Disclaimer: I don't own Bioshock or any of the characters associated with it
If there was one thing that Tenenbaum had learned in the last couple years, it was that managing a group of over fifty people left very little time to think about anything else. It was just a pity that her fan had broken, the room got very stuffy without it circulating the air.
Medical supplies. She thought. We're going to need more soon. Maybe search Fontaine Futuristics? No, no, too far away. Too big of a risk.
A sudden blip from her security console alerted her to the fact that someone was at the door.
"Hello?" She greeted, speaking into a nearby radio. There was a bit of static before Doctor Gregory's voice came through.
"Hello? Tenenbaum? I believe I need to speak with you. Is now a good time?" There was a bit of unsteadiness in his voice, something that put her on edge. She doubted this could be about anything other than the splicer.
"Now is fine." She said. "I'll let you in, just a moment." With a flick of a switch, the doors to her office began to open. Tenenbaum found herself wondering just what was wrong with their new guest. He had seemed stable enough at first glance, but she knew all too well how deceiving first impressions could be.
The man entered her office slowly, an expression of concern written out plainly on his face. To her relief, he looked unharmed so the chances of Davian having snapped suddenly were low.
"Is there a problem Gregory?" She asked, deciding it would be better to get straight to the point. "You look worried."
"I'm not entirely sure I would call it a problem, per se." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Tell me, do you happen to know where the young man you sent to my office is right now?"
He lost him? "I sent him and his companion with Tomas to clear out a group of splicers who have become problematic." She said. "Why? Has something happened?"
"Not exactly." Gregory replied. He paused for several moments to think of how best to explain the situation. "He left my care in a hurry after I got a look at some… unusual scarring on his back."
"Unusual how?" Tenenbaum questioned. "It hardly seems surprising that an Adam user would have scar tissue."
"Unless the Adam he took was specially designed to draw pictures, I doubt it had anything to do with this." That got her attention.
"Pictures?" She asked. "Were these scars self-inflicted?"
"No, I highly doubt that." He assured. "The image was positioned between his shoulder blades. It would be nearly impossible for him to have done that with his own hands."
"Torture then?" She knew that there were plenty of psychopaths in Rapture that delighted in causing pain. Gregory however, shook his head.
"I thought it might be at first." He explained, closing his eyes briefly. "But the cuts are far too clean. There was no tearing that would have resulted from a struggle. To put it plainly, he was laying perfectly still while someone carved this into his back."
Tenenbaum took several seconds to let those words sink in.
"Gregory…" She began, her voice taking on a carefully neutral tone. "What was the image?"
The medical practitioner hesitated, remembering the way Davian had reacted. "That's the second thing." He said. "It was a rendition of a tree. A tree. That isn't something he could have ever seen. He's far too young to have been to the surface."
"There's only one place in Rapture where he would have found such a thing." She said, finishing for him. "Arcadia."
Arcadia Gardens had been the lungs of Rapture ever since the city had first been constructed. The plant life found there served to keep a steady supply of oxygen flowing to the far corners of each dark room an alley. It was known for its botanical beauty, flowing artificial rivers, and of course for the fact that it had been home to a cult of crazed, blood-drinking, lunatics.
"I believe that we will need to have another talk with Davian when they return." Tenenbaum said, a frown on her face.
Epsilon was feeling good. In a nice change of pace, she was out hunting. Sure she had to go with a group of near-strangers, and the splicer, but right now she didn't care. All that mattered right now was that she was the one headed for a fight, instead of having one forced on her.
"Are we there yet?" Wren asked from her back. It was the same question she had asked at least ten times already, seemingly spacing them out just enough for those answering her to forget about it until she decided to ask again. Irritating though it may be, it was better than her earlier silence.
Tomas shot her a slightly annoyed glance. "Not yet." He said. "Keep quiet; we don't want anyone to hear us before the fighting starts."
Epsilon had already decided she didn't like the man. He was far too assertive for his own good, giving orders that he expected her to follow exactly. And then there was the fact that he kept referring to her as 'it', she certainly didn't appreciate that. If he kept pushing then he might just have an accident before the day was over. That or she may just kill him outright. Sometimes tact was overrated.
