Half-Tale: The Fallen
Characters are not mine. Half-Life and Adrian Shephard belong to Valve Corporation, and Undertale and Chara Dreemurr belong to Toby Fox. Please support the official releases.
Chapter 1 – A Cease Fire
All is found,
None is retrieved;
Rest in Clouds,
A Truth is reprieved.
The Void.
A wave of familiarity washes over Frisk, their breath steadying as they reopened their eyes, remembering what they had done. The all so familiar darkness surrounding them slightly encumbers the human, with them embracing it fully; this wasn't the first time they had encountered this darkness. Nor, they knew, would it be the last.
In fact, they welcomed it with open arms, for they have been here a great many times before. After a True Reset, they often get sent here, whether they do a genocide or pacifist run. Everything ends up back here.
To Frisk, this was the norm, although there were a few strange things, or people, rather, that could be found here alongside them.
One was a very peculiar W.D. Gaster. This enigma has always befuddled Frisk, and finding out this spectre's name took a few too many resets and 'FUN' value modifications. Sometimes they found the person in a random room in Waterfall, and other times, they found pieces of him that were scattered across Hotland and Waterfall alike.
Who he is and what his true nature and reasonings for being there are, remains an absolute mystery to them, the spectre appearing on a semi-uncommon basis in the Void after investigating into his past. Interaction with this being was also impossible; no matter how close Frisk got to him, he seemed so far away still.
…but it was no matter. This apparition, to Frisk, was nothing to worry for; he seldom did anything more than stare at them with that piercing, empty voided glare.
Then, there was Chara Dreemurr, the first fallen child turned ghastly apparition that now follows and influences them… or, at least for the initial genocide runs, she did. When that became the only thing Frisk did, Chara grew… discontent. Disgusted with them. She grew spiteful, but knowing that she couldn't do anything, Frisk ignored her cries for them to stop.
Frisk saw Chara more than Gaster. To be truthful, Chara always showed up in the Void, or at the end of the run, when everything was said and done. It was a ritual; Frisk goes through a genocide run, Chara tries to dissuade them from killing everyone for the umpteenth time, failing, and being forced to watch Frisk kill everyone in the Underground.
Sometimes, Frisk did it in different ways. Kill a bunch of monsters in one room using different weapons, differing in killing orders, etcetera. The only constant was that they felt euphoric as they did so. Everything still led to the Void.
However, this time was different. Neither Gaster nor Chara was there. It was just them.
"…Where is Chara?"
Frisk pondered this question for a little while in their head, remaining silent in the meanwhile as they inspected their surroundings.
"Nothing is too different… but neither of them is here. What's going on?"
They thought, for a moment, that Chara was able to break out of this loop they had created. After all, who would want to be trapped in a mindless, infinite loop of constant genocide runs? Frisk had learned to tune out her cries, but the possibility of escape…
They concluded that it was impossible.
The human raised their hand, creating an upwards motion. A mini-screen reminiscent of a hologram manifested into existence, displaying the SAVE file they had.
"Frisk, Lv 19, 150:23"
"The Void"
"Save, Return, RESET."
"Looks like my file still works. Whatever's happening, it doesn't matter anymore."
Frisk hesitantly hovered over the word 'RESET' for a moment, contemplating whether this might be a good idea seeing the absence of the aforementioned. However, shaking their head in dismissal, they pressed their finger on the reset button.
...only for it to simply phase through the text box.
"What the hell…?"
They tried again and again, flipping their entire hand on the RESET button, only for it to continue phasing in and out. No matter what they did, nothing worked. For the first time in what felt like years, they started panicking. Slight terror began to set in as they recognised the possible consequences. "N-no… please, wait, no!"
"Now… now… Frisk. There is… no need to… be afraid."
Frisk hears a calm and deep voice emanate from behind them. His tone was enough to send shivers down their spine, and the mysterious articulation of the sentence was almost alien. Whoever this was, this person was a threat.
But Frisk had no choice but to turn back and face him.
They are met with a tall, well-dressed, and groomed man in a suit, who was currently fixing his tie. Holding a briefcase in his left hand, he merely stared at Frisk. Or, rather, directly at their soul, Frisk theorised. This is a person they've never seen before.
…and not only was he in the Void, but he was human.
Or they assumed so.
"Who the hell are you?!" Frisk shouted, putting their guard up. Their eyes squinted in anticipation; teeth gritted. They aren't afraid of killing; they've done it a million times at this point. And this will be no different. If this person was keeping them here, then there is no other choice. "How do you know my name?!"
Not that they would choose another one, anyways.
Taking a knife from their inventory, Frisk got into a fighting position. After all these resets, they've honed their skills, and practiced their knife-work, mostly thanks to the help of Chara. Although she quickly stopped helping them, they managed to learn more than enough on their own to be as efficient as possible in killing.
"There is… no… need for… such weaponry, here. For that… reason… I will… take the liberty of relieving you of them."
As if in an instant, she was disarmed. The knife simply disappeared from their hands; this mysterious figure had just waived his hand and the weapon was just gone. Frisk looked at their hand in disbelief, shocked. "Where did… How?!"
"The… identity of I… is not so relevant as to the reason I am here," the man responded, his voice loud enough for all nearby to hear, and yet quiet enough to be barely audible as his raspy, formal voice surrounded Frisk. "My… benefactors… have warned me of… you. Of your… instability. Your unpredictability. But… I have been able to convince them to… overlook such… faults, if you were to accept a mutually beneficial deal that we have created."
Frisk took a moment to observe the man. Note his appearance and general demeanour, and what resulted was… alien.
This was no man.
He had the appearance of one, sure. 6 feet tall, piercing green eyes, slight asymmetrical head, skinny figure, and a devilish smile all cemented that fact. However, his aura and strange, mysterious tone told a completely different story. Frisk is all too familiar with such acts.
"What do you want from me?!"
"I'm certain you can guess, Frisk. It is how you ended up in such a place after all, and how you've consistently repeated events in the UNDERGROUND time and time again."
"Of course."
"My reset… my SAVE and LOAD ability."
"My employers became aware of… your SAVE abilities quite a… while ago, but we hadn't acted upon it… until now. They are… wary of your existence. The prospect of… higher interests locating this power is something we have considered greatly. And, so, we are offering you… an opportunity for… employment."
"Employment?! You trap me in this place, and you want me to just give you my ability to reset?!"
Frisk's fists ball and begin shaking in a spiked sense of enragement. They haven't made a move yet, but it was obvious that they were mere seconds away from striking this unknown figure. His demeanour, his attitude, his tone, his voice, his eyes… Every feeling in Frisk's body felt the urge to kill.
"Now, now… Frisk, again, I implore you to calm down," the figure says, his initial neutral face contorting into a slight frown. "I assure you that this will be equally beneficial to both parties. We obtain your reset ability, and you obtain… liberation from this realm."
Frisk said nothing, only looking down and appearing to be in contemplation. They started making small movements, walking towards the mysterious figure. Taking another, small, step, they smiled, putting out a hand.
"I am… glad… you decided to… agree, Frisk."
