06-12-2018, 06:09 PM
Eleanor dragged Roger’s clunking mechanical corpse deeper into the alleyway, gasoline dripping from every joint. Some of the shit he drank, no doubt. The girl supposed she’d solved at least one mystery when she’d stabbed the poor bot.
Though several persisted. What was a robot skinned up like a hobo doing trolling the alleyways between some apartment buildings on the second tier? How had his programming been twisted into something so overtly creepy and sexualized? And, most importantly, where the hell was she going to hide his body?
Her eyes scanned the danker corners of the alley, searching for a spot dark enough to shield the robotic corpse from curious eyes. Plenty of options presented themselves, but they all still seemed a tad too out-in-the-open for Eleanor. She bit her lip.
“Where’s Roger?”
Eleanor whipped around at the sound of a man’s voice coming from the street. Roger’s body hit the ground with a clang as she dropped it and sprinted further into the darkness, taking cover behind a large, black dumpster.
The smell made her nose wriggle with discomfort, but she remained frozen in her spot as footsteps click-clacked down the backstreet. They came slowly, carefully.
“Roger, honey,” the man squeaked. His voice had an interesting lilt to it, similar to some of the upper-class gentlemen in Rapture. When the dark times came, those men fell along with the fancy ladies - obsessed with looks and fashion, beholden to their material possessions, their sight unable to focus on what truly mattered: survival; escape; freedom.
“Who’s out there? I know someone is,” the mysterious man called.
Eleanor held her breath. In her home world, she knew she’d have been able to trash the intruder with her Big Sister armor on. In this ‘Omniverse,’ however - things were more unclear. Was he another prime? If so, chances were he was much stronger than she. Besides that, her armor had lost all of its weaponry, all of the plasmids attached to it, and she felt much weaker in general than she remembered being seconds before she’d spilled out onto the alabaster floor of the place people here called ‘the Nexus.’ All she had was the syringe strapped to her left arm. She wouldn’t engage unless the man left her no choice.
“Rrrragh!” he roared, and from her post behind the dumpster, Eleanor Lamb heard the guy pick up Roger’s body and toss it against the wall. It smashed against the brick, presumably breaking into a bunch of tiny pieces, and then clanked against the ground for several seconds until, finally, an eerie silence overtook the alleyway.
Moments passed with no noise, and Eleanor felt a chill creep up her spine as she realized she couldn’t discern her new house-guest’s location. Tentatively, she decided to peek around the corner of the dumpster.
What she saw puzzled her; the man had taken to staring at the wall.
Upon closer inspection, the girl noticed the bricks shifting, switching places with one another, traveling up and down, side to side. They began to separate, opening what seemed to be a secret door leading into a place that - somehow - was even darker than the alleyway she now shared with this intruder. Roger lay in several pieces at the foot of the wall, sparking and whirring with the sounds of a machine slowly dying for good. Eleanor supposed his impact must’ve activated some sort of switch, leading to the opening of this passageway.
For the first time, she got a good look at the intruder, too. Dressed in a long, red velvet coat and with slicked-back black hair, the flamboyant man clunked forward in overpriced leather boots, his upper half disappearing into the shadows of the new cavern as he took a gander inside. “Well, Roger,” he muttered to himself, “you’ve not died in vain, it seems.”
Those words had no sooner left the man’s mouse than he slipped into the darkness, disappearing into the lower reaches of Lieutenant Atreya’s apartment building.
Eleanor’s moment was upon her - she sprinted toward the edge of the alleyway, but as she neared the open streets and escape, something made her pause. She glanced over her shoulder at the freshly opened hidden corridor.
No, no, no - get out of here. Wait for Atreya to come back. Report what she’d seen.
She didn’t listen to herself. Against her better judgment, she moved back to the entrance, gazing inside. The entirety of the corridor adjacent to the backstreet was too dark to see anything in, and seemed to be a nice long leap down. If she went in, it’d be hell to get back. So, of course, she did.
Armored feet landed on the ground with a metallic clink. She swirled her fingers, and utilizing the technique Atreya had taught her before, summoned a replica of the original helmet to her Big Sister armor, fastening it on her chest piece and popping open the gills that allowed her to breathe. She could never be too safe here, in this strange new world - and this way, the mysterious intruder wouldn’t know her identity if he somehow made her. She took a long, deep breath, feeling around in the darkness for some kind of door, which she eventually stumbled upon.
