Chapter 9
The End of the Beginning.
In the end, it takes nearly two months before they believe they have the bugs worked out and are willing to test with a live human being. When that goes well they are then forced to wait another two weeks before they start their trek back into the city. Eli decides that the half of the teleporter at Black Mesa East really shouldn't be there, and has it broken down and moved to somewhere a little further away from the City. The excuse he gives is that with Ravenholm a known quantity to the Combine, the likelihood that mass numbers of refugees leaving that general area would be just as bad, if not worse than not getting them out at all.
The real reasons are twofold. First, the logistics of trying to feed a few thousand a day over a period of months while taking them in and getting them out as quickly as possible would be a nightmare to keep hidden even if they weren't reasonably sure the combine was aware of the base location. Second, the area they are being moved to Mossman doesn't know about.
Dave is actually a little curious about why that would be if Eli trusts the woman but then realizes that she hadn't asked about it once the decision was made.
Actually, she had looked downright relieved. Which makes him feel a lot better about leaving her with them to be sorted out later.
Mindy and Dave both have an opportunity to play around on their new bikes, which in appearance end up looking something like a dirt bike only with a few mystery metal plates covering vital portions of it. They are built more for cross-country mobility than speed but are assured that on decent roads and with a moderate load to carry they could easily reach ninety miles an hour. Being electrical in nature, they are also able to reach that speed in four seconds, even with the added armor plate.
The issue of course is controlling that acceleration. Mindy has no problems with it. Dave has yet to try, being a little too worried about wrecking his new toy. The range on them is about a hundred and fifty miles on one of the specially made batteries, but that is somewhat mitigated by a battery swap taking about a minute and them each being given ten, a horrifying squid looking contraption of a box and what looks to be a huge number of jumper cables for each bike to use for charging the various batteries, and a fairly robust system of lightweight solar panels that can deploy from a large one hundred pound box.
Net result, they can travel about fifteen hundred miles before they absolutely have to charge things up, and if they can't find a power outlet that could do the job in a day, they can do it in a week of sitting around somewhere even under sub-optimal conditions. The downside? Between the bike, the solar setup, the charger, and the batteries, even with the extra poundage per inventory slot that they can use to consolidate a few things, it still takes up five of their guaranteed twenty. They decide that it's worth it though, especially given the second thing they do.
With the brand new carpentry skills they have, they build some storage that can be easily put into and taken out of their inventory. Looking like nothing so much as steamer trunks with customized interiors, they each have a couple for books, a couple for weapons in bulk, such as the pistols and stun batons they have picked up. A few for ammo, though sadly it turns out that these ones they can't quite fill yet. Come to find out, lead is heavy. Filling a good-sized steamer trunk with ammo cans is, therefore, a no-go. They decide to leave the trunks the same size, however, based solely on the fact that they will be increasing their weight limit as they go anyway. It takes two weapon racks for each of them to accommodate all of their other weapons.
Plus in the end, Mindy got her wish list of a pair of modified pistols, a pair of submachine guns, and a sniper rifle to go with the rocket launcher that they are both carrying around now with a score of rockets each. Dave is happier with an assault rifle and a shotgun, though he isn't sure when he'll actually use either. At this point, he is getting really hard to hurt and his maces just destroy things. The last few that each has included things like camping gear, food, water, and the like. Not exciting maybe. But without such things, life could become more exciting than they would prefer.
After almost two and a half months of small missions, working out, and training with the two gamers Barney and Alyx are both fairly beastly in their own right. Though it would still take them quite a while to catch up with Mindy or Dave. Sadly, while the printer trick did work, it wasn't as useful as they had hoped. They had come to find out that the intelligence required to learn a lot of the stuff offered at the BME labs was apparently increased if one was trying to do it instantly. So they have a lot of bound copies of things for later. But theoretical physics, anti-matter generator construction principles, and the like will have to wait for a while.
Eventually, the trip is made though, and once again they find themselves walking into the same brick and concrete building.
"Well, we made it back, Doc. Now where do you want it, and what do we need to do for this thing to work?" Is Barney's question when they arrive.
