If there was anything Doug P Rattman hated more than anything else, it was portals. He hated them. He hated the gun. He hated the look of them. He hated the noise. And worse of all, he hated the smell. And if there was anything, Doug didn't want to do, was constantly use them with no breaks.

"Here come the test results. Hmmm. Low. But then again, what did you honestly expect? High?"

"Maybe if you stopped putting me down, I would do better"

"You know what I liked about your daughter? She didn't speak. It was very handy, especially since she looked like she wanted to yell swearwords and worse at me sometimes.

"OK, then. Be sad I'm not her. So SHUT UP, YOU F*CKING B*TCH!"

"Point made. You can talk. And let's face it, I can't make this much harder for you. So how about this, YOU ARE FAT AND ADOPTED."

Doug turned and looked, confused.

"I'm neither?"

"I know, but it puts your spirits down. Anyway, I don't pay you to talk, I pay you to test.

Doug looked even more confused.

"You don't pay me. What ARE you on about?"

"I pay you with the knowledge that you have a little less time before you die. Now get on with it.

"Touche" said Doug quietly, and he began testing.

Charla sighed. "You two have been arguing for hours. Just give it a rest already!"

GLaDOS only needed to say one word to that: "No."

Doug sighed. "I have been trying!"

"Oh shut up and test" retorted GLaDOS.

Doug's unknown observer laughed.

"Oh, Doug you have changed since we last met. How could you have fallen into that trap?"
He lit a cigar and took one deep puff.

"This is going to be one fun encounter, that is for sure."

Doug had tested before: but not this with level of difficulty and danger. This test had Turrets, Faith Plates, Lazers and Hard Light Bridges, combined with repulsion and propulsion gels. Doug jumped onto a faith plate, caught a Discouragement Redirection Cube, threw it into place in the lazer's path, and landed on the Hard Light Bridge. He then jumped onto some repulsion gel, straight onto the platform at the finish, with the open door to greet him.

"Very good." GLaDOS had an element of boredom in her voice. "You completed the test. Go on to the next test straight away.

"You don't care that I'm having to risk my life, just to satisfy your little itch"

"No. Of course I don't."

If Charla had eyes, she would be rolling them. She had been listening to them argue for hours, maybe even days. It was getting tiresome already: she annoyed that companion cubes couldn't turn themselves off: it would make the next 60 years much more bearable. She was playing eye-spy all by herself, but it wasn't very interesting.

"I spy with my little optic, something beginning with P," she thought, slowly.
Charla sighed again. "Portal."

"I spy with my little optic, something beginning with H."

Charla suddenly clocked. H? What begins with H?

"Human" she said. She swore she had seen a human through a window. He had gone by the time she realised, but she knew she saw one.

His cover was beginning to be blown.

Doug's companion cube had appeared to have seen him. He just had to hope the companion cube couldn't speak, although he was guessing it could, otherwise Doug wouldn't be carrying the heavy box on his back.

"Oh, Doug. It was a pleasure knowing you before. I hope you have the sense to join me now."

"Doug?"

Doug did not stop and talk.

"Doug!"

"What?"

"I think I saw a human."

"Charla. Really. A human."

"Yes!"

"Down here? In Aperture?"

"Yes!"

"Forgive me, if I don't believe you first time."

They were interrupted by GLaDOS. "Get testing..."

Doug ran into the test chamber, only for his companion cube to be yanked off his back, and above an incinerator.

"Charla!"

"You are starting to get slow. Maybe you need an incentive. Here's one: if you don't complete this test in 3 minutes, your precious companion cube will be incinerated.

Doug was shocked. He quickly looked for the solution. The room had a large number of angled panels, and an aerial faith plate. The idea was to obviously jump on the fait plate, then use the momentum to go through portals and to the exit. Only there were a large number of panels, seemingly all of which required a portal placement to get to the exit.

"That's one minute gone."

Doug couldn't wait any longer. He jumped onto the faith plate, and shot the portals. The complicated placements were a task, but Doug made it over. He smashed his hand onto the button, and Charla was thrown over to his feet.

"Are you alright?" asked Doug.

"Yeah, I think so," replied Charla.

He couldn't wait any longer. He had to act now.

"Hey, up here!"

Doug looked up.

"Kellan?" he said in disbelief.

"Alright, mate. How are you doing? Actually, don't answer that, because it takes up time we need to start RUNNING LETS GO!"