…Until Frisk began darting at full speed towards the mysterious figure, their intent murderous and determination at an all-time high. Frisk wasn't willing to give up their reset ability that easily; they decided that killing this man was the only way out of here. Manifesting another knife using the raw energy of determination, they lunged towards the figure, who looked directly into their soul with an expressionless glare.
"No way…!"
One could only imagine Frisk's surprise when they completely phased through the man, who, in response, fiddled with his tie as if nothing had happened at all. If one were to look closely at his face, they would sense a tinge of disappointment.
Frisk's breath steadies as they catch themselves on the floor, not expecting to just phase through someone like that. They sprawled off the ground, gripping their fists once again in anger. With a frustrated countenance, the human gritted their teeth. It seems as if killing this guy was out of the question.
In all their journey and countless genocide runs, Frisk had never encountered someone who could simply phase through their attacks other than Napstablook and Chara, but this man was not an apparition. Not to mention just not even recognizing an attack of theirs in general; Frisk pondered the apparent question: who exactly is this?
Before Frisk could further theorize, the man spoke.
"I see you are… unwilling to participate in the offer of which we had so graciously provided to you. It is indeed a pity; however, the threat of your abilities cannot remain in the main space of time as to not… provoke our interests. And so, you are to remain… here for the foreseeable future."
Chills began running down Frisk's spine again, yet to a far greater extent. The terror that they felt minutes earlier was nothing compared to what they felt now; the eternal entrapment of them for all of eternity was not a thought they wanted to ponder. They began shaking in fear for the first time since they had fallen down the gaping hole towards the Underground. Or for the first time they left the RUINS; or for the first time they faced Omega Flowey.
They couldn't let this happen. They absolutely couldn't remain here, alone. Eternal solitude is something of nightmares. And they aren't going to stand by as this guy leaves them there.
…but what can they do, exactly?
Nothing. There only lies The Void.
They have all of eternity to reflect on themselves.
The man in the suit straightened his tie once more before a white portal spontaneously manifests in front of the man. He looked back at Frisk with a calculating, emotionless, stare before walking into the portal. It closed shortly after.
"Shit."
SUBJECT: Frisk [REDACTED]
Status: DETAINED
AWAITING FURTHER EVALUATION
"FORGET ABOUT FREEMAN! WE'RE CUTTING OUR LOSSES AND…"
"WE'RE PULLING OUT OF BLACK MESA!"
"ANYONE LEFT DOWN THERE IS NOW ON HIS…"
"WE'RE COMMENCING AIRSTRIKES ON-SITE!"
…
Chara has been… enduring. From counting the countless genocide runs she's been forced to witness as the informal and impromptu guide of Frisk to being a spectre running off the determination of another person, she thought she had seen it all.
Initially, Frisk was passive. Pacifistic, even, as they had fun and made friends down in the Underground while also bringing peace back to monster-kind as they acted as the ambassador to help monsters settle back into the Surface's society. As Chara helped 'narrate', or guide, so to speak, Frisk, she couldn't help but revel in how everything turned out.
…At least for the first four or five runs. After that, Frisk went off into the deep end as they kept resetting, doing different things each time. Chara didn't mind it too much, although she found that Frisk's continued repetition was rather strange. Everything became rather same-y, with Frisk making little changes from each run.
But then, Chara became an accomplice. For whatever God forsaken reason, despite repeated efforts from Chara to get Frisk to stop, they started going on a complete murder-spree in the entire Underground. Every monster that Frisk encountered was killed in cold blood without any shred of remorse nor explanation.
The accomplice part comes from Chara telling Frisk how many monsters remained in a specific area in the Underground. She didn't know why she continued giving them this statistic; it was almost as if she was… coerced in some way. Something that was more… subliminal, she theorised.
But it didn't matter.
Hate filled her SOUL. She was terrified, and yet not alone. Chara grew indifferent. After countless runs, she stopped really caring, only following what her 'script' said for each run. This continued for a very long time.
It made her ponder why and how she was still sane. Her silent anger manifested as hate for Frisk and every human alive. Before, she was petrified to see what happened to Asriel, but now she only holds resentment because of what he failed to prevent. What he failed to do; the entire plan she had to free the monsters was wasted.
However, at a very specific point, one that she couldn't recall very well, Chara began to feel more, for one reason or another. No longer was she so emotionless and indifferent; she began to feel again. Her love for the monsters returned as she also reminded herself of her hate against humans. Exactly how she felt when she died.
But it didn't really change her situation. She was still stuck in this eternal hell. Chara knew she aged a little, somehow, from her previous teenage self to approximately nineteen, in both physical appearance and mentally, though the latter condition didn't serve as good solitude.
In any case, genocide seems too soft a term to describe what Frisk was doing. This was pain and suffering on a loop. A Hell the monsters are not privy to, and yet they experience it all the same, again and again, none remembering after a RESET.
Obviously, she was disgusted. Her main advocation, the concept of 'Kill or Be Killed,' was now completely foreign to her, now hating herself for ever thinking this was true in the Underground. Her suppressed feelings previously numbed her to the monsters, of whom she loved.
Now, Frisk embodies the concept.
Despite everything she's encountered and experienced in her time of accompanying Frisk in murdering the entirety of the Underground for what seemed like the trillionth time, nothing could have ever prepared her for the whiplash she'd get after waking up, expecting to wake up in the RUINS as per every other run…
…Gun shots, helicopter swirling, alien noises, loud screams of terror and shouts of military commands, though these sounds quickly whisked away as she found herself in a very slight silence. Wearily rising to her feet, trying to attract any semblance of sense, she took her head in confusion. Chara, with panic building in her nerves, turned herself around to try and gauge her surroundings. She found herself in a blood-stained corridor aligned with several human bodies and… alien-looking creatures, Chara found herself somehow right in the middle of a warzone, of which she felt like she was interloping upon.
"Am I on… the Surface? No, it can't be… but I know it is. Where is this? Why is it so… loud?!"
Millions of questions following this flooded into her mind, invading her entire cognitive thought as her breathing hastens, her heart quickening in tandem. She still felt apparition-like, but the pure insanity of where she had just landed gave her a sense of terror that made her forget this very fact.
A terror she had no time to properly address.
A small, dirty-greenish circular object was thrown just past her, landing a few meters away from where she was. It made a few metallic thumps, still rolling on the floor, before reaching an absolute standstill. The device remained there for a few moments.
The young woman, now having calmed down slightly, tilted her head as she kneeled and inspected the small device. She didn't know what it was, but something about it felt familiar to her. As if this was something she hadn't seen in a long time.
But then she remembered.
"…Damn."
CRASH!
The device, now being remembered as a grenade, exploded, shattering itself into a million pieces as it scattered around the area and eliminating any potential threats that was posed. Chara raised her sweater sleeves up, trying to block as much shrapnel as possible; though, at this range, she supposed that she should be dead at this point.
"I'm… alive…?"
