(A/N: Hey yall I've finally posted chapter 24 as you can see, sorry for this one being late, I once again forgot about to put it up, god I suck at this. But hopefully you guys will enjoy it, so without further a due let's get to it.)
Chapter 24: Hidden power
"Did you say…Rannoch?" I asked still feeling weak from…whatever else was wrong with me. I felt so hazy and still a bit messed up from my migraine too.
The doctor replied calmly. "Yes that's what I said, you've been here for about a week receiving treatment for eezo poisoning, we nearly lost you on several occasions but that was due to our lack of knowledge from this being what your friend calls hyper eezo."
Oh thank god for Kyle Abner. "Why do I feel so weak…I feel like…" I tried to sit up but I quickly lost all my energy and fell back down.
"It's because we had to drain two thirds of your blood, too much radiation I'm afraid so please don't try to push yourself to do anything." She replied as she helped me sit up and propped me up with some spare pillows.
"Who are you?" I asked as I felt at a disadvantage that this doctor knew who I was but I didn't know who she was.
"I'm Dr. Neeva Zorah vas Rannoch, my family has owned this hospital ever sense the end of the reaper invasion ended over eighty years ago." She replied in a cheery tone.
"Why are you in that suit?" I asked knowing in my gut that it was a poor thing to ask her because from what I learned in history class the quarrians had to wear these suits in order to stay alive while they lived in a migrant fleet wondering the galaxy for over three hundred years after the geth drove them from their home world when the quarrians tried to wipe them out as they had become even more intelligent than they should've been, the geth were originally made to be a source of cheap labor for the quarrians, but then they started showing signs of true intelligence, so the quarrians acted out of fear to eradicate them but found out too late that the geth had already developed a hive mind and every single geth on the planet learned in an instant that their masters had decided their fate, termination. So the geth rebelled and drove the quarrians off of Rannoch and all of their colony worlds in their home system known as the Perseus vail and sense they didn't have any diseases or insects aboard their ships their immune systems were relatively weakened and could die very easily from just about anything if they weren't careful, so their best scientists and doctors came up with an environmental suit to keep them from getting sick from any and all air born bacteria that could be inhaled, hell their Amun systems were so weak just a kiss could put them in the hospital, of course that doesn't mean they couldn't become…intimate with one another, from what I understand they used anti-biotics just before sex so they wouldn't get an infection from being exposed to open air, then they would uh…get physical with each other, then they would get sick somewhat but because of the anti-biotics I'd mentioned before they wouldn't get as sick. However after that would transpire they wouldn't need any more anti-biotics for sex with that same partner, think of their first time together as a sort of flu shot, meaning that their immune systems would adapt to their partner and they wouldn't get sick because of them. It was like this for all of them, they would wonder the stars looking for a new home they could colonize, but when the reapers came they knew they'd have to go to war with them like everyone else and needed a safe place to put their civilians, a place where they wouldn't need a hundred years or so to adapt to the environment and the only planet like that was their home world, Rannoch, but the geth wouldn't just let them return out of fear that the quarrians would finish what they'd started but the quarrians had no choice and chose to go to war, but they knew they could never win it alone so the quarrian admiralty board reached out to the earth systems alliance best soldier and the most famous hero of all mammal races, commander Shepard, along with the aid of an old squad mate, a quarrian by the name of Tali Zorah vas Neemah, and also another team mate which was a geth believe it or not by the name of Legion, and together the quarrians and the geth made peace and chose to fight side by side in the final battle for earth, and after that the geth helped the quarrions build up their immune systems about seventy or so years ahead of schedule but for some reason this one quarrian was wearing one of these suits.
But she was completely calm about it and replied in a calm voice. "It's just a precaution, for my safety in terms of the radiation, this way I don't get sick. So, how are you feeling?" She asked politely.
I honestly answered her as I tried to focus, but that damn migraine wasn't making it easy for me. "I feel like shit actually, kinda dizzy, and really hungry too."
"Don't worry, we'll get you something to eat soon, we have a variety of earth-based dishes fit for a predatory mammal such as poultry, seafood and insects to sate your hunger, which would you like?" She obviously didn't know I was a strict vegetarian so I politely corrected her.
"Actually I'm more of a fruits and vegetables kind of fox." I said with a very weak smile.
"Oh, I didn't realize that predators could be vegetarians." She said with a slight chuckle.
"Well my species is actually omnivorous anyway so it's not impossible." I replied as I just imagined the blush she had under her helmet from asking me such a question. I then heard a gasp at the door, I looked over and saw a very emotional and happy bunny who I knew and loved with all my heart.
