Persephone, Rapture:
Daniel was looking through his paperwork, most of it was already completed and signed. Sighing, he organised the paperwork that was stacked on his desk, and set it off to the side for later. Sitting down he took out a small picture frame from his breast pocket. Most of the picture within was ripped off and burnt but the little blond haired boy and his father could easily be seen.
Daniel stroked the glass lovingly, "Don't worry Ryan, Andrew's out of the way now, soon... everything will be like before, before we came to this hell hole known as Rapture. I promise" he vowed before slipping it back into his suit pocket.
There was a click as the door opened, looking up Daniel saw a little girl. She wore a bright yellow dress, and a deep purple bow held a messy ponytail at bay atop her head. It was little Gabriela, the youngest and sweetest little sister there was, other than Eleanor that is. He often wondered why Eleanor behaved so badly, because when she talked with him she behaved like a proper lady. It was like she had a double personality or something.
Smiling at her he asked, "What is it Gabriela? Do you need something?" waddling over She nodded, replying "Do you have any crayons we can use?" she asked cutely, looking at him with her wide innocent eyes. Daniel's stoic mask melted instantly, he understood why Big Daddies would do anything to keep their little one's safe, "I am pretty sure I have some somewhere." He answered softly as he looked around for the box of crayons he had been keeping. Looking through the cabinets and boxes he had scattered around Daniel found a box of crayons. It used to be a jumbo pack, containing around one hundred different colours, but a dozen were missing now, lost to time.
"Here, they belonged to my son. Please, take good care of them." His voice was a painful whisper. As if picking up on the older man's mood the sister silently took the box and cradled it gently, giving the man's leg a hug before running out of the office. Looking at her leave through teary eyes he knew he'd made the right choice. Ryan would have wanted her to have them anyway, he was always fond of the Little Sisters.
'Ryan, please be safe until I find you.'
Eleanor's cell, Rapture:
"Daddy... Ryan." Eleanor muttered as she slept. Teary eyes snapped open a second later as she suddenly sat up. Never once has she stopped thinking about her Father and Ryan. Ryan though... Eleanor had probably thought about him a little bit more than her father... just a little. 'I never got a chance to tell him.' she thought mournfully. Sighing she got up from her bed with great difficulty, her body still asleep. Walking over she counted the jars, 'Just one more.'
"Big Sister." said a small voice, looking she saw the littlest Sister, Gabriela, "Hello Gabriela" she greeted, forcing a smile on her tired face. The small girl held a paper up, it had a drawing of a Big Daddy and a Little Sister holding hands, "That's a very nice drawing, you've gotten better since the last time you showed me your art." She complimented as she took the offered picture. "Thanks, I drew it for you." Gabriela declared with pride.
Looking at it Eleanor kneeled down to the Little Sisters level, "Can you do something for me?" she asked, her face turning serious. "Of course, what is it?" The Little Sister asked curiously.
Ryan's amusements, Rapture:
"Okay... I'll take a shortcut here, and I'll get to the Persephone in no time flat." Ryan muttered to himself, planning out his path as he walked through the broken rides and attractions. He always thought the wooden manikins were kinda creepy looking, almost as if they were watching his every move. Ryan jumped as he heard a crash behind him, Quickly turning around he thrust his right arm at the human shaped blur he saw as he spun.
Looking at his 'victim' Ryan's nervousness didn't leave him but he had to chuckle at his foolishness. He had driven his harvester clean through the head of the Andrew Ryan manikin sitting at the desk behind him. Noticing it's arm lying on the floor he deduced that falling off must have made the sound "Oh, a manikin, just a hunk of wood." He muttered, laughing nervously as he walked away.
Looking around Ryan began to notice something. This place looked... familiar, like the apartment in the Mercury suites. "Hey, you!" he heard a childish voice call.
Looking around he saw a Little Sister peeking through her hidey-hole, "Me?" He asked, pointing to his chest as he walked towards the hole. She got out of the small tunnel, revealing herself completely. She was the youngest Little Sister Ryan had seen yet, five, maybe six years old. Dressed in a bright yellow dress she had a deep purple bow in her brown hair.
"Yeah! I was looking for you Sir Bubbles." She said while reaching back up to retrieve her harvester, which she had set onto the small ledge by the entrance to her hidey-hole. "Okay, and you are?" He inquired. "My name is Gabriela, Eleanor wanted me to give you a message." She explained. Ryan felt a myriad of emotions fly through his head for a long second at the mere mention of the name, it never failed to make him respond like that. "What is it?" he asked, shaking his head.
"She asked for you to get some genes from a sleeping Daddy." Sighing Ryan asked, "Alright, where can I find this Big Daddy?" "Here, I'll take you there" She raised her hands, wanting to be picked up. Once she was safely on his back she started giving him directions. One hallway down, one small detour around a broken ride, a turn to the left, and one more impaled manikin was all it took to get there.
The Big Daddy, a Bouncer, was behind the scientist in the exhibit about 'The Man' forcing ethics and morals onto scientists on the surface. Ryan briefly laughed at the idea, maybe having more of those two restraints would have made sure something like Adam was better tested before being distributed.
"Shhhh, Mr. Bubbles is sleeping." His travelling companion whispered to him. "Okay." He whispered back, even though he knew the Big Daddy was dead. Very dead in fact, as in, shotgun to the face dead. Setting her down he started harvesting, using one of the many bullet holes that riddled the Bouncer's body as an entry point. It looked like despite dozens of, what looked like revolver wounds, and a few machine gun injuries, this Bouncer had kept fighting until he was actually shot in the head. Whoever this Daddy was, Ryan had a huge amount of respect for him.
