Alex stood in the center of a crumbling and partially flooded room, breathing heavily as he injected a fresh Eve-hypo into his arm. His revolver lay on the floor with empty shell casing and speed-loaders scattered around it after the fight he had just endured.
After seeing the Little Sister and Big Daddy, the former Ranger had entered a room that led to Neptune's Bounty.
However, the moment he tried to enter the area Atlas had pointed him toward, the gate had sealed shut and warning alarms and lights blared throughout the room before a group of seven splicers converged on him.
It was a hard pressed fight, Alex was lucky enough that a pool of water was at the base of the destroyed stairs nearby and used it with his Electro-bolts to fry most of his attackers. The rest fell from a combination of revolver rounds and hand-to-hand combat, thankfully the only injury he had sustained from the assault was a bruise on his back when one got a lucky shot in with a pipe.
"Thank god that ADAM shit jacked up my strength," he said tossing the empty hypo aside. Picking up his pistol and the empty speed-loaders, taking a moment to reload the sidearm with the spare rounds he had on hand while the alarms continued to blare around him.
Snapping the weapon closed, a window from up above shattered and more splicers began to enter the room.
"Atlas! The path to Neptune's Bounty is blocked!" he shouted into the radio as he shot two of the addicts before they could reach the base of the stairs.
"It's Ryan!" the Irishman shouted back. "Goddamn Andrew Ryan! He found us! Dammit! There's another way to get to where you're going through Medical!"
The gate on the other side of the room leading into the medical wings opened just as Alex fried more splicers that leapt down into the pool with an Electro-bolt. "What are you waiting for? Go!"
The former Ranger fired a few more rounds before spinning around and bolting through the doorway that just opened. Vaulting over chunks of debris in his path and keeping the momentum going as he fled.
At the end of the corridor was a room that was well lit filled with view screens in the corners beside a large iron door. Figuring that was the path he needed to take, he made for the opening-
Only to have the heavy iron door slam shut before he could get through it.
"FUCK!" He shouted, slamming his fist against the hard surface. The gate he had just come through closed as well and locked leaving him trapped.
"Ah, Christ! You're trapped...gonna try to override the exit from here!" Atlas exclaimed.
"Hurry up, Atlas! I don't know how long before-" Alex was cut off when the lights around him all went out, plunging him into pit darkness.
A moment later, a large view screen that took up the whole wall behind him came on. A wall of glass separating it from the room he was now trapped in. The monitor flickered a bit before a man's face appeared in black and white on it…
...a very familiar face.
"So tell me, friend...which one of the bitches sent you?" asked the unmistakable voice of Andrew Ryan. "The KGB wolf? Or the CIA jackal? Here's the news; Rapture isn't some sunken ship for you to plunder. And Andrew Ryan isn't a giddy socialite who can be slapped around by government muscle."
Alex glared at the screen, "US Army Rangers, actually. Discharged. And I'm not here to 'plunder' anything. I don't give a shit about this city, I'm just looking for a way out of it." he said, his stance tense as he regarded the leader of Rapture.
Ryan merely chuckled, "So you say. Has the surface fallen so far that they would send a mere grunt to spy on my fair city? Regardless, your odyssey ends here. And with that, farewell, or dasvidaniya. Whichever you prefer."
As he spoke, the splicers that had been chasing the traveler had caught up and had begun hammering on the glass wall. Cracks already starting to form as the monitor's signal cut out.
"Atlas...anytime with the door would be good!" The former Ranger said into his radio, keeping his electrified hand and his revolver aimed at the growing group of enemies.
"I got it!" The Irishman shouted as the door behind him slid open. "Get out of there! Get out now!"
Not having to be told twice, Alex threw himself through the opening. The glass wall shattered behind him as the door sealed shut and locked to keep the splicers out.
Pressing his back to the wall, he slid to the floor until he was sitting, taking several breaths as the adrenaline was starting to wear off. His eyes locked on to the door he had come through as he heard the deranged citizens of Rapture trying to pound their way through inches worth of metal to kill him.
Leaning his head back against the wall, he closed his eyes as he collected himself, though one thing was pretty strong on his mind right now.
"Why do I get the feeling that I just jumped to the top of Andrew Ryan's shit-list?" Silence was his only response in the airlock chamber.
