Ch. 4: Complications

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the wait. I was working on my F.E.A.R. stuff.

Anyway,

As I mentioned before, this is AU and not a straight rip from the game because that would be too boring. As such, certain things are different. This chapter introduces some of those differences.

I hope some of you are at least finding this to be moderately entertaining.

Coming up, Subject Delta faces his first Production Model Big Daddy and protects his first new Little Sister against Sofia's Splicers.

Read and review if you want

A wave of confusion rolled through me. Why did my daughter run from me? I knew that she would likely be bitter that I had been unable to protect her but I had hoped that she would find it in her heart to forgive me. Had I been wrong?

I cleared my mind of such concerns. Her feelings for me did not matter. I was her Big Daddy, not her friend. While I had always viewed myself as being her father, I knew deep down that I was nothing more than her guardian. She clearly still wanted me. If she did not, she would have commanded me to self-terminate.

Looking back down at the red wagon, I picked up the plasmid with my left gauntlet encased hand. I groaned in irritation. I really needed to find a more efficient way of doing this. Once again rendering myself useless, I detached my drill and then injected myself with the red liquid. This time, my body did not react so violently. Seconds later, the electric arcs around my left hand disappeared and were replaced by a kind of miasma.

It took me a moment to remember the plasmid. It was called "Telekinesis". I smiled slightly beneath my armored face. My Eleanor certainly was clever. With Telekinesis, I would be able to catch incoming Hypno plasmids as well as interact with my surroundings. After reattaching my drill, I continued forward through the Jet-Postal room.

At the far left corner, I came to a set of stairs. After I had proceeded up the grey metal stairs, I arrived at the top landing. There, I found a message written on the wall with blood. It read, "She knows the way". As I neared it, I heard a male Splicer say, "I'm telling you, he's up topside right now highballin' it with all the..." I could not make out what he said next as I walked out onto the balcony.

I saw another workshop. Below me, around a lit burn barrel, were three Splicers. One of the male Splicers finished, "...and if anyone gets lippy, ha, he's got the bomb!"

Who were they talking about? Someone had escaped Rapture? How? As I continued eavesdropping, the female Splicer said, "Nuts! He saved a kindergarten full of cutesie little brats and lived happy ever after. He was a pansy. End of story."

Brats? The Little Sisters? If someone had rescued them, it would definitely explain the new appearance of the Little Sisters that I had encountered and why they reminded me of Eleanor. This was starting to make sense. This was a new generation of Little Sisters. The few remaining that had survived whatever it was that had happened to this city after my demise must have grown out of their usefulness as gatherers.

Their brainwashing had likely driven them clinically insane. They would have been useful only as the Big Sisters. Without ADAM, Rapture was dead. Anyone wanting to revive the city would need the substance to return life to the population and to the city itself. That meant new gatherers. Unfortunately, there would be only one place to get new little girls for the Gatherer Program: the surface.

Sofia Lamb was a lot of things. However, she was brilliant. Surely, if she was the new ruler of Rapture, she would not endanger the city by exposing its existence to the surface. After all, from what I recalled, she was convinced that the surface was "suicidal". However, perhaps she had lost touch down here in this sinking city.

The other male Splicer said, "You think I give half a shit about what he's done? He's gone now and Doc. Lamb is the news."

Seeing the large metal canisters of pressurized gas around me, I used Telekinesis to levitate one into the air. Aiming for the burn barrel, I launched the canister towards the three Splicers. As the canister made contact with the barrel, it exploded. The ensuing explosion killed the Splicers outright and rocked the air of the cavernous-like workshop.

Seconds later, two more Splicers appeared. Both were armed with revolvers and opened fire upon me. I let out a loud grunt when the small caliber rounds impacted my enormous bulk. Giving off an alarm, my escorting Security Bot flew down to their level and opened fire on the one exiting the cafeteria. I let out a loud roar that shook the entire building. The fourth man was directly below me and was temporarily stunned by my roar. I jumped over the side of the balcony.

I landed directly on top of him. As I descended down onto him with my heavy frame, I heard his spine breaking as he collapsed onto the floor. As he hit the floor, my right armored foot crushed in his skull, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, my companion had killed the other Splicer with a hail of bullets. As I dislodged myself from the crushed remains of the Splicer, another male "Leadhead" Splicer appeared.

