OKAYYYY! I am utterly, truly sorry that this took so long! I had a crazy writer's block and school and blah blah blah... if I hadn't set myself a due date to finish this, it might've taken much longer. Anyways, I still plan on finishing this fic and sorry for the slightly boring chapter. fffffffffffff
The green portal opened on the far wall on the other side of the chamber, and a pink one opened next to it. Across the long abyss filled with toxic goo were two cores with there own portal guns, standing side by side and thinking the plan over carefully. There was a wall of emancipation material all the way down to the goo, so simply portaling to the door wouldn't work well. Logic and Morality looked at each other and nodded briefly. Then, Morality jumped off of the platform they stood on and plunged down towards the water. Despite the fact hat she trusted Logic, she felt a pang of adrenalin rushing through her as she got closer and closer.
Logic pointed and quickly shot his second portal- a rust-colored brown one- at the end of a light bridge, and looked down over the platform to watch the blue light bridge cross through the portal and break Morality's fall. She landed on her feet and only wobbled a bit before righting herself again. She gazed up at Logic, who gave her a thumbs up. She returned the gesture and ran down the light bridge to the other side.
Logic nodded and walked up to the glass behind him to watch her run all the way to the other side of the test chamber. She stopped at the end of the light bridge and pointed her portal at the wall to her left. Her portal hit the wall and opened up with a bright purple ring around it. Morality smiled faintly and jumped from the light bridge to the platform to her left where she'd shot the portal at. She blinked and shook her head a bit. She found herself staring at the purple portal, zoning out, thinking. Of course, thoughts like 'Are Anger and Curiosity okay?' and 'Is this it?' had managed to crawl into her head, but now, she felt them jamming themselves up in there and claiming to be her primary focus.
Meanwhile, Logic was standing up on the platform, waiting for her to make her next move.
Morality shook her head and freed herself from her thoughts. Then, she proceeded towards the big dark button on the wall. She stopped in front of it, pulled her arm back, and smacked it as hard as she could with her fist. She looked up as the wall that had been separating her and Logic at the top turned and retracted into the wall. Logic smiled and walked to where Morality had begun at, before jumping down to the light bridge himself. Morality was standing in front of the exit door, waiting for him, when he finally caught up with her.
"Good job, Morality." he said. Morality nodded and walked through the door, Logic following close behind. The portals in the test chamber disappeared and the door shut behind them.
While Morality and Logic seemed to make a great team, the other cores were having… somewhat worse luck than them.
"Remind me again how this happened?" Craig asked Curiosity angrily.
"I dooon't knowww!" Curiosity balled. "Are we gonna die?!"
"Ugh!" Craig wanted desperately to cover his ears and block out her pitiful crying, but his arms were occupied with keeping him up out of the toxic goo. At some point during one of the tests, the two of them has somehow managed to become wedged in the little tiny space that was a pit of toxic goo, and if they loosened up their already aching limbs, they would surely fall to their death. Curiosity was having a panic attack and Craig was tempted to just himself fall. After all, how much worse was certain death than doing a bunch of useless tests with this lunatic forever? Craig made a mental note to completely blame her for all of this, just because he could get away with doing so.
"What are we going to do?" Curiosity panicked. "Where did my gun go?"
"You dropped it!" Craig snapped back.
"Agh!" Curiosity continued to fret over their unfortunate situation for a few minutes more. And then, without warning, she just went silent. She stared at the camera in the wall as it looked up to examine her. "Maybe the camera lady can help."
"She is the master of this entire facility," Craig said angrily, "not a camera lady."
"Are you referring to me, Curiosity core?" GLaDOS asked passively.
"Oh! Ooh! Camera lady, we're over here!" Curiosity hollered.
"I can see you, you know." GLaDOS replied.
"Will you help us?" Curiosity asked in her most innocent voice.
GLaDOS waited a few minutes to reply. "I don't see the necessity in doing so."
"Why are you using big words?" Curiosity complained.
GLaDOS didn't respond.
"She isn't using 'big words,' you imbecile!" Craig snapped.
"Well." GLaDOS finally said. "You two are a very interesting team, aren't you?"
"Fact: this is a disaster." Craig clarified in a monotonous voice. "And it's all your fault."
"Aw. I thought you wanted me to 'help.'" replied GLaDOS.
"We do! We do!" Curiosity said.
"Fact core?"
No response.
Curiosity looked down and waited for him to also say yes.
"Yes. We need help." Craig finally muttered, cringing at the word help.
Of all the stupiiiiiiiii- cccckkkttttzzzzz…
"Gagh!" Craig almost reached up and held his now aching head, but he managed to resist the urge in time to catch himself before he lost his balance and fell to his doom.
"Something wrong down there?" GLaDOS asked, obviously amused.
"N-no…" Craig replied through clenched teeth. "I- we're fine."
"Very well." Curiosity turned her head and looked as far behind her as she could without slipping and she watched as one of the panels on the wall behind her turned on its axis to open up. A slim, metal snake of a wire came slithering out of the wall and turning back and forth as if looking for them. Once GLaDOS had the thing ready, she directed it to shoot towards Curiosity and Craig and hover over them.
