Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.

Welcome to City 17

Chapter Twelve: Anticitizen One

Machinegun fire rang through the air. Fires blazed and crackled. Combine sirens blared from somewhere within the city, and that damned woman wouldn't shut up about insurgents and sectors.

City 17 was falling apart at the seams, and Gordon felt all the better for it. Dog's joints banged and hissed as he moved up beside Gordon, waiting for his next move.

Gordon nodded. "Let's go."

He led the way, walking to the ramp that led up to the city. Sunlight seeped in through the clouds as he exited the old car park, coming up through an alleyway between a building on the left and some buzzing electricity generators on the right. At the end he could make out an empty street.

His gaze travelling to the building beside him, and he recognised the same ledge he had clung to when he first arrived in City 17, running from the Combine for all he was worth. Good times.

A Combine radio bleeped, and a gunshot rang through the air, hitting the wall above his head. Gordon ducked down and ran back to a dilapidated old car, leaping over and taking cover behind it.

Dog had other plans, letting out a roar and charging out into the street without much caution for the bullets being flung at him. Looking through the empty windows of the car, he saw Dog flinging soldiers left and right, crunching them literally into walls and pasting them into the ground.

From out of nowhere, a Combine van slammed into Dog, taking him out of Gordon's sight. The remaining soldiers looked to each other in relief before nodding in Gordon's general direction. They opened fire again, and Gordon ducked down. Not much he could do from here. Nothing to throw at them with the Gravity Gun, and nothing the crowbar could do. He was beginning to wish he had taken Alyx's gun.

But then Dog's heavenly roar came to him again, and he couldn't help but watch as the van came tumbling back into view, Dog standing atop it like a skateboard. Metal feet clamped onto it like a vice, Dog threw himself forward, rolling over with the van and throwing it at the last few soldiers and smashing them all into the building behind them.

Sitting on his rear like a confused baby, Dog shook his head frantically before leaping to his feet and checking for Gordon.

Smiling in a manner only a killer robot dog could elicit, Gordon heaved himself to his feet and jogged out into the open to greet his companion. He tried to think of something to say.

"Good dog."

It was the best he could manage.

Looking to the end of the street, he saw that one end was a dead end, and the other was blocked by what looked like a Combine barricade, all shiny black metals and force-fields.

He looked up at Dog and pointed to the gate. "That way?"

Happily nodding his agreement, Dog hurled himself to the other end of the street, Gordon having to sprint just to keep up with him. There were no obvious seams or breaks in the black metal wall to Gordon, but lo and behold, Dog either found them or made them, wedging his fingers into the barricade effortlessly. Without much pause, Dog yanked the two doors aside, leaving a gap beneath his arm for Gordon to climb through.

The scientist went through, coming out in front of one of those titanic masher walls he had seen in Nova Prospekt. It didn't seem to be eating much of anything at the moment, but Gordon didn't fancy waiting around for it to crush him alive.

An entrance into a building on his left seemed to be the best bet, and Gordon looked over his shoulder to inform Dog.

And that's when a Combine troop transport creature landed just behind the metal beast. Dog's head perked up when he heard them, and he looked over his shoulder at the new arrival before turning completely, letting the doors slam shut. Gordon rushed to the doors, slamming his hands against them.

"Dog. Dog!"

Gunfire erupted, quickly followed by a Combine flat line. More grunts and radio squeals followed, the occasional soldier tumbling up through the air. Finally, the troop transport took off, only for Dog to leap out of nowhere and land on its nose. The creature moaned beneath the violent blows the robot was dealing out, tossing and turning this way and that as it tried to gain some altitude. Gordon ducked as the creature collided with a wall and then with a lamppost, sending it sparking and tumbling over.

Finally, it managed to hover over and above the masher wall, taking a still attacking Dog with it.

Gordon sighed. Looks it was just him, then. Oh, well. At least he knew he didn't have to worry about Dog.

The wall came to life behind him, heavy metal spikes lifting with an almighty groan. Gordon made a quick beeline for the open doorway of the building, a cloud of dust following him in as the wall crashed into the ground. The building was dark, but there was light coming from a corridor just around the corner.

Following it around, Gordon found himself coming out in the courtyard with the playground he had seen when he first arrived. Retracing his steps. It was something he hadn't found himself doing over the past few days. It was always forging ahead, never looking back. And now he had to deal with consequences to his actions. That was definitely new to him.

Gunfire rang out from just down the path, and Gordon ducked his head. Looking to their source, he saw two rebels firing in short bursts at something above him. He craned his head up and saw two ball shaped metal objects floating overhead, making the same low bleeps and hums that the floating cameras had. Armoured cameras, maybe?

They both exploded loudly, raining sparks over him. Satisfied it was over, Gordon started walking. The rebels both reloaded, the one on the left double glancing as he spotted his approach. After excitedly tapping his partner on the shoulder, he rushed over.

"Doctor Freeman, I'm coming with you," he gasped, amazed eyes barely peeking out from beneath his cap. Gordon winced at the awestruck tone in his voice, and wasn't sure if he hid it well or not.

His friend, a man about as tall as Gordon and with short, patchy black hair, just chuckled.

"Well, Gordon Freeman. And about time, too."

He gave Gordon a good slap on the arm, and he tried to smile.

"I, uh… sorry I'm late. I was teleporting and it went slower than usual, so…"

Blank stares met his explanation. He sighed.

"…I've been busy."

"Well, doesn't matter," the man in the cap exclaimed, happier than anyone in his situation had any right to be. "With you here Doctor Freeman, we can finally make some headway! Awesome!"

This time it was Gordon's turn for a blank stare. He blinked it away and shook his head. "Uh, right, so… lead the way, I suppose."

They both nodded, the man in the cap shooting off far faster than his companion. Gordon jogged alongside the rebel.

"What's his name?"

"That's Simon. I'm Greg."

Gordon cocked a curious eyebrow. "No surnames?"

"This ain't no military operation, doc. You want that, travel west. As far as the Combine's concerned, we're just terrorists."

He nodded. "Fair enough."

They rounded a corner and came out at the same courtyard Gordon had seen when he first arrived. And, as expected, Dr Breen blared out at the populace from the screen atop the massive spire that acted as a centrepiece for the courtyard. Although the transmission wasn't exactly going out uninterrupted, static garbling every other word. Three rebels beneath the monitor tugged in group efforts on ropes attached to the screen, their final yank cutting off the picture completely and bringing it crashing down.

As they ran out of the way, they laughed and whooped like teenagers at a party, high-fives abound.

Then one of them spotted Gordon's approach. He tried to hide his sigh as they all rushed him, glowing smiles and adoring eyes everywhere.

A black man with the beginnings of a beard shook his head. "Gordon Freeman? We heard you survived, but I couldn't believe it! That was one hell of an explosion you caused."

One of the two women in their group nodded her agreement. "Yeah. Nova Prospekt, gone, just like that!"

Gordon scratched his beard. "Uh… really, the whole thing?"

"Ha!" Simons barked, punching Gordon on the arm playfully. "Will you listen to this guy? Modesty doesn't suit you, man! Show some pride in your work! You're like… 'the guy', y'know?"

That statement met a blank stare from Gordon. "…yes, listen, I don't have a gun. Does anyone have a spare?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"…I'm trying to get to the staging area that Barney's setting up. Which way do I go?"

"Hey, you ain't going anywhere without me!" Simon cried, putting his hand out into the middle of the group.

"I'm Simon."

The others stared at it before putting their hands in.

The black man put his hand in. "David, uh… Dave. Call me Dave."

One of the girls, short brown hair spiking all over the place, put her hand in next. "Cara. I'm a medic," she said proudly, tapping the red cross patch stitched onto her sleeve.

The other girl, almost as tall as Gordon with blond hair poking out from underneath her woolly cap, announced, "Tess."

Greg looked reluctant, and settled for tapping the collected hands with his finger before muttering his name.

Gordon wished he had someone there to look to despairingly. He was talking to the Power Rangers. A part of him wished he would meet someone who hated the name Gordon Freeman, just for a change of pace. He went to put his hand in, when everyone burst out laughing, their hands dropping away.

"Geez, doc, no need for you to put your hand in," Cara said. "Everyone knows who you are."

He nodded a little irritably. "So," he said steadily, "which way to the staging area?"

"Through that gate," Greg said immediately, sounding relieved to be back on subject.

"Right. Good. Thank you." He set off, and, like echoes, the footsteps of the others followed close behind.

An alleyway between two tall buildings had been blocked off by a metal gate, a few feet taller than Gordon or anyone else in the group. And there didn't seem to be any kind of locking mechanism.

"Is there a way through?"

"Sure," Greg said, indicating for everyone to stand back. They did so, Gordon included, and the rebel blasted at the door in a short burst, sparks flying from the bullets.

There was silence, and just when Gordon was about to ask if that was it, the gate opened with a mechanical groan, CP radios bleeping from the other side.

"CPs!" someone in the group cried out, all of them scattering for cover.

