Disclaimer: I don't own Bioshock or any of the characters associated with it
"Come on mister M! Don't be a slowpoke!"
Davian was getting rather tired of this outing. The day had started out easily enough, with a small breakfast and a game of hide-and-seek before he got ready to go foraging again. His plans had been forcibly changed however when Wren had been struck by the need to gather Adam. He had learned very early on that trying to stop her when she fell prey to this urge had rather… dramatic consequences.
It was an addiction. The same kind of all-consuming desire that encompassed those who lost themselves to their own Adam addictions. When she had to gather, all other things took a back seat.
This particular venture was getting even more dangerous than usual. For the past several hours, the two of them had been wandering the halls following whatever sense Wren used to locate their targets. Davian had grown increasingly concerned as they moved farther and farther away from his familiar territory.
By now, it was all he could do to try and remember which way was home.
"Hey Wren, hold on for a second and let me catch my breath." He said.
The little girl let out a puff of annoyance, but sat down obediently as he got his bearings. By now they had been traveling for well over a third of the day, which meant that any hope of gathering supplies had officially gone out the window.
To Davian's left, a faded sign advertised the 'Adonis Resort' spa and rejuvenation facility. Apparently before Rapture went to hell this had been a nice get away spot for the wealthy and privileged. There was just one problem.
He had no idea what the area was like.
It could be a splicer hotspot, or it could be entirely free of the creatures. He didn't know whether or not he wanted to risk it though. After all, it just took one psychopath with a gun to put a serious damper on your plans.
Wren sat a short distance away, picking at a coral outcropping and fidgeting impatiently as he decided what to do next.
It was strange, Davian supposed, that she was like this. Whenever they were at home Wren was a bundle of energy with the attention span of an excitable puppy. When they went gathering however, she focused with an almost unnatural intensity. She didn't deviate from the path no matter how long or how far it took her.
Normally Davian was impressed by this, but today he really missed the times when she would run around the house begging to be entertained.
Apparently having had enough of the waiting around, Wren got to her feet and dusted off her dress.
"Come on mister M." She said. "The angels won't wait forever."
Davian didn't bother pointing out that the 'angels' would in fact wait forever, or at least for however long it took them to rot away entirely.
"I'm coming, hold on a second." Predictably enough, she ignored him and began to skip off. He groaned slightly as he set off after his charge.
The two of them were in direct contrast as they continued. Davian had every one of his senses strained to the limit, looking for any threat or danger that might try to take them by surprise. Wren on the other hand pranced along merrily, completely oblivious to the death and carnage that was plastered all across the halls.
Right now he was starting to regret getting her the ribbon. The unfamiliar color kept grabbing his attention from its position in her brown hair, and threatened to blind him from the surrounding world.
He was so distracted by the bobbing, purple, lace that he didn't notice the corpse on the floor until he tripped over it.
With a cry of dismay, Davian came crashing to the floor. He reflexively pushed away from the body and lit a fire in his palm as he surveyed the grisly sight.
The unfortunate splicer had clearly never heard of self-restraint. Every inch of exposed flesh showed signs of massive Adam over-dose, ranging from ugly scars to grotesque growths dotting his body. His ravaged face was twisted in a permanent expression of pain and terror.
Davian jumped slightly as Wren poked him in the shoulder.
"That angels already been helped. Get up so we can find the others." For a moment, he was tempted to ask what she was talking about. But a second look at the corpse answered his question.
A rather large hole had been torn in the man's abdomen, and from the looks of things his entire upper body had been crushed under some great weight. Surprisingly enough there was very little blood.
The most disturbing thing about the body was its state of decay, or rather lack thereof. The rats had picked away some of the flesh, but the vast majority was still intact. This meant that the body was still recent, a few days old at most.
This was definitely not a good sign.
Davian quickly got to his feet, extinguished the flame, and took Wren's hand. "Come on." He said. "The sooner we find your angel the sooner we can get out of here." She just rolled her eyes as if to say that his comment was painfully obvious.
It took them only a few more minutes before she managed to locate the angel she had been tracking.
Davian had a very hard time trying to keep his breakfast down when they arrived.
He had seen plenty of death in the underwater city, but this was something else entirely. Strewn about the room like broken toys, the bodies of at least twenty splicers lay mangled and broken. Several had the same puncture holes as the one he had stumbled across, but most had simply been savaged.
At least five of them had limbs removed, and several had been ripped entirely in two. One woman had her head turned around one hundred and eighty degrees so that she was facing the wrong direction.
