Chapter Text
“Whoa there, now better apply the brakes unless you're aiming to dash yourself against that glacier up ahead.”
That was the very first thing Delta heard as his train slowly pulled into the Ryan’s Amusements station. Delta had been sitting on the floor lightly dozing, but upon hearing Sinclair mention a glacier the Big Daddy sprang up to his feet and looked out the window. The giant metal gate in front of him was completely iced over. Delta quickly pulled the breaks, and the train stopped only inches away from the thick ice. The second the doors slid open Delta stepped outside to get a good look at the ice problem.
As Delta looked at the ice problem he heard Sinclair say “As you can see, chief, the station here's iced over. To reach Eleanor Lamb at Fontaine Headquarters we'll have to clear the way.”
Delta looked at the thick ice that covered the door only to slowly look down at his drill. Yeah, there was no way he could drill through all of that ice. His drill could break it, but with as thick as it was and with how much ice was there it would take hours for Delta to clear it all away with nothing but a drill.
Sinclair seemed to be following his thought process because he said “While that drill of yours is certainly strong enough to pierce the ice hacking away at it would take way too long. Now, in order to melt that ice, you’ll need a plasmid like a handful a’ hellfire. We used to sell a fine ol‘ product called Incinerate in the amusement park up yonder. Go on and find a way in. I’ve already been on all the rides.”
With those words said the radio clicked off and Delta was left standing there in silence. Delta really didn’t know what to think of this Sinclair guy. He was probably just using him for his own ends. He said he had an interest in the Fontaine Building, and the audio diary Tenenbaum left for him made it clear that he probably wouldn’t go out of his way to save anyone if it would inconvenience him at all. Still, while Tenenbaum said she didn’t trust him she had to trust him enough to work with him. With that said he had no idea how much he could trust the man. As long as Delta was useful and they had a common goal in mind everything would probably be fine.
Although, there was no telling what Sinclair would do once they got to Fontaine Futuristics. Delta sighed as he turned away from the iced over door and started to make his way toward the park. It wasn’t like standing around would accomplish anything. All he could do was move forward. As he moved he passed by another strange shrine. It had been a painting of a woman with a blue butterfly for a head. She glowed like some sort of angelic figure, and surrounding her were more painted messages.
We will be reborn!
She is our salvation!
“You are gonna see a lot of shrines like this all over Rapture,” Sinclair chimed in. “Lamb’s followers seem to see your girl as some sort of Jesus figure, and Lamb was the one to plant that idea in their heads. They like to show their faith by leaving these signs on every single surface that they can find. While they might be unpleasant it’s worth checking the shrines out. Lamb’s followers tend to leave behind useful offerings.”
Sinclair was right. Sitting in front of the painting were some wooden boxes that had been stacked together to make a sort of shrine table. Sitting on the makeshift shrine table was a health kit and an EVE hypo. As Delta picked the items up he also spotted an audio diary. Delta automatically picked the diary up, and pressed play. He couldn’t help but wince a bit when he heard Lamb’s voice come out of it.
Eleanor is progressing brilliantly. My physical participation in her birth was… minimized, of course- it is vital that I am unhindered by nature’s cruse bias. I will be, above all, her intellectual progenitor loyal not to her, but to the people she will ultimately save. But, I admit, it is with some measure of pride that I review her marks in standard intelligence tests. As an agent of our beliefs… she may surpass even me.
As the audio diary clicked off Sinclair quickly chimed in with “She sounds like she’s talking about a science experiment. Not a child.”
Delta couldn’t help but let out a small grunt of agreement. It really did sound like Lamb was talking more about a science experiment that was running smoothly rather than the growth of her own child. The intellectual progenitor thing also made it sound like Lamb doing everything in her power to not sound like a loving mother to Eleanor. It was a bit unsettling honestly. With a sigh Delta pocketed the audio dairy and moved along. He passed by a fountain that had been frozen over only to spot some money and an audio diary of all things stuck in the frozen water. Much as Delta wanted to take it he had to leave it behind. If he tried to dig it out with his drill he would probably just end up damaging the audio diary.
Stepping into the lobby Delta was happy to see that there were not any splicers around. In the center of the lobby there was a bunch of broken rubble that used to be a clock tower once, but other than that the clock the lobby was surprisingly in good condition. It was dirty, but there weren’t any cracks in the glass or puddles of water lying around anywhere. Delta walked around the mess in the middle of the room to approach the door that led into the amusement park. As soon as he got close to the door an automated message screeched to life.
“Welcome to Ryan’s Amusements! Please insert your ticket now. Half price for children under three.”
He could see the booth where he was supposed to insert a ticket, but he didn’t have any ticket to shove in there. From where he was standing he could see the ticket area where people brought their tickets. There was probably a ticket in there somewhere. Before he walked over there to check it out he decided to take a look at the map that was near the door. He had never been to Ryan’s Amusements before, or at the very least he didn’t remember being here. When he went harvesting with Eleanor they tended to stick to Adonis Luxury Resort, Arcadia, Athena’s Glory, and a few other scattered places. Ryan’s Amusements wasn’t a place that they ever went to, so it was probably a good idea to take a look at the map to know what to expect. The map was surprisingly not very big. There were only a few places on the map. There was a souvenir shop, Hall of the Future show area, and some restaurant called the El Dorado Lounge. As far as rides went there was the Journey to the Surface ride, and….