Gordon moved to the wall just beside the now open gate, slipping the crowbar out as he went. He needn't have bothered. Only two CPs emerged, both of them mowed down instantly by the five rebels hidden around the courtyard. He put the crowbar away.

Simon was by him in an instant, nodding to the flatlining CPs. "There are some guns for ya, Dr Freeman."

Two handguns, to be precise. He would have preferred something bigger, but beggars couldn't be choosers during a city-wide revolution. Gordon snatched up the weapons and the relevant holsters, strapping them around him somewhat haphazardly. At least he had space for ammunition now. He indicated for Simon to lead the way, who did so with a glee that worried Gordon. There hadn't been many people he had met either here or in Black Mesa who had actually enjoyed what was going on. Those that had… well, they didn't exactly end up being shining examples of sanity.

An explosion went off in the distance, and something very alien and very big took objection.

They rounded a corner, and Gordon bumped into the back of Simon when he stopped abruptly. The others similarly bumped into him, causing a domino effect that made Gordon chafe a little. Everyone muttered apologies while Gordon looked around. The path they were on overlooked a grassy area below them on the left. Black metal circles were clamped to the floor by three pointed claws, a red light shining from the middle. They were everywhere.

The path was fenced off, going around them and blocking off the way ahead. Another rebel stood on the path behind the fence. He was at the mouth of another corridor, presumably the way forward.

"Watch out for the Hoppers, they're everywhere!"

Hoppers. That would be the black things. A hole in the path before them pointed the way forward, leading down into the grassy area where the Hoppers had been set up. And, at the other end, a set of stairs led up to the path that would take them to the rebel on the other side. Putting the guns away, Gordon reached for the Gravity Gun.

"Careful of the Hoppers, Dr Freeman," Cara volunteered.

Gordon nodded, indicating that he had heard the first warning. "Okay, thanks."

"But don't waste them," Dave chipped in. "If you can get them up without setting them off, we can use them against the Combine."

"Ah. Good to know." He activated the Gravity Gun, and was about to start when he abruptly switched it off and turned to face them. "Sorry, what do Hoppers do?"

Everyone looked at everyone else. Finally, it was Tess who spoke. "They blow up."

"They're mines, then," he said, although he was more thinking out loud than actually asking. "And why are they called Hoppers?"

This time, Simon was the one to break the sizeable silence. "Because… they hop."

Ignoring their slight disillusionment with the One Free Man, Gordon just nodded again. "Right. That makes sense. Thanks."

'Because they hop'? What the hell did that mean?

He shook it off and got to work, aiming the Gravity Gun down through the hole. There was a cluster of three waiting for anyone who jumped down. Gordon brought one up, the red light on top first becoming blue, then green. He assumed that meant disarmed. Just to be on the safe side…

Gordon turned and fired the thing across the courtyard, where it exploded with a sizeable bang against the wall. Everyone ducked their heads, Gordon included. He waved a hand around apologetically.

"Sorry, sorry. My fault."

He pulled up the next one, waited for the light to go green, then slowly guided it over the fence, letting it drop away from their intended path. It landed with a metallic thunk, the three metal claws digging into the ground again. A nod of satisfaction was all he allowed himself before he got to work on the rest. Once the mines around the hole were cleared, they jumped down, everyone staying in a strict straight line behind him as he created a path for them.

And, after about half an hour, they were through. Gordon let out a sigh of frustration as he walked up the steps. That had taken far too long.

"Wow, Freeman!" the rebel at the corridor exclaimed, "that's the fastest I've ever seen anyone clear a field of Hoppers!"

"Really?" he asked, checking with the others. They all nodded. Gordon shrugged, then nodded through the corridor. "Is that the way to the staging area?"

"Yeah. I'd come with you, but I'm on lookout duty. Telling everyone where to go, y'know?"

Although he tried to look disappointed, Gordon was rather relieved by that bit of news. Five people looking to him for the answers to all their woes was quite enough, thank you. Handguns drawn, he led the way, even though he had no idea where he was going.

The end of the corridor led out into an empty street. On the left, the road led uphill to a tall metal Combine wall. Immediately on his right, a bridge had half collapsed, blocking off that road as well. Gordon looked across the street and saw a dimly lit doorway that looked like it went down. He led the way. The ground thumped as they crossed the street, and he heard Dave cry out.

"STRIDER!"

Gordon's head whipped around to him, then to what he was looking at, high above their heads. It was stood on the other side of the collapsed bridge. He remembered seeing one when he had first arrived in City 17, wandering past rather calmly. The cannon beneath its' 'head', once lolloping around, was now fully at attention, pointing at the source of the sudden noise.

Dave was terrified. He lifted his MP7 and started firing away, bullets achieving nothing.

"Dave, get out of there!" Cara cried, most of the rebels stood with Gordon now, halfway across the road.

A whine filled the air as light seemed to bend around the Striders' cannon.

Gordon rushed to Dave and tackled him to the ground, a bolt of energy rushing overhead and sucking air along with it. Dust and noise thundered over them as they flew through the air, leaving Gordon's ears ringing as he collided hard with the ground. As his hands dragged along the gravely concrete, he found he couldn't hear much of anything; the others shouting his name sounded like they were in a box.

But he understood. He grabbed Dave's arm and yanked him to his feet, and they sprinted to the others, Greg thankfully leading the way. Looking over his shoulder, Gordon could see the Strider searching for further victims. He also saw the damage it had inflicted on the ground beside them. Nothing but a crater remained, and a deep one at that.

Mental note; don't get hit by Striders.

They all managed to stumble through before the Strider got a lock, and they all but collapsed into the basement area below.

Dave put his back to a wall, curling up into a ball. A comforting Cara was beside him quickly. Simon sat on a barrel, staring off into space while Tess concentrated on the doorway that would be their exit. Greg initially covered the exit before moving over to Gordon.

"That was crazy," he said quietly. "You know what a Strider weapon does to anything it hits?"

Gordon wiggled his little finger in his ear, but with the HEV gloves on it helped very little. "I do now," he grumbled, his voice sounding ridiculously muffled in his own head.

Greg seemed ready to say more when Cara approached. "How're your ears?"

"Hm?"

"Your ears?"

"What?"

"Your-" she stopped herself and smiled. "Are you messing with me?"

"…maybe." Gordon nodded to Dave. "How is he?"

"Oh, he's fine, I've given him something that should make him feel better in a few minutes," she said, tapping a half-full vial of green liquid.

Huh. Half-full, not half-empty. He was thinking positive. That was a good thing, he supposed.

"Good."

"And you?"

Gordon shook his head and tapped the lambda symbol on his chest. "All taken care of."

Looking unconvinced but nodding anyway, Cara returned to Dave's side, who was looking chirpier already.

He looked to Greg. "It was worth it."

"No it wasn't," he said, his voice a fierce whisper that only Tess was close enough to hear. "Look, you're the Gordon Freeman. You're a symbol for this rebellion that everyone needs. Without you, this whole thing falls apart."

Frustration welled in him. "I'm not the Gordon Freeman. I'm just Gordon Freeman." He took out one of his handguns and inspected it for imaginary reasons. "The sooner everyone realises that, the better off they'll be," he muttered.

After a moment of silence and a glare that said 'I DISAPPROVE GREATLY', Greg nodded to the stairs Tess was guarding.

"We need to keep moving. Barney's expecting you. If I know him, he's probably waiting for you before he starts the attack."

"You're probably right," Gordon conceded, pulling out the other handgun. "Let's go."

Everyone followed, Tess giving him a lingering look of annoyed confusion before taking up the rear. Honestly, the women he had met today were giving him all sorts of vague looks.

Working together like something resembling a team, they managed to navigate their way through the torn streets of City 17, occasionally having to stop for Hoppers littering the roads or even the odd bathroom break here and there (which, in itself led to embarrassing questions about the HEV suit and waste disposal). Eventually they were forced to clamber up through the decrepit remains of a building, thankfully mostly forgotten by the Combine. Opening up a door on the other side of the building, they found a hole in the floor that plunged down to the ground.

Carefully lowering themselves down, they found themselves on the first floor overlooking the hole leading to ground level. The walls of the floor below were basically windows, like the display at the front of a shop. Gordon lowered himself down first.

He came face to face with a Combine turret. It activated just in time for Gordon to kick it over, sending it bleeping and spasming to the floor, bullets lodging themselves in the wall beside it. The windows shattered behind him, and Gordon tucked himself into a corner. Poking his head around, he saw a Combine barricade at the far end of the street. The other end was blocked by one of those towering metal walls that eat everything that the Combine seemed so fond of.

CPs and soldiers littered the barricade. Looking across the street, Gordon saw a building with a doorway that had literally been blown open. From the looks of it, the building seemed to lead around the back of the barricade.

The others dropped down to join him, and checked their weapons while they were behind the wall.

Gordon looked to Greg, who was closest to him. "Wait here."

He nodded. "Do you want any cover?"

The scientist blanched. He hadn't thought about that.

"Yes," he said slowly, like someone in a restaurant trying something they weren't sure they were going to like. "Yes, I do."

Gordon started running, heading for the nearest overturned wreck of a car.

