A/N- Well you all know the drill by now. For some reason you guys REALLY wanted this one, so here. Enjoy what a lot of you wanted.
MASS MISCALCULATION
Episode 25- Broken Shadow
"This is…horrible!" Boss cried, eyes shaking. "This is awful! I…it's not right! I don't think I can continue anymore, it's…I'ma gonna die…"
"Dumbass" Aaron muttered below a whisper, flipping the magazine Boss was reading rightside-up.
"Oh, there we go" Boss nodded in approval as he started reading the magazine Aaron gave him, Fornax. "Okay, so what exactly is in here you wanted me to se- HOLY MOTHER OF…!" his mouth hung open as he stared at the pictures for a few seconds. "Aaron, this is worse than when it was upside-down. Maybe sideways…" he tried that. "Nope, still weird"
"Dude, I told you, galaxy can still make good things. Well at least good in your case"
Boss shuddered. "Yeah, this is messed up. How is this girl not dead? It's going all the way through her!"
"Because, uh…you know, biotics"
"Aaron, we could go get Kinzie and have her yell at us for the inaccuracies of this like blocking the airway and stomach acid, but we'll just leave that for another day, I already got yelled at her once"
Aaron rolled his eyes as he remembered the faithful event a couple hours ago, which involved an experiment of injecting nano bots into a zin in hopes of him gaining super powers. Instead it made him blow up…and cover Kinzie in gore.
"I'm just sayin'," Boss continued, "it was a clone with a IQ of negative thirty-one. And plus adding the fact it only had half a heart it probably only had twenty minuets anyways, so it's not like we lost anyone important"
"That's not the point" Aaron argued, shaking his head. "She didn't even want to do that, yet you made her do it anyways. You're always making her do dumb shit"
"Yeah, but that's only because- hang on, got a call" Boss's omni-tool lit up, Boss answering by saying, "yo"
"Is this the leader of the Saints?" a heavily distorted voice asked.
"Yeah this is he, who you be?" Boss rhymed, causing Aaron to smack his forehead, muttering, "real professional"
"My identity, like it always has, will remain a secret. However you will refer to me as the Shadow Broker"
Both Saints got up immediately from the couch, Boss asking, "This is a secure line right?"
"Of course it is. Listen, and listen well. Do you know of the information broker Liara T'soni?"
"Yeah, one of Shepard's old crew, why?"
"She…presents a problem"
"Pfft, really?" Aaron laced his hands behind his head. "The girl may be a good biotic, and a powerful information broker, but I don't see how-"
"She has information leading to the whereabouts of my location" the Broker said bluntly.
"Yeah I can see how that's a problem" Boss said, nodding in understanding. "So, what? You want us to pop the bitch?"
"Yes. Information on her apartment location will follow once the message has ended. Your instructions are as follow; you are to attempt to assassinate Liara in her apartment, then you are to lead my private army and bomb the Dracon Trade Center, the meeting place between Liara and her informant. If you fail in killing her she will likely rendezvous their, at which point you are to detonate the bombs my agents have already placed in the building. You and the agents are to kill the informant and confiscate the data, and Liara if she survives the assassination attempt. Report to me once the informant and Liara are dead, and information in hand"
"And the payment?" Boss urged.
"I have already taken the liberty of depositing 2.5 million credits into the Saints bank accounts. You will get the other half upon completion of the mission. End of message" the message box closed, Boss getting some e-mails detailing the mission by the Shadow Broker, and a message from the bank indicating the deposit.
"Well, work calls. 'Bout time" Aaron cracked his neck while Boss flexed his knuckles.
"Yep, 'bout time indeed. Know what to do?" Boss checked.
"Yeah, find the snitch while you do the Shadow's dirty work" Aaron explained, while Boss nodded in agreement.
"Alright, now how am I gonna blend in?" Boss wondered.
Aaron shrugged. "You passed off as Cyrus with Old Earth plastic surgery, didn't you?"
Liara's apartment
The plan was that Boss, alone, would be leading the mission while Aaron mopped up some 'loose ends' at HQ. Using zin technology they had configured a device in the shape of a mask that would use a nanomachine/holographic system to change his appearance. Outside of Liar's apartment, Boss put the blank, purple mask on, a fog going over his body as his appearance changed; he now basically looked like a white version of himself with a squarer jaw and red eyes with a lower, brown fro, deeper voice, wearing the zin equivalent of normal armor, a almost seamless and rounded exterior with streams of purple lights of the arms and legs, the pecs having four streams each, without the helmet of course, the suit still providing a small boost in strength and speed, but not much, and supported zin shields.
"Alright…" Boss took out a purple widow and aimed it through the window, seeing Liara in a large, luxurious apartment. a widow and a revenant his only weapons he brought to blend in, along with a hidden zin sidearm. "Just gotta pop her and then I can…who's that?"
Boss looked over his scope to see a different asari in bluish/purplish armor aiming a vindicator at Liara.
