A/N: Everything is coming together a lot quicker than I originally thought. And with how things went down in the last chapter, many know what is coming next. Alex's next challenge is here, and it will be a big one.
X
With Steinman's key in hand, the only thing left was to head back to Emergency Access and take the route to Neptune's Bounty. Of course that meant backtracking through the Medical Pavilion, but thankfully the place was mostly empty after Alex's first trip through.
The encounter with the Little Sister and Tenenbaum had left him with too many thoughts and emotions to deal with all at once. Knowing what the doctor had done to the little girls of this city made him want to put a bullet in the woman's head. The fact anyone would be heartless enough to experiment on children was paramount to zero mercy.
But the way Tenenbaum spoke, and how she acted in Sally's defense before giving him the plasmid to cure her, told him that she was actively trying to achieve some form of redemption for the acts she committed.
That had been enough to stay the former Ranger's hand and allow the doctor to take Sally to the safe house she had set up. For now he would trust her, with his current situation he'd need all the help he could get.
Making his way through the main floor, Alex hit up one of the vending machines and restocked on supplies. His stash of bills took a hit, telling him he'd have to do some scavenging in the near future so he could afford more should he need it.
He'd just finished packing away a box of shotgun shells when his radio went off. "Yeah?" he asked after slinging his backpack back on.
"It is me, Herr Alex."
The former Ranger paused, "Doctor Tenenbaum, everything alright on your end?"
"Everything is fine, Sally and I are well on our way to the safe house. We are currently on a channel that cannot be intercepted, there is more I need to speak with you about but couldn't risk others overhearing." replied the doctor.
Alex glanced around before ducking into a nearby office, "I'm listening."
"I have made many mistakes since coming to Rapture. Most by my own volition. Ever since the war began I have made it my mission to free the little ones from the torment I helped force upon them. But it is a task very difficult to accomplish with most of the city being splicers and hunting for ADAM." explained the doctor.
"What does this have to do with me?" The former Ranger asked, wanting the woman to get to the root of the matter.
"I need your help, Herr Alex. There are still little ones out there that can be saved, but I cannot get to them on my own. You are more than capable to reach them and cure them of their ailment. It will not be an easy task, the danger would be great, but if you are willing I'll be sure to make it worth your while."
Alex thought hard for a minute. It was still his main goal to escape Rapture and return to his time, but at the same time he couldn't just sit idly by as these girls were used as tiny ADAM factories.
"If I encounter any along the way, I'll do for them what I did for Sally." He finally answered. "But what do I do once I cure them? I can barely watch my own back, having one of them nearby could be dangerous."
"The bronze vents scattered throughout Rapture are safe passages for the little ones. I have sealed off several to give them so that they will have a straight route to the safe house. Once you cure them, just make sure they enter the nearest vent and they will be safe." replied Tenenbaum. "But I must warn you, Herr Alex. In order to get to the Little Sisters, you must deal with their guardian's first…"
Alex remembered the armored golems he'd seen that weren't too far from the little girls. He also remembered the one who smashed a splicer through a reinforced window after driving its massive drill arm through their torso.
"The Big Daddies." He muttered.
"Ja. It will be no easy feat to defeat a Big Daddy, most splicers have to overwhelm them with sheer numbers and high explosives to even damage one enough." Tenenbaum stated bluntly.
The former Ranger rubbed his hand over his face. Helping the Little Sisters definitely wasn't going to be easy. If he was going to take out their Big Daddies, then he'd have to get creative or wind up a bloody stain on the walls and floor.
"Are there any more Little Sister's in the Medical Pavilion?"
"There is one more little one near you. Take great care, Herr Alex." The connection ended, leaving the former Ranger in silence.
Taking a deep breath, Alex hooked his radio back on his belt and stepped out of the office. "Okay, now all I gotta do is find a little girl and her massive attack dog…should be easy."
X
In reality, it had been easy to find the Little Sister and the Big Daddy following her. The child using her syringe tool to draw ADAM from the splicer bodies he'd left laying around when he'd first passed through earlier.
