The thick, hazy fog of ash was ever-present. A leftover from cosmic fisticuffs from a decade past. The earth had a talk with some big space rocks. Space rocks came in and punched earth in the face.

One would think that with the apocalypse ruining the world, that wars would have ended. One would think everyone would settle down and rebuild civilization.

The sounds of gunfire filled the air showed that the world hadn’t really changed. People still grouped together and these groups needed things. Food. Resources. Land.

It was for such a reason that two armed forces were in the initial skirmish over territorial rights for a city. Sure it was abandoned, but that only made it the perfect staging grounds to ensure stability for the new world.

The world began to fill with the cries of the dying and the louder yells of those brave enough to continue.

Sora sighed as he munched on a ration. He watched as the eighth squad engages the covenant grunts. The odd purple-themed beasts against the orange-clad humans. It was really weird.

The air filled with the loud hum of a drop-ship. The large purple vehicle glided into view from overhead, blasting down covering fire as it slowed to a stable level. The reinforcements dropped out and promptly backed up their torn up comrades.

War, war never changed. The phrase his teacher was fond of saying echoed in his mind as he forced down the last of his ration bar. The bland thing was very chewy but he needed the food. It had been weeks since he got a proper meal.

Squad eight was in trouble and it meant that break time was over.

Sora looked over at his friend, Spartan 075. Cassandra.

It had taken nearly a month before the quiet lady had spoken to him as more than just another attached soldier. Then another two months before he got to call her anything but Spartan or seventy-five.

Quiet. Refined. Kickass. Those would be the three words he would use to describe her.

Cassandra was the first to stand. With her Mjolnir MK XV armor, her even seven-foot height made her stand out among the Orange Star soldiers beside her.

She held out her hand and Sora took it to get pulled up. Once he would have been the first to get up. Then again, he was once also under five feet tall.

Cassandra quickly double-checked her weapons while Sora closed his eyes. He called out spiritually to his Djinn.

Cinder of Mars. Coral of Mercury. Ivy of Venus, and Wisp of Jupiter.

The four appear around him. They had never really left, but he often had to refocus them. The spirits of the world were profound and immaterial. They were also mischievous and tended to be bored outside of combat.

Junction on!

Sora sighed as he felt the essence of the four Djinn pour into him. They gave themselves to him, however long he needed. They enhanced him, made him superhuman.

The junction arts usually needed Eidolons to work, but Djinns were very close. Not as powerful as say… Bahamut, but they did their best.

Their power gave him a buzz and Sora blinked as he stared at the new world around him. Everything was sharper and he felt more alive then he had all day.

“Let's go,” Cassandra whispered as she was the first to leave.

Sora grinned as he followed.

His lady friend used one hand to hop over the shattered wall and her gun screamed out a hello as she engaged. Her shots were accurate and the covenant responded immediately to the greater threat. Half of the assembled soldiers began to fire on her.

Sora was more refined as he simply walked out from the entryway two feet to where she had dramatically hopped over. This also gave him the time to see what issues she had kicked up.

He had only been in this world for half a year and he could already tell it was all kinds of messed up. Futuristic warfare. Big guns and hover tanks.

Sure he could still rip apart things with his keyblade. But there was something magical about handguns. Not that they would have been helpful with the heartless and whatnot.

Huh… he wondered how his old crew was doing. It was like what? Ten years last month?

Sora took a few potshots with his Lex Prime. The odd handgun was something he had been gifted a few worlds ago. A very real space gun that hit like an anti-material sniper rifle with all of the conveniences of a pistol.

It was a gift from the Lotus. It was for services rendered. They had even modded it. Something to do with special parts and creative engineering.

Whatever it was, it made life so much easier.

The only downside was that the machine to make the bullets was annoying to use. Even though it was brain dead simple to operate, it took something like eight hours to process. Eight hours to turn the raw materials into space bullets. So if he was too trigger happy, he would have no more ammo for a while.

The Lex was precise as Sora popped the heads off the various grunts and other shielded cannon fodder. The space gun was a technology a few tiers above what they even understood and the battle turned as the duo simply chewed up the opposition.

While Cassandra moved from cover to cover, Sora simply stood by the entryway and picked off his opponents. His Lex had a better range than any non-sniper weapons either side possessed.

The few bullets that did manage to graze him, left no marks as the djinns did their work flawlessly. The junction system allowed his body to become stronger and with his own innate strength, he was virtually immune to small arms fire.

