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The last time James ever saw a place as flashy as the Citadel Wards, was back in the alternate world of Vegas inhabited by monsters among men. But the Silversun Strip was beyond anything he had ever experienced in his life in terms of glitz, glamour and high-roller lifestyle. A wide strip of casinos, arcades and entertainment centers, that blinded and bedazzled him with every single colour under the ultraviolet rainbow, suspended over the citadel streets below where cars zoomed by without ever touching the ground. James wasn't even able to speak let alone comment as Leiah dragged him through the sweeping crowds, the plethora of species all coalescing together in perfect unison over the most banal of pursuits. From racing tickets to three-card monte, theatre discussions to chess strategies, it was an entire gaming circuit all wrapped up within a two-storied mesh of sound and colour. Advertisements blared out from all around him begging to buy their stuff, bright glamorous billboards and circular poles with revolving scenes and faces. Some of them even addressed him personally by name, which freaked the raptor out until Leiah explained that they just read his ID permit, and therefore try to advertise to him in a more personal way . Despite this Orwellian sense of commercialisation, he kept on walking alongside her asking: "So where the hell do we start in this awesome toybox?" "Weellllll we've got the casino, the bar, the arcade aaaaaaand the Armax Arena." "Wellll sounds pretty-wait, arena?" "Mmmhmmmm," said the quarian excitably, "you seem a pretty rough type, bit of a fighter arentcha?" "Heh, am I that obvious?" "Maaaybe! But I bet you'll love it, and it's a good opportunity for you to practice on how to fight and shoot in this galaxy!" "I can handle myself, I know how to use a gun!" "...didn't you ask about bullets earlier while walking over here?" "Uhhhh yeah?" Leiah stood waiting for an obvious explanation, arms crossed before cocking her head in disbelief saying: "Well?!" "What, we need bullets don't we?! They give you some in the arena right?" "Pffthahaha, noooo they don't give you any bullets you dummy, what are you talking about?!" "Um, the tiny metal things you put in an ammo clip so they go pew-pew?! Come on!" "Wha-bu-no, you don't put the metal IN the ammo clip, it's already there! See this is why you want to learn how to shoot here, we don't use 'bullets' here!" "Alright, what DO you use then smartass?" "Well, the gun has this thick block of metal inside it right? So everytime you fire off a shot, it shaves off a tiiiiiiny fracture of this block the size of a sand grain, before firing out with a miniature mass effect field inside the gun. I mean you can have thousands of shots in a single weapon before you can even THINK of needing a new one." "Wait...mass effect?" "Yeah!" "...I've heard that term before, what the hell is it?" "Well, normally it's how you describe a certain mass on having an effect in its area, like say a planet, a tumour, or in this case an energy field. In the case of our pistols, the mass effect field fires out a piece of metal at a supersonic velocity!" "Just like a bullet...huh...that's pretty awesome actually, so basically it takes a long-ass time to run out of ammo? Sounds kinda overpowered." "Well there IS a restriction, you can't let it overheat." "Overheat?" "Yeah, shooting too much will overheat your gun, and then you can't use it unless it cools down." "Huh...soooo what do you do?" "Well you just wait for it to cool down, find some cover and hope for the best!" "Aw come on, that's boring!" "That is, that's what we USED to do," added Leiah. "But now...these babies we have, have thermal clips." "Say what?" "They absorb the heat of your pistol, and when the clip overheats, you just pop it out and pop a new cool one in." "So basically instead of reloading the ammo itself, you reload the heat cartridge?" "Mmhmm!" "Well that sounds a LITTLE better, why the change?" "Just the times a'changing, mainly because the Geth were getting better at shooting us because they thought these up first. So we stole the idea, this one I got brand-new." She patted the holster neatly blending in with the blacker underpart of her suit, near her hip for easy access. "You should get a holster too sometime, no good just rooting around in your bag for it." "Yeaaaah I should," replied FG. "But uh, you gonna talk my ear off or you actually gonna show me how much you kick ass in the arena?" "You don't want to look anywhere else first?" "Uhhhhh...nah not really, I don't like casinos though the arcade might be pretty rad, I wonder what games you got there." "We can always look." "Okay but if there's any Galaxian or Street Fighter, I'm fucking there."