With a will, the good Doctor starts directing the work crew that met them there and things begin moving at a dizzying pace. Particularly since all the tools, materials, and power cells that are required to make this operation go incredibly quickly were also brought along by the gamers in their standard inventory slots. That's ignoring a truckload worth of more mundane supplies such as food, water, bedding, and other equipment that Kleiner will need to continue the work he does for Black Mesa while being the steward of the teleporter. Later that evening, Dave and Mindy get some time with their two teammates to discuss their future plans, and while neither looks surprised, that doesn't mean they are pleased.
"So you're done with the resistance then?" Alyx's sad attempt at a rebuttal. Barney doesn't respond at all other than a downcast look to his eyes.
Mindy nods, completely unrepentant.
"We've made good on our part of the deal, it's time for us to wander a bit. Wouldn't want you getting dependent on us." Her smirk is obvious. Dave decides that the other half of their reasoning might be required to smooth things over a bit.
"Besides, do you really want the super-secret escape route that will save tens of thousands of people to risk discovery by being anywhere near a couple of loose cannons like us, given what we're likely to be up to?"
Barney barks out a quick laugh.
"Well, you got me there, kid. I'd love to have you two around, but not if you are going to wander back into base with a Strider following you around like a lost puppy."
Even Alyx laughs at that, and she seems pretty broken up by this turn of events. She'd really hoped they would stay. Even just so there had been somebody closer to her own age, completely ignoring all the other excellent reasons.
Dave answers by putting his new helm back on. Now they both have the radio's built-in and scrambled. A top-of-the-line air scrubber, and both passive and active night vision built-in. The tech people at Black Mesa were overachievers, to say the least.
"We'll be working out of our old hangout in the subway station. If things really go off the rails, try us there. Won't promise we'll stay forever but a week or two isn't out of the question."
Nodding absently as he considers, Barney finally sighs and makes a decision.
"Eli sent along something to sweeten the pot a bit? To try to get you to stick around I guess. I don't really expect that it'll get you to stay, but since you've done so much for Alyx and myself, I'd feel pretty scummy if I didn't hand it over."
Then he walks over to one of the many, many crates that they had brought in their inventories. The lettering on this one is in orange but is otherwise the same thing as all the rest. Dave hadn't thought anything of it. Getting out a crowbar, though admittedly a much more modest one than the slab of metal he had given Freeman in the future that may be, he pries open the lid, and inside is what can only be a gravity gun.
"Awesome!" Is Dave's initial response. His second is: "Why does it look different?"
Alyx fields this one. "The other one we have is really a prototype that was intended for hazardous materials handling. We hadn't really considered all the combat applications until you had told us your stories. And honestly, they are too expensive in materials to roll out to everyone anyway. But we could pretty easily put one more combat optimized version together for you two." She shrugs. "Barney is right, my dad would never force anybody to stay and fight with us. But he isn't above bribes, and after he'd seen the look on your face when you were describing your experiences in the game, well, he was hopeful." She shakes her head. "Still feels weird that there was a game made of this. Who would want to play something so depressing?"
Rather than respond to that, they are looking at the new toy. First, it's smaller. Maybe only half the size in bulk, though from the trigger assembly to the end of the device is about the same. It has the same basic look, just much slimmer and with a more sturdy appearance.
Barney smiles at the look on the star-struck face of the male gamer.
"Have fun with it. I'm told it has the same power as the original, but it'll kick a lot more since it doesn't have the same mass to prevent that as the old one. I figured that wouldn't be a huge problem for you." He pauses. "You'll have to share though. They're trying to spin off another twenty at the base, but they're expensive enough that Eli was only willing to let one of them go as a possible 'enticement' if you know what I mean."
Dave almost reverently pulls it out of the crate it was in, activates it to have the crate in question suddenly fly towards him and stop, hovering. About a foot from the end of the weapon. Which might be awkward, but somehow isn't. It doesn't seem to add any weight to the device at all, just hanging there and staying right where it is in relation to the gun regardless of how he swings it around. Then Dave smirks, points the box at a concrete wall thirty feet away, and pulls the second trigger. This sends the box flying with such force that it smashes into dozens of large fragments on impact. Then, just as reverently but now with an even wider smile, he places it in his inventory.
"Thanks, guys. That is awesome." Then he offers a handshake to each, as does Mindy, and they once again disappear into the storm drains.