Peering around the corner of a wall he was hiding behind, Alex observed as the little girl went about her gruesome task. She looked to have been around Sally's age, dressed in a worn and torn lavender dress with her shoulder length brown hair tied back in a low ponytail.
The Big Daddy, which was similar to the ones he'd seen before, stood only a couple feet away looking for threats against their charge. Its drill arm held aloft and ready to pierce the first thing that crossed their path.
He'd been watching them for several minutes. Memorizing their patterns, the routes they took around the pavilion, and the Big Daddy's movements.
From what he knew, the Big Daddy was built for brute strength. Basically a walking tank that could take punishment and dish it out, and despite its size could move very quickly. However, when it charged it could only go in a straight line and couldn't change direction fast enough.
This gave him an advantage.
When he was finished with his recon, the former Ranger got to work. Knowing that fighting the Big Daddy conventionally would be suicide, he went around the pavilion and began laying a series of traps that could help weaken the Little Sister's guardian.
Gathering fuel and oxygen canisters at various points, dumping water and making pools on the floor, even moving a couple of turrets he'd managed to rewire into position. The process took a good amount of time, but when he was finished he was satisfied with how it all looked.
Of course, any real soldier knows that even the best laid plans don't always succeed when faced with the enemy. So to be on the safe side Alex slapped a drum magazine of armor piercing rounds into his machine gun and made sure he was loaded up on Eve just in case.
When everything was ready, he took a deep breath and steeled himself for what was coming.
At the same time, the loud groaning and heavy footfalls of the Big Daddy could be heard getting closer.
Slinging his shotgun across his back and revolver in his belt, Alex stashed his backpack in a nearby cabinet for safe keeping and took cover behind a nearby desk. Machine gun propped on the surface as he waited for the right moment.
The Big Daddy rounded the corner and made its way to the center of the main room, the Little Sister humming to herself and skipping along beside it as they followed the same path he'd observed them taking.
"I really hope that recording was right about the girls being indestructible like this." The former Ranger thought as he held up his hand and conjured flames to his finger tips. The Big Daddy walked past a small collection of oxygen tanks he'd set up, and he snapped his fingers…
The powerful flames struck the tanks and caused a big explosion, which was drowned out by a bellowing roar of pain and unbridled rage. When the smoke cleared, the Big Daddy stood there with scorch marks on its armor, the portholes on its helm now a glaring red and its drill arm spinning dangerously.
"Mr. Bubbles!" The Little Sister shouted in alarm, unharmed from the explosion as she looked around the room. Her glowing eyes finding Alex where he was hiding. "Over there! Get him Mr. B!"
The Big Daddy spun around, all of its red portholes seeming to zero in on the former Ranger as a deep rumble echoed from within the thick armor. Without warning, the metal golem suddenly shot forward like a massive bullet.
"Shit!" Alex dove aside as the Big Daddy crashed straight through the desk, its drill arm stabbing deep into the wall he'd been standing in front of.
Firing a controlled burst into the guardian's center of mass, Alex rolled over the desk and took off running. Putting distance between them as he headed for another trap he'd laid out. Behind him, the Big Daddy ripped its drill from the wall and took off in pursuit.
Feeling and hearing the golem getting closer, the former Ranger waited for the right moment before firing an electro-bolt at the floor behind him. The puddle he had just run through lit up with blue volts just as the Big Daddy stepped in it.
The golem froze and began to convulse with arcs of energy zapping across its body. Alex spun around and emptied the rest of his weapons clip into the Big Daddy, dropping the empty machine gun and taking off again as the electro-bolts effects wore off.
Rounding another corner, Alex drew his shotgun and ducked out of sight as the Big Daddy thundered right behind him. Right into a hail of machine gun fire from the two turrets that had been set up to catch it in a crossfire.
The Big Daddy roared, bringing up its drill arm to shield it from the barrage of bullets before charging the closest one and smashing it into pieces. The other turret kept firing until it met the same fate as the first.
Grip tight on his weapon, breathing heavily, Alex chanced a look around the corner-
The golem's drill smashed through the wall, sending him to the floor to avoid getting skewered. The former Ranger fired without a second thought, the dual 00 buckshot peppering and denting the Big Daddy's armor from the close range. But it seemed to shrug off the damage as it grabbed his leg with its only viable hand and proceeded to throw him across the room.
