When fiction cracked

The Alliance

As each of their worlds deteriorated, six figures stood in the mysterious realm of the G-Man. Plucked from their stories, disorientated and confused, they took in their surroundings, or the lack, thereof. To each of them, the company they stood in were some of the strangest beings they'd ever laid eyes upon. A woman in a jumpsuit, a bespectacled armoured physicist, a tunic wearing swordsman, an ancient king, a teenage wizard and an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. They were certainly an odd assortment of figures. And as they all wondered what was going on, the suited G-man stepped forward and adjusted his tie, preparing to explain.

"All of you... it is good, to have you here." He began, his croaky yet demanding voice ehcoing around them. "I apologise... for being so sudden."

"What's going on here?!" demanded the hedgehog, feeling quite out of place in the completley blank environment.

"Please... let me, explain." The G-man continued. "In each of your...worlds. Something has gone... wrong. Very, very wrong." Each member of the group was taken aback by this. It was true, each of their worlds had been effected in the most mysterious of ways, these new characters appearing out of nowhere, besting them in every way possible. "The OC's have, invaded your worlds. Inserted themselves... into canon." He continued, his eyes glancing to each of them in turn. "And now... everything is threatened..." he stepped to one side to reveal the shining white crack behind him, splintering the skin of the fictional world. The group stared at the crack, quickly grasping exactly what it meant. "Once these cracks... grow too large. The very fabric of our... existence, will break. And everything will end." he said forebodingly, adjusting the grip on his case slightly. The elf swordsman shivered slightly, memories of a certain time when his world almost ended resurfacing within him.

"Can we stop this?" the bespectacled youth asked. "There must be something that can be done." The G-man looked to him and nodded.

"That is why... I brought you, all here." he continued. "To retake your worlds... and end these, OC's that plague them."

"This is insane..." muttered the King of Camelot, still not quite able to digest all this new information. Once again, the G-man nodded.

"I intend to give... time, before we depart. Know each other well... to stop this madness, you must... work together." he concluded, adjusting his tie one more time, as he dissapeared into the darkness, leaving the six figures alone. Alone to figure one another out in the short time they had.

Gordon remained somewhat at ease. He had been forced to become a soldier for the Earth in a short time, and was getting furtherly used to life and death situation. He decided to spend his time practicing his aim in the darkness. Thankfully, the G-man had provided him with his standard array of weapons, pistol, shotgun, machine gun, crossbow and even his trusty Gravity gun. Upon taking it out and trying to find something to move it with, a nearby Chell immediatly took note and approached him. She was staring at the Gravity gun as if she recognised it. Gordon looked to her and cocked an eyebrow in confusion. Chell noticed his and smiled embarrsedly, reaching behind her to show what she meant. Now Gordon looked surprised as she held the Portal gun in her hands. They stared at each other's respective weapon and offered them to one another, as if in a trade motion, which they both smiled at.

They swapped weapons, Gordon taking the Portal gun and Chell taking the Gravity gun, which she quickly realised was far heavier than expected, having to set it down just to examine it properly. She turned it over, looking over its gunmetal grey shell, and its glowing orange lights. It was fascinating to look at, considering how she'd been lugging around a gun of similar nature. She had no change of firing it though. Gordon meanwhile turned over the Portal gun in his hands. Its sleek body and white tone were surprisingly new to him, wondering how they could both have such similar weapons. He attempted firing it, a blue portal appearing on the dark ground beneath them. He looked questioningly at it, as Chell held the gun and fired it again, creating the orange portal. Gordon looked at her surprised, to which she just smiled.

A little further away in the darkness, an Arthurian king sat alone, hands on his head. His thoughts had rewound to his encounter with Spadang, and the actions he'd taken in that time. It still shocked him.

"You need me you useless knig!" Cried the voice of Oother in his head, ringing in his thoughts.

"No! You're not me!" Cried out Uther, clutching at his skull. "Get out of my head you accursed phantom!"

"Phantom?! You DARE call the mutha-fukker Oother a gost?!" he roared at the poor king.

"You aren't real! And you're not me!" In his head, he heard Oother laugh triumphantly.

"Not reel?! Then how can I be takkin tu you?!"

"I don't know!" The King exclaimed. "You're a blight on my mind, why will you not leave me be?!" he continued shouting to nothing in particular, attracting the attention of the elf swordsmen, who knelt by his side, tapping his shoulder to draw his attention. The cursed king looked up at him with a quivering questioning glance. Link drew his blade and showed it to him, holding it toward the sky. The king looked inquisitively at the swordsman.

"Are you... asking to train?" The elf nodded, smiling lightly. He knew a little about having something on your mind. The best thing he could do right now was to take the king's mind off of it. The king looked doubtful. The young warrior was an oddity to him, with his unusual green outfit and pointed ears. Though, as he stood to face him, holding his sword, the King took note of his stance. It showed experience and training, beyond his youthful face and unusual attire. The King slowly rose to his feet and drew his own blade, accepting the offer of the elf warrior. They stood opposite one another, hands cleneched around their blades, ready to spar.

