The sun was beginning to set as GLaDOS and Chell reached the outskirts of the Research Facility. The Enrichment Shaft and subsequent exit had deposited the two perhaps six miles away from the Escape Lift.
"Stop." GLaDOS said suddenly. Chell leaned the ASHPD against a wall and rubbed her sore arm. The former Test Subject quirked an eyebrow, but otherwise ignored the supercomputer. "Listen," the Aperture machine insisted.
Chell glanced at GLaDOS. "What is it?"
"You can't hear it?"
"Can't hear what?" Chell asked. She cocked her head and listened, but only heard the wind whistling through the trees.
GLaDOS rolled her eyes. "The human auditory system really leaves a lot to be desired." Gesturing down at the Facility, the Android continued, saying, "The optic of an Aperture Science Turret runs on a thermal battery. A thermal battery is a type of battery that use molten salts like sodium as an electrolyte that operates at temperatures in excess of 400° Celsius. These batteries are efficient enough to power full-sized vehicles, so it was the natural choice for the power supply for the Turrets. However, as a side result of the high temperatures, the Turrets' optics give off a high-pitched squeal, around 28,000 Hertz, well over the audible range for humans. Fortunately, this body has a hearing range of over 50,000 Hertz."
Chell's eyes glazed over at GLaDOS's over-explanation. "Run that by me again, only in English this time."
GLaDOS sighed, glaring at Chell. "The Turrets use a hot battery. The hot batteries make a noise. I can hear the noise. There are two Mobile Turrets coming this way. Is that simple enough for you to comprehend?"
Chell nodded. "Yeah… Wait. There are Turrets coming?"
"Of course." GLaDOS pressed up against the side of the building. As if on cue, two of the Black Mesa constructs passed the wall, scanning the area.
Chell froze. GLaDOS, however, did the exact opposite. Waiting for the first Turret to pass, she leapt out at the second, grabbing the machine by its arms. The Turret let out a robotic shriek of synthesized pain as the Android literally ripped the Turret's guns from it sides. The leading Turret could only watch as GLaDOS wrenched its comrade's weapons from its body. Turning on the other Turret, GLaDOS fired, filling the machine with nearly two dozen bullets in less than two seconds.
The Black Mesa machines fell to the ground, electricity sparking off their broken circuits.
GLaDOS grabbed Chell's arm. "Come on. That probably set off a dozen or so alarms. This place will be full of Mobile Turrets in two and a half minutes. We need to find the Moron."
Chell nodded, glancing at the disabled Turrets as the two women fled the scene. GLaDOS led them into a small building, nearly dislocating Chell's arm in the process. The building must have been a lab from the Research Facility, for several computers lined the white walls.
"Thank God." Dropping Chell's arm, GLaDOS switched on the monitor and began typing furiously. "Guard the door. Don't let anything through," the Android ordered, not looking up from the blue screen. Chell complied, sealing off the entrance by stacking a desk next to the door.
"What are you doing?" Chell asked, picking up the dismembered gun that was once attached to the Mobile Turret. Looking it over, she accidentally pulled the trigger on the underbelly of the device. "Jesus!" she shouted as the sensitive mechanism spat out several rounds of ammunition.
"Damn it, Chell, watch what you're doing!" GLaDOS shouted. "Save it for the Turrets!" She returned her attention to the computer, fingers flying over the keyboard. "I'm trying to hack the security system. If I can make it past the firewall, I should be able to identify the Moron's location." She typed another line of code before continuing. "Luckily for us, this security system was designed by a bunch of neophyte Black Mesa employees. It shouldn't take me too long to-"
A metallic thunk! interrupted the Android's explanation. Chell tightened her grip on the Turret's gun, turning to face the door. "I think they found us," Chell said.
"Well, we'd better hope that door holds," was GLaDOS's short reply.
Thunk!
"Something tells me we're not going to be so lucky," Chell glanced nervously at GLaDOS, who momentarily paused to take stock of the door.
"Since when have either of us ever been lucky?"she asked, once more attempting to hack into the computer. "Let's see. You were captured during 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day', and were held at Aperture for over a decade until you matured enough for testing. When you did, you escaped Test Chamber 19 and began vagabonding about the Enrichment Shaft until you managed to make your way to me, whom you promptly murdered."
Thunk!
"After slaughtering me and violently dumping my remains into an Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator, you were, I assume, reclaimed by a Party Escort Bot and brought to an Extended Relaxation Vault, where you slept for well over two hundred years before waking and setting off to kill me once again."
"To be fair," Chell interrupted, "I wasn't trying to kill you when Wheat – when the Moron woke you up. I was just trying to get out."
"Irrelevant. So, you teamed up with the Moron and somehow managed to overthrow me. Then, as you well know, he decided to transfer me into a potato and send the both of us down into Old Aperture."
Thunk!
"Then-"
"Okay! I get it! We're not lucky! I get the concept!" Chell shouted, throwing a pointed glare in the direction of GLaDOS, who only chuckled. "Are you done with yet?" she asked, gesturing to the computer.
"Very nearly. I've made it into the mainframe, now all that's needed is to locate Him…" the Android trailed off, her gaze returning to the computer screen.
Thunk!
"Got him! He's in Wallace Breen's office. Main Laboratories, Top Floor." GLaDOS stood, searching the room for an alternate exit. Eyeing the ventilation shafts, she leapt onto a desk and pried open a metal grate. "Come on! We can reach him through here!"
Chell nodded, glancing once more at the door.
Thunk!
"I still can't believe the door held," Chell said, joining GLaDOS atop the desk.
Thunk!
CRACK! The door flew off its hinges, revealing dozens – if not hundreds – of Mobile Turrets, guns at the ready.
"…"
"I hate you so much right now," GLaDOS deadpanned.
