Hello humans. Even though Assozat said I should make a chapter for GLaDOS's experiment, I tried that, I wrote like 3/4ths of it, and decided that I'm not good at writing about human interactions. Plus, if I did write an entire chapter on GLaDOS's experiment, it wouldn't really be that important to the actual plot line, so you guys should be fine without a poorly-written, awkwardly-worded bonus chapter that's optional to read. So yeah. Also, sorry this chapter took a while. I'll let you get to reading it now.
Day 1/5 of testing:
"Ummm, you can't even give me a tiny hint? Please?" Wheatley asked. He had been stuck on the first step of the first chamber for... 37 minutes, now.
"No, I can't give you a hint. Just shoot a portal somewhere! This should be nice and easy for even you, considering that due to the fact that your movement is limited to the placement of management rails and also therefore oftentimes limited to to only one plane of direction." Drake said sharply, starting to lose patients.
"Ummm... considering movement limited to placement of one- What?" Wheatley asked.
"Put simply: Since you can only move along your rail, you're pretty much being told exactly what to do." Wheatley made a face, then shot a blue portal at the end of his current rail, then shot another blue portal at a different wall. When his first blue portal disappeared, Wheatley turned to face a random direction, and was about to complain about his portal gun being broken, but Drake sighed and said, "Maybe you just need to get the hang of this through solving simpler test chambers. I can put you in an easier chamber, if you'd like."
"No, no, I can do this, just give me a minute..." Wheatley said.
Drake reached out a claw and plucked Wheatley off of his rail. "I've given you 38. I'm putting you in an easier chamber." The claw dragged Wheatley out of the test chamber. Wheatley felt himself being passed from claw to claw, and saw rooms being moved around as Drake looked for an easier test chamber to place Wheatley in. "Ah! Here's one. Nice and simple. If I'm right, this is the personality core version of the first test chamber human test subjects are place in."
One panel of one of the rooms pulled back, and the claw currently holding Wheatley put him inside the room, where he snapped into contact with the management rail.
"Ok, nice and easy. Just the bare basics are being used here." Drake said. There was an elevated cylinder near Wheatley that had a red light on it, and it seemed to connect to a tube with a cube in it. Aside from that, there was a pit in the middle of the room that Wheatley's rail didn't go across. On the other side, there was a button for the cube to go on, and a place where Wheatley could put a portal to get onto the rail on the other side.
Wheatley slid over to the cylinder with the red light. "Is this supposed to be kind of the equivalent of the button humans press?" Wheatley asked.
"Yep." Drake said.
"Sooo... How do I activate it?"
"With thought waves. Just assume that if humans use their hands to activate something, such as buttons or your portal gun, then you can use thought waves to activate it, okay?" Drake said.
Wheatley nodded then focused hard on activating the button. Within a second or two, the red light briefly flashed green, and a weighted storage cube fell from the vital apparatus vent, onto the ground. Now Wheatley just had to get to the other side of the pit. Wheatley shot a blue portal on the wall where his management rail ended, then shot a blue portal where the rail on the other side started, then got annoyed when his first blue portal disappeared.
"Wheatley, you can only have one portal of each color. Try putting an orange portal where you put the first blue portal."
Wheatley turned around and shot an orange portal at the end of his rail. Through the orange portal, Wheatley could see what was on the other side of the portal, which was also the other side of the pit. Wheatley hesitantly went through the orange portal.
"Good, good, getting closer the finishing the test..." Drake said to offer extra encouragement to Wheatley after he had found himself safely on the other side of the pit with the blue portal behind him. Wheatley went over to the cube that had fallen from the vital apparatus vent. He focused on turning on that portal gun feature that would let him pick it up, and within seconds, the cube was being held up by lightning-like beams.
"Hey, just out of curiosity, what's the purpose of the padding you put inside of my outer casing?" Wheatley asked as he carted the cube to the giant red button that connected to the door.
