Canadian Blue:Beauty Marks
The air was bone dry, whipping dust and debris around which obscured his vision. He could hear the howling of the wind pick up and die down in a slow, melodic rhythm. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the rancid air. Years of nuclear war had destroyed much of his planet long before he was born. He had never seen the vibrant green of the gardens, nor the deep purple of the oceans. Vids and books had been his only insight to a world that was long gone. But here, in the pit of his ancestors, he only knew one thing: he was going to be a legend.
His krannt had been killed during the early waves of his Rite. That was fine with him since they were weak anyway. His brother had chosen them himself to help during the battles, but Wrex knew it was a ploy to kill him and write it off as an accident. Cowardly pyjak couldn't be bothered to try and kill him on his own. At least his father showed that he had a quad when he ambushed him during a Crush years before. He hated having to kill his own father, but at least he knew it was a death well deserved and given. He looked into his fathers' eyes as he died and knew he was born to lead his clan.
Wrex could claim the clan name of Urdnot once he completed his Rite, but not before then. He had one more enemy to face, one more battle to win: The Thresher Maw. All he had to do was activate the Maw Hammer and wait. Once the vile leviathan arrived, it would shatter the ground and spew acid at him until it could breach his defenses and consume him. He didn't plan on giving it that much time. He would do what no other Krogan before him had done: kill the Thresher while on foot.
Walking over to the switch for the Maw Hammer, Wrex felt electricity in the air. He stopped and looked around, trying to see what was causing the build up of electricity. Was it the dust whipping around? An approaching storm, maybe? He shook his head, narrowed his ruby red eyes and hit the button. The vibration of the hammer would travel into the ground, summoning the creature that seemed to be the embodiment of death on Tuchunka. He had heard that the spores containing the creatures had managed to make it off world and infect other planets, but there were still none more fearsome and dangerous as the ones here on Tuchunka.
Wrex looked up at the sky, the normally orange clouds that covered the sky were changing, seeming to swirl into a funnel cloud. Tornadoes were rare, even with the damaged atmosphere of the planet. For there to be one now, when he was about to complete his Rite, that would go a long way to making it even more legendary. It would be a pain to try and see through the swirling dust and debris that would result, but he reasoned that if it were easy, everyone would be able to do it.
The funnel never descended or formed, yet the clouds kept swirling overhead. Lightning began to crackle in the clouds, charging the atmosphere. Wrex used his biotics and erected a Barrier, hoping it would protect him from any stray lightning. The swirling became faster, like water circling the drain, and the lightning was becoming almost constant. The thunder it was creating was bordering on deafening. Wrex squinted at the vortex above him, as the Maw Hammer kept pounding the earth beneath his feet. The vibrations above from the thunder and from below with the Hammer were baptizing him in power. He closed his eyes and smiled. The gods are trembling, he thought. They know it's time for me to take my place in –
A brilliant flash erupted from the sky and a single ball of fire streaked from the vortex and landed on the ground. The impact sent dust and debris everywhere, and Wrex could have sworn he heard a scream in the air, maybe from the object that fell to the ground. Maybe it was the howling wind. Either way, the vortex was dissolving, the lightning and thunder had ceased, and the sky was returning to normal. All that was left was the smoking crater in the arena floor.
Wrex took his shotgun from its holster and walked over to the craters edge. Small pockets of fire burned the ground and smoke was billowing from the center of the crater. He used a Pull field to move some of the smoke out of the way, and was greeted by a stranger sight.
It was somewhat similar to a pyjak, and to Wrex' eyes, it looked to be almost the same size. Curled up on itself, probably in pain from falling from the sky (which Wrex was still trying to wrap his head around), the creature groaned, its strange, leathered covering smoking, but seemingly undamaged. The skin he could see had very little fur for a pyjak, or a pyjaks cousin as the case may be, but the extra layer of material was a very different color. He figured it was some sort of outfit, so maybe the thing was sentient, since it was aware enough to cover itself in some sort of clothes. It wasn't armor, but it looked tougher than regular cloth. The garish yellow color of it was strange to him, as were the blue coverings on its front paws and feet.
It looked like it had some sort of ears, or fins, that came from the front of its face and wrapped around the sides of its head. The black of it hid the things eyes, which seemed closed. Its mouth was contorted in a grimace of pain as far as he could guess. Falling from some weird hole in the sky would do that, he figured.
He reached forward with his shotgun and nudged the thing in its side. "Hey, pyjak-thing!" he shouted, "Get up! There's a Maw coming!"
