I thought the Adventure Core from the final boss fight went really well with the escape scene and lead-up. So not an original core this time round. Most if not all of the others will be original, just not this one.
/
Chell stepped into the test chamber. As the door sealed behind her, a series of panels folded themselves back over an open space in the floor, finalizing the assembly of the chamber. It didn't look very complicated; there was an aerial faith plate in the center of the room and a portal surface on the ceiling above it, and another portal surface over a ledge at the other side of the room. The rest of the test was probably on the other side of the ledge, she thought. Placing a portal on both surfaces, she stepped on the faith plate and shot up towards the portal on the ceiling... but fell back down, having not reached high enough to slip through the portal to the ledge. But, before she dropped, she heard a voice:
"Well hey there, pretty lady! What's your name?"
Twisting around in midair, she barely caught a glimpse of a personality core seemingly lodged between a set of pipes. Before she could get a better look, or the core could continue, she dropped back down to the ground. The light on the faith plate was flashing yellow, and it didn't respond when she stood on it.
"Well, I'm back." GLaDOS' monotone yet simultaneously taunting voice came back over the speaker system. "The aerial faith plate in here is registering a distress signal. You broke it, didn't you." There was a clicking noise, and then an electronic beep and the faith plate light turned blue. "There. Try it now."
Chell stepped back onto the plate and flew back up towards the portal. Once again, she fell short, but this time she caught a better glimpse of the core. It was not lodged among the pipes, as she'd first thought, but rather its management rail ran parallel to the pipes. Its optic was dark green and its 'pupil' was a slit rather than a circle like some other cores.
"Hello again, beautiful." It said. "So what's a nice girl like you doin' in a place like this?" She fell away before he could complete his sentence, but she did remember enough about normal life to know that that line was incredibly corny. Perhaps, she thought, this was the 'Cliché Core'.
She landed back on the floor of the test chamber. The Faith Plate was broken again. "Interesting." Said GLaDOS laconically. "You seem to have defeated its maximum weight limit. No problem. I'll just add a few zeroes to the end." There was a ticking noise, and the Faith Plate beeped, resetting a second time. "There you go."
Chell stepped back on to the plate, flying into the rafters again, and coming face to face with the core.
"Just can't get enough o'me, eh, darlin'? Yeah, I get that a lot."
Chell pointed at a small hidden speaker in the pipe lattice as she slowed down.
"Oh, are you up against HER? Well, never fear, damsel in distress! I'm Rick, The Adventure Core! Designed for Danger!" The last words were shouted as Chell fell away for the third time. Looking up, she could see him moving as if saying something else, but she was too far away to hear him.
"Impressive, if a little sad." Said GLaDOS. "I guess I'll just lower the ceiling." The portal surface ground into motion, drawing level with the rest of the ceiling and cutting off the 'Adventure' core in the middle of whatever it was he was saying.
/
The door to test chamber 12 hissed open, sparked, and then slammed shut again spasmodically.
"Perfect." Said GLaDOS. "The door's malfunctioning. I guess somebody's going to have to fix that too. No, don't get up. I'll be right back. Don't touch anything."
Chell looked up to a cracked window high up on the wall. As she looked, the 'Adventure' core from test chamber 8 slid into view on a recessed management rail.
"Well hey there, beautiful. You've got me to thank for that little distraction. I just snuck up on that door mainframe and applied a good ol' neck-pinch-"
A large black object flew out of the door behind the core, cutting him off midsentence by flying around him. He shot off randomly down his management rail.
"AGGH! OKAY! OKAY! I JUST FOUND A BIRD'S NEST BACK HERE AND CHUNKED THE EGGS INTO THE CIRCUITRY! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF..." He shot into the opposite hallway and came back a moment later, without the bird. "All right. All right... that was probably one of Her minions or something. Anyway, just ignore that little scene. I'll ninja my way into the robot arm controls or something... I'll probably meet you in about ten test chambers. Oh man! Here she comes! You saw nothing!" He moved back into the hallway, moving in a way that was almost reminiscent of a moonwalk.
GLaDOS' voice came back online. "I went and spoke with the door mainframe. Let's just say he won't be... Well, living anymore."
/
Chell looked out the glass walls of the elevator at the concrete walls enclosing the elevator shaft. Suddenly, the concrete disappeared, revealing the larger mass of Aperture Labs beyond the test chamber walls. And also, somewhat closer, a familiar core on its management rail.
"Hello again, little lady. You holdin' up alright?" he said. "I just karate-chopped my way onto a supervision rail on the nanobot work crew rebuildin' this shaft. Now these nanobots, though, they aren't very smart. They think I'm just like them, yet. But it's any second now that they'll realise I'm the size of a planet to them. Hopefully, I'll be able to apply some well-placed kung-fu and take down this shaft-"
There was a sudden twittering noise.
"No, Jerry. I'm on break, now. I'll have some more epic stories for you later. Anyway, I'll probably have the elevator stuck so you can get out in maybe four, five test chambers. Just giving you an update on that- OW!" Rick twitched. "He hit me!" He stopped on his management rail and started flailing at something Chell couldn't see. "Yeah, that's right, pal. I've got black belts in everything. EVERYTHING. HI-YAH!"
The elevator passed back into the fully covered elevator shaft, cutting off the sound of the Adventure Core.