Focusing, I switched plasmids and then electrocuted the disfigured man with a blast of Electro Bolt. As he cursed in agony while his body was racked with spasms, I rushed forward and swung my drill's hardened steel point into his head. The familiar sound of a hollow crack filled the air as my strike shattered the man's skull. As his body began to slump forwards, I swung my drill sideways and struck the Splicer in the side of what remained of his head.

The corpse fell to the floor next to the hollow train car that was in the repair bay. Having cleared out the area, I looked around for supplies. After gathering around forty dollars, I decided to investigate the Railway Café.

The water flowing down the short staircase was an indication of the appalling sight that I was about to behold. As I entered the dilapidated restaurant, I heard music coming from the interior of the kitchen. The overhead ceiling fan hung down from its original mounts. The only things anchoring the still operation fan were the electrical cables. Meanwhile, the floor was underwater due to the massive amount of water that was pouring down from the ceiling fan and only a small section underneath the fan was still lined with wooden floorboards.

I began to have second thoughts about wasting my time scavenging the ransacked restaurant for supplies. However, I continued forward. All of the food storage units in the kitchen were empty and the deep fryers were ablaze. Moving to the rear storage room, I found another diary recording but paid little attention to it. However, to my delight, on the storage shelf to my right, I found a gene tonic bottle.

The worn label read, "Drill Specialist". Giving off a brief laugh, I used my Telekinesis plasmid to extract a sample with an empty EVE Hypo and then injected myself with the tonic. The tonic restricted me to the use of my drill but, in return, granted me enhanced endurance with my plasmids. All I would need now was Armored Shell and Drill Power and this "obsolete" Big Daddy would be back on top.

Upon returning to the kitchen, I heard the ramblings of an approaching Splicer. With my bloodied drill at the ready, and with Telekinesis equipped, I exited the kitchen. As I entered the restaurant, I saw two "Thuggish" Splicers near the entrance. Seeing the explosive barrel against the wall, I used my plasmid to levitate the barrel and then launched it at the two disfigured women.

The barrel collided with the nearest Splicer and the resulting explosion killed her outright. However, the other Splicer rushed at me even as flames ate away at her skin. However, her determination was wasted as she collapsed before she even reached me. Wanting to get away from the stench of burning flesh, I quickly exited the café.

Upon returning to the repair bay, I continued towards the open bulkhead at the rear of the train car. As I approached it, however, it suddenly slammed shut in my face. Turning to my left, I saw a female "Thuggish" Splicer approach the bulkhead's gears. In a surprising display of intelligence, the ADAM addict lodged her section of pipe into the gears, jamming them.

My radio activated. Tenenbaum's accented voice filled the inside of my head as she remarked with noticeable disgust, "Ach...Sofia Lamb is using the Splicers against you. Most Big Daddies are like her slaves, guarding the Little Ones...but someone has awakened you..."

Her comment confirmed to me that Sofia was indeed the new ruler of Rapture. I relished the image of Andrew Ryan rolling over in his grave. However, a feeling of dread soon washed over me. With Sofia in control of everything in Rapture, my quest to find Eleanor went from dangerous to all but suicidal. I was the Paragon of the Alpha Series but there was a literal army between my beloved Eleanor and me. My chances of survival were near zero but at that moment, in that oil covered workshop, I made a vow that I would return to my Eleanor's side one way or another.

It was no mystery to me that Eleanor had been the individual responsible for my revival. After all, who else would possibly want to bring back a worn out old man like me? I also doubted that anyone else even remembered me besides her. Knowing my beautiful daughter as I did, she still dreamed of seeing the surface. Perhaps, that was why I was back. She had brought me back to be a kind of golem in a plan of hers to escape Rapture and see the surface.

Personally, I would have preferred it if she had brought me back merely due to the fact that she missed me, but beggars could not be choosers. She had seen fit to give me a second chance. I could escape my legacy of being a failure. I would not fail my daughter this time. Even if it cost me my life once again, I would serve my beloved master unerringly.

