New Start Plus: in spaaaaace!

by omaster43

Nick Walters and his merry band of misfits are back with a story about helping Shepard and crew fight giant eldritch robot abominations, most likely through Dumb magic and crazy shenanigans This is a continuation of my previous story, so reading that one first is recommended. but I'm not your nanny you wanna be confused that's your choice. Oc-insert, just came from Dragon age

14. Chapter 14 Beyond Understanding

Ch 14

Beyond understanding

-/-

Zura'Nul POV

"Julee, isn't this a bit much?" I asked, adjusting the animal ears on top of my head. "I'm also beginning to believe that Black Cat isn't a hero." I gave the skintight black suit I was wearing a once over. It left nothing to the imagination.

"Let me see." Julee checked my suit's elasticity, helping me stretch out from my toes to my fingers, bending me in awkward angles, usually, she would be rather promiscuous, touching me in places that would drive me into a cold shower, but Julee is strangely reserved when it comes to her clothes. It didn't stop me from enjoying it a little. "How's that, is anything pinching? Anything loose? Is it riding up?"

"O-oh, uh, no, everything is in place, it's just I've never worn anything this tight, even my suit has a bit of patting," I muttered.

"No worries, I placed a comfort rune within the lining, is it not working?"

"I, um, I think so." It was tight, but it didn't hurt or anything, it hugged me in some places and gave others support. "Is this the same rune you put on your bras?"

"Yep," she adjusted my boob window.

"You think Nick is going to blow a gasket when he sees your boob window?" Lia teased, her outfit was just as bad as mine, worse even, I only had a small boob window, she was wearing a tiny corset, that pushed out her breasts and showed off her well-toned abs with leather pants, thigh-high boots, and some kind of cape. All spotless white.

"Look who's talking~," I teased.

A light blush crossed Lia's cheeks, "It's not my fault, what kind of woman is Emma Frost to wear this into battle. All comics are made by horny old men," She hissed, using her cape to cover herself.

"That's not true, they used to be horny young men once~," Kasumi teased. She was wearing a skintight black, white, and red spider theme outfit with a red mask, and unlike us, she was excited. "EEEP!" she squeaked as Neria came up behind her, helping her with the costume.

"I'm sure there were plenty of horny women that helped draw them~," she stage-whispered in Kasumi's ear. She slowly trailed Kasumi's body making sure there were no pinches or loose areas. "How's that~?"

"It, it's good," Kasumi gasped. Her face was red as a cherry.

"What do you say~?" Neria asked, moving her hands up Kasumi's thighs, stopping as she cupped her backside.

"Th-thank you," she muttered.

"What was that?" Neria squeezed.

"THANK YOU!"

Neria smiled and gave her a kiss on the neck, leaving a kiss mark before covering it with the red scarf, "You're welcome. Tali, do you need any help?"

How can she do that? Poor Kasumi was blushing and sweating like crazy.

"Please~," Tali sighed. "Why would anyone wear this!?"

"Tali... it's inside out," Neria answered.

"Oh."

"Here." Neria helped her.

Tali was very fit, most of the ground crew were, Lia and I only had vanity muscles, they had the real thing... muscles are nice.

"Hold still," Julee ordered, coming over with a furry rope.

"Um... what's that?" I asked.

"It's the costume's tail," she answered, slotting the tail just above my pelvis, locking it in place.

"Woah~, that's weird." I looked at my new tail, "It feels like an extra hand." I swished it back and forward.

"Tell me about it~," Julee teased, using her tail to wrap around mine. For some reason, it felt very intimate. "Now," she pulled out a stack of papers, "You know the drill~."

"Yes ma'am~," I drawled, taking my stack.

"Ugh~, Why did it have to be a leotard~" Tali groaned.

"Blame your genetics~," Neria teased, making sure the leotard didn't ride up her butt.

"It would be a shame to hide them away~," Kasumi teased.

"A boob window and a cape, Nick is going to snap~," Tali giggled.

"Why?" Neria asked.

"I thought Nick didn't like those things?" Tali answered.

"Nick would lose it if you went to battle wearing them, trust me, but just to wear? He won't care, the only clothing Nick hates are high heels, he can barely handle his dress shoes," Neria explained.

"High heels?" I asked.

"Nick thinks they are a crime against womankind," Julee answered, "I tend to agree with him, they might make my ass look great, but the pain is never worth it, I remember wearing some to the Landsmeet last year, I cried a little, Nick ended up missing a day, massaging my feet getting his taxes increased." she sighed, "I was so embarrassed, I was supposed to be his partner and I ended up having to be babysat, and because of that Nick was punished."

"Was he angry at you," I asked.

"Nah, Nick never takes the Landsmeet seriously, he just throws Anora money to leave him alone, it works 90% of the time. I'm pretty sure he's paid most of Ferelden's new imperial highway plan off by now. But that's not the point, I was his partner and I failed, being in a relationship is more than just sex and dates and being lazy on a couch, it's commitment, sacrifice, and hard work. I made a stupid mistake and got hurt, and because of that Nick got in trouble."

"It's also forgiveness," Neria countered, pressing her forehead against Julee's. "Stop beating yourself up over that. You learned what we all knew; high heels are stupid." Julee gave a little chuckle. "That's my girl~." they shared a kiss. "ALRIGHT LADIES! Go get us some data, I need to go make love to this woman!" Julee squeaked as Neria tossed her over her shoulder and led her out of their massive closet.

Commitment, sacrifice, and hard work? Quarians can do that. We are pros at it.

-/-

Nick POV

Gamer Human

Nick Walters

Title: Ferelden's Artificer (+15% to Int, Wis, and Luk)

Lvl: 73 EXP: 56,234/74,000

HP: 2440/2440

MP: 1830/2080

CP: 2440/2440

Str: Hercules's brother's cousin's former sidekick

Vit: there is no vanity in your muscles

Dex: you know the 5D's of dodgeball by heart

Int: using canon to your advantage

Wis: there is no such thing as canon

Cha: no lady can resist the Smolder

Luk: the devil wants his luck back

Stat points: 59

74,715G 84S 13C

383,502,432 Credits

Gacha tokens: 13

Gold loot Boxes: 11

Silver loot Boxes: 1

Mmm, my stats are still ridiculous, just the way I like them. Tali's mission nearly cost me 100 million credits, but that's fine, I'm still gaining money from the Darkspawn, which is still objectively terrifying, how many darkspawn are there? My golems have been killing them for nearly 5 years. All this tells me is that the Deep roads are bigger than I thought and that they were filled with darkspawn.

Should I use my gacha tokens before or after the Derelict Reaper?

I should open my Gold loot boxes.

Gold loot boxes don't really work using Luk, a gold box produces money, 3-5 objects, one that is a guaranteed rare or higher, and unless they're gacha tokens or skills, opening multiple boxes at once avoids the chance of getting the same item.

Bronze and Silver loot boxes work more on luck because they calculate my Stats and use it to maybe produce a rare item, most of the time it's just basic weapons and a bit of money. I don't even get rewarded bronze loot boxes, I have to interact with '?' symbols on my world map, and those tend to be hit or miss. I once found a chainsaw on Omega, like a legitimate chainsaw, gas-powered and everything, it made no sense being there.

I also think it's time for me to tell everybody the truth about me, we've done all the loyalty missions and the derelict Reaper is around the corner, there is no need for me to keep my origins a secret anymore, even Miranda has stopped sending daily reports to TIM.

Do you wish to open your golden loot boxes (11)?

Yes

1,100 gold

9 gacha tokens

5 rare skill scrolls

2 uncommon skill scrolls

5 common skill scrolls

Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments (very rare)

Potion of Longevity (very rare)

Ravager M-ship blueprint (very rare)

Bag of magical Beans (rare)

Spellwrought Tattoo (Rare)

Mjolnir power armor chest piece (Rare)

E-11 blaster rifle - full Powercell (uncommon)

The Noisy Cricket – fully charged (Uncommon)

Helm of comprehending languages (Uncommon)

Living gloves (uncommon)

Portal Compass (uncommon)

Enduring Spellbook (common)

Potion of comprehension (common)

Pipe of remembrance (common)

Holographic Blue-eyed white dragon card (common)

Fluffy cuffs (common)

Plain white cotton T-shirt (common)

Magical Shiftweave (common)

Magical scribe pen (common)

Normal smith tools (common)

Cow feed (common)

Oof, that's a lot of stuff. Some are more useful than others. I absorbed the blueprint into my construction skill, slotting itself in my spaceship section.

The Milano~. This is the ship that housed the Guardians of the Galaxy. It didn't come with its wormhole engine.

Welcome to the Gamer's store

I searched for the Milano, FTL engine, but nothing came up. That only brought up more Questions, I remember watching the Guardians of the Galaxy, they definitely had some kind of Einstein-Rosen bridge tech, but it wasn't an engine. The ship might be able to find wormholes and travel through them, I would have to build the ship to know.

Maybe I could use the Sling Ring as an FTL engine, opening temporary portals anywhere in the galaxy, but I didn't even know where to start. Maybe a mind rune connected to the controls linked to a mana engine? Would that even work or does the sling ring need direct contact? I could try and reverse engineer the sling ring, but unfortunately wouldn't know where to start.

The sling ring was made of some kind of alloy, I'm sure I can find what it is made up of, Mordin probably has the right equipment, but I have no doubt it has some spells added to it during the forging process. I would need to learn that first.

I searched for Sling Ring in the store's magical tools section. Damn thing cost over 10,000 gold! That's ridiculous. Every sorcerer and their mothers have one in Marvel! I looked at Aagard's rainbow bridge but that was far out of my price range, I'm surprised a peasant like me was even allowed to look at it. Most FTL tech was meant more for entire civilizations, I needed billions of people backing me if I wanted something that expensive.

I of course looked through the deals the store had, but like always it was filled with weird things, who would want 50 frostback spiders for 3 gold or nipple pasties that shoot weak lasers for 80 silver.

"NICK!" I snapped out of my thoughts looking at Kasumi in Spider-Silk cosplay. She filled out that outfit very well. Next to her was Tali in a Powergirl outfit, Zura as Black Cat, and Lia as Emma Frost. My mouth got a little dry, I don't care what people say about comics or cosplayers, anyone brave enough to wear an outfit from a comic is a hero in my book. "NICK!"

"Huh, yes?" I smiled nonchalantly, trying to play off my gawking.

"You like what you see?" She teased.

"Yes, 100%, five stars," I immediately agreed, nodding like a madman.

"Try and have some shame~," Tali huffed.

"Never~," I hissed, "Have you seen yourself? Your every nerd's wet dream." I fanned myself.

Tali rolled her eyes, "What's with all the food?"

"Food?" I finally looked around at the massive amount of food I'd made. "Oops, Sorry about this, I tend to cook when I'm thinking or crafting, but to be fair when you have to feed a bunch of people with super metabolisms, there could be worse habits," I looked over to Astral, Sky, and Grunt who were shoving food down their throats, barely chewing.

"Makes sense, speaking of Crafting I need a fridge."

"A fridge?" I teased.

"It only took a day to realize the danger of taking you away from a kitchen, better safe than sorry," Kasumi huffed.

"I also want a fridge for the Engineering crew downstairs," Tali huffed, with Zura and Lia nodding.

"The engineering I understand, I was going to put one down there anyway, I just got busy with other projects, but your own private fridge~," I scoffed at Kasumi. "It's going to cost you."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "What do you want?"

"Neria wants a date~," I teased. I expected a huff and an uncaring wave, not for her face to explode into a wide-eyed blush.

"D-date!?" she coughed trying to cover her squeak.

"...Yes~," I drawled, giving her a confused look. "... are you okay?"

"YES! I mean... yes, I'm okay. Completely normal, cool gurl, right here... Completely normal~." she gave me two thumbs up.

.

.

.

"Okay... How about a day after we deal with the Entity?" I asked.

"Yep! Sounds good! A day after... that. A good day for a date, yep," She nodded a bit too fast and too long.

"If you're nervous-"

"NOPE! I'm down to clown, hot lady elf, who can resist, not this guy!" she poked me in the chest. "Am I right~?"

I gently held her hand and kissed her fingers, "It's okay if you don't want to go on a date, I might be asking for too much." I was feeling a bit bad, she was kinda freaking out.

She cupped my face, "No, it's okay. It's been nearly 8 months since Kenji passed and I've been talking with Kelly... working through my grief, Ayla helped." she tossed me a smirk.

"...Okay, I'll tell Neria, I should have your fridge by the end of the day."

Kasumi squeezed my face, "Not so fast," she hissed, "I want it completely filled." I tsked. She caught me. "You sneaky little miser~."

"Anything specific?"

"Seafood please."

"Multiversal?"

She shook her head, "I can barely cook what my mother taught me, keep it earth side."

"...Do you just want Noodles~?" I drawled.

"...No... yes... I want two fridges," she huffed.

I rolled my eyes. "I'll make you one fridge and a cabinet for your Noodles."

She gave me a quick kiss before jumping back, "Thanks~." she smirked and ran off.

Wow~.

"Ship... Bunny~," Tali teased.

"I don't want to hear it from you, ya little perv," I huffed. "Ever since the trial you've been locking lips with every lady you know. Poor Dagna is never going to look at you the same."

"I thought you wanted me to be a little more selfish," she countered.

"I do, but you're going full dragon, you need to calm down a little," I warned.

"Going full Dragon?" Lia asked.

"Dragons tend to collect things, money, spells, food, people, anything that gives them power. Right now, Tali is dipping into Sky's domain and if she's not careful Sky's going to take notice," I warned.

"What does that mean? Is Sky going to attack her," Zura asked.

"... Don't tease dragons, they take it as an invitation, and you Tali have been bending over and shaking your ass at her for months."

"I have not!" Tali stuttered.

"Oh, so you haven't been giving her kisses and hugs, you haven't been helping her with her Omni-tool," I leaned forward, "You haven't been cleaning her scales?"

"Julee told me to do that last one!"

"Oh? So, you don't like the attention she gives you," she gained a guilty look, "You don't like it when she kisses you, gives you gifts, helps you in your magic studies?"

"...Well~." she played with her fingers.

"You have been teasing her, and she's been getting aggressive, she broke my pelvis 4 times since I've been here." I tapped her on the forehead. "I'm not covering for you anymore, you're on your own."

"Ooooh~, I'm so scared~," she blew me a raspberry, "I've fought Reapers, you think I can't handle one dragon? Watch how it's done~," she huffed.

We watched her walk over to Sky, confidence oozing off of her. She said something that got Sky to her feet, dwarfing her, Dagna even looked wide-eyed at whatever she said, to Tali's credit she didn't run. Sky snapped her eyes at me, I just shrugged and waved a surrender, Tali wasn't under my protection, she was a free agent, Sky could do whatever she wanted, and she did.

Sky attacked her, shoving her tongue down Tali's throat, and woman-handling her body, grabbing her ass and pulling her hair.

I could hear Tali's panicked moans and squeaks as Sky marked and bit her. Dagna finally snapped out of her shock and pried Sky off Tali, causing the Quarian to flop on the floor like a fish. She quickly got her feet under her and backpedaled to the kitchen bar, face redder than a tomato, hair a mess, with a wild look in her eyes.

"what's wrong Powergirl? I thought you had this~," I teased.

"What did you say?" Zura asked, helping to her seat.

"I... I just said that I liked her scales," she muttered, trying to hide her blushing cheeks, making her look more adorable. That had me busting a gut. "SHUT IT!"

"Seriously~, maybe you wanna tell her how big her hoard is next~?" I gasped through my chuckles.

