Bioshock: Collision
Chapter 3: Frozen Songbird
Jack had reached the lighthouse sometime at Midnight.
And once he got off the boat, he was greeted by a familiar voice.
"Hello there Jack!"
Jack turned around to see the smiling face of Brigid Tenenbaum, aka; Doc.
She stood in front of Jack in a "heroic stance."
Her hair grown gray after nine years.
She wore a purple dress coat like always, and had a Tommy gun strapped to her side.
Jack, "Hello Doc. It's great to see you."
Jack was brought into a hug from the doctor, who stood under Jack by about a foot.
The hug was appreciated though.
As Jack hugged her, he noticed the girl Doc had told him about.
Eleanor Lamb.
The girl who saved the little sisters once more, and had gone to stay with the good doctor for the last year.
He mother still visited her, but she knew she had hurt Eleanor so many times down in Rapture.
She stood taller than Tennenbaum as well.
She wore a diving suit similar to that of a Big Sister.
Something Jack was glad he hadn't encountered.
Yet.
Jack broke the hug and walked towards Eleanor.
Her black hair covered one eye.
But Jack could see the shyness she had in just one.
"So, Eleanor. You said you need my help?"
She became less shy at the words he spoke.
So, she began to speak.
"Yes. My father, Delta, Johnny Topside, whatever you wish to call him, was taken by that insane artist!"
Jack, "Cohen. I shoulda killed that bastard when I was here last time!"
Tennenbaum, "there will be time to kill as soon as we get back down there. We came back up here just so we could find you."
Jack, "alright. So where do we go first?"
Eleanor, "the last place Cohen was seen by people in Rapture, who'd actually talk to us and not shoot at us, said he was near Suchong's old lab."
Jack's mind popped, the lab? Great, I can look for that woman while down there!
Jack, "alright, so we head there and start looking!"
Tennenbaum, "right. Now that we have all that settled, let us back to sub."
The three walked down to the sub and carefully made their way in.
It was a nice sub.
Large enough to hold about twenty people within it.
It was sorta like a bathysphere you could control. Tennenbaum had done great work building it for her travels back into Rapture.
They went deeper and deeper as Eleanor maneuvered the sub around Rapture, to the building that held Suchong's lab.
And while she piloted, Jack began to talk with Tennenbaum.
Jack, "listen, Doc, I've got something to tell you."
Tennenbaum, "what young one?"
Jack, "A long while ago, the girls told me of a woman in Suchong's lab who saved Sally from Fontaine."
Tennenbaum, "I do remember them speaking of her quite often. They say, 'pretty lady save us', 'pretty lady nice', and other such things. Why do you bring this up?"
Jack, "well", don't tell her about the man, he thought, "I remembered there being that unassigned Vita Chamber in the lab. One that wasn't connected to me, or my father, or Delta. So I thought that maybe…."
Tennenbaum, "you could bring her back?"
Jack, "look, it sounds a little crazy, but I just don't think she deserved to die down there in Rapture. I'd at least like to know her name, see why she did it?"
Tennenbaum was silent for a bit, but then replied, "if you think there's a chance that she can be brought back, I trust you. Just try not to let this get in way of Heir, Delta."
Jack, "alright Doc. I'll make sure."
So at least she knew of this woman. Now I've just gotta see if she's there.
The sub came to a stop several minutes later.
Eleanor, "we are here! Jack, it's time for you to go out there!"
Jack got up from his seat, leaving his pack with Tennenbaum for safe keeping.
She gave him a shortwave radio so they could stay in contact throughout this endeavor.
But when Jack got to the side door that lead into Rapture, he froze and looked at the women.
"Stay in contact. I don't wanna be left alone."
Tennenbaum, "of course Jack. We'll stay with you!"
Eleanor stepped towards Jack.
"Please find my father. He means the world to me!"
Jack nodded, "I will. If I have to search through every corner of Rapture."
Eleanor smiled, "thank you."
And so, Jack stepped through the door, and into the dank halls of….
RAPTURE.
Jack slowly made his way through the alley they'd parked at.
Water and trash lay everywhere.
And as he made his way further down, Jack soon came across blood stains on the floor.
The marks even stained the glass wall that stood in front of him, giving him a wide open view of Rapture
It looked like a bloody body had been moved.
That might be her.
Soon Jack got distracted for a moment by the view before him.
The city hadn't changed on the outside.
The outer walls of every building somehow had held together under the water.
He couldn't gaze forever though.
As Jack looked to his right, and further behind him a little, he saw a small crevice with light shining out.
He pressed the button on the radio, "Doc, I found the entrance to the lab."
Tennenbaum spoke through the radio, "any sign of Cohen or Delta?"
Jack, "no. But I'll keep looking."
Tennenbaum, "over and out."
Jack made his way through the narrow entryway, and found himself, once again, in the room that had made him what he is now.
He couldn't help but rub the chain tattoos on his wrists as he walked in further.
