Mass Effect: Massive Shock
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or 2K games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.
A/N: Alright, alright so far so good. All I wanted to say is this: If you hate BioShock, that's not important. You don't have to like BioShock to like this story. If you hate Mass Effect, then I don't know what the hell you're doing here!
Regarding some of the reviews I already got, you guys asked a lot of questions. And I'll answer them all in four words: In good time, friends. This isn't your average story. I didn't write the 1st chapter and then i post it. I've been planning, discussing, and writing this story for months. I'm already up to Chapter 16. So in other words, this story is at a whole other level than any of my other stories were. It's a plot sponge leaking with viscous fluid. At first, chapter 1 was very different than it was now. But I've been adding things for months and now it is full of meaning that you cannot yet comprehend. There will be even more questions to be asked later on, but worry not! Everything will become clear in time. Specifacally: in the sequel.
Oh one last thing. This story will be pretty long, it'll average about 4,000-5,000 words per chapter. So it's not shy on descriptive language and quirkiness. Anyways, thanks for reading! Please Review with your thoughts for this chapter, and I'll see you next Tuesday!
"Life is a choice."
~Anonymous~
Ch. 2: Presidium Rising
It's uh... Morning... I think...
"Buddy? Hey buddy?" the turian says snapping his talons in my face.
I jump at the noise and look him in the eye. I must've zoned out there or something.
"You still with me?" the turian says.
"Uh…" I respond. I really don't know what to say. This is all a lot of new stuff. Not like this hasn't happened before or anything, but still! Aliens dammit! And not just any aliens, Mass Effect aliens! The coolest damned aliens ever thought up! I can't believe this… MASS EFFECT! One of my favorite games ever! And I'm in it! This is fascinating…
"Do you need any medical attention?" the quarian says.
I turn my head and look at her surprised. Sounds just like Tali. But I can tell it's not her. As a Talimancer I know for a fact that's not her. Her suit is similar to Tali's in the second game, except with varying shades of blue instead of purple. Yeah, go mysterious quarian girl! Way to fight conformity! Wait… medical attention?
"I… Uh… No?" I say confused.
"You're injured! You need medical attention!" The asari who knows CPR says to me. Hey… she's the Consort's greeter girl! The one with the gift of touch. What was her name? Nenyala? Nalayna? Nelena? Whatever... Wait injured?
"I—I do?" I say baffled. I look down at myself and see a thick piece of jagged and rusted metal sticking out of my shoulder. "Oh… I suppose I do…"
"I'm calling an ambulance," the turian says standing and opening his omni-tool. Ah cool! An omni-tool! I need to get me one of those! Wait a minute… Oh shit! No! I can't let him call an ambulance! They'll find out I'm unregistered and… I don't know… deport me or something!
"Uh! No need for an ambulance!" I say hastily, the turian looks down at me confused. "I'm fine! See!"
I get a good grip on the metal stuck in my shoulder and slowly pull it out. A few people in the crowd gasp and grimace in disgust. The turian just stares at me wide eyed. I drop the metal and fight back a scream of pain. I hop up to my feet and hurry off before anybody can stop me, clutching at my shoulder the whole way.
I hide in an alleyway and take my backpack off of my back. I open it and examine the contents. My shotgun and my machine gun are soaking wet, as is everything else in my backpack. I take each gun out and shake the water out of them and replace them in my backpack.
I pull one of the three medkits I have from inside my backpack and open it. It's half full of water, but that shouldn't be a problem. I withdraw one of the three long thin syringes filled with green fluid from the medkit and drop the medkit into my backpack. I grimace as I inject myself with the serum. It's never a pleasant experience, getting my cells accelerated, but it works.
I look down at my gaping shoulder wound and watch as it heals as does the wound in my chest from the knife that splicer tried to stab me with. The wounds close after a few seconds and I can feel the burning sensation from the serum wear off. I sigh and drop down to the ground. I use my tongue and find that the tooth that the splicers knocked out of my head has regrown also.
