When fiction cracked
The Free Man
The world of Freeman was never a particularly peaceful place. The incident of the Black Mesa resonance cascade had flung the door wide open to life on other worlds, as it had flooded onto the little blue and green planet. There were still whispers of the seven hour war, when the Combine forces had struck upon the Earth and decimated their forces, clenching their fist around the Earth and holding it tight. That grip remained strong and firm for 20 years, as the Combine's fingers began picking away at the planet they had claimed. But now, with the fall of Nova Prospekt, their grip had started to slip on the Earth as a human resistance had sprung up from the cracks in the pavement. And leading their way, armed to the teeth, courageously leading their charge was the one free man, the man to lead them on toward victory and save the human race.
However, the great free man they had been prophecised would save them had turned out quite different than they expected. He was bereft of his symbollic attire, the orange suit and the mighty crowbar, even the power of the gravity gun, opting instead for using his bare hands. This man that now led them was an absoloute oddity. He defied physics at every opportunity, flying toward Overwatch troops whilst his legs flapped about awkwardly around him, hands spinning and hacking at Combine troops, even as they lined him with bullets from their many different weapons. This man clearly lacked any form of actual training, be it for marksmanship or how to actually fight a battle, but somehow his inhuman strength and physics defying motions was leading the human forces forward through the city. But the strangest thing about their new leader, was undoubtedly his speech. The oddest things escaped his lips as he snapped another soldier's neck.
"I will live up to my family name and face FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES!" he roared mid strike, whipping two sub machine guns out of nowhere and firing awkwardly into an oncoming set of troops. "Combines will go back to science and outer space!" he continued as whipped an RPG once again out of thin air and blasted a wall down, as well as the few Combine troops left standing in front of it. The human members of the revoloutionary just watched in awkwardly as the one free man seemed more like a man free of his own mind than a leader or role model for any of them.
And with each word the strange new man said, with each Combine soldier he killed, the membrane of fiction garnered more cracks and splinters as continuity was being bent and buckled under the weight of the poorly written, physically impossible albeit hillarious antics of John Freeman.
The six members of the alliance emerged into the now war torn City 17. The Breencast message of "It's safer here" rung in Gordon's mind as he observed the rampant carnage and strife of the war going on. All around them, the rattle of gunfire and the strange alien noises mixed in a cacophony of chaos, something new to five members of the alliance. They stood in the road, close to a succession of ruined buildings, having been devastated by missile fire. What remained was mere ruins.
They had little time to react or tune into their surroundings as they were spotted by a few stragglers of the Overwatch, emerging from the cover of a ruined building. The orange suit of anticitizen one caught their attention, and they raised their various weapons to open fire on the group. Thankfully, the wizard of the group was quick on his feet, whipping out his wand and flicking it upwards.
"Protego!" he exclaimed as the shield charm was cast, blocking the hail of gunfire from the combine soldiers as Uther and Sonic took cover, whilst the rest prepared to fight back. Gordon raised his SMG and unloaded into one member of the Overwatch who crumpled to the ground as he charged them. Link flicked the drawstring of his bow and pierced the mask of another soldier, pinning him to the wall with it's strength. Chell managed to make some creative use of her portal gun, shooting the blue portal onto a nearby wall and the orange under a hiding member of the Overwatch, sending him flying through the air and landing with a sharp crunch. The remaining three attackers hid behind cover to reload, something Harry decided to stop before they could prepare another attack.
"Confringo!" he casted the blasting curse, destroying the cover of the soldiers and killing one in the process. One more arrow from Link flew and penetrated another's chest, as Gordon finished off the last with a hefty chunk of shrapnel from the shotgun. With their attackers dead, the group felt a sense of satisfaction, working oddly well as a team on their first joint venture. Uther had yet to adapt to this strange futuristic setting, least of all being any use in long range combat, the loud noise was most unusual to him… so unusual, it stirred something within him… a voice he knew, crying out to be let out into the combat.
But for now, they had a job to do. And that was finding the false saviour of mankind. Gordon led the way with a flick of his fingers, leading their charge with shotgun in hand, through the rubble with the others in tow, Sonic grumbling to himself slightly.
When they emerged through the wrecked building and onto a secondary street, a sudden lurching noise and some alien sirenlike sound caught their attention. Approaching from down the street, a tall freakish contraption strode toward them, three strong but spindly legs keeping it mobile upon it's gun toting body. A strider, the fist of the Combine's ground assault, approached the ragtag group, recognizing anticitizen one and preparing to open fire.
"Heh… not as bad as one of Eggman's contraptions. I got it." His legs became a blur as he approached the strider, as it's bullets rained down upon him, making pockmarks in the street as the quick hedgehog darted around them like they were nothing. The strider was relentless in it's attack, raising one of it's legs to strike at the speedy hog, to little avail as once again he just darted around it. "Oh come on." Taunted the hedgehog, rocking on his heels as the strider turned to face him. "Can't you at least TRY to hit me?" The strider grunted something incomprehensible in response and resumed firing, chasing the hedgehog down the street.
