It's that time again readers, and I hope you've readied yourself for it. Thank you all for waiting by the way, it really does mean something to me for those that have stuck around. Let's skip past all the mushy stuff and hop right into the chapter, enjoy.
Over the entire area, a horn blasted a familiar tone louder than one would appreciate while serving the exact purpose of waking one's self. To the one currently listening to it, he found it no more pleasurable than breaking one's arm. Adrian Shepard was standing in front of his cot along with seven others while the horn continued to blast off around them. Before the horn could finish playing, a man walked into the room shouting.
"Rise and shine ladies! My name is Senior Drill Instructor Dwight T. Barnes! The first and last words I wanna hear out of your stinkin' holes is "Sir"! Do I make myself clear?!" The man said while finishing his pace across the room and standing beneath a clock that read 6:07.
All the men in the room except for Barnes shouted. "Sir, yes, Sir!"
Barnes nodded to himself before pacing the room again. "My goal is simple: as of right now you are all maggots! You will not speak until spoken to. You will not sleep unless told to do so! When I ask you to jump. You will reply with "How High?"! Do you get me?!
The men shouted out once more. "Sir, yes, Sir!"
Barnes stood silent until their eyes met. Shepard quickly snapped his head back forward but the connection was already made. Footsteps were getting closer to him and there he was, standing directly in front of him, his flat brimmed hat inches away from his face.
"What's your name, dirtbag?!" He set his hands on his side.
"Corporal Adrian Shepard, Sir."
Barnes's face twisted into anger. "Sound off like you got a pair!"
Shepard now shouted. "Corporal Adrian Shepard, Sir!"
His hands fell to his side. "Corporal Shepard, huh? Looks more like Corporal "Dog Meat" to me! Seems your name was mysteriously bumped to the top of the advanced training list!" He shot his arm out towards the door he entered in through. "My suggestion to you is to get your ass down to the training center and report to Drill Instructor Sharp A.S.A.P! Now move it, Corporal!"
Shepard quickly snapped back and realized what he was just asked to do. Advanced training? What the hell did he do to get into that? He began walking out the door into the barracks and towards the stairs, still hearing the yelling of Barnes in the background. "Where you from, soldier? Texas! Holy cow! You know what comes from Texas, don't you?""
He made his way down to the bottom of the stairs and was pushing the first door of the exit. Walking down the hallway he was muttering to himself. "That's interesting. I wouldn't have pegged myself for the special forces type. Could it be a prank, or am I just that damn good." He pushed the second door open and walked out into the courtyard of the camp. He saw another instructor and two others, one finishing what he guessed was laps and the other was currently doing pushups.
"1! 2! 3! 4! You call that a push-up?! All the way down!"
Shepard continued to walk past the trio and into the Advanced Training Facility across from the barracks. Strangely close to where we sleep... probably some reasoning for it. His eyes trailed up to the building right next to it. The Tactical Operation Command building, and what caught his eye and made his stop was a certain suited individual talking with another Commander up by the window. He stopped and stared for a second until the instructor right next to him shouted out.
"What is your major malfunction, dirtbag?!"
This surprised him and he quickly made his way into the building he was supposed to enter. Walking through the doors he noticed they were very different, they just slid open, revealing they were rather thick metal doors. He stepped through and they slammed behind him, leaving him in a long, windowless corridor. A camera locked onto him as he made his way down the hall, watching his every step. The next door repeated the same and he walked through. He was now standing in a room with two windows on the side and another door in front of him. Shepard waited for a second, seeing if one would tell him to stop or something of the sort, yet there was nothing. He stepped through the door and it slammed behind him, just like the ones before.
He figured the best thing to do was continue going straight, and he did so. Walking down the stairs, he saw another instructor, who he took to it to being Sharpe, standing on the platform above him. He began to yell at him when he reached the bottom. "All right, maggot, listen up! I don't care what your previous outfit was like, but around here we do things my way! Follow my instructions carefully and by the end of the day I'll have you eating danger and crapping victory! Now move your butt, soldier! I will meet you on the other side in the armor!"
