Test Chamber 032: Repulsion Gel

[super_astute]

Wheatley did eventually make it back to Chelldon, though his form was a little less android like and a bit more spherical.  Tyler brought him in with a smile at Chelldon and the fantastic drawings he did around his room before he deposited the blue 'eyed' core in Chelldon's arms.

"Well?" Tyler asked, eyebrows arching.

"No, doesn't seem to...  I'm not, you can go now, get to work on fixing my bodies, just standing there like a lump won't do any good!"

The door opened and closed as Tyler exitted the Relaxation Chamber and Wheatley turned in his orbital socket towards Chelldon.  "Well then!  Who's excited to test today?"

Comments

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Wheatley was a ball. A big heavy ball with a big blue eye, who could blame Chelldon for staring? But, of course, exposure to robots made him easy to adapt to this sort of thing. He smiled and looked down at Wheatley because despite his rather pathetic form, he had missed the moron. "Hi."

Carrying the ball out of the room, he headed down towards the test chambers, everything had been cleared up pretty well but still, Chief Hunt was patrolling up and down every day.

Chelldon went out of his way to seem nice and normal, he always nodded his head like Wheatley had told him too.

Once they arrived just outside the testing bay, he adjusted his hold on Wheatley so he didn't accidentally get in his way or something. How was he going to use his gun if he was carrying him?

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

This body was awful! Absolutely awful! And what was worse, he had just recently found out that they didn't actually have spares of his android body any more! They only had one evidentally and lied to him about it so that he wouldn't be afraid of having to be downloaded into a lesser body.

Like...oh...this one!

Wheatley had also been told not to expect any more direct cores either after the incursion. Too many resources were being allocated to the bloody maintenance department!

"Oh, this is useless!" he complained, frowning though it was hard to tell with just this awful set of expression pistons. So. Limited. OOOH! As soon as they figured out how to clear out the effects of Specimen 379, he was never going into this thing again! "Can you pick me up with the portal gun?"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon shrugged and set Wheatley on the floor before grabbing his gun and adjusting it, he'd never tried to pick up Wheatley before, there was one incident where he was meant to catch Wheatley but that ended with the man just falling on him rather than being caught. It was weird that his loyal friend was so small now.

But hey, look at that, he was picking up Wheatley with the gun. Hmming idly, he walked along, the floating core in front of him as he entered inside.

"Test?" he asked, he wanted information on what he was doing here but clearly Wheatley was going to end up thinking he had renamed his gun test or something equally as stupid. He really did need everything spelled out lately!

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"Yes, yes, we'll get to your precious testing," Wheatley grumped, a bit more despondant than usual. Could he be blamed, though? He couldn't get around on his own, he couldn't move his mouth and his beloved, and devilishly handsome, android body was infected with an android infatuation serum! Oh, it was just horrendous! It was enough to weep!

Chelldon had no idea how good Test Subjects got it. They could just be terminated if they wanted to be!

Wheatley took a good look around the chamber and pointed -- stupidly, it made him laugh to try without fingers! -- across the wall. "Jumping test. Oh, perfect! Look, we can to try out this new repulsion gel! Hit the button and we'll start!"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

He whacked the button heavily and the repulsion gel came splattering out. And yes, Chelldon did as expected and excelled at jumping. Especially when it came to jumping around on the repulsion gel, which was fantastic fun. Grinning all the while, he leapt around and about the place.

Course he had no idea what he was doing but he and Wheatley were getting rather high.

Shooting a portal up and a portal down, he jumped in propelled them through the portal at a massive speed, onto the gel and they must of flown right across the room before they landed on a giant button.

Which, of course, splattered more gel.

Chelldon couldn't help it, he laughed his head off.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

With the portals transfering the slurry onto the walls, and Wheatley deciding that he really did not care much for bouncing around when he could crack and break, he spent most of the time whining, screaming when he looked down, or begging Chelldon not to drop him.

The moment they managed -- yes, they, Wheatley was there! -- to figure out the puzzle, the buzzer sounded and the door swished open, allowing them to move from the room...

