Mass Effect 1. Edward!

**Operation Extremis**

**Hey guys, welcome to the beginning of the adventure! For those of you that read the original story then I can only say welcome back and that I hope you enjoy this iteration. For you that have decided to begin here then enjoy your stay.**

**Here we go!**

**(11:00, 12/01/13, Silverburn, Scotland)**

**Blam**...** Blam**

The sound of gunfire reverberated around the quarry as shards of pottery fell to earth, the ear defenders did little to mute the sound of the 12 gauge shotgun as it kicked into Edward's shoulder hard. The sun glimmered just at the edge of his vision, the light distorted by the red shooter glasses he wore. As he reloaded the gun he scratched an itch in the midst of his dark brown hair.

He flinched to the side as he roared "Pull," to the small group of three people behind him, the lanky teen at the back fiddled with the controls and the automatic trap threw out a pair of clay pigeons one after the other.

Edward's instincts kicked in and he pulled the gun just ahead of the first target, about four finger widths. Time seemed to slow as he squeezed the trigger and the first pigeon was turned to powder by the shot. He pulled the gun back a little and repeated the actions, the second target getting equally destructive treatment.

"And that makes twelve, shall we go again Chris?" the teenager flipped him the bird as Edward Scarrow turned with the empty gun lying in the crook of his arm.

"Keep this up Scarrow and you'll be in the olympics!" he retorted sardonically.

"It'll be a cold day in hell when they pick me for that," he chuckled as the one of the others, an ageing woman by the name of Trish chucked him a small box of shells, "besides, someone needs to stay here and keep you in check," this earned him a chuckle from the others as Chris sneered playfully.

Edward loaded the gun quickly, the muscle memory doing all the work as Trish went to check on the trap, the pigeons were undoubtedly running low. The dull ache of repeatedly getting punched in the shoulder by the stock of the gun was easily ignored as Edward practised sighting along the range.

With a quick glance he noticed that Trish wasn't at the trap, the sight of new pigeons made him happy not only because it meant more practise but also gave him a longer reprieve from making the decision that would move his life in two very distinctly different paths. Though it was early January and most people hadn't gotten offers from anywhere yet, Edward had received offers from both Edinburgh and Glasgow for Classical Studies.

The thing with Edward was that there was much to be desired in the way he studied at School, a phrase often used by his teachers, but no-one had anticipated he'd come back with a vengeance and completely conquer his sixth year. He'd taken the classical trinity of Greek, Latin, and ,of course, Classical Studies and had finished the courses in minimal time.

"Pull," he shouted and the pair of pigeons flew across his field of view. He brought them down quickly and turned to his friends, "Where's Trish?" he called, the two shook their heads and glanced around. Edward turned back and looked down range, a strange feeling permeating his chest. He called for again and shot down the two targets quickly.

Just as he ejected the spent cartridges there was an almighty crack from his right as the wall of the quarry split open with a rending groan. He turned and backed away quickly as several hundred tonnes of rock spilled down towards him; he dove behind an outcropping and pressed his back against it as large chunks hurtled close to his head. The rock slowly stilled, a couple large boulders having bounced down and landed close beside him.

Edward coughed violently as a dust cloud settled around him. He stood confident that the rockfall had stopped, within seconds of this he threw himself flat as a final rock bounced down the new slope close to him.

"Chris! Harrison! Trish!" he yelled between fits of coughing as he climbed steadily over the rocks, he noticed his gun stuck between two rocks, quickly prying it loose he continued towards the sound of scuffling.

"Edward!" There was panic in Chris' voice as Edward forced himself towards him. The sound intensified as grunts and gasps were added to the concerto. Suddenly a gunshot rung out causing Edward to hit the dirt and reload his gun hurriedly.

"Chris! What the fuck was that!" I locked the gun up and threw the safety off before pointing it forward. "Chris!" there was no answer.

At that moment the thick dust cloud cleared just in front of Edward and he finally caught sight of Chris, or at least part of him.

The stone ahead was coated in a crimson layer of blood, bits of flesh were lain about like confetti as he swung the gun barrel round searching for what could have done this. There was a sickening crunch behind him, not the type of rock hitting rock but rather bone breaking. Edward spun round and nearly vomited as he was confronted by Chris, well 90% of Chris as his head was missing.

"Oh fuck," Edward back hastily away towards the cars.

"_Will you be the one,_" the sudden voice, scathing and rusty, echoed down from the lip of the quarry.

Edward spun around looking for the source but could not see anyone, a flash of movement passed in the edge of his periphery. Following his most basic instinct he turned and ran for the cars, there was no sign of Harrison or Trish and he could only conclude that the same had happened to them.

Mere metres from the rear bumper of his dad's pick-up, there was a tortured screech as it was hurled aside into the makeshift cabin that was used to store the guns. Standing in the place of the truck was the battered and bloody form of Trish, a large chunk of flesh had been blown out of her right fore-arm. Blood poured down what remained in cascades.

"Trish? What the hell..." Edward's frightened tone quivered in his voice.

"_Are you?"_ the voice questioned as Edward, somewhat sensibly, brought up the gun and levelled it with the thing's chest, it was certainly no longer Trish.

"Am I what?" he checked to see if the gun would actually fire.

"_Chosen!_" She screeched before near tele-porting forward and put him on the ground with a punch. His gun was thrown to the side as the thing screeched and vanished again. Edward leapt for his gun and spun in an arc looking for his target.

The screech came again and Edward spun into a crouch, pointing the gun straight at the over turned pick-up as it lifted into the air. The monster underneath fixed him with a stare as it slowly advanced towards him.

At that moment Edward noticed her arm, most of the muscle had been torn out and even some of the bone. In a moment of inspiration he aimed at the exposed bone and squeezed the trigger, the kick hit him hard in the shoulder as the arm of the beast vanished in a puff of red mist.

The thing screamed as the car collapsed on it, there was a bloody crunch as the thing disappeared underneath the cabin of the truck. Edward collapsed back onto his ass as the whole area went silent, he had no idea what to do, no way to get away quickly, and not a single clue what had just happened.

"_Chosen!"_ the screech came again from under the ruin of the car, the sound of metal tearing apart made him grimace and bring his gun back to the ready, a single shot the only thing he had left.

The monster, now a bloody ruin that barely resembled a human, tore through the undercarriage of the car and tried to pull its way out, it struggled in vain as a large pipe had lodged through her back and was protruding out her front, liquid fuel gurgled out of the hole as the thing tried to wrench it out.

Now the odds for sparking the fuel tank of a car with a gun are next to none in reality but all the same Edward fired his last round. The round hit the Trish beast square in the chest and tore out her left side, allowing her to pull off the pipe but in the next moment a fire ignited in the spilled petrol that coated the ground and side of the car. The flames raced up the flow and into the tank before exploding violently enough to tear apart the monster and the car both.

Edward was knocked back by the explosion and gasped as the air was driven from his lungs. His vision fuzzed as he knocked his head against the gravel. He slowly recovered as the smoke from the explosion pillared into the sky; what felt like a good hour but could only have been a cluster of minutes later he pushed up from the dirt and faced the burning wreckage.

He wanted to smile but at the same time he could only feel despair and hatred towards himself. It had to be him who survived this, maybe if he'd gotten to Chris sooner then he could have saved him but deep down Edward knew if he'd gotten there any sooner then he'd be just as dead. Edward grimaced as he moved his arm and knocked against the clutch plate wedged in his side. He looked down and winced as his legs gave out, he fell to the side and knocked the plate free, a pool of blood slowly started to grow around him.

"_Chosen,"_ the words suddenly rolled around the quarry, however they were no longer screechy and fractious to the ear, they were soft and comforting as Edward lost consciousness.

**(Every time, every day, everywhere)**

"_Wake,"_ Edward jolted awake with a gasp, a hand rushing to his side to staunch the flow of blood that was no longer there.

He gasped in several large breaths as his body started to work again, the dull ache of repeatedly firing his shotgun was receding quickly. He was sure that the punch from the thing had broken his jaw but as he felt it tentatively with the tips of his fingers he realised that there was no damage.

"The fuck," he wondered aloud as he swung himself off of the table top. Only then did he take in his surroundings.

He was in a small hut, the wood was dark, weathered, and cracked and could have been standing for more than a hundred years from the way it looked. The room he was small and contained the table he had been on and a small cot against the far wall. He fell to the floor as he tried to stand, his legs giving out from underneath him.

He forced himself up and held the corner of the table along with the edge of the bed. He planted his feet squarely and flexed his leg muscles as he focused on the doorway. He could feel his old strength slowly returning as he lurched a foot forward and let go of the table. He took another step and finally felt confident enough to make his way through the door.

He leant heavily on the door as he looked through and what he saw took his breath away. A city spread out before him, across from the hill he was on. The heat poured down on him, an unusual thing to feel if you live in Scotland, as he gazed out over the marble buildings and façades of the familiar city.

"Athens," A voice said behind him.

He turned to see a woman dressed in a long flowing gown, a wide, purple, stripe ran along the length of the material as the woman moved forward like she was walking on air. Edward felt the odd need to kneel before this person despite knowing nothing about her. She had long, golden, hair flowing down her back like a waterfall and her grey eyes seemed to cut into my very soul even though they radiated kindness and peace the likes of which were hard to come across.

"How..." Edward's voice was hoarse as he tried to question the person.

"Hard to explain really," her accent sounded like it was British but it seemed to be tinged in a way that made it sound like it could be from anywhere, "The best explanation is that I live in the wake of all decisions that cause a ripple through history," I wasn't too sure what she meant, she noticed my quizzical expression and continued.

"Look down there," she said simply, pointing to the gates of the city.

At this distance it was hard to make out but from what I could see, a person was running out of the hills towards the gates. He wore a helmet and greek battle armour, a shield in spear in his hands. I could see men making their way towards him hurriedly as he approached the path. They met him as he stumbled to the ground and landed on his knees. The other men leant over him and seemed to listen shortly before he fell to the ground and lay still.

"This is just after the battle of Marathon," Edward turned back and looked questioningly at the woman, "that guy just delivered the news that Athens beat the Persians," I realised why I was witnessing this.

"This caused ripples, it drove the Persian king Darius mad, it led to the invention of the marathon run, and would one day be attributed to the formation of the Athenian Empire," as the men turned from the body and ran towards the scenery changed drastically,

They were now in a field, the hut was still there when Edward looked back but they were in a dramatically different place. Just as he was wondering where they were a large crash sounded nearby, Edward easily noticed that the wreckage at the other end of the field was a plane, it seemed to be an old rotor plane with several bullet holes covering the sides.

They both looked up at the aerial battle that raged above, dozens of planes dove and fought in the sky. Edward looked on in bewilderment as the planes eventually separated out into two groups and moved apart, one group being much smaller than the other.

"Battle of Britain," The woman said as the scenery changed again.

"What are you?" Edward was unsure of what to feel.

"I'm making my choice," she said quietly as she stared into the heart of a city in flames, "whether or not you are fit for what I want of you," Edward was perplexed as she turned her piercing eyes on him.

"I'm not sure I understand what you are going to do with me?" he wished he had his gun again.

"I sent the hunter after you," she said evenly, "it proved you have power in you to be able to kill it but I think that those abilities have yet to be fully realised," he was transfixed by her eyes.

"What must I do," curiosity had gotten the better of him as he was drawn into her gaze.

"Make ready," she raised her hand and placed it gently on his head before breathing in loudly. For the second time that day Edward fell into unconsciousness quickly.

**(21:38, 19/07/11, Brooklyn, USA)**

"This one seems reasonable enough," the voice trailed off as Edward woke slowly.

"His muscle tone is adequate but there is something to be desired none the less," a female voice said, "blood pressure and salt levels suggested that he leads a healthy lifestyle but eats a majority of unhealthy foods," I kept my eyes shut as the two speakers hovered over me.

"Calluses on the palms and left shoulder suggests extensive use of firearms with potential use of close combat weapons," the male voice cleared his throat, "this asshole would make a fine spec ops soldier," the female voice sighed.

"We're in America Killian, he's going to have experience with fire-arms," she tapped his knuckles with a pen, "and the calluses on his hands could be from anything, he could work in textiles for all we know."

"Well we did ask the grunts to pick up anyone they could didn't we," his haughty tone made Edward a little tense at what he was hearing, "Shall we get started?" the woman groaned.

"Extremis test 0078," she began drudgingly, "every other subject deceased at different stages of incubation, lets hope this one proves successful," fearing what could happen if he did not act Edward threw himself up but found himself shackled to the table.

"Ah, he's awake," Edward forced against the metal, "makes this easier," he said as the woman braced him up on the table.

He struggled against her but stopped when he felt three small pricks cut into his spine at the base of his skull. Edward groaned as they forced him back onto the table and left the room before studying him through a large viewing window directly between his feet.

Edward was unsure of what they were doing and what those pin pricks were until he felt a pain deep in his skull that spread down his spine like wild fire. He roared in pain as blood started to pour out of him where ever it could, his screams were drowned in blood and liquid as he vomited everything he could up.

After what felt like an age and a half the blood flow stopped and he pulled in a great breath, his breath tasted metallic and he felt like he'd shed half his weight in under a minute. He tried to lift his head but physically couldn't, his neck was weakened beyond any form of helpfulness. Edward felt himself slowly passing out as his skin started to feel like it was peeling away from his flesh.

With one last cough of blood Edward Scarrow fell unconscious... again.

**(03:12, 22/07/11, Brooklyn, USA)**

The cocoon of scab sat on the table in full view of the bored looking scientists, the drudgery of watching the test subject got tedious after the need to feed it became moot. Since then there was a constant watch on the body to see if it would live or be another several million dollar flop.

"He should be up by now," Maya Hansen said to her colleague Aldrich Killian.

"This is hardly an exact science and since none have survived before how do we know when they're ready?" to answer his question there was a loud crack from inside the lab.

The crack was followed by several crunches as the cocoon broke apart to reveal the body underneath. The two scientists rushed into the room and glanced over the specimen as fiery red lines coruscated across his body healing minor cuts that had formed. However there was no reaction from the body as the lines receded.

"Is he alive," Killian shone a light in the pupil of the subject, "no reaction to light," he groaned and rubbed his hair.

"No temperature reaction," Hansen called as she touched the hot scalpel to his flesh, "Subject appears to be deceased," she said in annoyance.

"FUCK!" Killain kicked the surgery table hard.

"Killian, what do we do?" Hansen asked as she pulled him towards the viewing room, "Our patrons are getting restless."

"Fuck them," he replied viscously, "we're so close," he glanced back into the room and went pale, "where's the body?"

There was a crash as the door at the opposite end of the room was thrown off of its hinges, a shadow disappeared through in a split second.

"Security, we have an escaped experiment!" Hansen yelled into her radio, "be cautious subject is extremely dangerous!"

Edward pounded down the corridor at high speeds, he could hear shouts behind him as he threw himself round a corner in the hopes of finding a way down. A group of guards suddenly came round the far end of the corridor, Edward skidded to a halt as they levelled weapons with his chest. He grimaced and shut his eyes as several loud bangs sounded. There was a gasp as several light tinkling noises sounded throughout the corridor.

He looked down to see the spent bullets lying on the ground, he ran hands over his chest searching for bullet holes yet found none. Oddly, he smiled and started to sprint towards them, they yelled and threw themselves aside as he thundered past like a herd of rhino's.

He read a sign as he hurtled down the next corridor pointing out security. He turned the final corner and before he could react was hurtling through the air. He landed with a crash on the ground floor of the large building, no-one was about at the time and he could hear the shouting of several guards from the floors above as he dove through a door marked "security only."

He found himself in a large locker room, passing through it quickly he noticed the room marked armoury. Some primal instinct pushed him through the door in hopes of finding a way to defend himself.

Edward only now realised that he was completely naked, he glanced around for some form of clothing and came upon several crates full of uniforms. Picking one in his size he pulled it on hurriedly as the sound of people drew closer. He quickly tied up a pair of standard issue military boots and strapped on some light body armour.

He glanced hurriedly around the room as someone entered the locker room. Noticing a pair of pistols sitting in their holsters along with several boxes of ammo clips he snatched them and strapped them to his belt just as the three guards entered the room. Edward threw himself down and pressed his back to a row of shelving.

As Edward lay still he listened, smelt, and felt the guards as they paced around the room. The closest seemed to have a heavy reliance on his left foot whilst the next along was light on his feet judging by how little vibration he was making. The final man seemed to have a hand on his dagger's handle judging by the way his walk felt, almost stiff like he was waiting for me to... to jump out.

Edward flexed his muscles as he leapt out of cover and swept out the left leg of the first guard, once he was sprawled Edward brought his fist into an uppercut and knocked the second guy into the air, he flew through a rack of guns before colliding hard with the wall. He leant back as the final guy thrust his large dagger at his chest, Edward caught his wrist and roughly twisted, breaking it, he dropped the dagger with a scream.

Edward caught it in mid-air and thrust it deep into his armpit, he gulped in air and collapsed, dead. The first guard tried to fire off a volley of gunfire but a hard kick sent him hurtling into the back wall violently.

Edward glanced around frantically as several more guards entered the security room. Suddenly his brain seemed to finally come online and he thought of what to do. Turning towards the wall leading out of the building he aimed a kick at the wall, as he raised his leg he threw all his weight behind him. There was a crash as several kilograms of wall crashed into the cars parked outside,

Edward leapt forward onto the bonnet of the first car, using it as a boost he leapt with all his might and flew away into the night. He landed several hundred metres later with a crash as he broke asphalt under his feet.

The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance as Edward broke into a run down the road, it turned quickly onto a main road, Edward turned in the opposite direction to the sirens at the first intersection. He weaved in and out of cars as he picked up speed.

Eventually the road began to blur as he ran on pure instinct, every car that was in his way was just another obstacle for his senses to overcome and they did, effortlessly. He ran until he couldn't hear the sirens any more. When he stopped he realised he wasn't even tired, not even breathing that hard.

"Where am I?" he glanced back along the road and near immediately understood where he was.

**(09:11, 22/07/11, New York, Grand Central Station, USA)**

Edward ducked behind the news paper stand as the several armed guard entered the main room of the train hub. His guns were still on his waist with at least three back-up magazines if he needed them.

In the quick glance that he managed Edward saw who was after him.

There were twelve of them, a large badge that read A.I.M. Was emblazoned across their right arms and each were armed with standard issue military M4 assault rifles with Beretta M9 side arms strapped to their left hips.

They had somehow tracked Edward here and he was sure that they would be able to get his location to the foot if they wanted. He undid the catch on his pistols' holsters as he sensed them drawing closer. His main concern was that there would be casualties if he tried to fight them head on thus, as he did in the armoury, he thought out each move as the twelve mercenaries drew close.

He leapt over the top of the kiosk and landed with a crash behind the first merc, he threw a punch into the back of his head that sent him flying into the stand, crashing through it and out the other side.

Edward pivoted and caught the next two with his heel before pulling out his pistols and pumping several rounds into the torso's of six guards before re-holstering and grabbing the next by the scruff of his neck and hurling him into the one of his friends. The final guard tried to fire off a burst of rounds into him but the super hero bent the barrel of the gun before pulling him forward roughly and clotheslining him into the floor.

Edward spun on his heel and broke into a run as he heard several SUVs pulling up outside. He threw himself high into the air and crashed through the great window at the front of the station. He crashed into the road and immediately threw himself out of the way of the busy traffic.

He broke into a run down the road towards Central park. He dove over a taxi before sliding under a 16 wheeler as it crossed the intersection. Edward broke into a run as the sound of a chopper came over head. He belted up the road as the SUVs he heard earlier joined the pursuit.

It was hard to get up to any real speed on the road due to the amount of traffic but still he managed to leave the cars behind but not the chopper. He vaulted the low wall to the park and blew past the trees at blinding speeds.

He stopped when he hit the lake and turned.

"This is it you fucks," he growled as the chopper caught up and turned to allow the sniper inside a good view of its target.

"COME ON!" he yelled as the sniper lined up a shot. Edward lost patience and leapt forward and collided with the Helicopter, the impact tore the tail free sending man and machine into a death spin.

Edward landed on the other side as the helicopter crashed into a large elm near the water, the explosion tearing the tree and helicopter to shreds. Edward turned and drew his pistols as the throaty roar of the car engines neared.

Just as he was about to unload fire on the first car that had arrived, one of the guns was wrenched out of his hands by something. He spun and fired in the direction that the gun had been taken, the rounds didn't connect with anything.

He heard a soft swishing sound and in an impossibly fast time had rolled out of the way and fired at the target. The red and blue thing collided with him and sent him hurtling backwards through the cabin of the first SUV. Edward recovered and searched for the target.

"What's up with you bro!?" a playful voice called from the air, Edward spun and fired a round as he anticipated where the voice would be, "close, but no cigar!" the voice was irritating as the second gun was pulled from his hands.

"What are you!" Edward yelled as he turned on the closest SUV as it mounted the grass, he threw it aside with all his might, sending it spiralling into the water. He flipped the subsequent three SUVs over and disabled those who were inside quickly. A shape suddenly landed on top of one of the closest SUVs Edward turned and readied to attack but was stopped in his tracks by the man he was confronted with.

"Spider-man?" Edward wondered aloud, the costumed super hero leapt down and approached warily.

"Yeah, and you are?" he held out a hand tentatively.

"Edward," he took the hand, "can I have my guns back," he said, lost for words.

"They're over there somewhere," he gestured in a circle, "why are those guys after you?" Edward looked at the sinking SUV, the occupants were swimming towards the nearest pontoon.

"I... I think I may be an escaped science experiment," he chuckled before shooting a goon's gun to the side of the truck with a blast of web.

"Story of my life," he looked up in the direction of the Empire State Building, "I think you'll fit in here," Edward looked in the same direction as the shield helicarrier came into view on the horizon.

**(21:59, 05/09/14, Edinburgh, Scotland)**

"Ultron!" Extremis yelled as he slashed his sword through the neck of one of the numerous drones that poured towards him.

"Extremis," the adamantium machine chuckled as the anti-matter bomb hit 60 seconds.

"Turn it off!" he spun under the claw of another drone and drove the sword up into the power core.

"Why would I do that?" he crushed the head of one of the drones Edward threw away, "these fragile humans claim an understanding of evolution, yet they claim that their destruction by me is unjust!?" he growled as I fought past the last wave, "they don't deserve life!" he hissed angrily as Edward threw the final drone across the room in the castle.

"Because either you do or I put you down then turn it off," he yelled as he drove forward.

"You think one adamantium sword is enough to kill me?" he drove a fist towards Extremis as he leapt forward.

"No," his lungs started to fill with plasma as he held the sword out in front of him, "but I know the secret on how to cut adamantium," Edward's voice became deep and fiery as his lungs started to overflow.

Edward let the plasma spill out of him and onto his sword. The pure heat of the fire made the metal white hot as Extremis charged towards the metal construct. Ultron threw out another fist and at the last second swung it down but Extremis was ready and swung the blade up, severing the arm in a shower of sparks and melted adamantium.

"You'll pay for that Scarrow!" Ultron threw a hand out and grabbed at Extremis' neck, "i'll rend your bones to dust," Edward threw himself round the armless robot and swung the blade at his neck, it severed it violently as fluid, lubricants, and his head fell to the floor below.

"Eat shit," Edward kicked the corpse across the room, "piece of junk," he turned and crouched by the bomb, barely ten seconds remained.

Edward stilled his mind and focused as hard as possible, the time seemed to slow as he started to fiddle with the buttons and wires that hung from the bomb, he brought out a short blade and cut several arming wires quickly. It didn't stop the timer as it reached three seconds.

Finally it hit Extremis how to shut the bomb down but it was a shitting massive gamble. He stood and grabbed his sword before raising it above his head. As it hit one second he threw it down and cut the machine in half, the blade cut through the structure and destroyed the anti-matter gun, with its destruction the rest of the bomb went silent.

"Iron Man it's done it's..." a large flash of light shone out from the other end of the room, "done," Edward finished as the woman walked through the light.

"Edward, come in?" there was static over the radio as he sheathed the adamantium sword on his back. The small dagger he'd been using to cut wires was replaced on the belt around his waist along with the two dozen others.

"Come with me," she said quietly, her robe billowed around her as Edward walked forward.

The two walked towards the light and the adventures that awaited.

"I'm guessing that constitutes an echo in history?" she nodded with a smile.

"Ultron always died here, but you saved several billion people that other wise would have died," Edward smiled in the knowledge that he had saved so many.

"So where now?" He glanced forwards into the light, hoping to pry open where they were going.

"How much do you know about video games?" she asked playfully.

"Probably too much," she chuckled lightly, "why, it isn't God of War... is it?"her silence did nothing for Edward's confidence.

"You'll need to step up more than ever for this, it will be your greatest challenge," Edward threw her a gaze of wary trepidation as the light encompassed them.

**(22:00, 21/02/80, Citadel, Zakera Ward, Serpent Nebula)**

"This is going to be tricky."

**And that's that! I'll try to get one of these up per week on the Monday's if I can, any ideas? Any comments? Put them below and I hope to see you next time!**

**As Always,**

**-Hab67t**


	2. Fresh beginnings

**Operation Extremis**

**It's technically monday so here you guys go, enjoy!**

_Edward Scarrow was not what you'd call the average 18 year old. The long hours spent in front of the xbox would tend to disprove that assertion but the amount of time spent fencing and shooting widely outnumbered those spent on his ass. To add to this he was thrown out of three separate schools for as many reasons. He finally found something he was good at but then came the day in the quarry._

_From there Edward was hurled through time and space by an unknown entity that he referred to as "the lady," to the Marvel universe where he was forcefully implanted with the Extremis techno-organic virus that made him into a superhuman killing machine. _

_With this power augmenting his skills with gun and hand to hand weapons to glistening heights he joined the avengers and eventually fought his way to a confrontation with the machine Ultron three years later in his home town of Edinburgh, Scotland. There he disabled the anti-matter bomb that Ultron planned to unleash on mankind and ultimately killed the rampant A.I.. _

_Then the lady appeared to him again, this time she pulled him into the Mass Effect universe to help Shepard defeat the Reapers and restore the galaxy to peace, looking back, his little stint with Ultron and the anti-matter bomb seemed like a walk in the park compared to what he was faced with._

**(22:00, 21/02/80, Citadel, Zakera Ward, Serpent Nebula)**

"This is going to be tricky," Edward muttered under his breath as he gazed out over the sweeping city scape that was captured in the backdrop of the bright purple nebula that coruscated and swirled in the vast void of space.

The air was animated as the sound of sky cars and ships whizzed overhead while the blur of voices from the streets below created an almost melodious atmosphere. From a quick glance, Edward could see the streets were lined with shops and large neon signs in varying languages.

It occurred to him that most of the people he'd run into wouldn't exactly be speaking English. The super soldier remembered that omni-tools came with translation software so acquiring one seemed like a logical first step. Edward made his way towards the nearest alley so as to drop down but caught himself as he passed the reflective side of an air conditioning unit.

His armour was pitch black all over, the hard titanium-chrome alloy plates of metal overlapped on his forearms to form formidable hand to hand protection. This armour extended to cover his knuckles as super-reinforced knuckle dusters. With this he could punch through a foot of steel in one strike. His chest and legs were covered in a similar alloy to allow protection.

His boots on the other hand were a feat of engineering genius. Since his early foot protection had a way of easily breaking due to the extreme pressures he placed on it during his running; Iron Man had designed him a set of boots that contained extremely powerful shock absorbers to mitigate the damage he did as he ran.

His helmet was a simple affair that served its purpose of covering his head and preserving his identity. The midnight blue visor that wrapped around the peripheral vision of its wearer came equipped with thermal vision for use in dark spaces and a 12x zoom function for long range combat. The mouth piece of the helmet was open usually but could be sealed with electro magnets in the edges of both sides.

Edward checked his weapons: his adamantium longsword sat well in its sheath across his left shoulder blade, the cross-guard having retracted into the handle when he replaced it. He formed the plan when considering the chance of Wolverine becoming a threat rather than a help. He'd gone on a three month hunt for the materials and in the end it seemed he wouldn't need it for its intended purpose.

His belt of throwing daggers was fully stocked around his waist, the edges of each were wickedly sharp and serrated. The three inch blades were hard to locate when thrown so had LED's fitted in the handle.

There was a subtle crash and groan in the alley at the bottom of the twelve story building that the heightened senses of the Extremis soldier caught easily. He unsheathed his sword and glanced over the edge into the darkened side street, his eyes could make out the shape of three humanoids and one that was obviously a Krogan gathered around a slumped form lying against the wall.

"Brenoviaka Torilak Nerik," one of the four, the gruff voice told Edward that it was a Batarian.

"I'la nellia te via," the one on the floor replied, the female voice was flanged with pain as she replied.

"Estas Muerte, puta madre," the Spanish caught Edward's ear, the tone was enough for Edward to decide on his course of action.

Three of the four thugs watched as the last member of their group raised his pistol to the Asari's head. The woman under the barrel of the gun trembled weakly as she vehemently cursed her situation while racking sobs crashed through her. The Batarian staring greedily down at her as he pressed off the safety was almost giggling as she met its gaze.

"Go to hell," she muttered as its finger slid over the trigger.

She closed her eyes awaiting the inevitable blackness that seemed to be breathing down her back. Her trembling ceased as she came to terms with what was happening and her mind cleared of fear for her final moments.

**CRUNCH**

Her eyes shot open as something large and heavy landed directly in front of her blocking the Batarian from firing. There was a distinct swishing sound in the air before the Batarian's neck fountained blood down its front as the body collapsed.

Her unexpected saviour leapt high into the air before landing between the two humans. In one swift movement the unknown man had moved on and left its targets on the ground with red blood pooling from their backs.

The final assailant, the Krogan, swung its shotgun and fired a burst of shot in the direction of his fallen comrades, peppering their bodies and completely missing his attacker. The Krogan fell to one knee as blood rocketed out a long incision that sprang up from the other leg.

The beast's eyes flared with blood as the rage that his species were famous for blared through him like a tsunami. He tried to rise on the damaged leg, roaring angrily at the pain. Then her saviour appeared into view and drove his sword upwards into the two hearts of the monstrous Krogan. It gripped him by the neck and tried to crush with its last strength.

Letting one hand off of the handle of the sword the man in black pushed hard on the Krogan sending it flying back into a dumpster at the other end of the alley. She looked back to the finally still form of the man, the two feet of metal in his hand dripped a steady stream of red and orange blood to the floor below.

"Who are you?" she asked cautiously.

"Sorry, I can't understand you?" the man said, the voice was distinctly male.

"Forget your translator?" she said as the panic and apprehension left her.

"Wait a sec," he said before starting to search through the bodies.

"What are you doing?" she said aghast as he flipped the body of the Batarian over and patted down its arms.

"Omni-tools don't translate," she said as he ripped the small bracelet from the body. An idea came to her as he placed it on his wrist and started to fiddle with the controls.

The Asari slipped off the necklace that she used to translate and placed it over the head of the man as he seemed to finish changing the settings on his new omni-tool, "Can you understand me now?" the human perked up and looked at her.

"Yes, how did you do that?" she struggled with English but knew enough to be practical.

"the necklace translates what you hear," the man glanced down at his omni-tool and sighed.

"Well I feel like an idiot," the humour wasn't lost on her yet the scene was fairly incongruous to the notion.

"I think you can create a small translator with your omni-tool," she pressed several of the hard-light buttons to get the manufacturing unit working. Once she hit the right buttons the orange light glowed a brilliant yellow and in the palm of the man's hand a small rectangular block, about the size of a chess piece, was made.

The Asari took back her necklace as the human slipped the piece into a pocket on his armour. It only now occurred to her that they were crouched over the body of a Batarian and in the distance they could hear the approaching whine of C-sec sirens.

The man turned to go as he too caught the sound. Just before he could vanish she caught his arm, "what do I call you?" she asked the large human as he stood hurriedly. He glanced down the alley behind her as the sirens drew closer.

"Call me Extremis," he replied before vanishing in an instant.

The Asari glanced up as a shadow vanished over the roof twelve stories above her head just as the first of the C-sec officers arrived. They looked over the bodies warily assessing the damage to each before ushering her away to the car, a shock blanket quickly being wrapped around her.

"Now miss can you explain what happened back there?" the Turian officer asked as four body bags were taken into the scene.

"Extremis," she said clearly, the officer looked confused as the Asari smiled to herself, "that's what he called himself."

**(05:19, 22/02/80, Citadel, Presidium, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward dropped to the hard, metal, floor of the economics sector of the Presidium. The day cycle was only a couple dozen minutes away and if he was correct then the Volus should already be in his office.

Politely knocking, the door slid open quietly to the small office; the Shadow Broker's agent was sat at his low desk leafing through several files on his station. He looked up and closed down the console as the hero approached slowly.

"How may I help you Earth-clan," his statement was punctuated by breaths through his exo-suit.

"I heard you were the man to talk to about Shadow Broker work?" his posture stiffened at the mention of his secret employer.

"The answer depends on what you plan to do with that information," his tone gave the hero the feeling that he could have a merc squad or two over here in under a minute.

"I'm looking for work, simple as that," he drew to his full height, all four feet, and waddled round to the front of his desk, opening his omni-tool and flicking to a specific page as he stopped.

"There is a hit out on a Turian, Craxus Pompeian, stays in the 400 blocks of Teysari Ward," Edward scanned the file into his omni-tool, the action to do so being familiar from the games, "He's sought security from a private firm, all the information's just bring back his Omni-tool and i'll route the payment to you," Edward caught sight of the bounty and nearly coughed in surprise.

"What did this bastard do?" he poked at the six figure sum, "300,000 credits is a lot for one hit," Von seemed to sigh tiredly.

"He rigged several shipments of volatile parts to detonate after he handed them over to the Turian military," he seemed to be anxious to get back to work, "officially there's a galaxy wide search for him but in reality as soon as they found him thee bounty was posted to the Shadow Broker Earth-clan," he walked back to his seat, "now if there isn't anything else you should be going," Scarrow turned to leave but as he neared the door he sensed a group of three people standing behind it.

Sliding quickly into the still darkened corner, the door slid open quietly to admit the three mercs, they were similarly armoured but the deep green colour pallet was alien to Edward's knowledge of the game.

"We're here about the bounty," the lead merc, a Batarian wielding an avenger model assault rifle and a mantis pattern sniper-rifle, barked gruffly at the Volus just as he sat down.

"It's been taken," the Volus took in a deep breath as the two lackeys looked between each other with a knowing look.

The Batarian cracked his neck and glowered down at the banker, "I'll let you rephrase that answer just this once," he slowly clenched his fists as the rather ballsy Volus stared up at him unflinchingly.

"Like I said, the contracts been taken," Edward slowly walked out behind the oblivious trio of goons.

"By who?" The Batarian leant down and stared menacingly on the small man.

"By him," he gestured lazily at Extremis, as the two closest mercs turned Edward lashed out with two of his throwing daggers, they buried deep into their necks close to their spines. The two lackeys dropped to the floor with matching groans.

As the super-soldier reached for his sword the Batarian whipped out his sniper and put it to the head of the banker. Slowly bringing his two hands up so that his palms were visible he locked eyes with the merc.

