The Beating Quota

A/N: Rambling author's note incoming, but stick with me here.

This is a working title, yes. However, I feel like it roughly gets the job done and ties everything back to a rough topic. On the other hand, it's possible that the entirety of this writing diverged from the original idea I had that is now long gone from my brain.

The idea for this story came from another fan-fiction I had read implying that Barney was in Civil Protection for literally years. Why is Barney working in the CP? What situations could he encounter in his time that could strain his relations with both the Overwatch and the Resistance? What personal boundaries may he have to cross to get the job done?

Originally meant to be a one-shot, but is split into three definite parts (with some sort of wrap-up chapter/epilogue) with more possibly to follow. Please feel free to review and tell me everything I got wrong so I know what to do in the future. It's my first time really writing HL2, and writing a character into a rough situation, so really lay it on. I'll appreciate it. Enjoy.

Barney was never going to be a Metrocop who enjoyed meeting, let alone exceeding, their beating quota. It was never going to be something he enjoyed, only something he had to do. He didn't enjoy the sound of bones breaking, the sound of electric batons smacking down resisting limbs, the sound of young men crying for their mothers, young women crying for their husbands. There was almost nothing for him to get out of this. Barney would avoid it at all costs, but it is an unfortunate job that all Civil Protection units must undertake.

The only reason beating quotas exist, Barney hypothesized, is that they want to weed out the weak units from the strong, especially human volunteers. He knew a guy who joined the CP, but not for any malicious reason, the guy was just trying to get more food rations for his family. It was a tragic situation, having to hurt people to help others. Barney watched as the man became more lenient; soon instead of beatings he gave strongly worded warnings in a last attempt to stay in some sort of good light.

One day, Barney was on duty at the City 17 processing station, and saw the man brought in plain clothes to the checkpoint. The Metrocops that escorted him there then beat the man into an unresponsive state, and unceremoniously hooked him into a pod in the nearby razor train, and sent him off to Nova Prospekt with the rest of the cargo.

The only thing that kept Barney going was his absolute need to get info on Combine movements within City 17 and its outlying districts. Eli and the rest of the Resistance leaders had soldiers and refugees slowly but steadily creeping out of the city either to Black Mesa East or out to White Forest. Hell, anywhere that wasn't under Combine control. He needed to know anything and everything he could, even hearsay among the grunts. Pretty much any second hand idea was something he had to report to the higher-ups, because it might be the info that could save some lives.

Barney hated the beatings, but since it was something he had to do, he abused this power to further either his own agenda, or that of the Resistance. It usually had to do with people who were in the way of the Resistance. Sometimes people just needed a simple push in the right direction, and they would quickly warm up to the cause. Now, Barney never ever went hard on these people if he knew he could get them on their side. A couple of big bruises on the back, maybe a broken finger or two. Give them a reason to resent the Overwatch. He never took it too far. At least, he used to never take it too far.

It was brought to the attention of the Resistance that a man named Bryan Jennings had betrayed the cause. No one knew why, but he ended up killing five of the men he was stationed with along the canal heading out of City 17, and disappeared. This was a pretty big deal at the time; nothing like this had happened before, and no one was sure how to handle it. How did they tell the dead's families? How do they make sure it doesn't happen again? How do they make sure it doesn't get any worse?

Perhaps the worst thing about Jennings doing what he did, and the Resistance having to do something about it, was his family. He had a wife and a young daughter, barely fourteen. One of the youngest people alive around City 17, barely getting conceived before the suppression field was set up. How will they be told about what their husband or dad? …what if they knew about it? What if they were in on it? It was fortunate enough, people supposed, that they found his family and one: discovered that they had no idea what he had done, and two: relocated them to White Forest to be kept under a pretty close eye.

Could he have been brainwashed? Yes. Could something in his head just flicked off, or on? Sure. Could he or his family have been threatened? The possibility was there. Did it matter who he was or what he did in the past? No. The Resistance issued an All-Points Bulletin from the City 17 railways all the way down Highway 17 to New Little Odessa, to be on the lookout for Bryan Jennings, and to shoot to kill.

Barney argued that the man obviously wouldn't be making his way out of the city. He'd be working his way in to the Citadel to talk to Breen, or a Combine Advisor. This was the worst thing that could happen, so he decided it was time to put his position to good use, and find this man before any more harm could be done.