AN: Hello :) Well, I'm sorry! I meant to update a couple of days ago but once again, I'm late because I'm lazy. No escuses, just lazy -_- though I really will try my best to be on time next week! :D One thing I noticed in teh last chapter, though, is that I forgot to introduce my OC's or even mention the fact that I do have a couple. They won't be playing a major role, though, so hopefully it won't be too confusing for anyone. At the least, I do want to state now that I WILL be omitting some of the canon characters simply because they don't fit in my plot, but if anyone particularly wants a certain canon character in the story, let me know in a review and I'll find a spot for them. So far, the ones I'm definitely leaving out are: Cave Johnsen, P-Body and ATLAS (there is a good reason for that which I'll explain later in the story) and Caroline in any form of a seperate consciousness from GLaDOS. Wheatley will play a VERY tiny part, but he will be in here somewhere.

As for my OC's, I do have a short bio for each one. I'll put it on my bio page for anyone who's interested in reading it, but fear not! I typically refer to people with descriptive terms as opposed to writing their names a hundred million times, so hopefully it's not too confusing :)

Yes, I'm well aware that this is a short chapter, but honestly I didn't want to wreck it by jamming in all kinds of rubbish just for the sake of raising the word count. Hopefully it's still good :) And... on we go! :D

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"Bloody mule." Lexi grumbled under her breath, sitting up. She couldn't sleep, no thanks to Chell, though she knew for a fact that she was only in a bad mood because she was worried. She particularly liked the other female. Chell was one of a very small number who put up with her short temper and blunt attitude. Lexi was just as stubborn as the other girl in vowing to make sure they remained friends.

She got up, thinking idly of getting a drink of water, and wondered for a moment if Chell might like a refill. It was particularly warm tonight. Lexi had opted to forgo her blankets, she'd had the window open yet there was a significant lack of a breeze.

Decided, she left her room. She heard a faint thwack noise that echoed slightly and she paused, wondering what it was, then shrugged it off and went to Chell's door. As she raised her hand to knock she noticed it was open a fraction, and she gave it a gentle push and peeked in.

"Hey, Chell?" The shorter girl whispered. No response. Chell's window was shut but the moonlight gleamed in, making all her medals glitter. Lexi stuck her head in the room. "Chell?" She tried again. The bed was empty and messed, the room devoid of life, and Lexi frowned at the pillow lying at the foot of the bed, on the floor. She withdrew from the room. Maybe Chell was in the toilet?

Lexi shrugged and went to the bathroom, knocked softly on the door beside that, but even as she did, she noticed that there was no light on in there. Nothing showed under the door. Lexi went back to Chell's bedroom and pushed the door open wide, glaring at the room. Totally empty. The pillow -and a tee-shirt she saw in the corner too- were out of place for the meticulously tidy woman.

Concerned now, Lexi headed to the kitchen for her glass of water, thinking hard. Where was the other girl?

The banging noise came again and she looked out the window at the still night. Chell sometimes went for a run when she couldn't sleep. Was she outside? Was the banging noise something to do with her, Lexi wondered? It reached her ears a third time and she put the glass down, quickly got changed to a pair of track-pants and a tee-shirt, then she grabbed her keys and left the house, following her ears towards the University carpark. Barefoot, she was careful of the loose bitumen path and she walked slowly. She heard the noise just once more before reaching the relatively-empty carpark, it was definitely here somewhere, and she sat on a bench seat that was on top of a small rise overlooking the broad, black expanse. Nothing moved. The horizon was just beginning to change color for the sunrise and Lexi sighed, appreciative of the faint breath of air that tickled her skin. Better than nothing. Nowhere near enough to shift her heavy, wavy auburn hair, but better than nothing.

And then she heard it again. Rapid thunk-thunk-thunk noises like running footsteps, and she jumped up to see the area better. A lone figure raced out into the open, practically flying low across the warm ground. The body was slender, athletic, a facet accented by the simple white tank-top that the person was wearing. A female. Lexi couldn't see the legs well, the woman's pants were dull-colored and loose around her thighs, but her lower legs and her feet showed up stark white. Strangely, as she ran, her feet didn't seem to touch the ground properly. Her toes did, for sure, but the noise that she was making didn't match. It came a split-second before her toe made contact with the bitumen.

The woman was racing straight at a wall, aiming for it, and Lexi's heart leapt up in her throat. But with the grace of a deer the woman flung herself straight at the wall and ran straight up the side of it for more than ten meters! Near the top, she kicked off hard and tumbled backwards like an Olympic diver, her body curled into a roll and then flicked out straight again, then with an almighty THWACK the woman's boots collided with the ground and was still. Lexi was gaping -the athlete remained kneeling for several seconds, then she stood up and turned, looking calmly around herself. The moonlight shone on her face, illuminating her dark-colored ponytail and tanned skin as she clearly gave an annoyed huff and crossed her arms together over her chest. Chell!

The taller woman broke into a jog, taking long, springing strides as she built up her speed. Soon enough, her steps were rapid thunk-thunk-thunk noises again and she was curving around, aiming herself straight at another building.

This one was lower, Lexi could only stare in amazement as Chell threw herself at it, ran up the side of the building, then kicked off and flipped over midair once more, her trajectory flinging her feet-first at the next closest building. Already halfway up it, Chell's quick strides took her to its' roof and she transferred easily to the horizontal surface, having grabbed the ledge and pulled herself up, rolled over on her shoulders, and then stood upright, all in one fluid move. She kept running. She hit the edge of the roof and leapt away, her arms outstretched as, for a brief moment, Chell seemed to hang weightlessly in the air. Then gravity took hold of her and she was falling, tucking her body into a ball and rolling. Her boots hit the topmost surface of the next building in line and she was sprinting again. Effortless. Fearless.

"Ch-Chell!" Lexi yelled. Her voice cracked at the first syllable and all she managed was to hoarsely cough out the word.

Then her voice stuck completely. Chell simply leapt from that building to the next one and continued on, springing up over the air-conditioning units, using them to vault herself forwards. Lexi's eyes raced ahead, tracking the path her friend was clearly taking. Chell was aiming for the exceedingly high roof of the University auditorium. It was over five stories tall, shaped a bit like giant, twin triangular wedges. The inspiration for the shape, Lexi recalled, had been a kid's animated movie. Something to do with a pride of lions, she thought. Chell was racing straight at the lower, slightly-flatter section, her momentum surely too much to simply stop where she was.

But if she was too low when she jumped, she'd impale herself on the pointed edge!

Lexi looked back at her -Chell was making ground, racing higher, like she was running for the sky. She was clearly in no mood to stop at all, she was going to take that jump if it succeeded or killed her. And Lexi, watching her, didn't even notice a trickle of blood from between her fingers where she was crushing her keys in a white-knuckled grip.

Chell hit the edge of the last building and flung herself off it, once more a weightless and graceful projectile. The approaching dawn offered a few golden rays of sun that flashed brightly off Chell's boots and Lexi scowled, screwing her watering eyes shut, rubbing a balled fist into them to clear her vision. Her ears rang with a screeching metal noise like a train-wreck and she squinted at the last place she'd seen her friend, fighting down the thumping of her heart having jumped up in her throat, still scrubbing viciously at one eye and then the other to clear them. She heard nothing, saw nothing. There was no sound. No movement.

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AN: MUAHAHAHA! -hides-