As we walked I was losing oxygen fast. Sally's porthole was still blue, and she still seemed worried.

"If I don't take this thing off I'm going to suffocate!" I yelled as I undid a latch on my helmet.

I pulled off the helmet and Sally kept staring at me. I started to get worried. I made a move towards my helmet and she grabbed my arm.

"Remember, you're going to suffocate? She asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Well why do you keep staring at me?"

"What? I'm not… I'm not staring at you!"

"Ok. Geez, no need to get defensive."

We walked for a little longer and we finally made it back to HQ. We had an engineer patch up my suit. And I had to get a doctor to come check out my wounds. "Bullet wounds, 2nd degree burns, and some blood loss" According to him. I had to rest for about a day while the medicine set in. So me and Sentry decided to go check a new gun shop that opened in HQ outskirts.

"I've gone to this place since it opened." Sentry informed me.

"It's weird. I've never even heard about it since yesterday, and it's been around a month." I replied.

"Yeah, they say it's for… select customers only."

"What do you mean by select?"

"Nothing. Nothing."

"What, do they think I'm not good enough for their store?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yeah. That's it."

"Huh. Yeah very funny smartass."

We made it to the store and Sentry pulled out some kind of keycard. He slid it through a scanner and a door opened. Sentry motioned for me to follow. We walked in and were greeted by a scream of "Sentry!"

"Well, you seem popular." I whispered to him.

"Yeah, I'm friends with the owner."

"Well, well, well. Look what the splicer dragged back in. Sentry, how ya been?" the man behind the counter bellowed.

"Been good slimz. How bout yourself?"

"Business has never been better."

"So, what'll ya have?"

"Well. Me and my buddy here have been looking for some new gear. Whatcha got for us?"

"Wow, kid you look pretty banged up."

"Yeah. It was a brute splicer. Tough bastards." I replied.

Well I got a machine gun. It looked like it used to be mounted on a turret. It had and ammo box of forty. I also got a plasmid, Telekinesis. Sentry got drill fuel and ammo for his rivet gun.

Later that night we were all talking about the splicer's we've killed before. Someone said they killed 50 Houdini splicer's in an hour. I could tell his head was up his ass. Someone else kept complaining on how hard lead heads and thuggish splicer's were hard to kill together. We all had to agree.

As soon as I told them about the brute they all started to laugh.

"I'm not joking. 3 times the size of a normal splicer." I insisted.

"That is such bull." Someone yelled.

"No way. How much ADAM did you have that day?" Someone else added in.

"He's telling the truth, I was there when it happened." A very familiar voice rang out.

I saw a path clear and Sally stepped out of the crowd. They all backed off and no one else spoke. I noticed Cindy and Suzy were with her. From the looks of it, no one else there had much experience with the fully grown opposite sex.

I heard a few people say "Is that a real one?" or "Wow. That's what they look like up close."

"Anyway, how else could he get that much damage? She added.

I soon heard commotion amongst the others. Then Cindy rang out as well.

"My daddy is super strong, and he beat up that meany!" She cried.

Everyone in the room started to laugh. That finished it.

"Would you ignorant bastards shut the hell up?" I demanded.

The laughter stopped. No one dare spoke. I stormed out of the gathering hall and into our room. Cindy followed. Sentry shook his head and him and Suzy came after me. Sally's porthole was glowing a demonic red and I heard screaming as I left. Things like "RUN!" or "Ahh crap…" rang out from the hall. Soon after that Sally came after us.

By that time I had my helmet removed and was sitting on the extremely sturdy couch, (I say that because it can hold up to 10 people. Or 2 big daddy's, 2 little sisters, and 3 big sisters) and flipping through the TV channels. Sally removed her helmet and sat down next to me. After I while I found some odd cartoon about a bunch of little sisters and a big daddy.

"Oh oh! Daddy, can we please watch this? Cindy begged.

I patted her on the head set the remote down and said "Alright."

