Eleanor ran after Songbird, Cindy in her arms. The mechanical lengths hanging from the dim sky were becoming more active, bundles of them visibly curling side to side, swaying, or spinning. The most immense mechanical lengths continued spiralling into the tops of skyscrapers, slithering into windows and then reappearing several floors down through lower windows.
The strange mechanical jellyfish that floated around occasionally emitted yellow spotlights out their fronts, beaming them around. Eleanor had a hunch it was best not to get sighted by them, so she took cover behind various vehicles, piles of rubble, and behind buildings.
As Eleanor waited for a few mechanical jellyfish to pass, she felt the ground shake every few seconds, the rumbling echoing down every street in the area. Once able, Eleanor darted off, the mechanical jellyfish not reacting to her. She almost lost sight of Songbird, but he seemed to be flying in the direction of the rumbling.
Songbird suddenly screamed aggressively, swooping between the skyscrapers and turning down a street.
"There goes Big Angel!" Cindy squeaked, Eleanor running after The Bird as he disappeared around the skyscrapers.
As Eleanor ran on and on, she overheard distant gunfights. A polyphonic choir of roars and howls echoed throughout the city, Cindy shivering from fright and grasping Eleanor tightly.
"No matter what happens, I'll protect you," Eleanor promised. It would have been smarter and easier to have left Cindy back at the park, but the sisters' bond could not be fully broken.
Songbird flew powerfully, wings sometimes scraping along the sides of the skyscrapers, but nothing would stop him. His eyes turned red as he turned down the next street, and up ahead was Columbia University. The campus had held a large student demonstation previously, but it obviously was not going on anymore.
Eleanor sprinted down the next street, and she saw Songbird flying towards Columbia University. Within the large buildings of higher learning was the Low Memorial Library. Mounted atop the Low Memorial Library was something straight out of a nightmare, causing Eleanor to stop. She even felt her feet skid, and Cindy's hands clawed at her.
Well, whatever gargantuan nightmare had manifested itself into reality, was perhaps fifty feet wide and tall, resembling a giant, skinless gorilla head with a face similar to that of a viperfish. It had a pair of huge lens-like yellow eyes, with criss-crossing metal bars over them, apparently having been inserted into the sides of its eye sockets.
The immense head sat atop the rotunda, immense skinless arms grasping the sides of the buildings, humongous claws having scraped against the concrete. Eleanor could not see the whole breadth of the monster, but it seemed to have a neck (or tail?) two hundred feet long, somewhat comparable to the body of a snake, yet having shoulders and arms before the head. The serpentine body coiled around the library, and the rest trailed off into the distance.
Quite unusually, a series of gigantic chains from the sky connected to the monster's knuckles, and many more hooked along the beast's spinal cord. This gave it the appearance of a nightmarish, monstrous, fleshy marionette the size of a building.
Eleanor and Cindy were both dumbstruck. Ms. Lamb did not frighten easily, but even she was quite spooked at what she had just seen. Then, the monster's eyes beamed yellow, and it raised its head, casting two spotlights upon Eleanor.
Immediately, Eleanor felt static and distortion torture her brains. Her eyes glowed yellow, as did her veins, and she fell to one knee. She barely had the strength to carry Cindy, and was quickly forced to put her down. Eleanor's head and shoulders lowered, feeling her strength melt away.
"Eleanor! What's wrong, Eleanor? What's wrong!" Cindy cried, hugging Little Daddy against her chest, but Eleanor did not react.
Eleanor lifted her gaze, as painful at it was, and stared back at the beaming lights. Blood trickled out her nose and mouth.
"Ms. Lamb…" a low, slow, guttural voice seemingly reverberated from the lights.
Cindy grabbed Eleanor's arm, trying to pull her out of the spotlight, but no matter how much Cindy groaned and tried, Eleanor was just too heavy. Suddenly, the spotlights lifted, and Eleanor went back to normal. Shaking her head, Eleanor stood up, wiping her face from the blood.
"Eleanor! You're back!" Cindy cheered, and then a shrieking wail echoed.
Looking up, Eleanor saw Songbird dive into the monster, The Bird ramming his claws into the beast's skull and digging into its flesh. Both monsters' eyes beamed red. The gargantuan monster groaned, and began flailing itself side to side, its chains shaking violently, but Songbird did not let go, even when his legs slid out the monster.
Songbird made a mess of the monster's face, clawing massive rips down its skull. He then ripped open its right eye, then partly crawling into the eye socket, destroying the eyeball.
The monster reared with a howl, arms rather slowly lifting and grasping its face. It was not long until the monster began to fall backwards off the Low Monument Library, landing with a mighty crash, the rattling of chains echoing.
