A/N: Ok so this chapters a little bit short, I planned making it longer but by the time I got the first section done I was at 4500 words so I cut it short and shipped it out early. Also, Mass Anomalies hit 100 follows! Lets try for 100 reviews with this chapter! Anyway, here's chapter 11!
Chapter 11
-What's The Worst That Could Happen?-
It took another day to be released, I guess coming back to the jail after I was busted out made a good impression. So that's two days in a closet full of my own piss and shit, one day in a nice cell and Cerberus ship, and another in the last cell with Lorin. All and all, it wasn't too bad. I got the shit kicked out of me, but I've had worse weeks.
After I got out, I waited for a few hours until Lorin got out, luckily we got out on the same day. We exchanged info and then went our separate ways, I know I'll see him again though, at the least it'll be out of necessity.
I walk off in the opposite direction towards my friends, who are all waiting for me by a skycar terminal. Pac, Aila, and Saylem are facing the other way, oblivious to my approach. Broadway eventually noticed me after I got about ten feet from them and I see his face change like the seasons. It was neutral at first, then he got happy when he saw me, and then he grew concerned when he actually saw me. My battered face that is.
"Jesus James!" he exclaims, causing the rest of the group to turn to look at me. Pac rears his head back slightly, but his face remains the same. Aila rushes over and takes a closer look, slowly devolving into a worried mess. Saylem has the courtesy to blink, which was so sweet of him.
"Goddess!" Aila gasps as she pokes at my neck, causing me to flinch. She immediately pulls her hand back as she apologizes. "I'm sorry! Are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine." I assure her.
"You were aggravating people again weren't you?" Broadway asks in a knowing tone.
"No!" I blurt out.
"Mmm hmm." Pac hums in a flanged tone as he nods. "Suuuure."
"That's unlikely." Saylem chimes in.
"I can't believe what I'm hearing." I say, feigning shock. "At least Aila's on my side." I announce as I drape my arm around her shoulder and pull her close. "Right?" I ask as I look to her. She opens her mouth to talk but she hesitates before scrunching her face as she thinks. She finally looks at me and speaks.
"Well…" she whispers as she looks up at me.
"I'm hurt Aila." I sob as I push her away playfully. "After all I went through, this is the welcome I get?"
"Are you going to tell us what happened or not?" Pac asks as the door to the skycar cracks open.
"How long's the ride?" I smile as we head into the skycar.
After I explained what had happened, and talked Broadway out of pressing charges on the turian we all went our separate ways. I don't care about that, what's done is done. Right now I need to focus Haynes, he's the only thing I need to spend my time on. So that's what I do, I focus on Haynes.
We all get together at Aila's and discuss the plan, going through all of the things we each need to accomplish. Everything seems to be in order which has me worried, nothing seems to have gone right so far. Actually, now that I think about it, every little thing that has gone right has been in direct correlation with something bad.
After our little powwow, everyone heads home, leaving me and Aila alone in the apartment.
"So what do you want to do?" she asks as she sits on the couch next to me.
"I don't know." I shrug. "We could watch a movie."
"Well what kind of movies do you like?" she asks as she activates a wall mounted TV with her Omni-tool.
"I'll pretty much give anything a try." I tell her. "Not a huge fan of gushy romances, I'm more into action thrillers or movies that make you think, you know, the ones you have to watch more than once so you can get the whole picture."
"I take it you watch a lot of movies?"
"I used to." I nod. "On ea… Freedoms Progress I used to watch movies all the time with my friends, we loved, umm, older 20th century earth films."
"Go any favorites?" she asks as she brings up a search bar on her Omni-tool.
"Too many!" I smile. "There's a movie called Forrest Gump, that's probably my favorite! Don't tell Pac, but that's one of the only movies to make me tear up." I admit, trying to sound as manly as possible.
"Is it a sad movie?" she asks.
"It's got a bit of everything really." I recall. "You could watch it as a war movie, a romance, comedy, uhh, a sport movie if you stretch it far enough. It's got something for everybody."
