Big brother Chapter 13, a bioshock fanfic

Hidden Room

Good Jacob

Rapture: 2:00pm

Everything was silent as Jacob was curled up in a small closet, asleep. He knew he would be uncomfortable when he woke up due to sleeping in his armor but he was to jumpy to take it off.

"WAKEY WAKEY KID, TIME FOR THE AFTERNOON REPORT! THINGS HERE IN RAPTURE ARE SAME OLD SAME OLD, AND THE COLOR OF THE DAY FOR THE LITTLE SISTERS IS PINK, THAT'S RIGHT, BRIGHT PINK!" Red shouted, imitating a radio show host from the surface.

Jacob sprang up, his ears ringing loudly. A little bit more and he would have gone deaf.

"Have you ever heard of being quiet?" Jacob hissed. Trying to control his anger and the urge to rip the radio out of his helmet, again.

"Had to wake you up somehow." Red shrugged.

Jacob muttered something to himself before getting up off the floor. Opening the door he peeked outside before calmly closing the door a second later.

There were four Big Brothers outside...

'Aw man, now what I am going to do?' Jacob thought sadly, he was trapped, one was bad enough he coudn't handle two. Taking off his helmet he took out the map, hoping it would provide him with an answer.

Scanning the map he saw there were ducts and airways shown on it as well as the general layout of the area. He could sneak through the ventilation system, they wouldn't notice.

Stuffing the map back into his helmet Jacob walked over to the vent in the corner of the room. The vent shaft was big enough he could crawl around inside it without scraping the sides. They must have been made before the Little Sisters or the upper parts of Rapture were built.

Squeezing inside Jacob crawled around the vent until he saw a pair of glowing eyes staring back at him. As they crawled closer Jacob was able to identify them as belonging to a Little Sister. She wore a red dress with gold bamboo stalks printed on it and her black hair was tied in a bun. She said something in what he thought was Japanese before she continued to stare at him, waiting for an answer.

"Huh?" Jacob asked dumbly. He didn't have much experience with people speaking other languages, much less a little girl who talked really fast.

She rolled her eyes and settled for waving her hand in the 'follow me' gesture.

"Okay." He shrugged and crawled after the sister. She was fast since she was able to lean down and walk just like she would outside the vent. Following her for a minute or two more Jacob heard a voice, to muffled to understand the exact words. The little sister stopped and made a shushing motion before pointing down to an opening.

Crawling over Jacob looked through the opening to find the same Big Brothers walking to what seemed like a vending machine.

"This job is so easy. All was have to do is protect some bratty little girls and sometimes their older, whinier sisters. If we're not doing that we can just slack off and do whatever we want!" the Brother in the front of the group cheered.

"Yeah. It helps that the Splicers are all afraid of us at this point. Just screech a little and they go running. So easy." One of the two in the middle bragged.

"So what are you guys gonna to get?" The Brother in the back asked the group as he browsed through the vending machines.

"I need a refill on my bombs." The front brother answered.

"You always need a refill Bill, what do you do with em all?"

"None of your beeswax, that's what Wally."

"Whatever, I'm getting that new blade I've been wanting."

"Which one? the knuckle spikes?"

"No, the katana!"

"Cool." The Brother, apparently named Bill, commented as he walked over to one of the three vending machine. Putting his pouch In the slot he inserted his harvester into the keyhole of the machine. He turned the needle and there was a sucking sound before the machine made a quiet *Ding!* sound. Pulling it back out Bill pressed one of the buttons. Waiting a few seconds for the machine to get done he finally pulled his now bomb filled pouch out of the slot.

Wally walked over to the machine next to Bill's looked at the selection. "Hey! They're sold out!" He yelled angrily.

"You know what they say, easy come easy go." Bill laughed. Wally looked over at Bill and huffed as he crossed his arms. Jacob assumed he was glaring at him but he couldn't tell for sure due to his helmet.

"Hey, didn't you need a new drone?" Bill asked.

"Those things are junk. You know that." Wally deadpanned before sprinting off. Possibly looking for more machines.

"Well ya got me there, maybe if they didn't have personalities they wouldn't be so useless." Bill mused out loud before he ran after his friend, followed by the so far silent two behind him.

Jacob stayed still until he couldn't hear they're footsteps anymore.

