The Arch of Tantalus was a large stylized archway that marked the entrance into the Rapture Aquarium. On its walls were two representations of a starved man. The first was reaching toward a fruit bearing branch just out of reach, the other was straining to get access to a puddle that was slightly too far to attain. Tony grimaced at the vaguely disturbing art, damn it now he was hungry. He was crouched behind one of the fallen columns that lined the entrance, holding his trusty LMG. Next to him crouched Harper a compact crossbow held in his slightly trembling hands. On the far side of the entrance way, somewhere amid the rubble Jack and Sandy lay in wait.
The radio crackled to life and Tenenbaum's accented voice drifted out from it. "They are heading your way, get ready. Remember neither Jack or myself have seen this type of Protector in action, expect anything."
Next to him, Harper's reedy voice sounded. "W-we are waiting for Jack and Sandy r-right?"
Shooting the man a glare Tony nodded, they'd been over this many times before. "For the last time yes! When you hear them open fire, start shooting."
Harper nodded and closed his eyes. Tony could just make out his nervous whispering. "Red is explosive, blue is electric, yellow is incendiary…or is that red?"
"You were right the first time, don't second guess yourself."
Harper paused looking at Tony in shock. Tony snorted. "I don't need you blowing it up instead of burning it and killing someone."
"Oh…o-of course." Tony winced at the obvious disappointment in the man's voice. Harper wore his emotions on his sleeves, something Tony was not used to in the slightest. A haunting moan echoed from within the aquarium. It sounded almost whale like, mournful and ethereal.
Tony ducked down behind his cover, Tenenbaum had claimed it would ignore them until angered but he wasn't taking any chances. Thundering footsteps signaled the monster's approach. Seemingly not feeling the need to hide, Harper stuck his head into the open. "H-holy hell! It's h-huge!"
Tony sighed in exasperation. "Yeah they told us it would be."
"Red is explosive, blue is electric, yellow is incendiary." Despite himself, Tony peeked over cover to see what exactly he was soon to be shooting at. Harper had been right, that thing was huge. Its armor appeared to be a hodgepodge of assorted pieces of metal strapped awkwardly together by leather buckles and ropes. Atop its right shoulder was something…a gun maybe? It appeared to be made from a modified wooden crate. Tony couldn't resist the urge to laugh a bit, sure this thing was big but it was covered in scrap metal!
"Red is explosive, blue is electric, yellow is incendiary."
A grenade landed next to the lumbering monster. It reacted instantly, grabbing the little girl who was walking beside him and sheltering her body with his own. To Tony's surprise it was still standing after the blast, this thing was tougher then it looked. On the other side of the room Jack and Sandy opened fire on the beast. Taking their cue, Tony and Harper followed suit.
The child was screaming in panic, yelling for her 'Daddy' to 'unzip' them. Tenenbaum had warned them of the little girl's attachment to the monsters. Her warning hadn't prepared Tony for reality though. He couldn't help feeling like the bad guy. The beast turned to Jack and Sandy, who were doing the most damage, and tossed some sort of metal ball at them. It landed between the two and opened up. To everyone's shock it was a miniature turret, a miniature turret that began to shoot at Sandy and Jack.
Satisfied that two of its enemies were distracted the beast turned to them. Tony couldn't help but smirk as it aimed its horrifying wooden barrel at him. "What the hell's it going to do? Launch tomatoes?" With a whoosh some sort of rocket blasted from the barrel. "Oh shit…" Before Tony could be exploded however he was shoved out of the way by Harper who immediately dove behind cover. If the beast had been intelligent and aimed at their cover and not them that would have been the end of Harper. Happily for the small man the beast wasn't intelligent and so the rocket shot off down the hallway.
Rolling to his feet Tony grabbed his weapon and opened fire, the creature recoiled as his gun spit death at it. Unfortunately his attack earned the beast's ire; with an animalistic scream of rage it shot a missile towards him. The missile was luckily quite slow moving and thus fairly easy to dodge.
Behind it Tony saw Jack pick up and hurl the now green turret at the beast. When it landed the turret deployed and immediately started attacking the Big Daddy. Tony couldn't help but be impressed; he'd have to ask Jack how he did that later. Sandy was screaming in rage as she fired the heavily modified pistol Jack had given her. When Tony had first seen the gun he had laughed, it had looked almost cartoonish! Having seen it cleave a Splicer's head in two earlier that very day he had a certain respect for the strange weapon.
The beast was weakening its inhuman roars now more like pained moans. There was a flash of light and the beast stopped. To Tony's surprise it was quite literally frozen in place. He was never going to get used to those freakish powers. Next to him Harper was muttering to himself. "How the hell do you use this? There's not even a trigger!"
Tony sighed, apparently after heroically saving his life Harper had reverted back to incompetent hanger on. "There's always a trigger Harper, it wouldn't be much of a weapon otherwise."
Harper glared. "I've ch-checked the entire d-damn thing! There's n-no trigger!" He jerked the weapon angrily, to the surprise of both him and Tony the crossbow fired. A red tipped bolt punctured the one of the frozen beast's portholes. A second later the entire torso and upper body of the beast exploded in a pulpy mess, liberally spraying blood and gore across the entire area.
