PART 3: Peculiar Meetings

Master Chief finally finished off the last lizard creature with the baseball bat he'd picked up, sending it sailing upward toward the sky and disappearing in a flash.

"That battle was quite peculiar," Cortana commented. "It seemed to ignore all laws of physics."

"This place seems to do that," John replied, looking to the night sky.

"Wait, do you see that?" Chief followed her instruction and saw smoke floating up to the moon. "I'm picking up military transponders... that way." A NAV point appeared on his HUD. "Follow it."

He began moving toward the NAV point, baseball bat in hand. For some odd reason, he found none of those creatures on the way.

He entered a large, open clearing, cut down the middle by a river. Near the river was a fire and three figures sitting around it. He made his way slowly and quietly down to the river, making sure they weren't hostile. He sent out a ping on the Military COMM, but no reply came. Finally, he whistled in a low tone. The three turned to see him.

One was an ODST soldier. He wore the armor, minus the helmet. The second wore an odd orange and black suit, looking similar to some sort of biohazard outfit, and a peculiar sign on the front, standing for the scientific term "half-life". The third was a boy with a black outfit, spiky brown hair, and a key-shaped sword resting behind him.

"Is that a Spartan?" the ODST asked.

"A what?" replied the boy.

"Hey, it is! Over here!" The Chief walked over. "My name's Isaac. This is Sora, and this is Gordon Freeman. We were just hoping someone else would come along."

"Well hiya," Sora said, smiling. The Chief stared him up and down, then sat.

"Which Spartan are you?" Isaac asked, looking him up and down.

"That's SPARTAN-117," Cortana replied. "John. Or Master Chief."

"Oh, Chief?" Isaac said, surprised. "I fought alongside you in the First Battle for New Mombasa. Remember me?" The Chief paused. He didn't remember Isaac at all.

"Yes," he lied. "I'm glad you made it out alive."

"You too, Chief."

"Where are we?" he asked, hoping for an answer.

"None of us know," Sora replied. Damnit. "But I'm sure we'll find out eventually." The Chief nodded. Suddenly, there was a rustling in the bushes near them.

"Did you hear that?" Isaac whispered. All of them looked into the darkness, but couldn't find the source of the noise. Suddenly, a huge, black, shining arrow bolted out from the darkness of the foliage and penetrated Gordon through the chest. He gasped, then fell to the ground. He was now a large, gray version of himself, mounted on a golden pedastal. The three gasped and stood at ready for attack. Suddenly, a boy, white hair, peculiar dark blue and red outfit, walked from the bushes.

"Riku?!" Sora asked. But his childhood friend now had dark yellow eyes and a huge cannon in one hand. He hefted the Gordon Freeman trophy over his shoulder and sprinted off into the woods. "Riku! Come back!"

"Did you see those eyes?" Isaac asked. "It's not your friend anymore!" Sora's eyes welled with tears.

"We've got to help him!"

"No," John said, putting a hand on Sora's shoulder. "I have a feeling we're not going anywhere. We'll find him, and get back Gordon."

"Okay... thanks, John," Sora said. Master Chief just nodded. This was going to be a long night.

Sam climbed through the Tundra, shivering and stumbling. He eventually found a cave and walked inside. From deep inside the cave, he could hear noises. Not the same noises as the peculiar lizards made. And even if they were, they'd had to be better than the cold.

As he reached the farthest in as he could go, he found two men. They were much younger than him, both looking about 20. One had a gray scarf wrapped around his mouth, the other donning a long, red cape, looking as though it was very wartorn at the bottom. Both turned to him, bearing their weapons. One, a long sword, the other a golden gauntlet on one hand, all fingers turned into metallic claws.

"I'm okay," Sam said. The two calmed down and invited him over to their fire.

"My name is Cloud Strife," the boy with the scarf said.

"And I'm Vincent Valentine," the other said, not looking at him, but deep into the fire.

"My name is Sam Fisher." Cloud nodded. "My other companion was captured, and turned into a trophy. I think we need to escape this tundra." Cloud looked up.

"Trophy?"

"Yes. She was shot by a large cannon and, after a flash of light, she was gray and mounted on a trophy stand." Cloud nodded and looked down at the fire again.

"Makes sense. Around here, who knows what goes on?" Sam nodded and began warming himself by the fire.

"Cloud," Vincent asked, still not looking. Cloud looked up at him. "During that battle... did any of the others fall in too?"

"I remember Tifa falling in before us. But Sephiroth I don't know. He might've." Vincent nodded and stood.

"Then it's not safe here. We both know Sephiroth well enough. And we have to find Tifa."

"Right. Sam, will you be coming with us?" Sam stood up.

"Yeah. I think so."

"Good. Let's get moving."

"Wait," Sam said. "I forgot to mention something."

"What?" Cloud asked as they walked outside and looked to the sky.

"That." There, hovering several miles above the ground was what looked to be a gigantic black hole.

"Oh."

Leon awoke slowly, rubbing his head. He looked around. He could find nothing but sand as far as he could see.

"A desert...?" he wondered to himself. "Why am I...?"

Slowly, he knelt near it and put one finger out, tapping the liquid. He felt himself cry out, but heard nothing. Felt the electrifying pain as he convulsed and saw the flash as his vision blurred into nothingness.

"Right. That liquid. It must've done something to me. Sent me here somehow." He reached for his pistol, which he just couldn't find. He looked down to see that none of his things were on his person, except for his police vest and combat knife. He began trekking through the seemingly endless desert.

After several hours of walking, he reached what appeared to be a small oasis. He rubbed his eyes. It wasn't a mirage, thank god. As he walked to it, he entered the grove of trees surrounding the water pool. But as he entered, it appeared to not be a pool at all, but a long, winding river that he had missed, not several yards in the other direction.

He knelt by the pool, splashing his face with water. He looked, and reflected across the pool was a cardboard box.

This time he thought for certain he was seeing things. He looked up and stared at the box. It read, "To Heliport" along the side. Heliport? For helicopters? Suddenly, it moved slightly. Leon slowly walked over to it and it stood completely silent. Carefully, he lifted the box up. Under it was a man in camoflague. He looked surprised, then got up.

"Who are you?" Leon asked.

"My name is Solid Snake. I'm a reconassiance agent."

"I see. My name is Leon Kennedy. Former agent of S.T.A.R.S. and currently part of the Raccoon City Police Department."

"Raccoon City? S.T.A.R.S.?"

"Nevermind. What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." Leon frowned. What WAS he doing there?

"I... I don't know," Leon answered honestly.

"Exactly. We probably both got here via that dark matter stuff."

"Yeah, I was," Leon replied. "What was it?"

"I don't know. But where I was from, a terrorist group was making bombs out of the stuff. No one knew what it did. Until now."

"I see. So what are we going to do now?" Snake hushed him. He slowly lifted the cardboard box over his head and crouched down. "What are you doing?"

"Look," Snake replied, poking one finger out of the eye-hole. A cloud of dust was raising toward them, but much smaller than a dust storm.

"Do you have another box?" Snake shook his head. "Damnit." Leon climbed a tree and watched carefully. From this far off, it looked as if it were a motorcycle. As it approached, the sound and view told Leon that it was a motorcycle. And the person riding it was very, very fat with a large mouth. He reached the oasis and got off his bike.

Looking around and finding no one, he drank some of the water and threw his bike across. Not waded through carrying it, threw it across. Just tossed it. He got on it on the other side and rode off into the distance. Leon jumped down from the tree and Snake exited his box.

"That was wierd," Leon commented.

"Let's follow," Snake replied, starting to sprint after the motorcyclist.

"Hey, wait for me!" Leon said, sprinting after him.