"Oh, God, Eleanor! Don't you ever knock!?" Mother barked, clutching the blanket over her naked body while sliding off her partner, then reaching for a pile of clothes.
"Get dressed, you," Eleanor spat, walking out the bedroom.
Eleanor stood with her back to the wall, head low, arms crossed, quite grumpy. She hated Mother's accent, rather slow speaking, and quite annoying tone. Yet, at the same time, Mother's voice truly felt motherly, soothing, a perfect mask for her sinister nature.
Eventually, Mother left the room, also grumpy. She wore a black shirt and jeans, similarly to Eleanor, coincidentally. Mother's hair was quite messy, and she crossed her arms, tilted her head, and semi-glared at her nosy daughter.
"So...fucking guys, now?" Eleanor hissed, keeping eye contact. Although it was none of her business, this was not what mothers do.
Mother's eyebrows furrowed. "Ask yourself, Eleanor—"
"Shut the fuck up, Mom!" Daughter sharply looked away.
Sofia remained unflinching, though amidst the pause, she realized that her daughter had changed, and needed a few seconds to read the new Eleanor. The realization that so many years of nurturing totally failed made Mother scowl. But, the blonde broad regained her composure. After all, not even Eleanor could make Sofia quit.
"My daughter...I know you all too know well—"
"Why did you fuck him!?" Eleanor interrupted again.
Mother thought for a second. "For his better good."
"I thought you criticized sexual pathos?" Eleanor rolled her eyes. "You were always a fuckin' hypocrite."
Sofia needed to rewire a few things. "You have simply chosen to see what you want to, Eleanor. I nurtured you brilliantly, my daughter. But, although you rejected everything you were meant for...and although you have surpassed even my intellect...it is still my task to answer to the chains of evolution. The worship of greed and pride is even more prevalent on the surface. I can't change you, Eleanor, but I can begin again. Not for myself, not for you, not for the next Lamb...but for the loyalty of altruism."
Eleanor tilted her head, her one eyelid partly closing, giving Mother a stern look. "You want another baby? To start all of that all over again!?" She looked away, shaking her head. "Huh, well...at least this time you're not minimizing your role in reproduction... But, you know, Mother, what a good definition of an idiot is? Someone who tries the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result."
Sofia remained composed and focused, unphased by her girl's snappy attitude, but aware of it.
I'm not surprised you didn't even ask about my missing eyeball, fucking bitch.
"I am patient, Eleanor, you should know better. What I see in you...a different Eleanor, clearly not the daughter I once new, the daughter the world needed. I see a lost girl with depression, anxiety, sexual urges...responses to your imprisonment in the great chain. A child with no purpose, no direction, no life, no beliefs. The liberty you have chosen makes you just like Andrew."
Sofia's words rather hurt Eleanor. To be compared to Andrew!
Eleanor swallowed her growl. "I observed my world, and concluded I could do better. And I did, with the help of Father and the little ones. Your ideas are nothing but sophistry and collectivism, a rejection of the individual. But what you never understood...is that the individual who creates these ideas, can also destroy them. Father wiped out The Rapture Family, and mostly by himself. That is the power of the individual, Mother."
Dr. Lamb refocused her psychologist style. "And all nothing but dissatisfaction, naturally corrupt, slavery of the self...and the creation of the tyrant, who by force and guile, enchains everything. The tyrant measures and cuts, examines and separates. Like the tyrant, Eleanor, you have no family, no friends, no country. Congratulations, Eleanor, you have enjoyed the delusion of free will. Tricked by your genes, tempted by emotion, destroyed by nature."
Eleanor feeling like she was actually in Rapture again. Memories of Mother's lectures when she was a child came back. Eleanor's temples throbbed.
Eleanor leaned into Mother, neither breaking eye contact. Unblinking, eye overflowing with entrapped ferocity, Eleanor held her breath. "When we escaped Rapture...what was everything you said to me? All a fucking lie? Even when I wanted the best for you? When I tried to show you what morals should be?"
Mother scoffed.
"You're not a mother, you're a psychopath," Eleanor growled, leaning into Mother so that their foreheads bumped, "and one who thinks she's too good for the natural world."
The two heard someone walking.
Eleanor saw the man who Mother fucked standing in the doorway, buttoning up his shirt. His sternum was cruelly mapped with twisting scars, covering the entire breadth of his lower rib cage. He was an inch taller than Eleanor, middle-aged. He had short white hair, and bushy eyebrows, also white. His blue eyes had emptiness and sadness, and Eleanor actually felt sorry for him, but nonetheless glared at him with her one eye.
