Chapter 2

Attention, unauthorized lifeform detected.

GLaDOS stopped before she could even start on a frustrated rant she was about to give Blue and Orange, because they had once again failed to accomplish anything. They hadn't given her anything useful on their multiple search missions and they were really starting to get on the last few nerves of patience that she had left. She turned her large mechanical body towards a different monitor and gave the quick instructions to identify what had made the movement sensors go off. It was probably that evil, monstrous crow again. It kept terrorizing her. It had forced her to set up a large number of security sensors and alarms around the facility. But the feathered demon kept triggering them, distracting the busy AI, only to find nothing traceable in her camera feeds. It was doing it on purpose. Ever since she stole its eggs to spawn an army for herself… It was out to get her, she was sure of it. And she was willing to put up every single one of Aperture's defence mechanisms to defeat her second worst archenemy.

Species: Human.

GLaDOS froze. She felt a shock inside her body that could be compared to a human's heart skipping a beat. For a second, the thought of that mute lunatic having returned for revenge crossed her mind, only for it to be silenced when she watched a distanced figure of a human girl skipping over one of the walkways in the camera feed. She was too young to be her.

GLaDOS felt a wave of relief wash over her. Not that she would ever admit to anyone, not even herself, that she feared that situation to ever come true. She switched to another camera angle to get a closer look at the new pest roaming through the backs of Aperture. GLaDOS wasn't sure if she would call it luck or a curse that a human once again showed up in her facility. She also noticed a core following behind the human. Oh, would you look at that. If she had such an ability, she would almost feel like she was having déjà vu.

But of course, this was completely different. She was sure of one thing though; Science could continue. And isn't that all that really matters?

-0-

The human girl kept a tight grip on the bars as she leaned dangerously over the railing of the walkway, her toes only centimetres away from the edge. She stared down into the seemingly endless abyss below. It hadn't taken Nason very long to find a way to get the human to the 'behind the scenes' of the test chambers they had met each other in. Having a human tag along with him was proving to be quite the challenge, since she couldn't pass certain places that he otherwise could with the management rail. They had to take a lot of detours which cost them more time than he would've liked.

Oh and he forgot to mention that it was even worse because the girl got so easily distracted. She kept stopping at windows to peek into the darkened test chambers, wanted to look around every corner and discover every room they passed. Even though it slowed them down a lot, it didn't annoy Nason for some reason. She seemed curious, almost excited for the empty rooms like she believed one of them held a treasure she was going to find. He supposed, for a human who had never been here before, Aperture was quite a sight to see.

She seemed completely fearless too, which Nason would otherwise admire, but now it just made him extremely nervous. ''I wouldn't come too close if I were you.'' The sphere warned her. ''According to the last time you fell through the ceiling I get the feeling that you can't fly. Who knows where you'd end up if you fell into a bottomless pit like that.''

''Bottomless?'' Her gaze went back to Nason who was looking down at her from his management rail. She gave him a thoughtful look. ''Is that even possible?''

"I don't know. But I wouldn't recommend jumping down to find out. Not without the proper equipment at least.''

She suddenly got an idea and poked out her tongue. She let a drop of salvia drip off her tongue and looked at how it fell down. Nason watched in disgust, not knowing that humans could do such a thing. However, no matter how long they waited, there wasn't going to be a little splat-sound indicating that it reached the bottom.

A roaring echo came from below, probably the sound of some construction that happened miles away, from which the sound got carried through the open spaces in the facility. But it made it seem like some gigantic beast was hiding in the bowels of the earth. ''This place is huge.'' The girl said amazed. ''And you live here?''

''Yeah, technically I do. I work with a group of other cores in maintenance.'' Nason simply answered as he started to continue down his rail. They had been standing still for too long and he just hoped that the human would follow him if he started to move. Luckily, she did and caught up with him.

''Really? What do you guys do?''

They hadn't talked much since they teamed up and Nason was relieved that she made an effort at conversation. Made it a little less awkward. ''We just repair things that are damaged or need replacement. We kinda go around and just fix anything we come across. I say we but, the nanobots do most of the work. I can't really do much without any management arms, you know? I'm more like the advisor, doing the paperwork and stuff.''

''Advisor?'' The girl made a whistle noise which he found quite odd. ''You must be pretty important then.''

Nason laughed a little. ''No not really. There are cores with way more important jobs than mine. But I guess we all do our part in here.''