Alex curled in on himself, his shotgun flying out of his hands as he rolled harshly across the hard tiles. Trying to shake off the impact, he barely had a moment before the terrifying whirl of a large drill snapped him back into focus. Looking up and seeing the Big Daddy now looming over him with its attacking arm cocked back.
The former Ranger jumped back as the drill slammed into the floor…just barely missing his crotch.
Scrambling back to his feet, Alex leapt up onto the Big Daddy's back. Grabbing onto the metal frame of its suit with one hand and drawing his revolver in the other as he jammed the barrel into the seam that connected the helm to the rest of the suit and emptying a whole speed-loader of anti-personnel rounds into it.
The Big Daddy bellowed an angry roar, shaking itself wildly to dislodge the former Ranger who held on for dear life. The golem bowed its head and charged for the nearest wall, hoping to crush its passenger on impact.
Alex waited for the last minute before he jumped off. The Big Daddy smashed into the wall with the force of an out of control freight train. The impact seemingly shaking the whole room as it stumbled away from the crater it had made in a daze.
Finding his shotgun nearby, Alex picked it up and pressed both barrels against the golem's head and fired. The buckshot tore through the armor and made a hole in the helm. Preparing to fire the last two shells, he was unprepared for the Big Daddy's drill arm to swing out and collide with his midsection.
All the air was crushed out of his lungs before his feet left the floor and he was sent flying backwards. His body slamming over a gurney and his back connecting harshly with another wall.
He wasn't sure where he was, the dual impacts and the pain now wracking through him made it hard to even draw breath. The only thing he was aware of was the fact he had somehow managed to keep his grip on his shotgun despite everything.
Alex attempted to get up only for a massive gloved hand to grab him by the neck and lift him up off the floor. The Big Daddy's damaged helm now in his face, portholes casting a red glow over his skin as it drew its drill arm back to finish him.
The former Ranger clenched his teeth and summoned all the strength he had, jamming the shotgun's barrels into the hole he'd made in the golem's helmet and fired.
The world seemed to crawl for a few seconds before the Big Daddy was thrown back from the force of the buckshot. Its grip on Alex's neck released as it pitched backwards and crashed to the floor. It's portholes flickering a moment before going dark.
Holding his throat and gasping air into his lungs, Alex staggered to his feet and looked at the downed Big Daddy. Kicking it with the tip of his boot, he was able to confirm that he had managed to kill it…
He almost couldn't believe it. He'd managed to kill the thing. Though it had left a hell of an impact on him as he cradled his sore midsection.
"Pretty sure he broke a rib." He groaned to himself, "Or several." Taking another deep breath, he let the adrenaline steadily drain out of him.
"Mr. Bubbles?" Alex snapped his head around in time to see the Little Sister approaching the dead Big Daddy slowly. "Get up, Mr. Bubbles! Get up!" she pleaded, shaking her former guardian in an attempt to wake it up.
The former Ranger felt a pang of guilt for making the girl upset like his, but it was washed away with the knowledge of why he had to in the first place. Ignoring the pain in his ribs, he knelt down to the girl's level and grabbed her before she had a chance to get away.
"No! Let go!" she shouted as he turned her around to face him. "No! No!" Alex touched the side of her face, the white veins that appeared when he touched Sally returned and spread across the Little Sister's face. She immediately calmed before white light exploded softly around them.
When the light faded, the Little Sister was shown to be normal again. Her skin a healthy color once more, brown hair less stringy and her eyes now a forest green color that looked up at her savior in awe.
"Th-Thank you, mister." She said softly…right before throwing up the slug that had once been bound to her internally.
Alex patted her on the back to help ease her through the process. Collecting the ADAM from the slug via syringe before picking up the girl and carrying her over to the circular vent in the nearby wall and helping her up through the opening.
Once she was safely inside and disappeared within, the former Ranger collapsed to the floor with his back to the vent. The fight finally taking its toll on him as he slumped in a heap.
