The smell of lavender permeates the air. A familiar laugh. "Look at her, she's so beautiful."
Clinking glasses and the low rumble of a crowd enjoying themselves. "So…you finally got yourself hitched?"
Blood and antiseptic fill the air, reminders of a darker time. Pained screams. "You bastard! You put this thing in me!"
The scent of a child filling his nose as she burrowed into his chest. The pages of a book turn. "What happens next Daddy?"
The lavender grows in strength as she hugs him. A contented hum. "Look at her, our little girl."
A calloused hand grabs his shoulder, the smell of tobacco in the air. "I'm happy for you brother, truly."
Her face is drenched in sweat and twisted in pain as she screams; she has never looked more beautiful. The cries of a newborn fill the air. "It's a girl, congratulations."
Her small hand joins his as he turns the page. Her unlined brow furrowed in concentration. "One fish, two fish…"
The weapon pierces flesh with a wet schlick. Her face frozen in shock and bathed in the red light from the monster's visor. "Wake up!"
Her hand rests on his chest, tracing idle patterns across his skin. Lips press softly to his cheek. "I love you soldier man."
He soars through the air, inhuman scream ringing out behind him. This couldn't be happening. "If anything happens, I want you to know…"
He awakens slowly, broken shoulder throbbing in agony. Her disemboweled body is the first thing he sees. "I love you Tony…"
"-amn it soldier man! Wake up!" He shoots to wakefulness, taking in the situation in an instant. "…and nothing will change that…" The lights have gone out leaving the reddish glow of emergency lights in their place. In the distance, staccato blasts of gunfire hint at the cause of the power outage. His eyes find Sandy crouched before him, she is worried.
"We are leaving." Pushing himself to his feet, he stalks to the door. Without the power it is a simple matter for him to pry it open. Sandy is protesting, there is no time. He grabs her by the shoulder and stares into her eyes. She is scared, unsure of what to do. "Trust me." Her eyes soften, she does.
He darts from the room, followed by Sandy, the girls and, to his surprise, the Little Sisters. They were a liability; if necessary they would be left behind. He takes turns at random, never staying in one place for long. At all times he is on the lookout for the creature that had been feeding them, it poses the biggest threat.
Light ahead, they have reached the end of the maintenance corridors. He motions for the girls to stay behind and ventures forward cautiously. His gaze lands on a Splicer, she has her back to him. He charges, the noise causes the Splicer to whirl around. She readies her machine gun and instinct takes over.
Gun held loosely, shoulder stock resting under the armpit. Clearly unfamiliar with the use of guns. Deformed face twisted by rage as it screams. "You won't have my pearls you brute!" Unstable, overly emotional, tenuous grip on reality. Good.
Eyes close in anticipation as the trigger is pulled. Clear warning sign, sidestep to avoid first burst of gunfire. Eyes open and widen in fear, surprised enemy wasn't hit. Arms tense as gun is readied again, mouth forms a thin line. Aiming for head, not center of mass, duck beneath second burst of gunfire and enter melee range.
Backs away, attempting to bring gun to bear. Foolish choice, too close to effectively use weapon. Smack gun to the side to eliminate threat completely. Teeth bared in aggression and fear, left hand attempting wild haymaker. Raise arm and catch blow in armpit. Wrap arm around attacker's to immobilize limb. Right hand attempts to use gun as a club. Utilize grip on shoulder to bring to the ground.
Screams in pain, fingers reflexively pull trigger. Bullets hit ground, harmless save for noise and flying bits of concrete. Torque pinned arm further. Break. Scream rises in volume. Head darts forward, sinking teeth into hand. Don't pull free, only cause more damage that way. Use biting to advantage, smash head to ground.
Dazed, teeth release and fingers slacken on gun's grip. Move quickly. Kneel on arm to immobilize, grasp gun and twist. Fingers break. Daze is broken, another scream is released. Gun is light, lighter than expected. Less than half a clip remains. Don't waste ammunition.
Raise gun above head, bring down stock first. Hits with enough force to slam head into ground. Broken eye socket, probable concussion. Again. Skull fractured, brain damaged. Again. Lose of consciousness. Again. Skull gives way, dead instantly.
Panting softly, he looks up. His eyes meet those of his daughter, terrified of the man kneeling before her.
