Chap. 3
GLaDOS stared at the now ajar door for a few moments before turning around slowly. "Hello, Leo." She smiled, as if she was greeting an old friend. "I see you've gotten an upgrade?" She asked, tilting her head innocently.
Lucifer only frowned. "How did you know that it was me?"
GLaDOS straightened her head, and glowered down at him. "And I see you're… alive. Am I mistaken? So what do you want?" She looked at his feet and noted that the chain was missing.
Lucifer advanced on her. She wasn't shaken. He grabbed her arm. "You know what I want."
GLaDOS narrowed her eyes. She lifted her other arm, activated the shocker device in her glove, and pushed him back on his forehead. She watched him stagger back, shaking a bit. She imagined the electricity coursing through him. It was so powerful she almost thought she saw a few sparks here and there. Until she realized that she could. But it wasn't just at random odds and ends that the energy now sparked from. Leo was as bright as fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Lucifer stood still for a second, not wanting to set off GLaDOS's reflexes, reflexes that wanted to murder everything on their path.
GLaDOS ran through her old voice files. "Have you ever wondered what you'd be when you grow older?" She read. "Well, here it is. Dead," she scowled at him. "Remember that one?"
She reached out at him, slightly touching the wires. He pulled back. "Don't. You. Dare." He jumped away. GLaDOS turned her back to him, hiding a smile. "Fine. I'll let my… Killing machines do the work."
"WAIT! GLaDOS. Look. I… I-"
"Save it for the grave!"
As if perfectly on cue, three winged creatures flew into the room. They were covered in shiny, black feathers, and weren't afraid to show off their sharp beaks. They were about the size of half a baseball bat.
They landed on GLaDOS's shoulders and outstretched arms. She flinched a bit, their sharp claws digging into her skin. She had gotten used to these birds, raising them, almost like they were her children. "These… Creatures, for lack of other words, are called 'Crows'. Their scientific name is 'Corvus'. They are my little killing machines." She lightly stroked the head of one of them. It didn't enjoy it, but tolerated it and crowed loudly, as if it was trying to be as intimidating as it's master. "But, I highly doubt you would call them 'little." She chuckled.
"I. Don't. Mean. ANY. Harm." Lucifer lied as he backed away. The scene was almost hysterical, and he knew that while the birds probably couldn't hurt him too bad, he knew GLaDOS could. He dug his hand into the folds of his grimy lab coat. He felt the barrel of the gun. While he silently debated with himself whether he should kill GLaDOS or the birds, one cyborg walked into the room.
GLaDOS's eyes widened.
"What… What's going on?!" P-body demanded.
Atlas limped in a couple seconds later. He looked from GLaDOS, to the birds, to Lucifer, to P-body. He gasped, then clutched his stomach from the pain.
P-body hurried to his side, supporting his weight.
"Please!" She sobbed, hugging Atlas close. "I- we need to get him to a repair center… or… it's all over…"
"I'm busy," GLaDOS said, too harshly, dodging a swift blow from Lucifer. "Can… can he wait?"
Atlas smiled feebly, nodding slightly. "I'm fine, don't you worry about me."
P-body, not believing that Atlas was going to be perfectly fine, skipped the arguing and nodded.
GLaDOS turned back to Lucifer. "Give up. Or I'll call in the turret defenses."
Lucifer didn't want to die. At least not yet. GLaDOS had turned around to activate the turrets. Now was his chance.
He ran up silently, giving her a hard hit to her head. She recoiled, and took her hand away from the button, onto the back of her head, grimacing. Then, swiftly, Lucifer ran back, right out of the room.
She let him escape. "Mmmgh…" she groaned. "I thought… they were all gone…" She took her hand off of her head. "But he's still alive. I only have one more to kill. One left to go," she snarled.
"GLaDOS?" P-body whispered, her mouth dry as a bone. "We need to go!" She said, louder.
GLaDOS looked back up, not quite knowing if what she said was said out loud. "Yes." She turned back to the control board and activated one of the turrets. "This is Kili. She'll take you there. With that maniac on the loose, it's not safe for me to leave the control room."
"Hello."
"Okay." P-body stood up and helped Atlas with her. He smiled.
"Eugh, get up lovebirds," Kili snorted. "And 'leggo."
The small turret carelessly skipped out of the room, Orange and Blue following behind her.
They went through multiple tunnels, secret entrances, places that neither Blue nor Orange knew about. At a final stop, Kili reached her hand into a shelf on the wall. "Might want this." Though the turret had closed her small hand around it, P-body caught a small glimpse of something shiny.
"Hey, uh…" P-body started. "What's- what's that?" she asked nervously.
"Something," Kili replied, shoving it into the same pocket as her gun was kept.
P-body's eyes grew, the realization hit her. This is a turret. Those might be- no. GLaDOS would never leave them with someone dangerous… Would she?
P-body pulled Atlas along with her, down a short hall. There were four rooms, each marked as a repair room.
"Which one?" P-body asked, uncertain that Kili would know the answer.
"Mommy said that it's this one," Kili said, pointing to room four.
"Mommy?" P-body asked. "Is that what you call GLaDOS?"
Kili nodded, pushing the door open. The door complained, yelling at the people that had pushed it open after all these years.
P-body lugged Atlas onto the tiny bed inside. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh as a scanner scanned him.
