Disclaimer: If it's familar, it isn't mine.

A/N: Please read and review. This is pretty much my first attempt at writing a battle so constructive criticism (emphasis on 'constructive'), would be greatly appriciated and probably greatly needed. As with previous chapters, playing 'spot the crossover/reference is encouraged since I thought that it might make things a bit more interesting (if it doesn't then let me know and I'll knock it off). I'll include a who's who at the start of the next chapter and here's the one for the last chapter;

Russia:-Anton Gorodetsky and Tigercub (Nightwatch and sequels)

Austraila:- Pip Bernadette (Hellsing) and Selphie Tilmitt (Final Fantasy VIII)

America:- The guy in the 'Heaven on Earth' section at the start of chapter 16 (possibly spaceman himself), Xander and Joyce.

After the Event, violence or at least the threat of it quickly became an everyday fact of life. Halloween horrors roamed the world and for everyone else survival depended on seeking shelter behind solid walls, while those that had the necessary strength and skills did their best to keep the wolves from the door. The exact methods used to do so varied widely from one stronghold to the next, depending on the built-in firepower of the occupants and the resources and technology available. In a world that was rapidly turning into an interesting mix of Scavenger World and Schizo Tech, with various flavours of Punk thrown in for good measure, this could mean everything from magic, to standard pre-Halloween technology to tech so advanced that trying to figure out how it worked would make the average normal's head hurt.

In the case of the place known simply as the fort, the tech levels were most definitely in the Schizo category. The most obvious fortifications had a vaguely medieval feel to them, all high walls, heavy gate and embrasures, even if most of the walls were transmuted masses of solid stone. Other less obvious defences were more like something out of the area's not-too-distant past. During the Second World War the UK had been turned into what basically amounted to a fortress with the goal of keeping out any invading Germans and failing that to make sure that every inch cost them as much as possible. Most the old defences have long since been removed but in the New World many of the methods used have made a comeback. The chief one used at the fort was the fougasse, an improvised mine consisting of a shallow pit filled with explosives and whatever impromptu projectiles were at hand, usually rubble from destroyed houses, and either rigged for electrical detonation or designed to be set off by a well aimed 

Molotov. A variant known as a flame fougasse was a barrel filled with flammable liquid. When detonated, the weapon shot a flame 10 feet wide and 30 yards long. Both varieties were buried a good distance from the fort walls and were well camouflaged.

Another element was added to the mismatched defences by a magically generated force field over the top of the fort, which provided a measure protection from the dreaded Fire Showers, attacks from above and assorted airborne dangers. The last had been more of an issue in the fort's early days when a fire at one of the chemical plants raged uncontrolled for over a week, filling the air with clouds of toxic smoke. The direction of the wind shielded the fort from the worst of it but it was still unwise to go outside without breathing apparatus, even for some time after the fire finally burnt itself out. No one liked to think about what happened to those who got brunt of the smoke. The force field was invaluable but it had one crucial design flaw in that it was powered by the magical energy of the casters. Since the fort had only five or so magic users with the necessary power, there weren't many of them to share the load. Maintaining the force field left them drained; the week of the fire had almost killed them. For that reason it was only activated when necessary.

The defences were further augmented by an assortment of cameras, both normal and infra-red, fixed outside or on the top of the walls. A few more cameras and motion detectors were rigged up in the surrounding area, as far away as practically possible, and acted as an early warning system. It was because of them that the alarm was sounding. A large group of very hostile looking creatures were heading their way.

The standard defence procedure for the fort was fairly simple. There was a standard rota of people for guard duty, usually the individuals with a more military background, be it fictional or otherwise. If there was any sign of an approaching threat, the alarm was sounded and everyone who had a weapon and knew how to use it came running. However the system did have its flaws.

"Gah. What's the hold up?"

Kieran, gun slung over his shoulder and edging knife strapped to his back jogged forwards, glaring impatiently at the people in front. Nero didn't say anything but he didn't look any happier about the situation.

