A/N: I tried my best to write a prologue for Portal. I love this game! It's a mind game but so much fun! And I got inspired by Portal 2. Well, I tried to be as accurate as possible. I am sorry of something is amiss.

Portal: Prologue

Aperture science facility

It was a beautiful day for 'Bring Your Daughter To Work Day'. It was a fair where the workers finally get to show them around and participate in activities. Young girls around their early teens were excited, while the older ones were only interested in what their parents did for a job. Their fathers/mothers enjoyed it at least. They got time off work, of course. Their boss enjoyed it even more, hoping perhaps to recruit one of the girls to work at the facility one day.

Everyone appeared to enjoy themselves all except for one particular girl. Her name was Chell. She only came to the place because she hoped that maybe her father would pay attention to her but instead arrived at a facility with giggly girls. Her mother insisted she go because her father was looking forward to the day. Chell knew he was just going to break another promise as usual. It all started when her father received that promotion two years ago. His boss never let him off on vacation or to spend with his daughter. His time was devoted to work only.

She rarely saw him at home and lived with the constant broken promises. Why did she want to live through another one?

Chell sighed, trying not to look too miserable. He was trying at least. But she hadn't seen him around yet.

The presentation went on for at least another twenty minutes. Chell's eyes were busy glaring at the clock, trying to drown out the presenter's voice. Maybe her father had an important assignment to do and couldn't make it. She wanted to stop worrying but… the promise he made. Was that not important to him at all? Did anything matter to him anymore? Or only care for this facility?

"And that ladies, is the history of the Aperture science facility," said the man, some employee in the facility. He started coughing suddenly, and pounded his chest. "Sorry, I think something went down the wrong pipe."

Everyone in the classroom left and moved on to the next. Chell didn't want to leave. She wanted to find her father. She decided to ask the man who presented, but he shrugged, not having a single clue where he might be. I knew I should not have come here,she thought, sadly as she exited the room.

"Chell! There you are!" she heard a familiar voice. She looked up to find her father smiling at her.

She nearly jumped, surprised to see her father suddenly there out of nowhere. "Where were you?" she asked in an annoyed tone.

Her father shrugged it off like he didn't know that his own daughter only wanted to spend time with him. "You know, work."

She wanted to say that had been his excuse for over two years, but her mouth didn't open to say them. "What now?"

"Well, I get to show my daughter around," her father said, while smiling. "I promised you, didn't I?

Yes he did. So far, things were starting to look for the better but Chell still found the facility creepy in more ways than one. For one, she had no idea what the place was even for unless her father told her, which was highly unlikely. He told her he had a surprise for her. Chell started to shiver, as they entered deep into the place. Something felt wrong. The whole way the facility functioned seemed futuristic like. Almost like it was built for an experiment.

Her father even acted different than usual. He smiled at her and told her how amazing she was. Chell wished she did not feel scared. Her conscience ordered her to turn around because there would be no turning back once she entered the laboratory. Just stay calm. It's only a building. Nothing more.

Her father showed her something called Portals. He said it was secret, and certain people could test it out. Chell wasn't surprised but why portals? Wasn't that kind of over the top for a science facility?

"This," he said. Behind the glass of his laboratory, a male came out of an automatic door. "Is the obstacle course. The man over there is holding what we call portal gun."

The male was in some sort of strange room. There was a cube at the end of the room and then a button in the middle. He shot what looked like a blue portal underneath the cube, and then a yellow portal above the button. The cube instantly fell on the button and opened the door to continue. Chell had not seen anything like it before.

"So that's the test subject?" Chell asked, curiously.

He nodded. "Yes."

"What for?"

"We want to see how far this Portal experiment can go. Some of the experiments are successful while others aren't so much." Chell waited patiently for him to speak more. "But others failed." She wondered where he was going with this. Her father's eyes were somewhat maddening. "You need to meet the A.I. here."

Artificial Intelligence.

Her father pressed a button on the control board. "GlaDOs. Say hello."

A mono-tone robotic female voice piped up. "New guest, sir?" the A.I asked politely.

"This is my daughter, GlaDOs," he replied, bringing Chell forth.

"Oh, this is her," GlaDOs said as if she were expecting her. "Nice to meet you, Chell."

Chell raised a black-haired eyebrow. "You know my name?"

"I told her a lot about you," her father said.

"Did you try any cake?" the A.I wondered.

Weird question. Chell shook her head. "Um, no," she said, "why would I want to eat imaginary cake? It's only to lure you into a trap."

"Smart daughter you have, sir."

Even though Chell could not see it, she sensed a smirk behind the A.I's words. Her father wanted her to see the rest of the place. So far, the facility surpassed a lot of theories. The whole portal thing? People thought it was a mere myth, but if it worked out the portals could potentially be used for good. Her father explained he wanted to try sending people to the moon, safely of course. The whole tour felt out of place. She felt he was not talking about everything truthfully. She knew that. Even if he was showing her around, it was slightly off. Chell couldn't explain why, and it was not a bad feeling. Her father's intentions… what were they?

That A.I following them around seemed to know everything too. A little too much. Did the test subjects volunteer or were they forced to do it?

The whole science facility seemed too secretive to allow someone to see a lot. So he trusted her, was that bad? Her teachers did not consider her normal as far as intelligence went. She was definitely smarter than most kids her age but that did not mean she got friends because of it. She ignored their stupid snide remarks which pissed them off even more and gave her a nickname. The silent one.It didn't matter. Her intelligence got her out of messy situations. Chell still tried to decide whether or not she was in a trap, or her father just loved her and wanted her to see what he did for his job.

"Chell, we don't spend enough time together," her father began, once they returned to his office. "As a father I have definitely failed." She almost wanted to agree with him. Her father looked serious though so she decided to let him speak. "I wish I could explain everything… except I can't."

Chell shrugged. She gave up a long time ago when he did not show up for the eighth time to her science fair. "It's okay," was all she could come up with. Her father raised an eyebrow in surprise since she put up a fuss coming to this place. "You're a busy man…"

Her father refused to hear such an answer. "I'm sick. We need to spend more time." Sick? Chell did not remember her father mentioning any illness. Her mother never said a word about it unless she did not want Chell to know.

"When did you become sick?"

"Beats me," he replied, rather quickly.

Not an answer. Her father knew better than to not give her the answer if he had one. Chell would find out eventually.

"Poisoning," he said. "From testing."

"You should get to the hospital-"

"Can't. This is too important."

GlaDOs interrupted them before the conversation turned into an argument. "Sir, do you want me to execute the plan?"

Chell raised an eyebrow. "What plan?"

Her father nodded. He grabbed something from his desk and hid it in the back. As he came closer to her, he stabbed her in the arm with a needle. "Chell, I apologize in advance for this."

She collapsed onto the cold hard floor, unable to feel anything.