A/N: So at this part of the game there is a lot of fighting on the way to Monument Island and while I could put it in I feel it would drag out the story too much at least at this point in time in later chapters there is going to be a lot more fighting anyways as we get further and further into the adventure. Another thing I am doing is making the adventure more dangerous by taking away some power like possession on humans, Vigors being deployed as traps and overall the shield is going to be fairly weak (though I almost removed it). I hope people are liking the story and direction so far. (some reviews would help though I don't expect many until there are more chapters).
Chapter 3: Heavy Hitting
Booker and I ran up the stairs and out of the stage area to see a small street section with some concession stands and firework canisters. On the other end was a large bridge that led right to Monument Island. The bridge was lined with citizens cowering in fear over the sudden chaos. "Let's hurry and cross" Booker said as he dashed towards the Bridge but before he could step on a large metal barrier raised up blocking access. The bridge then floated away to another part of Columbia that was safe. "Damn it" Booker shouted unable to stop his dash and rammed into the metal barrier. He quickly recovered and turned to me "Follow me, I might know another way to Monument Island" Booker said but before we could start moving we heard police open the gate of a side entrance leading to behind the stage. Booker got behind a small ticket booth while I crouched behind a few barrels that were nearby. I peered over the barrels to see a bunch of police officers with their batons ready. Booker and I charged out at them. Out of five police officers two of the police officers turned to face me while booker was fighting three.
The first police officer swung the baton downwards at me, I side stepped to the right dodging it and delivering a punch to side of the police officers face. While the first police officer was stumbling from the punch the second one who was behind him swung his baton. I grabbed his wrist with my left arm as he had also swung downwards. I kicked the police officer in the leg with a low kick and hooked his leg with my foot. I scooped the police officers leg from under him and the police officer collapsed to the ground. I was still holding on to the police officer's wrist so I twisted his arm and hit his elbow with my knee. The police officers arm fractured with a loud snap. The police officer didn't get up so he probably blacked out. The first police officer was now behind me and put me into a chokehold. I fought it trying to pull the police officers arms from around my neck. While in the chokehold I happened to be looking in the direction of the gate. I saw another police officer round the gate, this officer had a pistol. I managed to call out while fighting the chokehold "Booker, one has a –"as if on cue the police officer started firing at Booker. He used his skyhook to execute the last police officer he was fighting then took some cover until the police officer with the pistol was reloading. Booker ran over to me with the skyhook revved up and drove it into my attackers back. The police officer released his grip on me and fell to his knees. The skyhook was stuck in the police officer so Booker put his foot on the police officers back. He then proceeded to push with his foot and pull the skyhook until it came free. The police officer with the handgun finished reloading and aimed towards us. We both scrambled back into cover. "We wait until he reloads then we both charge him" Booker said as we peeked around cover every so often. The police officer continued to fire not worrying about how much ammo he had. When the bullets stopped passing by us or impacting our cover Booker and I both charged the police officer. The police officer saw us and panicked and dropped the magazine he was trying to insert into the gun. The police officer scrambled to pick up the magazine and saw Booker a few feet in front of him when he looked up. Booker grabbed the police officer and snapped his neck with the skyhook. We looked around and saw no more hostiles.
