Port-Ed 2 Chapter 8: The Surprise

A/N: Aaaand... my new story's up. Surprised? Did you figure it out?
I would like to thank TrueSapphire for his excellent review on it. I would like to tell you, chapter 2 will not dissapoint you. Started to work on it as soon as this got to beta. As i said, I had made the entirety of case 2 a long time ago, so I think I know what to do. Keep telling me what I can improve like you did in chapter 1 and I think I should be OK. As you probably already know, Yoshermon's only working on Port-Ed 2 with me. All of my other fanfics are my own authoring. So I appreciate any help I can get.
Oh yeah, this story. In this chapter there is an idea that I had planned to write since the beginning of the fanfic. It does, however, have slight spoilers for the ending of Portal 2 co-op. I think this came out OK. I'm just glad Yoshermon didn't ruin my idea.
Gotta hurry this chappie up, got a project to present this afternoon. I'll be seeing you this weekend, when my other fanfic's updated.

Ed and Edd stood at the end of test chamber 15, bent over and panting for breath. It was the first test to involve turrets, and they were more glad to see Edd again than he was to see them. Luckily, however, the new Hard Light Bridges obscured the turrets' vision despite being transparent to the naked eye, and clever placement of them allowed the Eds to solve the chamber without getting shot.

Once they entered their respective elevators, GLaDOS spoke up.

"I'm looking through the list of test subjects in cryogenic storage. I managed to find four with either your last names. Two men and two women."

Edd's mind was sent racing as the elevators departed. "I wonder if...no, could she really have...?" he mumbled to himself.

"I haven't seen my mom and dad in a while, Double D," Ed said when they exited the elevators at the next testchamber. "Do you think she has them?"

I guess Ed figured it out too, Edd thought to himself.

"Did ya hear that, Wheatley?" Eddy told Wheatley. They watched the Eds delve into the testchamber from a gap in the ceiling panels above. "Cryogenic storage... whadda ya think that is?"
"It basically means a deep freeze, Eddy," Wheatley explained. "Like putting something in a freezer to preserve it, only it's people. Being put into the freezer, that is."
"Do ya think some of our friends are there?"
"It can't hurt to check, I suppose."
"Do ya know where it is?"
"Of course, Eddy! I worked here once, you know."
"Well lead the way!"

Wheatley began to roll along his rail away, and Eddy gave a quick, concerned look at his friends before following.

"I have a surprise waiting for you after this next test," GLaDOS told the two Eds as they left their elevators.
"Oh, oh, oh! I love surprises! What is it?" asked Ed.
"Telling you would spoil the surprise, so I'll give you a hint: it involves meeting a few people you haven't seen in a long time."
"You mean Sarah?"
"She said 'two people', Ed. I think she means our parents," Edd explained.
"Our parents? You mean Mom and Dad?"
"Yes, that's what I mean, Ed."
"But how did they get in here, Double D?"
"I honestly have no clue, Ed, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. She's most likely lying."
Ed put on a quizzical face, and said, "I hope my baby sister's here, Double D. I haven't seen her in a long time."
"She was in here with the others when we..." Edd looked up at one of the cameras, tingling as it watched their every move. Whispering, he continued, "When we fought her the first time. Sarah's probably been preserved like us, but..."
"But what?" Ed whispered back.
"But then she'd be trapped in this terrible place like we are."

And with that, Ed and Edd proceeded forward towards the next test chamber.

"Holy cow!"

Eddy stood before a massive wall of metal, circular in shape and towering hundreds of feet above him. He had to crane his head just to see the top of it.

"This is supposed to be a door?"
"Yep!" Wheatley replied simply.
"Man, whatever's behind something this huge must be good!" His excitement sank a little. "Uh, so how to we open it?"
"Ah, that's the puzzle, in't it?" Wheatley looked around from his rail at a few mechanisms near the door. "I do know this: that device over there scans for actions. I don't know what to do, but they told me that the door only opens for humans."
"Well, I'm a human. How does this thing gonna know that?" Eddy walked toward the device. He noticed a button nearby and pressed it. After a few seconds of waiting impatiently, Eddy groaned, "Well this is gettin' us nowhere. What a hunk of junk!" He kicked the device, which caused it to beep an affirmative tone. Eddy smiled incredulously. "Why can't everything work like that?"

The knob on the center of the door started to rotate itself. The floor began to shake, causing Eddy and Wheatley to huddle near each other in fear.

