READ THE AFTER NOTE AT THE BOTTOM WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED PLEASE.
Hello Littleswiss here and Thank you for all of your support, it means a lot to me. I know I don't update a lot and I'm sorry for that but I will try to be more punctual. But for me, it's the first time I write a story that has a little success if I may say it.
Mikle silver: I know and I'm sorry. But thank you for your support I will try to update more. I know they are not a lot of words in my chapters but for me it's hard to come up with more.
Also I'm not sure if the tense I used before was correct. The present seemed kinda off some times so in this chapter, do not be surprised by the use of the past. Please tell me if it's better or if I need to continue like I did before.
I do not own Mass effect or any of the reference I can make.
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Just damn it. What happened?
"Why his state is so bad?" I asked Karol. At that she took an object that was in a cloth and showed it to me. It's a sort of collar. But beyond that, I don't know what it did.
"That is the reason why the kid is in that state. I don't know how he got it but my assistant, Loq, could determine it was a bio-amp. And a pretty shady one at that even if it gives its user a significant boost to his or her biotics." Oh. I get a better look at it and I see that, I think, was made from scratch. Well that would explains why it was not in a good condition and it must have been created by the kid, he always was a crafty kid. But still how did he get the more complicated parts? Wait... the thugs did say he needed to pay his debt and they weren't talking about the one with his fatass of landlord. So I need to find more information about those thugs. The only problem is that they are all dead. However I can probably salvage something from their omni-tools.
"Do you know where I can find Cosmo?" I ask Karol. At the notion of his name she grimaces. Yeah I think she still hasn't forgiven him of hitting on her while he was drunk and after that vomited on her shoes.
"At the Tempest most probably." She responds still grimacing. She may be slow to anger but when someone doesn't stop hitting on you, your patience become more and more thin.
So Cosmo, let's see what you're worth.
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Even if the neighborhood became more "safe" (relatively, it's still in the slums) and by consequence that I didn't take "taxes" ,the French bartender and owner of the Tempest had more money and decided to make some minor renovations, however the S of the neon is still broken. So when I entered the bar, I'm greeted by the familiar scene of everyone staring at me and going back to their business. I walked towards the bartender. When he saw me he started to get worried and scared. When some patrons sees that the discussions and others noises stopped and everyone is looking at me but I don't give a fuck.
"Pierre, where is Cosmo?" I asked him. At that I hear some patrons whispering to each other "What did he do the krogan?" or "well he's screwed." Or even "Nice knowing you mate."
Pierre looked at me relieved and pointed at the men's bathroom. It didn't surprise me because with all of he's drinking. But I didn't have the time. So when I arrived at the door I kicked it out of the wall and it fall on the ground with a clang.
"JESUS!" I heard Cosmo shout fromthe urinal. He looked up from the fallen door to me and he could see that I was pissed because his maroon eyes widened. Before he could speak I said to him.
"Cosmo O'bannon, follow me, now." I commanded. I turned around and walked out of the Tempestquickly followed by Cosmo. He got his armor with his gun. Good. My current goal? Go back to the alley where the fight happened.
"Hey wait up! Why did you drag me?" Asked Cosmo while he was trying to keep up with me. I didn't respond instead I start walking faster still thinking about those thugs. I knew that the kid must have borrowed some money to build the collar or they were the ones who gave him the necessary parts. So it could explain the debt but I don't understand why he didn't tell me about it. I'm stupid, it's obvious: he was scared of me and didn't quite trust me. I could understand if I was in his shoes.
"Hey did you hear me?" Shouted Cosmo. At that I stopped myself from walking. I turned around slowly and told him with anger in my voice.