While Songbird made a mess of the monster, Eleanor saw a group of people run out the library.
"Hey! This way!" Eleanor yelled at the people, so they ran towards her, and she and Cindy walked to them.
"Eleanor? That you?" a man asked, Eleanor raising an eyebrow. Soon, the group of people reached her, consisting of two men, and three dainty women. The five people were panting, especially one of the women, who was quite old.
"There you are. We thought you died," Zachary remarked, Booker and the Elizabeths turning around to look back.
"I'm glad you're all alive, too," Eleanor remarked, everyone overhearing the echoes of Songbird's wailing and fighting behind the library. Cindy stepped closer to Eleanor, putting her shoulder against Eleanor's leg.
"That damn thing was crawling after us for hours!" Booker exclaimed, catching his breath.
"And I thought those fleshy guys were bad…" Pinkerton Elizabeth remarked.
"Just...what the hell is going on?" blue Elizabeth asked, quite spooked, putting her hands over her elbows and raising her shoulders.
Up above, where the sun was rising, the machinery began to unfurl. The movement was quite loud, rattling and clanking reverberating down from the sky. Sunlight beamed through the opening, but it would still need a couple hours to fully open.
"It seems you better hurry," someone said, causing everyone to turn their heads to the right. Standing with his arms and legs slightly spread apart, elbows bent, was a familiar, eyeless face.
"Oh, him, yet again," Zachary remarked.
"He's a bad man!" Cindy growled.
"You...you're still alive?" Pinkerton Elizabeth asked angrily, "I saw Songbird rip you in half…"
Booker, Zachary and Eleanor got ready, ready to kill Michael again, but they didn't pounce just yet. Old Elizabeth raised her shoulders and forearms, and took a few steps back. Pinkerton Elizabeth and blue Elizabeth looked at each other, and nodded. Eyes narrowed, these two Elizabeths remembered what Annabelle told them.
"Post obitum, lux aeternum," Michael remarked, empty eye sockets bleeding away as always. He clasped his hands behind his back, then tilted his shoulders.
"So, you entered and escaped his domain, Elizabeth," Michael said, cocking his head, but not reacting as the two Elizabeths gently approached him.
"But, just as there are multiple Elizabeths, and multiple Bookers, so too are there-" Michael paused, then looked back and forth at the two Elizabeths. He then spread his arms out to the side, and let himself fall backwards. He landed in a shadowy Tear, and it and he promptly disappeared, leaving the Elizabeths dumbstruck.
"Aw! Should have just shot him," Booker remarked, watching as Pinkerton Elizabeth groaned and crossed her arms from frustration.
"Or grasped him with psychokinesis," Eleanor commented, then noticed old Elizabeth walking a short distance to the side, looking up.
"He's coming," old Elizabeth warned, nervously staring into the sky of machinery, at the section that was opening up in front of the sun.
"Who?" Eleanor asked.
"Spirry," old Elizabeth answered, then she looked at Eleanor, eyes big and filled with fright. "It's all over, for the last time."
"Spirry, hunh. I met him once or twice," Eleanor said.
"So did I. But we need to get to Rapture," Pinkerton Elizabeth stated.
"Go back to Rapture? No point. Mother bombed it down into the abyss. There is no Rapture left," Eleanor said. Pinkerton Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows, and hesitated.
"We still need to go."
"Why?" Eleanor asked.
"I… I don't know. But sometimes...you just need a leap of faith."
"And how are we gonna go all the way back to Rapture?" Zachary asked, quite skeptical.
"We'll find a way," Pinkerton Elizabeth assured, then everyone heard Songbird screech.
Everyone turned to face the library, seeing Songbird rising, grasped by dozens of chains. The chains lifted Songbird, and no matter how much he writhed and kicked, he could not free himself.
"Songbird!" blue Elizabeth cried, clasping her hands in front of herself, then froze as the giant skull-monster climbed atop the library, missing its right eye.
"There's nothing we can do! Let's go!" Booker yelled, grabbing young Elizabeth and yanking her to get moving.
Eleanor picked up Cindy, and everyone ran away from the giant monster. It was simply too gigantic to fight.
The monster's immense body began to uncoil from the building, and it crawled after everyone, serpentine body slithering, the chains connected to its hands and spine rattling.
Whenever the monster lifted its hands, the chains in its knuckles pulled up, retracting into the sky, suggesting the monster also relied on mechanical assistance for its locomotion. Regardless, the monster moved rather slowly, immense arms dragging its grotesque head and slithering body, but each stroke moved the monster several dozen feet.
