chapter 13

One thing that Jason learned was that Creepers could in fact spit a glob of acidic chemicals that were completely natural, something he kept in mind for a later date, from twenty feet pretty damn accurately.

"That is disgusting!" Jackson shouted after he dodged a steaming glob of something best left undescribed before opening up with his rifle, "Don't let it hit you."

Jane was busy lighting them up from afar with the main cannon before the Creepers got to close for her to shoot them without endangering the lives of everyone else, if it had been up to him, Jason would have simply used the Mako to mow them down and run over any of them that got to close. A glance back at the tank reminded him exactly why the Mako had stopped where it did and why it wasn't moving either, so the easy way of doing things was out the window as he got back to work on the task at hand.

Killing Creepers before they could tear him apart, or drown him in acid or even slash him to ribbons, but there had to be close to a hundred of the damn things shambling towards them.

Shotguns were brutally effective, hands down, when it came to fighting these things as they blindly charged point blank in front of them, Tali, Jason and Jackson were the only ones in the team armed with shotguns, as John and Alenko resorted to pistols, Jane shooting those that she could that were father away, ignoring the weapons' fire coming from the possessed colonists farther back, their accuracy was laughable as Jason put that issue to the back of his mind for now.

A line of fallen corpses had formed just a few feet short of the edge of the door by now as Jason found himself with overheated weapons and several irate Creepers within arms' reach, so he did what Jackson was doing and pulled out a decent length of sharpened titanium alloy from a sheath located somewhere on his person and started hacking.

To put it fairly, Jackson was a whirlwind of flashing metal and decapitated Creepers flying around as he used both his fancy tomahawk and his big knife while Jason used his machete, there had a been a reason he held onto one of these for so long after all, while the others fell a short distance back to give them room to work. A damn good thing neither one of them were dedicated brain surgeons (Jason decided to omit he did in fact have that knowledge in his head) because from what anyone could see, their combined bedside manner sucked to the point where serial murders with a thing for dicing up victims would have to look away at some point because it, quite frankly, wasn't pretty.

"Keelah," Tali whispered in shock as she watched them steadily take down each Creeper heading towards them as she waited for her shotgun to cooldown, "how is it they fight like that?"

"A sight to see for sure," John muttered as he delivered a violent elbow to the face of a Creeper that had gotten past the death duo mauling a majority of them, "never gets old."

Sure enough, Jackson was launching his twin into the air before tackling another Creeper, Jason landing on a trio of them hard enough to kill one and decapitate the other two before they moved back to back in a particular maneuver that allowed them to push each other out of harm's way from the direction the other couldn't see. A subtle nudge there, a backhand swat here and an actual push on several occasions that didn't interfere with how they fought, each of them duking, ducking and diving out of the way of either acid spit or a wild slashing limb.

Alenko used that time to pitch a grenade towards the cluster of colonists so they got a healthy whiff of a special chemical cocktail that put them under before the last of the advancing Creepers just dried up until nothing so much as moved as everyone caught they're breath.

BAM!

Multiple heads turned to where Tali was standing, shotgun pointed a still twitching Creeper on the ground, "It just moved."

Jason sighed as he shook the organic matter off the blade of his machete before drawing out his rifle and stepped over to the unconscious colonists to get a decent medical reading on them while everyone else picked their way past the small mound of stinking corpses.

"Tenacious bunch eh?" Jane said as they reached where Jason was crouched over the prostate forms of several colonists, weapons tossed a short distance away, "How are they?"

"They'll live," Jason replied as he got to his feet, snatching a pair of shotguns to toss over to John and Alenko, "nothing more than some decent rest and a good dose of medi-gel can't fix once they get back on their feet, but for now they'll be alright."

A collective sigh of relief went through the group as they took the elevator up a couple levels to reach the colony proper, it had to be the slowest elevator in existence considering it was made on some out of the way colony world before Jane broke the silence.

"How are your amps treating you?" She was in full on commander mode now as Alenko spun around for her to check his for herself before she stepped over Jason, who was fidgeting uncomfortably as she leveled a glare at him that told him he was going to be in trouble, "well?"

"It's fine Commander." Jason said as he noticed Jackson standing off to the side shaking his head before Jane crossed her arms.

"I'm not going to yank it, I just want to make sure it isn't loose or overheated," she nodded before clapping her hands, "now ditch the helmet and turn around so I can get a look at it."

"Uh Boss Lady," Jackson pitched out awkwardly, "he doesn't have an amp wired up in his skull."

"WHAT!?"

Jason sighed as he pulled off his helmet and slowly turned around as everyone in the elevator looked over to see the small metal plate at the base of his skull.

"He's got a medical implant slot, so don't give me that baloney 'he doesn't have an amp' crap because humans can't create miniature mass effect fields without one for more than ten seconds," Jane sounded pissed as she tapped the small plate with a finger, "odd, it isn't opening."

