Chapter 1 - The Beginning
What is the Construct? A discovery? An innovation? A turning point? A type of energy? A type of matter? Sadly, these things cannot be answered without, as I said before, the specifics. So, that's what the scientist who discovered it is asking himself. He just couldn't find the answers. And with every answer he found, he only got more questions. One of the most common questions is 'what the hell is this stuff?!'.
And that's exactly what the scientist is putting to the test. What are the limits of such a thing? Is it infinite? Maybe so. But without testing, no one can be sure. So the scientist does something completely expected; he builds something else with the Construct. A teleporter. The Universe Injection Device, or UID for short. With it he can jump in and out of any predetermined universe at will. So why is this story being written in the first place? Because when he got to the universe for testing the Construct, the UID broke, and now he is stuck there with a new agenda, and a new type of insanity...
The Construct!
My eyes fluttered open to a pitch black sky, dotted with tiny specks of light. I could feel a familiar wetness underneath me and a sinking feeling as my mind slowly began to realign itself. I pushed both my arms into the ground underneath me and clenched my fist. The feeling of cold, wet soil was all too familiar. As was the amazing sensation of a few blades of grass getting in between my fingers. I slowly let go of the dirt in my hands and moved my arms upward.
I looked steadily and closely at my hands... they were both covered in mud, but otherwise fine. One of them seemed to have a line of some kind of wire coming out of my right sleeve. And on that same hand was a thin glove that fit snuggly over every finger. On the tip of each of them was a single bright blue square. I put my hands back down to my sides after I was done examining them.
I slowly pushed myself off of the wet ground and I began to look around. Trees, bushes, and a large field were spread out before me. In the distance, a village was present. Even further away, a giant city was built into a tall mountain that was jutting out of the ground. Both were lit up like the Fourth of July. I squinted to see if I could get a closer look at the town, but to no avail...
I just wish I had some binoculars right now...
Then, all of the sudden, an extremely bright blue light erupted from my light hand and filled the space around my. I brought it up in front of my to see what had happened...
A long tendril of bright blue energy was streaming out of each square and connecting in the middle. Slowly but surely, a pair of binoculars was starting to take shape... right in front of me. Tiny blue specks were rearranging themselves into the desired shape. And soon enough, a black pair of binoculars dropped right into my lap. I looked on in delirious wonder as it landed with a soft thud on my crotch. I could feel it. It was completely solid...
And it hurt like hell! I remember! The lab! The explosion! The teleporter! My assistant... when I find him I'm going to castrate that motherfucker with a pair of garden shears and- wait. How am I supposed to get back?! Oh, right. The portal exploded behind me and left me stranded here.
I sighed in frustration as I slowly got up off the ground. The explosion really did a number on me, because my head hurt quite a bit...
*WOOSH*
A sudden loud noise made me rush to a nearby bush and jump inside. I skidded to a slow halt in a patch of soft mud. Cursing inwardly, I pushed off of the ground and turned around to see what had happened.
It was a woman. A weird one to be exact. She wore an orange jumpsuit and had her black and gold striped hair put up in a bun. I ducked down as her eyes opened. She suddenly jerked up and began cursing profoundly.
"Fuck! God damn it! Shit!" she got a look at her hands. "AHHHHHH! What happened to my body?! Why am I a human being?!" the woman visibly shuttered at the mention of the word. "Legs! Arms! Breasts! Ovaries!"
I chuckled a bit as she continued. She suddenly perked up and shot a glare in my direction. I faltered as her ice cold glare moved over me.
"Who the hell is that?" she shouted at the top of her lungs, "When I get my hands on your ass I'll make you wish you were dead!" I flinched as I heard her get up off the ground... and then chuckled some more as she slipped and fell on her face.
"Dammit! How is walking so difficult?" I looked back and once again saw her struggling to even stand.
When she fell once again on her face, I stepped out of the treeline and walked over to her. "You need help?" I asked politely.
"You're damn right I do!"
"But you said you were going to maim me just a second ago." I said again with the stereotypical shit eating grin plastered on my face.
The woman grumbled under her breath a bit. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I said I won't destroy you if you help me."
"What?" I asked again. She was really getting annoyed now.
"Just fucking help me!" she exclaimed.
I laughed and extended my hand just far enough for her to reach. When she finally did reach, I pulled her up off the ground.
"So... what's your name?" I asked her as I pulled her arm over my shoulder.
"You first."
"Okay... um... I'm Herald Franco." I moved a hand to shake her hand, but she swatted it away.
"I don't need your greetings. And the name is GLaDOS."
"Nice to meet you, GLaDOS."
"The feeling is not mutual." she said coldly as we approached a path that cut into the forest.
I was glad that she was at least helping by pushing herself forward, but the weight was still kind of intense. Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I'm not very strong. Anyway, as we stepped onto the path, I noticed that a full moon was glaring down at us... no wonder I could see so well. Unfortunately for GLaDOS, though, she stepped right onto a sharp rock that was jutting out of the ground.
"Holy crap!" she squirmed free of me and plummeted to the ground. "Gah! Stupid nervous system! Give me a damn break!" she lifted her foot up to her face and yelped in fright. "Blood! Get it away!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Not a blood person, are you?"
"Of course I'm not. I hate it! Just like this pathetic excuse for a body."
"Why are you talking so bad about your body? Weren't you human before?" I asked as i pulled her up off of the dirt road.
"Before I was in this... disgusting... body, I didn't have to worry about this kind of thing. Eating, sleeping, and waste management weren't requirements." she responded casually.
"So you were a robot?"
"I guess you could have called me that. I was an artificial intelligence. I used to be a human but... that's the past. Just like him." I couldn't help but think about something similar.
"Him?" my mind began flying elsewhere as I delved more into the subject.
"I don't want to talk about it." and it came crashing back down to earth.
But still. I couldn't stop thinking about what she had just said... did GLaDOS lose someone? Someone she cared about?
"Listen... I'm sorry fo-" another loud noise interrupted me.
The same loud sound as before. And just like that... there was another person right in front of us, lying face down. He wore some kind of freaky suit of armor made out of a material I didn't recognize. His exposed head was covered in bruises and cuts. Short black hair was in patches over his scalp, with a couple of sideburns running down his chin. I couldn't see his face, but I knew he was probably incapacitated. Blood was slowly pooling underneath him and he sputtered softly under his breath.
GLaDOS jumped nearly a foot back and landed on her ass. "More blood!"
"Calm down for a damn second! We need to get him to a hospital. Come on, there has to be one in the village up ahead." GLaDOS rolled her eyes and got up off of the ground.
"Who the hell died and made you in charge?" she slowly stumbled to my side whilst rubbing her but. She must have fallen on it hard.
"I made myself in charge. Now come on. He's probably going to die soon."
(Hope you guys enjoy this. I don't really know WHAT compelled me to write such a thing. Hopefully you guys like it.)
