HALF LIFE 2: AFTERMATH

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Disclaimer:

Remember to add Disclaimer when finished, it must include that fact that VALVe owns HL2 and everything associated...blah blah

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CHAPTER ONE: Dis-jointed.

Darkness.

Infinite darkness...a slight rustle here and there...

I'm scared. Where am I?

I can't feel anything...Wait...what...what's that? A light in the near distance?

I can feel my legs again...maybe..yes...yes, I can run! The light's getting closer....Almost...almost...yes!

A figure stumbled out of a tunnel somewhere along the destructed Highway 17. He knew where he was now, and grinned. He was alive, he survived. He spied a Barn beside the sea, a few hundred yards away. Towards it he strided, as if a figure of authority, As he got closer, his gaze was drawn to a window in a house near the barn, in it he saw a greying man wearing a smart blue suit, he did a double take, but the man was gone. It was shrugged off as a side-effect of what had happened to him prior of arrival on Highway 17.

He slowly trundled into the house, peeking inside before actually going in, everything was clear; in the corner he spotted a Security Station. "Perfect," he whispered to himself, "I can contact the Combine to come and pick me up," he tapped something into the console and walked outside, shading his eyes from the sun with his hand and staring into the distance, where a half-destroyed building towered high above all others. He sighed to himself, and rested against a wall, peering into a house window out of boredom, in it was that same greying man wearing a smart blue suit and holding a black-leather suitcase. The man was staring at him, motionless. "Oh my God!" he whispered, startled "Who are you!?" he looked back but in a single blink, the man was gone.

He sidestepped away from the house cautiosly and quickly looked to the skies again. A Combine gunship was floating smoothly towards him. He let out a sigh of relief and started waving his arms, as the ship got closer, his white hair and goatee started to blow in the wind. He saw a blue torrent of energy burst from the gunships cannon.

That was the last thing Wallace Breen ever saw. A distorted laugh crackled throughout the hills of Highway 17 and the Gunship swiftly turned and flew into the everlasting distance.

Somewhere past City 17, surrounded by sewage and radiation, a small factory-type building rumbled, and a burst of white energy flew out of a chimney, turning it red with heat. Once the smoke was cleared, a scream erupted from the chimney also, not one of pain of fear, but one of joy and achievment. Inside, Dr. Isaac Kleiner was laughing, he was completely covered in sludge and soot, but he was still happy. He strolled up to a small desk holding a computer, a Tiki-doll and a Skull that a Headcrab was furiously sucking on and started tapping in results. A girl in her early thirties ran in, she had a few scars here and there, and one arm of her jacket was empty, she was followed by an aging black man in a wheel-chair, for legs he had two curved metal hook-type things. He was being pushed by a woman in her late 50's, with greying red hair and small burn scars down the left side of her face. These three individuals were Alyx, Eli and Judith Vance.

Alyx looked at Dr. Kleiner "Have you done it? Was that blast the supressor?!", he looked at her with a stern look on his face, "That's confidential information," after a few seconds he grinned, and the bemused look on Alyx's face quickly vanished; it was replaced by a smile. She raised her arm to hug him, but quickly lowered them after seeing the mess that had congealed on his lab-coat. She walked towards a machine that was still giving off some smoke, an orb-type object pulsed inside a huge tube, glowing with light. She wiped some soot from the machine's pristine-silver control panel and inadvertantly pressed a large flat yellow button, he orb began pulsing faster and span, getting brighter, the tube clouded up and a slight crack appeared at the side, next to a machine with three hollow cylindrical energy bars in a large...thing. Eli and Judith shaded their eyes, Dr. Kleiner grabbed Hede Lamarr (the Headcrab) and crawled under a desk, holding multiple "ATI Radeon EMP Pulse Generators", all Alyx could do is fall back and watch the carnage unfold. A bolt of white energy blew from the crack and hit a huge metal security door, evaporating it, almost. Another bolt flew from the tube and hit the piece of machinery next to the Suppressor, setting off the three cylindrical objects inside it. They started spinning; creating a wall of blue energy. Another blast knocked Eli, Judith, Alyx and Dr. Kleiner back, Lamarr leaped from Dr. Kleiner's grip and jumped into an air-ventilation duct, frightened. As Alyx drifted into unconsciousness, she saw a familiar figure appear in the teleportation device. Her heart skipped a beat and she drifted away.

"Did you hear a Cat just then? That thing haunts me..."

