Marbles on glass (Chapter 7 - Portal fan-fiction)

  Walking had not come naturally to Wheatley and it had taken a few hours, after finally managing to dress himself, to take his first steps. He had started by leaning on the glass of the bin he was in until he felt confident enough to let go and try walking unaided. His first attempt had ended in failure and he now sported bruises from tripping over his own, large, feet. 

  GLaDOS had sent the glass bin down to a test chamber (when he had the hang of walking around his prison), taking away one of its walls with a claw when it arrived. She dropped a pair of long-fall boots next to him before withdrawing the claws and replacing the panels in the ceiling. He watched the panels shifting, blue lights on their arms disappearing as they re-made the roof. He strapped the long-fall boots on, his hands becoming easier to control the more he used them.

  “Hey, hey, are we going back to space? I love space!” the space core chattered away from his spot in the corner. Wheatley shook his head down at him, the sensation momentarily leaving him dizzy.

  “No. Don’t really want to go back there myself, although, it, ah, may still be better than this,” he motioned to himself with one hand, the other holding his head in his wide palm, “feels strange to be this high all the time. I don’t like it much, not at all really. Its like being back on my management rail but, erm, without the safety of being attached I suppose…”

  “The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is in this chamber. You will need it for further testing,” Her voice rang out, cutting his train of thought as a small camera lifted and focused its lens on him from above a circular door. Wheatley gave a nervous smile, picking up the space core and holding him by his handle. 

  “Right… you’re heavy mate,” he groaned. He shifted the weight of the core in his hand, “so, ah I’ll just get on with testing then,” he added in a low mutter, scanning the room until he saw the portal gun sat on a pillar in the middle of it. He went to take a step forwards, stumbling over his feet and bouncing on the heel of one long-fall boot as he steadied himself. He gave a nervous chuckle and tried again, staring down at his feet and moving slowly across the paneled floor. Finally he faced the podium where the gun waited and picked it up. He gave it a nervous look over before slipping his hand through its grip. Juggling with the space core with each movement.

  “Wait… wait, I know, wait, wait wait… I know, I know, wait,” the defective core muttered away as Wheatley moved cautiously towards the door. Her camera still watched, moving with him, “SPAAAAACE!” 

  “ARRRRRGH!” Wheatley cried, nearly dropping his companion at the sudden shout. He took a few unsteady breaths, glaring down at the yellow optic under his arm, “what did you do that for? Scared the living day lights out of me,” he shook his head at the core and headed to the exit. It opened for him and he hastily ducked through the emancipation grid. The operating end of the ASHPD twitched, but nothing else seemed to happen. He chuckled a little nervously and took a few more, cautious, steps to the stairs. 

  At the bottom he could see a glass elevator. The last time he had seen one of those… his shoulders sagged, that heavy weight settling in his chest again.

  “Hey, hey, hey… Space,” the core whispered into his arm, breaking him from his silent reverie. 

  Wheatley bounced down the stairs, a little too fast for his liking, as the elevator door opened. GLaDOS stayed silent for now, but he guessed it wouldn't be too long until She started with Her almost constant insults.

  “You know,” he started in an almost whisper, looking down at his companion, “I still want to escape. Still want to apologize for being monstrous to her. For, for trying to kill her,” he closed his eyes, the doors closing and he felt the elevator moving downwards, “I, ah, nearly killed her didn’t I? The only one who listened to me… sure, she had brain damage but…” he stopped, leaning back onto the glass wall of the elevator with a heavy sigh.

  “Black hole,” the space core said, his tone suddenly serious. Wheatley grinned half heartedly, opening his eyes to look down at him.

  “Exactly mate. A big one, right about here,” he moved the portal gun over his chest, motioning as best as he could “feels just like that. Swear you know more than you let on.”

XXX

  Beth's  side ached along with her head as she opened her eyes. The last thing she could remember was searching along the road where she had accidentally ran into the mystery woman, then wandering into the wheat fields a little. After that had been the sensation of falling, pain throughout her body and two male voices before she blacked out. 

She stared up at the ceiling, but all she could see beyond the haphazard squares above was darkness. Beth could hear music, the words didn’t make much sense but the tune felt sad and depressing. She looked down, spotting her cell phone, she reached over and grabbed it, trying to turn it back on.

  “Bloody battery,“ she muttered, again looking for the source of the music. Down the hallway she was laying in (which was pretty disorientating to say the least) were more branches, clumping together near the door. To the other side the branches thinned and she could see a half circle radio laying on its side. With a groan she tried to sit up, wincing as she moved her arms to support her weight and leaning a little on what looked like a branch of some sort of tree.

  “Fact: you have an eighty point nine chance of dying within the next four minutes,” her heart thudded at what the voice said and she turned her head sharply to find the speaker.

  “Four eyes, I would give you a wedgie if we had arms or legs, or wore pants. Hey beautiful, finally woke up,” there was a deep laugh, the voices coming from somewhere above and to the right of her. Beth looked up, straight into two glowing lights on the front of two metal balls hanging from a bar on the ceiling.

  “AHHH!” she cried, leaping back as the green lit ball suddenly moved forward, “what the hell?”

  “Fact: human females do not speak,” the pink light stared down at her un-moving from its place on the rail.

  “Shuddup,” the ball with the green light growled, its beam flicking as if it were trying to look over its non-existent shoulder to the other one, “just because the last lady didn't but she gave us something to remember. Explosion day! Can’t wait until next explosion day,” Beth tightened her hand around the branch, staring wide-eyed at the two. Were these alive? Some sort of robot? Her mouth flapped open and closed a few times before she could find the courage to speak again.

