#i went through so much trouble to get access to his dang original voice and may or may not have opened my phone to viruses

[springlock-suits]

Alternate version of this post from earlier because I feel the actual sprite is more powerful than a drawing

[maximumsnow]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware, HLVRAI - Fandom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Gordon Freeman, Tommy Coolatta, Dr. Coomer (Half-Life), Bubby (Half-Life), Benrey (Half-Life) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical swearing, Basically an au exploring what if HLVRAI followed Half Life a little more closely, Au where there isn't a betrayal in that one spot, Mainly was wondering what would happen to the others if they hadn't been in on it., Some things change some don't, Title is subject to change because I got nothing, Oh also this is sort of intended as a not a game au Summary:

Anyone who knows original Half-Life knows that the ambush happens in that spot no matter what. What would have happened if the ambush was as rough for the others?

After the encounter with the weirdly nimble soldiers, figuring out where to go next was not an easy task. Especially since Gordon’s companions apparently got hung up at the sight of moths. To be fair, he wouldn’t have expected moths to hang out after all the explosions either, but the problem was that they were all wasting ammo trying to hit tiny targets.

WAS THAT A GRENADE LAUNCHER?

He dove out the way as Tommy’s gun flung an explosive towards the bugs fluttering near a light. As the smoke cleared, he tried yelling, “THEY’RE JUST MOTHS!”

More explosions were all he got for his troubles.

Overcome with the sheer ridiculousness, he couldn’t help but break down laughing as he heard Dr. Coomer yell something about tranquilizing them.

Tommy stopped shooting long enough to forcibly hand Gordon something, and it wasn’t until it was in his hands that he realized that it was yet another human skull. “If they’re-if they’re just moths, then how do you explain this, Mr. Freeman?”

… You know what, given everything else, sure. Why wouldn’t there be killer moths that stripped human corpses to the bones? At the rate things were going, that would only rank at number fifteen on the top twenty list of messed up things he had run into today.

Given that the dang things were apparently still unharmed despite all the bullets and grenades, he was grateful when Bubby called for Gordon to meet him on the platform. By the time he got there, Bubby was already pulling a SURFACE ACCESS lever.

Or was trying to.

“Uhhh, want some help?” Gordon offered as he got closer.

“No, dumbass, I’m fine.”

Arguing wouldn’t do anything, so he turned away to keep an eye on the others. Coomer was already nearby, and if Bubby wouldn’t let Gordon help, then Coomer could take over when Bubby inevitably got too frustrated.

Tommy and Benry joined them after a few minutes, and Gordon would have been more concerned over Tommy’s frightened expression if that hadn’t been the default look ever since this whole mess started. Still, he felt the need to ask, “You good, Tommy?”

“Y-yeah Mr. Freeman. The moths aren’t- They’re being mesmerized by the lamp and ignoring us for now.”

“That’s good.” He reached over patted Tommy’s shoulder. The contact was brief, but Tommy’s tension visibly eased. Which was really good since the taller scientist still had a death grip on his gun.

“You didn’t want your doughnut?” Benry suddenly asked in his deadpan tone.

“… What? Doughnut?” Gordon was already tired of this conversation and it just started. He didn’t even know where the security guard had seen a doughnut.

Just the mention of it, however, reminded him that he could really go for some cheap fried dough right now.

“Yeah, Tommy handed it to you earlier.” Benry threw something at Gordon’s feet.

He looked down at the object and yelled in frustration, “THIS IS A SKULL!”

“It’s got like. Holes in it. Doughnuts have holes.”

“Uggghhhh. That’s not how that works! Doughnuts are made of dough for one thing-”

His rant was cut off by Coomer excitedly yelling, “Let’s go! You can eat your pastry after we get out!”

Gordon sighed and kicked the skull away before following the others back down the ladders. For many reasons, he was glad to get out of that open space, but the hallways ahead felt quiet.

Too quiet.