Gordon Freeman awoke from his ever-so-slow timewarp. He saw the graying man wearing a blue suit/tie and holding a leatherbound briefcase. The ever-so-commonly-referred-to G-man.

"Wel-come back, Mr Free Man," he paused and adjusted his tie.

"It's been too long? I think it'ssss time to...get to work." He smiled.

"I think...you should help your friendsss. You'll be happy, to know I didn't take any offerss. For the time being...you belong to me. I'll be seeing you soon?"

The G-man added a sarcastic smile to his final comment and faded from Gordon's view.

The blue shield around Gordon dissapeared, and he- by strange instinct- instantly collected a Crowbar lying next to a couple of Supply Boxes. He did so only after noticing he had been stripped of all weaponry and his HEV suit. He was in a blue jumpsuit, now. Too bad, that modified Gravity Gun would've been really helpful for what was coming up. Gordon spotted Alyx laying near a smashed console and sprinted towards her, instantly checking her pulse. She was alive, just. He also checked Eli, Judith and was in the process of checking Dr. Kleiner when a familiar sound echoed into his ears, one that not only filled him with dread, but with anger and a slight sense of dissapointment. It was all for nothing, as the sound was the familiar feedback of a Combine radio. Tactical was the only word Gordon could make out, and there were at least 4 Soldiers in the corridor. Before the combine stormed into the room, Gordon at least had time to ready his crowbar. A large metal door that had been previously disintegrated by the Suppressor smoked up as a Smoke-Grenade was thrown close to it. It was followed by another Grenade with a blue flashing light. After a few seconds, a blue beam was shown from the latter grenade, it sweeped from side to side within about a 5 meter radius. Gordon instantly knew what this was and leaped out of the laser's reach, in the unknown time that he was gone, the Combine had manufactured a Turret Grenade. It would be handy if he could get some...Gordon was pulled from his thought train when another crackle came from a Combine radio and 4 figures burst into the room from the overwhelming smoke-grenade fog.

With only the shortest time to think, Gordon pulled himself behind a couple of Supply crates and quietly opened them, hoping something good would come of it. He was correct. An old Pistol was his reward for outstanding thinking, equipped with a 30 bullet chamber and laser-sight. Gordon let loose a half-smile and aimed directly at a Soldiers head. Another Combine noticed the read beam and alerted the others, Gordon quickly pulled the trigger and the Soldier flopped back, dead. He quickly fired rounds into the other two, but ran out of bullets when tackling the final one. The Soldier chuckled and aimed at Gordon, but before he could shoot he was mysteriously blinded. Dr. Kleiner's headcrab had leaped onto the soliers head, hoping to extract any fluids what-so-ever. Gordon took this chance and decided to try out a new move, he pistol-whipped the Soldier, that would come in handy during reloads! Lamarr hopped to the other soldiers gumming at their wounds and replenishing himself while Gordon saw to Dr. Kleiner, who was slowly but surely regaining consciousness.

"My Lord...is that....is that you Gordon?" Dr. Kleiner adjusted his glasses. Gordon noticed a small moustache the Doctor had been growing.

"It...it's been 7 years! What happened? Where were you? You don't look a day older! This is fascinat-" his sentence was cut short by groans coming from the back of the laboratory. Eli and Judith were waking, Alyx was also starting to move, slightly. "Eli, Judith, Alyx! Gordon's back! Gordon's back!" shouted Dr. Kleiner, excitedly. Gordon smiled, happy to be so loved. Isaac noticed the crowbar Gordon was wielding and giggled, "back to your old tricks, I noticed," also spotting the dead soldiers. "At least Lamarr's happy." he smiled, and looked at Eli, who was slowly wheeling over, still dazed. "Eli, are you ok?", Isaac inquired. "What happened?" mumbled Eli, eyes still closed. "Alyx accidentaly set off the Supressor and...well, look what happened.", Eli opened his eyes, and he felt his heart tingle as his eyes were met with the familiar figure of Gordon Freeman, the One Free Man, a God about this world. Eli gasped, as if seeing a miracle, which it was in all rights. Gordon just grinned, politely. Judith and Alyx got up simultaniously and looked at each other, not even noticing Gordon. "Girls, girls...so good of you to get up, I'd like you to meet out guest...Mr. Gordon S. Freeman", Judith and Alyx's eyes both widened and the turned to see if what Eli said was true, there he was-even in dirty clothes he was still a vision of brilliance. Judith fainted, and Alyx ran over and wrapped her arm around Gordon, he looked surprised. "Oh, Gordon...I missed you so much." Alyx grinned and walked to her dad, resting on his chair.