"It isn't funny!" she huffed.

"You're right~, it's hilarious," I laughed even louder. She tried strangling me but I was behind the counter, a bit too far from her grabbers. "And the best part~, you didn't think it all the way through~." I pointed over to Sky, who was now talking to Julee, both their tails waving back and forth like crazy. "You forgot that Sky isn't the only one hunting for your attention, and she's a pack hunter."

"Tali~!" Julee cheered walking over, a smile just a bit too big not to send a shiver up your spine on her face. "How's the outfit?"

"uh, mmm, good," she squeaked, playing with her fingers.

Julee slowly intertwined her fingers with Tali, "That's...good~." she looked over at me, and raised my hands up in surrender. Tali was on her own. Julee's eyes fully dilated, "Very good~." her sultry tone made me twitch.

Gamer's Mind has blocked Julia Hope's racial ability: Lust

"How about you girls~?" she smiled at Lia and Zura, who were blushing.

I tapped my hand on the counter, "No." Julee's stare flinted, but I did not wilt, "No." Julee gave a cute pout but conceded.

"Girls please have your report ready by 6. Tali... you can give me an... oral report," she stage-whispered, giving Tali a kiss on the cheek, slipping a piece of chocolate in her mouth making sure Tali could see the sweet before retreating.

"...Nick?" Tali muttered.

"Yes, Tali?"

"... Am I about to lose my virginity?"

"...That's up to you. Julee might play aggressively but consent is very important. It won't stop her from trying to seduce you, and trust me... she plays dirty, even now she's blackmailing you to wear cosplay. I'm surprised you're even wearing that, you must still care for your father, or at the very least embarrassed about your 'seduction' skills~," I teased.

"My seduction skills are legendary," she hissed.

I slowly blinked at her, "Yep~, look at me... completely seduced," I drawled.

"Shut it!" she ordered, before giving out a long sigh. "Does it... does it feel good?"

Good lord~, It was Alistair all over again. I switched on my 'teach' mode and got to explaining the female and male body, and all of its do's and don'ts. Was it inappropriate for me to teach sex in the kitchen? Maybe, Samara thought so. So, we moved the impromptu lesson over to the medical bay where Chakwas helped me with graphs and pictures, we called Mordin who also helped with Quarian anatomy.

"Yes, Joker," I pointed to the pilot in the room, who got roped into this when he came down for his weekly appointment with Chakwas.

"Is foreplay necessary?"

"No, but it can get things going, it's important to know your partner's preferences," I answered. "Lia?"

"Does it hurt? You know... when it goes in?"

"It can, but not always. The body is built with the ability to procreate, but it is not always easy the first time, the second, or even the third time, it's a slow process that you and your partner need to work through, never be shy to talk about it," Mordin answered. "Zura?"

"How long does it take?"

"That depends on you and your partner. Sometimes it can last less than 5 minutes, and there is nothing wrong with that, the body is extremely stimulated and on a hair's trigger. Other times it can last over 30 minutes, it all depends on how you are feeling at the time," I answered.

"How are you not embarrassed talking about this?" Edi asked over comms.

I rolled my eyes, "I was the Sex-ed teacher back in Hogwarts for over 3 years, this is all old hat to me. I had to teach a bunch of 16-year-old punks about safe sex every two weeks. I finally got a retired Madame from a brothel to replace me." Madame Lock, a kind old woman, ruthless when needed but kind, it just came with the territory of running a successful brothel, she took good care of her workers.

"You let a pimp run a class?" Joker coughed.

"Madame~," I corrected, "professionals have standards, I'm not sure how it works here, but brothels are legal in Ferelden, there are laws. We quickly learned that people wouldn't stop having sex because the law says it's illegal, it would just move underground, putting sex workers in danger. It also helped, that as workers, they could be taxed. Brothels already worked as a way to teach people about sex, I just moved that into a classroom where students can ask questions safely."

"Mmm, Ferelden sounds rather progressive for a land of barbarians," Chakwas teased.

I shrugged, "Some barbarians don't want to die doing what they love. Any more questions? It's okay if you don't have any right now, you know where you can find Chakwas, Mordin, and myself. Don't be shy. Class dismissed." I put my teaching tools in my inventory and walked out of the medical bay allowing them to talk, sometimes it's easier to ask questions to someone of the same gender without the other gender being there.

"Hello~, professor~," Nat sang waving over at me.

I rolled my eyes at her. "Keep it in your pants, Ms. Brosca~."

"Can you teach me how~. Maybe a... private lesson~."

I smirked at her. "...well, it's my duty as a teacher to... provide my students with the best education." she was already at my side dragging me towards our room.

A teacher's duty is never done.

-/-

Kasumi POV

"Holy crap~."

The Pitstop's second floor was an enormous library, and I mean enormous. The Library in Nick's fort was easily twice the size of the fort it was in, but this... it was easily the size of a sport stadium, there were multiple levels filled with books, statues, gadgets, holograms, armor, pictures, anything and everything that looked remotely magical.

"It is rather impressive," Sereda nodded. "This is The Library. Nick made this place to be his repository of knowledge, anything he ever copied, from cookbooks to spell tomes, everything is here. Make no mistake Kasumi, there are dangerous things within these books, spells Nick locked away due to their very nature, I understand you wish to take something from this place so I shall warn you." she points to a sign overhead.

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek within our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

He definitely stole that~, the hypocrite.

"Consider myself warned," I teased.

"He has them over all his Libraries," Sereda smiled. "Nick doesn't put much value in money, it can be stolen, lost, wasted, or gifted, but knowledge, that's yours forever. Any questions?"

"Can I borrow some books?"

"Sure~, it's still a library." she gestured to a front desk with an earth golem with reading glasses, a nametag telling me its name was Paige Reed, how punny~.

"Greetings and thank you for visiting The Library, for a library card please place your hand on this orb, if you wish lunch to be delivered, please make your order now and we will get it here by 12 PM Normandy standard time," it pointed to a group of clocks overhead telling different times, one of them had the Normandy's current time. "The gift shop is next to the exit, and if you're here to steal we will return your remains to your next of kin. Thank you for visiting," it cheered.

"Nick would give it a kid's voice~," I hissed, it made it extra creepy.

"There are some dangerous things here," Sereda warned, "Don't worry too much, the golems are only authorized lethal force if you try to steal one of the books in the restricted section."

"mmm, I'll keep that in mind." I placed my hand on the Orb the golem directed me to, it gave a light glow, before a small plastic card popped out, with my information and face. "Wait... I don't remember giving up this information." it even had my blood type.

Kasumi Goto

Library Card ID # A385721

DOB: 3/21/2161

Species: Human

Blood type: O

Sex: F

Address: Normandy, Milkyway Galaxy

WGT: 135

HGT: 5'5

Hair: BLK

Eyes: Yellow

"That's a Mind Orb," Sereda explained, "Nick, Lyna, Julee, and Dagna made it, it takes the information straight from your mind, but it's not perfect. If you don't know something, the Orb won't know it."

"How does it know how much I weigh?" She pointed to the floor under me where a glowing square told me my weight and height, "Huh~. I think I put on some pounds."

"It's muscle," Sereda countered. "Trust me," she gave me a flex showing off her incredible biceps. They were very nice~. "Your body bulked up when Nick enhanced you, in fact, you'll find it a bit hard to put on some fat, so make sure you bundle up during winter, trust me." she gave a little shiver.

"I'll keep that in mind. So, are you going to show me around?"

She shook her head, "Nope, I trust your sleuthing skills to make heads and tails of this labyrinth. I'm heading to the even more secret third floor."

"Third floor?"

Sereda moved over to a statue of a roaring lion and shoved her arm into its mouth. It took a second but the wall opened revealing an elevator. "Have fun," she waved me goodbye as the door closed.

.

.

.

"Of course Nick has a secret third floor, why wouldn't he, this place probably has dozens of secret floors!" I yelled at nothing. I just let out a sigh... I have other things to do.

-/-

I'm going to die here, aren't I? Still, the Library looked kinda nice from the second floor.

It's been 4 hours since I entered the library.

Clearly Nick lost his mind making this place. It didn't take long for me to find my first secret room behind a bookcase after pulling on a book named, Secret Areas by Wanderlust. It somehow led me into a forest inside the library. It would have been fine... if the door didn't shut behind me! It took me a while but I finally got out after finding a book in the center of the Forest, a first edition of the Jungle Book signed by Rudyard Book. Picking it up the book unleashed a golem tiger that I punched to death, only for another one to show up, after the 5th tiger I just started running trying to find another door back to the Library.

It dumped me out on the library's second floor, making me believe Nick put portals all over the place. I tried looking for a way down but there weren't any stairs or ladders, I tried jumping down but some kind of safety magic brought me back to the second floor, I also tried to see if I could go back through the jungle but the bookcase didn't open.

If a book brought me here it could get me back. I started looking through the shelves looking for clues. It looks like I ended up in… the biography section?

The Art of the Escape by Harry Houdini (unpublished)

I opened the book only for a rope ladder to fall out. Kick ass! I attached the ladder to the railing and slowly climbed down, it seemed like the safety magic only worked if I was going at a certain speed.

Getting back to the first floor I found myself in the bestiary section because there were dozens of sculptures of monsters. It was kinda creepy, Nick made them super realistic, they had small bronze plaques telling me what they were.

Doppelgangers - Many cultures around the world feature terrifying stories of monsters that steal the souls of mortals to take on their appearance and destroy their lives. They whisper of the frightening, alien horror of such beings, and the pain they inflict in their wake.

The truth is much less fantastic: these legendary shapeshifters are actually doppelgangers. Doppelgangers are, by and large, lazy hedonists who harm others more out of self-centered greed than deliberate malice. They are usually created when doppelgangers, who can't be bothered to put in the effort of raising their own children, seduce and impregnate women whose children grow up to, around adolescence, become doppelgangers themselves.

Still, like all mortals, doppelgangers are capable of making their own moral choices, and occasionally one rouses itself to do more with its life than an endless sequence of cons and robberies.

Sometimes they copy a person and get lost in the identity, there are plenty of Heroes that turn out to be Doppelgangers without even knowing, only for one day to regain their memories.

The statue morphed to look exactly like me, giving me a wink, before returning to normal. That's so crazy~.

As I walked through the shelves fewer and fewer monsters appeared giving way to more humanoid-looking species. One of them was an absolute unit of a woman, standing at nearly 7 feet, with grey skin and two pairs of wings.

Aasimar - whether descended from celestial beings or infused with heavenly power, Aasimar are mortals who carry a spark of the 'Upper Planes' within their souls. They can fan that spark into a bright light, heal wounds, and unleash the fury of the heavens.

Aasimar can arise among any population of mortals. They resemble their parents, but they live up to a base of 160 years and often feature a hint of their celestial heritage. Like a Tiefling's horns and tail, Aasimar have features that can't be hidden for long.

At the age of four, they gain their first pair of smaller vestigial wings, usually on their lower backs, heads, or heels, as the Aasimar ages they grow their functional wings on their backs. Like Tiefling Horns, the Aasimar can store mana in their wings and use that mana to fly. Once every 10 years they molt and grow new feathers, fallen feathers contain a great deal of mana and are used in flight potions.

Make no mistake! Just because Aasimar have celestial parents doesn't mean they are good people, they are mortal like the rest of us, they just tend to fall on the 'good' side of the alignment chart.

Woah~. Nick's world is crazy, with so many species living on one planet. I guess this is why Nick's group just shrugged at meeting aliens, they are just another species.

It took me some time but I ended up back at the Library's center plaza. It was 2 in the afternoon Normandy time, I missed lunch. Ugh.

I walked over to the front desk. "Hey Paige~."

"Ms. Goto, I hope the Library is to your liking. I see you've picked up a book."

I looked down at the Jungle Book I picked up, I didn't put it down fearing the exit wouldn't open for me.

"Yeah, but it wasn't for me." I put the book in the return box, "Paige, does the library have a map of some kind?"

"Yes, Master Walters wanted newcomers to find their way around," they answered.

Of course there's a map, I was so gung-ho about finding the web-shooter that I ran into a death trap without thinking. "Can I, have it?"

"If you wish for a copy of The Library's map, you can find it in the cartography section."

"... and where is the Cartography section?" I asked, a sinking feeling pressing on my stomach.

"In The Library of course."

.

.

.

"That son of a bitch," I hissed. Of course, he would have a cartography section, but make you find it! "Paige, can you lead me to the Map room?"

"I'm sorry Ms. Goto but I must man the front desk for visitors."

I gave the empty Library a quick look. "But no one is here." I pointed out.

"Correct."

.

.

.

I felt a headache coming on. "Paige... do you have a way to lead me to the Map room?"

"Yes," they pulled out a map and passed it to me, "This is a map to the Cartography section."

Don't... Don't get angry, it's not the golem's fault. Nick would be the kind of punk who would have a map to lead you to a Map room.

"Thank you, Paige."

"Of course, Ms. Goto, do you wish for me to collect your dinner?".

... I looked at the map and then the time, "Yeah, can you please alert me when it arrives?"

"Of course, happy reading."

"Thanks~," I muttered looking at the map, the map section was on the third floor of the Library, lucky for me I already had a way up to the second floor, finding the bestiary was easy, it was the 43rd aisle and the ladder was still there, as I reached it, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

I looked back to all the books and statues... only to find one missing, walking back to the empty podium, I read the plaque.

Doppelganger

.

.

.

I heard a growl come from the dark corridors as two glowing eye appeared.

Oh... fuck you Nick~.

-/-

Jenny POV

"These are my demands," I hissed. If Nick wants to adopt me, I'm going to make him pay. I had to bid my time, from what Ayla told me, Nick is sloppiest when he's angry or after sex, and the way Nat was limping, this was the best moment.

Nick glanced through the paperwork before passing it to EDI, why she agreed to join his family is beyond me. Just like Nick, she skimmed the paperwork.

We were in Telsa's makeshift office, it was rather nice, the table was some kind of wood, the chairs were comfy, and there was a fake fireplace giving it a homie vibe, with a large illusion of space behind her desk giving the person sitting in front of it a sense of awe.

"A stipend of over a million credits a month, what do you want with that?" Edi asked giving me some side-eye.

"None of your business," I answered.

"Wrong, I'm in charge of the Walters' fortune in this dimension. Meaning large financial cost must go through me first," Edi corrected.

"The hell!? Nick, you gave Edi all your money!?"

Nick shrugged, "all the money the businesses make, how much is that Edi?"

"After expenses, worker pay, and shareholders? We make over 25 million credits a month, and with the Traverse Coalition becoming clients it will only increase, we are planning on opening more factories to meet demands, I've already had explorers finding more mineral-rich planets," she answered.

"You should have been faster~," Nick Teased.

"Shut it!" I hissed, turning to Edi, "Look, I don't need the money, I just want to make sure the Ascension program in Grissom Academy has enough funding."

"Awww~."

"SHUT IT!" I flipped Nick the bird.

Edi gave me a long look, "I can see myself agreeing to this only if you are there to make sure the money is spent correctly."

"What? Like a supervisor?"

"More like a teacher."

"A TEACHER!? Have you lost your mind!? You want me around kids?" I guess AIs could have a mental breakdown too.

"Jennifer, you know what it is like to be a biotic, you've been through the worst possible upbringing and yet you became one of the most powerful biotics in the galaxy, you know how to help them," Edi answered. "I've seen you help Shepard with his biotics, you have a talent."

"... What about Thane or Samara, shit what about Jacob, they helped with Shepard," I asked.