The TV lights up as Aila's Omni-tool fades, and Forrest Gump begins to play.
We start to watch the movie, starting at Forrest's childhood. We sat there watching, sharing a laugh here and there until we got to the Vietnam portion of the film. I turned my face slightly, trying to hide the tear that managed to escape from my eye as Forrest sat on the beaches of 'Nam with Bubba. I think she still noticed though, mostly because she was crying and looked over to see if I was too. My masculinity took a big hit that day.
"That was really good!" Aila exclaims as the credits roll.
"Told you!" I say as I stand up and walk to the kitchen, searching for something to quench my thirst. "Want anything?"
"No I'm good." She says. After a long pause she speaks up. "Are you nervous?"
"About what?" I ask as I open a bottle of… something, it's covered in asari writing.
"Haynes." She says quietly.
"Nope." I lie. "Nothing to worry about, it's already set up and good to go. Bullet proof." I assure her.
"I don't know how you're not worried, I'm terrified and I've already done everything I need to do!" she says, getting all worked up again.
"Don't worry about it Aila." I sigh as I take a swig of what I assume is juice, it's too sweet to be anything else. "I'm going to bed, gotta get my beauty sleep for work." I kid as I down the last of the drink.
"Yeah it is late." She yawns. "Next time we can watch an asari movie!" she calls out as she heads to the bathroom.
"I'm in!" I call back as I lay down on the couch and start to doze off.
My sleep is interrupted by someone nudging my face, my one eye cracks open and I notice that the apartment is still dark. The fingers jab into my face again, harder this time. I mumble "Go away." as I close my eyes again. Suddenly I feel the finger sink into my eye, pushing it into my skull and I rear back in a hushed pain, cursing as I clutch my eye.
My other eye shoots open to see a dim light a few feet away from me, two sideways ovals hovering over it.
"Oh good, you're awake." A voice quips quietly.
"What the fuck." I mumble as I rub at my eyes, concentrating on the sore one.
"Let's go. Get up princess."
"Lorin?" I mumble as I shake my head.
"Yeah, get your gear, let's go." Lorin whines as he jabs at me again.
"How the fuck'd you get in here?" I whisper angrily, making sure not to wake Aila. "How the fuck'd you find me?"
"The door and a map, let's fucking go!" he nags, his voice raising a little.
"Shut up!" I snap quietly, glancing at Aila again as she stirs. Lorin casually glances at Aila and then back to me.
"I'll wake her up." He whispers.
"I'll unplug all those cords on the back of your head." I threaten as I stand up. "What the fuck do you want?"
"You need money right? I gotta job for you." He whispers as I put on my ruined jacket.
"What is it?"
"Not important." He waves off as he walks to the door. My hand flashes out and grabs him by the prongs hanging off his mouth light. "Please stop doing that." he sighs quickly.
"It is important!" I hiss. "I can't be fucking around! I was just in jail because I semi-tortured someone and was tried for murder, so unless you need help helping old ladies cross the street then I can't help you!"
"Don't worry, its legal, bosh'tet." He sneers as he pulls out of my grasp. "Now get your shit, and let's go."
"Fuckin asshole." I mutter as I grab my hat and lace up my boots. I open the door to Aila's and light pours into the apartment, I'm about to step out but Lorin stops me.
"Forgetting something?" he asks as he cocks his head.
"What?" I ask.
"Your gear." He answers like a should have known.
"I don't have gear." I jeer. "Where's your…" my voice trails off as I look at Lorin in the light. His matte black suit is covered with slim plates. One plate is covering his abdomen and is overlapped by a chest plate. He has the pauldrons from heavy armor on his shoulders and more plates covering his forearms and biceps. His legs are covered in the same plates, covering the most area possible without touching each other. All of these plates are a shiny glossy black with various scratches and dings from wear and tear, all of them are clipped into buckles on his actual suit that I never noticed before.
