Chapter 4
"The Enrichment Center promises to always provide a safe testing environment. In dangerous testing environments, the Enrichment Center promises to always provide useful advice. For instance, the floor here will kill you. Try to avoid it."
Edd was putting his quick thinking skills to good use. Seeing the second Portal Device in the middle of the room automatically firing orange portals at certain locations, he looked around and saw what he had to do. Acting quickly, he pushed down the small button on the pedestal to open up the door, a ticking sound emanating from the button indicating the door would only be open for a short time. Edd shot his blue portal through it into the next room and the door subsequently closed behind it. He waited for the second Portal Device to turn his direction, opening up an orange portal in the wall behind him. Edd went through it and found the room with the energy ball bouncing between the launcher and the wall in front of it, leaving a slight burn mark where it hit the concrete. Edd opened a blue portal at that mark and watched the energy ball go through it, coming into the main room and hitting the catchment dead on. The platform in front of the second Portal Device started to slowly move towards the wall containing the newly-opened orange portal. The second Portal Device -which was on a pillar of ground above a pit of a dark, sickly brown liquid that Edd would rather not want to fall into - started to turn and was about to fire again. Edd quickly jumped through it onto the platform right before the orange portal was relocated to the other side of the room. He rode the platform until he got to the second Portal Device. To Edd's surprise, it jumped off of the rotating pedestal it was resting on and somehow merged with the Portal Device Edd was carrying. Deciding that questioning the logic and possibility of it was pointless, Edd simply examined his upgraded gun.
"The device has been modified so it can now manufacture two different portals at once."
Edd found that the handle he wrapped his fingers around now contained two buttons instead of one large one. He pressed down on the first one with his forefinger and middle finger and the device shot a blue portal at the wall. Pressing the second button with his ring finger and pinkie fired an orange portal next to the blue one.
"As an optional test protocol, we are pleased to present an amusing fact. The device is now more valuable than the organs and combined incomes of everyone in [subject hometown here]."
Ignoring the last part,Edd pressed the button that appeared when he upgraded the device and a door high up in the room opened for a few seconds before closing abruptly. Edd pressed the button again and shot a blue portal on the wall behind the door before it closed again. Hopping back onto the moving platform, he shot an orange portal into the wall in front of the platform and went through.
Eddy grunted as he felt a cold, smooth surface bump into his face as he woke up.
"Hello, and again, welcome to the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one. Your specimen has been processed and we are now ready to begin the test proper."
The glass of the pod slid back and Eddy sat up in the relaxation vault. Eddy felt strange breathing in the fresh air and suddenly looked down to see Ed crammed in the pod. Eddy jumped up in disgust and wiped off the Ed-germs on his clothes.
"Before we start, however, keep in mind that although fun and learning are the primary goals of the Enrichment Center activities, serious injuries may occur. For your own safety, and the safety of others, please refrain from..."
Once again, sparks came from the ceiling as the lights flickered and static covered the last part of the sentence before recovering.
"Stupid computer-lady-thing," Eddy mumbled to himself as he looked around. "...What the? Where the heck is the door? And why is there a toilet in the middle of a glass room?!" Eddy shouted as he looked around franticly for some kind of opening.
"...stand back. The portal will open in 3...2...1..."
Eddy jumped as he saw an orange portal emerge from the concrete strip. In it, he saw the room he and Ed -who was just waking up - were in from the side. Going through the same fear and curiosity Edd went through, Eddy slowly started to stick his hand through the portal. It felt strange; it was as if his hand was cut off, but still held up to his arm by some-
"Cool!" Ed shouted as he rammed Eddy through the portal. He heard a thump on the glass next to him to see a cartoonishly-flattened Eddy plastered to the outside of the relaxation vault.
"How did you get out there, Eddy?" Ed asked before turning his attention to the orange portal.
"Huh? There are two Eddys?" he said, his head darting between the Eddy on the glass and the Eddy through the orange hole in the wall before going through the portal himself.
"I come in peace, Eddy number two!" Ed shouted as he peeled Eddy off of the glass.
"It's still me you idiot!" Eddy shouted, his body slowly reinflating to its original shape. They looked at the orange and blue portals and took a minute to figure out what they did. After going through them and back, the boys figured the basic concept of portals and headed to the large, circular door on the other end of the room.
"Please proceed to the first testing ar-" The voice, apparently called GLaDOS as Eddy found out, was cut off once again. Ed and Eddy jumped as they saw part of the wall start to protrude outward on a hydraulic arm, blocking the door in front of them.
"What the heck?" Eddy said as he inspected the arm. He looked at where the wall once was to find an opening. The other end of the hydraulic arm was in there, bathed in an eerie red light. Eddy peeked in and saw more hydraulic arms attached to the other segments of wall and a regular door on one end of the opening. Ed and Eddy looked at each other, shrugged, and went through the door away from the first test chamber.