POV Rio
A lot happened during the month after Vault 120 was destroyed. We found and recruited most of the people who were living in the basic camp that the Alliance left behind. Most were more than okay joining the Minutemen, as a large portion of them just wanted a safe place to live and a decent job. In fact, most of those found were those who had joined the Alliance for a stable paycheck and a decent place to live. Now that's not to say that everyone joined; there were 12 people who didn't want to join for various reasons. They decided to take their chances in the wasteland. Mind you, there wasn't much unclaimed habitable land at this point. The Minutemen had basically claimed and captured the entire Northeast USA.
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The only places we hadn't touched were Mount Desert Island, where Far Harbor is located, and Diamond City. And that was because those places were too independent to be willing to join the Minutemen. So we gave those who didn't join the Minutemen a choice. Either they move to Far Harbor or Diamond City. It might have seemed harsh, but we couldn't permit them to eventually devolve into Raider gangs once they started to struggle. Which had happened already 4 times in the short time we had taken the land.
Most went to Far Harbor/The Island, as Diamond City was already on the verge of just straight up joining the Minutemen. We had relocated a decent number of people to The Island, as plenty of people just didn't want to join us. The fog that caused so many issues for The Island residents was also cleared away by me, and with radiation being so uncommon these days, even if the fog came back, it wouldn't be radioactive, just slightly annoying to navigate. At the very least, we also gave plenty of supplies for those who moved willingly.
Our Anti-Radiation efforts had basically been completed. We completed the continental USA a long time ago and are now working on the oceans. Thankfully, we had made massive progress on that already, as most radiation was focused on the coasts. And as much as I hated to admit it, the Lich had done even better than I when it came to getting rid of the radiation on Earth. That was likely not on purpose, but a side effect of him spreading the essence of death. Everywhere he went, he spread death on a fundamental level, thus even the energy and activity of radiation dies.
Besides those that had been moved, we had fully secured in many ways the last vestiges of liveable land on Earth. From what we could tell, the Lich has spread his curse to almost all other parts of Earth. Only a small part of the Western part of the USA is habitable, and that is used loosely as the Mojave Desert and surrounding areas are not known for their habitability.
It was because of this that I was on a massive time crunch. Once the Mojave was gone, we would be next, so I needed to find something, anything that could be used to kill or seal the Lich permanently. Which meant I started to get a little loose with my coordinates. I had gathered around 9/10ths of the needed coordinates from the compass, so I figured I could brute force the last bit. I know it was a dumb idea, but I didn't know how much time I had left.
This trial and error led me through a lot of useless places. Not every mirror leads to an inhabited world. Case in point, the first 5 mirrors led to various versions of a destroyed planet. The first was an asteroid field. The second was a planet covered in lava. The third was an endless desert with, as far as I could tell, nothing beyond sand. And I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. The fourth was similar to the first, except this planet was still somewhat held together. It was a shattered world. The last was the worst of the 5. I walked into the world and instantly died. The reason was that I saw someone who was so ugly that they killed me. I don't even remember what they look like, but I know that was why I died. Somehow. I don't really know how.
The 6th world was actually usable.
Flashback...
"Please don't kill me," I mumble to myself as I enter the mirror.
I still feel the weird disorientation that always comes with using the mirrors, but I have become very adapted to it, and now when I leave a mirror, I rarely feel disoriented or discombobulated. This was not one of those times. When I left the mirror, I immediately felt off balance, like I was on a carnival ride during an Earthquake. Once I stabilized myself, I looked around and found that I was in a very sterile-looking hallway. The walls were covered in round indents, with each giving off light.
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This was definitely one of the strangest places I had been sent to by the mirrors. I decided to just wander around and investigate the area. The place felt like a maze as it seemed to go on forever. I also felt like I had seen this place before.
'What in the?'
I managed to leave the endless hallways and arrived at a spacious room that looked really odd. In the center lay what I could only guess was a console or terminal of some kind. The reason I wasn't sure was that it looked like someone had built the thing out of various parts that don't seem to go together, and yet here they were. Obviously, I wasn't going to touch something I didn't know the purpose of, but I did inspect it the best I could. It was around 10 minutes of this that a door was slammed open and a man whom I recognized instantly, which led me to understand where I was.
'I'm not sure if this is a good or bad place.'
"What the?! How the bloody hell did you get in here?!" The 10th Doctor asks me.
"I used a space-time mirror that allows me to travel the infinite existence with random endpoints," I reply.
"What?!" The 10th Doctor looks at me with confusion, but then takes out his Sonic Screwdriver and uses it on me.
"Oh, cool, a Sonic Screwdriver, can I have one?" I ask.