It was open. He wasn’t far.
She entered.
Though several persisted. What was a robot skinned up like a hobo doing trolling the alleyways between some apartment buildings on the second tier? How had his programming been twisted into something so overtly creepy and sexualized? And, most importantly, where the hell was she going to hide his body?
Her eyes scanned the danker corners of the alley, searching for a spot dark enough to shield the robotic corpse from curious eyes. Plenty of options presented themselves, but they all still seemed a tad too out-in-the-open for Eleanor. She bit her lip.
“Where’s Roger?”
Eleanor whipped around at the sound of a man’s voice coming from the street. Roger’s body hit the ground with a clang as she dropped it and sprinted further into the darkness, taking cover behind a large, black dumpster.
The smell made her nose wriggle with discomfort, but she remained frozen in her spot as footsteps click-clacked down the backstreet. They came slowly, carefully.
“Roger, honey,” the man squeaked. His voice had an interesting lilt to it, similar to some of the upper-class gentlemen in Rapture. When the dark times came, those men fell along with the fancy ladies - obsessed with looks and fashion, beholden to their material possessions, their sight unable to focus on what truly mattered: survival; escape; freedom.
“Who’s out there? I know someone is,” the mysterious man called.
Eleanor held her breath. In her home world, she knew she’d have been able to trash the intruder with her Big Sister armor on. In this ‘Omniverse,’ however - things were more unclear. Was he another prime? If so, chances were he was much stronger than she. Besides that, her armor had lost all of its weaponry, all of the plasmids attached to it, and she felt much weaker in general than she remembered being seconds before she’d spilled out onto the alabaster floor of the place people here called ‘the Nexus.’ All she had was the syringe strapped to her left arm. She wouldn’t engage unless the man left her no choice.
“Rrrragh!” he roared, and from her post behind the dumpster, Eleanor Lamb heard the guy pick up Roger’s body and toss it against the wall. It smashed against the brick, presumably breaking into a bunch of tiny pieces, and then clanked against the ground for several seconds until, finally, an eerie silence overtook the alleyway.
Moments passed with no noise, and Eleanor felt a chill creep up her spine as she realized she couldn’t discern her new house-guest’s location. Tentatively, she decided to peek around the corner of the dumpster.
What she saw puzzled her; the man had taken to staring at the wall.
Upon closer inspection, the girl noticed the bricks shifting, switching places with one another, traveling up and down, side to side. They began to separate, opening what seemed to be a secret door leading into a place that - somehow - was even darker than the alleyway she now shared with this intruder. Roger lay in several pieces at the foot of the wall, sparking and whirring with the sounds of a machine slowly dying for good. Eleanor supposed his impact must’ve activated some sort of switch, leading to the opening of this passageway.
For the first time, she got a good look at the intruder, too. Dressed in a long, red velvet coat and with slicked-back black hair, the flamboyant man clunked forward in overpriced leather boots, his upper half disappearing into the shadows of the new cavern as he took a gander inside. “Well, Roger,” he muttered to himself, “you’ve not died in vain, it seems.”
Those words had no sooner left the man’s mouse than he slipped into the darkness, disappearing into the lower reaches of Lieutenant Atreya’s apartment building.
Eleanor’s moment was upon her - she sprinted toward the edge of the alleyway, but as she neared the open streets and escape, something made her pause. She glanced over her shoulder at the freshly opened hidden corridor.
No, no, no - get out of here. Wait for Atreya to come back. Report what she’d seen.
She didn’t listen to herself. Against her better judgment, she moved back to the entrance, gazing inside. The entirety of the corridor adjacent to the backstreet was too dark to see anything in, and seemed to be a nice long leap down. If she went in, it’d be hell to get back. So, of course, she did.
Armored feet landed on the ground with a metallic clink. She swirled her fingers, and utilizing the technique Atreya had taught her before, summoned a replica of the original helmet to her Big Sister armor, fastening it on her chest piece and popping open the gills that allowed her to breathe. She could never be too safe here, in this strange new world - and this way, the mysterious intruder wouldn’t know her identity if he somehow made her. She took a long, deep breath, feeling around in the darkness for some kind of door, which she eventually stumbled upon.
It was open. He wasn’t far.
She entered.