11
Point Prometheus, Little Wonders
With the Tommy gun in one hand, Incinerate! Plasmid flaring through the other, Jack entered the Little Wonders area in Point Prometheus. Before entering, he was stopped by a Splicer who watched Jack with cynical eyes. "'Ey, you're not thinkin' that you're gonna get in here with that, are ya?" He asked, nodding to the Tommy gun. "No weapons allowed. 'and it over." He held his hand out expectantly.
Jack stared at them incredulously, gripping the handle of the Tommy gun tightly. "You're a special kind of stupid, aren't you?" His tone was sarcastic, yet incredibly careful - he had no idea what kind of backup Coleman had in this building. He didn't exactly want to find out the hard way...
"Whot, you don't trust Wayne?" The Splicer demanded angrily, obviously offended. It would seem that, somehow, Coleman had earned the trust of many people. How he went about doing that, Jack hadn't the faintest idea.
As if the mere mention of his name had summoned him, Wayne Coleman appeared at the Securis door, patting the Splicer on the shoulder. "It's alright, Whittridge," Coleman reassured with a smile, though he was looking at Jack as he spoke. "If it makes him feel more comfortable, let him keep it."
The Splicer frowned, but didn't argue. He stepped aside to let Jack through, who was finding it rather hard to keep the suspicion out of his expression. He knew he was failing terribly, though, because the Splicer kept Jack under a watchful glare. Jack, however, expected no less.
"Come on, boy – let's get those supplies to my demo men," Coleman motioned for Jack to follow, then walked back into the Little Wonders building. "We can chat on the way there…" He glanced at Jack. "You comin'?"
Still under the glare of Whittridge, Jack followed Coleman into the building. He kept high alert, even while he was walking alongside Coleman. "I've got what you wanted, Now let us go our own way." With an edge, he added "You're a man of your word… remember?"
"Ah yes – But first, let's get the dynamite made, yeah? Then we can say all our farewells, and part ways." They walked past a Splicer who was carrying a crate. Coleman frowned. "What are you doin' with that, Gilpin? It needs to go to Room Three for storage, along with the rest of those syringes. And be careful, you big gorilla, you're smackin' them around! The glass will break…" Coleman ordered in a frustrated tone, gesturing down the corridor. The Splicer obediently walked away, watching the crate with a careful, beady eye. Fascinated, Jack watched Gilpin shuffle away until he was out of Jack's sight. He'd never been able to see Splicers doing organized and purposeful work.
Jack, tired and frustrated, changed the subject back to that at hand. "Let Holly out of that room you're keeping her in, Coleman." Jack growled as they ascended the stairs to the second floor. Splicers moved from room to room, some carrying boxes of supplies, some just strolling through the building. Jack felt uncomfortable under their stares, and even more uncomfortable with the amount of them that there was. He was outnumbered by quite a lot. "What room is she in? I want to see her."
"Don't you worry, now, boy…" He waved off Jack's demand like it was an annoying fly. "Please, calm down, relax… Enjoy your stay. She's just downstairs - I'll show her to you, I promise. I've made sure she's nice and comfortable, there. Don't worry about her. You'll be able to see her in a few minutes." Coleman walked Jack to the Autopsy room. The door opened, revealing a small crew of about five Splicers who were straightening up the room. A large piece of wood was placed over the two autopsy tables, creating one large, flat surface for them to work on. Two large crates sat on the floor beside the tables, one on each side. "Just set the supplies on one of those tables, there." Coleman gesture to the makeshift work stations.
A couple of the Splicers in the room had stopped to watch Coleman and Jack, but made no move or attempt to speak to them.
"You've got quite the program, here…" Jack commented as he stiffly walked over, setting the mailbag down on the flat surface. Slowly, he started to unpack the supplies.
"We sure do, kid." Coleman agreed with a smile and a nod. "We're like a community, here. Some of the Splicers that are here were recruitments, but the majority of us are the original People. We've even got some men and women down in Persephone that were trapped there when Sapphire cracked down. We hope they're kickin' around." He paused, watching Jack start to take out the Nitrocellulose jars. "Be sure to set those upright, now – don't want any leaks."
"You got it…" Jack muttered, being sure to separate the Ketone and Nitrocellulose from each other. On the Bathysphere ride to Point Prometheus, Jack had a lot of time to think things through. He had a plan… of sorts. Really, it was a skeleton of a plan. Something to work from, at least. Better than nothing. It was really all a matter of how he executed it. If he messed up, he and Holly were dead.
He just had to have faith in his own reaction time.
Jack took out the last bottle of Nitrocellulose, paused, and turned his head slightly to look at Coleman. "I suppose I should thank you for your patience..." He started slowly, pretending to find interest in the bottle he was holding.