There was a hint of worry for him, however. He was concerned that Cassandra was eyeing his Lex Prime with a little too much interest. He wondered if he had to start sleeping with one eye open lest he finds that his friend had ‘found’ a new spiffy sniper pistol.

The Lex discharged the last of its magazine. The powerful bullet plowed into the jackal’s shield. The arm-mounted unit struggled as it flared up and then winked out.

The bullet found a new home in the rubble behind the bird-like creature. As did half of its bird-head which trailed after the bullet and colored the rubble behind it.

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Sora yawned as he reloaded and then holstered his sidearm. He was absentminded today. Something that Cassy saw but didn’t mention. She was sweet like that.

The sound of men coming up caught his attention.

Sora looked back.

The orange star doods were reorganizing. The peg-legged penguin helpers from the netherworld were happily doing grunt work as it meant that they didn’t have to be in the front lines. Not that they were helpless but they weren’t fond of being cannon fodder either.

This section of the outer city was theirs now. The covenant wouldn’t push yet. They were still regrouping from some other campaign on the moon or something.

Wearing a grey jacket, the sign of the 12th battalion’s commanding officer, Will walked up to survey the aftermath of the fight.

“How are you holding up?” Will asked as he stood beside Sora.

“I am definitely still feeling out of it,” Sora grumbled as he ran his hands through his hair.

Will chuckled at the inhuman answer. Any man that could shrug off the Creeping Derengea virus on his own was a monster. How many had died to the virus, leaving sprouting plants and vines to sprout as they laid there, dying?

Sora snorted as he watched Cassy walk back to them. She nodded to Will as she made it up to him and began to relaxed. Which was simply stand there and cross her arms.

“Nell and Rachel have deployed the rest of my team to help take the city. Covenant forces are still pouring into the city proper but that’s also why the entirety of Brenner’s Wolves will be here,” Will stated as he poked a finger up.

Sora narrowed his eyes as he refused to look up, but the sounds of rotary engines reached his ears. The moment was too cool however and he did give up after nearly ten seconds of staring his friend down.

Will’s smile widened.

The air filled with transport units and the three made their way down to the staging grounds.

By the time they reached the impromptu base, two girls were already there to greet them. Or more specifically greet Will.

Both were stunning ladies. One with long dark hair, Lin, and the other had a beautiful pale blue, Isabella.

Both were smiling as Will reached them.

Sora grinned as he walked up and gave both of them a hug. Isabella returned him with an excited smile. Lin grunted and glared at him. She didn’t stop him, however.

Lin’s glare morphed into a feral smile.

Sora’s eyes widened as he let go and backed away. Lin never smiled like that outside of a well-planned ambush.

“Sora. We brought friends!” Lin exclaimed as she walked up and locked her ‘friend’ into a shoulder lock. Her arms seemed frail but her muscles spoke of a lifetime on the battlefield.

“That’s. Great. Who?” Sora grunted out as Lin kept applying pressure to his delicate body. The Djinns cried out as his skeletal structure shifted in ways it was never meant to.

“Sora!”

Sora froze as the sweet and happy voice reached him. His eyes widened as a stick-thin man walked out. He was gangly at best, a pinstripe suit that framed his impossibly tall frame. He was leaning on a spider-themed umbrella that was sized to his tall stature.

The fact that he was a walking, talking skeleton only made him more surreal.

Say anything you want about the man, but Jack Skellington was a dapper man.

Sora smirked as he saw Will’s eyes pop out and he was sure that Cassy was equally surprised.

“We found you! At long last. My how you have grown!” Jack exclaimed as his long strides brought him into hugging distance. The man quickly enveloped his estranged friend into a tight hug.

In turn, the two of them were picked up in another hug by someone else. Sora looked over to see a blue Spartan. This freakish strength and he could feel the happiness ooze from the man.

“How are you doing, Caboose?”

“We are awesome! Its been a little while Sora! How are you!” Caboose screamed as he twirled the two of them around.

Sora couldn’t help it. He broke out laughing as he was spun around. Trust Caboose to make things more complicated and yet hilariously simple. The man was truly a child at heart.

“I am well. How did you guys find me?” Sora asked as he was eventually put down.

“We followed the inside out purple disco ball. Then we climbed a mountain! There was a dragon, sorry you missed it. Then we had a tea party! Then there was a big scary monster! You are not sorry you missed it. Then we were falling. Then we were rescued. Then we heard about you and your lock-unlocker-butterfly-sword and here we are! You should have been there.”