"Uhh...sorry." He looked at the two ladies, all of them thinking about the arguing. "Well, give a man some power, and he falls in all kinds of love with himself," he remarked, as if admitting something. "Guess it applies to women, too."
Mother looked back at Eleanor, and crossed her arms. Whether it was oxymoronic to call Sofia Lamb a psychopath or not, was anyone's guess, but it certainly stuck to her.
"I will grow old and die, knowing my own daughter rejected my beliefs, but this is a sacrifice I am willing to make, to give up the truth that is in the body," Sofia explained, then looked at the man. "Unlike my failed child, he understands me. He is a man who could end sin itself, a man who opposed the tyrant in him." Sofia looked back at Eleanor. "As for the daughter, I will hear her wailing and gnashing as she falls into the darkness created by her false father."
The man winced as he heard a loud slap, Sofia clutching her face as she hit the floor. Eleanor grabbed Mother by the neck with one hand and lifted her off the floor, then slammed her against the wall and lifted her against it. Eleanor's face was cold and empty as she squeezed, just hard enough to block airflow.
Sofia grasped Eleanor's forearm with both hands, quite startled as Eleanor's fingernails stabbed through her skin.
The man regained his senses. "Good God! Put her down!" He grabbed Eleanor's arm and tried to yank it down. His eyes widened once he realized Eleanor did not even budge. The girl turned her head, giving him a frightening, snakelike look. The man slightly reared, Eleanor's dark hair, big blue eye, and fierce face giving him a horrible memory.
"Please, child...she is sorry! She's sorry she really is!"
Eleanor did not buy it. Sofia shook from lack of oxygen.
Eleanor glared at him again. "You are the one who shot the taxi driver in the head, then dragged me out the car! You are the reason I got kidnapped, you son of a bitch!"
He hesitated.
"No! It's not what it seems! I wanted to take you away from the Pinkerton's! Bastards then caught up and took you away from me," the man explained.
Eleanor was unconvinced.
Sofia began kicking, her eyes rolling back.
The man neared Eleanor, gently putting his hand on her shoulder.
She looked at him.
"Eleanor, chi-hl-hl-lld... I'm so sorry."
Eleanor dropped Mother.
Sofia coughed, wheezing to regain air. The man knelt and put a hand on her.
Eleanor just walked away, heading downstairs.
As morning became brighter, Eleanor grumpily sat at the kitchen table, having poured herself a bowl of cereal. Spoon tinging against the glass, teeth crunching cornflakes, Eleanor's head and eye slowly turned.
The man stood nearby. He had a holstered Smith & Wesson Model 29-2 at his side, having a barrel over eight inches long. He looked nervous.
"So...did you shoot him in the head, too?" Eleanor asked, referring to the dead man in the chair. He still didn't look good, either.
"No."
The guy sat at the table beside Eleanor, carefully, hoping not to make Eleanor angry. She slightly pulled her bowl of cereal away from him. "He was already here when we got home. He's Benny Stango, a detective from New York City. Got involved with the Pinkerton's, tried to call 'em out, and paid for it. They killed him here to make a statement. Your cab driver was also a target, but I...also had a bad history with him. Someone else would have killed him if not me. And now, I'm next, for...failing to take you to them."
"So you went upstairs to fuck my mom."
"Aw, jeez...can't you give me a break? It was for old time's sake. I played cards with her once, back in Rapture. I just wanted to relax before being on the run again."
"Why are the Pinkerton's after you!?" Eleanor demanded, but he just shrugged. Eleanor punched him in the shoulder.
"Aw..." He rubbed his shoulder, surprised by how much it hurt. "Huhh, look...I don't really know. They think I still owe them something from long ago, a contract from...before the First World War. I guess it has something to do with an...ancestor...of mine. Talk about greed and hatred," the man explained, but Eleanor felt he was not telling the truth.
"More importantly, why do some of them have Plasmids?"
"Hunh? Oh, well, they...uh... I don't know. Nothing makes sense anymore."
"Hm. Wait, did you say you met my mother in Rapture?" Eleanor asked, he nodded.
"Yes, I...was a private detective."
"Huh. You are?"
"B— ...Zachary."
"Hm. How's mom?"