Now about this time I realized I haven't even seen my own face yet. So I got up and walked to the bathroom. Sally impatiently followed me. I walked into the bathroom and looked at the mirror. I couldn't believe it… "I'm normal…" I stuttered as I touched my face. Just about that time Sally got tired of waiting and made it clear that she wanted something. "Ahem." I turned to her and was surprised by what I saw. She wasn't normal… she was better. Much better. She had straight black hair a little lower than her shoulders, and big green eyes that hypnotized.

"Wow…" I whispered under my breath.

"So, how do I look?" she asked, looking a little flustered.

I just couldn't talk. I just wanted stare in her eyes a bit longer. But I couldn't, they started to fill with tears.

"What? Is something wrong?" her voice cracked as she asked.

She started to run out of the bathroom but I caught her by her arm.

"No, no. Don't go. I want to look at you a bit longer."

She wiped her eyes and asked "Really? Do you really think I look good?'

"Yes, but why do you care? You shouldn't care what others think. Just what you think."

At that moment I think I've gone deeper into her personality than her own parents did. She hugged me and said "Thanks." She walked away and left me confused.

The next day we all got assigned to go to Arcadia. As we approached in the bathysphere things were tense between me and Sally. And everyone else saw it too.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Sentry finally asked. It was good to hear someone talk.

I honestly didn't know what to say so I just sat and waited for something else to happen. Neither me nor Sally answered. Sally just stared out the window. Meanwhile I was occupied with Cindy who was tinkering around with my left hand. Don't ask why, I don't know.

"Hello, guys. Did you hear me?" Sentry repeated his question.

Sally answered "Yes, everything is alright. Right Ace?"

I nodded silently.

We finally made it to Arcadia. When we got out of the bathy I stretched and scratched my arm. Cindy was on my shoulder. Sally pulled her helmet off and was taking deep breathes. Sentry and Suzy came out last. Suzy started to look at trees and flowers.

"Hey daddy, what are these green things?" Cindy asked.

"They are called trees, and the small ones that are really colorful are called flowers." I answered.

"Guys, you have to smell the air!" Sally instructed.

I pulled of my helmet and smelt the air. It smelt like a fancy perfume. I proceeded to put my helmet back on. Cindy wanted to go look with Suzy so I set her down. I walked ahead a bit while Sentry and the girls locked up the bathy. Sally walked behind me slightly. I stopped and turn around. I knew she was following me but she dodged anyway. I decided to play her game. I slowly turned the other way and heard her armor clang against itself as she rolled out of sight. She was still on the ground when Sentry and the girls joined us.

"Um, Sally. What are you doing?"

She looked up at him and her porthole turned pink. Pink! Why would it turn pink? Honestly.

"Um, nothing?" she sounded embarrassed.

Embarrassment! That's why. I walked over and extended a hand out to her. She grabbed it and pulled herself up. Sentry and I couldn't help but to laugh a little.

"Stop it! It's not funny." She yelled.

I stopped but Sentry kept on giggling like a little school girl. I elbowed him and he stopped. We all started to walk. After a while we heard talking coming from up ahead.

"Wait here." I instructed.

I saw a group of splicer's. But I also found a machete lying there. I figured could make a big entrance and wipe em out. Then I remembered I had telekinesis. I lifted up the machete and sent it flying into the body of a frail Houdini splicer. He was dead. I pulled the machete out and flung it at another splicer before they knew what happened. Half of them down.

I got up and open fired on the splicers with my machine gun. The last 2 fell pretty easy. I called for the others to follow me. We all soon joined back together again. After a while Suzy and Cindy started to get uneasy. Soon they found a pile of ADAM filled corpses.

"Angels, angels, angels!" they sung together.

We stopped to harvest them. Soon the splicer's came as expected. We prepared ourselves and began the battle. Sentry was mowing them down with his drill. I was using telekinesis to steal their weapons. Then I whipped them back at 100mph. Sally was doing her usual jump, stab, fireball technique. It worked for a while but then she landed wrong.

"Ah! Hell that hurts!" she yelled.

A splicer was about to hit her but I launched a shovel at his head.

"Now we're even!" I yelled at her.

I ran over to cover her. They were starting to swarm her especially. I had to get out my trusty splicer buster (my machine gun). I unloaded 4 ammo boxes on the bastards but they kept coming. Finally they all fell back screaming. Most of them were injured they just got lucky.