Shepard noticed the large sign next to the door that read 'Armor Access'. He sighed as he walked through the sliding door and through the short winding hallway through the other door. He walked into a room where a multitude of things hung on walls and sat on tables. Before he could focus his attention on any one thing, he heard the footsteps on the catwalk behind him, and with it, Drill Instructor Sharpe.
"Mounted on the wall below me, you will see a P.C.V! This is a Powered Combat Vest! Use it correctly, and I guarantee it will save your life! Your PCV is able to recharge from battery power, or it can interface and recharge with commercial, military, and H.E.V. charging stations!"
Silence stood between the two. Shepard was slightly annoyed from the constant yelling inside, seeing on how it echoed rather easily. Sharpe shouted at him.
"What are you waiting for?! Grab that P.C.V. and get it fully charged! Trust me, maggot, you're gonna need it! I'll meet you in the next area to demonstrate some of your vest's capabilities!" Sharpe walked off and through another door leaving Shepard to his own devices.
Shepard walked up to the PCV and slipped it on, getting a strange feeling as it beeped alive in a way, showing his vitals and such down in the corner of his eye. He turned around and saw two large batteries sitting on the ground and three large stations, the same ones Sharpe was speaking of. He walked over and took a cord that looked to be used for charging and plugged it into the HEV charging station. Watching it slowly charge its way up, but not completely. He finished the charge on the blue machine right next to it. Upon feeling satisfied, he walked through the door and long, red lit hallway. Upon opening the second door, another sigh stood out to Shepard. "Test Firing Chamber. PCV Equipped Personnel Only."
He shrugged it off and walked around the large stone wall and his eyes fell on where Sharpe was currently being above him. The intercom of the room came alive.
"The armored Vest that your military has provided you with will keep you alive! Step onto the mark and this will be demonstrated for you!" The door on his side opened up and out came another soldier, though he was unable to recognize him, what he did recognize was the gun he was carrying. He heard the pump of the shotgun and Shepard quickly glanced over to where the red light shown. The entire wall was covered in bullet holes, and what he could only hope to be red paint. He glanced back Sharpe, then to the man, then back to Sharpe. 'Seriously?' He repeated the action, glancing at all three, looking back to Sharpe once more. 'Seriously? Right, yeah, cuz I'm sure that guy's shotgun is just loaded with rubber bullets and I'm sure that red stuff is just paint.'
Shepard stepped onto the small white platform and was instantly shot by the man across from him, earning a groan from Shepard. The intercom came back on.
"As you can see, you are not dead! Your P.C.V. absorbed the damage at the cost of its power! Keep your P.C.V. charged and your chances of survival in the field are very high! Proceed to the next area!"
Shepard sighed and placed his hand on the wall and let out a sigh. He was about to move forward until the man who shot him spoke up.
"Yeah, it's not enjoyable is it?" He let out a small chuckle.
Shepard shot him a glance and continued through the next door, expecting only more to come.
Blackness is all that surrounded Shepard. It was different than what he's experienced before, there was no sound, no empty space, because if it was empty, there had to be something there for it to be empty in? A figure appeared in front of him, one that he most certainly remembered, and one that he didn't wish to see at all, yet in any attempt to move or shout towards him, it was just fruitless. The man adjusted his tie and began to speak once more.
"I see that your habit of sleeping still persists even before you've started Corporal Shepard. Not a quality I'd suggest when applying for a position such as yours, but... your actions beforehand have gathered the attention of our... current employers and with it look forward to a certain task I've decided to appoint you in this situation... seeing as how your fellow coworker is currently assigned another task that one could say... is much more influential. The whole aspect of team work is to move towards a final goal in mind."
Next to the G-man, a large screen of sort appeared, and on it a sequence of events started to play. Multiple scenes that looked like something out of a show of sorts, girls talking in some sort of school, then flashing over to the same girls fighting the same black aliens he saw before, though many more different types and such. The movements and weapons they used looked all the more complex as some looked to move at such high speeds and others creating literal clones of themselves.
