Chapter VI: A Chilling Desperation
Subject Delta stumbled forward slightly, caught off guard by the wave of nausea that washed over him. Though Scarlet was surprised, her bewilderment in no way decreased her reaction time as she swiftly latched onto Delta's right arm and steadied him as he kneeled to the ground. Exhausted, labored breaths resonated through the air as Subject Delta struggled to snuff out his feelings of sickness. Every second wasted gave Sofia Lamb more time to plot out ways of impeding his progress towards his ultimate goal.
Terra gave the kneeling pair an uncaring backwards glance over the shoulder, her gleaming porthole refusing to betray any sort of emotion. Terra was still struggling with her feelings for the rogue Alpha, and was reluctant to show him any compassion or worry. The damned metal man had murdered her Pack Sister right in front of her eyes, a sin such as that would take a long time for her to simply forgive.
As her crimson haired kin struggled to steady the Alpha Daddy, Terra growled in annoyance at her jumbled up thoughts. Why was it so hard for her to fathom leaving him? Why did he choose to spare her life when he could have so easily snuffed it out as he did with her Pack Sister's? The Rogue's actions were so confusing, further enhanced by the fact that he spared her when she plainly tried to murder him. But, judging by the way the Alpha's hands were quivering, she might very well be rid of her nuisance soon.
A sickly, agonized inhuman moan ripped from Delta's mutilated throat as a scarlet mist clouded his mind and sight.
"F-Father-r….c-Can y-you …h-Hear…m-me…?"
As Delta clutched his helmeted cranium in agony, Terra shook her own in pity. The Alpha was obviously suffering from the same faulty bonding process as the rest of his kin. She would have left the pitiful creature there to die in peace, or maybe even put him out of his misery.
But the confusing truth of the matter was that she just couldn't.
"Kid, are you alright?" Sinclair's southern twanged voice gripped in concern.
Gritting his teeth through the scraping pain that wracked his skull, Delta, with the help of Scarlet and a nearby wall, pulled himself onto his heavily booted feet. Like his first injection of the Electro Bolt Plasmid, the pain and nausea that wracked his body began to give way to a euphoric feeling. A pair of sapphire eyes suddenly appeared within the Alpha Daddy's 'mind's eye'. They shown with a brilliance that rivaled that of any diamond rock. Pristine, ivory flesh surrounded the eyes, and a strand of ebony hair ran through the middle of the cerulean orbs. The Alpha Daddy knew who those eyes belonged to…
"Father, this is Eleanor! It's urgent, Mother is planning on destroying the Pauper's Drop Train Station. Her forces are gathering at the terminal as I speak. Please, hurry!"
Scarlet blinked her vermillion orbs rapidly before narrowing them in utter confusion. Had she been imagining things when she heard that voice in her head? Scarlet glanced over at Terra who, to her surprise, also had the same skeptical look on her face.
"Father, MOVE-"
The euphoric feeling was gone, along with Eleanor's piercing sapphire eyes and the bloody haze, all of it was replaced by black and white blotches. The nausea had returned to Delta full force, but what changed was the cause of it all. This feeling of sickness was not caused by anything related to his condition, but inflicted by a PHYSICAL blow. The surprised, pain filled shriek that pierced the air snapped the Mechanical Soldier right out of his personal suffering. The metal man blinked his eyes rapidly, clearing his vision, and was greeted to the sight of Scarlet lying splayed out on the pavement several feet away from him. His gaze shifted to Terra, who had assumed an aggressive stance and was growling deep and low. An inhuman, testosterone yell of fury echoed through the air as Terra narrowly managed to avoid… Was that a slab of asphalt from the street? Delta locked his porthole onto his newly found enemy as he quickly stood on his own two feet, Scarlet also quick to regain her own footing.
The massive form of a Brute Splicer sprinted towards them at an insane speed. He showed no concern for his fellow Splicers as he tossed them out of his path like rag dolls. The beast slammed his shoulder into Delta with enough force to send him crashing into the asphalt. The Mechanical Soldier quickly pushed himself off the ground, and grabbed the frost layered weapon that was his Drill. The Brute sent a massive right hook sailing across the air, it's intended target being the rusted helmet of the Alpha Daddy. The cinderblock sized fist was halted just before it reached it's intended target. Delta held the Brute's arm by the his wrist, smirking triumphantly as he sent an Electro Bolt surging through the Brute's massive body.
The behemoth of a Splicer sputtered obscenities as he shook in a spasm, and he was knocked backwards as Delta's Drill collided with his face. Letting the electricity sparking from his finger tips fizzle out, Delta called upon the whirling winds of Cyclone Trap. The tank of a Splicer flailed his massive arms and yelled out in fright as he was suddenly sent sailing into the air. Delta hastily grabbed the handle of his shotgun and propelled the Brute a few feet away with a blast of Solid Slug ammo.
Delta took on a slightly confused posture when the Brute's chest was impaled by a giant shard of ice, and it's body instantly froze solid. The Proto Daddy followed the trail of freezing wind back to Scarlet's own outstretched ice layered palm, which was positioned in a knife hand gesture. Shards of glass flew threw the air as the Brute Splicer crashed into one of the Fishbowl Diner's windows.
"Is stealing all you can do?" Sophia Lamb hissed over Delta's shortwave radio. Her tone of voice was cold but laced with an undeniable fury. "Take, take, take are you incapable of anything else? You take away our children, our Gate Keepers,…you took away my friend…." Sofia's seemed to crack at that last one. "You are just like Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine. The only thing that interests you is your own personal gain. Eleanor is the People's Daughter, she inspires them, she gives them hope…. She is the air to my life's work, she is our Messiah, and we as a whole, as a Family have no second thoughts about sacrificing our lives so that she may guide us from these hellish depths." It was at this point that the Mechanical Soldier noticed that Sofia's voice was blaring from Rapture's intercoms. Delta's eyes narrowed behind his blank porthole.