()
She reacted instantly; a telekinetic surge destroyed the turrets before they can harm her or her disabled friend. The room momentarily secure, Theta crouched next to her human friend. Making the most calming noise she could, a rasping coo, she tried to comfort him and ascertain the cause of his distress. "Not real, not real, it's not real. None of it is real."
Her heart clenched as dread coiled around the life giving organ. She was such a fool; she had hoped that his complete lack of Adam would have granted him some resistance to the insidious substance. Clearly she had been wrong. Maybe if he had used the Adam, spliced himself so it wasn't just idling in his system. Or maybe that would have accelerated the process. She'd never heard of someone remaining in control after splicing, for long at least. Big Sisters and Jack appeared to be the exceptions to this rule. She knew that Big Sisters were immune to Adam's degenerative nature because of their time spent as a Little Sister. Jack had been created using Adam, he probably had an immunity similar to her own. David on the other hand was a human, a pure human, he'd never touched Adam in his life…and his first dose of the 'wonder drug' had been massive in size. Truthfully, it was surprising he'd lasted this long.
The beginnings of a plan, a desperate plan, began to form in her mind. Before she could act on it however, she needed to get the both of them to safety. David was incapacitated, clearly unable to fend for himself, slinging his arm over her shoulder she pulled him to his feet. He was unable to stand on his own, leaning on her for support, but at least he wasn't dead weight.
They moved slowly as gunfire echoed in the distance. It appeared her allies hadn't been able to neutralize the security devices as quickly as she had. With David slowing her down she wouldn't be able to help them as quickly as she normally would, she hoped they could hold their own for the moment. Her helmet radio crackled to life. "Cohen's got us pinned down by turrets in the atrium and the things he created are popping out of the woodwork. We need backup now!"
Theta snarled, momentarily torn by her urge to protect David and her loyalty to her newfound friends. An inhuman cry followed by an explosion made her mind up for her. She eased David to the ground, resting him against the wall. His gaze was vacant, eyes unfocused as he muttered under his breath. With a final pang of regret, she left him where he sat. It's not like sitting in an out of the way hallway and staring out the window was dangerous…right?
()
"Stay down you moron, unless you want some structurally superfluous holes added to your body!" With a terrified whimper, Harper listened to Thompson's advice. The doctor sighed, out of their entire group why did he wind up with Harper when everything went to hell? He'd even take Theodore over Harper. The man might be comically obese but at least he seemed the type to keep his head in a crisis.
"W-what are we going to do? W-what can we do?"
Behind his improvised cover, Thompson shot the cowardly man a livid glare. "I don't know damn it! But panicking doesn't help anyone!" He ducked with a muffled curse as a bullet pinged off of his cover.
"At least it can't get much worse." Thompson closed his eyes in exasperation waiting for the inevitable. With a soft thud the inevitable landed next Thompson in a crouch. One of the things Cohen had created tilted its head to the side, almost as if it was surveying him. The great gash that dominated its face shifted slightly as it bared its teeth.
"Harper." Before he could continue the creature dove at him with a crazed howl.
()
With practiced ease, Jack pegged a passing security bot with Security Command. The suddenly rogue bot spun around and immediately kamikaze rushed a nearby turret. Behind him, Gregory, the brain dead Splicer supplied by Theodore, unloaded his massive multi-barreled machinegun down the hallway. The brutish Splicer was ignoring the turrets and bots spraying bullets liberally in his direction, his entire focus was on the horde of monstrosities surging down the hallway towards him. "There are too many." Despite the urgency of their situation, the Splicer's voice held no inflection; it stayed the same emotionless timbre it always was.
"I know." A burst of lightning shot from his palm taking down a few bots as they flew by. "The turrets have us pinned down, we try to leave and we'll be shot full of holes before we get ten feet."
"They will be upon us in seconds, what other option is there?"
Before the mentally deficient Splicer could respond, a familiar screech filled the air. With a pop, Theta appeared in the center of the room already spinning. Lightning arced around her body like a pylon and any security bot unlucky enough to fly within several feet of her was shocked into oblivion. As her speed increased so too did the amount of energy her body was generating. To Jack's surprise, instead of expanding the electricity stayed confined to a three foot bubble around her…like she was building up to something. "Get down!"