Boss got up and sprinted towards the asari assassin. "Oh no, you ain't killing my paycheck! That's my job!"
The asari had just barely enough time to look at who shouted for her name when she was tackled to the ground, the vindicator putting pullet holes in the window and alerting Liara.
Using the biotics to pry the man off her, who flipped on his feet and aimed his revenant at her, the asari likewise flaring her biotics.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"I'm the leader of the Saints, bitch. Who are you?"
The asari scoffed. "Yeah right, and I'm the asari counselor. Everyone knows what the leader looks like, and you aren't him"
"It's called goin' incognito, blending in! The leader of a super gang arouses a lot of suspicion, especially when I'm trying to cap someone!"
"And who were you exactly trying to 'cap'?"
"Shadow Broker wanted me to kill Liara. You?"
The asari's eyes widened in surprised, before she chuckled. "I'm trying to kill her too. The Broker's been a reliable source of info to me for awhile now, and I can't have her messing it up" she extended a hand. "Say, why don't we make a deal? We're both after the same person, after the same goals. Why don't we…team up, help each-other in killing her?" a shot from the gun answered her, the asari stumbling. "What? What are you doing!?"
Boss stepped closer, narrowing his eyes. "Bitch, let's get a few facts down; one, you firing that rifle caused the target to be spooked"
"You tackled me!"
"And you should have spotted me and done something about it! But no! You didn't! Two your not in the Saints, and the way you said I'm not the leader, the tone of voice, it rubs me the wrong way. Three your weird face markings remind me of someone, who are you again?"
"My name," the asari started, "is Tela Vasir, Citadel spectre"
"Oh well that's another reason to kill you, your gonna stab me in the back! I need a spectre kill under my belt anyways. Okay I'm done talking, let's duke it out" done with words, Boss fired his revenant rifle, Vasir's barrier absorbing most of the shots. Tela responded by using a shockwave to toss Boss in the air, who simply reoriented himself midair and kept firing from the air. She tried using a pull, but not even that worked as he kept righting himself in the air and firing at her.
Tela yelled in frustration as she got into cover, the biotics failing as Boss got back to ground level, not faltering as he ran and shot towards her at the same time.
"How are you doing this!?" she screeched, whipping out of cover to see Boss hoping in the air and punching her, causing her to fall to the ground, Boss straddling her and punching her with alternating fists.
"I! Am! A! Badass!" was his answer as he tried to deliver one last punch. This failed, however, when Tela sent out a giant biotic blast, knocking him off of her and sending him ten feet back.
Tela got up, spitting out a wad of dark blood. "Your good" she commented. "But, if what you say is true, your right, I do have to bring you in. The Council has been itching to get you for awhile now, and I can't let a opportunity like this go away. Prepare to die"
"'Prepare to die'" Boss mocked in a nerdy, nasally voice, waving his hands, then bringing up the purple widow and blasting out the spectre's kneecaps. She screamed in agony and fell to the floor, sending a warp at him, which he sidestepped, upholstering his zin sidearm and blasting her multiple times in the chest, dropping her.
"How…how could have some street punk beaten me…?" was her last thoughts as her glazing eyes saw the blurry figure of Boss hover over her, aiming her own vindicator at her head.
"Nighty night, bitch" was the last thing she ever heard.
Fifteen minutes later
"Yo Kinzie, if I have a spectre ID could you mod it so it makes me a human spectre?" Boss asked, speaking to his glowing wrist. Currently he was in Liara's apartment, who had fled, sirens nearing the apartment, and after hiding Tela's body and looting her spectre ID, he was curious on what to do with it.
"If it's digital, yeah. What are you thinking?" she asked from the other end.
"Well, Liara is gone, and I got the cops coming, so a ID for my disguise would work wonders in a explanation" he thought for a moment, "and when this is over change it to me. A believable spectre bluff could come in handy one of these days"
"So, you want it to be made out to 'Boss'?" a half-serious Kinzie asked.
"After this is over, yeah. Right now just, uh, shit I dunno…fuck it, Dex. Dex Ultorian is the best I got"
"Alright, give me a minute…okay, one 'Dex Ultorian' spectre ID, good to go"
"Your amazing girl, thanks" Boss cut the connection and faced the door as police women walked into the apartment.
"Freeze!" one of the asari commanded.
Boss flashed his 'badge' on his omni-tool, grumbling to himself as he changed to it orange to keep the disguise up. "I'm a spectre, so put the guns down"
The asari wavered, but eventually complied, putting their guns down. "Didn't realize they made another human spectre" one commented.
"Well, because of the entire Saint problem they decided to keep my spectre initiation under wraps"
"Oh. Well, that makes sense I guess" the asari looked at each-other before shrugging. The Saints were indeed becoming a problem to the Council, so it made sense they would do something like this.
"I'll radio the others, you talk with him" one asari commanded, her 'tool flashing up while one of the officers walked up to Boss.
"So, you know what happened?" she asked.
