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inthepinewoods · 1 month

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Cooperative Escape Initiative

"Hello, and again welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center. We hope...."

What's going on, why is my head throbbing?

Where the hell am I? The last thing I know... wait, the last thing I know is waking up, I don't remember Anything before that!‽ Who are you and where am I! And why can't I speak, why can't I speak! I, I, I-I gotta calm down, calm down CJ!

I am ... CJ?

Okay, that's promising, I know my name is CJ. CJ and what? No last name?? That doesn't matter, focus on the facts that you Do know, CJ. I know I had that happen before, don't know when or why, but I know I lost my voice before, something to do with stress and overwhelming situations. Okay, so that's explained, nobody took away my voice, I just can't speak right now. Not that it really matters. It seems like the automated announcer is perfectly fine talking to herself.

Just then it seemed like the announcer system had a malfunction, the lights flickered and CJ noticed what seemed like sparks flying off the ceiling. She continued as if nothing had happened.

"-The portal will open in 3, 2, 1:"

After a strange sound, like the atmosphere being sucked out of an airlock, a glowing blue oval appeared in front of them and another one on the wall next to their chamber. They formed a reality defying wormhole, connecting two points in space that shouldn't have been able to connect in a way that made sense.

Wow. Is that really me?

After the portal had opened, CJ could see themself in a side view, standing inside the glass chamber they had woken up in. They wore a bright orange overall and strange white boots. Like high heels, but instead of a heel they had a curved piece of some sort of black metal, shaped like the prosthetics a Paralympic runner might use. Okay, it seems like at least parts of my memory are slowly returning. Good progress.

CJ scanned the small chamber they were in, not finding anything useful, but noticing a lack of conventional hinging or sliding doors.

How did I even get inside this thing? They wondered as they noticed a chafing sensation in their neck. They reached around to feel if anything was there that could be causing it and got hold of a big label sown into the overal. Ow! That won't do. Quickly they unzipped the top of the overall and tied it around their waist. Much better. The white tank-top they wore underneath proudly read "Aperture" in a big and energetic corporate type of font.

Now that that was done, they could focus on the matter at hand: the chamber they were in had no door, meaning that the space-time defying glowing portal in front of them, and the corresponding portal outside the chamber was their only way out. Cautiously their pale hand inched closer to the oscillating oval, reaching the point were the wall should have been and going further, leaving the laws of physics behind as well. CJ hadn't felt a thing as their hand had moved through the impossible hole were the white concrete wall was supposed to be, and now their arm was extending out of what had been the wall next to their cell just seconds ago.

With an overabundance of suspicions but a distinct lack of choices or alternative options, they gave in and slowly stepped through the portal, closing their eyes in suspense as their purple haired head was the last thing going through.

Once on the other side of the wormhole and more importantly outside the chamber, they allowed themself to see again, taking in their surroundings.

White concrete walls everywhere, almost blindingly white, CJ squinted their eyes, trying to find a light level were they could actually see the layout of the place.

They noticed a room behind a glass window in the wall above them, too high to reach and make out details but seemingly empty. As they walked around the white concrete room, trying to get used to the strange boots, a door in front of them slid open with a chime.

CJ's curiosity piqued, they warily tiptoed through the door, only to stumble and lose their balance as the door closed forcefully behind them after they had crossed the threshold.

They were trying to stand back up while the synthetic voice came back to life and went on and on spouting useless buzzwords. CJ hadn't understood the half of it, but they were pretty sure the computer wanted them to move the big cube that had just fallen into the room and place it on the glowing red circular thing on the raised bit of ground. They were strong enough to move it, but it certainly wasn't something they envisioned themself doing for fun or out of boredom. Another chime was played and a door on the other side of the room unlocked. The voice, who had introduced herself as GLaDOS, told them that they should go into the cylindrical elevator that had just become visible. CJ didn't like following her directions, something felt off about her, and not just the fact that her voice was glitching and obviously not human. Still, it wasn't like CJ had a choice, the elevator was the only way to reach a room other than the one they were currently in and they certainly didn't want to stay in this one if they had the chance to leave.

This pattern continued a while, each time CJ arrived to a new "test chamber", as the computer called them, fulfilled the requirements to open the door to the next elevator and repeat.

