Chuck Statton trimmed his decently-large poofy mustache in the ancient cracked bathroom mirror, wishing for the thousandth time that morning that his hair would migrate upwards onto his receding hairline. Well, at least his white hairs weren't so obvious yet. It was still black and young-looking... if you only looked at his mustache that was.
He frowned at his thick neck and protruding belly with mild and familiar irritation. This was his morning ritual, after all. Start off the day with a clean shave and a nice healthy dose of self-loathing. Then breakfast. Always breakfast.
Four years down in this crap-hole and I can't even lose a little weight? He was certain he'd lost at least a couple pounds, but the boys didn't think so. His belt didn't think so either.
Four years... had it really been that long?
Chuck had served as a security officer in Aperture Science labs for a little over a decade. He himself, having no deviation of any kind, had nothing to fear from the place. It was just a job, like any other.
However, after about five years on the job he had become disturbed over the things he had seen in the place. Watching nobodies get tested was one thing, but seeing what happened to them afterward, well...
That was another.
His sense of justice had been reignited, and he had deemed himself somewhat a hero, taking it upon himself to do something about the evils taking place in Aperture. All this was done covertly, of course. Chuck had suddenly turned himself into a secret agent.
His wife knew, as he always told her everything. Joy just told him he had reached a mid-life crisis. He had to be careful or he'd lose his job.
Chuck's first victory had come when he had rescued Richard seven years ago. Richard had only been 27 at the time and had gone through his Aperture testing. The boy had been hot-headed and had varying degrees of control over his abilities. Richard destroyed the fourth test chamber in it's entirety, ripping apart the walls and threatening the personnel.
Chuck had intervened and neutralized the boy with his specialized Deviant-Negating device, and in a desperate bid to act, had taken a shortcut as soon as they made their way to the incinerator room. The two found a loosened hatch right in the entrance, opening into the wide unknown of the void below Aperture.
With a courageous spirit Richard had jumped below onto a tube leading into the underground, broken a hole in the top, and jumped down into it out of sight. Frightened out of his wits, but certain going back would lead to his ultimate demise, Chuck had followed.
The tube had ended up twisting for miles downward, finally spitting the two out into a vat of thick white liquid. If it hadn't been for Richard, Chuck would have most certainly drowned.
The two runaways had quickly discerned that they were in the upper levels of the old sealed off Aperture Laboratories, and Chuck had left the boy there. They came up with an adequate alibi for Chuck, and he returned to his post. Aperture thought Richard had been incinerated as planned, and they were none the wiser.
So Chuck had grown confident. He watched for years, always looking for opportunities to rescue a poor Deviant soul. He couldn't save them all, as he had to always be cautious. Glados' surveillance had proven to be a difficult enemy, but Chuck was one heck of a secret agent.
He had managed to rescue five test subjects in the past seven years. He reckoned it would have been more if he hadn't been forced to flee to Old Aperture during the neurotoxin incident four years previously.
It's where they had been ever since.
He smoothed down his uniform, wondering if his wife ever thought of him anymore.
His stomach grumbled, interrupting his brooding. His mood brightened when he realized it was time for his favorite meal of the day. He opened the bathroom door to an impatient Craig.
"Fact: You take much too long during your morning bathroom rituals," Craig leaned forward, his arms crossed.
Chuck grinned; What other fifty-year old man could say they had a more exciting life than his?
Craig stalked into the bathroom, clutching his clothing of choice for the day in his arms. He refused to get dressed in front of the others and Rick always poked fun at him... we're all men here. Craig sniffed.
Men who could stand to use a shower every once in awhile.
Of course, none of them ever thought that they would leave Old Aperture. Their way out of the facility was guarded by an insane monstress above. Chuck had told them many a story about Glados and her horrific takeover. Craig himself had only heard her voice years back when he was still a test subject. He had never actually glimpsed the monstress herself.
What would they do if they escaped anyway? Avoid capture again for the rest of their lives? Craig was quite content to remain where he was.
He slipped his hand through the air, opening up a small pocket dimension in space where he stored his bathroom supplies. Luckily, he had stored his stuff years ago as a young teenager. Always be prepared for the inevitable.
His deviation allowed it so that he could open pockets of space out of thin air, giving him unlimited storage capacity. He revelled in the fact that he still had access to various candies and junk food from the outside world. Since the pockets were complete vacuums, food never went bad in them. Although, that also made Craig their living food storage unit. But it always gave him an edge over the others, so they never bothered him too much.
Craig reached in and pulled out his mangled toothbrush, berating his twelve-year old self for not thinking ahead to packing more than one. To be fair, though, he had never thought that he'd be trapped underground for the rest of his life.
The boys had created quite the system down below Aperture Science. They worked together and used their deviations to construct living quarters out of the old buildings, complete with a shower system and laundry unit. Thankfully a hundred years ago people had deemed it necessary to utilize such facilities in the large underground maze. Aperture still had running electricity and the boys had figured out a way to filter the reservoir of water. A hydroponics lab was even constructed. They could live semi-comfortably down there for years.