Boss looked at the shot-up window. "Looks like someone shot through that window"
The police woman's mouth hung open. "Really" she said in a unimpressed voice. "I meant what you think happened?"
"Spectre business" was all Boss said, causing the officer to huff.
"Well fine then. Me and the officers are going to investigate some more. You do…whatever you want to do" a number of asari, salarian, and turian officers walked in, scanning the area while Boss just stood there, whistling a bit. This continued on for five minutes when he heard the door open, someone else walking in.
"Seriously, how many of you police cats you need to…" Boss was hung on the last word when he saw who entered. A man he knew very well, with familiar N7 armor, and a glowing, scarred face. A man he very much wanted to kill.
"Shepard…"
Saints HQ
A random human female in a Saints outfit skulked around a corner, lighting up her omni-tool. She brought it to her mouth but froze when something pressed against her head.
"This is what you get for being a snitch, ya bitch" was Aaron's final words to her before he pulled the trigger, dropping her. He then picked her arm up, going through the files she had on the Saints. Nothing significant, except for one thing; the Saints origins from another universe.
"Well fuck me purple…" Aaron muttered, dropping the arm. "Guess he'll have carry out the hit after all. Oh well" he shrugged and walked off, leaving the body as blood pooled under it, Aaron whistling nonchalantly.
Liara's apartment
"…And we've been investigating here ever since. Sure looks like a assassination attempt" 'Dex' informed Shepard, fighting every urge he had to pull a gun on him right now. He didn't know why, but for some reason Liara wanted the commander's help in taking down the Shadow Broker. He wasn't surprised he brought Miranda and Legion along; Miranda, of course, had some relationship with him right now. Legion still was following him out of curiosity, however Boss noticed that the geth had been keeping his distance from Shepard, Boss getting the impression Shepard didn't like him that much.
At any rate, Shepard had come to the apartment in search of Liara, Boss having to have made more empty excuses. Shepard explored the apartment a bit, and eventually found evidence for the last place Boss wanted Shepard to go; the Dracon Trade Center, where the contact and most likely Liara were at.
"Great!" Boss said, swinging an arm upwards, "let's go! I'll hail a cab"
Shepard nodded as Dex ran out, frowning slightly. Something didn't add up about another human spectre appearing out of the blue; they weren't very popular right now thanks to the Saints, although his story of him being an undercover agent did seem believable. Too believable…
"Commander?" Shepard turned around to see Miranda and Legion waiting for his orders.
"Saddle up" he ordered. "We're going to go get Liara"
As Shepard drove the cab towards the Center, Boss opened his omni-tool, secretly contacting the mercs.
'Look, I'm going to the Dracon Center' he typed, meaning to send a message to the second-in-command of the agents, 'and…I'm bringing some company. Commander Shepard. Yeah, that Shepard. Look, uh, just set the charges and blow the place when you see us get their and I'll split off from him, you guys'll kill him while I'll look for the targets. Out' Boss winced slightly as he sent the message. He knew he would just be sending the agents to their deaths, Shepard actually knew what he was doing, but it's not like they were his people anyways. He saw he had a message from Aaron and opened it.
'They know too much. Go for it' was all it said, Boss rolling his eyes and smirking slightly. He really wanted to go down this route…
"Mail?" Shepard asked while driving.
"Uh, yep" Boss confirmed, closing the 'tool. "Spectre mail, which you would totally know about since you're a spectre too. Good ol' secret mail. For spectres. Like us"
Shepard was unconvinced, but brushed the feeling of mistrust off. For now. "Uh-huh. Okay then, well we're here" the cab touched down, the squad getting out.
"Ah, the Dracon Trade Center. Surely nothing bad can happen to this place. Like right now" when nothing happened, Boss frantically waved at the building. "Like a horrible explosion-type deal, that'd be awful. Especially at a important time like this, what with the two people we're looking for being in there"
"I'ma kill that second-in-command is Shepard doesn't…" Boss angrily thought. Then, just as he had 'predicted', explosions rang out from the building, blowing all three floors.
"Oh, no!" Boss said, holding his face with his hands. "Shepard, you go and clear the building from the bottom! I'll go to the top, seal the place off and all that jazz!"
Shepard tried to stop Dex, but was too late as he already got in the cab and flew off.
"He's very…un-professional for a spectre" Miranda noted.
"Yeah…keep and eye out for him. I don't trust him" Shepard said, then gestured to the front doors. "Come on. Let's go"
"If we are to encounter civilians?" Legion inquired.
"Leave them, they aren't important" Shepard answered as the three moved into the building.
"Where in the fuck is that second-in-command!?" Boss yelled and the gathered agents at the top of the building. The contact had fled, and the agents were about to head down to intercept Shepard.
A salarian in the same white armor with red trim and lights the rest had stepped forward. "U-u-um I was, sir. I-we couldn't get the bombs working, and I have bad eyesight and-"
"Hey, is that a carnifex?" Boss asked, pointing to the salarians side-arm.
"Y-yes" the salarian stuttered as Boss took it and looked at it.
