Science will Set You Free

[yessirmrjohnson]

Where: The Lucky 38
When: Friday night
Who: Cave Johnson, Caroline, and Mr. House
What: With the free standing portal device, Caroline is off to break out Cave Johnson from Mr. House's makeshift jail.
Warnings: Cursing, Cave being Cave

Comments

[tvsonwheels]

The blackened, charred suite was being tended to only by mostly harmless maintenance robots. Patches of the carpet and renovated walls seemed to be growing over the charred skeleton more like an organic being than mechanical repairs - an odd after-effect of the city's biology. The robots themselves had cleared all the rubble and remains of the fire, leaving it and empty room.

One of the robots turned to face her in a somewhat confused fashion as the woman emerged into the room from the portal. Unlike the Securitrons, it was not threaded to the network with a constant link. It stopped what it was doing,"Excuse me? What in blazes are you doing?"

[yessirmrjohnson]

Tucked in Caroline's belt is the small plasma pistol that she had developed for Mordecai. There certainly would be no better time for testing it than this but there would be no need to shoot at the maintenance robot. She hurries past it and into the hallway.

[tvsonwheels]

"Ahm- You're not allowed to be on this floor!" The robot curled up it's arms as she ran past it, brimming with a bit of irritation. But it hadn't been tasked with capturing intruders. It paused at the door as she ran into the hallway to what appeared to be the elevators. It floated towards the staircase to approach a terminal and report what it had found.

[yessirmrjohnson]

She rushed after the bot and aimed with her plasma pistol and managed to hit the terminal before the bot could reach it. Next was to find a quick way down. Caroline ran over to the elevator and pryed the doors open just enough to shoot a portal inside. Shooting one next to her, step stepped inside.

The shaft seemed to go on forever below her. The elevator was thankfully above her but it was hard to tell how long that would be the case.

"I want a raise after this." With a deep breath she fell from the edge. She had borrowed Chell's boots but hadn't tried them out yet and ended up screaming the entire fall. Caroline landed fine but still ended up losing her balance and falling back onto her butt. The doors opened to the basement with her there shaken and out of breath.

[tvsonwheels]

The robot looked to her, furious,"You humans are so destructive! Breaking everything you see and leaving the robots to clean it up! Shameful!" It was quite angered and loud, it was probably the same robot that had thrown a fit at Cave in the stairs - leading to a growing dislike for the humans around it.

Despite all this, the action had bought Caroline more time as it stormed into the staircase to access another terminal. The building itself seemed to be humming, drawing more energy from the reactor. Something was happening outside that was drawing attention away from her intrusion.

The desolate basement was unusually warm with energy, and humid. It was a hallway with a series of locked doors, different storage vaults. The walls were a depressing, sickly yellow - untouched by any renovations. The Securitron that would normally be guarding the floor was absent - but who knows how long that would last?

There was yet another one of the computers, sitting beside the first of the many doors. The door itself was stamped with several

[yessirmrjohnson]

There was no telling what was behind that door, and should she just blast it with her plasma pistol, there was no promise that it would open it. An alarm could be sounded and she could be stuck there with no way forward.

However, Caroline didn't see any other option. She stepped back and aimed at the hinge of one of the locks and opened fire.

They did a Mythbusters episode on this

[desertsnowglobe]

The door let out a loud clang as it was fired at - the super-heated plasma melting and ruining the rolling hinge. The bright, red metal re-cooled into an amorphous blob with the hiss of the humidity present on the surface. Whatever was inside this door was trapped there until the mechanism was repaired.

Thankfully, no visible alarm sounded. However, a line of code flicked over the terminal next to the door. It was red, warning that the door was now inaccessible due to a failure of one of the locks.

Then let's try and open the door in a way they'd be proud of!

[yessirmrjohnson]

The red flicker of the terminal incited a little bit of panic. Convinced that securitrons were now on their way, Caroline turned to desperate measures. The plasma pistol's energy source was a tiny sliver of energon and as she knew, energon was highly explosive. Opening the end of it, she removed the cartridge that contained the volatile substance. Using it to open the door would mean she'd be forfeiting all the ammunition to the only weapon she had. Placing a portal high and horizontal and one directly under it, she dropped the cartridge and allowed it to gain momentum.

