Chapter 1- Luke

A light and airy voice with solid, deep undertones resounded around the large, metal room. "Come on, Mr. Bubbles, I see an angel!"

Luke, crouching, quietly made sure his revolver was loaded and ready to go.

It was.

He silently looked over to his group leader, Frankie, and was surprised when he motioned for Luke and the others to wait.

"She's found an angel, see, she's collecting her juicy adam…" he whispered into his radio. Luke didn't like the way he talked, but he was his best bet of surviving for a couple days in this submarine hellhole. After this, he would take his share and probably sneak out to find another group with a Little Sister in their sights.

But he had to get through this first. He studied the Little Sister's protector, a Bouncer Tin Can. Its massive helmet glowed a bright green as of right then, but Luke knew it would be a deep, bloody red once they began. It's incredible drill hung limply from its right arm, and its bronze colored armor showed dim in the twilight.

The Little Sister had been 'code named' Lucy, and Luke's temporary group had been following her for days. She looked around six years old and was about three and a half feet tall. Her skin, from the transformation, was now a sickly grey-blue hue. The only problem was, her protector would follow her around everywhere. The only times Lucy was alone was when she inside the vents, climbing and crawling from place to place, but, of course, no grown man or woman could fit inside them to get her. So, without any other option, they were forced to kill her Tin Can.

There were five in Luke's group, but he had only chosen to remember one: Frankie. He was the adam-addicted leader of Luke's group, and you could tell he'd been hit hard by withdrawals. His face was fatally misshapen, one eye lower than the other, and the left side of his face was bloated, and swollen with extra skin. His skin was constantly red and hot, and his voice was heavily accented by swollen lips.

Basically, there were two good things about him, from what Luke could tell: 1. He had knowledge of two Little Sisters in Poseidon's Pit, one of which was Lucy, and 2. he could use plasmids. He usually had a lead pipe in one hand, and the Electro Bolt plasmid in the other. His plan was to shock the Tin Can and then walk up and… whack him? Ah, nevermind, Luke just knew it would work.

Luke and his group, staying hidden, followed Lucy and her Tin Can from afar into a large open area, where many people had lived before the rebellion. Luke could almost imagine the huge crowds making their daily commutes. Luke recognized this place- this was the center of one of the largest districts in the city. The empty stores and stalls all around Luke looked dilapidated and lonely, broken and abandoned. He remembered his father walking him through here on the way to their new dwelling, and his mind filled with nostalgia.

Waking from his memories, Luke saw Lucy cheerfully skip through the plaza to a dead, mutilated corpse, and say, "Here he is, Mr. Bubbles! Isn't he perfect?"

Luke could see from where he was that he was not. This 'angel,' like Frankie, had a huge, swollen face, which was now half in a puddle of water and blood staring limply at the sea above. The angel's formerly fine clothes were ripped and frayed at the edges, and a small fedora lay upside down beside his head. Luke could see the stab wound where, presumably, some sort of blade had been shoved through his abdomen. As he focused, he found that the blade was still there. Funny, he thought.

Luke went over their plan in his head; he and Frankie would stay in the back, while the other three would get a little closer. When Frankie thought we were ready, he would shout and throw an Electro Bolt at the Tin Can, shocking him, and the three closest to Lucy would run up immediately with their pipes and hammers and try to smack him to death while Luke shot at him from afar, trying to break through his helmet.

Woah. That should work, right? Ya, ya... at least for me.

Luke watched blankly as Lucy roughly stabbed her large adam syringe deep into the man. He saw the syringe slowly fill with the deep red color of blood and almost hurled when Lucy bit on the nipple and took a swig of the adam-infested liquid. When she let off, her lips were blood red, and when she smiled her teeth were stained.

"Mmmm… I think I'll save some for later, Mr. Bubbles. You never know how long it'll be until we find another angel." Her voice seemed to constantly have an underlying, much deeper secondary voice. He wondered how that worked.

