I've been kinda all over the place but I should have done this from the beginning in order for you guys to really understand how long is the three year gap lasting until Mass Effect 2. That's one thing I kept forgetting. I kept forgetting to keep a time clock of sorts as we count down to Mass Effect 2. You've seen me say at the start of the chapters that oh a month or two has passed by but I never gave you a scope as to how much longer we have until ME2. So starting from here, I'm going to be listing down the remaining time left until the next game.
Essentially this the start of the lasting effects that Spider-man's presence will have on the mass effect universe. As I laid the groundworks for, this is the first true challenge that the Normandy crew will face since Saren. This will take the team to the very limit and will be their first true exposure to the madness that Spider-man has dealt with in the past and on a monthly basis. Basically while they have seen and now know about who Spider-man is, they have yet to truly experience those 'what the fuck is going on?!' events.
And yes it's going to be based on something you all know with some severe tweaks and changes. Originally I really struggled with whether or not I should do this arc or not but you know what? I'm a risk taker. This crossover was a risk to begin with and I want to do this arc cause I've taken too much time into planning it out in my head for weeks on end now. So prepare yourselves for a very insanely odd story, whether you like it or not.
So huzzah and hoorah it's the start of my first "Inspired" Arc where it's all me while I fill in the blanks. And for all of you who keep asking for it, don't worry, we'll be getting some Miranda and Peter moments soon, in this chapter, I promise cause I've been holding out on it for a while. But beware, the road to their destined pairing will be long CAUSE I'M AN ASSHOLE and I have some twists involved so be prepared. Or not. Preferably not, I wanna envision your surprised faces.
All like D: "I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING!"
Let's get on with the show
Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day
Along Came A Spider Chapter 22: Lockdown Part 1
The milky way galaxy. One of the many endless other galaxies within the cosmos of this reality. It continued to spin on in its endless cycle until its time would come and eventually it will vanish. But that will not happen for an indefinite amount of time. More than enough time for a new arrival to come and execute his mission.
A large ship unlike any other slowly made its way towards the galaxy in the black void in between. It was daunting to say the least, easily dwarfing any and all ships that currently resided in and around this galaxy.
Within the ship were many passengers, more than three fourths which were prisoners to the master of this vehicle. Said master currently sat in his personalized control seat. around him were many robotic assistants in maintaining the ship.
"So this is the galaxy with the next anomaly" A metallic voice said, rubbing its metal synthetic chin, optics narrowing at the galaxy before him
Around it, he detected occasional movement but did little to address them. His ship was so advanced that those reapers that have terrorized this galaxy for thousands upon thousands of years could not detect him.
"Feh" The metallic voice said again "Fools can't see their inevitable doom shall soon be upon them"
The ship was just on the edges of the galaxy
"Now, how do I draw this anomaly out?"
2 years and 7 months until ME2
It was a very simple night for the Normandy crew.
After the previous debacle in dealing with not one, not two but THREE villains all at the same time in order to rescue their captured friends, the group had decided to spend the next few weeks together, catching up and just enjoying the relative peace until the next shit storm.
The birthday they attended to was very nice but right now, they had been spending nearly a week together simply hanging out and going about their business.
They just wanted some peace and quiet and now they're starting to learn to appreciate the moments of tranquility they get no matter how brief they may be.
And so after helping Kaidan, Ashley and Tali recover, they spent an entire month together, going on missions, training and just spending their time together.
Currently Peter was in the Normandy working on some new additions to everyone's suits, something unique only to them.
He along with Tali had gone through some major upgrades in tech, from their cards to their weaponry.
Peter was just happy to be with friends.
He paused momentarily, setting down his tools before leaning back into his chair.
The brilliant web head let out a tired sigh when his thoughts finally strayed to the one constant that has been on his mind since arriving here.
What was going on back home? How were things, was New York alright? How is Aunt May? Do the Avengers even know he's gone and did any time elapse since he got here?
Peter could only groan, slamming his head down onto the desk.
"I hope to god JJ isn't president by the time I get back. Him being Mayor is more than enough of a heart and brain ache" Peter mumbled
"If it weren't for your super strength and endurance I would ask if you were ok"
Peter glanced up and saw that it was Garrus and Shepard
"But I'll ask anyway" Shepard said "You alright Pete? Something on your mind?"
"Besides the metal piece attached to your forehead" Garrus pointed out "No seriously, it's there"
Peter put hand to his head and lo and behold a piece of the metal desk had come off and stuck to his head.