It was almost like a maze, but he navigated the lab like he knew it inside and out.
Which in some respects, he did.
He spent a long time in this place.
They had twisted his mind, forcing him to do what he's told.
And those horrible words echoed in his head many a night.
Would you kindly.
Would you kindly?
Would you kindly?
But that was the past. And it was now time for Jack to continue his search.
And after five minutes of searching, he found a clue to what he had been searching for.
The Vita Chamber.
Here it stood, almost completely untouched to time.
The one chamber in Rapture that wasn't connected to his dna, or Delta's.
But what caught him off guard was all the ice around it.
In fact, there was a large number of ice in the area that he hadn't noticed before.
As he looked around at the room the chamber sat in, he saw how much ice there was.
Scattered on the walls.
The ceiling.
The floor.
Everywhere.
Jack knew what all of this meant.
He spoke of a splicer who, 'froze a songbird.' So I'm dealing with a splicer who has some Old Man Winter. Great!
Jack pulled out a rifle from his bag and held it up to shoot.
The next room he entered into was dark, but had a soft blue glow.
And the reason for that was found when he turned his head.
Standing in the middle of the room, just behind the long dead body of Suchong, still impaled by the drill of a Big Daddy, was a large ice formation.
It stuck to the frozen walls, and seemed to be incredibly strong.
The ice was covered in frost on the outside.
Jack soon reached a hand out and rubbed a lot of the frost off, and it revealed a face.
It made Jack jump back and almost fail to hold back a scream.
As soon as the fear subsided a bit, he drew closer to the ice, in order to receive a better look at the face.
The face was that of a woman's.
Her face kept from decomposing by the ice around it.
Her hair suspended in place.
Her blue eyes stuck open.
Unblinking.
Showing off their beauty to anyone who saw them.
She's beautiful.
Jack couldn't help but think that as he gazed into her eyes.
But he was pulled from his thoughts by a loud scream behind him.
Jack turned around to see a splicer screaming in rage.
Blood covered his face.
He wore a tattered coat, with frost covering his entire left arm.
Old Man Winter, Jack thought to himself as he readied his weapon.
The splicer jumped around the room, shooting at Jack with blasts of ice.
But Jack was too quick for him.
He dodged each ball of ice thrown at him, and in return, shot at the splicer with his rifle.
Each bullet hit the wall, cracking much of the ice.
This splicer was just as quick as Jack.
He spoke in a voice that sounded as though his vocal cords are twisted.
"ShE iS mInE! MiNe, Mine, MiNe YoU dUmB bAsTaRd!"
He shot more ice at Jack.
And this time, he managed to freeze Jacks leg to the ground.
The splicer stopped, and walked towards Jack.
"ShE iS mY pReCiOuS iCe-CuBe! AnD yOu WiLl NoT TaKe HeR! ShE iS mInE! MiNe YoU fOol, MiNe!"
The splicer was too busy yelling to notice that Jack had lifted his rifle and pulled the trigger.
The splicer fell to the ground, blood pouring out of his mouth, his plasmid dissipating as the life left his body.
Jack let out a sigh of relief, and used his rifle to break the ice over his foot.
"Now that that's over, let's get back to you…."
Jack walked back over to the frozen woman in the room.
"Let's get you out of here."
Jack summoned incinerate, and slowly melted the ice around the woman, taking care not to burn the woman herself.
It took half an hour to do so, but the woman was now free from the ice, her body fell into Jacks arms.
She wore a white blouse, a red tie complementing it, and her red lips.
Her skirt and leggings completed her seductive outfit.
But her face, without any expression to it, showed a woman who had no lustful soul.
Her face begged for help.
Jack found himself holding back tears as he held the woman.
You saved my daughter, And this is what it got you. I'm sorry Miss.
He lifted the woman into his arms, and carried her to the Vita Chamber.
He sat her down on the still frozen ground so he could examine the machine.
"Lets see", Jack spoke to himself, "the chamber is stable, but needs some internal repairs. Maybe if there were some plans for it, some tools, and a sample of hair from her that was preserved, I could get this thing working."
And that's just what Jack did.
He explored the lab for a time, locating the blueprints for the Vita Chamber shortly after beginning.
Next was the tools.
They were scattered across the lab, but we're just what he needed.
And finally, the hair.
It was in a jar.
Suchong's papers told of how he was using it for the Big Daddy tests.
Once he had all he needed, Jack took his plan into action.
He laid the plans out, and took to the mechanisms within the chamber.
It took about an hour to do, given Jacks knowledge of machinery.
Doc had even called him at one point, but he told him what he was doing, and that eased her mind.
After an hour, he activated the chamber.
It hummed to life as Jack inserted the hair into the DNA scanner.
He brought the body into the chamber, and pressed the button on the side.
Light shined from it, forcing Jack to cover his eyes.
He soon looked back towards the chamber.
It had opened.
And standing in the chamber was the young woman, brought back from the dead, with. Very confused look plastered on her face….