As Elizabeth gets out of the bathysphere, she hears the sounds of a riot somewhere close by. The ticket booth here is empty as well, so there's no one to observe her as she joins the edges of the crowd. "What's all the commotion?" she asks the person next to her.
"Ryan's thugs have a whole bunch of ADAM stocked up in the labs." the woman replies. "Guessing he figures he can keep on making Plasmids while his city burns."
The noise of the crowd is causing Elizabeth's head to throb with pain. She looks at the front of the building, trying to focus on ways past its defenses when a shot rings out. One of the guards goes down and the crowd scatters, screams of panic filling the air. An armed group attempts to storm the building, with cries of 'Long live Atlas!' or 'Down with Ryan!', but they're held off by sustained fire from the upper levels. Elizabeth ducks as a bullet flies past her head, taking cover behind an information kisok. "Now how am I going to get in?" she wonders. "I suppose there might be a side entrance..."
As if to confirm her suspicions, a small group of Ryan's forces appear seemingly from nowhere, though without the telltale signs of either Houdini or the Natural Camouflage Gene Tonic, and opens fire on the rebels. She sets off the way they must have come, taking care to stick to the edges of the room to avoid getting shot.
Sure enough, she finds a side entrance to the building being guarded by two splicers. For a moment she finds it impossible to tell which side of the conflict they're on, but then another detachment of Ryan's goons emerge from the door and are allowed to leave unmolested by the splicers. They head off towards the front of the building. "That's half the problem solved." Elizabeth muses quietly. "But I don't expect those splicers will let me just walk in there."
Something moves in the darkness. The splicers turn, fingers twitching at the triggers. A figure in a trenchcoat hobbles toward them, doubled over and clutching at itself. Elizabeth's heart skips a beat. Did Comstock decide to come after all? But the very next second the figure hobbles into a patch of light and her hopes (or fears) are dashed. Its head is swollen, bald, and a hideous shade of pink. "Help me..." it moans. It has crystals growing out of its arms and upper body, causing the trenchcoat to rip apart in some places, including on its right arm.
One of the splicers frowns. "Joe?" he asks. "Joe from Joe & Eric?"
The figure in the trenchcoat doesn't respond. It moans once more and collapses to the floor. When the guards go over to investigate, Elizabeth rushes out of hiding and makes for the side entrance. The splicers whirl around, but the creature on the floor suddenly raises an arm and fries them both with Electro Bolt. Their screams seem to go on without end, at least until two pistol shots from the darkness, no doubt fired by some of the creature's compatriots, put an end to their suffering. Elizabeth's stomach protests at the smell of roasting flesh. Her nerves and breathing are ragged, and as the door closes behind her, she can hear the creature say, "Should've been on your guard..."
While she attempts to compose herself, the creature mutters to itself. "Anything good? Any...any ADAM?" Then there's silence. She imagines the hideous thing picking through the pockets of the still-smoldering corpses and has to fight back another wave of nausea. "Nothing." the creature on the other side of the door says. "Maybe inside?" Hastily she pushes herself away from the door and sets off to explore the building.
The exterior was designed to resemble a castle from medieval Europe in wrought iron and glass, but the interior is vintage Rapture. Even the nearly empty hallway Elizabeth finds herself in now, after leaving what she presumes to be a breakroom for employees of the facility, is lent a certain appeal by the richly-colored wallpaper. Plain wood doors on either side make her smile even as they bring back painful reminders of her nigh-omnipotence. "I guess the universe has a sense of humor." she murmurs.
A noise at the far end of the hall draws her attention. She darts inside a vacant room nearby as someone starts to shout. "Let's go eggheads! Atlas and his pals are knockin' at the front door! You don't wanna be in here when they get inside!" Doors up and down the hall are banging open and protesting scientists are forcibly escorted from their laboratories. The man doing most of the yelling sounds familiar, but it's only when Elizabeth catches a glimpse of him passing by that she recognizes him as the man who'd led Ryan's security operation down in the department store, Cyrus Gale. The last two weeks seem to have aged him tremendously: his eyes are sunken, his skin notably sallow. Strangely enough, he has more hair now than he had at the dock. Elizabeth chalks that up to the Fresh Hair Gene Tonic she's been hearing advertisements for over the PA.
One of the scientists is arguing with him. "But my research...! If Atlas' rebels get their hands on it-"
"I'll take care of your research! Just get out of here!" Cyrus shouts. One of his men drags the scientist off, still protesting about something or other. Someone snaps their fingers. The sound of burning, crackling paper soon fills the air. He sounds stressed, Elizabeth thinks. Might be splicing to take the edge off. She grimaces as she remembers her stop in front of the Gatherer's Garden. I came awfully close to doing the same thing.
