Just a clear up from last chapter. The relic won't be found, but the room containing it will.
So people have suggested about Celeste's semblance. One is something about pineapples, another a healing semblance, one with the power of using Dark Energy, one with harnessing electricity, and the last one is a portal semblance using the same portal system of Portal's portal gun.
Man, that was a lot of portals on that one.
So, um...enjoy this epilogue! And BTW, there will probably be a short Christmas chapter.
I hope, I'll work on it.
Union laid on his side on the bed, still asleep. In contrast, Celeste was awake and ready to do today's job, which was communicating with the Valean army's commander down at the defense line.
She sighed, and sat down on a chair next to a table. A small shimmering sound was caught by Celeste's ear and she turned to the source, the girl from last night appeared on the table beside her.
"You could just wake him up yourself." The girl suggested, quirking an eyebrow at her.
Celeste gave the girl a glance, before closing her eyes and exhaling. She stood up from the chair and walked towards Union. She placed a hand on his shoulders, and shook him slightly. He grumbled, and faced away from where Celeste was.
"Union." She said smoothly, just like how a mother would to her child in the same situation. "Wake up, we have things to do."
"What time is it?" He asked groggily, his eyes were still closed and his position was unchanged.
Celeste looked at the girl next to her, who held up six fingers using her hands. "It is 6:00 AM." Celeste answered.
He flipped over to lay on his back, before sitting up. He stretched for a bit, before yawning. "Alright. I'll get ready."
She nodded, before walking out of the door, which left Union and the girl alone. Union got out of bed and sat down on the chair due to his grogginess.
"Union?" The girl asked.
He turned to her. "Hm?"
"You can access your Playermodel menu again. It can save you the trouble."
Union thought over what she said, before pretending to enlarge a rectangle using his hands to open up the menu.
[Garry's Mod Menu]
Spawn Menu
Context Menu
Console
Workshop
Addons
He selected 'Context Menu' and an interface appeared. He selected his Playermodel tab and checked out what he had. There was a lot of new models, like the models of the people he and/or his NPCs killed, his new clothes, and the new clothing from the Citadel occupants. He selected the default Combine Elite Playermodel and switched the player color to Cyan.
He gave himself a look over, getting vibes from when he first came here. Union stood up from the chair and walked to the door leading outside, Celeste was leaning on the wall next to the door. Her eyes widened when she saw him.
"You..." She glanced at him, before snickering. "...look like you gained weight."
Union crossed his arms. "Hey, at least there is something between the bullet and my vital organs."
Celeste just nodded, her laughs devolving into a smile. "Well," she started, "are we ready to go?"
It was his turn to nod. "Mhm."
~~~Time skiperooni~~~
A Citadel Dropship flew out of one of the many hangars the Citadel had, followed by two Synth Dropships and four Synth Gunships. Union was in the Citadel Dropship with Celeste and a squad of Elites, waiting for the cue that signaled their arrival.
In the cabin Union was in, there was two rows of seats on the walls, the rows were cut off at the middle by a door that slides open when needed. A panel sat on the back end of the cabin, which was the controls for the side turrets outside the dropship. On the other end, was the door leading to the cockpit.
Union saw the lights on the cabin flash blue, a Combine Elite that was close to the door went to the handle. The lights flashed green and the door was opened, he felt a gush of cold wind on his skin before he went out of the Dropship. They were greeted by snow, the remains of buildings, carcasses of various vehicles and machines, and some dead bodies, which belonged to both sides.
There were decomposing remains of soldiers wearing the Valean army uniform and non-decomposing remains wearing the Citadel Soldier or Guard outfit. It was easy to tell which owned which as the NPCs never gather the fallen, and the scarcity of Valean corpses.
Up ahead from the landing zone, was a wall made of cement and hard material. Union could see vague shapes of humanoid figures standing on the wall and some flags embroidered with Vale's emblem. He looked to the side, seeing a pair of Combine Soldiers holding up a big sign that said:
'WE WANT TO TALK, NO FIGHTING PLEASE'
After seeing it out in the open, he winced at how odd that sounded. Some shapes on the wall disappeared, then a gate opened to reveal a squad of Valean Soldiers, and two noteworthy men.
One looked to be in Celeste's age. He was wearing a black trenchcoat, over a black undershirt, with a silver belt fastened over black pants. He had a mean looking assault rifle on his back, two knives hung from each of his sides. He looked like some modern vampire/demon hunter, especially with his grey hair and purple eyes that were darker than Celeste's.
The other was a man who seemed to be in the same age as the Atlas General. He was wearing a green and brown uniform that looked like what the Atlas General wore. He had a scabbard for a saber on his side.
