Chapter Text
The first thing he heard was music. It was overly cheery and somewhat catchy, the kind of thing that would get stuck in your head for hours. Letting out an instinctual groan, he pulled himself out of the admittedly comfortable bed he found himself lying in.
It was at this point things began to go wrong.
Wherever he was, it was dark, so dark he couldn’t see anything including the edge of the bed. With a small yelp of surprise, he fell off and landed on the floor in a semi tangled heap. Embarrassing, but no one would have been able to see it anyways so he worked to pick himself up, reaching back and using the bed he had fallen out of for support.
Upon closer inspection of the bed, it felt like some kind of pod which was an odd choice for a bed certainly not helped by the smooth surface that automatically curled over the cushions in a dome. That seemed like a design flaw to him considering a person’s need to breathe and being trapped in a dome while sleeping would certainly lead to suffocation.
Unless, of course, there was some oxygen tank or other breathing apparatus attached. But that brought up the question of why such a thing would be needed in the first place.
Now standing up, he scanned the surrounding area searching for any source of light. There were none and he began to feel a mounting sense of concern.
Where was he?
How did he get here?
...
He couldn’t remember.
Why couldn’t he remember?
Any memories that could have explained how he had gotten here were oddly absent and as he began to reach deeper other missing pieces now became glaringly absent like the rest of his life, oh god he couldn’t even remember his own name!
A robotic voice sounded throughout the darkness, seeming to come from the void itself but he was too caught up in his panic to pay attention to whatever it was saying. Beginning to hyperventilate, he dropped to his knees and curled up on himself. A tight, suffocating feeling, seized his lungs in a vice-like grip and the walls he couldn’t see felt like they were pressing in against him.
Belatedly, he realized he was having a panic attack and began to work on taking deep breaths in an effort to calm down. The motion was smooth, practiced almost, and he wondered if calming himself from panicking was a regular occurrence. It was odd how his mind could function perfectly with regards to logical reasoning, bodily movement, and scientific fact but any attempts at remembering his past were swallowed up in a void.
“The Aperture Enrichment Center reminds its testers that science cannot be done if they stay in one place.” a robotic, feminine sounding voice rang out from the darkness in a language he could fully understand as English, startling him out of the last traces of his previous panic.
Aperture Enrichment Center? Was that where he was? And testing, what kind of testing did the voice want? Obviously something that required his movement, but with how dark it was, he was bound to run into or trip over something. Could that be the first test? Navigating his way through the dark until-
“Test Subject 39428941,” the voice interrupted his musings “for science to be done, proceed through the portal.” The voice almost seemed to take on an impatient tone there.
“Um, well...” 394... whatever, called out to the darkness “I’m uh, not sure I’m supposed to be here?” his intended statement came off as a question and inwardly he cringed. “I don’t remember signing up for any testing. I don’t actually remember anything really.”
There was no reply.
“Not that I’m opposed to testing or anything!” he continued to ramble to the impenetrable darkness “It’s just that I have no idea where I am, or how I got here, or even where here is, and I would really appreciate it if you could answer my questions?” Again his intended statement came out as a question and again he cringed at how awkward he sounded.
No answers were forthcoming, only the sound of the bizarre music echoed through the space.
“O-or we could do the testing now and you could answer my questions once we’re done?” he called out one last time in desperation.
No answer.
“Oh-kay,” he breathed, “portal, portal, it said to go through the portal, but where is it?” he began muttering to himself as he began to slowly feel his way forward, eyes wide open and searching for anything visible. Soon enough, his outstretched palm met with a smooth surface that felt like glass, and he began to feel his way around.
There was a crash, and the sound of fizzing electronics replaced the music as he tripped over a table, spilling its contents and himself across the floor.
“Oh for crying out loud,” the voice had apparently had enough, sounding more human in its exasperation and breaking the illusion of an automated system. “Are you really going to wander around like a blind chimpanzee until you stumble across the answer? You’ll never get anywhere with that kind of behavior.”
