A/N: Sorry about the wait boys and girls. I was immediately delayed three days as I had a two day paintball event in London Ontario, the extra day was for recovery. It was crazy fun though, almost 600 people registered so there were 300 people a team. If you have never seen 300 people charge up a hill armed for battle, I assure you it is fucking awesome! There were some cool moments, tanks, taking hills, planting bombs (timed fireworks (that are still loud as shit)) and fighting in trenches and forests. At one point, me and thirty dudes had to defend a hill from a 200 man charge, we held them off for an hour in some of the coolest/scariest moments of the weekend. If you want to talk paintball, ie: compare gear and experiences, shoot me a PM!
I also saw Guardians of the Galaxy, twice. It was fucking awesome and I highly recommend you go see it, right now! Even if you're not into superhero movies you will like it, my buddy hates those movies and I forced him to see it and he loved it. So go do that.
Last thing, you guys like playing video games right? Wanna play some video games with me some day? I don't have internet in the country so I update this using my phones hotspot, so I go to my uncles once every few months for a day of online binge-gaming. It'll be in a few weeks so I'll let you know more later, but it'll probably be some ME multiplayer or some Titanfall. Anyway, take some of this story and put it on your eyes.
Chapter 21
-Fancy Stretching-
The rest of my day was uneventful, mostly downloading more music and sitting around. At one point I made my way down to the vehicle bay and cleaned my weapons, they didn't need to be cleaned but it was something to do and it's good practice. Ashley managed to clean four guns in the time it took me to clean my Lancer, she finished another three while I did my Katana.
Shepard took a handful of people down to some planet, apparently there was some sort of biotic cult. She brought all of the biotic crew with her, Wrex, Liara, and Kaidan. She wouldn't let me go no matter what I said, she didn't even check with Chakwas. Apparently 18 hours of rest isn't enough to heal buckshot wounds, I disagree but what do I know?
It's roughly 7pm when my name is called over the ships intercom, Dr. Chakwas requesting my presence in the med bay. I start to make my way to the med bay, saying hey to just about everybody I pass, even people that I don't even know. Once I get to the med bay I open the door and see Chakwas sitting at a terminal, lines of text filling the screen.
"Hey Dr. Chakwas." I wave with a slight smile. "You called?"
"I did." She nods. "I wanted to talk to you about your biotics, specifically an amp."
"Alright." I say as I hop onto a cot. "What's up?"
"Well," she says, sounding somber. "there's been a complication."
"Sounds about right." I muse as I recall the slew of 'complications' that have happened in the past few months. "What is it this time?"
"You have a very unique situation." She says, not knowing the half of it. "I've read over your files and noticed you have a biotic node in your prefrontal cortex, while this is good for managing and using your biotics, it hinders the addition of an amp."
"How's it do that?" I ask curiously.
"The amp will clock your biotic nodes into overdrive, this would make most biotics sore and tired." She explains. "But with the node in your brain, it could cause severe headaches and migraines when you use your biotics."
"Like Kaidan?" I ask, now disappointed.
"Not quite." She shakes her head. "Alenko gets his migraines every so often, you would get them whenever the node in your brain would activate."
"So every time is use my biotics." I sigh. "Is this guaranteed or can I get around it?"
"I would have to run some tests," she says, giving me a bit of hope. "they would have to be done at a biotic facility on the Citadel, the Normandy doesn't have the equipment I would need but I won't sugar coat it, the odds are low."
Well this blows, it's not at all what I thought would happen. I thought I would be able to get this amp without any problems, now that I think about it though, I haven't done much without having to work for it. Which is good, it builds character, but I really wanted that amp… I think. Actually, I've done pretty well without an amp, it would hurt me if I didn't have it.
"Ok." I smile as I hop down from the cot. "Send the names of the tests to my Omni-tool and I'll check it out."
"You don't seem to be bothered." Chakwas says hesitantly as she makes a note in her Omni-tool.
"Nope." I shake my head. "I don't need an amp. Don't get me wrong, I want an amp but I don't need it."
"Well alright then." She smiles. "Let me know when you take the test and we can see if you can be fitting for an amp."
"You got it doc." I wave as I walk out of the med bay.
As I leave the med bay I look around for something to do, it's too early to go to bed right now. I quickly notice that Alex is rooting around in the fridge in the kitchen, rifling through packets of food and bottles of drink. I make my way towards him and start to look over his shoulder into the fridge, eventually reaching over his shoulder and grabbing a granola bar.
"Hey man." I nod as he looks back at me, confused at the sudden appearance of an arm over his shoulder.
"Hey." He says back as he grabs a bottle of what looks like juice, I'm not sure what flavor though.
"I heard Shepard got rid of that cult without firing a single shot." I say as I pull a hunk of granola into my mouth. "Just talked them all down I guess."
"Sounds like something Shepard would do." he says after sipping his drink. "It could have got pretty ugly down there, I heard biotics can be nasty."
"You've got no idea." I shudder. "It can get a bit… messy, painful, slow."
There's a slight pause in the conversation, enough for me to reach into my pocket and knock back a mouthful of scotch from my flask.
"So how are you doing?" he asks, changing the subject to my injuries.
"Great man." I nod, taking another bite of my, what I can only assume is leather ass flavor, granola bar.
"You're fucking ridiculous." he laughs as he shakes his head.
"What are you talking about?"
"You got your ass handed to you by a krogan Battlemaster, shot, and then almost bled out." He lists off, still snickering in disbelief. "And you actually think you're great!"
"I am!" I protest.
"There are holes in you!" he shouts back, still laughing at my stubbornness.
"There are holes in you too."
"Yeah but those ones in particular are supposed to be there." He says back, rolling his eyes.
We both stop talking when we see someone walk into the mess hall and I scowl when I see it's Garrus. Great, this hard headed asshole again. I don't like that I dislike Garrus, hell he was great in the games but with all of the circumstances he's a right prick. Garrus isn't pleased when he sees me, his mandibles pressing against his face in a turian frown but then he lightens up when he sees Alex.
"Hey Garrus." Alex chirps with a wave.
"Alex." Garrus nods back, with a smile of all things. Then he walks over to the fridge and grabs a dextro drink, glares at me and heads off. Why the hell didn't he be shitty to Alex? I thought he hated both of us.
