Cave tried to contact Wheatley, but it seemed the entire mainframe, or he for that matter had shut down. He'd stopped responding and he'd inevitably crashed. He was in there, in the darkness alone and in complete silence, unaware of anything. No one to comfort him or gently awaken him. The corruption was causing hiccups, painful ones at that. Cave sighed deeply as he listened to the announcer holler over the central core chamber.
"Warning: Core meltdown imminent!"
Wheatley was offline, meaning various functions were too. Cave knew he'd awaken eventually, but every crash would get worse and become far longer over time. He needed to get Caroline back into the chassis as soon as possible after the reset and then hustle on over to his place in the mainframe and fix the corrupted files that were probably causing the issue. Then after that, the REAL problem would begin as he was very certain that the process of taking him out was risky and possibly not even viable.
Cave watched the camera feed as Chell progressed through the hallways. She was pushing herself to the limit, he could see her muscles trembling from the exhaustion. She wouldn't be able to hold on out forever, she was covered in sweat, she needed to find the control panel and not just for the sake of the facility but for her own.
"Chell, listen up," Cave announced over the loudspeakers. "I'm done hiding things from you." He watched her face flinch just ever so slightly as she ran with GlaDOS levitating in front of her.
"Wheatley's corruption is causing him to have system crashes. The mainframe system has shut him down temporarily to alleviate some of the conflicts but it won't do much for long." His voice boomed in the hallway.
Chell's face tightened up, as she continued to run.
"Corruption does many things, I'm sure you know. He might end up being a complete...how can I put this... a real intelligence dampening sphere...you know just rambling nonsense and partially unaware of his existence. It's bad, I know, but the sooner you find that control panel and the sooner Caroline gets in here! The sooner I get back into the mainframe I can strive to see if I can get him out of there in one piece." Cave shouted, trying his best to invigorate the former test subject. "Also I do prefer you, umm, hurry up since I'm getting this horrible itch everywhere." Cave decided to add.
He watched Caroline's optic shrink with horror.
"Concentrate on something else." She shouted, over Chell's loud footfalls.
"I'm trying." He replied, calmly pulling out several PDFs he was interested in reading over.
"Cave out, take care of yourselves you two."
Chell firmly nodded, her stare never straying from her goal.
Cave nodded too, before quietly picking up the PDFs and reluctantly reading them over at a very slow, slow pace.
Fin had to admit it was slightly uneasy to be leading Chell towards the medical bay out in public. He couldn't stop picking up on other scientists' faces when they caught a glimpse of him carrying Chell. It was embarrassing, that was a given.
Chell's foot had swollen throughout several steps and was deemed injured by himself. She of course protested that it was alright, but Fin had taken it on himself to pick her up in a bridal carry. Which had suddenly dawned on him.
Everyone was pointing and whispering, poking fun, and having a whale of a time with his current situation. Him and a test subject? Impossible?!
He tried to smile it off, of course, tried to helplessly explain how she'd gotten injured and it was no big deal. His heart aching every time because there was a chance she'd broken her ankle and that WAS a huge deal, at least to him. Chell all the while faintly smiling at him for taking it upon himself to go through such an agitation. She too wasn't immune to the mockery, the other scientists were heavily poking fun at them but at least she wasn't alone.
"Hey, umm, wonderful weather isn't it? Oh, her? She fell, no problem just going out to the ol'medical wing!" Fin remarked loudly as he passed several onlookers.
His face had gotten a bright red at this point and he was tempted to put Chell down and fetch a wheelchair instead. That probably would have picked on less ridicule, granted, but then Chell would have sat alone to take on the scowling of being unattended by a testing associate. There was no going around it, he had to carry her.
Fin kept plowing through the crowds cautiously, taking care of his precious cargo. He bumped into a thick crowd of scientists who seemed very eager at some point in the journey. One of them immediately recognized and quickly snapped at him.
"Fin? Finley Wheat! The presentation is today, everyone's waiting." Called out the man, looking down at their watch.
Fin stopped, barely passing by concentrating on the task at hand.
"Oi, the presentation?" He asked, glancing at Chell who was questioning what was going on.
"Yes, the long fall boots presentation to the board of higher-ups. Why are you carrying around a girl for?" The man asked, astound.
Fin put the question aside, leaning towards hurrying up his pace and running towards the conference room.
He attempted to navigate through the crowd settled outside the room while carrying Chell but it proved difficult. He managed and once inside he found a lone chair and settled her into it.
"Be right back! Don't go anywhere." He nervously smiled, dashing towards the small podium in the front. Chell nodded, sure that he'd keep his word.
