*This chapter was written by Unexpect. It was originally three seperate chapters with branching paths, now condensed into one*

This story follows Mark, a high-school student who's obsessed with portal technology. He currently lives with his single mother and two sisters.

Last year Mark managed to repair a broken receiver and make his own modifications to it. After he showed a portal production company his modified receiver, they hired him for the duration of the summer school break. They were impressed time and time again by his modifications made to the receivers. They eventually let him perform tests on a portal device itself.

Months went by and school was going to begin soon. He requested to continue research from home while he returned to school. The executives were happy to oblige. He was awarded a full scholarship along with his own portal device to study and keep. Great riches were promised for any other new discoveries he shared with the company. He decided to keep his personal portal device a secret from his friends and family. He didn't want them stealing or messing with the device before he made new discoveries. 

After months of experimentation he's finally managed to remove the limitations on the device!

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He considers the dangers of such a device and fears what might happen to him if he uses it alone.

He could show it to one of his friends or relatives, but they would also figure out that he's going to possibly become rich with this device. He needs to show it to someone he trusts.

His mother Angela works an office job 5 days a week. Since today is her day off, she can probably be found exercising or doing housework. She's a bit over protective of Mark and might not want him experimenting with a potentially dangerous device. Years ago she took his receiver away from him when she found out about it, which forced him to have to study them in secret. He's not sure how she'll react to hearing that he's been working with a portal device behind her back.

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Mark decides to ask his own mother Angela to help him with his experiments. He knows she might not be happy to hear what he's been up to, but he assumes she'll accept it when she learns of the great career success he'll have if his experiments succeed. 

Angela is a 38-year-old single mom who works 9-5 as a receptionist. She looks great for her age and often uses her good looks to influence those around her. She's snagged more than a couple of pay raises in the past few years at her job by flirting with the managers. She loves the attention she gets every day from men that can't keep their eyes off of her, even having a few flings from time to time.

Angela takes good care to maintain her hour-glass figure. Her master bedroom has a home gym equipped with a treadmill, a stair-climbing machine, and a cycling machine. She almost exclusively works legs, with them being worked 6 days a week and yoga being performed daily. She's always in a great mood when doing yoga, and her son & daughters have been known to take advantage of that.

As a single mom she enjoys supporting her kids, whom she loves very much. Her ex-husband's addiction to portal entertainment caused him to start skipping work and not care for her or the family. He'd sometimes vanish for weeks doing who knows what with other women. His addiction eventually lead to their divorce, and he hasn't contacted or visited his children since. The messy marriage has led to her staying away from men that use portals. She ignores virtually all long-term relationships, as most men today enjoy using portals for various things.

Angela thinks her husband was a "piece of shit" in her own words, but she also blamed portals for ruining her husband and eventually her marriage. She has an out-spoken dislike for portal-related entertainment, frequenting a "Mom's against portals" Facebook group. It was natural for her to punish her son Mark when she caught him experimenting on a receiver years back. Mark tried to argue that he was doing it for research and education, but she didn't buy it. Portals were a gateway to sex, she believed. She'd taken it away and grounded him for a month. She said he'd end up a loser like his father if he messed with those "perverted sex machines". She wants a strong man for a son, a man to protect and take care of her, not end up another sex-addict.

Angela felt satisfied when weeks later Mark told her he'd given up on portals to focus on preparing to become an engineer. She was quick to agree to him taking extra summer classes. "Anything to keep my baby boy's mind off of those disgusting things", she thought then. She was so proud of Mark when he received a full scholarship as a reward for his excellent grades, assuming portals were well in the past for him. Little did she know Mark was working with portal devices behind her back during the summer, and the scholarship was payment for his research.

Mark sits in his room thinking about how to break the news to his mom. "How am I going to tell her this?" he thinks to himself "What if she goes full bitch-mode again?" Mark considers it once more and makes a decision. "But I need her help, I have to ask her. It's too risky to do it alone and I don't trust anyone else as much as mom".

Right now Angela is in her room doing her daily yoga session. He could interrupt her now while she's in a good mood, or he could wait until she's finished. He sits for a while, staring at the portal device as he thinks about what to do.