Okay. Let's back track a little here. I'm on the Presidium on the Citadel. I know this because I recognize the area from Mass Effect 1. According to memory I'm somewhere near the Consort's place. Alright… that's… FUCKING CRAZY! Dammit Rob! Now is not a time to panic! All I need is a plan… a plan… a plan… Fuck! Can't think of one! Okay, just calm down and think! Okay… well to have a plan you need background information… so… I'm in the Mass Effect Universe. My extensive knowledge of the subject will help quite a bit I think. Huh, funny. I can remember almost everything about the game even though I haven't touched a video game controller in over six years. Okay that's kind of all the background information I need… so time to formulate a plan.
Hm… alright since I'm in the Mass Effect universe, my first thought is to join Shepard's crew… But wait… I don't know when I am in the Mass Effect universe, for all I know I could have missed him… or her. I know that the best time to join Shepard's crew would be when he or she is grounded on the Citadel following the Eden Prime attack during the events of Mass Effect 1. If so then I have to find a way to include myself in some way to the events leading to Tali's attempted murder… First of all I need to find what year it is…
I see a human with dark hair walk by the alley; I reach out and grab his shirt. "Hey! Buddy…"
"Ah! Don't hurt me!" The human says in fear.
I release his shirt. "What? No, I just…"
"Here! Just take it! Take it all!" The guy says throwing a blue keycard into my face and running away. I bend down and pick up the keycard. A small black display on it lights up and reads: 500 credits
"Sweet," I say pocketing the keycard. I walk back into the alley and sit down next to my backpack. Well now I have money. That's better that nothing I suppose. Ugh! Damn I'm hungry… I need some food…
"Excuse me?" I hear a timid voice say from nearby.
I turn my head and see the quarian woman from before standing at the mouth of the alleyway. She looks nervous. And sort of attractive. Did I really just think that? Well sure! I've always liked quarians, they have a certain… mystique to them. Uh oh, hope I didn't say that out loud.
"I was just wondering if you were alright…" the quarian says taking a few tiny steps into the alley. Good, looks like I didn't say that out loud, my inner monologue worked for once. I push myself off of the ground and walk closer to her so that she doesn't need to go into the creepy alleyway.
"I'm fine." I say as I reach her.
"Yeah but you were bleeding pretty badly…" She looks down at my chest and points at my shoulder confused. "Wait. Where did your wound go?"
"What wound?" I say playing dumb.
"You had a piece of metal stuck in your shoulder. It's over there right now, and there's blood all over your shirt and a big hole in it, don't play dumb."
Uh oh, she saw through my ruse. "I don't know what you're talking about."
She stares at me for a second before shaking her head, "Whatever."
She turns to leave.
"Wait!" I shout as I grab her shoulder and turn her around.
She takes on a slightly defensive pose and I throw my hands up defensively as well, "Sorry! I just wanted to ask you something!" She lowers her fists and tilts her head to the side slightly waiting for me to continue. "What's the day and year?"
She stares at me for a few seconds confused. Damn I must sound like an idiot.
Suddenly she nods understandingly, "Oh you must be new to the Citadel! I'm pretty new myself so I know the feeling."
I just nod along and she opens her omni-tool, "It's 12-20-2181."
Wow… first 50 years into the past, now 200 years into the future… Wait, the attack on Eden Prime happens in 2183.
Dammit! I'm at least two years behind! I need to find a way to sustain myself for two years? It's not like in Rapture, all I needed to do was wander around and I could find food and water. Here I have to… pay for stuff. Gonna need money then… and more than I can get from "mugging" people.
"What?" the quarian asks confused.
"Damned inner monologue!" I say out loud. "Shit! I did it again! And again!"
And again! There we go… While my inner monologue sustains itself, I'll take the time to think… Okay, plan of action: I need money, first and foremost. I guess I could sell my Tommy gun and my shotgun to like… an antiques dealer or something. Depending on how much I get from selling my stuff I should try and get a place to stay and some food… I definitely want me one of those omni-tools! Oh! And a haircut… definitely a haircut.
I start fiddling with my matted hair unconsciously.