Yet despite being as roughed up as he had been, it had been more than worth it to see that little girl now free.
X
It took some time before he was able to get moving again. After getting his second wind, Alex collected his dropped weapons and went to where he stashed his pack. He then took several minutes checking himself over to assess his injuries.
Surprisingly, the damage that had been done by the Big Daddy was minor. The strike to his chest should have shattered his ribs while the impact to the wall should have broken his back. But he'd managed to get away with a couple of cracked ribs and several large bruises.
The answer had been obvious, the tonics he'd injected himself with were definitely doing their job. Making his body stronger and able to endure a lot more than it had before. Though he wasn't indestructible, hence why it took two medical-ADAM injections to bring him back up to speed.
Once he'd been healed and gathered his gear, the former Ranger left the Medical Pavilion and headed down the darkened hallway that led to Emergency Access. Slipping Steinman's key into the control panel and flipped the switch.
"Security Alert deactivated. Thank you for your patience." the system reported as the lockdown disengaged.
"I don't know how you managed it, but you did." said Atlas from the radio. "Come through to Port Neptune now. I'm looking forward to shaking your hand."
"Right back at you, Atlas." Alex replied, stepping through the security door and into knee-deep water as he wadded toward an open bathysphere similar to the one that brought him to Rapture. Entering the transport and throwing the switch, the door behind him sealed shut and the water drained out before it slipped below the surface and began heading in the direction of the designated port.
Grabbing one of the seats, the former Ranger dug through his bag and pulled out a bag of chips and casually began munching on them. It had been a couple hours since he first arrived in Rapture, and had been in almost as much combat as he had been in the military.
Or course, the enemies he'd fought back then weren't mutant junkies with a hard on for violence to get their next fix, giant iron monstrosities that followed possessed little girls around, or crazed dictators with obvious obsessions of grandeur.
All that, and he had his brothers and sisters in arms by his side.
Thinking about his old squad left Alex feeling nostalgic. They'd all been together since basic and had been as close as family when they had been shipped out. He'd kept tabs on them since he'd been discharged.
Most of them were still active. A few were discharged when their tours ended while a couple had been sent home due to being wounded in action. One of them being his best friend Jake Mendez.
The two of them had met halfway through high school. Jake had originally lived in California before his parents divorced and he moved to Maine with his mom. He'd gotten into some trouble with a couple of jocks during his first week and Alex jumped in to give him a hand. The two of them had been as tight as real brothers ever since. Even enlisting together when they graduated.
It had been Jake who had dragged him out of danger after he'd been shot, covering them as the medic treated the wound before they were able to return to base.
Three months after he'd been sent home…Jake had been caught in an explosion when an IED landed near him.
The news had done almost as much damage as the bullet did to his liver. Alex had been out of his mind worried about his brother in all but blood, and it had been weeks before he got any kind of update on his condition.
Jake had survived, but he'd lost his right arm due to burns and shrapnel. This coupled with the trauma that came with it would take time to come back from, but he would make a full recovery. He had still been in the process of healing in the hospital in the states when COVID hit.
Finishing the light snack, Alex tossed the empty bag aside and leaned back in his seat. Atlas had said that his family was holed up in Neptune's Bounty, and that there was a chance for all of them to get out of this place. He was hoping the man was right.
As sure as he was with his skills and will to survive, there was no telling what other nasty surprises were waiting down here. And after the fight with the Big Daddy, he was reminded how outmatched and outgunned he might be.
Digging through his pack again, the former Ranger paused a moment before pulling out the plasmid jar he'd picked up back in the dental offices. The ADAM inside glowing softly in the low light of the bathysphere.
The urge to inject himself with it, to gain another power to give him an advantage, was getting stronger. He didn't know if he was starting to develop an addiction to the genetic concoction, or if it was his survival instincts trying to keep him alive. Either way, each time he even considered adding the plasmid to his genetics images of the splicers would keep popping up in his head and making him think twice.
Glaring at the jar, he contemplated tossing the damn thing against the wall of the bathysphere and be done with it. But he thought better of it and stuffed it back into his backpack. "Keep your head on straight, Kane." Alex muttered to himself. "You don't need any more of this shit."