“Surface access!”

Until his companions decided to play some sort of word game that he couldn’t begin to guess the rules of. “Surface assess.”

“Surface asses! Let’s go!”

… Okay that one got a chuckle out of him.

The chattering turned into background noise as they walked through the hall, and while he was a little frustrated that they were making noise, another part was grateful that their nonsense made this whole horror show bearable.

Going through this alone would have sucked, and it was hard for the horror to set in when he was forced to listen to Inane Comments FM at any given moment.

He was shaken out of his thoughts when Coomer loudly announced, “This will cut down our travel to the Lambda Lab by about three hours!”

By this point, he didn’t really put much stock in Coomer’s time estimates, but he played along, “Th-that’s the whole thing! The entire duration.”

There was a door leading off from the hallway, and Bubby had no hesitation in going straight towards the medical station that was visible even from where Gordon was standing. The others filed in behind him with Gordon bringing up the rear.

Benry chose that moment to say, “Oh look a TV with Blu-Ray!” Which caused everyone else to throw in comments on the topic. Even though there was nothing of the sort nearby-

The lights went out.

“Annnnnd the lights are out. Who knocked out the lights? Who’s fucking with me?” Gordon was more exasperated than worried. This would be right up their alley, even though he had no idea what the prank was going to be.

“Uhhhhhh, What the hell? What’s happening?” Bubby’s voice was a lot more nervous than it should have been.

“Oh, it’s DARK in here...” Thank you, Captain Obvious. Gordon’s money was currently on Benry being the culprit, if the complete lack of surprise was anything to go by. If he was more generous, Gordon would cede that Benry’s deadpan delivery could have also been a cover up for surprise, but he just wanted to get out and not blow a vessel with how much the guard stressed him out.

“Has anyone seen Mr. Freeman?” Wait, where was Dr. Coomer if-

Gunshot.

The bullet didn’t hit him.

But something warm and liquid did.

“SHIT-” Was all he was able to yell out before something hard slammed against the back of his head and knocked him face first to the ground. As soon as he down, whatever attacked him continued hitting him. He tried to curl up as if that would protect him from the onslaught of punches and kicks and who knows what else was hitting him.

“What are you doing!? We just wanna go home!”

“Let go of me you damn boot boys!”

“Help me, Gordon!”

The Science Team’s voices barely cut through the haze in his mind, and he tried so hard to hold onto that. If they were having this much trouble, he had to get back up and take the lead…

There was another gunshot, and the sound made his head scream in pain. It took him way too long to figure out why he wasn’t feeling the agony of being shot. He jolted up and screamed, “GUYS?” Before something else connected with his head, and he blacked out.

[bendy-dreamland]

(Warning: chapter contains mild gore, death, and blood, mentions of medical procedures)

--

“Boris! No, no! What have they done to ya?!”

Henry pulled Bendy away, keeping him from looking at the dead Toon. “Bendy, we need you to get out of here. Mugman, think you can take him back to Candy Corners?”

“NO!” Bendy screamed. “No, no, no! I’m not leavin’ dis spot! Dat’s mah buddy up in dat dang tree! I wanna know why he’s up there!”

“Hey, calm down, calm down!” Cuphead grabbed at the demon, turning him around to face him. “Look at me, brat! If yer gonna freak out, you’re gonna call da wrong sorta attention here! We need to block off da area and get da police in on dis. We’ve got a straight up murder on our hands, and it might be part of our investigation.”

Bendy looked at Cuphead before his face scrunched up as big, black tears came to his eyes. “B-But… Boris is…” He was cut off when the red-themed cup pulled him into a tight hug, rubbing his back. The demon started to cry, wrapping his arm around Cuphead.

Mugman gulped, looking up at Boris before looking at Henry as he approached him. “S-Should we get someone to call the police? I can go back to the shop…”

“Give me the camera I gave you earlier, I’m gonna take a few pictures. Go call for the police, please.” Henry replied, holding out his hand. Mugman didn’t say anything as he took the camera from his person, giving it to the detective before running back to the shop.