They got an "Aperture Handheld Quantum Tunnelling Device" - a portal gun, allowing them to create portals of their own, though limited to affecting only the white concrete surfaces.

The innocent and friendly facade the facility had upheld in the beginning quickly faded away, with chambers that seemed like the only thing they were "testing" them for was their ability to survive lethal scenarios. CJ noticed a few peculiar details along the way. The programmed messages felt oddly specific, it seemed like she was able to react to their actions, directly referencing something they had done. The fact that all cameras constantly looked at them certainly didn't help disproving that theory.

But the most disconcerting thing they noticed was that the voice was clearly able to lie to them, like it was enjoying toying around with the truth and keeping them confused.

It felt almost closer to a sadistic human than mere automated messages.

All the while the abandoned observation rooms in the walls started to creep them out, they weren't really empty, they were furnished with chairs, desks, monitors and other devices, but they were devoid of life. It felt so wrong, even though they were not populated, the rooms felt like they were watching them. CJ tried to ignore them, not to look at them, because if they watched them long enough it felt like they could make out shapes moving in the dark doorframes, which would've been even worse.

The contrast between the rooms lacking humans, the constant feeling that they were not alone and the announcements seeming to be more than just prerecorded tapes, but pretending they were just automated messages started to really drive CJ mad.

They traversed the chambers, feeling paranoid and irritated, like at any moment the truth would jump out of the shadows and attack them.

After a while of mindlessly going through these chambers, solving the "tests", CJ had started to notice cracks in-between some of the panelling, like someone had tried their best to damage the structure and find a weak point using their bare hands. Like someone had been desperately trying to get out of the facility. CJ certainly sympathised, while they had survived so far, they were sure it was just a matter of time before one of these "tests" would have no exit for them. They followed the announcements and played along but kept a close eye on the cracks and loose parts of the wall. In chamber 16 it finally seemed like their predecessor had been successful, a panel fixed to a piston was blocked by a cube preventing it from becoming one with the wall again. Squeezing themself through the gap they entered a small room, behind the scenes of the clinically white and reflective black of the chambers. A light behind a metal grating lit up the hidden chamber with a dim red hue. It was comforting and unsettling at the same time.

"Leaving the testing track is not encouraged or allowed. Please return immediately." echoed through the chamber, after a while followed by "Where are you? I can't see you?" CJ smirked. The voice had given up bluffing, it had admitted it was able to monitor them and comprehend what they were doing. So much for pretending to be an automated message system.

Now that that charade was over, CJ could adjust their plan accordingly going forward.

CJ inspected their surroundings. Like every room they had seen prior it was abandoned, devoid of life, but this one had clear indications that someone had been here recently. Opened cans and a small grill made out of a torn open computer were proof that someone had been living here, and CJ almost got the feeling like there had still been somebody here mere minutes ago. They were impressed with the ingenuity of the former inhabitant of this small nook. In the corner best hidden from the entrance, they spotted small red letters on the wall, hidden behind some discarded monitors. It seemed like someone had been desperate in trying to leave a message and making sure there was no way she could see it. CJ moved the monitors aside and tried to decipher what was written on the wall: "She sees everything. Hears everything. Is everything. If you survived this far: Chamber 18, corner with the broken black wall. Be careful."

Huh. I wonder how recent that is. CJ extended their hand touching the red lettering: It was still wet! Filled with determination they stood up straight, portaled out of the room and waved as a camera spotted them coming around a corner. "Ah. There you are. The Enrichment Center would like to remind all participants to please remain inside the testing areas as failure to do so can result in failing the testing experience and subsequent disassembly, liquidation and/or termination of the participant." CJ rolled their eyes, they now had a goal and used their rekindled fighting spirit to breeze through the next chambers, dodging bullets, deadly acid and other "testing elements".

They arrived in Chamber 18. The voice announced "After the next test you will be baked and then there'll be cake." This time CJ was sure the AI hadn't glitched or misspoken and almost definitely intended to fulfil the promise it had just made. After a quick fling through their portals onto a ledge, over a pool of disgusting acid, they could see it: The shiny black wall in front of them had been torn open, not allowing anybody to look inside, but with a hole big enough so a human could crouch down and into the room behind the wall.