The situation was this. There were quite a few weapon wielders living in more or less the same area as the duo, the streets were only about two people wide and whoever was at the front wasn't moving fast enough. While far from being the pedestrian equivalent of a traffic jam, things weren't moving fast enough for them. Patience was most definitely not their strong suit, particularly if there being a fight up ahead was a strong possibility.


Looking around at the almost flat roofed buildings that surrounded them and which he knew continued most of the way to the nearest wall, Kieran had an idea.

"Hey Nero."

"What?"

"I think I might've just found a shortcut."

A minute later the people making their way though the narrow alleyways between the rows of buildings were startled by a pair of figures that leapt over their heads to land on the roof of the building opposite, their passing marked by the thundering of running (and in Nero's case, heavy booted) feet on corrugated metal. For Nero the roof hopping was ridiculously easy, for Kieran it was less so. He had to put a fair bit of effort into it and take care when judging the jumps. On the other hand, it was fun. He wasn't hemmed in by walls, every jump triggered a fresh burst of shouting and swearing that was swiftly left behind and he had a pretty good view of the fort, even if the fact that he was concentrating on not falling meant that he didn't really have chance to fully appreciate it. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that they weren't the only ones doing a bit of heavily simplified parkour, although he didn't bother looking to see who else was taking the rooftop express. Reaching the wall, they jumped off the last roof, ignored someone's shout of 'Bloody show-offs' and scrambled up the scaffolding to the defence platform.

There were already plenty of people up top. To their right there was a young man in a cowboy outfit that Kieran recognised as one of the neighbours from J Road that he actually knew reasonably well. Irvine Kinneas was a mercenary sharpshooter and student at the very fictional Galbadia Garden. He didn't have any memory of who he was before Halloween but a normal who'd attended the same party said that there'd been a guy dressed as a cowboy chatting up every girl in the vicinity. Irvine always was a flirt, although prior to finding himself here he'd been in the early stages of developing a relationship with a girl he'd had feelings for since he was a kid and who he wanted to search for, although he had no idea where to begin or even if she existed in this world. Kieran had run into him a few times at the firing range and they'd ended up chatting a fair bit. He didn't know Irvine's roommate as well, although he had witnessed an occasional argument between the two. Apparently someone in housing had forgotten that just because two people came from the same universe and were semi-friends, it didn't mean that they wouldn't get on each other's nerves. Like Irvine, Zell had no memory of the person he'd replaced, but apparently they'd been someone who'd had the bad luck to a)vaguely resemble Zell and b) be in the same room as the person who'd become Irvine.


Noticing who'd just arrived, Irvine acknowledged them with a grin and a tip of the hat. The duo nodded in reply.

To their left was a girl who Kieran didn't know except as a face in the street, although he had to admit that he recognized her patch covered bomber jacket better than her face. She was currently occupied with digging through the contents of a rucksack which included a large number of what looked like aerosol cans, and a catapult.

A quick peek through a loophole revealed that the approaching threat wasn't in sight yet, so after giving his weaponry the once over, Kieran sat down on his heels, leaning against the wall and watched the other people who were rushing to man the defences. Kieran didn't really know most of them but he did have some idea as to who they were, being completely ignorant of who's who was nigh impossible in a place as small as the fort that happened to have a highly efficient bush telegraph. A small group of men clad in a mix of civvies and camouflage gear with the majority carrying rifles were easily identified as pre-Halloween soldiers, with maybe one or two coppers (probably armed response unit members) mixed in. Another trio of soldiers were jogging towards one of the scaffolds, but unlike the first group they were Halloween creations, their not-quite-true-to-real-life uniforms and red caps giving them away. According to the bush telegraph they'd been heard to comment that they had plenty of experience with dealing with weirdness but that the New World was pushing it. A couple of people that looked like ninja, albeit not the classic all black clothing versions, crouched on another wall's platform, while the glint of red moonlight and the white light of the flood lights on oversized blades identified a handful of anime and computer games characters. A scowling blond man marched past, the gladius at his hip hinting at his Roman origins even though he was currently rather grudgingly wearing modern clothing due to his tunic meeting a rather ignoble end involving large amounts of monster blood and the fort's hygiene regulations. The man was one of two Roman soldiers that had somehow ended up in the fort. The other was a tall, dark and muscular guy called Pullo for whom the shock of finding himself in a new world was somewhat offset by the fact that the wife that he remembered dying several years earlier was there with him. His old friend wasn't so lucky, the family he knew was nowhere to be found and he'd ended up 'inheriting' the family of the man he'd replaced, a situation that was universally recognised by the fort's inhabitants as being about fifty kinds of awkward. He was also in the rather odd but increasingly common situation of having a doppelganger in the form of a British soldier who along with a couple of other members of his squad, all of whom he remembered dying at the claws of a group of werewolves, was pretty much the living definition of Badass Normal.

