Port-Ed Chapter 11
Created by rcmero
Edited by Yoshermon
A/N: Sorry for the loooooooong delay, but here is the next chapter! This time, I decided to lure the attention away from the Eds and now see what the cul-de-sac kids are up to. Surely they noticed the Eds missing!
"Hey, has anyone seen Dork, Dork and Dorky lately?"
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen them all day."
The congregation of children cul-de-sac nodded in agreement to Nazz's comment.
"This is not good. Remember the last time they went missing for a day?" Kevin asked. One by one, everyone began to nod, their faces cringing at the painful memories of the incident.
"They're obviously up to something. Everyone, split up and search the neighborhood for any sign of them," Kevin commanded. "And remember, if you come across something suspicious, no matter how fun or interesting it looks, don't go near it!"
His statement earned more nods of agreement. After several calls of who gets to check where, the kids split up.
The light flowing into Edd's room from his window was disturbed by a smiling, wooden board as it was elevated to it on a wooden pole.
"See anything Plank?" Jonny asked. He listened intently to the silence emanating from the board.
"Say what? Plank, I don't think we should actually break in to Double-D's house!."
More silence was Jonny's response.
"Okay...But if we get in trouble, it's on your head mister!"
Jonny peered through the front entrance of the house. Its door was lying on the floor inside, a dirty footprint and cracks adorning its center. Jonny took a moment to wonder why nobody had noticed earlier, but lost interest in the notion as he found two sets of tracks leading upstairs. Eagerly following them, Jonny began to enter Edd's room when a tug on his arm stopped him.
"What's the matter Plank?"
A yellow sticky note lay on the floor directly below the board. Curiously, Jonny picked it up.
"Aperture Science...What do you think this is, buddy?"
Silence.
"What's that? You think the Eds are there? I'd better tell Kevin then."
Jonny rounded up everyone else and they all gathered at the lane.
"You find something, Jonny?" Kevin asked.
"Found this in Edd's house." Jonny handed Kevin the note. "Plank says the Eds are in whatever that place in the note is, but I forgot the name already."
After reading its contents, Kevin suddenly dropped the small piece of paper, his eyes wide as saucers.
"What's with you?" Sarah asked.
Kevin didn't answer. He stood, still as a statue as a memory flashed in his mind. When it ended, he suddenly jolted and scrambled for the sticky note.
"No..." he whispered, his voice shaky and trembling as he held the note. "It can't be..."
"What can't be, Kevin? Answer me!" Sarah said again, trying to get Kevin's attention.
Silence.
"Kevin!"
"Guys...The Eds..."
"What's the problem, Kevin?"
"Aperture..." he whispered, but Jonny could hear it.
"Ah, that's the name!" Jonny said.
"Say what?" Nazz suddenly gave a loud yell. "You're sayin' the Eds are at that place?"
"...Y-yes." said Kevin. "My dad used to work there...B-before he worked at the jawbreaker factory."
"So what's the problem?" asked Jonny.
"He said that this artificial intelligence or something in the facility went ballistic and starting killing everyone." Kevin managed to calm himself as he talked. "He was lucky he was able to get out alive. My mom and me took him to the hospital, and he wouldn't stop gagging and coughing up blood." Kevin cringed at the memory.
"And how does Go-Go-Nazz girl know about this Apache Si-Fi whatchamacallit place?" Rolf asked.
"My cousin worked there part-time once," Nazz said. "She didn't know about what happened."
"Wait, what?" Kevin asked, surprised. "Your cousin's there too?"
"Yeah. Guess I haven't told you about it," she replied. "Anyway, she said she was going to try out this experiment or other, and we haven't heard from her since."
"Guess that happened with Double-D and Ed and Eddy. It's the same thing it says in the note."
"Well nobody tries to kill my big brother except me!" Sarah shouted.
"Rolf agrees..." Rolf paused for a moment, his face scrunched in thought, "...About the saving of the Ed-boys, that is."
"Plank says we should storm the place and get them outta there!" Jonny shouted. After Kevin pointed out the address on the back of the note, everyone agreed with Jonny's proposal except for a reluctant Jimmy.
"I don't wanna be anywhere near that place!" Jimmy said, clutching his head in fear.
"Alright, don't come," Kevin jeered. He walked away, signaling for everyone to come with him. Sarah gave the boy a sympathetic look, but she turned and followed Kevin."Besides," Kevin said before he was out of earshot, "you can stay here. All by yourself. Except the Kanker sisters maybe."
A sudden jump and a cry of "Okay! I'm coming!" and Jimmy was racing toward the group, all headed for Aperture Science.
"Nine large egg yolks. Twelve medium geosynthetic membranes. One cup granulated sugar."
The core that Edd held with his Portal Gun continued to list quantities of all kinds of ingredients in its monotone voice as it stared at the boy with its blue, heavily-dilated eye. Edd placed it near the incinerator and proceeded to place a portal on the nearby wall and another near the button.
"Your entire lives have been one mathematical error. A mathematical error I'm about to cor-"
A scream and an explosion cut off the computer as the Intelligence Core ceased to exist. GLaDOS squirmed and swung around, as if writhing in pain.
"HAH! You think you're doing some damage?" she said, still swinging erratically. " Two plus two is..." A churning static sounded for a few seconds, until afterwards came a faint "...Ten..."
"Ten? This thing's even dumber than Ed!" said Eddy. As if she heard Eddy, GLaDOS continued.
"IN BASE FOUR! I'M FINE!"
"Wait...What?"
"Ha-ha, very funny," retorted a sarcastic Edd as he ran around the room, avoiding the reactivated Rocket Turret's line of sight. He shot a blue portal under GLaDOS and an orange one right in front of him. The Rocket Turret gave off its warning beep, its eye turned red and it launched its projectile at the boy. Edd was already out of the rocket's path, however, and it went straight past him.
Unfortunately, GLaDOS shifted her frame just before the rocket entered the portal, and it sped past her.
"You're wasting your time," she mocked. "And believe me, you don't have a lot of time to waste."
Edd nervously looked at the timer and gasped as it displayed less than three minutes of time left.
"This is not good!"
The door flung open as Kevin retracted his foot from the air. He and the other kids entered the building cautiously.
"This is the place, alright," Kevin said. "I used to come here with my dad a long time ago."
"Plank says this place looks like it's run by an army of Double-D's!" Jonny shouted.
"This place's run by nobody, baldy, except for that machine." Kevin perked and suddenly looked up at a security camera situated in the corner of the room. Cautiously, he walked up to it and waved his hand back and forth. "That's strange," he said, "these things usually follow you around all creepy-like."
"Does that mean the computer or whatever is shut down?" Nazz asked. As if in answer, the ground shook gently and loud static blasted from the speakers.
"Apparently not," Rolf muttered.
A/N: Sorry for not much action here, but the 800+ words should make up for it. Also, no prizes for guessing who Nazz's cousin is.