HLHLHLHLHLHLHL
The next morning, if indeed night and day mattered when you were largely staying underground, Mindy finds herself curious as to what Dave is intending. You see, while she wasn't thrilled about joining the resistance as a card-carrying member she was willing to work with them to clear the city. It was actually Dave that had chosen to more or less cut ties when they arrived. Given what she knows of him, that begs a few questions.
"So why?"
He looks at her blankly. "Why what?"
She sighs. "Why did you want to ditch them like that? I don't mind really, I'm just wondering what your plan is. I know you have to have one or you wouldn't have pushed for this. I'm not a moron, you know."
He looks at her a bit guiltily. "I want to go after Breen, and they don't need that kind of heat if we get caught. So I wanted some distance before we tried."
She looks confusedly at him for a moment. "Breen? Oh, wait. Isn't he that douchebag traitor guy? The fuck knob you were saying lived in the giant doom fortress on the other side of town? The one that is full from basement to attic with probably hundreds of thousands of things that would dearly love to destroy our bodies, turn us into horribly mutilated travesties compared to what we are now, and then turn us on our friends?"
Dave grimaces. "Yeah, that's the guy. But if I understood what I was seeing in the game he's more than a traitor. He's the primary go-between that the Combine uses to keep things under control here. He's how they understand human psychology well enough to make propaganda work. He's the one that worked with all these scientists from Black Mesa back in the day. He was their boss, basically. He probably has private files on anybody in the resistance that ever worked for him, psychological workups, the whole nine yards. Getting rid of his ass probably won't fix things by itself, but it should allow the resistance to get these fence-sitters to realize that they are going to die from the splinters in their ass once the propaganda train comes to a screeching halt."
He scowls and looks at her directly. "Besides, he is the kind of self-deluded, narcissistic, sanctimonious prick that honestly believes that as long as he comes out the other side okay, that's a win for humanity. If ninety-nine percent of the rest of the population gets murdered or mutilated beyond all recognition while he is securing that golden throne, I don't think he cares. He's a piece of shit and he needs to die."
Mindy grins, jumps across the room, and wraps him in a big hug. Then, in an obviously faked quavering voice she says:
"I am... so proud of you."
Dave returns the hug. Even with the sarcasm, and with his memories of her being the most murderous member of the lollipop guild ever released on Earth, she's still his best friend. That's ignoring the fact that her incredibly toned and now adult body is just molded to him. Letting him feel very clearly the press of her breasts into his shirtless body with the only thing between them being a pajama top she wears that might as well be a single layer of silk, it's so thin.
That is ignoring the fact that it is both white and damp from having been sweated in all night. He's starting to wonder if she is doing this to him on purpose.
Nah.
After about three minutes of this impromptu cuddle time, she reluctantly lets him go and backs away a step.
"Sure. Let's do it."
Dave blinks. Then he does it again. "That was way easier than I thought it would be."
She giggles. An actual honest-to-god girly giggle. "You really thought it would be tough to talk me into stalking and taking out a genocidal lunatic? Here I thought you knew me!"
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Two days later...
"So what have we learned?" Mindy asks him, in her 'teaching tone' that is two parts naughty professor and three parts sarcasm.
Dave peers again through the binoculars that he has been using to keep an eye on the 'doom fortress' from the roof of a thirteen-story former hotel about a half-mile away. The fifth such perch they have tried.
"It's probably at least six miles tall, a quarter-mile wide, has three equal length outer walls at the base making it a big triangle kinda and has a lot of entrances. But most of them are on the upper levels. The ground floor seems to have three that we can easily see, one per side. All guarded and closed shut anytime something isn't going in or out. Though I think there might be more underground if we can find them. It's ridiculous how much was underground in the game."
He sighs. "The Combine must know something is going on because they're flooding the city with those damn spy drone things. Stupid flying box camera deals. Like I said before, in the game they were pretty much just a nuisance. They'd blind you for a few seconds, but you were moving around enough that if there was any kind of follow up it didn't matter. The only enemies you actually ran into were part of the script. Without a way to know for sure whether or not those things are transmitting back information in real-time I have to think that us getting seen by them without the benefit of 'plot armor' would be a pretty serious mistake."