The once quiet street exploded into gunfire, bullets thudding into the concrete and ricocheting off the car he dove behind. A beeping that was barely audible over the guns distracted him, and Gordon looked for the source. It sounded close. His eyes settled on a handheld contraption, wires and thick blocks of something attached to a timer using symbols he had never seen before.

But he knew a countdown when he saw one.

At this point, he was closer to his destination than the departure point, so he decided to make a run for it. A bullet smacked into his side, and he stumbled, jumping for the doorway as the explosive went off behind him. Dust and chunks of road flew over his shoulders, a cloud billowing into the room with him.

Ears ringing, Gordon heaved himself to his feet and looked back out the doorway. A monstrous crater was now between him and the others. On his own again.

He wasn't sure if he was concerned or relieved.

Slipping out his guns, Gordon snuck into the collapsing remains of the building, although as he proceeded further, he realised only one section was in disrepair. The screaming coming from upstairs attested to that.

He moved into a stairwell, a civilian launching himself down the steps. "HELP!"

The man hadn't even seen Gordon; he was just terrified. A blast from a shotgun behind the civilian sent blood bursting out his front, the man tumbling down the stairs into a heap.

Gordon quickly tucked himself beneath the stairs, waiting for the soldier to come down. When he heard footsteps, he whirled out of his hiding place and fired into the soldier's kneecaps, small puffs of red bursting out. The soldier fell, tumbling much like his victim had. One more bullet to the head and Gordon was on his way, a shotgun added to his arsenal.

Upstairs, Gordon found a centre of Combine activity, hidden behind locked doors and frosted glass. Running his hand along the doors, he found they were still the old, dilapidated wood of the building itself, however. He pumped the shotgun, blasted a hole in the glass, and dove through, rolling into their command centre.

The CPs inside were suitably surprised, two down before they could do much of anything. Two more dashed around a corner on Gordon's left and into the corridor he had just been in.

He leapt backwards through the broken door, landing on his back with shotgun cocked. The CP got half a yelped 'Shit' out before the blast tore through him. The last CP radioed it in as he went back through the door and into the command centre, which made Gordon close his eyes and sigh. More people shooting at him.

Gordon was back on his feet in an instant, moving to the doorway, finally swinging the shotgun around and into the face of the last CP, his gun also drawn. The Metrocop's hands were shaking.

Gordon really didn't want to shoot him.

"Walk away," he said quietly. "Please, just walk away."

All Gordon could hear was the tinny sound of the CP's breathing beneath his mask. Then he let his gun clatter to the floor. The Metrocop just stood there, staring at Gordon.

The scientist lowered the shotgun, and watched with relief as the CP turned and ran. Hopefully he would take off the uniform so he wouldn't get shot at. But then Gordon remembered the civilian on the stairs. You were liable to get shot at whatever clothes your were wearing.

Moving to the window, Gordon saw that he was now overlooking the barricade, pretty much side on with it. Now, he had two options. He could either fight his way down to the ground floor through the hordes of reinforcements the CP had helpfully called before running away, or…

Gordon took grenades from the three dead CPs. Using the butt of the shotgun, he smashed the window. He backed up, shotgun slung across his shoulders and grenades in hand. One at a time, he pulled the pins and tossed them through the window, hoping his aim was as good as it had been before. Slowly, he moved to the window and peeked outside as they exploded, two on the platform just behind the barricade, and one uselessly on the road behind it.

He shrugged and leapt out of the window, aiming for the platform. In a rare moment of agility, he hit it at speed, rolling forward and aiming to come back up on his feet. Instead, he rolled straight off the platform and to the ground behind the barricade, landing with a thud on his side.

He groaned in pain and at his own idiocy before realising there were still three or so soldiers on the barricade recovering from the shock of the explosions. Scrambling to his feet, he sprinted for the stairs to the platform, crowbar and handgun drawn.

The first soldier swung for him, and Gordon leant back to avoid the blow, firing a shot through his head. The second was a CP, who tried to draw his gun before Gordon reached him. He was still dazzled from the explosion, though, and his bullets went everywhere but into Gordon. A vicious swing of the crowbar across the head sent him tumbling off the platform and to the ground.

Having had more time to recover from the explosion, the third soldier was ready for him. His pulse rifle was drawn as Gordon charged towards him, so the scientist dove for his legs, ending up just beneath him. He fired up through the soldier, emptying the clip. As the soldier tumbled, Gordon grabbed the pulse rifle.

Gordon hefted himself to his feet and tossed the handgun away, looking for controls that would open up the barricade. He found them in the form of a button that was pressed down and lit up. Pushing it in, he watched with satisfaction as it popped out with the light gone, and the gates opened with a metallic creak.

He looked around for the way forward as the others came through. The platform he was stood on snaked around the buildings behind it, leading to an open doorway a few floors above them on the building opposite.

"Up there?" he asked questioningly, to which everyone just shrugged. Except for Tess, who ignored him.

Gordon sighed. "Up there," he said more definitively, leading the way.

'Up there' simply led to more gunshots and blood, framed by cramped old apartment buildings that were probably falling apart in their heyday. The others acquitted themselves well, and far better than Gordon had thought, even if he did end up losing his shotgun. They moved in phases, clearing paths for one another and covering each other's backs when the situation called for it. A tight unit.

God, listen to him, giving his approval as though he were some grizzled general. He just needed to be chewing a cigar to make the image complete. But he was impressed. It was certainly better than his 'leap first, maybe survive later' strategy. True, it had worked so far, but it was only a matter of time before it ended badly for him.

The fighting gradually took them further down into the building until they were clambering down through the disintegrating remains and into an echoing chasm of a tunnel. Everything to the right had been cut off by the collapse of the ceiling, so Gordon took them left. Some natural light was afforded by a gap in the tunnel ceiling halfway down the length of the passage.

Winding their way through the web of abandoned cars (although Dave and Simon walked over them and almost made a game out of trying to push the other person off), Gordon found himself becoming increasingly wary that they hadn't encountered any resistance since entering the tunnel.

"You've never used a pulse rifle before, have you?" a slightly demeaning voice chimed in, taking him out of his gloomy thoughts. It was Tess, eyes ahead as though she hadn't spoken.

"Uh… what makes you say that?" he said quietly, trying to ignore the charred Gameboy in the backseat of a car.

"You're aiming wrong, for a start. Half your bullets went into the walls."

He paused. "Oh. I thought I was just a bad shot."

With a sarcastic smile she reached over and took the weapon in his hands. "Like this," she said, aiming it down the tunnel.

"That's what I was doing."

"No, you were doing this." She inched the stock up her shoulder ever so slightly.

"And that affected the aim?" he asked, dubiously inspecting her grip on the rifle.

She shrugged. "Hey, the Combine are sensitive people."

Gordon nodded to the gun. "And that's it? Aiming wrong?"

"No."

"Thought not."

"I-" she caught herself to give him a glare before resuming, "I saw you reload too fast. These things use a charge like a battery to fire the bullets, and there's a fresh charge in every clip that reloads. If you don't let the reload cycle go on for long enough, you can't use all the bullets in the clip."

"I thought they ran out too quickly…"

"Just make sure it beeps next time you reload," she said, tossing the weapon back to him.

Satisfied, he nodded. "Thank you."

Without replying, she moved on ahead, suddenly in a hurry to get away from him. He rushed to catch up with her.

"Are you all right?"

"Fine."

Well, that was the fakest statement Gordon had heard since the last broadcast from Breen.

"Okay, then."

Abruptly, she stopped and whirled around to face him. "I mean, Jesus, what the hell am I supposed to think about you now?"

"Uh…"

"Here I was, ready to dismiss you as just some trumped up scientist with a messiah-complex - as though Magnusson wasn't enough - and then you start all this 'I'm just Gordon Freeman' crap."

"Uh…"

"I…" she laughed at herself, throwing a hand into the air, "I even had a speech ready. All about how I used to be a cop, that the real heroes are never the figureheads, it's always the people like Barney who do all the work and never get the credit… and then you came along and did a giant shit all over that."

"Oh. Sorry."

"I mean… what the hell are you doing here?"

Slightly confused, Gordon said, "Could you elaborate?"

A heavy sigh escaped her, like he had landed the weight of the world on her shoulders - which was something he had experience with.

"Look, no offence, but you're not exactly the superhero of yore I've been hearing about for the past twenty years. For a start, you barely look thirty, which would make you not quite ten when Black Mesa happened."

"Uh… I age gracefully."

Tess ignored the comment and continued on. "And then there's the way you act on the battlefield. You've got skills, I'll give you that, but…" She sighed again. "Look, I'll be honest. It's like you've never worked with a squad before."

Gordon tried to keep his face as blank as possible, but it still managed to show, judging by Tess' reaction.

"Oh, God, you've never worked with a squad before."

Anxious that the others would overhear, Gordon muttered, "Does a squad of Antlions count?"

She gave him an equally blank look. "No… not really."

When her stare became too much for him, Gordon nodded down the tunnel. "Let's… keep moving."

