What's Out There? Part 2

Chapter 10

"Where are we?" Midnight's hair was back under control and looked very nice.

"The hospital," Maxwell said. The open bag of cat-nip on the other side of the room caught Midnight's eye.

"Why...is there...catnip?" She asked, walking over to it.

"Oh yeah, I threw it at you."

"Why...?"

"I wanted to see how you'd react."

"That's...I don't know what to think about that." She picked it up, biting her bottom lip. Maxwell got his clipboard back out and watched intensely. She ate a little bit of it and had no reaction. Maxwell frowned and wrote down the results. "That's not as good as I remember it being...Now, how are you feeling?"

"Same as before."

"Okay. Now I need a control group." Maxwell began looking around for a normal cat to test the cat-nip on.

"...What?"

"Don't you know what a control group is?"

"Yeah, totally," Midnight lied.

"It's the group where nothing is changed that you compare your results to. For instance, when first testing the repulsion gel, the control group had blue paint. This would show if the bouncing was caused by some outside force."

"Oh, okay," Midnight nodded. Maxwell picked up a dark gray cat.

"Found one!"

"Where did a cat come from?"

"There are cats all around Aperture, I dunno why." Maxwell shrugged and gave the cat some of the cat-nip. The cat did its normal drugged cat thing.

"Well, okay then." Midnight watched the cat flop around, being stupid. Maxwell wrote down the results of the control group.

"We should probably make sure Blood Ruby and Johnson are okay."

"Wait... Blood Ruby and Johnson are here?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, okay..." Midnight said shyly. Maxwell and Midnight had been walking back to where he left the two.

"Should they not be here?"

"Oh no, it's fine that they are here!" Midnight chuckled nervously. Maxwell looked back at her.

"You know you're a bad liar, right?"

"I'm not a bad liar!" She attempted to defend herself. It didn't help because she is a bad liar. "I'm not lying, it's fine that they are here."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure," she sighed. "Let's find them."

"They're that way." Maxwell pointed in the general direction of the main area. Midnight nodded and they continued on their way. When they arrived at the main area, Maxwell noticed bullet holes in the walls. Blood Ruby and Johnson had their guns drawn and aimed at each other, still arguing.

"JOHNSON, CALM THE HELL DOWN!" Blood Ruby shouted. They hadn't noticed Midnight or Maxwell yet.

"YOU JUST DON'T GET IT GENERAL!" Johnson retorted.

"Johnson, calm down," Blood Ruby lowered her voice in an attempt to maybe calm him the hell down.

"You said when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. What if I don't want the lemons?" Johnson's hands were shaking. "I'LL MAKE LIFE TAKE THE LEMONS BACK!" Maxwell wondered what had happened while he was gone. "INSTEAD I'M GOING TO GET MAD! I DON'T WANT YOUR DAMN LEMONS!"

"John-" Blood Ruby started.

"DEMAND TO SEE LIFE'S MANAGER! MAKE LIFE RUE THE DAY IT THOUGHT IT COULD GIVE ME LEMONS!" Johnson interrupted. Midnight and Maxwell realized they were witnessing the famous Cave Johnson 'lemon speech' right before them. "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I'M THE MAN WHO'S GOING TO BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN!"

"YEAH!" Midnight couldn't help but cheer.

"WITH THE LEMONS!"

"YEAH! BURN THEIR HOUSE DOWN!"

"I'M GOING TO INVENT A COMBUSTIBLE LEMON THAT BURNS YOUR HOUSE DOWN!" Johnson barked. Blood Ruby made eye contact with Maxwell from across the room.

"Oh, you're back. Can you help me out here?" Blood Ruby gestured to the crazy man with a gun.

"DO IT AGAIN!" Midnight applauded. Maxwell ran over with a syringe full of Tranquilizers and injected it into Johnson's shoulder. He yelped in surprise and backed away a bit before just freezing.

"This will either calm him down or make him crazier," Maxwell explained. Blood Ruby took his moment of confusion to grab his gun from him. Midnight ran up to make sure everything was okay. Johnson was breathing deep, heavy, angry breaths.

"Okay, Johnson... are you calmer now?" Blood Ruby asked, throwing his gun to the side.

"You okay?" Midnight checked on him. When Johnson didn't respond, Midnight backed off a bit. Maxwell thought that odd, so he waved his hand in front of his face. Johnson only looked at Maxwell, without turning his head. Midnight was becoming visibly worried.

"You feeling alright?" Maxwell tried to get an answer out of him. Midnight shrugged confusedly. "Okay, Blood Ruby, you take him back, let him leave the war if he wants."

"He doesn't have a good reason. If he can give me a good reason, then I'll let him go." Blood Ruby was still stuck on her crazy reasoning. Johnson finally reacted to stuff again by pulling out his multiverse gun and opening a portal.

"He doesn't want to, that's good enough."

"There must be something else though! There must be!" She continued her reasoning. Johnson jumped through the portal. Maxwell wasn't going to let him run away so easily, so he jumped through too. Maxwell turned up in the den he and Johnson were in earlier, that he had brought Midnight to. Maxwell barely caught a glimpse of Johnson's shirt leaving the room, so he followed him. Through the walls. Out into a hall. Around the lab in all.

"Stop following me!" Johnson called from around the corner.

"Wait! You left this back in Aperture!" Maxwell held out a box he wasn't holding earlier. Johnson stopped and Maxwell caught up to him finally.

"I don't think I left anything," Johnson opened the box Maxwell handed him and found several items he originally had on him. "What? How did I leave this?"

"How should I know?" Maxwell shrugged. Johnson took the box and started back on his track. Maxwell opened a portal and returned to Midnight and Blood Ruby.

"...and that's why I'll never touch cheese again," Midnight said. Blood Ruby burst out laughing. Maxwell wasn't sure what he walked into. The two girls noticed he was standing there "Oh, Hey Maxwell. Where's Johnson?"

"No idea," he answered.

"Really?" Blood Ruby groaned.

"Ruby, how old was Johnson when he joined the war?" Midnight asked.

"Fourteen, I think."

"And how old is he now?"

"I don't know, like twenty-three or something."

"That's a long time. You've got to let him go..."

"Yeah, you do," Maxwell chimed in.

"Fine." Blood Ruby went to open a portal back home. Everything seemed ready to go back to normal until a spontaneous multiverse portal opened under Midnight's feet and she fell in. Blood Ruby hopped in after her.

"Well, I got nothing better to do." Maxwell jumped in after her and appeared in the Lab. Doctor Strike's old lab. Blood Ruby landed and booked it down the hall.

"TRAITOR!" Blood Ruby shouted ahead of her.

"... wut?" Maxwell caught up to Blood Ruby and kept pace with her.

"Johnson is working with Doctor Strike and now they've got Midnight!" How Blood Ruby obtained the information that fast, no idea.

"Oh no..."