As she ran, Eleanor felt the monster's eye beam red light over her back. Her skin crawled and felt fizzy, but did not feel much else. She, and everyone else, could hear the damn beast breathing behind them! It kept opening and closing its mouth repeatedly, curved towering teeth clicking together loud enough to echo.
Up ahead, several of the flying mechanical jellyfish-things beamed red lights, and swerved towards everyone, mechanical arms extending forwards. Zachary and Booker shot the drones down without too much trouble, and the chase continued.
The monster's hands soon began crushing various ruined vehicles here and there, and occasionally it grabbed the sides of buildings to pull itself faster.
Sometimes, Zachary turned around to throw Old Man Winter or cast it as a trap for the incoming monster, but the freezing effects did little. He even cast Possession at the huge monster, but, unsurprisingly, the green ghost failed to do anything. To make things worse, gunfire and howling echoed in multiple directions.
"Eleanor! Up there!" Cindy cried, Eleanor looking up. Unfortunately, a few dozen fleshy monsters were climbing down the mechanical lengths, sometimes jumping or swinging on them, but some fleshy monsters climbed down the sides of buildings.
"Those things are above us!" Eleanor warned.
"Dammit! Not these guys again!" Booker complained, so he cast Murder of Crows. The flock of surreal crows would keep the beasts busy for a while, buying everyone a little more time.
"Ugh! I can smell the damn thing's breath!" Pinkerton Elizabeth complained.
"Eleanor!" Cindy cried, gripping Eleanor tighter.
"Keep moving! Just don't look back!" Eleanor yelled, so everyone else looked back as they ran, and sure enough, the giant monster was perhaps fifty feet behind them, rattling chains and clicking teeth reverberating throughout the streets.
"We need to find a small alley to get away!" old Elizabeth yelled, the pain in her knees and ankles almost becoming unbearable.
"They're all blocked with debris!" Booker shouted.
"Keep looking!" Zachary yelled back, then threw an Old Man Winter trap for the monster, its hand triggering the trap which partly froze its hand.
More howls and roars echoed, and small groups of fleshy monsters began jumping down from up above, landing here and there. While running, Booker, Zachary and Pinkerton Elizabeth opened fire, Eleanor hurling fiery Plasmids, the attacks harming the beasts but they nevertheless ran after the fresh meat.
Several monsters jumped down ahead of everyone, and they promptly received Plasmids and bullets. Zachary cast Possession on one of the fleshy monsters, and it quickly spun around and leapt upon another fleshy monster, the two rolling around clawing and biting.
"Booker!" blue Elizabeth exclaimed.
"Do it!" Booker shouted, and his Elizabeth conjured an Abraham Lincoln Motorized Patriot.
"Death comes for thee, unnatural abominations!" the Patriot exclaimed, cranking his weapon and unleashing a stream of bullets upon the beasts. Most were gunned down, the monsters writhing on the road, but three charged anyways, ablaze from Eleanor's Plasmids.
Zachary cast Old Man Winter, freezing one charging fleshy monster solid, smoke briefly rising off its formerly-flaming body. Eleanor used her telekinesis to stifle the next two, allowing Pinkerton Elizabeth and Booker to shoot them down.
As he ran past the dying fleshy monsters, Booker swung the stock of his carbine across one beast's jaw as it picked itself up, knocking it down.
The Motorized Patriot stayed back, gunning down a dozen fleshy monsters and then firing at the giant monster. His crank gun ran out of ammo, and he began reloading.
"Though you shall fall not now, our cause is righteous, and this world shall never be yours!" the Patriot assured, then turned around and ran away from the giant monster just as it slammed both hands where the Patriot once stood.
A few fleshy monsters charged at the Patriot, but he beat them down with his crank gun and stomped upon them. While running, he finished reloading, and continued firing at the fleshy monsters in his way, occasionally tackling them down.
The giant monster swung its hand down at the Motorized Patriot, but he suddenly swerved in his running, dodging the attack. The Patriot turned around, running backwards while firing at the giant and the fleshy monsters sliding off the mechanical lengths above.
While the Patriot kept the horde of monsters busy, stifling them at least a little, everyone else had the time to create more distance from the danger. However, it was not long until the Patriot was overcome. The fleshy monsters could run faster than Eleanor, and one by one, the occasional fleshy monster survived the stream of bullets and tackled into the Patriot. He fought back until his crank gun ran out of bullets, then clubbed his gun until it broke apart, covered with blood. He then began punching, headbutting and kicking at the horde of fleshy monstrosities, but was taken down, and ripped apart.
Howling and roaring, the horde of fleshy monsters ran up the street, triggering various Vigor traps left behind by Zachary and Booker. The eruptions of fire, freezing, electricity, crows, levitation, and Possession all contributed to disruption, especially the Possessions, but the horde numbered a few hundred at least, and just kept going. The giant monster did not bother watching where it placed its hands, and often set them down upon several fleshy monsters, crushing them.