"Gordon, I expect you wish to catch up on everything that's happened in the past 7 years, let me fill you in..." Gordon gave a slight nod and Dr. Kleiner continued with his speech, offering a seat to Gordon. "Please, sit down...you may need to," they both sat, and Alyx hopped into a desk, even Lamarr leaped over and starting sucking a skull which Gordon noticed was maranaded in some sort of liquid. "We thought you had perished in the explosion, which destroyed most of the Citadel and took Eli's remaining leg, Alyx's arm and scarred Mrs. Vance." Alyx looked at the floor. "We also thought Wallace Breen had been killed, but no remains were found, and last week his body was found by a party of rebellers on Highway 17." he looked at a poster on the wall showing a dead Wallace Breen, the Lambda logo in the bottom corner. "Anyway, after the explosion, the Combine left the Citadel and...just disappeared, however they still have just as much power as before, the only upside is, we have almost the same amount. The rebels secretly raided what was left of the Citadel and have built a new HQ somewhere inbetween City 14 and 15, right now you're at Black Mesa East again,this is where we make most of the weaponry, as you can see...we've built a supressor from the Citadel remains." he looked at a huge piece of manichery with multiple cracks in a large glass tube. "Of course..it still has some bugs to work out." he nervously grinned.

"As I was saying, City 17 is still under Combine command, but the rebels are expanding in the lost-zones, the areas outide of cities...and we're even getting messages from Arizona." a smile cracked on Dr. Kleiner's face. "Do you know what that means? Black Mesa may not be destroyed! Though nobody is willing to find out, the Combine have a S.A.M which instantly blows any aircraft or boat from the face of the Earth. And we can't risk a teleportation, just as we had began to give up...you arrived. We need you Gordon, could you help us? Please?" Gordon just stared, he slowly nodded his head as confirmation and got up, thinking.

"Thanks, Gordon. You're a savior, a God amongst rebellers. Do you know what they called the HQ between City 14 and 15?" Eli asked, Gordon shugged. "They call it the Gordon Freeman Alliance. Your memory and achievments is the only thing keeping everyone going. Thankyou." Eli wheeled out of the room. Alyx walked over to Gordon and passed him some paper. "Here's the exact location of the S.A.M command station whereabouts. It's heavily guarded, even for you. But we can't risk any rebels being killed, so we've decided to give you something even better" a sly smile appeared on her face and she led him down a hallway into a sewer with four ducts all filled with headcrabs.

"I'll leave you with Xealos, our Vortigaunt helper; he'll show you the ropes." a large Vortigaunt walked over and bowed. "Ah, the Free Man has returned, brilliant timing, sir. Take this." he passed Gordon an egg type thing that looked a lot like the Pheropods used to seduce Antlions into helping you. The Vortigaunt opened a duct, and four Headcrabs ran out, one of each type, normal, poisonous, fast and a baby headcrab trundled after. "Throw a Pheropod, Mr. Free Man." Gordon complied and threw one near a couple of dead soldiers...the same ones he had killed moments before. The headcrabs instantly ran to it and started attacking the body, one latched onto it and the Soldier got up, zombified. Gordon put his hand on his pistol.

"No, Mr. Free Man! Watch!" the Vortigaunt grabbed a Pheropod and walked into the sewage, the headcrabs instantly poised for attack as Gordon has presumed, and the zombie got ready to lunge for the poor helper, but he applied pressure to the Pheropod and some liquid oozed from the top, the Headcrabs ran by his side and the Zombie walked towards him and stopped. The Vortigaunt walked back up the stairs and smiled, in a wierd alien type way. Xealos turned to the wall and pulled a lever, and a cage descended from the ceiling, in it was a dis-armed Combine Soldier, the same one Gordon had pistol whipped. He grabbed the bars on the cage and rattled them. It dipped into the sewage and stopped, the door opened. "Throw a pheropod at the Soldier, sir." whispered the helper. Gordon did, he saw the headcrabs swarm the soldier and the zombie visciously claw him. The soldier also became Zombified. The Vortigaunt threw a pistol down to the Zombie Soldier, he grabbed it and holstered it, Gordon stepped back, bemused.