Sadly neither such game was in the Castle Arcade, but it had a plethora of other games available. The two-floor interior was a striking blue on the upper half, with an incandescent purple on the lower half. Various species were eagerly debating like always on some latest strategy, while James and Leiah'Dahlael investigated all of the different games available, ranging from strategic simulations to the most enduring of all arcade games. The claw machine. The claw machine had orbs instead of actual toys, but the different-coloured orbs represented a unique prize which James tried to get once or twice before failing. There was also Shattered Eezo which had James control a fighting mech on a screen versus another mech controlled by another player. Leiah won this twice due to James not understanding how to defend himself in it. Relay Defence he passed over, seeing it was a battle simulation of defending some sort of giant ship on a 3x3 square grid. Another far more strategic game, which resembled chess with starships, he also decided not to play. Not because of the nature of the game, but because according to Leiah, sacrificing ships was punishable by an electric shock to discourage such tactics. The idea made him uncomfortable as they soon let the arcade with a few less credits to their name, before they finally headed up towards the Armax Arena. A scoreboard was proudly displayed out in front showing various names with their scores beside them. "So we can only use guns here?" asked James. "Oh no no no, we can use our powers too!" "...powers?" "Yeah, like, don't you have any sorta biotics or tech or something?" "...you mean...powers like...making fire...or water...or stuff that one COULD call magic, if they were not aware of sufficiently-advanced technology." "Uhhhh...yeaaah?" "...oh this changes everything." He cracked his knuckles with a little flex, shimmering blue sparks between his fingers as they walked right in. The arena was shaped like itself, a wide dual staircase that lead up towards a tremendously wide circular area, with the arena itself in a huge pit at the very center of the room. Various characters roamed back and forth with all sorts of armour and weaponry, debating strategies and bets and cheers of support for each other. Concession stands and an infirmary lined up at the two corners of the room immediately to their left and right upon entering. A virtual model of an armoured female turian, much slender and more sculpted in appearance than the males, was explaining rules and legalisations of the Armax Arena, the holographic interface resplendent in cream-coloured scanlines. After they verified themselves to sign up properly into the arena, they headed downstairs into a small side-area adjacent to the battlefield itself. A small locker room with a weapons bench and holographic modifier for armour, as well as a large computer screen to choose the battles they wanted. "Let me set one up," said Leiah at the terminal. "There's only Geth for now, but I hear that once the legal is sorted they can add new species to fight!" "These are all holograms right?" asked FG. "I mean...why would that be a problem?" "Let's just say some parents want the world to raise their kids, I mean these things DO get shown on TV." "They do?! ...wait, you can become a celebrity on this?" "Oh yeah, totally! If you're good at it. So let's see, um...do youuuu have any medi-gel?" "Nope." "Oh well, I'm sure we can find some, I got a few on me to patch you up...course we COULD always not use any to get some more points." "Uhhhhh let's just do a test run for now, I dunno what to expect yet." "Oookay doke! There, we're ready to go!" "Awesome, let's do this."

When the arena was ready, they stepped up towards an elevator and entered a place far more different than what James had seen from above. When not in use, the arena was simply just a flat area of tiles. But now, it had completely transformed into a small mining facility, walkways suspended in a large square formation sitting upon asteroids, with satellite dish and small buildings. The sound of a roaring crowd came from all around them, as the entire world shifted into a gigantic asteroid belt, through the shifting gigantic screen that literally wrapped itself around the whole area. A giant scoreboard hung suspended over the central area, as the voice of the virtual turian from before came proudly out over the speaker. "LADIES AAAAAAAND GENTLEMEEEEN, IT'S COMBAT NIGHT IN THE ARMAX ARSENAL ARENA!" James and Leiah stood rather awkwardly in the centre of the simulation, the raptor feeling incredibly out of place, moreso than usual like always. Leiah however kept him focused as she pointed down a walkway towards three shining spheres of orange light that appeared out of nowhere. She had him duck behind a partition as the countdown began. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Starting Round One." Appearing before them were three odd-looking robots, with gangly muscular limbs and steel skin that shined like the moon, their heads composed of a single large white circle of light. They were also armed with assault rifles as they began firing straight towards them. "WOAH, what are those?!" asked FG. "That's the Geth!" shouted Leiah. "Just point and shoot, it's all holographic but they'll hurt you good!" "So I can't get killed!?" "Nope, but it'll hurt!" She pulled out of cover and began firing on one enemy, the geth backing off slightly from the shots fired at its head before responding, firing off a small volley of rifle fire. James nervously peeked out and fired as best he could, plugging it in the chest though it didn't go down. The other two geth came forwards as the three of them made a small line formation across the bridge towards them. Leiah however grinned as she pulled out a small black disc, hurling it towards the line of geth who immediately were engulfed in an explosion of blue and white. An electromagnetic pulse had gone coursing through their bodies, sending one of them down completely defeated while the other two buckled heavily. "WAS THAT A GRENADE?!" cried out James. "YEP! Arc grenades, work good for synthetics!" "Jesus christ why do you even HAVE that stuff?!" "I'm an infiltrator! It's what I do!" "What?!" "JUST SHOOT THEM ALREADY!"

