Chell Johnson (City 17)


 * For the character from the 'Portal' games see Chell.

Chell Caroline Johnson (Previously Blackstone) is a main character in City 17 Street and acts as the primary love interest of Nathan Johnson. She was also married to his arch nemesis Frank Blackstone and has two daughters, Samantha and Chell Jr.

Chell was previously a test subject at Aperture Laboratories until moving to City 17.

Original History

 * This is non-canon to City 17 Street and featured Chell's time in the series from 2008 to 2009. This was retconned when her history was revised in 2010.

Meeting Nathan
Chell and Nathan first met at a Valentine's Day party in City 17, although Chell didn't pay much attention to his advances and instead opted to flirt with her Companion Cube. This caused Nathan to leave feeling rejected. But Chell's "happy" meeting with the cube didn't last long as she accidentally dropped him into an incinerator, much to her distress.

Nathan continued to pursue Chell, and showed lack of skills in flirting and outright asked if she wanted to "fuck him", which only resulted in her calling him a weirdo. Despite this though, the pair of them got together. They later fostered a girl named Vanessa Pade.

Fleeing
When Chell discovered Nathan was a killer, she took Vanessa and fled.

Revised History

 * The character's backstory and history was retconned in the 2010 series of City 17 Street.

Background
Chell and Nathan first met sometime in the early 2000s when he found employment at Aperture Laboratories.

Reuniting with Nathan
In July 2010 Chell discovered Nathan was apparently killed in a shootout, so returned to City 17 with their young daughter Samantha in tow. Having been left Nathan's assets in numerous businesses, she began to sell them on and planned to leave once again. She met up with sleazy businessman Moral Bennett who purchased Nathan's shares in a garage. Moral attempted to ask Chell out and flirt with her, but she wasn't interested and had no further communication with Moral once the deal was finalized.

However Nathan wasn't dead, he simply faked his death as he feared for his life after killing mob boss Tony Angelo. Once pardoned by new boss Don Simmons he returned to City 17. Despite Nathan's criminal activities, Chell got with him as she realised how much she missed him.

A few months later they were due to marry, but Nathan was too drunk. Chell had enough so left City 17 and returned to Aperture Laboratories, where she got into a conflict with new acting CEO Wheatley.

Marrying Frank Blackstone
Chell returned to City 17 in July 2011, again for Nathan's funeral. She ended up marrying Frank Blackstone and conceived his child. But when she realised he wanted to use their baby for his future schemes, she fled to Aperture Laboratories and allied herself with a personality core named Schizophrenic Core. But Schizophrenic was on Frank's payroll and held Chell and the child at the facility. Chell fought Schizophrenic and destroyed him, and left the ruined laboratory behind.

Permanent move to Aperture
Although Nathan turned up alive, Chell decided to leave City 17 permanently and accepted a job at the reconstructed Aperture Laboratories, and took Samantha with her. But Chell and Samantha continued making visits over the years to Nathan.

Kidnapping
In June 2014 Nathan discovered Chell was engaged to Doug Rattmann, a colleague at Aperture. However this appeared to be short lived when Chell was seemingly killed in a car explosion along with Doug. Nathan ended up getting full custody of Samantha after Chell's "death".

But in reality Chell didn't die. She was kidnapped by the Clandestine Company and replaced with a double in order to fake her death. Chell was put through horrendous experimentation by Clandestine Scientists, who began to plan what the best thing was for her in their organization.

Chell spent a while being conditioned and was eventually turned into a prototype assassin.

Reunion with Nathan
Nearly two years since her supposed death, the assassin Chell was deployed to Nathan's apartment to kill him. When he entered his apartment Chell shot Nathan in the shoulder and the pair began firing upon each other. Nathan managed to land a hit on Chell, causing her to be knocked out and hit the ground. Nathan unmasked the assassin, and was shocked at her identity.

Nathan tied Chell to a chair and healed her with a medkit. She was put into a drugged like state, and Nathan coaxed her into revealing what happened. Chell's suppressed memories came flooding back, and she recalled her abduction, faked death and experiments being carried out on her. Chell appeared to finally break her condition when Nathan got her to relive her captivity, and he untied her. Chell was devastated to learn that their daughter Samantha was now dead, and the pair mourned over a photograph of her. Nathan assured Chell he would do all he can to deal with the Company.

After the presumed downfall of the Company, Chell and Nathan moved to City 17 and got married.

After Nathan was captured by The Dark One, Chell grouped with Alyx Vance to infiltrate the citadel. They stopped the Dark One - who was unmasked as Gordon Freeman - from killing Nathan. As Chell and Alyx evacuated prisoners of Freeman - one of them being Alyx's daughter Azian, Nathan chased down and killed Freeman. They regrouped at Freeman's office, but discovered that they were unable to close down his super-portal and prevent Freeman's rogue alien allies from coming through and invading. Against Chell and Alyx's will, Nathan used his portal gun to teleport them to a safe distance, as the only option was to destroy the super-portal, which would mean the citadel would be destroyed.

Behind the Scenes

 * Chell was introduced as a love interest to Nathan Johnson and first appeared in February 2008 in the episode "Valentine's Day". At the time there was an actual plan to end City 17 Street and the ending would have seen Chell, Nathan and their daughter living a happy life. But this was cut when it was decided to keep the series going.
 * Much of Chell's history in the first year of her time in City 17 Street has been massively altered and changed.

List of Appearances

 * City 17 Street
 * "Valentine's Day"
 * "The Return of Chell Johnson"
 * Black Mesa