Port-Ed 2 - Chapter 5: Discouragement Redirection

A/N: Sorry this took so long, I was too busy with Math tutoring and Mega Man 64. I also blame Yoshermon.
To Espionage1911: thank you for giving me the full Cave Johnson lemons rant. That will come in handy later.
To NonSequiturs-R-Us and gamemaster04: actually I was a little bit upset myself on how Portal 2 explained how Wheatley was repaired from GLaDOS's crushing. I believe my way was a pretty decent way of showing it and it also is a bit of foreshadowing of things to come.
To everyone: I am planning on making another crossover fanfiction. Yoshermon says my writing is improving and now I would like to have a shot at a fanfic by myself. I'll give you two hints: of course it involves EEnE and it is a crossover with a Nintendo DS game. Whoever guesses correctly gets a virtual cookie. And it's not like last time. Marcus Crassus was right, it was an easy guess. (And yes, I am a brony, don't ask.)

"This next test involves discouragement redirection cubes. I'd just finished building them before you had your... well, episode. So now we'll both get to see how they work. There should be one in the corner."

Ed and Edd advanced forward out of the elevator and towards the testing area. In their way, another bright red laser cut through the air horizontally at knee level. The boys easily jumped over it, Ed more enthusiastically than his friend. Looking around, Edd spotted a cube behind some debris in the far corner of the room. Placing a red portal on the floor below the cube and an orange portal on the floor next to them, he caught it as it fell down and popped up at his side.

Edd examined the cube, which was different than any other he had seen before. Instead of being solid, it was hollowed out. Five of its six faces had glass lenses adorning them, while a strange, mirror-like device in the center pointed toward the sixth face, which sported a smaller lens encased in what looked like a crosshair.

Ed gasped.

"Ooh! Ooh! Lemmie see it, Double-D!" he shouted.
"Be my guest, Ed," Edd replied, handing the object over to Ed. He had an idea of what they were supposed to do, but he was more curious as to what Ed thought of it.

Ed took the cube and shoved it in front of the laser. With an electric "zing!", the inside of the cube lit up brightly, and the laser immediately bent in the direction of the crosshair side. Edd mentally congratulated his friend, and watched as Ed turned the cube to point the laser in different directions. There was a receiver on a nearby wall, and Ed guided the laser to it. The receiver came to life like in the previous test chamber and a group of panels on the floor rose to form makeshift stairs to a higher ledge.

"Great job, Ed!" Edd congratulated. "Now let's go through that staircase. I think I see a button up there."

Ed and Edd went up the stairs to the area above. There was indeed a button connected to the exit door there, but nothing to weigh it down with. Puzzled, the two looked around for something to use. Edd found his attention going back to the Redirection Cube, and noticed that the floor underneath it could hold a portal. He gave Ed a slight nudge, and the boy got the same idea.

"Ooh, I know this one! Can I do it?"

Edd nodded with a smile, and Ed fired a purple portal under the cube. He then fired a blue portal on the floor next to him and Edd and picked up the cube as it came through. Edd congratulated Ed out loud this time, and placed it on the button. The cube acted like any other, and the door opened up before the two.

"Well done," GLaDOS spoke up. "Here come the test results..." There was a pause. "You are horrible people. I'm serious, that's what it says: horrible people. We weren't even testing for that."

Edd simply scoffed, but his face lightened when he heard Ed giggle beside him.

"She's funny, Double-D," he whispered.

The elevator area of this test was different than all the others Ed and Edd had seen. Instead of a single elevator, there were now two of them, side-by-side. Edd remarked about its convenience and entered one of the elevators, but suddenly became very nervous when Ed entered the other.

"These had better lead to the same place," he muttered under his breath. Both elevators began to descend, and the boys headed further into the facility.

"Don't let that 'horrible people' thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birth mothers' decision to abandon you two on a doorstep."

Edd was quick to notice that this next test was designed to be solved by more than one person. There was a Discouragement Redirection Cube sitting near a laser up ahead. There were two concrete walls sitting on either side of a new apparatus near the laser. It looked like a cone of sorts, but made of glass. Curious, Edd used the cube to redirect the laser into a portalable wall. He placed a portal on it and another on the wall next to the glass cone. The laser passed through it, and the cone began to spin. A series of lights on the floor next to it lit up, heading toward the exit door. The door didn't open, though, as it also needed to be powered by a receiver.

"I see. Ed, please fire your portals on the wall over there," Edd asked.

Ed placed a portal at the end of the laser and his other one before the receiver. The laser hit it, going through all four portals and the two receivers, and the door opened up.

"Congratulations," GLaDOS spoke up. "Not on the test. Most people emerge from suspension terribly malnourished. I want to congratulate you on beating the odds and somehow managing to pack on a few pounds."

Oh great, now she's making fat jokes, Edd thought. Once again, though, he heard Ed giggling beside him, and he made a note not to let this computer's petty insults get to him. In light of that, he giggled a little himself, and the two boys stepped into their elevators to continue testing.