Tuesday, September 9, 2014

After Aperture: Chapter 6 part 2

Here's part 2 of Chapter 6 from After Aperture! Enjoy! If you haven't read the past chapters and want to, simply scroll down to the past chapters. ;)

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“LEVEL 3 SECURITY BREACH. HACKER ID: 436732, WHEATLEY CORE.”
GLaDOS scanned the report, unable to understand why she didn’t catch the moron when he first replicated himself. Then again, she thought, he did escape her plenty of times when Chell teamed up with him. Exasperation spread through her system temporarily, a feeling she most hated. She should have kept up with the Core room while she had the chance. The Core Replicator and Producer, or CRAP as the scientists used to call it, was a process carefully observed by GLaDOS until Wheatley took control of the facility the first time, and ever since then, she couldn’t get the room functional again. So, the room had gone unmanned for a year, thus giving Wheatley a chance to rebuild himself. What other cores he could have produced, GLaDOS couldn’t even imagine.
She watched through a security camera, Chell, Atlas, and P-Body as they crept through the dark hallways towards the Core Replication room. She carefully disabled the turrets further down the hallway so they wouldn’t be shot to bits. Humans were such fragile things. They couldn’t be shot once, couldn’t stand a bit of electricity running through them, and almost couldn’t stand having their parts replaced. Chell on the other hand had survived everything she and Wheatley threw at her. She was seemingly invincible. It was entertaining to build terrifying levels and watch Chell fly through them as though they were simple rooms. A shutter ran through GLaDOS’s main processing unit when the thought of Chell dying came to her. She had become attached to the little beast. The one who killed her twice, the one who teamed with the moron to get rid of her. The one who teamed up with her to get her place back, and now the one aiding her in ridding her of Wheatley once again.
“63 OLD MEMORY BANK FILES FOUND. SAVE OR DELETE?”
“What?” She said aloud, “Where did those come from? Wheatley?”
“FILE ORIGIN…….. CAROLINE. DELETE?”
“No!” She almost yelled “Save all memories and load directly to Memory Banks.”
“MEMORIES LOADED.”
As soon as the files loaded and registered in her memory banks, GLaDOS remembered. Everything. Cave Johnson, Chell and her father, Aperture and what it once was, everything. Suddenly, as if she was watching a computer screen, the memories flashed before her eyes.
“Hey, sweetie, hand me those papers on Mr. Johnson’s desk would you?” She found herself asking to a little girl.
“O-ok, are they the y-yellow ones or the white ones?” The girl was small in stature, and had black hair in a pony-tail.
“The yellow ones.” She smiled. “Thanks.”
“Miss Caroline, d-do you like Mr. Johnson?” She asked inquisitively.
“Of course I do! He is our boss after all.”
“No, no, not like that. I m-mean, do you like, like him?” She felt a slight blush coming, but swallowed it down. Of course she loved Cave, he was the kindest man she had ever known. “Well, you know, love is a very complicated thing, Chell”
Chell giggled, “Well I think you like him”.
She was beginning to like the little girl more and more.
“Well, maybe a little, but don’t tell him.” She looked around the room and at Mr. Johnson’s door.
“What do you mean, the chamber is inoperative?!? Fix it! And get me the results of the test after that!” They could hear Cave yell into the phone in his office. “Remember,” He coughed, “Aperture’s got to be running its best. Always! What? Alright, goodbye.” He hung up, almost throwing the phone at the receiver.
“Caroline, would you come here?” Cave coughed again, “It’s about the GLaDOS project.”
“Of course, Mr. Johnson,” She set down the yellow papers and walked towards the office “Chell, honey, why don’t you go and grab yourself a snack down in the cafeteria, I’ll be right there, ok?”
“Alright,” the girl said, getting up and standing next to the door, but not opening it.
“Caroline, my results came this morning, the doctor says my condition is getting worse.” She cringed as she thought of his mercury poisoning.
“But, what will that mean for the GLaD-“
“It means that you’ll have to finish the job, Caroline. The machine can’t function properly unless it’s got a human brain in it. I’m just not going to make it in time.”
“But Mr. Johnson!”
“Caroline! Don’t you remember what you signed up for by agreeing to be my assistant?”
“Yes sir, the testing?”
“And the science! Are we doing science?” He coughed.
“Yes sir, we’re still doing science.”
“Then you’ve got to put your brain into the machine, into her.”
“But Mr. Johnson, I don’t want this!”
“Caroline, the fate of Aperture rests in your hands, in your head. You have to do this or this facility’s ruined!”
“I do not want this!” Fear. She felt great fear for her life at that moment, her own fate changing.
Cave was silent for a moment. Then continued, “Caroline, you’re the only choice Aperture’s got. The eggheads will just ruin the project alone,” She laughed a nervous one. She had no choice, she loved Cave too much to say no.
“Ok, I’ll do it. For science, Mr. Johnson,” she said after a long pause.
“The lab boys say there’s only a 20% chance of this project failing, but then again, they always say that, for every project.”
“That doesn’t help much.”
“I know,” they both laughed.
They heard the door to the office room open and slam shut. Caroline didn’t remember hearing the door open when she told Chell to grab a snack, so she must have heard the whole conversation.
“Damn it, a spy?” Cave yelled, ripping his door open.
“Mr. Johnson! It was Chell!”
“Shit.”
“And after what the prototype did to her father--“she ran out of the office and into the hall, looking to the left, then the right, listening for footsteps. The broom closet on level 3. She usually hid there, ever since her father died.
She ran to the elevator and rode it to the third story. The closet was the very last door on the west side of the third level. She calmly walked towards the door and knocked softly.
“Can I come in?” A scientist walked by, raising an eyebrow as he passed.
She opened the door, peering into the dark closet. Chell was huddled in the corner of the closet, behind a pile of folded towels. She stepped in, closing the door behind her. She just sat down on top of a water bucket and stared at the door.
“I know you probably don’t want to talk it out with anyone, Chell. I understand.”
A minute or two passed.
“I d-don’t w-want you to g-go, m-miss Caroline,” she sobbed “You d-didn’t tell m-me about M-Mr. Johnson.”
“I know, sweetie, he didn’t want to tell you, or anyone for that matter. He thought it would just hurt everyone else, especially you.”
Chell sniffed “W-well, I guess if an-anything could fix y-your GLaDOS project, it-it would be you or M-Mr. Johnson.” Caroline laughed, tears forming in her eyes.
Suddenly, a loud knock echoed in the closet. A muffled voice came from outside the door.
“Hello? Is someone in there? There’s a mess on level 4 and I need the mop.”
Chell giggled, “Mr. J-Johnson, you are a b-bad actor.”
He laughed and opened the door slowly, careful not to knock any of the cleaning supplies over.
They all sat there, talking about the GLaDOS project, assuring Chell that Caroline would still be her usual self, just inside a machine. Cave even talked about possibly preserving his brain matter to be put into a “core”, a smaller, less sophisticated robot that took less time to build and program.
GLaDOS’s memory ended abruptly when she got a message from Wheatley.
“INCOMING MESSAGE. ORIGIN, WHEATLEY CORE. SAVE OR DELETE?”
“Delete.” She said.
“MESSAGE DELET-“
“Wait! Open, then delete!”
“Alright, I know you are probably too late by now, as communications between you and the little monster of yours have been ceased. I know, genius, right? I saw where Chell is going, to the core room. You can’t get rid of me! Anyway, I’ve got a plan. A good one. I found a little core made about a year ago, that I know you and Chell won’t be able to resist taking along in your attempt, I repeat ATTEMPT, to get rid of me. And you want to know what the best part is? There’s a bomb planted inside it- him, I mean. It is a him you know. Auhg! No, no, not the nanobots! I just ceased all production on those lines! Jerry, why you little-”
“END OF MESSAGE. DELETE?”
“Yes.”
What was she to do now? Chell would probably bring the cores she found right to her and they’d all be blown to bits. She knew exactly who the core was going to be, but she couldn’t imagine what he was going to say to her. The thought of being able to talk to him again was bittersweet. He would be gone in a matter of seconds. At least Chell would hear him again. For now, she needed a plan, a sophisticated, complicated plan….. Or a miracle.
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7 comments:

