"That guy has a lightbulb on his head!"
"That's normal for this daddy."
The year was still unknown, Sophie was 6 years old, and Wheatley was spending his weekend watching her new favorite show: "Cyberchase."
"What's this 'Encryptor Chip' they're going on about?"
"It's a long story daddy." Sophie began. "There's this computer lady who runs everything-" Wheatley flinched, but little Sophie continued, oblivious. "and she's got a virus. That chip is the only thing that can cure her."
"Well if the bad guy wants it so badly, why not just skip the whole auction bit and steal it?"
Sophie giggled. "Cuz then there wouldn't be a story!"
"Right." Wheatley filed that under lazy writing and kept watching.
As the show progressed, the three kids set up a savings plan ("Why can't I do that?" Wheatley thought), got jobs, and asked for donations. Until finally they bought the Chip with seconds to spare. "This is too good to be true!" Thought Wheatley.
As it turned out, he was right.
"Surprise Cyber world, I'm your new ruler! The Hacker has won!"
Wheatley gaped as all the pieces fell into place. Hacker let the kids buy the chip, knowing they'd run straight back to Motherboard and put it in. It was all a trap! A brilliant-
Oh.
Whoever said lightning never struck twice had obviously never been inside Wheatley's brain, because while he was still reeling from that plot twist, he realized that he of all people should have seen this "replace the supercomputer" scheme coming.
"Wow." Sophie said in a small voice as the "For Real" segment started. "I think that's the first time I've been scared of a computer."
"Guess it runs in the family." Wheatley thought ruefully.