I know I promised the end of Doctor's story arc, but I got writer's block, so I hopped forward to the Stalker bar scene instead. I'll return to Doctor and Liara later if the inspiration returns.
Wrex. Wrex. This is your father. Wrex? If you can hear me then you better listen. I don't know what you found on that damn Sto'kar planet, and I don't care. But you are a Spectre, and my son, and YOU WILL OBEY ME!
I created you, Wrex! You don't get to betray me. So either you come back here, and humbly apologize… or I will destroy you.
STG Intercepted Transmission From Councilor Urdnot Jarrod to Spectre Urdnot Wrex (MIA)
The whole place stank of ammonia and cheap vodka. It was so bad that Rael could feel the filters in his suit screaming in agony.
In any other situation, the cavern would have been eerily creepy, but with almost three dozen Stalkers inside, drinking, singing brawling and cursing each other, it was a veritable madhouse of booze and testosterone filled mania. Despite the casual atmosphere, the Stalkers still radiated an ominous aura, and they seemed like secretive mutated creatures who hid their enigma behind brown and green cloaks, and quiet mutterings.
What little illumination there was came from the weak light of a floating, creeping gaseous thing.
Joker, the strange human-like "Controller," was still with them, but he seemed bored and uninterested in being their "tour guide" any longer.
Some kind of anomaly, Rael thought, as he and Wrex came closer, looking at their surroundings like two curious children. The Quarian felt out of place, suddenly reminded of the dens of inequity on Korlus, but for Wrex (who has fought against numerous colourful species in the Terminus System) the bar-cavern was surprisingly comfy. It was a scene that he'd seen and participated in over the centuries. Booze and male hormones.
Wrex and Rael couldn't understand any of the verbal banter, but they could feel the surface thoughts radiating from the Stalkers themselves, like so many psionic radio signals. The humans were enjoying themselves, or more likely unwinding. Half of them had black, swollen eyes and bandaged fists. Wrex even saw a Stalker who passed out of the table unconscious, his cheeks swollen red from both punches and booze.
They just left him there, snoring and mumbling to himself.
At the other end of the cavern, close to where the barkeep was staying, several pyjak-like creature with needle-like tails and sharp, blood-stained claws prowled the shadows, hissing at the customers, who disdainfully ignored them. Two of them stole a half-empty bottle of vodka from a heavily drunk Stalker, who snarled at the little demons to give him back his booze.
"Shoo! Shoo!" The barkeep snarled at a group of these creature, forcing the rest of the little devils to hiss their defiance even as they fled away with their vodka.
"Where's Shepard?" Rael asked, and Joker pointed them at the little area off to the corner. They found Shepard gloomily sipping his drink, absentmindedly chatting with two other Stalkers who were also gloomily sipping their drinks.
Shepard cursed as he drained his drink and yelled at a Stalker at the opposite end of the bar, who was flipping him the bird. Shepard responded by flipping him his own middle finger.
Wrex and Rael observed this with some measure of amusement, learning beforehand that the gesture is meant as some kind of insult. Humans, or at least Stalkers, loved being obscene to each other.
From his limited experience interacting with him, Shepard rebuffed questions about the humans revealing themselves to the infant races of the galaxy. But Wrex wondered what would happen if they did reveal themselves.
An ancient obscene alien race does obscene things to entire galaxy, Wrex thought with amusement.
"What are you two doin' here?" Shepard demanded, as he detected their presence, angry that he could no longer enjoy his alcohol in peace.
"Joker took us around your tunnels," Wrex said in usual growling voice, as they approached the human. "Nothing much to see there except skittering monsters and those anomalies. And since I don't want to die on a guided tour, I asked him to bring us to where there are a lot of humans"
Shepard turned to Joker with a frown on his place. "You toured them around the tunnels? Really?"
"Where was I supposed to take them, then?" Joker complained.
"Joker, when I told you to tour them around, I mean tour them in the Bloodsucker and Controller Bunker-Cities…"
"Oh come on, Kommandir, you know my own kind hate my guts, and besides…" Shepard stopped Joker with a wave of his hand.
"… not wander around in the tunnels where the darkness alone can literally drives people insane," Shepard said with a sigh. "Never mind. Okay, you two grab a seat and relax. "You too Joker."
Wrex and Rael complied. Joker arrogantly hopped onto a stool, and ordered a drink (on Shepard's tab).
"Huh?" Rael said, as he looked around him.
