Chapter 4

Chell woke up with a pounding in her head and a dry mouth. As she blearily looked about the room, she realized exactly where she was.

Well… not really. She did know that she was inside the Enrichment Centre. Probably. And she did know she was in some kind of small cell. But other than that, she did not, in fact, know where she was. So strike that last statement.

She noticed that besides the cot that she was currently lying on, and the small card table with… some kind of… well she thought it was food… on… it… , there was one other thing in the tiny room.

A desk. Bolted to the floor, of course. And on top of that desk was what looked like a desktop computer monitor.

With wheels. Two in front and one in back.

'Wait, why does a monitor need wheels?' thought Chell confusedly. There was also a cord on the back of the monitor that was plugged into an outlet.

Cautiously, Chell walked over to it and inspected it as best she could. It looked like, other than the wheels, there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. There was an Aperture logo on one side of the monitor, at least, so it probably wasn't made by that… other company.

"Ma'am."

Speak of the devil. Chell turned around slowly, a glare fixed on her face. In the doorway was a large guard. He looked very uncomfortable all of a sudden, and considering the fact that the expression Chell wore was one known to intimidate wolverines, she wasn't surprised.

"I… uh… am supposed to make sure you aren't trying to escape or… anything like that… and it looks like you're not, so… uh… bye?" He hurried out of the room, dropping something in the process.

Well, Chell thought, when you can make a grown man run in fear…

She returned her attentions to the monitor. More specifically, the power button on the monitor. Shrugging, she reached over to press it. Worst case scenario, it would attempt to kill her. And she was pretty used to that, anyway.

A soft white glow shone from the screen. A familiar logo spun onscreen as she waited for it to boot up. And then…

Oh well wow.

There was now a… strange sight on its monitor. There was what looked like a face onscreen- a very simplified one.

Two filled in circles- one bright gold, one steel gray- were obviously eyes.

One upside down 'V' shape looked suspiciously like a mouth.

And two large right-side-up 'V's seemed to act as hands. Or paws. Or things designed to point at things- you know what, moving on now.

And it was staring directly at Chell.

"Wait… waitwaitwait. What?" it yelled, surprised and just a bit dismayed.

And now it was Chell's turn to fall over backwards.

That… thing was GLaDOS. Somehow. Or at least, it sure sounded like Her…

"Why the hell are you suddenly taller than me?"

Yeah. It was Her.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Well, at least Chell knew what the wheels were for now. Although, it is sort of an annoying sound when the AI in question uses them for about 15 minutes straight in a sort of pacing motion.

From what Chell could glean from GLaDOS's livid rant, the monitor thing she was currently occupying was a failed version of a core body- supposedly created when the cores got fed up with having no way to get around. And then the management rail was invented, the cores were happy, and the prototype was forgotten. And then somehow the other company got ahold of it and stuck Her into it.

Chell winced and covered her ears as the long- unused wheels let out another angry screech. Or maybe that was GLaDOS. She couldn't really tell. Nonetheless, she would enjoy it greatly if it would stop, so she picked the fuming AI up off the floor and held her a few feet up. She seemed to get the message and stopped her wheels. And her rant. For the second.

'Those things really need some motor oil…' Chell thought with a grimace.

GLaDOS's monitor turned a bit pink. "Oh. Sorry. These things haven't been used in about 450 years. I suppose they could use some oiling."

Chell shrugged and returned Her to the floor. A few minutes of silence passed until GLaDOS spoke up again.

"White Plateau. They're called White Plateau." She gave a sharp, short laugh. "Apparently they've been looking for Aperture for quite some time now. Ever since Black Mesa-" she said the two words with absolute loathing- "gave up. The woman's called Olivia."

Chell gave her a questioning look. One that attempted to convey the message 'why do we care?', and succeeded.

GLaDOS growled irately. "Ever heard the phrase 'Know thine enemy'?"

Oh. That did make sense. Sort of.

And there was silence again.

Chell suddenly found herself growing annoyed at nothing in particular. Slightly alarmed, she glanced down at GLaDOS- who was quite obviously fuming.

That was it. That was it! She tapped GLaDOS's hull.

"What." She snarled.

She tapped it again.

"I said. What do you need." She growled again, sounding angrier this time.

Chell tapped her for the third time.

"WHAT?" She yelled- and then Chell felt it. A surge of anger at absolutely nothing.

She was feeling what GLaDOS felt.

Okay, Chell thought, time to see if this goes in the other direction. She focused as hard as she could on being calm. If this really worked…

'Breathe in… breathe out…' Chell thought- with no small amount of effort, seeing as GLaDOS was rather worked up.

In about a minute, she looked down at GLaDOS. She didn't seem to be upset anymore, and instead just glanced up at Chell.

"Yes? Something you need?" she said evenly.

'Oh lord,' Chell thought, 'this is actually happening. I share an emotional tie with a supercomputer.'

'… I wonder if this counts for credits in psychology…'