"CODY!" She shrieked as she ran over to me and hugged me, I winced in pain as her scream did my migraine no favors, she just sobbed tears of joy that I was awake, I wanted to hug her back but my arms were still nothing but Jell-O. "I thought I'd lost you." She sobbed into my shoulder, I noticed that her hug was a little tighter than usual.
I guess she was absolutely terrified that she actually might lose me. I felt both flattered that she cared so much about me, also a bit upset that I'd put her through hell. "I'm sorry for scaring you like that carrots, and please forgive me for not hugging you back as my arms are like jelly right now." I said with a weak voice.
She pulled away for a second and just smiled with tears falling down her face. "It's okay red, I'm just glad you're alright." She then kissed me very passionately, as if she hadn't kissed me in over a hundred years.
"This young lady has been in your room with you just as much as your family has been, she's barely left your side except for when we had to chase her out to try and reanimate you." The doctor said as we shared our kiss, but I wasn't really focusing on her at the moment.
Alice then pulled away and just hugged the doctor. "Thank you so much for giving me back my boyfriend." She said with a smile.
"Oh think nothing of it dear, it's all a part of the job, though I think your family would like to share in this happy moment too." The doctor stated the obvious, and I had to admit it would be nice to see my family after what I'd been through and I could imagine this was just as bad for them as well.
"Yeah, that would be great doc." I said while focusing on the look on Alice's face.
"Doctor I've got the jelly and ice pack as you've requested." The nurse from before had returned, he wasn't a quarrian like I assumed but he was a snow leopard in the typical nurses attire holding a tube of what I had good reason to believe was my painkiller and an ice pack for my head.
"Thank you nurse I'll take it from here, but if you could go and inform the Blazes that their son is awake I'd greatly appreciate it." The doctor asked as she took the two items and the nurse left us alone, the doctor then opened the tube and began to dump it out onto her hand. "This is going to feel a little cold." She said as she applied the jelly to my temples, and she was right about it being cold, it felt like she'd just put liquid nitrogen on my head, but it helped dull the pain in my head by a lot, she then place the ice pack on my head as extra reassurance. "There you are, now is there anything else I can do for you while you're here?" She asked in a polite tone.
"Well like I said I am kinda hungry so if you could send a salad and a couple of oranges up my way I'd really appreciate it." I reminded her as my stomach reminded me, I had no idea how long I was out but it was long overdue for me to have a good meal.
"Oh I think I can get you something to eat for sure, it should only take a few minutes but in the mean time I need to get back to my rounds, enjoy your rest Mr. Blaze, keela sahlye." And with that said the doctor stood up and left the room, she closed the door behind her leaving me alone with Alice who just crawled on top of me and started kissing me again, I had a feeling that she was scared I was gonna die but I had no idea of just how much, even though she was being a bit clingy I wasn't complaining obviously.
She then pulled away and just laid there on top of me and holding onto me tight, she just placed her head on my heart and just listened to my heartbeat. "I'll bet you did this every chance you got when we were alone in here." I said half-jokingly as she nuzzled her face into my chest.
"I was so scared that I was going to lose you, I'm so sorry that this happened to you, this is all my fault, it should've been me in this bed not you." She said as she started to cry again.
I took notice of that and asked. "What do you mean?"
She looked up at me with more tears in her eyes. "You only got hurt because of me, if I'd just been paying attention you wouldn't have had to save me." She answered as her voice cracked while wiping away her tears.
If I could've at the time I would've shaken my head at her remark, but I didn't even have the strength to do that, so I just gave a soft chuckle and said. "Oh come on now, there's no way we could've both gotten out of that without getting hurt. I'm pretty sure of that." I just looked at her face, her lip quivering and eyes wide and pathetic. "You know you look super…" I was about to say cute but then stopped myself before I did.
But then to my surprise Alice then said with a slight chuckle. "Go on, you can say it, but just this once."
I didn't hesitate for this chance and I said right in her ear. "You are super cute when you look like this."
She then gave me a light kiss on my cheek then whispered in my ear. "I love you." I don't know why but for some reason it sounded like the first time she'd said it, it felt like I had butterflies in my stomach, then I whispered in her ear.
"I love you too." I rested my chin on the top of her head and just closed my eyes as I inhaled her sent, I took notice that she smelt like she'd coated herself with peppermint, but it wasn't my natural musk that I'd applied to her, this smelt more…artificial.
I just guessed it was perfume but I didn't know why she was wearing it, before I could ask her why she was wearing it I heard the door click open and someone burst in. "CODY!" My thoughts were interrupted when I opened my eyes to see my little brother rushing over to my bed side and trying to climb up the side and give me a hug, Alice just giggled at his desperate attempt to climb up and helped him up, he crawled up to me and wrapped his little arms around my neck crying tears of joy. "I knew you'd be okay I just knew it." He clearly was happy to see me alive and awake as well.
