MASS MISCALCULATION
Episode 6- The three heads of Cerberus
"So everyone's good with the plan?"
"There's a plan?"
"Shut up, Garrus" Aaron snapped as he looked out the window of the vehicle. After gearing up for the mission, they had 'borrowed' a car and were now heading towards the location Randall had specified in his email, with Shepard at the drivers seat. "Still can't see why I can't drive" Aaron mumbled.
"Because I don't trust you to drive a vehicle" Shepard said.
"Hey, I'm not as bad a driver as Boss, now Boss, he was absolutely the worst driver ever, this one time-"
"Rocket!" Shepard yelled suddenly.
"Hey shut up, I haven't gotten to that part yet, now we were in the car and-"
"Damnit, get down!" Garrus yelled, shoving Aaron to the floor of a vehicle as a rocket hit the side of it, rocking the vehicle.
"Oh, that's what you meant" Aaron said, then smashed a window, sitting on the edge while aiming his revenant. "Shepard! Keep this thing steady, there's a lot of these guys and I wanna nail a few before Garrus has a chance to steal my kills!" Aaron yelled, firing his revenant at the multiple troops below them. They were at the abandoned complex alright, with tons of Cerberus troops below them. Shepard was swerving the ship, trying to find a safe place to land while avoiding enemy rockets, while Aaron was picking Cerberus off from the window. Garrus smashed the window opposite of Aaron's and aimed his black widow out of it.
"Oh no, your not getting more kills than me that easily!" he laughed as he began picking troops off. After awhile, the troops started thinning out as they ran into the abandoned building, a dozen or two being killed by Garrus, and about a dozen being killed by Aaron.
"Damnit, I shoulda picked a more accurate gun… wait, who's that?" Aaron asked, pointing to a human-looking figure slowly walking onto the roof of the building. He or she was dressed in blood dragon armor, armor that was usually white repainted to be jet black, with a red dragon pained over the right shoulder, and a black helmet with a lit red 'V' as the visor. The black figure pulled a weapon from it's back and aimed it at the trio- the gun being a CAIN. "Aw fuck, Shepard he's gonna shoot a CAIN slug at us!" Aaron yelled, firing his weapon at the black figure. The slugs proved ineffective as they hit it, a purple barrier protecting the black figure. The CAIN charged and then fired, the slug rushing towards the vehicle. Garrus acted quickly, shooting the slug, which exploded in mid-air, not close enough to the trio to kill them, but enough to damage the vehicle to the point where it started falling from the sky. All three people screamed as the vehicle plummeted towards the ground, hitting and going through the side of the building and sliding along the floor. The black figure looked at hole the vehicle crashed through, then shook it's head, putting two finger's to it's head as it activated it's comm, speaking in a distorted voice,
"Gehenna, it's Hydra. Killed the targets heading towards the complex. Looked like blue suns"
"The fuck are Blue Suns doin' here?" a male and gruff-sounding voice asked from the other end of the comm.
"Don't know, but they're done for now"
"Heh, ya use the CAIN on 'em?"
"One of them shot the slug before it hit them, only disabled the vehicle"
"Lucky shot"
"…I don't believe in luck. Ouroboros, three targets just landed in the building. It's possible that they are dead, but I want conformation of their termination. If they are dead, proceed to original target. If so much as one is alive, tail them and learn of their intentions" what responded over the comm was what sounded like how a geth unit sounded, mechanical stuttering and whirring.
"Yes, one was a turian. I don't want your feeling of turians to get into the way, if he's alive, tail him long enough and then kill him"
"(Mechanical stuttering)"
"Ouroboros, just do as I say, that's an order. Hydra, out" Hydra said, sheathing the CAIN and walking towards a door that lead into the apartment complex.
Crashed vehicle
"Oh spirits, that was rough…" Garrus groaned as he pulled himself from the wreckage of the vehicle. Shepard crawled out with him and Aaron pounded on the door three times before he kicked it off, crawling out.
"Had to leave my sword behind…" He muttered as he got up, looking at his two squad mates. "So, I assume that we're lucky to be alive?"
"We just crashed from mid-air after being at the edge of a CAIN blast and crashed into a building" Shepard said, crossing his arms.
"Well, at least the car didn't explode" Aaron added, right before the car caught fire and exploded. "…So anyway, where did we crash?"
"Looks like were in a standard room. Where exactly did you say Randall was?" Garrus asked.
"He's in some fancy penthouse on the top floor… least that's where he said he'd be, for all I know he bailed and is in one of these rooms"
"From what you told me, that's not likely, we'll go to the penthouse. You know how to get there?" Shepard asked.
"I'd say follow the bodies" Aaron said, pointing to the trail of dead Cerberus troops in the hall.
"Oh, well that's handy" Garrus said, walking out into the hallway and following the trail of corpses.
"I opt we follow the carnage" Aaron said, following Garrus.
"Damnit, fine" Shepard said, following Aaron. He walked ahead of the group, leading them through halls of the bodies of Cerberus troops, bullet holes, scorch marks, and blood stained the walls all around them. Eventually Garrus turned his head and asked Aaron, "Hey Aaron, this guy we're looking for, he was a biotic, right?"
"Yeah, and a damn powerful one too. Well, probably not as powerful as a justicar in her matriarch state, but he's pretty close"
"So how long do you think he'll last against these troops?"
"Depends how long he's been holding out. He should be good as long as that thing in the black armor doesn't find him"
"You think it could be a problem?"
"Well I don't know if it has biotics, so I dunno"
"You sure it wasn't a male? Did he have a female posture, or you know… breasts?"
"Um, well… as far as I can tell no" Aaron said, hanging his head.
"Then why did you think that there was the possibility that it was a female?"
"Well I don't know man, for all I know you're a girl. You ever notice that wherever you go there's not a female turian?"
"Just because- wait, what the hell is that suppose to mean!?"
"Garrus, not once have I ever seen a turian female. For all I know they look exactly the same as male turians"
"That doesn't even make any sense!"
"Hey, I've seen female salarians, and they look exactly like male salarians, so how do I know the same thing doesn't apply to turians?"
"I can assure you that I am a male"
"Are you, Garrus? Are you?"
"Can we talk about this later?"
"Fine, but this conversation isn't over" Aaron said, folding his arms. Eventually the trio came to an elevator, the green symbol identifying that it was open flashing and turning from red to green. Shepard activated his omni-tool and swiped it over the door, looking at his tool and sighing.