"Huh, didn't know I had stickiness all over" Peter remarked, pulling the metal off and tossing it aside
That statement of course made Garrus and Shepard grimace, shuddering at their momentarily vivid imaginations.
"Don't know why I went there but I did" Garrus said aloud getting a nod from Shepard
"Stickiness aside" Shepard said, shuddering again "What's up Pete? Something is clearly eating you"
Peter sighed, leaning back into his chair. Ruffling with his hair, Peter kept his eyes on the suit he was working on.
"I've been thinking about home" Peter admitted making his two friends look at one another
The duo have had their fair share of experiences of home sickness but this was a bit or rather REALLY different. Universal different.
"Is there uh…" Shepard felt stupid in asking this "Is there anything we can do?"
"Nah, you don't have to" Peter replied "Besides, what can you do really?"
"Well when you put it like that it makes us feel more useless then usual" Garrus said with a deadpan
"Sorry about that" Peter said sheepishly "It's just that..."
Peter pulled out the two pieces of the tablet of order and chaos that he had
"Web implied that this is my only way home" Peter said "What she didn't tell me is how to find the other pieces and where they could be. For all I know I can find some pieces here but the others could be back home in my reality or in another universe altogether"
"When you put it like that" Shepard said, feeling slightly out of his pay grade in this regard
Sensing that he may have put too much pressure on them, Peter apologized
"Sorry guys" Peter said earnestly "I sometimes forget you guys haven't been in my shoes. Not that that's a bad thing but-"
"Don't worry Pete, we get you" Garrus said assuredly
Their little moment was interrupted when Joker chimed in through the intercom.
"Hey Commander Shepard" Joker said "Just got a priority call from the Council. Seems pretty important. Transmission waiting for you in the war room"
The trio glanced at one another.
They left the lab and made their way to the meeting room. Garrus and Peter stood outside and waited for Shepard as he got his message from the council.
"Think it's a mission?" Peter asked
"Probably" Garrus said with a shrug "Haven't been on one in some time so here's to hoping it's something interesting"
"Not too interesting" Peter remarked "Have enough of that every day"
The door then slid open and out stepped Shepard looking somewhat annoyed and confused.
"Council giving us shit to do?" Garrus asked
"Vague as hell for all intents and purposes" Shepard said "Thought Anderson would back me up but he was in the dark as much as the councilors"
"That doesn't really bode well" Peter said uncomfortably "When the one councilor we can trust vouches for the others in saying they don't really know much"
"Agreed" Garrus said with a nod "So Commander, Where are we going?"
"The Terminus system" Shepard said with a slight grimace "Apparently there's been rumblings of strange occurrences. Sightings of unusual creatures, ships of unrecognizable design. The whole twilight zone nine yards"
"Twilight zone?" Garrus asked in confusion
"TV show, I'll tell you about it later" Shepard waved off
"So we're going all detective work on this then?" Peter asked, gesturing to Garrus "Right up your alley bud"
"What have we got then?" Garrus inquired, entering his 'detective mode'
"Sightings from Fehl Prime, Illum and Ferris Fields along with a dozen more human and citadel colonies in the Terminus System" Shepard recounted, bring up his Omni-tool to spread the info between the three before sending out a message to the team to come to the meeting room
"Got a few more files" Shepard continued, the trio entering the meeting room "Some images, videos. Most of them scratchy and god awful. Not even images really or videos. Almost nothing was registered except for the sound"
"Funny how even in a technologically advanced universe, there's still crappy camera work" Peter quipped "You can't get anything normal in life"
"Aren't you a professional photographer?"
"Didn't say anything about me did I?" Peter said smugly "That's why I used the old fashioned way"
"Shepard?"
The three men looked to see Liara, Ashley, Kaidan, Wrex and Tali file into the room.
"We got ourselves a mission to do?" Wrex asked with a roguish grin
"Time to have the old band back together again" Peter said with wide open arms
"So what's going on?" Kaidan asked
"We've got ourselves an investigation" Shepard said "May not seem like much but there's something more to this than it seems"
"What is it exactly?" Tali asked
"There's been sightings of an unidentifiable ship with creatures and beings that well fall into the same category" Garrus informed the rest of the team "We're going in blind trying to find something we have no idea on what it looks like or what it is overall"
"That's reassuring" Ashley deadpanned
"Wouldn't be the first time" Peter said "Besides, finding something large and weird? That's our specialty"
"More like yours" Wrex said with a humored huff "We just get roped into it"
"No arguments from me" Peter said
"Is there really nothing else we have on this case, Shepard?" Liara asked her lover
Shepard just gave her a look that indicated that there was none
"All we really have is that Councilor Anderson himself vouched for the rest of the council and is in the dark" Garrus said "We'll have to trust what we have and work with that"
"So everyone" Shepard said "We all in on this?"