"One move and I pop his suit like a bubble," Edward switched to his back-up plan as the Batarian flexed his trigger finger warningly. He could feel the energy building up inside of him as the Batarian brought his avenger to bare on Extremis' head.

As his finger tensed on the avenger's trigger Edward let out a blast of electricity from his palms that arced out and smacked the Batarian hard in the chest. The aforementioned Batarian flew back violently and crashed against the back wall, he hit the ground and lay still.

"Impressive, go now, I have alerted C-sec Earth-clan," The hero pulled the two daggers from the fallen mercs and left quickly, breaking into a head long sprint for the Ward access as the sound of Sirens neared once again.

**(5:43, 22/02/80, Citadel, Teysari 400 blocks, Serpent Nebula)**

It was easier for Edward to find the target than he initially thought, the heavily armed guards patrolling the area just around the building's entrance did give the game away fairly quickly. The building itself was a squat four story affair with five guards posted on each floor with an extra four in the same room as the target. The roof access was regularly used by a guard every ten minutes.

The roofs adjacent to the building were all lower down thus preventing a quick drop down to the roof access. Edward was normally inclined to reduce unneeded casualties to a minimum and would engage only when no other option was at all possible.

He went around until he was on the roof next to his target, the guards tended to rotate building edges every five minutes so that was when he would move. Thanks to his heightened senses he could feel the thump of feet as they started to stroll to their next position through the metal, the vibrations registering in his very sensitive nerves.

Extremis stepped back and leapt with all his might over the head of the guard as he passed, Edward rocketed a further twenty feet into the air as he aimed to land on top of the roof access. He landed lightly, the soft thump of his landing barely registering in the guards ears but sounding like a drum beat to Edward.

He crouched low over the edge as he silently waited for the patrol to come through all the while he kept a careful eye on the four guards on his level. As the door opened, the assassin moved back slightly until the Turian guard was several feet away before he stealthily dropped to the floor and slid through the door.

The inside was dark and the thermal vision switched on, painting the hall in blues and the occasional dark reds whenever a pipe ran past the corridor. Drawing his sword silently from its sheath, Edward knew that in close quarters like this that every guard he met would have to die lest they raise an alarm, knocking them out would prove not much more difficult yet harder none the less.

"Why are we protecting this dick bag?" The soldier threw himself up and latched onto a strut that ran across the top of the corridor. Holding himself up with one hand and his longsword in the other he waited as the two Asari mercenaries passed underneath, as they wandered out of earshot he lowered himself to the ground.

Extremis skipped into the next corridor and straight into the shadows as he felt the vibrations of approaching feet. With his sword held in an icepick grip he waited for a single guard, a brutishly large Krogan, to lumber past with a large claymore in his arms. The target was on this same level and was held in a secure central room. The size of the room made it impractical to engage in only close combat.

As Edward neared he drew three of his throwing daggers in his free hand. The guards were relaxed judging by the lazily heavy steps he felt through the floor. Pressing the door release, Extremis leapt into the shadows to the side of the door, a guard warily stepped out and glanced around.

As he turned back, the super-soldier struck. Time seemed to slow as he thrust his sword through the gap in between the shoulder blades of the oblivious Salarian, yellow blood erupting out the other side. In the same movement he surged forward and hurled the three daggers into the chests of the remaining guards. The impact had driven the daggers up to the pommel and killed the three recipients.

Retrieving the daggers, Extremis turned to the bed pressed against the far wall, the minimal sound of the brief melee hadn't disturbed the sleeping Craxus. Not wasting time, Edward brought his adamantium blade down through the chest of the sleeping criminal, blood erupted from his mouth as he gasped horsely before falling still.

Unclasping the omni-tool from the dead body and placing it in a free pocket, a moment of inspiration hit Edward. With a smile he cleaned his blade and stood on the bed, he had a little time and felt like leaving a calling card.

**(9:24, 22/02/80, Citadel, Teysari 400 blocks, Serpent Nebula)**

Several forensic scientists milled around the entrance to the crime scene as Newly promoted detective Garrus Vakarian marched through the e-tape and into the foyer of the building. As he reached the stairs he was intercepted by one of the first officers to the scene.

"What are we looking at," he said as they quickly mounted the stairs to the first floor.

"Well Sir i'm not terribly sure," he held up his three fingered hand, "gang war, assassination, personal vendetta, we won't be sure until the blood work's back," they were soon mounting the steps to the next floor, "whatever it was it was professional."

"How so?" he'd had preliminary data back from the scene but nothing too detailed yet.

"Well there were five casualties yet no shot was fired and only one of the victims was out of place," the officer transferred an image of the scene to the new detective.

"no shots fired? Then pray tell how the victims ended up dead," the young cop turned to him.

"Someone stabbed them," he said simply.

"All of them?" Garrus was sceptical of the answer considering how improbable it was, "without a single shot even from the victims?" his subordinate nodded steadily as they mounted the stairs to the final floor.

"Whoever did this came into the room and killed everyone before anyone could react, that's under a second to clear the room," they turned the corner and found the crime scene in question. The outline of each body that was found was painted on the ground in tape.

Garrus followed his instinct and appraised the dried pool of blood at the entrance. The detective moved on to the bed; a large, blue, stain soaked through most of the white bed sheet but what drew his eye was the great puncture mark in the centre of the bed, on a hunch Garrus got to on the floor and found the hole protruding out of the other end.

"Our perpetrator was using a sword," he said to the cop, "three feet in length at least and about two inches wide at the base," only then did Garrus look up at the wall immediately behind the bed.

Across the majority of the wall was scratched EXTREMIS in large, crude, lettering. Pushing up off of his knees Garrus could feel his first assignment become much harder than he originally thought.

**(6:37, 22/02/80, Citadel, Presidium, Serpent Nebula)**

"It's done," Barla Von looked up from his terminal at the black outline of the newest assassin on the Citadel.

"Earth-clan," his tone was heavily sardonic, "if you think i'm easily fooled then you are sorely mistaken, it has only been an hour since I gave you the contract, there is no way -" he was cut off by the clunk of an omni-tool bracelet hitting his desk.

"You wanted proof," the human replied, crossing his arms as he spoke, "that should be enough," Barla Von picked up the bracelet and plugged it into his console.

"How?" the banker probably wore a comical look as he stared up from the proof at the assassin, "Earth-clan how did you do this?" the merc made a content noise as he took a seat in front of the desk.

"Skill, a large surplus of skill," there was a tense silence before the Banker fiddled with his omni-tool.

"There, your payment," Extremis looked down from the Volus to his new Omni-tool, he smiled at the sum before nodding to the banker and rising.

"I'll be in touch," he shot over his shoulder just before the door slid shut behind him.

**(10:13, 22/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward, now replete in casual clothes, a plain red shirt and a pair of light blue jeans rounded off with a pair of black combat boots, walked up to the apartment block with his armour and weapons, along with a whole change of clothes, in a couple rucksacks. Now he had money it made sense to find somewhere to set up operations.

With a sigh the super hero buzzed the button for the apartment with a free room. He waited in a slightly awkward silence for the other end to respond, it got to a point where he considered going before the receiver crackled into life.

"Hello, can I help you," the feminine voice on the other end started.

"Yeah, hi, I'm here about the spare room?" the line went dead and for a moment Edward was uncertain of what that meant, then the door unlocked, he scooped up his bags and quickly passed through the entrance, the small hallway immediately inside ended in a set of elevators.

The super-soldier rode the elevator up the four floors, stepping off and smartly walking up to the steel and glass door. He was about to knock when the door opened, on the other side he met the gaze of the flat's owner.

The Asari was just as he remembered from the night before, her eyes were a deep blue and seemed to suck him in the more he looked. Her slight purple tint was covered in the small white markings that were seen on most Asari yet they were so small that they could probably be considered freckles by human comparison.

She smiled politely as she admitted the super-soldier into her home, he glanced around at the mostly tidy two bedroomed flat. Edward tentatively placed his rucksacks down and turned to the owner.

"So, you need a room mate," He said trying to break the ice.

"Yes, would you like to see the room?" she seemed to snap out of a daze at his words.

"Sure," she walked off towards the far end of the room.

"Well here we are," the room wasn't the most spacious i'd ever been in but it was more than enough for me. "its got access to the balcony," the Asari moved over and pulled the window open to the balcony that ran the length of the apartment, looking out Edward noticed the rather large park filled with different types of flowers, plants, and trees littering the area.

"It's a nice view," he noted to which he smiled.

"Where are my manners," the Asari noted with shock, "I'm Amarisia," she extended a hand.

"Edward," he took the hand and shook it.

"The room's three hundred credits a week, that includes all utilities," Edward nodded with a radiant smile.

"I think i'll take it," she matched his smile.

**Thanks for reading that guys! Drop a review or idea down below and i'll see you guys on Monday.**

**As Always,**

**\- Hab67t**


	3. Filmstar Yuppies

**Operation Extremis**

**I know I said this'd be up on Monday but I just had an amazing exam with a load of beautiful questions and I'm in the best of moods at the moment. So for your enjoyment here is the next chapter early!**

**Enjoy!**

**(11:12, 24/02/80, Citadel, Palaven Paradise Mall, Serpent Nebula)**

The neon lights blinked and swirled in a near blinding canvas along the mile long shopping strip. Among the thousands of shoppers two men met in the court of a dextro fish kitchen; each of the Turians were clothed in their dress blues, the dark material contrasting the bright lights that surrounded the two. One of the two, his carapace taking on a more green tinge, placed a dark red, metal, briefcase under the small table all the while maintaining eye contact with his compatriot.

"That's all of it," he spoke with a tone of regret, "enough VXV to kill several battalions."

"We won't need that much," the Blue Suns agent replied, his dark blue carapace and red eyes seemed to burn into the traitor, "but having some left over couldn't hurt," his mandibles flared at the sickening humour.

"I'll need my money," the traitor's carapace felt itchy as the agent seemed to stare hungrily at him, "the hierarchy will be after me soon enough," the agent chuckled at the idea, confused and suspicious, the traitor reached for the small gun on his belt.

"The military won't be a problem for long," the traitor narrowed his eyes as he curled his fingers round the handle of the gun. The air was then cut by several choked gunshots, no one seemed to notice as the traitor slowly fell forward onto the table, landing with a light crunch, the cutlery jingling along with his fall.

The agent stood, the handle of the silenced pistol quickly exchanging for the handle of the briefcase at his feet. In the surrounding crowd his three minders moved in the same direction from the various positions they had assumed to remain incognito. The four mercs, the Turian, two Batarians, and an Asari, made their way into the alley three shops down within moments of the first scream.

The alley felt far different to the mall, the only illumination coming from a small bulb above a side door, the three mercs following the Turian drew out compact SMG's as they drew away from the main thoroughfare.

As the four passed through the small cone of light the Asari, who happened to be at the back felt a whisper of air pass her head. She turned while walking, the alley behind her was empty yet all the same she couldn't shake the feeling that something was there. The Turian suddenly stopped, a gentle whine left his throat.

His three protectors looked to him questioningly, he didn't move or make any motion. The Asari heard the whisper again, before she could turn the light burst in a flurry of sparks. The sudden blast of sparks made the mercs jump, one of the Batarians knocking into the Turian.

He toppled forward and as the body hit the ground the head bounced away, the Batarian in question spat out a curse and looked down the iron sights of his gun, the blackness unnerved them as a tense silence descended on the group.

Out of the darkness two little daggers hurtled at blinding speeds, the first Batarian and the Asari hit the deck hard, the blades puncturing the civilian clothing they wore with ease. The final Batarian made a move for the briefcase, blue blood speckling the surface.

As he leant forward there was a sudden rush of air, punctuated by a light thump as something landed behind him. The Batarian kept still as a sharp point pressed into his back, his breath hitched in his throat. He knew he was done for, anything that could have gone wrong had and he embraced that when he signed up for the message.

Rolling forward and pivoting the Batarian brought his SMG to bear on the dark shape. The shape seemed to disappear into the shadow even when the solo merc unleashed a salvo of fire down the alleyway, a stray bullet catching a shopper at the far end.

There was a quiet swish from behind the merc and in the same moment he dropped his gun to the ground, he could feel wetness running down his stomach and legs as his legs buckled and he fell of the end of the sword, the silent assailant picking up his thrown daggers and the briefcase.

"Thank you lads," Extremis said as he paced away from the scene, blue blood painting the sole of his boot as he leapt upwards on to the top of the building.

**(13:01, 24/02/80, Citadel, Palaven Paradise Mall, Serpent Nebula)**

"Another one?" Garrus asked, "This is the second in three days," he said, vexation painting his voice.

"Possible serial killer?" One of the forensics crew suggested. The idea had been the original theory till the blood work had come back from the first case.

"No, the first victim was on the run from the Turian Government, these guys are all armed, probably mercenaries," Garrus wasn't too sure what sort of case he was on, "No, these are more like hits than anything else," it made more sense than just mindless violence.

"Sir, we're ready for you," the rest of the forensic scientists came away from the bodies. The area was now brightly lit with spot lights, the four bodies were easily visible in the light.

Garrus paced round the carnage of the scene, what was worst about it wasn't the bodies, or the blood everywhere. It was the efficiency. Only one of the mercs had managed to fire off any kind of response to the attack and he had still died where he stood. The same types of wounds from last time were present, the larger sword wounds and the smaller dagger strikes.

"Again, no gun shot wounds," the detective noted under his breath. Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. The blue glint of blood just outside of the light seemed strange to him, he brought his omni-tool and shone the orange light over the area, "gotcha," he muttered as he walked over.

The footsteps went a little way down the alley before disappearing completely, the odd thing was that they weren't even that faint when they ended. Garrus almost chuckled at the explanation that formed in his mind. The alley wasn't wide enough for a sky car and even if Extremis had managed to get one in then the foot prints should have been further across, not in the middle of the walkway.

The detective looked up at the high buildings, nothing could have jumped that high.

Nothing natural.

**(13:02, 24/02/80, Citadel, Presidium, Serpent Nebula)**

"Here's the package," Edward flopped the red briefcase down in front of the Volus as the previous clients, an old Turian, exited the office.

"This is the neurotoxin in question?" The banker knitted his fingers as the super soldier undid the clasp and opened it for him to see, "The Blue Suns paid a lot for this."

"As long as its out of their hands and back in the Turians' hands, then I'm content," The super-soldier cracked his knuckles one after the other as he spoke, "payment doesn't hurt either," taking his queue the Volus transferred the large sum of credits to the Mercenary.

"Earth-clan, why did you turn down those earlier jobs?" The Volus leant in curiously, "you could easily make millions with your efficiency," Edward had seen this coming and had prepared.

"Lets just say I found them... morally lacking. I don't plan on accepting jobs jobs that don't benefit the public," The informant sighed, then again it could just have been him breathing.

"Alas you would make more with no morals," he uncrossed his fingers and opened a file on his console, "i'll call you when we have a "scrupulous" job," he began typing on the console as the super-soldier stood, the sound of a siren caused both to tense slightly, it passed quickly but the feeling was there all the same.

**(16:33, 24/02/80, Citadel Bahjret Ward, Serpent Nebula)**

"So, you cooking tonight or am I?" Edward slung open the fridge and glanced inside, the contents were pretty damned alien.

"Oh, I'm heading out to see some friends," Amarisia called from the slightly faded brown couch.

"Brilliant, i'm a shit cook anyway," this earned him a chuckle, "just order some food in then."

"You know you could come with me," she pushed off the couch and circled round to the walk in kitchen, "might be fun," Edward nodded in agreement.

"Sure, if that's not a problem," she shook her head with a slight smile.

"New guy in a new place and he doesn't know anyone, it feels like my duty to introduce you to them," The Super-soldier poured a drink of something purple, Amarisia loved the stuff and Edward was starting to understand why. It tasted like a cross between the best bits of a raspberry and a pineapple.

"Well I wouldn't go that far," Edward could go months without any form of sustenance and only ever really consumed things to seem normal. The extra energy boost also helped him get through the mornings.

"Well all I've seen you do is eat, sleep, and work, and I don't even know what you do," It was a fair point.

"I'm a freelancer," she cocked an eyebrow, or whatever the Asari equivalent is, "you know, bodyguard stuff."

"Really," she walked through to her bedroom, Edward turned and looked out the window. At the height they were you could see over a lot of the ward and up to the Presidium ring, the lines of sky cars criss-crossing seemed to make the image shimmer, "think fast."

Extremis spun as he felt the barrel of a gun pressed against his head, his instincts guiding his hand as he pulled the predator pistol from Amarisia's hand. Edward pulled the slider off and ejected the thermal clip, dropping the now useless gun and the parts to the floor.

"Do you usually point guns at your room mates?" Edward nearly yelled, the Asari opposite smirked and stepped away slowly.

"Only the ones I know can handle it," she moved back a small smirk painted her purplish lips.

"What makes you think I can handle it," Edward drained his glass and dropped it into the sink, "I could have been bluffing my ass off." Edward threw her a wry smile before pacing off and slouching down on the couch.

"I've always been good at reading people, you seem honest and hard working and so far that's been true," Amarisia leant across the back of the couch beside Edward, he glanced up at her and smiled, "I feel that i'm right about you."

Edward didn't like lying to her, it felt wrong considering that he'd recently saved her from a gang of murderous thugs. She hadn't spoken about it to him and if he asked he felt she might get suspicious about how he knew. Playing the average Joe was something he'd not done in three years, he'd never hidden his identity back in Marvel, he had no one he really cared for who couldn't take care of themselves.

Here, however, was another matter completely. He needed to fit in and playing the hero here was liable to get him labelled as a criminal rather than anything else. If he could keep himself out of the public's attention then he could have an easier time of it till Mass Effect started, being a hot topic made that a little harder.

Edward flicked on the television, most people just got news updates to their omni-tools but Edward had the old time compulsion to watch the news on the big screen. As soon as it came on, the super-soldier wished that he'd left it alone.

The scene was familiar to Edward, the dark steel walls of the alley he'd been in earlier that same day were illuminated with spot lights as the repetitive flashes of cameras popped up several times a second. The bodies were gone but the outlines were still there. The camera panned to the roof and a sickening knot tied itself in Edward's stomach. The Salarian reporter droned on but Edward ignored him in favour of the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen.

"_Extremis" still at large, early reports indicate that he is a human male approximately 6 feet and 4 inches tall._

The camera cut to the roof, focusing on a blue mark of a boot on the pavement.

"Idiot," Edwards nails dug into his palms as he cursed his stupidity, he needed to be more careful.

"There are no confirmed sightings of Extremis as of now but we are hoping to soon have a face to put to the name of this violent killer," that final statement made Edward's blood boil, he calmed himself down when the veins in his hands started to glow deep red, the air around him started to shimmer as he turned up the heat involuntarily.

"What's up," Edward turned to Amarisia over near the kitchen unit, she had an odd look on her face.

"Nothing, I get stirred up easily," The Super-soldier nodded towards the screen.

"What's the topic?" she slouched down beside him, he noticed how close she was to him.

"That new one, Extremis or something," The fire inside of him had dimmed enough so that it wasn't smouldering the air but still he felt insulted.

"He's a nice guy," she said oddly defensively, "he's doing what he thinks is best," the news moved on in the background. Edward looked at her, trying to keep the grateful look out of his eyes.

"You met him," The super-soldier stated, "shouldn't you tell C-sec?" she shook her head before leaning back into the soft leather.

"I did. I was... I was walking home from work the night before I met you and I got jumped by some guys. One of them put a gun to my head and right when I was sure he was going to kill me, Extremis appeared, dropped right in like a guardian angel." she sighed, a lilting sound that wound its way sweetly into Edwards mind.

"He took them down like that," she clicked her fingers as she spoke, "then the oddest thing happened."

"What?"

"He started rummaging through the bodies," Amarisia laughed a little, "didn't have a translator, hell, he didn't even have an omni-tool!" Edward played along with the story like he hadn't been there, it was an oddly surreal experience to have a secret identity.

"That's a... that's something new, first time for everything I guess," she nodded, an almost nostalgic smile played across her lips, "I'd of thought you'd be more upset with getting mugged, not so blithe."

"I'm just being positive, yes I was scared and sure I was going to die, but it turned out much better than it could've been," her optimism was refreshing to Edward, he slid off of the couch and strolled through to his room.

The room itself was a rich blue over the walls with an ice white carpet, the small window looked out onto the roofs of the nearby shops, the balcony had a small alcove that Edward had stuffed his armour, it was out of sight so was perfect. His sword he kept under the double bed that was pushed up against the furthest wall from the door. In his haste, Edward had bought several outfits the same day he'd moved in and thus his drawers were full of new clothes.

The light caught on the edge of the blade as it rested on the floor having rolled out from under the bed, "fuck," the super-soldier muttered as he slid it fully into its sheath and pushed it further under the bed.

He was rarely in the bed even when he was "asleep." The thing about the Extremis Virus was that it perfected the human body in more or less every aspect. This included sleep. The average human sleeps daily but can go without for several days before it needs to sleep. An Extremis could go without for nearly a month before the deprivation began to severely impact the effectiveness of the individual and then could carry on for another week before the person would pass out. This meant that the average period that an Extremis stayed awake for was around a week. Edward had discovered this along with the fact that due to his genetic rewriting he was technically his own species.

Edward sank into the rotating chair next to the window, his omni-tool bleeping as he nestled further into the soft leather padding. Tapping the hard light interface he tensed slightly as the Shadow Broker's sigil came up in the caller I.D.. The odd need to brace himself flitted through his mind as he opened the dossier attached, with a quick glance to see if he was being watched he started reading.

_Sort Code 1115752_

_Content rating: 7 (important)_

_Target name: Severio Tanaka_

_Criminal record: arson 7 counts_

_ murder 43 counts_

_ high treason against Human Alliance 1 count_

_ smuggling 13 counts_

_ drug possession with intent to sell 1 count_

_Contract: 250,000 credits for "head on a silver platter," - secretary General for defence Janice Newton_

_ 500,000 credits for capture, state of physical health on arrival negligible_

_Location: Kithoi Ward, 300 blocks, penthouse of Thessian Arms hotel._

_Defences: ten moderately equipped mercenaries: three Turians_

_ two Krogan_

_ four Asari_

_ one Drell_

_Target has stayed no more than one night in each location, reliable sources predict target will arrive at location approximately same time as the beginning of Citadel Night Cycle. Movements after this period are unpredicted._

_Extraction to Broker safe house 13 (162, 745)_

_Access Code: 1B56R_

"I could drop in early, run to meet Amarisia once I hand the guy in," Edward muttered quietly at the dilemma set in front of him.

Quickly trotting through to the living room Edward noticed Amarisia on the couch, "Hi, just got a job offer, and I was wondering when you were planning on meeting your friends?" he sold it with a smile.

"Well..." she was caught by the question, "i was going to go out at about 7, if you need to work don't worry about meeting me," the night cycle began at 6, if he hit fast enough then he could catch her as she went out the door.

"Great, I should be finished before then," he grinned and spun on his heel.

"What's the job?" she called, Edward thought well on his feet but still was caught unawares.

"Just some rich, film star yuppie wanting an escort to a club, simple job," she smiled warmly and turned back to the telly.

**(18:02, 24/02/80, Citadel, Kithoi Wards 300 blocks, opposite Thessian Arms, Serpent Nebula)**

"There you are you little bastard," Extremis muttered as the target, a sprightly Mediterranean man of 43 years, strode briskly into the front door of the hotel. The ten plain clothes mercenaries marched in behind them with kit bags on their backs.

From here, Edward could see most of the apartment. The main room and master bedroom both looked out onto the main street, both led to a shared veranda. The apartment was easy to defend if someone came through the lift but against someone coming in from the window, especially at the speed Extremis could pull off, there were virtually no defences other than a couple leather Ottomans.

With his magnification Edward noted the weapons and weaknesses of the ten guards. For example, the larger of the two Krogan had a noticeably weaker right leg and the Drell heavily favoured his left. The Asari had donned armour that restricted their movement and field of view and a Turian with a sniper brought the proverbial knife to a gun fight.

The power to the building was brought in through the roof, large transformers could easily be broken if Edward got close. Drawing his sword and standing, Extremis noticed a route across the gap, a small crane jutted out to support a window washer's scaffold on the building next to his, this gave him extra room to leap to the lower building beside the hotel and then on to the hotel itself.

"Let the magic begin," he cracked his knuckles in his free hand before vanishing towards the crane.

Out of the corner of his eye, Edward noticed the Turian sniper coming out onto to veranda, his viper pattern sniper rifle over one shoulder of his dress blues. In the other hand he dragged one of the Ottomans.

Extremis pivoted mid air as he landed on the crane, it swayed lightly as he landed, a groan escaped the metal as he ran forward and sprang across the large void between the him and the other side of the street.

He landed with a loud crunch, the thin metal of the air unit the super-soldier landed on bending under his feet. Dropping into the shadow's he waited for the sniper to come see what the noise was, as the mercenary moved away Edward moved out of the shadows and leapt over his head on to the roof, landing in a silent roll.

Edward saw the transformer close to the back of the building, pushed up against the wall of the building adjacent to it. With a swing of his sword he had cut through the casing and wiring, plunging the whole building into darkness.

Strolling over to the edge he noticed the Turian was frantically searching the street with his scope for anything that was a threat. He didn't notice the low thunk behind him or the light footsteps that got closer. He died with a groan as a sword protruded through his chest, staining the fabric blue.

Tossing the body over Edward felt for his target, his enhanced senses painting a clear picture of the remaining nine bodyguards. Dropping into a crouch he sneaked into the dark room, the sound of the Drell barking orders covered up his steps, his thermal vision clicking on in the dark room.

From the heavy vibrations through the floor, Edward sensed the smaller Krogan by the window with one of the Asari. Sliding behind them he felt the two remaining Turians standing no more than four paces to his rear, one moved another pace towards him uncertainly just as Extremis struck.

The edge of the sword beheaded the Asari and with the momentum was rammed through the skull of the Krogan. Sensing the Turians raising their guns, he spun and sliced both across the chests, they collapsed to the ground as he darted into the master bedroom before the groans attracted more attention.

Gunfire rang out towards the window, shattering it as the remaining five guards spooked at the sudden departure of their compatriots. As they stopped firing the three Asari advanced, their biotics glowing brightly.

"What did this?" one murmured as they reached the carnage at the window.

"Me," Extremis darted out from the shadows and felled the first Asari in the same instant he spoke. He turned insanely quickly and drove the spike of adamantium through the chest of the next Asari. A force caught him in the chest and threw him out of the penthouse and over the balcony ledge. He struck out with the sword and caught the side of the building.

"Biotic bitch," he growled as he threw himself up and caught the edge of the balcony. He stilled his breath as he felt the vibrations of the approaching mercenary. As she got close he shot up and pulled her over the edge, she tumbled towards the ground as Extremis darted into the shadows of the building.

"WHERE ARE YOU!" the target screeched as the Drell bravely kept himself in the way, a pathetic last line defence.

Three daggers buried themselves deeply in the Drell's chest, a gasp escaped his lips as he collapsed and bled out on the floor. The man struggled back, knocking over a seat in haste to escape the invisible danger attacking him.

He threw himself through an open door and slammed it shut behind him, the spacious bathroom he found himself in had a second door to the master bedroom. Tearing through the bedroom and onto the balcony he yelled angrily as he realised he was trapped.

He spun and drew the small predator pistol he had on the shape as it appeared in the shadows of the bedroom. The target eyed the silver flash of metal as the intruder slowly advanced towards him. Fear clouded the target's mind as he squeezed the trigger and pumped several rounds into the attacker.

"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!" he screamed with each squeeze of the trigger, the rounds hit home, no shield seemed to impede the bullets as they collided and hit the armour. Despite this, the unknown assailant didn't seem to flinch.

The gun overheated leaving the target defenceless as Extremis came into the light, the target whimpered and shrank back against the low wall as the sword rose above his head. The target closed his eyes tightly and tried to still his quivering breath as he heard the swish and everything went black.

"Package secured," Edward muttered as he hoisted the unconscious body over his shoulder and leapt back across the gap to the opposite building.

**(18:37, 24/02/80, Citadel, Tayseri Ward, Shadow Broker safe house 13, Serpent Nebula)**

"Who's this then," the deep voice of the Krogan rumbled as Edward tossed the still unconscious form of Severio Tanaka onto the counter that parted them.

"Bounty," Edward pulled up the dossier from before and showed the Krogan, "as you can see he's alive."

"Quite," the Krogan slung the human over his shoulder and moved into the back, the sound of a metal door swung open then shut, the Krogan re-emerging without the target, "he'll be shipped back to the Alliance while you enjoy your credits," he poked at his omni-tool and soon enough Edward was half a million credits richer.

"What's going to happen to him," Extremis leant against the counter and met the eye of the Krogan.

"If I had my way I'd just shoot him, the Alliance on the other hand will put him on this big, grand, trial and then shoot him," Edward chuckled and glanced around.

"Pretty quiet, usually like this?" The Krogan nodded, Edward noticed several large scars running up from his caller to just below his chin.

"I just mind the place, any agent needs to lie low then this is the place," Edward noticed a sign marked armoury leading off in the opposite direction to the cells.

"What sort of gear you got back there," a smile spread across the Krogan's face.

"Nearly anything you could want: grenades, guns, hell I think there's a suitcase bomb somewhere," He seemed to be about to leap into a long speech about all the guns he had but Edward put up a hand.

"Got to run," The Krogan crossed his arms and hunched over the counter, just before he turned to leave a problem popped up in his mind, "you wouldn't happen to know where to get a suit?"

**(18:58, 24/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

Extremis silently landed on the balcony, his armour already in hand as he carefully slid it back into its alcove. He could sense Amarisia sitting on the couch from here and if he made any noise he might be a little fucked.

The armour stored, he slid open the window and crept inside, the suit bag in his hand sliding quietly through the frame and smacking softly off of the carpet. Rolling the sword under his bed, Edward quickly changed, the suit had been cheap and was just the sort of thing a bodyguard would wear.

Leaping out the window and over the balcony he landed with a slight crunch in the street, no one seemed to notice the sudden appearance or the low crunch as he landed. The keeper he nearly landed on brushed off its near brush with death as if it were the wind.

The elevator ride up was predictably slow as he straightened out the suit to make it look like he hadn't just fallen seven stories. Edward wasn't too sure of what to say as he straightened the crimson tie, the light blue shirt underneath was mostly hidden by the slate jacket which matched the trousers along with the shoes.

"Ready to go?" the words coming out care free as he swanned into the room.

"... Wow," she stuttered as she caught sight of Edward, the well fitting clothes hugged his physique well, outlining his muscles through the blue shirt, "You should dress like that more often," she remarked, the red dress she wore cut half way down the thigh in a blue hem.

Edward smirked and ushered her out the door as the clock struck 7, "So where we going?" Amarisia relaxed against the glass of the lift and brought up her omni-tool.

"Not far, a couple of work friends and I go out to let out some steam, work's pretty hard after all," she ran a hand over her crest as Edward memorised the map she had brought up, they were going to a club three blocks away.

"I never asked what it was you do," The elevator slid to a silent halt, the pressure building in their knees as it stopped. "You know what I do after all," he added with a smile.

"I'm a teacher," the street outside was starting to fill with people going out for the evening, "High School Biology if you're curious."

"That must be a barrel of laughs, can't be anything harder to control than a room full of immature kids." Edward noticed a group of Vorcha in the shadows of one alley, he cast them a glance as they whispered to each other.

"On the contrary, it's not hard when you know how to control the room," The sound of sky cars shooting by far above mixed with the sounds in the street to give a familiar urban sound, "keep their eyes on the work and not their friends and they'll be your slaves, so to speak," A heavy set Krogan stomped past in armour, the deep green hue of the armour caught Edward's eye as he passed; the memory of two days previous flashed in his mind.

"I thought about becoming a teacher once. I decided against it when I realised I couldn't last five minutes with one kid let alone a couple dozen," she laughed at the comment.

"Was a bodyguard always your preferred job or was it something else," Edward glanced back over his shoulder to see where the Krogan had gone, he caught a glimpse of it turning the same corner as they had, "Edward?"

"I didn't really have an idea, I did some stuff with shooting and fencing but it never seemed like a future," A strange feeling passed over Edward as he lost sight of the Krogan, "couple years ago I joined a bodyguard class and it sort of came off from there. What about you, was it always the life of a teacher or was it something else."

"I spent my Maiden years in a bar, after that I got all Matriarch and wanted to teach," Amarisia caught Edward cocking an eye at the bar comment, "serving drinks I'll have you mind, you're not much older than my students," Edward smirked a little wider as she flustered.

"Am!" Edward caught sight of a Quarian waving in their direction, Amarisia waved back as a squarely built male Turian with a deep brown carapace and another Asari with a pale purple skin tone joined the Quarian outside the club.

"Hey Tala!" she called back as the Quarian rushed up, I could make out her eyes behind the slightly reddish mask.

"Who's this?" she questioned, appraising Edward up and down several times, "don't think you mentioned him at work," a sly tone creeping into her voice.

"Edward, my new room mate, thought he could tag along with us," The Turian and Asari had caught up and likewise introduced themselves.

"Drinar Malix, languages teacher," the Turian puffed out his chest and extended a hand, the super-soldier took it and nodded, "damn hard grip you got there."

"Edward Scarrow, bodyguard," he replied, Drinar's mandibles flared slightly at the mention of his cover career, "nice to meet you all."

"Hi," the Asari greeted Edward warmly, "Zeneba, I'm in physical education," Edward nodded politely.

"So we gonna stand around or are we gonna get drinking," Drinar hooted, the red and blue neon sign of the club blared out from its place between the two taller buildings, a deep beat came like tribal drums as they got close to the door.

"Can't say i'm usually into places like this," Edward glanced to the side as Drinar smacked him on the back with a laugh.

"Neither are we, I heard a couple of the kids talking about here the other day," the bouncer was a gruff looking Batarian, his four eyes seemed to track the five as they approached the door.

"Speak for yourself," Tala shot across at him.

"Come on guys, we're here to have a good time. Let's not tear each others heads off until after we've got some drink in us." Amarisia stopped the two as they started to bicker.

"You want in?" The deep voice of the Batarian grated in Edwards ear as they stood at the entrance.

"Yeah, five please," Tala asked cheerily, Edward noticed the Batarian sneer minutely as he passed over Tala, it seemed to be lost on the others.

"You four can go in, the suit rat stays outside with the rest of the trash," The Batarian seemed to grin as the group covered him with indignant cries.

"Who the fuck do you think you are!" Drinar stepped forward and nearly on instinct Edward followed as the Batarian swung a meaty fist forward towards his face. He intercepted it and within the same moment had twisted the brute's arm behind his back and knocked him to the floor.

"Get the fu-" the Batarian growled angrily as Edward twisted the arm further, "i'm going to kill you as soon as I get up."

"No you won't," Edward gave a tug, the thug groaned in pain as the bone started to creak, "in fact you're going to let us in, free I might add, and if I ever, EVER, see you turn someone away because they're different in some way, then I promise you that I'll come back and break this arm," With a rough push, he stood up and backed off several steps. "And I follow through with my promises, believe me."