"In bed, resting. Thanks, for...not killing her. And I know how hard it can be to...let go. You don't wanna wake up one day realizing you didn't like what you chose."
"What's she been up to?" Eleanor asked, not really caring what the man spoke about.
"Heh, she's quite talented in what she does. Got a cult going on after meeting some guy. Think his name was Michael. Will admit I sure don't know what she's talking about most of the time."
"She met a man named Michael? What was his last name?" Eleanor asked, intrigued.
"After or Vader or something like that."
"Vay Atar..."
"Yeah, something like that, I think. Their cult is mostly crazy Irish Catholics. Seems like every city has its fair share of fools. But...when I saw Sofia again...well, let's just say it sure would be nice to settle down with someone."
"Settle down with Mother? I really think you should reconsider," Eleanor warned.
Zachary gave Eleanor a semi-offended look but calmed down. "What happened to your eye, by the way?"
"Got shot in the face, by another Benny," Eleanor answered.
"What is it with Bennys nowadays..."
A car stopped outside.
Zachary pulled out his .44 Magnum revolver and ran to the kitchen window.
"Aww, shit... It's the Pinkerton's," Zachary did not wait, pistol whipping the glass broken, then pulled the hammer back with his thumb, and fired. The gunshot echoed powerfully, reverberating throughout the house.
Eleanor grabbed her bowl with both hands and gulped everything down (she was rather hungry), then jumped to her feet as pistols rained bullets against the house. To her surprise, she saw Zachary raise a hand and blast an electric bolt through the window. A translucent yellowish aura formed around him, then cracked apart when too many bullets hit him. He spun behind cover as another surge of electricity blasted into the kitchen.
"Dammit! Get to your mother, make sure she's alright!" Zachary ordered.
"Hell no! You go make sure she's alright! I'll hold them off!" Eleanor shouted, darting off like a cheetah to the entrance.
When Zachary looked out the window again, he saw large fireballs arching upon the car, exploding on impact, two Pinkerton's hurled through the air, smoking. While their grey car burst into flames, Eleanor used her telekinesis to lift the agents and slam them headfirst into the sidewalk, getting rid of them.
Zachary lifted his eyebrows. "Huh, well that's convenient." He ran ran upstairs to fetch Sofia. He found her waddling down the hallway, massaging her neck, still in pain from Eleanor's choke, yet fearless.
"What's...going on?" Sofia croaked.
Zachary picked her up bridal style, kissing her cheek. "We gotta go!" He ran down the stairs with her. Reaching the last step, he put her down, grabbing his car keys from the wall. As they got their shoes on, Zachary filled his pockets with .44 Magnum bullets, put a sports jacket on, and put his wallet in his pocket.
Zachary exited the house, seeing Eleanor use her psychokinesis to pull the agents' pistols into her hands. He saw some people off in the distance, either running away or looking at the blazing car.
Mother crossed her arms. "Ahh...of course. Just like her false father... Can't go a single day without fighting...just like an animal."
Mother's Rapture Family mode made Eleanor's veins throb.
"Ohhh, for fuck's sake, woman..."
"We ain't got time to argue! Into the car!" Zachary shouted, picking Sofia up bridal style again and heading to the driveway.
Parked in the driveway was a 4-door sedan, a Hudson Hornet from the Fifties. Rather outdated, but still a big V8 American car. Zachary opened the back door and threw Sofia in, then jumped into the driver's seat and got it started. He looked to the side as Eleanor teleport into the car.
Eleanor scowled at the stunned Zachary. "What?"
"Ughh...nothing."
Tires screaming, he drove out the driveway, three Pinkerton cars racing after him.
"Mom, catch!" Eleanor tossed one pistol at Mother, who caught the gun and looked at it weird.
The Pinkerton car at the front floored it, catching up to Zachary; he turned at a red light, cars honking, and raced down the road. The Pinkerton's chased after them nonetheless. An agent in the passenger seat of the lead car opened his window, leaned out, and opened fire with an Uzi.
"Get down!" Zachary screamed, everyone lowering their heads as bullets thudded into the back of the car, rear window cracking and getting holes. Zachary swerved into oncoming traffic, nearly crashing into honking cars.
Sofia straightened her back, unaffected. "Congratulations, we get to experience the natural human condition of evolutionary competition."
Zachary and Eleanor looked back at Mother. "Shut up, woman!" Zachary and Eleanor shouted at the same time.
Dr. Lamb didn't say anything.
