Geez, sorry guys. I dropped off the face of the earth for a minute. I should have warned you all, but I have finals this week. Not even regular finals, the state wide "If you don't get above a C in this, you don't graduate, have fun at McDonalds" kind. I'm not actually worried, since I literally can't fail an English test, but it's still stressful. I've also been drawing a bit again (drew Chell, but it didn't look like Chell by the time it was done). I REALLY want to draw human Wheatley, but I need to finish this chapter first.
Going to try for 6 pages this time. (maybe seven)
Chapter: :05
Chell stopped her motorcycle in front of an aperture brand shack. It looked the same as the one she had left five years ago, but it was in a forest, instead of a wheat field. It took her almost an hour, just to find it. "You owe me, Wheatley. You owe me so much." Chell sighed as she opened the shack door. She looked down, it was a long drop, but her long fall boots could handle it. With her portal device in hand, she jumped.
)-x-O-x-(
Wheatley was dreaming again, he was in a pretty sorry state, from what GLaDOS could tell. He was curled up in a ball, mumbling to himself "My fault, all my fault". There were times when she wondered the about spectrum of emotions humans go through.
"It's eating away at you, isn't it? Oh the pain you must be going through. Perfect." GLaDOS said happily. She had ATLAS and P-Body doing another highly difficult puzzle, to keep them busy. They were growing increasingly angry at the sudden difficulty of the puzzles. Like she cared. She checked all of her cameras for a sign of Chell. Nothing.
"Wake up, your pathetic mumbling is making me sick. You've been asleep for hundreds of years, I honestly doubt you need any more rest." GLaDOS said as she jerked the elevator a bit, shaking Wheatley awake.
"Huh, wha-? Five more minutes..." Wheatley said groggily as he closed his eyes once again. It was silent for all of three seconds before the sound of a loud train whistle could be heard. "OhmiGod!" Wheatley said in a rushed blur as he jumped up.
"Good, you're awake. Now we can finally begin our testing again." GLaDOS's voice got increasingly malicious as the sentence dragged on.
"Thrilled. Simply ecstatic. Hey, I have a better idea! How about, you let me go, I walk out of here," Wheatley used two fingers and his palm to portray someone walking. "And I leave you to... whatever it is you do, and I... well, I'll..." Wheatley bit his lip in thought.
"See? You don't have a clue what the outside world is like. You don't belong there. You don't belong anywhere. You're not quite a human, but you are sickeningly close. Humans would be disturbed, and I'm revolted."
Wheatley glared intensely at nothing in particular as he began walking to the next test chamber. "I don't like this feeling, this whole anger thing. Unpleasant really." Wheatley was never one to hide his emotions.
"Speaking of, could you explain that emotion to me? I would love some data on it from the opinion of a... sentient scrap of metal." GLaDOS paused before deciding AI was too good of a term for him. "I say 'could you' like I'm giving you a choice, but my spike plates are getting rusty and could use an exercise. Just thought I should let you know that."
Wheatley was already in the test chamber, this one was slightly deadly, in that there was an acid pit in the middle of the room. "Well, it's like this surge of electricity. It's bloody intense, let me tell you. Its like you're in complete control, and then all of a sudden, BAM! You're looking for something to throw." Wheatley said, seemingly forgetting the fact he was mad in the first place.
"Interesting, I'll make a note of that. Now, what about sadness? You've come to know the emotion well, I understand."
Wheatley sighed "I can't describe it. Almost like the opposite of anger, but it's almost the same. Instead of electricity, it's like your battery needs refilling. You feel empty, like a few files became damaged." Wheatley described it as best he could. GLaDOS took advantage of his eagerness to speak. Sure, she could ask a human what those emotions were like, but they wouldn't be able to describe it in a way she could relate to. Wheatley was the perfect idiot for the job.
"Congratulations, you've managed to bore me. Try not to die in this next test. Because I'm a good person, I'm going to give you a hint. See that pit over there? Jump in it. It'll be fun."
Wheatley scowled. "I'm not that stupid." The last he heard for her for a bit was audio of crickets chirping. "Hilarious."
Wheatley looked around the test chamber. There was an acid pit going across the entire thing, making the other side inaccessible. He turned around to see a slanted portal surface on the wall. There weren't many portal surfaces in the room. There was one on the wall behind him, and a few on the other side of the pit. On the other side was a button.
"Pushing buttons at random... that always accomplishes things... sometimes bad things, I understand, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there." Wheatley placed portals in the appropriate spaces and went through. He pressed the button, and heard a ticking noise. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea..." Wheatley looked around. A panel seemed to open up, creating a ledge to get to the door (which was now open) "Oh, brilliant!"
Wheatley went back through the portal, then was faced with a dilemma. How does he get up there? The ticking noise suddenly stopped, and the door closed. The ledge also retracted. "Oh, brilliant!" Wheatley repeated himself, though in a much different tone.
He peered over the edge into the acid pit, he noticed a small portal surface above it. He would have to aim it perfectly, or he would fall into the acid. "Really, GLaDOS? Really?" Wheatley was all manner of frustrated.
"Or, maybe there's an easier solution you're not seeing." GLaDOS said ambiguously.
"I would've seen it by now, surely!" Wheatley looked around once more, he saw the same door, the same button, the same portal surfaces... Chell. "Wait... what?" Wheatley looked through a piece of a run down wall, and thought for a split second, that Chell was standing on a catwalk on the other side. She made a "shh" motion with her hands, and in the next moment, she was gone.
"Don't tell me you're brain damaged too." GLaDOS said after hearing Wheatley's outburst.
"Huh? Ummm... yeah! That must be it, brain damage." Wheatley was still staring at the catwalk, absently. Had he seen a ghost? "I'm being bloody haunted, aren't I?" Wheatley continued to ponder what he'd just seen. Whatever she was, she seemed to want to keep it a secret from GLaDOS, and he would make sure he did just that.
