Splitting up with Atlas would not have been Delta's first choice.
Having watched the man vanish up stairs and immediately listening to the following echo of gunfire left Delta on edge. Ever concerned that the man would slip up and be harmed. Delta was accustomed to being generally better protected than others. His body clad in armour that most splicers couldn't dream of getting through. So, despite Atlas being a far cry from a defenseless babe, Delta worried. He was only one man after all.
But the echo of Atlas's voice, a myriad of curses and occasionally insults or victory remarks, helped to ease those concerns. Only marginally so, but Delta would accept it and keep an ear out for Atlas's voice over the radio lines.
Left to his own devices, Delta got to work.
Firstly Delta made his way across the floor, looking for any sign of resistance and catching sight of a splicer scuttling out of sight and into the bathrooms. For the sake of clearing the area and with no joy, Delta followed after them. At a glance they didn't seem to be a particularly strong splicer, but with Atlas around every splicer became too great of a threat for Delta to let slip by. Joyless a task as it was, Delta resolved to make this place as safe as possible.
The splicer had vanished into the women's bathroom and, for as ludicrous as it was, Delta still hesitated at its door. Gazing up at the little symbol for a lady and feeling a tad uncomfortable. He had no right being in a womens lavatory, it went against some instinctual urge to refrain from any vulgar behaviour.
He could practically hear Atlas groaning in his head, exasperated with his priorities.
But inside he could hear the splicer making a ruckus and Delta really had no choice but to go inside.
With a hefty sigh and a great deal if discomfort, Delt pushed aside his displeasure at having to cross the threshold into the bathrooms.
What he found inside was another man that had no place in the women's bathrooms, with a fish in his mouth. Delta stalled for a moment, genuinely taken aback but the sight of the splicer tearing into the raw fish. Delta could see another flopping desperately on a puddle nearby, the leaks having let a bit of wildlife inside.
The sight of the splice ripping chunks of the fish wasn't what really took Delta off guard, though it was mildly unsettling, instead it was the form of the splicer.
Stretched out, its skin didn't seem right for its bones, wrapped around them too tightly, pulling the already pale, flesh further apart from its centre. Its whole torso seemed to have rippled open with only a thin layer of near translucent flesh over its internal organs, Delta could see its rib cage just beneath the surface.
That rippling flesh traveled up to its face where needle sharp teeth currently chewed through the tiny bones of the fish. It's bald, sunken face looked horrendous and painful. Rather than disgust, though Delta couldn't deny he felt some of that as well, he was struck with a deep sort of pity for the thing.
It's body was so warped that it surely had to have been in great pain. That might have been why every sound it made was some ragged, near groan like cry. Even as it ate, every bite produced a new sound that Delta could only think of as pained.
The task had been joyless to start with and remained just as grim, but when Delta rose his arm up to retrieve a spear, there was a sense of renewed justification in his actions. This thing was less human than any other splicer he'd encountered and if it truly was in the excruciating agony that it's body and sounds suggested, this would be nothing short of a mercy killing.
As the spear lightly came to rest in his palm, picked up by the telekinesis plasmid, the splicer seemed to finally notice him over its meal. It had been so engrossed in shredding the fish it had not even seen him until it reached for the other still flopping one at Delta's boots.
Upon seeing him, the splicer reared back and screeched, jaw dropping open and unhinging at the joints. In that single moment Delta could see the dried blood caked around its cheeks and mouth, where it's skin had stretched and torn each time it opened its mouth no doubt. Only able to heal due to the ADAM roaring through its veins.
The gurgling scream it produced only solidified Delta's decision and without hesitation the spear shot out of his palm, striking the creature through the head at close range.
Its body flew back and ended up skewed to the floor, hanging lip from its neck with the spear pinning it to the tiles through the back of its skull. A clean and easy kill. It's skin seemed almost too soft, Delta thought it looked like it had been underwater for too long and this was the result.
It was that thought that brought Delta back to Atlas's warnings of monsters in the depths. He doubted Atlas would be thrilled to think they could return to the land.
Well. It wasn't as though Delta had the means to tell him currently. It was no secret if he was unable to speak.
When Delta went to retrieve the spear this time he found that it had cracked up the side and he knew it would likely break upon the slightest impact now. So rather than wrench it from the creature's head, he opted to leave it there. It was no dignified death, but it was better than Delta messing with its body postmortem. There were precious few respectful things he could do in Rapture, this was the best he could manage.
Over all, Delta was incredibly relieved to be leaving the women's bathroom and he was not about to check the other bathroom for that relay.
If it turned out that was where Alex would put such a thing then perhaps he'd been mad long before he started using a glorified flying box to carry his voice and enact judgment on former employees.
How fortunate that the relay was not at all hard to find. Delta assumed it would be heavily guarded or protected by some sort of shield or gate. But no. He found the relay with such ease that it almost seemed insulting.