"What the hell was that?" I whisper in disbelief.
"What?" Alex asks, as he takes another drink.
"I thought Garrus hated us." I shake my head, still confused.
"No." he shrugs. "I just talked to him and we worked it out, pretty simple stuff. He hates only you now."
"Huh." I slouch in my chair. "What did you tell him?"
"I just told him why I was in the warehouse." He says as he leans forward. "The Blue Suns took my friend's girlfriend so we went and got her, the only people who got hurt were the Blue Suns and I think everyone is fine with that. Sort of. Just explain to him what you did… what did you do again?"
I sigh as I sit up and prepare to list off my crimes, scratching the back of my head before clasping my hands together. "Well, I killed a batarian and injured eight others. I did that to save my boss from being mugged and I didn't mean to kill the first batarian. Then I decapitated a turian and semi-tortured a human to help my friend Saylem, also not my fault. I went to jail for that and then was broken out of jail, I killed some of the people who broke me out and then went back to jail on my own to finish my sentence. Then Garrus ran into me at Saleon's clinic, apparently the guy cut up a bunch of people and I guess that makes me guilty by association."
"Semi-tortured?" he cocks his head.
"Yeah, I just twisted his arm." I nod. "Or cut his nostril, same thing really."
"It's not the same at all." He mutters as he shakes his head. "There's quite a difference between an arm and a nose. Just sayin'."
"Either way," I cut him off. "I don't think Garrus will just shrug that off."
"You never know unless you try."
"Yeah I guess." I shrug. "So what did you do before all this?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Well you know I was a bouncer." He says as he finishes his drink.
"You must have seen some weird shit." I smirk.
"You have no idea!" he laughs. "Most of the time it was the same old shit, drunk asshole groping the dancers or getting in fights." Now he leans forward and a smirk slides onto his face. "But once in a while you get the crazy people who dance around, hurt themselves, and make fools of themselves. We had some pretty funny footage stored in the back."
"That sounds awesome man!" I smile, taking my flask out of my pocket and taking a sip. "Want some?" I ask, holding out the flask.
"Yeah sure." he shrugs as he grabs the flask, taking a swig and then looking at the flask in his hands. "This is pretty good stuff. I guess I got used to the cocktail crap we have in the club…"
"Yeah it's not bad eh?" I nod.
"Hey, do you know anything about the crew?" Alex brings up cautiously. He must be talking about the story characters.
"Lotta people on the crew man." I say, trying not to smirk. "You've gotta be more specific."
I watch Alex think about what he's going to say and to my surprise he goes at it pretty bluntly. "I mean Art, Ian, and Dylan. They just seem like they don't belong, Art has no combat experience, I talked to Dylan and he's been hunting but that's it, and Ian's just a cop."
"What about Garrus?" I ask as I take back the flask for a drink.
Alex pauses for half a second before answering. "Turian military." He says cleverly.
"True enough." I nod as I pass back the flask. "I don't know, I would say the same thing about you, you know."
"What?"
"You don't belong here." I say, trying to work in dark undertones to fuck with him.
"What?" Alex asks in a hollow worried voice.
"Calm down man, I'm just fucking with you." I chuckle, causing Alex to relax a bit. "But think about it, if one thing were to change it would change everything. Let's say someone did something different or someone was where they shouldn't be, it would cause a ripple that would get rid and add events."
"That would explain a lot." He mutters to himself, loud enough for me to hear it though. "Well at least you've got some training."
"Not as much as you'd think." I say as I take another swig from the flask, almost draining it. "I've been with Icarus since it started but that was only a few weeks ago."
"Pretty young for a mercenary group, why do you guys care about Saren?"
"I…" I stammer in frustration and anger. "I AM NOT A FUCKING MERCENARY!"
"All right!" Alex shouts defensively. "You look like a merc! Act like a merc! Drink like a merc! What the hell do you want me to think!?"
"I want you to think I'm not a merc!" I scream back.
"That's… oddly specific!" he shouts back.
There's a slight pause before we both stat laughing, slouching in our chairs as Alex finishes the scotch.
"So what does Icarus do then?" he asks.
"We're working to make a better future." I nod, my laughing tapering off.
"Cool. Sounds a bit corny though, something an Alliance recruiter will shout at potential recruits…" He nods, twisting the empty flask around in his hand in disappointment. He slowly stops twirling the flask and his eyes flicker into space in contemplation. "Your logo looks familiar, are you… privately funded?"
"No…" I say slowly, cocking my head at him. "We are independent, why?"
"No reason." He shrugs. "Who's future are you working for? Icarus's or…"
"Everyone's." I state calmly. I'm getting a little sick of these guys asking me that question, I want to know what they are talking about. "Why do you want to know?"
"I… nevermind." He says as he shakes his head.
"No." I say sternly. "Why are you asking?"
"Don't worry about it." He says, waving me off. "Have you got any more of this?" he asks as he shakes the flask.
"Yeah." I say as I eye him suspiciously. Maybe I should just let it go, no reason to let it bug me. "I'll be right back."
I quickly get up and make my way back to my locker, the walk was short and I open up the locker labeled 'Maverick'. I reach in and my hand bumps into my medication case, I suppose I should take that. I crane my head out of my locker to make sure the coast is clear before injecting the shot into my arm, I pack away the case and pull out a crisp varnished wooden box. I take the box with me back to the table that Alex is still sitting at and I pull a bottle of scotch and two glasses from the royal blue felt contours of the box.
I pour Alex and I a drink and we start to talk, talk about things that are happening and what could happen even though we both know what's going to happen. As we drink our conversation steers from current situations to shooting the shit about our past, obviously making up some parts to hide how we are in a videogame. We sit and talk for a long time, our stories growing funnier with our rising blood alcohol.
My eyes open as my Omni-tool beeps to life, waking me up from a deep sleep. Jesus how late did I stay up last night? My head is… actually my head doesn't hurt at all. The florescent lights don't hurt my eyes either. Hmm… normally I'd be pretty hungover but I feel well rested, must be my biotic metabolism. That must also explain why I've lost almost all of the fat on my body, leaving behind the toned muscles that come naturally from working with steel for the past few years. A few months of which were spent moving hundred pound pallets around. I guess I can drink what I want and eat what I want without hangovers and gaining weight, biotics are fucking awesome! Oh shit, that's probably why every asari has a great body, I guess you do learn something new every day.
