Fort Frolic
This is a written version of Fort Frolic that I made because that level is just too good not to write. Now the because we all know it's a first person Jack never makes any comments except in the beginning cinema, in this because it's written Jack will speak unlike in the game. I dunno why but I imagined him with a bit of attitude, especially towards Sander Creeper Cohen. However every single speech and whatever is said by any other character has not been changed, the dialogue is taken straight from the game. I used several walkthroughs, because it's better to have it directly on my computer rather than playing and writing, to see what happens in theirs and write through that.
I did not include most of the Audio Diaries however.
And if you couldn't hear what Sander Cohen was saying before because of some reason, well now you get to see just how creepy he is.
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He stood in the Bathysphere watching out of its window as it descended through the water. As usual the city was still illuminated with bright lights, all surviving in the depths of the ocean. Regrettably he could still catch sight of the ripped off pieces of the plane scattered in great amounts across the floor of the ocean, or absentmindedly floating along.
He sighed deeply bringing a hand up to his forehead before realizing that instead it was touched by the cool metal of a pistol, his weapon of choice at the moment and he knew soon he'd be stuck using up his Eve and with the wrench as he was slowly running low on bullets. Then again the Bathysphere was sending him somewhere new, there was always some spare expanse just lying around.
What a sick city.
Finally after an amount of standing there-he never really got tired standing, working on the farm back home really strengthens a man's legs and after his first attack by that Splicer he always wanted to be on the alert- it hooked into the new area. He quickly readied his gun, making sure it was completely loaded, and made his way through the automatic door: weird winding and it would open instantly for anyone whom approached it; bad luck when he'd accidentally shot a Bag Daddy during a Splicer raid and found himself being quickly thrown and smashed into the floor even when he tried running with the loud shrieks of the Little Sister demanding for her Big Daddy to end his life.
His thoughts were interrupted by Atlas tuning onto his radio, "You're almost there," Those words were almost comforting, "The sphere to Ryan is up on ahead," Jack walked around looking at the strange devises that were all around, other than destroyed pieces of the building he saw Slot Machines and one of those animatronic Fortune Tellers, though he was curious he had no money to waste on either.
Atlas tuned on again to give him more information, "Ryans handed the keys to Fort Frolic over to a guy named Sander Cohen," Jack almost snickered at how bitter he sounded about the man, like a grudge on the playground, but in this situation he considered if he should lighten up on the Eve if he was actually wanting to laugh at all, "Cohen's an artist says some. He's a section eight says I. I've seen all kinds of cutthroats, freaks, and hard cases in my life, but Cohen, he's a real lunatic, a dyed-in-the-wool psychopath,"
"Sounds like a great guy..." Jack joked in a sort.
Atlas's radio sounded like it was actually getting a little on the fuzzy side, or perhaps it was his more over, he picked up the thing trying to register if there was anything wrong with it just by looking at the little piece of technology, but could really find nothing that he could fix immediately, he simply returned it to his pocket in defeat. After checking a few things and finding an Even Hypo and 00 Buck, his mood was brought up over the radio just the slightest.
Losing contact with Atlas meant losing every chance of getting to Andrew Ryan and out of this city of insanity.
He looked around before choosing to go through another door, looking up towards the next door he saw 'Rapture Metro' in neon lights above it, the next Bathysphere he needed. Stepping through the door and down the stairs, being as careful as he could with the water slick black and white tiled floors from the saltwater by the Bathysphere, but as he approached he only saw the sub slowly return back into the water before anyone was even inside it, with its departure he saw as purple lights rose up from the water and on cue two white statues in formations and a... A large rabbit mask behind it, with that he glanced up seeing large models of different animal masks along the upper walls and a maroon curtain draw back.
"What in the seven hells..." He whispered under his breath hurrying forward but he was too late, it had already submerged.
More statues in dancing positions came down with what seemed to be a sparkling substance with them, he gasped when a completely different voice sounded on his radio, smooth but something not right within it at the same time, "Ah... That's better," He snatched the radio from his pocket looking at the picture and name that always showed up on its screen, it read Sander Cohen, the nutcase Atlas was talking about...
He continued on, leaving Jack to only be able to watch as the statues twirled from their wires, "Atlas, Ryan, Atlas, Ryan, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, dudg," He said to what sounded like a mocking sing-song manner almost, "Time was you could get something decent on the radio, the artist, has a duty, to seduce the ear and delight the spirit,"
Jack gulped audibly at the rather strange words, "So say goodbye to those two blowhards and hello to and evening, with Sander Cohen."
"Wait... What did you do to..." He tried but realized by now he was only talking to himself, he turned the dial to Atlas's radio, though he never did the contacting as Atlas always contacted him, and tried to get a signal, "Atlas, can you hear me?" He questioned into the radio quickly, but nothing but static could be heard, "Dammit," He grunted.
That was probably why his radio had a flip out moment, and from Cohen's words, he was stuck listening to him. He had no other choice, he was stuck now, might as well find the guy and hope he wasn't like Steinman whom at the sight of someone who wasn't deformed was automatically decided as hideous and that they deserved nothing but death.
In this place however, finding sanity didn't come along so easily.
He had to find this Cohen guy if he wanted any chance of getting out of here, still... out of more of the curious mouse syndrome he stepped down the stairs to the white statues and when getting down the stairs to get a closer look. He gasped and took a step back, glancing quickly over his shoulder and at the one he was next to.
Both of them were... From what he could see, alive at some point, their arms were up in front of their faces, blocking from something in complete terror. He looked towards the door where he would go to find Sander Cohen. Lord in heaven did he not want to now.
"I've got no other freaking choice," Jack muttered to himself, the statement of 'No choice' seemed to be a popular thing with him at the moment, he looked towards the gun in his hand, and continued trekking on.
The rest of the place had lit up in purple as well, almost like the vicinity had come back to life from a time of bare destruction.
When returning back to the area he was in before Sander's voice reappeared on the radio, this time though he sounded different, perhaps a bit of agitation, "Now, I haven't seen a sign of real life down here in months,"
A new set up of the electric wire had been set up in his path during the time he was gone, "Let's see," Sander continued, his voice back to the smooth tone it had before.
'This guy can turn on the flip of a switch...' Jack thought, gritting his teeth.
"If you're just another Johnny come lately or maybe... Something more delicious.."
"What?!" Jack couldn't help but yell out even if the radio had cut out, his heart nearly stopped when he heard the scratchy and whining voices of Splicers all approaching at the same time, he tried for the brown doors but to no avail. They refused his entrance nor escape.
A female came at him instantly baring their usual masks and party attire, she was ready to swing at him with a hook in her hand but with a quick flip up of his pistol he took her out in several hits. He resisted the usual distant stomach ache of watching the blood flow from bullet wounds and as they lay motionless on the ground. He tried to ignore the truth of the matter that the sickness originated from the feeling that this all came so naturally to him.
Next came a male Spider Slicer, agile as usual, he chose to raise one of his genetically altered hands to them sending a Electro bolt from lighting that gathered through his veins and stunned them, since they were temporally out of it and vulnerable he took the chance to use the wrench instead, beating him to the ground with it and ignoring them as he heard more coming his way.
"Come where I can see you!" One high pitched female demanded.
"Don't run!" A male contradicted her statement, both trying to lure him out to try and end his life just for the purpose of killing and to loot his dead body. Like hell he was going to let a bunch of drug addicted freaks kill him when he was so close to escape.
"Ya fucking right..." He muttered.
As he'd gotten a new round of 00 Buck earlier, he decided it was time the one hit kill gun had its chance. Replacing the wrench with it he saw the two running up from the side, he whipped around in their direction and pulled the trigger aiming for the head, once -she was down- and twice -he was down-.
It wasn't over yet, he heard them yelling and shrieking annoying as ever, but in no way could find them. He refused to sit still, doing that meant nothing but death, so he kept moving to different spots listening, then his eyes caught it, pieces of rubble falling to the floor. Looking up they were, more Spider Splicer taking advantage of their abilities. It would use up the last of his Bucks but that didn't matter, he needed to finish them off and so far Spider Splicers were his worst issue.
So with found aim, he did the same as earlier as he knelt on the ground and aimed for the woman as they always seemed to keep a little more life longer than the men. She screamed as the bullet entered through the back of her skull and fell with a terrible sounding thunk and crunch. The obvious sound of flesh meeting the floor painfully and bones breaking on contact. If she wasn't dead when he shot her, now she sure as rain was.
"Nicely done, where did you study?" Cohen said appraising him, but Jack pushed the comment off.
This alerted the man and with another statement Jack couldn't hear over the sound of reloading the Machine gun as he switched it up again, he jumped down from the ceiling and instantly Jack rose his left hand and sent the Electricity to a current through his body, finally he stood but the moment he had the Slicer had regained himself, doing a few handstands backwards that Jack couldn't follow fast enough he took his chance to leap forward and send a sharp hook straight into his arm.
"Dammit!" He yelled in pain as blood ran through the tan coloring of his already splattered sweater, but as the Splicer had attacked him his plasmids acted on their own sending a barrier of electricity its way. Lord was he glad he chose to get that one, though damn if he remembered what it was.
Rising up the machine gun he was able to send a stream of bullets into it's body but hitting the wall twice as it did acrobatics once again. Insanity, a curse and yet it gives you the ability to completely ignore pain. He however, only had strength to ignore his arm bleeding out.
This time he hit the Splicer without a hitch, it had little life left anyways. He took a breath in, using a medical kit to fix his arm, it slowly took away the pain causing him to sigh in relief, it wasn't very much to him but it would still be an inconvenience, his radio lit back up as Sander Cohen spoke again, his words becoming creepier each time Jack had to listen, "Oh, you can smell the malt and vinegar in this one. I've waited so long for something to come to this little burg but all that pass are yokels and rubes... Where are my manners?" He said, the sudden change in inflection happening once again, "Come in, come in! Sander Cohen awaits you, at the Fleet Hall."
The brown doors opened up, rising into the walls above, he turned back temporally to do the normal disgusting chore of searching the corpses of the Splicers for essentials to keep himself alive. Up ahead in the hall through the opened doors he saw a Circus of Values and even though he knew this was using up time, he opened the bottom portion of the machine and using his Hacking abilities was able to reduce the price of the extremely needed resources.
He first bought himself three Medical Kits and two Eve Hypos, for his guns he used up his remaining cash for Machine Gun Rounds, 00 Bucks and lastly for annoying Security trips he was able to get a few Armor Piercing Rounds.
Satisfied he headed for this Fleet Hall that Sander had spoke of, however when he stepped out of the hall there was a bright white light on him in those few seconds, he rose his gun quickly in its direction thinking it was a Security Camera but lowered it, creasing his eyebrows as he saw what it really was. A stage light that followed his ever move, unlike the Cameras which had a set path to turn each direction. Each step he took was accompanied by the blinding light until in the dark until he passed by more of those statues where he stood by the stage.
For a moment the lights did nothing but flicker until he stood in front staring up, with one loud thump they turned on, focused on all including him. He glanced uncomfortably at the two near by, they both had almost the same shocked expression as the ones earlier, these stepped back in defense, though there was never any chance for them at all. When he caught sight of their feat he realized what had been used on them. Plaster... Disgusting pieces of once live art...
Sander didn't seem to have anything to say over it once he tuned back in, his voice even more cheerful, "Welcome, to Fort Frolic!" He said, a distinguished manner playing in. Even as signs all lit up displaying different stores an amount of water pours profusely down, some day that large hole would cause the ceiling to rust and would cause this whole place to flood. It was a sad sight as even in all its destruction and mayhem the city was beautiful in its own right.
"No need to thank me for jamming the transmissions of those boors Atlas and Ryan. Let them have their squabble,"
'I'm part of that 'squabble',' Jack thought, actually becoming annoyed with him, the man was actually acting like he'd done him a favor by cutting him off from the only person who could get him out of this decaying city?
"The artist, yes the artist knows that there is richer earth to till,"
"What the hell are you talking about Cohen?! Why'd you cut me off from Atlas in the first place?!" Jack yelled up to the ceilings, no doubt he could be heard as the spot lights continued to take in his every move, turning on and shutting off with every area he turned to.
There was a pause but Sander didn't give him an answer, "For example, I test you... Little Moth,"
"Moth..." Jack muttered in confusion, lifting an eyebrow.
"But for a reason," Oh so he was still being promptly ignored, "I test all my disciples, some shine like galaxies and some... some burn like a moth at the flame. Come now... Into my home..." His voice softened an amount at the end making Jack more annoyed. Yup, Atlas was right, this guy is one off the rail crazy.
