Avery's project was a satellite. A retrieval satellite. Avery was putting the finishing touches on it when she got an odd signal on her Aperture Brand ipad ripoff.
"Hello? Hello?" said a voice Avery hadn't heard in forever.
Static. Avery stopped working. She looked at the touchscreen in confusion. A brief flash of space was on the screen.
"Is this on? Hey, if anyone hears this-"
Static. The image disappeared.
"Okay? Well, to repeat, I said-"
Static. Her regular screensaver of the Aperture Logo turned back on.
Was it him? No, it couldn't be. But, it sounded so similar...
No. Avery pushed the thought out of her mind. The satellite was ready to launch. That's what mattered.
"GLaDOS?" Avery asked.
"What now?" GLaDOS replied, sounding bored, as usual.
"Can I go outside for a little?" Avery continued.
"Why? If I let you outside, you'll escape."
"I wouldn't leave without my tools," Avery set her tools on the table.
"Fine." and with that, a tube came out of the ceiling. Avery grabbed her launch materials and was swept up into the tube. "You better not try to escape."
The light of The Outside blinded Avery for a moment, then her eyes adjusted. She hadn't seen The Outside for decades. She didn't enjoy being out, GLaDOS knew that, and she knew Avery wouldn't escape. She shot up her satellite and jumped back into the tube.
"Back so soon?" GLaDOS' sarcastic voice echoed through the facility.
Avery grabbed the Aperture Brand ipad ripoff from her worktable and turned it on. She piloted the satellite to the moon, and then switched to first-person mode. She immediately looked for the core.
"Hello?" the same voice from the radio asked.
Avery spotted the core and continued to pilot the satellite to him. A mechanical claw extended and grabbed the core's bars.
"Augh! Wait! What are you doing?!"
The core was then put inside the satellite, and Avery brought the core back to our atmosphere. A parachute unfolded, and the satellite and core had a safe landing. The satellite landed in the same tube Avery traveled through. In a few moments, the satellite fell onto her worktable.
"Ha!" Avery laughed. "It worked! I can't believe it worked!"
"Where am I? Who are you?" the core asked.
"Oh yeah! See, it's been quite a while since I've seen you, so you probably don't remember my voice." The core was removed from Avery's satellite. He gasped.
"Avery? Is that you? But, you sacrificed-"
"My freedom, yes. I remember that."
"Am I back- Oh God, no. Please don't tell me I'm back there."
"It's better than space."
"But, her! She'll kill me if she finds me here!"
"That's why I'm getting us out of here."
"GLaDOS! She's gonna kill me!"
"No, not the way I'm doing it." Avery looked confident, but a glimmer of doubt was still in her mind.