There was a silence as the bouncer stood and glowered threateningly at Edward, a small trickle of blood ran down from a nostril as he stepped aside and admitted the group. The five walked in as the Batarian warily returned to judging entrants.

"That was scary," Tala murmured as the beat increased in intensity, "you didn't have to do that Edward," the human turned and looked directly at her as the lights of the club started to paint the walls.

"What, that racist bastard had it coming, people are people despite everything that they may or may not have in common and should be treated the same irregardless." he shot her a steady smile as the sounds started to coalesce into rumbling club tunes, "besides, Drinar here took the lead, I just helped," The Turian puffed out his chest as the praise suddenly shifted to him.

The flaring lights blasted around the large hall in every shade of colour, the strobes burning neon paths across the dance floor. A couple dozen men and women of various species moved in time with the beat, far in the back was a long bar attended to by several Asari wearing little more than tank tops and underwear.

"I'll get us a table," Zeneba moved off along the side of the dance floor towards a vacant spot near the bar.

"That was really good what you did," Amarisia whispered into Edward's ear over the racket, he glanced at her and smiled warmly as Zeneba motioned for them to come over as she won the table by bare moments from a human couple.

"I figured that he'd throw a punch as soon as someone challenged him, I was just ready for him." sliding into the booth, they all noted the seats were thinly packed with stuffing which lead to them being rather uncomfortable, "I'll get drinks, orders guys?" Edward said loudly over the music, getting everyone's orders he pushed up and made his way through the crowd.

The bar was strangely empty when he arrived, the majority of the staff stood around talking while a couple poured shots for some Salarians further down the bar. One of the scantily clad bar backs turned and flashed him a smile as he leant against the bar.

"Hey hot stuff, what can I getcha?" she asked with a wink, leaning forward on the bar suggestively.

"Four beers, two dextro and two levo, and a bottle of whatever is strongest," The Asari disappeared under the counter and pulled out the specific drinks before dumping them on a tray.

"This is Krogan Ryncol, the big lugs take this in shots, still want a whole bottle," she held a bottle filled with the slightly radioactive green liquid.

"Sure, can't be that bad," she chuckled and pushed the tray across the counter while ringing up the total on the till. The super-soldier paid and made his way back round the dancing crowd to the table, he could make out the four of his companions having an animated conversation amongst themselves, "drinks are here," he called as he neared the table.

"Good, that was about to get ugly," Amarisia muttered as he sat down, Edward noticed Zeneba and Tala having a slight glaring match across the table from one another.

"Something up?" Sliding the drinks round the table, he noticed the lost look on Drinar's face, the type of lost that shouts 'if I say something even a little wrong i'll end up in a body bag,' it was almost comical considering he was stuck between the two arguing parties and was trying desperately to not make eye contact with either of them.

"Just the usual, light conversation with a chance of homicide," Drinar almost whimpered as both of the women turned their eyes on him.

"Zeneba and Tala here were just discussing who's department deserves the yearly funding, not that there's too much to go around," Amarisia glanced sideways.

"I'm sorry but the biotiball team needs new equipment, i'm pretty sure the philosophers can go without some new learning aides for another year." Tala bristled in her seat, a single, trembling, hand hooked round the bottle with a straw in it.

"Lets just calm down a second," Edward spoke up, "let's leave work in the classroom and try to enjoy our time out," they seemed to relent a little, the music thumped against their ear drums as they drunk from their respective bottles.

"What's that?" Drinar motioned to the bottle in Edward's hand, the green liquids were half gone by this time, "don't think i've seen it before."

"Its uh... Ryncol," he choked loudly and stared at him with a wide eyed expression of horror.

"Krogan liqueur, by the spirits your insides must be like jam!" Edward took another swig of the near caustic substance, "that's just going to make it worse."

The truth was that being the way he was, you know, a super human, meant that he had an almost perfect alcohol tolerance. His liver could process Russian vodka like it was cider but without any of the effects. This stuff was a lot stronger so he was hoping to get a hit off of it, even a small one'd be nice.

"It's not that bad if I'm honest, could use some flavouring but then again I doubt they make this stuff for its taste," the empty bottle clunked down on the table, "if i'm honest I could go for another," The super-soldier cocked a grin at the unbelieving faces around him.

**(23:43, 24/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, Draxis club, Serpent Nebula)**

"How are you standing!" a slightly sozzled Drinar roared as they stumbled out of the club, Edward stumbled along with them despite the fact he wasn't fazed by the drink in the slightest, he had a warm glow inside him but it ended there.

"Just cause you can't hold your drink doesn't mean that everyone can't," he shot back, just as loud. The three others laughed gaily at their friends expense as they made their way along the street.

The five made their way through the empty street, the only illumination being that from street lamps and the odd neon sign. There seemed to be far more keepers active at this time too, several were cleaning out bins and sweeping the streets.

Edward and Amarisia said their goodbyes as the street to their apartment came up, the three others waved drunkenly as they made their way towards a taxi rank at the far end of the street.

"That was fun," Amarisia said clearly, having not drunk as much as the others, "but seriously how did you drink that much?" she chuckled as they made their way along the street.

"Liver of steel if anything," Edward ran a hand through his short, black, hair, "let's just leave it as magic."

They walked quietly back to the building, it wasn't far yet it felt a long way away in the silence of the night. Edward suddenly realised the insanity of what he'd just done, if three years ago he'd been told he was going to go drinking with a bunch of Alien teachers then he probably would have passed it off as a stupid joke.

Over the first few days of his power, after he'd been taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D. He'd been put through hundreds of tests to see what he could do and had barely been given time to think and as soon as those tests were done he'd been thrown into battle against the same people who'd made him the way he was.

He killed several dozen of his own kind in the first few days of that short, bloody, war. It was here that he learned of his proficiency with the sword. Regular bullets couldn't cut an Extremis' skin but hand to hand combat between two was just the same as between two men, the destruction was slightly more noticeable but other than that there was no difference.

The door to the building drew close as they rounded the last corner, this street was mostly empty like the others. A mere moment from the door Edward noticed a flash in the alley to the side of the building.

"Go on in, think I need some air," Amarisia disappeared behind the door, as soon as it shut with the tell tale swish of air the super-soldier moved into the alley, all his senses at the ready.

For a moment he could sense nothing in the alley but then there was a solitary thump at the far end of the alley. Then another came, closer yet heavier. More came until Edward was presented with four large Krogan, all wearing the same dark green armour.

"You boys here about those three mercs?" Edward cocked a thumb over his shoulder as the lead Krogan, the largest among them brought out a large knife and ran a finger along the edge.

"You cheated us out of several hundred thousand credits and three good men, you should have expected this," he rumbled, the other Krogan growled along with their leader's words, each prepared weapons subtly.

"What can I say, winner takes it all," guns were brought to bare on Edward's chest, he raised his hands to head height, palms facing the goons, "losers can eat shit," he said with a vicious bite as the veins in his hands began to glow a dull blue.

"Tough words for a dead man!" the Krogan roared, raising a meaty fist into the air.

Edward took the cue and unleashed his power, two brilliant arcs of electricity tore through the air, tearing into two of the Krogan, the pure energy of the blast sent them hurling back into the far wall, they bounced and fell to the ground smoking.

In the same moment Edward appeared in front of the leader and kicked the large dagger into the air before delivering a powerful punch to the Krogan's stomach sending it sprawling on the floor. Sensing the final Krogan he rolled to the side and leapt upwards to head height on the momentum of the roll. The Krogan's neck snapped as the spin kick that followed sent it hurtling twenty feet into a dumpster, the body lying limp over the lip.

Landing, Edward thrust out his hand and caught the dagger as it hurtled back to the ground. The Krogans' leader forced his way to his knees and in the same moment was caught in a head lock.

"Who sent you!" The man growled in his ear, the dagger poised at the gap between skull plate and skin.

"Drink Vorcha piss," There was a pause then the blade was forced under the skull plate, blood flowed steadily down the Krogan's face as a scream rose from its throat, "Get it out, GET IT OUT!" he yelled even louder.

"WHO!" Edward yelled again.

"My boss is on the omni-tool, it'll lead you to him!" Extremis pulled the knife from his skull and dropped it to the side, it clattered across the steel pavement before coming to a rest several feet away, "thank y-" his neck was broken by a violent tug, the Krogan choked quietly as the life ebbed from him, his last sight was his killer marching away with his omni-tool firmly grasped in his hand.

**(06:11, 25/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward jolted up in the bed as the door buzzer sounded through the apartment, he quickly re-sheathed his longsword and slid it under the bed. The buzzer went again as he opened the door and made his way out into the main room, as he reached the main door Amarisia came out of her bedroom wrapped in a bath robe.

"What is it?" she asked, joining him at the door.

"No idea," Edward opened the door and his blood chilled as he saw who was on the other side.

"Hello sir, Madam," Garrus Vakarian said evenly, his eyes spoke of a long night at the office, only now did Edward notice the occasional blue lights that would pass the window, "may I come in?"

**And that's it for this time! Like what you read, want to comment, just comment below and i'll see you on Monday!**


	4. This Means War!

**Operation Extremis**

**Hi Guys, no preamble this time just get reading.**

**(06:12, 25/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

"Is there something you need officer?" Amarisia asked as Garrus fucking Vakarian strolled into the living room. Edward had changed into bed clothes when he'd "gone to bed" and he was bloody glad he had now.

"Detective, actually," he leafed through a notepad in his hands, several pages seemed to be written on already from what Edward could see, "There was a murder in the alley adjacent to this building, we're just going through the locals to see if there's anything they can tell us."

"Well we'll help as much as we can," Edward nodded with a curt smile.

The Detective strolled into the room, glancing around the area absently on his quick journey to the couch. Pulling up a small stool directly in front of the couch he sat and motioned for us to join him.

"Firstly, did either of you hear anything last night around midnight?" His eyes seemed to be trying to drill into us for information as we both shook our heads.

Actually we may have got home from the bar about then," Garrus locked eyes with Edward as he spoke, "the Draxis club, a couple blocks away, we were out for drinks with some friends." Amarisia nodded as the steely gaze was turned on her.

"Right then, did you notice anything after you got back, anything out of place?" Edward subtly glanced at his door while the Detective spoke, if he had to get out then haste was the key.

"Nothing," Edward reciprocated with Amarisia in this respect, playing the ignorant civilian was the best thing for him in this situation, "what has actually happened?"

"There's been a murder," he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck where the armour rubbed, "four Krogan were found late last night, someone called C-sec soon after they heard screams, you're sure you didn't hear anything?" he received shaken heads again.

"Screams? Not gunfire?" Edward asked, leaning back against of the couch.

"No, I've said enough as it is," he stood quickly and made his way to the elevator, "just know that C-sec is looking out for this guy and he'll be in police custody soon."

As the door shut behind him, Edward mentally shuddered while glancing out the window at the blinking blue lights, Am had moved back to her room after a little while, the prospect of slightly more sleep being very appealing.

Extremis silently cursed himself for letting the Krogan make noise, the memory of the game had come back to him during the fight and he was oddly interested to try it out.

Avoiding most people in the games had been one of the first things he'd thought to do when Edward had arrived here and it seemed that the more he did the more people he ran into. A bloody great problem was that he could make enemies of everyone mildly important before anything kicked off and that was the last thing he wanted

He must have spent a long time pondering as soon the light of the nebula slowly filtered into the window. The events of last night came to the fore of his mind and he realised what he had to do. Leaving before Amarisia woke was risky so soon after she was up gave him an alibi.

"Let's see who you fuckers are," he muttered as he attached the Krogan's omni-tool to his own, the files he needed were only buried in a few folders with no encryption. Zaeed was right when it came to torturing Krogan, they spilled their guts quicker than anything.

The files pointed to a small base on the far end of the ward near a commercial dock. Edward noted the files seemed to be for higher ranking officers so either he'd got the leader of the base or someone close. Either way it gave him a way past the security doors, the idiot had left the access codes in a separate file if he had forgot.

**(08:11, 25/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret ward, Sila Drakona base, Serpent Nebula)**

"This would be so much easier with a sniper," Edward muttered as he stood on the gap between the base entrance and the nearest building, "couple pistols and a shotgun wouldn't hurt either..."

Three guys, two Batarians and a Salarian, guarded the large metal door that opened up to the storage floor. He guessed at maybe twelve more on the inside, they would have at least a couple tech specialists and biotic users in that number.

The truth was Edward wasn't built for a sustained fight, he could do it sure as the sun but he was better in hit and run engagements. Wading through fire was tricky when you have a sword, especially if there was little in the way of cover.

If he was going to hit this place then he wanted to be as deep as possible in the least amount of time. Glancing up Edward noticed a bank of windows directly opposite him, out of his reach with a leap but if he climbed up he could cut through silently then drop in and attack.

From there he would cut his way through the grunts and take out the boss before disappearing into the night. Might get the mercs to back off, or it could bring it down around his ears. Anyway, these assholes would pay for attacking him at his home.

The building itself was attached to a much taller corporate building, taller being about thirty floors. It was a drop he could make with his boots and if the mercs heard it then they may assume it was simply some poor schmuck jumping from the building above.

"They'll never see me coming," he let out a grim smile as he vanished along the rooftops at blinding speeds before crossing the large promenade in a single bound. The corporate building was structured for beauty which in turn gave many edges to hold onto as he scaled the outside.

Several people yelped as he climbed past office blocks and even a couple bathrooms, it was a long way up and the absence of wind, which would normally violently smash into him, was a god send.

"This would be so much easier with a jet pack," he muttered at floor 24, looking down he realised if he fell on someone he'd turn them to jelly.

Reaching the roof, Edward leapt high into the air and landed on the roof of an air con unit, seeing that no-one was around, he dropped down and walked till the tips of his feet stretched out over the void above his target.

With a single step he was dropping towards the enemy, the air whistled past his ears as he dropped the 30 stories in a tenth of the time it had taken him to climb them.

In his time as a hero of New York, Edward had grown used to dropping off of buildings with tens of story difference, hell, he'd tested the boots for the first time by jumping off of the top of the Empire State Building, the worlds first inertial dampeners did live up to to their names.

But never the less he'd never been able to leave the age old feeling that everyone gets when you drop. The feeling of time slowing where a second is a minute, and a minute is an hour, and an hour is an eternity. It was a surreal, beautiful, feeling that he loved yet at the same time wouldn't mind living without.

He collided with the roof and stayed very still for several moments. He could tell the sound had gone through the roof and made the people aware to his presence. Glancing around he noticed the roof access was across the way from him.

Ghosting over to it, he placed both his hands against the door and focused on what he felt behind it. It was silent for several moments then the dull thud of small yet heavy vibrations started to come, they gained in intensity over several moments.

Sliding his sword out silently, Edward slid to the side of the door seconds before it opened. He had counted three at most, there had been no speaking to feel through the door, a far more subtle form of vibration yet still noticeable enough to catch.

It opened and a massive Krogan in the deep green of the Sila Drakona merc group stomped out with a human and a Vorcha on his tail. Edward noticed the large Shotgun on the small of his back, the equally massive rifle on his left shoulder and the apparent limp in his right leg, his breathing pattern told of either damaged or weakened lungs.

The Vorcha and Human each carried predator pistols on their hips while each carried avenger assault rifles in their hands. The Vorcha had a weak posture and blindness in one eye while the human had the bearing of a military woman, her training made her proficient in hand to hand combat with small blades but narrowed her reaction to say... a huge fucking sword.

"What do you think landed?" the human, a female with a German accent, asked casually, the avenger hanging limp in her hands.

"Some fucker probably jumped, got in trouble and was too much of a weakling to face the consequences!" the Krogan growled over his shoulder as Edward slid out of cover and raised his sword to spine level.

"Wait..." The Krogan looked around, "if something landed then it would have done there," he pointed to the area that had been concealed by some pipes before pulling out his shotgun.

"You're saying whatever it was moved?" The Vorcha had been oddly quiet, sniffing the air occasionally.

"It did," Edward growled before driving the point of the blade into the back of the Vorcha, the edge pointed towards the human. Moving quickly, he ripped it sideways and slashed through the side of the woman, severing several major blood vessels as he moved on. The Krogan tried to bring the shotgun up towards the super-soldier but it was quickly booted into the metal tubing to the side.

Edward feinted to the left before driving the tip of the sword into the skull of the beast, it growled weakly before falling to the ground. Sensing danger, Edward leapt to the side as a burst of gunfire lit the air. Spinning, Extremis threw one of his daggers, the blade near instantly killing the human, several coughs escaped her lungs before the end.

"Well it's not a party if you don't get shot at," recovering the knife, Edward noticed the large rifle on the back of the dead Krogan. Prising it off its still active mag-lock, Edward was confused to see a completely alien design of rifle.

Emblazoned on the side was the term "peregrine" in deep red against the gun-bolt grey. The barrel was about a foot long and ended with what looked like an in-built compensator. The stock was thin, having more in common with an old shotgun stock than anything else.

What really caught his eye, however, was the three buttons built into the side of the closer end of the barrel. Each read as a different ammo type; inferno, tungsten, and cryo. Pressing one, the respective sign for the type popped up in hard glass form.

"This is pretty damn cool," he muttered as the thump of approaching feet brought his attention up.

Swinging into cover he counted five approaching hostiles, 4 were approximately human sized with the fourth being slightly lighter which would suggest a Salarian. Three took cover to Edward's right while another was directly behind him and another was to the left.

Selecting polonium rounds, Edward leant out and fired a round towards his closest target. The Salarian dropped into cover as his shields were blown apart and the round punched through his arm, the clatter of a gun told Edward that he had hit the arm that held most of the weight of the gun. Leaning out he fired several more rounds into the torso of the Salarian as it tried to crawl away.

Sensing that the others were hesitant to engage him, Extremis took the initiative and took the fight to them. Leaping high into the air with a back flip, Edward nailed the Batarian who had been on his right several times in the torso and head.

Landing with a crunch, Edward skipped to the side and drove the stock of the gun into the face of his first adversary, an Asari, hard enough to throw her off her feet and into the second human. Hopping off the ground and spinning in the air, Edward caught the final man, a Turian, in the head, his head snapped to the side and violently crashed against the pipes they were using as cover.

Firing a couple rounds into the human, the super-soldier turned and vanished inside towards the sound of yelling mercs. Appearing out on a catwalk overlooking the main floor, Edward threw a glance both ways down the walkway.

Two mercs per side, a Batarian and a Vorcha to the left and a duo of Asari to the right. The Asari packed SMG's and pistols while the Batarian and Vorcha had assault rifles and shotguns. Turning on the left side first he slid under the hail of fire from the two as he bolted towards them. Leaping over the two boxes they had erected as a makeshift barrier, Edward drove the stock of the gun into the chest of the Vorcha launching over the side of the railing to the floor twenty metres below.

The Batarian swung a fist and connected with the chest of the super-soldier, the blow barely registered as the man grabbed a dagger and drove it between his upper set of eyes. Noticing the Asari preparing to attack, Edward leapt the barrier whilst grabbing one of the boxes and hurling it will all his might.

The Asari both ducked out of the way and returned fire with bullets from one and a biotic push from the other. Charging towards them at the time, Extremis took the biotic attack in the chest, it threw him back hard into the box that remained.

He shot forward again and as the biotics came again he leapt the railing and caught the roof support attached before swinging himself forward with all his might. One of the Asari screamed as he collided with her and smashed her against the wall, the final one screamed a curse before being thrown roughly over the railing.

Reaching the stairs to the ground floor within moments, Edward heard the hiss and creak of two very large mechs in the next room. Holding the peregrine in one hand, Edward drew the sword and hopped down the stairs to face the two YMIR that guarded the small landing.

The shields were weak under the fire of this new model of gun, the shields of one buckled rapidly as the others were bypassed completely and the mech was beheaded in a single swipe. Turning on the remaining mechanical beast, it was a simple affair to duck under the hail of bullets unleashed by the minigun and behead it as well.

The first explosion erupted from the two dead mechs within moments of Edward clearing the stairs and driving the tip of his blade deep into the chest of a small, relatively, Krogan that waited with a shotgun at the ready, it dropped and fired on accident as Edward re-sheathed his blade and brought his assault rifle into the two humans that came round the next corner.

They died quickly, the bodies had not hit the floor as Edward shot past aiming for the back of the building, a foreman's office was visible from this end and was the most likely location of the boss. With a single bound, Extremis continued his assault from the top of the stacks of illegal materials that covered the floor.

He was fired on from several sides as he leapt from stack to stack, sometimes he toppled a stack with his passing and crushed a merc or two under the tonnes. A missile narrowly missed his head as he landed on the floor near the stairs, spinning and firing yielded the death of a heavily armed trio of Vorcha, they hissed angrily as they fell.

Leaping up the steps three at a time, Edward smashed the door off its hinges in his haste to find the leader of this place. He ducked under a high powered shot from another peregrine before driving the butt of the gun hard into the chest of the tall Asari in the room.

As she tried to rise Edward drew a dagger and drove it into her side, she screamed as he turned and fired a volley into a human as they came up the steps.

"You're going to put all your data onto this hard-drive now," He growled angrily as she sneered back at him.

"Drink Varren piss!" she growled before spitting in his face, he twisted the blade causing her to groan painfully.

"One cut and you'll bleed out in seconds, and it won't be pleasant, do it and I let you live!" he roared before drawing his sword and beheading a Salarian before it could reach the top of the stairs.

"Fuck it," she pushed herself up and accessed the bank of terminals before her, slamming the hard-drive into the connector she started to transfer of the data under the vigilant eye of her assailant.

The counter on the bar filled slowly as the Asari formulated a plan quickly, he killed two more of her people in the time it took all the data to download, there were a few shouts but there couldn't have been more than two left by now.

The machine chimed as the download complete, Edward moved to grab it as the Asari enacted her plan. A biotic pull him in the chest quickly followed by a throw that pinned him to the wall, he growled angrily at her as he tried to free himself from the zero gravity shell.

The Asari picked up her fallen peregrine and pointed it at his head as his struggle became more violent.

"Burn in hell!" she growled as she started to squeeze the trigger.

Before she could fully pull the trigger in, a pillar of liquid flame leapt from the helmet of her attacker and engulfed her.

Edward dropped to the ground and scooped the hard-drive he'd bought the other day and replaced it in a pocket on his chest. He leapt the stairs and hurled himself up into the air as the sirens of C-sec broke the air, the main doors being thrown open to several officers hurrying in.

"Fan out!" a sergeant yelled.

The super-soldier caught the railing on the catwalk and pulled himself up. Darting to the roof access, he could sense several feet coming down the short corridor. Sheathing his sword and temporarily dropping the peregrine on the floor, he readied for the response team that was coming down the stairs.

The first was taken out with a punch to the solar plexus before having his legs swept out from under him. The second was knocked unconscious to a right hook as she came forward, the strike throwing her against the wall.

Two more fell quickly to similar punches before the final received a rib breaking kick to the chest that sent him hurling back into the stairs. He groaned as a shadow passed over him and disappeared out of the area in the blink of an eye.

**(12:33, 25/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, Roof of apartment building, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward sat on the edge of the building, his armoured feet dangling over the edge as he scrolled through the information he'd pilfered from the Sila Drakona base, so far it had been basic things like the stock they were selling on the streets and accident reports.

What he was looking for was buried in there somewhere, a list of locations or names, anything that would give him a target. A deepening sense of scale finally presented itself to him as a receipt of sale on a large Turian cruiser flashed up.

"Hang on, this is practically unguarded... that would make a nice mobile base," he considered the idea, "on the other hand I don't think it's possible to fly a cruiser with only one man."

Suddenly the file popped up that he was looking for, it was short, concise, and gave him information on numbers, locations, and capabilities. The list was the equivalent to the movements of the entire enemy army in a war.

Edward narrowed down the location on the Citadel in moments and marked them on a map on his omni-tool, he was going to hit them before they could even think about responding, one man against at least two hundred mercs in several locations in the course of three days. If he hit hard and frequently then they would be on their knees here before the week was out.

He was relentless, he was ruthless, and he was fucking unstoppable.

Glancing to his side, Edward finally remembered the rifle he'd nabbed from the Krogan back in the base. It was hellishly powerful and cut shields like they were nothing, the in-built ammo types was something he never thought would occur and how a merc gang had got a hold of it was the most perplexing of issues.

Searching the surface yielded nothing in the sense of a maker but whoever it was was helping these mercs commit atrocities and he'd be damned if he let them get away with it. He'd stop them too, but he had to deal with these mercs first if anything.

The nearest base was no more than a ten minute run towards the Presidium, the coordinates that came with the file put it in the same location as a skycar factory, what interest they had in it was of no concern to Edward, he just wanted them off his station.

Pushing up, Edward took several steps back and charged forward, launching himself over the edge of the building and onto the next. As he began the run to the factory he felt odd satisfaction that he was doing a form of his old hero work, cleaning the scum up was a favourite past time of his after all.

**(12:46, 25/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, Vas Kothcai Skycar Manufacturer, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward leapt into combat with the roof guard of the low down building, the sounds of metal being bent and welded hummed through the floor as he delivered an uppercut to a Salarian who was in turn launched skywards with a broken jaw.

Hearing the tell tale click as someone armed a grenade, Edward spun and caught the small disk before frying the electrics inside with a burst of electricity. Extremis dropped the small object and pushed even more volts into his arm as he sent out a bright blue beam into the startled Asari on the other side of the roof, she was hurled back over the edge into the street below.

More mercs pounded out of the door to the main factory, Edward gave C-sec about ten minutes before first response reached the factory so he had to make this quick. A hail of fire shot under him as he leapt and drew his sword in one swift movement.

A Krogan charged forward, shotgun in hand, Edward noticed his over dependence on his left side and skipped round him to the right, driving the blade through the back of his hump and into the skull. A sniper round whizzed past his head as a Batarian fired off several rounds in his direction, a thrown dagger caught him in the throat as he growled at the overheated rifle.

Pulling out the peregrine from his back, straps that he used for guns back in Marvel worked well here to hold the gun on, he fired several tungsten rounds into an Asari while he downed a Turian with a single stroke of his blade.

"Don't let him through!" a human yelled as what looked like the final couple of mercs arrived and the door locked behind him.

Edward realised that he was outnumbered twelve to one, he needed to get through them and down into the base before C-sec even arrived which meant being smart about this. He could see and feel every single one of the mercs on the roof and quickly came up with an action plan.

"Drop the gun and the... sword," the same human yelled angrily over the cover. Three of the mercs moved around to his flank, thinking he was unaware of their advancement.

"As you wish," Edward threw the sword skywards while dropping the gun, as the eyes of his enemies went up Edward leapt forward at blinding speeds and engaged his first target, a muscle bound Salarian with an over reliance on long ranged weapons.

Edward punched him so hard that he flew back and crashed through a cooling unit for the factory below, the destruction of the unit sent two more flying as Edward vaulted it and drove his heel into the spine of one before catching the barrel of a shotgun as it was brought to bear and hurling the screaming Vorcha off of the roof shotgun first.

A Batarian appeared round the corner of the unit and fell with a dagger buried in his chest. Edward noticed the roof of the unit had come free, picking it up he focused and as time slowed around him he stepped out and hurled it like a Frisbee.

The 4 by 4 foot piece of metal hurtled across the rooftop towards the oblivious mercs that had tried to flank Edward, the first was crushed by the piece of metal as the others screamed and ran for the doorway. Scooping up the fallen Batarian's avenger, the two fell quickly under a concentrated hail of gunfire.

Edward leapt high into the air as more bullets swatted air around him as the remaining five mercs mounted a last defence. A couple hit home and buried themselves in his chest just before he had leapt, the metal crumpling and sticking into his chest.

Before he even landed he downed one of the mercs with a spin kick that sent them reeling into another. Edward smashed home and drove a dagger into the chin of an Asari to his left while spinning round her and using her as a meat shield, the quick reactions of the Krogan didn't save it as Edward tossed the body aside, hopped up and brought a heavily armoured elbow down on its head plate.

Grabbing the body of the Krogan before it fell, Edward hurled it towards the human that had been speaking, the huge mass crushed him against the metal tubing on the rooftop. Looking for the last target, Edward found the lone Drell huddled beside a metal pipe. Just before he killed the cowering alien an idea occurred to him, grabbing the Drell and holding him off the ground Edward uttered a simple sentence before dropping the merc to the ground.

"Tell C-sec everything," in the next second he, and any of his accoutrements, had vanished into the bowels of the building.

There were close on two dozen mercenaries patrolling the large factory, the building itself stretched one hundred metres in each direction from the centre and the noise was so deafening that the mercs were wearing sound cancelling helmets, the only noise being the radio connecting the separated mercs. The noise meant that they were even more limited in tracking targets, even then, the only light was from the welders on the production lines.

Extremis moved through the factory quietly, keeping high on the catwalks and stalking each of the four groups in turn. Three mercs had been on patrol up there as well, had been. Using his thermal vision Edward watched for the groups of mercs to all move away from the central office before dropping down silently and slipping inside.

The office was empty, the leader of the whole operation was with one of the closer groups to the office, the large Krogan seemed to be armed with a peregrine which led Edward to the thinking that they were guns awarded to the officers of the group. C-sec were no more than seven minutes out as Edward hooked up the hard-drive and started the download, the encryption on the system was below basic and was cracked in seconds. Several tenuous moments passed as the data transferred and the chance that the mercs would come back increased.

The transfer completed and Edward quickly stored the drive in his armour, C-sec would be storming the building any moment now and he'd be damned if there were casualties on their side. Leaping the railing opposite the door, Edward charged a bolt of electricity and hurled it into the first enemy he saw less than twelve metres in front of him, the Turian was thrown back hard and convulsed on the ground for several moments as the shadow of the super-soldier passed by with a drawn sword in hand.

The Turian's friends had not noticed his demise, the remaining four didn't notice until one of them was cut down out of the blackness followed swiftly by another. Blind panic set in as they both back peddled into the darkness firing wildly, the bullets lighting up the darkness and painting their dark attacker in almost strobe lighting.

They both fell screaming, the other groups converged on their location as the strangled screams of the two remaining members filtered through the radio. The first group found nothing but the dead as their furthest member back vanished in a moment, the only sound a quiet sigh.

As the third group arrived they found the last two members of the second group back to back taking pot shots into the dark as their comrades lay at their feet, quite dead. A light caught the eye of a relatively new member, looking up he saw a square, orange, light that seemed to flicker. He understood what it was moments later as waves of white hot plasma sprayed out and covered the oblivious group.

Extremis darted away as the fourth and final group made a stand in the most brightly lit part of the factory, the main office. They braced themselves for a final stand as the radio went dead, every shadow was an enemy but only one of them was going to do them harm, which one was still unknown to them yet all the same they watched every direction.

A bolt of electricity flew out of the darkness, connecting with the wall as an Asari threw herself down and sent back a biotic shockwave. The blue light seemed to highlight a figure but no one could be sure as the silence went on.

All at once three daggers hurtled out of the darkness and embedded themselves in the large Krogan leading them. He growled and fired a handful of tungsten rounds off into the darkness as, unbeknownst to them, a loud thump landed behind them.

The Krogan fell first, a sword slash the only warning as the next, a Turian sporting tech armour and a sniper, was beheaded in a flash of light. The Asari from before tried to fire a shotgun into the chest of her attacker but was sent hurtling into the darkness of the factory with a scream. The two last tried to run from the seemingly unstoppable attacker, they were both thrown forward as two arcs of lightning struck them hard in the back.

"Time to get out of here," Edward muttered as his keen eyes picked up flash lights in the distance.

**(12:57, 25/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Adjacent Rooftop, Serpent Nebula)**

"Detective, i've got movement," The sniper murmured said quietly into his headset, a flicker of movement had appeared near the roof access.

"If anyone moves then put them down," the reply came back with a hard, ruthless, edge as the sniper focused on the rooftop, he could see what looked like a war zone, smashed piping and units and bodies, lots of bodies.

Then just like that a black shape walked casually out into plain view as if no-one could see him and that was his last mistake.

The shot rang out like a bell as the man on the roof opposite dropped to the ground, a round having gone squarely through his chest. The sniper called it in as the sound of back up police arrived, the initial response had found bodies and had immediately called it in, the wounds matched that of the previous Extremis killings.

"Can you confirm the target is down?" The officer on the other end asked hurriedly, checking the scope again he saw that the body had not moved.

"Yes Detective Vakarian I can confirm the target has been killed," checking for a third time, the breath stilled in the sniper's lungs, "he's getting up!" he thought about firing again, "how should I precede sir?"

"Take the shot!" another shot rang out and a small spray of blood came from the target as the round punched through the shoulder. Nevertheless the target continued to rise till he was staring straight at the sniper. And then he was gone.

The sniper was breathing hard as he searched frantically for his target, a sickening feeling filled his stomach as he failed to locate the man.

Then there was a crunch behind him.

Impossible surely? He was a good four stories above the roof and he'd taken less than a minute to get up here. He spun onto his back and fired a wild round in the direction of the sound but hit nothing. Just nothing.

"Next time," The sniper tried to fire into the face of the assassin, now less than a foot from him. Before he could understand how the gun and its barrel were two separate things on the other side of the roof.

"Next time what?" the sniper whispered, a quiver in his voice.

"aim for the head," Extremis knew that this was a near impossibility but it was sound advice. With these words he punched the sniper hard in the face, knocking him unconscious. Peeling the helmet clear and then the radio he held it to his mouth and spoke plainly.

"I think I win this round Garrus," he dropped the helmet and shot away, the bullet holes slowly stopped bleeding as he gained distance.

**(13:42, 25/02/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

"Bugger fuck it all," Edward muttered as he flexed the muscles in his arm, he sat bare chest in his room with two big, well slightly smaller, holes burrowed through his torso and arm.

The door was firmly locked and pieces of armour were strewn across the floor. Edward could feel a rib had been cracked in the passing of the bullet and he was sure the one that had hit his arm had shattered on impact with his humerus and several pieces of shrapnel had cut their own ways out of him.

But by far the oddest feature of his predicament was the fact that all his veins were glowing bright orange. Not just a small sheen on the surface but the sort of illumination that could light up a dark room. The large holes in him were fixing but it was a laborious process in comparison to the comics.

That had been one of the strange things about Marvel, the films and a variation of the comic books had been around. He'd not been able to keep a straight face through Iron Man 3 considering the Extremis in it had been so woefully inaccurate, he wished he could regrow limbs at that speed.

The memory made Edward chuckle and in turn wince, the torso shot had punctured a lung, he'd clear the blood from it with a little plasma when he was fully healed, he gave it about half an hour before he could act like he hadn't been shot.

Edward prodded the back of his arm, since he couldn't see the back he had to check to see if the bullet holes had closed fully. It also helped him check in case any bullet had stayed put inside him, he didn't want to have to cut into himself as it involved lots of cursing, groaning, and generally lots of pain.

The holes had all closed but he felt something about the same size as an apple pip just above his elbow. Pulling a dagger from his belt he glanced grimly over the razor sharp edges before pressing it to his skin.

