Heya! I didn't have time to finish the chapter I intended to upload this week, so you get something from my backlog of things I have ready. While I initially intended this to be chapter 2 of this story, I debated whether to toss this one to the anthology series because it ties into the larger Kryptonverse more than your usual chapter, and it doesn't feature Shepard at all. Still, I decided to stick to my original plan, since the anthology is only available on AO3 and it contains some interesting notes for the future of this fic! I hope you enjoy!

"I'm telling you, there's something off about the newcomer."

Wrex looks up from his frosted mug of ryncol, watching EightEight lean forward onto the bar, a conspiratorial tone to her translated vocals. He hasn't been paying attention to the conversation around him at all – he has no idea what it is, but something about that damn Terran bounty hunter always leaves him in something of a thoughtless reverie.

The Saiyan beside her rolls his eyes, momentarily ceasing his flirting with the bartender's giggling, blue-haired half. "So, leave her alone." –he drawls. "Before you piss her off and get yourself killed."

The Krogan frowns. "You talking about the person I think you're talking about?" –he asks.

"What, old man, did the ryncol already get to you? Of course we're talking about the human." –he grunts.

"If she even is human." –EightEight scoffs. "We haven't even seen her face, and the things she can do? She's as fast and strong as a damn Kree! And she's got biotics on top of all that! Plus, the tech she's using is serious business. Handheld mass accelerators for guns? Aren't Terrans supposed to be stuck in the hydrocarbon era?"

Aleena sighs beside him. "Ah, who even knows what's going on with Terra these days." –she says. The Asari shakes her head. "Too many rumors, most of them completely outlandish."

Wrex chuckles heartily. "What, you don't believe they fended off Thanos's overgrown lizards with a half-dozen champions?" –he teases his rival and occasional mate. She smirks, elbowing him – not that he can really feel it, armor, scales, muscles, and all.

"I'm just saying! It's the planet that gave the galaxy both Captain fraggin' Marvel and that worthless nitwit who insists on people calling him Star-Lord." –she snorts. "There's no telling what Terra's gonna spit out next, Kree blockade and all."

Raditz sneers. "Don't suppose you have any insider information on that, Aleena?"

Aleena's biotics flare out, a subsonic warble making Wrex's old bones thrum. "I'm Asari, not Kree. Don't be an ass, Raditz."

The Saiyan holds up his hands, though he doesn't look particularly apologetic. "Honest mistake, I promise." –he lies, through a fanged grin.

The door to the bar opens, and Moonstone strides in. The Gem fusion is ill trusted by most on the station – understandably so, considering the inexorable advance of her species' enormous extragalactic empire, and the fact that, as a rogue permafusion, there's always a risk that she'll draw the attention of one of Homeworld's own traitor hunters. Most of the Guild loves her, though – as one of Tivan's trusted agents, she's an invaluable source of information on their potential quarries. "Well, damn." –she drawls, pulling up a nearby stool. "What's all this, then? Half of the Guild's heavy hitters slumped at Launch's bar? I guess the dry spell really is as bad as I heard."

Raditz grumbles. "And then some." –he agrees. "I told the Guildmasters not to put too much stock on that reactivated Omnitrix bounty, but did they listen? Nah. All the good contracts they turned down for Vilgax's decades-old units went to the fraggin' mercs. Even those shiny new Blue Suns grabbed a few bounties."

"Can you blame the Guildmasters? Who's ever heard of a Saiyan thinking ahead?" –Aleena shoots back.

The Saiyan growls, his enormous mane of bristle-like hair threateningly puffing up, though Wrex knows him well enough to tell it's relatively harmless. "It really was tempting, though." –Wrex admits. "A billion units would go a long way, even for someone with a few centuries left in him."

"Hell, I'd retire altogether." –Aleena muses. "I love my job, but I'm definitely feeling the Matriarch stage getting closer every morning."

"Trust me, you all did the right thing, passing on it." –Moonstone shakes her head. "I'm sure most of you remember what Tennyson was like. Even if it isn't him anymore, taking on whoever's got the Omnitrix now is practically suicide."

"You gotta figure SixSix and Kraab are about to find out for themselves." –Raditz grins.

Aleena groans. "Ugh, think before you speak, you dumbass ape." –she chides, nodding at EightEight.

Raditz winces. "Ah, frag. Sorry, kid. Forgot he's your brother."

The young Sotoraggian shrugs. "It's alright. He's kind of a sadistic asshole anyway." –she sighs. "Real awkward conversation waiting for me back on Sotoragg if he dies, though."

"Think you'll get his bounty pucks?" –Wrex asks. They all have a soft spot for the talented young gunslinger – him less than the others, having lived so long and seen so many young hunters like her die on the job, but still.

EightEight shakes her head. "Assholes or not, SixSix and Krabb are still top tier Hunters – the Guild might let me have his ranking as a courtesy, but they aren't about to let me claim my brother's marks, even if he dies."

Raditz huffs. "Dumbasses, all of them. SixSix, Krabb, the Guildmasters...we should be pushing for more contract slots in Kree and Nova space, not bending over backwards for Empires and warlords, or hoping our targets stay in the Terminus Systems."

"In fairness, most of them do." –Aleena points out. "It's a lot easier to hide out here than anywhere in Imperial territory, Nova or Kree."

