At one point in time it must have been a parking structure, most of the upper levels having already broken away, crumbling under the weight of the invasion. So Alyx Vance told herself as she walked within it.

Below sea level—or at least, it was before the sea level dropped—the darkness and deserted concrete convinced patrolling Combine forces it wasn't worth investigation. She could walk freely here, her luminescent friend Skitch on her heels, and remember when she was younger and her father would visit the lab nearby to see her. She loved the darkness, the quietness, the knowledge of family a few buttons and coin slots away.

This wasn't a social visit, though. She breathed in the musty air and hurried on her way.

Skitch skittered around the walls on her backwards legs, baring her teeth and checking for any watchers. Alyx had already disabled the few cameras scattered about the perimeter. Not permanently of course—that would just look suspicious. No, she had to be careful make it look like the work of a dust storm—which were common enough, as it was. Taking one more precautionary glance over her shoulder, she approached an old vending machine, from before the time of The Administrator's Reserve, punched in a nonsensical coding of soft drinks and popped in 25 cents. There was a click, a soft hiss, and the machine opened for her. She turned her head and whistled for Skitch, who scrabbled ahead and slipped through.

"How the hell am I supposed to know what that looks like?" Alyx heard from inside. Barney. It figured they were still working. From what she could see, they hadn't even fully sorted through the equipment dump from last week, and the place was crowded with equipment. Most of it looked like junk, anyway, but where exactly were they supposed to dispose of it at?

"For heaven's sake, Barney! It's like a Resonance Plug, but wider with red wires out the end!"

"Gee thanks Doc, that really narrows it—AAGH!" Alyx rushed through the clutter to see a man with salt and pepper hair in a dark Civil Protection trench coat climbing up a pile of machine parts and kicking at Skitch. "Goddammit Alyx, can't you knock before letting that thing in?!"

"Sorry Barney," she laughed, "C'mon Skitch, he gets enough trouble from Lamarr."

Skitch snapped at his boots once more with her hypodermic teeth before obediently falling behind her master. After a moment, still staring at her warily, Barney returned to floor level.

"Barney? Quit fooling around and find me the converter!" She heard Kleiner yell from the other end of the lab.

"Foolin' around?" Barney sputtered and clenched his fists. "You—"

"Hi there Dr. Kleiner!" Alyx called in the man's general direction before her friend said something he might regret later, waving a little and glancing around at the scattered equipment.

"What? …Oh, Alyx, is that you?" Kleiner's voice at once changed from irritation to delight. "Hello there, my dear! I'm in the middle of some calculations, so I'm afraid I can't come over there." There was a pause on his end, and his voice resumed the frustrated tone. "Speaking of which-!"

"Hold your horses, Doc! I'm lookin', I'm lookin'!" Barney started muttering under his breath and sifting through the piles of scrap again. "I swear, it's just like working at Black Mesa. 'Barney, I locked myself out of my office again', 'Calhoun, some MIT graduate broke his security pass and needs a new one', 'Guard, get this door open for me, you lazy bum'" He growled under his breath and turned around to give Alyx a very exasperated look. "…You come over here for something?"

She nodded, frowning a bit in sympathy. "Eli's teleporter's still in the conceptual stage and I said I would help him out. I need to get a few spare parts, if you have any."

He grinned. "You sure you're not here for another bucket of red hair dye? That stuff doesn't come cheap, you know." He tapped his temple and pointed to her wild, flaming red hair. "I'm only asking because your roots are showing."

"So are yours."

He scowled and inclined his head to where their own teleporter was being made. "Kleiner should know where the important stuff is. Unless he needs me to find it, which is what's been going on all day. Then you're out of luck."

Alyx nodded and started to maneuver around everything taking up space in the floor, carefully making her way over. The lab didn't usually look so much like a junkyard. If she used her imagination she could recognize the security consoles she had hacked the cameras through once, the HEV repair system, and maybe even the floor tiles under the dim lights and scrap.

The area around the teleporter, which looked like a large, steel can with a slot in the front to see through, was surprisingly clear. Kleiner was writing on a weathered clipboard, frown lines creasing his aged face. He seemed to have lost more of his thin, grey hair since she'd last seen him.

"Hey, Dr. Kleiner, you got a sec?" Alyx asked, stepping carefully down next to him.

"In a second, Alyx," he said, waving her off and adjusting his glasses. "I have an idea and I need to write it down or else I'll lose it complete—oh fie. Where is Barney with the converter?!"

"He's looking, Doc. Maybe you should cut him some slack, I'm sure things are pretty stressful for him right now."

Kleiner just shook his head. "Things are stressful for all of us, all of the time."

"It's honestly more for your health than his."

He sighed. "Very well. I just—I swear it's just like working at Black Mesa. Honestly, do you know how long he would take getting my office open whenever I locked myself out? I couldn't get any work done!"

"If you say so." She glanced back. Barney had just tossed a piece of machinery across the room. "Listen, I need a component or two so Dr. Maxwell can get working on his teleporter…"

"Ah, is it the spectral analysis table? He was asking about it earlier, I dug one out just in case. It should be on the table over there." Kleiner, already back to his notes, gave a vague, distracted wave over in the general direction of the left wall. Alyx gave it a good once over and stared at Kleiner.

"Uh…What table?"

"What? Why, the one over…" Kleiner paused. "Right. I keep forgetting we have yet to clear the mess. It's under the rubble somewhere. I'll get Barney on that."