They had their resident engineer/handy-man, a somewhat trained security officer that they all owed their lives to, and an amalgam of other useful deviations to tap into when necessary. Craig thought that his was probably the most useful, not to be biased or anything. In addition, he was their resident genius, even if the others didn't agree. That was simply a fact.
Hugo thought that he was the genius of the group, being the son of a top scientist and all, but Craig knew better.
Hugo was an idiot.
Craig cleaned his glasses thoroughly in the sink, then brushed his thick black hair back and styled it neatly like his mother had always taught him to do. His parents had been very traditional Chinese and had schooled him to represent them well when they had sent him off to North America. They thought it would be safer for him there with his deviation rather than stay in China. Obviously, they had been wrong.
His violet eyes had given him away almost immediately as being Deviant. He had attempted to mask them, but someone had betrayed him soon after.
Craig stalked out of the bathroom after his self-imposed six minutes, almost tripping over Hugo and Big Dipper as they fought over who got to use the facilities next.
"Look, I've told you a million times, Charlie, that bathroom privileges come with age and experience. Of which you have neither!" Hugo was irate, yanking on Big Dipper's prized NASA shirt to keep him from claiming the restroom for himself.
"Lemme go, Helios! I gotta goo!" Big Dipper was straining against Hugo's grip, "And my NAME is BIG DIPPER!" The twelve-year old was small for his age and lacked maturity. Craig wasn't sure if the boy would ever develop any considering who he kept company with.
"Knock it off, Helios," Craig called Hugo by his hated nickname just to irritate him, "Let him use it and be a man." Gosh, Craig hated that guy.
Hugo loosened his grip and Big Dipper ran from him and slammed the bathroom door. Hugo crossed his arms, "There's a chart for a reason, Craig. A chart!"
Craig snorted, "A chart of your own making, you mean? I'm fairly sure that Rick already burned it."
Hugo's face flushed red and he spluttered, "Why- you- you- You know who I am, right? I deserve bathroom privileges! In fact, I deserve my own bathroom away from you heathens," he practically spat the word.
Craig was already walking away, used to Hugo's stupid egotistical rants. The man's mother had been one of the head scientists before Aperture had been taken over years back. Hugo had started working under her when Glados filled the facility with neurotoxin. Craig still wished that Chuck had picked someone else's rear end to rescue.
Hugo was all ego and no brains. He didn't even possess a deviation or a single useful skill. He was nothing more than a twenty-five year old spoiled brat, and the guy always wore his lab coat and his mother's PhD badge to make himself look smarter.
Big Dipper bolted from the bathroom and Craig prayed that the boy had washed his hands first. "There you go, Helios. Now you can put on your make-up and wash your hair in the sink," Big Dipper gibed at him with a laugh.
Craig wanted to turn around just to see Hugo's face, but decided against it. Hugo had been born with Hypotrichosis, meaning he had been born with no hair on his body, never able to grow any. He was as bald as a baby's behind and Big Dipper thought it was hilarious.
It's also where his nickname Helios had come from. Big Dipper had granted everyone a space-related nickname since the boy was absolutely and entirely obsessed with astrophysics. Hugo was dubbed Helios simply because the sun reflected off his bald head.
It was incredibly amusing, and Hugo hated it.
Big Dipper looked up at Craig with sudden seriousness, "Watch out, Hubble... I think Rick was gonna try making pancakes again."
Craig's footsteps faltered. Maybe he'd skip out on breakfast that morning.
I'm back! I mean, I know it hasn't been that long... but, whatever.
So, new characters! I found writing more characters goes much more smoothly than say, two or one at a time. I already have the next chapter written out as well, but I wanna double (triple, quadruple) check it first. I always do. I hope the characters turn out okay. I designed and drew them out months ago before I started writing this fic, so I'm hoping to do them justice and make their human...ness interesting, haha. I have illustrations of what each character looks like, so once I post the next chapter I'll upload them to my deviantART account so you can see them if you want (I love illustrations... who doesn't?) :) But if you want a sneak peek, I drew this monopoly meme of official Portal characters using my designs for this fic on deviantART (look up LOSHComixfan and check my Portal folder). Can't post links on here. ;)
Let's see, we've got Chuck (Harry Callaghan's character), Charlie/Big Dipper (Space Core), Craig (Fact Core), and Hugo (Ego core; also Harry's character).
I tried not to be too stereotypical, but it happened anyway. Chuck is definitely your stereotypical mall cop guy. Also, he loves donuts. (Psht, who doesn't though?)
Craig is Chinese, but to be fair I wanted a little variety with the characters and it fit what I wanted his character to be like. I've been learning Chinese for three years and want to move to Taiwan, so I do know a lot about Chinese culture and wanted to have a Chinese character. Although it probably won't come up again, ah well.
Space Core is a kid... thought it would make it more interesting to have some age differences in the group. It also seemed to fit his character. :) He's adorable.
Then I had to make Ego Core shiny and bald. I had to. I also knew somebody with that same condition growing up, but I haven't come across it since.
I think that covers all my random author's notes. I hope you enjoy the chapter, short as it may be. Good night all!
-Moe