"Damn, someone's hacked the elevator, the doors fried"
"Can we just pry the doors open?" Garrus asked.
"With what? Aaron left his sword behind. Besides, whoever decided to hack the door probably left a trap in the elevator, too"
"You think Randall did this?" Aaron asked.
"Why would he destroy a way for us to get to him?" Garrus questioned.
"Well, maybe he didn't want that black-armored dude to get to him"
"He was already on the roof, that doesn't make any sense…"
"Both of you, stow it. We'll take the stairs" Shepard snapped, pointing to a sign that read 'stairs', an unlocked door being next to it.
"Aw man, I hate stairs…" Aaron muttered, complying and walking through the doors. He looked up to see multiple flights of stairs, every floor having a door leading to it. "Since when is the last time places like this have stairs?" Aaron asked as he started climbing after Shepard.
"From the looks of it this is a maintenance shaft, probably in case the main power cuts out" Garrus said from behind Aaron.
"When is the last time a building's power failed?"
"Well it is an old building" Aaron shrugged as Shepard looked at Aaron and asked, "You said he was on the top floor penthouse, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, should be through there" Aaron said, pointing to a door. Shepard opened it and immediately they heard the sounds of gunfire and soldiers shouting.
"Come on!" Shepard shouted, jogging towards the sound of fighting. Aaron joined him, and Garrus tried to follow them but an invisible force pulled him back into the stairwell and hit him on the back of the helmet, knocking him out. The invisible force picked the body up and held it over the edge, looking like it was about to throw him over the edge and kill him, but then changed it's mind and stashed it's body in the shadows, next to the door.
Back with Aaron and Shepard, they ran though a hall and opened a door, coming to the scene of a man in infiltrator armor in cover while a dozen Cerberus troops rained fire on the pillar the infiltrator was behind. He activated a cloaking device, turning invisible and sneaking behind the troops. He blasted two with a shotgun and stabbed another with an omni-blade, ducking as a trooper tried to club him with his rifle, blasting the troop in the stomach with his shotgun. The infiltrator got back into cover as the troops turned around and he unleashed a salvo, eezo missiles killing four trooper. He used lift to lift three troopers off of the ground, picking them off with his mattock rifle, and picking the last one up with his leash biotic, throwing tossing him through the side of the wall which composed of a window, the trooper screaming as he plummeted. All the enemies being dispatched, the infiltrator looked to see two men dressed in blue suns armor, and immediately raised his rifle, but stopped when one raised his hands and said, "Yo Randall, it's me, Aaron! Don't shoot!" he ripped his helmet off, and the infiltrator smiled, laughed and walking over to Aaron, patting him on the back.
"Aaron, ya crazy bastard! What are you doing in that armor?" Randall asked joyfully.
"Well I needed to be inconspicuous somehow. Can't tell Cerberus that I'm here, blame Shepard from that one" Aaron smirked, putting his helmet back on.
"Shepard?" Randall asked. He looked over at the second figure, who nodded. "Ah, commander Shepard. I think I get the problem, heard you were working with Cerberus. Surprised you came to help"
"Aaron wanted to help you, not me" Shepard said.
"As blunt as always Shepard, anyways, what's the problem, Randall?"
"You mean besides the army of Cerberus troops out to get me?"
"Well they're not really much of a problem"
"Your right, they're not. The problem is three others. Apparently Cerberus made this team of bounty hunters, they're really desperate to get me if they sent them. The team is apparently called 'The three heads of Cerberus"
"Ooh, sounds serious, what's the problem with them?" Aaron asked.
"The problem is these guys are serious, Aaron. Back when I was an infiltrator on a Cerberus payroll I heard stories about these guys. No-one but the Director, Illusive Man, and a few other higher-ups even know their names. They're charged usually with reclaiming 'escaped Cerberus property'"
"So they re-capture escaped Cerberus subjects?" Aaron guessed.
"Yeah, from what I've heard these guys are the best of the best, composing of a biotic specialist, a soldier, and a tech specialist"
"What can you tell me about them?" Shepard asked.
"That's the thing, no-one knows a thing about them other than that. All I know is that if they're after you, you never get away alive"
"Hey, by any chance, does one have some kind of weird dragon armor?"
"Maybe, how would I know?"
"That's the prick that shot us out of the sky. Garrus, do you know if you saw- Garrus?" Aaron asked, turning around and not seeing Garrus anywhere.
"Where's Garrus?" Shepard asked.
"Aw, crap…" Randall sighed. Suddenly a human form decloaked, standing in the doorway and clad in Terminus assault armor, black armor with red lines decorating it, the helmet being black with a three-pointed, star-shaped visor, also being black. The figure pulled two M-25 hornets- Cerberus smg's- from his sides and aimed it at Randall. Aaron sighed and aimed his revenant at the figure.
"So who's this guy?" he asked.
"If I had to guess, that's one of the Cerberus assassins after Randall" Shepard said.
"Yeah, but which one?" Aaron asked again.
"Does it really matter? Shoot him!" Randall shouted, firing his mattock at the figure. Shepard fired his standard M-8 avenger, and Aaron fired his revenant. They were all ejecting thermal clips from their guns and the figure was just standing there, a blue kinetic shield blocking all of their shots.
"Okay. This might be a problem" Aaron said after a long moment of silence.
"Yeah, no kidding" Randall snapped, before he launched a salvo at the figure. The biotic missiles passed through assassin harmlessly as he seemingly disappeared from existence. "Damn, he put up a decoy!" Randall barked, before suddenly his shields dropped. He had a confused look on his face before he was struck on the back of the head, falling to the ground as the assassin decloaked behind him. Shepard aimed his gun at the assassin, but said assassin prepared for this, throwing an arc grenade at Shepard, said spectre being electrocuted as he fell to the ground. The assassin nodded, then looked at Aaron, aiming his smg's at him and firing. Aaron reacted quickly and took cover, avoiding the slugs being rained on him.
