I... Really don't want to talk about what had just happened. None of us did.

I mean, we finally find another big daddy. Another member of Rapture's artificial family... And I'm forced to kill him...

I'm aware that I can't change things that have already happened. I'm also aware that festering on these events isn't healthy... But that doesn't stop me from thinking of my little sisters every now and then; Why should I do any different for a fellow protector... Or, former protector, I suppose.

Hm... I should stay focused. If my mind keeps on lingering on this recent event, then we won't get anywhere soon.

Shaking my head, and moving these heavy thoughts off for later, I quickly took note of where we were, giving a quick scan of the small room that we were in. At the moment, we were on raised flooring. A stairway was clearly visible just ahead of us, around the corner of the adjacent wall. Two stone columns accentuated this staircase, connecting the relatively low ceiling, for our current position at least, to the tiled stone floors we stood on. Thin metal railings surrounded the squared off staircase, ensuring that even a bumbling idiot would be able to get through here scot free... Before the splicers started to go nuts, I mean.

Further ahead, past railings and all that, there was a large glass wall, as would normally be found in Rapture. It's view, however, was obstructed by several large, two dimensional cut outs of city buildings. A couple of there were tipped over onto their sides, while the rest were slanted in an uneven and unaligned form... I could see the frustration in Rarity's eyes now as she looked to this, her inner neat freak likely screaming at her about the matter. Joining this not too far off wall, there was another raised platform stood in the furthest left corner of the room, though several miscellaneous objects blocked any good sight I had of it. To our immediate right, there was a locked door, with red light enveloping a text that read 'Maintenance Entrance. Employees Only.' I rolled my eyes at this. Nothing is easy. I get it.

Turning left though, there was a different, more disturbing sight to greet us. It seemed like a small square room, built the wall at the possible minute, missing whatever door and front wall could have further been added to it. It was slightly raised above our ground level, by about a step's worth of height, and was entirely outfitted with a red carpeting floor, rather than the stone tiles of the rest of the place. In this room, a glove and a lamp were placed in the closest, leftmost corner of the room, just to the side of a bare glass cabinet. Against the wall opposite to us, there were two bookshelves. At first, this had excited me, my mind already beginning to wonder if I may find even more interesting pieces of literature... Until I realized that the book spines didn't have any covers or titles to them. They weren't real books. No, they were just decorative pieces used to fill up the shelves, giving it a more professional look...

Damn it.

Of everything in this small room though, there were two that were the most blatantly obvious. A smooth wooden desk, adjusted and positioned so that it would be right in front of the 'office' area, and behind it, a wax mannequin, made to look exactly like Andrew Ryan, his left elbow resting on top of the back of his seat, and his right leg crossed over his left. Creepy, and infuriating.

To the girls though, it was mostly the former. They both gave out light, barely visible, shudders as they glanced at the wax dummy, Fluttershy even going so far as to take a step or two behind me. As for me, I just sneered at my former 'leader's' likeness.

Garret, on the other hand, didn't seem to particularly care towards the display, instead focusing himself more on his programmed duties of protecting us. Winston... He reacted differently.

While I was busy grimacing at the son of a bitch before me, I managed to overhear the sound of Winston's constant beeping, growing in volume with each one. Glancing towards him, a sigh escaping me as I hoped to shut up the annoying bot, my brow rose as I noticed him flying... Oddly. It was rather wildly, in fact. As if his inner gyroscope had- Oh, damn it, I wanted to do that!

Before I could mentally complain any further about the loss of a good method to get payback on Winston, if only by a random glitch, he let out another prolonged beep, his radical and out of balance flight taking him into the small office room.

Fluttershy, Rarity, and I watched as he tumbled through the air, his entire body seeming more like a flailing mess as, eventually, he actually went so far out of control that he knocked off the wax figure's head... And then he just stopped... I'm serious.

Immediately after he hit the duplicate's head and knocked it off of its shoulders, he started to fly normal again, as if nothing had happened. In fact, he had even turned to me for a moment, and, after a second of two, let out a quick tone, before then just returning to hi own duties... Had... Had he done that on purpose...?

If so, then I guess that he's earned a few points from me after all... Still don't like him.

"Um... Omega... C-can we go?" Turning my attention to Fluttershy, I noticed that she was shaking a little more so than before, her eyes glancing to and from the fallen wax head, which now seemed to be pointed straight towards her.

Okay, yeah, that's a pretty good reason to go.

Reaching behind and patting her head, causing her to look up towards me instead, I gave her nod, turning myself on my heels as I started to make my way towards the stairway, allowing me to gain a clearer view of what was below, and to our sides.

Garrett and Winston were the first to make their ways down, flying over the railings and awaiting us high in the center of the room, also giving themselves a clear point of surveillance.

As the girls and I made our way downstairs, myself constantly looking behind me to make sure they were fine, I took notice of the several hollow boxes and wooden pallets that littered the way, all made clearly visible by a light positioned above the middle of the stairway. Another thing that I noticed was an overhanging pathway, placed above the corner right in front of us. It was closed by glass walls, and pretty much up it of all of our reaches... Aside from Fluttershy's, that is. Through these glass walls, I could see an empty hallway, and another closed off security door, bathed in red light.

Raising a brow, I made a note of this for later.

When we finally reached the bottom of the stairway, Garrett and Winston making their way towards us quickly after, we were quickly greeted by the sight of several empty pods. Each of them seemed similar to bathyspheres, but with their own distinct differences to them.

For instance, it looked as if it had been shrunken down and hollowed out for the convenience of the rider.

There was no longer a glass covering to it, or a large seating area. Instead, the metal was simply cut out into an upside down 'u' shape, allowing a clear view of what would be ahead, and there were a few red cushioned seats bolted down against the inside wall of the pod. It seemed like it could fit two people; Three if they didn't mind squeezing themselves in.

Alongside that, the flooring of the rides were made of patterned metal paneling. In fact, of the many that were currently in front of us, resting motionlessly on its metal and mechanical railings, one had it's floor covered in dried blood... And vomit...

Gross. I made sure that the girls and I avoided that one.

Following the railing, it could be seen that the pods had piled up, and allowed themselves to be broken apart, vandalized by splicers, and even flipped over in some cases. In this pile, there were several spread about metal panels, the patterns on them similar to those on the flooring of the pods.

From where we stood, we could also see another locked door straight ahead of us, labeled 'staff only'. I suppose it's pretty obvious where we have to go from here.

Urging for Fluttershy and Rarity to watch their step as we walked over the railing of the ride, and started to make our way around the obstructing pile, I started to unconsciously take note various pieces of fallen rubble and broken down girders, the cut-out city buildings seeming like giants now that they were next to us. I could even hear rubble and glass cracking below my shoes as we went on.

Thankfully, I had told the girls to be careful.

Some of the parts of the ride's railing could be seen still moving, likely operating itself from its lack of command or operation.

Walking around the pile of rubble and trashed pods, I saw what I presumed to be the lead-in to the next area of the park. The supposed ride's entrance itself. It was sloped upwards in a relatively steep manner, its railing made visible from its raised form, and continued movement of machinery. Above this, there was a large sign that read 'Journey To The Surface', themed in an eerie format, with what looked like red-eyed seahorses circling around it...