Biting on a loud expletive as it washed through his mouth Edward cut straight to the piece of bullet and fished it out with the tip of the knife. His hands felt warm and sticky as he took the small piece of metal and tossed it out into the street below. Clamping a hand down on the new cut he let out a string of whispered cusses and their synonyms.

Taking up a piece of his breastplate, the same piece that had received the sniper round, he realised that this stuff wouldn't cut it any more, he'd been hit a couple times over the last few days and his armour was slowly losing its shape. Soon it would be unusable and he'd be exposed. God forbid a shotgun got a shot off on him at close range.

These new weapons all had mass accelerators instead of the traditional gun powder, in the old days most weapons couldn't cut his skin, even some of the high powered rifles didn't cut it but nowadays... nowadays even the most basic of weapons could cut through him like they were nothing.

"Must make a point of asking Von about good custom armourers," if he was to survive then he had to get with the program, to be clichéd.

"Edward, are you in there?" Am called from the other side of the door, the handle rattled to emphasise the question.

"Yeah," quickly covering up the armour, stripping the rest off and quickly pulling on a dark shirt and jeans, he unlocked the door and smiled, "can I help with anything?"

"The detective from earlier today's back, he's asking for you," Edward hoped that the glowing wasn't showing as he stepped out into the room, his skin had been near healed when he had came out but he wasn't sure it was enough.

"Hi, something I can do you for?" Edward cracked a smile at the dower look of Garrus.

"Yes, can you account for your whereabouts in the last hour?" his eyes bore into Edward as he thought fast.

"Yeah, I was at work, got home a couple minutes ago," he didn't seem convinced, "I can give you my boss' number if you want," he nodded and Edward transferred the number to his omni-tool.

Edward praised to who ever was up there that he had super hearing as the detective began the call.

"_Hello,_" Barla Von said.

"Yes, hello this is Detective Garrus Vakarian, i'm calling about one of your employees, one Edward Scarrow," I'd informed Von of my plan in case this came around the day after I met him, I was happy I did.

"_What do you wish to know?_"

"Can you account for his presence in the last hour? And in what capacity does Mr Scarrow work for you?"

"_Yes, I can and he works for me as a bodyguard, I work with several characters who I trust as far as I can throw them, Edward Scarrow has proved himself deserving of employment for his invaluable service."_

"Thank you, that'll be all," Garrus rounded on Edward as soon as the connection was cut, "now, what do you do for your employer?" he crossed his arms.

"I work as a bodyguard, he sometimes needs a little protection so that his clients don't muscle their way out of deals, being a Volus doesn't help matters much," he nodded warily.

"Your story checks out, please stay in contact so that we may get in touch with you if we have any pressing questions to ask you," with that he left rather curtly.

"What was all that about?" Am asked in confusion from her spot at Edward's side, a frown painted across her face.

"No idea," Edward suppressed a groan as he shrugged, the wound in his chest was still raw, "maybe they think i'm the killer," he said with a smirk.

"And are you?" she wasn't in a humorous mood.

"no, god no!" Edward started to pace back to his room, "why would you even think that?"

"Well if C-sec are suspicious then why shouldn't I be?" Edward matched her glare as he continued moving away.

"They're C-sec they probably have no idea who they're after, just cause they come to me doesn't mean i'm guilty," she growled in annoyance and stalked off as Edward reached his room.

Gathering up the armour and reassembling it, Edward stored it in the hiding spot and slowly sat down on the bed, the orange light was now a dull glow over his skin, the bullet wounds no more than red marks.

"This is getting tricky," Edward muttered as the glow subsided.

**And that's all for this time!**

**Any comments, reviews, or general things what you want to get off your chests then right down below.**

**Last thing, i'm launching a poll for who the LI should be for Edward, if you want I can do one for Shepard as well but that can probably wait for now, so if you're interested the poll's on my page, and i'll see you on Monday next.**

**As Always,**

**Hab67t **


	5. My Car!

**Operation Extremis**

**Right, couple things before we start. The poll has got it's first few votes and are as follows:**

**Miranda: 3**

**Shepard: 2**

**Liara: 1**

**Second, i've been told that bullets in the Mass Effect Universe are about the size of a grain of sand so i'll be keeping that in mind.**

**Enjoy**

**(11:55, 26/02/80, Citadel, Presidium, Barla Von's Office, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward walked calmly along the calm, white, metal pathway beside the crystalline waters of the Presidium Lake. There were several people milling around as the super-soldier made his way through the doors of his contact's office. No-one seemed to pay attention to the young man in the short time he was out in the open.

"Yes Mrs Malari I will deal with the inconsistencies in your account," The banker hung up on his client with an irritated sigh, "Extremis, may I help you?" The small Volus slumped back in his chair, deep breaths filling the room.

"Yes, I need new armour, my old suit is showing its age," The Volus opened his omni-tool and tapped in a few commands while the man sat in the guest chair.

After several minutes, the Volus closed down the device and looked up at the super-soldier, "You've been to the local safe-house, correct?" he nodded curtly, "go there and wait, the Shadow Broker employs a specialist by the codename "Xerarch," she'll meet you there and go through the motions with you," he motioned for Edward to leave before returning to the files of the client he had been speaking with before hand.

"Much obliged," Edward made his way out of the building quickly before heading to the wards.

**(12.10, 26/02/80, Citadel, Tayseri Ward, Shadow Broker safe house 13, Serpent Nebula)**

"You're back," The Krogan was behind the main counter as always, "what can I help you with this time," He was cleaning the trigger of a pistol with a cloth and oil on the desk as he said this.

"I'm here to see Xerarch," The Krogan seemed to tense for a second, "is that a problem?" The Krogan met his eye before speaking.

"Just be careful how you speak to her, she doesn't tolerate... well anything against her," advice received, Edward moved through the door to the far right of the room, opposite the door to the armoury.

The door led into a short corridor, the safe house was very clean and orderly despite the common conception that it'd be a shithole. The corridor terminated in a small room, about twelve feet by ten feet. A simple living room set up surrounded him as he entered and upon the couch sat whom he only assumed was Xerarch.

She wore what looked like combat leathers that were disguised as street clothes, the leather jacket covered with straps being his greatest clue. She wore skin tight leather trousers and combat boots to round off the badass look.

The Asari before him was ample to say the least. From the way she sat, reclined back with her feet up on the small coffee table, Edward noticed her wide hips and quite frankly heavenly rack. She wore a near permanent smirk on her purple lips and her left hand caressed the grip of a compact machine pistol on her waist.

"Xerarch I presume," He said, coming into the room, "I came about -"

"New armour, I got the memo," the Asari had a dulcet tone to her voice as she stood and approached, a sway in her hips, "Extremis, you're the one who's been kicking up a fuss with Sila Drakona," she crossed her arms and looked him dead in the eye.

"What can I say, they started it," She chuckled lightly.

"They're one of my best clients, i'll have you know," Edward assessed how dangerous she was in a glance, she seemed to rely slightly more on her left side and if he had to strike now, her being on the back foot would give him a distinct advantage, "however, your little killing spree has got me more orders from them than the last year combined, so I really have to thank you."

"I could go slaughter another bunch if you want," she returned to her normal smirk and paced back over to the couch, "but I think you'd rather talk business."

"I pulled your file from the Shadow Broker's database, you're a complete unknown, no background, no prior dealings, hell no record you actually exist," she leant forward putting her chin in her hands, not once breaking eye contact, "and if I didn't know about you then I would presume that all your missions were done by a highly trained commando squad," The super-soldier relaxed into an armchair opposite the Asari, slumping the bag on his shoulder to the floor beside him.

"So what do you need?" She pulled out a hip flask and took a swig, "I'm guessing armour to say the least."

"I need something that can put up with a lot of punishment, there are several aspects to my old armour that i'd like to integrate into my new suit that would help to meet those requirements," she motioned towards the bag by his side, he picked it up and handed it to her.

"What specifically are you needing transferred?" she started pulling out the pieces of armour and placing them on the coffee table.

"I've only brought what needed looking at," he leant forward and picked up a boot, "this has a set of special shock absorbers in the sole to allow me to drop from over a hundred stories up and not feel a thing," Edward placed it down as she drew the sword from its sheath.

"Bit archaic for my tastes but I know what you can do with it so I won't complain," she looked over the surface, "where does this go when you suited up?" she felt the weight with one hand.

"Left shoulder, why?" she shook her head.

"I assume you'll be using guns so that is no longer an option, and if it goes on your spine it'll restrict your movement... we could make it into two," she started to scan the blade with her omni-tool.

"What's this made of, my Omni-tool can't identify it," Edward thought up a quick lie.

"Found it in a Prothean vault, on the planet Klendagon," she cocked an eyebrow.

"Didn't know there were any Prothean Ruins on Klendagon," she seemed to eye Edward as he unpacked the last of the armour from the bag, "where exactly?"

"Not sure, somewhere near the northern end of the great rift, didn't stop to think about it when I was running from the Batarians," she went back to the sword.

"Never the less I should be able to reforge it into two separate blades," she slid it back into its sheath and started tapping notes into her Omni-tool, "they'll have to be shorter of course."

"Shouldn't be a problem if you keep the length," Edward said, unfastening a plate on the sole of a boot to get at the shock absorbers inside, "that blade can cut through anything out there, reducing the mass by half shouldn't be too much of a bother."

"Your call, they can be mounted close to the spine, out of the way of the guns yet still within easy reach," a diagram of a nuclear human shape with the swords on its back leapt up on her Omni-tool.

"Right, i'll add your extra designs and get it built," Xerarch stood and sorted her coat before moving deeper into the safe house, Edward could not help watching the sway of her hips, "Hang around an hour and it'll be ready."

"Just an hour? Thought it would take longer to do all that," she let out a chuckle and turned, the devilish smirk painted across her lips.

"I could have it done in ten minutes if I didn't have to apply the extra details, I can reforge this at the same time," she held up the sword still in her hand.

"Say if you need a hand," Xerarch didn't register as she disappeared into the next room.

**(13:44, 26/02/80, Citadel, Tayseri Ward, Shadow Broker safe house 13, Serpent Nebula)**

"Bloody murder," Edward muttered as he entered the armoury, there were literally hundreds of guns on the racks that ran along the exterior of the large room, much larger than his apartment to say the least.

"That's one way to put it," The Krogan was leant against the door frame, a finger scratching at one of the scars running up his neck, his charcoal grey skin contrasted against his blood red eyes, "Xerarch said to kit you out with a compliment of guns."

"That she did," The armour was in the final stages of preparation and the Asari had come through and told him to go pick up some guns, "that she did," Extremis muttered quietly.

"Well, lets start with the best type of gun that ever came into being, the shotgun," he moved past and hoisted a large case onto the long table that ran the length of the middle of the room, several shelves were installed beneath the table at certain lengths from one another, "say hello to the Grall Spike Thrower," he flipped the clasps on the case and threw back the lid.

"Aren't these used to hunt Thresher Maws?" The Krogan grinned almost Satanically at the comment before pulling it out and hoisting it in his arms.

"Usual guns fire rounds the size of a grain of sand but these babies fire a fletchette about the size of a Salarian's fist, this'll cut through anything not behind some serious armour," he placed it gently into the chest and closed it back up, "normally i'd give you something like the AT-12 Raider, but from what i'm told you're stronger than most things out there, so give this a spin."

He pulled out a few more crates and put them on the table, unbuckling them in turn the Krogan presented Extremis with several weapons. He pulled out each in turn and went over what it could do starting with the N7 Valiant.

"A team snagged a bunch of these back in '78, let it never say that the Alliance doesn't understand how to put power in a gun," dropping it back he pulled out a pair of submachine guns from a case, "M-12 locusts, reliable and dangerous on their own, and you look like the kind of guy that carries two."

"Won't that take up where the pistol goes?" The Krogan smirks.

"Usually yes, most armourers skimp on the mag-locks but our Xerarch knows a couple more slots can be useful," he swapped the guns for a pair of pistols, "the M-5 phalanx, comes with inbuilt laser sight and a generous cooling system,"

Before he could go for the final case Edward stopped him, "I've got a rifle, thanks," he closed the case and slung it under the table again.

"Is that everything?" he piled the cases one upon the other while the man looked on.

"One slight problem, the person I live with isn't privy to my actual line of work... I can't really come strolling in with guns and armour," he nodded and pulled up a large rubble sack and fitted the cases into it near perfectly.

"I'm guessing you go in through the window or down from the roof, they'll fit pretty well under a bed or anywhere else with clearance underneath," he slid the bag along and into Edward's arms.

"Noted," something that made him cringe popped into his mind, "I never asked your name?"

"It's Merax, of clan Craw," Edward shook his large hand, "May I ask yours?"

"Edward Scarrow, C-sec calls me Extremis," A smirk rent his face as Edward mentioned this.

"You've got them pretty pissed off at you, might want to slow down the killing," The super-soldier laughed.

"Last thing I thought i'd ever hear a Krogan say," The laughter was taken up by Merax, an easy mood having descended on the duo.

"You two having fun?" Xerarch stood in the doorway with a cocked hip and eyebrow directed at the two, "let it never be said that the Shadow Broker's boys are all work no play," her devilish smirk widened slightly.

"Indeed, we're a childish bunch at heart," she moved further into the room before coming face to face with Edward, a hands width being all that separated them.

"Suit's ready if you want to have a peek," she lingered for several seconds staring into his eyes with a tough but playful look, then turned and sauntered back through the doorway and out of sight.

"Don't know why you warned me about her, she's delightful," Merax shook his head and glanced after Xerarch.

"She's testing you, just keep your cool around her and don't back down no matter what she throws at you," Edward nodded slowly and made his way through the safe house after Xerarch.

"Like what you see?" she slunk out from behind a large machine and propped herself against the stand that held the armour. Edward ran a hand over the smooth metal arm while nodding, a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

The armour was far less bulky than the last suit, any jutting edges that may have been where now smoothed and sculpted around a model similar to his body shape. The armour itself was a dull black that seemed to draw more light in than it gave out, no shiny coat of paint for this model. A series of etches were cut into the surface, giving a pattern of straight lines and sharp angles running all over the armour.

The helmet itself was very like the kestrel helmet from Mass Effect 2 except for key differences. Instead of relying on cameras in the metal guarding the eyes, a very hard piece of plexiglass ran in a strip across eye level with the metal forming around, the large gap where the mouth would be was more defensive, the area above, below, and to the sides of the mouth were covered unlike that which they were being compared to.

"May I?" Xerarch stood back and gestured him forward.

The armour was partially mechanised to allow a single person to put it on. Slipping on the chest piece it automatically tightened around him, a whirring noise signalling the joining of both halves. The leg and arm pieces attached with the same magnetic locks as the torso. His helmet clicked in and the holo interface popped up as the generator in the small of his back connected up.

"_Initialising..." _a female voice spoke up, Edward recognised the accent as being distinctly British in nature, "_Hydraulics online, magnetic weapon locks online, x-ray vision available,"_ That last bit caught Edward by surprise.

"X-ray vision?" Xerarch nodded.

"A little innovation on my part, it allows you to see through most materials and it works in the dark and full light," she scratched a finger along her collar bone, "the ultimate hunting vision."

"Nifty, can I ask if there's anything else?" she cocked a hip to the side and looked him dead in the eyes with a serious, businesswoman edge.

"The X-ray vision was free, if you want anything else then you'll be paying for it," Xerarch disappeared for a moment before returning with his swords.

Handing them to Edward, he noticed the difference in weight distinctly, he'd become accustomed to the weight of the blade he had brought with him despite only having it for a few months, adjusting to two lighter blades would be tricky at first. Unsheathing one, he noticed the blade was not only lighter but thinner as well.

"There should be more metal. Where is it?" Edward knew that people getting a hold of Adamantium would be very bad in the long run, he was determined to keep the stuff to himself.

"The hilt from your original swords were made of steel, with a weapon like that you're going to want the same metal to keep the blade together," the black leather grip on the weapon covered the majority of the grip but the pommel shone very similarly to the blade, easing Edward's mind.

"Thanks for this Xerarch," Edward slid the weapons over his shoulders, they clicked into place when parallel with his spine.

"No problems, the Shadow Broker told me that he'd pay for the suit and the weapons, and that you'll be paying for anything after now," he nodded and turned towards the exit, "but you're still going to pay me," he turned back and cocked an eyebrow.

"And what, may I ask, is that going to be?" They stared each other down over the short distance.

"There's a small Sila Drakona armoury not far from here, maybe twelve guys in total, kill them and we'll be square," the armoured super-soldier nodded and moved out before an idea came to him.

Moving quickly through to the armoury, Edward found the Krogan care-taker cleaning the same pistol from earlier. He glanced up and let out a small smile as the man came in and started going through his bag of guns.

"Going on a mission already?" He pulled a cloth through the barrel of the pistol absent mindedly as Edward attached all the guns, "you're eager to say the least."

"Merax, remember back when we first met and I asked you about what you had in here," he nodded.

"You still have that briefcase bomb?" The Krogan opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

**(14:31, 26/02/80, Citadel, Tayseri Ward, SD weapons locker D16, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward dropped down silently into the darkness of the dead end alley, the two Batarians stood guard not three metres in front of him as he pulled his twin blades from their sheaths and crept forward quietly.

The one closest to him turned slightly to face him, a vindicator clutched in his arms. Extremis froze as the Batarian looked into the shadows. For several tense seconds the super-soldier crouched low to the ground.

He turned back and in that moment, Extremis struck. He leapt high into the air and at the zenith of his jump he hurled his blades down, they impaled the two through the tops of their backs, a whimper escaped one as they both slouched to the ground, dead.

Retrieving the swords, Edward quickly activated the x-ray vision and looked into the small base of operations. Xerarch had been right about the number of mercs inside, each of the ten remaining members of Sila Drakona were oblivious to two of their number just having coughed it.

The closest man to the door was a Krogan, a brute with his back to the door. Not far from him sat three human shaped mercs and a salarian, their posture told Edward they were playing some form of card game. The other members of the group were at different parts of the room, most seemed to be armed but only the Krogan in the front had his gun out.

Swapping out a sword for a locust, Edward stood a couple paces back from the door. He waited a moment then leapt forward and kicked the door off its hinges.

The door was thrown across the room and buried in the wall opposite, narrowly missing the Salarian at the table. Before the Krogan could spin, the blade was thrust through his shoulder blades, severing his spine and dropping him. The others tried to rise but the blade was hurled across the room, nailing a quick on the draw Turian to the wall.

The other sword was hurled across the room, cutting into a Salarian that tried to bring a pistol to bare. Edward whipped out the other locust and rained down fire on the four sat at the table. Their shields were down and the only one who managed to get up was dropped before he could bring it online.

Another Krogan roared and charged forward as his shotgun barked ammo into the shields. A super-kick sent him flying through a doorway moments before Extremis' shield cracked with a sound like shattering glass.

Edward knocked the rectangular table onto its side and leapt behind, several bullets ripped through the metal close to his head. The bar on his HUD started to refill within moments of him sensing someone was advancing, the soldier smashed a fist against the table, the force hurled it backwards into the Batarian that had been coming straight at him.

Edward pumped a burst of rounds into the second last member, the weak shield the Human wore fell quickly and the woman followed moments later. The last member had used the distraction to prime a grenade and as the super-soldier turned the Salarian hurled it.

Edward dodged to the side as it hurtled towards his chest, the absence of something to hit meant it then flew out the door and blew apart over the bodies of the Batarian's outside. The Salarian fell with a protracted groan as several rounds shot out of his back.

"Let's see what they've got," Edward pulled up the armour's inbuilt omni-tool and attached it to a terminal on the wall. The hacking technology that came with the omni-tool cut through the encryption on the terminal in under a minute. C-sec would've been alerted to the grenade going off so he had to get this done and set the bomb off, it being strapped to his back, before they arrived.

Only three files were on the terminal, Edward transferred them across as he slung the briefcase bomb off his shoulder and opened it up. The interface was fairly simple; just put in the time needed, press start, and run like hell. It was by no means a powerful bomb but it would destroy everything in this armoury and scare the deepest of shit out of other people in the building.

Giving himself a full minute he sealed the case back up and retrieved his swords, the wet smack as he pulled them out was by far his least favourite noise but it was necessary to accomplish his goals. He quickly stepped out and hurled himself upwards onto the roof opposite the building.

He opened the contacts on the omni-tool and contacted Xerarch.

"Is it done?" she asked as the line picked up.

Edward didn't reply only holding out his arm as the explosion rocked the buildings around him. Screams came from the seat as fire and smoke pillared into the sky. A small smile came to him, it was awful what he'd just done but all the same he'd always wanted to blow up a merc base.

"Very good," she chuckled down the line, "This is the start of a beautiful friendship," wasn't the word Edward would use but still.

"I think we can help each other," Edward started to move away from the blast zone, "i can get you business and you can give me an inside look at Sila Drakona, targets, weaknesses etcetera,"

"And how would I get business from you?" she asked, a devilish tone to her voice.

"I keep the pressure up on the mercs and they get you to build them suits, not to mention I will need some more equipment so there is that," her silence told Edward that she was considering it.

"Can I come to you whenever I have... a problem?" Edward leapt across the next street and broke into a run as a squad car rushed by.

"Define problem," The sound of sirens slowly receded in the distance as he ran.

"the usual; business rivals, uppity buyers who refuse to pay, ex-lovers, depends on who's causing me trouble," she purred over the line.

"If there's money in it then i'm your man for the job," Edward slowed to a halt as soon as he could no longer see the pillar of smoke over his shoulder.

"Indeed," she cut the line after a pause, Edward sighed as more work seemed to line itself up for the future.

**(11:23, 03/03/80, Citadel, Kithoi Ward, Strigoi financial sector, Serpent Nebula)**

"In these uncertain times there is nothing more important than saving for the future, today may be bad but tomorrow may be ten times worse, what would we tell our children, and their children, when they can't have as good a life as we have now, surely our sacrifice is worthy for they will benefit in a way that -," A large, dark blue, hole was punched through the Turian's chest as he held the podium with both hands.

Half a kilometre away, Edward looked out from behind the scope of his Valiant, smoke curled up from the barrel as the large crowd below started to swarm in the face of the assassination. The speech had been the owner of a large corporation that made its wealth on pharmaceutical and agricultural advances.

In truth the Turian with a six inch wide hole in his chest cavity just now had been embezzling credits in the millions and was about to hit the billions. His second in command had confronted him when he discovered this and when the Turian threatened to have him killed, the Salarian had come to the Shadow Broker personally and asked for this.

Edward was more than happy considering that the Salarian had promised over two million credits in recompense for his death. Normally he wouldn't have but the company itself was losing money that could have been used to prevent disease and save lives. Naturally he'd taken the offer when he saw how much the company was losing.

"Klixen it's Maw, target is taken care of, move to phase 2," Edward muttered into the headset.

At these words, the projectors that were showing the companies logo jumped into life with the video that the contact had made before hand. The noise stopped the panicking audience as the Salarian's masked voice began to explain what had just happened, it was a short video with all the data they needed to see and all the facts they needed to hear.

"Klixen, phase 2 complete, moving -" a blast of air hit him as a gunship whipped overhead and turned towards him, Edward recognised the insignia of a white dragon against the green hull as that of Sila Drakona, "Might have a spot of bother here Klixen," Edward shot to the side as a missile whistled out of its bracket and detonated further across the rooftop.

"Extremis!" the Turian in the pilot's chair yelled over the radio, "you could have stopped this but now it's personal!" The axial mounted minigun whirred up and started to spit hundreds of rounds at the super-soldier.

Edward leapt to the side as the metal behind him was annihilated by the hail of bullets. Swapping out his sniper for his rifle he slammed the tungsten ammo button and hurled himself high into the air, as he raised above the minigun's firing arc he fired blindingly fast into the canopy of the gunship, the pilot writhed as rounds cut through him before slumping forward onto the controls.

The gunship spun out of control and crashed across the rooftop, a large explosion rent the air as it tore up everything still on the rooftop. Edward on the other hand had misjudged his jump and was now falling from the 100 story building.

It wasn't too much of a bother for Edward, the shock absorbers in his boots if anything were stronger than before, this would create a bit of a crater but he shouldn't feel anything. The square that the meeting had been held in was still full of spectators and news teams now reporting on the assassination.

All turned at the huge crash behind them, a car had been reduced to scrap metal beneath the feet of a large, armoured, man, two swords were strapped across his back, not to mention the full compliment of guns he was covered in.

Inside of a second, hundreds of cameras were on him, and the next second there were several firearms fixed on him. Three nearby C-sec officer had moved in with their standard issue predators trained on him, the three were hesitant considering it looked like he'd fallen the height of the massive building above him.

"Step down and put your hands behind your head," one of the three, an Asari, said loudly and clearly.

The large man didn't respond, from the gap in the visor they could tell that the man was a Caucasian male. His eye colour was a dark blue and he was extremely dangerous. One of them jerked his gun downwards, motioning for him to move away from the wreckage.

And then he was gone, he'd been standing still and before anyone could stop him he had breezed past the officers and hurtled away along the street. There couldn't have been any more than a handful of seconds of footage but that was enough. The extranet was waiting.

**(12:17, 03/03/80, Citadel, Presidium, Barla Von's Office, Serpent Nebula)  
**

"This isn't good Von," Edward said as the Volus replayed the newest high trending video on the extranet, it had just beaten a video of Varren being stupid.

"I don't know, publicity may be good for you," the video in question had had over 2,000,000 hits in the last half hour.

"I don't think the private assassin working for the Shadow Broker and waging a secret war against a merc group, should be on the camera at all let alone a popular video," he ran a hand through his hair with a groan, "it doesn't help that C-sec is after me, this is just going to make things worse."

"What lead do they have other than twelve seconds of film? None, they have nearly no way of getting to you," his words didn't assuage Edward's tension as a silence descended across the room.

"Has the contact fulfilled the contract?" Edward said wearily, he was getting close to the time where he needed to sleep, he could put it off till the night but he would be irritable if he stayed like this.

"They've wired the credits but they cut the pay because of your little stunt," Edward growled under his breath.

"Remind our contact that everything he asked us to do and any negotiations on the price ended when the target was killed, I understand his apprehensiveness at the public spectacle I caused but it was beyond control and therefore we are not responsible for the altercation," Von typed this out while the Assassin spoke through gritted teeth.

"If that doesn't work you could always go over to his house and beat sense into him," The Volus sent the email, "still 1,000,000 credits can do some people for their entire lives, some Asari could get by on that," Edward sat in the guest chair and stared at his helmet on the edge of the desk.

"It's not the money, don't get me wrong its a nice incentive, but I do it as it benefits those that a lot of higher ups would rather shaft than put a little strain on their own lives when it would make a world of difference," He slumped against the chair, a hand on the folded up locust on his right hip, " I kill because its the right thing to do," His senses were dulling as he sat there and realised he needed to get away sooner or later.

"You do the work of the filth for a noble cause," Von was having a rather quiet work day, no-one seemed to need banking done and all the paperwork had been done in the morning, "A strange notion these days."

"Indeed," he collapsed his head into his hands, "has our Salarian chum called back."

Von checked the computer bank and sighed, "He's given us a lovely little verse of exactly two words," Edward looked at the see through screen and the read the back to front words.

_Bite me_

"I'm going to skin that Salarian cunt," Edward stood and slammed his helmet on.

"So it's not about the money," Von said as Edward growled angrily under his breath.

"There's a distinct lack of moral scruples nowadays and right now I'm going to beat some of them into a dog legged frog," He turned and slammed the holo-lock on the door before disappearing in a blur of movement.

"May he have mercy," The Volus banker murmured in the silence that followed.

**(14:30, 03/03/80, Citadel, Kithoi Ward, 100 blocks, Serpent Nebula)**

The 100 blocks in Kithoi Ward were known to be some of the best homes on the Citadel. Being in the more business focused sector, the designers of the buildings had a habit of ripping down the old, uninhabited models, old being relative, and putting up new ones every other year. They were pristine white statues to decadence and cost more than most people could make in a lifetime, Asari included.

Edward perched on the top of a building, far below he could make out several C-sec squad cars were parked outside the building that contained his quarry. He had no intention of killing anyone, hurting yes, but no killing was on the table. The Salarian was in the penthouse of the high-class apartment block and Edward could make out at least a half dozen officers, they may be dirty but all the better to not find out the hard way, and the Salarian brazenly sitting in his lounge talking to a client, no-doubt trying to secure his place as head of the company.

"Here I come fucker," Edward muttered angrily as he broke into a sprint along the rooftop, launching himself high into the air and onto the building opposite. His quiet landing gave him the element of surprise as he dropped down onto the spacious veranda of the penthouse and quietly opened the sliding glass door.

The Salarian screamed in fear as he noticed the intruder, yelling for the officers to attack he ran from the room and locked himself in his bedroom. The officers in the room didn't hesitate to open fire on him, the glass behind Edward shattered as he tucked and rolled to the side before leaping forward as he came onto the balls of his feet and driving a fist into the guts of the first, a Turian, he dropped with a cry as his ribs cracked.

The other, an Asari, tried to fire a point blank shot into Edward's head but as she squeezed the trigger, the gun was ripped from her hand and hurled out the window. A blow hit her at the nape of her neck, she passed out as the Assassin turned and leapt the couch, driving a foot into the chest of another officer and pushing into a back flip with the officer as an anchor.

The officer flew back and crashed into a bookcase on the wall, the shelves collapsing around him. The three remaining officers opened fire in wild abandon at the ever moving black shape. Two fell to the ground unconscious as the shape darted past them, two shapes that the remaining human could only guess at being arms shooting out and catching the two in the face.

"I'm out," the terrified man said as he darted for the exit, "fuck the money!" he said as the shape descended and knocked him out with a smack to the back of his head with the butt of his pistol.

Edward landed and stepped towards the bedroom that he saw the Salarian disappear into. When he entered he was met by something he didn't expect. A large vault door occupied the furthest wall, the only access to it seemed to be a single panel on the wall.

"Fuck you Extremis, you won't get in here, not before C-sec arrives and kill your ass," an image popped up on a screen at the foot of the bed, "no fucking chance!"

"Pray to god for mercy for I shall give you none," Edward was unnecessarily angry as he said this, weeks of pent up fury got to him at last, his normal calm visage breaking down.

"Try your wors-" the vault door shook as Edward drove a fist into it with all his might, the metal contorted around his fist as he struck again, the ground shaking at each blow. As each blow landed he growled violently, the Salarian shrunk back as the door began to bend inwards.

"You're a mad man!" The Salarian screeched in fear, the blows getting harder with each passing moment.

"I'm Extremis and i'm having a bad day!" he yelled and punched, his fist passed straight through the metal and out the other side, "and its mostly your fault," the door became wider as another fist was forced into the hole and the metal was ripped to the side.

The door was eventually reduced to scrap and the angry super-soldier stepped through the gap, heaving with anger. The Salarian pushed himself as far into the corner of the panic room as he could, if he was a Krogan then it could be said that Edward was going through a blood rage attack but then again Krogan don't usually punch their way through two feet of titanium.

"Please don't," The man picked him up with one hand and threw him through the hole, "please."

The super-soldier dragged him through the house, past the unconscious C-sec officers and onto the veranda. The Salarian whimpered and snapped his eyes shut as he was dangled over the edge of the building.

"I want you to remember what I did to that door and if you ever, EVER, try to profit at someone else's expense then i'm going to come back here and make you look like that door," the man threw the Salarian was thrown bodily through the glass wall of his apartment, he crashed over the couch and when he rose he couldn't see Extremis anywhere.

**(17:11, 03/03/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward slumped wearily onto his bed, he'd hidden away his armour like always but his guns were stacked in a corner, out of sight when looking in the door. He managed to roll his swords under his bed before he collapsed down.

He didn't need to sleep much but when the need hit... well... it hit, and hard. As soon as his back had met the mattress his eyes shut and he felt into a fugue of dim dreams. A couple of his more vivid dreams brought him back to the early days. But one particular that was always so vivid that it was a breath from being lucid.

The acrid smell of burning flesh tore at his sensitive nostrils, the smoke pillared ringed the building, pouring out from nearly every window of the building, a detonating Extremis had the unhelpful side effect of setting everything on fire, that'd been Maya Hansen, she'd panicked and tried to invent a much quicker version of the virus, it'd led to the version seen in the movies, the incomplete version, however, had a near complete incompatibility with humans, the body became a bomb that could level a building.

But that was far from his mind at the moment.

Edward growled at the form of Aldrich Killian, the fifty year odd man looked more in his twenties, all the age having been flushed out when he took Extremis. He rippled with muscles, fiery red veins covered his body, a side effect of trying to augment the serum by another step.

"So this is it 78, the creation has come for the creator! Spare me, Frankenstein!" Edward clutched the twelve inch combat knife in his hand, "I expect you want to know why?" he fired a line of electricity straight into Edward, the energy didn't affect him as he directed it out of himself and into a radio tower in the compound.

"No, I want you dead," The pulsing red lines grew brighter around Killian's neck, Edward knew what he was going to try and knew it wouldn't work.

"Really 78? No wonder? No explanation?" he sighed as the lights grew brighter, "I'm disappointed in you 78," his voice became dark, deep, and violent as Plasma started to fill his lungs.

"My name is Edward!" he roared, the stream of melting hot plasma shot over his head as he bolted forward in a roll, landing on his feet he forged forward and swung the blade towards Killian's neck.

He dodged to the side and swung a fist into Edward's stomach, the blow hit like a sledge hammer yet Edward put it aside and drove the pommel of the knife into Killian's side, cracking ribs. He growled angrily before hurling Edward away to the far side of the roof, the dagger dancing out of his hand.

The super-soldier leapt up and dove for the knife as Killian moved for it. The scientist snatched it from his finger tips and drove it through the super-soldier's left biceps. A yell escaped his mouth as the scientist kicked him hard in the side of the head, blood sprayed from his mouth and his vision exploded into white before another blow landed on his leg and a distinct crack rent the air.

"This time, however, The monster will die by the master's hand," he sighed and ripped the knife out of Edward's arm, blood pooled beneath him from the compound fracture in his leg and the cut in his arm, "goodbye Frankenstein," he swapped the knife into an ice-pick grip and hefted it at eye level.

"Fuck you!" Edward growled and threw a punch hard into the shin of his opponent, the blow wasn't much but it knocked the scientist to the ground, giving the superhero his most needed advantage.

Edward threw himself on his prone opponent, pinning Killian to the ground with his legs, sitting up on his chest and bringing fist after fist down on his face. He tried to fight back but the pure determination of the superhero kept him on top as he continued to rock the area with his earth-shaking punches.

After a while he was just punching a bloody soup with lumpy bits mixed in. He pushed himself off and fished in a pocket on the kevlar body armour. He pulled out the small cylinder and pressed the little red button on the end, the microphone popped up out of the opposite end as Edward brought it to his mouth.

"Director Fury..." he growled as he snapped his bone back inside him, "it's done, Killian and Hansen are both dead, building's on fire... not my fault mind you but still, I wouldn't try the front door," he dropped the communicator and slumped to the ground, he hadn't slept for two weeks and in that moment, the roof of a burning building beside the corpse he'd beaten into a paste wasn't below him as a bed.

And that was where the dream ended.