"Listen here, Crevan is currently in the coma because some fuckers try to mess with him and if you would stop bitching about and just shut up and follow me that would be great." I said to him with a menacing glare. After I finished I turn around and start walking, stomping, towards my objective. Finally, after some minutes in silence that felt like hours, we arrived at the alley. Good, the corpses are still there. However, I could see that some objects, like the gun or even the knife had disappeared. Apparently some scavengers went here. I sincerely hoped that they didn't take the omni-tool. I turned around a told Cosmo:
"Listen I want you to help me search the body to found something that could tell us where are their headquarters." He nodded and started searching. Ok so the first one didn't have anything, not even an omni-tool. Ok breath and try the second one. Damn it! Again, nothing. Damn scavengers. No such luck with the third one. I was going to just shoot the third corpse in the head in frustration when Cosmo called me:
"Hey you might want to see that. " I complied and approached him. When I was near him he was crouching near the body of the one who had the gun, I thought because I didn't really remember, and after he saw me he just turned around the head of the corpse so that we could see the base of the back of the neck. And what I saw was a tattoo of a dragonhead… Really? It's cliché as fuck.
"Yeah so?" I asked Cosmo. He doesn't answer however he turned around so that I was facing his back. His right hand came and took the black hair that was on the back of his neck. And what I saw was a tattoo of a dragonhead. At that I grab my Armageddon and pointed it at him.
"Explain, NOW."
"WOUAH chill." He said with his hands in the air. He needed to explain right now because I was this close from push the trigger.
"Ok, ok, just don't shoot I will explain alright. Did I tell you why I was here?" He asked me but my look clearly said cut the crap.
"As you can see by the tattoo, I was once a member of this gang. It was called, as you can guess, the Dragonheads. Yeah I know, not very original. But one day for a reason I don't know, maybe I pissed some of the higher ups off and decided to "discard" of me. A thing leaded to another and next thing I knew I found myself with a hole in my chest on the ground and left for dead. I really thought I was finished if it wasn't for the doc who found me swimming in my own blood and when I woke up I was in the clinic. After she patched me up I made low profile by letting my hair and my beard grew." He quickly explained seeing that I was close to press the trigger. After he said that I stopped pointing my Armageddon at him. At that he took a deep breath.
"So that means that you know some valuable information about them, like I don't know, the position of their headquarters?" I asked him raising an eyebrow, if I had any.
"Yeah and they will not see this coming. A walking tank of death accompanied by a ghost." He said with a smirk.
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Third person point of view
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF- was the thoughts that were currently in the head of a certain ex-bounty hunter. The reason? Well we could say that a crying redhead child was the principle one.
Where the fuck are you Garen? Was her first thought when it had been one hour after Lunch. It was the hour that she decided with Garen to celebrate the birthday of Jane. For the moment it was okay, somewhat because Jane looked down on her untouched plate of food. It was a little heartbreaking seeing the normally happy child in this state and even more because the meal was her favorite: it was trout with butter and Diana cooked it with all of her heart and soul in it. Yes the ex-bounty hunter was a little bit of a chef.
"Why daddy is not here?" suddenly asked the little girl.
"I really don't know Jane." She answered truthfully. At that, the little redhead looked down on her plate again.
After two hours of waiting Diana couldn't take it anymore. She wanted to go and find him however a very sad little girl told her otherwise. Jane also couldn't take it anymore and started crying a lot. And to find some comfort she launched herself into the legs of Diana and hugged her. The woman hugged her back, kneeling and started soothing Jane making circles on her back.
"Shhhhhhh, it's okay, it's okay Jane, I'm here" Diana told Jane. It may had calm her a little knowing that her babysitter, or as she called her "Tata" was here for her. Eventually after 10 minutes of crying the little Jane finally fell asleep because of all the stress of the situation.
Well I'm not going to let you use me as a pillow thought Diana with a smile. She picked up Jane in her arms and transported her in her bedroom. Once she made sure that she was asleep she left the room and walked towards the kitchen. Once there, she took the untouched meals and put them in the fridge so that they will be still comestible for a future time. After that she grabbed a beer and started drinking it in one shot. The beer didn't manage to calm her down her nerves. So she decided to make some physicals exercises in the training room. But before that, she took of her prosthesis right arm.
