Bombs.
It was bombs that were going off. Good, at least know I know what that noise is, GLaDOS thought. Although Wheatley had said in his 'four-part plan' that he was going to be using bombs, she didn't think he would actually be able to find where the bombs were stored, and now that he had, it was making quite a racket. It was also shaking her around in the Core Transfer Module, which she did not appreciate.
She only hoped that the test subject would be able to take down that idiot. GLaDOS had no doubt in her mind that she could, of course, but considering the things that had happened in the last 48 hours or so, she no longer knew what could happen.
Did she have a plan? Somewhat. Now that she was hooked up to the Core Transfer Module, she had rudimentary control over some parts of Aperture. One of said controls was being able to operate several Aperture Science Multitasking Arms, which she was going to use in her plan. Although all Behavior Regulatory Cores had been removed from her chassis, the ports to connect them were still there. If she could move some corrupt cores into the Central AI Chamber, hopefully the test subject would get the message and try to attach them. It was worth a shot, anyway. The only problem now was that in order to attach a Behavioral Core, the Central Core needed to be in sleep mode. The only two ways to get the Central Core into sleep mode are either putting itself into sleep mode, or stunning it.
Now that GLaDOS knew that Wheatley had indeed found the bombs, however, hopefully he would be a little reckless and wind up stunning himself. She did a brief calculation to figure out the odds of this happening, and they were even smaller than the odds of them getting into here in the first place. Oh well, she thought. The odds of me being able to stop the test subject from escaping were 75 to 1, and she did it anyway.
It looked like she was right about that, because just then GLaDOS felt a shudder, and she was getting readings that the Central Core was in sleep mode. Here we go, she thought as she moved an arm into the bin of corrupted cores. She picked up one with a yellow optic that kept going on about space. Finding a hole in the wall, she moved the arm in.
"Good work! I'm delivering the first core up near the catwalk! Grab it and attach it to him!" She said. GLaDOS didn't know if her voice was loud enough to be heard inside the Main AI Chamber, but she deemed it worth a try anyway.
In a few moments, she felt another shudder, and heard Wheatley power back up.
"Wha- what happened? What- what have you put onto me? Oh, it's a core!"
Good, GLaDOS thought. At least she knew what to do.
GLaDOS didn't know how many cores were needed to corrupt him enough for a core transfer, but there were four ports installed on the chassis for cores, so hopefully it would be enough.
"Who told you to put a core on me, anyway? Was it her? It's just makin' me stronger, luv! It's a fool's errand!" Wheatley said from inside the chamber.
After about two more minutes, another shudder went throughout the room, and GLaDOS saw some panels snap off their rail and fall. The facility was going to come apart, and soon. They needed to hurry.
She moved her Multitasking Arm back into the core storage bin and picked up another, this time a green-eyed sphere who was sputtering some nonsense about 'getting into a new adventure'. GLaDOS moved the arm back into the AI Chamber, but through a different hole this time, since the old one had caught on fire. After about a minute, she felt the core getting grabbed from the arm, and then felt an even greater shudder run throughout the facility.
"ENOUGH! I told you not to put these cores on me. But you don't listen, do you? Quiet. All the time." Wheatley began babbling about how he had tried to make things better for him, and GLaDOS tuned him out. She needed to focus on getting the third core into the room. From what she could see using the cameras she had access to, there were entire sections of the AI Chamber on fire, and although the arms she was using could withstand heat of up to 4,000 degrees Kelvin, the cores, unfortunately, could not. They were much more fragile, and these were corrupted. After about two minutes of looking, she found a very small hole in the ceiling. Getting it through there would be a challenge, but it seemed like the only place left open that's not on fire.
Yet another shudder struck, and this time GLaDOS nearly dropped the core. She managed to hold onto it, though, this time a pink-eyed one who claimed to be a 'fact sphere'. She didn't know how many of the facts he was saying were true, though. She would look into that.
Just after she had gotten the core through, there was another great shudder, this time caused by an entire line of test chambers collapsing. For several moments, GLaDOS thought the test subject had died from the shudder, because the core was not grabbed. But at the last second, she felt the core snatched from the arm.
Several shudders and crashes followed, and Wheatley once again powered back up.
"AAAAAAAAGH! YOU HAVE BEEN A THORN IN MY SIDE FOR LONG ENOUGH!" He screamed with atrocity.
"Warning: Core corruption at 100 percent," the Announcer stated.
"Oh! I see," Wheatley said.
"Manual core replacement required. Substitute core, are you ready to start the pro-"
"YES, COME ON!" GLaDOS shouted, who had been moved with the Core Transfer Module up to the AI Chamber.