He jumped out of cover at her shout, before firing at one of the weakened geth enough times to completely break it down, the robot crumbling beneath its two-clawed feet as the third one recovered. When James ducked back under cover, he noted strangely that the quarian also had feet with two claws. He tried to ignore it as Leiah leapt out for another volley of shots to take it down, clearing the battlefield for the moment. "That wasn't so bad!" said James. "Three robots, I can handle this!" "It's not over yet!" "What?!" "It's still round one!" Smacking her pistol to make something red and glowing pop out like a large firework wick, she readied herself for round two as James became tense, looking around desperately for the next enemy until the orange spheres appeared again. Same place as before, the other end of the bridge as another three geth arrived before them, the raptor now more confident as he peeked out to fire again. But he could only make three shots before his gun started to glow with steam, locking up and not firing. "D-DAMMIT THE GUN'S JAMMED!" "POP THE HEAT SINK!" "WHAT!?" "POP THE HEAT SINK, IT'S OVERLOADED!" "HOW DO I-" "JUST SMACK THE STUPID THING RIGHT THERE!" "OKAY!" With Leiah pointing to the eject on the handgun, James fidgeted with it slightly as he managed to successfully pop the heat sink, a glaring red cartridge in the shape of a cylinder. He only had the chance to see it for a brief instant before it flew up straight into his cheek. "AAAGH FUCK!" "WHAT!?" "FUCKING DAMMIT-AAUUUUGH, HIT ME RIGHT IN THE EYE YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" "YOU BOSH'TET, PFFFHAHAHAHA-EEP!" "THIS ISN'T FUNNY IT FUCKING HURTS AUUGH! F-FUCK'S SAKE, WHO THE HELL DESIGNED THIS-SHIT FUCK OW DAMMIT STOP IT!" He inadvertently stood up out of cover and received a hail of fire from the geth now approaching them, knocking him down with a combined volley of shots that, while were most certainly non-fatal, they definitely hurt him to the point of feeling it under his skin. Fury rose up in him for a brief instant, as he fired off his own power using fire from his nanos, scorching across the steel skin rather ineffectively. This only made him more furious as he summoned up his gust of wind, before leaping over the barricade he hid behind. "WULD!"

