Wheatley felt the smooth transition from cold unconsciousness to full power as he opened his eyes and glanced around the room.
"Space friend! Space friend is back! Space lady did it!"
Wheatley sat up and found Chell a few feet across from him. The events just before he powered down came rushing back to him, and he pressed his chest. He found nothing but his tie and a hard surface.
"Hah, you really did do it, didn't you? And man alive, do I feel great!"
"You're welcome." she said with a much warmer tone than last time.
For the first time in years, Chell felt proud of him. She knew how hard it was to place your trust in someone who was once viewed as the enemy, since trust can run out. For Wheatley, it must've taken a lot of it.
"Alright, on your feet." She said, pulling him off the floor. "I'm pretty sure that hallway leads to more rooms. We can use one of them to avoid the testing track. Grab your stuff so we can get going."
"Oh, right."
He picked up the sphere, expecting it to be cold and grimy, as it had always been. Instead the metallic surface felt warm, and was actually quite clean. Did Chell do something with it while he was out? He looked up at her, but she was already in the hallway, preoccupied with carrying out their plan. Whatever it is she'd done, she didn't seem to care enough right now to talk about it, which made him question why she'd done it.
"Come on! Space adventure ahead! Let's go!"
"Uh, yeah. Be right there!"
Wheatley shook his head and ran to catch up.
Chell returned to being silent, focusing all her attention on getting as far away from the testing track as she could, and possibly away from a few cameras. If they were gonna pull this off, they needed to be out of her sight. Luckily, GLaDOS didn't seem to notice they were taking a long time to get back, so they were in the clear for now.
Meanwhile, Wheatley had to fight to keep Space quiet. He was way too excited to be on the mission with them, and his rambling became louder and louder until he was shushed.
"Ba, ba ba. Space. With my space friend. Ba ba. Will you come see space with me, space friend?"
"What? Oh, yes. Absolutely. Once we get out of here that is. And we can't really escape if you get us caught, so please, try to be quiet."
"You can't hear in space." Space whispered.
Wheatley eventually just tuned him out. He had plenty of time alone with Space to learn to tolerate him, but there was still only so much of him that he could handle. Wheatley's thoughts wandered off towards the various ways he could make it up to Chell. Not only did he already owe her for what he'd done seven years ago, but on top of that he now had to repay her for repairing him. He planned on helping her the best he could throughout this whole mission, but all he'd done so far was get himself hurt, becoming more of a setback than useful. What he needed was a chance to prove himself. Not a chance to go and get shot by a turret, or fling himself at a wall. If he died, then how much help would he be? Yes, Wheatley could always help navigate through the facility, but that was about it, and that wasn't enough for him. That was just the bare minimum.
"Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey space friend. Hey."
"Hmm? What now?"
Chell pointed to the fork in front of them. Left or right? she signaled.
"Oh, uhhh..."
Wheatley gathered his surroundings. Both sides were bathed in ominous dark maroon light. Surely there were more ways than just two, since neither of them seemed promising at all.
"Uhh, there! That's out best bet."
He pointed to a vent in the wall. They'd have to crawl, but there was a good chance that she wouldn't be able to watch them through there.
Chell walked over and pulled the grate out of the wall, then turned back to Wheatley with an approving nod. This'll work just fine.
Wheatley smiled, feeling proud of himself for contributing. He followed her through the vent, followed closely by Space. The whole time, Space babbled nervously about how the vent had little to no room for him, despite being smaller than Wheatley or Chell.
Chell felt bad for him. By the sounds of it, being claustrophobic and having to travel through a vent wasn't too fun for little kid. It's gonna be over soon buddy, count on it. Just hold out for a while longer.
Eventually the vent started sloping downwards, and Chell had to put her feet in front of her and cautiously scoot downwards. Being less coordinated, Wheatley kept slipping, and would slide into Chell every now and then. Had he been any heavier Chell's strength would've given out, and they all would've ended up falling who knows how far. Wheatley was trying his very best to place his hands in the right spots and keep his back pressed against the side of the vent. It was a constant battle between him and his stubborn limbs.