That was it.
Delta stared at the map for a few seconds only to let out a loud grunt of annoyance. Really? That was it? There was only one freaking ride here? This place was billed as some great amusement park, but there was only one freaking ride. Rapture's Grand Carnival had more amusements to offer then this. Just thinking about it made him think of how Sinclair said he had ridden ‘all of the rides’ here. Well of course he did. There was only one freaking ride. He didn’t even know why he was bothered so much about this. Chances were it was mostly due to the fact he knew that they probably charged a lot to get into the park, and anyone who actually paid the price only had one freaking ride to go on.
As if able to sense Delta’s annoyance Sinclair asked “What’s wrong, Chief?”
Delta only groaned as he jabbed his finger at the ‘Journey to the Surface’ words written on the sign.
Somehow Sinclair seemed to at least somewhat understand what Delta was getting worked up about because he laughed, and said “I did say I went on all of the rides didn’t I? It’s pretty easy to do when there is only one ride.”
Sinclair laughed again while Delta just grumbled as he stomped his way over toward the ticket area that also seemed to function as the security room if the map was anything to go by. Sinclair’s laughter died down as Delta stepped into the Security area.
“You know now is a good as time as any to tell you some of my plans,” Sinclair said as Delta rummaged through the desks in the ticket booth section of the security area. “Did you know that you are a rare old model, son? You are an ‘Alpha Series”, I believe. Now, Rapture’s full o’ scientific wonderments just like you an’ if we can sell ‘em to the world at my price, well curin’ your condition oughta be a cakewalk. Once we find Eleanor the sky’s the limit.”
Delta couldn’t help but pause upon hearing that. So Sinclair’s plan was to escape to the surface and sell Rapture’s technology to get rich? Sounded about right if that one audio diary that Delta had found was anything to go by. With that said did Sinclair really mean it when he said they could cure his condition? Delta couldn’t help but look down at his glove covered hands at that thought. He didn’t know what he looked like out of the suit. He had no memories of being out of it. He tried to picture what he must look like when he is out of the suit, but nothing came to mind. He couldn’t get a mental picture of himself no matter how hard he tried. Delta quickly shook those thoughts off. He had no idea if Sinclair’s offer of ‘curing’ him was real or not. He wouldn’t worry about it for now. Right now he was focused on getting Eleanor, and actually seeing the sky. He could worry about what he looked like out of the suit later.
With that thought shelved for now Delta left the ticket area of the security room to go into the actual security area. There was no tickets for him to use up front. Hopefully, there would be a ticket somewhere in the back. As he walked he passed by a security inventory that was filled with tiny machine guns, and one rather large machine gun. The large machine gun was so big that he couldn’t see a normal human using it. With that said it was the perfect size for a Big Daddy.
‘Maybe there is a key to the security inventory somewhere around here?’ He thought.
He would have to keep an eye out for it. At the opposite end of the hall was some strange machine called a ‘Power to the People’ machine.
“You're gonna want to use that,” Sinclair said quickly as Delta approached it. “Power to the People machines can be used to upgrade any weapon that you got. It will even work on Big Daddy weapons. With that said you can only use a Power to the People station once. So chose what upgrade you get carefully.”
Delta let out a small grunt of understanding as he started to look through the list of upgrades.
As he looked through the upgrade options he heard Sinclair say “You know ol’ Andy was steaming mad when Fontaine started installing these things all over the place. He hated the fact that the machines were free. Thought giving out free upgrades was too close to altruism. He probably would have torn them all out, but the people of the city kicked up enough of a fuss about it that he ended up leaving them. People don’t exactly like it when you take something free from them. Heck, once the civil war stared Ryan’s army started to use the Power of the People stations too. Guess Andy didn’t have a problem with altruism if he could profit off of it.”
Delta let out a small hum as he chose the fuel efficiency upgrade for his drill. While that was an interesting bit of info Delta couldn’t really comment one way or the other about it. He didn’t know what this whole civil war thing was about. It must have happened when he was dead. As for the names Andy and Fontaine Delta recognized those. Andy had to be Andrew Ryan the man who made this hellhole in the first place. Fontaine was the owner of the building that they were going to, and Delta recalled seeing the Fontaine Futuristics company name on a lot of advertisement posters that hung on the walls all over Rapture. While he recognized the names he didn’t care at all about either of them. According to Lamb’s PA messages Ryan was dead. As for Fontaine Delta thought he was dead too. He had some hazy memory of hearing someone say so when he was out harvesting with Eleanor once. Well, even if he wasn’t dead he really wasn’t Delta’s problem.