Luke was brought back to his senses by the three melee attackers walking steadily towards Tin Can. Stupidly, the big-and-tall one tripped over a fallen Poseidon's Theatre! sign, almost falling, and silently looked up at the Tin Can in fear. When the hulking zombie-in-a-suit saw him, the thing turned in his direction and spun his drill in a defensive stance, his helmet glowing yellow instead of green.

HHHHHHHHNNNNNNRRROOOOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH, it moaned, seeing the others walk slowly towards him. The three grotesque splicers set into an aggressive formation first seen by humanity in wolf packs.

"They won't… hurt us, will they Mr. Bubbles?" the girl asked, taking position behind the monster's leg.

Luke crawled steadily over a fallen pillar and got into cover. He looked at Frankie, who had hidden behind a Fortune Teller! machine. Frankie looked back at him and mouthed Not Yet.

Luke nodded and looked back towards the Tin Can. The three were looking at each other confusedly, most likely waiting for a signal. They looked back at Frankie, and the one who tripped yelled, asking why they were waiting. Frankie shook his head in disappointment, and counted:

1… 2… 3!

"RAAAHHHH!" Frankie yelled, shooting a fast-as-light bolt of electricity in the general direction of the Tin Can.

Fortunately, he didn't hit Lucy.

Unfortunately, he didn't hit the Tin Can either.

Just as soon as he yelled, Mr. Big-and-Tall decided to run forward, and the blue-ish light of the bolt vanished straight into his gut.

He instantly fell to the ground, spasming and paralyzed, but the other two didn't lay off, running straight at the Tin Can. One tried getting at his huge helmet, but just when his arm was at the highest point, the Tin Can simply grabbed him by the waist and threw him into the wall, instantly killing him. Lucy screamed.

The other was a little smarter. She waited a moment and went for the Tin Can's legs. Her first hit actually landed, buckling the Bouncer's knee. The Tin Can swayed a small amount, and then, before she could get away, grabbed her head and shoved his spinning drill straight into her abdomen, ripping through her clothes and skin and muscle, and, after a pause, dropped her limp, bloody body on the ground beside him.

Luke didn't have time to react. He quickly brought up his revolver and started to shoot at the huge mass that was now looming over Big-and-Tall. It recoiled, moaning loud enough to where it could be called a scream.

Big-and-Tall finally came to his senses and started to crawl away from the Tin Can, yelling for help from someone named "Monica". Luke shot through his six bullets faster than he realized, and his next pull of the trigger held a dissatisfying click instead of a flying bullet. Ducking into cover, he quickly opened the cartridge, letting the bullet shells out, and shoved six new bullets in to replace them.

When he was ready to shoot again, he came out of cover to see Big-and-Tall's deformed and bloody corpse under the Tin Can's heavy foot. Its helmet was a deep red, and, staring directly at Luke, it spun his drill and started to slowly walk forward. Tension forced his eyes only at the monster in front of him, and as it came closer, Luke's overcoming sense of hopelessness he'd only had a few times in his life came back to him as the few bullets he had daintily bounced off of the creature's helmet.

"Mr. Bubbles!" Lucy suddenly screamed, "Help!"

Both Luke and the Tin Can looked at her at once, to find Frankie holding her, desperately trying to quiet her and slip away at the same time.

The Tin Can, of course, was the first to react. It screamed again and bolted at Frankie, making him drop Lucy and fall back. The Bouncer held up its massive drill and was about to bring it down when another bolt of lightning shot from Frankie's hand and flew into Tinny's metal suit, paralyzing him for the moment.

Luke took that opportunity to run. He turned and ran as fast as he could away from the plaza. He heard, through his breathing and loud footsteps, a metal-on-metal sound, a "NO!" from Frankie, and then a guttural cry followed by the sound of metal going into flesh, all topped off by a gas engine running. The sounds continued, and so did the screaming, for a few seconds, but Luke kept running, not looking back at any cost. He heard another limp body hit the ground, making a splash in a puddle, and the Tin Can let out a moan that sounded like triumph and warning.

As he ran from the devastating scene, he could hear the relieved girl's voice following him.

"You saved me again, Mr. Bubbles! You're my hero, my Camelot!"