Chapter Text
"bbbbbbbbbb…"
Resting his chin in his hand, Benrey stared blankly at the break room wall, enjoying the vibrating feeling he got from making the sound. The other people in the room ignored him for the most part, only the more irritable scientists sparing a handful of frustrated glares towards the enigmatic security guard.
They must be new to the facility.
His idle time-wasting had long since grown boring, but Benrey stopped himself from wandering off in search of further entertainment. Despite his generalized lack of commitment, Benrey always made sure that he was waiting in this break room at 3 p.m. every day no matter what.
He may not interact with very many of his co-workers, but his one exception took precedence over whatever aloof attitude Benrey tried to give off.
"Ben — Benrey! Hey!" Blinking, Benrey turned towards the voice, a lazy smirk on his face as he waited for his vision to refocus.
A tall, lanky man jogged into the break room, waving excitedly with a huge golden retriever trotting along at his heels. Benrey turned towards the approaching man, shuffling out of the lazy slouch he'd been reclined in.
"whuh… heyyyy, tommyyyy." Tommy chuckled at Benrey's greeting, sliding into the chair across from the security guard with a smile. "… ‘n gamer dog."
"Good girl, Sunkist," Tommy hummed, patting the retriever on the flank as he laid her harness on the floor. Sunkist visibly relaxed, her tongue lolling out as she laid down beneath the table.
"uh… bro… what's… what've you been doing?" Benrey tapped his fingers idly on the table as he stumbled to get his thoughts across. Tommy waited patiently, pulling his wallet out of his lab coat pocket, counting out small bills as he listened. "you, uh… you do any… epic… epic science moments?"
"Not — not really," Tommy replied, smiling at Benrey as he handed a few bills off to his dog beneath the table, "just the normal stuff." Sunkist gently took the bills in her mouth, trotting off towards the vending machines on the other side of the break room, tail wagging gently as she went. Benrey watched her amble off, bobbing his head in time with her paces.
"that's, uh… that's pretty sucks, man… totally not epic." Tommy nodded in agreement, resting his head on the table with a sigh.
"Y-yeah… it's — it's not all bad, though! I-I'm… there's this new project I got — got put on!" Benrey raised an eyebrow at his friend's heel-face turn in terms of enthusiasm, curious about what caused it.
"wh… yeah?" Tommy nodded, his eyes bright as he fidgeted in his seat.
"Yeah! I, um, they said there's this… cool creature that, um, that they found!" Sunkist shoved her nose into Tommy's lap, distracting him with a can of her namesake soda in her mouth, another balanced on her muzzle. Tommy gingerly took the two cans, patting Sunkist's head gratefully and digging a treat out of his pocket for her.
"mm," Benrey hummed, tapping the table rhythmically as he watched Sunkist beneath the table. Benrey was always thankful for how understanding Tommy was, never demanding eye contact, understanding that Benrey was interested and paying attention even if he wasn't looking at him.
"They, um, Black Mesa… they've had this — this creature for a while, I think? But the scientists that were working with it… they got — they got hurt, I think?" Popping the tab on the first can of Sunkist, Tommy downed the drink in one take, crushing the can against his head. Benrey couldn't help but chuckle at that, Tommy’s behavior reminiscent of their college days. "They — they didn't tell me, really, 'cuz… well, they didn't, b-but! It's supposed to be some, uh, really cool ocean creature!"
"sounds… uh… pretty epic, bro," Benrey replied, lips quirked in a small hint of a smile. "real, uh… epic gamer moment."
"Yeah!" Downing his second soda, Tommy crushed the remaining can, passing the two scraps of metal off to Sunkist, who had already stood up obediently. "Could you, uh… could you throw these out for me please, Sunkist?" The dog boofed happily, taking the cans in her mouth and trotting over to the recycling bin.
Tommy stood up, brushing off his lab coat, and Benrey watched him lazily. Sunkist quickly returned to her owner's side, pressing up against his legs as he took her harness in his right hand. Benrey's attention was captured by the well-trained dog, her attention now turning to the surrounding area as she shifted back into a watchful focus.