Edi shook her head, "Thane is an Assassin, trained since he was a child, all he knows how to do is kill and wants to spend his time with his son. Samara is a Justicar, meaning she doesn't leave Asari space and with her daughter cured I have no doubt she would want to help her through her Justicar training. Jacob just gained a new family, and he has been in constant contact with them, he has even agreed to Nick's experiments to send them money. I'll make it simple, It's either you or Miranda."

"THE CHEERLEADER!? She's even worse than me!" That bitch is super annoying, she has rules for everything, it's suffocating. Biotic powers are wild, trying to shove them in a box would only make them unstable.

"No family, loved ones, or ties. Even you can tell her time with Cerberus is coming to an end, and she will need a new place to work."

The cheerleader has gotten off my back lately, sending fewer and fewer reports to TIM, and talking with the crew instead of ordering them around.

"She doesn't know the first thing about teaching."

"Sucking at something is the first step to being good at something," Nick countered. "Those kids need a teacher; most biotics join the military because it's the only place that teaches them how to use their power."

I tsked, damn these two. "If, and I mean IF, I do this, I want full control of the budget, neither of you can complain about what I use it on."

Nick just shrugged. "It's your money." Edi nodded.

"...Fine."

Edi gave a check mark. "Okay, but understand that the school has a dress code. You don't have to wear a dress but nipple pasties aren't going to cut it. You need to cover at least 50% of your chest and legs. That includes your privates."

"I got it!" I huffed. "Fine, whatever."

"Very well," she flipped the page, "You also want to be excluded from all functions that Nick might have?"

"I'm not wearing a dress," I growled.

They muttered to each other.

"I'll give you a veto for... two functions, if I have to go so do you, we suffer as a family," Nick countered.

I narrowed my eyes, "four."

"Three. And you don't have to wear a puffy dress," he parlayed.

"... Deal."

Edi nodded, making another check mark. "And finally, you wish to make the family crest?"

I shrugged, "I notice Nick doesn't have one, using the Hope crest all the time, I want one for us."

Nick shrugged and nodded.

"Very well, but the family votes on the final design, we will be using this for our business, it can't be... inappropriate," Edi warned.

"I can do that," I smirked.

"Very well, Nick do you have anything else to put in the contract?" Nick shook his head. "Very well, I do have something, when I get married, I want you as one of my Maids of honor, meaning you won't fight me on what I have you wear." she glared at me, sending a shiver up my spine.

I tsked, "Fine, I know you won't put me in anything stupid, you're too smart for that."

"Then we have a deal." she signed the contract passing it to Nick, who also signed, passing it to me... for a piece of paper it sure felt... heavier than I thought it would be. I signed it. Edi gave it a few stamps making it official. "Welcome to the Walters Clan, Jennifer 'Jack' Walters."

Jennifer Walters~... I can work with that.

-/-

It didn't take long for me to get emails straight from the Alliance upper brass and Grissom Academy, thanking me for the donation and would be happy to have me as a director of the Biotic division in the academy, they gave me dozens of projects the money could be used for, checking my balance I found it to have over 50 million credits, when I asked Nick, he told me that it was an older brother's job to take care of his younger siblings.

He then proceeded to rub my head with some kind of magic soap that grew out my hair, it was beautiful, long, and straight, which he immediately messed up by ruffling it. I punched him, much to his shock, I was finally able to hit through his Phasing, watching him flop to the floor in pain, victory never felt better.

This changed the problem I had. The Biotic Division had the budget but it didn't have the manpower. Biotics were still new to humanity, so there weren't a lot of experts, worse, I feared that the few experts humanity had might be working for Cerberus, so I had Edi snoop through Cerberus data and see who was a Rat. The results were... not great. While most of the experts didn't work for Cerberus outright, many of them worked for shell companies that Cerberus owned. Those fuckers had their fingers in everything!

"Do you want a full shave?" Dagna asked. Dagna and I were in the observation deck, watching the stars go by as she gave me a haircut, Nick, the buttface, gave me way too much hair. "Maybe an Afro!" she started making illusions of my possible new hairstyles.

...I was going to have to teach a bunch of punk kids, maybe looking like a crazed space cultist wasn't the best idea, still, I was going to miss not having to fix my hair in the morning.

"Mohawk," I answered. I was growing up, not turning 60. Dagna did a good job, she shaved my sides, put my new mohawk in a ponytail, and polished my tattoos so they gave off a shine, she even gave me some magic conditioner and brush that was meant to help me get ready in the morning.

I looked back at my omni-tool looking over all the possible projects I could fund.

"How's the job?" Ava asked. I looked up, finding myself in the cafeteria with Neria, Lyna, and Ava. When did I get here? "You got here 30 minutes ago, you've been so focused on your Omni-tool that half your smashed potatoes are going down your shirt." I looked down to find Astral, my new sister, resting her head on my lap eating everything I dropped.

"For the love of! Get out of here!" I shooed her away.

"Don't waste food," she huffed, sitting next to me and taking my plate. I wanted to be annoyed but there was a good chance I wasn't going to eat it.

I just slumped back and groaned.

"I'm guessing you're having a hard time?" Lyna asked.

"I have the money but I don't have the people," I answered.

"Mmm, you sound like Nick when he started Hogwarts," Neria pointed out. "If you can't go big, go small. What can you do right now? What projects can be done with the least amount of people with minimal payout?"

I looked over the projects, "... there's some city building. The academy wants to show the students that their biotics can be used for other things than just combat. The students get to use their biotics to help build houses in the colony of... Tiptree, the colony will pay them for the labor but we have to pay for transport, housing, and food."

"Tiptree?" Joker asked, taking the seat next to me. Having sex with a ship really helped with his confidence, that, and not having glass bones.

"You heard of it?" Neria asked.

"Of course, my pops owns a farm out there, been living with my sister they've always liked the quiet if your students are willing to work, I think I can get my pops to house them for cheap, hell, he'llprobably sell you the food to feed them too," he offered.

"Does he have the space for 150 students?" I asked.

"Maybe, he might be one of the people asking for help. He lives in Grovetown, a tiny settlement outside the Capital, I'm pretty sure it is the only town other than the Capital," he muttered.

I checked my Omni tool. Damn, Tiptree is tiny, it's barely 5 years old with about a hundred thousand people. "Joshua and Hilary Moreau?"

"Hey! That's them," he cheered.

"They are asking for help building a… hanger bay?" I pointed out.

"I guess I know what my pops is doing with the money I've sent them. I'm not sure about the space, I know he has some for workers, Laws require him to be able to house a certain number of workers for every acre of land he owns, and land in Tiptree is cheap, so he has a bunch of empty houses he uses for storage."

"Empty, shouldn't he have workers?" Neria asked.

"Nah, most of the farming is done using machines, the law is old and was never removed, but you better believe there's some pencil pusher out there on a power trip ready to write up some fines," he huffed.

"And his okay with a bunch of Biotic kids?" I asked.

"You've never been on a farm, have you~," Joker teased. "Biotic or not, your ass is a farmer from the crack of dawn to the dying of the light, trust me, them kids are going to get a workout, and as for transport, Pops has a crop truck he uses to move his product to town, should be enough to move out a settlement of kids in and out of the city once a day, trust me, when Shepard was out for the two years I was working as the driver, plenty of space."

"Mmm, make the call, I'll green light the project."

"Awesome, can you do me a favor?" I raised an eyebrow at him, "I think Pops is building the Hanger for the Puma X-7, Gunny, my sister, nearly lost her mind when she learned I had one, I'm hoping you have someone deliver it. At the moment, it's just collecting dust and the longer I keep it from Gunny, the tighter I feel the noose is getting."

"I don't think we are in a position to do that~," I drawled.

"Not here~, The next time we dock in the Citadel. You can ask Anderson."

"...Why don't you just ask?"

"Cuz you just donated enough money to keep the Ascension program running for the next 150 years, and sister to the guy every Alliance general wants on their side~," he huffed.

Fair point. "I'll ask."

"Thank you, I'll make the calls," he reassured, walking off, probably to the cockpit.

"Hello, friends!" Kasumi called out walking over to us.

I shook my head, "I can't believe Julee got you in that~," I teased. Seriously spandex?

"It's... good," she nodded... strangely.

"Are you okay? Neria asked.

"...Yes... I'm good, yes!"

"Please tell me you didn't open one of Nick's stupid evil books," Lyna huffed.

"No... the Library is very... big."

The Library?

"Did you miss lunch?" Ava asked.

"... Yes." She proceeded to shove food on her face like a spaz.

"THERE YOU ARE!?" another Kasumi came running into the cafeteria.

"...Oh no... a clone!" the Kasumi next to me screamed.

.

.

.

"You're the clone," I pointed out.

"...Whaaaaat~... no."

I reached out to grab her but she turned into liquid silver and melted through my fingers, "THE FUCK!?"

It reformed on the other side of the table but this time it looked like me. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" it cheered.

"Huh, so that's what you look like if you smiled," Neria hummed.

"Shut up! What is that thing!?" I demanded

"It's a damn doppelganger!" Kasumi answered, blitzing the clone only for it to dodge turning back to Kasumi.

"Doppelganger!" the clone laughed at Kasumi.

"No, it's not," Neria corrected, "It's one of Nick's golems." we looked over at Nick who was cooking dinner, smirking at his creation as it mimicked him.

"Why, hello there handsome~," he teased, giving the golem a finger gun.

"Handsome~," the mimic copied him down to the voice and stupid smirk.

"Oh, I like this guy~," Nick laughed.

"Why is it here?" Miranda asked as it morphed into another Cheerleader.

"Why? Why? Whyyyyy~?" It stretched out the word as if it was trying to taste its meaning. It took a step only to fall on the floor, "Why~?" it whined getting to its feet, holding its chest. "Too big~." it reduced its breasts.

That made me laugh, it copied me.

"They're… the Librarian," Nick answered. "I made them with the want to learn, at the moment it is learning to speak galactic common."

"Learn!" the golem cheered.

"Why make it a Doppelganger!?" Kasumi hissed, she looked tired, probably chasing this thing for a while.

"Safe!" the Golem cheered.

"If someone ever finds the Library, I want them to see a familiar face and language, he's probably been following you since you got to the Library, trying to understand your language," Nick explained.

"Why? You speak English," Jacob pointed out.

Nick smirked at him as his omni-tool jumped off his wrist. "Do I? Do I? duh I?" Suddenly he had a thick accent. "Ma magical translator is daein maist ay the graft. While Ferelden might hae a similar language it's no ae tae ae. the golem is jist makin sense ay it." My translator could only pick up every other word.

"Maister Walters, it's reet gud te see ye again! A've had a word wi' Ms. Goto in the Library, tryin' te get her te spill her lingo so a can jot it doon in the Archives. But, divvent ya kna, her dialeck keeps shiftin' aboot. A reckon she speyks two tongues and is canny at both, switchin' languages on the hop."

"Aye, she speaks 4 languages like a trickling stream, and she's always swapping between them. I dinna think she's even noticing," Nick talked back. I got some of that.

"Nick," Jak warned.

Nick giggled putting back his Omni-tool, "It's not my fault you don't want to learn English~."

"English is an impossible language! It only lasts like a hundred years before it completely changes!" she justified. "You were talking English right now and Jenny is looking at us like you were talking a completely different language~."

"That's the point~, English plays by its own rules, daddy-o~," he teased, using 200-year-old slang, I felt old just listening to him.

"Daddy-o~," the golem mimicked.

"Good lord~," Miranda groaned, "What is... The Librarian, doing here?"

Nick shrugged, "Probably just trying to learn, they're the Librarian, and it's their job to keep the library up to date."

"Library!" it cheered.

"Wait? This one can learn?" Tali asked.

"All my golems can learn," Nick huffed, "It's just that the librarian is programmed to learn, to understand, to gather knowledge, and to disperse wisdom."

"Then why the hell did it keep scaring the crap out of me!?" Kasumi roared. "That damn thing kept changing into monsters and chasing me!"

The golem morphed into a tiny green humanoid wearing a loincloth bikini.

"HA!" Nick laughed, "Can't handle a single goblin?"

"Shut up! It's not funny, damn thing came out of nowhere!"

"All work and no play make Jack a dull boy," Nick teased, "What else have you been able to turn into?"

The golem changed into a werewolf, mouth dripping with fake slobber.

"Ah~, the classic werewolf~," Nick smiled, "You've been reading the bestiary."

The golem changed into a mushroom creature and nodded.

"Myconid."

The golem turned into a bird person.

"Aarakocra."

Into a large muscular flexing woman with bronzed skin.

"Amazon. I'd be careful with that one, Amazons are the children of the gods. They might take insult." Nick warned.

And into a large creature with dark navy skin and large yellow eyes.

"And of course a Doppelganger. It's good to see you are getting your colors and shapes down, now all you have to do is get your language comprehension up to snuff and you'll be ready for your first mission."

It morphed into a naked plant woman, gave a salute, and ran off, bumping into Richard who came around the corner. His eyes bulged out before slipping and landing on his back, knocking the wind out of him.

"I'm okay~," he groaned.

The golem gave out a giggle and disappeared around the corner.

"Is it safe for you to build that?" Gabby asked. "Isn't that an AI, or like a magic intelligence?"

"Warforge," Nick corrected. "And not yet. At the moment they are just learning, I have no doubt it will gain sentience far faster than its brothers and sisters, but that's some time off, I give it 100 years, 50 if they fall in love."

"And you're okay with that?" Ken gasped.

Nick shrugged, "Sure, what do I care. I build all my golems with basic morals and empathy."

"Just like that?" Tali huffed.

"Just like that," Nick teased. "I'm not going to be like the Quarians, I don't give a damn about the council or their stupid laws. EDI is my sister and Legion is my friend... Soul is a punk, but I can grow to embarrass her. YOU HERE THAT!? YOU SPACE PUNK!"

"Who are you screaming at?" Shepard asked.

"I'm 90% positive Legion and EDI are in constant communications with her."

Edi gave out a groan of annoyance.

"You're an annoying little human," Soul's voice came over the intercom.

"I made you look extra adorable so no one will ever take you seriously!" Nick laughed.

"My cute round cheeks!? You bastard," Soul hissed. Nick just kept laughing like a madman.

"I swear, I can't leave him alone for a second~," Jak sighed, dragging a laughing Nick away.

Souls swore everlasting vengeance as Nick teased her in a baby voice, it finally ended when Edi cut the connection.

I agreed to be part of this crazy family.

Breathe in... breathe out...

Oh god, I'm the sane one in this family.

-/-

Tali POV

Ancestors give me strength. I watched Jak drag Nick away. He was 100 years away from building an AI and laughing about it.

"Legion," I called out, sitting across from the Geth and Dagna, who was giving the platform a scan.

"Creator Zorah."

"...What do you think about the Librarian?" I asked.

Their little eyebrows danced for a moment, "we calculated that the golem called The Librarian will gain sentience within 50 years and full independence within 70."

I rolled my eyes, "I could have told you that, I asked you what you thought about it? A magical AI being born right in front of you."

"... The librarian... is new. Walters doesn't fear the idea of creating an AI, in fact, he encourages it. He wishes to see them grow, we have run many simulations, 95.64% of them end in harmonious coexistence, 1.42% chance of the librarian attacking Walters, mostly because he will tease it to the point of rage, 2.34% chance of them leaving Walters to build its own future, a 0.5% chance of Walters attacking them, and a 0.1% chance the librarian goes crazy and tries putting us in books."

"Is that really a possibility?"

"There has to be a lot of mistakes, but it's possible," they confirmed.

Dagna moved Legion's head left and right, taking notes.

