Winner was Judarud
who were the think tank scientisrs?
Answer: Dr. Klein, Dr. Mobius, Dr. 8, Dr. 0 and Dr. Dala
The Wildcard
Chapter 14
The only sound hearable in the small room was the hum of the ships engines nearby. Understandable since Plague's room was almost right next to it.
The humming called out to him as if it was coaxing him out of his slumber. The humming sounded peaceful, relaxing, and efficient.
It was a nice sound to wake up to.
Caffeine flowed through his veins from the device on his arm. Not a large amount, but enough to make sure he wouldn't simply drift back to sleep.
It was one of the many functions the pipboy was built to do. Growing up with a pipboy on your arm made it feel like a small convenience.
Vaults could get crowded. So once you received a pipboy, it was a good idea to hold most of your belongings within it to avoid clutter. So with that in mind, when he looked at the mess around him, he instinctively gave his pipboy the command to atomize all registered belongings in the floor.
He was momentarily confused as to how they had gotten there in the first place. Then he remembered what happened a few days before.
Ever since the pipboy's episode, it would empty its contents while he was asleep. When he would not be able to focus on it.
He rolled off of his bunk as he contemplated if he should have his pipboy re atomize a change of cloths. He dismissed the idea quickly however. Not fully knowing what was wrong with his device, he decided to remain in his jumpsuit.
He couldn't see any problems with the contraption. He had taken off the screen to look at the mechanics underneath, but that was as far as he was able to go. To fully dismantle it, would require him to take it off. And not only did he feel uncomfortable having his pipboy absent, but that would also mean he would have to cut off his own hand. It was the only way to remove it. Once you received a pipboy, it would be with you for life. And once you kicked the bucket, the pipboy would be removed and handed down to the next vault resident who came of age.
He had asked who the pipboy used to belong to. And his name was Jake…Plague didn't bother to memorize the last name. That's how he was with almost everyone he knew. If you were not someone of importance, he would simply develop a first name bases with the individual no matter how much they protest.
Now if your appearance or personality acquired his attention, he would talk to you with a more polite and friendlier manner.
Not many people were surprised that most of those lucky individuals happened to be beautiful women.
Taylor Shepard
"No. Not like that." Shepard heard as she moved her armored arm too forcefully.
Shepard had been learning how to fully use the Tesla power armor. She was finally aloud to move the suit on her own. But every time she would move, Plague would have a problem with how she did so. Like right now for example.
"You said pretend it was not there." she complained.
"I did." Plague droned, his medic suit helmet slightly altering his voice. "I did not say however, for you to move like you had a riot shield in front of you."
"What does that mean?" Shepard shouted in annoyance. "Its, armor. So I am using it like armor."
"You are "using" it like you expect nothing would be able to crack it open like a nut!" Plague shouted back, arms thrown into the air in irritation.
"What?" she shot back. "I know how a shield works. Every defense has a flaw. When I find that flaw, I will correct it. Until then…"
"…You will die when you find out." Plague interrupted. "You won't get a chance to correct anything!"
"Then explain better!" Shepard's voice echoed throughout the cargo bay.
"You want me to explain better?" Plague asked as he pointed at himself. "Ok. I will explain Better."
Without warning, Plague charged Shepard. The Commander's eyes opened in shock as the mass of metal accelerated quickly towards her.
She didn't expect him to just attack her.
By the time Shepard raised her arms to defend herself, Plague had already sidestepped, grabbed her arm, and used her own armored weight against her to make her start falling to her side.
She was flailing her free arm around to try and stop her decent. Before she hit the ground however, Plague grabbed the back of her helmeted head and slammed it into his knee with enough force to send her form back up.
Her suit absorbed most of the damage, but she still hit the inside of her helmet with her own forehead.
"React!" Plague yelled as he swung a fist at her head she was holding with her hands.
Shepard instinctively threw her head backwards, but her chest plate was grabbed by Plague's other hand, and pulled her towards his armored fist.