A sudden series of thumps emitting from military-grade boots interrupted her thought process, as she instinctively looked behind her. She saw a soldier, not unlike the few corpses that were adorning the corridor floor. However, this one was wearing a notable gas mask, possessed a wrench as a melee weapon, and had a… creature on his shoulder… She wasn't totally sure what it exactly was, though for some reason, the creature got off his shoulder and observed from a nearby ledge.
Chara looked at him in horror as he seemed to be silently -and slowly- walking towards her. The man adjusted his grip on the wrench, seeming to be getting ready to strike. Assuming he was coming after her, she got into a battle-ready stance. If she could, she'd at least try and put up a fight, but…
"WAIT!"
He accelerated quickly, his velocity increasing as he rushed towards her.
She braced for impact.
…only for the man to completely phase through her and strike at another person behind her. Chara quickly contorted her body towards the other direction to try and fathom what had just happened. The young woman continued to stare in horror at the man as he swung his wrench, brutally bashing it across the face of another person. A soldier, just like him.
She recoiled in disgust but then refocused on herself.
"I'm… still dead. Right. Despite everything, why wouldn't I be?"
Clutching her right hand, she sighed in exasperation as she burrowed her eyebrows in frustration. Even after everything that's happened so far, she's still dead. Though she counted her blessings as she probably wouldn't have survived the impact of the grenade otherwise.
Still not completely aware of her surroundings, she took another minute to steady herself. Steady her breathing. Closing her eyes and omitting everything happening, she managed to regain her bearings and stabilise her mental state, if but for a moment. This was among the many things she learned to do as she was forced to endure Frisk's constant genocide. She would've gone crazy without it.
Chara remembered she could float as she levitated slightly off the ground, further confirming her dead status by phasing her hand through a nearby wall. Then, she turned her gaze towards the person who she thought was going to attack her. He was already long finished with killing his adversary, who was lying on the ground immobile.
She looked down on the man, disgust and disdain plastered on her countenance. This man reminded her of Frisk. Of their destructive capabilities that came packed with the power of RESET. Except this was raw; there is no dust. No slight blood coming from a boss monster or anything along those lines. This was one person articulately tearing apart another person.
Her view on humanity worsened even further because of this. Blinded by her hatred of the race, she could only wish death upon them. For what they did to her on the Surface. What they did to Asriel. What they did to the entirety of monster-kind.
She almost let her anger take over her again.
Chara maintained her position; this human, the one in military gear, was certainly adding to this hatred. However, in a weird, sick, way, this man fascinated her. Not only was he so angry at this person he brutally tore through with his wrench, but he attacked with conviction. With a purpose. Chara could easily tell; she'd seen Sans fight.
This kind of determination left her curious.
"Why is he so… angry?"
The young woman hesitated before levitating over to the man, who had been taking a rest on a blood-stained bench up to this point. She knew he couldn't see her, that much was proven when he phased right through her, so she was free to roam as she'd like. With a curious expression, Chara scrutinised the man further. She wanted to know his story. Maybe it'll help her figure out why she's here and how she got there.
"Damn it. Fucking DAMN IT!" the man curled up his fist and crashed it onto the wooden bench, creating a splint. His body language displayed distress and dismay. He shook his head and grunted slightly, trying to shrug off what he did as he picked up his wrench from the ground and placing it to hang on one of his many belt-patches. "It's always the same, you bastard… You didn't have to kill him, for fuck's sake…!"
Chara watched as the man walked away, her gaze judging, yet almost sympathetic. Whoever this was, he clearly wasn't exactly having fun killing his own kind. The young woman retracted her earlier deduction… this may have been done for a just reason. Chara wondered what that was, but she didn't want to stick around to find out.
She's been here all of five minutes and she'd already rather be anywhere else.
A change of scenery would probably help her small investigation of this place, the young woman dressed in the striped, green sweater decided. It's unlikely that anything else she sees anywhere else would be worse than what she's already experienced.
The fluorescent lights above began flickering unexpectedly, spooking Chara for but a mere moment. She's pretty much had it with this place at this point. Sticking a hand through a nearby wall to retest her intangibility, she phased her entire body through a wall that she assumed led to the outside.
"I suppose there's one upside to being a gho…"
It was even worse out there.
The helicopters' volume increased in magnitude alongside the mass gun shots and screams of terror. With a face that screamed pure terror, Chara unconsciously forced herself to stare at the absolute carnage being wrought upon what might've been some sort of courtyard, now turned warzone.
Turning her head one direction yields her the killing of a soldier. More specifically, a one eye-balled creature, not unlike a Loox except many times more frightening, dismembering the soldier with no mercy to be found.
This fills her with confliction.
Turning her head in another direction has a large creature with a robotic-looking arm and warrior aesthetic with hooved feet crushing a soldier's throat with one hand, brutally eviscerating the man. She thought she'd be elated to see humans dying so brutally, but this was only horrifying to witness.
Her head spun wildly in a mix of confusion and mental exhaustion, the latter of which she didn't know she could feel anymore.
And then she heard the voices.
"Far… distant eyes look through yours."
"Something… secret steers us both. We shall not name it."
"The longing you and we have felt… it drives to oblivion."
The voices spoke in a neat, yet rough and coarse manner. Each syllable pounded in Chara's head, her mind having to endure further pain than there already was. Each word felt like they held profound meaning, even though Chara had no idea what any of it meant. All she knew was that it was directed at her for whatever reason. "W-what is that?! S-stop it!"
The voices became louder.
"He is… no man."
"Beware from whence he came."
"We will set you free!"
Chara couldn't even begin to fathom what any of this meant, but these kinds of thoughts started overwhelming her mind; she was unable to keep up.
She saw a man in a suit flash in her mind before she passed out.
Chara awoke again in a dizzy haze, her mind foggy once again. She thought she could get used to this feeling, but then a flood of memories from what she could only describe as a 'desolate' dream came. What she just endured… she knew was powerful. She felt it resonate deeply in her soul. Her mind was telepathically overwhelmed, feeling like it turned to mush.
She wondered if the 'dream' was even a dream at all. Everything seemed so… real, even looking back at it now. The amount of detail and that she could recall was staggering, but at the same time, it was fading away very quickly. As if something was trying to make her forget.
It was no big deal anymore. Finally standing up on her feet, she realised where she was. The familiar aroma in the air, the ever so illuminating light coming from the surface hole, the golden flowers in the middle of the room embellishing the otherwise crude space. Everything was the same, down to the exact detail.
Her eyes widened in surprise, but she shrugged the feeling off, expecting nothing else. "Of course… I'm back here. Why wouldn't I be?"
The RUINS have never felt more familiar to her ever than now. The beginning of it, anyways. She was so used to waking up here; any deviation, no matter how slight, was welcome. And, she supposed, this… premonition-like dream she had was proof of a massive instance of it. She's never had a dream akin to this one before.
But she knew she had to accept the reality of the situation. She was stuck in the loop again. The change of scenery was terrifying, but slightly liberating, and now she's going to suffer the same thing she's been suffering through for the past few hundred, if not thousand, rotations.
Back to trying to plead with Frisk to not to continue the endless genocide.
Back to witnessing a hundred monsters fall to Frisk's blade.