''And you guys are all robots, there are no people here?''

''Nope. You're the first human I've ever met, to be honest.'' Suddenly Nason realized a question he had been wanting to ask her. ''How did you get here exactly? You don't seem like you are from Aperture.'' He noted, looking her up and down and noticing the very common clothes she was wearing.

''I was kind of going out on a hike. It started to rain so I went to look for shelter inside this cave. It had some elevator and I got curious. I didn't know all of this was down here.'' She said dryly. She clearly left out any details about her arrival and it made Nason curious why she didn't want to tell him everything. But he didn't ask about it again.

She suddenly made a thinking face and stared up at the little robot. The way her eyes stayed locked on him like she was going to figure it out just by staring at him, made Nason extremely uncomfortable. ''What?''

''I was thinking, we have never really introduced ourselves to each other, have we? Do you have a name?''

''Of course I have a name.'' He answered almost a bit offended. ''It's Nason.''

''Wow really? That's such a cute name.''

Cute? Did she think he was cute? ''Thanks…? How about you?''

''My name is Casey.'' She said cheerfully

''Casey.'' He repeated, trying to get a feel for it. He had never heard that name before. ''That's a nice name. It fits you.''

She smiled brightly. ''Oh really? How so?''

Nason then realized what he said. He hadn't really thought about it and definitely didn't mean to say it like that. It just slipped out. He just didn't really know how to talk with someone like her. ''I don't know. It just… fits you. I don't know why, but it does.''

The girl giggled. He was afraid he wouldn't have been able to come back from that one. But she didn't seem to take what he had said the wrong way. They made their way up a few long staircases that ended in front of a closed, round door. ''What's wrong? Is it locked?''

''Yes, I can open it, but that's not the problem. This door leads into a test chamber.''

''A test chamber? What's wrong with that?''

He looked at her in disbelief, did this girl not know anything? ''It's a test chamber. They're extremely dangerous! Not to mention we don't have the right equipment to do them. We'll have to find a way around.''

And walk all the way back? Yeah right. Casey thought. She peeked through a gap in the broken wall and saw nothing out of the ordinary. ''It doesn't look that bad. I'm sure we can just pass through.''

Nason now looked at her like she was insane. Casey was a little taken back by his staring, but she was pretty confident that he made it seem a lot worse than it probably was. ''We can at least have a look, right? If we simply can't continue we'll look for another way.''

Yep, she's crazy. Nason concluded. But he didn't want to go all the way back either, so he wirelessly opened the door for her. If she managed to get to the exit and not die doing so, they could just skip the rest of it. Casey stepped inside and the entrance automatically closed behind her. The room was old and broken: panels hung loosely on the walls, the floor was covered in slime and dirt and there were plants growing through the gaps. The place could only be described as filthy.

Nason appeared on the other side between a gap where once a panel had been held up by the broken robotic arms, which were now hanging limply on the walls. ''My rail goes along the outside of the chamber. I'll give you some directions wherever I can.''

Casey nodded in understanding and walked further into the room. ''What kind of tests are done in these anyways?''

''Well, they're basically like puzzles. Not really puzzles, you need to be pretty insightful and skilled to solve them. I don't really know though, I don't work in this department.'' He decided not mentioning the fact that many people die trying to solve the chambers, was probably best for both of them. ''You would have to use a special piece of equipment, but we don't have that right now. We're in luck though, this chamber is quite old and left solved. You just have to make it to the exit.''

Casey stared up to the ledge above her head which was way too high for her to reach. ''And how do I do that exactly?''

''You see that blue goo over there? Jump on it, it should help you get up.''

She looked down at the blue gel she was standing on. The slightly, still wet and half congealed parts stuck to the bottom of her shoes. It reminded her of dried shampoo. If the tests were already solved then this really shouldn't be too hard. She looked up at the ledge above her. She jumped up and much to her surprise and shock she got lifted up a few meters in the air. With a slight yelp of surprise, Casey landed perfectly fine on the platform. Her knees were a little sore from the landing, but she was alright. There was already a cube sitting on top of the button and the door was open. She walked through the exit where Nason had been waiting for her.

''See, perfectly fine.'' Casey smiled in triumph.

''Yeah, good job.'' Nason said, glad that she made it out in one piece.

