There was hardly room to breath as the intricate closed and it began to rise up. And those who were
turned enough to be able to see out of the glass tube the elevator rose up in watched different catwalks and floors pass them by, and crazed "Splicers" run about here and there.
"Listen- I've got a family." Atlas' voice came through the radio. Slightly muffled from where it sat squashed against others in Jacks pocket. "I need to get them out of here. But the Splicers have cut me off from them- if you can reach them in Neptune's Bounty, then maybe, just maybe- I know you must feel like the unluckiest men in the world right now, but you're the only hope I'll ever see my wife and child again. Go to Neptune's Bounty… find my family… please."
"So that's why he's so willing to help us." The sniper muttered. "We say no, he leaves us tits up in the water."
"Well, we can't jus' go leavin' a lady and a kid tae the mercies of the bloody freaks they've got running around down here, can we?" Demo said, trying to in vain to adjust his arm.
"No, we cannot." The Heavy rumbled. His tone giving no room for argument.
"It seems we don't have much of a choice either way." Said the Spy.
"Aye, I admit it. I am using you boys. But it sounds at least some of you understand. Nothings free in Rapture, and a husband and father has his priorities."
Thankfully it wasn't long before the elevator opened up to another floor, and with a heave they all came spilling out of the cramped space the moment it came to a stop and dinged. Stepping out they were greeted by another Chamber, and a large gold stature of a fist clenching a chain. Another bright red banner stretched above it declaring once again that the Great Chain is guided by their hands.
A door blocked by greats was decorated with flowers and a picture of a man. Scout wandered over, kneeling down to pick up one of the teddy bears left on the ground beside it, turning it over in his hands for a moment before he set it down, and let out a small sound of triumph as he picked something else up. "Hey hey there's a Medkit and a candy bar here." He made to stand back up when he froze. The sound of a woman's voice, quiet and eerie greeted their ears, and the shadow of a woman and a pram shifted on the wall of the open tunnel. "When your daddy's in the ground, mommy's gonna sell you by the pound. When your mommy's up and gone, you're gonna be the lonely one. When you're the lonely one, no one will be there to sing this song. Hush now…."
Scout crept back to the others, tucking his finds in the bag on his back as he went. And slowly they moved forward. Towards the woman, and the only way they could go. "Mommy's gone… and daddy too. Wait… this is happening before and not… why aren't you here?" The woman continued. "W-why is it today and not then when you were warm and sweet? Why can't mommy hold you to her breast and feel your teeth? Oh no, no no no no…." The woman leaning over the pram seemed wholly unaware of them as they snuck towards her. But as she shifted, the blood piece of her pipe she clutched in one hand became apparent.
When she finally seemed to noticed, she turned with an angry scream, swinging her pipe straight for the Soldier. Her pipe connected to the side of his helmet and he stumbled. But her next swing fell flat as the Snipers knife found it's home in her side, and with a kick he sent her sprawling to the floor.
The pram, thankfully turned out to be empty, aside from a revolver laying within. A baby would have been an even larger liability than Jack, but it would have been better to have to play literal baby sitter than find… the other alternative.
"What in the hell is wrong with people down here." The Sniper spat, pushing the empty pram out of the way.
"Plasmids changed everything." Came Atlas' voice. "They destroyed our bodies. Our minds. We couldn't handle it. Best friends butcherin' each other. Babies strangled in cribs. The whole city went to hell."
"Oh, so the freaky injections Jack and Engie took are gonna turn em into nutso's like everybody else here. Just great!" Scout said.
"Not necessarily. One Plasmid on it's one won't turn you into the twisted bastards we've got down here. But people get addicted to power, and power was everywhere. First, in a bottle, then in a syringe. Anyone could turn themselves into a god. Now, you'll have to go through the Kashmir there. It'll lead you to the Footlight Theater, and that'll lead you to the transit hub that'll get you to Neptunes Bounty."
They looked up at the neon letters, and the framed posters lining the walls speaking of a Masquerade ball, dated for 1959. Being the only one without a gun of his own, no one objected when Jack took the liberty to take the revolver from the pram.