"Endymion-sama." He heard a quiet voice say. Looking up he saw the Little Sister looking at him, "Endymion-sama." She repeated before she slid down into an opening.

"My name's not... whatever." He sighed before following her down.

Sliding down he found himself in the spot where the other Big Brothers were. The Little Sister was there to, but she was quiet a ways away. Skipping over to the nearest hidey hole she pulled herself up and into it before disappearing into the darkness.

'I didn't even get to thank her. Then again, she probably wouldn't be able to understand me anyway.' Jacob thought before he turned his attention to the vending machines.

One of them looked like what Jack describe him as the machine he used to get medical supplies from when he was in Rapture, but the sign was different. It said bombs on the very top of the machine instead of a red cross, there was a hole for Adam deposits in the middle, and there was a slot to put the bomb bag in below that instead of a tray for the med-packs to drop into.

Untying the pouch from his hip Jacob placed the mostly empty pouch in the machine, undoing the half filled jar from the harvester he replaced it with a full one and inserted it into the slot. He turned it like unlocking a car door before he heard the same sucking sound it made before and the Adam jar was drained. Seeing as how he couldn't pull his arm back out he assumed he paid however much Adam was in the jar first and got what was left over after he made his purchases.

A panel slid open and revealed a number of buttons and a small rectangular screen. On the screen the number 100 was was boldly displayed in bright red letters.

One button was for leveling up the bombs, the other was a refill. (Which was by far the cheapest choice, being worth only 10 Adam) There were other types of bombs as well. Ice Bombs, Lightning Bombs, Shrapnel Bombs, and a few others.

Jacob chose to level up the bombs and buy a bag of ice bombs. who knows, it could be useful in the future. Specially considering he needed to try and turn the Brothers into allies and keeping them in place with ice was the easiest way he could think of to convince them.

Once the choice was made the machine clinked and clanked, the bombs were deposited safely into his pouch. And the number 100 dropped down to 10. it seems a new pouch of ice bombs cost him 50 Adam and upgrading them bombs in general cost 40. he wondered if upgrading them only upgraded the ones in the pouch he just bought or any bombs he bought from now on.

Pulling his harvester's needle out of the machine Jacob took the pouch and tied it back around his waist.

Walking over to the next machine he saw this one looked a lot like the ones that sold soda back on the surface. "Drones! The latest in security bot technology! They can be used as spy cameras, they have built in weapons! Upgrade them to be more useful. They're the Big Brothers favorite pet!" The machine started playing it's ad campaign as it's motion detector noticed someone walked by.

"Wow, I could use one of those." He said to himself, emptying what was left of the jar he had into the first one he took guessed he had maybe 60 Adam left. Securing the jar onto his harvester he walked over and placed his harvester into the hole. The Adam was drained and just like before a panel with buttons and the amount of Adam he had paid was displayed.

The drone's pictures were shown on the buttons. They looked exactly the same aside from a stripe of color in the very middle of them. They were made out of what looked like a home video camera. They had a propeller in the front used to fly and what looked like a small gun attached to the side of it. At the very bottom of the drone were metal chicken-like feets.

Jacob chose the drone with the dark blue stripe. There was a clanking sound and his Adam count dropped from 64 down to 24. Taking the needle out Jacob opened the compartment of the machine to extract his drone and found... nothing.

"Huh?" Jacob was rather of annoyed. Maybe it was stuck or something?

Reaching into the machine he groped around inside it before he finally got something, pulling his hand out of the machine he examined the drone in his hand, it was motionless. Maybe it ran on batteries?

'Where is the on switch for this?' He wondered as he looked around the contraption. Poking the propeller he had another thought. "Maybe its like a wind up toy. It's about the same size as one anyway." With that thought in mind he began to turn the propeller around counter clock-wise. Ignoring the loud beeps the machine was making as he continued to turn it.

Noticing the 'eye' of the drone start to glow red he started to get a tad nervous.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

It began to shoot him with the small gun on it's right side, immediately letting it go Jacob started running around in circles with his arms in the air. The drone continued flying after him, chasing him while it continued shooting.

Not noticing the bullets didn't hurt him Jacob broke from his circle and ran down the hallway until he was cornered behind a pillar. Hearing the bots propeller get closer and closer his hand reached around blindly for the first thing he could use for protection. As soon as his hand found something her gripped it and spun around the corner. Swing the item he picked up as hard as he could and was rewarded with a very satisfying *Boing!* sound and the drone went flying.