Reading his unspoken thoughts, Shepard replied in an exasperated manner, "Yes, Rael. The ancient alien race known as humanity likes to spend their time at the bar, getting drunk. Yes, it's a little unusual when you think about it. So please stop thinking about it."
"I didn't mean to…" Rael stopped talking, as Shepard glowered at him.
"You were thinking it," Shepard's telepathic voice echoes in his head. Then he turned to the bartender, and ordered a couple of drinks for them.
Wrex sniffed his. It stank like nail polish and turpentine. The Krogan Spectre shrugged his shoulders and downed the whole thing in one gulp. Despite his tough physiology, the Krogan actually grimaced in distaste, which only amused the nearby Stalkers.
As for Rael, he stared at his own drink suspiciously. "Is this dextro-protein friendly?" he asked.
Shepard shrugged, and the Quarian gently pushed away the glass and asked if the bartender had any water.
"Well, you two are here, so I might as well introduce you around." Shepard first pointed at the Bartender, a leathery-faced old guy with reddish eyes and a stupid smile. "That guy there is Ganja, proprietor of this bar. Say hello, pot-head."
"Sup my dudes," Ganja said grinning, his teeth yellow.
"That over there is Uncle Yar and his boyfriend Ashot," Shepard pointed at two Stalkers seated on the chairs next to Shepard, both old and completely shit-faced.
"Hey," said Yar and Ashot simultaneously.
"That's Nitro and that's Presser Pressly," Both of the headshaven Stalkers nodded in Wrex and Rael's direction.
"And there's Conrad Verner."
"Exterminator," Verner complained. "My callsign is Exterminator."
"We also call him the Pornographer," Shepard explained with a smug chuckle, "since the younger Stalkers constantly ask him to draw porn."
"Fuck you Shepard!" Verner snapped and left the bar, angry.
Shepard then introduced a dozen or so other Stalkers, many of whom had ridiculous names, which Rael and Wrex later found out were actually call-signs rather than actual names. Stalkers, they learned, enjoyed keeping secrets, especially personal ones.
"Is Shepard a call sign?" Wrex asked respectfully.
"Ha," Shepard chuckled. "No, that really is my name, Vladimir Shepard. My call-sign is actually Reaper."
"Reaper?" Wrex asked.
Shepard nodded then explained, "I got the name after the war."
"The war with the billion year old giant killer robots?"
"Right. Never chose it though. Stalkers have a… twisted sense of humor when it comes to naming conventions."
"Huh?" Wrex thought about something stoically, then decided to voice his theory even as he ordered another glass of cheap Stalker vodka. "So what are Stalkers exactly? Some kind of special forces?"
"Ha!" Shepard almost spat out his drink. "Look around you. Do they look like special forces?"
"I wouldn't know," Wrex replied somewhat growlingly. "I'm a member of an ignorant younger race."
Shepard rolled his eyes and grunted to himself. "In human society, a Stalker is a... Well, we're like a… Well, let me put it like this. Stalkers – real Stalkers – are good at surviving…"
"And stealing, looting, killing, lying, fornicating, getting drunk, getting high and blowing shit up," Ganja drawled, somewhat cynically as he handed Wrex his glass of vodka.
"Yeah that too," Shepard added.
"Wait, are you telling us that Sta'kars are actually criminals?" Rael asked, clearly perplexed that the wise ancient aliens who visited the infant races of the galaxy long ago were actually criminals.
Joker laughed out loud at that conclusion.
"Shut up Joker," Shepard snapped then turned to Rael and Wrex. "We're not so much criminals, as renegades. Blyad!" Shepard scratched his head, trying to find the right words. "You see, the human race doesn't have a centralized government. What we do have are four pseudo governments."
"There's Freedom," Shepard lifted his index finger.
"Potheads, degenerates and mutants," shaven-headed Nitro commented.
"There's Duty," Shepard lifted his middle finger.
"Assholes with metal bars up their asses," Ganja commented.
"There are the Ecologists," Shepard lifted his ring finger.
"Psychotic maniacal scientists," Joker explained.
"And the Tribe," Shepard lifted his pinky finger.
"Paranoid Dicks," Uncle Yar and Ashot commented.
"If you don't belong to any of the factions, you are effectively a Stalker, a renegade. Now, that I've mentioned, that's a rather good description of what a Stalker is, a renegade. In theory, at least, we are not formally affiliated with any group, and as such..."