Once he'd settled enough, Alex used the quiet moment to recheck his supplies. Munching on a couple of old candy bars he pilfered from the Kashmir Restaurant, they were a bit stale, but the former Ranger wasn't complaining since he was able to put something in his stomach.
His lower back tensed up when he shifted, reminding him of the bruise that was most likely forming there from the hit he had taken. He'd been lucky, the situation could have been a lot worse and a part of him was glad that the ADAM now running through his system made him strong enough to take it and roll with it for the time being.
Finishing off the third candy bar, Alex pulled out his revolver and cracked it open. Dumping out the spent casings and loading in fresh ones before snapping it back closed again before fishing out the empty speed-loaders and reloading them as well.
"Now you've met Andrew Ryan, the bloody king of Rapture." Atlas said from the radio, at the same time the door that led out to the Medical Pavilion opened up.
"I think the bastard should be de-throned." The former Ranger growled, getting to his feet and adjusting his pack as he stepped out of the airlock and onto the tiled floor outside.
The Irishman chuckled, "You and a lot of other people out there, Boyo. Now, find your way to Emergency Access. That should help you get into Neptune's Bounty."
Nodding, Alex held his revolver in front of him as he entered the main foyer. The intercom system around the room echoed some kind of commercial about Plasmids and Tonics while he strained to hear anything that sounded like splicers moving about.
Coming around a corner, the former Ranger paused when he saw a vending machine lit up along the wall closest to him. A laughing clown was illuminated on the back with the words; 'Circus of Values', and from what he could see, it sold an array of items that he could use. Such as ammo, Eve-hypos and even medical supplies.
"It isn't a Pepsi machine," he said out loud as he dug out all the money he had looted. "But it'll definitely help." Slipping the bills into the machine, he bought two boxes worth of rounds, one of which was labeled armor piercing which he believed would come in handy in a bind, two full Eve-hypos and a first aid kit.
Stashing everything in his pack, Alex moved farther into the pavilion. Approaching the front desk and finding another audio-diary laying on the top. "What the hell?" he said, shrugging as he pressed the play button.
"Dr. Steinman said he'd release me today." came the voice of the woman, Diane McClintock, who had been on the last recording.
"Ryan didn't come to see me since the New Year's attack. Not once. But Dr. Steinman was very attentive...he told me that once the scar tissue was gone, he was going to fix me right up. Make me prettier than any girl I've ever seen. He's sweet all right...and so interested in my case."
When the recording ended, the Former Ranger looked at the two rounded staircases on either side of the main foyer. Making his way up the one closest to him up to the second floor, he found the only entryway blocked by a locked gate and had to return to the bottom level again.
"Emergency Access..." he mumbled looking around for another way and found the proper doorway in the far back corner. The metal doors sparked as they tried to close on something that was blocking them.
Approaching the door and kneeling down to get a closer look, Alex discovered that it was similar to the flying contraption that had scared off the first splicer he had encountered when he first arrived in Rapture.
He hummed to himself as he put his revolver away and began to tinker with the device's inner workings.
From what he could tell, it was some kind of flying machine gun turret fashioned together with a bunch of scrap parts. The inner workings were rather simple as he moved wires and checked components to see if he could get the thing working again and out of the way.
Looking at the thing was like looking over an old engine hazardously constructed yet still ran somehow.
"Alright...I think I see how this thing works..." he muttered to himself as he tightened a few loose bolts with his fingers and twisted a few damaged wires back into place. A spark shot out from the things inner workings and the several lights built into it kicked on.
Alex jumped back as the small engines in the turret coughed before the rotors sputtered and came to life. The door opened as the crudely made drone began hovering in the air of the threshold, turning around and regarding the one who repaired it as if waiting for a command.
"Well, I guess I found myself a friend." He couldn't help but say as he entered the emergency access area. The security bot hovering along after him, a small trail of black smoke and sparks shooting out of its frame along the way.
Going past walls of cracked and shattered glass that contained two more drones waiting to be activated as he went around the next corner to find two splicers in a heated argument. But the combination of the distance and the noise being made by his new follower made it difficult to hear what they were saying.