The doors of the restaurant slid open, and they were greeted by the sound of music. The Inkspots "If I Didn't care" playing softly through unseen speakers. Streamers and Balloons that had somehow not deflated dotted the ceiling, and a few masquerade masks and party hats littered the concierges desk before them. To the side was a bit of busted railing that overlooked a small dining area, with a large, busted up statue depicting a man holding up a globe on his back, and a large sign celebrating the new year of 1959.
"You want this ugly or do you want this nice? I can do it either way. Open the damn door!" A man's voice shouter from further inside.
"I'll do what I want! It's my ADAM, I earned it." A woman's voice, muffled as if through walls, answered back.
The source of one of the voices turned out to be that of a man near the bottom of the stairs, completely involved in yelling and banging on a door. The woman, judging by the sound of her voice, was on the other side, equally absorbed in the verbal spat.
Scout gave a sudden jerk back, jostling the medic behind him. "What the fu-" The Spy clamped his hand over his mouth before he could finish his expletive, but it was too late. The sudden shout had the mans head snapping to them.
"This is our hut, me and Brenda!" The man shouted, charging up the stairs.
A neat shot from the shotgun the Soldier brandished stopped him halfway to the top, and sent him flying back down the stairs into a heap. If the woman heard the shot, she didn't act like it. Still spitting out verbal abuse at the man for a few more moments before she finally seemed to take note of the mans silence.
"Charley? Charley where ya gone?" She questioned, before there was a soft sound of a door opening, and the woman let out a wail. Her masked gaze turned up the stairs, where she in turn charged, and found the same end as Charley.
"It seems this place is open for new management." Spy muttered before he turned his attention to Scout, giving the boy a small shove. "What is the matter with you! Had you not run your mouth we easily could have snuck up on the bickering fools and not wasted bullets on them, or found a way to bypass them."
"Ah shove it up your ass, Spy." Scout replied, swatting the mans scolding finger away. "You woulda been surprised too if you saw what I saw."
"And pray tell, what is it you saw that was so important?"
"I- I… don't actually know." Scout admitted sheepishly. Or as sheepish as the normally cocksure Eighteen year old could show. He pointed into the hall way which led to the bathrooms. At the strange hole in the wall surrounded by what looked to be a decorative sunflower. "There was something in there. Didn't get a good look but it was all pale and glowin' red eyes. It was fuckin' creepy, man."
"A place like this, I wouldnae be surprised if it had monsters crawling in its walls." The Demoman murmured.
"Yes, well, lets find the exit and move on, shall we?" The Spy said, taking a prim step back, in the lead as the group took to the stairs. "Scout, Soldier, search the kitchen. Make sure she was truly alone in there."
"Not a big place. Shouldn't be more surprises. Not in here at least." The Sniper muttered, his eyes sweeping the room, from the lowered dining area they'd seen from above that had accumulated into a shallow pool of water. The Demoman wandered off towards the bar off to the side, rummaging about beneath it for a moment before he emerged with a triumphant sound.
"I should have liked to see what a new years eve looked like underwater." Medic said, stepping up down to the last dry step of the light steps into the dining area, glancing at the broken statue, before something else seemed to catch his eye, and he stepped into the water. Picking something up from among the plates and party hats left behind on it.
"It's clear. Nobody in there who ain't fish food, anyway." The Scout said, giving the Soldier a small glare as the man knocked into his shoulder as he passed by, a few grimy tin cans clutched in his hand and a grin on his face.
"What have you found, Doctor?" The Heavy questioned as the Medic rejoined the group.
"A tape recorder of sorts, by the look of it. There's tape in it, it seems." Medic replied, holding the little machine up before his thumb flicked the button.
"Another New Year's, another night alone," A woman sighed, the sound of diners and music in the background. "I'm out, and you're stuck in Hephaestus, working. Imagine my surprise. I just guess I'll have another drink…. Here's a toast to Diane McClintock, silliest girl in Rapture. Silly enough to fall in love with Andrew Ryan. Silly enough to-" The woman was cut off by the sounds of explosion, and screaming.