The quarian looks at me confused again. Stupid inner monologue! Stop stroking your hair! I put my arm at my side quickly. I must look like a psychopath… She shakes her head and turns to leave again. A realization dawns on me.
"Hey! Wait!" I call after her as she walks away.
"What?" She asks annoyed.
"I just got to the Citadel and I need somebody to show me around. I can pay you for the help." That's a dirty lie…
She stares at me again for a few seconds. Damned quarians! I have to gauge her reaction off of her body language? I've never been good at that!
She shrugs and says, "Okay, what do you need to find?"
I sigh in relief, "Thanks a lot. I need to find three places. First, an antiques dealer. Second, an omni-tool store. Third, a hair salon."
"Alright, I don't know where to find the antiques dealer or the salon, but I know where we can find out."
"Where?"
"We can ask Avina," she says as she walks up to a small pedestal. Oh yeah! Avina! A purple asari VI appears over the pedestal. Kind of reminds me of Cortana from Halo.
"How may I assist you?" Avina asks.
"Where can we find an antiques dealer?" the quarian asks. A few people give me weird looks as we stand near the terminal. Probably because I'm dressed strangely and I have thick shaggy hair.
"There are only four antiques dealers on the Citadel. One deals in turian antiques. Another in asari. Another in salarian. And another in human."
"Where is the human one?" I say stepping forward.
"Human Antiquities can be found in the Market District of the Zakera ward."
"Thank you," I say.
"We can take a cab," the quarian says walking over to a terminal with a few of those boss Mass Effect flying cars sitting behind it.
The quarian turns to me, "A trip to the Zakera ward is 30 credits."
I look at her for a few seconds before realizing what she means. I reach into my pocket and withdraw the credit chit I got from that guy and hand it to her.
"Wow, 500 credits?" she says examining the card.
"Uh yeah," I say. Hope that guy doesn't report me to C-Sec.
She scans the card on the terminal and one of the cars' door opens. She tosses the card back to me, which I fumble to catch, and enters the car.
"You coming?" she says impatiently.
I enter the car and close the door. Apparently the system is automated and the car takes off without either of us doing anything.
After a few awkward seconds of silence I say, "Uh thanks for helping me out."
She looks at me for a few seconds before returning her view to the window, "I'm doing it for the cash…"
"Ah…" I say. A few more seconds pass and I extend a hand to her. "I'm Robert Jackson by the way, but you can call me Rob."
"Alright, Jackson," she says without looking at me or returning my hand shake. I sigh and return my hand to my lap.
She looks at me and extends her hand, "Nata' Acie nar Rayya."
What? Rayya? Well, well… small world… or galaxy. I return her handshake and smile as well. She recoils at my smile and I frown.
"What?" I ask confused.
"Your smile. All of the humans I've met so far have yellowed teeth. Yours are white." She says astonished.
"Really?" I say, more confused about the fact that all the humans she's met so far have yellow teeth. My teeth don't need to be cared for thanks to a gene tonic I have and you'd think the field of dentistry would have improved in the last 200 years. "Where did you meet these humans?"
"At the shelter…" She starts. She stops herself after she mentions the shelter. I get it. She's got no money that's why she's helping me. Too bad.
"You're Pilgrimage isn't going to well is it?" I blurt out. Instantly afterwards I regretted saying that. How am I going to lie my way through this?
"What? How do you know about quarian Pilgrimages?" She asks perplexed.
"Uh… I've met a few quarians before?" Ah hell that's not a good lie.
"Really? What were their names?"
Fuck… "They're uh… I don't like to talk about it?"
"Oh, I understand."
That was too close. I got to be careful about what I say.
After a few seconds of silence Nata looks at me. "So, how long have you been on the Citadel?"
I wonder how I should respond to this… "Uh… not long… A few hours actually."
Nata nods. "Where are you from?"
Oh shit… "Uh… Earth?"
She nods again. "Not many people come to the Citadel from Earth. Why did you come?"
I can finally say something honest. "It wasn't really my choice. But it's far better here than it ever was where I came from."