It was then that one of their number saw an opening. Weilding her portal gun, Chell fired down onto the street twice, once just in front of them, and a second at one of the striders legs. The leg fell into the portal and came out the other, stranging it on it's remaining two legs. Then, cancelling both portals out, the leg was severed from the strider entirely. It let out some form of odd moan as it tried to drag itself down the street on it's last two legs, as another member of the group charged at it, his other personality taking hold.
"FUKKIN STRIDERS?!" Oother shouted as he raised his sword over his head, leaping like a badass. "MORE LIKE DISABLED!" he taunted as he brought his blade down into the carapace of the strider. It let out a warbling mournful cry as it was destroyed, freeing the streets for the group once more, as Uther regained control of himself.
"Ugh…" he grunted. "I hate that…" Uther wheezed a little, the process of his other self taking over was quick and without warning, but made him feel like hell with all the physical exertion. With the strider down, the group proceeded onward with Gordon in front.
They came to a plaza, one of the Breencast screens still active and jittering about like a bad Gmod video. There were a few bodies littered, all rebels sadly. The sound of running alerted them to more soldiers as they took cover behind some rubble, a troop of five members of Overwatch appearing in the plaza. But before either side could get off a shot, a building blew up behind them and a man flew out of it, spinning into the Combine soldiers and scattering them about like tomatoes on a salad. When he landed, he brushed himself down a bit and looked toward the group that had entered the plaza. His eyes lit up and his lips parted to form a big cheesy grin.
"Bro!" he shouted gleefully, running manicly over to them, arms flapping around behind him as he came close to Gordon, who just stared at him with a raised eyebrow. "How is you here? You were stepped on by next boss! And I made you happy soul!" he gibbered as Gordon was increasingly confused over the man's strange words. John tilted his head when his brother didn't say a word, something you'd think anyone would be used to. "Bro? What's wrong? Why you no speak?" John poked Gordon's cheek curiously, Gordon quickly swatted his hand away in annoyance. The rest of the group weren't sure what to make of it. This looked like the man they'd been shown but… he was hardly an evil raging despot or some maniacal warrior. He was clearly mad, but he didn't SEEM evil.
John backed away from Gordon as he seemed to have figured something out. "Bro… have Combines put science in you?! Is you HEADCRAB ZOMBIE?!" he screeched and flapped his legs about somehow. Now Gordon was even furtherly confused as he just kept one eyebrow raised. "I must stop you bro! You has been tricked!" John continued, whipping a pair of SMG's out of nowhere and aiming at Gordon's head. Gordon flinched slightly and quickly brought his crowbar up into John's torso, knocking the breath out of him and allowing Gordon to leap back before he could get off a point blank shot.
John's legs seemed to flap about slightly as he rocketed backwards, bringing his SMG's forward and firing in random directions, hitting more resistance members than his actual opponents. Most of them decided to take cover as Link pulled out his bow and started taking shots at John. The man's body twisted and contorted oddly to avoid the flying arrows, much to the surprise of the small party. As John brought up his SMG's to aim again, Harry quickly stepped in to stop him.
"Expelliarmus!" he shouted with a swish and twirl of his wand, the charm knocking both of their opponent's SMG's clean out of his hands, much to his surprise. He did a backflip out of the air and landed. And just his luck, he happened to spy something at his feet.
"Wepon!" he shouted as he picked up an RPG that someone had just convieniently left behind for this kind of situation. He fired upon Uther, who was naturally perplexed by the hot pellet of explosives and speed now rushing toward him. Just before he was hit, Sonic came to his aid and bumped him out of the way as the rocket flew past and hit the wall, the explosion knocking the elf and the test subject out of cover and in front of the awaiting free man. John aimed down at them with a goofy grin and said "It's a good day to do what has to be done and defeat the enemys!" Chell, however, had a plan. Thinking quickly, the shot a blue portal onto a wall behind John and prepared for him to fire. As John pulled the trigger, Chell rolled to her left and shot a second portal at where she'd been lying. The rocket flew into the portal and emerged from the other side, flying into John from behind with a loud explosion of fire and destruction. The group relaxed for a moment, as surely a blow like that would be good enough to finish him off, right?
Alas, John Freeman was no ordinary man and shrugged the missile blast off like a mosquito bite. The group were taken aback. This man was a veritable Achilles in his invincibility! Now standing back on the ground, John tossed the RPG over his shoulder and it flew merrily away, as John whipped out yet another 'wepon' this time being a machine gun. The group scattered as Link and Gordon attempted to flank John from either side, Freeman firing off shots with his pistol and Link unloading an arrow in John's direction. Their opponent somehow managed to flip upwards so his head was now facing downward and his legs flailing in the air, avoiding both their attacks and beginning to fire on Gordon. The shots rained in on the bespectacled scientist as they pinged onto his armour, none of them thankfully hitting his exposed head. The scientist grunted slightly as he slumped back against a piece of rubble, feeling something bleed beneath his armour. John leapt down in front of his 'brother' with a concerned look on his face.
"Bro! Combine science is bad and I killed next boss for you! Please come back so you can be happy soul! You are hero!" John insisted, attempting to 'comfart' Gordon. To the bearded scientist, it was all meaningless jibberish. This man spoke of him as if he had once done these things. But Gordon could never be more certain that he had never met this man before. Never had he known him, and never would he in future.
