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Dr. Coomer sat in his office, eyes on the paperwork he doesn't want to do. It had taken him years to be able to concentrate on files again... not to be distracted by a million things. Even before the procedure he had found it hard to focus. He took a breath, and realized that time was running out, he needed to shower and be ready to meet Gordon.
And just like that he was in the locker room, internally cursing that he hadn't sent the clones to eat. There would be no time for that now. He closed his eyes, even as he walked to the showers, and sees all over the facility. On the one hand, Dr. Freeman was here, on the other there were minor disasters. All he could do is sigh. He wouldn't get to personally greet Dr. Freeman, but that would be fine, he would still get to be formal.
And so he spent the moment up until the cascade bouncing between bodies, and then he was faced with something he hadn't been for several years.
Dr. Coomer is torn appart, and suddenly he's popping involuntarily from body to body, not getting a chance to orient himself. And then he pulls out of his bodies, existing in all of them simultaneously in a strange state. Even there he could feel himself be ripped appart, feel himself screaming in pain out of a dozen mouths. When he finally jumps into the body he wants he figures half the clones must be dead... its a shame, he had gotten used to the large number.
He checked his current body over, glad it was actually the correct one, his original one. Dr. Coomer takes a moment to make sure the room is destroyed before he moves. If this was just a fluke and he got out of his pod? Well... being ripped apart at least a dozen times would be like child's play. But luckily enough it was destroyed, no power is pumping into his machine of a body. He checked all his systems and got out of his pod. Today was going to be intresting.
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He should have known this would happen, that he would have to stare into his own eyes. That's one thing he'd never gotten used to. He could do it, but it made him sick to his stomach and more than a little dizzy.
Gordon was upset when he had dispached the clone, but the boost of power and clearing up that dizziness was worth it.
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The problem with trying to be dedicated to one body was that he couldn't just run from the chemicals in his brain when things got rough. And things were real fucking rough.
Outside of the complex there should have been miles of desert... there should have been something... but void? What had Black Mesa done that they were in a fucking VOID. Nothing there was nothing, he had to calm down, Dr. Coomer was a scientist, he could figure it out if he could calm down... but nothing? How could he theorize about nothing? Jumping up and finding himself underwater would have been better than this...
"Doctor Coomer?"
That snapped him back to reality instantly. Everything was okay! He could pretend it was okay! That he was just a regular man in an irregular situation! That there was something out there!
"Hello, Gordon!"
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Bubby had betrayed them, all of them. Dr. Coomer was sure they had some reason to, but it still hurt. All he could do, for now, is wander. Tommy had wandered off because of a lie and Bubby had just disappeared in the night. With no company he had a lot of time to think. Too much time.
Maybe if he had declined the testing Black Mesa had offered he wouldn't be in this mess. Dr. Coomer would just have been a memory, and he wouldn't have to live through the cascade. No he knew Black Mesa well enough to know that he would have fallen to some other bizarre fate...
It had all started with an accident. With an explosion that he only had flickers of memory of. Then he was in a bed, missing limbs and organs but alive. An ethical company might have patched him up enough to be coherent, and then offered him the paperwork. Black Mesa was not an ethical company. The papers had been signed and stored away with a recording of him nodding after having the agreement read to him.
So they put him back together. Dr. Coomer has no idea how much of him is his original body. Just that he's a biomechanical wonder. For a month it had seemed that was all Black Mesa wanted from him, to test life saving technology. But then the clones had been created, and Black Mesa once again offered him something underhandedly. Test new technology or have the company repossess its assets. Seeing that half his internal organs were company property, he agreed to the testing.
A chip in his brain. That wasn't so bad. Until they activated it. And he was innumerable places at once. He was told later that every clone in the facility had started to scream, a few were in the middle of projects, and sustained injury, which didn't help the panic.
The first test of the chip was marked a failure, and they locked Dr. Coomer's main body away in a pod. The clones were rangled and put away.
For two years all he could do was see through all his eyes, having to look away when he looked at himself. It gave him time to practice, to concentrate on one body at a time.
When he was good enough at it, he slipped out of containment in a single clone to notify the company that it hadn't been a complete failure.
After that all but his main body was allowed to wander the facility. Well, to work in the facility. He was given a bogus reason why he couldn't use his main body, and punishment was hinted at. So, until the cascade had happened, he stayed in his pod like a good little scientist.
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Frankly he should have known better. A flesh wound was not a viable spot for a chip. He had wasted a dozen good clones, given himself an awful headache from being in the same room as himself, and scared the ever loving shit out of poor Dr. Freeman.
Gordon would just have to keep being the main character. The science team would have to push him to the win condition...
His mind faltered, that was only if he was right. If this was a game... if he was wrong they were marching towards an unwinnable situation. A situation with a low chance of success. That would end up with all of them dead. They were deep in it anyway.