Persephone, Rapture: 12:00 am
Eleanor's violent behaviour seemed to have increased lately, meaning the Little Sisters didn't like staying with her very much. Unfortunately for Ryan, that meant they now started hanging around somebody else, namely, him. "Big Brother, can you read us a story?" A few Little Sisters begged with wide eyes as the eldest, Abigail, held a huge book of fairy tales up at him.
Ryan paused, he had just gotten back to Persephone, and he was hoping to sneak in a nap. But just looking at their cute faces he couldn't help but to fall victim to their whims. "Okay, but just one." he added, he'd learned the hard way if you didn't say 'Only one." they would keep asking for more and more stories. As all the girls cheered he couldn't help but smile to himself.
Taking his hand they dragged him into the room he'd been passing by, sitting him down on a chair in the middle of the room. He took off his helmet at their request. Ever since Gabriela told her fellow sister he could take his helmet off they insisted on him being helmet less for 'story time'.
Once seated the Little Sisters sat around him in a perfect circle, except Abigail and Gabriela, who sat on Ryan's lap. Mindless of the fact that their thin old dresses barely did anything to block the uncomfortableness of sitting on iron. Opening the book Ryan looked through the stories it had, "We want this one." Abigail said as she pointed to the title that said Cinderella.
Shrugging, Ryan answered "Alright." He began to read the story. Trying to ignore the fact that every eye in the room was on him. After what seemed like hours he reached the ending of the story, "And then they got married and lived happily ever after... the end." he finished. What followed would have been exactly like if someone dropped a bomb inside the room. Except instead of fire and the sweet release of death he had to endure ear splitting squeals of joy and hugs. Although he didn't mind the latter, he'd grown to rather enjoy having an overly affectionate family.
Ryan closed the book, and detached himself from the sister's iron grips, before he looked at each one of them. Blinking, he did a quick head count. Counting only five Sisters he had to ask , "Where are the other Little Sisters?" asked Ryan, "Which Little Sisters?" Abigail asked back. "Ya know, Miley, Jade, Isabella, and all the others in that group." He specified. They looked at each other, Franky finally spoke up as she was yawning. "They went on a ride with Daddy Delta. He took them to Heaven."
That confused him. "H-heaven?" he stuttered, he didn't have a very good feeling about this. "Yeah! He took the angel out of them." Cindy answered, like there was nothing wrong with ripping a slug out of an adolescent girl to fuel an Adam addiction. Ryan kept his visage calm as Absolute Rage tried to fight it's way onto his face. The small facial twitches were the only inclination of his thoughts, most of which involved things that i'm not allowed to type without breaking Geneva convention code. Gabriela recognized the look apparently, "Big Brother are you gonna make more angels!" She gasped happily.
Ryan forced the best smile onto his face as he could, given his thoughts. "Yes. Lots of them." He answered, still the very definition of calm, except for a twitch or two here and there. Although it would have probably scarred surface children for life the Sister's faces were all the exact opposite of their above sea level counterparts. In fact, they were trying to climb up him and into the sphere cage that he somehow managed to wear while still sitting in a small rocking chair. Gently prying them off of him he picked up his helmet and gave them each a hug, which helped cool the Absolute Rage a tad, and waved them goodbye as he walked out of the room before locking the door. There was a hidey-hole in the room, so they weren't locked in or anything, it was mostly to stop them from following him.
"BIG SISTER'S, FRONT AND CENTRE!" he shouted, his voice crystal clear due to the lack of his helmet's voice modifier. The Big sister's appeared just a second after he secured his helmet in place, his rage finally becoming apparent through the red glow and the fact that his gauntlets were glowing red. Lining up along the opposite side of the hall in a perfect line they awaited orders as their general paced back and forth, "There is a rogue Big Daddy on the loose, killing Little Sisters." Judging by the hisses, he heard from his army they seemed just as disgusted and angry at the very thought as he was. "Go. Find the killer of our little ones and return the favour tenfold!" Ryan barked at them, almost before he even got done with his order they disappeared in blurs of speed, splitting up to look in every possible direction.
Even though Ryan had sent a whole army after the Big daddy he still wasn't satisfied. No, he was going to hunt down this Big Daddy, he was going to kill it, make it suffer for killing the Little Sisters. His little sisters. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an alarm, "Oh what now?" Ryan snapped as he went upstairs to find that Eleanor's Big Daddy trying to get into her room, he was being slowed down by the Big sister's. Whom, Ryan noted, posed little threat to him.
Looking at the rather one-sided fight he knew they needed help, but he had to find another way around to get to where they were. Turning to his left he ran to the door leading to Eleanor's room. He was almost at the door when the alarms stopped. Stopping for a moment Ryan quietly listened, a voice could be heard talking to that Big daddy, it was Sofia Lamb. Did she know this Daddy?