"Where on Earth did you come from?"
Ah dammit… Stop asking questions! "Uh… Just some beat up old cesspool of a city."
"Detroit?"
"What the? How do you know about Detroit?"
"Not now. We're here." Nata says.
The cab touches down at another station. I can see the large antiquities shop a short distance away. Wow, that was fast. The travel system here is pretty efficient. And this place is freaking beautiful. I can't believe I'm actually on the Citadel; it's like a dream come true.
Well sort of. I mean I can't say that I'm sad about leaving Rapture, but I am going to miss the Little Sisters, among other things. Like the freedom to pee wherever I want. I'm going to have to learn to control myself again.
We walk into the antiques dealer where an elderly man stands behind a glass counter reading a book. There's a terminal next to him, just like in every other shop and I can't see any antiques on any shelves or anything, which is odd. Come to think of it, how are things dispensed from those terminals in Mass Effect 2?
"Hello," The elderly man says, "How may I help you?"
"Oh," I say walking up to the elderly man taking my backpack off as I walk, "I have some antiques you may be interested in."
"Really?" The old man says, his interest piqued.
I open my backpack, which is now mostly dry and pull out my shotgun and tommy gun and place them on the counter. The old man adjusts his glasses and picks up my shotgun examining it.
"My word! This is superb!" he says amazed, "This is a Remington 20 gauge shotgun correct?"
I nod even though I have no idea if it is or not.
"And it appears to be custom built due to the ornate design of the weapon. These were very popular weapons in the late 20th and early 21st centuries."
"Yes," I say pointing to the gun, "These particular guns are from around 1962. And they still work properly."
"Amazing! And in such good condition too! 200 years and still operable…"
The old man puts down my shotgun carefully and picks up my tommy gun, "And this is a Thompson submachine gun. Appears to be custom built as well… with ammunition inside?"
"I'll throw in the ammunition for free if you can make me a deal now."
"Oh wow… okay let's see… well I'll give you… 210,000 for the shotgun and... 215,000 for the Thompson."
"Deal!" I say nodding. That turned out better than I had hoped. I look at Nata who is staring at the guns greedily. I feel kind of guilty about doing this and I feel a little sorry for her. Maybe I should have asked her to wait outside. The old man walks out of a door behind the counter that I didn't notice and vanishes from sight. "Well that went pretty well wouldn't you say?"
"That's a lot of money…" Nata says still staring at the guns, "How much are you paying me?"
I chuckle and feign deep thought, "Hm… how about 15,000?"
"Fift—" She chokes on the word like it's too large of a sum to be put into a word, "15,000?"
"Yep." I smile again. "Remember though, your end of the deal isn't done yet, you still have to help me get an omni-tool and a haircut."
She nods vigorously, "Yeah sure! Anything!"
I laugh and the old man returns with a silver credit chit in his hands, "Here you go sir. Please, come back again!"
I take the chit and check the number on it: 450,000. Wait that's 25,000 over priced…
I sigh and hand the chit back to him, "You got the price on it wrong, we agreed on 425,000 not 450,000."
He looks at the chit for a second before scratching his head and walking back into the back room.
"You could've kept that 25,000," Nata said.
I look at her with a smirk, "Yeah I could've. But I wanted to see the look on your face when I gave it back."
She crosses her arms. Damn… bad joke.
"Uh… or the look on your… mask…?"
Nice recovery. I'm such an idiot…
The old man reenters the room with the silver chit in his hands. He hands it to me with a friendly smile, "Thank you. Please come back."
I check the price on the chit. It's right. I nod to the old man and walk out of the store with Nata. We walk up to the cab station and I hand her the chit from the dark haired guy. She scans it and tries to hand it back to me but I push her hand back.
"Go ahead and keep that one. Think of it as a bonus."
She stares at the chit and nods. She enters the car and I follow. I settle myself into my seat and the cab takes off.
"Where're we headed?" I ask turning to Nata.
"It's about 11, so I was thinking we could go get something to eat. My treat."
