Cheryl O'Connell's Story

All was quiet in the Kashmir Restaurant. Just to be cautious Cheryl poked her head out from inside the Little Sister Vent and looked around. She couldn't see any splicers, but that didn't mean much. Cheryl paused, uncertain of what she should do, but her stomach grumbled once more reminding her that the next Big Daddy might not come to the vent for a very long time. She realized that her only options were to risk venturing out to get food, waiting until A Big Daddy showed up without a Little Sister with him, and possibly starving to death before that. Well not to death, the slug wouldn't allow that, but it still wouldn't be pleasant.

With that decision made Cheryl climbed down from the vent and quickly made her way over to the kitchen. After about ten minutes of searching she'd only been able to find a bag of potato chips on one of the higher shelves. It was only after climbing onto one of the ovens that she found that she still couldn't quite reach it. Looking around once more she saw no signs of life so, taking out the ADAM needle, she speared the bag on the end, managing to pull it down.

Unfortunately this same action caused a pan that had been perched rather precariously on the same shelf to topple to the ground with a loud, echoing, crash. Freezing in the hope that no one had heard that, Cheryl stayed as silent as humanly possible. After a moment in which nothing happened she slowly began to slide off of the oven. Then a voice spoke from outside the kitchen. "What crawls in my garden?"

Echo:

Echo had been searching for her for some time now. He was very much annoyed Rapture was not just one single floor, because that would have made it much easier. However, he then heard a splicer say "What crawls in my garden?". His protective big daddy senses kicking in, he rushed towards the kitchen, seeing a splicer entering the kitchen, and heading for her. He quickly ran in, grabbing the splicer with his plasmid hand, bringing up incinerate, and literally cooking her in his hand as he squeezed tighter. By the time he was done, it was unclear if the cause of death was suffocation, having 3 ribs puncture vital organs, or burning.

He saw her, and then a bag of chips on the ground. He picked it up with his thumb and pointer finger, and gave it to her, asking "Hungry?", in a deep, low tone that didn't quite sound human, but was close enough. He then offered to pick her up to ride on his back, like a normal big daddy. But this one was different. Special. He seemed like he was extra cautious, as if she was his only true charge.

He hated what he was, and what they did to him, but she seemed special to him. He had figured out what the little sisters were a long time ago. They were victims too, and he had no problem protecting them.

(Il post with Connor later)

Cheryl stared up at the Alpha Series as he crushed and fried the spider splicer into a mass of charred flesh that bore a striking resemblance to an overcooked hamburger. "Daddy!- I mean... darn it." Blasted residual conditioning, protector bond, thingy. "You can talk?" She exclaimed when he spoke. "Do you have a name then?" Cheryl had nothing against the Alpha, on the contrary, while her psychological programing had been broken, the bond between protector and gatherer was still strong as steel. All the same, she still didn't want to refer to him as her father when they both knew he wasn't.

She took the chips and allowed the Big Daddy to pick her up set her on his back. After tearing open the bag and eating several of the chips another question occurred to her. "Wait, what happened? I thought you'd died last New Year's Eve, how did you survive?" Cheryl had always thought that her Big Daddy had perished in the shootout that had taken place here and so she now wondered what he had been doing all this time. As they passed the bar she could smell ADAM nearby, while the scent of ADAM permeated the entirety of Rapture this was stronger and more concentrated. Still she didn't pay it much mind, she had her chips and zero desire to drink splicer blood. Besides Cheryl was more focused on getting answers anyway.

Echo simply said "Echo", but thats when He looked over at Vinni. As if, Echo knew he was there. Or maybe because Cheryl looked that way. He then replied to her other question, saying "I don't die easily....."

Thats when a group of Splicers ran in, heading for a direction, but seeing Vinni, Cheryl, and Echo, and began attacking. One of them idiotically charged straight at Echo, and echo kicked him in the face, sending him flying into another splicer. A spider Splicer attempted him jump behind him, but only got a shotgun to the face. He then incinerated this one splicer shooting them, while shooting another charging Splicer in the face.

"You okay?" he asked Cheryl. Its good to know he cares :D

(Sorry, just wok up, 5:30 Am, so probably nowhere near my best post.....:3)

When the splicers arrived it occurred to Cheryl how this was 'just like old times' as the saying went, a protector and his ward against a group of spliced-up lunatics. She took her revolver from its makeshift holster and fired twice towards the splicers. The first bullet missed and lodged itself in a wall, but the second struck a thuggish splicer directly in the forehead killing him instantly.

