Chapter One
The Big Sister rushed at a rapid speed through the glass-walled tunnel with a newborn infant in her arms, the cries and fidgeting of the infant being ignored by the leather-armored Sister. The Big Sister slowed to a walk as she approached the slide-up door that led to the Little Sisters Orphanage in Siren Alley. She looked down at the infant and held one of her un-weaponed hands above him, wiggling her gloved fingers slightly to try and entertain the child out of his fit. The infant giggled softly as she did and he grabbed her gloved hand gently, the rough material feeling gentle to his small hands.
The Big Sister slowly entered the Orphanage through the slide doors and walked past the front desk, the wood of the desk close to decay and the paint on the walls beginning to chip away. The darkness of the building was soothing to the infant and the crimson light shining through the portholes in the Big Sister's circular steel helmet guided her into the second room. She made a slow left and entered a room lighted by a single oil lamp seated at the very end of the room on a large suit case. Abandoned bunk beds stood on either side of the room against the walls and with pillows and slightly torn sheets.
There were three other Big Sisters in the room, standing at the opposite end of the room by the bunk bed on the right side, the oil lamp giving their metallic helmet a faint shine. Childish doodles left by the Little Sisters it housed depicted images of little girls hand-in-hand with their Big Daddies and some showing little girls piggy-backing on a Big Sister. The Big Sisters are thin, womanly-figured matured Little Sisters around their teenage years in thick material diving suits with steel shoulder pads, one larger than the other, and steel boots. The leather armor around their torsos, thighs, knees, and shins, along with their right forearms, was held to their bodies tightly by thin leather belts, the armor a dark brown while the belts were a tannish brown.
The Big Sisters slowly approached the others and all three of them slowly moved out of the way to allow their fellow Sister to approach the bunk bed and lay the infant on the bottom bunk, the sheet wrapped around him heavily blood-stained from absorbing the blood on the infant's body, since he was fresh from the womb when the Big Sister took him from his parents. The Big Sisters slowly fathered in a group behind their fellow Sister to get a good look at the infant boy. The infant giggled and reached out to the nearest Big Sister, his bright yellow glowing eyes showing innocence and happiness. The Big Sister that was knelt beside him held her hand over him like she did earlier and he giggled softly as he took a hold of it.
"Let me see him..." a female German-accented voice said from the shadows.
The three standing Big Sisters slowly moved aside to let Rosemarie Tenenbaum through. Rosemarie Tenenbaum was the only daughter of the famous, German-born scientist named Brigid Tenenbaum. She was a fourty-year-old brunette, her hair in a fashion that was similar to how her mother's was in early photographs and went past her shoulders. Her eyes were also brown. Her face was slightly roundish and still showed some feminine innocense, her eyes showing she was more mature than she appeared to be, however, and she was 5' 8" with a slender feminine figure.
Rosemarie slowly sat on the bed beside the infant and gently pulled down the sheet abit so she could see the infant's face, the Big Sister gently pulling her hand free as she did this.
She shook her head slightly seeing the yellow glow in his eyes and the deadly color of his skin, "I knew this would happen. This infant is a Little Brother from the womb...I told her to take precautions in this city..."
The kneeling Big Sister looked at Rosemarie silently while the infant began to squirm and fidget without the presence of the Big Sister's hand.
"...We have to get him out of Rapture and somewhere safe...but, I'm afraid I cannot free him from this fate he is to endure until he matures..." Rosemarie said softly as she slowly stood up from the bed.
The Big Sister looked down at the infant and gently gathered him into her arms, instantly calming the infant out of his fuss.
"We will name him Dylan and raise him here. He will be under your care, since he is more family to you and the Little Ones than his own kind now. I have others that I must tend to before the city completly falls to the ocean ground..." Rosemarie said softly, keeping her back to the Big Sister.
The Big Sister gently ran a gloved hand along the infant's head and earned herself a soft giggle from Dylan. Rosemarie smiled slightly at the sound of the giggle and slowly walked towards the door. The other Big Sisters fathered around their fellow Sister, the infant boy giggling abit louder at their presense. Two Little Sisters rushed into the room and climbed up the Big Sisters' to get a look at Dylan.
