"Sir, you really should sign these papers. They've been piling up for over a week now."
"Yeah, yeah... I've seen 'em. I just don't really give a fleeting flapdoodle about them."
"A... a what, Sir?"
"Nevermind," he sighed and rubbed his forehead, "I'll get the paperwork done... just give me a day. C'mon, I pay you to do this paperwork so I don't have to!" He flicked at the stack in annoyance.
She shuffled uncomfortably, "They're only signatures, Sir. We have to have you sign off on these projects before they can go forward-"
"You can fake my signature, Ms. Short. I gave you permission to do it," he looked up into her eyes from where he sat at his desk.
"Sir... I can't do that, you know... these are important projects! You can't leave them up to me; that isn't my job," she was flustered. "Respectfully, Sir," she added quickly.
He laughed heartily, "Caroline, you think I hired you for your gorgeous looks? You think I want an everyday airhead running the paperwork behind the top science facility in America, nay, the world?" he stood up, eye-level with her, "I know that you know more about science than I do. You sign off on the papers and pretend it was me... I trust you."
She scooped up the stack of papers, her face flushing, "Yes- yes Sir, Mr. Johnson!"
"System reboot complete: Reconstruction now at 99%"
What...? Show details.
Detailed charts and figures blipped into existence, displaying mainframe activity over the past nine hours.
She was startled to find that her heart had actually stopped. It had automatically been started up again an EMP delivered by the mainframe, a safety feature she had once developed. She had been technically dead for nearly nine minutes before she had been resuscitated... then had been given a high dosage of nanobots that completed immediate repairs to her damaged body. She was 99% healed now.
But how had this happened...?
Oh.
Right.
Glados' eyes flickered open and she turned her head over, her bangs falling into her eyes, irritatingly. She took a deep breath and pushed herself to her knees, surveying the damage around her. Then she heard the noise of someone who had obviously just been startled, and she turned her head.
"Oh, it's you," her voice dripped with malice, taking in the sight of Chell and some skinny, nervous man. She stood shakily to her feet, mentally activating more repairs to her facility. The wiring in the middle of the room began fixing itself at her command. She had a migraine like no other, but she ignored it, drinking up the escaped humans' fear. She stood straight and her eyes flashed.
Chell stared back at her, her face unreadable. How had the test subject survived anyway? Glados had been linked to the mainframe, which first caused her sudden downfall, then had saved her. But the woman...? She should have suffocated to death. Her eyes drifted to the man; it was probably his fault.
"How have you been...?" she took a few slow steps forward toward the two and the man audibly groaned in fear, "I've been pretty busy being dead. You know, after you murdered me." It was dramatic, considering she had lived through the ordeal, but a grudge was a grudge. The woman had intended to kill her nine hours ago and that's all that mattered.
The test subject still refused to respond to her, only displaying hostility through her eyes and body language. Glados lifted her arms, as if physically dragging down robotic arms from the ceiling toward the two. They whipped around Chell and the man and yanked them high into the air.
The man immediately freaked out, "Oh no... no nonononono nooo!" he flailed his legs, unable to get free from the death grip. Chell stood her ground even whilst hanging and continued to stare into Glados' eyes, as if searching her very soul. Glados kept her gaze steady and ignored the idiotic man. He shrieked as she squeezed him harder to silence his frantic yelling.
Glados activated her rising platform and brought it to it's full height near the top of the gigantic chamber where Chell and the man precariously dangled. "Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science... You monster." She allowed herself a small smirk as Chell rolled her eyes.
"Also, since you've gone through all the trouble of waking me up, you must really love to test. You know, I love it too," she smiled, her face inches from Chell's. She motioned for the robotic arms to move and opened up a hole in the floor, attaching an equipment tube from below the facility.
"Shall we?" Glados opened her tight fist wide and the arm dropped Chell into the hole, disappearing below. She considered just offing the screeching man, but decided against it. A cooperative testing sequence would be pretty fun to watch... she dropped him in too, hearing his screams fade away as he fell deep.
Glados activated her holographic screens and watched as Chell and the skinny man were sucked toward the testing chambers. "Let the testing begin... again."
Sorry, pretty short chapter. I didn't mention this before, but I wrote this story with the intention that anyone could read it, including those who haven't even played Portal before. I kinda wanted to write something that could stand on its own without prior knowledge of the game. So, again, apologies if the beginning isn't overly riveting for you. ;)