Harry came to Gordon's aid, casing a quick fire Stupefy charm to send John a ways away from him, rolling across the ground. Any normal person would have been paralysed by the charm, but once again, John got over it in mere moments. John became silent as he looked upon his foes, with a new, serious look in his eyes. With a clatter, his machine gun dropped to the ground as he uttered a truly stunning one liner.
"I have to kill fast, and bullets too slow!" And with that, John went flying toward Gordon, swinging his arms in a windmill of fast punches, slaps, chops and whatever else he could do. Gordon quickly brought out his crowbar and swung it to block one of John's arms as it aimed for his neck. The two battled back and forth for a moment before one of Gordon's allies stepped in to help. With the assistance of Chell's portals, he came flying at John with his sword and struck him in the shoulder. The blade sunk in only slightly, and when drawn back no blood had even been drawn!
John quickly whipped around and struck Link in the chest with the force of a charging freight train, sending him flying backward into the rubble of a blasted wall. He flew over toward Link in an attempt to finish him off, when suddenly the medieval king stepped in to defend him, striking his sword right through John's stomach. Once again, the blade drew not even the smallest drop of blood as John slapped him out of the way like he was swatting a housefly. The king grunted in pain as he skidded to a halt on the blasted ground. John twisted back toward Link, who had enough time to roll away from the wall, leaving a bomb behind for their opponent. The explosion made John's legs swing wildly even as his head seemed to remain perfectly in place. He swung around and went flying at the nearest thing to him, which happened to be Chell. Thinking fast, the test subject shot a portal at her feet, as John flew right past her and smacked into a wall.
Gordon's crowbar smacked into the back of his neck, a blow that could've been fatal for any normal enemy. But as they were once again reminded, their enemy was beyond strong. It seemed there was nothing thatcould defeat him, as he swivveled and smacked Gordon backward.
"Why can you not just be happy soul bro?!" John cried out at he advanced further on Gordon, ready to deliver the finishing blow with his 'bear' hands. Gordon flinched slightly.
Despite the bearded, bespectabled scientist's replacement in his own story, the alert of 'Anticitizen 1' had still spread around City 17, throughout the Combine's forces. The Free Man was still top priority. So, the mind of a nearby Combine sniper started to race with the idea as he spotted the orange suit of the free man, amidst some rubble and surrounding by incredibly strange beings. Thinking nothing of it, he knelt down and alligned himself up with the scientist's head, intent to finish him in one shot while he was distracted with his fictitious brother.
John saw it. He spotted the glint of the sunlight off the barrel of the sniper rifle on the roof over yonder. His heart pounded as he got fraid for the first time. He could see the rifle was aiming for his brother, a one shot kill no doubt. But his brother had been tricked by Combines! What could he do?! His mind argued the point back and forth as his time grew short, and he decided on his action.
BANG!
The sniper rifle shouted as it spat It's bullet toward it's unaware target. Moving fast, John flew into Gordon and knocked him out of the way, as the bullet missed his brother, but instead connected with his chest, piercing him straight through with a spatter of blood. Clutching his body, John stood and fall. His breath got slower and slower as he looked up at his brother, who now knelt behind him.
Gordon felt… odd. He didn't know this man. This man had never been in his life before. He was not his born brother. He did not matter to him… so, now that their sworn enemy was lying dying before him, why did he suddenly feel somewhat… sad?
"Bro…" John coughed as he looked up to him, formign a wry smile on his lips. "Orchestrator made me tricked bro… I'm sorry…" he managed, each breath clearly becoming harder for him. Gordon couldn't bring himself to comfart him, but he nodded slightly, wondering if that would cause some form of easy death. It seemed too, as John returned his nod.
"Save humens… and Henry Freeman…" he said once more as his breath finally stopped and died, but he had smiles on face. Gordon let him slump onto the ground as a strange black aura suddenly surrounded him, flowing like black ink around the body. The body began to evaporate into the black flowing ink, rising up into the sky and flying into a crack in the sky. The crack in the world of fiction. The inky substance blotted around the crack as it was sucked out of the world of fiction, until it was finally all gone, vanishing into the crack forever more.
Gordon drew back to his feet and breathed a slight sigh of relief. Their first opponent had been tough and stalwart, but finally, somehow, he had died. His allies looked over the scenario with various looks, mostly of confusion.
"Hang on…" Harry was the first to finally speak up. "All those attacks didn't kill him… so why did that one bullet kill him? " No-one knew the answer as they thought it over.
"Heroic… sacrifice." echoed afamiliar croaky voice, as the scene around them slowly began to grey, the G-man stepping forth from the darkess in the middle of the group. He adjusted his tie slightly. "One of the few, things… that can kill a being of… altered fiction. Is to give, their, own life… it is unusually common."
"Weird…" Sonic commented, scratching his spines in confusion. "Least we dealt with him…" The group could at least agree on that, as they turned back to the G-Man.
"You have done, quite well… but there are many more ahead… and the, cracks… they grow only wider."