Shepard was going to explain more, but their brief conversation was interrupted by the arrival of several newcomers.
"Hey you!" The mental voice intruded loud and clear in Wrex and Rael's heads.
"God Dammit!" Shepard snarled, as he saw the newcomers.
Wrex and Rael turned to find three humans swaggering up to them, their faces unmasked and their heads unhooded. The leader of the trio was a golden haired human who smiled brightly at them. He was an imposing looking creature, with sharp mutated teeth and clawed hands.
He looked like a smiling predator, looking at Shepard, Wrex and Rael then at Joker.
"Joker! How's my favourite brain eating monstrosity! You still a virgin, muy droog?" Jace yelled at the Controller laughing.
"I ain't no virgin, Stalker," Joker replied just as jokingly. "But how's your dick these days?"
The two exchanged friendly banter telepathically at first, then followed it up with their voices. Then they laughed, like old friends.
Shepard searched his memory for the Stalker's call sign: Steel Reyn; real name, Jace Reyn, Zaeed Massani's asshole side kick. He remembered working with Jace a couple of millennia ago, searching for Compass Artefacts on some God-forsaken moon, somewhere in Alpha Centauri. Looks like he's going solo these days.
Shepard pretended not to see Jace or his friends, and the older Stalkers did likewise. A happy Stalker is a noisy Stalker, and trying to interrupt the bants will only lead to a lot of angry whining.
"So you're the guys who interrupted our sleep!" Jace repeated staring at the Quarian and the Krogan.
Both the Krogan and Quarian didn't understand what he meant by "sleep."
"Your sleep?" Wrex asked not intimidated.
Jace Wrex up and down. He was as tall as the Krogan, but his mutations – fanged teeth and sharp, clawed hands that he could barely conceal – made him more intimidating.
"What? Shepard didn't tell you about the C-Consciousness?"
"He did," Wrex answered looking at Shepard, "but he said he'd explain it some other time"
"Is that right?" Jace said, "Okay, so let me fill you in. Free Gratis. The C-Consciousness is a network of Noospheric Nodes that control and stabilize the Zone. It's basically a giant net that stretches from one end of human space to another. This is the only thing that keeps the Zone from spreading out to the rest of the galaxy like a tumor."
"Now, as for the C-Consciousness Nodes, they are a collection of… I suppose you could call them stasis chambers where humans sleep."
"Sleep is not a good term," Shepard explained while gloomily sipping his drink. "It's more like suspended animation plus mediation. But the point is this: The C-Consciousness allows humanity to manipulate its relationship with the Zone, and therefore, keep the latter stable."
"So what happens if humans don't sleep in this C-Consciousness thing?" Wrex asked.
"The Zone starts spreading and becoming more powerful," Shepard said flatly. Wrex and Rael were speechless at the suggestion that the Zone was capable of spreading.
"Could it..." Rael hesitated. "Could it spread to the rest of the galaxy?
"Without humanity and the C-Consciousness, yes." Shepard looked at Wrex and Rael for a moment, and read their unspoken thoughts. "Don't worry. The C-Consciousness doesn't need all humans to enter the Long Sleep. It just needs most of us. So it's okay for a few of us to take a break every now and then... so long as the rest of our species are plugged in of course."
"How long does this sleep of yours last?" Wrex asked, curious and somewhat horrified at the same time."
"On average?" Shepard replied. "About 300 to 500 years at a time per human. We go to sleep, wake up for a few decades then back to sleep again."
Wrex and Rael didn't say anything, but it doesn't take a telepath to guess what they're thinking.
"Welcome to the Zone," Shepard said gloomily as he drained his drink, and tapped his glass for a refill. Wrex was going to ask about huiman aging, but before he could broach the subject, Jace decided they've been ignoring him for too long.
"Yeah," Jace repeated, taking a seat next to Wrex and Rael. "Welcome to the motherfucking Zone." Then he grinned at the two. "Say," Jace said with a mischievous smile, "who's that chick you're with? You know, blue tits?"
"You mean Liara?" Rael said awkwardly.
"Yeah! Liara. Liara Krazavitza," the Stalker chuckled to himself. "I'd love to show that one what human melding is like, you know what I mean boys!" Jace's voice rang throughout the bar, amidst roars of laughter from the younger rookie Stalkers, and cynical, disgusted looks from the veterans.