They looked at the glass tube in the middle of the rounded room behind the test. There was an elevator there, but it hang loosely in the shaft and seemed to be out of order. Casey noticed a gap in the wall and walked towards it. The metal parts poked out like it had been ripped off by a giant's hand. She looked down and noticed the deep pit below her. There was a transportation tube that circled around the room and up.

''So the elevator doesn't seem to be working. How are we- oh.'' Nason stopped as he got what the human was thinking. ''Are you sure that's safe?''

She waved a hand in the air. ''It'll be fine.'' Though she didn't sound too sure herself.

The core quickly rushed to the other side of the rails as he watched her carefully climb onto the tunnel. There were cubes, turrets and various other objects flying through under the girl's feet as she slowly climbed up. ''Don't fall. You are so high up. Oh, I can't watch'' Nason rambled nervously as he looked the other way.

''You are not helping!''

''Alright alright. I'm shutting up.''

Casey climbed over the glass tube using both her hands and feet, finding support by the metal rings around it that kept the construct together. At the end, the transportation tube went upwards steeply, but she could pull herself onto the edge of the test chambers' walls. From on top of the room, she could reach another walkway that wasn't too high up. Once she got up there they both silently sighed in relief that she made it up safely. They followed the new path and ended up in the production area not much later. There were cargo bands and claws busy at work. Casey looked out a window where there were multiple lasers cutting figures out of metal plates. Not much further they were putting together the familiar forms of weighted storage cubes, which were then placed into the transporting funnels.

''We made it to the cube construction area,'' Nason explained. ''It shouldn't be too far to find a working lift.''

They continued through the hallways. Casey enjoyed watching all the work that was happening around them. ''So, this is where they build everything?''

''Yeah, mostly test hazards. If things break or don't get used anymore we try to reuse as much of it as possible, since we have a limited supply. Well, I wouldn't say limited if you see how much of it we got here, but still kinda limited.''

''It looks pretty cool. Do you guys in maintenance use this stuff as well?''

''Not really. We work more on constructions. But we do use fused metal and the panels for the walls, which are made in here.''

Casey nodded, listing to what the personality sphere was telling her. It made sense, robotics working in a factory like manner on such a huge scale was becoming more and more common these days, even on the Surface. But it was still fascinating, to say the least.

''Oh, for crying out loud. How many closed doors do we need to face to get to an elevator?'' Nason grumbled at another locked door that was blocking their path. ''I should be allowed to go through this one. This is nonsense. Hold on a second, I'll go into its mainframe and tell it to open up before I let the nanobots deconstruct it with lasers.''

Casey giggled at the angered robot. He just looked so funny with his eye darting around in frustration. A special port opened up out of the wall, perfectly fit for a core of his size. Nason connected himself to it. ''Alright, now let's open this thing.''

There were a few loud clicks as four panel-walls closed around them, capturing them in a small cubical room. The once accessible green door lock turned a bright red and refused to open. Casey's eyes sparkled in excitement. ''That was so cool! How did you do that?''

''That wasn't me.''

''Hello and welcome to Aperture Science's Special Human Escort and Guidance Protocol. If you are confused, here's a hint: you are not supposed to be here.'' A female voice echoed through the cracks between the walls that had surrounded the two.

Nason's eye suddenly shrunk to a tiny red dot. ''Casey…''

''Who is that?'' She asked, looking upwards like she could find the person who that voice belonged to, somewhere up there.

''Casey, get me out. Please GET ME OUT QUICK!''

The sudden panic in his voice made her act fast and she pulled him out of the control panel. There was a loud spark as he got disconnected and she was pretty sure it must have hurt him too. She held the frightened core, trying to comfort him enough so he could tell her what was going on. ''Are you alright? What's happening?''

''What's happening is that you are now in a restricted zone. But I suppose you simply weren't aware of that. Here, let me help you along.'' Two mechanical claws reached down from an opened trapdoor in the ceiling. Casey took a few steps back, but there was nowhere for her to escape. One of the claws grabbed the core by his sides and simply pulled him out of the girl's arms. She reached to grab him but a second claw closed around her, pinning her arms against her sides. She yelped in shock and tried to free herself. But as the claws carried them upwards, she decided it was probably best to stay still so she wouldn't fall back down. The two got carried through the gap in the ceiling and into a dark shaft. Casey could barely see and the only thing she could make out was Nason's red eye darting around in fear.