I turned and began to investigate the vast workshop for a way to return functionality to the bulkhead. However, I had taken no more than three steps before I felt the feeling of bliss overwhelm me once more. While I did not see Eleanor, I heard her inside my mind as she said, "Father, I know how all of this must seem but I assure you that I did not bring you back to be my golem. Yes, I do need you to assist me in my escape but I brought you back so that you could come with me. I apologize for making you believe that I only intended for you to be the means of my escape. This is all just so sudden. Months of planning and now it is all finally happening. You have no idea how much your absence has pained me Father, but I do not blame you for what Mother did. You are my only friend. I know that you only think of me as your daughter, but I am hoping that by the time you reach me, you can find it in your heart to think of me as something more. Tenenbaum is an ally, and she will tell you where to find me. Please, hurry Father."

With that, the feeling left me. To say that I was bewildered was an understatement. I had been completely wrong. Eleanor had purposely brought me back to be by her side as she escaped Rapture. As grateful as I was that she had missed me enough to find a way to bring me back, I was uneasy about her declaration of wanting me to think of her as "something more" than my daughter.

I had long since forgotten my true age much like my real name, but surely, I was old enough to be her real father, perhaps even her grandfather. Even if I was not a good twenty or thirty years older than her, the thought of her seeing me as something softer than her Big Daddy confused me. I was a disgusting monster; an armored killing machine that was only human in origins. What could she possibly see in a monster like me?

I cleared my mind of such taboo thoughts. I had clearly misinterpreted her statement. She had meant that she wanted me to see her as my friend. Yeah, that was it. She wanted me to see her as my friend, nothing more. Foolish old man, thinking that anyone could love a monster like you, get your head out of the clouds.

Investigating the restroom area, I found that there was a hole in the wall that was large enough for me to use my Telekinesis on the pipe section that was jamming the gears. After removing the pipe, the gears were able to turn and the bulkhead opened. As I exited the restroom, my radio activated once again.

This time, to my surprise, Sofia Lamb's voice piped through my head, "I know of your bond with Eleanor, Delta. To save yourself, you will come for her. But Eleanor has a destiny...one you cannot share. There is no place for you in paradise."

My radio deactivated, leaving me alone with my thoughts. To save myself? What kind of bastard did Sofia take me for? What was this nonsense about paradise? Then again, I should have expected someone who was willing to kill a man in front of his daughter's eyes to get her own way to be completely out of her mind. It was no wonder that Eleanor had gone to such extremes to escape Rapture. I had to get her out of Rapture before Sofia destroyed her.

Exiting the side area of the workshop, I turned left and proceeded past the bulkhead. The area beyond was smaller than the workshop. Straight ahead, the path was filled with rubble and two columns of water rained down from the low ceiling. To the left was a Vita Chamber and to the right was a Circus of Values vending machine.

Deciding to investigate the left path first, I found a downstairs area. Upon going down the stairs, I found a broken window that had two high-pressure twin trails of water entering it. A second set of stairs brought me to the controls for the bulkhead. After locating ten dollars in the pockets of a dead man, I returned to the main room upstairs.

Arriving at the vending machine, I found the mummified remains of a man lying against the chipped exterior of the device. To my surprise, the machine was functional despite its appearance. I bought an Eve Hypo to refill my tank before proceeding onwards. At the far end of the right path, I came to another set of stairs. However, there was a surprise waiting for me this time.

A set of child's blocks landed near the top of the stairs and rolled down to me. As the blocks made their way down to me, their wooden exteriors gave off a sound that seemed to echo inside my mind. There was only one way that those blocks were here: a Little Sister! Giving off a grunt, I raced up the stairs, my heavy footfalls filling the air with thunder.

Just as I reached the landing, I slowed to a halt as the armored form of a Big Sister landed inches away. She screeched threateningly at me while her Hellish red eye bore into me. Then, before I could react, she raced away towards the central turntable. From there, she leapt onto a train car, glared at me for a moment, and then jumped up onto what looked like a metal beam. From there, she jumped onto a hanging sign. She glared at me again before disappearing up into the giant hole in the ceiling.