"Good job Kid, quickly loot the bodies and let's keep moving." Booker said as he walked up the ramp of the barge we were beside to scout the area ahead. I picked up the pistol the police officer had and inspected it "Broadsider Pistol, Designed and Produced by Fink MFG." I said aloud reading the inscription on the side of the gun. The pistol looked exactly like a Mauser C96. It makes sense that Columbia would want to produce their own guns and even copy good designs to avoid having to buy weapons and also be self-sufficient. I passed the pistol to Booker and started looting the police officer's corpses for ammo or anything useful. I passed ammo I found to Booker then I grabbed a skyhook of my own and started testing it out. I revved it and swung it around a little to get the weight of it. I attached the skyhook to my work belt which I had around my overalls and walked up the ramp and over to Booker. "Ready" I said as we made a short jump off the front of the barge and ran past the raffles front entrance to a slightly ajar gate. Beside the gate was an open police locker which had a belt holster and pistol in it. I grabbed the holster and put it on. Booker decided to go ahead a little bit. I grabbed the already loaded magazines in the locker and put them in the small pouches on the belt holster. I put one magazine in the pistol and pulled the bolt back loading a round to the chamber. I ran past the gate down a small winding road to meet up with Booker who was in front of a closed gate. When Booker saw me he grabbed the gate and started pulling it open "What time is it? It feels like it actually got warmer out here". I shrugged and we both walked through the now open gate. We stopped on the other side when we heard a faint yell about a Fireman. In the middle of the road we saw a pile of debris with someone climbing on top of it. The person was wearing a suit made of what looked like leather and metal and had something strapped to his back which was releasing black smoke like it was burning. Upon the person seeing us the metal parts on the suit got red hot. "Drown in Flame!" the person yelled and let out a shockwave of fire igniting everything around him. I felt the heat and stumbled back a bit not expecting the shockwave.
"Holy Shit, well I guess that's definitely a fireman" I said as I steadied myself. I raised my pistol and started firing, Booker did the same. The bullets seemed to just be making sparks and a ping sound when they hit the fireman so I couldn't tell if they were hurting the fireman or just making him angry. The fireman jumped off the pile of debris and threw a flaming red ball at us. Booker and I instinctively dived in opposite directions scrambling to cover. The Flaming red ball exploded in another shockwave of flame where we both had been a moment ago. The fireman started running at Booker throwing more flaming orbs at him while closing the distance. I ran up the right side of the street got behind the fireman and saw a burning furnace on his back. I shot the furnace trying to do something to hurt the fireman. It seemed to do nothing as the fireman kept running at Booker who started shooting the mask of the fireman hoping to do some sort of damage. The last shot Booker fired managed to halt the fireman and make him stumble. Booker took the opportunity to run over to where I was "Aim for the mask" he said. The fireman recovered and charged at both of us again. We both aimed for the mask of the fireman and proceeded to fire. After a short barrage the fireman finally screamed in pain and fell over mid-charge but not before releasing a final mini shockwave as he hit the ground.
We walked over to the fireman's corpse and noticed a bottle of something on the ground. Booker picked it up and inspected it "Devils Kiss, I guess this is what the fireman was using". I realized what it was once Booker said the name of it. "It is, they're named Vigors. This one gives you powers like that Fireman". He quickly glanced at me "Well, you only live once". Before I could say anything else he pulled the cap off and drank the Vigor. I could do nothing but watch his reaction to it. He started looking at his hands and screaming like he was in pain. I wasn't quite sure what was going on but whatever it was it only lasted a few seconds. Booker was panting heavily and bent over with his hands on his knees "Shit, that was no sample". He recomposed himself and turned to me "You know I drank a bottle of something similar on my way to the raffle, I used it once and a machine thought I was someone else. It was green; symbol was a heart with a knife through it". I thought for a second before answering "That's possession if I'm not mistaken". He turned and started walking down the street "These Vigors, hell of a thing" he muttered.
After a couple of minutes of quiet walking we came up to a restaurant named The Blue Ribbon. With no other path to take we decided to see if we could cut through. Booker turned the handle and pushed the door a bit surprisingly it opened. I had my pistol pointed at the door while it was opening to make sure no one would try and surprise us as we tried to enter. I walked in first pistol still raised ready to fire. Booker entered behind me pistol also raised. We were in a small reception area with the main dining room around the corner. Booker went ahead and entered the main dining area while I closed the door behind us. When I rounded the corner I saw Booker and two other people in the dining room. One person was a man who was wiping the bar and the other a woman who was standing in the door way to the kitchen holding a platter with a glowing yellow bottle on it. They both had similar clothes notably a tan jacket. I was wondering if they were twins because they both had reddish hair and a very similar face. They were both looking at Booker with no fear that he had a gun pointed in their direction. "We have company" the man said in a British accent. "We do indeed" said the woman also in a British accent. Booker kept the gun pointed at them "Why are you following me?" he said sternly. "We were already here" the woman said. "Why are you following us?" the man said immediately after. Booker simply sighed and lowered his pistol. "Aperitif?" the woman said. Booker approached the woman, took the bottle and started examining it. "Mr. Miller" the man said getting my attention. He threw a bag at my feet "You won't be getting anywhere with working clothes". I picked up the bag and looked inside to see a shoe box, simple black dress pants, a white dress shirt, a tie and a striped vest. I went back around the corner and behind the reception counter to change clothes.
