//------------------------------// // The Queen // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 63 The Queen [Stop! I want to take care of this.]64% “Don’t shoot! Let me stop him.” Fluttershy said as she decloaked and prevented Garrus from taking the shot at the alien mugger. Garrus growled for a moment but lowered his pistol anyway. “Go ahead. Do your thing,” he said as Fluttershy reactivated her cloak and made her way over to where the mugging was happening. “Please, we don’t have any more money!” the elderly man begged as the new alien pressed the knife harder against the old lady’s throat. “No, you lie! More! You have more! Give to me otherwise I wrap her insides around your outsides!” the creature hissed. Whereas Fluttershy previously had been disgusted by the creature, this drove her to absolute rage. “We’re not worth all this trouble! I beg of you, please let her go!” The old man fell to his knees, begging for mercy. “Trouble? No, this going to be pleasure!” The creature smiled, the large row of sharp glistening teeth in its mouth becoming even more pronounced, and pointed the jagged knife at the man. This was all the opening Fluttershy needed as she jumped forward, flapped her wings to gain more speed, and barreled into the creature. The knife the creature was holding flew off as its body slammed into the wall. Fluttershy immediately got off it and turned around, her back legs shooting out in an almighty buck to the side of its head. Fluttershy decloaked, panting slightly, while standing over the unconscious form of the alien with flared wings. Garrus calmly came walking up to the small group, crouching next to the fallen alien to retrieve something from it before turning to the two humans. The elderly couple looked fearfully at the two newcomers, not knowing if they would be better than their previous assailant.  “I believe this belongs to the two of you,” Garrus said as he held out a credit chit. The elderly man carefully stepped forward and took the chit from Garrus. Fluttershy meanwhile remembered that she was supposed to stay hidden and activated the stealth modules again. The elderly couple only got a glance at Fluttershy’s blue eyes before she disappeared into nothingness again. “T-thank you sir, and whoever your friend was. You’re angels, the both of you,” they thanked, walking back to the main street to go to whatever location they had originally wanted to go to. “So what do we do with this guy?” Fluttershy asked as she prodded the unconscious alien. “We leave him. He’s a vorcha. He’ll be fine within the hour if not sooner.” Garrus growled, “I’m not wasting a thermal clip on him. Let’s go find a bar. Maybe we can find some people sympathetic to our cause in one of them.” Fluttershy wasn’t really sure that they’d find people like that there, but since she didn’t have an alternative, she’d go along with it. They entered the first club they passed by, a place called ‘Afterlife’ and tried finding an empty table as far out of sight as possible. “Hey you!” Garrus immediately stopped moving and turned around. Four fully armored aliens, two turian and two batarian, approached them, all bearing dark grey armor and afterlife’s logo painted on their chest plates. “Arya wants to see you.” “And if I don’t want to come?” Garrus calmly asked while his right hand got awfully close to his pistol just in case he’d have to draw quickly. “I wouldn’t suggest it. This could get really messy if you don’t come peacefully,” one of the batarians warned. Garrus checked his odds and didn’t like them. The four mercenaries already had their weapons drawn and even with Fluttershy’s help they wouldn’t be able to overpower them before more reinforcements came to their aid.  “Lead the way,” Garrus said as he started following the four mercenaries to whoever wanted to talk to him. He was lead through the main area of the club up towards a large overhanging section that gave a good view of the establishment. A lone asari sitting on the large couch with a very unamused look on her face greeted him as he arrived up top. “I do not appreciate anyone sneaking around my nightclub, turian. What is your business here?” she asked pointedly. “I assure you that I wasn’t sneaking around your club, ma’am,” Garrus answered, acting as if he knew nothing. “I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about whoever snuck in here with you,” the asari said pointedly, “How about you tell whoever it is to show himself?” Fluttershy in the meantime had sat down on top of one of the small privacy walls to the left and right of the overhang and had her assault rifle at the ready, though she’d yet to point it at anyone. Come on! We’ve only just arrived and we’re about to get into our second fight? How bad is this place?! ‘Aria’ waited for a few moments before pulling a pistol and aiming it squarely at Garrus’ face, “I’m not going to ask again. Tell your friend to show himself, or I’ll find him the hard way.” Garrus stoically refused to say anything as he stared into the darkness of the pistol’s barrel, but Fluttershy wasn’t about to take unnecessary risks and revealed herself. Several of the guards jumped and rapidly pointed their weapons at the new potential threat. “Good choice. Now for the second point. What’s your business here?” “I’m looking for trustworthy individuals to help me with a job,” Garrus answered. Though it wasn’t really a lie, it wasn’t the entire truth either. For some reason this was extremely funny to the Asari as she burst out into laughter. “Good luck with that. This is Omega. No-one is trustworthy,” she chortled before turning deadly serious again. “But if you start interfering with my business here, I will have you hung by your entrails, stuffed, and placed as a trophy in my personal chambers. Am I clear?” “Crystal.” “Good, now get out of my sight.” Aria dismissed the turian with a handwave, not that Garrus had any interest in lingering anyway. Fluttershy immediately cloaked again as well but didn’t immediately follow her boyfriend, as her gaze fixed itself on the asari in question. She must be a pretty important figure in the crime world here, but No-one threatens my boyfriend. 1. She’s not worth the time now. We’ll get to her eventually. 2. Warn Aria to stay away from Garrus. 3. [Kill her. Omega will probably be better off one crime boss short.] [Vote link]