A/N: Hey guys, this is my first SI and first Fic period, so I hope you guys like it. A shout out to Herr Wozzeck for inspiring me to write this and helping me with the whole process, and a shout out to CuHnadian as well for helping work out the kinks in the story.

And before we get started just a general disclaimer: Mass Effect is not owned by me. All of it's characters, setting, etc are owned by BioWare. Any songs/games/movies referenced are also not owned by me but by their respective artist/creator/director.

Enjoy.

Critical Mass

Prologue: When Lightning Strikes

I've recently come to a realization that opened my eyes about...well...everything, mainly that life is short, fleeting, and above all, fragile.

I mean think about it. We're essentially bags of meat and water. That's it. That's all we are as humans. Doesn't matter if you believe in a higher power or not, we're just an intricate meat bag, a fleshy water balloon, and if the slightest thing goes wrong, BAM, dead.

Heart beats a little too fast or out of normal rhythm? Dead. Blood vessel bursts in your brain? Dead. Bullet wound? Stab wound? Blunt force trauma? Dead, dead, and dead. Or maybe you're in my current situation where Death isn't just knocking, but basically kicking down my door. I think my case might be unique though

It's just too bad that I came to this conclusion with my own fragile existence coming to its end. In all seriousness, this was not the way I was expecting to die. Far from it in fact. Like not even in the top five, if there's even such a thing as the top five ways to die. More like top five ways I expected to die. I was hoping painlessly in my sleep, but few people are that lucky. If I couldn't go like that I wanted something so ironic that my funeral wouldn't be as sad because of it. Never in a million years did I think this would happen though, mostly because I didn't even think it was real.

I'm currently laying on the ground, half-dazed from the explosion that blew me over here, with a Geth Hopper on top of me effectively pinning me to the ground. And no this isn't a friendly "Oh I'm so happy you're okay!" fly on top of me hug of joy. I wish it was. First person to ever hug a Geth? Well after the Morning War at least? Yeah I'll take that title! Unfortunately I can't claim it just yet. This is more one of those opportunistic, "I'm just gonna go ahead and kill you while you're down and dazed, ok?" hugs.

I mean c'mon. I didn't even make it one mission with this team. Really? I knew I was no combat specialist or anything, but that's really damn depressing. I've had experience shooting guns and what not, but I was kinda hoping I'd live through these missions. I'm not ready to die! I mean I knew it was a possibility, but everyone else always comes out scott free so why can't I? Guess it's just one more thing to add to my terrible karma... I mean I always thought the universe hated me for some unknown reason, so it's not entirely strange. Maybe it was just my face, I don't know.

But that was MY universe. Now I have two that hate me only this one went so far as to hire a hit-man to solve the problem.

Ah fuck, that sniper shot is less than half a foot away. I can't avoid this! I'm pinned to the damn ground! Shepard and her team are in no position to help with this because they're equally dazed from that explosion. I look back up at my own personal reaper, every detail on the metal monstrosity standing out in clear detail during my final seconds: giant flashlight head, metal head and shoulders, oddly skin-like substance interconnecting it all. The mass accelerator barrel next to its head whirring louder and glowing brighter...

Aaaannnnd of course the life flashbacks come right now, right on cue... Well let's get this over with.

Let's skip the boring stuff, get some personal facts outta the way, and go straight into how the hell I got into a world that should only be a video game. First off, my name's Rick and I reside in the good ole' US of A. Michigan to be exact. Lived there my entire life. Right before all this crazy shit happened I was just a regular college student like anyone else. Junior status, still hoping to break into the medical profession, and a proud member of a Greek organization.

The year's 2007. Mass Effect has been released. Where am I? Not playing it. Didn't even hear about it until late 2008, maybe even early 2009. Bought it, played it, loved it. I should probably mention I was, and still am, a pretty big gaming nerd. And a sci-fi nerd. Let's not forget Medieval nerd. Fuck it, I'll say it: pretty much just a nerd in general, but that's part of what people loved about me. People knew it and didn't care. It was who I was and everyone thought it was fun.

Dunno why exactly, but there was always something about games that captivated me. I loved movies and books, but unlike those, games had the ability to put me in the middle of the action, to make me interact with the story being told rather than just sitting there and watching it happen or reading about events unfolding. That fact made them stand out to me more, and Mass Effect of all games made player interaction key. I got to choose everything that happened and I found that amazing.

Congratulations BioWare, you earned a new fanboy. Stuck with the series ever since and it quickly became my favorite series, but I have yet to beat the third. Just finished Palaven.

Personal shit done.

Back on track in 2012: it was right during an average day of me sitting at home after class, just playing some games when I received the call that would change everything for me. I had some friends contracted to work on new projects that would innovate technology for everyone. I may only be twenty, but I have older friends in important positions. Let's call him Josh. We met through his cousin, who was a mutual friend and we clicked fairly quickly. The rest is history as they say.

