Hey guys. Don't have much to say, but I'd like to point out that in the last chapter, GLaDOS only referred to Chell by her real name in order to spite Wheatley.
That's all. Please enjoy.
Chapter 2 – Not the Best Start to the Day
Chell woke up in a cold sweat. She'd had that dream again.
She'd been in Aperture Laboratories, and Wheatley was trying to crush her with a mashy spike plate as she ran along catwalks with Her attached to her portal gun. All the while, Wheatley's mocking insults kept being replaced periodically with desperate cries for help. Whoever it was, they sounded like Wheatley, and they were scared and in pain.
"Chell, help me!" they kept screaming as electricity crackled and brought agonised shrieks into the air around her. "Please, I'm sorry, luv! I'm trying to-. Aargh!"
Chell knew what the dream meant. She'd read Jekyll and Hyde; knew about the battle between good and evil. It hadn't been Wheatley's fault. The mainframe had corrupted him, and turned him into the Mr. Hyde that had tried to kill her just as brutally as GLaDOS had when she'd been connected to it.
Sighing, she shook the lingering remnants of fear from her mind and tried to forget it. There was nothing she could do now. Wheatley was lost to the depths of space and would likely never be retrieved.
She was better off just living the life she'd been given and leaving the past behind.
He was terrified. He had a right to be. He'd been hooked up to some sort of machine whilst She talked about the process as if it were a girl's gossip over tea and scones. That would have made a lot more sense had he known just what a girl's gossip over tea and scones was.
"I'm afraid your one got a little… damaged during development," She said, not sounding at all sorry. "Don't worry. I made some biomechanical replacements, and all the cognitive functions are fully stable, so hopefully you'll gain a few IQ points rather than lose some. I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you, though."
Electricity whirred around him, and suddenly, unbearable agony tore through his wiring.
He screamed, but his vocal output shorted out before he could even start.
Chell sighed as she sat down and sipped her coffee. Her lunch break had just started, which was a relief because she'd been put in charge of a rowdy bunch today.
After several weeks of walking in the same direction away from Aperture, she'd stumbled across a small town called Tenshire. The place had been welcoming enough, but she'd certainly received some odd looks thanks to the Weighted Companion Cube she'd been carrying. Someone had offered her a place to stay, and she'd managed to tell her story. Since then, she'd settled into a new life; one where she had her own house and job, and could do pretty much whatever she wanted. She'd seen a speech therapist who managed to get her talking again, and she began working at a nursery where she made several friends.
She decided she liked her job. She found she liked being around kids, and was more than happy to help out at a class that taught sign language, too. Now she could talk to pretty much everyone.
Still, just because she could talk didn't mean she enjoyed chattering away. She was still quiet around some people, but it turned out that that was hardly something to be frowned upon.
Chell was interrupted from her thoughts when someone cleared her throat in front of her. Looking up, she saw her friend Jodie; a pretty young woman with short, dark green hair (dyed, of course) and hazel eyes.
'Want to go to the café after work?' Jodie signed, a smile on her face. Jodie was completely deaf in one ear, and only had 10% hearing in the other, therefore she resorted to sign language to communicate.
'Sure,' Chell replied. 'I'll pay, if you want.'
'It's okay. I've got more than enough cash to pay for us both.'
He felt himself slipping away.
I didn't even get a chance to ask about Chell…
Who hates me? I'd hate me if I were you.