With a mental shrug Delta walked deeper into the security area. He found a few audio diaries from some disgruntled workers of the park. One was from a security worker complaining over the fact that the job wasn’t as easy as he was led to believe. Apparently riders had a tendency to jump off the ride carts to go running around the ride displays, or if they were not jumping off the ride carts they were throwing stuff at the wax dummies that made up the displays. That audio diary was a bit funny, and it made Delta feel a little bad for the man who had to deal with it all. The other audio diary that he found had been a bit more noteworthy. It was from the man who made the ride in the first place, and the second the diary started it was very apparent that he was not happy.
I was hired to engineer a park the likes of which no man has seen, and now all I do is watch over it like a grizzled sheepdog. My first line of mechanical puppets made the children here coo with wonder. But Ryan thought my vision was immature... "antiquated," he said. This place could have been something magical, but instead he turned it into a school... no, a cathedral. Dedicated to himself.
Delta felt a bit bad for the man, but all thoughts about him faded away when he heard the voice of a Little Sister.
“I’ll make you light as feathers again.”
Upon hearing her Delta ran toward the source of the noise. There in the very back of the security area was a window that looked out onto one of the display areas of the ride. A waxen replica of Andrew Ryan sat slumped in a chair at a desk in a mini replica of an office. A dead body of some unfortunate man was lying near the dummy, and standing over the body was a single Little Sister. While Delta couldn’t see any Big Daddy around the large shadow of a Big Daddy that loomed on the wall made it clear that he was nearby. The loud whale like groan, and the Little Sister immediately jumped to attention upon hearing that. She looked around quickly before she quickly scurried away out of view. The Big Daddy let out a loud groan as it slowly left the area. Once the duo was gone Delta let out a small sigh as he looked around the area. Sitting on a nearby desk was a single ticket.
Delta quickly snatched up the ticket he heard Sinclair say “Jim Dandy. That’ll getcha in the park. But buyin’ Incinerate’s gonna cost ADAM- it’s a sorta genetic goo that lets you rewrite whatever God gave you. The Little Sisters carry the stuff, as you may recall so you’ll need to locate one. I heard whisperin’ near the El Dorado Lounge. Have a look.”
As the radio clicked off Delta couldn’t help but mentally wonder what Sinclair expected him to do once he found the Little Sister. Chances were high that the Little Sister would have a Big Daddy with her. Big Daddies didn’t really interact with each other much if at all. They tended to ignore each other most of the time. The only times they interacted was when their Little Sisters wanted to play with each other, and even then their interaction with each other was more like two guard dogs working together. At least that was how it used to be. With Lamb in charge now there was no telling what would happen if Delta were to interact with a Big Daddy now. He doubted his fellow Big Daddy would just let him take his Little Sister and then walk off into the sunset.
Delta’s train of thought came to a screeching halt when he heard what sounded like glass being smashed somewhere near the entrance of the security booth. Without even thinking Delta raced toward the source of the noise, and upon getting there he saw that a splicer had smashed open the security inventory, and was currently trying to pull one of the machine guns out.
‘Well, this means you don’t have to find a key to the inventory anymore,’ A little voice in the back of Delta’s head cheerily thought.
That thought was also quickly followed up by ‘Why the hell didn’t I try smashing it open first?’
If a Splicer could break it open he sure as heck could as well. Delta mentally shrugged as he zapped the splicer and knocked him out with his drill. Honestly, it really didn’t matter much anymore. The case was open now, and Delta was free to take the monster of a machine gun with him. Once he had his prize in hand he made his way back to the park’s entrance. Luckily, the ticket machine took his ticket without any issues, and Delta was free to step inside. Upon stepping inside he was greeted with the sight of a small booth displaying a single Gene Tonic along with a sign saying ‘Free sample! Get more at the Hall of the Future!’
Upon picking the tonic up the light suddenly flickered on while some confetti burst out from nowhere and started raining down on him.
As Delta shook the confetti off of himself he heard a recorded message say “I am Andrew Ryan, and I welcome you to Ryan’s Amusements. Please enjoy the park.”
The man sounded so bored in his message. He honestly sounded like he would rather be doing anything other than recording that message. It was a bit pathetic for an amusement park honestly, but it only grew more pathetic when some music started to play over the speaker system. Maybe the music sounded nice back in the park’s heyday if the park even had a heyday to begin with, but these days it was just sad now. The song quality was very scratchy and it sadly limped along as it tried to sound majestic. It honestly sounded like the tape that the song had been recorded onto was only seconds away from giving up the ghost and just straight up breaking. Honestly, with the way Rapture was these days it was sort of fitting for this whole city. Ignoring the sad display for a second Delta quickly used the tonic. The tonic was a simple Sports Boost tonic. This tonic was extremely common, and from what Delta remembered it was pretty cheap too. Its cheapness was probably why it was being given out as a free sample to paying customers. Delta wasn’t going to complain. A free tonic was a free tonic, and honestly as a Big Daddy he could do with a bit of a speed boost.