"You okay?" Cheryl grinned back at Echo and answered "Peachy, you?" There had after all been a little over a year where she'd had to deal with situations like this without her Alpha Series to protect her, though there weren't usually quite this many enemies at once. She then shot the reminder of the ammunition left in the revolver into the group of remaining splicers, and reloaded.

Vinni listened to the conversation between gatherer and protector intently, highly intrigued. "Damn", he muttered. "Sane little sisters and talking big daddies? Now I've seen it all". As he heard New Year's Eve mentioned, his mind again flicked back to those first few moments of chaos in the city. For some reason, these two seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

He didn't get a chance to. Splicers were already pouring in, in large amount. "Ah, hell. Blasted little sister!" he muttered. He grabbed his short wave radio to get in contact with his boss. "Atlas,", he said. "We've got a problem. Tons of splicers are pouring in, and it looked like they were headed somewhere in a hurry. I'm guessing Ryan is behind this." "Agh, Andrew GOD-DAMNED Ryan!", he heard from the other end of the radio. "What do you think Vinni? Got a plan?". "I'm going to try and lead them on a little chase," he responded. "But I don't think I will be there when Jack gets here. Have Johnny head over to meet him instead, but for God's sake, tell him not to get caught by spider splicers again.", he responded. With out waiting for a response, he grabbed his guns. He saw a Houndini splicer appear above the sister, but neither of the two fighters noticed. "It's show time!" Vinni said.

Vinni popped up from behind the bar with his pistol already out and loaded. He put three bullets in the Houdini splicer's head before it even hit the ground. He then turned to the door that the splicers were coming from, and lit it up with a storm of electricity from both hands. As the splicers were shocked and knocked back by the surge, he turned to the other two. "Listen!" Vinni shouted. "I know you might not trust me, but I can help you. I know an escape route out of here. There is a hole up in the men's bathroom you can use to cross into the theater to get around these guys. From there you can take the stairs to the entrance to Neptune's Bounty and the Medical Pavilion."

Vinni saw the splicers getting back up, so he quickly pulled out his good old tommy gun, and ripped through the splicers with good old automatic fire. He didn't really care if the big daddy and little sister were safe at either place. He just needed them gone, figuring the splicers cared more about the precious Adam then sticking around to pose a threat to Jack. "Quick, go!" he called out to the pair. "I can only keep them off for so long!".

(Right, well due to thinkgs and how they turned out, I am not entirely sure how to post now. Thumper apparently not being able to hear anyone but Alice has made things slightly difficult. He didn't have to speak, he just needed to listen..... >.>)


(Anyways, this is the best I can do now. Actually, tis the only thing I can really do and keep it from sounding stupid)

Connor:

Thats when there was some sort of hit or collapse felt. As if....a plane crashed into the Ocean or something. This knocked a few screws in the areas around the crash site above. Mainly, the entire floor underneath Connor collapsed. Along with a good portion of stairs. Several doorways were also sealed. Thats when he saw another big daddy. Different then Thumper. He quickly got back behind cover. At the same time, he saw three turrets and a camera. He quickly used some hack darts on them, and took control of them, entering the room they were guarding.

It was some sort of monitor system. A name was on some papers about, someone named "Johney". He apparently was monitoring the entire place. He also had this phrase, "Would you Kindly" written down. "Hmm, weird". He began to switch all the security from the console to his side (This ironically causes the alarms to go off when Jack tries to go to Neptune's Bounty and the entire place locks up on him, making him go through Medical, however, at the same time, it does not mess with Atlas's Camera, because it is on a different network)

That's when he severed this console with its previous connection, setting it up on a private connection. A connection neither Ryan nor Atlas can get access too. He made sure of that. He was using something The Thinker made for him. It was a simple exchange. He set the plans in motion to have Sigma Freed, and the Thinker gives him untraceable unjammable unhackable communications.


