The Civil Protection agent and Oscar.
A regular day in City 17, a Civil Protection agent was guarding another exit out of City 17 where Striders walked behind in order to 'keep the peace', much like every other Civil Protection agent does now.
With a sigh beneath the mask he volunteered to wear, Civil Protection agent John Irisonn was a very simple and very bored man.
Only the Civil Protection agents in the cities are humans who volunteered to wear a Combine mask and suits for benefits, such as better food, place to sleep, comfort and such.
The better one does, the better one gets treated.
John had only been a Civil Protection agent for a few years now, so until the superiors decided it was time to move him up, he didn't receive any enhancements or any tests that would result in him loosing more of his human nature like the others had gotten.
Unfortunately, John Irisonn had nothing to do to, therefore, he did not get treated as well as the others who went to war to battle various enemies.
The list just goes on...
Today something miraculous would happen and it can and will change the life of John forever.
However, he did not know this fantastic opportunity when it crossed his path.
A small gray tabby kitten, maybe as tall as his ankle, walked up to him and began rubbing it's head all around Johns foot and ankle.
This irritated him since Civil Protection agents or CP's are not supposed to have close interactions with anyone but another CP.
So this small harmless and loving creature could easily get him fired.
To dispatch of this annoyance, if you can call it that, John pushed the cat away with his foot.
Which only interested the cat for some odd reason, the cat waltzed right back and soon began purring and playing with Johns foot as if it was cat nip.
John pushed it away again, except harder, and the cat rolled over a few feet away.
It didn't know that it's back was facing John so it got confused and curious how someone could disappear like that.
It stood and looked around before it realized, it was pointing the wrong direction.
Running back up to John it quickly made up for the time lost by attempting to climb his leg, which resulted in much pain from John.
He holstered his gun and lifted the cat up.
"What do you want?" John asked the cat who stared at him with two large eyes.
"Well?" The cat ignored him and tried to play with the strand that came loose from his clothes.
With a sigh John walked away, into the plaza, set the cat down and walked away.
City 17 dwellers watched in awe as this small kitten followed the CP without any interest in any of the ones calling it.
The people were worried this cat would see to a sad death if it kept following that CP agent and tried to get it to come to them.
Using many items such as old toys, herbs stuffed inside a small material bag to form a cat nip ball and some promises of love and affection.
The gray tabby watched them as it trotted right past, none of those items or promises were as interesting as the seemingly heartless Civil Protection agent.
As soon as John returned to his post, he turned around as the cat approached.
John sighed aggravatingly as the cat rolled on it's back as soon as it got close enough.
He shook his head in hopes to ignore it.
This gray tabby kitten noticed this and became even more determined to get him to play with him.
As the cat walked up some stairs far away from John he thought that he had finally ignored it enough that it got bored and ran away to find some other one to play with.
Little did he know that this cat was much smarter then the average pet and that now this kitten will ensure that this CP would pay full attention to him.
John stood there and identified some City 17 fellows to make sure they could enter and exit this area.
Other CP's left the area had nothing was left but two people off in the distance chatting away.
As soon as all seemed quiet, the kitten leaped onto the edge of this old broken building, about several feet above John's head so he could not see him.
With a playful appearance the kitten pounced off the building edge and onto John's head, holding onto him by his claws John fell over from the sudden shock.
Now on his back, the kitten began rubbing his face all over.
John was more angry then ever, that small gray striped feline made him look like a dolt.
He picked the cat up in his arms and held it tightly in anger as the kitten just took it as John petting him and purred happily.
"Where are you from you damn furball?" He got a hold of the collar.
"Oscar? That's your name? Pathetic name, your pathetic" He held the cat up and talked to it.
As John tried to insult it, the kitten only loved on him more.
"You are a sap, a lazy weak sap, you waste of breath!" He held it with his hand and walked into the building he was guarding.
"You don't even deserve to live in this town, I mean, your going to die one way or the other, I'd prefer if it was me too" He held the gun to the kitten who licked and pawed it like it was a new shiny toy.
John was ready to fire when the kitten yawned and made itself comfortable in his arm.
In the end, especially after this act of cuteness played on Oscar's side, he couldn't bring himself to killing the small frail furball.
Instead he looked into the security databanks to find out where this cat was from.
On the collar of this kitten was an address, or at least a form of one.
It said; Marie Annis, 3833 Black Mesa East.
Now, John knew where and what Black Mesa is... was, he also knew that Black Mesa East was deserted for awhile now.
Rather confused, John decided whoever this Marie Annis was, maybe at the old Black Mesa site just outside City 17.
"Alright you pathetic waste of life... Oscar... Your going home and this time I will personally see to it that you are caged in there!" He practically growled to himself when he put Oscar in a crate which he made sure air could get in and that there was a towel for a makeshift bed and two bowls, one for water and one for food.
"If I was a higher rank then I am now, you'd be dead and I wouldn't care... so be thankful furball" He closed and nailed shut the crate in order to conceal the fact he had a kitten hidden.
He picked up the crate that hid the kitten and walked into an APC with few other CP's and headed off.
The other CP's were going to guard some other parts of City 17.
John, on the other hand, was finding someway to quickly and quietly get out of City 17. Why he is doing this? One may ask, is because no matter how much he tells himself that he joined the Combine because he believes in what their doing, the truth is, he only joined them because he couldn't stand the boring and dull living situations he had in the Cities he was taken too.
"You're lucky, you are a very lucky bastard furball" He thought to himself as he looked at the crate that held Oscar.