Really? This is what they think of when they're asked 'what's scary'? Seahorses?

... I swear, the people who once ran this city were a special kind of stupid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This place was... Odd, to say the least. Fluttershy and Rarity had never seen anything like it, but, then again, they'd never seen many things before they had arrived in Rapture.

This was, of course, no excuse.

As Omega had wordlessly asked of them, they were being very cautious with every step they took. After all, they knew well and good that he had his reasons for them to do such things, and they had no issue with trusting his judgement.

In fact, as if to further prove this point, Rarity had stepped over quite a few glass shards that she would have missed were it not for her extra care in the matter. Fluttershy had taken to flying, though only by a few centimeters off of the ground, in her own care, keeping herself nearby Rarity and Omega while the two security bots circled around them.

When they passed by the pile of rubble, their footing now becoming much more safe than it was before, Omega stopped where he was, scanning the room once more.

His attention lingered on the sloped entrance to the actual ride, already well aware of the fact that this was likely where they would need to go.

However, this was one of the latter figments of his attention, as a nearby light reflected off the railing that he looked towards, causing him to turn to face it.

For a moment, his eyes widened, as both he, and his charges, turned towards the source of the light. Behind them, just off to the side of the pile they passed, opposite of the path they had taken, was a small security booth with two rectangular glass windows. A bright light could be seen through one of these widows, lighting the room and, as well as that, a bit of where the group was.

Glancing to one another, the three, and their accompanying security units, made their way over to the security booth. Omega had figured that, since it was such a small room, and they weren't exactly straying far from where they were supposed to go, that this would be a good opportunity to see if there were some sort of terminal or control panel in the booth. Maybe then they'd be able to remove the lock down and leave this place.

And if not, they'd at least be able to find some resources that they could use.

As the doors to the small room slid upwards, giving out its usual series of clanks and clicks as its gears shifted against one another, Omega was the first to enter, taking a quick glance around the room while his charges, and security bots, followed shortly after. The room itself gave out a rather depressing overtone.

Once vibrant and colorful paints that smeared and decorated the walls in their complex designs had become faded and chipped to the point where it was almost unrecognizable. Small splashes of water littered the room, but that was to be expecting. In a dreary fashion, fitting towards the room though, moving pistons and pumping engines could be seen to the groups immediate right. It was silent, small, and clean; Unlike most things in this broken down city.

Omega deducted that this was the reason for the still functioning rails. To think, people who could create power sources that ran this long and cleanly without fail had also been the cause of the city's fall. "Ironic." Omega thought to himself half-halfheartedly, having grown used to this idea long ago.

Along with this apparent engine, however, there were also a few more scantily placed objects, such as a cleared out wooden shelf sitting in the corner of the room, two metal filing cabinets, and an opened wooden table, which currently held up one of the imbalanced and fallen over cabinet. Atop of this desk, there sat a familiar container of ammunition, red in it's color.

Omega checked the closed and straightly stood cabinet with haste, believing that there may have been something for him to use within its contents. All he could find though was three spare dollars. Not even enough for a single cream-filled cake from one of the vending machines around here.

Rolling his eyes at this, Omega then mentally beckoned for the more useful of items in the room, the container of heavy rivets moving into his palm with an almost perfected and practiced grace. He barely gave his improved use with the plasmid a second thought as he began to count out the rivets in the container, for when the situation demanded. In total, there were four.

The former big daddy had barely been able to near his new set of ammunition to his bag before, suddenly, and without provocation, Mill popped his head out of his self-proclaimed comfort area and grabbed hold of the container using his toothless and flexible maw. It wasn't anymore than a millisecond that he had gone up, and even less so than he had gone back down, taking the rivets with him; Omega's hand gripped at the nothingness it now held, himself looking to the situation incredulously before shaking it off as another usual day of strange happenings. Besides, Mill was only trying to help after all.

With his looting of the small room done, his charges and bots clear in the back of his mind as they awaited patiently for him to finish, Omega moved his head to face his left, nearby the glass windows that allowed view into and out of the room.

Metal and electronic machinery was what met his gaze, a hopeful twitch of his lips coming about him as he recognized the design of the control panel in his sight.

He knew that, through the use of logical reasoning, this was likely the same panel that was used to monitor and work the ride, its managers and mechanics using it to push and pull the pods along this tracks at set speeds in set directions.

Nonetheless, he also knew of the fact that a security lock down, which was currently what plagued him and his companions, could have been initialized from even the smallest of control points. This was no different.

With a stride of his legs, Omega made his way over to the panel, setting himself to inspecting and fiddling with the over-sized control device. Right off the bat, he could tell that it was in bad shape. Buttons were rusted to the point where he had to force them in before then yanking them out with his plasmid, layers upon layers of dust had gathered upon it, and several parts of it had become shutdown from its own deteriorating status.

His deftness at the switches and knobs of the machinery proved to be for naught as the only thing that respond to his ministrations was a small screen, repeating an already well-known message. "Area Lockdown Initiated."

"I should've guessed as much..." Kicking the defunct panel and allowing for the loud clang of its circuit-filled metal to echo through the small room, Omega sighed at his misfortune.

"... No luck?" Rarity asked caringly, her and Fluttershy taking a step closer to their stressed guardian. He shook his head in response, turning towards the two as he leaned against the metal of the panel. That's all it was useful for now anyways.

Rarity put on a kind-hearted and positive smile on her face, hoping to cheer up her slightly downtrodden friend. "Well, I'm sure that things will lighten up soon enough. Everything has a way of working out. Right dear?" She said with a small gesture towards her timid friend, who gave out her own smile in return.

"Oh, yes. E-everything has a positive side to it in the end... Like..." She momentarily trailed off here, her face catching a light tint of red to it as her gaze shifted to the ground, and back.

"Like when we met you." Rarity nodded at this supporting of her attempts by Fluttershy, though, a small part of her mind questioned as to why she chose those specific words, or that specific example, in doing so.

Omega gave a partial grin at the kindness of his two charges, giving them thankful nods before, with a quick heave, he moved himself from the panel and started to move towards the door out of the security booth. He had not aboard ones his growing tradition of patting and ruffling the two's heads though, gaining two soft giggles from the ponies.

A certain robot of immature programming, however, couldn't help but to professionally comment on this though, giving out a progressing beep as he did so.

"ANALYZING SITUATION--
RESULTS INCONCLUSIVE--
LOCATING CLOSEST RELATABLE TERM--
RESULTS: 1--
'UGH'--"

Had Omega heard this, or even understood it, the robot would have been made into a tin can by now. Thankfully his binaries had forbidden this sort of thing, of which he was greatly thankful for.

-------------------------------------

"Back out here again." Omega thought to himself as he and the rest of his small group began to approach the upwards sloped floor that led into the Journey To The Surface ride.

To him, it was beginning to feel monotonous; Going one place, backtracking, going to another. Still, he couldn't necessarily believe that it was purposeless. It had often gotten them some useful materials, after all, despite its time consumption in doing so.

