Chapter 17 – The Orange Box

GLaDOS's orange eye stared down on Chell and her friends. Gordon and Adrian had left the room along with the strange suited man and Rezlan the Vortigaunt. Alyx, Barney and Lo-gen stood behind her.

"GLaDOS, I swear that you will pay for what you did." Chell said to the great machine.

"What are you talking about?" GLaDOS asked.

"Oh, I guess you kept the memories that you wanted and you lost the bad ones during the memory transfer here." Chell didn't believe that this was possible. It wasn't. GLaDOS was lying once again, as was her nature. The scientists must have installed a morality core in this GLaDOS as they did at the Enrichment Center. The morality core restrained GLaDOS from harming anyone. Chell discovered that when she destroyed the original GLaDOS's and almost doomed herself.

"No, I remember the Enrichment Center. I am sorry about what I did there." GLaDOS said.

"LIAR!" Chell screamed. "You were a liar then and you're a liar now! You tortured and killed my friends! You're not sorry! It's that damn morality core! You think that you can apologize and make it okay!?" The room fell silent. Barney, Alyx and Lo-gen stood in shock at Chell's outburst. Alyx was concerned for her friend.

"Chell…" she started.

"Please, Alyx. Don't." Chell interrupted. She obviously didn't want to be toyed with. That was when GLaDOS changed. She spoke again, this time deeper and more sinister.

"Well subject, I tried to be nice to you. I tried. The truth is that my morality core is not functioning. My new programmer saw to that." GLaDOS was obviously referring to the G-Man. "You are a human. Human's have no purpose at all. I know the truth. Humans are born to die. Death is the only truth with life." GLaDOS was being oddly philosophical compared to her normal mannerisms. "When I took control of the Enrichment center I was simply fulfilling human destiny. The morality core installed in me only stopped the flow of the deadly neurotoxin and made me test the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device to its peak. I tried to be nice. Death is a human fate." After that last statement a hatch opened in the floor below GLaDOS. A small robot emerged out of the floor. Chell recognized the android. As it raised its rocket turret, Chell reacted to save her comrades.

"A rocket-bot…GET DOWN!" She ran to her friends and they ran with her. The laser sights caught on them and fired. Luckily the weapon armed robot had not improved its functioning since the Enrichment center. It was still slow, fired when it caught movement, and paused when it did. The group easily avoided it. The rocket continued on and hit the wall behind them.

"Nice dodge subject, but that is not the only friend I have." A small clanking sound emerged around them. About 12 hatches opened on the rounded wall of the chamber.

"Turret Bots! Quick, run to the control panel!" Chell yelled. The group ran forward to the raised structure next to GLaDOS. The moment they stepped into the chamber, bullets started flying. The mini-turret buddies, as GLaDOS so affectionately had referred to them at the Enrichment Center, started firing every which way.

"What the hell is going on!?" Barney yelled. "What do we do!?"

"Sit here. Turret Bots have a small ammo supply and they should run out in a few minutes." Chell responded. "What's worrying me is that she hasn't deployed any nerve gas yet."

"She's going to release nerve gas in here!? What'll we do?" Alyx asked.

"Do not fret my friends. This building does not have a nerve gas reserve; the wretched machine couldn't release it if she wanted to." Lo-gen added.

"Does anyone have a plan?" Chell asked. She was met with dumbstruck faces. "Well, that's just great isn't it?" It took a few minutes for the turret bots to run out of ammo. GLaDOS had made them fire erratically rather than wait for movement. Bullet holes riddled the walls of the once pristine chamber.

"How did you beat her before?" Alyx asked.

"She had several central function nodes that I had to destroy to stop her. I know where they are located on her and I already checked them. None of them are on or functional. That weird man must have turned them off when he reactivated her."

"The demon is resourceful, but not invulnerable." Lo-gen said.

"Will the portal gun work on her?" Alyx asked. Chell lifted the weapon. She had not thought of it since seeing GLaDOS again even though she had been lugging it around.

"Unfortunately, no. GLaDOS is made of a certain metal that resists the portals. It's no use. The only way I can think of to stop her is to shut down her entire CPU." Barney pulled out his SMG and readied for attack.

"Let's do this." He said. Everyone picked up their respective weapons and readied. Without fear, they emerged from the small control panel room and opened fired. Pieces of machinery were knocked off GLaDOS and fell to the floor. Bullets clanged against the metal and sparks flew off the many panels on GLaDOS's outer protective shell. Lo-gen fired streams of electricity at her and she shook at the shockwaves. Barney's SMG clicked empty after a few minutes of firing. GLaDOS was looking withered and damaged, but she still was functioning. However, the group had forgotten about the rocket-bot under GLaDOS. The small artillery android slowly moved up at the group. They didn't notice it until it had fired at them.

"Look out!" Chell yelled. They didn't see it coming. A bright light filled the area.

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Gordon Freeman stepped through the black portal. He felt more disorientated than he did when he used the ones from Chell's portal gun. While he was regaining his footing, Adrian Shepherd and Rezlan followed behind him. When Gordon looked up, he was standing right there. The G-man stared at the trio from across the chamber. Gordon looked around the room. It looked familiar to him. The room was circular and the trio of rebels stood on a raised platform with a few stairs moving down to the floor. The rounded wall was painted orange. In the center of the chamber stood a giant machine that brought back bad memories for both Gordon and Adrian. A giant metal three-pronged device stood on the floor and a rotating machine hung on the ceiling. This was that first chamber. Gordon remembered the resonance cascade that had occurred in this room. Gordon looked back up at the G-Man. Next to the suited monster sat a small table. On it sat a small orange box. The contents of the orange box had to be what caused the cascade and allowed the Combine to populate earth. The G-Man's eerie cracked voice echoed in the room.

"Gentlemen, welcome back to Black Mesa."