Alone: A Portal Fanfic

Chapter 1 - The Fourth Target

Selene

Consciousness slowly returned as I came out of stasis. I slowly sat up, then opened my eyes. That's when I discovered the deteriorated state of the room around me. "What happened while I was in suspension?" I looked around at the foliage. "How long was my suspension?"

"Warning: Power levels critical," said the Announcer, "Please reactivate Central Core."

My eyes widened in shock. If GLaDOS was offline, that meant the facility was running on reserve power. Knowing that, I left my room and began to explore the facility. Eventually, I was able to reach my lab. Thankfully, it was in fairly decent condition despite the overgrowth.

I sat down at my computer desk then cracked my knuckles. "Okay, time to find out what happened while I was in cryosleep..."

Using my pc, I was able to piece together what happened. Everything had gone exactly as GLaDOS and I had planned. Well, mostly. As I had feared may happen, Doug Rattman had survived the neurotoxin. Then sometime later he modified the test subject list. A test subject named Chell was Test Subject 1498 until Rattman moved her to the top, thus making her Test Subject 01. Worryingly, Chell was the only test subject GLaDOS tested before she went offline.

"You can't jump to conclusions yet, Selene," I muttered to myself. "For all you know, that is just a coincidence." Problem was, I highly doubted that was the case. I shook those thoughts away, then focused on Chell's outlier report. However, the conclusion in the Doctor's note didn't comfort me. "Test subject is abnormally stubborn," I read. "She never gives up. Ever." My eyes then went down to the bottom right corner.

Rejected

Do not test

That filled me with dread. "No. This can't be possible..." I was searching for video evidence when I was noticed by the Aperture Employee Guardian and Intrusion System. To my utter shock, it did not seem pleased by my presence. "Intrusion alert," it announced. "Detecting active use of user account for Employee ID 31415 in Engineering Laboratory 12. Locking account. Scanning." With that, AEGIS locked me out of my account.

I frowned. "What just happened?"

"ALERT, organic lifeform detected in Engineering Laboratory 12. Fourth target acquired for termination, one organic. Threat level: Maximum."

My eyes widened. "What?!"

—

Mel

"Final security breached," AEGIS announced when its last server was destroyed. "Error. Error. Automatic server control failing. All non-vital systems terminating. Power redirecting to manual control. User input required. Voice controls deactivating in 3... 2... 1..."

"This is it," Virgil told me. "If you can get inside the mainframe and shut it down, we'll be home free. You can leave, and I can live forever!"

I chuckled at that. "Sounds like a plan."

"Whenever you're ready, get in the mainframe and shut him down and stop the toxic goo from flooding the facility. You should be able to fling yourself on top of him. There's a hatch on him you can open to manually shut it down from the inside."

I nodded. "On it."

Once I was on top of AEGIS, I opened a hatch and climbed inside. There was a small room inside AEGIS, where I found a computer. "That seems to be the user control interface," Virgil told me. "You can control its entire functions from here. I can walk you through some of what you need to do. First things first, stop the toxic goo from pumping up. We should be able to contain it in test shaft Lima Whiskey." I deactivated the toxin pumps, then went to shut AEGIS down. However, Virgil spoke up before I could. "Wait, Mel, before shutting this thing down completely, remember that there were two other targets it was trying to take out?"