God I hate that sensation. She was referencing of the detachment with her nerve system. She put her robotic arm on the couch and started doing pushups with one arm to let out her frustration about the situation.
51, 52, 53, 54… Come on. Damn only that and I'm already exhausted? I'm really out of shape. She thought while her face was covered in sweat. To more precise only the left of her face was covered in sweat. The right part of her face was badly burned so it meant that this part of her face couldn't sweat anymore. When she finished her 60 pushups she started to make around 50 sit-ups. She didn't care if her muscles hurts, she kept going to let out her frustration. When she finished her sit-ups she got up and put her right arm back and started punching and kicking a boxing bag.
It had been 15 minutes that she punched, kicked and elbowed the bag when she finally stopped. She was completely exhausted, her brown hair was sweaty and a mess, same for her clothes.
Maybe I should have change into my training clothes. Too late for that. I'm not gonna say not to a good shower. Well after she thought that, she of course grab some towels and walked towards the bathroom. But before she did anything, she took off again her right arm and put it on the couch of the living room.
Arriving in the bathroom she stripped herself of her hoodie and t-shirt. Now that she didn't have them, she could clearly see her body clearly in the mirror. It was not really nice to watch, a lot of scars, burns marks and others ancients wounds were painting her body. Yes she had seen a lot of shit in her life. And one of the most horrible things she lived gave her stump where her right arm should be.
Damn I'm really out of shape she thought while looking at her waist and her abs. She took of her underwear and bra and entered the shower and turned it on. The hot water was a blessing for her tense and hurts muscles. But suddenly she felt a great pain from where her right arm should be. She gripped her stump with her left hand while the pain persisted.
She was scared, everything was in darkness. She didn't know how long she had been in this room. Suddenly the door opened and a woman with brown hair and brown eyes entered the room with a knife in her hand.
"You have been a bad girl, Diana. It's time to get punished" Said the woman while approaching the young girl.
"No mommy! No please!" Shouted the child in fright and despair.
"NO!" Shouted Diana while she punched the wall and opened her eyes. Her breath was erratic and her heartbeats were fast. She could hear her blood being pumped in her hears. She tried to take deep breaths to calm down her heartbeat and after some time she finally calm down.
"It was just a memory Diana" She told herself. She stayed some minutes under the shower doing nothing but breathe until she got out. She dried herself before dressing up. When she finished, she wore a grey chemise with dark-blue pants. After her shower, she would have felt relaxed, if it wasn't for this unpleasant memory to pop up. So to change her ideas, she decided to take a nap on the couch of the living room. Her prosthesis bothered her so she putted it on the table. She lay on the couch, closed her eyes and breathes calmly in hope of sleeping. After 10 minutes she finally was asleep.
4 hours later
Diana only slept for an hour. When she woke up she went to check on Jane to see if everything was alright and the little girl was still sleeping peacefully. She couldn't stop herself from shuffling gently the hair of the redhead a little. At that Jane moved a little mumbling something in her sleep. Before she left the room, she saw the rubix cube that Garen offered to Jane on the nightstand. She took it with her in the living room. When she was sitting on the couch she started playing with it to pass the time (of course she putted on her prosthesis). After half an hour of frustration because of that damn object she gave up and started watching the TV. SO for the next two and half an hour she watched the TV, zapping a lot until she found a movie that seemed interesting. It was an asari movie with romance and plot twists that you could see kilometer away. However right now she watched a particular "kinky" scene.
Is that even legal of watching this? She asked herself. How do they even… she didn't finish that thoughts when a little voice itself known.
"What are doing the ladies in blue?" Asked little Shepard.
"GAH!" Jumped Diana hearing Jane and she quickly changed the channel. After that she turned around she saw that Jane was rubbing her eyes with a hand and was holding her teddy turtle, Mr. Snappy with the other. She looked at Diana and waiting for an answer.