"Hm…pretty heavy gun for a salarian" he noted, then pointed it at the salarian.
Said salarian squealed slightly as he thought Boss was about to shoot him, but no shot rang out. "You get to lead the second wave against Shepard. Get going, all of you!" the agents all nodded as they filed out, spreading around the building.
Boss sighed contently, finally being alone. "Man, things used to be so much simpler. Drive somewhere, shoot a bunch of guys, get paid then do whatever you want for fifteen minutes before some crazy stuff happens. Now it's all 'espionage' this and 'blending in' that…next time Aaron can do this, fitting the role of a happy-go-lucky faux spectre double agent's hard. Anyway, time to find that informant" he got a call from Shepard, and wanted to ignore it, but swallowed his pride and answered it.
"Dex, we got bombs down here, looks like they didn't blow. Looks military-grade"
Boss bit his fist and screamed in muffled rage at the second-in-command for not setting the bombs right, then radioed back, "FWI I ran into a few of the Broker's agents, so watch out for them. Especially the salarian with the carnifex, you should definitely look out for him. And shoot him. A lot. Dex out" he cut the connection and muttered, "I hope they cryo freeze him and shatter his ass" before moving on through the building, looking for the targets.
Searching for the better part of twenty minutes had been pretty boring, not finding much but charred bodies and destroyed stuff, whistling 'Power' to pass the time. Once in awhile he ran into a few survivors and let them go, telling them the exits and how to avoid the agents, they couldn't be any danger after all. Finally he had turned a corner into a hallway to see a human or batarian agent in full armor aiming a scimitar shotgun at a salarian. Liara's contact with the information to the location of the Shadow Broker.
Sekat.
And before Boss got a word out, the agent had shot him dead.
"Well, at least that's one down" Boss mentally sighed, then looks to the side to see a door opening, realizing it was Shepard since the gunfire had died down.
"Damn. Sorry dude" Boss muttered sincerely, aiming his revenant at the agent and firing, killing him. Shepard had walked in with his squad, Boss commenting, "looks like we found the informant" he shimmied over to the informants body and swiped a data disk off of the body, securing the information he needed.
"Hey, by any chance you run into Liara?" Boss asked, only to be met with the sound of a gun cocking from behind him.
"I'm right here" a voice stated, Boss turning around to see a bright-blue skinned asari in a white lab-like suit, pointing a pistol at him.
"Liara, what are you doing? That's a spectre!" Shepard tried to protest.
"Hardly" Liara snapped. "This man is anything but a spectre! A real spectre, Tela Vasir tried to kill me for the Shadow Broker when he killed her and took her spectre ID. I thought he was helping me but was proven wrong when I hacked into his communication device briefly and listened in on him giving orders to the Broker's agents. Vasir wasn't hired by them, but he was. He's just another agent"
Shepard and his squad immediately pulled their guns on Boss, who chuckled and raised his hands. "Alright, you got me" he confessed. "I ain't a spectre"
"I knew it" Shepard spat. "No one with your attitude could make spectre"
"Says the guy who always cut the councilors off when hunting for Saren" Boss countered.
Shepard grew confused when Miranda spoke up. "We should just kill him now, commander. He has the data, it's too valuable to lose"
"Agreed" Liara stated.
Shepard had to agree. That, and he was impersonating a spectre. That alone was enough reason for him to kill the poser. "Any last words?" he sneered.
"Yeah. Peace!" Boss shouted, trying to run for it. Thanks to zin technology, the purple, wavy shield protected him from all the gunfire he was being hit with, much to everyone's surprise. Shepard decided to try and improvise by tackling him, which worked and caused the two to fall through a window, Boss hitting the ground with an 'oomph', cushioning Shepard's landing.
Boss threw Shepard off him as Liara floated down with biotics, the rest of the squad watching from the window.
"That fall should have killed you!" Liara protested as Shepard got up.
Boss shrugged while wearing a grin. "Hey, I used to jump off buildings for fun and jump into traffic for money and walk away clean, you get used to it after a while. Plus this armor is pretty Boss" two Broker agents flanked him, more coming from an office behind him. "Hey, as much as I would love to shoot you Shepard I gotta leave. Have fun with these guys!" Boss ran off, Liara and Shepard trying to pursue but being stalled by the agents.
"Car, car, car car car…car!" Boss shouted once he got far enough away, finding a taxi car. Gunfire signaled Shepard and his squad along with Liara catching up to him.
"Really, twenty guys couldn't slow them down!? Cheap-ass mercs…" Boss swore, getting into the sky car and flying off.
"Damn it!" Shepard shouted as he watched Boss drive off.
"There's another taxi here, we can chase him!"' Liara advised, getting into the passenger seat.
"Fine, Legion! Go back to the Normandy, Miranda, come on!"
"On it, commander" Miranda said while Legion nodded, the geth running off while the other three piled into the car and chases off after Boss.