"I'm no ones disciple you nutcase..." Jack muttered under his breath, switching his plasmid to Incinerate, knowing at some point those Splicers were going to find him, or worse, Cohen.
He walked upstairs seeing Fleet Hall on a glowing sign up ahead the door was glass with a large curvy 'R' in white on it. No doubt it stood for Ryan, though Cohen didn't seem to speak so highly of him any longer.
More purple lights caused everything to glow in that color, he glance at his arm seeing his skin reflect a light purple glow as well due to it. There were ticket booths and one of those vents seeming to be liked by the Little Sisters were up ahead.
He walked into what seemed to be a bar but a white light caught him that was surety not a spot light. An alarm rung for the time he was in it but the moment he dove out of the way it clicked a few times then return to its usual path of checking for intruders, once it was out of his way he raised up the Pistol, loaded with Armor Piercing Rounds, and shot the thing off of its place within a couple of clicks. He smiled and returned normal bullets to the gun until he needed to take care of another one of the mechanical menaces again.
He entered into a bar, it displayed many signs that said 'Ale' in large red letters, he checked the Registers for any money but it seemed they had already been looted. He continued forward and found a broken turret with some Machine Gun Rounds still in it. Up the stairs he passed a Gene Swap but he was okay with what he had at the moment, he entered into a storage room, before going the right path to look for supplies.
He found two rolls of film and next to it a guitar, "Never learned how to play..." He said laughing a little through his throat kneeling down in front of it. He remembered his father playing the guitar on the porch whenever he felt like it, singing something out of tune, only when Mom came outside and sang along did it sound any better, but he never minded, Dad's singing was so happy that it never mattered.
He plucked a few strings and frowned. He'd be out of this place soon enough.
Standing he looked next to it and saw more film, though he never really had time snap any photo's when trying to stay alive while trying to find the camera through his weapons at the same time.
Also on the floor was a tape, picking it up he played it as he found an Eve Hypo, he found it to be a recording by Sander Cohen himself, "Regarding your review of Anna Culpepper's latest musical insult: Of all of the worthy artists in Rapture, why you continue to devote column inches to this musical GREMLIN is beyond my imagination. Where she is not derivative, she's boring. Where she's not boring, she's obvious. Where she's not obvious, she's dangerous!"
"Someone doesn't like competition," He said with a snicker.
He glanced over and saw a room blocked off with an iron gate and a shadow moving in the light, he walked towards it leaning to see what it was but jumped back when a familiar voice inside began yelling at him, "How could you possibly believe I could meet with my public now! Unbelievable!"
He smirked turning back, "You got it Chief," He muttered saluting in a mocking manner. He'd actually riled up the iron calm of Sander Cohen?
Moreover, entertaining then unbelievable.
Walking back where he was he saw an elevator, it was better then walking, but when inside as it rose, he heard Sander Cohen yell 'No' three times. For a moment he could have sworn he'd done something again to anger the 'artist' but when inside the elevator he heard a male whimper over the sound of a piano being player, "Mr. Cohen..." They attempted, sounding like they were trying to reason with him.
The doors to the elevator opened and he rushed forward as Cohen gave a stern, "Silence!" Towards them, "Allegro... Allegro!" He yelled something that sounded like a music term that Jack didn't understand.
The insanity showed, Cohen, enraged began repeatedly saying, "Da da da,da, da,da! Presto! No! No!"
He went through another glass door and below a staircase he saw a man in a brightly colored bird mask at the piano, his legs were plastered to the seat but upper body still normal for piano playing, "Oh god..." Jack breathed out, but the man didn't seem to notice him.
"I'm trying!" He said putting his hands up, his voice sounding near to crying, "P-Please..."
"Once again, young Fitzpatrick," Cohen said, calm again. Fitzpatrick turned back to hunching over the piano playing a tune, behind him a pink light sent shadows on the curtain next to him of three women holding large scissors in their hands at different positions, once again Sander began his ranting of the random sounds of, "Da da da!" That were suppose to match what was being played while Jack considered how in the hell to get that guy's legs unstuck from the plaster. Unlike the Splicers he seemed perfectly sane, still able to give coherent responses to a situation and play the piano.
He gulped but looked at the gun in his hand.
He could...
It might hurt the guy but if he could just get the plaster off...
The mans hands left the piano as he raved at Cohen, "Oh god you sick fuck! Let me out of this-,"
He didn't even realize he'd yelled "No!" Nothing could be heard over the sound.
Flames in a rounded manner and a loud boom signified that an explosion had just occurred, he covered his face with his arms, running into a seat and ending up leaning against it as he looked back up, "Shit..." He swore in a rasped voice, the piano was on fire, along with the body of the man whom tried his best to play the piano to keep his life and one little slip up of fear and he was dead...
He ended up on the floor, one arm hanging onto the seat staring at it, "Come down now Little Moth... Life... Death..." Jack stood up, actually stepping onto the stage a light showing on him he stared down at the burning body, "The burden of the artist is to... Capture..."
The flame burnt out leaving only charred on the corpse. He'd seen it on so many Splicers before...
"See young Fitzpatrick here on the stage?"
Jack glared in whatever direction he could wanting nothing more than to give his own line of insults, but he knew it would bring him nothing but trouble if he did so.
"Use your camera, take him as he is now" Cohen said swiftly, "... So I may remember him."
Jack's eyes widened... He had to get out of here, Atlas had said to get the key from Cohen so... He picked up the camera, frowning with his eye brows dipped and brought it up until he had a good shot and with one click, he took a picture.
"It's done..." Jack whispered, but it was only for himself.
"And now you've got Fitzpatrick caught in his moment of glory, it seems you've got the eye of the Shutter Bug... Little Moth."
"Dammit," Jack muttered shoving the picture in his pocket, rushing up the stairs gritting his teeth.
Of course just when he thought Cohen was done, the guy was still giving him orders sounding excited as ever, "Now, head to the Atrium and place his photograph in my Masterpiece... And so our collaboration... Commences."
"Collaboration?" Jack spoke out loud stopping in his tracks, just what the hell was this guy planning, Jack groaned into his hands as he walked, "How long am I going to be stuck here?"
Looking around he walked into one of the sight seeing balconies and found a bag of Potato Chips, this reminded him that he actually needed to eat to maintain energy, eating them gladly he noticed something else... A glowing light he'd seen before but couldn't tell what it was, from here he could. It was another Tonic!
He needed those...
'Well,' He thought, 'Time to put years of slave driving P.E teachers to work,'
He climbed up onto the balcony putting his gun back on his side, hooked there, so he could use his arms as balance and with one jump across he made it to the other balcony landing in the middle of the floor, when he made it there he looked at the Tonic, 'Alarm Expert' it said. He breathed in, yes he needed this most defiantly, he constantly complained to himself about those damn cameras and bots and when he did a hack incorrectly how they'd invade his line of view, sending large streams of quick bullets through his flesh.
When he was looking through the corpse left up there he radio sounded, "What an amazing display of athleticism."
"I don't need your compliments," Jack muttered finding more Bucks but as he stood he saw something go past his vision, a heat signature... "Damn..." He hopped off the balcony landing on the floor, "Not one of them..."
It was a Houdini Slicer, able to throw fire and disappear instantly in an explosion of red smoke and rose petals, he looked around and saw it on one of the balconies. He shot it with a the Shot Gun and it threw fire at him, he dodged it but by the time he looked up He was gone. Jack heard it near by and view it on another balcony, as before they shot at one another but this time he was hit.
In a cry of shock brushed his arm off putting the flame
+out, he reappeared this time on the stage and just in time for Jack to shock him and shoot him once more to finish off the damn Splicer, collecting fifty dollars off it he turned back finally and walked through a hall next to the seats that led back into the bar he was in earlier.
"I know why you've come, Little Moth," Sander said, sounding awed, like he'd figured out something important. It drove Jack insane how the man had come up with that nickname, using it so appraising.
"Do you..." Jack said narrowing his eyes, his voice belaying how he really didn't care.
"You've your own canvas, one you'll paint with the blood of a man I once loved,"
Jack had gone through one of the glass doors with the 'R', he stopped in his tracks, "What?" He questioned quickly. When he received no answer, he kept going seeing downstairs what was supposed to be Cohen's 'Masterpiece' more plaster statues stood in different places, some holding up squares.
"Yes... I'll send you to Ryan," His voice, Jack could hear, shaking with obvious insanity, his tone became sharp suddenly, "But first, you must be part of my masterpiece. Go to the Atrium, hurry now, my Muse is a fickle bitch with a very short attention span!"
"All right, all right!" He said through gritted teeth running now, he didn't feel like pleading to not be blown up like Fitzpatrick...
Here however from the bright lights he could finally tell what kept entering his vision, little pieces of what seemed to be large sparkles hung in midair... What a strange addition.
For now it seemed all he was suppose to do was 'admire' it, he counted seven men all in bunny masks, two held up another one on their shoulders and two were hanging upside down while the other knelt, he could see a thick dried red substance run down their plaster bodies from their necks... So that's how Cohen...
"Do you see it? When I am dust," Sander spoke up in a booming voice, "This is what they'll point to, my Quadtych, my masterpiece," As he spoke the lights above dimmed and slowly the only focus were the statues, "Go ahead...Don't be afraid," He said ushering for Jack to continue forward, "Touch it."
"You're one creepy son of a bitch..." Jack muttered shaking his head, he walked up and put the picture in where it seemed to reflect in the surface making it appear larger. Jack guessed it had something to do with mirrors or... Something...
Suddenly, trumpets began playing near by, he looked around for the source when by the last statue a trap door opened up and smoke rose from it along with a twirling shape of rose petals as a plaster figure sitting with its legs crossed and arms out with something wooden and mechanical in its arms, he picked it up finding it was a crossbow. It was a rather impressive 'gift' he had to admit.
"Yes, and there's Fitzpatrick freed of his own kinks defects. And here's the glorious news...This is just the moment of conception..." Cohen stated, Jack glanced at the statue he'd taken the weapon from... That was Fitzpatrick... "Out in this place, there are three men, all former disciples, all connected by a common thread: betrayal. Find them, Little Moth, and immortalize their mortality in my Quadtych. Go, once they've been sent to their reward, you, shall go to yours and to Ryan..."
He almost surprised that they were finally back to the subject to him leaving.
So kill.
Take a picture.
Put it on the board to make a completely sick 'masterpiece'.
"Easy enough..." Jack said bitterly loading his new weapon.
Sander Cohen was back on his radio again, of course, giving him more information at least, "The door to Poseidon Plaza is now open... My moth."
His eyes twitched ever so slightly, "I'm going to break the radio, I swear to god I'm going to break it..." He said putting both of his hands on the cross bow so he wouldn't use his Telekinesis to smash it against the wall. Repeatedly.
Knowing Cohen though, after only giving him a little bit of time to re cooperate from such strange statements he was going to tune in again to cause him discomfort, "Allow me, to draw back the curtain."
Now, he was just making no freaking sense, Jack ignored him this time. The halls of Poseidon Plaza were, to his surprise from the name, completely coated in frost and ice, causing things to be difficult to look through, "Well now this comes in handy," He said to himself bringing up his hand with Incinerate intact, just in case, he saw a tape and walked towards it.
"I can see your breath..."
Jack stopped, Incinerate and the crossbow ready, though he knew it was impossible to work both simultaneously. When no one showed themselves, he gulped and took hold of the tape listening to the message from a Martin Finnegan "You think you gonna finish me in here, you old fruit? The other saps you tossed in this meat locker all panicked like rabbits. I just watched and waited. And when they started to kick, I started to scavenge. Made myself a little Splicer cocktail I did. If you can't come in from the cold, then you gotta grow ice over your heart. And the iceman cometh, Sander baby. The iceman fucking cometh."
He listened to this whole insane ramble as he entered into the next frosted room, his stomach ache became a little worse as Finnegan explained what Cohen had done how he survived himself. Cohen was one sick bastard.
He saw a figure within ice across from him, upon closer inspection it was obvious towards that this was a Splicer, in frozen barriers, he was unsure whether they were alive or dead. He pointed the crossbow at it and fired to see what happened. Like glass the whole the shattered sending sharp blunt pieces flinging in each and every direction from the impact.
He covered his eyes, the most important thing in such situations, but when he looked down there were no left over items to find.
Never would he do that again...
He felt lightened however when he saw a large pile of melt-able ice next to it with a substantial amounts of items underneath. He knew exactly what to do, with a snap of his fingers he was able to melt the whole pile to retrieve what was underneath. He took one step forward and before any more could happen a sudden large pain surged from his back to his hands, he let out a pained gasp that had barley any breath in it.