If the lobby of the amusement park had been in a more or less good condition the museum of the park definitely wasn’t. Most of the museum exhibits had been obliterated. Heck, one was just straight up on fire. A lot of the railing that was up on the second floor had been knocked down. There was gas spilled on the floor, and a few bodies laying around the place. Delta also found signs that a lot of people had been living here once. The benches in the room had been made into makeshift beds, and Delta could see a few messy piles of blankets and pillows. Lying on one of the makeshift beds was a single audio diary. Upon pressing play on the audio diary he could hear the sound of children playing. Laughter echoed around him from the diary along with children cheerfully calling out toward their friends. Over the sound of happy kids an exhausted woman started speaking.
I love the kids in Ms. Englert's third grade class, but boy, I had NO idea what I was getting into, volunteering to chaperon this New Year's sleepover party at Ryan Amusements...
Donny?
Donny! Get down off of that exhibit, and I told you, spit out that gum! You'll choke!
A loud sigh filled the air, but apparently the Donny kid stopped what he was doing because the woman continued speaking.
The kids' parents deserve a night off to enjoy New Years, but I'm at my wit's end -- Donny! I TOLD you –
The audio diary cut off just in time for Delta to hear Sinclair sigh over his radio.
“I almost forgot about that school sleepover thing,” Sinclair said. “For the 1958 New Year’s Eve festivities a lot of schools offered to let parents pay to have chaperones babysit their kids for them so that they were free to take place in the New Year’s festivities. They were spread all over the place. When the New Year’s Riots happened a lot of places got shut down so that travel in or out of those places was impossible. Ryan Amusements was one of those places that got closed down meaning that the class, the volunteers, and a few of the employees got shut in.”
Delta had a sinking feeling he wasn’t going to like where this story was going to go.
“A lot of those kid’s parents were killed during the riots. The few people who survived that still cared about the people stuck here had their hands tied. Ryan started setting strict curfews, and he started restricting travel. A lot of the Rapture metro station had been destroyed during the riots. A few stations survived, but Ryan restricted their use so only he and his inner circle could use it. Not that it mattered much. After a few weeks had passed by the war was in full swing. Everyone was a bit too busy trying to survive the war to really think much of poor souls that were trapped here. Travel to this area only opened back up some time back in 61, and by then most of the people who had been trapped here were either dead or splicers. This place is more of a tomb to those abandoned souls then an amusement park.”
Delta couldn’t help but sigh upon hearing that.
1958 New Year’s Eve sort of just sucked for everyone didn’t it?
Delta pocketed the audio diary, and charged forward toward the El Dorado Lounge. He honestly intended to just keep charging full steam ahead until he found the Little Sister. However, when he stepped into the waiting area of the restaurant he couldn’t help but freeze when he got a good look at the place.
One look at this place made it very clear that Sinclair’s comment that this place was a tomb was actually very fitting. Every single booth there had body lying on it. Delta couldn’t see the bodies since they had all been placed in makeshift body bags made out of blankets, sleeping bags, and pillow cases. It looked like the doomed party had made this part of the restaurant into a makeshift final resting place for the dead. It was a rather grim sight. The only source of light here was a small red wagon waiting in front of the door to the restaurant. An audio diary and a tonic sat inside of wagon along with a jar filled with fireflies. A drawing of a Little Sister giving a gift to Delta had been scribbled onto the floor along with the message ‘Hope this helps!’ Delta stepped toward the gift only to pause when he felt Eleanor tugging at their bond. It was a week pull. One that gave him no indication of where she was. All it did was let him know that she wanted his attention. He could hear Eleanor’s voice echo in his head the second she started to pull at their bond.
“Until you arrive, father, I’m trapped here. Smuggling these gifts out is the most I can do to help.”
With the message given Eleanor’s voice faded away, and that tugging sensation he felt from their bond vanished. It was good to hear from her, but he did feel a small stab of concern for her. Was it safe for her to be smuggling these gifts out to him? Lamb probably wouldn’t kill the girl after all the trouble she went through to get Eleanor, but he could easily see Lamb hurting Eleanor if she found out. Delta quickly shoved that thought away. He would get to Eleanor before Lamb could punish her for such things. The tonic was Drill Power which would be useful, but he didn’t pay much attention to that.
The audio diary that came with it was much more interesting. It was one made by Eleanor when she was still a young child, and it was both innocent and disturbing in equal measures. In it Eleanor spoke of sneaking out and seeing the children that Lamb had lovingly said were being raised on a diet of ‘dog eat dog’. It was clear that Eleanor probably took that whole dog thing a bit more literally then Lamb had meant. That child innocence in misunderstanding the whole dog eat dog saying was sweet, but what Lamb had done was disturbing. In the diary Eleanor said that Lamb didn’t let her interact with other children at all. Just how isolated had Eleanor been? The more he heard from these things the more he was convinced that Sinclair was right on the money when he said that Lamb was treating Eleanor like a since project. Heck, he would go as far as to say that to Lamb Eleanor wasn’t just treated like a science experiment. Eleanor was a science experiment. That thought made Delta feel a bit sick. Who treated their own child like this?