He got inside and went up to the counter. “Mike, I need to use the phone, gotta call the cops. We’ve got a possible murder on our hands.” He whispered, not wanting to cause a panic in the soda shop. Mike didn’t say anything as he let Mugman go behind the counter to use the phone.

As the mug was doing this, Henry was taking pictures of Boris’ body. It wasn’t easy, the sight was making his stomach curl, and Bendy’s crying wasn’t helping that unsettling feeling.

In his short time as a P.I., Henry has learned that death was a rare, but possible, event for cartoon characters. He’s learned that death comes in a variety of ways, some worse than others. Cartoon characters can be killed with acetone or Dip, something like acetone except ten times worse, and it’s not a pretty or pleasant death for anyone. Even humans have trouble when it comes to Dip, it burns something terrible.

Another way to die is from a weapon infused or soaked in either of these liquids, but it can’t be a Toon weapon, it has to be a human one.

Then there’s the simple death of a character due to script writing, and sometimes it’s for the best.

The saddest death is when a Creator gives up on a character and just kills them by ignoring them and cutting them off, leaving them to suffer. They cannot survive this way, they can’t continue to be a character, they’re not even allowed to stay alive in Toon World.

One of the worst cases is when Walt Disney and Universal Studios gave up on Julius the Cat, from the Alice shorts. The poor character suffered so much hate from people accusing him of being a rip-off of Felix the Cat that Disney let him be forgotten.

But that wasn’t his fault, he was an Original Idea that happened to be a black cat who was an imp, personality wise.

Original Ideas are the very essence of a Toon, they exist but they have no true form, no way to come to life, until they can make contact with the mind of a Creator. This is how cartoons come into being, this is how they can access the Over World.

When a Creator gets an Original Idea in their head, they draw the character on paper, then animate them. This gives them the kick in the pants they need for something called Life Ink to get them to come to life, to come over to the real world to live as a living drawing, a Toon.

Toons live in Toon World, that’s their home, but they can’t come into being until a Creator gives them life. It’s always been this way, even with comic characters. They exist in Toon World once they are brought to life through the medium they exist in.

Henry has had many Original Ideas he’s brought to life, just like Boris up here. It hurts to see his creation mangled like this, and maybe it’s the shock of it all, but Henry was keeping himself level headed about all this. He had to, he found his friend murdered and he knew that he had to be the one to find out why. Boris was an Original Idea he gave life to, and it hurts to see that someone snuffed that life out.

That made him worry, was something going to happen to Alice, the Butcher Gang? Did something already happen to them… and Bendy? Oh no, what about Bendy?

Bendy was, for the most part, a difficult Toon to bring to life. He was an Original Idea, but nothing Henry did could give him Life Ink. Until Joey took things into his own hands and told Henry that he’d help bring Bendy into this world. The next morning, he found Bendy sleeping at his desk, completely alive. Henry had asked how Joey did it, and all his friend had said was,

‘You just had to believe hard enough, Henry. Belief can make dreams come true, it can make magic happen.’

Lowering the camera, Henry looked over at Bendy, seeing him sitting a distance away, his back turned to face the body. Cuphead was quietly talking to him, patting his back. Henry could still hear crying from his demonic creation. He didn’t blame Bendy, he was reacting how anyone else would after finding the corpse of their best buddy in a tree.

There were loud siren sounds and Henry looked over to see police cars and the police force making their way over. He wasn’t too keen on the cops themselves, especially the ones here in Palomino City, but he was going to need their help.

He watched as a poodle in a chief’s uniform approach. He looked at Henry and cleared his throat, his voice heavy with a French accent as he spoke. “I am Chief Louis Baton, we were called here because of, eh, murder? Yes?”