After getting everything on I felt a little bit of happiness wearing non-work clothes once again, but it quickly faded. There were tons of people Mr. Fink still had in his labour force yet I was one of the few or maybe the only one to escape during the raffle's chaos. I walked back in to the dining room to see the Man and Woman watch Booker who was sitting at one of the tables slowly drinking the yellow liquid. I sat down at the same table Booker was at. He would take a big gulp of the yellow liquid, mutter something about the taste, take a sip of some whiskey then wait a few minutes before repeating. I turned to the man who was still behind the bar "I would like a Beer while I am waiting, what do you have?" The man turned his attention to me "Why would you want a Beer" the man said. "When you could have something better for you." the woman finished. I looked and sure enough directly in front of me was another yellow glowing bottle. There was also an open beer which was odd because when I sat down I was certain there was no beer there.
I opened the yellow bottle and started drinking the yellow liquid. I took a sip at first I tasted nothing and was wondering what Booker was complaining about. The taste then hit me and I almost threw up. It was indescribable. I took a big gulp of the beer to drown out the yellow drink. I finished my beer and the drink and looked to Booker who had his face in his hands. "Are you going to tell me what that was now and why it would help?" Booker said as soon as he put his hands down on the table. Though before the man or the woman said anything Booker jumped in his chair a little bit. They then turned and looked at me probably expecting the same thing. I sat just waiting when unexpectedly I saw in the middle of my vision what looked like pieces of glass being put together divided by yellow cracks. The cracks then disappeared and my vision was clear again. I did jump in my seat when it happened. "I'm surprised" said the woman walking out of the way to the kitchen. "Surprised that it worked?" said the man. "No, surprised that it didn't kill them" replied the woman. "But having a repulsive-magnetic shield around one's body can come handy" said the man. "If it doesn't kill you" added the woman. "A fair point" remarked the man. Booker turned to me and whispered across the table "If they show up again do not take anything they offer, now let's get the hell out of here". We stood up and made are way out back through the kitchen which twisted around to an outdoor supply dock. "Shit, now what?" Booker said. I looked around and noticed some hooks hanging from the buildings. "Look, the buildings have hooks on them maybe we can attach on using the skyhook." I said bringing his attention to it.
"Here goes nothing" Booker took out his skyhook and jumped off the platform towards the hook after getting a running start. The skyhook gravitated in mid-air and pulled him over to the hook. He easily hooked on with perfect accuracy "Whoa! Damn hooks must be magnetized!" he called back. He swung towards and jumped off the first hook and attached to the second hook giving me space to follow. I jumped on the first hook and felt a little bit of pain in my arm but surprisingly wasn't very much. Booker jumped onto a third hook then onto a rooftop by some crates. After swinging a few times I landed beside him and saw him picking up a gun with some ammo that was on the crate. I picked up one of the guns myself and inspected it. It was a Machine gun; it was unlike other guns down below, holding the trigger would make this gun fire until the magazine was empty. We heard someone on a PA system tell everyone to remain indoors. We continued on going from roof top to roof top and hiding from the occasional gunship searching for the False Shepherd until we reached another fair area. There was absolutely no one around. All the attractions were abandoned. Above us we could see Monument tower much larger than before, we were getting close. We had to cut through another building. I read the name and I got a bad feeling to my stomach. The building was the Fraternal Order of the Ravens. There was no way around the building we had to go through it. The interior of the building was dark; there were crows everywhere with rotting food for them. In the foyer there was a statue to John Wilkes Booth. To the right was a bar and the left a long dining table. There were various paintings celebrating the death of Abraham Lincoln. Behind the statue was a dual staircase leading to another part of the building. We went to the top of the stairs and we could hear talking from behind the door. We opened it slowly, got low and approached the railing in front of us. Below us was a mass hall and we could see the leader giving some sort of sermon to a bunch of cultists. The cultists were marching in place and chanting a prayer to Lady Comstock. "Time to try out this vigor, be ready to fire as soon as I throw it" Booker said quietly while forming a flaming orb in his hand. I nodded waiting for his throw.