The yellow pyjak opened its eyes and snarled. It whipped a paw at Wrex' shotgun, smacking it away. It growled and yelped in what he figured was some sort of language for the creature, but his Omni-tool wasn't able to translate it. He could tell it didn't like the gun, so he holstered it, but kept his biotics ready in case the thing got foolish and attacked him.
There was a sharp rumble in the ground, and Wrex' twin hearts began pumping wildly. "The Maw's coming you, you, pyjak-thing!" he yelled while running back to the structures in the middle of the arena. "Move it or you're done!"
Whether it understood him or not, the yellow pyjak managed to get up from the crater, shake its head and follow him to cover just in time. As it cleared one of the railings, the Maw erupted from the ground, its head extending a good forty feet above the ground. Acidic saliva dripped from its mandibles, and the blood-curdling roar erupted from deep within its throat. The timer keeping him there began to count down. If he survived until the end, he would be a success. If he killed the Thresher Maw before the timer counted down to zero, he would be a legend.
Wrex checked his shotgun and looked over to the pyjak-thing. It seemed a lot smarter than the stupid creatures that were poised to overrun his clans settlement, scavenging their food stores and crapping all over the place. For one thing, it was maintaining cover while looking around and trying to get a bearing on its surroundings. It looked at him and began yelping and snarling again, gesturing with its front paws in a very similar manner to the way most sentient species would. The only sound he began to recognize was "bub", since it seemed to be one of the only sounds it made repeatedly. "I can't understand you, you stupid pyjak!" he yelled at it, only to realize that maybe it couldn't understand him either.
The yellow pyjak roared in frustration and smashed a paw into the pillar it was hiding behind. It looked around and seemed to find something. It paused to look back at the Maw, which had begun to fling acid in their direction. A splash of the venom hit the ground between them, searing the stone floor. The pyjak yelped something to itself and turned back to their surroundings. It broke cover and ran to the body of Urdnot Umakk, one of Wrex' krannt.
"What the hell are you doing?" Wrex yelled. He paused and wondered to himself why he gave a damn about a mutated pyjak at all and got his mind back in the game. He leaned out of cover and took aim at the Maw with his hand, forming a Warp attack and launching it. He was going to be a Battlemaster, and being a Krogan with biotic capabilities would go a long way to securing his status as such.
The Warp shot across the field, slamming into the Maw. It recoiled at the dark energy ripping into its armor plating and screamed in pain. It could be that it was a young Maw, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. To prove the point, it whipped back around and spewed acid venom at Wrex in rapid-fire fashion.
"Didn't know it could do that!" he grunted as he dodged from his position and rolled away from the bombardment. The acid hit the pillar with such force it actually cracked it in half, causing the top half to begin falling towards where he was.
Just as the pillar was about to come down on him, a blast came from nowhere, slamming into it. Shattered rock rained down on Wrex as he covered his face.
"What the . . ." he began and looked around. His eyes went wide and his mouth hung open as he looked and saw the yellow pyjak standing above him holding the shotgun from Umakk. It motioned towards the Maw with the weapon and yelped in it's unintelligible language, punctuated with "Bub".
Wrex shook his head and said, "Don't know what the hell you're saying, or how you know how to shoot, but let's get this over with!"
Wrex got to his feet and drew his shotgun, and the pair aimed at the Maw, firing in unison. Their blasts roared across the field, slamming into the Maw. The armor plates began to buckle, and the Maw screamed before it slithered back underground. The yellow pyjak threw its arms in the air and hooted in victory. Wrex looked over at it and said, "That's only the beginning, pyjak. We just pissed it off." The pyjak looked at him and squinted, trying to understand what it just heard. Wrex sighed and checked the heat sink in his weapon. "Never mind." He groaned. Why am I talking to this thing? He thought to himself.
The ground rumbled beneath their feet and an explosion came from behind them. The Maw had burrowed back to the surface and its roar split the air. Wrex and the pyjak whipped their guns around and fired again, pulling their triggers until the heat sinks alarmed. The pyjak looked down at its gun, shaking it in frustration.
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Wrex sympathized as the pyjak threw the gun to the ground, and then kicked it fifty feet away. It must have cooled off during the flight, because once it landed, the mass accelerator within discharged another round, this time back in their direction. They ducked as the round smashed into a pillar behind them.
"Watch out, you dumb pyjak!" Wrex shouted as he threw another Warp at the Maw. "Almost got me in the face, dammit!"
The pyjak gestured at the shotgun, as if to say it was not its fault. It howled at Wrex and waved its paws in the air. Wrex waved it off and pointed to the Maw as it regained its bearings. "We got bigger fish to fry! MOVE!"