Henry nodded. “I’m private detective Henry Ross, and the murder victim is my creation, Boris the Wolf.”

Chief Baton looked at him confusion. “You are a Creator?” He asked, sounding suspicious.

Reaching into his pocket, Henry pulled out his wallet and pulled out an ID card. It showed an image of himself from years ago, and had information about himself and his position at Joey Drew Studios. Chief Baton looked it over before giving a nod. “I have heard of you, Mr. Ross, just needed to make sure. Have had humans pretending to be… well… Creators, yes? Trying to sneak into places. Where is the body?”

Pointing up, Henry gestured to the tree and Chief Baton’s face paled, which was funny to see since he was a white poodle. “Mon dieu…!” He squeaked out as a bit of Boris’ entrails slipped out and dropped down, hanging about three feet down.

Henry felt like throwing up as he looked away. “I-I… let me get the clean up crew…” the police officer stammered out as he turned away. The animator looked down at the ground before walking over to Bendy and Cuphead.

“How’s he doin’?” Henry asked as he sat down next to Bendy, only to have the devil latch tightly to him, crying once more.

“Bad.” Cuphead sighed loudly. “What do ya think’s gonna happen, Ross?”

“He’ll be taken to the morgue where the coroner will look him over.” Henry frowned softly. “I know the coroner, he’s a friend, I’ll be able to get information about what happened from him easily.”

Bendy sniffed loudly before pulling away, his face was stained with inky tears. “Please… please figure out what happened… my best buddy’s dead, I can’t…”

Henry pulled him close and hugged him, sighing softly. “I know, I know, it hurts a lot. I wish I hadn’t seen it either. But I promise that I’ll figure out what happened, and I’ll take down whoever dared to kill Boris.”

Golden eyes looked up at him and Henry watched as a small smile came to Bendy’s lips. “I-I’ll hold ya do dat, ol’ man.”

--

Henry had spoken to several police officers about what he knew of Boris’ body, and he was able to interview both the ram and his wife about what happened. Apparently, they had taken a stroll through the park and the sheep had wanted to sit under the tree for a little break, only for her to find the blood and ink.

Now, that had Henry curious.

Blood and ink do flow in Toon veins, but the problem with the situation is that the blood was too dark, too deep a shade of red to be cartoon blood. Most characters bled a very bright, very loud shade of red, though some bled different colors, and some bled straight up black if they were a monochrome character.

In this case, that was where Boris fell. He was black and white in color, so his blood should be black. But this? Boris had blood that was the same color as that of a human’s, that’s… that’s not right. Did Joey make changes to Boris that were internal rather than external in design? Toons do get upgrades and design changes to match with the times, explains why Bendy wore a colored outfit, but Boris?

Boris was different, he looked just as he had years ago, and was even in his signature overalls. Last Henry had heard, Boris wore a shirt now and had a change in pants as well. He was even sporting a tail, a design choice that Henry fully approved of.

Did Boris change back to his old look before his death?

Henry sighed and rubbed at his eyes before getting up, grabbing a cup of coffee from the offered pot and cups across the room. He, Cuphead, Mugman, and Bendy were sitting in the waiting room at the coroner’s office, waiting to hear anything from the doctor in the other room.

Sitting at a desk in the room was a white cat with a long, fluffy tail and big, gold eyes. She had a cute smile on her face as she typed away at her type writer to the beat of the song that played on the radio. She was the secretary and wife of the doctor, Tabby. She was a sweetheart and liked to call Henry cutie whenever he came in. He let her do it because she was too nice to be angry with.

He poured himself a cup of coffee before looking over at the boys. Bendy had finally passed out from the emotional stress and was currently sleeping against Mugman, who was also napping quietly. Cuphead was the only one awake, flipping through a comic book he had pulled from his hammerspace.

“Want some coffee?” He asked the cup, who looked up and nodded. Walking back over, he handed Cuphead his drink, who happily poured it into his head, enjoying the boost of caffeine.