His warning was a second too late, releasing a scream; Theta let loose the energy she had built up. The electricity slammed into Jack with the force of a charging Big Daddy, sending him flying into the wall. Judging from the pained grunt he heard just after he landed, Gregory had also been hurled through the air. The security devices fared much worse, they lay where they had fallen, their delicate circuitry unable to handle the sudden energy surge.
Before Jack or Gregory could recover enough to stand, the first of Cohen's monsters lunged into the atrium. With a gurgling growl it leapt at Theta, only to stop in midair. The creature seemed unable to understand why it was suddenly helpless, flailing senselessly as it snarled in anger. As a second leapt into the room, Theta acted. With a twitch of her wrist she hurled the floating creature into its companion. They fell to the ground in a twisted mass of flailing limbs and gnashing teeth, immediately fighting amongst themselves, their prey forgotten. Theta released a raspy 'huk huk huk' noise, that Jack later realized was laughter, and thrust both her hands forward. An invisible force slammed into the oncoming horde, sending them flying through the air like leaves in a breeze.
Upon landing the creatures began to savagely tear into each other. Seeing that Jack and Gregory were both standing, Theta jerked her head towards the stairs. "What? Why do you want us upstairs?" Theta ignored Jack, her eyes narrowed behind her visor as she clenched her fists. Cracking was audible as the windows lining the hallway in which the monsters were having their battle royal began to weaken, cracks spider webbing their ways along the glass.
"The door is jammed it will not close." Theta nodded, ignoring Gregory's observation. "You will flood this entire section of Fort Frolic if you do this." Inside her helmet, Theta smiled, she was relying on Cohen's domain flooding.
Water began to leak between the cracks in the glass, any second and the windows would shatter. Simultaneously realizing the Big Sister was set on doing this, Jack and his Splicer ally turned and began to dash up the stairs. They hadn't taken more than a few steps when the windows gave and the ocean came rushing in.
()
She thrashed and screamed. It didn't save her. He was moving, leaning on something and moving.
She kicked and scratched. Still she was overpowered. His arm was around someone's shoulder, someone half guiding half dragging him.
She sobbed and begged. It served only as encouragement. He was being lowered to the ground gently, the metal wall cool against his feverish skin.
She lay still and broken. Still she burned. The presence that had been guiding him, anchoring him, left.
Get a knife stuck in the right way and all it takes is five pounds of pressure to pop a man's kneecaps off. She smiled sadly, 'I'm sorry, Daddy isn't coming home.' He needed it, needed it and she had it. Why did he feel so guilty?
It called to him, Adam's siren song. It spoke to something deep inside him, a primal need, more urgent then hunger, thirst, and exhaustion combined. The song grew in strength as something approached, something with massive amounts of Adam flowing through its blood.
He opened his eyes slowly…and met the new arrivals glowing yellow gaze. It was large, that much he could make out as it lurked barely within the window's light. As if it understood it was being observed, it drifted further into the murky water. Now only the twin burning embers that were its eyes kept it visible.
David stood slowly, shuffling towards the large windows. Something about the new arrival simultaneously awed and terrified him. As if wanting to study him in turn, the creature drifted towards the window. It almost appeared to be glowing as its sickly pale skin caught the light. Its eyes shone with an inner light, though it was different then the yellow he had seen before. It was duller, almost as if it lacked the spark of intelligence he had seen in Big and Little Sisters. Its body appeared almost lopsided, its right arm considerably larger than the other.
A surge of lightheadedness overcame him as his need spiked and he rested a hand against the glass to support himself. This…thing, it had more Adam contained inside its body than anything he had seen. It is a god. In the ocean's depths, another, far different, hand pressed against the glass. The thing's head rose slightly, fleshless nose twitching as if catching a scent. It is a dog.
The monster's mandibles spread in a horrific facsimile of a smile. Its right arm buried up to the wrist in Samantha's chest. This thing was…familiar to him. Face showing nothing save shock; Samantha gazed into her sibling's eyes. The monster's free hand grabbed her shoulder before, with a sharp crack and wet sucking noise; it wrenched its mangled hand from its victim's chest, taking a large part of her torso with it. He remembered it, not them, he remembered it. He had encountered it before.
His gaze moved to his hand, pressed against the glass…and the warped inhuman hand mirroring his. If not for the glass they would have been palm to palm.
