Part 121. The Retrieval

                                    

                                          
Part 121. The Retrieval
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"Oh, Wheatley, you're just in time."
Wheatley looked bemusedly down at the emptied-out Relaxation Chamber that had appeared while he was gone.  "For... what."
"Alistair brought me my stalker," GLaDOS said, a touch too fondly for his comfort, and when he looked about he realised that 'Alistair' must be Hammerlock's first name.  It was the Dr Kleiner thing all over again!
"How lovely," he said politely.  "Must be very small, yeah?  I don't see it anywhere."
"Oh, heavens, no," said Hammerlock.  "These buggers are the size of a full-grown man.  He has merely gone invisible for the time being."
"Gone... gone invisible," Wheatley echoed.  
"Oh, yes," said GLaDOS with borderline glee.  "They can do that."
"No doubt there's all sorts of other um, other unpleasant things they can do."
"They reproduce asexually," said GLaDOS.  "So I can breed some from this one specimen."
"I don't advise you do that," Hammerlock cut in.  "I also don't advise you let him out."
"You are not gonna let him out," Claptrap said in horror, passing through the doorway.  "Are you insane?"
At the sound of his voice there was a sudden sort of rustling sound from inside the Relaxation Chamber, and then something slammed into the side nearest Claptrap so hard it shook and the glass cratered at the point of impact.  Claptrap screamed and jumped back into the hallway.  GLaDOS laughed.
"I don't think he likes you.  Or being in that box."
"Do not let him out," Claptrap demanded, pointing in the direction of the damaged glass.  
"I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I concur with Claptrap," said Hammerlock.  "He's fine where he is."
"What I'm hearing is that everyone wants me to let him out," GLaDOS said.  "Well, since you're forcing me to..."
She opened the Chamber and the stalker must have made immediately for Hammerlock, because he stepped backward a bit more urgently than Wheatley had ever seen him do anything.  The creature slammed into the floor panel that GLaDOS raised in front of it and appeared.  It was... gross.  It was really, really gross, like a giant blue crawling bug with sort of wings attached to its front legs.  It also had a long tail which ended solely in a giant spike, and its back had large spikes along it as well.  It skittered backwards from the panel, seemed to reorient itself, and launched some sort of electrified, spiky projectile at GLaDOS.  It connected with her core and bounced off, and she looked down at it, unimpressed.  "Oh, come on," she said to the stalker.  "You can do better than that."
The stalker took on an aggressive stance and made an awful screaming noise that had Wheatley wincing.  GLaDOS, however, took this as a sign to drop her chassis within pouncing range and make the noise right back.  This appeared to confuse both the creature and Hammerlock, who actually took a step forward.  "You can speak to it?" Hammerlock asked.
"Not yet," said GLaDOS.  "Eventually, I could.  In theory.  If they have anything to say."
The stalker leapt towards GLaDOS, who snatched it up in mid-air with a maintenance arm and threw it to her left, which was unfortunately the side of the room Wheatley was on.  It took no notice of him, however, and vanished from sight.  It seemed GLaDOS could see it, though, because she caught it during a second attempt at an attack.  "You're going to do this all day, aren't you," she said, as though she thought the stalker were nothing more than an adorable nuisance, and it screamed at her and scratched at the maintenance arm.