Wren was entirely unaffected by the horrific slaughter, humming a tune as she crouched down near a body and got to work. Davian could only begin to imagine how this scene looked to her with the mental tampering she had undergone.
Grudgingly, he took up his position as her protector while she gathered.
His nerves were strained to their breaking point as he tried to ignore the sound of her needle entering and exiting the bodies. Every shadow seemed sinister, waiting and watching for the perfect moment to strike. It was all a horrible experience, but the worst part was the smell. The disgusting stench of moist rot infected every inch of the room so thickly that it was almost visible.
It wasn't until she got around to the third body that things started to get dangerous.
"I'm telling you, their all dead!" Davian tensed suddenly at the sound of the unfamiliar voice.
"They can't all be dead, Orson wouldn't let that happen."
"Oh yea? Since when did that fat ass ever care about protecting his men? Come on, I'll show you the corpses."
Someone was coming. From the sound of their footsteps and general noisemaking there were more than just the two who were talking.
Davian didn't waste any time. He hoisted Wren away from the dead man she had been gathering from, and cut off her yelp of protest by covering her mouth with his free hand. A brief survey of the surrounding area told him that the only viable hiding spot was behind a low counter that may have once been a vending stall.
He quickly ran behind it, holding Wren as close to him as possible to minimize the chances of them being spotted by anyone heading towards the room. No sooner had the two of them packed into the small area then their unwanted guests made their entrance.
Several long moments stretched out before one of the splicers voiced what they were all thinking.
"Holy fuck!"
Davian flinched slightly at the sound of the curse. He had long since trained himself out of using them to avoid having Wren start asking him what they meant.
"What happened? It looks like someone turned the room into a blender!"
Their voices were getting closer, and Davian realized that if they walked near him they would be sure to see something. The little girl in his arms began to tremble at the sudden seriousness of the situation. All of her earlier joviality was replaced by the mounting tension.
"Gabe says he thinks it was one of those metal freaks."
Taking a slight risk, he inched his head around the counter to see the splicers. There were five of them standing in a small group. The tallest one, obviously the leader, held a tommy gun loosely in one hand while chatting with his shotgun wielding partner. Behind them were a man and a woman who both were armed with pistols.
They all bore signs of Adam abuse, but the one at the back was by far the worst off. Its body had been so distorted that it was impossible to tell any kind of gender. The only defining feature in its ruined face was a lolling tongue that hung out of a painfully stretched mouth. The sorry creature was aimlessly swinging a rusty knife around as it walked.
"What, you mean a daddy?" Asked the splicer holding the shotgun.
"No, no." Replied the leader. "One of the screaming ones. Gabe claims he heard the sound of its yelling from all the way out in the saunas."
They were getting closer. With a sinking feeling, Davian realized that they were going to find his hiding place, and he was willing to bet that they wouldn't be friendly. Especially not when they saw Wren.
There was going to be a fight, and he wasn't about to let them make the first move.
"Stay here." He whispered in her ear. She gave a small nod to tell him that she understood. Looking up, he set his sights on the metal support beams holding up the ceiling and vanished.
"What was that?" The woman asked suddenly, bringing her pistol up at the sudden breeze.
"Hey! Quit pointing that damn thing around would ya?" The man beside her said angrily, backing away from the barrel of the weapon.
"Didn't you hear something just now?" She asked again.
"No." He said. "But if you don't take that gun out of my face, I'll make sure everyone from here to Fontaine Futuristics hears you screaming."
Davian observed their small group from above. His pulse began to pick up as his body recognized that he would be conflict soon. As he watched the malformed thing in the back began to sniff the air like a dog, and emit a wet rasping sound.
The noise caught the lead splicer's attention, and he turned to the creature.
"What's that Skritch? You smell someone?" It gurgled wildly and gestured with the knife towards where Wren was still hiding. Somehow, its Adam infused senses were able to detect her.
Davian clenched his teeth. He didn't want to reveal his position any sooner than he had to, but he wouldn't let them find her. The man and woman were standing fairly close together. If he was careful he could probably take them both out in one shot.
Taking aim, he called a fireball into his palm and unleashed hell.
Unfortunately, it seemed the woman had quick reactions to match her earlier perception. As the flaming projectile shot through the air, she heard it and dove out of the way.
Her male companion was not as fortunate.
His howl of agony was cut off as the fiery explosion ended his life, throwing the splicers into a flurry of confused panic.
"Where the fuck did that come from!?" Their leader demanded, rushing behind a nearby pillar for protection.
"Up there! Someone's up there!" The woman shouted. Her pistol cracked loudly in the cavernous room as she fired shot after shot towards the ceiling. None connected, but they forced Davian to relocate.