The team shared looks
"You should know the answer to that one skipper" Ash said, leaning back with a smirk
"We're all in" Kaidan said, everyone nodding with him
"Great to know" Shepard said with a grin "Joker, punch in the coordinates to the terminus system. It's hunting season"
"Roger that Commander" Joker said and the team felt the Normandy powering up
After several minutes of quick preparations, the ship departed from the it's docked area and was flying toward the relay that would take them to the Terminus system.
While Joker was flying the ship, the team were discussing their mission
"What do you think is out there?" Liara asked the team
"Well we already have no idea" Peter said with a shrug "Other than it's something completely undocumented"
"What, like the reapers?" Tali suggested
"I wouldn't go as to say that" Garrus said "Say what you will about the council and all of its bullshit sometimes, but after an attack like that a few months back, the image of a reaper ship has been documented"
"From some eyewitness reporters, they're saying they saw an object, a ship maybe, that was far off in the distance" Kaidan said, going through the info that they have on his Omni-tool "Says here that it shaped in an oval like pod"
"Are there any ships like that between any species?" Ashley asked
"I'm looking through them all right now" Tali answered, datapad in hand "Doesn't look like there are any so far. Even Geth aren't listed here"
"So that rules out just about everyone" Peter said in false joy
"Then what can we do?" Wrex asked
"Hmmm" Garrus rubbed his chin in thought "We'll have to do this the old fashioned way"
"Go to each location and ask?" Peter guessed
"Precisely" Garrus said making everyone sigh in some exasperation
"All this technology" Kaidan remarked "And still we need to do things the hard way"
"Yeah we already did that joke" Peter said getting Alenko to stare at him, eyes half lidded
"We'll arrive at Ferris fields first within several days since it's on the far end of the Terminus system that houses human colonies" Shepard said to the team "So until then, make preparations, Peter's been making some recent upgrades along with Tali so if you guys need anything with that, go to them. Other than that, as always"
The team all dispersed, Tali and Peter departing together to work on the suits with Garrus going with them for company and to see how his own new suit was coming along.
"So what exactly have you guys been working on?" Garrus asked, taking a seat observing the two
"Just some basic shield and tech upgrades for our armors" Peter explained "Speaking of, think I can borrow that scouter of yours, Garrus?"
"Scouter? You mean my Visor? Why?"
"I'm gonna need to make a few tweaks in order for your suit to work at maximum capacity" Peter said, now holding out his hand
Titling his head, Garrus regardless took of his custom visor and handed it to Peter who pulled out several tools and began taking apart a small area in the back.
Garrus tensed somewhat at seeing a prized possession of his being dismantled like that but then reminded himself that Peter isn't some fool playing around. He knew what he was doing.
"You're going to love this Garrus" Tali said excitedly, now assisting Peter in connecting wires from a box to the Visor "This will really help you out in the field"
Intrigued and now excited, Garrus leaned in to watch the two work meticulously on the visor. After five minutes, the two attached it to the left arm of the suit and detached that piece and held it up to Garrus.
"Ta-dah" Peter said proudly "Just a small taste of your new and improved armor"
Tentatively, Tali and Peter helped Garrus fit the arm piece onto Garrus's arm and shoulder, placing the visor back on his left eye.
Peter then held out an earpiece for the other side of Garrus's head.
Taking it gingerly, Garrus stared at the piece momentarily, glancing at his friend who gestured for him to place the piece on the other side of his head. He jolted as he felt the earpiece attach itself to him and then he felt a metal strap wrap around the back of his head to connect to his visor. A small mic extended down to the edge of Garrus's mouth. It was then that the visor extended to cover both Garrus's eyes momentarily before retracting back to one.
"Whoa" Garrus said aloud "What is all this?"
"That is gonna be a part of your armor system that will help you keep track of your suit, weapons and the battlefield when need be" Tali explained, giddy at seeing the fruits of their labor "You're gonna love this next part"
"Now say echo"
Garrus repeated Pete's word and his visor suddenly displayed every person within the Normandy after a brief ping was heard.
