Disclaimer – I own nothing . . . nothing! Except my copies of the Bioshock games, of course.

A/N – Sorry it's been so long since the last chapter. I've been working on another writing project (original fic) so this kinda got pushed to the back burner, and I really haven't had a good break to get back to this until now. I'd like to take some time to thank all of you for your reviews since my last chapter.

Kratos-god-slayer-101 – Hope you're still reading this, and the cliffhanger was enough to keep you hanging on for the month or so since my last chapter.

female bioshock fan – I definitely do have specific actors in mind for each major role in the story, but, like you said, I think it's great that readers can come up with their own "cast" for the "movie" as they read. The actors I choose do affect how I portray the characters. I feel like my personal choice for Andrew Ryan's pretty obvious.

nathan-p – Better late than never, they say, so I definitely forgive you for waiting so long to review. I find it interesting that you say I have a "talent" for accents. Usually, I avoid typing in accents because in the past I just felt it looked ridiculous when it was typed out. In this case, I think imagining specific actors for each character has helped.

A/N –Anyway, I hope all of you are still reading, and that you enjoy the next chapter.

The light past the doorway sent Splicer shadows over Jack.

Jack reached to his hip for the revolver Evelyn had given him.

"Ya got five Splicers comin' your way," the voice on the radio said. "An' no more 'an six bullets in your gun. I can get ya out o' here, but you're goin' to have to trust me completely, and do everything exactly as I say. I won't leave you twistin' in the wind."

Jack began to back away from the doorway, slowly. He buckled the radio to his belt.

"First thing," Atlas said. "Hold on tight to that bag o' yours, turn, and run."

The first Splicer stepped through the doorway, issuing a barely human growl.

Jack did what Atlas said. He grabbed the handle of the leather satchel tightly, turned, and started running.

"Now if you keep runnin', you should find a back door. That'll lead you into the backrooms of Dandy Dental."

Jack slammed against the backwall, running his hand against it until he found a handle. He yanked the door open and leaped through to the other side, slamming the door behind him.

The dentist's office was covered in fallen file cabinets and smashed desks. Jack vaulted on top of them and over them, hurtling through reception windows as he made his way through the building.

"Come back here!" a pathetic voice whined after him from a distance. "We don't want to hurt you! We just want to talk."

"Don't leave just yet," Atlas said. "Take a deep breath and look at that shelf above you. You should see a box marked 'EVE.' You're gonna want to take that with you."

Jack found the box and pulled it down into the bag.

"Right next to that, you should see a big red bottle. Now would you kindly grab hold of it?"

As soon as Jack's fingers touched the bottle, his mysterious guide yelled, "Now run."

Jack took the bottle from the shelf and pounded towards the door at the other end of the room. The Splicers were crawling through the window after him, tripping and falling in a heap behind him.

"Now, head through that bulkhead to your right," Atlas said. "That should take you through a tunnel to the Metro Station."

Jack strained against the lever on the door. The Splicers had found their way upright again and were gaining on him as he tried to get the stubborn handle to turn.

"Hey, don't go nowhere!" one of them yelled. "We ain't gonna hurt ya. Just wanna talk to somebody."

The crowbar he was striking his own hand viciously with said otherwise.

The bulk head finally unlocked and swung open. Jack ran through, strained again to pull the massive door shut behind him, and then kept pulling until he heard the lock click back into place.

"Good work, lad," Atlas said. "That'll hold the Splicers off fer a li'l while. Now quick, head to the end o' the tunnel."

Steel clanged against steel behind Jack. He could hear the Splicers on the other side shouting curses as they smashed the door with their weapon. He took Atlas' advice and started running down the tunnel.

"Now look at the bottle you took."

Jack opened the satchel and carefully removed the bottle, letting the bag drop to his feet. It was a heavy glass vial filled with a gelatinous red substance. There was a hypodermic needle attached to the side.

"What is it?"

"It's a plasmid," Atlas said. "Called Electro Bolt."

The big door finally opened. The Splicers were moving down the tunnel towards Jack, and they looked angry.

"Hopefully the little bit of ADAM that psychopath Steinman filled ya with is enough to make this work," Atlas said. "Take a full hypo o' the plasmid, and inject it into your arm."

Jack rolled up his left sleeve and looked at the needle marks.

"But, I . . ."

"No time to argue, boyo! Those Splicers aren't getting' any further away!"

Jack ripped the hypo from the side of the bottle and tried to stick the needle through the stopper on top. His hand was trembling as the Splicers continued to move towards him. He backed up, moving closer and closer to another bulkhead on the other end of the tunnel.

Finally, the needle went through. Jack pulled up the plunger, filling the hypo with the strange, red substance.

He jabbed the needle into his arm and pushed the plunger.

An agonizing spasm hit every muscle in his body. Then it hit again, harder. Then, a pain worse than anything he'd felt before.

The bottle fell from his hand and shattered.

It was as if a thousand volts of electricity were flowing through his entire body. It wasn't just his skin that hurt. It felt like every organ and every blood cell inside of him was crackling with an electric charge.

The pain knocked him to the floor, helpless against the approaching Splicers. Even there, the sensation caused Jack to writhe in agony.

"Steady now," Atlas said, his tones reassuringly even. "Your genetic code is being rewritten. Just stay calm and everything'll be fine."

There were five Splicers staring Jack down, and one of them had a revolver. He pulled the trigger, and the shot connected next to Jack's ear, the ringing adding to his already intense discomfort.

A security camera, attached to a miniature helicopter propeller, came flying down the tunnel. The light bulb beside it was shining green, and a spotlight emanating from beneath the camera seemed to distract the attacking Splicers. Then a machine gun attached below the camera began firing a barrage at the huddle of Splicers.

