chapter 17

You know I have to admit, it never gets old seeing the Citadel when we come in on approach," Joker said as he adjusted his controls before glancing over at the person sitting in the copilot seat, "though it kind of sucks you just sit there and watch everything, reminds me of my flight instructor."

Jason answered with a grunt as he remained where he was, simply watching Joker operate the controls.

"How are we looking Joker?" John asked as he finished his short walk from the galaxy map and stopped just behind said pilot's chair.

"Pretty good, managed to avoid the slow lane and got an express route to our very own private dock," Joker shrugged as he jerked his thumb over at Jason, "though Mr. Sunshine over there has been sitting in the shadows like he wants to jump out and tickle someone Shepard, you should get him checked out."

John put on a thoughtful expression, "I'll think about it, but he already had his fill of raw liver and a bone to gnaw on so you shouldn't worry so much Joker, I don't think he wants to eat you."

Jason growled just to add to the effect as Joker turned to look at him picking his nails with a rather large knife he pulled from somewhere as Joker audibly gulped.

"Ha ha very funny guys," Joker chuckled for a minute before he noticed the look John was giving him, "that was a joke right?"

"Smells tasty," Joker about jumped through the roof after he felt Jason reach over and squeeze his shoulder, "maybe I'll have a bite."

"Jason what have I told you about eating random people!" Jane shrieked as she stepped into view, a smirk plastered across her face as she was no doubt going along with the joke at Joker's expense, "He does such a good job driving the ship."

"You'd probably get sick eating the cripple anyway," John said, "so no eating him."

Jason pouted as he folded back into his seat and stared at Joker for a minute, "Fine."

"You know the whole comedy act you three cooked up for this is really good, I'll give your delivery a seven." Joker scoffed as he reached over to poke Jason, but stopped once he heard another growl.

"What makes you think they were joking?" Jackson appeared from thin air as he approached the back of Jason's chair, "No bad Jason! You can't have the pilot because I don't know how to fly this thing."

It all lasted until Jane burst out laughing, "Joker you should totally see your face right now."

"Looking a little pale, don't ya think?" Jackson asked as he patted the pilot gently on the shoulder.

"Very funny, make fun of the cripple why don't you?" Joker scowled as he shot Jason a scathing look, "I bet you're a vegan anyway."

"Eh, whatever helps you sleep tonight," Jason replied as he got out of the chair and stretched, "that chair however is damn comfortable."

"Somehow I doubt Joker appreciates your company." John said as Joker ignored them in favor to bring the Normandy in for a landing.

"Har har, I'll one up you one day super freak." Joker bickered good naturally as Jason simply laughed, ignoring the odds looks he was getting.

"I like this guy, he has the delicate mastery between sarcasm and professionalism," Jason gently clapped Joker on the shoulder, "guess you're alright."

"Yah for the bonding moment," Joker clapped softly for effect, "I'm here all week."

"Guess that'll have to do for now," John shrugged as the Normandy completed docking procedures as he stepped closer towards the airlock as he spoke to Pressley, "inform the crew they have at least twenty-four hours of R&R, but if they manage to land themselves in jail, tell them they are going to stay until I feel like getting them out."

Once the airlock cycled through that annoying decontamination sequence even though they were leaving the ship, they discovered a handful of people waiting for them.

Of the three, only one of them looked remotely happy to see a miss matched collection of individuals exit the Normandy, it didn't take a genius to see the admiral stripes decorating two of them and the third was wearing a professional looking lab coat complete with name tag and a pocket full of tools that Jason could recognize from a distance.

The hell was this? The uppity admiral doing a surprise inspection and (with a sinking feeling in his gut) an overexcited doctor looking fellow waiting for their ship to land? This wasn't going to be good, his hypersensitive ears picking up the groan both John and Jane let out by accident before they smartly saluted the set of admirals while everyone who wasn't Alliance stood off to the side and watched.

First the familiar admiral ran his mouth for a minute before he stormed off towards the airlock like he was on a mission, Jane wisely following him as John talked with the second admiral, who was in the middle of a conversation with the doctor, who was scanning the crowd until his little piggy eyes landed on Jason and light up with sheer joy.