The general walked to Union until he was in arm's reach, the two groups stared at each other. The general looked at Celeste, who was behind Union. Once they made eye contact, she walked forward in front of Union.
The huntsman next to the general smiled. "I thought you were joking when you said that tower was going to change."
Celeste smiled back. "You thought wrong then."
He laughed. "Guess I did, didn't I General?"
The man in question nodded. "I wasn't expecting you to make contact with..."
The general paused, looking behind Celeste. "...a mercenary army."
She had a split second of confusion on her face until it disappeared, knowing that they didn't know who Union actually is.
"Yes, I had ties with them. They were willing to help once they knew what I was doing." She lied. If she was honest, it was the other way around.
"I can vouch for that." Union played along, stepping forward.
The huntsman raised a brow at him and the general faced Union. "I assume you are the leader of this mercenary army?"
The man in question nodded. "Yes, I am."
"I am General Birch," The general started. "I lead Vale's Defense Force."
"Nice to meet you, my name is...Combine."
"'Combine'? That's peculiar."
"It is and I'm sure we can talk about this later on."
"Perhaps, we have matters to attend to."
"I agree with the fat guy too." The huntsman said.
Celeste laughed, the general quirked a brow, Union sighed and the man who said it was confused.
Meanwhile...
"Where are we going?" The specialist leader asked, following the knight.
The girl appeared on the knight's shoulder. "Down."
The leader tilted his head like a confused dog. "What's 'down'?"
"You'll see."
The elite looked at the shaft he was on, currently in an elevator going down with the knight and the girl.
"I have to ask, what else does this Citadel do?" He questioned.
"Aside from housing an army, it can make them. It is also the source of Union's power." The girl seemed to enjoy the topic. "We can use this tower to regulate his abilities. If we set it to overdrive, Union can become a lot more powerful."
"By how much?"
"His perception of time will be slower, which means he has faster reflexes. He doesn't get tired, he hits hard, he doesn't need a toolgun or a physics gun, or even a menu. Basically, he does everything with his mind."
The elevator stopped and the trio walked through a hallway, passing by a squad.
"The catch?" The leader inquired.
"It's only for a short amount of time, three hours at best and an hour at worst. Should his opponent be too many, much more powerful or just good at repelling him, they can easily kill him should the time of power end. He gets exhausted immensely, and the tower will have to be rebooted." She explained.
"How long?"
"A month. During then, everything gets disconnected. NPCs have to rely on their senses and short range communications, and the tower will be in a bad state."
The specialist looked back on his memory, remembering the disconnected comms. It had costed four squads and synths, they were those that didn't receive his call to rendezvous back to him.
"I see." He looked at the hallway infront of him, hearing a strider cannon go off. "What is that about?"
The girl didn't need to reply, as the hallway lead them to a large room with an out-of-place, brown, intricately designed door. A strider, artillery cannons, a squad of rebels and soldiers with C4s and explosives, an Antlion Guardian, Barney, Alyx, and two Zombines.
The strider kept shooting the door with its Warp Cannon, with little effect that lead to a mere black spot. The artillery cannons shot strider lasers at the door, which ended up making the black spot even larger. The soldiers planted their C4s and explosives, and backed away. The Combine Soldiers held a detonator, while the rebels held RPGs.
When the C4s exploded, the rebels, cannons, and strider shot all at once at the door. The smoke cleared, and the door was untouched, the only effect the explosion had was just an even bigger black spot.
"That's a strong door." The specialist leader remarked.
The girl said nothing about his remark. "Do you feel it?" She asked.
"I did."
What he felt was an otherworldly, almost magical, feeling resonating from the door. It confused him to no end.
"There is something inside that door, and it feels foreign to this world." The girl said.
"What is this 'something'?" He inquired.
She jumped down from her knight's shoulder. "I don't know, it's undecipherable. Whatever it is, it feels...out of place."
He nodded. "We have to inform Union about this."
"We might have to, it may explain why he is in here in the first place."
The specialist leader looked at the door, still being hammered by relentless assault. "It better be."
And that's over! For now...I have to work on the Christmas special!
(Updated this chapter because I forgot to respond to RandomGuest)
RandomGuest: The maze is actually filled with dead memes, spooky.
Normally, he would get disintegrated. But he didn't, because why would the system lead the user to their death?
Thanks for the suggestion!
I hope you guys enjoyed this! Please tell me if there were any spelling or grammar errors here, or scenes that feel a bit weird, I'll fix them up.
Speaking of fixing up...I should fix up the Part 1 chapters.
See you next?