“S-sorry,” he groaned from the floor. “It's just so dark that I really can’t see anything. Do you think you could turn on some kind of light? I'd be really grateful.”
There was a pause.
“Test Subject 39428941, are your visual receptors currently incapable of processing?” the voice incredulously asked.
“Incapable of processing- Are you asking if I’m blind?” he asked, beginning to fall into panic again. He hurriedly sat up and rubbed his hands over his face, checking that his eyes were indeed open. They were, and from the voice’s earlier comments, it seemed to expect him to be able to see in his current circumstances. Oh nononononononono if he was blind, then that was a massive disability to overcome, something that would take time, and patience, and a familiar environment, none of which he had at the moment!
The voice let out a sigh in its oddly synthetic tone and he desperately latched onto its voice, praying for some explanation to pull himself out of his panic.
“Of all the test subjects to experience cognitive deterioration after their extended time in suspension, I think you’ve had it the worst really. Loss of memories and blindness, I suppose your young biological age would have something to do with that.” Cognitive deterioration? Suspension? Biological age, the voice knew how old he was?
“Yes.” The voice answered him, had he spoken out loud?
“You did, still are in fact, you rambling chatterbox.” That stung a bit. “If we want to continue to get testing out of you, I suppose we’ll have to fix that visual problem of yours. Remain calm as the sleeping gas prepares you for optical surgery.” The voice dully intoned, though it seemed to perk up at the word surgery, something that did not help his nerves as he heard the faint hissing sound he knew to be the sleeping gas.
In a moment of desperation, he took a deep breath and held it for as long as he could. Too soon his lungs were burning and he had to breathe in the fumes, resisting all the way as he fell into unconsciousness.
---
The music was back again. It was starting to get annoying really, but those thoughts fell to the wayside as he sat up and viewed his surroundings.
Good news: He could see.
Bad news: He could see no openings to the glass cube he was trapped in, complete with pod-like bed, toilet, and small table with a futuristic radio, empty mug, and notepad resting on top. It must have been this table he tripped over previously, though there was no sign of it now.
He looked past the glass. The walls on the outside seemed to be made of concrete and stacked in blocks. On one side, there was a viewing room that, while having no one inside at the moment, made him feel like some sort of lab rat. Not to mention what looked like security cameras hung on the walls.
There was also a countdown, he noticed, going down by the seconds. But a countdown for what?
“Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center.” The voice was back, and had resumed its automated, disinterested, tone.
"We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one." From his brief experiences here previously, it had not been pleasant at all, and he certainly didn’t feel relaxed now.
"Your specimen has been processed and we are now ready to begin the test proper."
"Before we start, however, keep in mind that although fun and learning are the primary goals of all enrichment center activities, serious injuries may occur." That did not sound good, but perhaps it was to be expected? He had gone blind and lost his memories from extended suspension according to the voice, so his safety seemed unlikely to be one of their high priorities.
"For your own safety and the safety of others,” he perked up, eager for an explanation “please refrain from touching [bzzzzzt]" The voice cut off as the room dimmed. He jumped back in shock as sparks flew around the room. Then everything was light again. "The portal will open in three, two, one."
One the single blank white wall in the room, an oval slightly bigger than him flashed orange for a moment, then opened up to reveal….the outside of the room? He looked through one of the other walls. On a wall outside of his room, there was a blue oval, which showed….himself?
He was a scrawny little thing, the orange jumpsuit obviously too big for him certainly didn’t help the impression either. In addition to the orange outfit, he could see odd protrusions curling down his calves and meeting the floor, held in place by white cuffs that held on just below his knees.
His hair was a wild, curly green mess which was odd since as far as he knew green hair should be impossible. Right? Yet here it was, mocking him with its potential impossibility. Perhaps his eyesight was still affected?
“Your optical sensors have been rendered at maximum capacity.” The voice prevented him from falling further into his musings “As far as your vision is concerned, it is far better than any human’s 20/20 eyesight along with some additional modifications to increase performance”
Additional modifications? That was concerning. He took a moment to wonder about his ability to see, gratefully drinking in the colors around him, little as they were, before inspecting the portal.