Lowering his binoculars, he turns to her again.
"The worst part of the whole thing is that unless my memory is way off, the jackass's office is pretty much on or really close to the top floor. Which means we'll be spending a long time in there. Time we could get caught, and we'll have to somehow get there in order to nail him because I think that guy lives under Pope Protocols."
Mindy raises an eyebrow in query. Dave offers a half snicker that is mostly hidden behind a despondent look of irritation.
"He is probably never anywhere that isn't the equivalent of a giant bullet-proof glass dome or better."
Her lips twitching at the mental image, she brings up her own binoculars to once again proceed with what they were rapidly coming to see as a waste of time, at least as far as trying to find a way in from street level.
"Well I don't think we are going to have much luck storming the fortress, so infiltration through stealth or trickery are the two options left. Unfortunately, I don't think trickery is going to work either." She lowers her own binoculars. "Goons like this that have been beaten down to the point that they don't think for themselves are easy to put one over on in some ways, but they aren't likely to fall for a tight leather corset, some fishnets, and a pair of hooker boots." She can't help her smile as she can see the result of that mental image crossing his mind in his widened eyes. "Which sucks because we don't know enough about their operation to trick our way in any other way. I think we're down to the option I like the least."
"Oh? What's wrong with stealth?"
She wrinkles her nose. "Aside from you still not being very good at it? The most likely point of entry, basically. What goes in, must come out. Something that size, there'll be a lot coming out. Unless they are securing their disposal options a lot better than most, there ought to be a way in through them. It's just likely to be gross, and a hell of a slog. Six or seven miles of stairs while dodging genocidal lunatics and probably smelling like garbage at best, sewer at worst? Not planning to put that day on my list of 'Ten of ten, must try again' you know?" She sighs in annoyance. "That's not even counting the at least fifty-fifty shot that no matter how careful we are, we get seen by some security that we didn't even know existed right from the get-go."
Dave gives her an apologetic look. "We can keep an eye on it for a while. Maybe we'll see something else?"
She shakes her head. "No... No, you're right. This needs to happen, and we might be on a clock to get it done."
Frowning, Dave starts making his way back to the fire escape so they can get off the roof. What little shadow they had been using to stay out of prying eyes next to a big air conditioning unit would be gone soon as the morning gives way to midday.
"Why do you think we'd be on a clock?"
She shrugs. "Well, we've probably changed a lot. But we've never run into that G-Man fucker. So if he brought back Freeman as soon as he could or for some reason we don't know about, it doesn't really matter. But if he chose the day that they got the teleporter thing finalized we probably have less than a week before he'll be popping Freeman back in. If the Combine is dealing with losing Breen and chasing us around rather than hunting him down and stopping the evacuation, I can guess that would be better in the long run for everybody."
Dave can't help but wince a little. He really should have thought of that himself, and she's right.
She's dead right.
HLHLHLHLHLHLHL
"Well, at least it isn't the sewer." That is all that Dave can whisper as they close in on the underground entrance to what can only be a masher and conveyor system that hauls things away to another spot for pick-up and disposal. They had managed to stay out of sight of the security cameras so far by crawling under the six-foot-wide belt system. But that isn't likely to stay possible any longer. Once they move into the next area, there won't be any way to stay out of sight. Never mind the multiple garbage shredders and mashers in the room, or the soldiers that are guarding the entrance from a series of scaffolds above them.
Mindy gives him a look. Not a good look, but you can't have everything.
"I see the ladder, but the kind of distraction we would need to get above these idiots before they can raise an alarm is just..." She pauses for a few seconds and then a savage grin crosses her lips. "That is a lot of expensive machinery, mashing up all this garbage. I wonder what would happen if one or two of them exploded into flame and huge amounts of smoke that filled the whole room?"
Dave glances around. "They'd probably raise the alarm."
She nods back to him, whispering and right next to his ear but still barely able to be heard because of the noisy machines.
"Yeah, but the question is what kind of alarm? If these machines get wrecked because of an outside source on their watch, then in an outfit like this I'd guess they're dead. But if there's no proof of what happened, they're likely to assume somebody tossed something in the trash that they shouldn't have. They'll be motivated to make that call. Then we just make our way through and up the ladder while they are dealing with calling in an equipment failure in six inches of visibility."