All and all, he looks pretty badass, the matte black under suit with white trim, topped with glossy black plates looks awesome. I notice an assault rifle poking over his shoulder and an odd looking plate hanging off a clip on his suit, it's just hanging off loosely. I'm about to ask what it is when he clips it off and raises it to his face, it's a face mask and it looks identical to Tali's alternate mask you get from dlc in Mass Effect 3 except it's a dark matte black. Once it clicks in, his reflective tinted mask can be seen through the slits in the plate, only increasing his badassery.
"Never mind." I say.
"Yeah, that's what I thought." He says in a cocky tone. "So you don't have any gear? No armor? No guns?"
"No." I say as we wait for the elevator door to close.
"Well let's go get you some." He nods.
"I don't have money, unless you want to buy it for me." I smirk.
"Nope." He says. "I'll get it for you, but I'll take the money from your cut." He snickers. "Besides, I can't have you looking like a bum. You need to look the part."
"And what would that part be?" I ask.
"Body guard, escorting some guy around, probably to clubs and bars." He shrugs as he raises his Omni-tool. "Here's the contract, sign it and you'll be allowed to do everything and anything as long as it's to protect the VIP." He finishes as my Omni-tool pings with the contract. I read it over before signing it, remembering what happened with Haynes.
"Is there even any armorers open this late?" I ask.
"It's only ten." He says as he shakes his head. "And I know a guy."
We arrive at the armorer and walk inside, the walls are littered with mannequins covered in armor, and some I recognize but the majority were never in the games. There's a lone krogan sitting behind the counter who stood up when he heard the door open but sat back down once he saw Lorin. The two went on talking, making jabs at each other like old friends do, which is odd between a krogan and quarian but whatever.
After a bit I'm called over, and the krogan nods to me as Lorin walk around browsing.
"The names Golum." He huffs. "Heard Lorin's paying your way, if I were you I'd take a picture." He grumbles.
"Maverick." I nod. "Yeah, he's using my money from the job he woke me up to do."
"Sounds like him. Follow me." he says as he wanders off into the shop and up to a suit on the wall. "Lorin said you're a biotic, this'll provide you decent protection with good mobility. You can wear whatever you want over it, Kevlar or plates. Try it on."
He tosses be the flat black skin tight suit, and I walk behind a courtesy curtain and take off all my clothes save my boxers. I stretch the suit over my body and connect the sealers running up the side of my torso like a zipper. Surprisingly the suit isn't that constricting, it's actually quite comfy. I walk out and Golum takes a look at me.
"This suit is completely sealed when you wear the right helmet, and hardens on impact, it should stop your average handgun but not much else. It also features an auto seal gel, if you get shot the gel tightens, keeping the seal and it helps stops wounds from bleeding."
"Sounds good, got anything to go over it?" I ask. "It's uhh, kinda revealing." I say as I look down at my crotch.
"Yeah, come here." He says as he walks to the other end of the store. I pass by Lorin and he looks at me for a second before laughing, I tell him to shut up and catch up to the krogan.
"What'd'ya got?" I ask.
"This should do." He says as he nods to set of light armor.
The armor reminds me of James alternate armor from Mass Effect 3, but looks less advanced. It has the chest plate that hangs over the shoulders and covers the top of your back. Under the chest is a plethora of pouches to hold explosives and other stuff. The arms are bare, and the legs are a tough looking pair of combat pants. The pants only have plates on the shins and knees with plated boots, the thighs have more pouches covering them. The pouches are a black fabric, with slight orange accents to help outline the openings.
"The armor has standard air system that links with the helmet." He says as he points to a small panel on the left shoulder blade, he then taps to a panel next to it that pops of revealing an empty slot. "This armor is unshielded but can be upgraded easily enough, but I wouldn't get the upgrade."
"Why not?" I ask, still eyeing the armor.
"Barriers and shields don't get along, if you try using both they won't work and you'll end up getting shot a lot." He shrugs. "I've heard a few asari matriarchs can keep the two up, but nobody else."
