To Right The Wrongs

by DerpymanMT

(Set at the end of Half-Life 2) Gordon wasn't meant to be caught in the portal's blast. G-Man Hadn't planned for when he failed to catch him. Now Gordon is in a world not plagued by the combine, but by loneliness and pain. Will He set the Pilots and the rest of the world on a better path, lead by the Freeman? Redux Being Made, Please Check To Right The Wrongs Redux

3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Gordon woke up feeling refreshed and energized, he turned to his left to see that it was already 8 AM. "SHIT I'M LATE!" He bolted out of bed and checked the closet, he found a tan uniform with a lab coat hanging next to it. He quickly put it on and ran to the door, where he found an envelop with his credentials. He grabbed them and ran out the door, not even stopping for breakfast. He ran out of the dormitories and bumped into another person. "Oh I'm so sorry, I'm very late and I have forgotten my way to the Labs." Gordon said almost stumbling his words until he got a better look at the person he bumped into. A man with brown hair and a ponytail and a stubble brushed himself off, and smiled. "Its quite all right Dr Freeman, I was just on my way as well." Gordon chuckled but slowly stopped as he wondered how this man knew his name. "How do you know my name?" Gordon asked the stubbled man. "Its my Job to, I'm Special Investigator Ryoji Kaji of the UN, pleased to meet you." Kaji held out his hand in a laid back manner that somewhat reminded him of Barney. Gordon shook his hand in return. "Come on ill take you there myself." The two walked for a bit not talking until they reached the Labs. When they arrived they were met with Both Ritsuko and the purple haired women, who immediately gave Kaji a dirty look. "You're late Dr Freeman, not something I expected." Said Ritsuko sipping her coffee. "Yeah, it was the first time in a while that I actually got a good nights rest." He said chuckling. "Oh yeah I don't believe you've been properly introduced to her, This is Misato Katsuragi, She is our Operations Director here and in charge on tactical here." Misato gave a warm smile to Gordon, as she shook his hand. "I'm very grateful to you Dr Freeman, Shinji-Kun means a lot to me." She said smiling.

"Today we are setting up our weekly Sync Test for our pilots. A sync test is essentially how much they are able to synchronize with their units. The higher the score, the faster a response from their EVA." She then Gestured over to the window, which showed three tubes submerged in a purple liquid. "Ill get you acquainted with our terminology." She hands him a clip board with the definitions and examples of their technology. "So the Entry plug goes in the neck of the EVA, and floods in with LCL to provide neural feedback and life support…" She then nods. "Yes LCL is a very important thing here. Our EVAs have Sixteen hours of Emergency Life Support, so that provides 16 hours of LCL filtration, Oxygenation, and Nutrient supply. Emergency life support is on a different power supply than, Main EVA operations, Main EVA systems have One minute power life at full power and five minutes on power saver." Gordon was fascinated by all this new technology, Sure they had teleportation technology, but this was much more fascinating. He looked over the shoulder of a technician, to see them doing system calibrations.

A few hours later, the pilots came in dressed in their suits. "They make children wear this?" Gordon said a little bit disturbed. "The less things in the way of the skin, the higher the sync rate, its either that or being naked, and besides it has Vital monitors and a defibrillator." She then goes on to talk about the multiple experiments about the suits. The three Children boarded their respective plugs and began to concentrate. "How long does these tests last?" Gordon said examining their vitals. "Usually 2 to 4 hours, and they have to do this with nothing being thought. They have been trained to clear their minds and focus for long periods of time so we can gather enough data." Gordon looked over at the overall sync score for Rei. "Ayanami's Score is fairly low… Is that enough for concern?" He asked looking at the data. "Rei's scores aren't usually high, they never were…" She tapped the tablet in her hand and walked over to the mic. "Shinji, you're fluctuating a bit, whats wrong?" The main monitor switches to Shinji. "I could've sworn I heard something tapping in here… And Chittering of some sort…" Just then the console beeped frantically and his score started dropping. "Sempai, there seems to be another life form in there!" Just then a scream was heard from Shinji's plug and some alien sounding noise. Gordon looked back at the monitor to see Shinji dodging a Headcrab. "Open the Plug!" He yelled before taking a pistol from Misato. "Gordon!? Get back here!"

Gordon rushed down to the testing platform, and overridden the plug controls, bring the plug onto the platform and draining the LCL. The Plug's hatch blew, allowing Gordon to rush in. "SHINJI GET BACK!" Shinji quickly jumped out of the way just in time for Gordon to put a couple of rounds in the head crab, killing it instantly. "Hey Shinji, Are you OK?" The frightened pilot came from behind the seat, nodding his head. "Is That a head crab?…" Shinji asked with a stutter. Gordon nodded. "It appears one either came with me or it appeared here… And I'm hoping its not the latter…" Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji came running. "Gordon, you cant just forcibly take him out! That's dangerous!" Ritsuko yelled, visibly frustrated. "And you cant just take my pistol! You are not authorized to use firearms!" Gordon was annoyed but understood what they meant. "Its more dangerous to leave a beaked Headcrab in there with your most "Valuable asset" than to disconnect quickly! Those things turn people into zombies!" They all stood there in silence before the sound of machinery broke it. The other two plugs opened up beside them allowing its occupants to exit. They gathered around the adults staring at the dead creature. Gordon handed back Misato's pistol. "Ritsuko, do you have any Geiger counters? Those portals sometimes leave behind trace radiation, not harmful enough, but enough for a signature." She nodded, albeit a little shakily. "All the rooms have many sensors, so I can check from here."She taps away and gives a shocked look, she shows it to Gordon. "Its reading a 3 mSv… Yeah that's it all right… It just arrived…"

