Yep, still not owning Portal. But hey, this is the final part of the first Portal game. Such an excellent game.

LET'S TRY THAT ESCAPE THING AGAIN

A Storage Cube breezed by.

Chell peered over the railings, watching as more Storage Cubes drifted by, seamlessly, in a tube larger and thicker than Chell herself, like aquatic animals caught in a current. Anxious to proceed in some form or another, the woman grabbed a lonely pipe and smashed a hole in the tube. Chell then slowly eased in before being snatched up by the tube's force. It glowed red around her and she traversed peacefully through the tube. She steadied her breathing, remaining calm in such tight spaces. Right, left, up, left again, until Chell's feet made contact with stationary ground.

Looking down Chell pieced together that she was just above a vital apparatus vent. With nowhere else to go, the woman squeezed herself in the vent. It opened its jaws and Chell collapsed through. She recognised where she was instantly: test chamber 09, the supposedly 'impossible' test.

"Okay. The test is over now. You win. Go back to the recovery annex for your cake. It was a fun test and we're all impressed by how much you won. The test is over. Come back."

The elevator out of test chamber 9 was gone. All that was left was a 'secret passage' back into the Centre's innards. Chell doubted the voice would be oblivious to her constant disobeying for long.

"Uh oh. Somebody cut the cake. I told them to wait for you, but they did it anyway. There is still some left though, if you hurry back."

Chell was getting real sick and tired of the voice's intrusion.

After some impressive movement and dodging, riding large pistons and crossing over them like they were stepping stones, Chell stepped through a portal to get past a vent and to the following room. She grimaced at the load of massive pistons, hissing, as they grew up, and then retreated back down like curious snails. "You're not going the right way. Where do you think you're going? Because I don't think you're going where you think you're going…Hello?"

At least ignoring the voice provided Chell some satisfaction and entertainment as she climbed the pistons, exploiting their growth to get to the hallway up top. A few twists and turns later Chell came across more big pistons. She tilted her head, only just seeing where she needed to go. Her only problem was that her path was prevented by multiple layers that would require portal usage and riding the pistons. She made an orange portal on the second layer and, with the limited walls, made a blue right where a piston would smash into. There was a risk Chell could get crushed but with good concentration, it could get done.

"Didn't we have some fun though? Remember when the platform was sliding into the fire pit and I said, 'Goodbye' and you were like 'no way' –" Chell flinched at the voice's sudden drop in pitch, resulting in her line to turn demonic and evil. It reverted back to its normal state to say, "–and then I was all, 'we pretended to murder you'? That was great."

If that was the voice's opinion of great then Chell didn't want to know what she considered spectacular…or dull. She wondered whether survival was a cliché to this being. Up and up Chell climbed, crying out when she was nearly crumpled by a piston. But with the wonderful gift of flinging, Chell made it through with an A+. She continued flying through the course with bright colours (however that saying goes, Chell wondered), passing by dangerous machinery and offending pistons with her portal gun. Not to mention, there were more scratchy drawings giving advice in order to win.

"You shouldn't be here. It isn't safe for you. It's not too late for you to turn back. I'm not angry, just go back to the testing area."

Chell rolled her eyes before flinging herself onto the next section.

~o0o~

THIS ESCAPE PLAN IS KINDA WORKING

There was enough space for Chell to wrap her body around the Storage Cube tubes and slither along, like some awkward snake. The tight spaces still wasn't doing Chell justice but the red and orange glow radiated ridiculously into her eyes, like the entire building was against her. What was worse was that the tube squiggled into a room with hazardous liquid bubbling underneath. Chell was required to leap onto a bottom tube. A scream erupted from her when she nearly lost her balance, nearly falling into the poisonous goo. "I feel sorry for you, really, cause you're not even in the right place. You should have turned left before. It's funny, actually, when you think about it."

Chell's grip on the piston steadied her balance as it delivered her to a catwalk. "Someday we'll remember this and laugh. And laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Ooooh boy. Well. You may as well come back." The voice was running out of ideas.