"Alright." I say as my focus turns to the helmet.
Now the helmet is something that's a bit different, the top half looks like a regular alliance helmet but the bottom doesn't have the sectioned piece, it's all one piece and is smoother like the rest of the helmet. It's a glossy black and has a black tinted visor, just like the chest plate and the shin plates. Where it's really different is it has a small antenna jutting back diagonally over the right ear, it looks like a smaller geth antenna. It also has a small camera looking thing on the right of the visor that juts out to the side but fades into the helmet before reaching the ear.
"This helmet features an advanced friend or foe heads up display that taps into your allies Omni-tools and tags them constantly with a live feed and monitors their vitals for you so you can keep tabs on them. It also has a weapons scanning system, if someone doesn't have a gun they're left unmarked, if they have a gun they're marked as a possible hostile. You have to actually look at them for a few seconds for it to scan, it's not on constantly." He says as he tossed it around in his hands. "It also has a long range communication system that outreaches standard Alliance communications."
"Looks good." I nod, impressed with the armor. It has a very "space merc" feel with all the pouches and minimal plating. It's very casually combat ready, like something that started out as regulation but was stripped away by an experienced take-no-nonsense soldier. "Got it in any other colors?" I ask, I like the black but you never know what else might look good.
"You can have it in any color you want." He nods as he grabs an armor case from under the display. "So long as its black." He adds with a smirk. Oh well.
"Sounds good, I'll take it." I say as I look around the store. "Do you have any additions? Like pauldrons or something?"
"Yeah, what are you looking for?"
"Well, I fancy the biotic charge and…"
"I know just what you need." He smiles as he walks into the back, in a few moments he walks out with a shoulder plate in hand. He puts it on the counter and I look at it, it's just a black pauldron but it has a raised rectangular knob jutting out from the center. "This is a new pauldron that Rosenkov Materials made with vanguards in mind, this raised knob focuses the force of your charge into this smaller surface area. Guaranteed to crack open any armor on the market, you want a left or a right?"
"Right." I tell him as I push the pauldron together with the armor case. "Got any gloves?"
"Yeah, I got gloves." He grunts as he pulls out a black pair of gloves. He pulls them out and they remind me of my paintball gloves, a black fabric with black plating in between the knuckles and a bigger plate covering the back of the hand. "Right or left?" he asks again.
"Right." I reply with a nod. "Why's it matter?" I ask.
"Your trigger finger doesn't have plates." He explains. "Keeps you from getting caught on your trigger guard."
"Sounds good!" I say as I clap my hands together. "Lorin! Pay the man!" I yell as I start to put on the armor. By the time it's all on, Lorin has paid for my armor with my future money and I look at myself in the mirror after packing my clothes in the armor case.
I look fucking awesome!
The black plated boots shins and kneepads over black combat pants and a pouch covered midsection under a plated chest and advanced optic helmet. The gel layer sleeves showing off my toned arms, keyword toned, not muscle, and plated gloves. All plates are an untouched glossy black and fabric is a dull greyish black. This is by far the coolest I have ever looked in my entire life!
I walk up to Lorin and open my arms off my sides in a "check me out" pose before spinning 360 degrees on my heel.
"I look fuckin good." I say in a smug tone.
"Yeah yeah, let's go." He says as he ignores me and walks to the door. "We've got half an hour to get you guns and to the VIP's place, let's not push it."
We walk less than a block to a gun shop and we walk into the shop. The walls are littered with weapons, all sealed behind glass and lit up nicely with small display lights. There's a batarian behind the counter who, surprisingly, doesn't bat an eye at the two black armored men walking in his shop. I guess that's the norm around here, this gun shop has a lot of top shelf gear.
"Welcome to Grash'shas Weapons." He greets as he leans on the counter in anticipation. "What can I do for you gentlemen today?"
"My friend here needs some hardware." Lorin motions to me.