Up at that point mom and dad came in behind him, mom's eyes were filled with her own joyful tears as she ran over to join the hug. "My sunshine, my baby, oh my baby I'm so glad you're alright." She wrapped her arms around both me and Jacob as she just cried, dad just walked over casually and said.
"You gave us quite the scare Sargent, glad to see you're alright." He tried to sound like his usual battle-hardened self but was defeated by his own emotions as he let out a few tears of his own.
"I thought big boys don't cry dad." I said in a joking manner, to which he retorted.
"Only if the occasion doesn't call for it." He wiped away his tears, I then nodded and said.
"Come on get in here, you know you want to." He didn't hesitate, he joined the hug and wrapped us all in his arms, I knew they all loved me with all their hearts and it went without saying, but this time it felt even more special than before.
Mom kissed the side of my head then commented. "If you ever scare us like that again your grounded young mammal." She said in a half joking tone and half crying tone.
"Same goes double for me son." Dad added as he kissed the other side of my head, they all pulled away from the hug so I could breathe again finally, not that I didn't enjoy the attention from them, I just needed air. "Cody?" Jacob just sat there on my lap just looking at me with tears still on his face.
"Yeah buddy?" I asked casually, I didn't know what he was about to say but I had a feeling it was big.
And it was, but before he said it he straight up bitch slapped me right across my face. "IF YOU EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN I'M GONNA KICK YOUR BUTT!" He screamed in my face, he had a look of fear and anger on his face as he said it, thankfully my migraine had subsided at this point so it didn't hurt my head that much, I began to laugh a bit before saying.
"Okay-okay, I promise I won't scare you guys like that again p…I mean Jacob." I chose to correct myself again, for once I didn't feel the need to get on his nerve.
But that's when he surprised me by saying. "Until you get better you can call me peanut all you want, but only until you get better."
That had to be the sweetest get well soon present that I would ever get from him, it actually brought me to tears. "Aw buddy, you don't have to do that." I said as I tried to hug him, but sadly my arms were still just Jell-O. "Ugh, if my arms didn't feel so weak I'd hug you right now buddy." I commented as I just gave up.
"That's okay big brober, I can fix that." He leaned back up to me and gave me a big hug, I hated the fact that I couldn't hug him back and show him just how much I loved him.
I sniffled a little bit as I just felt so overwhelmed by his kind gesture, then I said with joy. "Thanks…peanut." Oh come on did you really expect me not to take advantage of his offer?
"Pardon me, I have a tray of food for the occupant of this room by order of Dr. Zorah?" Another nurse came into the room, this one was a green skinned asari, she was holding a tray of food with everything I'd asked for along with a glass of some kind of fizzy drink and a pudding cup.
"Ah finally, my stomach was starting to eat itself." I said as she walked over to my bed then pushed a button on the side which commanded a little table to pop up from the side of my bed, she place the tray in front of me so I might enjoy it, but I was faced with one problem, I still had no motor skills. "Uh, I just realized something, and this is embarrassing to say the least, but I can't really move my arms to feed myself." I said feeling stupid for not realizing this before.
"That's alright, I can feed you until you get your motor skills back." The nurse said as she picked up the fork provided.
But before she even had a chance to feed me Alice stopped her and said. "Actually nurse, if it's all the same to you I'd like to be the one to feed him." I felt a little more emotional that she'd actually do something like that for me.
"Well alright then, I had a few other things I needed to do anyway." The nurse said as she handed Alice the fork and left to do her tasks, Alice started me off by feeding me a fork full of the salad, it tasted a bit old I'll admit but I'm sure that they were on a budget of some kind, plus I didn't care if it was a bit wilted, I was just hungry and this was just a gourmet meal to me after how hungry I felt. Thank fully I didn't have to have her chew for me too, that would've been too much.
"Can I have a bit of that drink please?" I asked as I felt some of the salad had gotten stuck in my throat, Alice picked up the glass and I took a sip, it tasted very sweet, like pineapples and mango. "Not bad, though I'd prefer something that tasted a bit more like a carrot." I subtly flirted with Alice and she just giggled a bit.
"Well maybe later I can see if I can find you something to suit your need." She replied as she gave me a sly winked then fed me more salad, after I finished eating I had dad bring me up to speed with the result of the battle.
"So give it to me straight dad, did we save the colony?" I almost dreaded to hear the answer, but he put my fears to bed as he replied.
"Don't worry about the colony son, sure it was a close call after the shield went down but we pulled through once our reinforcements showed up finally, and as for the black heart stragglers, well we made short work of them. Needless to say a lot of them won't be going home." He smiled with a very sincere grin, which quickly faded when he added. "However…the reaper and the anointed daughter escaped and are completely off the radar too."
