"WELCOME TO FORT FROLIC!"
The booming voice echoed through the entertainment district. Jack Wynand stood at the entrance to the atrium; the various signs advertising nightclubs, shops, and lounges lit up as though awoken from a deep slumber.
Like an undersea Las Vegas, thought Jack.
Jack could only wonder what the place would have been like in its prime. He might have been more in awe at the glitz and glamour, if not for his sour mood.
This was supposed to be nothing more than a quick connection to get to Andrew Ryan. The bathysphere had been right in front of him, but before he could get there some whack job called Sander Cohen sank it and cut off his radio connection to Atlas. It was clear to Jack that Cohen wanted something from him and wouldn't let Jack leave until he did it.
Cohen's sickly, velvety voice was talking to him through the radio, but Jack was distracted by something else that caught his attention. A loud, reverberating thump, thump carried through the halls. The noise was soon accompanied by a whale-like moan. Finally, the distinctive smell of putrid fish hit his nose.
A Big Daddy was approaching.
Jack tensed but urged himself to be calm. Big Daddies were normally docile and wouldn't attack unless-
"Hurry Mister Bubbles, I can see angels dancing in the sky!"
-they had a Little Sister with them. Time to hide.
Jack ducked behind a wall as the golem in a diving suit came into view. It was Bouncer type, judging by the shape of the helmet; except instead of a drill, it had a harpoon.
I wonder what the camera would say. As Jack prepped the research camera, he could hear the little girl shout as she approached a corpse.
"I see ADAM, Mister B!"
He lifted his camera to his eyes and nearly dropped it when he caught sight of the child; She was a Little Sister, there was no denying that. She had the glowing eyes, the two-toned voice, the giant syringe; hell, she was using it to pull blood from the dead body.
But she wasn't a human girl.
She was furry. She was covered in short, inky black fur, with white cat-like feet, a white face with a red mousy nose, and long antenna-like ears that were tied together in a bow. Most notably, she had a tail. She was definitely not a human girl.
He had to look away as she drank the ADAM infused blood she had gathered from the other end of her needle. When she was finished, she sniffed the air and gasped excitedly.
"More angels, Mister Bubbles!"
She began skipping towards a bunch of plaster statues. Her bodyguard's moans sounded distressed as he picked her up and walked in the other direction. The Little Sister pouted.
"You never let me get the stone angels."
Stone angels? Jack stared at the statues, dread pooling in his stomach. He walked up to one and gave it a whack with his wrench. Immediately, the statue started bleeding. He knew that there was something disturbing about those plaster statues; but he wasn't surprised by it at this point.
Everyone in Rapture was at least a little bit insane.
Dr. Steinman was a plastic surgeon who strove to turn his patients into abstract works of art; at least these dead were kept in one piece.
Jack turned his research camera on the kid – whose protector had taken her to a more acceptable corpse – and took a snapshot. He studied the image the camera had produced.
Implanted Host, Gatherer, Cartoonus Characterus
She was a Toon? Jack hadn't seen many cartoons but he knew what they were, and had always wanted to meet one of their stars. The image showed her waving at the camera. Wait, hadn't she been gathering? Jack looked up and, to his surprise, met the Little Sister's eyes. The young man ducked back behind the wall and began to load his tommy gun.
"Pa-pa-ra-ziii! Yoo-hoo, Paparazzi?" Jack heard the Big Daddy build up a roar when the two-toned voice continued "Hush, Mister Bubbles! Not that kind of Paparazzi."
Curiosity getting the better of him, Jack peered beyond the wall. "There you are!" the girl giggled and waggled a finger at him. "It's rude to take pictures without asking first."
This was unlike any encounter he'd ever had with a Little Sister. Normally, this would be the part when they'd scream at the stranger who got too close; not that Jack blamed them, considering most of Rapture's citizens wanted to harvest them for the ADAM they carried.
"…Weeeeeelllll?" The kid stared expectantly at Jack with her hands on her hips.
"Oh, um, sorry?" he stammered. Never before had he met a Little Sister with such a personality. The character smiled sweetly and batted her eyes at Jack.
"Okay, I'll forgive you this time." She held up the bottle end of the syringe to her face as if trying to see her reflection. From her scowl, Jack suspected she wasn't successful.