Shit.

"Think we can make a run for it?" Jackson asked as he stepped up next to Jason with his hands in his pockets, trying to look inconspicuous.

"Nope, he's seen me and you stand out in a crowd," Jason scowled as he hunched lower and kept his hand near the butt of his pistol, "that and the only elevator leading out of here is past him, clever bastard."

John didn't seem to be happy about something as the admiral produced a data pad from somewhere and presented it to him, during this time the doctor simply bounced on his toes like he was excited.

"Looks like he is about to jizz his pants," Jackson took a step to the side, "sucks to be you bro."

"Fucker." Jason muttered under his breath before he continued to watch John argue with the admiral/doctor combination as he slowly began walking backwards, figuring that he would take his chances finding some place to hide inside the Normandy's vents until either the all clear was given or he until got ratted out.

That avenue of escape was shit canned before he made it six feet as John ignored the doctor and began speaking to the admiral in hushed tones as doctor all but pranced across the landing pad with his eyes set on Jason. If that wasn't surreal enough, everyone present took one look at the crazy looking doctor and then at Jason before taking a leaf out of Jackson's book and took a giant step in any direction away from the skulking biotic, leaving him without any place to hide.

Assholes.

Before the doctor could utter a single sound or get within four feet of him, Jason used his natural biotic gifts and charged towards around the portly doctor, blowing past the admiral and skidded to a halt inside the waiting elevator as he punched the button. Hard.

"Not happening pal," Jason said loud enough to be heard as Jackson performed an epic tuck and roll the last ten feet so he made it inside before the doors began sliding shut, "I don't like it when pedophiles trying getting close to me."

Most of the crew and members of the ground team that were present watched on, attempting to smother smiles and giggles while John stood there grinning like an idiot as both the admiral and the doctor were doing pretty good imitations of a landed trout before the doors slid shut with a soft thump.

"We are so fucking screwed when Boss Lady hears about this." Jackson gulped as he began nervously pacing around the confines of the elevator.

"Eh, she has her hands full with the admiral," Jason shrugged as he leaned up against the side of the elevator, "guess we'll have to sneak in through the cargo bay when we get back to the ship."

"Fuck that, she is going to murder us," Jackson glumly slumped his shoulders and bowed his head, "John on the other hand not so much."

"I feel kind of bad ditching the others like that, guess we'll have to make it up to them." Jackson nodded to that logic as the elevator reached their destination and they bailed, heading towards the only place where they could easily find everything they were looking for.

The Wards.

XXX

"Did you see how he was able to charge!" John could feel a migraine coming on as the doctor all but squealed with joy as everyone watching sweat dropped at the display.

"Yeah very impressive, he kind of does it all the time." John shrugged as the admiral whose name he still couldn't remember even though he had been introduced to the man less than a minute ago gave him a level look.

"It wasn't in a straight line!" The doctor with no name clapped excitedly, "He conducted a successful biotic charge by weaving back and forth in such a short distance at a speed I'd have to say was faster than most biotics!"

And here came the headache, John sighed as the admiral squared off with him and all but demanded, "You should call your men back here Commander."

That did it, he hated it when REMFs (Rear Echelon Mother Fuckers) decided to boss everyone around as John privately entertained the idea of punching the guy's lights out with a solid right hook or even a wicked uppercut before he remembered what happened the last time he had punched an officer as he cringed at the memory.

No sex for a month, the horror.

"Right away sir, as soon as they get done conducting Spectre classified business I've sent them to do," John countered as he activated his omni-tool and went through the motions of sending a message as the admiral sputtered, "unless you want to intervene in Spectre operations of course."

The admiral looked like he just swallowed a lemon, "No Commander that will not be necessary."

"YES! YES IT IS! FOR SCIENCE!"

He had completely forgotten about the doctor, who had all but tackled the admiral and shook the other man by the lapels, a surprising feat compared to the height difference between the two men as John felt beads of sweat rolling down the back of his neck.

It was about then he had noticed the elevator had already arrived and the remaining members of the crew who hadn't sprinted back inside the Normandy before the admiral went through had crammed themselves inside of a single elevator, the cowards. John made sure to implement immediate action drills on the whole crew when they got back underway as punishment because he had never seen a group of individuals move that quickly before, unless they had been getting shot at of course.

