Chapter Text
Barney was having an interesting day to say the least, but seeing the world slowly lose it’s colours as time stopped?
Well
He’s got a feeling that his day’s gonna turn from interesting to hair-pulling confusing.
“Barney Calhoun… I hope I am not. In-ter-rupting anything... im-portant, hm?”
He turned around in his seat, the voice sounded so close, and indeed it was
As he almost jumped out of his seat as he saw the suited man standing right next to the car.
He’d seen this man before, he’s sure of it
Then again
There’s a shit ton of suited elderly guys walking around Black Mesa, there’s a lot of elderly guys in Black Mesa in general, he’s pretty sure Gordon’s the exception when it comes to elderly scientists.
Now he’s thinking of Gordon, after all the last time he saw him getting dragged away by soldiers while unconscious.
Luckily, he didn’t have much time to dwell on that event, as the man started to talk again.
Barney realizes he probably should have replied, but he’s a bit shaken, so who can blame him?
“E-ither way, what this short future will. And will not hold isss not im-portant overall.”
As he talked, the man slowly walked away from the vehicle.
You had the odd feeling to follow him, even though you feared that time would start up again when you least expected it, leaving you behind in this hell hole.
The fear grew more as you walked behind him, but you continued to walk.
You decided to say something.
“Uh, listen pal. I don’t know if you’re just showing off your time stopping powers or whateva but I was kinda in the middle of escapin’ so if you wouldn’t mind-”
You had the horrible feeling of what you imagined it felt to be suddenly dunked in an ice bath as the world shifted around you.
Now there was nothing, a few dots of light streamed by in the void you were both standing in.
He stood in front of you, his back turned.
“Okay… Do ya mind tellin’ me why you've done all this, what cha’ said before about the future and shit didn’t give me much of an insight.”
The man turned around slowly, you saw a small smirk on his face
For some reason, that filled you with dread.
Well, I mean, given the situation, you’re filled with dread either way.
But the smirk makes it feel like he’s gonna kill you or something
By how your day is going, you wouldn’t be shocked if that was the case.
“Hey, uh, so if you’re gonna kill me. Do ya mind tellin’ me who you are first? ‘Cause I swear I recognize-”
The man chuckled, it made you a bit mad to see him so amused by your confusion.
He reminded you of teachers back at school, the ones that refused to help and seemed to enjoy you being confused by material they’re meant to be teaching you.
You’re glad you’re out of the hell hole
Unfortunately you seem to be in a new hell hole.
Maybe you would take this time to reflect and make some philosophical quote that teenagers would repeat on a daily basis
Some like ‘Life is nothing but going from one hell hole to the next.’
But you hate philosophy, too much smart crap.
You’d rather leave it to the guys that like being smart
Like Gordon.
“Of course you. Re-cognize me… Mr Calhoun… I have made mul-tiple. Im-portant de-cisssionsss to Black Messsa’sss de-velopment to. Alien resssearch.”
That helps with nothing.
You’re not a name guy when it comes to the suits that pass the hall of Black Mesa, given that a simple ‘sir’ is a good enough for them.
Although you think you’d recognize his weird way of speaking, but you ain’t a guy for judging, so maybe it slipped your mind.
“Ah, right right…”
Good thing you’re good at faking like you know someone, a sociable and slightly forgetful guy like you has gotten a lot of practice.
You put your hand on your hip and placed your other hand on your chin, even tapping your chin sometimes. You squinted, you acted like you ‘totally didn’t forget, you’re just such a sociable guy that you tend to get mixed with names and you don’t want to say the wrong name.’
In reality, you forgot and was just stalling until he said something.
Suits love to talk, so it should be soon.
“Of courssse... not like that’sss en-tirely im-portant to you. After all a ssse-curity guard is not. Bothered by the sssci-en-tific mattersss going on. With-in the fa-cility they guard... nor with thossse who do. Con-cern them-ssselvesss with sssaid sssci-entific mattersss. Typ-ically…”
You cleared your throat awkwardly, giving up the act.
You became very invested in your shoes, as you decided to start staring at them.
“But, that is nei-ther here nor there for. Mattersss that con-cern you as of now.”
The man cleared his throat.
“Given cer-tain cir-cumssstancesss, con-tain-ment isss. Ne-cessssary for another and for you.”
The man started to pace slowly left and right.
“Ssso I have decided, given that hu-mansss need ssso-cial in-teraction and that. You ssseem to be one who en-joysss in-teraction, that you can have a joint ssstasssisss with Cor-poral Ssshephard. Your ssstasssisss will be a ssshort one but-”
“Hold on-”
You frankly don’t care how pissed he gets if you say no, fuck the military.
“Corporal? You mean like the military? Sorry pal but I’ve developed a sudden hatred for the military. Last time I saw my buddy he was unconscious in the arms of some soldiers, so excuse me for not wantin’ to be some sorta roommate to one of them.”
The man stopped his pacing, now glaring you down with clear anger.
Okay, maybe you should have reworded that
Been more polite
C’mon you’re used to being the negotiator with your friends, you should know how to be more careful with your words.
Eh.
You’ve had a rough day
If you’re gonna die here, you might as well be as rude as possible.
He glared you down for a few seconds, but it felt like minutes.
“You misss-understand the sssituation, I have decided thisss. Isss what will happen, Mr Calhoun. Whether or not you will en-joy your. Ssstasssisss is no con-cern of mine.”
The man suddenly faded until you couldn’t see him anymore.
