Charlotte started to stir around when she felt herself being helped up by Sasha and Amanda.
"You two alright?" Charlotte asked.
"For the most part… I think the better question is, where in hell's name are we?" Amanda answered, seeing no sign of the cell or the others… the three only saw that they were in a worn down building.
"Some sort of… I'd say this doesn't even look human." Sasha responded as she looked around, before their eyes set on the large towering construction in the middle of the area. "And I've no idea what that is." She said, Amanda about to reply when the three were startled by gunfire from above, followed by the voices of a man, then a woman, both over loudspeakers.
"I could've told you that was pointless, Dr. Freeman."
"Go, Gordon!"
Charlotte was careful as she and the others walked forward, Sasha seeing that Amanda's shoulder was bruising but that Amanda was either unaware of her injury or still feeling enough adrenaline to block it out.
"Are you still with us, Dr. Freeman? Not for much longer, I'd think. If only you'd harnessed your boundless energy for a useful purpose."
"What is going on up-" Amanda started to ask… before a beam shot up into the sky. It was then like it bubbled and opened a hole, a view through the sky leading to huge alien towers, an orange clouded sky… and two large flying machines coming through. They were almost like a combination of a worm and a wasp, with a huge gun on one end and a rotor blade on the other, both quickly beginning to shoot towards the man the three now saw through the glass floor above, in a grey and orange armor suit holding a light blue weapon of some sort.
He was firing balls of energy into the activating core, over and over again, alarms ringing out everywhere. The other man tried to plead with him.
"Go back, Freeman, you have no idea what you're doing! You don't know what you'll unleash! You could bring down this whole citadel, think man! Think of the people below!"
The armoured man paid no attention, and launched one last ball. The central tower began to spark and explode, until it all shut down. A woman jumped out of the control room, standing near Dr. Freeman just as the three reached the top level where they were.
"Come on Gordon, we've gotta get out of here. Maybe we still have-"
For a split second, time froze for everyone. Amanda swore she, Charlotte and Sasha could see someone… near Dr. Freeman, a man in a suit holding a briefcase, and then in the last fraction of a second, both he and Freeman were gone… moments before the explosion continued, the three being thrown back and down off the edge of the citadel.
If they'd thought it was just any ordinary building, they couldn't be further from the truth. They were right at the top, and looking down, if it weren't for the lights they'd never have been able to even see the city. The tower itself was entirely an alien design, and stood at least 2000 meters tall, three times the height of even the massive skyscraper in Dubai. They fell for what seemed like forever, the ground at first seeming to never get closer… but when it did, it was fast.
As soon as they hit it, they could hear the yelling of the fans… but it wasn't in their heads. They were simply waking up…
"After falling off the edge of the cell… you three fell again but off the building. How are you not dead?" Alyx responded.
"That's what we're trying to figure out… Sasha said that Mandy wasn't waking up right away, which frightened us because of her neurological history." Charlotte replied.
"Well if she's alright, that's the main thing, once you're certain of it." Alyx responded.
"Yeah, she'll be okay." Charlotte replied, thinking for a moment before she looked at Gordon. "Back on that… 'citadel'... for a second, just as the explosion happened, I thought I saw someone in front of you. Man in a blue suit." She questioned him, Gordon looking right at her as she described him. He looked away for a moment, as if thinking… before he got up, Alyx calling after him as he walked past Charlotte and headed outside.
"Sorry about that…" Alyx said.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Charlotte asked.
"I hope so… I've seen him a bit spooked before, but never reacting like that. Whoever that man was, that touched a nerve somewhere." Alyx responded.
Gordon let the autumn air hit him and took a deep breath… before hearing two people nearby.
"Ain't my fault you got punched and thrown out, I said that you needed to wait til she was awake! But no, you had to go and try to throw Balor out of the room!" Roman responded, Seth's fury not relenting.
"He's the one who gives nasty glares as soon as I walk in the room! He treats Mandy like a cat does to a mouse it caught, he growls off anyone else who approaches, toys with her, messes around and eventually, he'll crush her and move on to the next without a thought!" Seth shouted in response, neither noticing that in response to the threatening atmosphere, Gordon had reached over his shoulder and grabbed onto the crowbar he had strapped to his back.
But Gordon stopped as soon as he saw Alyx.
"Bit too much?" Alyx asked, Gordon nodding and Alex leading him back into the hospital.
Gordon saw a nearby notepad and pen and picked the pen up, taking the cap off and writing something before showing it to Alyx.
'I'm sure the woman he mentioned is the same one that the blonde woman was looking for.'
"Why was he sounding like he was ready to kill?" Alyx replied.
'That's something we'll have to find out.' Gordon wrote down before Alyx went looking and stopped once she heard something.
"Why the hell was he here and what argument? He didn't want me going into the match, did he?" Amanda asked.
"I think it's still in the back of his mind, what had happened to you two years ago." Finn explained.
"And I've been used to a fast paced ring style for the better part of 11 years… but no one could ever really prepare for crazy stunts off of structures." Amanda responded as Mick Foley walked in. "Mick…" She said, expecting him to yell at her for being reckless… but instead, he took her into his arms and the two hugged.
"You three scared the hell outta me, that was way too similar." Mick replied as they let go.
"To Undertaker throwing you off the cell in 1998." Amanda responded before the three saw Alyx walk in.
"1998… that's when the Black Mesa incident happened, at least… where I came from it was. It's almost like it doesn't exist now." Alyx said, her light tan coloured jacket in her hands which she was brushing off from the dust still settled on it from the aftermath of the explosion.
"And you look like you've been through hell and back." Mick responded.
"You could say that… since I was only a year old, the Combine occupied the planet, 20 years passed and they still gripped it tight… me and Gordon, we were part of the human resistance force, pushing back against the Combine. Gordon only appeared a few weeks ago, I… I grew up in that life." Alyx explained, before she looked down, leaning back against the wall before looking up again. "Believe it or not, there I was… one of the youngest people on the planet, even at my age now. When the Combine arrived, they put up a suppression field around the population, not a single person on the planet could have a baby… it was their threat. Cooperate, or face extinction within the next century."
"And that explosion… killed them…" Amanda responded quietly.
"Far from it… the Combine were all over the world, that explosion simply took out their capital of commands… and from what I saw on the consoles, possibly took out or at least stunned their portal network, cutting them off from their homeworld." Alyx answered.
"Stopped them… at least." Mick replied.
"Everything seems okay here… where is here anyway?" Alyx questioned.
"Boston… I used to live about an hour or so outside the city." Amanda answered.
"Boston… part of the City 1 district, I think, to the Combine. Had a sub-citadel to the one in New York." Alyx replied, thinking out loud as she pieced it together from what was to her, history of the world they'd lost.
Outside, Seth was thinking of a way to get back into the ER but saw Gordon.
"Hey, have you seen a woman? 26 years old, 5'1", long brown hair and hazel eyes?" Seth asked.
Gordon shook his head as if to say no but Seth wouldn't let him head back into the hospital.
"Well I don't see your friend here, where's she gone? Probably looking for the same person, so I'll ask again, where…" Seth started to question further, stopping and backing up a few paces as Gordon grabbed the crowbar again.
Gordon looked at Seth with angered eyes… and then walked away, Seth knowing the subtle warning.