The elf made the first move as the king seemed reluctant to fight, afraid of the being within his head taking over again. Link stepped forward and brought his sword down in a forward slash. Uther reacted quickly, turning his sword sideways to block him. The warrior's strength surprised him initially as he stumbled back slightly. Link didn't let up, hoping the tension of battle would loosen the king's nerves. He swung his blade in a horizontal swipe, as Uther managed to block a second time. Uther began to fight back, stabbing his blade out toward Link, which he barely managed to avoid. He smirked slightly as the King came at him a second time, their blades clanging as they hit together, trading blow for blow again and again, evenly matched in skill and tenacity. Their ringing weapons continued until eventually the king grew tired, backing off slightly with a wry smile at the elf, who returned his look.

"You are fast... faster than any man of Camelot." the king commented, to which Link just grinned and looked away.

"I'll bet i'm faster." boasted a certain blue hedgehog, swaying on his heels in boredom from being cooped up so long. The two turned and looked at him, then back to each other, and then back to him.

"Exactly..." began Uther. "What sort of beast are you?" He questioned. Sonic frowned.

"Can't ya see the spikes, i'm a hedgehog!" he retorted crossly, folding his arms.

"What manner of hedgehog can stand and speak?" Uther questioned again. Sonic was growing more ticked off with every word.

"The fastest one alive, that's what!" he boasted again, puffing his chest out slightly. The elf warrior had a thought and reached into his pack, pulling out a pair of winged boots and putting them on, shooting the hedgehog a cocky smirk. Sonic raised an eyebrow. "You challenging me?" he said with a grin, to which Link nodded confidently, a smirk on his face. And with that, the two raced off, keeping pace with one another thanks to the elf's pegasus boots. Uther watched on in disbelief.

"Incredible..." he commented to himself, watching the two racing one another at speeds he would've considered impossible.

"Pfah!" The being in his head scoffed. "The mighty OOTHER can run three times as fast!" But the willful king chose to ignore him, in the hopes his voice would go away.

Further off from the rest of the group, the youngest of the alliance stood and watched them, adjusting his spectacles slightly as he tried to make sense of the situation. A collection of odd individuals was something he was a little used to, going to a school of wizards after all. But this, this was just bizarre. He was surrounded by the oddest individuals, one even looking like some kind of fur dyed animal racing that strange fellow in green. Eventually he made a conscious decision in his mind as he began to concentrate back on the castle in an attempt to apparate. But no matter how much he tried, he simply couldn't, as if a massive block of iron had been encased around his head and refused to let go. He concentrated and tried it again and again, but to further and further failure.

He found himself looking over toward the bearded man and the woman in the jumpsuit, both making use of the other's strange devices. He was puzzled by that. He knew muggle technology was far from primitive, but so far as he knew, nothing muggle made could possibly do what those devices were doing. Teleportation, levitation, how could muggle born devices possible emulate magic?

They remained in silence for some time, until eventually a familiar figure reappeared to them, adjusting his tie slightly.

"Well… I'd say that'ssss… enough time, to adjust." He began, as the six gathered around him. "Now, we must discuss… our plan of… action." He smirked at his last word, as if amused at his own melodramatic stance of the situation. Behind him, an image appeared, blurred and a little hard to see. It came into focus, revealling a man in a grey beanie, dressed in the standard rebels uniform that the people of Gordon's world had worn during the uprising against the Combine.

"This… man." The G-Man used the word lightly. "He, is our first target. His name is, John… Freeman." The group murmured to themselves, Gordon especially seemed on edge about this. "He is, supposedly… a brother, to our own, Missster Freeman." The G-Man gestured toward Gordon as he shifted slightly, adjusting his glasses as the group members turned to look.

"What's so special about him? He looks normal." Sonic asked, not realizing the dramatic irony of his own statement, coming from the blue hedgehog who didn't truly have a grasp on normal.

"He is, a near… invincible being… his skills are unnatural… and he has… a curious mind…" The G-man didn't seem sure of his own statement, as the image of John Freeman showed him spinning madly in mid air and gunning down anyone who came close to him, barely even holding his own guns as he fired them. "Statistically… out of his, allies… this John Freeman… is the weakest." This sent some strong dissonance out through the group. This man, who was easily taking down armed soldiers with ease, was the WEAKEST of the lot? That didn't exactly fill them with confidence. Sonic was the first to speak up.

"Eh, no biggie. I've taken down things bigger than him!" he smiled cockily, thinking back to some of his past exploits. All those corrupted gods, evil robots. What was one weird human in comparison?

Sonic's confidence seemed to inspire the group a little more as they all thought back to their own amazing feats. Defeating an alien force singlehandedly, foiling an evil computer AI, rescuing a kingdom from evil, even defeating forces of dark magic. One by one, the members of the newly formed alliance began to grin, now brimming with energy and confidence. Their eyes flashed and met briefly as if a silent pep talk was going on between them all at once, their faces brightening slightly. One by one, they turned back to the G-Man and nodded, as they all agreed upon their mission. The G-Man flashed a short smile.

"Well… cometh the hour." He stated simply as he adjusted his tie again, as each of the members of the Alliance vanished in brief flashes of light, off to the world of the Combine, of the resistance, and of the man who dared defile the title of Freeman.