**(02:14, 04/03/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward woke with a start, having been torn from his dreams by something. He sensed movement further through the apartment, the light footsteps rang like a bell through the floor for him, the person was light, lighter than Amarisia, Edward slowly took his boots off and left them on the bed, grabbing one of his swords he drew it and slowly made his way through to the living room. He noticed a figure moving silently through to Amarisia's room.

He silently flitted across the floor with the drawn blade in his hand. The figure had entered through the open door, Edward stalked up behind the intruder as they entered the room. Edward lashed forward and clamped a hand to their mouth while sliding the blade under her chin.

"No noise," Edward pulled the assailant back through the door silently and into his own room. He felt a squeezing sensation on his hand. He almost chuckled as the intruder tried to bite into his hand, "you'll need to try a lot harder than that to cut my skin," he slid open the window to the balcony and pushed the person outside first.

"Who are you?" Edward held the tip of the blade at the persons chin, a hood hid the features of the person, "and why shouldn't I put this through you?" the person was tense on the tip of the adamantium sword.

"I represent an... enterprise, one who has become very interested in you," the feminine voice had an Italian accent yet did not tremble even when faced with death, "I was sent to retrieve you."

"Retrieve me?" Edward thought for a minute, "let's see, shadowy figures, sneaking about, attempted abduction, must be Cerberus," the person's posture expressed mild shock.

"We've underestimated you Mr Scarrow," she crossed her arms and leant against the railing, "you shall come with me however."

"Last time I looked, you're the one with a sword to your throat," she chuckled and pulled the hood down to let her black, velvety, locks spill down her neck to just above her shoulder blades.

"And you're the one with a sniper dot on your skull," Edward chuckled.

"You don't have the fire power to breach the bone, best quit while you're ahead and we can forget this ever happened," she gave Edward a sickly sweet smirk at his words.

"Well maybe it won't kill you but it will kill her," she jerked a thumb along the balcony, Edward leapt forward and wrapped a hand around her neck.

"If you harm her then they'll be picking bits of you and your team out of the gutter," she met his eyes with a steely gaze and spoke.

"Your choice, come with me or she gets a new piercing," Edward tightened his grip before relinquishing and throwing her to the ground.

"Where are we going then," the woman choked before picking herself up and straightening her clothes.

"Not far," she made her way quietly out of the apartment while Edward pulled on his boots and attached the sword he had out to his back by the strap attached to the sheath. He turned to the window again and hopped the railing, he fell the short distance from his seventh floor apartment to the ground. The impact was somewhat jarring without his boots but all the same he could do it fine.

"Impressive," the person spoke as she exited the main door of the building and strolled towards the super-soldier, "we could really use you."

"We'll see," Edward turned and walked beside her as she led them to an alley not far from the building, at the far end was parked a deep blue skycar, two heavily armoured guards stood off to the side, vindicators in their arms.

"This doesn't feel threatening at all," Edward muttered as he climbed into the passenger seat, the woman and the two guards taking up the remaining seats. The car whined as it rose into the air and set off.

"I know you are hesitant to go with us but we are all on the same side here," Edward gave the woman a sardonic glance as she steered them into the main traffic lanes.

"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, but if you threaten anyone I know again then you will have hell to pay," Edward stared ahead with steely determination in his eyes, "don't make me your enemy."

"Noted," The rest of the journey was silent, all the time Edward learnt every weakness he could in the three other car occupants, the soldiers were straight forward, each evidently favouring a side to lead with in combat, the tight conditions also favoured Edward's hand to hand style of beating everything to a pulp.

The buildings eventually gave way to the ship yards that ringed the Ward arms, the location made Edward suspicious of what Cerberus had planned and if he needed to was more than able to fight his way out.

The car slowed to a halt outside of a small hanger near to a large shipwright, a steady stream of people walked past, oblivious to the radical humans and the super-soldier that had just landed and moved quickly into the shadows of the long and squat building.

The inside was dominated by a long, thin, ship that looked like an oversized pen with an engine strapped onto the end. A ramp extended from the front of the ship, several more armoured commandos flanking the way in.

"Right this way Scarrow," the woman strode up the ramp and into the belly of the ship. To emphasise the point that he didn't have a choice one of the men behind him gave him a forceful shove.

Edward turned on him, "Would like to repeat that?" The man made no movement as the super-soldier glowered down at him, "didn't think so," he turned and marched up the ramp.

"Don't mind them, they're used to handling people who can't fight back, the physical brutality is just they're thing," the woman said clearly as Edward caught up.

"You might want to remind them that this sword is mostly for show," the operative cast him a glance, any worry had been suppressed but Edward knew it was there nevertheless.

"They don't matter now, my boss wants to speak with you, maybe he can convince you to join our cause," Edward knew it was futile, he had no intention of joining Cerberus until the last possible moment.

The woman stopped at a doorway near to the middle of the ship, the orange and white had not really been to Edwards taste in the games and that dislike seemed to have made the jump intact to real life. He adjusted the sword on his back as the door slid open to admit him to a dark room, a large monitor covered the far wall in front of a long conference table.

"He's waiting," The operative turned on her heel and walked off back along the corridor without another word. Edward took a breath and marched purposefully into the lion's den.

**And that's that. If you want to vote on who the LI's going to be then the poll's on my profile, should be at the top. Want to say something about the story in general, comment on where you think it should be going, or any other ideas you may have then please don't hesitate to ask below.**

**As Always,**

**Hab67t**


	6. I liked this shirt

**Operation Extremis**

**Hey guys! Been a bit of a busy week, had two exams, but that didn't stop me getting this chapter together for you. If it is a little lacking then i'm sorry but Exams do seriously whittle you down in a short time. So on to the poll.**

**Shepard: 10**

**Miranda: 6**

**Tali: 3**

**Ashley: 2**

**Liara: 2**

**Amarisia: 1**

**Tela Vasir: 1**

**Just a quick warning but there's smut in this chapter so if you're not into that sort of that thing then watch for the markings stating when it starts and ends. **

**Enjoy**

**(02:31, 04/03/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, Cerberus Private Dock, Serpent Nebula)**

The large monitor flickered into life as the door slid shut behind Edward, a few dim lights shone on the surface of the conference table in front of him. A prickling feeling wriggled its way up Edward's spine while the screen displayed a connection message. He wasn't sure how ready he was when it came to Cerberus. They had money and power that could make his life a misery and he had very little to fight back with.

The screen went completely black, Edward's breath hitched in his throat as several seconds passed by. Then the feed connected and the head of Cerberus itself appeared on the screen.

He looked just like he did in the games; clothed in an immaculate professional suit with a thin cigarette held between the index and middle fingers of his right hand. His eyes shone out of his face like two night lights. The hollow blue light of the Reaper tech that had infected him on Palaven only served to give him an even more alien feel than anything else.

"Edward Scarrow," he began, taking a puff on the cigarette, "the Shadow Broker's new play thing," his deep, charismatic, voice had little effect on Edward, he knew how mad he was deep down.

"The Illusive Man, enigmatic leader of the pro-human dominance group Cerberus," Edward decided to let the taps go a bit on what he knew, "real name Jack Harper," anger seized his features at these words.

"How do you know that!" he yelled at the screen.

"That's the least of it Jack, I know about Palaven, the arca monolith, the velluvian priests, the whole lot," TIM regained control of his emotions, a neutral expression replacing the anger as he took a strong suck on his cigarette.

"I don't know how you know all that but I assure you that if you tell anyone outside of this room then i'll hunt you to the next galaxy and back," the threat was not lost on Edward yet he chose to brush it off in favour of hastening this meeting.

"I presume you wanted something Harper," Edward sat in one of the black leather chairs and kicked his feet up on the table, "otherwise you got me out of bed for nothing."

"I want you," Edward cocked an eyebrow at the man as he paused to take a draw on the cigarette, "You've been in our sights ever since you abducted Severio Tanaka, as it happens he was working for us covertly at the time, the mercs he hired were top notch yet we found them dead and barely a shot fired."

"Looking further into your case we discovered efficiency that the highest of the high could only just hope to achieve," he extinguished the cigarette and looked straight at Edward with his piercing eyes, "Bluntly put, we could use someone like you working for us," Edward never lost his gaze while he considered the proposal.

"I think i'll stay where I am, thanks Jack, but I like what i'm doing with the Shadow Broker," Edward rose from his seat and turned to the door.

"Scarrow it is your duty as a human to put your abilities to the benefit of humanity, you won't do that working with aliens, only with us can you help humanity to its fullest," Edward chuckled bitterly.

"You make a convincing argument," he shook his head and turned back to the screen, "one problem with it though."

"And that is?" his voice was terse as if he was holding back a wave of frustration.

"I'm not human, I'm my own species and you may refer to me as an Extremis," Edward turned and tried to open the door, the lock made a negative sound upon repeated pressing of the open button.

"I'm afraid you are not going anywhere," Edward growled and drew his sword in a smooth motion, "you will be taken to a remote facility and studied, you will die but your body will benefit humanity," Edward growled and readied a bolt of lightning in his arm.

"You really have no idea what you're dealing with Jack, and you just made a new enemy," the bolt shot forth and destroyed the screen in a flurry of sparks, with an angry kick, the doors flew off their hinges and bounced down the corridors.

Extremis advanced forward with the sword in one hand and another bolt ready in the other, a snarl lit his face as he marched down the long corridor. Two commandos leant out of cover, both using turns in the corridor to hide behind. One fell as the sword hit like a jack hammer and nailed them to the wall behind, the other screamed as lightning threw her back along the corridor, a small fire broke out where the bolt had hit.

Edward retrieved the blade and started to retrace his steps to the exit of the ship, a solitary soldier leapt out of a side passage and attempted to drive a knife through Edward's chest, if he'd been human the blow would have gone through his heart, a rip in Edward's shirt was all that he got.

The soldier in turn was hurled head first into a far wall, his helmet of reinforced metal caved in as he hit it harder than a speeding car. Edward spun on his heel as multiple people moved hurriedly towards him.

Grabbing the knife and a predator off of the nearby corpse, before rolling into cover by the doorway the soldier came through. Three heavily armoured commandos totting vindicators opened fire at the other end of the hallway, several rounds pinged off the frame and ricocheted off the floor close to Edward. In the same moment that they stopped firing Edward lent out and hurled the combat knife overhand, the speed and force knocked its target back into the wall.

The super-soldier pumped rounds down range into the chest of the mercs to his left, he screamed as his shields detonated and several rounds perforated his internal organs. Grabbing his sword Edward charged forward at blinding speeds.

The remaining commando threw himself back and fired a protracted burst of gunfire into Edward's chest moments before he drove the long sword through his chest. The super-soldier grimaced as the small cuts on his chest knitted up, he pushed on despite the pain, a little blood had seeped into his shirt.

Edward's patience snapped and he broke into a run, sword held before him, anyone who stepped into his path fell under his blade as he thundered on forward. Several more rounds cut through Edward as he ran.

He made the last turn and smashed the days off of their hinges before charging down the ramp, he slowed to a halt as the five commandos blocked his path, led by the woman from before. She herself pointed a carnifex at his chest while her men used vindicators. Edward noticed her omni-tool was active as he changed his sword into a single handed grip.

"You tried but this is where you stop Scarrow," Edward smirked maliciously at her as two more men came out from the ship.

"You made a bit of a mistake letting me out here don't you think?" Edward crouched lower as he prepared to leap.

"No, I knew what you were going to do," without another word she brought her omni-tool up and fired a cryo-blast at his chest. It collided and the deep freezing covered him in an instant, he found himself fighting for air as the cold crushed his chest. Panicking, he put a plan into action and started to warm up his fire breath, his lungs very slowly filling with plasma as the operative advanced slowly, the gun hanging lazily by her side.

"Get the cryo unit, we need him on ice if we're to get him to Chohe," she ordered the men behind him, she leant down to his eye level and smiled unwholesomely at the rage that resided there, "I don't see why I don't shoot you now, you'll end up dead either way," she turned and started to order her people around as Edward started to get substantially warmer.

Loud cracks rent the air, the woman leapt to the side as the ice covering the super-soldier shattered outwards. The men with their guns out started firing wildly into the thick cloud of white ice particles but they hit nothing.

A large crunch sounded behind the furthest commando from the cloud followed by a scream as a sword was shoved through the small of his back, the remaining men spun and aimed down their sights yet all that greeted them was their comrade lying in a pool of his own blood.

"Don't spread out, he picks off stragglers first," Edward glowered down at her from the roof of the ship. The stolen commando's vindicator clutched in his hand as the Cerberus operatives began glancing round their surroundings.

"Stop chasing me and my friends and you all can live," Edward roared, his voice echoing round the building, "otherwise you probably should start running," he aimed his rifle at the next commando, he'd just stepped forward slightly.

"Our orders are to take you alive or dead, we don't disobey our orders," this was met with a cheer from the others, during which one of their number was riddled with holes and fell dead.

"That's a shame, just remember you had a choice," Edward hurled himself high into the air and threw the gun down hard on the heads of those huddled below, it smashed into the shoulder of one of the commandos, shattering bone and stumbling him out of the circle. Edward landed and beheaded the wounded soldier before kicking the body as it fell into the group.

The three remaining soldiers and the woman were thrown apart by the body as Edward moved forward and drove the sword through his nearest adversary. One of them recovered quickly, rolling to the side and bringing their vindicator to chest height, Edward pirouetted to the side and destroyed the gun with a swing of his sword, the blade came back down and pushed through his spine and out through his chest.

On instinct Edward combat rolled to the side before hurling the sword at the last standing commando, the blade hammered into his chest and threw him back twenty feet. Leaping over, Edward recovered the blade before turning on his last target, the woman.

She growled and fired several rounds at Edward with her carnifex, he danced out of the way all the while drawing closer. The gun overheated and she threw it aside, drawing a large combat knife from the fatigues she switched up her stealth clothes for. She beckoned him forward with her free hand while holding the 12 inch knife in an ice pick grip.

Edward stepped forward with a thrust, the woman stepped to the side and smashed a foot into the side of the sword, the kick sent the sword to the side and taking the momentum Edward followed through with a back hand that sent her sprawling on the ground.

The Operative rolled to the side as he stabbed down to towards her back, the blade became buried halfway to the hilt in the metal flooring. With a swift tug the sword came free, Edward used the energy from the yank to slice the sword down at the woman, the blade of her knife split from the grip as the sword finally landed a blow.

The super-soldier caught the piece of metal in the air at the same time as he delivered a kick to the chest of the woman, sending her flying back into the ship, the blow threw her hands into the air while knocking the air from her lungs. Before she could take a single lungful of air her left hand flared with great pain.

A yell of agony escaped her lips when she saw the blade impaling her hand to the hull, she dared not move the arm as to not aggravate the pain that was coursing through it, a tingling numbness had descended into her fingers as a hand gripped like steel round her neck.

"Listen, bitch," Edward threw her head back roughly, "I'm only going to say this once," he stood back and slid his sword back into its sheath.

"What is it," she growled through gritted teeth at the super-soldier.

"You tell the Illusive Man that if he comes after me ever again then the damage I will cause to your fucking organisation will be nothing like he's faced before. He will rue the day that he stepped into the arena with me and I won't hesitate to put him down like a dog," Edward stared poisonously down at her before vanishing in a blur of movement.

The sound of C-sec squad cars blared as the doors to the hanger were flung open and several officers rushed inside with guns prepared. The woman groaned as they noticed her surrounded by the bodies of her dead men. She glanced up and the last thing before she was circled by the men was an opened hatch on the ceiling.

**(04:23, 04/03/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

"That was too close," Edward muttered as, having had a couple hours sleep which would probably keep him up till the next day, sorted the guns gathered in a haphazard pile into their cases and stacked them neatly in the bottom of his wardrobe.

The aches from the bullet wounds he'd suffered were slowly clearing, a couple rounds had hit ribs and fractured them, this only limited him minutely when it came to movement and combat, unless Sila Drakona knocked down his door at that exact moment then it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

An unpleasant realisation came to Edward as he glanced out the window. Living with him, hell, even living in the same building as him was insanely dangerous. He'd assumed that he'd easily be able to keep his real identity and his work identity as two separate things but evidently he'd underestimated the distribution of information around here. It was a bloody miracle that C-sec hadn't figured out who he was yet.

He resolved to ask Barla Von about it next time he saw him, this place was bloody vulnerable and needed some asshole proofing. He'd settle for bullet proof windows at the least but if he could make this place into a fortress then he would.

Moving out flickered in his mind for a moment but that could be worse than staying, if the mercs came knocking and he wasn't here then all kinds of things could happen that wouldn't if here were here to mitigate the damage.

Not expecting any more guests, Edward stripped off the torn up shirt and jeans, several rounds seemed to have cut through them during the fight unbeknownst to him, and slid back into the warm bed, a sigh of contentment escaped his lips as he relaxed into the seats.

The Illusive Man tapped the cold butt of his spent cigarette against the arm of his chair as he stared at the bank of monitors, the hanger was now filled by forensics scientists, a line of black body bags lined the side. The only survivors had already been taken away, the commander to the hospital and the living crew to the closest precinct.

Extremis' words echoed in his mind as, whom he assumed was the lead detective, walked onto the screen and started to talk to the forensic scientists. He had no intention of leaving the super-soldier alone, human or not, his DNA could ensure dominance.

He could see it now, a single company of Extremis landing on a planet and decimating it on their own. Nothing would stop them, The Turian hierarchy would crumble and those Asari whores would fall, their frankly apathetic approach to conflict would insure their swift destruction. He almost smiled at the idea, the victory he'd sought ever since he'd established Cerberus was looking closer than ever.

"If he won't come willingly then we'll send the experts," Jack muttered into the darkness as he brought up several dossiers on his screen, a sickly sweet smile broke his stern features.

"Send for Kai Leng, i've got a job for him," Harper ordered his secretary over the comms before glancing into the heart of the deep red star in front of him, the smile sat comfortably on him as he contemplated what he'd just unleashed on the Shadow Broker's operative.

**(15:13, 08/03/80, Citadel, Shalta Ward, Underground Gladiator Arena, Serpent Nebula)**

**CRUNCH**

The blow landed hard on the side of Edward's head, the hard metal boss of the shield grinding against the bone of his jaw as the Batarian struck again. He stumbled back a pace towards the metal bars of the small cage, the howling masses outside all seemed to scream one word.

Blood.

Edward rolled to the side and studied his opponent, he was a sorry excuse for a fighter, the armour was undoubtedly too heavy and he was sweating profusely, the helmet restricted his eyes meaning he was wasting even more energy trying to find Edward every time he rolled out of eye sight. The large curved blade was, however, still tightly clutched in his grip.

Edward himself was bare except for the jeans he had wore when he arrived several days ago, his shirt had been taken from him as soon as he'd stepped into the arena. He'd fought his way through several opponents and was drawing close to the arena champion, from what he'd heard from the other gladiators in-between bouts he was this Krogan who'd beaten a human to death with the spine of his Turian combat partner, the Krogan's not the human's.

The problem at hand seemed to be that either the host had forgot to give him a knife or they hadn't deliberately.

"You're fucked no matter what you do!" the Batarian seemed to relax as he sensed his victory.

Edward curled a fist and stood straight from the crouch he had come up in, a snarl escaped his lips as the Batarian raised the two foot piece of crude steel. He took his sweet time as Edward lowered his eyes to the floor and focused on the Batarian's leg muscles, as they tensed he threw himself to the side before darting behind the gladiator and grappling him in a choke hold.

Wasting no time he forced him onto the floor and picked up the sword and held it to the chin of his downed opponent. Looking up, Edward held a hand theatrically in the air for the crowd. They all yelled for his blood without a second thought that they were cheering him on not three seconds ago.

Edward rammed the blade through the unprotected chin and into the skull, a groan escaped the Batarian as blood pooled around his prone form. Three attendee's bodily hauled the corpse into the crowd and into the furnace room.

This was one of the few moments he'd gotten between bouts, it wouldn't be long till they had another opponent out for him to fight, most of the guys in the crowd were wanting a piece of him. One of the Krogan he'd fought had left with the axe he'd brought buried in his face.

There was a reason for him being in here, a contract had reached the Shadow Broker about a very rich weapons tycoon offering a seven figure sum, and if prompted a weapons contract, to the first person who recovered his daughter, she'd been kidnapped not long ago and Edward had tracked her here as soon as he got a hold of the case file.

He knew if he barged in then the owner would simply kill the girl and the building was always filled to some degree, so he'd told Amarisia he was going on an extended guarding contract for an indeterminate length of time.

He'd been stuck in here for two days killing near on three dozen different men and women, and he was close, seemingly 40 wins was the number to meet the boss, kill 40 being the reigning champion, his plan from there was to kill whoever was in charge, bring down a C-sec raid on the place and escape in the madness with the girl.

Four kills more.

"Guess you're in luck cunt," an grotesquely obese krogan forced his way into the ring, cunt being the moniker forced on the super-soldier. He'd received this after he demolished his first opponents face in a single punch and that was the first word uttered in the three minute silence, "You'll be facing your next three opponents all at once," he chuckled and tossed a rusty knife at his feet.

"Don't worry about the crowd's say so this time, it's a last man standing match," he retreated out of the arena as an Asari dressed in a loincloth and a chain bra, a Turian dressed in what looked to be chainmail, and a Salarian who seemed to be one dirty look away from pissing himself.

"The rules are as follows, no bitching out if you get stabbed, take it and move on," the obese krogan yelled before closing the gate. Each person in the cage was armed with a small dagger, the Turian seemed to be the favourite considering the armour and his dagger was slightly longer and serrated.

"FIGHT!" The Salarian literally shit himself. The Turian, being one to play fair immediately forced his blade through the eye of the Salarian as he tried to retreat back to the gate.

Edward ducked round a slash from the Asari, he knocked the wind from her with a punch to the stomach before finishing her quickly with a stab to the base of the skull. She slumped with a groan while Edward rounded on the Turian having ripped a jagged cut across the dying Salarian's face.

"Bring it fucker," Edward roared to a cry from the crowd, he spin kicked the knife out of the Turian's hand before driving forward and stabbing at the chain mail. Even with his strength the weak knife didn't break the armour, only serving to throw him back.

Throwing the blade aside he kicked the sitting Turian onto his back before kerb stomping his skull, blue blood covered the metal floor, there was a stunned silence as everyone watched the spasming corpse for the several seconds it twitched on the floor.

"Bring him on!" Edward yelled, "bring me the champion!" This was met by a roar that shook the floor.

A set of doors at the far end of the room where flung open, Edward could not see the Krogan as he entered but the crowd got oddly quiet as he forced his way through the crowd. An orderly cleared the floor of the bodies and all but one dagger before dashing out of the cage as fast as he could, the Krogan arriving moments later.

He was possibly the largest Krogan he'd ever seen, eight feet easily, the tip of his hump rubbing the bars over the roof of the cage. Yet the most startling feature was the fact half his face was completely gone, no fire or acid had gotten to it yet it was a web of scars and weeping sores, a small trail of puss and mucus followed him about as the ichor dripped down his bare chest and legs.

"This is pankratyion, no holds bared wrestling to the death," the Krogan on the outside of the cage yelled over the rising din, "no surrender, no mercy!" he yelled for the fight to begin and the beast charged forward with a roar that could scare an army.

Edward side-stepped and threw a punch into the ribs of the beast, there was a distinct crack as the blow landed but the beast only seemed to get even more pissed off. It turned and roared again, the half of his mouth covered in cuts and sores ripped and tore as he opened his mouth, a constant stream of blood seemed to issue from his mouth.

It swung a fist down from above, Edward caught the blow with a hand, falling to one knee and groaning so it didn't look as easy as it had on him. He caught the other hand as it came down and yelled in mock pain. The creature above him was surely not Krogan as it roared in anger, a slight sheen of blood and puss sprinkled over Edward's face, neck, and shoulders.

Taking his time, Edward forced himself to one foot, then another, before with a "pained" roar forcing the beast back and punching it hard enough to shake the metal bars it collapsed into. He punched it again and again before its entire chest had caved in, bits of bone pointed out of it and its eyes had gone glassy. A truly terrifying silence had descended as he stepped back and looked at the gatekeeper.

"It's not dead," someone said in the crowd. Edward spun and drove a foot deep into its head, the plate bent inwards and a spray of brain matter was thrown out of the cage onto the crowd.

The cage door opened and someone quickly took Edward out into the crowd, they were still silent as some followed him with their eyes while most just stared at the dead corpse still in the arena, they were still silent when he was pushed up a flight of stairs.

The only thing that struck Edward was inside he was raging, every negative emotion he could have were flurrying around inside him. Anger coursed through him to a degree he wasn't used to, he realised that his fists hadn't unclenched since he'd crushed the beast's chest and it took a mental effort for him to even loosen them from white knuckled to just tight.

He was forced into a room and the door was closed behind him, from what he could see it was an office, the main desk chair in the room was turned away from him but he could see a long blue leg crossed over another from the angle he was at.

"Well done my champion, I was sure no-one could beat that monster," the evidently female voice said, "i am sure you are wondering about what your prize is," the chair turned and Edward finally got a look at the boss of the operation.

The Asari was tall, a small pattern of white covered her deep blue skin. She was clad in a very tight business dress that terminated several inches down her thigh. Edward couldn't shake the anger that was powering through him, he normally had a very good control of his emotions but for some reason they were going rampant.

"What have you done to me!" he growled angrily, advancing towards her desk.

"The main floor is having heavy amounts of a drug that basically makes you angry to no end, it should ware off in an hour or two," she stood and paced round the desk before leaning against it, "but now it's time for you prize," she hopped up onto the desk.

"And. That. Is?" Edward tried to force his emotions to calm to no avail.

"Me."

**(Smut below this line)**

She opened her legs to reveal her lack of underwear. Edward tried to force himself to calm but whatever had been in the air was too powerful, chances were it wouldn't last too long on him and would wear off soon but in that moment he lost control and surged forward and captured the lips of the Asari in a feral embrace. Their tongues clashed as Edward ripped his trousers from himself and threw them away.

Breaking off with an animalistic growl, he gripped the hem of her tight dress and ripped it apart, throwing the useless piece of fabric across the room. The Asari forced everything on the desk off as she gripped Edwards long member with her other hand. She pumped it several times greedily smirking at it as he grew increasingly harder in her hand.

Edward grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the floor, she landed on her knees hard and winced lightly before looking up with an even more lusty glower. She continued pumping his cock, harder and faster with each subsequent pull. A savage grin cut his face as she worked on him, he was now lost in the anger that had turned to lust.

With a devilish grin she slipped the head into her mouth, she retreated slightly before licking the tip teasingly before, once again, enveloping him in her hot, tight, mouth. Edward let out an involuntary groan as the Asari continued her ministrations, she seemed to hum lowly as she bobbed her head along his length.

A small part of Edward knew what he was doing went against everything he stood for but in his state he didn't give a shit, his mind was controlled by red-blooded rage and it had beaten his usual side into submission.

Edward eventually couldn't take it anymore and lifted the Asari off the floor with both his arms and dropping her on the desk, he shoved her onto her back before pushing her legs apart. Not waiting for any indication of readiness, he was far past caring and the wetness that seemed to be running down her lips was more than enough go ahead for him.

He lined the tip up with her sopping pussy lips and pushed in hard, the desk shook as he sheathed himself in her, a cry of ecstasy escaping her lips as he drew back out and slammed back in even harder. Again and again he thrust into her and each time she voiced her appreciation for it, the cries for more and more, for it to be harder and harder, getting louder and louder with each passing moment as he continued to fuck her hard.

"Is that all you got?" she forced through gritted teeth as he grabbed a handful of her large breast and squeezed, rolling the nipple between thumb and fore-finger. She moaned and put a hand down to rub her clit as he continued to push into her, the strength was something she'd never felt before in any of her champions, and she'd bedded them all, even the last one in his rage filled madness.

Edward didn't say anything as he grabbed her hips and lifted her into the air. She laughed in delight as he held her steady and fucked her in the air, her legs wrapped around his back. She started to moan louder and louder as her orgasm built inside of her.

"Embrace et-" Edward slapped her across the face and growled.

"No!" the word was forced between his teeth, muscles in his face contorted into a violent grin.

She sneered and pushed him back with a pulse of biotics, he landed heavily on his back and before he could rise found her astride him. He grabbed a handful of her ass and smacked the cheek, she smiled down before gripping his long, thick, shaft and guiding it into her. She let out a husky moan as she slid to the base again and again.

"Keep it up, whore," Edward growled, he could feel his own climax growing inside of him.

She racked her nails down his chest, she didn't notice or actually care when no blood was drawn. She rose and fell faster as she kept playing with her swollen clit, a large release drawing close. Edward gripped her curvy hips and started to drive her up and down her cock like a piston, she let out a yell as her orgasm drew closer, a sheen of sweat now covered her from head to toe.

"Fuck me!" she screamed as her pussy tightened around him, the tightness became unbearable and he blasted his load deep into her, a groan escaped his lips as jet after jet shot into her, she pulled off and enveloped her mouth around his member, licking up all the stray cum and swallowing it, she pushed a finger inside of her and scooped out a tiny amount and swallowing that too.

**(Smut Ends)**

Edward sat up and slowly came to his senses, he was right about him overcoming the drugs faster as he rounded on the Asari and pushed her against the wall by her neck. She smiled and grabbed his member giving it a playful pump.

"Already for round two?" she smirked and continued playing with it, "someone's a horny little fucker."

"I'm done with games," he tightened his grip and stared into her eyes menacingly, "where's the girl?"

"Why should I tell you," a blue shimmer started to appear and Edward started to crush, it quickly disappeared after that.

"Tell me and I let you live you cum-guzzling slut," he growled deeply, " I won't ask twice."

"She's in the back," she jerked her head in the direction of a side door, "get her out before the guards get to you," she spat in his face.

Edward dropped her to the floor and threw on his jeans, the teeth were torn apart meaning he had to secure it with his belt entirely. The Asari strolled still naked back to her desk and opened the small wardrobe behind it, she quickly pulled on a new dress and sat before casting a venomous glance at the door he had passed through.

Edward found himself in a wide room, several dozens lockers covered the left side while a stairwell served as the right side of the room. A single man stood placing an assortment of weapons into the lockers, Edward realised these were the gladiators lockers and most likely contained his things. A broken neck later and he was searching through them quickly. He located his in the last one closest to the far door.

Sliding his shirt on, he brought up his reclaimed omni-tool and brought up the call function. The number rang for several moments before the recipient picked up.

"Von, don't talk, I need you to send some form of exfil to the roof of the building across from my current location, I know you can pinpoint where I am so the faster the better, i'll have the girl within three minutes," he was about to hang up when he remembered his original plan, "and if you can tip C-sec off to this place as well that'd be great."

Edward hung up and opened the next door, the room was empty save for a guard and a single cage, inside was his quarry, a small Salarian girl about 10 years old, he noted how large their eyes were when young, it was almost comical the proportions.

"Who are you?" the guard stood from his chair, a hand on his pistol.

"Her saviour," Edward threw a bolt of lightning into his chest, sending him hurtling into the cage wall, the metal bent under his weight but did not break. Without pause, he snapped the cage door off of it's hinges and ushered the girl out.

"Who are you?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"I just said," Edward picked her up and walked back through to the locker room, he sensed several vibrations coming from the other side of the far door and down the stairs, he launched into a run and started to pound up the steps at a fast pace. The building wasn't terribly tall and soon he was on the roof, he ran faster and faster towards the edge of the roof not ten metres ahead.

"Hold on tight!" he called as he reached the lip of the building.

With a single bound he leapt through the air with the girl in his hands, he hurtled over the street below before landing with a crunch on the roof opposite. He placed the girl down behind an air conditioning unit and ducked down himself. A quick glance told him the mercs that were guarding the place didn't see him leap across and before long his exfil had arrived.

"Saving little damsels in distress now Edward?" Merax asked as he piled into the small shuttle with the girl in his arms.

"Yeah, can't resist a little heroics," Merax laughed and pulled the shuttle off as the sounds of C-sec shuttles drew closer.

**That's that for this time! Have any comments or other general things you want me to say or do then put it below and I hope to see you next time. And as usual if you want to vote in the poll, it's on my profile so go ahead if you wish! :D**

**As Always,**

**Hab67t**


	7. The hunt begins

**Operation Extremis**

**Right to business, sorry about the last two weeks, originally I was out of the country and nowhere near an internet connection and in the process of coming home I caught some type of flu and that laid me low till yesterday, so if this chapter is a bit short there is a good reason.**

**Secondly, the poll is set to close in three chapters time, number 10 if you are counting, and the numbers are as such:**

**Shepard is in first place with 13 votes,**

**Miranda is in second with 8 votes,**

**Tali taking third position with 5 votes,**

**Ashley and Liara are matched with 2 votes,**

**and in last place are Tela Vasir and Amarisia with 1 vote each.**

**Enjoy!**

**(11:20, 14/03/80, Citadel, Kithoi Ward, Sila Drakona Base Sigma, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward stood atop the building, a vast, dark, plume of smoke darker than the the deepest expanse of dark space rose from the windows of the several destroyed floors below him. He readied himself to jump as the whines and wails of the squad cars tore through the air, a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, the Sila Drakona base below him had been the first of the three remaining bases on the Citadel. Edward had waged a short, bloody, war with them and in the end they were more or less in full retreat from him, they had other operations outside of the Serpent Nebula of course but they would think twice before coming back.

His little stunt on live television hadn't helped him, several news sites had taken to try and deduce him in depth, despite only having twelve seconds of me standing in the remains of a car, unmoving before vanishing in a blur of black. His favourite so far was the super-advanced mech with a rogue A.I running around collecting money to escape to Geth space, The Quarians never got too far from their robot usurpers it seemed.

It probably wouldn't be too good for how people perceived him considering the domestic terrorism he'd just committed but all the same it was needed, a large supply of superior weaponry had been stored there, indeed, the new pistols in his hand and belt were part of that shipment, they seemed to be even more powerful than what he had before.

They were long barrelled and almost revolver like in quality, the heating units were small and cylindrical, the designer was evidently looking to capture the older design and had placed the unit in the main block of the gun, it had considerable stopping power, probably more than a carnifex, and a clip many times longer than his previous phalanx. It was named a Martial and like the peregrine it came with three alternative fire modes, in this case it turned out to be a semi-automatic/fully automatic switch, a proton shield breaker ammo type, and a shotgun setting.

Strapping the gun back to his waist, Edward took a step forward and dropped into the abyss below the 156 story building. In under a second he'd cleared the smoke and after another second the flames that licked out of the gaping wound that had been three floors. The closest rooftop was forty floors down and at least as many metres across to the edge.

Edward leant back and drove the sword into the wall he fell beside, the screech of stone and metal sounded as he slowed to a halt, feet planted against the wall, one hand hanging free and the other gripping the handle of the sword tightly. He stole a glance below noticing several squad cars and an assortment of other emergency vehicles surrounded the steps leading up to the building, no doubt fire crews would be working their ways up to the ruined base with an accompaniment of C-sec officers.

