From the moment that Morty stepped out of his elevator again, he knew something was off. For one thing, the elevator door itself only half opened for him, and he had to pry them open in order to escape. Immediately upon exiting it he noticed a sudden change in the test chamber's appearance. The usually clinical, pristine look had been removed in favour of a more rough and unkempt one, not unlike the room he first entered on his adventure with Rick. The lights would often flicker on and off from an inconsistent flow of power, and the panels themselves didn't seem as clean as before, even the non-conductive grey panels. The panels leading up to the entrance of the test chamber would periodically flop over on their hinge and quickly straighten up again, like they were nodding off then quickly putting themselves back in place when they sharply awaken. Morty felt a great unease as he struggled to lift his portal gun up defensively and heaved himself over to the test chamber entrance. He thought in the back of his mind that maybe the dark, gloomy room he found himself in was part of the test, or that GLaDOS was toying with him some more, for her and Rick's enjoyment. These thoughts were quickly put to rest however, as soon as Morty's foot hit the first floor panel of the chamber. The lights suddenly jolted on and a few of the room's panels suddenly sprung into action, as if Morty was the boss, catching employees goofing off in the office.
Morty peered around the dingy looking chamber, hunting for security cameras as he did with every other test chamber. If he was going to mess up, he would at least liked to know from what angle he could possibly disguise it. The chamber itself was huge. Not as big as others he'd been in before, but enough to create an echo whenever he whistled, or screamed in fear. One of the panels high up on the wall next to him was still slightly loose, allowing sounds from beyond the chamber to penetrate through. Sounds like clunking metal and hissing steam from deep within the facility, bubbled up from the depths and spewed out from the tiny gap.
"Aww geez," Morty's voice whimpered, making a little echo of its own as he took his defensive stance once more. If the previous tests had taught him anything so far, it's that it was never out of the question to expect a dangerous hazard to pop out of nowhere. Turrets seemed to be GLaDOS's favourite method of getting Morty to solve tests quickly, but occasionally she'd switch it up and try something new, so although Morty should've been an expert at spotting her traps by now, in truth he only remained as gullible as ever. His defensive stance hadn't lasted very long, as his stamina slowly diminished after solving so many tests, and the portal gun he carried had seemingly grown heavier as he progressed through the never ending onslaughts. Morty waited for GLaDOS to start the test off with a sarcastic or sly remark as she often did, but instead was greeted with nothing but silence and the distant echoes. He waited a few moments before another sound bounced around the room. It was the sound of a new voice, almost robotic in nature, but filled with pep and enthusiasm, like the generic guy who announces the star prizes on a game show. The voice began booting up from the hidden speaker system that GLaDOS used, sounding corrupted at first, until returning to its intended state.
"Hello! And welcome to the next test chamber, subject's name here. If you are listening to this automated messaging system, that means that the AI running this facility, is either conserving power, has been shut down, or has been destroyed by a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions!" Morty frowned in confusion, unable to determine which of those was true, but prayed that Rick had somehow managed to destroy GLaDOS. The voice continued, as Morty skeptically walked across the grimy chamber floor to the nearest pit, to see what awaited him. "If it is the latter, do not be alarmed. Know that testing can still continue without immediate supervision, and that the facility has been confirmed to be able to withstand the following: meteorites, lesser-evolved alien life, hordes of mutant humanoids, sentient weather phenomenon and the uprising of intelligent aquatic mammals". Morty tried to ignore the voice as much as possible, which proved difficult as it was the only sound that was constantly within ear shot, unlike the other test chambers he'd navigated. Instead he tried to focus on the task at hand, which happened to be trying to solve the tests so he could escape the insane rambling that echoed in each chamber. Each test chamber that Morty managed to complete, meant he had to listen to a brand new line of dialogue that never seemed to correlate with his test at all, instead focusing more and more on reassuring test subjects about potential problems, which only made Morty more anxious about the facility. He had just stepped into the 5th chamber since his new "friend" arrived, and noticed that the chambers were getting progressively more and more dishevelled. The voice chimed in again, as though Morty's thoughts were being scanned. "You may have noticed a significant decrease in the quality of your test chambers. This is simply the result of a likewise decreased amount of power going towards test chamber maintenance, but does not impede the safety of the test subject". Morty looked on at the chamber panels that had cracked and shattered after falling from the ceiling and the ones that were hanging off of the walls, ready to fall right onto his head, and thought that maybe the voice didn't fully recognise how bad the chambers were getting. "They say that cleanliness is next to godliness. But since this is a place of science and not worship, we believe that cleanliness is inconsequential in the pursuit of the betterment of all of mankind." Morty had just finished the current chamber and had walked through the exit door, which had blown a small cloud of dust into his face, causing him to splutter as he walked towards the descending elevator. He took a moment to catch his breath in the corridor, but began to cover his ears in frustration when the voice chimed in again. "If you believe that the cleanliness of the test chambers is impeding your test results, or your physical health, then Aperture will administer an emergency health care professional and emergency priest, to your next available milestone test chamber. Hang in there!" The elevator doors had just closed, leaving Morty in silence once more, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally, peace and quiet." He whispered, leaning against the elevator wall and closing his eyes to savour the moment before the next test chamber. The low hum of the elevator was oddly relaxing for him, and the periodic light that came shining through where the doors meet, soothed him like clouds passing in front of the sun on a bright spring morning. A smile appeared on his face, which had been the first smile in countless test chambers.
