HALF-LIFE VR AI 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO!

The Calm Before The Storm. (Chapter Seven.)

They landed Aggressively into the water, but kept their focus. Barney drove the boat towards what looked to be a small abandoned warehouse. Barney parks the boat next to lambda symbol, and turns to Gordon. "We're Here." Gordon turns to face Barney, then looks at where they are. "Wait, Really?" "Yeah, You Complain?" Barney gets out of the boat, with Tommy right behind him. Gordon lets out a huff, as he gets off the mudskipper and climbs up the latter after Barney and Tommy. Barney motions the two to follow him as they walk around the corner, and enter a airlock. As they do, the door shuts behind them and the lights turn off. Gordon looks around. "What The Fuck- Is This A Trap?" "Relax Gordon, Why Do You Have To Question So Much? Tommy Has Barely Said A Word And He Got Shot IN HIS SIDE!" "Shut Up Man! Tommy Has Never Been A Big Talker, He's Like... Mentally 10 Years Old Or Some Shit." Gordon snaps back at Barney. Tommy furrows his brow at this comment. "It Just Hurts To Talk Right Now." He tells the two bickering men.

"We Got Something." A voice is heard, as a camera pops out from the corner. "Okay, It's Human." The voice says again. Barney looks towards the video on the keypad, and sees who's talking. "Hello?" The woman says. Tommy lets out a whimper, as he didn't know what was happening. "Take It Easy In There, You're Safe Now." Gordon turns to Tommy and gives a confused look. Tommy just looks up at window where he sees two people through the glass, one being the woman talking to them. "You'll Have To Forgive The Scanning Process, We Can't Take Any Chances." Finally, when the woman looks back, she notices who's in the airlock. ''Oh My God! Barney Calhoun? Tommy Coolatta! Gordon Feetman?!" The woman stutters in surprise. "Holy Shit! The Science Team! Is It Really You Guys?!" "Well, It's Technically It's Half, But Yes." Gordon Corrects. The woman looks at the three in shock. "You Three Took Your Sweet Time, We Honestly Thought You Weren't Going To Show Up!" She blurts out. "Well.. Casualties Happened." Barney says, turning towards Tommy. "I Have No Clue What You Mean By That, But I'll Take Your Word For It. Eli Is Going To Very Relieved Knowing You're Here. Now If These Thing Could Hurry Up!" She says alluding to the airlock scanning process. "Well, While We're Here And You Have No Chance To Avoid Me, Let Me Introduce Myself. I'm Judith, Judith Mossman. Feel Free To Call Me Judy, Mossy If You Hate Me." Barney rolls his eyes, as he's heard all this before. "I've Heard MANY Things About You Two, Tommy, Gordon, Was Told About Your Whole Adventure At Black Mesa. Especially About How You Defeated One Of Your Closet Friends, Truely Saddening."

Gordon gave a confused look, then realisation kicked in. "Wait- Hold On. Do... Do You Mean Benrey?" "Well, Who Else Would I Mean?" Gordon shushes Mossman. "-No, No, No, No. NO. Benrey... Benrey Wasn't My.... He Wasn't My Friend." Gordon tells her. Judith was confuzzled at this. "Then... Then What Were You Two...? Were You Brothers Or Something?" "What- No!" "Oh... So You Two Were... Gay?" "NO! NO! We Weren't Dating!" Gordon turns bright red at the mention of that. "Hey, It's Okay If You Were-" "WE WEREN'T DATING! He... He Was My Friend. We Weren't Exactly Close, But We Were Friends For A Bit... But Then He Back Stabbed And Double Crossed Me." Gordon tells. "Wait, What Did He Do?" "Eh... I Don't Really Want To Talk About It." Judith gave a confused glance to Barney, he returned it with a shrug. The two didn't know what the hell happened between Gordon and Benrey, Barney didn't even know who Benrey was. Tommy did though, but he chose not to say anything. When the scanning process finally finished, the door on the other side of the airlock opened up. The three walked through it, and Mossman walks out from the area she was in. "Eli Told Me That If You Three Did Show Up, That I Should Take You To Him, So Let Me Show You Where He Is." Judith lead through a walk way, and while she talked to them, Gordon was in his own thoughts.

Weird, Gordon had this feeling that something was different about all of this, but never did he think it was the missing presence of someone, especially Benrey. He should of expected a return from Benrey at least somewhere along the line, but not yet has there been a sign of his former friend. No asks about a passport, no random colourful bubbles, not even a random skeleton in site. He felt a little bad for not even thinking about him once these past hours. Although Gordon thought he utterly despised him, they still had their history together. An annoying one, for sure, but history none-the-less. Before now, every moment Gordon had without Benrey, he was at least thinking about him in some way. Well this did all come out of nowhere in such a sudden way, anf other then when the male citizen tried asking about him earlier, he didn't have a second to think about Benrey. Maybe he wasn't going to show up at all. I mean, that was such a big deal, especially he was still the same security guard Gordon knew back at Black Mesa. Have Bubby and Coomer noticed Benrey's absence? Has Tommy thought about Benrey at all during all of this? Was he-