His arms so painfully freezing, he lifted them watching as they slowly became a light blue with frost growing over them, he was barley able to watch in horror as his whole vision faded into a thick white. It fell away from his eyes like thick rain to his relief.
He attempted to pull away but it hit him... His body had been devoured in the cold substance a sheet lay over his body in his vision but around his arms it held tightly, directly to them keeping them in the position he had before everything had faded.
Moving was an impossibility so all he could do was watch, he slowly came to realization that no air could reach into the confines of the ice. He was stuck with no oxygen and his lungs burned with the necessity of it. A cloud of blueish white passed by in on large dusty form, it was like the Houdini Splicers, they sent those heat waves as they transported from place to place.
He found himself correct, a man in a brown vest and long sleeved white shirt came from the cloud, he wore the same brightly colored mask that Fitzpatrick had, this was the next life he was supposed to take to leave.
They examined him and began speaking, "Guess the old grape finally sent someone. Son of a bitch..." He lent over putting a hand over his chin, "Left me to freeze... Oh, I've got a pose all picked out for you..."
There wasn't a portion of that sentence that made him feel safe, his sight left him again to take a preference of white but when in the seconds after he could hear and feel the crunching and breaking apart. It washed away, allowing him to breath properly again but the intense pain of the fire in his veins
reigniting and melting the cold away stayed with him for the moment but his body quickly reheated due to the plasmid.
He was glad it was Incinerate he had before that all occurred.
He glance at the other statues and after a moment of thought knew that they were probably the same, stuck without air in an eternal ice land and no sanity. He snapped at each sending fire their way, each died without any sound and only ran for a matter of seconds. He could think it was mercy if wanted to make himself feel better about all this.
His Eve was at its lowest now, took one of the large syringes out of his pocket and in one swoop injected himself with the powerful blue substance that gave him these abilities.
Two last statues stood in a corner, he incinerated one but the other... Yes it was, it was Martin, "This ends now kid!" He yelled out he threw his arms forward and in contradictory to all the Houdini Splicers he'd seen he flung sharp pieces of ice Jack's way.
They struck him straight in the chest knocking him off for a few seconds as he tried to re cooperate, taking a breath in he pointed up the crossbow waiting and turning, "Ya know... I kinda feel bad for you... Stuck in here all this time, sanity just dwindling away, am I right? I'm not staying though," He quickly kept turning watching for Martin to appear, "Not for anyone's 'art'..."
He heard the sound behind him and as quickly as the man transported he turned around and shot the crossbow twice, before Martin could take his own chance on him, he was on the floor, the mask staying with him unlike other mask wearers who's normally fell off, he let out a deep breath before speaking, "I'm getting myself the hell out of here."
"That was bracing!" Cohen complimented but swiftly became demanding per usual, "Take a photo of him and place it in the Quadtych."
Searching him first Jack found a new Plasmid, "Got it Chief," He sighed finding the camera among his growing collection of dangerous weapons, most were illegal of use back where he lived, he didn't really care whether the picture looked good or not, it was a dead body and the look of the deranged man was the worry of the one who made him lose it.
Cohen laughed slightly over the radio, "M-hm, I'm feeling full, like an expectant Mamma!"
Jack was about to take the picture when that comment was made, he shook his head, "Kay Cohen, now that was just disgusting." Still, he snapped the photo.
"Yes!" He said in excitement, "Now put the picture in the frame, let's see what we've got here,"
"Gotcha Chief," He said smirking, deciding he was running low on bows so he'd use the pistol for now, recalling from memory how he got to Poseidon's Plaza from the Atrium he descended the stairs, however when he did he could see a fire had been started near by.
"Hey fella don't chya wanna take a walk with me?" A female voice, mocking and accented as ever.
"Like hell I would," Jack said waiting, of course she came at him readying a pipe to swing at him he sent out an swipe of Electricity at her and while she was temporally out of it shot the pistol a few time at her, before she fell down with a groan, he found a few dollars on her and realized that he'd been using his Medical Kits lately, even subconsciously, he'd have to get some new ones...
He could see the 'Masterpiece' in sight but after hearing a groan, knew he wasn't the only one here. As if 'point proven' should be involved, the body of a Splicer flew by him, hitting the stage with a large crack.
He turned his head to see a Little Sister and Big Daddy, the girl cried out for help while the normally yellow lights of the Big Daddy turned a bright red with anger. Anyone who attempted harm on his Little Sister or who he thought was going to were most likely going to be attacked.
"Hurt him Mister B!" The child shrieked.
He looked from the squares to the Big Daddy and the remaining Splicers attacking him, he could finish this and... The Big Daddy was outnumbered... If the girl's protector was to die now she would be...
"God dammit!" He cried out, he could do this in a second! He hated the sound of a child being so violent and there was only one way to rescue them. He shot down the first with his Machine Gun along with the second. The Big Daddy was still in an attacking mood so of course it was ready to attack him, "Sorry big guy..."
He loaded it with Armor Piercing rounds and shot at him until the it groaned, already weak before he came along. It fell to the floor and the Little Sister was immediately at his side, "No... Mr. Bubbles!" She cried out, "Get up..."
He walked up and at the sight of him began receding backwards glaring, "I'm not going to hurt you," He said, although he knew she believed no such thing. He quickly did what he had to do, snatched her and activated the Plasmid Tenenbaum had given him, moving his hand over her forehead it removed the sea slug that plagued the girl with insanity and the craving for Adam.
A light shown and she dropped from his arms to the floor, looking at herself as if it was the first time she raised a hand back to him and waved, "Thank you..." She said, curtsying to him "You helped me..."
With that she turned and rushed off to one of those vents, to safety, "Later kid," He said, now he had himself to worry for.
Tenenbaum spoke over the radio surprisingly, he thought Cohen had cut everyone off from him, "The little ones have never had anyone to look up to, except for me and I am not much to think of... You give them hope, and for this I am grateful, I'll send something to demonstrate that gratitude."
"No need to look so down on yourself Ten," He said, seeing that he'd probably been here way to long listening to Cohen, now he was giving people nick names.
He walked back up to the display and placed it where it needed to be.
"It's coming together..." Cohen said, that shake was in his voice again, "Yes, but there will always be doubters... You don't doubt me, do you? I could never stomach doubters..."
"No need to worry Chief," Jack said shaking his head, he gulped at the expectancies this guy put in people, he needed to get a hold of himself... Once again however, he saw one of the gifts given for his efforts, it was held in a statue whom was displaying a handstand and holding the purple present box with a yellow ribbon between its ankles. On it inside he found Antipersonnel Rounds for the machine gun, best used on Splicers, a generous amount of money, and a few Medical Kits. Well there went his Medical Kit problem he guessed.
He continued on towards the Gather's Garden where he as usual found a teddy bear waiting for him with a red present, he seemed to be getting a lot of presents lately.
Perhaps it was his Un-Birthday...
The inside contained money, more first Medical Kits, and another Plasmid. This one was described as 'Hypnotizing Big Daddy 2' giving him the ability to make a Big Daddy protect him for an extended amount of time. He gladly kept it.
He heard humming near by and when he looked up saw a male Splicer in a cat's mask scraping a metal weapon the ground, he lifted the Machine Gun in front of him and when he did the Splicer reacted, "Call the cops on me!?" It yelled out smashing the weapon across his jaw, he grunted but pulled the trigger as an amount of shielding lightning protect him as well, once again he made it out of a battle alive and with a battery and a nice amount of cash.
Since Poseidon's Plaza was where the first guy was he guessed past there must be where the second resided, he entered through and found the next door of course through that was another iced up tunnel where himself could see his own breath...
Finally, after that was a normal shopping center as he'd expected earlier. He sighed as he heard Spider Splicers climbing on the ceiling, his shotgun was the best for this, aiming each of the enemies way he shot each down and they fell instantly, he didn't have time to celebrate however, another came running towards him, weapon rose in their hand but in shock his instincts caused him to pull the trigger naturally before he could be bashed in the head.
Money, bullets, even distilled water was found in the bodies, then he heard... Shit, not again! Growling he whipped around and still having to aim shot at the ceiling knocking her to the floor, gasping for air and grasping the gun in his other hand he yelled upwards, "I don't have time for this!"
He calmed himself with slow breaths. Having a fit wasn't going to solve anything, as long as he was a good little flying insect for Cohen he'd be let out of this hell hole.
"To go to another hell hole," He reminded himself trudging on. He explored the area downstairs, ended up being attacked by more Splicers and knocked out a window accidentally with his gun, of course this triggered an alarm and cool female voice stating something about 'Violations' that didn't matter. What did matter was he was being attacked from all sides and couldn't stop it. His only luck was the bot that he'd hacked that protected him as he shot Electro Bolts at different bots so to shut them down temporally and he shot them while his bot took care of the ones he hadn't hit.
Once the security shut down he looked to the bot flying next to him and laughed, "Ya know you tin can, I'm gonna call you Lucky... Cause damn that situation went better then I thought..."
Jack, with 'Lucky' flying behind him, found more plasters there were two, a man and woman on a couch together, the man was sitting while the woman rested her head in his lap. A little sentimental scene it was suppose to be, but in their current state it was just plain sick to think of it as romantic.
When he walked by Rapture Records he could hear someone inside talking loudly, "My collections almost complete. Then we'll see who the real artist is down here,"
'This must be where he is...' Jack thought, stepping through the door, the place was practically empty, the staircase was broken so he just hoped down as someone seemed to be waiting in the chair, he could hear a clock ticking quickly though and... Shit! That was a corpse, it was a bomb that was ticking! He ran around the back of the wall as it neared the end.
The whole room rumbled when it went off, causing more things to catch on fire with it. Over the sounds going on all at the same time he couldn't tell what the Southern man was saying nor where he was, then something orange fell in front of him. It was from fire, he looked up and could see him moving through the bars on the ceiling hot trails of fire behind. He didn't see anyway to...
He smirked, "'Cept maybe that," There was a vent that had been ripped out of its place, he knelt down, crawling through, the walls were layered with wood, along the way he had to move past a burnt body, he found two Medical Kits as the vent became just a bit larger, once he got through the second turn he finally found on the second story, where he was originally. The door opened, someone was outside it, a young male yelled at him, holding something on fire, "My kittens! You murdered my kittens!" It was the next man he was suppose to take the life of, Cobb he believed it was, he quickly rose the machine gun and fired as they threw down a smoke bomb sending him out of sight, he followed out but didn't see him.
Something caught his attention from the corner of his eye, it hit him, quite literally. A bomb that sent him flying to the floor, he looked up only to see the next running away, "Dammit," He grunted rising up, using a Medical Kit to fix the burns it inflicted, he followed after with the Antipersonnel Rounds, he followed after shooting at him any time the bastard actually held still. He could really run while throwing those things, but he sent an Electro Bolt at him stopping the man for a moment, and took it to shoot as much as he could before he had to reload giving the male a chance to run away, "Damn," His crossbow seemed to do well, he pointed it and shot and as he thought, it finished the guy off.
"He was a nasty one... and my favorite... But I think I like him better this way" Sander said slowly at first, but became angry when Jack was taking out the camera, "Take his damn photo! Chop, chop!"
This time, Jack didn't even try to comment on the man's pushiness, he snapped the shot and as done before put the photo in his pocket and listened to what Cohen had to say, "You flutter all around the Fort," Cohen spoke up thoughtfully.
'So he's back on that damn 'Moth' thing is he?' Jack thought annoyed, walking down the stairs to get to the Atrium.
"Taking life as you go. You're not a moth" He spoke with a gasp, "... You're an angel. I've never painted an angel... Maybe I should..."
Jack glanced back at what was left of his walking through, dead bodies, broken windows, fire and destruction, "You've got one fucking sick idea for an angel..." He said gruffly, bowing his head and continuing on through the iced halls where the soul of a man who had to lose his mind to survive lay here, eternally still stuck in the 'Meat locker' after all this time.
He had one more flight of stairs to go when a female voice sounded, probably a recording, over the speaker, "Atlas is a friend of the parasite, don't be a friend of Atlas."
Rather strange announcement, he couldn't help but consider as he reached his destination, he placed it in the third square where the two statues being held up were showing it off to the empty seats of the theater, "That's three of four," Sander said, numbering them off.
Jack stood back and frowned at it, looking at the men whom seemed like terrified animals trapped in a cage that he killed just so he wouldn't get his own wings clipped off...
