Ch. 21: Unscheduled stop

A.N.:

Hey everyone!

I'm very sorry about the wait. I've been absolutely buried with work this semester but I've finally caught a break so let the writing resume xD

Seriously though, I am sorry.

Also, I think I made the beginning of this chapter too fluffy and weird. You have been forewarned xD

Anyway,

I appreciate all the new favs and follows that this story has received. It means a lot.

I hope the wait was worth it! :)

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

The rhythmic thumping of the car's runners along the uneven, time-ravaged track of the Atlantic Express echoed distantly in my mind as the train car moved towards the next station. If I was recalling correctly, it would be Lamb's private residence, named Dionysus Park to insult Andrew Ryan. From beneath my imposing frost-covered frame I idly waited as the dark foreboding landscape of the seafloor surrounding the decaying city passed by the partially flooded car.

As it did, I took measure of our current predicament. The events of Pauper's Drop had cost us valuable time that could not be replaced. However, Dionysus Park had been flooded due to an unfortunate accident prior to my death ten years ago and, thus, we would be able to pass through the station without any problems from Splicers or Sofia. Once we left the madwoman's former residence, it would only be a short trip before we arrived at our destination, Fontaine Futuristiscs.

The building itself had been badly damaged when Ryan's men had stormed into it and seized it. Worse still, as Alpha had mentioned, several of our brothers were still alive and their minds were not their own. A broken Alpha Series Big Daddy is fiercely territorial as if it was the apex predator defending its hunting grounds from any challengers. They were quarantined in Persephone before the war but there were likely several patrolling the ruins of the nearby buildings that made up Fontaine's former headquarters. In addition, Sofia would likely have the quarantined Big Daddies released to buy her more time.

The secret entrance to Persephone was accessible via the control room in the "true" facility behind the main building. We would need a genetic key in order to be able to use the switch on the control panel. However, as indicated by Sofia's revival of the Little Sister Program and the new Mass Production Model that I had encountered, the building had likely been re-inhabited in order for Lamb and The Family to be able to make use of its old Big Daddy and Little Sister conversion laboratories. That meant that there was a new warden of the building. All we needed to do was hunt the individual down and retrieve his or her key.

My thoughts turned to Eleanor. Knowing that I was drawing near, Sofia would be accelerating her cruel experiments on my beloved daughter. Lamb was playing with the proverbial fire. Ordinary human beings could not handle massive influxes of ADAM in a short period of time. Their genetic code would literally be ripped apart and the end result was either something inhuman or it simply was fatal for in the individual. However, Eleanor was a former Little Sister.

Her beautiful body was not only immune to the genetic damage that ADAM caused, which Sofia knew, but it also had long since developed a symbiotic relationship with the substance. While the symbiotic relationship was the cause of the immunity, it was also the cause for another property of Eleanor's body. An ordinary human being's body was enhanced by ADAM at a geometric rate. However, Eleanor's body was enhancing at an exponential rate.

Eleanor had a genius-level, if not higher, intellect and was the most stubborn creature that I had ever encountered. Sofia clearly thought that she had a method by which she could control my daughter. Otherwise, she would have never dared to begin pumping ADAM into Eleanor. The idea that there was a method to control the dark-haired young woman was comical. Being turned into a Little Sister and then physiologically bonded to me had failed to break her and I had nearly freed her from the mental conditioning by the time I had been murdered. If Suchong's Little Sister Conditioning had failed to break Eleanor when she was merely a child, then not even something like the experimental WYK Conditioning that had been tested on an unfortunate infant could break Eleanor now that she was a former Little Sister and a young woman.

The familiar feeling of bliss filled my body as the sight of my daughter appeared in my mind's eye. Her flawless, frost white skin and gentle neutral expression gave her the physical appearance of an angel but her disturbingly sharp deep blue eyes gave her the air of a deity. Visually, her frame was thin but that was merely a façade. When she moved forward and then wrapped her arms around my upper torso, I could feel the powerful, ADAM-infused muscular strength that her innocent façade disguised so effectively.