Coleman looked at him with a slightly taken aback expression. "Well, you've done us a favor, young man. I ain't got nothin' but patience. It's time that I'm afraid I didn't have much of."
"Well, I hope you can spare a little more patience to answer a few questions of mine." Jack looked up from the bottle, keeping a level stare with Coleman. Not bothering to wait for the man's response, he asked "What room is Holly in?"
The Splicers around them took little notice to their conversation, even as Coleman paused to assess Jack's angle. "I told you, I'll show you in a bit. We gotta get these dynamites finished, first. Understand?"
"You were never going to give her back," Jack growled bluntly. "Were you?"
Coleman lifted a chin. "I said I'd let you leave as you please. We didn't say nothin' about that girl."
"We had a deal."
"That's the thing about verbal contracts, boy. Too many loopholes. Now..." He gestured to the Nitrocellulose. "... put that down. I think we need to go have a lil' chat, don't you?"
It took great willpower to slowly set the bottle down. So many scenarios ran through his head, and each one could end just as badly as the other. Still moving at his careful speed, Jack picked up the Tommy gun, which he had leaned against one of the autopsy tables. "I don't think that'll be necessary..." Jack declared with cold determination as he quickly aimed the gun at Coleman. He pulled the trigger, but something had leaped onto his back, knocking him of hitting Coleman in the head, where Jack originally aimed, a line of bullets tore through one of the southern man's legs.
As Coleman cried out in pain, Jack struggled to throw the weight off his back. Forcefully, he ran back into the autopsy tables behind him. The sound of glass toppling to the floor was heard, and the weight was quickly lifted. Knowing how dangerous of a situation he was in, Jack stumbled a few steps forward, aiming the Tommy gun at the floor. A few Splicers were staring at Jack in shock, and others were reaching for pistols they had tucked into the waistbands of their pants.
Thinking quickly, Jack hastily aimed the Tommy gun again, sending a hail of bullets into the jars that had fallen onto the tiled floor. Immediately, a tall flames caught on the Nitrocellulose, engulfing a majority of the Splicers.
It all happened very quickly, and Jack was already out the door, only catching a little bit of the flak. Not that he really felt it. Adrenaline was a wonderful thing...
Outside the Autopsy room, the interest of other Splicers was piqued. But Jack ran past them, jumping down the two short flights of stairs, running to the first Little Sister room. He felt chill run up his spine as a bullet passed his head. He glanced back to see Coleman, bleeding heavily from one leg, aiming a pistol at Jack from across the hallway. "Stop him!" Coleman shouted, gesturing to Jack with the gun. "Close off the exits!" A few Splicers ran after Jack, and a few rushed to help with the defending of the exits. Coleman started to limp down the hallway after Jack, who had already turned and continued running.
Heart beating a mile a minute, Jack dodged the hooks of one of the Splicer goons, slipping around the corner of the hallway. He used Sonic Boom to push away a Splicer that had ran at him with a steel pipe. Using the Tommy gun, Jack downed the Spider Splicer that tried to catch him with a hook.
In the brief period of time that Jack had, he tried for the door to the first Little Sister room, but it wouldn't budge when he pulled the lever. At least that told him that it was definitely the room that Holly was being kept in. Cursing, he shot the lever with a bolt of electricity, then pulled it. The door shuddered before opening. Somewhere in the building, the sound of several security Sentries whirring and chiming to themselves echoed, bullets ricocheting off walls.
"Jack!" Holly exclaimed from the room. She was waiting on the other side of the door, obviously having heard the commotion. "You have no idea how glad I am that you're here!"
"We don't have time to—" Jack was cut off by someone who grabbed Jack by the hair near his scalp. They pulled him back, and then slammed his head into the corner of the doorway. His vision went blurry, and Jack stumbled, falling to the ground, disoriented.
"Not so fuckin' fast," Coleman's voice echoed, the sound of a gun cocking following his words. Pain burbled in his voice, alongside anger and hatred. "Get the fuck back in that room, girl. I'm not done with you." He spat, kicking Jack in the ribs with his good leg. "Get on your feet! It's 'bout time someone did the fuck away with you. You want to die on your knees?"
Holly grunted loudly, and Jack heard Coleman hiss in pain. "Fuck you!" Holly snarled. She had moved between Coleman and Jack. Jack's vision cleared just in time to see Coleman, who now had a cut on his cheek, use the pistol he held to smack Holly across the face with enough force to send her sprawling.
Somewhere in the building, the sound of a Sentry bot exploding was heard, and several Splicers cheered – only to be cut short by several more of the bots entering the building. Coleman looked up from his two newest enemies, his face in a permanent expression of disgust and anger. He then looked down at Jack. "I fuckin' knew it – You backstabbin' lil' shit…" He spat on Jack, then kicked him again. "Get the hell on your feet, boy and die like a man, not a slut."