Slamming into the front geth and knocking them all down like bowling pins, the raptor flew forwards with a blast of wind behind him, readily punching one geth hard before realising that metal doesn't care about being punched at all. Wincing from his throbbing fist, he used his gun instead to pistol-whip at one geth repeatedly, beating its head in violently until it stopped moving. The second geth behind its friend however gladly responded by swinging its assault rifle across his face, knocking him down hard in retribution. Leiah thankfully kept him out of danger by calling: "HEADS UP, ANOTHER GRENADE!" "WHAT!? NO, NO, DON'T-" He desperately scrabbled away before she even threw it, but the radiius of the arc grenade was just a little too far for him to escape. As the geth suddenly found itself crippled by the EMP blast, James felt the most searing short pain come briefly up through his back, his shrieking being a horrible surprise for the quarian. "G-GAAAAAAAAARRRRGGH!" "WH-WHAT'S WRONG?!" "F-FUCKING ELECTRICAL BULLSHIT! THAT'S IT, I'M DONE WITH THIS SHIT, I'M GONNA FUCKIN-GURK!" Cut off in the saddest way possible, the third geth shot him right in the back of the head, the damage being too much for his body to virtually take as he fell forwards onto the arena floor. His body was paralysed by some unknown force, weak and unable to move a single inch. His moans were slowly trailing off as his breathing turned laboured. His eyes looked down towards the floor beneath him as his head laid on its side. It would be the end of the FinalGa- "Come on, up and at 'em!" A warm gooey feeling suddenly washed over his back, one that he had felt before a few weeks ago upon arrival. His energy suddenly came back to him, his body revived as he picked himself up steadily, aided by Leiah who, even beneath her mask, he could tell was rolling her eyes. "I thought you knew how to fight!" "Uh...I do, what just happened?" "Medi-gel, I had some since you got yourself shot too many times like an idiot. Now come on, you're not getting out of it that easy, we got round two next!" "...oh thank god, I thought I just died." "Pfft, don't be such a baby, it's just a game! Keelah, come on, let's hide over there! And try not to do stupid stuff like that again alrighty?! This is training for you!" "Sure, fine, whatever!" Feeling rather put in his place by someone who was certainly younger than him, James ducked behind another barricade and waited with Leiah for the next wave of enemies. This time he followed her advice more, as well as reloading his gun properly which he had forgotten to do previously. The score of their first match was a paltry 970, out of a potential 9999 that the arena could limit itself up to. Feeling as if he was back to square one in basic battle tactics, James simply followed Leiah into hell and back, or at least as far as it allow him to within the combat simulator. The next two days had them constantly going back to the Armax Arena, shooting down wave upon wave of virtual synthetic enemies as they slowly began to rack up points.

They didn't even receive a following of anyone, despite Leiah being the more experienced combatant in knowing how to perfectly handle robotic foes with her EMP grenades. James had his fire, which was useless upon steel but he did find use in summoning gales to disorient the geth. He couldn't lift them with enough force due to their weight, but he could certainly throw them off balance temporarily. He did not use his powers too freely however, for fear of weakening his mental strength too much. But Leiah kept him learning, always showing him new ways to flank and defeat the well-programmed enemies. Occasionally, despite being on the most basic level, they would find themselves up against slightly stronger geth enemies, such as those wielding rocket launchers, or even shock troopers who were able to set up their own barriers in the form of glowing hexagonal shields. But he got better. And better. And better to the point of being able to nail enemies from behind cover with a single flick of the gun above his head, aiming more focusedly towards their shining heads. Even though he was already well-trained in the art of handguns, he had managed to resharpen his skills within two days, mainly because it was the most exciting thing to in the Citadel Wards. Unless you really loved numbers, racing and the thrill of crippling debt. Eventually, they had reached what they felt like was their limit, rising up with a good steady score in the thousands as both James and Leiah saw their score with pride, proudly displayed upon the leaderboards. "Awwwwwww yeah lookit that!" said FG. "Yeah, three-thousand one-hundred and seventy points!" "And it's got my name up on it too! Man this was an awesome few days, thanks a lot for all this, it was actually pretty fun!" "No problem...'FG', hehehee! Why'd you put that up as a name anyway?" "It's...a nickname." "Ooooh...whatsit mean?" "The FinalGamer." James made a small attempt to pose with swagger, making Leiah chuckle and shake her head. "Really? That's something a kid would make up!" "It was! ...practically." "Well, I think that's our best score, so let's get it recorded quick!" "Why, isn't that gonna stay up there?" "Well one day someone's gonna beat it!" "Good point, alright get a shot will ya?" He stood in front of the scoreboard while she brought out her omnitool, setting on recorder mode as she started filming with a mock-serious tone. "Okay, we are here live at the Armax Arsenal Arena with Jaaaaames Campbell-and me-with a mindblowing score as you can see behind him. We haven't had such an unsubstantiated record of greatness in quite some time so Mr. Campbell, do you have any words on your recent awesome victory?" "Well firstly I'd like to thank the academy for these sweet-ass numbers, thank you, and secondly my ass-kicking friend Leiah'Dahlael who has...how many grenades, because you seriously never run out!" "That's for me to know and YOU to find out, hehehee...huh?!"

