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  (A Week ter)

  "Morning, Mr. Freeman. Looks like you're running te."

  A security guard opened the tram door, leading the scientist with eyegsses and goatee toward the sector C gate. The guard runs a security authentication and notifies his buddy guarding the checkpoint. The scientist entered the checkpoint and looked through a gss panel on his right. A security guard, standing in front of a control panel, walks closer and greets him. "Aw man, you cut the ponytail!" He says, a little disappointed. The scientist rolls his eyes, tapping the gss panel three times for the guard to quickly let him through. He's a little te.

  The guard presses a button, opening the checkpoint gate. "Why do white-coated people like you always in a hurry." He says, sitting down after the scientist walks to the receptionist's table. Another guard is operating a computer and is currently busy reading some messages. On his left is a scientist with eyegsses, looking at the computer. Both looked up when footsteps were heard towards them.

  The guard started telling a message to Freeman. The scientist puts his hand on the table, listening. "Hey, Mr Freeman, i had a bunch of messages for you. But, we had a system crash about," The guard turns his head to the computer on his left beside the accompanying scientist. "I don't know, twenty minutes ago, and I'm still tryna find my files. It's one of those days i guess." Freeman nods lightly, agreeing with the guard in silence. "There's also some... Problems. Down in the test chamber too but, i think that's all straightened up. They told me to make sure you headed down there as soon as you got into your hazard suit." After the short briefing, Freeman goes to the hallway. A call was heard all over the facility.

  Tut TutSergeant Guillen. Report to: Topside. Checkpoint Alpha.

  A bck bald scientist walks past him to the receptionist and greets him. "Good morning, Doctor Freeman." He stops by an intersection. The right path is where his suit's room is. There's a door on the left side, and he doesn't know where the straight path leads him. Two scientists can be seen talking to each other here. "There was a coont leak earlier, but the thermal protection system seems to be online now..."

  Freeman opens the left door and walks into a server room and a camera room. Another bck, bald scientist with a light mustache is seen beside a security guard who sits in front of a few monitors. When the door opens and Freeman comes in, they turn to see him. The guard was happy as he had proven something, while the scientist showed a frown face.

  "Oh, would you look at that," The guard turns his head towards the bald scientist with a grin. A female scientist with a sleek bun comes out of a log room. She sees Freeman and stands behind the guard, listening to their shenanigans. "Freeman actually did show up for work this morning. Looks like somebody here owes me lunch." The bald scientist looks to the guard, then Freeman. He crosses his arms and greets Freeman peevedly. "Oh, good morning, Freeman."

  The woman chuckled, then burst into a ugh shortly. "Pfft, AHAhahahahh," The bald scientist raises his arm, wanting to insult but refrains. "Oh, shut up." She moves away to one of the servers, still chuckling a bit. "hehhhe. Huh."

  While Freeman doesn't quite understand what just happened, he walks out of the server room and goes to the path he isn't quite familiar with. He arrives in front of a window of a room. Standing there, he sees two figures standing next to a boundary table, muttering to each other. One is wearing a b coat and has short back hair colored gray with no other hair. The other one has the facial features of a man in his 40s donning a two-piece suit colored dark blue. After a short time, the scientist inside approaches the window and brings the curtains down, preventing Freeman from observing them further. He was intrigued, but he quickly dismissed his curiosity. He turned around and headed to the locker room.

  While passing a room, he sees three scientists leaning their backs on the gss panel towards him. One of them was seen stating a thing. "You're living in the past. That experiment is single-handedly responsible for inspiring my career and science!" He saw a small resting area and went inside. He's greeted by a guard leaning on a vending machine while holding a mug of coffee and a blonde female scientist sitting on the only desk inside. In front of the guard is a storage cabinet with a microwave above it. Freeman then moves closer to the microwave and sees a bowl of meal.

  Feeling his scientific thought kicks in, he presses the timer button and makes the bowl spin. It doesn't take long for the microwave to finish heating. But, without any scientific expnation, the meal exploded, surprising the blonde female and the guard. "Good heavens!" "What the hell?!" The guard walked closer and examined the meal. Seeing his little experimentation bent from its expected result, he left the area and continued walking to the locker room. He can hear the guard complimenting him. "*Chuckles* You think you can fix the vending machine too, college boy?" He enters the locker room, not far from the resting area.

  Inside, there's a scientist, bald and also a bit brown, compining about the uniform ethics of the facility. "Why do we all have to wear these rid-diculous ties!?" Not questioning the uniform ethics, Freeman ignored him and moved to the suit room on the left, where his suit was kept fresh. He pushes a button, opening the capsule that contains his HEV suit.

  He steps down some riser and walks to his fined Mark IV HEV suit. He unlocks the arms and legs unlocking mechanism and grabs a part of the suit. He carefully and professionally wears the chest part first, then slides into the leg part and locks the thigh joint. He tightened the closure buckles on his leg, then straps both suit arms with his. Yes, he put the suit piece by piece. It's 1999. Finally, after half an hour, he's ready to meet a safe experiment. He stepped outside the locker room and went to the test area.

