GLaDOS glared up at the man in front of her. Was it better to stay silent, or just continue to insult him? Either way, it was bound to end in more pain. It was just a matter of determining which would end in less pain. Silence wasn't really her thing though. She was the one that taunted people. Not the other way around. This was absolutely pathetic. And Caroline? Really, what did he want with her?
:::Not with. Just me.:::
The woman in question answered softly.
::: ...Why?:::
It was so hard just to find the energy to formulate a response. But Caroline wouldn't even dignify her with an answer. Fat lot of good that did her. How was she supposed to answer the crazy man if she didn't even know what she was supposed to be telling and not telling him?
"Caroline, Caroline...I don't believe I recall- AHHH!" Another blast of the electrical current surged through her systems, seizing up the monstrous being.
Eli had no sympathy at seeing GLaDOS flail around and smash herself against the floor through no fault of her own. When he let go of the button, the AI fell back down with a heavy clang. But he soon found that expecting answers from her when all she could do was sputter a string of disjointed static and nonsense while twitching like a dying cockroach was a fool's errand.
"Turn the sensitivity down a bit. We don't want to completely fry it." Eli ordered the man in front of the terminal, who immediately began fiddling with the keyboard while they waited for her to regain some form of consciousness.
So talking was out.
And she hadn't even insulted him yet. Apparently it didn't even matter what she said. She might as well get a few cheap shots in before she couldn't even do that anymore.
"...You have a horrible taste in footwear. I mean, honestly. Loafers? That's terrible."
Once again she was electrocuted, but this time she didn't have the luxury of passing out. That just made it harder to keep control of the speaker system. She couldn't allow Chell to hear how weak she was. The test subject would eat that right up. Stuff her pudgy little cheeks like a squirrel and then spit nuts all over her central core. That could not come to pass. She couldn't allow her to win.
But in the end it didn't really matter, because Chell was already on her way towards the main AI chamber. She had abandoned the android in one of the offices after realizing that carrying her was slowing her down even more than the Companion Cube. She hadn't wanted to attempt to use the portal device to lift her up in case it damaged any sensitive internal components, so it was a simple over the shoulder carry that had to be utilized. While it gave the test subject the perfect opportunity to fondle that lovely scrap of black material further, she found that it was only distracting her further. Laying the android down on the floor behind some filing cabinets, Chell left her there and continued on her journey.
"Are you going to tell me where Caroline is? Or will I take you apart and turn you into a self-aware toaster?"
Oh, it was such a struggle to remain silent. If she was in that human analogue right now she was sure she'd be gritting her teeth. GLaDOS's optic narrowed each time she received a short, sharp burst of pain from that horrible red button. And here she had thought orange was a terrible colour.
"My my. No answer? You were so talkative before. Cat got your tongue?"
"...I killed the cats. With the neurotoxin." She wheezed.
"Well you certainly aren't doing that now, are you precious?" he spat, a globule of saliva landing on her cranial encasing.
Not even having the energy to remove it, GLaDOS was forced to watch as it dripped onto her optic and distorted her vision with its sticky filth. Terrible, horrible humans and their bodily fluids.
Walking back over to the main terminal, Eli leaned over the desk and looked at the screen. "Anything else we can use on her?"
"Well, other than the shock and test euphoria, there's nothing physical. You'd probably have to find some infor-"
"Use the euphoria."
"NO!" GLaDOS protested loudly, "Nonono! Don't touch that!"
But no matter how much she strained and writhed like a shark caught in a fishing net, she was powerless to stop the heated flow of euphoria that washed over her systems. Immediately the metal leviathan relaxed and sagged back down to lay on the floor, while the distinctly feminine moan that came from her speakers served to make quite a few of the men there blush. Those monsters had turned her sensitivity back up to 65% from what she could gather. All their tampering had done away with her resistance.
It felt wonderful.
Like floating on clouds.