"His biotic skill is phenomenal if he can pull off direction adjustment on the move!" Again John had forgotten the doctor while he had been busy scheming up ways to get back at the crew while the admiral, a little ruffled as well as looking shaken, smoothed his uniform and glowered at the doctor, who went off at the mouth in a long winded rant about the fundamentals of biotic theory and calculations that went completely over his head.

In fact he sounded a lot like Jane now that he thought about it.

(To this day, Jane Shepard still has no idea what caused her to sneeze in the face of a commanding officer, an admiral no less, who was less than happy about the idea of a stealth frigate being handed over to the Council.)

It took him another twenty minutes to coax both the admiral and the doctor to check back in at a later date, exchanging omni addresses (he had a sneaking suspicion that he was seriously going to regret that) and promising them at least a detailed medical file before the doctor could break down the reinforced hatch leading inside the Normandy to attack the medical bay for any possible medical data as the doctor bolted towards the elevator in hopes in running down his uncooperative patient, John mentally wished Jason the best of luck because he was going to need it.

Because he had just got done dealing with one admiral and his medical lackey, John was in no mood to wait for the second angry admiral to come back, the thought of his pissed off wife alone was enough to motivate him towards the elevator at a fast clip. Now he was really in the mood to punch something, an outlet for his obvious aggression because something about that doctor had seemed off about him, but he wasn't going to punch another officer.

The doors opened to reveal a familiar looking reporter that hated him and his wife as her camera drone could be seen hovering over her shoulder as she locked eyes with him and started marching over.

Perfect.

XXX

"Did you hear something?" Jackson asked rhetorically while Jason was in the middle of handing over an OSD filled in Fist's files to a much prettier reporter, Emily Wong.

"Only the sound of my bank account getting five grand richer and that Terra Firma loudmouth blabbering on over there," Jason answered while he kept scanning the crowd in case he spotted someone, "come on, let's get out of here before he shows up."

"Little paranoid don't you think?" The look Jackson received told him exactly how Jason felt about the situation, "Oh forget it."

"He didn't seem all that interested in you," Jason grumbled as he took off at a fast trot, keeping a wary eye out for any suspicious characters, that or anyone wearing anything resembling a lab coat while Jackson easily kept up with his twin's hurried pace, "like to see how'd you like it when you've got a creepy stalker after you."

"Touché."

"Come on, we need to pick up a few things before we head back to the ship." Jason sighed as he watched several Asari wave and coo at his taller counterpart, who was smiling and waving back just the same.

"You should really chill out bro," Jackson extended his arms to gesture towards the entirety of the Citadel, "we are in the best possible place to be right now, what could possibly happen."

Jason stopped dead in his tracks and gave his twin a scathing look, "Just don't….don't jinx us."

"Sorry bro," Jackson apologized before something caught his eye, well rather some blue and sashaying towards him caught his attention, "look alive, we've got a major babe incoming."

"Like she is going to be interested in us," Jason threw up his hands, "look, a couple of humans, big whoop."

Jason was surprised as much as his twin when the Asari (maiden from the looks of it) walked right up to him, stroked his cheek and gave him a kiss before walking away with a wink, Jason felt her stick a random piece of plastic etched with an omni-tool address and a name while his twin was on the verge of a total meltdown.

"OH COME ON!"

Several passing pedestrians glanced over to see what the ruckus was about while Jason was busy examining the calling card for any hidden bugs, tracking devices, chemical agents or anything else his mind would remotely consider fishy. Jackson glowered at him as they continued walking, Jason opting to ditch the card in the nearest waste disposal container before they reached an elevator.

From there things got, well a little odd because three Asari walked into the elevator after them as Jackson smiled and looked his best as Jason tapped away on his omni-tool, totally not interested in the blue definition of femme fatale standing in front of him before someone cleared their throat.

Jason was still busy tapping away, configuring the best possible blueprint for a few of his more off the wall ideas before Jackson gave him a nudge in the ribs and pointed in front of while he was confused and looked up.

