Author's note
Hey guys! Hope you're enjoying the story so far! The reason I put up this author's note here even though I haven't put up any at the beginning of a chapter is to address the recent removal of chapter 5. It's because that it was to foreshadow a future chapter in which Dib would gain weight, which I gave up on because I thought writing an entire chapter about that was to much of a hassle and would drag the story down too much. Hope you don't mind!
- Regularshowman
Dib woke up in some sort of tube, which opened up to reveal the next trial awaiting its completion. He stepped out and began surveying his surroundings. He was in a small room with a large, unopened blue portal and five buttons, two on one side and three on the other, above each button was a different picture depicting a stick figure getting killed by one of five elements per picture. On the picture above the blue button the stick figure was drowning in water, in the picture above the white button he was getting frozen to death, above the red button he was burning alive, green button: crushed by boulder, and purple button: swept away by a tornado.
"Do you like this new trial? You know what, don't answer that. I don't care about your opinion. Besides, how can you have one when you haven't even seen what it's about?" GLaDOS cut in, making Dib jump in surprise. He began to grow more curious and cautiously approached the red button, pressing it nervously as the blue portal opened to reveal a large room that was set ablaze with lasers pointed at the pools and puddles of oil that were covering the area making it seemingly impossible to get to the other side of the room which contained a cube at the end.
Dib gulped nervously and began feeling very hot, sweating as he stepped into the flaming room only to see a door close on the cube. "Great," Dib mumbled underneath his breath as he continued through the room, shooting a portal at the ceiling above one of the only platforms that wasn't on fire and hopped on to it through an orange portal. Inspecting the platform more Dib noticed a hall that wasn't on fire either blocked by some fence. After Dib easily bypassed it via Portal Gun he began exploring and eventually found the source of the flames, a laser pointed at the large pool of oil on the floor, easily setting it alight.
Dib scoffed in annoyance as he went in the opposite direction and found a button, pressing it led to the deployment of a glass cube, it also led to the fence getting replaced with a blue field of some sort of energy. When Dib approached it cube-first it was instantaneously vaporized causing Dib to jump back in fright. "Oh that's right! You haven't been introduced to the Material Emancipation Grill yet! This incinerates all test chamber contraband that is not aloud outside of its respective chamber. In other words, it will only allow you and your Hand-Held Portal Device through, not anything else." GLaDOS explained.
Dib returned to the place that he got the cube from and pressed the button again, another cube was deployed as Dib took it up with his Portal Gun and brought it to the laser, which he managed to redirect to some sort of laser activated switch that opened the door, which was surrounded by flames. "Just great," Dib moaned.
He managed to portal his way to the door but the flames were too great to bypass. "Man it's hard to think when you're this hot," Dib complained as he wiped the waterfall of sweat that was pouring down his forehead and looked around for a method of entry into the room with the cube he needed to progress and eventually spotted another platform with a fence blocking entry to another corridor. After making his way there he found another redirection cube activated by button that also replaced the fence with an Emancipation Grill.
Dib managed to redirect another laser this time to turn off the fire around the door along with the fire in the rest of the room. So finally he retrieved the cube and brought it through the giant orange portal and reentered the room with the buttons.
Making a guess as to which one he would need the cube he had gotten for Dib randomly pressed the purple button, watching as the blue portal's view changed from that of the fire room to that of a completely new one with a fan blowing harshly.
Dib cautiously entered the room and almost immediately was knocked and pressed against the wall across from the fan that had him in its grasp. Using quick work with his Portal Gun Dib managed to get to a trench in the room and began to catch on to the puzzle's solution. He quickly shot a portal at the high wall facing a ledge that had no portal surfaces for Dib to use to get to and then he shot one at the wall the fan was blowing against, getting out of the trench and jumping into the path of the fan, getting blown onto the ledge with the fan's help and went through the hall to the next room.
This one could only be open by a cube on a Super Colliding Super Button shaped like a cube holder. Entering the room Dib found a key with a snowflake symbol on it. Dib took it and was going to leave the room when he noticed that the fan's wind was blocking his path, "Oh, that's just great," he sighed.
Dib looked for a way out of the room without getting swept up by the wind. Though no matter how hard Dib looked he couldn't find a way out. "What the? How am I supposed to leave if that fan's blocking my way?" Dib complained angrily to GLaDOS, "I can't tell, you're just going to have to find out yourself" she said coldly. Dib looked around the chamber for a way out for what felt like a good deal of hours before he began to give up.
"Oh wow, I didn't think it was that easy to break your spirit. If I knew I would've ran you through this trial without Zim hours ago!" GLaDOS laughed, "Oh! What's this? I just realized that you needed the alien's PAK to bypass this wind. Looks like you're out of luck test subject Dib," GLaDOS realized, Dib's expression turning into that of a hopeless one.
Just then, the power appeared to go out in the room. The orange portal disappeared, the lights went out, and the fan stopped. "What's going on in there!? Wait! Is that moron screwing with the power again?!" GLaDOS growled angrily. And then, a large wall panel moved to the side to reveal Wheatley looking angry while Zim was by his side, his arms folded and one of his feet tapping impatiently as his eyes rolled with annoyance.
"I! AM! NOT! A! MORON!" Wheatley screamed angrily as his eye moved to Dib, "Come on Dib! I can't hold this door open for long!" he called urgently. Dib nodded and portaled his way to Wheatley's side right as his portals disappeared and the panel closed, GLaDOS suddenly grew quiet, "Come on! I can't keep the power off for long!" Wheatley screamed as the three quickly darted into the underbelly of the facility.