"Damn, I guess it was too much to hope that you guys could've got them too. So how's the rest of my squad doing?" I just had to know about their wellbeing sense I was taken away from them without saying good bye.
Dad's smile sort of returned when he said. "They're all doing just fine, of course when we left Allen had to go into surgery for his missing eye, he's going to receive a military grade cybernetic eye put in its place as well as receive surgery to have a new visual lense put in for the other one." I figured he'd get a prosthetic eye put in but I didn't expect him to get one that was military grade put in, but one thing I didn't understand was why he had to get surgery for the other one too.
"Why does he need surgery for his good eye?" I asked sort of puzzledly.
Dad answered with. "Well because his new one has a few different features such as infrared, night vision, motion tracking and as an added bonus long range visioning or as I like to call that one, binocular mode. However if we only put in the one eye his vision would be out of balance so were putting in a new lense in his good eye, one that links directly to his brain and his cybernetic eye, basically it's no different from receiving a cataract surgery. I'm just glad that you didn't have to receive any surgery for that scar on your face."
My what…oh now I remember. "So how do I look? No one's given me a mirror yet, not that I could hold it." I asked curiously. Even after an hour of being awake I still felt like crap, god damn it when am I gonna get my motor skills back, fuck this bull shit, fuck it so hard.
"Well why don't you have a look?" Dad said as he picked up a mirror and held it in front of my face, the scar stretched from the top of my right eye across my face and to the bottom of my let cheek, I looked so much like a bad ass.
"Wow, it looks even better than I'd thought. I look like a real bad ass." I said as I just marveled at my new facial feature. "Now you and I both have something else in common."
"Two somethings actually." He stated with a smile. "We both have a scar across the face and we both fought the reaper one on one. Only difference is I beat him."
"Hey the guy is a former alliance marine and a black biotic cut me some slack here." I said quick to defend myself.
"I fought him while he had his biotics and I still won." He bragged, wait…he bragged? Sense when does he brag?
"Who are you and what have you done with my father?" I asked in a sincere tone, I've never known him to brag and for some reason he just bragged about his victory with his former friend.
He just laughed it off and said. "I assure you son it's me."
"But you just bragged. You never brag, about anything." I stated the truth, he never brags about anything, ever.
"Well today I'm feeling like it sense Shakrimi just passed along something to me that will help you out shine me forever." I was a bit puzzled for a second, what could he possibly mean by that? Before I could ask him what he was talking about a male turian nurse came in holding a sponge and bucket.
"Time for your sponge bath Mr. Blaze." He said as he walked over to my bed side. "You can go now Admiral, I can handle this." Oh joy, I get to have a stranger wash my junk, and to make it worse it's another guy, can I just get Alice to do this for me too? She might like that to be honest, especially sense she's already screwed me.
Rather than leave me alone with the nurse dad just replied casually. "No that's alright I've seen my son naked before so this should be no different."
If I could move my arms I'd cover my face with embarrassment. "Really dad?"
He just shrugged as he said just as casually. "What it's true, I've seen you naked when you were a kit and I've seen you naked plenty of other times."
"Please stop." I begged him, this was just too much for me.
Dad just rolled his eyes and asked. "For god sake Cody when are you ever going to get over this whole nudity problem?"
Before I could answer the nurse slowly pulled something out of the bucket he was holding, it was…A GUN! "DAD GUN!"
He turned around fast and grabbed the gun and tried to wrestle it out of the hands of my would-be assassin, he managed to get him to point it up at the ceiling before he pulled the trigger, the sound of three gunshots filled the room, dad then kicked the turian in the stomach with all his might as he forced the gun out of his hands, then he flipped the pistol around and held it right in the face of the turian who didn't dare move a muscle. "Who sent you?" He questioned the assassin.
The turian just looked up at my dad and just glared. "I won't talk." He declared right before he spat on my dad's face, so he countered by pistol whipping him in the face and braking his flat nose, the turian just held his nose and moaned a bit.
"Don't think for a second that I'll take it easy on you birdy now tell me who sent you."
The turian just grinned before saying. "It is by the will of the enlightened one that I am here, to finish what my father has started."
My dad then pressed the gun against the turian's head and questioned him farther. "Where…is…the reaper?" He growled in a deep voice, he pulled the hammer of the gun back with his thumb ready to shoot this prick in the head.
The turian just chuckled at him and said. "Go ahead, shoot me demon scum, nothing you do will matter once my father arrives to finish you and your demonic spawn." My dad was about to do just that when he was distracted by a small and scared voice at the door.
"Daddy?"
