[Hello, everyone! I am returning with another chapter sooner than I thought, because I intend to make chapters shorter, and also I love this AU. So, I present you with the third chapter!]
"This test is impossible. Make no attempt to solve it."
Callaghan looked up, frowning, then gestured to the test chamber. "Really, it's far from impossible. I can see a solution from where I am. I think your programming's faulty."
"The only thing faulty from where I'm sitting is this test chamber. It has no solution. I apologize for this unsolvable test chamber."
"It's really not. Here, if I just-" Callaghan found that the Dual Portal Device had a setting which could pick up enormously heavy objects-a handy feature for when he needed to pick up the boxes. He switched that setting on, lifting a large box and dropping it through a portal placed on the floor, smirking as it flew to the opposite side of the room. He then jumped in himself, and braced himself for the landing. "By the way, Cato, what are these boot things?"
"Those are long-fall boots, designed to minimize the impact and prevent any damage to your person. Long story short, you can jump off of anything and not get hurt-so long as you land on your feet."
"Handy."
"They're not for your hands, idiot."
It took Robert a few seconds as he placed the cube on a red button, then started cracking up. "Oh. I see."
"Took you long enough. Congratulations. You have persevered in the face of extreme pessimism. Please waddle over to the next chamber."
Robert felt irritation wash over him, then shook his head and took several steps forward and froze as he walked through a door. He looked down past the platform he was on, and tentatively reached down to brush his fingertips against the green-gray liquid, then gasped as he brought them back up to find the topmost layer of skin on his calloused fingertips was burned off.
"We at Scintilla Innovations promise to always provide a safe testing environment. In dangerous testing environments, we promise to always provide useful advice. For example."
Robert waited in silence for several seconds as Cato paused for effect.
"The floor here will kill you. You would do well to avoid it."
"Thanks," the man replied with something resembling irritation. "Anything else?"
"Only that I wish to make it clear that I don't like you."
"I've got that, yeah."
"Just checking," Cato replied cheerily. "Have fun getting killed."
"Why is he doing this?!"
"I don't know!" Dr Tanaka was frantically typing onto a keyboard and avoiding the small black pieces of metal grazing her hair. "All our calculations were correct, his central core wasn't damaged-it should have been perfect."
"Maybe the issue isn't hardware?"
Leiko-yes, Callaghan remembered now, that was her name, although her friends called her GoGo-turned to stare, bewildered, at her former professor. "You mean, you think he knows exactly what he's doing?"
"It's a possibility."
Her eyes hardened, and she spun around to tap a few more furious words into the computer. "No, it isn't. He's one of my best friends. I refuse to believe he's doing this on purpose."
"Come out, come out…!"
The two scientists froze up in fear, ducking underneath the desk. Their breath came quickly, and they shied away from the wave of black metal that slowly crept past their white sanctuary. "Do you think he knows where we are?"
"I have no doubt," Callaghan whispered resignedly. "He saw us before the test."
"Robert? Hello? Get a move on."
"What?" Callaghan stood up suddenly, blinking off his haze, and shook his head. "I… I'm sorry, I just…"
"Your vitals are increased significantly. This could be a panic attack, which is most likely, due to the acid on the floor."
Suddenly, he was taken back to underneath the desk, watching the metal move past him, and frowned. This was that same voice, he was sure of it.
Come out, come out…!
He shuddered briefly, then shook his head. "You're probably right."
"Well, you'd better get it out of the way, then."
"What if I fall in?"
"Then it looks like I need to clean another skeleton out of the acid pool," Cato replied, bored.
"Another?!" Robert's eyes grew wide. "What do you mean, another?!"
"Are you going to do the test or not?"
He sat in silence for several seconds, considering the possibility of simply ignoring Cato, then rolled his eyes and shot an electric blue portal at the white space on the walls. "I guess so."
"That's good. Doing tests is good."
"Why are you doing this, anyways?"
For the longest time, Cato didn't respond, and Callaghan reveled in the all-too-brief silence.
"It's in my programming."
"You sound too human to be entirely computerized," Robert said before he could stop himself.
The entire test chamber grew quiet-eerily quiet. Not just because Cato wasn't speaking, but because suddenly the mechanical humming behind the walls that he had begun to tune out had been silenced. The radio softly serenading him from the speakers when his companion wasn't speaking had gone. The acid had been bubbling a little bit before, but now it was still.