"Jace," Shepard warned with a weary voice, "I see your dick pointed anywhere at the Asari and it's getting thrown into a Whirligig. You got me?"
Shepard and Jace locked eyes for a moment. The glare contest lasted for about 10 seconds, but Jace broke contact first, smiling boyishly and pretending as though nothing happened.
"And that goes for all you little punks. Don't go sticking your fucking cocks where they don't belong." Shepard looked at the younger humans in the bar, the ones who didn't have scars or misery on their faces. They were all quiet. The older Stalkers chuckled and nodded their head in approval.
Good. Very good, they thought.
"Hey Reaper," Jace said apologetically. "I'm just kidding around. No harm done, right? Lighten up a little. You're worse than the old fogeys here. Anyway, I'm just having fun with my new friends here, aint that right boys?" Jace smiled at Wrex and Rael. "You two look adorable. You a couple?"
Wrex has had enough. The Krogan stood up to his full height, and glared at Jace. The young Stalker also stood up to face Wrex, and his two friends stood behind him, both of them ready for some fun. Both the Krogan Spectre and the mutated Human were of similar height, and they faced each other with devil grins on their faces.
"Muy Droog," Jace began. "I feel like you don't like me, which is a shame, because we're the victims here. You interrupted our sleep. You tried to loot our shit. You pissed off the Zone. That hurts our feelings. Really. Our asses are bleeding from misery from your crime. Why!" Jace touched Shepard's shoulder, causing the older Stalker to grunt in annoyance. "Look at poor Shepard here. His ass is tighter than usual. We're victims! Victims."
"And what do you want us to do about it?" Wrex growled with the same smug smile on his face.
"We just want payment, friend. That's all. We want reparations for damages done to my psyche and well-being," Jace said snickering.
"And if we don't pay?" Wrex growled.
"Why, I'm just gonna have to beat the crap out of you two." Then Jace leaned closer, daring Wrex to say something.
When Wrex didn't flinch, Jace laughed, but he didn't take a step back. The Krogan was not a pushover.
As for Wrex, he had been in these kinds of situations before, and he knew how they ended. The Krogan looked at Shepard, and found the older human looking at both them, quietly observing with hard eyes.
"What? You don't wanna fight?" Jace accused Wrex. "I thought you're some kinda badass Krogan commando."
Wrex didn't answer, and he looked Shepard who was gloomily drinking his glass, but whose fingers were tense, ready for action in the event Jace decided he wanted to do something stupid. Wrex's Krogan pride ordered him to fight the human, but his Spectre's discipline told him to back down and focus on the mission.
Jace hid his disappointed, as leaned back and backed away from Wrex. In response, the Krogan calmly smiled at Jace, took his seat, and casually began drinking his glass of vodka, as though nothing had happened.
After Jace had recovered, he turned to Rael. "What about you, dearie?" Jace looked at Rael, who was awkwardly touching his glass of water. "Wanna give it a go?"
God Dammit! Shepard snarled internally even as he calmly sipped his drink. He just hoped that Rael was not stupid enough to be baited into a fight with Jace.
"Ignore Jace, Zorah," Shepard mumbled. "He's just pissed he has a crooked dick."
But Jace ignored the barb, and continued heckling Rael.
"Reyn! If you want to pick a fight, fight me, you faggot!" Shepard snarled, his patience at an end.
"Fuck off, Shepard! I wanna fight this one!" Jace smiled in Rael's direction, as he moved his weight from one foot to another, like an excited boy. The Quarian felt the intense, almost overpowering urge to run away. "How 'bout it, tough guy. You wanna fight one of the long lost Sa'kars?"
"I don't want to fight you," Rael answered, and he liked how his voice was firm and calm.
"You're not firm and calm," Reyn responded mentally, reminding Rael that humans can read minds. "Come on. I'll even let you have the first punch. Shit. I'll let you have a hundred. Oh come on! Are you two pussies? Shit! Hey you, Quarian, what would your wife say if I told her, she has nice ass? Nothing? Pah!"
Jace was about to drag his gang out of the bar when Rael'Zorah's angry voice rang out through the bar.
"You take that back, you Boshtet!" Rael snarled, and Shepard immediately rubbed his temple and sighed.
Jace paused, and turned to look at Rael with an Cheshire grin. He had found a weak point, and he was eager to twist the knife deeper.
"Oh ho. Havin' marital problems too? Tsk. Tsk. You think she'd be up for a nice guy like me. Quarians girls have nice asses, right? Or were those the Turians? Oh well."