Back to watching her adoptive mother and father die a needless death.
Back to… wait.
Chara looked around for Frisk, who would have normally fallen into the Underground by now. Her head tilted in confusion, her eyebrows furrowing as she searched the surrounding area for any clue to their whereabouts. "Where are they…?"
A rather loud THUMP could then be heard impacting the flowery ground.
That's when she saw… him, lying down on the yellow flowers that was so very familiar. Clad in full military gear and a gas mask, the man grabbed his own head and shook it to reorient himself, picking himself up from the floor wearily, arms slumped as he looked around the area, his masked gaze eventually settling upon Chara.
The man spoke. "Identify yourself!"
"That's… that isn't Frisk…!"
"Wait, please, don't kill me!"
A man in heavy duty green military gear slowly approaches a beaten and battered scientist, who hid behind a knocked down pristine, save for the blood, table. With one hand wielding a bloodied wrench, and the other gripped on a worn M1911, the man scowled, his countenance hidden by a gas mask and navy green tactical, bullet resistant helmet. The camouflaged spotted white cargo pants he wore clashed with various other substances that covered it, very obviously having witnessed hours of sustained combat with aliens and humans alike.
"Another scientist trapped down here, huh…?"
It appears that Adrian has encountered another Black Mesa scientist, sprawled out on the ground, and beaten. The man clad in military gear shifted his gaze over towards an elevator shaft and took a heavy breath, his moments slow and sluggish, though at a moment's notice, he could spring into action if necessary.
He'd have to navigate down it, he knew that. More elevator systems to navigate. Lovely.
The scientist continued to cower as Adrian walked over to him, then kneeling right in front of him. He spoke and extended a hand to try and reassure him. The voice that came out was raspy, yet definitively young. "I'm… sorry for scaring you."
"Oh, thank you…!" the scientist took his hand and repositioned himself back up, Adrian noticing a wave of relief washing over his entire being as this man was certainly not here to kill him; rather, he helped him, compared to the numerous other soldiers that had come to murder his colleagues.
This was not Adrian's handiwork; he wouldn't dream of it. Why his colleagues and fellow soldiers would do such a thing was beyond him, but he wasn't there to theorise. His mask hid his countenance, but he was tired. Hours upon hours of navigating through the various labyrinths of the scientist site, encountering various monsters, his own team, scientists, and black ops soldiers rendered the twenty-two-year-old soldier wanting to give up.
But he couldn't. He doesn't know exactly what's happening down here, but he couldn't give up. He pledged to save as many civilians as possible, even though it supposedly went against his orders, or whatever orders he thought he would have been given if he had been awake when he touched down.
"Need to keep moving."
The scientist reached into his lab coat and retrieved a syringe filled with, to Adrian, an unknown substance. Sensing his hesitation, the scientist waved his hand and assured the rebellious soldier. "Ah, don't worry. It's just some morphine; it should help you out a little seeing your… wounds."
A mild sense of reassurance rushed over Adrian, who nodded and let the scientist inject the syringe into his body. The sense of reassurance that had permeated over the man was replaced with a newfound sense of rejuvenation as he felt his previous wounds' pain depart from his body.
Adrian's face contorted into one of slight satisfaction, though this was obviously difficult to see due to the gas mask he'd stubbornly kept on his face thus far on his impromptu mission. Adjusting his military vest adorned with various weaponry a slight bit, he turned and waved goodbye to the scientist. Where he supposed he was going, he wouldn't want anyone getting hurt because of him. Not again.
The enemies he'd face next were surely to be unwavering and unrelenting, but he had one thing they didn't.
Determination.
After an especially lengthy section where he had to power off an elevator shaft to progress through the facility, he peered into a hallway, scrutinizing every minute detail before continuing. Seeing what he's been through so far, he's learned to take much more precaution as to not land himself near death's door for what would seem like the eightieth time.
As he walked through the particularly empty, yet sizeable, corridor decorated with a relatively sparse amount of hazardous material and sprawled out notes on the wall, he decided he'd take this short span of downtime to reflect on what he's been through so far.
. . .
The entire facility had gone to hell. The rescue mission that Adrian and his squad had been assigned to had fell out completely. When they crash landed on-site, most, if not all, of his squad mates died upon impact, with Adrian being the lucky person to survive as he was resuscitated by a group of scientists hiding out from the aliens that took siege on the complex.
Adrian Shephard, being the last one alive, took up arms (a wrench and various other weaponry he finds along the way) to try and make it out, all the while having to avoid various treacherous environments that the now taken-over facility had to offer.
He was so close to salvation, to freedom, early on in his journey. Adrian was able to meet up with some of his teammates at an extraction point on the surface but was consequently left before he could even get onto the helicopter. He hypothesised that he was deliberately left behind by some sort of… government agent. Right when he was going to head into the V-22 Osprey, a large, metal door closed in on him, leaving a man dressed in a suit to only stare at him for a moment before disappearing.
It was incredibly strange, being that close to freedom and yet falling short at the last moment. By the same person that had saved him thirty minutes prior from being turned to ash by a room continuously being filled with acid, no less.
…Now that he was thinking about it, he remembers seeing that exact same guy watching him during his military training. All the guys back at base were curious as to what his purpose was, but they couldn't figure it out. Now, the masked-man figures that he was more related to whatever's going on right now than he initially thought.
Adrian had no idea who or what this 'G-Man' guy was, but he's caused him quite a bit of trouble and saved his life at the same time. He's been travelling through the facility for what surely has been hours at this point, trying to find anyone still kicking and a way to leave this desolate and ruined research complex.
Earlier on during the beginning of his 'journey', the gasmask wearing man encountered soldiers. Not the soldiers he's used to, marines and whatnot, but bona fide, absolute, top of the line, black ops. And they were there not to help them, nor the researchers escape. No, they were there to silence everyone, as he learned after overhearing some conversations while he traversed through some vents.
He wasn't even aware of what side he was fighting for anymore. Adrian encountered many fellow HECU soldiers that did help him progress through the facility, but some were… a bit more ambiguous, in his eyes. Sure, a lot of marines expressed discontent with the orders that were given to them and defied them, but in any case, far too many researchers and guards, he found, were shot to death, and he was sure that at least some of them weren't from black ops.
Whatever their purposes, whether it was to silence everyone to conceal the events that happened here in Black Mesa, or anything else, it wasn't going to change the fact that it's not working.
Along the way, he's picked up a friend that he's been keeping on his person. A creature from the 'alien invasion', he refers to the incident as. A cute, small, greenish creature with protruding teeth is seen on his back at almost all times, attacking nearby enemies by itself as it seemed to have grown a certain fondness for its new owner.
This creature was a reminder to Adrian that, maybe, not all aliens might be bad. The creature, of whom he's named 'Spore', not only could spew deadly, toxic projectiles, but it also had a certain prowess to electricity, being able to discharge electric shocks to nearby opponents.
When Spore does so, its surface appearance contorts into a far more blue-ish colour, indicating the discharge's effectiveness. For whatever reason, this discharge neither the toxic projectile attack can harm Adrian, even if he attempted directing it his way. In any case, he's not going to complain about his very helpful companion.