Dad looked over to the door for a brief second and said. "Jacob go and find your mother and tell her to…" Before he could finish his sentence he was cut off when the turian kicked the gun into the air and caught it.
Then he turned it on my brother and hissed. "Die parasite." He pulled the trigger, without hesitation my dad heroically dove in front of the bullet taking the shot for my brother, he went down groaning in pain.
"DADDY!" Jacob screamed, he looked so terrified, as did I, dad didn't move, I thought for sure he was dead.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I blasted with pure rage.
The turian looked back at me and said. "Be quiet demon spawn…so I can kill your brother." He aimed the gun at Jacob again, I could do nothing as he pulled the trigger again, but instead of seeing him get shot I heard the ping of the bullet hitting metal. "What?" The turian looked confused and fired every last shot at Jacob only to have the same result for all shots, I quickly realized what was happening, my guardian angel had come to my rescue.
"Angel, kick this fuckers ass!" I called out knowing that this whole fight was about to turn ugly for this bug faced freak.
That's when the assassin turned to me and asked. "Who are you…" Before he could finish the window broke open and Angel leapt through as it disabled it's cloaking device and landed right next to the turian and kicked him into the wall, hang on a second, if Angel was outside the window then who was protecting my…oh now I remember, Shakrimi did say that the geth an quarrians gave my dad two of these new geth units so it stands to reason that the one soaking up bullets was the one charged with protecting my brother. The turian then turned around and was startled by the geth defender that just jumped through the window, he aimed the gun at Angel only to have it snatched away from him and crushed in his metallic hand with little effort, Angel then grabbed the assassin by the throat and picked him up off the ground then turned its head to Jacob or more likely his fellow geth defender and started making buzzing and clicking noises, when it had finished the other geth defender disabled its cloaking device and revealed itself to Jacob who jumped back a little bit, it was pitch black and had a white logo of some sort spray painted on its back.
It then look directly at Jacob and said in a slightly deeper robotic voice than Angel's. "Young vulpine, hold on to this one's chassis and remain calm." Jacob was caught off guard as the geth spoke to him and picked him up and just ran off down the hall at top speed.
"Disclose the location of the rest of your allies." Angel ordered the turian as he began to interrogate him, the turian then began to emit a very familiar purple aura and shoved Angel away from him then punched it in to a wall, Angel quickly stood back up and drew its swords before stating. "You have been deemed a level one threat to the safety of our charge, will you surrender?"
"Fat chance of that happening geth." The turian threw a biotic shockwave at Angel who just leapt over it and rushed my attacker blades pointed toward him. I then noticed my dad getting back up on his feet, while he had the chance he booted up his omni-tool and administered a dose of meda-gel, then he ran over to me and helped me out of my bed.
"Lean on me son." He said as he put my arm around him and wheeled my I.V. stand with us out of the room then he closed and locked the door. He carried me down the hallway and into a closet which read on a sign next to the door medical supplies, he carried me into the room and sat me down and started looking through vials of different medicines.
"What are you looking for?" I asked a bit confused as to why we were even in here.
"Come on come on there has to be…ah ha, there you are." He picked up a bottle that read in a language I couldn't read, he then reached into a box and pulled out a brand-new syringe, he pulled the cap off and injected it into the vial and filled it to the max level.
"What is that?" I asked as he knelt down to my side.
"This should help you get your strength back." He stated as he injected the needle into my shoulder and pressed down on the plunger and didn't stop until all of its contents were inside my arm. I instantly began to feel the effects of the drug kick in as I got the feeling back in my arms and legs, I began to stand up slowly just in case I felt dizzy for some reason, but I didn't, I felt more alert than I did a minute ago.
"What did you give me?" I asked again hoping this time I'd get an answer.
"Just a shot of adrenalin to help you get back on your feet, your gonna need it if we're going to kick this phantom's ass, here take this." He pulled out two guns and handed one to me.
I smiled as I took the gun and said. "Thanks, so what's our plan of attack?"
"Simple…" He cocked back his gun and said. "We bum rush that little fucker and…" Before he could finish the door exploded into splinters knocking us both to the back of the room, in the door way stood the turian aiming a fist with a biotic sphere ready to throw it at one of us.
"I made short work of your little pet, now who shall I kill first? How about…you!" He threw the sphere at my dad, I got up and stood in the way and shielded myself in vain with my arms as I closed my eyes bracing for the impact, I felt it connect with me, but to my surprise I hardly felt it, I didn't even stagger, I opened my eyes and saw I was glowing, I thought to myself, is this some kind of biotic power? I didn't think it was though as it wasn't the typical blue glow of normal biotics, it was more of a golden yellowish color, I then looked up at the turian who just looked startled at what he'd just witnessed. "Impossible, how did you survive that?" He asked sounding just as confused as I was.
