"Why are you still trying to find him?" Asked GLaDOS again. "He's dead. I've killed him." GLaDOS had been saying this for a while now, but Chell knew she was bluffing. GLaDOS was much more sadistic than that. She would have played an audio clip of him dying by now.
"You know, if you ever at any point soon feel like crying over your dead robot boyfriend, I have a shoulder right here for you." Stated Rick with a cheesy grin. Chell grimaced. 'Robot boyfriend'? Was he just trying to make Wheatley sound bad in comparison to him or did he actually think that—
"Fact: If you untie me, I will be able to grant you seven wishes." Chell looked up. There was a man tied to the catwalk above them. "In Greek myth, the hero Hercules got his god-like powers from rescuing a genie." Chell grimaced. Judging by the incorrect and rediculous nature of the statements the man had made, she knew exactly who that was.
"The man dangling above us is the fact core. He is corrupt." Stated the intelligence core.
"The fact core is not corrupt." Stated the fact core
"The fact core was the equivalent to an early prototype of the intelligence core, and due to bad up keeping, it is now corrupt."
"The fact core is not corrupt."
"Ladies, ladies! Why don't we stop our squabbling for angel here?" Offered Rick.
"The fact core's personality programming is based off of the male gender." Retorted the Fact Core. "The body that the fact core currently inhabits is f-f-f-f— male."
Chell sighed and shot a portal at the surface which held the rope that ensnared the fact core. The fact core fell on to the catwalk that they were all on. "In most cultures, gratitude can be best expressed through CAKE." Stated the fact core, while untangling himself from his bindings.
"The chances of the Intelligence dampening core still being operational when we reach it lower every second." Stated the Intelligence core. Chell nodded. They needed to keep moving to find Wheatley before either he or GLaDOS kills him.
...
Wheatley ran as fast as he could down the corridor. Though the Morality core might have led them down the correct path, GLaDOS was definitely trying her best to kill them. "Remember those spike plates you crudely fashioned to kill Chell and I?" She asked in a taunting tone. "Well, I just realized how useful they are." Spike plates crashed behind them, only missing due to the swerving path they took.
"Space… SPACE PIRATES! Out to… STEAL OUR SPACE TREASURE!" Shouted the Space Core.
"Are we gonna die?" Yelped the Curiosity core.
"NO! Space heroes NEVER DIE!" Replied the Space Core.
Wheatley gasped for breath. How Chell was able to do this so easily, he'd never know. The bodies the cores were in were obviously out of shape—probably because sleeping yourself into a comatose state is not good exercise. He scanned the area frantically for spike-plate blind spots that he discovered while trying to smash Chell. Suddenly, he recognized a certain corridor. "Ah! Follow me!" He exclaimed, taking a tight right.
"You can't escape me so easily." Snapped GLaDOS. They hurried down the corridor and jumped into an old empty test chamber, unattached to the railway system because Wheatley had crashed it too hard into another chamber. They piled in to the room just as a spike plate smashed at the entrance. The plate slowly removed itself from the door. "Well, looks like I can focus on killing Chell now." She said coldly.
Wheatley collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and sighed. "Oh, Chell… Why'd I have to get you into this mess?" He said while covering his face with his hands.
"Why are you blaming yourself?" Asked the Curiosity Core.
Wheatley blinked. "You know…I actually don't know." He said, dumbfoundedly. "Is it a human thing? Or is it because of my programming— because when I was mad everything was definitely not my fault." He sighed. "I guess I'm taking the blame out of guilt…The things I di— tried to do- to her…Actually I just tried to kill her, but that probably adds up to lots of horrible things, you know? And I really feel bad about it. I do. I just…Need to tell her I'm sorry."
The curiosity core cocked her head. "Why?"
"Because I love her." He stated.
The other cores stared at him blankly.
"You know—that isn't what I meant to say at all." He corrected. "I mean like—me and Chell we're like… It's platonic. Totally platonic. We're like siblings—except I'm more like… A pet or something… To her… I'm a floating metal sphere— well I was…"He sighed.
The space core took a deep breath. "Space wed—"
"Just stop. Stop right there, and I won't have to hurt you." Wheatley threatened.
The Morality core sighed and leaned against the wall behind her, then sat down and closed her eyes.
Wheatley sighed and nodded. "Good idea. Let's rest for a bit and then look for Chell."
...
Chell ran and dodged as spike plates crashed behind her. "Whoo! Now here's my kind of adventure!" Rick shouted happily, skilfully dodging the plates as they whizzed past. The Intelligence and Fact cores, on the other hand, were struggling to keep up. Chell looked around for a place for the less agile cores to rest.
"You know, Wheatley ran from me too." Stated GLaDOS coldly. "But, as you can see- I'm not occupied by chasing him anymore." Chell cringed slightly. GLaDOS had dropped the bluff that she had dropped the floor of the test chamber... And she even said that she was chasing him?
Chell shook her head and focused on finding a blind spot again. She spotted a box full of moving machinery. It would be risky to get into- with all of the pistons crashing near the entrance- but they could probably be safe in there for a while. She made a sharp turn towards the entrance. "Hey, where 'ya goin', angel?" Shouted Rick after her, following her.
"The average human running speed after a long distance has been recorded to be five to eight miles per hour, before they were smashed, burned, or dropped by or into Aperture Science products." Stated the Intelligence core.
"In revolutionary history, Paul Revier ran all the way from France to the town of York to deliver the message of Brittain's approach." Fabricated the fact core. "He died of exhaustion shortly after."
Chell bolted towards the piston-filled room, as one came crashing down in front of her. It would be suicide to try and get in front on... She looked around for a safer entrance. Her eyes landed at a patch of portalable paint on the back wall of the room, and she turned her head sharply to the left to find another patch of portalable wall. She shot portals at both surfaces and quickly hopped through. Rick and the other cores swiftly followed in suit.
Once they were all in the room, Chell expected a defiant banging on the walls with a spike plate, or a witty comment from GLaDOS, but she was silent, and the flurry of spiked plates ceased.
"The average human needs about 8 hours of sleep per day." Panted the Fact Core.
"The average Aperture Science Test subject gets thirty minutes to five years." Stated the Intelligence Core, also gasping for breath.
Rick exhaled loudly. "Yeah, what I think they're tryin' to say is we need a bit of a rest-" He grinned cheesily. "But don't worry 'bout me, I'll keep watch for 'ya."
Chell pursed her lips. Sure she hadn't slept or rested much since Wheatley had woken her up however long ago that was- but she was used to going on weeks of sleep then none at all. What she really wanted to do was search for Wheatley some more!
She rubbed her legs, stiff from running for so long. She sighed. It wasn't like the facility was going to get any larger. The chances of them finding him didn't really change, given the fact that they didn't even know where in the facility both of them started at. She leaned back against the wall behind her and closed her eyes. A few minutes wouldn't ki- ...Well, a few minutes hopefully won't kill anyone.
Holy cow, so many people have favorited and watched this story, but, I read it again and uh, yeah.
I started re-writing it from the beginning, and I'm wondering if I should overwrite this one or if I should post it as a new one?
The new one has much less Chell/Wheatley, but is a lot more reasonable in that arena?
I'd love some feedback soon so I can post the first chapter as soon as possible :)