"Didja get my good side?" Amused, Jack nodded. She giggled and struck a pose. "Well, don't be shy, paparazzi!"
That was how Jack found himself participating in a full-on photo shoot with the girl. She seemed to be enjoying the attention, unlike her protector. The Bouncer tried a few times to knock Jack off his feet with an earth-shattering stomp, but before he could do so the Little Sister would move directly underfoot.
"Don't be fussy, Mr. Bubbles! Angels can wait. We mustn't disappoint the fans!" The little charmer twirled around and grinned towards Jack. "And now, I-"
Suddenly, she stopped and clutched her head as though she were having a migraine. Jack had to stop himself from walking up to her to ask what was wrong. The Bouncer bent forward and patted her on her back, making pitying groans as he did. The girl looked up and screamed, "A STRANGER!"
By this time, Jack had moved out of sight, but he could still see her. She wasn't even looking in his direction. She glanced around, looking lost and confused until her Big Daddy took her by the hand to find more 'angels'.
What was that all about? Was that her conditioning kicking back in or something? Poor thing.
Now that he was out of immediate danger, Jack looked at the photos he had taken. Most of them were of her making cute poses, a few have her making silly faces. Jack let out a soft chuckle.
WHAM!
Jack came back to consciousness with the sensation of peeling his body off the wall. What even hit me? Something large and flat. The Daddy? No, it didn't feel like a Daddy attack. He looked about and found – to his dismay – that all his photos were gone and a piece of paper had been taped to his chest. Upon the note was written the word "CREEP".
Jack was honestly more than a little offended. In a city where doctors cut off people's faces without even anesthetizing them, where little girls were made to drink the blood of the dead guarded by lumbering palookas, where spider splicers hunted and Sander Cohen existed, somehow, HE was the creep?! He crumpled the note and threw it away when he heard the girl's voice again. "I'm getting tired, Mister Bubbles. Just a few more." Jack froze. If she was getting tired, the Bouncer would take her to the Little Sister vent; there, she'd disappear into the walls, and Jack may never find the charming little Toon girl again. If he was going to save her, he had to do it now.
If Jack had been asked to describe himself in the present moment, he'd say 'A guy about to make a very bad decision.' The bad decision he was on the verge of making was fighting the seven-foot-tall metal golem, the Big Daddy. Jack wasn't new to killing Big Daddies; in fact, he'd consider himself a veteran at this point. Still, he hated fighting Big Daddies at the best of times.
The truth was he had left Arcadia running low on supplies. He had begun to restock when he'd arrived at the Fort, but then Sander Cohen had greeted Jack with soothing music and plaster statues descending from the ceiling as though they were dancing. Then Cohen threw a bunch of splicers at him to 'test him'. The ensuing firefight left Jack nearly empty in terms of provisions, but he still didn't want to let the Toon girl out of his sight to scavenge for supplies.
Jack would have to get creative. He hadn't hacked any bots yet, but maybe he could try that new plasmid. He conjured a glowing blue orb in his hand, threw Security Bullseye onto the Bouncer, and then hid himself again. Soon, he could hear the gunshots of the flying turrets, the roars of the Daddy, and some shouting.
When the gunshots stopped sooner than he had expected, he could still hear the moans of the Daddy and the buzzing of the bots. What happened? He inched toward the edge of his hiding spot, intending to take a quick look, when he heard the sound of something heavy rapidly descending towards him.
CLANG!
Jack jumped out the way in the nick of time to see that he'd nearly been crushed by…an anvil! What's an anvil doing in a place like this? More importantly, where the hell did that anvil come from? A roar told him that in escaping the anvil he'd unwittingly leapt right in front of the Bouncer, visor bright red, flanked by three security bots!
The little girl on the Bouncer's back smiled serenely at Jack. "Look, Paparazzi! I got new pets!" Jack didn't understand how this came about, but he hoped and prayed that Big Daddies didn't learn how to hack. Another giggle from the girl. "Say cheese, Mister Bubbles!" Jack snapped a photo of the charging Bouncer, and the next thing he knew, he was tumbling out of a Vita Chamber.
Honestly, that was his best photo yet. Elite Bouncer, because of course it was! Those Vita Chambers were terribly convenient, but their presence didn't make dying less painful or frightening. He shortly saw the bonded pair heading toward the Southern Mall.
