GaTing with Portals: Chapter 3

Wheatley began muttering to himself whilst trying codes in the computer to stop the power-up. Ian and Julie hugged each other tightly in excitement as GLaDOS was lifted from the ground and surges of electricity surged through her broken body. Her light flickered on and off for a while until there was a loud ZAP! And she was back.

Kaela fell to her knees and got close to Wheatley. They both looked up at the towering robot and they were both genuinely afraid. While staring up at the robotic monster, Kaela lost her touch with reality and she truly feared for her life. GLaDOS looked down at the four with an icy glare before she called down the robot claws.

"Oh, hello you three," GLaDOS greeted the teens coldly. "It's been a long time. How have you been?" She turned away as though she were going to attend to something more important. "I've been really busy being dead. You know, after you MURDERED ME," she hissed. She turned back to the group to watch the claws grasp Kaela by her sweatshirt. As Kaela was taken over to the open incinerator GLaDOS kept her glare on Julie. She crushed Wheatley with another claw as she dropped Kaela down the incinerator with the first. Two elevators came up out of the floor. "Since cooperative testing isn't an option for Aperture Science's Testing Facilities at the moment you two will have to go into an elevator separately." The female AI put her eye closer to Ian and said sternly, "Now."

Not having much of a choice, Julie and Ian waved at each other for a temporary goodbye and stepped into the elevators. They both went back down into the floor and were on their way to new chambers.

"Let the testing begin."
****
"Welcome back to the incinerator room," GLaDOS said to Kaela. The completely numb girl slowly arose to her feet and looked around. "You remember it, don't you? You threw me down here, you threw the companion cube—who only wanted to love you—down here, and you died down here. Oh, wait. You had to come and kill me. Right."

Kaela looked up at the hole she just fell out of, expecting her friends to follow. "Where are Julie and Ian?" she asked.

"They're already testing. Like good subjects. Not heartless subjects who only want to hurt the people who care most about them."

Kaela couldn't help but smile at the fact that she was hearing THE GLaDOS talking to her. And not just reciting lines from the game. It was genuinely GLaDOS! Still, she could tell the whole 'you killed me' thing would get old soon. So, instead of standing around in that hot oven of a room Kaela rushed to get past the heat and into old Test Chamber 19.

"The dual portal device should be right up ahead. When you get it we can begin testing just like old times." She paused. "Forever."
****
Ian's elevator stopped on a floor that looked like any other. He cautiously got out and tried to look around. There was almost no light on that particular floor so he crouched low to the ground and began feeling around for the stairs.

"Oh, sorry for the inconvenience," GLaDOS said in a rather monotone voice. "It seems that some rats have chewed through a large part of the facility's main light system. You're standing in the elevator room that leads directly up to the maintenance room. All I need you to do is fix the lights and we can begin the real tests."

Ian touched the first stair and slowly, still close to the ground, crawled upward. At the top of the stairs he moved toward the hallway's wall and pulled himself up. Keeping one hand in front of him at all times, he moved down the hallway to the door. Once he found the handle he turned it and pushed it open.

"How ironic," GLaDOS stated. "The facility has hardly any light whatsoever except for in the central light core."

And sure enough, inside there was a single flickering light bulb that dimly illuminated the small room. An old looking desk was pushed against the back wall and there were chairs tipped over all around. On the nearest wall, to Ian's left, there was a large metal box sticking out from the wall. Wires were coming out all sides of the box and most of them were severed. As he neared it he saw the words 'APERTURE CENTRAL LIGHT CORE' printed on it in large white letters. He opened the box hoping to see just a large switch to pull but and saw nothing but hundreds of cords and buttons inside.

"I don't know how to fix this!" he exclaimed

"There's a toolbox in the corner. All you need to do it attach the severed wires to their other ends and flip that main switch up in the corner of the box. It's simple really." As Ian began walking to retrieve the toolbox the AI quickly added, "Oh, I'd hurry if I were you. Who knows when that last light bulb is going to burn out."
****
Julie stepped out of the elevator and looked around. All of the elevator rooms in Aperture looked the same so it really didn't give her any hint as to where she was and the screens surrounding her were all either broken or turned off. She walked up the stairs and kept looking around for any clues that might hint at where she was.

"Welcome back to the testing," GLaDOS said in her cold robotic voice. "I can tell you really missed it. Why else would you have gone through all the trouble of waking me up?"

