Author's Notes: Ok, ok, just to clarify, I'M NOT DEAD! I just forgot COMPLETELY about this story… fortunately though, all five of you will have the undeniable pleasure of reading this. Unless of course you have a heart attack and die. In that case, you won't be able to review… so I will be very sad :'(

The Towers

Dr. Vernon paced around the empty library along with the other frustrated scientist and their colleagues (which Seymour had insisted on calling them 'meat shields' only seconds before). It did not take them long to make swift use of the insistent A.I.'s ability to stay quiet, and judging by the sound of silence all throughout the room, it was successful.

Finding a way off this island was priority number one. If they had no way to get off, there was no reason for them to be there. But as Caroline had said earlier, all doors enter in both directions.

"How we got onto this island is completely trivial." Alan said, assuming leadership among the group. "First we need to find out how to get off…"

Slaney raised her hand. "Maybe we can find a way to use that rocket outside. "

That rocket belongs in some sort of sci-fi novel; I don't know how it got mixed into our story. Besides, we don't even know if it has any means of navigation or where it will take us.

"Do you think maybe this place is where artists go to die?" Dr. Vernon asked, staring intently at one of the two paintings at the side of the room. Dr. Vernon was curious about this portrait. It seemed to be based directly off this room, that bookshelf to the left even showed an exact figure of his surroundings.

"Check that bookshelf, maybe there's something there!"

Alan ran to the bookshelf to see what it held. A secret lever, or an escape hatch, or a quantum tunneling device, who knows? His hope was crushed however, in a manner similar to how a train rolls over pennies.

"It's just…" Alan opened one of the books. It detailed the adventures of a little boy playing with his friend. "It's just someone's stupid self inserted fan fiction of themselves, nothing interesting here." He put it back and pulled out another partially burnt book. "Whoa," he said, reading this one which appeared to be vastly different. "Looks like Da Vinci took part in writing this one." He showed it to the rest of the group.

"Looks legit…" Slaney said once she noticed it was the mechanical working of the two huge gears at the edge of the island.

"SARCASM DETECTED… Ponies are not permitted within the facility. Please call an Aperture Science Service Representative, who will bring you a picture of a cute and cuddly pony at your request."

"Great, it's got an active memory too. Does it even know we're still not at the Enrichment Center? Or does it detect we're on Aperture grounds?"

Dr. Vernon rushed in to suppress any suspicions. "No, no, we're not on Aperture Science property, it was just designed to only be used inside the facility, technically, we never 'left' it."

Slaney moved closer to the doctor. "We haven't left it because we're probably in some crazy virtual environment! It was you who sent us all here on this stupid chase to find nothing!" She threw her arms up wildly.

The other members of the group backed away, shirking from the heated confrontation.

Seymour inserted himself with one of his corrections. "False. Mission objectives include scientific study and observation; only an idiot would make such a mistake, stupid. Protocol suggests we keep searching for information."

Slaney backed off from Dr. Vernon, but not before giving him a piercing look which read 'I'm onto you.'

"I think we need to… open those?" Roni mentioned, pointing to the large gears encumbered in some speed lines on one of the opened books.

"Why I think you're right subject…" Dr. Vernon struggled to remember her name, as his age was finally getting to him and his memory somewhat fading. "Rini…"

"Close enough."Roni admitted.

Alan turned to Kent, his hand grasping his chin. "What now?"

Before the large man was able to answer, the weighted machine on his back did the job for him. "Analysis suggests randomly pushing and touching things until something happens. And if all else fails, use explosives."

A smile found its way onto Slaney's face. "At least the robot makes more sense that the so called 'smart' people. I mean it tells us to do something instead of stand around and argue and that's a start."

Both Alan and Vernon rolled their eyes. When Alan's eyes finished their defiant routine, they landed on that painting showing the bookshelf in a different position, a position of stairs leading upwards to an equally dark wooden path. It did not take long for Alan to realize that behind this painting must lie a tool to his escape off this island, perhaps in the form of a button or a long metal switch with a bright red ball shaped handle. As he tried to pull the painting off the wall, his thumb, which was positioned on the inside of the painting, somehow went inside of the painting as if it were made of a fluid substance. He nearly lost his balance, falling back at the surprising sight of the painting convulsing into a swirling vortex.

A low hum convulsed at the swirling of the picture, the group joined in a collective gasp.

Their fear was quelled however when the movement stopped, and the bookshelves slid downwards to expose a passageway behind the false wall. The door into the library was now closed, but intuition said that the other painting would surely give a reversed effect.

"Good job Seymour!" Dr. Vernon exclaimed. "Brilliant observation!"