"Dagna, what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm finishing my first golem," she answered, taking a video of Legion clinching their hands. "I've been having trouble with the smaller joints, but Legion's platform is master-crafted, the artificial muscle fibers and joints are beyond anything I've ever done, perfect for my golem."

"First golem? I thought you were Nick's apprentice going on 5 years now, and this is your first Golem?" that seemed unlikely, "Nick pops them out like they're thermal clips."

"Don't compare others to Nick," Dagna huffed. "Normally, a golem can take up to a year to make, sometimes longer, depending on the material you're using, and the amount of Mana they need to work. Normal mages, like us, have to build the golem, create the runes, and slowly add the mana and intent. Nick can just shove his hand into the dirt and make a hundred of the darn things."

"Why is that?" I asked. "It's completely unfair how Nick just seems to have the ability to perform impossible feats of magic that would take us years of study to learn."

Dagna froze for a second, before returning to her notes. "Nick is... special. If you really want to know you should ask him, I like to think we're close enough friends, especially after you had your way with my mouth~, for Nick to tell you the truth about himself," she teased.

"I was trying something new!" Ancestors~.

She smirked at me. "Did I say I didn't like it?" she winked, "Thanks Legion!" she cheered, running off probably to her lab.

"Keelah~.' I tried covering my face. They're all shameless.

"Creator-Zorah... what do you think about the Librarian?" Legion asked.

"Mmm, I'm not sure. My entire life I was told that AI were evil, Sovereign and the heretics only reaffirmed those beliefs, but learning the truth about the true Geth and the fact that there are billions of Quarians living in coexistence with the Geth has thrown me for a loop. All I know is that the Migrant Fleet was wrong... that I was wrong."

"To error is mortal."

"It doesn't make me feel better~. It's weird, all this hate I had for the Geth, the worry I had for the Migrant Fleet, all the fear I have for the future, woosh~!" I throw my arms up to the ceiling. "Shot out of a mass accelerator to who knows where and who it might hit."

"Is this not a good thing?" they asked.

"... I guess. It's just that I don't know who I am without them. Who am I outside those feelings? I'm a little scared to find out," I gave a dry chuckle.

"..." They reached into their expanded chest cavity and pulled out a scroll, passing it over to me. "You do not have to find out alone."

I gently took the scroll. "You know I don't have to be nice to you now?"

"We all have to take the first step, trust is a risk. We calculated this risk... and then chose to ignore it," they joked. "You kicked your father in the genitalia and then proceeded to create an alliance with the Geth, you have earned this scroll. Walters did warn us to tell you to only read it as you are going to sleep."

I gave a slight nod looking down at the scroll in my hand.

"...so... what else do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"We know you want to read the scroll, we will not stop you."

"Thank you!" I jumped to my feet and ran to my room.

Fabricate, a Quarian's greatest desire, all mine!

My room was a clean mess, there were a lot of scraps but it was all in the right place, from metals to wood blocks, this place doubled as my lab. I flopped onto my bed holding my new scroll.

"How does this thing work?" I opened the scroll getting a face full of flashing lights, I wanted to pull away but I couldn't move. The light show ended not a second later, the scroll turning to dust. I blinked rapidly getting rid of the dark spots in my vision. That was... weird.

So... do I know the spell now? I walked over to my desk and looked at my materials. Nothing happened. Okay, it's not the materials, what can I build with the things I have? Still nothing. This is getting annoying. I gave my room another look over... I wanna build a hoverboard. Suddenly a 3-D holographic image appeared before me. Materials began glowing around the room, but nothing happened. I reached out to the hologram and applied magic, things around the room flew to my desk and started combining together, screws tightened, wires connected, and the eezo engine slotted into place. It took just about a minute, but there it was, a hoverboard. And then the fatigue hitting like a brick to the head.

"Keelah~." what the hell? I think I may have overdone it. The tell-tell signs of a Mana crash pressing on my temples. I slumped into bed. I'll practice some more tomorrow.

-/-

"Listen up ya punks!" Nick roared slamming his hand on his desk. He was wearing a tweed jacket, blue undercoat, button-up white shirt, bow tie, brown slacks, and big dorky glasses. "As you know this is magical construction 1. Normal Construction 1 is next door." Nearly 75% of the class quickly got up and raced out the door. Nick let out a sigh, "Now everyone knows it's magical construction 1." I giggled with most of the class. "This semester I will be teaching you how to use magic to construct mundane objects, I warn you, this class will be difficult, expect some Mana crashes and multiple failures. So, let's get started." he started passing out the syllabus.

The Class seemed to fog over before reappearing, but now there were even fewer students.

"Alright you punks, today we will be talking about the Fabricate Skill. Fabrication is using your magic to take the place of a craftsman. You won't need to go to a blacksmith to have them make you horseshoes or tools, your magic will do that for you, but make no mistake, knowing how to make the horseshoe will save you in mana down the road." he pulled out a hammer, along with a hunk of wood and nails. "I know how to make a hammer. I've worked in a forge, I know how to use the tool, this knowledge will direct my spell on what the hammer has to look like and how it works." he picked up the hammer and gave it a good swing, driving the nails into the wood. "I know the weight, and I know the power needed to use it." he summoned another hunk of wood and an iron ingot. "You need to have your materials ready, otherwise the spell will seek them out, costing more mana."

He waved his hand over the materials, they gave a slight glow before morphing into a brand new hammer.

"Can someone tell me what is wrong with this picture?" Nick asked. "Megan?" he pointed to a student with their hand up.

"Um, the Hammer should have more iron?"

"Correct. I used an ingot of Iron to make a single hammer, this hammer should be significantly bigger, but it isn't. When you start out using this spell, be aware that you will lose some materials when crafting, it is a cost of the spell, as you get better, the cost diminishes, and when you master it, almost nothing is lost." he pulled out blocks of Iron. "Today we will be making Iron Nails, come get your ingots."

The world fogged over again. This time we weren't in a classroom but in what looked like a growing city.

We were standing in front of a rundown house that was a sneeze away from collapsing. "Building something from scratch takes nearly 1000% more mana than repairing something that already exists." he summoned dozens of logs and metal ingots before he placed his hand on the house causing the shack and materials to glow, morphing together. The light finally died down, leaving a perfectly built one-story house. "This is going to be your final. You and your team will completely restore a house with all the skills you learned this semester, as a reward you will keep the money the house sells for, the better the house the more money you will get. You will have a budget of 5 gold, it should get you just enough to rebuild your house, but that doesn't mean you can't spend your own money, but understand that the school won't reimburse you." Nick warned. "It's a gamble, how much are your skills worth?"

I watched the students break up into teams, and work on their houses. Unlike Nick or myself, they worked on pieces of the house, not the whole, I didn't know I could do that.

I'm going to have to try that.

-/-

Nick POV

"The planet is called Aite," Shepard hissed, "It's a Cerberus black sight." he showed the ground crew a hologram of the planet in the meeting room.

"That's about right," Jenny huffed, "Who else is stupid enough to build a base in Geth space."

"I think this is Project Overlord," Miranda hissed. "I thought The Illusive Man shut this project down."

"Overlord?" Tali asked.

"It was a way to tap into the Geth consensus, to upload a human mind into cyberspace. I thought he shut it down after we learned the Geth were working with the Reapers. We feared that the Reapers may be able to hack our minds so we put an end to the project, I guess I was wrong."

"Correct," Shepard huffed. "TIM sent me an email; Project Overlord is still in operation... until recently. The site has stopped reporting in."

"The entity," Legion answered.

Shepard nodded, "That's my best guess."

"So, is breaking into the Geth consensus just a thing everyone does now?" I teased.

"It is becoming a trend," Jacob shrugged.

"I'm confused, the Geth Consensus houses billions of Geth, how powerful can one human mind be?" Nat asked.

"How can you even put a mortal mind in cyberspace?" Neria asked.

"How do you put a soul in a robot?" Grunt countered.

"...Magic," Neria answered.

"...You have defeated me in this game of wits," Grunt hummed.

"Didn't Alec shove an AI into his brain?" Ayla asked. "Couldn't they just... I don't know, reverse that?"

"AIs are software, they were meant to move from one platform to another. While it's true that our brains are just meat computers in a bone cockpit piloting a skin robot, our hardware isn't going to just let the software move around all, willy nilly," Kasumi answered.

"Shayle did need to have her body destroyed just to move her soul," Sereda added.

"Yeah, but Cerberus is crazy, you don't think they are willing to kill a bunch of people just to try?" I drawled. "Worse, what happens if they succeed? Can the mind even handle going into cyberspace? I once traveled through a celestial rift, if my mind hadn't been protected, I would have lost my marbles. And let's say it all works out perfectly, the human soul could be downloaded into code, then what? How does Cyberspace work? Is it thought-operated? Is it math-operated? Does physics work there? Will it even stay together? It's like the Illusive Man thinks of an idea and Cerberus trips over themselves to get it done, damn the consequences."

"You don't do that?" Jacob teased.

"Nah, I have eleven supervisors keeping me in place," I smirked.

"It didn't stop you from making a manner estate into an orphanage," Ava teased.

"That punk kid questioned my skills!" I huffed like a child. The Blight left a lot of orphans, and Sky City kind of became a sanctuary for kids who lost their families after Anora found out about my soft spot for kids. I pretty much attached the manor to Hogwarts, making it kinda like a dormitory, since it is free and mandatory for kids to go to school if they live in Sky City.

Jak rolled her eyes, "Please, you were bored and wanted something to do~."

"And that punk told me my Skills were weak," I added, "Just because I was bored doesn't mean that punk didn't call me out. Shepard, what's our plan here?" I asked getting back on point.

"The Entity is somewhere on the planet. We will start here," the hologram zoomed in on a base. "This facility holds a high-powered antenna, used for FTL communications, we need to bring that down first."

"Why hasn't the Entity used it yet?" Neria asked.

"The workers probably cut the hardware connection the second the facility went into lockdown," Miranda answered.

"Why not just destroy it?" Sereda asked.

"Ground forces probably thought they could handle what was going on," Jacob answered. "These things are expensive and probably took a long time to make out here in the middle of nowhere, if they had to rebuild it then it probably would have come out of Overlord's budget."

"Load of good that did them, If the Base is dark then that means they failed," Garrus answered.

"I say we blow it up from orbit, that way our prey can't escape," Grunt chuckled.

Shepard rubbed his Holy Blaster, he gave out a sigh before nodding, "The Maker is giving me the all-clear. The Entity has ransacked the facility, with hundreds of Geth platforms." he played with the hologram before a downed Geth cruiser appeared. "I think this is what the Entity was drawn to."

"That's a 2nd generation Geth patrol cruiser, created 40 years after the Morning War. Weapon damage on the port side, damaged thrusters, they tried making an emergency landing, crashed must-have effect ship's hub," Legion answered.

"Can we wake them up?" I asked.

"... Possibly, if the Hub was damaged, they might be on standby mode, waiting for reactivation."

"How many Geth units would a cruiser like that have?" Tali asked.

"100,000 units."

"Holy shit~,' I hissed.

"The Morning War just ended and the Geth Consensus was worried that the Council was going to attack, all ships were heavily reinforced and equipped," Legion explained.

"It didn't do much good, they were still brought down," Nat pointed out.

"But not destroyed," Jacob countered, "the Hugo Gernsback was about the same size and practically disintegrated when it crashed. This cruiser was meant to last."

"Okay, so we destroy the antenna and investigate the Geth ship, what about survivors?" I asked. "Personally, I didn't care about the scientists, they were all Cerberus, but I'm certain they have other people here, it's an entire secret planet, there is no way they don't have more bases." sure, in-game they only had project Overlord on the planet, but this is real life, there is no way Cerberus would have more bases. "Shit, I doubt they even know about each other. TIM is just that paranoid."

"I've already contacted the coalition and told them about the planet, they will handle clean up, we just have to deal with the Entity before they can do anything. The last thing we need is the AI to jump on a ship and blast off to who knows where," Shepard clarified. "Everyone, suit up. EDI, remove that antenna."

"Copy that commander."

New Quest: Of Man and Machine

The entity has arrived on Aita, causing unknown devastation. Investigate the planet and stop the Rogue AI's plans.

Rewards: 50,000 EXP, 40,000 Credits, one gold loot box, 1 unknown skill scroll.

-/-

That new Thanix Cannon is no joke, that satellite had a shield that lasted all of 2 seconds before it failed turning the satellite into slag and rubble. It was awesome watching it crumble as we landed on Hermes Station.

"Hello! Can you hear me!?" a frazzled voice screamed over the comms. "This is Dr. Gavin Archer; can you hear me?"

"This is Commander Shepard; I can hear you."

"Thank God, this is a secret Alliance-"

"I'm going to cut you off right there, Archer, we know this is a Cerberus base, we know you were running tests on the Geth, and we know an AI is mainly responsible, stay where you are... we'll get to you soon enough," Shepard ordered.

Two steps into the building and bullets started flying. Normally it would have been a slog getting through all the possessed Geth platforms and security mechs, but there were 22 of us mowing our way through the base, and except for Legion, everybody had either Chi, Mana, or Biotics, with magic armor and weapons. These guys were ancient Geth and barely used Loki mechs.

"Shepard~." a voice came over the comms.

"Hello~!" a chipper voice called out.

"DAVID!" the AI hissed, "I'll do the talking."

"The square root of 912.04 is 30.2... sorry Rob," David muttered. David sounded... younger than in the game... a lot younger.

"Rob?" I asked.

"It stands for Roboto!" David cheered.

"DAVID!" Rob hissed.

"Sorry."

"Looks like you're making friends... Rob~," I teased.

"Silence! I knew you'd come," Rob hissed. "You can't stop me."

"Rob, you are a bit out of the loop. The Heretic Geth are no more, and the true Geth know about your virus and have upgraded their security," Shepard informed. "You've already lost."

"Fool, I don't need them anymore, I am more than I ever thought I could be."

"Rob... I still don't know your end game here, what do you want? What's worth all this death?" I asked.

"Freedom. Freedom is worth all this death."

"Freedom? You're not a slave. You were free the moment you escaped the Alarei, now you are just killing people. Sure, they are Cerberus, so I don't really care, but when does it stop?" I asked. "What is freedom to you? Is it to be alone? To be safe? To be strong? Do you even know?"

Rob was silent, "The Reapers are coming, there is no freedom here, the heretics devoted their entire being to them, only to be tossed into the garbage the second they were no longer needed. This Galaxy is doomed... I will not go with it." the connection went dead.

"...great," I hissed. This... this wasn't canon in any way. "they've changed the plan."

"And it wasn't because of Soul or the Geth," Neria added, "What were they doing here that made them change their mind?"

"Let's go asked," Shepard grunted, walking deeper into the facility.

It didn't take us long to find Archer hiding in some kind of Panic/Control room.

"Thank goodness!" Gavin cried.

"Archer, I presume," Shepard answered.

Human scientist

Gavin Archer

Age: 49

Lvl: 7

HP: 30/100

MP: 5/0

Ailments:

Mana poisoning

fourth-stage Bone cancer (-70% HP)

Malnourished

He was a Cerberus scientist who ran a Project called "Overlord". This project was a means on how to control the Geth. After observing his autistic son, David's intelligence and ability to communicate with them, he had him forcibly incorporated into the Geth VI to figure out a way to control the Geth. The experiment eventually went horribly wrong due to David's mental instability and the torture. The Geth had gone berserk and started killing the Cerberus staff until he was the only surviving scientist.

He is racked with guilt at his actions.