And that's not to mention the actual origin of these kinds of creatures. He doesn't know much though the short time he's been through where he believed them to have come from, but from what he experienced, it was certainly…
CRAK!
He stopped, raising an eyebrow. Was that what he thought he that was?
CRAK! CRAK! CRAK! CRAK! CRAK! CRAK! CRAK! CRAK! CRAK!
It was.
Immediately realising that he wasn't the target of the apparent flurry of gun shots, he got into cover, huddling himself up against a wall adjacent to the entrance of another corridor, M1911 clutched in his hand, ready for anything that could possibly happen.
Sweat drew from his brow, dripping down his concealed countenance. His heartbeat was increasing in speed and intensity. Adrian's been in shootouts before, sure, obviously, but he wasn't stupid enough to get caught in whatever crossfire that was happening in the corridor ahead of him.
After what seemed like a very lengthy thirty seconds, the gunshots had finally ceased for good. Adrian squinted his eyes; normally, he would charge right into danger without any consideration of himself and his wellbeing. However, this seemed like a special instance. Within the frequent shots, he heard wails of terror and pain. And not from aliens, no, they seemed… different.
Perhaps conflict between humans…? There was no way to be completely certain without further investigation. Was it worth the risk, though? Adrian wasn't sure. But he'd have to check it out eventually out of curiosity anyways, so why not just bite the bullet?
Fine. What's he got to lose anyways?
The gas-masked man creeped from the corner he had been hugging and peered into the pathway, which seemed to now be decorated with blood. He flinched a little, seeing the excess of the substance. And then, his eyes followed down to the ground.
Soldiers wearing the same uniform he was, albeit with minor differences.
Someone was killing HECU soldiers. Probably not a good sign.
The wails and screaming and gunshots that echoed through the haunting corridors of this research complex were replaced with a certain sobbing. Adrian was reconsidering whether the conflict that just happened were between humans, but this confirmed that his initial thoughts were right.
Now, the only question was… what the hell happened?
Only one way to find out.
Adrian, with his M1911 positioned in front of him, steadily aiming at the end of the hallway, began creeping through the steel corridor, taking mental note of every movement, any possible scenarios that could follow, and any mistakes or errors that he could make. He was good like that, fortunately for him, but he didn't know if it would work so well here. Not yet. He'll find out soon.
As the sobbing's volume increased in amplitude, he figured he was getting extremely close. Whatever happens, happens. Adrian has been trained for exactly these kinds of scenarios, and all he must do was follow…
"Who's there?!"
Damn. He made too much noise. Adrian damned the amount of weaponry he held onto himself; if it were any other case, he'd be as sleek and stealthy as a cat. But you can only get so far when wearing all this heavy-duty armour and having an alien creature on your shoulder.
Adrian supposed that hiding himself was probably not an option anymore. Surveying the situation tactics be damned.
"Hey, hey! HECU! Friendly! Friendly!"
This was sort of a shot in the dark, but he supposed that either this guy was on his side or a member of the security team in this research site. Either would work for him.
"B-blue… Same side, same side! Blue on Blue!"
Blue on Blue? Friendly fire? Adrian ceased all movements before hesitantly resuming. He turned the dreaded corner to see a man covered in blood, sat down next to a corner, and obviously petrified. He is surrounded by members of the same squad; they were all HECU members, and it seems like this soldier was the last surviving member.
"Jesus…" Adrian sheathed his pistol and approached the soldier with little to no hesitation, trying to scrutinise the man's wounds… only to realise that there were none. This very slightly concerned Adrian; the soldier did mention Blue on Blue, but… "Christ… Are you okay, soldier?"
The man looked at Adrian's mask, then to his vest, then to Spore confusingly, before speaking. "Corporal... I- I had to do it. They wouldn't listen to me. They didn't. They killed him. I had to do something. I couldn't… I…"
The soldier looked terrified and scarred, the wear and tear, mental and physical exhaustion on him absolute and prominent. Looking at the soldier's own vest, he ascertained his rank without any further consideration of this man's appearance. "Private… Allen. Did you do this…?" He already knew the answer, but he wanted confirmation.
The Private widened his eyes, the pupils within dilating as sweat began to form. He shook slightly. "I… I had to. I was left… w-with no other choice… L-look!"
He pointed his index finger towards the opposing wall past Adrian, a scientist laying there with a gunshot wound visibly piercing their head. "I- I couldn't stop them… I t-tried. I got… mad. I… They were family, man! They were brothers to me, b-but look what they m-made me… f-fucking do…"
Adrian shot a quick glance behind him to confirm what he was saying. There was indeed a scientist with a bullet hole easily visible on the front of their head, as if an execution had taken place. So, that much was believable, but one man… being able to kill an entire room of HECU marines just like that?
He supposed that was believable too. Especially if they were caught off guard. But the entire situation was gruesome in any case; he… didn't really know how to go from here. Despite how methodically he liked to go about things, he's still quite young: he had just turned twenty-two about a month back.
So, there comes upon situations where he must improvise.
…What should he do here, though?
Adrian shot several looks around himself and the private, steadily sighing to himself. He couldn't imagine how Private Allen felt at this very moment. Being forced to kill his entire squad to protect one scientist rather than go with them… he knew it must have taken a lot of willpower. And not to mention Allen looked younger than him too.
Private Allen felt an arm on his shoulder, Adrian methodically removing his gas mask for the first time since he crashed into Black Mesa, revealing his sharp, young, countenance. He didn't know how to comfort someone, but he supposed that he could offer his hand.
"I can't say whether you did the right thing, that's not up to me, but you tried saving an innocent life. That's not something you can say about a lot of our fellow soldiers down here, Allen. It's a bloodbath down here; the only thing we can do is keep going. I understand if it's too much to bear."
With that, Adrian re-donned his gas mask and promptly stood up, his hand returning to a neutral position. The man blew a sigh of weariness with a tinge of mild contemplation as he turned around, walking away, his footsteps heavy and unrelenting.
Neither of them said anything else, for there need not be any further words.
After Adrian made his way back to the corner that he was originally trying to create a plan near, he heard a loud sound.
CRAK!
The masked man flinched ever so slightly hearing the gunshot, the resultant obvious. Did he make the right decision? Just leaving him there?
Allen had just killed his own squad, the people he's probably spent his entire time training with. Adrian knows how close people can get to their squad-mates, even in such a short amount of time. Turbulent times, joyous times, all of it just to be thrown away to try and save one person, who died anyways.
An act of disobedience; an act of betrayal. But a just one, right?
Not to mention the amount of therapy Allen would have needed to go through to even begin to forgive himself or find some semblance of peace after such a traumatic event…
Did Adrian make the right decision just leaving there?
He could've done something. Saved him.
Can he even afford to contemplate this?
Corporal Shephard's initial apathy began to tear apart at the seams, his morality returning to him, if for but a moment. There is something he could've done. He doesn't know what that would have been, nor if it even would have worked, but he should've tried something. So, why didn't he?
