The whole of the Normandy shook as if it were rocked by an earthquake. Alarms blared across every deck of the ship and multiple systems went offline. Spark were bursting out of the wiring within the walls. Liara had to get a fire extinguisher to put them out before they would start an electrical fire. The problem was that there were too many areas that were sparking and on the verge of combustion.

"Steve, grab the other extinguisher!"

"Got it!"

A man rushed over to the corner of the crew deck, taking hold of the CO2 canister mounted onto the wall. He was human, lean built and of Hispanic background. Lieutenant Steve Cortez. He was the shuttle pilot of the Normandy Crew since the Reaper War, and an old friend of Vega. He was a skilled pilot. Not as skilled as Joker was, but a close second. Cortez's normal duties were to pilot the team's transport shuttle to the surface of whatever planet they were sent to for missions.

After the war, Garrus requested that Cortez remain on the Normandy as their transport. Both because he recognized his skill and out of sentimentality. Cortez was thankful. But now that he was aware of Garrus' betrayal. He felt as though he was stabbed in the back.

Cortez aimed the nozzle of the extinguisher and squeezed the valve. The valve discharged a cloud of white gas at the sparking wires, extinguishing whatever heat was being generated by the electrical current. The sparks quickly died out and Liara and Cortez could finally put the canisters down.

"Good to know that not everybody ignores my fire safety seminars." Steve stated with an anxious laugh. "What the hell just hit us?"

"I'm not sure. Those mercenaries may have some high-powered weapon or something." Liara only assumed.

"I heard talk that one of them shoots lightning out of his hands like Darth Sidious?"

Liara shot the human a look that basically said, "Don't get me started."

The elevator door at the far side of the deck hissed open. Tali, Grunt, and Javik all came running in to check up on the safety of their crew members.

"Is everyone okay?" Asked the quarian. T'Soni gave her a confirming nod. A weight off her shoulders.

"Joker. Status report. What did we get hit by?" Liara questioned into her coms.

"I have no idea! The enemy ship just fired some kind of super bullet at us and took out the main gun. We didn't even see the weapon."

This day couldn't get any more strange. It was giving Liara a serious headache. With just a single shot, the jumpship was able to disable the Normandy's Thanix Cannon and cause this much internal damage. They may as well be locked in combat with another Collector ship. Though that was a memory neither Liara nor Tali wished to remember.

"Just who in the name of the Homeworld are these people Garrus and Shepard hooked up with? Their level of skill and firepower is beyond even Reapers!" Tali exclaimed.

"I don't know, but we need to disable their ship and we need to do it fast. I'm not gonna lose the Commander twice over, especially after she saved us all." Cortez declared.

"The shuttle pilot is right." Javik agreed. "Traitor or not, we owe the commander that much. If we were in my cycle however, we would have had her disembodied and paraded around the streets, hanging by her entrails."

Speaking such an ungodly example of how protheans punished traitors earned Javik a horrified stare from, well everyone in the room. Cortez couldn't help but shutter at the thought of that. Liara pinched her head in frustration. Once more, Javik had ruined her perfect image of the people she dedicated her life to studying.

"You know, it's stuff like that which makes me believe that the Reapers did the galaxy a favor harvesting all the Protheans." Tali whispered to Steve.

"Don't you worry though, guys!" Joker assured. "We still got a little something special in store for these dickheads! Grunt, it's time to switch on our new toy!"

The Normandy soon restabilizes its equilibrium, returning to normal flight. A space on the top of the ship suddenly opens up and something starts to rise up. It was a massive weapon, almost as big as the ship itself. Two large prongs protruded from its front, similar to that of a human railgun. At its rear, four large and transparent cylinders that were filled with some sort of glowing substance. Likely liquified Element Zero. The head of the weapon was crackling with energy, ready to be fired at a moment's notice.

Crow loaded up a display out of thin air, showing the rear view of the jumpship. The fireteam getting a full display of the weapon that was aimed directly at them. "Oh boy. Trade one problem for another." Crow groaned.

"Garrus, any info on that thing?" Jane questioned the turian.

Garrus took a look at the display. He immediately recognized what weapon that was, because he was one who signed off on equipping the Normandy with it in the first place.

"Uh oh… I know what that is…" Garrus said planely. "That's an M-1089 Eezo Impactor, otherwise known as the Raiden Launcher. Latest prototype in Anti-Reaper weaponry. Jacob came up with the designs himself."

"What exactly does that thing do?" Asked Edith.

"Well Edith, it takes liquified eezo and evaporates it in order to generate mass effect energy within the barrel. The launcher then uses separate mass effect fields condenses the energy before-"

The weapon atop the Normandy hummed to life. Energy began building up in between its prongs until it had reached maximum. Once done, the weapon fired off a shot of pure energy, traveling faster than light itself. The shot made contact with the Radiant Accipiter's rear. The shot erupted into a massive blue explosion. The ship was knocked into the vacuum of space like a petal in the wind. Everyone inside losing balance and falling to the floor. Garrus in particular landed right on Jane's bottom face first, right in between her crack.

Jane let out a high pitched yelp as she felt the very distinctive facial features of her turian companion faceplant right in between her cheeks. Garrus immediately stood back up onto his feet; face a heavy shade of blue due to him blushing like he was just caught with his pants down in front of EVERYBODY at C-Sec. He quickly got a hold of himself and continued his description of the weapon.