"What is this?" Garrus asked in amazement looking around and saw that the visor was showing him the exact location of every single crew member.
"We figured since you are the sharpshooter, eagle eye, eye in the sky, Hawkeye of this Universe"
"Peter"
"Right, me and Tali knew that what would work best for you is to always be the most aware of our surroundings, any enemies we can't see or that my Spider-sense hasn't picked up on and the like"
Garrus good only gawk as he gently reached up to stroke his visor as if it were the greatest thing in the universe. He of course then shook his head as multiple colors with different displays flipped through his eye.
"What was that?
"That's a bunch of new additions that can help you adjust to situations on the fly" Peter explained "Here, take off your visor. Press on your earpiece"
Garrus pressed on the right side of his head on the earpiece which retracted back to cylinder like dome attached to his side.
He took of his visor and saw that it had a rotator in the center area of his visor. Garrus places a finger on it and spun it around and saw that his visor flashed different colors, indicating a different use.
"What exactly can these new additions do?" Garrus asked, eager to find out
"For starters" Peter gestured for Garrus to place his visor back on.
Garrus did so and Peter did the rotating movement for Garrus to do the same.
His visor was now glowing green and this one extended outward to both eyes. The green screen displayed the entire Normandy team and their vital signs and if their communications are online.
"This is simple" Peter said "This mode allows you to see the status of the team if there's any detected fractures or injuries and whether they are online or not"
Garrus nodded and switched over to the next one which was red.
"That one is interesting actually cause it's gonna require you and I to work on it together" Peter said "I've been thinking about helping you create new types of ammo for your sniper rifle, help you customize your gun further"
Garrus was now positively giddy at the thought of the many possibilities that he could incorporate into his now seemingly limitless arsenal.
With Shepard in his office
Shepard was looking over any and all videos that he could access.
And so far.
"Is there really nothing?" Shepard said with a groan of annoyance "My god, why is it that when we need the help of technology it doesn't come through"
"Is everything alright Shepard?" said the voice of Liara who entered his personal quarters
"Liara, I just need your presence" Shepard whined, leaning on his girlfriend's chest, pulling her into a hug.
Liara was still getting accustomed to these kinds of small moments of intimacy so of course she was momentarily flustered. Blushing at Shepard, Liara giggled at his behavior, returning the hug.
"What's the matter Shepard?" Liara asked sweetly
"I'm just irritated, Liara" Shepard drolled, dragging his face up to look at her "We're going in blind to look for something we don't know what it is exactly?"
"You're stressed" Liara said sweetly, stroking Shepards buzz cut hair as he hummed against her
"More than that" Shepard said softly, now getting up to embrace her fully.
The two shared a soft kiss, separating after a few minutes with Liara now leaning on Shepards chest while John rested his head above hers.
"Something is troubling you, John" Liara said softly, closing her eyes
"You're not wrong Liara" Shepard replied "This mission. I don't know why, but I'm really dreading this mission. There's something really off about all this"
"How so?" Liara asked "I mean there's a number of possibilities as to why but is there anything specific?"
"It's kinda hard to explain" Shepard said lamely "It's not as simple as just saying that I have a bad feeling"
"Shepard" Liara said lovingly "It's alright. Whatever we're going up against, we'll live through it"
"Mmm" Shepard hummed, holding her close as the two enjoyed their moment together
Several days later: Ferris Fields
The Normandy had docked at the main compound of the outpost where said ship was sighted. The team geared up and departed from the ship to meet up with several of the staff members that resided there.
"Commander Shepard?" said the lead staff member garbed in a traditional scientist like robe
"That's me' Shepard said
"Professor Rutherford" The old man said kindly, offering his hand to shake which Shepard accepted
"These are my student, Lefai" Rutherford gestured to the Asari to his right before gesturing to the other man of Asian descent "And this is Maximus"
"Professor, it's just Max" Said the young student with exasperation
"It makes you sound more professional" Rutherford argued back making those present snort in humor
Rutherford turned back to the assembled group
"I'm glad that the council responded so quickly" Rutherford said pleasantly, gesturing them to follow him inside "More specifically, Councilman Anderson. He was the one who advocated for this investigation and suggested you specifically. Something along the lines of 'this is right up your alley'"
The team actually paused and all looked towards Spider-man who stared back and jolted.
"What?! What'd I do?!" Peter asked over-exaggerative
"Nothing" Garrus waved his hands at Peter "it's just that"
"Ever since you came along, we're the response team to all that is weird" Ashley stated as a fact which it was
"Um, guys" Tali spoke up "The mission?"
