Chapters (Authors note: This is an alternate timeline for Half-Life 2. It's set in the times during CITY 17's destruction. The citadel still stands, and the Breen's portal has not been created... yet.)
(Please open in new tab, and listen to while reading. Adds to mood.)
July 10, 2XXX
The blackened sun ran cold over the cloudy sky. Gordon freeman, ex-scientist whom is on the verge of saving the world, is riding the train to Nova Prospekt for evaluation on the events of Black Mesa. He was one of the ten whom escaped freely without mortifying wounds. The images still haunt his mind today. He looks out the window of the train and gazes upon the mass destruction of the land... If you would even call it land. Hell , he thought. Trees burned to ash and the hot embers of fire were cooled by the acid rain. Smog filled the air, and smelt like burning plastic. The mist of blood filled Gordon's nose and causes him to sniffle.
****************
The train stops with a eerie screech causing Gordon to flinch at the loud irritating noise. Waddling off the ride, he looks around and is met by Metro Police. Nothing to do now but wonder around. Burnt paper and cigar butts were mashed along the sidewalk. A single alien vortigaunt* sweeps up the fallen dust and dirt from dirty boots. A large train began to leave, and created more screeching. The strong sent of hot sticky breathe fills his lungs, and causes him to cough in disgust.
"Welcome! Welcome, to City Seventeen!" A loud voice calls on intercoms. Gordon recognizes that voice, but can't get a grasp on the thought. He looks up to see the giant Combine* energy screen. It has a man giving a speech about the city, which caught Gordon's attention. This is a city? What happened to Nova Prospekt? He became confused at the sudden change of area.
"Move along!" The muffled voice of a Metro Cop rang. Gordon's back side was fused with a sting of a stun baton. He winced, but kept moving on trying not to cause havoc. Where's his damn crowbar?
Having nothing but the dirty civies* on his back, Gordon makes his way through the fence in the brick walls. He has a feeling that today was not going to end well.
Hl2:X COMIC
The laboratory was cold. A small shiver made it's way up Gordon's back at the sound of humming radiating from equipment. "Gordon! Gordon Freeman! It really is you isn't it? It's been a long time, how have you been?" Dr. Issac Kleiner smiled. "Last I seen you, it was in black mesa- blowing up." He was an old scientist, and a good friend. Gordon simply smiled and nodded, shaking his hand politely.
"The Combine have been on my ass all day!" A man's voice complained as he walked through the secret door. He spotted Gordon and grinned. "Hey Gordon! It's me, Barney, from Black Mesa!" He walked over to Gordon to also shake his hand. "Remember that beer I owed ya?" Again, all Gordon could do was silently laugh and nod.
"We just finished the final piece for our teleport! With the assistance of Alyx of course." Issac chuckled.
Alyx blushed and pulled her hair back out of her face. "It was nothing, doctor."
"Your talents surpass your loveliness."
"Gordon, we need to get you out of those civies." Barney insisted.
"Ah, yes!" Issac pointed towards a thin garage door next to boxes and lockers. "Barney, would you do the honors?"
"Yep." He laughed. "Here Gordon." Pressing the button, a large glass tube came into view housed in a single room. A round, fleshy, tan object slightly fitted around; until pouncing onto Barney's head. Freaking out, Barney flailed his arms around until grabbing hold of the Headcrab and yanking it off. The small creature smacked onto the ground. Headcrabs are parasitic lifeforms roughly two feet long. They have rounded bodies with four legs for movement; two long clawed legs at the front, and two stubby legs at the back. Their pair of large frontal claws are for attacking prey, and as additional support when standing still. Under the headcrab's body is a large rounded mouth surrounded by pointed rigid flesh with sharp claw-like beaks. To attack, they jump on prey and dig into it's skull, taking control of it's nervous system and attacking other things with the mutated prey.
"I thought you got rid of that pest?!" Barney flared. The headcrab scurried back on it's legs and looked around at Gordon and Kleiner. It proceeded and jumped onto nearby lockers that held Kleiner's books and lab equipment. It paused again to stare at the people surrounding it. Gordon noticed it had no teeth nor was planning to pounce, so he stayed put and studied it's plans.
"Barney!" Alyx grinned. "You're not an animal person!"
Barney simply responded with a disgusted yack. "Don't worry, Gordon." KIeiner smiled. "She's debeaked and completely harmless! The worst she might do is-" He shuddered a bit, looking for a word, "Couple, with you're head; fruitlessly." He patted his head, signaling the creature. "Here my pet, hop up!"
The creature looked as if it was making a choice and jumped up in Kleiner's arms, snuggling in his warm lab coat. Gordon, having enough of this nonsense, walked over to the glass tube and inspected his suit.
The HEV Suit, or Hazardous Environment suit, often called the "hazard suit" for sake of convenience, is a full-body hazardous materials suit developed at the Black Mesa Research Facility, designed for Black Mesa scientists to protect them from radiation, energy discharges, and blunt-force trauma during the handling of hazardous materials and to protect them from the effects of traveling to Xen as part of Survey Teams. The symbol on the HEV suit is the lower case Greek letter Lambda, λ. This symbol is used by scientists to denote the decay constant of radioactive elements (related to the half-life of an element). The HEV has a built-in flashlight, Geiger counter, morphine administrator, a radio, tracking devices, and a heads-up display (HUD) which tracks health status and weapon ammunition usage, as well as including a weapons management system. The suit contains an on-board computer system that constantly monitors the user's health and vital signs, and reacts to any changes in the user's condition with activations in the aforementioned apparatus, and a soothing female-computer voice. Additionally, the suit has an electrically hardened armor system that can be charged by power modules. While charged, the suit provides greater protection from injury as the charge absorbs more than two-thirds of any damage or trauma experienced by the wearer, with the exception of fall damage, which is absorbed directly into body-integrity, and oxygen deprivation, caused by swimming without surfacing for long periods of time.
He removed his old, ragged clothes and put on the suit. It was an awkward feeling when he hasn't gotten into it in a long time. It felt warm all around his body while the insides were made of thick rubber.
"It's good to see it fits you like a glove! Or the glove parts, at least." Issac smiled. He looked around his clustered desk and found a clipboard to read. "Ah, the Mark V Hazard Environments suit has a-" He was silenced by the loud crash of the city bells. The metallic hum buzzed in the air and caught everyone's attention.
"C'mon, Doc! We don't have time for this." Said Barney.
"Right," Issac said, "We'll get you sent to Eli's lab right away."
Kleiner walked up to a picture in the corner of the laboratory. He grabbed it and turned it slightly, and a metal, hidden eye scanner slowly lifted out of the beam that held up the building. With a slight "ting!" a large, cemented hidden door budged, and then proceeded to open. Upon entering the room; tons of equipment and computers were spewed haphazardly across the rectangular room. The windows were boarded over with thick plywood, letting in no light. The only lights in the room was a small florescent factory lamp suspended from the ceiling. It was quite stuffy and hot in the room from machinery ventilation. Dust filled Gordon's nose, causing him to sneeze violently. His feet clattered against the ceramic tile flooring, contrasting with the loud hum of computers. A large machine was neatly nestled in the far end of the room. It radiated a soft blue light along with another loud hum as the electricity powered it up.
Issac stepped on a small, square platform. It lifted him up in the air to another heightened platform in which held multiple computers and screens. With a small buzz, followed by a spark of a computer, Eli's head popped up. Eli was also an old friend of Gordons. They had done many experiments together back in Black Mesa such as the Xen Project. He was an old black man. His white beard contrasted on his face very clearly and had patches of dirt and oil from constant work. He stood on only one leg, the other suspended by a false limb.
"Alright Alyx, you first." Issac said. Alyx stepped into the teleporter and breathed heavily. She was terrified of a malfunction or a glitch in the system. "Gordon, we'll give you the honors." He pointed towards a switch.
The teleporter started to spin and glow with magnificent light. Alyx, very frightened, became unwary though couldn't escape now. "Uh, o-k Uh, ah. Ah!" With a low boom, and another flash, she vanished in midair.
"Did it work?" Barney asked.
"Take a look for yourself!" Issac grinned,
Both Gordon and Barney stared at the blue screen on the computer. It flashed white, then turned to static. Suddenly, A group of people were seen along with Alyx and Eli.
"Hey Doc!" She grinned. Another teleporter identical to the one in the lab was still glowing behind her.
"Well Gordon, looks like that M.I.T graduate really pays for itself. Throwin' that switch 'n all." Barney joked sarcastically.
"Alright, Barney. You're turn." Issac grinned.
"Gee, thanks."
"Ok Gordon, step in."
Gordon slowly walked into the machine. It lifted off the ground and began to spin. He felt very lightheaded.
"Teleporting in three........two.......one...... Teleport commencing now-"
|=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=|
1 Minute Before
"C'mon Twilight!" Rainbow Dash pleaded.
"No, Dash."
"Please?" She puffed out her lip and widened her eyes to make her begging more efficient.
"No! I said no, and no means no!"
"Please please please please please!"
"No no no no no!"
"But- but- I need to get to the Wonderbolts concert and I have no money! Please Twilight, you gotta teleport me!"
"No!" Twilight growled and walked back into the library, but she was stopped by Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. "Oh, hey! Whats up everypony?"
"We want you to get outta the house, silly!" Pinkie smiled widely.
"I must catch up on studies! I'm way to busy today." She frowned.
"Please, please, please, please!?" Dash yelled, tackling Twilight. Very annoyed and slightly angry at all of the interruptions on her reading, she quickly congregated all her magic to teleport Dash. With a flash of light from Twilight's horn, Ponyville dissipated before them and they popped back up in a room full of strange creatures.
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Three: Defying Logic
Gordon had been forcefully pushed out of the teleporter. He got up, and gazed into the steaming teleporter. He saw something he'd never dream of seeing before in his entire life. Six glowing creatures stood, dazed. The strange, colorful animals in the teleporter were grouped together, obviously scared. Gordon has only seen pictures of horses, but these looked almost just like them, but somehow very different. They were colored unlike anything on Earth, usually dull and gray or brown. No, these tiny horses were red, blue, pink, orange, even purple and yellow! They had strangely colored hair and had an awkward human characteristic. They contrasted the normal the world so badly that even Kleiner was left speechless, until Barney coughed out,
"What in the SAM h- Doc, what are they?"
"I-I don't know Barney. I'm just as confused as you are right now."
"Gordon," Barney looked to Gordon, whom jaw was hanging wide open, "are you seeing this?"
Gordon slightly nodded.
The six horses were shaking profusely, even looked as if they were sweating. Their eyes shifted from Gordon, to Barney, up to Kleiner, then back. The three humans did the same. The horses were quite different to each other though. They all looked very feminine. One was lavender, with a horn protruding out of it's skull. It's eyes were wide open.The orange one slowly lifted off her hat, which confused Gordon even more. How did she lift that? He asked himself. The yellow horse had wings and feathers and it looked terrified at Barney.
"Uh-" The purple horned creature spoke, "Hello?"
Gordon backed away from the teleporter. Barney gave the animals an awkward grin and nudged Gordon's shoulder. "They talk!"
"Can- you tell us- where we are?" She spoke again, her voice was delicate.
"Oh, excuse my manners." Kleiner stepped down the lift from the platform and walked up the horses. He lifted off his glasses to get a real look at the animals.
"Um-" Twilight grew very nervous. "We come- In peace?"
"Could you ah- help us?" The orange asked, slipping back on her hat.
"H- oh right! Help you. What exactly are you?" Issac questioned, about a foot away from Fluttershy's face.
"We're ponies, from Equestria." Twilight stated bluntly, she wanted out and to go home.
"Equestria? Never heard of it." Barney growled.
"Because it's not from here. It doesn't even look like it's from Xen."
"No, we're from Equestria."
"Must be a different universe." Kleiner said. "Certainly not around here."
"Stupid Aliens. Am I right Gordon? Hahe-" Barney nudged Gordon again, "They looked like horses."
"Actually, that's a minor misconception. We're ponies."
"Ponies... Ponies-" Kleiner opened the secret door again and walked through, booting up his computer. He left Barney and Gordon to watch them.
"Hi!" The pink pony jumped down and greeted Gordon, holding out a hoof. He shook it accordingly and couldn't help but grin at the pure innocents of this 'pony'. "I'm Pinkie Pie! What's you're name?"
Gordon just looked at it and pointed at his throat.
"I said, what's your name?"
Again, he pointed at his throat and frowned.
"C'mon silly, don't be shy, just say it!" Pinkie Pie became slightly annoying. Barney was almost on the floor laughing.
"He can't speak." Barney said, "He's a mute. His name is Gordon."
"Ah mute? Well that's ridiculous!" Said the orange pony. "Ah ain't ever heard of such ah thing."
The rest of the ponies followed behind the lavender one. From what Gordon knew from his P.H.D, these were Greek mythic creatures called Unicorns and Pegasi, or singular as Pegasus.
"I'm Rarity." The white pony said, she was a rather soft, warming sight. Her curly, purple hair bounced as she stepped off the metal teleporter.
"And ahm Applejack!"