Of this cycle, it was now time to return to the journey at hand, as the group now faced the elevated and slanted floor and railing before them. Glancing to the two security bots, Omega soundlessly motioned for them to fly ahead and scout out the area. Accepting electronic tones answered him as the mechanized drones both flew upwards and into the area, disappearing behind the angled floor no sooner than they had done so.

It was short moment before they were heard from again, loud resounding beeps signifying that the area was clear.

Omega nodded at this, glancing towards his charges and sending them his usual gesture for them to follow as he went on ahead, his rivet gun at the ready despite the all-clear of the bots. He wouldn't take any chances after all.

Upon his first step onto the raising floor however, he quickly found his eyes widening as his feet nearly slipped out from under him. Water soaked and slipped up the smooth, metal and already unstable footing below him, making something as simple as a walk seem as though it were an extreme.

His shoes giving a soft squeaking sound below him, he was barely able to secure himself, the rough and rubber soles of his shoes helping to keep him in a climb, though having to take slow and painfully uneasy walk. An unsure look came across Rarity, and Fluttershy, as they saw the issues that Omega seemed to be having, constantly losing and gaining his hold on the flooring below him as if he were skating on ice for the first time.

Nonetheless, taking a quick and confident breath, Rarity soon followed after Omega, placing her front-most hoof up onto the angled flooring while Fluttershy again unfurled her wings.

For a moment, she felt this would be simple, her fetlock only momentarily trembling at the upwards and slicked ground below her hooves before she managed to hold it steady. As she was spurred forth by the ease of this first step though, it was the slight raising of her other forehoof that proved to be her literal downfall.

Omega heard an audible yelp and a clang, followed by a pained whimper, as Rarity's hoof lost all semblance of friction that it had believed itself to have gained from the surface, prompting him to quickly turn himself around, again almost losing his own footing.

The moment he caught sight of a downed, and seemingly hurt, Rarity though, Fluttershy seemingly attempting to assist her hurt friend to the best of her ability, he dropped his focus without another thought, allowing himself to awkwardly slide the floor towards his charges.

He hurriedly made his way over to the white and purple unicorn, kneeling himself opposite of Fluttershy, who looked towards him with what seemed like shared concern, and looking over Rarity.

She was prone on the ground, her hind legs to her sides and faces forward while she held tightly onto her muzzle with her forelegs, her eyes scrunched together, her nose wrinkled, and her ears splayed tightly against her head as she released small and pained whimpers. "Oof... Ah..." She muffled through her covered muzzled, tightening and just as quickly loosening her hold over her face, as if unsure of what would be the best course of action.

Momentarily grimacing at this, Omega gained the attention of his charge with a caring hand atop her neck. One of her eyes squinted open as she looked to Omega, who in turn returned the gaze with a clear sense of solace.

A small groan was heard from him, as if any louder a volume would further hurt his dependent, as he attempted to ask if she was alright.
Rarity was aware of his implied questioning of her well-being, but she was also hesitant in giving any sort of answer. Especially in a situation in which she had caused her own injury. It felt almost shameful to cause Omega even more of an issue than he normally had to deal with, more so when it was something so minimal and easily avoidable.

Noticing the silence Rarity had taken, Fluttershy was able to quickly read her friend, if only due to the fact that she knew that she likely would have felt similarly to her friend. She lowered her head towards her friend's ear, softly assuring her that she had nothing to worry about.

"It's okay Rarity," she said, "we won't be mad, or anything. Just move away your hooves so we can see... Please."

Peaking open her other eye, Rarity glanced to her friend, who gave her a kind and assuring smile. She found a distinct irony to this, considering that she had often been the one attempting to comfort or support the timid mare, rather than how it had so quickly changed in the presence of Omega.

Nonetheless, as her sight went almost guiltily to the floor, she followed Fluttershy and Omega's gentle urgings, pulling her hooves away from her muzzle and allowing the two a clear view of it.

Omega inwardly flinched as he caught sight of the forming bruise along the furthest forward right side of her muzzle, but he gave Rarity a supportive and thankful pat on her neck nonetheless.

Sharing another glance with Fluttershy, Omega gently placed his gloved fingertips under and around Rarity's chin, lifting and tilting her head up as he and the pegasus looked over her discolored blemish.

"Ah! C-careful." She said, a small jolt of pain hitting her as Omega gave the bruise an experimental, and light, tap. Aside from this, she did not so much as cringe whenever Omega, or Fluttershy, would near the bruise in their examinations, nothing but the utmost trust in their ability in her mind.

Eventually, with a simple sigh, and a flashed smile, Omega reached into his bag again, feeling around for one of the two medical kits that they had found some time ago. He had, to his own gratefulness, seen that the bruise on Rarity's muzzle was simply just that. A bruise. No broken bones, or anything of the like.

As he had done before, Mill took notice in the hand that entered his small hideaway, an excited squeal exiting through his throat as he began to seek out whatever it may have been that his master was in need of.

He watched as he grazed his palm over the more visible and reachable choices, ignoring food cans, ammunition containers, and even EVE hypos as he went along. Mill took an educated guess as he noticed that this wasn't what Omega was seeking, digging himself further into the cluttered mess that was Omega's bag.

Passing by several cans of food, and three oddly shaped and colored blankets, Mill saw what looked like a thin white container, among another of twin similarity, with a red plus sign emblazoned atop of it. A squelch of sorts resounded in his ears from his squirming self as he gripped onto the pack, pulling it bit by bit through the rest of the collapsed mess inside of the burlap bag.

Omega, in fact, raised a brow as he felt this shifting of items on his, followed shortly by the introduction of a smooth and cold surface onto his palm. He grabbed hold of it nonetheless, a silently thankful smile adjoining his features as he realized what had just occurred. "Someone earned themselves a treat for later... Do slugs even eat treats, or am I thinking cats and dogs?"

With a shrug of his shoulders at the thought, Omega pulled the medical kit out of the bag, undoing it's small latch and exposing it's contents to the air and atmosphere of Rapture.

Fluttershy passed her hoof soothingly along Rarity's, who had currently been holding her pained muzzle with a forehoof again, as Omega searched through the kit, eventually finding what he was looking for with a satisfied grunt.

Placing down the container next to him, Omega pulled out a small tube of medicinal cream, followed by a small square bandage, before looking to Fluttershy for a hand. "Er... Hoof."

Handing the two objects to Fluttershy, who took them within the careful vise of her two fore-hooves, Omega once again took hold of Rarity by her chin, shifting her facial direction appropriately so that he would be able to obtain a better angle of it... And inadvertently, though not to Rarity's displeasure, putting her face mere inches from his.

A tinge of red moved across her face, some of it even being visible through it's discoloration as her eyes shrunk slightly at the proximity between her and Omega. Her guardian, however, did not see to notice this, instead focused solely on the current cause of her discomfort as he motioned for Fluttershy to hand him the medicinal cream.

She did so, and then some, having noticed that his other hand was preoccupied and opened the tube with a twist of it's top in between her teeth. She had then poured a small amount of it onto Omega's outstretched hand, receiving an unexpecting, but still thankful, expression from Omega as he returned to his musings.

