Quote: "Friends can be said to "fall in like" with as profound a thud as romantic partners fall in love." -Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Listen to: "Welcome to the Show", Britt Nicole
-o-
25 December, 1958
A Christmas carol tinkled on the piano courtesy of Kyle, who had a cigarette in his mouth and was smiling at Katherine. The latter was hanging little silver bulbs on the tree, reaching up on her tiptoes. The flat was practically infused with the smell of cranberries and cinnamon, due to the miscellaneous dessert dish she had prepared on the fly.
"Oh, Katy!" Susanne sang, poking her head around the corner. A little red candy cane pinned back her hair, matching her short dress and her signature white garter belt. A cigarette was stuck in the end of a long, black stem. It seemed everyone was smoking nowadays.
"Er, yes? Yes, what?" Katherine stopped trying to stick the star on top of the tree and looked to her friend. "Oh, Susy, please don't smoke in the kitchen."
"I think dinner is done, darling. Or, rather, I do think it is." The blonde looked back in the kitchen, where her newest beau was probably already sitting at the table.
"Right, be there in two ticks. Kyle, a hand please?" Katherine handed the star over to him and hurried into the kitchen. "Oh, you took the food out? Thank you much, love."
"Oh, stop it, I can't take the flattery, darling." Susanne waved a hand, mouth of red lipstick curving up in a bright smile.
Once the food had been served and everyone sat down, the eggnog and wine began around the table at a quick pace. Susanne's most recent quarry was a man who Katherine had no real liking for, as he seemed to be using Susanne for resources, as he was not very well to do. But of course, the girl always liked to keep things interesting, and Katherine wasn't going to judge.
"Happy Christmas, everyone." The four clinked glasses in a toast. "Cheers."
"So, Katy, Kyle," Susy leaned forward, a bite of mash on her fork. "When are you two going to move in already?"
"Oh, I don't think..."
"I don't think we want to. Yet." Kyle added. Katherine glanced at him, but said nothing. There had been some tension in their relationship the past week or so, and he wasn't going to act out with guests, but he'd been raising his voice at her more often lately.
"Ah, so, Susanne." Katherine changed the subject after draining half her nog. "Heard anything more from your friend on the kid of Ryan's?"
"No! Not at all! Oh, what an infuriating mess, darling!" Susy had gotten started, and it was good to get her talking if there was an awkward pause. "That wretched fellow hasn't been talking for simply ages, I swear Ryan's making him keep quiet now you know, but he's been terribly concerned with that Beatrice slut and I do think that he's not been very focused, of course I never talk to him myself, it's always through my friend. Speaking of whom, darling, I believe he's been a tad distracted as well, quite a bit concerned with politics, that one, but I've never cared so very much, especially now. I mean, with all that's happening I daren't say anything about the government! Don't you agree, darling?"
It took Katherine a moment to realise she'd been asked a question. "Oh, yes, terribly dangerous these days."
"Do you support Ryan or Atlas? All the old bags here are in favour of Ryan, but John and I simply adore Atlas. So young and fresh! All those bright ideas about Rapture in the future, how exciting!"
"Yes, Atlas seems to be more in support of the working class." Katherine mused. "Though I do wonder about him sometimes…"
-o-
"Go!"
The heavy metal door fell flat down with an earth-shaking thud, shaking the old floorboards and stirring dust into a billowing beige cloud. That was when things, for Kiki, went from white-knuckled anticipation to irritating yet somewhat frightening chaos. The furious screams of Splicers felt like they were right next to her ear, though she didn't want to shoot needlessly and risk hitting Jack.
Frustrated and with watering eyes, she stumbled backwards out of the dust cloud. Bullets from both sides flew at lightning speed over her head and around in random patterns, clanging deafeningly against the walls.
"Ah!" Kiki yelled out in surprise as something several times her size went barreling past her. Someone in there had gotten a Big Daddy angry, and she only hoped it was going to kick some Splicer arse.
"You better run!" Someone shouted behind her, and Kiki moved just in time for the Splicer, dressed in a surgical gown and mask, to hit the floor next to her. She shot him, but hit his hip instead of something more vital.
He lunged for her, brandishing a blade caked with dried and not-so-dried blood. White pain sliced her shoulder, but it gave her the opportunity to shoot him in the head that time. His body hit the ground hard behind her, but a female Splicer like a housewife was already on her in that time.
Kiki finally got her bearings, the laboratory focusing into something sensible. She calmly shot the Splicer, sidestepping the flying body. The Big Daddy roared in either anger or pain—or both—back in the dust cloud. Blood ran down Kiki's arm from her shoulder as she charged back into the fray.