"I'm Twilight, Twilight Sparkle. That over there is Fluttershy." She pointed towards the cowering, yellow pegasus, She had long, pink hair that Gordon thought of as strange.
"And I'm Rainbow Dash!" A bright blue pegasus flew out from the teleporter. She swooped around until landing next to Barney. "I ain't afraid of no alien!"
Lamarr had been snooping around the lab, and pounced onto Rainbow Dash's head. She yelped in fear and batted at it, flying into the wall and knocking over equipment. The headcrab had a tight grip over her skull, but had trouble digging into her head because it had no teeth, and the head structure of its prey was too irregular. Gordon, seeing the commotion, ran up to the pony and grabbed around the base of the headcrab. He yanked it off and threw it to the ground, gooey yellow residue was still left on Dash's head. She had scratch marks of where the crab tried to puncture her.
"What's going on in there?" Kleiner said, walking into the room. He noticed the ponies had stepped out of the teleporter. The cyan pony was freaking out. "What happened?"
"It's your pet headhumper!" Barney sneered, looking into the vents.
"Lamarr is usually not the one to do that."
"Well it did. Now you got these ponies all riled up. Stupid headcrabs."
"I-I'm fine, really. It didn't really hurt me." Dash sighed.
"I was searching the database of Earth lifeforms, and ponies have been extinct for over five years! The last one died in March of 2017."
"What?! Extinct? Wait, Twilight what does extinct mean?" Rarity asked.
"From my knowledge Rairty, its when a species cease to exist."
Rarity's eyes went wide. "This is the worst. Possible. Thing !"
"I somewhat remember horses in my time, though nothing like these." Kleiner stared at Pinkie Pie.
"What do we do?" Twilight asked softly. "Where are we?"
"You're on Earth, in my lab. Somehow, another slight resonance cascade has occurred! This time, it wasn't with the Xen crystal, it was somehow created from you're universe!" He pointed at Twilight.
"I wonder if it was my magic." Twilight said to Applejack, who shrugged.
"Magic? Are you joking?" Barney snickered.
"No, not all all! See?" Twilight pointed at a box in the corner of the room. It was glowing a bright purple, and slowly lifted off the ground.
"Remarkable!"
"How- Wha-" Barney couldn't find the appropriate word.
"They act like they nevah seen that before." Applejack whispered to Fluttershy, whom was still cowering behind her.
"They- they probably haven't." She whispered back.
The clock tower of City 17 crashed again, and made the ponies jump. Barney grabbed his pistol and put it in his holster. "Doc, he has to go now. CP'l be all over here." He pointed to Gordon, "You're gonna have to go on foot to Eli's lab."
"What about us?" Twilight asked, worried at the circumstances.
"Oh, er, well seeing the teleport has gone all wrong, the only way back is Eli's teleporter. You're gonna have to go with
"Can some of them stay here with you?" Barney asked.
"Well, yes. I think I can house them until you reach Eli's. By then I'll have my teleporter working and I could sent the rest through."
"Then what?" Rarity questioned.
"Then after you're all there, Eli can use the rest of his Xen crystal to send you home."
"Sound like that's gonna work!" Twilight smiled. "How far is Eli's lab?"
"On foot? It's pretty far. Takes a day or two to get there." Barney said.
"Road trip!" Pinkie Pie bounced up and down.
"Wait a minute, who's gonna stay behind?" Kleiner inquired.
"Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity; You think you could stay here until we reach the lab?" Twilight said, but thought about why they needed to stay. "What's CP? Why can't we all go? Is it dangerous?"
"Yes, very dangerous. We have to limit the group."
"Then what if I just go?"
'No Twilight, I'll go." Dash boldly suggested. "Danger is my middle name."
"Rainbow Danger Dash!" Pinkie laughed.
"Quickly, purple horse, you're gonna have to go with Gordon. The rest of you will stay here." Barney said, "Can you handle them all Doc?"
"Yes, I can."
"Ok then, Gordon, pony; quickly." Barney had the two go through the window. it led out towards the train station where they could cross safely.
===============
Gordon and Twilight had left the lab and already were on the way to Eli's lab. They walked out in the courtyard and walked up the steps to the backyard of the lab. Twilight looked around nervously. She probably hasn't seen anything like this , Gordon thought. The sun was high up in the afternoon sky and a cool breeze swept over and frayed the dried grass. A slight humming sound grew louder and louder followed by light mechanical beeps. A city scanner came into view from over the rooftops and flashed in Twilight's eyes. She recoiled and swatted at it with one hoof, the other covering her blinded eyes. Gordon ran up to the scanner and grabbed it, throwing it at the ground. It exploded in a metal concussion.
"What was that thing?" Twilight muttered, blinking profusely.
Gordon said nothing, but instead shook his head and waved Twilight to follow. They led up to a fence that was blocked by wood. Gordon looked up and saw barbed wire. The only way through was to break the wood, which wasn't as easy as it seemed.
"Hey Gordon! " It was Barney, he was up on the balcony of the lab. "The Citadel is on full alert! I've never seen it lit up light that. Get out of City 17 as fast as you can, Gordon. Take the old canals, right? Get to Eli's lab! It's a dangerous route, but there's a whole network of refugees and- they'll help you if they can. I'd come with ya, but I gotta look after Doctor Kleiner and those ponies. Oh, and before I forget; I think you dropped this back in Black Mesa." He held up a crowbar. and dropped it to the ground. It landed with a metallic crash. "Good luck out there buddy."
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Four: Route Kanal
Added for mood, open in new link!
Crack! The wood splintered into pieces with the whack of Gordon's trusty crowbar. They followed down the stairs and into a tunnel, Gordon had to smash boxes to get through. Another scanner popped up in the hallway, but Gordon quickly hushed it with a swish of his weapon. The only way through was to jump down into the train yard, so Gordon hopped down and Twilight followed. Bullets shot by Twilight's face, and she ducked in terror.
"What are those?!" She cried out, yelling over the commotion.
Gordon pointed to the ground and scowled, showing her to get down. A train zoomed by, coming out of the combine energy field.
"It's really loud!" Twilight yelled over the train's loud noise. Gordon nodded in agreement. More bullets flew past, and the cracks of USP Match pistols followed. A bullet smacked against Gordon's suit, and he winced in pain. Warm blood oozed out of the wound.
"You're hurt!" Twilight exclaimed, but Gordon patted her in reassurance that he was perfectly fine.
They bolted past the train tracks, dodging bullets and more city scanners. More trains let off their bells and clacked against the tracts. Gordon jumped into a train cart, and twilight followed. He proceed up the ladder, and noticed that she had hooves; making it hard for her to get up. He also noticed she was glowing and slowly levitating, just like she did with the box. She flew overhead and landed in the yard over the fence, Gordon blinked, then followed. Before jumping down, he was shot three more times in the back and the arm.
They landed in the yard and bolted towards the fence on the opposite side of the yard, seeing that it was also boarded up with wooden planks. Gordon clutched his crowbar and batted at it until it came loose. Having a way out, they ran down the stairs that led out of the yard and into a long downwards staircase.
Twilight stayed behind Gordon the whole time down the stairs, with the only light being his flashlight and the glowing of her magical horn. The hallway smelt of burn leaves and cigar smoke. Twilight coughed in disgust. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Gordon bolted towards the Health Charger. He pressed his thumb against the device and it slowly injected it's contents. Gordon's bullet wounds soon filled with a discharge of the medicine.
Gordon and Twilight slowly walked down the cold, blue hallway. Other than the humming of the florescent lights and the patter of hooves, the hallway was quiet.
"Stop he didn't do anything!" Someone cried, follow by the sound of a blunt weapon hitting soft flesh.
Gordon quickly ran around the end of the hallway and saw two CP Officers crowded around a man on his knees. A woman was standing opposite of them, crying. Gordon quickly ran up to the officers, but they had already took action and beat at the man's face with their stun batons. He was dead on the ground, bleeding. Twilight recoiled in freight; never having seen this kind of brutality in her life. Gordon finished his assault and whipped his crowbar at the cops face, tearing a hunk of flesh off and leaving him in a bloody puddle. The other one yanked on his holster and shot at Gordon's chest, the HEV suit's hardened armor system blocked most of the shots, except blunt damage. More blood littered the walls as Gordon swung at the attackers arms when he tried to block. The crowbar's sharp edge tore into the enemy's bone, and he recoiled in pain. With the crowbar stuck in the officer's arm, Gordon used his left hand to punch him in the face a few times, scrunching in the gas-mask and breaking the visor. Twilight jumped back in fear again, seeing the puddles of blood starting to seep towards her. She shivered and coughed at the sight of dead bodies, along with a quiet weep.
They both ran up the stairs, until running into another Metro cop. Gordon quickly pulled out his newly obtained pistol and shot two bullets into his skull; he came tumbling down the stairs. Twilight had been picking up weapons herself and studying them as they ran. The feeling and texture of cold, hard metal was foreign to her.
Daylight finally shun through down the end of the upper hallway, and two more cops ran down the last set of stairs to stop the two convicts. Gordon's pistol was out of ammo, so he yanked out his crowbar and threw it at the CP's feet, tripping him down the metal staircase. The other one shot at Twilight as she tried to work her gun. A single bullet lodged deeply in her shoulder. She cried out in pain, and with an adrenaline rush, shot her own weapon square between the cop's eyes. Gordon was awed at her marksmanship ability. He quickly picked up his crowbar and ran outside the tunnel, Twilight limping behind. She had no suit to block the physical bullet.
Gordon looked around, the only way over and to the other side of the path, was to get to the ladder that Gordon was not tall enough to reach. A train whistled in the distance, and that caught Gordon's attention. Once the train got there, they would have to jump it to get across.
"How do we get over there?!" Twilight asked, looking around.
Gordon pointed where the train would be coming from.
"I don't see anything."
Gordon rolled his eyes and squatted, getting ready to jump.
"Hey wait a second, I have an idea!" Her horn slowly glowed and became very bright. Purple light engulfed Gordon's head. Suddenly, like a gunshot, he felt lightheaded. Something felt wrong in his mind, and he planned to attack the horse, until it said "It's not the most comfortable spell to get used to, but that feeling will go away." She closed her eyes and concentrated on Gordon's mind.
"I hope she can make this jump." Like a radio, she could hear his thoughts.
"I heard that!"
"What did she hear?" Gordon looked around and shrugged.
"I heard that too!"
"I don't hear anything." He raised an eyebrow.
"No, I hear you!"
"What is she talking about?"
"I'm talking about you!"
"About me?"
"I can hear you!"
"What? But I-"
"I hear what you're thinking!"
"This makes no sense!"
"It's magic!"
"So you hear what I'm saying right now?"
"Yes!"
"I don't see how this is working."
"Well, it's a spell."
"A spell?"
"I concentrate on you're thoughts, and I can hear them like I hear anything else."
"Alright, get ready to jump!"
"What are we jumping for?"
"We're jumping on a train!"
"A- A train?! Why are we jumping on a big, metal dangerous train?!"
"It's the only way over!"
"If-if you say so, Gordon!"
"Trust me!" Gordon jumped, but from Twilight's perspective he jumped onto nothing but bare tracts. To her surprize, a train zoomed by and caught his fall. Before he could smack into the next wall, he jumped on the other side.
"C'mon horse!"
"A-ah-o-ok, uh, my turn. Ok, I can do this." She jumped off onto the moving train, and jumped again to the platform that would catch her. Her momentum caused her to skid, but she made it over.
"Keep moving."
=========
After jumping over fences and killing a few more Metro Protection officers, Gordon and Twilight had managed to escape most of the city's police force and even jumped a train. They were now in the water, swimming through a flooded walkway. Gordon only noticed one way out of the ditch they were in, and that was to go into a metal carrier crate. The sounds of a voritgaunt and human talking could be heard from inside. They hopped down inside the crate to be greeted by other convicts of the CP.
"Good god! Guess those sirens are for you huh? You're not the first to be let through!" The man said.
"This is the Freeman, the Combine's reckoning has come." The vortigaunt preached. His scratchy, uneasy voice and appearance made Twilight cringe.
"Look, we're just a lookout for the underground Railroad, the other station is right around the corner. They'll get you started on the right foot. Meanwhile, let my vortigaunt friend here give you a little jolt to get you going." The vortigaunt rubbed his hands and hummed some sort of religious tune, while green energy shot out of his hands. This caught Twilight's attention.
The man opened the door and waved his hand out, "Now get going!"
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Five: Route Kanal Pt. 2
"Alright, Twilight. Watch out." Gordon said, raising his crowbar.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"This wood, its either going to collapse everything above us or safely make a way out."
"Why are you doing it then?!"
"Its the only way." He whipped his crowbar at the thin wood planks and splintered them into shards. Twilight recoiled back at the wood splinters threatening to stab her.
As he broke one of the last remaining planks, the whole shipment of vehicles being suspended above for weather protection collapsed on top of them. It stopped just enough to not crush them both. After trudging on his knees, Gordon made his way under the vehicles. The canal was drained of its river-water, dried up from the drought. Muck and waste littered and mixed with the dirt on the ground, making disgusting sloshing sounds as they walked through it. "Blurp- Wuup" Twilight's hooves got stuck more than once.