The splicer that had been trying to work on the door suddenly stood up and shot at the female-splicer that had been behind him. The woman fought back by swinging a pipe down and smashing it against her partner's head.
Alex hung back and watched as the two bludgeoned and shot one another until one of them dropped, raising his pistol and shooting the other one twice in the chest before they could recover before making his way out into the open.
Looting the bodies of both money and ammo, the traveler attempted to get the door open that would take him to Neptune's Bounty only to find it sealed tight. "Dammit. Gotta be a latch around here somewhere…" He started looking for a control panel.
Following a line of wires that were attached to the door up a flight of stairs where a console and a couple of monitors were set up in front of another sealed door.
Grabbing the main switch, Alex pulled it back only for all the lights to turn red. 'Access Denied' flashing on the monitors as alarms echoed through the room.
A bone-chilling laugh of madness came from over his shoulder and he spun around with his weapon ready as a splicer ran past the doorway that had been closed when he had gotten up there.
"Fuck!" he cursed moving into a maintenance corridor, the steam around him turning the color of rust with the security lights flashing.
"Atlas, the Emergency Access way is sealed shut." he said into his radio over the alarms as he moved down the corridor with his weapon barrel leading. The security bot sputtering behind him.
"If you want to use the Emergency Access you'll be needing Doctor Steinman's key. He's the one what runs this place. But I don't expect him to hand it to you out of the milk of human kindness." replied the Irishman.
Alex shot a female-splicer that jumped out at the end of the maintenance corridor, the security bot spraying machine gun rounds into her and putting her down completely as the former Ranger clicked his radio again.
"Would be too much to consider him being the charitable type." He said entering the next room.
"Believe me, Steinman ain't that kind, and frankly, I'm not even sure he's still human." said Atlas.
Looking toward another control panel, the traveler found a switch that would most likely unlock a few doors. But grinned when he saw a Thompson machine gun leaning against the panel.
Slipping his revolver into his belt and picking up the old-school machine gun, he checked the ammo drum and found it full along with a few extra drums laying around the room. What surprised him was that instead of the standard .45 caliber rounds the weapon was known to use, this one used .50 caliber rounds instead.
"Jesus, how can anyone handle the recoil?" Alex wondered as he finished his examination of the weapon. Then he remembered what ADAM did for folks down here and made the connection quickly.
Slapping the ammo-drum back onto the gun and cranking back on the bolt-handle, Alex stepped back up to the panel and flipped the override switch that was on it. Outside the window that overlooked the main foyer, lights all turned on and doors unlocked and opened.
His eyes narrowed when he saw a group of splicers come charging out of the opening at the top of the stairs and make a b-line for his position.
"Now you've rattled the monkey cage. Here they come!" warned his guide.
"Not a problem," The former Ranger said, turning to face the hallway he just came down, pressing the stock of the new weapon to his shoulder . Aiming the barrel down the darkly lit corridor as he waited, the security bot hovered close with its own weapon aimed in the same direction. "Cause I have a couple of equalizers that should even them out."
Seconds ticked by, the sounds of maniacal shouting could be heard getting closer. Metal scrapping along metal as those carrying blunt objects ran up along the floors and up the stairs. The first splicer, a male wearing a doctor's scrubs, rounded the corner first and came at him.
Alex pulled the trigger on the machine gun, gritting his teeth as the weapon kicked against his shoulder hard but managed to keep it stable as he gunned down the deranged man with short controlled bursts before he made it halfway.
Two more came around after the first, both the Ranger and the security bot opened fire and took them down fast. With his weapon clicking with an empty magazine, Alex took cover beside the open doorway and dumped the drum, loading in a fresh one while his drone kept him covered.
Pulling back the bolt-handle and chambering the first round, he raised the machine gun and resumed shooting again. Another two splicers came up, both wielding pistols as they opened fire and forcing him into cover again. The rounds broke through the window he had been standing in front of and the security bot as it returned fire.
Metal dented and more sparks shot out of the mobile turret as it began taking damage. Alex leaned out of cover and shot the splicers dead before moving up, pressing himself against the doorway that led back to emergency access. Footsteps echoed up the metal steps and he braced himself as a male-splicer came through the door.