"Okay, okay, need a plan here, Aaron… guy's shields are way too strong to whittle down, he's a tech expert, and a damn good one too, and to top it all off I can't use my powers… screw it, I'm going for it" Aaron finally decided, leaping from cover and jumping towards the assassin, shooting from midair. The assassin just shook his head, grabbing Aaron's revenant and flipping it over his own body and turning Aaron around, kicking Aaron in the back and sending him through the window. Aaron grabbed the edge of the window sill and hung on for dear life as his body dangled from the building, the assassin walking over and picking up his revenant. He aimed Aaron's gun at him, until a voice shouted, "Ouroboros!" causing the assassin to immediately whip around. The black-armored form of Hydra walked in, flanked by a human figure in inferno armor- red and black armor, the helmet also being red, and the normally clear visor now black. Hydra walked over to Ouroboros and grabbed the revenant, inspecting the weapon.
"Interesting. Why would a mercenary of your caliber be in possession of a weapon like this?" he asked, his voice heavily distorted, sounding metallic and electronic. It was hard to tell he was even human at all, if he even was.
"Hey, when I was in Purgatory, I saw a batarian guard who had a revenant, so they're not that uncommon" when all three assassins looked at him, he quickly added, "That is to say I used to be a guard there, then left on a mission before it, you know… blew up…"
"Dammit Hydra, can we just kill this pansy? He's starting to look mighty useless" the man in inferno armor said.
"Eventually. I wish to question him. But before I do that…" he looked over at the two bodies on the floor, then at Ouroboros. "I assume you killed the turian?" Hydra asked. When Ouroboros spoke in unintelligible warbling akin to a geth unit, Hydra sighed.
"I am beginning to grow annoyed at your affection at turian's. You were ordered to terminate him"
"(Mechanical warbling)"
"I do not hate any of the races, my opinion towards them is irrelevant. I am merely looking at the facts. Your kill count whenever we go on any mission is exceptional, I will commend you for that, but your kill count for turians is at exactly zero. My patience where's thin, Ouroboros"
"(Warbling)"
"Yes, I am going to kill the turian. But that may come later. What have you learned from the mercenary's?"
"(Warbling)"
"Only that they were after Randall, and that they're intention is to not harm, but to protect? What else?"
"(Warbling)"
"Nothing else? How long were you tailing them?"
"(Warbling)"
"So you hid the turians body and found them in a confused state? Why didn't you just kill the turian, you could have come to them faster"
"(Fast warbling)"
"…-sigh- you need to learn to kill turians, they're just another target. Now then…" Hydra said, looking over at a dangling Aaron.
"So yeah, if you can help me up and let me and my homies go that'd be nice…" Aaron said, before Hydra aimed his revenant at him.
"I will do no such thing. Now tell me, who sent you?" Hydra asked, prodding one of Aaron's hands with his foot.
"Ah, you know, just your average run-of-the-mill blue suns person that tells us what to do"
"How did they know of Randall?"
"Ah, you know, he's made a lot of enemies, blue suns wanted him shut up"
"They only sent three troopers? And in a civilian vehicle?"
"Well, the 'civilian vehicle' thing was kind of my idea…"
"And can you tell me who really sent you?"
"…Huh…?"
"You and I both know that the way you are talking is a way only extremely green mercenary's would talk, and even if you were, blue suns would never send only three rookies on a mission like this. Furthermore Cerberus ensured that no-one but us knew of Randall's position, so your statement of being a blue suns mercenary is impossible"
"…Okay, you got me, I'm not blue suns"
"Then who sent you?"
"Yeah, we came on our own accord, no-one 'sent' us"
"Can I torture him now?" The man in inferno armor asked.
"No, Gehenna. He's useless, I can tell that he won't tell us anything"
"So does that mean- ow!" Aaron shouted as Hydra shot one of his hands, making it so Aaron was only holding the ledge with one hand. He was about to shoot the other hand, when suddenly a deafening 'CRACK!' filled the air, and the revenant was shot out of Hydra's hand, falling towards the ground. All three assassins turned their heads and Aaron peered over the ledge to see Garrus at the doorway of the penthouse, holding his black widow.
"Damnit dude, that gun was expensive!" Aaron yelled.
"Watch him" Hydra said to Gehenna. He nodded, grabbing a M-11 wraith shotgun from his back, complete with a tungsten-carbide bayonet, a high caliber barrel, and modified with incendiary rounds and repainted to be black with flames. Gehenna stepped over to Aaron, aiming the shotgun at him, Aaron whistling at the sight of the gun.
"That's a nice gun, Gehnny"
"Shut it or I'm blastin' the other hand off" the assassin barked, strengthening his resolve by pointing the shotgun at Aaron's hand.
"…Duly noted…" Hydra unsheathed his own weapon, a M-99 saber, complete with a high-velocity barrel and a stability dampener, and repainted jet black.
"If you want your companions to live, you'll listen to me" Hydra droned as he pointed his weapon at Garrus,Garrus in turn aiming at Hydra's head.
"Yeah, I don't think so" Garrus said, flaring his mandibles inside his helmet.
"I see you and I have a similar taste in weapons. Now tell me, where exactly did you acquire a weapon such as that?"
"Why do you want to know?" Garrus asked, cocking his head to the side.
"That type of weapon is something only a spectre would only ever hold, so that leaves me with the definite acquisition that none of you are blue suns, so your either a spectre, or you three have killed a spectre, which means your too dangerous to let live. The only question is how much information you are willing to share with us. Note that the less information given to us the more prolonged your deaths will be"
"If you know what this is, than you know that it'll punch right through your barrier"
"My barrier has survived shots from a regular widow before"
"You ever try your luck with one of these? 'Cause they don't overheat after every shot"
"It seems we're at an impasse then…" Hydra concluded. Ouroboros walked over to Ezno and Shepard's body, poking the latter's with his foot. He groaned, and Hydra looked over at him.
