Chapter Text
Gordon Freeman had lived a normal life up until 10:37 MST May 13th of 2020.
Up until then, the day had been one bad thing after another. It started when he was late for work. Then, when he got caught up arguing with a weird security guard, then, finally, when the damn anti mass spectrometer fucking exploded. It was at that moment that Gordon Freeman died.
The moment that Crystal hit the laser beam, he saw his life flash before his eyes, his heavily armored body sent careening into the ground, neck about to snap from sheer force. And then it stopped. Everything. Everything stopped. The lights were frozen, the debri stopped falling, and his body remained floating in midair. And then there was a flash.
"Doctor Free-man…" a deep voice shook the room.
The lights dissipated and in their place was… a thing… of some kind…
Gordon would be honest, he had no idea what it was. It was small, stern looking, with ice blue glowing pupils, starkly contrasting it's black sclera. It wore a small black suit top, long curled tail careening from the edge of the shirt. Its ears were long and tucked behind its head, sporting triangle patterns. It was a beast, that was for sure. Of what origin, Gordon didn't know. So he asked.
"What the fuck are you?" Gordon looked upon the creature in disgust. The creature merely smiled and blinked, slow and hard.
"I have… invested interest… in your… suc-cess… Dr. Freeman… and because of that… I am going to let you in… on a little… teeny… secret…" The light grew louder as the beast floated closer, a beat up crowbar appeared in Gordon's hand. He gripped it instinctively. His frozen body began floating upwards, skin feeling like static. Before he knew it, Gordon was transforming.
He closed his eyes and his hev suit disappeared, leaving a galaxy painted against his skin. Colorful lights flew towards him, wrapping around him tightly like ribbons. His curly hair gathered in a high ponytail, light brown streaks cascading through his curls as a bright orange bow bloomed forth from his ponytail. His arms reached behind him, colors cascading from his neck to his toes. A black ribbon wrapped itself around his neck, orange fabric flowing from it until it wrapped around his torso loosely. A black bow appeared and hugged his waist tight, transforming the loose orange dress into a tight top and frilly skirt. Lace and leggings came next, dripping down his legs until they reached his toes. He stomped his feet in the air and big strong boots appeared around them, wrapped up in a bow. He reached his right hand forward as his hand melted away to reveal the barrel of a large gun, fused to his skin but ornate all the same. His crowbar floated docked itself on the back of his dress.
The lights began to fade and Gordon floated gracefully to the ground, eyes opening for the first time since the transformation began. "Freeing the people from their oppressors… Cure Freedom!" He announced, striking a pose. Then he blinked. Then he began to scream.
"WHAT THE FUCK??? WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HAND?" He tried reaching out to grip the beast and crush it in his hands, but the creature simply floated out of reach.
"Patience… Doctor Freeman… or should I say… Cure Freedom… simply put… you have peaked my… interests… I have bestowed upon you… the power of a "magical" girl… use this power Wise-ly… Doctor Freeman… I'll see you on the other si-de…"
With that, the beast disappeared and time resumed. Gordon's thick boots cranked against the ground as he fell the last inch or so to the ground. The machine was spinning out of control once again, green lightning shooting out towards him. He crossed his arms to protect his face and a glowing shield appeared in front of him. It was orange with ridges and he could see through it. The lightning bounced off and straight back into the laser. He relaxed his arms and the shield faded away.
The spinning of the machine sent his newly tied up hair into his face. And the machine exploded. He didn't block in time, but braced his feet against the test chamber floor and forced his eyes closed.
By the time the smoke and dust cleared, half the chamber had collapsed. He blinked, glasses not catching all the dust in the air. The door to the chamber was bent and broken, the observatory window was shattered, and sitting before him was the grisly remains of an older scientist.
His face was almost illegible, blood smeared next to it from where he had been thrown into the floor. His neck was broken, bones almost jutting out. Bruises blossomed across all visible skin.
Gordon stepped back, aghast. "What the fuck…" He looked around.
"Okay, what did that beast say?" He said to himself. "A magical girl? I'm definitely not a girl. But it does look like I can do magic." He inspected his arm. Now that he wasn't freaking out about it being missing, he could see the inscription etched into the metal. 'Freedom' it toted.
"Yeah right…" He thought. This was the least free he'd ever been in his life.
He ducked under the bent chamber door and made his way to the observation room. If anyone was still alive there, they might have some answers to what the hell happened there. As he passed a fallen computer bank, he heard a sound. It was alien in nature, and alien in appearance he quickly discovered, creature launching at him. He instinctively swatted it out of the air with his gun arm, alien splattering on the ground with a wet crack. It's smeared remains looked like a crab. It's living form, he wasn't so sure. He stepped over the rubber and made his way to the observatory.
An older scientist was waiting for him among the corpses. "There you are, motherfucker!" They pointed at him accusingly. "What WAS that? You exploded the Goddamn machine! One second you're fucking up, the next you're in cosplay. What is this? A fucking comic convention?"
"You think I fucked it up?" He asked, bewildered? "Listen man, I didn't do shit! I followed the procedure, and the bitch exploded! What was I supposed to do?"
