Repurposed 14.3

Interval 14.3
May 29, 2014
0945, Fairport, AL
Exterior Enrichment Center Structures / East Power Plant



Lynne started screaming first, but that was something she'd been known to do on occasion. This time, she pulled herself together, but didn't stop making incoherent sounds for several minutes while others attempted to figure out what was wrong. Two of the Vortigaunts nearby, standing guard and waiting for any hint that the last Portal Storm would swing back this way, immediately rushed to Lynne's side. Teddie Kim was in a similar state of sudden mental shock down below, attended by the elderly Noah.

Lynne stared up with her golden eyes, into the cloudless sky. Her mouth remained open, a faint, keening and exhausted scream still coming from it. Everyone there, working on the power plant's repairs, followed her gaze into the sky.

What they saw there rivaled their worst nightmares – and they'd had some bad ones. The sky was broken. Shattered, rent into pieces. So many words for the way it looked, none of them accurate in the slightest for more than a moment apiece. A hole bore through the air, changing bright blue atmosphere to brilliant red and orange, seeming to bubble around the edges. If the sky had been a movie screen, the film was burning up on it. Within those blistering edges, it faintly and quite disturbingly reminded the mechanically inclined repair crew of the long distance portal relay: the edges rippling and folding in on themselves, while the space between was collapsed into nothingness.

That was far closer an assessment of the image in the sky, for it was a portal. There were others, hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, though this group of teenagers and their smattering of adult friends and alien guards could only see the one above them. This one was not so much directly above, thankfully; if it had been, the results would have been far more disastrous.

There were eyes which noted how far away this portal was, the direction it rested. Several sets of them, in fact. Adrian Shepard stood beside Paxton Fettel just outside the Enrichment Center with the others, and the Corporal's face showed more anger than surprise. "The fuck is this shit?" He blurted out, ready to pull his sidearm as though he could shoot it away.

Paxton winced, gave his head a violent shake back and forth, kept his eyes closed. Whatever was causing Lynne to freak out, was clearly touching on their other strong empaths as well. Just like before. But Paxton remained conscious, Lynne didn't faint away, Teddie calmed himself momentarily. Tina, reliably enough, sent out a gentle Vortal web, pinging each of those nearby to make sure everyone was all right. James, Mike, Constance, numerous others chimed in with pounding headaches and a collective unease.

No one had sustained more than a bump or scrape – from surprise at the sudden contact more than anything. The distress was obvious, hadn't gone away, but was not actively harming anyone. Work on the power grid paused, people were still looking up into the sky and whispering to one another. It was obvious that Lynne wouldn't be reading off any more instructions from their systems guide book.

Paxton commanded through one of his Replicas near the repair crew, since it was closer and he didn't feel like giving himself a worse headache by shouting: "how much longer before the repairs are done?"

One of the Black Mesa engineers, the middle-aged black man named Simmons, gave a rapid appraisal. "Another hour, maybe two."

"Can it be hurried with more hands?" The Replica said, though Paxton also spoke in the shelter nearby, as he had been escorted inside by the older soldier.

As he climbed down from the ladder he had been on, Simmons gave a quick double-take over his shoulder, once more seeing things that just should not have been there. He'd pick up where Lynne left off. The Vorts with her saw to her safety, and returned to their vigil. "No, we don't have enough tools nor space for that. We've got four people making these adjustments, I'll ... tell them to hurry."

The Replica nodded, swayed slightly when Paxton's presence swept back out of it. Two more of the soldiers strode out from the shelter, took up residence on opposite corners of the power plant's failed unit, continued to look up at the sky so the crew could get back to work.

Shepard marched back outside, framed by the Replicas, let them go their own way. He climbed up the rubble-strewn area that used to be the Enrichment Center's east parking structure, found a high spot, and began scanning the horizon with binoculars. Best to see if there weren't more of these things, than get blindsided by one they hadn't noticed.

"There aren't any more I can see from here," Shep said when he descended. Paxton nodded grimly. "This shit just never ends, does it?"

"Stick around, will you?" Pax said, and the Corporal gave a curt nod in reply. He began a simple patrol, wishing that Renee was guarding his six.