"Come back soon Fin." She quietly replied to him as he strolled up to a group of men talking between themselves in disbelief.
"No, worries. Charles, my intern, is ready for the presentation. We are always ready for things like this." Borris reassured. "Finley must have gotten stuck in traffic." He mocked, chuckling.
The board of higher-ups looked to each other, discussing whether to wait or not.
"Fin submitted his idea to the department and we think it's suitable that he presents it." Insisted one of the lead scientists, clutching their clipboard.
"Yes, of course, but that isn't possible right now." Borris coaxed. "Charles has worked on the project just as much as Finley has, I don't see why we shouldn't allow for his colleague to present."
The men all exchanged glances and nodded.
"Very well professor Borris, go on and fetch Charles."
"No need, he is already here." Borris grinned, gesturing to his research group standing just a ways from the podium.
"Excuse me," Finley interrupted, joining the men as he straightened his tie.
Borris shook his head in distaste.
"Oh, Fin-Wheatley...this is Ummm, no matter for you. Feel free to exit the room and leave this to the experts." Borris grumbled.
The board of higher-ups all glanced over Wheatley's demeanor. His poorly ironed shirt and his curly messy hair.
"Who is this?" Asked one of the scientists.
Borris gravely put his hand on Fin's shoulder tightly, giving the men a sly smile.
"No one, he is simply a trainee. Wheatley, please head to the cafeteria. Why don't you? "
Finley brushed off Borris's hand, furrowing his brows.
"Hello, I'm Finley. Finley Wheat." He extended his hand, greeting the higher-ups respectfully. "I wasn't aware the presentation was changed to today, I apologize for the belated explanation."
"The good thing is you've come on time." One of the older men complemented. "We will take a seat, start when you're ready." The older man assured, gesturing for the other higher-ups to follow.
Fin nodded watching them as they took their seats, he turned to Borris.
"You changed the date, without telling me!?" He exclaimed.
"I never changed the date Wheat-thins." Borris leered, gesturing his team to huddle. "I only do what's right for the department and that means excluding you from vital presentations that will help fund our projects in the future."
Finley shook his head in disgust.
"You won't give in on the pathetic aerated cushioning system won't you?"
Borris turned to Fin menacingly.
"You're high-heels, we're an accident, your advanced knee replacements might have been some genius waking up in the slow blockhead you call your head." Borris taunted.
Finley crossed his arms sneering back at Borris as the entire research team huddled together.
"What is it, Professor Borris?" Charles meekly asked.
"Finley wants to sink our project." Borris chuckled, running his hands through his short hair.
The group all mumbled quietly in repugnance to Finley's presence.
Fin continued to stubbornly look them in the eye.
"It is MY presentation after all and MY project, that was hijacked by your malicious head of research!" Finley hollered, trying to keep it out of earshot. "Our department wouldn't even have been considered if it wasn't for me." He gasped under his breath.
Borris laughed.
"Your high-heels are the only thing keeping you on this team! Don't you see? You're "bootless". Ha! Try to wrap your head around that! Half-wit!"
Fin marched away from the team, under their scornful laughter. He marched up to the podium, he hadn't brought his index cards, he didn't need any.
"Hello, everyone and welcome to the long fall-boots kick-off presentation!" Finley shouted in spite. "I know you are all dying to see them in action and I don't desire to dive into the little implications that make this equipment the optimal match for the portal-gun project. In fact, I think we should test them out where they perform best, where they belong, out on the testing track." Finley walked off the podium, pushing past the research group, and snatched the boots off the display table.
He kicked off his shoes and strapped in the boots, under the astonished glances of all who were in the conference room. Chell herself had become very uneasy and bothered by Finley's sudden determination, she could hear the annoyance seeping into his voice.
With the boots attached, Finley waddled over to Chell picking her up under the scrutinizing stares of the company and walked back into the hall. He didn't care what they were all thinking, there wasn't a point. The entire room of staff followed closely behind in amazement.
He walked over to the testing track for presentations, unlocked the observatory room, and fondly placed Chell into a new chair. He gave her a smile before running out onto the testing track. People flooded the observatory room and several others on the outer walls of the testing track awaiting in awe of what the mad scientist was about to do.
Finley waved his arms, grabbing everyone's attention before he continued his speech.
"I've designed them so that they won't get caught onto the aerial faith plate." He pointed out, extending his leg to show the firm long, curved velocity challenging brace.
"This my friends, will negate any fall damage whatsoever!" Finley gulped slowly making his way towards the aerial faith plate in the center of the room. He took a deep breath, turning towards his rival Borris leering at him from the observatory room, shaking his head in distaste.
