SOC .:Prologue:.

Subject Of Concern

Prologue: Average Day In Aperture

She hadn't called for this. At all.

It had been going so well! Their plan had been perfect! They'd just needed the location of the exit and they'd have been good.

But no.

All their hard work, sneaking around and planning had been in vain.

"You didn't seriously think I didn't know about your little spy, did you?"

Their spy, dead.

"I knew someone had hacked into the security feeds as soon as I was put back into my body."

Her partner, dying.

"Weren't you the one that suggested the moron be given a second chance? And here you were, this whole time, helping him blow that chance."

Their double agent, crushed.

"And now, to keep all four of you lunatics from destroying my facility again... I will have to eliminate you all... before you get the chance."

A rushing noise.

Pain - blood - death --

An alarm.

A pair of blue eyes snapped open.

"Good morning, test subjects. The time is now 6:00am. Please prepare for your first testing courses of the day."

Thank God, it was just a nightmare... With a heavy sigh, Hayley McKenzie swung herself out of bed, running her hands quickly through her short, tangled mop of red hair.

In the bed on the other side of the room, her roommate and best friend, Louise Lyons, was mumbling in groggy annoyance. "Why does she always wake us up at 6... it still feels like midnight..." was audible.

"I know that feeling," Hayley grumbled, standing up and stretching. "At home I hardly woke up till 11... unless it was a school day, then I woke up at half 7..."

"Well," came a voice over the intercom, "I'm afraid things work differently here. You must be awake and ready for anything as soon as possible so you can achieve the best results out of the tests."

"Even though you never tell us those results?" Louise mumbled from under the covers.

"Why should I? There is no need for you to know them. Although, maybe I could see how those results motivate you if I did tell you them. For science."

Hayley sighed and stood up, proceeding over to the cubby hole in the wall that served as their wardrobe. The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System - aka GLaDOS - was the reason Hayley and Louise were waking up so early. She woke them up, had them test until their lungs were ready to collapse, then at 11pm she sent them back to their room. Every ten or so tests, they would have a ten-minute break in the break room so they could eat, drink and take bathroom breaks if they had to.

Both girls were, however, plotting under GLaDOS' (figurative) nose - they had an escape plan. Hayley was finally confident enough to set in stone a date for their escape, and that date was tomorrow. Her nerves at what might go wrong had been the cause of her nightmare.

Hayley tried to shake those nerves now as she got dressed. She didn't have many troubles picking an outfit - she only had one, after all. It consisted of a white tanktop with Aperture Laboratories written across the chest, a rose pink jacket, a pair of denim shorts with a lilac belt, a pair of black thigh socks and a pair of sky blue converse with a white cloud motif.

She couldn't wait to escape and maybe get a part time job, and get the money to buy more clothes.

Louise ambled over next to her, finally waking up properly, and grabbed her outfit. Like Hayley, she only had one, which consisted of a white top, burnt-orange trousers, and white sneakers with grey straps and orange button-like décor.

Now with anyone else, GLaDOS might have had something to say about their choice of footwear. After all, all test subjects now wore special long fall boots to prevent them from taking fall damage when doing the tests. However, both Hayley and Louise wore special clip-on braces called advanced knee replacements, which prevented the fall damage just as well.

Hayley and Louise went and clipped on their fall devices now, before grabbing their portal guns and proceeding into the waiting elevator.

They entered the testing hub, where the cooperative testing initiative robots - Atlas and P-Body - were waiting, playing many a game of rock-paper-scissors.

"Hey, bots!" Hayley called, waving her portal gun in the air.

They both looked up, and - upon seeing it was her and Louise - started chirping happily, abandoning their game to greet them.

"Do not take too long with your little games," GLaDOS warned. "Testing begins in ten minutes."

"Yeah, yeah," Hayley muttered. "OK, who's up for some tag?"

"But we played tag yesterday," Louise pointed out.

"I know, but rock-paper-scissors gets tedious after a while, and we have little to no hiding places in here so we can't play hide and seek," Hayley reminded her. "Plus, we have no pens and paper, so we can't play tic-tac-toe or Hangman."

"OK," Louise shrugged. "I just think we need to try something different for a change."

"Yeah, tag is starting to get a little boring," Hayley admitted, while Atlas and P-Body nodded in agreement. "Right, what should we play instead? Ooh, I know - how about charades?"

After explaining the game, they had a few hilarious rounds of charades before GLaDOS piped up again to assign them their testing courses. Hayley was on Track #138 today, Louise was on Track #126, and the co-op bots were going to Co-op Track #153.

As Hayley stepped into the elevator, she couldn't help feeling kind of sad about leaving Atlas and P-Body behind. In her time as a modern-day test subject, they had become quite good friends, as they were quirky and funny. And on her particularly bad mornings, when she was sorely missing her family, rather than expecting her to play, they'd sit her down in the corner by the elevators and put their arms round her, like they knew something was wrong.