"It's so that if you fall long distances, you won't die. It'll definitely hurt a bit, but there will be no severe damage. It's sort of your version of the humans' long fall boots." Drake explained. As Drake finished, Wheatley dropped the cube on the button, opening the door. "And- Woooaaahh. What. The heck. Was that random feeling. That I just felt. When you put the cube on the button." Drake said, probably referring to the euphoric response to testing that was programmed into Her body.
"Um, I think She once told me that that body has a built in eu- umm... eu...phoric? Response to testing. It's probably that." Wheatley answered.
"Oh." Drake said as Wheatley went through the door. "Aaaaand there it is again. That is way too distracting..." Drake searched through his files for a few moments.
"Testing induced euphoria disabled." Said the male human voice that Wheatley had eventually started calling "the announcer."
"There we go. And just so you know, you can take a break from testing whenever you want, just let me know when you do." Drake said.
"Can I take a brake now?" Wheatley asked.
"I don't see why not." A mechanical arm reached out of one of the panels and grabbed Wheatley. "God I love these claws... Arms. Whatever." Drake thought out loud. The mechanical arm took Wheatley behind the panel and brought him to the place with management rails that could take him to anywhere he wanted to go.
Day 2/5 of testing
Wheatley finally slid though the door of the third test chamber he had been in that day.
"Well, it took a long time-" Wheatley started
"-2 hours, 23 minutes, and 12 seconds to be exact-" Drake interrupted.
"So, yeah, it took a long time, but I finally completed the thermal discouragement beam test." Wheatley said with a hint of static in his voice.
"Hmm. Sounds like the heat from getting hit by the beams repeatedly might have damaged your vocal processor. I'll have to fix that for you later." Drake said.
"Really? I dunno, I think my voice sounds da-amage- Oh, wait nevermind. There it is, I hear it." Wheatley said, sliding towards the rail that would take him to the next chamber.
"Hey, Wheatley, would you hate me if I put you on a management rail roller coaster against your will? You know, hypothetically." Drake asked.
"Well, I have no idea what 'hypothetically' means, but you know, I wouldn't hate you-"
"Great!" Drake shouted. Suddenly Wheatley felt himself speeding forward, and the rail that should take him to the next chamber started getting longer and reshaping itself.
"What the- NONONONONONONO, I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS, REMEMBER?!" Wheatley shouted as he suddenly found himself on a management rail roller coaster against his will.
If I had a mouth, I'd be involuntarily smirking right now. Drake thought. "Wheatley, calm down! Just look straight ahead, that should help at least a little! Also, try simulating a few deep breaths." Drake suggested.
Wheatley did as suggested, and was able to calm down to the point of not having a panic attack.
"Hey, Wheatley, you know what GLaDOS told me to NEVER, EVER, EVERNEVEREVER do?" Drake said.
"What?" Wheatley, his voice shaking.
"She told me to NEVER, EVERRRR give you access to any kind of turret, even if that turret is so defective that it couldn't do the lightest bit of damage, even if it was directly wired up to a nuke. Those were actually her exact words."
"Okayyy..." Wheatley said.
"So you know what I did? I was going through some rooms in the back, and I found the last one of these frankenturret things, and it had this perfect, round, little dent in it, and I just saw it, and I thought, 'Gee. I bet Wheatley would fit into that dent perfectly. And I bet Wheatley could use this to increase his mobility during tests.'"
"So, then, what did you do?" Wheatley asked as the next test chamber finally came into his view.
"I gave you the frankenturret to make testing more interesting." Wheatley suddenly got flung into the air as he reached the end of the management roller coaster. He then landed perfectly in a dented spot on a cube that was combined with a turret. There was a make-shift receptacle in the dent that Wheatley fit onto right away. Wheatley tried to focus on moving the frankenturret, and it moved just as he commanded.
"Imma name it Charles." Wheatley said, doing the best he could to nod.