I chuckle. "Alright, what did you have in mind? I doubt I would like anything you eat so…"
She turns to me and says with a rather excited tone, "Well actually there's this really nice quarian restaurant on the Teyseri Ward that I've wanted to try since I got here. It's really expensive but the food is supposedly great!"
"That sounds… wait… I'm not allowed in there am I?"
She shakes her head. "Uh no. But we can stop somewhere after."
I sigh. "Wow… alright."
She giggles excitedly. I feel like I'm spoiling her.
The cab lands on the Teyseri Ward and Nata drags me out and toward the quarian restaurant.
She stops in front. "Wait here. I'll be back as soon as I can."
She runs inside and I am left alone outside. Well now at least I have some time to ponder on my new existence.
I take a seat on the ground and lean my head against the wall. I take a deep breath.
This is just… surreal. Wow… Mass Effect… That's… this isn't real.
Funny… this is exactly how I reacted when I had a moment to myself in Rapture. I was convinced that it wasn't real. Things are definitely better here than they were in Rapture, for sure, but I never wanted this. Sure it seemed cool back when I used to read fan fiction but who would want this? I lost everything, all my friends, all my family, now I've got nothing. Even the things I made for myself in Rapture I lost that too. My Little Sisters, my shanty house. Everything. I've lost everything. Twice. Am I really capable of making a life for myself again here? Just so I can lose it again? That doesn't matter
Well here I am now. Rapture happened, now this is happening. The only thing I can do now is see what happens. That and try and get Shepard to recruit me somehow. Hopefully nothing too crazy will happen but knowing me that's extremely unlikely.
I feel something kick my leg hard. I yelp and look up at the… Krogan walk by.
"Watch it, human."
Holy mother of… Krogan are fucking huge! They're definitely not as tall as turians, but they definitely have a certain presence to them that turians don't have. I watch the krogan walk away. So cool… I wish my brother was here, he would love to meet a krogan.
A group of salarians walks by. I shiver. They're kind of creepy in person. Those big eyes… staring… I shiver again. A hanar slithers by carrying a brief case in one tentacle. Hanar were my favorite aliens to talk to next to next to elcor. Elcor are hilarious! Nervously: Shepard, I want you to know, that this is my first time…
I smile and chuckle at the thought. Wow, six years and I still remember that YouTube video. Still cracks me up.
I sigh. This is my life now. The third life I've had in six years. I think I'm going to like it here. And this time, I'm here to stay. And even if I have to lose it all again, I'll be damned if I'm leaving without a fight.
1:21 PM December 20, 2181
"So, how's it look?" I ask turning my head side to side for Nata to get a good look at my new haircut.
"A lot better than before. When I first saw you I thought you were another bum trying to bathe in the lake or something. Now you just look like a thug."
I laugh good and loud at that. I turn to the asari stylist and transfer payment using my new omni-tool. She smiles at the amount and waves good-bye to me and Nata.
"Strange that an asari would work at a hair salon. I mean humans are among the only species that actually grow any hair." I say as I run a hand through my short neat mohawk. I had the stylist cut a thin strip out of the back so that it would look sort of like Johnny's haircut from Metal Gear Solid 4 just like before Rapture. I rub my chin as well, savoring the feel of my skin. I decided to shave it clean, just looks neater that way.
"Well it looks like it's time for us to part ways," I say opening my omni-tool and transferring 15,000 credits to Nata. "Thanks for your help."
"Are you sure there isn't anything else I can help you with?" she says absently as she stares at her omni-tool.
"Well… actually, I don't have anywhere to live… so you weren't too far off with your earlier assumption that I was a bum. But now I'm a rich bum and I need a place to live." She laughs a little and thinks for a second.
"I think I can help you out. Come on."
We start walking toward the cars again. A pair of tough looking turians are leaning against a wall nearby. I hear heavy footsteps behind me and I see a krogan walking towards us quickly. I have a bad feeling about this one.
The turians nod at each other and block our path.
"Hey friend," one turian with a large scar on his face says, "Having a nice night?"