"That's because it isn't an amp Commander," Jason said as he turned around again to find himself less than a foot away from Alenko and Jane as he tugged his helmet back on, "it's a dampener, used to suppress my biotics."

Stunned silence and then.

"WWWWHHHHHHAAAAATTTTT!"

XXX

"Think we should have told them sooner?" Jackson asked as he watched everyone hold a huddle on the other side of the hallway, well Jane, Alenko and John were holding a huddle while Tali stood next to Jason wringing her fingers nervously.

"She did kind of take it hard this time," Jason answered as he remembered how Jane nearly had a mental breakdown in the elevator while Alenko did a damn good impersonation of a fish for about thirty seconds before snapping out of it, "I don't see why it is such a big deal."

In a flash he found himself bending backwards at the waist to avoid the finger Jane was shoving under his nose, ranting about the fundamentals of human biotics, scientific algorithms and metaphorical scenarios theorized by the smartest minds humanity could offer for the last thirty years before John pulled her away, a wry grin plastered across his face, the bastard.

"Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it is a big deal," Jackson nodded his head in her direction for extra emphasize, "especially to her."

"Alright, I get it, we'll play Twenty Questions after we save the colonists, kill the Creepers and take care of this Thorian," Jason shot a glare back at Jane, putting a lot of emphasize on the last word, "later."

"Creepers?" Tali sounded confused as Jason mentally cursed himself, "You named them already?"

"Yeah it fits, or we can call them unidentified plant based hostile combatants."

"Creepers seems to work."

"I thought so myself."

Jane seemed to snap out of her rant mode and change back to commander mode (much to the relief of everyone present) long for her to get a hold of herself as she took point, everyone else falling in behind her as she lead the way towards the stairs.

Immediately regretting her decision once she came under fire from a couple enthralled colonists as a dozen Creepers got up from their nap and came towards them. It took the combined efforts from everyone to wipe out the oncoming Creepers, toss a grenade at the first batch of colonists to put them under the effects of the sandman for a while and proceed to lead the way down the narrow stairs littered with pockets of dormant Creepers galore because Jane decided that she was best served in the back of the group launching sabotage attacks so the possessed colonists couldn't fire back at them.

"Hey," Jackson drawled out as he turned around to look at everyone cowering behind him, "why do I have to go first?"

Before anyone could answer, a pair of Creepers appeared from nowhere, causing him to lash out with a vicious backhand into the nearest wall with ease before he blasted them both to bits.

"Never mind."

Once they reached the ground level, several tightly grouped colonists were wondering why their weapons began the cooldown cycle even though they hadn't fired a shot before a grenade came zipping towards and exploding in a non-lethal cloud of green smoke, in one instance a grenade caromed off the forehead of a particular colonist before exploding.

"He moved," Jackson stated as they all stood around a trio of colonists that were out cold, though one of them had been unconscious before the grenade detonated, "it wasn't my fault."

"Might as well throw some rocks at them," John sighed after he patted down his grenade pouches, "I'm out."

"None."

"Just threw the last one."

"Ran out after the group at the stairs."

"I've got one," Tali said as she held the sole gas grenade up for all too see before Jason reached over and lobbed it at the last group of colonists with surprising results, "and now I don't."

The remaining Creepers were coming out of the woodwork (no pun intended) now after the last colonists had fallen as the narrow catwalks and gaps between machinery was both a blessing and curse for them to funnel the overwhelming numbers into more manageable lines of staggered columns before the last Creeper bit the dust. Well, it hit the ground after Tali found herself several yards away from the rest of the team with an overheated shotgun and face to visor with a lumbering Creeper before she let out a shriek and bopped it in the face repeatedly with the butt of her trusty shotgun to throw it off balance before an orb of dazzling biotic energy whizzed past her and hit the Creeper.

Hard enough to cause it to disintegrate at the molecular level.

"Thanks," Tali offered as she stepped past the steaming pile of goop to rejoin the squad, "I owe you one."

"Think nothing of it," Jason said as he handed her a second shotgun, a Tornado Mk V as her eyes practically lit up with joy, "I found this, figured you could use it."

Jackson made a gagging sound somewhere in the background, "Cue the mushy stuff, alright people let's get a move on before you two have wild passionate sex all over the side of that freighter."

Tali fumbled with the shotgun Jason had just handed her, her blush clearly visible as Jason narrowed his eyes in a manner that spoke of revenge before he spotted something move just behind his twin, causing him to galvanize into action.

First he grabbed the sniper rifle off his shoulder, hitting the extend button the second it cleared the magnetic strip on his back while he was slinging it in the direction of the newcomer, watching as the rifle whizzed past Jackson's head in slow motion. Once it missed Jackson's head by less than two inches, it sailed through the air flipping end over end before the buttstock slammed into the face of none other than Fai Dan, knocking him cold before he could go into the whole 'I've lost control, but I won't listen to the voices anymore' and decided to off himself with his own sidearm as it all happened in a span of four seconds.