"I-I-I can't go running much longer!" old Elizabeth cried, and then Zachary suddenly picked her up bridal style, and ran with her. She was quite surprised by that, and despite the obvious age, Zachary was still quite strong.
"We really gotta get out of here! Now!" Booker yelled, hearing the squirmy noises of the horde getting louder and louder.
"I'm trying to get a Tear open! But I can't find one!" blue Elizabeth cried back.
"Then try harder! I sure as hell ain't ending up their supper!" Booker shouted, shooting down a mechanical jellyfish up ahead, then reloading his carbine while running.
"If we can't outrun them, we'll have to split up, or I'll hand Cindy to someone and divert their attention!" Eleanor suggested.
"Fair enough!"
Down the road, something big and red appeared, flying into the side of a skyscraper. It was a Vox zeppelin. Lightning flashed across the dim morning sky, revealing several other zeppelins rather haphazardly flying in-between the skyscrapers, sometimes bumping into the buildings or each other.
The giant monster lifted its chin, briefly hesitating. It let out a strange squawk-like sound.
The red-draped zeppelins aligned themselves wherever they could, and opened fire at the horde of monsters. Onboard personnel of Beasts and infantry also opened fire, and soon, many rockets screeched down the streets, overhead Eleanor and her friends, exploding amidst the fleshy monstrosities.
"Dayyum! Look at tha size oh dat one!" the Vox announcer exclaimed over the PA.
The giant monster was pummeled by many rockets. It lost a few teeth, and a few rockets flew into its empty eye socket and exploded within its skull, but it kept crawling, blood gushing out of its wounds. The rockets blasted many fleshy monsters up into the air, but the horde kept moving.
"Never thought I'd be happy to see rebels!" Zachary exclaimed as rockets screamed overhead, old Elizabeth clutching him, quite frightened of everything.
Everyone kept running, and to their surprise, one of the Security Zeppelins descended, landing ahead of them. A dozen or so Vox infantry, and a few Beasts, ran out, opening fire at the horde.
Once Eleanor and the others reached the zeppelin, one of the infantry raised her carbine and beckoned everyone.
"C'mon, get in! We gotta go!" Daisy shouted, beckoning everyone to get aboard. She aimed her carbine fired at the incoming horde, the giant skull-monster crawling through the barrage of rockets and gunfire.
A portion of fleshy monsters appeared from other directions, but were nonetheless shot apart. A few managed to reach the Vox, but the Beasts tackled into the beasts and began headbutting their helms into heads. Not even fleshy monsters could claw or bite through metal, so the Beasts kept them busy.
Eleanor, Cindy, the youngest Elizabeths, and Booker boarded the zeppelin. Zachary put the old Elizabeth down and they entered the zeppelin. Eleanor used her telekinesis to grasp the fleshy monsters fighting the Beasts and render them immobile, allowing the Beasts to bust their skulls open, then the infantry to shoot them dead.
"A'right! Let's get outta here!" Daisy shouted, then the Vox infantry and Beasts went back into the zeppelin, Daisy the last to enter.
Up the zeppelin went, the horde of fleshy monsters charging like feral dogs possessed by demons. Many monsters leapt into the air, but they could not reach the zeppelin.
"Good timing!" Booker exclaimed, Zachary and the Elizabeths sighing with relief. Eleanor put Cindy down, and they looked out the window to see the fireworks outside.
"Yeah… When I saw you runnin' down there, with all them things after ya, I just had to go down n' pick ya'll up," Daisy said, then looked through the window, seeing the huge monster crawling down the street. "An' God Almighty, what the hell is that? Nevah seen anythin' alive that big!"
"Looks like we gonna need quite a lot er rockets ta take 'im out," an Irish-American Vox Beast remarked.
"Yeah, no kiddin'," Booker said.
As the zeppelin flew up and away, the giant monster stared at it. Smoking from so much rocketry, the monster's chains retracted, lifting its hands higher and higher. It then clawed at a large skyscraper, and literally began climbing up it.
"He sure doesn't give up easily," blue Elizabeth remarked.
"Well, he ain't never faced us before," Daisy assured.
Eleanor kept looking out the window, and saw a big church off in the distance. It was the Cathedral Church of St. John the divine, and south of it was West 111th Street People's Garden. The next block eastward was the south end of Morningside Park.
Curiously enough, the section of the mechanical sky opening up allowed sunlight to beam upon the cathedral. It was quite pretty to look at, though Eleanor had a feeling it was still an ominous omen.