Ty:
Everywhere I looked there was movements almost like shadows, darting away as my eyes tried to focus on them. My body felt totally numb to the point that there was no way to get myself under control. All I could do was lean against the collector console and look at Kasumi as she knelt by me. Her hand caressed my helmet, trying to move my head in a way that allowed her to see my eyes.
"So, you gonna keep sitting there dumbstruck or can I finally get some answers out of you?" She asked, giving me a smile while keeping her voice low.
Just behind us was Tali and Shepard, trying to use the console to get into the collector system. They were trying to do the information extraction from the database but were caught up. Something was slowing us down for one reason or another and I was almost useless to help.
"We can talk about that later." I said, trying to put my hand on her shoulder but instead pushed her away.
I hated being useless and even more so with how I'd fought lately by only being a handicap to everyone. Here on the collector base was the time to stand and fight with all my effort. From here, I was going to carve a path through the bastards that held me.
I put my other hand on the console and pulled myself up, ready to go for the most part. "Alright, who's ready for a fight!"
Tali and John just looked at me for a second before looking at each other. "What?"
With a swiping motion, I removed whatever blocks were stopping them from doing their job and the download commenced. "I mean, they're not going to let us just walk out of here with their database."
"N… no they… Won't." Said a hesitant voice from behind me.
I turned around, still trying to keep my footing and looked at the girl that I tried to save last time. "You're that girl from last time… Hanako."
She sat across from us with her hair still partially covering her face but it was different than last time. Her stature was tall and almost imposing if it weren't for her malnutrition. Her armor was white with a blue circuitry pattern carved on it as if to oppose my black and red. It was almost laughable how much we looked like polar opposites of eachother.
"Yes… I am… You left… I stayed." There was almost a sad tone to her voice but it was also robotic.
I moved toward her with my hand out, trying to keep from stumbling too much. "Hanako, you can come with us now and get away. We can take you somewhere safe."
She looked at me and her eye showed with a blue light that glared like that of a Geth. "I am… safe here… You are… making it… not safe."
"Hanako, please. I had to leave you last time but that wasn't my fault. I can take you away now and you don't have to be scared. No one will experiment on you outside of here." I said, moving closer and finding a bit of balance.
"Ty, who is this girl?" I heard Shepard ask, clicking his pistol's safety off behind me.
"She's a friend. We were kept in the same cell last time I was here… In this ship… for two… years." As I said the last part, I heard Tali gasp behind me when the realization hit her.
The fact that she got me trapped her was too much for a second and I could feel rage beginning to split off from me. I looked back at the others and just in time to see the console shut down and the entire platform starting to move. It took a lot of willpower but I managed to move forward during the split and throw myself off the platform in time.
It took off into the air without me and I was left to finish the split alone now. "GOD DAMN IT!"
"You are… all alone… now…" Hanako said, walking over to me before kicking me in the gut.
"Hanako, why?!" I asked, feeling the splitting start and the pain set in.
"Because… Fizzer says… you will… take me… away…" She went to kick again but something stopped her.
I glanced back and saw that Rage was only half sprouted from my back but enough to catch her kick. He looked down at me and placed hands on my hip and shoulder to pull the rest of the way out. We finished separating from there and then stood apart from one another so that we would be ready for what she had to throw at us.
Being not rid of all my anger, I was able to think more clearly and speak to Hanako. "We aren't here to hurt you or anything, Hanako. We just want to stop the collectors from taking anyone else and hurting them."
"They don't... hurt though…. They stop… the pain… by ending it…" She said, her eye getting brighter followed by the lines over her body starting to glow as well.
I looked at Rage but couldn't tell if he looked back at me since the visor was so dark. For a moment, there was a silent communication between us to just jump her and finish her. That would be easy for me and Rage, but I was worried about what he would do to her once we did that. That thought though was to to long as her hand grabbed my throat and Rages before hoisting us both into the air.
The sudden grab made me jump and I looked down at her. The arm she was grabbing me with was extended almost seven feet from her body and still had the strength to lift me up in the air. The sheer amount of strength she had to have to do that was unimaginable now but that wasn't something to think about. She had code powers now and I had no idea what they were.
Rage was first to react before me and put his feet together before data purging. The blast sent him straight up and momentarily out of her grasp. The bastard then kicked her arm away and landed, rolling to keep his motion going. His distraction gave me the moment to strike.
I took hold of Hanako's arm and swung my legs to get out but she just tightened her grip to show she wasn't going to let me go. Rage had to take over after that and punched her in the elbow as he ran by. The sudden jolt caused her to let go and pull her arms back in pain.
"Ah… why did… you hurt… me…" She asked, holding her arms close to her body now.