Before it made contact with her head, she intercepted it with her right arm.
The blow went harmlessly to the side and then came back quickly in an arc to strike at the side of her head.
Before she could recover, something hit the back of her knees, sending her on them.
"Better." she heard Plague comment above her. "Need to work on your reaction time."
Seething with anger, Shepard lashed out while she was still on the ground. "React to this!"
Shepard looked up with a grin on her face. But she realized what she had just done, and suddenly regretted what she did.
She was wearing a strength enhancement suit…and she had just uppercut in front of her while on her knees before a male of her species.
Strength enhancement + on knees + forward uppercut + male = the most devastating shot below the belt known to mankind. (Emphasis on "man")
Plague POV
"Oh. My. Fucking. God." a bald biotic said with shock before laughing her lungs out in the med bay's doorway.
"Not a damn word, Bitch…" an agonized man warned as he sat on a bed with several icepacks in his lap.
"But I have a word." Jack said as she leaned forward so he could hear. "Neutering…" she whispered in a kind of sadistic, but flirtatious tone to further annoy him.
"That's enough, Jack." Shepard commanded before the man sitting on the bed could throw something. "I feel bad enough without thanking of that."
"Pry tell, Boss." Plague began to say as he looked at her with a look of irritation. "What were you "thinking" before the preemptive strike on the future generations of my unborn offspring?"
He saw her face turn red as a tomato before she put her head in her hands. "I…just wasn't…I thought I could…catch you off guard…by attacking you while on the ground."
"Guess what." Plague said to get her attention. "Mission Fucking Accomplished."
"Good job, Shepard." Jack congratulated. "You prevented Plague from starting an actual plague."
This time Plague re atomized a bullet casing, and launched it at the women, hitting her between the eyes.
"Should be thankful the suit was not at full power, and most of the impact was absorbed by my own suit." Plague blankly stated, not really talking to anyone.
"Again. I am so…" Shepard started to apologize.
"Don't." Plague interrupted. "I know it was not planned. The downtime gives me time to follow up on my own projects anyway."
The "projects" he called it, was finding out what was wrong with him.
When he felt himself ripping apart, when his pipboy wouldn't follow his commands. The pain was unlike anything he had felt before.
Back on Omega, it went off. It would only do that if it had picked up an Enclave transmission. But, how could it?
Then there was the other day.
He had reason to believe Harbinger was partially responsible. The electrical current that went through him started what, the defibrillator Chawkwas used, finished.
In Plague's time, he had been shocked. But nothing like what his pipboy did had ever happened. If so, then why didn't it react when ever he had been hit with a plasma weapon, or laser?
"Projects?" Shepard asked as she sat across from him.
"Small stuff, Boss." he lied through his teeth. "Nothing to worry about."
She seemed to buy it, but he could tell she was a little suspicious. "In that case, I have needed to ask you some things."
"Like what?" he asked as an eyebrow was raised.
"Well." she seemed to look a little hesitant with her words. "I wanted to ask about where you are from?"
Plague's reaction was his other eyebrow joining its slightly elevated twin. He knew he would be asked eventually.
"Earth." he answered with a deadpan manner.
This answer seemed to tick Shepard off a bit as she leaned a little forward. "You're lying."
"Why do you think that?" Plague asked innocently.
"Mordin has been examining your blood." she started to explain. "Results show that you are from a highly radioactive world."
"Shit." Jack announced. "He's fucking radioactive?"
"No." Plague interjected. "I am not. And I guess, in a way you are right, Boss." this time Plague tried to lean forward as well. Bad idea.
"I thought so." Shepard said as she crossed her arms. "He also told me what you told him about your homeworld. And before you start. No, he didn't say anything about your armors."
Plague was quickly starting to get annoyed. "Why is it such a problem?"
"Usually it wouldn't." she answered.
Despite the now dull pain in Plague's lower regions, Plague smirked.
Taylor Shepard POV
The man's amused look confused Shepard. Sure she had seen stranger things. But, there was nothing for him to be smiling at. She had him cornered.