()
She followed Tony as quickly as she could, the adrenaline in her system making her senses seem sharper. The massive man was moving quickly and with surprise stealth, the machine gun he had stolen from the Splicer gripped with practiced ease. It was odd…wrong to see him holding the unfamiliar weapon. It looked almost too small, his signature weapon had been considerably larger than the one he currently held, unfortunately it had been taken by Cohen and they were unlikely to ever see it again.
Small fingers grabbed her hand with surprising strength. Carol looked up at her with innocent eyes. "Sandy, is Amanda's daddy okay?"
"Yeah sweetie, he just wants to lead us someplace safe."
As they neared a corner, Tony held his hand up in a fist. Sandy stopped instantly, the girls a second to two behind her. He approached the corner slowly, gun held at the ready. He paused for a second before taking the corner with surprising speed, gun held at the ready. Seeing what was around the corner, he relaxed noticeably before motioning for Sandy to follow.
They continued in silence for several minutes until Sandy could stand it no longer. "Do you have any idea where we are?" She received an irritated shh in response. So, he was going to be like that. "Damn it soldier man! I'm serious!"
Tony's spine stiffened and he released a barely human snarl. "Don't call me that."
"What? What the hell are you blathering about? I've called you soldier man before!"
The look he sent her was nothing short of murderous. "You don't get to call me that!" It was clear she was treading on thin ice.
"I-I'm sorry Tony, I didn't mean to offend you." She sighed, ignoring the tears that were building behind her eyes. She was so tired; she didn't know how much longer she could deal with this. "I just…I just want to know you have a plan. I need to know you have a plan."
His grip on his gun tightened. "Why the hell do I have to be the one with a plan? Can you not think for yourself?"
She stopped short, she had been expecting to be shushed or maybe glared at, she had not been expecting that. "Where the hell did that come from?"
Tony spun around, his teeth bared. "You want to lead? Then lead! You have an idea of where to go? Then tell me! Standing there bitching at me and questioning my decisions is not just irritating, it's detrimental!"
It happened so quickly she didn't have time to retort. From around the next corner, the mammoth Alpha series that had been feeding them came sprinting in their direction. Seeing the look in her eyes, Tony spun around, gun ready to fire. Before he could even pull the trigger, the beast punched him in the stomach with its armored hand. Utilizing its inhuman strength it followed the punch through, lifting Tony off his feet and slamming him into the ceiling with bone crushing force. The air left his lungs with a whoosh as he lost his grip on the gun.
The rifle slid across the floor, coming to a stop midway between Sandy and the creature. Knowing she had no chance against the monster without a weapon, she dove towards the discarded gun. Moving with a speed something its size should be unable to achieve, the Alpha series dropped Tony and spun towards Sandy. Its armored forearm slammed into her face with a crunch. Her legs flew out from under her before she landed on her back.
Her hands muffled her pained scream as they clasped her shattered nose, blood spewing down her face. She could hear Tony moving as he tried to regain his bearings enough to fight back. Her eyes, blurred by tears, could barely make out the Big Daddy looming over her. The floor creaked as it shifted its weight, raising a booted foot over her head. She was distantly aware of the terrified screams of the Little Sisters and the girls. Her sister was calling her name…
She should feel something shouldn't she? Fear? Anger? Sadness? She felt nothing, she felt numb. Before her would be killer could finish the job, a strange noise filled the air, a sort of mechanical whirring. Simultaneously, she and the Big Daddy paused, trying to determine the source of the noise.
They were still trying to do just that when a group of six Security Bots soared into the room, spraying the metal clad behemoth with a liberal coating of bullets.
()
The wall of water slammed into her telekinetic barrier with incredible force, actually managing to push her backwards a foot or two before she could stop it. The monsters created by Cohen had been washed away by the sudden onslaught of water, by now they would have drowned or been crushed by the pressure. She was able to hear Jack and the Splicer yelling at her, what they were saying was drowned out by the ocean's roar. Were they telling her they were clear, that she could drop her barrier and escape?
Trembling with effort as the ocean's pressure grew by the second, she glanced over her shoulder. As if it had been waiting for a distraction, something massive bashed against her barrier. She had been barely able to hold the water back when dealing with just the pressure, the sudden impact broke her concentration momentarily. Before she could even turn back to get a look at what was coming at her, the water slammed into her with incredible force.