More complex scenes started to appear. Fights with what he could only determine as a sort of fancy dressed man alongside a short girl who fought with an umbrella. Next it went to them fighting on a train...underground alongside a... professor? Finally, it ended on a single scene, but what was different about it wasn't the two fighting, but rather the one behind them. Two women specifically, one fighting with fire while the other with some sort of magnetic powers. But behind them, was a figure in an orange HEV suit, one that he recognized ever so easily. Before it could show anymore, it quickly closed itself back into the black abyss that it came from.
The man spoke back up.
"You'll follow the simple task of protecting the following individuals from certain dangers they'll come in contact with."
'Right, I'm going to act as a bodyguard for super students. I take it that they're just going to now me from a certain past event in their life that never happened and will trust me no problem. I went from behind a soldier to being a daycare, great.'
"Don't worry about such formalities with them Corporal Shepard, its... not required in your current role. Our employers have... also taken the liberties of paying for... your previous assets and will be delivered in time. I should tell you that... they have tendencies. Since they never had the chance to interfere with your associate, they've taken it upon you, and one of them is particularly interested in adding something to your current state. Think of it as... an upgrade Corporal Shepard, one that is unlike any other... or is it?"
The man didn't finish as he shot up from where he was laying, or at least attempted to. He lunged forward slightly but was stopped by a feeling on his wrist. When looking back, he got a glance at what was holding him currently. He had a handcuff wrapped around his wrist and it was attached to the frame of the bed he was currently lying on. Shepard began to question whether or not to break his way free from his current situation or lie there in wait. Seconds turned to minutes and at this point he was moreover, getting anxious. No one had come in to check on him, nor had there been a single sound outside the door. He brought up his hands and realized what he'd just done. His right hand had a handcuff around it, and that it wasn't attached to the bed frame.
'I just... what?'
Shepard unconsciously broke his way free from his 'chains', allowing him to now flex his tense muscles.
As he breathed in, he felt a strange familiar feeling along with it. He brought his now free hand up to his face and realized that his gasmask was still on. Normally one would remove it but, in this case, he supposed his captors left it on him. His eyes traveled down and he noticed that he only had his tank top and pants on, his boots and everything else was missing. Now he knew something was wrong since they took almost everything else, but his gasmask. He quickly surveyed the room and took notice of everything that was there. A few windows here and there, and two doors, one that was closed and another that lead into what looked to be a bathroom of sorts. On the table sitting next to the bathroom door though was the familiar items that he knew belonged to him.
One was his PCV vest sitting on the table, and what was strange was his desert eagle was sitting atop of it as well. While he knew it was unloaded and there wasn't any ammo to begin with, normally one would take away one's weapons. On next to the gun though was a folder, one thing that he knew wasn't with him when he crashed. His boots were sitting next to the table on the ground as well. Taking account of his short freedom, he stood up from the bed and walked over to where his equipment was at.
Before grabbing anything else, he took ahold of the folder now seeing that it was labeled 'confidential'. He had absolutely no idea of what it was, so the next logical thing to do was to open it up.
Inside were pictures of those same girls, adding in a few others. Their names were listed just like that of a case file of someone. Labels that read 'Team JNPR', 'Team CFVY', and 'Team SSSN'. Shepard stared at the tabs, clearly confused on what exactly the strange lettering meant. Deciding to worry about it later he began to read and decided to start with a tab labeled 'Team RWBY'.
Inside, the first one to appear was a young, black haired girl with silver eyes. Following the order, he began to read the other lines. Her name was Ruby Rose, and she was clearly female, current age of sixteen and was born on October 31st... Shepard took it that this world had the same dates as Earth. Eye color was clearly silver, stands at a height of 5'2 (1.57 meters for those who wanted a different answer). He skimmed the rest of information, seeing those who are related and such. Something about a semblance being speed? She is a super-child god dammit.