However, a small part of himself was in doubt if that was true or not after everything he'd been through so far…and the idea of what else would be waiting for him.
X
The trip took about ten minutes. The bathysphere rose from the water and the door opened allowing the sole passenger to disembark.
Alex glanced around the port he'd arrived in and saw what he'd already expected. Luggage scattered everywhere, signs of combat, no different than the port he'd stepped into when he first arrived in Rapture.
But the battered and bloodied dead man crucified to the pillar via ropes and fishing wire with 'Smuggler' written in blood on the wall above him was new.
"That's no way to die." The former Ranger couldn't help but say as he examined the poor bastard.
"Now you've had the pleasure of Andrew Ryan's company." said Atlas, "Building this place only to run it into the ground. Nobody knows exactly what happened. Maybe he went mad. Maybe the power got to him. Maybe he just decided that he didn't like people, whichever way you slice it, good men died."
"From what I've learned so far, he attempted to build a place unbound by laws and government. But when it started to get out of hand he became a dictator to control everything, attempting to suppress a people who were promised untold freedom to do what they want tend to rebel." Alex summarized, looking back at the hanging corpse, "And I guess no punishment for rebellion was too much."
The Irishman hummed in agreement, "Either way, those loyal to Ryan are only so as long as he offers what they want. Me family's in a submarine hidden in the foundation of Fontaine Fisheries, I'll meet you there."
Alex moved around the port, ignoring the smell of stagnant sea air and dead fish as he picked through various crates and containers scattered along the docks. Finding ammo for his guns and a few other useful supplies before heading to the back of the port that led farther into the sector, climbing over a pile of debris and dropping down to the other side where an automated door opened when he approached.
The corridor beyond was much like the rest of the city he'd seen. Partially collapsed and flooded with more water pouring in from broken pipes. He idly noticed a large sign sticking out of the pool that marked the number of days without a work-related accident and couldn't help but think of the irony.
Machine gun held at the ready, the former Ranger trudged through the knee-deep water. The windows on his right showing several dead bodies floating in the water outside, but his focus was dead ahead. Senses strained to pick up anything hostile nearby.
Movement made him pause, aiming his weapon ahead when he saw a shadow on the wall that shuffled about. Getting closer, moving as quietly as possible to get a better look, the shadow suddenly perked up.
"...what crawls in my garden?" A female voice rasped. The shadow leapt into the air as Alex rounded the corner, whatever it had been was long gone, but left behind a couple of butchered corpses on the floor.
Looking up, he saw a large hole in the ceiling. The sounds of metal scratching at stone could be heard and, oddly enough, flower petals rained down from farther in.
"Fuck was that?" The former Ranger muttered, keeping his machine gun aimed at the hole above him.
With no visible threat, he checked the bodies for anything useful before moving on to another room. "But the days go by like the wind…" The same voice whispered as more metals rained down from above.
Whatever it was, it was stalking him. Waiting for the moment to strike.
"Psst! Mister!" Alex spun around, weapon up. Only to lower it when he saw a cured Little Sister he'd never seen before poking her head out of a nearby vent. "I got something for you, mister!" The little girl said, holding out a folded piece of paper.
The former Ranger accepted the offering, giving the girl a smile and nod in thanks as she smiled back and disappeared back into the vent. Opening the paper, he found a frequency written on it with a small message;
'Should you need to speak with me without others hearing. - Tenenbaum'
Curious, Alex unclipped his radio and turned the dial to the frequency that had been listed. "Doc, you there?" he asked into the receiver.
"Ja, Herr Alex. I see the little one delivered my message." answered Tenenbaum.
"That she did. I managed to free the other Little Sister back at medical. Her Big Daddy roughed me up a bit, but I took him down."
The doctor sighed in relief, "That is good news indeed. I knew you'd be the right one for such a task. I have yet to encounter anyone who would be so willing to help the little ones. I am grateful fate happened to shine upon us."
"I'm happy to help where I can. But I need to ask, why all the secrecy?" The former Ranger asked.