The barrage seemed to be only irritating to the monsters, but it was distracting, and then Jack realized the shots were missing the Splicers and punching holes into the tunnel wall behind them. Water began pouring in at the Splicers' feet.

Jack had climbed a small staircase on his way to his end of the tunnel, giving him a few inches above the growing pool.

He stood up. Sparks of electricity were dancing off the back of his hand and his fingertips were glowing a vivid electric blue.

"Now!" Atlas yelled. "Zap 'em!"

"But how do I . . . ?"

"Do it now!"

Jack concentrated hard and opened his fingers. A bolt of lightning extended from his fingernails, hitting the water.

The water lit up. The Splicers shook as electricity shot up and down their bodies. Jack looked away as sparks flew everywhere.

When he looked again, the Splicers were floating in the shallow pool. Limp, smoking corpses.

"First time plasmid's a real kick from a mule," Atlas said, obviously gleeful. "But there's nuttin' like a fistfolla loitnin', now is 'ere?"

Jack retrieved the bag and opened the other bulkhead.

A bedraggled Jack was met on the other side by applause. Even Evelyn seemed relieved to see him back in one piece.

"Told ya da kid would make it," Lucky said.

Giuseppe and Pancho both groaned and handed wads of cash over to the man in the white suit. Even then, they were quick to run over and pat Jack on the back.

"Didn't do so bad after all, did he?" Giuseppe asked.

"No," Evelyn said. Her eyes were something approaching warmness as she looked at Jack. Or, at least the closest to warmness he'd seen her look at anybody but her sister with. "He di'n't at all."

Then, she did something that struck Jack harder than anything else she'd done. She smiled at him.

Jack handed her the bag.

Evelyn's smile doubled in size when she saw what was at the top of the bag. She held the box up high, like a prehistoric hunter presenting his trophy before a campfire to his tribe.

"Ladies and gents, we have EVE!"

Everyone cheered.

Evelyn put the box down and continued to rummage through the bag. She tossed a bottle of peroxide and some gauze to Langford.

"Doc, go ahead and see to sis's wounds, would ya?"

"There's something else," Jack said.

Evelyn's expression grew serious again.

Jack unclipped the shortwave radio from his belt and handed it to Evelyn.

"Hello there, miss," the singsong Irish lilt on the other end said. "I take it you're the leader o' the pack?"

"Who is this?"

"You can just call me 'Atlas'. Everybody else does."

Evelyn scoffed.

"What a loada . . ." Lucky began to say, but Evelyn held out a hand and glared at him, and everybody silently held their breath.

"Where are you speaking from?"

"Don't mince words, do ya? Well, I can respect that. I'm in a secure location. I'm safe. But I can't leave. Too many Splicers outside the door."

"And how do you know who we are?"

Atlas' hacked security bot flitted through the crowd.

"Neat-o," Twitch said.

"I want to help you," Atlas said.

"And why should I trust you?"

"Supposing I told you I knew a way out o' Rapture. Then ya wouldn't really ha' a choice, would ya?"

Now everyone stared intensely at the radio in Evelyn's hand. She smacked her dry lips together silently for a minute, and then she was finally able to get two more words out.

"Go on."

"You're gonna need weapons," Atlas continued. "I happen to know the location of a smuggler's cove in Port Neptune. But I'm gonna need ya to do a small favor for me while you're there."

"Yeah? What kinda a favor?"

"I've a family. A beautiful wife and a wee boy. Last I knew, they were at Neptune's Bounty. I need someone to go get them and bring them to me safe and sound."

"This is ridiculous," Evelyn said. "Even if you're tellin' the truth. Even if your family did somehow sorvive. There's no way we're goin' out o' our way to search Neptune Bounty for a coupla helpless bodies, and no way we could escort 'em through Rapture and still come out o' it wit' all o' us alive."

"I've a plan," Atlas insisted. "I can get ya all back to the surface. When ya find the weapons it'll prove to you I know what I'm talkin' about. But we can't do business 'til I know Moira and Patrick are alive."

"What should we do?" Evelyn asked, turning her wide eyes to the group. She seemed genuinely bewildered.

"Too risky," Mr. Touch said softly.

"I gotta agree," Lucky said. "Don't like the odds on this one. We got a better chance bunkin' down in Fort Frolic than takin' our chances at Port Neptune."

"Or taking our chances on another stranger," Giuseppe added.

"But we need guns," Pancho said. "Even if he's lying, we're no worse off taking his advise than we are just wanderin' around Rapture."

"He's right," Julie Langford said. "Eventually, we're going to run out of food or drink, if something doesn't kill us first. If there's any chance at all of getting back above water . . ."

Evelyn turned from the doctor to the young woman whose arm Langford was busy wrapping in gauze.

"What say you, Teagan?"

Teagan blinked a couple times, her long, thick eyelashes beating her cheeks, and then looked back and forth between her sister and Jack.

"I think we should ask him."

The security bot floated into Jack's face.

"Listen, Jack," Atlas' voice said. "I know it's hard for you being new down here. And I know you must feel like the unluckiest man in the world right now. But I have a family. And you're the only hope I have of ever seeing my wife and child again. Please. Go to Port Neptune. Find my family. And I'll help keep you alive."

Jack lifted the revolver from his waist band, felt its heft.

"I'm going to Neptune's Bounty," he said. "You can come with me if you want to."

Teagan stood up.

"Then I'm coming too."

Evelyn took a shotgun from Pancho and cocked it.

"Then we all are."

A/N – That's all for now. I plan on posting more some time, but it will probably be a while.

In the meantime, please Read & Review.