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A sudden flash of white, then red coated her irises, completely blinding her. Her arms shot up to cover her face, but it was no use against the vigorous wave of intense heat following shortly after. Tiny scraps of something sharp flew onto her, getting trapped in her dirty clothes and rough skin. She let out a scream, but it was overshadowed by a violent ringing that shot through her ears and punched through her skull. In slow motion, she could feel sinuses burning up like oversized balloons full of lava. It flashed red, then white rapidly, completely stunning her in place. The world was silent, nothing but the vicious ringing remained. Her heart beat, and after a few moments, it beat again. She felt her chest very slowly rise, then fall back just as slowly. Even the flashing lights began to die down, eventually slowing down and fading away, giving her a clear view of her cut up hands and arms and the black void surrounding her. She kept her eyes hyped focused on her arms, terrified they’d vanish along with everything else if she dared avert her eyes.
‘I’m deaf!’ She thought. ‘I’m deaf and I’m going to die!’
Something began to form in the distant darkness, it was a very faded orange, contorting itself into a bumpy mass of air. Alyx squinted, staring intently at the subject, but it remained blurry. It sort of resembled those dots that burn into your eyes after staring at the sun for too long. But she could tell it wasn’t just her imagination. The thing grew in size very gradually, it floated around her, completely still as if it was on a conveyor belt.
“Hello?” She felt her voice crack as her voice echoed throughout the dark void. The thing showed no signs of acknowledgement, it just kept floating at growing.
Quickly, the thing began to develop, sprouting a pair of stubby arms and legs and a crudely shaped head at the top. The width began to flatten. Although it has no features, the vague hourglass figure represented a young woman.
All Alyx could do was watch until the girl was out of her sight and she was left alone again.
She blinked, but all that remained was the void.
With a deep breath, she shut her eyes, squeezing them tight.
“Okay..” She thought. “The citadel core exploded… and now you’re here.” She wasn’t even sure if that’s what happened. Everything came down too fast to register. She wanted to call out again but knew it would be useless.
“Wherever you are.. You need to wake up from it. Just wake up- like a bad dream.” Her teeth clenched as she repeated those words over and over again. Nothing was forever, one way or another she’d be out of this place.
Something must have been watching over, because her cries were answered.
Alyx let out a cry as a bright light suddenly stunned her. She stumbled back, expecting to walk onto more void-floor but she was unpleasantly surprised when she slipped and a crowd of rocks and flew backwards, slamming her back onto a dull point. She quickly put her hand behind her back, feeling around for blood or any bones that felt out of place.
“Nothing.. You’re fine.”
As her eyes began to adjust to the new environment, she sat up slowly, crawling on her hands and knees as she brushed her hands through the rocks.
“Gordon?” She called. “....Dad?”
The wind blew into her face, pushing the loose strands of hair away.
Pressing her hand against a nearby wall to steady herself, she let out a groan as she climbed to her feet and her eyes finally adjusted.
She was in a giant building, larger than any she’d ever seen. Powerful ceiling lights lit up the suspended walkway she stood on. The only bit of sunlight came from a large hole in the wall, presumably where she crashed through.
“Damn.. that’s really gonna hurt..” She shrugged her shoulders, as long as there was a medical station nearby she should be good for awhile.
Despite the blaring lights, the building was dark and empty. Rubble was everywhere, sparks flew out of broken electronics, and invisible pipes leaked water droplets to a steady, almost agonizing rhythm. She’d seen places like this before, hell, she LIVED in a place like this. But never before had she seen somewhere so empty. Usually there was at least one combine member or even just an astray headcrab roaming the halls. But this place was completely dead, as if undisturbed for thousands of years.
The walkway led her to a strangely well kept elevator, who’s wide open doors beckoned her to step inside, which she did. As soon as she was fully inside the machine.
“Wait wait-!” The doors slammed shut behind her, and the elevator dinged as it started flying upwards. “Damn it-!” In hindsight she should have expected this, but it still frustrated her either way.
The elevator doors soon opened after a short amount of time. It led her to a tight hallway, with black concrete walls and a black tile floor. Like everything else, the hallway looked destroyed, as if something came, picked up the entire room, then dropped it from about 50 feet. At the end of the hallway stood a circular door, with a symbol of a blue man running across it. With nowhere else to go, she walked forward, examining the boring hall before reaching the door, which opened right on command. The door slammed shut as soon as she walked through.