More bullets showered the car, some whizzing past Eleanor's head and putting holes in the windshield.
Eleanor opened her window and leaned out, feeling wind raking her face and flick her hair like crazy. She aimed and fired back at her pursuers, hitting the windshield and engine, but the car continued racing, hood smoking. People on both sides of the road fled in panic, and Eleanor hoped she did not accidentally shoot any of them. "Mom! Do something!"
"I need glasses to see. Glasses that you broke," Mother reminded. Eleanor looked at Mother, rolling her eyes.
Sofia finally turned around and fired her pistol through the rear window, but dropped it, and then checked to see if she broke a nail.
Eleanor shook her head. "Why are moms so useless..."
The pursuing driver pushed on the cracked glass until the windshield broke apart, and then he cast an electric bolt forth, hitting the back of Zachary's car. The electricity surged through the car, all three occupants shouting from pain. Zachary's vehicle even died from the electromagnetic pulse, but continued rolling along.
Nevertheless, Zachary regained himself, turning his car back on, exhaust pipe fuming and engine roaring anew. He increased speed, swerving amidst traffic on both lanes and sometimes steering down streets. But, no matter what he did, the Pinkerton's pursued him relentlessly, the second electro bolt missing and hitting a streetlight instead. The gunner reloaded his Uzi and released another stream of bullets, sometimes hitting other cars and who knows who else!
Eleanor emptied her pistol clip, seeing blood smeared along the inside of the chasing car's windshield. "Yesss!" The driver was hit. He slouched over the steering wheel and his car skidded to the side, his gunner falling out the window, the vehicle crashing into oncoming traffic.
Eleanor winced at the accident. "Well...one car down, two to go."
The next car roared in pursuit, and sure enough, a second Uzi-wielding agent stuck his head out his window and opened fire like a maniac.
The second car was driven quite aggressively, nearing top speed while the Uzi ripped into the trunk of the car and back tires. Zachary managed to control the car even with the back tires blown out, but now, there was no way he could outrun his pursuers. The car behind him rammed into him, but the big V8 Hudson Hornet continued driving, wheels scraping against the road and sending sparks.
Mother gripped her pistol firmly and fired back, her shots pecking into the Pinkerton car's hood and not much else.
"Can you do anything besides talk!?" Eleanor complained.
Unexpectedly, Mother's last shot struck the Uzi-wielding agent in the shoulder. He grimaced and slid back into his car. Regardless, his car sped up and drove alongside Zachary's right, the driver holding the wheel in one hand and withdrawing a pistol. Eleanor amassed an anti-gravitational shield to protect herself, bullets slowed by it and bouncing off her body.
"Take the wheel!" Zachary yelled, Eleanor doing so as Zachary aimed his revolver across Eleanor and fired, thumb pulling back the hammer after each shot. The .44 Magnum rounds shot clean through the agent's door and went into his side. He scrunched up from pain, the already-injured gunner grabbing the wheel.
Zachary stuck his hand out his window, hurling a big chunk of ice. The second car was out of the chase when the chunk of ice hit it, freezing over. Wheels icebound, the car slid across the road, crashing into parked cars.
The third car swerved around and continued the chase, the frozen car slamming against a building and sending shards of ice fluttering everywhere. A third Uzi guy popped out and unleashed another torrent of bullets into the already-perforated Hudson Hornet. The rear window finally shattered. Mother grabbed her head and cuddled up, hoping not to get shot.
"Jesus! They sure don't give up easily!" Zachary exclaimed.
Eleanor noticed the translucent yellow aura reappeared around him, withstanding the bullets fired at him from behind.
"Drive as smooth as you can!" Eleanor shouted, leaning out the car, then throwing explosive fireballs at their pursuer. Since her car was always shaking and swerving, Eleanor's Plasmids kept missing, hitting the road. To make things worse, the Uzi was aimed at her, and she felt bullets whizzing past her ears!
"Let me help out!" Zachary extended an arm out the window; he charged up and dropped a Devil's Kiss trap. The pursuers steered around the trap but it exploded anyways, the Pinkerton car smoking from underneath, then Eleanor's fiery Plasmids hitting the car and lighting it up. The driver turned from panic and heat, the car screeching then rolling over.
"Ahh! Ha ha haaa!" Eleanor cheered, pulling her head back into the car.