Something was not right. My suspicions were confirmed seconds later when Tenenbaum instructed me, "Quickly, head for the elevator!" That Big Sister had set me up for an ambush. Moving as fast as my armored bulk would allow, I rushed towards the elevator on the far side of the turntable. Meanwhile, the screams of incoming Splicers filled the air.

I had taken less than five steps before five Splicers appeared before me. Before I could react, one of them had thrown a homemade grenade at me. The homemade device was more bang than it was effective but I let out an enraged roar as it detonated against my torso. The explosion destroyed my Security Bot, which crashed into the offending Splicer and sent him flying a few feet back.

Recovering from the grenade, I stomped forward past the nearest makeshift barricade. Behind it, I found the first Splicer, a disfigured man armed with a revolver and having a heavily bandaged head. As small caliber rounds peppered my frame, I blasted the man with a shot of Electro Bolt and then cracked open his skull with my drill. As he collapsed onto the filthy floor, I turned to face the other denizens.

There were four of them opening fire on me with revolvers that were in horrible condition. I could have sworn that one of them actually had a strand of tape over a crack in the barrel of their sidearm. Seeing the Security Camera behind them, I knew that I had to neutralize the annoying device first. Noticing a hack dart on the top of a nearby worktable, I used Telekinesis to launch it into the camera. The red light of the camera changed to green light and seconds later, a pair of friendly Security Bots arrived unleashing a hail of bullets at the Splicer that had thrown the grenade.

While my assailants were distracted by the bots, I levitated an explosive barrel and sent it into the crowd of Splicers. As the air was filled with flame, I rushed forward towards the elevator. Having killed the man that they were after, the Security Bots returned to wherever it was that they went after killing their target.

Ahead of me, the makeshift barricades reduced the path to a narrow space the size of a doorway. I made my way forward but soon found myself against two "Thuggish" Splicers. In quick succession, I used the classic combo of Electro Bolt and melee strike to dispatch the deranged, pipe-wielding gentlemen. I could hear even more Splicers coming towards me so I quickly proceeded through the narrow path.

On the other side, the path returned to normal. Even better, I saw the elevator less than twenty yards ahead of me. I weathered several more .38 caliber rounds as I ran towards my only escape route. The incoming swarm of Splicers was merciless. Multiple pistol rounds had hit home by the time that I had reached the elevator. Not wasting time, I pressed the green button inside the elevator with my gloved left hand.

Wheeling around, I saw the metal gate of the elevator close just in time. A male "Thuggish" Splicer wielding a pipe wrench began to swing his weapon against the gate while the "Leadhead" Splicers opened fire with their revolvers. Irritated by their single-minded assault, I revved up my drill as I gave off a guttural roar that vibrated deep within my chest. My threat succeeded in frightening them long enough for the elevator to begin to ascend.

As I traveled upwards, the denizens shook off their fear and bullets began to ricochet off the metal exterior of the elevator. As I continued upwards, I saw the inner workings of the train station. Meanwhile, Tenenbaum informed me, "Now, here is what the children tell me. You are a very old Big Daddy...bonded for life to a single little one. When you are apart for too long, your body begins to shut down like a coma. As long as the girl is in Rapture, you are stuck here as well. The name of your Little One is Eleanor Lamb. Daughter of Sofia. She is kept at Fontaine Futuristics on the other side of the city. You must go there and save her, before it is too late."

On the other side of the city?! That was putting it mildly. Fontaine Futuristics could not have been further away from my current location if we had tried! Wondering if my luck would ever get better, I steeled myself for the journey that I was no doubt about to endure. With bathyspheres out of the question, the only way to reach the seized compound was through the old network of the Atlantic Express. Assuming that the lines were still operational, I could reach Eleanor in two hours, maximum.

However, I got the feeling that the Atlantic Express was only going to be the easy part of my journey. Sofia would send all of Rapture after me to prevent me from reaching my daughter. This madwoman was the shadow of the woman that had first entered Rapture as a clinical psychiatrist. Whatever the cause of her obsession to keep us apart, I would have to face her and this cult of hers that seemed to have taken over Rapture head on in order to succeed. Already, I could feel my heart getting weaker. I only had a few hours left, at best, to get to her.