Suzy and Cindy finished and with that filled our ADAM quota for the week. I walked back to Sally who was holding her left leg. I saw it was at an odd angle. It looked broken.

"Sally, are you alright?" Sentry asked in a worried tone.

"No, she's not. Her leg's broken." I quickly replied.

"I hate to say it, but I think Ace is right." Sally added.

"Ok, we filled our quota for the week. Sentry can you go get the Sphere ready?"

"Sure. Come on girls come with me."

Back at the Bathysphere

"Uncle Sentry."

"Yes Cindy?"

"Is big sister Sally gonna be alright."

"Of course she is. Your dad is a good, responsible man."

Back to Ace and Sally

I carried Sally to a bench and started to get the details.

"Ok, tell me does this hurt?" I barely tapped her knee.

"Owww! Yes it hurts."

"Yep it's definitely broken."

"Well we're gonna have to bandage it. It won't fix it, but it'll help."

"Ok. Please it really hurts."

"I'm going to have to straighten it."

"What!"

"Here grab my hand. You can squeeze it as hard as you want." I brought my hand up to the bench. She quickly grabbed it and started to squeeze it.

"I haven't started yet."

"Oh…"

"You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

I placed my free hand on her broken leg and she flinched. I quickly wrapped my hand around it and snapped it back into place.

"Oww, ow, ow!" Sally yelled as if she were about to cry.

"There, all better."

"Thanks. It feels a bit better."

I proceeded to bandage it. I stood up and held out my hand. She took it and wobbled to her feet. She stood for just a few seconds before collapsing. Luckily I had guessed that would happen and caught her.

"Well that's not going to work." I said to her.

"Well I guess you're going to have to go for help while I…" She began.

Before she could finish her sentence I picked her up and cradled her in my arms. She seemed a bit too comfortable in this position, but I didn't mind. It's about a ten minute walk back to the bathy. As I walked back she nudged her head slightly closer to my chest. When I looked down, her porthole was pink again. I looked back up and smiled to myself. She fell asleep in my arms. About 4 minutes until the bathysphere, I started to hear a metallic purring. I felt vibrations in my arms. I looked down and Sally was awake! She was making the purring sound and was still nudging closer to me.

"How are ya holding up?" I asked her.

"Much better; now…" she giggled as she said that, which gave a little warning of what was to come.

"Um, ok…"

She continued to make the purring sound, and still nudged closer and closer to me. I lifted her up closer to my head.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" I asked.

"Shhh. You're ruining the moment."

As we approached the bathy Sentry saw us coming and started calling us "lovebirds". Sally was asleep again. And that made me glad. She was starting to freak me out. On the way back to HQ Sentry and the girls sat on one side, and me and Sally sat on the other. Sally's porthole was still pink, and she was still purring. She lay there sound asleep with her head on my lap. I took her helmet off a while ago so she could breathe easier. As we surfaced she woke up because of turbulence. She looked up and saw me. She grew a smile and then realized her helmet was off. The smile disappeared and she began to blush. I handed her the helmet, which she didn't put on.

Just to make her feel better, I took off my helmet and smiled at her. Her smile came back quickly but she was still blushing. The door swung open and she sat up. I got up and threw my helmet to Sentry. He caught it and continued with Suzy and Cindy to our apartment.

I kneeled down and picked up again, which caused her to blush even more. I walked out of the Bathy with Sally in my arms. They had another big daddy waiting to carry her but I declined it.

"I can carry her from here." He offered.

"I got her." I replied.

Turns out she was still awake and she was staring at me, her cheeks were redder than a splicer's I backhanded a while ago. As we walked into the doctor's office he asked me to set her down. I did as he asked, for Sally's sake. Then he said she would have to remove her armor. She asked if a nurse could do the examination instead of him. He began to get upset.

"Please, I just don't feel comfortable taking off my armor in in front of a complete stranger. Can a nurse do this instead of you?" She requested.

"What? That's stupid." He replied.

I slammed my fist down. "She wants a nurse, not you."

"I don't have to take this! Security! In here!"

