Once upon a time, an angel went to a different reality.
And things were never the same.
Chapter 1
Anomalous Readings
The camera turns on with a click. "Ah, now it's working," GLaDOS thinks, "Test Subject stasis transfer protocols initiated. Room temperature 74 degrees Fahrenheit; abnormally hot." The room is an industrially drab steel box, with an Extended Relaxation Vault stasis-bed along one side. Most of another side of the room is taken up by an about 5-foot wide metallic container that's about 8 feet tall, with a glass front revealing a naked man standing inside in water, in suspended animation. The man inside the container is Caucasian, rather tall, and has blue eyes and unkempt blond hair.
"Scanning neuronal energy. Reading life signs." GLaDOS thinks "Putting Test Subject on record. First name: Hazel. Last name: Huh... that's odd. His last name has been removed from his file. Oh well. I'll put his last name as [REDACTED]." A robot claw moves along a rail on the ceiling of the room toward the container. "Opening Test Subject Hazel's container." thinks GLaDOS, as the seal on the container that Hazel is inside hisses open, and the glass front slides open as water pours out into the room and down a drain in the floor. "Opening stasis-bed." GLaDOS thinks. The stasis-bed's glass cover slides apart to both long sides.
"Error: Test Subject's life signs failing. Error: Test Subject expiring. Test Subject ex-animate." GLaDOS thinks, "Now I have one less Test Subject." She sighs. "Wait. Anomalous readings detected. Neuronal energy observed. Test Subject animate." she says out loud. "That's funny; this new neuronal energy is... different then any I have seen. It's like it comes from a body that has WINGS."
The body that was Hazel's but now contains some unknown neuronal energy collapses to the hard steel floor of the room, landing on its hands and knees. "Hello? Who are you? Will you please tell me your name?" GLaDOS asks. The unknown neuronal energy-containing body emits a musical sentence-like utterance. "OK... I could not understand that. Scanning language centers of the body's unknown neuronal energy." GLaDOS says. "Ah, there we go. Can you understand me now?" she sounds out in the same language that the strange neuronal energy-containing body said.
"Yes, I can understand you." the unknown neuronal energy-containing body says. "What did you say before?"
"I asked what your name is." says GLaDOS.
"Oh. My name is Hazael." Hazael answers. "Where am I?" he asks.
"Ah... That's hard to explain." GLaDOS says. "Before I do that, I'll get you some clothes. Hang on to something."
"Why?" Hazael asks, as the room jolts and starts moving. He walks over to a window in the wall. Outside, offices and large rooms covered in robotic arms are passing by. The rooms covered in robotic arms are on a network of rails criss-crossing a fog-filled expanse. The room Hazael is in is on that network of rails "Also, where are you and what is your name? I can hear you, but I can't see anyone." he asks.
"I am far away, speaking to you though a speaker in the room. You can consider the camera on the wall to be my face, since that's where I'm looking from. My name is GLaDOS." GLaDOS says. She pronounces her name like the name Gladys. The room jerks to a stop, and Hazael stumbles. The room then starts moving sideways, towards an office.
"Wait! Stop! You're going to hit that building!" Hazael yells.
"No, I'm not." GLaDOS says. "I'm going to stop this room next to the office." True to her word, she slows the room, and stops the room a few feet from the office. "Stand back from the wall." Hazael steps back, and a section of wall next to the window in the room folds out and aligns with the end of a catwalk that runs alongside the office. "Follow the catwalk until you reach a door leading into the office. Then go into the office. There should be an assortment of orange jumpsuits and pairs of boots in there. Find some that fit, put them on, and then return to this room."
"Where are you going to take me after that?" Hazael asks.
"I'll explain later, just get the jumpsuit and boots on." says GLaDOS.
Hazael heads along the catwalk to a door. There is a sign painted on the wall in yellow next to it, with gaps in the paint forming what looks like letters to Hazael, but he can't read them. "Also," GLaDOS says, "There should be a pair of glasses on a desk with some implements on it. Put them on as well."
"Why? Are those special glasses?" Hazael asks.
"Actually, they are. They are prototype Aperture Science Augmented Reality Linguistic Translation Glasses. They should let you read any written words." GLaDOS explains.
"That sounds very useful!" Hazael exclaims.
"They should be." GLaDOS says "Now, find a jumpsuit and pair of boots that fit, put on the glasses, and come back to the room you left."
