Chapter Text
The Survivor is dubiously able to do what its name would suggest. It has survived the last three cycles, but there has been a lizard chasing it for the entirety of this cycle. Down the chimneys and through the industrial complex, it has not ceased. Worse still, the wind carries the scent of imminent downpour.
The slugcat notices the luminous form of an overseer on the ceiling of the hallway it is running down. It projects the sign for shelter and then points toward a pipe high up on the wall at the far end. With a blazing determination it slides ahead of the beast chasing it down.
As it approaches the wall, it realizes that it can't jump high enough to reach the pipe. Not only that, there isn't an angle to grab or debris to jump off of, and there are no spears to create a perch with. In a moment of panic, it glances behind to see that there is no chance of making it around the lizard without getting bitten in half.
A plan forms in its mind though, and with some luck it can be pulled off. The slugcat slows a touch, just enough to entice the lizard into lunging. With a jump onto the wall, it pushes off to leap over the lizard, which rears up futily to snap. Without paying attention, the creature crashes into the wall, pushed up onto it's hind legs with the momentum.
A backflip lands the slugcat on the armored green snout of the reptile, and with another jump it grabs onto the lip of the pipe and crawls in. Just in time, as the world begins to rumble with the sound of the approaching deluge. Scrambling onward, the anxious little critter fails to notice the warping of the pipe, nor the purple discoloration of the space around it. The strangeness is only noticed when it exits the pipe to fall not into the safety of the shelter, but directly into an open rift.
The shelter activates and begins to lock down the room, ensuring the safety of anyone in it. No amount of pressure from the rising flood will seap in. Nobody and nothing is there to appreciate the safety and security provided.
---
Uber is a bigger fan of Half Life than Portal. It took a fair amount of convincing that their next stream should be a crossover. Leet argued it wouldn't make much sense, but he argued that since Black Mesa and Aperture Science are in the same universe it makes perfect sense. The tables in front of them was covered in half made cosplay and some tinker mechanism Leet was screwing with.
"You know, they are never going to make Half Life 4."
Uber pulled the thread through the jumpsuit he was sewing to point the needle at Leet. "You shut your bastard mouth. They're just making sure it meets expectations from three." Despite knowing his friend just wanted to annoy him for his own entertainment, Uber played into the jab.
Leet lightly parries the needle with his screw driver. "Please, three was such a let down for the hype that was built up," he says as he returns to his work.
"Listen, you can't judge it on the hype from a bunch of nostalgic dorks! The first game was ground breaking, the second game built on that, and the third continued the streak! I mean, tell me half of the games these days aren't trying to copy the nemesis system. You can't!"
"I can and will judge it on the hype of 'nostalgic dorks' because you," he emphasizes with a point of the screwdriver, which Uber disarms him of with the needle. "Oh fuck off, you dork!"
"Hello kettle, I'm pot." Uber leans out of his chair to bump his forehead against Leet's head affectionately before returning to his sewing.
Leet grumbles, but the smile twisting his mouth is unmistakable. That grumbling quickly turns to a questioning grunt, and then blooms into a panicked yelp. "It's gonna blow!"
Without a second thought, he reaches over to grab the smaller man under the shoulders and pull him up out of the chair. His eyes catch the tube of metal, wires, and glass that Leet was working on, and the purple whisps spilling out of cracks in the housing. He turns to carry them both out of the way before a high pitched whine warns of imminent destruction. He pushes Leet to the ground before hunkering down above him.
Instead of the regular buffet of an explosion, there is the sound of tearing, whipping wind, and a crash. The sound of a balloon weeping the last of its air closes out the commotion, and leaves them in the relative silence that follows such an cacophony. Tickling of metal bits and tools coming to rest on the fround, papers falling, splintered wood settling, and the quick gasps of a small injured animal.
Leet pushed Uber off of him once it set in that they were alright, standing and dusting off his coveralls. "Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be." Taking a few steps closer to the ruined table, he sees that something had crashed right through it, breaking it in half. That something was a white animal that was curled up in pain, staring back at him with wide black eyes. "What the fuck is that?" The thing flinched at the wordso, or perhaps at the sound.