The woman's escape went for a coffee-break when Chell found something. Through a small vent she could see another hideout where the drawer must have hidden. Chell squirmed through hoping there was a potential ally inside. No. All that was inside were empty cans and cartons of water. But no drawings occupied the walls, surprisingly. Chell picked up another object. She fiddled with it, rolling the container in her hands. Ziprasidone, the label said. Shuffling through her knowledge, Chell remembered that Ziprasidone was an antipsychotic medicine for schizophrenia. Chell began to seriously pray she had not just been following advice from a mentally-ill person.

Afterward, Chell received quite a scare when the pistons she was walking across opened up and trapped her in an isolated room. There were three shut doors. Purple smoke sizzled out of the first door as it rose. "There you are." The woman shrieked when a little turret spotted her and fired. Chell's back ached after she smacked into a wall, a safe place. "Are you still there? Hellooooo?"

Chell defeated the turret through portal-application. She picked it up, "Put me down" and flung it across the room. "No!" Another door opened.

"Won't you come over here? Come on," turned into a babyish cry.

"Target lost. Where are you?" also had a life-changing grammar transformation into "Who are you?" and "I don't blame you."

Squinting her eyes, Chell saw portal-usable wall. Where the third turret had sat, if someone, say like Chell, looked up there was a way out. When Chell made it through, her body was spun around due to mixture of velocity and motion. Her vision spun as she recomposed herself. She saw a bunch of sleeping turrets huddled together like penguins in a cage. At the same time, the voice said, "You're not a good person. You know that, right? Good people don't get up here. Can you hear me!?"

Chell could hear her but what she heard the most was the unusual anger and bitterness seeping through the voice's words.

Later, after a few more close encounters with lone turrets, and some nice flinging action, Chell was sneaking through some silent creepy offices. When she examined whatever computers were still in action, all she found was a cake recipe. She frowned, growing increasingly frustrated with her situation. Now that she had defied the Centre it was not as though she could ask for food, water and rest. Chell did not have all the time in the world.

"This is your fault. It didn't have to be like this." Chell threw open a door. "I'm not kidding now. Turn back or I will kill you."

It was like hand had slapped Chell's cheek. Fear clawed at her. "I'm going to kill you…and all the cake is gone…you don't even care, do you?"

Chell couldn't help but ask herself if risking her life was worth it.

"This is your last chance."

…Yes. Of course it was. Running around test chambers was something Chell could hardly call living.

~o0o~

STILL ESCAPING?

Her adventures through the land of boring offices ended when Chell passed through an Emancipation Grid and a door. This brought the woman to a switch. There was a glass room in-between Chell and the exit. She held the button down and waited. A round mechanical ball rolled up from the ground inside the glass room. It was attached to a stick of a machines with multiple knuckles to extend its flexible neck. Its oil green eye had a beam of green light looking where it was.

It found Chell.

The machine beeped. Its light burned red.

And launched a rocket.

A strangled gasp raptured from Chell as she avoided the shattering glass. Bits of debris cut her face and hands. Smelling blood and even tasting it as she licked her lips, Chell dodged another incoming rocket. She saw how the machine's eye rotated robotically towards her. The woman sparked an idea and stood in front of the other glass wall. She escaped the next rocket. Once that was clear, Chell was going to continue her journey but found, in the next room, another glass wall.

She built an orange portal then moved back to the rocket machine, making a blue portal and hanging about in front of it. Moving away, Chell watched, triumphant, as a rocket travelled through the portals and smashed the glass. And when she learnt that a Storage Cube was necessary to shift forward through a vent, Chell created another portal to send a rocket into a Storage Cube tube.

Chell seethed at the fan the vent brought her to. She shot a portal beam past it, crawled back to where she came from and made the other portal. Shockingly, Chell had discovered an underground sewerage system where all the hazardous poisonous goo was stored. Thick drops could be heard and a draining pipe was added to the symphony of slimy music. There were high-raise blocks that Chell could access to get through but she did so with ease, afraid of slipping on grimy substances. Overall she was very wary of liquid in the Centre.