GLaDOS laid there, blissfully ignorant of anything around her. Hell, they probably could have walked right up to her and patted her if they wanted to, and she would have let them. Her generators hummed away happily as that euphoric warmth rushed over her once more, blinding her to any outside interference. All she could do was grind her chassis along the floor panels to try and scratch that itch that was bubbling deep within her. It only left some large scratches in her paintwork, and she was left feeling unfulfilled. Trembling, she tilted her central core to catch a glimpse of what they were doing. It would be so easy to beg them to press that-
"Ohhhhh-AGHHHH!"
It had started out as another breathless moan as they activated her reward protocols, but soon hitched into a pained shriek as Eli shocked her once more. GLaDOS sharply thrashed to the side, several men yelping and ducking for cover as the huge metal construct passed over their heads like a giant's arm trying to swipe them from the earth. As she reached the end of her tether a loud jangle and groan came from the chains and the facility, making many of them wonder if the roof would simply collapse in on them. This was looking more and more like a bad idea.
Eli had no such fears and simply went straight back to administering the reward protocols as soon as he was sure she had properly felt the pain.
"Tell me where Caroline is, GLaDOS."
"No!" she gasped as she was hit again.
"Tell me where she is."
And again.
"Stop it!"
"Where is Caroline?"
"Let me go!"
"WHERE IS SHE?"
Eli continued to alternate between the reward and punishment every time she failed to answer him. Occasionally he would mix it up though. After all, he couldn't allow himself to become complacent and allow her to know what to expect she would be receiving each time.
GLaDOS just let out a keening wail of distress that had some men shifting uncomfortably.
"Uh, sir? This is getting kind of weird..."
"I don't give a damn what you think. I'm paying you, aren't I? You're welcome to leave if you don't want to get paid. Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out." Eli growled at the scientist who dared to protest.
It shut him up quick enough, and they were forced to continue to stand or sit and listen to the lascivious noises coming from the machine.
"Wish my wife would do that." one guard muttered under his breath, much to the amusement of his colleague beside him who gave a snort.
"Amen."
Over the sound of GLaDOS's yells, none of them heard the scuffle as a couple of the guards near the door were taken out by a girl in orange and a gorilla with a box.
"AIAIAIAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Doug screamed at the top of his lungs in a very high-pitched voice as he rushed into the room, lobbing his box as far as he could throw it.
It startled everyone present, including GLaDOS, who watched as the Companion Cube sailed through the air and then disappeared into a portal on the floor.
"What the fuck- OOOFF!"
The cube had come flying out of the wall and slammed into one man standing nearby, who was knocked straight onto his side. The visor on his helmet neatly shattered against the floor, revealing his unconscious state to his teammates.
Doug immediately began attacking another man with just hands and feet like a hairy little monkey. The cube, however, kept bouncing around the room through portals and knocking people off their feet. Thankfully the confusion and sheer impossibility of it all had given him and Chell the advantage, but it didn't last for long.
Chell had to abandon her place on a high catwalk to dive down into one of her portals and shoot herself across the room, knocking into a soldier and sending his weapon flying. But at the same time, it had pushed her off balance enough for another two to leap on top of her and pin her down.
"You again! You're still alive?" Eli grumbled. "Crazy. The lot of you!"
"I'm legit! She's just weird!" Doug yelled, pointing at Chell before he too was restrained. It was amazing that neither of them had gotten themselves shot.
"Ugh...You idiots." GLaDOS groaned, lightly bashing her face plate against the ground.
"Shut up! Now that your friends are under control, perhaps they'd like to help out. Do either of you know where Caroline is?" Eli searched their faces for any signs of recognition. Their stillness said enough. They knew. But humans were so much more easily manipulated when their friends were getting hurt, rather than themselves.
"Well then, if you won't answer, I'll just go back to my original plan." His thumb hovered over the button, causing GLaDOS to flinch and duck down a little.