Only to be met with the butt of the former Ranger's new machine gun to the face. An electro-bolt was fired into the stunned splicer's chest, stunning him long enough for Alex to finish him off before making his way back to the Medical Pavilion's main foyer.
Sweeping the room with his weapon, before making his way up the stairs and through the door that had been inaccessible before. Entering a long corridor, the security bot buzzing loudly behind him as he traversed farther in.
He paused when he felt pressure in his head like he had before. The sounds around him faded out and the world became grainy as he saw the ghostly image of a woman pounding on the sealed door at the end of the hall ahead of him.
"You promised me pretty, Steinman, you promised me pretty...Look at me...LOOK AT ME!" the woman collapsed and the memory slowly faded. Alex shook his head to clear the images as he looked at the door that led to surgery.
Pressing the button on the side and opening it as Atlas started talking to him. "You keep an eye peeled for Steinman. The daft bastard's set up shop in the surgery wing. If you wanna find him, just follow the blood."
The lights outside flickered on, illuminating a wall with black and white images of woman with red stains marked all over them. Surgical tools pinning them to the wall itself. It didn't take a genius to tell that the markings were blood, most of it covering a small table with two vases of flowers and leading to the floor where words had been spelled out crudely on the tiles.
'Above All, Do No Harm. - J. Steinman'
"Jesus..." Alex muttered, his boots stepping around all of the blood as he approached the wall. Just under the photos and on the right was an audio-diary with Steinman's name on it.
Hesitantly, he pushed play hoping to find out who he was dealing with.
"ADAM presents new problems for the professional. As your tools improve, so do your standards. There was a time, I was happy enough to take off a wart or two, or turn a real circus freak into something you can show in the daylight. But that was then, when we took what we got, but with ADAM...the flesh becomes clay. What excuse do we have not to sculpt, and sculpt, and sculpt, until the job is done?"
A shiver went up the former Ranger's back. By the end of the recording the doctor's tone became darker and darker. Something reminded him about what he had read when his writing class did Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, how the doctor seemed to slip into madness with his creation.
Deciding to move on, he rounded a corner to head farther into the surgical wing-
Only to dive right back as a hail of slugs tore into the wall where he had been standing. Peering back around, he found another turret set up in the middle of the large room.
This one a machine gun mounted on to a scraped system all being restrained in an old office chair.
His security bot hovered out into the open and fired on the new threat which in turn fired right back. Using the distraction, Alex bolted out of cover and rolled behind a desk just as the hovering turret exploded in a shower of burning salvage.
Channeling energy up his arm, he jumped up and fired an electro-bolt into the stationary turret. The light on the weapon flickered and the whole system shut down from the overload of power.
"That won't last long, gotta hurry!" He vaulted over the desk and made for the turret. Getting behind it and began going at the wiring like he had with the drone.
"It's almost exactly like the other turret...just gotta…" he crossed two of the bigger wires and the thing sparked. Coming back online, the turret's lights, which had once been red, now glowed green.
Just as he finished, a splicer had came running into the room causing the turret to spring to life and tear him apart in a hail of slugs before he even realized what had happened.
The corpse hit the floor and Alex couldn't help but feel a bit of pride. "Good to know my back's covered." he said out loud before heading off to check out the rest of the pavilion.
X
The splicer in a lab coat shouted incoherently as he ran at his target. Stopping cold when a bolt of electricity stunned him before a fist connected with the side of his face, sending him pitching over a railing and smashing his head on the tiled floor of the ground below.
Alex clenched his fist to draw back the energy in his left hand before he started moving again. His boots echoing off of the walls of the morgue as he continued his search.
After covering most of the wing's upper level he had started going through the various rooms for either supplies or any sign of Dr. Steinman. So far he had a pretty good stockpile of Eve and medical supplies, and the money he had managed to find paid for more ammo at a couple of vending machines scattered around the pavilion.
He had a pretty good lucky streak going, but he wanted to make sure that he was ready in the off chance that it finally ran out.
Entering what he assumed to be the morgue, passing by several gurneys and open lockers that were used to hold bodies, Alex saw an office set against the back wall and headed that way. His feet splashing through some kind of oil that was spilled on the floor as he tried the door and found it locked. But thankfully there was an open vent in the wall next to it.