Finley laughed jumping onto the aerial faith plate resolute to rock his presentation.
The moment his feet came in contact with the plate Finley was launched into the air several meters. His lab coat violently waved on his body as he was shot speedily into the air. Fin would have screamed if it had been a test run but being an official presentation he didn't think it was wise of him to scream. He just braced himself for the long drop he was about to experience. He closed his eyes, confident that the boots would keep him upright no matter what.
He suddenly felt his body slow down as he reached the peak of the momentum and the pull of gravity as he headed back down. He smiled at the crowd briefly before bracing for impact. The air was howling all around and his hair crazily waved on his head as he quickly started to approach the ground. Here he crouched ready to either sustain a vital injury or; survive without a scratch.
The boots recoiled, giving off their signature sound as Finley came to a safe landing. He kept his eyes closed waiting for the pain to come or his bones to fracture but it never came, what did come was the higher-ups cheering him on for the astounding presentation he'd been able to deliver.
Fin couldn't help but gape at the audience all cheering and clapping. The presentation was a success and not only because he wasn't dead but because he'd proven himself.
Finley waved eagerly to Chell, who had stood up against the observatory glass and was smiling from ear to ear. He nearly slipped as the higher-ups caught him off guard, giving him pats on the back.
"Finley, that was amazing! You are an astonishing young man!" One of the older higher-ups complemented.
"Oh, it's uh…" He looked over to the research team, glancing away in humiliation. "It was a group effort." He chuckled. "I suppose...we could say that." He added, giving his farewells and directing the higher-up's attention to speak to the research team as he waddled back towards the observant room.
Chell was waiting for him at the steps, her eyes twinkling in amusement.
"Oi! I did it!" He cheered, as she wrapped her arms pulling him into a hug. "Oh!" He shrieked meekly, at her huge strength. "Hugs are nice." He remarked.
Borris was standing just a couple of feet away, angered, but surprised. 'Finley and a test subject? A born-to-be test subject?' He thought, watching the girl embrace him in a tight hug and then watched completely baffled as Finley picked her up and walked into the hall with his long fall boots clanking behind him. He quietly followed behind, until they made it to the medical bay. He let them walk in alone, choosing to lean against a wall outside waiting for Finley.
He didn't have to wait long, he came out strolling loudly with the long fall boots. Borris approached him, Finley freezing up in place.
"What? Are you following me now?" He gasped.
Borris crossed his arms.
"What's with the girl?" He raised his brows.
"She got hurt, brought her here." Finley nervously replied. "What about it?"
"She hugged you." Borris opposed.
Finley felt the color drain from his face.
"-and?" He shrieked, "I just brought her in to get her foot looked at." He insisted.
Borris laughed.
"Your presentation was a success but you aren't fooling anyone. It was the girl's idea, wasn't it? She's the genius behind the long fall boots, is that right?" Borris glared at him, infuriated.
Finley couldn't help and break into a hysterical laugh.
"Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself I'm a fool." Finley laughed it off, walking away up the hallway. Borris watched him closely as he left.
He grinned.
"The girl's the genius then." He remarked to himself. "Finley hasn't ever come up with a good idea in his life, of course, he got it from someone else." Borris turned and walked into the medical bay to ask for the girl's records.
"You know there's something I don't think I understand…" Cave boomed over the loudspeakers, the sound of turning papers sounding soft while he spoke.
"Hmm?" GLaDOS asked silently laying to the side of the hall on the floor, shuddering ever so slightly while Chell portaled a light bridge in between a considerable gap allowing the two to cross. "What might that be? I'm sure I know the answer." She gloated, being picked once more. Chell ignored the two entirely while she continued forward, trying to keep her mind focused and yet at ease.
"According to Chell's files, she wasn't ever to be tested. She NEVER gives up. Since when is that a problem?" Cave asked pleasantly confused.
Chell raised a brow momentarily as she continued marching up the hall portaling through run-down windows and applying portals on nearby walls to get through. GLaDOS stayed quiet processing the question momentarily realizing she hadn't really — carefully looked over the files to be truthful.
"It's not —"
"Oh, well then why bother document…"
" — until said test subject kills you twice, you will understand why it IS a problem."
"Oh, right." Cave chuckled lightly, Chell giving a side glance at a nearby camera. Eventually shaking her head as the hallway behind them began to vibrate and buckled into itself falling to its doom down below. Taking several chunks from nearby chambers with it, causing the entire area to tremble.
"I hate to be repetitive," GLaDOS remarked smoothly competing with the sound of bending metal. " — Just that it seems I need to jog your memory, for old times sake. YOU NEED TO HURRY UP!" She spat just as another alarm blared to life, Cave switching it off merely in an attempt to maintain Chell's concentration.
