Digital Hot Chocolate

Another sip of his clarity, pulling the mask back down afterwards and much like a shadow, questioning every other thing.

It took about fifteen minutes or so for them to reach their destination, a rather large lab, mechanical parts strewn nearly everywhere across it, and there was also a fairly large gecko-like robot that clung to the ceiling for god knows what reason.

When they entered, several of the people hurriedly started to get up, but Blue waved them back down. She held the papers up then slapped them on the nearest desk, "here's the results you all wanted for whatever reason, mildly dropped a bit but intact."

She cast a less than impressed look about the place. "Oh, and clean up in here, this is atrocious." Nervous smiles all around, and quite a few hands moved to poke something out of the way.

"A… yeah.  I guess that makes sense."  Engineer’s shoulders drooped slightly as he thought about what that meant. It was more or less his fault that all of this was happening, wasn’t it?  But then Blue was talking again, and there was no time to dwell on it.

"The room?  I guess we can do that."  He glanced at 0031 as Blue let go of his arm.  "Right?"

"Yes… yes I suppose."  The Medibot sounded rather reluctant.  "But you will come back for us, ja?  What if Herr Gray finds us before you return?"

And with that she ran off, notably faster than the average human would have, and moved a panel aside to duck onto a catwalk shortly after. Uninterrupted, it wouldn't take her long to get to the nearest transfer port, but she had no idea where her combat body was stored, as that information was temporarily deleted from the system.

0031 rocked uneasily on his wheel.  ”Oh, Herr Gray is coming for a visit Herr Engineer, except we can’t go see him.  I… suppose this is gut, as he is probably displeased with us.  Und also he is attacking, so there is that as well.”

"He’s HERE?!"  Engineer tried to brush the wires aside as he stood where he was, listening to 0031.  "But that ain’t possible!  This is an alternate dimension, how the hell—"

"The same way we did I assume," 0031 replied with a shrug.  "Our friend would probably understand that sort of thing better than I would.  By the way, what is worse than being killed or captured Frau Blau?"

"The thing in your head...  it must be a tracking device of some sort. God knows how he got here, or why he even had the technology to do so..." She heaved a nervous sigh, then flinched as she felt something else get destroyed, although thankfully it wasn't as bad as being in the chassis.

"If that is... I can't leave you two alone, he'll find you in minutes! Even if not, it's not worth taking the risk..."  Blue stood still for a second, the spoke again, actually talking to her companions this time.

"Look. You two are just going to have to stay here for a minute. Go to your room, lock the door, the whole thing. Just don't run off. At all. Okay? I have to run and get my combat body."

One with a helmet pulled low over its eyes turned toward the nearest camera, jumped in apparent surprise, and shot a rocket at it.  Its feed went black.

E-001 continued to make his way down the hall.

It was almost a full ten seconds of shocked inactivity before she remembered to switch back to her optics, and she relaxed a bit. "A bit" being the rough equivalent of... almost nothing.

A panel slammed up in front of E-001, clanging against whatever piece of him happened to be sticking out in front of him at the time, and several others flipped up to watch.

"If he is, you two aren't going to be seeing him. You need to get back to your room. Now." She ran over to Engineer, wires snaking their way out of her back to grab him. "If you stay out here you-"

The intercom clicked on before she finished speaking, and out of habit stopped to listen. "Warning: Aperture Multiversal is being invaded. Remain calm and proceed to the nearest secure area. Aperture Multiversal is being invaded. Remain calm and proceed to the nearest secure area." The voice was clearly GLaDOS's, as recognizable as it was.

After that, a different voice came on. "ASMATs deployed. Whoever it was who decided that getting yourself run over by one last time was a good idea, don't do it again." It sounded much like Blue's, only higher pitched.

Engineer didn’t so much as look over his shoulder as he addressed her.  ”I’m going to meet the Maker.  He should be here soon.”  His voice was completely monotone.

"It's ten forty-six at night. Can't your precious maker wait until tomor-" and then she heard the noise. She stopped, tense, and within a mere fraction of a second she was attempting to pull up camera feeds from the area.

"Fricking... I swear, if that was just another sparkle bomb..."

She hoped it was. She really did.

Her shyness was interrupted with a squeaky protest, plucking the rat off her shoulder and cuddling it close against her chest defensively. “I am not!” 

"Well then, stupid nick name, huh?" She laid eyes on the human once more; "Come on, what's your name? I don't bite, trust me, if that was the case I would've already bitten her." She nodded her head in GLaDOS's direction. "Can't imagine what she would've tasted like, though. Never tried coolant before."

She usually didn't care much stuff like that, but she actually was curious, if not for the sole reason of finding out just why GLaDOS thought it was so awful.

Not the coolant, the nick name.

He was fine.  Of course he was fine.  He had to be fine.

"Danke Frau Blau," 0031 said happily as he stroked Drei’s head.  "I may also need some, ah, a little extra money for her mechanical parts.  I am afraid I have not integrated everything as well as I would hope, but some day—: Herr Engineer, what are you doing?"

God, not this again.

Although, the presence of a human here was curious, especially considering this one seemed to have established herself as an annoyance...

Weird.

(Anyone can reply, and cross overs are welcome.)

GLaDOS attempted to test as usual, but it was difficult to focus on anything at all with so many distractions. The music echoing from the corner of her chamber, through headphones that really should not have been turned up that loud, was distracting enough without everything else. Everything else mostly being the rat sitting on her desk, attempting to chew paper work. There was another one around there somewhere, but she seemed appropriately terrified of the situation. This one, unfortunately, was not. She scooped up the rodent for what seemed like the hundredth time but, this time, instead of placing it on the ground she held it out to the girl sitting in the corner. “Will you get over here and control your zoo?”

The girl, in ill-fitting shorts and too much makeup, was quick to drop her headphones to the ground and retrieve the animal. Placing the rat on her shoulder, she opted for pushing herself up to sit on the edge of GLaDOS’s desk rather than going away. “So does this mean you and Wheatley aren’t gonna do the doodle for like three days, or do I get to join you?” She finished her statement with an obnoxiously dramatic wink.

Completely free, and with absolutely nothing to do.

Truth be told, she was bored. Nearly everyone she knew was busy, and to make things worse she was currently banned from the Central AI Chamber for an, uh, accident involving several crates of fruit and a few bombs. She totally didn't do that on purpose. Nope.

And not quite wanting to see how far her chassis could contort, the only other option she'd thought up was to go pay someone offworld a visit.

That sounded like a fine idea to her, so she decided to fire up a portal. Perhaps she'd pay the one she fixed up a visit... surely she wouldn't get kicked out in 5 seconds there.

0031 didn’t seem to notice.  ”I do not think so.  Except… perhaps some food for Drei, if that is not too much to ask for.”

The bird chirped enthusiastically as though in approval of this idea.

Or something, anyway. Whatever technology 0031 had used probably wasn't advanced enough to maintain whatever remaining biological functions were still necessary. Not to imply that she herself had conquered that particular area of tech, but still. She was just pointlessly wandering, now.

She noticed Engineer didn't quite seem... well, normal, when he covered his "ears" at what was to her a quite bearable sound.