‘Someone who doesn’t actually care about their kid,’ Was the answer that immediately popped into his brain.
Delta sighed as he shook his head and stepped forward. Upon entering the restaurant itself he immediately heard the voice of a Little Sister echo through the room.
“Can we go on the ride and see Mr. Angry again, can we?"
The loud rumble of a Big Daddy was the answer to that. Delta quickly moved forward only to find the pair that he had been searching for. Standing there on a small stage was a Little Sister. She was staring up hopefully at the Bouncer Big Daddy that was standing on the stage with her. The Big Daddy let out another low rumble as he reached out and ruffled the girl’s hair. She pouted a bit, but her smile was quick to come back. Apparently she took the rumble as a no, but ultimately she didn’t seem too bothered by it. She was quick to forget her request as she danced along to the music that was being played through the speaker system set up in the restaurant. The Big Daddy with her just stood to the side as it watched over her. Neither one of them had noticed that Delta was there. They were both lost in their own little world where the only thing that mattered was each other. It was a familiar situation to him. Once he and Eleanor had been in the exact same situation. Delta’s radio buzzed to life before Delta could lose himself in his memories.
“Now, that Big Daddy won't bite until you do. But to get to Lil' Sis, you gotta put the old boy down for good. Make sure you are prepared before you start a fight. Those Big Daddies are just as deadly as you are.”
Delta froze a bit upon hearing that. The idea of him attacking a fellow Big Daddy just felt inherently wrong. There was no difference between him and the other Big Daddy. The only difference between the two of them was that Delta had his free will. He didn’t want to kill the Big Daddy. Yet, what choice did he have? The only way he could move forward to get to Eleanor he needed the Little Sister’s help. Besides the girl was a child that Lamb stole from the surface. The child didn’t deserve to die with this sinking city. Tenenbaum had come down here to save the girls. Any of the kids he sent though the vents would probably find their way to her, and Tenenbaum would help get them home. He had already made a silent promise to himself to help whoever he could to get out of here.
So like it or not to save the girl he would have to kill the Big Daddy.
Delta took a deep breath, stared right at the Big Daddy, and quickly zapped him with Electro Bolt. The Big Daddy let out a loud grunt of pain while the Little Sister let out a cry of fear.
"He's bad! He hurts!" Delta heard the girl scream out.
It was something that didn’t help at all with Delta’s feelings of guilt, but he tried to ignore her words as he used his machine gun to try and take the Big Daddy down. It wasn’t an easy job. The Bouncer only had his drill to fight with which meant that if Delta could keep enough distance between them he could avoid the drill. Unfortunately, the restaurant was not very big at all. There wasn’t a lot of room for Delta to duck and doge when a Bouncer was charging at him at full speed. Electro Bolt could stun him for a few seconds, but a few seconds wasn’t enough time to do much. Try as he might Delta wasn’t able to avoid getting smacked a few times. One hit from the Bouncer’s drill was enough for Delta to feel at least a bit sorry for anyone he ever used the drill on. It wasn’t pleasant. By the time the Big Daddy went down Delta had gone through at least two Eve Hypos and he was in despite need of a health kit. The enemy Big Daddy crashed to the ground while letting out a one final sad moan. Delta felt sort of numb as he watched the red lights of the Big Daddies helmet flicker off while the Little Sister wailed in sadness. The girl ran to her protector, and fell to her knees as she cried her heart out.
“Take a breath son, you did it. Now, just let her ride on your shoulders, an' she'll trust you like her own daddy.”
Delta really had to wonder if Sinclair was right about that. Would she trust him? He just killed her protector. How could see trust him after that? Still, he slowly walked toward the girl. Once he was close enough the girl let out a small sniffle, and looked up at him. Upon spotting him a bright smile appeared on her face.
The girl sniffled as she asked “Why am I crying? You're -- You're okay!"
With those words said the girl threw her arms around his leg, and hugged him. Delta let out a small groan as he carefully ruffled the girl’s brown hair. Sinclair really hadn’t been lying. She really did trust him. In fact, it looked like she thought Delta and her previous guardian were the same person. Delta felt a small stab of guilt at how easily he was able to just replace the other Big Daddy, but he tried his best to ignore that feeling. The girl let go of him, and rubbed her eyes. As he watched her he was instantly reminded of the fact that he still had the doll that the Little Sister at the Adonis Resort had dropped when the Big Sister picked her up. He never did get the chance to give it back to her. At this rate he probably never would get to give it back to her. While he couldn’t give the doll back he could at least give it a new home. With any luck maybe the doll would help to make the girl feel a bit better. Delta took the doll out and let out a soft groan as he held the doll out to the girl. The Little Sister let out a soft gasp upon seeing it. The way she was eyeing the thing one would think Delta was offering her something really special and not just some old doll made up of cobbled together parts.
“For me?” She asked softly.
Delta just let out a soft groan as he handed the doll over to the girl.
The girl hugged the doll close to her chest as she cheerfully chirped out “Thank you Daddy!”