Not yet releasing his hold on Rarity, he cautiously dabbed and smeared the cream atop the bruise on her face, eliciting a chilled squeak and shudder from the unicorn as the cream's cold and clamminess made itself known. Finally, after Omega had been satisfied with his work, he once again looked to Fluttershy, who nodded in understanding as she made her way over to his and Rarity's side, the bandage in hoof.

She peeled off the bandage covering with her teeth, as Omega held the functional part of it between his fingers, the two ending with their own halves of the medical covering. Again looking to Rarity, whose eyes had been closed as he had placed the cream on her, he positioned the bandage over her lathered bruise, placing it in a fashion so as to keep the substance in, while allowing the bandage itself to stick.

Once he was done, he gave a content smile, releasing Rarity and petting her head to let her know that he had finished, eliciting a sigh from her before he began to put away the medicinal cream into the first aid kit once more, closing its latch together and replacing it into his bag of supplies.

Omega stood himself from his kneeling position, dusting off his pant leggings and giving his back a stretch as Rarity followed suit, lightly rubbing at the newly placed bandaging near her snout. "... Thank you." She said with a smile of her own, glancing to both Omega and Fluttershy.

The two gave her nods as Omega then looked the raising flooring before them, pursing his lips in thought.

It was apparent that this was... A rather ensuing issue, at least for Rarity. Granted, Fluttershy could easily fly over this obstacle, and Omega could even manage to make go way up, but even then, he had great trouble in doing so without losing his balance. "Hooves," he surmised, "probably don't make things any easier."

The thought of simply carrying Rarity, like he had done in a previous situation of similar manner, came across his mind, but was quickly dismissed. He was barely able to balance his own weight on that slope, let alone that of another's.

Glancing around various parts of the room however, hatched an idea, snapping his fingers together in realization as a smirk came across his face.

Fluttershy and Rarity watched as Omega walked opposite of their intended path, heading over to the large pile of broken down or fallen over pods. He inspected each one of them, seeing if they were, at least, in minimal condition for his formulated plan.

The moment he had found one, it's only fault being two cracked headlights and a few scrapes along the metal shelling, he quickly turned himself to face the girls, motioning for them to move back by a small degree. They did so without hesitation, though curious expressions adorned them.
His charges now away from the metal rails of the floor, as he had hoped for, Omega returned his attention towards the pod, taking a breath before he gave his neck a quick crack, and positioned himself next to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This could either be very smart... Or very stupid. For the most part, I've tried to favor the former of the two... Tried.

Rolling my eyes at these thoughts, I gave my right shoulder one last roll, my mind already set on what I was about to do. I moved my feet slightly outwards and reached my arms out for the fallen pod, grabbing hold of its top and bottom with as strong as a grip that I could muster–Metal bending from the force–before giving out a quick heave, and lifting the pod right out of its pile.

Scraping and crashing metal could be heard as the build-up of pods lost one of its supports, but at the moment, I was more focused on what I was doing, the metal pod now held high above my head in both of my arm's holds.

I staggered for a moment as I turned myself around, silent curses escaping me as I moved with the weight.

It's not even that it was heavy, honestly. Rather, it was more because its weight was horribly shifted to one side, in preference to the other. It was as if I was lifting a barbell with most of its weights stacked on one side. Not fun.

Nonetheless, I made up for this imbalance of weight as best as I could, even going so far as to lean myself in doing so.

Turning myself around and moving at an agonizingly slow pace towards the railing on the floor, I barely noticed my charges watching the scene from the sidelines, their mouths slightly open as they saw me move the pod along.

At this point, one would think that they would be used to seeing me do things like this, considering the frequency in which I actually do it. At the same time though, I'd say that it's pretty understandable. Especially now that I'm out of my suit.

It was much easier to believe a metal behemoth could perform such acts, as opposed to a normal human... Okay, 'normal' isn't the right word.

My breath catching as I yet again almost fell over in my distraction, I gave out a quiet groan as I finally reached my target, being right next to the metal railing that was molded into the floor.

A grunt escaped me as I practically slammed the pod down onto the metalwork, forcing the metallic wheels on its underside to hug around the railing, keeping it in place.

With that done, I took in a few deep breaths to calm myself, wiping off a small bead of sweat that had formed in my exertion before giving the pod and experimental push to either of its sides. It moved smoothly back and forth of the railings, a satisfied smile gracing me as I then turned my head to my charges and called for them.

They were, apparently, still in their states of amazement before the sound of my speechless voice rang through to them, the two shaking their heads–Much to my amusement–as they then began to make their way over to me.

The two reached me with soft smiles, of which I returned, as I then stepped slightly to my side, motioning for them to enter the pod. Making sure that they watched their footing as they took their seats within the attraction's usual mode of transport, even having gone so far as to take their hooves and help them in, I gave the pod and track another once over, making sure that everything was still fine before I began to make my way behind it.

"Again, thank you Omega."

"Yes, t-thank you." I overheard the two say as I moved out of their sight, my small smile becoming even broader as I heard them.

The more difficult part of my idea having been gone through by now, I positioned myself behind the pod, placing both of my hands flat against it's back before, with minimal effort this time, pushing it forward.

I did so for a short amount of time, moving the ride along its rails before, finally, I felt it catch on something, momentarily shaking as it did so, before then starting to move on its own.

It's a good thing that the moving parts of this railing still work, otherwise this may have proven to be more difficult. In fact, my only other option would have been to lift Rarity over the floor using my Telekinesis plasmid... And... Well, lets just say that I don't exactly have the necessary finesse for that sort of thing yet.

As the pod transferred from the flat floor to the angled, I made my way over to its side, grabbing hold of it and using it to better climb the platform. I know I could've just gotten into the pod myself, but Rarity and Fluttershy seemed comfortable with the space that they had, and I really didn't want to bother them for that. I digress.

Metal clanged and clunked as my charges and I finally managed to reach the higher floor, the floor's colored metal shifting to, oddly enough, wooden planking.

Winston and Garrett were among the first things to attract my attention as we came into the room, the two seeming to have been patiently waiting for us as we entered... Pfft. I can't even say that with a straight face really, so let me clarify. Garrett was patient. Winston, on the other hand, gave out a beeping time of annoyance.

Really? Rarity gets hurt, and you-... Save the fun for later, Omega. You can always tear off his rotors on your own time.

"'On your own time'? Since when is this a job!?!"

Gah! Just when I thought I had gotten rid of you!

"You know, you can't get rid of yourself... Well, technically you can, but-"

Shut up! For fucks sake, I'm kinda in the middle of some-

Before I could go off on a tirade against... Yeah... I heard the faint sound of crumbling come from above me, and a sudden itch come to head.

Rubbing off the small pieces of debris that had, apparently, sprinkled onto my head, I glanced around the room, having been brought back into my focus.

The ceiling of the room, the cause of the debris, had inwardly collapsed on itself, barely allowing for its retained place as several of its inner metal supports were exposed, bent and rusted. Grimacing at this, I moved myself over to the side slightly, sidestepping the falling bits of ceiling, along with a more than visible water leak.