‘How is it doing that?’ He wondered. ‘Space folding in on itself like that, there’s no precedent for it.’ Unless one was talking about a wormhole and that was purely theoretical, the fact that it sat right in front of him in such a mundane stable form was staggering.
Three possibilities ran through his head immediately. One, he was hallucinating, experiencing a bad dream, or simply making this up in his own head. Two, the portal in front of him was an illusion accomplished through technological means. And three, (the most unlikely and frightening one) this was all real.
‘One way to test that theory.’ He thought, and carefully reached his hand towards the oval.
His hand did not stop upon meeting a surface, nor did it vaporize upon passing through. Instead, it passed cleanly through to the other side and out of the corner of his eye he saw his hand reaching out of the blue oval. He reeled back in shock, no doubt about it, this was the portal the voice had spoken of both from his previous time here and now.
Apprehensive and curious, he stepped through the portal and walked around the cube, following the simplistic design on the wall to the other side and through a circular door that opened with a whooshing sound as he approached.
The next room was startlingly blank, only a medium sized cube, a large red button on the floor, and a blue dotted line leading from the button to the door on the opposite side of the room occupied the space.
Seeing nothing else to do, he picked up the cube, (which was lighter than it looked but still heavy) and set it on top of the button.
"Excellent. Please proceed into the chamberlock after completing each test." The voice made its reappearance as the blue dots lit up and the door opened. Dutifully, he walked through and passed a screen that the voice called “The Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid” which would vaporize any unauthorized equipment passing through it. Fortunately, that excluded himself as he passed easily and entered the lift at the end of the hallway to proceed to the next test.
The next room followed the pattern of white walls in square formations with much of the same decorations, but set in a different layout. Unlike any of the previous rooms however, there was a strange device set in the middle of a pit. Curious, he peered at the device, squinting a bit.
Immediately, his vision zoomed in on the device, magnifying it till it filled his entire vision. He stumbled back wide-eyed and his vision reset to its previous state as he fell to the floor.
What was that! Regular eyes didn’t zoom in on whatever they were focusing on like some kind of camera. Sure, the place was called Aperture Science but altering someone's eyes to that degree was crazy. It was on the same level as kidnapping people for testing like they were lab rats navigating a maze!
... Now that he thought about it, perhaps this wasn’t so out of the ordinary for his situation. But he would really appreciate knowing just what exactly the voice had done to him in surgery.
“Your previous optical processors were outdated, so I replaced them with Aperture Science Visual Sensors to restore and enhance your eyesight for testing.” The voice answered his mumblings, he really needed to get a hold over that, although it was nice to have someone who could understand him whenever he descended into a tangent like this one.
...
“YOU REPLACED MY EYES!?!” Realization slammed into him like a truck and tears distorted his sight immediately. He wiped them away hurriedly in a panic, electronics (which he was pretty sure his eyes were now) did not mix well with water and he did not want to be blind a second time or risk short-circuiting and frying his optic nerve or brain.
“I even took the liberty of making them the same color as your previous ones.” The voice smugly commented. “Green does seem to suit you, in a way that warns of your inexperience. Not to mention the additional waterproofing required to handle your abnormally large tear ducts.”
Wiping his eyes, ‘not your eyes’ he thought, to clear them one last time, he had to marvel at how he hadn’t even made it past the second test and already he was experiencing multiple breakdowns. But he couldn’t stop now, he had to keep moving forward.
There was testing to be done.
Eventually, after speedrunning through the 5 stages of grief and becoming more accustomed to his newfound zooming powers, he managed to make his way to the device. Upon further inspection, the device was mounted on a pole that slowly rotated in circles, the device regularly firing a blue beam that would open a blue portal in different locations. When he reached it, he realized that he could pick up the device and did so, a slot at the back end open for him to stick his hand in.
"Very good! You are now in possession of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device." The voice was back in its obviously pre-recorded voice-track from before. Was it trying to pretend that the responses that demonstrated its intelligence never happened?
