Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, don't own anything except for the story, yadda yadda yadda.

Author's notes: Here we are, chapter 2. Please review if you have any thoughts about this story. I need to know what you think about it.

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2185 CE, 16 days after the incident of the Lazarus project

SSV Normandy 2

already recruited crew: Garrus Vakarian, Miranda Lawson, Jacob Taylor, Kasumi Goto, Mordin Solus

Shepard looked at the dossier in his hand. He met some weird people through his time in the army, but there was no way he was going to believe this. The Illusive Man sent him a message, saying that a science team on Earth found something in California. He said, that if his suspictions are correct, he was going to get a powerful addition to his crew. He was unsure of what those scientists could find on Earth, that can be such a great help to them, but considering the Reaper threat, he knew he could use some extra help.

He checked his mailbox after every mission, to see if the Illusive Man got to anywhere with his newly found task. For three weeks, there was nothing, but on the first day of the fourth, the message arrived. It contained a letter from the Illusive Man, telling him about the success of their experiments, and insisting that he must travel to Earth in a few days to pick up his newest crewmember. Then came his dossier.

Shepard have seen strange things written in some of the dossiers, but this one was ultimately ridiculous. It was about a man who worked in Santa Destroy, a small town somewhere in California. Shepard heard about that one. It was a total shithole since the government lost control over the criminals in there.

He heard rumors about people calling themselves the UAA (United Assassins Association), a club of gangsters, murderers and people who got tired of their lives. In the records he read about them, they were shown as a small group of hitmen, who lived only to kill their contracts, and as an addition, they had to fight in some brutal game called The Ranking Fights. Shepard didn't want to find out more about them. They were nothing more than a bunch of lunatics in his eyes.

Now, here came the interesting part of the dossier: It said, the man he was dealing with, was born in 1981, thus rendering him over two hundred years old by now. When Shepard first saw that, he almost fainted. What kind of human being can survive for more than two centuries? He thought the list ended there, but it turned out, that the strange man had even more surprises than he ever could have expected.

Over the next few hours, he read the dossier over and over again, slowly memorizing the facts about this man. He read each tale many times, reading about this 'Travis' person fighting a giant, rugby ball shaped robot, killing undead ghosts in an abandoned house in the woods, traveling into other dimensions just to fight other assassins there and last but not least, slaughtering countless people, just to find the one who had killed his friend.

Shepard just sat there, thinking about if this was just a joke, or there really was a man, who could achieve all these things. He didn't know what to do. Rush to Earth immediately, or discard the dossier, thinking it was just a joke.

„Hey Shep!" – came Kasumi's voice from behind him, almost scaring him to death – „What 're you reading?" – she came over to his side and looked down at the dossier.

„Well, if what I'm reading is true, then about the most powerful human being, who ever existed on Earth." – he gave Kasumi the dossier, trying to figure out, what to do with the current state. Suddenly, an idea struck his mind – „EDI! Can you give me some information about a person called 'Travis Touchdown' ?"

„Touchdown?! Cool name." – said Kasumi – „When do we get to meet him?"

„ There were fifteen thousand people, who were named 'Travis Touchdown' over the centuries. – came EDI's answer – „Currently, there are two hundred and twenty two, living in the galaxy."

„Search for one, who was born in 1981, and worked as an assassin in a city called Santa Destroy in America."

„There is one person who qualifies the description." – came the answer from the AI.

„Jackpot!" - Shepard muttered – „Send me all information you can gather about him. And tell Joker to set course to Earth. We have a package to pick up."

„Logging you out Shepard" – EDI said as her hologram figure disappeared.

„So? What do you think?" – asked Shepard, turning to Kasumi – „Because right now, I think we're falling for the biggest joke in the galaxy."

„Maybe, maybe not." – came her answer – „But if this is true, then we're going to meet the biggest badass in the whole universe. It's worth a try." – she said as she walked out.

„Ok. If you say so." – Shepard told her as she was leaving. 'I really hope for all this to be true.' He thought to himself.

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Meanwhile, in an old Cerberus facility, somewhere on Earth, two scientists were looking at a big block of ice in the containment room.

„I'm not too sure about this." – said one of them – „What if all the tales were not true and this guy's just a poor old soul trapped in an ice glacier."

„Poor old SOULS" – corrected the other – „There's actually two people in there. The taller one is presumably our next war hero, and the shorter one's his girlfriend or something."

„If the tales about him are correct, of course."

„Yes! Of course if the tales are correct! I don't expect miracles from such an odd discovery, but it can give us a great advantage against the geth perhaps." – the scientists started arguing about whether the tales of Travis Touchdown wre true or false, not noticing the strange cracking noise in the background, and the iceblock slowly twisting and cracking in the containment chamber. The heat of the room slowly melted the ice, and those trapped in it, began to wake up from their almost two decades of sleep.

The arguing scientists heard a slight cracking noise behind their backs, then a loud crash, indicating that something was wrong. Very, VERY wrong. They turned around, only to see a tall, young man standing in the containment chamber, and a shorter black girl lying on the floor, unconcious. The man was wearing a black T-shirt with a strange drawing on it, a red leather jacket, blue jeans and a white glove with red stripes on his right hand. The girl was wearing a black corset, similar black skirt, black stockings and a black pair of high heel shoes, her hair in a white afro. He looked around, slowly searching every bit of the room with his eyes. After a few moments of deep silence, the scientists realised, that he isn't going to attack and moved a little closer to him.