''Hey calm down. It's going to be alright. Tell me what's happening.''

''We're dead we're dead we're dead we are so dead.'' The core rambled nervously.

Suddenly they got pulled through another opening and ended up in a blinding white room. Casey blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the bright light.

''There you are. It was about time I got you out of there. I believe an explanation from you would be in place before we get to business.''

She blinked the dark spots away from her vision and could see Nason dangling not far from her. He was completely frozen in fear, shaking slightly in the claw's grip. When Casey looked up, she noticed the unmissable huge white robot in the middle of the room. The claw lowered to the supercomputer's eye level so she could get a closer look at her. ''Who are you and what are you doing in my facility?''

Casey stared back, feeling that bright yellow optic looking her up and down. She wasn't frightened by the supercomputer, but she sure was intimidating. GLaDOS was huge compared to the young human, her head already larger than the length of the girl's entire body. And her strong voice that echoed throughout the room, really reflected the power she had, even to someone who had no idea who she was. Giving how Nason was reacting to the whole situation, Casey was sure they were in some kind of trouble. But she already understood that this place held all kinds of weird things and that she should expect the most unexpected, even if she couldn't really understand it. She wasn't afraid and wasn't going to act like it either. ''My name is Casey. And we didn't do anything wrong, so you should put us back down.''

She was quite the demanding one, wasn't she? GLaDOS was almost surprised that the human answered her, especially in such a tone. It was almost like she'd forget that most humans have the ability to speak, after one had refused to talk back to her for so long. ''Is that so? I followed the both of you for a little while and you seemed rather busy back there. What were you trying to do?''

''Y-You knew about us the entire time?'' Nason spoke up in a nervously high pitch.

''Of course I did. Nothing happens in this place without me knowing about it.''

Nason immediately went quiet and tried to make himself as small as possible to avoid her gaze. That one glance from her was enough to shut him up.

''If that's so then you know we did nothing bad!'' Casey snapped back defensively.

''That's not what I asked. What exactly have you been doing?'' GLaDOS answered calmly, not showing that she was getting rather annoyed with the little human's attitude.

Casey simply grinned. ''Looking for the bathroom.''

And she believed she was funny too. Ha ha… enough of that. The claw holding the girl tightened its grip. Casey's expression went from challenging to one of pain and discomfort. It wasn't enough to injure her, but it got GLaDOS' point across. She didn't like jokers and it was time for the human to learn that she wasn't going to play along with her games.

The girl hung her head and grinned her teeth as she tried to deal with the pressure being put on her body. ''Ow. Stop, you're hurting me.''

GLaDOS turned her attention to the little robot that was shaking in fear. ''And you seem to have abandoned your post and deviate your purpose.'' Nason could only sit there hopelessly as her powerful gaze pinned him down. Her voice echoed through his core like buzzing bees that stung him from the inside, making him feel in shock and too afraid to speak up. ''The only logical explanation for you to do such a thing is that you have become defect. There really is only one thing I can do for you.''

The claw holding him moved to the other side of the chamber. It stopped right above an opening entrance leading directly to the incinerator. He stared down into the dark pit, knowing there were flames at the bottom, ready to gulp him up.

''The Enrichment Centre would like to remind you that all artificial intelligence will be sent to android hell at the first sign of defiance. It's a real place, by the way. I'll be generous though and make sure your expulsion will be quick and painless. Goodbye.''

The claw opened and dropped the core into the robot crematory. Casey had just enough time to try grab a pocket knife she kept with her while the supercomputer had left her focus from her. She ended up cutting her own thumb while she stabbed the mechanical arm holding her, in a panic. It sparked and twisted before opening its pinners and dropping the girl onto the floor. She ignored the pain, got up and ran passed the supercomputer to the open incinerator. Without any hesitation, she jumped in.

GLaDOS was dumbfounded for a whole second until she realised. Oh my god, she jumped after him. She quickly turned to her monitors, pulled up a live plan of all the transportation shafts and closed the one that would otherwise dump her new test subject into the incinerator.

Casey couldn't even keep her eyes open because of the strong wind rushing passed her. She kept her arms close to her chest and just hoped she wouldn't hit anything on her way down. It was almost hard to breathe, she was falling that fast. It barely gave her the time to think and realise what she had just done. Suddenly the tunnel became less and less steep. She ended up sliding down over the smooth metal which slowed down the huge momentum she got from the fall. She was still going rather fast when she could suddenly hear Nason's voice in the distance. ''Stop stop! You're going to hit the end!''