Into another room.

"Oh, right, yes, out to have mentioned, and truly sorry about this, but you shouldn't get the repulsion gel on you. Does funny things with human skeletons. So... Try not to splash in it any more."

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

"Careful," Chelldon agreed as they headed out into the other room. The mess of gel on the floor was used to bounce onto the platform and hit the button in time to turn off the laser that was blocking his way to the cube. Moving the cube and Wheatley was hard but he managed it.

And, sadly, all that button did was drop more gel on them.

Well, this was trick. What exactly did they want from him? He could only bounce around so much and-- whoops! There went a flying ball intent on smashing their faces in.

Jumping out of the way, he made a noise of distressed and tried to work out the pattern of it so he could portal it all away.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Wheatley was no help, absolutely none. In fact, he was the exact opposite of help. "Oh, you should do that thingie and use the other thingie and you'll be across!" he said at one point before breaking down the thingies into a check list that only he seemed capable of following as he mostly just determined that neither thingie was made of chocolate or rabbits and therefore of little cultural value to Chelldon.

He at least stopped yelling through this logic problem, stating that the coefficient of the repulsion gel was 'false' and therefore deadly to human skeletal tissue, which left him humming in calculations that ended up short circuiting him for a small bit.

"At the very least," he said once they launched from wall to wall to get to the last platform, "we should never jump down. That would likely kill us."

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

The only thing Chelldon had gathered from all of this is simply that Wheatley was twice as useless as a core. Of course he was the same amount of stupid and annoying but this time around, he had to hold the moron. Fortunately he provided a few kicks and a bit of amusement, which was nice. It was like a portable radio.

Maybe he should talk to Wheatley and dupe him into singing.

Another thing to know about Wheatley? He was always wrong. So when he said don't jump down, it was probably wise to jump down. And, ironically, it was. Down there was one little platform portal worth and, after firing a shot, he smirked and leapt off. Course Wheatleys cries almost burst his ear drums.

They propelled right across the top of the building and flew right through the exit and right into the elevator. Ow! Oh well, speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out!

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

"You're right," Handy said with a curious expression before groaning himself. Adventure core told him the man was dead... well, no, exact words were 'dead or as good as' but still. Pulling out his little device, he held it up to his mouth and sent a quick message. "Handy to cores, just a quick message, bring me your dead, not your ill. Handy to adventure core, he isn't dead!"

Making sure his audio messages were sent, he tossed the device down and sighed. Now what? He was only good with the dead, he always killed live people.

Chelldon watched them both with a curious look before turning his head to Wheatley and gesturing at the groaning twitching man on the table.

"Cake?" he suggested to help the man... well, he wasn't brain damaged but no one ever said he was meant to be especially smart nor especially useful outside the testing arena.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"No, no, last time you had cake, you ruined my body and now I have to stay with you. So that's that, sorry, Chelldon, but I really can't risk becoming just a disc drive. But tea? Tea I can get you. And by get you, I mean direct you. No hands. Remember? Chelldon, pay attention, we just went over this!"

He clucked his non-existent tongue and whirled back to the doctor.

"Should Chelldon die, I'll bring him right to you." But not right now. He wasn't going to give up on Chelldon until he at least beat that monkey!

He cleared his throat.

"Off we go, then. And grab that power cord on the way out. No, the power...cord...the cord. The cord...the...thank you."

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

No more cake? Now that was cruel!

Chelldon sighed and picked up the cord, he knew which one it was, he was just pausing to look at the sighs above the door. Why were their warning signs in here... were they specifically just because Handy was a bit useless? Because that was harsh but kind of fair.

He carried Wheatley out of the room and dodged past the cameras just to avoid getting them into further trouble. For all he knew, they could of been monitoring Wheatley. He wasn't totally aware yet that his 'friend' was a laughing stock and not only he considered the man a moron.

"Where to?"