Within the shelter, however, Paxton got disturbing news relayed through the communication center.

Black Mesa's long-distance satellite array had been disrupted, along with several hundred other communication satellites around the globe. This was causing media blackouts world wide. It hadn't downed the network between the Center and Black Mesa, and probably wouldn't, because of the specific orbit that their unit was settled in.

However, there were still broadcasts coming through. Several Armacham-based units were obviously spared, and they displayed the same thing: a shaky camera's blurred view of exactly the same sort of bizarre hole in the sky. Only this one, they could easily see, was over the New York skyline. Its location was lost on Paxton, he'd never seen New York. It was still called that, though across the update scrolling below the image, it read 'City 39'.

"This is happening all around the world," Eli Vance said, appearing on screen to be in a state of furious distress, "if that thing is close enough for you to see, it may be close enough to hurt you all." The concern he displayed wasn't just for his own daughter Alyx. She was there with him, after all. But the rest of the children of the Enrichment Center had become like his own family, as well. If there was anyone that nearly all of them looked up to as a father-figure, it would be Eli.

"So you can't see one directly from where you are?" Nigel was manning the comm center, patching things through on all the remote units around the Center. Only his voice carried, he didn't bother with a camera for himself.

"Not as far as I know," Eli said. "But our Vortigaunt friends are starting to worry. How are yours?"

"They're fine, it's us that we're worrying about," Paxton pressed a link button, waited for the camera light to flicker on, and weighed in. "Whatever is up there... is causing something. Something Vortal."

Eli didn't pretend he knew what Paxton might be feeling, but he nodded anyway. The way that the young man held his jaw tight, pressed his fingers to his forehead and squinted in pain was quite obvious. He watched as Paxton glanced through the observation room's cracked glass, at the intrusive mess in the sky.

With a very brief mental nudge, Paxton urged Nigel to shut down the full-Center network for a moment. It would be turned back on in a few minutes, but just now he wanted privacy between Eli and himself.

"There are things coming through now," Paxton announced, low, not taking his eyes off them. "Ships, I think. Eli, can your sensors pick up anything at all about these things?"

"I'm afraid not," Eli said, "it looks like there are none of those … holes near us. But I'll get on that. Magnusson will want to do something, at least we'll have a way to find out more."

"Be careful if you launch something," Paxton said, looking at the older man's image on the screen with concern, "this isn't an accident. Those aren't Portal Storm rifts. This is an attack. Don't get noticed."

In the background, he could hear Kleiner start to say something about waiting to see and not jumping to conclusions, but just at that moment Paxton wasn't about to make concessions. Something happening world-wide and of this raw scale couldn't be anything but antagonistic. That he and his brother almost always saw things as antagonistic, perhaps, was not an issue just now. Even Eli turned to hush his companion.

In the tense minutes that went by after that, they kept the communication line open, even if there were no people directly chatting. With the initial disturbance over, and many of the non-essential folk sent back inside the Center, some of the industrious kids set about creating camera installations in order to monitor this situation, as well as beam it to Black Mesa. Once they did, it was as though all the life left in Eli drained from his face.

"Good... God," he said.

Paxton drew in a long breath, staring up at the real thing, as the image of it was displayed on two of Eli's monitors. "I don't think God had anything to do with this."

As he stared at the angry red and orange boil on the sky, Paxton aimed a thought to his brother, got a reply, and nodded. "We need to build some cover for the power plant," he said to whoever would listen, on the speakers. "Jared, get to work on something non-conductive." Folks set to work, all through the Center.

They pulled walls apart, uprooted old catwalks, anything and everything that could be fit over the top of the power plant. Eden and Jared, Clay and the rest who had done such an amazing job on opening up the hole on the far side of the fields were called in once more. They scavenged parts from whatever areas they could reach. It was with a bitter tang in the back of his mind that Geoff reminded Paxton it all would have been easy to move up through the gigantic hole over there, right by the power plant, if Isabella hadn't been gone. The telekinetics that were left had never even come close to her level of power.

Geoff, however, said this from that old ruptured fuel line, crouching on the edge of the massive storage wall. Several fearless explorers made their way up and down the front of it, convinced there was something of use on the many shelves. They couldn't heft the APC or the late-cold-war-model tank, but pieces of them...