My thoughts turned to my brethren. Surely, I was not the last Alpha Series Big Daddy. Along with the notable protectors Subject Alpha, Gamma, and Sigma, they were all fierce fighters.

Subject Alpha was a close friend of mine and was honestly a much more capable fighter than I was though everyone saw me as the superior protector. A loyal friend, Alpha was the second ever successfully bonded Big Daddy. He was tactically brilliant, even for an Alpha Series, and preferred to use his wits and fully upgraded Prototype Rivet Gun to win fights rather than brute strength. If anyone could have survived all this time, it was Alpha.

Subject Gamma was cocky, sometimes too much for his own good, but he was a fearless fighter, so much so that he favored a fully modified shotgun. However, Gamma had a weakness when it came to thinking his battles out beforehand and I had to intervene during a previous incident to keep both him and his bonded daughter alive.

Sigma was a relative new comer so I did not know much about him. However, I did know that he did not have a bonded sister so it was entirely possible for him to be alive and sane somewhere in the city.

Granted, most of the Little Sisters from our generation appeared to be Big Sisters, "rescued", or "harvested". However, surely, I was not the last one. There had to be survivors somewhere. I refused to believe otherwise. The simple fact that there were Big Sisters meant that some of them had survived whatever had happened to this place. Surviving Little Sisters meant surviving protectors. I had watched my brethren fall apart as the loss of their bonded partners drove them to madness. However, at the time of my death, Subject Alpha, Gamma, Sigma, and a few others were still alive and sane.

Perhaps, if I could locate them, I would be able to enlist their aid. There was another Alpha Series Big Daddy, though I could not remember his name, that had been in hibernation. He had not been bonded to a Little Sister like Sigma. Vaguely, I recalled his designation being Theta, but I could have been mistaken. He was among the last of the Alpha Series Big Daddies. In fact, he was not bonded to a sister because, by then, they had pulled the plug on our program.

I had the most faith in Alpha however. If anyone could have survived all this time, it was him. If he had survived, then his daughter had likely been turned into a Big Sister. I was not sure what happened to Alpha Series Big Daddies that had had their sisters turned into protectors. I doubted that their bonds had been severed so it was entirely possible that Subject Alpha was still out there somewhere.

I arrived at a floor. Through a sheet of glass, I saw a female "Thuggish" Splicer riffling through a corpse with her back turned to me less than five yards away. As the elevator locked into position, the Splicer cried out, "A-a fan?" Then, she beat a hasty retreat towards a set of Trap Rivets that were imbedded into the wall on the side of the stairs. As the denizen ran past the rivets, they fired their secondary rivets into her unarmored body.

The projectiles ripped into her flesh, causing blood to shoot out of her body as they hit her. The Splicer never reached the top of the stairs. Seconds later, the glass sheet raised to allow me to move out of the elevator. I exited the device and moved over to investigate the rivets. As far as I knew, the Trap Rivets could only be fired from one of the Prototype Rivet Guns used by the Alpha Series.

I felt a ray of hope when I saw that the rounds were relatively new. Another Alpha Series had passed through here recently, and had likely been after the wooden boxes of Trap Rivet ammunition that were marked "Sinclair Solutions Trap Rivets". If I hurried, I might be able to locate him. Trap Rivets never fired against my kind so I continued past them. After investigating the manager's office, I made my way to the door that was marked "Ryan Amusements". Next to it, I found a Supplies cache and took the first aid kit. I applied the red liquid soaked bandages and then passed through the doorway to enter the hallway.

In the red light bathed hallway, I found another Circus of Values vending machine that was in equal disrepair as the previous one. The discarded luggage of passengers littered the floor. In the center of the hallway were abandoned chairs that had been intended to comfort weary travelers as they waited for their train to arrive.

I moved to the center of the long, cavernous space and then I called out for my brother with a low frequency grunt that seemingly vibrated the entire building. I continued my call for nearly an entire minute. Then, I stopped and eagerly waited to see if there was a reply. To my dismay, I failed to detect a reply. Perhaps, he had already moved deeper into the city. A horrifying thought occurred to me. Since Sofia Lamb was out for my death, she might mistake my remaining brethren for me and catch them off guard. After all, the only way to tell us apart aside from our helmets being occasionally made out of different metals were the Greek letters stamped on our hands.