Stunned looks greeted him as Jason turned back to face John, "I didn't have a rock Commander."

XXX

"Smells like moldy socks, mustard, broccoli and do I detect a hint of really bad BO?" Jackson asked out loud as they filed down the stairs after discovering the crane controls had something important locked down and found the underground tunnel.

"Ugh, did you just have to describe it?" Jane wheezed as she slapped the larger man on the shoulder.

"The BO is obviously coming from you idiot." Jason answered as he stepped forward to stoop down next to some footprints on the ground as Jackson could be seen taking a whiff of his armpit before turning to Tali.

"Do I stink?"

Tali shrugged, "I turned off my olfactory filters when we ran into the first Creeper, so I couldn't tell you."

"I knew I should have grabbed my full helmet," Alenko groaned as he eased himself past a section of the ceiling that was dripping some noxious fluids, "what do you'll think we'll find?"

A giant sentient plant with the ability to spawn endless clones while trying to kill us, Jason opted to say nothing as he helped Tali over a large rock that fallen across the stairwell some time ago before everyone else made it over and continued on.

"We've got some derelict equipment over here," John said as he knelt next to a crate and started hacking it, "check them for additional weapons before we move on."

Jane stopped as she put her hands on her hips, "I swear every time you train everyone to became as much of a pack rat as you are."

"Tactical acquiring of useful assets," John answered hotly as he appeared with a fistful of hand grenades, a couple mods and some credit chits, "scrounging for intel, replacement equipment and critical items."

"Looting you mean," Jane groaned after she noticed everyone else was too busy pilfering other containers for whatever they could find, "never mind."

Once they managed to restock on medi-gel, grenades, spare mods, credits and a few handy upgrades that were implemented immediately on the spot before they continued on down the winding stairs to find the Thorian.

Before they reached a startling sight.

"All we have to do is find this Thorian and then…." John trailed off as they stepped into the final chamber to behold the giant heart shaped plant that was suspended above a bottomless chasm by several long strands of roots that were a meter thick, "well shit."

"You said it Bossman," Jackson gapped at it for a few seconds before turning to Jason, "tell me that you brought more explosives."

"Not enough," Jason answered as he held up the last demolition charge he had left, "I was saving this one for an emergency."

"This doesn't count?" Alenko asked before looking at the Thorian again, "Look at the size of that thing."

"If it was moving, then it'd be a real threat," Jason ignored the stunned looks sent his way, "right now it is sitting there stinking up the place, so it's harmless."

That was when it started pulsing and deposited a carbon copy of an Asari commando in a sickly green color to the surprise of everyone as they gave Jason another look.

"Seen weirder," Jason shrugged, "so it crapped out a green Asari, what's it gonna do next, talk us to death?"

That was when the clone started talking.

Jason pretty much zoned out, fiddling with a stack of hand grenades and his last demo charge while he ran his omni-tool to fabricate as much military grade demolition cord it could with samples taken from his surroundings while Jackson caught onto his plan and began doing the same thing, sans the demo charge. Both John and Jane were talking to the Thorian, or at least the clone that could talk while Alenko kind of stood there in shock as Tali alternated between glancing around and adjusting her omni-tool before the final line came up.

"Perish before us…"

"Jason, I do believe it is time to neutralize that overgrown weed because I believe it is threatening us," Jackson mocked as he handed the conglomeration of grenades and det cord to him, "need a hand?"

"Two," Jason sighed as he hefted both explosive devices that looked like science projects gone horribly wrong in each hand before tensing up, "now throw me."

"What?" John asked after he just got done blasting the Asari look-alike in the chest.

"NOW SIC'EM!"

Everyone watched in stunned silence as Jackson picked up Jason and tossed him across the fifteen foot gap ten feet upwards in order for the smaller twin to land on the top of the Thorian before he slammed both bundles down in the fleshly carapace at his feet and vaulted back towards the ledge with a glowing biotic aura.

Just after he landed, another clone had been spawned as it dropped down behind, "Intruders! You shall fall before…"

Jason blindly fired his dual weapon over his shoulder, blasting the clone off the ledge as he stood to his full height and began walking forward slowly, activating his omni-tool before he tossed back over his shoulder, "Only one falling around here is you."

"Now is a good time to run," Jackson pitched out to the others while he busy tossing Creepers into the pit, "like right now."

The resulting explosion was enough to shake the whole place after everyone managed to reach the safety of the short hallway while Jason calmly walked along without a care in the world until he turned around to see the aftermath of his handiwork once the dust settled.

Smoldering bits of organic matter was strewn around the walls, floor and ceiling of the chamber, small fires burning here and there while dismembered Creepers that had been caught in the blast were scattered around as well.