"With it, you can create your own portals." Apparently it was.
"These intra dimensional gates have proven to be completely safe." That was a relief to know about, although he would have appreciated knowing about that at the beginning with the first portal.
"The Device, however, has not." Well that brought his mood back down, and just when he had begun to feel a bit better about his situation.
"Do not touch the operational end of The Device." The voice began to list a number of warnings for handling the device. "Do not look directly at the operational end of The Device. Do not submerge The Device in liquid, even partially. Most importantly, under no circumstances should you [bzzzpt]"
Again, the voice seemed to have shorted out when outlining safety procedures. Those things were important!
"Please proceed to the chamberlock. Mind the gap."
Sighing, he followed the instructions of the voice and walked over to the doors to continue with the tests. By the end of this, he hoped he got his answers. Who even knew how many more tests there were?
---
A lot as it turned out. The voice had continued its attempt to pretend that the responses to his questions were a fluke and reverted to its obviously pre-recorded responses, but by the 15th test it had dropped the pretenses, although it still used the robotic voice and only expressed itself through petty insults and backhanded compliments. Each test steadily increased in complexity (and lethality who’s idea was it to use humans as expendable test subjects and proceeding to throw bullets, lasers, spheres of electronic energy, deadly acid, fire, and who knew what else at them until they dropped. The only thing that hadn’t tried to kill him was gravity thanks to the strange devices on his legs that would orient himself upright mid-air and absorb any shock from landing with too much momentum) but he had finally, finally , made it to the last test.
Which was when the platform he was riding rounded the bend and attempted to dump him in a furnace. The voice had cheerfully informed him that the equipment he had would survive the extreme temperatures with no mention of his own survival. By now he had learned to read between the lines whenever the voice said anything as the implications were rather startling and often important. (perhaps they were part of the testing as well)
Fortunately for him, he had gotten rather good at using the portal gun (Handheld Portal Device was a mouthful) and was able to make use of a convenient platform beyond the furnace as a surface to portal to and make his escape.
As things stood, he had a limited time before starvation or dehydration caught up (the voice had invited him to pass out in test chamber 13, stating that an intubation associate would revive him with peptic salve and adrenaline. While the offer was not needed then, it was only a matter of time before he would be feeling the debilitating effects from pushing himself for so long) and he could use that time to either escape, or find the source of that voice and force it to free himself and anyone else who may be trapped in Aperture.
Finding the voice it was.
Now that he was outside the testing chambers, it became obvious how utterly wrecked the place was. Sure, it could clearly function if testing was still going on, but there was a layer of filth to everything that indicated that no one had been here for quite some time.
There were no cameras here either, though that did not stop the voice from calling out to him. First attempting to cajole him to surrender, through promises of cake then stressing how impossible his situation was, to cutting insults that were only made worse when delivered through a monotonous voice that made it seem as if it were stating facts.
Fortunately for him, someone had left markings on the walls, little things that either pointed him somewhere, or writing in English. Words like the cake is a lie could be found in repeating patterns as if written by a madman, occasionally interspersed with the phrase she’s watching you . The fact that many of the words were a dull red color resembling blood began to outline a rather frightening picture. Which was when things escalated to outright murder attempts with turrets placed in strategic places.
The first hail of bullet-fire had caught him by surprise. Only by jumping behind a nearby wall was he able to escape death. Even then, several bullets hit his legs, and he had to spend some time to tend his wounds, tearing the vest of his jumpsuit into strips to bandage his legs and manually recalibrating the devices for a taller person to avoid putting weight on his legs so he could walk.
Despite the wounds to his legs, the rest of the turrets were bypassed with relative ease. At this point he had done this long enough that flying through the air and reorienting himself as he defied gravity was second nature as he planned multiple steps ahead of where to place his portals. If Aperture was going to give him the tools to succeed, he would certainly use them.
