That morning, Brax was in no mood to stop for anything that required more than five minutes of his attention. Not even breakfast. He was in a rush to continue yesterday's mission. Due to the sizable crater that the sphere had made in Mark's field, he had called Brax's mom and explained that nobody could come to help with the harvest until the issue was fixed. Mom was annoyed, but she hadn't put up much if a fight. She had to go to work today anyway, so it's not like she had to deal with Brax very long.

"You know the drill. Lock the door, don't open it unless you're sure it's someone you know." she'd instructed.

"Got it mom."

"No wild parties. I'll be back at twelve."

Brax nodded as his mom backed out the door, glaring at him in her 'you better not screw up' look.

Brax scrambled to the window and watched her car speed down the road toward town. When he was certain she was out of sight, he ran to his room and grabbed his backpack. Brax's plan for the day was simple. He would bike to Caleb's house and see what he'd done with the sphere. If he fixed it and figured out how it worked, they could find a way to destroy it and hide the pieces. If Caleb didn't fix it, then they'd hold it hostage in his shed until further notice. In addition to what was packed in the backpack from last night, Brax had thrown in a knife sharpening rod from mom's kitchen, just in case action needed to be taken against the sphere. It was long, blunt, and heavy enough to put a sizable dent in pretty much anything it came into contact with if one swung it hard enough. Brax threw on his jacket and bolted out the front door.

"Caleb! I'm back!" Brax called, throwing the shed door open.

Caleb flinched in his seat at the sudden burst of energy behind him. He flipped around and gave a sigh of relief.

"Oh, it's just you."

Brax set down his backpack and pulled out the sharpening rod.

"Well how's it looking?"

"It looks fine now that I cleaned it up." Caleb said, giving the sphere a pat. "But that's all I have so far."

"What? Come on dude, this thing could be dangerous! I need answers now! Not later!"

Caleb stood up and crossed his arms.

"I'm sorry, okay? It took me an hour to even figure out how to get the thing open! Even then there's not much I can work with. Most of the wires are so out of place and don't even get me started on the hydrolics-"

Brax put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Caleb, calm down man. Big words aren't gonna get us anywhere if I can't understand them."

Caleb looked up at Brax, a worried look clouded his face.

"Braxton, I think I need Payton for this."

"UGH! Again with the sister!" Brax shouted, throwing his hands up in frustration.

"I'm sorry dude, but she knows mechanicals better than I do. This is a problem that we're gonna need more help with."

Brax whipped around.

"No! Payton's just gonna screw it up."

"She will if she knows it's for you. If she thinks it's for me, she'll fix it."

This got Brax thinking. Caleb was right. If Payton knew she was fixing something for Brax, she'd mess up on purpose, just to push his buttons. If she thought she was helping her brother with something, she'd actually put effort in and help out. At this, Brax gave a sly smirk.

"Bingo. We'll say it's a project you've been working on."

Caleb nodded. He didn't entirely agree with the thought of manipulating his sister, but he could tell that this thing (whatever it was supposed to be) was important to Brax. Having no other options, he made the decision to help out his friend.

"Okay. I'll give her a call."

Brax heard the sound of Payton's car, and then Payton stomping through the gravel up to the shed.

"Alright bud, whaddya got for-"

She paused at the sight of Brax, then narrowed her eyes.

"Caleb, I thought we agreed not to invite this pest on my days off." Payton hissed.

"It's okay sis. He's just watching."

"Uh huh. Better stay that way."

Payton turned over to the sphere and lightly pushed her brother aside. She switched on the lamp overhead and got to work.

"Which screwdriver did you use for this?"

"Flathead." Caleb answered, handing it over.

Payton grabbed it and had the shell dismantled in no time. Her eyes widened at the sight of the sphere's inner workings.

"Holy crap Caleb, where did you figure out how to do this?"

Caleb was silent, for he was a terrible liar.

His sister took a minute to examine every bit, planning out how the hell she was gonna tackle this. She was just about to reach for another tool when something caught her eye. She brushed a wad of wires out of the way and leaned closer. A slightly worn logo stared back at her, beckoning an unsettling thought to rise to the surface. Payton turned back toward Caleb.

"Where did you find this?"

Caleb panicked. The question his sister just shot had a tone to it that made his thoughts chase each other around frantically. Without a word, he lifted his finger to Brax. Payton's firm look rested on him.

"I should've known it was you. Where did you get this?"

"If you think I stole it, you're wrong. I found it out in Mr.Hutchins' field."

Payton crossed her arms, looking unconvinced. Her voice rose in accusation.

"Well then, care to explain how a piece of Aperture Science tech got all the way out into Mark's field on its own?"

Brax never paid attention in history class, so he never recalled what he'd been taught. But somehow, that name rang a few bells at once. Warning bells. Caleb's eyes were wide open with a mixture of fear and slight awe. Finally he spoke up.