She instantly sprinted face-first into something soft, yellowish and knit, which she realised was Jack's jumper. They both flinched in surprise, squinting through the dust and aiming their guns.
"Oh, it's you!" Kiki said, turning her pistol away, speaking loudly over the roaring of the Daddy and cacophony of bullets and screaming. "Is the Daddy ours?"
"Yes!" Jack called back, snapping a Splicer in roaring orange flames.
"That's more than I could have hoped for!" Kiki laughed, sliding forward like a baseball player and flipping back to kick a Splicer in the back of the head. Kicking hurt like a bitch without shoes, but it was damn fun.
"You know something, Jack?" She called as she pounced loaded-gun-first at a Splicer.
"Down!" Jack snapped in response. She ducked and a shotgun blast boomed over her head. "What?"
"I think we're going to get along just fine." Kiki clambered up onto the Big Daddy, riding piggy-back on the huge diver. "Forward, ho, big man! More Splicers be afoot!"
"Mrghgrhghh." The Daddy grumbled back, but didn't really try to smack her off, and instead went running off with huge footsteps that made the floor rattle. Kiki laughed hysterically, surprised that it actually worked. She stood up on his shoulders, shooting Splicers below with relative ease.
"Ha, ha!" Kiki laughed, slightly nervously, shocking a Splicer with Electro Bolt and watching her convulse. "Er, I don't know if this is actually that safe…" She laughed again, sitting on the Daddy's shoulder with her feet behind, grinning back at Jack, who rolled his eyes but smirked all the same.
"How long's that bloody thing gonna take to cook?" Atlas snapped up from Jack's radio, referring to the Lazarus Vector.
"Don't be a prick, Atlas. We've got it under control!" Kiki waved a hand like he could see.
Not a few seconds after she'd said that, a particularly agile Splicer soared up and tackled her off the Daddy before she could even blink. She managed to get her pistol up and shoot him, showering herself in blood and even tiny flecks of bone. "Ugh!"
That was the beginning of the second wave of the bastards. Maybe even more chaotic than the dust cloud was the fact that someone had turned on a turret, and being in the wrong place could mean becoming Swiss cheese. To add to all this fuckery, Houdinis had joined the party, so the air wavering like water and red smoke was puffing up all over the place.
"I don't have any more knives!" Kiki yelled at Jack, who shrugged in a sort of "I can't help you there" kind of way as he blasted a Splicer half apart with his shotgun.
"Damn it, will you just die?" A Houdini popped up right in front of her and screamed in her face. Kiki reached for her belt, again remembered that she was out of knives, fumbled her gun and ended up just blatantly pistol-whipping the Houdini. His wooden mask clattered away with a trickle of blood.
For a split second they glared at each other, and Kiki ended the staring contest a bit prematurely by promptly shooting him between the eyes, execution style with the barrel actually touching his head. She kneeled to search his body and missed a shower of machine gun rounds going over her head, courtesy a female Splicer.
Things only got worse. Pieces of office materials like pens and clipboards were literally soaring around in the confusion, and were just as hazardous as the guns. Kiki lost track of Jack at some point in the battle, as neither stayed in the same place and had to constantly be either killing something or dodging clumsy, rage-filled Splicers. At one point Kiki found herself standing on a desk, shooting and kicking Splicers simultaneously, and had a bit of an existential discussion with herself about what the fuck she was doing, and it went something like this:
"Kiki, this is Kiki reporting in, over."
"Roger Kiki, this is Kiki, reading you loud and clear, over."
"Kiki, what are we doing? Over."
"We're fending for our lives, over."
"But why? Wouldn't it be easier to die, over?"
"No. I mean, humans aren't programmed that way, Kiki. We have to fight because it's an evolutionary response developed over millions of years. If we don't fight, we die, and dying is counter-productive to the continuation of the human race. In this case, the underwater race, which you could repopulate with the help of handsome Jack there. Over."
"Shut up, Kiki, I'm trying to kick arse, over."
"Whatever you say, Kiki. Over and out."
At this time, she was jogging down the hall in search of the Big Daddy, which she felt would be a strategic move to stay close to. To her disappointment, she found the Daddy dead and surrounded by a veritable crowd of Splicers, who all looked up at her arrival.
"Oh, fuck me." Kiki's shoulders slumped, but she hopped back as a Splicer leapt forward.
"Who would ever want to?" Atlas snarked unkindly from the radio as Jack found her there with a half-dozen Splicers.
"Shove it up your potato hole, taig." Kiki snarled back, flipping her pistol around to crack the butt into a Splicer's temple and stepping away as Jack he pelted the gathered addicts with bullets.