They all gave a look of worry. "If you'd like I could modify the Magi to detect Xenian Creatures." Ritsuko gave it some thought. "Alright, ill allow it, if I oversee it." Gordon nodded. "Tests are over today, go get washed up." Ritsuko said sounding annoyed. She pinched the bridge of her nose, and let out a sigh of frustration. "Lets just get this over with, I'm dispatching someone to clean up that… Thing…" Misato turned to face Gordon. "And next time, leave the shooting to me." Gordon felt embarrassed, he did it out of both habit, and worry that it would kill Shinji. They headed back to the control room to gather the remaining data. Everything settled down as Gordon brought the corpse of the headcrab to Ritsuko's private lab. "So Dr Freeman, tell me the specifics of the Teleporter tech that you used." He sat down at his Desk and sighed, before writing down a note. "Well, I'm not sure exactly, since I was never directly assigned to the Lambda labs, but Kleiner told me how to maintain the machine, and it doesn't require much energy initially until it gets to a focus medium, most notably A Xen crystal. They are rare to find, we only have a few around in the resistance. I was mainly assigned to Hazardous Material Research, and I dealt with the Anti-Mass Spectrometer and its maintenance." He went on for a bit while Ritsuko listened and dissected the Headcrab. After a few reports done, Gordon sighed heavily. "Man, I did not miss having to do all these reports… Id rather be unloading a few rounds in some Combine troops." Rits chuckled as she started cleaning her tools. "Hey Gordon, Me, Misato, and Kaji are heading out later tonight for some drinks, Would you like to come?" Gordon was surprised to hear her ask that. He remembered he hasn't had a drink in weeks/years, Barney was meaning to give him a beer, but they never got around to it.

Gordon smiled. "Sure, I'd like to get to know my coworkers better." Ritsuko smiled, and handed him a post it note with a number, and A small beige rectangle box with a blue C with red and blue strips. "Here is my number, and a new NERV standard issue phone." Gordon took a look at the case, and saw the name on the side. "Commodore? I thought they went out of business…" Ritsuko gave him a strange look. "I thought that was Apple that went out of business, no one would buy overpriced crap that barely had anything good. Maybe Commodore went out of business in your world, but here they practically own the computer market, They tried to buy the MAGI from us, but we didn't want technology as advanced as us, commercially available." Gordon then started up his phone and put in his information. He then added Ritsuko's number and tapped her shoulder. "Say Cheese!" Ritsuko was then cut off by a camera flash. "There! I always do this with either friends or coworkers, except for Benrey… His smile always creeped me out." Gordon shuddered at that thought. He then looked down at his clothes. "I'm going to need some new clothes if I'm going to head out." Ritsuko then waved it off. "Don't worry, the bar isn't outside the Geo-front, and you aren't authorized to leave yet, so that wouldn't be much of a problem, You could wear that Blue uniform you came in, we did repair and clean it for you." She said while typing away at a terminal and taking a drag out of her cigarette. Gordon agreed, and went back to compiling data. After about 3 hours, Gordon got this nagging feeling that he was being watched. He slowly turned around to see Rei standing there. He let out a sigh of relief and went back to work, but every so often, he'd turn around to still see her. Eventually he sighed and turned to her. "Miss Ayanami, is there anything I can help you with?" She then nodded her head and began to speak. "I have come to ask you a few questions." Gordon turned to look at Ritsuko who stared intently at Rei. "Uh, sure ask away. I'm sure I can answer a few." Rei then pulled out a small piece of paper with a few questions. "Number One, Were you alone when the Black Mesa incident occurred?" Gordon was confused on why she asked this, he never told her his story.

"Uh… No I was with a few survivors and a friend, who I'm sad to say Didn't make it out of Xen with me." He said truthfully. "Number two, Did you ever feel like running away from the face of danger?" This question was certainly strange, as he was told that this girl was almost emotionless. She must have been asked to do this for someone. "Uh, Yes I did, A few times, but I kept going regardless of the pain it brought, I did it because I both had to, and wanted to. I wanted to save my friends, and I had to save them. I was brought to City 17 by a suited man, who said I had a job there." She nodded before walking away. "Hey, its hard to believe you wanted to ask this, was this one of the pilots that asked this?" She stopped and turned to look at him. "Yes, Pilot Shinji Ikari has requested that I ask you this, He is Still on base getting lunch, if you would like to answer his question in person. Good Day." She then left the lab with Ritsuko looking at Gordon. "I guess its time for lunch. Come on ill pay." she then got up and headed to the door. "Come on." Gordon then got up and followed her through the massive facility to where the Cafeteria was.

Welp there It is! Chapter three! It was a bit tough to space the dialogue out with some interaction in the middle. Also could this be the start of a threat greater than the Angels? Find out soon in future chapters!

-DerpymanMt