/
There was a slight musical humming coming from the Hard Light Bridge. Chell pushed the button next to it, gently. The dropper at the far end of the room clicked open, and a weighted storage cube dropped out, coming to rest on the hard light bridge. She walked forwards to pick it up, and the lights (including the bridge) deactivated. With an audible sound of shifting metal, the wall that the hard light bridge had shone on split into panels and moved aside. Rick poked in.
"And here I am! Diving in in the nick of time, right? But enough about that. You should probably run now."
The hard-light bridge flicked on, and Chell followed it to a catwalk. The core shot down its management rail, yelling at Chell to run every couple of seconds.
GLaDOS' voice came over the intercom. "You know the irony is that you were almost at the last test. Here." Panels shifted away from a test chamber nearby. The test was incredibly simple; a dropper sat over a button. The door was on the floor level nearby. The dropper opened, landing a Weighted Storage Cube on the button, and the door opened, revealing what at first looked like a jungle landscape. But as Chell moved to the side, she noticed that the jungle was flat; it was a projection.
"You won't get us this time!" shouted Rick. Chell agreed with him; she didn't know what hidden elements GLaDOS had hidden in this test chamber; knowing her it could be anything from neurotoxin to an emergency intelligence incinerator. She used the conveniently (and probably accidentally) provided Hard Light Bridge to run in the opposite direction towards a catwalk. As she crossed into empty space, the bridge disappeared, dropping her into a conveniently placed catwalk. The Adventure Core did a double take, then doubled back to her level.
They sped down the catwalk, only to come up against a dead end. She looked again, and noticed that beside the catwalk was a narrow space between two test chambers. It was just enough for her to stand up straight.
As she walked in, the robot arms that configured the test chambers buzzed to life and closed off the space between the chambers. With a hiss, three turrets dropped down from above, crisscrossing the chamber with red beams.
"AH! That's not good! Watch out for death traps, hide, or something! I'll chop out an exit for you!" There was a loud clank, followed by Rick: "OW! It's no use, she used some sort of super-hard alloy! Even my lightning kicks can't shatter it!"
Chell kicked a turret in frustration. It fell over, shooting randomly and knocking over one of its fellows. The shooting drew her attention to a support column that rose just next to the test chambers. It was a portal-accepting surface.
She placed a portal on it, only half listening to the core. "Gunfire! That's bad, unless you somehow got a gun. And that's not likely. So, that means you're being shot at! Hide! I'll try to get in and help you!"
She placed a portal on a white surface that could just be seen through the gaps in the panels that enclosed the space. Picking up the last turret, she walked through the portal, landing on another catwalk. She simply dropped the turret over the side.
The Core swung around overhead. "Great! You got out on your own! Not much further now; just run! Come on!"
Rounding a corner, Chell was forced to back away as panels shifted away from a chamber. A single turret was revealed, blocking the path.
"I got this!" yelled the Core. He swung on the management rail, simultaneously disengaging from it and sailing over the gap. He struck the turret, causing it to wobble but not to tip over. "I got him! You run ahead! I'll catch up!" yelled Rick, seemingly unaware of the fact that the turret was still fully operational and had barely even noticed his frankly feeble (though possibly impressive for a personality core) attempt at heroism.
"Ignoring distraction." It said simply, its targeting ray focussed on Chell through a glass pipe.
Rolling her eyes, she placed a portal so that it encompassed both the core and the turret. They fell through, crashing back onto the catwalk some way back. She backtracked, found the core, and put him back on the management rail.
"Well. Thanks for that. We should really get moving now." He looked around. "SHE might come up with another deathtrap at any moment now."
They continued on. As they passed the turret chamber again, there was a loud crashing noise. The test chamber walls were shifting, coming together and erasing catwalks everywhere the eye could see.
"Run! Faster!" yelled Rick in a panicked voice. "I got this!" He spun around on his management rail, shooting ahead and pulling back, never stopping for an instant but stubbornly refusing to go on ahead. Chell stopped at the entrance to an old maintenance lift, waiting for the Core, but at the last second a robot arm lashed out as it fell and severed the management rail. Without support, the rest of the rail bucked like an angry snake.
"Whoa!" yelled the Adventure Core. "Keep going! Quick! You can still make it!" The wheels keeping him adhered to the remains of the rail squealed loudly as his weight overcame their friction and he started to drop into the pit. "Don't forget! You need to get out!"
He dropped. As he fell, though, a cable nearby bucked and rose up, revealing itself as one of GLaDOS' transport claws.
"You are inconceivably annoying." She said calmly over the sound of tearing metal. Chell took a step back and the lift moved up. But the shaft was open; she could see the claw carrying Rick up into the upper areas of Aperture Science. "Still, I won't kill you. You lost me my best test subject; maybe I can find a place for you in the screaming robot room."
/
Right, so there's Rick the Adventure Core. And an actual compliment from GLaDOS, even if it was accidental. Originally I was planning to stick to the original plot of Portal 2 and just swap up the dialog a bit, but I decided there wasn't enough imagination in rewriting what others have already done. So I'll be scrambling things up a bit. More so the further on I get. first I was just going to try to cram all six cores into the part before Wheatley took over, but that would have just been messy, so I'll be putting some other cores in places where you didn't get assistance from wheatley in the original game. Hopefully that will help to fix some problems that I saw in the original version I imagined. Anyway, that's all for now.