AN: Chapter 10 might take longer to write as I've got tons of exams coming up as well as multiple trips so Chapter 10 might not get published until July/August. Sorry everyone... :(
Chapter 9 – Stonefield Science
~Chell~
As it always goes in the terms of a new colleague, they are always sent to me on their first day for a tour of the labs, so me and Wheatley went off on the tour of the labs together, in what was almost complete silence. As I lead him to the elevator to the other floors, I press the button to call the elevator and the doors open. We both step in and I press the button for the first floor. A few seconds later, we arrived on the first floor, the experiment rooms. We spent about 5 minutes walking around, letting Wheatley take in the surroundings before returning to the elevator.
We continued doing this for the next 2 overground floors until we reached the fourth floor, the technology department. We began roaming through the department when we were stopped by an old friend of mine, Issbelle Westfall, the events and experiments director within Stonefield. "Hi there, Chell," she says to me as I walk past the room she normally works in. "How's the enhancement chip I implanted?" I take out the notepad and paper and begin writing 'It's working brilliantly.' Wheatley gives me a puzzled look, but I take no notice of it. "Let me guess," Isabelle behind, looking in Wheatley's direction. "New person in the team?" I nod and look over to Wheatley, as if telling him to introduce himself. "Uh..." Wheatley begins, hesitating as he speaks. "I'm Wheatley." Isabelle glances over to me for a few seconds, before looking away. "I'm Isabelle," she replied with a welcoming smile on her face before looking back at me. "Well, I suppose I better let you two get on with the tour then. See you soon." At that point, we finished our tour of the fourth floor and went back into the elevator.
"What did she mean by 'enhancement chip' ?" Wheatley asks me with a puzzled expression on his face. With the notepad and pen still in my hands, I write down 'When you join, you have the choice to join the experimental tests with new technology to try. It's like Aperture, but you can choose to continue testing the things here. The chips alter your personality and vary in types, like ones that make you snap out of your sanity in the blink of an eye or ones that turn you into a professional fighter.' I watch Wheatley's expression grow more concerned and worried as he lets this information sink in. But all I do is give him a reassuring pat on the back before heading up to the last floor before our descent.
Upon completing the full circuit of the fifth floor and returning to the elevator, I almost press the button for floor B1 when Wheatley calls me to his attention so he can ask me a question. "Where are we going now?" He asks me with a slightly curious tone. I press the button and point downwards as the elevator doors close. Whatever happens now, will not just fall on him, but on me as well.
~Wheatley~
As we made our descent to the lower floors of the building, a sinking feeling rose within me. 'Is it just me, or does this remind me of Aperture? ' I think to myself. Within a few moments, we reached floor B5, the Neurology Department. Again, we wandered around the department until making it back to the elevator to begin our ascent back up from the lower floors. For the best part of nearly an hour, we wandered around the lower floors before returning to the ground floor, to the Lady's office.
As we walk back in to her office, I notice a dense, green woods outside her window. I stand in the middle of the room, fixated on the woodlands on the other side of the glass when I hear fingers snapping in my ear. The Lady tugs on my sleeve and pulls me out of the office. "Where are we going now?" I ask her with a puzzled expression on my face. The only reply I get is a paper with 'All Staff Meeting in Meeting Room 7 at 11:30' written on it. Guessing that this meeting is really important, I begin to run along the corridor at the same pace of the Lady. We make it to the elevator and I slam my fist against the button for Floor 2. The doors close and we both lean against the sides of the elevator. Within seconds, the doors open and we begin to run for room 7. We both make it to the meeting 2 minutes before it began.
As the meeting begins, I'm introduced to the staff at Stonefield and some of the interns. They begin to talk about technology here, when all of a sudden I hear something about a 'Portal Suit'. Almost instantly my body tensed. They brought up a diagram of the suit which looked like it was charred to a crisp except a few colored lines, which were also on the gloves, visor and boots that looked almost like Long-Fall Boots. It was the same thing the Lady wore when I first saw her outside of Aperture. I remained silent through the discussion, especially when they asked the Lady about the suit. But when they asked me if I wanted to join the program, I could just about say "Of course. It would be a great opportunity for me." When I looked at everybody in the room, I got mixed reactions. Some people looked at me with smiles on their faces, but others stared at me blankly, as if trying to figure out where they knew me from.
Once they came off that topic, they spoke about things I didn't know about so I paid little attention. When the meeting ended, I was told to wait behind for a few moments. Four people came up to me, two of which I already met, and introduced themselves, Isabelle Westfall, Alexander Reynolds, Rose Young and James Smith. They walk up to me and all scowl at me. "What seems to be the problem then?" I ask them, in a worried tone. "You should know, Intelligence Dampening Sphere." James screams in my face, slamming his first on the table. My eyes widen when I hear that remark. "What did you say to me?" I say, worry building up in me. Alexander walks up to me and stares at me. "You heard what he said," he says to me with no mercy. "You fucking cold-hearted, psychotic, murderous moron!"
I stare at him coldly when he calls me a moron. "Don't you dare call me a moron!" I exclaim in his face. Before I knew it, we both had a shouting match as we were both poised at each other's throats. "How do you even know about my past?!" I yell in his face, anger swelling up within me. "We've only just met and you're talking about my personal history!" I watch Rose step forward, anger and sorrow visible in her brown eyes. "Because we were there when it happened," she says, almost close to screaming. "All four of us watched and heard you torment our best friend. Then you went for us. You of all AIs should remember."