Delta let out a small moan in response. While the child marveled over her doll Delta quickly used a health kit on himself, and took stock on his supplies. He used up most of his machine gun ammo on the Big Daddy, so he needed to get more ammo for that. He also needed to find at least two Eve Hypos, and a health kit to replace the ones he used up. He didn’t like the idea of going anywhere without carrying as many health kits as he possibly could. It was better to be over prepared then under prepared after all. Delta glanced around to see if there were any health kits or Eve Hypos lying around.
“Are you looking for something Daddy?” He heard the Little Sister ask.
Delta looked down at the girl only to see that she was looking right back up at him with a smile on her face. To answer her question Delta held up the empty health kit that he had just used to answer her question.
“You need to find one of those?” The girl questioned. “Can I help you look? I’m really good at finding stuff!”
Delta thought about how to answer that question for a moment. The restaurant wasn’t very big. She couldn’t disappear out of his sight, and there was only one way in and out of this place. It would probably be safe to let her search this small area here. The Big Daddy nodded, or well he attempted to nod. The helmet made it sort of impossible to nod like a normal person. All he could really do was make a bowing sort of motion to say yes.
The girl seemed to get the message because she let out a small sound of joy as she said “Don’t worry Daddy you can count on me!”
She probably would have started running around the restaurant right then and there to search, but Delta placed his hand on her shoulder before she could run off. He let out a loud groan as he quickly pointed at the door that lead out of the area and did his best to shake his head no. Again thankfully the girl seemed to get the message.
“It’s alright Daddy I’ll stay right here,” She promised.
Delta groaned softly as he ruffled the girl’s hair and finally let the girl go about searching. The child smiled at him as she carefully put her ADAM syringe down on the stage. Once she had done that she tucked her new doll under her arm. Once her doll was safely tucked under her arm she started to run all over the place searching for health kits. Delta couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at her energy. She was definitely dedicated to the little job that he had given her that was for sure. Delta started to do his own searching, but he made sure to keep an eye on the Little Sister the whole time.
First he searched the corpse of the Big Daddy. He felt a bit guilty doing so, but if he wanted to survive and protect the Little Sister he needed to loot pretty much every corpse that he came across. He knew that the Big Daddy would have some useful things on him. Since it was a Bouncer it would probably have some fuel on him. He would also most likely have a bit of money or possibly even a health kit on him too. He knew all Big Daddies were given money so they could pay to heal at health stations once a battle was done, or to pay for ammo or fuel. Delta had a few memories of having to buy fuel for his drill, or he had to pay for healing from a health station. Sometime he would buy Eleanor a pep bar or a Hop-Up cola from a Circus of Values machine if she mentioned that she was feeling hungry or thirsty. That probably wasn’t what he was meant to do with the money, but it wasn’t like anyone could tell him to not do that.
Thinking of it now he had no idea who had been supplying him with the money back when Eleanor was still with him. Heck, he couldn't even remember where he got the money now that he thought about it. Chances are whoever was in charge of keeping the Big Daddies supplied with cash, bullets, fuel, and whatever else Big Daddies needed probably had some cash delivered to him during his ‘sleep walking’ moments when Eleanor wasn’t with him. It wouldn’t be hard to have what he needed shipped off to one of the many Pneumo Tubes that were all over the city. Delta mentally shrugged off his thoughts about how Big Daddies got money when he was able to find 34 dollars on the dead Big Daddy. He gave a silent thanks to the dead Big Daddy before he finally moved on.
There was an Ammo Bandito machine there that he was able to buy some bullets from. Upon searching the restaurant he was only able to find one Eve Hypo, and one audio diary. He pressed play only to be surprised when he heard the voice of the father that came to Rapture from the surface in search of his kidnapped daughter. Delta had found the diary describing his arrival in the city, and his first encounter with a splicer. Delta honestly didn’t think he would find anymore audio diaries from the man, so hearing the man’s voice yet again was a pleasant surprise. It meant he had survived long enough to get here.
I found one of those children at last. Filthy dress, all alone. I approached her… praying that it was my little girl. But she was… gorging herself on blood from a corpse. It wasn't her. I stared, just, just reeling, and then that skinny… armored freak that took Cindy jumped me, shrieking like an animal! I escaped but… could Cindy have become one of those… things? I've got to find her, now more than ever.
The diary clicked off and Delta was left standing there in silence. He about jumped out of his skin when he heard his radio squeak to life, and Sinclair suddenly started speaking.
“So the topsider has been here, huh? I’m surprised he survived long enough to get here all the way from Adonis Luxury Resort.”
Delta let out a small grunt of confusion upon hearing Sinclair say that. How did he know the about the man from the surface? Sinclair only chuckled at the sound of a confused Big Daddy.
