Portal 3

Want You Gone

"You have been here," GLaDOS's bitter voice emitted the intercom scared Wheatley, "For - one - hours of your one year punishment."

Wheatley only moaned in response. Everything was sore and uncomfortable... not to mention, unbearably hot. He knew he had to find a way out of this.

He gazed around. The liquid fire of the incinerators blazed below him. One of GLaDOS's cameras peered to him idly. He stared at it, wondering if she was even viewing it at that current moment. If she did, then it might frighten her - even for a few seconds. That could buy him time.

Soon, his gaze slid down towards the magma. One of the links in the chain was beginning to melt, as it was far too near the extreme heat. At first, he panicked internally because it was painful and it meant that the chain would eventually break. That would mean he could fall.

However, Wheatley quickly realised it could use this to his advantage.

He shifted slightly, just so the weak link of the chain could get heated a little more. If he could heat it up and melt it just enough, it will break. Then, he will escape the Gravity Grid, allowing him to reactivate his antigravity. If he could do that before hitting the magma, then he might be able to escape.

The chain lowered slightly, placing the weak link nearer the emitted heat. Slowly, it began to melt, the metal of the loop turning into liquid. There was the possibility of it painfully welding into his face, but he pushed that thought out of his CPU. It snapped suddenly and then hung as a broken loop, still melting through. Wheatley gazed to it as best he could, trying to ignore the pain. Whether the loop, or even the entire chain, would melt onto his face was something he didn't know. Yet, he preferred to attempt this escape than wait twelve years until his execution.

Finally, the link outright broke - the entire chain flailing back and letting Wheatley drop. Without the Gravity Grid inhibiting the antigravity software, he swiftly reactivated it just before he splashed into the magma. Instead of falling straight in and melting in an excruciating death, he hovered about two inches above it. He sighed to himself.

To ensure that he didn't get crushed and plunged into the magma by the debris falling sporadically, Wheatley carefully winded up a few panels stuck together into a mangled tower. Once atop it, he scanned around again. He needed to find a way out of this little slice of Android Hell. The camera was still focused on him, so GLaDOS was still mutely watching him. Slowly he peered over to another tower of panels, where there was something he knew he could use. Or at least attempt to.

There, on a second mangled tower, was a portal gun. It was old; burnt orange and rusty from age, with a slowly melting paperclip replacing one of the prongs. To some, it would just be busted up, battered and scorched old device - but to him, it was hope.

He gazed at the other debris in the incinerator, calculating a safe enough path to the old portal gun.

Once he had figured out a safe enough path, he was able to leap between the panels. In this, Wheatley became much more aware of a buffer zone his antigravity created between him and the nearest surface. He dipped down a bit, but was then pushed back up by the antigravity software, which must have been given a way of knowing how far he was from another surface. So, as he managed to reach the old portal gun, he figured that there must be a variable parameters that controls how far the software would push him away from a surface.

To make explanation simple; a variable is value of some sort - like if the number of potatoes on a farm is fifty. The main point about a variable is that it can be changed; this farm may earn or lose potatoes. A parameter is a way of showing a certain limit, or specification. In this case, Wheatley wondered - as he picked up the portal gun - if he might be able to change how far his antigravity might push him away from another surface.