Now she was in a new room, a huge area with the same black interior as the hallway. The room was separated in two sections, a lower level, which she was standing on, and a higher level with another blue door at the end of it. In the middle was a giant hole, impossible to jump across. Inside the hole was a small cube that bounced up and down at a steady pace. She slowly walked forward, focusing on the strange bouncing cube.
“If there’s something I can jump on down there.. I should be able to reach up there..”
She stopped at the edge of the hole and peered down. A blue substance coated the walls and floor of the pit. Her feet shuffled slightly as she crouched down, kicking small pebbles into the hole in the process. She watched as the small rocks plummeted down, only to bounce right back up just like the cube.
A shaky breath left her mouth. “Alright, sure, I can do this.” This wasn’t her first rodeo when it came to blindly jumping from high places. Since she was little she was notorious for outsmarting Combine by jumping from windows and vanishing behind corners. Except now if she jumped down there and the mysterious substance decided not to work, she’d be trapped in there for sure.
Well, there was no other option. Nothing was getting through that steel door, and the smooth black walls would be impossible to climb on.
She stood up and slowly walked backwards. “You’ve done this millions of times.. Just bend your knees and pretend it’s some kind of trampoline-” There was a loud snap, but before she could process it, she was flying through the air. She desperately stretched her arms out and grabbed aimlessly at the air as she screamed. Just as quickly as she went up, she shot back down, landing on yet another launch pad and shooting forward again. This time she was somewhat prepared at least, she reached for her belt and yanked her pistol from her belt. Instead of landing in some battle arena filled with zombies like she expected, she instead fell into a blue ray that stopped her in her tracks. There she stood, like an idiot, floating gradually through the air like a puppet.
“Hello! Anyone?!” She yelled out, but her voice only echoed in the empty building. “What’s going on here!? What do you want!?”
Finally, she heard a voice. “And don’t even THINK about portaling out of here. I’ve already thought of that.” It was a distant man’s voice that echoed throughout the building.
“Huh?”
Although the voice never responded, she got an answer her own way. At the end of the floating blue-ray thing was yet another launchpad, which she thankfully had time to mentally and physically prepare for before she was flung into the air again. This time she actually landed on something, a small gray platform that was holsted on top of a pillar. A sharp pain shot into her feet the second she landed. She cringed, as she fell to her knees and grabbed her ankles. She took a few deep breaths through her teeth. At least nothing was broken, as far as she could tell.
The same voice from before interrupted her little fit. “Excuse me?” It asked. The voice surrounded the entire room. “Do you- do you know her?”
There were screens of various different sizes surrounding the platform. All of them displayed the same video of a robotic sphere. It was completely white, with a moving blue circle that acted as an eye in the middle. Despite its lack of a face, it seemed frustrated. Two plates closed in on the eye, giving the impression that it was squinting and examining her closely. On closer inspection, she noticed its eyes ever so slightly shifting. It’d look at her.. Then slightly to the side as if-
The baby hairs on her neck shot up as something ever so slightly graced them.
She pivoted on her heel and raised her arm up. Before her brain could even register what she was attacking, she threw her arm forward and smashed her pistol across the face of whoever was behind her. That’s when she was given half a second to think. It was a person- like a normal person- with human skin, and hair- long hair- holy shit it was a girl! Without even considering the possibility that this could still be some kind of trap- she jumped up and grabbed the girl by the wrist before she could tumble backwards off the platform.
“Hey! That wasn’t very necessary!” It was the male voice again. It was coming from the TVs- no- it was the robot. “What are you?” She shouted. “What is this?”
“I could ask you the same thing!” The thing was definitely frustrated, but more in a confused than angry way. “Are you some sort of rescue squad? Since when did we have THOSE?”
Rescue squad? Once she had pulled the poor girl to her feet, she froze and properly looked around. Under the TVs were guns, hundreds of them, all pointed at the platform she stood on. She caught a glimpse of the girl next to her, despite obviously being in pain from the hunk of metal that just slammed into her jaw, her eyebrows drooped, blocking drops of sweat from falling into her eyes.
Alyx pivoted in circles, not knowing exactly what TV to look at. “What kind of fight is this!”
“Well.. uh.. It’s not a fight.” The robot began. “It’s more of just.. A murder. That you got in the way of.”
Alyx looked back at the girl by her side. What did this poor woman do to deserve this?