“Don’t sound all confused, Chief. The second you came back from the great beyond I’ve been watching what you are doing through the camera on your helmet along with Tenenbaum. I’ve been listing to all the audio diaries that you have picked up, so I already know about our surface friend.” Delta could hear Sinclair let out a small hum in thought. “Now the question is when did he get here? He’s not here anymore that’s for sure. If he was I would be able to see him on the security cameras. Either he swung by here before I got here, or zipped through here during the rare moments when I was resting and not keeping my eyes glued onto the security cameras. Honestly, I’m surprised Lamb hasn’t raised the alarm over him already. She doesn’t exactly like the idea of anyone getting in or out of Rapture.”
The audio diary from the poor unfortunate couple who tried to escape briefly flashed in Delta’s head upon hearing that. The Big Daddy couldn’t help but mentally winch a little at the memory.
“I suppose Lamb doesn’t think he’s worth mentioning when she has much bigger fish to fry,” Sinclair said. “A Big Daddy is a lot more threatening than a normal man from the surface.”
Sinclair probably had a point with that, but honestly Delta was sure that at least part of the reason why Lamb didn’t raise a stink about him was due to the fact that she probably expected the splicers to deal with the man before he became a problem. Delta hoped the man was alright, but well….
It was Rapture. Good things didn’t exactly happen here.
“Daddy!” The voice of the Little Sister caused Delta to look up only to spot the girl racing toward him with an arm full of supplies.
“I found what you were looking for!” She chirped out.
She did indeed find a health kit although that wasn’t all she had found. It looked like she had also found some money during her search.
“I found some money too! That’s useful isn’t it Daddy? You can buy candy, and pop, and all sorts of good stuff with it!”
Delta let out a gentle groan as he patted the girl’s head. A bright smile appeared on the girl’s head upon hearing his gentle groan. She was clearly proud of herself for helping Delta out like this. The health kit was greatly appreciated, and the money would be useful. She found 24 dollars which was honestly more than he expected. Once he had everything that she had found tucked away for safe keeping the girl asked “Are you ready to go Daddy?” Delta groaned as he bowed forward slightly in an attempt to imitate a bow. The girl quickly ran over to the stage to pick her syringe back up. With the doll tucked under her arm and her syringe in her left hand she grabbed Delta’s hand with her right hand and carefully guided him out of the restaurant.
“This way,” She sang out as she gently guided him forward.
Delta let her guide him forward without making any sound. Honestly, this was petty nostalgic for him. Having the Little Sister gently guide him along reminded him of all of the times that Eleanor would take ahold of his hand to guide him.
Upon stepping out toward the main area the girl pointed down to the entrance to the park’s only ride and said “There it is!”
Delta looked down where the girl was pointing only to spot a dead splicer lying on the ground. The bloody wrench next to the body, and the fact that the splicer’s head looked like it had been smashed in sort of answered any questions Delta may have had about how the guy died.
“Are we going to get the angel Daddy?” Delta groaned and shake his head no as best as he could.
He hoped she got the message. Luckily, she did. Little Sisters seemed to understand Big Daddies better than most.
“But we are going to get it soon, right?” She asked.
Delta gave the girl a thumbs up, and that was enough to satisfy her. Delta looked away from the girl and looked around. Besides the ride which he was sure he was going to have to go into to find more ‘angels’ the only places left to explore were the Hall of the Future, and the Gift Shop. The Hall of the Future was probably where he was going to have to go there to get the fire plasmid so he was willing to ignore that for the moment. He would probably want to check out the Gift Shop. There could be something useful in there. It wouldn’t hurt to check at the very least.
Andrew Ryan wakes one night, while cruising the Atlantic in his steamliner "The Olympian." His sleep interrupted with a singular purpose: "Here!" he shouts to his crewmen, as he wipes sleep from his eyes. "Full stop! We begin building here!”
Delta about jumped out of his suit when he heard that rather loud recorded message echo through the room. He quickly turned only to see that the Little Sister had gone up to one of the still standing exhibits and pushed the button there. She looked a little sheepish when she saw that the sudden loud noise had made the Big Daddy jump.
“Sorry Daddy,” The girl said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
The girl hummed a little as she looked at the rest of the intact exhibits.
“Can we listen to the rest of them?” She asked.
Delta let out a small rumble as he approached the second exhibit in response. It wouldn’t hurt to listen to them. There were only four exhibits, so it wouldn’t take long to listen to them all. The girl let out a loud cheer as she quickly raced over to Delta’s side. They spent the next couple of minutes going from one exhibit to the next. Surpassingly they were all actually informative. Most of the exhibits explained how they got supplies down to the bottom of the ocean, and how they moored the city into the sediment. It seemed the museum had actually been made to educate. It was a bit sad that most of the exhibits had been destroyed, but honestly it was a miracle that some of them had survived at all.
Once they finished listing to the last exhibit Delta picked the Little Sister up, and placed her on his back. He didn’t know what to expect from the Gift Shop, so he didn’t want the girl to get too far away from him. When Eleanor had gotten too far away from him things had ended badly for the both of them. He wasn’t going to have a repeat of that situation. Upon stepping into the Gift shop he spotted a splicer trying to open up the shop’s cash register while another splicer was studying what looked like a fortune teller machine. Delta tossed an Electro Bolt at the splicer near the fortune teller. The splicer screamed and twitched as the electricity ran through his body while the Little Sister happily laughed.
