and swinging into his midsection with brute force. Ribs cracked as his experienced strength ignored resistance and the man started to cough violently before collapsing. The other three looked at each other hesitantly, speaking a terse exchange in the same language he still couldn't understand, before walking around him.
"Shit," Carter murmured as his adrenaline pumped, time barely passing before he was surrounded. He'd get out fine, but he didn't want to waste medical supplies. Behind him, air whooshed as the first rushed, and in a move learned through facing down legionaries he didn't try to block or dodge, instead spinning around and charging back. Driving his shoulder into the man's chin, they both stumbled, but Carter recovered quickly and slammed him over the head with the pipe, drawing blood and leaving an angry, bleeding welt before he swung again, leaving the man to collapse in a heap.
"You crazy American! Fuck this!" he heard, and spun expecting attack, but instead saw one of the men drop his weapon and hastily beat a retreat. Carter turned to the last man, who also watched his retreating comrade, before looking at the Courier. he dropped his pipe, and held his hands up in the sign of 'surrender'. The man slowly backed away, not breaking eye-contact, until at a safe distance, he turned and bolted. The Courier sighed as weariness settled in to replace the "battle's" excitement and dropped the shoddy pipe.
He pressed a few keys on his Pip-Boy, before grabbing Lucky as it materialized into the air. He turned to the first boy, the one who'd lured him here and leaned down, slapping his face repeatedly before he groaned and opened his eyes. Then they widened and he yelped, trying to pull himself up as pain shot through his knee, while carter smiled and readied the revolver.
"Now, I know you speak English. How about this," he backed up, before pressing Lucky's barrel against the boy's other knee. "Tell me what I want to know, and I mean everything, or chances are you'll never walk again." picking up the boy's switchblade and looking at him with a violent smile. "You can always choose not to cooperate." he said as he flipped the blade out. The boy shivered.
"Question one: Where am I?"
"District Ten!" answered the teen hastily only to be stared down by the man.
"In Academy City?! West of Tokyo? Japan?" he was stared as if he was silently being judged by the young man.
"Japan? Where the hell did I end up in god knows where." He silently thought to himself as he stared at the teen that was nearly fainting.
"Question Two: What kind of jacket is that?"
"Leather?" answered the punk
"Give it." Commanded Carter.
"Question Three: Got any caps on you?"
The teens face went from scared to questioning. "You mean like bottle caps?"
"Yes," said Carter blankly "You better hand them over if you don't want me to bust your other knee."
The teen quickly checked his pockets, only to find a soda can tab, a box of cigarettes, and music player along with his wallet. Carter wasn't impressed and pushed lucky against the other knee.
"Ha ha. It was a joke what you want is money right?" laughed the teen nervously.
"It never came across my mind that this place probably has a different currency!" He pinched his nose a bit and said "Yes, don't you understand sarcasm," trying to save face. "Now get out of here, before I change my mind." Carter waved at the entrance with Lucky and the boy started to hobble out, his mangles leg making it a slow process. "If you tell anyone what happened, remember," the boy turned towards him fearfully. "I'll end you."
After the boy left he decide to try to blend in more with the populace, first off he had to look young and the stubble was not the image of a carefree generation.
"Lucky I got this switchblade." Carter muttered to himself.
After shaving, and having a swim in the river again, he got an idea. He didn't know the language he would have to find a way to understand the people around him, the thought stopped as he felt the breeze on his face and was glad to have gotten a jacket from the punks earlier.
"That's it!" he was reminded of the store full of food "I can't try to figure this all out on an empty stomach, the kid gave me…" he searched his pockets for the slips of paper and studied them for a minute "...could be like ncr dollars but they have different leaders… food slips maybe for his faction? They could work at the store, I'm looking forward to something other canned or boxed 200 year old food."
He found the store and walked inside to find it had conditioned are like the think tank and aisles filled with colorful boxes with figures and bags of snack food and all the great things found in convenience stores.
He saw an pale, scraggly teen in a black shirt with white designs inside shoveling thin brown cans into a bag and walking to the man upfront to present a card, only to start walking away after swiping it. The boy gave off the impression of being frail, and his white hair resembled that of Ranger Ghost's. The only sense that Carter could make of it was that he was probably an honored member of this faction and had his perks, since he so easily got some drinks. The teen gave him a nasty, condescending look on his way out of the shop.
"Stuck up kid," mumbled Carter under his breathe
"What the fuck did you say?" the teen turned on him angrily, speaking in fluent English.
"Nothing don't worry yourself about it." answered Carter placatingly.
Another teen with a spiky hairstyle like one of the jackal gang members and a button up white shirt, walked in and noticed the first teen. He froze, paling and stepping back instinctively.
"You!" snarled the teen in japanese as he recognized him, slowly turning towards him in rage.
The second boy looked at the first behind Carter, then at the Courier himself. "Look at the time, I have to go!" he spouted hurriedly as he ran out of the store.
The white teen began in pursuit pushing carter out of the way with superhuman force making him hit a bookshelf, knocking Carter out in on impact.
"Hello... Hello... Sir are you okay?" a voice called from a distance as carter got his sense together.
"What happened?" asked carter as he was greeted to a girl in a brown vest with a light brown skirt and auburn hair in pigtails.
"You had a run in with the city's number one, I'm amazed you got up after that hit," answered the girl.
"And you are?" continued Carter
"Kuroko Shirai With judgement. Hold on…" she put her hand to her ear to talk through a communicator of some sort "Uiharu thanks for reporting this is seems the victim is alright...Very well. I have to go now there seems to be an incident at a vending machine, third time this week."
She smiled, walked outside and vanished into thin air. Carter rubbed his eyes thinking this probably did more damage than the bullet benny gave him a few months back.
He noticed a book on the ground that fell off the shelf he hit, it was plastered in pictures of characters in different art styles as he put it back he noticed another book with an english title, it read "Translation: English to Japanese."
'Well today's not a complete loss I found something useful.' carter thought to himself as he skimmed through the book quickly.
He went up to the cashier and said "How much for this?" slowly in the language.
"That'll be …" answered the vendor
"Is this enough?" he asked
The cashier nodded, 'goddamn it' thought Carter as he walked outside. He sat on the curb and saw something black on the ground and kicked to hear it jingle. "What the…" he picked it up to see that it had more of the slips and some coins as well as a picture of the teen with spiky hair. "Wow someone unluckier than me, that's a shame," as he pulled out the slips of currency he heard a wail in the distance, something along the lines of "Fukou da!". He could guess its meaning well enough though, and chuckled heartily.