Cyrus is making one last sweep of the hallway when something causes him to slow in front of her room. He takes a look inside, and his eyes meet hers. Elizabeth's heart leaps into her mouth. The building shakes, rocked by an explosion, but his voice remains firm as he yells, "It's her!" She pulls herself away from his outstretched hands as he lunges across the table. She grabs the cup of coffee from the edge of the table and throws the contents into his face. It's lucky for both of them the coffee was cooling off, or his screams would be even worse. Elizabeth squeezes past him and dashes out the door, right in front of a couple of startled security guards. One of them takes after her, and she can hear Cyrus yelling for the other one to do the same.
She rounds a corner and finds herself looking at a large room full of tables, desks and chairs, partitioned into segments by low walls. With no time to spare, she throws a bolt of Winter Blast onto the floor behind her and hurries into the room. As she had hoped, her pursuer slips on the ice, and the guard behind him hastens to help him up. "What are you two doing?" she hears Cyrus roar as she secrets herself beneath a desk. "Get after her! Find that girl!"
"Yes sir Mr. Gale!" the second guard says. After a moment, presumably taking stock of the room, she asks, "Uh, where should we start-?"
"Who cares? Pick a corner and work from there!"
Elizabeth has no idea where they are. She finds herself feeling nervous; he had thought she was invincible until her run-in with the splicer at the spa. Now... now she's not so sure. She could of course open a tear, but would it be enough? It hadn't helped her back at the Finkton Docks. Her cheek still hurts when she remembers how that soldier hit her.
Cyrus and his guards begin to tear the room apart, though luckily they started at the side furthest from the desk Elizabeth had chosen. The air is still and quiet, so quiet she can hear Cyrus talking to himself. The fighting outside seems to have tapered out. More likely, Elizabeth thinks, the noise simply doesn't reach this far indoors. "Should've pulled the trigger. I should've pulled the trigger. Five men gone. Missing forever." Cyrus raises his voice. "I know you're in here! When I'm through with you I'll send you out to join 'em!" Then he goes back to muttering.
From the sounds of it, the guards are getting closer. Elizabeth can sense their impatience from the way they scoff and say 'tchah' every so often as they fail to find her. "Mr Gale?" the male security officer says. "Why don't we just shoot up the place?"
Cyrus rounds on him. "That's no good! I need to see the look in her eyes when I drag her out of hiding!"
The guard seems to know better than to voice the possibility that it might be one of them who finds her. He lets out an exasperated but quiet sigh and returns to the search.
"Sir!" A new woman's voice is heard, slightly out-of-breath. "Mr Ryan's on the radio sir. He wants to know how you're getting on."
"Give that to me!" Cyrus snaps, then a moment later he says, "What is it sir?"
Andrew Ryan's voice is a crisp murmur. "Cyrus. Three of the scientists were kidnapped on their way to a safehouse. A fourth has been shot. It does not appear he will survive the night."
Cyrus mutters a curse under his breath. "I'm sorry to hear that sir." he says, not sounding very sorry. "We're still fighting them off at Point Prometheus. It looks like the girl from the department store is here too!"
"Does she seem to be aiding them?"
"I don't know sir, but if you'll give me a couple of minutes I'll flush her out of hiding for you. For us."
"No. I want you back in Hephaestus. I know there's a war going on, but your recent behavior is grounds for concern."
"With respect sir, I just need-" Cyrus' next words are bitten off by the grunt of an addict. "I just need a little more time here. I can find her, I know I can, we can get to the bottom of this!"
"That is an order Mr Gale." Andrew Ryan says. "I'm sure your subordinates will be capable of finding her without your personal interests getting in the way."
"Yes...sir." Cyrus fumes for a moment, snorting like a wild bull. Then, if the clatter that follows is any indication, he throws the radio against a wall. "You find her, you bring her to me!" he yells. "Otherwise-" He snaps his fingers and something bursts into flames. He storms away without another word.
The silence that follows is broken by the remaining man attempting to crack wise. "He's gonna set another table on fire?" The women chuckle.
Author's Note: Point Prometheus was very sparse and, to me at least, feels very cobbled-together. So I'm taking the liberty of expanding it. Additionally, I'm very sorry about the long wait, but things have gotten a bit difficult around here. I'll try to have this finished by the time the two-year anniversary rolls around.