He started walking, hoping she would leave him alone for a bit. It didn't last long, and she was bouncing up alongside him in moments.

"How have you survived twenty years and never worked with a squad? Hell, how did you survive Black Mesa?"

"I did okay by myself," he said quietly and defensively.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Look, I…" he paused and took a breath. "All of this… isn't really me. Guns, soldiers, crowbars, vents… I didn't know about any of it until a few days ago. Well, except the vents. I used those a lot."

"'A few days'?"

Gordon realised what he had just said and shook his head, smiling. "Sorry. I meant I haven't slept for a few days."

He winced at the terrible story as he turned, trying to get as far away from this conversation as possible. Tess still followed along.

"Hey-"

"HACKS!"

The echoing cry made them both whirl around, and they saw Greg looking upward at the broken gap in the roof of the tunnel. Through it, Gordon could make out the early morning blue sky of City 17, mired by what looked like dozens of Manhacks.

The squad opened fire. As Gordon brought up his pulse rifle to do the same, the Gravity Gun knocked against his back. He looked back at it, and a spark went off in his brain. Dropping the rifle for now, he swung the Gravity Gun around and waited.

The bullets did little except bounce the Manhacks awkwardly through the sky, although a few did manage to hit the same target and shatter them into a brilliant shower of sparks. Many got through, however, and Gordon prepared himself.

The first through went for Simon, and Gordon ran over, skidding into a kneeling position beside him before aiming the Gun at the Manhack. It slung itself towards him, coming to an abrupt halt at the glowing core of the device. He pointed it at a pillar beside him and pressed the trigger, crushing the Manhack into it and sending sparks everywhere.

He smiled. That felt so good.

Despite his earlier dismissal of using guns against the Manhacks, the others performed very well, clearing the little monstrosities rather quickly - with a few assists from him, but he was too modest to say anything about that.

He managed to catch one that was heading for the back of Tess' head, and she whirled around in time to see it. She sent him a grateful smile.

The Manhack exploded in midair, and bullets started blasting out at them from the end of the corridor.

"TAKE COVER!"

Greg's command was followed by everyone, and for the first time Gordon wondered if he should be the one barking commands like some army drill sergeant. Although, judging from Tess' horrified look when he had spoken about a squad of Antlions… maybe not.

He dove down behind an old car with Tess, poking his head up over the bonnet to see who was shooting at them. Combine soldiers, based at the far end of the tunnel, hidden behind mounted machineguns. He spotted something else near them, and ducked back down.

"Give me a grenade," he said, urgently beckoning with his hand.

Tess handed it over without question. The ring of the grenade held in his teeth, Gordon scooped up the pulse rifle and aimed through the empty shell of the drivers' compartment. He was about to fire when he adjusted the stock on his shoulder ever so slightly, earning an amused smile from Tess.

He fired, hitting the desired explosive barrels halfway between them and the Combine. A chain reaction of booming explosions was the reward, as well as the spongy cloud of smoke spreading out.

"Excuse me," he grunted, vaulting over the car and running into the mist. The vague shapes of the Combine took form, glowing blue eyes giving them away.

Although his bright orange suit probably didn't do him any favours, either. With a few garbled commands, they pointed their weapons at him. Gordon pulled the pin of the grenade and threw it, leaping to the ground behind the remains of a pickup truck.

He was sure he heard someone yell 'shit' before the explosion went off, but didn't think about it any further, instead leaping to his feet and charging past the now unmanned machineguns and into the temporary den they had dug for themselves. There were three left alive.

Gordon shot down one before the rifle clicked, empty. He ran at the second as he scrambled to get his rifle up. He slipped out his crowbar and smashed it through the helmet with a backhand motion. The third soldier behind him, Gordon whirled around and swung the crowbar in an uppercut.

The smoke cleared, and Gordon was alone.

"All clear!" he shouted, although it regrettably wasn't at the same intense volume of Greg's.

He could just make out the others slowly coming forward, checking behind them at random intervals.

"Gordon Freeman?"

The frantic voice made Gordon jump, and he turned to the source; the collapsed wall at the end of the tunnel. Slowly creeping towards it, he found a small crack in the bottom of the wall. A bearded rebel with an excited look in his eye stared back at him.

"It is you, isn't it?"

Wasn't much he could say to that. "…yes."

"Awesome! I'm Ryan, uh… I mean… yeah. Look, gimme a minute; I'm gonna plant some charges and blow this open!"

The man disappeared to get to his work. Gordon blinked and shook his head. Why were all these people so excited?

"I can't believe I'm talking to the Gordon Freeman! I mean, you're a legend around here, you know that?"

"Didn't have a clue."

"Really? I mean… there are a lot of legends about you. Hey, is it true you saved a hospital ward of babies from a bullsquid?"

Sitting down against the wall, he stopped to think about it, which troubled him. Had he really been through so much that all the events were blurring together?

"That doesn't sound familiar."

"Oh. Is it true you invented the phrase, 'You've just been headcrabbed'?"

"'You've just been headcrabbed'?"

"Yeah. A Marine had you cornered when you slammed a headcrab down on him and pushed him off the cliff. Then you stood up and said it."

"Uh… also not familiar with that one. Where did you hear these stories?"

"Oh, here and there. No-one really knows what's true and what's not, although Barney's done his best to help."

Gordon grunted. "I'm sure…"

"Like the one about the visiting supermodel who had been dating Dr Breen, but then you saved her from a barnacle and she was all like 'Oh, you're Gordon Freeman and I love you now', but you were like 'I'm Gordon Freeman, bitch', and-"

"Wait, wait… I called her a bitch?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm not sure. That's just what Barney told us."

A frustrated breath escaping him, Gordon clenched his teeth and reminded himself to hit Barney on the head with his crowbar when he saw him. "Right…"

"Why, is that not right?"

The others had arrived, and Gordon brought himself to his feet. "Just… omit the 'bitch' part from now on, all right?"

"Gotcha. Hey, is it true that you have a brother?"

That one caught him off-guard, and he tried not to show it as Greg caught up to him. His brother was still alive?

"Uh… yes. Yes, I do."

"Does he really do that many back flips?"

Baffled and a little irritated, Gordon completely ignored Greg and poked his head down so he was looking through the gap in the wall. Ryan wasn't there.

"What?"

"Back flips," Ryan explained, still unseen. "I heard he saved you with them hundreds of times. He even did it with a motorcycle once."

At this point, even Greg was interested, and chimed in. "Wouldn't doing a back flip with a motorcycle come with pretty big consequences?"

Gordon, meanwhile, was just disappointed. His heart had sunk as soon as Ryan had mentioned his brother saving him. It sounded like just one more myth about Black Mesa that had no basis in reality. They probably heard of a time Gordon fell from something high up and ended up landing on his back. He supposed that could look like a back flip to someone watching.

"Incoming," Tess called out, bringing their attention back to matters of reality.

Soldiers, at least a dozen of them, were moving up the tunnel, ducking behind whatever they could find as Greg and the others took pot-shots at them. Gordon moved to one of the mounted machineguns. Tess was already at the other.

Ryan's tiny voice came from behind him.

"Freeman? You still there?"

"Just blow up the damn wall!" Tess cried, making everyone jump.

Ryan was silent for a moment. "Gotcha."

And with that, everyone opened fire. Time seemed to slow down as Gordon pulled the trigger on the machinegun. Helmets cracked, puffs and spurts of blood sifted through the air, and bullets sparked against the metal skeletons of cars long since abandoned. Gordon thought he heard Tess scream, but he concentrated on firing, his finger aching from the pressure on the trigger and the kickback of the gun.

Someone called out his name, he wasn't sure who.

A sudden heat blasted onto the back of his neck, sound filling his ears as he was propelled over the machinegun by the explosion. Bullets whizzed overhead as he stumbled to his feet.

His ears ringing, he saw Ryan frantically summoning him over through the cloud of dust. Gordon didn't need telling twice. Neither did the rest of the squad, for that matter. Except, he noticed, for one person.

Tess, stood at the machinegun. That was when Gordon saw that her earlier scream wasn't out of fear. It was a war-cry.

She didn't stop until every soldier was dead, even sending a healthy barrage of bullets into the corpses before letting up.

Everyone stared from beneath the new archway Ryan had created for them. Tess, breathing heavily, seemed a little dazed as she walked over to them, her disturbingly blank eyes on everything but her squad.

As she passed him, Gordon reached out with a cautious hand. "Are you all right?"

There was a tense silence before Tess' gaze finally shifted over to him. "Me?" she said quietly. "They're the ones who're dead."

Her piece said, she moved through the crowd and sat on a random piece of rubble in the new room they had discovered, immediately inspecting her weapon.

No-one said anything. Who could? Gordon sure as hell didn't want to break this silence.

"Uh…"

Everyone turned, looking to the hapless Ryan for some reprieve.

His finger, which had previously been poking up in the air like a schoolboy's, slowly arched over to something behind the group. Looking over, they saw a simple red door.

"That door is locked from the other side, Doctor Freeman. Maybe you can find another way around."