"Do you want me to carry you?" Gordon said, raising an eyebrow. Twilight shook her head and gagged.
Gordon stopped dead in his tracks, looking up. Twilight, who was not paying attention, ran into his legs and jumped. She looked curiously at him as he watched the overhang above them.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Barnacle."
"What's a 'Barnacle'?"
"Just don't ever touch this." He pointed at a drooping, pasty yack of slime hanging from an oddly shaped red and brown blob attached to the overhang. It's deformed lips had sharp teeth that twitched and slowly nipped at the chilly air. Twilight gagged again at it's disgusting stench and appearance as it burped out small fragments of bones. A crow was gladly pecking at the rotting waste next to Gordon. It bolted off but was yanked back as the barnacle wrapped it's long, sticky green tongue around the base of the bird's body. It flapped it's wings and pecked at the nasty appendage. The weird blob shot out another, smaller, set of spiked lips that stabbed at the crow. It squawked, fell limp, and became fully enveloped in slime before it was sucked into the sagging mouth. Twilight finally puked up her contents of her stomach. "That's what happens when you touch it." Gordon pulled out his pistol and tapped the trigger sending three bullets into the thick of the ceiling creature. It also puked up digested material, along with the bird's already decaying body.
They passed a sewer entrance in which a man was pushed up against the bars of the rusted sewer door. He was badly bruised and beaten. He cried for help but was quickly silenced by a bullet in the back of his skull. . Behind him were two metrocops coming out of the sewers. Gordon quickly reacted by sending a barrage of bullets inside the sewers. Around the corner, a group of officers were set up with a combine barricade and a combine pulse rifle, always gotta be the combine pulse rifles , he thought. They spotted him and began firing into the only cover Gordon was behind.
"Don't turn the corner!" Gordon demanded. "I'm surrounded."
"What do we do now?" Twilight whined, afraid of defeat.
"I got this, don't worry." He jumped the small metal barricade he was hiding behind and bolted for the only opening towards the sewers. The gunner had noticed his quick sprint and fired at him, Gordon couldn't count how many bullets he had just taken off of that stupid move. His whole side burned of pulse damage. Twilight watched from behind the rusted doors as a wounded Gordon Freeman sprinted down the sewer canal.
The sewer line led to a drain-pumping room that refugees had turned into a base camp. A dirty, stained red couch was littered with blood from assassinated citizens. They must have been attacked last night by raiding parties , Gordon thought. The room had little light other than what came from the drainage opening. Tables flipped over and more pistol bullets flew in his direction. The deafening crack of the pistol in a small room left Gordon disoriented and confused. He took cover behind a crate, throwing his arm around and shooting blindly. He had managed to hit the first officer in the knee, and the other in the chest. They fell in pain, paralyzed. He took this time as an advantage and kicked one in the face as he was on the ground. The other had already died of shock. Gordon nodded, satisfied at his accomplishments.
"Oh, maybe I could grab a weapon?" Twilight asked. "I don't feel protected here."
"Just leave it to me for now."
"A-lright then."
He saw a ladder leading up to behind where the Metropolice group was, but he decided to look around first, maybe loot some ammo. A pack of medical surges neatly were packed in crates, which he jabbed in his ribs. Soon, the cool hardening liquid filled his bullet wounds.
"Station 12? Station 12 do you hear me? Station 12 please respond! We heard Station 10 go down and out! Station 12 are you there?" A radio buzzed, the static made it hard to understand.
He continued by climbing the ladder and carefully planted a bullet into a gas-filled barrel. It exploded just as he dropped back down in the hole, and fire engulfed the whole squad of Civil Protection. They waddled around in their burnt suits and flared their arms wildly. Gordon quickly jumped back up the ladder and hit the remaining enemies with his crowbar.
Twilight, seeing the opportunity for safety, she galloped into the open canal and ran straight for the sewers; following Gordon's route. She made her way up the ladder as well, but jumped behind a barricade as soon as more bullets zoomed past.
"More of them, down there. I think I can-" Bata-bata-bata, the pulse rifle went off as Gordon squeezed the trigger. Combine arsenal never failed to amaze him.
Ar2 rounds pierced the armor of assaulting squads. The screams of radio chatter filled Twilight's ears as more and more bodies tumbled down.
"Gordon, look out!" She yelled, seeing more of them approaching from a bridge, obviously made by recycled scraps. She saw more gas containers set up to blow the bridge, so she waited for them to pass over it, and used her magic to set the barrels on fire. They exploded, throwing dead bodies of metrocops around. Even though quick thinking, she was never this scared in her life. More pistol fire whizzed past her ears, cutting them. She recoiled in pain, this time letting Gordon finish them off.
He had burned through a significant amount of rounds until each and every enemy had fallen dead. Bloody, torn up exploded bodies laid around. Most had bullet holes, some on fire. Some even had fallen from the bridge above. Gordon and Twilight had managed to stop the incoming horde. She had finally come out from hiding.
"I-I-I" Twilight squeaked. "I've n-ever killed another li-living thin-g before-" She began to cry. Gordon patted her head and set down his weapon.
"Look, we can get through this. Go what I go by: If they want to kill you- you kill them. That's how that works." He sneered, noticing that hadn't helped in this situation.
"We- Its-" She sighed and wiped the dirt and tears from her face, "This is not how we solve things in Ponyville. Equestria. Anywhere. We never have had problems like this."
"Twilight, I know you are confused and a bit torn up, but you need to pull it together. Its going to be harsh for awhile until we get to Eli's and can send you ponies home."
"O-Ok."
"Can you be strong about this now?"
"Yeah, s-orry. I've been holding it in too long."
"You can't have a nervous breakdown like this every time we kill something, there's going to be a helluva lot of killing from now until you leave."
"Ok, ok. I'm settled down now, sorry. I just wish I had never teleported here."
"I've had to fight a giant metal tentacle monster, kill thousands of crazy jumping dogs, take at least half a million bullets, go through billions of headcrabs, fight zombies, and take down a giant blue robot by-my-self. If you think this is hard- you haven't seen Black Mesa. Now let's go!"
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Six: Route Kanal Pt. 3
Section Six: Route Kanal Pt. 3
Gordon scavenged around for more ammunition. He slowly ascended back down into the canal sewer and searched around, looting bodies. The radio buzzed again, and lit up.
"Station 12- come in! Station-" It cut off suddenly, followed by more static."Station 8? We heard 12 go down and out! Er, surgical strike units are targeting railway stations! Repeat, Civil protection is coming down on underground stations! We're already getting refugees from nine-and-outline! Looks like we're-" Zzzt! The radio, again, cut off. A different voice came back on. "Station 8 do you copy? Station 8 are you there? We have confirmed the reports of manhacks! I repeat, they are filling the underground with manhacks!"
"My guess is that we're standing in station 12, which is already- gone." Gordon said, climbing back up. He grabbed a handful of combine battery packs and charged his suit. "Let's go."
"What's that noise?" Twilight asked, a loud hum came from the bridge above, confirming it was a combine APC. "What- is- that?"
"Run!" Gordon yelled. Large rockets shot out of the vehicle and the heat seeking went straight for him.
They both jumped down and ran through the dirty canal, dodging rocket explosions. A group of officers above shoved explosive barrels off, and they landed with a thud, following with an explosion. The canal's ran into another sewer, in which was blocked by a barrage of vans and fallen concrete. Gordon dived through the only hole above the blockade and motioned Twilight to follow. She did the same thing, but lost her grip and landed with a "Slurp!" The whole bottom half of her body was covered in slushy, warm muck. "Eww, disgusting!"
"No time! Run!"
Gordon and Twilight quickly ran through the maze of cement cylinders and piles of muck, shooting down barnacles as they threatened to choke them both. For protection, Gordon handed Twilight his pistol, as he was carrying two. She used her magic to carry it, but picked up a dirty rope to create a makeshift holster. Hot daylight dried the muck on Twilight's fur when they walked out of the canal's tunnel. On a bridge ahead, the same APC rushed past, looking for the runaways. The echoing call of the city's overwatch called for them both. "Alert, community, ground protection units, local unrest structure detected. Assemble, administer, pacify." and again, "Attention occupants, your block is now charged with permissive inactive coercion. Five ration units deducted. Potentially dangerous animal arrest warrant. Code: lock, cauterize, stabilize."
"Keep moving." Gordon said, motioning her to follow.
"Can we stop a minute? I need to catch my breath." She huffed, sitting on a hunk of warm concrete. The sun gleamed down on her face, burning her eyes. Gordon was looking around the small area they were inclosed in, and seen a way out. "More sewers?" Twilight moaned.
"Over here!" A woman called out. Gordon looked around, and saw a small, armed lady in a cement cylinder. She waved her arm for him to come over. He knelled down to her height. "Keep going friend, that station was raided, but there's others, up ahead. I'm gonna stay here in case any others come through. Gotta keep the railway alive."
Gordon nodded and motion Twilight to follow. She walked past and into the busted sewer opening. The lady looked down at her bloody hands, then scooted back out of the sunlight and onto her knees. Twilight walked past and she looked up, curious. What she saw was something so unrealistic, something so strange, she could just sit there and stare forever. She's never seen a color like that before!
=================================
Twilight plunged into the water after Gordon, and they floated quietly. They had jumped into a canal-room full of deep water. Twilight grabbed a wooden platform and held on by wrapping her body around it. The awkwardly warm water slowly seeped into Gordon's mouth as he went underwater to look for a way out. It tasted sour and bitter and burned his eyes. He came back up and gasped for air. Twilight looked around and tried to use her magic to break the gate, blocking the sewer access. Above them, officers stood on the sewer plates, talking.
"No visual on targets." One said.
"Dangerous animal not spotted." The other responded.
"Oh I'll give them a dangerous animal." Twilight growled. She had grown bitter about these enemies and cared not if they died. She aimed her pistol with her magic and squeezed the trigger. A barrage of bullets filled the officers legs and feet, one missed and hit his chin. The wounded one ran away but the damaged one fell down with a thud. Blood dripped down into the water, making Twilight gag. Suddenly, the opening above exploded open, and in came more explosive barrels.
"They sure do like these things!" Gordon yelled. "Dive down!"
As he said, Twilight and Gordon dived down into the bottom of the room. The barrels exploded and busted open a gate the run through. Gordon grabbed Twilight's hoof and yanked her up out of the water. She shook off a bit and put her pistol away. "Right, keep going!"
They ran down the sewer and into another dried out canal, except this one had much more cover, though the enemies were above. Officers jumped down off the walls and onto cars for save landing. They fired at Gordon's position, while Twilight took the advantage to shoot who was open. Blood spat all over the walls and mixed into the green mud. Gordon also whipped out his pistol and rapidly clicked the trigger. More CP fell onto the ground, lifeless. They're radio buzzed and called. As if it could get any worse, a whole squad of officers stood on the wooden bridge ahead and fired. Gordon noticed the explosive barrels below, and shot two bullets into one. It exploded, and busted the others. The whole bridge crashed down, crushing the enemies. Twilight could hear bones snapping and necks breaking. She looked away in disgust.
"Reinforcements, code three!" A cop called out on his radio. He was the last one. Twilight saw him cowering below a fallen car, and pointed in his direction. Gordon pulled out his crowbar, jumped over the car and repeatedly bashed in his head. Zzzzzt...
=================================
"Alright, Go!' Gordon said, pointing at the large sewer opening. The makeshift wooden teeter totter lifted Twilight up and she jumped up. Gordon picked up the cinder blocks and placed them on the opposite end so it would lift up. He bolted across the wood plate and jumped up, landing next to Twilight. They walked out and into even more canals, but a large "Crack!" above startled them both. Gordon looked up and saw a combine hunter chopper.
"Oh no-"
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Seven: Hunter Chopper
Section Seven: Hunter Chopper
"Revvvvvvvvvvv" The Combine hunter chopper charged it's pulse cannon. "Takatakataka" It fired blunt rounds at Gordon, but seemed to ignore Twilight.
"What is that thing?!" Twilight yelled, hiding under a chunk of concrete.
"Trouble!" Gordon said, dodging out of the way. They slid down the greasy slope, splashing into a small stream of water. Concrete littered the canal system from fallen buildings. Fences stuck out of the ground for no apparent reason; all in all it was a huge mess.
"There!" Gordon pointed to a blue door, barricaded by barrels and metal sheets. Twilight used her magic to throw the stuff out of the way.
They both jumped into the doorway and down the stairs as the chopper kept firing. Rounds busted into the walls with a "Crack!" and shrapnel flew everywhere. Gordon ran back up and slammed the door shut, bullets still flinging through it. He went back down and met up with Twilight. They jumped down the latter and climbed under the railing to more sewers. The wet slime under Twilight's hooves made her yack.