"Right" Shepard said with slight embarrassment "You were saying?"
"No worries" Rutherford said good naturedly "Anyway, Anderson spoke to me when I was the first to report of an unusual ship that didn't identify under anything that has been recorded before. Now granted, there are many ships that are unidentified across the galaxy, however any and all of them have traces of a specific style which can be identified to its creators. That and there is always a trace of Element Zero. But that's not what worries me"
"The ship that we had seen was massive to begin with" Maximus spoke up "And it flew we could get nothing on this ship. No images or videos, nothing. We saw it in the sky and our tech was on the fritz the entire time"
"We believe that this ship was perhaps the reason as to why most of our technology failed to work" Lefai explained
"A single ship managed to deactivate an entire station?" Liara said in surprise
"More like, targeted specific functions that can keep it from being seen" Rutherford said enigmatically "We had nothing here that was able to capture a video or a photo of said ship. Just us seeing it and that's all"
"A ship that can target specific functions and shut them down without affecting anything else?" Shepard murmured to himself "Doesn't tech like that exist already? Don't we have variants on the Normandy?"
"I believe so" Tali said, unsure herself "I'm not entirely certain. I think looking through the net would be rather time consuming"
"Is there anything else that you can tell us?' Garrus asked "Anything at all"
"It was here for an hour at most" Rutherford said "And it sent these 'probes' that seemed to have been looking for something. One of them past overhead and did not even acknowledge that we were here. It simply was just here, then it left"
The team shared a group look.
"You think the other colonies have the same story?" Kaidan asked
"Possibly" Ash said dejectedly "Cause if they do…"
"Then we would have wasted a lot of our time" Garrus finished with some irritation
"That is a rather depressing thought" Rutherford commented getting murmurs of disgruntled agreement from the rest of the team.
"But we gotta do it" Peter said making everyone look to him "Who else can?"
Shepard nodded in approval at Peter
"Let's get to it people" Shepard said
"Ah Commander before you depart" Rutherford brought up his Omni-tool "I shall give you my contact so if you need anything don't hesitate to ask. We'll also call you in case of anything else appearing here that's out of the ordinary"
"Much appreciated professor" Shepard said earnestly, shaking Rutherford's hand goodbye just before they departed from the compound and shortly thereafter, the planet.
"Where to next, Commander?" Joker asked
"Fehl Prime Jeff" Shepard said
"Copy that"
And so the team went on their investigation on a string of colonies across the Terminus system. Each one ending up the same with extra details being added on here and there. They at long last had been to all planets that were on their list.
Nearly two weeks had passed since their mission began and right now, all they had were eye witness reports with some description here and there. Even though they had found very little, Shepard instructed Joker to keep tabs on all of the planets to see if they get anything. The planets usually reported after going dark.
But there was one. One image that was hand drawn by one witness who had either a pretty damn good imagination or a picture perfect memory.
Currently, the team were gathered in the meeting room with Liara holding up the picture.
"Is that a Transformer?!" Ashley exclaimed "Dude, this can't be real"
"What's a transformer?" Tali asked
"They said that this thing was at least 25 feet tall" Kaidan said, not taking his eyes off the drawing "Possibly bigger than some of the Geth Armatures we've run into"
"But what's a transformer?" Garrus asked/repeated Tali's question
"A giant robot that can transform into vehicles, animals and dinosaurs" Shepard casually explained making the non-humans of the team look wide eyed at the humans in disbelief and amazement(Save for Wrex of course)
"What?!" Garrus exclaimed
"You have that?!" Tali shouted with equal shock
"Why would humanity keep something like that a secret?" Liara inquired aloud
The humans then burst out laughing at the reaction of the others.
"Oh man, your faces" Peter said from his seat on the ceiling "I should have taken a picture of that"
"You guys" Ashley said with a lasting giggle "Transformers is a cartoon show from the 1980's, 90's and early 2000's. People of all ages use to watch those shows all the time"
The aliens of the team were now thoroughly mortified. Wrex on the other hand was chuckling along with the others.