I pulled a pistol off my hip and tossed Rage my shotgun as we both readied for an attack. "You were going to kill us. We are just defending ourselves."
"I'm trying… to separate… you from… pain…" She said, bringing her hands up and revealing blue zeroes on them. "Data purge…"
Blue blasts of energy launched from Hanako's hands and sent both Rage and I flying back. I ended up hitting the ground hand and putting a crack in my helmet but Rage landed just fine. He looked over at me and let out a huff before charging toward her.
She ducked his shotgun back with finesse I've only seen in Olympic figure skaters and blasted him again. This time, when Rage landed he smacked the ground and rolled several times. I stood up and took him by the collar only to hear a growl come from hsi speaker.
"I know. It kinda sucks to be hit with your own bread and butter." I pulled him up and aimed my pistol at her. "We don't want to be separated from pain, Hanako."
She just looked at us, shaking her head before putting her hands out and making a low hum noise. The noise then stopped and she thrusted her arms forward trying to grab me. I managed to step back in time but since she missed, her hands swept out and pushed me back. The force sent me back a few feet but I managed to keep steady and hold out. All the while I began searching her visage for any signs of what she might do.
The only thing I managed to catch was that the humming noise she was making started to grow louder. "I will… separate you… from pain… because I… want to… save you… I'll be… your hero…"
"You want to be a hero?" I asked, right before Rage bull-rushed her only to receive a dhalsim punch to the nads.
The pain made him double over and I even managed to feel the pain myself. "Yes… it's always… been my… hope to… save everyone… from pain…"
"Yeah, well, heroes don't kill anyone that doesn't have to die." I told her only to have a quick jab fly at my face.
Usually, I had the strength to dodge it but something about my felt slow and clunk. I was only abl to dodge just enough to catch her punch on the side of the head instead of center. The shock was enough to force my eyes shut and lose my balance a bit.
"Heroes make… the tough… decisions… the ones… no one… else will… make…" Her arms spread out after that and a line of zeroes traced along them and they all pointed at me. "Now, I… will save… you…"
John:
"Ty!" John yelled, reaching his hand out for the boy too late.
Shepard was forced to hold onto the platform and watch as it took him away from the kid and off in some random direction. There was nothing he could do now except drift off and watch him struggle in pain on the ground with no help. Worse than that, this would be the second time he'd be trapped on a collector ship with no way off. There had to be something he could do, or someway to go back once they landed.
"Shepard, don't worry about him." Danny said, putting his hand on the commander's shoulder. "He's a big boy and can fend for himself."
John kept his gaze on Ty's direction for a few seconds more before solidifying and turning to the others. Even if Ty wasn't going too make it out, he had to be a leader for the others. Believing that he was going to make it out was just the first step in getting everyone out. He had to trust that his team would get their job done.
"You're right, everyone start locking in your weapons and making sure that you have all abilities on a hair trigger. We are fighting our way out now." He said, shouldering his rifle as the platform halted in mid air. "Get ready for any- Incoming collectors at twelve and ten!"
Shepard ducked behind the terminal they were at and took cover. His brain already started to form a plan to take on the enemies. He was with three other hexigonal platforms besides the ones that the Collectors were coming in on. Since the enemies were coming from straight ahead, that meant he had an easy quick exit to utilize and to loop around as well. All he needed to do was take this into account and remember his maneuvers.
"Tali, move left! Kasumi, move right! Danny… Do your thing!" He said, figuring that it would be better to adapt around the User than to command him.
"Roger that Shepard!" Tali confirmed, using her omni-tool to create an attack drone.
Shepard had to admit that the drone was going to be a great ally in the fight to come. That along with Kasumi's tech programs were something that he could always rely on. Just comparing these things gave him an overwhelming confidence that together they could do anything and beat these guys.
The two collector platforms came in and docked with their small station and two squads entered into the fray. Ducking into position, John started watching his motion tracker for their movements. Clutching his gun, he watched one get close enough and popped out of cover. His finger clicked down on the trigger and three bullets fired off. The first hit the collector's carapace, chipping it and leaving the chest wide open. The next buried itself in that opening and the last strayed far from that and took out the mid left eye.
Before the Commander could get a second burst off, the collector threw up a strange yellow shield that saved his ass. Not for long though, Tali's drone slipped in behind the bot and fired off an electric bolt. The zap was enough to drop the collector and eliminated the shield along with it. That was one down but there was still more and others coming.
During the distraction, one of the collectors managed to sneak up on John and he turned just in time to see it. Putting his hands up, John caught it's blade just inches from his stomach. There was a short couple of seconds where he looked at the collector and then at the blade and back again. With a swift motion, he snapped off the blade and stabbed it into the bugs two left eyes.