He wished he knew.
"No- wait, please! Don't- GAH!"
Adrian was immediately broken out of his thoughts upon hearing the screeched cry for help. He darted his eyes towards the source of the voice and began running towards it, thinking not of any potential dangers that may have resulted in said screech.
He wasn't going to just ignore it.
"Shut the… HELL… up!" another voice called out from the direction Adrian was heading. The voice seemed disjointed and annoyed, putting heavy emphasis on 'Hell' as he grunted. Whatever was happening over there, it wasn't good.
After turning a corner that led to a thin corridor, contrasting from the wide walkway he had just arrived from, Adrian witnessed another gruesome sight. An HECU soldier holding a bloodied knife, standing over the corpse of a recently killed scientist.
"You… you killed… him?" Adrian shouted at the HECU soldier, briefly startling him. He took one quick glance at his tag on his chest that indicated his ranking. "…Private. Did you kill this man?"
"Corporal!" the soldier turned his neck towards Adrian and snarled. "Of course I did. What'd you expect? It's our orders. Not like these bastards can fight back anyways... Speaking of, I heard some shit going on back where I left my squad to go after this guy." He shrugged, returning his combat knife to its proper receptacle. "You don't happen to know what happened over there, do ya?"
A certain fury began to consume Adrian. Unconsciously, he gripped his hands; if he weren't wearing gloves, his nails might have cut into his skin. 'There was no need', he thought. 'There was no point. This was pointless.'
He decided right then and there that he would give the private the same exact treatment. Screw his 'orders'; this death was unjust and born of nothing but bloodlust, for no reason whatsoever. "Is… that so? Yeah… yeah, I know what happened."
Behind his back, Adrian swiftly unhooked an M26 grenade and pulled the pin, keeping his hand clasped on the safety lever. There was a fine line between senseless killing and a justified death, and this crossed the line. There was nothing that could stop this now.
The man in the gas mask knew he'd have to be fast about this, but he revelled in every second. A very slight silence was introduced, the faint sound of a clock ticking nearby. Adrian counted to himself, making sure he timed this just right.
"Oh, and what's with the alien on your shoulder? He takin' you over or sumn'? Want me to kill it for you?"
In a fraction of a second, the masked man threw the grenade towards the soldier, making sure he had little to no time to react at all. Since the scientist was already dead, he didn't have to worry about collateral damage and only focused on dispatching the private.
This was one of the main things he really hated about a lot of people who joined the military. They were in it as an excuse to kill people, not serve their country.
…and this guy was going to face that fact firsthand. Right in the face, actually.
The HECU soldier was barely able to widen his eyes before he was blasted backwards, the shrapnel exploding from the grenade almost killing him instantly, if it weren't for his heavy duty HECU standard issue armour.
…but Adrian wasn't finished yet.
He began walking methodically, Spore, who was quiet during the entire ordeal, continued to remain silent. However, as if it sensed what was going to happen, the alien creature hopped off his shoulder and observed from afar. Adrian silently thanked it as he withdrew his wrench, adjusting his grip on it.
The gasmask wearing man says nothing, steadily increasing his speed from a crawl to a full-fledged sprint. This gave him some sense of relief… a rush of freedom, maybe. He couldn't help but feel like he ran through something, though…
This feeling was quickly discarded. Adrian quickly managed to close the distance between him and the resilient soldier. Finally, the wrench in his hand finally tasted the newly flayed flesh as it swung upon the screeching soldier. Adrian felt no remorse, or at least as much as he maybe should have.
…The man eventually came to his senses, witnessing the result of his brutal evisceration of this soldier. This was bad; this was unnecessary. This was just more blood on his hands, exactly like what the soldier that laid before him had.
It's sickening to him. The mental turmoil that lingered throughout his venture in this forsaken facility returned to him in full. Not even mentioning the massacre before, with Private Allen… it began to take a toll. Everything tried to flood into his mind at once.
"Damn it… FUCKING DAMN IT!" Adrian shouted to himself, smashing his hand into a nearby wooden bench, splintering it upon impact. "It's always the same, you bastard… You didn't have to kill him, for fuck's sake…!"
Another death he couldn't prevent.
There's nothing left but to keep moving. This isn't the time to be thinking about all of this; it will only slow him down.
The Corporal gradually stood up and, with a sigh, retracted his wrench, placing it back into its holster. Spore, from its resting spot, watching the entire scene, crawled up back onto Adrian's shoulders, resting. The road ahead of him is still long, he thought, so now's the time to get moving.
With one glance back at the gruesome scene, he left, filled with determination; the man began to march forth. "There has to be some way out of here, right?"
CRAK!
CRAK!
CRAK!
"Fucking… DIE!" Adrian shouted at the top of his lungs between breaths, taking his final shots towards his target. Adrenaline coursed and pulsed through his veins, the toiled fight finally coming to its conclusion. His hands gripped around his pistol as he continued to shoot, even though the job was already done. Spore, his friendly, alien, companion, finished off one of the creature's spawn with an electric shock. It made its way back on Adrian's shoulders, though he didn't notice. "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!"
CRAK!
CRAK!
…
CLINK!
CLINK!
Even after he was out of ammo for his pistol, he kept shooting for a few seconds. This was, by far, the hardest threat he had to face thus far. He was still enraptured in the trance enacted upon himself. He tended to do this if he gets too into the fight, and this was an exemplary example of it. The gas masked man eventually snapped out of it.
The massive, green, monstrous worm-like creature wailed in pain, flailing its tentacled appendages as its abdomen, which had been its primary weak spot, closed for the final time in response to Adrian's numerous bullet storms toward it. It seemed to attempt an escape back to its home world using the gaping purple portal it used to enter Earth, but it was stopped by a flurry of giant, green explosions.
It was also stopped by… something as it began to almost dissipate from reality, popping in and out of existence. However, what was happening to it didn't matter as the explosions decimated the alien horror, finishing it off for good.
Adrian lowered his pistol, breathing heavily in exasperation and desperation. That was that, he supposed… until the entire room began to crumble, inciting a sense of panic within himself once again. He needed to get out of there, and fast. His mind raced, but he wasn't in extreme-immediate danger. He returned his pistol to its proper receptacle. "God damn it, again?!"
After he found his way out of this danger zone, he'd have to continue pursuing his goal of getting the hell out of the facility still. That was still a point of contention in his mind; every time he got close to leaving, something unexpected stops him and pushes him even further into the facility. Hell, he wasn't even sure how far in it he was at this point.
Adrian's eyes darted to an emergency 'EXIT' door that was directly to the left of where the worm creature had previously been stationed. Internally, he smiled. Nothing more invoked a sense of determination in him more than an unforeseen escape route. Near it, however, he briefly washed his eyes towards a window to another room. With a blue suit hung up on a hangar.
…And then, he realised.
There was one factor he had mentally pushed out of his mind ever since it happened, as it would have distracted him way too much for him to think properly. Earlier, he deactivated something. Something that would have absolutely crushed the entire facility in nanoseconds, and probably a lot more, killing everyone who would be unlucky enough to still be in it.
