A/N: I am so sorry this took so long. School has been crazy. Anyways, I'm going to list the cores with their human counterparts at the end of the chapter. There is also a new character that I introduced in this chapter that relates with a character from the Portal universe. First one to guess who it is gets cake. :)
Thank you AudaciousAJ for adding this fic to your favorites. And thank you aperturecomics for following this fic.
-Wheatley the Legend- I read your review and got a good chuckle out of it. I actually didn't think of that when I came up with her name. This was my thought process: I need a name that sounds like Morality. hmm, how about Amora. not only does it sound like Morality, but it sounds like heart in Spanish. and morals come from the heart, right? That and if you put the initial from her last name you get: Amora L. or amoral.
-Starryskys102- Thank you so much for your support. Your reviews always make me smile. In my head canon, Chell is Mr. Johnson's and Caroline's child who was adopted by Dr. Rattman. Heard it from some youtuber and it made sense in my mind so I'm sticking to it.
Amora woke up to the sound of the fire alarm blaring. Her eyes opened as the sound ripped her dreams apart. The woman scrambled out of her bed barely catching herself before she fell flat on her face. The sprinklers overhead started to rain on her making her dark hair and clothes stick to her face and body.
The woman panicked and she ran out of her room. She paused at the scene that laid in front of her in her small kitchen area. Wheatley was batting a small plume of smoke with a dish rag. He was rambling to the smoke and to alarm. "Shh, you're going to wake up Amora," he shouted to the ceiling. "And stop smoking. There's nothing left to burn," Wheatley continued to shout.
"Wheatley, do you like to set things on fire?" Amora asked slightly amused at his actions and partially upset at the man. She found it very hard to stay mad at the accident prone man.
Wheatley spun around quickly to face the woman. He darted his eyes from hers. "I… uh… I wanted to thank you for letting me stay here. You really didn't need to and I'm ..well. I'm very grateful. But then something started to burn and then the alarm went off."
Amora sighed, "There was no need to make me breakfast. I'll get it myself. Just don't anything. I'm going to call the management and see if they can turn off the sprinklers." She crossed her arms in front of herself.
"Uh, yeah that's a good idea," Wheatley admitted sheepishly.
Amora went back into her bedroom and called the management and after a half hour the alarm was turned off. The woman got dressed quickly and started to hang up her bedsheets and other fabric items so they can dry. Amora left her room with everything drying.
"Wheatley are you ready to go?" Amora called out as she exited the room. She found the blonde man mopping the floor.
"Oh, um. Yes I'm ready to go," He answered and followed Amora out of the apartment. "Amora, I'm so sorry for this morning," Wheatley said again.
Amora laughed, "Don't worry about it. Honestly, it was a good alarm. I have been looking for something that could wake me up on time." She gave him a smile. "So what are you up to in the lab now?"
"You should come by and see it. We're working on this machine that can gather light and focus so that you can make a bridge. It's not going well, but maybe in a couple of years we can get it to work," Wheatley started to explain. He got silent for a moment. "I can't believe Neil is going to space. He seems very excited about it," Wheatley changed subjects.
"Well, he always wanted to be an astronaut," Amora explained remembering a previous conversation with the space enthusiast. "He said he couldn't join NASA because of his poor eyesight, but Cave pulled some strings to get him to space."
"Cave is a good guy, you know. I don't know of a single person in Aperture that doesn't respect him," Wheatley said as the pair entered the bus.
Amora agreed with Wheatley. Cave's charisma had all of Aperture's employees standing in awe of their employer. Everyone that Amora spoke with told her some story how Aperture was their home away from home and how the staff were their family. She was still new to Aperture but she could definitely feel what the other employees spoke about. "I think he's great. No one else could get so many different personalities to work together so amorously," Amora agreed with Wheatley.
The bus stopped in front of Aperture and the pair exited. In front of Aperture there were a pair of police cruisers. "Amora, what should I do?" Wheatley asked.
Amora barely heard the question as she was transfixed with the flashing lights. She could feel her heartrate increase and her stomach becoming sick. "Amora?" Wheatley called out.
Amora snapped out of it at the sound of her name. She looked at Wheatley whose blue, too blue, eyes looked at her in concern. "Honesty is the best policy, Wheatley. Just explain what happened. I will take care of the fallout." Wheatley looked unsure but Amora gently nudged him forward.
She stood behind Wheatley as the officers questioned him. She gave the officers an uncomfortable smile whenever they looked her direction. After Wheatley gave his spill, the officers left. "Well, that wasn't too bad," Wheatley said as the police cruisers left the parking lot.
Amora frowned slightly. "We're going to have to talk to Mr. Johnson about this. Aperture is probably going to have to pay for the damages caused," she walked into the office with Wheatley behind her.
"Thank you Amora, you know for being with me," Wheatley said in a small voice.
Amora nodded, "You're very important to me Wheatley. I..I.. you're my best friend. So I'll be by your side no matter what." She laughed at her sudden seriousness. "I'll see you later after I break the news to Mr. Johnson."
"Perhaps we can go to the new cafeteria that Mr. Johnson built. He hired some new pastry chef," Wheatley suggested.