"Mr. Johnson, stand back!"

With one carefully placed and carefully timed vertical portal in front of the door, the cartridge shot out with great force and speed, slamming against its surface. The explosion was large enough to topple her backwards even though she had taken a number of steps back and as the dust cleared, she could only hope it had managed to blow the door open and not kill Cave in the process.

MYTHBUSTERS: INK CITY EDITION

[desertsnowglobe]

The door blasted open from the force of the explosion, several layers of reinforced metal ripped clean from the frame. The edges dripped with white-hot steel. The door itself was wedged into the opposing wall, malformed irreparably. It curled around what was once the epicenter of the explosion.

And while the tiny notice on the terminal might have gone unnoticed, the explosion triggered a loud, system-wide alarm. Unlike the fire bells of the Suites, the security alarm sounded more like she had disturbed some sort of sleeping military bunker. Yellow, rotating lights emerged and bled into the damp hallway. A horn blared loudly, and the drum of the elevator as it neared closer was drowned amidst the chaos.

[iowntheplace]

Upon hearing his name, he raises an eyebrow.

"Caroline, how did you--"

Then the door explodes. Fortunately for Cave, he is on the ceiling at the moment, courtesy of an odd purple gelatinous substance. It's smeared all over the walls, and around the broken remains of what used to be a cot. Despite his disheveled surroundings, Cave himself looks like he's held up surprisingly well.

[yessirmrjohnson]

Caroline is relieved to see that the door was now open and Cave was safe. In moments she's rushed inside to.. find Cave standing on the ceiling.

"Sir? How did you-never mind, we have to go. Security will be here any moment." She reaches up and offers her hand to him as if to help pull him from the ceiling.

[iowntheplace]

"Why are you here? This is dangerous Caroline, you shouldn't have..."

Sighing, Cave takes her hand and accepts her help dislodging himself from the ceiling. Unfortunately, he's been up there long enough to forget how gravity works. Look out below, Caroline!

"Ah, I didn't mean to do that."

Cave rises from the ground and dusts himself off. He quickly grabs some bottles filled with the purple mystery fluid.

"Alright Caroline. I'm assuming you have an exit plan that doesn't involve us being riddled with bullet holes, so lead the way."

[yessirmrjohnson]

Caroline moved out of the way just in time to prevent being toppled over by him. Had she fallen backwards, the tank could have ruptured spilling the highly caustic portal substrate, or worse, the whole thing could have exploded. Seeing he was fine from the fall she hurries back to the cell's entrance.

"Yes, stick close to me." They had to make it out of there as fast as possible. A stairwell, another elevator shaft, anything at all to help find a way upwards.

[tvsonwheels]

Down the hallway, the elevator doors had parted open. A squad of the Securitrons stood in between them and their escape, left arms poised and exposing the concealed barrels of each laser-powered gatling gun.

The one in the front of the guard spoke,"Alert: Escape attempts will be met with live fire.", upon spotting the two stepping out of the ruined cell, the white lights that flickered in unison with it's voice turned red.

"Targeting."

Combat algorithms ran through the robot's sensors, calibrating it's aim to pinpoint their legs. Death was no longer an option - they would merely be teleported back to the Well.

[iowntheplace]

Cave looks back and forth between the robots and Caroline anxiously.

"Caroline, you do have a plan, right? Because if you do, it would be an excellent time to use it. No pressure."

[yessirmrjohnson]

"Yes, just! Please be quiet and hold my arm!" She aimed at the closing door behind the securitrons. "Please, Science, let this work"

A quick fire of the device sent a ball of light over the securitrons and through the shrinking opening in the door. There was no way to tell if the portal had formed correctly if at all except to make the corresponding one and hope for the best. Caroline had to jump once or twice thanks to the bullets but managed to shoot another portal and rush through, Cave in tow.