Turning around to see what Gabriela was doing he was on high alert as he didn't see her. "An angel." He heard her say from down the tunnel. Followed by a loud scream. Ripping the harvester out of the Big Daddy he glanced at it. 'Nearly full, good enough.' He decided as he took off in a dead sprint towards the scream.
He didn't notice that when he turned to look for her he had forced the harvester further down, going clean through the Bouncer and resting on the ground, sucking up the Adam from the Little Sister's shattered harvester beneath him. Whatever, or whoever, this stuff would be used for would have a natural affinity for plasmids now.
He heard her scream again. Rounding the corner Ryan found Gabriela, she was surrounded by Splicers, five of them. Three Thuggish Splicers, one Leadhead, and one he didn't recognize. One of them had grabbed her, ready to cut her open and take the slug that was resting within her by force. Anger filled his body, the light in his helmet turned from calming green to a burning red. An early warning sign from before the Splicer epidemic to show everyone not involved when a Big Daddy was about to attack someone.
His body on autopilot he jumped up and off of a nearby wall, landing a few feet behind the group he threw his head back as a vicious shriek tore through his throat.
"HELP!" screamed Gabriela as she tried to escape the splicers grasp. "Keep zat s'ing bizee and vee vill share the Adam vifty vifty!" said the splicer that had Gabriela, her hair was matted to her head and bloody, while her body looked like a skeleton. She wore a Bunny mask and wielded a sharp looking hook in her right hand.
"BIG BROTHER, HELP!" cried Gabriela.
Ryan's anger grew. He felt himself grow hotter and hotter before the heat all focused in his hands. Looking down at them he saw they were on fire. Which was odd because he didn't feel anything but a pleasant warmth. Best of all though, he had an idea of what he could do with it.
Throwing his hand towards one splicer his theory proved correct when a fireball the size of his helmeted head flew out towards the Leadhead. He tried to raise his Tommy Gun, only to die a second later as the fire burned clean through his head. Taking advantage of their shock Ryan tossed two more fireballs and quickly got rid of two Thuggish Splicers. He charged the third tearing through him with his drill.
He jumped at the hook wielding Splicer that had Gabriela. Stabbing her in the heart with the harvester before she could dodge the Splicer went limp instantly. Throwing his arm to the side he threw the dead Splicer off of his harvester. Hearing a small whimper he looked over and saw his Little Sister was looking around, scared, as if she didn't know where she was.
'She probably doesn't.' he thought to himself. Her body's natural response to the fight or flight moment was to give her adrenaline. Overpowering the drug created by the slug that caused the Little Sisters to see the world in happiness and rainbows instead of the gritty real world. Right now she was probably seeing the real Rapture, in all of it's blood stained and run down glory. He always knew how Rapture was and is, compared to the little sisters he was never mentally altered to see things the way they do, probably because he was a boy and Suchong made it like that cause he thought boy's could handle anything that is thrown in their path.
Knowing the slug would soon overpower her adrenaline boost and she would soon be her peppy self again he was content to simply wait. But just seeing her terror filled eyes dart to every dark corner in the room made his chest hurt. Walking up to her he had to resist the urge to cringe as she tried to get away from him. Wrapping his arms around her gently he whispered soothingly. "It's okay, everything is safe now." and held her until she stopped shaking, Suddenly filled up to her eyeballs in hallucinogens. All the while his mind was going a mile a minute trying to figure out how he did what he did.
Sofia's office, Rapture:
Sofia sat on her chair, monitoring Rapture, it seemed that everything was according to plan, 'Just a few more things to do and we'll be done.' she thought before there was a knock on the door. "Enter." She commanded, trying to hide her impatience. The door opened. Revealing the one who broke her from her plotting, it was Ryan. Smiling, she used her soft 'motherly' voice. As it always seemed to lower his guard. "Ryan, what a pleasant surprise. Come in, take a seat." She motioned to the empty seat across from her.
She could easily see he was exhausted as he slowly walked over and sat down in the chair. "How was Little Sister duty?" Sofia asked, it was probably why he was here. Doing the math in her head she surmised, 'One tired Ryan plus him coming to see me personally after only half a day on Little Sister duty equals something went wrong.'
"There was a... situation." He answered hesitantly. "Did a little sister die?" The boy's soft spot for the little girls was widely known amongst her little group. If he had lost one he would have most likely come to her first to mournfully inform her of the girl's tragic passing. "No... no she's fine. None of them will be hurt on my watch while I still draw breath." He promised, lacking his usual zeal due to his exhaustion.
"Yes, that's very admirable of you. What's the problem then?" A bit of impatience slipped into her voice. She couldn't help it, she was very busy and having him bother her was a waste of time.
"A group of splicers tried to attack one of the sisters, Gabriela, but I stopped them. As I saved her my body reacted before my mind did and the next thing I know I'm doing things that shouldn't be possible. I jumped, at least ten feet in the air, and then I made this... shrieking sound. Both of which could be blamed on the heat of the moment, we both know I'm not exactly a normal teenager. But then when I got angry my hands felt hot, and then I was suddenly able to launch fire from my hands!"
Seeing he was obviously scared of what was happening Sofia took her time and finally said "Its nothing dear, perfectly normal." Ryan nodded, only feeling a tiny bit better said, "Thanks, that's good to hear." as he got up and started walking out the door.
As he turned the handle he was interrupted as Lamb gave one last parting comment "Take the rest of the day off and rest, you look dead on your feet." Looking back and nodding the best he could he stumbled out the door and made his way to his room, barely able to get his armour off he just compromised by taking off the helmet and cage before collapsing onto the bed.
Once She couldn't hear his loud footsteps anymore Sofia took out a radio and pushed a button on it before talking into the microphone, "Gil... I was right, There's more to Ryan then meets the eye."
To be continued...