After a moment, the woman's voice returned. Her words weak and frightened. "What… What happened?… I'm bleeding… oh, god… what's happening?" There was another, fleeting moment of gunfire, before the tape dissolved into static.
"That would explain the damage we've seen here." The spy said. "An attack on a lover by those unhappy with how Ryan was running things, perhaps?"
The door out was around the corner. And, as it turned out, broken. Kicking the pair of corpses lying beside the blood spattered door, the idea had been to force it open, but the broken locking system kept the doors flush against each other, and uncaring of any brute force applied.
"I could blow it," The Demoman offered, though he seemed hesitant as his eye flickered to the water filled dining area. "...I'm not sure how good of an idea it is, though. No' with how unstable this place already is."
"We will have to, or we'll have to come up with something else." The Engineer said.
"Right, well in the meantime, I'm going for the loo." The Sniper shrugged, his hand on the rail as he made for the stairs.
"Oh? Surely the kitchen must have some jars in it somewhere the Spy said, letting out a scoff of something that might have been a laugh.
"Piss off, Snake."
Scout wandered over to the microphone and speaker equipment, fiddling with the head of the microphone. "You guys think any of this stuff still works?"
"It's possible, depending on if any of it got damaged from whatever happened here, or the crazy folk running around here didn't break anything. But best not fuss with it, son." The Engineer replied.
"More importantly," Said the Spy, his eyes flickering around the room before he leaned in, his voice low and cautious. "Did any of you hear what people were yelling in the background of that tape?"
"Yes. Death to Ryan. But was… too hard to hear. Too much." The Heavy said with a nod, casting a wary glance towards the radio in Jacks pocket. A lie. But it was clear from the several nods that went around the group no one else had missed the sound of a man shouting Long Live Atlas.
Who exactly was their guide, that men mowing others down would rally around his name?
"Oi, I think I found our way out!" The Sniper shouted, waving down at the Scout from the railing above that overlooked the stage. "Mens crapper's missing half the wall. Looks like it leads out into a theater."
"Charming." Spy muttered, "But I suppose at least we won't have to attempt to blow our way out of here and risk drowning ourselves."
The hole in the bathroom was only really the space of one stall, but it was large enough for all of them to pass through easily, baring the tallest among them having to duck a bit.
"Careful now…. Would you kindly lower your weapons for a minute." Atlas' voice was as low as whisper as one could into a radio and still be heard clearly. Jack lowered his pistol without a word, but only a handful of others followed suit.
"There's a kid down there." Jack whispered in surprise as he looked over the railing of the catwalk they'd stepped out onto. "She looks… wrong."
Down below, in the middle of the floor towards a door with the neon letters "Footlight Theater", was a little girl. She knelt on the floor before the prone figure of a man. Shifting and moving slightly as she moved, like perhaps she was doing something to the man. But with her back turned and the angle they were at, whatever it was they couldn't see. But under the bright theater lights, she looked deathly pale and dirty. It had clearly been some time since the girl had seen a bath or had a fresh change of clothes.
"Dead, looks like. Dad or something?" Sniper said, nodding at the pair.
"We should say something- she'll get torn apart on her own. We can't just leave a kid down there by herself." Said the Engineer.
"No." Whether anyone else agree or not, Atlas' hissed his dissent through the radio. "You think that's a child down there?"
"I mean, that's what she looks like." Scout scoffed, scowling as Spy held up a shushing finger.
"She's a Little Sister now." Atlas said, "Somebody went and turned a sweet baby girl into a monster. Whatever you thought about right and wrong on the surface, well, that don't count for much down in Rapture." No one volunteered the fact that given the very nature of their jobs that they weren't typically on the right side of morality either, and Spy motioned for Jack to hold up the radio.
"What exactly is a… Little Sister?"
"Little Sisters carry Adam- the genetic material that keeps the wheels of Rapture turning. Everybody wants it. Everybody needs it. Now, hurry on across. Try not to startle her."