"Sounds good. I'll meet you there at noon," Amora said waving good-bye to Wheatley.
…
Amora left Mr. Johnson's office confused. While he did seem upset at the news of a possible lawsuit, he blew it off like the bad press didn't matter him. She was thinking about what he said about forwarding science and that science isn't always safe. These words shouldn't have bothered her; after all Aperture was a research facility.
She bumped into somebody jolting her out of her thoughts. "I'm so sorry," she apologized picking up some strange mechanical thing off the floor.
"I recommend that you watch where you are walking," a slightly arrogant voice said grabbing the object from Amora. She gave the man in the pink sweater-vest a smile. The brown-haired scientist was very unfamiliar which confused Amora; she thought she knew everyone that worked in the labs upstairs.
"Of course, I'm sorry. I was just deep in thought," Amora said. "I don't think we have met before. I'm Amora. I'm the PR manager."
The man looked slightly interested in this. "My name is Craig." Craig must have thought that this was enough to settle the conversation and started to continue down the hall.
Amora followed after the man. "So which lab do you work in?" she asked keeping pace with the man that was about her height.
"I work downstairs," Craig answered matter-of-factly. Amora stopped in her tracks; there wasn't any floors beneath the one she was on. She was going to question Craig more, but he had disappeared. The woman frowned, but decided she could find out later about this mysterious downstairs lab.
Amora walked to her office to find a dozen missed calls. She quickly called back and answered any questions. She was in the middle of a call when Wheatley entered her office. She held up a hand to indicate him to wait. Amora ended her call and hung up the phone.
"How can I help you?" she asked the man.
"I just wanted to thank you again for helping me," he started and he brought a bag out from behind his back. "I was talking to Rick and he said that the best way to show a woman your appreciation was to give her flowers or chocolates. Well, the nearest flower shop is in the next town over. So I just got you chocolate. I don't know if you like chocolate, but I thought it was the best choice."
Amora smiled at the sweet gift, "Oh, thank you Wheatley. I do have a bit of a sweet tooth." She took the bag from him and took out a piece of chocolate. She put it in her mouth.
"That's good. I didn't want another mix up like breakfast this morning," Wheatley continued. "I am truly sorry for that as well." Amora laughed and grabbed another piece of chocolate. She bit into it and to her surprise there was peanut butter in the center. Her smile left her face as she could feel her throat tightening and starting to itch. She tried to find her purse quickly spinning around making herself dizzy. "Amora, is everything okay?" Wheatley asked as Amora lost her balance and fell to the floor.
Amora could feel panic set in as it became harder to breath. She pointed franticly to her purse and Wheatley quickly grabbed the item and opened it. He dumped all the contents on the floor and Amora spotted her Epipen quickly. Without a pause she injected the epinephrine into her thigh.
She could feel her heart start to race as the epinephrine started to take effect. The door to her office swung open and Curra was in the room. The nurse was beside Amora instantly, asking Wheatley question after question. "Amora, can you hear me?" Curra asked.
Amora nodded her head, not trusting her voice. "I'm so sorry Amora. I should have asked about any allergies," Wheatley said somewhere far away. Amora nodded her head and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again she was reclining in Curra's office. "That was exciting," Curra's voice said from the other side of the room. The other woman seemed out of breath. "I got you stabilized, but I want you to rest for a while." Curra gave Amora a smile. "You can speak right? No serious brain damage?"
Amora chuckled. "I don't think I would notice the difference," she answered hoarsely.
Curra pulled a chair beside Amora. "That Wheatley. Ever since he came, my office has been so busy."
"He is a little accident prone. Well, very accident prone," Amora agreed.
"Oh, I just remembered," Curra shouted startling Amora. "Caroline and I have come up with an idea to make a calendar for all the Aperture employees." The woman got up excitedly. "We were going to call it "the ladies of Aperture". We're going to need models and I was wondering if you wanted to be one?"
"I don't think I'll be right for the part," Amora answered a little embarrassed at the thought. Granted she knew that there were not many woman that worked in Aperture, so it would be nice to help her friends.
Curra frowned, "We need you. The only models we have are Caroline, myself, and Dr. Rattman's assistant, Cici Rubik." The nurse stuck out her bottom lip in a comical display. "It's a great way to get attention from the male personal. Cici is hoping to get Dr. Rattman's attention and Caroline wants Mr. Johnson's." Amora was about to refuse again. "I know about your little crush. Don't worry, I won't tell. I think you two are too cute," Curra added quickly which caused Amora to blush.
"If I say okay, you won't say anything to him?" Amora asked. Curra nodded her head enthusiastically. "As long as I don't have to wear anything ridiculous, I don't see why not."
Here are all the cores we've been introduced to.:
Morality-Amora
Wheatley- Wheatley (obviously)
GLaDOS- Caroline (once again obviously)
Adventure- Rick
Space- Neil (I didn't know that his given name was Kevin. Neil made more sense to me like Neil Armstrong)
Curiosity- Curra
Anger-Andre
Fact- Craig
Now there's one name I dropped in this chapter: Cici Rubik. I'm a little too proud of this name. Once again she is a "character" from Portal. Thank you for reading.