So when she got to the next part, landing in a river of green liquid, Chell's first instinct was to panic and escape. She scrambled like a dying animal, scratching at the tall walls to get out, only for her brain to catch up and go, 'now hang on…' It wasn't poisonous. Chell sighed with relief, and then called herself stupid for not applying her portal gun to get out. The massive hall she was in got a whole lot worse when the 8 grey doors showed its content: turrets.

10 minutes later…

"Put me down!"

"Uh oh."

"Deploying…are you still there?"

"Critical Error."

"I don't hate you."

Ten minutes had gone by and Chell had only traversed a little way's further. She was secretly afraid of finding out just how large the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre was, especially when she emerged into an enormous space where she could not see the bottom and top and they were shrouded in darkness. Chains dangled from the ceiling, jingling with rusting columns. The place smelt of rotten food. And all it did was bring Chell to more offices. Chell couldn't imagine working in a place such as this.

There was a window! Chell's eyes widened at the view. It was not of outside but of another expansive place with hazardous liquid. It was dark and quiet. Silence. There was a long passage to the main round room stationed in the centre of the place. It was like a lonely planet in the great sea of space. Chell reckoned that was where she needed to go. As she strolled the long passage she came to the conclusion that the voice must have given up on her, since she had not spoken in a while.

That thought process died when Chell walked through an Emancipation Grid into the round room.

~o0o~

THE BIG BATTLE

It was completely white and sterile. There was an annex to the left accessible via stairs and an incinerator at the far end of the room. There were three screens around the room, right wall, left and in the centre. It streamed numerous pictures –of scientists, objects, cake, what? –that past by so quickly it morphed into a pretentious looking artwork. But, right in the middle of the room, was a machine. It was attached to the ceiling but stretched right down to an average male's height. It looked like many pieces of machinery were linked to it, including round balls with different coloured 'eyes'. What stood out the most was a vertical rectangular-shaped piece with a yellow eye. Its 'neck' moved and had the 'face' look directly at Chell.

"Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it?"

Chell's grip of the portal gun slackened. Its impact on the ground destroyed the moment. Chell did not make a move to pick it up. She just stared, horrified at what she was facing. This was no person at the end of a speaker, nor a pre-recording. It was a robot. An A.I. Artificial intelligence. Somewhere in Chell's memory-less mind, she knew she had heard of such a thing before but never would she have guessed this. She hesitantly picked up the portal gun.

"Because despite your violent nature, the only thing you've managed to break so far is my heart. Maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day. I guess we both know that isn't going to happen."

A slate connected the robot had text written on it: GLaDOS. Chell tasted the name aloud.

"Oh, you know my name. But that won't be mending my broken heart."

"No, wait. Please…" Chell said cautiously. "I just want to get out. Why can't you –?"

"You chose this path," GLaDOS interrupted, uninterested in the human's wishes. "Now I have a surprise for you. Deploying surprise in five…four…"

Just as Chell started to back away, one of the round balls of machinery disconnected from GLaDOS and crashed to the ground.

"Time out for a second. That wasn't supposed to happen," GLaDOS spoke hastily. "Do you see that thing that fell out of me? What is that? It's not the surprise. I've never seen that thing before."

According to the script engraved on the ball it was a 'personality core.' Its eye was a violent shade of purple, as though it was struck with an illness. Its eye focused on Chell, studying her. It reminded the woman of a newborn baby.

"Never mind, it's a mystery I'll solve later…by myself. Because you'll be dead –where are you taking that thing?"

Carrying the personality core with her, Chell felt she was safe enough to explore the round room, soaking up every possible thing about it to use to her advantage. She moved to the incinerator and saw no button for it. But then she recalled the annex. "I wouldn't bother with that thing. My guess is that touching it will make your life even worse somehow."

Climbing up some stairs, Chell got to the annex and the switch. She pressed it and grinned at the incinerator flashing its red hot body. "I don't want to tell you your business but if it were me, I'd leave that thing alone."

The incinerator closed. Frowning, Chell knew that there wasn't enough time to run from the annex to the incinerator if need be. She patted the portal gun. "Do you think I'm trying to trick you with reverse psychology? I mean, seriously now."

She activated the incinerator again.