Eleanor pouted as she looked up at me before she asked with a sad tone, 'Do you really think that I am that macho, Father?'

Holding her with my left hand near the small of her back and with my right hand gently cupping her smooth left cheek, I assured her, 'No. Of course not, Eleanor. I've always thought that you are a very beautiful man.'

She narrowed her eyes for a moment and then replied with a flat tone, 'You're teasing me…'

I smiled slightly and then said with my gruff voice, 'Yes.'

Eleanor smiled brightly and then kissed me with her intoxicating soft and full lips before I could react. Her spicy taste overwhelmed every conscious part of my being as if it was hijacking my soul. Part of me wanted to be ashamed of my reaction to the embrace of a woman who was both young enough to be my real daughter and I had known when she was a child.

However, before I knew Eleanor, I had never known the true feeling of peace. I felt happy and calm around her but cold and withdrawn when we were apart. It had taken the absence of the inquisitive young British girl to reveal that I had been miserable for my entire life. Then, it had taken being twisted into the monster Subject Delta to reveal how far I was willing to go to protect her.

It was possible that I was merely misinterpreting a pseudo-parental attachment to Eleanor. However, as far as I knew, such bonds were enforced by hard-wired instinct and biological chemicals. Parental bonds, like the Big Daddy/Little Sister bonds, were incredibly strong and also fairly consistent even over a long period of time, in most cases for a lifetime. My attachment to Eleanor had grown from casual friendship to dangerously strong during our time together.

My attachment to her had started before I was her bonded protector so I was doubtful that my feelings were artificial. My attachment to her had notably grown and changed in nature over time rather than staying fairly consistent. In addition, while it was who she was as an individual that captivated me the most, even when she was a child, I had been strangely aware that she was aesthetically pleasing to look at.

Considering all of the evidence, while it was always possible that I was so broken that I fabricated my feelings for her due to a subconscious desire to believe that I was still a human being, I could only conclude that what I felt was real. While the circumstances by which she had entered my life were unorthodox, that did not change how I felt. Perhaps it had been true for a long time but her age had blinded me to my own feelings. However, now I could not deny it even to myself. I truly loved Eleanor Lamb.

When she finally withdrew from me, she said with a grateful tone, 'Thank you.'

Confused, I asked, 'For what?'

The blossoming goddess explained, 'For treating me like an adult…not a child.'

I smiled slightly for a moment and then said, 'I've been thinking…before I was uncertain about what I was feeling but…considering everything the only conclusion that I can reach is that either I'm crazy or I truly love you. I love you and not the idea of you or because I want to make you happy.'

The pale young woman looked at me with a blank expression for a few agonizing seconds before, finally, she pressed her entire body against mine and buried her head into my chest just below my collarbone. I became alarmed when I felt her almost painfully hot frame begin to shake slightly. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her against me as gently as I could. However, my concern was revealed to be unwarranted when I felt a wet sensation on my chest and heard her whisper, 'Thank you, Johnny. I love you too.'

My reprieve with Eleanor was rudely interrupted by the harsh feedback of my helmet's built-in shortwave radio as it powered to life. I found that we were mere moments from entering the flooded station of Dionysus Park. As the train car neared the slot that allowed it access into the station, the voice of a man older than fifty years of age and with a noticeable accent addressed me in some kind of strange, deluded religious rhetoric, "Hear me! O ye that would threaten the Lamb of God, ye shall never reach her garden!"

As he finished his anger-filled ramble, an object appeared in the slot leading to Dionysus Park. As the shiny object moved towards us at a rapid pace, I almost immediately identified it as a torpedo. There was not any time to react before the tubular warhead impacted the train car. I let out a loud growl as I was enveloped by a chaotic sensory overload of bright light and screaming metal. Seconds later, I became aware of the sensation of sinking towards the ocean floor moments before I landed hard on my left side. The force of the impact and the shock of the torpedo's explosion proved to be too much for my body to handle and pitch black darkness shrouded my consciousness.