The room in its entirety was made to look like an old dock. A painted on background, made to look like a sky and horizon, served as the now faded backdrop of the scene. Fake plastic shrubs, and similarly false trees, swayed in the artificial winds of Rapture's ventilation system. The wooden dock floor led towards the left, with the ride's metal railing, and right, moving over shallow water meant to represent the offshore ocean. It was about ankle high, rippling continuously as several more leaks in the roof flowed into it, causing it to flood and flow over it's sides, including over the sloped flooring we just had trouble with.

Yeah. That figures. Still, I have to wonder what it would've been like to have been assigned this area for repairs and patrols as a big daddy. I had to deal with all of Upper Rapture over the years, and I could tell that those repairs were nothing with what was needed down here... Huh, I never thought I'd ever be grateful for the job that I had.

As if to prove my point even further, up ahead, following the rails along the left passage, it seemed that another part of the ceiling had actually collapsed, a large portion of the path ahead having been blocked off, leaving only a narrow pass along its side. Well, that made my previous efforts relatively fruitless, didn't it?

Sighing, I yet again grabbed hold of the pod, stopping it in its place with minimal effort; The moving parts of railing below it groaned and screeched in complaint.

I made to look to the girls and tell them that it would be best if they got out before the pod jammed, but, by the looks of things, they had already gotten the hint, the two giving me prompt nods the moment I looked towards them.

Like I had helped them in, I helped them back out of the pod, taking their hooves and escorting them out, before then releasing my hold on the pod. It went for a few more feet, its previous metal complaints now silenced, before it grinded its way into the pile of rubble that blocked its set path, blocking off its railings and effectively shutting it down within an instant... I'll be honest, that was extremely anti-climactic.

Oh well. Nothing lost, nothing bothered.

"Well... This is... Surprisingly pleasant." Rarity said, glancing around the oddly themes room herself. Personally, I couldn't really disagree with this statement. After all, it did all look really nice... It made me wonder if the really was how the outside world looked...

"You're getting distracted agai-"

You're not helping!

... Ahem. Now then, which way should I go? Left. Or right?

I ended up putting it to a sort of mental coin flip, settling myself to go right with a bob of my head.

Fluttershy, Rarity, Garrett, and Winston followed without a word–Granted, the security bots can't really talk anyways, but the point stands–as I walked along the wooden pathway that led to an open area on the right, and...

Well, lets put it this way. People often end up going in circles without even knowing it, right?This city being no different, of course...

This was one of those situations. That raised platform in the corner of the room earlier? That's pretty much where the path led, so I'd say that the slap I gave my own face was well deserved. If anything, the only thing this had provided was another viewpoint of the room from earlier, a broken first aid machine on one of the walls of the small path that led to it, and another mocking vita-chamber... Fun.

Oh, another thing. Rarity and Fluttershy giggling at the sight? Fine with me. In fact, it's welcome. Winston laughing at the sight, or at least seeming like he was laughing...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I must ask, was that absolutely necessary?" Rarity asked her now smirking friend, as the group now walked with a soaking wet, and blissfully quiet, security bot. It had taken a bit, but simple thought, a push, and telekinetic blast, Winston was practically drowned underneath the–Now even more shallow–water.

Of course, Omega had made sure not to aim his plasmid towards the machine, and instead towards the water itself, causing it to blast upwards. He didn't have a particular preference towards the machine, but he still wasn't going to be destroying him just yet.

Whether he would confess it or otherwise, he still believed that the robot had it's uses... And besides that, he found great enjoyment in its comedic presence. He had something to let out his stress on.

Having left Rarity's question unanswered, though a soft chuckle did escape him, she rolled her eyes at him, instead finding interest in what currently surrounded them.

Some time after that bit of petty vengeance from Omega, though he found it to have been completely worth it, the group had made their way down the opposite passageway, following the partially buried railing.

The entire area was, to put it kindly, in ruins. Though most of the ride was simply a narrow pass, it seemed to have been made to appear as otherwise, as if they were in an alleyway, or walking down a road of sorts. The backs and fronts of houses were painted and decorated into the walls, their window lights seemingly turned on, and a familiar pattern appearing between each one; House of brick, house of wood, house of brick, house of wood.

Lamp lights lit the way, along with the dim lights of the house interiors, as they walked down the wooden floors of the attraction, taking care to avoid the railings in between.

Like any attraction though, the ride also had small... Attention grabbers, so to speak. The first of which had come into their view no more than a few feet into the ride.

Momentarily slowing their pace, the group found themselves looking towards the scene with gazes of interest, and partial confusion, as they went on.

In the scene, a grown man, a farmer, was clearly visible, and iron hoe in his hands as he tilled the field... Or, at least his front lawn, due to the small size of the area. "I may not know how to grow anything short of a... Okay, I don't know how to grow anything, but I'm pretty sure this scene is all wrong in that regard."

Behind the farmer, there was a small house. It was quaint, but it was cracked and chipped, practically falling apart at its hinges. At the doorstep of the house, there was a woman, who I guessed to be the farmer's wife, and a relatively grown boy, another farming implement similar to that of the farmer's hung over his shoulders, and a cheery smile on his face as he looked over to the working man. Unbeknownst to any of these family members though, a large suited hand overhung the house, threatening to come down on it.

This was Ryan's addition to the work. Another piecing of his insipid ideology. 'On the surface, the farmer tills the soil, trading the strength of his arm for a home and lands of his own. But the Parasites say, 'NO! What is yours is ours! We are the state, we are God, we demand our share!''

"Wow," Fluttershy found herself commenting, "this... Reminds me a lot of the ponies back home." Her voice was almost distant, really, but at the same time, it had the utmost attention to it.

Omega rose a brow at this, looking over the scene another time over to try to understand what she had meant.

"Hmmm... I suppose it does." Rarity mentally agreed, momentarily picturing earth ponies in the place of the human figures, smiling and sharing similar looks of pride about them.

As the sight of this scene was lost, the following corner of it now having blocked the group's view of the scene, and their heads all turning to face forwards again, Omega shrugged his shoulders.

Up ahead, a small green sign, shaped like an arrow, pointed out the obvious. 'This way', it read, unknowing of the sort of barricade, make-shifted of several boxes and used props that blocked the path. It wasn't particularly large in it's size, nor was it a major issue, so much as an inconvenience. Especially considering the fact that two wooden boards, likely having been placed by some of the earlier survivors that once resided in this city, allowed for someone to easily just walk over it. Exactly what the group did, in fact; Save for the security bots, which flew over the blockage with ease.

A short upwards walk, not even relatively comparable with that of previous, and a small drop from which afterwards, the group continue on, soon coming upon another point of interest.

This time, upon Omega's silent command, the group stopped, looking to him as he glanced around the area.

To his left, there two doors. One was fake, having been decoratively embedded and painted into the wall.

The other was labeled under 'Maintenence Acess', but broken down, and its metal bent inwardly.
On the right, a 'building' with a large, golden, and horizontal sign reading 'Censorship Bureau' stood, making up the corner of the narrow passageway, before a rightward turn. An opening in the building's wall, a small trail of oil nearby it, revealed another room for the group to explore.