Echo:

Echo finished off the splicers that were left, then looked at Vinni. MOre were comming. He needed to get Cheryl safe. However, thats when things went from bad to worse. He could hear a large group of Spiders, Nitro's, and Leadheads. He quickly ran to a sealed door, and opened it, squeezing through (notably, Vinni would have ample time to get through as well). He then closed the door behind them. The door itself was broken, so it would not open for any splicer. Thats when he turned around, and saw a body below. Normally, he would wait for Cheryl to tell him ADAM was on it, but there was no need. He was holding a half empty bottle of ADAM. The Funny thing is, up the stairs, there is a Gathers Garden and a Broken Rail.

"Hmm, fell to death.....". Echo noted, putting her down. This means, half a bottle of ADAM is in the body. He set up Trap Rivets in the vital areas, and took out his shotgun. He was still a big daddy. He knew what to do....


(Sorry, a bit tired, but I wanted to get this in)

Cheryl looked back at Vinni as Echo retreated, something about the man seemed very familiar, she had almost figured it out when she was distracted by Echo's comment. "Hmm, fell to death....." She turned to see a body lying below, holding half a bottle of ADAM. She watched as the Big Daddy set her down, set up several trap rivets, which she now knew were not candies, and drew his shotgun.

Cheryl looked from the body to Echo, and back again. "Oh no." She said, "No, no, no, no, no. Do you know what that is? Because I most certainly do." Despite her words, Cheryl was still removing the gathering needle from the belt she'd managed to fashion out of her old hair ribbon. It wasn't that she was refusing to gather, she was just finally able to express how unpleasant the activity was, to someone who was capable of understanding. "You have to drink their blood. And then the ADAM is regurgitated. It's madness, pure madness." Cheryl paused with the needle inches away from the body's neck. "Wait a moment, is he still breathing?" Oddly the person in question didn't seem deformed like most splicers did either.

(Umm, wow, totally accidental. Just realized the reference I made there. Wasn't it a Bouncer though, not an Alpha?)

Echo:

Echo looked at the body. She was right, he was alive. And breathing. And not a splicer. Echo then replied "I know. But better us then a splicer....". If a splicer can get his or her hands on ADAM, it can be used to make that splicer more powerful. The more powerful they are, the more dangerous they are. Simple logic, to say the least.

That is when Echo reved his drill, realizing a sane person is a much bigger threat then a splicer. But before he could do anything, there was this sound. An alarm, saying that something is incomming. As well, several splicers entered to attack. And they all died due to trap rivets. He quickly picked Cheryl up to protect her, and went down another hallway, forcing the door open and shutting it behind them. The alarm also seemed to shut off.

That's when he looked down the corridor they had entered. There were children, dead children. Echo remembered his family, their faces. It was getting harder and harder to remember them. He could no longer remember the name of his younger child, and had trouble remembering the name of his wife and older child. Isab, probably short for Isabel, though he had forgotten everything about her name except Isab, and he barely remembered the name Chris, though he kept spelling it Cris, without the H. He could not remember why, but it was probably the aging memories. To be honest, he wasn't sure if that was even right. Cris could have been their dog's name. In fact, he couldn't be sure any of those names were accurate, or random names he had heard or seen recently.

He continued on, for Cheryl's sake, and his own. He found himself heading towards one of the emergency routes between where he was now, and medical, though he would have to go through a Sullivan Security checkpoint. "Need....anything?"

Connor:

Connor made a note of where everyone was going. Notably, the medical pavilion. He saw everyone. Thumper, Alice, as well as three others, Vinni, Echo, and Cheryl. "Hmmm...maybe I can use this......I need to get my brother to safety.....if I can secure a Bathysphere....". He quickly disabled the security turrets into Medical, and began an override sequence on the barrier, when he was stopped midway. Someone was attacking the defenses outside, and damaged the wires supplying power to this station.

He looked out and saw a brute splicer. "I want that ADAM!".

He charged at him.

(will post more of Connor later)

Before Echo pulled her away, Cheryl took the half bottle of ADAM from the unconscious man's hand. As they ran she examined what she'd just collected. It appeared to be a plasmid, electobolt to be exact. Cheryl thought this might give them an advantage, considering they didn't seem able to stop for two seconds without virtually half of Rapture descending upon them.

Cheryl remained silent as they passed through the hall with the dead children, every time that she thought she'd seen every terrifying sight that the city could possibly hold, there were several more just around the corner. Seeing they were headed to the Medical Pavilion reminded her of her mother, who used to see Dr. Steinman on a fairly regular basis before all this started. Echo seemed to be lost in thought as well, although it was hard to tell for sure since she couldn't see his face.