"Don't kill the target, he's needed alive. Do with the other as you wish"
Aaron looked between the three assassins, shaking his head. "I need to think quick if I want to save Garrus and Randall. And I guess Shepard… but I can't use my powers without giving myself away. Wait… if I kill them, I don't have to worry about Cerberus finding out, and if worst comes to worst, I can just use the fire blast, it looks like incinerate. Welp, here goes nothing" Aaron thought, then threw a fireblast at Gehenna with his free hand, stunning him. "The fuck!?" he yelled in surprise, before Aaron leaped from the ledge, kicking the inferno-assassin in the stomach, and sending Gehenna sliding across the room, Aaron grabbing his shotgun from midair. The inferno assassin got back on his feet and looked at Aaron, and said in a murderous voice, "Boy, you ain't got a clue of what your dealing with here"
"That's cool man, just remember that I'm the guy with the shotgun here"
Garrus was looking between Aaron and Gehenna, then saw that Hydra was looking at the two, and Ouroboros was standing over by Shepard and Ezno, so Garrus decided to do the sensible thing: he shot hydra three times with the black widow, which only after the third shot did his barriers drop and Hydra tumbled to the floor. Ouroboros saw this and cloaked, decloaking next to Garrus and tackling him. Garrus shoved the tech assassin off of his and got up, both of them entering a fighting stance, and began trading blows. Garrus had to admit, C-sec had never trained him to fight hand-to-hand combat with someone like Ouroboros: Sure he had been taught, but unfortunately Ouroboros was a far more experienced fighter, and had the benefit of not having the legs of a turian, meaning he could kick as well. Eventually the tech assassin overpowered Garrus, grabbing the former C-sec agent by the throat and lifting him up, holding his struggling body against the wall. Hydra got up and aimed his saber at Garrus, saying, "Your too much trouble to let live"
Shepard's eyes opened, his vision swimming as he looked up. And when he looked up he saw Hydra aiming his M-99 saber at Garrus, but he also saw a faint purple bubble around the biotic assassin- his barriers were still recharging. With this in mind, Shepard grabbed his rifle and fired a heavy concussive shot, hitting Hydra and dropping his barriers yet again. Shepard then tackled Hydra to the ground, repeatedly punching him. Garrus in turn hit Ouroboros in the head with his fist, both struggling on the ground.
"We got them, just deal with the fire guy!" Garrus yelled at Aaron. Aaron in turn nodded and turned to look at Gehenna.
The inferno assassin laughed sadistically and activated two red amni-tools on each arm, an omni-blade forming from each one. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Aaron yelled, holding the shotgun as best as he could to fight with the bayonet.
Gehenna just laughed. "I told ya you ain't got any idea about who your messin' with!" he charged Aaron, running faster than any human should be able to run. Aaron readied his shotgun, using the bayonet to deflect each hit from an omni-blade. With each stab or slash Gehenna threw, he became faster and faster, forcing Aaron to try and stab him with the shotgun. That only caused Gehenna to grab the shotgun and hold Aaron at bay. Now, thanks to Aaron's conversion into a virtual being, and his added powers, he was stronger than the average human. He certainly didn't have super strength, but he had enough to throw a krogan into the air or kick a car away. But the fact that Gehenna was not only struggling to hold Aaron's shotgun, but he was actually moving it away from his body, was right now proving that the inferno assassin was stronger than Aaron. With this in mind, Gehenna spun around, spinning Aaron with him until Aaron let go of the shotgun, causing him to fly out of the window. Thinking fast, Aaron dashed through the air and back towards the apartment, causing Gehenna to shout, "Shit, he must be a biotic if he can do that!"
Aaron just smirked under his helmet and threw a fireblast, which Gehenna dodged, causing it to fly into Hydra, knocking him off of Shepard. Getting up on his feet, Shepard saw the discarded black widow and grabbed it, loading in a new thermal clip and firing three shots into Ouroboros. Unfortunately, unlike Hydra, his shields didn't drop, and he kept wrestling Garrus. Shepard loaded a new thermal clip and was about to fire again when a pull biotic made him drop the rifle and be dragged through the air. He was slammed into the wall and looked up to see Hydra, biotic energy circulating about him.
Back with Aaron and his fight, he sailed through the window, kicking Gehenna in the head as he laned behind him. Gehenna turned around and said, "That's it, you've pissed me off long enough! I'm turning up the heat!" he stabbed the shotgun into the floor and made a motion with his arms. Suddenly, and disturbingly familiar to Aaron's buffer power, flames appeared along Gehenna's body, as well as wreathing his omni-blades in fire.
"Oh come on, that's borderline plagiarism! Okay, fine. If you really want to take it that far, we can go that far!" Aaron shouted, activating his fire buffer, covering his own body in fire.
"Christ! How the hell- Hydra, you said no-one else had this damn 'fire cloak' augment!" Gehenna yelled.
"You should be, it's only a prototype" Hydra responded, before thinking, "This shouldn't be possible. If these people have access to that, they're more dangerous than I first hypothesized. I would rather keep the one Gehenna's fighting alive for questioning, but at least I have this one in my biotic field, along with the turian"
Gehenna unleashed a battle roar and charged Aaron, Aaron charging as well. The virtual being tried throwing a fireblast, but with Gehenna's 'Fire cloak' augment on, the fireblast did nothing to him. "Hah, I'm fuckin' invincible!" he shouted as he continued to try stabbing Aaron. What's worse was that he was even faster than before, and Aaron didn't even want to know if he was stronger. After about a minute of dodging Gehenna's attacks, he slid under a slash from one of his omni-blades, grabbed the shotgun, and flipped over Gehenna. When Aaron landed, Gehenna was looking around wildly for him, and when he saw him, he saw Aaron aiming his shotgun at his face, forcing him to shield said face with both omni-blades. Aaron fired, hitting the blades but causing Gehenna to slide back all the way to the shattered window. With one shot left, Aaron took aim to fire again. Seeing what was coming, Gehenna anchored himself by hooking his blades to each side of the window, leaving his chest wide open. Aaron fired, charing his chest and causing some blood to spurt, along with shattering his armor. Aaron laughed, saying, "Oh, come on! Are you saying you don't even have any shields!"
"Didn't need 'em. How 'bout we take this fight elsewhere?" Gehenna asked, hooking a blade to the upper part of the window and hoisting himself up, disappearing from sight. When Aaron went to the window, Gehenna's hand shot down and grabbed his face, throwing him outside and onto the outside wall, above the window. Using dark eezo energy, Aaron magnetically attached his feet to the wall, and saw that Gehenna was also anchored to the wall, most likely via some magnetic device in his boots.
"So, you got mag-boots too?" Gehenna asked.
"Sure. Why not?" Aaron said, bringing his fists up in a fighting stance.
"Heh, feisty, aintcha!? Well, I got one more surprise that I'm sure that you'll love!" with that, Gehenna activated both omni-blades, then slammed his fists together, making the two small blades combine into one longer, larger blade on his right arm, imbued with fire thanks to fire cloak.