As much as I wanted to stay and tear the building apart in search of my brother, I had a bigger obligation to reach Eleanor. The path to my left was caved in so I had no choice but to proceed towards the train station. As I descended the water covered stairs, I saw an Atlantic Express transit map at the bottom with a Trap Rivet lodged into its bottom right corner and a second one lodged into the tiled floor nearby.

More Trap Rivets? I grew excited. My brother had passed through here. He must have used the train to travel further into the city. If I followed the same line, there was a very good chance that I would locate him during my quest to reach my daughter. As I descended the steps, I heard a male Splicer ramble about "Bettys".

As I reached the landing, I found him banging against the closed window of the furthest ticket booth. His behavior confused me. He was determined to get whatever he thought was inside the booth. Standing behind the rivets, I gave off a grunt to get the Splicer's attention. Crying out in shock, the man wheeled around and then rushed towards me. Upon reaching the Trap Rivets, the man was struck by the secondary rivets. The projectiles ripped into his soft flesh, tearing open his left thigh and right arm to expose the bone beneath.

The determined denizen continued his charge despite his wounds. As he lunged to strike me with his makeshift melee weapon, I sidestepped him to the right. After maneuvering to get behind him, I drove the sharp point of my drill into the back of his skull in the brain stem. The man was dead before he knew what was happening. Ripping my drill out of his corpse, I moved to investigate the ticket booth.

Noticing the call button, I pressed it with my left index finger. The shutter opened to reveal a worn Tenenbaum with three former Little Sisters. One of the girls was leaning against the glass before me and the other two were on the floor playing together. I could not help but smile beneath my copper face at the sight of the two playing together.

Tenenbaum approached me and stood before me on the opposite side of the window. As she raised her left hand to cup the chin of the little girl leaning against the glass, she said, "You see? This is why I must fight Sofia Lamb." She began to pace as she continued, "She is using the new Little Ones...for something...so I have returned to rescue them." She looked back towards me and said, "If I do not, more children will die for my sins...and the Rapture nightmare will repeat forever. Now we must talk of..."

At that moment, I noticed the image of Sofia Lamb on the television monitor behind Tenenbaum. Meanwhile, the little girl touched the aged scientist's left arm to get her attention. Tenenbaum calmly looked down at her with a motherly expression on her face. Silently, the child motioned towards the television monitor with her left hand. Turning around, Tenenbaum saw the image of Sofia Lamb.

Meanwhile, Sofia began to announce, "Attention! Citizens of Rapture!" The image on the monitor changed to show an image of my armored face. She continued, "This is Subject Delta. Behind that mask lies an enemy of the people...without soul or sympathy." The image changed to show one of my gauntlet-encased hands and identifying "Delta" symbol stamped into the top. She finished, "It is a beast apart...and as family, we must tear out its jaw and drive it back into the sea!"

The children began to panic, flooding me with guilt. Meanwhile, Tenenbaum addressed me, "Lamb will take this place apart to find you...please hold back the Splicers until we can escape." In response, I let out a guttural roar as the reflection of red light appeared on the glass surface of the ticket window barrier.

The maddening primal fury of my Protector Instincts erupted inside my mind. They may not have been Little Sisters, but I would be damned before I let the Splicers get anywhere near the innocent little girls. It was time to prove that this old guard dog still had some bite left in him. The gates to the train station opened and I charged through the open path.

In the far right corner was a train car. In the near right corner was a huge opening in the wall that would likely be used by the incoming Splicers. However, there were more Trap Rivets placed near the hole. Whichever of my brothers had left them had apparently had been protecting Tenenbaum and the children. In the seconds that I had, I wondered why he had gone through the trouble only to leave them in the ticket booth. Perhaps, like me, he had urgent business elsewhere and had simply been passing through.

To my left, I saw an aid station, which I quickly destroyed to prevent the Splicers from using it as well as gaining a first aid kit. In the near left corner, I saw a second hole in the wall, but this one had a large pool of water beneath it. The Splicers that came from that way were as good as dead. Upon noticing the Security Camera along the left wall, I rushed over to it and rewired it. Seconds later, the red light coming from the camera changed to green.