Chell wiped her forehead biting down on her lip, noting how much they'd traveled and yet how far they were to arrive to the control panel.
"You NEVER give up is that right?" Cave followed up with his question. "Hope you don't plan to now."
Chell took a deep breath continuing to run up the hall, her thoughts zig-zagging from one point to another.
'Do not test. Subject NEVER gives up.'
She thought over the words…the meaning behind it all.
"Curious why you even managed to Kill Caroline twice, no offense Caroline but some other test subjects before, I have to say — were the brightest of the bunch…So why is it that Chell, to be completely honest, managed to defeat you when her IQ isn't even that high?"
GLaDOS rolled her optic opting for ignoring Cave's question instead.
Chell shrugged in response continuing to run.
'Do not test. Subject NEVER gives up.'
"So why don't you give up?" Cave suddenly directed his question toward Chell. The young girl nearly slipping forward and tripping over a large pipe penetrating the hall from underfoot.
She came to a subtle halt. Why were they even speaking of this topic? Wheatley was half dying somewhere and they were questioning her motivations? Glancing down at GLaDOS who seemed equally as curious she replied meekly.
"I have my reasons."
"That still doesn't answer my question, it's just like asking why do cats like naps? They just do! Doesn't entirely get us anywhere if you simply tell me that, if you catch my drift."
Chell shook her head. 'But why ask?'
Chell pressed forward, taking a step over the snagged pipe spilling orange gel all over the carpeted section of the hall. Making it sticky and consequently beginning to smell bad. She rounded a corner but when she did —
"Stop!" GLaDOS shouted loud enough to make Cave audibly grimace over the loudspeaker.
A good section of the hall was missing, it was obvious it had fallen into the chasm and there seemed not to be a way around. No portable surface — no helpful conversion gel to be found…no…nothing...
Chell stared briefly over the spacious gap, pressing her lips together listening to the howl of air escaping screaming pipes torn in half.
They were watching attentively.
She knew it…knew it well…
She hadn't stopped in several hours and her feet had begun to get bright red as she began to accumulate more and more bruises from scuffed landings and botched jumps. She was red around the eyes, puffy, with the trails of dried tears showing clearly around the edge of her shirt collar. Her left arm wasn't looking too good either, scraped and shaking from the long haul she was subjecting her body to. Aching from hauling now the tormenting weight of the portal gun.
The scientist gathered around the observatory glass window, in peculiar observation…puzzled as to why the experienced test subject was pushing herself so hard. It'd been several hours and she hadn't taken her mandatory breaks between tests…nor had she gone to take lunch or anything of the sort. While in some cases this progressed the work of science — the scientists were concerned that the test subject had gone completely mad and had begun to disregard her own health which in any case isn't a good thing. It was worrying that's what it was, but to Chell, it was more than that. There was something else bothering her…If she'd known that her test-taking skills would have made a difference to someone and saved their life then she would have prepared much better — but she'd failed when the moment had presented itself on short notice…The one person who'd cared for her and she'd let them down when a peculiar threat came down the hallway in deathful order that made her stomach turn. If only she'd been faster, accurate…agile… then perhaps he'd not been exposed to exaggerated amounts of neurotoxin enough to have damaged his lungs permanently.
She'd managed to haul him out into the fresh air — between the catwalks connecting chambers. Then they'd taken him to the infirmary after, dragging him away to the medical wing. After several days it seemed he was getting better, and Chell had regained proper hours of sleep as Fin happily urged that'd he'd be okay — on short notice one night…he'd plummeted to the worse and passed away.
It wasn't fair…
Life wasn't fair…
If only she'd known…but no one would have known…and no one would have suspected that her test-taking skills would have made all that of a difference on that day, all the way down to the second…If only she'd drawn her portal gun quicker…perhaps she'd lost time between jumps, momentum…or perhaps she had not placed the portals on time…She wasn't sure…but something lacked and she was resolved to mend it — but no matter how much she pushed now…he'd never come back.
She continued to test through the day, sessions at a time…pushing — pushing — until the scientists were certain her knee replacement braces were about ready to break. They'd had to drag her out of the chamber. The young woman a messy wreck. Her hair undone and her legs swollen from all the bruises — She could hardly stand…but she couldn't help and tear up at the thought that she'd never see him again…it was her fault — to think he'd helped her get out but she'd failed to help him in turn.
'Do not test. Subject NEVER gives up.'
Author's Note: Bruh...it's been a year? Already? Hopefully, I finish this over the summer ya'll! Happy reading!