The krogan stops behind us and I can feel his hot breath on the back of my head. The group towers over me but I don't feel very intimidated. I feel like I can use some plasmids if I have too.
"Your girl here is pretty," the other turian, this one deep blue with a red stripe painted over his nose, says as he runs a hand over Nata shoulder. She shivers slightly. Son of a…
"Keep your claws off her," I say firmly.
"We will if you give us your stuff," the krogan behind me says.
"Let her go," I say strongly.
The scarred turian gives his equivalent of a smile. He looks over at the blue one and nods at him. The blue turian scowls but lowers his hand after caressing Nata's hip. Nata runs off around the corner.
"Now hand over your stuff," the blue turian says, "We're nice guys, we let your girl go. Now it's only polite to be nice back, right?"
He reaches into his pocket and brandishes a knife. I see the scarred turian has a pistol on his hip. I doubt the krogan is armed, though I don't think he needs to be. I smirk and raise my hands above my head.
"You know, how about you give me your stuff?" I say with a smile.
The group starts laughing loudly. I grimace in pain and discomfort as my Insect Swarm plasmid activates. Patches of skin on my body turn black and small holes begin to develop. The group's laughing fades as they see what is happening to my appearance.
Small wasp-like insects begin to crawl out of the holes in my flesh much to the terror of the blue turian. I throw my arms out to the sides and insects quickly pour out of the holes in my skin and begin to attack the muggers. They scream in a mix of pain, terror and panic as they begin to run around in circles swinging their arms around.
All except for the krogan who ignores the bugs and picks me up by grabbing my whole head in his hand. I grasp his hand and cry out as pressure begins to build on my skull.
The krogan laughs and squeezes my head harder, "I don't know what the fuck you are. But you're about to die."
I activate my Winter's Blast plasmid and my hands and arms erupt with icicles. I use it to freeze the krogan's hand. He howls in pain and terror and I pull my head out of his grasp, breaking his fingers off of his hand in the process.
I spin around and activate my Incinerate plasmid. The veins in my body glow bright red and my arms painfully ignite with fire. I ignore it and snap my flaming fingers at the krogan. He bursts into flame and begins to scream and writhe in terror.
I spin around and face the two turians who are still alive but dazed from the insects. I activate my Winter's Blast again and icicles burst from the burnt flesh on my arm. I use my Aero Dash plasmid and traverse the 9 meters distance to the scarred turian in a fraction of a second, throwing my fist into his face. Thin and long icicles pierce his flesh and travel deep into his skull, killing him instantly. The blue turian is frozen in place in terror. Shock and awe.
I make a gun with my hand and aim my fingers at the ground near his feet. A small whirlwind spins around my fingers as I activate my Cyclone Trap plasmid. I drop a trap at his feet and he flies 30 meters into the air, far above the sealed atmosphere on the Wards. He flies away toward another Ward and I turn my focus to the krogan again who is on the ground burned terribly but still alive. He quivers and gasps in pain and tries to crawl away.
I look at him in pity and retrieve the pistol from the dead scarred turian. I walk over to the krogan and aim the pistol at his head. I fire and place the pistol in my discarded backpack.
I look at my arm, an emulation to my entire body, which has third degree burns on it, small blackened holes where the insects dug their way out of my flesh, as well as small bleeding holes with ice ringed around it. Why do plasmids hurt so damn much?
"Shit," I say grimacing as I retrieve another medkit stim from my backpack. I am about to inject myself but I pause when I hear a small gasp.
I look up and see Nata standing nearby staring at me. I inject myself without looking away and I feel the burning sensation spread through my body as my wounds heal. She walks up to me and looks at the bodies of the krogan and the turian. This isn't going to go well…
"What are you?" she says incredulously.
I smile, "I'm not really sure anymore."
Nata is silent for a moment before walking up to the cab terminal and scanning the credit chit I gave her.
"Shall we go?" she asks.
I look at her surprised, "You're not scared or angry or anything?"
"We'll talk on the trip to the residential district." She responds simply patting the seat next to her.
I stare for a few seconds, before a smile grows on my face and I enter the cab.