The Man And The Lamb-Chapter 2

Around this time of the day, Rapture would have been completely quiet-and it still was. Even though the city still teemed with splicers, despite Jack’s one-man-war against thousands of them, most of the remaining ones had quietly retreated to the shelter of an alley, a box, a tramcar or even a room in one of the dilapidated buildings that used to be home to the best artists, writers and tennis players the post-war world had to offer.

Yet, at the highest point of the city, gunfire and the cries of battle had been raging on for hours. If any splicers had the curiosity to venture any closer, they would have seen explosions and flames coming from the Special Exhibit wing of Rapture’s Memorial Museum.

The first of the two giants locked in combat looked exactly like a smaller “Bouncer” Big Daddy, but lacked the drill that was often carried. Instead, it switched through multiple guns-a shotgun blasting Lightning buckshot, a fully upgraded Pistol and a Tommy Gun that blazed away in short bursts. Occasionally, when it got close enough, it whipped out a pipe wrench, crackling with electricity, and slammed it into its opponent.

The second figure could be called a moving statue, the classical personification of Atlas-a bald, heavily muscular man, primed to the point of physical perfection and almost godlike in his powers. His skin seemed bronze, and he did not seem human-fire, ice and electricity literally flowed through his body as he hurled fireballs, lightning bolts and shards of ice at the Big Daddy.

Yet, this classical man of metal was still human. Behind the darkened bronze skin and rippling muscles was the infamous gangster Frank Fontaine, who had pumped himself up with all the ADAM he could find and turned into a bronzed abomination.

An abomination with absolutely no private parts at all, that is.

And he was battling Jack Ryan, the son of the city’s founder turned-Big-Brother-style dictator, Andrew Ryan.

And unfortunately, things weren’t looking good for Jack.

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How is he still alive?

Jack had been expecting a long and brutal fight from the moment he’d seen the state Fontaine was now in.

The gangster had endured burning gasoline, proximity mines, and a very violent fall down the stairs. He had been pumped full of crossbow bolts, bullets from Security Bots, countless Electric Buck and slammed into walls from Heat-Seeking RPGs. Jack had thrown all his remaining plasmids at him, emptied his guns into him over and over, bashed him with his wrench repeatedly and stabbed him with the ADAM needle whenever he had the chance.

If Fontaine still resembled Atlas, all the ADAM he had back then would have done him no good against Jack’s assault. He’d be a torn corpse sitting in a sea of his own blood, like another regular dead splicer.

Whatever I throw at him, he keeps on coming. When will he fall?

Jack was beginning to have doubts about the resilience of the Big Daddy suit as Fontaine’s hardened fist slammed into his helmet.

Diving backwards to avoid a crackling electric bolt, Jack let off a savage burst from his submachine gun as Fontaine charged towards him. The titan staggered, letting Jack set up a Target Dummy before Fontaine recovered.

He charged off to a vent, gratefully accepting the ammo from a Little Sister as Fontaine rose up and gave the decoy a furious right hook.

“IT’S THE DOUBLE CROSS, HA? I’LL GET YA!”

Fontaine raised his arm and immediately summoned another battalion of loyal splicers, who rushed in, guns blazing and hooks swinging. Their determination was admirable, but it didn’t stop them from being destroyed by the Trap Bolts or gunned down in a storm of lead.

As Jack’s Thompson finally ran empty, Fontaine hurled his fists at him again, following up with a barrage of electric orbs. Catching them as if they were baseballs, Jack telekinetically reflected them, sending them into a wall instead. Screaming in anger, Fontaine charged at Jack, slamming into him repeatedly.

Groggy and aching from the pain, Jack weakly staggered to his feet, before freezing Fontaine with Winter Blast. Hoping that his final strategy would finish him off, Jack limped around the arena and fired the last of his mines around the frozen mobster, then retreated to a safe area when Fontaine broke out of his icy shell.

While Fontaine was covered in shrapnel and smoke, Jack gingerly lifted up his Crossbow, steadied his tired arms and aimed at Fontaine’s moving head as the giant struggled to escape the minefield.

Steady now…

At the very instant Fontaine’s head finally stopped moving, Jack fired. Before he could turn around, the bolt slammed into Fontaine’s skull.

Shaken from the impact, with his legs and arms screaming in protest, Jack got out his ADAM needle and prepared to charge. Meanwhile, Fontaine quickly ran back towards his machine, hanging there once again to try and recharge.

Ignore the pain! He’s at the end of the road as well! One last hit, Jack! Go get him!