With a hard leap, Edward was propelled across the gap, sword in hand he flew across the gap and tucked into a roll as he landed. Sliding the sword back into it's holster, Edward glanced over his shoulder before leaping forward into a run, soon enough the burning tower was left behind and his thoughts turned to home, specifically the renovation men who'd been working on making the apartment impregnable.

Amarisia had been away on a school trip and was due back the day after next, pretty much as soon as she was gone the guys had arrived and were tearing the place up. They'd started by fitting bullet proof windows and a silent alarm linked to my omni-tool. The next day they'd fitted several hidden compartments filled with weapons and even a couple grenade canisters.

Most of the money from the rescue job had been burned through to pay for the improvements and what was left was being put towards a lock-down mode, pretty much doors and window bulkheads made of Silaris plating linked to hidden control panels that would slide down if the alarm was sounded, it would take a lot of explosives to cut through them and would no doubt save anyone inside the house.

He was expecting some form of reprisals from Sila Drakona but in the mean time he was going to throw them off the Citadel and then focus on work. Initially he'd thought about trying to influence the future by being proactive with what he knew and use it to cut down everyone in his way, but it had hit him that if he started fucking with the canon then he could really mess things up, in his mind it would be much better to just stay away from any major character in the games and just prepare as best he could.

Edward slowed to a stop as his omni-tool started to glow and hum, a glance told him it was Barla Von, with a single press of a button he was faced by the information broker.

"Edward, I just received information on something you may want to hear about," wheezy breathes punctuated the sentence intermittently.

"What is it?" He ducked into the shadow of the roof access as another squad car shot by, " I need to get back to the apartment."

"It's best you come by my office, any time later today is best," He hung up hurriedly without further deliberation. Edward made a mental note to drop by as he stepped out into the light, before he lay a foot down a shiver ran up his spine.

Edward threw himself forward into a roll as the rocket hurtled overhead, it detonated with a roar of fire as it collided with a billboard, sparks showered down onto the street. In a moment Edward had his Martials out and fired several rounds into the retreating figures on the far rooftop, Edward picked up the splash of blue blood as he hit a Turian, switching on the automatic mode Edward sprinted forward and hurled himself onto the rooftop across the street.

Bullets hurtled towards him as he tucked into a roll and came up in cover. Noticing a line of piping across from the cooling unit he was crouched behind, Edward leapt out and fired a flurry of shells at his assailants, in the brief second he saw them he had managed to pick out everything he needed to know about them.

Two Krogan, one Human, and the wounded Turian across the rooftop. One of the Krogan carried what looked to be the rocket launcher while the others were firing high-spec assault rifles, the Turian was clutching a wound in his left forearm that was steadily dripping all over the floor.

Edward moved again as the Krogan loosed another rocket in his direction, leaping straight up he spun and caught the Human in the chest with the remaining rounds of his gun, he sheathed them and drew his locusts as they overheated, landing in a crouch on a raised section of roof. Checking the Human was dead, Edward leapt over the heads of the remaining attackers and downed the Turian with a head shot as he flew past.

The free Krogan charged forward with a yell, dropping the heavy revenant he was carrying and swung a punch at the super-soldier, Edward ducked under the blow and drove a heel into the back of the Krogan's right knee, the bone buried underneath the armour and flesh snapped like a dried twig. Sensing the final Krogan was about to fire the rocket launcher, Edward gripped the fallen Krogan by the back of his collar and hurled him towards his compatriot with the force of a rampaging elephant.

The launcher was thrown away across the rooftop, in a flash, Extremis appeared above the two prone Mercs with a sword in his right hand and a locust in the other. The unwounded Krogan made to rise with a snarl of rage but found itself on the wrong end of an adamantium blade. Edward rolled the last living Krogan off of his dead friend and pushed the blade to the point between skull-plate and face.

"Who the fuck are you," their armour didn't resemble anyone else he'd ever run into, just plain black with a red stripe running down the chest.

"Eat shit," the Krogan growled and spat at the armoured man, quick as he could, the Krogan whipped out a combat knife and drove it towards the super-soldier's chest, in a blur of movement the hand carrying the blade flew away across the rooftop.

"Talk," Edward growled as the Krogan bit down on a scream, a small pool of blood gathered quickly by the newly cut stump.

"Fuck you," Edward noticed the Krogan's eye glow blood red as the rage that had made its species famous overcame it and it reverted to its animal state. Before it could rise he had driven a blade deep into it's skull.

Something sat uncomfortably inside Edward's gut as he moved away from the site quickly, there was something about how they'd found him, it was completely impossible for them to be lying in wait.

Maybe it would be good to visit Von first.

**(11:54, 14/03/80, Citadel, Presidium, Barla Von's Office, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward strode into the room with a storm brewing at his tail, he had thought about the attack on the way over and was starting to speculate on what was happening. The banker/information broker sat behind his desk fidgeting with files, not sparing a glance as the super-soldier locked the door and took off his helmet, a groan escaping his lips as he did.

"I assume you want something," Von said nonchalantly.

"You called me here, you said that there was something I needed to know," Edward sat in the chair before the desk hurriedly, an urge to run as fast as he could was itching at his neck.

"Did I? I must have forgotten," he continued to leaf through the files on his omni-tool while the super-soldier cast him a queer glance.

"There's..." he thought for a moment, appraising the Volus. Edward's senses kicked in and he focused on the minute details that were shining in his face.

The most glaring of issues was the straightness to which he sat, usually the Volus had a relative slouch while he sat compared to how he was now. Second was the distance from his desk that he sat, usually he sat back, being able to write anything he needed to with his omni-tool, he now sat as close as his rotund frame would allow.

Rising slowly, Edward moved round to the same side as the broker and all his questions were answered as soon as he saw what was strapped to the chair. It was only now that Edward realised that the broker was only taking short, terse, breaths.

"Hell fire," escaped Edward's lips as he lent down and looked over the surface.

"They told me that if I leave this chair then it detonates," his voice was steady yet Edward easily heard the fear hidden beneath, "get your helmet, the onboard V.I has a database of explosive devices."

"Is that standard issue?" Edward grabbed it from the desk and slid it on, the lights flickering on in moments.

"For Shadow Broker agents yes, they're expensive to maintain considering how fast the weapon market changes," Edward nodded as the database started to cycle.

Several moments of tense silence passed as Edward became even more desperate due to the database producing no results, then the worst thing possible happened.

"There's nothing, there's fucking nothing," Edward groaned and drew a dagger from his belt, he had neglected his collection of throwing daggers since he got access to guns. Prising open the side of the bomb yielded a very different interface to what he was used to.

The first thing he noticed was the very distinct lack of any wiring, the insides were taken up by squares covered in blinking lights and little else, nothing seemed to connect the squares and other than the lights they were completely identical.

"I... I can't stop this," he ran a hand over his helmet, a glance over the contents of the bomb didn't discern what was explosive and what was trigger, "I could try shorting it with an electric blast but if i'm correct in thinking it goes off when a current is applied then it'll still kill us."

"Then I better speak quickly," Von turned his omni-tool towards Edward and brought up several images, "these were the people who came in, I caught these images with a camera in my helmet," the pictures featured several different Humans, two men and three women.

And one other.

It had occurred to Edward that he'd never seen Kai Leng without any form of augmentation, he'd read the comics but he'd never come across an image of the Cerberus assassin before Mass Effect 3, yet all the same he recognised him, the sword on his back helped a little but the man had a distinct bearing that he carried.

Edward did not recognise the other people but from their armour and weapons he could guess that they were several of the better guns for higher in the galaxy, those with no morality it seemed. It fitted that Cerberus would only use humans, he wasn't important enough to use aliens it seemed.

"I know him, but what can you tell me about these other ones," Edward asked quickly, if the bomb was remotely detonated then he was rubber ducked.

"Here," he transferred several files to Edward's omni-tool, "you should get going," Edward looked at the locked door then back at Von before a somewhat crazy idea popped into his head.

"How large do you think that thing's blast radius is?" the information broker looked down at the bomb then back up.

"It should raise this building but that's about it," Edward stood and shoved the desk to the side, the console and several other things fell to the floor as he moved it to the wall, "what are you doing?"

"If I have a clear enough route then I might be able to run us both out of here before the bomb detonates, or at least far enough that you won't be outright killed," Edward went up to the door and set it to be open permanently.

"That's mad, though it may work." the immediate area outside the door was empty, Edward drew back into the soon to be crater and took a firm grasp of the Volus with both hands.

"On three," Von took a deep breath and prepared for the imminent movement, "Three!"

Edward yanked backwards and as he tipped pushed off with all his might, there was a moment of silence as they flew back before a sound like a dam bursting crossed with a Krogan getting kicked in the quad rent the air, this was immediately followed by a wall of air that threw the two backwards into the Presidium lake.

The water was surprisingly frigid, Edward having believed it was the same tepid temperature as that which came out of the taps, in the breath moment he was underwater, it seeped through the unlocked segments of his armour and filled his suit. Kicking to the surface with Von still in his hands, Edward pulled them both to the walkway and crawled back onto dry land.

"That was fucking awful," Edward muttered as he pulled the Volus into a sitting position, his exo-suit was covered in small dents yet, thankfully, no cracks.

"We need to move," the broker murmured as he stared into the flaming wreckage that had been his office, "C-sec will be here in two minutes," the super-soldier promptly pulled him up and moved away.

"We need to move fast and I don't think I can carry you at over 100 mph," The Volus nodded and waddled towards a taxi rank not far from his ex-office, he pressed the necessary buttons and a deep red sky car opened, the alien clambered into the passenger seat, the man joined him quickly and pulled away into the sky, several moments later they shot past the first response vehicle.

**(15:29, 14/03/80, Citadel, Tayseri Ward, Shadow Broker safe house 13, Serpent Nebula)**

"Merax!" Edward called as he escorted Von into the building, he was not sure if anyone had followed them but he wasn't taking any chances.

"What is it?" the Krogan charged into the foyer with a pistol at the ready, once he saw the lack of targets other than his colleagues he put down the gun and moved over.

"Someone tried to blow me up," Von said, anger evident in his tone.

"They were after me, they knew I went to Von for information and contracts so they lured me into a trap," Edward explained as they followed the waddling Volus. Edward hadn't let his left hand fall from the handle of his Martial ever since they'd left the cab.

"Who are they?" The Krogan asked as the Volus slumped onto a couch, the super-soldier sat downa to his right and removed his helmet with a sigh.

"Ever heard of Cerberus?" Merax nodded, "well they're after me, they set a trap for me today and rigged Barla Von's office to explode... which it did," the Krogan moved towards an Ottoman opposite the couch and lowered himself onto it.

"It sounds like this team is after you, I wouldn't suggest hunkering down unless you want them to find you," The Extremis looked across into the Krogan's red eye and smiled.

"They'll be looking for me at my place, I go there and draw them away to some abandoned area, take them down on my own," Edward was slowly forming a plan in his mind.

"If you want them to catch you then by all means go home, but at least know who you're going up against," The Volus caught Edward's attention as he walked to the door, he turned back and leant against the door frame.

"The Illusive Man has hired a team of the mostly deadly assassins he can get his hands on," The Volus brought up his omni-tool and displayed the files he had transferred to Edward back in the office, "The three women are sisters; Alice, Sara, and Allison Spencer, joined the Alliance together and all graduated with flying colours in sharpshooting, it looks like the shooting gene ran in the family, it also looks they share a genetic disposition to being morally bereft, they were all dishonourably discharged within several months of being cleared for active duty."

"The leader of the operation is a tactical genius by the name of Harrison Sheridan, similar story to the Spencer girls despite the fact he never cleared training, the man murdered two fellow recruits for questioning his orders."

"The final man is the same one who rigged my chair to explode, Sergei Bruckheimer, there isn't really much on him, he just appeared several years ago in the cold case of someone blowing up a statue of Liberty exhibit in a museum, rather ironic if you ask me, since then he's cost the galactic community damages expenses bordering on the hundreds of billions."

The Volus sat back in his chair, "This is probably the most dangerous team of mercs on the Citadel at this very moment, and you want to hunt them."

"Well I'm the best solo merc, let's see who beats who then," With that he walked out, deep down he knew that these mercs would do anything they could to bring him down.

The taxi rank outside the main door was full as he marched along, the street was unusually quiet as he swung the door of a car open and slid in. The skycar pulled away into the sky and was soon whistling along above the ward among the other cars and ships.

The journey passed slowly at first, the cars and lanes all blurred together as Edward contemplated his plan, they would be lying in wait for him and he was not going to disappoint them... but that seemed too easy. Lying in wait for him was the logical thing to do, let Mohammed come to the mountain and all that...

But you can't be logical when fighting Extremis, you hit them as hard as you can, as many times as you can until they body stops kicking. Cerberus had tried the logical way and he'd killed nearly everyone they'd sent, so now they'd just be after him in any way they could.

A car shot past his right side, swerving violently side to side. Before he could look back another shot past him on the left. Acting on instinct, Edward grabbed the controls and threw the car into a dive, several explosions broke the silence behind him as he pulled up from the dive and into a street, the heads of pedestrians barely thirty feet below, a quick glance confirmed what he had feared, a gunship like he had never seen before, was on his tail, minigun spinning up.

The ship was unlike the mantis that you normally see the merc gangs using in the way that it had no distinct cockpit, and the body was longer and more streamlined. The weapons folded into the main body.

From what he saw the ship used a combination of a front mounted minigun, dorsal mounted heat-seekers, and twin rocket pods on each side. Edward knew he couldn't fight this thing in a taxi, the most dangerous weapon he had being the fare meter.

A rocket fired towards him causing Edward to throw himself to the side, the car nearly smashed through the top floor of the building as it narrowly missed the projectile hurtling towards him. Edward had enough and smashed the door release, timing his jump he leapt out and rolled to a stop on the next roof over, there was a brief pause as a heat-seeker shot over his head and annihilated the car, wreckage spraying out in a wide arc.

"Bring it on fucker," Edward drew out his twin Martials and switched on the automatic mode. A hatch opened and out came what he only assumed must be Sergei Bruckheimer. The brute wore armour that made him at least a foot thicker and taller, and he was already at least 7 feet tall. In one hand he carried a shotgun that seemed to be built into the armour itself, and in the other he held a long barrelled grenade launcher.

The giant of a man didn't speak but rather brought the launcher to bare and fired several rounds at the super-soldier, with a curse he leapt to the side as they whistled past his head. Edward was about to move forward when he realised there were no explosions. Leaping high into the air he noticed the rounds that had been fired hurtle past where he had just been, they turned in the air on small jets in them and angled directly for Edward.

"Nice trick," Edward started firing in their direction, several exploded as the rounds smacked into them, as they drew close he dropped to the ground and rolled back to his feet as they passed overhead. As they turned again, he switched on the semi-automatic mode and began firing again. Several more detonated but the demolitions expert just kept adding more to the mix as they chased Edward round the rooftop.

"Let's end this," he muttered as another trio of grenades hurtled after him. The brute hadn't moved from his spot since the battle had started. Replacing his guns with a sword, Edward hurtled towards the beast with his blade raised. Sergei's gun barked in Edward's direction as shot filled the air, with a push Edward hurtled over his head and landed behind him, before the man could turn he drove the blade into his back and out the other side.

There was a pause, where the only sound was pained gasps from the mountain that the super-soldier had just impaled. Then three detonations sounded as the final grenades smashed into their target, the force of the blasts threw Edward back with his sword in hand. When he rose there wasn't much left of the man he'd been fighting.

"One down," Edward turned and advanced on the gunship, once the grenades had detonated it had started to pull away and whirred up the main gun. With a grim smirk Edward started to sprint towards the edge of the building, a growl on his lips as he held the sword in a downwards grip over his head as he leapt. With a grunt he drove it into the chassis of the gunship and held on.

The ship flipped over as he drove a fist through the roof, holding on tightly to the inside of the ship he swung his body as they narrowly missed the roof of an apartment complex. A sudden sharp pain shot through his hand as something sharp punched through his clenched fist, the blade punched out the other side of the metal, narrowly missing Edward's face.

Edward pulled out the sword and stabbed violently at where he thought the wielder of the blade could be, the blade in his hand retracted within moments of him pulling his own out of the metal. Before he could get a grip again, there was a violent shudder in the ship and he was thrown free, Edward crashed to the ground, sword in hand, as the ship whistled away, a small stream of smoke poured out of the gash he had cut into it.

Sheathing the sword, he turned and broke into a run through the still crowd, they would be back and he was going to be ready. The ship had limped away into the distance as he shot towards home, the pain in his hand had slowly passed as he ran, he tightened the fist as he prepared himself for the fight that was coming.

**So what'd ya think? I know it's short but I'll try to pump out an extra large one for next Monday, any questions? Comments? I am willing to answer most any queries that you wish to ask?**

**As Always,**

**Hab67t**


	8. Total War

**Operation Extremis**

**Apologies for how late this is, I can only really say i'm sorry.**

**So the poll stands as such**

**FemShep: 16**

**Miranda: 12**

**Tali: 9**

**Liara: 3**

**Ashley: 2**

**Tela Vasir: 2**

**Amarisia: 1**

**enjoy!**

**(16:22, 14/03/80, Citadel, The Vespid, Space, Serpent Nebula)**

"We shouldn't have left him," Alice yelled, swiping the contents of a table top to the floor in a fit of anger. Alice was evidently the tallest of the three Spencer sisters at six feet, her twin Allison was only a few inches shorter and her elder sister, Sara, was shorter by a whole foot.

All three wore their auburn hair in a tight ponytail, it made them hard to tell apart if you didn't know what to look for. For example, Sara took after her mother and had a distinctly British look to her while the twins both looked more like their German father. Allison had also received a scar to the left cheek that ran to just below her eye, it had been what sparked the small rampage that led to her discharge from the alliance.

"What would you have us do? What could we have done? That thing was supernatural," Sara caught Alice's shoulder as she fumed, Allison took the other as Alice tightened her grip on the edge of the table.

"We have a prototype gunship, we could have wiped him off of the map if we wanted," Alice shrugged her sisters off and marched away, the cockpit door slammed shut behind her while the rest of the team looked on.

"She's not wrong, we left him to die," Allison leant back against the table and sighed, "What did it prove Harrison? We lost a man to just see what another could do," Their leader drew the cigarette from his mouth and looked across at her before speaking.

"It proves nothing, but i'll tell you what it does show us," he took a drag while looking at a datapad in his other hand, "his speed, his strength, what he favours to fight with, anything we need to kill him quickly and efficiently," The Spencer twin looked aghast.

"You used Sergei as cannon fodder?" Allison moved forward fist clenched, "What the fuck is wrong with you!"

"Why do you care? I would have thought you would be first to use a decoy out of any of us," The female assassin leapt forward coming face to face with her leader.

"Yes, but not one of us!" she bared her teeth in a silent snarl in the moments following her outburst, "we will get this bastard but I will be fucked if you start using us as meat shields!" She cast him a dirty look as she left the room, entering the gun room that she was so fond of.

"Sara, maybe you can talk some sense into your siblings, you're the rational one after all," the final Spencer in the room met his eye with a tired look.

"I've had enough playing your liaison with them, your callousness got one of our men killed and it's going to be a hell of a short career if you stay this course," she departed and joined Alice in the cockpit.

"They're right," Harrison turned to the back of the cabin, the figure of Kai Leng sat in the dark his keen eyes on the commander, "you've disadvantaged us for very little."

"What would you have done? The great Cerberus assassin!" he took a drag on the slowly dwindling cigarette.

"If you had read the dossier then you should have watched him as he took down one of those Sila Drakona bases he is so fond of attacking, if you would have reviewed the tape from our initial attempt then you would have a very good idea of what he was capable of," The assassin drew his sword from his back and held it in his hands, "you wasted a member of this team to satisfy your need to test your opponent and that may cost us all, I hope we won't need him because if things go south and we retreat, I can guarantee you won't leave the system alive."

"There's a reason your Illusive Man asked for me, I get results and don't give a damn about the casualties, if I have to detonate a bomb in the council chambers then I will," Harrison moved away to the other end of the cabin as the assassin continued to stare him down.

"And there's a reason he hires me full time," Kai Leng replaced his blade and looked away, "I'd keep that in mind."

"I will," the merc captain kept the Asian assassin in his sights all the while. Deep inside him Harrison could see his true enemy painted in black and orange.

**(17:03, 14/03/80, Citadel, Tayseri Ward, Rooftop Combat Zone, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward slung the bloody mass that had only a few minutes before been Sergei Bruckheimer. The front of the body was gone, there was no point in trying to argue otherwise; a wet smack sounded as Edward flipped him over and started to rifle through any pockets that were still intact. From one pocket that had been partially torn open by his sword thrust, Edward pulled out a small photo of two people; a woman who Edward noted to be either Alice or Allison Spencer was cradled in Sergei's arms, a large, happy, grin split both of their faces.

A hint of regret passed through Edward as he placed the photo in his breast pocket. None of the other pockets contained anything worth taking. At the last moment before he moved away a thought popped into Edward's mind. The main CPU in Sergei's armour would most likely have a tracker for retrieval on solo missions that went awry. Most high tech merc gangs who had the coin to spend would put these in their armour as standard. If these guys were worth their salt then Edward knew they would notice the signal moving anywhere other than to a morgue.

One anonymous call to Csec later Edward set off towards home, the small tracking device was securely held in a hard-case on his left calf. Edward knew that holing up in the apartment was stupid but he needed to know that it was secure and not a domestic terrorism charge waiting to happen.

Also Edward was only carrying about half the munitions he had; his sniper, shotgun, and assault rifle were sat at home under his bed. On top of that he had no explosive munitions on him, his cannisters of grenades were with the guns. He didn't want to do this without every possible advantage that he could cram in.

**(Twenty Minutes Later)**

The lift slowed as it descended from the roof, if the builders had been as good as Von had recommended then they would have cleared out by now, the security improvements finally finished. The door opened too slowly to Edward, he was in a rush and the longer he was here then the more he could expect an HE missile through the window. He slung on the sniper and assault rifle, the shotgun clicked into place on the small of his back. There was room for two cannisters of grenades and Edward had paid for several different mods to change things up.

Grabbing a cannister of high explosives and another of lift grenades, Edward turned and moved towards the kitchen. He tested all the gun lockers that were hidden at waist height on the island, each were filled with firearms of different descriptions and each were hidden behind locked metal screens.

Securing them again, Edward moved towards the door and exited hastily. A small knot had formed in his stomach as he moved off. He was going to have to take this fight to somewhere he held the advantage, but while they had that gunship on their side, three expert marksman, and a ninja, he doubted there was anywhere that could be described as such.

He could just take them on, a pitched battle was one of his better bets after all. Then again one good sabot of rockets and he was a grease stain on the floor. He needed to take away their greatest advantage and destroy the gunship before he even attempted to take them on. Thinking quickly, a plan formed in front of him as he moved towards the opening elevator, it was lacking in forethought a bit but made up for it in daring.

Edward walked quickly out into the vacant rooftop, he stopped momentarily as he reached the edge and glanced around the surrounding area. The air thrummed with the noise of everyday Citadel life, an odd thing to hear when you're going into battle yet all the same it was there. It was a curiously comforting feeling Edward realised as he threw himself forward into thin air.

**(17:42, 14/03/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward heard the keening whistle of the engines long before the gunship came into sight, it wasn't hard to pick out from the various skycars that flitted about above his head. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder he could see it bee-lining for him through the various lanes of traffic, several motorists swerved into other cars to escape getting crushed by the large assault craft.

Vaulting over a building, Edward spun and hurled one of his HE grenades towards the craft with his right hand, the explosion blackening the hull as the ordinance collided with the front. Landing on his feet, Edward quickly thought through his options as he slid under a line of piping and hurdled a low wall, he needed to down this beast quickly. Pulling out his peregrine, Edward slammed on the tungsten ammo mod and slid to a stop, the gunship had nearly closed the gap as he sighted it and fired off a clip into the face of the beast.

The hardened bullets fizzed against the kinetic barrier, the shield shimmered and crackled under the sustained fire as Edward replaced the rifle with his Martials and fired again. Edward growled and threw himself back across the roof as a missile loosed from the side and tore a hole in the roof.

Another missile hurtled towards Edward as he dropped the guns and unleashed a bolt of lightning from both hands, the shield lit up like a firework before shattering like glass. The missile whistled past Edward and detonated against the side of a high-rise across the street, rubble raining down on the streets below.

Swinging out a sword, Edward tore towards the gunship at break-neck speeds, he had precious few moments before the shields restored in which to disable them permanently. A split second before he leapt, the main gun started to fire, the rounds peppered the ground around Edward's feet as he leapt into the sky. The gunship swerved to the side as he soared towards it with his sword held in both hands.

The move was crucial, Edward nearly missed entirely as he hurtled through the air. At the last second he savagely thrust the blade to the side, it cut a jagged line through the metal carapace before juddering to a halt. Edward slammed his hand hard into the side of the ship, his armoured fingers dug deep into the side of the ship and took purchase. Using the sword like an ice-pick, the super-soldier forced his way up the side of the craft before forcing himself to his feet. The mag-locks on his boots holding him in place.

The shield generator showed up on the x-ray scan, Edward guessed it to be such by the spinning motor connected to what he assumed to be amplifiers. Edward knelt and brought a fist back, slamming it down, the clenched fist cut through with ease. The generator shattered feebly against the reinforced alloy of the gauntlet.

"Computer, locate area of least population density in a one mile radius." A map was thrown up as Edward leapt backwards off of the gunship as it rolled over.

Landing lightly, Edward threw himself forward towards the indicated area on the map, a warehouse a couple blocks over, while more gunfire tore up the ground behind him. The gunship smoked slightly as it followed him over the buildings, the few missiles it had left fired as Edward crossed the rooftops. It wouldn't be long before C-sec arrived at the scene. Or whatever S.W.A.T was here, either way he didn't want to find out.

Traversing the last gap, Edward spun and drew a sword in one hand, a locust in the other. The gunship turned and lowered to the side of the building, two armoured forms of matching height stepped out of a hatch and faced Edward, vicious looking precision rifles held in their arms.

"Edward Scarrow!" one of the sisters called across the empty expanse, "you're a hard target to catch."

"I'm flattered," Edward called back, his grip tightening on his weapons, "I suppose there is no way to get you to back down," he said while studying his new opponents.

"None," one stepped forward and raised her gun, "you'll pay."

"For Sergei?" Edward went on intuition, an idea forming in the back of his mind as his attackers flexed her trigger finger angrily, "are you sure I'm to blame?"

"Positively," she spat venomously, Edward noticed the gunship circling round behind him.

"You sure?" Edward heard the faint sound of someone landing some ten metres behind him, "at first it seemed to me that him taking me on by himself was simple bravado," the person behind got closer, Edward knew it was Kai Leng without turning, yet he elected to focus on the sisters, "but something tells me that it wasn't his choice to go down there."

"We needed to test you, to get an idea of what we were up against," her voice told Edward how much she thought that to be bullshit, she knew who was to blame, "it was for the best."

"You could have sent a small merc gang against me and you did, yet still your leader thought it best to sacrifice a member of your team to 'see what I can do'," Edward slowly turned and pointed his blade at the Cerberus Assassin, "i'm calling bullshit on that."

Her body language screamed conflict as Edward glanced away from the assassin towards her, her twin had moved further across the rooftop yet still was focused on her sister more than anything.

"No," she said finally, "you are responsible," she raised her gun and fired a round off, Edward's head snapped back as the explosive munition detonated against his visor. A web of cracks ran across his interface. In the same moment as he recovered he ducked as Kai Leng swung his blade at his neck.

Edward swung his sword up and knocked the blade away, before he could advance on the assassin another round smashed into the back of his head. The roof was completely flat with no cover to be seen, a round caught him in the side as he parried another blow.

He was fighting a losing battle as more and more rounds caught him in the chest and head. Firing off a flurry of rounds Edward took the momentary ceasefire to leap away from the melee towards the sisters. The closest sister, the same one who'd shot first, swung the butt of the precision rifle at his face, he ducked under the swipe and drove the pommel of his sword into the back of her head.

Edward dropped to the ground as a bullet whistled past him, the other sister aimed again but never managed to pull the trigger, a blur of movement hit her in the chest and threw her back to the edge. Edward stood from her prone body and turned to the last combatant on the roof.

Kai Leng paced towards him carefully, each footstep thought out, a fierce look of barely contained violence cut his face in the form of a savage grin. His arm length ninjato held in one hand pointed at the floor, the pulse gauntlet he'd used, or at least a more basic form, in the third game glowed in the other.

Edward dropped his locust and held his single sword in both hands. His analysis of his opponent brought up little, it was one of those rare cases where the person had improved themselves to the point that they didn't have any physical tells. Drawing his sword to his side with the point aimed at the assassin's chest, Edward dropped into a crouch.

"This'll be quick," Kai Leng taunted as he fainted to the right and deflected the adamantium blade away from him. He followed it through with a slash towards Edward's neck.

"Bite me," Edward spat as he ducked under the sword and slashed forwards, Kai Leng moved lightly to the side out of the way of the blade and thrust forward, Edward batted the sword away and countered with a slash towards his legs, before the razor sharp edge could make contact Kai Leng back-flipped over the arc and landed on one foot, he swung the other in an arc and caught Edward in the head, it staggered him as he stepped back.

Before the assassin could bring his blade down on the super-soldier he recovered and met the blade with his own. The assassin's sword shattered as the greater force cut through the monomolecular blade easily, before he could react Kai Leng caught an armoured boot in the chest and threw him back across the rooftop.

He tried to rise but before he could the same boot pushed him back into the floor, he leant back as a blade was pushed to his throat. He looked up at the man who held him down, he snarled while the super-soldier removed his helmet.

"I'm doing the galaxy a favour by killing you," the man growled as he pressed the blade to Kai Leng's neck harder, "thing's will be better with you gone," the assassin spat a wad of saliva at Edward.

The super-soldier drew the blade back until he held it above his head, inside of him Edward knew he was doing good by killing this bastard, hell he could change the outcome of several plots in the last game not to mention other things in the wider universe.

Before he could bring down the blade, the assassin whipped one of his hands out and fired a pulse from his gauntlet, there was a flash before Edward was hurled back across the roof, pain spread like wildfire, like someone had poured concentrated acid into his eye. He clenched his eyes tightly as he harnessed the pain that shot through him. He tried to blink it away but then a horrifying realisation shot through him, the blast had taken his left eye. The shock dulled the pain slightly as he tried to see with his remaining eye.

He caught sight of his target running towards the edge of the building where the gunship was ready, a man whom he recognised as Sheridan held out his hand to the assassin as he approached Before he could rise to stop them the assassin took the hand.

**BLAM**

The assassin fell back towards the rooftop lifeless, a large hole ripped out of the side of his head, bits of brain sprayed across the roof behind him. The offending pistol clutched firmly in the tactician's hand. The gunship whirred up and faced the wounded super-soldier, the pain was still grating at him as he tried to rise. Taken over by pure instinct, Edward raised both his hands and pumped as much electricity into his hands as he could.

The blasts rang out across the silent rooftop, there was a tense moment of silence after the blast hit in which he wondered what it had done. Then the vehicle listed, a plume of smoke billowing out of the engines as everything failed inside the gunship. Edward grabbed his sword and helmet and leapt out of the way as it crashed against the roof and slid to a stop.

Slamming his helmet on, Edward sprinted forward towards the gunship, the two Spencer sisters he had knocked out were safe across the rooftop. He needed to finish this now. The hatch on the side of the ship had been torn open from the crash as he neared it.

The inside had been struck by several electrical fires, he moved towards the cockpit as another fire exploded from a panel towards the engine. The door screeched open under the pressure of Edward pushing it open, the only person he could see was the third Spencer slumped against the side of her console, a trickle of blood ran down her temple and she took intermittent, shallow, breaths.

He searched the rest of the ship yet could not find Sheridan no matter where he looked, finally he noticed an open hatch facing the opposite way to how he got in, running out he could see the tactician standing at the edge of the building, he held a pistol in his right hand and a combat blade in the other, he wore armour that seemed to be designed for fast movement.

"I'm ending this," Edward strode forward and drew his peregrine.

"No, not now," Sheridan stepped back and plummeted over the edge, rushing to the edge Edward could only watch as the man landed on the ground with a crash, Edward figured that that was that, but then Sheridan rose and started to run towards a taxi rank. A chill passed down Edward's spine as he realised someone had managed to replicate his fall boots.

Before he could drop down and kill the bastard he got into a car and flew away. Edward thought about following but an explosion rent the air as the engine of the gunship blew apart violently. Rushing back inside, Edward grabbed the unconscious form of Sara Spencer and made his way back outside. He laid the third sister beside her siblings before making to leave, at the last moment he took out the picture from later and left it in the palm of Sergei's lover.

Edward groaned in pain as a spasm shot through him, his eye was very slowly piecing itself back together but it would be several hours before it was fully healed and even then he didn't know if he would get his sight back. The sound of sirens, and a lot of them, leached into the air as Edward recovered his slightly damaged locust and went across to the body of Kai Leng.

He was dead, there was no debating that, the round had shattered the left side of his face and removed a significant section of skull. Edward felt a morbid sense of relief, he was finally making a real difference in this universe and was sure he would make even more for the better as time progressed.

As he ran back towards the apartment, Edward glanced back and watched the first response vehicles arrive at the wreckage of the gunship, several officers surrounded the Spencer siblings and an ambulance quickly took the body of Kai Leng away. Turning back to the road, Edward sprinted away before the authorities took notice.

**(18:01, 14/03/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward entered the building quickly through the balcony, his eye was still badly damaged and he took the greatest care to remove his helmet and armour before slumping down on his bed. He had been in the habit of keeping a first aid kit under his bed and before long he had his wound bandaged up, a little medi-gel had numbed the pain but it still throbbed irritatingly.

A glance in his mirror finally showed Edward how much of a mess he was. His stubble had grown into a noticeable beard, his short hair had grown long and wavy, and his clothes were drenched in blood and small shrapnel scars. Combine that with the slightly bloody bandage that covered his left eye and he realised he'd become irrationally focused on his work, it'd been one of the things he'd mentally tried to avoid when he had been back in Marvel, he'd been one of the few people who'd not had a history in the world so was their superhero identity. Yet all the same he made sure to still try and live a normal life, even with his obligations.

A noise caught his attention from inside the main room, he should have been the only person in the place. Grabbing one of his Martial's that he'd retrieved en route to the apartment; he silently paced into the main room, the place was dark but even in the low light he could make out the people in his front room.

"Extremis," Sheridan spoke clearly and calmly as he pressed the barrel of his gun to the back of Amarisia's head, Edward thought she had meant to be back the day after next yet all the same here she was. At the word she glanced up with a terrified expression on her face.

"Sheridan, let her go," Edward held the gun facing down, Sheridan's finger was tense on the trigger of his gun despite his tone, "we can sort this out between us."

"What's to sort out?" he said, his tone never shifting an inch, "you know what I want."

"You know you can't take me down," Edward placed the pistol on the island in the kitchen, "Kai Leng proved that."

"You don't seem to understand," he motioned with his free hand for Edward to push the pistol away, "I don't fail, I don't plan on starting now," he lightly flexed his trigger finger.

