Chapter 8: Escaping Aperture Science

From every direction they looked, rockets were flying at them. They all hopped, skipped, and jumped to avoid them until Chell told them how to avoid them with portals. "I never thought killing people would be this fun. But remember, it's for the betterment of science." SHaDOS said. Three rockets shot in different directions. Raj, Howard, and Leonard all portaled them to hit SHaDOS. "You think that hurts me? Since I became SHaDOS, I've upgraded by defenses." said SHaDOS. "Yeah, we'll see about that." said Penny who still had no idea how to use the portal gun "Chell, portal me up to her."

Chell nodded and shot a portal right in front of Penny and another right in front of SHaDOS. She walked backwards and made a running leap into the portal, propelling her upwards from the other one. For a few seconds, she was at SHaDOS' height and she kicked it with all she had. The Sheldon Core fell off of SHaDOS and all the lights started flickering...and there was no Nosferatu. SHaDOS reverted back to GLaDOS and her defenses went down as well. With all the times she had gotten hit, little by little, she began taking the damage.

GLaDOS began speaking "Thank you for ridding me of the Sheldon Core. I know I tried to kill you once but given your knowledge of science, I wasn't going to do it again. The Sheldon Core, however, wanted to rule Aperture and become the only intelligent being. He was even going to wipe me out at the end. I could read his mind while we were one." Meanwhile, The Sheldon Core that was laying on the floor was completely spazing out "I must be in charge!" it kept saying. Now GLaDOS spoke "If he would stop moving, I'd extract the Sheldon Core's consciousness and place it in his body once more but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen any time soon. Wheatley rolled over to it "Ay, mate. I know how you feel. It's a great feeling to be in charge of this place. Sometimes, it's just too much for a core to handle..." By this point, the Sheldon Core was perfectly still, staring at Wheatley.

Slowly, quietly, and carefully, GLaDOS crept one of her arms closer and closer to the core and knocked it out. Next thing he knew, Sheldon was lying down on the floor, looking up at his friends, Chell, Wheatley, and GLaDOS. "Aww, I was having so much fun being in charge of the facility." Sheldon said. Penny was annoyed. She grabbed her portal gun, shot a portal right underneath Sheldon and what right above him causing him to fall in an infinite loop. The gang went up to GLaDOS and left Sheldon falling.

"Now that we've completed your testing, can we go now?" asked Leonard. "Very well." GLaDOS replied "There's your lift." The elevator came down "I'm sure at least one of you *cough* Chell *cough* will be back but perhaps not. Now that you have friends other than a box...well, I'll let you to it. It's been fun. I wont bother saying goodbye so instead, I'll give you a gift. I'll let you take your companion cube." The companion cube went flying at Chell. She grabbed it. "I'm afraid you wont be able to take your portal guns, however, as they might unravel the fabrics of space-time when used outside of Aperture Science facilities." GLaDOS continued as she took their devices.

They all headed toward the elevator and it started moving up when Penny hit the emergency stop. "I almost forgot!" The elevator started going down again and Penny ran out to where Sheldon was still falling. She asked for the portal gun from GLaDOS one last time and shot her portal on the wall. She held her arms out to catch Sheldon but missed and he hit the ground. Sheldon looked paralyzed with fear. "Try killing us again and next time we wont let you out of your loop." Penny said, pulling Sheldon towards the elevator. She gave the portal gun back to GLaDOS and the elevator started once more. At the top, they were back at the wheat fields. This time, however, they knew were to go.

Sheldon pointed to the entrance and they all opened it. Little by little, one by one, they each started climbing up. Chell made sure that the first one up was the companion cube. Once they were all up, Chell just stared around. This was never how she envisioned Earth, all destroyed and such. What had happened here!