"Ah! What's that look!?" Cohen cried out panicked sounding, "You don't like it do you?! I don't need to be judged by you, by anyone!"
"What no I didn't-," He tried quickly, he recognized that enraged tone from when Cohen blew up Fitzpatrick who's photo now hung up, dead and burnt.
"Screw you! Screw all you fucking doubters! Here's what I say to all of you!" He roared, the lights dimmed all around Jack and suddenly became a bright red, a melody of violins began playing, a tune he swore he recognized but couldn't place a name.
A light focused solely on him, "Fly away Little Moth! Fly!" Cohen raved on.
"So I'm not an angel anymore..." Jack said to himself, unsure exactly of what to do, he began hurrying down the hall when he felt something stab into his back, nearly missing his spine, he coughed but turned quickly as the shield of electricity sent his attacker flying back, two Spider Splicers landed with a few handstands and he reacted with the usual.
Violence.
He sent the two to their graves with the shot gun, another crawled on the ceiling from the next room, hooks clanking against the cement, and he did the same to her. Bringing up his Incinerate Plasmid he saw two more running in from the side and set each on fire, lowering their health drastically, one however sent a hook flying at him ripping the flesh away from his arm, he had no time to heal so he simply went on bleeding as he shot the pair.
Another came up from behind without any time to inflict harm on him Jack moved to Electro Bolt and sent a stunning surge at them before clicking the trigger of the shot gun sending them to the floor.
"Smile! Smile!" Cohen yelled on.
On cue three more came at him, dragging their claws, hopping onto the walls, and knowing nothing but to attack. He was able to shoot down the first and the second but the third had disappeared somewhere, he use a whirl wind to send them flying into the air to smash into the ceiling and fall motionless to the floor.
A new bundle of two joined up he shot one but from behind he gasped as something ripped into his shoulder, this gave the female in his line of blurring vision time to rip her claw into his chest. He didn't even make a sound of pain this time, only coughed up a small bit of blood as both flew back, injured slightly as usual if anyone attempted a direct attack on him.
He was running low on Eve, he only had time for healing himself or keep his Plasmids that protected him going before he was attacked again. He chose the latter, stumbling backwards, he jabbed the needle into his wrist pushing the Eve through his veins with it.
Once full at the amount he used another whirl wind to knock one in the air, killing him and quickly he searched it for anything, thankfully he found more 00 Bucks for the shot gun. Loading it he shot the one on the ceiling only to give one the chance to rip at his side, tearing apart vulnerable flesh.
So this is what's like to be close to death?
He wanted to fall but chose the use the handle of the shot gun to smash the Splicer in the face, completely breaking its jaw and making the thing scream in pain before he released it from the agony by shooting it in the head, "Anyone else want some?!" He questioned in rage from the large attack.
No other Splicers attempted to come at him now, so he dropped to his hands in knees gasping out as blood ran from wounds torn into his body.
"I'm... Sorry... For that outburst..." Cohen said over the radio apologetically.
"Damn you..." He said in a rasped voice as he finally grabbed a few of his medical kits fixing the dire wounds, "God damn you..."
"You'll have to forgive on old fool, his artistic temperament..." He continued on as if he could explain that whole thing.
"Oh ya 'artists will' right, I'm suppose to be that forgiving," Jack spat out spitefully, go ahead and get angry again you bastard, he was ready if he did. The spot lights still followed as he walked along getting his sore legs use to long walks again.
"The birth is so close now... The labor can pains can blue the judgment, and drive the passions of even the finest spirits..."
Was that damned Cohen still trying to explain why he just tried to kill him? God dammit didn't he get that Jack didn't care what he had to say?
"Raptures finest," He grumbled recalling some poster he'd seen a bit back. How long ago was that?
He'd walked back up to the statues and from the trap door arose another present, this figure held it in hands welcoming, on foot was slightly up while the other stayed on the ground. It looked like the man was doing a jig.
This present was a light green box with a dark green ribbon, inside he was given Electric Bucks, he needed those when he ran into a Big Daddy, more money, and Electric Gel. Well, at least he still got something out of all of this.
He watched for a moment while it descended into the depths of probably the basement. Back into Poseidon's Plaza he didn't bother to walk, but ran, finally this was the last, then he could go, leave if Sander Cohen kept his promise. If not he'd just kill the son of a bitch and pry the key out of here from his cold dead hands.
Inside he killed another Spider Splicer screaming, "Leave me alone!", with the last of his 00 Bucks. He searched a few of the shops and found himself lucky with his hacks to get into a locked room, where he found a large sum of money next to a corpse.
His last place to search was a place called Eves Garden XXX, as he did he listened to an audio diary he'd found by a guy named McDonagh, "The good people of Rapture didn't sign up to see up government-types shutting down shops, killing their owners... even with a ponce like Fontaine. But he brung it upon himself. 'Stead of copping it on the chin, bugger gets into his 'ead that he's gonna go down guns blazing. Who does he think he is? John bloody Wayne? We can get on top of this. We can. Here's what we do: we find Fontaine's will and make what was his go to where it was intended - and not into the pockets of us that put 'im into the ground."
Inside everything became blurred and distorted, a little more black and white, this he recognized as the ghosts, memories of those who lived and died in Rapture. Everything became uncomfortable when he saw the white form on a pole doing some kind of move that made him look away. A friend convinced him to go to a strip club once, he'd become embarrassed quickly and could never escape being picked at about leaving.
Once the spectral being left he noticed money on the stage.
Of.
Course.
He sighed and hopped up knowing that these beings weren't alive anymore anyways, picking up the money he glanced up the hall way behind the stage...
Something about it... Something just... Pulled him towards it.
He stepped in through, the woman was saying something, "I thought you'd forgotten about poor Jasmine, but I'm so glad you didn't..." The specter swept through the door and suddenly everything changed, there was crying out, pleading, "I'm sorry Mr. Ryan, I didn't know... I didn't know Fontain had something to do with it! What?! What are you doing?! No-no-no, please! I loved you- don't, no! No!" She shrieked out then...
Silence. The door slid open for him.
He didn't know why, but he went inside... As he walked his vision flashed for a moment, it was that picture of him and his mom and dad, his home... Why did that happen? It was probably the Plasmids messing with his head.
There, on the bed lye a long since dead corpse of a woman with her stomach cut open, he couldn't tell why, but he stared at it for a moment before covering his mouth and rushing out, he held onto the door way gagging, he swore he was going to vomit and the clean wooden floors.
Glancing back he couldn't believe the strange feeling he'd gotten, he couldn't know that woman! He'd never been to Rapture nor believed he would if she'd ever been away from it.
He stood back up seeing a Audio Diary, he snatched it and any money out of under it and stood in the hall instead, sitting on the ground listening, it was from the woman on the bed, Jasmine Jolene.
"That creepy, Dr. Tenenbaum, promised me it wasn't gonna be a real pregnancy, they'd just take the egg out once, Mr. Ryanand I had... I needed the money so bad... But I know Mr. Ryan's gonna suss it out, gonna know I wasn't being careful... gonna know I sold the... Mr. Ryan's gonna be so mad at me..."
He focused on his mission, distracted himself by repeating instructions in his head.
However after he stood he heard a drunken voice speaking, "How 'bout... Some fucking service around-here," Jack looked out the hall to see a man sitting at the bar, "Maybe I'll just... You know, do something about it!"
Once he saw Jack he stood up and grumbled, "Who does he think he his?"
That made no sense. Just like Sander Cohen, the two must know each other.
Joking at the moment, ending abruptly when he threw fire his way, he realized this guy was a bomb thrower too! Jack dodged and didn't waste time not shoot him with the machine gun, fast paced bullets all piercing at the same time, the man ran through the door throwing another, the shrapnel of the next bomb smacked him repeatedly but Jack ignored it, he sent an jolt of electricity to stun him so he could get his crossbow, it didn't keep him down for long. Before Jack could load it, he was off and running.
He growled and chased after him pulling the trigger once when he was in sight, the man almost made it out the door when Jack pulled it the second time sending him and his box of explosives tumbling to the ground.
"He was lout... but he was Vigorous." Cohen said over the radio while Jack searched the freshly dead body finding a nice sum of bullets, the man was the strangest of all, pink vest with brown criss crossed stripes and white buttons. Bright red pants and wraps covering parts of his deformed face, "Get the photo before he dries out,"
"Do I even have to make a smart ass comment this time chief?" He said in a muffled voice, snapping the photo, he sighed deeply arcing his head towards the ceiling and said in relief, "There... Done."
He chose his shotgun over machine gun now, he could get back to the Atrium, finish the damn thing and get the hell out of here. He was getting seriously sick of those spot lights following him.
Stepping onto the stage he placed the last photo in the hands of the two bunny masked men hanging upside down.
Out of nowhere the lights shut completely off leaving little light, drums began playing in a rhythm, he searched and then saw at the top of the stairs, the spot light had focused up there and smoke paraded in special effects manner.
"It is... Accomplished!" That was definitely Cohen, stepping from the smoke as shining little squares of confetti came down with him, he wore a fancy gold and brown rabbit mask and suit with a rose on it, Jack stood there, one eye probably twitching from being stunned that he was actually waving to the sides and kissed his hands out as if there was anyone here except him.
If he didn't want out of here he probably would have said it in a more, 'Hey moron, there's no one here' manner.
"Let me see it," He said proudly, throwing off the mask.
"Okay," Jack said putting his hands up and stepping out of the way putting his arms out to the side. Jack couldn't help but recall that he was the one who did most of the work here.
"My god," He said putting his hands together, then let out a little laugh of excitement repeating, "My god. It's... It's beautiful..." He commented breathlessly.
'It's a pictures of a bunch of dead guys, being held up by more dead guys.' Jack thought glaring, crossing his arms leaning against a wall, 'You get off on some sick stuff man'
"You'll find your path to Ryan is now clear," Cohen said.
Jack was instantly off the wall, "Really?" He asked quickly, 'So subconsciously I was expecting to end up on that wall wasn't I...'
"Tell him Sander said hello..." He said softly.
"Will do Chei-," He cut off when Cohen turned, and nearly yelled out 'Christ!'
They guy was wearing a copious amount of make up... Thick red lipstick, white face pain, eye liner that was lashed out to make fake eye lashes under and above his lids, and a long fake mustache.
"Oh yes," He said walking on not even noticing Jack's eyes twitching and jaw hanging open as the shorter man walked by, Jack finally made himself get over it and followed Cohen to the different glass boxes, "You may avail yourself on one of my lesser works as a token of our time together. If you had become my one and true disciples you might have been worthy to see what was inside the box," He stopped putting his arms up for a second before going on, "Of my most private Muse, but who knows if that man is yet even born..."
"I'm okay with that Chief," Jack said smirking noticing what was under the glass case that lifted up, it was a blue Tonic stating Medical Expert 2, he picked up the Tonic tossed it in the air and caught it just out of the slight happiness to not only be getting the hell out of here, and having the second to something that increased his defense against the attacks of the Splicers, "Thanks Chief,"
"Now, go," Cohen said, an almost angry tune being played.
He'd be glad to, his radio make a grumbling noise and he took it out turning away from Cohen seeing Atlas's name and picture appear, "Hey man you're back!" He said quickly.
"What happened to you?!" Atlas demanded, "I've been tryin' to raise ya for a dogs age!"
"That's... a kinda long story," Jack answered.
"Never mind," Atlas said sounded frustrated, "Would you kindly leg it over to the Sphere, and get on down to Hephaestus, it's time to settle it with Ryan..."
"You got it," He sighed, he glanced back at Cohen and shrugged a shoulder slightly surprised and admittedly petrified to see Cohen still staring at him as he was listening to Atlas.
"Go," He said gesturing his hands to the exit before walking towards his 'Masterpiece' to admire it.
"Gladly," He muttered, hoping Cohen wouldn't lost his temper over his liking of getting the hell away from him. The Bathysphere had returned, waiting with the door open and he rushed inside as if it would leave just as a joke. If it did, he swore he would just sit on the steps and wait for it to come back.
Thankfully no other psychotic 'artists' wanted him to help them so he was able to get inside, and pull the lever, this time, he did sit down on one of the seats.
He then recalled, earlier he'd picked up an Audio Diary and never listened to it due to a Security Attack, it would be a bit until he reached his destination so he pressed the button to listen.
Of course, as fate would have it in all of its cruelness, it was one by Sander Cohen, "The Wild Bunny by Sander Cohen: I want to take the ears off, but I can't. I hop, and when I hop, I never get off the ground. It's my curse, my eternal curse! I want to take the ears off but I can't! It's my curse! It's my fucking curse! I want to take the ears off! Please! Take them off! Please!"