"Firing a highly concentrated energy blast, strong enough to rip through a Reaper the size of Harbinger."

Whiskey rolled onto his back, looking up at Vakarian with a frustrated look. "Oh, does it?! We didn't notice!"

Joker and Miranda were dumbstruck. A direct hit on the enemy vessel, and it wasn't even scaved. The Raiden Launcher is an Anti-Reaper prototype. How could such a tiny little ship withstand a single shot from it at all.

"Holy crap! Not even a single scratch on that ship!" Miranda exclaimed.

"What the hell is that thing made of? Superman's flesh?" Joker wondered.

The console in front of the pilot started flashing. They were receiving a video transmission. Joker responded and a visual of Garrus was loaded. And he was pissed.

"Joker! Are you crazy?! You could have killed me and Shepard!"

"Considering that your ship survived a direct blast without so much as a ding, Commander. I think you can more than handle a few- …Wait, where are you guys?" Joker just noticed the seemingly endless void that Garrus was standing in. He wondered if it was the effect of a green screen.

"It's complicated." Was Garrus' only reply. The turian was shoved out of the way by Jane, who got her face right up in the video feed with a look of anger.

"Hey! Isn't Garrus supposed to be your friend! Who the hell do you think you are trying to blow him up, you tiny little prick!"

All of a sudden, both Jeff and Miranda bursted into uncontrollable laughter upon finally seeing Jane's face. Joker thought he would crack one of his ribs from how hard his humor was. Miranda could even breathe. Their laughter was directed towards a very specific part of their former commander.

"Bloody hell! Liara really wasn't kidding about the face tattoo!" Miranda cackled.

"Oh my god! I wasn't expecting it to be the 'Mike Tyson'!" Shouted Joker.

Jane dropped her jaw in a moment of total offended shock. They were making fun of her tattoo? Oh, thats a line one should not cross when dealing with the Red Sentinel. That tattoo was her baby, and when you mock her baby, mama bear lashes out!

"You little pieces of Cabal shit..!" Doe cracked her knuckles together. "The minute… The SECOND I get my hands on your puny little ass, JEFFRY, I'm gonna tear off your head and mount it in my den next to Lakshmi's!"

And she wasn't done just yet!

"Then I'm gonna rip HER head off and mount it next to yours!"

Not even close to done!

"And then I'm gonna take both your heads and give them to Caital's war beasts to snack on!"

The pilot and doctor immediately stopped laughing and were left with expressions of terror plastered onto their faces. It was safe to say that Shepard's legendary temper was still intact, which was unfortunate for them. Garrus found himself snickering slightly. He recalled Jane saying something like that to her clone and Brooks when they were trapped in that vault in the Citadel Archives. It had to have been the most intense, and perhaps erotic thing he had ever witnessed from her.

"Crow, lose this channel." With that said, she signed off.

"Garrus, you said I was their previous commander? What in the name of the Traveler did I ever see in those jackasses?!"

Garrus responded with a simple shrug. The ship rocked once again and everyone fell over yet again. Another direct hit. The space around then starts to warp and distort with each blow. It was a sign that the ship was sustaining too much damage. Paracausal or not, the Accipiter was not invincible, and against a weapon that powerful it would only be a matter of time before the continuous bombardment would become too much for it to bear.

"Don't suppose you have any more of those super shots left, Crow?" Asked Vakarian.

"No. Gotta wait a few minutes before I can do it again."

That was unacceptable as they didn't have a few minutes. The shots fired by that weapon were far too fast to dodge. Not to mention the pressure was making it hard for Crow to concentrate. Fireteam November needed a miracle to get out of this. Garrus slumped onto the floor.

"So we're basically fucked? Wonderful."

"Don't lose hope Just yet, November. Help is on the way."

The sound of a new voice filled the group's ears. Male from the sound of it. Likely Exo as well, from the subharmonic tone. Jane's lips curled into a smile while Garrus was left ignorant as to the voice's identity.

"Who was that?" He asked.

"It's the rest of Fireteam November!" Jane said hopefully. "Zomon? That you?"

In the distance away from the Normandy and the Radiant Accipiter, a new ship was soaring across the vacuum of space, quickly accelerating in order to catch up with the other two. This ship's form was a sight to behold. A beautiful exterior of almost imperial design. Scale patternings accompanied by runes that looked as though they were carved into the surface metal by hand. The entire ship was plated a brilliant gold color with several jewels encrusted across it, and two ivory tusks at the head of the vessel. You would think this was more a work of art than a space vessel.

There was an inscription engraved into the ship's side. A name. "Sovereign Order".

"The one and only, Doe. Stay strong. We'll get these weaklings off you."

Within the ship's cockpit sat another Titan. An Exo, male, with grey metal plating across his face, and a thick, black forehead plate just above his crimson optics. There were also three claw marks running diagonally across the center of his face, as though something had tried to maul him.

Zomon's body was massive, packed head to toe with solid steel and rippling silicone muscles, as well as a rather large and prominent belly of the same substance resting beneath his swole chest. His armor was the definition of opulent, just like his ship. Gold-plated, with streaks of blue across several areas, and an azure and gold-laced loincloth with alien insignias inscribed into the fabric. Thick gold pauldrons adorned his broad shoulders, and resting on his consol was a gold, blue, and red helmet with a single aqua blue eye and ivory tusks. (Tusked Allegiance armor)

There was a sort of pressure around Zomon. Heavy with the desire for combat. For violence. He gave off a feeling that warned others that he was the type of man who takes great pleasure in dominating his opponents, bringing them to heel and submit… or die.