"You've come to the right place." He smiles, his four eyes blinking as he walk around the counter towards us. He walk up to me and eyes my armor before speaking. "What's your fighting style kid?"
"I'm a biotic." I nod.
"Hmm, aren't biotic humans rare?" he asks, before I can answer he shakes his head. "Never mind, it's not important. If you're a biotic then you'll want to stay light, any extra weight or two handed weapons will make it harder to use your gestures."
"Don't worry about that." I say, waving my palm at him. "I prefer rifles or shotguns, I have the most experience with them." I nod. Granted, the rifles and shotguns I used are outdated by 125 years but its all the same in theory.
"Let's start with a rifle, what's your price range?" he asks as he walks to a wall of rifles.
"Low end." I say. "Nothing to fancy, I just need something that puts rounds downrange."
"I've got just the thing." He smiles as he activates him Omni-tool to open the glass protecting the rifles. He reaches down and picks out a weapon I've seen many times before. "This is the standard issue M7 Lancer, you could use this gun to dig a trench and it will still fire at the end of the day. Doesn't pack much punch but it's as reliable as they come, cheap too."
"I'll take it." I say.
The batarian shows me the rifles features, showing off the sighting system and the rails for attachments on the side. He also showed me how to use it, the safety is straight forward and the ammo block is super easy to change. I figured it out pretty easily, it's surprisingly not that different from weapons from my time except for the ammo block. The weapon folds up when it's attached to the magnetic strip on my back and unfolds when it's slid off.
"Anything else you need?" he asks as he rings up the rifle. "You mentioned shotguns?"
"Yeah, show me what you've got man." I say as I take off for the shotguns. He picks out a shotgun and hands it to me.
"This is the Katana shotgun." He says as I get a feel for the pistol grip shotgun. "Pretty standard equipment, decent heat sinks for a shotgun, you should get four or five rounds out before it needs to cool down."
"Ok." I say absent mindedly as I continue to hold the firearm. "I'll take it, just show me how to use it."
So he does, I learn about its ammo block and firing system as well as the safety and upgrade possibilities. Once we are all paid for, we head out the door and I remove the weapons from their cases and click them to my back.
"You sure I can just carry these around?" I ask, unsure of the firepower strapped to my back.
"Yeah, you're a private contractor now." He says as he calls a skycar. "Just don't be waving them around like a fucking asshole and you'll be fine. Now that you don't look completely useless we can head out." He says as he steps into a skycar, I follow him in and take a seat as Lorin keys in the address.
"So, how much of my pay do I have left?" I ask as I fiddle with my Omni-tool, trying to sync my HUD.
"You owe me, you went over by 500 creds" he says evilly.
"Really? How big was my pay for this gig?" I ask, stunned that I owe him money. That's not a big deal though, I can pay that back by giving him work instead.
"50,000 credits." He nods greedily. "The guy pays well for protection, I don't want to know why, I don't really care."
"Huh." I nod. That's a lot of cash I just spent. "Oh well, this armors badass and now I've got some weapons."
"I hope you know how to use those." He points out judgingly.
"Yeah I know how to use them." I sneer back. It's not hard, I've fired guns before. I just needed to find the safety, cocking mechanisms, and quick on-the-fly maintenance tips. I doubt I'll have any jams on brand new guns and on a dirt-less space station, but you never know.
I finally think I have my HUD set up and tap the sync button, I'm instantly greeted with an overwhelming amount of information. The HUD registers Lorin immediately as a known contact through my HUD and his pulse and other vitals are tucked away in the top left corner of my vision. Every time I look at them they grow bigger so I can see them but when I look away they dim and tuck away, it must track my pupils, this really is an advanced HUD.
"You better not fuck this up." Lorin says as he points at me.
"Fuck off." I snort. "How hard can it be?"
"Well, were going to be hanging around Chora's and other fine establishments, so we get to be on civilian duty." He explains, sounding unexcited. "Just keep your weapons holstered in the clubs and out on the street."
"Yeah, don't worry." I say as I look out the skycar window. "How hard can it be to guard some old shit?"