Dave is nodding along with her words at this point. "That could work. You have what you need?"
She shakes her head as she motions him to follow her.
"No, I wasn't expecting to need industrial-grade smoke bombs. But I can make what we need out of the janitor's closet back at the base I think. It'll take a hell of a lot of stuff, but fortunately, that isn't a real issue for us. We'll hit the place tonight."
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>>Six hours later...
"I can't believe that worked..."
Dave looks at her in shock as they begin their climb up some kind of strange interior wall system of gears and joints. The way the building is designed it almost looks like it is made to change its shape. Which, now that he is thinking about it, is exactly what happens in the game. Ridiculous, but there it is.
"I thought you said it was going to work, you sounded sure of it!"
She snickers as she climbs. "Honestly, I figured we'd be fighting our way in and then trying to hide in the smoke and confusion. It isn't like those ten idiots could have stopped us anyway." She pauses as she considers where her next grip needs to be. This climb isn't impossible, not for them anyway. But if she'd known this was going to be the plan for at least the first two hundred floors, she'd have put together some electromagnetic climbing gear. "Besides, with no knowledge of the interior, it's a given we are going to be fighting our way through this at some point. At the very least on the way out. Killing Breen will put this place on alert if nothing else does. Please don't tell me that you didn't realize that."
Gritting his teeth to bite back all the things he wants to say about her plan now that he understands more of it, he sees to his own climbing for a while rather than respond. An hour and a half and around a hundred and fifty floors later, they are taking a quick breather on a ledge with some food and water.
"So, not gonna lie. At first, I was kinda mad about the idea of fighting our way through on a 'stealth' mission. That was a hundred and fifty floors ago. Any idea when we can commence 'Operation: not climbing anymore?'"
She laughs but keeps it quiet. "Chances are the higher we get the less likely we are to have to worry about Striders having access, and we'll just be dealing with these Overwatch goons of the mutated human militia. Not saying we couldn't take a Strider, we have the tools for the job now. But I'd rather that was part of our exit strategy. When the goal is a target, it limits your movement options too much if you still want to achieve the goal. If the goal is 'get the hell out' then things change dramatically."
He nods absently as he considers her statements. Then they both get up, dust off, and begin the climbing again.
Fourteen hours later...
"Hey, the mini-map has an altitude feature. We're... Oh hell."
They had once again had to find a new place to rest. They are both unbelievably strong at this point, but the kind of strength you need to swing a weapon isn't the same as what is needed to cling to walls like a demented gecko for a day. It's a damn good thing they heal faster than the muscle aches and blisters can form, or they'd be in horrific shape by this point. Dave stretches and feels his back crack at least half of a dozen times.
"What's the oh hell?"
Mindy is looking up. "Well, the good news is that I think this seam we've found goes most of the way up the side of the tower and if there is any security on it, I haven't seen any yet. A bit of a design flaw, I have to say. Though I don't know how many could actually pull this off, so maybe not as much of one as I think. The bad news is that I think we are going to be at this for two more days based on how far we've made it. The worse news is that I am actually managing to get exhausted at this point. I need sleep. So I think we are camping here for the night. You want first watch or second?"
He hangs his head, the enormity of scaling a vertical something that could actually look down on Mt. Everest rapidly becoming one with his being, and he isn't a fan.
"I'll take first watch. But for the record? The next time we are offered phenomenal cosmic power? One of us gets us alive again and the other one wishes for flight."
She laughs and nods while he is still trying to shake the tingling out of his fingers. Feels like they'll be stuck in the form of claws for the rest of his life if he doesn't.
The ledge they are on isn't very big. Four feet by three feet. They have to sleep all scrunched up and with their armor on, which isn't terribly comfortable. But in the end, they both get their rest. After the first two pop-ups that he closes almost on instinct, he immediately reopens one from the trash before it gets flushed into nothing a day later. It was a long one, and those generally mean good things.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
NEW PHYSICAL ABILITY ACQUIRED AND LEVELED!
