Reunion?
Do you know how hard it is to run in a forest at night? Take it from me, it's freaking hard! I took Wheatley's advice (a first in a very long time) and I'm using the tractor beam to light my way. I don't know how long I've been running, so let's just say that all those tests finally paid off.
I stop for a moment to re-adjust my backpack; one of the straps slipped off of my shoulder. My heart begins to race since it feels way too light and it sounds way too quiet. I drop the cube and take the bag off. To my horror, the personality core is gone.
How am I going to find my way now? I'm completely lost in the middle of a forest with no guide to tell me where to go. Maybe I can backtrack and find him. Dragging the cube and my bag to a nearby tree,
I take out the lighter from my bag. It has a shiny metal casing, so I have it lean on my bag so it reflects the light from the moon. Now, I can find it once I come back.
With the portal gun in hand, I race off in the exact opposite direction I came from. That little robot better thank me for this. As I run on, I can't stop thinking about the little guy. What if it got itself into trouble? What if the people from Black Mesa got him?
I do owe it to him; he got me out of there without a scratch while he malfunctioned like crazy. Great, now I'm starting to feel bad for it. It betrayed me in the first place! But it did apologize and has been pretty sincere about it so far.
An inhuman shriek pierces the night air. I stop in my tracks, breathing heavily from both the exercise and from surprise. What could have made that?
Some shouting is coming from the distance; I'm getting closer to wherever that noise came from. My instinct is telling me that the sound came from Wheatley. I really hope I'm wrong.
Another scream, this time louder, comes again. I can hear what the people are saying now. Hiding behind a tree, I slowly and silently look towards the voices. A soft, blue light is illuminating the six shadowy figures around it.
"Who were you travelling with?" The question hangs for a beat, then another, "Well? Who was it?" The figure raises a tazer. No, his system is going to overload! Oh shit, it's going to betray me again and-
"I don't know." My eyes widen. He didn't rat me out, he's protecting me. That's it, I need to save him.
Faster than I can comprehend, I rush out of my hiding place and strike someone on the head with the portal gun. That's probably one of the things NOT to do with it, but I don't have any other options. Distracted, the one with the tazer turns their attention to me. The other one drops Wheatley on the ground and kind of...guards him from me. The other three just stand there like their heads just got cut off.
Quickly, I ram the butt of the gun into the closest guy's chest and kick the one on the other side of me. Hey, that was kind of fun. It must hurt like Hell to be kicked with the Long-Fall Boots.
Suddenly, I am pushed back roughly and, although I keep my balance, they punch me blindly. Fortunately, they punch the gun so they end up with a bruised hand. A few blue sparks come out of the portal gun. Hmm, I wonder what happens if I shoot someone with it. GLaDOS did warn me not to "look into the operational end of the device."
Before I can test out my theory, the same guy comes back for more and lands a punch to my jaw. I slam backwards into a tree, my vision developing small white dots. No, I am not losing this fight!
Blindly, I pull the trigger on the portal gun. An orange sphere comes out of the end and nails the guy square in the chest. Without another sound, they fall over, not moving. Shit, I think I just killed someone. They attacked my ally first though...but I still can't shake the feeling off.
The other two I hit earlier come at me again. Scanning the forest floor, I see something that the "dead" one dropped...something long and bent. With my free hand, I pick it up and whack the person to my right with it. I think I hit them in the head...they fell over and I hit them hard enough to knock them out.
To my left, the person kicks my legs out from under me and I fall. They pull out something that reflects the moon and come at me. I roll to the side as the knife grazes my right arms. Damn it!
Using my left arm, I hit them several times with whatever I picked up. I finally hear them collapse next to me. Hopefully, they're just unconscious; I honestly do not want to be responsible for two dead people.
I pick myself up, ignoring the blood running down my arm, and face the last two people. My eyes widen when I see one holding Wheatley and the other only inches away from him with the tazer.
