Brax put a hand up to keep the sphere from continuing, since it seemed to have a bad habit of talking too much.

"Hold up. What do you mean you messed up?"

It looked down at the floor. A look of guilt settled in.

"Well uh, funny story actually. I kind of um... nearly killed a friend of mine."

"You what?" Payton snapped.

"Heyheyhey! In my defense I- oh. Well I guess I don't have much of um...an excuse for killing someone."

In a flash Payton picked up the sharpening rod and brought it up over her head. Caleb threw himself in front of her.

"No don't! I wanna hear was he's gonna say!"

"Are you out of your mind?" she yelled. "That thing could kill someone! You heard it yourself!"

Brax picked up the sphere and held it close to himself to protect it.

"Let him explain before you smash him to bits!"

"Yeah! Let the Wheatley explain himself!" the sphere shouted in agreement.

Payton eyed them both before letting out a sigh.

"Alright. What does it have to say?"

"Thank you love." Wheatley said before continuing his story. "So there was this lady, right? Really tough. Good at everything. Mostly jumping. And I went to wake her up from a really long nap one day so I could get her help getting out of this massive facility. Guided her through until we accidentally woke up a nasty lunatic supercomputer and she did not like my new friend. Turns out she was the one who actually murdered her before so that was pleasant surprise. Crazy computer lady puts her through multiple testing chambers. Fast forward a bit, I find her again, help her escape, and we defeat her."

"Sounds a little hard to believe, but a good ending I guess." Caleb commented.

"I know right? That's what I thought. But no. I get put in charge and suddenly my friend thinks I'm the bad guy. I told her I'm the boss now, okay? Miss 'Im in charge of everything' decides to pipe up and take her side and now I see it. They're conspiring against me already. I put computer lady in a potato for laughs, throw them down the elevator shaft, and the next thing I know I'm being challenged by them and get sent to the moon!"

Caleb seems worried for the sphere's mental state. Meanwhile Brax bursts into a laughing fit, as if the whole story were a joke. He sets Wheatley back down on the table.

"What? It's true! I wish I was lying but it happened!" he stammered.

"I'm sorry! It's just hard to believe that a little sphere could do all that. I mean, just the thought!"

Wheatley narrowed his optic.

"Oh you're serious." Brax mumbled, feeling a bit guilty. "Sorry."

"No, no! Please continue your evil little cackling there. Laugh it up. Go on, keep laughing at poor Wheatley. When someone asks why you're laughing why don't you clue em' in. Say 'get a load of this bumbling idiot'." the sphere ranted, sounding offended and slightly hurt.

Brax was taken aback. He didn't expect such an outburst from a machine.

"Okay dude chill, we get it! Some things were said and they weren't that great. You can calm down now."

Reluctantly, Wheatley took a minute to gather his thoughts (to the best of his ability) and regain a steady voice.

"Okay okay, I'm calm. I swear I'm one hundred percent 'chill' or whatever that means. So... ah, am I getting taken in for repair? Is that what this is? Because if that's what's happening here I'm um- I'm definitely okay with it! Don't get me wrong! It's just that um, I still don't know where I am."

Payton rolled her eyes.

"The middle of nowhere. Nothing but a dumb old wasteland with a barren population of bitter people."

"What!?" exclaimed Wheatley.

Caleb elbowed his sister, who seemed to enjoy toying with the sphere (for that brief moment) more than she should.

"Don't mind my sister. She's just... my sister." he sighed. "You're in auberdale, michigan. Specifically my shed in auberdale michigan."

"Alright. Noted. Absolutely no clue where that is in relation to the facility but I'm sure I will figure it out." Wheatley said, confident in his almost non-existent navigation skills.

Brax didn't wanna pry too much into the already unpredictable little dude, but when you're a thirteen year old boy, you think you know absolutely everything. Not knowing something will frustrate you.

"So where did you actually come from? Besides space."

Wheatley hesitated for a moment. Could he actually trust this random human child to keep Aperture on the down-low? Well it's not like he had much of a choice since he already let his entire story slip out a few moments ago. Plus, he couldn't get up and walk away. Being a sphere and all. He might not have been designed to be the brightest, but he had a feeling he'd be trapped in this shed for a while, so he might as well be honest with these people. He figured if he stayed on good terms with them, he could make it out without incident.

"Well, you know that facility I mentioned earlier, right? Okay, big place- huge even. That is- or was I guess Aperture. That's where I'm from since I kind of well... lived there since uh, oh god how long has it even been? Since I can remember, yeah."

Caleb leaned in and shoved Brax out of the way.

"Aperture? The Aperture Science Facility?" he pushed excitedly. "Oh my gosh I've heard so many stories about that place! It's been dead for decades and I was starting to think those stories were myths but you proved them wrong!"