He found it only a small distance from the bathrooms, placed in the middle of a dividing wall that stood between the a small section of the facility and the main hub. Delta only briefly glanced up towards the sign behind him and the wall.
'Plasmid Laboratories', it read.
Delta was not comforted by the sign and decided to momentarily put it from his mind, knowing that he'd have to head in there next, just to ensure he didn't miss another sneakily hidden relay.
Then again, seeing how out in the open and unguarded this one had been, he might have been giving Alex a bit too much credit to think the others would be neatly tucked away somewhere.
The relay was lashed to a security terminal, an odd looking, clunky device that beeped in time with little flashes of light. Delta might have been able to hear it were it not for a nearby running leak that only just drowned out the sound.
To confirm that this was what he'd been sent to find, Delta lifted his hand and gestured to the device he found fastened to the wall and then turned his palm up in a questioning motion.
His ever present audience and guides chimed in. "That's the relay." Sinclair confirmed, sounding rather pleased. "Just bust up that bad boy and we'll be a bit closer to control of this place."
That he could do.
Just as Delta reached for the device, the man of the hour came rushing back into the scene. Alex made himself known once again by flying around Delta's head and screeching.
"Don't you dare touch that signal relay, Delta! Its value is ten times that of your own!" He warned angrily.
Now, Delta highly doubted that. He was no engineer but looking at this thing he didn't think it contained half the design or labour that had gone into himself. In fact it looked painfully fragile for something so valuable.
As if picking up on Delta's somewhat mischievous train of thought, the radio came buzzing to life.
"Do it, Delta!" He heard Atlas hollar through the radio and could not help but roll his eyes. Better Atlas be in a petty mood rather than one of his gloomier or angrier ones.
Delta did wonder if Atlas was aware of how transparent he could be. It worried him a lot.
Grabbing the relay Delta began squeezing until it began to crack and crunch down in his fist only to then finally shatter into a dozen pieces, rendered completely useless as he dropped the largest of its pieces onto the floor.
"I'm very disappointed in you, Delta." Alex snarled and, shockingly, Delta didn't feel terribly remorseful over that. "Destruction of a Fontaine asset is punishable by summary dismissal!" Funny, seeing as far as Alex seemed concerned, he was still a Fontaine asset.
It was no surprise when Alex punctuated his displeasure with more violence. " Shall I simplify that for you? Fired. Fired! Fired!"
And so Alex sent more people to die.
Delta heard them coming before the first splicer came hurling around the corner, right into the path of his drill. Without even needing to start it up, Delta slammed the massive weight into the splicer's body, sending the monster that had once been a man at a glance, flying back into the opposite wall. It's body struck the cement, cracked once and went limp. Delta had turned away before it hit the ground and met the rest.
The first came in the form of a flying piece of sharpened metal that just nicked his shoulder. Bouncing off the padding and protective casing, leaving little more than a scratch though the force of the strike caused Delta to stagger one step back.
The splicer responsible for hurling it followed soon after, cackling as it came crawling along the walls in his direction. Pale, stretched limbs feverishly scrambling ever closer to him, out of hooks it seemed.
A flash of red from his peripheral alerted Delta to a houini splicer, but his attention needed to remain forward and so it became a juggling act. The spider splicer had no long range abilities left, but the houdini was slippery, if he left it alone too long it could blindside him with a blast of fire or vanish off somewhere he couldn't spot.
Prioritising was key and much to Delta's displeasure, he'd become very apt at the art of slaughter.
With one hand he summoned a spear from his quiver and with the other he brought the drill roaring to life. Focus split between controlling the ADAM rushing through his veins to reach out and snare the spear for him. Angling it as Delta focused on the spider splicer that scuttled its way towards him.
As it drew closer to him, Delta began building pressure behind the spear. Only just able to keep the houdini in sight and seeing it building up energy of its own in its palms. Bright red flames licking at its arms. It was growing the flame larger and brighter, no doubt thinking it needed to put as much power behind the blow as it could.
Intending to take him to the ground quickly in one hit if it could. That gave him a deadline.
Keeping that in mind, Delta struck out with the drill. A spike of frustration surging through him as the spider splicer leapt further up the wall and caused him to leave a massive hole in it rather than hitting his intended target.
It began to laugh at him again and Delta released the coiled tension behind the spear, sending it hurtling off over his shoulder and towards the secondary target, allowing him to whip that now free hand forward to grasp the cackling splicer's skull.
For the briefest moment there was a flicker of true comprehension behind the splicer's wild stare. A second of realisation as those milky white eyes went wide with terror. It had miscalculated and recognised this as a extremely final mistake.