Taking a risk, he teleported to his next target.
Directly in front of her.
She leapt back in shock at his sudden appearance and brought up her pistol. This was exactly what he had expected, and as she pulled the trigger he vanished again. By the time she saw her ally through the haze of red smoke, it was too late.
Her shot rang out, and the shotgun wielding splicer screamed in pain as his shoulder exploded in a bloody mess.
"You bitch! You shot me!" He raged, dropping his weapon and holding the injured limb.
Any reply she would have made was cut off as Davian's second fireball slammed into her, burning her to a cinder.
"Goddamn it, where the hell is he!?" Their leader shouted, leveling his tommy gun towards the surrounding room. "What kind of crap is this!?"
A sudden terrified scream echoed throughout the room, drawing everyone's attention towards the counters. The beast known as Skritch stood tall on top of them, triumphantly holding up the struggling Wren. She screamed a second time as he brought up the knife to cut her open.
"Mister M! Help!"
Skritch only had a split second to register the appearance of the enraged Houdini before a wall of fire consumed its flesh. The creature hurled Wren away while flailing helplessly in the flames, squealing like a stuck pig the whole time.
The leading splicer didn't miss his opportunity. Seeing Davian appear to dispatch Skritch, he let loose a salvo at the young man. He was rewarded by a yell of pain before a volley of fireballs forced him back into cover.
When the flames dispersed, the action in the room suddenly died down. The only sound being the sobbing of the little girl.
"Jonas, where is he?" He questioned the injured splicer who had dropped his gun.
"Can't see him boss." The bleeding man said. "Damn it this hurts! Please boss, you gotta help me!" His voice was getting weaker as the blood loss started setting in.
He ignored the pleas, instead focusing all his energy on listening for the sound of a Houdini's teleport.
He didn't have to wait long.
With a blast of smoke and wind, Davian appeared behind him. He tried to swing his gun around, but the Houdini had already closed the distance. Davian struck the weapon aside and followed up with a hard punch to the throat. Caught off guard, the splicer reflexively dropped the gun and reached for his neck. He was barely able to stop himself in time to jump away from a blast of fire from his opponent.
He tried a wild swing in an attempt to deal some damage, but Davian was prepared. Catching the splicer's arm in one hand, he put all his weight into one movement and brought his free palm smashing into the man's elbow. A sickening snap and a choked scream filled the room as the bones broke like twigs.
The splicer dropped to the floor, blinded by agony. He didn't even have time to realize what was happening before Davian picked up the fallen tommy gun and put a bullet into the back of his head.
Davian stood for a moment, observing the body. The adrenaline rush was leaving him and he was starting to feel the gash in his side from where one of the bullets had grazed him. It wasn't a deep wound, but it still hurt plenty.
He spared a quick glance around the corner to check on the only other living splicer. The man, 'Jonas' was still lying where he had fallen, slowly bleeding out. His gaze was unfocused and his breath came out in short bursts. With a pull of the trigger Davian finished him off and dropped the weapon beside him.
He really didn't like using guns. He would when there was no other choice, but the weapons just seemed to make killing too… easy. The last thing he wanted was to turn ending a life into a casual gesture.
With the threats gone, he made his way over to where Wren had curled up. The small girl immediately took the chance to latch onto him as she cried softly from the dangerous encounter.
"Are you all right?" He asked with a gentle concern.
She nodded silently into his shoulder, trying her best to stop her tears now that the danger had passed.
"They were bad men…" She said.
"Yea they were." He said, rubbing her back. "But they can't hurt you now."
A short while later she had calmed down enough for him to pull back and examine the bodies. He didn't bother with the firearms. He had no desire to use them, and didn't have the space to carry them even if he did.
Altogether, most of the splicers had very little of use. A few scattered coins and a bit of ammunition were all the grunts had on them. Their leader, on the other hand, had two fully stocked med kits in his belt which Davian promptly looted.
Those things were worth their weight in gold.
Once he was satisfied that there was nothing worthwhile left on them, he turned to Wren. The little sister had lost her desire to gather after their interruption.
"Let's go." He said, taking her hand. "If we hurry, we can still make it home before-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence.
The surrounding silence was utterly shattered as a horrific screech tore through the air, forcing Davian to the ground as he instinctively covered his ears in an attempt to block it out. The sound shot a primal fear through him so strong that his limbs refused to respond.
It was a sound he knew all too well. One that he hadn't heard since the days of Lamb's reign over Rapture.
It was the hunting call of a big sister.