Within the time it took for the repair crew to finalize their own work, that work had been all but entirely covered over by newly manufactured beams and plates. Those were then strewn with rubble, Eden grew more plants over it. Not only would it provide a more durable safety shelter for the power plant itself, it would look from above like just another bunch of trees and old buildings. Nothing to see here, move along.

Geoff supervised the last of that work, watching in awe as Kitty once more proved that she could in fact punch a lot harder than he ever could, and was able to drag weights like a champion. Geoff stood numbly, amazed, as the young woman ripped a hole right through the sealed fuel line's hatch. Amazed? Slightly scared, actually. His brother, meanwhile, had relocated to the comm room proper, leaving Shep in charge up at the observation hall outside.

"They still have no visual," Nigel said on Paxton's arrival, "so at least... well, we can hope that it's safe over there. Should I give the word or would you like to do the honors? Because I know what you're thinking."

Paxton smirked, "you go ahead. Though I suspect that I'm going to have to have words with a few people in a minute anyway."

Over the public address system, Nigel gave a short announcement. "As soon as the power grid is fully back on line, we'll be needing the Lambda teleporter running. It will need to be functional for multiple uses, so get the batteries online." He glanced at Pax, who nodded. "Women and children head to Black Mesa first," he said and they could already hear the echoes of complaints, both audibly and Vortally. "Combat veterans and PHEAR members are to remain here for further instructions. If you are in doubt, check your chest. If it's lumpy," Nigel smirked and Paxton wondered with a chuckle how he managed to maintain his humor even in these situations, "you're a woman, and you're going."

Privately, Paxton sent mental messages: Tina would remain, along with Sandy, Natascha and Cricket. Nigel would be going to Black Mesa once the rest were settled, Chris would take inventory and make sure that any needed supplies got restocked before he went as well. They'd want Sandy for her quick healing skills, Tina because she could serve a wider range of telepathic communication needs than Nigel could – just in case their power went out and they couldn't use their comm center. Cricket was beside herself knowing that she'd have to be the one running invisibly around with Damon, but she knew that Martin would remain safely in the Containment Unit. Natascha ... well, she would maybe get to have some fun, finally.

Nigel contacted Black Mesa more formally about this, Eli and Rosenberg were already making preparations for the arrivals as he did so. There was plenty of room, maybe they could make the best of the situation, come back with supplies. When they came back. If they came back. Nigel could sense a lot of the worries from those who passed by the room, but there was one thing he sensed far more easily.

Right about the time Paxton wrapped those brief Vortal instructions up, was of course when Melissa stomped into the comm center. Nigel gave Paxton a wish I could help you but you're gonna have to handle this yourself shrug and insincere grin, and tried to ignore the upcoming firestorm as the girl came into view. Her Vortigese taunts had arrived a moment before. She was furious, her kinked golden hair tied back into a massive plume at the back of her head – that was a sure sign that she meant business. If the rest of her body language, or verbal language, hadn't already proven it.

Oh, he'd seen her angrier. With Pax, with ... GLADOS maybe. Nigel smirked to himself, last time he saw her that angry was way back. She'd certainly gotten moodier over the years. The black man was glad she'd never turned that anger on him, and she'd had plenty of chances.

Fat lot of help you are, thank you. I'll remember this, Paxton thought to Nigel, who had to stifle a laugh.

Melissa's eyes had grown brighter yellow, less brown and more gold, all her life. At the moment, what little could be seen through her angry narrowed eyelids almost glowed. But before she even got a single coherent word... English word out, Paxton held his hand up to her lips.

She pulled up short, growled, "kee dee ha-tsah mah, I'm staying," but Paxton stood his ground.

"I... don't even know what that meant," he admitted, realizing his fingers were dangerously close to her teeth, which were visible behind her full, snarling lips. He settled for trying to gently touch her neck instead, which she tolerated for a moment. "But you're going, and I'm not going to even listen to the rest of your ranting about it." His eyes darted down to her chest, barely tucked into a once-white Armacham tank top. "Last I heard, you're one of those women people. Who are on their way to Black Mesa, for safe keeping." He could feel her pulse under his thumb, oh yes, she was angry.