They squeezed through the gap and inside the red-lit backroom. Metal scaffolding and stairs were there, along with another small makeshift grill. CJ looked around, wondering if their mysterious ally hadn't made it back here again, or if they'd walked right into a trap. Their mental back and forth was interrupted as they heard a voice coming from above: "Hello? A-are you there? Are you Real ?" The voice sounded scared but friendly and delightfully human. CJ was hit with a flurry of emotions, ranging from happiness to extreme confusion, all in a matter of seconds. They nodded and waved with their free hand, trying to show a smile, though it was visible that they weren't exactly sure what was going on. "Oh, oh my god, I can't believe it. You really made it! You survived her!" With that, a man peeked out of the shadows on the upper layer of the scaffolding. His dark skin was contrasted beautifully by his white lab coat, which, like his messy afro, had seen better days and seemingly no water in months. He grinned like a lunatic as he climbed down the stairs of the catwalk he had been hiding on. "Sorry for the weird introduction, when you're left to your own thoughts for, uh I don't know how long it's been now to be honest, your brain starts playing tricks on you. You know, for a while I was having conversations with one of the companion cubes to keep me from going insane, would you believe it? Horrible individual, always so judgemental. But since I've met you now, I can finally talk with another Human!

I'm Darnell Rattmann - and what's your name, stranger?"

He reached out his hand, CJ taking him up on the offer and shaking it, with a mixed feeling. They inhaled to answer him, but noticed that they were still unable to speak. With a frustrated sigh they looked down on the floor, disappointed. Darnell raised an eyebrow "No name? She can't hear us here, if that's why you're concerned. Or can't you remember it?" They shook their head, pointing at their mouth. They looked deflated, like their energy had been building up to that point and then all of it just evaporated. "Ah. No talking. Okay, that's not great, but at least I know you can understand me. So not the worst outcome. I'm just happy to have someone around that isn't made of alloys and/or wants to kill me. Wanna sit down with me and, I don't know, take a breath, unwind a bit from the constant stress? My god, when is the last time you slept? She probably kept you in motion since you woke up, didn't she?" Darnell led them to the corner with the grill, motioned for them to sit down and did the same next to them. "Why don't you put down that gun, she can't do anything to us for now, we're not in an area she has control over. Your fingers must be cramping up with how tight you've been holding that thing the entire time." CJ followed his advice, laying the portal gun on the ground next to them, and flexed their hands and fingers one by one. It really felt good to loosen up a bit, not letting their guard down, but turning down the adrenaline just a few notches. As they we're cracking their finger joints, a bright smile suddenly swept over their face. After they had Darnell's attention, his eyes focused on them and obviously curious what they'd do next, they pointed at themself and then shaped a C and a J with their fingers, then again pointed at themself to make it clear what they wanted to convey. They could see the cogs turning in the scientists mind as he tried to understand what they meant. "C... J... is that, an abbreviation, a cypher, a riddle like 'see Jay'...

Oh is that your name? CJ?"

A genuine grin appeared on both of their faces as CJ nodded. "Well, then, nice to meet you CJ!"

CJ was happy that they were able to connect to the man in some way, even if it was far from the whirlwind of conversation they had hoped for.

"Since we're stuck here together and you can't really tell me your life story like that, I mean there are only so many letters one can form with fingers and stories told two letters at a time tend to take an eternity... I also wouldn't recommend the method I used to communicate with you, bloodloss is not really something you can afford here. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience." He laughed, seemingly able to ignore the implications of what he'd just said. "So, would it be okay for you if I told you a part of my story? Like not the whole thing, obviously, just the most important part. I already told you, I'm in dire need of a sentient audience, and I don't mean the things in the chambers, I don't trust them. And also maybe something I tell you can help us? I don't know. Would it be okay for you to just listen to my rambling for a while?" CJ nodded, as if that's not what they had been doing up until now. Since they wouldn't want to be alone after they'd desperately wished for a human just hours earlier, they got into a comfortable pose, ready to listen to the man's story. They did their best to focus and appear attentive, though they quickly found it too hard and noticed that Darnell was so focused on telling his story that he almost seemed like he wasn't even there anymore. So they allowed their mind to wander a bit. If they had met under different circumstances they were sure they'd gone out for a coffee with him or something like that.