Dropping the tennis racket he had picked up he thought quickly and used the Adam jar he had emptied earlier and grabbed the drone before placed it inside the jar and closing the lid before it could get it's bearings.

'That should hold you.' Jacob thought with a grin as he put it under the armor on his harvester and continued his journey.

Later:

The drone buzzed angrily as it looked at Jacob from his captivity, or at least as best as it could from underneath a plate of armor. The bot had grown to hate Big Brothers', they did nothing but torment his kind. Using them like baseballs, and smashing them for fun.

Tapping on the glass it took it's time before it smashed the bottom of the jar open, spinning around it peeked up at the Big Brother and noticed he didn't seem to hear the glass break. Pleased with itself it flew off making it's way back to his cozy home when..

"HEY LOOK A FREEBIE!" A voice shouted, the next thing it knew two hands had grabbed it. Fearing the worst the drone wiggled a little and looked at his captor. It was a pair of Big Brothers.

"Great! Just in time for baseball!" The one holding him said, the grin obvious in his voice.

"I call dibs on the batter." The other brother said quickly.

"What? You are not!"

After a short argument over who was going to bat the poor drone to smithereens they took their positions.

"Okay, the pitcher is preparing to serve. He's concentrating." The Big Brother who was winding up to throw the drone said, pretending to be a sports narrator.

He was about to throw it when a hand chopped him on the neck.

'huh... I didn't think that would work...' Jacob admitted to himself as he stared at the unconscious pile of limbs below him.

"HEY!" The Brother with the bat In his hands yelled.

Seeing as he was still in one piece the drone hid behind his apparent savior.

"You know its not nice to destroy things right? Especially things that don't belong to you." Jacob lectured.

"Wait a second your that Brother the boss is looking for." The Big Brother dropped the wooden bat held in his hands and lunged for Jacob.

Seeing the charging Brother Jacob grabbed his drone and ran. "Hey if you have any good uses now would be a good time to use 'em!" the drone beeped rapidly and flew away.

After a moment of stunned silence, although he was still running, Jacob's eyebrow twitched and he screamed "THANKS FOR THE HELP!" in the direction the drone flew.

As he passed the next door however he heard a loud clank behind him. Skidding to a stop he looked back and saw that the closed door he'd run past had opened suddenly and the Brother following him had run into it. Apparently knocking himself out.

He saw the drone floating towards him slowly, almost as if it was strutting, while it beeped a victory tune to itself.

Ignoring the urge to go loot the brothers unconscious body for Gil and Exp he spoke up."I guess were even. I saved your life and you saved mine, kinda." He muttered the last word. Confident he could have fought the Brother off.

Looking around he managed to find a piece of paper. Unfortunately he couldn't find anything to write with so he just used incinerate to heat up the metal on his index finger and burned the message into the paper.

'Lesson learned, yeah?' He wrote before folding it up and placing it in the Big Brother's hand before leaving.

After getting to higher ground He finally spoke to the drone that was following him.

"Got a name?"

It beep several times in a row I response.

"Riiiight..." He mumbled to himself. He really should have seen that coming. "Ok, from now on one beep for yes and two beeps for no." He told the drone before he asked if it had a name.

Hearing the drone beep twice Jacob thought aloud. "Okay, I need to call you something. You fly more like a bird then a plane or sentry drone so... how 'bout sparrow?" Jacob offered.

The Drone let out a single high pitched beep and began what Jacob could only assume was a dance in mid-air.

His radio suddenly crackling to life interrupted Jacob's musings on how an armless drone could dance so well.

"Red? That you?" asked Jacob.

"Not even close. Tell me Jacob, how does it feel to be a rogue Big Brother? To walk in both your dad's and your grandfather's footsteps?" The voice asked.

For once Jacob wished it was Red on the other end of the radio. "Who are you?" He demanded. His voice contained a hint of fear despite his best efforts.

The man chuckled and answered. "Call me Gear. I'm the one who builds all of the gadgets in Rapture. You have every right to fear me." His raspy laughter was the last thing Jacob heard before the radio disconnected.

"Kid... Helloooo? You there?" Red asked through the radio.

"Red. I'm glad your here." Jacob said.