My feet swing over the bed in I stretch to my feet, cracking my neck like bubble wrap. I look around and see there's only one other person left in bed, I put on some clothes and walk over to see it's Alex.
"Hey buddy." I say softly as I poke at the lump under the blankets. "You awake?"
"By the nine hells and the 666 layers of the fucking abyss." Alex moans painfully.
"Need some help waking up?" I ask innocently. "Do you like Metallica?"
"I will end your life." Alex threatens quietly.
"Alright man, enjoy your headache." I smirk as I walk into the locker room.
The locker room is completely empty so I rummage through my own locker and take my medicine for the day, mindlessly preloading the next dose into the injector. Once I pack the case back into my locker I notice that my liquor box is back in my locker as well, it's in the front of the locker so I doubt if Alex put it back he would go snooping through my meds. He'd probably be too drunk to know what they are anyway.
I'm about to open the door that leads into the stairwell but it opens before I can reach the button, Liara jumping when she meets me face to face.
"Hey Liara!" I chirp with a smile as she catches her breath.
"Goddess you startled me!" she gasps.
"Sorry." I smirk. "What's going on?"
"I was coming to see if you wanted to meditate." She explains sheepishly.
"Yeah sure." I shrug. "Little early isn't it?"
Liara raises a confused brow at me. "It's ten o'clock."
"I guess I'm still on pre biotic hangover mode." I sigh. "Normally I wouldn't be up until three or four, unless there's a good reason."
"Pre biotic?" she asks, clearly puzzled.
"Yeah, I only got my biotics a few months ago." I tell her as we start to walk down the staircase.
"You had an amp put in." She nods, coming to a false realization.
"Nope." I shake my head. "I don't have an amp, I got exposed to an exploding eezo core a month or so ago."
"That's impossible." She stutters. "You should have died in the explosion, even if you survived that you should have died from the multiple cancers that would have developed."
I almost twitch at the mention of cancer, the thought of it crawling back up into the foreground of my brain instead of staying in the dark forgotten depth where it belongs. The mention on how I should have died echoes about my head, like volleys of musket fire. I should have died but I didn't, the tradeoff was a looming ever-present date, a date that gets to choose whether I live or die. I need to stop thinking about this, I will be fine, the cancer will be cured, just take the medication and I will be fine.
"Maverick?" Liara speaks up, snapping me from my thoughts.
"Yeah?" I ask, looking back at her. I notice she is looking at me and then back to the door, clutching some thin black clothes in her hand. "Oh." I say dumbly, noticing I'm in her room. "Sorry."
I leave Liaras room to let her change, drumming my hands on the counters of the med bay while I wait. Liaras door opens and she walks out, wearing tight black leggings and a white tank top with a green design on it that is similar to her lab coat. I quickly realize that I am not dressed to meditate… I think. Liara's wearing something you'd wear if you did yoga which worries me on how strenuous this 'meditation' will be. My leather jacket is more for style then mobility.
"Are you ready?" she asks, walking past me and leading me out of the med bay without waiting for an answer.
"As ready as I'll ever be." I sigh, following behind Liara. "Looking good by the way." I point out as I notice just how form fitting her pants are. I smirk as I see her pace stiffen and blush crest over the back of her cheeks, her hand brushing against her crest awkwardly.
"Thank you." She says sheepishly.
"You're welcome!" I grin at her cute shyness.
We make our way into the elevator, Liaras blush fading as I lean against the wall. She finally turn to me to speak, hesitating for a moment when she sees me already staring at her with a grin on my face.
"So," she says, almost forcing herself to speak. "You said you've never meditated before, have you done yoga?"
"Nope." I shake my head. "I think I can handle it though."
"How can you know if you've never done it before?" she asks.
"Please." I scoff. "I shaped steel for a living before coming to the Citadel, when I wasn't working I was hunting and playing sports. Then when I got to the Citadel I moved thousands of pounds worth of pallets every day, when I was done that joined Shepard and started fighting and army of synthetics for a living. I think I can handle fancy stretching."
"It's more than just stretching." She says defensively. "It requires focus and strength, it takes time to master."
"I got it." I assure her. "It's just stretching."
"Are you going to wear that?" Liara asks, pointing at my clothes.
"Well I doubt I'd look good in that." I reply with a smile, pointing at Liaras getup. "But I think I can make this a bit better." I say motioning to myself.
I take off the jacket that my friends gave me and fold it neatly before resting it on the floor, then I toss my shirt on the floor next to it and fold my floppy hat into a skull cap and pull it down to my eyebrows to absorb sweat. When it comes down to it I've got a soldier-dockworker-boxer look going on, black combat boots and pants, shirtless with bandages strapped around my stomach and a black toque.
"What are you doing?" Liara asks nervously.
"I'm admiring myself." I say in awe as I jam my thumbs into my pockets and lean into an Abercrombie&Fitch pose.
"Ok." Liara says slowly as she leads me into the middle of the vehicle bay. "Let's start off with an advanced pose."
Liara lets out a sigh as she preps herself, stretching her arms above her head. She swings her arms down and turns herself upside down into a handstand. She then lowers herself onto her forearms and arches her back so her feet hover over her head, the whole motion was fluid and took seconds. "Now you." She motions with her head in a calm tempered tone.
I stare at the upside down, crescent backed Liara and shake out my arms. "Ok." I say as I clap my hands together. "I've got this."
I reach my hands in the air before swinging them down, making my best attempt at a handstand. My feet quickly fall back down to the ground and I don't hesitate to fling my feet back up, only to fall back down again as I swear. I give it another go and somehow manage to fall into perfect balance, my muscles tensing to try and hold the handstand.
"See?" I grunt through a smile. "Said I… got this."
"Good, now keep going." Liara encourages.
Ok, what's next? I crane my neck to see Liara still in the pose, she's resting on her forearms so I think that's next. I start to tilt backward carefully and let my elbows lower to the ground, my arms shaking as they try to keep me steady. My elbows finally touch the ground just as my abdomen and bicep muscles start to burn in agony.
