ACT II: World of Trophies

PART 1: The Forest

"Ugh... where...?" Master Chief awoke slowly. His vision blurred as he looked around. "A forest? Cortana?"

"Yes?"

"Where are we?"

"I don't know. I've analyzed the plant-life around here several times. I don't recognize any of it."

"Hm. So no planet we know of?"

"Nope. None."

"That makes two unexplained events in the last 24 hours. I have a feeling they're related."

"We better find somewhere to make camp. Whatever sun is around is beginning to set. And we don't want to be out here at night. And without a weapon." It was true. He'd even lost his CQC knife somehow. He had his full suit of armor still, thankfully. And Cortana.

"Suit diagnostic," he commanded.

"All fully functioning. Obviously, if we fell it wasn't far." He nodded. "Again, I think we'd better find a clearing of some sort." Suddenly, there was a rumble and they looked up to see the hulking ship's skeleton plummeting from the sky towards the ground. It fell not too far from them. "Maybe there are still some weapons on the ship, Chief." He nodded and started sprinting through the forest toward it.

He finally emerged from the forest into a clearing, caused by the ship, and now smoldering, gray and brown. He walked up to it and looked down, donning an Assault Rifle.

"That's odd, how conveniently placed it was..." Cortana mumbled to herself. The Chief walked up and tapped the door's controls, opening it. "And the power's still on?"

"Reserve power," Chief said, revealing the flickering lights in the hallway of the ship.

"But a crash like that-"

"Are you really ungrateful?" he asked. She paused.

"Continue." He flipped on his helmet flashlight and continued down the hallway, searching for anything useful. He found several extra clips of ammo and opened another door.

"It appears there's signs of life aboard the ship," Cortana commented, confusion lining her voice. "Be careful Chief." He proceeded into the room. "You're right on top of the signature. But..." He scanned the room. Then he stopped. Slowly, he raised his head, angling the flashlight toward the cieling. "...it's not anything I recognize." His flashlight reflected off the beast for a split second before it struck. It had four legs, was incredibly lizard-like, three claws per hand, and razor sharp teeth.

It snarled and lunged, but the Chief bore into it with his rifle, spraying it with lead. He panted and looked at the door.

"Son of a bitch..." Three creatures were silhouetted in the door, growled, and attacked.

"What.... Where am I?" Isaac got up and looked around. He immediately realized a few things. 1. His helmet was gone. 2. His weapon had also disappeared. 3. He was alive. 4. He was in a forest.

"What the hell's going on?" he wondered quietly to himself. He got up and slowly started moving through the forest, attempting to gain his bearings. He soon found himself in a open area, a large flat plain, cut through the middle by a rushing river, moving too quickly to swim through, and about 10 feet wide, so too wide to jump.

"Well this is peculiar. Last thing I remember..."

He was in the facility. As Snake and the other man scrambled into the cockpit of the helicopter, the peculiar soldier set off a grenade, containing, presumably, the Dark Bomb's explosive substance.

"And everyone who touches it disappears... maybe... maybe they end up here." He looked up to the sky. The sun was beginning to set. "Survival training... survival training..." He splashed his face with the cool water before going back to a tree to gather several sticks. He moved back to the river bank and started rubbing the sticks together quickly.

Suddenly and surprisingly, a spark caught and the thing went up in flames.

"Warmth," he said smiling as the last few rays of twilight caught on the river and reflected, making the trees' shadows much longer and illuminating him and his new fire. "I wonder where the others are..."

Gordon Freeman looked around the forest quietly. It didn't take long for him to notice his crowbar was missing, as well as his essential weapons. He began walking through a grove of trees, then suddenly saw smoke rising in the distance. It was reaching dusk. As he started moving towards the smoke, he felt something pin him to the ground. He couldn't turn and see just what it was, but it was warm.

He grunted, but said nothing.

"Hey, you're not a Heartless." Gordon felt the pressure release and got to his feet. He saw a boy in a pure black outfit, spiky brown hair, and a large, key-shaped blade in his hand. "I'm Sora." He extended his hand. Gordon shook it without a word. "Uh, do you talk?" Gordon shook his head and held out his nametag. "Gordon Freeman, eh? Well alright. We'll just have to go together for a while until we can find out where we are. Unless you know?" He shook his head again. Gordon pointed at the smoke. "Oh! A smoke signal? Is that where we're headed?" Gordon nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

PART 2: The Tundra Trophies

When Sam Fisher awoke, it sent chills through his body. He looked around. There was a small dot of light far off in the distance, everything was cold, and there was a slow, steady dripping noise. As his eyes adjusted to this new terrain, he saw that he was in a cave, appearingly made of ice. He began towards the light. After a while, he heard something and became very still. He turned to see what appeared to be some sort of light-gray, lizard-like monster curled up in a ball sleeping. It had three claws for each of it's four limbs.

As he continued past it, his foot crunched on a pile of snow. The thing jerked awake and saw him. It growled, which echoed through the cave, making a peculiar noise like there were-

"Oh no..." he whispered. Looking into the tunnel behind him, he saw pairs of red eyes staring back. He sprinted for the door, pursued by the peculiar party on his tail.

He ran out the mouth of the tunnel, into the blizzard outside. He fell down, face-first into the snow. As he turned back, about four of the creatures were scurrying out, teeth beared in a menacing fashion. Suddenly, one was slammed into the cave wall. It cried out as it dissolved into several small orbs of blackish-purple substance. The Dark Bomb substance.

Sam turned to see the source of the death of one of these creatures. The culprit was a person, tall, and clad in orange and red armor. The figure charged up a large ball of energy from the cannon mounted on its wrist. It disappeared. As one of the creatures attacked, the figure leveled the cannon and fired the fully charged ball at the creature, sending it hurtling into another, both dissolving into the peculiar dark orbs. The last charged her and the armor-clad person fired a missile at it, turning it to solid ice. They kicked it and it shattered into pieces.

"Thanks," Sam said, getting up. "Who are you?" The figure took off their helmet. Revealed was a blond haired woman with peircing eyes.

"My name is Samus," she replied. "I've never seen you before. Though, I've never seen them either. Are you one of them?" She raised her cannon to Sam's head.

"No. My name is Sam Fisher. I'm a Splinter Cell from the US."

"...where?"

"The US. America?"

"I don't... I've never heard of that place."

"Never heard... of America?"

"No. Not once."

"Where am I?"

"You're in the place known as the World of Trophies."

"World of Trophies?"

"Peculiar name, I know. And this is the Frozen Tundra."

"I see. Can we leave? I don't exactly have suitable clothing for this kind of mission."

"Of course. Do you have any weapons?"

"No."

"Here. Take this." She handed him a bazooka-like weapon. "It's called a Super Scope. It can fire rapid-fire rounds or charged rounds, like my gun." She brandished her arm-mounted weapon and smiled. Suddenly, there was a loud, shrieking noise. "That's-" She was cut off as a black arrow shot through her body. She cried out, then was silent.

Sam saw the woman frozen still and gray, mounted on a large gold circle.

"What-?!" Sam looked and found a peculiar, human-shaped lizard-like creature sprint over and pick up Samus. It's eyes were a dark yellow. It laughed deeply, then raised a large cannon at him. Sam began running and turned in time to see the arrow fired at him. Sam fell into a roll on the ground as the arrow passed over him.

The peculiar alien creature snarled and got onto a hovering lift. He set Samus in with several other trophies and drove off. Sam watched in surprise. He was alone again. He hefted the Super Scope and began walking through the tundra after the peculiar character.

He looked up at the sky, suddenly. He rubbed his eyes, thinking he may have been dreaming. But it was there, plain as day.