I'm running out of time. Should I go for it again?
He didn't really want to go out guns blazing at the Bouncer, especially one that had just killed him. Not to mention, he had some armor piercing rounds, but only enough for a regular Bouncer – and this was an Elite!
He decided to light a cigarette to calm his nerves. As he activated Incinerate, he had an idea. There was one more plan he could try. At the very least, it would buy him some time. He identified the nearest Little Sister vent and gathered a few bodies. He piled them near the entrance right in the Bouncer's path. If I time this right, it should be over quickly. I just hope the kid won't get caught in the crossfire. His trap set, he stood very still, grateful for the Camouflage gene tonic. He could feel them approaching, the Big Daddy's distinctive, thundering footfalls getting louder and louder.
Almost…
"Take me home, Mister Bubbles."
Wait for it…
Finally, the Big Daddy stepped on one of the corpses. NOW! Jack lit the bodies on fire, which in turn ignited the Daddy. The metal man roared in outrage and agony. The child shrieked "Too Hot! Too Hot! Too Hot!" so he tossed her away from the flames. In its flailing, the Bouncer's arms took out the bots that had been helping him.
Jack hurried to the girl, but the Bouncer was not out yet. The vision of the Elite Bouncer, engulfed in flames, charging at him like the Devil itself would be forever engraved in his memory; but Jack was ready this time. A dozen shots of his tommy gun, loaded with his armor-piercing ammunition, were enough to end the monster's suffering. As Jack tried to calm his racing heart, he heard several voices crying out.
"MISTER BUBBLES! NOOOOOOOOOO!"
"PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!"
"C'MON, YOU GOTTA GET UP! SHE NEEDS YOU!"
Who were those voices? Jack looked up and saw two new creatures racing to put out the fire. Both of them similar in size to the strange Little Sister, but male. The bigger one – about the size of a human Little Sister – wore a tattered tuxedo and a white rabbit mask. The smaller one, still a bit bigger than the girl, wore a ratty business suit, a red cap, and a bird mask. The two new arrivals tried their best to extinguish the burning remains of the Big Daddy, until the Little Sister quickly reminded them of her presence with a loud sob.
Spurred on by her cries, the taller one made a dive for her which Jack swiftly intercepted. The youth caterwauled in Jack's grip, hissing and clawing like a rabid animal. Jack hoped this wasn't a spliced-up kid.
"PUT YAKKO DOWN!"
Now that he thought about it, Jack recognized that voice. It would sometimes appear over the PA system in advertisements and propaganda. The voice belonged to Rapture's most popular Toon celebrity – but what was his name again? Wacky? No, Wakko. Wakko, who was running at him full speed, with a lead pipe primed to disintegrate Jack's kneecaps.
Shoving the aforementioned Yakko under one arm, Jack was still able to trip and quickly disarm the little Toon. To secure him, Jack picked him up too. The motion caused the boy's mask to fall off and reveal a white face and red mousy nose, similar to that of the strange Little Sister. The Toon, Wakko, regained his wits to call "Run away, Dot! RUN!"
Yakko, who seemed to be Wakko's brother (if not at least related to him), had removed his mask to bite at Jack's hand. He, too, had a white face with a red nose. Finally, Jack had a grasp on the situation, what had been happening all this time.
Unfortunately, there were three big problems. The first was that the Little Sister, Dot, was now defenseless. Jack had to remove the ADAM-producing parasite in her body so he could send her off to Tenenbaum's before a splicer found her. The second problem was Jack couldn't help her with both arms full of two enraged brothers who were convinced he was about to disembowel their sister. Jack would somehow need to convince them that he meant her no harm. The third problem, with Dot ugly-crying and the boys hissing and snarling, was all the noise they were making.
"Quiet!" he whisper-shouted, and sure enough the sound of crumbling plaster reached their ears. Jack could see a shock of fear pass through the three dimulative denizens. Thinking quickly, Jack put the kids down and equipped the Telekinesis ability.
"We're about to have company." He pulled out his shotgun and checked his ammunition. "Go, hide her, I'll cover you!" He didn't bother checking if they had heard him. The splicers had arrived.
The boys didn't hesitate. They grabbed the Little Sister, who screamed and squirmed in their grasp.