Julie reached the top of the stairs and waited for the automatic door to open. When it did she was revealed to a new chamber that she'd never seen before. In the middle of the room was a rotating dual portal device. Of course it wasn't just a nice walk away from her, no. It was surrounded by that trademark Aperture Acidic Goo. In each corner of the room was an aerial faith plate and Julie somehow had to get over to one and time a jump which would send her around the room. If she did it at just the right time she'd fly toward the gun at such an angle that she could land on the gun's platform and be able to pick it up. But if her timing was off she'd fly right past the gun and land in the acidic goo.

"I know we haven't gotten around to testing with the aerial faith plates but I'm sure you will find a way to solve this test. You humans. Always so stubborn." The robot paused and watched Julie observe the test. "You know," she said. "The scientists who developed this test threw it away like it was no big deal. They didn't even bother to test it out. They said it was too … dangerous. And you know what? I think I'll prove them right."

Julie spent a good few minutes looking this new test over. The orange portal was near a faith plate which would launch her to the second, to the third, etc. The blue portal was moving every two seconds as it was being shot around the room. It didn't even appear to lead anywhere particularly important but it was probably just to give Julie a limited amount of time. She had to move quickly.

As the gun slowly made its way around one last time Julie quickly played out the scenario in her head. Then came the blue portal.

At the VERY last second she jumped through the portal. The faith plate beneath her launched her forward to the next one. That one shot her at the third which was aimed toward the center, where the gun was, but a little to the right. But that distance made all the difference in the world. She was flying down toward the goo but thankfully the gun's holster turned to the left and she grabbed onto it.

With shaky arms she pulled herself up and looked around. A portal-able surface rose out of the goo so Julie shot the orange portal at the exit door's hallway and jumped down. After placing a quick blue portal beneath her she was at the exit. She really was the boss.

"Good job," GLaDOS said in a very unenthused voice. "You do realize that this is just a warm-up exercise, right? This is just the first one they threw out. We've got hundreds more …"
****
Kaela had just finished the first aerial faith plate test and was going on to the next one when she started wondering where Ian and Julie actually were. Sure they were all in the same game but their ties had been severed. Kaela had died once already by decapitating herself with a laser but when she got to the menu she was expecting to see her friends. Without them with her she actually understood what being Chell was like.

There was no one to talk to but a robot that hates you, you're always being watched, you have no choice but to go through these tests and for what? Only to be killed at the end of the day. Still, Kaela had to keep pushing through. Not only was she sure she'd meet up with her friends but Wheatley was waiting for her up ahead. That was one thing she was sure of.

"Do you want to know the worst part about picking up 15 acres of broken glass?" GLaDOS asked. "I don't have hands."
****
It'd been about ten minutes in that maintenance room but Ian finally finished up tying the last two cords together. He flipped the switch in the upper right-hand corner of the box just like GLaDOS told him and immediately the room got brighter.

"Oh, good. Now you'll be able to see your way through the tests. I think that'd make it too easy though. Maybe you should turn the lights back off …"

Ian laughed and rolled his eyes. He went back to the elevator room and got back inside the same tube he'd taken there. The doors closed quickly and he was pulled up a few floors.

"Good. Now we're at the tests I made myself."

Ian walked into the testing chamber and found himself at the edge of a bottomless pit. The automatic doors slammed shut behind him and to his left an excursion funnel powered up. All in all the 'test' didn't look to difficult. He walked over to the funnel and put his hand inside it. His hand immediately felt weightless and was pulled in the direction that the funnel was moving.

"This one actually wasn't mine. A scientist added it on to my Excursion Funnel Testing Chambers because he said that test subjects needed to get used to the feeling first. I still think it's a useless addition but I haven't had the time to throw it out yet."

Ian jumped into the funnel and found himself spinning around in the tunnel of weightlessness. Once he reached the other side he struggled to get out but he eventually did. The exit door opened and Ian ran giddily toward the next elevator. When he paid for Portal 2 in the GaTED he never expected new tests! This was amazing!

"Also, I just thought I should warn you, you didn't connect all of those wires correctly back in the Central Light Core room. So there are a few test chambers that won't be lit as well as others. I wouldn't worry about it, though. The only pitch black chamber is the one with the crushers but I'm sure you'll do fine."
****
Julie tossed the portal gun onto the ground and lay on the floor panting heavily. She had just avoided two crusher traps, a room filled with live turrets and more acid and lasers than she could keep track of. After running through the entire test and having to think on the go she was exhausted. She did die once in the first crusher room but she didn't give up.

There was one thing that bothered her though. When she died she was alone. Completely alone in the menu. She was so used to having Kaela there to make a smartass comment but she was gone. Julie started to wonder if they were in any real danger but she shook the thought from her mind and continued on.

After all, soon she'd get to hold GLaDOS in the palm of her hand. Literally.