"Wrex, how much spare time do you have?" Garrus asked with a deadpan "Seriously, you know way to much human entertainment"
"Can't help it, they're really fun and creative" Wrex admitted
"You saying that doesn't seem to make sense" Tali remarked
"Alright, now that we've got our shits and giggles out of the way" Shepard said in his 'commander' voice "We still need to address the problem here. There's these gigantic robots wandering around the Terminus System doing god knows what and they've been sighted all over to places we've been to After they were there"
"So are there any planets left?" Liara asked "We've visited most of the human colonies here save for the Batarians"
"And I'm pretty sure that the Batarians will just welcome us with open arms" Kaidan said dryly
"It's a risk we may have to take" Ashley said with a grimace
"What the hell are we worried about?" Wrex asked "We can take on anything those four eyed Pyjaks can throw at us"
"Oh I don't know Wrex, are you willing to take on an armada of those jackasses" Ashely stated
"Seems like a challenge" Wrex said with a grin
"Ok, unless you have super strength and whatever else Peter has, that's a no" Shepard said to Wrex making the Krogan huff and look away
"Alright, then what's the plan?" Garrus asked
The group went silent, each contemplating on as to what to do next.
"Maybe we could try investigating where they saw those transformer looking guys" Tali suggested
"Like, specifically the area where they were seen?" Garrus guessed
"Yeah" Tali nodded excitedly "They must have been there for a reason. Maybe we could find something at the sight at where they were sighted"
Most of the team stared at Tali, slightly gob smacked at the simplicity at the suggestions.
"WHY DIDN'T WE DO THAT EARLIER" Half the team exclaimed getting a laugh out of Garrus and Tali
"Then where do we, well restart" Peter asked the group
Their meeting was interrupted by a slightly panicked Joker.
"Commander, kinda not sorry for cutting in here, but I think you should know that New Canton has just gone dark" Joker stated
The team shot up out of their seats and shared quick glances at one another.
"Take us there immediately, Joker" Shepard commanded
"Right away" Joker said and the ship was now on the move to New Canton.
"How long until we arrive Joker?" Liara asked
"We're going at full speed" Joker informed "ETA should be in about several hours. Should give us enough time since the pattern of the planets that have gone dark have a half day of time before coming back online"
"Convenient" Garrus remarked
"Well gun it, Joker" Shepard said "I don't want to miss this thing"
"Way ahead of ya"
The team then began conversing with one another once more.
"Think we'll make it in time?" Liara asked them all
"We better" Ashley said warily "I really don't want to just run around Terminus trying to locate something that's out of this galaxy"
"Here's to hoping then" Kaidan said
Garrus looked to Peter
"What?" Peter asked
"Isn't this the part where you say, whelp, knowing my parker luck" Garrus said knowingly
"I don't even think it's reserved to Peter now" Tali chimed in "After everything we've been through and all the stuff that's going to happen, I think it's safe to say that some of Pete's 'Luck' has rubbed off on us"
"You say that like it's a bad thing"
The entire team didn't even bother in hiding their 'really?' looks at him
Pete sighed
"You're right, it's a curse"
New Canton
The Normandy was flying at full speed towards the planet.
"Pulling up on New Canton Commander" Joker said into the comms
The rest of the team had decided to prep for a ground engagement thus piling into the Mako which was being driven by Kaidan.
Beside Kaidan was Shepard who was staring intently at live feed of the planet.
"I don't see anything yet Commander" Joker said as they drew closer
The team remained tense, the Normandy beginning to circle round the planet.
Joker was on full alert, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. That didn't take long.
Joker's eyes began widening, really pushing how far his face could stretch out.
"Uh Commander" Joker said, his voice cracking a bit "I think we've found what we've been looking for"
The team looked to the live feed and their faces said the whole story.
Hovering right above the planet was the large pod like ship with seemed to be the size of a small city.
"Dear god, look at the size of that thing!" Ashley exclaimed
"It looks bigger than the destiny ascension" Liara stated
"We need to get down to the surface now!" Shepard said
"Won't we get shot down?" Tali asked nervously
"So far there hasn't been any reports of fatalities or injuries of any kind" Shepard said "I'm willing to take our chances"
"Great chances" Wrex murmured
"Are we undetectable joker?" Shepard asked
"As much as we can be" Joker said
"What's that supposed to mean?" Peter asked
"Well….we don't know what we're dealing with here" Joker said, unsure as to how to phrase it "Seriously, for all we know that thing can do shit we've never seen before"
"It's insane how much that doesn't surprise me" Peter said
"Just get us in low and get us ready to drop" Shepard said with finality
"Roger that Commander" Joker said
The Normandy began its descent towards the planet's surface, drawing closer to the ship making every crew member on board unnerved and tense.
"We just lostZZZZZZZ"
"Joker?" Shepard said in alarm "Joker are you there?"
