Alright, so I managed to get about two thirds of this written before I picked up Pokemon X on Saturday, so I figured I'd finish up the chapter during a brief period of not wanting to stare at a screen after word. To be fair, I was still staring at a screen as I typed it up, but I'm not looking to get technical here.
You may have to cut me a bit of slack here, since I was understandably preoccupied with the impending release of the newest installment of my favorite video game franchise. I hope I did the inevitable first-time plasmid sequence justice, hehe.
"Honestly, Bianca, my father is an arms dealer. Did you think he would let me be absolutely helpless in case of an emergency?"
The blonde walked just ahead of the rest of the group, her mood gradually deteriorating as Bianca continually pestered her about the incident with the gun. Phineas had declined to take the firearm from her as they ascended the stairs, telling her that she was probably a better shot than he was anyway. This, for some reason, made Calvin laugh. Apart from a murmured 'thank you', though, he had let the subject drop quickly upon noting the drop in her mood following the incident.
"How often had you had to do things like that, though?" Bianca asked, trying to catch up and letting out a frustrated sigh as the girl increased her gait enough to stay ahead. "You're in nursing school! I thought you wanted nothing to do with your father's business."
The reporter was not taking the entire ordeal as well as her friend, though she had not shut down entirely which was a good sigh. However, the news that the girl she had been friends for years might not be as innocent as she had once thought seemed to be the piece of bad news that she had latched onto. All things considered, not the worst thing that could have happened, but she was definitely wearing on the girl's nerves.
"Can't have what you want a hundred percent of the time," Lyra responded tiredly, pausing to look cautiously around a corner before continuing on. They had not come across any more of those drug-addled lunatics thus far, and though she preferred it that way it was becoming a bit unnerving. "Seems awfully quiet, hm?"
"Well, there's a Daddy stomping around the area," Calvin replied with a shrug. "I probably wouldn't hang around either."
"Daddy?" Lyra repeated, glancing back and lifting an eyebrow.
"Big ole boy, made of metal? Reduced some poor sploicer's 'ead to a fine paste with our way outta here?" Phineas supplied.
"Ah," she said, facing forward again. "I'm going to assume that 'sploicers' are the rabid junkies, then?"
Calvin snorted and corrected, "Splicers. I guess it'd be handy for us to explain some of this shit, huh?" The girl glanced back and nodded, and Bianca looked up from her sulking with some interest. "Alright, well, there's some basic stuff you should know, like, uh – ah."
He trailed off and moved forward with purpose, passing Lyra and coming to a stop before a large rectangular something. It lit up somewhat reluctantly as he gave it a sound tap with his knuckles and it became apparent that it was a vending machine of some sort.
"Got any cash on you?" the dark-headed male asked nobody in particular as the group approached, leaning casually against the machine.
Phineas held up a finger and reached into his bag, rummaging around a bit before withdrawing with a wrench in hand. Calvin opened his mouth to object but moved preemptively out of the way as, predictably, the Irishman ignored him and swung at the glass. It shattered, of course, but the momentum of his swing carried through and smashed the few remaining bottles of viscous, neon-red liquid, leaving only one intact.
"Well, that wasn't very clever of you," Bianca remarked dryly as Calvin groaned loudly.
"Eat me," he replied cheerfully.
Before any actual confrontation could erupt, Calvin reached carefully through the shattered pane of glass and grabbed the luminescent bottle, holding it up. "This," he began, looking pointedly at Bianca as she opened her mouth to retort. She shut her mouth and he continued, "This is a plasmid. It's sort of a… staple of living in Rapture. It kind of gives you super powers." These last words were rushed and sheepish, as though he were embarrassed to be saying something that he himself found unbelievable. He examined the bottle in his hand and his muddy green eyes flickered back to the girls. "This one says it'll give you telekinesis."
Phineas' eyes stayed trained on Lyra and Bianca, gauging their reactions as his friend spoke. Bianca seemed a little skeptical, though not entirely disbelieving as she had been before. Lyra's face was inscrutable, however, as she listened silently.
"And how exactly is this possible?" Bianca asked slowly, her expression cautious. "I mean… telekinesis? You must know how this sounds."
"Crazy, I know. See, I don't know all the science behind this stuff, just the practical application and how to move large quantities of it on the street. But I do know that none of it would be possible without this stuff called ADAM," he said. The brunette pricked up – he had mentioned this 'ADAM' before. "That little girl that was with the Big Daddy earlier? Near as I can figure, she's an ADAM factory. Got somethin' inside her that manufactures ADAM from… somethin', I dunno."
"And those things are called splicers because…?" Lyra prompted, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh. Uh, these-" he held up the glowing bottle in demonstration "-plasmids rewrite your genetic code when they're used. Splice in their own code or whatever. Well, you use enough of them and something's bound to get fucked up, right?"