"Could be worse." he thought, gripping his machine gun before crouching down and moving through the opening. Glancing around the dark room a moment just as the PA system around the whole wing came on.
"A parasite wanders the halls," said Andrew Ryan. "We rebuild our city, and the doubters send a fly to spoil our ointment. One thousand ADAM to the man or woman who pins its wings."
Alex looked up at the lone speaker in the room gobsmacked, "Did he just...put a fucking hit out on me?" he said out loud.
"I take it you heard that where you are, Boyo?" asked Atlas from the radio.
"Yeah...I did." The former Ranger replied. "I take it 1000 ADAM is a high bounty?"
"To those blood thirsty splicers out there? Yeah, a very high bounty. Better watch yourself more carefully from now on. Every bloke all over Rapture got that broadcast." Clipping the radio back on to his belt, Alex looked to the corner of the office and found a Gatherer's Garden machine tipped on its side. A lone Plasmid bottle laid by the broken hatch on the floor.
Picking it up, he looked at the label that read; 'Incinerate'. He recalled the ads that popped up on the bathysphere about this particular plasmid, and also how most of the entrances around the pavilion was blocked off by walls of ice, most likely caused by someone with an ice-based plasmid, it could help him get into those places and continue his search.
But his earlier thoughts about the splicers came back full force. Seeing what ADAM did to these people after overusing it, he had a right to be hesitant when the opportunity to inject more made itself known.
"I won't be able to get anywhere without it, and extra firepower could help me in a tight spot…but is it worth the risk of overdose?" he contemplated to himself.
"You alright, boyo?" asked Atlas.
Alex picked up his radio, "Atlas…how much ADAM do you think the average person can take before they become a splicer?"
The man was silent for a few moments before answering, "That's a hard answer to give, lad. I ain't no scientist or doctor, but from what I've seen everybody's different in terms of resistance. Some folks barely make it with one plasmid, others managed several before they lost their minds. ADAM was a hell of a discovery, but the havoc it can wreak on the body should be a concern to anyone. The splicers out there just don't care anymore, as long as they get more of the stuff."
It was at that moment three splicers came into the morgue and started banging on the windows and locked door to the office. Attempting to break in and cash in on the bounty Ryan had just announced.
The former Ranger looked from the demented ADAM addicts to the plasmid jar in his hand. Weighing everything in his head before finding an empty hypo syringe in the nearby desk drawer.
Cleaning the needle as best he could, he filled it with the new concoction before injecting it into his arm like he had with the Electro-Bolt. The familiar feeling of the ADAM coursing through his veins was quickly followed by a burning sensation that spread throughout every inch of his body.
Collapsing on to his knees, Alex looked at his hands and saw his flesh burning from the inside out. Skin turned black and cracked as flames shot out of them before healing up again as the feeling slowly faded and the cells within his body grew accustomed to the new plasmid. The same headache he had gotten with his first power came soon after, showing him how to use this new ability.
Turning to the steadily cracking window, Alex looked down to the ground and saw the oil he had been stepping through outside trailing into the room from the crawlspace he'd just come through. He held up his hand, thinking about the new plasmid as the veins in his arm started glowing like embers in a fire put. His skin blackening a bit as a couple flames danced along his thumb and fingers.
"You die here and now, parasite!" one of the splicers shouted from the windows. "We're gonna watch you burn!"
The former Ranger glared at him, "No...I'm not the one who's burning, pal." he snapped his fingers in the direction of the oil trail. A fire burst to life on the surface and spread instantly along the pool of oil. The splicers outside the office started screaming as they were all lit ablaze, their corpses burning to a crisp before they even hit the ground.
"All roads in Rapture lead to Ryan, lad." said Atlas as the fires outside slowly died off. "The security, the splicers, the Big Daddies, the Little Sisters; he pumps some kind of chemical in the air, pheromones they call it, makes them all dance to his tune."
"Can that crazy bastard really control people with shit like that?" asked Alex as he left the room the same way he got in. The smell of burning clothes and flesh filling the stagnant air as he left the morgue.
"You'd be surprised what money and power can do for a man down here. Ryan redefined the word 'impossible' in many ways. I wouldn't put it past him to create something like that."