"STRANGERS! LET ME GO! MISTER BUBBLES, PLEEEEEASE!"
Yakko hoisted her over his shoulder as he and Wakko ran deeper into the Southern Mall. They had to know the nearest vent was around the corner. Cackling splicers were coming in from all directions. When Jack looked back, he saw the children dash into a shop called Sophia's Salon.
Using Telekinesis, he caught a bloody hook that was thrown at him; Returning it to the spider splicer who sent it caused her to fall from the ceiling into an open flame. Jack launched her corpse into a cluster of other splicers who were, in turn, ignited. After dodging out of the way of the remaining splicers' near-suicidal rush, Jack used the shotgun to pick off the others. With the final splicer's death, the last kablam of the shotgun echoed through the suddenly silent hall, but Jack knew that more would come. The allure of an unprotected Gatherer would draw every ADAM-starved splicer in the area.
Quickly looting the dead bodies for supplies, Jack was able to scrounge an EVE Hypo which he injected into his arm. When he looked up, he noticed three splicers creep into the Salon. Running to the shop, he could hear one of them whistling as though summoning a dog.
"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Uncle Fred's got a treat for you."
"Come out, Baby. I-I j-just wanna see that pretty fur coat of yours. It would make me look soooo beautiful please I need it! I neeeeEEEEddd IT!"
Jack tailed the three splicers into the back of the store, the sound of the male splicer's crowbar dragging on the ground more than enough to cover his footsteps.
'Uncle' Fred stalked up to the cloth accordion door to the changing room with a smirk; or what should be a smirk, his face so riddled with tumors that it looked like a smile. He lifted his crowbar to bash down the door, only to have his own head bashed in by Jack's wrench.
The lady had been so self-absorbed, talking to herself about how she was going to be beautiful again and how she was going to start a new fashion trend with her fur stole and then Cohen will definitely notice her, that she didn't react to the body hitting the ground.
She limped over to the changing room door and lit up a Molotov.
"Just gonna… make a… few buttonholes."
Before she could throw the cocktail, Jack grabbed it from her hand, and pushed her away from the door.
"Hey, that's mine," she whined. Jack nodded, with a quick "Sure," and threw it at her. As the wannabe starlet burned to death, Jack investigated the changing room. It was empty, save for what appeared to be a plaster statue of Cohen sitting at an organ.
Where are they? Did they escape the shop already?
Nearby, the Toons were clinging to one another and trembling in the changing room's wall safe. Dot had ceased her screaming at this point and was only letting out occasional whimpers.
"…want Mister Bubbles."
Yakko dabbed her tears, whispering hoarsely to her, "I know Dot, we'll find you another one." Wakko stared at the safe door and placed one hand up his sleeve, trying his best to not panic.
A loud clang made them all yelp as something hard struck the other side of the safe.
"Keep it out from me! KEEP IT OUT FROM ME!"
Wakko pushed his brother and sister behind him. "Get ready to run," he instructed in a forcedly calm voice. They couldn't hear well through the safe, and they could barely make out the faint sound of gunshots. Each Warner held their breath as the distinct click-click-click of the tumblers turning filled the tiny space. Finally, the sound stopped, and the door began to open.
"You guys alrig–"
WHAM! Wakko shot a boxing glove out from his sleeve, smashing into the intruder's face and knocking him on his back.
"Go, go, go, go!" Yakko launched himself and Dot out of the safe, with Wakko following close behind. Kicking open the door to the dressing room, Yakko gasped involuntarily at what lied behind it. The vision of the bullet-riddled body of a spider splicer dangling from one of his hook hands, swaying like a man from the gallows. He couldn't tear his eyes away until a cough came from still living man on the floor.
Jack sat up, clutching his jaw while opening and closing his mouth. Once he was sure nothing was broken, he looked towards the Toons and asked, "You kids alright?"
The Toons, even Dot, looked at Jack utterly befuddled.
Jack glanced away. "Sorry, stupid question." He pulled an apple-sized jar from his pocket and pointed to the hanging man. "That guy was going after you with this." The jar was a simple, clear glass design, marked by a tape label with a single handwritten word.
TURPENTINE
The moment Yakko saw the label he was hyperventilating and convulsing, his mouth opened in a silent scream as he desperately pushed his siblings behind him.