Josh was fascinated by all things technological, so naturally when he was contracted he worked on teleportation science with other techs around his lab in his spare time. He had a dream to make the impossible possible and the fictional real. Honestly this didn't surprise me in the least. Technology was somewhat of passion for him and I'm pretty sure Josh was solely responsible for that massive blackout that hit northwestern America in 2003. He was 12 at the time.

Anyhow, I just beat Palaven when my phone started ringing. I answered it and Josh is yelling stuff about coming down to his lab and what not because they had made some sorta breakthrough with their side project. Naturally I had to go see what it was all about. I know this sounds like the beginning of a cheesy, sci-fi B-movie but it's not. It actually happened. Just bear with me here.

Fast forward a few hours and I'm at his facility, and damn this place is fancy. It's a big modernized building that almost looks like a planetarium, and there's expensive equipment everywhere and yet it's all somehow organized. I wish I could accurately describe what all of the things were, but I have no idea what half of the stuff is so I can't. I looked around, noting a small cluttered corner. Remember me saying that it was really organized in this building? Well, I lied. Everything was organized except Josh's station. The clutter in that area, along with the music blaring and loud celebration gave him away instantly. He never was the most organized guy but we both believed that procrastination and disorganization are just signs of intelligence. In his case he was 100% correct. "Better make my way over to him..." I thought to myself.

I walked over there to see a few people in lab coats, smiling, congratulating each other, and drinking what appeared to be champagne. And there Josh was in the middle of it all; I could pick him out of any crowd based solely on his voice, longish brown hair, and chinstrap.

"Josh! Looks like you guys are starting the celebration a-" I said. Or tried to say that is before I almost slipped and busted my head on some weird machine. Luckily I managed to catch myself on some other weird machine that looked like a narrow white pillar that was about chest high where there was a small, flat, round platform. From that platform was a neck that went out, back, and up at a 45 degree angle until it hooked back in, kinda like a blocky question mark. Right above the platform I managed to balance myself on was this strange see through thing with a bunch of wires and circuitry that came to a head that almost looked like a portal gun with the black extension and three claws coming out of it.

"Woah watch yourself bud, we just finished perfecting the shit you fell on." I heard Josh say.

"Yea well maybe you should clean up here once in a while. You know, make the place presentable, prevent freak lab accidents from happening, that sorta thing." I retorted. "What the fuck did I slip in anyway? And please tell me its not radioactive. The last thing I need is to leave here with a third nipple or something. Or tumors. I'd love to not have some of those."

"Don't worry about it. It's just some champagne from when I opened the bottle," He assured me while chuckling. "Kinda messy opening that stuff y'know? Good news is you're safe, the machine isn't broken, and I'm about to win a Nobel Prize. I'm ecstatic! We finally made a breakthrough in this teleportation tech and it could change everything we know about travel."

"Well you're just gonna have to give a demonstration now aren't you? Not gonna lie I've never really been fully convinced that what you do is even real science. More like wishful thinking in my opinion," I said with a smirk.

"Had you said that any other day before now, those would've been fighting words..." said Josh as he started tinkering with some objects. "Fortunately for me, I get to shove those words right back down your throat. See that apple over there?" He asked while pointing to a desk a short distance away. There was an apple on a white platform under what looked like an exact replica of the thing I balanced myself on. "Well check this out." With that said, he pressed a button, and what looked like lighting starting coursing down the claws of the portal gun thingy, eventually all meeting at a point and shooting downward, which engulfed the apple. Next thing I know I hear a crack behind me which was rather startling, so I turned around to see lightning shoot out of the machine I stumbled over. Suddenly an apple appears. I turned back around to see that it wasn't just an apple, it was the apple from across the room.

I was speechless, just standing there with my mouth hanging open. I... I didn't even think something like that was possible... and by all means it shouldn't be...

While I was standing there, most likely drooling at this point, I hear Josh say "Told ya I'd make you eat those words."

"Yea... yea you did! How the... When... Why...? This shouldn't even be possible!" I replied.

"Up until today I might've been in the same boat." Josh stated. "I was hoping otherwise but definitely doubtful. Starting to lose faith in my own project but then this happened. I won't go into the details, but you saw the results yourself. We've successfully transported a few objects back and forth between the two right now, however we haven't done any testing on living things yet. Or anything greater than this distance which is around 30ish feet. Honestly, it's been kinda fun zapping shit back and forth with all the hard work we've put into this. I don't know why we can't use it for a distance greater than this, but with this breakthrough it's only a matter of time before I can send it to somewhere like the moon! Wanna closer look?"

"You can bet your ass I do!" I exclaimed as I walked over to the apple. "Fire this thing up! And pour me some champagne! I wanna watch it disappear up close." I told him while walking closer to where the apple just appeared.

I stood right in front of the device, eyes glued to it. "Start the damn thing!" I said growing impatient. Right after that I heard a click followed by a "What the hell?" That wasn't good. I turned to see Josh press the button again... and nothing happened. With a frustrated look, he pressed it again. And again. And a few more times after that. "So much for not breaking it..." I said.