"Excuse me, but are you free for this evening," The middle Asari was the most modestly dressed of the three while the other two watched on in what could only be considered amusement as Jason felt the universe was out to get him, "I would like to invite you to dinner."

"I have plans, I'm sorry." Jason said quickly as he heard a soft groan coming from Jackson.

"Oh," she didn't look that upset as she activated her omni-tool and sent him a message, Jason made a mental note to update his firewalls to the eleventh power when he got the time, "well give me a call when you have the time."

Without a word, the trio left the elevator in a stunned manner as Jason could feel the death glares emanating from his twin.

"What? Don't look at me like that," Jason sighed as Jackson turned away to pout, "It's not like I'm a man whore chasing after anything with tits and a pulse."

"That's just a perk."

"Shut up you sick bastard," Jason smiled before they reached their intended destination, noticing the looks he was getting from some very pretty Asari, but none of them mustered up the courage to walk over to him.

"I still don't understand how you of all people manage to attract women like moths to the flame," Jackson was understandably irritated, "I mean you got this glower on your face that just screams at people to leave you alone and they waltz right up to you and hand over their phone number for Christ sakes."

"Omni address," Jason reminded him as he began browsing through the selection of armor and mods, "get it right."

"Whatever, my point is that you are like cat nip to them," Jackson pouted again, "and it so isn't fair."

"I'm not interested in leaving a trail of conquests, especially because we have oh you know, a job to do." Jason put a little extra emphasize on the last part of his sentence while Jackson simply sighed and walked over to the nearest Asari that just so happened to be walking by and began talking to her in low tones.

Jason ignored his twin in order to conduct some business with the merchant who was willing to part with some raw materials in bulk, a couple more tools and even a few mods that had caught his eye before he turned around in time to see what unfolded next.

She exchanged a few words with Jackson before stepping away, but as soon as she was walking past Jason, she smiled, a purple blush blossoming across her face as she giggled before she walked away with a wave.

"I just want you to know, I really hate you right now." Jackson said as he nursed his bruised ego while they continued to wander around the Wards in search of a few more items on their list.

"It's not like I'm trying," Jason shot back as he shoved his hands into his pockets as he waited in line behind a couple other customers, "they just come on to me."

"Pretty soon I'm gonna have to beat them off with a stick," Jackson sighed as shoved his hands into his pockets, "why are they out for you anyway?"

"I don't know," Jason was actually worried about this, "no one so much as glanced at me when we were on the Citadel earlier."

"What I want to know is how come they find you way more interesting than me," Jason rolled his eyes at the whining he had to put with for the next couple of hours.

"His aura for one," both of them spun around to see a rather regal looking Asari Matriarch standing there flanked by half a dozen similarly dressed Asari commandoes, the surrounding crowd had all but vanished in the span of three seconds, leaving Jason to wonder how he missed that, "it is very powerful, especially to anyone with an acute sense of biotic detection."

Oh, that actually made sense in a way, Jackson nodded before he smiled, "Thank you ma'am I was really about to ask someone about that, but how is it that asari can sense other biotics?"

Jason had to suppress the urge to avoid rolling his eyes because he knew as well Jackson did that Asari had the natural evolution of biotics for thousands of years, leaving them sensitive to other sources of dark energy, in this case he was basically a walking Geiger counter alarm to anyone with even the remote skill of mastering biotics.

Whoever this asari matriarch was, she had already walked a complete circle around Jason and looked him up and down in a manner that wasn't exactly what he would call pleasant, but at the same time she wasn't sneering at him, "In fact you are more powerful than any other human I've seen or heard of, interesting."

"We should really tighten down the lug nuts on your amp bro," Jackson laughed as he slapped Jason on the back, mostly for show as the other commandoes were hedging in closer, "before you trip a circuit."

"No amp is capable of producing that much energy when the user is in a relaxed state," Jason noticed her tones had changed slightly, almost as though she found him intriguing, "in fact he should be unconscious after just a few minutes, but it appears he is doing it subconsciously."