She was hurled into the banister before the water grabbed a hold of her once again and she was sent careening down a hallway. Disoriented by the impact she was unprepared for something to coil itself around her ankle. Despite the fact that they were surging down a hallway amidst the ocean's water, whatever had grabbed her easily pulled her into its larger body. For an absurd moment, Theta actually thought that whatever was holding her was trying to protect her. The vacant yellow eyes and deformed mouth that awaited her when she opened her eyes stamped that theory out fast enough.
()
With a wet crunch, the crossbow bolt entered the monster's skull. Thompson only had a split second to see the yellow coloration on the bolt and throw the monster's body off of him before it burst in to flames. "What the hell was that Harper? You trying to kill me!"
Harper looked guilty at least, wringing his hands nervously. "S-sorry, I j-just wanted to h-help."
Grumbling to himself, Thompson sat up. While he was happy to be safe from Cohen's pet monster, there was still the matter of the four turrets that had them pinned down behind cover. "W-what are we going to do?"
"You could shoot me; after all if you're trying to kill me why not take out the middle man?"
"I'm serious! I made a mistake, I know that now, but what the hell are we going to do?" Thompson blinked in surprise at his diminutive companion, he hadn't stuttered once. "S-sorry for yelling." That was more like it…
He sighed, the man was a concerned parent going above and beyond for his daughter, he couldn't be expected to act like a soldier. "You're right; I've got the Security Command plasmid. Given enough time and some luck I can probably peg those turrets with it and get them to destroy each other."
"I-I could try to draw their fire for you…i-if you want t-that is." Despite his near fatal mistake, Thompson found himself impressed by Harper. The man seemed to have some nerves after all.
"Yeah, but be careful. The last thing we need is either of us getting shot." He felt the familiar pins and needles feeling as the skin of his palm split open. The spongy blue orb that emerged from the unnatural gash would cause security to attack whatever he hit with it. "On three?" Harper nodded. "One." He could hear a faint growling, it sounded like more of Cohen's monsters were near. "Two." The growling grew in volume becoming almost mechanical. "Thr-"
Before he could finish his count, several Security Bots flying in formation emerged from the right hand passage. They promptly opened fire on the turrets pinning them down. Not one to question unexpected help, Thompson motioned to Harper and sprinted from the room.
()
A roar reverberating in its chest, her brother flung her away. It appeared it was unappreciative of having its head encased in ice. Knowing from experience how out of her class this enemy was, Theta used the brief reprieve to begin searching for an escape. Unfortunately given she was still at the mercy of the ocean's current her options were limited.
A door caught her attention as she was hurled down the hallway. On impulse she grabbed for it at the last second. While she missed the door itself, she was able to grab its frame. The sudden jerk dislocated her shoulder, only her stubbornness kept her from releasing her grip as her shoulder throbbed in agony. The pain was worth it however, she couldn't resist smiling as her still flailing sibling surged past her.
Somehow aware its prey was getting away, her sibling's right arm shot towards the wall. The horribly disfigured limb no longer resembled a human hand. It had grown horrifically, as if it had somehow taken on more tissue then it should have had. With an explosion of pain it rips its arm from her chest. The realization strikes her as the limbs monstrous claws dig into the wall. It had been fused with her chest, the extra muscle, organ, and bone bound with its hand at an atomic level. Somehow its body had adapted and used the excess tissue, transforming the useless lump of flesh into a massive claw. She was by no means a squeamish individual, but the fact that a part of her was a part of it made her want to vomit.
Showcasing incredible strength, her brother sung itself up the hallway against the current. Its left hand, almost comically small when compared to its right, grabbed a railing. Dread coiled around her stomach as her leech squirmed uncomfortably, it was climbing up the hallway, climbing towards her. That hardly seemed fair! Idly, Theta found herself missing for the simpler days, when she was the undisputed alpha predator of Rapture, when her Family had been good and everyone else was bad, when she'd actually felt like she belonged somewhere.
Above it all she found herself missing her Daddy.
Some insight into Tony's past and build up for climactic going ons in the next chapter.
Will Sam defeat the Big Brother? Will David uncrazyify himself? Will Jack and co be able to regroup and escape? Find out the answers to these questions and more, next time on Humanization! Given how overtired I am I should probably shut up before I ramble too much. Anyways, as always, reviews are much appreciated. Hope you like the chapter.