"Are you ok?" Liara asks, still effortlessly keeping the pose.
"Yeah." I cringe as I try to tilt my feet over my head, only managing to move them about an inch. "There, done."
My eyes flick over to see Liara staring at me, still in that fucking pose! She looks pretty amused, though she's trying to cover it up. "Not quite." She snickers softly. "Here, let me help you." She says as she pushes herself back onto her hands before gracefully flicking her feet to the floor and standing up straight.
She walk over to me and put a hand on my lower back and her other grabs the bottom of my pant legs. She starts to arch my back and after a few seconds I think she's done, I feel like I'm bent in half. But she keeps going, pushing my legs over top of my head and my ass away from my head.
"Uhh what the hell are you doing?" I ask in a slightly panicked voice, my body trembling to keep my balance.
"Fixing your posture." She says as she keeps bending me out of balance.
"Are you trying to fold me in half?" I grunt as I try to resist Liaras surprisingly forceful hand.
"I've hardly moved you an inch." She shakes her head.
"What?!" I shout, causing me to lose my balance for a moment until Liara corrects me.
"You have barely moved." She tries to explain.
"Then put me right in the final position!" I growl with confidence.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." I nod.
I immediately regret my decision when Liara molds my body into the pose, ever single muscle in my body tightening to try to keep me balanced and burning in pain in the process.
"Are you ok?" Liara asks, concerned due to the creaky struggled groan coming from my mouth.
I barely squeak out a response as I shake my beet red face up and down, not daring to move a muscle. My head turns to see that Liara has walked over to where she was before, flipping upside down with me and effortlessly getting back into this hellish pose.
"Now we move from this pose into the next one, what you have to d—" she pauses when she sees me, doing a double take before she sighs. "You need to breathe Maverick." Air starts to pump through my gritted teeth loudly and Liara continues to speak. "What you have to do is bring yourself back into a handstand, then bring your spread legs back down into a cross legged pose keeping yourself off the ground with your hands. Then lift one of your hands to your chest and create a singularity."
My eyes manage to find the energy to look over at Liara, cross legged with one hand through her legs keeping her bum off the ground and the other holding a singularity out in front of her, an encouraging smile on her face.
I look back at the ground and use every fiber of my body to straighten out and bring myself back into a handstand. Then in one fluid motion, I start to tilt forwards and my entire body flops on the cold metal floor with a loud clap.
"Goddess, are you alright?"
"Never better." I whisper as I rub my face on the cold floor. "Liara? Why do people do this?"
"Most people do it for exercise, I'm sure there are other reasons."
"What does this have to do with meditating?" I say in a light blissful tone as I continue to rub my head on the cold floor.
"Nothing really."
…
"What?" I mutter in a dark gravely voice as my head tilts up to glare at Liara. "The why, the hell, are we doing this?"
"You said you wanted to do it." Liara blinks, put off by my glare.
"When did I say that?"
"I asked if you've ever done yoga and you said you could do it." Liara says nervously.
"I… fine." I sigh. "Let's hurry up and meditate." I grumble as I get to my feet.
I spent the rest of the day learning simpler poses, ones that are designed to meditate and calm the body not popping all of the blood vessels in my head. Most of them are just sitting cross legged which was boring but helped calm me down a bit, one of them though I did enjoy because not only is it calming and a workout, it also makes me look badass.
It started as a push up, but with a little mass reducing biotics I can balance my horizontal body with one hand under my stomach. Then I can use my other hand to try to make a singularity under my face, it also gives me something to look at while I balance. It surprises me how calming it is to hit that perfect balance where you don't teeter back and forth while starring into the compressing swirl of biotics in my hand, blocking out everything in the world.
I spend the next few days meditating in my spare time, mostly because I have nothing better to do because I can't go on missions. The good news is that Shepard isn't limited to taking only two people on missions and is taking almost everyone every time, dividing them up into two squads. One squad is full of the precise infiltrator types and the other is a loud powerhouse assault team, naturally I am on the assault team or I will be when these wounds are healed. Chakwas says they should be better by the time Feros swings around, which would be awesome because I don't want to miss any main missions.
I'm meditating in the vehicle bay, staring at the swirl of biotics in my hand when I see two feet appear at the top of my vison. The feet are wearing converse shoes, so that narrows it down to the fanfic boys. Fanfic boys, sounds like a shitty boy band. Doesn't matter who this person is, they clearly want to talk to me. I place my other hand on the ground and tilt my feet down to the ground to push myself to my feet, raising a brow when I see Ian looking at me.
"Hey." I say wearily, Ian and I haven't talked much because of him hanging around Garrus. "What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you." He says, sounding very serious. "It's… it's about Saleon."
I roll my eyes when he says Saleon, immediately annoyed. "Look, if Garrus sent you to get something from me you can tell that scaly prick to-"
"No, Garrus didn't send me." Ian shakes his head. "Just me. It's something… personal."
"Ok." I say as I cross my arms, if he doesn't want dirt on me then what's he want? "What do you want to know?"
"I just want to know if you know anything about Saleon, about what he did to people." He says sadly. "Where he went maybe?"
"Well, I'll be honest." I sigh. "I knew what he was doing, and I would have called C-Sec if I didn't need him, if Icarus didn't need him."
"Icarus supported him?" he asks immediately.
"For a time." I nod. "We had no choice, so we used him for what we needed and left him out to dry."
"Why didn't you tell C-Sec when you were done?" he asks, sounding irritated.
"I don't know." I shake my head. "I had bigger things to think about."
"You had bigger things to think about?" he asks rhetorically, now sounding angry. "You didn't think about the people he hurt? The people he kidnapped when he left?!"
"No I didn't." I shake my head. "I…" I suddenly remember why Ian's upset, I remember what happened to him in his story. In his story Saleon took his girlfriend when he fled the Citadel, experimented on her until he twisted her into a monster that Ian would eventually have to put down. That's why he's mad, I basically said that his girlfriend wasn't important. "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?" he seethes through gritted teeth.
"Yeah, I am." I say honestly. "He took someone you cared about, for that I'm sorry. If I knew where he went I would send people in to go get him, but I don't know exactly where he is."
"Do you know anything?" he asks, desperate hope on his voice. "Anything at all?"