"Why so shocked?" he asked as he shook off the pain in his lap, to stand after he placed the ice bags on the bed. "It was only a matter of time I guess. Right? So Commander Shepard…" he took a step towards her as he re atomized his jumpsuit to replace the blue shirt and shorts he had been wearing. "…what brought up the sudden interest hmm?"
"Aside from the obvious?" she asked as she stood before him. "I guess the first thing would be that AI in your medic suit."
Shepard narrowed her eyes when Plague just seemed to become more amused.
"Your ship has an AI." he said, again with a deadpanned manner.
"And I remove the cameras in the bathrooms so I could get a little privacy knowing everything EDI sees would go straight to The Illusive Man. What's your point?" Subconsciously, Shepard took a step back when the man before her burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" she asked, getting even more annoyed.
"Nothing…HA!" to her confusion, Plague turned away from her as he walked next to the AI core. "Do you know how many bugs are in this room?" he asked as he took a quick glance around the room. "Come on. Give me a guess."
"Five?" Jack guessed, at the same time reminding everyone she was in the room.
"Nope." with that, he pulled a knife out of nowhere, alarming everyone in the room for a second. "Guess again."
Being the well trained woman she was, Shepard's eyes focused on the weapon as if it was the only thing in the room. She could feel herself instinctively readying her biotics.
"What's the knife for?" Shepard asked as she started to move herself in front of Chawkwas, who was the least combat prepared person in the room.
The doctor looked about ready to have a heart attack.
"No need for nerves, Boss." he spun the kitchen knife around in his fingers by the hilt with precision. "If I honestly wanted you dead, I would have done it ages ago."
"Then you wouldn't mind putting it…" her words were replaced by silence as Plague plunged the knife into the wall. "…What the hell are you doing to my ship?" she knew it wouldn't be able to go through the hull like his chainsaw weapon, but that didn't stop her from worrying about the safety of her ship.
Again Plague turned away from her. This time however he signaled her to wait a moment. After messing around with the wall, he pealed off, what Shepard could only guess was a well camouflaged patch from the wall.
"Too many, is the answer." he declared as he tossed it to the stunned woman.
"How did you…" she started to ask but again to her displeasure, the man signaled her to wait.
"I'm getting to that." he then put away the knife then started to walk up to her. "You know how many of those I have removed from the room you gave me?" before anyone could answer, he continued. "Seventy-Fucking-three! I even know where the recorded video and audio go before they are sent to your Illusive Man. Do you honesty think I will explain myself at all with Miranda listening?" after a second to take in Shepard's surprised look, Plague continued. "That's right."
All of this time, Shepard had thought the signals were sent straight to TIM.
"So. If you wish to continue this interrogation, by all means, let us retire to a place with fewer eyes. Yes?"
"Why are you telling me all this?" she asked as Plague already started walking through the door.
He didn't answer her question. The only reply he gave her was an "I can debug you room if you want?"
Ten Minutes Later
"That should…" he started to say from where he was standing on Shepards bed, to her distaste as she watched him remove the twentieth bug. "Now that should be it." he announced as he jumped off of the bed.
Reminding herself to clean her sheets, Shepard activated the holographic display to feed her fish. "How do you know where they are?"
"They stick out to me." he answered as he put the deactivated bug in the trash bin. "Now. Back to our conversation."
"Yes, please." she agreed as she sat on her couch. "Where are you from?"
"Earth." he answered again, causing a scowl to appear on Shepard's face.
"No you are not." she refused as the man sat on her bed.
"By all means, please tell me where "I" am from." he challenged.
"Like I said before…" she started. "…a highly radioactive world."
"Correct." he simply answered.
Shepard lightly scratched the bridge of he nose as she contemplate her next question.
She had him. "A radioactive world. And I don't mean radioactive by mistake. My guess is nuclear war."
"Correct." he answered with that monotone voice of his that slowly started making her ask why she didn't crush him with her biotics.