"Be nice now, lass." Atlas replied condescendingly, ignoring the very offending insult. "Remember who's being a team player and helping you lot out."
"You remember who's actually doing something on the front lines, Atlas!"
Something rather far off, sounding like it was from Julie's office, dinged loudly down the hall just as Kiki and Jack finished off the Splicers. Atlas took the chance to steer the subject away from bickering. "What was that? Is the Vector ready? What are you waiting for? Hit the damn switch!"
Kiki made a rude gesture with two fingers at the radio, sticking her tongue out. "We better go make the trees good again, though." She said to Jack, and after making sure no more Splicers were behind them, they jogged of to the lab.
The distribution machine seemed to be all good, and at the same time with a nod, they pulled the lever down. Outside, through the window overlooking the Rolling Hills, the trees blossomed into fresh, lime green leaves and pink flowers as quickly as they had died. The grass sprung up lush and long, and with the Vector still working, vines crawled along the window they were looking out. The oxygen, the gardens—they were back.
"Well done, lad." Atlas congratulated, pointedly leaving Kiki out. "Take a deep breath and enjoy it. Then head on over to Rollin' Hills and get the bathysphere. Next stop is Ryan's house…vying for blood."
"You going off to kill Mr Great-And-Powerful?" Kiki asked as they relaxed and started back out to the gardens. Jack nodded in response, wincing and rolling his neck. "Hmm…mind if I tag along?" He looked at her in surprise, eyebrows raised. "Trust me. You need more than just Atlas to help you through this hell of a city, and, to be honest, I've got a bone to pick with the man himself."
Jack thought a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, okay."
"Brilliant." Kiki stopped and held out her hand. "Proper introductions are in order if we're gonna be partners. "Katherine Kiley. Professional stage singer. Good to meet you…?"
Jack smirked a little. "Jack Wynand. Professional…sweater-wearer."
Kiki threw back her head and laughed, smacking his shoulder as they continued walking. "It's been a long time since I've laughed. Feels good. Never caught you much as the joking type, more the…not joking type. Anyway, we may as well gather up some materials if we're going off to Ryan's place."
They walked back to her grotto home in good spirits. Kiki had a bag prepared just in case she'd ever need to leave, and she stuffed it as full as she could with first aid, food, ADAM and EVE. Along with that she packed an extra set of clothes for herself; she offered some to Jack but he refused them, seeming to enjoy his familiar jumper. The last thing she did was probably the hardest for her: she took a pair of shoes.
"Ah, I'll miss Arcadia." Kiki sighed wistfully, hopping back to the entrance. "I'll be back, though. Every time I go, I come back. Just like that." She wiggled her toes in the last of the grass as they walked out of the Rolling Hills and into the Metro.
"Why are you so resistant to the traditional methods of separating a man from his soul?" The radio at Jack's side spluttered on with Andrew Ryan on the other end. "You're not CIA, are you? You belong to Atlas." He spat the word like it was a bug he'd found in his soup. "The one roach I can't seem to exterminate. Don't worry. I just need time to find the proper poison."
"Fort Frolic it is." Kiki ignored Ryan's grim foreboding and sat down inside the bathysphere as Jack pulled the lever and sat across from her.
"Right piece of work, Ryan is." She went on, tightening the laces of her shoes. "Suppose he was good enough before, but now I'm getting the sense he's gone right off the deep end. Ouch." She pulled back her sleeve to reveal a long cut. "Well, damn. More ADAM for me, I suppose. Hooray."
As she injected the red fluid into her arm, she decided to play another game of How Long A Sentence Can You Make Jack Say. "So, how're you liking Rapture so far? Enough attempts on your life for your tastes?"
Jack shook his head. "Didn't even know this existed before."
"Yeah, most people don't." Kiki sighed. "I didn't. I was a concert singer before I got down here, you know. Did a few decent shows, got so-so in terms of popularity. Then I got the invitation to Rapture. Hey, it's an exclusive city at the bottom of the bleeding Atlantic, right?" As she spoke, she looked out the window of the bathysphere and watched the city glide past.
"Well, things were pretty great down here in the beginning. Had a nice flat, really nice. Got some popularity, requested for a few parties and once at Christmas. Then, of course, the Civil War broke out. Atlas and Ryan went at it and when the smoke cleared none of it mattered anymore. Ryan thinks he can rebuild everything. But you know something? It's been almost two full years of this shit, and I think he's just saying that to make himself feel better about this failed experiment of his."