Instead all they got was the beeping green meaning that the Normandy was getting lower to the ground.
"Guess we're going in without communication" Liara said with a grim face "To think it would even affect our ability in communicating on our own ship"
"Are we?" Peter murmured to himself, pulling out Normandy ID card
Pressing down on the id pad, the card activated.
"There's some kind of communication on the ID cards" Peter informed the others "We can get a pin on each others location at least, shows us if we're alive"
"That's a relief" Wrex murmured giving Peter a pointed look
Peter only smiled with a shrug before placing his mask then helmet on.
The Green indicator continued beeping until it flashed red.
"Here we go" Kaidan said to the others and the whole Mako lurched before beginning its plummet down to the ground.
The landing was much more graceful thanks to Kaidans driving skills which everyone made sure to point out to Shepard who only huffed and looked away.
Kaidan drove the Mako at full speed towards the area where the ship floated over. The team of course was wary and slightly nervous, all eyes on the ship that floated overhead.
"Is it too late to say I'm regretting going along with this" Ashely said with a slightly high pitched voice
"I think we all share your sentiment" Garrus said, eyes on the large ship that has remained motionless since they had arrived.
"Urgh" Peter rubbed his head
"You alright Pete?" Tali asked
"Yeah..." Peter paused "No, not sure really"
"What do you mean, you're not sure?" Ashley asked tentatively
"My Spider-sense is on the fritz. It's not screaming immediate danger but it is ringing" Peter said making everyone more on edge then they already were
"Great to know Peter" Shepard said with false enthusiasm "Now we're more prepared then"
"Shepard, everyone" Garrus interrupted from the turret "You may want to look ahead"
Curious and cautious, the team moved to the front of the Mako and looked through the window.
Most of the teams eyes nearly fell out of their sockets when they saw large ships flying around a mountainous region being scaled and explored by giant metal humanoids along with metallic quad pedal metallic creatures.
"Um, I think we found them" Kaidan said trying to sound upbeat but failing miserably
"What the hell are those things?!" Ashley explained
"By the goddess" Liara whispered
"Spirits this is some crazy shit" Garrus said "And we've seen some crazy shit from Peter"
"Seeing is one thing" Spider-man said, sounding a lot older than his age "But actually experiencing these kinds of insane moments. That's something else entirely"
"How are you so calm right now?" Tali asked incredulously
Spider-man only stared at the Quarian, expression unreadable but mood clearly there.
"Right" Tali said meekly
"So uh…" Wrex looked in between everyone "What exactly are we gonna do?"
"Do you…" Liara hesitated "Do you think we should try communicating with them?"
The team looked to the Asari who now shrank slightly on the spot.
"It's just that, they're clearly advanced and sentient" Liara made her argument in a small voice "So, maybe they can be spoken to"
Everyone took that moment to ponder over Liara's words.
"That does seem viable" Shepard said slowly "I'm not discounting the idea Liara, it's just that…"
"It's kinda weird saying this out loud but" Garrus cut in "Spidey's Spider-sense isn't something we should ignore lightly. It's a danger sense so there's clearly some kind of threat here"
"Oh no, I'm not ignoring that at all" Liara said quickly "I'm suggesting we try speaking with these beings and perhaps if we get an understanding as to why they are here, the threat may go away"
"You better hurry up on a decision guys" Kaidan interrupted "We've got activity going on"
Everyone returned their attention to the robot like creatures that were scouring the land all stop what they were doing and had their heads tilted up to the sky.
Down from the ship came a pod about the size of one of those humanoids.
There was a small assembly around the small ship.
A few moments of silence came afterwards until the they saw steam come out from the pod and a small ramp opened up.
Out stepped a giant of what was clearly a being that was a pure machine. The others had what looked like organic parts to their body but this one was pure metal.
It was pitch black with red accents and green optics that scanned the cyborgs around it before speaking aloud in a robotic language that the team clearly didn't understand
"Wonderful" Ashley dryly said "We discover what appears to be a new species or group of AI and they talk in a completely different language. Good luck deciphering that one, linguists"
"This is unreal" Garrus said, hand slightly trembling at the sight of these behemoths that easily towered over any mech that they could throw at them
Spider-man hadn't said a word, instead focusing on the new arrival, feeling his Spider-sense increase in buzzing.
"Oh Jesus fuck" Ashley said aloud, eyes wide in awe and horror at the sky.
The team glanced at her before also looking skies with their jaws dropping even further then last time.