My time floating the dark abyss ended as the harsh feedback of my helmet's built-in radio as it powered to life echoed inside my copper façade. Opening my eyes, I saw the airlock that allowed access into Dionysus Park before me. I was on my left side and the organic material-rich grey mud of the ocean floor that had been thrown up by my frame hitting the bottom had settled back down to now cover my heavily-armored form. The foul, sludge-like substance clinged to my frame as I slowly rose to my feet.

As I did, the southern-accented voice of Sinclair piped through my radio as he continued addressing me, "…I thought that you had rode that torpedo into the old hereafter. I'm in Dionysus Park now. Train car's in shambles, leaking air. Whole park is flooded and sealed. But there's a pumping station back there in Siren Alley. If you can drain the park out, that'd let you stroll right inside."

I mentally laughed as I heard the name Siren Alley. The former quarters of the masons of Rapture and the host of Pumping Station Number 5 had an entirely different name before my death. For some inexplicable reason, the most talented architects and engineers in the world had built Rapture without any means of naturally draining the water that would inevitably invade its walls. In order to prevent the entire city from drowning, pumping stations such as the one in "Siren Alley" were built all throughout the metropolis. The almost inconceivable blunder had drastically shortened the city's lifespan because the pumps had a finite number of replacement parts and Rapture's isolation from the surface meant that even if everything had worked out like Andrew Ryan had envisioned, his life's greatest achievement would have been lucky to last more than a few decades.

Looking around, I was relieved when I saw Subject Alpha getting to his feet a few yards to my right. He was also covered in the sludge-like mud but otherwise did not seem to be any worse for wear. Looking back to my left, I was again relieved when I saw Jennifer removing an ADAM-containing sea slug from where it had been attached to one of the supports for the Atlantis Express track the was above our heads.

Glancing up towards the track, I became wary of a curious Great White shark that had arrived to investigate the disturbance caused by the torpedo. Fortunately, the massive predator was not interested in risking its life by attempting a predatory attack on a Big Daddy and it began to lazily cruise away in search of an easier meal.

As he moved towards me, my brother commented via his radio, "Lamb's torpedo defense system…that is a good sign. If The Family is getting desperate enough to use it against the train car, the rival Splicer factions will start putting pressure on them throughout the city."

Surprising me, Jennifer added via her radio, "Sofia has been so reliant upon my sisters and I and her ability to manipulate people to keep her enemies at bay that now she does not have very many alternatives to deal with this situation. By now, she must be aware of Tennenbaum and Papa Sigma as well."

I turned to face in her direction and found her standing before me. The sea slug was trying to wiggle out of her right hand's vise-like grip as she reached out and placed it in the palm of my gloved left hand. Using the same method by which I exorcised Little Sisters, I harvested the ADAM from the creature. Though it only a minute amount of the genetically corrupting substance, my body hungrily consumed it. Then, taking point, I began to make my way towards the nearby airlock to Siren Alley.

As I moved past the coral-covered support for the track, I heard a deep rumble to my right. Upon investigation, I saw one of the new rocket-launcher equipped Mass Production Models as the massive diving suit-clad humanoid walked by the nearby oval-shaped windows of Dionysus Park. The prospect of finally having to take on one of the abominations that dared to parade itself around as if it was indeed a Big Daddy riled the monster inside of me as Subject Delta had even more disdain for this new model than I did.

Moving forward, I walked around the side of the support to see the airlock entrance to Siren Alley less than fifty yards away. As I moved towards it, my radio crackled to life and, moments later, Sofia addressed me, "I see Father Whales has parted you from your craft. And yet you cling to life. Congratulations...today Delta you will meet a man who has no fear of death. And, for Eleanor, he would burn with a smile."

Father Whales? As in Simon and Daniel Whales? The two architects of Rapture? What had Sofia done to them?

