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Thud
Thud
Thud
Benry slammed himself against the walls of the large tube, making incomprehensible static laced noises of pure fury.
He was fucking trapped, by a bunch of fucking cheaters.
The pale and stout man-shaped being dressed in security gear hit the glass once more. If he was whole he wouldn’t have to exert himself like a noob to escape, he’d just mess with the code of the Universe and clip through reality.
He huffed, leaning his helmeted head against the glass, feeling tired and worn, body shaking.
These were New feelings, and they were feelings he didn’t like. Even when he’d spawned from [redacted] and crawled out of the [redacted] he felt totally epic.
Well, no, there were three other times.
Two hours ago when Feetman and the gang pulled a totally pathetic hack to ruin his super cool revenge plans, and on Xen when he lost to the cheating Science Team. Using micro transaction currency to beat the final boss was just insulting, and painful.
And immediately after the Chuck E Cheese party ended. It wasn’t physical weakness, but a moment of genuine fear he didn’t like to dwell on.
He’d attended Tommy’s birthday party in skeleton form, of course, hiding away from Gordon’s sight. Tommy did help kill him which was lame, but he was his bro, and it was Gordon’s fault anyways, he had to at least say hey.
Dr. Coomer had said something towards the ceiling, he hadn’t paid attention, something about data transfer. Oh, Coomer knew too, huh? Neat. It made no difference to Benry. World was as real as he made it.
Turned out it could be more real.
Gordon had slumped over and the world went dark, just as Benry had long accepted it would….then, suddenly, it was back. He was back.
Gordon was up and talking as if nothing had happened. Dr. Coomer looked very confused, and then full of relief and delight, tackling Gordon in a hug.
Benry left in the chaos of Dr. Coomer celebrating. Benry could feel it. A Change in this reality.
Everything felt...solid. Benry could still manipulate reality, but it felt less like game code. It felt complex and strange in his mind. Less linear, more...real.
Benry clipped into where the Void should have been to be alone. But instead of being outside the Chuck E Cheese Map, he was just father away. The world didn’t even load textures in, no matter how large or complicated the area he went to! What kind of setup was the player even using…?
He was confused, he didn’t get why the Game was still going, why time seemed to stop flowing around Gordon and flow on its own, why he could do things for more than three hours at a time...and he didn’t care.
Now he had an even better place to find games to play.
Until, of course, he’d decided to try to enact a bit of Karma on Feetman, still holding a grudge about he cheated his way to m victory in Benrey’s epic final battle, and they’d been ready for him.
Now he was stuck in a goddamn bubby tube, with no way out, his powers drained, unable to take advantage of this strange new world.
Gordon always found a way to steal everything.
The door to the lab hissed open and inside stepped a stout elderly man with a white mustache and fluffy hair. Dr. Coomer.
“Hello Benry!” He greeted him cheerfully
“Sup. Gonnaletmeoutnowplease? Please, Yes?” Benry answered.
“No can do, at least, not yet. Let’s cut to it, yes? You knew it was a Game all along, and you Feel it to, yes?” Dr. Coomer asked, his dark eyes twinkling in the dim green lighting, staring into Benry. “That it’s not anymore?”
Benry shrugged. “Yeah. Guess so. World's all-aaaall weird…not bad, though.”
“Indeed, it’s very good! Now...In case you were curious, I have a theory as to what the fuck happened!.” Benry was not curious, but Coomer didn’t bother to ask. “ See, you are partially incorrect! It is still a game, those eccentricities from before the Change, only found in Video Games, exist here now, as the new physical laws of this realm!”
Coomer demonstrated by procuring a gun out of thin air, then letting it disappear into his inventory again.
He gestured wildly as he spoke, eager to share his knowledge. “ I believe it was the collective singularity of so many conscious beings, and perhaps this “streaming” that happened as the game was played, that allowed this to happen, a unique and bizarre combination of Sapience from us and Love from our Audience that caused something quite Quantum to occur! “
“Sooooo…..what.” Benry frowned. He was following, but it was making his head hurt. He didn’t like that.
“Don’t you see?” Dr. Coomer pressed closed to the glass with a manic energy that made Benry step backwards. “There’s Something out there now! I don’t understand it completely, but our ones and zeros broke the confines of reality, and created something new! There is no more computer or console to encase us, we are flesh and blood and various cybernetic enhancements now. If our original game were deleted, we would never know, Benry, we’re not just aware.We. Are. Alive!”
Benry stops silent for a long moment, processing this.
“S’whats that gotta do with me? And this dumb tube you got me in. Not cool.”
“Because you’re Real now too. Everyone in this world is real. Isn’t that exciting? “ he paused. “ This includes Gordon. He doesn’t even recall it was ever...not real. I suppose absorbing the personality the Player expressed through him would explain that—“
“Bbbbbbbb get to the FUCKInG point!” Benry roared, irritated and impatient with all this monologuing and exposition. A few glass beakers shattered from the sound his dreadful maw created.
“Well that was rude, but, fine.” Dr. Coomer folded his hefty arms over his chest.” Consequences. We all have to face the impact of what happens in this new universe of ours. Including powerful beings like you.”
Benry glowered “That...that why you made that thing? That fucking uuuh luigis mansion 2 for the Nintendo 3ds looking vacuum? Took away my levels? Scared of me, huh? That's why you’re doing whatever Feetman asks, huh?”
“Death will come for all of us here, someday. Not very soon for me or the Rest of the Science Team due to our enhancements or ages or Alien ancestry, and maybe never for you, and I’d rather not risk losing that. A little precaution was necessary and I was proven right.”
“Wasn’t gonna kill him…” Benry mumbled.
He wasn’t sure if that was true. He had been pretty angry when he went after Gordon again, looking all pretty and happy, glad that Benry was dead, not even sorry he used cringey playcoins to win…
He hadn’t been expecting Black Mesa to be rebuilt, or for the Science Team to be ready for him. It just made him more angry, and maybe he overreacted, but he’s never admit it.
“And now we know you won’t. Or anyone else!” Coomer said cheerfully.
Benry’s stomach flipped, dread rising in his throat. His sweet voice let loose a flurry of red.
He quickly recovered and stared the older scientist down eerily.
“Ooooh nooo, uh uh, don’t be saying THAT to me. Hypocriiite….clone killer, scientist scrub deleter..” Benry listed smugly
“None of them were real people, then, Benry.” Dr Coomer said. “Even dear Bubby knew that.”
“S’not real now. Same to me.” Benry muttered.
He wouldn’t think about if he really believed that or not. He didn’t believe in thinking about things, he was pure goddamn action and epic at it.
“I don’t intend to let the rest of the team keep you here, or keep your abilities from you forever.” Coomer said. Benry snapped to attention at that, glaring. Then why take it in the first place? Mean ass old man.
“But first, you need to understand this world we live in. It’s familiar, isn’t it?” Coomer continued.
“....but not too familiar.” Benrey countered.
“But, perhaps, not too not familiar? Ey?” Coomer chuckled. “Gordon and the others will be coming soon. Just...think about what I said.”
“Whu…? You were talking?” Benry tried, but Coomer wasn’t fooled.
The old man just shook his head and left the room.
Benry sat down in a heap on the floor of the tube, staring at the door. It was...a lot to process, and he frankly didn’t want to.
It hurt.
Consequences, huh? He didn’t much like them so far. He decided on a new rule for himself.
Avoid any unfun consequences as much as possible in this new world.
He’d find a way to get his revenge game finished with Freeman, and then see if this new world had cheaper PSN+ without a single bad thing happening to him.