"You work with an Artificial Intelligence. So you couldn't be from Citadel Space. And if you were then that would mean you would have been using it illegally."
"Citadel Space?" he asked as he propped his head with an arm.
"Yes." she asked, with a little confusion.
'He can't be that stupid.' she thought to herself.
"You telling me you don't know the difference between Citadel Space, and the Terminus Space?" she asked.
"Nope." he answered bluntly. "Don't really care." he stated as he acted as if he had dismissed the topic.
"But if you don't know then does that mean you are from an underdeveloped world?" she asked.
If he was somehow from a world that did not have space travel. If he was not really a member of her species then wouldn't that make Plague part of a first contact situation?
"Earth." he said again, earning an annoyed look as he himself showed one.
Her eyebrow started to twitch in irritation as she looked at him.
"Then…" she was beginning to ask him a question, when he cut her off before she could say another word.
"Who is he?" he asked as his personality took a u-tern and went from annoyed, to that of a cheery gossip.
"What?" she blurted out.
The question came out of nowhere, and she was quite sure there was no "He" present within the room besides Plague himself. And she was damn sure there was no romantic "He" either.
"The way you move." he said as if the four words would be the answer to the question thrown back at him.
"Again with the way I move." she murmured to herself as she rubbed her temples.
"You turn a corner with hope you would see someone." he started to explain. "But when you see no one, you continue with the same thought in your mind. But I have a feeling that this someone would never be around the corner on this ship. And you know it."
The words hit her hard. What was he getting at? How does he know this?
"Your body moves as if it subconsciously wants to attract someone, with a kind of seductive manner. But you straghten up when someone sees you. Clearly telling me you aren't hunting." he looked up at her with a knowing look that annoyed her even more. "You're searching for what you already caught, and what caught you."
"How do you know all that?" Shepard asked with a sharp angry tone.
"So I am right." he confermed. "I don't even know if you notice these behaviers yourself. So I recommend you take notice so you don't give someone the wrong signals." as if finally noticing she was getting angry, he held up his hands in surender. "Relax, Boss. Peace."
"Why are you bringing this up?" she almost shouted. "Why have you been watching me? What are you…?"
He raised a hand to tell her to calm down before he started talking again. "I don't spy on anyone." he defended with a calmer tone then she was using. "I notice these things because you are my employer. I only brought it up out of concern."
With that, he put his hands behind his head as he went back, leaving his legs the only part of him off the bad as the rest of him was now relaxing on it.
"This person is important to you. I can tell. But I am guessing this person was on the first Normandy." her eyes widened a little more. "Correct." he anounced as if he had seen her reaction. "You want to see this person, but you are afraid." before she could say anything he sat back up. "Don't be."
Before she could ask him anything, he started walking towards the door.
"Your in love." he declaired as he stepped through the door. Shepard had already gotten up herself, but she couldn't get to the door before the elevater doors started to close. "Remember what brought you two together in the first place." he reminded with a cheeky grin on his face right before the elevaters doors closed completely.
Shepard just stood there in her doorway for a few seconds before she turned back into her room.
The former loft, it used to be called, was quiet as she walked in and sat at her desk. Rested her head on the desk as she looked to her right to see, in the frame on the desk, the blue face of the one she wanted to hold in her arms once again.
Plague POV
The elevater opened on the engineering deck, and once it opened, Plague's grin vanished as a hooded woman took a step back once she realized it was him in the elevater.
His eyes slightly narrowed as he took in her appearance.
He hadn't seen her since she confessed what she had done. Either used her cloak everywhere, or she stayed in her room since then and only came out when he was not around.
Plague still felt betrayed, but after hearing the recording in his helmet, his feelings started to become rather conflicted towords the thief.
"Excuse…me." she mumbled in a quiet tone as she stepped into the elevater as he got out. The whole time, she pulled down on the tip of her hood as if hoping the action would make him forget he had seen her.
The voice also felt saddened and dismayed. He couldn't help but feel a tug inside of him as he heared the sound.