"Nothing you don't already know." I tell him. "Again, I'm sorry."
"Did you have anything to do with the people he took?" he asks.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Ian." I say as I put my hand on his shoulder. "I promise you, neither me nor Icarus had anything to do with the kidnappings or the murders on the Citadel."
"Ok." he sighs. "I'm sorry, I just-"
"You've got nothing to be sorry about man, it's not your fault."
"I should have tried harder, I could have done something I…" he wipes his hand up his face. "God I thought I was over this." He mutters as he pinches his temples.
"I'm sure we'll get him in time." I smile as I pat his shoulder.
"I'm not so sure." he mutters before walking off.
Great, now I feel like a shithead. Why did I have to say we would get him? I know we won't get there in time, I know what's going to happen to all of those people he stole. Maybe Pac could help. Icarus is young but we're about, if we aren't already, the best funded paramilitary in Citadel space. We should be able to track down one ship, hopefully before it's too late. I can talk to Aila about it tomorrow at lunch, which reminds me…
Aila
Arriving on the Citadel tomorrow, giving you your heads up! Looking forward to talking to you again and learning what's new with Icarus.
Mav
I hit send and get back into my meditation pose, trying for the hundredth time to get this singularity to work.
I step off the Normandy onto the Citadel with the majority of the crew, Shepard gave us a curfew too, she said we had to be back on the Normandy in six hours. I know I have to meet with Aila in two hours, so that should give me plenty of time to get new armor and some extra ones too. I heard Alex talk about getting new armor too, actually that's what all the fanfic boys were saying. They each have their own armorer somehow, I guess Art just tagged along with one of them seeing as he doesn't have any contacts on the Citadel.
I make my way back to Golum's place, taking the skycars this time because I can afford it. It's nice that I don't have to walk anywhere anymore, or rely on others. I check my list before I walk into his shop, I need a new helmet casing, new front chest plate, new gel armor, and new vest. Jesus I hope I have enough money for all of this, I should but you never know.
"Hey Golum!" I chant as I walk into the store, holding my hands out as if receiving applause.
Golum looks at me and grumbles, not his happy grumble either. He seems pissed off.
"You ok?"
"No." he says as he stands up straight. "Do you have any idea how hard it is for a krogan to set up a shop on the Citadel? Let alone sell tools of war?"
"Armor is a tool of war?"
"C-Sec seems to think so!" he says angrily as he paces towards me. "Apparently some pyjak added an armor mod to a set he got here, now C-Sec's burying me in their paperwork. Cowards, if they were real men they would try to take this place by force!" he shouts as he points at me.
"So your shutting down?" I ask, getting an angry nod from him. "That fucking sucks man."
"Yeah." He seethes. "What are you here for?"
"Well I was here for new armor." I say as I hold up my Omni-tool. "But if you're closed then-"
"I'll get you the armor you need." He says as he walks towards me. "Those C-Sec bastards think they can shut me down? Fine, but I'm selling every last bit of armor in here before they do."
"Aren't you not allowed?"
"I'm not, but I don't care." He says as he slices his hand through the air.
"They could arrest you man." I warn.
"They can try." He smiles a toothy krogan grin. "What do you need?"
I send him the list and he looks it over, a holographic image of my armor set showing up on his wrist. "You took a beating, but I've never seen that blood before, who were you fighting?" he asks as he taps each piece of broken armor for a closer look.
"Geth." I nod. "The blood is theirs, the holes in my armor are from a krogan Battlemaster."
"How did you kill him?" Golum asks as he continues to examine my holo-armor.
"How do you know I killed him?" I ask with a smirk.
"Because you're standing here." He huffs before closing the application and walking into the back room.
"I didn't kill him." I yell into the back. "Urdnot Wrex did."
I hear the rummaging in the back stop and Golum walks back into the front of the store with half of the armor I need.
"You fight with Urdnot Wrex?" he says in a low tone, one that I can't get a read on to know if it's good or bad.
"Yeah." I finally answer. "Why do you care?"
"I don't." he grumbles. "I would have cared a few hundred years ago, but now I don't."
"Did you know Wrex?" I ask curiously.
"I did, I used to be in Urdnot."
"What?!" I cough. "You're in Urdnot?"
"Yeah, I was. I fought for Urdnot when it was under Wrexs banner." He explains as he walks around gathering armor. "I was one of the few who didn't turn on him with his father attacked him in the Hollows."
"Doesn't sound like you're happy to hear about him." I say, crossing my arms.
"Wrex wanted to do something good for Tuchanka, that's why I followed him." he says. "But when Wrex left because he thought we weren't ready as a species, a lot of us lost our way and began selling ourselves as mercs. I understood why Wrex left, he didn't like our need to fight, and I accepted that." he shifts forward and tilts his head and I see anger in his eyes. "But when I heard Wrex was hiring himself out for money, doing what he discouraged our young to do, that's when I lost faith in him."
"So you hate Wrex?"
"No." he shakes his head, annoyed that I didn't know where he was going with this. "Wrex is smart, strong, I have the highest respect for him as a warrior and a leader, but not as a krogan. A krogan sticks to his beliefs no matter what, and if someone tries to stop him he kills them. Wrex is a hypocrite, no more ready than any other krogan to make a change, you can tell him I said that."
"I probably won't." I say honestly. "I like living."
"I don't blame you." He laughs. "One day I'll tell him myself, glad to know he's still alive so I can. Here's your armor by the way, you're all set to go."
"Thanks Golum, nice talking to you." I say as I mark the Normandy's docking cradle for delivery. "Good luck with your shop."
"I don't need luck." He smirks as I open the door. "Luck is for the weak."
"You know what, I might be able to help you with this whole thing." I say motioning to the store. "Let me see what I can do ok?"
"Whatever you say." He shrugs.
The walk to the restaurant Aila picked out wasn't far, only half an hour and I had time to kill. I'm about ten minutes away from the place when I see a door to a shop tucked away in the corner, a sign above the door labeled Gentleman's Finest. Curiosity taking hold of me I walk into the door and am greeted by something that seems like it would be in the classiest of men's dreams.