As Dylan grew up in Rapture for the past ten years, the Big Sisters taught him how to sruvive in Rapture under their protection and the Big Daddies treated him as if he was Little Sister. Dylan matured just as the Big Sisters did during Little Sisterhood, however he was more aggressive towards Splicers that sought out to harm the Little Sisters and he treated the Big Sisters and Big Daddies like family. He bonded more closely to the Little Sisters than anyone though.
"Hop, hop!~ Our Angels will wake..." a Little Sister chimed innocently a she skipped along a tunnel connecting one portion of Farmer's Market to another.
Little Sisters are young girls aged between 8 and 9 years old with filthy knee-length dresses and hair in ponytails with faded colored bows. Their skin are a deathly grayish color and their eyes are yellow and glowing, but their normal eyes can be seen under the yellow haze if one looks closely. Their bare feet are legs are scratched from their traveling around the city.
"" is an affectionate nickname the Little Sisters give their Big Daddy Protectors. Big Daddies are genetically-enhanced human beings who have had their skin and organs grafted into an enormous diving suit. A life support system keeps the large Daddies functional.
After the surfacing of Sofia Lamb in 1968, the city was left to rot and decay even futher than it had when she had begun to take Rapture under her wing. The Big Sisters, that were the remaining of those lost, sided with Rosemarie after she re-programmed them with a plasmid, not too long after she arrived in the city that was once built in Andrew Ryan's design. With their minds under their own control, they began bonding more closely to the Little Sisters and the Big Daddies, but there was a problem they realised could be fatal to the safety of their new "family". Pieces of the city were falling apart and needed instant repair...there was only one type of Big Daddy for the job.
Rosies are Big Daddies clad in a basic heavy diving suit, the upper torso of which is covered by a high-gauge metal carapace. Their heads are covered by a high-gauge metal diving helmet welded to the torso carapace, and three large lit portholes are welded into the helmet. Their large Rivet Guns were used for keeping the maitenance of Rapture up to the date, but were also used to protect their bonded Little Sisters while they were Protectors. Their skill of repairing Rapture gave them no use as Protectors.
The Rumblers became extinct not long after Sofia Lamb's departure, for reasons that were never clarified, although rumors existed that it was cult-related. This fact left only Bouncers and Rosemarie's new Big Daddies to be used as Protectors to the Little Sisters. The Bouncers and Burkhards were the ones the Big Sisters entrusted the safety of their younger Sisters onto.
Bouncers are clad in a basic heavy diving suit, the entire torso of which is covered by a huge high-gauge metal carapace. The head protrudes directly forward from the upper chest area, and is encased in a hemispherical helmet studded with eight lit portholes. A large, fully-functional drill is attached to the right arm just forward of the elbow, and is used as a close-combat weapon when protecting Little Sisters. Bouncer Big Daddies get their name for a special attack that they use in which they drive their drill into the ground and cause violent tremors, which causes their close-proximity enemies to lose their footing.
Burkhards are a new type of Big Daddy developed in Rosemarie's own design for the Protector Program. They are clad in basic heavy diving suits, the entire torso encased in a high-gauge metal carapace. The head is guarded by a hemispherical helmet with four portholes, one large porthole in the front, a smaller one on the top of the helmet, and two medium-sized portholes in the sides.
The Burkhards carry a shoulder-mounted Grenade Launcher, held in place by multiple buckles on his right shoulder, a large, fully-functional drill on his left arm, and the ability to use Plasmids like the failed Alpha Series Big Daddies. These Big Daddies gain a portion of the ADAM their Little Sisters gather from the corpses laid all around Rapture. In short, Little Sisters award these Big Daddies with a portion of the ADAM gathered for their protection. ADAM slugs on the sea floor outside of Rapture also prove to be useful.
With the number of Bouncer Big Daddies still high ever since Jack Ryan's and Subject Delta's travels through Rapture however, there not many unattended Little Sisters for the Burkhards to imprint on, so Rosemarie had the extra Burkhards placed in a test subject storage room in Point Prometheus. This was far from the part of the city the Big Sister were raising Dylan at the time. They were all placed in large life-tubes and kept in a slumber-state until awakened to become of use. Rosemarie couldn't think of any other place to hide them.
"Come on!~ More ADAM for Big Sister! Maybe Big Brother will give us toffies and lollies!~" the Little Sister giggled as she continued skipping along, her Big Daddy Bouncer groaning whalishly as he followed.
The Bouncer's large boots made loud thudding sounds and send small tremors through the tunnel with each step.