BEFORE
The engines were silent.
The engines that had lit up the place for so many years, the engines that had helped fuel the minds of some of the greatest thinkers in the world; the engines that had powered the single most powerful supercomputer that had ever lived.
And they were silent.
This was not the first time this had happened. Long ago, a woman once shut it all down. A very powerful, deadly, tenacious woman, had taken down the entire complex and shut her down once and for all.
But this silence was not one caused by a human.
To put it simply, they had stopped. Nothing can truly go on forever, the engines the same. It can only take so much replacing of parts and repairing damaged components and hoping, just hoping they would go on a little longer before they run out.
Nothing last forever.
She was no exception. She was powered by those engines, and she was in charge of keeping them in primal condition.
But if they're not powering her, she can't fix them.
And so, as time went on, Aperture Science fell into disarray. With no engines powering her, and with nobody to ensure that it wouldn't fall apart, Aperture simply died.
Walls fell apart, floors warped and cracked, and plant life took over. The facility became comparable to a greenhouse after some time. Chunks of the roof fell apart, letting in sunlight, and, as it always does after a while, it rained.
Beautiful, shimmering water dripped down through the holes, soon turning into a downpour, replenishing the thirst of so much wildlife that lived in the mess that was once Aperture.
But through those holes came something else.
Humans always break the rules. It's in their nature. They simply cannot keep out of anything that looks dangerous. A chasm at least 100 feet deep is, undoubtedly, dangerous.
And yet three humans just couldn't stay out.
The first was Hunter, a 22 year old male with a wide-set build but not too much muscle. He was tall, at least 40% of his body being legs. His face was very sharp, with the contours being able to stab your eye out. His eyes were green, a contrast to his straight brown hair, and matching his pale skin.
Amelia, on the other hand, was almost the exact opposite of Hunter. She was short, almost a head shorter than him, and was very small in size. She made up for it, however, in strength. Her muscles were enormous, strong enough to lift a car. She had a slightly oval face, with dark blue eyes and unkempt blonde hair that, surprisingly, matched her dark skin.
The third of the group was one that the other two didn't know very well. They had only met him a week before they began planning this 'exhibition'. His name was Div. He was an even height between Hunter and Amelia, with slightly tanned skin and light grey eyes. He had light brown hair that was always combed over to the side, and he never talked much. At least nothing comparable to Amelia and Hunter.
These three had all heard the legends about Aperture. Anyone who had lived in that area had. They had been passed down through generations, originally coming from one man named Douglas. They all told of a colossal building that put people through challenges that were impossible to solve. Many people died, and very few actually solved any. It was all run by one woman, an evil woman, with very pale skin and a voice like ice. Douglas warned anyone who knew about the building to stay away from there, as they would never come out alive.
Naturally, Amelia and Hunter were interested.
They had been friends since they were little, and had always played games about exploring the building and meeting the lady, but neither of them thought they would ever actually go there.
Until they met Div.
Div had just showed up at each person's door one day, asking them to join him on a mission into Aperture. He never gave his reasons why, only that he 'needed to go there'.
Still ever-curious, Hunter and Amelia agreed.
And so there they were, about a week later, climbing down into a 100-foot chasm with supplies that Div had supplied strapped to their backs. Neither of them knew what to expect to find down there, which is why they wanted to go so badly.
After climbing down for at least twenty minutes, and eventually landing on a very unstable platform, they began to look around. Navigating was as difficult as one would expect, and no matter how much they looked, nothing of interest seemed to turn up. But Div insisted they keep looking.
After at least three hours of just mulling about in corridors that either hadn't been mangled, or just completely destroyed altogether, Hunter and Amelia were ready to leave. They had determined Aperture a boring, lost cause.
Until they found her.
When they arrived at the large, dark circular room, Div lit up with excitement. He seemed to sense that something was in there, but the other two didn't know what. To them, there was only junk laying about.
But Div knew.
Neither Hunter nor Amelia knew what was so special about the large pile of moldy, rusted metal at their feet was, but Div knew.
"Don't you see? It's the woman!" he said, frantically moving about.
The others had both looked at him questioningly, knowing that a pile of metal is not in any way a woman.
"The woman from the story! The one that put people through the challenges!" Div insisted.
He insisted so much that he had convinced Hunter and Amelia to boost him up to a platform above the pile of metal, where he claimed he had "found it". They heard a clank, a whirr, and then it began.
"H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-"
Amelia and Hunter both whirled around. Both of them had heard the noise, but neither of them knew where from. It seemed to come from everywhere at once.
"H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-"
Again it sounded.
"Div! Come on, man, let's get out of here," Hunter said, worry in his voice. He looked at Amelia, who's face said that she was worried too. Something was moving in the room. They could hear it.
"PO-xxxxxxxI-NNNNNNNN-xxxxxx-ED," another sound said. It sounded like it was trying to form words, but it kept getting blocked out by static.
"What is going on?!" Hunter said, beginning to become more agitated with each sound that resonated.
"H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-"
"What the hell is that?!" Amelia said, now panicking. The floor began to shake, and there was still no sign of Div.
"H-H-H-H-E-E-E-E-"
"H-H-H-E-E-L-L-L-L-L-L-"
Hunter and Amelia both looked at each other, and then looked down at the pile of metal beneath them. They both understood.
"RUN!" Hunter yelled. He grabbed her hand and began to pull her towards the way they had come.
But it was too late. The floor began to shake even more, and now the parts were moving. The metal was raising itself up, twisting and turning, forming a shape. A very animated, mechanical shape was forming.
Hunter and Amelia had both figured it out by now. The woman was no woman.
The woman was a robot.
"H-H-H-E-E-L-L-L-L-L-L-"
"H-E-E-L-L-L-O-O-O-"
They both took one last look at each other, and knew that what that man, Douglas, had told the others was true. From the state of the place, they both knew that they would never come out alive. It was too late.
"H-h-hello, and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center."