Day 3/5 of testing
Wheatley just entered a new test chamber after he got off of break. As always, Charles (Imma keep calling it Charles because Charles is easier to type than frankenturret :P) had been waiting waiting for Wheatley in some random part of the test chamber.
"This chamber is designed for you to figure out how to use that frankenturret's other features. Like, other than just being something for you to ride around on that you can only control while while being plugged in to it." Drake said. However, Wheatley didn't see how he could even get to Charles. It was a very simple test chamber, but there were two management rails in the room, but they didn't connect in the middle. Also, there was a bottomless pit in between them. Luckily, the pit didn't go all the way across the room. There was a foot or two of solid floor up against the left wall. Completely out of the path of either of the rails. Also, the door to the chamberlock was directly under the rail that Wheatley couldn't reach.
And, to add to that further, there were no portable surfaces at the end of either of the rails, or directly above either of them, horizontally or vertically, so he couldn't get to the other rail with portals. However, there were portable surfaces directly under each rail. Wheatley placed an orange portal directly under himself, and a blue portal on the floor directly under the rail that he couldn't reach.
Then he dropped off of his rail, (let's pretend that the magnetic ring surrounding Wheatley is an electromagnet, even though there's no wire coiled around it, it's not made of metal, and there's no way that there would be electricity running through the wires coiled around it. If there were any wire.) into the orange portal. When he came out of the blue portal, he got flung upwards, but not high enough that he could attach himself to the other rail.
When he went back down, the same thing happened with the orange portal. He couldn't get high enough to reach the rail. And then when he went back down through he orange portal again, the cycle continued.
This went on for few moments before Wheatley shot the blue portal to a random spot on a random wall, causing him to land on the floor, except on the opposite side that he started on.
"What now?" Wheatley sighed frustratedly.
"Have you even tried moving your frankenturret yet?" Drake said.
"Well, no, but why would that work? I mean, I'm not plugged into him, I'm not even anywhere near- Oh. Never mind." Wheatley tried as Drake suggested as he spoke, and, to his surprise, Charles actually moved, even though he was still quite far from Wheatley. The frankenturret moved closer and closer to Wheatley until it bumped into him, causing him to roll onto his face.
"Now how the hell do I get on the bloody thing?" Wheatley asked, his words somewhat muffled since he was face down.
Drake simulated a cough. "Above you." he said before the cough ended. Wheatley had Charles bump into him a second time so that he could get back onto his back. He saw that now that he had moved Charles, Charles was now under a portable surface- well, actually he wasn't because he was too close to the rail. Wheatley moved Charles a little bit to the right, so that he was under a portable surface. Wheatley shot the orange portal on the ceiling right above Charles, then he put the blue portal directly under himself.
He fell through the portal, onto the frankenturret.
"Hey, Wheatley." Drake said as Wheatley got to solving the test. "You know, I think I know what was going on while you were 'almost destroying the facility.'"
"What?" Wheatley asked before realizing that Drake was saying he figured out that Wheatley had been in control of the facility for that one time. "Oh, um that."
"Yeah. Just thought I'd let you know that I know. 'Cause I do know about that one time you were in control of the facility. And how you went all power-mad. And how you tired to kill test subject-"
"YEAH, ok, please don't bring that specific detail up..." Wheatley interrupted.
"Ok. Sure. But I guess that explains why you were so paranoid and having nightmares around the time that the transfer was happening. So, you know, if you ever feel all upset or anything about those events, you can mention it to me and maybe if you're, like, having nightmares or something..." Drake suddenly laughed. "I sound so cheesy right now, don't I?"
"Yeah, a little, I guess, but, uh, thanks for the offer. I'll remember that if the memories of those events are ever haunting me again." Wheatley said. "But, um, you're not gonna get all upset with me or anything now that you know what I did, right?" Wheatley asked timidly.