"Okay, fine. DO touch it. Pick it up and just…stuff it back into me. Let's be honest, none of us know what that thing does. Just put it in a corner, and I'll deal with it later. That thing is probably some kind of raw sewerage container. Go ahead and rub your face all over it."

Okay, so maybe Chell was purposely tempting time just to anger GLaDOS.

Feeling kind of evil Chell muttered an apology to the personality core before letting it go, down in the depths of robot hell. There an explosive noise in the distance. Static ruptured the pictures on the screen. GLaDOS trembled. Her voice was disrupted as she grumbled, "You are kidding me."

As GLaDOS spoke, her computerised voice raised pitch and speed in a hysterical manner, "Did you just toss that Aperture Science Thing We Don't Know What It Does into the Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator? That has got to be the dumbest thing –woah! Wooooahh!"

A bad feeling was screaming for Chell to run and hide. But Chell stayed, watching as electric sparks whizzed off GLaDOS as the conscious intelligent robot's voice powered down, then right back up again. This time, when GLaDOS spoke, her voice was subtly smoother, almost seductive and less computerised. "Good news. I figured out what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a morality core they installed in me after I flooded the Enrichment Centre with a deadly neurotoxin to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Centre with a deadly neurotoxin."

Chell stumbled back, primal instinct choosing flight above all else. "Y-you did…what?" Chell could not believe how everything had panned out. That was why the place was abandoned yet still running. All the humans were gone and replaced by an artificial intelligence, the one responsible for killing them.

"So get comfortable while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters."

The three screens turned blue with 05:00:00:00in white text. Just as the numbers began to tick down, second by second, do did green gas start to seep through vents. Chell was practically choking on her own fear and saliva. She was so caught up in her fear that she nearly missed the musings of GLaDOS, "Huh. That core may have had some ancillary responsibilities. I can't shut off the turret defences."

GLaDOS' 'head' turned sharply to Chell, "Oh well. If you want my advice, you should just lie down in front of a rocket. Trust me. It'll be a lot less painful than the neurotoxin. Alright, keep doing whatever it is you're doing."

A sudden burst of fury destroyed Chell's fear and had her moving and thinking again. There was no way she was going to die by the hands of crazy robot. Chell dodged an incoming rocket from the same previous rude robot, baring her teeth like a wild animal at the rocket machine blinking its green eye at her. Keeping GLaDOS' advice in mind, Chell smirked when an idea popped up. She formed a blue portal at the exact height of GLaDOS' main mechanical body and then an orange portal where she stood. Chell saw the rocket's green beam go through and land at GLaDOS' body. The rocket followed after.

Immediately, GLaDOS shivered as her body was damaged. Her voice scrambled, as did her train of thoughts. At the same time, another personality core was torn away from her body. It did not, however, fall down but was lifted up, beyond Chell's reach. There were blue rings between the core and GLaDOS. It looked like a slinky that Chell figured was some sort of magnetic pulse. "Killing you and giving you advice aren't mutually exclusive. The rocket really is the way to go."

Chell used her portals again to grab the core. "That thing you burnt up isn't important to me. It's the fluid catalyst cracking unit. It made shoes for orphans. Nice job breaking it, hero." This personality core had a coral-orange eye. It squirmed in Chell's hands, its soft young girl's voice pleadingly asking, "Who are you? What is that? Oh, what's that? What IS that? What is THAT!?"

(It was adorable). Chell shot an orange portal near the incinerator, not at all feeling bad and unoriginal for recycling a previous tactic, especially when time was running out for her. The smell was horrendous. "This isn't brave. It's murder. What did I ever do to you?"

"Oh, that thing has numbers on it!" the core awed. "Look at that thing. No, that thing! Are you coming back?"

Of course she was. Chell pressed the switch as GLaDOS added, "You don't even care, do you?" There were so many voices, crowding around her. Chell transported back, containing regret as she plucked the innocent little core –"Ew, what's wrong with your legs?"

…The core didn't have to be so rude about her knee extension springs. Chell dropped it. "Where are we going? Do you smell something burning –ah!"

