LAMBDA COMPLEX
Eli Vance looked around, trying to balance left leg, which was his only leg now thanks to a Bullsquid. He had a gun in one arm, and his daughter, the young Alyx Vance in the other. Trying to support him was Isaac Kleiner, who had a very nasty gash along his left arm, and Judith Mossman, who was the assistant to Doctor Rosenberg. Under him was a Marine who had just been shot dead by
"Hang on, Eli, we got you." Judith said. "Easy there, big guy, easy."
"Judith, hold Alyx for me. I need to sit down." Eli said, on the verge of tears. He had just lost his wife because of Doctor Breen. He swore that, if he ever saw that son of a bitch in person again, he would kill him, and he would make him suffer. These thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a single Vortigaunt before him.
Xrotee was confused about what just happened. A Storm that could cause organic matter to be teleported was a rare- and often lethal- occurrence in Xen. He stood up and saw some very odd creatures: they appeared to have two layers of skin, but only in some areas. There blood was red, and they had two eyes, two arms, and the primary layer of skin was white, except on the one who had only one leg. They had a stunned look on there faces, and appeared to be armed with an odd looking metal device shaped somewhat like a Houndeye that was missing it's two front legs. He approached them, not thinking they were a threat.
"What the!" Judith said, instinctively reaching for a gun, only to find there was none. "Damn! Eli, shoot it!"
"I-I cuh… cuhm…" the creature began.
"Eli, wait! I think it's trying to communicate!" Isaac exclaimed.
"Trying to talk, eh? Well, talk to this!" Eli said, making a very rude human gesture. Of course, Vortigaunts only have two fingers, so they did not understand the significance or insignificance of this.
"I-come…in…. puh-puh- peache…peace…"
"Well, you're gonna leave in pieces!" Eli yelled, preparing to fire. But, just as he was disabling the safety, the Vort hit his gun with a burst of lightning, and the ammunition was melted. "Damn! That was my last clip! At least I still have this!" Eli said, holding up a crowbar. The Vort seemed to recoil at the sight of it
"Eli! Let's try and talk with it!" Kleiner suggested.
"Do you have a death wish or something?!" asked Eli. "It's gonna fry your organs!"
"He right, Kleiner, Let's just kill it." Judith said.
"Never! If it tries to harm me, then shoot it!" He approached the Vortigaunt cautiously. The Vort noticed a rather nasty arm wound that Kleiner had, and stared at it. "Err…." Kleiner began, but before he could speak, the Vort lunged onto Kleiner, attaching its hands to the wound he had. "AahhhhAhhhh…." Kleiner gasped. It was painful experience, yet soothing at the same time. It was like dipping a recently burned hand into a bucket of ice water. Eli raised his gun and…. "STOP!" Kleiner yelled. "Look at what it did to my arm!" He held up his limb to show what had occurred: the sleeve was still torn, but the wound underneath it had stopped bleeding. In fact, on closer inspection, Eli saw that it was gone almost completely. There was a scar, but just barley visible. The Vort then walked over to Eli.
Eli Vance closed his eyes in anticipation of the feeling of his blood literally boiling, his fluids exploding inside his organs. The Vort touched his leg very lightly, and he felt a warm sensation, like the pleasant feeling he got when he ate his wife's chocolate chip cookies. He looked down, and saw not the mangled and bloody mess that was there before, but a leg that looked like it had been amputated and sealed by a professional surgeon. "What the hell?" Eli asked. He looked inquisitively at the alien, then back at his leg. The Vort bowed and withdrew.
"Now will you let me try and communicate with it?" Isaac asked.
"Fine. What's taking Gordon so long? He should be back by now!" Eli asked.
"Gore…duhn?" asked the Vort. "Look like?"
"He's asking what Gordon looks like?" Judith said." Why would he care?"
"Hang on" Isaac said, rummaging in his lab coat. He took out a picture of the Black Mesa sector C science team, and pointed to the man second from the right "That's him. That's Gordon Freeman." Kleiner replied.
Xrotee looked at the picture. It certainly looked like what slayed the Nihilanth, but it didn't have the Orange and Black skin.
"My name is Isaac Kleiner, and I am human." Isaac said, pointing to himself and hoping some kind of "Me-Tarzan-You-Jane" situation ensued.
"Xrotee" The alien said, indicating himself. "Vort-y-gaunt"
"How do you know our language?" asked Kleiner.
Not knowing how to answer this, the alien quoted the manuscript he was taught from: "Two be, or newt two be, that is the quest y on: Weather 'tis knolbbier in the mine to sulfur the swings and narrows of our miss fortune…"
"It sounds like…Shakespeare? Why is he quoting that?" Judith asked.
"Well," Kleiner began, "When we were still teleporting books across the room, we decided to experiment with the complete works of William Shakespeare. It didn't reappear, so we assumed that it disintegrated when it was teleported. But, it looks like it somehow ended up in Xen."
Then, a radio on the dead soldier's body crackled to life"…I repeat, evacuate the area! This is Commander J. Barn! Get the hell out of here! The area is too dangerous, and as such, we have received direct orders from the President to explode the ballistic missile stored here! Forget about Freeman, and get the (language filter) out now! You have One Hour and Thirty Minutes until everything here goes north of the clouds! I repeat, one hour, thirty minutes!"
"Shit!" Eli yelled "Not the nuke!"
"Oh, Great Scott!" Kleiner yelled. "We need to get out of here!"
"The Aeronautic and Space research department is closest to the surface." Judith remarked. "If we can get there, we may be able to get out of here alive."
"Two problems:" Eli began "One: Going there mean probably rescuing Magnusson, and Two: It's at the other end of the Facility! It would take at least an hour and fifteen minutes, and even if the rail systems were working, we wouldn't make it!"
"Two…grate…a…dis… tance?" Xrotee asked.
"Far too great a distance I'm afraid- what are you doing?" Kleiner asked. The Vortigaunt started chanting in an odd language that none of them could understand. It's hands glowed with a green energy. The energy enveloped them all, and they were blinded with green light for a split second. Then, when their eyes adjusted, they saw that they were near the middle of the facility, Sector E, the Biodome complex.
"Natural Teleportation?" Kleiner asked to no one in particular "Interesting…"
"Well, this will be a considerably shorter walk now." Judith said, picking up a gun from the body of a dead security guard. "Let's go."
"What!" Kleiner said. "After all he's done for us, We're going to just leave him here?!"
Eli sighed, "Ok, he can come with us. But anything fishy, and I throw him to the Marines! Understood?"
"Un… dar… stewed…" The Vortigaunt replied.