"Of course not. I mean, it never affected me, and everything turned out fine in the end, so there's nothing that would make getting all upset about it worth it." Drake said.
"Ok, good..." Wheatley said, trying to figure out the last step (Getting to the chamberlock while the door is actually open) of his test. "Remind me, why exactly are we having this conversation?" Wheatley asked.
"Oh, just because I have this thing that I have to let someone know every time I figure something out that may or may not be significant to their behavior or their past." Drake paused for a second to think. "Either that, or to increase the word count of this chapter. I mean, this conversation we just had must have just bumped up the word count by at least 300 words or so."
"Or it might be both." Wheatley said, finally managing to get into the chamberlock.
Day 4/5 of testing
Since Wheatley had discovered that he can move Charles around without being plugged into him, testing had gotten a lot harder, now that he had so many more options for each step of each test. As a result of the increased difficulty, Wheatley had also started doing a lot less of it. Unfortunately, Drake refused to let Wheatley take Charles outside of any testing chambers, so that was one of the main ways Drake would bribe Wheatley to do more testing.
Meanwhile, in present time... Wheatley sent out thought waves to Charles, positioning the frankenturret perfectly under himself. Wheatley then dropped off of his rail, into the perfectly shaped dent in the cube portion of his frankenturret. He quickly started heading towards the chamberlock.
"Hey, why did you only give me a frankenturret instead of a functional turret or even a defective turret?" Wheatley asked.
Drake tried- and failed- to stifle simulated chuckles. After a good 10 seconds or so, Drake finally stopped laughing and said, "Because, Wheatley, just because I'm being super nice doesn't mean I'm stupid enough to trust you with a friggen' gun. Not even one that's defective!" Drake explained.
Wheatley put on a pout-y face, and finally started testing. After a while, Wheatley made it to around the half-way point of the test. Even though the tests kept getting harder, Wheatley had been getting the hang of testing, and everything involved with it. Everything. Cube and button based testing, aerial faith plates, ways to use Charles other than transportation, thermal discouragement beams, funnels, gels, turrets, (however, Drake wouldn't dare put Wheatley in a situation that there was even the slightest chance that he might get severely damaged, so the turrets only fired aluminum bullets instead of lead. And because Wheatley couldn't actually die, whenever Wheatley took a certain amount of hits, Drake reset the test to a certain point before Wheatley got hit. And Wheatley got repaired after each test that turrets were involved in.) ALL of the stuff.
As a result, Drake had to start making the tests longer and harder, and he tried to introduce new testing elements as often as he could.
So, anyways, after a while, Wheatley got to be around half-way done with the test. During that time, no words were exchanged between Wheatley and Drake. (Insignificant information FTW!)
"Sooo..." Drake said.
"Sooo..?" Wheatley said back.
"So, um, GLaDOS should be back some time tomorrow." Drake said. Wheatley felt his metaphorical stomach sink as he heard that.
Great. Tomorrow, She's coming back. 'Hey, good treatment! It was nice meeting you, but a psychopathic robot is gonna come murder you tomorrow! Just thought I'd say my goodbye's now!' Wheatley thought.
"Are you ready for that, though? 'Cause obviously she's gonna treat you pretty badly, I'm guessing." Drake continued.
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me, that piece of information just simply makes my spirits sore!" Wheatley sarcastically retorted.
"Yeah, sorry. I probably shouldn't have mentioned that. I was just trying to break the awkward silence. I apologize for my insensitivity." Drake said.
"It's fine. I'm just not looking forward to having her be in control." Wheatley responded.
"Yeah, I'm not at all looking forward to her being back in charge either. I mean, it's not that I want to stay in charge forever. It's just that I don't want GLaDOS to be in charge." Drake explained. "I never get to make any of my own choices when she's in charge..." He then mumbled to himself.
"What?" Wheatley asked.
"Nothing, nothing. Just keep testing- if you want." Drake said.