Then I grinned and said in a calm yet dominating voice. "You done fucked up son." I began to walk over to him still glowing and ready to kick his ass, he threw another biotic throw at me but it just exploded not affecting me in the least, think of it like using a sling shot and a stone against a tank, and I'm the tank.
"Stay…stay back…stay away from me." He demanded in a scared tone, fear was all over his face, good. I'm done feeling scared of these assholes, it's high time we changed that around a bit in my personal opinion.
"What's the matter?" I asked with an overly cocky attitude. "Scared that I'm gonna kick your ass? Good, because that's exactly what I'm gonna do." I then charged him shouting a war cry as I leapt into the air with a fist raised and connecting with his chest sending him flying into the wall behind him, he just slowly slid down the side of the wall with a trail of blue colored blood following him down in a streak. I walked over to him and checked his pulse, he was without a doubt, dead.
"Damn, I was hoping we could've questioned him." I turned around and saw my dad leaning up against the door way trying to catch his breath, I ran over to him to see if he was okay.
"Dad are you all right?" I asked checking to see that he didn't have any visible wounds.
He winced a little bit before saying. "I'm fine, just a bit of shell shock is all, but I'm more interested in what you just did." Before I could say anything some doctors and nurses came running over to us to see if we were alright.
"Admiral, what happened?" Dr. Zorah asked, she sounded sort of concerned for us, when I looked up I noticed she was out of her suit and in the typical doctor's attire and wearing a lab coat over it all. She had a face similar to that of an asari with long flowing black hair and her eyes were a bright green, I never would've imagined that this was how quarrians looked.
"Relax Nee-nee, we have the situation under control, but you might want to burn that body fast, phantoms are loaded with a toxic enzyme that can disperse into the air killing everyone around for about five clicks." Dad replied acting as if nothing other than there being a dead guy on the floor was out of the ordinary.
She nodded her head and turned to one of her nurses and said in a demanding voice. "Get the quarantine team up here now. Keela what a day this has turned out to be." She started to rub her eyes as if she was stressed. Then she took another look at me and asked. "What are you doing out of bed? I thought I told you to get some rest."
"Didn't really have a choice what with the assassin trying to off me and my dad." I replied honestly, although I don't think it really would've mattered if I'd tried to convince her or not seeing as the evidence was literally sitting on the ground not two fee from us.
Then she asked me yet another question. "And how do you explain what happened to him?" She gestured over to the dead turian.
I just shrugged and explained as best I could with what I knew. "That's a bit of a confusing thing for me to be fair, I can't really explain it but I just started emitting some kind of aura and then the next thing I know I sent him into that wall."
She then looked at me with shock and said. "Keela, you've already developed your biotics? That's…that's not possible, it should've taken you at least a month not a week." That's when she looked like she just remembered something. "Oh Keela, I'm such an idiot, I forgot how strong that this hyper eezo stuff is of course you developed your biotics sooner than normal." Logically she was making sense, it wasn't like the traditional eezo that she was used to.
"Yeah but there was something different about my abilities, instead of the traditional blue aura that I should've received I emitted a yellow one." I added on, I figured it would be best to let her know as much as I could tell her. Just in case something was different about these particular biotics.
She rubbed her chin and thought about it for a second. "Could you show me please?" She asked politely,
I wasn't even sure if I could do it again, I did it completely by accident the first time so I had no idea how to do it. "I don't know how I did it though." I said knowing this probably wasn't what she wanted to hear.
She then knelt down and said. "I'm no biotic but I know enough about how biotics work, you just need a clear goal in mind, couple that with what you want and focus on nothing but those and the rest takes care of itself." That's when it all clicked together inside my head, I wanted to protect my dad so I shielded him with myself, and I wanted to knock that turian back so hard that he'd go flying into the wall, I focused on both of those things at the time and nothing else so I figured that just summoning the aura would be no different, I then closed my eyes and focused on the aura to come out and show her what I was talking about. That's when it came out again, it felt so weird and tingly all over my body, I wonder if this is how it's always going to feel like. "Keela…this is…incredible, someone get me an eezo reader so we can get an accurate reading for this." She asked to all of her fellow medical personnel, just as they were leaving to go fetch her the eezo counter I suddenly fell to the floor, I immediately felt like jelly again.
"OH SHIT…" I cried as I hit the floor, then I just moaned a bit. "Ow…that hurt."
"Cody are you alright son?" Dad asked in a panic as he raced over to my side, the doctor did the same and started to look me over.
"I'm okay guys…" I told in a very tired sounding voice, I was just really tired for some reason. "I just need a little nap I think."
"Well I'm not surprised, I told you not to push yourself." The doctor scolded.
"Ohhh hush up." I fired back with as much effort I could.