The store is mostly varnished hardwood and dark earth tones, an old color scheme with modern architecture. Lining one of the walls is an assortment of liquor bottles, each unique bottle catching the florescent light and casting a myriad of auburn and golden light beams across the wooden shelves. Under that are rows of humidors full of cigars, the aroma of tobacco wafting off them. The neat boxes having tasteful etchings on the edges and displayed under moody lighting that catches against the gloss.
On the other side of the room are half mannequins with suits on them, all of them with the crisp cleanness of modern clothes while keeping that old world style and feel, ditching the weird color schemes and replacing them with classy greys, blues and blacks. Behind the mannequins are rolls of fabric and cloth for making adjustments, as well as accessories like watches and pocket squares. There's even a small shoe making kit, not polishing, making. They fucking make shoes here!
"Good lord." I whisper in awe as I look at the pure class that has managed to be contained in one store, if I was holding bags I would have dropped them.
"Good day lad." A feint Irish accented voice greets.
I look over and see the man who was talking. He looks to be about fifty years old and has brown hair with salt and pepper sideburns. He's wearing a white dress shirt with a futuristic collar, the sleeves are rolled up and over that is a grey silk vest. He has small round eyeglasses hanging off his nose and a measuring tape draped over his neck. If you look up gentleman in the dictionary, you will see a picture of this man.
"Hey there." I say as I walk forward, still looking around in awe.
"Welcome to Gentleman's Finest!" he smiles as he walks around that counter. "Yah'll not find a better selection of tobacco, liquor, and clothing on all the Citadel!"
"I figured as much." I nod as I walk up to him.
The man holds out his hand and smiles at me. "The names Reilly O'Brien, pleasure to meet yah mister…"
"Matticks." I answer as I shake his hand. "James Matticks. Mister O'Brien I'll be honest-"
"Please." He smirks as he holds up his hands. "O'Brien was me fathers name, call me Reilly."
"Well Reilly," I smile as I walk up to the liquor shelf. "you just might have my new favorite store on the Citadel."
"Aye, I'm proud to say that this is the only store on this here station where a man can truly find proper drink and attire." He says as he motions around him. "What can I help yah with today lad?"
"There's not much you can't help me with Reilly." I chuckle as I look around. "Now that I see it, I need some cigars, scotch and a few suits but I'm afraid I'm on a deadline so I'll have to keep with the cigars."
"If yer interested in cigars, old Reilly can help yah." He says as he wraps and arm around me and leads me to the humidors. "If yah be wantin' a suit I could also take yer measurements and have them delivered."
"That sounds perfect." I smile.
Reilly sets me up with a small humidor and ships it to the Normandy, he then takes a few minutes to get my measurements and wishes me a good day. I manage to make it to the restaurant before Aila does and take a seat at an outdoor table for two, flipping through Gentleman's Finest extranet site while I wait. I never could afford the expensive liquor or cigars back when I was home and I only had one suit for funerals, now that I have money I'm a tad worried I might go overboard but I'm sure I won't care in the end.
My eyes look up when I see someone walk onto the porch, its Aila but I notice something right away. She is dressed up with a sophisticated sex appeal that I've never seen her in, she always wore nice clothes but she is dressed to impress today. She's wearing a knee high black dress that's cut on an angle to show more leg on one side, a decorative yellow geometric pattern running up the longer side. The dress has the standard hole cut out in the middle that exposes her stomach and a bit of cleavage, but it matches the pattern on her side.
"Wow Aila!" I smile as I get up to give her a hug. "You look great!"
"James it's so good to see you again!" she says with a cheery tone. "And thank you!"
"Seriously." I say as I pull out of the hug, Aila clinging to me slightly. "You dress up for little old me?"
Aila starts to blush and looks away for a moment. "I… no of course not… I'm… I have a meeting today!" she says suddenly, as if she forgot.
I notice a little Icarus logo over her left breast, but this one is different from the one I wear. The prongs on the side are a bright yellow that matches the yellow of her dress and the I in the middle is white.
"We make clothes now?" I ask as I tilt my head at her.
"That's actually one of the things I wanted to talk to you about." She says as she sits down. "Icarus's branches are color coordinated now, the syndicate branch is yellow, the paramilitary branch is red, the research branch is blue and the Contractors are white. The logos are solid for regular staff and people of importance wear a white I in between the colored prongs."
"I can only imagine this was your idea." I smirk as I sit across from her.
"It was actually Greg's." she says as she crosses her legs and folds her hands on her lap. "He's always happy to help but I can tell he isn't very happy in advertising, he gets bored and is always coming up with ideas for the company."
"That's too bad." I frown. "I wish we could find something better for him to do, something he would like doing."
"Pakiev and I had an idea about that." she says with a proud smile. "It's nowhere near ready but we think it could work and give Greg something he would like to do."
"What is it?"
"It's still in its infancy as far as plans go." she tells me. "You don't need to worry about it right now, I would want to get your hopes up if we can't make it happen."
"Alright." I smirk as I lean back. "Whatever you say Aila. How is Pac doing with the Icarus forces? Does he like the new colors? Did he get a fancy new dress too?"
"He didn't mention anything about the colors." Aila smiles. "And no he didn't get a dress. Actually I got this from a famous asari design company that I acquired, we have a few clothing companies but I got this one just for me." she says, sounding a little embarrassed.
"You got yourself a company because you liked the clothes?" I ask, an idea popping into my head. "We can do that?"
"If you want to." She shrugs.
"Ok!" I say excitedly as I lean forward. "I just found this shop, Gentlemen's Finest, that has all of this awesome stuff. Oh Aila, you wouldn't believe it! They have everything!"
"What do they sell?" Aila asks, getting excited herself.
"They have probably the best suits I've seen in a while." I tell her. "Plus a huge selection of liquor and cigars!"
Aila gives me an unimpressed look when I mention the alcohol and cigars. "Really?" she asks in a condescending tone. "Why would you want more of that awful drink, and cigars? You know those aren't good for you right?"
"Well yeah." I admit. "But I like that stuff, don't make me beg Aila!" I joke.
"I'll see what I can do." she sighs, shooting me a cheeky smirk. "Besides, it shouldn't be too hard to get."
"Thanks." I smile as a waiter walks up to us. Aila and I order some food and a few drinks and we go back to talking. "So what's Saylem up to? He having fun with a nice new lab?"