"Um, I was — I was wondering," Tommy said, catching Benrey's attention, "if you, uh… if you'd maybe wanna come with me? I — I mean, I've always got Sunkist with me, but it'd be, uh… it'd be nice to have a friend to, uh, to see this with!" Benrey noticed how his friend was fidgeting anxiously with Sunkist's harness, running the tough material through his fingers repeatedly.
"huh…? yeah, uh… sure bro," Benrey shrugged, clambering to his feet. "i think i'm, uh… supposed to guard around that area, actually." He definitely wasn’t, but nobody ever bothered to keep Benrey in once place, so he might as well.
Tommy practically bounced in place, his hands waving energetically, and the scientist quickly headed off down the hallway, chattering happily to Benrey as the guard trailed along behind him. Despite Benrey's typical flat affect and disinterested attitude, he couldn't help but be intrigued, if not by the concept of a mysterious undersea creature, then at least by his friend's clear excitement.
Benrey ran his hand along the concrete wall, letting the sounds of Tommy's excited rambling and Sunkist's claws tapping against the tile floors occupy his mind as they walked. He knew nobody would bother to question him, and Tommy was supposed to go this way, so Benrey allowed himself to zone out.
The deeper into the facility they went, the colder the air got, and the sounds of various experiments — both living and otherwise — echoed among the concrete walls. Benrey might have been unnerved if he wasn't so used to the ambiance of Black Mesa.
Finally, Tommy abruptly paused in front of a sealed door. Benrey came to a stop behind him, blinking slowly. Benrey's attention was grabbed by the plaque adjacent to the door as Tommy entered a password into the keypad — 8122218, he noted — the experiment's label written out to distinguish the door from the others lining the halls.
Specimen #49126: Goldentail Moray.
Tommy paused for a moment, his hand hovering over the door handle. He glanced back at Benrey, his eyes shining with both apprehension and excitement, and Benrey flashed him a supportive thumbs-up, maintaining his typical blank expression. Tommy smiled in return, nodding before pulling the door open and confidently striding through.
This room was even colder than the hallway had been, and the ceiling was at least four times higher. There were bright fluorescent lights hanging from the beams in the ceiling, and sturdy metal catwalks crisscrossed the walls, converging into a center path that spanned the length of the area.
Of course, all of this was secondary to the clear centerpiece of the room. A huge glass tank with an open-top took up the majority of the room’s space, catwalks and observation decks clearly arranged for easy viewing of the tank. Two walls of the container were exposed to the room — open space left between them and the walls in order to allow for closer observation — while the other two were pressed against the edges of the room.
The entire place felt incredibly clinical and sterile, and the tank was practically empty aside from the still water filling it nearly to the brim. Computers, desks, and all manner of complicated machinery that Benrey didn't recognize lined one wall of the tank, the flashing lights and glowing dials practically begging to be messed with.
Maybe later.
Tommy made a beeline for the machinery setup, where two older men stood arguing about something or other. Benrey trailed behind him half-heartedly, eventually branching off towards the tank itself.
"Are you the goddamn scientist who's supposed to be helping us with this shit?" Leaning against the glass, Benrey turned to watch the confrontation, watching as a short, thin, balding old man marched up to Tommy, exuding raw confidence despite his rather unassuming form.
"Now, now, Bubby, let's not be so harsh!" This was the other older man, this one taller than the other, and absolutely shredded from what Benrey could see. The guy was built like a goddamn brick shithouse. The smaller man quickly calmed down when the new arrival laid a large hand on his shoulder, huffing in frustration but ultimately backing down. "I'm sure this young man is quite capable, and it's always lovely to have a helping hand!" His expression was alarmingly friendly, and Benrey couldn't help but feel somewhat suspicious of the elderly man.