The younger Stalkers roared with laughter, and Rael was now seeing red. He imagined himself breaking the human's face, and then stomping on it with his foot.
"You take that back," Rael hissed malevolently.
"Make me," Jace taunted. "You know, back when human scientists were studying your species – you know when you were still living in huts – they noticed that Quarian – ehem – male reproductive organs are smaller than humans."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Some of the Stalkers – the younger ones - roared with laughter, while the others, the older ones just stared quietly at Rael, measuring him, watching what he will do next.
Rael noticed that the bar was quiet now. All pair of eyes was looking at him, human smiles like so many fangs, and in the darkness, their faces seemed like those of smiling, malevolent wraiths, waiting for him to break and run behind Shepard for protection. That thought made Rael angry - very angry. Memories of being pitied flooded into his mind, of being considered fragile and weak.
I'll show them!
"Fine. I'll humor you," Rael said in the most condescending voice he could muster.
"Ooooooh," Jace snickered as though he was just threatened by a little child. "Miss Quarian bad-ass is gonna humor me. You hear that boys? We're havin' a fight"
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" the chant went. "Biy! Biy! Biy!" Everybody quickly drained their drink, and stood up, eager for blood; dangerous smiles on their faces.
"Come on, Muy Droog," Reyn taunted. "Let's dance."
"God Dammit!" Shepard snarled.
The gladiatorial pit was more like a cess pit than a place of slaughter. The place was covered in puddles of what appeared to chemical spills and various other substances that Rael could not identify. Shadowy images danced around the walls of the pit even as the dim light above flickered and flowed from its unseen source.
"You sure you wanna go through with this?" Wrex asked Rael.
"I..." Rael was pushed towards the pit by excited several excited humans before he could finish his answer, stumbling awkwardly into a tumble. Rael dropped in front of a strange wooden sign with poorly written words.
Here lies, Spookums. He walked straight into an anomaly and Cheeki Breeki'd his way to Stalker afterlife. Rest in peace Spookums.
Rael couldn't read the human letters, but had enough sense to understand they meant danger. Behind the sign, sparks of energy sparked and flickered, like those of a broken power line.
What am I doing here! Rael thought to himself. I'm into tech. I have a wife and a daughter. What am I doing here? You are one stupid Bosh'tet, Rael'Zorah. You could have worked in a safe job. Yes, safe behind a desk. Instead, you're here, fighting this alien-thing. Your wife is right. You make a lot of stupid decisions, you Boshtet idiot. How did you get here? You're an…
Rael remembered how the humans herded him towards this place, a short walk from the bar.
"Rael! Don't do this!" Shepard had said.
Rael had remembered how Shepard tried to talk him out of the fight, and looking back now, he wished he had listened to the human.
"You know the rules, Reaper. It's his call. It's his fight," Someone said.
"I can take him," Rael had protested, his temper still flaring up.
"No, you can't. This isn't a… Hey fuck off!" Shepard snarled at a couple of Stalkers, who shouldered past him. "This isn't a game. You could end up dead down there."
"I. Can. Take. Him."
Shepard sighed. "It's your funeral." Then something occurred to the human, and he grabbed Rael's arm. "I hear that Omni-Tool of yours can disrupt electricity. Is that true?""Why yes. It has a Damping and Overload function. I usually use it to..."
"Yeah. Yeah. Never mind that," Shepard interrupted. "Now, listen. That pit you're going into now is covered in electrical anomalies. It'll zap you good if you walk into them, but if you can disrupt them with that trinket of yours, they might give you an edge."
"So you want me to use my omnitool on them? Will it work?"
"It won't help you win, but it might keep you alive," Shepard answered.
"What makes you think I can't win?" Rael snapped angrily.
Shepard was going to reply, but a group of humans grabbed Rael and quickly pushed him towards the gladiatorial pit.
Well, too late for regrets now, Rael thought.
As Rael got back to his feet, he noticed that the Stalkers had surrounded the surface of the pit. They were looking down at him like so many predatory beasts, eager for blood and meat. From where he's standing, they appeared like cloaked, mutated creatures, grinning and yelling in alien tongues. Quarian ancestral memories of desert monsters and other malevolent beings flooded into Rael's mind, sapping his resolve, and the Quarian desperately searched for any sign of allies amidst this dark, though somewhat comical situation.