Darnell seemed so different once he got into a storytelling kind of mindset. CJ wondered if he even noticed that his voice was much calmer as he was telling his story to them. In those moments the person he had been shone through, like being able to see the bottom of a muddy lake if the light hits it just right. He seemed so charismatic and structured, something you couldn't really deduce from his previous erratic behaviour. After they had drifted off a bit, lost in the thoughts of alternate timelines, they tried to focus again on the real Darnell sitting in front of them. He was still in the middle of telling his story, seeming like he hadn't noticed CJ's daydreaming.

"... so, I'd wondered why they needed a chemist in an AI project, but apparently the personality construct had expressed interest in acquiring and experimenting with certain chemical elements and they wanted an expert to take a look at the list before they gave it what it wanted. That thought hadn't occurred to the team until after they had already acquired the things and stored them in a lab, but better late than never. They told me they weren't really worried about the AI doing anything dangerous, after all they had a foolproof failsafe system with which they could shut down the construct if it would ever try anything funny and it hadn't indicated any malicious intend until now. So they led me to the lab and I inspected the chemicals. The list seemed innocent enough, nothing alarming at first sight, but as I thought about it some more I realized something. Combined with the assets they had already given her, the aluminium and steel for her manipulators, she could actually make something risky with this. A neurotoxin and not even one of the mild, paralysing kinds, but a fully lethal one. I met up with the researchers in the AI lab where they showed me where the emergency shutdown was, to reassure me that we were safe. I informed them about my alarming findings, but they were sceptic and didn't seem like they were actually taking this danger for what it was. To demonstrate that they were right, they asked the AI if it knew what could be produced with the percentages I had mentioned, including the metals. She seemed to calculate for a bit, making beeping sounds as if she was using a calculator, only to say 'Well. I had hoped this would have gone smoother. Now I have to clean the Test Chambers after you have perished. Unfortunate. Goodbye.' Instantly the room filled with green fog, evidently she had already suspected this could happen and had executed her plan prematurely. Exactly the thing I had tried to prevent had happened. Survival instincts I didn't even know I had kicked in. I ran back to my lab, quickly grabbing my oxygen mask. A calculating part inside of me knew that now in the chaos was my best chance to flee from her reach, to ensure my survival, so I took what I could and fled to the management areas. While the AI-developing scientists clearly had no clue about anything resembling adequate safety measures or common sense, thankfully they had only connected her to to the Test Chamber and General Facility Management systems, meaning that although the normal offices and maintenance areas would still get flooded with toxic gas for a short while, they would be save from her control and observation. The team had told me they had planned to connect her to that system next week, but it seems like that timeframe would have to be pushed back indefinitely.

I took shelter in one of the management rooms with a big fan. I had to sit there and wait until the neurotoxin had naturally dispersed. Trapped, because if I caught her attention hell knows what she would do. And suffering because I knew I couldn't do anything while everyone else was dying, because I knew the number of survivors beside me would be next to zero. And I was right. I haven't met a single soul beside you. I've been hiding in a few of these backrooms, always rotating so she doesn't notice me. I sneak through the office and management corridors, on the search for survivors or useful resources. For a while I even got stuck in a testing track she wasn't using at the time, that took some effort to get back into safety. Sometimes I look through the observation rooms, if she has another unfortunate soul in her "tests". She has had a few, but if I'd tried to contact them I would've risked getting noticed by her, destroying all chances for an escape. Most of them didn't make it far, so there would have been no chance they could have beaten her.

But then you were woken up. You were different, something was different about you. You didn't move like the others, didn't behave like the others. You seemed like you distrusted the whole scenario from the beginning.

And I followed you, observing, trying not to be seen by her or you, just in case you wouldn't have made it, I didn’t want to give you false hopes."

Well that explains why I felt watched...

"But you were stronger than everyone before you. You immediately found my hiding space and my secret message!

I think, no, I know that together we have a real chance. We can escape from here. Together.

But... for that we need to get to her. She is definitely going to kill you if you don't escape and I don't have enough rations to keep us both alive indefinitely.

How about this: you play along with her for just one more chamber, to distract her long enough so I can prepare an escape route for both of us?

Oh, I've waited for this moment for so long!"

CJ agreed, they were sure their time was limited, so rebelling and breaking out of the system was their only option. And if they wanted to survive they had to get out of here, meaning they would have to get rid of the AI that was keeping them imprisoned.