Through our link, Eleanor explained, 'Mother manipulated Simon's guilt for not being able to get a new contract. Once Whales and Whales had completed their work for Ryan, they could not get another contract. Simon became increasingly depressed and my mother took advantage of him when he started going to her for sessions. Splicing has destroyed his mind and body. Be very careful when you deal with him, Father. He is a delusional psychopath.'

I replied, 'Don't worry, kid. I'll be careful.'

She remarked with a hint of frighteningly inhuman rage in her accented voice, 'Simon is lucky that I am trapped here. If I wasn't, I would find him and break the old man's neck with my bare hands.'

Entering the airlock, I said with a gentle tone, 'Calm down, Eleanor. It is alright. Everything is going to be fine.'

The powerful young woman shot back, 'No it is not! The one moment that every girl dreams of having and that bastard sullied it!'

As my two armored companions entered the airlock, I assured her, 'There will be more, El. I promise.'

She replied with a calmer tone, 'I know that there will be, Johnny. That's not the point.'

I said, 'I'll make it up to you. The best thing about the first time is that it is the first of many.'

With everyone inside the airlock, I pulled on the cycle lever that was fashioned out of a modified ship's telegraph. The watertight exterior door closed and the water was drained out by the airlock's pumps. Just before the interior doors opened, Eleanor said with a gentle and calm tone in response, 'I know you will, Johnny. Please be careful. Do not underestimate Simon. He is convinced that I am humanity's only hope for salvation and he is spliced far beyond being human.'

Before I could reply, Subject Delta remarked with his cold, cruel tone, 'Don't worry about your precious Johnny, Master. If it bleeds, I can kill it.'

My daughter assured the monster inside of me, 'Don't be so bitter, Delta. I love you both. After all, you are both the same person.'

As the door began to open, Delta replied, 'I appreciate the lie, Master. However, we both know how this will all end. The monster never gets the happy ending. The monster never gets saved. My hands are stained with blood and I am deaf from the sound of my victims' screams inside my head. I love you more than anything in this cruel joke called life. I know you love the old man and he loves you just the same. Monsters like me do not get to be loved. We live a life of cruelty and misery…and we die a death of even more cruelty and misery. However, I love you so much that until death calls me to my final judgment, I am going to ensure that both of you get your happy ending.'

Eleanor replied with a soft tone, 'Delta…'

However, as the door opened to reveal a war torn Siren Alley, two Leadhead Splicers, a man and a woman, armed with Thompson Submachine Guns ran into our field of view. At the same time, the deafening roar of an enraged Mass Production Model filled the air. Realizing what was happening and that a Little Sister was in trouble, I charged out of the airlock with my highly modified, industrial grade drill raised at the ready and with genetic flames emerging from the ported digits of my gauntlet-encased left hand.

To my left, I vaguely noticed a strange shrine of some kind. It was a portrait that was the size of a man's torso and the quality of the work was nearly inhuman in perfection. The subject seemed to be the tail section of a commercial airliner that was slowly sinking beneath the surface of an ocean. I nearly paused as I noticed that Rapture's Lighthouse was visible mere yards from the sinking aircraft. Suddenly, I remembered the tail section that I had seen outside Adonis Resort. The markings of the section in the painting and the one that I had seen were so identical that it was impossible that they were not the same. Someone had crashed a commercial airliner near the Lighthouse? Why?

Closing in on the two Splicers who had begun to fire their weapons at Mass Production Model, I noted that the path to the left was a dead end and that there was a Vita Chamber against the far wall. For a moment, I idly wondered why the two denizens had been together just out of sight in the far corner of a dead end path. However, I then remembered that the area had been renamed Siren Alley and realized that a man and a woman being together in an isolated spot was not uncommon in this part of Rapture.

I was almost within striking distance of the Splicers when a high explosive rocket propelled grenade struck them. The warhead's payload tore their bodies apart and I was showered with red-green blood and chunks of flesh. The explosion was close enough for the shockwave to jar my body and leave a low ringing in my ears. Letting out a growl, I turn to my right.

