[Call in a favour with Kasumi.] 48%
We’re really going to need some serious help blending into the surroundings if that station Garrus described is as bad as he made it sound… I do have that favour from Kasumi I could call in.
Fluttershy wasn’t exactly angry with the human anymore. Kasumi had never meant for the job on Berkenstein to go as bad as it did. She also wanted to assure Kasumi that she didn’t have any hard feelings for her as she remembered the disheartened message the thief had left for them.
She sighed and opened her omni-tool, calling the number Kasumi had added into her contact list. The pegasus could hear the device beep as it connected to the appropriate extranet server.
“Thank you for calling Selixa’s intrigue. We are currently experiencing technical issues. If your message is urgent then please leave it after the beep.”
“Silence is golden,” Fluttershy intoned after the beep, following the instructions Kasumi had given her for contacting the thief. The line sounded as if it had gone dead but that changed mere moments after.
“To whom do I have the absolute pleasure of speaking with in this absolutely not awkward at all moment?” Kasumi’s voice whispered as she picked up the call on her side.
“Fluttershy,” the pegasus simply answered, the other side of the line falling silent for a moment.
“Oh… umm, right. What is it you need?”
“Are you sure you can talk right now? You sound busy,” Fluttershy could hear some people shouting in the background.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve got everything under control here.” The pegasus questioned if that statement was true, but there wasn’t anything she could really do to help the thief anyway.
“Garrus is planning on heading to a space station in the Terminus systems. Apparently it’s filled with criminals, so I was hoping you could give me some tips on how to stay concealed and out of sight,” Fluttershy explained earning a surprised gasp from Kasumi.
“He’s planning on taking you to Omega?! Is that idiot trying to get you killed?!” The thief exclaimed only to swear immediately after, a couple of dull thuds could be heard coming from the human’s side of the call.
“Well not exactly. Garrus wanted to leave me here on the Citadel while he goes running off to that place. I’m not letting him just leave me though, so I’m going as well,” Fluttershy explained in an attempt to prevent the conversation from derailing too badly.
“It’s still a stupid idea, but if you’re going through with it, I’ll give you some pointers and other things that will be invaluable out there. I’ll be on the Citadel by tomorrow. Don’t worry about finding me. I’ll find you.” Without waiting for a reply Kasumi killed the line, leaving Fluttershy standing alone on the street again. With a sigh Fluttershy opened her wings again and started making her way back to the apartment. The way Kasumi had spoken about this ‘Omega’ place was just something else that proved Garrus wanted to keep her safe, not abandon her.
As she entered the place she had been staying for the last year Fluttershy found it to be awfully quiet, indicating that her turian boyfriend had gone out.
I hope he’s not beating himself up too badly over not including me in his plan. I think it’s best if I go look for him.
Turning around and closing the door again, Fluttershy thought of the places Garrus could be. He probably wasn’t at the shooting range as they had gone there the previous day, so her first guess was that he was blowing off steam at the gym.
Luckily the gym they were signed up at was only a short walk away. After entering, the turian at the counter there pointed her towards one of the rooms that contained punching bags. Peeking into the room, she found Garrus absolutely thrashing one of the bags, sweat flowing down his uncovered upper body.
Fluttershy’s cheeks burned red as her mind started producing very interesting images that were completely inappropriate to the situation.
Sitting down behind Garrus, she waited until he’d taken a small break from abusing the bag he was currently unloading on, something that took remarkably long considering the intensity of his strikes.
“Are you done?” Fluttershy asked as a panting Garrus finally lowered his arms, a startled yelp coming out of his mouth as he jumped around to face the pegasus behind him.
“Y-yeah,” Garrus stammered as an awkward silence fell over the two of them for a moment. “Look Flutters, I didn’t want to-”
“I’m coming along with you,” Flutteshy stated. “I know you don’t want to put me into a dangerous position, but I’m not letting you go alone. I’ve already called Kasumi to help me stay concealed on Omega, so don’t bother trying to persuade me otherwise.”
Garrus tried to sputter a response but couldn’t get a coherent sentence together.
“I know you Garrus. You want to do good, but if there’s no-one to hold you back, you go way too far in your pursuit of justice. I don’t want to see you become the monster you’re trying to fight,” Fluttershy softly said as she hovered up to Garrus’ height and gently placed a hoof on his chest. “Come on, let’s go home.”
The next day Fluttershy simply stayed within the apartment waiting for the human thief to appear, not really wanting to be scared out of her wits by running into her randomly. At what could be considered noon for the sleep schedule she was on she heard the door open. Garrus was supposed to be out for at least a couple of hours longer, so Fluttershy had a good guess who had just entered the apartment.
“I’m in the kitchen!” Fluttershy called out into the hallway while she was preparing a salad for herself.
“I’ll wait in the living room!” Kasumi called back, confirming Fluttershy’s suspicions. Quickly finishing her salad the pegasus picked up the bowl and carried it to the living room where Kasumi was lounging on the couch along with a duffle bag. The human’s eyes falling on the salad as Fluttershy entered.
“Sorry, we’ve only got dextro supplies stocked in our kitchen,” Fluttershy apologized.
“It’s not a big deal. I had some sushi before coming here, so I’m good,” Kasumi replied softly, not daring to look Fluttershy in the eyes.
“Kasumi, I don’t blame you about what happened with Hock. He’s the only one I hold responsible and he’s in some prison on Earth,” Fluttershy told the thief, sitting down next to her on the couch.
“Thank you Fluttershy, I was afraid you’d hate me for what happened there,” Kasumi replied as a weight was visibly taken off the human’s chest. “Now let’s get to the thing I’m actually here for.” Kasumi started rummaging through the duffle bag she had taken and pulled out some items.
“I’ll go get my armor,” Fluttershy said with a gentle smile as soon as she saw the armor attachments Kasumi pulled from the bag along with the large black cloak, walking to the storage locker in her and Garrus’ bedroom. Opening the locker that contained it, Fluttershy rapidly put on all of the interlocking armor plates and walked back into the living room.
“Good, I already had the schematics to your armor, so I had all of the attachments adjusted to fit perfectly and got the cloak custom made on those models as well.” Kasumi attached all the devices to the appropriate ports and allowed Fluttershy to don the cloak over the underlying armor. The black dress wrapped completely around the pegasus and was held in place by straps not too dissimilar to Kasumi’s clothing.
“Considering its looks, I’m going to guess it has the same functionality as your suit?” Fluttershy asked with excitement as she pulled the hood of the dress over her head and pulled a piece of cloth over her muzzle.
“Why don’t you try it out? I’ve already uploaded the necessary program to your omni-tool.” Fluttershy immediately opened the tool and saw the new program. A small grin formed on her covered muzzle as she activated the program and saw her foreleg disappear right in front of her eyes.
“Whoa,” Fluttershy said in awe as she moved around, padding on the bottom of her armored shoes muffling the walking sound. “So are you going to teach me how to sneak around?”
Kasumi jumped around to where the sound came from, “You’re already doing it. There’s nothing more to it than stick to the shadows. The hard part about stealth would be blending into crowds which isn’t exactly useful to you. So the best thing you can do is just practice stalking people while cloaked. If you can pull that off, you’ll be fine.”
Kasumi picked up her duffle bag, closed it, and made for the door again. “I don’t consider us even by the way, so if you need anything else, call me up.” With that the human went invisible and left Fluttershy alone in the apartment.
Practice stalking people? I could go find and scare Garrus…
A devious smile formed on Fluttershy’s face as she too disappeared into nothingness.