The Turrets opened fire.
GLaDOS wrapped her arms around Chell and spun so her body was between Chell's and the Mobile Turrets. The sound of hot metal meeting flesh soon filled the air as the bullet after countless bullet struck the Android. Diving off the desk, Chell still wrapped in her arms, GLaDOS landed behind a heavy table, which she quickly overturned, creating a barrier between them and the Turrets.
One that would not last long, if at all.
Swearing, GLaDOS relinquished Chell's hold on Turret's gun, standing up from the makeshift shelter to fill several of the Black Mesa machines with lead. Despite the grave circumstances, an old Aperture advertisement for the Turrets swam to the front of her mind. "We fire the whole bullet! That's sixty-five percent more bullet per bullet!" GLaDOS took cover, dropping down behind the table. She winced at the sound of ammunition ricocheting off the metal table.
"Wh-What do we do?" Chell asked, huddling against the table.
"We're going to have to fight our way to the Moron. He's in Wallace Breen's office. The headquarters of this entire facility. There should be a way to shut down the Turrets from there. No, there will be a way, even if it means having to destroy every single one of these abominations by hand."
Chell nodded.
GLaDOS grabbed a line of metal pipe – possibly a part of the plumbing system, long out of commission due to years without maintenance – and passed the Turret's weapon to Chell. "What are you doing?" The former test subject asked.
GLaDOS grinned. "Cover me."
Chell could only watch as the Android kicked at the table with both feet. The table skidded towards the wave of Mobile Turrets, crushing several of the metallic constructs. GLaDOS leapt into the swarm of Turrets, a savage roar escaping her lips.
Looking back on the scene, Chell would best describe it as something one would see in an action movie. Images superimposed onto each other that, put together, hardly seemed real. In one moment, GLaDOS was here, wrenching the guns from a Turret as she had earlier, a second later, she was across the room, decapitating a Mobile Turret with one swing of her pipe. The Android moved impossibly fast. The Mobile Turrets really didn't stand a chance. GLaDOS rammed the pipe straight through the optic of one Turret. Now weaponless, she turned to the next machine and grabbed it. Using the Turret itself as a bat, she spun in a circle, knocking the Turrets surrounding her to the floor, where they were promptly dispatched. GLaDOS then hurled the Turret in her arms at the nearest wall, where it exploded in a shower of sparks.
GLaDOS returned to the Turret she had blinded with her metal pipe. Grabbing the length of metal, she yanked upwards, effectively tearing it out from the automaton. She inspected the steel cylinder, running her hand along the cool metal. Finding it satisfactory, she turned to Chell, who hadn't moved since GLaDOS had kicked the table.
"You… You just…"
"Singlehandedly dispatched perhaps forty separate Mobile Turrets within five minutes of each other?" she smirked when Chell nodded slowly. "Well, don't worry. There will be plenty more where we're headed." Gesturing for Chell to follow her, she continued. "There's no point in trying to be discreet anymore."
Chell stepped over the still-sparking corpse of a Mobile Turret. "You call this being discreet?"
"Ha-Ha. Very funny. As I was saying, He knows we are here. We may as well attempt a frontal assault on his position. A storming of the metaphorical gates, as it were."
Chell left the Turret's gun behind. It was out of ammunition, and would only slow her down. "I guess so…" her hand drifted lazily to the handgun still tucked in her jumpsuit.
"No need to worry, Chell. I doubt the Moron will be heavily guarded. I estimate only ten, perhaps twenty Mobile Turrets will be guarding his hideout. Soon enough, the Moron will be dead. Just you wait."
"If you say so," said the former test subject. Internally, however, Chell had her doubts. She was positive that she had shot Wheatley last time she had been here, and He had shrugged it off as if it were nothing.
The two reached the Main Laboratories wing of the facility. The room looked just as it had when first Chell had seen it. The dried blood from her arm still stained the linoleum floors, leaving an easy trail to follow. It took the duo perhaps two minutes to arrive at the base of the stairs leading to Wallace Breen's office.
"Well, this is it," GLaDOS said. "Up these steps waits the Moron himself, hiding out in his former boss's lair. Shall we continue?"
Chell nodded. "Unless you'd like to go back now."
GLaDOS snickered. "I think not."
Chell drew her firearm, and GLaDOS readied her pipe. Together, the two began up the steps, on highest alert for any Mobile Turrets, or perhaps for Ryan Wheatley himself. Slowly, flight by flight, the Android and the human approached the office of Wallace Breen, finally arriving at the top floor.
GLaDOS was right. Exactly twenty Mobile Turrets stood outside the double doors leading to the CEO's office.
GLaDOS eyed Chell's gun and mouthed, 'how many bullets?'
Chell quietly took the clip out of the gun and checked the ammunition. 'Six,' she mouthed back, replacing the magazine and clicking off the safety.
GLaDOS held up five fingers. Five shots.
Chell nodded. Taking a deep breath, she leapt up, into the view of the Mobile Turrets.
"Hello."
"There you are."
"I see you."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Five Mobile Turrets fell. Before the remaining fifteen could return fire, GLaDOS had bridged the distance between them and her. Her metal pipe soon dispatched the leftover machines, and seemingly no time had passed before the hallway was quiet once more, save for the ambient hum of fluorescent lighting.
Chell joined her former enemy before the large entryway. "You ready?" she asked, glancing at the Android.
GLaDOS nodded. "Let's kill this bastard, already." She aimed a kick at the space just below the doorknob, and the doors flew open.
Hey, all. Sorry for the huge gap between chapters, but a combination of my own laziness and life being a ** have hampered my progress. Not to worry, this thing is Still Alive, and will continue.
Read, Review, all that jazz. Wolverinejoe out.