"Ah! Jeez! Oh shit!" Boss cried out again and again as he avoided traffic by swerving left and right, narrowly avoiding traffic as he tried to shake Shepard and co.
"Come on man, you can do this…what the?" Boss looked up briefly to see two virtual billboards turning into wanted posters for Jack.
"Hah! Oh man I am so giving her so much shit for that when I get back" Boss then put his eyes forward, still narrowly dodging traffic. Seeing as Shepard wasn't going away, Boss banged the steering wheel.
"Hm, yeah fuck it, this always works anyways" Boss drove the car straight up than flipped it midair, making it so he was on a collision course with Shepard.
"He's going to ram us!" Miranda shouted, bracing.
"Wait for it…" Shepard said, holding a fist up. Immediately a car came from nowhere, Boss accidentally crashing into it, causing him and his skycar to crash into a building labeled the Azure Hotel, crash-landing on the roof.
Coughing as he kicked the door off, Boss crawled out of the skycar, waving the smoke away. "Yeah, that didn't work…" he mumbled.
A LOKI mech walked up to him. "Sir, are you in need of assis-" shooting it's head off, Boss got on the radio.
"Second-in-command, if your worthless ass is still alive I need reinforcements at the Azure Hotel's roof. If you aren't, someone else take his post and continue the order, out" he then switched to a different frequency, his omni-tool turning purple. "Yo, Kinzie. I need actual backup that's not cannon fodder" he glanced at the oncoming car as he ran away, saying, "send in the super-zin"
Liara sighed as Shepard surveyed the crashed car, wondering why he had come. During their hunt for Saren, she would not lie when she said she had developed certain feelings for him, those feelings evolving into a very…passionate night.
But, the passion was gone. It wasn't healthy for her to think so, but he had replaced her with someone of his own species, a beautiful one at that. From CERBERUS at that. Ever since he had been revived he's been different, uncaring.
Maybe sending his body to them wasn't the best idea…
"Shepard-" Liara began, but was cut off.
"Not now Liara" he snapped, turning to Miranda. "Looks like he went further up, we need to go"
"And it looks like we have company!" Miranda shouted, pointing behind him and glowing blue. Shepard turned around to see yet another squad of agents, led by a salarian with a carnifex. One Liara made float with a singularity and Miranda detonated with a warp, disintegrating him. There were still the rest of the agents though…
"Take cover!" was the order deemed necessary by Shepard, the squad taking cover as one by one they dispatched the agents.
"Man, that crash hurt more than I thought…" Boss muttered as he stumbled to the roof, some very confused civilians wondering what the commotion below was about. Boss felt a brush from an invisible force, and smirked. A door opened and he heard a gun cocking, the civilians screaming. They had caught up with him.
Thinking fast Boss grabbed a human female and held the zin pistol at her head. "I think you know how this plays" he said.
"That's a zin pistol" Miranda noted. "Only one organization has that technology…"
"And I bet it really irks your Boss he ain't got none of it" he glanced at Shepard while the hostage whimpered a bit. "Still don't remember me, Sheppy?"
Shepard thought for a second, flashbacks going through his head.
"Unprofessional attitude, bad driver, a Saint… he said he had 'boss armor'…boss…Boss!" realizing the answer to the riddle, Shepard killed the hostage, Boss being defenseless now while Liara gaped in slight horror.
"Well damn, that was just uncalled for" Boss noted, than felt a heat on his face, the mask sparking. Shrugging and figuring that the mask must have been damaged in the crash, Boss tore the mask off, his voice and appearance going back to normal. Liara and Miranda gasped while Shepard's mouth formed a silent snarl.
Putting his sunglasses on, Boss commented, "took you long enough to figure out. So, Shepard! How have you been?"
"A lot better now, gonna get a commendation for bringing your corpse in" Shepard threatened.
"Oh? You didn't get one for stabbing us in the back?"
"You mutinied!" he argued.
Boss thought for a minute, then chuckled. "Oh yeah, we did. Worth it. By the way, Aaron sends his regards"
"So he is alive…" Shepard was afraid of this. He was hoping the video was fake, an edit…if he really was alive, his life just got harder. "How'd he survive?"
"That's his business, not yours"
"Why, though?" Liara asked. "Why would you work for the Broker?"
"Believe it or not Liara, your more of a competitor for what I'm trying to do, a obstacle. Competition. So, I'll cut you a deal; you seem like a nice girl, smart, self reliant. Why don't you give up trying to kill the guy, work for us?"
"I…I can't do that. The Broker has a friend of mine, I can't leave him behind"
"I'll cut a deal with the Broker, set him free! I'll fuckin' steal him if you want me to! Just give up, you can't do it!"
Liara stood defiant. She couldn't take a chance with Feron…she just couldn't.
Boss hung his head, sighed, then looked back up. "Well, then that's a shame. So, what happens now?"
"You give us the disk" Liara explained.
"Then we kill you" Shepard added.
"Hm, yeah, sounds like normal things one would do. Ya forgot one itty bitty little thingy, though" he spread his arms out. "Illium, bro? This goddamn planet belongs to me. Come on out, boys!"