Using Sonic Boom again, Jack snapped his wrist angrily, pushing Coleman back with a massive gust of wind. Coleman slammed into the opposite wall, grunting in pain. Jack got to his feet, picked up his Tommy gun, and aimed his sights on the dazed man.
He pulled the trigger, but the muzzle of his gun was gripped by one of Holly's shadows. The grip was so tight that the metal was crushed like a tin can. Jack stared down at it in surprise, only to have the gun forcefully ripped from his hands, and slammed into the wall beside Coleman's head. The tiles it hit had shattered and broken off.
Holly used her shadows to push Jack aside, glaring down at Coleman as she wiped the blood that trickled from her mouth. A bruise was already starting form where Coleman had struck her. "He's mine…" She growled, her voice dangerously pleased-sounding.
One of the Sentries entered their hallway, aiming at Coleman, and Holly just angrily raised a hand. A shadow speared through the middle of the Sentry, stopping it immediately. When the shadow dissipated, the Sentry fell to the floor, tendrils of smoke crawling out of it. Jack, standing to the side, stuck in shock, noted that the Sentry had a blue box of ammo, and the lights on its propellers were a matching hue. He also noticed that the sound of Splicers had stopped practically stopped, short the odd curse and gun shot, which was quickly dealt with by a Sentry.
Not bothering to get up again, Coleman lay against the wall, looking up at Holly, laughing. He still seemed slightly dazed, but he knew what was happening around him. "That sneaky bitch…" He snarled slowly with a grin, as if realizing something. "That was her plan all along…" To Jack and Holly, he bellered "If you didn't have the Big Blue Lady helpin' you, you woulda never made it out alive…" He looked directly at Jack. "But this fuckin' retread… He got her and her little blue bots to save your sorry asses…"
"I didn't ask for her help," Jack argued angrily, feeling slightly offended. He took a couple careful steps towards Holly. "She just took this as an opportunity to kill you.
"Bull shit," Coleman yelled hoarsely. "She knew you were going to do this. She knew you were too much of a lionhearted pansy to just let me go – she manipulated you, boy! She put the idea in your head to kill me, she basically ordered you to do it!" A bloody grin split his face, and he looked at Jack knowingly, his eyes filled with malice. "What she did to you was no better than what Frank Fontaine did… The only difference was that she didn't have to utter anything along the lines of 'Would you Kindly'."
Holly kicked him angrily in the gut with the flat of her foot. "Shut the hell up!" She hissed, raising her hands to strike at him with the shadows. "I can't stand listening to you speak!"
This seemed to bring an idea to Coleman, because he turned to Holly, smiling mischievously. "Oh, but you should…" He started with a laugh. "You both should – I have dirt on everythin' and everyone in Rapture. Includin' you freaks…"
Jack panicked, knowing where this was going to go – His dying words were going to be how Jack killed Sander Cohen. Without hesitating, Jack reached for his pistol. With a painful force, another tendril of shadows slammed into Jack's gunning shoulder, pushing him back.
"I said he's mine!" Holly barked at Jack, teeth bared. Ignoring everything Coleman had to say, she raised her hands, tendrils of shadows running up and down her arms. Like a conductor, she twirled her hands, and then slammed them down. To Jack's surprise, a massive block of shadows crashed down of Coleman's head. The man cried out loudly, cursing something fierce. And Holly, not even giving Jack time to react, started slashing her hands quickly in front of her, moving the shadows. They cut into Coleman's flesh, reaping blood. The countryman, in another cry of pain, tried reaching for his pistol, which laid only a few feet away from him.
With one swift movement, Holly brought down shadows on his arm; completely severing it from his torso. Coleman stared in shock at the stub of an arm that he had left, and then started screaming in pain. "My … my fuckin' arm!" He cried out, bringing his hand to the stub. "My fuckin' arm!" He looked up at Holly with a furious glare. "You little whore!" He bellowed, his spittle red with blood. His eyes were wild, and his remaining hand was shaking. "Oh, god…" Coleman looked back down at his stub, reaching out for the severed arm. It's twitched a few times before remaining still.
Turning Jack's stomach, Holly then started viciously lashing out at Coleman with her shadows, ripping, pulling, slicing, slashing, severing…
Jack wasn't deterred by the idea of revenge, but there was such thing as 'too much'. He couldn't take it any longer. "Holly," Jack called to her, trying to keep an authoritative edge in his voice – the kind he might have used when one of his little girls back home did something they shouldn't have. Louder, he repeated himself. She still didn't stop. He rushed over to her, gripping her arms and pulling her back. "Holly, stop! You don't need to skin him!"
"Let me go!" She writhed in his grip, but Jack didn't release her. "Don't fucking touch me!"
"He's dead, Holly – Just stop!"