Callaghan felt a deep pit of anxiety in his stomach, pushing at his chest until he felt he would burst. Distracting himself, he placed the last portal and stepped through, walking to the door. Being accustomed to their opening just before he walked through, he wasn't prepared for the impact when he bumped into it.
"Hey, what gives?"
"I would advise you not to put that question to me again."
"Which one?"
"The... one about my sounding too human. I am... not human." Cato sounded almost… offended. Or hurt. Robert couldn't tell, due to the slight distortion from the speakers, but something was definitely wrong.
"Okay. I won't. Can you open the doors now?"
There was another moment of silence, then Callaghan relaxed as the humming in the walls returned, 'Mr. Blue Sky' softly playing from the speakers. A few seconds later, the two doors moved open, as if he had just stepped up to them.
The next room was silent as well, not by the walls or the radio, but Cato wasn't speaking, as if he had decided to ignore his test subject.
Robert had just about finished the test when the cold feeling from before tugged at his consciousness, and he found himself in a dark lab.
"Professor Callaghan~!"
"Professor! Help me!"
He knew he would regret not turning around to his dying day, but when Robert heard his companion scream not even a second later, he knew it wouldn't have made a difference. The small metal bits brought back painful memories of a dark night under the stars, and piercing screams that he would never be able to forgive himself for.
But that was another story entirely. Right now, the only thing on his mind was getting away from the wave of microbots creeping up the walls as he ran.
The end of the hallway was coming up fast, and Callaghan knew he had to make a decision. He ran left then froze, the microbots hitting him hard in the back and bowling him over.
"Found you! Took you long enough to show."
"Why are you doing this?" Robert's voice was creaky, breathy as he gasped for oxygen.
"Oh, professor, you don't actually think I forgot, did you? About what you did?" Black hair fell into the man's eyes as he knelt down. "I remember every detail, because that's how I was programmed."
Robert painfully pushed himself up, looking into his former student's eyes. "I was wrong about you, then. You're not human," he spat, smirking as saliva came into contact with skin. "You never were."
He recoiled as if struck, taking a step back, then shook his head, laughing bitterly. "No, I'm not. I lost all humanity the night of the fire. Thanks for that, by the way," he half-growled.
"I always regretted what I did. If you know me at all, you know that."
"It doesn't make a difference," his captor spat. "Because of you, Tadashi is dead. And soon enough, you're going to join him."
"Go on then!" Callaghan's voice was raw from the events of the day, but his expression was that of a volcano, bright with fury. "Prove me right! Prove you're nothing more than a machine!"
There was a moment of silence, in which the man in front of him blinked once, then twice, then his eye began to twitch uncontrollably.
"What-"
"Syyystem malfun-nction. Power o-overload. Testing initiative active. Please proceed to the Main Intelligence Chamber."
"What's going on?"
The twitching refused to stop, growing even more intense. "Nothing! I'm fine! 2 plus 2 is… 10. In base four! I'm fine!"
"The power grid is too much for you outside the mainframe," Callaghan realized, an idea dawning on him. "That's why you're insane."
"I-I'm far from insane, P-rofessor. I planned this. I volunteered to be put in, remember?"
Robert felt a gasp hitch in his throat. "You meant to get revenge."
"Testing initiative active."
"What's a testing initiative? Is that-" The words Leiko had typed into the computer suddenly made sense. "She made a testing initiative. To distract you. To keep you occupied."
"SHUT UP!"
"Robert?"
Callaghan took a deep breath, steadying himself. The flashbacks were getting worse, more intense, and he wasn't sure how to make them easier on him. But one thing was for certain-he had had some part in making Cato.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Oh, I know. You just haven't completed your test."
Robert briefly looked up before solving the puzzle, and moving into the next room. "When do I get a break?"
"When you finish the testing track."
"I thought-"
"You thought wrong."
"But-"
"Back to testing."
[I'm curious as to what you guys think! And of course, I'm so, so happy that you have taken the time to read this! Please review and let me know how I did-seriously, the more reviews I get, the sooner I update. It's a fact of life.
Anyhow, thanks again! I'd love to see your theories as to who Cato is...
Oblivious Out~!]