Bianca looked at the bottle, brow furrowed as she considered all of this. Using children to collect this precious ADAM of theirs… Now she knew what that man, Ryan, had meant about 'petty morality', there was no way any of this would have been allowed on the surface. Still, as despicable and dangerous as it was, she could see the allure…
"So, just one of these plasmids… it shouldn't be a problem, right?" she asked, ignoring the incredulous look she received from Lyra. "I mean, you wouldn't turn into one of them, right?"
"As far as we know, one won't make your skin rot off," Phineas told her. "Personally, I don't recommend it, though. Great power, great responsibility and all that. It's addictive."
"Bianca, you can't seriously be considering this. You saw those things, they weren't even human-"
"Look," Bianca interrupted, holding up a hand to quiet her friend. "I'd like to make it home alive and, quite frankly, I'm the most useless person here. Apparently you're Derringer Daphne or something and these two can obviously fire a gun, but if I get separated from you…"
"It's up to you, Bianca," Calvin told her with a shrug. "It shouldn't be something that you need to worry about – I think I speak for everyone when I say we have no intention of leaving you behind. If it would make you feel safer, though, it's yours."
She gave a quick nod and reached out for the bottle, hesitating for a second before grabbing it. Her fingers trembled as she pulled the cork out, discovering that a syringe was built into the cap. She pulled back the plug, filling it, and glanced around as she squeezed the air out and set the bottle aside. Lyra was watching intently, clearly ready to jump in if anything went wrong, but neither Phineas or Calvin seemed at all concerned, which was probably reassuring on some level.
Bianca regretted her decision the instant the needle pierced her flesh and a slow burning twisted up her arm, searing through her veins, and continued regretting it when she woke up an hour later with a throbbing headache and a large bruise on her leg indicating that no one had caught her when she fainted. She sat up and groaned, rubbing her head sorely before glancing around for her friends.
Only Phineas was immediately visible as she lifted her head and peered around, though she caught sight of Lyra and Calvin a little ways away dozing in chairs. She had been moved, obviously, as she didn't recognize the area they were in, and the redhead seemed to be keeping watch until he noticed Bianca stirring.
"Mornin', sleeping beauty," he said cheerfully, moving to sit beside her hand offering her a bottle of expensive-looking brandy. Though he seemed nonchalant enough, his eyes betrayed a bit of anxiety as he looked her over in what he probably hoped to be an inconspicuous manner. "How ya feelin'?"
"Shitty," she snapped, reaching over and snatching the brandy from him, noticing that he winced a little more than he might have if it had been only from fear. Her eyes trailed up his arm and she noted a bloody tear in his sleeve revealing a somewhat nasty gash. The brunette gestured with her bottle, arcing an eyebrow and asking, "What happened to you?"
"Oh." He ran a hand absently over the cut and shrugged. "Our luck didn't hold out while we were moving. Found some splicers and they attacked us." He thumbed his nose and smirked, adding, "This is just a scratch – you should see the other guy."
She almost laughed at that, but managed to stifle it with a generous swig of alcohol and shot him the most disapproving look she could muster without snickering. The brunette handed back the bottle and said, "So… this place is trashed, and so is our bathysphere. Where do we go from here?"
The redhead slumped forward a bit and heaved a sigh, shaking his head. "Rapture is huge… you saw. There's got to be a part that hasn't been destroyed, or at least another working bathysphere station. I reckon we… keep walkin', see what we find first," he replied, although he didn't seem terribly certain himself. His whiskey eyes shifted over to the girl watching him with an unhopeful expression and he said in a low voice, "I'm sorry for bringin' you lot down here. I thought… No, that's the problem. I didn't think."
"Why did you want to come back in the first place?" Bianca asked, shaking her head. "I understand that it's your home, but… what?"
The brunette looked up somewhat irately as the man let out a bark of laughter and stifled it quickly. He leveled a gaze at her and told her quite seriously, "It's nothing like that; I hate this place. Present state of things may be considered an improvement. I've got a debt to settle up on, nothin' more."
She stared at him somewhat incredulously as she tried to wrap her head around his admission. To be fair, he had not once told her that he intended to stay in Rapture once he got there, but that had been the assumption she was operating under until they actually found the place. Still, she couldn't imagine what sort of debt he owed that could only be repaid at the bottom of the ocean, which would have been difficult even if he didn't profess to hate the place.
Bianca did not have time to inquire further, however, as Phineas stood up, effectively ending their conversation, and said, "Best be movin' on, aye?"
She gave a small nod and watched his bloodstained back as he went over to the other two members of their little band and dumped Calvin unceremoniously out of his chair and onto the floor. The resulting yell was enough to wake Lyra, who jolted awake and looked around fearfully before Phineas said something in her ear that Bianca could not hear and she laughed. Another vague pang of uneasiness hit her as she observed their easy familiarity as Calvin sat up and snapped at them and they laughed once more. It wasn't even that she didn't trust Phineas, not anymore. Something about their fast friendship just bothered her and she could not place her finger on what it was.