Suddenly the scoreboard glitched behind James, forcing him to turn round and see his name suddenly become spittle from a digital stutter. Eventually the numbers started to disappear, flicking off and scrambling itself to oblivion. "WH-WHAT THE HELL?!" "Wha?!" "MY SCORE! The fuck's going on it just disappeared!" "I-i-i dunno! It looked like some kinda glitch!" "That's bullshit! Hey, scuse me!" He flagged down a nearby staff member, an asari woman with a rather fitting silver suit that mimicked the look of armour. "Yes?" "My score just...like, disappeared from the scoreboard! It just glitched out and just-gone!" "Really?!" "Yeah, Leiah show her!" Briefly thanking his friend for her recording, she rolled it back to bring up on a virtual screen above her arm, showing James boasting off while his score began to flicker and phase out of existence. The numbers 3170 briefly scrambled each other up, before they turned into digital vomit that sucked itself away back into the darkness of the screen. The asari staff blinked curiously. "That's...odd, I'm so sorry about this sir, let me just get someone." Bringing over a senior member of staff, James was reimbursed for his disappearing score over apparent technical problems with some extra prizes. The prizes they won after every match, ranked within either gold, silver or bronze depending on the score, acted more or less like the tickets at a fair where one could buy extra things, which the two decided to convert into money instead. The sumptuous gain of 26000 credits to add to their wallet helped ease the sting of losing his scoreboard title, as the two of them went to have some downtime at an interior cafe outside of the strip. But despite the small technical glitch, he was happy to spend time with someone who was eager to help show him the ropes of the Citadel, as Leiah introduced everything to him. He turned wistful at the last time someone had shown him around the world like a tour guide, sighing as he listened passively while drinking a cup of coffee. The windows next to their seat in a corner of the cafe, a rectangular building of grey faux-marble walls with a long counter full of baristas behind it, was strangely soothing, and more modern than he expected. Leiah in turn also asked him a dozen questions about his home world, trying to pick apart his story but at the same time turning more convinced of his actual origins. He explained about Sarah, his home life and the level of technology they had, which of course to Leiah was surprisingly primitive with the odd touch of hi-tech. Medicine was especially a subject she was intrigued with, asking:

"So how do you handle diseases and stuff back where you live?" "Well that's a whole clusterfuck right there," replied FG. "I mean...man nobody's asked me this stuff before, this is going way back...maybe Koopin did once but anyways, yeah since we're all like different animals, we all have different diseases and problems kinda according to our uh, original roots I guess." "Really?!" "Oh yeah, like the canines they got more heart diseases, the dolphins and orcas have lung issues and maybe bad skin if they're real unlucky, and reptiles like me are in danger of bad scale rot, or even bad bone disease really. Basically every hospital back where I come from has to limit at least one ward to EACH species, it's that bad. I was one of the lucky ones to not have anything wrong with me...physically." "Keelah...that sounds insane." "It is, only the best hospitals can help everyone, the worst places can barely keep up with HUMAN stuff let alone anthros. It's a pretty safe bet that if a good hospital expands, or opens up, more of us start moving into the area." "So, okay, diseases are bad but what about bionics or cybernetics, you got any of that?" "Oh yeah totally! We got that stuff for everyone, if you like lose a leg or an arm or an eye, they get that stuff up for ya easily! If you work for a company and the accident happens on company time, they gotta pay for the operation unless they wanna replace you, and that's usually what an asshole would do and make the company look bad." "Course." "But yeah, anyone can get upgrades, if they got a good enough hospital for it. Some people even get like upgrades just to keep up with their work, but that stuff requires a whole mess of legal issues, permissions, mandates, whatever. I thought I was gonna get something for my right arm back when I broke it as a kid, but all they did was just reset the bone. ...I really wanted a cool-ass arm full of cybernetics." "Heehee, that would be pretty cool, you could punch through doors with it!" "Hell yeah! I could be like 'scuse me, I'm here for my appointment', and they're like 'um newwww I think you have to wait' and I'll be like 'POOOHM-KHR', door slams into a wall and I'm like 'I'll have my appointment when I SAY I want my appointment, bitch'." "Khhhheeheheheheee, ohhhh that'd be awesome." "Well you got grenades, you can just blow it open." "They're EMP grenades, not explosive ones, I'd just be breaking the computers." "Yeaaaaaaaah well, next time you throw one of