"When I sent him the specs for his new lab he almost smiled!" she said excitedly, like a mother talking about her child's first words. "Saylem hasn't talked to anyone but Pakiev in the past few weeks though, Pakiev says they are working on a special project."
"Special project?" I ask curiously.
"Yes, they won't tell me anything but they gave me a short vid." She says, opening her Omni-tool. "I know it's impressive but it not for me, it's definitely Pakievs thing."
"Let's take a look then." I say as I open the video.
The first thing I see is its night time and raining, somehow the light form the moon breaking through the clouds to highlight the jungle-like foliage. I stare at the picture for a bit, watching raindrops bead off the huge leaves with the loud clashing of rain in the background. One of the leaves looks weird, like someone cut it into a pattern. Then I realize it's a helmet, it doesn't take long for the rest of the soldier to come into view. The guy doesn't move a muscle, for all I know he's just a big black armored statue letting the rain bead off of him.
Suddenly a few people start walking down a trail and when they get closer I see they're Eclipse troops, probably eight of them patrolling down the path. Once they get within twenty feet, the statue soldier raises his hand, three fingers pointed upwards. On the exact same tempo of the first soldiers footsteps, the fingers fall and on the last one the fist pumps down with it.
The soldier takes off and the camera follows, a gun sliding up into frame. Impossibly quiet rounds launch from the rifles, each burp of fire crashing into an Eclipse trooper's chest. I see four more blurs of black rush in from the other side of the trail, each one firing their own muffled rifles. I see a hand reach out and grab one of the falling Eclipse troopers, tucking him into a human shield before dragging him into the bush opposite of the starting position with his weapon still scanning the path. And just like that, in those three seconds of combat, the trail is clean again, the rain washing away the blood and footprints.
"Jesus Christ!" I exclaim at the show of aggressively precise force and skill. "Special forces?"
"Pakiev tells me it's our first special forces team." Aila says, trying to sound enthused but I know it's not her cup of tea. "He says with the amount of training and equipment they will be one of the most deadly troops in the galaxy."
"I know Pac was military, and is a good strategist." I say, shrugging and rolling my head. "But there are some crazy special forces out there, N7, Cabals, STG, Asari Commandos, and tons of other groups out there."
"I know." Aila nods. "Pakiev told me all about them, he was still positive our own special forces will be able to hold their own."
"How many do we have?" I ask, still curious about Icarus's military strength.
"We have just the one team of six special forces." She says quietly. "Pakiev says we have around two hundred other soldiers but the numbers are rising every week."
"That's pretty good." I say, a white lie if anything. Granted that's pretty good for a couple weeks but that's nothing against the reapers, we need to pick it up a bit if we want to make an impact on the battlefield. No matter what style of fighting and army has, it will all boil down to a massive head to head slugfest against the reapers, that's where numbers will count. "Anything else I should know?"
"Yes, there's a new ID system in place." She tells me as she takes a sip of the drink that was placed in front of her. "You will also have to fill out an evaluation with a psychiatrist."
"A psychiatrist?" I snort. "What, you think I'm crazy?"
"Sometimes." Aila smirks. "It's not that bad, it will only take a few hours."
"Hours?!" I practically shout.
"You only have to do it once." She rolls her eyes at me.
"Yeah, for hours." I stress with a smirk.
"Everyone has to do it, though Lorin made sure we knew he wasn't happy about it."
"Lorin did it?" I ask. "Do I have access to his file?"
"You have access to everyone's files." She states simply. "You're a CEO."
"Sweet." I smile evilly.
"Don't mess with Lorin's files!" Aila warns. "I mean it!"
"Aila." I say as I place a hand on my heart. "I would never."
Aila rolls her eyes at me and I smile, I missed talking to Aila. Our food arrives next and we start to eat, talking about this and that. We talk for about an hour after we finish our food, Aila asking me about the Normandy crew and me asking more about Icarus. Eventually our lunch comes to an end and we stand to say our goodbyes.
"Well Aila I should get going." I say as I straighten my jacket. "The Normandy needs me, and I'm sure you've got your meeting to go to."
"Hmm? Oh… Yes." She says nervously. "I should go do that. I… It's great seeing you again James."
"You to Aila!" I smile as she pulls me into a tight hug. "Hey have you heard of Exogeni?"
"Saylem mentioned something about them." she says, still holding me in a hug. "Why?"
"I might be able to get some dirt on them in a day or two, I'll send it to Saylem." I say. "And Aila?"
"Yes?" she asks.
"Wanna let me go?" I ask.
"Oh." She blushes as she lets me go, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry."
"It's ok." I laugh. "Take care Aila, keep in touch."
"I will!" she smiles as she starts to walk backwards. "Stay safe out there!"
"No promises!" I call back as I make my way into the crowd.
I start to push my way through the crowd, making my way to the Normandy. I get a message from Aila about the Icarus interview and hit the link, I might as well start it now.
[I]
ICARUS
-PERSONNEL DATABASE-
ID Code_A-01-C
Name: James Matticks
Position: Contractor CEO
Call Sign: Maverick
Status: Active
Species: Human
Height: 196cm
Weight: 95kg
Hair Color: Blonde
Iris Color: Blue
Skin Color: White
COMBAT PROFICIENCIES
Ranged: Icarus employee A-01-C preforms adequately with mid ranged firearms. Temperament decreases when under fire, high pressure situations, or when berated by Icarus employee D-02-C.
CQC: Icarus employee A-01-C excels in close quarters combat involving shotguns and hand to hand combat. Employee uses unorthodox fighting techniques paired with biotics to efficiently and quickly eliminate hostile targets.
PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION
Work Relations: A-01-C has excellent work relations with other A-ranked Icarus employees and tries to be friendly with other Icarus personnel, the main concern with A-01-C is when interacting with D-02-C. Icarus employee A-01-C appears to be mentally stable when not in the presence of Icarus employee D-02-C, he remains calm in various situations despite having a short temperament. When in the presence of D-02-C however, A-01-C becomes slightly aggravated and tends to take unneeded risks seemingly to only aggravate or cause D-02-C discomfort. Icarus employee A-01-S has made comments regarding A-01-C and D-02-C relationship, stating that "They are a bad influence on each other." Despite A-01-C and D-02-C's constant fighting and bickering, something most races would perceive as actions between enemies, they consider themselves friends.