As for further ahead, following the railing and the ride's pathway, even more wreckage of the park's attraction could be seen, including another sign that read 'this way', but this time sparking, and some its wires clearly visible.

"...I... Think I'll go... This way...." Omega thought to himself as he looked over his, and his group's, options.

He pointed towards the opening as he looked back to his charges and programmed escorts–Though one was only doing this for his own reasons–receiving nods of understanding, and confirming tones, in return.

-------------------------------------

Forwards, right, and left. It was an odd path for the opening in the wall to follow, but not an unbelievable one. Many parts of Rapture had confusing structuring and the like, and for Omega, who had lived in this city longer than most, it had turned into something he was used to.

Nonetheless, the path did eventually lead somewhere different. An open, though not really that large, room with a protective wall, and a thick glass window built into it. This allowed for a clear view of the room in it's entirety as they approached this structure, their eyes once again wandering as they did so, with Omega keeping his gaze focused forwards.

Empty shelves, similar to the many had seen before, accented parts of the room, with layers of dust having gathered on them; A few broken stage lights, which they once used for the scenes spread throughout the ride, were littered on the floors and hung on the walls nearby these shelves. Through the glass, from afar, Omega could see what looked like another of the ride's pods, its inner wire circuit exposed through a panel, and the machine itself placed flatly upon a raised circular pad. Along with this, he could make out an 'Ammo Bandito' vending machine in the far corner on the right, and about three workbenches, one with tools hung neatly above it, and one with a slightly worn phonograph, spread about the room.

A ride cart garage. This was where the maintenance members of the Ryan Amusement ride management would repair any malfunctioning, or simply dirtied, pieces of its equipment. Of course, not much of that was occurring anymore, but its reasoning for being there still stood.

As Omega and his party made their further into the room though, the once limited glass providing for a now clear view of the entire room, the protector of the group felt his eyes widen, and his heart momentarily seem to stop beating, before the starting to pound his chest.

Within an instant, and without warning, Omega ducked down below the glass window's view, taking his charges down with him in a swift, and admittedly jerking, movement. So much so, in fact, that were it not for the fact that he had placed his hands over their mouths, they would have yelped in surprise.

Leaning his back against the wall under the window, and both of his charges still in his grasp, Omega moved his head for the two security bots to hide themselves. They did so without complaint, or even a sound of agreement, as they quickly caught sight of the situation, moving adjacent of the window, but remaining out of sight.

Satisfied with how they had hidden themselves, and with the fact that he had not heard anything to make him think otherwise, he looked over to his charges again. Fluttershy and Rarity were both looking to him questioningly, confusion clear in their eyes as Omega realized that they had yet to see what he had seen. He figured that it must the size difference between them, and the fact that they weren't exactly that close to the windows themselves when this occurred.

Gesturing with his hand, which he pulled away from Fluttershy for a moment, he put his finger to his lips before she could even make to ask her question, telling them that they needed to be silent. Fluttershy, though she still did not understand, nodded, and Rarity, whose mouth was still covered, did the same.

Now freeing both of his hands, Omega glanced between the two one more time, before then putting his gaze to the window above. His eyes narrowed as he turned himself in his position, moving to his feet and slowly raising himself up to the window again. Fluttershy and Rarity did the same, though with much more care, and a slight hesitation.

This time their eyes widened, as the three now looked at the forming situation at hand. In the center of the garage, three splicers could be seen in plain view, each of them crouched over, and busying themselves incoherently. With what, exactly?

A turret. It seemed as though they were trying to repair, or do something of that like, as could be seen from the sparking and shut down machinery. From Omega's viewpoint though, despite not even being close to the machine, he could see that it actually didn't need to be repaired.

It was likely just set to seek out the genetic code of anything that wasn't a splicer, like them, and, considering the fact that that's not exactly a common sight anymore, it hasn't had reason to turn itself on. It was basically out of a job.

"...Not for long." Omega thought to himself as an idea began to form. Lowering himself into a crouching position, Fluttershy and Rarity removing themselves from the glass just the same, Omega pointed the girls, then towards the ground, asking for them to stay here. Again, they nodded without hesitation.

Shifting his gaze to his security bots, Omega flicked his wrist to the side, once again activating and switching out his plasmid as a familiar blue orb of small insect-like creatures appeared in his hand.

Winston and Garret no longer seemed to care about their previously given instructions, lowering themselves in front of Omega, their headlights focused on the orb. Omega cursed his luck at the sight, having forgotten about the two's obsession with it, along with every other piece of artificial intelligence's. Despite this, Omega just rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, deciding that this wouldn't be too much of an issue.

Moving himself slowly, and carefully, around the right corner of the wall that him and his charges from the splicers, also moving past Fluttershy in the process, Omega silently peered his head around the corner; He held the Security Command orb behind his back, allowing the security bots to continue in their trance-like states without being seen.

"You get that thin' working yet?" One of the splicers–The one on the left– answered, a revolver visibly holsters around the hoop of his belt.

"Probably not. Fish couldn't fix a nick in his shirt, let alone dis!" The splicer on the right answered, twirling his meat hook in his hand as he impatiently crouched by.

"Quiet ya's blokes! I ain't able t' concentrate wit' all that noise!" The final splicer answered, his iron pipe lying lazily behind him as he continued in his work.

Pursing his lips and raising a brow at the performance of the idiotic splicers, Omega began to move the plasmid out from behind his back and around the corner of the wall, Garret and Winston of course following it with great interest as he did so. He started to count as he continued to watch the three, glancing between the splicers and his plasmid as he lined up the shot. Finally, once he reached ten, he gave the orb a quick, and powerful, toss.

It hit the splicer in the middle square in the back, but no impact or force could be seen in it, as it instead simply splattered on the back of the splicer, and a little of it even transferring to the other two. How they hadn't noticed this sudden color change, Omega would never know, but as the turret's light turned itself on, and its inner motor began to work, he realized he couldn't care less.

The turret first lifted and moved its gaze to the splicer in the middle of the group, its built in, singular light bathing the splicer. "See that!? I think I got it!" He exclaimed, Omega mentally chuckling as he did so.
Holding back both of the security bots, so that they would not be tempted to follow the guidance of the Security Command, Omega watched as, with Rarity and Fluttershy still firmly behind him, the turret cocked its gun. "What the-" One the other splicer's exclaimed, backing away from the machine as it fired upon the one in the middle, his blood staining the glass of the walls that Omega and his charges hid behind, Fluttershy and Rarity cringing at the sight and sound.

Among this initial pepper storm of bullets let out, one ricocheted of the metal wall, hitting the side of the phonograph and, while not having caused it any major damage its internal components, causing its needle to fall upon its record and begin to play its song. A horribly unfitting, yet somehow even more so, song.

"Children have you ever met the boogie man before~
No I'm sure you haven't, you're much too good I'm sure~
Don't you be afraid of him if he should visit you~
He's a great big coward so I'll tell you what to do.~"

The two splicers, though initially surprised, quickly began to rush to shut down the turret, the leadhead firing desperately at it while the spider splicer slashed at it wildly. The turret, however, was relatively unaffected by this, aiming itself at the leadhead and once again cocking it's gun.