"there is no way you get out of this and you know it," Edward slid his finger slowly along the lower edge of the island until he felt the button, the compartment holding his cache of guns silently opened and he took hold of a carnifex all the while keeping eye contact with the tactician. The super-soldier flipped off the safety as the man spoke again.

"I know how i'm going to get out of this," he pressed the barrel into Amarisia's head to prove his point, "you submit or I paint the walls in blue."

"you do that and there is nowhere between here and the Andromeda galaxy where you can hide that I won't find you, that is if you make it more than four foot from where you're standing now," Edward growled, his eyes reading where to shoot him to divert the shot away from Amarisia.

"Edward, I know your type, and I know that you'll comply," he smirked at the super-soldier, "you can see it in all your work, Sila Drakona for example, you're taking them down because they're dirt and they threatened you here. In all of the hits you ran into C-sec three times and not once did you kill any of them," Edward kept calm, his fingers still.

"Furthermore, you've taken several high profile assassination contracts and each time only killed your target instead of using the easy option which would have resulted in the injury or death of innocents."

"What's your point!" Edward stopped short of yelling.

"You're a good man and wouldn't endanger those who don't deserve it, that's why i'm going to walk out of here, and that's why you're going to come with me to Cerberus -" a gunshot cut the air as Edward fired his one good shot.

Sheridan yelled as the impact from the bullet caught him in the shoulder, throwing him away from his victim before he could pull the trigger. A split second later, Edward was on top of him, a punch destroyed his jaw, the bone shattering like sugar glass.

"And now you can see who I really am," Edward slammed an elbow into his nose, it crushed into his face as he groaned in pain. Edward slammed the same elbow into the back of his skull, knocking him unconscious.

"Don't kill him!" Amarisia yelled as Edward drew a fist back past his ear.

"He was going to kill you, he tried to kill me!" Edward tensed his muscles as he aimed.

"But what does it accomplish?" she knelt down beside him, "what could killing him truly give you other than another ghost?"

Edward looked at her with a bewildered look before relaxing his fist and slumping down. He thought silently for several minutes while Amarisia knelt beside him, a hand on his shoulder.

"I know what to do with him," Edward stood and pulled the body over his shoulder.

"What are you going to do with him?" she asked apprehensively.

"I'm going to hand him over to C-sec, I need to clear something up with them anyway," he moved off towards the lift, the moans of Sheridan in his wake.

**(Twelve minutes later)**

Garrus climbed out of the squad car on the nondescript rooftop on Bahjret ward, he'd got what could only be described as a confused call from the dispatcher as he was reviewing the Extremis case. From what she'd told him he knew it could be a step forward in the case and had quickly made his way towards the location that had been described.

The first thing he noticed was the body slumped against the far wall, a bloody stain ran down the prone human males chest and his nose had been reduced to a mess of cartilage and blood. He was deeply unconscious if not on the threshold of death and if Garrus had not known better could be described as being run over by a stampeding herd of bulls.

The detective knelt beside the body and examined it, maybe this was just a sick joke and the man he was chasing had taken the first steps into becoming a full fledged psychopath. The man held something in his hand and upon inspection Garrus noted it to be an earpiece. Attaching it he waited for several moments in silence.

"Hello?" he asked uncertainly, not sure if he was being punked.

"Detective Vakarian, this has been a long time coming," a voice answered soon after.

"Extremis, care to explain this," he motioned to the body not sure if his quarry could actually see him.

"This piece of shit is Harrison Sheridan, if you run the name through the database you'll find quite a bit to pin on him," Garrus looked down at the body and remembered hearing the name some time in the past.

"Why is he here," Garrus started looking around to see if there was anyone on the other rooftops.

"He's a peace offering of sorts, I give you him, and you can thank me for the Spencer sisters as well, and you leave me to my devices," Garrus noted what he thought was someone on a high-rise about half a kilometre away, the person was faint but Garrus could swear he was staring right at him.

"You know I can't stop chasing you," he waved to see if the person was actually watching.

"I know," the person waved back, "but i'm sure if the investigation suddenly went cold then you would have a reason to stop searching," Garrus couldn't help but smile at that.

"So if you keep your work to a minimum then I stop hunting for you," the cop surmised.

"Basically," the person started walking towards the far edge of the building. Just before the person disappeared Garrus called out.

"Extremis?"

"Yes," the figure turned.

"Did I ever get close?" he heard the man chuckle.

"Spitting range," the line went dead and the figure vanished from view.

**And that's that for this time. I'm very sorry for this taking so long but I do have my reasons and the only thing I'll say to them is that I was a lot more ill than I thought I was. But it's over now and i'm back to writing health. I should have another chapter up by next week but until then I hope this is enough to satisfy you guys.**

**Want to vote on who's the main LI for Ed's going to be then go to my profile page and vote on the poll, any vote is welcome and if the option isn't there then i'll be glad to hear it in the comments. If you think I should know anything or you want to say anything about this then please don't hesitate, it's not like I can bite you over the internet.**

**Haha**

**See you all next time**

**As always,**

**Hab67t**


	9. Where's my cardboard box?

**Operation Extremis**

**The Poll is as follows!**

**FemShep with 18**

**Miranda with 13**

**Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya with 10**

**Liara T'soni with 3**

**Ashley Williams with 2**

**Tela Vasir with 2**

**Samara with 1**

**Xerarch with 1**

**Amarisia with 1**

**Let it begin!**

**(20:03, 14/03/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

"So..." Amarisia trailed off, Edward had changed out of his blood drenched clothes into a cleaner set as well as a new set of bandages for his eye. He now sat at the island in the kitchen across from his Asari room-mate, Sheridan's gun sat between them as an uncomfortable silence descended.

"You're home early," Edward started, an irritating itch had caught hold in his damaged eye and he was having trouble thinking of much else. He noticed Amarisia glancing at it repeatedly while he spoke.

"Some of the kids got food poisoning, we had to cut the trip short," Edward noticed her hands fidgeting uncontrollably as she spoke, "then I come home to find a mad man with a gun and my room-mate the wanted criminal."

"That's about the long and short of it," Edward said reluctantly, "though criminal may be a bit of a stretch," she sighed and cast him a disparaging look.

"Then how would you phrase it?" a bolt of anger crossed her face, a fiery glare burned in her eyes for the briefest of moments before she composed herself.

"I don't know... paid vigilante is probably the most accurate analysis but I can understand why people would use slightly less desirable names," Edward slowly made his way to his feet, taking the pistol with him he made his way to his room.

"Where are you going?" Amarisia asked, a look of confusion passing over her.

"I'm leaving, I assume that after this you want me gone," he turned back, his one blue eye etched with weariness, he ran a hand through his beard before turning back and reaching for the door.

"I don't," Edward pulled back his hand from the door release and glanced over his shoulder, "despite all this you're actually a great room-mate and haven't missed a payment since you moved in," she rose, splaying both hands across the table, "but you promise me this; you promise me that you'll never let your work follow you home again, not like last time,"

"I'll try my utmost but I can't guarantee it," Edward turned and brought up his omni-tool, "so I installed this for that eventuality."

There was a very quick series of slams as the bulkheads over the doors and windows locked down inside of a millisecond, a red light flooded the room as the apartment became it's own bunker. At the flip of a button it reversed just as fast, it was as if nothing had happened.

"When did this happen?" she asked, a wearisome look crossing her face, "no, don't tell me, it got installed yesterday," Edward chewed his lower lip for a second.

"More like... 5 hours ago," a look of disbelief crossed her face before she shrugged.

"What else, i'm guessing there's more," a few taps of his omni-tool and Edward pulled a fully automatic tempest sub-machine gun from behind a bookcase close to his door. Flipping the safety off he then fired a small burst into the window.

"What the hell are you doing!" she yelled as he replaced the gun in the wall and closed the hatch.

"Bullet-proof windows," after looking for a moment Amarisia realised there were no impact marks, "each square centimetre of glass is covered by millions of microscopic kinetic barrier generators, a heavily armed firing squad couldn't get through that in the better part of a day."

"People must have heard that."

"The place is soundproof, a grenade could go off and our neighbour's wouldn't hear it," it'd been a relatively cheap extra that the outfitters had suggested when Edward had met with them the first time, a super-absorbent layer designed to stop anything getting through had been fitted just below the floor and walls.

"Anything else I should know about?" a quick shake of the head gave her her answer.

"So we're cool?" Edward glanced over the pistol as he spoke, it's design was something else and warranted looking into.

"We're good, just remember what you said," Edward nodded and removed himself to his room, he nearly locked the door but at the last moment decided against it considering the need for secrecy was no longer that pressing an issue.

"Let's see what we've got here," he muttered as he sat at the small desk, the dull ache in his eye receding as he began to focus intently on the multiple parts of the custom weapon.

The gun could easily be mistaken for a Barreta from the 21st century, it felt lighter though and a thin hum always seemed to surround it. Edward didn't have the tools to open it up and look at the mechanisms inside but he could guess at them being on another level to military hardware. A symbol was embossed on the side of the barrel, it looked like a stylised M but the paint by which it had been originally coloured had long since faded.

Taking an imprint of the symbol with his omni-tool, Edward sent it off to Barla Von with a quick note of who it belonged to and his interest in it. It would probably be nothing but these weapons were unlike anything else in the universe at present, thinking about all the equipment the squad had brought to bear against him, Edward knew there was something more about them than a simple Merc gang, they had a connection that got them these weapons and Edward was determined to find out who could be making them.

Edward frowned, he could do nothing till the volus got back to him and yet sitting around was not his strong suit. Yet with one eye doing anything adventurous was more tricky than usual, he could wait until he was healed but what he was planning may not be accomplish-able if he did wait. Strapping on his armour, slowly as not to cause any unnecessary pain, Edward quickly plotted the root on his HUD to his target before strapping on his Martials and his Graal Spike Thrower.

Hopping out of the window onto the balcony Edward looked over the edge, in the next moment he was away, sprinting across the rooftops towards the C-sec HQ at blinding speeds. He was planning a quick trip to see the owner of the gun and ask a few questions about it and other things.

A plan formulated in his head as he ran, as a Shadow Broker operative he had been given a detailed schematic of the entire complex and thanks to his higher brain functions being extrapolated to their limits he had memorised the map inside of a minute. The holding cells were deep inside the building, practically on top of the interrogation rooms, to get that far without being spotted he'd either have to crawl through the air ducts and most likely be heard or steal a uniform off of an officer in the street or in the locker rooms. His best bet would be to knock an officer unconscious and sneak in from there.

**(21:46, 14/03/80, Citadel, Presidium, C-sec HQ, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward slunk down the alley silently, he had followed a human officer down here from the rooftops after nearly an hour of waiting. He had no clear sight of the man but he had sized him up to be roughly the same size and dimensions as the super-soldier.

As he crouched behind the dumpster roughly ten metres from his quarry, Edward could smell the acrid stench of tobacco as if he was standing beside the officer. It seemed to be one of the few disadvantages of being as he was, that and the ear ache he got from standing close to a talking crowd.

The man was powerfully built, comparatively, and seemed to lean slightly more heavily on his left leg, the way his right leg was bent would suggest he had been wounded on his right side previously and said wound had either fully healed and still caused impediment or was partially healed. Furthermore the man's posture was characteristic of a military man, most people would slouch more than he was at present especially with a wound.

Edward knocked the dumpster loud enough for the man to hear. The officer had been facing away, his left side to Edward, as the noise reached him; he turned fully so his right ear was closer than his left suggesting either a psychosomatic dependence on his right side or a weakness in his left ear.

So, a military man discharged for wounds sustained in the line of duty, a weak right side and also had hardness of hearing on his left side. All in all he wouldn't be too hard to take down as long as Edward moved quickly.

The officer turned back and Edward struck, before he was fully facing away Edward was on him. A fist struck him in the right side, ribs cracked and he swung a wild hay-maker with his left. Before he could cry out at the pain another blow knocked his left leg out from under him. He hit the ground due to his right not being able to support him, the wind was knocked from him as an armoured knee rammed into his torso, the ribs on his left cracked while the weaker of his right side ribs fully broke.

Edward stood and quickly dragged the unconscious officer deeper into the alley, a soft groan escaped his victim's lips as he eased his uniform off of him. Hiding his armour on a ledge several dozen feet above the ground, Edward readjusted the bandage on his eye and walked quickly yet casually back towards the entrance.

The entrance to the building was mostly free of any traffic save for the odd officer or civilian, Edward tried not to make eye contact with anyone as he strolled towards his first obstacle, the ID scanner, it was the most direct way into the building and in some cases was easiest to bypass. Edward had taken the tag off of the officer in the alley and would flit through without a single issue.

Passing through, Edward made for the lifts at the far end of the hall, it was largely more occupied than the main entrance yet all the same Edward walked through without any hindrance. As he pressed the call button for the lift Edward heard a familiar voice in the crowd. Turning, Edward watched a frustrated Garrus pace past while intently staring at a datapad, a deep frown set in his features.

Edward couldn't help but smile as he turned back to the elevator as it opened, there was only one other occupant as he entered, a tall Turian with thin white marks running down the edges of his jaw. Edward nodded politely and leant against the back as the doors closed, he made to press the button for detention level but it was already lit.

"Detention level then," the Turian said as the lift began to slowly ascend, "may I ask what for?"

"Murder suspect, need to give him a quick questioning then cart him back to the Tayseri station," the Turian nodded and turned back towards the door.

"What are you up to?" Edward glanced over his shoulder at the officer.

"Bloody Extremis," Edward turned a look of confusion on his face.

"What about him?" Edward turned fully and gave the officer a questioning look.

"I probably shouldn't talk about it," he said, a look that told Edward it may not be best for his health if he did.

"Come on," Edward jeered, "who'm I going to tell."

"Well he took down this merc gang the other day, and it's not like the rumours going around with him taking on the bigger gangs, these guys were so hardcore they've taken down a group spectres, and he took them down on his own with a sword," he gave Edward an incredulous look.

"Tell me about it," Edward played along with him.

"We think we found some of his blood at the scene," Edward perked up at that.

"Anything weird about it?" Edward sold it with a smile.

"You should've seen the doctor who examined it," he made a melodramatic look of surprise, "she spouted off a load of techno-babble about it, from what I had explained to me it was a genetic marvel," Edward made a mental note to find and destroy the data.

"So what's on the detention level then?" Edward cocked an eyebrow at the Turian.

"One of the merc gang from earlier is making a fuss about talking," he rolled his eyes, "more hassle for me is all it really is."

"Sucks, what are they doing with the prisoners?" Edward noticed the lift was nearly at it's destination.

"Shipping them all off to this prison ship, can't remember the name of it," Edward's ears perked up.

"Purgatory?" the Turian looked surprised.

"How'd you know?" He crossed his arms and gave him a strange look.

"I like to read the files on prisoners at times, C-sec only send prisoners who they don't want in Citadel Space there, wonder what these guys did," he added to sell the cover.

"Huh, they'll be through the relay in about an hour at any rate," a sense of urgency cloaked Edward as the doors opened and he stepped out into the level.

Edward stalled until the Turian was past him before following him towards the cell blocks, he needed to grab at least one of his would be assassins and get them alone for five minutes. His best bet would be one of the sisters, there was a greater chance that they would talk despite the fact he'd kicked the shit out of them.

A lay out of the cells was posted on the wall by the entrance, from what he could tell he'd be trying to get Sara Spencer as she was closest to the door. Not missing a step as he decided this, Edward quickly marched towards the cell, with a quick tap of the release latch, the door slid open and the super-soldier walked in.

The sharpshooter was sat with her chin in her hands, a glum look of boredom etched into her expression. She had been stripped of her tactical armour and was now in the orange fatigues of a prisoner. As the door opened she looked up with a sullen resignation. The look quickly turned to one of confusion then sly appreciation as she realised who had unlocked the door.

"How can I help you officer," she said, her lips dripping with sarcasm.

"You're wanted for questioning, come along quietly," Edward said as if nothing was amiss.

"And if I struggle?" she asked with a look of amusement.

"Then I tase your ass and carry you to interrogation," he moved further into the cell, "now, which shall it be?" she suppressed a laugh as he tried to say it like any other officer would.

"Really Edward, i've heard Volus more threatening than that," she mocked quietly.

"Will you just come along," he whispered back, she stood and placed her hands behind her back as Edward moved forward with a pair of pilfered hand-cuffs.

She said nothing more as he walked her into the hallway and then towards the rooms, he noticed her trying to suppress a smirk as they passed several officers, each having conversations and each casting unsure glances at the prisoner as she walked past.

They found an empty interrogation room and quickly moved inside, Edward could see through the one way mirror with a little focus and noticed there was no-one observing the talk. Sitting the sharpshooter down at one side of the table and undoing her cuffs.

"SO," she said with a grandiose flare, "what can I do for you Extremis?" Edward smirked and placed the pistol on the tabletop.

"Who made this?" Edward twisted it so the engraving was visible.

"Why should I tell you," she countered quickly.

"Because I could have killed you back on that rooftop yet I chose not to," he shoved the gun closer to her, "so I suggest you cooperate."

"Sheridan organised most of our logistical transactions but I did have a hand in it from time to time, the organisation you're after is known as Malari Incorporated to the public, the private sector, however have access to probably the best armourer in the galaxy," she sat back and stretched in her chair.

"So why isn't their stuff more wide spread?" she smirked and leant forward.

"That's the damn thing, they're probably the most secretive operation in the galaxy, your Shadow Broker pal could learn a thing or two," she cleared her throat and continued on, "they approach people, completely out of the blue and offer them the best weapons between here and Andromeda," Edward crossed his arms and leant forward till their faces were less than a foot away.

"So how do I find them?" she chuckled and met his gaze.

"I assume you've got the feelers out for the logo," she tapped it as she spoke, "you'll come up with a lot of false leads, Malari are very careful with this business in particular."

"Then how?" Edward leant back.

"Well obviously we needed to pick up our gear at some point , it didn't just appear overnight in our cargo hold, so we were sent to this warehouse in Kithoi Ward out in the ass end of nowhere, place was deserted except for our stuff and the dealer. A Salarian by the name of Vketrio Tallenia, now I assume you won't get anything for searching the traditional way but if you find him, make him squawk and you'll have your back door into the best weapon-smith there is," she sat back and smirked.

"You're very helpful," Edward looked at the door and the one way mirror, once again it was vacant, "but for an organisation that is so secretive, I doubt this guy just told you his name."

"Indeed," she scratched her neck and continued, "it so happens he had hired us to deal with a rival weapons dealer, of course that hadn't been the reason at the time but it seemed reasonable enough when we discovered he worked for Malari."

"Thank you Miss Spencer," Edward said standing up, "you've been very helpful," he walked back around the desk and cuffed her again.

"So, going to let me go?" she asked jokingly.

"No, you're going to the prison ship Purgatory out in the Terminus systems," she pouted at him as he started walking her towards the door.

"Ah Purgatory, then answer me this," She turned as much as she could and met his eye, "why am I and my sisters still alive, you could have easily killed us on that rooftop but you didn't, so why?"

Edward took a moment to construct his answer, "I felt that, at that time you were not truly with Sheridan and Leng, if I killed you then there were three more bodies. Yet if they both were dead then the chances of you coming after me were minimal," she nodded along with the answer.

"We only took the job for the money, Sheridan took it cause he likes killing, it's part of him, but now, now I doubt the Illusive Man will offer us the money for your head, too much of a fuck up to warrant paying," she gave Edward a smirk, "so you can consider yourself safe."

With that, Edward opened the door and walked her back to her cell, not another word past her lips as he uncuffed her and sat her down on the bed, they only traded nods as he exited the cell and locked it back up. As he walked away from the cell block he felt an urge to cause a power outage in the building, sure all the prisoners would escape but he expected three highly trained combat experts could easily evade capture. But that wasn't his way, they were wanted for several charges and they needed to answer for those, he didn't doubt he'd see them again but it wouldn't be for several years yet.

The lift ride was as painfully slow as he remembered, thankfully he was alone this time which gave him an excuse to readjust the bandage around his eye, an uncomfortable itch had begun to take hold unlike the several he had had over the last few hours. The big itch was usually an indication that the damage was nearly fixed, a testing period would be an apt description, it made holding a straight face a nightmare for the urge to scrunch up was all but irresistible.

Edward made his way quickly through the scanner and was out the door as fast as was possible without making people aware of his situation. A moment later and he pulled his top over his head and dropped it by the side of the still unconscious officer. He stripped the rest off and climbed back into his home clothes before retrieving the armour on its ledge.

As the unconscious officer began to show signs of waking, Edward had vanished across the rooftops in the direction of home. He now had a job to do and he had a lead on which to focus his search. Several new thoughts swirled in his mind after his talk with the sharpshooter a couple were for the Volus but right now he needed to get home.

Looking down, something caught his eye on one of the Martials at his side. Stopping, he pulled it out and realised what had caught his attention, painted on the side, in the smallest of details was a stylised M, as the connection registered in his mind, Edward added another target to his roster of places to visit in the coming days.

**And that is it. Yes this is a much shorter chapter than I usually dish out but several complications have turned up in my private life that demand a lot more attention than I have given to this so for the time being they may be shorter but they will still come.**

**In other news, (shuffles papers), this is the last chance to vote in the poll and next Monday shall be the decider for the whole thing. I may put up a couple more polls concerning the main story, I.E. Mass Effect 1, 2, so on so forth. The Poll is on my profile so get there and vote, this is the crucial vote so by god, entropy, and all other deities and constants in our universe make yours count!**

**As always,**

**Hab67t**


	10. Drop it like it's hot!

**Operation Extremis**

**(09:22, 18/03/80, Citadel, Shalta Ward, Karati Corp tower, Serpent Nebula)**

Staring up at the last Sila Drakona base in Citadel Space, Edward felt a sense of dread settle in his chest. Not for the fight, or for the objectives he had set himself once he was inside but rather it was the possibility of collateral damage on a scale he didn't want to comprehend. The mercs had been very clever in positioning their greatest stronghold.

The base resided in the top two floors of a three hundred floor monolith, there was no way to reach it on foot as no stairwell or elevator ran between them and the other floors, to try and assault the base from the air was tantamount to suicide unless you packed serious protection, two batteries of anti-air GARDIAN lasers had been installed on the roof, these guns could take down anything from a troop transport to a frigate given enough time.

If an invader managed to get through that then they would be met by up to one hundred angry mercs each wielding weapons in their own class. The whole base could go into lockdown with thirty seconds of an alarm being raised, each room being closed off from the others by three foot thick titanium-tungsten blast shields, the windows being covered by similarly thick barricades.

The head of the organisation was especially cautious when it came to his security, his office was at the end of a corridor protected by a pin-point accurate autocannon capable of pumping out two hundred rounds a minute, after that he would no doubt have bodyguards but other than that it was a free range cluster fuck waiting to happen.

"So what you thinking?" Xerarch asked from the seat opposite Edward, the small cafe was at the far end of the street from the tower. Edward, once he planned out his next move, had called for the Asari armourer to meet him here.

"There's only one way in to that place, conventionally, and since I can't fly that seems a bit out of my range," a quarian shot them an odd look as he passed, or at least Edward assumed he did.

"There are several designs for flight suits-" Edward held up a hand.

"I knew a guy who used flight suits almost exclusively, they're about as quiet as a thrash metal concert," the woman chewed on her lower lip as she thought of a solution to the problem that didn't include a volume issue.

After a minute of thinking the armourer looked up and spoke, "how about a way to climb the exterior?" Edward nodded and she continued, "the Asari military designed this adhesive a while back, it was supposed to be used to help on scaling sheer surfaces or difficult gradients, turns out they blew their budget on designing the solution and when they found out it was too powerful for even their strongest operatives, they scrapped the entire project and gave it to the industrial sector."

"What's so special about it?" Edward started to construct a plan around the idea.

"Apart from being super-strong and able to stick to any surface, it only becomes active when a current is applied to it. The downside is that it evaporates quickly when uncharged, usually within a couple seconds. I'm sure you can work with that," She took a sip of the lukewarm coffee in front of her.

"Indeed, need me to do anything?" he slurped the remains of his drink and made to rise, "asides from credits."

"I'll need access to your gauntlets, boots, and control interface for your entire suit," Edward nodded before moving towards the exit, "there is one other thing," Edward turned back to Xerarch as she in turn rose and faced him, "I have a matter that requires specialist attention, if you aren't too busy i'd like you to look into it," Edward nodded and, without a word, left the coffee shop.

Several blocks from the shop, Edward ducked into an alley and leapt to the rooftops in a single bound. Checking he was out of sight of the street, Edward kicked off hard into a run, before long he was covering blocks in mere seconds. Once or twice he heard the tell-tale whine of C-sec Sirens but they quickly drifted away as he sprinted along.

**(16:31, 18/03/80, Citadel, Shalta Ward, Above Karati Tower, Serpent Nebula)**

"You sure 'bout this?" Xerarch called from the front of the small shuttle, the boarding hatch wide open on the port side. They were just at the kinetic barrier envelope, the area where the gravity stopped and the big ships roamed. Edward couldn't hear the wind whipping around him but he imagined what it would be like.

"Well I don't want to have to climb that bastard from the ground floor and if I try to take a lift up then they'll catch me before I reach the third floor," Edward once again weighed up his options while he dangled a foot out of the still aircraft, "this way I can make it most of the way up without being detected."

"If you're set on it then fine, run through the drill," Xerarch fiddled with the controls while Edward plotted a root through the traffic streams.

"Step one jump, step two activate gel program in HUD, step three: pray to god, Kalahira, and all those other deities that I don't get turned to jam by the sidewalk," Edward almost chuckled at what he was about to do, the sort of chuckle reserved for that moment before you did something so absurd that it was best left to the movies, "think i've got that down."

"Remember you are the source of the current, don't let up for more than the time it takes to move your hand up," he stopped himself rolling his eyes, "understood?"

"Yes Ma'am," Edward said jokingly, "no dilly dallying shall be had."

"Well, whenever you feel like jumping."

Taking a look one last time out into the abyss, Edward made sure he was heading for the right target. Taking a deep breath, Edward stepped back a pace, let out the breath, and threw himself into the void, a whoop on his lips.

Cars, ships, and floating signs shot past as Edward descended, nearly too fast for him to pick up, a car swerved suddenly to the side as Edward hurtled down. Throwing himself to the side, Edward passed within inches of the metal side. Swinging his legs downwards, Edward shot through the small gap between two cars as they moved along.

Once he hit clear sky, Edward activated the climbing program with a glance, the on-board V.I. responding at once. Shooting a glance at his hands, Edward noticed them covering in a deep purple gel, as it fully covered them, Edward willed the power in him to flow. Keeping the current active, Edward looked back up as the building grew large in his face.

As soon as the roof passed him by Edward angled forward to the side of the building, drawing closer gradually each moment. Suddenly there was a great tug in his shoulders, as if something was trying to forcefully remove his arms. His head snapped back as he stopped, sliding to a stop along the vertical surface.

Cracking his neck loudly, Edward started to pull himself up the side of the monolithic structure. He quickly got into the rhythm of activating and deactivating the adhesive property as he slowly ascended the side of the building. A quick glance upwards made it look like at least twenty floors but it was probably less in reality.

"Extremis," Barla Von sounded in his ear.

"Von, quiet the time for a social call I must say," Edward replied as he crawled up another floor.

"Indeed, my tracker in your armour tells me you're on the outside of the Sila Drakona's headquarters," he sounded rather indifferent considering what had just happened.

"Yes, you uncover anything new about this place?" Edward grunted a little as he made it past the twelfth floor.

"Something better, we managed to hack the encryption on the broadcasts from the tower and it's surprising to say the least," Edward looked around as the sound of sirens drew close, he spotted the cars a good mile away, thankfully heading away from the tower.

"Well you gonna leave me hanging or what," It couldn't be more than three floors to the roof now, from what he could tell there was a patrol round the exterior of the compound every five minutes.

"Sila Drakona's operations off Citadel are heavily reliant on this station, once you take care of the situation we can simulate a disruption in the signal and relocate the necessary equipment to a secure location and take control of all their operations," Edward smirked as he approached the final floor.

"All the power for none of the bloodshed, smart," Edward reached the guard rail that surrounded the roof, taking a quick look Edward noted the nearest entrance and all camera's in the surrounding area. Crunching the numbers on when he could make a dash for it took no longer than a second, there were two cameras at the entrance, while one was pointing away the other was pointed straight at the entrance. A clever strategy for keeping people away from the entrance.

But not the cameras.

Edging along to the side, Edward moved until he was far enough along so that only one camera could see him at any given time. As soon as it looked away, Edward leapt up and onto the roof directly above it, the adhesive glove still active as he did.

Drawing a sword in his free hand, Edward swung the razor sharp edge down and across the stalk that held the camera to the wall. It fell with a clatter as Edward swung over and destroyed the other with a slash of his sword.

Tossing the evidence over the side of the building, Edward wiped off the remaining gel and opened the door, a quick jolt of electricity to overload the door control swung it open easily enough. Closing it behind him, Edward switched on the x-ray vision and stalked forward, sword held in both hands.

The corridor Edward found himself in passed a glass wall that ran from floor to ceiling, his vision told Edward that inside were three mercs, Salarians from the look of them. The door to the security room was on the other side of glass wall. The light in the hallway almost ensured he would be seen if he made a dash past, looking up, Edward noticed the lights were held in a fixture that, if he could get a grip on it, would allow him to climb past the views of the Salarians without any chance of them catching him.

Sheathing his blade, Edward hopped up and caught one of the fixtures, he dangled for several moments before reaching up and taking hold of the other fixture. Slowly, and with the greatest caution, Edward pulled himself along towards the opposite side of the glass wall. All the while his eyes were set on the two Salarians, both seemed to be too engrossed in their computers to look up.

Looking up, Edward watched as the door at the far end of the hallway opened up. Two human mercs walked out, Edward knew that if they got too close they'd easily see him, neither had their weapons out and if he had to guess neither had their kinetic barriers up. Acting quickly, Edward swung down and ghosted past the rest of the glass wall.

Landing on the balls of his feet, Edward snatched his swords out of their scabbards and hurled them down the corridor at the two relaxed mercs, the blades punched through their chests, the force of the collision throwing them a good six feet backwards. Neither merc rose as Edward quickly turned and opened the door to the security room.

He had seen sense to bring his collection of daggers along on the mission, drawing three from their place on his waist Edward sighted his targets and hurled the projectiles before the door had fully opened. Hastily recovering his implements, Edward moved further into the base with a sword held tightly in both hands.

The door the two mercs had come from opened to a catwalk. Looking down revealed it to skirt the indoor landing pad, a mantis gunship parked below, guards stood at attention while others wheeled boxes and such into the cabin.

_Must be bugging out,_ Edward thought as he pressed on. He figured whoever was in charge would put their office squarely in the middle of the base. That would place it below his current location, the sound of heavy equipment caught his attention from the room at the end of the catwalk. On instinct, Edward leapt over the side and caught the side of the walkway.

The sound of powerful hydraulics gave him an idea of what was above him, the rhythmic thump of the Ymir mech abruptly stopped above his head, he looked down to the sword in his hand, if he moved fast enough he could shut it down before it could fire off a shot but it could also explode, neither option was entirely favourable.

However, before he could act, the heavy combat mech turned on its heel and marched back into the room it had come from. Swinging himself up, Edward advanced slowly after the mech, he'd learnt that they had no detection hardware anywhere on them other than their main optic unit. As long as he kept out of it's periphery he'd be fine.

Sliding through the door before it closed, Edward ducked into cover behind a pillar, the Ymir trundled onwards on it's patrol route oblivious to the super-soldier shadowing it. It passed through several empty rooms, most filled with containers of red sand and other illicit materials. At the first opportunity he was given Edward ducked through a door out of the path of the massive mech.

From further into the base came voices, the flanged layer of a Turian evident in all three of the members. As Edward drew close he tightened his grip on his blade and pressed into the wall, as close to the corner of the hall as he could. The voices sounded near, no more than a metre from where he was standing at present. Staying still, Edward chose to listen to their words before acting.

"How long is it now," one droned absent-mindedly.

"Can't be more than an hour, the packing's nearly done and after that it's a simple matter of getting the hell out of here," another chimed in, his voice thicker than his compatriot.

"Why didn't we do this earlier," asked the third in the group, a feminine lilt evident in her voice, "It's not like we've needed to wait this long."

"Hell if I know, I would have beat tracks as soon as that psychopath wiped out the last outpost," He sounded bored if anything, probably thought he wasn't paid enough to care.

A pause lasted for a count of five before the heavier male groaned and readjusted his stance on the wall. As soon as the female opened her mouth to continue, Edward slipped round the corner and drove his sword through the torso of the closest Turian.

Before the others could react he threw the body forward with a shove, toppling the female, and grabbed the heavy set male with his free hand, a sickening crunch echoed as he snapped his neck. The remaining merc tried to call out but was silenced by an armoured hand.

Waiting for her to calm down, he spoke in a deep, harsh, voice, "Where's your boss?" Edward pressed the tip of his sword to the Turian's neck, "and talk because I don't give second chances."

"He's in his office," she winced as Edward pressed the blade slightly harder, "along this corridor, down a level and keep right, there's guards outside so you can't miss it."

"How do I know you're not lying?" she whimpered as a light trickle of blue blood made it's way down her neck.

"They're armed with Peregrine assault rifles with Martial hand cannons on back-up. The code to the door is 23146, the commander keeps a brace of grenades and a pistol in his desk!" with each fact she grew increasingly loud, fear radiated from her as much as sweat coursed down her carapace.

"If I let you go, you leave," he said withdrawing the blade slightly, in reply to this she spluttered a plethora of affirmations and near maniacal nods, "I hear an alarm and you won't get further than the foyer.

He let her up and she practically sprinted away, waiting till her loud footsteps receded out of earshot, Edward moved quickly down the corridor, blood splattered sword held in one hand, the other crackled with electricity. Once or twice Edward heard the tell tale pounding of Ymir mechs but never ran across any as he stealthily moved down the corridor.

Reaching the stairs, Edward checked the coast was clear before vaulting the bannister and dropping to the ground. As he landed he rolled into cover, the doors swinging open as he did. Waiting for five counts, Edward moved out of cover and into the next room. Following the merc's instructions, Edward moved through the closest door on the right.

Following the short path he found himself on, Edward caught sight of his target. Two, frankly massive, Krogan were at attention outside a heavy-duty door, large metal rebar held it in place. Dropping close to the ground, Edward crept towards the two brutes, his black armour blending in well with the dark corridor.

The guards only had a split second warning before the first was impaled through the throat. Using the momentum, Edward threw himself over the heads of the two Krogan and landed, driving his elbow into the skull cap of the second. Before it could rise, Edward passed a massive electric current through it's brain, effectively frying it.

The other tried to raise it's gun but lacked the strength, he died with a guttural groan as his final effort. Retrieving his blade, Edward turned to the door. Trying the code the merc had given him proved useless. Nevertheless, a hunk of metal wasn't going to be stopping him, with two swings of his weapon, the rebar bracing the door in place clattered to the floor.

The door ground open with a little prompting, the electromagnets snapping apart as Edward lifted the door into it's fitting. Checking it was staying, Edward stepped through the door into the small office.