"Easy now, Zomon."

The massive Exo turned his head, looking to his six. Standing behind him was a human female, young and rather short in stature, but with long hair that was a beautiful tone of silver. Her eyes an icy blue, and two gold earrings dangled from her loves. She was a Hunter, with armor that resembled arctic climbing gear, lined with white fur. Her cloak was also fur lined at the edges of the hood, and strapped to the cape were two large climbing sickles. (Dark Age armor)

"Remember, this is a rescue. We're not initiating a war." She pointed out in a rich Scottish accent.

Zomon grunted in irritation. "I remember, Ur… Though if this was a Cabal rescue operation, our enemies would have the ships left for a pursuit."

"And that's why the Cabal have so many friends." Ur sarcastically noted.

The Hunter spun around and walked off. Her heels clicking against the metal floors of the ship's interior. Ur stepped down into the cargo hold and flipped on the light switch, illuminated the dark section instantly.

"Doc, ya down here?"

She could hear the faint sounds of laughter emanating from somewhere in the hold. It sounded unstable. Crazed almost. Ur peeked her head towards the back corner. There was somebody standing there, hunched over.

"They call me "Krazy"! With a capital 'K'!"

The figure was a British male from the sound of his voice. It was another human, but a Warlock. His head was covered by a wide-brimmed leather hat with a gold buckle. Short stubble growing from the lower half of his face, and a ebon, long beaked crow mask covering his beedy brown eyes.

The attire of the Warlock was rather old fashioned. His robes, boots, and gloves were all high-quality leather and polished to a mirror shine, and all as black as the night. The bottom half of his coat was made entirely of raven feathers. The bond strapped to his left arm was releasing a strange red energy that hovered over it. This man bore close resemblance to a plague doctor from the old world. (Plaguebreaker armor)

"But I'll show them..!"

The Warlock was holding two beakers containing strange liquids. He poured the contents of one into the other; the liquids mixing together into something new, bubbling over and becoming a bright orange. His lip curled into a mad, toothy grin.

"I'LL SHOW THEM ALL!!! AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

"Doc!"

The sound of Ur's voice snapped Doc out of his momentary insanity. He quickly spun around, eyes wide and glaring at the Hunter, who was looking back at him with an annoyed expression.

"How about you save the crazy for until we save the rest of our team, ya?"

Doc smiled, but not like that of a Raving lunatic, but normally. He brushed off his robes and stuck a cord into his glass beaker before carefully storing it in the inner pockets of his coat.

"I know, I know. I was merely psyching myself up the only way I know how."

Just as he finished talking, Doc pressed a button on the side of his mask. The adornment began to spread around his entire head until it formed into a proper helmet. His eye quickly selected a weapon from his HUD display. "Outbreak Perfected". In his hands appeared a dark, messy looking pulse rifle with red wiring running along its form. There also appeared to be tiny little objects flying around it

"Time to get to work!"

The Radiant Accipiter tilted to the right hard, barely managing to avoid the beams of the Normandy's main gun. Everyone inside hanging on for dear life. Amanda cursing under her breath at yet another close call.

"Ain't their mission to get you back, Vakarian?!" Amanda questioned anxiously.

"They're not shooting to kill, otherwise we'd be dead already. Joker's trying to knock out the ship's thrusters. Nothing more." Garrus explained.

"You sure about that?!" Crow asked. "Because the way he's firing at us, you'd think he's the 'other Joker'!"

"I don't even know who that is. Though I think Shepard said that name the time she referred to me as "Turian Batman", back on Omega."

A holographic display on the control console suddenly lit up. It had the image of a phone ringing. They appeared to be receiving a call. Amanda hit the answer button and a video feed was initiated. The screen loaded up the faces of the three Guardians aboard the Sovereign Order. Ur waving her hand happily at her teammates.

"Madainn mhath, everyone! Whiskey, great to see ya back, laddie!"

Jane laughed in relief. "Ur! Zomon! Doc! Great timing, you guys!" She said appreciatively before turning to the turian on her left. "Garrus, this is the rest of my team. The big guy is Zomon-8, that brat there is Lady Ur, and the nutbar in black on the right, we just call him The Doc."

There's more of these guys? As if four were enough… Garrus waved nervously at the new faces staring at him. Ur in particular lit up with giddy school girl joy upon hearing what Jane had called him. The Huntress brought her face right up to the camera with the biggest smile Garrus had ever seen on a human.

"Yer Garrus?! That's amazin'! I can't believe me eyes that Jane finally found ya! I always pictured ya as some kinda Fallen from yer namesake! Yer unlike antyhin' I've ever seen before, lad! I'm sure that Osiris and Ikora are gonna be mighty thrilled to study ya!"

"…Anybody get any of that?" Asked the turian.

The ship rocked violently once again. This shot just missed the wing's tip. It wouldn't be long before the Normandy would get a target lock.

"Dang it! We can't jump to FTL with that thing on our asses!" Holiday angrily stated.

"Garrus, it's your ship. Does the Normandy have any weaknesses we can exploit?" Crow questioned.

Did he seriously just ask him that? Garrus diverted his gaze from the others. They were basically asking him how to destroy his ship. Following Shepard and betraying the Alliance was already hard enough. But to destroy the ship that he called his second home? That was too much. Crow gently placed his hand on Vakarian's shoulder, grabbing his attention.