Her tone had gotten bitter near the end of her little speech. Trying to lessen the somber mood, she clapped her hands together and brushed off her trousers. "Well, no use reminiscing, back to business and killing Splicers and such."
On that cue, the bathysphere grumbled to a halt, and the door slid open. She and Jack walked out, wary of Splicers but walking briskly. "The sphere up ahead should get us to Ryan the fastest." Kiki pointed.
They made their way through the abandoned rooms of smashed martini glasses and dusty slot machines, tipped over tables and chipped dice. A Circus of Values cackled away to their right.
"Ryan's handed the keys of Fort Frolic over to a guy named Sander Cohen." Atlas crackled from the radio. "Cohen's an artist says some. He's a Section 8, says I. I've seen all kinds of cutthroats, freaks, and head cases in my time…music…real psychopath…" His voice started to get drowned out by "Rise, Rapture, Rise", the city's anthem. Jack twisted a knob and gave the radio a little smack, to no avail.
Kiki shrugged and they moved on, cautiously making their way through Fort Frolic. The Metro was relatively nearby, and no Splicers tried to jump them in the short walk over there. Once inside the docking station, the bathysphere was visible with the door open and waiting to take them to see Ryan.
But, as they started forward, the door slammed shut with a hope-shattering boom, and the sphere descended into the gurgling water. Even as the last of the bubbles disappeared, an enormous bunny mask lowered down behind it, pink spotlights shining up to cast disturbing shadows. Women in dancing poses, frozen in something like ice or cement, lowered down on either side of the large hall. Gold and pink sparkles dripped from them like floating lights. Massive red curtains slid toward them to cover the dirty, wet walls. A piano tune began playing over the intercom, something slow and sad, like a morose lullaby.
"Oh, no." Kiki muttered.
"Ah, that's better." A musical voice sighed over the radio. "Atlas, Ryan, Atlas, Ryan. Da, da da, da, da da. Time was, you could get something decent on the radio. The artist has a duty, to seduce the ear and delight the spirit. So say goodbye to those two blowhards, and hello! To an evening with Sander Cohen."
"Oh, no." Kiki grabbed Jack's arm, for once looking absolutely, dead serious. "Listen, Jack. We're in big trouble here. Big trouble. Don't question this guy, just do everything he says and we might get out alive." She pulled him once and let go, walking quickly back into the Fort.
"Now, I haven't seen a sign of real life down here in months." Cohen went on. "But one of you looks familiar, somehow. Hello?"
Kiki coughed in surprise at being mentioned, but composed herself. "Hello, Mr Cohen." She spoke up.
"Ah, yes! The redheaded singing girl. I thought you were in Arcadia?"
"Um, change of plans, Mr Cohen."
"Ah, I see. The restless soul of an artist. Well, let's see if you and your friend aren't just another couple of Johnny-come-lately's."
A piece of something hit Jack's head, making him flinch a little and stepping back to aim his gun at the ceiling. At first, it seemed like there was nothing there. Then, upon closer inspection, there was a woman stuck there, camouflaged in her tattered dress. The only thing that gave her away were the two curved, bright, orange-hot hooks she held in her hands to crawled along the ceiling.
"Move it, Jumper!" Kiki lunged to yank Jack away, but something struck her, hard, in the back of the head. Stars of red and blue, circles of white burst behind her eyes as she fell away, at the same time the woman dropped from the ceiling with a scream.
"Spiders, I hate Spiders." Kiki held her head and blinked a few times to get her bearings. In the corner of her eye, she saw the same Spider Splicer coming at her, very fast. She threw up a hand to foolishly deflect him and got a palm of burning metal. "Ahh! Fucker!" She pulled her shotgun from her back and blasted him point-blank, the gunshot making her ears ring.
"Jack, Jack!" She yelled, having a hard time hearing herself over the tinnitus. He looked over at her, at the same time trying to fend off the two Spiders on him, who were doing cartwheels away. Kiki made a snapping motion with her free hand. "Incinerate!"
He nodded and quickly cracked both of them into flames. The woman from before died on the spot, and the newer male dropped from the wall with a crunch, writhing around and twisting into horrendous positions, screaming with high-pitched agony.
"Oh, goodness." Kiki slapped her palm against her ear, waggling her head back and forth. "Tinnitus is terribly annoying. Is that all of them?" She and Jack moved in a second-nature sort of way so they were back to back. She felt him shrug.
"Oh, you can smell the malt vinegar on you pair." Cohen purred from the radio. "I've waited so long for something tasty to come to this little burg, but all that pass are yokels and rubes. Where are my manners? Come in! Come in! Sander Cohen awaits you…at the Fleet Hall!"