The Maw spewed acid at the pair again and Wrex dodged, bringing his weapon up and firing again. Acid landed on the barrel of his gun as the Maw retreated. The heat sinks on it were melted, which would render it useless after one or two shots. Wrex looked over at his unlikely partner again, noticing that acid landed on the pyjaks leg, searing the covering on it and burning down through layers of pink flesh. The pyjak screamed in pain and anger as it limped over to another pillar for cover.
Wrex chuckled and said "Hurts like hell, don't it? That'll teach you to stay out of the way, dummy!" The pyjak looked up at him and snarled at the laughter. Still grabbing its leg with one paw, it lifted the other and extended the third digit on its paw at him.
Wrex looked at it puzzled, wondering what the gesture meant, then his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull as he saw the burns begin to fade. The covering was still damaged, but the flesh beneath healed to perfection.
"No way." He whispered.
It was a pyjak that could regenerate just like a Krogan, if not faster. After this Rite was over, he needed to make sure there weren't any more out there like it. They would overrun his settlement and scavenge them into starvation in no time.
The pyjak shook its previously injured leg and hopped from one foot to the other, testing out its balance and response. It turned and looked around the field, trying to find another weapon to fight with. It didn't find anything and looked at Wrex, waving its paws and yelping.
"We got nothing else, pyjak!" he replied to its imagined question. "My gun is fried and all I got is my biotics!"
He looked around himself, taking in his surroundings. The only other thing he could do was start chucking rocks at the Maw with his biotics, hoping to annoy it and keep it from killing him until the timer counted down to zero. It wouldn't help him to kill it, but he would be alive to add to his legend another day.
Wrex felt something crawl into his head. It was a thought. It was a horrible, mischievous, ruthless thought. His eyes glazed over at the thought and filled with malignant delight. The timer was almost done, and he had nothing to lose. No one would believe him if he told them what had happened to this point anyway. Even if they did believe him, he didn't want any proof of it.
Wrex smiled an evil, toothy smile. "Oh pyyyyjaaaak!" he sang as he walked over to the creature. It looked over to him and tilted its head. "Come play with Uncle Wrexy!" he said as he reached down and grabbed it by the back of its neck.
The pyjak squirmed under his grip, trying to get away. It swiped at his arm with its paws, slapping at him ineffectively. It roared and spun in his hand, grabbing Wrex' arm with its paws. It swung its legs up and smashed its feet into Wrex' face. He recoiled at the impact, losing his grip on the creature's neck and cradled his broken nose.
"Spirits!" he moaned as he felt the bones in his face begin to reset and the blood stop issuing from his nose. "Where did that come from?" he wondered aloud as the pyjak crouched in front of him, growling and snarling in its weird, pyjak-language. It clearly did not like being grabbed that way, and made it clear that Wrex was not to do that again. He wasn't about to listen to a pyjak, no matter how it got there.
The Maw erupted from the ground again, and Wrex' Omni-tool indicated that he had less than a minute to survive the Rite. He figured he would go for broke and at the very least get rid of the weird creature that had been helping him. Wrex darted a hand at the pyjak, faster than it anticipated, and snatched it by the neck again. Maintaining momentum, Wrex spun around on the ball of his foot and launched the creature at the thresher maw like a cannonball. Maybe if it had something to eat, it would just lie down and leave him alone for the remainder of the Rite.
To its credit, the pyjak somehow recovered in mid-flight, no longer flailing its arms and legs about, but rather forming itself into a lean projectile. It extended its arms in front of it, and for the briefest of seconds, Wrex saw a glint of light, as if a reflection off of metal, come from its paws. It didn't matter what it was, as the pyjak screamed and flew into the waiting mouth of the Thresher. It swallowed the pyjak in one gulp and roared, shaking the ground.
Wrex stepped back, not knowing what to do next. The timer was still going, and he wasn't ready for a biotic attack yet. The Thresher looked at him, opened its mouth and gurgled. Wrex looked at the creature quizzically, as he had never heard that sort of sound come from a Thresher before. It spasmed, as if it had the hiccups, then spasmed again, and Wrex became nervous.
"What's that thing doing?" he asked aloud.
The creature began to convulsed violently now, acidic bile spewing from its mouth, showering the area around it. Wrex stepped back a few feet while the monster continued its seizures. It screamed in short, high bursts, and all the Wrex could think of was that it was actually in pain. He had never even heard of such a thing being possible with a thresher, but it was happening right in front of him.
The thresher suddenly stopped its seizures and went stiff, standing straight up out of the hole. It moaned deep in its bowels and began to fall forward. Wrex dashed to the left of the creature to avoid being crushed by it. He dove to the ground and rolled his body behind a low wall as the thresher crashed to the ground, sending tremors and debris all along the arena.