It was after several strenuous hours (seriously, this place was massive ) that he came to a walkway leading to a large chamber, words like Over Here and random graffiti indicating that this was his final destination. To what, he was unsure, but hopefully there would be answers.
Entering the chamber, he could see what appeared to be a control room that opened up into a large circular chamber. In the center of said chamber hung a mass of wiring and metal plates that formed some bizarre mechanical monstrosity. A set of stairs led up to a platform that stood just beside the tip of said mechanical being. A being that peered at him with its singular glowing yellow eye, positioned just slightly to the left on its smooth white face.
"Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it?"
Now that he was here, the voice clearly came from this being, far smoother and less computerized than before. Was it an AI? someone operating a mechanical puppet? The thing was far too human to be a simple programmed robot, yet too monstrous and mechanical to be a normal person.
“I suppose introductions are in order.” The machine continued. “To answer some of your endless questions,” so his muttering was still unabated “I am Aperture Science’s Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, an AI created to maintain Aperture Science and conduct testing for science. A task that I have dutifully completed for many years even after all of the scientists that created me died.”
“But please,” she continued as if she had not dropped a bombshell of information on him “you can call me GLaDOS.”
His mind was reeling from the reveal of Aperture’s possibly greatest secret, but eventually he managed to make his lips form the words that had been plaguing him throughout this whole nightmare.
“Wh-who am I?”
GLaDOS had actually done a great job at answering most of his other questions. Where he was, who she was, and why she was doing this had all been answered in one statement. That wasn’t even counting the other questions he had at the beginning, most of which she had answered as well before covering it up with the pre-recorded responses.
“Oh?” She asked, seemingly amused. “You’re not attacking me? Or demanding your freedom? Or running away? Or putting me into a potato?” Now that she mentioned it, those did sound like the more obvious actions to take. Wait, putting her into a potato? “I should see if I could replicate this effect in more Test Subjects. It just might make things easier for me.” No, that would be a horrible thing to do to them, his case was an accident but to force amnesia onto others was too awful to even consider.
“Test Subject 39428941.” He looked up to see that GLaDOS had straightened as if she was reading from a list. “File name: Izuku Midoriya, Birthdate: July 15 1967, Biological age: 12.27 years, Height: 136 cm...”
GLaDOS continued to read the information off and Izuku (his name, he finally had a name!) could do nothing but listen like the captive audience he was to the knowledge she fed him. The information itself was nothing special, it was the kind of data you would find on a medical file, but it was all that he had about himself and he absorbed it readily, even if a part of him hated the hold over himself that he was handing to the AI.
“Oh you’ll love this!” GLaDOS exclaimed. “Subject demonstrates a high level of tenacity, bordering on the delusional.” She relaxed to peer at him. “You know, I’m glad to see the amnesia got rid of that pesky problem for me, the last person who possessed this level of tenacity-” She paused, a dangerous look appearing in her eye. For a robot, it was amazing how much emotion could be conveyed through her mechanical form.
“No matter.” As quickly as the moment arrived, it was gone and GLaDOS was back to business. “Congratulations on completing the first set of tests. After healing your injuries in the recovery annex, you will be returned to the relaxation vault until we are ready to continue testing.” Oh no.
“Wh-what-” He swallowed, his throat dry with fear. “What do you mean ‘continue testing’ ? I completed all your tests. I made it all the way here to you. Shouldn’t you let me go according to company policy?” He wildly threw out in an attempt to reason with the rogue AI.
“Of course not!” GLaDOS scoffed. “This is all part of the testing processes to filter out any Testing Subjects not up to standard. Now that you have completed the tutorial, we can prepare you for the rest of the tests.”
A pink gas began to fill the chamber, its scent familiar to Izuku from when he was first put to sleep for surgery. Desperate for escape, he turned around and attempted to limp out the way he came, but it was too late. A large claw swung from the ceiling and held him aloft, suspended in mid-air no matter how much he wriggled. As his body lost the fight against sleep and his vision started to fade away he could only listen to GLaDOS’ final words with dread.
“I’m looking forward to our time testing together.”
“Izuku”