"Garrus, you're the only one who can help us right now."

He was conflicted. His heart and mind at war with one another over the concept of right and wrong. It reminded him of when he tried to kill Sidonis for his treachery.

Damnit! There was no other way. Garrus took a deep breath to calm his shaky nerves.

"The Normandy uses an experimental drive core to reach FTL speeds. The core works by Element Zero to an electrical current to create mass effect fields which allow the ship to travel faster than light. If we can disable it, then they won't be able to catch us."

Everyone nodded in understanding. Seemed like an easy enough plan. Holiday commented, stating that this Element Zero Drive Core sounded very different from their own NLS Warp Drives. She was fascinated to say the least.

"There's just one problem…" Garrus paused. "To disable it without destroying the Normandy… It needs to be done manually, from inside the ship."

There was the catch.

The only way to stop the Normandy was to manually deactivate its drive core? That would be impossible since they were all in separate ships. AND FLYING!

"How the hell we gonna do that?! Sneak in through the back?!" Whiskey questioned figuratively.

"I can get us in."

Everyone's attention turned to Shinazu. They all stared at the Warlock in utter confusion. The blue human had a rather excited expression himself.

"It will be risky, but I have an idea. Though one of us must distract these foul villains while I prepare. And this must be a very big distraction."

Garrus let out a low growl. Those "foul villains" were his friends. Jane chuckled.

"Well, it just so happens we have a certain someone who's perfect for that job! Doc!" Her gaze turned to the plague doctor on the video feed. "Think you can keep these guys busy while Shinazu works?"

Underneath his mask, The Doc smiled with confidence.

"Of course! Who do you think you're talking to, after all?"

"An obsessive and compulsive germaphobe who loves setting things on fire?" Guessed Crow. That remark earned him a look that basically said "WTF?" from Garrus.

"EXACTLY!"

The Normandy fired off another blast from its Raiden Launcher. A powerful beam of energy homed in on the Radiant Accipiter and, ready to tear the small vessel apart. The jumpship made a hard shift to the left, barely dodging the blasts. From the cockpit, Joker adjusted his targeting systems. This time would be a sure hit.

"Not getting away from me this time."

The systems focused in on Crow's ship. Target locked.

"It's jokin' time!"

Miranda pinched her forehead exhaustedly at that remark. She couldn't believe he had just said that out loud.

Outside in the open vacuum, Zomon's ship had managed to slip beside the Normandy undetected, as its focus was directed towards Jane's vessel. Perfect opportunity for a flank. Climbing on top of the gilded jumpship was the dark Warlock, The Doc. His feathered robe rising freely in the zero gravity of space and a hand holding onto his beloved hat to prevent it from floating off his head. Hovering by him on his right was his Ghost. Its shell was a mix of red and black with red wiring running along its body, and a grey symbol marked onto the top left corner of its shell. (Amalgam Shell)

"Spore, give it to me." The Doc commanded.

The Ghost nodded and made a selection in their own HUD for their Guardian. "If Materia". In Doc's hands appeared a large, jet black LMG with a red symbol painted onto the side. Doc raised his mighty weapon, his lips curving into a madman's grin beneath his beaked helm.

"The Doctor is in!"

With the simple squeeze of the trigger, the weapon unleashed a torrent of electrified bullets, spraying the starboard side with enough force to rip through the Normandy's kinetic barriers with ease and punch numerous holes into the ship's armor plating. The Doc felt a rush of malicious glee overcome him. He let out the laugh of a true madman so alive chilling that it could be heard even in space.

"UNCLEAN FILTH! AND I DON'T MEAN THAT PREJUDICIALLY! AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!"

Each round that struck the frigate shook the vessel nonstop. Miranda had to grab hold of Joker's chair just so she could maintain balance.

"What was that?!" She exclaimed.

"Loading up starboard view now."

The Normandy's computer brought up a direct feed from the right of the ship. It showed the image of Zomon's ship, with The Doc standing atop it, raining down hell upon them with his machine gun. Joker let out an annoyed grunt.

"Seriously?! How many of these cosplay freaks are there?!"

The gun's ejection port popped the last round from the weapon. The Doc quickly ejected the drum from the machine gun and equipped it with a new one. He laid the bullet chain down into the feed tray before closing the gun's flip down to lock the belt in place. He continued his assault. Each bullet he fired carried an electric charge, similar to Shinazu's own abilities or Whiskey's rifle. They were able to pierce right through the force fields protecting the Normandy, almost like Disruptor Ammo. Not only that, the bullets' caliber level were on par with that of anti-aircraft weaponry. It would take no time for them to rip through the ship's armor and cause depressurization.

"We can't take these hits forever..!" Joker quickly turned on the ship's PA system. "Cortez, you're up! Take the Kodiak and blast those guys into debris! And take a team with you!"

"Roger that, Joker. Liara. Javik. Let's go!"

Minutes pass and the Normandy's cargo ramp slowly opens. Within the hold, a small blue vessel powered on and starts hovering over the floor. The UT-47 Kodiak, standard issue Alliance drop shuttle. Cortez's main vehicle when he drops off members of the crew for missions. The shuttle's four thrusters shifted and the small ship propelled forward out of the bay towards the golden ship.