Persona Mental State: Icarus employee A-01-C is headstrong and confident, believing that he can accomplish any task regardless of physical and mental hurdles. A-01-C has a "laid back" attitude the majority of the time, despite having an short temper when dealing with people he has dubbed "assholes." A-01-C falls under the category of a high functioning alcoholic even though inebriation is reached as often as the average human male in A-01-C's age group. A-01-C's drinking should be monitored, while it can't be described as regular alcoholism, it could develop if A-01-C undergoes mental trauma. A-01-C becomes uncomfortable and remorseful when questioned about the elimination of hostile targets, displaying sociopathic tendencies of guilt towards his combat victims. A-01-C is at risk of developing PTSD unless he receives psychiatric help with his guilt but refuses any offers of help. A-01-C refuses help in every situation, this may be linked to his childhood but any attempt to talk to A-01-C about his past is ignored and deflected with humor. This of course is speculation and will require further investigation.
MEDICAL RECORDS
Actual medical records for A-01-C are non-existent before his Systems Alliance Civilian registration date, A-01-C has instead decided to list his own injuries from memory and due to no other options we are forced to accept these as fact. Most injuries A-01-C recalls are not serious injuries, the most serious being a broken Radius and Ulna due to a sports related injury. Every other injury was sustained in violent altercations that A-01-C calls "scraps", "bar fights", or "fighting buddies for fun." These injuries are as superficial as scraped knuckles and bruises to broken fingers or noses, though no instance exceeds three occurrences. [ID_CHECK:ACCESS APPROVED… PASSWORD_REQUIRED:************… PASSWORD APPROVED… WELCOME MR. MATTICKS, THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS BEEN DECLASSIFIED] It is also to be noted that A-01-C is taking medication of Acute Discrimination Biotic Cancer (ADBC) and will be able to undergo surgery within a year. A-01-C has stressed that no Icarus personnel is to be alerted of his condition unless a life is put at risk and upon asking if he had the authority to keep the mention of his ADBC visible to him only, and was told he did, he exercised it.
BIOTIC LEVELS
F.D.S.R.
Force: 7
Discrimination: 2
Surge: 6
Reserves: 4
B.P.L.
Current: 4
Potential: 6
A/N: So there you go! There's your first Icarus file, what do you think? I basically started these to jump start my muse when things were going slow and I thought they turned out to be kind of interesting. So yeah, let me know if you like it and who you might like to see next.
R/R
Yurei Hanatsuki: Don't know if I need a beta reader, but if want to then I wouldn't say no!
pieslinger: Hey man! Glad you like my story! I will for sure keep up the good work, or try really hard too, and I hoped you liked this chapter.
general-joseph-dickson: We shall never know.
CrimsonKnight117: It was going to be a lot weirder, LSD weird but I read it over once I was done and cut a lot out. Yeah, Shepard is tenacious, she's not going to let that go that's for sure.
TheRev28: That's makes me feel pretty good, so thanks man!
Yeah, I don't want Mav to be seen as a superpowered character who can do no wrong. They are fun for a bit but then they get boring and predictable. Thanks for noticing!
Yup, most people were upset at first… then weirded out. Trust me man, it was going to be melting faces, we are all mannequins in dream stars weird. Glad you thought that conversation was funny, had almost the exact same one with my friend Goose. A lot of conversations I put in this story are taken from my friends, adds some realism.
Thanks, I like the relationship between the two.
Thanks again, glad it made your day a bit brighter.
OBSERVER01: Thank you sir, I thought it was interesting. I've got some plans for Cerberus and Icarus.
DelVarO: Thanks man, and yeah I didn't want to bug you with something so small. Glad you liked the dream, I thought it would be a funny little prank.
toprichie97: Sorry man, hope the chapter gave you sweet dreams!
Lfan8: I thought I would get a few people with that! Yeah sorry man, I got other plans for all that. Don't cry man! You'll make me feel really bad!... Kinda bad… indifferent… I don't really care. ;) Yup, lots of things to look forward to!
Kaiya Smith: Could have been worse.
Guest1: You'll just have to keep wondering, though it won't be relationship inception or anything .
Guest2: Got yah! And that's tame compared to what was planned. Still waiting for more Hero I am Not, but it might be lack of things to read.
Nas4a2: Thanks, glad you liked em!
Kalikedeshi Terminal Velocity: Dream sequence?
Spiritstrike: Yeah, I got that a lot. I've also responded that it could have been weirder a lot so… yeah.
Thanks, wasn't going for cute but I'm not sure what I was going for so I'll take cute, nothing wrong with cute. Yeah guys pretty stubborn, which in no way reflects my own personality. So thank you for your indirect sympathy that I don't need/want. ;)
I appreciate you saying that, it's my main concern next to canon character interaction. You should give their stories another try, I like them though I agree the Ian/Garrus thing was weird. But I just pushed past it, TheRev28 didn't go into great detail or make it super mushy, it was basically a bromance with innuendo put in now and then.
Yeah, I had that when I wrote this chapter. I find it doesn't reduce quality though, just makes things agonizingly slow. I just keep pushing until the bug catches me again and then I'm back to normal! I doubt it would work for everyone though, plus the Icarus files helped a lot. Holy shit I loved Skyrim! That game stole a crazy amount of time from my life, more then I'm proud to admit but it was worth it! I even have a fanfic set in Skyrim that I started writing, then I stopped to write Brothers but I lost all interest for some reason. Now I've got this! Anyway, thanks!
Niras91: No problem, and don't worry about it. I understand what you're going through.
I keep trying but it's not working, I'll have to try something else! ;)
Did you get it now? I re-sent it. And it went good as I'm sure you read in my first A/N
Redleafs16: Thank you man! I appreciate that! You should give their stories a read man, if it wasn't for them this wouldn't exist. It's also Dylan not Daniel, and Mav not Mac, sorry that was bugging me. Anyway…
1) Probably not, he might have Art mention something but I've still working that bit out.
2) Yeah I suppose, nothing major though. Just natural curiosity.
Thanks again man, I WILL TRY! Also not a merc… ;)