"Well, you're alive," Calvin observed as he approached the brunette, a sour look still lingering on his face. "Started getting a little worried after the first ten minutes, but I suppose everyone's going to have a different reaction to these things… Glad you're alright, anyways."
"Thanks," she grumbled, pushing herself into a standing position and brushing off the seat of her trousers.
"So, how is it?" When his question was met with a blank stare, the shorter man raised his left hand and wiggled his fingers at her. "You know. The thing."
"Oh. Oh! You know, I haven't tried it yet," she said thoughtfully as they rejoined Phineas and Lyra. The two seemed to be arguing about which way they had come from until Bianca interrupted, "Hey lady."
Her blonde friend whirled on her immediately, her argument with Phineas forgotten, and seized Bianca by the shoulders. "Oh, thank God. Don't do that to me, B, I will not be left alone down here with these savages," she said emphatically, casting a dubious look over her shoulder at a smirking Phineas.
"I wouldn't dream of it," Bianca assured her and allowed herself to be pulled in one direction as Phineas protested halfheartedly. Arm in arm with her blonde compatriot, she raised her hand to look at it a little closer and was surprised to find that there was a shimmering distortion extending from her fingertips up her arm. Flexing, she pouted to herself when nothing seemed to be happening and asked, "How do I use it, anyways?"
Behind them, Phineas frowned slightly and responded, "Dunno, I always figured it'd be sort've instinctive."
"Congratulations, you're not helpful," she told him, extending her arm experimentally and trying to pick something up with her mind. It did not work.
They continued on like that for a minute or so, Phineas making increasingly ridiculous suggestions and Bianca gradually caving and trying them out to amuse the group. Eventually, she saw a scrap of paper flutter a bit and instantly regretted the idiotic pirouette she had just attempted at Lyra's suggestion, hoping desperately that she wouldn't have to replicate it every time she wanted to use her power. The relief that washed over her when she realized that she had not been the one to move the paper was short-lived, however, as a splicer with a revolver dangling from his fingertips stepped out of the shadows, rustling the paper once more as he did.
"Shit," she hissed, freezing in place with her eyes on the splicer. She felt a hand on hers and grunted as she was pulled to the ground behind an overturned table just as a gunshot rang in her ears. Someone let out a howl of pain, which was quickly followed by hysterical laughter on the other side of the barrier and labored breathing at her side.
Calvin lay on the ground beside her, teeth gritted as he clutched his shoulder where the splicer's gunshot had hit him. Phineas and Lyra were a few yards away, crouching behind another flipped table. Neither seemed to have been hurt as Lyra leaned around and took a rushed shot at the splicer, who had been joined by two more cackling specters.
"This is not how I planned on spending my afternoon," Calvin snarled, pulling himself up and bracing himself against the table with his gun at the ready.
"Nor I, pal," the redhead responded. He peeked over his table and ducked again as a few shots whizzed over his head. It was obvious that he was looking for a way out, and equally obvious that he had found none. "Alright, here's what we'll do… I'll run past them, and…"
"They shoot you down and come after us anyway?" Lyra finished for him, turning to him and lifting an eyebrow. "Come on, Phineas, I thought you were smarter than that. Don't even think about it or I'll shoot you myself."
"Can you keep firing?" Bianca asked, more to Calvin than anyone due to his injuries, but Lyra glanced over and nodded along with him before they both demonstrated. "Great," the brunette muttered, backing off the table a bit and eyeing it hesitantly. "This had better work."
As it turned out, fear of death was a reasonably good motivator. This time when she raised her hand and extended her fingers, the table whipped itself out from behind her wounded companion to hover in the air between herself and several duly alarmed splicers. Another minute flick of the wrist sent the table sailing into the trio of deformed men, knocking them down and pinning them.
"Cheers!" Phineas called over to her, grinning ear to ear as he stood up. He glanced down at Lyra unhurriedly and asked, "Mind if I borrow that, love?" She handed his gun up to him and moved to attend to Calvin as Phineas checked the wheel for ammunition, grinned, and flicked it back into place. Bianca watched as the splicers pushed the table off of them and scrambled to stand, only to be dropped again, one by one, each with a hole right between the eyes.
Okay, so I realize that the ending is really really abrupt, and I'm definitely aware of this fact and apologetic about it, but I had actually written quite a bit more and decided to cut it here and deal with what comes next in the next chapter. I might end up coming back and editing it to make it seem less like I dropped a paragraph or whatever, but no promises.
Regardless, I know I say this at the end of every chapter, but critique is always appreciated. I guess it kind of sucks to look at the traffic chart and see hundreds of views carrying through each chapter but nobody has anything to say about whether they like it or dislike it or would like to see something changed or noticed something that doesn't make sense/isn't addressed or whatever. Basically, I proofread before I post, but in my experience I'm more likely to overlook errors in my own writing than in someone else's. Oy. I probably sound like I'm panhandling for compliments, sorry, that isn't my intention. I'll quit while I'm ahead.
