For the second time today I woke up in pain. Tails, Wheatley and Chell were standing over me when I opened my eyes. They all seemed a bit worried. I sat up, holding my aching head and looked around.

The remains of an elevator were scatter about, along with a bunch of metal junk in a large puddle. What looked like metal scaffolding was broken and on fire about a yard away. And it seemed that we were in a very large cave. "What is this place?"

Tails shrugged and helped me up. How many times had he helped me stand up now? If he was getting annoyed about it he didn't show it. He was a good kid. Chell wiped some dirt off my portal gun and walked ahead. "Old Aperture. Ahead."

We followed her, although dad seemed rather worried. "A-all sealed off years ago…" he stuttered, looking around and then at Chell. "I'm sorry. I didn't know the shaft went this far down. I didn't mean to break the lift."

I was officially confused. "Old Aperture? What do you mean?" Instead of Chell answering, dad did. He didn't move or have any expressions when he spoke, which meant he was pulling the audio from his memory banks. "This place is huge! And we're only seeing the top layer! It goes down for miles! All sealed off years ago of course!"

I thought I knew my home, but apparently not. I was under the impression that the Aperture I knew is what it had always looked like. I never knew there was more below. We followed Chell as she navigated her way through lots of debris and rounded a few corners.

Along the way there were many more fire pits with metal in them, surrounded by collapsed and broken structures. How old was this place? Chell came to a dead end and we all stopped. "Now what? We're stuck." Tails said.

Chell pointed to a white wall behind a fence. Climbing the fence wasn't an option, as there was a gigantic pipe lying above it. There was no way around the fence either. Tails dad seemed confused. I was too until I saw Chell aim the portal gun at the wall.

White paneling meant you could shoot portals on it. She fired a blue one at it, an orange at another white wall behind us and walked through. Dad followed, but Tails stayed behind. He stuck his hand through, looked at it coming out from behind the fence and pulled his hand back out. "How…?"

I shrugged. I had no clue how the portal gun worked either. "It just does. Let's go." I gently pushed him through and followed after him. Chell used portals several more times to get us through a lot of blocked paths.

Eventually we started walking along a collapsed pillar. Along the sides were signs that read, Keep Out and Do Not Enter. I didn't like it. Instinct told me this was the wrong way to go (so did the signs), but Chell just kept walking.

Up ahead was a giant wall with a door. The wall had giant words painted on it in yellow. Condemned Testing Area. "In here. Cave Johnson. Tests. Elevators up." Chell said, looking around, probably for a Portal surface. Tails brightened at the mention of elevators. So did Wheatley.

I didn't. My brain had latched onto two of her words. Cave Johnson. If I remembered correctly, he was Aperture's founder. Caroline was his assistant. They were very close friends. Since Caroline was GLaDOS and GLaDOS was my mom, that would technically make Cave my uncle.

The way Chell had said his name made it seem like he was still alive. But he couldn't be. I'd been told that he had died of moon rock poisoning in the 80s. Dad's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "That's a big hole for such a small door."

Door? A quick scan of the surrounding area told me I had followed everyone in here without realizing. Dad was right. That was a big hole for a really tiny door. Chell ran up the steps and pushed the door open, holding it for the rest of us.

I'll cut to the chase. We went through a lot of stuff to get to Cave and the elevators. Massive fallen structures, piles of debris, piles of debris on fire, sparking cables hanging from above, stagnant water and broken doors.

Eventually we came to a large room that had a variation of the Aperture logo hanging from the ceiling. The lights were on, which meant Chell had been through here. We were going the right way. Tails hid behind me when a voice kicked in.

It was male and seemed to be coming from several speakers around the room. "Welcome gentlemen, to Aperture Science. Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians—You're here because we want the best, and you are it. So: Who is ready to make some science?"

I recognized that voice from recordings. That was Cave. So he had made recordings in case anyone showed up when he wasn't here. A female voice replied to Cave's question with, "I am!" I knew that voice too.

That voice almost made cry. Mom, what happened to you? Chell stood there, her body language saying that she was waiting for us to get moving. None of us did. We were all busy listening to Cave talk. Tails had never heard him, I don't know why Wheatley was listening, but I wanted to hear what he had to say. I wanted to get to know him. He was family.

"Now, you've already met one another on the limo ride over, so let me introduce myself. I'm Cave Johnson. I own the place. That eager voice you heard is the lovely Caroline, my assistant. Rest assured-"

I stopped listening when he said Caroline's name. It was too much. I grabbed Tails' hand and pulled him along, gesturing for dad to follow. "Where to?" I asked Chell. She pointed at an office on the second floor of the room.

Tails flew me up and Wheatley used his boosters. It was fun to watch Chell get there. She had a lot of skill with the portal gun. The furnishings in the office told me two things. One, that it wasn't an office. It was a lobby or waiting area of some sort. Two, that Aperture had good taste in furniture at one time.

Tails ran around the lobby like a little kid in a playhouse. I was pretty amazed too. How had all this stuff not turned to dust by now? Tails was examining a chair when Cave's voice came back.

"There's a thousand tests performed every day here in our Enrichment Spheres." Enrichment Spheres? The current Aperture called them Test Chambers. "I can't personally oversee every one of them, so these pre-recorded messages will cover any questions you might have, and respond to any incidents that may occur during the course of your science adventure."

When he started going on about mantis men I stopped listening. I really hoped there weren't any mantis men still living. Dad was talking with Tails over by the chair. I didn't understand half the conversation, but from what I could gather Tails was running theories by Wheatley. Theories about why the furniture was still here and not turned to dust. As usual, dad had no idea.

"Elevator tower." Chell was in an open doorway, pointing beyond. I ran over to where she was, Tails and Wheatley trailing behind. I learned one thing from the sight of elevator tower. It was gonna be a long journey back up.