Far ahead down the tunnel, a small puddle, and to the right of it a slope which was coated in grease and dark sludge. Barnacles had grown down the slope and blocked their path. But the human and pony had an advantage. In the puddle were two rusty explosive barrels. Twilight looked at Gordon, who picked up the barrels and slid them down the oil of the drainage canal. She assisted by picking them up as well, but she threw them instead. The barnacles instantly found them and wrapped their green appendages around them. Two even fought after one.
Gordon pulled out his pistol and shot at the barrels caps. One began to spark and busted into flames. It set the other off, but not exploding. Surely enough it would blow soon. Gordon watched as the barnacles continued to literally fight for their death. At last, a small tick and it exploded in metal and barnacle guts followed by whatever they had been digesting. Warm sickly green liquids squirt out and spoiled the water below.
"Yuck." Twilight said, spitting on the ground.
**************************
Traveling through the sewers, they had to complete this step one more time, followed by more drainage canals. Barnacles had littered the ceilings all over and blocked the doorway in the corner. Gordon repeated his technique and exploded more barrels when they grabbed them up close. By the end of the journey in the sewers, Twilight was almost completely green and covered in the sticky goop. Bits of flesh from the barnacles digested prey hung from her already muddy, bloody, and soaked fur.
Ahead was the door out, they both bolted back outside into the sun but the Chopper had been waiting for them.
Twilight limped closely to Gordon's side as they slowly creeped down the long hallways of the wet canal. The smell of dried oil and must made Twilight sneeze and Gordon cough violently. Wood blocked the way, followed by explosive barrels, so Gordon took precaution and slowly removed the wood with his trusty crowbar. Pushing the barrels out of the way, they crept past but were stopped suddenly by even more wood. This time, it led into a warm room in which held food and a somewhat of a shelter. He broken down the wood and peeked inside. A man, civilian, refugee, jumped down from a perch.
"Get in here, hurry!" He yelped, but quietly. "Civil Protection is on to us! We're tearing up the railroad, covering our tracks. Looks like you're going to be the last one through. Be glad you're not the one they're looking for! Poor bastard doesn't stand a chance."
"He's talking about you, Gordon." Twilight said, but was hushed.
"Sounds like they're calling every CP unit in City 17." The man growled. "Now they're filling the areas up ahead with manhacks! You'd better get going before they sweep through here."
Twilight, annoyed of the dark, walked into the room behind Gordon. The man was too busy looking out the eye-slot of the door to pay any attention to his obvious delusions. The man hadn't eaten anything in days and was drinking dirty sewer water. He tried his best to filter it, but headcrabs had even laid their young in the water, who knows what he had ingested.
An eerie metal clanking sound was heard down the hallway, opposite side of the metal door. A mechanical screech filled Twilight's ears and she scrunched up her face in confusion. Gordon, worrying, had no clue what these were either.
"Oh shit! Too late!" He dived for a lead pipe and jumped out of the way of the door.
Metal crashed through the door, blades spinning on both sides rapidly. A mechanical hum and screech filled the room and echoed off the cement walls. Easy enough, Twilight picked them up with her magic and threw them at the walls. They crunched under the pressure.
Missing, and wasting bullets, Gordon put away his pistol and pulled out his crowbar, batting at them with the dull side. He had shattered one of the red lights on one of them, and it glowed a sick orange followed by rapid blinking. The blades slowed down and it started to float on emergency power. Obviously, Gordon had hurt it badly though wasting time, it gained its lost energy and became red again. The dying, robotic sound had turned back into a deathly hum once more. The refugee busted three of them, the last one went flying into Twilight's bullet wound. It tore into her skin and ripped her flesh very clean, like a massive paper cut. It stung so bad, it became numb. She cried and bucked at it, crushing the thin metal the manhack was made of.
After calming down, the man leaned against a wood support. He threw down his weapon and sat down. "Thanks for your help." He sighed, "Look, it isn't safe here, I'll give you some supplies to get you going, then you really gotta go." Gordon nodded.
Twilight sat away from the dirty water, despite how desperate she was to clean the wound. She tried to stay out of view of the man, in the shadows, but for whatever reason even if the man did see her, he gnored her presence. Maybe he was going insane? The man put his head in his knees.
Gordon picked up some health charges, and jabbed them into Twilight's side, above her cut/wound. She squealed, but instantly was in a bliss of relief. An insane pressure had been released and he pulled out the device after injecting the contents. Her wound suddenly filled up with a lime green foam that soothed and felt very pleasing.
"Be careful," Gordon warned, "supplies are low."
"YOU be careful." She pointed to his kneecap, a metal shard had pierced through it, like an arrow. "You have an arrow in your knee!"
"It's just wood, relax I can't feel it."
"Wh- You can't feel it?!"
"No, the suit, biotic and medical foam including pain relievers."
"Is it the same stuff you just stuck in me?"
"Yeah."
"So what do we do now?"
"We get out of these canals."
*Note: looking for prereaders! Will update again, extremely soon! Expect it within 24 hours of this one. Comments are appreciated! The more you guys support, the more I dedicate. :3*
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Eight: Manhacks and Mp7
Gordon and Twilight ran down the hallways and busted through more wood, with her taking the lead. The screech of manhacks echoed throughout the narrow canal passage, causing her ears to twitch. She winced as the cuts down her spine and flank burned with the hot, misty air. The smell of dirty water and burnt flesh filled her nose as they carefully stepped over scorched bodies that looked like burnt toast.
“Light!” Twilight said, noticing the radiating light down the hallway.
Gordon saw what she was looking at; a fence gate leading to what looked like a cage.
His blood loss meter had already hit 44 and was dropping. He dived through the boxes, Twilight copying his moves. They had made it out of the line of fire, Twilight unscathed. She had figured out how to make somewhat of a magical shield, though it only slowed the bullets so on impact they would leave a nasty bruise instead of piercing the skin.
“Run!” Gordon yelled in his mind, giving Twilight a headache from the loud projection.
They ran down a series of different hallways, climbed down ladders, and even stopped to collect some supplies. Seven boxes stacked on top of each other just waiting to be broken open. Most of the boxes would either have medical supplies or battery units. Gordon used his crowbar to lightly pry open the boxes, not damaging the contents. He removed the neatly packed items and set them out for Twilight. She stared at one, inspecting it.
“What’s this one for?” She asked, poking the charge pack.
“It’s a jolt of energy to power my suits armor function.” Gordon explained, “Nano-beads harden up to protect me from any sorts of blunt or sharp damage.”
Twilight forgot about the world around her and focused directly on Gordon, finally getting a good look at his suit as he sat, resting his legs from the constant running. “How old are you?” She asked.
“I don’t know.”
“How do you not know your own age?”
“It’s complicated.” Twilight stared him down, causing him to become increasingly uncomfortable. He finally gave in.
“A man, or at least I think he’s a man, blackmailed me into working for him. Saying if I didn’t work for him, I would die.” Gordon wiped his face with his dirty gloves. The orange in his suit was stained with green muck. “I was put in stasis for who knows how long, and I suddenly am waking up on a train, almost to board the train to Nova Prospeckt, whatever that is.”
“Stasis? What’s that?”
“I don’t know myself, it’s not physically possible, but somehow he managed to do it. It’s theorized to be when something is put in a time-less, untouched area of space. Somewhere, or I should say, it’s nowhere. Blackness.”
“How did it feel?”
"There is no ‘Feelings’. There is just nothingness, imagine sleeping for what feels like 5 minutes and waking up 20 years later.”
“Whoa, that sounds like magic!”
“It very well could be, or just a nifty way of stopping old-age. That bastard.”
“Who was he?”
“He seemed to be a regular businessman, though he watched me whenever he got the chance, always appearing in places I couldn't reach. Why he brought me here is far beyond my knowledge.”
“So how old do you think you are?”
“Knowing that Alyx is around twenty, and I was already thirty in Black Mesa’s time, I’m around fifty years old.”
“You have some good moves for fifty.” She grinned.
“Yeah, well I’m physically still thirty.”
"Who's Alyx?"
"Clink! Crack! Sneerererer-” Several manhacks busted through the boxes blocking the only doorway out. Gordon quickly grabbed more suit charges and stuck them on his suits charge socket. Inside he had an advantage over the manhacks, his pistol. He squeezed the trigger, a bullet puncturing right into the fuel chamber of the manhack causing it to explode into metal debris and sparks. He then used the butt of the gun to ram it into another manhack, breaking its visual sensor. It flung around aimlessly until falling down to fuel loss.
Meanwhile Twilight was destroying the flying killer machines with true horse power, using her hooves. When the manhacks bounced off the walls, it dulled their blades exponentially. This gave her an advantage as she bucked them away. Contact with forty pounds of sheer pony muscle not only bent the manhacks mainframe, but busted the cpu chip inside, saving magic and bullets. Even if the blades were sharp, her quick kick would knock the flying bastard out of orbit. Gordon stood there and watched her kick them down one by one. What an embarrassing way to die, Gordon thought, killed by a talking purple horse.
They ran out of the door and into a large, u-shaped canal. The walls were coated in green moss and sewer grime, though the clean cold water felt refreshing on Twilight’s legs, but still too muddy to drink. They slowed down their pace and trudged through the ankle-high water, getting back their energy again. Suddenly, a single metrocop dropped down from above on a wire. He aimed his Mp7 at Gordon with one hand and fired. For some reason they didn’t see Twilight as a threat.
Gordon sprinted up and used the J of the crowbar to dig into the CP’s throat. It went down coughing, but got a few good bullets in Gordon’s left side. By now the feeling of that much pain has become tolerable for Gordon, it wasn’t the first time he’s been shot by a sub machine gun.
“Get to the corner, don’t let them see you.” Gordon pointed to the shadow. “Can you grab their guns?”
“Yeah, I can manage that.”
“Alright, listen, it works like this-” He pointed at the trigger, “use your magic to pull the trigger, make sure you hit their heads!”
“But I-”
“Alright, go!”
“Gordon I-”
“Twilight, get to cover!”
“I can’t-”
“Alright, one, two-” He got ready to pulverize one of them, she would get the other.
“GORDON I CAN’T!” She yelled out loud, her voice echoing down the halls.
“Chhh over there Chhhh!” One of the CPs said.
Gordon’s mind scattered into different equations on how to combat what just happened. He had no time, the metrocops were already on his ass and firing. He charged and used his newly equipped Mp7 to pump them both full of lead.
Scared out her mind, Twilight used her magic to throw one of the cops down and hold him down until Gordon used his foot to break its skull. This also proved very effective. Two down, and more dropping down. Gordon turned around the corner in full sprint, Twilight somewhat far behind. He yanked out his pistol and tapped its trigger. Blood splattered the walls and puddled into the water. Gordon was between rage and an adrenaline rush, but he got things done haphazardly. He just really wanted out of the canals, it was fogging up his glasses.
Turning the corner, it led outside again, this time into a large pool with a rusty turbine. He waited for Twilight, then divided in. They both waited for the turbine to pass, then made their way through a underwater passageway.
***********************
Pinkie pie bounced around the lab.
“OOooo What’s that? What’s THAT? Oh what's that?” Shes said, poking the computers. “OOooh, this thing has numbers on it!” She giggled. “Hey look at that thing! No, that other thing! Hey! You’re the lady from the test!”
“Pinkie! Don’t touch things that aren’t yours, and what’s this about a test?” Rarity scolded, examining around the lab.
“I dunno, it just felt appropriate to say that... Oooooooo what's in heeeeere?” She looked in the canister in which held the HEV suit. She then proceeded to poke at the mainframe until locking herself in. “Do you smell something burning?”
“Ah swear Pinkie Pah, ya’ll just got here an’ ur already gettin’ urself stuck!” Applejack sighed, “Doc, how d’ya open dis thing?”
“Oh,” Kleiner examined Pinkie Pie, chuckling. “Curiosity killed the cat I must say.”
“Shes gunna die!?” Dash yelped, trying to force open to pod.
“No, no, my dear horse whose name escapes my mind, it’s an expression here on Earth.”
“We have the same thing back home, she’s just not very-” Rarity wispered, “clever.”
“HEARD THAT!” Dash yelled.
Kleiner pressed the tab, opening the pod. Pinkie immediately jumped out and stared at the Doctor. “Ewww what’s wrong with your legs?!”
“Feet,” Kleiner said, “they’re feet.”
“Pinkie don’t be so rude!” Rarity again scolded.
“Ok mommy.”
“I’m too cooped up in here!” Dash said, “Say doctor, could I uh- open a window and maybe fly around a bit?
“No! Dearest me, no!”
“Well why not?”
“Because!”
“Cuz why?”
“You just can’t!”
“Are they stuck?”
“No!”
“Can I open them then?”
“I said no!”
“What if I get them unstuck? Then what hmmm?”
“They aren’t stuck you- you- oh my. You can’t open them because it’s very dangerous out there! Please, just keep quiet and stay away from the windows!”
“Wuts so bad out thur doc?” Applejack asked, out of curiously. She tried to climb up the ladder to see, but climbing the ladder was easier said than done.
“A lot of stuff, half of it I don’t even know myself!” He walked to the lockers to check the weapons and ammo. Dash immediately spotted the gun and curiosity hit her like a train.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.” Kleiner hid the weapon from view.
