Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gordon had awoken to new surroundings. Last he remembered, he was caught in the dark fusion reactor’s explosion before G-Man had saved him. Now, as he gathered his thoughts, he noticed he was in an unfamiliar forest, which was nothing like what was back in his world. He sat up, brushing his HEV suit off as there was dust and leaves all over him.

Looking around, Gordon quickly realized he had no weapon. Nothing to protect himself. Was G-Man playing tricks on him again? Gordon scoffed at the idea, but he didn’t rule it out quite yet.
The physicist was quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he heard someone - or something - scream in agony. Standing up, he quietly moved towards the sound, picking up a branch that looked like it could do some damage if needed. The screaming only got louder, before going silent completely. All Gordon could hear was the soft rustle of leaves and the quiet noise of metal banging together.

Peeking through the bushes, Gordon noticed a woman beating the shit out of a combine soldier. She was bludgeoning the soldier’s head off with.. What the hell is that thing? It looked like some kind of gun, but not one he had ever seen before. He tried to get a better look at it, leaning forward against the bushes. Too bad his glasses were half-shattered from the explosion.

Gordon didn’t have all that much time to think much about it, though. He heard the soldier’s head drop to the floor with a dull ‘thud’, and the woman had noticed him watching. She drew the gun close to her chest, the “barrel” pointed to the floor. The gun whirred softly, and Gordon’s eyes flitted back to it for a moment. He had seen a lot of things, but not that.

The girl had noticed his gaze on her gun, and stepped back, her brow furrowing. She obviously was not in the mood to chat, as she turned on her heel and dashed off. Strange. Gordon decided he should probably follow her, as she looked like she knew what she was doing. He ran after her, and the woman looked back, letting out a startled yelp as she noticed him quickly catching up. Before Gordon could try and stop her, she had tripped over a branch (typical, as the foliage was unsurprisingly dense). But instead of falling, she just rolled onto one knee in front of Gordon, using her gun to keep her relatively upright. She glared at him, her nose scrunching slightly as she looked at his suit.

“What do you want?” The woman asked, looking quite upset as she crawled back a few steps. Gordon noticed her shoes, which were long-fall boots. He had only seen them once, when he was looking over bodies in an abandoned facility. It fascinated him.

Gordon tilted his head to the side, bringing one hand up and signing, "where did you get those?"

She raises an eyebrow, looking entirely confused. Gordon quickly noticed she didn’t speak sign language. Damn it. He brought a hand up to his face, rubbing the bridge of his nose. The stranger just rolled her eyes, before mimicking writing something down. She was asking if he had a notebook. He did not. That made communication even harder, and Gordon facepalmed internally. Damn it, how was he going to talk to this woman? He needed answers, information, and probably shelter considering there could be danger and he had no weapons besides a branch. But the more Gordon thought about it, he realized that if there were any aliens here he would have seen them by now.

The woman in front of him was getting quite tired of his staring, and stood up. “Well, you don’t speak, and I don't understand hand signals. See ya.” She grumbled the last bit, slinging the gun over her shoulder before walking off. Gordon followed her again, fumbling with his suit for a little bit. He remembered there was a text to speech communications system somewhere, if he could just find it- there it is!

He tapped the woman on the shoulder, who turned around with an exasperated expression. He typed something into the communications system rather quickly, and it said in a monotone voice, “Do you know where we are?”

The stranger shook her head no and shrugged, staring at his suit where he had the communications system. Her eyebrows raised, looking him up and down as if he was an alien before looking back at his face. Gordon had no idea what was going on in her head, but it was probably something like, 'What the fuck is this guy wearing?' She decided to push her dumb thoughts aside, nodding ahead and saying “Just come on. I’m looking for shelter. You have a weapon?”

Gordon looked down at his branch, shrugging. The woman rolled her eyes again, exhaling heavily. “Great. Just.. come on."

Chapter Text

As Gordon and his newfound acquaintance walk carefully through the foliage, Gordon decides to keep watch of their surroundings. Someone should, after all. And it seemed to Gordon that the woman in front of him didn’t care much.

He was right, too. Her only goal was to find shelter and some form of food. If she couldn’t find the latter, she would just settle for eating some random plants. Would it kill her? Probably not, as she has severe plot armor due to being a main character and the author likes her too much to kill her off.