Roaring a final battle cry, Jack lunged at Fontaine and thrust the needle into his groin with all his force, before finally collapsing in exhaustion.

Then, to Jack’s horror, Fontaine slowly stood up and threw the needle away.

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In her vent, Masha Lutz quietly blinked back tears.

This wasn’t right! Mr. Bubbles had faced dragons, evil knights and fought scary sorcerors and witches. No matter how scary they were or how big they were, Mr. B had knocked them down and sent them running away. But now the bad man had trounced poor Mr. B and now he was about to make him into a sleeping angel.

All Masha wanted was to run over to the golden knight lying on the floor and try to give him some goodies to get him back up, but she knew that Mr. B would not have liked that. He would have wanted her to stay back to stop her getting hurt from a spell or dragon flames.

Then, all of a sudden, a pretty woman wielding a crossbow popped up in front of the vent. She put a finger to her lips before Masha could talk, then beckoned her to come closer. Although the Little Sister didn’t exactly recognize her, something told her that this woman meant her no harm.

“Masha, when I raise my hand, rush out of the vents and harvest that giant brute’s ADAM.”

Excitedly, Masha nodded in response, gripping her needle excitedly. The woman smiled and moved on to talk with the six other girls in the vents.

They were all going to save Mr. B. Now all they had to do was wait.

----

"I had you built! I sent you topside! I called you back, showed you what you was, what you was capable of! Even that life you thought you had, that was something I dreamed up and had tattooed inside your head. Now, if you don't call that family, I don't know what is. And now…"

As Fontaine gloated, Jack miserably lay on the floor, battered and dizzy from the pain. He could barely hear what Fontaine was saying.

All he knew was that he had lost, and the man who had destroyed his life had won. He hoped that Tenenbaum could get the girls somewhere else safely, but they now stood no chance against Fontaine, no matter how many Daddies they had left.

Then, Fontaine started screaming as bolts tore through his legs, sending him crashing to the ground. Jack gazed in surprise as the 4 Little Sisters charged out of the vents and furiously stabbed Fontaine with their needles, draining away every last bit of life he had as he desperately tried to wrench them off.

And walking over to Jack, with a crossbow in her hand, was a brunette dressed like a stewardess.

It wasn’t until his savior helped him out of his suit and whispered her congratulations to him did Jack realize it was Elizabeth.

----

A few days later, Jack and Elizabeth stood at the steps of the lighthouse together, both holding hands.

Although still shaky from his duel with Fontaine, Jack felt almost nothing as he gazed at the beautiful horizon, sun shining through the clouds and reflected on the events.

Once Elizabeth had helped him to his feet, a Little Sister approached them, holding Ryan’s key in her tiny hands, offering it to Jack. The key would let him control the city and all the technology and splicers that were in it. He could have even cleaned up the place, making it safer for the Sisters to live in.

But he’d refused the key. As happy as they were, the city was still a wretched, miserable hive, unsafe for the girls to live in. Instead, he’d taken the child’s hand and tossed the key away, limping back off to the safe house, surrounded by the overjoyed girls.

The recovery had been agonizing and painful, but to have Elizabeth by his side the whole time was more than enough to make up for it. To have her cuddle him when the nightmares returned, kiss him better or simply chat with him was better than any first aid kit.

As he found out, Elizabeth had been forced to drown Booker, in order to stop Comstock from existing. She then travelled through all the different universes, eliminating Comstock after Comstock, with the help of two scientists known as the Lutece twins. With all her targets gone, she’d headed back to Rapture to find Jack and found him just as Fontaine was about to dispose of him.  

Both of them were now free, their missions fully completed, and so Jack and Elizabeth decided on what to do with their lives now.

Jack’s train of thought was interrupted as a bathysphere splashed onto the surface. The hatch opened, revealing the seven children quietly shielding their eyes from the sun’s glare.

Slowly, Jack and Elizabeth helped them into a waiting boat nearby, piloted by the Luteces. The papers for their new lives had been prepared and already there was a house set up for them, in a quiet suburb.

As the Little Sisters chattered excitedly, Elizabeth tenderly kissed Jack’s cheek and burrowed her head into his shoulder. In return, Jack quietly clasped her hands and planted a kiss on her forehead.

They’d both been denied the freedoms and love that came with a proper childhood, and they knew the effects all too well. And these young girls had been denied it for too long.

Now Jack and Elizabeth were together, they could now raise the Little Sisters as their children, sparing them the traumas they both had endured. The girls would be able to learn, to find love, to see the world and be free. But most of all, they would get back the one thing stolen from them all those years ago-a family.