CRASH

Wheatley lie on his back, wondering what just happened, before he got up and kept walking along the catwalk.

Eventually, he came to a room with a slightly faded sign hanging above the doorway reading 'Test Subject Preparational Apparatus Storage Room', The room that held all of the unused Testing Equipment.

Wheatley had never seen so many boots in his life.

He knew from his shoe size from the label on his current shoes, so it wasn't that hard to find a pair to fit his feet.

The problem, however, was getting them on.

You see, there are three prongs that slide through the flesh of your leg (The boots come with painkillers) and clamp around the bone to dampen the most inertial force without breaking a bone. Typically, a Test Associate would help the Test Subject put the boots on so they wouldn't accidentally break the expensive boots.

Unfortunately, all of the Test Associates had been forcibly removed from the premises of the Being Alive Club.

There was a machine that would put them on for you, but it was a lot more painful process because the little robotic arms and servos would frequently pinch the Test Subject's skin.

Wheatley learned this the hard way.

He wanted to yell or scream in pain after the process was done, it hurt so much because he didn't know to take the little red and white pills that came in a small vial strapped to the boots.

But his vocal processor was still unresponsive.

He did, however, learn that humans' eyes leak a salty fluid when they are in pain, which just made him panic more.

And then his subconscious knocked him out again.

When Wheatley woke up, the first thing he noticed was that the pain was gone. The second thing he noticed was that he was still lying on his side next to the Aperture Science Long Fall Boot Limb Attachment Helper. (A thing you stand on with a bunch of little movable arms)

He got up, then tried to call out asking if anyone was there.

And his vocal processor still wasn't working.

He then walked over to another shelf across the room and picked up one of the numerous ASHPDs lining the shelving unit.

And… He didn't know how to use it.

First he tried holding it on its side, then he tried sticking his hand into the 'Operational End' but an iris blocked his hand, THEN he stuck his hand in the correct side of the device. After which he tried pressing all three buttons.

Button one – Blue Portal

Button two – Orange Portal

Button three – Gravitational Distortion Field

After memorizing the order by repeatedly chanting the order inside his head, he started walking outside the roomss exit.

And then the door locked behind him, sealing him in.

"Oh look, another Test Subject. I though I was all out… Well, I suppose I can't let a 'useful' Testing Apparatus go to waste.'

The look of pure terror on his face was quickly replaced by one of horror as the ground opened up and swallowed him whole.

Actually, the panels comprising the floor just moved out of the way.

He was dropped directly into a Test Chamber with a Weighted Storage Cube and a 1500-Megawatt Super Button.

Even a moron could solve the test in less than forty-five seconds.

The next test was just as easy, containing a button and a cube, however, this test had an un-jumpable pit that required crossing.

Still, he solved this one in less than a minute with his ASHPD.

All the while, GLaDOS was quite quiet except for the occasional 'Continue Testing' when he paused.

By the eighth Test Chamber, he was dodging Thermal Discouragement Beams while flying through the air via an Aerial Faith Plate and a well placed portal.

He was actually quite good at testing.

Sure, it took him a minute or two to actually work out the problem, but without the barrier of the Decision Processor dictating his every thought, it was quite easy for him to solve the puzzles.

That didn't mean he made no mistakes, however.

He made quite a few mistakes in fact, but only a few were life threatening, and most of the others could be recovered from without restarting the Test Chamber.

That didn't mean he wasn't afraid this was just another form of punishment handed to him by GLaDOS. Though, in reality, GLaDOS had no idea who he was, she just knew he had completed more tests than any other test subject on file, although most of the others were brain damaged or ran her original 19 chamber Test Track that killed them at the end.

If you ignored the threat of constant danger, testing was actually quite thrilling.

I mean sure, you get cut or a scrape here or there (Which he found quite horrifying.) but flying through the air at terminal velocity while trying to catch a cube is actually quite fun. Plus, the Aperture Science Cellular Regeneration and Nutritional Supplement Vapor kept him feeling fine and healed most cuts or fractures rather quickly. So he almost enjoyed testing.

Except for the moments filled with intense terror and pain.

Like the extremely close run in with the turret in Chamber 27, which gave him three shiny new bullet holes.

Though, he still couldn't talk.

Well sure, he made the occasional accidental grunt or scream, but he didn't know what commands to give his new vocal processor to make it work properly, he just thought he had a defective vocal processor.

Figures.

He gets a brand new body with bloody fingers! And his vocal processor doesn't work!

It's madness!