He looked around the space. It was really just another area of collapsed tunnel. There was a hole in the wall on the far side, and Gordon walked over to it, pulse rifle hanging loosely by his side. Gordon crouched down when he reached it, peering inside. The Geiger counter of his HEV suit immediately crackled venomously.

"Radioactive…"

"Sounds nasty," Ryan agreed, before adding far too cheerfully, "good thing you've got that suit!"

"Yes," Gordon muttered, the word barely taking form in his mouth. "See you later, I suppose."

He took a deep breath, and started crawling.

There was a bang like a gun going off. Then another. Gordon scurried back out of the hole and looked back to see Tess kicking open the red door, having blasted the lock to pieces with her rifle. The others waiting behind her like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Gordon exchanged a look with Ryan, who looked as stunned as he felt. They both ran to her.

"What?" she said, looking to the others for support. "It's not like I'm the only one who had this idea."

Looking to the others, he just got confirming nods. Gordon hadn't really thought about it. He just assumed the doors were gun-proof. He looked to Ryan, who was still clueless.

"I'm new here," Gordon said, slowly. "What's your excuse?"

Becoming more embarrassed by the second, Ryan looked to his feet, mumbling. "I, uh… didn't do well in college."

Silence reigned supreme, punctured only by the occasional explosion or gunshot from the city above.

Gordon took a deep breath. "Let's go, shall we?"

Everyone seemed to be in agreement, and rushed through the door. After the claustrophobia of the tunnels, Gordon was actually eager to be outdoors again.

A Strider roared somewhere in the city, and something exploded.

Maybe not.

The streets were empty as they emerged up the stairs and into the street. Cars were overturned, burning craters lay in the roads, and the remains of headcrab shells protruded from the ground like obscene metal plants.

Greg led the way without a word of encouragement, which Gordon was grateful for. The less he had to show off the fact he had no idea what he was doing, the better. They moved through an archway nestled beneath an apartment building, taking them into another street. From there they moved to a corridor in the building opposite.

It took them to a locked metal gate with a stairway going right and into the building. A rebel appeared in front of him, but behind the gate. He was haggard and bleeding from his right arm, though the wound had been bandaged.

"Doctor Freeman? If you were looking for place to hold up, it's not safe here anymore. They're shelling the hell out of us."

As though to accentuate the point, a volley of explosions littered the rooftops of the buildings behind the rebel. A metal drawbridge slammed down from one building to another, rebels charging across as Combine soldiers fired away.

A grenade landed not too far behind the rebel and exploded, sending chunks of dust and paving stones through the air. The rebel ducked his head, and came back up coughing.

"Keep moving, Doctor Freeman. I'll send word you're coming and see you up ahead!"

Gordon agreed with a nod, although he didn't think he would see the man again. Apparently satisfied, the rebel disappeared into the cloud behind him. He took a breath at the thought that the man he was just speaking to was probably going to die sooner rather than later, then looked to Greg. The forlorn expression he wore indicated this sort of thing didn't get easier with time.

With a sigh, Gordon charged up the stairs.

The building was largely empty - they made their way through empty, desolate apartments, the stench from some of the old kitchens overpowering. As they progressed upwards, the building seemed to fall apart piece by piece. Walls were missing, sometimes burning, the sounds and smells of battle heavy in the air as Gordon led the way.

Eventually they reached the lowest of the two drawbridges Gordon had spied earlier, and made their way across without incident. It took them to a sizeable hole in the wall of the building, which in turn led them up a couple of floors. Well, it would have done if there were stairs. As it was, the rooms above had collapsed in on one another, creating an obstacle course of concrete curves and dips.

Fires crackled seemingly from nowhere as Gordon and the others struggled to clamber up. Ryan slipped, and Gordon saw Simon grab him. There was a brief exchange of nods between the two, then it was back to business. Something about the gesture made Gordon feel better. The innate goodness of humanity, he supposed. Or something like that.

Dave reached the top first, and was greeted with a bullet to the shoulder, blood spraying out and onto Tess. He slid back down the slanted ground, Gordon crouching to grab him. Cara was beside them in an instant, tearing her backpack from her shoulders and getting to work.

Tess reached the ledge and fired wildly into the air. Greg nodded for Gordon, Ryan and Simon to follow him. They did so, moving over the top and to a small piece of wall that still survived on the outside of the building. The crumbling wall was at waist level, and only just long enough to accommodate the four of them. Beside it was the controls for another drawbridge, this one standing vertical and blocking Gordon's view of the building opposite.

He supposed that would work both ways, and crawled to the controls. Looked simple enough. Bullets ricocheting around him, Gordon kicked the catch below the handle, sending it whirling around as the drawbridge fell, the cables moving at blurring speeds to catch up. Gordon scrambled back for cover.

The bridge slammed to the ledge on the other side, bouncing a few times before settling. Gordon peeked around the side, allowing himself a breathless smile at lowering the bridge before he saw the Combine soldiers charging out of the building and over the bridge.

"Crap," he breathed. Then he stood up and started firing.

Two soldiers at the front fell straight away, though more were coming behind them. Fire from the rooftop of a building opposite forced him down again.

"Are we in deep shit?" Simon asked, breathless.

Greg nodded. "Little bit."

Note to self. When you think you have a good idea, do nothing.

"I'll take the bridge," he said as authoritatively as he could manage, "you take the rooftops."

No-one argued, although Greg looked reluctant. The soldiers had kicked the dead bodies of their comrades from the bridge. Leaning out the side of his cover, Gordon took out their knees.

"Look," he said, moving back to Greg, "this uprising started when everyone thought I was dead. It doesn't need me to keep on going."

A word of protest seemed to be on his lips, but then he silently acquiesced, nodding.

They got to work. The soldiers on the other side of the drawbridge seemed to have learnt their lesson and were taking cover on the other side, occasionally emerging to take shots at him. He didn't even worry about what was happening on the rooftops; he trusted the others to take care of it.

That was new for him. Trusting others completely to have his back. Even in Black Mesa when he fought alongside trained security guards, he always felt like something could go wrong at any minute, that they would make a mistake that he wouldn't, that he still had to keep an eye out for everything. It was why he preferred to handle these things alone.

But now, with Alyx, and then with this squad…

He had watched them fight, watched them take out enemies that would otherwise have crept up on their team-mates unannounced. They weren't trained soldiers. They weren't trained anything.

Maybe that was why he felt he could trust them more. They were just like him.

Gordon dipped in and out of cover, only hitting a few soldiers, and even then not fatally. This was getting frustrating. He glanced back and wondered how Cara was doing tending to Dave. Hopefully they would be back soon, this was going nowhere fast with their current numbers.

"FREEMAN!"

Greg's terrified scream was the only warning he got before he was grabbed roughly by the shoulders and tossed aside with a strength he didn't know a human could muster. There was a sudden bang and a tremendous force shoved him through the air and into the ruined building. He tumbled roughly along the slanted floor, rolling past Cara and Dave before coming to a thudding halt against the wall.

Gordon blinked stars and flashing colours as he attempted to right himself, Cara's gentle hands steadying him into a sitting position. Her muffled voice tried to reach him, but he couldn't hear a thing of the ringing white noise. Her face came into focus before the voice.

"-you all right?"

Wincing, Gordon rubbed the back of his neck and clambered to his feet. The HEV suit was worrying away, applying this and that to deal with the pain and shock. A sinking feeling in his stomach, Gordon ignored Cara's questions as he moved back up to the battle. Simon was screaming, burns across his body. Ryan was okay, though traumatised. Even Tess couldn't help staring at whatever was at Gordon's feet.

And then there was the bleeding, open, dead body of Greg, waiting on the floor like a horrific calling card.

It had been a grenade. The black spray pattern on the wall attested to that. Gordon had been so absorbed in his own thoughts, his own fight, that he hadn't been paying attention. He looked at the body, the face blackened and red, sizzling like barbequed meat.

All because of the One Free Man.

He moved to cover beside Simon, picking up his surprisingly undamaged pulse rifle as he went.

Gordon leaned forward and looked to Tess. "Look after him," he said, nodding at Simon.

He didn't give the woman a chance to reply before he launched himself onto the bridge, his head down. The soldiers on the rooftop tried to take aim but quickly ducked back down as the squad opened fire on him. Glancing back, Gordon saw that Cara and Dave had rejoined the group.

Soldiers on the other side of the bridge were coming at him now. The first of three took a swipe at his head with his rifle, and Gordon ducked beneath it, sweeping his weapon through his legs and sending him tumbling several stories below.

The second soldiers caught him on the cheek with his rifle, and Gordon tumbled off the bridge, only just managing to latch onto the metal lattice-work. His rifle tumbled to the streets below. The Combine brought his rifle up to bear, only for his head to explode onto his fellow soldier. He fell limply past Gordon, leaving his rifle on the bridge.

The last soldier was frozen for a moment until he noticed Gordon clambering up onto the bridge. By then Gordon's crowbar was out, and the soldier didn't really have a chance to fight back before it came crashing through his helmet and threw him off the bridge as well.