“No, no, that thing you had!”
“What thing?”
“The black stick!”
“What black stick?”
“It looked like a cannon!”
“A wha?”
“Er- nevermind. Crazy old co-”
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity stuck her hoof in Dash’s face. “Respect our hosts!”
“Hur blah blah, Hosts smosts.”
“I- I hope Twilight is o-ok.” Fluttershy squeaked, cuddled next to Rarity. She was scared out of belief.
“She’s probably fine.” Dash assured.
“Agreed! Gordon is an excellent shot!”
“Shot?” Dash grinned.
“Oh boy-”
***********************
*Gasp* Gordon breathed for air. Twilight splashed next to him, gasping for air as well. They had made it out of the canals. Over the last five minutes they had fought over one hundred manhacks, ten metrocops, had to swim a half mile in water, and walked at least an hour through sewers that smelt of vomit and dried shit. Finally they had jumped out of the last canal drainage entering and into somewhere completely different. The ground was mushy, radioactive waste popped and splashed nearby, and the only way to cross was on very thin wood boards.
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Nine: Water Hazard Pt. 1
"Ew what is that stuff? It's gross! Looks like-" Twilight went to poke at the green and yellow sludge. It popped and gurgled, sloshing about the concrete mold.
"Don't touch it!" Gordon scolded, "It's highly dangerous! Radioactive waste, burns to the touch."
"An acid I'm guessing?"
"Residues and acids yes. I've swam in this stuff before, it's not pleasing."
"What's the yellow stuff on top?"
"Build up from whatever burns it in. Skin, bone, blood, hair. A lot of organs, seeing as it's yellow."
"Ewww!"
"Agreed, what you're stepping on is the same thing, but solid."
"Oh." Her ears went flat, "Hey whats that ahead?" She pointed straight down the large canal passage way, seeing what looked like a refugee camp (an underground railroad station). A single civilian was pounding his radio and checking over all of his supplies.
"The next station, hurry!"
They ran down across the dried muck and jumped over the waste puddles. The man that runs this station obviously didn't know what he was doing when he put the large wooden platform down, it was already rotting away quickly from the waste underneath.
"Headcrabs!" The man yelled. He grabbed his SMG and took aim to the ground.
Gordon saw the threat and used his pistol to pick off what was left. Headcrabs waddled around, hopping at their prey. Twilight used her magic to throw them in the waste, and they floated back up, sizzling. Twilight grimaced as yellow headcrab blood splattered on her face.
"Hey!" The man exclaimed, "You're Freeman aren't you? We got word you were comin'! You got here at a bad time."
"ZZzt! Black Mesa east to station six do you read? Doctor Freeman is on his way down river! Lend him the airboat and give him all the help you can! Repeat, Gordon Freeman has returned! It is critical he reaches Black Mesa East!" The radio buzzed.
"You better get goin'." The man looked at Twilight and rubbed his eyes. He shook his head and sat down, "It's probably all this gas."
Twilight stayed an inch away from Gordon as they walked down the passageway. The ground was soft and mushy underneath. It wasn't like stepping in mud or soft earth but like stepping in a pool of hard vomit. They were slow, pushing forward, looking out for headcrabs that could ambush any second. Gordon had to bend down to pass the end of the passageway, but Twilight only needed to lower her head.
"Look- I'm sorry for what I did earlier."
"It's ok, I get it, you were scared. If I were you I would be scared of this place too."
"I- I've never killed with a weapon before!"
"I understand, but sooner or later you're going to have to."
Twilight simply nodded.
.........
["Incoming!"
"Their shelling us!"
"CRASH!" Black canisters rocketed down and smashed into the muck.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Q4xvDCNb0 )
"Gordon, what's going on?!" Twilight looked around frantically, dust filled the air.
"This isn't good-" Gordon frowned. He saw the headcrabs plop out of the canister one by one. "Twilight, you're going to have to work up your fear of killing and take this!" He took out his pistol and handed it to Twilight, she picked it up by her magic. "You remember what to do?
"Yeah," She aimed down the sights and took aim at whatever Gordon said.
"There, see 'em?"
"Mmphm." She pulled the trigger and fired three bullets into a headcrab. It flung around and laid dead, tumbling around with its round body.
Gordon ran out with his crowbar and kicked one of the headcrabs. It countered his attack by hopping at him, it's large teeth bare underneath. Gordon took the advantage and swung at it, sending it miles up. Behind, Twilight was having problems with her gun.
"It stopped working!"
Gordon yanked a clip out of his belt and chucked it at Twilight. "Put it in the bottom! Press the button to release the magazine!" She did so, it slid out and she replaced it with another. By then, Gordon had gotten the last headcrab.
"Those things are creepy!"
"C'mon!"
They bended around the corner of what felt like a maze made up of scraps. Straight ahead was a small living enclosure, inside a man was being attacked! The headcrab suckled on his head and tore into his skull, blood dripped down his shirt and pants. He tugged on the headcrabs sharp, stubby legs but it was no use, he gave in to the headcrab's victory and fell on his knees, becoming top heavy. He smashed through a table and laid dead on the floor, the headcrab finally able to dig into his skull.
"Shouldn't we help him?" Twilight looked away from the body.
"Yeah-" Gordon grabbed Twilight's floating pistol and put a bullet to the headcrab. It twitched and fell over.
They kept moving, picking off the pests and even forced through a metal container that would kill them if they touched the hanging electrical cords. Now a small gap was in the path. Either jump quickly or go slow, cross on the wood, and not risk anything. As soon as Gordon set foot on the plank across, something came towering out of the gunk. It was human, but a suckling headcrab had dug into the skull. Intestines hung out from the torn chest cavity, ribs cracked and all organs exposed to the boiling waste. The smell of rotting stomach acid and dried blood filled the air. Twilight couldn't hold it in, she had to let it out; so she vomited all over it. For a minute, it stopped moving around, then started to growl and moan. The sounds of the dying human underneath made Twilight want to die right there and then.
"YABBAH!" It paused and gargled on blood. "MY ICING!"
Twilight thought for a moment, it just spoke English! (Er, Equestrian?) Gordon aimed his SMG but Twilight grabbed it out of his hands as the zombie shuffled around. "English!" Twilight said, almost excited to talk to it. Now out of being a science nerd, it washed away her fears and replaced it with curiosity.
"What?!" Gordon was shocked at her reaction. Usually she would be screaming and clinging to his legs.
"It said words!"
"I think the gasses have gotten to you."
"No, no, it said- er- something about icing?"
"Icing?"
"You know, cake icing?"
"Why would it be saying that?"
"You're the scientist here, maybe it likes cake!"
"Doubt it."
"How do you know?"
"Ask it yourself." Gordon pointed behind her, the zombie was towering over her head almost a whole pony higher. She squeak. Gordon, with somewhat protective instincts, socked it in the- er- headcrab. It shuffled backwards with a wet garble, and waddled forward again, Twilight was so disgusted with it by this point she got over her fear of killing something alive, of course, it is dead already- kind of.
"Get off!" She bucked with all her might, sending it flying into an explosive barrel. It tumbled over, knocking over other zombies that were getting up. She picked up the SMG and fired into the barrels, an angry look on her face.
After what seemed like an hour of dust and flying headcrabs, they could see the damage. All that was left was zombie guts and some legs. The headcrabs skewered all along the metal debris and bodies spilled into the waste, gurgling and popping filling the air with the putrid smell of burnt, rotten zombie flesh.
"Okay, that's nasty." Twilight grimaced "Kinda made a mess." She looked over at Gordon, who looked somewhat surprised, even for what he has seen in his lifetime. "Speechless?" Twilight had a devious smug on her face.
"Well for a talking purple magical unicorn from a different time and space, which is highly illogical, unrealistic, not to mention improbable, and so impossible every way shape or form, and that's afraid to kill, and that is female, you have a creative way of- er- killing. I did the math. And I’m good in math."
"I'm gonna take that as a compliment."
"Yeah, good idea."
***************************************************************
"C'mon you chicken!" Rainbow Dash coaxed.
"Dash we can't go outside! The human says so!"
"Fluttershy, don't you wanna see what's out there?"
"N-Not if it's d-d-d-d-dangerous."
"He's just saying that! What if he does weird experiments on us?"
"W-w-w-why would he do t-t-t-that?"
"You tell me Fluttershy, you tell me. From what that Barney guy says, humans are pretty mean."
"But I like the D-d-d-doctor."
"Doctor who?"
"I don't know- Dr. Kleiner, I think."
"I'm pretty sure they said Dr. Killer, Fluttershy."
"T-t-t-t-they did?!"
"Yeah! Now be quiet and help me get this window open!"
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had been sitting in the teleporter room discussing this escape for an hour or so, up on Kleiner's control panel. They could get up without his mini elevator, being pegasi. Dash pried the window open while Fluttershy sneaked out. She then held it open from the outside, and Dash slipped out underneath. Both of them carefully shut it so it wouldn't slam.
"Stupid humans and their stupid flipping windows. Can't they just slide instead? Yeesh!"
"Dash, we should be quiet!"
"We're outside now! We can be as loud as we want!"
"SQUACK!"
"YAHH! (EEEP!)" Both ponies squealed in unison. Lamarr had somehow gotten outside and landed on Rainbow's head. She batted at it, hitting and pulling.
"Dash, stop!"
"Augh! Whhha? Uahhh?"
"Is it hurting you?!"
"Not really." The headcrab perched on the top of her head, as if it was a hat.
"Then don't hurt it! Maybe it just needs a friend. Come here little guy." Fluttershy patted the ground to pet it, but it remained on Dash's head. She giggled at Dash's appearance.
"What's so funny?!"
"It likes you!" She grinned.
"Psssshht stupid alien."
"Aw, poor little guy."
"Let's just dump him here and let's go explore!"
Fluttershy gasped at that idea. "We can't just leave him here Rainbow Dash! He's a living thing!"
"How do we even know it's a 'he' in the first place?!"
"He just seems like a he."
"Does it have a- never mind. I'm not checking. Let's go."
***************************************************************
Gordon and Twilight walked along a thick wooden pathway over a river of highly toxic, boiling acid that popped and hissed. Gordon would survive a fall into the acid, but Twilight would be skinned to the bone in a matter of seconds. To make things even worse, little spider things bolted out and after Gordon. One lunged after him, but he ducked and it hit Twilight. It scratched at her snout, not able to couple the head correctly, cutting and slashing. Angered, she whipped it around and it smashed against concrete, sliding down into the acid below. The other creature pushed its comrade off the side, and lunged after Gordon again. He had already gotten out his crowbar and batted it off the side.
They proceeded into another section of canal, but it was filled with the acid. A woman stood in her dirty wet civies, filling the airboat. She noticed Gordon and jumped in surprise, of course ignoring Twilight. Illusions and sickness was an everyday thing to the citizens of City 17, to her Twilight was just an image from the brain damage. Damn gasses.
"Hey! Doctor Freeman I was hoping you'd show up! Got this airboat all gassed up and ready to go. It's gonna be tough dodging Civil Protection out there in the open, but drive hard and you'll make it. You'll find more help at Station 7, just up a few bends up the river. It's the old red barn. Climb on in fire her up!"
The only problem was...... it has one seat.
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Ten: Water Hazard Pt. 2
Gordon looked at the airboat, deciding whether to tinker the seat to fit Twilight. Indeed, the seat could be forced forward, with a screwdriver and a hammer. The back panel could be taken out, maybe even built back a bit to fit something small. It would be a tight fit, but he could modify it haphazardly. He walked over to the tool box.
“What are you doing?” The woman asked, setting down the gas can.
“Twilight, you’re going to have to explain.” Gordon became slightly annoyed.
“But she thinks I’m not real.”
“Do what you need to do.”
“Alright then, if you say so.” She approached the woman. “Hi-”
“AHH!!” The woman shrieked, going for her pistol. Gordon had already snatched the ammo.
“Wha- but- I-the-it-it talked! Ahh!”
“There are worse things out there speaking English than me, you know. One of them wanted cake,” Twilight said, scrunching up her brow in an angry look. “Look, human, I’ve only been in this universe for less than a day, and I’ve already been shot, scratched, mauled, jumped, sliced, exploded, drowned, and almost burnt. Shut your yap and let him use your damn tools!”
“Whoa where’d you learn that language?” Gordon was surprised, this was the second time in ten minutes she has acted up.
“I’ve picked up, I’m a fast learner.” She turned towards the lady again, “I’m not gonna take the whole, ‘Oh jeez it’s a talking purple horse!’ stuff again, look at you! You humans and your dirty world and dirty dysfunctional society. This place is screwed up big time, and I did the math. I’m good in math.” Twilight huffed out air. She’d never told somep- someone off like that.
“Ah-okay, whatever you say. If Gordon n-needs it, just take i-it!” The lady slowly backed up and sat down on the bench.
“Damn Twilight, like a boss!” Gordon chuckled, but no sound came out.
“What?”
“Nothing, hand me the screwdriver over there.”
**********************
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy zoomed through City 17, checking out every nook and cranny of the dirty wasteland of a once nice city. Metrocops pushed cuffed citizens around, shoving them into APC’s and driving off.