  (A minute ter...)

  Arriving in the control room, the door opens automatically, letting Freeman enter. The scientists noticed him, including Dr. Kleiner. "Ah, Gordon! There you are." "Nice of you to finally join us, doctor," Kleiner tells him that the sample has been delivered to the test chamber. A scientist with a goatee and eyegsses - simir to Gordon, but not - briefed some technical changes. "We boosted the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to 105%. Bit of a gamble, but we needed the extra resolution." He only recognized one scientist in the control room, Kleiner.

  Isaac Kleiner. A caucasian archetypal absent-minded scientist, also a genius. He's been a friend of Freeman since they were at MIT. Kleiner was a professor at MIT and a mentor of Freeman. His front hair is fresh from a strand of hair, but the rest is bck. Freeman still questioned his ex-mentor's brain because, for an unknown reason, Kleiner often locked himself out of his office by putting his key on his desk. This frequently made Freeman and Barney race to unlock Kleiner's office from inside through the ventition system.

  Freeman feels a bit uneasy. His science ethics is questioning the changes that were made. Kleiner also tells him that the "Administrator" is concerned about the conclusion of this experiment. After that, the second scientist to greet Gordon in this room says: "They're waiting for you, Gordon. In the tesst, chamberr"

  Kleiner leads the way and takes him to the test chamber. On the way, Kleiner says that Eli has been busy with st-minute preparations for the experiment. They came across Eli standing in front of computer equipment, inspecting it. "Greetings, Eli." Eli turns to see Kleiner gesturing his hand for greeting. He greets back. "Morning, Izzy." He sees him walking along with an HEV-suited scientist towards him. Eli turns his head to the HEV scientist and greets the muted scientist. "Gordon, good morning."

  Eli Vance. One of the scientists working in Sector C Anomalous Materials b. He has short gray hair with both sides colored white, a mustache, and a beard. He's a skilled, good-humored scientist, as seen in Gordon's first meeting with him. He finds Eli a respectful colleague and a senior scientist.

  Eli turns to Kleiner to express his concern. "I'm gd you're here. These st-minute changes... Uh, they're a bit strange to-". A part of the computer explodes. The monitor on the equipment dispys the word Eli was worried about. 'FAILURE'. Eli turned around and ran back to his post. "It's about to go critical!"

  Kleiner follows his best friend and helps examine, trying to find the mistakes in their equipment. "What in the bzes is happening to our equipment?!" He asks. A scientist on the floor above them also dispys concern when he walks to the railing. "It was... Never meant to do this in the first pce. *Groans*" Eli replied. Kleiner then pats his colleague's arm, reassuring him. "It's nothing we can handle ourselves, Eli." He turns to Gordon and instructs him. "Run along, Gordon. We'll be but a moment."

  Gordon takes the elevator to the test chamber, leaving the duo with their stuff.

  Reaching the lock room, a security guarding the door was relieved by his arrival. "Oh, there you are." He operates the computer in front of him, unlocking the door. "Everybody's been looking for you, humbre." Freeman nodded lightly and stepped inside the lock room. 2 scientists can be seen bored, with expressions that can only be described as 'Where in the name of friction is he?'. Fortunately for them, the guy they've been waiting for is here.

  Both scientists snap their gaze to the door, seeing Freeman enter. "Ah, there he is." Said one of the scientists with yet another bald facial feature. The other scientist, who had been waiting in a corner of the room, walks back to his post beside the bald ones. His expression is worried, his hand gesturing along his words. "I'm afraid we'll be Deviating a bit from Standard Analysis Procedure, Gordon."1Bold words = pressured words if spoken. The bald scientist looks at his colleague nonchantly. "Yes, yes. But with good reason. This is a rare opportunity for us. This is the purest sample we've seen yet." He says.

  Quickly, they get into a little argument as his colleague talks back with a skeptical look. "And potentially," He raises his hand and points his index finger upwards. "The most Unstable."2Same as before. Bold words = pressured words if spoken. The bald scientist raises both hands to chest level, motioning as he answers. "Now, as long as we follow Standard Insertion Procedure, everything will be fine."

  His colleague crosses his arms and quickly answers, giving the bald scientist another skeptical and concerned face. "I don't know how you could say that. Although i will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is Extremely unlikely-" He stopped speaking, unable to comprehend all of his worker's minds. To think this was a rare opportunity had given him anxiety since the start of the project as if it is also a rare opportunity to create a catastrophe. "I just... Don't feel-" "Gordon doesn't need to hear all this. He's a highly trained professional." The bald scientist cuts his rant. He then tries comforting the worried scientist. "We assure the Administrator that nothing... Will go wrong." The worried scientist finally composed himself. The anxious look on his face disappeared. "Oh. Yes, you're right. Gordon, we have complete confidence in you."

  The scientists split and went to both retinal scanners and scanned through, opening the door to the test chamber. Entering the test chamber, Freeman sees a giant sphere-shaped machine. Below it are three crane spoon-like machines designed to hold any experimental objects. Now, the sample isn't ready. But Freeman is confident enough that they'll soon discover an interesting result.

