Holding the portal gun, he looked down. It was another acid pit. Was GLaDOS trying to kill—actually yes, yes she was. Up until how he had been dragging along the Space Core, half hoping he would annoy GLaDOS into corruption, and half hoping he would provide some helpful insight.
"Alright Space Core…" Wheatley started. "There are no portal walls over there… But there is an island of portalable wall in the acid… Maybe if I portal down there and swim—"
"SPAAAACE!" The core cried.
"Yes, yes, I know you want to go back—"
"Spaceship… Launching 3… 2… 1… BLASTOFF! CSHHHHHHCKCHHHHH" Space Core ran around in circles. He then looked up. "Launch pad!" He reached for a wall that was angled towards the ceiling.
Wheatley blinked. Then it came to him. "Oh! You're brilliant!" He shouted joyously. Wheatley then shot a portal at the island and the wall. He looked down at the island, then at the space core. He sighed. "Come here." He ordered.
"Where we goin'? Where we goin'?" Space core asked as Wheatley dragged him towards the ledge. Wheatley swallowed nervously. That acid could kill him now, so he didn't want to miss.
"Alright… here goes nothing!" He shouted, and he jumped off the ledge with the space core.
...
Chell looked dumbfounded. The man that stood in front of her was the first human she had seen ever since she woke up in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center—then again, she didn't remember much from before that same day.
"Hey, angel!" The man said arrogantly. "Nice to see you again! How've you been?"
Chell gasped and recoiled. That voice…!
"What's wrong?" Asked the man. "Did my shockingly good looks take… You…" He touched his face. "Well, look at that!" He laughed. "I really do have good looks! I'm a man! Err, uh, pardon, a human. Don't wanna offend..."
Chell pursed her lips. This was no man. It was just another robot. And not any robot, but 'Rick', the 'Adventure' core. One of the corrupted cores that she attached to Wheatley to defeat him. While fighting for her life, this core flirted with her.
"Oh, hello again. I thought I told you to get lost." Crackled a voice over the intercom. Chell stood straight up. She knew GLaDOS' voice all too well. "I give you a get out of jail free card and you just throw it in my face by coming back?" She paused as if waiting for a response from Chell "I'm just kidding. I'm not mad, really. We can get back to testing now, and you won't even try to kill me. Do you know why that is? It's because of who I have…" An audio clip started playing.
"Do you know why I need to find Chell?" Asked the voice of a man, probably in his mid twenties.
"I-I'm a space captain." Stated the voice of a boy.
"I know you are, mate. And I know you're never listening—but that's not really the point… I need to find Chell to say… how sorry I am…"
Chell jumped. The cockney accent, the way he would just ramble on like he didn't plan what he was saying before he said it—It was Wheatley!—and he wanted to say he was sorry? To her? He must've really been corrupted. He seemed to have a sense of guilt when the purpose of his creation was for him to be an intelligence damper…
"Yes. He's not in space anymore." GLaDOS said, ending the clip. "He's here, and remember how I said I was going to kill him? Well, I am still going to kill him. Right now his time of death is in his hands, but if you try to kill me again, it's not that hard to just drop the floor out from under him."
His time of death is in his hands? Chell looked over at the newly human adventure core. Did she mean that she was testing with Wheatley?
...
"Right! I just need to put the portal on that ledge, and then the redirection—no, no that's not right. Uhh, how about I put the portal over there and place the redirection cube—AUGH!" That was probably the seventh time he had burned himself with the laser beam.
"You know, I liked your initial plan of swimming in the acid as a resolution to the previous test better." GLaDOS chided. "Would you please either incinerate yourself or finish the test faster?"
Wheatley sighed and set down the cube, and put the portal gun on it. "Space cops… gotta hide… SPACE ALIENS! Come to… COME TO STERILIZE OUR RACE!" Space Core snatched the portal gun off the cube. "Peew! Peew!" PSHHWARP! The space core accidentally fired the portal gun at the wall. The thermal discouragement beam appeared inches away from his and Wheatley's heads, singing his hair.
"Now who's the moron?" Wheatley yelped. "You could of killed us—" The door slid open. The Space Core had solved the puzzle.
"Does that even count?" Snarled GLaDOS. "Solving something by accident, is that still science?" She sighed loudly. "Well, that was quite a few chambers you barely made it through. I think you deserve your surprise."
Wheatley lit up and quickly got to the elevator. As he ascended to the next level he thought about what he'd say. Sure, a few weeks in space was probably enough thinking time for most people, but he was the intelligence dampening sphere after all. As the doors slid open, he dashed forward. "Chell?" He called out.
"Who are you?" A girl, that was obviously not Chell, asked.
Wheatley frowned. "You're not Chell…" He sighed.
"Oh, you thought I'd give you Chell so early in the game?" GLaDOS asked, mockingly. She let out a synthesized laugh. "Of course I'm saving her for later. It's more of a surprise that way."
...
"Don't worry, doll face, I got it." Rick snuck up behind another turret and gave it an unnecessary karate chop.
"Uwaaaah!" It cried, shooting all over. "I don't blame you…"
"So, uh, I guess that's all of 'em!" Rick said, sniffing with satisfaction. "Now why don't you work your portal magic on the rest of this puzzle?"
Chell sighed in annoyance. He was like this the whole time, every chamber. It was kind of nice to be treated like a lady though… for the first five seconds of it. She shot portals skillfully all across the chamber, getting her and Rick into the excursion funnel leading towards the exit. "Great work—I guess." Chimed GLaDOS. "Maybe Wheatley hasn't accidentally incinerated himself in the time it took you to complete that last test. Who knows…?"
"Aww, come on! Let the poor idiot go!" Rick sighed. "I mean, what'd he ever do— actually, why are we trying to save this guy? Didn't he try to kill you?"
Chell grimaced. Sure, Wheatley did go crazy and try to kill her, but she wasn't entirely sure it was his fault… Such a mild-mannered little intelligence dampening core shouldn't have gotten an urge to kill so quickly and without influence—maybe it was like 'the itch' that GLaDOS described… it wasn't Wheatley that wanted to kill her but the Aperture Science's mainframe… right? Anyways, she did have to find out what Wheatley had to say for himself.
"Oh, and if you finish a few more tests, I might have a surprise for you." GLaDOS said in her usual monotonic voice. "And by a surprise, I mean a real one. Maybe you'll meet someone… not your parents of course. Why would they be here? They don't love you. Just look forward to it. Goodbye."
Chell proceeded into the elevator. She hoped that Wheatley was okay… He kind of is a moron, after all.
afgasg I didn't explain how Chell got there X(
I don't remember either...
I'm starting to hate the title I gave this fanfic... *shot*