"Huh? No, these are not toys. And you need to leave. Right now. Your very presence is causing the space-time continuum to become a straight line of linear time," The Doctor says with worry.
"Wait, I have a question: can a De-mat Gun work to destroy a soul?" I ask.
"Wha? How do you? No, don't tell me! You're not supposed to be here! Your very presence is abnormal. And to answer your question, no, it wouldn't work. It's meant to destroy a physical creature from reality and usually leaves a soul," The Doctor explains.
"Oh, darn it. Can I have your autograph?" I ask.
"My what? If I give it to you, will you leave?" The Doctor asks.
"Yes," I reply.
He signs a photo of himself and then hands it to me. Then I am quickly ushered to leave the way I came.
POV The Doctor
I closed the hole in reality that the stranger used, and once I did, I was scared to look at the consequences of his very short incursion. I did a couple of scans, and the results were grim. Mass extinction of species that relied on space-time manipulation.
"Well, on the bright side, I don't have to deal with Weeping Angels anymore," I comment.
I took a seat and noticed something off. I pat myself down and then looked around for what was missing. Then it hit me.
"That bloody bastard stole my wallet!" I yell.
POV Rio
"Too bad I couldn't steal his Sonic Screwdriver, but I guess Psychic Paper and a signed paper are fine. I even got his original driver's license. Who knew Gallifrey had cars or a need for licenses," I comment.
Flashback Ends...
The Doctor didn't have much in his pockets to steal, but it was a nice souvenir. The coordinates don't work anymore, so I can't go back anyway. Which I kind of figured would happen, as that was a very strange placement for the mirror.
The 7th world was far less interesting. I found myself in the World of Cyberpunk 2077. Or rather, I guess it would be Cyberpunk 2072, as it was 2072 from what I could tell. I knew for almost certain that the world of Cyberpunk wouldn't help me with the Lich situation at all. Tech-wise, they were a bit ahead of the Fallout Universe but the world was even weaker with magic than Fallout, so it was useless in that regard. They had also thoroughly messed up their planet, and it was such a mess that I couldn't evacuate to it.
That's not to say I didn't have a use for the world at all. The world was rife with corruption and murderers. And I could always use more Life Force. Not to mention, while I can't use implants or cyberware, others in my nation could. And the tech itself might teach me something. But I didn't have the time to mess around with that, so I delegated it to the recently reformed member of our group. Giffany.
It took a lot of negotiations and therapy, but eventually I reached an agreement with Giffany. She would accept that I wasn't her boyfriend. She wouldn't invade the privacy of my allies or me. She wouldn't harm innocent people. She would work for the Minutemen, but she could pick and choose what assignments she wanted to accept. In exchange, she was given her freedom. I would become her friend, who was also a boy. (A loophole of sorts.) I would build her a body to her exact specifications. And lastly, she gets to stay my companion.
With all that said, I offered her the job, and she took it without hesitation. I didn't leave her without support, as, despite her basically being a digital god with technically no weaknesses, I would feel better if she had support of some kind. That and she didn't have a physical body. So I built her a companion that would accompany her and be her physical enforcer if she needed one. That, and she needs a way to collect life force from those killed. Which meant I needed a magic user that would fit well enough in the world of Cyberpunk. I chose someone who was known for being quiet. Raven or Rachel Roth, in some cases.
Besides Raven, I also pointed Giffany towards Maines crew as they seemed trustworthy enough, and with our tech, we could help them a reasonable amount. Then again, Giffany doesn't have a massive need for ground troops. She can easily cause every person who has any form of cyberware to die instantly, as she has no restriction when it comes to electronics. And trapping her is basically impossible, as she can move through anything that can carry a current. As for killing her? Impossible without her disc. Which I have. As for Raven, well, good luck destroying her. She has magic, and her physical body can take a point-blank 50 caliber bullet without a scratch.
Once I sent them off on their journey, I got right back into testing mirrors. The next one was pretty weird. It was a place of infinitely reflecting images and was just very trippy to be in. I was alone for a bit, but eventually someone appeared and attacked me. He was a very annoying pest to deal with. he couldn't really cause much, if any, damage to me, and his use of illusions was useless. No, the real annoyance was his teleportation. The damn pest could jump from one reflection to another at light speed. I tried to catch him without using my once-per-day abilities, but eventually I had no choice but to use Chrono Collapse, and when I did, I simply cut his head off. But when I went to loot him, his equipment and his body started to crack and shatter.
Twitch
My eye twitched as I had spent the last 30 minutes trying to deal with this pest, and now I have nothing to show for it. It was also at this time that the dimension I was in was starting to become unstable. So I left and crossed those coordinates off my list.
'Well, onto the next.'
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Author's Note:
The Title when spelled out, is The Mirror Masters Massive Mistake.