"But he… it just…" Alan said, self-aware that he'd made the mistake of assigning a gender/emotional attachment to the A.I. Still, the name and rather low pitched voice only drew natural assumptions.

"…Gave good advice? Why it did, now we have a means of advancing."

"I don't know…" Slaney mentioned. "That seemed rather out of the blue, I thought the machine was supposed to be good at calculating math and stuff."

"Math and stuff?" Dr. Vernon repeated to himself, taking such great offense to the statement and nearly causing a self inflicted heart-attack. "Math and stuff? Really? Do you know how degrading and simplistic that sounds?"

Slaney immediately rose to a defensive position. "Can't be as degrading and simplistic as talking to you… and I meant angles and trajectories and falling stuff, why would it say something like that? I'm not questioning the fact that it can do that, but when did it know that it could?"

The room fell into silence once more. Eventually, they looked to Seymour for an answer.

The machine took a moment to process the question; metaphysical concepts were by no means its specialty, but it usually took everything in its simplest terms, and made stuff up from there on to sound more complex. Finally, it's speakers emitted the words, "Analyzing… A Clematis plant's juice can cause a rash, when pruning them; it's a good idea to wear gloves. The answer is… five."

"Shut that thing off; it's either broken, or it's being influenced too much by Slaney..." Alan demanded in a subtle verbal retaliation.

"You can't shut those things off; they need to constantly be on…" Dr. Vernon corrected. "Although I do believe there's a mute butto- yes, right there."

Slaney gave a sigh of relief. If only we had that button on… someone else." She said looking towards Dr. Vernon.

"Alright, enough you two. Slaney, come with me, we're exploring." He said, guiding her eager movements with his hand. "You three, stay here. And make sure Dr. Vernon doesn't escape by some self inflating Aperture Science weather balloon or something…" The two then proceeded to the newly formed stairs.

Heading down the dark wooden hallway, they eventually reached what seemed to an early twentieth century still small elevator. The elevator's shell was made of a dark, scratchy, rusty steel, and it's interior of a softer pale material. They both crammed in, knowing whatever they found at the top, or bottom, would help them get to the bottom of the lame trick that Aperture had thrown at them.

"So, what do you think about all this?" Alan asked as he pressed the only button in the lift.

"It's all a big conspiracy set up by Aperture, doesn't look like you're in it, but you can never be sure. Dr. Vernon is the most brainwashed freak I've ever been with, but at least I have Special K to follow me around."

"Special… K?" Alan asked as the elevator roared to life and began moving.

"It's a nickname, Special K, Macaroni, Dr. Vermin…"

"And what's my nickname?" Alan asked, hoping it wasn't too embarrassing.

"Dr. Walker…" Slaney said with a smile.

"Right, well I'd like to let you know that's not the worst you can come up with. It's not that I don't like the sound, I just don't like… the memories." He almost cringed at his own recollection laced words.

"Why do we even need someone with your expertise here anyways? Wouldn't it be easier to have someone who has super jumping abilities?"

"This is supposed to be a scientific mission… I guess I'm essential for any data observations and recordings we may encounter." Judging by the indifference on Slaney's face, the answer was substantial, although he knew this was technically supposed to be an inter-dimensional black op.

Upon reaching the top of the mountain, the two exited the elevator into a circular alcove. The black wall on the outer edge rotated and later Alan figured out this was because Roni had been messing with another painting which caused the outer shell to move and expose different sections to the outside world. As the scientist ordered the rotations to be made at each interval, he noticed that the open notch always landed exactly in a certain spot, such as the large metal gears on the island or the retro looking rocket ship. He pulled the radio up to meet his lips once more.

"Alright, now it's facing the gears…" Alan said, waiting for a response to come back. "There are some numbers here, want me to repeat them to you?"

"Sure if you think it'll help." Roni replied over the walkie-talkie.

Alan fed her the numbers and they recorded the others from then on. Some numbers seemed to be in the form of dates, and the others in the form of simple linear listings.

"Alright, that's it… Can you guys perhaps go over to the gears and look up here? I want to have visual confirmation."

In about a minute's time, the rest of the group could be seen down below, huddled near the giant steel cogs. The island's haze was still wrapped in a thick fog, and nothing could be seen beyond a certain distance of open water.

"Are they up there?" Kent asked, scanning the cylindrical black structure at the top of the mountain.

"Yeah, look," Roni pointed towards the thin slit where Slaney could be seen standing before surrendering her attention to one of the nearby switches. "You can see her hair."

"Can you hear me down there?" Slaney yelled down at the group whom promptly nodded in response. "Two forty! You hear that? Alan says the clock tower should be set at two forty!"