The Doc halted his fire as he noticed something approaching him in the distance. The Kodiak was heading straight for them. The Doc smirked behind his helmet. He loved nothing more than a challenge. Selecting a setting in his HUD, the soles of the Warlock's boots were emanating a blue light and Doc felt himself anchor down onto the surface of the ship. Magnet Boots. Perfect for this situation, as long as Zomon doesn't make a turn hard enough to knock The Doc off the ship. His Ghost summoned a second weapon in Doc's left hand. A small black and red sidearm with an inscription on the side of the slide. "Häkke", it read.

"Zeal Vector? Good choice, Spore." The Doc complimented his Ghost.

He raised his pistol at the approaching shuttle, pulling back the gun's hammer. Cortex couldn't help but laugh slightly from his pilot's seat. Was this guy seriously about to try and shoot him down with a tiny little handgun? But that smirk was wiped clean off his face when the weapon fired. One single bullet was powerful enough to rock the whole shuttle. Inside, Javik lost his balance and landed face first into Liara's chest. Naturally, Liara went red, or in her case purple, and shoved the prothean off of her.

The bullet fired from the pistol was electrified, disabling the Kodiak's shields instantly. The Doc followed up with a stream of shots fired from his machine gun. Cortez had no choice but to take evasive maneuvers. He swerved hard to the right and managed to dodge the bullets just barely. With another hard shift in steering, the shuttle pulled a one eighty turn and was now facing the opposite side of the golden jumpship. Cortex engaged the shuttle's weapons systems, firing off several shots from the mass accelerator cannon barrels.

The Doc turned his gaze to his six; the pistol in his hand vanishing into thin air, replaced by a small glowing object. He tossed the object towards the cannon fire and it quickly broke apart into multiple pieces which homed in on the projectiles and collided with them. Each shot and fragment that collided ended up canceling each other out in small explosions. The Doc then, with a wave of his hand, somehow began to pull the flames generated by the explosions towards him, drawing them into his body and absorbing their energy. A golden aura surrounded his body, enveloping him like a cloak of flame.

The energy flowed through him towards his left hand. It was all gathering together in a single place, continuously growing in strength. Once fully realized, The Doc snapped his finger. Three tiny sparks of fire manifested and zoomed towards the Kodiak at high speed. Cortez quickly pulled up. The sparks missed them by the hair on their necks and bursted into three massive explosions behind them. Steve was already sweating buckets. He wasn't ready to be fighting plague doctors with fire powers.

"Ay dios mío, I'm not paid enough for this…" Cortez stated anxiously.

The Doc's machine gun vanished. Burning energy coursed through his being. The Warlock's muscles tensed up as his Light grew in power. "This entire universe is unclean, infested by disease. There is only one way to rid the world of this abhorrent plague." Suddenly, the golden, vibrant fire surrounding his body was dimming, turning a deep shade of black.

"And that is to BURN IT ALL AWAY!"

His Light exploded forth. Two wings of pitch-dark flames sprouted out from his back. The eyes of his mask went from red to a soulless white. Cortez, Liara, and Javik all gazed upon this phenomenon with looks that were a mix of both awe and horror. The Doc raised his hands at the Kodiak. He unleashed both a powerful blast of black Solar energy, and let fly dark whisks of fire.

*SONG OF BLACK FLAME*

Cortez jolted. That didn't look good at all. He adjusted his shuttle's gravitational stabilizers, substituting speed for maneuverability. The shuttle swerved from left to right, rose up and dove down in succession to evade the black flames flying towards them. Each flame grazed the sides of the Kodiak, leaving dark burn marks behind. So much as a single one of these flames making full contact with the shuttle could be fatal.

"What the hell kind of monster is this guy?!" Cortez exclaimed.

Liara drew her M-9 Tempest. She equipped a magazine cartridge loaded with Warp Ammo and then proceeded to activate her suit's space feature. A thin forcefield coated her body to protect her from the vacuum's effects on her body. "Let me ask him!" She said with gusto.

At the Normandy, Joker adjusted the ship's targeting systems and had acquired a lock on. The Radiant Accipiter was within striking distance and the next shot would be a guaranteed hit. One more strike probably wouldn't be enough to destroy the ship, but it would definitely shut down the thrusters so they could capture the fireteam. Then Joker could kill Shepard himself.

"Lights out, you Comic-Con rejects!"

But before Joker could fire, the monitor in front of him turned to snow. The holographic controls vanished all of a sudden and, for some reason or another, his visual feed went from static to a video of a cat dancing to MC Hammer's 'Feel My Power'. Miranda could help but work up a humored chuckle.

"The fuck?!"

Jeff attempted to overwrite… whatever this was, but couldn't seem to break through and get the systems he needed back online. The only way this could have happened was if someone input this code from the ship's main battery; the control center for the Normandy's weapons systems. And Joker couldnt access it from the bridge.

"Tali, are you in the main battery? I need a status report, like right now."

"I'm sorry, can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations."

That voice… "Garrus? That you?"

In the main matters, a familiar sight. A certain turian in blue armor who was hard at work making "adjustments" to the Normandy's weapons. Only these weren't exactly… beneficial.

"Who else would you find down here, Joker? Well, aside from the new guy I assigned down here."

"How'd you even get onto the ship?! What, did you teleport or something?"

"It's complicated."

Garrus was hard at work insulting viral code into the battery's software. That would buy them the time they need to escape before Tali could bring the weapons back online. He was an infiltrator, after all. Sabotage was his specialty. Although he never would have dreamed he would end up disrupting the systems of his own ship. Though that would be an exciting challenge to say the least. Vakarian installed encryption into the computer just in case. That did it.