That Sofia Lamb…she was a smart one. She was using her words and charisma to rile up the Splicers, to increase their ferocity towards him and his allies ten fold.
"Subject Delta, I believe that I have stated this to you before, though I doubt if I made myself perfectly clear. Rapture is a body…"
The psychotic yells and screams of a mob of blood thirsty Splicers echoed throughout Rapture's hollowed hallways. The Brute Splicer that had been incapacitated was getting back to his feet with a look of rage and inspiration on his marred, mutated face. As the maniacal screams of dozens of Splicers grew closer and closer, the titan like trio sprinted forward. If what Eleanor said was true, than they didn't have much time.
"I am the voice…"
Terra narrowly dodged the pressurized automatic door that the Brute hurled at her, she wanted to return the favor but knew that they had to reach the Train Station quickly.
"Big Sister is the hand."
Delta stopped dead in his tracks when a hellish, glass shattering scream like nothing he has ever heard before erupted through the dank, blood caked hallways of Pauper's Drop. This scream was different from any other Big Sisters he has faced before. It was louder, deeper, more animalistic. Not only that, but it had reduced Scarlet into a shivering mess and had Terra whipping her head all which way in frantic fear. That wasn't the sound of your average, everyday Big Sister. Even the mob of Splicers that now stood before them, as well as the Brute Splicer that was pursuing them, had halted their advancements.
"When Rapture speaks of you it says only this…sleep well, sleep peacefully, sleep now…for on this day you will be Judged. Make no mistake, you will soon die Subject Delta, and SHE will be your Undertaker." And with that last, bone chilling statement, Sofia's feed to both Delta's radio and Rapture's intercoms was severed, leaving only the scream of a demonic siren to answer her call for vengeance. The hellish wail was disorienting, but it was also distracting the dozen or so Splicers standing before the trio. Not one to let an opening go to waste, Subject Delta quickly reached for the handle of his Machine Gun and once again let the flickering genetic flames of Incinerate dance from the palm or his hand and finger tips. The Mechanical Soldier super charged the flames that emitted from his palm, feeding them EVE until his hand shook with a hellish power. With a mighty roar of fury and determination, Delta let his hellfire loose.
The entire group of Splicers instantly exploded in a brilliant shower of embers and flames. Desperate to douse the fire that encompassed their bodies, the Thuggish and Leadhead Splicers frantically searched for a body of water but to no avail. Delta massacred the Splicers that had not died in the initial explosion with a hail of Antipersonnel machine gun fire.
Shaking his head from his dazed state, the Brute Splicer yelled out in fury. The testosterone fueled bull rampaged towards the closest target in his line of sight. Terra snapped out of her terrified state upon feeling the ground rumble and shake beneath her. She spun on a heel and let balls of fiery genetic napalm erupt from her finger tips. The Brute roared in agony as he was set ablaze, and stopped mid charge. Scarlet also pushed her fear aside, and with a flick of her wrist sent the Brute flying into the air with a well placed Cyclone Trap. Terra wasted no time in turning the Splicer's body into a pin cushion with a barrage of ice spears. As the frost covering her forearm melted away, Terra's nerves began to clash and spark. The brunette let an bolt of lightning fly from her hand, her crimson haired kin doing the same. The Brute crashed into the ground, a charred mass of flesh with huge, gaping holes littering the body.
As one final eardrum splitting scream rocked the foundations of Pauper's Drop, the trio frantically made their way towards the Train Station. They all focused their combined might on clearing their path of enemies. Delta had no idea what kind of Big Sister was after them, but something was telling him that he didn't want to find out.
The doors leading to the Train Station swung open just as a powerful gale forced wind erupted from behind the trio. Delta wrapped both his arms around Scarlet and Terra's thin waist lines and made a straight charge for the train.
"Kid, You have to unlock the Station first!"
Damn, he had nearly forgotten about that. As the doors to the passenger train cart opened, Delta pushed both a defiant Scarlet and reluctant Terra through the doors. As the doors swung shut with a resounding swoosh , the Mechanical Soldier noticed that the howling winds had stopped.
Only the sound of his labored, frightened breaths could be heard. Delta couldn't believe the shear fear this being installed in him. The metal man forced his body to turn backwards, forced himself to face this Nemesis.
The gleaming stare of a hellish crimson porthole met his emotionless yellow mask. The Big Sister that stood at the entrance of the Train Station was not that different in design from her lower counterparts. She had the same general armor configuration with a few minor tweaks and upgrades. The chain mail and leather of her suit, instead of being dark brown and white, was a dark shade of red and black. Her helmet, chest plate, and Little Sister caring cage were a pristine golden color, and the bows that adorned her caring cage were a light blue instead of pink. To top it all off, a red striped collar jutted skyward from the neck of the Big Sister's helmet. The Alpha Daddy's eyes had traveled downward and were now staring at the five foot Katana that was attached to the underside of the Sister's ADAM Syringe. As he finished fully taking in her appearance, Delta now knew for a fact that he wasn't staring at just any old Big Sister.
He was staring into the 'eye' of an Elite.
AN: I realize this chapter is short but it is 10:11 PM and I have yet to finish my freaken homework. The next chapter will be up sometime this week, and if not that then sometime during the weekend. -Dreamscape1993-