Author's Note: And so the villains' plot begins. I hope nobody was too fond of any specific character?
They arrived in Empire City on the tram to the sound of gunfire and screams. Alden smiled broadly, while the Harbinger-possessed space marine had the emotional range of a statue of Stalin. "Shall we get started then?"
The marine stepped down, walking over to the cargo container blocking the road. "I need a device like this to be constructed," he said, dipping his hands in the blood of one of the dead cops and sketching. They went back and forth a few times as the conduit asked for more information. Then, gathering his focus, he started to pull together everything needed. A nearby lightpole toppled as he tore the wiring out of it; the electronics store nearby had every window shatter outward as he gutted the televisions within; the scattered remains of his Dustman's golem forming the shell of the device. "Now we need to test it," the marine said, looking around.
"Leave that to me," Alden said grimly, striding down the ramp and around behind it. Sure enough, a trio of panicked civilians started running out the other side. He yanked more cables to him, using them to tangle and trip the faceless extras, and dragged them brutally over to the device. "See? Easy enough. We go a couple of blocks and come back, and we'll have even more." He hawked and spit on the squirming black man. "Pathetic.
Wordlessly, Harbinger pulled one of them from his bonds, lifting the body effortlessly and placing it over the top of the device, spread-eagled painfully, large hands holding the poor man at shoulder and hip as he struggled. Then it jolted upwards, the ten foot spike impaling him through the back, right below the rib cage. Electricity arced up and down the device as he drained of color, skin turning grey, hair falling out, the clothes even disintegrating as the body was transformed.
Two minutes later, the spike retracted, and the husk stood on two feet, panting harshly. "Sufficient," Harbinger declared. "Construct more of these," he ordered as he loaded the screaming woman onto it, her voice dying away as it ripped through her body. "Mobile platforms might be superior. The faster we can convert the population, the faster we have a force capable of taking down these conduits you oppose."
"It'll take a little bit, no matter what," Alden warned. "Empire City isn't exactly centralized."
"So long as we can complete it before the arcade opens and the short-sighted flesh creatures can regain control of our games." The three husks instantly went charging down the street, and the marine body bent down to fiddle with the results. "I can construct other forms as well, given sufficient time."
"I'll leave you to it," the conduit said, moving off towards the bridge towards his stronghold. He had a mission, and a new ally … until he could rule unopposed. No one could treat him as an inferior and get away with it for long. Unknown to him, Harbinger was thinking along the same lines, even as it placed the marine body onto the spike with two other civilians, the bodies fusing together into a Scion form.
Three hours later, Shepard had given her crew the all clear. Almost everyone had come out to the game concourse, except for Jacob, who was still mid-workout, and Zaeed, who went back on board to take a nap. Joker had hobbled around for a bit before returning. They had watched several races, played a couple sports challenges, and watched the various fighting characters put on a competition. Currently, Cole and Zangeif were sparring, the younger conduit currently ahead 1-0, with Blinky and Pinky running a betting table off to one side.
He was almost at the point of scoring his second win when an alarm suddenly went off in the concourse. Everyone paused, looking around, before the voice of the surge protector came over the speakers. "Unauthorized game characters entering onto the station from gate twenty-eight."
"Which one's gate twenty-eight?" Shepard, Garrus, and Kessler all asked. A sudden, high-pitched scream echoed from the directions of their games. "That figures," Lyla Shepard complained, already swapping her avatar back to armor and weapons. The rest of her team was with her as they ran in that direction, following Ralph as the giant cut a path through the crowd.
Three off-duty marines had already formed up with Calhoun, with Felix at their center. "They're killing game characters," Ralph said quietly, his voice filled with shock. "Hey!" he suddenly shouted, loud enough that the entire crowd of husks, currently busy attempting to seize and dismember various candy people, fight spectators, and several koopas, paused. "You leave them alone!" Ralph howled, charging forward, leaping thirty feet to the nearest one and punching it. The husk flew the last forty feet to crash into the wall, still thirty feet off the floor, where it hung.