>>ARBOREAL GRIP:
THIS PHYSICAL ABILITY OFFERS A BONUS TO YOUR CLIMBING SKILL, BASED ON YOUR LEVEL. IT HAS THE SIDE EFFECT OF ADDING THE SAME BONUS TO RESIST BEING DISARMED, ASSUMING THAT YOU KNEW THE ATTACK WAS COMING AND COULD PREPARE FOR IT. LASTLY, IT CAN INCREASE AN OPPOSED OFFENSIVE GRAPPLE CHECK (TRYING TO HOLD SOMEONE, RATHER THAN TRYING TO GET AWAY) BY ONE-HALF YOUR LEVEL. ROUNDED DOWN.
>>>>
NEW SKILL ACQUIRED AND LEVELED!
>>CLIMBING: 13
>>>>
PHYSICAL EXERTION HAS INCREASED PHYSICAL ABILITIES!
STR: 2
DEX: 2
CON: 1
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
He blinks his eyes a few times as he takes in what yesterday's exertions had brought them.
"You know, you're right. This 'Gamer' thing is total bullshit."
She giggles. "I know, right? Stretch as much as you can and get something to eat. I want to see the difference it made."
Four hours later they had doubled the progress from yesterday. Going from no climbing skill and needing to fake it with stats to a respectable climbing skill level of a talented hobbyist combined with their new physical ability is just absurd. Dave is pretty sure that this is how Spider-Man felt the day after he got bit. Mindy motions to a ledge, one barely big enough for the two of them to sit on. After making it they once again grab a bite to eat, and Dave is glad that they have all their camping gear handy and that smells from in their inventory don't make it out. A day and a half of pooping into a bucket with a toilet seat on it would have been even worse without that.
The less said about the blush on their faces when they got a look at each other's butts is for the best. There is really not a lot of room on these ledges, and if you have to show the front or the back... Yeah.
"I think we are going to make it today. Probably late, but definitely today. What do you remember about the office?"
Dave tries to recall. His blood had been pumping by that point, the last hour of gameplay was just brutal, and the entire time he was in the office there was a big cut scene. He wasn't paying too close of attention to the backdrop.
"Not as much as I'd like? Sorry? There is an open area below his office that you can access with an elevator. But that's where the access to the portal thing is that causes the problem and blows up the city. I think. Not sure I really want to mess with that. We'll probably have to abandon our spider impersonation and actually explore some when we get to the top."
At her look, he once again offers her an aggrieved expression that he has perfected over the last couple of months. "It was eight freaking years ago! I challenge you to remember a game you played eight years ago in any kind of real detail. I'm amazed I remembered as much as I did."
She rolls her eyes. "Eight years ago my dad was still alive and we were taking out the most well-connected crime family in the city, one piece at a time. I didn't have a lot of chances to play video games between all the training and assassinations."
There is silence for a few moments. Then she continues.
"He'd be proud of you, you know. My dad."
At his confused look, she blushes a bit and shrugs.
"We took out his killer and the man that ordered it. We handled the next generation that was shaping up to be even worse. You stood by me when nobody else would, died with me, came back with me, and now we are after a dictatorial douche nozzle that makes the organized crime we were going after before seem about as threatening as a three-legged chihuahua with a lazy eye and a missing ear. He'd be worried, but he'd be proud. And honestly? I think your dad would be too, once he got over being so scared for his son. He was brave enough to throw his own life away to save you. I think he knows now where your desire to be a hero comes from."
The silence stretches on for a few moments before they look down into the abyss, and he wraps an arm around her, pulling her tight to his side.
"That is a really, really, long way down."
"Yup." Is her only response.
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>>Seven hours later...
"I think this is it. We're pretty close to the top and I don't see better access to the rest of the place than this here." Mindy is pointing across from their current perch to a small ventilation duct of some kind. Two feet by two feet. The metal grating on it looks significantly more sturdy than anything you would find in a normal human building, but the gravity gun that Dave pulls out with a smirk doesn't seem to care, and after a few seconds of appearing to struggle, the cover for it flies off and hovers in front of them. Releasing it just above the floor, he watches it clatter onto the ledge and puts the gun back away.
"Ladies first?"
Mindy gives him a dirty look and sighs, readying her jump. She mumbles under her breath. "You're lucky you're cute."
