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

A/N: Please read and review. As always, constructive criticism (emphasis on 'constructive'), would be greatly appreciated and probably greatly needed. On the off chance that anyone's wondering, here's the who's who for the characters mentioned in the last chapter:

Irvine Kinneas and Zell Dincht (Final Fantasy VIII)

The girl with the bomber jacket- Ace McShane (Doctor Who)

The trio of red capped soldiers- random members of UNIT (Doctor Who)

The Romans- Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, plus Pullo's wife Eirene (Rome)

The "Badass Normal" British soldiers - The squaddies in Dog Soldiers.

Random Browncoat (Firefly)

Guy with silver hair - Kakashi (Naruto)

Guy with scar on nose - Iruka (Naruto)

Okay then, on with the story.

The post-Event world had many challenges, the most important and obvious one being how to avoid getting eaten by something bigger and/or meaner then you, a problem generally best solved by staying behind very sturdy walls, being on good terms with someone of a sufficient level of badassery to kick the majority of monsters arses, being capable of doing so yourself, or a combination of all three. But once that was taken care of, the survivors faced the more mundane concerns of everyday survival.

The various colonies handled the matter of keeping a large number of scared, confused and effectively homeless people fed, clothed, sheltered and otherwise reasonably comfortable differently and with varying levels of success according to the resources and skills they had available. Colonies blessed with a great deal of high technology and/or magic could create something that, if you squinted and looked from a sufficient distance, could pass as something close to normal, but the majority had to make the best of what was available. As is often the case in difficult times, groups and individuals stood out from the huddled masses 

and took charge of the situation. In most places they were those who'd be transformed by Halloween, the original personas having been replaced or at least blended with a character suited to a leadership role, while in other cases those in charge were figures of authority from the old world. However, there were a few instances where those shouldering the responsibility of keeping everyone alive were relatively ordinary people who took on the challenge because no one else would.

The colony generally referred to as The Fort, fell into this last category, at least partly. Officially the people in charge were a loose council of fictional authority figures from assorted fandoms. Unofficially the ones running the show were the members of a large, loud and notoriously bloody minded extended family, one of the few to have survived Halloween more or less intact. Despite the fact that none of them had been in costumes when the spell struck, most of them had still been altered in some way, the changes based on how they were perceived by others and themselves, as well as exaggerations of previously existing traits. The result included two psychics of uncertain classification, one of which also had the ability to almost literally absorb information, one guy who might've qualified as a Badass Normal if he hadn't be disqualified by being Mr Fixit and the possessor of a mild Healing Factor, one Technopath in the making (in the making because he was only eight), a four year old Cute Bruiser, a couple of Mama Bears and one former animal nut that had become a full blown Friend To All Living Things. The council may have been in charge of all the major decision making, defence and keeping order, but they were firmly in charge of keeping everyone fed, comfortable and sane, arriving in this position though the simple fact that they'd been among the Fort's first inhabitants and upon realising that no one else was taking care of things, collectively said 'sod this' and did it themselves. Naturally there'd been a fair bit of delegation going on since those early days but it was still widely known that they were the ones to go to if the fort's rather precarious infrastructure developed a problem, or if you needed something special done right. Like getting a van ready to face the outside world as fast as humanly possible. Of course, with all the work needed to keep things ticking over, getting anyone to do something which was technically classed as non-essential required a certain amount of negotiation.

Approaching the over sized marquee that served as a garage (lord only knows where it came from); Kieran sighed and sent a mental prayer to whoever might be inclined to listen that the van was ready to go. Getting Ian, the Mr Fixit and defacto boss of the various mechanics and welders, to agree to do the work hadn't been easy and had resulted in him and Nero having to go on scavenger duty for the better part of two weeks, not to mention them having to hand over about half of their carefully hoarded stash of goodies accumulated through previous forays into the outside world (said stash was largely Kieran's due to him being a bit of a pack rat and resolved to push the 'anything you can fit in your pockets' rule to the point where people were starting to wonder if he had a 

hyperspace arsenal), and round up most of the necessary materials and parts themselves. Then to make matters worse he'd been stuck with having to arrange everything due to the fact that for some reason, most likely a combination of Nero's mouth and the fact that someone who's the methodical, perfectionist type, and a guy who once got something to work by shooting it are probably guaranteed to get on each other's nerves, the first time the part devil and Ian had met things had quickly degraded into a shouting match. In the interest of not pissing off the guy who had control over whether or not their van was going to be weirdness worthy any time soon, it was agreed that it would probably be best to keep the two of them as far apart as possible.

Entering the marquee, Kieran was met by a combination of smells that would've told him he was in a garage even if he'd had his eyes closed. As was often the case Ian wasn't there. The Fort's infrastructure always seemed to be needing work and there were plenty of jobs that he didn't trust anyone else to do properly. A pair of skinny overall clad legs ending in trainers stuck out from under an armoured van. Kieran knew the mechanic that the legs belonged to by face alone, he'd not seen enough of him to be bothered with learning his name.

"Come to see about the van?"

The voice held a faint hint of a brogue and sounded odd, like the words had come out of a mouth not really designed for speech, which was exactly the case. Kieran looked down. A medium sized brown cross breed looked back, tail wagging slightly.

"Yep."

"It's over here", said the dog, walking van-wards. Kieran, his weirdness thresh-hold far too high for him to be bothered by a little thing like a talking dog, followed.

The van (a Toyota Hiace) didn't look that much different from the other modified vehicles in the garage, the only notable difference being that the tiny amount of original paintwork that was visible was blue instead of the usual white. The armour itself was a mishmash of colours, consisting as it did of any and all metal sheeting that the stepbrothers had been able to get their hands on. Lettering was still visible on some of the plates. Kieran made a mental note to keep an eye out for some spray paint to put his personal stamp on it and try to improve its coolness credentials.