"Ah son of a bitch, why did I listen to Shepard and leave the sword at home?" Aaron asked himself before he dodged a swing from Gehenna. With the bigger blade, he saw slower, but he was still fast. After a couple dodges Aaron's fire buffer wore out, and he back flipped away from a thrust by Gehenna's blade. He laughed, saying,
"What, your cloak already worn out? Shame, 'cause mine can keep on going as long as I'm tickin'!"
"That accent is really starting to tick me off. Okay, I can try one more thing…"
"Talkin' ain't gonna save ya!" Gehenna said, sprinting towards Aaron.
"Damnit okay, this didn't work on Harbinger, it better work on this guy!" Aaron said, throwing a freezeblast at Gehenna. Unlike the fireblast, the freezeblast actually did some damage, causing Gehenna to stumble in his tracks.
"What!? Cryoblasts!?" he shouted.
"Uh, yeah! Cryoblasts, totally cryoblasts" Aaron said, channeling dark eezo into his hands so he could continuously keep a volley of freezeblasts. As they hit Gehenna, he stumbled more, but then roared, running towards Aaron, despite the freezeblasts. Aaron acted quick, imbuing his body with an ice buffer and grabbing his blade that Gehenna thrust towards Aaron, and with a combination of dark eezo-imbued strength and freezing the oversized omni-blade, he snapped it in half. The inferno assassin stumbled back, looking at the broken omni-blade with what Aaron guessed a look of shock.
"That- that just ain't possible!" Gehenna yelled.
"Yeah, a lot of what I do usually defies physics, but I just roll with it" Aaron said, and with ice buffer and dark eezo-imbued arms, rapidly punched Gehenna in a blur of fists, and after a minute, stopped and hit him with one more freezeblast just to make sure. With a groan, Gehenna's body froze, with Aaron rearing his fist back and throwing a punch, shattering his right arm. The force of Aaron's punch caused the inferno assassin's left ankle to snap, severing his foot and causing the magnetic hold he had to fail, causing him to fall. But, despite everything, Gehenna's body managed to thaw in time and he grabbed onto the ledge of the shattered window with his remaining arm, pulling himself up.
After knocking Garrus out, Ouroboros, after hearing a thud, looked over to the window, expecting to see a crippled Aaron, but instead saw a severely wounded Gehenna. The tech assassin ran over to his side and attempted to help him up, but Gehenna shoved him away yelling, "I'm fine!"
Hydra, upon seeing Gehenna, slammed Shepard into the wall, knocking him out, and walked over to Gehenna. "The mercenary did this to you?" he asked warily.
"He- cough- he's good. Real good…" Gehenna groaned, his two stumps starting to bleed.
"(Worried warbling)" Ouroboros warbled in his geth-like speech.
"Yes, I realize that he needs medical attention, but we still need to deal with the mercenary that did this to him"
"I'm fine, you two"
"Gehenna, you have suffered the amputation of your right arm and left foot, and as we speak you are profusely bleeding out on the floor. You are far from 'okay'"
"Okay, maybe a blood pack or two wouldn't hurt…"
"(Warbling)"
"Fine, if that is what you wish, take him back to the shuttle. I will deal with the mercenary" Ouroboros nodded and picked up Gehenna, running into the hall with him. While Hydra's back was turned, Aaron jumped back into the room, scooping up the shotgun and pointing it at Hydra, who had promptly turned around. Aaron pulled the trigger, but only to hear an audible 'click'. He pulled the trigger a few more times, with no effect.
"…I forgot to reload this thing, didn't I?" he asked.
"You are a waste of time" Hydra said, lifting Aaron up with a slam biotic.
"Damn, can't absorb eezo without him knowing, gonna kill Shepard for making me leave that sword behind…" Aaron thought as he was slammed into the ground three times before thrown into a wall. With a lift biotic, he was casually floating through the air until Hydra laid down a singularity, a black ball of dark energy now levitating Aaron. Finally, Hydra cast a warp biotic, creating an explosive reaction that blew the singularity- and Aaron- up. The biotic assassin nodded approvingly at his work, but when he turned around he was staring down the barrel of an M-333.
"Goodbye" a now-conscious Randall smirked, firing a blue laser from the canon. The beam pushed Hydra all the way back to the broken window, the assassin holding both sides for support. By the time the beam overheated his barrier dropped, only to be shot with the combined force of a M-11 wraith, a concussive shot, and a shot from a black widow, propelling him out of the window.
"Your outta here!" Aaron shouted, throwing a fireblast, which hit Hydra and propelled him further. He kept falling until he nearly reached the ground, then suddenly biotic energy flared across his body, activating biotic thrusters to soften his landing… a landing that, even though softened by biotic energy, still hurt, cracking the ground under him. When he got up, he realized that he had fallen into an alley, and at a good distance from his target and the three mysterious mercenaries. He turned around only to see a black Kodiak dropship fly in from above, piloted by Ouroboros, and it landed, the doors opening. "I don't know who those mercenaries were, but they are a force to be reckoned with, especially if just one dispatched Gehenna. But one thing is clear- they made off with my target. And no-one, makes off with my target. I have no doubt that we will meet again, mercenaries. And when we do, I will not make the same mistake of underestimating you again" Hydra thought as he entered the dropship, the doors closing and the ship taking off into the now night sky of Illium.
Back in the apartment, all four squad mates were looking out of the window they had blasted Hydra out of, and Garrus was first to speak, "What was it you said, Aaron? 'Should be fun?'"
"I swear to god Garrus I am going to put the most harmful virus I can get into every single gun that you calibrate on the Normandy" Aaron sighed, holding up the wraith shotgun. "I'm keeping this thing. Pretty much cost me an arm and a leg"
"More like an arm and a foot" Garrus quipped.
"Nevermind, I'm just gonna throw the widow out the window"
"Okay, I'll shut up now"
Normandy briefing room
After Aaron had 'borrowed' another vehicle, they had gone back to his apartment, reclaimed their gear, put back the armor (Aaron letting Garrus keep the black widow, much to his joy) they had ridden back to the Normandy, with Garrus back to his usual calibrating and Aaron, Randall, and Shepard now in the briefing room. "So why am I here again?" Shepard asked in an annoyed tone.
"You don't wanna know why you just risked you life being bitch-slapped by three uber-assassins rescuing this guy?" Aaron asked in a bemused voice.
"You were as beaten as the rest of us" Shepard countered.
