Disclaimer – I own nothing . . . nothing! Except my copies of the Bioshock games, of course.
A/N - I expected to have a new chapter in May. And here it is, June. Sorry for the delay. Hope you're all still reading and that I haven't kept you waiting for this chapter too long.
"Splicers!" Evelyn shouted.
She could see them now, coming around the sides of the mini-sub. They were already flanking her gang, outnumbering them.
She clenched her fist and watched the icicles form on the back of her hand.
As gunfire erupted around her, Evelyn opened her hand, feeling the cold emanate from her palm. It turned a puddle into ice around two Splicers' ankles. As they struggled to free their feet from the block of ice, Evelyn raised her shotgun and fired. The blow caused one of the Splicer's head to explode like a cantaloupe. She fired the second barrel, hitting the other in the chest, and then shucked the shells and loaded two more.
She was jostled by a thuggish Splicer wielding a candlestick. Evelyn swung the shotgun into its chin, knocking the Splicer over before bringing the gun down on its skull like an axe. She spun quickly and saw more Splicers galloping towards her.
Gritting her teeth, Evelyn fired off her plasmid again. Another puddle froze right before the monsters stepped into it, sliding to the ground where they were mowed down with machine gun fire from one of her partners.
The pretty Irish lass shot a glance to the top of the hill, where she had left the outsider, Jack Wynand, keeping lookout. There was now a thick sheet of glass covering the opening he had been standing in, and Evelyn could see no one behind it.
She put the barrels of the shotgun over her shoulder and fired at a Splicer who was sneaking up behind her.
Through her peripheral vision, she could see Touch, in his ragged butler uniform, pivoting on his heels as he used his telekinetic ability to lift Splicers up and toss them against the cave walls.
Her little sister, Teagan, was frantically swinging her elbow and snapping her fingers, causing flames to burst up around Splicers. She was visibly more and more frustrated as she continued missing her targets.
Pancho pushed her aside with the business end of an enormous chemical thrower.
"Move over, muchacha," he said. "Let me show you how it's done."
He smiled wildly, a cigar clenched between his teeth in the corner of his mouth, and covered the horde of Splicers before him in a sea of flames.
Twitch was climbing, lizardlike, up a ridge to where an automated turret, seemingly long disabled, was stationed. Even as he climbed, one hand was in the tool pouch at his waist, readying to repair the machine.
Even Professor Langford was holding her own with a Tommy gun that had obviously been tinkered with by the smugglers and arms dealers of Neptune's Bounty to prevent kickback.
The onslaught of Splicers continued.
Andrew Ryan has a lot to explain for hi'self, she thought. Sending spliced up buckos to do his dirty work for him. Benefiting from the sweat of their brow.
Giuseppe, the big Italian, was running closer to the mini-sub, punching and grappling his way through the army of Splicers before him.
"I can hear voices," he yelled, loud enough that his voice echoed through the entire cave. "I can hear people inside the sub!"
Jack had finally managed to climb to an opening in the side of the cliff where, hanging tightly on to two jagged rocks that served as handholds, he could see and hear what was happening in the grotto. It was too late to warn Evelyn and her friends now. Their battle with the Splicers was already underway.
Jack heard Giuseppe shout that there was someone in the submarine, and he saw him running closer to it.
Then, from somewhere below him, Jack watched a Rocket Propelled Grenade fly across the grotto towards the mini-sub. He opened his mouth to scream a warning, but any noise he might have made was drowned out by a terrible explosion.
Giuseppe's charred body flew up in the air, crashing into the cave wall right at the crevice Jack was peeking through.
There was nothing left of the mini-sub but smoldering, twisted steel, bubbling into the water beneath it.
"Nooooooooooooo!" Atlas cried. It was the most heart-breaking expression of anguish Jack had ever heard. "Goddamn Andrew Ryan!"
Jack resumed his descent down the rock wall. But as he scrambled down, one of the handholds he chose wasn't as secure as he thought. By the time he realized it, it had already come loose from the rest of the wall, and he was plunging towards the ground.
Jack was dazed. He ached everywhere, and flashing cartoon stars were dotting his vision. But he was still alive. And he supposed that was something to be grateful for.
As he looked around, he saw a shadowy figure move through the darkness of the cave, closer to him. It was a woman, about his height, hair in a tall bun atop her head. He could just make out the heart shape of her lips and almond shape of her eyes through the pitch black.
"So you are the new man in Rapture, yes?" she said, in a pleasant, Eastern European accent. "I have been wanting to have a speak with you."
At once, Jack knew who she was. Atlas had warned him about her.
"Dr. Frankenstein," he said.
"Yes. Everything you have heard about me is true," Tannenbaum said. "I am a monster. The question is, are you?"
Jack reached for the revolver Evelyn had given him. When he couldn't find it at his waist, he realized it must have dropped during the fall. He saw the glint not far away, on the other side of the fallen rock he had tried to use as a handhold.
"I saw you trying to help one of my little ones," Tennenbaum said. "We wondered, could you be a friend to us?"
She stepped closer, and Jack could see another figure at her side. A little girl, holding some kind of doll in one hand, and Tennenbaum's hand in the other.
"Take this," Tennenbaum called.
She tossed something through the air. Jack reached out and caught it.
It was a glass vial, exactly like the one that had contained Electro-Bolt, filled with a neon pink gel.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"A very special plasmid. This is how you can save the little ones. Their condition is caused by a sea slug in their bellies. This is the only way to kill the slug without harming them."
Jack looked from the shadows to the bottle in his hand.
"When the time comes," Tennenbaum said, "you will know what to do. In the meantime, I will be keeping a keen eye on your progress."
"You're gonna be watching me? You got some kind of automaton spying on me to?"
"I have no need for such a device. My eyes are everywhere."
And then, all around the Doctor, Jack could see tiny, yellow eyes blinking open in the darkness. Then the shadowy figures and the yellow eyes vanished.
Jack could hear swift footsteps on his other side. He rolled over.
Light was streaming through a wide tunnel. The sweet young Irish girl was running towards him.
"Thank the Lord you're all right," she said, helping Jack to his feet. "We was all horrified somet'in' had happened to ya."
Jack bent back over to retrieve the revolver from behind the small rock that had caused him such big trouble.
"Come on," Teagan said, dragging Jack down the tunnel towards daylight. "We found a place we can be safe for a while."
A/N - To be continued, hopefully soon. As usual, please review and let me know what you think.