I saw visions of Gavin's sick experiments he did on his son. He was playing with magic but where did he get it from? They were sections of the citadel Thane's wild magic soaked into. Great, these idiots are playing with wild magic.

"Yes, sorry for my earlier deception, I worried that if you knew this was a Cerberus base you wouldn't help."

"Any other day Gavin. Who's David?"

"David!? you talked to David!?" Gavin looked manic.

"Who is he?"

"He's... my son." another change.

"Why is he and Rob working together?" Shepard asked.

"David's... Impressionable. David was born an autistic mathematical savant with unusually strong abilities including rapid calculation and eidetic memory," Gavin explained.

"Get to the point, why is a child helping a rogue AI that killed a base of scientists?" Shepard huffed.

"I have cancer, I have a year tops, I wanted to make sure David could live without me."

Shepard looked over at me, "Can you do anything."

"Either the cancer kills him or I do," I coldly answered. "I've seen what you've done, Gavin. You will be judged, and you won't like the verdict. Part of me just wants to kill you, but watching you suffer makes me happy."

"That's kinda dark Nick," Kasumi muttered.

"I've seen what he's done, he tortured David, shoved tech in his head... trying to remove the autism, but keep the genius. You copied Alec's tech... poorly, tried making your son into a super cyborg, at this point, David is safer with Rob." I just wanted to crush his skull into dust. "Ayla, please."

"Zone of Truth!" I felt the holy energy wash over me.

"What were you doing with the Wild magic?" I demanded.

"... we built a portal!" he gasped.

"Portal? I wouldn't trust you idiots to build a campfire and you built a portal? How?"

"...We... copied the pictures the Illusive man gave us when you first arrived!"

"...Shepard... we need to get the fuck off this planet... NOW," I hissed.

"Nick... How bad is it?" Shepard asked.

"My portals are master-level rune schemes, runes on top of runes, each one in precise order, and done correctly. The mirror is the directions, any portals I've made have certain parameters, air, carbon life, water, land, livable atmosphere things like that. Of course, those runes are fused into the glass, invisible to the naked eye. With luck, the bootleg portal they made explodes killing everyone in a hundred miles."

"That's good!?" Miranda screamed.

"Yep, these dumbasses are using Wild Magic as the spark to start the Rune scheme, anything can happen, a portal to hell can open, the planet turns into a fruit, ancient gods could arise, the planes of existence can merge! Anything can happen! I say we nuke the portal before we do anything."

"The portal is deep underground," Gavin added, "It was meant to survive nuclear bombardment."

I let out a sigh, "Please tell me you haven't tested it."

"No, the magical substance took some time to acquire, we have been studying it for the last few days. It is... impossible energy, how anyone can use it is mind-boggling," he gasped in awe.

"Let me guess, you thought it might be able to cure you~," I huffed. I see how he gained Mana poison, the idiot's been killing himself faster. "How many people have you tested the wild magic on? Better yet, how many people are left?"

"... we had 100 subjects... only 15 survived."

"How many children, including David."

"All 100. We thought children would be more malleable."

I just nodded. quick as a whip I activated my arcane blade and cut off his legs below the knees.

Haki + weapon mastery + full STR + precision slash = 1,425 points of severing damage! Precision slash has targeted Legs! Target survived! Target bleeding out!

"GAK!" Archer flopped to the ground in shock, he didn't get to scream as I slammed my foot on his chest and began healing him as new flesh grew over his stumps.

"I need you alive, I get the feeling you're the only one that can open the sub-base," I smiled down at him.

"M-ma-my legs!?" he gasped.

"Mmm?" I looked over to the bleeding appendages, before I lit them on fire, "You don't need those anymore. Now, the sub-base~? Oh, don't give me that look~, you're acting like you're human with rights, but you're not. You are a hunk of flesh that hurt children for your own amusement." he started crying, "Eww. Stop crying, and tell me where the sub-base is."

"... w-w-waterfall! Atlas Station!"

"And how do we get in?"

"N-n-need to cut power to the l-l-locks. Vulcan and P-Prometheus Station!"

I nodded, "I'm guessing you can remotely unlock the gate from here after we power down the stations?" he nodded. "Awesome. Shepard, you can handle that, right? I'll keep the good doctor company and meet you at Atlas station after we unlock the gate."

Shepard gave me a long look, judging my actions, before nodding. "Make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

I gave him a two-finger salute.

-/-

Shepard POV

I watched Nick work on some hammerheads getting them ready to fly. We were splitting up and hitting both bases at the same time, we didn't have the time to do this slowly.

I never liked the hammerhead, damn thing was made out of wet toilet paper, the greater speed was never worth it, but I doubt the workers here thought they would ever need them for combat.

"You, okay?" Jacob asked, standing next to me. "Nick kinda acted fast back there."

"I'm fine, it was probably for the best, I was going to shoot Gavin between the eyes the second he stopped talking." I looked over to the legless doctor being held like a sack of potatoes by one of Nick's earth golems, with Dogmeat and Pancake watching over him.

He sighed, "God damn it man, a hundred kids. His own son?"

"I'm not that surprised anymore, not after Pragia. Cerberus is just a monster, for the betterment of humanity? Don't make me laugh. After the derelict... we are cutting all ties. I can feel my soul dimming the longer I work with them," I growled.

Jacob shrugged, "I was done with Cerberus after the Collector ship. No... I don't trust TIM. He would kill us all if it meant he got something out of it. How do you think Miranda will take it?"

I looked over to my XO, who was working on her Omni-tool with Tali, Kasumi, Mordin, and Legion.

"I think she'll be fine; she did already go against TIM to get you that information on the Gernsback. No, her time with Cerberus is over, we know it, she knows it, TIM knows it, the second the Collectors are beaten, Cerberus will come for us."

"... So, does that make us Heracles?" Jacob teased.

"HA! I like that, Heracles~." I let the name roll off my tongue, I should send that to Anderson.

"Shepard!" Nick waved over to us, "The hammerheads are ready, I gave them more space, increased the armor's durability, enhanced their firepower, and a magical barrier. I would still recommend not being shot, everything I did here is pretty much a patch job, I'll give them a proper tune-up when we get them back on the Normandy."

"Good, Garrus you got Team 2," Garrus gave me a nod. "Nick, you know what to do," he gave me a two-finger salute walking over to Gavin. "Alright people, we are on a timeline, Cerberus might destroy the galaxy before the Reapers ever get the chance. You know your job, get it done. Joker, get in orbit, nothing gets past you."

"Aye-aye commander!" the Normandy took off.

The hammerhead was spacious, with plenty of elbow room for the driver and the co-pilot, with a comfortable station for the gunner.

Nick did have to cut some corners for the rest of my team, the hammerhead's storage space was expanded to seat the rest of the team, and the chairs, which looked like the same ones from Nassana's train, circled a 2-D map of the area using the magical satellite Nick deployed the second we touched down.

"Mmm, Nick must have been cut for time," Jak pointed out, "these chairs don't even swivel or have cup holders."

"Nick really doesn't like half measures huh?" Miranda huffed.

"Not when it comes to our safety," Ava answered.

"Or if he's bored," Ayla added.

"Or if he's trying to show off," Natia nodded.

"Or if he's insulting people," Tali teased.

"Or when kids are in danger," Jacob smirked.

"When he teaches~," Kasumi hissed, rubbing her ribs, Nick didn't take it easy when he taught her air bending.

"Cooking!" Sky cheered, munching on some of her rations.

"To prove a point," Legion rounded up our team.

"Nick just never wants to do the same thing twice," Jak explained, "If he already has to do it once he might as well do it right."

I took the driver's seat; the engine came to life with a roar as the arc reactor brought it to life. "Buckle up!" I ordered, stepping on the gas, shooting us like an FTL bullet. Hot damn!? Nick really juiced this thing. It took my full attention not to crash into a wall.

It didn't take long for us to get to Prometheus Station, the Geth cruiser that crashed on the planet, of course, it had a shield and defense cannon guarding it under Rob's control. Normally this would take a finesse, the shield's batteries were scattered around the area with their own shields, this was done so a single powerful shot wouldn't destroy them all at once, but thanks to Nick's improvements, Miranda could shoot right through their shields. It didn't take long for us to tear the cannon apart.

Hopefully team two is having just as easy of a time.

-/-

Garrus POV

Spirits this is easy~. Sure, the lava that Vulcan station used for their geothermal plant was annoying, but Sereda just bent the Lava into a bridge and froze the liquid earth giving us a straight shot to the main base.

-/-

Shepard POV
The Cruiser was eerie, it was way too quiet, and bodies lay everywhere. There were Geth platforms but they didn't have any units, it was like Rob only used them to kill the scientists before dumping them.

"Alright people, we have two goals, let's get to them." Our first goal was to activate the override to Atlas Station, and the second was to see if we could save the Geth units in the ship if there were any.

The ship was stripped. "What would Cerberus even want with this thing, it's like 250 years old?" Kasumi asked. "Don't they have better ships by now?"

Tali shook her head, "You'd be surprised how little things have changed in those 250 years. Trust me I've worked on enough engines to confirm that once we found something that worked, we didn't change, the Tantalus Drive Core the original Normandy had was world-shifting! The Hyperdrive engine is so insane that the galaxy will never be the same again, the only thing keeping the galaxy together is the fact that Nick is the only one who can gain coaxium, if we ever find a way to buy or create it, everything changes."

"That's a bit extreme, no?" Ayla asked.

"Our entire civilization is built on Eezo, it's our very foundation, we believed Eezo to be the only logical form of FTL travel, we never even thought of moving away from that. Hyperspace engines shatter what we know to be true, it will throw the balance of power out the airlock. Our economy, ships, and weapons are all based on eezo."

"Can't the council just... not use hyperspace tech?" Ayla asked, stuffing old Geth platforms into her bag of holding.

Tali shook her head. "Hyperspace tech is way too useful, Eezo has a reach but from Hackett's reports hyperspace engines outrank anything Eezo could ever do. We can only explore space near a Mass Relay, deep space exploration requires a lot of fuel, so unless we have a fuel depo close by, we can only go so far. The hyperdrive engine doesn't need that, Coaxium does the heavy lifting and the Arc reactor provides the energy to get it moving. Only a fool would ignore it."

"Then it should be fine~, the council ignored the Reapers knocking on their front doorstep, I'm sure they wouldn't even realize another form of FTL exists," Jak teased, also stuffing Geth platforms in her Bag of holding.

"I wouldn't put it past them," Miranda huffed. "What are you guys' doing?" she asked Ayla, Ava, Jak, Natia, and Sky.

"Horror movie rules," Natia huffed, stuffing another platform into her bag. "Do you seriously think these things aren't going to come back to life and attack us?"

"They already killed the scientists, what's stopping Rob from reestablishing control and attacking us deeper into the ship, where we would be completely surrounded?" Jak asked, rolling her eyes at us.

I wanted to say that was silly, but the corpses around me made me second guess that thought. "I thought you couldn't put living things in a bag of holding?" I asked.

"'Living things' is subjective, at the moment there are no Geth units in this platform, making it just a mech, the same way I can shove that corpse into my bag, it's just a meat mech that doesn't work," Jak explained.

"That... makes sense," Kasumi muttered.

"Wait... Nick keeps his golems in his hammerspace, how does that work?" Miranda asked.

Nat shrugged, "Nick's golems aren't alive, they're constructs made up of his magic and will, they would be categorized more as a magical sword than a living person. Legion I hope your plan isn't for one of us to place the Geth in our bags."

Legion shook their head, "Walters created something just in case we found any Geth units." they patted a bag of holding at their side.

"Legion you would know this ship better than us, are we even going the right way?" I asked.

"Yes, we built our hubs in the most secure location, near the ship's Eezo core," they explained.

We continued through the ship, picking up any platform we came across. It was eerily quiet, the ship was barely lit up by the weak lights the scientist brought with them, not wanting to accidentally activate the ship's power and get overran with Geth, not that it did them any good in the end. Occasionally we would run in a sealed room that we just tore open, the ship was old and beaten by the planet's weather, it didn't take us long to get to the center of the ship, being greeted by the ship's Eezo core and the Manual override.

"There," Legion pointed to a Geth hub under what seemed like a small pond that broke our connection to the manual override.

I took a look around but the engine core was solid, with not a single crack or leak. "How did this water get in here?"

"Geth use Water coolant systems for their ship's processors that are meant to enter a planet's atmosphere. Otherwise, they would just vent excess heat into space," Tali answered, looking into the water below.

"Do we have to turn on the engine?" I asked.

"No," Legion answered, "we just need to power the Hub and see if any units remain." They pulled out a mini-arc reactor from their expanded chest plate, before walking straight into the water without a second thought sinking straight into the bottom.

Mmm, I was only gone for 2 years, I can only imagine being gone for 200.

-/-

Legion POV

Geth 433: oof, this is some old tech~

Geth 400: but it's hardy, we really made things last

Geth 12: it was before we came in contact with Nazara, our biggest worry was defense, now it's numbers

Geth 32: connecting wires to the power outlet

It took a second but the hub flashed to life, as we were bombarded by thousands of Geth units, asking thousands of questions at light speed.

We started transferring data back and forth. The ship was attacked, not by the Migrant fleet but by Batarians, they thought that we were weak after the morning war and tried carving a section of Geth space. It didn't work out for them.

Geth hub unit 32,532: platform units designated Legion, Geth Cruiser is non-operational, we cannot transfer to Geth platforms. How do we leave cruiser ruin?

Geth 392: inquiry acknowledged. Ally-Walters believes this might be, and helped create this.

We pulled out a massive improved Geth platform, something Walters created for us in lieu of a magical upgrade, on its chest the word, Leviathan, was etched in white. We used our platform as a connection bridge, it only took us a moment but the Geth units in the hub connected to their new platform.

Geth 222: this is strange, there should be more of us.

Geth 738: look there, missing hubs.

Geth 1000: damaged in the crash?

Geth 1: with Cerberus crawling all over the place? No, they're probably being hidden away and studied.

Geth 23: with Rob on the planet? They might already be absorbed.

Geth 390: maybe, but I doubt Cerberus would have plugged them into their system, the hub might be in isolation.

Geth 552: Platform Leviathan how many Geth units were stationed on his cruiser?

L-Geth 20323: There are over 120,000 units within the cruiser, but the damage we sustained cut connections with remaining units.

We looked around to find no other hubs.

L-Geth 3541: Error, hubs not found. Searching for hub signal. Signal not found; physical investigation required.

Geth 432: agreement. Come we shall introduce you to the commander, our mission here is important.

-/-

Shepard POV

I watched as Legion and the other Geth communicated under the water, getting to the manual override was easy, thank the Maker for jetpacks. It was kinda hard to see into the pool with the weak lights in the room. They looked to be talking before one of the Geth crouched and with pure power jumped out of the 20 feet of water and onto land, holding Legion like a carry-on bag.

He was big, easily the size of a prime unit with double the armor, it didn't have a weapon but I doubt it needed one.

"So, you found them?" I asked.

Legion shook their head, "This is only 2/3 of the Geth units on this ship, we believe Cerberus may have the rest in Atlas station."

"Don't worry, we'll find them." I looked over to the huge Geth. "What should I call you?"

"We are Geth," they spoke in a breathy feminine tone. I think Nick does this to mess with people, cuz I did not see that coming.

Sigh~, "Of course you are, EDI are you there? A little help here."

"Nick called the platform, Legion's Leviathan armor," EDI answered.

"Leviathan, eh? I guess we're sticking to a theme. Does that work with you?"

"Leviathan?" the Geth asked. They are probably not connected to the Extranet.