There was relative silence, and Gordon noted that the soldiers on the rooftops were gone. Explosions went off somewhere in the city. Smoke billowed in the distance, and gunshots rattled in the air. A Strider hooted angrily.

Gordon turned back to his squad and nodded for them to follow. Tess was the only one to move.

He only noticed the wetness on her cheeks when she was stood right in front of him. Her voice didn't even shake as she spoke.

"I, uh…" she cleared her throat. "I think someone needs to say something."

He blinked, then nodded his understanding. There was along silence before Gordon noticed that Tess was looking at him with a degree of expectation. So were the others behind her, crowded around the body.

"But…" he ducked his head so as not to be heard by the squad. "…I didn't even know him."

"None of us did."

The way she said it made Gordon frown. "Do… any of you know each other?"

She shrugged. "Cara and Dave, maybe… not sure. We all met today."

"Then why do I need to say something?" he asked quietly, though he knew the answer as soon as Tess opened her mouth.

"Because you're-"

"-the Freeman, yeah, I got it," he sighed. He moved past her and to the mourning congregation.

He noticed with some relief that they had covered him with a blanket from somewhere. That was good. He didn't need to be fighting the retching instinct while delivering a eulogy.

"Uh…" his voice quaked, and he stopped for a moment. Tess sidled up next to him, head bowed.

"I, uh… didn't know Greg. Although I hear that none of you know each other very well, so… I just think that…"

Gordon sighed. He had no idea where he was going with this.

"…Greg deserves our thanks. He was a good man, and he died saving us. Saving me. He didn't deserve it." His eyes stung. "And I'm certainly not worth it. No-one should have to die to save my life. I'm nobody. He told me that I need to stay alive, I'm more important than anyone else, that I'm a symbol."

He knew this was wrong, that he should stop, that he was making this about himself… but something just kept propelling the words out of him.

"I'm not the One Free Man, or the Opener of the Way… I'm just Gordon Freeman. And I've got no idea what I'm doing. I just do what I'm told. What you've all done, what you're doing right now… you don't need me for it. You did it all by yourselves. And this…" he nodded down Greg, "this is my fault. Because I let it go on. I just went with it, accepted it, like I have everything else. Maybe a liked it, I don't know."

He blew out a breath. "I'm not a leader, I'm not an inspiration, I'm not a saviour. And you shouldn't put your lives in my hands."

His voice cracked.

"Greg was a better man than me. I should have been taking a grenade for him, and I definitely shouldn't be delivering his eulogy."

Frustrated, he swiped his glasses from his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. After taking a few seconds to compose himself, he put them back on his face and started walking across the bridge.

He heard footsteps following behind him, and he turned to face Tess.

"No-one else is going to die because of me."

Tess nodded. "Okay."

"It'd be better if you stay away."

She shrugged. "Hey, I'm trying, believe me. I'm just walking in the same direction as you." She turned to the squad, all of them stood behind her.

"They're walking in the same direction, too. We're like a hiking club."

Ryan cleared his throat, trying to make his timid voice sound more impressive. "We're with you, Freeman. All the way."

"I'll take point," Simon said, limping past Gordon and crossing the bridge. The squad followed suit, leaving a bewildered Gordon stood with Tess.

"What… just happened? Did they hear a word I said?"

She sighed. "You do realise that the more you deny that you're 'The One Free Man', the greater you'll look to them?"

He couldn't think of a reply.

Tess smiled with what he assumed was her approximation of affection and walked away, shaking her head. "Dumbass…"

The building was quiet, although Gordon expected it wouldn't last long. They descended through the collapsing building slowly, eventually dropping down into a bare room with a sizeable hole in the middle of the wooden floor. He could hear Combine turrets and what sounded like zombies grunting away. He started forward, and only paused when Tess tapped his arm and gave him a warning 'be careful' look.

Gordon just nodded and delicately moved his way forward. Then the floor gave way, and he tumbled down into the room below, landing on a zombie in an awkward pile. He frantically rolled himself off and let the Combine turrets finish the job on the zombie before it started towards him. It was beside a closed door, the only exit out of the room. Looking around, Gordon saw only the corpses of more zombies and a Combine terminal on the wall. No cover.

He went for the Gravity Gun, already knowing it was too late.

That was when the door exploded, hurling the turret across the room and bouncing off the wall opposite. As it wailed an objection and fired off bullets like a kid throwing a tantrum, Gordon prepared himself for whatever was coming through the door, rifle at the ready.

He sure as hell wasn't expecting Alyx, gun pointed at him.

"Gordon!" Relief seemed to flood from her, and she put her pistol away. "I had a feeling I'd find you here. I've got Dr Kleiner in a safe spot; now we can join up with Barney."

"Freeman? Everything okay down there?"

It was Tess.

Feeling self conscious but not entirely understanding why, Gordon shot an awkward smile at Alyx before tilting his head upwards. "I'm fine. Alyx is here."

"Okay…"

Feeling like an idiot, Gordon shook his head. "I mean… Alyx Vance."

"Oh, right… okay, right. We'll be down in a sec."

As they took turns leaping down into the room, Alyx sent a questioning look in Gordon's direction.

"They're my squad. Well, not… my squad, exactly. I'm just… with them."

Before she could reply, everyone was gathered around Gordon and looking to Alyx like she was a drill sergeant.

"Okay, listen up. There's a command centre downstairs. I'm hoping to find information about generator locations."

She filled the role rather well. Alyx leading the way, everyone silently moved into the corridor outside and down the stairs. A single patrolling Combine soldier didn't know what hit him.

Afterwards, they took positions on two doors leading into the same room. They split off into two groups, Gordon, Simon, Dave and Cara on one, Alyx, Tess and Ryan on the other.

"Okay, this is it. You take that door, we'll take this one. Ready when you are."

Simon placed himself on the left of the door, Dave and Cara on the other. Tess seemed to be onto something when she said they might know each other. Putting the thought aside for now, Gordon took a breath before sending a leg through the door, something he had never tried before.

It seemed to work, although whether that was down to his technique or the HEV suit, he didn't know. The Combine soldiers inside the glowing blue room didn't seem to be expecting it, though.

With only four of them inside, they managed to make quick work of them. Gordon barely got a shot off before it was over. He had to remind himself that wasn't a bad thing.

Alyx went straight for the sizeable console in the corner of the room and, after a quick attack from her hacking device, started tapping away on the keyboard. Gordon looked around while he waited. This looked like it would have been a rather nice apartment back in the day. Big.

As usual, Alyx brought him back to reality. "Well, we're in luck. There's a generator in the square outside."

Peering over at the screen, he saw a dark metal booth that looked like something a parking attendant would live in. Behind it stood a tall, thick shaft of metal, obviously covering something inside.

"We're trying to disable as many as we can to loosen the Combine's grip on this sector. It'll take me a few minutes to expose the core, then I'll need you to hit it with a burst from the Gravity Gun."

Once he nodded his understanding, Alyx looked to the others. "This isn't going to be pretty, people. Not that anything around here is, but don't go thinking this is going to be easy."

Everyone seemed to understand, and Gordon couldn't help but envy Alyx's skills. They knew what she was telling them; some, if not all of them, were going to die, or at least be wounded doing this. And yet she did it in such a way that they wanted to. He knew exactly where this respect came from. They knew that she had lived through it, had grown up in this world, the same as them.

The One Free Man was just fiction. Propaganda. Alyx, Barney, Kleiner, Eli… they were the ones to be followed.

They were the ones people should be taking grenades for.

He blinked and noticed that the squad were filing out another door on the opposite side of the room. Alyx shut down the terminal and made to follow them before stopping beside him for a moment.

"Gordon? You okay?"

"Hm? Oh. Yes. Yes, of course. Sorry. I was elsewhere, sorry."

She looked unconvinced. "…right. Just don't go spacing out when we're out there, okay? Even the One Free Man can be killed by a stray bullet, y'know."

Gordon tried to smile, but it obviously didn't go well, judging by Alyx's reaction.

"You sure you're all right?"

He sighed, looking at the empty doorway. "I will be once this is done."

Trying his best not to look back, Gordon walked out of the doorway with as much determination as he could muster. He couldn't bring himself to say anything to Alyx. Not now. He had already wasted enough time and energy on self-pity. It was time to stop bemoaning that he was 'The One Free Man' and start acting like a citizen of City 17. It was the least he could do.

The squad were waiting in the corridor outside, stood at a locked door down some stairs. Alyx moved past Gordon and to the door, shooting an awkward glance back at him before pulling out her magic wand and blasting the retinal scanner locked onto the wooden door. It swung open with a creak, daylight blasting in.

They emerged into a courtyard wedged between three tall buildings, like a triangle. There were two roads going off to the left and right from where Gordon stood. Ahead stood the centrepiece of the courtyard, inside which sat the control station for the generator. An imposing, wide metal gate was behind the generator.

Alyx made a beeline for the booth, everyone following in a formation Gordon assumed was secure. A Combine radio beeped, and the squad opened fire on a solider stood on a balcony of the building they had just emerged from. Before anyone managed to tag him, however, he fired a flare into the sky, the red light blazing a trail for all to see.