Then she leaps. Gripping the edge as her bottom half slams into the unforgiving metal, she scrambles a bit to maintain her grip, but does so and pulls herself in. It's tight for her, so it'll be miserably so for him. She manages to twist herself into a knot getting turned around so she can help him if it's needed and then motions for him to follow.
Dave is bigger. Between his height, overall volume, and the fact that his armor weighs almost twice as much as hers, he is probably twice her size. Which could have been a serious problem. But when his hand grip almost failed him, two things happened. First, Mindy's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist like the world's most comforting pit viper that wanted a snuggle. Second, his fingertips actually sank a quarter-inch into the steel. They both look at each other in astonishment.
It had hurt him. A lot, actually. He'd felt the bruises forming on his hands and the now slight tickle from the ends of his fingers that would be screaming pain in a lesser mortal. But between the reinforced glove, his absurd current strength, and this new ability that adds a ridiculous amount to his grip strength, he had just put divots into a solid steel structure. He scrambles up into the hole and the two take a moment to get their breath back after that. Not that it was really all that strenuous, at least the last bit. But until their hearts slow down, they won't be admitting that.
Finally, after a minute when his fingers feel like they are probably fully functional again, he motions her to move ahead.
The venting system in the building is a bit different, mostly because of the pressure. This building is so damn tall that if they don't make a special effort to force additional oxygen to the upper floors, living in it for more than a short period of time would quickly become lethal. So the airflow is impressive, and the amount of pressure involved is disconcerting at best to try to move through while they are blocking a good amount of the passage. Thankfully, they are both strong enough to keep themselves from being thrown around by pressing against the sidewalls. After seventy or so feet, however, Dave motions through a vent. "I think that is the elevator shaft that leads to his office. How the hell did we get lucky enough to find it this quick?"
Mindy rolls a shoulder in what he is assuming could be equated to a half shrug.
"Check your mini-map. The tower is only about seventy-five yards across up here, and the office you described is huge. Once we got this high the odds were good we'd find his dumb-ass pretty quickly."
Nodding as he considers this, he even notices now on his mini-map somebody moving around in an agitated manner, their little blue motion circle pacing back and forth.
"So what's the plan?"
She shrugs. "He's slime, but he's just a man. How much damage do we want to do? We have rockets, we can probably wreck his office damn fast. Unless they have backups somewhere else, that should cost the Combine an awful lot of information that they won't be able to easily get back." She frowns a bit. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad this wasn't harder, but this Gamer thing makes my old job pretty much playing on easy mode. We'll have to get more serious soon if we want to get better at stuff."
He nods. Half-Life was pretty hard when you were playing as a theoretical physicist in some admittedly spiffy armor and a bunch of cool toys. But he was stuck responding the entire time and was alone for the worst of it. So he didn't have the option to bypass the nastiest stuff and go for the throat. Makes a difference.
He glances down the elevator shaft and sees the door to Breen's office. It's fifteen feet down. In his armor and with the faceplate on, that puts him comfortably out of danger using the racket launcher. He pulls it out of his inventory, loads it, and takes aim. Then he has to stop. Mindy says something that he kinda wasn't expecting, and at the same time, he isn't sure why it had taken one of them this long.
He's also a little ashamed it wasn't him.
"I love you." She pauses for a second, as though trying to figure out where to go from there. Almost looking startled that she had done so.
He nods. A smile on his face as he lowers the weapon, and prays to whatever god might be listening that she'll get the reference and know what he means, because really? If he gave up this chance he'd have to give up his nerd tags forever.
"I know." Is said as the blue dot makes its way once more close to the elevator doors. Mindy lays down and moves back about ten feet quickly. Being in the immediate backwash of this probably wouldn't hurt her too badly, but why take the risk?
He fires the rocket, shoves the launcher back in his inventory, and leaps through the shattered remains of the doorway to see Breen laid out. Curled on his side and a mess of flesh that had been ruined by shattered glass moving at supersonic speeds. Finishing him off with a bash to the head from his trusty mace never felt so good.
The pale countenance of the maggot creature on the enormous monitor looks at them through what must be a camera somewhere. When Mindy makes it down and they both start launching rockets everywhere the creature can no longer be seen. But they have no way of knowing whether or not it can see them.