"Aperture? I thought they went quiet ages ago."

"Yeah they did. And this thing right here is from them. You're friend here stole a dangerous artifact."

Payton's hands worked frantically to put the sphere back together.

"Payton, what are you gonna do with it?" Caleb asked nervously.

"I'm bringing it back before dad finds out. What's dad gonna think when he realizes you're friends with a thief, huh?"

Brax stepped up.

"You can't bring it back! I swear, I found it in the field! I don't know where it came from!"

Payton set the sphere down and marched toward Brax. Caleb inched backward and watched.

"You called me here on my day off from work to fix some thing so that you could run around with it and do god knows what! You don't have a say in this!"

"I swear I don't know where it's from!"

"Do you even know what it is? It could be a weapon of some kind! Or some illegal experiment!"

Brax narrowed his eyes at her and gripped the sharpening rod tighter. Payton snatched it from him.

"What were you even planning on doing with it? Why on earth would you fix it if it could hurt someone?"

"We needed to find out what it does!" Brax shouted.

"It needs to be destroyed!"

Payton lifted the rod and brought it down on the sphere. The sharp whack of metal on metal split the air, and for a moment there was silence. Eventually, that silence was broken when the two returned to bickering.

"Power up initiated" said a crackly voice from the sphere.

Caleb stared at the sphere in horror as it sparked and twitched, while his sister and his friend continued arguing. It whirred and groaned to life as a small blue light began to glow from the cracked lens in the center. Then it quit twitching.

"power up complete"

The blue glow at the center of the sphere floated around, observing several objects strewn about the shed. Then, the blue shrank to a pinprick as it locked eyes with Caleb. For a moment they sat there in a rather uncomfortable staring contest. A small shaky voice came from the sphere.

"Er, Hallo!"

Brax's jaw dropped as he witnessed the sphere rise from the dead behind Payton.

"Oh and now you're gonna act all surprised because I'm taking away your stolen trophy. Well that's too bad!"

Brax continued to stand there, unfazed by her words.

Payton raised a brow in confusion andfollowed Brax's gaze to where the sphere sat. She was met with a small blue dot staring up at her. Payton stumbled backwards,nearly tripping on Brax's backpack.

"GAH! HOLY-"

She brought the sharpening rod up above the sphere, prepared to hit it again when it let out a panicked cry.

"AGH! NO PLEASE! DON'T DO THAT!"

It looked up at her, pleading for it's life.

"I'M BEGGING YOU PLEASE- don't... don't do that."

Payton's arm dropped to her side. The rod fell from her hand with a Clang. Brax moved closer to the sphere. He wasn't sure if he should hit it like Payton meant to, or hit it harder than Payton meant to.

"Um, ah, if you don't mind could you maybe uh... tell me where I am? I mean, you don't have to! That is if you don't want to. I just want a bit of uh, information. That's all."

Brax and Caleb exchanged a glance, then looked back at the sphere. Both boys were at a loss for words.

"Oh right, you two can talk, can't you? Um, oh god I hope you can. Right okay. Say 'apple'. Can you do that? It's not a very hard word. Very simple. Just apple."

Brax shook his head.

"Uh, apple?"

The sphere gave a look that seemed to be relief.

"Phew! Okay, glad that's been confirmed. That's out of the way. Communication! That- that's important."

"It talks." Payton muttered.

"Uh, sorry?" said the sphere.

Payton ran a hand through her hair and leaned back on another table.

"Oh my god. The sphere talks. And it's British."

"Well um, yes. I guess that's right. Nailed that one love. Just um... one thing. I do have a name. Okay? It's Wheatley, if you don't mind. Two syllables. Not that hard. Just like 'apple'."

Payton took a minute to process what just happened, then turned to the boys.

"Why is it British?"

Caleb shrugged while Brax lifted a hand to poke at it.

"Um, please don't do that. Small child. Don't put your hand there. Don't really like that."

"British sphere is right. Don't touch it. God knows where it's been." Said Payton, pulling Brax's hand back and staring at Wheatley in disgust.

"Actually the thing is I've been up in space. Very clean up there. Nothing to worry about. No dirt, no- OH MY GOD. SPACE! WHAT HAPPENED? WHY AM I BACK? OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD."

Brax watched the sphere send itself into a panic frenzy. The large blue light that looked friendly and had been so social just a second ago was now a small dot, darting around the shed. He wondered how someone could create a thing that looked so bland, but hosted such a vivid personality. Why someone would do that was beyond him.

"So empty, so barren, and now I'm back! And how am I alive? How am I alive right now? I thought I was dead for sure! oh my god! Humans, here in front of me for the first time since-"

Suddenly it shut up, a horrified look conveyed itself perfectly within that one dot.

"I screwed up." it choked.