  “W-what are.. Or.. Who are you? I-I mean, do you… have names..? Are you friendly ..?” the green light fixed on her again.

  “The names Rick. The Adventure core,” he said proudly, “now don’t you worry your pretty head, little lady. You’re in safe hands with me around,” Beth blinked a few times, taking in their shapes once again. There was the distinct lack of hands.

  “Fact: with the adventure core you have a two point five chance of survival,”

  “And this here is the fact core, ignore him. Just stick with me little lady,” Beth pulled herself up, still using the overgrown plant as support, staring up at ‘Rick’ and ‘Fact’.

  “What are you..?” she asked quietly, her legs shaking beneath her as she tried to calm her thumping heart.

  “Wait… you’re not from Black Mesa are you? We’re under strict orders not to talk to anyone that works for them, no matter how beautiful they may be,” Beth felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment as the compliments, flew down at her. She usually just got called plain or ginger.

  “Black Mesa? No, no I don‘t work for them…” she started uncertainly.

  “Well lady, you’re not a scientist are you? Can’t remember them ever wearing clothes like that. Not that I mind. We can have an adventure,” his green ‘eye’ stared down at her, behind him on the rail the pink eyed robot piped up, 

  “Fact: we are about to be killed,” Beth's heart thumped with fear again as a loud bang echoed from above them. All three of them looked up to a pair of determined eyes looking through the gap in the ceiling.

  “Sweetie!” Beth cried out, relieved at seeing a human face, “I think I’m stuck down here. Fell quite a way, but I’m alright… oh, what are you doing here?” the dark haired woman swung her legs down into the hole. Her strange, white boots catching the glow of the lights. She jumped down, landing in front of Beth. Her grey eyes stared at her, but Beth could not read any emotions in them.

  “Oh hello beautiful, who are we fighting this time? You fighting this girl..?” he laughed, something resembling an eyelid moving and half covering his ‘eye’. Beth frowned as the mystery woman glared up at the little robot.

  “Fact: Marie curie invented the theory of radioactivity, the treatment of radioactivity and dying of radioactivity,” the other ‘core’ said, he was met by a roll of the eyes from the other woman.

  “So, erm, how’d we get out of here? Can we climb back up there?” Beth looked up, squinting into the darkness and trying her best to ignore the two robots as they began to argue on the rail, “actually, not sure how far up it goes. Is there anything to even climb on up there?” she turned back to the dark haired girl who shook her head, reached out and took Beth's arm in her hand. She motioned down the hallway, past more branches of the tree, “ah right, we have to look for another way to escape right?” she was almost certain she caught her flinch as she dragged her down the hallway, “quick question,” Beth ventured after a moment. The two cores further back hadn't noticed them leaving, yet, and were still in the midst of arguing, “what’s your name? Can‘t remember if I asked before or…”

  “Chell,” she replied, keeping her voice low and not turning around.

  “Ah, right. Lovely name, is it short for something? Never mind. Anyway, what is this place?” the woman, Chell, let go of her arm and gave only a quick shake of her head by way of reply, “ah, alright…” Beth said quietly, following her as she crouched and climbed through a gap on the wall by the floor. 

  Chell disappeared from her sight and, a split second later there was the sound of something hitting metal. Beth, awkwardly crouched and crawled through the hole, slightly worried when she spotted the dirty hand print on the wall. It was too large to be a woman’s. swallowing against the sudden dry sensation in her throat she leant forwards, seeing the dark haired girl waiting for her on a metal catwalk. It wasn't that far down so she quickly swung her legs around and dropped, gulping as the metal swayed beneath her feet. 

  “This place is pretty creepy…” she glanced back to the hole they had climbed through, “its all falling apart. And what’s with those… core things? Where are we?” she found it hard to stop her voice from shaking. Chell stepped closer to her, gently patting her arm and smiling so softly Beth wasn't even sure if she had seen it. 

  They walked together down the catwalks, up and down the metal staircases that were scattered here and there. The whole place almost sounded alive with the distant creaks and quiet bangs. Beth shuddered, sticking close to Chell and wishing she could be as calm as her new acquaintance. After what felt like an eternity they came across another crawl space, set just above the rail of the catwalk. Chell climbed up first, pulling herself into the narrow space. A second later her hand appeared at the entrance, motioning for Beth to follow. 

  It was a bit more of a struggle for the taller woman, but finally she managed to squeeze herself into the opening. She could see the other woman’s boots at the end, upright and waiting. With a grunt Beth pulled herself along, flailing as she slipped out and stood up, laughing nervously.

  “I’m not a big fan of small spaces,” she said as Chell’s eyes widened the tiniest amount, “rather be out of them, erm, claustrophobic I think its called…” she paused, giving the room they were stood in a look over. The lighting in here was yellowish, making the whole place seem more eerie than the much darker catwalks. On the floor various mugs, computer terminals and bean cans laid and on one wall was a stunning mural. The picture itself was of a woman in an orange jumpsuit, apparently asleep. Strange tiny, white things with three legs and one red light at their center stood in a line beneath the sleeping woman. Words and equations had been scratched all over the place, none of them making much sense to her. In the corner there was a box with a heart on, much like the burnt one she had seen Chell with. A small halo painted above it. Beth took it all in, her eyes drawn back to the focal point of the picture.

  “Is that… is that you?” she asked, pointing one finger at the image of the sleeping woman and turning to look at her companion. Chell shrugged her shoulders and motioned for her to follow, moving past the mural and vanishing around a corner. Beth shuddered in the cool air, sure she could hear a high pitched, chattering voice from somewhere behind the wall, “sweetie! Wait for me!” she stumbled over herself as she dashed to catch up with her.