Shepard and co.'s eyes widened when figures shimmered in the air, materializing into what looked like zin, except they looked much…skinnier than zin, in black ornamental armor and red, glowing eyes.
The super-zin were zin Boss had encountered in the simulation, basically being zin with much greater, super movement. On his final assault on Zinyak it turned out they actually existed in real life, the super-zin having been regular zin that had undergone gene treatment to turn them into super soldiers. Being fairly recent, however, their powers had been limited to being able to jump high and run at super speeds, however since becoming Emperor Boss had them refitted with telekinesis as well.
"Meet the super-zin!" Boss gestured, the super-zin cracking their necks. "And the odds dwindle for you, fucktard. You only got a moderate chance against these dudes and me. Give up and I'll let the blue chick walk"
Shepard cocked his gun. "Don't think so"
"Was hopin' you'd say that" Boss held up a fist, smirking. "Kill 'em" he slammed the fist down, the super-zin beginning their attack.
Shepard squared away immediately by blowing one super-zin away with a shotgun, however was forced to take cover when they unleashed the power of their rifles and thumpguns, the zin equivalent of a shotgun with the range of a pistol. Shepard's cover was lifted up, one super-zin glowing with red energy as a purple beam shot from him, the end connecting with the crate. A warp from Liara killed the super-zin lifting the crate, dropping it, but she couldn't pull any more biotic tricks out as Boss had her pinned.
"Hey, I gave you a choice!" he reminded, pelting her cover with revenant fire.
Miranda tried to provide support for Shepard, but two super-zin sprinted towards her. They ran too fast for her to track, but fortunately for Shepard his soldier class granted him the handy augmentation of flooding his system with adrenaline and slowing down time temporarily. Doing this he was able, albeit difficultly, to gun the two supers down.
Six super-zin left, Boss was livid. "You don't know when to die, do you Shepard!" he yelled, continuously firing his revenant. "Killing some no-name agents I didn't care about, that's one thing! You killing my boys, though!? You think I'm gonna let you walk-" Boss doubled over in pain when Shepard fired a concussive shot to a very…sensitive area around Boss's groin, causing him to double in pain as he hit the ground, his vision blurring a bit as he saw the rest of the super-zin get taken down.
"Bastard…that was a low blow…" Boss heaved as he slowly got up, sluggishly aiming his revenant, but saw Liara and Miranda charging up with biotics.
Boss rolled his eyes as he was blasted off the building with the combined effort of two throws, screaming as he disappeared over the edge. Liara looked to where he was and saw an important item.
"The disk!" she squealed happily as she ran over and picked it up. "Now we can find-"
"Surprise, motherfuckers!" three shocked heads looked to the ledge Boss had fallen off, Boss now standing on top of a XOR aiming two zin laser mini's at them, the guns originally being the laser miniguns guns that the murderbots had, but were now manufactured as portable laser miniguns, minus the detached robot arm.
With that, Boss released a torrent of purple laser death at the trio, the three running off.
"We have the data!" Liara yelled, "I advise we retreat!"
"Noted!" Shepard agreed as the three ran off. They kept running until they got back to the cab, flying off.
Boss lowered his two minilasers, thinking.
"Should we follow?" the zin pilot asked.
"Nah…nah, I got a better idea. Radio Kinzie, I need her to drop me off somewhere" Boss ordered as he teleported into the XOR. Most likely they would be going to the Shadow Broker's lair, so he would have an opportunity to cut them off their. Shepard wasn't out of the Saints reach…not yet at least.
The Shadow Broker had not taken the news that Liara had found his little hideout well. And truly the hideout was clever, a ship, the Hagalaz, hiding it within a planet's atmosphere, so much natural disasters happening on the planet it caused too much interference to ever detect something. If you didn't know the ship was there, you couldn't find it.
But, the Broker had given Boss one more chance. For a hour now Shepard, Liara, and Miranda had been fighting through the ship, Boss being taken here by the Fleur De Lis. Behind him was the room where the Broker him/herself was located. With him was his top agents on the ground floor, while he was alone up on a second room that ran the length of the main room with multiple windows, a single staircase leading up. Aiming his purple widow out the window, Boss waited for the trio to come in through the doors, the agents hiding in cover. Sure enough, the door did open, Liara leading the group.
Boss sighed as he looked through the scope. "Sorry, kid. I gave you a shot at leaving. I just wanted those two, not you"
"Through here!" Liara shouted, leading the way. Among the legions of men they had to fight through, the mechs, and getting through the ship's defenses, she was too close. She had even saw Feron, restrained but alive! She would rescue her friend and take the Broker down, she had come too far! She had hoped Shepard would be proud of her, but he seemed uncaring at the moment. This bothered her, but her spirits would be lifted once they took the Broker down.
BANG!
However, all hopes seemed to stop there. Time slowed down as a large hole appeared on Liara's chest over her heart, dark blood oozing through as her heart ruptured. He crumpled to the ground, Shepard shouting as he ran over to her.