"Yeah. This guy isn't kidding around. Gear eh? He was telling the truth, he does construct all the new devices in Rapture. Even that Drone you have over there. I can't trace his radio signal but my guess is he lives on the top floors of this place." Red advised.

"Yeah, thanks for the advice." Jacob replied as Red logged off, turning to Sparrow he asked "Any chance you know where Gear is?" To his surprise Sparrow beeped once and started flying in another direction. Thanking the helpful drone he followed it. Trusting Sparrow to lead him to where he needed to go.

Upper parts of the foundation:

Sparrow led him until they reached an old room. Opening the door Jacob saw this must have been the place where the plans for Rapture were being kept by construction workers. Although there was nobody there.

"Sparrow are you sure this is the place?" Jacob asked, unsure. Sparrow beeped once and it began to look around the room before it seemed to find what it was looking for, a button on the wall. A section of the wall slid open, revealing a hidden room.

'Well that's a surprise. Wonder how many rooms like this there are in rapture?' Jacob thought as he remembering that grace once told him she lived in a room that had a secret panic room hidden in the walls.

Walking in Jacob found an iron door. There was a box next to it with a red button. Jacob pressed it, there was a moment of silence before, "So you found me. I don't see why I tried to hide from my fate. now I see, I'm meant to die. I always have been. I tried to make the best of my life. My only regret is that I never got a chance to make something good out of life, but... eh, that's what happens to geniuses. They always die before people realize their true potential." A voice Jacob recognized as Gear told him.

"What are you talking about?" Jacob asked.

"Oh you don't know...does the name Stretch ring a bell?" Gear asked.

"Wait, your Stretch?" Jacob asked.

"Got it in one. You may not know it because I played the fool but I'm very intelligent. Underneath my looks and attitude was a child genius. I wished my life could last longer, but no. I managed to avoid dying from my cancer only to wind up on the wrong side a blade from one I wronged on the surface. Fitting. But where are my manners, here I am prattling on and your legs are probably falling asleep just standing there like that, come in."

True to his word as soon as he stopped talking the door opened.

"Careful kid. Gear is a Gadget Big Brother, one of five. They may lack both in armor and offensive skills but they make up in self made defenses. They have numerous gadgets at their disposal plus the use of the Electro-volt plasmid." Red warned.

Looking at gear Jacob saw Red was right. Gear wore an old fashioned Big Sister helmet while his suit consisted of a baggy jumper with a few pieces of armor on his shoulders, knees, and feet. He had no harvester, as far as Jacob could tell.

"Stretch, I didn't come here for revenge. I just want to know where my father is." Jacob said honestly.

Gear was silent for several seconds before he started to laugh, at first it was a laugh of disbelief, before it shifted to a relieved laugh after a few seconds. It was rather nice for Jacob to hear. Rapture was a horrible place, hearing someone sound so... carefree, was a nice change.

"Your serious? Your quite a guy, Jacob Andrew. I do know where your father is, and who you have to go through to get to him." Gear said after his laughter subsided.

"Who?"

"One of the original Big Brothers. He's the toughest of the tough. He lives in Hephaestus and guards the Geothermal Core. Why? I don't know. All I know is he does. To gain access you need my key card." Gear explained.

"Would you give it to me?" Jacob asked.

Standing up Gear walked over and rummaged through his desk before he took out a rectangular plastic card and threw it at Jacob.

"Take it." he said.

Jacob caught it and nodded before he turned around and left.

"Wha-Hey wait! I wasn't done talking!" He couldn't make out the words however as he had started sprinting the second he was out of sight. Anxious to meet up with his dad.

Sparrow sat on his shoulder as they made their way to another train station with the help of the handy dandy map his mysterious partner sent.

Speaking of which...

Reaching the train station Jacob found the Big Daddy Doll sitting on top of the train.

Hopping up to where it was Jacob found it was standing on top of an audio diary and a present wrapped in newspaper with a single pink bow tied around it.

Picking up the audio diary he pressed the play button. Two voices started to talk, while they sounded exactly the same Jacob guessed they were two different people.

"What is this brother?"

"I don't know, but daddy talks to it all the time."

"How does it work?

"I don't know either"

"Boys what are you two doing?"

"Daddy, what's this?"

"it's an audio diary, and neither of you should be playing with it."

"We're sorry daddy."