The robot smacked its lips.. despite not having any. “I mean.. If you’re not gonna leave… I guess I can kill you too.”
“You guess??” Alyx repeated.
The machine bounced slightly in the air. “That’s just how the cookie crumbles, lady.” The gun circled began to close in on the pair, some of them clicking as they reloaded.
Alyx spun around. There was no way out. Behind the guns and televisions were just hard cement walls, and the dark abyss below them did not welcome them to jump. In the distance she could see another suspended hallway, but there was absolutely no way the two could reach it without that blue stuff. She locked eyes with the other girl again. The girl focused intently on the walls, scanning every inch with full attention. Held tightly in her hands was a futuristic gun. Her right hand was lodged into the machine’s backside, and her left hand rested under the muzzle. Jammed onto one of the prongs connected to the gun was a potato. It had an eyeball, just like the machine on the television, except this one didn’t speak, it just stared.
“Hey, the hell is that?” Alyx asked.
If the other woman hadn’t looked at her for a moment, she’d never even know if the other heard her. She looked at Alyx briefly, then the gun, then focused on the wall again. She stared directly at a large pipe that contained a flowing white liquid. Alyx starred with her. The liquid was being held in a thin glass container. If they had something to throw they could easily break it, but there was a strong possibility whatever was in there was toxic.
A tap on the shoulder broke her train of thought. The girl was pointing at Alyx’s pistol, once she got the other’s attention, she started pointing at the pipe.
Alyx held her gun up. “Do you want me to shoot it?” She asked in a whisper. The other nodded. Although Alyx was hesitant, the other women seemed trustworthy- and what other choice did she have.
While the killer robot seemed distracted, Alyx aimed her gun and shot a few bullets into the side of the pipe. After a few shots, she was able to make a couple cracks in the glass. Liquid continued to shoot through, splashing onto the walls and onto the girls. To Alyx’s surprise, this stuff wasn’t liquid at all, well it still looked like a liquid, yet felt like those concoctions she used to make in her younger years out of glue and baking soda. It had a strong smell that could only be compared to sawdust.
“What was that supposed to do?” She asked the other girl. The other girl aimed her gun towards the out of reach platform and shot it. Alyx wasn’t exactly sure how the mechanics worked, but somehow a blue ball shot from the barrel and landed on the wall, taking the form of a fiery blue oval. Alyx wanted to stand and stare in disbelief but the girl’s fingers locking around her own brought her back to the mission. In a blink, the girl shot another orb, this time onto the platform they were standing on. There was a loud crash as the surrounding guns began to go off, Alyx braced for impact.
She was sure she was dead. Yet seconds went by and nothing seemed to change. Very slowly her eyelids raised, revealing that she was no longer standing on the platform of death and instead had made it to that distant hallway. She looked back at her partner, who looked back at her with an unsettlingly calm look.
“What.. what did you do?” Alyx asked through deep breaths she didn’t even know she was taking. The girl looked down at her gun then beckoned Alyx to follow her. After a short walk, the other stopped and faced a wall. Raising her gun, she shot those two orbs again. A blue one and an orange one. Alyx stepped aside as the girl began to work. Without breaking eye contact, the girl put her hand nonchalantly through one of the ovals. Her hand immediately came out of the other one. When she waved her arm around, her hand matched the exact moments. Alyx gasped before running by her side. The girl stepped forward into one of the ovals, and magically walked right out of the other one. The girl stared at her, her expression carefree and soulless.
Alyx was left at a loss for words. It was teleportation. Dr. Kliener had spent years perfecting this exact art when this girl had been running around with her little machine for God knows how long. There was so much she wanted to ask. What was that? How did it work? Who are you? Where did you get it?
“It’s the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, also referred to as the ASHPD.” A robotic female voice answered for her. Alyx jumped, not expecting that voice to come out of that girl. But the girl's lips stayed locked in place, her eyes nudged down at the device.
“Me. The potato.”
The potato with the eye stared intently at her, as if she were the dumb one for not immediately talking to it.
“I’m GlaDOS. I used to be the commander of this facility until THIS idiot let THAT idiot be in charge.”
Alyx looked at ‘this idiot’ while she just stared back, her cheeks slightly sucked into her mouth as she shifted from side to side.
“So who exactly are YOU?”