"Ur, it's done. How's things with the drive core?"

The scene moved from the crew deck to engineering. The young Huntress and her Ghost, Frost, had their focus poured on the main control console for the Normandy's drive core system. The small Ghost was deep inside the drive core's network, searching for code to exploit and rewrite to give her direct access. Then they could disable the core and jump to FTL safely.

"Shouldn't be much longer now. Ghost is just finishin' up with codin'." Ur responded.

"I still can't believe we actually made it here. When were you guys going to tell me that Shinazu can open up portals in space?"

As to how Garrus and Ur got aboard the Normandy undetected was entirely thanks to the Warlock aboard Crow's ship. Shinazu had the ability to tap into the paracausal energy of an alternate plane of existence and manipulate it. Using that force, he was able to open up a rift connecting the Radiant Accipiter and the Sovereign Order to the Normandy's crew deck, in which Garrus and Ur left through to get started on their sabotage.

Garrus was surprised when he laid eyes on Ur's up close appearance. The Hunter wasn't just small, she was an actual child. No more than fourteen years old from the looks of her. It only fed to Garrus' own doubts as to the company Jane was with. A child soldier. He wanted to question it, but now wasn't the time. He had to work with her, whether or not he liked the idea.

"He's still relatively new to the ability. Shinazu had been goin' through some trainin' with Mara, Crow's sister, to be able to control energies from the Ascendant Plane. Not exactly sure how it works myself. Some weird Awoken rubbish or somethin'."

"Awoken?" Questioned the turian.

"The kind of race Crow and Shinazu are." Ur explained. "Descendants of humans who ventured out into the stars long ago, and came back changed."

So they WERE human, or at least related to them. Garrus was surprised. He had seen humans of many different skin colors, but he had never seen any who had blue skin before. At first, he thought Crow was some human/asari hybrid.

The Awoken, huh?

"Never heard of anything like that before." Garrus admitted.

"Just ya wait until we get back to the city then. Yer gonna have yer mind blown-"

Ur suddenly felt something push against her back. It was thick, metallic. She turned her head, behind her stood Tali and Grunt, both armed with shotguns. "Step away from the controls." Tali ordered.

"Or get squashed like a bug." Grunt added, pounding his fists together.

The tiny Hunter groaned. She knew it was too easy. Turning her head, they noticed that Ur's face was covered by a rather grotesque helmet. It looked like someone or something's face was stapled over a helmet. Bleach white with two beady glowing blue eyes.

"Ya buggers can try."

Ur suddenly vanished. A streak of blue light zoomed right past them and Lady Ur then reappeared behind them, drawing the climbing sickles from her back in each hand. Tali and Grunt felt a chill come over them from the streak.

"Great. Just lovely." Whined Tali.

"Who cares! Let's give this brat a spanking!" Said Grunt, pumped up.

A shout exploded out from the krogan's mouth and he charged recklessly. Ur smiled beneath her mask. With feather-light agility, she swerved around Grunt and quickly climbed onto his back. She hooked her climbing sickles into the ridges of his armor and pulled backwards with surprising strength, flipping Grunt backwards and face down onto the floor.

Tali took aim, but Ur blinked away from sight again. The Hunter reappeared behind Zora pulling back her arms, ready to slash her with her sickle blades. Tali however quickly spun around and blocked the slash with her weapon. Ur giggled. Plan B. Her arms tugged hard on her blades and Tali's Geth Plasma Shotgun was yanked away from her, sliding into the corner of the room.

She was disarmed! Luckily, that was not Tali's only weapon as she drew her Arc Pistol. Ur backed away. She sheathed one of her blades and pulled out a small blue capsule resembling a grenade. The Hunter tossed onto the ground in front of her the very second Tali fired off her weapon. A thick wall of ice rose up from the canister, forming a crystalline barrier that absorbed the shots. Tali and Grunt were shocked.

"The hell is that stuff?" Wondered Grunt, standing back up.

Tali's helmet picked up something odd about that 'ice'. Its structural and molecular makeup were… not natural. Wrong. She wasn't even sure it was ice at all.

Ur blinked out from behind it as a blue streak. She rushed past them, slashing both of them in the process. Grunt roared and drew his maul. He charged at Urc, his maul clashing with the young girl's own sickles. With each strike, sparks flew across the deck. The sheer strength of this young Hunter was on par with that of the super krogan. Urdnot was wondering if he was hallucinating the whole thing from hunger as it seemed so unreal.

The maul slammed down onto the metal floor. Ur's sickles interlocked with the maul's shaft and with a forceful pull of both weapons, the head of the maul was sliced off. Ur followed up with an upward knee to Grunt's jaw. But that wouldn't be enough to stop him this time. Grunt grabbed hold of Ur's whole body, then threw her across the room onto the wall.

Crashing to the ground, the Hunter quickly recovered. Tali snuck up behind her, armed with an Omni-Blade and attempted to take a swipe at her. Ur blocked with her sickle, but this left her open for Grunt to charge. The Hunter dropped the weapon in her free hand. Frost formed in her palm and she tossed a shuriken of pure ice at the alien. The blade sliced a tendon in his leg and Grunt fell to the ground, unable to move.

"Grunt!" Tali cried out.