While the spider splicer continued it's slashing, the leadhead ran to the nearest piece of cover it could find, choosing to hide behind a nearby wall... The wall already occupied by a smirking, and waiting, Omega, his charges behind him with their eyes closed and ears covered. Before the splicer could even stammer for words to this situation, Omega had already released his two security bots, switching out his plasmid yet again and aiming it towards him.

"Hush, hush, hush, here comes the boogie man~
Don't let him get too close to you, he'll catch you of he can~"

The spider splicer's attention was moved from the turret to the nearby corner of the room, next to the protective wall that his splicer friend had run to cover for. He was practically launched into the wall there, embedded deep into the metal, and a large cracking sound echoing through the room. As if this wasn't enough though, two security bots flew into sight and, with the continued assistance of the turret, peppered the body with lead until it was nothing more than unrecognizable mush.

It was then that a man came around the wall as well, making himself visible as he flexed his hand and wrist. With a grin on his face, he turned to face the remaining splicer, along with the two security bots and the turret, as he raised the large weapon he had attached to his left arm.

"Just pretend~
That you're a crocodile~
And you will find that boogie man will run away a mile~
Say 'shoo shoo'~
And poke him with a pin~
Boogie man will very nearly jump out of his skin~"

The moment the splicer noticed his odds, he pounced onto the ceiling above him, narrowly avoiding the fire of the turret and the security bots as he began to move his way across the room, towards another open passageway on the left.

Omega narrowed his eyes as he moved his gaze to the splicer's targeted area of escape, his irritance quickly turning to smugness as he took notice of a familiar looking red barrel that lied near the path entrance.

"Say 'buzz buzz'~
Just like the wasp that stings~
Boogie man will think that you're an elephant with wings~"

Landing down near the barrel, the splicer began to run, causing Omega to only roll his eyes knowingly, as he quickly put his finger on the trigger to his rivet gun.

"Hush, hush, hush, here comes the boogie man~
Tell him you've, got soldiers in your bed~
For he will never guess that they are made of lead~"

With one more punctuating note from the band from the phonographs music, Omega fired, the rivet instantly piercing the barrel's outer covering and causing it to violently rupture, creating a sizable fireball, and loudly booming shock wave, that all but vaporized the splicer.

Omega lowered his weapon as he nonchalantly made his way over to the still slightly entranced turret, the music playing an instrumental that simply screamed 'marching music' as Omega found his head bobbing side to side with the tune, moving about the wiring of the immobile sentry.

"Say 'hush, hush', he'll think that you're asleep~
If you make a lovely snore away he will soon creep~
Sing this tune, you children one and all~
Boogie man will run away, he'll think it's Henry Hall~"

With one last wire, the small red system lighting on the turret turned green, as it harmlessly began to look Omega over, scanning its recently removed threat. Omega smirked as he removed himself from his kneeling position, giving out a groan and calling for his charges.

"When the shadows of the evening come across the sky~
And your mummy comes upstairs to sing a lullaby~
Tell him that the boogie man no longer bothers you~
Uncle Henry is so kind, he told you what to do~"

Peeking their heads around the wall they had hidden behind, opposite of the clump of flesh and blood that used to be identifiable as a splicer, Fluttershy and Rarity caught sight of Omega, a smile on his face as he waved towards the two.

With soft smiles of their own, though they shuddered when they glanced towards one of the other nearby corpses, the two made their way to Omega and the reprogrammed turret, Winston and Garret following shortly after, having been released from their previous trances.

"Hush, hush, hush, here comes the boogie man~
Don't let him get too close to you he'll catch you if he can~
Just pretend, your teddy bears a dog~
Shout out 'get him teddy' and he'll hop off like a fro-"

Having reassuringly patted the two's heads, Omega moved over to the phonograph and removed the needle from the disk, silencing it and muting the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well... For once, that song didn't stink... Huh.

After that little spat, I had decided to check the Ammo Bandito vending machine. I mean, normally, I wouldn't really have used this machine, considering it specialized in its selection of ammunition, and I much rather preferred the selection of that creepy clown machine, but hey, I figured that I'd at least be able to find something of interest if I looked it over.

"Bienvenidos, amigos!" The machine said as Fluttershy, Rarity, and I neared it, very nearly causing us to jump out of our skin. Seriously though, does every vending machine down here have an interest in giving people heart attacks!?

"... Um... What did it say?" Rarity asked, drawing a shrug from me. I wasn't programmed to understand any language but English, so this wasn't really my specialty. Besides, for all I know, the language that this thing is talking in wasn't even existent in the world of my charges.

Stretching out my arm and shoulder, I looked over the machine's selections, thankful that they were at least written in an understandable language.

Rivets, specialized ammo, hack dar- Oh?

I felt my brow raise as I caught sight of a particularly interesting sight amongst the listings. Under a subheading that read 'Maintenence Only', an Auto-Hack Dart was listed.

Having taken interest on this, I kneeled myself next to the machine, grabbing hold off and pulling off its control panel.

This should be easy enough.

-------------------------------------

About a few seconds worth of wire adjustment, 5 free rivets, and an $18 Auto-Hack Dart later, Fluttershy, Rarity, the security bots, and I were making our way out of the room, following the same path that the spider splicer had attempted to go down before he was turned into a charred stain on the wall.

Speaking of which, there he is now... Yeah. I guess it's a good thing that Fluttershy and Rarity have started to adapt to this sort of thing... Wow that's a bitter-sweet.

Forwards, left, right. It was like the mirror image of the path from before. The only difference being that it led to a different part of the 'Journey To The Surface' ride.

In fact, we were only a little bit further ahead from where we were before, parts of the wreckage from the ride still clearly visible towards our left.

I guess some progress is better than no progress.

As we turned ourselves to go right, following the familiar trail that the railing of the ride made up, I started to notice that several more signs than before were hung up around the pass, likely to further the thoughts of Andrew Ryan.

'Laws', 'Sanctions', 'Courthouse', it was all made to seem as if these were horrible things, caused by the people who ran life on the surface.
Like Rapture was any better. Tch, talk about hypocrisy... Funnily enough, I had only recently learned that word from the book that I was reading.

Another thing about the pathway was that, oddly enough, it had started to look nicer than before, despite still being in ruins. Fake balconies hung from the prop buildings that made up the attraction, and the ceiling had been painted black, with white dots on it, likely to imitate the night sky.

Of course, with every piece of good, there was always a bit of bad... Shaped like Ryan, in this case.

Along the narrow trail of the ride, a wax copy of Ryan, similar to the one from before, yet again sat casually against his seat, looking towards us with its lifeless eyes. In fact, the only difference that this room had from the one before was that the desk, and all the other furniture, had been placed on the opposite sides of the room.

'Variety and originality', and all of that bull.

I ignored this copy of idiocy as best as I could, walking straight past it as we reached the first real scene that we had seen since the farmer and his family.