Okay maybe you are having regrets on making him pissed.
Have you always been breathing this heavy?
You frantically looked around.
Security training might have helped you seem fearless, but no amount of training prepared you for this kind of unnerving.
You hear a voice from behind you.
“And you will get along with... Shephard, I do not care for. What your persssonal feel-ings are.”
He walked back in front of you, smirking again.
Well
Great.
“Can I at least get a separate room?”
“We will sssee.”
You heard the sound of automatic doors opening
You were in a tram
You saw a tree and grass outside one of the windows.
“Corp-oral Ssshephard… I a-pologize for the sssudden arrival but I wisssh to. Disss-cuss a… Sssit-uation with you.”
The man walked over to the other side of the tram, there you saw another man sitting at the other end of the tram, other than his mask, he looked nothing like the soldiers you saw at Black Mesa.
You assumed this is ‘Corporal Shephard’.
You also saw a some dogs, large ones
Getting even larger as they spirited towards you
For a second your flight or fight instincts kicked in, as you feared they were running to attack you.
You feel animals wanted to constantly attack you, and so you’re not exactly an animal person.
But you could see joy in their faces as they came closer
The joy was very very clear to you, as their faces were right in front of you, so you could see easily.
Unfortunately for you, they did not stop at being right in front of you
Next thing you knew, you were overwhelmed by a tidal wave of fluff.
You didn’t manage to catch the conversation between The man and the other guy, as you were too occupied with dealing with the frantic licking and barking.
Finally, the dogs were called off you.
They ran back to their Shephard’s side.
“Sorry about that, they get a bit excited around new people.”
Despite what you said before, you’re still a sociable guy and he seemed nice enough.
“Really? Hadn’t noticed that, guess I was too busy getting blindsided to notice anything else.”
The man stood next to Shephard, his expression was unreadable.
Or at least for the short period of time you had to look at it
As you heard the familiar chipping of a hound eye
WIthout hesitation, you gave a very brave yell of shock and jumped up in the air onto one of the tram’s seats, managing to hit your head on the roof in the process.
“Oyster! We do not scare people.”
You would almost find it amusing, the scolding of the little alien dog.
But you’re too pissed at the fact you got scared by such a small thing
“You’ve got one of those freaky aliens? I understand havin’ dogs but what the hell.”
“I know they can be aggressive at first, but you’ve just gotta get to know them.”
You eyed up ‘Oyster’ as you climbed off the seat
You were going to make a comment on how smug the alien looked, but The man interrupted
“And you will have plenty of time to do ssso, but firssst before I. Leave you two… I be-lieve there are some mod-ificationsss I must... make to thisss living ssspace to make it more com-fortable for the both of you.”
“Could it have a lockable kennel?”
“My puppies are more than capable of behaving.”
The man stared at you for a bit, before motioning to the door that led to the lawn outside.
“We will sssee about that, but what mod-ificationsss are being... made to the tram isss from Corp-oral Ssshephard’sss sssu-ggessstionsss, asss we were jussst dissscussssing it before. We cannot be in-ssside while I make changesss to it.”
You all walked outside, followed by the over excited dogs and alien.
You watched as the tram warped before you, expanding upwards and separating into two separate small rooms, with a space in the middle for the door.
You couldn’t help but be amazed, whereas Shephard seemed to be so nonchalant about it.
A look inside made it clear who’s was who’s, your area just looked like your dorm back in Black Mesa.
Except you swear it wasn’t as messy last time you saw it…
Shephard’s room seemed cool, evidence of it being a pet owner’s room was scattered around the room.
Everything seemed to be covered in either dog toys or fur
Or stickers, guess the guy liked them.
You automatically brushed off your vest, you didn’t notice how much fur you were actually covered in.
You have a feeling you’re gonna be covered in a lot of fur.
After you both inspected your new rooms, you both noticed The man had disappeared without a trace.
“Did he just, uh, leave?”
“Yeah, he mentioned to me while you were stuck in the puppy pile that he couldn’t stay long, something to do with his employers.”
“Puppy pile is what you call it? I would have called it a Dog-a-lanche.”
“Again, sorry about them-”
“I’m just pullin’ your leg, I guess ‘cause I don’t go around animal all too much I just ain’t use to the type of affection they give.”
“Yep, they can be affectionate!”
You both chuckled at that, then both looked off to the side awkwardly.
“Uh, I’m Barney by the way, Barney Calhoun. I used to be a security guard at Black Mesa.”
You offered a hand to shake.
“Adrian Shephard, I used to be with the military, but I guess G-man’s already given that away. Since he keeps calling me Corporal.”
He shook your hand, a quick and polite shake.
Maybe he didn’t like touching
Or just found this situation as awkward as you.
“Yeah, I know you’re with a military.”
Your tone was low and clearly pissed.
Hey, you might have just meet the guy and are started to get along with him
But that doesn’t mean you don’t hate the military and anyone in it any less
After all, they got Gordon.
Adrian rubbed his neck awkwardly
I mean, you did make it awkward but
Y’know
You just gotta let him know how you feel.
Now it’s time to dispel the awkwardness with light banter.
“So uh, you called him G-man? Is that like his actual name, ‘cause wouldn’t be shocked if the suit was actually called that.”
“No, he hasn’t given me his name so I came up with that sorta title and he seemed to not mind.”
“Ah, I see.”
Okay, it’s awkward again.
Crap.
“So uh, what do ya do to pass the time here?”
You have the feeling this is gonna be an awkward and long stasis.