those I'm just gonna stand behind you alright?" "Haha, alright," said Leiah. "Weird your nanos are affected by them, I mean normally they shouldn't be, like they'd be shielded or something." "Not mine," said FG, "mine are...kinda weird I guess." "Yeah I-...um..." The quarian's voice suddenly turned mute at the looming shadow rising before them. Leering down upon them, the raptor turning to look up, was a huge craggy-looking creature resembling a rather amphibious-looking creature. With dark green natural plating upon its forehead that ridged down its back, hidden beneath a red suit of chitinous steel armour, the creature had a flat face with stony complexion of a pale dirt brown. James remembered Leiah mentioning them before. Krogans. Big, bad and dangerous to know, with voices deep enough to tremble through lesser creatures. "Uhhh you need something?" asked FG. "I need a fixer," said the krogan. "You any good?" "...um...what?" "I wasn't talking to you. Fixer. Someone who fixes shit. You any good?" "Um," said Leiah nervously, "I-i can fix things yes, but-" "Good, yer comin' with me, I need someone to fix my ship." "But, I, I'm having lunch with my friend and-" The krogan slammed his fist hard upon the table, throwing all of its items briefly up into the air as both seated diners leaned back in surprise. The cafe began to turn quiet at this scene now unfolding. "Did I stutter? You. Fix my ship. Now." "Why should I have to?!" "Yer a quarian, aren't you? That's what yer good for, now...let's go." "I'm not going with you just because you tell me to, leave me alone!" "Yer not in any position to say no. Unless you want me to snap yer spine in half like a dead twig." "Fuck off," said James. "...what?" "I said...fuck...off." "You don't know who I am?! I'm Korvun Nashak, wanted by six Terminus authorities for arson and murder, so you shut thuh fuck up, unless you want me to punch yer head all thuh way to thuh next ward!" James stood up defiantly, standing in front of Leiah as he made every effort to compose himself, sighing inwardly to control himself. "...I don't care, who you are. You don't go up to my friend and demand something from her like she's some piece of meat. If you need someone to help you, all you could do is ask. Politely. We would gladly help you out if you don't act such a dick, alright sir?" "I don't got time to be polite to suit-rats or scaly...whutever thuh fuck you are!" "Well MAKE time, because all you're gonna do is make this drag out longer. Now, you wanna ask her again?" "...forget it." The krogan began to turn around. "Skinny ass piece of shit, you ain't even worth my time walkin' around with some sterile bitch." He didn't even get two steps away before glass shattered upon the back of his head. James stood behind him amidst a gasping crowd, snarling: "I think I am...you fat toad fuck."

In the next five seconds, five volus would become terrified of windows, two asari would receive at least one injury on each of their upper arms, and two salarians would regret ever coming in to work that day. All but one of these cases was directly related to the brown scaly blur that came suddenly flying out the window of the cafe, shards of glass fluttering around him like a storm of broken-winged butterflies. Rolling hard on the ground a short distance from the cafe, he tumbled into one asari who got knocked down with him. The volus meeting party who were arranging lunch were currently being showered upon by glass and, despite having sturdy suits against gravitational depression, were still quite horrified by the chaos unfolding. The other asari tried to help James up, but soon ran and fell in horror at the sight of a giant shadow come flying out like a boulder towards the raptor, who thankfully rolled to one side hard as the krogan stood snarling towards him. The salarians who had set up shop opposite of each other, both from rival companies, immediately understood each other's ennui and mutually agreed to close shop simultaneously, without a word to their superiors. James' only regret was that his hand instinctively reached up towards his back, finding no steel handle to grab on. For the first time in his life, he was going to miss having the Scissoraptor around when the sight of 2000lbs of solid alien muscle came charging towards him like a wild train, forcing him to dodgeroll to one side. Charging past, the krogan Nashak almost slammed his head into a billboard before turning hard and running more slowly towards James, who readily stood his ground for a fistfight. That was his first mistake. His second mistake was trying to punch the krogan, whose natural muscle made him quite impervious to standard fists. The throbbing pain that was not unlike punching a wooden desk did not start until after his second boxing hook, which was countered by Nashak headbutting James hard. The blinding headache forced him to fall backwards, stars exploding inside his head as he briefly saw Leiah from above, an angel in a sky-blue suit peering out of the cafe window along with five other aliens. "JAMES, GET UP!" "Nnnnh, whuuuh...SHIT!"