In it, there was some sort of lab, three wax scientists busy at work, typing in their seemingly random annotations and texts while the third stood before some beakers and test tubes. His arms were raised up high, as if exclaiming to the skies above that he had succeeded at something grand and revolutionary. Seemingly out of his attention though, another large and suited arm was beginning to come down upon him from above, ready to 'push off his happiness and surprise his success'.

'On the surface, the scientist invests the power of his mind in a single miraculous idea and naturally begins to rise above his fellows. But the Parasites say, 'NO! Discovery must be regulated! It must be controlled and finally surrendered.''

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Same shit as before.

Either way, we needed to go through this small lab, the path ahead of us having been blocked off by more rubble.

The girls followed close as we maneuvered our way around the false lab, Garret and Winston, in the meanwhile, flying over the blockade and to the other side.

As we zigzagged across the blockages of the path, we also came across another scene, this time of an artist.

Three paintings surrounded him, and, to be perfectly honest, I thought they looked pretty nice, despite the giant arm that was attempting to clock of one of them.There was one of a woman, one of a detective, and one that was... Abstract? I wasn't sure, but the colors and overall pattern of it was still nice to look at either way.
'On the surface, an artist strives to frame his ideals in an image, to challenge his audience and make his vision immortal. But the Parasites say, 'NO! Your art must serve the cause! Your ideals endanger the people!''

Rarity and Fluttershy seemed to like them as well, lingering as we passed by them. Heh. At least there were some parts of this city that they found pleasant.

As we finally passed the blockages, returning to the path of the ride with Winston and Garret waiting there for us, I noticed even more signs hung from the buildings, again giving a 'worrisome' appearance. 'Turmoil', 'oppression', 'curfew'. Along with this, there was another wax Ryan to our right... Oh to hell with it.

I didn't even spare it another glance as we continued forward along the rails.

Soon, we came across another Maintenance entrance... Only this one was open. It's door was pretty much jammed upwards, sparking slightly as it continually attempted to close, only giving out a struggling clunk.... Maybe... There's another terminal there? After all, it was a maintenance area.

Shrugging at the possibility, I gestured for the groups to follow me, my Telekinesis plasmid and weaponry at the ready just in case we ran into trouble.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Upon walking inside the room, the group was immediately greeted by a first aid machine embedded into the nearby wall. This felt as if it was... An omen, of sorts. Omega wasn't really sure why, but he wasn't certain if its being here was a good sign, or a bad one.

His eyes narrowed at this, but he continued nonetheless, his guard raised for just in case. Even more so, however, when they actually entered the room, and a cold shudder passed through all of them.

Inside the room, several wooden shelves and unused hooks were placed near the walls, centered out by four large tables that stood upon the wooden floor of the room. These shelves and tables, however, were not unoccupied.

Wax heads of all shapes, tones, and sizes adorned them, the flickering lights of the room flooding it with an atmosphere of absolute eeriness.
Omega could feel Fluttershy and Rarity walk closer to him, occasionally brushing past his legs from their proximity. He didn't mind, of course. In fact, he found that it was well prompted from them, having felt a chill of his own as they entered the room. He patted their heads reassuringly, before, with a quick breath, they continued to make their way into the room.

Their shadows appeared and disappeared with the dying lights above them, as they were continually gazed upon by the several severed heads of attraction models.

Winston and Garret's headlights only provided minimal light to the room themselves as they went on, shining from corner to corner as they sought out any visible threats.

The walk felt like it had gone on for hours, despite the room's relatively small size, but eventually, they made it to a smaller, adjacent room with ease.

One last shudder passed them as they left the room, and entered the other, still feeling the endless gaze of the wax heads upon them despite their lost line of sight with them.

Thankfully, the group was able to give out a hefty sigh, as they noticed that the room they were in would allow them an even further escape from the infinite glares of the wax beings. A stairway, pointed to direction itself downwards, stood before them, it's lights having been completely shut down with the passing of time.

Glancing to his charges for a short moment, Omega gestured for Winston and Garrett to take the lead, their headlights serving as a temporary godsend as they then navigated their way downwards.

The air became thicker, and the floor became wetter, as they walked down the steps, enveloping themselves in even further darkness, only interrupted by the two security bots.

On occasion, Mill could be felt shifting around against Omega's back, through the bag, causing him to flinch at the sudden sensation through the dark air.

After a few minutes more of walking downwards, the group came upon an odd, labyrinth-like area of metal, fenced walls, and wax arm holding metal hooks. For a moment though, Omega needed to do a double take, having believed them to be real arms rather than those of wax.

Along with that, a headless wax figure leaned against a nearby wall, seemingly sized and shaped to be similar to that of a child.

Alongside this, clean, working pistons and engines were scattered about the walls of the room, likely having previously been used to power the ride as a sort of reserve energy.

Wanting nothing more than to finish here, and move on, Omega took in another breath, the group and him making their way through the labyrinth of a room bit by bit.

They came across several dead ends, and spare pieces of wax figurines, but they remained relatively unperturbed by this, continuing in their attempts.

As they finally reached the end of the miniature maze though, allowing themselves to gaze upon their earned prize, Omega felt himself freeze.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

... This... Was what we did this for...? Just...

All of that work, that repetition, that trial and error... Just to bring us to another bad memory of mine?

From its tall metal structure, embedded into the wall, to its familiar design and engraving, I knew what this was in an instant, memories flooding through me as I gazed upon the previous safe place for my old charges. A 'little sister hidey-hole', as the developers of this design had called it.

A vent that little sisters could fit through, and hide inside of as they made their way around from place to place, waiting for their 'Mr. Bubbles' to come and protect them...

"Omega?" I heard Fluttershy say, calling out to me as I gazed blankly at the vent...

We... We should get going... This was obviously just another waste of time, being down here. There was no terminals for him to find, nothing of any relative use...

Just... Just the vent... In its usual, clean, and self-preserved sta-...?

What the?

Before I could turn myself around and leave these bad thoughts of mine behind, Winston's headlight moved slightly, glinting off of something to the side. Raising a brow at this, my shoes tamped lightly across the damp floor below us, as I made my way towards the sight.

What seemed like... A small shard of metal was embedded into the wall. This wasn't just a single point that had been damaged by this shard though. It wasn't simply a piece of metal that had been thrown too hard. Rather, with the shard, the wall seemed to have a thin, vertical line, almost cut into it...

Narrowing my eyes at the sight, a sense of curiosity came over me as I grabbed hold of the metal shard, pulling it partially to the side. It slid out with relative ease, but in doing so, the line that it had been jammed in opened even more so. It was from this that I saw something inside.

Small lights, of different colors, could be seen through the small opening...
Okay, seriously, what the fuck is this?!

Without another thought, I jammed my hands into the opening, grunting as I slid it open, the vent moving along with the wall, as if it were nothing more than another door.

As the opening became even larger, light flooding into our room from the other, I, and the girls, were finally given sight of this... Oddity...

Like them, I gasped...

What the... What was this?

Author's Notes:

Super chapter, goooooo!

... Yeah...

Ahem. So anyways, I don't really know what to say right now... Lazy mind at the moment...

... Welp, I'll just leave you with the song from the story, and that cliffhanger, and hope you enjoy. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi31NAktYDw