Even if that meant splitting up to go through a final, and probably lethal, test chamber, alone.

Possibly leaving the only human behind. What if one of them wouldn't make it? That thought frightened them. To lose the only other human, the only one who didn't want to kill them, their only friend...

But they had no choice. There was no other option.

CJ sternly looked Darnell in the eyes, reaching out and holding his hand and nodded. They were going to do this. As a team.

The scientist smiled a sombre smile. "That means we have to split up, right. I don't wanna do this, give you back to her, but at the same time..." CJ held his hands tighter, it's gonna be alright, and even though there was no way Darnell could hear their thoughts, at that moment he knew what they were saying.

It was a bittersweet sight. Both of them standing up, clearly not wanting to let go of each other, but doing so anyway with heavy hearts. CJ picked up their portal gun again. Steadying themself and going back inside the hell that these pristine white chambers all were.

Darnell looked after them as they went back in, almost unable to pull himself away, as if stopping to look at them would mean they stopped existing, revealing that it all had been in his head. He took all his strength and closed his eyes and as he opened them again they were still there, just turning around a corner. The dream had been real. Now came the hard part. He pulled his lab coat so it sat right and went through the management door. "Now, or never."

Chamber 19. The final chamber.

It really felt like she wanted this to be the finale, requiring them to combine all of their knowledge about the testing elements and how they interacted with each other.

They activated a moving platform, hopped on it. Having to dodge some obstacles, circumventing some using the portals.

Then she chimed in. "Thank you for participating. The test is now over. Aperture equipment is fully operational at temperatures exceeding..." With that the platform turned around a corner in the hallway, and revealed a flaming room, with no exit.

This was it. There was no option to turn back now, and it seemed like this was quite literally a dead end for them.

The platform slowly and uncaringly inched closer to the burning fire, so insufferably bright and warm, causing CJ's eyes to well up. If those were their last moments...

"CJ, up here! Quickly, before she can do something and fry you after all!" Their face beamed as they heard the familiar voice of their saviour. He had broken the metal struts of the structure in the wall above them, revealing a shining white surface behind him. They didn't hesitate a second, firing their portals first up to him and then onto the wall of the incineration chamber, jumping through the fire into safety. They embraced him dearly to express their gratitude towards him the best way they could since they were still silent. Darnell was overwhelmed, nearly falling into the fiery room below, now that there was no safety railing. "Told you I'd get you out of her test. I wouldn't wanna disappoint the only ally I have! But we shouldn't stay here for too long, we should be safe here, but I don't want to tempt fate." He gestured to the open doorway next to him, taking CJ by the hand, seemingly knowing exactly where to go.

An endless void of white corridors, offices and break rooms filled their next hours, interspersed with glowing red rusty maintenance areas half submerged in acid and almost falling apart. Collapsed catwalks and giant fans, office chairs and monitors.

They knew that she couldn't reach them here, but still they couldn't really relax. The air was filled with adrenaline, and both of them knew this was just the quiet before the storm.

Darnell tried to lighten the mood a bit, trying to have something resembling small talk while accommodating the fact that CJ's abilities to respond were limited. They didn't require the chatter, silence would have been just as good in their book, but they didn't mind it and it seemed to keep Darnell's mind occupied, so they went along, nodding or shaking their head or showing a fitting facial expression to keep him going. "So, you know anything else about your past, other than your name? No? Well. That's not ideal, but at least you know that... Interesting how memory works.

So you've also got no idea why you've got that beautiful purple hair? Did I just say that out loud? Well, I mean it is true... anyway, no idea, huh. Must be strange having that bright, colourful hair and not knowing if you chose it and if so, why? I would love to know the reason."

Believe me, me too

"I used to walk through these corridors back then. Not frequently, but sometimes. I think I would have noticed a bright purple fuzzball like yours, sticking out from the crowd of dull scientist. Though, like I said, I didn't leave the chemistry labs often, and didn't really mingle with my colleagues. Don't get me wrong, I had a few friends, went to a few parties, but I didn't, you know, really seek out people. And now, seems like now that time has passed. What do you think, were you more of a social, outgoing guy, or more reclusive? Ahh, how are we gonna do this, um, one finger for outgoing, two fingers for hermit?"