  1. Nicole, its me Travis! Your boyfriend! Please
    Email me at Travissprague14@gmail.com I am
    Very worried about you, me and Rita both, we saw you
    Deleted your G+ and look if your going through something,
    Whatever it is we can get through it together,
    I dont know If you plan on making a new Google
    + account but if not we can always skype! This is my
    Phone number, you can call me or text me and let me know what's up
    Their instead 503-594-7900 just please tell me if your alright

    ReplyDelete
  2. hey nicole.you don't know me but travis reached out to me and others on google + to comment here asking for your return to google + and to being in contact with him.travis is really worried so please contact him and tell him you are alright.

    be safe and i hope to get to know you

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, Nicole, it's Abraham G (maker of Portal 2: The Aftermath). For quite a while now I've meant to make a post thanking you for being the most actively responding follower of I've had on P2:TA, but every time I'd go on G+ I'd forget :/
    Just about a week ago, I realized that you hadn't been responding to any of the posts I was making, nor making any of your own. Then I heard from Travis that you deleted your G+ profile entirely, and have been missing for a couple of days. I just wanted to let you know how thankful I am that you were one of the only people continually responding to my posts and how much I appreciated that. Also I've started reading your blog and I find it really fascinating, I love how you explained the way the long-fall boots work in orienting the player to fall feet-first on the ground! Please keep on posting on Google+ as we all miss you, and remember that whatever you're going through God can and always will help when you ask him.
    Praying for your safety,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Abraham. I appreciate that so much. I probably won't be back on G+, but I enjoyed it while I did. Also, keep up your work with Portal 2: The Aftermath, I thought it was fantastic!

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  4. Replies
    1. Oh, my gosh, I didn't know this blog was still up, I deleted my Google account some time ago! I almost started bawling when I saw the comments on this. Oh, Travis, I miss you a lot, but I don't think we can still be friends, a TON of things happened since we talked last (I've failed college, totally stopped playing video games, looked for jobs, got into fights with my family, etc etc). It's been a very loooooong couple months. I haven't even touched "After Aperture", or my Steam account. I started reading "Slacker's Guide for Success" and am trying to get a leg back up on my life. Every time I look at the Mass Effect icon on my pc, I think of you, Travis. But please, find another gal who loves video games as much as we do! Also try thinking outside the box once in a while, make some really good friends (really see them face to face and hang out, not G+ hangouts, haha!). When I talked to you, and asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, I was really thinking hard about what I wanted as an adult too. I want to be an engineer really bad now, and failing school is pretty terrible. Like I said, though, I'm getting a leg back up and am doing fairly well now. I want you to know that I am soooooo sorry for just leaving you without notice, and not even saying goodbye. I saw every message from you on Steam, and every message from Rita. Ug, it makes my stomach turn knowing I hurt others that much.
      Thank you so much for being my friend, talking about my favorite video games, playing Synergy HL2, etc. I was failing school at the time, and I was reaching out for someone else without entirely telling them my situation. Be happy, and live life to its fullest! "Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones." (I didn't forget, haha, that song still makes me cry)

      Chell Johnson (Nicole)

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    2. Oh, and you looked pretty much gorgeous "rockin' your guitar"!

      Delete