Sofia sat up, looking around, bullet holes everywhere. Yet, incredibly, she was mostly unharmed, bullets only nicking her skin and cutting her up here and there. She nonchalantly felt her pockets. "I need a smoke..."
"We're not done yet," Zachary remarked, he and Eleanor looking ahead, perhaps thirty Pinkerton's lining across the road behind a roadblock of cars. "We're not stopping, no matter what!" Zachary pushed the gas pedal to the floor, engine growling with whatever functionality it had left. The agents up ahead raised their pistols or Uzis. "Get down" Zachary screamed, he and his passengers doing so.
Many bullets fired like crazy. Some of the Pinkerton's cast electric bolts or hurled explosive fireballs. Eleanor formed a telekinetic shield in front of the car, to slightly slow down the incoming projectiles, the front of the Hudson Hornet receiving all sorts of punishment. Bullets shredded the front of the car, the windshield shattered, the hood popped open, and the vehicle burst into flames.
Engine flaming and smoking, the car roared its last breath of utter defiance against the Pinkerton's. As the agents ran off to the sides, the Hudson Hornet smashed through the noses of two cars just as Eleanor unleashed a powerful psychokinetic burst, and, much to everyone's surprise, actually continued driving!
One of the Pinkerton's cast a freezing force, extinguishing the flames. Zachary's car now icebound, the wheels had no traction, and it slid diagonally. One of the agents unleashed a Bucking Bronco, flipping Zachary's car over, which then slid down the road upside-down.
Finally sliding to a halt, the Hudson Hornet had, at long last, stopped moving.
The Pinkerton's waited patiently.
Zachary kicked his door open, flakes of ice and glass fluttering. Her crawled out, coughing. Sofia appeared behind him, dizzy and dazed. Both were rather scrapped up and bruised.
"Sofia! You okay?" Zachary asked, Mother nodding. He picked up his revolver from inside the car. He could hear sirens echoing. "Oh, thank god, about damn time coppers are coming for once... Eleanor? You okay? Eleanor? Hello!?"
Zachary opened his revolver's cylinder, taking out the shells and putting a few new bullets in. He leaned out the side of his crashed car, and was greeted with more bullets. His shields shattered but he returned fire, though there was no way a single-action revolver could compete with two dozen gunmen. He ducked, then saw swirling purple appear above the roadblock.
Eleanor dropped down, landing atop one of the agents with such force her feet slammed him against the road and broke his shoulders. As the Pinkerton's spun to face her, she put her hands together, amassing fire, then hurled a barrage of explosive fiery projectiles everywhere. The Plasmids exploded all around Eleanor, hurling Pinkerton's, engulfing their cars, and creating an inferno.
Sofia and Zachary got up and watched the blaze. As if pushing aside a pair of curtains, Eleanor stepped through the flames, unharmed by the fire. She casually walked forth, hip sway feminine, and moved a hand through her hair, untroubled by her few cuts and scratches.
"Uhh...well done?" Zachary remarked.
"You were casting Plasmids," Eleanor commented, crossing her arms. "I have a feeling you know how the Pinkerton's got theirs."
"I, well... When they found me, they took me in and did some genetic experiments. Apparently, the Vigors I drank modified my genes, and they were able to replicate Vigors, I guess?" Zachary replied, but he was clearly uncertain of it all.
Eleanor gave him a weird look. "Vigors?"
"Vigors, Plasmids, whatever."
"Pffhuh. See how our genes cause us to behave as animals?" Mother commented.
"Says the one who was fuelling me with ADAM for how long?" Eleanor rebuked.
"Let's just go! Before we get into any more trouble!" Zachary started his walk as firefighting trucks, police cars and ambulances approached the scene. He holstered his revolver, hiding it under his sports jacket.
"And where are we going?" Eleanor asked.
"Away," Zachary replied, the two girls walking after him as everything burned behind them.
"We're going to church, actually," Sofia said, walking ahead of Zachary. "East 51st Street right there. We go down to St. Patrick's Cathedral, so that my real family can help me," she continued. Zachary shrugged, but that was the plan, apparently.
Michael's message popped in Eleanor's thoughts. She furrowed her eyebrows, finding it hard to believe such chances. It was as if, no matter what she did, she was always progressing where she had to go. As she followed Mother, she turned around, and saw something big and red briefly, but it quickly stepped into the flames and smoke, disappearing from sight.
Exactly what I saw in Ireland... Eleanor thought to herself. I'll have to get to the bottom of this, now.