"The Soldiers still retain memory of how to do menial tasks, simply throw a pheropod at an enemy and any armed Zombies will fire upon it, while headcrabs attempt to latch onto it." the Vortigaunt once again bowed to Gordon and walked into the sewage, throwing a pheropod into a duct and locking it after the Headcrabs and Zombies had stepped into it. He gave a single wave to Gordon and walked through a door beside the ducts.

The door behind Gordon opened and he swiftly turned around, an aging Barney Calhoun stood there. "Gordon? Wow...you have a habit of appearing at the right time. Great to see you again, buddy." He shook Gordon's hand and walked into the laboratory, Gordon followed. "Now, I'd love to help you Gordon, but I can't risk becoming a Combine spy again. If they caught me, then the whole alliance would be screwed." But ever since your stunt in the Citadel, we've developed and reverse-designed a lot of Combine machinery. We've developed a Combine Gunship, but we only have resources to make one and none of the rebels can fly it..." everyone turned to look at Gordon, except for Judith who had been ushered out by a couple of Vortigaunts. "...what d'ya think, Gordon?" Gordon rolled his eyes and nodded. Barney laughed

"That's the Gordon we all know. Follow me, I'll take you to the GFA. It's a long, dangerous ride. We'll need some weaponry," he looked at the crowbar Gordon had stuffed in his pocket and smiled, "I see you've got everything you need, but let's take some guns just incase," Barney led Gordon through a familiar tunnel, the one to Ravenholm. "After the explosion, most of Ravenholm was burnt down, we found a lot of stuff in a Churchyard there...imagine that, eh? We even found a Priest there, in a tomb surrounded by fire, stocked full of supplies. He'd shot himself rather than succumb to the Zombies, poor bastard. The headcrabs didn't have anything to latch onto," Barney shuddered and shook his head, then stopped and input a code into a small panel on the wall. Gordon's heart sank knowing that the Priest was most likely Father Grigori, the freedom fighter who had aided Gordon during his visit to Ravenholm.

"Come on Gordon, you've been here before, right? Well, look at it now." Barney held out his arm beckoning Gordon to look at what had become on the small town. Where Gordon had once had to climb a ladder, there was now a hi-tech elevator. They both got into it and flew to the top, Gordon was astounded. Ravenholm had transformed into a small metropolis, members of the alliance walked the streets walking into stores and houses, there were bakeries, mini-supermarkets, gunstores, supply-stores...it was a functioning town. Barney led Gordon through familiar streets, where Gordon had first encountered Father Grigori was now a hotel, and the large flame-trap that once had Zombies on pikes was now a statue of Gordon Freeman. People stopped and stared as he walked past. Eventually they reached the Church, Gordon-if he could've- would've laughed as he saw the stained window was a charicature of him in his HEV suit holding a Crowbar. Barney noticed Gordon's bemused look and laughed, "Yeah, that was Alyx's idea. Blame her, heheh." they walked through the familiar graveyard and to the tomb where Father Grigori met his demise. "Come in," Barney opened the tomb and started climbing down a ladder, Gordon followed.

At the bottom thbere was a weapons storage that must've spanned the whole town. Barney picked up an Alliance Pulse-Rifle, the reverse-engineered version of the Combine's own pulse-rifle. "Take one, Gordon. there aren't any kick-ass secondary fire chambers, though. The combine took all of the resources; the only one we have is in the Supressor." Gordon nodded and got some ammo for his pistol and was about to get a couple of Grenades when he noticed a startling flaw, he had no space. Barney looked at him fumbling. "Oh, yeah...you need the new HESE suit!" Barney walked towards a chamber holding a suit which looked identical to Gordon's HEV suit. "This is the Hazardous Environment Safety Enhancer suit, it's a lot better than your old suit and can take twice as much battery power, you sort of invented it in the Citadel, when the Overwatch got rid of your weapons, they not only upgraded your gravity gun, they enhanced your suits powers. Put it on." Gordon did so and felt more at home instantly. "All done? Let's go to the GFA then." Barney opened a shutter and walked in, as did Gordon after charging his suit.

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Finished chapter one, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i did writing it, re-writing it and still not being happy with it.

This is my first or second proper fan-fiction, not just some stupid unfunny spoof. It's based after HL2 as you can notice, and it's as much from Gordon's point of view as I can, though sometimes I may go off on a tangent, like at the beginning of the story.

What did you think? could it have been longer? Was it laid out badly? Was it plain bad? Did I not capture how the characters would react? R&R please!!!

-Xealos (Kylemacuk1234)