After putting away their toys and looking at one another for a moment, Dave notices something that makes his blood run cold.
Mindy is starting to break up, into little motes of light. Extremities first, and then he notices the same happening to him. The process increases in speed so rapidly, that by the time he even has a chance to consider screaming a warning they are already gone.
HLHLHLHLHLHLHL
Barney Calhoun reflects on the last few days. Nobody was positive about what had happened. But he bets he knows.
Those two. Those crazy damn kids had done it. Infiltrated the Citadel, greased that bastard Breen, destroyed the communications array the Combine used for inter-dimensional communication, and hell, they'd even wrecked the software that ran the suppression field. Pregnancy tests were worth buying again. The entire Combine was turtled up, in panic mode. And if the kid is right, then once they get the people out? Remote detonating the nuke he was going to be placing about a block from that giant phallic replacement should put things back to something winnable. But today? Today is important. Today they finally got the teleporter rebuilt, tested, and ready to go. So if it's gonna happen, it'll happen today.
Three hours later, undercover working for what little Civil Protection is actually out in the city instead of just maintaining a line of defense around the Citadel, he gets his answer. Then he hauls it into his office shuts down the Combine security cameras, and takes off his helmet.
"Hey, Gordon! It's me, Barney from Black Mesa! You're right on time, let me tell you a story that you are not gonna believe."
HLHLHLHLHLHLHL
They once again find themselves in the strange place they were after they had died, though this time they are able to see each other. As well as their own noses, if they look down at the right angle.
As well as him. The angel, or god, or whatever, that did this to them last time. He walks around and stands to the front where they can see both him and each other, a smile stretched across his face and his shoulders shaking in repressed laughter.
"Now I have to say, I am impressed. Our best estimates assumed it would be at least a year before you had mangled the timeline there enough that you'd have to be pulled out and moved again." He sighs. "Though that isn't your fault. You just moved a lot faster than anybody expected. Given what we've seen in the past, we'd expected you two would try the hard way at least once before you decided to take the head off that particular snake."
Mindy glares at him. "What do you fucking mean again? Did we die? How?"
The old black man sighs, shaking his head with a small smile on his face. Despite it all, he seems to actually care for them.
Which is kinda creepy, honestly.
"You didn't read the fine print, did you? When we said you would live in all the interesting times, that is pretty much what we meant. You'll keep your general appearance, abilities, and mind. Though details might be fudged a bit here and there to make things that little bit easier for you." He offers a wry smile then. "For the record, Hercules and Thor are extremely disappointed that you never bothered to hunt down and get rid of a Strider. They had a pool going as to how you would get it done. Though, for what it may be worth to you Athena and Loki were quite impressed with your solution. Most of the others weren't as invested in those aspects of things."
He laughs again. "Though if you ever meet Aphrodite I would make sure you are unfailingly polite. If she didn't have a goddess's constitution and beauty as one of her realms of influence she'd have lost hair waiting on your courtship to go anywhere."
Dave finally shakes his head as he tries to work things out.
"Who are you? I'm pretty sure you're not who you look like."
The man chuckles, a merry sound. "What makes you think he doesn't look like me?"
Dave raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "In his own image? If that's the angle you're going for I don't buy it. Why would God, capital 'G' god, worry about having a chat with us?"
The man shakes his head, and the smile never leaves his lips.
"That right there is a fallacy on multiple accounts. First, you are assuming much that I would allude to such a thing. Second, you are assuming the deity that felt he had to rise to the occasion and screw around with poor Job wouldn't do something like this to mess about with your heads a little." He shakes his head. "But no. That isn't it at all. I'm just a guy with a job to do, and we're out of time."
Mindy breaks in. "So do we get another wish?"
The smile breaks into chuckles once again.
"Never lose that fire. But no. What this gives you is another opportunity. Make of it what you will."
Then the lights go out on them once again.
??????????????????????????????????
Author's Note:
This ending was always the one planned. There is a reason for that, and it pretty much comes down to something pretty obvious when you think about it. For Gamers? This is a starting zone that mostly has trash mobs in it, and what there is that is genuinely scary isn't hard to avoid.
Take care, and be safe!