'Why? I don't need all of this, I'm not Black Ops, I was in the HECU, not that shady crap. Those guys were crazy.'
He flipped to the next page.
'Weiss Schnee... Why... Why is there always a rich girl?'
Shepard ran his finger down the page and stopped at the small note beneath the name.
'What's up with these nicknames? Princess? Snow Angel? Ice Queen? I knew it. She's a 'cold bitch'… Shepard let out a small chuckle.
Age is eighteen at the current moment, clearly female, and also left handed. 5'3(1.6 meters), so not that much taller than Ruby... wait, that says in heels... why? More ridiculous family members who are not on a need to know basis. Semblance has something to do with glyphs, does that mean she is also associated with hieroglyphics or something?
Shepard flipped the page again.
'Oh...Oooooooh. While Blondie and Firecracker could make some sense, what is up with Sunny Little Dragon? That's something a father would name like... a literal dragon? Ok Yang Xiao Long, let's see what you've got.
Another one at eighteen. Was Ruby just bumped into a team she shouldn't have? Again, female, and would you look at that, she's right handed. Standing taller than the others at a clear 5'8(1.73 meters), and that hair is labeled as 'Bright-gold'. Right, that's not bright yellow.
'Oh, that's interesting. She's sisters with Ruby not that I can see the... oh, paternal half-sister. That makes much more sense.'
Now the semblance is what catches Shepard's attention. Drawing strength from hits, a theory that he plays upon in his head before speaking out loud.
"Why would that even be a good idea? You could just literally slice off an arm and there you have it, their armless and it was in a single hit. Basically, a twofer, she's not stronger, and she doesn't have an arm and is weaker by that extent!"
Shepard annoyingly flipped to the next page.
'What? These are the strangest by far. Kitty? My Darling? Is she involved with some strange people with kinks? You're clearly not ready to step into that field... Blake Belladonna.'
Not surprised, she is currently at the age of eighteen as well. Female, wow. This is a new one, she's supposedly a 'Faunus'.
'Is that what they call those animal cosplayers here? Faunus? '
Taller than the other two at a good 5'6(1.68 meters). Her semblance is "Shadow". Shepard looked at the paper questioningly.
'How can a power be a literal shadow?' He pointed behind him for his own amusement. 'I have a shadow to, so does that mean I am also a super-powered individual?' He turned around with his arms spread before nodding his head and continued reading. 'Didn't think so.' More family stuff that I shouldn't worry about... I'm just not getting why this is even here? I don't even want to be here!' A few more seconds past before speaking out his latest discovery.
"RWBY is the team name and the letters are the first letters of their name... makes sense now... somewhat."
Before Shepard could continue onto the next tab that read JNPR, a couple of voices sounded near the door that lead to the room. He quickly closed the folder and grabbed ahold of his gun. He can't use it to shoot anyone, but a gun still looks like a gun, and in that instance, is considered to be loaded and dangerous. He dashed over to the door, hugging the side that the door opened to. The voices got louder and louder before he could hear them much clearer.
"I'm telling you Quinn, that Thing is still asleep. There's nothing to worry about, not like he'll jump up and pull some crazy attack on us."
The door was wide open now and the two voices were now in the room. Shepard acted and sprung out from behind the door, causing the two to turn around and face him. They both looked equal in size so he decided either one would work as a hostage. The one he could tell that was a least a good two steps away from him was the one that had to go down first. Shepard quickly remembered his training of the 'Line System'* and immediately took ahold of their arm. His fist quickly flew into their face before he proceeded to twisting the arm while still outstretched. With a quick reverse swipe of his leg, they were already falling backwards and their face was met with another impact, this time from the butt of his gun.
Before the other could even react, he was already behind them with his knife to their throat and his gun pointed at the one that was still recovering from his quick succession of blows. Now taking in the time to look at them, he saw there was yet another pair of ears, this one being much larger, like that of a bunny. He questioned slightly on how they recovered so fast, but he saw that there was in fact blood coming from the nose, a successful hit on his part.