The giant three-toed armoured foot nearly came crushing down on his head before the raptor rolled hard to one side, feeling incredibly outmatched as he briefly considered pulling out his gun. But too many civilians stopped him from trying, as the krogan began to swing his huge three-clawed hands like they were fists themselves, each one half the size of the raptor's own head. If anything he was much faster than the lumbering oaf his foe was, giving him the chance to dodge each and every one of the attacks. Except for the boot-kick straight forwards that knocked the wind from his chest, after a swiping five-hit combo that missed every time before the boot thrusted out like a cannon. James did not fall, but he did buckle under with bended knees in perfect position for a hammerfist from above. That is until he desperately blasted a plume of fire from his hands that forced Korvun to back off, roaring in fury at the stinging flames against his rocky flesh. "RAAAAARGH! THASSIT! NOW YER DEAD!" Grabbing James hard by the throat, he pulled him up into the air by one hand and squeezed hard, the raptor choking and struggling against the chokehold before he shot both hands full of fire straight into his opponent's face. The krogan roared and threw him hard, turning away from the sudden blast as James found himself slamming into a glowing yellow billboard, cracking the glass as it began to flicker and fizzle with sparks. The crowds began to gather, but at the same time kept their distance in both fear and fascination of what would happen as Korvun Nashak came running hard, slamming his foot straight into James' gut and kicking him hard across the street into yet another shop window. Crashing into a clothing store, the asari and two female humans inside screamed with surprise at the explosion of glass, shielding themselves behind counters as James struggled to get up. Bloody strips ran all over his body, a bruising welt growing purple on his abdomen as he felt the urge to vomit, but resisted to remain strong. Even more terrifying, Korvun Nashak came running towards them, his fury absolute with red stinging eyes that became all the more terrifying to witness, slitted like a reptile's traditionally as James began to run out of the clothing shop. But the krogan readily grabbed chairs, tables and even tore up benches to hurl at the fleeing raptor down the street. While managing to dodge all of two chairs past his sides, four tables he ducked under and a whole bench that came tumbling underneath his jump like a fence in a tornado, he found himself running straight for a dead-end in the form of a barricade, which was a steep drop to infinite flying traffic below. In a desperate move, he waited for the krogan to catch up, turning round and waiting for the right moment before summoning a mighty wind. The moment Nashak came within five feet of him, he suddenly hurled himself up into the air with a blasting gale beneath his body. Flying over the krogan, which elicited a few gasps from the witnesses around them, grabbed a chair upon landing to throw it hard at the krogan's back, forcing him to stumble hard against the barricade, but not quite over it.

Instead the krogan waited for James to throw another chair before walking forwards and smacking it away, stomping with fury in his eyes as the raptor kept walking backwards while desperately grabbing more items. Soon he was in too open a spot to keep throwing anything, all of which were deflected by the meaty elbows of the krogan who began smacking his fist into one open hand. He slowly positioned himself towards a wall, deciding to goad Korvun into charging as he spotted the perfect place on the opposide side of the street. "Nice hands, I bet they're crusty like your mom's ass." "Not as smooth as yer gonna be when I crush you into PASTE!" "You better hurry up, I hear your mom calling for a shotgun up her cunt that she uses like a dildo." "RRRAAAAAAARGH!" Even in this galaxy insulting one's mother always worked, as Korvun Nashak came charging hard towards the raptor who dodged at the very last minute, sweeping underneath the spread-out arms of the roaring krogan. With a hefty smack into the now-cracked wall, he fell onto his side and groaned in rising fury with a headache, leaving James to run off immediately towards a bar that he spotted. Tearing in through the door like a bat out of hell, he scrabbled up towards the white bar counter and asked the turian server: "Gimme your strongest drink!" "...o-kay, you'll have to wait, I was just serving thi-" "GIMME A FUCKING DRINK NOW OR THIS BAR'S GONNA EXPLODE!" Panicking at the screaming voice, he grabbed the strongest thing available before handing it to FG in a quick glass of green milky fluid, before the turian ducked behind the counter. Everyone else ducked with him behind tables in perfect sync. "What's this?!" "R-r-ryncol!" "Is it flammable?!" "Y-yes?!" "Good, gimme a whole bottle!" "B-but-" "NOW!" Giving him the whole bottle, the turian ducked once again as James walked outside and waited for the krogan to spot him nearby. Korvun Nashak snarled and began thundering across the street as people gave them a wide berth, the raptor ducking back inside the bar and taking cover beside the door, waiting for the rumbling steps to turn louder. Once he was certain he was close, he stepped out fast and slammed the entire bottle across Nashak's face, smashing it open into a dozen pieces of slithery green liquid. "LAST ORDERS, BITCH!"