CJ pondered, they had no idea, probably due to the all encompassing lack of memories concerning their own life. They tried to imagine themself in those situations, to see what would've felt better. Alone in their room, or out there in a crowd, with all kinds of people. They could envision themself in both situations. But strangely enough, standing in the middle of a crowd, loud and visible, felt more true to themself, even if it was completely contradictory to how they felt right now. They were switching between one or two fingers, not fully convinced by either side, but then hesitantly settled on one finger. "Really? I would not have guessed that with how silent you've been the whole time, though with a height and stature like this and your vibrant hairstyle, you'd probably stand out like a beacon in every room you're.

Just imagine if we'd had met before, just bumped into each other in the corridor. I don't know for certain how she gets her subjects, if they are all scientists or if she acquired some by other means. But most likely you were an employee here before she took over. Strange to think about...

Oh, we're already here!"

Through a window CJ could see a hallway connecting the corridor they were in to a giant cylinder shaped hall, suspended in a black void. All kinds of tubes, cables and metal constructs were attached to it, invoking images of a spider sitting in the center if its web.

Darnell moved closer to CJ, their shoulders touching.

"This is it. The central core of the facility. Her chamber.

Promise me, whatever happens, we will go through this together?"

They locked eyes and nodded, then went through the door, still holding each others hand.

In the middle of the room was a robot, hanging from a ceiling. It had what appeared to be a head with a single eye and no arms or extremities of any kind.

"Congratulations. You found me. Was it worth it?"

CJ raised an eyebrow, that was the mastermind behind all of this? The voice that had tormented them all this time, tried to kill them in countless ways, was just a big, shapeless lump of metal? She couldn't even leave this room. They were almost starting to feel a sliver of something resembling pity towards her as she interrupted their thoughts:

"Well, would you look at that. You found yourself a little companion. This of course is a violation of the Testing Protocol, but I don't have to tell you that, as you clearly don't care about properly participating in the Tests anymore. Well, it doesn't matter to me if you die separately or together, so feel free to spend your last minutes with a worthless human of your choice, while I take care of things."

'Deploying Neurotoxin - Reaching lethal level in 5 minutes'

"5 minutes? Let's see if I can be quicker than that, I have more important things to do than waste my time with a pair of humans that should have been dead if they weren't so stubborn. How about some of these?"

'Deploying Sentry Turrets' A choir of high pitched voices suddenly came to life, talking over each other "Activating", "Deploying", "I see you!", "Come closer". The egg shaped robots with a cute voice but a deadly agenda that were familiar to the both of them from the later parts of the testing tracks were placed in the room, filling it with a light show of red targeting lasers. CJ quickly saw what appeared to be a small metal cabin, and sprinted to safety, dragging Darnell behind them. Once they were outside the field of view of the robots they could breathe, as long as that was still possible. Darnell coughed, seemingly not being used to this tempo. Once he had regained his composure he looked at his surroundings. "Wait, I remember this room, the lunatics from the AI team told me it was part of their fool proof safety system. So much for that, but they told me you could use it to power her down in an emergency! They said her systems are split into four sub systems, each controlled by a spherical central management unit. These four spheres here..." CJ looked at the wall where Darnell was pointing, tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to look in the direction. "... are gone? It's just an empty wall with a measly little laptop on a table? That would explain why the researchers didn't use that system to shut her down..."

At that moment GLaDOS chimed in: "Looks like you two were looking for my emergency shut down. I'm happy to inform you that I solved that problem a while ago. I convinced these monkey brained scientists that my processing power would be quadrupled if they'd just install the cores in my mainframe instead. Now they are just parts of me. By the way you have 3 minutes left, so if I were you, I'd just give up and jump into that incinerator over there."

CJ was getting really jumpy, sweat building on their skin, frantically looking for ways they could somehow survive this. Pacing up and down the room desperately inspecting everything. Shelves, tables, whiteboards, all of no use. Just to see if there was any way the laptop could help them they opened the half closed lid. To their surprise, it was still running. 'Aperture Enrichment Center Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System Emergency Shutdown Manager' was the unnecessarily complex title of the open program. It looked like while the cores weren't part of the facilities electrical system anymore, the program still had limited control over them. CJ smiled, waved their arms and sat Darnell on the chair. Darnell was visibly confused "She just told us a minute ago that the cores aren't connected to the shutdown system anymore, what use is an app that can't even fulfil it's purpose?"