Everyone but Sora and Jack gawked at the explanation. Good old Caboose.

“We followed the trail left by your keyblade. There are several of us looking for you. Eventually, you would have been found. It was just good luck that we ran into Steve! He was able to point us in this direction and one nether portal later, here we are!” Jack followed up with a much more sensible answer.

Sora nodded. Jack would notice the trail left by the magic of the keyblade. It clung to him like body odor. Its smell would depend if you were inherently good or evil.

“Not that I am unhappy to see you, my friends, but why are you looking for me?”

Jack nodded to himself as Caboose finally put them down. Freckles, Caboose’s shotgun, said hello. Sora greeted it back.

“That question is a bit delicate I am afraid. It seems that your exile is over and you are called onto duty once more. Ansem is on the move and Micky is currently comatose due to their previous encounter. Though I doubt Ansem is in any good shape, he rarely works alone.”

Sora blinked as he took in the information. That wasn’t a good sign. Micky was a powerhouse and Ansem was not a pushover. This meant that everything was at a stalemate. Probably.

“That aside, we don’t need to rush back. You finish whatever quest you are currently on and we can head on back. Time dilation between worlds is always finicky at best. So long as we don’t stop for a vacation, we will make it just in time.”

Sora laughed at that. Jack understood the world travel better than most. Even his seasoned partners, Donald and Goofy still struggled at times to work things out.

“Yes. The ring-around-the-posie time circle will let us nap! I like nap time!”

Sora smiled as he stared at his friends. He nodded to himself as well. Sure he was hurt at first. Being exiled sucked. But the universe was so… big. He had touched over a hundred worlds since he had left and he doubted he had seen even one percent of everything.

There were problems though. Something Jack wasn’t telling him. He could feel it form Jack’s soulless gaze.

The worlds used to be separate. Now they were colliding in very different ways and his intuition said that it was only going to get worse.

“By the way, where are we? It feels really nice and homey here,” Jack complimented as he stared out into the city.

“We are in a world where meteors struck the earth. Causing a chain reaction of volcanos to spew out dust and ash to be everywhere. World wide.” Sora replied as he wondered when he would get to see the sun again.

“Sephiroth?” Jack asked as he tensed.

“No. Thank god,” Sora prayed as he closed his eyes. If Sephiroth was here, then Sora was leaving. Seriously. Screw that overpowered apocalypse. Anyone who could have fun fighting the servant Gilgamesh with only one sword was a man that needed to stay the hell away from him.

“I wasn’t talking about the environment. I was speaking about the city itself. It’s really inviting. I believe if I had to move, this wouldn’t be a bad place at all,” Jack elaborated as he turned towards the ‘abandoned’ city.

Sora’s eyes widened as he took a step back.

Jack was a creature of darkness. The sorcerer was incredible with his dark arts and his undead existence only strengthen his powers. The man was immune to so many types of damage it was disgusting. His umbrella was also able to fend off the full might supreme keyblade.

If he felt at home here, then there were big problems ahead of them all.

Vampires. Werewolves. Zombies. Cthulhu. A vampiric werewolf spawn of Cthulhu.

Sora turned to Will.

“Its called Racoon City,” the leader replied to the silent question. “Abandoned around or before the meteors. Its supposed to be safe…”

Sora frowned as he dug into his inventory. A skill he had acquired in his travels. The subspace anchored to his soul allowed him to keep a variety of goods and trinkets. So long as it was inorganic as time worked weird in there.

He pulled it out. The keyblade that was bound to his soul. The weapon that he had messed up with and was now tainted by demonic possession.

“Oooh, that looks awesome! Don’t come near me.” Caboose exclaimed as the organic-looking keyblade came out of nowhere.

Jack smiled as he looked at it.

Sora clenched his jaw as he had just woken up his shame. The soul edge had somehow eaten his sword during the last world and now he was stuck with a soul eating monster.

The blade looked organic, but it wasn’t real life. The thing was made of something else. Cosmic power condensed into a demonic shell? Bah. He had yet to meet anyone knowledgeable to explain it.

The blade’s eye opened and Sora stared it down. The blade shimmered and shrank into a keychain on his neck.

“Alright. Let’s go explore this ‘empty” city and see what there is to see,” Sora said with a depressed sigh. Jack and Caboose cheered while the others readied themselves.

Sora was sure that it was going to be a long day.