The two were startled out of their thoughts when they heard a loud rustling coming from ahead. Gordon wasn’t looking in front of him, and bumped into the woman as she stopped in her tracks. Rubbing his head, he leaned to the side to try and get a good look at what was ahead.

A vortigaunt was sitting on the ground, using a stick to draw on the dirt and rustling a few leaves in the process. Gordon took a few steps forward, holding his branch. The stranger just stared at the vortigaunt, obviously not knowing what the hell it was. Gordon was a bit amused by that.
The creature obviously saw Gordon coming, as he stood up and took a step back in fear.

Gordon put his hands up in a reassuring gesture, as if saying “We won't hurt you.” The girl beside him just kind of stared at the vortigaunt, waving a bit. It seemed she was stunned into silence. Of course she was scared of it. He took a step closer to the vortigaunt, and the creature actually spoke.

“Do you two need ssome help?” He asked, tilting his head to the side. Gordon was a little surprised that the vortigaunt knew English, and the girl flinched heavily when he spoke.
She nods after a few seconds of thinking, aiming her gun to the floor and replying with, “Maybe. How do we know you’re not hostile?”

The vortigaunt’s red eyes narrowed slightly at the accusation, but he shook his head no. “You don’t, but you can trusst me. I wouldn’t hurt you two, I'd rather die than be alone in this place. SSay, What are your namess?”

Gordon suddenly realized he never asked the girl her name. He looked towards her, silently asking the same question.

“I’m Chell. Hey, y’ know what? Yer way more civil than the guy I've been stuck with for the past five minutes. Can I group with you instead?” Gordon bristled a bit, crossing his arms as he looked at Chell. The vortigaunt just shrugged.

“Do you want to leave him alone?”

“......no,”

“Well, then. That’s ssettled.” The vortigaunt turned to Gordon, smiling a bit. “Your name?”
Gordon raised his hands up, about to sign his name, before pausing. Chell didn’t know sign language, and for all he knows, neither does the vortigaunt. Sighing to himself, he types a few letters onto the communications system attached to his arm, and his suit spoke once more. “Gordon Freeman.”

Chell looked at him, snickering. “Dumb name.” Gordon glared at her. ‘Dumb name’? How could she be talking? He’d never even heard of anybody named Chell in his life! And he’s met a ton of people.

The vortigaunt obviously noticed Gordon’s irritation, and stepped between them. “Well, my name’ss Antimon, and I think it’s lovely to meet the two of you. Now if you two would jusst calm down, we can all look for ssome sshelter together!” He puts a hand on both of their shoulders, making Chell flinch once again.

Gordon rolled his eyes, but nodded reluctantly. Chell nodded too, smiling a bit. “Yeah, sure, let's get outta here. It’s gettin’ dark.” Gordon couldn’t help but agree with her. If there were vortigaunts out here, friendly or not, there were probably other aliens. And neither Gordon nor Chell were armed enough for that.

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After a long while of walking in silence, the three eventually reach a shed. Antimon roams the perimeter, determining if it was safe or not. As he was doing that, Chell walked forward and kicked the door open, looking inside. Gordon facepalmed. That was certainly a way to enter, he thought.

“Empty,” Chell yelled from inside the shed. “‘cept for some garden tools.” Gordon perked up. Garden tools? Maybe there was a crowbar in there! He dropped the branch, dashing inside and looking where Chell was looking. There it was. Oh, she was a beauty. Gordon picked up the crowbar, grinning like a madman, as Chell watched him with a confused expression.

“...oookay then.” Chell grumbled, before cocking her gun and shooting at the floor. Instead of making a bullet hole, though, it created one half of a portal right under where a small pile of trash was.

She stepped outside, looking around for a solid wall to transport the garbage. Noticing a relatively large tree about 60 feet away, she shot the other half of the portal at it. The trash vanished, and a quiet crash was heard. Gordon just watched in astonishment, still holding the crowbar. So that's what that gun does!

Antimon looked over at Chell, nodding at her. “I wass going to tell you not to bring much attention to uss by making a ton of noisse, but I guess we’re good.”

“Eh, big deal. Who’s gonna hear us?”