Laughing uproariously, Tony slapped the smaller man on the back. "H-holy hell Harper! That was a nice shot!"
Harper grinned briefly at Tony, proud of his accomplishment. That pride quickly turned to disgust. Turning away from Tony he loosed his stomach's contents onto the floor. "I-I never killed a-anything before…"
Still chuckling Tony walked out from behind his cover. "I swear Harper! You are the only man alive that could kill a fucking golem and still look a pansy!"
"Th-thanks?"
Quiet sobbing ruined the brief brevity Tony had felt. The kid, how could he have forgotten the kid? She was a small little thing, thick brown hair framing her pretty little face. She was surprisingly tan; she probably hadn't been down here too long. Tony knew it wasn't his, it wasn't little Amanda he could see her blond head of curls a mile away. Tentatively hopeful he glanced to Harper and Sandy. Unsurprisingly they both shook their heads.
"Mr. Bubbles! Mr. Bubbles please don't leave me alone!" Christ! Did the kid really need to give the ugly brute a nickname? With a horrified gasp the girl saw the group who had surrounded her, the group who had killed her father.
Handing his machine gun to Sandy, Jack slowly approached the trembling child hands raised. "Shhh, it's okay. Nobody's going to hurt you." The girl just scooted closer to her dead protector, whimpering pitifully. Slightly sad expression showing he expected nothing less, Jack reached down one hand grasping the girl's arm the other resting atop her head.
Yellow eyes closed.
A flash.
Blue eyes opened.
()
Thompson glared at his guards, something they pointedly ignored. Unable to attract others he could deflect his blame onto he was unable to help directing it inwards. He had been such a damn fool. He had known, he had known the damn girl was a fucking machine. But no he had to get taken in by crocodile tears spilled from acidic yellow eyes! He had to listen to some idiotic overly lonely human who apparently only wanted to get in the damn thing's pants!
With a frustrated groan Thompson hit his head against the wall a few times, letting the dull pain distract him for a bit. He felt a brief pang of guilt, he couldn't really be mad at David after all he was as much a victim here as he was. The poor fool hadn't been in Rapture long enough, he was still trust others to believe they could be the exception to the rule. As crippling pains coursed through Thompson's body he was reminded of a time when he had thought himself the exception to the rule.
The door to his cell groaned open and was shut with a crash. Tiredly his eyes found the mammoth form of the man that had dragged him here in the first place. Cold eyes gleaming with a cruel delight he dropped a suitcase onto the small table next to the door. With a soft click the latches were popped free and he opened the case. One side was lined with health kits, Thompson knew well the near magical properties the distilled Adam inside them held. Humming happily to himself the mountain of a man reached into the side of the case Thompson hadn't seen and began to unfasten straps.
Thompson tried to act bored he knew that even now, before the torture really began the man was trying to break him. He was pointedly standing between Thompson and the side of the suitcase he hadn't seen. This allowed his imagination to conjure up all sorts of horrid things they might be. Casually the man pulled a large well cared for knife and set it on the table. "I don't know if you know this but I was quite the hunter topside." The man's voice was gravely and surprisingly quiet; he placed another smaller blade next to the large one. "I had this incredible room in my house just filled with trophies." He said all of this very calmly, like he was discussing the weather. A razor sharp pair of scissors was calmly set next to the blades. "I had many sorts of trophies. Skulls, antlers, stuffed animals, tusks, teeth…skins." The man leaned forward, a soulless gleam in his eyes. "I always skinned the animals myself."
He stood calmly, grabbing the largest knife and absently began wiping some grime off of the blade. "As a doctor I'm sure you know the human body can last for hours if skinned correctly." The man smiled in satisfaction with the blade and pulled a chair over, sitting right in front of Thompson. "And you know something? With that supply of med kits, I can skin you again, and again, and again."
Despite his best attempts, Thompson felt himself begin to tremble slightly. The walking mountain smiled at this show of fear. "Good, I know you're not one of the mindless ones. There's no fun in breaking something that broke long ago." The giant of a man knelt before Thompson, an ice cold smile spread across his lips. "I'm going to ask you once, who were you working with?"
Thompson glared in defiance; he knew that if Lamb found out about Tenenbaum she would move to stop her. The Little Sisters were vital to that madwoman's plan after all. "I don't know what you're talking about; I don't work for or with anyone."
The bald man's smile grew wider. "I was hoping you would say that."
()
Protector M2 Epsilon stared at the rubble in bemused confusion. She'd been there only yesterday and there had been no pile of rubble, the balconies above her had been intact not collapsed. The mangled body of a monster lay several feet from the rubble; he appeared to have been eaten. It wasn't surprising in all honesty, the monsters were twisted abominations cannibalism wasn't much of leap for them. Her stomach rolled violently as she remembered her childhood she wasn't any better then the monster that did this.
A surge of pity flowed through her body as she stared at the broken body before her. Had he had a family? Had he had friends? Slowly Epsilon advanced on the corpse. His face was mostly whole; it apparently hadn't interested the monster that had done this. Crouching next to the fallen man she gently closed his eyes. Resting a hand on his shoulder she smiled sadly behind her helmet. It was okay, he was somewhere better now. He was surrounded by friends and family that had missed him.