"Hmmm..." GLaDOS then remained silent, apparently busy with another matter. This was never a good sign.
)-x-O-x-(
Chell walked along the familiar, yet alien catwalks of Aperture. If felt like yesterday that she was in here, fighting for her freedom, taking guidance and instruction from first Wheatley, then GLaDOS herself. She doubted GLaDOS would let her go again, if she were caught. She wanted her back here for a reason, surely.
After a bit of walking, she heard a British voice, mumbling to himself. The poor guy just could not stay quiet for more than five minutes.
"There he is." Chell picked up the pace and followed the voice. It occurred to her then how truly lucky she was. Aperture was huge, if she were really unlucky, she could have been searching for days. She found him within an hour.
She walked towards the sound, and eventually found a hole in the test chamber, she watched for a minute as Wheatley put the pieces of the puzzle together. It seemed he was less likely to mess around when an acid pit was involved. Chell really didn't blame him. It didn't help that GLaDOS seemed to design the test specifically to have one solution. Then again, all the other ones were pretty much designed for one solution.
Wheatley suddenly looked up at Chell, with the most shocked facial expression she had ever seen. When he exclaimed, Chell hurriedly shushed him and ran away from the hole. She continued to listen in to the conversation, and was relieved to hear Wheatley not accidentally or purposefully giving away her position.
Chell took this opportunity of not being able to do anything, to actually come up with a plan. She was never one to think ahead, when thinking with portals, thinking ahead more than three minutes was typically a waste. It was best to focus energy on what was happening now.
"Okay. I want to get to Wheatley without GLaDOS realizing anything... This is probably impossible. I could always... no, wait." The cogs were spinning in her head. She'd briefly thought of shooting a portal into his test chamber, but from where she was, she couldn't reach any portal surface. Besides, it's extremely obvious and would end in a chase, instead of a sneaky get-away. "Then again, that's likely what's going to happen anyway. Unless of course, I managed to shut GLaDOS down, but I don't know where anything is. The first time, I literally found her by complete accident. I can't rely on that again... It's likely a matter of hours before Wheatley get's himself killed... and that's while having a generous amount of faith."
Chell thought on it some more, and realized a portal would be the best way to go. They might even have a minute before the maniac AI realized he was gone. And then, Chell would get answers. And depending on those answers, she would decide what to do with the moron.
)-x-O-x-(
Wheatley had pretty much figured out the puzzle. He placed a portal on the only wall on his side, and another portal on the wall by the button. He went through the portal, pressed the button and quickly went back. He placed a green portal on the slanted portal surface, and then a purple portal on the one... so far down. "That is far down, innit?" Wheatley gulped, aimed himself, and jumped.
He made it, to both his own, and GLaDOS's surprise. He was flung over to the door, and even though his stomach was doing flips, he made it through the door.
"Hmm. You're alive. You're also in the top ten of the 'slowest people to solve the test' list. You're exact rank was number one. Congratulations." GLaDOS made confetti fall from the ceiling. In truth, he was among the fastest. Most others feared for their life too much to just jump. One even died of thirst, too afraid to jump. Of course, Wheatley, having been a fixable robot for most of his existence, seemed oblivious to his own mortality.
Wheatley looked disappointed, but kept going, he stepped into the elevator. "Could we not do the whole thing with the portals flinging me everywhere and the making me feel sick next time? Maybe a nice stroll, with a door at the end. One that opens with a regular button... that stays open."
"Your request has been duly noted... I've been thinking. You've never been number one at anything before, have you? Well... except for being a moron. And murder."
"I'm not a-" Wheatley honestly didn't know. He was sort of hit with a bad combination of insults. He certainly was a moron for what he did. But did it make him an eternal moron, for something he regretted so much?
He then saw his next test. Well, it was less of a test and more of a torture chamber. "I hate you so much." Wheatley looked around. There were no portal surfaces, except for one at the very bottom. The test chamber consisted of five very long falls, from what he could see. There could be more, as Wheatley couldn't even see the exit.
"There are no portals necessary in this test, just like you wanted. Nothing will fling you anywhere, either. All it is is a nice stroll. Just with a few bumps in the way. Sorry about that. Look at it this way. At least you don't need an elevator."
Wheatley sighed at got to walking.
)-x-O-x-(
Chell saw her chance then. The one portal surface was visible to her, and there was another one was to the side of her. She breathed deeply. In a minute, there would be no time for it. She waited for Wheatley to finish his falling "puzzle" (Chell noted that GLaDOS seemed to become more sadistic every time she returned) And then another minute for him to rest. She inhaled again, and hurriedly placed an orange portal on the portal surface. She then turned to place a blue portal on the surface, next to her.
Wheatley stood there, in shock, while Chell ushered him to follow her. The plan didn't exactly go as good as she'd hoped. A second after Chell opened the portal, a tractor beam going at twice it's usual speed pushed Chell into the test chamber. Before she could leave, her portals were manually closed.
A look of pure shock overtook her face as she realized what just happened.
"Did you really think I didn't notice you this whole time? That was very human of you." GLaDOS said with a hint of malice in her voice. "I said don't come back."
)-x-O-x-(
Well that sucks. This story is FAR from over. I'm going to ballpark estimate this thing to be about 28 chapters. The good news is I finally feel like this story is moving along. We're getting to the good stuff now. Making up these puzzles is both rewarding and difficult. I don't know how I'll manage writing up harder puzzles. You'll probably notice them getting more and more vague, though I THINK I can manage a few more before I give up. (random realization, before I uploaded this chapter, my word count was 7373.)
I made six pages you guys! I'll try for seven next time. State finals ended today too, so chapters should be coming in more frequently again.