"Sure, but when they don't, it's a pain in the quad to get the Imperials to let us hunt." –Wrex counters. "And every time the Hunters frag it up, it gets harder and harder to convince them. Wouldn't be surprised if the Kree announce they'll be reducing the number of contract slots they'll allow if those two get beat by the new Omnitrix wielder." –he laments. "When those two get beat."

EightEight hums. "We could always just ignore them and hunt anyways." –she suggests. "Rocket always does."

Wrex snorts. "That furry pyjak is just a lucky son of a bitch." –he says. "You wanna follow his example, go for it, but don't expect to have as many successful prison breaks as he does."

Aleena shakes her head. "Pretty sure he gets caught on purpose. Probably likes the thrill of the prison breaks just as much, if not more than the bounty hunting."

"Only because he gets caught by the Nova Corps." –Moonstone points out. "The Kree would just execute him and be done with it."

"Speaking of, you have any idea how the Terran got past the Kree blockade on Terra?" –EightEight asks the fusion. "Captain Marvel help her out, or what?"

Moonstone shrugs. "Nah, Carol's been sticking to Nova territory for a while. Frankly, I have no idea how Rojo managed to escape the Exclusion Zone and end up in Sakaar, and the Kree don't know either. But she must've found a way; the DNA scanners don't lie, she's a human from Terra – not a hybrid, part of a subspecies, or a descendant from the poor bastards kept at the Diamonds' Zoo facility."

"Right, that. Has anyone told you the Diamonds are pretty messed up?" –Aleena asks, sarcastically.

"Heh, you're one to speak." –Wrex smirks. "Didn't the Protheans basically create the main Asari religion?"

Aleena blushes a bit. "True enough." –she admits. "Ancient races and their weird-ass fetish for messing with younger species, story of the whole damn galaxy."

Raditz huffs. "Ah, who gives a shit? They ain't exactly around for it to matter anymore." –he argues. "Only thing I care about is figuring out how that Terran keeps climbing the ranks so fraggin' quick."

"She's just good at her job, Raditz." –Moonstone says, staring oddly at the Saiyan. "She's smart. Strong. Resourceful. Not bogged down by petty rivalries, unlike some bounty hunters."

"She's only been around for a couple months and she's almost a candidate for the top rankings!" –Raditz says. "How does a Terran manage that when it took the rest of us years?"

Wrex shakes his head, annoyed. "Maybe you should ask her." –he suggests, sardonically. "Better yet, join her on a hunt. Just stop whining about it, Saiyajin."

Raditz glowers, but he knows Wrex is right. "I get it, though." –Aleena says. "If I hadn't seen her in action for myself, I wouldn't believe it either. Rojo really is that good."

She is, is the thing. And for some reason, Wrex isn't at all surprised by it.

Not a lot to say here, just a glimpse at the top bounty hunters of the Guild and Wrex's trepidation over Shepard's arrival.

Some trivia for y'all:
-As seen elsewhere in the Kryptonverse, sometimes when characters encounter cosmic anomalies (which Shepard obviously is), they experience a bit of a Multiversal echo. Wrex genuinely has zero clue who Rojo is, but since Shepard's Wrex is one of her best friends, that relationship resonates with this version of Wrex a bit.
-Since element zero is much more rare in this universe (we get into why next chapter), mass effect tech and weapons are very uncommon, and so are biotics. Shepard being from Earth yet having her typical arsenal, on top of being a biotic, is considered outlandish to say the least. More common weapons are based on laser, plasma, and hard light technology.
-In commonly accepted tech terminology, the hydrocarbon era is supposed to be succeeded by the nuclear era, first fission then fusion, and on to the higher tiers of energy generation. Earth is something of a conundrum, as (like EightEight mentions) it has yet to progress beyond the use of hydrocarbons, yet they've known how to split the atom for decades already, not to mention having already discovered solar, wind, and geothermal power.
-The #1 bounty hunter in the Guild is Lockdown, of Transformers fame. You've seen some of his competitors this chapter, but others include Khyber (Ben 10), the Zeron Brotherhood, and Tronos Madu (3Below).
-Aleena here is the Asari mentioned by Wrex in Mass Effect 1, a former partner and rival bounty hunter. I've had her be related to PeeBee from Andromeda, just for fun, so her full name is Aleena B'Sayle. Her and Wrex are an on again, off again couple, despite the fact that they've tried to kill each other at least 3 times in the past.
-Nova Units are the most commonly accepted form of currency in the galaxy, but there are many others such as Kree Imperial Credits, Saiyan Zeni, Akiridion Crestons, and Tetramand Taydens.
-Despite sharing the rare blue skin color, humanoid races such as Asari, Kree, and Centurians are wholly unrelated.
-Sotoragg is a radioactive wasteland! I'll touch on it more in the Codex, but the typical Sotoraggian armors started out as hazard protection suits that evolved into a form of metallic chitin over thousands of years. If you were curious, that means that TenTen, Ben's Sotoraggian form, would have that armor and some of the weapons (not all of them, though. Some SixSix and EightEight have simply purchased)
-We'll touch on it more next chapter, but the Mass Effect races got an upgrade when they were translated to the Kryptonverse. Krogan rapid healing, for example is now practically a superpower that makes them nigh-unkillable by conventional weaponry.

That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed this brief check-in with the various bounty hunters on Knowhere. Next chapter we get back to Shepard's story :D if you have any questions or comments, please reach out here or over on Tumblr (darthkvznblogs)! Until next time!