Rael couldn't find Wrex or Shepard but he knew that they were close by, but the loud psionic mental-voice of the Stalker announcer quickly reminded him of his predicament.
"Gentlemen and Stalkers! We have a match for you this shitty day." The announcer's voice boomed as he and the Jace Reyn jumped into the pit. The announcer wore a dirty Stalker's coat, while Jace wore only his pants. Rael could see the tight, whipcord like muscles on his opponent's body, and Jace smiled at the Quarian, pacing back and forth, as though he couldn't wait to get started.
"In the blue corner, the brave, the brash, the one with the crooked penis, Steeeeeelllll Reeeeeeeyyyyn!"
Stalkers roared in laughter about the "crooked penis" joke. Rumor had it that Reyn once walked straight into a Whirligig anomaly and had a little accident with his manhood. None of this was proven, of course, but that hasn't stopped malicious Stalkers from spreading the rumor.
Reyn flashed a middle finger at the announcer, who grinned like a long extinct hyena even as he announced Rael.
"In the red corner, the challenger! The Rocky from Rannoch. The dirty son of a Boshtet, Raaaaaaaaeeeeeeel Zoooooooraaaaaaaaaaah."
The announcer pointed at both contenders. "Okay faggots. Here are the rules. Fight ends when one of you starts screamin' for mercy, passes out or is dead. This is free form, so anything goes. You bastards understand? Good! Le's git 't aaaawwwwn!"
For a moment, Rael was dumbstruck. He didn't know how to proceed, and he just stared at the waiting human opposite him.
Then in an instant, Jace snarled an unnatural roar and pounced forward at Rael. The Quarian raised his arms to futilely block the attack, but Jace simply stood in front of him. Rael glared at the human's fanged, monstrous smile, taunting him, playing with him. Then Jace poked Rael's visor hard enough to push his head back a little.
Jace and his fans laughed at that seemingly childish move, but the others were not so amused.
"Get on with it you faggots!" Someone snarled in Stalker pidgin, and he threw a vodka bottle to get the fight going.
As Rael recovered his senses, he quickly balled his fist and threw it at Jace's face. The punch connected, but the strike didn't even faze him. The human just stood there smiling. Rael hit again and again, but the punches made no effect. He tried tackling the human but Jace just laughed, as he lifted Rael up and gently threw him to the ground.
The crowd roared in laughter, igniting Rael's rage.
"Ahhhh!" Rael roared as he tried another tackle, but Jace quickly sidestepped him, and Rael nearly fell straight into an electrical anomaly, its sparks dancing close to his visor. Rael gasped in terror at the certain death that he nearly fell into.
Somewhere from the crowd, Rael heard Shepard's mind-voice call out: "Reyn. If you cause any permanent damage to the Quarian, I am going to kick the ever living shit out of you. I don't care what Zaeed says."
"Don't you worry, your perty wittle head, Reaper. You'll get your Quarian pet back as soon as I'm done playin' with him," Jace retorted.
Jace began dancing around like a clown, having fun even as the crowd hooted and yelled in amusement.
"Let's make this more interesting!" Jace proclaimed in Stalker pidgin. "Who's got an amplifier? You? Lemme borrow it. Throw it here. Come on! Give it."
A strange metallic object flew from the crowd of stalkers and onto the floor of the gladiator pit. Jace ran to get it, even as Rael was trying get back on his feet.
The device held an artefact that seemed to sparkle and hum with dangerous electricity. Jace then attached the machine to his hand, flexed it around a bit then aimed at the nearby ground, and fired. The blast was so powerful that it turned the brown, sandy dirt black.
Rael froze, as Jace Reyn aimed the amplifier at him, but to his surprise, he didn't fire. Instead, the human took off the device and threw it on the ground in front of him.
"Take it," Jace's mental voice ordered.
"What?" Rael thought this was some kind of trapped.
"No trap. Take it. It's easy to use, like a toy."
Rael's hesitation caused Jace to stomp his feet causing a small tremor that shook the Quarian out of hesitation. He scrambled to the weapon and attached it to his own hand. It felt unusual, ill fitting, but he also felt the power and energy from the device.
"That, Muy Droog, is an Amplifier," explained Jace, "it amplifies the energy of artifact. "I want you to use it against me."
Rael aimed the device at Jace, and unleashed an arc of powerful electrical energy. But Jace managed to dodge the blast easily, jumping around like a heavily muscled beast. Rael kept blasting Jace, but the human was too fast, and at this point, it was clear that he was just toying with the Quarian for his own amusement.