"Okay, you'll have to work with me on this. One slip and you might fall in." GLaDOS sounded still amused by Curiosity's fear and Craig's attitude.
"Okay!" Curiosity replied eagerly.
"Good to see you're being happy today." GLaDOS joked. "At least two of us are having fun." And with that, the snaky wire swooped down and wrapped around Curiosity's neck, startling her. Then, it proceeded, in one motion, to pull her up out of the hole and toss her off to the side.
"Ow!" Curiosity rubbed her back when she landed. "Why did you do that?"
"Sorry, Curiosity core." GLaDOS apologized, although Craig doubted she meant it. "But, I felt that your neck was the most efficient place to grab you and pull you out." Curiosity just continued to rub her back. "Seeing as you can't actually choke."
This only brought a new wave of confusion upon her. "I can't?"
"And now you." The wire turned towards Craig, who simply looked away, dreading what was to come, even if she was pulling him away from his doom. Without saying a word, GLaDOS commanded the wire to go down and meet Craig. He watched uneasily as the wire slithered under him and up around his waist. In the next few seconds, the wire got a good grip around him and started to pull up. So, out of instinct, his arms shot up and he grabbed the wire, which continued, uninterrupted, to pull him out of the little death hole and plop him onto his butt on the floor next to it.
The wire loosened up and let go of him, leaving him to kick at the floor to get a few more inches away from the hole. Curiosity hesitantly crawled up to him, but he could sense her coming and didn't want contact of any kind at this point. He tensed up and pulled his hands up, resisting the urge to whack her.
"Are you ok-" Curiosity began.
"Leave me alone!" Craig shouted at her.
Curiosity froze and stared at him for several long minutes. Craig balled his hands into fists and pushed them against his ears, attempting to block out everything, even the low hum in the background that he'd grown so used to over the years. Curiosity could see that he wouldn't be moving again for awhile, so she quietly got up and walked away. She saw the cube sitting a few feet away from the button next to the door. She walked over and absentmindedly kicked the cube over to the button until it was perched firmly on top of it. The door flashed orange and opened up for them. There. Test finished. That wasn't so hard.
Curiosity looked around, trying to decide what to do now. The door was hanging open, inviting them to come through, but she knew it wouldn't make a difference until Craig came with her. The only thing left to do now was think. That was all she could do. She stood in the middle of the floor, staring blankly at the button and the cube, and thought. She thought about Morality, and her two weird brothers. Were they okay? Where were they? Had GLaDOS done something different with them? Killed them? Experimented on them? Left them to fend for themselves in these test chambers like her? Had they become a nuisance and been banished to spa-
Space. We're in space.
Curiosity abruptly opened her eyes, which had simply hung heavy until she'd closed them without meaning to, as if trying to fall asleep right there while standing up.
Let's go to space!
There was nothing she wanted more, to go to Space. She wanted to go find him; he could cheer her up with his optimism. If she must test, why couldn't she test with Space? As long as she'd been away from him, she hadn't thought about him constantly. She had tried to focus on testing. And of course, her curiosity distracted her from everything. But, all the while, she'd always at least subconsciously been thinking about him. It was strange. She thought she'd experienced every happy thought there was to be experienced- along with some negative thoughts, like the terror of nearly being incinerated- but this was a new one. She was usually so excited and simply happy. This new feeling was a mix of exhaustion, happiness, and confusion. And she hated confusion. She wanted to know where Space was, and what kind of fun adventures they could have together once she found him. She was curious about what his human body might look like. And what was space like? What was this new feeling and did it have a name? She wanted to know it all, she wanted to knowww!
She needed Space to answer those questions for her. She wanted to find him. Wherever he was, someone had to know. Maybe Logic or that lady from the tests. And surely, GLaDOS would know. She knew where everything was, didn't she? The facility was huge, but she could tell her where anything was. Curiosity turned her head towards the nearest camera and looked into the lenses. She couldn't see a face, but she knew GLaDOS was there.
"Cam-" She paused. "GLaDOS?"
"Yes, Curiosity core?" came the reply from all around.
Curiosity hesitated. "Where is Space?"
"Space?" GLaDOS paused. "Well, from here, that would be up. In space. With stars, and the moon. And earth… you'll probably never view earth from space's view."
"You mean… Space is… in space?"
"Um…" GLaDOS paused, obviously baffled by her odd question. "Yes."
Curiosity walked closer to the camera, anxiously. "And- and where's that?"
"I just told you." GLaDOS replied. "Up there. Away from earth. Very far away."
"Far away?" Curiosity gave the camera a sad look. "But-"
"Why are you so interested in space?" Curiosity looked down and tried to remember what humans do when they're sad. Something involving their eyes leaking. Their faces got wet when they were sad, sometimes even when they were really, really furious. Well, whatever it was, she couldn't seem to make her new body do that.
"Why am I so interested in Space?" she repeated quietly.
GLaDOS didn't reply.
"I don't know that, either."
Curiosity stood there like a lifeless statue for awhile. Then, when her artificial nervous system told her that her legs needed a rest, she walked over and found a dark corner to sit in.
