A/N: Too much damn fun to write, even though I was laying flat on my back, which is awkward. Could someone please remind the powers that be that I'm 20 and that osteoarthritis at my age isn't supposed to happen? I don't think they got the message when I screamed up at the ceiling about it. Thanks.
Anyways, as I said, fun to write. I love the Half-Life universe. Apparently, at the beginning of Portal 2, Wheatley was supposed to mention that a man with a briefcase asked for Chell - it got cut, though, because they decided it would be too confusing. I wanted to do an idea based on that, but my brain said 'nope, do this instead' and here's the results.
20. Unforeseen Consequences
Summary: Doug Rattmann has an unexpected visitor at work.
Genre: General
Characters: Doug Rattmann
Warnings: Crossover
Dr. Douglas Rattmann was working on the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device when he heard someone clear a throat beside him. He looked up. There was a man in a suit, holding a briefcase.
"What are you doing here? How did you get in?" He had been certain that he had locked that damn door!
"Doctor Rattmann..." The strange man adjusted his tie, and suddenly the surroundings around him changed. No longer was he in his laboratory, but in the chamber housing the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. Frozen in place, as though time had decelerated to a standstill, was his co-worker Henry, holding a screwdriver as he adjusted one of the circuitboards of the machine.
"I realize this ... moment may not be the most ... hmm ... convenient for a heart-to-heart, but I have a great many matters I must ... attend to in the upcoming days."
"Who are you? What do you want?" Dr. Rattmann was both frightened and angry at this strange man, who wasn't even human. His ability to warp time and space, not to mention that voice - there was no way that that thing could be a human. No human could do that.
The man with the briefcase simply cleared his throat again. The surroundings changed once again, first to some form of alien world; a world with a multi-colored sky and rocky platforms suspended in nothingness; a place with worlds stretched thin across the membrane where dimensions intersect. The man adjusted his tie again, and the surroundings changed again; this time, it was some sort of city in Eastern Europe, with a large black obelisk. A large black obelisk that had suddenly dropped down from the heavens; not man-made, but alien.
Suddenly, he was back in his laboratory. But it was not the laboratory he knew. It had been abandoned in a hurry; chairs overtipped, papers dropped, and plant growth beginning to crawl through the walls.
"Prepare for unforeseen consequences," the man said, and then he was gone.
At first, Doug wondered if he had forgotten his medication again.
But it would be something he would remember for a long time to come.