The audio diary ended after a scuffling noise, probably the two boys' dad picking the audio recorder up. What did this mean? And who were they?

Setting down the recorder he picked up the wrapped present and gently pulled part of the bow so the knot untied itself. Unfolding the newspaper he found a metal rod with a handle. Dropping the newspaper he investigated further. Putting one hand on the handle and another on the opposite end he heard a click. Seeing the shining metal he suddenly realized what he was holding.

A katana, something he had wanted for almost two years now since he heard about them from a friend. The scabbard was dark grey, almost black, while the handle was covered in criss-crossing strings that formed a vertical line of diamond shapes.

Checking the Big Daddy Doll he found it empty but at this point nothing could spoil his good mood. A new robot friend and a katana! In the span of like, half an hour!

Dancing a little jig on top of the train (and causing sparrow to fall off his shoulder leading to some very vulgar words being hurled at him, but seeing as Jacob didn't understand robot he kept dancing, unaware of the insults being hurled at him) he finally calmed down and used the strap he hadn't noticed until then to secure it onto his back.

Hopping down he opened the train door and walked over to the front before inserting the chip into the main computer. The train doors closed and the train began to move to the place its supposed to go.

Evil Jacob:

Rapture: 2:00pm

Everything was silent asJacob was curled up in a small closet, asleep. He knew he would be uncomfortable when he woke up due to sleeping in his armor but he was to jumpy to take it off.

Jacob sprang up, his ears ringing loudly. A little bit more and he would have gone deaf.

"Have you ever heard of being quiet?" Jacob hissed. Trying to control his anger and the urge to rip the radio out of his helmet, again.

"Had to wake you up somehow." Red shrugged.

Jacob muttered something to himself before getting up off the floor. Opening the door he peeked outside before calmly closing the door a second later.

There were four Big Brothers outside...

'This does not bode well for me...' Jacob thought dryly. He could fight one with some trouble, two if he was having a good day, but four? No, the odds were stacked to far against him to attempt it now. Taking off his helmet he took out the map to pass the time until the Brothers' cleared out.

Scanning the map he saw there were ducts and airways shown on it as well as the general layout of the area. He could sneak through the ventilation system instead of just waiting them out.

"Huh?" Jacob asked dumbly. He didn't have much experience with people speaking other languages, much less a little girl who talked really fast.

She rolled her eyes and settled for waving her hand in the 'follow me' gesture.

Crawling over Jacob looked through the opening to find the same Big Brothers walking to what seemed like a vending machine.

"Yeah. It helps that the Splicers are all afraid of us at this point. Just screech a little and they go running. So easy." One of the two in the middle bragged.

"So what are you guys gonna to get?" The Brother in the back asked the group as he browsed through the vending machines.

"I need a refill on my bombs." The front brother answered.

"You always need a refill Bill, what do you do with em all?"

"None of your beeswax, that's what Wally."

"Whatever, I'm getting that new blade I've been wanting."

"Which one? the knuckle spikes?"

"No, the katana!"

Wally walked over to the machine next to Bill's looked at the selection. "Hey! They raised the price of the katana! It used to only be 200 Adam! Now it's 300! Damn you Gear, you greedy asshole!" He yelled at the machine.

"HA! Now finally you'll stop bragging about getting one." Bill laughed. Wally looked over at Bill and huffed as he crossed his arms. Jacob assumed he was glaring at him but he couldn't tell for sure due to his helmet.

"Hey, didn't you need a new drone?" Bill asked.

"Those things are junk. You know that." Wally deadpanned before sprinting off. Possibly looking for more machines.

"Well ya got me there, maybe if they didn't have personalities they wouldn't be so useless." Bill mused out loud before he ran after his friend, followed by the so far silent two behind him.

Jacob stayed still until he couldn't hear they're footsteps anymore.

"Erebus" He heard a quiet voice say. Looking up he saw the Little Sister looking at him, "Erebus-sama." She repeated before she slid down into an opening.

"What's Ere-whatever mean?" He asked her before realizing she was out of hearing range. He followed her down a second later.

Jacob Shrugged at her departure and started scanning the vending machines.

Jacob stayed very clear of this one. Having no urge to get blown up again.