The way across, was the tracks and support beams for lights and other equipment, and uneasy glances were sent towards the weapons expert among them. None of them were light, but none else but their Russian companion could be described as a mountain of a man, either.
"We'll go one by one." Said the Engineer. "Start with Scout and Sniper, work out way up to Heavy."
The metal tracks seemed to be more stable than they looked, and one by one they crossed. Though the Demoman paused for a moment halfway through, letting out a startled, sick sound and turned himself to keep his blind side towards the girl.
The men already across peered over the rail, and the rest as they passed saw what had startled the demolitions expert so much.
In her hands the little girl held some sort of apparatus with a long, nasty needle. What had looked like a tugging motion from behind had turned out the be the girl plunging the needle into different points of the dead mans body.
"….это ужаснo." The Heavy rumbled as he turned away after a moment. Nobody needed to understand his words to share the disgust in them.
A heavy silence had fallen over them as they made their way down the stairs, carefully jumping down from them where they had collapsed near the bottom.
The "Little Sister" As Atlas had called her, seemed oblivious to their presence on the other side of the glass of the wall she face. Either it was one sided glass, or she was simply too engrossed in her morbid task to realize they were there.
The door behind her opening, and the man stepping through, however, she did notice.
Leaping to her bare, dirty feet. The strange needle clutched in her hands. She let out a shriek as the man stepped forward, pistol brandished in his scabby hand. The man swung his hand, sending the little figure sprawling against the wall with the force of the weapon hitting her.
As the Heavy raised his shotgun with a shout, swinging with the intent to bring it down on the glass between them, the roar that came from above made everyone freeze in place. The man included.
An incredibly large figure, in what could only be described as some sort of modified diving suit leapt from the floor above. Eight circles set into the head of the suit glowed an angry, hostile red. And where there should have been a right arm, was a large, nasty looking drill.
The Little Sister scrambled to her feet and ran towards it as her attacker recovered his wits and began to fire at the suited figure. Which replied by throwing one of the theater chairs across the room at the man. The man managed to dodge it, just barely, as he hastily stepped back, frantically firing.
But a revolver only has so many shots, and in the moment he realized his gun was empty and reached into his pocket presumably for more bullets, the suited giant had closed the distance, and a metal clad arm sent the man tumbling into the corner of the room.
He tried to get to his feet, but man in the suit was faster, and with a sickening sound the drill attached to the suits arm was shoved into the man, pinning him to the wall as it gave a few spins, coating the wall the man was pinned to in red. Before the gloved hand grabbed the man by the head, indifferent to his shouts and grunts of pain as it slammed the man into the wall they watched from, and several jumped back as the glass cracked under the force. Even further, as the glass finally shattered and the mans body hung limp in the opening.
That was all the suited figure deigned to do, it seemed. As once the hand had let go of the man and he had gone through the glass, the figure turned. Taking slow, lumbering steps towards the door as the little girl hurried up to it, keeping almost under its feet as they went.
"I'm too fuckin' sober for this." Demoman spat, lightly shooing the Pyro away from poking at the mutilated man. "What in bloody fuck was that."
"That's the Big Daddy." Atlas' voice answered. "She gathers ADAM, he keeps her safe."
They waited a long moment before the Engineer brought his wrench down on the lock keeping the grate that blocked their way closed, looking out cautiously before he shoved it open and stepped out.
Another Vita-chamber greeted them around the corner, as well as one side of the hallway being blocked with rubble and debris. "Well, that explains why we could get the door in the restaurant open." Sniper said, kicking aside a small piece of stone.
"Jasmine Jolene." Jack read from one of the advertisement posters lining the clear hallway. "Andrew Ryan's favorite gal…. What about that Diane woman?"
"I doubt she was more than the mans favorite prostitute, judging by the way she's posed on the poster, and the wording. It looks like they were not prudish when it came to sexual entertainment." The Spy said, gripping his revolver as he checked around the corner. There was the faint sound of voices from somewhere beyond. But the small stretch of hall itself seemed to be clear.