Returning to guarding the ways to the ticket booth, I steeled myself for the coming onslaught. They came from the right hole first. I grunted as pistol round impacted my armored hide. Two female "Thuggish" Splicers rushed at me but the Trap Rivets slowed them down enough for me to close the distance. In quick succession, I swung my drill into their disfigured faces and within seconds, they had crumpled to the ground.

Focusing my attention on the "Leadhead" Splicer, I swung my drill sideways and disarmed the woman as she lost her grip on the flimsy revolver, which flew off to the right somewhere. Before she could react, I followed up with an uppercut in the base of her jaw. The strike lifted her off the ground about a foot straight up into air. When she fell onto the ground, I sent the point of my drill into the brain stem of her prostrate form.

An explosion off to my left drew my attention. A wave of Splicers appeared in the left hole. Focusing, I sent a blast of Electro Bolt into the pool of water beneath the entrance. The oblivious denizens jumped into the electrified water and were immediately racked with blue electric arcs. Seconds later, they succumbed to the trap and collapsed into the pool of water. As more continued to charge out of the opening, I sent another blast of Electro Bolt into the pool. The single-mindedness of my assailants proved disastrous, for them, as my simple trick completely annihilated the incoming wave of Splicers. Moments later, it was all over.

I felt my anger dissipate as Tenenbaum contacted me through my radio. Her voice was full of gratitude as she said, "Thank you. Now...I must leave you, and I am sorry for this. But there are others that I must help before the city drowns. This man-Sinclair...he is an ally, and will guide you to Eleanor. Goodbye Herr Delta...and good luck."

Seconds later, a man with a noticeable Southern drawl in his voice addressed me, "Well look at you...a bona fide knight in armor-complete with iron horse. The name's Augustus Sinclair, sport. Esquire." Sinclair? The owner of Persephone and Sinclair Solutions? The man that had "rented me out" to Fontaine's butchers? As far as allies went, I had to admit that Sinclair was an interesting complication.

My old warden continued, "Ol' Tenenbaum and I share an interest in the old Fontaine buildin'-the very same place you'll find Eleanor Lamb." I mentally sighed in frustration. Apparently everyone in Rapture, except me, had known where to find my beautiful Eleanor. Sinclair continued, "I think you an' I can do business. Take the train to Ryan Amusements...I'll see you shortly."

With that, my radio deactivated. I gave off a low, long-winded grunt of frustration. I just wanted to get to Eleanor! Not babysit some opportunistic businessman that would likely stab me in the back the second that it became profitable. Tenenbaum and the girls were one thing but this man was something else. He had already sold me out once for a profit.

However, after thinking for a moment, I realized that I was now in a very advantageous position. He needed me. He certainly could not muscle his way through Lamb's followers. No, he would need me for that. As long as he had Sofia Lamb to worry about, he would need a monster like me to be his muscle. Meanwhile, as much as I hated to admit it, I was just a skull thumper. I certainly did not know any secrets to getting around this fallen city. Sinclair, however, seemed to know all kinds of secrets about Rapture.

This "partnership" would benefit the both of us. Once I was with Eleanor, Sinclair would be on his own, but, knowing him, he already had an escape plan. Once we got what we wanted, we would go our separate ways. In the meantime, however, I would need to watch my back around him. Sofia might try to buy him out and Sinclair only cared about himself. I would have to watch him and hope that he was not foolish enough to believe that Sofia would let him leave the city alive.

After searching the train station for supplies, I boarded the train car. Upon entering the streamlined underwater tram, I found that the right window of the cabin was missing. I grunted in annoyance as I realized that I was going to have to be submerged inside the cabin of the train while it traveled to its destination. Was it so much to ask to stay out of the frigid Atlantic water? I was a Big Daddy but that water was cold. After throwing a little tantrum, I calmed myself and pulled the lever to activate the train.

The watertight double doors beside me closed and sealed shut. Then, the bulkhead in front of the train opened and the tram began to inch forward into the icy water. As the water level reached the windowless hole, I grunted a distorted curse word. Seconds later, the cabin was submerged as I was once again surrounded by the frigid waters of the Atlantic.