Booker stood up and threw it into the middle of the crowd. The orb exploded and sent flame out in all directions. At the same time I stood up and started firing the machine gun into anyone who wasn't on fire. Booker did the same a moment later. All that was left in the mass hall was burn marks, bullet holes, blood and bodies. they were all dead before they realized what was going on. There was a door to the right of the stage which took us to some back rooms meant for more recognized members. We came upon a closed door. I covered the door while Booker tried to open it. It was on a short chain so unexpectedly to us the door stopped as chain reached full tension. On the other side was a man strung up on a wall screaming while getting pecked to death by crows. Booker applied force and the door chain snapped allowing the door to open normally. Booker went through the door watching ahead while I went to check on the prisoner. I put my fingers to his bloodied neck checking for a pulse and found none. I didn't say anything to Booker but the prisoner had a prisoner number meaning he was from Fink's work force. I now knew what happens to prisoners when sent to the Order of the Ravens; I wasn't surprised of the outcome.
I heard the sound of a bird squawk and turned around to see a murder of crows flying around in formation surrounded by a black mist. We were in a garden with a statue of a praying Lady Comstock in the center. The murder got close to the ground and out of the mist popped a cultist wearing black robes and a coffin chained to his back. "For Lady Comstock!" the cultist yelled as he pulled out a sword. Booker and I raised our guns and started shooting at the cultist only for him to disappear and form into another Murder and charge us. "That's new, any ideas?" I said somewhat panicked looking around there wasn't much room to manoeuvre. Booker didn't say anything he unexpectedly pushed me. I lost my balance and fell over I also dropped my machine gun during the fall. The way Booker pushed me I fell forwards so when I rolled over onto my back I saw the cultist standing where Booker and I had been a moment ago, I didn't see where Booker went. The cultist probably knowing he was about to get shot formed into another murder and flew back into the center of the garden. I stood up to see the cultist trying to attack Booker. Booker was just concentrating on trying to dodge the cultist since every time Booker tried to fire the Cultist would use his murder and Blink to another spot which made the cultist almost impossible to track. Booker tripped and fell backwards dodging one of the cultist's attacks but now the cultist was standing on top of him keeping him down. I started running towards the cultist. The cultist raised his sword; tip facing downward ready to plunge it into Booker's chest. I got close to them and threw myself at the cultist pushing him off Booker and knocking the sword away. I then started slamming my fist into the spot I thought the cultist's face was. I stood up, took out my pistol and fired a shot into the cultist for good measure.
"Good Job once again Kid" Booker said as he stood up and walked over to the cultist's corpse to start looting him. "Are you ex-military? Cause I mean you know hand-to-hand combat and firearm use, you are decently accurate and you have shown right there you can handle situations." Booker said looting the corpse. "No, was never in the military I learned from other means". I said not wanting to directly tell Booker how I learned to fight. "Other means?" Booker asked still looting the corpse. "It's something I don't want to talk about, The reason I first came to Columbia was to get away from it. I quickly found out this city is just as bad." He stood up holding a bottle in his hand he recovered from the corpse. "My past is also the reason I'm here and like you I'd rather not talk about it." Booker said looking at the bottle.
Booker saying that got me curious on what he had done to come to this god forsaken city. I'm sure I will find out in time and I wonder if it's worse than what I've done.
A/N: Next Chapter will be up when ready, it will include Monument Island and Elizabeth.