"Yeah but unlike everyone else I have instant regeneration, and at least I sent one home on a stretcher. Without my sword or O.M.G, I might add"
"Hey!" Randall yelled, then added, "Can we stop arguing for just one second and listen!?"
"…Fine, continue" Shepard said, and Randall cleared his throat.
"As you know, Aaron, the man who was responsible for my implants and what happened to Inali was a head Cerberus operative by the codename of 'The Director'"
"Yeah, I remember him, egotistical dude, bit crazy" Aaron said.
"More than a bit crazy. Anyway, long story short, I managed to find out where the bastard is"
"…Well quit egging us on, where is he?" Aaron asked, immediately perking up.
"He's in an old Sirta Foundation research center on the Citadel"
"…Seriously?"
"What?"
"Well I kind of expected some super-secret Cerberus base or something like that, but some abandoned place on the Citadel? First of all, how the hell is he operating on the Citadel, second of all what is with all the abandoned places we're going to lately? Especially apartments"
"Focus Aaron, that's not important. What's important is that he's there"
"Can I ask why?"
"Well after we escaped from The Barn the Illusive Man was… less than pleased with the Director. I trust you know what that means"
"He got fired and the Illusive Man sent a hit squad after him?"
"Yep, he's basically working off of the grid now"
"Then how the hell is he in some place on the Citadel and not in some slum like Omega?"
"He stole a lot of resources from Cerberus before he ran away, and this isn't exactly the presidium we're talking about here. It's an old run-down research facility"
"Mkay, who we gonna be poppin'?"
"Some too-loyal Cerberus troops and Eclipse mercs"
"Had to be the group with biotics, couldn't have been the regular group that's blue or even the one group composed of giant lizards and bipedal cockroaches with surprisingly fast regenerative abilities. Can I ask how exactly he afforded Eclipse mercs?"
"He stole a lot of resources"
"Randall, I don't know, man. I mean, when you think about it, the guys probably as we speak is doing inane experiments that have no hope for success, the guy is most likely indoctrinated and worse case scenario is that he's a babbling mess rocking back and forth in a corner"
"You saw what he did to Inali"
"And it was horrible, but sometimes you have to move on"
"I'm going, whether you come with me or not"
"-sigh-… Damnit fine, I'm in"
"Really?"
"Homies help homies. So what's the plan?"
"I was kind of hoping you would come up with that part"
"…I… you… Shepard, can we go to the Citadel?"
"Aaron…"
"Now before you say anything, I know that Garrus and Thane had business to take care of that could clear their mind for the mission, so it's not like we weren't going there anyways"
"Fine. Joker, plot course for the Citadel" Shepard said to the ceiling.
"Aye aye, commander" Joker responded over the speaker. Shepard left the briefing room and Randall looked over at Aaron and asked, "You don't have a plan, do you?"
"Nah, I never do, I usually just kinda make it up as I go. Anyway, to the Citadel to kill the Director!"
Dropship over Citadel
Once the Normandy had reached the outside of the Citadel, Shepard had a Kodiak dropship prepared for Aaron, Randall, and since Aaron had a choice in the third squad member, Mordin. Because Aaron wanted to be 'discreet', the dropship was, based on Randall's directions, directly above the research center, but outside of the Citadel. The main door of the dropship opened and Aaron stood out on the edge. "Yo, Randall" Aaron called.
"Yeah?"
"So if I'm reading you correctly, we're outside of the Citadel, but if I were to drop a brick or something straight down from where I'm standing, It would hit the research facility"
"Yeah, wh- oh, you are not"
"Making it up as I go, Randall. Improvision, learn it, live it"
"Aaron, have compiled available data, strongly urge you not to-" Mordin started, but Aaron held up a finger. "Mordin, I get your concerned that this idea is crazy, and you'd be right, because this is crazy, but-" Aaron was interrupted when there was an explosion of blue light across from where they were on the Citadel. Aaron looked to where the explosion came from and saw some smoking buildings along with screams of people dying along with explosions.
"Huh, that was weird. Anyway, where was I?"
"We're not asking about the weird, random explosion that just happened across the Citadel and the utter war going on right now?" Randall asked.
"I will admit that random explosions and the sounds of war are common on Omega and rare on the Citadel, but things like that are a part of life, anyways, what I'm gonna do…" Aaron started, forming his Saints CAIN and aiming it straight down and then adding, "Is fire a super CAIN slug straight down, play Boss's favorite song on the dubstep gun, drop that down, then jump down with 'em"
"Your damn insane" Randall said, holding the bridge of his nose.
"I'm not gonna lie to ya, Ezno…" Aaron said, charging up the CAIN and firing a slug straight down, the slug splitting apart into three CAIN slugs, then added, "The truth is…" he then turned the CAIN into a dubstep gun, then selected track thirty-one, and the gun started playing the rap song 'power', "It takes a crazy guy…" Aaron continued, throwing the dubstep gun straight up in the air, outside the dropship, "To make these crazy plans"
"Aren't you gonna at least put the armor on?" Randall asked.
"Eh, if I may put a quote in from Boss, 'power armor's for pansy's'" he finished, holding his arms out and falling backwards out of the shuttle just as the dubstep gun passed it.
"…Mordin, you're a doctor, he's insane, right?" the former Cerberus infiltrator asked.
"Certainly a possibility, will have to have detailed discussion as to how he obtained virtual powers, been meaning to have detailed discussion with him" the former STG scientist answered.
"He's insane, got it" Randall nodded, banging on the door to the pilot's cabin, signaling the pilot to descend towards the research facility.
At the research facility
The old Sirta foundation research facility consisted of a five-story building with an underground complex, the roof having over a dozen Eclipse troops guarding the door to the lower levels. One of the troopers went to another and asked, "Hey, you have those credits you owe me?"
"Uh, they're locked in my terminal. System crashed" another trooper answered.
"That's what you said last week!" the first trooper replied with anger in his voice.
"Well I've had a lot of system crashed lately"
"Look buddy, you've got three days to get me five hundred credits you owe me, or I swear I will- hey, do you hear something?" both troopers looked up upon hearing an ancient rap song, only to see three oncoming purple CAIN slugs approach them.