But she'd come to the realisation that GLaDOS would need somebody to stay behind and keep testing, otherwise she'd probably come looking for them. Plus, Atlas and P-Body didn't know much about human life, so their antics as well as their appearance would probably draw a lot of attention.

So it would be better for everyone for them to stay at Aperture. Even so, Hayley knew she'd miss them terribly.

The tests were the same as they normally were today. Challenging, turret-laden, and accompanied by GLaDOS snidely commenting on Hayley's weight and lack of family.

Hayley tried not to retort too much. After all, if she 'behaved' well, GLaDOS would let her go on a nightly excursion down to the bowels of the Old Aperture.

She thought she was going down there just for the sake of nostalgia and finding answers. But that wasn't it at all.

Yes, that had been the original reason for Hayley's trips down to the past. But then she'd met their spy, a girl named Mika Tyler. She'd been found and captured during Wheatley's reign, and managed to escape down to the bowels before he could get back to her. She'd set up camp in one of the old office rooms, and now served as a behind-the-scenes agent in the escape plan - using her laptop, she'd hacked into the security feeds and kept track of all the doors and panels they could get past.

She'd worked out a solid route now, and Hayley wanted to confirm she was ready.

Eventually, after God knows how many tests, GLaDOS piped up again. "Test subjects, the time is now 11:00pm. Please complete your respective test chambers and enter the elevator."

"Hey, GLaDOS?" Hayley called. "Can I go down under Aperture?"

"Why? You're always down there after testing."

"I won't be long, I just want to look for something."

"Alright. But I expect you to be back within 20 minutes."

"Thanks, GLaDOS," Hayley chirped, entering the elevator. She hoped GLaDOS didn't catch her smirk as she proceeded downwards.

When it stopped, she shot out and scurried down the stairs, eyeing the massive springs that held Aperture upright, before sprinting in the direction of one of the oldest testing tracks. She passed by an old office building overlooking a bunch of old I-beams, manoeuvred her way around a bunch of rubble and finally, she spotted the glow of the green portal that served as the door to Mika's office.

"Hey, Mika, it's me!" Hayley called, stepping through.

Mika was just shutting down her laptop as Hayley entered. She looked up and smiled. "Oh, hi!" she chirped.

"You ready to get cracking?" Hayley asked.

"Almost. I'm just packing up my stuff." Mika unplugged her laptop and slid it into her bag, then moved to unplug the charger. "Is the plan still the same?"

"Yep. Did our route change at all?"

"The panel in Test 15 on track 24 kept changing, but it's back to the way it was, so we can stick to our planned route."

"Good. Are you excited?"

Mika's sky blue eyes lit up. "Definitely! I really have to get home! My mom's probably worried about me!"

"Don't you have one of those fancy phones of today? Couldn't you call her?"

"Well, I did text her once, to let her know I was OK, but I'm kind of paranoid GLaDOS might pick up on any phone signals that leave the facility. I'll call her once we get out."

"What about your dad?"

"He's in Italy. I don't think he'd care about my well-being either way. He'd probably just say if I'd just been doing my duty as a lady, then I wouldn't be in this mess." Mika's face darkened now, her bright red hair falling over it like a curtain. "I don't wanna be some prissy member of society who leaves everything to the men. I'd rather fight for myself, and live my own life, rather than let some moron control me."

Hayley nodded, understanding what she was talking about. Mika's parents had divorced when she was 13, and her father had wanted to bring her to Italy with him and turn her into a proper lady who didn't question anything and didn't complain. Luckily her mother had won the custody battle, so Mika stayed in Michigan.

And Hayley had her own experiences with a moron trying to control her, even if that moron was an ally of theirs now.

"Anyway, I'm not gonna brood on it," Mika remarked, her face brightening significantly. "Moping on the past isn't gonna get us out of here."

"No, it's not," Hayley agreed. "Need any help packing up?"

"No thanks, I'm almost done," Mika replied, folding up her sleeping bag. "I mean, I don't have much to pack, anyway. Especially clothes wise."

She laughed to herself. Just like Hayley and Louise, Mika only had the one outfit on her at the moment. It consisted of a maroon sleeveless blouse, blue denim jeans, and a pair of white and blue sneakers. In terms of accessories, she had a black tie loosely knotted on her chest, a shiny yellow hairclip, black and white wristbands, and a silver chain in place of a belt.

"No, I suppose not," Hayley remarked, laughing herself.

"Thanks for the offer, though." Mika looked up. "You'd better get back up there before GLaDOS sends the co-op bots down."

"OK. Here's hoping we all make it through tonight."

"Yeah."

Hayley stepped back out of the portal, proceeding back over to the elevator. The knot of nerves she'd fought off for ages resumed its position in her stomach.

The plan would be executed soon.