Gordon Freeman

"In that I have to put up with a lot of scientists researching me," Dinah admits. "No one's found a cause for it yet."

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"Huh. My dad told me there used to be singers who could shatter glass if they hit the right note loud enough," the rebel says, picking his way across the trail of debris with the greatest of care. "Something like that?"

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"Like that," she agrees. "Turns out you can shatter just about anything if you hit the right frequency and volume."

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"Huh. Too bad that doesn't work underground," the rebel says, expression going grim. "There's manhacks between us and the surface. The Combine're seriously flooding the tunnels."

And sure enough, the sound of the buzzsaw robots fills the air.

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"Oh, shit! Not on the... shit!" John screams, as the hacks come closer and closer to the group. He knows there's no way they can stay alive if they try to fight the hacks on floating surfaces. "There's not enough--hold on!"

God, I hope I don't kill them please don't let me kill them John thinks in a mantra as he picks first Dinah and then the rebel up to deposit them further along down the way, onto more solid surfaces. He's picked up plenty of people before, but always with the aim of strangling them to death, never to save them.

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Dinah, for her part, stays still and mobile while being moved. It feels weird, but not unlike being moved by Green Lantern, and she's fine with it.

When she lands on the solid surface, she launches straight into action, rolling under the manhacks to find a piece of pipe. And then, it's mace time again.

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"Wnfgh!" says the rebel, or something like it. He's not being strangled, he's just startled as hell. When John releases him he stumbles, but regains his feet. "Nice one, doc," he says as he flashes a grin.

There's no time left for talking after that. The air is alive with the glaring lights and whizzing saws of the manhacks, and the least distraction is going to get somebody shredded.

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John pulls out his SMG to take care of the manhacks. It's not as effective as TK, but unfortunately his mind can't take any more for now.

He shoots at the ones above their heads, coming in, since he doesn't want to take a chance that a stray bullet could hit either of his teammates.

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Dinah works quickly and silently with the pipe; trusting John's ability with the gun for no other reason than not doing so is a distraction she can't afford right now.

It doesn't take long to get rid of them with them all working.

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Eventually the reason for the liberal dose of manhacks becomes clear: the tunnel is utterly collapsed in one direction, and offers pedestrian access to a small, barred courtyard on the surface. The passage makes it possible to avoid a vast quantity of the city's hazards.

Unfortunately, we mean it when we say barred; three directions are blocked by buildings, and the fourth is blocked by a substantial, hastily erected barricade of rubble.

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John looks around the ruined world--now he understands, and the impact of it all hits him. This was a metropolis. But he can't allow himself much time for those kinds of thoughts. He turns his head deliberately, and then looks at Dinah.

"This open enough for you?"

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Just to be on the safe side, the Resistance man steps aside. You never know when things are going to start flying.

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"Cover your ears," Dinah suggests as an answer, and steps forward away from them.

She takes a breath, hoping she doesn't seem nervous. Then, starting quiet, she finds a note just within the upper range of human hearing.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

Her description of glass shattering from a soprano wasn't accurate. This is a fully fledged sonic weapon, and the rubble blocking the way flies back like she's hit it with a demolition ball.

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"...wow. That's incredible," John says, coughing a bit due to the dust flying around. He puts his gun on the holster on his back and brings his hand to bear, just to be safe, in case there's something waiting on the other side.

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To it as simply as possible, the rebel's face does this:

O___O

"....okay then!" he finally manages. "No wonder you didn't want to do that underground..."

The other side is open, at least for the moment. The Combine are mostly busy inside the buildings in the area. Which is fine with the rebel, because as they push along and stay out of sight a scrawny twentysomething woman with a lambda on her arm darts out of an alley. "Aloysius! Am I ever glad to see you- we've got sniper sign!"

"Huh boy," says Aloysius, glancing over at his two companions. "How bad?"

"A good five or six of them, all strung out along one block- it's the dormitory complex on Linden. Alexi's pinned down on the other side of the street."

"Guess they figured they'd better not leave anything to chance. Linden Street's the most direct route to the Citadel from here," says Aloysius.

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Dinah keeps her eyeroll as subtle as possible. She fought off an insurgence of zombies with just her bare un-superpowered hands, and they're complimenting on her lung capacity. She says nothing, however, until she hears about the snipers, then glances towards John.

"Do you still have tranquilizers?"

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He pulls the lightweight, white gun out of his belt holster, and loads it, and cocks it.

"Yes, I do. What are you thinking of doing?"

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Rubbing at her now scratchy throat, Dinah glances towards the other two, wondering if they'll actually think this crazy.

"If I give them something to aim at that isn't you, do you think you can take out five or six snipers?"

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"Definitely. If we can find a way into one of these buildings... it'll be easy. Much easier than trying to take them out while they're shooting at you. And these guys... I don't even want to think what it would be like, with all their technology."

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"Getting in's not a problem," says Aloysius. "Follow me- I'll show you where we've got to go."

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"Okay," John responds, gun above his shoulder at the ready, just in case, and gets behind the rebel. "Lead on."

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Linden Street is some distance away, but Aloysius knows the route well enough to snake his little group through without being spotted. (Or perhaps not; the occasional rocket thunders into the ground close by where they'd just been.) Eventually he ducks into the slightly recessed shelter of an emergency door. "Just around the corner," he says, "there's a fire exit. Can your flux capacitor jimmy a magnetic lock at all, or is this going to need explosives?"

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"Yeah, it can, I think. Where's it at?" John's undone complex locks before. Shouldn't be too hard.

[[Wondering if John would actually be able to unlock the Combine locks. He's done a lot of stuff, but the finer control is difficult for him. Plus, they're much different than magnetic locks.]]

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[[Up to you. There's nothing wrong with a little property damage to get in, and the Combine aren't used to building things to resist psychics and metahumans, that's all I'm saying.]]

"A yard or two down. The lock's on the outside- you can't miss it."

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