He walked his way in front of the open door, his hostage who he could now tell was female, still in his grasp and his gun still trained on the 'bunny boy'. There wasn't even a struggle from her which he could understand if they understood the situation as well, but even the boy was quiet, the look on his face still one of worry. Shepard took a few more steps back and glanced to his left, and then right, and what he saw there changed his entire situation.
His gasmask eye visors were a blood red and spreading out from the edges of it from his neck and to the side of his head were deep red and purple veins running down his neck and spreading only as far as his shoulders. For only a moment his grip lessened and his saw his mistake in this moment. The girl he had held in lock easily flipped him over, knocking the knife out of his hand and sending him sliding across the floor. He quickly made his way back to his feet, the pain he expected to feel practically non-existent. He held out the gun once more, not sure on who to direct it towards now seeing on how both of them have him at the disadvantage. He glanced at his knife and cursed to himself as it was now being picked up by the girl who was looking it over with curiosity.
Shepard desperately wanting to escape at this point, and with it solve what the hell was going on with him.
'This has got to be some kind of alien sickness or something of the sort. I already understand that I'm not on Earth, so it has got to be my body adjusting to the planet or something, yeah, that's it.'
He took another step back, feeling the wall directly behind him. Shepard cursed again before speaking up.
"You better back up and start explaining what the hell you did to me!"
Instead of listening to him, the two just shared a now worried glance and the girl took a step forward. In her hand was a glass of water. This clearly confused Shepard seeing on how he wasn't feeling particularly parched or anything of the sort. Before he could speak again, a new figure stepped out from the door, and this scared Shepard. A tall, very muscular man with a beard like no other stepped into the room, his height easily dwarfing Shepard's. He wore an open violet coat with a white fur trim, and on his exposed chest was quite a patch of hair. There was a large, silver metal buckle that wrapped around his waist over a sash the same color as his coat. On his shoulder was a large silver metal spaulder like one out medieval movies that knights wore.
The man took another step forward and the two others stepped to the side out of his way allowing him to walk directly towards Shepard. He kept his gun trained on the monster of a man as he continued his way towards him, all while Shepard was thinking on how he was going to survive this situation.
'He's going to try something, and while I would love to stop him, I've already screwed myself. All he has to do is get one hand on me and I'm finished. Goodbye alien world, hello afterlife that could possibly contain the aliens I slaughtered at Black Mesa; absolutely fantastic.'
The man took another step forward and his hand started to reach for Shepard. He attempted to pull the trigger of his gun, clearly stating the fact that it was indeed empty from the loud click that emanated throughout the room. When the man's hand fell on his shoulder, he was expecting to have it crushed in an instant, but instead was met with something entirely different. A large pain started to emanate from his head as he stumbled with his back to the wall, realizing that the towering man just headbutted him.
A now empty hand went to his head, allowing the gun to fall to the ground with a clank as Shepard managed to maintain his stance and raised his eyes to stare at the man who was now staring at him with a slightly confused look. Shepards hands shot out and grabbed the man's coat, attempting to bring himself lower, but clearly failing. There was no reaction from the man as Shepard did so. In a swift movement, Shepard launched himself, slamming his forehead into the man, causing him to stumble back, Shepard also doing so as he collapsed to one knee while speaking in pain.
"That's... a headbutt." He held his head with both free hands now. 'Ohhh god why did I do that!? Now it hurts more than before!'
As he lifted his head once more to see the damage he hoped he'd done, he just saw the man staring at him once again, no change in his attitude except for the smile that sat on his face. He turned his back to Shepard and walked over to where his belongings still laid, this time speaking up.
"You're rather interesting, aren't you? I'm not going to straight up ask you who, or what you are and why you're here. But rather, you can explain yourself." He picked up the folder and turned around, holding it up for Shepard to see. "This wasn't here when we brought you back; now before I open this and see whatever 'confidential' information is in here, I'd rather you do it." He tossed the folder towards Shepard, it sliding its way towards his kneeled position.