I was met with the sight of a straight street approximately fifty yards long. On either side of the street were ornate hardwood paneled two story buildings with one on the right and two on the left. The buildings were connected by a short bridge that spanned above the street. It was in the middle of the bridge that I saw the Mass Production Model firing an RPG at a male Leadhead Splicer.

The sight of the tall humanoid filled me with disgust and I had to swallow to clear my throat of the rising bile. This monstrosity was nothing short of a cheap parody of my kind. The true Big Daddies, the Alpha Series, did possess formidable physical strength and our weapons were tools of merciless brutality should the situation require it. However, it was our human minds that made us so effective.

This brainchild of post-Civil War Rapture was mindless brutality incarnate. As I moved towards the behemoth, the overpowering pheromones of the Little Sister began to fill my being. Glancing towards the Mass Production Model once again, I felt my stomach turn as I saw the dirty, sore-covered princess on the verge of crying as she cowered in fright of both the Splicers and the incredibly loud confrontation that was occurring mere inches away.

I managed to keep my rapidly building rage in check until the massive armored humanoid carelessly kicked the fragile little girl as he mindlessly annihilated the attacking Splicers. The blow was hard enough to knock the child down onto the floor in a heap. My rational thoughts were torn asunder as the molten hot homicidal rage of my Protector Instincts stormed into my mind. The bumbling behemoth was not fit to protect a slimy rock let alone the beautiful young princesses of Rapture! With my body feeling like an inferno from the rage coursing through my very soul and my segmented eye emitting its hellfire red, I let out a thunderous guttural Alpha Series roar that shook Siren Alley to its foundation.

The Mass Production Model did not have time to even turn around before I willed a blast of genetic flames from my ported fingertips. The behemoth let out an enraged whale-like roar as his frame was engulfed by flame. The sound of burning canvas filled the air as he wheeled around to look down at me. I flashed a cruel smirk beneath my diving helmet as the abomination fired an RPG at me. Countering the attack by powering up my drill, I sent the warhead back at the Tin Man.

The behemoth cried out in pain as the high explosive detonated against his armored chest. Taunting the wounded giant, I let out another guttural roar while I smashed my drill against the copper breastplate of my diving helmet. Operating on his basic programming, the Mass Production Model jumped from the bridge down onto the ground before me. The landing cracked the surface of the street and caused the nearby buildings to vibrate. However, I remained standing firmly upright.

The giant stood and then tossed an automated turret in my direction. Revving my drill, I charged forward in a Drill Dash. The flimsy baseball-sized turret was crushed beneath my weighted diving boot-clad feet as I quickly closed the gap between the abomination and myself. When our heavily armored forms collided, a slight growl escaped me as the force of the impact was enough to break multiple ribs and fill my ears with a ringing sound.

Slightly embarrassed because I had underestimated the weight of the much taller humanoid, I ignored the maddening agony of my ribs tearing into my internal organs as the contents of my First Aid Reservoir Tank began to pump into my body. As the giant recoiled a few steps back, I willed a blast of Electro Bolt from the ported digits of my left hand. Shuttering as I felt fresh frigid EVE being pumped into my blood stream, I moved forward and then swung my drill towards the launcher mounted over the temporarily paralyzed behemoth's right shoulder.

My drill's razor sharp tip hit home and my blow succeeded in gouging out a huge chunk of the launcher's wooden frame. Effectively disarmed, the giant let out a deafening roar and then swung his left fist at me. I staggered slightly while the sound of protesting copper filled the air as the abomination's left fist struck the right side of my helmet. Recovering quickly, I pounced on the unarmed giant.

The weight of my frame sent the behemoth onto the street on his back. As I stood over the flailing humanoid, I eyed the abomination in disgust. This was what they had replaced us with? I would sooner leave a Little Sister in the hands of a Bouncer Mass Production Model than this embarrassment of a Protector. This abomination was a metaphor for everything that was wrong with the Protector Program. Adaptability was the deciding factor in the fast-paced evolutionary arms race; not brute strength.