"It's dancing, Daddy, dancing!" The Little Sister happily yelled out.
For a brief second Delta really had to wonder what exactly it was that Little Sisters saw, but he let that thought drop when the splicer near the cash register let out a screech.
"Hand me that child! Now!" The Splicer screamed as she rushed toward him with a crowbar in hand.
That little comment earned her a drill through the head. As the body of the splicer fell to the floor Delta quickly turned his attention into the other splicer that was still paralyzed due to electricity. A few shots from his rivet gun put the splicer out of his misery. After looting the bodies Delta explored the location. There really wasn’t much there. There was only 11 dollars in the cash register. As for the store itself most of the shelves were bare already picked clean by splicers and the unfortunate people who had been trapped here so long ago. The only things there were a few moldy birthday cards in the card rack, and a few dusty toys left behind on the back shelves along with one lone audio diary. The audio diary wasn’t interesting. It was just the shop keeper made a deal with Sinclair of all people to get toys made by people from an area called Pauper’s Drop. When the man in the diary mentioned picking a few needles out of the toy shipments Delta decided right then and there he wasn’t letting any Little Sister that he cared for touch any toys that they found here.
Other than that there really wasn’t much of interest here. The Little Sister seemed rather interested in the fortune teller machine, but she didn’t say anything about that as Delta moved on to investigate the bathrooms. The men’s restroom didn’t have much in there other than some trap rivets. The rivets would be useful when he finally harvested ADAM from that dead body, so honestly just fining those was justification enough for coming into the Gift Shop. The woman’s restroom held no ammo but it did contain yet another shrine dedicated to Lamb. The image of Lamb's stern gaze made Delta’s skin itch. Her picture was surrounded by blue butterflies pinned to the wall. Candles were lit and set up around the picture like it was something worthy of worship. Sitting in front of her picture was a single audio diary. Delta picked it up, and wasn’t surprised when he heard Lamb’s voice come out of it.
I know the surface, Eleanor. I spent half a lifetime there, in service of the common good. But then, I heard my own words twisted by fat old men, squatting over the embers of Hiroshima. Were the modern world a patient in my care, I would diagnose it suicidal. On perhaps that point alone, Andrew Ryan is correct. Rapture... is deliverance.
As the audio diary clicked off Delta couldn’t help but let out a small huff of disbelief. Rapture was nothing but a hellhole. No more. No less. The piles of bodies laid out at the El Dorado Lounge, the dead couple in the sunk bathysphere, and the sorry state of this city made that incredibly clear. Delta turned and left the bathroom.
He was content to leave the Gift Shop behind, but as they passed the Fortune Teller he heard the Little Sister ask “Can we get our fortune told?”
Delta paused for a moment before shrugging. He supposed it wouldn’t hurt. As he approached the machine he heard the girl say “Can I give the money to the fortune teller?” Delta only groaned out an agreement as he gently grabbed the girl and plopped her down in front of the machine.
“We need four dollars, Daddy!” The girl said as she dropped her syringe onto the ground and held four fingers out. “Enough for a fortune for you, and a fortune for me.”
Delta pulled out four dollars, and handed them over.
“My fortune first!” The girl chirped put as she fed two dollars into the machine.
The eyes of the mechanical fortune teller let up as a little mystical sounding song filled the air. The Little Sister looked excited, but her smile quickly faded when the machine said “Believe me when I tell you I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."
Another little song as the eyes of the fortune teller flickered off. The girl stood there staring silently at the fortune teller with a blank look on her face. Delta actually started to worry a bit. He had never seen a Little Sister look so void of emotion before, and the only time a Little Sister was ever silent was when they were hiding from something that was trying to hurt them. The girl stared at the machine for a moment before she finally shoved the last two dollars in.
“Daddy’s fortune next,” The girl mumbled.
The machine’s eyes flickered back on, but the fortune that Delta got wasn’t much better than the child’s fortune. Delta felt a chill go down his spine when he heard the machine say "Well, I hope you have somebody to carry on your family name."
As the lights in the machine’s eyes flickered off the girl very loudly said “Those aren’t very nice fortunes.”
“Those Epstein the Swami machines never give out good fortunes,” Delta heard Sinclair say. “They only gave out bad fortunes, or advice to prepare for the worst. They were real popular during Rapture’s heyday. Never understood why. Who wants to hear that their future is doomed?”
Delta was quiet after Sinclair said that, and almost as if sensing that Delta was feeling uneasy Sinclair quickly said “Don’t you give any of those fortunes any mind. Destiny isn’t written in stone, kid. Anything that fortune teller says is garbage.”
Delta didn’t really react to what Sinclair said. Instead, he just picked the Little Sister up and started to walk out of the Gift Shop. They had an angel to harvest. As he walked he tried to forget those fortunes. He really hoped Sinclair was right when he said that those fortunes were not a warning of things to come…