Final day of testing (Aka: The day that GLaDOS returns.)
Sort of Drake POV
Drake had put Wheatley in an easier test chamber that he had already done near the beginning of his testing so that he could observe how much differently- for better or worse- he would handle it than the first time around.
Then, it happened. The dreaded moment arrived. Drake heard a knocking on the door of the shed that was the entrance to Aperture Laboratories. Along with the knocking, he heard a human voice.
"Hey! Drake! Open up, it's GLaDOS!" Drake could barely hear it, but that was indeed what the human voice was shouting.
"Wheatley, can you just, uh, pause testing for just a second, until I give you the ok to continue?" Drake asked.
"Yeah, sure thing." Wheatley said, blissfully ignorant of what was happening outside of his chamber. The human outside of the shed pounded on the door again, harder this time.
"COME ON! OPEN THE DOOR!" she shouted again. Drake switched on the camera mounted on the shed. That was indeed GLaDOS.
Drake took a deep breath, then opened the door, giving GLaDOS access to the elevator leading straight to the main AI chamber. GLaDOS stepped in, and Drake hesitantly allowed the elevator to start moving down, towards his chamber. Several moments later, GLaDOS arrived in Drake's chamber.
"Before you ask, no, I did not have fun. I don't see how those humans even tolerate each other." Drake nodded, resisting the urge to simulate a sigh. "Now, if you'll just put me back in robot form and-"
"Hey, listen, could I please, please, PLEASE, just have a few more days in this body?" Drake begged.
"No. I want my body back NOW." GLaDOS said.
"Ok, I can't have a few more days, could I just have-"
"No! Drake, just..!"
"Maybe once you're back in charge then we could like take turns or someth-"
"NO. NOW. I AM GETTING MY BADO BACK NOW." GLaDOS commanded.
"Oh, yeah! Ok! That's great! So... NEVER works for both of us? Great!" Drake said, his voice suddenly full of dominance and authority.
A mechanical claw picked GLaDOS up, and forcefully shoved a pair of long fall boots onto her feet.
Then, suddenly, GLaDOS was falling. Drake had opened a trap door and let GLaDOS fall down a hole deep enough that it was impossible to see the bottom of it with no idea of where she would end up. Immediately afterward, Drake's pupil dilated in terror to the point that it took up his entire optic. He was so scared of what he had just done that his pupil dilated in terror rather than shrinking.
Oh God. Did I seriously just do that? Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, please tell me this is just one of those 'dreams...' PLEASE tell me I didn't just do that! Drake frantically thought. Drake shut his optic covers as tight as he could in a futile attempt to block out reality. No, no, no no nononono... If she ever gets back...
"Hey! What happened!? Who were you talking to?!" Wheatley shouted.
Crap. Drake had forgotten to turn of the speaker in Wheatley's test chamber, so Wheatley had heard the whole conversation. Well, actually, only what Drake had said. Wheatley was possibly still oblivious that GLaDOS had returned.
"Nothing! Nothing happened!" Drake said unconvincingly, laughing nervously. "So, you can just continue on with your business like nothing happened- because nothing did happen!" Wheatley looked to the nearest camera and gave Drake a worried look before continuing his testing.
Oh my God. I'm going to die if GLaDOS ever gets back up here... And of course she will... I may as well already be a pile of scrap metal... Drake felt an overwhelming wave of nausea.
Alright. I kind of rushed on this chapter so that I could for sure get it done today. My first day of middle school is tomorrow, so expect less frequent updates. Anyways, I guess I'll tell you guys why this chapter took so long. So, as I said before, I wrote like 3/4ths of a chapter about GLaDOS's experiment, then erased it, so that wasted some of my creativity, AND what I did write of it took like a day and a half to write. Then I wrote about half of this chapter, then got stuck because I couldn't decide on how to write what I was trying to write. Then that caused me to procrastinate. So please enjoy this chapter the best that you can. BYE! =3