The rest of the crowd of husks pouring out of Infamous' gate instantly turned on him. The various fighting characters all charged forward, firing guns, hurling fireballs, spells, chi blasts, or just wading into melee. While Calhoun's marines escorted Felix around, letting him heal injured but not dead characters, the Normandy crew were in familiar teams, breaking up crowds of husks with biotics and plasma blasts, shooting with abandon just above the height of most of the game characters. Zangeif and Bison were tag-teaming the husks, one of them punching an interloper into the air for the other to volley-ball spike. Pinky, Inky, and Blinky were possessing the husks, then leading them docilely to Pac Man to be eaten. Sonic bowled through, toppling them to the ground, while Mario went hopping across the sea of heads.
"How the fuck did our husks get into his game?" Miranda shouted.
"How the hell should I know?" Cole asked. "Hey, old man!" He fired off a set of rockets before letting Tali shock him with an overload to recharge. "What did you do?"
"This is not my doing," Kessler complained, summoning another trio of floating robots. "I am just as mystified as you are."
"Maybe we can force these guys back far enough to have a conversation," Calhoun sniped at them before kicking a husk between the legs. "That's not fair," she told it before slamming her assault rifle muzzle between its teeth and opening fire.
The two conduits looked at each other, and dove into the crowd, blades of electricity forming from their fists and tearing them a hole. The Normandy crew, backed by Mario, Ken, and Calhoun, followed them in, holding their flanks secure. Taking in deep breaths, the two men gathered their power, and let it loose.
Lightning bolts the size of Cole's head tore down from the ceiling, the thunder of their passage obliterating the complaining alarm from the surge protector, blowing massive holes in the crowd of husks, each bolt turning three or four to ash and injuring a half dozen more. Kessler's stream shot out from his hands, slicing through each husk in line in a half second flat before moving on to the next one. In the end, both of their attacks reached the station at the same time before petering out.
With fewer bodies in the way, they could see the train cars arriving, three dozen husks clinging to the cars and each other. The new enemies leapt from the tracks and rushed for the concourse as the cars began their ride back into the game. "What the fuck is going on here?" Lyla challenged one of the husks, right before sticking her Widow in its face and pulling the trigger. Satan gave her a thumbs up as he incinerated two more, and the zombies around the edge were making complaining moans as they bit their prey to death.
It took another ten minutes, but the massive surge had cut down the horde enough for the various heroes and villains to reach the cars. "Alright, you know what these things are," Calhoun challenged.
"Yeah, and they shouldn't be here," Shepard complained. "They're people, converted into mindless cybernetic shock troops. But how the hell did they get into his game?" She pointed an accusing finger at Cole. "Nobody but my crew has come off the Normandy."
"Right now, that's less important," Kessler said. "Bystanders respawn in Empire City. The only limit is the camera location. So whoever's doing this has a literally infinite supply of pawns." He gestured out to the concourse, where non-combat people were weeping over the dead, or what remained of them. Luigi was slowly dragging a sheet over the mangled orange body of Q*Bert, and Felix was still using his magic hammer to fix as many people as he could.
"Fine. Let's go find them, so I can wreck them!" Ralph said loudly, clenching one fist above his head.
"Ralph, that's not your game," Calhoun cautioned. The various fighting game crew were torn between which one of them to agree with.
"It's not mine, either, but I'm sure as hell going in there," Shepard muttered. "EDI," she said into her omni-tool, "tell Zaeed and Jacob to get off their asses and search the ship. Somehow, the Collectors got out here, and I want to know how."
"We'll appreciate the help, that's for sure," Zeke said, reloading his dinky looking revolver.
"How do you go into a fight carrying one of those?" Kasumi asked him, appalled.
"Eh, that's easy. My character bio says I'm too dumb to be scared and a good enough shot to not get myself killed," Zeke replied breezily. "I like that outfit, but I think it needs a skirt instead of those pants." She promptly cloaked. "Damnit, I never have the luck with the ladies."
"Onto the cars," Cole ordered, getting into the front with Grunt, Calhoun and Ralph crowding into the one right behind him, and everyone else clung to the cars as best they could. "Next stop, Empire City," and he hit the button.
