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It had been a very long day at Black Mesa, and Wallace had been on top of it the entire time. They were now studying the effects moon rocks could have on the environment around them, checking for any possible radiation that could lead them closer to stabilizing their portals, or at the very least making the materials they needed to make them more stable. No one mentioned that Aperture was doing the same thing, it just added an extra weight it didn't need. Wallace didn't need anymore weight right now. His shoulders were tensing up already.
Wallace stared at his clock for a solid minute before it sank in that it was nine o clock at night, and he really needed to be getting back to his quarters. He felt exhausted from all the paperwork he had to do to get those moon rock samples…but anything for the pursuit of knowledge, and maybe just a bit of friendly competition with Aperture. He could just imagine the look on Cave's face when they did exactly what he was doing but so much better. That brought a smile to his face.
He did notice that after he looked at the samples earlier he felt sort of fuzzy on the inside, like someone had packed cloths in between his organs. The feeling was worse now. He could barely stand up without feeling lightheaded and sick. He had brushed it off as just something in him acting up, possibly a bit of anxiety over it but nothing more. Still, even though the day had passed he could still feel that odd, horrible feeling. He rooted around in his desk, taking out some ibeprofen and popping a couple of pills before sitting back and looking around his office.
Cold, blue moonlight filtered into his room from the window. Wallace couldn't deny he didn't find it absolutely beautiful, it was one of the few upsides of being situated in a desert where the night could stretch forever with nothing blocking it. He felt oddly compelled to go into the light, but found he couldn't move towards it.
His body ached too much to even move, his whole body felt tense. He began to panic as the feeling just spread and intensified, his whole body feeling like it was seizing up. It was torture. He felt like he was about to burst from the pressure building inside of him, and to his suprise he did. His body began to elongate, his limbs growing thinner and bonier. Claws ripped from his fingers and toes, stiff and flat like a dog's. A howl of agony escaped his mouth as his face cracked and splintered forward, sharp predator teeth forcing their way out of his gums. He fell onto all fours, his body now bristling with course, brownish-grey fur. He let out one last howl of pain before shaking himself, trying to right himself in his new form.
His head felt much clearer now. Everything smelt so odd, and he was hungry. Right, he always had food in his desk. He attempted to open the drawer, but after a lot of scratching and biting it simply refused to budge so in a fit of rage and hunger he flipped the desk over, the drawers flung across the room.
He went snuffling through the contents of the drawers, feeling very dissatisfied with the food he could find. None of it was appetizing. He craved meat, bloody red meat. Something more rational in the back of his mind cringed at the thought of eating something so raw but that was overtaken by the hunter in his head who could smell something warm and living, hear the sighing breath of something. He turned towards the portal in his office, glowing bright orange in the relative darkness of his office. The moonlight hit it perfectly, and he slowly stalked towards it.
-
Cave had also had a very stressful day, but for a very different reason. Ofcourse Black Mesa had to come in and steal his idea for using moon rocks. The idiots weren’t even using the powder, they were just using solid chunks! If they were going to rip off Aperture, they could at least do it right. Still, he was in his office all day trying to speed up the process of making the moon rock cement for the walls so they could start testing. He was going to show them what happened when you tried to rip off Cave Jonhson.
“Shit.”
He looked at the clock. He had fallen asleep in his office, and now it was past dinner. He really did not feel like dragging himself back home so he slumped back into his chair, picking up a file and leafing through it leisurely. He didn’t like how quiet it was at night, it felt off. Usually he was dealing with at least one thing, having something going on…but it was completely silent.
He suddenly very, very nervous, like something was watching. He looked around the room, confirming he was alone. Was someone playing a prank on him with the cameras?
“Ha ha, very funny. Now stop watching me before I fire you.”
No response, and the feeling didn’t leave. He was starting to get antsy, so he stood up, walking over to the window. He knew his office was high up, so there would be no way someone would be looking in. It didn’t hurt to check though. As he though, there was no one there. He turned around only to be met with two dull blue eyes glaring at him through the blue portal right in front of him.
“Oh, Breen, it was you! You could have said something, not just stared like a creep.”
He walked toward the portal, stopped by a low growl. It was definitely coming from in front of him.
“Wally? You good?’
He watched in confusion as Wallace entered, crouched over. He blinked a few time before he registered that his enemy hadn’t just forgotten to shave, that was a whole wolf in his office and slowly stalking right towards him. He still couldn’t deny those were Wallace’s eyes staring at him, though. It sent shivers down his spine, and he felt himself backing up, refusing to break eye contact with Wallace. He had heard once that wolves didn’t attack if you looked them in the eyes.