"How do you know he's old?"
"I just assumed, why how old is he?" I ask, turning back to him. I notice Lorin has a small green triangle over him, when I look the triangle it break open in a slick but simple animation lays out Lorin's name. This helmet is so cool!
"I don't know." He shrugs.
"What do you mean you don't know?" I snap.
"I don't know how I can make it any clearer." He says as he shakes his head at me.
"I swear to god Lorin…" I mumble angrily.
"Who cares?" he shouts with his arms outstretched. "It's good pay." he says as he relaxes in his seat. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"
"WOOOOOOO! Ouhh mah gaad, aer yue ma bodily gaardus? LAAAAANAAAAAA! LOOOK AT AR GAAARDS! HAHAAAA!"
"Look I didn't-"
"Fuck you Lorin, just, fuck you."
R/R
tylerbamafan34: Yeah, family first no matter what. Thanks!
Spiritstike: But deals with the devil are so much more interesting than normal deals! I thought TIM was ok in ME2 for the most part, everything he did he did for a reason. Hell even in ME3 he keeps telling Kia Leng not to kill Shepard, so there is good in there, you just have dig through a bunch of shit to get to it! He never got truly evil till he brought the human reaper to his base, he was just asking to be indoctrinated! And I don't mind, it was just weird to see an email on my phone that says I got a review from Spiritstrike and it doesn't get cut off because it's too long! ;)
V-rcingetorix: Thanks, his character made me a bit nervous but I'm glad you liked it! Yeah he has been lifting pallets of stuff for a living, but there were ten guards at least. I know me and ten or eleven of my friends can all pick up a small car (my buddy had a Toyota Echo and we would always turn it sideways in parking lots!) so I think they could carry him. Miranda is always ready for anything, she defiantly knew about Mavs powers ahead of time, thus why she wanted to see him for herself and make sure he got on the ship. Man, I don't know why, but when I read krogan with a tutu I laughed so hard! And I would say vanguard for sure, defiantly not a lot of finesse from the biotic brawler! Thanks man!
Orchidellia: Thank you! I was worried about that scene, it's probably the longest action scene so far in the story. And thanks again! The ME characters are important and I'll try to keep them cannon, I always found TIM more relaxed in early ME2 and he started to ramp up the intensity as it got to the endgame. Thanks for reading!
PoseidonN7: Thanks, and I don't think TIM ever really lets people go, he just keeps tabs on them. Thanks man, and thanks for the review!
masterdude94: Thanks man! To be honest I think it was about what he could give TIM, not just purely charisma. Broadway might be able to talk his way out of it though! Thanks for the review!
general-joseoh-dickson: Thanks man, I think Miri came out of her shell in ME2 because of Shepard. I always pictured her as more of a by-the-book character before ME2.
Wolfshark: More like making all the wrong friends in TIM's case! Thanks, the next chapter is going to feature a lot of Lorin-Mav shenanigans if you couldn't tell by the ending! Thanks for the review as always!
CrimsonKnight117: Hehe, yeah she is! ;) And yeah probably, Cerberus is always a nice shit stirrer. You think so? I thought it would be less important to him, a good attention getter but nothing crazy like predicting the future. Thanks for the review man, I'll try!
XRaiderV1: Yeah for sure! It's kinda like a Biotic White Phosphorus bomb, look up white phosphorus bombs and injuries at your own discretion if you don't know what that is. It's pretty brutal!
SoMuchGerry: The story is getting close to ME1, if I had to guess, maybe 5 or 6 chapters? And I think 5000ish words is a decent chapter, plus my update rate is pretty decent, the longest gap was five days I think. Don't worry, combat OC's are on the way. Besides, Lorin's here already and technically Pac's turian so he has military experience… anyway, thanks for reading man!
.77: Haha, thanks man! Hope you liked the new chapter, not that eventful, just the standard "how you get weapons and armor" chapter but the next one should be some good fun! I will try!