"Here lemme check something..." I heard Josh mumble while laying down to look under the control center. "...had this problem before...wire jostled loose...aaaannnnnd yep. Looks like you knocked it loose when you took that tumble earlier. Just need to plug this back in and-" Josh didn't get to finish that sentence. He was interrupted by the lightning stuff literally erupting from the portal like node. Guess all the times he pressed the button backed it up, or super charged it, or... something. But it's not shooting at the apple. It's shooting at the champagne puddle on the floor. Which I just so happen to be standing in. Again.

Fucking great right?

The next thing I know, I'm no longer in the room I was just in. Instead I seem to be floating in some limbo-like version of the room I was just in, like legit out of body experience floating. Minus being out of body. My body isn't there. Weird. Well on the bright side, Josh will have data on a live test. And I should just be going to the other node right...?

Or not...Why is everything smaller? And why does it feel like I'm floating upwards? Oh great, instead of going to the other node I'm flying up, into the ceiling, at a faster speed than I would have hoped for... Oh crap, I'm gonna be a tiny smear on the ceiling. Maybe if I close my eyes it'll be over before I know it...

Or so I thought. I went straight through the ceiling. Like it wasn't even there, or maybe I'm the one who's not there. Maybe these teleportation thingys are like a cell phone? Going up to something before going to the receiving end? Josh never really mentioned how this works so I guess it's a possibility. I keep staring down at the ground watching as everything shrinks and notice how everything seems insignificant from this height.

Then something interrupted my train of thought. What's that noise...? Kinda sounds like an airplane. Not just sounds like, it is an airplane. Not that I'm afraid of heights or anything, but I get a little wary when I'm in the air at what should be cruising altitude for planes. Apparently while lost in thought I went higher, and I've been picking up speed at an exponential rate, hurtling towards the upper atmosphere and out into space, but if I can pass through walls hopefully I won't need oxygen? I'm over-thinking it, just go with the flow.

I suddenly find myself rocketing through space, no oxygen required apparently. I keep going through the beautiful black void that most people can only dream of entering. Guess all you need is a freak lab accident to be space-bound. Earth is way behind me now, and the stars I pass become white blurs everywhere around me. Honestly it'd be fascinating if I weren't scared shitless and confused as hell, kinda like the time I accidentally drifted in my car. After what seemed like ten minutes it got darker, and as I went on, it progressively got wayyy darker.

On the bright side, all this tumbling through the cosmos gave me some thinking time. Am I still alive? Is this what death is like? I guess I'll find that out whenever I get wherever I'm going. More importantly, why do I not need oxygen? Why have I not imploded or exploded or whatever from the vacuum? Why was I not incinerated upon leaving orbit? Why is this all so confusing? I swear if I ever see Josh again, he's gonna have a lot to answer for.

Stars ceased to inhabit the space around me, all light disappearing until the only thing surrounding me was pure, unfeeling darkness. I can't really tell if I'm moving anymore. No light to judge movement by, but it feels like I stopped... I honestly can't tell. Honestly I'm just surprised I haven't had a seizure at this point with the amount of information and conflicting emotions running through me. On one hand I'm still scared as all hell. On the other, I'm kinda awestruck as to whats going on

Out of nowhere I see a tiny, pulsing, purple dot directly in front of me. Growing brighter and bigger as time moves on. I don't know if I'm moving towards it or it's moving towards me but it's growing bigger in size. The bigger it gets the more I start to realize it's some kind of cosmic cloud, mainly black in composition with purple lightning seeming to pulse throughout that lit up the black, cloud-like part around it. Almost like a thunderstorm in space.

Before I could take more time to appreciate the intricacies of what was in front of me, it suddenly dispersed, leaving no trace whatsoever, and then immediately reformed, but not in front of me. It surrounded me. A small sphere of blackness started encircling me and I was too afraid to touch it. Don't want to disturb anything or mess with forces beyond my knowledge. It stayed surrounding me for a decent amount of time, almost judging me, if an inanimate object can judge that is.

Next thing I know, the cloud was pulsing and swirling around me, causing a slight tingling sensation throughout my entire body that wasn't entirely unpleasant but at the same time not entirely welcome. The tingling abruptly turned into a shocking feeling which then transformed into an intense pain that I could feel throughout my entire body, and I could do nothing to defend myself from it. The only thing I could do was writhe in agony as it continued to overload my senses, every nerve firing, screaming, pleading to make it end.

While this was happening I barely noticed the cloud getting smaller, snaking towards me in tiny tendrils, undoubtedly the cause of this intense pain. Finally unable to deal with the agony any longer, I blacked out. I saw pieces of what happened next but nothing in its entirety: the cloud shrinking more, the cloud ultimately disappearing, the blur of stars around me slowly returning, a planet resembling Earth in the distance ahead of me, getting larger as I got closer to it, the environment becoming clear, and finally darkness.

A/N: Yes, kinda cliffhanger on the first chapter. No worries however as Chapter 1 is already typed up, just a matter of fine-tuning it to my liking. Just a heads up to readers, any feedback or criticism is more than welcome. I gladly accept anything that could improve this overall.

Rfalzar signing out.