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"Left, right, straight on, straight on, straight-- Oh, no, left!" He actually meant right, and luckily, Chelldon pretty much had learned to do the opposite of what was asked of him. But Wheatley didn't notice. He didn't mind. He was much too busy going over how one makes tea.

Molecule by molecule. And incorrectly at that. They passed Tyler again, who gave them a double look and opened his mouth to say something before thinking better of it.

Tyler was a core that worked with all sorts of humans. He didn't have a Test Subject, he helped out with the guards. But seeing a human like Chelldon was still strange.

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon never made it easier on confused cores, thanks to Wheatleys terrible social advise, he nodded a bit too long in Sams direction before turning back to Wheatley and listening to him jabber on and on about tea. How was he going to measure the exact amount of milk and how much fat?

He didn't have those sort of instruments. When he got to the staff bay where the tea machine was, it was just hot water, tea bag, some milk that had been standing and two packets of sugar left over. No precise measurements or molecules.

He filled the cup with all the ingredients, added water and the frowned. How was Wheatley going to drink it? Or was it just for him?

How oddly lonely, he was used to sharing his treats now, it was strange.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no no, you did it wrong," Wheatley murmured but he noticed the way that Chelldon seemed to enjoy the tea. Hm. Maybe he had seen Wheatley make the tea so many times he just knew how to make it by muscle memory. Now that just made him feel pretty great! Chelldon was such a good little learner!

And soon...soon he'd beat the monkey and--

Oh. Wheatley frowned.

Well, he tried to frown. And when that didn't work, he tried to roll around in distress. "We need to find my body. My real body."

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

"Broken," Chelldon reminded Wheatley as he sipped his tea and watched the ball roll around, what was he to do what it was out of use, he hardly broke it and he could hardly be blamed for something like that going wrong. He didn't know what the perfume did but still... "Sorry."

Taking several gulps of tea, he held it in his mouth making his cheeks poke right out but he had a feeling he had to drink his tea fast or risk losing it. Much like the cake.

Crouching on the floor by where he set Wheatley, he frowned swiftly.

What exactly did the core want this time?

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"No. No, I mean, yes, I know, but it's a risk I'll need to take. Listen. No, actually, put down the tea, step away from the tea, pretend the tea is just bloody awful and take me into the cupboard." There were no cameras in there and though Wheatley did not have a doctor assigned to him, that didn't mean that they weren't being monitored.

Once they were stuffed in with the barrels upon barrels of sugar -- why so much? Were they testing diabetes in office workers? Oh, this place, always doing science! -- Wheatley could actually explain himself, poorly, in private.

"We need to get you out of here. Before you beat the monkey!"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Ah! Bingo! Shooting at the container holding it, he shot at the floor below and let it fly out of the portal and spurt out everywhere, painting the walls, floor and their shoes with white moon rocks. None reached his skin, he was pretty thankful for that... but he knew the risks here.

Odds were he was riddled with tumours and other diseases, plus he had a very low life expectancy so why worry over a little moon dust?

Closing the portal after enough splashed on the wall, he shot a portal there and on the now painted ground floor. A quick hop took them to what seemed to be a basement level surrounded by glass walls and what seemed to be an abandoned testing observation room.

No people? How odd.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Wheatley had a good look around at the turned over chairs and the fine layer of dust over the entire place. "Hm. Never been here," he admitted. "Whole thing looks pretty much sealed off. I wonder what happened, can't access the files--" He would have shrugged if he had shoulders. "I think we missed the android testing labs though, should be two floors up. Ooh, look at the buttons!"

If only he had fingers! This was a curse, an absolute curse. He wanted his limbs back. And he wanted his own pair of long fall boots. And he wanted to help test!

Maybe if he put in a work order for it, he could get it?

Oh, don't mind the sudden explosion of evil laughter, Chelldon. All perfectly normal. Perfectly routine.

"Err...just trying out my evil laughing receptors. Working ord--yes, in working order."

