Rapture in the After-Years – Brandon's Time in the Underwater City
Disclaimer: I do not own Bioshock, or any related materials in it. My self insert I DO own.
Chapter 1 – The City Under the Sea
Hello there... If anyone is listening to this audio diary, lend me your ears. My name is Brandon Cash. I am stuck in this crazy city they call "Rapture". It used to be run by some man called Andrew Ryan. I hear he was the founder and everything...but then somebody put him down and the city just continued to degrade... I've only just arrived here...in this bathysphere...they called it...but I haven't stepped out... Look, why don't I give you the shimmy on everything that happened up until I arrived here first...
Audio Diary: A Long Needed Rest
"Well, another day on this cruise ship. I guess I might as well write in you again. It's been a while, and I have needed a long winded vacation. Akiyoko is staying at home with the kids again. I understand she wants to take care of them, but I would've loved it if she came along for the ride."
"She insisted that she stay and watch over Chibiko and the others, and told me to get on that cruise ship and take a break from everything I've been putting up with. The Brandonopolis Villains are just getting to the point where they're becoming common annoyances, and with the new upgrades to Alkazart Penitentiary for the Criminally Insane, they won't be getting out any time soon. Thanks to the new shock collar, Mrs. Shadowstrike isn't gonna break out and try any funny business."
"At last, I have a sound peace... I now have a long needed rest. This is the life. [alarm blaring] Huh? What was that? Wait here, diary. I'll see what's going on here..."
That's not even counting the horrendous crash.
It all started when I got up to the cabin and spoke with the captain. He said there was a missle the size of a nuclear warhead shooting towards this very ship.
The Captain was going to try to steer clear of it, but it was hopeless. The cruise ship wasn't going to clear it in time. I tried to make him listen to reason, but nothing worked; not even bringing in one of the hot bunny girls phased him out of it.
I was going to abandon ship as fast as I could, but it was too late. All I could remember before I blacked out was the intense heat and the explosive force behind me, tearing the ship apart, and killing everyone inside it...except for me.
I woke up hours later. It was another full moon night out, as was per usual in Video Game World. The ship was over the Atlantic, though how the Atlantic Ocean is here in my own world is beyond me. Guess Akiyoko took the right call to stay at home, because far off in the distance, I saw bright lights. It was the raging fires of the cruise ship I was once on. I was face down on the steps...to somewhere...
Then I looked up. I was at an ominous looking lighthouse. Feeling tons of pain throughout my body, I was a wreck myself, but I was still somehow alive. Normally, stuff like that should've killed me, but I can come back. Looks like I got lucky here... I stood up, despite my body being on fire with pain, and started going up the steps. At the top of the steps, I saw that a door was open, just sitting there like somebody was always welcome.
Boy, was I ever wronger in my entire life or what?!
I walked into the pitch-black lighthouse...and the door slammed shut behind me. It freaked me out for a second there, but I recuperated as the lights came on. Above me was a bust, with a torn and tattered banner. It had apparently once said "NO GODS OR KINGS. ONLY MAN.", but now that time had taken its course, the banner was pretty much degraded. The bust of the man known as Andrew Ryan was apparently headless somehow, and the head was sitting off to one side. There was a plaque, but is was so rusted, I couldn't make out anything it said except for Andrew Ryan's name.
Then I decided to go down the steps further ahead. The lights there came on too. As I descended further, I saw a strange looking contraption. The Bathysphere, as it was called, was just sitting there, as if someone needed to use it. Judging by the condition of it and the big dents in certain parts of it, I could only assume somebody other than me had used this thing a long time ago...
I got in it, unaware what I was getting myself into... I saw a lever inside, and I pulled it down. Almost immediately, I snapped my head back and saw that the door was closing. I tried to run, but it was too late to turn back now. The whole thing was descending into the water. There was nothing I could do but sit and watch as the bathysphere sunk further into the sea, first 10 fathoms, then 18...and that's when a strange projector popped up in front of me. An ad for something popped up. It said:
Incinerate! "Fire at your fingertips!"
Before I could come up with a legitimate answer for what this was about, the ad cut to a man sitting at his desk. The words "From the Desk of Ryan" was right beside him, and the whole slide was in black and white, as is it were something out of the fifties. As I would later figure out, it was. I was looking at the man who created this infernal city...Andrew Ryan.
His voice sounded from the projection. I just sat back and listened.
"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?"
The image shifted to the Capitol Building of D.C. A huge eagle was above it and was apparently attacking a man.
"No, says the man is Washington, 'it belongs to the poor'."
The image shifted again to a man in front of a Vatican Church, being attacked by a hand coming out of the sky.
"No, says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God'."
The image switched one more time to yet another man being attacked by a hammer and sickle, the symbols of Russia.
"No, says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone'."
I was wondering what in the hell this guy was talking about, but then the whole slide changed back to Ryan at his desk.
"I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible! I chose..."
The whole projection board slipped back into the ground, and I saw that I was traveling along the floor of the sea. That's when I saw it...
"...Rapture." Ryan's voice said at the same time the city came into view.
I was stunned. It was really breathtaking. I couldn't believe that there was a city underneath the sea, but yet, here it was. Rapture.
Even after the projection board was gone, Ryan's voice still continued to speak.
"A city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small!! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, as well..."
After that, Ryan's voice stopped. I was awe-struck as I could possibly be. All around me, there were skyscrapers and lights everywhere. It's a wonder how this city came to be at all here.
Then, suddenly, something struck the bathysphere pod and sent it off-course. A massive whale shark managed to throw the pod I was in way off course, and sent the whole thing careening towards another hangar.
Once it stopped, I felt a bit dizzy, but I was otherwise okay. The bathysphere was rising now...and I wasn't sure if I'd see the surface again. Now I'm in this city...and I'm just about as afraid to even get out of here... But I've been through worse scrapes. This isn't anything different. It's time to step out and explore this place...
That's the end of this chapter. This story will be through my perspective. Hope you've enjoyed it. Give me a holler if you also want to be in the story, and if you want to give me suggestions. Stay tuned as I make my first steps out into the degraded city of Rapture.