"Seems that I'm getting the feeling you don't do a job halfway," John remarked as he brushed some gooey substance off his shoulder, taking in the whole scene.

"This is awesome!" Jane whooped as she looked around, "You literally blew that creepy ass plant away!"

"It wasn't enough," Jason deadpanned as he took everything in with a critical eye, "it should've incinerated the remains instead of leaving pieces."

Jane face faulted, "What?"

"He gets like this sometimes," Jackson shrugged, "he takes his work to a whole new level, and he considers anything short of total annihilation is unacceptable in his mind."

Tali looked around before she stepped up next him, "It was very impressive work regardless Jason."

It sounded like she was smiling, Jason shrugged, "Guess I'll have to do better next time."

"What?" Tali worriedly looked around frantically for something, "Is there another Thorian?"

Jason laughed while shaking his head, earning a cute chuckle from her as well.

Jackson sighed before giving Alenko a nudge to the shoulder, "So whatca think poster boy? Like the redecorating job, we did it for free no less."

"I think that I have realized I will never understand this team," Alenko wearily shrugged, "genocidal Spectre on the run, a collection of unique characters, Geth, cyborg zombies, mind controlling plants and then you and your brother."

"Yeah," Jackson scratched the side of his head, "it could be worse you know."

SMACK!

"Never jinx us," Jason growled as he lowered his hand, causing Alenko to sweat drop at the sight while Tali looked on, "it never ends well."

"Ugh guys," Jane said, getting the attention of everyone as she pointed at the developing scene, "looks like it just did."

One of the sacs hanging on the wall was breaking open before it deposited a familiar looking Asari that was blue as Jackson had to be the wiseass.

"Mazel tov, it's a girl."

SMACK!

XXX

"Looks like the colony will make a full recovery," Fai Dan said as he took in the scene of the bustling colony, the heavy oppressive air gone now as the air was clearing up, "thanks to your help."

"It was no problem," Jane said as she massaged her temples, a result of receiving the Cipher a little while ago, "we were glad to help."

"I wonder if he knows I can't take him seriously with that huge bandage on his forehead," Jackson whispered to his twin while they were busy tossing another Creeper corpse into an open bonfire, "I mean he should wait before he goes running around with that on his head."

Jason grunted in reply, nodding at Wrex who had passed them toting a dead Creeper in each hand as Garrus could be seen helping Liara moving another dead Creeper over to the fire, Ashley was busy storing a bunch of spare weapons into another crate to take back to the Normandy for later. Alenko was over yonder massaging his own head for completely different reasons while he was busy helping a colonist tech repair something that looked important, John was taking to Miss What's Her Name With The Attitude before he walked away looking very pleased with himself.

Tali was sitting down near a pile of crates as Jason decided to join her for a short break, even though he didn't need it, he figured that he could play the overtaxed biotic card for now.

"How are you doing Tali?" That got a startled response from her before she realized it was just him.

"Hhmmm, deciding on how I'll explain this to the Admiralty Board once I finish my Pilgrimage," Tali made a vague hand gesture towards the burning pile of Creepers, "I'm having a hard time believing it myself."

"Eh, once you seen…" Jason trailed off before shaking his head, "on second thought, you don't want to know."

Together they sat in a comfortable silence, Jason smiled after he squeezed her hand and got a gentle squeeze in return, allowing her to slump onto his shoulder to rest for a moment, lost in the moment.

Unknowingly catching the attention of Jane as she smiled at the sight, she'd do something about them skirting around the issue later.

"Sure is something eh?" Jane jumped three feet into the air as she whirled around to see Jackson standing there behind her, how did someone that big move so quietly?

"Yeah, those two are cute together." Jane laughed before feeling an armored hand larger than her husband's land on her shoulder, finding herself looking into the serious face of Jackson.

"Let's leave them to their own devices for now," his tone brooked no argument from her before the giant smiled deviously, "at least until we need to interfere."

"We?"

"Of course," Jackson lowered his voice, "because you and I both know those two are helpless expressing themselves to each other, have seen that guy hit on girls?"

A shudder went through his body before he gave her a baleful look, "It would be horrific to witness."

"I can think of a few things…" Jane trailed off as she let the comment hang in the air, a chuckle escaping her lips.

She now had an accomplice.

XXX

AACCHHOOOO!

"Are you alright?" Tali perked up from her stolen moment of leaning on his shoulder, "Is it something in the air?"

"I don't know," Jason shrugged as he tugged Tali to her feet, "we better get back to work."

"You can let go now," Tali whispered as Jason realized that he been holding onto her hand for the entire time.

"Sorry," Jason felt color creep into his face as he awkwardly looked around, "shall we?"

Neither one of them noticed the smiles on the faces of everyone present as they continued on restoring the colony to its former glory.

Even while something great was blooming.