The sound of whispering drew her attention to the two other non-spliced members of their group. The two brothers had introduced themselves as Archer and Joseph, though she couldn't quite remember which was which. They both looked pretty much the same to her.
The older one was leaning over and whispering something in his sibling's ear, while gesturing at Epsilon. She couldn't make out the words, but they must have been serious judging by the boy's reaction. He nearly jumped, an expression that was equal parts fear and disbelief fixing on his face before he stormed to the front of their group.
"What?" The older one called after him. "You're always going on about how much you love metal! Honestly, it was a compliment!"
"I said, Quiet!" Tomas snapped at him.
The young man grumbled something under his breath before fiddling with the crossbow he carried.
With nothing better to do, she turned to check on Davian. He had seemed to be in a hurry after his meeting with the doctor, practically rushing them out the door. When the others tried to question him, he gave short answers and pushed them along until they were all on their way. Since then, he had been fairly quiet.
Deciding she had enough of his attitude, Epsilon elbowed him in the gut to try getting some sort of reaction. The unexpected push caused him to stumble in surprise, barely keeping his balance.
"What was that for?" He demanded, turning on her.
"E is worried about you." Wren said, causing a yelp of protest from her carrier. "You've been all bothered looking and she wanted to see if you're ok."
She wasn't worried! She just wanted him to stop being so depressing while they walked! That was it, and nothing more! Epsilon glared at the little girl, a feat that was not easily done when your target was riding on your back.
"Oh." Davian said, rubbing his side. "Well… I'm fine. Thanks for your concern."
"Will you lot keep up, or do I need to drag you along?" Tomas demanded, now a sizable distance ahead of them. Wren took the comment as a signal.
"Are we there-"
"Yes. Were there, which is why you need to stay silent from here on in." He said, cutting her off. "Keep your weapons ready, your corners covered, and your eyes open. Things are about to heat up."
The building housing their targets wasn't all that impressive of a structure, but something told Davian that it was far more dangerous than it looked. Maybe it was the fact that armed security bots could be seen flying in and out of the second story windows…
Currently they observed the entrance while hidden behind the debris of a less fortunate construct.
"Camera up ahead." Tomas warned, peeking out from behind their cover. "Joseph, do your thing. Archer, keep him covered."
Davian leaned forward slightly to get a better look at what was going on. Joseph paused momentarily, planning out how he wanted to approach the obstruction. The camera swiveled back and forth in place with the metallic whine that all its kind were known for.
As it swept past their position one more time, the boy darted forward. He was already under a forlorn bench by the time the machine managed to focus on the burst of movement. His small figure allowed him to stay hidden until the camera returned to its previous rounds.
Archer kept his crossbow aimed downrange the entire time, his earlier ease replaced by silent focus.
Once the coast was clear, Joseph was off like a shot. He crossed the distance to the camera far faster than it could have reacted, and began working on it without a moment's hesitation. His hands hacked the machine so quickly that Davian couldn't help but wonder if he was using gene tonics. With a whirring clank, the light under the camera turned green, signaling that it was now harmless.
"Move up." Tomas ordered. In the span of a few seconds, their troop had crossed the open ground and stood at the entrance.
"Nice work Joey." Archer said, giving his brother a pat on the back. Joseph nodded back, wiping away a bit of sweat on his face.
All eyes turned to Tom as he laid out their plan. "All right, once we go in there we have to move fast. Splicers can be dumb, but even the dullest of those freaks will know something's up when the shooting starts. No offense."
Davian rolled his eyes. "Very funny."
"Archer, Joseph, you're with me. We clear out the first floor and move down to the basement. Remember, these guys won't hesitate to shoot you so don't give them the chance."
"Got it." Archer said, shouldering his crossbow.
"Davian, you take your little friends and move up to the second floor. They'll have some bots waiting, but that shouldn't be too much trouble. Think you can handle it?"
"Wouldn't it be better to stick together?" Davian asked. Tomas shook his head in response.
"We don't want to give them time to react. While you might be able to fight splicers on even terms, we can't. Our best shot is to catch them off guard and punish them for it."
"Fine, we can handle that." Davian relented. Turning, he spoke to the sisters. "Wren, be sure to keep your head down. Amelia… well… just do what you do I guess." The protector gave an anticipatory hum. Something told him she might enjoy this a little too much.