“I wonder what they're doing,” Dash said, creeping along the rooftop beside Fluttershy. She was trembling as the wind ruffled her hair.
“I-I couldn't imagine.” Fluttershy watched one of the civilians get smacked in the back of the head with a stun baton. He spit up blood and fell down, but was picked back up and thrown against the wall.
“You- damn- bastards!” He turned around and spit blood over the CP’s mask. It recoiled and this time jabbed him in the gut. “Augh!” He cried in pain, bleeding from broken teeth.
“Whoa, this is getting brutal!” Dash said, almost looking as if she wanted to see it all. Fluttershy however couldn't watch another bit and covered her eyes. “Those humans in the black are kicking butt!”
“They’re s-s-s-scary!”
“C’mon Fluttershy you big baby, let’s go get a better look!”
“But I don’t wa-”
They flew overhead to watch the humans beat one another. The odd looking one, with what looked like had a mask on, got the other helpless human in a hold, and held him to the ground locking him in metal cuffs. The other was pinned against the strange, large black thing of what was obviously a vehicle.
“I hope it’s alright.” Fluttershy weeped, feeling sorry for the bloody human.
“Who cares about the stupid human! I want to see another fight!”
Out of nowhere came a humming sound. It grew louder and louder, almost seeming right behind the two ponies as they floated above the city street.
“You hear that, Fluttershy?”
“Y-yeah, what do you think it is?”
“I don’t-” Click, click, Shoooph! “AHRG!”
A city scanner had floated up to investigate what seemed to be new life forms. It snapped its lens, blinding Dash in the process.
Scanner Report:
//Bioreport\
“Augh! What is that?! I’m blind!” All she could see was white.
“Oh no! Are you ok?!”
“I’m fine!” Her vision quickly came back, recovering. Now all the metro cops had heard them, and stared.
“Uh oh...”
**********************
Twilight squeezed behind the airboat seat, feeling the vibration of the fan. Gordon took off quickly once the woman lifted the gates up. They glided down into the sizzling acids, occasionally hitting logs or bumps. The riverbay was destroyed from the acids, once river water replaced with the gunk.
A gate blocked their ways back into the large canal tunnels, but a crank above controlled the up/down mechanism. Twilight simply used her magic to turn it, opening the blockade.
After a solid ten minutes of constant tunnels, they made it to freshwater and stopped the airboat. Twilight was so eager to clean off that she jumped out and splashed around, giggling. For having such a hard time, Twilight sure changed her mood fast, thought Gordon. He remained in the airboat, relaxing his legs. The airboat rocked back and forth in the gentle waves of the river. As if the moment couldn’t get more peacefu- BEEP BEEP! “Low energy detected. Activating emergency power.”
Twilight resurfaced from the cold water, a residue of red and green floating beside her. She shivered at the thought of all that gore on her coat.d Gordon, who returned the look with a slightly annoyed expression. She began to feel self-conscious about letting him down, but perked up and decided to cheer him up (Despite the fact that everything, and that means everything, was trying to kill him).
“What’s wrong?” Twilight walked up to the dirt beach and shook off.
“Suit’s dead.”
“It’s not like we need it now, right?”
“Right, hop in.”
**********************
Twilight grew cramped in the airboat; they had been driving for at least thirty minutes and already stopped twice: once to kill zombies in station 6, the old red barn, another to raise a ramp so they could jump over a pile of rubble. Unfortunately, the river-gate ahead was slowly closing, so Gordon had to make a turn into the control room. They both stepped out onto the concrete dock.
“Wait, why are we going inside?” Twilight asked.
“The gate. There’s no other way around.”
“But weren’t we were avoiding the Civil Protection?”
“Like I said, ‘no other way through’. Reload... I’m guessing this is a checkpoint.”
They busted the lock on the door, immediately leading into a file room. A .357 magnum was on the table, fully loaded. Gordon grabbed the few boxes of ammunition next to it and took notice of the suit charges in the corner of the room. The door suddenly burst open and a hail of SMG fire filled the room. Turns out it was Twilight’s gun, and a dead CP officer standing in the doorway.
“You know I’m really getting tired of these guys.” Twilight released the half empty clip and slid in a fresh one.
The stairs led up to the overwatch brigade, and a manhack control room. More officers were waiting for them, but were shot down by the powerful magnum, and Twilight’s pistol marksmanship. Gordon spotted grenades in the storage rooms, taking a few and putting them in his belt. The cylinder frag explosives would come in handy in the next room. Manhack parts littered the room from Twilight. She had used her magic to crush, and even throw them at her enemies. Good tactic, Gordon thought.
Civil protection officers had set up a defense outside using an AR2 Pulse cannon and combine shield. A deadly combination powerful enough to take out a fully armed helicopter, if not a small army. Gordon flung a grenade at them, it bounced off the wall and hit the gunner directly in the back of the head. *BOOSH!*
“Auuuhhh!” He screamed, followed by his radio’s eerie ringing.
Finally, they had reached the control room and began clearing that out as well. After a whole pistol round and a grenade, the room was clear to pass. Outside, Gordon noticed the busted gate mechanism. Twilight made a brilliant backup plan and blew up an explosive barrel which then destroyed the support for a metal beam. It swung and crashed into the river gates, knocking them down with brute force.
"Attention, please. Unidentified person of interest, confirm your civil status with local protection team immediately." The distant sound of the overwatch voice rang throughout the base intercoms. "Individual, you are now charged with socio-endangerment level five, cease evasion immediately. Receive your verdict."
Gordon and Twilight stood and pondered at the civil protection transmission, it was talking about them. “Attention: Ground units in City 17 sector 1, unidentified lifeform registered. Code: Capture, Dissect, Sterilize.”
“Wait a second,” Gordon said, “We’re not in sector 1--it’s not talking about us now.”
“Who else would be wanted? They said new life form.
“But they’ve already registered all life forms on Earth.
“Dissect? Sterilize? What are they getting- We aren’t from Earth.”
"Citizen notice, priority identification check in progress. Please, assemble in your designated inspection positions. City sector 1 lockdown, do not engage. Confirmed scanner results as possible parasitic life form.”
“Parasitic?” Twilight wondered.
“Alert. Specimen status: fugitive, level two. Air forces engage speed protocol.”
“Air forces? Wait this thing is airborne?”
“Strange, there are not many airborne Xen, though I’ve not seen all of them.” Gordon noted. “Could have just arrived, bit late though.”
Twilight rubbed her chin. Flying, speed, two of them? “Two flying creatures? New registered species? You don’t think it's- Oh no!”
**********************
“Faster!” Rainbow Dash yelled, zooming through the sky. A gunship was almost touching her tail. “Fluttershy, faster! Look out!” Bullets shot through the sky behind them both. “We gotta lose this thing!”
“Ahhhh!” Fluttershy screamed, ignoring Dash and focused on the large gunship.
“The lab! We need to get back! Oh jeez, where was that?! Fluttershy, where was that?!”
“I-I-I Don’t know!”
“Agh!” Dash was circling the city, looking for the laboratory building. In the corner of her eye, she noticed it. “Down there!” They swerved and went straight down, crashing through the windows of the apartment building.
Dash opened her eyes, seeing a wall. Her face was smashed up against it, along with Fluttershy. Through the ringing in her ears, a voice scolded them. For a second, she thought it was Barney, but it turned out to be much different. A cold, hard object pushed at the back of her head.
“I said get up!”
“Wilson! I don’t think it understands you!”
“Whoa, what do you think it is?”
“Whatever it is, it brought the whole armada!”
“Gunships!”
“Get to the basements! Jeff, grab the rockets! Let’s show these bastards who's boss!”
“What about these things?”
“I’ll take care of them, two rounds oughta do it.” The cold object tapped against Dash’s head.
“We aren’t going to kill them, for all we know they could be what was sent to stop the Combine!”
“Liz, the only thing that’s gonna kill the combine is manpower. Whatever these things are, they deserve to die!”
“I will not have this! Bring them down to the basement with us!”
“What if they attack?”
“We show them what rebels can do!”
“Aw, my head!” Dash complained, rubbing her temples. “F-fluttershy, you there? Hello?” The humming fluorescent lamp above was the only sound she could hear besides the occasional rumble and crash above.
“I told you, Jeff! It speaks English!”
“Liz, don’t get your hopes up, it’s a fucking horse.”
“It’s blue.” Liz frowned. “Horses weren’t blue. And since when could they fly?”
“With all that toxic waste out there, who knows!”
“Horses have been extinct before you were even born, Jeff.”
“So?”
“So how do you know it’s a horse? And if horses have been extinct for more than twenty years, how is thing a horse?!”
“Since now, I guess.”
“Ugh, Jeff, you’re an idiot.”
“Says you, Liz. You were the one trying to eat headcrab legs.”
“That was only once, okay? I was hungry and it looked good after I cooked it.”
“You were sick for a week, hell you almost blew our cover!”
“Doesn't matter now, they know we're here now.”
“Thanks to these- horses!”
“Look, it speaks English! It’s not a horse!”
“It does not speak English! Thats what you said about the zombies; ‘Oh they just want cake! Durr!’ and it took off Rob’s arm.”
“I was like fifteen alright? Shut up! It speaks English!”
“Oh yeah?” Jeff walked over and lightly kicked at Dash’s back. “Speak up, ya stupid animal!” He kicked again.”I said speak up!” Dash didn’t move. “See? I told y- OOPH!”
“Who’s the stupid horse now, Mr. Human?” Dash said angrily, standing up. She had kicked him in the stomach.
“But-you-horse-English-talk-how-what?!”
“Looks like you need to learn English yourself,” Liz chuckled. “I told you it’s not a horse!”
“Ur- where am I?” Dash asked, looking around the room. The walls were concrete, and the floor was cold and dirty.
“Apartment storage, it’s a basement.”
“I’m guessing it has to do with that giant bird thing?”
“Bird thi- oh, the gunship? Yeah.”
“Sorry for the window- heh- where’s Fluttershy?”
“Who?”
“The other one, like me. Yellow, pink, huge eyes-”
“Oh her, shes in the other room.”
“Wait, her name is what now?” Jeff asked, interested in the conversation.
“Fluttershy.”
“What kind of name is Fluttershy?”
“What kind of name is Jeff?”
“Er- its-”
“So where is Fluttershy?” Dash asked again, annoyed at the circumstances.
“In the crate room.”
“Can you take me to her?”
“Yeah, follow me.”
**********************
Gordon tugged his crowbar out of the bloody corpse. That was the last one in the building. They had to go back through the building while being trampled by enemy after enemy. Twilight was already shot four times in the back, and a clean hole had been torn through her leg, now seeping with medical fluids. She had a small limp, but shrugged it off. Gordon noticed the grimace on her face as they got back into the airboat.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s most likely them.”
“What do we do?!” Twilight jumped up, almost crying. “I couldn’t live with myself if they got hurt; it’s my fault that they’re here!”
“It’s not your fault. They are in trouble, though, so just worry about the task at hand, Twilight.”
“But they’re my friends!”
“And this is your life. Now pay attention!” The roar of a chopper suddenly filled the air. “Yeah, this isn’t good.”
They drove another three miles upriver until reaching a dried shipyard. The bottom layer of the river was fortunately, still filled with water.
“Not this again!” Twilight yelled, an angry look on her face. “When do they stop?!”
“Twilight, try throwing the bombs back at them!”
“Think that’ll work?”
“Nope, but we can still try!”
Skipping the next station was an error on Gordon’s part as that was where he was supposed to get the chopper gun. He thought it would save time to take a detour and instead use a different strategy to save precious time. The chopper had been chasing them throughout the canals, though they lost it a while back. It fired pulse rounds, puncturing the airboats metal buoys. It then dropped a series of bombs in their path. Twilight levitated them out of the water, whipping the explosives at the chopper. At one point, she found an explosive barrel. After a round of constant back and forth retaliation, the chopper lost power and ignited, crashing into the riverbed.
“Finally!” Twilight cheered, sweating profusely. “We beat it!”
Gordon simply nodded. “Now hold on!” He floored it through one of the spillways in the dam, breaking into a freefall.
“What are you- Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Twilight held her hooves up.
SPLASH!
“You did that on purpose.”
“Heh- I didn’t know that was there at all.” He looked away. “Black Mesa east is right over there.”
“Then what are we waiting for?!”
“You to let go of me.”
“Oh- heh- right.” Twilight released the chokehold and sat back down.
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Eleven: Black Mesa East
The soft rumbling of the dam slowly faded. The airboat’s engine shutdown echoed in the narrow hydro plant. Gordon stepped out and examined the area, Twilight followed close behind.
“This doesn’t look like much like a highly secured laboratory.” Twilight noted.
“Well,” Gordon reloaded his magnum, “it’s hidden.”
They wandered behind the tall water tanks, kicking over barrels and wooden pallets. An open blast door welcomed them in, but Twilight instantly felt the eerie feeling of being watched. The large blast doors slowly slammed behind them. Lights flashed on, blinding them both. Two cameras popped out of the wall above a slit-shaped window in the wall and beeped at their presence.