"Looks kinda like an otter, if its parents were a cat and a slug," Uber says, walking on his knees up to the critter. "Honestly, this thing is kinda cute."
"Sure," Leet says, as he grabs a rod to poke the thing. It flinches and whines.
Uber grabs the stick and pulls it away from him. "Chill! Can't you see it's in pain! I think it was thrown through the table."
To which Leet muttered, "obviously."
Reaching carefully, Uber approached slowly. It tried to lift its arm, or leg, muscles twitching as if to strike at the man, but too weak to follow through. He slowed, focusing on how to approach feral cats, and the knowledge flooded his mind. He looked the white critter in the eyes, and slowly blinked before looking beside it. After a few moments, the creature relaxed. Crossing the distance, his hand brushed against the fur of its cheek, which had the texture of being slimy without any of the wetness. Moving his hand in the other direction showed the fur didn't have a particular grain that it followed, like mole skin. The creature leaned into his hand, eyes closing slowly.
"Is it dying?" Leet leans in to get a better look. "His breath is slowing down."
"We don't know if it's a boy or a girl."
"Os that really important right now? It's stopped breathing."
"Shit!" Switching focus to veterinary medicine, he quickly checks over the critter to find it has indeed stopped breathing, and has no pulse. Unsure what else to do, he gives it chest compressions. The grinding of its ribs makes his skin crawl as he does his best, but after five minutes it is all for naught. With a tired groan, he kneels back, and looks at the thing. Entered this world only to die in pain.
"I think I figured out what happened," Leet says as he waves his star trek tricoder over the area whatever he was tinkering on had been.
"It died. Probably a ruptured lung," Uber confirmed.
"What? No, I mean the portal gun. I think it opened a literal portal to another Earth."
"Like Aleph," Uber asked as he stood up to look over Leet's shoulder.
"No, Aleph is just like our Earth, same life, but culture is a little bit different. Whatever this thing is, it came from an Earth with different evolutionary pressures to," he pauses in his explanation to stare at the creature. Turning his attention back to it, Uber realizes Leet was in fact looking at the absence of the creature. "Where did it go?"
Uber looks around, not seeing the body under any of the nearby tables nor in the racks of equipment or shelves of old gear. Looking further at their chemistry set up, he notices the fluffy critter standing on its hind legs, holding the rod Leet had poked it with in one hand, and an sharpening stone in the other. With a few strikes, it has sharpened the tip, and let go of the stone. The ears atop it's head perk up, it looks to them. The creature drops to all fours and taps the spear on the ground a couple times before dropping it and taking a few steps back.
They all stare at each other for several moments. Leet says, "that thing was definitely dead, right? How is it back up?"
The critter stands up to grab the spear, steps a few feet forward before dropping back to all fours, tapping the spear against the ground, and backing away again. Uber crouches forward before grabbing the spear from the floor. He decides to pull a mars bar from his pocket, unwrapping the top before putting it on the floor and taking a few steps back. It approaches the candy and sniffs at it, before grabbing it, standing to bow twice, and running back into a shelving unit. It takes a pink sphere out of its mouth before taking a bite of the bar, eyes widened impossibly. The rest is eaten in a single bite.
It runs with a burst of energy, racing around the workshop, climbing up on tables and cabinets, jumping up to shelves and finally out an open window.
The men stare at the window for a few long moments, before turning to each other. "That was cute," one said as the other exclaimed, "the fuck!"
"Anyways," Uber starts as he stands up, "want some take out? Granny Uchi at Sea Dragon said the pecking duck is gonna be fresh tonight."
Leet's face twitches as he flails his arms before going limp and sighing. "Fuck it, sure! Why not? Not like I lost my work, the shop's a mess, and whatever beast we summoned from a kid's cartoon got loose, so why not have take out?" He starts picking up the tools from the valley between the broken halves of his work table. "Hey, make sure you order some shrimp fried rice. No bean sprouts."
"Heard, extra bean sprouts." With a blown kiss goodbye, Uber heads out.