Another explosion. Chell was pushed into a wall. GLaDOS' body experienced another spasm attack. A computerised scream screeched from the robot as it built up its motion speed. "[pain noises] You! You really think you're doing some damage!? Two plus two is…ten…IN BASE FOUR! I'M FINE!"

Chell yelped when a rocket flew over. She swore locks of hair were crisped. She clutched the portal gun tightly as she rolled out of the rocket's gaze. She coughed harshly, her eyes tearing up as the seconds on the clock ticked down and down. "I let you survive this long because I was curious about your behaviour. Otherwise, the turrets would have killed you." Gulping and shivering, Chell's hand grasped at the old flesh wound on her thigh. "Well, you managed to destroy that part of me. Unfortunately, as much as I'd love to now, I can't get the neurotoxins into your head any faster."

An orange portal came along and waved at the rocket launcher. "I'd just like to let you know that I gave you every opportunity to –" the rocket struck.

As GLaDOS was overwhelmed by technical difficulties, Chell noticed the next personality core split, the slinky projecting up top, near the extremely high ceiling. Luckily, there was a catwalk that Chell could land on. "There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I even invited your best friend, Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him."

"Just like you asked me to," Chell muttered as she teleported up to the catwalk. "All your other friends couldn't come either because you don't have any other friends. Because of how unlikable you are. It says so right here on your personal file: unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikeable loner who's passing shall not be mourned."

The personality core had a sky-blue eye colour. It did not fret or emit any emotion. It simply said in a dull ordinary voice, "8.25 ounces of package chocolate cake mix. One can of prepare coconut pecan frosting…" Chell's springs on her knees aided in safely jumping down to the ground and pushing her to the incinerator. She left the 'cake-making' core by the fire as she portal-transported to the switch. "'Shall not be mourned.' That's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted. So that's funny, too."

As Chell gave the core up to robot hell, she decided she was never going to touch cake again.

"[SCREAMS!]" A massive wave of force came about, knocking Chell down. She eased to her knees as GLaDOS brushed away the damage, while her anger levels rose increasingly higher. "Neurotoxin… [cough] [cough] So deadly… [cough] Choking… [Laughter] I'm kidding!"

Chell made a blue portal directly underneath GLaDOS to ensure the rocket hit her hard, pissed off at the robot for daring to say such things. "When I say 'deadly' neurotoxin, the 'deadly' was in massive sarcasm quotes. I could take a bath in the stuff. Put it on my cereal. Rub it right into my eye. Honestly, it's not deadly to me, at all. To me –"

Even when GLaDOS was interrupted due to more damage, the robot whirled itself back up again and continued its terrible taunts, the last personality core shot up high without any catwalk nearby to get to it easily. This meant Chell needed gravity's help to get near it and catch it on the way down. "You, on the other hand, are going to find its deadliness a lot less funny. Who's gonna make the cake while I'm gone? You?"

On Chell's first attempt, she missed the personality core by far. Her feet felt horribly bruised as she readjusted her portal spots. "Look, you're wasting your time. And, believe me, you don't have a whole lot of time left to waste. What's your point anyway? Survival? Well then, the last thing you want is to hurt me."

On Chell's second attempt, her finger touched the core but missed anyway. The major problem was her foot getting snagged by an offending piece of pipe sticking out of the wall. Chell yelled at the pain, which doubled when she fell clumsily, bashing her knee and ruining something in the mechanics of her knee springs. Chell cries of pain and absolute fear were caught in her closing throat. "I have your brain scanned and permanently backed up in case something terrible happens to you, which is just about to."

"S-s-stop talking!" Chell demanded, tears leaking. The pain was awful.

"Don't believe me?! I'll put you on:" GLaDOS made an awkward noise that sounded like a cliché ghost. "That's you! That's how dumb you sound!"

"S-s-shut up!" the woman looked at her bloodied hands. She had grasped her feet, trying to numb the pain but all she managed to do was soak herself more in blood.

"You've been wrong about every single thing you've ever done, including this thing." Chell hoped that wasn't true. With a lack of memories, Chell couldn't rely on her own self-confidence. She just had to rely on GLaDOS' bullshit. "You're not smart."