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon blinked. Oh. How nice? He had no idea evil laughs were part of a cores system but if they worked, they worked. That worked for him, he just ignored it because Wheatley was no villain, he was a hapless core that was nearly entirely dependent on Chelldon to get him anywhere.

He looked over the buttons before shaking his head, he was not going to risk pressing any and-- oh! Red button.

Pressing it, because he was always told to do so, something started whizzing and static crackled around them before it went dead silent again. Huh, he had to wonder what that was.

But he dismissed it in favour of heading back out. Two stores up and they would find Wheatleys body. "Are you repaired?"

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"Well it has been over a week, I don't see why I wouldn't be unless we employ complete morons!" He laughed, obviously not believing such a thing to be possible. Why would he? Why would anyone thing that when they had a lab that went into the ground for miles and so many empty office spaces? Wheatley was certainly gung ho about his position here, regurgitating propaganda as needed.

Even if he was just starting to realize what it was like to have autonomy. The evil laugh, the wanting to keep Chelldon, and his own ambitions were just the top of the iceberg. Where the rest of the iceberg was, Wheatley didn't know. Not there, most likely. Melted away. Seemed how iceberg protocol ought to be observed.

He'd ask Tyler later. Tyler knew all about protocols.

"It'll be fine. A little spark there, attraction here, should not be much of an issue." Hopefully.

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

It was easy, all it took was redirecting a nearby beam into the door and blowing it open, no damage to them or the inside property but he did make potential break ins later easier. But still, he didn't have time to wait around to Wheatley to 'hack' the door.

Once they got inside... well, it was creepy.

Hundreds of empty shells shaped like humans, some horribly broken, some still in the making process, some mutilated and some in perfect condition. It was clear that more happened here than just fixing, some were horribly pulled a part and mixed in with others, some were still twitching or blinking, not quite turned off.

They might not feel but it still seemed odd to Chelldon.

He couldn't see Wheatleys body yet, he headed further inside, checking through all the male bodies.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

"Oh, and Tyler's just so lucky isn't he? Bloody Tyler. Look at this! There are at least fifteen models of him! Fifteen! Can you believe it? Fifteen of that...protocol loving...and only one of me? What did they do with the rest of me?!" Oh, Wheatley had no idea that he, too, use to have quite a lot of copies of himself. GLADoS had never much appreciated him.

Ever. Especially when they tried to attach him to the operating system before regulating him instead to Test Subject duty for further diagonstic testing. And that had gone over well too!

"Hey, Chelldon, over there, on the table. Oh, look, seems they've finished the repairs." Or hadn't started. He couldn't actually find the work order. "Plug me in over there!"

[stubbornsubject.livejournal.com]

Chelldon did as he was told, as always, and plugged Wheatley neatly into as nearby plug before connecting it to the stored form of Wheatley. There were a lot of copies of cores, Tyler, Rick, Space, Fact, Anger, Cake, Curiosity... and so on. It really did go on a bit and that was quite amazing.

But there was only one of Wheatley, didn't that seem odd to anyone?

Leaning on the side, he looked the other way because Wheatley always asked him too. The sooner that Wheatley managed to get himself back together, the sooner he could go back to his room and resume life as it had been before all of this.

And yes, he truly believed that.

[super-astute.livejournal.com]

Halfway through the core transfer, an alarm sounded and Wheatley, the single blue iris fading as the body itself twitched, assured Chelldon with half of his core-speakers and half his mouth that it was fine, not to worry, but perhaps he better hide just in case.

Because one never knew what was happening and he had been shut out from the system. Likely, that wasn't meant to have happened. Oversight and all. Happened all the time. Especially with Wheatley. It never occurred to him that anyone was doing it one purpose.

The klaxon stopped almost ten minutes later, fading out, and by that time, Wheatley sat upright and fixed the glasses to be straight across his nose and ears.

Perfect! So much better!

He beamed. And realized Chelldon was missing. Well. Hiding. But as he hadn't watched where the human went, he had no idea where he'd gotten to!

"Chell-- Hey, Chelldon! Cheeeelldon-- Chelldon!"