Alex shook his head and moved down to the bottom level of the pavilion where the rest of the wing was sealed off by a wall of ice from the frozen pipes. Shouldering his machine gun, he held up his other hand and snapped his fingers. Conjuring fire and sending it into the ice and causing it to melt into a massive puddle on the floor.
Path now clear, the former Ranger stepped through the ankle-deep water through the still partially frozen hallway and entered an open space that had lights fading all over the place. With machine gun in hand, plasmids prepared just in case, he walked slowly across the tiled floor until it gave away to wood.
A trail of blood leading to pools all over told him the place had been occupied at one time and probably still was which kept him on edge. His eyes scanned every shadow, searching for any kind of movement as he went into a more open space where a body laid against a crumbled wall with a neon clock laying among the rubble.
Approaching the body, which had burned and beaten beyond any way of telling if it was male or female, he saw the hands clutching tightly on to something. After he nudged the body with the tip of his boot, the arms fell open and a double-barreled shotgun clattered to the floor.
"Oh, hell yeah." he said grinning as he set the machine gun down as he picked up the shotgun and examined it. It was then he discovered that this wasn't an ordinary double-barrel, this one had been modified. Attached to the breach of the weapon were a pair of revolving chambers that held three rounds making this weapon capable of holding six rounds instead of the standard two.
Cracking open the breach, he found that it fired 00 buckshot which would have made it dangerous for its original form. But with SIX rounds, this thing was instant death for anyone on the opposite end.
Alex couldn't help but chuckle at this amazing find. "Luck's definitely changing." Checking the body, he found a handful of buckshot shells in the pockets and even found a full box under the corpse itself that he loaded into his pack while pulling out a box of ace-bandages.
Taking out one of the cloth strips, he folded it in half length-ways before tying one end around the barrel of his machine gun and the other end around the stock before slinging it across his back before slipping the pack back on. He repeated the process with the shotgun as he stood back up-
Only for the lights all around him shutting off all at once leaving him in complete blackness. "Shit!" he muttered under his breath as a spotlight came on blinding him for a moment. Illuminating where he was standing while everything else was bathed in shadow.
Laughter could be heard around the edge of the light in the surrounding darkness along with footsteps running along the floors. Sweeping the shotgun in different directions, Alex backed up to the pile of rubble so that nothing could get in behind him just as a female-splicer came running out of the shadows.
"Don't you disrespect me!" she screamed just before a shotgun blast silenced her and sent her body hurling back into the darkness in an explosion of gore. Three more forms came charging out soon after from all sides, blocking off any chance of escape as they converged on him.
Swinging the gun around, he fired on the closest one and took his head off from the close distance. Dropping low as another female-splicer tried to take his head off with a metal crutch and swinging the shotgun up and slamming the butt against her chin. Knocking her back a step and allowing him to blow her head off with a shot right to the face.
Alex leapt back when the third splicer tried to stab him with a bloody scalpel. Having no time to reload, he swung the weapon around like a club and smashed his attacked in the head, the splicer was thrown back allowing the former Ranger to draw his revolver and shoot him in the chest.
Staggering from the shot, but remaining upright, the splicer was put down when Alex quickly shot them in the head. The round throwing him off his feet and he hit the ground dead, the darkened room going quiet once more.
Alex relaxed his stance, not seeing any more opposition and taking second to ease his nerves…though his victory was short-lived as a sharp pain jolted through his bicep and a cry of pain pulled from his throat as a woman's mad cackle was heard behind him.
"Bleed! Bleed! BLEED PARASITE!" the splicer screeched as she left the knife from his arm and drew another to stab him again. Alex ducked under it, raising his bleeding left arm and blasting her with a burst of fire that lit her ablaze.
The splicer screamed, flailing about trying to put out the flames. Two rounds from the former Ranger's revolver finishing her as her body collapsed to the floor, still burning.
A moment of silence passed before the lights all came back on. The revolver slipped from Alex's grasp and clattered to the floor as he clutched at his arm where a scalpel was embedded into it, blood spreading out through his fingers as he applied pressure.
"...fuck!" he hissed as he moved over to a nearby gurney. Shrugging off his pack and the machine gun, he dug out a first aid kit he picked up. Opening the tin and laying out some bandages, Alex took a deep breath before grabbing the scalpel's handle and yanking it from his arm.