The girl’s eyes shifted before she gently put the portal device down and removed the orange jacket that was tightly around her waist. She fumbled with it for a second before handing it front-side up to Alyx. Embroidered on the jacket was the name “Chell” along with a logo that read “Aperture Science.” Alyx read the words under her breath, earning a nod from Chell. “I’m Alyx.” She took another second to read the logo before handing the jacket back to her friend. Aperture.. She’d heard the name before, either from her father or Kliener. “What is this place?”
“We’re a testing facility, well we WERE a testing facility until- like I was saying- this.. goblin killed me.” Glados answered, her tone harsh and full of pure poison.
Chell puckered her lips and turned away, hiding the bright red flush creeping on her face.
“Should I be worried.. at all?” Alyx asked again, her hand slowly creeping back to the pistol she’d just put back on her belt.
Chell, ever so gently, bopped the potato over the head before admittedly shaking her head now.
Glados let out a dull, soulless, robot laugh. “That’s in the past now.. I guess. We were all a tad angsty back then.” Chell didn’t look impressed. “You know we were your competitors before we shut down.”
“Huh?”
“Black Mesa. We were your highest competitors.”
Alyx followed the robot's eye to her torso, which displayed her Black Mesa sweatshirt under her thin leather jacket. The words had long since faded, leaving only the circular logo with the little mountain in the middle.
"Oh! Yeah! Cool!" She smiled. Black Mesa had really been under fire since the whole "dimension ending fiasco" yet she still took pride in honoring her father's work. "There's still no bad blood, right?"
"Oh of course not. Your human money proves no value to me. I cut off all contact with your people once I took over."
While Glados spoke, Alyx's eyes wandered back at Chell. Chell didn't seem to notice though. The girl studied her surroundings intensely, her chipped, uneven nails tapped vigorously against the portal device. Her mannerisms reminded her of Gordon. The constant fighting stance, the blazing blue eyes, the strong arms that looked like they could lift her over their head and toss her off a cliff.
That last part was a bit of an exaggeration, considering she'd only seen Gordon one brief time without his giant metal suit. But Chell's tight fitting tank top definitely showed off her muscles.
That tight tank top showed off quite a lot actually. Alyx found herself staring for longer than she should have.
In her defense, it'd been years since she'd seen another girl her age. There were only two girls in her life. Olga, who she hadn't spoken to in.. too long, and Miss. Mossman, who after recent events, probably won't be part of the resistance for much longer.
Two loud clicks broke Alyx from her trance. She quickly looked back at Chell, who stared back at her with her head tilted down and eyebrows raised.
"Sorry sorry!" Alyx quickly apologized. "I haven't been able to talk to another girl in forever." Now that she thought of it, she hadn't actually been able to talk with this girl yet. "Can you talk?"
Chell paused before lightly jumping in the air and landing back on her feet. She stared back at Alyx.
Alyx just blinked a few times. "What?"
Chell waited again before jumping again, a little higher this time.
Alyx got the point.. sort of. Another strong, silent teammate, fun
"Do you know any signs?" Alyx stopped herself. "[YOU SIGN?]" She signed with her fingers, having to repeat herself under her breath.
Chell just jumped again.
"I'll assume that's a no." She couldn't help but feel a little relieved. While Kleiner and dad had naturally drilled English and a good amount of Bulgarian, her only asl teacher was Barney, who's only asl experience came from living with Gordon for a half of year back in the 90s.
Without warning, Chell reached out and grabbed Alyx's hand, interlocking their fingers again with a tight grasp. Alyx went to pull away but stopped herself, allowing Chell to turn around and walk her through the building.
"You lead the way, I guess."
There was still a lot she needed to ask, a big question being "how the hell do we get out of here." But that could wait for now, the other girl was probably just as starstruck as she was and wasn't ready to be bombarded with questions. There was still tension in the air though. The completely dead and empty building invoked some sort of anxiety in her, like if she let go of her partner she'd slip through the cracks in the floor and disappear into the endless drop below them.
Once they'd walked through the first door, that male voice was back. Compared to Glados, this robot sounded completely different. He had a very apparent accent, and a strong worried and stressed tone that mimicked a child realizing they were losing a game.
Chell stopped them and tapped her hip. Alyx mirrored her, and felt for the gun strapped on her belt. With a reassuring nod from Chell, she took the pistol from its holster and held it tightly in her hand with her finger just behind the trigger.
Chell started to run, followed by Alyx just inches away.