He hadn't even realized he'd dropped it till it clattered on the ground.
Jack shook his head. He sure was glad he'd never had to run into that freak again.
I did not include most of the Audio Diaries however.
And if you couldn't hear what Sander Cohen was saying before because of some reason, well now you get to see just how creepy he is.
_______________________________________________________________________________
He stood in the Bathysphere watching out of its window as it descended through the water. As usual the city was still illuminated with bright lights, all surviving in the depths of the ocean. Regrettably he could still catch sight of the ripped off pieces of the plane scattered in great amounts across the floor of the ocean, or absentmindedly floating along.
He sighed deeply bringing a hand up to his forehead before realizing that instead it was touched by the cool metal of a pistol, his weapon of choice at the moment and he knew soon he'd be stuck using up his Eve and with the wrench as he was slowly running low on bullets. Then again the Bathysphere was sending him somewhere new, there was always some spare expanse just lying around.
What a sick city.
Finally after an amount of standing there-he never really got tired standing, working on the farm back home really strengthens a man's legs and after his first attack by that Splicer he always wanted to be on the alert- it hooked into the new area. He quickly readied his gun, making sure it was completely loaded, and made his way through the automatic door: weird winding and it would open instantly for anyone whom approached it; bad luck when he'd accidentally shot a Bag Daddy during a Splicer raid and found himself being quickly thrown and smashed into the floor even when he tried running with the loud shrieks of the Little Sister demanding for her Big Daddy to end his life.
His thoughts were interrupted by Atlas tuning onto his radio, "You're almost there," Those words were almost comforting, "The sphere to Ryan is up on ahead," Jack walked around looking at the strange devises that were all around, other than destroyed pieces of the building he saw Slot Machines and one of those animatronic Fortune Tellers, though he was curious he had no money to waste on either.
Atlas tuned on again to give him more information, "Ryans handed the keys to Fort Frolic over to a guy named Sander Cohen," Jack almost snickered at how bitter he sounded about the man, like a grudge on the playground, but in this situation he considered if he should lighten up on the Eve if he was actually wanting to laugh at all, "Cohen's an artist says some. He's a section eight says I. I've seen all kinds of cutthroats, freaks, and hard cases in my life, but Cohen, he's a real lunatic, a dyed-in-the-wool psychopath,"
"Sounds like a great guy..." Jack joked in a sort.
Atlas's radio sounded like it was actually getting a little on the fuzzy side, or perhaps it was his more over, he picked up the thing trying to register if there was anything wrong with it just by looking at the little piece of technology, but could really find nothing that he could fix immediately, he simply returned it to his pocket in defeat. After checking a few things and finding an Even Hypo and 00 Buck, his mood was brought up over the radio just the slightest.
Losing contact with Atlas meant losing every chance of getting to Andrew Ryan and out of this city of insanity.
He looked around before choosing to go through another door, looking up towards the next door he saw 'Rapture Metro' in neon lights above it, the next Bathysphere he needed. Stepping through the door and down the stairs, being as careful as he could with the water slick black and white tiled floors from the saltwater by the Bathysphere, but as he approached he only saw the sub slowly return back into the water before anyone was even inside it, with its departure he saw as purple lights rose up from the water and on cue two white statues in formations and a... A large rabbit mask behind it, with that he glanced up seeing large models of different animal masks along the upper walls and a maroon curtain draw back.
"What in the seven hells..." He whispered under his breath hurrying forward but he was too late, it had already submerged.
More statues in dancing positions came down with what seemed to be a sparkling substance with them, he gasped when a completely different voice sounded on his radio, smooth but something not right within it at the same time, "Ah... That's better," He snatched the radio from his pocket looking at the picture and name that always showed up on its screen, it read Sander Cohen, the nutcase Atlas was talking about...
He continued on, leaving Jack to only be able to watch as the statues twirled from their wires, "Atlas, Ryan, Atlas, Ryan, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, dudg," He said to what sounded like a mocking sing-song manner almost, "Time was you could get something decent on the radio, the artist, has a duty, to seduce the ear and delight the spirit,"
Jack gulped audibly at the rather strange words, "So say goodbye to those two blowhards and hello to and evening, with Sander Cohen."
"Wait... What did you do to..." He tried but realized by now he was only talking to himself, he turned the dial to Atlas's radio, though he never did the contacting as Atlas always contacted him, and tried to get a signal, "Atlas, can you hear me?" He questioned into the radio quickly, but nothing but static could be heard, "Dammit," He grunted.
That was probably why his radio had a flip out moment, and from Cohen's words, he was stuck listening to him. He had no other choice, he was stuck now, might as well find the guy and hope he wasn't like Steinman whom at the sight of someone who wasn't deformed was automatically decided as hideous and that they deserved nothing but death.
In this place however, finding sanity didn't come along so easily.
He had to find this Cohen guy if he wanted any chance of getting out of here, still... out of more of the curious mouse syndrome he stepped down the stairs to the white statues and when getting down the stairs to get a closer look. He gasped and took a step back, glancing quickly over his shoulder and at the one he was next to.
Both of them were... From what he could see, alive at some point, their arms were up in front of their faces, blocking from something in complete terror. He looked towards the door where he would go to find Sander Cohen. Lord in heaven did he not want to now.
"I've got no other freaking choice," Jack muttered to himself, the statement of 'No choice' seemed to be a popular thing with him at the moment, he looked towards the gun in his hand, and continued trekking on.
The rest of the place had lit up in purple as well, almost like the vicinity had come back to life from a time of bare destruction.
When returning back to the area he was in before Sander's voice reappeared on the radio, this time though he sounded different, perhaps a bit of agitation, "Now, I haven't seen a sign of real life down here in months,"
A new set up of the electric wire had been set up in his path during the time he was gone, "Let's see," Sander continued, his voice back to the smooth tone it had before.
'This guy can turn on the flip of a switch...' Jack thought, gritting his teeth.
"If you're just another Johnny come lately or maybe... Something more delicious.."
"What?!" Jack couldn't help but yell out even if the radio had cut out, his heart nearly stopped when he heard the scratchy and whining voices of Splicers all approaching at the same time, he tried for the brown doors but to no avail. They refused his entrance nor escape.
A female came at him instantly baring their usual masks and party attire, she was ready to swing at him with a hook in her hand but with a quick flip up of his pistol he took her out in several hits. He resisted the usual distant stomach ache of watching the blood flow from bullet wounds and as they lay motionless on the ground. He tried to ignore the truth of the matter that the sickness originated from the feeling that this all came so naturally to him.
Next came a male Spider Slicer, agile as usual, he chose to raise one of his genetically altered hands to them sending a Electro bolt from lighting that gathered through his veins and stunned them, since they were temporally out of it and vulnerable he took the chance to use the wrench instead, beating him to the ground with it and ignoring them as he heard more coming his way.
"Come where I can see you!" One high pitched female demanded.
"Don't run!" A male contradicted her statement, both trying to lure him out to try and end his life just for the purpose of killing and to loot his dead body. Like hell he was going to let a bunch of drug addicted freaks kill him when he was so close to escape.
"Ya fucking right..." He muttered.
As he'd gotten a new round of 00 Buck earlier, he decided it was time the one hit kill gun had its chance. Replacing the wrench with it he saw the two running up from the side, he whipped around in their direction and pulled the trigger aiming for the head, once -she was down- and twice -he was down-.
It wasn't over yet, he heard them yelling and shrieking annoying as ever, but in no way could find them. He refused to sit still, doing that meant nothing but death, so he kept moving to different spots listening, then his eyes caught it, pieces of rubble falling to the floor. Looking up they were, more Spider Splicer taking advantage of their abilities. It would use up the last of his Bucks but that didn't matter, he needed to finish them off and so far Spider Splicers were his worst issue.
So with found aim, he did the same as earlier as he knelt on the ground and aimed for the woman as they always seemed to keep a little more life longer than the men. She screamed as the bullet entered through the back of her skull and fell with a terrible sounding thunk and crunch. The obvious sound of flesh meeting the floor painfully and bones breaking on contact. If she wasn't dead when he shot her, now she sure as rain was.
"Nicely done, where did you study?" Cohen said appraising him, but Jack pushed the comment off.
This alerted the man and with another statement Jack couldn't hear over the sound of reloading the Machine gun as he switched it up again, he jumped down from the ceiling and instantly Jack rose his left hand and sent the Electricity to a current through his body, finally he stood but the moment he had the Slicer had regained himself, doing a few handstands backwards that Jack couldn't follow fast enough he took his chance to leap forward and send a sharp hook straight into his arm.
"Dammit!" He yelled in pain as blood ran through the tan coloring of his already splattered sweater, but as the Splicer had attacked him his plasmids acted on their own sending a barrier of electricity its way. Lord was he glad he chose to get that one, though damn if he remembered what it was.
Rising up the machine gun he was able to send a stream of bullets into it's body but hitting the wall twice as it did acrobatics once again. Insanity, a curse and yet it gives you the ability to completely ignore pain. He however, only had strength to ignore his arm bleeding out.
This time he hit the Splicer without a hitch, it had little life left anyways. He took a breath in, using a medical kit to fix his arm, it slowly took away the pain causing him to sigh in relief, it wasn't very much to him but it would still be an inconvenience, his radio lit back up as Sander Cohen spoke again, his words becoming creepier each time Jack had to listen, "Oh, you can smell the malt and vinegar in this one. I've waited so long for something to come to this little burg but all that pass are yokels and rubes... Where are my manners?" He said, the sudden change in inflection happening once again, "Come in, come in! Sander Cohen awaits you, at the Fleet Hall."
The brown doors opened up, rising into the walls above, he turned back temporally to do the normal disgusting chore of searching the corpses of the Splicers for essentials to keep himself alive. Up ahead in the hall through the opened doors he saw a Circus of Values and even though he knew this was using up time, he opened the bottom portion of the machine and using his Hacking abilities was able to reduce the price of the extremely needed resources.
He first bought himself three Medical Kits and two Eve Hypos, for his guns he used up his remaining cash for Machine Gun Rounds, 00 Bucks and lastly for annoying Security trips he was able to get a few Armor Piercing Rounds.
Satisfied he headed for this Fleet Hall that Sander had spoke of, however when he stepped out of the hall there was a bright white light on him in those few seconds, he rose his gun quickly in its direction thinking it was a Security Camera but lowered it, creasing his eyebrows as he saw what it really was. A stage light that followed his ever move, unlike the Cameras which had a set path to turn each direction. Each step he took was accompanied by the blinding light until in the dark until he passed by more of those statues where he stood by the stage.
For a moment the lights did nothing but flicker until he stood in front staring up, with one loud thump they turned on, focused on all including him. He glanced uncomfortably at the two near by, they both had almost the same shocked expression as the ones earlier, these stepped back in defense, though there was never any chance for them at all. When he caught sight of their feat he realized what had been used on them. Plaster... Disgusting pieces of once live art...
Sander didn't seem to have anything to say over it once he tuned back in, his voice even more cheerful, "Welcome, to Fort Frolic!" He said, a distinguished manner playing in. Even as signs all lit up displaying different stores an amount of water pours profusely down, some day that large hole would cause the ceiling to rust and would cause this whole place to flood. It was a sad sight as even in all its destruction and mayhem the city was beautiful in its own right.
"No need to thank me for jamming the transmissions of those boors Atlas and Ryan. Let them have their squabble,"
'I'm part of that 'squabble',' Jack thought, actually becoming annoyed with him, the man was actually acting like he'd done him a favor by cutting him off from the only person who could get him out of this decaying city?
"The artist, yes the artist knows that there is richer earth to till,"
"What the hell are you talking about Cohen?! Why'd you cut me off from Atlas in the first place?!" Jack yelled up to the ceilings, no doubt he could be heard as the spot lights continued to take in his every move, turning on and shutting off with every area he turned to.
There was a pause but Sander didn't give him an answer, "For example, I test you... Little Moth,"
"Moth..." Jack muttered in confusion, lifting an eyebrow.
"But for a reason," Oh so he was still being promptly ignored, "I test all my disciples, some shine like galaxies and some... some burn like a moth at the flame. Come now... Into my home..." His voice softened an amount at the end making Jack more annoyed. Yup, Atlas was right, this guy is one off the rail crazy.
"I'm no ones disciple you nutcase..." Jack muttered under his breath, switching his plasmid to Incinerate, knowing at some point those Splicers were going to find him, or worse, Cohen.