Jack put up hand out placatively. "Hey, hey, hey! It's okay, it's okay, it's gonna be okay, I promise. I'm not gonna hurt you." Slowly, painfully slowly, he placed the jar on the ground beside him, his eyes not leaving the trio. Grabbing his wrench, he smashed it to pieces, spilling the jar's contents all over the tile floor. With a wave of his free hand, he ignited the spilled chemical. The kids watched warily and, with the light of the flames painting their faces, slowly began to relax.
Jack took a step towards the trio. "Listen, I just-" a crash from outside the salon interrupted him. The kids, already jumpy, bolted at the first sign of trouble.
"Shit."
Jack rushed outside and could hear a big wave of splicers coming. Following the kids through an employee entrance to the Cocktail Lounge, he found them hunkered down beneath the bar counter. Looking over the counter, Jack could see a Little Sister Vent on the far wall, along with several splicers headed their way. He ducked beneath the counter, surprising the kids.
"I don't suppose any of you got ammo?"
"Huh?"
"Any kind will do, but anti-personnel rounds would be fantastic right now."
Dot was covering her face with her hands, mostly limp in her brother's arms. "Hopscotch chalk is made with lead. Hopscotch chalk is made with lead," she repeated. The boys looked to one another; at Yakko's nod, Wakko pulled an enormous bag out of…somewhere and reached into it. A couple seconds later, he pulled a canister out of his bag. "Would this help?" he asked timidly; in his hands was a canister of electric gel.
Jack couldn't help his eyes lighting up, "That'd be a big help, kid. Thanks a bunch."
He assembled his chemical thrower, loaded the electric gel, and unleashed utter mayhem upon the enemy.
The fight wore on and Jack never made any requests; instead, he would adapt to whatever Wakko gave him. This included bullets, hypos, paperweights, a metal chair, flower pot, bowling ball, frying pan, sticks of toon dynamite, a rubber duck (that one had been an accident on Wakko's part) and more.
Yakko had no clue how long they'd been hunkered down beneath the bar counter. Minutes? Hours? Seconds? He focused all his attention on soothing a near-catatonic Dot while his brother offered the strange man stuff from the Gag Bag.
Finally, there was silence in the Cocktail Lounge. Jack turned away from the sea of bodies and knelt before the children who were gazing at him in growing dread. Yakko pulled his brother in close and opened his mouth. No sound came out, and he tried a few more times before giving Wakko's hand a squeeze.
Wakko spoke "We'll-get-you-ADAM!"
Jack had been about to speak but the words surprised him. "What?"
"ADAM." The boy hiccupped "Lots and lots of it! All of it! We'll get it for you! We WILL!" He huddled close to his big brother and draped an arm round the girl's body. "Please Mister, let her go into the hole. That way she will feel safe again."
Jack gave the children a gentle smile "She'll be okay. Trust me," he stated, as he reached forward and rested his right hand atop her head.
"Hey! What're you-!"
"NO! No! No… no…"
All protests died away as a white light engulfed Jack and Dot and then suddenly there was only the sound of
"BLLLLLEEEEEAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!"
The brothers rubbed their eyes as their vision recovered and both their jaws hit the ground as they took in the sight before them. Dot was doubled over, breathing heavily, having just thrown up on the ground; before her lied a big, dark, wriggling slug.
Yakko didn't think, he grabbed the discarded frying pan and beat the slug until it was little more than a black smear on the floor.
Dot lifted her head, standing on coltish legs. She had the stance and air of a wrung-out dishrag but gone was that sickly ADAM glow that had radiated beneath her fur. Her eyes, no longer yellowed, focused on Jack's face as she softly crooned to him "hello, nurse."
Then she fell flat on her face.
The 3 males leapt to her aid but released a collective sigh of relief when they heard her snoring softly. Yakko gathered her in his arms and began rocking her like a baby. Wakko questioned Jack, asking "did you just… is she really better?"
Jack nodded but looked on in concern. With the girl asleep, she couldn't get to safety through the vents. All this time Yakko never took his eyes off his sister. As he let out an audible sob, a voice from Jack's radio broke the quiet.
"Ah, there you are! My little Songbird," said Sander Cohen.