The collector reeled back and pried at the blade now lodged in it's eye and scraped at it in panic. It didn't remain in pain for long though as a large chunk of metal rocketed by and knocked it out into the abyss below. Danny then picked the hammer up and hoisted it onto his shoulder while looking a little tired.
"This… That… I can't feel my biceps." Danny said, leaning on his knee in exhaustion.
"Well, you chose to bring a war hammer to a gun fight. Chances are you're gonna get tired." John said, popping his thermal clip and tossing Danny an adrenaline shot. "Here, take this and get back in the game. There's no telling what the collectors are gonna throw at us ne-"
"Shepard, abominations incoming!" Tali yelled, cutting him off and forcing them out of any more conversation.
Before John could turn around, Danny jammed the needle into his neck and injected himself with the serum. The User then shot off dropping the needle on the ground and heading right for the enemies ahead. All three lined up their shots and fired at him but he was ready and threw up some sort of weird energy shield that was like a giant rectangle. It absorbed the blows but seemed to crack at the edge making Shepard assume that it was some sort of hard light construct.
He didn't drop the shield though and instead let the hammer fall behind him. "Shepard, go in for the kill. I've got you covered."
"Acknowledged." John said before moving up to Danny and switched to his rocket launcher. "Alright, get ready to drop the shield and we can do this."
"You can shoot through it." He informed, bracing the shield for another attack as they began to charge. "Now do it!"
Taking aim, he started firing through the shield and unleashing a torrent of missiles. They cut through one of the abominations in time to stop his shots but the other two managed to release their own attack. The explosions tore through his shield and knocked the two of them away.
The commander landed ten feet away and rolled off the edge of the platform only barely managing to to grab hold of the ledge. It took precious time for John's eyesight to realign and figure out where the hell he was. The view was terrifying as he looked down toward the abyss below and yellow fog that filled it. His head had enough of that view before looking back up to the ledge and reaching up with his other hand.
He managed to just grab it when an abomination stepped right above him and looked down with it's disgusting husk head. It let out a horrible wail before aiming its cannon down at John and letting the blue glow start to charge. In this split second, he saw his entire life flash before his eyes and his face took on a droll stare.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." He said, speaking to god, the universe or whoever might have been listening.
His demise was halted as something slammed into the back of the abomination. It slipped off balance and fell forward and off into the death pit. Left almost dumbfounded, John's question of who his savior was changed with he saw a three fingered hand come out over the edge. In awe, he took it and used the added help to crawl his way back into the platform before watching the small quarian sit back on her knees in exhaustion.
"That was… a close one." She said, going to stand back up already.
"Yeah, thanks." John said, smiling and feeling like he owed Tali a lot.
As he got up, he saw Danny pick up the hammer and bring it down in the last abominations head. It exploded like a tomato can before the body fell to the ground finish off the last of them. The small team then converged together and met up back at the original platform. John was about to ask for a status report about what all had happened when the platform started to move again.
"Oh god damn it, how's everyone doing?" John asked, expecting the platform to take them to another set of enemies.
"I think… I'm going… to pass out." Danny answered, leaning on the hammer before just letting it fall to the ground. "Can someone carry me?"
The three of them gave a glare at him.
"Alright, give me a break. Sheesh, I've been on this stupid ship a lot longer than you guys and it's been hard." He said, dropping his hammer and grabbing his pistol.
"Look, we need to focus up." Kasumi said, looking over the edge. "We're headed back toward actual… terain? Anyway, once on, we can have EDI find us a path to relink with Ty and then get the hell out of here."
"Negative Ms. Goto." EDI replied over their ear pieces. "From the position Ty is in, he'd have to travel all the way around the area you were just in and then head back up from the ship. Might I suggest having him meet you at the ship since his route is currently clear."
"That's a plan. EDI. Relay the message to Ty and get us on a path." John ordered on his mike as it finally landed.
"Roger that." The AI confirmed before shutting down.
"Alright, I'll take point. Kasumi and Tali will take flank while Danny stays at the rear and build energy. Clear?" John asked, to receive thumbs up from everyone. "Alright, let's move."
Hey Y'all, I'm back finally after a long and rather depressing summer that just kept me from the state of mind I had to be in to write this story. Long story short; I got fired, denied financial aid, owed almost three-hundred bucks to the state due to an accounting error, and my girlfriend of five years left me. Yeah, I know I'm a fucking loser and the trolls can say what they will. Not like they've stopped me before.
Bright side, Hastings, the company that fired me, declared bankruptcy like a week after so they can suck it. Anyway, don't forget to throw me a review if there was something you wanted to say and have a good day guys.
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