He walked upstairs seeing Fleet Hall on a glowing sign up ahead the door was glass with a large curvy 'R' in white on it. No doubt it stood for Ryan, though Cohen didn't seem to speak so highly of him any longer.
More purple lights caused everything to glow in that color, he glance at his arm seeing his skin reflect a light purple glow as well due to it. There were ticket booths and one of those vents seeming to be liked by the Little Sisters were up ahead.
He walked into what seemed to be a bar but a white light caught him that was surety not a spot light. An alarm rung for the time he was in it but the moment he dove out of the way it clicked a few times then return to its usual path of checking for intruders, once it was out of his way he raised up the Pistol, loaded with Armor Piercing Rounds, and shot the thing off of its place within a couple of clicks. He smiled and returned normal bullets to the gun until he needed to take care of another one of the mechanical menaces again.
He entered into a bar, it displayed many signs that said 'Ale' in large red letters, he checked the Registers for any money but it seemed they had already been looted. He continued forward and found a broken turret with some Machine Gun Rounds still in it. Up the stairs he passed a Gene Swap but he was okay with what he had at the moment, he entered into a storage room, before going the right path to look for supplies.
He found two rolls of film and next to it a guitar, "Never learned how to play..." He said laughing a little through his throat kneeling down in front of it. He remembered his father playing the guitar on the porch whenever he felt like it, singing something out of tune, only when Mom came outside and sang along did it sound any better, but he never minded, Dad's singing was so happy that it never mattered.
He plucked a few strings and frowned. He'd be out of this place soon enough.
Standing he looked next to it and saw more film, though he never really had time snap any photo's when trying to stay alive while trying to find the camera through his weapons at the same time.
Also on the floor was a tape, picking it up he played it as he found an Eve Hypo, he found it to be a recording by Sander Cohen himself, "Regarding your review of Anna Culpepper's latest musical insult: Of all of the worthy artists in Rapture, why you continue to devote column inches to this musical GREMLIN is beyond my imagination. Where she is not derivative, she's boring. Where she's not boring, she's obvious. Where she's not obvious, she's dangerous!"
"Someone doesn't like competition," He said with a snicker.
He glanced over and saw a room blocked off with an iron gate and a shadow moving in the light, he walked towards it leaning to see what it was but jumped back when a familiar voice inside began yelling at him, "How could you possibly believe I could meet with my public now! Unbelievable!"
He smirked turning back, "You got it Chief," He muttered saluting in a mocking manner. He'd actually riled up the iron calm of Sander Cohen?
Moreover, entertaining then unbelievable.
Walking back where he was he saw an elevator, it was better then walking, but when inside as it rose, he heard Sander Cohen yell 'No' three times. For a moment he could have sworn he'd done something again to anger the 'artist' but when inside the elevator he heard a male whimper over the sound of a piano being player, "Mr. Cohen..." They attempted, sounding like they were trying to reason with him.
The doors to the elevator opened and he rushed forward as Cohen gave a stern, "Silence!" Towards them, "Allegro... Allegro!" He yelled something that sounded like a music term that Jack didn't understand.
The insanity showed, Cohen, enraged began repeatedly saying, "Da da da,da, da,da! Presto! No! No!"
He went through another glass door and below a staircase he saw a man in a brightly colored bird mask at the piano, his legs were plastered to the seat but upper body still normal for piano playing, "Oh god..." Jack breathed out, but the man didn't seem to notice him.
"I'm trying!" He said putting his hands up, his voice sounding near to crying, "P-Please..."
"Once again, young Fitzpatrick," Cohen said, calm again. Fitzpatrick turned back to hunching over the piano playing a tune, behind him a pink light sent shadows on the curtain next to him of three women holding large scissors in their hands at different positions, once again Sander began his ranting of the random sounds of, "Da da da!" That were suppose to match what was being played while Jack considered how in the hell to get that guy's legs unstuck from the plaster. Unlike the Splicers he seemed perfectly sane, still able to give coherent responses to a situation and play the piano.
He gulped but looked at the gun in his hand.
He could...
It might hurt the guy but if he could just get the plaster off...
The mans hands left the piano as he raved at Cohen, "Oh god you sick fuck! Let me out of this-,"
He didn't even realize he'd yelled "No!" Nothing could be heard over the sound.
Flames in a rounded manner and a loud boom signified that an explosion had just occurred, he covered his face with his arms, running into a seat and ending up leaning against it as he looked back up, "Shit..." He swore in a rasped voice, the piano was on fire, along with the body of the man whom tried his best to play the piano to keep his life and one little slip up of fear and he was dead...
He ended up on the floor, one arm hanging onto the seat staring at it, "Come down now Little Moth... Life... Death..." Jack stood up, actually stepping onto the stage a light showing on him he stared down at the burning body, "The burden of the artist is to... Capture..."
The flame burnt out leaving only charred on the corpse. He'd seen it on so many Splicers before...
"See young Fitzpatrick here on the stage?"
Jack glared in whatever direction he could wanting nothing more than to give his own line of insults, but he knew it would bring him nothing but trouble if he did so.
"Use your camera, take him as he is now" Cohen said swiftly, "... So I may remember him."
Jack's eyes widened... He had to get out of here, Atlas had said to get the key from Cohen so... He picked up the camera, frowning with his eye brows dipped and brought it up until he had a good shot and with one click, he took a picture.
"It's done..." Jack whispered, but it was only for himself.
"And now you've got Fitzpatrick caught in his moment of glory, it seems you've got the eye of the Shutter Bug... Little Moth."
"Dammit," Jack muttered shoving the picture in his pocket, rushing up the stairs gritting his teeth.
Of course just when he thought Cohen was done, the guy was still giving him orders sounding excited as ever, "Now, head to the Atrium and place his photograph in my Masterpiece... And so our collaboration... Commences."
"Collaboration?" Jack spoke out loud stopping in his tracks, just what the hell was this guy planning, Jack groaned into his hands as he walked, "How long am I going to be stuck here?"
Looking around he walked into one of the sight seeing balconies and found a bag of Potato Chips, this reminded him that he actually needed to eat to maintain energy, eating them gladly he noticed something else... A glowing light he'd seen before but couldn't tell what it was, from here he could. It was another Tonic!
He needed those...
'Well,' He thought, 'Time to put years of slave driving P.E teachers to work,'
He climbed up onto the balcony putting his gun back on his side, hooked there, so he could use his arms as balance and with one jump across he made it to the other balcony landing in the middle of the floor, when he made it there he looked at the Tonic, 'Alarm Expert' it said. He breathed in, yes he needed this most defiantly, he constantly complained to himself about those damn cameras and bots and when he did a hack incorrectly how they'd invade his line of view, sending large streams of quick bullets through his flesh.
When he was looking through the corpse left up there he radio sounded, "What an amazing display of athleticism."
"I don't need your compliments," Jack muttered finding more Bucks but as he stood he saw something go past his vision, a heat signature... "Damn..." He hopped off the balcony landing on the floor, "Not one of them..."
It was a Houdini Slicer, able to throw fire and disappear instantly in an explosion of red smoke and rose petals, he looked around and saw it on one of the balconies. He shot it with a the Shot Gun and it threw fire at him, he dodged it but by the time he looked up He was gone. Jack heard it near by and view it on another balcony, as before they shot at one another but this time he was hit.
In a cry of shock brushed his arm off putting the flame
+out, he reappeared this time on the stage and just in time for Jack to shock him and shoot him once more to finish off the damn Splicer, collecting fifty dollars off it he turned back finally and walked through a hall next to the seats that led back into the bar he was in earlier.
"I know why you've come, Little Moth," Sander said, sounding awed, like he'd figured out something important. It drove Jack insane how the man had come up with that nickname, using it so appraising.
"Do you..." Jack said narrowing his eyes, his voice belaying how he really didn't care.
"You've your own canvas, one you'll paint with the blood of a man I once loved,"
Jack had gone through one of the glass doors with the 'R', he stopped in his tracks, "What?" He questioned quickly. When he received no answer, he kept going seeing downstairs what was supposed to be Cohen's 'Masterpiece' more plaster statues stood in different places, some holding up squares.
"Yes... I'll send you to Ryan," His voice, Jack could hear, shaking with obvious insanity, his tone became sharp suddenly, "But first, you must be part of my masterpiece. Go to the Atrium, hurry now, my Muse is a fickle bitch with a very short attention span!"
"All right, all right!" He said through gritted teeth running now, he didn't feel like pleading to not be blown up like Fitzpatrick...
Here however from the bright lights he could finally tell what kept entering his vision, little pieces of what seemed to be large sparkles hung in midair... What a strange addition.
For now it seemed all he was suppose to do was 'admire' it, he counted seven men all in bunny masks, two held up another one on their shoulders and two were hanging upside down while the other knelt, he could see a thick dried red substance run down their plaster bodies from their necks... So that's how Cohen...
"Do you see it? When I am dust," Sander spoke up in a booming voice, "This is what they'll point to, my Quadtych, my masterpiece," As he spoke the lights above dimmed and slowly the only focus were the statues, "Go ahead...Don't be afraid," He said ushering for Jack to continue forward, "Touch it."
"You're one creepy son of a bitch..." Jack muttered shaking his head, he walked up and put the picture in where it seemed to reflect in the surface making it appear larger. Jack guessed it had something to do with mirrors or... Something...
Suddenly, trumpets began playing near by, he looked around for the source when by the last statue a trap door opened up and smoke rose from it along with a twirling shape of rose petals as a plaster figure sitting with its legs crossed and arms out with something wooden and mechanical in its arms, he picked it up finding it was a crossbow. It was a rather impressive 'gift' he had to admit.
"Yes, and there's Fitzpatrick freed of his own kinks defects. And here's the glorious news...This is just the moment of conception..." Cohen stated, Jack glanced at the statue he'd taken the weapon from... That was Fitzpatrick... "Out in this place, there are three men, all former disciples, all connected by a common thread: betrayal. Find them, Little Moth, and immortalize their mortality in my Quadtych. Go, once they've been sent to their reward, you, shall go to yours and to Ryan..."
He almost surprised that they were finally back to the subject to him leaving.
So kill.
Take a picture.
Put it on the board to make a completely sick 'masterpiece'.
"Easy enough..." Jack said bitterly loading his new weapon.
Sander Cohen was back on his radio again, of course, giving him more information at least, "The door to Poseidon Plaza is now open... My moth."
His eyes twitched ever so slightly, "I'm going to break the radio, I swear to god I'm going to break it..." He said putting both of his hands on the cross bow so he wouldn't use his Telekinesis to smash it against the wall. Repeatedly.
Knowing Cohen though, after only giving him a little bit of time to re cooperate from such strange statements he was going to tune in again to cause him discomfort, "Allow me, to draw back the curtain."
Now, he was just making no freaking sense, Jack ignored him this time. The halls of Poseidon Plaza were, to his surprise from the name, completely coated in frost and ice, causing things to be difficult to look through, "Well now this comes in handy," He said to himself bringing up his hand with Incinerate intact, just in case, he saw a tape and walked towards it.
"I can see your breath..."
Jack stopped, Incinerate and the crossbow ready, though he knew it was impossible to work both simultaneously. When no one showed themselves, he gulped and took hold of the tape listening to the message from a Martin Finnegan "You think you gonna finish me in here, you old fruit? The other saps you tossed in this meat locker all panicked like rabbits. I just watched and waited. And when they started to kick, I started to scavenge. Made myself a little Splicer cocktail I did. If you can't come in from the cold, then you gotta grow ice over your heart. And the iceman cometh, Sander baby. The iceman fucking cometh."
He listened to this whole insane ramble as he entered into the next frosted room, his stomach ache became a little worse as Finnegan explained what Cohen had done how he survived himself. Cohen was one sick bastard.
He saw a figure within ice across from him, upon closer inspection it was obvious towards that this was a Splicer, in frozen barriers, he was unsure whether they were alive or dead. He pointed the crossbow at it and fired to see what happened. Like glass the whole the shattered sending sharp blunt pieces flinging in each and every direction from the impact.
He covered his eyes, the most important thing in such situations, but when he looked down there were no left over items to find.
Never would he do that again...
He felt lightened however when he saw a large pile of melt-able ice next to it with a substantial amounts of items underneath. He knew exactly what to do, with a snap of his fingers he was able to melt the whole pile to retrieve what was underneath. He took one step forward and before any more could happen a sudden large pain surged from his back to his hands, he let out a pained gasp that had barley any breath in it.