"Whoa! What's goin' on?" Eddy screamed.

Gigantic locks clamped around the door began to unlatch themselves, and steam hissed as a mechanism up top began to open the door up and outward. Curious, but impatient, Eddy crouched down to the ground in an attempt to see what was beyond the slowly-opening hatch. After a few seconds, it opened wide enough for him to slip through.

"Wha-what about me?" Wheatley asked. Sighing, Eddy reached up and plucked him from his rail. Together, the two crawled under the door and into the room beyond.
"Woah."

The room they stood in was enormous, larger than many of the rooms Eddy had seen earlier in the facility. Lining the walls and stretching far up and out of view were rows upon rows of cylindrical cells, each filled with a glowing, green liquid and containing a single person. Several catwalks crisscrossed around the place, allowing Eddy to get near the cryo tubes and identify whoever was inside.

Re-attaching Wheatley to a nearby rail, he walked upon the catwalks, scanning them for anyone he knew. He walked along person after person, finding no one he had seen before, until finally...

"Wait a sec... oh my god, it's Nazz!"

Indeed, Nazz was floating inside one of the pods, unconscious like everyone else. Eddy recognized her face clearly.

"Do you recognize her?" asked Wheatley.
"Yeah, I know her!" Eddy answered. "She can't keep her paws offa me." His smugness wore off quickly, and he put his hands on the glass. "But if Nazz's here, then that must mean the others are human popsicles as well." Eddy turned to Wheatley, and asked, "How do I get them outta these things? Do I just plug you in somewhere?"
"I don't think I can do that, Eddy," Wheatley replied nervously. "I-I think...I think only she can."
"Well, fat chance of that happening," Eddy scoffed. "Come on, there's gotta be another way to get someone outta here."

Ed and Edd stepped out of their respective elevators and stopped at the door before them. Looking at each other, they gulped in anticipation. They were going to get the "surprise" that GLaDOS had promised them.

Wordlessly, they stepped up to the door, which opened to reveal darkness. Bravely, the Eds stepped into the room, and the door closed behind them to surround them in the pitch black.

"Initiating surprise in three... two... one."

The lights came on and the room lit up, revealing...

nobody.

The room was tiny, like one of the observation areas save for a delivery tube sitting above one of the tables.

"I made it all up," GLaDOS said. A party horn sounded, and confetti came down from the tube. "Surprise."

Edd smirked at the pathetic attempt of getting their hopes up, but looked to see Ed crestfallen.

"I really hope Sarah's okay," he said softly.
"Oh come on,"GLaDOS said in a pretend-consoling voice, "if it makes you feel any better, they abandoned you at birth, so I very seriously doubt they even want to see you."

Both of the boys immediately perked up.

"Wh-who?" Edd asked, confused. "Our parents?"
"Yes, I'm truly sorry. They just didn't want to have fat little obese children like-"

Ed and Edd burst out laughing.

"What? What are you two laughing at?"
"You!" Ed shouted.
"For an Artificial Intelligence capable of running an entire facility and simulating a sadistic personality," Edd giggled, "you know next to nothing about manipulating people." When his laughter died down, he continued, "We grew up with our parents. We see them almost every day - well, Ed does anyway, and I communicate with mine just as much. Calling us adopted just proves you know nothing about us."
"Why you - just - finish this testchamber! You're not done testing yet!"

A door opened up in front of the two, and they giggled their way into the next test.

"So how many people do you know in here, Eddy?"
"Well, I saw Nazz, Sarah and Jonny," Eddy said, standing in front of Jonny's tube. "Kevin and Rolf are probably in here as well, but we haven't found them yet."

He paused, giving off a small sigh.

"Are you sure you can't do nothin'?"
"Positive, Eddy," Wheatley responded. "Only a human can gain access to this room, but only she can work the cryo containers."
"That's stupid. This whole place is stupid!" Eddy screamed. "There's at least gotta be some sort of manual getter-people-outter thing for these! I just need to free Nazz so she can swoon over me and the others so I can make them pay me for rescuing them."
"Well, now that you mention it," Wheatley pondered, "I think there is some sort of manual device in this facility."
"You sure?" Eddy asked. Wheatley nodded. "Is it near here?"
"I think it's in the room just opposite this one, Eddy."
"Well what're we waiting for? Let's go!"

Wheatley glided away, and Eddy followed.