"Need....anything?" Cheryl smiled up at her protector. "I'm alright. Are you okay? You're the one who doesn't heal immediately after being injured." And then holding up the plasmid, she asked, "Before I forget, do you have this one yet? It's electrobolt."

(Where is everyone?)

Echo:

"Yes....". He replied. This is the first real conversation he had in a long time. That's when he heard an alarm. From the Medical Pavillion. He looked out a window, and saw a whale. His Protector Bond was kicking in even more now. That's when he kept moving. However, as they kept moving, they found that the security checkpoint had been frozen solid. He quickly summoned up incinerate, and melted the ice blocking the way. But that's when they saw another horrible sight of Rapture. Men, women, children. All frozen solid in ice. One family, a father, a mother, and two children. A boy and a girl. Echo once again found himself thinking of his family.

"Isa...." he said, in possibly the softest voice he has ever used since becoming an Alpha Series. But still hearable. He then thought of Cheryl. "You....sure...your okay?".

His voice appeared to be getting stronger. Maybe it was the protector bond. But now, he could only think of his family. Especially of his wife, Isabel.

That's when he realized, he could remember her name again. Progress. And by remembering her name, he realized he could no longer remember his own name. But his memory had seemingly recovered. Or, it was recovering, albeit slowly. But it was something.


(I am not going to wait forever for you people to post. I was trying to allow some time though. >.>)

Vinni unloaded clip after clip into the splicers as the big daddy and little sister darted through the door. It wasn't the hole in the wall, but it was good enough. He slipped through the door just as the big daddy closed it, using telekinesis to shoot back a grenade chucked by a nitro splicer. He turned and glanced at the two of them, finding them both quite familiar, though he couldn't tell from where. He was shook from his thoughts when he heard the big daddy say "Hmm, fell to death.....". He glanced at the body, only to be shocked to find it was Jack, Fontaine's secret weapon.

When the little sister said he was alive, Vinni let go his held breath, only to hold it again when he heard the drill rev up. He was about to say something when the splicers charged in again. While the big daddy and little sister ran off again, Vinni held his ground, firing into the splicers with a whole clip of anti-personel rounds, tearing through them easily. When the last dropped, he radioed Atlas again.

"Atlas", he called over the radio. "Good news. The the sisters are heading towards Medical, I think, and the splicers are following them. Found your boy. He's fine. The route to Neptune's bounty should be clear". "Yeah, well bad news", Atlas responded. "The checkpoint to Neptune's bounty is open and shut back and forth right now. Jack might have to go through Medical".

"What!?" said Vinni indignantly. "What about the splicers? The Big Daddies? Hell, what about Steinman?! He won't exactly let the kid leave symetrical, you know." "He can use it to train for the real challenge" replied Atlas. "I still need you in Neptune's bounty, though. I can get the door open for just enough that you can get in. You need to meet old Peachy Wilkins, to let him know Jack's coming. Who knows, he might think Jack is 'Fontaine's guy'". Vinni chuckled at his and Atlas's inside joke. "Alright," Vinni said. "I'll be there".

Vinni went over to Jack's body, which seemed to be partially conciouss, atleast for a moment. "Hey kid", Vinni said. "You might not remember this, but just so you know, we are counting on you". He turned back to the fried door, and opened it with electro bolt. "Oh, and when you wake up again," Vinni continued as he passed through the door. "Zap the old door mainframe with electro bolt, would you kindly?" With that, Vinni smashed the door again. He headed off to the security center, passing through just before the alarm came back on, slipping into the fisheries with no one noticing.

"Who's Isa?" Echo seemed sort of out of it, well at least he wasn't dancing around singing about angels. Cheryl didn't know if she used to but, as all the other Little Sisters seemed to, the odds were for it. "You....sure...your okay?" "I'm absolutely certain. Though I am grateful for your concern. Are you alright? You keep looking off into space."

Thinking back to their past to encounters with splices, Cheryl was rather displeased to note that she didn't actually do much of anything. Yes, she was supposed to be the gatherer part of the protector/gatherer team, but if she couldn't protect at least herself then she was only a liability. After looking up at Echo and then back down at the half-filled bottle of plasmid she held, an idea occurred to her. Jumping down off of Echo she began searching the room. "And while you explain that could you help me look for a syringe? I've got an idea."

