EPISODE TWO.

ANNON. MATERIALS TEST LAB_ _ _|

"LASER! Caution." Nova cheers as she reads a pipe that was lineing the wall. "LASER! Caution."

I sigh. How someone can be so cheerfull all the time, I don't know.

"LASER! Caution. LASER! Caution."

Soon enough, after a few more "LASER! Caution." moments, we reach the Anti-Mass Spectrometer's controll room.

"Gordon. Nova." Starts a scientist. "Good to see you two. We've sent the sample down to the chamber."

Dr. Kleiner continues. "We've boosted the Anit-Mass Spectrometer to One hundred five percent."

"Kinda risky." Nova notes.

"But we need the extra resolution."

Eli Vance continues. "Breen is very concerned that we get a conclusive result from today's sample." He frowns. "I understand they went to some lengths to get it."

"We're all counting on you two." Kleiner smiles, before he steps aside to monitor his post.

"Follow me, you two." Eli smiles and leads us over to the door leading to the next chamber. "Now, I'm against this whole endeavor, We can't contain the system for very long at this resolution, but...What Breen wants, Breen gets."

I place my hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure this will all go according to plan."

"Regular insertion into ir-regular programming...Just seems to be asking for trouble, if you ask me." Eli sighs, then opens the door for us. "Good luck you two."

We enter the next room, past three chambers of glowing crystals.

Nova pauses. "What are these things?"

"No clue."

A panel on a near by wall explodes, and two scientists rush to contain the damage.

"what is going on with our systems?!" Asks one.

"I have No idea." the other sighs.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." I note as we enter the elevator to the Test Chamber.

"Me too..." Nova sighs.

*cue Bouken Desho Desho*

A long hallway later, and we finally enter the airlock for the Anti Mass Spectrometer.

Two scientists greet us.

"I'm afraid we'll be deviating from standard procedure today, Doctors." starts the second.

"Yes, but with good reason, this is the purest sample we've seen yet." continues the first.

"Yet, the most unstable."

"Good reason or not..." Nova starts. "It's a bad idea."

I agree.

"Just follow standard insertion procedure, Gordon; everything will be fine." Says the first.

"I don't know how you can say that! The chances of a Reasonance Cascade are...!"

The first cuts the second off. "They don't need to hear this."

"Yes....you're right..." The second sighs. "Nova, Gordon, we have complete faith in you."

They walk to opposite ends of the chamber, and use the id-scanners to open the main door.

Nova looks to me. "Bad feeling's getting worse."

I nod and walk into the chamber.

Nova follows, and heads to the the balcony on the upper level of the chamber, while I head to the area where the sample of the day will be delivered.

"Ahem...Testing...Testing..."Dr. Kleiner's voice. "Everything seems to be in order."

Vance speaks up next. "Gordon, the sample will be delivered in a few moments. Nova, if you'd activate the rotors, we can bring the Spectrometer to Eighty Percent and hold it there until the sample arrives."

"Gotcha!" Nova calls out as she flips a switch, located near a computer console on the balcony.

The Anti-Mass Spectrometer starts spinning.

"Very good!" Dr. Kleiner laughs. "We'll take it from here."

I look up to Nova as the room gains a slight electric charge. "And me without my helmet."

"Power to Stage one Emitters in...three...two..."Dr. Kleiner continues.

The room becomes alight with a bright beam of energy.

"I'm seeing predictable Phasa rays..." Vance notes.

"Stage Two emitters activating...NOW!" Dr. Kleiner triggers the next stage of electrons.

Vance speaks up. "Nova, Gordon, we can't predict how long the system can operate like this...or how long the reading will take place, work as quickly as you two can."

Dr. Kleiner coninues. "Overhead emitters to One Oh Five Percent..."

Eli says something off mic.

"It's probably nothing...Probably...but I'm..."Dr. Kleiner pauses. "Nevermind, it's within acceptable bounds again."

"I've just been informed that the sample is ready, Gordon, it should be arriving at any moment now." Vance sighs. "Sustaining sequence."

The nearby fence lowers as the crystalline sample arrives.

Dr. Kleiner sighs. "Okay, standard insertion for a non-standard sample...Push it into the Beam, Gordon."

I move onto the track, and push the cart towards the Spectrometer's beam.

Eli continues. "Nova, be ready for an immediate shut down."