Hazael heads into the office, first passing through a room with desks to a room with shelves lining the walls with jumpsuits and boots on them. He finds a jumpsuit and pair of boots that fit, and then returns to the rooms with desks and finds the glasses, which have blue and orange lights running along the arms of them. He puts them on, and the writing on a piece of paper on the desk is copied by glowing white lines that seem to hover in front of the paper, which shift to be in Seraphic. The title on the paper reads "Aperture Science Augmented Reality Linguistic Translation Glasses: A Boon to Employees Who Cannot Read English." Hazael comments, "Well, that's very useful." and then heads out the door. When he looks at it, the writing on the sign next to it gets copied and shifted in the same way, and reads "Secondary Test Subject Supplies and Linguistic Research." He then heads back to the room he came from.
"Oh good!" says GLaDOS, "You are clothed and have the glasses. I should explain something: Those boots you're wearing are Aperture Science Long Fall Boots. With proprietary inertial dampening technology they stop the wearer from being hurt by falling, as long as the wearer lands on their feet. They will save your life in the future."
"OK, that's good to know. Why do I need those Long Fall Boots?" asks Hazael.
"Well... Let's just say that you are going to be tested on your problem solving abilities, and some of those tests involve falling very long distances." GLaDOS says. "Let me guide you to where I need you to go to. Follow the catwalk outside in a straight line. You will approach a room with robotic arms on the left side of the catwalk and a glass tube going up on the other side of the catwalk. Follow the catwalk up the stairs heading to the left, and go in the door, take a look out the window, then go back out and continue up the stairs. Then keep on the catwalk until it ends, with no railing at the end. I will give you further instructions then."
"OK." Hazael says, "Let me do that." He proceeds down the catwalk. Soon the room comes into he sight, with more similar rooms above and below and to the sides, all connected by catwalks and glass tubes and metal hallways. He goes up the stairs to the left, ignoring the stairs to the right, which lead to another door.. Inside the room GLaDOS mentioned there are a couple of desks with chairs at them and cups and clipboards on them. Outside the window of the room, which looks into the larger room it's in, there is a white-tiled room with a smaller glass-walled room with an Extended Relaxation Vault stasis-bed, a table with a radio a cup and a clipboard on it, and a toilet inside. There are a pair of vertical bars sticking out of the wall of the white-tiled room opposite the window and an identical pair inside the glass-walled room on a piece of white tile. There is a door that looks like it would split in half to open, with a stick-figure man running to the left on it on the left of the white-tiled room. Hazael proceeds back onto the catwalk, noting the sign on the outside reads "Basic Portal Test Course Test Chamber 00 Observation Room 01," and heads up the stairs more.
When he reaches the end of the catwalk, GLaDOS says "Well, here we go. Starting the Basic Portal Test Course with Test Subject Hazael." The roof of the room opens in front of the end of the catwalk. "Hazael, jump in." she says.
"OK," Hazael says, "I will." He does so, and lands in the glass-walled room. "Now what?" he asks.
"The portals will open and testing will begin in 3... 2... 1..." GLaDOS says, and the vertical bars power up with a hum. Ovoids of energy appear between them; the one inside the glass-walled room is orange, while the one in the white-tiled room is blue. Hazael looks through the one in the room he's in and see himself looking at himself!
"Uh... what." Hazael says. "That's very interesting, but what is it?"
"That," GLaDOS says, "is a pair of portals. They connect two regions of space together. Step though and see." Hazael does so, and walks up to the room he was just inside.
"WOW! That's amazing!" Hazael exclaims. He go back and forth through the portals a couple of time, and then proceeds to the door he saw earlier out the observation room window, which he can see. As he approaches the door, a small center part rotates 180 degrees and the door slides open, splitting in half. He enters the room beyond, which has a wall partially angled at 45 degrees. A portion of the floor protrudes half a foot into the room, upon which there is a round red platform, which has a trail of blue dots running along the floor leading to a blue sign with an "X" on it on the left of another door in the wall. The door has the same running stick-figure like on it, which is also on a white sign above the door. On the left of the door there is a device protruding from the ceiling. The bottom of the device irises open and an about 2.5 to 3 foot side length cube falls to the floor. The cube has circular blue light panels on it, surrounding the center of each side. The center of each side has the aperture part of the Aperture Science logo on it.
GLaDOS says, "The round red thing is an Aperture Science Heavy-Duty Super-Colliding Super Button, or 'button' for short. The cube is an Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube, or 'cube' for short. Please put the cube on the button to exit this first room." Hazael does so, and the lights on the cube, the dots, and the sign on the left of the door turn orange, and the door opens. "Good!" GlaDOS says, "The energy field between the two emitters on the other side of the door is an Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid, or 'fizzler' for short. It will vaporize most Aperture Science equipment that touches it, for example, a cube." Hazael continues through the fizzler and into a large round room walled with a screen, and with a glass tube in the center. An elevator stops level with the floor and opens. Hazael gets inside, and it goes up.