"Contrary to test subject feedback!..." Morty's eyes shot open in disbelief, and his smile had melted away. It had followed him. "…the voice you are hearing is not the voice of your chosen deity, but rather a carefully calculated array of messages designed to instil a sense of companionship during these lonely unsupervised tests". Morty had now slid down the wall, and was huddled against the wall covering his ears once again. The doors had sprung open to the next floor, and Morty darted out as fast as he could, desperately hoping the voice would be locked in the elevator for good. The voice chimed in again the moment Morty entered the next chamber. "If by chance, you are hearing another voice besides this one, and believe it to be your chosen deity, please disregard it. We at Aperture do not believe, and in fact discourage, divine intervention during these tests." Morty had begun to navigate the tests in record time, as his only focus was to get through the test as quickly as possible, to avoid listening to more insanity. He was like a single-minded machine, shrugging off the turret fire, the insanely long falls, the stomach-churning twists and turns as he catapulted his way through the portals, all in the hopes of the small reprieves before the voice came back. He didn't think during his tests, it was all instinct. He would portal to a wall without a second thought and somehow knew exactly where to place the next one. All the while the voice still echoed, stalking him through the dirty and dusty chambers, one after the other. "In the event that your chosen deity is real, and that he or she is offering you salvation, please be advised that the Philosophers and Theologists of Aperture Science believe the only true salvation is the progression of science, and by that extension, the completion of tests."
"I am solving your goddamn tests you asshole!" Morty yelled, as he was hurling out a Portal whilst dropping a Weighted Storage cube on a button mid air and finally portal-ing a Light Bridge under his feet to reach the exit. Adrenaline had kicked in and sure enough Morty didn't feel tired anymore, he just wanted to finish the tests. He didn't care how many more there were, just as long as he can get through as many as possible, as quickly as possible. The irony was that Morty had become the perfect test subject, and GLaDOS wasn't even watching.
"If the other voices you are hearing are not in your head, and are coming from the nearest Weighted Storage or Companion Cube, please ignore all opinions and advice it gives, alert the nearest cube-wrangling employee, lie face down, and await psychological evaluation."
"Fuck you!" Morty yelled again, stomping though the exit door and flipping off the ceiling as he entered the elevator.
Hours had passed, many test chambers had followed, and Morty had finally run out of steam once again. He was glistening with sweat, panting like a dog in a hot car, and shaking at the knees with exhaustion. He stumbled in relatively straight lines, dragging the portal gun behind him. His eyes were nearly always half closed in both frustration and fatigue and the voice, which never once let up, had now sunk into the back of his head like a second personality. The voice itself had gotten quieter to Morty, a mixture of muffling the voice psychologically, and his senses being dulled due to his body being at the brink of collapse. The speed at which he finished the tests had lowered exponentially, but his ability to complete them had not. He still maintained his no-nonsense approach, but often times messing up because of his lack of stamina. The voice began to speak again, no longer a reverberating bellow, but instead more like radio signals coming through white noise in the back of Morty's mind.
"In the event that the Earth's sun has popped, thereby rendering Aperture Science's solar powered generators obsolete, the facility will return to alternative, albeit limited power sources." Morty dropped the cube he was carrying. He stared up at one of the flickering lights above, phasing in and out of hallucination, imagining that it was the sun popping like a bubble, then being blown back up continuously, before snapping back to reality.
"I miss the Sun…" Morty murmured to himself, as he sat on the cube to take a breather.
"Do not fret…" the voice continued. Morty smiled, and placed a hand on his shoulder as he exhaled the smallest of chuckles.
"Thanks, voice." Morty whispered.
"…logic dictates that your life expectancy will be vastly lower than that of this facility, so you are spared the anguish of having to watch the facility decay beneath your feet." Morty's hand slipped off of his shoulder back into his lap, and his face became like a zombie again. Too many times had he thought the voice was speaking personally to him, and too many times had he realised late that it was still just pre-recorded. He sighed in frustration again, hopped off of the cube and carried on with the test. "Despite rumours circulating the facility, Aperture Science is not responsible for anything that may cause the sun to pop, and we have statements and testimonies to prove it." Morty had just placed the cube on a button for what felt like the millionth time, and rolled his eyes at that last utterance. If only the sun really had popped, he thought, maybe there wouldn't be enough power going to the messaging system.
