The cube landed on the button with a hard THUD, the round doors slid open revealing the hub. ATLAS waved to his partner P-body from across a lake of acidic goo, P-body portaled across next to ATLAS. They both jumped and did their signature high-five and exited the room.

"Good job" GLAdOS said over the intercom, "I am almost use to how long it takes you two to solve the simplest of test."

P-body hugged ATLAS; it was a long day for both of them. They both approached the charger area, and plugged in for the night, P-body chirped "Goodnight" to her mate, and Atlas did the same.

Then they both fell asleep. A loud explosion rung throughout the facility, footsteps can be heard running outside the facility walls. Atlas and P-body woke up. "What was that?" GLAdOS screamed

"Two rocket turrets have targeted movement in a chamber nearby, all bots be on high alert!"

One of the walls exploded, destroying GLAdOS security cameras. Atlas dashed in front of P-body to protect her, P-body gripped her portal gun on high alert. Through the large crater in the hub, a mysterious tall, skinny figure came lurking out of the smoke

. He coughed twice and fell down. Atlas and P-body bolted to the body on the ground. They flipped him over and observed him. He was as slender as a stick; he wore a white lab coat and black pants. On the collar on his lab coat was a nametag, it read RATTMAN. "Rattman?" P-body chirped.

"Stay back," Atlas said "He could be dangerous."

Atlas always tried to protect P-body, even when she did not need it. He could not imagine what it would be like if something happen to her, they die almost every day. But GLAdOS always reassembles them. "What if the machine breaks?" Atlas thought "What if she does not come back?"

The man has begun to cough again and stir. P-body ran up and chirped "Are you okay?" The Doug Rattman looked up and said "I'm sorry, I don't speak robot."

Atlas and P-body looked at each other, this man was strange. Everyone can understand their language, a series of chirps and beeps, right? "Is GLAdOS lair nearby, by any chance?" Both cooperative bots shook their head nervously. "Good, do you know what happen to Chell?"

Both robots stared at him strangely. "The human test subject, the one who killed GLAdOS long ago?"

P-body shook her head excitedly while Atlas looked him over carefully just to make sure he was not dangerous in any way. "No, she left years ago." Said a core coming out of the crater which Doug Rattman also came.

"Thank God she is safe, now who are you?"

The core had a bright green eye, and an American accent. "My name is Clutch." The core said, "I have been trapped down that pit for ages. Aperture designed me way back in the 50's. I was one of the first Artificial Intelligence spheres created."

At that moment GLAdOS voice came back on over the speaker, "Oh dear, why isn't it my old friend Rattman, how have you been?" "GLAdOS I came to stop you once in and for all!"

"Well if it is going to be that way, I suppose I must dispose of you. All of you."

At that moment the floor has begun to tremble, causing Atlas and Doug to trip and fall to the ground. Clutches magnetic holster rail automatically shut off causing him to plummet down, lucky for him P-body had dove and caught him in mid-air.

The floor has begun to move down, the chamber became an elevator. The room turned pitch black, the only light was coming from the robots eyes. All that could be seen were blue, orange, and a green dot. The lower the room descended the worrier everyone got. Finally the room lurched to a stop; they sat there for a second in complete darkness.

Suddenly a light flashed a small red eye, that of a turret. Thousands of red, turrets eyes suddenly appeared. Surrounding them completely, in the distance, a huge turret eye was seen in the air, no doubt it was the king turret. One of the turrets said in a soft, child-like voice "Goodbye"

To Be Continued