"She…pard…" Liara gasped, life leaving her. Through the darkness she saw a single tear roll down the Commander's face. "You…you did care…"
Shepard said nothing as he watched her slowly die. He felt like he should care, but something…something made him not want to care, like he shouldn't waste his time with her. She was dead, useless now. But they had been…together.
He tried to fight the urge of leaving, tried to reassure her with at least a few last words before she passed. But alas his scars and eyes glowed a intense crimson and he left her body without saying a word, readying his gun along with Miranda.
Now it was time for Liara to shed a tear. He had left her, from her eyes, without a second thought. But she didn't have time to think on this as darkness enclosed her.
"Dark…just like mother said. No light…" were her last words as her eyes closed for the last time.
Boss fired one more shot, hitting Miranda through the abdomen. She would live but she was out of the fight. With that Boss slinked into the shadows as the agents attacked.
The agents were nothing however. Something possessed Shepard as he mowed through them, unleashing all the powers a soldier would allow him. They were all cut down in mere minutes.
"Shepard! I'm gonna kill you…yes I am, I see the doubt in your eyes!" Boss shouted as he popped up from a window, letting a shot from of rifle off. Shepard kicked his adrenaline on and dodged the shot briefly and got in cover, trying to shoot him, but he slinked back in the shadows.
"You killed her!" he screamed as he shot madly.
"I warned you, okay!? I offered to only kill you and the Ice Bitch! She could've lived, but nooo! Big 'ol Shepard just had to prove he was better than the Saints"
"You all are nothing but opportunistic punks!" he shot.
"Takes a monster to know one" Boss shot back as he slinked back into the shadows.
Shepard looked around madly when Boss popped up from another window flanking his cover. He overrode the restrictions on his adrenaline drive and turned it on again, dodging another shot and getting into new cover.
"And you had a chance!" Boss scolded. "You know you could have come to us for help, we could have fixed your brain of that problem! We could have taken you in!" Boss shot his rifle more as Shepard's temper flared. "But you had to fight us, and come right here to try and kill the Broker, hell maybe you were in it just to try and kill me! You should really use you fucking head sometimes, Shepard" he popped out but Shepard saw this and landed a shot. "Getting mad, huh? I didn't want to kill her! You dragged her into this!"
Shepard screamed as he fired into all windows madly. Who was he to talk!? He pulled the trigger, he killed her! He planned all of this! He made a promise, and he would keep it. He would kill all the Saints, starting with their leader!
"That won't get you anywhere!" Boss ducked down. "You think I forgot that you tried to kill Aaron and me? Not on your lifetime! A lot of people stabbed me in the back, and they always died! Julius, Dex, Keith David…although he double-crossed Zinyak so I forgave him!"
"So that's where you got the identity from! What, some other guy you killed in cold blood!?"
"That snitch deserved what I did to him! Cop bastard!" the two turned the tide by both firing into a all-out gun brawl, bullets firing everywhere as Shepard switched between all his guns, Boss dual wielding the rifle and a revenant, both firing as much as they could.
"You didn't like us, Think we're punks! We taken the goddamn military on and won! We're taking the galaxy on and winning! I ripped the head off a goddamn alien emperor!"
"I doubt you did it honorably!" Shepard accused.
"You weren't even in the same world, ya dick!" Boss dropped his pistol, being overheat. "Y'know what, come on up! Let's finish it!"
Shepard obliged and ran to the staircase, with nothing but a avenger, Boss shouting as he ran.
"So what are you, Shepard? Alliance marine, spectre, Cerberus agent? I know what I am, I'm the leader of the Saints! What are you!?"
"Shut up!" firing up the staircase, Shepard was in permanent adrenaline rush as Boss fired from the top.
"Come on, shoot me! Your good at that, right? All the SWAT and STAG teams could never get me, so maybe you'll get a lucky shot!"
Shepard made his way up the stairs as Boss backed off, loosing cover. "C'mon, you chicken! Ba-kaw! Kaw-kaw-kaw, shoot me already! It's almost like your trying to miss!" Boss taunted, the bullets missing him.
Cursing, Shepard screamed as he sprinted towards Boss, unloading all him ammos, Boss doing the same. They were mere inches from one-another with guns pointed to their heads, however when they pulled the triggers all that was heard was 'click' 'click' 'click' as thermal clips were ejected.
"Your empty" Shepard hissed.
"Well so are you" Boss said.
They stood still for a moment until they threw their guns away, flashing their omni-tools out, Shepard making a orange omni-blade while Boss made a purple one.
"Alright, wanna do this old-school style, huh? Well fine, let's go" Boss challenged.