Kili opened the door again. "Maybe you shouldn't watch… it's kinda… um, stress inducing…"
P-body slid out of the doorway. "He'll be okay, right?"
"Probably…" The mumble came from the tiny turret, sliding down and sitting on the floor. She turned away from P-body and took out a laser knife and small chunk of metal. Orange watched her fumble with the two objects.
She turned away as well. She could hear scanner sounds, and laser sounds, and slight breathing notifying her that Atlas was still alive.
"I never thought of GLaDOS as my mother," P-body said.
"But, technically she is," the turret replied. "She built you too."
Nearly an hour passed, and Orange felt like she had been watching grass grow, the steady click of the second hand on-the-job clock, before Kili turned to P-body, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, lookit." P-body swiveled around to look at Kili.
Kili held up the piece of metal, but this time, it was a surprise, a little minifigure.
Kili laughed lightly, and placed the metal in P-body's hand. P-body looked at it closely, admiring the detail that could have only been achieved by the careful hand of a turret.
"Th-thank you!" P-body smiled.
Kili shoved her laser knife back into her pocket. "You know what it is, right? It's one of the earliest models of Blue, y'know, before Mommy made you two into cyborgs," Kili said proudly. Then she frowned again. "We should get back, before Mommy thinks that we're dead, too. Heh… Sorry, he's… probably not gonna die." Kili looked into the window of the room. "But… it might be… well, uh… a few days…"
"Whatever it takes, I guess." P-body got up.
Walking past all the strange exits and entrances, they finally returned to the control center where GLaDOS was pushing and prodding at panels along the wall, making sure each one was intact. "Don't wanna let him get here though the walls, heh," she said to herself, not noticing that anyone was there. Her hair was tangled, and her eyes had barely any glow in them.
"GLaDOS?" Kili asked. "Are you… okay?"
GLaDOS jumped, accidently kicked the wall, and then fell backwards, like a clown with giant shoes trying to walk a tightrope.
"Fine! I'm all fine."
"GLaDOS?" P-body asked, "How long has it been since you've been in sleep mode?"
"A while." GLaDOS crossed her arms. "But, I'm perfectly fine. Maybe my chip needs a reboot, but that takes seconds."
She walked out of the room. Kili and P-body watched awkwardly as she tripped over a wire. "Fine! I'm fine."
A few minutes later, she came back into the room, perfect and refreshed.
"Sorry about that. I was a little tired, that's all."
"Sooo…" P-body said. Her orange eyes shone with curiosity at GLaDOS's next words. "Will I get to run the regular testing courses?"
Even GLaDOS hadn't thought of that. "The regular courses?" Those were not good. Those were too easy, they were meant for humans. "Those… how about the bonus courses I made, the ones not involving portals? Remember those?"
"Those are cooperative courses. Who would I do it with? You?" P-body asked sarcastically.
"It's my big chance!" A voice said, coming from a tube. It was coming closer.
"Oh?" P-body asked. "Who-wh…"
Someone fell out of the tube. A black hoodie and a mischievous smile that meant definitely not cooperating, two, small, bent out of shape antenna, flickering eyes. Very. Very. Annoying voice.
"AGH! NOT YOU!"
"Defective here volunteers. If you have any questions, please ask them now."
"Just one. WHY HIM?!"
"Well, all the other working turrets are already stationed, and he actually wants to help." GLaDOS reached over and bent the antenna back straight.
"I CAN HEAR AGAIN! IT'S A MIRACLE!"
"Yeah, but he…" P-body swallowed the exasperation building up in her throat, trying to take control of her words. "Can't you pause testing for a few days? A-and what about Kili?" Kili shook her head violently.
"Sure I can pause testing," GLaDOS shrugged. "But can you?"
"Of course… I… can…" she said slowly. Was this a trap?
"Then it's all settled!" GLaDOS clapped her hands and turned around.
"Okay. I'm not testing. Easy."
She headed back, through the tangle of hallways towards the repair center. She put her hand on the door, thought for a moment, and pushed the door open. Atlas was sleeping, but must have been awake earlier, because he had cleaned up some of the room. He couldn't help it; whenever things were messy, it bothered him. She sighed and put the tiny ATLAS bot figure on the table next to him and headed back through the mess of hallways that even Atlas couldn't clean up.
The walked and walked until she found the chamber. This chamber wasn't a testing chamber, but more of like a bedroom. It was only for resting or sleeping, or when GLaDOS was busy and couldn't function the testing chambers.
Inside one of the little cubbies disguised as power outlets on the wall, held a small tablet, a little screen, and the only window she's ever found to the outside world.
As she ran through the pictures again, she saw what she always saw. But even though it was the same every time, it always danced with the same emotions. Awe, wonder, amazement.
Oceans, big blue masses of flowing water. And then there was the beaches; the warm sand, the waves. Jungles were home to many types of animals and were thick with trees and vines. Forests were also filled with trees, and were home to lots of birds. The plains were flat and wide and seemed like it went on forever. One of the photos presented a wheat field, not unlike the field outside of one of the gateways into the labs. Seeing all these places struck her with the same thought every time.
Aperture Science Labs were big, huge, colossal even. But Earth was bigger and her home was just a fraction of it.
Then she knew: she wanted to see it in person. But not alone.