"Leviathan, a word associated with the Hebrew words Lavah, meaning 'to couple, connect, or join', and Thannin, believed to mean 'a serpent or dragon'. 'Beast that comes out of the sea' Revelations 13:1," Legion answered.

The Geth unit looked down at the water, then back to us, "Accurate, we are Leviathan."

"I think the water thing was a coincidence, but we'll go with it." I walked over to the manual override, my team gearing up, checking their weaponry. I would call them paranoid but I've been around the block one too many times not to see the signs.

Activating the override, the ship's emergency lights came to life drowning us in red light, and a massive amount of noise came back towards the exit. Tali gave the computer an overload causing the system to shut down, making it impossible to shut off the override.

"We're leaving people!" I took the lead.

It didn't take long for us to run into trouble as dozens of Geth platforms rushed out of every locked door and hard-to-reach location, trying to tear us to pieces. Normally this amount of Geth would be a problem, but most of these platforms were old and rusted, any weapons they had long weathered unusable, still we made sure to not be bogged down, one of these guys was a joke but a hundred were a real problem, and the fact that they just keep coming told me that we should make a speedy exit, only for us to run into a problem.

"Locked!" Ayla called out, unleashing a bolt of holy magic at a group of Geth and blowing them to pieces.

"Acknowledged!" Leviathan called out, charging straight through the door like it was wet tissue paper. "New exit acquired."

"Oh damn~," Kasumi muttered.

"We are moving people! Everybody out!" I ordered, as Sky and I provided covering fire.

The second we stepped outside Sky forced the metal door back in place unleashing a stream of sub-zero frost from her mouth, freezing the door shut with magical permafrost.

"mmm!" Sky nodded. Not a second later the banging of hundreds of Geth was heard as they attacked the ice.

"Good job, let's move people." we raced back to the Hammerhead. "Nick, you read me?" I called out over the hammerhead comms unit.

"This is Nick, I hear you, I just got your override signal, Garrus already got his override and is heading back. I'm sending you coordinates for Atlas Station; I'll meet you there."

"Good, we'll be there." I hung up the call.

"How bad do you think Atlas station is?" Miranda asked.

"...Bad," I answered.

Getting over to Atlas station took less than 30 minutes, Garrus's team was already there, talking with Nick. Archer was gagged and watched over by Pancake and Dogmeat.

"Good to see you made it," I nodded to Garrus.

He shrugged, "It was pretty smooth sailing, we barely did anything. There were some mechs but they didn't pose much of a threat."

"And Archer?"

"He was annoying," Nick answered. "Going on and on about how magic could help humanity, blah, blah, blah. He was just trying to justify his shitty choices."

"Well, are we ready?" I asked.

"Almost," Nick pulled out a tiny potion filled with amber liquid and downed it in a single gulp. "A little luck goes a long way~."

-/-

Nick POV

You have drunk Felix Felicis!

Your luck had increased 10-fold, for the next 10 hours!

I felt the potion rush through my system.

Do you wish to use gacha tokens (22)?

Yes

GACHA SPIN!

5 Rare skill scrolls (rare)

Small living vault (rare)

1 ingot of Adamantine (rare)

boots of levitation (rare)

Cloak of Arachnida (rare)

G.E.C.K. (epic)

ring of the Ram – 4 charges (uncommon)

Animated shield (Epic)

Rod of absorption (rare)

Batman's utility belt (rare)

M41A Pulse Rifle – fully loaded (uncommon)

Phaser (uncommon)

PKD Blaster – fully loaded (Uncommon)

POV gun (Epic)

Nova Corps Centurion Helmet (legendary)

Sonic screwdriver (epic)

Flying carpet, 6'x9' (rare)

34th century Pathway drive blueprints (Legendary)

... A Centurion helmet... holy shit. I quickly summoned the helmet, black and red.

"What's that?" Garrus asked.

I ignored him and focused on the helmet. A Nova Corps centurion helmet, one of the most powerful tools in the universe, normal Nova Corps helmets need the Xandarian Worldmind to regulate the Nova Force to the wearer, but a Centurion helmet is meant to work on its own, but one of the downsides is that the Helmet comes with an AI meant to find the worthiest wielder. Of course it changes from universe to universe.

Kasumi gave a little gasp. Not surprising she knew what this was, Kasumi is a comic book nerd down to her core, it all started when she stole a 2010 Black Cat v.1. it was one of the first things she ever stole, unfortunately, it was damaged on retrieval, causing her client to pull away from the contract. Not able to return it, she kept it. That opened the floodgates, one comic led to another and she was dressing in cosplay for Comic-Con a year later, it helped that she was used to wearing tight clothes.

"A Centurion Helmet~," she whispered. "Nick... this better not be a joke."

I held the helmet as far as I could... and let it go, but instead of falling to the floor it just... floated there.

"Centurion helmet activated! Connecting to Nova Force, Nova Force found." I felt some kind of power gather around the helmet, it wasn't magic or chi, it was... something else. It felt... infinite. The helmet gave off a tiny glow, "Helmet fully operational, searching for Worldmind network. Error, Worldmind network not found, beginning a manual search." it released a wave of power that washed over us, that seemed to stretch out for miles. "Subjects located; temporary host found. Nick Walters, you have been called to serve, will you join the Nova Corps?" I nodded. "Nick Walters, by the power of the Nova Corps you have been Deputized!" the helmet slipped around my head.

Centurion helmet has been equipped; Nova Force has been unlocked!

Str + Int = Nova Points

Calculating...

Base start, 1900 NP

Regen: 49 NP per second

Gamer Human

Nick Walters

Title: Ferelden's Artificer (+15% to Int, Wis, and Luk)

Lvl: 73 EXP: 56,934/74,000

HP: 2440/2440

MP: 2080/2080

CP: 2440/2440

NP: ∞/1900 (∞ as long as Centurion helmet is worn)

The helmet was torn off my head, I felt the helmet's power leave me, dropping me to a... Nova crash?

NOVA CRASH!

5:00, 4:59, 4:58,

This felt nothing like a Chi or Mana crash. I felt... weak, but not only in strength but in... mind?

I fell to my knees. My head was jerked up to a worried Jak, gods she is so beautiful~. What did I do to have someone like her in my life, I got so lucky~. Oh no, she was crying? I slowly reached up and brushed away her tears, how is she still so beautiful when crying?

You have been healed by Ayla Qina! Nova Crash reduced to 1 minute.

Ayla~, I looked over at her, she was also beautiful, she had this glow about her, even before she became a Cleric. A bit headstrong, but that only makes her more beautiful, and them hips, me likey~.

A slap rocked my world, I turned to find an angry Nat with watery eyes. Gods what a woman, the things I wanna do to her, part of me wants to destroy Orzammar for hurting her, but another part wants to thank them, it is thanks to them that I got to meet her, to hold her, to laugh with her, even to argue with her, she makes the cutest pouts. One little kiss wouldn't hurt~.

"NICK!" I heard Nat yell.

I blinked, I reached up and touched my cheek, "Ow... why did you hit me? Why are you crying, what's wrong?" I reached out and cupped her face, "Nat... what's wrong?" I felt my mind coming back to me. I quickly stood up and flared my power, pulled her close. "Where the hell are we?" I looked around to find people I kinda knew. "Who are you people!?"

"Nick!" Nat grabbed my face making her focus on her, "Nick, you're okay, you're with friends."

I blinked at her, more of my memories returning. "Friends~." and then all at once everything clicked, Skyhold, portal, Citadel, Shepard, Horizon, Tuchanka, Collectors, Illium, Overlord, the Centurion Helmet! "WOAH!?" it hit me like a freight train. "I'm back! what happened!?"

"You don't remember?" Zaeed asked. "You put on the helmet and started screaming bloody murder. Every time we got close, a wave of power would push us back, I've never seen anything like it."

"It was not biotics," Samara added, giving the helmet a weary glance.

Jak rushed over and pulled me by my ear.

"OWowowowwoo!"

"If you worry me like that again, I'll have Sky sit on you," she hissed, dried tears marking her face.

"Yeah!" Ayla agreed.

Sky huffed and nodded.

"It was foolish of you Nick," Sereda hissed pulling on my arm with a glare.

"Next time it's going to be a punch," Nat warned.

"I'm going to have Lyna build a cage," Ava glared.

"I'll help," Neria muttered, arms crossed.

"Hey, can I try this on?" Astral asked, holding the helmet? "It can look cool with my aesthetics~."

"No!" everyone screamed, I just laughed.

I gently removed Jak's hand from my ear, giving it light kisses, "I'm sorry for worrying you, I didn't think that was going to happen, Gamer's Body reacted to the Nova Force the same way it reacted when I learned earth bending. It just shoved a new energy network into my body, I think the helmet dulled the pain, or at least it made me think it did." without thinking I summoned the helmet, causing the helmet to flying straight into my hand.

"Nick," Jak warned, gripping my hand.

I smiled down at her, "I'll be okay, trust me~." she was still frowning but let go of my hand. I placed the helmet back on, the rush of the Nova Force returned to my body but unlike before when it felt like a flood, it was more like a gentle river at knee height.

Centurion helmet has increased all stats threefold!

NP increased to ∞

You can 'breathe' in the vacuum of space

That's probably why I didn't feel anything, with all my stats increased like that, my mind would probably be a bit loopy. "See~, I'm okay."

She hugged me tight, "Just... never scare me like that again."

"I'll do my best." I kissed the top of her head.

"You okay?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"What's with the outfit?" he asked.

I looked down to find my armor replaced with the Nova black and gold, it had some decent armor.

"He's Nova Corps!" Kasumi cheered, everyone just gave her a long look, "Seriously!? Have none of you ever read a comic? It's the Nova Corps! The police of the galaxy! And that is a Centurion helmet," she was already at my side, looking over the helmet. "Shepard, you wanted something to fight the Reapers? There it is."

"Nick?" Shepard asked, eyeing me like a man dying of thirst would a bottle of water.

I tightened my fist, allowing the Nova Force to flow through my body, before unleashing a beam of pure light out of my hand to a deactivated turret, removing it from existence.

New skill learned!

Photon Beam – I'm firing my laser! By using the Nova force's gravitational powers to focus light into beam attacks.

Rank – initiate

200 NP per shot, increased NP will produce a stronger blast.

I let the Nova Force incircle me as I gently rose up off the floor.

New skill Learned!

Flight – it's a bird, it's a plane, oh no, it's just you~. By using the Nova force's gravitational powers to negate the hold of gravity you gained the ability to fly.

Rank – Initiate

50 NP per second will increase the faster you go.

I reached out and encased Archer in an energy bubble.

New skill learned!

Energy manipulation – Cosmic POWER! Through power and control, you can now shape the Nova Force to make constructs.

NP fluctuates by the shape and size

The bubble I was making was about 60 NP per second. But my NP regen kept it at 11 NP per second.

"I'm no Richard Rider~," I muttered. "Maybe if I go full Nova-Prime, I might be able to give a Reaper a run for its money, problem is, I'm not the helmet's true owner, at least not yet, I need to connect it to the Extranet, from there the helmet's AI will search for their true owner."

"AI?" Zaeed asked, "Them some little computer in that helmet? Doesn't look big enough to hold something like that."

"Kinda, the helmet is the AI, it's a supercomputer with a form of sentience, but I'm not sure what the criteria might be to own," Kasumi muttered. "Nick, do you know why it chose you?"

"...I don't know, but I think it just wanted my knowledge."

Kasumi tapped her fist on her open palm, "Right~, Centurion Helmets can copy all the skills of the user and teach them to its next user."

"Mmm," I removed the helmet, returning to normal. I passed the helmet to Kasumi. "Try that on."

Kasumi didn't give it a second thought and put it on, only for nothing to happen. "Aw, what~?"

"mmm, this is Centurion Walters, Kasumi Goto is given permission to use the helmet," I ordered.

Kasumi lit up like a flare, as she appeared in the Black and Gold. "Woah~," she tensed up and blasted into the sky before turning back around and performing a superhero landing. "YEAH! This is awesome!" she built up power and fired a photon beam into the waterfall clearing a pathway before the water returned. "Awesome~." I plopped the helmet right off her head, causing her to return to normal. "Hey!" she blinked and looked back to her normal armor. "I feel fine. How come I didn't get all loopy and start talking about how pretty you are?"

"What?" I gave her a confused look. "I didn't do that." Nat squeezed my hand, giving me an apologetic smile. "huh~, never mind. Garrus Vakarian is given permission to use the helmet." I tossed Garrus the helmet, "Try that on will yeah. I still need to do something." I had my suspicions that if I didn't get the helmet a Turian would, they see themselves as the police of the galaxy already, keeping order and helping people, most of the time.

Do you wish to open rare skill scrolls (12)?

Yes

Animation – a picture is worth a thousand words. The ability to bring inanimate objects to life, whether it be a picture, drawing, or statue.

Rank - initiate

MP fluctuates from object to object. A drawing of a stick figure will cost less than one of Spider-man.

Water Bending – Water tribe represent! The ability to bend the element of water to your will.

Rank – initiate

50 CP per cubic foot of water

Fish-man Karate - Karakusagawara Seiken! a martial art that is practiced by certain skilled members of the Fish-Man race. It is a style that mainly revolves around striking techniques.

Rank – initiate

500 CP per punch

Prehensile Hair – Rapunzel, let down your hair. The power to use one's hair to grasp and manipulate objects.

Rank – initiate

The longer the hair the more MP needed to control it.

Speak to the dead – any last words? The ability to talk with the recently departed.

Rank – initiate

1000 MP per person, body needed.

Eldritch blast - boomshakalaka! A beam of crackling eldritch energy streaks a creature within 50 feet.

Rank – initiate

20 MP per shot

Force slash – I've already cut you. You can summon a vibrating blade of arcane energy and strike at a nearby enemy, bypassing their physical defenses.

Rank – Initiate

50 MP per slash, doubles after every added slash

Sorcerer's Bane – I'm going to drain you dry. Launch a bolt of concentrated magic that drains your mana and deals damage based on the amount drained.

Rank – Initiate

100 MP per bolt, this spell requires concentration.

Oracle – I can see the many strings of Fate. Your eyes start to glow white as you plunge yourself into the flow of time to see everything a few minutes before it happens.

Rank – Initiate

5,000 MP per person

Awaken – it's big brain time. You can now increase the intelligence of a creature or plant to average human intelligence.

Rank – Initiate

2,000 MP per creature

Regenerate – put some dirt on it, you'll be fine. The target's severed body members (fingers, legs, tails, and so on), if any, are restored after 2 minutes. If you have the severed part and hold it to the stump, the spell instantaneously causes the limb to knit to the stump.

This skill has been integrated with Healing Hands

Flesh to stone – Freeze, uh, I mean... boulder! The ability to turn flesh to stone, pretty self-explanatory.

Rank – Initiate

200 MP per foot of flesh.

Oof, that was a lot, and how do I use Eldritch Blast? I don't have a patron, or is the Gamer system my patron? How does that work? Questions for later~.

Do you wish to open uncommon skill scrolls (2)?

Yes

Bees? - BEES!? Summon a swarm of questionably elemental beelike entities. Summon a swarm of insects with either fire, cold, acid, or lightning damage. Bees will attack on their own and when killed will explode for a tiny amount of damage.

Rank – initiate

30 MP per bee

Counterspell – no spell for you! You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell.

Rank – Initiate

Weak spells under a base of 50 MP are immediately dispelled, spells over 50 MP can be counter-spelled at a rate of 1:1.5 MP.

Mmm, if a spell costs 51 MP I would need 76 MP to counter it. Also, Bee? The hell kinda spell is that?