“Thanks, Henry.” Cuphead said as he closed the comic. “Maybe I should take ‘em home, Bendy’s had a rough time.”

“Yeah, maybe y-” The door behind the secretary desk opened and a black cat dressed in scrubs came out. He had a bored expression on his face as he looked over at the group. “Oh, hello, Dr. Fish.” Henry greeted, before hearing a loud snort from Cuphead. The cat was named Doctor Claudius Fish, and yes, his name was a set of puns. Happens a lot to cartoon characters.

Dr. Fish rolled his eyes, sighing loudly through his nose. “I didn’t choose my name, boy, don’t make fun. Henry, can you come with me, I need to show you something.”

“Right.” Henry set his cup down and looked over at Cuphead. “You gonna come with?”

“I… suppose, yeah. Miss, do ya mind watchin’ my baby bro and friend?” He asked, looking at Tabby, who happily nodded. He followed the doctor and detective through the door and into another part of the building. They entered an examination room and Cuphead made a face as he looked at the body on the table.

Boris was cut open and some of his organs rested on trays, even his head seemed to be cut open. But Cuphead was shocked to notice something with the body and the organs. “Oh, sugar honey iced tea… those aren’t right.”

“I take it that you figured out the problem here, yes?” Dr. Fish asked, looking at the cup headed Toon.

“Yeah, uh, I ain’t da smartest guy here in town, but I know what cartoon organs are suppose to look like, and these ain’t right.”

“What do you mean?” Henry asked as he approached, before realizing what they were getting at. “These are human…”

“Yes, and they seem to belong to Boris, as they were physically attached to him naturally.” The mortician replied, adjusting his glasses on his nose. Henry and Cuphead looked at him with equal surprise and he continued. “I have never seen anything like this before in all my years of working with Toons and humans. Toon organs may look like human ones, but there are obvious differences. For one, the heart is meant to look like one you see when a character is in love.”

“I’m guessin’ Boris’ doesn’t look anythin’ like that?” Henry asked as Dr. Fish held up a tray. He cringed, staring at the heart that was clearly human, except it was yellow in colored, stained in ink. What made it worse was that there was a giant bite mark in it. “What the hell…?”

Setting down the dish, Dr. Fish reached for his notes. “From what I was able to gather, it seems that this wolf has a human chest cavity, and bleeds human blood but toon blood as well, that’s not ink. Though he does have ink in his chest, but I doubt it’s his.”

“What’s… the cause of death?”

“Looks like he was attacked by a beast of sorts. He was clearly torn open by teeth, and most of his organs have bites and tears. It seems a monster had gotten to him, if you want to believe that. I think it was a wild animal Toon, one that has simple intelligence, like a wolf or lion from the Over World.”

He pointed towards the chest, at what looked like long marks in the black fur. “Seems that claws were used, or at least one set. I can’t find much in terms of evidence that two sets were used, just one that appears to be from the right front paw. That, or a hand from a Toon with very, very dark tendencies.”

“Gross.” Cuphead grimaced. “Hopefully it ain’t dat, don’t wanna be dealin’ with a crazed murderer. But if dat’s da option dat’s right… why would a Creator make such a character?”

“Because some people have dark minds that attract such Original Ideas.” Dr. Fish scoffed. “It’s why we have bad guys in Toon World, adds drama to a world full of sugar and smiles. I don’t mind the drama, gives me work.”

“Dat’s a dark outlook on da situation, Dr. Fish.”

“I deal with death and gore, boy, I am desensitized to much of what I see in this office, and I don’t mind it compared to the blinding world of cartoons outside of my office. If I want sunshine and rainbows, I’ll spend time with Tabby, at least I enjoy it from her.”

“Boy, you must be fun at parties.”

Henry sighed and slapped his forehead. “Anythin’ else you can tell us about this, doctor?”