The elevator which took Morty to the next chamber stuttered and periodically screeched as it made its way down. The past 20 or so chambers he had moved through had elevators that were in near pitch black, but this one had one dim flickering light, which was a breath of fresh air for him. The elevator itself only halted a few feet off of the floor, so Morty had to hop out of it early as it creaked and rattled. This time however, the elevator immediately fell straight down again, after Morty had left, but since it had done that in the last 5 test chambers, Morty remained unfazed. The increasing decay of the test chambers no longer mattered to Morty, until he entered the latest one. The doors sprang open in an instant and the moment he stepped through his eyes shot open in disbelief and his mouth dropped open. The room itself was huge, barren, still moving into place and comprised entirely of non-conductive grey panels, as if the chamber was still being built in front of Morty, and being built poorly. The right-most wall was shifting into place, and in a split second he caught a glimpse of what lay beyond. What he saw was an almost endless abyss, broken up by large columns of machinery, giant tubes going in every direction, the outside of other chambers, and millions of lights in the distance periodically blinking. With it came the same echoed sounds as before, with periodic whooshes of air from the closing gaps. He finally realised the size of the facility and gulped in awe. How many test chambers were in this place, he thought to himself. In the back of his mind he thought that maybe GLaDOS could keep him testing forever, but then shook his head when realised he was doubting his faith in Rick. Rick might've been an asshole, but at least he was a reliable one. If anyone could get him out of this seemingly endless torture, it was him.
Morty pressed on into the chamber once it was properly built and stable, but after a few steps, instantly flinched when one of the floor panels loosened and fell under his feet. Luckily he managed to step back in time, to watch the panel as it plummeted into the abyss, clanging against the columns and arms that kept his own chamber together and echoing throughout the facility. The most eerie thing was that he didn't hear it hit the ground. It just fell into silence. Morty shook in fear as he stared in front of him at the grey chamber floor, thinking any one of them could be next. The white noise in the back of his mind crackled and grew louder the more scared he got, and the voice penetrated it once more, but this time his mind had distorted it much more.
"Mind…..your…..step…..Morty!" it hissed in a sinister tone, mingled with the sound of his own heart thumping louder and louder. Morty began panting and hyperventilating, mouthing words that refused to come out.
"W-what did you say?" He whimpered finally, shivering as a violent rush of air came from the square gap a few inches from his feet.
"Mind…your…step….Morrrrrty!" Morty's eyes grew wider and wider as the white noise grew louder and louder, and as he stared at the exit door at the other end of the chamber, it seemed to shrink and drift further and further away, and the walls of the chamber appeared to move closer and closer, creating a sense of claustrophobia.
"Miiiind…yooooour…steeeeep…Moooorrrrrtyyyyy!" it hissed again, and his heart started beating faster than a hummingbird beats its wings. The box-like like room he now found himself in appeared to melt and chip away around him and panels of the floor fell one by one from the exit, until only the one he was standing on remained, floating alone in an endless black void. The violent gust re-emerged all around Morty, the entire space suddenly shook like an earthquake and Morty was soon staring at a gigantic shadowy figure of GLaDOS rising from the depths. Her piercing orange eye glowed like a fiery hellish beacon. Morty had closed his eyes to block out his sight and covered his ears to try and silence the ever growing volume of the hissing voice. When he had one clear thought left, he opened his eyes and struck his face with his hand as hard as he could, sending him reeling back and the room became silent as it snapped back into its original state, minus the one square gap. The white noise was still there, but soon faded out to a familiar, unmuffled, peppy echo that bounced around the badly built chamber. "….ind your step, test subject's name. Since you have exceeded the expectations of how quickly the test chambers should have been navigated, you have been rewarded with a trip to the break room. Due to your speed and testing enthusiasm, some of the chambers you have encountered may have been hastily built, to compensate, and as such may not have been properly put together. This could result in unstable wall and floor panels, a delay in doors opening, elevators functioning inadequately, and other such periodic malfunctions." Morty blinked slowly, looking around the chamber and back at the gap, and sighing with relief before falling onto his back to catch a breath. "We hope that this improvised break will give you some time to relax before further testing, and we hope that you do not try to exceed your body's limits by completing more tests within an unhealthy pace. These tests are for science, not a punishment." Morty rolled his eyes at that last sentence.
"Pfft yeah right!" he said in annoyance, before realising how stupid his little episode was and chuckled to himself slightly. He tilted his head to his right and realised there was a cube not far from where he was laying, that he hadn't noticed during his panic attack and as he lifted himself up, noticed the button for the cube as right next to the exit door. Morty dusted himself down, sighed in relief once again and walked over to lift the cube, still chuckling to himself. The moment the cube was levitated by his portal gun, Morty stood up straight and proud, ready to earn his break and marched across the test chamber. He gave a quick glance at the square gap that caused him so much grief, but instead of worrying about the abyss below him, instead he just focused on getting through this next chamber. There was a smile on his face when he saw how close the door was, and as he took one extra large stride of happiness across the middle of the chamber, his face suddenly dropped when his foot collided with a floor panel that cracked and split beneath it. He stopped as still as he could and lowered his eyes slowly to the floor panel, his face contorting into fear once more. Morty desperately made a dash for the door, but the moment he moved, the surrounding panels gave way and he was sent tumbling into the abyss. The last voice that echoed in the chamber was Morty's own scream of anguish as he fell into the darkness of the facility.