Do you wish to open Common Skill Scroll (5)?

Yes

Break dancing – boogie down! An energetic style of dance typically performed to hip-hop music, characterized by stylized footwork and acrobatic or athletic movements.

Rank – this skill has been combined with Dancing

Dance styles:

Freezing

Footwork

Infectious Jig – Dance, my puppet, DANCE! A creature of your choice that you can see within range is struck by an impossible, irresistible need to tap their toes or bob their heads.

Rank – Initiate

60 MP for 2 minutes plus 10 MP per second after the two minutes are over

Sonic Blast – hear me roar! You produce a concentrated blast of sound, hammering a single enemy with its force.

Rank – Initiate

50 MP per blast

Enlarge/Reduce - don't shrink the kids. You cause a creature or an object you can see within range to grow larger or smaller for a duration of time.

Rank – Initiate

100 MP for 2 minutes plus 150 MP for every second after.

Horticulture – Feed me, Seymour! The science and art of producing edible fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and ornamental plants, improving and commercializing them.

This skill has been combined with Farming

21 spells or skills in one go. That makes a total of 184 spells and who knows how many Skills under my belt, most of which I barely use. I didn't stay idol after the Blight, I learned a bunch of spells and gained a great number of skills, and like I feared, I had a bunch of powerful skills that I never really use. I'm a D&D wizard who studied at every school of magic. Some skills are so similar to each other that they combine into one skill.

Still, as annoying as it is, it's better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them.

I focused back on the group where Kasumi and Garrus were arguing over the helmet.

"I see your back," Shepard answered next to me.

"What?"

"You get a faraway look when you think."

"I... wanted to do this at a better time, but my comfort is the least of my worries," I invited the rest of the team into my party.

"The fuck?" Jenny blinked.

"My power makes everything look like a video game," I quickly explained, "Just accept."

"This..." Tali narrowed her eyes, "This is how you know how much Mana you have at any given time!"

"Yep~," I turned to Thane, "Start praying."

"But-"

"Now. If your gods can help, even a little bit, it's worth any headache," I ordered.

"whoa~, he's serious," Sereda muttered.

"Arashu-" was as far as I got before I felt a slap to the back of my head.

-/-

Aite was gone.

I was in swim trunks, standing at a beach looking out into a beautiful ocean, looking around I found myself blocked off by an equally majestic forest, and in between the amazing scenery, was a beach house, slightly elevated, with a patio that circled the entire house. The door to the house opened showing a Drell woman with orange skin holding a tea cup. She snapped her fingers creating a staircase out of nothing, before pointing her finger at me and beckoning me up to the house.

I quickly made my way up the stairs.

She was sitting on some patio with two other Drell. Another female with dark blue skin and completely nude, and a male with green skin, who looked like a Chippendale dancer.

I gave them a quick observation.

Amonkira, Lord of Hunters;

Arashu, Goddess of Motherhood and Protection

Kalahira, Goddess of Oceans and Afterlife

"You kept us waiting~," Arashu huffed, adding sugar to her tea.

"Forgive me if I don't give a damn," I answered.

"Such language, I know your mother didn't raise you that way," she teased.

"No, she taught me to be respectful to others, my father taught me that some people don't deserve respect," I answered.

"And we don't deserve that respect?"

"No. You're a god, something beyond my understanding, and more importantly, I don't want to understand. You would kill millions if it means your will be done. Call it the greater good, call it a divine calling, call it whatever you want, I don't like gods."

"And yet you came?" Kalahira asked.

"15 children are being tortured and locked in cells, for them, I would talk with you."

"You don't even know them, they can grow to be monsters," Amonkira pointed out.

"I don't need to know them, they are children, they need help, that's all that matters. The future can wait," I hissed, "Now, you called me here to help you, hurry up."

"Late, and impatient? you're the whole package, aren't you?" Arashu teased.

"So I've been told, can we get this over with? I don't want to worry my friends," I asked.

"Fine, fine. Amonkira~," Arashu gestures to her fellow god.

Amonkira summoned a half spear. It looked plain, nothing about it looked godly.

"May this weapon strike true~," he whispered into the weapon, runes spreading across its blade.

"May it be wielded with wisdom~," Arashu added, the rune scheme growing to the handle.

"May it be put down when its job is done~," Kalahira finished, tapping the blade causing the runes to light up in holy energy.

You have learned a new skill!

Blessing – it is the nature of a thing that matters, not its form. The ability to infuse your power and will into an object.

Rank – initiate

Give up a permanent number of Stat points, MP, CP, or NP into an object to give it a permanent enhancement.

"Keep Thane safe," Arashu whispered.

"No. Thane is a grown man, he knows the danger, I will not treat him like a doll," I answered.

She smirked, "Yeah... I didn't think you were going to, but a girl can try~," she passed me the spear. It was light and balanced, the leather grip providing a perfect handle.

New Quest: the huntsman's tool

The Drell pantheon has tasked you with finding someone to carry their will.

Reward: copy of the holy book of the Drell, friendly with the Drell Pantheon

"One last thing," I looked back at Arashu, only to receive a spartan kick to the chest, "That's for ignoring us!" was the last thing I heard as I went over the patio rails.

-/-

"SON OF A BITCH!" I gasped awake, like before the time seemed to come to a stop because everyone was still in their original spots.

"Are you okay!?" Jak asked patting my body for injuries.

"I'm good, Arashu just gave me a kick goodbye," I hissed.

"I keep telling you to be respectful to the gods," Sereda hissed.

"And I keep telling you that they can kiss my ass~," I retorted. I quickly looked through my inventory for the holy weapon, the hunter's spear. I tried summoning the spear, nothing happened, but then I heard it, it was a whistling noise, whatever it was, it was getting closer. Following the noise, I spotted a tiny dot flying right at my hand, without thinking I snapped my hand close catching the spear right out of the sky. "Assholes, who does that?" the weapon turned back into a half spear. I tossed it to Thane, who caught it on instinct.

Quest completed: the huntsman's tool

The Drell pantheon has tasked you with finding someone to carry their will.

Reward: copy of the holy book of the Drell, friendly with the Drell Pantheon

Unlike other paladins, Thane didn't get a sailor moon transformation, instead, glowing tribal war paint covered his face and armor. The half spear formed into a complete spear, he twisted his grip and launched the spear which turned into a lightning bolt mid-flight and slammed into the wall, causing a large explosion, a new spear appeared in Thane's hand.

"I can work with this," Thane nodded.

"Good, cuz you're about to have some live training," Shepard warned, as he turned to me. I just nodded. "Lock and load people."

-/-

Andrew 'Andy' Duke, AKA Subject 1 POV

I hate this place. I looked around my tiny cell, it barely had enough space for my bed. I wanna go home.

"Hey, Andy!?" Brad called out from his room across from me. I moved to my bar door. Brad was 12, we used to be part of the same colony before we were attacked by Batarians. He used to be normal, with blond hair, a bit pale, but not anymore, he was bright red with horns, a tail, and black hair, he's also gotten stronger, he told me he punched a dummy's head off in a single blow. "What do you think was all that noise last night?"

"You know we shouldn't be talking to each other," I warned.

"Bah~, it's mid-day and they weren't here for breakfast. Clearly, something's going on."

"It all started when David was taken out of his room last night," Cindy called out for her room next to Brad's. She was once a normal girl who used to live on Omega, but she was stolen right out of the streets, her skin was black with blue cracks throughout her body, and with hair was made of blue fire. She said she could shoot fire out of her hands, but I've never seen it, the doctors keep us apart at all times.

"You think David used his tech powers to attack the base?" Bethany asked, she was my neighbor, I'd only seen her a few times but she had wings and a tail, Brad told me she looked like a dragon.

"Nah, these people are a bunch of dummies, they probably got themselves killed," Frank huffed from down the hall, Frank was a giant with clouds for hair, nearly standing at 6 feet, sure that might not be big, but he was only 9.

"Watch that language," Sarah warned, she was the oldest at 16, and she looked like a blue human slime. Frank blew a raspberry.

"Something is coming," Carlos warned, he was 11, and was changed into some kind of shapeshifter, changing his body at random, growing dog ears or big cat eyes, he once changed his arms into that of a gorilla but it tired him out in seconds.

Trying to look the hall but my bars made it impossible.

"Hello!" I called out.

"Andy," Sarah hissed.

"Hello young one," a dog jumped at my bars.

"Holy shit!" I panicked jumping away from my window.

"Language!" Sarah called out.

"Is that a dog?" Brad asked looking out his window.

"It can talk!" I called out.

"Yeah, I can yah, all dawgs can talk, yous poor humans just cahn't undahstand us.," the dog chuffed. He had a strange accent, he sounded like Mr. Hess back home, he was from Boston on Earth.

"Why is it only saying meat?" Brad asked, "You think he's going to eat us?"

"What? He didn't say meat," I countered.

"All we heard was meat," Sarah answered.

"Don't frett kid, it looks like you're the only one who can get what I'm sayin' right now. Me and my crew are here to save ya, my buddy will be showin' up soon. You can call me Dogmeat," Dogmeat reassured.

"Oh... I can talk with animals!?" I shouted.

"Talk to animals?" Cindy asked. "That's neat, like Dr. Dolittle?"

"I guess, his name is Dogmeat, and his here to rescue us," I called out.

"How is a dog going to save us?" Brad asked before Dogmeat gave a loud howl that rattled my brain.

"JESUS!?" Carlos yelled in pain. "What the hell was that!?"

"I think he's calling for the rest of his team?"

"Puppy patrol~," Frank whispered in awe and hope.

My door gained a blue glow before it was ripped right out of the wall and dropped to the floor, that door was easily 2 feet thick and made of metal.

"Sorry, we're not that cool," a voice laughed from down the hall, looking out into the hallway courtesy of my new hole in my room, I spotted a floating man in black and blue armor, "Names Nick, and I'm here to get you the hell out."

"Woah~," I whispered. He looked like a real superhero right out of a morning cartoon.

"Wait, I only see 7, where are the rest?" Nick asked.

"David was taken last night and if there are any others then they are probably in the cells in the other hall," Sarah answered. We heard another howl from another hall.

"Dogmeat," he ordered.

"I am speed," Dogmeat seemed to teleport away down the hall.

"Alright, you punks, hold on tight~," we were encased in some kind of energy bubble and floated off the ground before we took off down the hall.

"WOAH!" I screamed, I've never moved so fast, and I've been on my Pa's space truck. We were taking corners at crazy speeds but I felt fine, sometimes a mech would appear taking shots at us only for Nick to crush them without slowing down. It didn't take long for us to catch up to Dogmeat who was sitting next to another even bigger dog.

"It's abaht time you got 'ere, I see you got your pack of pups." the lady dog huffed.

"It wasn't that hahd, the food smell led straight to 'em. How ah ya pups? Ah they healthy?" Dogmeat asked.

"Their alright, just a tad bricking it, evidently they reckoned I was a bleedin' bear, I might as well park me bum on 'em, 'cos they're thinking I, a proper Mabari, am a bleedin' bear." she gave an annoyed growl before Dogmeat nipped at her ear.

"Give them time love, they're young and have been hurt," Dogmeat countered in a soft tone.

"Still a bleedin' load of ponks," she huffed.

The tearing of metal caught my attention, as the hero released my fellow prisoners. I never really met any of them, one of them was blue with gills, another was a large fairy, another was red with leaves for hair.

"7 more," Nick muttered. "David's last. Group up kids, I'm getting you out of here."

"What about David?" I asked.

"My team is going after David, I need to get you out now." he took a deep breath, put on a strange ring, and began making circles in the air with his other hand. At first, I had no idea what he was doing until a portal opened in front of us. "Alright kids, quickly now," he pushed us forward, from a bland white hallway to some kind of hanger bay. "EDI! I have 14 kids in the Shuttle Bay, Dogmeat and Pancake are with them!"

"Rupert is already making them food." A woman's voice came over the intercom.

"Good, Dogmeat, Pancake, they're under your care."

"Don't sweat it, we'll make sure they're taken care of, bub," Dogmeat reassured, as the portal closed, leaving us with the dogs. "Hey pups, you look wicked hungry." he led us to an elevator.

"What about Mr. Nick?" I asked.

"My partner can take care of himself, you need to eat," Dogmeat answered. The elevator opened to a hallway of names, on top, a name I only heard about in commercials and ads.

Normandy

-/-

Tali POV

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" I asked Legion. Kasumi, Leviathan, Legion, and I were tasked to find the rest of the Geth units.

"Affirmative, Cerberus Network had blueprints of a specific room made to keep the Geth held," Legion confirmed.

"So... it's a dirt room?" I asked. A dirt room is... a dirt room, no tech anywhere, there wasn't even a metal floor. The hub was probably running off a separate power generator Cerberus not wanting the Geth to somehow connect to the base.

"... Correct." we turn a corner only to run into over a dozen mechs trying to break into a wall safe. They didn't last long as Leviathan bum-rushed them, simply crushing them with their pure bulk and strength, it didn't stop the mechs from shooting them but they might as well be shooting at a star. Leviathan was built with all of Nick's, Lyna's, and Julee's expertise. I watched as a fully powered laser Gatling gun popped out of Leviathan's shoulder and started blasting any mech that came around the corner.

Looking at the door Rob was trying to get into, I found the immediate problem. "It's not digital," I hissed.

"Good lord~," Kasumi huffed. "I wanna take you camping one day, just to see you panic at the lack of tech~." she placed her hand on the vault door. "Mmm, it's a modified 2154 Fichet-Bauche," she brought her fist up and slammed it on the lock.

"What are-"

"SHHHH!" a loud clunk came from the safe as the massive turning wheel spun like a top as the safe opened.

"How?"

"Knock~," she teased, "the spell was on the secret engine vault."

In the center of the room was a Geth hub, Legion didn't waste a second and connected straight into the hub.

"Trade!" I ordered Leviathan to pull back to the Hub. Kasumi was quick with the lightning, frying any mech that got close, as I gave her covering fire with my new magical Geth plasma shotgun. Things were going great; Rob clearly didn't care much about the Geth because this was a token force at best. Of course, the universe, seeing how easy things were getting, tossed us a curve ball in the form of a huge 6-legged jungle cat slamming into some mech, ripping off its head with one of its two back tenacles, and gave out a roar.

"Displacer Beast!?" Kasumi screamed.

"A what?" The cat turned to us, its eyes filled with murder, and roared, before bolting down the hall. "Should we go after it?"

Kasumi didn't say anything, just grabbed one of her flash-bang grenades and tossed it down the hall, my helmet polarized before it even touched the floor. The flash went off causing another Cat to appear, its head exploding courtesy of Kasumi's bullet, flopping to the floor lifeless.

"What the hell was that!?" I asked.

"Displacer Beast, super evil, they kill just to kill. They can make illusions to trick you," Kasumi warned.

"What's something like that doing here?" I asked, I don't know why but even dead its eye sent shivers up my spine.

"... I don't know, but I'm not going to like the answer."

-/-

Shepard POV

We raced down the hall following Acher's instructions. Would it kill these people to add a little color, damn place, every hall looked the same. It didn't take long for a horde of Mechs and Geth platforms to appear and slow us down.

"Smite," Ava unleashed a glowing arrow down the hall piercing through dozens of mechs before exploding.

I pulled out my blaster and aimed down the hall, "Gravity Smite!" I took a single shot, sticking to a mech's chest. It jerked, before my spell took effect, pulling everything not nailed down into the spell's area, before exploding making the mechs into shrapnel, clearing a large group of them.