Dr. Fish nodded and moved to another part of the room, grabbing a tray before returning to the table. On the tray was a large wrench, but there was something so wrong about it. It was solid, physical, but it appeared to be stuck as a sketch in appearance. It had all the tell-tale signs of a sketched-out design, like the marks of trying to make straight lines, the areas where things didn’t look even. And it was covered in dry ink and blood.

“This was found in his chest, behind his lungs.” The cat stated. “I’m not sure why it was there, but I suspect that it has a big thing to do with what happened to him. I am still going for his death being caused by an animal, but it is possible that this was used in the process. I’ll keep looking over anything else that seems suspicious.”

Henry nodded, looking from the wrench to Boris, seeing the familiar face, but the unsettling unfamiliarity of the X’d out eyes. There was a soft cough, catching the detective’s attention as he looked back to the doctor, who was giving him a look that meant that he understood how he was feeling.

“I’ll let you know more soon, Henry. I’m still needing to examine things and run tests, give me a day or two. Go home and rest, you look exhausted.”

He did feel exhausted, this is a lot to take in. “I know, I mean… this is my friend, my creation, layin’ on this table, right in front of me.”

Green eyes stared at him before Dr. Fish removed his glasses, cleaning them off a bit. “I understand, it is a hard thing to take in, people sometimes forget that Toons can die as well. We’re not meant to last forever, we all have to go at some point, even if it seems to happen before our time. Go home, you two, get some rest, continue work in the morning.”

--

Stepping out back into the office, Henry was surprised to find Linda waiting there with a now-awake Mugman and Bendy. She smiled sadly and got up, approaching him. “How are you doing, Henry?”

“Terrible, but I’m tryin’.” He tried to smile back at her and she gently patted his arm.

“Come on, let’s go to my place. I’ll make you boys a nice, hot meal and you can relax a bit. I’m sure you all need it after what happened tonight. If you want, you can spend the night!”

“Oh, I don’t wanna be a bother…”

She shook her head. “No, no! It’s alright, I’m offering! Besides, it’s getting late and traveling through the portals at night isn’t always the best. Also, when’s the last time I made you a good dinner, Henry?”

He wanted to say no, he wanted to reject the offer, but how could Henry say no to Linda? He chuckled as he shrugged. “Alright, alright, we’ll come over, is that alright with you boys?”

“Hell yeah!” Cuphead grinned, giving a thumbs up. “I’m up for a free meal!” He ignored his brother, who told him to stop being rude. Bendy looked over and smiled, he looked so tired and worried as he got up, walking over to Henry.

“Thanks fer da offer, Ms. Linda, real nice of ya to do fer us.” He told her, and she nodded, frowning softly.

“It’s the least I can do, it’s a terrible thing to have happen, losing a dear friend like that. Come, let’s head to my place.”

After saying good bye to Tabby, the small group walked out into the dark streets. People were out and about, many coming home from work, others going out for a good time. They could quietly hear people gossiping about a murder in the park, that’s the problem with cities like this, word travels fast.

Bendy bit his lip, trying to ignore the talking of strangers, instead trying to focus on the quiet chatter of his friends. He glanced around as he quietly walked before something caught his eye, a flash of black and blue. He stopped, looking about, what was that? Had he seen who he thought he had seen?

“Ben?”

Blinking, Bendy turned to see Cuphead looking at him with concern. “You okay there, short stuff?”

“Yeah, I thought I saw… hey! Don’t call me short!” He huffed and quickly moved to catch up to the laughing cup, his mind no longer on what he had thought he had seen.

As they walked on down the street, someone peeked around the corner of a building, watching from under a hood. Black, pie-cut eyes looked on in worry before looking about, making sure that there was no one watching from above.

With a loud gulp, the figure ran off. This was bad, he just knew it, he could feel it in his feet that something terrible was starting.

First Joey disappears, now there’s a mutilated body, and he knew there would be more very soon…

END OF ACT ONE SCENE FIVE