Radio Free... uh... Someplace

[a_mere_child]

It took a few minutes of searching, but Gordon and Alyx have managed to locate an old dirt road branching off from the main highway. It's narrow and steep, and so overgrown with weeds and grass as to be barely visible, but it seems to lead in the right general direction. And if no one's used this road in a while, the odds are good that the Combine

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[acts_of_gord]

Gordon nods, but doesn't say anything. The car is more of a challenge to steer than he'd expected. He's never had to use a car without power steering before, and the 'road' condition isn't helping any, either.

As they wend their way up the hill, they pass through a wooden raised gate. The road beyond it leads to a cluster of small buildings, one of which is directly connected to the radio tower.

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon would swear if he thought it would do any good. The shotgun's not nearly as good at range as he'd like, and there's no way he wants to get close to those things. Still- at least he has enough ammo. He nods to Alyx and listens for any further sign of encroaching synth.

[a_mere_child]

Those howls are going to haunt Alyx's nightmares for the rest of her life. As are the sound of its footsteps echoing from above.

"Shhhhhh.... it's on the roof."

The footsteps go silent for a moment, then something big and dark drops past the window in the door on the other side of the room.

[acts_of_gord]

The door suddenly bulges under the impact of- well, something. Not the Hunter's own mass, but Gordon isn't sticking around to see what; he ducks farther behind the island instead. When he turns to see where Alyx is, several glowing blue projectiles streak through the air and bury themselves in the wall opposite the door. This is about to get ugly.

[a_mere_child]

Why does that seem so familiar...?

The projectiles start to quiver and emit a high-pitched whine. Alyx dives away from where they're buried just before they explode in bursts of blue-white light.

[acts_of_gord]

Explosives. They spit explosives. Well, that just changed the game.

Screw the shotgun (no offense), but Gordon wants the gravity gun for this. If they're going to be shooting time-delayed explosives at him, he's going to damn well throw them back.

[a_mere_child]

Alyx is still afraid. Terrified, even. But she's accustomed to fear. She knows how to channel it into anger. Anger she can use.

"They're not gonna catch me off guard again," she growls as she rises just far enough to fire at the Synth. "Not this time. I'm ready for you."

[acts_of_gord]

As is Gordon, although in a slightly different way. There is, as it happens, a radiator on the wall nearby. Or was, before the gravity gun got hold of it. When he pokes his head out from shelter, it's to gauge how much of the doors've been destroyed by the Synth's onslaught-

Oh, there are two of them. Great, just great. Well, the one is close enough to punt the radiator at with extreme prejudice, thank you very much.

[a_mere_child]

They're insanely fast and strong, but... when Alyx's bullets hit them, they bleed. Striders and Gunships won't even flinch from anything smaller than an artillery shell. The Hunters actually seem to be in pain.

[acts_of_gord]

And the radiator does pretty serious damage, too. That's encouraging. Gordon glances around and trains the gravity gun on a nearby chunk of concrete, thinking to toss it at the nearer of the two- only to find it suddenly serving as the only thing between him and a flechette barrage.

Too bad for the Hunter that it has no way of repelling them when he flings it back.

[a_mere_child]

The Synth screeches in pain as its own flechettes explode in its face (or whatever it has instead of a face). It wobbles and collapses on the ground.

"We killed it. We killed it!" Alyx shouts in triumph. "Gordon, we can do this! We can take 'em!"

[acts_of_gord]

Gordon grins, a brief fierce smile, and darts forward to grab up that radiator again if he can manage it. If he can't, well, there's other rubble- and these things sure seem to break nicely under impact.

[a_mere_child]

...damn he looks sexy when he does that.

Alyx follows, but at a distance. She hasn't forgotten what those things can do to a person at close range.

[acts_of_gord]

The radiator is out of reach, largely because the Hunter's spitting its flechettes at Gordon every time he seems to be drawing a bead on it. Too bad for the Synth that there's a couple of fifty-five gallon waste drums sitting just outside and well within reach. It's so going to get punted if it isn't faster on its feet than Gordon thinks it is.

[a_mere_child]

It's fast, but not that fast. The force of the explosion practically flattens the Hunter against the far wall. It won't be getting up again.

Unfortunately, another silhouette is galloping along the edge of the collapsed roof above. "There's another one!" shouts Alyx, and opens fire.

[acts_of_gord]

Oh, for- That one's getting a chunk of masonry. Gordon doesn't have the room to make sure the drum hits it without possibly catching himself or Alyx in the backblast.