The looked out through the glass wall overlooking several stairs, one of which was broken and gone, little more than a waterfall. There laid a figure of a Big Daddy. A dead one, judging by the fact it did nothing about the woman and man poking about it. Apparently indifferent to the water soaking from as it ran down the wall and pooled around their feet before running off where the broken stairs had been.
Following the open side of the floor around, the Engineer slipped towards the head of the group, sending lightning springing from his hand and into the water at the splicers feet. They seized where they stood until the sparks dancing in the water faded, and their bodies fell with unceremonious splashes into the water.
"I wish we could spare a moment. I would not mind cracking open that suit and seeing whats inside." The Medic said, stopping for a moment to stare at the fallen thing.
"Think its the same one?" Scout asked as he went to the edge, jumping down.
"Who cares, long as it ain't gonna try to kill us." The Sniper replied, following after.
"Actually, I wouldn't mind going in there, either." The Medic said, nodding towards the sign that was made up of a simplified version of the rod of Hermes, and bold letters that said it the entrance to a medical pavilion before he too jumped down. Wiping a bit of water from his glasses with the edge of his coat.
No one paying much mind to the big red banner that declared that Altruism is the root of all wickedness. Somehow, it did not seem likely that altruism is the source of the wicked things they'd seen in their short time in Rapture.
They followed the sign for Neptunes Bounty, but as soon as the Soldiers foot made to pass through the tunnel entrance, a gate sprung from the wall and slammed shut as the lights in the room turned red, and alarms began to blare.
They were forced back as some strange box rose to the floor, belching fire in a steady stream only the Pyro would have hope of getting past unscathed even if the gates weren't there. Several splicers shouted and howled as they came pouring in from the floor above.
"To war, men!" The Soldier exclaimed excitedly, pulling his shotgun from it's holster.
"Its Ryan! Goddamn Andrew Ryan!" Atlas' shouted through the radio, as Jack this time was the one to set the water that had pooled under the broken stairs alight with electricity and the trio that had dropped down into it keeled over. "He found us! Dammit! He's shut off all access to Neptune."
"Then how in sam hill are we supposed to get there dammit!" The Engineer shouted back.
"There's another way to get there… head to Medical! What are you waiting for? Go!"
"Looks like you're gonna get your wish after all, Doc!" The Demoman said as they ran through the open gate. Stopping only long enough to the Heavy to pull on it and force it shut before they ran down the hall. Climbing over a small pile of rubble and into a small room.
The back wall appeared to be an airlock of some sort. The door to it plastered in small tvs displaying a standby message.
Everything was plunged into darkness.
In a flicker of a second, the lights went out and so did the tiny televisions, accompanied by the sound of a heavy metal door slamming shut.
"Ah, Christ, you're trapped!"
"Yeah, no shit." Scout muttered, his fingers gripping his bat tight in the dark.
"Gonna try to override the exit from here!"
They all turned as a light flicked on behind them. Revealing there to be a much large television set into the wall behind a bit of glass, that flickered with the face of a man, half obscured by an upturned hat. "So tell me, friends… which one of the bitches sent you?" The voice was unmistakably Andrew Ryan's. "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." Sounds of footsteps came from either side of the halls attached to the small room, along with incomprehensible mutterings and giggling. "And with that, farewell, or Dasvidanya. Whichever you prefer." The television flickered to the same standby message the others had displayed before going dark. And within seconds disfigured splicers filed in in front of it behind the glass. Banging flashlights and guns against the glass in a fervor.
"I got it!" Atlas' voice was just barely audible above the ruckus of deranged voices and the banging. Glass cracking more with every hit. "Get out of there! Get out now!"
No one needed any more prompting as everyone filed hurried for the reopened door, pilling inside the small space. The Soldier and Demoman working as a pair to crank it shut again.
"This place is a madhouse." Said the Spy, pulling another cigarette from its case as they took the moment to gather their wits. "I knew the man had crazy ideals, but I did not think he was this… unhinged."
Weapons were checked as the Heavy moved to the handle of the opposite door. Only the Medic seemed to hold any interest in what horrors they might see once they he gave it the final turn and the door slide open.