"Haha…"
It was a thermonuclear bomb. Not even five minutes after he deactivated, he saw the man haunting him throughout his venture through the facility reactivating it. And there wasn't anything he could do about it; he tried going back, but it was completely blocked off.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Adrian broke off in a sporadic and maniacal laughter. There really was nothing he could do. There was still time for him to escape, but it would all be pointless since him and Spore are about to be whisked away like dust in an EF5 tornado against the nuclear device. He did everything he could. "I… I TRIED! I TRIED, DAMN YOU! AND THIS… HAHA… THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS?!"
Everything he sacrificed, everyone he helped… Everything he went through was all pointless. This was how it was going to end. With a bang, sure…
…a bang that no one will ever know of.
The gas-masked wearing man leaned against one of the nearby pillars he used earlier as cover, and steadily fell to the ground against it. Adrian figured he would go out staring wishfully away at the sunset. Or, rather, the various explosions permeating the area that resulted from his clash with the… Gene Worm, the beast was called apparently.
There was no real point in keeping the gasmask on at this point, especially since there isn't anyone around to see him anyways, so he took it off, breathing in the fresh air of the crumbling carnage he wrought. He wearily attached his gasmask to his side. Adrian was tired. Tired of fighting, tired of the aliens, and tired of the facility. "I could really go for a cig."
He relaxed his eyes, his previously tensioned muscles calming down in tandem. The adrenaline that essentially ran his entire body today began to wear off. Adrian picked up Spore from his shoulder and set it on his lap, petting the alien's head to soothe both it and he. This worked surprisingly well.
Some breathing exercises might do him well, too.
Breath in… breathe out.
In.
Out.
In…
He attempted to close his eyes, but he was physically unable to, as if something wanted him to remain awake.
His vision went green.
…
"So… Corporal Shephard, we meet at last."
Adrian's eyes shot open instantly, sporadically turning his head in a flash. He was certain he was dead, or at least, going to die. Then, he engulfed himself in his surroundings. This wasn't Black Mesa! The loud resonance of helicopter blades continuously chopping brought him back memories he didn't know he found himself fond of. But none of that mattered anymore. He was alive!
But… how? Why? He doesn't remember getting up, nor anyone coming to save…
That's when he faced him.
Adrian recognised him. At this point, it was impossible to just pretend he didn't exist. This was the ever-so-elusive G-Man that was always either in the corner of his eye, watching him, or intentionally in view as he sabotaged something in either his favour or… otherwise.
"Please… don't think that I've been avoiding you, a great many matters require my attention in these... troubled times."
Something felt off about him, too. Sure, he looked the part of your typical government man, maybe in his 40s, wearing a typical suit and tie. But it wasn't right. Adrian guessed that he should have been clued in when he was conveniently stalking him at every corner… and his bizarre speech patterns. That mysterious suitcase isn't helping the case very well either.
Adrian opened his mouth to speak in response, but nothing came out. He couldn't speak. The now unmasked man felt nothing from his vocal cords. It's as if they've been… shut down. Either way, he could only listen to his stalker.
"I… do hope you understand, and now I require a further indulgence on your part. I cannot… close my report until every loose end has been tied up."
Every word, every pronunciation this G-Man uttered sounded wrong. He spoke clearly and assuredly, but some syllables were far more pronounced than others, speaking in somewhat of a slur in some words, and cutting sentences short in others. This didn't help his comprehension of what this G-Man was talking about, too. "Loose ends? Avoiding me? What is he talking abou-…"
"The biggest embarrassment has been Black Mesa facility, but I think that's finally taken care of itself..."
A gargantuan explosion could be felt and heard in the near distance, impacting the helicopter even with all its distance away. A sense of dread permeated within Adrian's being. He knew precisely what that explosion was, where it was from, and how it detonated. He continues to forget that the bomb was reactivated. By the man in front of him. "My God…"
"Quite so."
Adrian attempted to move little more than his head, but he was overall unsuccessful. That was the only thing he could move other than some of his facial features. There was next to nothing else he could do but watch as the man spoke.
"But there is still the lingering matter of witnesses. I admit I have a fascination with those who adapt and survive against all odds. They rather remind me of myself. If for no other reason, I have argued to preserve you for a time."
The HECU Corporal began trying to comprehend what he was talking about. Miraculously, he must admit that he has been surviving against all odds. Every dangerous situation he found himself in, he had always been able to get himself out safely and surely. There weren't many people that came to his mind that could perform the same things he did, other than this 'Freeman' character that his fellow soldiers kept talking about with a burning hatred.
But he never met the guy personally, only seeing him once when he was entering Xen.
There was another thing. What does he mean by 'preserve you for a time'?
"While I believe a civil servant like yourself understands the importance of... discretion, my employers are not quite so trusting, and rather than continually subject you to the irresistible human temptation of telling all, we have decided to...convey you somewhere you can do no possible harm, and where no harm can come to you."
Oh God. No. No no no no no.
Adrian wanted to scream right at that moment. What the hell is this guy talking about? 'Convey him into some place where he can do no possible harm'? And where no harm can come to him? Where is that? He wanted so badly to tell him that he wouldn't tell a single soul, and yet he still could not speak. It felt like he was trapped.
His eyes displayed all the emotion that he needed to convey himself.
Despite everything, there wasn't anything he could do. Hell, he had no idea where Spore was either.
"I'm sure you can imagine there are worse alternatives."
A green, orb-like portal manifested in the doorway that would normally lead to the cockpit. The man gave Adrian one last assured look before turning and walking into it, leaving the man in the V-22 Osprey headed to…
Adrian looked outside. This was Xen. And then, suddenly, it was not. A black void suddenly surrounded the helicopter, slivers of light bending the space around him. The world began feeling heavy. He felt heavy, and tired. This was a feeling that he was beginning to get used to.
Steadily, and slowly, the initial shock of adrenaline wore off, leaving Adrian to fall adrift. Maybe, he thought, taking a nap wouldn't be so bad. If he were to be left here for a while, then he'll have all the time in the world to rest. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. This was sort of… the worst day he's ever had, pretty much.
And so, the young man falls asleep to the sound of the ominous, yet oddly soothing, noise emanating from the deep, dark, void.
ZzZzZzZz…
"Rise and shine… Corporal… Shephard."
The Corporal awoke in a woeful daze from his blissful slumber. Or rather, as blissful as you can get sleeping on a V22-Osprey that constantly had its blades chopping. Not that Adrian would notice anyways; he was asleep for a little while.
He's accustomed to waking up early, hell that's all he did back in bootcamp, but this was different. He was sure he hadn't been asleep for any longer than a day or two, judging by his internal clock, but there was no way to be sure. Hell, he wasn't even that hungry.
In any case, he was confronted by the very same G-Man that trapped him there right before his sleep. This shouldn't be much of a surprise, obviously; who else would be there? "His creepy smile is still so… unsettling. If I ever get out of here, I'll have to… Gah!"
