Hundreds of Splicers stood in a rough semblance of ranks four wide, and a gap every six lines. Every Splicer in each platoon was staring blankly ahead, entirely synchronous with those around him or her. It was difficult to get Splicers to stop murdering each other for a few seconds, even with a hypnotize plasmid. To get hundreds to follow orders, not to mention to act with discipline, the plasmid used must be inconceivably powerful, and used by someone even stronger. If the appearance of the Leader that The Protector saw last time wasn't a farce, a hypnotize plasmid wasn't even their largest problem. That gargantuan Splicer could easily crush even a Big Daddy with its bare hands. Against that, a Daughter would be helpless.

"What are we doing again?" The Damaged One whimpered into the back of his helmet. Luckily, she had the good sense to be quiet, and was being careful not to move much on his shoulders. Even if the hypnotized Splicers weren't the most attentive, the clang of metal hitting metal might draw any wandering eyes, and Big Daddies weren't inherently stealthy.

"We are scouting. We need to know what they plan to attack with. Knowing is half the battle." The Protector remembered that phrase from one of his books, and felt it fit. If the Daughter's knew what they were up against, maybe it would give them an edge over the mindless hordes of Splicers. He continued to size up the enemy for several minutes, and felt more than heard The Damaged One's gasp. Her knees rattled against his shoulders, and she silently pointed down into the farthest end of the Atrium. A large fleshy mass spasmed in the dank corner, and it took a moment for The Protector to recognize It as the Leader of the Splicers.

Since the last time, It had mutated further, and grown even more grotesque. The nubs that had dotted Its body were now fully grown limbs, hands and feet flailing wildly in fits. Even more eyes had popped up across Its body, with two large ones resting on muscular stalks atop what may have once been a head. Several slathering mouths snapped at the air from Its shoulders, and bio-florescent green pus now dripped from Its pores. With a great sucking sound as Its flesh separated from the floor, the Leader wrenched Itself to its massive main legs and stomped forward.

"Brothers, sisters! Lend me your ears!" It cried, Its voice having a distinctively moist sound. "Tomorrow comes the day where claim our vengeance upon the Tiny-Ones! Soon, our dream will be realized, and the Tiny-Ones will fall to our feet and beg mercy!" The glowing green monster of a Splicer, who was still as veiled as ever, began to clap, his many hands either hitting each other, or slapping against his rubbery skin. Although the Leader managed to raise quite the din clapping on his own, most of the chamber was dead silent, with none of the Splicers even looking in his direction. He continued his spiel, and The Protector watched him. As always, the deluded Leader was convinced that his many devoted followers were singing his praises, and lapped up all of the applause.

"We are finished, Father." Tallest slipped out of the shadows, followed by her friends. She brandished a sheaf of several papers and a few graphite pencils.

"We studied It for as long as was safe, but with It getting riled up, we decided it was best to re-group." Blue Rose said, handing over her own papers and pencils. Shortest handed her stack, the thickest one, over and scampered up a pipe into the ceiling.

"It's time that we left." The Protector rumbled quietly, noticing the jumpiness of his Daughters, and set off back the way he came. It was time to finish the preparations, and study the drawings and notes of the Leader for any possible weakness.


(A/N): Good day friends! Here's the new chapter! Chock-full of events and juicy, delicious plot! By chock-full, I mean sporadically covered with mildly-interesting details that the story probably could have done without! Yeah! Exuberance!
So I noticed that the more I like a character, the more capitalization and length I put in their title, like The Protector and Blue Rose. Although I'm pretty sure I edited quite a bit of the less obvious parts of that out, I left the Leader of the Splicers mostly un-capitalized simply because I never like my antagonists as people (which is a good thing, I think. Its harder to want to make your protagonist win if you like your villain more).
Also, is it sad that I've developed a head-canon for Blue Rose? A head-canon, of a fanfiction. That I'm writing. Expect more appearances, if not just yet.

I gots some peoples to thank:

NJL97, for being an overall nice guy/gal/horribly deformed monster (one of these things is not like the others). You've been a constant source of encouragement from the beginning, and it really helps me when I'm writing these chapters to look at the reviews and see what you've said. It always puts a smile on my face :D

Barber447, for staying with me through this whole story as well. You and NJL97 have stuck with me since almost the first chapter, back when this story was going to be a slice-of-life. Thank you for all the kind words over the past few months! I'm still looking forward to that story! Remember, if you ever get stuck or have writer's block or something, just do what I do. Take out a sheet of paper, or open up a fresh word doc, or whatever you like to use, plug in your headphones and play something exciting (I use Daft Punk's Alive album, with electronica and random Viking Metal usually), then just write any plot idea that comes to your head. Don't worry too much about story coherence or even basic spelling/grammar. Just jam to music and word-spew. Maybe you'll have something usable after tons of editing, maybe not. Either way, it clears the cobwebs out. Good Luck!

DarkosRamain, for an incredibly excited PM! Thanks for telling me how much you liked the story! I hope you like this chapter just as much!

To anyone reading this far into the story, thank you. Seriously, Its amazing that you guys read all this. I'm really glad you like it thus far! I'd love to hear from you! If you've got the time, leave a review telling me what you think, or PM me if you like. We could just talk and stuff if you want. Either way, thank you. :D


Smitty-Werben-Jaeger-Manjensen: This story only has a few more chapters left, and when I asked last chapter if I should make a new story in the same universe-thingy, I got a few messages saying yes. Does anyone else want that? PM me or leave a review saying yea or nay. Tanks 3

Per usual, please:

Read, Review, Recycle