"Sorry doc, I have to say I agree with them." The bouncer model replied.

"That's enough, if you don't leave now I'll make you!" he reached for a bone saw.

"I'll break you doctor. Put it back."

He lunged at me, and the saw blade lost a few teeth. I took a step towards him. He looked at the bouncer, who shrugged and backed away. I punched the doctor in the stomach and he flew towards the wall.

"Get them out *Cough cough* of my office."

The bouncer dragged the doctor out and called a nurse in. the nurse was listening threw the door and already knew what to do.

"Now if you would please leave while I examine the wound."

"No, it's alright."

"No, no. I need to give you some privacy. I'll be right outside."

The bouncer from earlier was outside. We had an interesting conversation.

"So, you two together?" he asked

"No, but I think she wants to be."

"Do you?"

"Well, I never thought about it. I was so focused on survival. I forgot to actually live."

"Well then, next time she makes a move, think of what you just said."

"Ok, you can back in." the nurse cried into the hallway.

As I walked in the room smelled of antiseptic. I looked over towards the patient's table and saw Sally sitting on the table rubbing her leg, which has been properly bandaged. I walked over and got a closer look. It was still the same way it was in Arcadia.

"What?" Sally asked.

"Shouldn't the ADAM in your blood have healed that by now?"

"Yes, it should've, but her ADAM count is low." The nurse interrupted.

"So she needs ADAM?"

"Yes."

I reached into one of my pockets and pulled out a large needle that contained the incinerate plasmid. Both Sally and the nurse looked surprised. I handed the needle to Sally who was still confused.

"ADAM is the base of plasmids, right? Then this should help."

"Well, it is ADAM. But it has to be in the stomach so the slug can feed."

"Well then, can't she drink it?"

"I suppose so."

"Are you sure Ace? If you need this then…" Sally began.

"If it means you get better, I'd give you all the ADAM in my body." I interrupted.

She opened her mouth and slowly pushed the button on the syringe, dripping the red goo into her mouth. Once the syringe was emptied she threw it into the garbage.

"Thanks, Ace."

"No problem."

She motioned for me to come next to her. I walked over, confused to what was happening. She leaned in and hugged me, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I knew my face was turning red, but so was hers.

Then I heard two familiar voices start to giggle. Suzy and Cindy were standing in the doorway, along with Sentry. He had finally taken his helmet off and was laughing. He tossed me my helmet and I set it down. Cindy had run over between us and was asking Sally a bunch of questions. Sally's leg had already healed. She got up and put her helmet on. I did the same.

One day I was alone. Suzy and Cindy were at a "Play date" with some other little sisters, and Sentry was chaperoning. I think Sally was in her hotel room. I was alone wondering what to do. I suddenly felt hungry and a little lonely the same time. I just got an idea.

I went over to the hotel where big sister's stay. I walked into a reception room and I started to look around. I found a normal person as a clerk.

He said "Sir I'm afraid you'll have to leave. This is for big sister's only."

"I'm here to visit a friend."

"You'll have to leave."

"I'm not leaving until I see who I came to see."

"Security, we have another in the hotel." He said into a walkie talkie.

The same bouncer from the hospital showed up.

"Hey, Ace! How's it going?"

"Good. Just trying to visit a friend."

"Oh, so you're the one I got the call about."

"Yes, now make him leave." The clerk demanded.

"Let me guess, you have to follow this punk asses orders?"

"Yes, it sucks I know."

"Come on, I'm just here to ask her to a little date."

"You have to leave!"

"I'm not leaving damnit!

Suddenly the elevator doors open up and Sally walks out. Now by this time the commotion has attracted quite a crowd of big sisters. Most of them are surprised to see that Sally knows me.

"Ace, what are you doing here?" Sally asked, her porthole turning pink.

I stared at the clerk for a second, then looked at Sally " I came to see if you would like to join me for some dinner?" I asked her.

Her helmet turned from bright pink to a deep green. And a barrage of "Aww's" and "Eww's" came over the crowd.

"I would love to." She replied.

As we left the hotel, she slid her finger's in-between mine. And we left for the fishbowl diner.