"I'll think about it. One of them could be useful, but from what the Brothers' from earlier said they're not that useful." He deduced before he looked at the last machine

Walking over to it he saw it looked like the last machine, like a pop machine from the surface. Except the picture on the machine was what looked like a butcher knife and a swords laid in an X shape with the words True Blades (what he correctly assumed was the brand name) in glowing white letters above the two blades.

The only thing on the machine was a hole for a harvester. So he lined up the needle and inserted it into the machine. Seeing as nothing happened for several seconds he was about to pull the needle back out when his radio turned on.

"Twist your arm clockwise." Red instructed.

Following his advice Jacob turned his arm until the machine made a loud click.

"Thanks Red." Jacob said.

"No problem." Red joked.

Jacob turned his attention back to the vending machine. A panel had opened up with a little more then half a dozen buttons with pictures and numbers below them and a panel that had the number 100 displayed in bright red letters.

The number confused him a bit until he glanced over and saw the previously full Adam jar empty.

Turning his attention back to the buttons he found that, sure enough, the katana was the third most expensive item. The buttons from left to right were a wrist blade for 10 Adam, knuckle spikes for 30, a dagger for 50, a machete for 90, a gladius for 150, a katana for 300, a Scottish claymore for 400, and something called a zweihander for 500.

Jacob didn't know what a zweihander was but he did know that going by the size of the picture of the massive blade he wasn't going to be wielding it anytime soon...

"Uhh, Red? I've got a problem." Jacob turned on his radio and asked.

"Yeah what, I don't have a whole lot of time so make it quick." Red responded.

"I only have one jar of Adam because I drank the rest. How do I get two jars of Adam quickly?"

"... What..." Red's deadpanned. "Why would you DRINK Adam? That's like burning money!"

"Well I drank it so my body could handle the plasmids. That's how it works right? If you inject yourself with a plasmid and you don't have enough Adam in your body you become deformed."

"Yes, that would be how it works normally. But the process that turns you into a Big Brother makes it possible to use all the plasmids you want without any negative side effects. The only thing Adam does for you is help out your healing, and even then you don't need much. A jar full of Adam should keep you for a week or two, depending on how many fights you get into. Now, if you wanna buy that shiny sword you gonna have to hunker down and spit that Adam back up. I gotta go for a while, have fun kid." Red explained, ending his speech with a mocking laugh that reminded Jacob that the first thing he was gonna do when he met Red was punch him in that smug face of his.

Glancing around Jacob took off his helmet and grabbed one of his empty Adam jars. Grimacing he got to work.

The next five minutes were easily the most disturbing of his life and were already well on their way to being suppressed.

After it was all said and done Jacob was the proud owner of three more jars filled with Adam. To his surprise it was actually pure Adam, instead of some Adam mixed with stomach acid and bits of whatever he ate last.

Turning his attention back to the vending machine Jacob tried to pull his arm out. When that failed her tried twisting it counter-clockwise to unlock the machine. That didn't work either.

So now he could either break the machine, something he really didn't want to do, wait for Red, or try one last idea that just popped into his head. Bringing his left hand up he pressed the button that said Katana with a picture of the sword on it and was surprised when the machine released his right arm.

Assuming he needed to put two more jars in he quickly switched the empty jar on his harvester for a full one. Sure enough the second the counter hit 300 it instantly dropped to 0 and the machine rattled around for a few seconds before a door popped open on the side of the machine with a loud *Ding!*. Leaning over to the left as he withdrew this harvester he saw a handle sticking out.

Walking over he grabbed the handle, admiring the black and white cross crossed strings that made up the grip, and removed the rest of it. The scabbard was a dark grey, almost black, and made of metal. Removing the scabbard he held up the blade. It was shiny, but was it sharp enough to be of use?

Setting the blade against the armor on his left forearm he was shocked to find the blade sink into the armor with only a bit of resistance. Pulling the blade back he quickly welded the gash in his armor shut and grinned to himself. Oh he was going to enjoy this.

Noticing the strap attached to either end of scabbard he sheathed the sword and secured it on his back so the handle was poking up on his right shoulder.

Putting his last jar of Adam into his harvester he walked over to the drone vender. Inserting his harvester and twisting his wrist a panel opened up just like the blade vender with buttons of what was for sale and the number of Adam currently paid.

Jacob chose the drone with the dark blue stripe. There was a clanking sound and his Adam count dropped from 100 down to 60. Taking the needle out Jacob opened the compartment of the machine to extract his drone and found... nothing.