Something seemed off about the whole picture, running through the mental list of potential bad guys, traitors, criminals or ShadowBroker agents through his head revealed that she wasn't any of these, but something about her just seemed to be unsettling. Aside from the fact each one of her commandoes were well within their Matron years, every single one of them bearing scars and had the look of hard won veterans, though while their armor and clothing appeared top quality, it was the obvious scuff and dent in their armor that really told the story as Jason squared off with the matriarch and simply locked eyes with her.

Jackson on the other hand hadn't been idle either as he slipped from his happy-go lucky attitude to a wary defensive stance, both of them were armed, but when it came to this group of asari, that didn't seem to matter.

"I hope you understand," the matriarch was doing the talking while the commandoes had stopped circling and faced them, "I just wish to see how good you are."

With that, a biotic explosion erupted from each commando and was launched forward, synchronized attacks as Jason simply raised a barrier as Jackson performed an epic dive and tackled one of the commandoes, who halted in her attack on Jason and engaged him in brutal hand-to-hand combat.

The amount of biotic energy thrown at him would have been enough to crush a Colossus, but Jason simply stood his ground and let it all wash over him, letting it flow past him rather than stop all of it, that wasn't his goal as he summoned up some energy of his own and pushed back hard enough to cause three commandoes to stagger back a few steps as the matriarch seemed impassive, though the twitch in her facial muscles told him exactly how much she was surprised. From there he executed a biotic charge and bowled over the commando doing her best to make Jackson submit, knocking her to the ground before Jackson scowled.

"I was handling it just fine you know," he jumped backwards as he began trading blows and punches from another commando that had jumped into the fray, "I got this one, you take care of the rest."

Jason nodded as he dodged three consecutive stasis attacks and a single warp launched his way before he snared one of the commandoes in a pull and punched her hard enough in the head to render her unconscious while Jackson shoulder tossed another into a fountain.

By now the entire crowd had backed off a considerable distance, even though he was under attack, Jason could feel there was nothing malicious about any of the biotic or physical attacks thrown his way, even Jackson was getting into the swing of things by showing off some pretty epic moves that most people his size could never do, he was even holding his own against each commando that had centuries of combat experience on him as well.

In fact it was almost like he was being tested, had this been from anyone other than a matriarch he would have screamed Cerberus or even the ShadowBroker sending an offer to work for him, but this seemed different.

"So you go around attacking people who are minding their own business?" Jason asked as he detonated a singularity with a warp, dismissing the unstable field with a blast of dark energy before the matriarch raised her hand to cease the attacks, though Jackson was still fighting with a third commando and seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Of course not, I only wished to see if you are skilled," the answer was said in that same superior tone while Jackson ducked to avoid a vicious axe kick, "and it would appear that your friend is also gifted as well."

"He is my twin," that got the equivalent of a lifted eyebrow even though Asari lacked the facial hair, though the brow directly above her eye peaked a little, "and you still didn't answer my question." Jason shot back as Jackson could be seen twirling in the backward to avoid what had to be a set of bladed high heeled boots or something.

It was around that time Jackson decided to open his big mouth, "Maybe this is her way of asking you out to dinner or something bro."

Once the remaining commandoes went after Jackson, with what appeared to be a vengeance to inflict as much bodily harm on him as possible, Jason intervened and managed to get himself involved in a six way brawl of epic proportions before the matriarch could answer, the faint traces of a blush present on her face as she composed herself.

The fight turned into a brutal curb stomp in their favor once they started fighting back to back, adding several combination attacks involving either biotic or physical attacks as the two brothers fought off the remaining commandoes bare handed, or in Jason's case, biotics before they managed to make the last commando submit after it took Jackson kicking her in the stomach hard enough to send her sailing back several feet before hitting the ground.

"Ouch," Jackson winced as he walked over to her and took a knee, "I am so sorry lady, are you okay?"

Jason turned to face the matriarch and knew something big was about to happen, "Well anything else or will I have to fight you as well?"

"Not fight, but avoid." Her warning was enough to get his attention as she launched one of the weirdest looking biotic attacks that he knew from historical references and the Codex, but it was beyond his league.

It was basically a tidal wave of biotic energy that could flatten easily a dozen Colossus platforms, one that he wouldn't have time to charge around and there was no way he would be able to deflect that much energy alone, so he did what no expected him to do.

He jumped.