"Something!" The scientist exclaimed. "Instead you stood around looking like a fucking Sailor Scout, idiot."
"Yknow, you're actually onto something with that. I don't know what's going on! The thing exploded, time froze, and a weird dog… thing transformed me into this." He gestured to his frilly get up. "Said it was interested in me. Made me a magical girl. I fucking guess."
"No shit?" The scientist asked, turning their head. "I'd say I was impressed if you didn't fuck up the Whole FACILITY! There's goddamn aliens, Gordon! How am I supposed to get my vacation days now?"
"Listen man… your days off are not gonna be worth anything if the facility collapsed in on itself! We need to gather a team and leave! I can protect us." He gestured to his gun arm.
"Oh sure," they rolled their eyes. "What are you gonna do looking like a damn girl scout!"
Gordon gritted his teeth. He was long past frilly clothing elevating his dysphoria, enough that he had grown his hair out and occasionally wore feminine clothing. He was to the point where anyone that called him a girl would be accused of being delusional, considering his dad bod and goatee. And he was certain this scientist didn't mean anything by it. But boy did it get under his skin.
"This, Motherfucker!" He pointed his arm behind him and clenched the fist he didn't have, sending bullets spraying into the wall behind him.
The scientist looked impressed. "I stand corrected, you're one powerful girl scout!
Gordon rolled his eyes.
"Yo..? What the fuck?"
Gordon whipped around at the sound, only to find the weird guard from early, riddled with holes and bleeding profusely.
"I was just standing here. Don't gotta be mean" They walked briskly towards the two scientists as if their hole filled skin didn't rival that of Swiss cheese.
"Oh My God…" Gordon ran towards them, reaching out his gun arm to wipe the blood off their face, before realising what a bad idea that was and reaching with his left hand instead. "I'm SO sorry man. Are you okay? I didn't know you were there, I swear!"
Nothing about the guard moved apart from their eyes, following Gordon's bloody fingers with impossible intent. They flicked their eyes towards Gordon, staring… menacingly?
"It's cool…" they said slowly. "Can't help it. Just wanna shoot a guy sometime. No big deal. Besides… I'm not human."
Gordon quirked his eyebrow. What a weird sense of humor. Taking that joke into consideration now… it did seem plausible. None of the bullets were lodged in their skin, and the wounds seemed to have already scabbed over.
"I'll take your word for it man…" Gordon backed up after confirming the guard was alive and well. "You wanna join our escape team? I'm Gordon, I'll be offense. This guy is…" He looked back at the old scientist. "Hey what's your name?
The scientist looked surprised to be talked to all of a sudden. "Uh… Bubby?"
Gordon looked at them deadpan. "Really? Bubby?"
"Yup!" They looked proud. "Bubby! Chose it myself."
Gordon could relate to the pride of having chosen your own name. But the oddity of the scientist's name was not lost on him.
"Doesn't that- I'm pretty sure Bubby is a nickname for grandparents? Isn't that a little on the nose?"
"Gordon, I'll have you know," Bubby smirked, "I have zero relatives!"
"Weird thing to be proud of but okay." Gordon said, thinking about his own family. He missed his son.
"We better get a move on guys. I don't want to be here any longer than I need to be." He started walking towards the next room, gesturing for the others to follow him.
"Don't- Wait Mr. Freeman!" Gordon turned around at the voice. It was Tommy. He didn't know Tommy persay, but he was friendly acquaintances with him. Tommy bounced around between divisions, so Gordon ended up chatting with him on his theoretical physics days. He had actually been one of the scientists observing the experiment.
"TOMMY!" The guard yelled, walking, not running, over to the scientist.
"Ben- Benrey!" Tommy sighed in relief, flapping his hands back and forth. "I'm so glad you- you guys are here! I was beginning to think you hadn't- didn't make it out!" He smiled at the guard, at… Benrey?
"Tommy!" Gordon exclaimed, waving at him. "We were just about to escape. You want in on this?"
Tommy nodded his head rapidly, walking over with quick short steps. "Dr.- Mr. Freeman! You're a magical girl! My dad he- he told me about them!"
"Really Tommy?" Gordon looked at him confused. "They're pretty big in pop culture. I'm surprised he had to tell you."
Tommy shook his head. "No Mr. Freeman. Real magical girls. Like you!"
That made more sense. "You'll have to share what he told you Tommy. I could use some pointers on this whole 'Cure Freedom' thing."
Tommy opened his mouth to respond only to be interrupted by Bubby. "Let's GO already! We're burning daylight here."
Tommy nodded and joined Gordon by the door. Benrey lagged behind.
The door lock was jammed but with enough force,and bullets), the team managed to unjam it.
The door slid into the wall, revealing a jolly looking Dr. Coomer, standing dangerously close to a laser beam.
"Ah hello Gordon!" He chimed. "Shits all gone to fuck!"
"Dr. Coomer!" Gordon yelled, rushing in and pulling his mentor away from the laser beam.
If this was any indicator of the days to come, than this was going to be a long week.