Ur blinked away and sheathed her weapons. Her HUD selected a new weapon. "Salvation's Grip". She summoned a grenade launcher that looked as though it was built from scrap metal. Then, using her blink ability, Ur zoomed all across the deck, firing off charges from her weapon all around the room. Each charge spawned a large ice crystal where she lobbed them. It wasn't long before the whole room looked like the inside of a glacier. Ur stopped in the middle of the deck. Her fist lit up with blue energy, Ur performed a one-inch punch on the ground and, as if on command, every crystal in the room detonated, shattering into millions of razor sharp fragments that sliced and cut into Tali and Grunt's skin. Their shields were useless against them.

Blood of both red and blue scattered across the deck like paints coloring a canvas. The air all around them twinkled with tiny ice crystals and frost covered the metal gratings of the floor. Such a sight would otherwise seem more like a work of art.

Grunt angrily growled. Such little scratches wouldn't be enough to stop him. Raising his Graal Spike Thrower, Grunt fired off a high-powered flechette, piercing Ur right in her gut and pinning her to the wall behind her. The krogan chuckled viciously. He had the trigger held down to charge up the shot's power that whole time.

"Take that, Elsa!" He shouted.

"Grunt, easy..!" Tali struggled to get back up due to her injuries. "She's just a kid!"

"With ice power, can teleport, and is strong enough to flip me! She can take a hit!" Grunt argued.

Ur struggled trying to free herself from the flechette. It was firmly embedded into the metal of the wall, so it wouldn't be easy to escape. Not to mention that it hurt like hell whenever she would try to move. Tali limped over to the small Hunter. The quarian holstered her weapon, deciding to take an alternative route from her previous attempts at reasoning with the Guardians.

"Stop moving. You'll only hurt yourself more." She urged.

Two three-fingered hands reached up to the captive's head. Tali gripped the helmet firmly and pulled it off of Ur's head, revealing her true face. Long white hair and icy blue eyes laced with a blazing anger. Tali wouldn't lie, she was beautiful. Though she wouldn't admit it out loud that she was jealous that a human tween was prettier than her.

"Keelah, you're so young. How can anyone make children your age fight?" She wondered in disgust.

"Who are ya callin' a kid, ya bloody feartie! (Cow) I look young, but I'm older than both a' ya buggers put together, ya know!"

Tali's eyebrow cocked upward beneath her helmet. What was that supposed to mean? She was curious, but she knew she would get an explanation once this little monster was in lock up. Tali reached for her hip and she pulled out a pair of energy handcuffs.

"You're under arrest, esan."

Ur was cornered. Despite giving this fight her all and having a sure edge over them, the two Lightless had managed to get the drop on her the moment the Hunter thought victory was hers. Now incapacitated, Ur needed to find a way out of this before Tali and Grunt notice her Ghost over by the core and destroy him.

Good thing she didn't come alone… and she wasn't referring to Garrus.

"Guess again, ya roaster!"

Bringing her fingers into her mouth, Ur blew on them and made a loud, high pitched whistle. It was at that moment that the door leading to the hallway slid open. A large figure punched into the room. Tali turned her head to see who had just entered, or rather what, and her eyes widened with horror.

"WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!" Screamed the quarian.

The figure wasn't a humanoid whatsoever, but an animal. A massive feline with snow white fur and black stripes across its body. Four massive paws each armed with blade-like claws and fangs that could crush stone into dust. The animal was also clad in steel armor plating that covered most of its upper body.

A white tiger. The beast unleashed a mighty roar, baring its massive fangs at the suited alien.

"Good boy, Royal! Over here!"

The jungle cat tensed up its muscles and pounced at Tali like she was a helpless deer. Royal tackled her to the ground. Tali tried to scurry away, but she was stopped by Royal grabbing hold of her neck with his mighty jaws. The quarian screamed in terror. She tried to fight off the beast, but with the award position her body was in and the sheer power and ferocity of the tiger, there was nothing that could be done. Tali heard stories about this fearsome beast from the humans she worked with, but she never imagined she would end up being attacked by one.

"GRUNT, HELP ME!"

"Get off her, you mangy cat!"

The young krogan rushed to the quarian's aid. He grabbed the tiger by the jaws and, using his ungodly krogan strength, pried Royal's jaw open and freed Tali from his death hold. Once Grunt had successfully rescued his comrade, he took the tiger by the fur and threw it across the deck. Royal however recovered in midair and landed upright against the surface of the wall. Royal let out an angered growl and pounced off the wall onto the floor.

While Royal had them distracted, Ur had managed to free herself from the flechette that had her pinned against the wall. Frost returned to his Guardian, stating that his work was done. That earned him a thumbs up from the little Hunter. Now that their task was done, Ur just needed to defeat these two and make her escape. She made a selection in her HUD. "P45 Turbot" The grenade launcher vanished and a large crossbow appeared in its place.

"Looks like now it's a fair fight. Heh heh heh." Grunt said with a cocky smile.

Ur cocked a bolt into her weapon. "Royal." She said to her tiger companion. "Sick balls."

"Grunt! Tali! Status report! What's going on down there?"

Joker was desperately attempting to reach his crew mates in the ship's lower decks. He and Miranda had heard the commotion that was occurring from down below and grew concerned. Neither one of them were responding to the calls from the bridge either.

"Damnit. Checking the security cameras now."