  (The Void (Half-Life world/realm) )

  One being is seen standing in the void of nowhere. He's observing not one, not plenty, but thousands and thousands of events and catastrophic disasters happening on multiple screens before him. The man in the suit, the man with a briefcase. The man who observes and hires individuals across realms and universes. Some worlds picture him as a legend, while others see him as a dimensional monster. But everyone who knows him is sure that he's an administrator. The suit he's wearing helps his persona be identical to an agent of the government. And so, he's known as the one and only. G-Man.

  He's currently showing a little smug on the corner of his lips. Seeing that all of the timeline and pythrough follow the cycle, he turns around and takes a gentle but bold step, being proud of his work.

  Just before he summons a door, he senses something wrong. He turns back to the screens and thoroughly searches for a realm. He seems to have a hard time finding the trouble. Then, a few minutes passed. And he's yet to identify the problem. He wants to take it as a small error and soon will be fixed automatically, but his senses say otherwise.

  One of the screens dispys a female scientist wearing a gray HEV suit pushing a cart holding a Xen crystal. Although it's another Xen crystal used in every pythrough, this one seemed... Rebellious. He can see the little distinguished distortion emitted by the crystal. And yet, the crystal may look orange to the eyes of lowly beings. But to the eyes of the powerful ones, or through several tools, there's a threat found inside the crystal. The color of the crystal... Is different. The color is simir to a disastrous mix of rainbows.

  He was surprised by this unexpected problem. Though, this is just a minor bug. He had seen this multiple times. Precisely, he had encountered these minor changes hundreds of times. It'll quickly be fixed automatically by the system provided by the Hub Caretaker. He quickly composed himself, knowing the threat was more likely to be solved.

  As if not enough to surprise him, a line of codes appeared inside the crystal, unbeknownst to the gray HEV scientist. Just as he was about to turn away again, the line of codes piqued his attention. But, he kept taking the minor bug as a minor bug, not even a threat to the multiverse. He lets her continue pushing the cart and leaves through a door.

  (A minute ter, in the test chamber.)

  'NGEET NGEET NGEET NGEET' 3To make this sfx make sense, please check this link and go to minute 20:00. https:///watch?v=KHKUVdb5YTM&t=614s&ab_channel=Bolloxed

  "Uhm... It's probably not a problem... Probably. But I'm showing a small discrepancy, uh... Well, no. It's within acceptable bounds again. Sustaining sequence." A scientist in the control room said, a little echoing in the chamber. The test is going well so far despite the Anti-Mass Spectrometer set to 105 percent. The scientist beside him has received the info. "We've just been informed that the sample is ready, Gordon. It should be coming up to you any moment now. Look to the delivery system for your specimen."

  The four cage lights on each corner turn blue, and the cart is seen going up inside the cage carrying the sample. It's a crystal. Gordon proceeded to go behind the cart and start pushing it. Slowly but surely, the crystal is closing its gap from the beam created by the sphere-like machine shooting downward.

  "Standard insertion, for non-standard specimen." The scientist said. The sample made its way to the beam. When the beam strikes the crystal, a loud electric shock emanates from it. Electric trails shoot out from the subject, nearly hitting the muted scientist. Everyone in the control room started screaming and was caught off guard. "Gordon! Get away from the beam!" "Oh god..." The three holder machines moved to the middle of the beam, cramping the beam focus onto the sample only. Each of the scientists shouts words that Freeman can barely hear.

  "Shut it down!" "Shutting down... Attempting shutdown,"4Underlined words = collided by a person's dialogue. The next underlined word is the colliding dialogue. "Someone get him out of there! Shut it now!" "It's not... It's not shutting down!" A solid rainbow beam shoots through the viewing gss straight to the control room. "LOOKOUT!" "NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" The control room exploded, killing everyone who stayed there. That's what Freeman thought, judging by their screams.

  Then, plenty of rift sparks appeared inside the chamber. Through one of the rift sparks, for a brief moment, Freeman sees a world he never imagined existed. He saw a person riding a bck dragon on top of a mountain. Another rift appeared not far from him. For a moment, he saw an alleyway with neon lights coloring the darkness of what he thinks a city. Then, a rift appeared in front of him.

  The rift shows a man lying down beside a crowbar. The man was unconscious. He wears eyegsses and has a goatee. Freeman wouldn't mind the simirity of the man with him. What caught him off guard was the man was wearing an HEV suit. But not the Mark IV Freeman is currently wearing. He's wearing a prototype that was supposed to be tested tomorrow by his Hazard Course guide, Gina Cross. Hazardous Environment suit Mark V. Not to mention that an elder man is waking the HEV man, telling him to wake up. The HEV man fades away instead, and the rift closes abruptly.

  He lost consciousness, not because he couldn't keep up. But because the subject caused disastrous time and space distortion, it made him faint.

  And so, his body fell to the floor, still breathing without its owner's presence.

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