"Hmmm, they… were hugging each other?" Diana answered weakly hopping that would be enough to stop this awkward topic.
"But that wasn't a hug." Responded Jane. She knew it because she knew what a hug was. She didn't stop giving hugs to her Dada and Tata.
Shit thought Diana. I must find something and quick… bingo.
"Ask Garen when he comes back." At her answer Shepard looked sad.
Me and my mouth. Diana made signs at Jane to come closer and get on her lap. When baby-shepard was on her lap, Diana started playing with the hair of the little redhead and sometimes earned a giggle here and there.
Suddenly the program that was currently playing stop and was replaced by the special news.
"We are sorry for interrupting with your current program but a special news made itself known. I'm Johnson your anchorman for today. Before we continue, we must insist that the images that can follow can shock the youngest or person that are sensible."
"Sweetie, go to your room please." Asked Diana
"Okay" Was the answer before Jane got off the lap of the ex-bounty hunter and walked into her bedroom.
"Today around six p.m. a violent attack had started in a part of the slums, known for being the territory of the infamous gang known as the Draongheads. Here were have our correspondent Johnson that will explain the situation in more details." Told the anchorman before the image change to a man standing in the middle of the street, in the background could be seen a building currently in flames and inside we could see some brief flashes of weapons being fired. Then the man in front of the camera spoke.
"Currently we don't know who the attackers are but a lot witness can confirm that they are two and one of them is human wearing armor with a mark on its back that is a yellow eye with three red slashes like scars. Some speculated that it is a rival gang. However this is not what is the most surprising. Apparently after some people saw that mark, they started fighting alongside them, helping them fighting the Dragonheads. No one knows what the true reason is but we could say that it's because the inhabitants of this neighborhood are tired of the tyranny imposing by the Dragonheads." The reporter stopped.
"The Dragonheads are infamous in this part of the slums." Said the anchorman to his colleague on the field.
"Indeed, they are "famous" for drug dealing, intimidation, extortions and suspected of trafficking in human beings and also other…" he didn't had the time to finish his speech when suddenly someone shouted:
"Get down!" Shouted a person before tackling the journalist on the ground when a rocket flew over them and exploded behind the camera, making it fall to the ground. The image of the camera was damaged but we could see what the appearance of the person who saved the reporter was. It was a man wearing a red and black armor with an Irish leaf on the front with black hair and beard.
"Don't just stand there, move!" Shouted the man after he got up before he turned around before firing at someone out of the camera. When he was back to the camera, a yellow eye with three red slashes could be seen on the back of his armor. The reporter quickly got up and run towards his camera. When he picked it up he was going to turned it off but before that, in the background, the front door of the currently burning building was blown off. A lot of people appeared out of the smoke, running with their hands on their heads and screaming. When they all got out of the smoke, a shadow bigger that the escapees appeared. It turned around with a roar and started shooting at something inside the building. And after that the screen went black and the anchorman was back on the television.
Wait come back thought Diana before going back on the image of the mysterious shadow and play it when the shadow roared. She recognized that roar.
"You son of a…"
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And done, phew I'm impressed with myself; 3239 words I wrote that in two days. Again I will apologize for my updates. I will try to make them more frequent in the future. Do not hesitate to leave a review for a suggestion or make a constructive critic.
And now for a special announcement: I will take a pause from the story However it doesn't mean that I will not write. Confused? I will explain. The little project that I have in mind is that YOU will ask questions at the characters from my story. I will answer them as the character you had ask the question.
Here an example:
To: Garen (or anyone else from my story): Why are you so badass? (an exemple)
Garen: Well I don't know, I just am.
Did you get the principle? Good because this "game" will last until next chapter of the story that I hope will arrive next week. But please do not leave review only for that; leave also a review for the feedback please.
Thank you sincerely,
Littleswiss.