Looking over the van, Kieran had to admire the care that had obviously been put into it. Ian would never tolerate something being bodged together in his garage, even if it was low priority. The sheet metal had been neatly cut and shaped to fit the various sections of the van, and securely welded or bolted to the vehicle. 

The windows were covered with metal grills welded to the surrounding armour. To Kieran's eye it looked finished.

"What do you think?"

Kieran turned towards the familiar, definitely non-canine voice.

"Hi Ian. It looks pretty good."

Although there were quite a few people amongst the fort's inhabitants that found Ian Fielding intimidating, it wasn't reflected by his appearance, which was that of a middle aged (albeit in fairly good shape and well preserved) man who was a touch taller than Kieran, about average in build and wearing a well worn work shirt and jeans. Prior to Halloween he'd been a ordinary working class family man who could turn his hand to almost any area of DIY and do a better job than most tradesmen, a trait which he was well known for and which the chaos energy had latched onto and amplified. He was considered intimidating mainly for three reasons, he had a low tolerance for stupidity, a yell that would do a Sergeant Major proud, and shortly before his family's arrival at the fort he'd beaten a wolf man twice his size into submission with a crowbar, a incident that the entire fort knew about (with various embellishments tacked on of course). The thought of Ian going spare was one which kept a lot of people firmly in line.

Ian nodded toward the Toyota.

"It's just about ready to go. It's not painted as you can see, but the engine is working and all the armour is in place. I'm afraid that it's not as fast as it was because of all the extra weight, if you wanted I could try and fix that but it'd take a while."

"Nah, its fine how it is. There's so much crap on the roads that it's not a good idea to go fast anyway."
"Well if that's the case then apart from the paintwork it's finished. Unfortunately we don't have any paint in at the moment so again you'll have to wait."

Kieran thought for a moment.

"It's okay; I'll take it as it is."

Ian looked surprised.

"Are you sure?

"Yep. Nero's been chomping at the bit since we heard about the sighting. If I wasn't here he probably would've tried to set out on foot as soon as he read the 

note. Believe me; for the sake of both our sanities we'd best be off."

Ian nodded.

"I understand. The keys are on the dash board. When will you be leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning probably, it's too late to set off now. I'll go and tell Nero the good news. See you tomorrow."

"Bye."

Jogging down the gravel tracks that ran between the rows of make-shift housing, Kieran arrived at his soon to be ex-home. Nero, bored and frustrated from all the waiting, was apparently attempting to relax since he was lying on his bunk with his headphones on and his eyes closed. Kieran reached over and flicked him on the nose.

"Hey 'ro, you awake?"

Nero shot him a dirty look.

"Yes. What is it?"

"The van's ready."

That got his attention. He sat up and pulled off the headphones.

"Let's get going then."

"Easy tiger. You may not have noticed but it's almost nine in what used to be the evening. I've been up since seven am and spent most of that time lugging boxes around on scavenger duty. You may have freaky levels of endurance but I don't. I'm tired and the last thing I want to do is go out there when I'm not at my best, particularly since I'm the driver. We'll leave first thing in the morning. We've waited this long, a few more hours probably won't make much difference."

Nero gave him a look at the 'probably' but didn't say anything. Instead he hopped off his bunk and started getting all his stuff ready to go. It didn't take long since he didn't own much. Neither did Kieran for that matter, most of his things had been left behind in Guisborough. Belongings packed, Nero checked over his weaponry before resuming what he'd been doing when Kieran walked in. Kieran dug out his map and set about going over the route they'd be taking (plus all the alternative routes in case the first one wasn't doable) for the umpteenth time. However, he must've been even more tired than he thought and it wasn't long before the map started to blur in front of him. Kieran blinked 

and resumed studying it, but a moment later it started going out of focus again.

"Oh sod it, I'm going to bed."

Folding up the map, he put it in his jacket pocket before taking off his boots and sweatshirt and climbing into bed. He was asleep within minutes.

As planned, they left early the next day. They were amongst the first people to turn up for breakfast in the canteen and went to retrieve the Toyota from the garage as soon as they'd finished eating. Ian and a girl that they recognised as the information absorbing psychic were there to wish them luck.

"Take care out there. It's a tough vehicle but it's not indestructible."

"Yeah I know," Kieran said as he climbed into the driving seat. "I'll try and avoid trouble, but if I can't then we'll just have to deal with it."

Nero looked at him.

"Don't you mean I'll have to deal with it?"

"I suppose. You are the better fighter after all."

So far Ian and Nero had been doing their best not to talk to each other, but now Ian spoke up.

"It's Nero isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"About this girl you're looking for, I hope you find her. It's about time that something good happened."

Nero nodded and climbed into his seat.

Driving towards the main gate, Kieran noticed something and let out a snort of laughter.

"What's so funny?"

Kieran gestured towards the gate.

"See for yourself. Here's to open it's not a sigh of things to come eh?"

Nero saw what Kieran was pointing at and rolled his eyes. They hadn't noticed 

the writing on the gate when they got back from scavenger duty so it'd probably been written during the night by someone with a rather weird sense of humour.

'Abandon hope, all ye who exit here.'

A/N: Sorry that there wasn't much happening in this chapter. I sort of hit a wall so writing a lot of this chapter was like pulling teeth, as I suspect will be the case with the next few chapters since while I've got the beginning taken care of and I'm pretty sure about what's going to happen in the end, I don't really know what I'm doing in the middle, so if anyone's got any suggestions then suggest away. Anime or non-anime, it's all the same, the only restrictions are whether or not I'm familiar with whatever it is, or alternatively if I can gain the necessary familiarity via Wiki.