"Gigantic sack of stupid," she said, shrugging his hand off her neck. "I am st—"

"No, you're not," Paxton said. He'd managed to stay pretty calm, and perhaps the fact that Nigel was over in the corner attempting not to laugh at him was a good part of it. "I don't even want to hear it. Not this time. I can't afford the distraction, Mel."

"Distraction?" She hissed, "so now I'm a-"

"What do you call this then?" Paxton lifted his hands to take hold of her wrists, which had as per her usual been flailing about. He looked at her calmly. She deflated slightly. Any time it seemed like she was going to attempt to say something, he cut her off again, slowly lowering her hands but gently clinging to her fingers. "I need to know what the hell those things in the sky are, why they're here, where they're from." He glanced at one of the external monitors, the dots of motion were still swarming like ants across the opening in the sky. He still never liked ants. "When it's safe, when we know, you'll come back. I don't need to explain this to you, of all people. In the mean time… this is where you get out."

Nigel heard Melissa's mental door slam after she kicked Paxton's mind out of it. He was pretty sure they all had. She stomped out just as she'd done on the way in, cursing fluently and constantly in a mix of Vort and English. Paxton made certain to send one of his Replicas after her to make sure that she was headed in the right direction. At least he hadn't had to actually make them pick her up bodily and carry her away.

"That went... well?" Paxton said, but there was only so much light he could make of this situation. Leave that to Nigel. Paxton absently rubbed the back of his head, ghost pain – his Sanctuary was shut, that was no joke. Better to leave it closed while the storm came.

"Kee dee what-was-that?" Nigel tried rolling the Vort words around, "gigantic sack of stupid. Oh Pax, you are never going to hear the end of that." He let off his quiet chuckle, didn't stop as he saw Paxton's exasperated look.

Paxton's eyes burned in a more physical sense than Melissa's had, but he was still able to laugh out, "that's only because you're never going to stop repeating it. Maybe you should stay here. Where I can burn your ass every time you-"

The power dimmed, both young men looked up by habit, and glanced at the monitor which led to the Containment Unit's feed. Sure enough, there were several people waiting, the teleporter was online and already soaking up power. Nigel sighed, "just when things were looking good." He paused, muttered, "and I don't mean you setting me on fire. Everything was ... almost normal."

Life had been a routine, a good one. Eden's hydroponic garden was doing nicely, balanced on numerous dangling catwalks directly under the field entrance to take advantage of the frequent rains that filtered through it. Some of the PHEAR members and one or two of the stray friendly Armacham scientists that remained when everyone else had pulled out were now teaching the youngest kids… Those children had been born to the Pantheon, others to the refugees, even to the Dolans. Hunting and harvesting outside went well enough to be a welcome duty for most.

But if there was one constant in their lives, obviously it was: to be shaken up every few years.

"Nothing ever lasts," Paxton replied, frowning. "You know, I don't like being cut off like this," Paxton said. On the monitor, a still-fuming Melissa and several others were escorted by his Replicas onto the platform, awaiting transport. "But I can't reach Black Mesa, it's still too far for me."

"What, for the Replicas?" Nigel asked, and Paxton nodded slowly. "We'll still have full comm contact." Nigel patted the battered console before them.

"I hope so, and I hope that lasts." Paxton said, "even so, it doesn't look good for City 47, look at that." He indicated the external monitor again, and had the camera's focus pan back a bit. It had been on a narrow portion of the sky-born portal, but now included a wider swath of what should have been blue sky.

It was blackened with motion. It really did remind Paxton of ants – swarming, pouring out of a hole in a blue dome, looking for ...

"What are they looking for," Paxton muttered. He pinged his brother, wordlessly sharing an idea. Geoff didn't bother trying to reply, instead Paxton knew he simply went into action. Not too much later, Tina and Lynne showed up at the communication center, preceding him into the doorway.

Lynne looked a bit worse for wear. Her eyes were puffy, she'd clearly been crying for a while now, and she'd been biting her full lips enough that the bottom one was a bit bloody. Tina settled herself into her traditional seat. She bumped Nigel out of the brown-backed chair, this was where she preferred to work anyway.