Biting his lip to avoid attracting more attention, he immediately pressed a bandage to the freely bleeding wound. It was only a couple inches wide, but it was deep. He was pretty sure the blade struck bone and it wouldn't stop bleeding.
Taking the syringe of medical ADAM. Pulling the cap off the needle with his teeth, before injecting the small dosage into his arm.
Almost immediately a numbing sensation filled his arm, then a kind of itching was felt where he'd been stabbed. Removing the bandage, Alex watched in awe as the wound knitted itself back together. The process took moments and left a barely noticeable scar behind when it was finished.
Despite his earlier concern regarding ADAM and splicing, the fact that a rather serious wound was healed so quickly from such a minor injection was beyond words.
"This shit could have saved a lot of lives back home if used properly." He couldn't help but think out loud as he picked up his supplies and weapons again, making sure they were reloaded and ready before making his way toward the dentistry wing which seemed to be the only way out.
Wading his way through the flooded examination rooms and finding nothing of value, he moved toward the far side of the wing and found something a bit out of place.
A long hallway with a green carpeted floor, the walls lined with tennis trophies and rackets. At the end of the hall was a machine that shot tennis balls at a person for practice.
"Okay, this seems like a stereotypical doc's hangout." Alex said as he observed the room. "A bit out of place for a dentist wing, but it isn't as weird as everything else I've seen." Turning to the left, he was surprised to see another Gatherer's Garden sitting in a dark alcove in the back. An audio-diary hanging on the side with a jar sitting out in the open.
Picking up the Plasmid jar, he read 'Telekinesis' on the tag before pressing play on the device;
"Clinical Trial Lot 23 Dr. Suchong/Client Fontaine Futuristics. Work on Telekinesis Plasmid proceeding well. Lifting objects at distance presents no problem." stated a man with an asian accent. "Moving objects through space, no problem. Cannot stop speeding bullet, but can catch and throw fast moving objects."
"Problem not with Plasmid. Problem with reaction time...Suchong just get new idea for Plasmid."
Looking back at the jar after listening to the diary, Alex looked at the jar in his hand with trepidation. With the rate the splicers have been throwing themselves at him he was going to need all the firepower he could get. But he would only take the amount of ADAM he would need to keep him alive until he got out of Rapture.
He was not going to risk becoming like the splicers. Warped, mutated and driven mad for another fix.
Stuffing the plasmid jar into his backpack, Alex brought up his shotgun and made for the exit to make his way back to surgery to continue his search.
Unaware of the hidden security cameras watching his every move.
X
In the small security control room, Atlas watched the former Ranger as he fought through another handful of splicers on his way back to the upper level of the medical pavilion. His eyebrows furrowed as he watched him use his new arsenal and powers assisting him against the deranged citizens.
"There you go, Boyo." he said grinning, his Irish brogue echoing in the silent room as he watched the monitors. "Most would go mad after two plasmids...yet you can handle them just fine."
Reaching for the controls, he zoomed in on Alex's face when he passed by the camera on his way back up the stairs in the direction of the surgery wing. His eyes flashing a moment as he observed the younger man. "Soon...very soon..."
X
In his office at Rapture's center, Andrew Ryan was also watching the oddly resilient grunt as he fought through his flock. A cigar trailing smoke held in his hand as he adjusted the view on the monitor before him before taking a long drag on it.
"What secrets are you hiding?" he wondered as he continued to observe.
X
A/N: Was feeling a bit in the mood today, so I decided to post the next installment a little ahead of schedule.
As many of you have noticed, I started using elements from Bioshock 2 in this story to give it a different feel. Personally, I always liked the six-shot double barrel shotgun better than the standard pump action from the first one.
However, I'm also putting a bit of paranoia and caution into my OC when it comes to plasmids and ADAM.
Jack from Bioshock was engineered to be the perfect sleeper agent, right down to his genetics which allowed him to keep splicing without side effects.
Alex, is just a soldier without those same perks, so the threat of over-splicing and becoming like the splicers in Rapture is an actual possibility. Thus the hesitation when injecting more into himself. This will be a theme as more time goes by, having to decide to inject more ADAM and risk going splicer or risk possible death.
I'm appreciating all the support and reviews, keep them coming and I'll update again soon.