"Holy shit, ruuun!" both troopers yelled, but it was too late as the slugs hit the roof, the resulting explosion caving the roof into the fifth floor and killing all of the troops from the roof. A trooper crawled from the wreckage and held a hand out towards an asari commando, but died as a blue laser katana fell from above and impaled him, and a strange music box fell from above and crushing his head. Then the form of Aaron dropped beside the dead trooper, turning the music off and retrieving his weapons. "Aaaaaand I stick the landing! With minimal casualty" Aaron said, just as a piece of debris fell from the remnants of the roof and crushed the asari commando. "Okay, bit more than minor-hey!" Aaron shouted as a slug whizzed past his ear. He turned around to be faced with two troopers and a salarian tech expert pointing guns at him.
"On the ground, now!" one trooper shouted.
"Um, no?" Aaron asked. Suddenly an omni-blade pierced from the back of the salarian tech expert, killing him and the form of Randall decloaking behind him. he pointed his shotgun at the troop to his right and fired, killing him instantly. The last trooper pointed his avenger rifle at Randall and stammered, "D-d-d-don't move, or else! I'll shoot, mean it!"
"Do you really think you have a chance against either of us?" Aaron asked. The trooper shook his head and ran away screaming, but was then lit on fire and disintegrated. The form of Mordin stepped out from behind a piece of debris, having lit the trooper with an incinerate tech attack.
"The sad thing is he did the smartest thing and ran" Aaron said.
"True, but survival odds still suggested the most probable outcome was death" Mordin said, stepping over to Aaron.
"Damn, your cold, Doc. How'd you guys get here so fast anyway? I didn't expect to see you two 'till I was on my third or fourth wave of mercs on the third floor"
"Aaron, a dropship is a lot faster than a falling body" Randall answered.
"Oh. Well, in that case, could you have left someone alive so I could question them!?" Aaron yelled, walking towards the stairs to the floor below them.
"Eh, we got more mercs for that" Randall shrugged, cloaking. The only thing Mordin did was wordlessly follow Aaron.
Down on the forth floor, a Eclipse trooper was talking into his comm system, saying, "I don't know what that big explosion was, and no-one from up-top is responding. Well, you ordered me not to leave my post, in fact, why the hell am I the only guy up here on the fourth floor? I mean, it's not like someone's gonna attack from the roof… up… ah, shit…" the trooper sighed as he turned around, only to be staring down the barrel of Aaron's pistol.
"Ya got two options: You either tell me where the Director is, or my cloaked companion behind you sticks a omni-blade through your head"
"Ah man, screw the Director, the only reason we agreed to guard that crazy bastard was because he had enough credits, but he only paid us for a week!"
"Yeah that's nice, but I really don't care. Now, where is he?"
"He's in the underground complex, with all those weird guards in the white armor!"
"Must be referencing Cerberus troops" Mordin said, stepping out from behind Aaron and causing said virtual being to jump.
"Jeez, Mordin, warn a guy before you pop up like that. Now, what exactly does the Director do down there?"
"Hell if I know, he doesn't let anyone but our boss down there! And when she came back, she said someone else was gonna have to go down there, 'cause she wasn't going back! You don't hear commando's say stuff like that!"
"Okay, and what's on the floors below?"
"Third floor has more Eclipse, second mechs, first has our boss, then you got the loony's, that's all I know, I swear!"
"Okay then, Randall what do you think, should we let this guy live?"
"…Get out of here" the still cloaked form of Randall said, causing the trooper to run away.
"Would have killed him, could be problematic" Mordin chirped.
"Eh, he'll be fine" Aaron said, before he heard that same trooper shout from the floor below, "Guys, that crazy fleur guy is here!"
"Rgh, paragon my ass! Okay, plans?"
"Go in shooting?" Randall suggested, decloaking"
"That plan suck. Mordin, plan?" the salarian opened his mouth, but Aaron held up a finger, saying, "Never mind, you'll just say three well-worded sentences compiled into one and give me a headache. Screw it, I'm going in shooting"
"So we're going with my plan?" Randall asked.
"Nah, better. I'm falling in shooting" Aaron said, using his lazor razor to carve a circle into the floor. All three squad mates stepped onto the circle and it fell and it instantly detached from the floor, falling down to the third floor. When the dust cleared, Aaron saw there were about twenty mercs alone currently pointing guns at them.
"Hey guys, duck" Aaron said.
"Why?" Randall asked.
"Just do it" Aaron snapped, turning the O.M.G into a heavy minigun. Ezno and Mordin's eyes immediately widened and they ducked as Aaron revved up the minigun.
"I'm a big brute, ain't I?" Aaron asked as he began to slowly spin around, firing the minigun and mowing down the troops, laughing maniacally. When they were all dead, he turned the minigun into a shokolov AR automatic rifle and gestured to his squad mates, saying, "Guys, 'clipse are dead, we've got more to kill" they both nodded as two asari commandos came in from the hallway, flanked by three more troops. Randall brought up the M-333 and killed one commando with the laser canon, Aaron sprinting up to the second one and cutting her in half with his sword, and then picking off the troops with his rifle.
"Well, that's the last of them. For this floor, at least. Hello, what's this?" Aaron asked, coming to a set of metal doors. He cut them open to reveal a elevator shaft.
"Huh. Yo, homies, if I had to guess, my gangster intuition is saying that if I jump down this thing, it'll lead to the first floor, you guys wanna take on the mechs one the second floor?"
"Okay, but if you get to the Director, don't kill him. He's mine" Randall said, making his point clear by bearing his mattock rifle.
"Relax, I know the score, I see him I won't kill him. Seeya!" Aaron said, jumping down the shaft.
First floor
"Will someone pick up!?" Ren yelled into the comm system, frustrated beyond comprehension. The asari commander had been trying to get an answer from her troops on the upper levels. A trooper walked up to her and asked, "Hey Ren, not that I don't trust you, it's just that we don't exactly feel assured with not hearing from the others in awhile"
"Look, I don't know what the problem is, so tell the others to just stand at the ready in case something happens! Never should have taken the crazy man's money…" Ren sighed, holding the bridge of her nose. Suddenly a blue sword stabbed through the elevator doors, prying them open, the figure of Aaron stepping out. Six troops and two salarian techs aimed their guns at Aaron, Ren making a gesture with her arm, causing the mercs to lower their weapons.
"So, your that Aaron guy, huh?" she asked.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Aaron asked.
"Well everyone knows your name after you painted 'Aaron waz here' on one of the Citadel's arms. And everyone saw you do it"
"Well can I just say that I did it on the arm that had the Presidium on it? And that also it took a lot of omni-paint?"