Echo:

Echo looked around, and said "Wife.....she was...my wife...she is dead now.....".

Echo looked around, seeing more frozen people and the entrance into the Security Checkpoint. Sullivan Security, the "police" of Rapture, as well as providing extra protection to those who can afford it. They were led by Security Chief Sullivan. (Note that the Security Chief was a Sullivan, though Sullivan Security never actually existed as far as I can tell).

That's when he found an empty syringe next to a U-Invent. He offered it to Cheryl. That's when he found himself saying "My...whole family....is dead now...I could not even ID....the bodies of my children......there were so little left. I....." he trailed off. He could remember the face of his wife, a tiny bit more clearly. If only a tiny bit. Everything else was still fuzzy though. It was still pretty fuzzy itself. But it was progress.

That was when everything seemed to spring to life around them, power being redirected to where they were, and the door that was sealed became unsealed, opening. A vending Machine nearby also turned on, making noise and no longer being still and acting invisible. Well, maybe it continued to be still, but it was no longer unnoticeable. The security measures also activated, but did not attack them, as was customary with the security in Rapture when spotting Big Dadies and little sisters.

Echo looked on ahead, but was careful not to go too far. He could not leave Cheryl alone. That's when he found an audio log, although he had accidentally stepped on it, so only a bit played "Four Seven Nine Three......Anyways, that's when we brought in the next batch of subjects. All of them lo...". The log ended quickly, it was only a fragment.

Echo thought nothing of it, barring the access code to whatever, which he memorized. He then offered to pick Cheryl back up.


He is nice, if anything.

(Will post Connor Later. Various Christmas Family things to do!

Taking the syringe offered to her by her protector with a nod of thanks, Cheryl listened intently to what he said about his family. "Well, if you couldn't ID them, then maybe they're still alive?" It was a weak attempt at comfort, blatantly obvious really, still it was the best she could think to say about the matter. After all, her own family was all gone as well, though in theory, either of them could be alive since she hadn't actually seen either of their deaths, under the circumstances however, it seemed incredibly unlikely.

Cheryl looked around as power was restored to the area. She shied away from the Circus of Values machine upon its reactivation, there was just something so very, very wrong about those things, and she found their mascot to be infinitely disturbing.

As Echo walked ahead, Cheryl took the syringe and jabbed it into the battle of electro bolt, extracting the plasmid. Tossing aside the now empty bottle she looked at the plasmid-filled syringe. This was either her worst idea ever, or one of her best, though she got the feeling that it might end up as both. Looking up to see Echo examining an audio diary, Cheryl realized that the alpha series might disagree with her plan, and while she valued his opinion very highly, she needed to be able to stand a chance in a fight on her own. Therefore, the most likely way to avoid a disagreement about it might be to just employ her scheme while he was distracted.

Taking a shaky breath she stabbed the needle into her arm, forcing the plasmid into her already ADAM-infused bloodstream. For a moment nothing happened, then there was an explosion of pain and a surge of electricity. All that Cheryl could see was a shimmering blue haze. Finally, after an electric pop that sounded remarkably similar to a light bulb blowing out, the surge subsided and the Little Sister lapsed into unconsciousness.

Cheryl woke around half an hour later to find that Echo was gone. She also had no idea where she was. Alright so that phrase was somewhat inaccurate, technically she could see that she was still in Rapture, big surprise there, and she was still in the Medical Pavilion, other than that though she couldn't be sure. She was debating whether or not it would be safer for her to go look for the missing Alpha series, or if she should just wait here for him to return, when she heard a low thud, followed by another and then another.

As she was still disoriented from the plasmid, the jury was still out on whether or not that had been a good idea, it took Chery a moment to realize that the sound was that of footsteps. Giant, two ton, footsteps. Peeking around the corner Cheryl saw what appeared to be a huge bouncer. While it did seem to have a Little Sister already with it, ti still had to be safer than staying here alone.

Slowly approaching the pair, Cheryl observed that there was something odd about the girl accompanying the giant. She was normal, no glowing eyes, no babbling aimlessly about angels or jam. Deciding to chance yet another massive error in judgment, Cheryl quietly called to the girl. "Hello?" Hopefully neither of them would see her as an immediate threat.