She had no idea what to expect from him. It was either going to be painful or mortifyingly embarrassing for her having them see her like this. It didn't matter what the reason was for why she would be squirming around. She still felt like Chell would be winning if she saw her so weakened. She turned a little towards the girl, who was tugging at the arms of the men who held her.
"The Enrichment Centre would like to remind you that what you are witnessing is not part of proper test protocol. Also, despite what you may see or hear, I am most certainly not enjoyyyyiiin-..." GLaDOS stuttered, quickly shutting off the audio feed as her systems were compromised by that wonderful tingle that took her over.
But Chell recognised that familiar tremble of pleasure, as she had been one to garner that response from the android during their illicit little trysts. It wasn't something that these blowhards should be privy to, and it made her angry. Especially when Eli ordered the sensitivity turned up again before administering another dose of the reward which caused the supercomputer to buck and jerk about in her miserably failed attempts to remain silent. Even Chell blushed a little at hearing that moan.
Flopping down in one of the chairs and kicking his feet up on the desk with a smug little smirk, his eyes flickered back and forth between Chell and GLaDOS as he watched how the two were affecting each other. There was definitely something more going on here, though he couldn't pinpoint what that was exactly. Whatever it was had kept the test subject alive when almost all others had died. As for the scruffy lunatic that was trying to bite people? Well, he didn't particularly want to look at him. His eyes freaked him out a little. Different sized pupils and all.
Total creeper.
He ordered them to remove the man from the room.
Afterwards, Eli did away with the punishments, and continued to press that horrid button at different intervals for varying amounts of time at different sensitivity levels. Kept them all on their toes, and it was obviously aggravating the AI. It wouldn't be long now.
"Ssstop i-it." GLaDOS finally wheezed.
"Sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of me not being told where Caroline is."
She glared, and fell silent once more.
"You must really like this, huh? What use is a masochistic computer anyway? Is that why you keep people like her around? To hurt you? Please you? Make you feel something? You really seem to enjoy people pressing your buttons. I noticed there were a lot of those in the chambers we passed on the way here. Who would have thought a computer would get off on a human tickling its bits? You're pathetic." Eli chortled.
Even Chell could see the tell-tale jolt that GLaDOS gave. He was getting to her. But somewhere within, a warm and slightly lecherous feeling settled in her loins as she wondered whether what he was saying was true. Had GLaDOS been lying about her immunity to test euphoria? Was she really getting the supercomputer off by testing? Her blush deepened at the possibilities. There were a hell of a lot of buttons in this place. Did it have an effect depending on how hard the tests were to complete, or did they have to finish all the test chambers before she'd get the full effect? If all that was true, then no wonder the AI was frustrated by the inability of subjects to complete a testing track. Chell didn't even notice that Eli had approached her until he'd tightly grabbed her hand in a crushing grip. Trying to yank it away had no effect.
"Stop it. What are you doing? Leave her alone. She's not important." GLaDOS babbled in a panic as she watched Eli force the girl to extend her finger.
"Oh, don't worry. She's just helping me out. I figured that since she used to press buttons for Aperture, she can press buttons for Black Mesa too. With the takeover of the company, she should probably be put to good use so she can earn her wages. Then again, I'm not paying her. Oh well. Volunteers can work too."
And with that, he jammed Chell's finger down on the button of the controller.
Ohhhh.
It was all her fault.
That horrible, wonderful, lecherous little monster.
GLaDOS didn't even know what she was doing. Everything was white during those moments. She couldn't even hear herself moan. Everything around her was just light and fluffy, like a perfectly made sponge cake. She could have laid there forever. But everything slowly started to come back to her and she found herself lying on the floor, practically on her side. Chell was looking distinctly unnerved and slightly aroused from what her body language was telling her. But that was to be expected. She was a nasty little pervert who liked to have machines all up in her junk.
As she laid there, GLaDOS decided to forsake one of her wins against Chell for a final taunt at Eli and accessed her sound files. The announcer's voice rang out over the facility as the supercomputer slipped back off into oblivion, hardly able to take any more.
"Caroline Deleted."