Wrex peeked above the wall, trying to see through the dust cloud surrounding the fallen monster. "That must have been one nasty tasting pyjak!" he laughed as he arose.
Past the dust, he heard a muffled sound coming from the thresher. He began to walk cautiously towards the beast, charging up his biotics. As he got closer, her could see something moving within the supposedly dead creature, as there was a bulge forming in its side. He leaned his head closer, trying to listen to the noises coming from within.
The bulge he was leaning towards grew larger and erupted in a spray of guts, blood and thresher acid. It sprayed onto Wrex' face, and he reared back in pain, the vile smell of burning flesh and acid suffocating him. He wiped at his face, trying to get the venom off of his face to allow his body to begin repairing itself. He staggered back and looked at the hole in the side of the threshers body. What he saw had to be a hallucination, since what he saw could not possibly be real.
The pyjak stood there, its leathery coverings burned almost completely off. It huffed and puffed, trying to catch its breath after nearly being fully digested by the thresher. Its flesh was regenerating at an amazing rate, even as it was still smoldering from the acid it was bathed in. He could see the things face, as the black covering was burned away. It had a fur covered face and piercing blue eyes. It was baring its fangs at Wrex, growling deep in its belly. For the briefest of moments, Wrex was actually more scared of this odd creature than of the thresher that it just killed.
"What are you?" Wrex whispered in awe. "That thresher should be getting ready to crap you out by now."
The pyjak spat at the ground near Wrex' feet and yelled at him. Wrex was taken aback at the ferocity of the creature and that was his last mistake.
The pyjak crouched for a brief moment, and it shook its paws. Three metal claws shot out from each paw, glinting in the orange glow of the day. Wrex thought back to what he saw when he threw the pyjak at the thresher, and reasoned that this was what he saw. It didn't make any sense whatsoever, but there it was in front of him.
With a mighty roar, the pyjak launched itself at Wrex, covered in acid and dripping fury and rage. The pyjak swung its claws at Wrex' face, slashing along the right side of it. The acid covering its claws seeped into the tissue, and the metal burned as it scored him down to the bone.
Wrex had never felt that level of pain before, as his world went white. The pyjak moved faster than anything he had ever seen before, and he almost lost the ability to see from his right eye. Thankfully, the pyjak had missed that organ as Wrex threw himself away from the assault.
Wrex hit the ground, clutching at his face. Thunder crashed in his head, but he didn't know if it was from the attack or the sky. He could barely see through the blood pouring from the wound, but he could still hear. The pyjak had landed away from him, and was screaming in its weird language again.
It kicked at Wrex' side, slamming his ribs with more force than it had a right to. The wind left his lungs and he rolled to his side, trying to see through his other eye. He could see past the pyjak and noticed that the sky was swirling overhead again. Lighting shot across the spiraling clouds and the thunder crashed again. The pyjak, for its part, didn't seem to care about the change in weather. It seemed intent on exacting revenge for Wrex' tactics against the thresher.
Wrex was done. "Screw this!" he bellowed and biotic energy coursed around him. The pyjak recognized this as a threat and crouched, bringing its claws up in defense. "I'm so done with your freaky pyjak ass!"
Wrex jumped to his feet and grabbed the pyjak with a Lift field. As it rose in the air, the pyjak spun, swinging its claws in Wrex' direction. The Lift kept it at a safe distance from the young Krogan, and he prepared another biotic field.
The vortex in the sky appeared again. He prayed that no more crazy pyjaks would come out of it before he got rid of this one. He enveloped the pyjak in a Throw field and launched it towards the vortex in the clouds.
"So long, you crazy pyjak!" he yelled above the roar of the thunder. The pyjak screamed back at Wrex as it flew towards the sky. He figured if the creature didn't go back to where it came from, it might get killed from falling again. Maybe.
The weird little pyjak entered the swirling clouds and disappeared as lightning smashed into it. The clouds began to slow in their spinning, and the sky began to clear. The Rite was over, the pyjak was gone, and Wrex stood there, still bleeding from his face, over the dead carcass of a thresher maw.
He took in his surroundings, nodding to himself in satisfaction. Despite the lunacy of the pyjak, it was a good day. He saw there was still a Medi-gel pack in Urdnot Felak's supply belt. He wouldn't need it any more, as a Harvester had separated his head from his body earlier in the Rite. Wrex bent down to retrieve it, feeling the pain and pressure of his facial wounds increase as he did so. He cracked the gel pack open and slathered it on his wounds. Whatever the pyjaks claws were made of seemed to retard his regeneration process. That, along with the thresher acid, made the Medi-gel work overtime just to stop the bleeding.