Ryan let out a tired 'Crap' as he pulled out the clip from his machinegun to check it over. Inside the booth, Alyx was in her own little hacking world.

"It's a standard panel. This shouldn't take too long. As soon as the generator's down, I'll open that gate, and we can get out of here."

Dropships flew over head and landed at the far end of each of the roads leading out of the courtyard. When Gordon concentrated he could see the blue shimmer of the force fields that had been erected at the end of each road, just ahead of the dropships. It didn't seem to bother the Combine soldiers, who trudged through without much difficulty.

Alyx muttered away to herself as she worked, occasionally glancing back to the generator. "Come on, come on…"

A low wall ran around the perimeter of the booth, and the squad took cover behind it. Gordon, wanting something a little more practical, hopped over and ran to the burnt, upside down ruins of a car.

Gordon leapt up and opened fire at a group of soldiers who were trying to make their way past. But even as they fell, another group emerged from behind their corpses, blasting away at him.

Ducking back down, Gordon looked over at the squad, and saw that three of them had split off to contain the road on the other side of the courtyard. Ryan and Simon were still with him on this side.

A grenade landed beside him, and he quickly used the Gravity Gun to fire it back over the car and into the street. All he heard was a confused grunt before it exploded. Gordon fell to the ground and aimed for the ankles through the gap between the ground and what would have been the hood of the car.

The soldiers fell, and Gordon continued firing until they were dead. Job done, he moved quickly around the car and scooped up one of the weapons from the fallen soldiers. As more enemies moved through the force field, Gordon ran across the road and tucked himself behind some fallen debris.

"There goes the external shield."

It was Alyx, on his suit radio. Glancing back to the generator, he could see that the metal casing had shifted down into the ground, leaving what looked like a large glass tube in the centre. A glowing, constantly shifting orb hovered in the middle of the tube. That would be the power source, then. It looked like the energy orb that pulse rifles fired.

A grenade exploded on the road across from them, and Gordon looked over in a panic. All three were okay, though blinded by the smoke from the explosion. A Combine soldier emerged from the mist and shot Cara in the chest three times before Tess managed to blast his head off.

Gordon's stomach dropped, and he could feel pressure building in his head. Dave wept openly over the body. They weren't trained soldiers. They weren't meant for this. Tess kept on fighting as more soldiers made their way down the road.

Soldiers were coming up behind his improvised cover. Latching a hand onto the top, Gordon vaulted over and charged headfirst into the belly of one of the soldiers, sending them both tumbling awkwardly to the ground. Gordon rolled off and tore him apart with the pulse rifle, quickly whirling around and doing the same to his comrade.

More soldiers came through the force field, and Gordon fired in a wide spread, taking more bullets than he could afford to, his HEV suit quietly insisting he avoid any more sudden impacts.

"Inner shields are coming down."

Gordon didn't want to know. He didn't care.

A grenade landed in front of him, although it was thrown from behind. He backed up and leapt away as it exploded. Looking up from where he landed, he saw that Simon was the source, Tess having joined them in the small grassy area. Gordon made his way over to them, trying to ignore the sight of Dave's body beside Cara's.

Tess rubbed away insistent tears with her sleeve. "The idiot refused to move, soldiers were coming in… what could I do?"

He gave her shoulder what he assumed was a reassuring rub before focusing his attention on the road Tess was guarding. The soldiers were too close; they were trying to get around to Alyx, and in their numbers, they were close to succeeding. Glancing at the generator, he could see the glass tube that contained the glowing orb slowly lowering.

"Cover me- shit-"

With a sudden, horrific bursting noise, something warm splattered against the back of Gordon's neck. He saw Simon lying on the floor, a bullet lodged in his head. Ryan looked at him in abject terror, nearly hyperventilating. Tess ignored it, firing blindly into the mob of soldiers that was now coming down the road.

Gordon fired at the group of soldiers that had shot at Simon, although they were so numerous it didn't matter how many he took down. Fresh gunfire from the booth opened up, and Gordon looked over, panicking at the implications. It was Alyx, joining the fight and crouching down beside him.

"That's it, the core is exposed. Go on, Gordon, give it a jolt!"

He hesitated, seeing just how many soldiers were approaching, and how little the others had to defend themselves with.

"Go, you moron!" Tess cried, not even looking at him.

Gordon dropped the pulse rifle and swung the Gravity Gun around, charging around the booth and taking a well placed bullet in the leg for his trouble. The impact sent him tumbling to the floor. He rolled over and took aim at the orb. He fired, and the bolt of energy punched the orb out of whatever force field was keeping it in place, sending it bouncing all around the courtyard like a burst balloon.

It hit a few soldiers as it went, the reaction being like nothing Gordon had seen before. They seemed to dissolve into white light, floating up into the air as sparkling ashes dispersed into the air. Then they just faded away.

Alyx sprinted past him, heading for the terminal beside the gate. She held out her hacking device and sparks flew.

Tess and Ryan were still in the courtyard, fighting off a horde of soldiers.

Gordon frantically summoned them over. "Come on!"

He felt Alyx's on her arm. "We have to go, Gordon."

"Not without them."

"They're doing this so we can escape!"

"I don't care, they-"

Ryan took a bullet in the shoulder, then the head. Tess was all that was left, deftly firing at both sides and ducking at seemingly random moments, but still managed to avoid fire. A grenade landed in front of her. She looked over her shoulder at him, and smiled through her tears.

The grenade exploded.

Alyx yanked Gordon by the arm, almost throwing him to the ground on the other side of the gate. Before Gordon registered what was going on, Alyx had worked her magic on the gate and closed it in front of him.

He just stared at the cold, hard metal, listening to the Combine radios squawking their garbled messages to one another, trying to find a way through the gate. Eventually, they seemed to disappear.

"They'll get to us soon," Alyx said, moving to him. "We need to go."

"I can't," he whispered, the volume about all he could managed.

"Yes, you can."

"No, I…" he sighed, blinking tears. "I can't do this. I knew those people. They knew me. They trusted me, looked to me for answers. How can I… what makes me so special?"

"You're kidding, right?"

His head snapped up to see Alyx looking particularly confused. "What?"

"You're Gordon Freeman. You're the theoretical physicist who survived Black Mesa. All those stories about you-"

"Aren't true."

This seemed to take her aback a little. "Well… yeah, but… everyone talks about you like you're… some kind of legend."

"I'm not. I'm really not." He looked up at her, frowning and suddenly comprehending. "But you were expecting a legend when you met me, weren't you?"

She waited a moment before she spoke, like she was thinking about it. "I don't know. Maybe. In the end, I guess I didn't know what to expect. At first I thought that all the stories were wrong, that you were just… some guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But then, when I saw you shoot a gun, and I saw you fight, and I saw how you handled everything that was thrown at you like it was no big deal… I started to think… I started to think that maybe you were everything I'd heard."

He took a breath. "Well… I'm sorry to disappoint."

There was silence. All they could hear was the distant sounds of battle. Alyx knelt down beside him.

"Look, Gordon… you're not alone in this. Barney, Dr Kleiner, my dad, Dr Magnusson, even me… they're always looking to us for answers, for guidance. Like we're any better qualified to tell them what to do, right?"

Her eyes shifted a little as she went somewhere else in her head. "People have died on my word. Plenty of people, men and women who trusted me, and…" a sigh escaped her, and she shook her head. "The deaths that happened back there are as much my responsibility as yours."

Unconvinced, Gordon took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "But I don't deserve it. You and the others… you've been struggling for twenty years. You earned that trust."

"Look," she said, clearly struggling to put this in other terms, "you say that the stories of you in Black Mesa aren't true, right?"

Gordon hesitated, then nodded.

"But they had to come from somewhere, right? You fought soldiers, you fought aliens… and you saved the world. That's a fact, Gordon. Ask any Vortigaunt. Twenty years ago, Gordon Freeman saved the world with nothing but a crowbar and a radiation suit."

He shook his head, still unconvinced. "But it's built on a lie. The way they look at me… I wasn't a fighter or a soldier back at Black Mesa. I was just… me."

"Exactly. That's why you're an inspiration. You're a reminder that anyone can save the world. You don't need training or strength or… whatever. All you need is the will."

Slipping his glasses back on, Gordon stared down at the floor, thinking on Alyx's words.

"Look, Gordon…"

He looked at her this time.

"Don't try to be 'The One Free Man,' okay? Just be Gordon Freeman. That's enough, trust me."

She placed a hand on his and gave it the slightest of squeezes. Gordon smiled his thanks, then frowned.

"Wait… Dr Magnusson? Arne Magnusson?"

"Yeah…"

"And people go to him for guidance?"

"Uh, well… guidance might be too strong a word. More… gentle scolding."

That managed to elicit a smile, which Alyx returned readily. Giving his hand a friendly pat, she hefted herself to her feet.

"Okay, let's keep moving. Barney should be on the far side of that… canal…"

Looking ahead, they only then realised that the way ahead was… pretty much gone. Between them and the road ahead was a rather deep trench, where once a river would have presumably flowed.