Roni looked back in confusion. "But the clock tower doesn't have two forty on it, it has…" She looked over to a large clock tower at the opposite end of the island, covered mostly by trees. "Something other than two forty…"

"Current time is… Too late, go to bed…" Seymour said, disabling his own mute setting in perhaps a display of rebellion. "Please roll out the Aperture Science sleeping mat and proceed to lie down, with your eyes closed and your body flat. If proper levels of Melatonin have been administered, sleep will come quite naturally, if it hasn't… good luck."

"Just what I need…" Kent said. "A robot telling me how to sleep. Does it expect all people to be work at Aperture?" He then hi-fived Roni.

Oblivious completely to the joke, Dr. Vernon pondered once more a literal translation to the inquiry. "Good question, I don't know if it has yet to deal with anyone outside of the enrichment center, although to it, the Aperture Science is the world. At the facility, we simulate daylight at all hours to keep ourselves awake; it might be the lack of radiant light on this strange island which is confusing its delicate little sensors." The Aperture doctor then proceeded to pet the machine as if it were a soft puppy.

After hailing each other, the group re-organized in the small column garden in front of the library. Alan insisted they head towards the clock tower while Dr. Vernon tried to examine 'local alien fauna' as he called it.

"Such a strange environment for these trees to be in…" Dr. Vernon noted, examining the tall wooden timber with the tap of his knuckle. "I don't recall hearing any redwood trees growing on an island."

Alan continued down the island and towards the water bound clock tower. The island was rather small, way too small to gather the resources necessary to create its own structures. But Aperture was obviously putting them through one of their tests, only this one longer and more elaborate. The only question was why? What did it have to gain? Why spend untold amounts of money creating a book with a portal field stamped onto it?

Alan's chest sank as he realized the power one could wield with such a method. Think of it, instantly being able to transport from one place to another, easy to hide, easy to move, difficult to uncover. With a book like that, the world could be ever changed into a new era of travel and transportation.

Or maybe Aperture was really bad at making such devices and only managed to conjure up one. At Black Mesa, teleportation projects were often based upon how much room the basement generator took up and how large the nuclear coolant pumps were; even then, they had yet to produce a stable means of success, so Aperture Science's difficulty would by no means be strange.

But they did have those portal guns… damn…

Alan approached the clock tower which was a good ten feet out in the water. A couple brown wheels and an equally red button lay on the ground before them. "Two forty, set it to two forty…" He said, pointing to Kent. "Try turning those wheels to change the time."

After a few minutes of trial and error, the time on the clock had been set to the same time etched at the top of the mountain tower. Kent pressed the red button and some gear shaped stepping stones arose from under the water.

"What use is a clock which doesn't tell time?" Slaney asked as she stepped into the opened door of the stone structure. "It's like a-"

"Yes, yes, we understand how stupid and inferior we are, now would you mind being a good test subject and make sure the inside is not booby trapped?" Dr. Vernon retorted.

"He means make sure you can find a solution on your own… we'll be out here, waiting for you." Alan corrected.

Slaney made her way inside, and ordered Kent to follow suit. Seymour noticed the small cramped room probably had a connection to gears in some way.

"Analysis suggests pushing and pulling things until something bad happens."

"Good advice Socrates…" Slaney said, actually following through with the advice, and pulling the first switches she saw in the numbered order she saw up on the tower next to the time display. "I think it worked. Aperture made this one too easy, when comes the hard stuff where you have to read upside down?" She noticed that the weight at the bottom had ceased to move now; whereas before the three weights had all been affected by another's movement. "You know, I kind of think Seymour's the brains of this group, isn't that right, bucket of silicon?"

"Processing personal response… you're welcome."

"And it's so polite… Is it too late to replace some members of our group?"

"Processing… time is too late, go to bed."

"But I'm not tired!" Slaney whined.

"Aperture Science recommends combating lack of tiredness with intense physical activity and testing."

"Well, some things never change." Slaney said as she patted the machine strapped to 'Special K's' back.

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APERTURE SCIENCE DATA PLATFORM TRANSMITTING… FREQUENCY GOOD… SIGNAL GOOD… MESSAGE SENT.

Subjects seem to be getting along better than expected. Sarcasm has been adopted into personality platform section 00YU94II as a platform upgrade. Progress steady, suggest group takes a long nap before continuing. [DR. VERNON] has yet to transmit any negative signals about APERTURE SCIENCE… SEYMOUR processing system has recognized 74 instances of disloyalty among rest of group. Recommending fun administration. Seymour system… over. 04284fauhvzFAH#4h21Cv…

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