Space didn't seem to be having much of a hard time with it, but he was still bothered about the lack of room. Wheatley was surprised to see that Space could control his movements better than he could. It was astonishing to him, since when he was a core, Space was constantly twitching and jerking around. He was quieter now too. Every single minute was no longer spent rambling about the depressing void above them. Wheatley guessed it was because he had more free will now. She must've made it that way in order to make testing feel less forced. Well now it's gonna backfire badly, and there's nothing she can do about it. He thought smugly. I'd like to see her stop us now.
Chell heard a voice and held up a hand, signaling for the others to stop.
"Oh come on pretty lady, you can't get mad at me for that."
"Just. Do. The. Test."
"Whatever you say angel- OW! Okay, I'm going. No need to get feisty."
Chell knew that voice. It was one of the other corrupted cores she used to weaken him all that time ago.The one that tried to flirt with her. If he was being used for testing, then she figured GLaDOS must've made him an android too. He was a little too cocky for her taste, and putting up with him would be like trying to ignore fifty mosquitoes at once. Chell already had to keep an eye on the two behind her.
Wheatley watched Chell's face as she pondered the voice. Please don't take him with us.
He gave a sigh of relief as she shook her head and continued forward. Oh thank bloody- CRASH!
Part of the vent gave out underneath Chell, and she slid downwards, quickly approaching the gap. Wheatley threw out his hand and grabbed her by the arm before she could fall through into the testing chamber below.
"Hold on luv! I'll get you back up here. Just- ah,"
He tried to move backwards, but slipped and started sliding towards the hole.
Chell held his arm tightly, suspended nearly thirty feet in the air. Of course, her long fall boots would save her, but Wheatley and Space would surely be dead upon impact. Plus, this was a testing chamber, so if they fell, GLaDOS would be able to see them, and take them back into her clutches.
"Hang on lil' lady, I'm coming!"
Crap. Now that she was spotted, they definitely weren't gonna get out so easily.
"Oh, look who finally decided to show up. Perfect timing. I was just starting to get bored of this idiot." her voice echoed through the room. "Here, let me help with that."
A panel rose up from the ground and stopped just below Chell. She let go of Wheatley's hand and allowed the panel to catch her. Wheatley and Space came down after her, and the panel fit back into the floor. A large man with short brown hair wearing a grey and green jumpsuit ran up to her, completely ignoring the other two.
"Are you hurt angel? Name's Rick by the way. Oh it's been some time since I've seen one like you. Pretty sure that was you I met on that one adventure. Hard to say since I've met so many ladies."
Chell pressed her hand to her head and gave a loud sigh. She didn't have time for this. Wheatley saw she was annoyed and stepped in front of her.
"If I may, we're very busy at the moment. So run along and go find another lady. You know, since you've met so many of them?"
Rick came closer to Wheatley and glared at him.
"I know you. You're that one guy I fought on that mission. Is this guy bothering you angel? I'll take care of him, you just say the word."
Chell shook her head and grabbed Wheatley's arm. She fired a portal at the wall beside the door, a portal on the floor, then jumped in.
"Hey wait up, missy!"
Chell threw Wheatley behind her and spun around, facing Rick with the most stone-cold expression she had. He shrunk back, caught off guard by the sudden harshness in her face.
"Alright, I get it. I'll just let you do your thing then. But let me know if you need any help."
Wheatley was also caught off guard by the way she looked at him. He hadn't seen that look since he betrayed her. Chell made it abundantly clear she wasn't about to let anything stand between her and freedom. Especially not some self-proclaimed 'hero' who wasted her time by flirting with her. While they followed her around through the test chambers, Rick glared at Wheatley. He knew why. It's because Chell defended him. Too bad. Wheatley thought. You don't know her like I do.