Behind a large desk sat a man, his salt and pepper hair was shortly cropped and so did nothing to hide the large scar that ran from his left ear to the bridge of his nose, the eye between these two points was pure white, it glinted devilishly in the light. The man, who Edward just assumed to be the leader of the Sila Drakona, regarded this new arrival with a cold countenance that spoke of many years of bitter fighting, betrayal, and regret.

Drawing a pistol, Edward pointed it squarely at his target's forehead, "hands above the desk," the man kept his hands in place, knitted just before the keyboard, the screen's orange glow was dim in the lights of the room, the white walls standing out far more than they had in the corridors of the base.

"Mr Scarrow," the man's visage didn't change an iota as he addressed Edward, "you are right on time." his voice was deep and sonorous, his Russian accent pulling through.

"Glad I didn't disappoint," Edward moved slowly round the desk and confiscated the aforementioned weapons the merc had spoken of. Tossing them into the corner, he returned to the front of the desk, "may I?" he motioned to the chair to his side.

"Of course," he waited till he was sat, "to business then."

"I was thinking the direct route; you spraff for a few minutes, I quip, I shoot you in the noggin," he chuckled good-heartedly.

"If only it was that easy," his eye flitted between the barrel of Edward's gun and his helmet, "would you at least do me the courtesy of looking me in the eye."

Removing his helmet, the merc boss stared evenly into the eyes that met him, one blue, the other a lacklustre grey. The super-soldier set the helmet facing him on the desk, the stonewall look the super-human gave him worked it's way towards unnerving the man.

"This can go two ways," Edward said, "you can resist me, I kill you, and hand this place over to the Shadow Broker."

"Or?"

"Or you leave the Citadel, forever, you keep your business out of Citadel Space and I don't hunt you and your little band of maggots down to your last maggoty little operation," the man stroked the bristles on his chin.

"I assume you get something out of this?" he said, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth.

"I get one favour, whenever I choose, whatever I choose, you send to where I say, I think your life and that of your men is more important than a single space stations worth of capital," the two rivals sat in silence for several moments, a tense air had taken over the room.

"So you just walk out of here now, no bloodshed, no destruction?" he shook his head.

"I'm afraid not, I was told you controlled all of your operations from this building, and as such was told to capture this base as to take over what's left of Sila Drakona," the man frowned.

"Would you have me destroy the entire base?"

"No, I was thinking transferring your software to portable hardware and then destroying all of your hardware here, including your broadcasting dish on the roof." He sighed.

"How would I do this? I'm a little short on explosives."

"I saw you have a supply of Ymir mechs, they contain a small nuclear payload fail-safe. Even one of those set off inside your comms centre should bugger everything beyond use."

"It may take a while to arrange, I need to evacuate the rest of my assets," he rubbed the bridge of his nose where the scar met.

"Leave them, the Shadow Broker agents will take this place as their own, if you've upped and left with everything then it looks suspicious," he sighed.

"I shall make the arrangements," he drew up from his chair, "you should go," he said as the super-human rose to meet him.

"I'll make the call when I get out, make sure you're gone in the next hour or you might run into some unwanted enemies," he turned and left.

"Scarrow?" the agent turned back towards the man.

"yes," he turned as he pulled on his helmet.

"Malari, they know you're after them, I would move against their agents sooner rather than later," the Extremis nodded and left without a word.

Edward landed on the rooftop of the coffee joint from earlier that day with a crash, a large spike of metal snapped up from the floor. Stepping out of the crater, Edward turned on his headset and looked back up at the tower just as the dish, still in plain view, detonated in a brilliant plume of orange.

"Von," Edward spoke aloud as the fiery dish hurtled past him and smashed into the mostly empty street below.

"Extremis, how did your mission go? We lost contact with you after you entered the base."

"They had a jammer in place, couldn't find it," he lied through his teeth.

"Nevermind that, where you successful in your objectives."

"Negative, there were only stragglers and all the hardware was screwed," there was a pause.

"I'm getting reports that there was an explosion on the roof," Edward thought quickly.

"One of the mercs set a weapons cache off, threw me free and destroyed the dish," he looked back up as smoke billowed into the sky.

"very well, report back to the safe-house," the line cut as the whine of sirens began to fill the air, with a quick glance over his shoulder, Edward burst forward into a run away from the scene.

**(19:22, 18/03/80, Citadel, Bahjret Ward, The Apartment, Serpent Nebula)**

"How was work?" Edward asked as Amarisia sauntered tiredly through the front door. She groaned theatrically and slumped into the sofa, dropping her bag at the side.

"Never go into teaching," she cracked her neck to the side, "exam marking is not worth it," Edward chuckled, popping open the microwave and bringing out the bowl of popcorn. Tossing a few kernels in his mouth, he dropped down beside her and offered her some.

"Ancient delicacy from Earth," he ate a few more, "exploded vegetable flavoured with whatever you feel like," she slowly ate one, a look of contentment crossing her face as the flavour hit her tongue.

"Nice, what'd you put in it?" she began to eat freely from the bowl.

"Salted caramel, a personal favourite," he threw a piece in the air and caught it in his mouth, "took me ages to find but sure was worth it."

"Can I ask you a question?" Edward looked at her sideways, "about your work."

He nodded, trying to keep upbeat about the turn the conversation had taken. Ever since the truth had come out, his true occupation had become a sore issue and was avoided in normal conversation. But this was different, as if the stigma around the whole issue was starting to taper off, ever since his eye had healed the talks had been more formal, but the friendly attitude had started to return.

"Do you ever doubt yourself? I mean, you kill people, and I know you told me that you have only ever killed those who deserve it, but surely deep down you know that everything you're doing is fucked up," Edward looked down at his feet, then up again.

"I... I don't. Maybe once, right at the start, it was all a little crazy and rushed, I never really had time to pause and think about anything I was doing, but when I finally got a break, I sat myself down and convinced me that what I was doing would be for the greater good," his hand unconsciously went to where he had first been shot, three inches down his left leg.

"I convinced myself that I would only do things that were morally right, well, as much as is possible when you kill people, I may have broken that rule on some occasions but I always tried to hold true to it. It's kept me sane, if anything, over the last few years," he paused, smiled contently, and put ate another piece.

"So, yeah, it's fucked and I'm probably hell-bound cause of it but at the same time it's my life and I wouldn't have it different for all the credits in the galaxy."

"It's good to hear such conviction, I would guess most people with your skills would let it go to their heads,"

"Yeah, you could probably call them my brothers and sisters," a blank expression covered Edward's

face as he drifted back momentarily, "but they're gone now, doesn't matter."

"There were more like you?" Edward quickly rose, an awkward mien apparent in the way he moved, "what happened to them."

Edward stopped, this train of thought had him waking up in cold sweats at times, "I did," this was probably the only thing he could truly hate himself for regardless of the fact it had been necessary.

Before Amarisia could ask another question, he disappeared into his room, the door swishing shut behind him. Edward strapped on his armour and leapt out the window to the opposite rooftop, like most of the times these memories surfaced he would run till he could focus on something else, what he'd done had always been heavy on his conscience and despite the constant reminding it was necessary at the time over time the guilt had built inside him.

***Not too far away* **

"Hostile is on the move," a voice crackled over the radio, "terminate your objective," the radio went dead.

Edward had a good idea he was being followed after the first couple dozen blocks, the amounts of annoying car horns was higher than it should have been, a quick glance confirmed his suspicions. Three heavily armoured humvee like cars flew close together no less than 500 metres behind him, a quick check told him he had no weapons, not even his blades.

A sudden crack sounded and what seemed to be akin to a small hatchback hit Edward in the left shoulder. The impact threw him off his feet and through a roof's cooling unit. Recovering slowly, Edward ducked into cover as another shot from what he could only assume was a mounted gun narrowly missed him and tore a hole in the side of a building large enough to easily walk through.

Glancing at his arm, he winced at the damage. Everything above the bone had been ripped clear, he was damned lucky the bone hadn't been hit, a round like that could've taken off his entire arm. The armour was torn to shit as well, the hardened shell had bent and distorted along his arm and torso. He tried lifting hi arm but found it pointless, the ligaments and muscles were too damaged to do anything useful.

Spinning out of cover, Edward unleashed a powerful bolt of lightning, the pure energy caught one of the cars in the engine, it promptly sputtered out and crashed into the street below. The other two landed on the opposite end of the rooftop. As Edward made to once again leap out and attack them he shuddered to a stop.

A cold feeling, like biting into ice, slowly started to spread from his arm to his chest. He managed to stagger a few feet to a large pipe hub before staring at the wound on his shoulder, the blood had stopped flowing freely from the gaping wound and in it's place the red had started to mottle and turn black. It must have also had a paralytic agent in it, his head had become fuzzy and shortly after he dropped to his knees and then his chest.

A pair of large feet seemed to just appear in front of his eyes as his brain began to completely lose the fight with whatever he had been infected with. One raised into the air and the last thing he remembered was something kinda heavy bouncing off hiss helmet.

**And I'm back!**

**But for how long?**

**Questionable, but I aim to get this arc done in the next month or so and get on to the main three stories. I'm on a bit of a role so the next instalment might be up later tonight if not early tomorrow morning.**

**Please review as it does rouse me to action, I know a we all say that but it is a genuine thing and gives us a reason to check our emails. **

**As Always,**

**Hab67t**


	11. In Binds

**Operation Extremis**

**Chapter 11!**

**Enough arbitration, get reading.**

**(?:?, ?/?/?, Citadel?, General Area?, Specific Area?, Serpent Nebula?)**

Edward woke with a jolt, the room was really bloody bright but for the life of him he couldn't make anything out with any great distinction. He could feel his limbs returning to a semblance of life as the light condensed a little and he could see the room around him a little better.

It was a cell, to say the least. A basic three by four cell with nothing in it, not even a bed.He didn't try moving from his position on the floor, his back to the wall and a chain around his neck. Raising his left arm resulted in fuck all progress. Trying to glance round was a struggle with the collar but he could see that the hole in his arm had not healed, in fact the damage was worsening, the necrotic cells were spreading outwards, most of his shoulder was a sickly black and his veins twisting into his arm had begun to mottle as well.

"Shit," was all he could mutter but thanks to the paralytic agent it came more out as "shot."

He seemed to sit there for an age, slowly watching the lines on his arm worsen. It could have been anywhere from twenty minutes to several hours. Nevertheless out of nowhere the door opposite him shot open and in walked someone, his features were a little fuzzy but it was very evident that he was a tall Caucasian in his mid fifties with a bad limp in his right leg and a smoking problem. He was dressed in a three piece with a pistol in his left breast pocket.

"I believe shit is only the beginning of what you are in," he had a strong American accent, North Carolina most likely, and a slight lisp on his S sounds.

"Who?" was all he could manage as his brain started to fuzz up again, "you?" he managed to add before he lost focus.

"You should know, you've been hunting me and my associates over the last few weeks," he dropped the cigarette and stood on it.

"Malari," the three syllable word was a bit much but he managed, "bastard," he followed with a few seconds later.

"You're a true linguist Edward, a veritable Shakespeare," he knelt and tried to maintain eye level with the groggy super-human, "but that's not why I acquired you."

Edward gave up speaking and shrugged.

"Very well," he rose and started to pace in the small area, "basically I want you for your body," Edward cocked an eyebrow, "what every other person you've gone up against hasn't realised is the most fundamental part about you, you are the weapon, not your armour, with this in mind I saw it best to make you my own."

"Still not speaking?" he asked mockingly, "then my intentions are pretty simple, i'm going to pull as much information out of you as I can, if it kills you or not is up to the abilities of my scientists. After that, if you live, I shall make you my weapon, a couple neural clamps should make you pretty receptive to orders."

"Kill," Edward growled under his breath.

"You may try, you won't succeed, this entire room is made of hull class metals, even you can't break out of it" with that he left, a grin plastered over his bastard face.

"Kill," Edward muttered to himself, he glanced slowly at his arm.

"Kill."

**years later**

Edward sat in the light, his hair had grown out of control and he now resembled a caveman. He stared, with a glazed expression, at the floor, he had given up escaping. Once Malari had left and the paralysis had worn off he had pounded at the walls and door for days before giving up, there was no sign he'd done anything, not even a dent.

Whenever the scientists came to experiment on him they flooded the room with a gas form of the paralytic agent. He'd pass out and several hours later wake up with any number of lacerations over his body. This cell was the only room he had known for what was definitely years. How many he didn't know but he would be pissed if he missed the reaper war.

He glanced once again at his left arm. It wasn't the same arm he had started out with, not too long after he had woken up the damage had got worse, he never found out what it had been but the stuff had burned straight through his arm, he'd woken up soon after with no arm, it had been cleanly taken off, nothing necrotic remained. Despite this his arm had never grown back, whatever was used had cancelled out his healing factor.

And then they replaced it.

The new limb was pure black and made up of some advanced alloy that seemed to keep up with Edward's strength. The odd thing was that it felt warm, and if he tested for a pulse he could feel one. It was strong too, he tested it out by punching the wall as hard as he could. It felt like his arm but at the same time it didn't, there just wasn't the same level of feeling as the rest of the body, it felt dull.

Returning to his original posture, Edward didn't notice the rumble that went through the ship. He'd figured it was a ship pretty quickly, the hum of the engine was apparent and every now and then the pressure changed. But when the rumble came again he knew it was trouble.

It could have been anything but the second was louder and closer, it happened again, even louder this time. Standing, he moved to the door and pressed an ear to it, usually he heard guards chatting and others moving along but now there was nothing but pounding feet and distant gunfire.

"Extremis!" the intercom in the cell burst open, the voice was backlit with explosions and discharging weapons, "we need you, get out of your cell and help us!" The door shot open.

"Why should I," he asked, looking into the darkened halls.

"If you don't then we die, something colossal dropped in right on top of us, we're under attack!" the gunfire was growing closer, "here, i'm unlocking the blocks on your arm, it's neurologically controlled so you just need to think for your weapons to activate." There was a whir as the arm came to life, red lights blinked intermittently along what would have been his main artery.

"There's two different weapons, a sword and a miniaturised cannon, just get in here and save us!" the screams could now be heard over the gunfire.

"One question, what do the attackers look like?" the scientist on the other end let out a yelp before answering.

"Giant bug things! Hurry up!" Edward stood still for a moment before responding.

"No," and with that he left, the protests of the scientist fading into the distance as he broke into a run, he was only dressed in the same jeans he had been wearing the day he'd been captured. He manoeuvred his way through what felt like countless halls and rooms before he ran into the first signs of battle, human bodies covered the floor with burn marks covering their torsos.

There was a methodical thud as something big made its way along the corridor, ducking into a doorway Edward instinctively thought of reaching for his sword, cursing under his breath he quickly cast a look to his left as a metre and a half length of metal leapt from a crevice he had occasionally prodded in his cell. The blade was black like his arm and wicked sharp with long tangs extending from the base, it wasn't half bad he thought as the thing grew closer.

At the last second, he stepped out and drove the blade deep into the things chest. The hulking collector stared at him with its multiple beady eyes. It grabbed him by the throat and pushed him off, it stepped forward slowly, black liquid pouring from the new four inch wide hole in it's abdomen.

As it raised it's firearm, Edward ducked under it and swung his arm up, taking off the limb. The thing didn't make any noise as it threw a punch. Easily dodging the attack, the super-human spun and drove the sword through the monster's skull, it twitched for a second before slumping to the floor. Switching to his hand cannon, Edward moved the way the collector had been going, soon he caught up to the firefight and leapt into action.

As he rounded the corner he charged the three collectors, Edward fired his new weapon, the kick hard as a round about the size of a 50 calibre from old earth shot out and blew apart the first of his enemies. The other two rounded as he advanced and brought their weapons to bare, destroying the first with another shot, Edward leapt into the air over the spray of gunfire. Tucking into a roll he switched weapons and swung vertically as he came to a stop. The final collector stood still before falling apart in two clean parts.

"How?" one of the remaining combatants said. Edward advanced and picked her up with his spare hand.

"Which way to the bridge!" Edward growled, holding his new blade to the woman's throat. The person grunted and pointed towards the right turn at the end of the corridor.

"Keep going until you hit fighting, there's barely anyone left," Edward dropped her and took off as fast as he could in the cramped space.

He started finding bodies the closer to the front of the ship he got, mostly citadel species but the closer he got mechs and collectors started to appear in more frequency. Soon enough Edward caught up to the carnage towards the front of the ship.

Several dozen collectors had a small amount of lightly armed security guards pinned down in a dining hall, all the tables were piled up at one end of the hall in a makeshift barricade, the guards seemed to have given up firing their weapons as the hail of collector fire became to much.

Busting through the door, knocking it through a couple of the monstrous insects, Edward slashed the head off of the closest standing beast, others nearby turned and opened fire at the new threat, combat rolling to the side and coming up behind one of those still unaware, driving his blade through it's shoulder blades he picked it up and charged the firing collectors. Throwing the writhing collector hard, it smashed into it's comrades and scattered them, moving quickly, Edward cut down most of them before they could rise. Switching weapons, Edward destroyed the remaining hostiles before they could bring their guns to bare.

Those guards still alive cheered before a new wave rounded the corner, Edward cursed under his breath before leaping the barricade and smashing through the locked door, the sound of gunfire echoing behind him as he finished the last leg to the bridge.

The bridge was empty save for a few crew still desperately trying to restore power to the ship, most fled as he arrived, the hairy mass of muscle too much for them, those that stayed hid themselves as he moved towards the main command console.

"Computer," he pushed his knuckles into the platform as the screen came to life, "locate all data pertaining to Project Extremis," the computer buzzed.

"Data classified, access codes needed... error, security subroutines compromised, accessing data," three distinct folders, each holding hundreds of folders appeared, holographic interface, "anything else."

"Show log of all access to specified data," an extensive list popped up on the screen, going back months, the closest was less than two minutes ago.

"Show location of last data access," a 3-d image of the ship opened up, a blinking red dot showed where in respect to the bridge, it was dead set in what was definitely collector territory, "have any files been downloaded?"

"Download in progress, 22% complete," Edward's hair stood on end as his fears of what the collectors where here for were realised.

"Stop download!" he shouted at the screen.

"Cannot comply," the V.I. responded, "system compromised, data upload can only be terminated at source," the screen returned to the original three files, "anything else?"

"Show files relating to fields Extremis and Armour," the machine whirred, one file opened up detailing his armour opened, a quick read brought a smile to his lips, "how many copies of all Extremis files exist?" he asked.

"0 copies exist, all data was ordered to be kept on this craft by Executive Malari on 23/08/80," the machine showed an image of the bastard in question, "anything else."

"Highlight way to the armoury, unlock all lockers pertaining to Extremis," Edward turned on his heel and moved to the exit, the emergency lights blinking on the floor in front of him, breaking into a run he followed the lights to the armoury, a couple minutes later he burst into the armoury, several dead humans lay on the floor while a group of husks shuffled around, as he entered they moaned and limped towards him, with several swings of his sword they fell to the ground, finally dead. Following the lights he came to his locker, the heavy duty doors swung open to reveal his armour.

The design was different, no longer composed of heavy duty metal plate but rather thinner, light weight, polymer. It had been laid out into overlapping scales of material with the usual amount of mag locks in place. Strapping it on revealed how light it was, there was no left arm to the armour, instead it sealed itself with magnetic locks in place around the join between flesh and metal.

"Computer," he called out, "highlight route to drive core," the lights blinked on again as he took off, grabbing a Martial from a dead guard he leapt forward along the trail. Barely a minute later he was thrown off his feet by a massive biotic surge. Snapping up to his feet he brought his pistol to bare on the scion that shuffled haphazardly towards him, firing until the gun overheated he quickly pushed it to his belt before leaping over another blast and snapping out his sword. As he landed it swung the heavy barrel of it's gun downwards at his head, rolling to the side he lunged forward and drove his sword through the large blue sack on it's back. As it tried to swing round he pumped as much electricity as he could through it.

It's head promptly exploded from the energy before the body collapsed to the floor, wiping off the crap slicking the sword, Edward turned and followed the lights. As he ran he tried to avoid fighting as much as possible, every so often he'd ask for updates on the download. By the time he reached the massive mass effect drive the percentage had reached the low seventies.

His plan was simple, overloading the drive core would tear the ship apart, the explosion would destroy the upload and hopefully destroy the collector vessel. Depending on how much time he had he could make an escape before it went critical.

He figured the best way to fix this problem would be to smash it, retracting his sword he held up his palm to face the machine and whirred up the cannon, as he was about to fire he sensed something and dove to the side. A beam of pure energy whipped past his head and obliterated the work stations around the reactor. The praetorian crawled across the roof before dropping down in front of Edward, it let out a screech as it's mouth like thing, Edward never figured out what it was, dropped open to reveal the skulls, some older some brand new. He leapt high over it's head and fired into it's carapace, the heavy rounds shattered the shielding quickly and cracked the heavy metal carapace.

It screeched again and took to the air, as he dropped Edward switched to his sword and slashed through one of it's legs, the limb coming away at the joint. It smashed back to the ground a mere foot from where he was standing letting out a blast of energy that threw him back, his shields were fried as he dove away from a beam of energy. It crawled towards his cover behind one of the smoking work stations, it's beams charging, at the last second he leapt over it's head and landed on it's back. Instinctively taking to the air, the machine let out a prolonged blast of energy, the beam carving holes in the wall.

Edward drove the blade through it's back and unleashed a torrent of energy into it, it screeched as it's lights dimmed and it began to disintegrate, leaping clear he landed and switched weapons. Hearing running feet he wasted no time and unleashed a hailstorm of rounds into the core, soon red warning lights and a loud klaxon rang out all around. Blasting the attacking collectors, Edward took off at a run.

"How far along is the download?" he yelled to the computer.

"Download cancelled at 89%, tracking data, moving towards port side access point," the computer rang out on the intercom.

"Lock down every door," he responded, "stop them leaving."

"WARNING: DRIVE CORE UNSTABLE, DETONATION IN T-MINUS TWO MINUTES" the computer rang out as Edward sprinted through a pitched battle between dozens of fighters.

"Show me the way to the closest hanger," Edward called, the lights blinking on as he finished the sentence.

He rammed a scion head on in the last stretch to the shuttle bay, it flew backwards into a wall and cracked apart, blue goo running all over the floor.

The bay was mostly empty, those who had been in the hanger when the attack began had cut their losses and taken whatever was available and fled, all of them however where shot down by Oculi released by the collector vessel. There was nothing left in the hanger except for something behind a locked door, it seemed several people had tried to blow it open to no avail.

"What's behind that door?" Edward shouted to the ceiling as he killed the few collectors that stood guard over the corpses they had created.

"Records show it to be a prototype air superiority vehicle, the door lock is malfunctioning however," the monotonous voice of the computer rung out as Edward beheaded the final hostile.

"Not a problem," Edward muttered as he charged the door and tore it off it's hinges, throwing the useless door parts across the hanger, Edward quickly turned to look at the vehicle, "it's a bike," he grinned as he straddled the combat fighter and leant into the controls, a protective shell unrolled around him and locked into place, sealing him inside.

"Activate," Edward tried after looking for the on button, with a satisfying rumble the engine roared into life and the HUD flickered on. Twisting the handle, the fighter rose into the air and shot forward, the bike pirouetted out of the biotic field into the void. Pushing the throttle to full, Edward hurtled away from the ship moments before it tore itself in two, a small nuclear detonation tore the rest to ribbons moments later, the blast smashed into the side of the collector vessel, however the monolithic ship didn't seem fazed by the impact.

"Voice controlled," Edward thought out loud.

"Plot course to nearest mass relay," Edward tried, a map popped up at the last syllable.

"Choose destination," the same voice from the ships on board computer rang out.

"Serpent Nebula," Edward said automatically, "what do I call you?" he asked after several moments thought.

"My designation is Harlequin but my creators have taken to calling me Harley," the V.I. rang out without pause, "WARNING, calculations suggest mass effect jump will require more fuel than is currently onboard, SUGGESTION, a shorter jump is taken and we refuel."

"Very well, where is the nearest fuel depot?" Edward sat in silence for a moment before a response was uttered.

"Calculations suggest the nearest possible depot is in the Sahrabarik system, depot designation, OMEGA," Edward sighed deeply, he'd been wanting to avoid going there for a couple years, technically his wish had come true, "approaching system edge, initialising FTL jump."

Edward took in a deep breath as he felt a tingle in his stomach and a sudden wrenching feeling as he was propelled forwards faster than the speed of energy. The feeling receded after a moment and he was sat alone with his thoughts again.

**(04:11, 22/11/82, Omega, Gozu District, Docks, Omega Nebula)**

"Just fuel the damned thing up," Edward ordered the Turian gas attendant as he began to give Edward lip service, "There'll be an access port on it somewhere, just find it and put fuel in it."

"Fine," the Turian sniffed, Edward turned and walked off, despite having been fed what you could equate to regularly, once or twice every month, he was hungry for something that wasn't puréed slop. A perk of his new arm was that they'd seen it prudent to build his omni-tool in, at least he had money for fuel and food.

He tried to keep close to the fuel park as he went on the prowl for something, everything seemed to be dextro however, he eventually found a small place that did Asari food along the main concourse that the fuel park was connected to. Buying and quickly consuming something that looked similar to a burger but tasted more like sushi he started to make his way back to the station when a big krogan stepped in front of him.

"Problem," Edward asked, he'd left his helmet back on the bike.

"I don't like humans," Edward rolled his eyes, of course he'd get into trouble with the first xenophobe for a mile.

"Well I don't like the taste of Batarian Brandy but i'm not going to pick a fight with one now am I," he retorted with a smirk.

"My friends don't like humans either," he said as a duo of Krogan moved to his shoulders from out of the crowd, Edward tensed as he felt the barrel of a gun pressed into his side.

"No quick movements Human," a Batarian whispered in his ear, "into the alley, now," he was pushed to the left roughly by the first Krogan, the other three followed close behind as they quickly moved into the dark, narrow, side street.

"Can we not sort this out like gentlemen?" Edward asked, his hands in the air, the first Krogan had Edward's Martial aimed at his chest.

"It's easier to just shoot you," the Batarian replied as he and the two Krogan henchmen brought their guns to bare.

"Fine," Edward put his hands down and smirked, "we'll do it the hard way." As he said this he leapt upwards into the shadows, gunfire tore up the alley below him as he dropped behind them.

The closest hostile was the first Krogan, his sword leapt from it's holding before he plunged it through the beast's ribs, it yowled as he picked it up and threw it backwards out of the alley, the body crashing through the front window of a realtor's. The others tried to swing round to fire but Edward cut through them like the wind, the first Krogan died with a blade buried in his skull, the second fell to an uppercut that snapped his neck. The Batarian fell backwards in fear before turning and fleeing down the alley, using his foot to toss his Martial up, Edward aimed and fired a round, blowing a hole squarely between the muggers eyes. The Body dropped to the ground with a thud, a small pool of blood forming around him.

Turning on his heel, Edward sauntered back out into the concourse and headed to the fuel park, as he passed the realtor's he put a bullet through the Krogan's skull as it tried to crawl away. The whole place was silent as everyone stared at him with a plethora of emotions, horror, anger, respect, and more.

The gas attendant, who seemingly had no clue about what had just happened motioned to the bike and said, "think I got it," Edward nodded and scanned his omni-tool, paying for the fuel. Straddling the bike, Edward donned his helmet and resumed the driving position. He lightly applied the throttle as he was sealed in, he turned and soon was rocketing toward the nearby mass relay.

**Elsewhere**

"Did you see that," the Asari said, her jaw slightly ajar.

"Yup," her colleague replied, "who was that?" he asked, the surveillance room was quiet, and they were the only ones on shift. The system was designed so that if any violence was recorded then it was flagged, the two had watched as a Krogan was thrown like a frisbee across a twenty metre wide promenade.

"I don't know, but we got his face on camera," she rewound the footage and shifted to a closer camera, the human had wild hair and a fair complexion.

"Should we forward this to the boss?" she asked, "this seems like something she'd be interested in."

"If you want," he said, "i'll track where he goes," the Turian followed him till he boarded his ship, following the signal till it hit the mass relay, "he's going to the Citadel." the Turian remarked based on the angle that the ship departed on.

"Better send this through to CSEC," his friend replied.

"Shit," he sighed and rubbed his frill, "that's a lot of paperwork."

**(16:26, 22/11/82, Citadel, Space, Serpent Nebula)**

Edward dropped out of FTL on the edge of the system and powered towards the space station, When he got within 100 Kilometres he was suddenly hailed over the radio. He swore before opening the channel.

"Hello?" he started, not really knowing the protocol for entering defended air space, "this is Edward Scarrow of the Harlequin requesting entry to the air space," he added hoping it might help.

"This is the Asari Vessel Dilinaga, your vessel is registering as an offensive vessel and thus we are ordering you to land at these coordinates for inspection," a point on his navigation map blinked red.

"Understood," he said, keeping the apprehension under wraps as the much larger frigate followed him towards the dock on the presidium.

As he came in to land he noticed the multiple armed guards standing at attention, all in CSEC riot gear, his heart sank as he realised they knew who he was. He wouldn't fight unless he needed to but at the same time he considered trying to go in guns blazing.

"EXTREMIS!" a voice called from outside with loud hailer, "EXIT THE VEHICLE AND LAY YOUR WEAPONS ASIDE."

The sealing retracted and he stepped off the bike, tossing his gun to the side, knowing what it may mean if they gain access to the technology he made sure it was hard enough so that it slid off the platform and fell into the abyss of space.

A Turian approached and removed his helmet, a very smug looking Garrus Vakarian stood before him, a pistol in one hand and an arrest warrant in the other. He was flanked by two very nervous looking officers, each wielding Avenger assault rifles.

"Edward Scarrow I have the extreme pleasure of placing you under arrest for several charges, including arson, terrorism, and several hundred counts of homicide," He brought up his omni tool and pressed a couple buttons, Edward's wrists were suddenly bound by hard light cuffs, orange and linked by a straight band of light.

Garrus turned and walked away, the officer on his left motioned for Edward to follow him. As he was led away he noticed several cameras above him on balconies, seemingly the press were aware of his return and incarceration.

"I've really put my foot in it this time," Edward said to Garrus casually, "shouldn't have come back."

"Maybe next time sneak in and don't show up in an air superiority vehicle," he shot over his shoulder as they passed through a door and into the heart of CSEC HQ, "there'll be a crap load of reporters just through here, just keep walking and don't make eye contact," he said, as the two flanking officers took him by the arms.

"Yessir!" he said with a tone of sarcasm.

As the next door opened they were bathed in the flashes and lights of reporter cameras, the air was thick with the drones, Edward having to duck a couple as he went. The place was packed with people shouting at him, some genuine questions, others just curses and slander. A cordon of officers was at the other end and as they passed through it they were beset by the paparazzi, trying to push through to yell more nonsensical crap at Edward.

"In," Garrus said roughly as they reached the interrogation rooms, "and no funny business." he said before marching along the corridor.

He walked in to the room, glancing at the multiple cameras around the room, as soon as the door was closed he made his way around the room and passed an electric current through the cameras so they overloaded, their recording equipment was fried with no hope of recovery. Taking his place at the desk he sat in silence, still completely covered in armour, he knew that a group of people were watching him from behind the mirror directly in front of him but it didn't bother him.

Soon after, Garrus returned with a case file, a very thick case file.

"Shall we get started," Edward sighed and nodded, "There's a lot of these so let's not doddle."

"Do you have a list, I can tell you if they're mine or not," Garrus flipped around a datapad and turned it on, Edward went through the list and confirmed more or less all of them, "nope didn't do any of these," he said running a finger down the list past the date he had been captured.

"Why should I believe you," Garrus asked, "you've admitted to the rest."

"Yes I did, but I won't to these one as I wasn't in a hundred light years of here when they happened," Garrus leant forward and tried to look through Edward's visor.

"Where were you?" he asked, giving a questioning look, "on vacation?"

"In a cell," Garrus looked surprised, "on a ship somewhere in the Terminus Systems."

"Someone caught you?" he chuckled, "by the spirits how did they manage that?"

"They blew my arm off at the shoulder," he said without pause, the detective looked confused, a look that quickly turned to anger.

"You think that's funny?" he stood and pushed his hands into the table trying to look threatening.

" I can show you," Edward pulsed electricity through his bindings, they flashed and rippled out of existence, Garrus leapt back and drew a pistol aiming it directly at Edward's face.

"Freeze!" he shouted, "Don't fucking move!"

Edward stood and undid his helmet, placing it down on the table he finally met Garrus' blue eyes with his one blue and one grey eyes. Garrus couldn't help but lowering his pistol as the super-human undid his armour and pulled it away from his left.

"The bastards who took my arm wanted to turn me into a weapon," he knocked on the arm, a metallic clang his answer, "this is what they did to me, that's where I've been for the last two years, rotting in a cell."

"Who are they?" Garrus asked, case file forgotten.

"Dead," Edward smirked, "that's who they are."

Garrus composed himself, "nevertheless, you have to answer for your crimes," he moved to speak further but was cut off.

"Crimes, is that what your calling them," Edward asked rhetorically, "while CSEC did nothing and let Sila Drakona go about it's business I stepped up and destroyed their influence on the Citadel, i'm pretty sure that they haven't come back, am I wrong?"

Garrus could only shake his head.

"Yes I destroyed a couple buildings but only because I had no option otherwise and no civilians were harmed, indeed not one civilian has been hurt by my little escapade, am. I. Wrong?"

Another shake of the head.

"I'm trying to good for the citizens of this station and just because I'm an independent source doesn't mean I'm wrong in my actions."

"I get it," Garrus cut in, "It's not up to me though, I'm going to take you to a cell and you shall stay there till your trial," Edward groaned and stood.

"Sorry," Garrus reached for his pistol but before his hand could curl around the handle he was hit in the back of the head, "not today," Garrus slumped to the desk unconscious.

Unleashing his sword, Edward thrust it through the door control, the door slid open quickly from the damage. Edward reattached his helmet and armour before leaping to the roof. Holding on with his blade in the wall he waited for the guards to enter before dropping from above and darting through the door before they could react.

He retraced his step back to the landing platform, only a few officers now remained, most didn't realise what had hit them with only the last two seeing him and trying to shoot before they in turn where knocked out. Straddling the Harlequin, Edward quickly got it revved and took off, he dove for the Wards and before long was deep inside the blocks.

"Harley, disable our signature, we don't want anyone following us."

"IFF disabled," Harley said evenly, "what is our destination?"

"Leave that to me," Edward said, "inform me if we run into any local authorities."

"Affirmative," she responded, Edward reacted to the airborne traffic quickly.

He knew that since he was revealed to the public that he'd be the subject of a station wide man hunt, not like it did them any good last time, yet still he had a goal now, the threat of his powers being exposed to the galaxy was done but the person who had done hideous things to him, who had tortured him for profit and been willing to rob him of his free will in order to create a weapon was out there and Edward was going to hunt him down.

He had made a vow which he now repeated under his breath.

"Kill."

**There we go, what'd ya think, anything you want to say? Put it below and i'll try to get a new installment up soon.**

**As Always,**

**Hab67t**


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