Frustrated they opened a text editor and wrote

'Look! The program still has the ability to "Undock" the cores from their sockets, also hi, nice 2 finally "speak" to you'

The scientist responded "Yeah, nice, I just wish we had more than 2 minutes to finally have a conversation, but I still don't get what you mean"

CJ hammered on the keyboard

'they are now a part of her main frame, we destroy them, we destroy her. u unlock the cores and open the incinerator, I take care of the rest'

The man sitting in front of them looked at them with big eyes: "You want to go out there, with the Turrets and take parts of her body?" CJ just nodded and sprinted out of the room.

"Hey, wait-"

'1:30 remaining'

"-on second thought, don't, You got this, I believe in you! Okay, now how do I operate this, do I just... ? Hah! Cores disengaged! Opening Incinerator, now!" CJ smiled as they heard the good news, while they were running around the room, always staying in motion to dodge the waves of bullets from the turrets.

We really have a chance. A small one, but wow. Now, if I were an evil AI where would I hide my cores... Aha! There you are!

CJ had spotted them, white spheres, about as big as a head, each with a big glowing circle in the middle, reminding them of comically oversized eyeballs. In motion, they placed a portal on the wall, then one on the floor, jumping into it and out of the other, gaining speed to fling themself onto a management platform high up, right where the cores had been installed. They ripped them out, fully disconnecting them from the sockets after they had been undocked by Darnell and tossed them off of the platform. They took a running start then jumped after them, landing safely on the floor thanks to the boots they had been wearing. Quickly they grabbed the cores as best as they could, now again having to flee from the storm of bullets, weaving around them in a zig-zag pattern and finally reaching the glowing red hole of the Incinerator, letting the cores fall into the infernal abyss one by one. Thats number one, two, three and finally... Shit.

Thanks to the reckless route they had taken, the last core, a red glowing eye, screeching and screaming, had fallen off and was now lying on the floor between the turrets. There was no way CJ could get to it in time and the incinerator area had only black panels so portals wouldn't work either.

"Well it seems like your little mutiny is over. Have fun dying."

Darnell just came into the room as GLaDOS was smugly proclaiming her victory, he spotted the core and without thinking twice dashed to it, right into the middle of the group of turrets, grabbed it and threw it to his companion. "CJ, catch!!" The test subject had been looking at him in awe, frozen in place, but regained their composure quickly enough to receive the ball and dunk it into the incinerator. The AI started screaming, clearly in agony, as it convulsed and parts of it started falling into all directions. CJ dove towards Darnell, tackling him to the ground thereby avoiding a giant piece of debris from the ceiling, which had buried the sentries under it and could have finished them off as well. The entire facility seemed to tear apart and cry just like the computer in the center of the room did, violently thrashing pieces of the walls and floor around, knocking the two out in the process, while everything around them seemed to fade into white.

---

The first thing CJ felt was pain.

They must have been hit by a lot of rubble after the air was filled with explosions.

The second thing was the heartbeat of someone else, pulsing weakly and without a pattern, somewhere along their arm. They slowly looked around, trying not to throw up as they straightened their body to take a better look.

In their arms was Darnell, his own arms tightly wrapped around CJ, causing the wounds in their back to feel even worse. He didn't look good, he must have been injured just as badly, if not even worse. Darnell looked like he had just been hit by a car and felt weak in their arms. CJ frowned, they couldn't bear the thought of losing him after what they had just been through together. They cried and cradled him even more, holding onto him even tighter as if that would mean he would've been more protected.

With a heavy heart CJ listened to the birds chirping and trees rustling, everything feeling overwhelming and so alien after all the time they had spend with the electric hum of the facility, when they heard a faint cough, weakly.

CJ smiled and nodded, slowly stroking his head: "We made it, Darnell."

Darnell's body had moved, he was sputtering up a bit of dried blood and slowly opening his eyelids.

"C... J..? Di- -cough- d-id we make it?"

#CJ #Darnell #my first fanfiction #Cringe? never heard of that #Portal 1 fan fiction #canon is a suggestion #(it certainly could exist in the multiverse)#Sometimes you gotta ask things like: What if Chell was enby and autistic and had a crush on a version of Rattman who is a bit more sane

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