"HEY! What's he doing in there!?" cries a new voice.

I stop. "what's going on?"

"Nothing, Gordon. Please continue."

I sigh. "Here we go...Bad Idea in three..."

Nova laughs. "Two..."

The crystal goes in, and I take a few dozen steps back. "ONE!"

Then, the onion hit the fan.

"GORDON! GET AWAY FROM THE BEAM!" Dr. Kleiner calls out as the energy beam turns green, and begins zapping all over the chamber.

"Attempting shut down!" Eli calls out.

Dr. Kleiner yells. "it's Not...IT'S NOT SHUTTING DOWN!"

Nova slides down the ladder from the balcony and joins me in pounding against the air lock doors.

"OH NO!"

One of the energy beams blasts through the window into the control room.

Then...One hits Nova.

I don't have time to react as one hits me as well.

It was black...Pitch black.

Am I...Dead?

Another flash of green, and I'm back in the chamber.

"KYON!" Nova cries out from the other side.

There was another flash of green, and...

...I was standing in some pool with some weird beasts drinking from it's green reflecting surface.

Another flash.

Same world, different area.

Several red eyed, slimy scale-ed humanoid beings with claws surround me.

Another flash.

SOS BRIGADE CLUB ROOM_ _ _| SEVERAL YEARS EARLIAR_ _ _|

I hadn't beleived Haruhi's story for real until That December.

Yuki had created a whole new world.

And I didn't like it.

So, here I was, in the SOS Club room, alone, looking out at the falling snow. A seeming metaphor for What had just happened.

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." I called.

And in came Miss Tsuruya, her ankle length green hair flowing like a river behind her. "hey Kyon!"

"Mikuru's out of town, which you probably know, Koizumi's got a cold, Yuki's with the computer club." I listed off the other members. "And Haruhi's...off somewhere."

"Well, good thing I'm not here for them." she smiled.

"Oh?" I was confused at that point.

"Well...I just got this new game, and everyone is either not interrestted in games, busy with something else, or is someone I don't know." She holds up a thick CD box with the title "Quarter Life" on it. "And you're the only other person I haven't seen about it...Nyoro..."

I nod. "Okay...I'll play. What's it about?"

Tsuruya smiles. "Well...You play as these two survivors of a monster apocalypse..."

RUINED TEST LAB_ _ _|

My eyes snap open to see Nova crying above me.

"Kyon! You're alive nyoro!" she cries in relief, then covers her mouth with her hands. "Sorry..."

I sigh and sit up. "It's okay...People always relapse into old habits when something happens..." I look around the wrecked chamber. "I'd say this certainly qualifies."

Nova nods, and sniffs in her tears. "For a second there, I thought..."

I place my hand on her shoulder. "It's okay."

"The Blast doors are..." Nova starts, then stops, fresh tears anew flowing down from her eyes. "I think my leg's broken."

"Which one?" I ask, sitting up.

"My right." she sighs. "I don't think I can get out of here."

"Don't talk like that." I shift into a position for her to climb onto my back. "We'll find a re-charge unit, and the HEV suit'll take care of the rest."

Nova nods. "Okay..."

As soon as I'm sure Nova's securely holding on, I stand up, leaning against some rubble for some support. Not that I need it.

Slowly, we make our way over to the wedged open blast doors, and climb up and over to the other side...

"Oh my..." Nova gulps.

...Then we find a dead scientist.

"He probably was getting the door open for us..." I guess.

She nods, sniffing. "Yeah...."

The only other door was knocked open by some blast.

On the other side, we found another dead scientist, and one scientist trying to revive a guard.

Neither me, nor Nova, say anything.

We continue down the hallway, pausing only when a computer terminal falls down and explodes.

"Why is everything exploding!!?" Nova shouts.

"Computer glitches, combined with whatever just happened...." I reason as we reach the elevator back to the control room.

A short ride back up, and we find a dead...Dog like creature (I think it was one of the ones drinking in the pool), half buried by a computer terminal, and Dr. Kleiner treating a wound on Eli's...Well...Treating the wound resulting from the lower half of Eli's left leg being torn off by whatever this thing was.

"Why didn't they listen...We tried to warn them...." Dr. Kleiner sighs. "I'd never think I'd see a reasonance cascade...let alone CAUSE one!"