In the skies was a gargantuan of a ship that easily outclassed anything they had seen before, including the Reaper ship that had attacked the Citadel.
"Wha…I can't…" Tali stammered
"This is not what we signed up for" Shepard said calmly
"Hey guys" Kaidan said with clear fear in his voice "I hate to constantly cut in but uh…they're looking at us"
That made all heads snap forward to the metal beings that were now approaching them with the black one leading them all.
"Oh fuck" Shepard/Garrus/Wrex/Ashley said
"I'm having the sudden urge to run" Tali said, now jittery
That suggestion to run was reinforced when the lead bot raised its hand and it TRANSFORMED into a literal hand cannon.
"Fuck it, start driving LT" Shepard shouted
"No need to tell me twice" Kaidan said frantically, slamming onto the acceleration and performing a hard spin to drive away as fast as possible.
Garrus pivoted his gun around and saw that the giant metal creatures were now running after them.
"Yeah, they're very scarily CHASING US"
"We could see that, Garrus" Shepard snapped "Get that damn gun ready"
"You got it"
"Think we should do warning shots?" Spider-man asked the team
He was answered with the Mako rocking around from explosions that were fired from the androids.
"Ok, obvious answer for a dumb question"
"Fire"
"Eat This"
Garrus fired at pin point precision at one of the metal humanoids and made the being stumble but not bring it down.
"Alright, that didn't work"
"Well keep firing until they go down" Wrex said
"Great idea Wrex" Garrus wryly said, lining up his shot "Piss them off further then they already are after the first shot"
"Hey they began chasing after us first" Wrex argued back
"Can we please just focus on getting as far away from them as possible" Tali yelled out
"I second that notion" Shepard said "Garrus, just keep firing"
"This one's for you asshole" Garrus growled out, aiming for the lead machine
Firing with great precision, the shot sailed through the air towards its target.
Just as it was about to hit the black machine, it raised its hand and took the shot with no problems or repercussions.
Garrus only stared.
The detective shook his head and grit his teeth.
"Alright you big metal asshole. You wanna play like that" Garrus switched over to artillery rounds "Fine"
Garrus began firing away at every one of the metal men running after them. This time however, the shots were starting to show signs of some kind of damage as some of them stumbled back and one even fell over from a clean headshot.
"So they're not invincible" Shepard murmured
"Yeah but that guy's got a beeline on us" Ashley said, pointing to the black machine that was now sprinting towards them.
It then did something that they weren't expecting.
The large machine suddenly flew up in the air from what seems to have been thrusters and landed in front of the Mako
"OH FUCK" Kaidan said, making a hard right to avoid the legs of the behemoth.
"Hang on" Garrus fired several shots at the behemoth who simply stood there and took all the fire before lifting up its foot and slamming it down in front of the Mako.
There was no other direction at that very moment, so all Kaidan could do is slam onto the breaks to hopefully not crash as hard into the leg which he was successful in doing so.
Everyone groaned at the sharp jolt, regardless at how prepared they were.
"Sound off, how is everyone?" Shepard asked in a groan
He didn't get an answer because a certain metal head spoke up.
"Exit the vehicle now" The tall metal man said, voice metallic and raspy
"Oh great, this is happening now" Spider-man quipped
"Should we get out?" Liara asked
"Really?" Ashley said snipped "Gee, maybe if we stay here long enough, he'll go away"
The Mako then shook violently
"You are testing my patience" The Metal giant said with a more stern voice "Get out of the vehicle"
"What is he, the fuzz?" Peter remarked.
"Be ready for anything" Shepard said to the group "Have your weapons on standby"
Slowly, the team exited the Mako and now stood before the Metal giant who stared down at them with its green optics.
The being arched a mechanical eyebrow at the assembly before him.
"Diverse little group aren't you" The being stated eyeing Spider-man in particular
"Who are you?" Shepard bravely stepped forward
"And foolishly brave to boot" He said in amusement
The expression on the bots face turned into one of a pure no-nonsense demeanor
"If you have questions I'll simply say this"
He straightened up
"My name is Lockdown"
Lockdown then pointed a finger right at Spider-man
"And from my calculations, you are my target"
CLIFFHANGER HAHA
So for those of you who are smart or just know it already, take a wild guess as to who this "Lockdown" is based off of and what I'm doing here.
Like I said before guys, we are entering some wild shit right here so either get on board or get off cause this is the next arc and it will be a multi parter.
That's all I need to say
Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day