He heard the lift coming up into the middle of the arena. He turned and saw the Shaman and his pain in the ass brother, Wreav coming towards him.
"You killed it?" Wreav asked, his voice cracking towards the end. "How is that even possible? No one has ever killed a Thresher Maw on foot before!"
The Shaman stepped forward and smiled, placing a hand on Wrex' shoulder. "Your brother is truly a legend in the making, Wreav. I knew there was greatness in him, but this is truly remarkable!"
Wrex stood a little taller at the Shaman's words and smiled. "Yeah, told you I'd be a legend!" he chuckled. "Everyone will stand in awe of my greatness!"
"And that's how I got these scars!" Wrex rumbled.
Shepard and her crew had gathered around Wrex in the bar/lounge seating area of Shepards' apartment, allowing him to regale them with the "legend" of how he got those long lasting scars of his. They paid rapt attention as he told them of his Rite and the "Pyjak From the Sky". As he finished, they held their breath, silently waiting.
James Vega was the first to break the silence, and it was pretty much what everyone else expected would be said:
"Dude, that is such bull$#*!" he laughed.
Everyone else burst out laughing as well, several of them spitting out whatever beverages they had been drinking. Joker had the worst out of everyone; with the tequila he had been drinking shooting back out of his nose. Even Javik, with his disdain for "primitive" social gatherings such as this, bellowed a deep guffaw while clutching his midsection.
Shepard moved from her perch on James' lap and stood up, shaking her head and giggling. "Of all the convoluted, crap-tastic stories I've ever heard, that has got to take the cake!"
She walked over to check on Grunt near the front door as Wrex sat on the couch in wide-eyed disbelief. "Wha-what? You guys don't believe me?"
The old mercenary, Zaeed Massani, snorted and took a drag on his cigar. "Mate, if you had told us that Batman gave you those beauty marks, we would have believed you more!"
Tali leaned over to Garrus and asked in a whisper, "Who's 'Batman'?"
Garrus made his usual Turian smile, flaring his mandibles. "I'm Batman, Tali. I've wanted to tell you for some time now. Whew! Now the weight is off of my chest."
Tali smacked his arm as Steve walked over. "He's a fictional superhero from the 21st Century, Tali. Dressed like a bat to scare criminals and used gadgets and martial arts instead of biotics."
Garrus stood up tall and proud. "Like I said: I'm Batman."
Joker took notice of the delusion and piped in. "Yeah, but he never uses guns, dumbass."
Garrus huffed at that and retorted, "That's because he sucks. Simple as that."
Wrex leaned back on the couch, absently tracing the long claw marks along his face. He didn't really expect the others to believe him. Heck, he barely believed it himself. Whenever anyone asked why he had scars that never healed, he always told them it was Maw acid. He just never told them how the acid scarred him in that way. They usually left it alone at "Maw acid".
"Bub, I don't know who you think I am, but only one person talks to me like that, and they're dead. So unless you wanna see what your internal organs look like, you'd better get Shepard out here now!"
Wrex' eyes bulged from his sockets as he shot up from the couch.
"Did you guys hear that?" he asked the group. "Did you hear it? 'Bub'! Someone said 'Bub'!"
"Yeah, the Magic Pyjak has come back to take its revenge on you, Urdnot Wrex!" Joker teased. "He's come with Blasto the Hanar SpecTRE to capture and torture you!"
James laughed and turned to Joker. "Damn, I might actually watch that movie, you know?"
Wrex was livid. No one believed him and his wild-eyed searching of the source of the pyjak's noise was not helping his case. He whipped his head around and saw Shepard heading out of the apartment. Out in the hall was a short, grey-haired human with muttonchops and a cigar. Shepard seemed tense around him, and something about the human tickled the back of Wrex' mind.
That human kind of looks like…. nah, it couldn't be. He thought. He shook his head and sighed. Time to let it go, Wrex, he thought to himself as Grunt walked up to the group.
"Alright, all you pyjak lovin' punks!" Grunt roared, raising his arms in challenge. "Who wants to arm wrestle?"
James ran up to the bar and slammed his arm on the top. "Let's go, pendejo!"
The crew gathered around and Wrex leaned against the wall, taking a swig of his Ryncol and smiling. He learned a couple of things from being around Shepard and her crew: Chicks dig scars, and glory lasts forever. Well, having killed a Maw on foot, been part of curing the Genophage and now helping Shepard fight the Reapers, he knew his legend was secure.
But what the heck did "bub" mean, anyway?