„Good afternoon sir." – started one of them – „I hope you are feeling well. You've been sleeping for quite a long time." – the man just looked at them for a few moments, then his gaze travelled down, onto the black girl lying on the floor. He quickly kneeled down, trying to wake the girl up.

„Shinobu! Wake up. It's me, Travis. Wake up babe, we're alive. Come on!" – he tried, but the girl remained perfectly still, not moving a muscle. He put his ear on his chest, listening to her heartbeat.

„May I interrupt?" – said one of the scientists, who had now entered the room and were slowly edging towards the kneeling man with extreme caution. He looked up at them, confusion, suspiction and a little fear in his eyes. – „We detected life signs inside the iceblock, two to be exact. Your's and her's. She'll be fine." – at this point, his face relaxed a little bit, until the other scientist decided he had seen enough and reached for the tranquilizer gun they had in the room.

Two shots were fired, which Travis evaded with grace. He jumped back a few feet and pulled his BloodBerry off his belt. The sword came to life and immediately, he jumped into action. He sliced both scientists in halves and headed to the door to check for an escape route.

Quickly, he picked Shinobu up, puttig one of her limp arms over his right shoulder, reaching around her back with his right hand, and lifting her by the thighs with his left hand. He stood up, with her in his arms and quickly left the room, to search for any exit. He turned right and ran through the large corridor, unsure where it led, knowing only one thing: He's going to save Shinobu. He'll bring her to safety and protect her, no matter what it takes.

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On the Normandy, everyone was preparing to land. Shepard was taking Garrus and Mordin for this one. Garrus for protection, and Mordin for examining this newly found crewmate for possible health problems.

„Ok. The plan is simple. – he told them – We go in, pick this guy up, and leave. Understood?" – everyone nodded yes, but before leaving, Shepard gave a final order – „EDI! Scane the building for anything strange on it. I don't want anything like those bastards with the fake ship trap." – he said, referring to the fake emergency transmission they received a few days after leaving Omega. It came from a ship, which was seemingly in danger and needed their help. They went to help of course, but it turned out to be a trap of the batarians, who were using this trick to attack and capture human ships, and the ship was their bait.

After finding nothing out of the ordinary, Shepard, Mordin and Garrus entered. Soon, they were greeted by a cheerful doctor, who turned out to be a huge fan of Shepard.

„Welcome to our facility commander." – she giggled, looking him up and down, seemingly mesmerised by his looks – „I am Dr. Lisa Abrahams, chief biologist of this science facility. Please, follow me." –she started in the direction of the containment room, leading the others behind herself.

Through the small tour, Lisa continued to talk about the importance of necrobiology, and how resourceful it can be. Shepard saw numerous strange experiments in each chamber, some of which excited, and most of which utterly disgusted him. Finally reaching the last room, he smelt a strange smell in the air. It almost felt like – „Blood." – Garrus and Shepard said at the same time, reaching for the door and opening it, to find two dead scientists on the floor, both torn in half.

„What could've done this?!" – Shepard said as he glanced around the room. Suddenly, a loud noise erupted from the other end of the corridor. They ran out of the room and quickly turned in the direction of the sound.

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„HOLY DINGLEBERRIES!" – Travis exclaimed as he opened a door, and almost literally fell off the edge of the world. He looked down, to find a bottomless pit – „Where the hell I am?!" – he asked to himself in pure shock from the sight – „What the hell is this place?!" – As he turned back to leave, he was greeted by the sight of four people in front of him. Three of them were holding some kinds of guns, pointed at him and Shinobu. One of them was clearly human, but the others seemed weird, even for him. 'What the hell? Aliens?' he thought. The fourth one was a woman. Some kind of scientist, or doctor, Travis assumed.

„Travis Touchdown?" – The gun holding human asked – „I am commander William Shepard. I want to talk with you."

„I don't care if you're the frickin' Pope of Rome. - " Travis answered – „What kind of sick game is this?" – At that, the man lowered his gun and edged towards him, slowly. Noticing this, Travis carefully put Shinobu down on the ground and picked another beam katana from his belt: Tsubaki. She was a beauty like BloodBerry, but she was lighter and 'sharper' with an appearence of a katana sword, the beam blade having the appearence of a green, glowing katana blade.

He turned Tsubaki on and raised her high above his head, ready to strike at any moment. – „Where am I?!" – he asked – „I swear, if this is just a sick joke, I'll cut off your heads."

Seeing that he was not joking, Shepard put his assault rifle on the floor, gestured for Garrus and Mordin to do the same and raised his hands in a calm motion, showing Travis, that he was not his enemy. – „We can explain you everything, but please, put the weapon down. We will tell you everything you want to know." – At that, Travis lowered his sword, turned it off and put it back on his belt.

„First things first, can you help her?" – he said, kneeling down next to her and shaking her gently, trying to wake her – „Please, help her!"

With help, they've taken the unconcious Shinobu to the medical center, and a team of doctors began their examination, to check if she was alright.

Travis was leaning against the wall, outside the room his girl was in, thinking very hard, about the things that happened. After a while, Shepard approached him and began explaining the situation to him. All the while he was talking, Travis listened to him, clearly lost in the tales the other man was telling him. As Shepard finished the story, Travis was looking down to the floor, deep in thoughts.

„Ok. I'm in." – he finally said – „With only one condition. She can come as well." – Travis continued, motioning in the direction of the medical room.

At this, Shepard smiled, understanding that this man, who had been dead for almost two hundred years, wanted the only thing that remained precious to him, to always be with him. At last he answered – „Welcome on board, Mr. Touchdown."