He quickly loaded up a digital feed of the lower decks. Both Joker and Miranda laid their eyes upon a sight neither one of them could have ever expected. Footage of Tali being tossed around the room like a piece of meat by a massive, bleach white jungle cat.

"Wait…" Is that a..?"

"A tiger in the engineering deck." Miranda finished in place of Jeff.

That was the moment when Joker put his hands up to his temples and rubbed them soothingly in a circular motion. "Oh, my brain…" He groaned.

"I've got to get down there. They need help." Miranda drew her SMG from her side. She turned to walk down the ship's combat deck, but was stopped by Joker grabbing her arm in a protective manner.

"No way!" He said, half shouting

"Excuse me?" Lawson looked back at the pilot questioningly. She forcefully freed herself from his grip.

"Miranda, you're out of your mind if you think I'm just gonna sit here and let you become tiger chow!"

"That's not up to you!" She argued.

Joker was being rather protective over Miranda. He knew damn well how capable she was as a fighter. After all, she was basically a human version of Shadow the Hedgehog… with a bosom… and better hair… She had taken on creatures more dangerous than an Earth tiger, like Reapers. So what exactly was the problem?

"You bet your life it's up to me, especially now!" Joker told her sternly.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He raised his hand and pointed a finger at her stomach. "I think you know. Very. Well."

Joker poked at Miranda's gut with each word spoken. Dr. Lawson put on a look of total shock. She clenched her stomach and glared at the pilot with angry eyes.

"You have some nerve using THIS against me, Moreau..!"

"Can you blame me?"

Miranda wanted to argue, she really did. However, she found herself unable to. A small voice inside her head was agreeing with the one sitting in the pilot's seat. She looked away, wiping her face exhaustedly sighing heavily. The scientist eventually caved.

"Alright…"

Hearing that gave Joker a sense of relief.

"But I'm at least going to do something from up here."

Miranda walked over to the console next to Joker and activated it. A video feed of the Normandy's port cargo loaded up. With a few simple command inputs, the image of a large robot appeared on the screen. She grinned and hit the command that read 'Activate'.

There was dead silence in the elevator. Garrus, Ur, and Royal all stood side by side with one another, not a single word said between any of them. Royal wasn't even making any growling or purring noises. He just sat there.

Ur and Royal had managed to defeat Tai and Grunt and reunited with Garrus at the elevator. Once they had finished disabling the Normandy, Garrus had requested the Hunter to rendezvous in the ship's cargo hold. After that, he would get in contact with Shinazu and he would open another portal for them back to the Radiant Accipiter. Easy escape.

Garrus was still trying to wrap his head around the idea of Shinazu being able to open up magic portals in space, or the fact that little Ur had a pet tiger. Jane's company just gets more and more wild.

"So… You have a tiger." He started.

"Yep. Name's Royal." Ur simply replied.

"And you can ride him." Garrus added."

"I'm small enough to."

"…Does he do tricks?"

"What is this, Twenty Questions?"

Garrus rolled his eyes. Excuse him for trying to engage in light elevator conversation, like the old days on the Citadel. He looked down at Royal by his feet. The tiger scratched his chin with his foot. Garrus had to admit that Royal was rather majestic. A lot more attractive than a varren, that was for sure. This was the first time he had ever laid eyes on Earth wildlife. Well, outside of a zoo anyway. They said that white tigers were extinct in the wild, even after centuries of attempting to help them repopulate. Damned poachers. Seeing one up close like this was quite an experience.

Royal let out a tired yawn and shook his head after. Garrus smiled at that action. Okay, that was pretty cute. The turian decided to try and pet the large feline.

"Hi there, Royal. Aren't you an interesting little-"

The mere SECOND Garrus' hand got close to the tiger, Royal turned to him and bore his fangs in a threatening growl. Vakarian flinched and quickly withdrew his hand out of fear of losing it. He turned to Ur and shot her a fearful look.

"You couldn't ask for a pony like every other girl?"

Ur raised her shoulders with a shrug. With a loud *PING, the elevator doors finally open. The group was now in the lowest part of the Normandy; the cargo bay. All across the floor sat crates containing various supplies for the crew. From weapons and gadgets, to dehydrated foods and medi-gel. To the right were two large combat vehicles. An M-35 Mako tank, and an M-44 Hammerhead hovercraft. How many times Garrus overheard James and Cortez arguing over which was better would always bring back fond memories.

"Okay. Coast seems clear." Said the turian. "All we have to do is contact Shinazu and get him to open-"

"HOSTILES DETECTED."

A distorted and robot voice rumbled from behind one of the crates. The floor seemed to shake in intervals, like a giant was taking a step forward. Only this wasn't an exaggeration. Emerging from behind the crates laid across the floor were multiple massive mech bots, ranging from Ogres, Hydras, to YMIRs. Their large, bulky frames equipped with the toughest armor and state of the art weapons designed for crowd control.

Royal went into an attack stance and roared intimidatingly. Garrus however only let his arms fall to his sides and let out a depressed sigh.

"Why did I buy so many mechs?"

...

Hi everyone! In all honesty, I REALLY wanted to get this chapter done for N7 Day, but my boss has been slamming me with overtime so I had no time at all to work on this since I really need the hours. But I hoped you all enjoyed.

As for The Doc, i just HAD to come up with him the second I saw that Plaguebreaker armor. So cool...

And who else is totally stoaked about the live-action Mass Effect series?! AHHHH!!!

Anyway, until next chaoter! Love you guys! Thank you for the follows and favs!