"Corrupted core, are you ready to start the procedure?"
"What do you think?" Wheatley said, voice heavy with sarcasm.
"…Interpreting vague answer as yes," said the Announcer, who had not been programmed to interpret sarcasm.
"NO, NO NO NO!" screamed Wheatley. "Didn't pick up on my sarcasm…"
"Stalemate detected."
Just then a massive wall of fire erupted near the far wall.
"Fire detected in the Stalemate Resolution Annex. Extinguishing…" the Announcer said as the Aperture Science Fire Extinguishing Water Dispension Modules were activated and the fire was put out. "Stalemate Resolution Associate: Please press the Stalemate Resolution Button."
The test subject looked over to a puddle of conversion gel that had remained on the floor. She shot a portal at it, turned, and began to walk towards the recently opened Stalemate Resolution Annex. "Go press the button, go press it!" GLaDOS said with apprehension.
"DO NOT PRESS THAT BUTTON!" Wheatley said from above her, inside the chassis.
"We're so close, go press the button!"
"NO! DO NOT DO IT! I FORBID YOU TO PRESS IT!"
It was too late, though; the test subject had made it to the annex and had shot a portal inside. She walked back to the portal underneath Wheatley and jumped in. As she approached the button, GLaDOS prepared herself for the agonizing pain of a core transfer, and also the sweet satisfaction of being put back into her old body…
A loud boom from across the room jolted her out of her thoughts.
"PART FIVE! BOOBY TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!"
No.
They had come this close, they and made it all the way up from the sealed off portions of Aperture, all the way through that little idiot's tests, all the way here, to be shut down by a BOMB exploding in the human's face?! GLaDOS cursed how fragile humans were.
But then something happened. The test subject moved from where she was crumpled on the floor, and sat up. She gripped the Portal Device and turned around.
"What, are you still alive? You are joking! You have got to be kidding me," Wheatley said as a few ceiling panels clattered down, letting pale moonlight stream into the room. "Well, I'm still in control… and I have NO IDEA how to fix this place."
Wait. Moonlight. That was it! SHOOT IT AT THE MOON! GLaDOS tried to scream, but the Aperture Science Core Transfer Dedicated Multitasking Arms were already disassembling her and putting her back into her old core. It wasn't much use now, though, if the button wasn't pressed. She wouldn't be able to be attached to the chassis.
"Oh, you had to play bloody cat and mouse, didn't you? While people were trying to work. Well, now we're all gonna pay the price, 'cause we're all gonna bloody di-" Wheatley was cut off by the sound of a portal being shot from the device.
Yes!
The small blue sphere of energy launched from the gun, and went through the roof, and up, and up, and up, until…
Time seemed to go in slow motion. GLaDOS saw the portal flash and change below Wheatley, and then it was displaying the moon, and gravity was kicking in. The portal began to suck with the power of a vacuum, and it sucked him in with it. But it also sucked the test subject.
Ding. The core transfer was done, and GLaDOS was back in her core, but unfortunately, not on the chassis. Wheatley was still connected.
"SPACE! WE'RE IN SPACE!" He was just dangling by a few cables. If she could just angle a Multitasking Arm inside there…
"Let go! I'm still connected! I can pull myself in! I can still fix this!" Wheatley said frantically.
"I already fixed it." Her voice was back, and not the old, strange sounding voice she was forced to use due to the terrible speakers on the potato battery. This was her real voice. "And you are NOT coming back!" She said as she snapped the remaining cables keeping Wheatley connected to the facility.
He flew off, and at once, she was connected with everything again. She could see every catwalk, every cave, every test chamber… she moved the Multitasking Arm to bring it back through the portal, when she remembered something.
Chell.
GLaDOS had promised the test subject that if she helped her take down Wheatley, she would het her go. Well, technically, getting thrown out into space is getting out of Aperture… she thought. She went back to moving the arm back through the portal, when she felt something. It was an awakening inside her, a feeling in the back of her head that was taking over, and it was so… human.
GLaDOS knew at once what it was. Now that she knew where she came from, she couldn't ignore it. Caroline was in her too.
The human instincts that Caroline brought with her kicked in, and GLaDOS moved the Multitasking Arm to grab Chell's arm. When she was sure she had a secure grip, she pulled her in.
She heard the portal zap, and then it closed. The portal device was in space now, and it had lost it's range to Aperture. GLaDOS set Chell down and went about trying to get her core back onto the chassis. As she did so, she heard the Announcer say one last thing:
"Stalemate Resolved."