Kieran sighed and shifted slightly. Looking up he saw Nero looking out over the wall, a serious expression on his face.


"Here they come."

Peering through the nearest embrasure, Kieran got his first look at what all the fuss was about. It was an army. Admittedly not a very big army, more of a regiment as far as numbers went, but still an army, one which happened to be composed of the traditional fantasy bad guys, although by the look of things there was more than one universe represented. The bulk of the army was made up of what Kieran guessed were orcs, a couple of different versions at that, but there was also a couple of very large stupid looking things that were probably trolls, a few oversized wolves that along with their riders were serving as cavalry, and a few other things that Kieran couldn't even begin to identify. All were looked big, mean, ugly and highly likely to be harbouring a strong desire to break into the fort and dish out a rather large amount of pain.

The army marched towards the wall and then stopped. There was a moments quiet as the two sides sized each other up, although between the cameras and the various people scattered along the wall that had binoculars, it was pretty obvious as to who was getting the more accurate picture. The attacking army had the fort's defenders outnumbered, but on the other hand, the fort had more than numbers on its side After a length of time that was probably nowhere near as long, what seemed to be the leader said something and a horn was blown. Behind the first few lines of troops, archers readied their bows. Inside the fort, the defenders de facto commander chose that moment to give the order to blow two of the fougasses, one of which happened to be right under many of the archers' feet. The blasts had the desired effect, taking out a sizable chunk of the enemy forces and preventing the majority of arrows from being fired, although a few wild shots flew over the wall. Kieran, like many others, ducked down and pressed himself against the wall. Annoyingly, Nero wasn't amongst those ducking, the blond part-devil looked down at Kieran with a faint but unmistakable smirk on his lips. Kieran glared back at him.

"I'd rather not get hit with an arrow thank you very much. Unlike some people, getting skewered would be a fairly big issue for me."

"Humph."

While the army was still in shock, the order was given to fire. Home-made grenades and an extremely large variety of ammo promptly started heading in the army's direction, while several more fougasses, both explosive and flame, were detonated, blowing up and barbecuing everyone in the vicinity and making a serious dent in the attackers' numbers. Irvine sniped several members of the 'cavalry', pausing only to reload, an anxious look on his face, while the girl with the bomber jacket threw one of the 'aerosols' which detonated with an extremely impressive bang. Unlike Irvine, she looked positively gleeful about the situation. The duo for their part did their best to pick off as many enemy troops as they could, although Nero was less than happy 

about fighting from behind a wall. A few moments later, he got his chance to switch to his usual style of combat. One of the trolls charged at the heavily barricaded gate, bullets bounced off his hide, seemingly intent on breaking it down. It was not expecting a white and blue blur to leap from one of the walls and introduce its head to the business end of an extremely large sword. Nero's attack triggered a bout of shouting amongst the less disciplined fighters.

"Get in there!"

"Gorram feng le hun dan!"

"Give 'em what for!"

"Bloody lunatic!"

Kieran somehow managed to look worried and grin at the same time. Both Irvine and bomber girl looked impressed.

On the ground the troll found Nero to be more then it could deal with and staggered. Nero took the opportunity to do what some people could interpret as showing off,( and everyone else would class as awesome), grabbing the troll with his right hand, picking it up like a rag doll and throwing it at the army's ranks, flattening almost a dozen of them in the process. Jaws on both sides hit the ground and the army started to realise that they were probably completely screwed.