"Huh?" Jacob was rather of annoyed. Maybe it was stuck or something?

"Ah well, once I get Electro-bolt, whenever that may be, I should be able to charge it up." He mused to himself as he unscrewed the lid on one of his empty jars and set the motionless drone inside and started walking in the direction the Big Brother took before. Now that he was properly equipped he could handle them, maybe.

Later:

"HEY LOOK A FREEBIE!" A voice shouted, the next thing it knew two hands had grabbed it. Fearing the worst the drone wiggled a little and looked at his captor. It was a pair of Big Brothers.

"Great! Just in time for baseball!" The one holding him said, the grin obvious in his voice.

"I call dibs on the batter." The other brother said quickly.

"What? You are not!"

After a short argument over who was going to bat the poor drone to smithereens they took their positions.

"Okay, the pitcher is preparing to serve. He's concentrating." The Big Brother who was winding up to throw the drone said, pretending to be a sports narrator.

He was about to throw it when a sharp pain politely informed his he had just been stabbed. Feeling as if his very soul was being sucked out he tried to scream but only succeeded in falling to the ground before the life left him.

"HEY!" The Brother with the bat In his hands yelled.

Seeing as he was still in one piece the drone hid behind his apparent savior.

"You know its not nice to destroy things right? Especially things that don't belong to you." Jacob lectured as he pulled out his new katana.

"Wait a second your that Brother the boss is looking for." The Big Brother dropped the wooden bat held in his hands and lunged for Jacob.

Bracing himself Jacob waited until the last and swung in a downward slash at the charging Brother. The enemy Brother tried to dodge but failed, costing him his right arm.

"AAAHHH!" He screamed as he held the bleeding stump where his right bicep used to be. To blinded by the pain he didn't even notice when Jacob took another swing and decapitated him.

Looking down at the corpse in disgust Jacob harvested the bit of Adam the Brother's body had in it. At least he knew why Brothers' didn't usually give him very much Adam now, so he wasn't frustrated with the small amount.

Considering neither of the two Big Brothers had any sort of weapons or distinguishing armor aside from a harvester Jacob guessed these two were just like Big Daddies back from when his dad and grandpa were here when they weren't escorting a Little Sister around already. They're job was just to patrol for and eliminate threats to the Little Sisters before the Sisters came into the area and started harvesting. In other words, they were the storm troopers of rapture. Useless, weak, and can't fight for crap, but numerous and annoying.

Shrugging his shoulders he flicked the blood off of his katana and sheathed it. Spotting the drone hovering behind him and looked down and saw the broken jar. Growling in the back of his throat at losing one of the five jars he had on him his hand shot up and grabbed the little drone before it could move.

"Listen you little insect, I bought you. That means your my property and you will do what I say. Disobey me and you'll find out becoming a baseball will be the least of your worries." He threatened the drone.

Seeing as it was beeping rapidly in response but not trying to get out of his grip he assumed that meant it agreed. Letting it go it hovered in placed, still beeping at him.

"Okay stop that." He ordered. The drone stopped. "From now on you will only do that beeping thing when your answering a question for me or talking to other drones I may or may not buy. One beep for yes, and two for now. Understand?"

The drone let out a single beep so Jacob continued. "Good, now your going to need a name. Can't exactly call you insect now can I? Well okay I could, but if i'm going to have minions I should at least treat them with a bit of respect if they follow my orders." He mused.

"R2-D2?" Jacob suggested.

Two beeps was his answer.

"Clucky?"

Two more beeps.

"How 'bout Sparrow, your rather bird-like, so it fits."

The drone was silent for a few seconds before it gave a single beep and bobbed up and down in mid-air, as if it were nodding.

His radio suddenly crackling to life. "You back already Red?" Jacob asked.

"Tell me Jacob, how does it feel to be a rogue Big Brother? To walk in both your dad's and your grandfather's footsteps?" The voice asked.

"Pretty good, very freeing, why?" Jacob answered honestly.

The man chuckled and answered. "Good. Call me Gear. I'm the one who builds all of the gadgets in Rapture." His raspy laughter was the last thing Jacob heard before the radio disconnected.

"Kid... Helloooo? You there?" Red asked through the radio.

"Yeah, what were you doing anyway?" Jacob asked curiously.