“Wally?”
-
Wallace paced forward, panting heavily. He could smell the fear on Cave, hear his heart racing. It filled his senses, driving him crazy. Cave’s eyes were wide, his shoes squeaking just a bit on the floor as he back towards the wall, away from the snarling beast in front of him. Something in Wallace’s mind said that it was time and with all his force he launched himself forward at the other man. His teeth sank into Cave’s shoulder, his sharp teeth sinking down to bone. Cave screamed in pain and tried to pull away, leaving large tears in the wake of Breen’s teeth. He could feel the deep taste of Cave’s blood fill his mouth, his body trembling with a fresh wave of pure hunger. He slashed out at the other man, but Cave managed to dodge at the last minute.
Cave managed to get back to his desk, rooting around in his drawers for some sort of weapon as Wallace bounded towards him. Cave grabbed a pair of scissors and drove them into the wolf’s back. Wallace barely seemed to notice, his hunger overtaking the pain as he tried to clamp his jaw down on Cave again, this time barely catching his wrist before Cave stabbed at him again, then putting some distance between them. This time Wallace went for his leg. His jaws struck home, and he yanked with all his force. Cave’s head hit the hard floor. Wallace let go of his leg, bloody saliva trailing from his mouth as he went for Cave’s throat.
Wallace howled in pain as Cave drove the handle of the scissors into Wallace’s forehead. He didn’t stop, he just kept pounding on Wallace’s head until he stopped howling. His fur was now matted and bloody, but he was obviously still breathing. Cave laid back. His head throbbed, he could barely breathe from the unconscious wolf on top of him, and he was bleeding out from two very bad wounds. He could feel himself starting to black out, stars appearing at the corner of his vision as he faded out.
-
The two woke up entwined, Wallace now back to being human but with a large cut on his back and a huge wound on his head. He slowly pushed himself off Cave. He remembered what happened last night in vivid detail, he knew exactly how the two of them had gotten in this state. He grabbed a coat from Cave’s hatrack and made it into a makeshift pillow for the other man. His clothes weren’t in too bad of condition luckily. With a worried look back at Cave and his ruined office he stepped through the portal back into his own office. He ignored the carnage and started trudging to the nearest guard station to get a first aid kit. He did not expect to run into someone, but apparently she had been waiting for him.
“You look like shit.”
“Hello, Dr. Green.”
Colette glared at him, making him wince.
“My wife had to lock me in the bathroom last night, apparently I turned into a wolf.”
Wallace gulped hard, which only made Colette that much more mad.
“Let me guess, you did too. What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t know it would happen!”
“Of course you didn’t! I’ll try to figure out how to…deal with it, but you better tell everyone what happened.”
“I will. You have my word.”
“Good.”
Colette stalked off, and Wallace let out a sigh of relief before quickly going and grabbing a first aid kit. He made his way back to Cave’s office as quickly as he could, making sure to grab his painkillers and a mug of water before entering. Cave was already up, using the jacket to mop up his leg.
“Hey, Breeny.”
“Hello, Cave.”
Without saying anything, Wallace knelt next to him and began cleaning the wound on Cave’s shoulder. He exhaled through his teeth, but other then that was silent. Wallace did his best to be gentle.
“Animal and human bites get infected very easily. You’re…lucky that these aren’t worst.”
Cave snorted.
“Yeah, real lucky.”
Wallace moved onto Cave’s leg, this time taking out some gauze to wrap his leg up.
“You’ll need actual medical help. This is bad.”
“Eh, I’ll just call one of the boys in med. It’s fine.”
Wallace sighed, secusing the gauze. He was about to move on to his own injuries when Cave shifted. Before he could tell Cave not to move, he held out his hand.
“Give it. I’m cleaning you up.”
Wallace handed over the hydrogen peroxide and cotton balls, leaning down so Cave could clean the wound on his back. He tried not to make any noise. He was still silent as Cave cleaned up his forehead.
“There we go.”
Wallace stared into Cave’s eye for a second. He couldn’t tell what Cave was thinking, just tha he was in pain.
“Are you alright to get help yourself?”
“Of course I am! I don’t need your help anyways.”
“Alright.”
Wallace got up.
“See you soon then.”
“Yep.”
Wallace went back into his own ruined office. He tried to lift his desk, but he couldn’t move it back to the original place it was. He still tried to clean up as best he could, then sat down and sighed. What had he gotten himself into?