The crowd was eagerly swapping bets now. There were yells and insults coming everywhere.
"This half-empty bottle of scotch on Zorah!" Shepard cried.
"Hey! Wher'd 'chu git dat scoootch?"
More bets exchanged hands, as the combatants below continued their fight. Of course, it wasn't really a fight. At this point, it looked more like an elaborate game of tag.
"Get off of me, you bastards. Get off. Give me your bets. Not your goddamn spit. Come on. Who else? Who else? You? How much you bettin? Double or Triple. No bet? Whatchu talkin to me for then? Fuck off. Come on. Who else?"
Zorah was tired now, nearly out of breath, whereas Jace was still dancing around, and taunting him for sport. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the human will win, and he wracked his brain for a plan. Come on! Think! Think! Jace kicked some dirt at an electrical anomaly next to Rael and the Quarian fidgeted in surprise. That's it.
Rael removed the Amplifier on his hand, much to surprise of the audience, then he activated his OmniTool and charged Overload and Shield Boost. It's a long shot but here it goes. Rael directed Overloaded the energies of the human Amplifier and it cackled and hissed with powerful energies, as the artifact within became unstable.
"What in the holy fuck are you doing?" Jace snarled at his opponent, and then he saw Rael turn to look at one of the anomalies. "No! Don't..."
Rael threw the Amplifier into the electrical anomaly, and quickly ran to the side of the gladiatorial pit, while activating his Shield Boost. Rael felt an explosion but he couldn't see where it came from. All he felt was its impact, and the harsh sound of a thunderclap up close.
Above him, the Stalkers were shouting, surprised by Rael's seemingly suicidal move.
You are one crazy Boshtet, Rael Zorah, he told him. One stupid, crazy Boshtet.
When Rael'Zorah woke up, he found Jace Reyn crouching in front of him, a grin on his face, and his golden hair standing up like so many little spires. His body looked scorched, but otherwise, he seemed unharmed.
"Rise and shine pumpkin," Jace said, grinning then looked up to the others. "Hey boys! The Quarian's back."
"Did I lose?" Rael asked increduously.
"Technically, yes," Jace answered, "but that hardly matters. You are one gutsy son-of-a-bitch!" Jace roared with approval, and rubbed Rael's helmeted head, as though he was a brave little brother.
"Where am I?"
"Back at the bar," Wrex answered, smiling at Rael. The Krogan was waiting for him at near one of the tables. "You passed out, but to answer your question, yeah, you lost. The human - Jace - used his own body to protect you from most of the electricity. You were hurt, but not too badly. They used one of their artifacts to heal you. So no problem there.. "
"Jace. You," Rael stammered. "How are you still alive?"
Jace merely shrugged in response, and grinned at Rael with sharp, fanged teeth. "We're a lot tougher than we look, but you... You are one gutsy son of a bitch. I respect that Zorah. I really do."
"We all respect that," Shepard said approvingly, and all of the humans nodded their head. Then Shepard added. "But that was still one dumb move."
"Ah, lay off Reaper. Hey barkeep!" Jace called out to Ganja. "Lemme buy my new friend here a bottle. The good shit. I want the good shit, and don't water it, you cheating sonovabitch."
Ganja retorted by telling Jace that his genitals were the size of raisins after his recent electrocution, and then handed Rael a bottle of vodka.
"Come on, my dude, let's drink to your courage," Jace said, as he poured him a glass. "A nice glass of the good shit. None of that cheap crap."
Rael looked suspiciously at the Vodka, the sensors in his suit telling him that it was probably contaminated with all sorts of dangerous substances. Rael looked at Shepard and Wrex for advice on what he should do. He didn't want to insult his newfound "friend."
Shepard shook his head, warning him not to drink, but Wrex nodded his head, grinning, and showed him his own glass to prove that it was safe.
One hour later, after they had pumped their systems full of vodka, Rael'Zorah and Wrex were dancing the Kazotsky like fools in the middle of the bar. For some unfathomable reason, Wrex had stripped off his clothes and armor, while Rael was wearing a Stalker's cloak, a rubber gasmask and a pink human bra.
Nobody knows where the bra came from.
AN: For those of you who have not read Mass Effect Foundations, Jace Reyn was a merc who worked with Zaeed Massani. I rather liked the character, so I decided to add him here.