“We’ve got something,” a female voice buzzed on the intercom. “Ok. It-it’s human. Er, one is... Actually, I’m seeing two contacts.” The voice seemed unsure. “Hello? Take it easy in there, you’re safe now.” The steel plate covering the window slid open, revealing a woman and the controlman. “Look, you’ll have to forgive the scanning process- we can’t take any chances.”
“Dr. Freeman? Gordon Freeman?” The woman chuckled. “You’ve made it this quickly! Well, Eli is going to be amazed, not to mention relieved!”
“Ur, Gordon what’s going on?” Twilight became uneasy as the steam hosed them down and the laser slowly proceeding up and down.
The woman noticed Twilight and looked at her strangely. “Gordon, what is that in there?”
“Erm- Hello!” Twilight spoke up.
“It- It talks!” the woman was cut off.
****************************************
“There is Kelly, our scout. And Doug, the driller. Steve is the explosives specialist. Then there’s Hunter, our number one weapon expert.” Wilson said, showing Dash out the door and into the main room. A smug came over his bearded face. “And I’m the team leader.”
“What do you guys do anyways?” Rainbow Dash asked Wilson, who unlocked the door to the crate room.
“We’re part of the resistance, high-class fighters against the Combine,” Liz answered.
“What’s does the resistance do?”
“We fight.” She paused boldy. “For all of humanity!”
“So you guys kick alien butt for a living?!” Rainbow Dash became excited. These guys were awesome!
“Hell yeah, beat shit up all day.” WIlson pushed open the door, letting Fluttershy out. He rubbed his hands. “What do you do all day?”
“I fly around and I, uh... race!” Dash greeted Fluttershy with a nod and gently patted her back, though otherwise ignoring her presence.
“Really? That’s, uh... cool.”
“You bet, I’m the fastest flier in Equestria!”
“What’s that? Like, a race track?”
“Wilson, you idiot, thats where they came from!” Liz scolded.
“Yeah, well, I’d like to see Dashie here race a Gunship and win. You know, without crashing into any windows.”
“I bet I could!” Dash eagerly clapped her hooves together.
“Wilson! Jeff! Outside now,” Hunter called up from above. Dash could tell the fatigue in her voice. “Possible code: Alpha!”
“Gotcha! Be up there!” Jeff threw his launcher over his shoulder and ran upstairs.
“Gotta go, stay down here!”
“I should go too, those boys can’t handle the Combine on their own.” Liz said, hopping over the ammo crate she sat on. On her way out, she picked up two SMG grenades.
“Wait!” Dash yelled to the rebel, who was already up the stairs. “What’s a code: Alpha?”
A rooftop battle was raging overhead. Chatter over Combine radios and the blunt force of bullets cracked at the surface of the building.
“Get down!” Wilson yelled over the roar of the Combine dropship. Combat soldiers jumped out with pump shotguns, firing into the crowd of rebels. “Fuck! They found us!”
As if the consequences couldn’t get any worse, a hunter chopper lowered down to street level and its turret began searching for targets. Steve ducked under cover, picking off ground units with his pistol. He motioned Doug, who was already taking aim.
“Doug! Chopper!” He yelled. “Damn it! Shoot the mother fucker down!”
Doug scrambled to reload his rocket launcher.
“Jeff!” Liz called, “Knock ’em dead!” She tossed over a grenade round.
Jeff quickly shoved the round into his SMG, and took aim at the assault group of Combine soldiers. Squeezing the trigger, the smoking round shot out like a rocket and exploded, sending bodies flying off the rooftop. He then took cover behind an air vent and opened fire with his remaining rounds.
“Shoooof!” A rocket shot overhead. The building shook the basement walls, threatening to bring down the building.
“It’s gonna be allright, Fluttershy, I bet they’re winning.”
“A-a-against w-who?”
“The Combine. They said they’re like aliens that came from another planet, like us, but they enslaved everypony.”
“Erm, enslaved?”
“They pretty much took the whole planet hostage.”
“F-f-for what?”
“I don’t exactly know, they left that out.”
“W-what are they doing now?” Fluttershy began to shiver. Dash put a comforting hoof over her shoulders.
“Taking back what is theirs I guess. ”
“Wilson, ten-two! Eight o’clock!” one of the rebels shouted.
“I’m hit dammit, ten-two down and out! Liz take the point!”
“On it.” Liz took Wilson’s rocket launcher and shoved a fresh rocket down the hatch. It clicked and the laser turned back on. She fired in the direction of the Combine gunship and led the heat seeking rocket. It blew up a chunk of the gunship’s large fan. It lost control and dove down to the street below.
“Fucking nice, Liz!” Jeff yelled. “Doug! Code: Nine, take it out!”
“Roger roger, Willy.”
“Don’t call me that,” he pointed at Doug, and turned towards Jeff, who was helping the rest of the team: Kelly, Steve, and Hunter. They had been pushed under cover during the first wave of Combine ground droops.
“Wilson, we have a problem.” Hunter pointed at a Strider that was raising up to the rooftop. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
“Driller, how about that code: Nine, eh?”
“I’m working on it!”
“Look out!”
“Zzzzzzz-CRASH!” The Strider’s cannon beamed through the building, sending it crashing down in rubble.
****************************************
“So you’re telling me that you ended up on Earth, because of Kleiner?” The woman asked Twilight.
“Well it was both of us, I sent a magical surge, which somehow got caught into the signal that his teleportal was sending. My magic read it, and sent us there. I think he called it, a resonance cascade.”
“Oh my!” The woman gasped. “Another one? How is that possible? And what exactly is your ‘magic’ composed of?”
“It’s energy that ponies can manipulate through telepathic thoughts or actions. Hard to explain to something, erm, someone who has never heard of it.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Well I don’t know about ‘of me’, but six ponies teleported here. The rest are with Kleiner.”
Gordon tapped his foot and gave the woman an annoyed frown.
“Gordon, I’m Dr. Mossman, Dr. Judith Mossman. I’ve been hearing about you since long before the Black Mesa incident. Oh-” Mossman sighed. “Black Mesa. I do so envy you working with Eli and Dr. Kleiner when they were at the top of their field. Ah- there we go! You can come through now.” The scanners stopped, and the blast doors creaked, and slid open.
“I’ll take you two down to Eli right away... he would never forgive me if I kept you waiting,” Mossman chuckled, leading Gordon and Twilight down the corridor of the base. She stopped to enter a passcode on another blast door. “We can certainly use the extra help around here. We’ve covered a lot of ground in the last few months, but things would go much faster if we had more people with your training.” She chuckled.
“Could you kiss any more ass?” Gordon thought. Twilight giggled at his remark.
“We're closing in on a reliable local teleport technology, something the Combine still hasn’t mastered. Eli thinks their models are string-based, similar to our Calabi-Yau model, but they fail to factor in the dark energy equations. They can tunnel through from their universe, but once they're here they're dependent on local transportation. If they knew what we were doing with entanglement-” She walked into the elevator and chuckled. “Oh, listen to me, I sound like a post-doc. I’m just so excited we’ll finally have the chance to work together. Where was I?”
“I don’t know, you were saying something boring.” Gordon grinned.
“Doctor Kleiner compressed the Xen Relay far beyond anything he imagined at Black Mesa. We've figured out how to use Xen as an unexpressed axis, effectively a dimensional slingshot, so we can swing around the borderworld and come back local space without having to pass through. Oh, there’s Eli now!”
The elevator dinged and came to a stop at the laboratory floor.
****************************************
“Ah! I’ve finished repairing the teleporter! It should perform within acceptable parameters now. Barney, could you please reboot the rotors?” Dr. Kleiner said, pushing up his glasses.
“Does this mean they can go back?” Barney said, motioning toward Pinkie Pie as she poked at the large containment tubes. The rest of the ponies huddled up and conversed about home.
“Ah wonder where Twahlight is,” Applejack said. “I hope she’s awlright.”
“Who knows what she’s going though,” Rarity agreed.
“Maybe she exploded!” Pinkie, still prodding at the test tubes, copied an explosion with her forehooves, scrambling them in the air. “Or maybe she was disintegrated!”
“Pinkie Pie! Watch your mouth, this is our friend!” Rarity scolded. “Hey, wherever Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy run off to?”
“Ah thought she was watchin’ the Doc,” Applejack said, pointing to the teleporter room. “Haven’t heard from them since.”
“Maybe we should go check on them?”
“Yeah, good Idea.”
They walked into the room and looked around for the missing ponies. Barney was fiddling with the levers and Kleiner was on a ladder, closing up the teleporter.
“They aren’t in here!” Rarity gasped. “Now where could they have gone?”
“Y’all two haven’t seen two ponies in here have yah?”
“Nope, everyone was in the other room last we checked.” Barney said, continuing his handy work.
“No hold on Barney, the two with the wings. They had come in here a while ago.” Kleiner said.
“Now how in the hay did we lose two fully grown ponies?!” Applejack stomped her foot, “Fluttershy wouldn’t jus leave like that either. Somethin’s up, they would have came back by now.”
“Dashie and Flutter, um, fluttershyie are gone?! Oh noooooooooooo!” Pinkie yelled.
****************************************
“Gordon! Heh, let me get a look at you man! My god you haven’t changed one iota! How do you do it? Now let’s see, the last time I saw you, I sent you up for help after the resonance cascade. Heh, I never thought it would take you this long for you to get back to me!” Eli chuckled. “Welcome to the lab anyways, it’s not Black Mesa, but it served us well enough.”
“It’s going to be a lot more like Black Mesa with Gordon here to help.” Mossman smiled.
“Right you are! M.I.T Graduates are far and few between these days. We’ll get you out of that Hazard Suit and back into your lab coat where you belong.”
“Let me just finish up some work, I’ll see what I can dig up.” Mossman walked to the elevator and turned, “Doctor Freeman, It’s been a real honor. I’m looking forward to us working together.”
“Now Gordon, why don’t you introduce your friend here? Kleiner never said you’d be bringing company!” He motioned Twilight.
“It’s nice to meet you, sir. My name is Twilight.” She held out her hoof.
“Oh!” Eli smiled, “She can speak!”
“Finally someone who doesn't call me an ‘it’!” Twilight noticed his courtesy.
“Trust me, if you seen what I seen in Black Mesa, you’d understand.” He lightly stomped his hooked-leg.
“Explains why you haven’t started yelling yet.”
“I can see you’ve been taking care of Gordon here?”
“If it weren’t for him, I’d be toast, shredded, or shot. You know there are things out there that want cake?!”
“I should see up on that. Erm- Gordon! You sure made it here pretty quickly, how’d you deal with all the Civil Protection?”
Gordon simply smiled and patted his crowbar.
“Well, Twilight, feel free to look around, just make sure to put it back!”
Twilight looked around at the strange technology. It was somewhat like Kleiner’s lab, but a bit bigger. She took notice of a strange head-shaped object held in a container. Eli caught her curiosity.
“We’re still not sure what that does... My daughter brings in the strangest things sometimes,” he explained. Gordon saw a picture of a family in the corner of the room, he walked up and examined it. “You remember my wife Azian, don’t you? That picture and Alyx were all I managed to carry out of Black Mesa,” he said sorrowfully.
The sliding doors on the far side of the room slid open. Alyx stepped in the room and instantly locked eyes with Gordon. “Ah, Gordon! The vortigaunts said you were here! I can’t believe you made it so quickly on foot!”
“I believe he broke your record honey.” Eli chuckled.
“Well he earned it- Agh! Gordon, what is that?!” Alyx pointed at Twilight.
“Whoa, Alyx! Let’s calm down, she’s a friend.”
“I just wanna know what it is!”
“My name is Twilight, I’m a unicorn, alien. From a different universe.”
“Heh- I thought what I find was strange.”
“She made it here all the way from Kleiner’s lab with Gordon, I’m sure there's an explanation for this.”
“Erm, you may not believe this, based on other reactions,” Twilight rolled her eyes, ”but it’s because of a magical pulse sent through a cross-dimension at the exact time. In layman's terms, Kleiner’s portal is like a radio, and my magical teleport interfered.”
“Another resonance cascade. Luckily, it never opened any more portals.”
“That’s what happened with the Xen crystal,” Alyx finished.
“Xen crystal? I’ve heard of it, but only from Kleiner.” Twilight said, “Gordon hasn’t said much about it.”
“He’s a man of few words.” Eli chuckled.
“Alyx,” Mossman said, walking out from her office, “I thought you were on watch?”
“The vortigaunts relieved me so I could come see Gordon. Anyway I should be in here working on the portal.” Alyx replied, annoyed.
“I have the repairs well in hand. Someone misjudged the capacity of the combine thyristor.”
“Are you blaming me?”
“No, it was a calculation error, not a mechanical problem.”
“Then maybe you should let me do the calculations next time, as well as the installing.”
“Alyx, really... sometimes I think you deliberately misunderstand me.”
“Ahem. Alyx, why don’t you take Gordon and his friend to check out the gravity gun.” Eli smiled
warmly at Twilight.