"Ah, y-yes, my name's Tommy!" Benrey noticed that Sunkist was pressed especially close to Tommy's side in a show of support, and he knew Tommy noticed as well, one hand reaching down to ruffle the dog's head. "It's nice to meet you, Doctor… um…?"
"Bubby," the shorter one replied gruffly, shrugging the others’ hand off his shoulder. He turned back towards the computers, glaring at the screens through his thick glasses.
"And my name is Coomer," the other man said, holding out a hand for Tommy to shake. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Tommy! And your security guard friend, as well!"
Benrey flashed a peace sign at Coomer and nodded to Tommy with a teasing grin before turning back to the tank. Seeking to avoid further interaction with the scientists, Benrey began scanning the tank, searching for something, anything to divert his attention to. His efforts were rewarded, and Benrey couldn’t help but hum softly as his eyes were captured by a strange, speckled ball of yellow huddled in the far corner of the tank.
Coomer seemed to be tracking Benrey’s line of sight, clapping his hands lightly just as the guard’s gaze settled on the dingy yellow lump in the corner of the tank.
"Ah, yes! Our lovely subject!" Coomer cheered, turning to where Bubby was now tapping at a keyboard and leaning over the gruff man’s shoulder.
"Is that the — the creature?" Tommy asked, squinting at the murky figure. "Are they… like… sick, or something?"
"Sick of us is more like it," Bubby grumbled, hitting a few more buttons on the keyboard before backing up, turning towards the tank with a huff. There was a small pause as Bubby presumably watched for some reaction from the creature, crossing his arms in frustration.
Suddenly, a loud, high pitched squealing sound filled the room, catching Benrey off guard and forcing him to suppress a flinch. Sunkist cried out in pain, whining as she pawed at her ears, and Tommy looked mildly uncomfortable as well, his face twisted in a slight grimace.
Just as quickly as the sound had arrived, it faded out, leaving the room in tense silence. Benrey blinked a few times as he waited for his ears to stop ringing, watching Sunkist yawn and shake herself in discomfort.
"What — what was that?" Tommy asked, petting Sunkist gently. His voice was still a bit unsteady, but he seemed more concerned than annoyed. Bubby huffed, simply going back to tapping at the keyboard angrily without responding.
"Bubby simply played a high-frequency note in an attempt to get the attention of our despondent subject," Coomer chimed in, raising a finger confidently. "High frequency is the ITU designation for the range of radiofrequency electromagnetic waves between 3 and 30 megahertz. It is also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to ten dec—"
"So — so the creature responds to higher frequencies?" Tommy cut Coomer off, just as Benrey was preparing to interrupt with some quip or joke. Coomer seemed nonplussed, wearing the same amiable grin as he trotted over to stand beside Bubby.
"We aren't sure!" Coomer's voice sounded far too cheery given the uncertainty of his statement. "But, seeing as we have been unable to communicate with the test subject until this point, we have resorted to testing a number of varying hypotheses!"
"It has — it hasn't reacted?"
"Damn thing hasn't so much as moved in days," Bubby grumbled, and Benrey couldn't help but scoff, drawing the room's attention over to him.
"pretty… uh… pretty cringe, bro," Benrey joked, grinning slightly. "uh… fail sea monster can't… can't even be bothered to move… lameass."
Benrey was facing away from the tank as he taunted the unmoving specimen, but if he was looking at the glass he might have noticed the small, slinking movements behind him as the previously still water churned with activity. As it stood, he only barely caught the nervous glances of the scientists before him, looking over his head instead of directly at the security guard.
"bro got captured… did an epic fail… now the guy won't even — won't even move… cringe ass nae nae monster—"
Benrey was cut off by a small wave of water splashing over the lip of the tank and onto his helmet. Looking up, he saw that the three scientists were staring in awe at something right above his head, their eyes wide with wonder. Benrey had to stifle a chuckle, feeling like the stupid protagonist in a horror game as he turned around slowly, facing the now-much-darker tank behind him.
"You wanna say that shit again, fucker?"