Anger had been left without a testing partner, and had lost interest in the actual test about thirty minutes after being shoved into the room and locked in. During those thirty minutes, he'd discovered that lasers were pretty, but painful. The wall panels didn't like him- they tended to bounce up randomly and hit him- and he didn't want to try and see if he was able to swim, because the goo looked disgusting. Lights were his best friends, moving platforms scared him, and so did the random loud noises that would sound off every now and then. He could walk okay, but he preferred to stay on all fours. However, he had to carry his portal gun.
After making it across the goo to a second platform, he had set his portal gun down and curled up like a dog underneath the tilted portalable panel, hoping to just take a nap and forget everything that had happened for awhile. But, no…
"What are you doing in there?" The voice was loud and it came from everywhere at once. She sounded irritated. "Why aren't you finishing the test?" Anger cringed at her voice. It was the most annoying sound he'd heard thus far, and that was saying something. But, it didn't want to stop. "If you're not going to test properly, I can find you a new assignment." This time, Anger shuddered. Her voice was becoming poisonous in a way he couldn't place. "But, you won't like it very much…"
Without saying a word, Anger stood up, careful not to bump his head on the panel, and picked up his portal gun. He glanced around, searching for the source of the voice. But, even when it interrupted the silence again, he couldn't find it.
"Good. Now, finish the test, Anger core." GLaDOS said in a sing-song voice. "You're almost there."
Anger growled at the voice.
"I heard that."
Anger glanced around, startled that she had responded to that. Then, he looked across the room at the white wall on the other side and, despite his still clouded mind, was able to deduce that portaling over there could get him closer to the door. Still, he stood there for a long time, staring blankly across the room, as if wondering if he should even go or not. He decided he should when he remembered that GLaDOS was holding some kind of threat over his head. So, without another thought, he whirled around and shot a blue portal at the wall to his left. Then, he turned towards the wall across the room, shot the orange portal all the way over the deadly goo, and watched it open on the other side of the room.
Anger started towards his new blue portal, ready to get out of this chamber and- in his mind- back to his comrades. However, he stopped right in front of the portal and stared at it, his paranoid mind somehow finding a new thought under all the white noise: he hadn't tried jumping through a portal yet, so what it would do was beyond him. And again, the annoying ceiling voice was putting more pressure on him to finish the test.
"What's wrong?" she asked innocently. "You looked so confident a moment ago."
Anger shook his head and glanced through the portal, his eyes wide. He saw a humanoid figure through the portal, far across another lake of goo.
"That portal isn't going to kill you, you know." GLaDOS informed him. "Just don't build up too much momentum, lest you fall into deadly waters."
But, despite her "encouraging" information, he was zoned out and staring at the new figure. The fact that made him ready to take the chance of jumping through a portal wasn't that he wouldn't die, but that he saw someone else on the other side. And it was enough to get him to bend his knees and lean back, before taking his first plunge through a portal. Suddenly, all of gravity and logic switched on him and he landed shakily on his feet on the other side. As soon as he'd regained his balance, he stared across the goo to the other side where he'd seen the new figure, but it was gone.
Perhaps he'd decided to get out of here without him.
Whatever the reason, the other human was nowhere to be found in his line of sight, so with that distraction gone, he continued on with the test with slight hope that he would find the other cores behind the exit door that was unnecessarily hard to open. It took him about ten minutes just to decide that he needed to place his blue portal on the somewhat hidden white panel on the platform above him, and about six pushes of a button to realize exactly where the cube was going and how he needed to get it.
He placed a portal on each of the tilted platforms across the water and pressed the button again. Yet another cube came bouncing back and forth between the aerial faith plates, through the portals, and straight for him. He reached out to catch the cube in midair, but having misjudged where exactly it would land, he raised his hands too high and found himself stumbling backwards and landing on his butt with the cube in his lap. He growled at the pain in his stomach and glared at the button he'd pressed seven times to get the cube. He was tempted to just sit there and stare at nothing for the rest of the day.
But, after a few minutes, he'd gotten over his initial shock and stood up, the cube in his hands. He walked over to the door and held up the cube, as if expecting it to scan the blasted thing and let him through already. It took too long for it not to work, so Anger moved on to the next plan. He dropped the cube at his feet and knocked on the door. He'd heard the noise multiple times and he'd seen videos in GLaDOS's mainframe of people knocking on doors. And they'd always opened! Although, he knew he had to be quick, because some of the doors would close quickly after opening.
Alas, the door never opened.
Anger threw his hands up and gripped the hair that he was still getting used to having in the first place. "Ugghhh!" As ignorant and inexperienced as he was with testing, it only succeeded in aggravating him more. But, to his surprise, the annoying ceiling voice never said anything about it.
I know, sucky ending to the chapter. But, I was trying to make his testing experience interesting with his personality. Some of it was just the typical getting a hold of a cube and putting it on a button routine (which, he still hasn't spotted the button that the cube goes on yet lol). Also, the test chamber he's in is one of the chambers from the game, because that's where I pictured him. And I might look for a co-op level builder and build the one Morality and Logic were in.