His arms so painfully freezing, he lifted them watching as they slowly became a light blue with frost growing over them, he was barley able to watch in horror as his whole vision faded into a thick white. It fell away from his eyes like thick rain to his relief.
He attempted to pull away but it hit him... His body had been devoured in the cold substance a sheet lay over his body in his vision but around his arms it held tightly, directly to them keeping them in the position he had before everything had faded.
Moving was an impossibility so all he could do was watch, he slowly came to realization that no air could reach into the confines of the ice. He was stuck with no oxygen and his lungs burned with the necessity of it. A cloud of blueish white passed by in on large dusty form, it was like the Houdini Splicers, they sent those heat waves as they transported from place to place.
He found himself correct, a man in a brown vest and long sleeved white shirt came from the cloud, he wore the same brightly colored mask that Fitzpatrick had, this was the next life he was supposed to take to leave.
They examined him and began speaking, "Guess the old grape finally sent someone. Son of a bitch..." He lent over putting a hand over his chin, "Left me to freeze... Oh, I've got a pose all picked out for you..."
There wasn't a portion of that sentence that made him feel safe, his sight left him again to take a preference of white but when in the seconds after he could hear and feel the crunching and breaking apart. It washed away, allowing him to breath properly again but the intense pain of the fire in his veins
reigniting and melting the cold away stayed with him for the moment but his body quickly reheated due to the plasmid.
He was glad it was Incinerate he had before that all occurred.
He glance at the other statues and after a moment of thought knew that they were probably the same, stuck without air in an eternal ice land and no sanity. He snapped at each sending fire their way, each died without any sound and only ran for a matter of seconds. He could think it was mercy if wanted to make himself feel better about all this.
His Eve was at its lowest now, took one of the large syringes out of his pocket and in one swoop injected himself with the powerful blue substance that gave him these abilities.
Two last statues stood in a corner, he incinerated one but the other... Yes it was, it was Martin, "This ends now kid!" He yelled out he threw his arms forward and in contradictory to all the Houdini Splicers he'd seen he flung sharp pieces of ice Jack's way.
They struck him straight in the chest knocking him off for a few seconds as he tried to re cooperate, taking a breath in he pointed up the crossbow waiting and turning, "Ya know... I kinda feel bad for you... Stuck in here all this time, sanity just dwindling away, am I right? I'm not staying though," He quickly kept turning watching for Martin to appear, "Not for anyone's 'art'..."
He heard the sound behind him and as quickly as the man transported he turned around and shot the crossbow twice, before Martin could take his own chance on him, he was on the floor, the mask staying with him unlike other mask wearers who's normally fell off, he let out a deep breath before speaking, "I'm getting myself the hell out of here."
"That was bracing!" Cohen complimented but swiftly became demanding per usual, "Take a photo of him and place it in the Quadtych."
Searching him first Jack found a new Plasmid, "Got it Chief," He sighed finding the camera among his growing collection of dangerous weapons, most were illegal of use back where he lived, he didn't really care whether the picture looked good or not, it was a dead body and the look of the deranged man was the worry of the one who made him lose it.
Cohen laughed slightly over the radio, "M-hm, I'm feeling full, like an expectant Mamma!"
Jack was about to take the picture when that comment was made, he shook his head, "Kay Cohen, now that was just disgusting." Still, he snapped the photo.
"Yes!" He said in excitement, "Now put the picture in the frame, let's see what we've got here,"
"Gotcha Chief," He said smirking, deciding he was running low on bows so he'd use the pistol for now, recalling from memory how he got to Poseidon's Plaza from the Atrium he descended the stairs, however when he did he could see a fire had been started near by.
"Hey fella don't chya wanna take a walk with me?" A female voice, mocking and accented as ever.
"Like hell I would," Jack said waiting, of course she came at him readying a pipe to swing at him he sent out an swipe of Electricity at her and while she was temporally out of it shot the pistol a few time at her, before she fell down with a groan, he found a few dollars on her and realized that he'd been using his Medical Kits lately, even subconsciously, he'd have to get some new ones...
He could see the 'Masterpiece' in sight but after hearing a groan, knew he wasn't the only one here. As if 'point proven' should be involved, the body of a Splicer flew by him, hitting the stage with a large crack.
He turned his head to see a Little Sister and Big Daddy, the girl cried out for help while the normally yellow lights of the Big Daddy turned a bright red with anger. Anyone who attempted harm on his Little Sister or who he thought was going to were most likely going to be attacked.
"Hurt him Mister B!" The child shrieked.
He looked from the squares to the Big Daddy and the remaining Splicers attacking him, he could finish this and... The Big Daddy was outnumbered... If the girl's protector was to die now she would be...
"God dammit!" He cried out, he could do this in a second! He hated the sound of a child being so violent and there was only one way to rescue them. He shot down the first with his Machine Gun along with the second. The Big Daddy was still in an attacking mood so of course it was ready to attack him, "Sorry big guy..."
He loaded it with Armor Piercing rounds and shot at him until the it groaned, already weak before he came along. It fell to the floor and the Little Sister was immediately at his side, "No... Mr. Bubbles!" She cried out, "Get up..."
He walked up and at the sight of him began receding backwards glaring, "I'm not going to hurt you," He said, although he knew she believed no such thing. He quickly did what he had to do, snatched her and activated the Plasmid Tenenbaum had given him, moving his hand over her forehead it removed the sea slug that plagued the girl with insanity and the craving for Adam.
A light shown and she dropped from his arms to the floor, looking at herself as if it was the first time she raised a hand back to him and waved, "Thank you..." She said, curtsying to him "You helped me..."
With that she turned and rushed off to one of those vents, to safety, "Later kid," He said, now he had himself to worry for.
Tenenbaum spoke over the radio surprisingly, he thought Cohen had cut everyone off from him, "The little ones have never had anyone to look up to, except for me and I am not much to think of... You give them hope, and for this I am grateful, I'll send something to demonstrate that gratitude."
"No need to look so down on yourself Ten," He said, seeing that he'd probably been here way to long listening to Cohen, now he was giving people nick names.
He walked back up to the display and placed it where it needed to be.
"It's coming together..." Cohen said, that shake was in his voice again, "Yes, but there will always be doubters... You don't doubt me, do you? I could never stomach doubters..."
"No need to worry Chief," Jack said shaking his head, he gulped at the expectancies this guy put in people, he needed to get a hold of himself... Once again however, he saw one of the gifts given for his efforts, it was held in a statue whom was displaying a handstand and holding the purple present box with a yellow ribbon between its ankles. On it inside he found Antipersonnel Rounds for the machine gun, best used on Splicers, a generous amount of money, and a few Medical Kits. Well there went his Medical Kit problem he guessed.
He continued on towards the Gather's Garden where he as usual found a teddy bear waiting for him with a red present, he seemed to be getting a lot of presents lately.
Perhaps it was his Un-Birthday...
The inside contained money, more first Medical Kits, and another Plasmid. This one was described as 'Hypnotizing Big Daddy 2' giving him the ability to make a Big Daddy protect him for an extended amount of time. He gladly kept it.
He heard humming near by and when he looked up saw a male Splicer in a cat's mask scraping a metal weapon the ground, he lifted the Machine Gun in front of him and when he did the Splicer reacted, "Call the cops on me!?" It yelled out smashing the weapon across his jaw, he grunted but pulled the trigger as an amount of shielding lightning protect him as well, once again he made it out of a battle alive and with a battery and a nice amount of cash.
Since Poseidon's Plaza was where the first guy was he guessed past there must be where the second resided, he entered through and found the next door of course through that was another iced up tunnel where himself could see his own breath...
Finally, after that was a normal shopping center as he'd expected earlier. He sighed as he heard Spider Splicers climbing on the ceiling, his shotgun was the best for this, aiming each of the enemies way he shot each down and they fell instantly, he didn't have time to celebrate however, another came running towards him, weapon rose in their hand but in shock his instincts caused him to pull the trigger naturally before he could be bashed in the head.
Money, bullets, even distilled water was found in the bodies, then he heard... Shit, not again! Growling he whipped around and still having to aim shot at the ceiling knocking her to the floor, gasping for air and grasping the gun in his other hand he yelled upwards, "I don't have time for this!"
He calmed himself with slow breaths. Having a fit wasn't going to solve anything, as long as he was a good little flying insect for Cohen he'd be let out of this hell hole.
"To go to another hell hole," He reminded himself trudging on. He explored the area downstairs, ended up being attacked by more Splicers and knocked out a window accidentally with his gun, of course this triggered an alarm and cool female voice stating something about 'Violations' that didn't matter. What did matter was he was being attacked from all sides and couldn't stop it. His only luck was the bot that he'd hacked that protected him as he shot Electro Bolts at different bots so to shut them down temporally and he shot them while his bot took care of the ones he hadn't hit.
Once the security shut down he looked to the bot flying next to him and laughed, "Ya know you tin can, I'm gonna call you Lucky... Cause damn that situation went better then I thought..."
Jack, with 'Lucky' flying behind him, found more plasters there were two, a man and woman on a couch together, the man was sitting while the woman rested her head in his lap. A little sentimental scene it was suppose to be, but in their current state it was just plain sick to think of it as romantic.
When he walked by Rapture Records he could hear someone inside talking loudly, "My collections almost complete. Then we'll see who the real artist is down here,"
'This must be where he is...' Jack thought, stepping through the door, the place was practically empty, the staircase was broken so he just hoped down as someone seemed to be waiting in the chair, he could hear a clock ticking quickly though and... Shit! That was a corpse, it was a bomb that was ticking! He ran around the back of the wall as it neared the end.
The whole room rumbled when it went off, causing more things to catch on fire with it. Over the sounds going on all at the same time he couldn't tell what the Southern man was saying nor where he was, then something orange fell in front of him. It was from fire, he looked up and could see him moving through the bars on the ceiling hot trails of fire behind. He didn't see anyway to...
He smirked, "'Cept maybe that," There was a vent that had been ripped out of its place, he knelt down, crawling through, the walls were layered with wood, along the way he had to move past a burnt body, he found two Medical Kits as the vent became just a bit larger, once he got through the second turn he finally found on the second story, where he was originally. The door opened, someone was outside it, a young male yelled at him, holding something on fire, "My kittens! You murdered my kittens!" It was the next man he was suppose to take the life of, Cobb he believed it was, he quickly rose the machine gun and fired as they threw down a smoke bomb sending him out of sight, he followed out but didn't see him.
Something caught his attention from the corner of his eye, it hit him, quite literally. A bomb that sent him flying to the floor, he looked up only to see the next running away, "Dammit," He grunted rising up, using a Medical Kit to fix the burns it inflicted, he followed after with the Antipersonnel Rounds, he followed after shooting at him any time the bastard actually held still. He could really run while throwing those things, but he sent an Electro Bolt at him stopping the man for a moment, and took it to shoot as much as he could before he had to reload giving the male a chance to run away, "Damn," His crossbow seemed to do well, he pointed it and shot and as he thought, it finished the guy off.
"He was a nasty one... and my favorite... But I think I like him better this way" Sander said slowly at first, but became angry when Jack was taking out the camera, "Take his damn photo! Chop, chop!"
This time, Jack didn't even try to comment on the man's pushiness, he snapped the shot and as done before put the photo in his pocket and listened to what Cohen had to say, "You flutter all around the Fort," Cohen spoke up thoughtfully.
'So he's back on that damn 'Moth' thing is he?' Jack thought annoyed, walking down the stairs to get to the Atrium.
"Taking life as you go. You're not a moth" He spoke with a gasp, "... You're an angel. I've never painted an angel... Maybe I should..."
Jack glanced back at what was left of his walking through, dead bodies, broken windows, fire and destruction, "You've got one fucking sick idea for an angel..." He said gruffly, bowing his head and continuing on through the iced halls where the soul of a man who had to lose his mind to survive lay here, eternally still stuck in the 'Meat locker' after all this time.
He had one more flight of stairs to go when a female voice sounded, probably a recording, over the speaker, "Atlas is a friend of the parasite, don't be a friend of Atlas."
Rather strange announcement, he couldn't help but consider as he reached his destination, he placed it in the third square where the two statues being held up were showing it off to the empty seats of the theater, "That's three of four," Sander said, numbering them off.
Jack stood back and frowned at it, looking at the men whom seemed like terrified animals trapped in a cage that he killed just so he wouldn't get his own wings clipped off...
"Ah! What's that look!?" Cohen cried out panicked sounding, "You don't like it do you?! I don't need to be judged by you, by anyone!"
"What no I didn't-," He tried quickly, he recognized that enraged tone from when Cohen blew up Fitzpatrick who's photo now hung up, dead and burnt.