He stared towards the man before grabbing ahold of the folder and standing up and stumbling a slight bit from his most recent head impact. When he finally made way to his feet, he held the folder slightly in front of him, speaking with up most clarity.
"This... This is my job. While not what I would consider the best..."
A small voice in the back of his head quickly reminded him of what would come if he were to ignore such things. 'I'm sure you can imagine there are worse alternatives...'
He shook of the memory and dropped the folder to his side. After removing himself of his headache, he took notice of the lack of bodies within the room. The two eared individuals have left the room, leaving only himself and the large man to one another. His attention to the lack of bodies was seen by the large man who spoke up to clear the confusion.
"Don't worry about them, they were supposed to be here to only bring you, well, you see it spread across the floor now." He let his hands outline the mess that Shepard made when he attacked the two. A flipped tray with a multiple assortment of food, all of which still looked somewhat appetizing even when spread across the floor; though to his surprise, Shepard felt no hungrier than he was when he crashed, almost as if he didn't need it. "Now if you would get to explaining yourself. You can't use the excuse of being bedridden any longer."
Shepard tossed the folder onto the bed and after clearing his throat from a lingering cough, he spoke up. "My name is Corporal Adrian Shepard of the United States Military. I have already determined that I am not on my planet of Earth any longer, and at the current moment I am unsure of what planet I reside on. As to the specifics of why I am here, I do not know If I have the clearance to share the exact classified information within that folder, and that it is only a simple task of protecting who they deem necessary."
Silence floated throughout the room after he finished his statement, the man's expression still unwavering. He began to walk over to Shepard, this time turning his attention to the folder and grabbing ahold of it. Shepard made a slight attempt to reach for the folder as it was taken away, but he knew the fruit of his potential labor would have been pointless. The man flipped it open to where Shepard stopped, on Blake Belladonna. The man turned to face him, his expression slightly changed from what it was previously, one to confusion but slight anger as well.
"Why does she need to be protected?" His hand slapped the folder.
Shepard noticed there was clear hostility in his voice. He took it as a sign that he knew her in some way.
"I'm not entirely sure. Just like her, I've never meet any one of those individuals within that folder."
"And you're supposed to protect them? You?"
Shepard took that as a slight insult but pushed it off. "The specifics of my abilities are not necessary to be shared with a civilian like yourself. At the current moment you are affiliating yourself with a mission that you could possibly endanger, alongside the lives of those within that folder. I'll ask you to forget all that you saw within there."
The man shared a glance with Shepard before glancing down at the folder once more, soon letting out a loud laugh startling him.
"Civilian. Corporal Shepard was it? If what you say is true, and that you are not from this world, then I have no qualms with speaking with you. I should assure you that I am no civilian, and that the place you are is somewhere that you should not have to worry yourself to much with. At the current moment, you are on the continent of Menagerie, the homeland of us Faunus."
Shepard took a mental note on what they were called. All he remembered of the aliens at Black Mesa was that they were labeled as Xen. He had no clue if they were as intelligent as these Faunus were, but at least these were much less violent and much more welcoming than the last.
"My name Is Ghira Belladonna, the Chieftain of Menagerie. As I said before, we have no qualms between us, and from the looks of it you're not here to cause us any sort of harm as well."
Shepard blanked on the man's words. Right now, the leader of this area, or rather entire continent. The name is what caught him off guard the most. He remembered back to the folder and the page of Blake more specifically. Underneath the family, he saw his name, and he was listed as her father. While in normal situations, one would panic upon meeting the father of the individual you were just tasked with protecting, but this wasn't normal in anyway. Ghira clearly had no clue as to why she would need to be protected, and this meant that none of the others would either.
In the moment Shepard finished his thought, he could've sworn that within the folder, a single page was added at the very end of the folder. He decided to ignore it before he could get ahold of it once again.
"Since we've cleared up this matter in a civilized manner, could I ask you to take off that mask of yours? I prefer to look at my guests in the face."