"We should get him back to his room so he can rest." The doctor said to my dad, he nodded his head and tried to help me up, I was just dead weight.
"Please allow us to assist you admiral." We all looked up and saw a very familiar geth defender still alive…well relatively so, and kicking.
"Angel…I thought that fucker'd killed you." I exclaimed feeling very surprised.
"Technically we were never alive but we are grateful for your concern." It replied, if these guys had a personality I'm sure that what he said would have sounded smug.
"No I mean I thought that guy over there had destroyed your body." I cleared up so he'd understand a little better.
"Impossible, this chassis is made from asari diamondized steal capable of withstanding a barrage of short-range missiles for up to one hour, to destroy this platform they would've needed a more powerful weapon other than simple biotics." Like I said, would've sounded smug. Angel then picked me up and just cradled me in its metallic arms, I felt so weirded out by this. It brought me back to my room and sat me down on the bed so I could rest, the doctor's eezo counter finally got there around the same time that I was about to pass out from exhaustion. When I asked the doctor why I felt so weak after dad had given me a shot of adrenalin she told me it was burned out by my biotics and the more a biotic uses their abilities the more calories they burn off, apparently having biotics means having a higher metabolism too. The doctor waved the eezo counter over me a few times and got her results, apparently there was no way to get an accurate reading on my power levels with the current technology available to us. I'm not sure if I should feel happy or scared about that.
"This is truly astonishing." The doctor said as she jotted down some notes, clearly she was excited, this was a once in a life time opportunity for her. "There is literally no way to measure how high your eezo level is Cody, in order to get an appropriate reading we'd need to make a whole new kind of eezo reader, one that actually can measure for hyper eezo without frying the circuitry."
"So give me an estimated guess, how high do you think it is?" I asked sort of eager to know.
She held up the device and started to explain. "Well the max reading for this thing is five hundred, and since hyper eezo is about five times stronger than the regular stuff I'd say that you're close to two thousand on the Giger counter." My jaw just dropped with amazement, two…freaking…thousand. How the hell am I still alive?
"Wow, that's pretty amazing I must admit. But how dangerous will I be until I know how to control my powers?" I asked feeling a little concerned for the safety of everyone around me.
She just gave a reassuring smile and said. "Don't worry, we'll fit you with an eezo dampening collar with a few modifications to it. You'll be just fine but in the meantime you just get some rest." She then picked up her data pad and started writing down something on it, she then pressed a button on it and out printed a little note which she handed to my dad. "Bring him to his first therapy session at this time first thing in the morning, he's going to need it." She then walked out of the room leaving me with my dad.
Who turned to me and said. "Get some rest son, you've earned it." He saluted me just before he walked out of the room and closed the door, I chose to just relax for a bit and just soak up some much-needed R&R, I closed my eyes and just breathed in a calm relaxing breath, it felt so good to just let my guard down, I was completely vulnerable and I didn't care. Eventually I just dozed off and slept for god knows how long, I eventually woke up around ten o'clock in the morning to the sound of my brother having a chat with both of our geth bodyguards.
"What's your favorite color?" He asked the mechanical protectors towering over him.
"We do not have the same typical preferences that organics do, geth programing is primarily based on designated tasks set by the creators. For example, our set task to guarding you and the young Sargent, but to answer your question, geth do not have a preferred color. May we enquire as to why you ask young vulpine?" Angel replied, though I'm pretty sure everything it just said flew right over Jacobs head at this point.
"Uhhhhhh…what did you say?" Called it.
"What Angel meant to say buddy is that the geth don't really see the world the same way that we do, and they don't really feel the same way about all the stuff that we like either, basically they just acknowledge these things and just accept them to be a part of this world." I clarified for Angel, I just had a feeling that it wasn't going to make it any simpler for him than he did before, Jacob turned toward me when I said this and just smiled as he crawled over to me on the bed and gave me a hug, to which I returned with the same level of affection, I'll never take my motor control skills for granted again.
"Good morning big brober." He said in a happy tone, I think he missed hugging me in the morning.
"Good morning peanut." I kissed the top of his head then I looked up at Angel and its…what I guess is its partner and saw them in what I assumed was a conversation as they just kept making the same buzzing and clicking noises that they made yesterday.
Jacob looked up at me and asked in a whisper. "What are they doing?"
I told him the truth as I said. "I don't know for sure, but I think they're having a conversation."
He just kept staring at the two mechs then said again in the same hushed tone. "What do you think they're saying?"