"So... you've come...look at her..she still dreams of you...her father...she needs you" he heard her say, her speech muffled by the heavy doors. Looking into the small window on the top half of the door into the room he saw where Eleanor was being kept. Sofia was inside, sitting on a chair, she was absently fluffing a pillow in her hands as she talked. "She has been watching you...now I am afraid my life's work has been ruined...Eleanor I am sorry." with that, she attacked Eleanor, suffocating her.
Ryan stared, not quite believing what he was seeing. When Eleanor fell to the floor he responded with only the slightest of hesitation. He shoved his harvester into the middle of the door, severing the hinge connecting the two pieces of metal, and kicked the door in.
Knocking aside Sofia, who was trying to stop him from touching her daughter, he ripped his helmet off, picked her up and checked for a pulse, feeling a small but faint heartbeat he started to panic, "ELEANOR! WAKE UP, WAKE UP!" he shook her shoulders a few times before his brain kicked in. Flexing his hand it began to spark electricity. Rubbing his hands together they both glowed an equal blue. Placing his hands on her chest he felt the electricity surge into her. Once, twice, and finally a third time.
Ryan sighed in relief as Eleanor's eyes shot open coughing. Smoke actually coming out of her mouth. "Eleanor, are you alright?" Ryan asked before wincing as she coughed up more smoke. He'd read about a defibrillator in the books he'd managed to steal as a child but he imagined if she was anybody else they would have wound up as a charred corpse. The wonders of the Sea Slug's healing.
Eleanor's eyes dilated a few times before she looked up at him. Ryan expected her to scream at him, call him an idiot for what he had to do to save her life. To his surprise, she didn't. Eleanor looked at him, studying his face as if she had seen him before, like a long lost memory was just out of her reach. Weakly lifting her hand she brushed her hand limply along his cheek. Before Ryan could say anything he felt something stab into his neck before everything grew dark.
Persephone, Rapture: Time Unknown
Images ran through Ryan's head, he grunted as a vision came to him. Eleanor screamed "Father!" as her Daddy was hypnotised. The group of splicers, seeing the Daddies helpless state, relaxed. Then a woman walked up to the group. Blond, somewhere between her late and middle twenties, wore a blue dress, and a brown messenger bag was hung loosely on her shoulder. "Delta she is not your daughter... she is mine" she said icily as she pulled out a Luger handgun from the bag and handed it to him.
"Place this upon your temple and fire." She commanded.
The Big Daddy began to obey, he was about to shoot, "NO HERO, DON'T DO IT!" Ryan shouted as he ran over, he stopped for a moment, the woman looked at him, "Well aren't you a special little boy, or should I say Little Brother?" Her voice was filled with genuine interest as she asked the rhetorical question to nobody. "Eleanor! Don't worry, I'll save you!" He shouted as he ran towards her, the woman looked to the remaining Splicers and said, "Whoever captures him first gets more Adam."
"More Adam." Those tended to be the magic words for Splicers, what remained of the group that had attacked the Daddy charged towards Ryan. Seeing the approaching Splicers he felt every single instinct he'd gained scream at him to run away, that he would lose if he tried to fight them. Anger clouded his mind, he was tired of screaming for help, fleeing when presented with a problem. That wasn't going to happen, not today.
The world slowed to a crawl for Ryan as for several seconds the world around him appeared in startling clarity, long enough for him to plan out what to do. Just before he reached them he cranked a valve of his harvester, adjusting the suction as high as it would go. Giving a savage roar that sounded less intimidating due to his age he launched himself at the lead Splicer in the group of two. Not expecting the usually cowardly Little Brother to do such a thing the splicer was knocked over, harvester easily penetrating shirt and flesh alike, quickly consuming every bit of Adam the Splicer's body had.
Glancing back Ryan barely dodged the crowbar that passed through the space he just occupied, slamming into the dead splicer chest, a sickening Crack was heard as Ryan finished his roll. Throwing the harvester forward, he barely caught the off balance Splicer in the chest. Succeeding in catching the Splicer in the chest Ryan had no time to move as the dying splicer swung blindly at him. The blow wasn't strong, hitting his right bicep. Barely even a fracture really, it healed in seconds. But it caused him to drop his harvester and send him rolling.
Looking up through teary eyes he saw more were coming. Glancing at his harvester a few feet away he made a mad dash for it, he picked it up and looked at them just in time to see the Big Daddies hand finally reach his head.