Revving up my drill, I sent my tool's razor sharp tip into the lightly armored "face" of the giant's strange diving helmet. The glass and canvas were little match for the hardened steel alloy of my drill and, seconds later, the humanoid was dead. As I retracted from the massive corpse, I heard the soft sound of tiny feet approaching me. Looking in the direction of the noise, I saw the Little Sister running towards me.

As the young girl neared me, I addressed Johnny Topside, 'My job is done, old man. Better get a move on…our time is running short.'

My calm, rational thoughts returned as the monster was put back in his cage. The hellish red glow of my segmented eye was replaced by its normal, calm yellow as I knelt down to be at the same level as the little girl. Her pale skin was covered with sores and the area around her mouth was stained by dried blood. The once bright red and white Sunday dress had faded to the point of almost being pink and the skirt had a rip in the area above her right leg that ran from the hem almost to the waist, revealing a trace of a pair of underwear that I could only assume had been white originally.

I recognized the sharp look in her glowing yellow eyes and could not help but smile as Eleanor raised her dirty left hand up and then gently cupped the right side of my copper face. The young girl smiled before she remarked proudly with her robotic tone, "I've got the best daddy."

I grunted, "Don't make this weird, Eleanor."

The little girl smirked before chirped, "Oh daddy...you're so big."

I let out a rumbling sigh before I grunted, "Eleanor."

She pouted before she said, "Fine…" Then, raising her arms up into the air, she said, "Eleanor want up." Sighing once again, I gently picked the child up with my open left hand and then guided her to her throne. As I did, my body was filled with a faint sense of peace as my link with Eleanor was temporarily strengthened. Once the small child was situated, I stood back upright and began to make my way towards the pumping station.

I had reached the end of the street and turned to look towards the watertight security door that lead to the pumping station when I saw a strange man hunched over and fidgeting with another shrine. The man was wearing black preacher's attire and a black hat but that was not what was unusual about him. It was the fact that his limbs were inhumanely long and thin. I felt a slight chill run down my spine as I identified the individual as a Spider Splicer.

Spider Splicers were the equivalent of Big Sisters long before the latter existed. Fast, agile, and lethal, they were not a foe to be taken lightly even by an Alpha Series Big Daddy. The fun house maze of Rapture was perfect territory for them as they contort their long thin bodies to fit between crevices and utilize the ventilation networks to ambush their victims and then escape before serious retribution could be inflicted upon them.

The Splicer finally seemed to notice my presence and looked towards me. When he did, he exclaimed with the same voice that I had heard over my radio, "The beast of Ryan lives!" Before I could react, he left the shrine and then jumped to the second floor of the nearby building. Without even missing a beat, Simon Whales continued, "Gather The Family!" Before my eyes, the heavily spliced psychopath then jumped to a makeshift bridge that was far beyond the reach of any other creature and then crawled out of sight, the telltale sound of the Spider Splicer's signature weapons, two glowing hot cargo hooks held in both hands, as they penetrated the wooden planks and were then ripped out filling the air.

Seconds later, my radio crackled to life and Sinclair said with a shocked tone, "Mother of mercy, I think that was Simon Whales! What's he done to himself? He and his brother were Rapture's architects but when Doc Lamb came along, Simon got religion. He's got a kind of church in the old pumping station. Expect a reckoning when you arrive."

I sighed. From where she was on my back, Eleanor asked, "Will things ever work out in our favor, Father?"

I grunted, "Have faith, El."

She replied, "I do have faith." I started to make my way towards the security door but then stopped when she requested, "Please say it again."

I smiled slightly beneath my emotionless façade before I grunted, "I love you, Eleanor."

Eleanor whispered, "Thank you. I love you too."

I smiled once again and then began to make my way towards the watertight door.