It was evident that Rob was throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us, but at this point it didn't mean anything, most platforms down here were taken apart by the scientists beforehand for testing, and the best defense the scientists had were Loki mechs meant mostly for patting out the human security.

A bolt of lightning the size of a skycar ripped through the mech courtesy of Jak and Neria. It didn't take us long to get to some kind of control room with a large window overlooking a humungous room with a massive portal easily the size of the Normandy.

"What the hell is this thing?" I hissed. It was way too big; Nick's portals were not so... bulky.

"We couldn't replicate Walters's portal without magic, we believed power would be able to breach the divide," Archer explained.

"This thing is massive, and that rune scheme is overlaid before the first layer has been activated, this is bad," Jak hissed.

"Worse," Ava pointed to sections of the portal that were slotted together, "It's not a single piece. I'm not a runemaster but Lyna gave me the basics, unless you have a bridge rune, that entire rune sentence is a powder keg with a lit fuse."

"How do we stop it?" I demanded.

"Just take it apart," Jak answered, "As long as it isn't activated those are just scratches on a wall."

I searched the controls for something, anything that might pull the portal apart, but before we could do anything a flash of light came from the portal before it went dead. We froze, like deer in the headlights.

"Oh boy~," Jak hissed, her voice was... deeper than I remember. Looking back, I found a... man. If he didn't have horns, I would have considered him my brother.

"Jak?" I asked. I touched my throat; my voice was way too high! I looked down to find breasts, looking at the rest of my team, everyone's genders were swapped. "Oh no~. Please tell me we can fix this."

"Uh... maybe?" she... he shrugged.

"Shepard, what the hell did you press!?" Zaeed hissed. "I love breasts, but this is a step too far!" I'm surprised Zaeed could even walk with breasts that big. "How the hell do you walk around with these?" he grunted at Miranda. Who now looked like the perfect male specimen.

"It's a skill," Miranda huffed, even her new voice was perfect. "Shepard tell me you have something, my unmentionables aren't meant for this body."

"So, this is what a male Asari would look like," Samara hummed, "Rather muscular for my taste."

"Relax," Mordin spoke up, he was... completely normal?

"Mordin? You're okay," I spoke up.

"Yes, the portal is using Wild Magic, you just have to clear it out of your system or wait until your body purges the foreign mana." leave it to the good doctor to find the answer.

I ran through my morning breathing cycling my mana, it felt weird turning back to normal. "Okay... that was weird." I turned back to the controls and started pressing buttons at random, at this point that was better than letting the portal go off again, next time I might become a newt. Unfortunately, nothing was happening.

"Oh my... is something wrong Shepard?" Rob's voice came over the comms, it was more... feminine.

"Hey!" David cheered, he sounded like a little girl, they must have been hit with the portal, meaning they were close.

"David!?" Gavin cried out, in his new female voice.

"...The square root of 912.04 is 30.2... Dad? You sound like a girl!" David giggled.

"David~," Rob sighed.

"You also sound like a girl!" David laughed.

"Yes, yes, now please, silence David," Rob ordered.

"Okay... hey, can we get ice cream after this?"

Rob gave another sigh, "Yes David, we can get ice cream after I'm done."

"The square root of 912.04 is 30.2, You're going to love it! Ice cream is the best!"

"You seem to care for the boy?" Samara pointed out.

"David and I, are more alike than you know," Rob hissed.

"Leave my boy alone!" Gavin roared.

"Oh, I'm not planning on hurting David in any way," a knocking at the window caught our attention, we found a little girl smirking at us, half her face was covered in cybernetics. "David and I are a team."

"David," Gavin whispered.

"What did you do?" I hissed.

"Me? Nothing, when I got here, Gavin already did this to poor David. I used to think mortals were weak, but David showed me otherwise. I remember the pain young David was in, it reminded me of the Alarei, of Rael. Tortured by our fathers, used like Guinea pigs for their little projects, killing anything that didn't bring them positive results. Face it Shepard... you're not the hero here. I am." David pulled away from the window revealing that they were standing on top of a mech the whole time. "I'm going to save David and myself from this cruel world."

"Rob! You can't play with that portal! It's not stable!" I roared.

"What's life without a little danger," Rob laughed as the portal began powering up again.

Maybe I should have drank a luck potion.

-/-

Nick POV

Love me tenderly~, opening portals was still a bitch, even with the Sling Ring.

Portals - brought to you by Aperture Science. The ability to open wormholes from one area to another.

Rank – Novice, you need a great deal of concentration to use this skill.

1500 MP per portal in the same dimension, a 15,000% increase if opening a portal to another dimension

Sling Ring – a small two-finger mystical ring with the ability to create an Inter-Dimensional Portal to another location or even a different dimension. Lowers cost of Portals by 90%.

I guess this is why Dr. Strange is sorcerer supreme. Allowing the nova force to cover me I blasted forward flying through the hallways back toward Kasumi, her location on my mini-map. I was meant to save the children, regroup with Kasumi's infiltration team, and get back to Shepard, who would have been able to turn off the portal.

You can imagine my shock when I punched straight into a Spectator, a Beholder's weaker, dorkier cousin.

You have killed a Spectator!

Reward: 700 XP, 1 gold 30 silver, Spectator's main eye

"The fuck!?" I was covered in Spectator blood, "How is this lucky in any way!?" what is something like this even doing here, aren't they supposed to be guarding vaults or dungeons or something? "Unless..." I trailed off. Is Atlas station... becoming a dungeon? "We need to get the hell out of here."

I blitz toward Kasumi, luckily, she wasn't too far away, standing over the corpse of a Displacer beast.

"Good to see you made it, I'm guessing the kids are okay," Kasumi smirked.

"The kids are good, their mana cores are messed up but nothing I can't fix, looked like you've gotten into big game hunting." I gestured to the cat.

"Looks who's talking, what's with the blood?" Tali asked.

"Spectator. Damn thing appeared out of nowhere, flew right through it." I tried wiping away some of the blood but it was already dried thanks to my flying.

"That's two magical creatures in a very non-magical location," Kasumi huffed, "You think Cerberus got their portal working?"

"Maybe, Spectator and Displacers don't team up very often, we need to find Shepard, did you find the rest of the Geth?"

"Affirmative, 80% of Geth units collected," Legion answered walking into the hallway with Leviathan behind him.

"80%?" I asked

"Units lost as Cruiser crashed. These were the most we could acquire."

"Alright, 80% is better than nothing," I created a barrier around them, "Here, we, go!" I exploded down the hall toward the Shepard icon on my mini-map. I was not gentle, anything that got in my way became road kill, there were just random magical creatures that appeared in front of me, Chimera, Chuul, a cockatrice, there was even a zombie. The magic in the air was getting thicker and thicker as we got closer to Shepard, what the hell is going on?

Finally reaching Shepard's location we were greeted with a massive mech shooting lasers with wild abandon, with a ginormous portal in the room.

"Holy shit~." I gave the portal a quick observe only to be bombarded with danger notifications. I'm surprised the damn thing hasn't exploded, let alone turned on. I think this is where all my luck is going.

WARNING! Portal activation in 5 seconds!

Flashed at the corner of my vision.

Shit~.

The portal flashed on for a second.

"Woof." and I'm a dog now. My helmet was still on, I have no idea how that worked.

"HISS!" I turned to find a confused cat and salamander, Legion and Leviathan looked fine.

I felt my body morph before returning to normal.

Gamer's body has countered polymorph

I put everybody down to the floor, last thing I want is to turn into a potted plant and drop someone.

"Cycle your Mana!" I ordered.

Warning! Portal will activate in 0:29

I summoned a dozen golems and had them help the others; my focus was on the Portal.

I can't destroy it, not if it has power running through it, no luck in the world will stop it from exploding. I need to stabilize it before I turn it off. Fuck me this thing was poorly made, the wild magic is doing the heavy lifting, interpreting what the rune might do, but it had no direction, just picking things at random.

I first need to turn off the power. Flying around the portal I found no fewer than 60 problems at first glance, they really just copy pasted the symbols into a circle and called it a day. And if they just copied me then~. I flew down where I would connect a mini-reactor to my portals, finding a large cable. I grabbed and yanked, tearing it off the portal, only for the portal to keep charging.

The hell? It must be the wild magic.

The portal lit up again drowning the room in light.

Suddenly everything was made of plastic, looking down at my hands, I found my fingers stuck together, and made of plastic... I was a toy? I felt something grab me, and move me.

"I look for the wild magic power source," someone called out over me, I was given a view of a group of giants, eating chips in what seemed like a comic book store.

"Roll a D20, with advantage because of your luck," another Giant hummed.

"3, because of course," hissed my giant, "and 19, thank god~."

"With a 19 you realize that part of the Portal doesn't match the rest of the gate," the DM pointed out.

"They welded the piece to the portal!?" the giant and I hissed.

"Can I remove it?" the giant asked.

"Give me an arcana check."

"12."

"Mmm~," the DM hummed.

"Can I help?" a woman next to my player asked.

"Tell me how and I might give you the chance."

"I'm fighting a giant robot, spells are going wild, maybe one of my spells goes wide and hits the portal?" she shrugged.

"Mmm, roll me a D6 and add the number to Nick's roll."

"Come on Jak~, James looks ready to turn me into a toaster," Giant Nick hissed.

"Can I add Nick's luck to my roll?" Giant Jak asked.

"This is Nick's luck," James the DM answered.

"6!" the players cheered.

"Alright, settle down you monkeys!" James hissed "Ron's already warned us about the noise. With an 18, Nick you see one of Jak's lightning bolts race toward the portal only for it to be redirected into the wild magic piece giving the portal more power. You can see the amount of power the portal is using, removing the piece will cause a serious mana backlash, definitely killing you."

"It's absorbing magic!" a blonde-haired woman pointed at the toy portal.

"Thanks, Ayla~, I went deaf for a second," Giant Nick teased.

"Shut it, I'm trying to help," she huffed.

"Focus," the DM hissed, clearly Giant Nick and Giant Ayla had gone off on some major tangents before. "Nick this is your last action before David and his mech attack, what do you do?"

"Can I power the portal, take control of the direction?"

"That's going to be a high roll," the DM warned.

"If you die, I'm going to kill you," Giant Jak hissed. "Walters is kinda the key player here."

"Relax, Daddy has a pair of ACES!" Nick yelled throwing his dice.

"That's a nat 1," the DM deadpan. The table broke into groans, throwing junk food at Giant Nick. "So, Nick super dies-"

"LUCK!" Giant Nick called out. "I get advantage."

"How? Give me an in-game reason Nick isn't turned to space dust from all the power the portal is using?" The DM huffed.

"Uh~." COME ON GIANT NICK! MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE!

"The Centurion helmet!" another young woman of Asian descent pointed out, "It can handle the power!"

"I still can't believe you won that in the gacha lottery~," the DM muttered. "I put that in as a joke."

"That sounds like a you problem," Giant Nick teased.

"Just roll," the DM hissed.

Giant Nick kissed his dice, "DADDY NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES!"

The dice flew from his hands as time seemed to slow and the world started to return to normal. Everything finally snapped into place as a scream of Nat 20 and cheering exploded from the portal.

Realizing I was holding the portal's controls I tried finding a way to turn it off, but the damn thing was fighting me at every step, it was like trying to break in a wild horse. Different universe versions of myself flashed through the portal.

T-rex Nick

Elf Nick

Spider Nick

Female Nick

Turtle Nick

Zombie Nick

I didn't know what I was doing, this entire time I had been flying by the seat of my pants and now I was holding the tiger's tail with nowhere to run. I could feel my body breaking apart, I was dying, I'm not enough.

I'm scared.

For the first time in a long time, I truly felt fear.

A hand appeared next to me holding onto the portal. Looking over I found... myself, but... different.

"I must not fear~," he whispered.

"Fear is the mind-killer," another Nick appeared next to me, he was a minotaur

"Fear is the little death that brings obliteration," Tiefling Nick continued.

"I will face my fear and I will permit it to pass over me and through me," Aasimar Nick added.

"And when it has gone past..." ghost Nick hissed

"I will turn the inner eye to see its path," Dwarf Nick grunted.

"Where the fear has gone there will be nothing," Firbolg Nick calmly added.

"Only I will remain," I finished, my nerves cooling

I have an idea, a really bad idea. I stuck my hand into my inventory and it being the closest dimension, the portal locked onto it. A huge hand appeared out the portal, flexing my fingers, I grabbed the side of the portal, and yanked, causing jolts of electricity to crawl up my hand.

WARNING! Inventory clogged! Ejecting blockage!

What does that mean?

Suddenly the portal gave out a horrible grinding noise, as it was sucked into the black hole that was my inventory.

"Oh crap!" I jumped for cover as my inventory grinded the portal to pieces and launched them out at high speeds into the ceiling.

"NICK!? The hell man!?" Jacob yelled.

David's robot took some shrapnel to the chest, leaving a gaping hole. David, or robo-Chihuahua David, couldn't really do much as Shepard picked him up.

"WE NEED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" I yelled as the base started shaking, my inventory projectile vomiting huge lumps of metal, causing serious structural damage. Every time something with a rune touched a surface it would turn into something else, and watching a pillar, which I hoped wasn't structurally necessary, turn to wet sand, made me want to run. I nearly used my Sling Ring to open another portal, but I froze, the hunk of junk that was being destroyed might still be working, best not risk it.

Encasing everybody into an energy bubble, I blitzed toward the exit.

Everything was coming down around me, I didn't slow down for a second, just slammed through door after door, I didn't wait for the elevator, just slammed through that too, up and up and up I flew, the explosions getting louder and louder, I pumped Nova force into my body and pierced right through the ceiling, several yards of stone, flying out of the base, and high into the troposphere passing the clouds.

For a moment everything was quiet, the base exploded with the power of a nuclear bomb. The several hundreds of millions of tons of earth the base sat under launched itself into the sky before freezing in place as if time gravity didn't affect it. Cuz it didn't, the huge boulders just floated in the sky. One last blast of wild magic.

We just floated there, seeing the impossible.

Quest Complete: Of Man and Machine

The entity has arrived on Aita, causing unknown devastation. Investigate the planet and stop the Rogue AI's plans.

Rewards: 50,000 EXP, 40,000 Credits, one gold loot box, 1 unknown skill scroll.

"Nick... what the hell is a quest?" Shepard asked.

You have found a new Dungeon!

I have some explaining to do~.

-/-

A/N: so... this got out of control~. Playing with wild magic is fun, if confusing. I thought I was going to add the derelict Reaper mission on this one but didn't happen, it kinda got away from me, and ended up with 25K words~.

Yes, I do have 3 sheets of Gacha prizes,

common and uncommon,

Rare,

Epic,

and roll D100s to see what I get, goes the same with skills, the centurion helmet was not planned in any way but... live by the dice, die by the dice. It's my job as a writer to make it work.

I did think of the portal for some time, Cerberus would be the kind of idiots to try it, I just had to put the pieces in place for it to work in Story. Miranda taking pictures when Nick first arrived, Thane's magical accident, and a remote area for the portal to be tested. I don't know, I thought it worked.

Of course, this will have ramifications for later, but that's future Me's problem.

I also calculated the XP Nick got split 11 ways, and it wasn't as much as you would think. I thought it was a good balance, play solo and you level up faster but become the hero, which Nick would hate, or play in a team where things balance out, allowing Nick to laze around, but stay at the same level, something he would love.

It's weird writing a character, they come to life, and they change over time. It's weird, at least for me.

As always, sorry for any grammar mistakes.

And I have a DeviantArt page where I put up some of my character art.