Shepard poured all his rage into his swings as he charged Boss, dueling with him. They both kept hitting their blades, none getting a blow. Boss took it a step up when he kneed Shepard and grabbed his head, slamming it into a wall. Dazed, Boss tried to take the moment to kick him, hum Shepard sidestepped the foot and slashed at it, but missed. They kept parrying the blades until Shepard made the mistake of thrusting towards Boss, who dodged the blade. He grabbed the arm and pulled Shepard close to him, slashing upwards and cutting through the armor. Seeing he was loosing, Shepard took this as his hint to run, jumping out the window and running away, grabbing Miranda.
"Leave the body!" he ordered, gesturing to Liara's corpse, "and call the ship!"
The Cerberus agent nodded as they ran out, Boss scoffing.
"Running away like pussies, huh Shepard!" no reply. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Chicken" Boss couldn't believe he ran like that. If he was a true to his word he would have stayed, instead of giving up. Next time Boss wouldn't bother with the dramatic duel.
Scavenging some thermal clips from the bodies, he went into the room of the Broker, a room comprised of many terminals, and one swivel chair.
"Yo, it's done. Shepard's gone" Boss informed.
A shadow rose from the chair. "He still knows our whereabouts, you fool. How do you know he won't come back" the Broker was livid with rage. He was hired to kill all who knew where he resided, yet they still lived.
"Meh, doesn't matter" Boss said, pointing his revenant at the Broker.
"…What is the meaning of this?" the Broker demanded.
"C'mon, I know about the snitch you put in the Saints. Bitch is dead by the by. And I know you know about our…other-worldly secret"
"You planned this from the beginning" the Broker realized, voice flaring in rage.
"Yeah. I did. I have really wanted to kill you for a long time and take your information empire, and this gave me an excuse. So I waited 'till you hired me, made it so the enemy got the location here so I could fend them off"
"And Shepard?"
"To be honest he was just a stroke of luck. Or un-luck, whichever. Anyway, get up off that chair, I wanna see what you exactly are"
The Broker chuckled, rising from his chair. Boss gagged at the sight. It looked like a very messed up krogan in red armor, with a triangular jaw filled with sharp teeth and four sets of eyes that would put a batarian to shame.
"Man, you are butt-ugly! Oh god, what are you!?" Boss asked, stifling a laugh.
"I am a Yahg" the Broker said, "a species the Council hasn't uplifted yet"
"I wonder why, I doubt anyone would want to see your ugly asses running around the place" Boss remarked. The Broker growled.
"I mean, c'mon! Do all of you look like that or are you just special?" at this the Broker roared.
"Man, you so ugly your mama can't even look at you right I bet. You got a picture? I wanna make a comparison"
"Enough!" he yelled, lifting his own revenant and bursting forth a orange shield. They both fired at each-other, Boss's shields taking the force while the Broker's hand-held blocked the fire. Boss jumped on the Broker's face and launched off, rolling under a table. He crawled under as the Broker jumped on top, firing through it in hopes of nailing Boss. However he didn't as he crawled through and aimed up, but the Broker grabbed his gun and threw him, tossing the gun. He jumped down and tried to punch Boss, but Boss rushed him and slammed him into a wall, punching him again and again, dazing the Yahg. Boss pushed the Yahg down and stomped him, stunning the Broker long enough for Boss to reclaim his revenant. The Broker grabbed his foot and tried a last-ditch effort of biting it, but was too late as Boss turned around and fired into the Broker's mouth until the head exploded.
Boss panted as he dropped the gun, not believing what he did. The famed Broker, the person everyone feared…was dead. The Saints would soon be taking over.
Sitting in the Broker's chair, Boss radioed Kinzie. "Got you a present, girl"
"Ooh, is it shiny?" she asked.
"No, but…" the terminals turned purple as Boss handed control over to her. "We do own most of the info brokering in the galaxy now. So that's a plus" he eyes Feron's cell from a terminal, seeing a drell in a chair. He decided to get rid of him, thinking he might try to get revenge for Liara, and flooded his cell with poison gas. At least he'd die peacefully.
Spinning in the chair, Boss laughed at his accomplishment. Took over the Shadow Broker, and now the Saints had one more crime syndicate taken over, well on their way to taking over the galaxy. Putting his hands behind his head, Boss propped his feet up as he read the swarms of intelligence and information reading out on the terminals while ordering a major paintjob for the Broker's former ship.
A/N-…Yeah, I'm gonna receive some hate mail for killing Liara. But it was unavoidable. I'm sorry, but I don't think she would have ever agreed with the Saints ways, so she was a enemy that needed to go, so sorry for Liara fans. So, the Saints have taken over the Broker's ring. Now they have all the intel. Well, most of it. Anything the Broker had at least.
Now, I know it may seem like I have shelved some characters, but look at it from my stand point, I got the Saints gang, The ex-Normandy crew, and OC's to juggle around in terms of characters, and that's just the protagonists! Look, I try to include everyone, but I'm overwhelmed with characters, okay? But no-one's shelved, that's for danged sure.
And can anyone see the reference to the sniper battle Boss had with Shepard? Resembles a certain fight in a certain videogame…
Got nothing else, so cya! Next time…something else happens! 'Member to vote!