I answered again truthfully. "Not a clue…" Then I added jokingly. "But I'll bet they're saying "wait his name is pea-nut? I thought his name was little stin-ker bay-bee, oh he's not go-ing to be hap-pee a-bout that post card I sent him. Beep boop beep does not com-pute does not com-pute, look at me, I can dance the row-bot." I just used my best robot voice to try and make him laugh, I even did the robot a little bit just to make it happen, and just as I'd hoped he just cracked up laughing his little butt off.
"Cody stop it your gonna make me pee my pants." He just chuckled as he rolled around on the bed. This is what I hope to see from this point on, his smiling face and joyful laughter.
I just kept up the whole robot impression until both the geth bodyguards got up in my face and asked me. "Sargent Blaze, are you suffering from a mental hallucination?" It freaked me out with how silent they were until Angel announced the both of them to me.
"Jeez dude, don't freaking do that Angel I mean seriously you almost gave me a heart-attack." I scolded it hoping that it wouldn't take this too literal and grab a defibrillator and shock the crap out of me, despite feeling so much better than before I still felt like crap.
"Wait, his name is Angel?" Jacob asked sort of puzzled.
"Correction, this platform is named Angel, we are typically known as geth."
Jacob just looked back at me and with a confused look he asked. "What is he talking about?"
To which I responded with honesty. "Well technically these are just the bodies that geth use to go out and see the world, geth are actually just a V.I. software computer program that help out the quarrians in there day to day tasks, in short he means that the body he's in is named Angel." I don't think he quite got it but I think he was satisfied for the moment.
"So what's your name?" He asked as he pointed to his own geth defender who abruptly answered with the same response that Angel did when we first met face to face.
"Geth."
"That's not a name that's what you are." He pointed out to his mechanical bodyguard.
Who simply responded in the same dull robotic voice. "Correct, we are geth."
"No I mean what's your name!" My brother asked again sounding very grumpy.
It was clear at this point that Jacob was getting frustrated with the geth so I just said. "Geth don't have names like you and me peanut, but if you want you can give him a nickname." It felt so weird to me that I was referring to this thing as a he, as if it really mattered to them really.
Jacob then looked up at his geth protector and just grinned before saying. "Flashlight."
I was a bit confused then I asked. "Uh, What?"
"That's what I want to name him, flashlight." He said again with a serious tone.
I just started to chuckle a bit. "Why do you want to name him that?"
"Well look at his face…" Jacob suggested as he gestured to his geth. "It looks like he's got a big flashlight for a face, so I want to name him flashlight, is that okay if I call you that Mr. geth man?" I just love that he actually thinks that these things identify as mister or misses.
The geth then responded in its usual robotic voice. "Finding reference information…done. Flashlight, a tool used to illuminate a dark room, area or corner, typically used in a household during blackouts to provide emergency lighting or by military personnel as a tactical tool, we are flashlight a terminal of the geth." Wow, it just accepted a dumb nickname just like that, too bad my brother can't do that for me, but hey it's not like it really cares how dumb its nickname is.
After an hour or two Jacob started to ask his new geth bodyguard a lot of questions about the geth, questions that didn't really apply to them really, and every time he asked Flashlight another question the answer always came out the same, geth do not typically have a concern for this topic, which I'd imagine would get on his nerves eventually. After a few hours later Dad came by and took me to my radiation therapy to which I would need for a few days, but for some reason it was on another side of the building completely, in fact it was a whole different building for some stupid reason, after that I went back to the hospital then Jacob and I just sat on my hospital bed and watched cartoons together, most of which were the whacky racers from the twentieth century, sure I was sixteen but you're never too old for whacky racers, the time came around that Jacob and I had to sleep, Jacob asked me if I could let him sleep with me for the night, he was nervous about leaving me alone, I tried to convince him that I'd be fine as long as Angel was close by but he insisted, and when he turned on the water works I did what any reasonable person would do when being faced with a crying four-year-old, I caved and let him sleep with me, he just curled up next to me and snuggled with me as if he was just a little teddy bear to me.
I had to admit I liked having him keep me company, he helped me relax a bit more in terms of sleeping, even though the little guy snores like a rhino, I mean seriously how can a four-year-old snore that loud? When morning came around I woke up with my brother still tucked under the blankets, and snoring as loud as a thunder clap. "Well good morning you, I was wondering when you'd wake up." My eyes shot up to where the voice had come from and there I saw a very familiar asari sitting right in front of me. "How ya doing kid, alright I hope, anyway we need to talk about something important, two things really, one of which is about your future."
(A/N: Alright then that's it for now guys I hope you liked it, and if you did please let me know in the comment's. In the next chapter of ZME, Cody is given the opportunity of a life time, he's visited by some new friends of his and Alice is startled by Cody's new found gifts, which she will find to be more than just a weapon in the end, why is that you ask? Well you're just gonna have to read and find out for yourself, alright that's all for now, by guys.)