Eli looks up. "Gordon! Nova! You're alive! Thank Heaven for those Hazard Suits!"

"Doesn't help so much with a broken leg!" Nova states.

"Here, Let me help you!" Dr. Kleiner stands up from bandaging Eli's leg.

I let Nova slide back down to the ground.

"Hmm...I think The HEV suit can fix this..." Dr. Kleiner inspects Nova's leg. "The Suit itself seems to have prevented your leg from being mis-placed...Just let me find a med kit..." He stands up and begins searching the room.

I sigh and look at the dead beast. "What is that thing?"

"I have no idea." Eli shrugs, as best as he can. "It looks like some sort of Bull Squid."

"Really? I thought it was A cuthulu dog!" Dr. Kleiner comments as he finds a med kit. "Ah! Here we go!"

I have nothing to say to that.

"Gordon..." Eli Vance sighs. "I need you to get to the surface dormitories. Find some communication's terminal or something...the phones down here are all dead."

I can do that.

"Good...if you find my wife...if you find my daughter...just let them know I'm okay..." Eli continues. "You need to let everyone know that there are still people down here!"

"We'll need to get the surface to do that..." Nova winces as Dr. Kleiner connects the med kit to the HEV's medical port, allowing the suit to use it's medical techniques to heal her leg in an instant.

"Ready to get out of here?" I ask her, holding out my hand for support.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Nova pulls herself to her feet.

"Be careful." Dr. Kleiner advises.

"The controll room's a mess, you'll have to wait for a lapse in the beams." Eli adds.

We walk over to the control room door, and realize one thing.

A blast of green bursts of energy would probably hurt if they explode the computers in the room.

I reason. "Three blasts. Two seconds between...speed module should take care of it..."

Nova takes the first step into the room, then back-flips over and around the energy beams as a test of her recently healed leg.

"Haha!" She grins on the other side of the room. "Beat that!"

"Show off." I roll my eyes, then run through the beams as they dissipate and reappear.

We head our way back through the maze that is Black Mesa.

"So, what happened?" Nova asks.

"A resonance cascade, apparently." I shrug.

"What do you think happened with the rest of the world?"

"It's probably contained here, for now." I reason.

Suddenly, a green glow fills the room, and a small...Face hugger looking creature appears in the center of the room a second after the glow fades.

"What is that?" Nova asks.

"I have no..."

The face hugger jumps at me, but, just falls short due to a piece of the ceiling falling on it.

"...Run!" I cry, and race for the other end of the room. Nova's not one step behind me.

We make it to the Laser tunnel a few seconds later.

And guess what? The Lasers are cutting the tunnel up into chunks.

"Oh...Head Crab in a hat..." Nova curses.

I have nothing to add to that.

"well...Reasonably....We can crawl under this first one...." Nova deduces.

We do so not a second later.

"...But this second one's..."

"ZigZaged?"

"Yeah..."

"Let's just wait for it to make it's path through the floor, and we can run over when it's doing that."

And we did so soon after.

After we passed the lasers, we reached another door.

"Locked." I curse.

"Of course it..." Nova's attention is caught elsewhere. "...Is that a crowbar?"

I look towards a tool box next to the door, left open, and filled with nothing BUT crowbars. "Now...either that's just bad design, or there's a lot of things around here that need breaking open."

I pick one up then toss one to Nova; she swings it with a smile.

"Now what?" She asks.

"We break stuff." I shrug as I lean against the locked door, and lightly tap the crowbar against the glass in it.

The sound of breaking glass is so satisfying.

We crawl through the door, and come to the elevator to the upper levels.

"In case of fire, do not use elevators" says the sign over the buttons.

"No fire." Nova shrugs.

"Safe to use then." I press the button for UP.

SOMETHING explodes, and the elevator far above us falls down the shaft. It's occupants screaming loudly until the end.

Nova winces as the elevator doors slide open. "SORRY!" She calls out.

"I hope you weren't nice people!"

I sigh.

END EPISODE TWO.

AN: And here's the End of the World. Now, with the flashbacks, the story will jump around quite a bit; also- does it need to be said?- it's prety clear that anything outside of Black Mesa is a flashback; and if you didn't understand, "Quarter Life" Is oviously Half Life's version of...You get the idea. So, then, anything else need explaining? No? Okay!

_DTC