"Goto." he greeted as he watched the doors close between them.
He could have sworn she heard a soft whimper before the door took the woman out of his view.
Slowly, Plague turned towards his room as he rubbed the back of his neck.
'Should I say something?' he asked himself as he walked.
Sure he had a reason to be angry. But was it right for him to have his little outburst. Sure she drugged him so she could find the truth. But could he blame her for not naively believing his words?
If she had appeared in the wastes and said she was from an alternate timeline where she had been a thief stealing both human, and alien art and jewels.
The answer would be no. of course he wouldn't have believed her.
Although. Once he thought about it, hadn't he already met many crazy individuals in his time?
His door opened and as he walked over to sit on his bunk, Plague couldn't help but widen his eyes as he noticed a box on it.
It was not that big. It was simply a medium sized box. Although it was not like a wooden crate, or a simple cardbored box. Its surface looked metallic with a dark grey color. There was a small holographic interface on the front with the telltale green light showing it was not locked.
What got his atenction most of all, was the small folded paper note on the top with "Plague" writen in English.
Now he knows why Kasumi had came down to the engineering deck.
He picked up the paper and opened it to be greeted by beutifull handwriting.
Adieu, farewell, earth's bliss;
This world uncertain is;
Fond are life's lustful joys;
Death proves them all but toys;
None from his darts can fly;
I am sick, I must die,
have mercy on us!
Rich men, trust not in wealth,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic himself must things to end are made,
The plague full swift goes by;
I am sick, I must die,
have mercy on us!
Beauty is but a flower
Which wrinkles will devour;
Brightness falls from the air;
Queens have died young and fair;
Dust hath closed Helen's eye.
I am sick, I must die,
have mercy on us!
Strength stoops unto the grave,
Worms feed on Hector brave;
Swords may not fight with fate,
Earth still holds open her gate.
"Come, come!" the bells do cry.
I am sick, I must die,
have mercy on us!
Wit with his wantonness
Tasteth death's bitterness;
Hell's executioner
Hath no ears for to hear
What vain art can reply.
I am sick, I must die,
have mercy on us!
Haste, therefore, each degree,
To welcome destiny;
Heaven is our heritage,
Earth but a player's stage;
Mount we unto the sky.
I am sick, I must die,
have mercy on us!
Written by Thomas Nashe
January 20, 2003
The next section looked as if it was written by Kasumi.
You're name means death;
But at the same time it means life.
You are wise in you're way;
As life finds a way around.
You lived through the pain;
Through chaos and strife, you are born.
Before me is a kind Plague.
For I know who you hide behind a mask of words:
So to, does your disguise remain free?
I have the true face of death before me;
Others see damnation before he.
My vision is free from the words;
Even death must adjourn once in a while.
Before me is a kind Plague.
By the time Plague had finished reading the poem, he had sat next to the box.
He read the paper twice before he set it next to him.
Letting out an audible sigh, Plague looked at the box next to him. He almost didn't know what to do in the situation he found himself in. Plague was a man of fair exchange. He had never received anything from someone who didn't want something ells in return.
Kasumi now confused him.
Hesitantly, Plague manipulated the controls to the container. Almost instantly he heard a his as the lid opened on it's own to reveal what he did not expect.
First thing he noticed was his duster folded neatly. Kasumi must have had it since the last mission. He took it out to see it looked as good as new. The added patches he had used to repair it had been removed. Instead, he found that the whole duster had not a single rip or damage from his time in the wastes.
The fabric no longer felt or showed any sign of being worn. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought this was a different coat.
He placed it next to the poems and looked back into the box.
The next thing he saw was another note. It only had three words, but he couldn't help but notice the slightly shaky handwriting.
I am sorry.
Poems were never really my strong suit.
anyway i have no questions for this chapter. so i will ask a none related question. I am a big fin of self-insert stories. i dont know why. do any of you guys know any GOOD self-insert fanfics? if so please point me in the right direction.