*Bang!*
Looking on in horror Ryan saw Eleanor's Big Daddy kill himself. The Little Sister cried out in terror, and sadness. He knew he couldn't do anything else, the new group of ten Splicers were almost upon him, looking at Eleanor he shouted "Don't worry Eleanor! I'll be back!" Before he turned around and ran away.
Looking closer, he recognized them. The blond woman was Sophia. Then that meant the little sister that he thought was dead... was the Eleanor that annoyed him to death. How could he have been so stupid...
Slowly began to awaken. He heard a voice, obviously Sophia, say "Here is the Big sister." another voice, a male replied "Ooookay? What do you want me to do with her?" Ryan could almost taste the sarcasm. "Turn her into a Big daddy, or rather, a Big Momma" Sophia corrected herself, the man seemed to hesitate, "You can do that, can't you?" She asked with almost a hint of mockery. "I don't know if it is possible, but based on what I've researched I'm fairly certain I can." The man answered "Good!" Sophia chirped with a smile. Then added, "Do that and you shall have your son."
"Really? You found him, for real?" The man said happily, all traces of self doubt gone. "Yes." Sophia seemed to hiss, there were a few footsteps, Ryan correctly assumed she left the room, and then quiet. Ryan opened his eyes, he was wearing his helmet, the man looked down at him. He tapped the glass of his visor, Ryan growled in his throat. The man just chuckled, "Well I see that you're awake. You must have caused a lot of trouble for Sophia. Oh well, onto business."
Following him with his eyes he saw the man was old. About forty, give or take a few years, his blond hair was well kept. Surprisingly his body didn't show signs of him being a splicer or splicing up at any point in his life. He wore an old stained laboratory coat, black trousers and old shoes. He recognised the man... It was his father from the flashbacks and the picture. Ryan tried to shout at him...but found his mouth had been cleverly covered in with some kind of tape before putting the helmet on. Walking over to a drawer he took out a huge needle. About seven inches long, seeing it was empty he sighed and left to fetch a new one with a call of, "Be back in five!" over his shoulder as he left the room.
Once the man left Ryan studied his situation. He was chained up against a table. No clear means of escape, no matter how much he tried. After a few minutes Ryan gave up, he couldn't believe it, he finally found Her and his Father. He could escape using the bathysphere he fixed up now... but he was trapped, unable to escape and about to be turned into a Big Daddy... or worse.
"Big Brother." Ryan heard, sighing he answered, 'Eleanor If you want me to help you escape then you're out of luck. My dad is here and doesn't know it's me and is going to kill me. And to top it all off, I'm chained up with no possible escape.' Eleanor paused in thought before answering. "That is all that I need to know. I thought long and hard about what you told me a few days ago and...you're right. I am not going to let you die here. You, me and my father will escape, I will help." "How?" Ryan asked, starting to feel his hope growing.
As soon as the words left his mouth he heard a small *Thump*. Looking towards the wall he saw Gabriela. She walked over to the table as he heard Eleanor speak to him once more. "If the man you just met is the one that you're looking for, Daniel, your father then you can reason with him."
The little sister made a shushing motion as she grabbed Ryan's helmet and took it off before reaching for the tape. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" They heard, looking towards the door they saw Daniel, who held the new needle in his hand, startled, Gabriela ripped the tape off of Ryan's mouth far harder then she meant to. Fighting tears of pain Ryan instantly regretted not shaving this week, he shouted "Ouch! I just grew those!"
Letting his head fall on the cool operating table he waited until the pain in his lips stopped. After breathing deeply a few times he looked at Daniel, who had a shocked look on his face. Dropping the needle he began slowly making his way to Ryan. "Ryan...?" he asked softly, tears forming in his eyes, looking up Ryan answered "Yeah, it's me."
With that Daniel immediately unlocked the chains, freeing Ryan before giving him a hug, "I thought I was never going to see you again son" Daniel said. Listening to the pure emotion in his voice caused Ryan's eyes to water too. There were many things he wanted to say to Daniel, but he settled for, "Father."
As soon as Daniel let go Ryan took his helmet and put it back on his head. Not a second too late as an explosion blew the far wall open. A bit of debris pinging uselessly off of his helmet.
A figure stepped into view, it looked like a big sister, but the suit was not finished. The armour was only on the gauntlets, boots, and helmet, the suit looked like a prototype. Used more for support of the wearer than actual protection. She stared at Daniel, her helmet glowing with red light. It shifted to green as she saw that Ryan was safe however.
"Eleanor." Ryan greeted, happy to see her.
"Big Brother." said Eleanor, behind her Big Daddy Delta, lumbered into view, several weapons heavier then when Ryan had seen him last. "It's time for us to escape." Eleanor finished. Ryan couldn't agree more.
To be continued...