Delta smashed its skull into the wall only a second before the harpoon struck the houdini splicer through the shoulder. He'd been aiming for its heart. There was nothing enjoyable in a drawn out struggle.
The spider splicer's fate was the clean kill Delta desired. It took only the one strike to feel something in its skull crack and crush inwards, all but instantly killing the creature. No need for it to grasp at life and spend final moments in agony.
It was the most mercy Delta could afford them.
Turning from the body as it crumbled to lay lifelessly at his feet, Delta caught sight of the houdini struggling. One arm useless and limp at its side while the spear continued to wave in the air in front of it, impaled through its body, harder to remove than it was likely able to handle.
Staggering the splicer began to light up again, this time Delta was less concerned, knowing that with an injury like that, it would not be too hard to find and if it fled from Fontaine Futuristics entirely, then it was no longer on his radar.
It would likely die from that wound if left unattended regardless. Though Delta was down a spear if it left and he only had two remaining.
The choice was presented simply enough. Delta weighed his options while powering down the drill. Even as the splicer vanished in a bright snap of red, Delta pondered.
Retrieve the spear and remove any lingering threat the splicer might pose or leave it to run and likely bleed out or fall to infection.
If he were to be honest, the choice was an easy one. It just made sense to hunt the splicer down. Delta simply didn't want to.
Unfortunately necessity outweighed wants and so Delta began trailing after the splicer.
As expected, it was not difficult to find. Delta only needed to follow the sounds of its struggling. He found it only a small distance away, collapsed by the large staircase centred in the main hall. It didn't seem to know what to do with the harpoon stuck in it. The end having come through the other side, the shape of the spear head making it hard to remove.
Delta resolved to take it out only once the splicer was dead. No need to terrorise it more by trying to remove it before hand.
Seeing the big daddy coming, the panic lit up in the splicer immediately and it tried to scramble up to its feet. It wasn't able to move quickly enough, the injured shoulder taking its balance away and causing the splicer to stumble back to the ground during the first attempt.
Had it the EVE left, Delta had no doubt it would have tried to teleport away by now. Meaning it was running dry.
Sliding his rivet gun down off his shoulder, Delta briefly checked his ammunition, knowing that every second he took to finish this, was another second the splicer spent terrified. He didn't want to scare anyone, but being what he was now, Delta was sure he'd only ever scare people.
Atlas was still scared of him.
That single fact took up all of his thoughts as Delta took aim. Atlas had adjusted to him a lot since they met, but he'd knocked that adjustment back down a few times.
Atlas trusted him and in one moment where he lost himself to the madness that Tenenbaum warned him would become permanent if they didn't get to his Elenore soon enough...in that one moment he'd shattered that trust. And very nearly Atlas's rib cage along with it.
Pulling the trigger became a near thoughtless action. Jarring Delta slightly when the rivet fired, however once he was paying attention once again, Delta fired twice more, wanting to be sure that the kill didn't last too long.
The first rivet struck the splicers chest, the two following found their mark in its head. The scream it produced only lasted long enough for the second bullet to land.
With a hefty sigh Delta placed his gun back over his shoulder. Sparing only a second glance back at the body to ensure it was truly still, before heading back to the objective.
Stupid as they were, at least some splicers avoided him now. Usually the weaker ones. Stronger splicers so often rushed towards their own demise.
They'd become far more hell bent on this recently. The closer they got to Lamb, the more willing the splicers seemed, to throw themselves on the blade for the woman. For their faith in her.
If Delta were to assign blame, it would land squarely on Lamb's shoulders.
Not that Alex was making a terribly convincing case for himself as his voice chimed in again, this time over the radios and not through his own personal bot. "My, you really are the destructive type aren't you? A little stealth wouldn't go amiss!"
Stealth. In this gear. Right.
"Now you leave the rest of those relays alone, Delta! Those things don't grow on trees...not that we can grow trees down here anymore." Alex's mutterings only gave Delta more reason for concern.
There were trees down here, right? At least at some point? How long could the city sustain itself without even some plant life? The whole city was cracking, breaking at every seam bit by bit. There'd be nothing to hold it together soon.
And, somewhere, his girl was all alone in it.
Thinking of Elenore, knowing her voice so well even now, Delta pushed on forward. Sinclair called it necessity, Tenenbaum thought it repentance - to get to Elenore, it all had some sort of value to them.
But for Delta? For him it was little more than a must and he refused to believe it was any instinct instilled in him by their experiments. Eleanor was just a child in his memory. Sweet and bright. His little girl, no matter what Lamb said.
For Delta it was nothing more than a matter of love.
And there was so precious little of it left to spare in Rapture.
Entering the Plasmid Laboratories Delta was met with a rather underwhelming room. It was little more than a box with a wide viewing window. Of course, this was still in the public section of Fontaine Futuristics, made to show off their accomplishments and scientific advancements. Though Delta noted immediately how grim a view the window provided. Achievements and their blatant lack of humanity on display for all.