It seemed wrong to just leave the man laying there. Still smiling sadly Epsilon reached out with her telekinesis. The rubble groaned as one by one its pieces began to levitate. They came together forming a roughly rectangular pad surrounded by what might have been called an alter. She placed wooden fragments at strategic intervals around the base. Being as gentle as possible she lifted the man's corpse by hand and laid him on the slab she had created for him. Despite the blood now covering her chest and arms she was glad she had lifted him personally, it seemed…disrespectful to treat him as she had the rubble.
Softly humming the tune to a song that had been important to her once, she lit each piece of wood on fire. They actually made fairly good imitation candles as long as she kept the fire from burning too quickly. Her alter complete she raised her hand and set the man ablaze. She supposed she could have left him at that point but she had preferred to stay. He had no one else and someone should be there to pay their respects.
Idly she found herself wondering what he had been like in life. Had he been a good man? A bad man? There was no way for her to tell. Not that it mattered; no one deserved to die like that. She was certain that she had never seen him before; he had a kind face though. She liked to think that he had died to save his friends, died for someone he loved…died like a hero.
Epsilon hummed softly to herself as the man burned, unaware of the tears in her eyes.
()
The man had left, after what seemed like years of agony the giant of a man had left. With deft, uncaring hands he had used the health kit on Thompson. It had saved his life, allowed for his skin to grow back, he hadn't been prepared for the agony healing would bring with it.
The man had left with a simple "see you tomorrow". Thompson didn't think he could handle going through that again. With a shudder he backed into the corner of his cell and let himself cry. For the first time in his life Thompson truly believed that there was no hope…
()
Epsilon set the three soda bottles on the floor of the airlock, still humming her mournful tune she turned and left. She had tried to find something more fitting but couldn't, she still felt guilty for putting the man's remains inside. The airlock door closed with a hiss, manipulating the controls with practiced ease Epsilon flushed the remains into the ocean. She smiled softly; he would help to create life. His death would breathe life into a different form. She hoped he would have seen the beauty of that idea, she could.
A familiar scent hit her nose, a Little Sister! Smiling happily, Epsilon began to head towards her smaller sibling. She could already hear the comforting moans of the child's Daddy. Turning a corner she saw them. Loosing a happy shriek she ran to the pair-bonded individuals. Her smaller sibling's face lit up with joy as she saw her. "Sissy!"
Epsilon caught her sibling with ease as she threw herself at her. "I missed you Sissy!" Epsilon hugged the petite brown haired girl, humming happily and soothingly as she rubbed small circles in her back. Pulling herself up, her sibling placed a chocolate encrusted kiss on her visor. Epsilon smiled at her from behind her helmet, she didn't care about the small chocolaty smudge the girls lips had left behind.
Happily bouncing, her sister moved away. "Sissy! You'll never guess what Mr. Bubbles and I did!" Epsilon nodded her head absently as her sister's babble faded into the background. She was staring at the girl's father; her ever watchful protector was ignoring Epsilon for the most part. His mind set on looking for threats.
Slowly Epsilon stood and tentatively approached the girl's guardian. It paused; giving her what she assumed was a curious stare before continuing its vigil. Without warning Epsilon lunged at the girl's father, arms wrapping around his armored bulk she wrapped him in a tight hug. He stood stock still for several seconds. After an uncertain moment the hand not holding his lance wrapped around her waist. He gave her a tight squeeze and a happy moan before lifting her off of her feet, gently spinning her in a circle before putting her down. Epsilon smiled behind her helmet; sure the Daddy was doing the same.
She knew he wasn't her Daddy, her Daddy was long dead. Still he was the next best thing. Humming happily Epsilon bumped her helmeted head against the Daddy's feeling her sister's arms wrap around her leg.
Simultaneously both she and the Daddy spun around, something was coming. It smelled like…like her sister? It smelled like her? There was no doubt it was like her…but different. Thundering footsteps announced its approach, casually loping towards them at a pace that was faster then most monsters could sprint something came into view.
It was large, very very large. It easily was head and shoulders over both her and the Daddy. Huge muscles rippled along its mammoth body, giving it an intimidating aura that even she noticed. She could see that what appeared to be its spine had grown out of its back. On its forearms there were many small bone spines piercing the skin, from the look of it they would be quite painful. Its face was hideous small yellow eyes gazed out from two deep set eye sockets. Its small nose was bent at a surprising angle; it had obviously been broken at least once. Its mouth was huge, huge and surrounded by gore. Large, jagged, and serrated teeth lined its intimidating maw.
What was it…her brother? All thoughts of some sort of family reunion were put cast aside as she saw what lay on the thing's arm. Three ribbons, one red two blue, had been shoved onto some of the spines lining the thing's forearms. Epsilon recognized them instantly…they were the same kind her sister wore…the same kind she wore…
With a roar the beast lunged.
I am aware that neither Sam or David were in this chapter. Frankly this chapter was getting long and I thought some suspence might be fun. Anyways as always please read and review. Next chapter should be up in a few days.