They were. Several other defenders who were capable of doing so, mostly ninja and dhampirs (Sam had a big family), followed Nero's example and jumped the wall to dish out their own share of up close asskicking. Unsurprisingly those who were supposedly in charge were less than happy about it, but their fury lessened somewhat when they realised that the unconventional attack was having a devastating effect on the already seriously battered army and gave to order to cease firing to avoid shooting their own and to conserve their severely limited supply of ammunition. Down on the ground the fantasy bad guys found themselves dealing with people who even unarmed would be a force to be reckoned with.

Nero tore through everything in his path, heading straight for the other troll and dealing with it in much the same way as the first.

A pair of identical fanged young men charges towards a group of orcs that had become separated from the bulk of the army. Moving faster than any human, they dodge and parry the orcs' swords and administer the mother of all pummellings.



A rider and his mount get taken out by a masked man with silver hair whose fist is surrounded by chirping energy.

An orc swung his blade at a man with a scar across his nose only for the man to disappear and leave a log in his place.

The fight didn't last long after that. The army, composed of several different groups who'd formed an alliance in order to survive, fell apart under the attack, the survivors running for their lives. The defenders considered pursuing them but thought better of it and returned to the fort.

There reception inside the fort was mixed. The majority of those on the walls thought they were brilliant and greeted them with whistles and cheers. The commanders were less impressed.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?! Your orders were to man the walls."

One of the ninja decided to play diplomat.

"There wasn't really much we could do on the walls. Most of our fighting techniques only really work up close."

"That's not the point! You disobeyed an order."

"I was under the impression that our orders were to defend the fort, which we did."

"Don't talk back to me!"

The dressing down went on for a while, with Nero doing his best to resist the overwhelming temptation to be a smartarse. Eventually the commander ran out of air and told them all to report to the hospital, regardless of whether or not they thought they needed to do so. The last thing they wanted was to lose one of their best fighters because an otherwise minor injury got infected. Grumbling they trooped off to get it over with.

Meanwhile a group of normals did what Brits traditionally do after any kind of drama and made tea. Due to its reputation as the ultimate cure-all, the beverage had become even more in demand than usual since Halloween, and the possibility of it running out was a serious concern for the vast majority of the forts inhabitants. Like most other things it was rationed, with extra cups being occasionally being doled out for 'medicinal purposes' as was the case now, with plastic cups of the hot bitter drink being handed out to the assorted fighters. Kieran accepted a cup with the optional additions of evaporated milk and two spoons of sugar from a motherly looking woman. Wrapping a tissue around the 

cup to prevent his fingers from burning, he headed towards the hospital to meet Nero.

Just outside the hospital there was a notice board that was rather optimistically known as the Board of Hope. The principle behind it was simple. The fort didn't really have any communication system with the outside world but it did have a steady influx of refugees bearing news. Anyone looking for someone posted a note with a photo or description of who they were looking for on the board in the hope that one of the new arrivals had seen them. Nero had posted one with a detailed description of Kyrie, while Kieran's had several rather more vague descriptions of Aunts and Uncles he hadn't seen for over a year at the least.

Before entering the hospital to go find Nero, Kieran took a moment to look at the board, sipping his tea as he did so. As usual the board was ridiculously crowded, the various pieces of paper overlapping each other and hanging over the edges of the board, each one telling a tale of lost friends and separated families. Same old, same old. When he got to Nero's note, he paused and looked closer, before pulling it off the board and walking into the hospital.

Inside the hospital Nero was reaching the limits of his patience. The doctor's refusal to believe that none of the blood he was spattered with was his own had resulted in a good deal of poking and prodding. He was about to tell the doctor where to go when Kieran appeared, an odd expression on his face and a piece of paper clutched in his hand.

"Hey kid, what's up?"

Kieran just held out the paper. Nero took it and read it. As he did so the expression on his face changed from irritation to hope.

Most of the paper was taken up with his description of Kyrie but in the small space remaining someone had added a few words that while simple and vague were at the same time the most profound thing he'd ever read.

'Saw a girl like that about a week ago at a shelter near Holy Island.'

Such a simple phrase but looking at the man that was currently the closest thing he had to family, Kieran knew that there was no need to ask what they were going to do. It was obvious. They were going to look for her.