"Rapture has many eyes and ears, almost none of them trustworthy. Andrew Ryan has been hunting for me for a long time ever since I began my campaign to save the little ones and cure the ADAM Plague running rampant through the city." explained Tenenbaum.
"ADAM Plague…you mean the splicers?"
"Ja. ADAM was an amazing discovery, but now it destroys Rapture like a sickness. Ever since the war began I have made it my life's work to find a cure for the mistake I have made. The Cure All plasmid I gave you was the first step, but I only had so many resources to create two. One is now part of you, the other is part of me."
Hearing her explanation, Alex remembered his own crisis involving ADAM and plasmids. "Doctor, I need your honest opinion. How much ADAM can a person take before they become like the splicers?"
"ADAM affects people differently depending on their genetics. Some have shown great residence to the ADAM Plague, but over splicing overtime will cause said resistance to fail." Answered Tenenbaum. "I take it you are worried about your own splicing?"
"That's putting it mildly." replied Alex. "I currently have two plasmids and two tonics in my system. But the fights I'm getting in are becoming harder to overcome, and the urge to splice more is becoming apparent."
The doctor was silent on her end for a while. "You already show great resistance, Herr Alex. Unfortunately I cannot give you any answers without further examination. If you can get me a sample of your blood, I might be able to come up with the results."
"Okay, how can I do that?" asked the former Ranger.
"The Pneumo system that runs throughout Rapture will be your best option. If you can collect a sample and send it to me through the Pneumo I can start running some tests. One of the main hubs for the system is near your location, you can send it to me through there." said Tenenbaum.
Alex nodded, "I'll get on it. Before I let you go, are there any Little Sister's here in Neptune's Bounty?"
"Currently, there are three Little Ones wandering that area. These ones were assigned the 'Rosie-class' Big Daddy's, they are far different in combat compared to the Bouncer-class you've encountered thus far. Be prepared, Herr Alex."
"Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep you posted." The former Ranger ended the call and switched the frequency back to the original setting before continuing on. The door before him opened and let him out into the large wharf that made up this section of the sector.
The smell of dead fish became a lot stronger, not surprising considering this entire part of the city was a fish hatchery and market.
Remembering what Atlas had said after he'd arrived, Alex looked up at a neon sign next that read 'Fontaine Fisheries' above the door across from the one he came through. Machine gun stock against his shoulder, the former Ranger headed in that direction, passing through the automated door and into the hallway that had water dribbling down from multiple points and fish flopping along the metal and wood floors.
The corridor ended in an open area on top of a small pier. A Gatherer's Garden was set against a support pillar in the center and a "Little Sister Vent" against the far wall. Another sign that read 'Fontaine Fisheries' hung lopsided above a manmade barricade set up in front of the entrance to the fishery.
Alex didn't have much of a chance to examine the structure further when he saw a stationary turret suddenly switch on and turn in his direction. Only this one was different from the ones he encountered in medical. This one resembled a tennis ball launcher that began to spool up.
Only it wasn't tennis balls it was firing. With a small burst of fire, a projectile was shot in his direction at a velocity that reminded him too much of an RPG. Thus his instinct to dive behind the nearest pillar just as the small rocket flew past where he'd been standing and detonated against the far wall with a thunderous explosion.
"Dammit! They got RPG launchers too?!" the former Ranger exclaimed as another missile exploded against the opposite side of the pillar he was behind.
"The parasite is here!" Another voice bellowed, a pair of splicers entered the pier from the other side and ran at him with guns drawn. Only for the turret to change direction and fire at them, the following explosion sending debris and bloody parts flying in different directions.
With the turret's attention off of him, Alex ran for the other end of the pier and jumped down to the wet muddy ground below. The space beneath the docks giving him some cover and keeping him out of sight for the time being.
Now knowing what to expect, the former Ranger rethought his strategy to avoid being blown to bits like the splicers. The turret fired on anything that crossed its line of sight, and there was a good five to eight second delay between shots. If he could skirt around it and hit it with an electro-bolt he could disable it and rewire it like he had the last few turrets.