She struggled to get out of his grasp, tiring herself. She slowed to a stop, breathing heavily. They stood in the corridor in silence, staring at the oozing mess that was Wayne Coleman. Holly shook her head. "Fuck him…" She spat quietly, letting her shadows retract up her arm and disappear.
When Jack was aware that she had calmed down, he let her go, taking a step away from where she stood. Jack stared down at the mutilated body. "Holy Hell…" He breathed, glancing back at Holly. The girl crossed her arms across her chest, looking away. Her frock was stained with splatters of Coleman's blood, her legs and shoes more so than the dress.
They remained in silence for a few more minutes, and then Jack slowly bent over to pick up his dropped pistol. He reloaded it, looking down blankly at the wrecked Sentry bot on the floor, tendrils of smoke calmly rising from the machine. Had Sapphire sent these to help Jack? She must have expected him to end up killing Coleman, just as the countryman said... Not that it wasn't useful. He didn't have to deal with all the Splicers that Coleman had cooped up in Little Wonders, at least. But it was still odd to have an enemy who was willing to aid Jack.
When he turned to face Holly, she was gone. With a flash of worry in his stomach, he called out "Holly?" No answer. He rushed out of the Little Wonders building, calling for her as he exited. Still no answer. He frowned. "Where the hell are you…?"
He called for her in the lobby of Point Prometheus, and finally got an answer. "Over here," She called back dully. She was in the tunnel that led to the Bathysphere Station, from the sounds of her echoes. Jack headed over to the tunnel, finding Holly leaning against one side of the tunnel, staring out at the other. A squid pulsed by overhead, and a school of colorful fish silently inspected the algae growing on the glass. "Ready to leave?" She asked, barely glancing at Jack as he entered the tunnel with her.
"What the hell happened back there, Holly?" Jack stopped a couple feet away from her, gesturing with his thumb behind him.
"It doesn't matter - He had it coming." She answered, shifting on the spot to watch a small turtle pass by the tunnel. "Coleman did stupid things, terrible things. He got what he deserved."
"I can understand revenge, but that was something a little more, Holly." Jack raised an eyebrow. "What did he do?"
Shrugging, Holly just watched the turtle as it lazily swam by. When it passed by one of the nearby buildings, disappearing from sight, Holly finally responded: "Like I said - he got what he deserved." She faced Jack. "Can we go, now?"
Jack stared at her, slightly concerned, but nodded nonetheless.
They headed to the Bathysphere Station, neither of them speaking a word. Jack opened the hatch to the underwater craft, letting Holly in first, and then stepping in after her. As he closed the door, he heard Holly choosing their destination on the panel, pulling the lever. They were headed back to the Atlantic Express Train Station, according to the lit button on the panel. Holly sat on the cushioned seat, crossing her legs under her, stretching her stained frock over her knees and across her lap. She had her elbows on her knees, and was resting her chin on her hands. She stared out the porthole of the bathysphere, biting the inside of her cheek.
Crossing one leg over the other, Jack watched her curiously. She was very distracted, and didn't seem to notice. Eventually, Jack decided to speak. "So…" He started awkwardly. "… Do you… want to talk about it?" She silently shook her head, not looking over at him. Jack frowned, but nodded acceptingly. They remained in silence once more, which Jack broke soon after. "Do you mind if I talk, then?" He asked gruffly, shifting in his seat, looking away.
She looked over at him for a brief moment, then looked away. "Talk away …"
"Alright…" Jack started thoughtfully, watching the city move by the Bathysphere in a picturesque fashion. He wasn't very good at the whole 'comforting' thing, so he decided to go down a different route. "As you've probably heard, I was… conceived… here in Rapture. The illegitimate son of Andrew Ryan and Jasmine Jolene; a petri dish project for Frank Fontaine's scientists." He paused, feeling Holly's eyes on him. "I came here with memories of a whole different life – a family, a farm, a job… And it was like the plane crash was me waking up from a dream. One of those dreams where you know what happened, but couldn't recall anything specific from it. That was all that my memories were full of. Dreams that never quite added up."
Holly was now watching him with curious eyes. "That's what Suchong and Tenenbaum did to you?"
"Yeah. So, uh…" Jack nodded, cross his arms across his chest, leaning back in his seat. "… So when I left, I helped Tenenbaum get some of the rescued Little Sisters off her hands. And now I have a real family – Or something close to it. We live in a little farmhouse in New York, in a little town called Canandaigua. It, ah…" He smiled slightly, though it might not have looked like it. "… It has an orchard in the back – An apple orchard. The girls like going out in the fall to pick apples…"
"Sounds nice…" Holly commented quietly. "You started making your own memories to replace the fake ones, huh? I can't wait to get out of here and start a new life. I'll replace all these terrible memories with new ones… happier ones…"
Saying nothing, Jack slowly nodded in agreement. He just didn't want to tell her that the odds weren't in her favor...