"Doesn't matter. Gear eh? He was telling the truth, he does construct all the new devices in Rapture. Even that Drone you have over there. I can't trace his radio signal but my guess is he lives on the top floors of this place." Red advised.

"uh-huh, thanks for the advice." Jacob replied as Red logged off, turning to Sparrow he asked "Any chance you know where Gear is?" To his surprise Sparrow beeped once and started flying in another direction. Shrugging his shoulders, and thanking his good luck at finding a good minion, he followed.

Upper parts of the foundation:

"Sparrow are you sure this is the place?" Jacob asked. Sparrow beeped once and it began to look around the room before it seemed to find what it was looking for, a button on the wall. A section of the wall slid open, revealing a hidden room.

"What are you talking about?" Jacob asked.

"Oh? I guess you don't know... does the name Stretch ring a bell?" Gear asked.

"Wait, your Stretch?" Jacob asked, surprised.

True to his word as soon as he stopped talking the door opened.

"So what's to stop me from killing you?" Jacob asked.

"You mean your not going to? After seeing you kill Herald, Gerald, and those two Standard Big Brothers I thought for sure you would just walk in, kill me, and loot my belongings." Gear said, hoping Jacob wasn't joking with him.

"Well, thanks to sparrow here," He pointed at the drone hovering a few feet above him, "I see how making allies, and recruiting minions could be useful, granted they help me in some way. If you can do something for me, say give me a plasmid, information, or weapons I think I could spare your life." Jacob explained.

"I think that's a fair deal. Tell you what, your being rather cool about this so I think I can get you a few things. The Jar I got my Electro-bolt plasmid from is still pretty much full so I could offer you that. Plus I could give you the key so you can get to Hephaestus. I don't have much in the way of weapons but I could probably give you a fifty percent discount at the venders." Gear offered as he sat down, it was so rare to find someone that was so polite these days. Neanderthals, the lot of 'em.

"That sounds like a wonderful deal. I accept." Jacob smiled, why couldn't all of his enemies just surrender like this?

Getting up off his chair Gear walked over to his desk and opened one of the cabinets. Setting the jar of glowing red liquid on his desk he reached inside once more and grabbed a thin rectangular piece of plastic. Tossing them over to Jacob he walked over to the computer built into the far wall and typed a few things into it before walking back over and sitting down in his seat.

"There ya go. As long as you use the harvester you have now to access the vending machines everything will be at half price. The key should be rather simple to puzzle out, just find the nearest train and put it into the slot on the control built for it and it'll take you to Hephaestus." Gear told him and he took off his helmet and drank what appeared to be tea that was sitting on the table.

"Awesome, well I should get out of your hair, good day to you." Jacob said as he got up. Gears voice interrupted him however.

"Actually, I was hoping you would stay for a while. It's been quite some time since I had a decent conversation. Most Big Brothers thought process is something along the lines of 'weapons... protect Sisters'... weapons... kill splicers... derrr.'" Gear admitted. Dropping into into a mocking voice at the end.

Jacob shrugged, he wasn't really in a hurry. "Sure. I always wanted to know why you met up with butch's gang actually. You just don't seem like the bully type."

"Well...

. . .

After a nice conversation over some tea Jacob felt rather relaxed. Gear knew his recliners and had acquired some of the most comfortable chairs he had ever sat in. even with his armor on, which baffled Jacob for a few seconds before he stopped caring as it wasn't important.

Gear's was a rather interesting story. Apparently, after finding out he had cancer, Stretch had just given up. Hating the fact that he knew exactly how he was going to die he decided one day he didn't want to be smart anymore and switched off his brain, so to speak, and eventually drifted into butch's gang due to his mindless follower mentality his brainless-ness created for him. The rest was history.

After saying his goodbyes he put his helmet back on and eventually found another train. Opening the door correctly this time he walked inside and found the control panel in the front of the train. Taking the plastic key card out from under his helmet he inserted it onto the slot that looked like it would fit into and sat down. Shifting so his sword wasn't being crushed underneath him he glanced over and found sparrow ogling the controls for the train.

Holding out his hand he sent a small spark whizzing by sparrow's camera lens.

A short scolding about why touching the controls of something as sensitive as a train that could kill them both and they were off. The train taking them to Hephaestus, and whatever it may hold.

To Be Continued...

BETA'd by: Slicerness