"Look buddy, I'm only a hundred years away from hitting my matriarch stage, and I know what your capable of. So let me cut to the chase, I'd rather not get me and my men killed, and frankly I saw what the guy with the glasses was doing down there, and it creeped the hell out of me"
"Why, what's he doing?"
"He took a few of his white-armored boys and was butchering 'em, kept muttering, 'for the sake of humanity' over and over again, the guys a loon, and I'm not about to die over a mess like that. So can I ask that me and my men leave through the literal front door?"
"You have probably just made the smartest decision of your life. Now, there's two guys uptop slaughtering your mechs and are gonna come down any second, so if you wanna get out of here, I would leave now" the Eclipse mercs nodded and immediately walked away, Ren pointing to the door to the underground complex. Aaron nodded and walked over to the door, cutting it apart with his sword. On the other side of the door was a dimly lit metal staircase, which he promptly walked down. Once he reached the bottom of the staircase, he opened another door to see a brightly lit row of cubicles… and the bodies of Cerberus troops everywhere.
"Man, what the hell happened here…" Aaron wondered aloud, walking down the cubicles. He heard a yell and a Cerberus trooper popped out from behind a cubicle, causing Aaron to cut his arm off. The trooper screamed, and Aaron grabbed his throat and asked, "What the hell happened here?"
"I-it was the Director! He went crazy and started killing us one by one!"
"How the hell did he kill you all, he's a doctor and your soldiers!"
"He did it quietly, dragging us off in our sleep and stealing all of our thermal clips, then he got his two mechs to do the rest, then he killed them two, just ripped the circuits right out! Oh god, please don't kill m-" he was cut off as Aaron shoved his sword through his head. he pulled the sword out and continued down the cubicles, crossing more dead troops and two destroyed LOKI mechs. he came to a door and opened it, revealing the Director in bloody Cerberus scrubs sawing away at a Cerberus troopers corpse with a bonesaw.
"For the good of humanity, must move humanity forward, must move it forward" he muttered over and over again as he continued to saw.
"You poor, indoctrinated fool" Aaron sighed, deactivating his sword and holstering his O.M.G, hitting the Director over the head and dragging his struggling body away.
First floor
Ezno and Mordin had dispatched the mechs and were now waiting for Aaron. Randall was about to descend the stairs to the underground part of the complex when he started to hear the insane words of the Director being yelled at the top of his lungs. Aaron emerged from the stairwell, the Director in his hand.
"You can't do this to me! I'm doing what'd best for humanity! I'm-!" he was silenced as Aaron kicked him in the nose.
"Ah, you broke my nose, you-" he stopped talking as he looked up from his knees at Randall.
"Ah, Randall. So, is this where you fulfill your promise of shooting me?"
"Damn right" Randall said, readying his mattock and shooting the Director once in his left knee. He cried out in pain as he held the hole in his kneecap, and he Randall spat, "That was for taking my life away" he shot the Director in the right shoulder blade and shouted, "That's for all of the people tortured by your experiments!" he hit him in the head with the butt of his rifle and then said, "And this is for Inali", shooting him in the forehead, killing him.
"…So… you feel better Randall?" Aaron asked.
"I don't know, Aaron. I finally killed him for what he did, but… I still feel empty. No matter what I do, it can never bring her back"
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Probably stay on the Citadel for a bit, than go back to Illium... kind of carved a life out there, you know"
"Sure you don't want to roll with us to take the collectors out?"
"I would love to, but... actually, things on Illium has been lax, so... yeah, why don't I join the crew? We could be a team"
"I super-powered Saint and a Cerberus infiltrator loaded up with way too much biotic power? Sure, why not? C'mon. Let's go" Aaron said, pointing at the exit. Randall nodded and Aaron gestured to Mordin, signaling them to leave. They left the building, Aaron firing one more CAIN shot where the Director's body was, making sure the bastard was dead for good.
Citadel- city wards
After dropping Randall Back at the Normandy, Shepard had immediately collected Aaron, ordering him to follow the commander. Aaron humored him, following him into a cab as it flew into the middle of one of the wards.
"Okay Shepard, so what is it you exactly wanted me to see- holy… shit…" Aaron gasped as he saw the carnage. Buildings were one fire, bodies littered the streets, and general carnage was strewn everywhere.
"Is this because of that blue explosion I saw?" Aaron asked.
"So you didn't do any of this?" Shepard asked.
"No"
"Good, I just wanted to make sure, this looks a lot like your handiwork. Now, I asked some C-sec who saw this from a distance, and they said all this destruction happened after the explosion"
"What?"
"The explosion itself was some energy explosion, it didn't cause any structural or biological damage whatsoever. But apparently strange individuals came from the explosion, they didn't get a good look at them, but they caused all this destruction"
"Damn, they were thorough. Why'd you think I did this?"
"Like I said, this does look a lot like the usual destruction you do"
"True, it does look like my usual Monday-morning murder streak. Hm…" he looked at a couple dozen C-sec bodies covered in knife wounds.
"You ever see knife wounds like that?" Shepard asked.
"Nah, those wounds look like they were done with knives from a hundred years ago. In fact, these wound seem familiar. Wait a minute… oh my god…I-I can't believe this…"
"What?" Shepard asked. Aaron walked over to the corpse of a turian and picked up a pair of sunglasses.
Sunglasses that have to be a hundred or two years old.
The same sunglasses that Boss always wore.
"Boss managed to find his way here, and by the looks of those knife wounds Gat and possibly the other Saints are here! Damnit, I gotta find them!"
A/N- Dun dun dun! And we leave off with a cliffhanger! So to recap, we have the most-definitely reoccurring assassins the three heads of Cerberus, and is it possible? The Saints are here? Or are they? Well you'll have to wait 'till next week. And also this chapter would have come out Friday but for some reason the document wouldn't submit, but at least I got it in!
The poll is still up! Currently it stands for one vote for Tali, one for Jack, and three for Liara… so yeah…
If this chapter is short, I have to use Microsoft works word processor now, and the word count said 9600 words, which is my usual quota, so I'm gonna go with that.
I don't own Mass Effect, Saints Row, or the company's affiliated with them. There's the disclaimer I kept forgetting to put in.
Well, it's been fun, but I don't have anything else to say, so, without further ado, Cya!