Shepard was confused at this point. The man now known as the Chieftain of an entire continent just found out that his daughter is within a stranger's folder of people that he's said that he's supposed to protect and in no way is he showing any sort of hostility towards him. Either the people of this world are too trusting or there is something that both parties are clearly missing.
To add onto the fact, he asked him to remove his mask, one thing they could've done to begin with when he was brought to this location. Shepard hesitated to raise his hand to remove it, but with a push from his consciousness, he allowed his hands to make their way to his head and start lifting the mask off before a single loud knock interrupted him. His hands quickly fell and he saw Ghira turn around as well in the direction of the sound. He turned back to Shepard and gestured towards him.
"Stay here. I'll be back as soon as this is settled."
Shepard simply nodded his head as he watched the large man walked out of the room, setting the folder on the same end table as it was found on. As soon as the door closed, he made quick work of picking up his gun and knife. He ran over to the end table and took one look at the folder before deciding to come back to it, putting on his boots and holster straps. He left the PVC laying there, unsure of how much time it would take to even make sure if it was still working.
He cracked the door and began to make his way down the hallway, stopping before two large doors of which he could hear voices on the other side.
"Kali, who is it?"
He cracked the door slightly, and upon doing so saw the back of Ghira, but the feet of two others beyond him. Ghira's hands fell to his side and he began to walk forward, allowing Shepard to get a clearer look on who was there. With a quick look, he saw two women, one of which had an arm around the other. One of them looked strikingly similar to the other, but the younger one of the two Shepard immediately recognized. He made sure to get on last look in before dashing away from the door and back to where he left the folder.
Closing the door behind him, he picked up the folder and flipped through it again, landing on the last page. There she was, Blake Belladonna, one of the individuals he was tasked with 'protecting' or something of the sort. He glanced back at the door, hearing the voices of the three and one other he didn't catch. He placed the folder back down and slid the PVC on, the familiar weight coming back to him. A few mandatory beeps later, and the PVC HUD was online and he could see everything. While there weren't any shields, his health was most certainly, at one-hundred percent. A warning appeared next to his health, one of a poison in his system.
He waited for the vest to administer the antidote and in an instant, Shepard felt a tranquil wave flush over him, his entire self-feeling a sense of calm, very far from the feeling he had earlier when he noticed the strange adorations across his body. He made his wave over to the same mirror, immediately noticing the difference in the reflection in front of him.
His mask visors were no longer red but the same luminescent green, and no longer was there the dark colored veins running on his body. The 'corruption' supposedly gone... Shepard looked back at his past word. Corruption, the one thing he was most certainly not thinking of when he first saw the veins, almost as if something replaced the definition of his circumstances within his own head. Allowing it to settle, he took this chance to plan his next move.
The G-man said that his old equipment would be delivered to him in time, how much Shepard thought, he wasn't sure of. All he knew is from what he had experience before is that wherever he was, it would be there when it finally came; how exactly, Shepard had no clue.
After sliding his gun into its holster, he let his eyes wonder onto his right hand, wondering if he'd see it again, seeing one how it was technically part of his equipment during his 'stay' at Black Mesa. He left the experience to the side and creeped his way out the door, carrying the folder in his hand. While he had a mission to follow, he need equipment before doing anything, and only one place had that, and that was the fallen Osprey.
Shepard made his way past the pair of large doors and then out the second pair, the bright sun hitting his visors making it hardly a problem. He made his way down the stairs and began walking up the path where many other buildings sat. He stopped moving and stood to the side when two hooded individuals made their way past him down to the residence where he was just at. They shared a glance between the three, the latter being one of curiosity while Shepards was unknown behind his mask to the onlookers. They dropped their glances and continued forward.
'Tails and ears, hopefully there's not some sort of crazy resistance here or anything; just more problems in the end.'
He pushed onwards, unaware to what would lie ahead.
Hey hey hey, it's another chapter finished. I can't think of anything to say besides that the next time you hear from me I'll be in an entirely different state at school... so... happy to have you wonderful read this. Comment and such if you'd like. Bye Bye.