Disclaimer: I don't own Portal or any of it's characters. I only own my ideas and my SI-OCs.

(Updated 5/15/17)

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Chapter 3: The Internet

I was bored. Plain and simple. I didn't really bother trying to keep track of how long I had been working since my Activation, but I figured that I should at least make an attempt to contact my family. If they were even still around. If I was still within my own universe. And now I'm sounding all paranoid. *Sigh*

"Soooo... Wheatley, do you think that I would be able to send a message outside of the facility? Like a phone call, or something similar?" I asked in a casual tone, gliding forward on my rail as we returned from a Patrol. He turned towards me tilting his optic giving me a curious and questioning look.

"Probably not. She likes to keep Aperture technology from the outside world, so she definitely keeps a close eye on communication channels. Why do you ask?" He responded. I shrugged - shifted my face plates.

"Well. I just figure that my mother should probably know that I am now living dead," I said jokingly. Wheatley gave me a flabbergasted look. Or at least that is what I interpreted his look to be.

"What?" He questioned. I rolled my optic.

"Never mind. What about internet? I heard that Virgil was Wi-Fi compatible and was curious to know if I was as well." I mused.

"Dunno. Maybe. You are your own core. Me personally, I've never really looked into it myself." Wheatley said.

"Yeah, you'd probably end up looking up some random site and give yourself some horrible virus that would kill you," I said teasing him. He gave me a horrified glance and I couldn't help it: I laughed.

"Ah, hahaha! Sorry! Sorry. I couldn't resist! Your expression though! Ah hahaha! Priceless!" I snickered for a moment before collecting myself. He gave me a dirty look and I shook with silent laughter. It looked like he was pouting! He rolled his optic at me and made a "hmph" sound though he didn't move away.

"Ah, sorry. I'm just teasing you! But seriously though. You could end up corrupting your hard drive or something. There are a lot of dangerous sites out there! I've actually gone through several computers because I accidentally corrupted them from viruses from random websites. A bit embarrassing actually, if I'm being honest." I explained. He stared at me giving a look as though to say, "What kind of horrible being are you to destroy an innocent computer like that?!"

"I'm going to see if I can access my stuff on the Internet, Ok?" I said. Okey-dokey. Now how should I go about this... hm. Let's see here.

"Excellent! I am in fact Wi-Fi compatible! Great, now time to open a browser. Hm. Ok, I'm gonna go with Google Chrome. Let's see if I can log in... Oh. OK then. I guess that's one mystery solved. I am still on the same planet in the same universe. Probably." I said as I actually managed to log into my gmail account. I opened up another tab and sent an email to my mother telling her that I was basically a machine now and that my body go incinerated. I also messaged her telling her that I probably would not be able to receive any phone messages do to my 'Boss' as well as the fact that, no, my account was not hacked. I also included details about myself that others would not know so that she would have proof.

*Ping* - [You have 1 new Message] a pop up in the background notified me. I selected it to open and read it.

"The email address that you are trying to reach either does not exist or is no longer in use."

"Well. That went well." I said as sarcastically as I could. In the background, I heard the announcer voice say 'Sarcasm Self-Test completed' which caused me to role my optic.

"What happened?" Wheatley inquired.

"Ah. I was hoping to get in contact with my mother, but apparently the email address is no longer in use. So that either means one of two things: this is the future and she is dead, or she changed email accounts." I explained. Come to think of it, the events of Portal occur in the future, so time travel, maybe? Or parallel universe. I decide to try looking up her name. I found a Facebook user that has her name and face, but the information is almost completely different. Looking at her Friends list, I see my name. Clicking on the icon, I jump over to "Tian's" page. The information is almost exactly the same. WTF?

"... I am so confused. So am I in an alternate timeline? Different Universe? I'm gonna see if I can log into this... *pause* No way. Same login. What on Earth...?" I mutter.

I enter in a different url and log into YouTube. My playlists and everything. Including Portal related content. I came to the insane (and unlikely yet seemingly true) idea of this Universe and my Universe merging or crossing over at least. I scrolled through my music list and blinked.

"Sweet! I can access my YouTube account and music!" I said happily. Wheatley looked up from what he was doing and moved towards me. I searched through my programs and found one that allowed me to use my optic as a projector (kind of like Wheatley's flashlight). I pulled up my Portal songs playlist and hit shuffle.

"Well, anyways. Let's just get some tunes on." I said cheerfully. I selected [Start Playlist] and an orchestral medley of Portal 2's soundtrack started playing. I headed out to go retrieve a test subject. Of course, the poor sap was less than willing to come out of the room, so I had to coax him out. Forcefully. I was given a small amount of control over the panels in the Relaxation Center and basically booted him out of his room with a floor panel.

"Ow! Hey! NO, please, no! I-I don't want to go out there! Please don't make me Test!" The human in a blue-gray jumpsuit was forcefully shoved (gently) by the panels. I did my best to ignore his pleading and frantic gaze as I simply commanded the panels to block off his attempt to escape.

"The elevator is this way. Good Luck." I said in a monotone voice. I know it sounds rather harsh, and if she still kept up with her practice of incinerating the humans at the end of testing if they some how miraculously survived throughout the entire course, I really didn't want to get attached. Once he was inside the elevator, I made eye contact one last time and couldn't help the feeling of guilt surge through me as he gave me one last terrified glare. I made a sighing noise as I turned around and rode my rail back to the control room listening to Cara Mia Addio. I didn't feel regret (apparently that was not an emotion that could be simulated; that or it was decided that it was an unnecessary emotion for a Personality Core to have). I was just doing my job. It scared me that I couldn't bring myself to feel regret. Sure my emotion protocols allowed me to 'feel' certain emotions, but 'regret' was not one of them. I suppose, at the end of the day, it would make my job 'easier' in a sense, though, not really.

End Chapter 3.

A/N: In my fanfic, most of the core's are going to be capable of accessing the internet and projecting things by either using their optic or have projector built in elsewhere on them. Wheatley's flashlight was inspiration for this idea.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4 New Assignment