"Stop…"

"You're not a scientist."

"No!"

"You're not a doctor."

"E-enough."

"You're not even a full-time employee. Where did your life go so wrong?"

"I said ENOUGH!"

Boiling with raging fury, Chell pushed aside the pain and aimed her portal gun. She made her last attempt, successful grabbing the last personality cube. Her other knee groaned when it was forced to take most of the impact due to the other one being damaged but Chell had no time for that. The core's eye was devilish red and the thing growled and snapped at her like a rabid dog. As she ran to the incinerator and prepared her portals, GLaDOS hit further.

"Are you really trying to escape? [Laughter] Things have changed since the last time you left the building. What's going on out there will make you wish you're back in here."

Not likely. Chell knew that she had no real knowledge of who she was yet was certain that no one ever, at any point in her life, dictated her. No matter what GLaDOS said, chewing on her self-esteem like it was junk food or trying to spoil the outside, there was something Chell knew she wasn't ever going to be: under GLaDOS' control. Chell prepared the incinerator and furiously tossed the snarling core inside. She heard GLaDOS yell out, "NO!" before it all ended.

The green gas stopped. An explosion blew up in GLaDOS' innards. Electricity snapped and crackled from the demented robot as the artificial intelligence screeched. Thick coils flung into the room like wild vines as the ceiling above split open. Broad daylight streamed into the battlefield. GLaDOS continued trying to rebuild herself but the damage was too great. Chell moved away, watching her enemy collapse, her reign coming to end. "T-t-t-t-the d-d-d-difference b-b-b-b-between us…issssss that I-I-I can feel pain!"

As the ceiling collapsed further, gravity lost its place in the debate. Debris and smoke drifted up, as did GLaDOS' disentangling body, before spiralling to form a tornado of all dangerous things. Chell was keeping a strong grip on a pipe. But eventually, the wind –whatever it was that was doing this –got too strong and brought Chell up with it. But, to her greatest relief, it did not suck her into the tornado but allowed her to fly up underneath, towards the outside word. A bubble of excitement had Chell grinning ear to ear before everything caught up to her.

Chell's vision went black.

~o0o~

OUTSIDE!

When Chell awoke, she was flat on her stomach with her arms by her side. The portal gun lay a few feet ahead of her. There was a calming fresh breeze and sun rays warming her up. Green trees rustled peacefully around the car park. Around Chell was the debris from the tornado. Bits and pieces clanged and crashed onto the ground. GLaDOS destroyed rectangular face was looking her way but the light was out. Good.

The woman's head still felt thick. She was exhausted and overwhelmed. Chell had no strength left to pick herself up. She was so confused she wasn't even exactly sure if the figure of a human being she saw up ahead was even real. If it was, Chell wondered if it was that mysterious artist. Suddenly, something cold and hard wrapped around Chell's ankles.

"Thank you for assuming the party escort mission."

The robot dragged Chell back. Chell's mind screamed and pleaded for her body to move but there was nothing left to power her. All she could do was miserably allow the robot to drag her back inside to her prison.

~o0o~

OOPS. INSIDE AGAIN

She was soaring through the innards of Aperture Science.

She was moving through the vents, the pipes, past the pistons, the rusty walls and the Storage Cube tubes.

She turned sharp corners, dipped down then shot straight up.

She landed in a room where she circled around it. There were many cases crammed with personality cores. Their eyes were closed. Her eyes were heavy, as though cementing themselves down. She was hardly able to see what was in the centre of it all. There was a small light but that wasn't much to go –

She was pushed forward to a table.

There was a Black Forrest Chocolate Cake. Five strawberries were positioned on top. A single lit candle was placed in its middle. The Companion Cube sat right behind it.

Chell stared at the cake. It wasn't vanilla.

Then, a personality core woke up. Its red eyes darted to her.

It was followed by two more. Then three more…

A robotic claw emerged from above. Its 'fingers' contained the flame in the candle.

Just as a needle with knock-out liquid was punctured into Chell's arm, the flame was distinguished.

So the cake wasn't a lie after all.

-END OF PORTAL 1-