"I know you were ready to go, I'm sorry about that," Paxton apologized to Lynne, who looked as jumpy as ever. "But I need to get a look at what you sensed when this happened."

Tina realized why she'd been summoned, rolled her chair backwards and simply held up her hands and wished she could grow another pair in order to do work while she was otherwise occupied. She'd become so used to linking this way, it was almost a formality, rather than a necessity. With great reluctance, Lynne placed her fingers onto Tina's, but remained still even as Paxton carefully reached up to move her black hair from her eyes.

"It's okay, we'll get past all this," he said. He moved his own hand onto Tina's, and triggered their Vortal contact.

Even though it could be said that Lynne and Paxton had the same abilities, brought on by their shared genetic lineage, it was painfully obvious that Lynne's empathy was by far stronger than his. She sensed emotion and intent at an incredibly great distance, but was normally okay with typical Human activities around her. Unlike Constance and Dolores, or even Paxton himself, she had never been able to fully control her ability, much like Chet's psychometry, or Rex's visions. So now, she had sensed before everyone else, something that appeared to be more than a hundred miles distant, farther because it was well into the atmosphere. It had affected her strongly enough that those two Vorts had to use their own powers to calm her.

Lynne fought with herself not to scream again, but didn't hold back her trembling wince. With closed eyes, Paxton drew out the memory. It was clearly tormenting to them both, but Tina understood why Paxton had chosen this route. Lynne and her overly-sensitive mind almost literally couldn't handle Paxton's presence directly in it. So it was at least a comfort to the dark-skinned girl as she relived the previous few hours, that he'd spared her another agonizing moment. Tina thanked her lucky stars that she didn't really get the full impact of this connection, she'd long since conquered that ability. Acting as a conduit didn't mean she had to live as one.

Nigel picked up some of his things, as the pair stood in nervous half-silence, connected to a distracted living switchboard. Lynne whimpered, but just when Nigel was going to gently grip her shoulder, the contact was broken and she staggered away from the other two, shaken. She'd always been nervous around Paxton anyway, but this was far more than just that comfort zone being breeched. Geoff let her pass, nodded to Nigel as he followed.

Paxton stood in the center of the comm room in heavy concentration. He didn't dare sweep over the other minds in his reach, though he could have used the extra mental energy to analyze this properly. There were some things he would want to keep from the rest of the Pantheon.

What Lynne saw being one of them. Lynne would bury it all, she usually did. And, as this sort of thing was old hat to the Pantheon, no one would dig for it.

Paxton's mental focus kept him occupied for a number of minutes. He did look up when his brother made himself more comfortable, sitting on the back of the threadbare couch lining the wall.

"Looks like we're going to be of use again, after all, brother," Paxton said.

Tina adjusted the monitors to her liking, brightened the lights in the room a little. Obviously, Nigel didn't need as much light as folks who couldn't make their own. "If you need anything, just yell," Tina smiled weakly. She had seen what Lynne was so afraid of. Paxton trusted her to keep that to herself, though he immediately did share it with Geoff.

The elder brother's typical sullen expression deepened into a far more serious frown. He didn't need to think consciously to his brother, who would pick up any stray thought, we can only wait and see what comes of this, Pax. Even I don't want to go looking for that kind of trouble.

They could see on one of the exterior monitors, some action on the grounds: outside, a trio of Vortigaunts stood watch. Any visible signs of inhabitation were being yanked up and pulled into the buildings. It was, the brothers pondered, a reasonably good thing that the Enrichment Center had never been fully repaired. If it had, it would be a clear, large target.

The three aliens outside flux-shifted, discussing this matter in their own complicated way. Their words were in their own language, and neither the Fettels nor Tina knew enough of it to understand what they heard within the comm room.

"So it begins," one intoned.

"Yes," another said, "it begins again."

The third blinked several times, his shining red eyes reflecting the ever-growing swath of darkness that led from the hole in the sky. "Ulathoi," he spoke, the others repeated the word. They returned to the underground Center, nothing more could be said.