A/N: About average here; solid, though nothing spectacular. On my first playthrough of Portal, I did try to throw the cube through the gap and ended up getting hit in the head instead; it worked its way in.

17. Broken
Summary: The Enrichment Center apologizes for this clearly broken test chamber.
Genre: General
Characters: Chell, GLaDOS
Warnings: None

"The Enrichment Center regrets to inform you that this next test is impossible. Make no attempt to solve it."

Chell raised one thin eyebrow. Really? An impossible test? What was the point of that?

But, from what she seen of this place so far, dumping her in an unsolvable testchamber wouldn't surprise her. There was the familiar pwoosh of the orange portal opening and a clunk as the cube dropped out of the dispenser and hit the grey tiles of the floor. Chell walked over to it, her toes curling reflexively at the cold temperature against her bare feet, and used the tractor beam of the portal gun to pick it up.

The doorway to the next room was blocked by an emancipation grill; a fact that Chell did not notice until the cube disappeared before her eyes. There was the familiar tingling on her skin and the slight shaking of the portal gun as the portals reset themselves. Immediately, her tongue began prodding around her mouth, checking for any noticeable taste of blood. Good. Nothing missing. With Aperture, she could never be sure.

She headed through the grill again, where the dropper had deposited another cube. She didn't pick it up right away, though. Instead, she turned and shot a portal straight at the emancipation grill.

Nothing. Just a shower of blue sparks as it failed to take hold.

"The Enrichment Center apologizes for this clearly broken test chamber."

Chell fixed a glare at the ceiling and the disembodied female voice. It was then that she noticed the gap over the door. She gave a quick nod, grabbing the cube again, and tossing it up into the air.

It didn't go through the gap; in fact, it didn't even fit. Instead, it fell backwards, landing on her head.

When she groggily came to some minutes later, she silently cursed at the cube, wondering just why they had to be weighted storage cubes, rather than just plain old storage cubes.

She stumbled to her feet, popping a blue portal on the wall, grabbing the stupid cube and dragging it through to the raised platform. From there, she was able to shoot a platform through the stupid gap to the next room and drop through.

Even with the knee braces, her ankles gave way slightly as she landed and she just barely managed to avoid grimacing. Miss Disembodied Voice spoke again just as she looked around, seeing where the cube had landed behind her.

"Quit now and ... cake will be served immediately."

Chell almost flipped off the ceiling. Instead, she dropped the cube onto the button.

"Fantastic! You remained resolute and resourceful in an atmosphere of extreme pessimism.