"So this is your travel partner." the one with the tazer says, "Interesting. I have a hunch about who you are; you've made no sound this entire fight." Damn it! This guy definitely knows now!
"Well, think about it! Would you be talking if you were intensely fighting with someone? Really, this isn't a Hollywood action movie, this is life! I didn't hear any of you talk when you snuck up on me! Hypocrite, you didn't shout, 'Hey, let's get the weird talking sphere over there!' now did you? No, you didn't, so you're in no place to make any assumptions what-so-ever." Wheatley says. No, Wheatley, stop talking!
"A simple 'Ouch!' or something would be appropriate in a fight!" the one holding him says.
"Unless you don't want to show weakness, you know, 'mind screwing' the enemy as you humans put it!" Wheatley counters, "Or if someone is planning some sort of stealth move like a silent escape or a sneak attack!" He put emphasis on the escape that the other two didn't pick up on. Why would he...he wants me to escape without him, doesn't he? No way, I have no clue where the entrance is and I am not leaving it here after the fighting I've done just to get it back.
Damn, life is so freaking complicated.
Quietly, I sneak behind the one with the tazer. They're still watching the argument unfold, idiot. With one swift movement, I hit them in the back of the head using whatever's in my left arm. They slump down and go crashing to the ground. I smirk with satisfaction; it feels good to do that.
"Oh, brilliant! That was flippin' amazing! I'm so happy you came back!" Wheatley cheers. However, his joy is cut off. I can only watch as the one holding him smashes him into the log to my right. A small shriek reaches my ears and then...nothing; a piece of metal skids to a stop before my feet.
Anger surges through me and I fire the portal gun at them without thinking. A blue sphere comes out this time and hits the person. Without another care, I run over to where Wheatley lays; optic now a duller blue than before. Carefully, I pick him up with the tractor beam and hold him at eye level. This is bad; really, really bad.
The once bright blue optic is now dull and completely shattered, plasma oozing out of the cracks. His bottom handle is half ripped off, half clinging onto the frame for dear life. He can't seem to keep his optic steady, it's pointing down towards the ground more and more.
"You picked up a crowbar...I knew it would suit you well." he says weakly. I have no clue what he's talking about, but I start running away from the scene. I have absolutely no clue how I remembered the path where I came from, but soon, I see the glint of the lighter.
"Silly of you to come back for me, you made it..." he slurs slightly. In the light of the portal gun, I can see a small Aperture Science logo carved into the tree where my stuff is. How'd I miss that before? Oh well, I owe it to him anyway and that was a pretty kick ass fight I just had. A dull wave of pain courses through my arm, reminding me that I should probably get that bandaged.
I place Wheatley back inside my bag and pick up the cube again. Once I get close enough to the logo, it lights up and a door slides open. It must have recognized the portal gun or something.
As I enter the lift, I grow a bit anxious. What will GLaDOS say? What will she even do? Will she even agree to fix Wheatley? I glance at the personality core at the end of the portal gun. His optic is…closing. I hit him lightly and give him a look. There is no way I am letting him drift off the Sleep Mode right now! If there's one thing I know, it's to keep someone awake when they're dying. No, Wheatley isn't going to die. But still, what if GLaDOS refuses to help us? I think she'll help me out; after all, she did before, but Wheatley put her into a potato battery and probably gave her a phobia of birds. Before long, the lift opens and, somehow, I'm in the hallway leading to her chamber. I walk forward and, sure enough, the door opens.
There she is, still running the facility without anyone else around except for those two other robots. GLaDOS turns to me, looming over me with her large computer body.
"Oh, it's you. I wasn't expecting you back so soon. Are you here to run more tests? I've created one that involves the death of [subject name here]." she says. I continue to stare up at her. When does she not do something related to testing?
"Well, aren't you going to say something? Oh right, you can't. Your parents never bothered to teach you, an unlovable, massive, lonely orphan. They abandoned you, you know. They never cared about you, nobody does." What a load of bullshit! I don't doubt that I'm adopted, but there are certainly people who care about me, and one of them is behind me right now.
