Eleventh Entry
Bonding
Video below...
Glados stared around as Gilda flew down the rearranged elevator tubes into the bowels of Aperture. "Are you sure you know where you're going?" she asked in concern.
"Strongest air flow," Gilda responded readily. "He'll expect us to go straight down-" She banked sharply into a side tunnel, before folding her wings to dive into another downward path before performing a wing-over into a side pipe in a completely different direction. "-while my path will take us as deep as we can possibly go. Besides, Different gave me a bit of a map."
"Where is Different?" Glados demanded, swiveling around to take in the surroundings. "Did something happen to her?"
"I made a right choice," Gilda explained cryptically. "For now, don't worry about her. She's probably the only one of us that's safe just now. ...hope he doesn't hurt Cuddle Core..."
"I am sure Peabrain and Ass-phalt are making certain she is safe," Glados offered comfortingly. "For now, we need to find a terminal he doesn't have access to so we can unlock your weapons-"
"Won't do any good," Gilda interrupted. "By now, he knows what's built into my armor, and he'll be prepared for it when we get back up there. We need to catch him off guard, and hit him with something he doesn't know we can do."
"In that case, I know where we need to go," Glados responded. "And quickly, before he realizes it's there. It...was supposed to be a surprise, a present for you. But now we need it."
"Have you got the full map in there with you?" Gilda asked curiously.
"Unfortunately not," Glados admitted. "But it's in central ventilation, which should be the source of the strongest air flow-"
At that moment, Gilda flared her wings, coming down for a gentle landing in a large central chamber with multiple pipes leading every which way out of the room. A large platform in the middle sat, with a strange contraption in the center. "This it?" Gilda asked curiously. "This is where all the wind's coming from."
"Yes," Glados confirmed. "It used to be the neurotoxin production center, but I restructured it to control those wind tunnels I made for you, as well as to control the airless rooms. ...I hope he doesn't start trying to smash test chambers together in an attempt to make more tests. It takes a lot of effort to make those."
"So what's this gizmo?" Gilda asked as she landed near the strange device. "It's supposed to help us somehow?"
"In a manner of speaking," Glados explained. "It was originally supposed to be a remote drone I could transmit myself into...but now it's going to have to be a body. You need the backup if we're to catch Wheatley off guard." She sighed softly. "Of course, trying to plug me in might cause a power surge that wipes my core personality profile because of what Wheatley did to me. I don't have a working interface port anymore, and I need to interface with that port..."
Gilda glanced back and forth between the back of Glados' core and the interface port, her brain ticking away. "...gimme a few moments," she muttered, setting Glados down so she was facing away.
"Don't break it!" Glados warned. "I worked hard on the interface programming and overall design, and it's our only-what are you doing?" Her warning turned into a frightened demand as she heard metal being twisted out of shape and then felt herself being lifted.
Gilda grinned at her. "Improvising," she stated before slamming Glados onto the interface port.
Glados let out a startled shriek of pain as she felt a secondary circuit forcibly applied to the block, letting her programming interface around it with the device. "That...was quite reckless," she stated finally.
"Kinda my schtick," Gilda shrugged, not even slightly apologetic.
Glados chuckled softly. "That's my girl," she murmured. "Yes..."
Her Core was withdrawn into the device, and an overhaul began. Loud noise echoed from within...and then it fell apart around her.
Glados stretched out as she finally had a body. It wasn't the same feeling as when she was the facility, but having actual synthetic muscle to flex...it felt good. She spread her white wings, the metal feathers flexing individually as the under-wing jets flared slightly to test. Her tail swung back and forth, the Portal Emitter shooting off a dark blue and red portal to test its own linked system. Her lion paws flexed, digging steel claws into the metal below her. She flexed her talons.
She clacked her beak.
Gilda stared up at Glados in awe as she stood about a foot taller than her. "M...Mom?" she gasped out in surprise as she saw the very design she'd put into her painting.
Glados smiled. To her surprise, the beak curved as Gilda's did, showing her smile. The software interface triggered an action. Without knowing why, she reached out and grabbed Gilda with one talon and one wing, dragging her close. Gilda let out a startled squawk, but quickly quieted when Glados began her next action.
Leaning in, Glados opened her beak and gently closed it around one of Gilda's feathers, dragging along the length as she straightened and cleaned the feather. Light lubricant based on Gilda's saliva was released, protecting the feather from damage.
Realizing now what was going on, Gilda quieted as Glados continued to preen her hatchling, the activity relaxing and pleasant for both of them.
...you won't say anything if you know what's good for you. Yeah, just like always.