“Sure! Come on, Gordon, lets go have some fun.”
“The zero point field energy manipulator is not a toy, Alyx!” Mossman scolded.
“Lets get out of here.”
“Coming, Twilight?” Gordon asked, seeing Twilight gaze around.
“Wha- oh yeah.”
Alyx opened up a door with keypad and leaded down a hallway.
“So I seen you met Dr. Mossman, she is one of the main reasons I spend so much time outside. You should hear her drone on about how it should have been her in the Black Mesa test chamber that day. I’m sorry, I shouldnt be talking behind her back... it just gets a bit claustrophobic down here.”
(Alyx pointed down a long, narrow hallway. The lights flickered and a rusty gate blocked the way.
“Thats the old passage to Ravenholm. We don’t go there anymore... Come on.”
She showed them through another airlock into an area outside. Tires, boxes, and rusted barrels littered the area. The dust was freshly settled on the ground, but lifted into the air as they walked.
“So here we are, the scrapyard. This is the gravity gun my father was talking about. You can call it the zero point energy field manipulator if you really want to.” She opened up a glass case and handed the device to Gordon. The device was metallic, but the front end glowed a dull orange.
“It’s designed for handling hazardous materials, but we mainly use it for heavy lifting. Give it a try. The primary trigger emits a charge, you can punt stuff and send it flying. I found it handy for clearing minefields. The secondary trigger lets you grab things, you can send them flying with the
primary. Once you have picked something up, you can drop it gently by pressing your secondary trigger again. Pick up some stuff and toss it. You can also pull stuff over from a distance. Try grabbing those barrels from that ledge up there.”
Twilight simply used her magic to pick up the barrel and gently set it in front of Alyx.
“Um, well Gordon was supposed to do that, but alright. Gordon, try launching some tires across the-” Twilight had already sent every tire zooming through the sky. “Erm, Ah!”
Alyx ran and jumped up onto a platform. “Gordon try stacking some boxes to get up here.”
Twilight trotted over and her horn began to glow. She picked up Gordon and set him up next to Alyx. “Just trying to help.” She giggled. Alyx looked annoyed, but shrugged it off.
Alyx led them to a large, open area. The ceiling exposed to the blank, gray sky.
“Now let me call dog, he loves to play fetch. Dog! Come!”
*Clunk-thud!*
“What was that?” Twilight asked, looking confused.
*Clunk-thud!*
“Erm- what is that sound?”
“Buurrzztt!” A large robotic machine came tumbling out of a shack on the opposite side of the junkyard.
“What- is that...”
“This is dog, my dad built him to protect me when I was a kid. First model way about yay-high,” she said, holding out a hand just above waist height. “I’ve been adding to him ever since. Haven’t I, boy? Ok dog lets play catch with Gordon and his friend here. You will need to use the gravity gun, Gordon. Twilight- erm- do whatever you do. Go ahead, dog. Throw!”
Dog threw a series of boxes, Gordon caught one, Twilight caught twelve. She was a better aim when they threw back, but it still worked out alright.
“Ok Gordon, let’s try something else. Throw something bigger, dog.”
Dog ran over and checked around for a box, instead he grabbed a whole dumpster.
“No Dog! No, boy, put that down!” Dog suddenly dropped it and looked alarmingly to the sky.
“What is it, dog? Oh my god what was that?” she said, looking to the sky where a swarm of flying metal objects was passing overhead. “Scanners! The combine is sweeping the area! We have to head back to the lab. Come on!”
They ran out and back into the airlock. The ground shook beneath them with a distant explosion. Alyx ran to the terminal and called Eli.
“Dad it’s Alyx are you there?”
“Alyx... Honey!”
“What's going on in there?”
“Where are you, Alyx?”
“We are in the scrapyard airlock stuck in a full autocycle.”
“Is Gordon still with you?”
“He is right here.”
“Good, I want you three to-” Another explosion shook the tunnel and the power shut off for a moment, before red emergency lights kicked on.
“Dad?” The screen shimmered back to life on backup power.
“Take Gordon out of here, head for the coast! Do not go through Raven-” The monitor cut off.
“Dad? Dad! Damn it! Dog open the airlock get us out of here! Hurry now!” Dog began pulling the doors apart. “Tear it apart if you have to, just get it open! That's enough, dog.” Alyx kneeled down and crawled through the opening. Twilight and Gordon followed behind.
They bolted back to the lab. Gordon and Twilight lagged behind, catching up. Suddenly, the ceiling caved in between them and Alyx, blocking the way out. Alyx’s voice called out, and she peeked through the only crack in the rubble.
“Gordon, Twilight, you need to get out of here, I can't leave my father. Dog, take
them to the Ravenholm tunnel, then circle around and try to meet up with me.”
****************************************
Gordon and Twilight looked down the dark, eerie hallway leading to Ravenholm. Twilight became slightly nervous.
“Gordon?”
“What?”
“I don’t like the look of this...”
...
“Me neither.”
Hl2:X COMIC
Section Twelve: Ravenholm Part I
(Warning: This chapter is very gory. If you have a weak stomach, I recommend you skip it.)
“Ugh, it stinks out here.” Twilight twitched her nostrils. “Agh, disgusting!”
Crows cawed and picked at a pool of blood. Dull lights flickered and faded to black. Gordon inspected the area, and recoiled at an old, dead tree. Twilight walked up and looked, but quickly turned away.
“Oh dear Celestia, that is..." She covered her nostrils, "nasty!”
"This doesn't look good." Gordon heard growling, and turned towards it. His flashlight shined on an old, wooden building. Slowly, he crept towards it. Twilight, still sickened, followed.
They entered cautiously, Gordon keeping his flashlight on. A sudden creak of the wooden floorboards made him jump. A painful moan came from the shadows, and a fleshy sloshing sound echoed into the next room. Footsteps grew louder and louder; something was nearby. Again, something moaned in agony. A headcrab zombie stumbled over a sharp metal plate and slowly made way to Gordon and Twilight.
"Stay back," Gordon said to Twilight. "I'll handle this."
He swung, implanting the crowbars teeth into the soft, fleshy headcrab. It squeaked and the zombie drew back for a swing. Ducking, he elbowed it in it's exposed stomach. Gurgling, it fell down. Finishing the kill, he stomped on it's head repeatedly until there was nothing but a chunky wet paste of flesh and flood. Twilight had crept into the next room.
"They're all dead." Twilight explained, "The monsters." She pointed out that they laid against the walls, legs spread out and blood all over. Something had already been there. She investigated, but something shoved her over and scratched her muzzle. She wanted to scream, but it was on top of her. A bright flash filled the room followed by the sound of a magnum crack. The body fell off of her.
"Saved your ass, again." Gordon squinted at her.
"T-thanks." Cold, thick blood dripped from her coat.
After a wave of headcrab zombies, they ran through the hallways and courtyards of Ravenholm. With more magnum cracks filling the air, more zombies got up. Soon, Gordon would run out of ammo. They finally made it out onto a barren street. Tall apartments and buildings surround them, Twilight felt claustrophobic. The stench of cooking, rotten flesh and burnt blood came from ahead. Gordon investigated to find a large pile of ashes and large metal poles with bodies stabbed through from the top. Twilight puked again, and looked away.
"Whats the world come to." She coughed.
Gordon read his ammo and health. His suit life signs only read 44, and ammo read 0. Damn, he thought, crowbars and fists wont last forever. Twilight was going to have to start helping. Twilight noticed that too. She began taking note of everything around, making a list in her mind of what could be used as a weapon.
Burning zombies lifted up from the bodies and approached them. Twilight quickly reacted, using her magic to throw it against a brick wall. It slammed like a sac of rotten tomatoes and fell over. As long as the headcrab was dead, so was the zombie. She also took note of that. Two more zombies came after her, except one of them was bigger, and hunched over. Thick, black headcrabs sucked the flesh straight off of the poor soul who became the prey. Its skull was showing and huge chunks of skin and meat tore off as it wobbled towards them. It grabbed a headcrab off of its back and chucked it at Gordon. Contact. It dug its long fangs into the battle hardened Gordon and he winced with extreme pain. His suit suddenly binged toxins were in his bloodstream. It released an antidote and he suddenly felt much better. He grabbed the headcrab and tore it in half. Twilight finished the headcrab zombie off with a pulse of magic. Warm guts and puss-filled organs splattered everywhere. Some blood reached her mouth, and she spit and coughed. It tasted sour and tangy, like sweat.
Gordon jumped on the remaining zombie and stabbed it with a piece of sharp metal. He stabbed it repeatedly with anger and rage. Both heroes, bloody and tired, pushed on.
I'm back... wat
Section One: A Red Letter Day!
Gordon continued walking throughout the train-station and into the plaza where he met even more Metro cops. "Those assholes are always so full of themselves, pushing over citizens and making Vortigaunts pick up their trash." He thought to himself in pity. Dirt plastered the cracked streets that held a statue of a broken angle in the middle. What use to be a fountain turned into a fungous hold.
"Hey, aren't you Gordon Freeman? The Gordon Freeman?" A random guy asked as he passed by. Gordon kept walking and shook his head, for hes a mute and can not speak.
He walked down the streets where the apartment complexes we're located. He had no clue where he was going. At the end of the street was a group of Cops scattered around two citizens laying on the ground. Their bodies were badly beaten, bloody, and bruised from what looks like steel toed boots. The large APC blocked out Gordon's path. He looked left and had nowhere else to go but up ladder to scale the fence.
Jumping down, he ran into a playground. Swings swayed in the wind and old rusty toys laid in the wet soggy mud.
"Metro Police always have it coming. One of these days." A man conversed to his buddy. "They go for everyone. Sooner or later it's gonna be us." He frowned.
Gordon kicked a can and the sound echoed throughout the boxed courtyard he was in. As he came up to a door, two Metro Cops stepped out and blocked his path.
"Move along." One said with a muggy voice. The other charged his Stun baton. "I said move dammit!"
Gordon growled under his breath at them, though nothing really came out for his lack of voice. In his mind, he wanted to grab his trusty crowbar and shove it so far down their throats that could taste their tetnis. He threw away the image and continued to walk through the apartment doors opposite of the cops. He sludged up the stairs and his kneecaps began to ache from constant movement.
He stopped at a floor where what seemed to be an open room. All he wanted to do was relax and stop traveling. He had not gone far, but his limbs we're sore from sitting on the train for days on end. He walked through the crusted broken door and surveyed around.
"Oh, I thought you we're one of them coming down the hallways." A man whimpered at the table. He was so hungover from the empty whiskey bottles that he clenched his head on agony.
"They're coming for us." A woman cried out, looking out the window at the APC that stopped in front of the complex. The large metal tank held its large cannon on top to shoot at the complex if anyone resisted. "RUN!"
Gordon quickly dashed out of the room in panic and made haste for the stairs. Unfortunately, the only way was up. If he were to go down, the group of cops coming up would take him out. He ran as fast as his legs could take him. That is, until he hit the roof. The cops on the bellowing floor shot at him with pistols. The shots rang throughout the air and scattered crows, one shitting on Gordon's shoulder. He balanced his way off the roof and dived into open windows. The only way out was stairs. They broke under his feet and he couldn't reach the ledge back up. Metro Police broke through one set of doors, so Gordon ran through the other. No luck, they came from that one too. One smacked it's baton at the back of Gordon's skull, and his blood slowly dripped to the floor. He went unconscious...
"Ha! No you don't!" A voice pierced in Gordon's ears.
His vision faded to white and the dull yellow florescent lights above could be made out. A Girl's face could be made out above him. She had a very filthy face, as so do most people these days. She had a tan film of skin and her short black hair was neatly tucked in a strap.
"Gordon Freeman I presume? Barney said he saw you on the cameras. He's been working undercover for some time now. We better get going before they-" She was cut off by large APC sirens. "Oh no," She grabbed Gordon's hand and pulled him up. "The combine are slow to wake, but they will. Now c'mon!" As he got up, Gordon noticed bodies of Metro Cops spewed all over.
They ran into the elevator. "I'm Alyx Vance. My father worked with you back in black mesa?" She rubbed the back of her neck. "It's glad to see more refugees."
The elevator stopped with a screech similar to the trains that made a clammy shiver go down Gordon's spine.
"A man of few words huh?" She smiled.
Gordon simply nodded. She caught on that he was a mute. "Remember him?" She pointed to a large poster of the man on the combine screen. "Dr. Breen, your old administrator."
Alyx wiped off the dust on the small metal power box. She pulled it open and pressed a hidden button. The wall with the poster before Gordon opened slowly and a small dark hallway was revealed.
"I gotta say Gordon, you sure showed up in a good time." She grinned and opened another door to a room with stairs. "We're finally on the verge of having a better way." She jumped over the small rails and kept walking. Gordon simply traveled down the stairs in sophistication. "Here, let me buy you a drink." She inserted a quarter in the vending machine. Gordon's mouth watered and he was excited for a good cold drink. He became confused at her when she pressed a pattern of buttons. Continuing, she smacked the side of the vending machine and it opened up.
"It's glad to finally meet you."
Hl2:X COMIC