"Ready?" Tomas asked. Everyone nearby nodded their confirmation. "Good. We storm the place in three… two… one…"
The moment he finished counting down, he drew back his foot and slammed the door open with a brutal kick. A single stunned splicer stood in the main foyer with a bottle of booze half raised to his lips.
"What the fu-"
His profanity was silenced by Archer's bolt. The dead splicer's body hadn't even hit the floor before Tomas gave his next order.
"Move in!" He shouted, abandoning any semblance of stealth. Amelia launched forward through the open doorway with Davian struggling to keep up. She hardly seemed to touch the floor as she flew up the stairwell towards the second floor.
Behind him, Davian could hear the sound of firearms being discharged and the twang of the crossbow as the others split off from their group. He sure hoped they knew what they were doing. If not, he would have a bunch of angry splicers jumping him from behind.
The splicers upstairs, after hearing the earlier commotion, hadn't been caught entirely off guard. As Davian reached the top of the stairs behind Amelia, half a dozen guns open fired. He immediately dropped to the floor to avoid being torn to pieces by the storm of lead.
Amelia on the other hand, didn't even break her stride. She charged their lines with the kind of reckless abandon that only comes from total surety in one's own indestructibility. Most of the bullets ricocheted harmlessly off her armor, but several bit into the thick leather that covered her joints and other unarmored parts.
She let out an earsplitting shriek, the pain only serving to drive her forward faster. Before any of the splicers had time to react, she slammed into their position like a wrecking ball.
Davian took advantage of their disarray to launch a volley of four fire balls. Two missed, but one torching a man entirely while the last one set another alight. The burning drug addict didn't suffer long as a swipe from Amelia sent him flying into a wall, his neck bent at an unnatural angle.
Seeing an easier target, a crazed woman with a pair of revolvers turned her attention towards Davian. She fired the two guns as quickly as she could pull the triggers. While her shots weren't accurate by any means, one of them did manage to whip across his cheek drawing a line of crimson on his face.
Before she had a chance to shoot any more, he disappeared in a wisp of smoke. The woman stared at the empty spot where he had been. While her ravaged mind tried to comprehend just what had happened, Davian appeared behind her and unleashed a torrent of flame into her unprotected back.
As she fell, he turned to look for Amelia. She was nearby finishing off a pipe-wielding man who either suffered from massive Adam ravages, or the single worst case of acne in history.
Behind her, the last survivor of their attack snarled in rage. He wasn't holding a weapon, but as Davian watched his arm coursed with lightning. The man had enough common sense left to realize that metal didn't stop electricity.
Davian vanished again instantly. The second he reappeared, he grabbed the man's outstretched arm and wrenched it away from Amelia's position. The stream of lighting that erupted from his hand arced wildly as their combined weight and momentum caused them to topple over.
Davian hit the ground rolling, intending to burn the man while he was down. The splicer however, beat him to the punch, recovering far faster and slamming him back down to the ground. Davian tried to blast him with a face full of fire, but his opponent wasn't so easily beaten. The man pinned his arms to the ground and hit him with a wave of electricity.
He learned one very important thing in that moment. Being electrocuted hurt.
The current coursed through his body, causing every muscle to violently spasm as lightning assaulted them. His body was unable to cope with so many nerves firing off at the same time, and began to shut down far too quickly. It was impossible for him to work up the coordination to teleport with so much electricity wreaking havoc on his mind.
Suddenly, the storm was cut off with a wet crunch. As Davian's vision returned to normal, both he and his assailant looked in surprise at the needle protruding from the man's chest. He gave a wet gurgle, before being lifted bodily into the air and tossed aside like a piece of worn out garbage. Davian watched him crash to the ground, before turning to his savior.
"Thanks for that." He said, accepting Amelia's offered hand. With a groan, he got back on his feet.
The two of them surveyed the damage. While he felt like death, he thought they had done a pretty good job. Yet something still nagged him in the back of his mind.
"You ever feel like you're forgetting something?" He asked. He didn't really expect an answer from Amelia, which is why it was so surprising when he got one. She quickly pointed to the open windows where the next threat was gathering.
"Oh… Right…"
Like a swarm of vicious locusts, the airborne security bots burst into the room and opened fire.