A rhythmic beeping was the first thing that filled Fluttershy's ears as her senses returned to her.
Do the surgery without sharing data 88%
The taxi shuttle Fluttershy and Liara had taken once again stopped at the landing area on the street that also housed the clinic and they walked over to the building. The streets around the business were as busy as the first time they had walked through it.
Fluttershy nervously looked at the entrance of Nyxin biotics, the clinic that would be facilitating the surgical implantation of a biotic amp. It wasn't something she was excited for in any way but, if she was to believe Liara and the extranet, having a biotic amplifier was incredibly useful. The attendant greeted the two companions after Fluttershy finally worked up the courage to enter the building.
"Miss Fluttershy, my employer has been eagerly awaiting you. If you would wait for a moment I will get her for you," she said as she swiftly made her way to the back, almost immediately getting back out with the other asari.
"Miss Fluttershy, I was hoping you would drop by today. Have you managed to make your decision?" Nyxin asked, the asari was already wearing what Fluttershy assumed to be the outfit she'd wear for the surgery. The pegasus nervously played around with her hooves as she knew that she was going to have to reject the offer she had gotten from the asari.
"Well, uhm, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable giving out my medical information yet so I'm afraid that I have to reject your offer," she managed to say with a steady voice, something that seriously surprised herself. Meanwhile Nyxin V'ladri had various expressions flashing over her face, the first one was anger swiftly followed by sadness but in the end, it turned to resignation as the asari sighed in defeat.
"I was afraid you would say that. You know that means you'll have to pay, right?" she said, Fluttershy nodded in agreement. "In that case, I would like you to sign this form here."
Fluttershy looked over the data pad she had been given, her eyes going wide as she saw the price tag on the form. It was six figures long and nearly matched the amount of credits that Shepard had given them. "T-that's a lot of credits," Fluttershy stammered as she reread the number several times.
The asari smirked nonchalantly at the pegasus, "Well I did have to process the data from the scan, design an amp to fit your body, construct that amp, then write custom firmware that makes sure it runs flawlessly in concord with your body, and all that within a day..." she paused for a moment, "that does come with a hefty price tag, though if you want to change your mind about my offer I can still do it for free."
Does Fluttershy take the offer anyway? No
The thought of changing her decision went through the pegasus' mind but was quickly banished again. Looking up at Liara she found the asari in an equal amount of shock but her body language suggested that she was waiting for Fluttershy to make a decision.
Slowly the pegasus raised her hoof and approved the money transfer, Shepard's credits swiftly flowing to the asari's bank account. Nyxin suddenly looked really surprised and slightly disappointed at the fact that Fluttershy was able to pay the amount of money she had asked for. "Well... I guess that's settled, please follow me."
With the payment settled, Liara gave her last words of encouragement before the other asari led the pegasus to the back of the building down the long hallway. Passing the room where the scanner was located they moved through the door at the back of the hallway into what seemed to be an operating room of sorts. Behind a glass wall, there were three additional asari who seemed to have prepared all the equipment.
"Usually we operate on the brain which means the patient needs to be awake throughout the procedure..." Nyxin started explaining as she helped Fluttershy onto a bed, "...but your biotic prowess seems to come from Eezo pockets within the bones of your wings. Which means we'll operate on you while you're sedated."
"How long will the operation take?" Fluttershy asked as she tried to take on a relaxed position on the bed.
"Usually about two hours but we're prepared to go up to five since you're a completely new species and we want to have time to compensate if something goes wrong," Nyxin answered as she pushed the bed through what Fluttershy assumed to be a decontamination field and placed it in the middle of the room where she was surrounded by the operating equipment. "Are you ready?"
Fluttershy sighed deeply. "Yes," she simply answered, Nyxin motioning for one of her assistants to start giving Fluttershy the sedative. The gas was administered through a custom mouthpiece that fitted around the pegasus's muzzle. It took immediate effect as Fluttershy felt her eyelids get heavy and not soon after her world went entirely black.
A rhythmic beeping was the first thing that filled Fluttershy's ears as her senses returned to her.
"She's waking, Doctor," someone said from beside her, every breath she took seemed to wake her further."Sedative doesn't seem to have any unintentional adverse effects." It only took a couple more seconds for Fluttershy to open her eyes.
"Welcome back to the waking world miss Fluttershy," An asari said from beside her, after blinking a couple of times the final bits of sleepiness disappeared and Fluttershy managed to identify the asari as Nyxin. "How are you feeling?"
Fluttershy wanted to reply with a generic 'fine' but that wouldn't be correct as her wings felt... strange? They felt as if they were much more sensitive than before, every bit of movement in the air registered on the feathers and she didn't even have to concentrate on it to feel them. "It's... well, I don't really know how to describe it."
"That's not the first time I heard that response," Nyxin chuckled. "Why don't you try it out?"
Fluttershy paled for a moment. "A-are you sure that's a good idea, shouldn't I take it a bit slow?"
"Medi-gel circumvents that issue, I'm not telling you to go all out but you should be able to get a bit of a feel for it," Nyxin said with a smile. Fluttershy gulped nervously as she finally noticed that she wasn't in the operating room anymore but in one of the recovery rooms she had seen along the hallway.
Looking around the room she spotted a small trash bin that she could try to levitate. Pointing her wing at the trashcan she lit it up with a biotic aura which immediately took away its heightened senses. Fluttershy yelped in surprise as she accidentally put way too much power into the attempt at levitation and instead of levitating the trashcan, a blob of biotic energy impacted it and made it blow apart. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Fluttershy immediately apologized while Nyxin just blankly stared at the trashcan's remains.
"Don't worry about it, a trashcan isn't too expensive to replace. Though I'm going to advise you to head towards a training field sometime soon to get a grip on it," she said as she nervously chuckled. "Anyway, your friend is waiting outside and I'll go finish the final few registration forms."
Nyxin left the room along with her assistant, allowing Liara to enter moments after. "How are you feeling?" Liara asked, mirroring the question Nyxin had asked to the letter.
"Well enough, though I'm going to have to get used to it for a bit." Fluttershy sheepishly said as she looked at the spot between her wings where the amp was placed, shivering a bit as she saw the small silvery metal cover that sat on top of the device.
"We'll go to a training field for you to get some practice in, but we should do that tomorrow. I think we should take the rest of the day off and explore the citadel for a bit, don't you think?" Liara proposed. "We might not have the credits for large purchases anymore but we can still go around and look at the sights."
Fluttershy thought about it for a moment. She had to admit to herself that she had been constantly keeping herself busy and could use some distraction to blow off some steam. "I guess that's a good idea, do you have any places we could go to?"
"Well, we can go to the Presidium to visit a couple of the sights there. The prothean museum is pretty decent," Liara said with a slight grin. "We could also head for the wards' shopping districts to do some casual shopping or if you're really up for it we can visit Armax Arsenal Arena, they have a virtual arena where they can simulate fights with VI's. It would be the perfect place to see what you can do with that amp."
The museum might be nice since Liara will probably be able to give a lot of extra information, though visiting the shopping district sounds a bit more relaxing, maybe they'll even have a spa there. But then I could also go to the arena to try out the amp...
Fluttershy shivered slightly as the thought of going to fight, even though it was just against simple VI's, wasn't as repulsive to her as it had once been.
What's wrong with you, Fluttershy! Why are you even considering this!
1. Go to the Presidium
2. Go to the markets
3. Go to Armax Arsenal Arena