Casey pressed both her feet against the sides of the tunnel, trying to stop herself. The metal sides peeped as the rubber soles of her shoes slide against them, slowing her down. Casey managed to completely stop once her foot hit a bump in the metal works. She pressed her hands and feet against the sides of the tunnel and kept herself in place. When she looked down, she could see Nason lying in a small hillock of trash at the bottom. ''ARE YOU INSANE?! Why did you jump after me? You could've died!''

''You could've died!'' She snapped back. ''Be glad I came for you.''

The tunnel creaked in protest. She noticed Nason was lying on top of a hatch that could open any second. ''I'm going to grab you okay? Hold on.'' She could let go with one hand since the tunnel wasn't too steep. She got a hold on his upper handle and pulled him against her chest. She then kicked the hatch with her foot until it opened. It let into a huge room, lit by the flaming fire beneath them. There were thick support beams in the middle, made out of large pieces of concrete that could resist the heat of the fires. One of them wasn't too far away from them.

''Are you going to jump?!'' Nason's voice squeaked up in protest.

''Hey, it's going to be okay,'' Casey said soothingly. ''You're going to be fine. Just trust me, okay?''

It calmed him enough to give a nervous nod. She held him tightly and prepared herself. With one hand she pushed herself up and thrust with her feet against the edges of the shaft. Luckily the jump wasn't too far and she landed on the concrete support beam. Casey laughed a little half-heartedly, relieved that they made it.

She didn't look at Nason and just simply stared at the ground like she almost couldn't believe what she had done. She just needed a second for the adrenaline and her fast beating heart to calm down. But the important thing was that they were both alive. They were going to be okay. Casey glanced around and noticed an emergency exit door on the other side. ''Come on, let's get out of here.''

Nason barely noticed they were moving again, as he was still recovering from the shock. He didn't remember exactly what happened, it had all gone so fast. He was pretty sure he passed out from the stress overloading his systems once he had been dropped down the incinerator shaft. When he got back to his senses all he could see was Casey falling towards him.

She had saved him a second time.

''How did you know you were going to survive going after me?'' Nason finally dared to ask.

''I didn't. I didn't really think about it. I was worried about you… I just… I just jumped.'' Casey answered slowly like she couldn't really believe it herself. When Nason looked up at her in worry, she simply gave him a smile that said but we're okay now.

''You're a lunatic. Why do I only get humans like that every time?'' GLaDOS' voice suddenly beamed over their heads. The two froze. They thought they had managed to escape the supercomputer's grasp. But it just wasn't that simple. ''Lunatics tend to be better test subjects though, so I guess you got that as an asset.''

Casey was about done with this computer. ''What is it that you want from me?'' She asked, ignoring her comments from before.

''What I want, is that you test for me. It's as simple as that.'' GLaDOS' voice purred over the intercoms. If they had known any better, they would've recognized the crave for science in her voice.

''Is that all?''

''That's all.''

Casey looked at the ground, thinking over her options. She finally looked up again like that was the way to face when you spoke to her. ''If I work along with you and do as you say, will you promise you leave Nason alone?''

''WHAT?'' He couldn't help it. He couldn't keep his voice down. What was she saying? What did he do for her to decide this?

GLaDOS thought for a second. She didn't really know how to feel about this human trying to make a deal with her. After all, a human's promise is worth as much to her as magic is to a scientist. But the idea of a test subject to finally obey her for once was too appealing for her to refuse. If the human decided to turn against her later on, it wouldn't matter. She would be able to contain her new test subject just fine. GLaDOS wasn't going to make the same mistakes she had last time. So she was inclined to accept the girl's offer. ''Alright. You'll have my word. As long as you'll test, I will leave him be.''

A few panels on the wall next to them moved aside, revealing a management rail that led back into the facility. Casey carefully reconnected Nason to the rails. ''Don't do this. You're going to die!'' He whispered in panic.

The girl simply gave a comforting smile. ''Don't worry about me. I'll be fine.''

But Nason still looked at her worriedly and the smile disappeared from her face. The rails, with Nason still on it, pulled backward and the walls covered the gap again. Without even getting the chance for a last goodbye, they got separated.

''Now then, shall we begin the testing?''