Or worst case scenario, he could destroy it. But he'd prefer not to give up a possible resource.
Plan set, Alex made his way through the open space beneath the pier, his boots squishing in the thick mud beneath him. Moving around a set of supports for the docks above him, a bright light suddenly blinded him and a loud tinkling alarm assaulted his ears.
The former Ranger quickly realized he'd been caught by a security camera and blasted it with an electro-bolt before firing a quick burst from his machine gun that blew it to pieces. It was a good thing he'd been quick, the last thing he needed were security drones dogging him as well.
Continuing his intended path, Alex made sure to check his corners a bit more closely in case any more security measures were in place. Coming out on the other side of the pier beneath a ramp that would take him up to the fishery's barricade.
Peering over the edge, he saw the RPG launcher stationed on the top of the barrier. Still pointed in the direction of the last shot it had fired. Electricity charged to his left hand, the former Ranger slid along the wall as he moved up the ramp until he reached the landing that led farther to the upper part of the pier.
He knew the moment he stepped out into the open the turret would be on him and fire. He'd have to dodge the first shot and hit it before it could fire the second, a small window. But it needed to get done so he could get past.
Taking a deep breath, Alex rounded the corner.
The RPG launcher snapped in his direction and fired its payload. The former Ranger dropped and rolled as the missile flew past him and blew a vending machine to salvage, coming back upright and blasting the machine with electricity and shutting it down.
Alex didn't waste a second, running up the ramp and leaping onto the barricade. Pulling himself onto the same level as the turret and using his knife to rip off the panel that allowed him into its inner workings. Just as the effects of the electro-bolt were about to wear off, the red lights snapped to green as it came back online.
A sigh of relief left Alex's lips as he stood up from the turret and turned toward the entrance to the fishery on the ground floor. Climbing down the opposite side of the barrier and entering through the automated door and into a transfer room with various conveyor belts stationed along the walls.
His attention quickly drew to the dead bodies laid out along the floor. Each one bore slash marks that were still bleeding and forming puddles that looked recent.
"Who can blame a lady who craves variety?"
Alex had his machine gun snapped toward the ceiling hearing the familiar voice from when he first arrived at the port, more flower petals began raining down cementing what he already knew.
"And one day, the gentlemen stopped calling…" the voice continued, the sounds of metal scratching along stone being heard somewhere out of sight.
Not wanting to be out in the open any longer than he had to, the former Ranger approached the only other door in the room and attempted to open it. Only to find it locked.
"Who goes there?!" A slide panel in the door slid open to reveal a man wearing a welding mask peering out. "Ah, you must be the one Atlas talked about. Says you were looking for an invite into the fisheries. Nuts, I say! But if'n you heads up to the wharf master's office and find ol' Peach a research camera, maybe I could manage an invite."
"Wait a minute, what?" Alex asked, confused. "How the hell does some camera-" The former Ranger was cut off by a sinister laugh and more metal scraping on stone.
"What was that?!" The man behind the door, Peach, demanded as more flower petals drifted down from above before a thin, willowy form dropped to the floor on the other side of the room. Alex had his weapon trained on the new arrival, and was immediately hit with nostalgia.
It was a woman, and a splicer. Hunched over with her arms dangling toward the floor with a pair of iron meat hooks gripped in her hands. Her head wrapped in bloody bandages with a single, bloodshot eyes glaring at him.
If he didn't know any better, Alex was sure he was looking at the same splicer that killed Atlas' friend outside the bathysphere the moment he arrived in Rapture.
A wide, predatory grin filled with broken and blackened teeth stretched the splicer's face as the hooks in her hands began to glow orange and emit heat.
"My friend, you are FUCKED!" Peach said before slamming the door panel shut behind him. The splicer let loose a banshee-like scream before charging the former Ranger, hooks outstretched and ready to cut him to ribbons.
X
A/N: Cliffhangers, gotta hate them.
Alex has survived his first Big Daddy encounter, we see a bit more into his life back home, and formed an accord with Tenenbaum. Now all he has to do is handle what is waiting for him in Neptune's Bounty.
Easier said than done.
Update already in the works. Coming Soon.