His hands flared up as a violent fire burned within, blasting a double jet of flame straight onto the krogan's saturated body. Within seconds his entire flesh suddenly ignited, the potent alcohol burning deep inside his suit, the thick underskin charring hard as the krogan screamed with violating agony. Within minutes he would be dead, stumbling back out of the bar and trying to put out the fire with his thick claws but to no avail, burning hot alcohol stinging deep into his eyes and melting them into gooey pustules that ran down his cheeks. The krogan struggled to walk more than five steps before he fell over, the burns reaching too deep inside of him to survive further, combusting deep within the tight restrictions of his armour as his light brown skin began to turn black. His guttural screams began to die out, leaving a shocked and awkward-looking street crowd turn towards the raptor with mixed emotions. James felt he should say something beside the smouldering remains, adding: "...he started it, he punched me out of a window." This did not entirely sate the crowd but it did leave some small justification before James saw Leiah come running up to him, fearful yet also quite taken aback at the scene before her. "James, James, I-OH Keelah what did you DO to him?!" "Well, alcohol is pretty flammable, so I uh...gave him a bad drink...shit hold on I gotta do something." He walked back into the bar nonchalantly, the turian bartender looking rather frightful as the bar patrons all kept nervously around their seats huddled tight together, the raptor asking: "Hey, sorry about the drink, can I pay my tab now?" "Wh-wh-what?" "That drink? The guy I smashed his face with? Let's not leave this hanging between us, how much was it?" "...th-th-...th-three thousand credits." "Seriously? ...well it was pretty damn good, alrighty, here. And uh, sorry about being crazy before I uh...hope that's alright." Paying for the drink, he walked out to where Leiah stood waiting, rather confused by the whole thing as the crowd dispersed slightly, trying to forget about the incident and hoping someone would clean up the body. But eventually the quarian came to her senses after realising what started this, saying: "Thank you for standing up for me back there...I'm sorry." "Hey, that guy was an asshole, I don't care what place I'm in but I do not let bullies get to push anyone around." "Oy...I owe you a lot more now." "Ahhh don't worry about it...well, maybe three thousand credits but we'll figure that out when we come to it." "Heehee...let's get out of here. He's um...starting to smell." "Yeaaaaaaaah um I don't wanna be here when those C-Sec dudes show up. Kinda promised I'd stay outta trouble soooo lead the way!" "Okay...um...hey, sorry I couldn't help, I just-it all happened so fast, I-" "Hey-ey no worries it's cool...though I am surprised you didn't even try to help out, Mrs. Combat Simulator Pro." "I dunno how to fight a KROGAN, come on, I'm just a quarian, all I got is a pistol and a buncha grenades, and he's not a synthetic so what would I even do against him?!" "Ehhhh you got a point, I guess he would be a tough guy to handle...but not for me." "Yeaaaaah...I guess you do know how to fight. Just not against synthetics." "So how about you handle the robots, and I handle anything living that's made of flesh?" "Deal, now let's get some medi-gel on you and get out of here." Shaking hands he walked on with Leiah pulling him towards the Kithoi Ward area. Both of them knew that this incident was not going to go away, and while James was almost certain that like any good city a few crimes would always go unreported, it was not going to be the case concerning the 37 eyewitnesses of the entire fight. The problem was that of course there would now be others besides C-Sec that would come hunting for FG. There were very few thugs within the galaxy that did not have at least one or two friends that would come looking for vengeance.