Wheatley seemed surprised at this sudden attention and display of energy.

"Oh uh, happy I could... help?" he stammered.

"You have to tell me all about it!"

"Okay uhh... where should I start?"

Caleb took Wheatley from Brax and set him on the floor between them.

"Oooh! How about the mysterious downfall of the facility? I've been dying to know what really happened."

"Yeah sorry- I'm really sorry but ah, I'm not too dabbled in that area of information. See that was kind of before my time."

"Or how about -"

"Boys, I think that's enough questions for the creepy British sphere." Payton interrupted.

"Uh yes! Exactly." Wheatley agreed.

"I think it's my turn to ask a few of my own."

"Oh wait what?"

Payton leaned in and turned the desk lamp directly at Wheatley, causing a bright glare in his vision.

"If you're from Aperture, how did you get into space?"

"Well er... th- there's this little thing uhh, it's called a portal gun. Not too sure how it works ah... pretty sure the moon is a conductor or something like that."

Payton glared at him.

"Seems solid enough. Next question: what the hell were you built for? I wanna know if my brother's safe around you."

"Oh now do I have to answer this one?" Wheatley groaned.

"YES!"

"Okay! No need for violence! Umm don't laugh. But I guess I'm technically supposed to be just another personality core for intelligence dampening or something along those lines. Although I don't do that anymore! Not my job! You could say I got uh... promoted?"

"Final question for now: are you a spy of some kind?" Payton hissed, picking up a heavy looking wrench. "Cause if you are, I'm afraid you're gonna have to go."

Wheatley panicked. Being threatened like this a few times before, he knew exactly what she meant.

"NO, no! Not a spy! Definitely not my function! Please just- please put that down."

Brax stepped in before Payton could take any action against the sphere.

"Okay we don't need to obliterate him! Just calm down."

Caleb put his hand on Payton's shoulder. She sighed and crossed her arms.

"Fine. I'll leave you here to deal with it." She turned and headed out the door. "I'm going to Tay's for a drink."

"Have fun!" Caleb called after her.

Brax watched Wheatley twitch and spark. He wondered just how hard the impact with Mark's field must've been on the sphere's shell. For a small thing, it's a miracle he didn't burn up in the atmosphere. He must be pretty sturdy if he's still functional after all that.

"Wow. A bit of a looney isn't she?"

Caleb nodded.

"Yeah. That's my sister, Payton. You should thank her though. She kinda fixed you."

"Yeah, on accident." Brax scoffed.

"Well there's nothing wrong with accidents! At least that's what I say. It was a pretty useful one if you ask me." Wheatley stammered, seeming quite defensive.

Brax and Caleb exchanged another worried glance. They weren't sure if Wheatley should be considered smart (for an object) or out of his mind.

"Are you sure you're entirely functional?" asked Caleb.

Wheatley seemed confused at this simple question.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You don't seem too there."

Wheatley still looked puzzled.

"You're a moron." said Brax, bluntly.

"I'm not a moron!"

Brax was about to add on to what he said, but was stopped by Caleb putting a hand over his mouth.

"I think what Brax means to say is that we're just concerned. You don't seem as okay as you might think you are."

"Nonsense! I'm just fine! No need for worrying and all that, I'll be a-ok!"

As if on cue, Wheatley sparked. Then the large blue light at the center of his optic flickered and dimmed out. He fell silent. The whirring of his inner functions was no longer present.

Brax poked at him.

"Wheatley?"

Caleb picked up the wrench his sister had left on the floor, and smacked the sphere's shell. Wheatley booted up, panicked.

"AGH! Okay! I'm back, be calm... stay calm."

He caught sight of Brax and Caleb, then sighed.

"Alright, maybe I lied. I might be a little out of it at the moment but what am I supposed to do? I can't go back there! Definitely not after what I did to her."

"Who's 'her' ?" Brax asked.

"Crazy computer lady. Total basket case she was. Took over the whole place and has been running it ever since. It's a shame really. All those scientists that had to die."

"You said you and your friend defeated her before, right?"

"The test subject woman, yes. Did I mention she was good at jumping?"

"Well then why can't you do it again?"

"It's not that simple, okay? Even if I wanted to, I don't know where she went after I ended up in space. She probably killed her if I'm being honest."

"Right." Brax mumbled.

Just then, he happened to look up at the dusty old radio on one of the tables. The time on its display flashed '11:20' in bright green letters.

"CRAP! I've gotta get home dude! My mom's gonna kill me if I'm not there." said Brax, fiddling frantically with the straps on his backpack.

"What am I supposed to do with Wheatley?" Caleb asked.

"Throw a blanket over him or something! I don't know! Just make sure he's hidden."

Before Caleb could ask another question, Brax slammed the door behind him, hopped on his bike, and sped home.