"Anyway, I was wondering when you would return. I've been busy with the cooperative testing initiative. ORANGE is in the lead." What's that supposed to-never mind. I'll never be able to figure her out. One minute, she wants me dead and then she wants me gone the next. Will she ever make up her mind? A soft beep from my bag snaps my thoughts to him. Seeing as GLaDOS shifts her head, I'm assuming she heard it too.
"What was that noise?" she asks, "It sounded like an Aperture Science Technology Distress Signal." A robotic claw comes down from the ceiling and reaches into my backpack. Oh shit! I shake my head as I see Wheatley being pulled out against his will.
"If you're gonna kill me…do it quick…" he says weakly. His optic is dimmer than ever, hardly any blue light coming out of it now.
"My, now where did you get this?"she asks while bringing Wheatley closer to her "head". I can hear him whimper a bit, refusing to look directly at her…or not having the strength to.
"Alrigh', if ya wanna kill me, go 'head…got nothin' else…stuff me in a bloody potato…" GLaDOS seems to ponder the options given to her, weighing out the good and the bad. "Chell," he starts, "Do you forgive me? I…n-need to know." I nod slowly. After everything today, how could he not expect me to? He seems pleased this response. The claw tightens its grip. Shit, I know what's going to happen next, she's done it before. Just as the claw is about to crush him, something stops it. The computer looks towards me again.
"You know, spilling blood is not a part of any test protocol." she tells me. I raise an eyebrow as I hear the lift whir into life behind me. "Take the lift to the Aperture Science Medical Bay, where you can bandage that and be injected with mantis DNA." She picks up my hesitation, then adds, "Trust me, I will fix him." With that, the arm flings him into a different lift (if there are more than two entrances, I guess there's more than two lifts) and tries to nod at me reassuringly. Hesitantly, I head into the other lift prepared for me.
"Oh, one more thing," GLaDOS sends the same claw over to me and grabs the portal gun. "I should repair that. The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is not to be used as a reliable weapon." Oops, I already broke that rule. "You can leave the Weighted Companion Cube behind. It will forgive you for abandoning it. However, I do not know how this is possible, as the Weighted Companion Cube cannot, and will not, speak." Yeah, I figured as much. For now, I'm kind of forced to trust her, being in her territory and all.
As the lift's doors close on me, one of GLaDOS' commands reaches my ears.
"Caroline Deleted."
A/N: Ok, so Wheatley made it and Chell's safe…for now. For your information, Caroline is still in there and took over the mainframe to save Wheatley and to help Chell. I still think Caroline is, and always will be, with GLaDOS and cannot be deleted from the circuitry. Besides, the GLaDOS/Caroline double-act plays a huge role in the story too. Also, Wheatley's speech is off due to having less than 5% of his full power left. Some interesting arguments are going to occur between GLaDOS and Wheatley…
There's still quite a bit left to this story. Not much action in the next chapter, but it's still just as important to the story. Wheatley's emotions towards Chell are going to be sorted out, without the help of GLaDOS. Cave Johnson will have a line or two and the Co-op bots, ATLAS and P-body, will finally appear for the first time rather than be mentioned in passing. And no, the Black Mesa conflict has only just begun. One more thing: Cave, Gordon, and Adrian will all be mentioned in passing at Black Mesa.
Thanks for the treats everyone! Mm…cookies are yummy…crap! I'm NOT sharing them with you, you damned turret! I don't care how innocent you sound; you're not getting any of my treats! Why are you asking? YOU DON'T EVEN EAT! Wait…you're not a Crap Turret, are you?
Well, I'll try my best to update tomorrow. I've got an essay to write, experiments to run, research to be done, and something called "homework." Bye! *munches on cookie* Oh yeah, I made a Team Fortress 2 reference in the last A/N, just a little fun fact.