Alyx looked back with a wry smile. "Well… there used to be a bridge here." She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts, her eyes scanning the area. "Let me see if I can scout a new path."

Gordon got to his feet and walked to the edge of the road where the bridge would have once been. Smoke billowed from several sources in the distance.

"Ah!"

He turned and saw Alyx heading for the building next to her. She stopped and waved a hand in his direction.

"Wait for me here. I'll be right back."

With that, she latched on to a drainpipe and started to clamber up. Working like a monkey, she climbed slowly and confidently, nary an unsure foot or shaky hand to be seen.

Gordon tried to ignore the view it was giving him. It was making him blush a little too obviously.

Finally, after a few shimmies across window ledges that made Gordon's heart leap up into his throat, Alyx was on top of the building. She scanned the area around the bridge, her eyes finally settling on the dry riverbed beside them.

"Hey! Looks like we might be able to get through down there."

Gordon wandered over and peered down. There was a doorway in the wall opposite.

"I see it."

"Okay. Let me just… ah, no!"

Gunfire sounded from the rooftop. Gordon scrambled back to the street, backing up to get him a better view, which was frustratingly difficult with the angle being the way it was.

"Alyx?"

He ran to the side of the building and latched onto the drainpipe. Looking up, he saw Alyx's head come over the ledge.

"Gordon, run! Get out of here!"

The butt of a gun collided with the back of her head, and she dropped, unconscious.

"Alyx!"

A Combine soldier peered over the side, and, seeing Gordon, waved his comrades over.

He had to go. He had no weapons that would do any good, and there was no way he would be able to climb up the building without dying very quickly. After one last glance up at Alyx's still form, Gordon ran for the riverbed. A rusting ladder led to the bottom, which he slid down in a hurry before leaping off halfway. The ground was surprisingly hard, and he grunted as he tumbled awkwardly onto his front.

Gathering himself up and with the sound of gunshots spurring him on, Gordon raced to the doorway and barged his way through the old metal gate that waited there for him. Bullets chipped away at the wall beside the doorway, and Gordon didn't stop running through the tunnel until he rounded a corner.

Pressing his back to the wall, he took a moment to catch his breath. He couldn't hear anything; just the gentle drip of a leaking pipe and occasional dull thud from above, presumably an explosion.

Gordon moved on, rescuing Alyx firmly lodged at the front of his mind. She was no doubt kept alive to be used as a hostage, but Gordon held no illusions about her life expectancy. There was a frighteningly real possibility of her death, which was something that Gordon wanted to avoid thinking about very much.

Exploring the dank, rancid tunnels, Gordon found himself surprisingly unmolested by hidden soldiers or zombies. Even headcrabs seemed sparse, although any that did try their luck were promptly crushed by a crowbar. Maybe they were learning.

As he progressed and came to a complex that was presumably used for sewage maintenance, Gordon came across soldiers in mid-battle with zombies, the barely alive monsters lurching towards them regardless of the bullets riddling their bodies. Gordon saw no reason to interrupt them, and carefully slipped around such skirmishes.

Finally, he managed to clamber and negotiate his way to a loading area, finding a control booth for a delivery platform up above. It hung from two metal girders, and looked strong enough to carry ten Dogs. So hopefully he wouldn't cause it too much trouble.

As he walked inside, his foot hit something fairly soft. Looking down, he saw the body of a denim clad citizen, the slashes on his chest and the blood spatter on the wall telling him all he needed to know. Something beside the body caught his eye, and Gordon frowned as he knelt.

A crossbow. It reminded him of the tranquilizer gun he had used in Black Mesa on that… nasty fish thing. Had anyone told him its' name? He couldn't remember. A major difference was the battery attached to the top, although the wires had been disconnected. Metal bars about the length and width of a relay racers baton lay beside it. They were dense, and heavy. He picked up the crossbow and placed the bar in the middle. Delicately reattaching the wires to the battery, he watched as the bar (surprisingly quickly) began to glow a dangerous orange, heated by the metal delivery system it rested on.

"Oh, look," he muttered to no-one in particular. "A new toy."

Five of the bars in one hand and the crossbow in the other, he moved to the controls for the platform and pulled the lever to bring it over. The platform slowly and loudly came to the ledge in front of the booth, and Gordon stepped on. There was one hell of a drop beneath him, and the latticework floor of the platform didn't make him feel safer. Gordon just moved to the middle to afford himself some kind of relief, although the rocking of the platform wasn't helping much.

Before long, however, he was up above and stepping off on to solid ground again. Sunlight poured in above his head, and he saw two skylights in the huge warehouse of a room he stood in. Looking around the complicated array of ladders and walkways above his head, Gordon saw two balconies that might take him out of this underground mess. Metal frames sat around huge water tanks on his right, the ladders attached to those taking him up.

Metal crossbow bars tucked under one arm, he moved to the first ladder. No sooner had his hand touched the first rung when the skylights shattered, and two figures dropped down. There was silence at first, and Gordon quickly clambered up the ladder to afford himself a better view, trying to keep the metal bars of the framework between him and his visitors.

They were in white, their uniforms resembling Victors'. He hoped that wasn't a sign of their fighting prowess, because taking on two Victors would leave him officially screwed. A whine filled the air, but then left with a strange bursting noise he had only heard once before; at St Olga's.

The orb of energy struck him in the chest, knocking him back off the platform and into the wall behind him, bouncing off and landing face first on the metal floor. The crossbow bars rained down around him, clanging loudly.

He grunted. "Ow."

Looking up, he saw the orb bouncing madly off the walls before finally exploding in midair, sending a shower of sparks raining down on him. Just like the core from the generator; must have been the same technology. Gordon brought the crossbow around, took aim, and fired. He saw the glowing projectile shoot past the Combine soldier's head and lodge itself in the roof of the building.

"Crap."

The soldier in question fired another orb. Dropping the crossbow, Gordon whirled the Gravity Gun around in front of him and fired the secondary trigger. The bolt of energy deflected the orb back on the exact same trajectory, and both soldiers ducked as a result. Gordon scooped up three bars with the crossbow and rapidly clambered up the ladder. The orb was still bouncing, and Gordon ran down the walkway, heading for the next ladder, the one that would take him to the walkway that wove itself directly below his attackers.

The orb finally exploded above the soldiers, raining sparks on them just as Gordon was up the ladder. They opened fire with regular bullets as he ran to where the walkways crossed over, and he finally dived to reach it, hurriedly slamming the metal bar down onto the crowbar. When it began to glow, Gordon fired the bar into the walkway that overshadowed him, and heard a grunt, however garbled by the Combine radio.

A pair of angry boots landed in front of him, and Gordon brought up the now empty crossbow in an equally empty gesture. The soldier batted it out of the way with his rifle, following it with an elbow to the chin. Gordon stumbled back and brought out the crowbar, swinging it around towards the soldier's head. He blocked it easily with his arm, quickly grabbing the crowbar away from him and tossing it over his head.

Gordon grabbed the soldier's rifle. The soldier delivered a kick to his gut that winded him and sent him onto his back. The soldier took aim to deliver one, simple bullet. Moving as quickly as he could, Gordon latched on to the rifle and pointed the muzzle into the metal floor. There was only one button on the pulse rifles he had never tried before. Time to find out what it was.

He pressed it.

One of those orbs of light tried to exit the rifle, the blowback sending the soldier slamming into the walkway above them. As he tumbled down, the now free orb bounced back up to meet him, and he disappeared in that strange white, blurring effect he had seen earlier, during the fight at the generator.

Gordon picked up the crossbow and applied one of the bars, then scooped up his crowbar. He climbed up onto the walkway above. There, he found the second soldier, foot impaled into the walkway by the bar he had fired earlier. He brought his rifle around, which Gordon batted away with the butt of the crossbow. It tumbled over the edge and into the abyss below. Using the crowbar, he tore the belt of grenades from around the soldier's waist.

"You've killed a lot of people today," he said quietly, not just meaning those who had crossed this particular soldier's path. He was talking to the Combine, not just one man. "This is what happens."

He pulled the pins on the grenades. He then placed the belt at the end of the crossbow, tearing the fabric on the very edge of the burning metal bar. Aiming for the soldier's other leg, he fired, impaling him to the walkway, the grenade belt attached.

Gordon leapt onto the walkway below. He tossed the crossbow over the edge as he walked, not even flinching when the explosion went off. He found his way onto the balcony with ease, and proceeded through the double doors at the end of the turquoise-tinted corridor.

Alyx was right. He didn't need to be the One Free Man. He just needed to be Gordon Freeman.

And Gordon Freeman was angry.


(A/N: Hey, sorry about the long wait, folks. Hope you enjoy this chapter, we're really on the home stretch now. If you have an extra moment or two, I'd advise you to check out 'Sidelines' as well, a joint project between me and BlindAcquiescence that was put on hold quite a few months ago but is now back. Hopefully you guys and gals will enjoy it as much as you've enjoyed our other stories.

Anyway, reviews please!)