My anger subsides and my eyes that were once filled with hate become filled with guilt. My mind flickers back to the painful thoughts of the facility. Suddenly, I remember 4 test subjects that I worked on before the Lady emerged from Test Shaft Nine. I remember their pained faces and how they escaped when I tried to turn off the nuclear explosion warnings. "I..." I begin, trying to find the best way to place my words as I hang my head in shame. "I'm so sorry for what I did. For everything I've done. The power just came over me and I lost all the feelings I had. I just can't help but feel sorry for you all." Alexander steps forward again and raises his hand above his head, creating a fist to aim at me. "You should be sorry, you cruel, heartless monster."
Within a matter of seconds, I felt a fist come across my face, knocking my glasses askew and leaving a mark on my left cheek. I don't fight back but sit there and deal with the pain as I feel like I deserve it. "No! Stop it, Alexander!" Isabelle screams as she pushes him away from me. "You know it's wrong to hurt someone because of their past. And he's under Chell's watch which means one wrong move and it's game over." I look up, almost close to admitting defeat when I feel a hand wrap around my arm. As I'm pulled up by Isabelle, I notice something wrong with Alexander's eyes. The whites of his eyes are gone and replaced by a sea of black surrounding the pale blue in his eyes. The more I let myself think about it, the more it made me think of Her. I shake the thought from my head and manage to balance myself as Isabelle takes me back to the Lady's office. "You are so lucky, Wheatley," Alexander says as I leave the meeting room. "Because if I see you hurt Chell, I will make sure you regret living."
We make it back to the elevator when instead of pressing the button for the ground floor, Isabelle presses the button to close the doors. As I adjust my glasses, Isabelle stares at me with a angry expression on her face. "Don't ever let Alexander push you around," she says when I turn to face her. "He knows how to push people to the edge of their emotions and get under your skin. He always wants to know what happens around here. But when he saw you, he told me that he was 'ready to aim a bullet at that monster's heart before the day was done' and stormed off towards the office. He's always like that so don't expect him to respect you." I let this new information sink in as we both stand in the elevator, staring at each other. "Okay," I reply after a minute of silence, rubbing the mark that Alexander left. "I'll keep that in mind if he tries that again." She sighs and presses the button for the ground floor.
When we reach the Lady's office, Isabelle knocks on the doors before proceeding to open the door. The Lady waves at both of us, then notices the mark on my face. 'What happened?' The Lady writes down on the notepad. Isabelle begins to explain what happened after the meeting and I notice that the Lady's facial expressions changed from worry to anger. She sends Isabelle out of the office, draws the blinds of the windows, then turns to face me. "Why did you let him do that to you, Wheatley?" She says to me, staring into my eyes. "Why would you let him do that to you?" I stand there shocked at what I'm hearing coming from the Lady. I'm left speechless and don't respond for a few moments. "I remembered something about Aperture, something about the other test subjects," I say when I've found my voice again. "When you were in Test Shaft Nine. Four other test subjects that escaped when I was focused on testing you and turning off that bloody warning alarm. Your friend that just left, she was..." My words trail off as I begin to ask myself 'Is this a good idea to tell her?'. "What about Isabelle?" She asks me, waiting for the answer. I sigh and prepare myself for what might come next. "She was in Aperture but escaped months before your release. Her and the other three. And I tried to hurt them as well." I say after a few minutes, hanging my head again. The Lady stares at me for a few seconds before replying with "I already know that, Wheatley, I've known her since I started working here." I look up at her and her facial expressions have changed again from anger to sympathy. "Wheatley, look at me," she says again, placing a hand on my chin and raising my head up so that I could look her in the eye. "Don't let anybody control you. Stand up for what you think is right and don't let anybody tell you that you're wrong. Unless it's the head of Stonefield, then that's a completely different matter. Just remember that I will always have your back."
As she smiles, I manage to smile back, laughing to myself. 'This could be start of something.' I think to myself, still looking at the Lady. When the Lady moves away from me, she returns to her desk and I stare at the notice board for a while. The day drags on like this until lunch, then hours later it was the end of our shift. Just as I walked towards the door, Isabelle reentered the office to ask me something. "Do you still want the enhancement chips implanted?" She asks me, looking between me and the Lady. I nod as both of them come closer.
They take me down to Experiment Room 2 to implant the chips for me. When I'm told to choose which ones I want, I choose ones that will enhance reaction timings and enhance intelligence levels and so on. I'm told to lie down on the bench and they hook me up to a heart rate monitor and painkillers. Chell grasps onto my hand when Isabelle gets out the equipment for the operation. "Now, Wheatley, you will feel intense pain once I begin this so try not to think about it," she says to me. "I promise it'll be over before you know it." I nod and look up at the ceiling. I close my eyes and take deep breaths just before it begins. But when it starts, I begin to scream at the top of my lungs. "Holy fuck," I exclaim at the top of my lungs, writhing in pain. "It hurts like hell!" The pain courses through my body, seizing every part of me. The painkillers begin to make the pain worse and I start gasping for air. I feel the Lady's grasp of my hand tighten as I continue experiencing this pain. After what felt like an eternity of pain, it stopped and I was lying there, my vision blurred, breathing ragged and my heart beating as fast as a cheetah running, along with a throbbing headache on top of all of that. I look over to one of the blurred figures which I've determined is the Lady. "Don't strain yourself, Wheatley, " one of the figures says to me. "The pain still going to take a few days to subside." I nod and after a few moments, my vision returns and my surroundings come into focus. I sit up on the bench and try to stand up, nearly falling over. The Lady catches me at the last second and pulls me up.
"You need to rest to let the effects kick in," Isabelle says to me as me and the Lady begin to leave the room. "Come back here if you think that the chip might need an update." We leave the building and head towards the Lady's car. As we both enter the car, one thing begins to cloud my thoughts. Her coming to take the Lady. But with every moment that passes on, the more that I feel like I'm going to lose the Lady. And that's the very last thing I would want to think about.