"Screw you! Screw all you fucking doubters! Here's what I say to all of you!" He roared, the lights dimmed all around Jack and suddenly became a bright red, a melody of violins began playing, a tune he swore he recognized but couldn't place a name.
A light focused solely on him, "Fly away Little Moth! Fly!" Cohen raved on.
"So I'm not an angel anymore..." Jack said to himself, unsure exactly of what to do, he began hurrying down the hall when he felt something stab into his back, nearly missing his spine, he coughed but turned quickly as the shield of electricity sent his attacker flying back, two Spider Splicers landed with a few handstands and he reacted with the usual.
Violence.
He sent the two to their graves with the shot gun, another crawled on the ceiling from the next room, hooks clanking against the cement, and he did the same to her. Bringing up his Incinerate Plasmid he saw two more running in from the side and set each on fire, lowering their health drastically, one however sent a hook flying at him ripping the flesh away from his arm, he had no time to heal so he simply went on bleeding as he shot the pair.
Another came up from behind without any time to inflict harm on him Jack moved to Electro Bolt and sent a stunning surge at them before clicking the trigger of the shot gun sending them to the floor.
"Smile! Smile!" Cohen yelled on.
On cue three more came at him, dragging their claws, hopping onto the walls, and knowing nothing but to attack. He was able to shoot down the first and the second but the third had disappeared somewhere, he use a whirl wind to send them flying into the air to smash into the ceiling and fall motionless to the floor.
A new bundle of two joined up he shot one but from behind he gasped as something ripped into his shoulder, this gave the female in his line of blurring vision time to rip her claw into his chest. He didn't even make a sound of pain this time, only coughed up a small bit of blood as both flew back, injured slightly as usual if anyone attempted a direct attack on him.
He was running low on Eve, he only had time for healing himself or keep his Plasmids that protected him going before he was attacked again. He chose the latter, stumbling backwards, he jabbed the needle into his wrist pushing the Eve through his veins with it.
Once full at the amount he used another whirl wind to knock one in the air, killing him and quickly he searched it for anything, thankfully he found more 00 Bucks for the shot gun. Loading it he shot the one on the ceiling only to give one the chance to rip at his side, tearing apart vulnerable flesh.
So this is what's like to be close to death?
He wanted to fall but chose the use the handle of the shot gun to smash the Splicer in the face, completely breaking its jaw and making the thing scream in pain before he released it from the agony by shooting it in the head, "Anyone else want some?!" He questioned in rage from the large attack.
No other Splicers attempted to come at him now, so he dropped to his hands in knees gasping out as blood ran from wounds torn into his body.
"I'm... Sorry... For that outburst..." Cohen said over the radio apologetically.
"Damn you..." He said in a rasped voice as he finally grabbed a few of his medical kits fixing the dire wounds, "God damn you..."
"You'll have to forgive on old fool, his artistic temperament..." He continued on as if he could explain that whole thing.
"Oh ya 'artists will' right, I'm suppose to be that forgiving," Jack spat out spitefully, go ahead and get angry again you bastard, he was ready if he did. The spot lights still followed as he walked along getting his sore legs use to long walks again.
"The birth is so close now... The labor can pains can blue the judgment, and drive the passions of even the finest spirits..."
Was that damned Cohen still trying to explain why he just tried to kill him? God dammit didn't he get that Jack didn't care what he had to say?
"Raptures finest," He grumbled recalling some poster he'd seen a bit back. How long ago was that?
He'd walked back up to the statues and from the trap door arose another present, this figure held it in hands welcoming, on foot was slightly up while the other stayed on the ground. It looked like the man was doing a jig.
This present was a light green box with a dark green ribbon, inside he was given Electric Bucks, he needed those when he ran into a Big Daddy, more money, and Electric Gel. Well, at least he still got something out of all of this.
He watched for a moment while it descended into the depths of probably the basement. Back into Poseidon's Plaza he didn't bother to walk, but ran, finally this was the last, then he could go, leave if Sander Cohen kept his promise. If not he'd just kill the son of a bitch and pry the key out of here from his cold dead hands.
Inside he killed another Spider Splicer screaming, "Leave me alone!", with the last of his 00 Bucks. He searched a few of the shops and found himself lucky with his hacks to get into a locked room, where he found a large sum of money next to a corpse.
His last place to search was a place called Eves Garden XXX, as he did he listened to an audio diary he'd found by a guy named McDonagh, "The good people of Rapture didn't sign up to see up government-types shutting down shops, killing their owners... even with a ponce like Fontaine. But he brung it upon himself. 'Stead of copping it on the chin, bugger gets into his 'ead that he's gonna go down guns blazing. Who does he think he is? John bloody Wayne? We can get on top of this. We can. Here's what we do: we find Fontaine's will and make what was his go to where it was intended - and not into the pockets of us that put 'im into the ground."
Inside everything became blurred and distorted, a little more black and white, this he recognized as the ghosts, memories of those who lived and died in Rapture. Everything became uncomfortable when he saw the white form on a pole doing some kind of move that made him look away. A friend convinced him to go to a strip club once, he'd become embarrassed quickly and could never escape being picked at about leaving.
Once the spectral being left he noticed money on the stage.
Of.
Course.
He sighed and hopped up knowing that these beings weren't alive anymore anyways, picking up the money he glanced up the hall way behind the stage...
Something about it... Something just... Pulled him towards it.
He stepped in through, the woman was saying something, "I thought you'd forgotten about poor Jasmine, but I'm so glad you didn't..." The specter swept through the door and suddenly everything changed, there was crying out, pleading, "I'm sorry Mr. Ryan, I didn't know... I didn't know Fontain had something to do with it! What?! What are you doing?! No-no-no, please! I loved you- don't, no! No!" She shrieked out then...
Silence. The door slid open for him.
He didn't know why, but he went inside... As he walked his vision flashed for a moment, it was that picture of him and his mom and dad, his home... Why did that happen? It was probably the Plasmids messing with his head.
There, on the bed lye a long since dead corpse of a woman with her stomach cut open, he couldn't tell why, but he stared at it for a moment before covering his mouth and rushing out, he held onto the door way gagging, he swore he was going to vomit and the clean wooden floors.
Glancing back he couldn't believe the strange feeling he'd gotten, he couldn't know that woman! He'd never been to Rapture nor believed he would if she'd ever been away from it.
He stood back up seeing a Audio Diary, he snatched it and any money out of under it and stood in the hall instead, sitting on the ground listening, it was from the woman on the bed, Jasmine Jolene.
"That creepy, Dr. Tenenbaum, promised me it wasn't gonna be a real pregnancy, they'd just take the egg out once, Mr. Ryanand I had... I needed the money so bad... But I know Mr. Ryan's gonna suss it out, gonna know I wasn't being careful... gonna know I sold the... Mr. Ryan's gonna be so mad at me..."
He focused on his mission, distracted himself by repeating instructions in his head.
However after he stood he heard a drunken voice speaking, "How 'bout... Some fucking service around-here," Jack looked out the hall to see a man sitting at the bar, "Maybe I'll just... You know, do something about it!"
Once he saw Jack he stood up and grumbled, "Who does he think he his?"
That made no sense. Just like Sander Cohen, the two must know each other.
Joking at the moment, ending abruptly when he threw fire his way, he realized this guy was a bomb thrower too! Jack dodged and didn't waste time not shoot him with the machine gun, fast paced bullets all piercing at the same time, the man ran through the door throwing another, the shrapnel of the next bomb smacked him repeatedly but Jack ignored it, he sent an jolt of electricity to stun him so he could get his crossbow, it didn't keep him down for long. Before Jack could load it, he was off and running.
He growled and chased after him pulling the trigger once when he was in sight, the man almost made it out the door when Jack pulled it the second time sending him and his box of explosives tumbling to the ground.
"He was lout... but he was Vigorous." Cohen said over the radio while Jack searched the freshly dead body finding a nice sum of bullets, the man was the strangest of all, pink vest with brown criss crossed stripes and white buttons. Bright red pants and wraps covering parts of his deformed face, "Get the photo before he dries out,"
"Do I even have to make a smart ass comment this time chief?" He said in a muffled voice, snapping the photo, he sighed deeply arcing his head towards the ceiling and said in relief, "There... Done."
He chose his shotgun over machine gun now, he could get back to the Atrium, finish the damn thing and get the hell out of here. He was getting seriously sick of those spot lights following him.
Stepping onto the stage he placed the last photo in the hands of the two bunny masked men hanging upside down.
Out of nowhere the lights shut completely off leaving little light, drums began playing in a rhythm, he searched and then saw at the top of the stairs, the spot light had focused up there and smoke paraded in special effects manner.
"It is... Accomplished!" That was definitely Cohen, stepping from the smoke as shining little squares of confetti came down with him, he wore a fancy gold and brown rabbit mask and suit with a rose on it, Jack stood there, one eye probably twitching from being stunned that he was actually waving to the sides and kissed his hands out as if there was anyone here except him.
If he didn't want out of here he probably would have said it in a more, 'Hey moron, there's no one here' manner.
"Let me see it," He said proudly, throwing off the mask.
"Okay," Jack said putting his hands up and stepping out of the way putting his arms out to the side. Jack couldn't help but recall that he was the one who did most of the work here.
"My god," He said putting his hands together, then let out a little laugh of excitement repeating, "My god. It's... It's beautiful..." He commented breathlessly.
'It's a pictures of a bunch of dead guys, being held up by more dead guys.' Jack thought glaring, crossing his arms leaning against a wall, 'You get off on some sick stuff man'
"You'll find your path to Ryan is now clear," Cohen said.
Jack was instantly off the wall, "Really?" He asked quickly, 'So subconsciously I was expecting to end up on that wall wasn't I...'
"Tell him Sander said hello..." He said softly.
"Will do Chei-," He cut off when Cohen turned, and nearly yelled out 'Christ!'
They guy was wearing a copious amount of make up... Thick red lipstick, white face pain, eye liner that was lashed out to make fake eye lashes under and above his lids, and a long fake mustache.
"Oh yes," He said walking on not even noticing Jack's eyes twitching and jaw hanging open as the shorter man walked by, Jack finally made himself get over it and followed Cohen to the different glass boxes, "You may avail yourself on one of my lesser works as a token of our time together. If you had become my one and true disciples you might have been worthy to see what was inside the box," He stopped putting his arms up for a second before going on, "Of my most private Muse, but who knows if that man is yet even born..."
"I'm okay with that Chief," Jack said smirking noticing what was under the glass case that lifted up, it was a blue Tonic stating Medical Expert 2, he picked up the Tonic tossed it in the air and caught it just out of the slight happiness to not only be getting the hell out of here, and having the second to something that increased his defense against the attacks of the Splicers, "Thanks Chief,"
"Now, go," Cohen said, an almost angry tune being played.
He'd be glad to, his radio make a grumbling noise and he took it out turning away from Cohen seeing Atlas's name and picture appear, "Hey man you're back!" He said quickly.
"What happened to you?!" Atlas demanded, "I've been tryin' to raise ya for a dogs age!"
"That's... a kinda long story," Jack answered.
"Never mind," Atlas said sounded frustrated, "Would you kindly leg it over to the Sphere, and get on down to Hephaestus, it's time to settle it with Ryan..."
"You got it," He sighed, he glanced back at Cohen and shrugged a shoulder slightly surprised and admittedly petrified to see Cohen still staring at him as he was listening to Atlas.
"Go," He said gesturing his hands to the exit before walking towards his 'Masterpiece' to admire it.
"Gladly," He muttered, hoping Cohen wouldn't lost his temper over his liking of getting the hell away from him. The Bathysphere had returned, waiting with the door open and he rushed inside as if it would leave just as a joke. If it did, he swore he would just sit on the steps and wait for it to come back.
Thankfully no other psychotic 'artists' wanted him to help them so he was able to get inside, and pull the lever, this time, he did sit down on one of the seats.
He then recalled, earlier he'd picked up an Audio Diary and never listened to it due to a Security Attack, it would be a bit until he reached his destination so he pressed the button to listen.
Of course, as fate would have it in all of its cruelness, it was one by Sander Cohen, "The Wild Bunny by Sander Cohen: I want to take the ears off, but I can't. I hop, and when I hop, I never get off the ground. It's my curse, my eternal curse! I want to take the ears off but I can't! It's my curse! It's my fucking curse! I want to take the ears off! Please! Take them off! Please!"
He hadn't even realized he'd dropped it till it clattered on the ground.
Jack shook his head. He sure was glad he'd never had to run into that freak again.