Behind the glass was a medical chamber, complete with shelves littered with scalpels, needles and a number of devices that Delta did not actively understand but caused his skin to prickle with the memory of their sting. Sitting upright was an surgical table, the straps hanging loose with nobody to hold to its surface and the entire place was flooded.
The stream of water that had obscured the beeps of the relay device coming from here. The pour of water from the ceiling was substantial and Delta thought that given enough time it would overflow unless it was raining somewhere else.
Floating through the water was everything else they'd once used on the test subjects. Delta couldn't say he was sad to see them rusted and in ruins.
Stepping inside to get a proper look at the rest of the small room Delta was momentarily thrown completely off balance by the sight of what he, for just a split second, mistook as himself.
Laying lifeless in the corner of the room was another big daddy and it looked almost exactly like him. An Alpha Series big daddy… it's design was older than his own at a guess. It lacked the drill latched to his arm though it had a rivet gun laid across its lap.
Shaken, Delta for a moment didn't move to do anything else and couldn't take his eyes off the corpse.
Quietly, Sinclair's voice spoke to him. "You holding up okay, champ?" He asked even though Delta couldn't answer him in earnest.
"You knew how this worked. Big Daddies, their human lab rats, you know all of this already, kid. When your DNA just couldn't take another tug, they blanked out your brains an' stitched you into that suit." He reminded as though Delta could forget.
Maybe he'd tell Sinclair how poorly their attempts to wipe his mind stuck. The longer he was conscious and free of the big daddy programing, the more little memories returned to him.
Delta knew Sinclair a bit better now. He recognised that callousness as a deflection of sorts. To avoid letting any feeling sink in too deep. Delta wasn't like that, he didn't reject those feelings, negative or otherwise.
Gaining control of himself again, Delta slowly approached the other alpha series. Taking a knee before it, really, truly looking. Trying to cement in his mind that this was what he was as well outside his own mind. He wondered idly if this one had a little sister with him before dying. He hoped not.
Thinking that had he been killed by a splicer when little Elenore was still with him, it turned his gut horribly.
It helped none when Sinclair mused. "Kinda curious how you're the only one who hasn't gone squirrely after all this time."
There were few means of communication that Delta could utilize but in that moment he was at least able to life his palm, splay his fingers flat and make a 'so-so' motion. Sinclair surprised bark of laughter helped to ease some of Delta's nerves.
It was a grim situation and he knew Sinclair meant no real harm when he blundered through his words and said some things that could often be incredibly insensitive or even seemed antagonistic at times. A bit of dark humour went a long way in times like this.
"Well don't go talking my ear off." Sinclair groused and Delta's shoulders began to shake with that silent laughter of his own.
Until another of those slowly returning memories came to him.
"You talk too much, Johnny." A warm voice told him.
The memory couldn't be quite right because he knew it was from Rapture but it felt warm. Like the artificial light coming in through the window was real. He recalled smelling paint and dust. Something musty like a collection of old books that had just been stirred.
And in the past, when he'd been told he was too much of a chatterbox, there'd been a flicker of indignance, a need to prove otherwise that only resulted in more words pouring out. Like he just didn't know how to turn off the stream of conscious thought.
Delta no longer knew what was said, the stream of chatter that had once been his voice was now important. So many words but he couldn't pick out a single one of value from the memory.
Not until the man in his recolection gave a soft chuckle. Soothing, gentle, ever patient with the child nipping at his heels. Even now Delta felt somewhat comforted by it.
"Never change." The memory reminded him.
No matter how badly he wanted to obey that reminder, Delta could do now was lift a heavily armoured hand to his chest, where no more words could come out. Rendering him silent, unable to live up to the avid talker he'd once been.
He'd changed through no choice of his own and looking back at the person he'd been when his voice came freely to him, Delta hadn't been able to decide if it was a comfort or just another cruelty he lived with.
Not until these memories, painful as they were, returned to him.
Little snippets of the city glowing before him in the depths of the ocean. A shining city before him to discover and perhaps more important than anything else, those fleeting voices of people he'd known, laughing with him.
Delta knew that he was no long 'Johnny' in the same way as he'd once been, but he clutched those fading memories close and built them into the person he was becoming. Someone that would have still laughed with those lost friends were he able.
Fortunately those that he knew currently pulled him from those thoughts in the form of Sinclair clearing his throat. Apparently he'd been lingering too long.
"Right you are, champ. Let's get back on track then." Sinclair urged and Delta agreed silently, rising back to his feet with only a parting glance at the other alpha series. Adding it to the list of people Rapture had destroyed.
And as he 'got back on track' Delta liked to think that for all the friends he'd lost - maybe he'd made some new ones in this life as Delta.