A pounding headache suddenly hit Adrian with some force. He recoiled, grabbing his head in pain instinctively. "Christ… I'd do anything for some Tylenol right… about…" The headache subsides swiftly, but he realises something very crucial. He has control over his limbs.
The first thought that came into his mind was to lunge at the man in front of him, getting his vengeance for what he did back in Black Mesa, but something innate told him that would likely be the worst idea ever. So, he followed his instincts. There's no real point right now anyways, especially if he's got him trapped in whatever plane of existence he's in right now.
Adrian raised his hand and stared at it for a time, gripping it intensely afterwards. He still was unable to speak, but this was a start.
"I… see you have realised that… you have regained full control over your… appendages. My apologies for previously; I had to restrict some of your… faculties… so you wouldn't do anything you would… regret, hm?"
It's not like Adrian could respond properly, so he opted for nodding his head. He wasn't sure of this G-Man's full capabilities, but if he was able to trap him in some otherworldly realm, then he shouldn't underestimate his abilities.
"In any case, I should… jump right into the point. After… much… deliberation with my… superiors, we have reached the conclusion that we may require your… services."
…What?
Adrian thought that the only reason why he was there was so he wouldn't tell anyone about what happened back in Black Mesa. But what this guy was talking about… it was something like employment. He guessed that he couldn't really be too surprised, though; even without the G-Man's help, he still survived a lot of Black Mesa, something that couldn't be said about a lot of people.
"As you may… recall, I likened you to myself… someone capable of surviving extra…ordinary circumstances. And it so happens we have something of a… job opportunity for you. Rather than… giving you the illusion of free choice, we have assigned you to it."
"Don't know what I was expecting," Adrian thought. He's in no real position to argue against it; in fact, he literally couldn't. "A job, though. I don't know if I'm ready for it. I barely skated by Black Mesa, and that was a true hellhole…"
"We may… allow… you to bring your… companion from Black Mesa… with you on this… mission."
"Well," Corporal Shephard smiled, remembering his little alien friend. It seems like Spore had been spared from the explosion. "So far so good."
SUBJECT: Adrian Shephard
Status: Hired
[REDACTED]
"WOAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"WYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!"
Shephard. Was. Falling.
He thought it was such a great idea to accept the deal that the G-Man had created, not that he had much of a choice, and entered the very obviously ominous green portal that led to God knew where. "Sure, why not?" he thought beforehand. "What could go wrong?" he believed.
Adrian has made a lot of mistakes in his… still young life, but there was no way to predict him free falling inside of a very deep and wide hole within a mountain, with nothing to help slow or break his fall in any way. This wasn't how he wanted his day to go.
…although, to him, all of this is still happening within days of each other.
In any case.
"G-MAAAAAAN, YA BASTAAAAAAAARD!"
He wasn't flailing his arms like a moron; obviously, being a mostly trained, talent-based marine soldier, he knew what to do when free falling without a parachute.
Adrian made sure he had his stomach pointed directly towards the ground, or the abyss in this case, and have all his limbs extended outwards to create as much drag as he possibly could. This is to reduce the speed in which he was falling at. "Okay… Okay I can… I can do something here!"
He briefly recalled to an action movie he saw not too long back. There was a character who was falling from a great distance and managed to slow their fall by sticking a knife into some rocks and caught into them. Adrian knew that this was mere fiction, but if he's free falling, there isn't much else around him to try anything out.
As he went to pull out his combat knife, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A posse of flowers a hundred meters or so below him. They were just… lying there in the distance of his freefall, looking like they were designed to cushion someone's fall. He spent a second staring at them as the distance between them closed.
"I'm cooked."
Panic began to set in, even more so than there already was. Here he was again, facing an impossible threat. Only this time, it's not at the end of his venture; rather, it's before he even was able to get started.
There was one thing he could do that netted him the highest chance of survival, as low as that was. He rotated himself in mid-air, trying to get his feet planted downwards towards the flowers. If he was going to break his legs, so be it. Doing that is better than nothing, he supposed.
The ground approached quickly, causing Adrian's heart rate to spike higher than it's ever been before. The only thing the flowers are going to carry is his blood. "N-no, I can't do this. I-I can't!"
Instinctively, he coiled himself and braced for impact, the breeze resisting his entire body…
THUMP!
"Ooph!"
Adrian finally collided with the flowery ground, his right side being the point of impact. After a second or two, he opened his eyes. He couldn't believe it; he was miraculously alive and well! Or rather, as well as he could be after seemingly facing impending doom for what seems like the umpteenth time.
"That… That worked?"
He drew his hand along the golden yellow flowers, them twinkling and sparking with a mysterious, yet pleasant, aura. Underneath the gasmask that he put back on before he entered the portal, Adrian smirked. "Should've known that bastard would know about this."
The masked man wearily got on one knee before fully standing up, slumping his arms, still disoriented from the fall. As he turned his head, looking around and embracing his surroundings, he contemplated taking his mask off to get a breath of fresh air. "I wonder where Spore is…"
And then, his eyes met another. A semi-translucent girl not much younger than he stared right back at him with agape eyes and slacked jaw. Turning his head sideways in curiosity, he, making no other movements, spoke.
"Identify yourself!"
A/N
Oh my GAWD. Here it is. Finally. After on and off working on this for more than half a year, I've finally finished the damn first chapter to my new fic: Half-Tale: The Fallen. I've been working on this for such a long time that I don't even have a lot of words to say about how much effort I've already put into this story and the amount that I'll be continuing to pour into it (although not every chapter will be 10 thousand words long. That is ludicrous; don't expect anything more than 5 thousand at the very best).
Anyways, as you can probably tell, this is inspired by 'A Destined Soul' by Disco9, which deals with the same kind of premise. However, as you can tell with the heavily modified intro sequence and whatnot dealing with Chara and Adrian, I'm kind of going to be doing my own thing here that, I hope, won't steal so much from the aforementioned story. It was just stopped one day sometime 4 years ago in April without any signs of any updates, so I decided to take matters into my own hands, hehe, and do something with the concept myself 'cause I found it so fascinating.
…meaning this story will consist of most, if not all, of my writing (as far as a fanfic goes, obvi). Any parallels may be coincidental or intentional for the sake of how I would have gone with a certain scene anyways.
Also, you may have noticed that Adrian's section was a LOT longer than Frisk or Chara's section… combined. I can't say this was intentional, but it might as well be since everything from this point on will be dealing mostly with Underground stuff (although you will see what I mean with 'mostly' very soon).
I kind of 'rushed' the ending of this chapter a little. And by ending, I mean from the Gene Worm part 'till the end. You may have either noticed it, or ya didn't; the latter is preferable. But I felt like I was holding onto this story with no real headway being made for far too long, so I went ahead and pushed through all contrivances I had and… here it is.
That's about all I wanted to cover. If I go any further, I'll be spoiling what I have planned with the story, which wouldn't be good, obviously.
Man, oh man… After getting weary of writing TiH (if ya know, ya know) due to its poor start and the way I just rolled with it, I'm so excited to finally continue writing and start something that I actually have plans for.
Something cohesive.
Exciting prospects are inbound. Be sure to prepare well!