A/N: Okay, I know what you're thinking. 'Mary Sue! Oh noes' I know, I know. Yes, I made my character super strong, but ... so what? I wanted to have some fun to get me back into writing and that's what this story is, fun! Roll with it!

I walked around the corner of the recruitment center just in time to see Shepard disarming a kid who barely looked old enough to be out of high school. I moved to stand next to Zaeed, who was muttering about kids with death wishes.

"We're signed up, let's go," Shepard told me, barely sparing me a glance.

I rolled my eyes. "She's all business, huh?" I asked Zaeed as we followed.

He chuckled, his booted feet clomping loudly on the metal flooring. "Just signed up with her myself," he said, lowering his voice a bit when Shepard turned to glare at us for being slow. "But I've heard of her. She's a hard-ass killer, Specter and all-round badass. Can't go anywhere without hearing news about her."

"She's famous?" I asked, trying to sound casual. I wanted to know more about the commander, but at the same time, I couldn't sound like a clueless idiot.

Zaeed nodded. "I'll tell you some stories another time." We'd arrived at the sky cars and Shepard was tapping her foot impatiently. The other soldier she'd had with her was already sat inside one of the cars, so I slid in next to him, allowing Zaeed and Shepard to sit in the front.

"I'm Jacob," the caramel-skinned male said. His voice was deeper than I expected, with a husky tone that pleased my ear.

"Amy," I responded, shaking his large hand as he offered. I studied him, lashes low to conceal my gaze. Up close, he was handsome, but the was something in the way he held himself that annoyed me.

He cleared his throat. "So, you worked with Aria?" he asked, shifting in his seat.

I nodded. "Yeah. I've been training with her for a few months," I explained, not wanting to give out too much information. She'd taught me things that she didn't want well known; like the fact I could proform Flare, one of her signature biotic moves.

The move itself was hard on me, often rendering me unconscious from the sheer power coursing through my body, but in life or death situations, sometimes unconscious was better than the alternative.

"She said you're a strong biotic," Shepard said from the front of the car. "How strong?"

Shrugging my shoulders, I met her eyes. "She said I'm as strong as Subject Zero."

Every pair of eyes lasered to me, all wide open in shock. "Subject Zero is a legend ... if Aria says you're as strong as her naturally, I'm surprised Cerberus haven't picked you up yet." Zaeed looked impressed, his grizzled face almost respectful.

"I don't know who he is," I admitted. "Aria never told me, just said I was powerful."

Shepard laughed. "Zero is a she. Well, that's what I've been told, anyway. As for Cerberus picking her up, we'll be taking her with us, so it's pretty much true." She looked sour as she said it, her hand gripping her gun tighter.

"Something wrong with Cerberus?" I asked, glancing between them.

"No," Jacob responded, at the same time as Shepard muttered 'Everything' and Zaeed chuckled.

"Okay then ..." I shook my head and opened my omni-tool. I let them mutter to each other while I opened my messages.

M.

I think I broke the game.

Aria told me I was as strong as someone called Subject Zero. I dunno who that is, so I guessed some randomer. I can use Flare too. When I told Shepard, she looked kinda ... idk, shocked?

Is that normal?

Little help?

A.

I watched my screen, the little three wobbly dots telling me my friend was responding.

A.

What? Lol! You made a Mary Sue?

Jeeze, girl, didn't think you were that ballsy. You basically made a hardcore character that everyone is gonna shoot at or wanna fight.

It's a setting you should have changed in the 'Previous game info' bit.

M.

I stared, mouth open a little. "Everyone is going to shoot at me?" I whispered, typing a furious response.

M.

I TOLD IT TO JUST DO WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING!

A.

My fingers tapped on my leg as the screen told me my friend was typing.

A.

LOL.

GL.

M.

"I'm going to kill him," I said, drawing a concerned gaze from Jacob.

M.

You're so dead.

A.

"Everything alright?" the soldier asked, his brows drawn together little two fluffy caterpillars.

I nodded, closing my omni-tool. "Just a friend joking around, nothing to worry about." My fake smile stretched my lips and I knew I looked insane, but honestly, I didn't care. I was about to go into a war zone and stupid me had picked a character that everyone was going to shoot at.

I expected gunfire, it was a shooter game after all and my training had given me enough info on how to fight, but being front and center ... not my thing at all.

A little sigh escaped me. "We almost there?" I asked, wanting to just get it over with so I could get on the stupid ship and actually get into the damn story. I was more of a MMORPG kind of girl; I lived for the story. Not endless fighting.

"Yeah, we're about to land," Shepard said as the shuttle began to shudder a little.

It bumped softly to the ground and the doors rose, letting in a fresh wave of gassy, rancid air. The smell of Omega at its finest, only this time we could smell the added zing of gunfire and smoke. "Fantastic," I said, shimmying out of the car and onto the metal walkway we'd landed on.

Shepard and Jacob moved forward to speak to the Batarian in blue and white armor. He seemed to have been waiting for us. As they talked, I watched Zaeed.

He was like a cat in a mouses den. His eyes never stayed still as he marked the guns of every person walking by and I swear to god, if he had a tail, it would have twitched when a Blue Suns soldier came a little too close to him. It wasn't fear in his eyes. It was hate.

I raised a brow at him when he glanced my way, my mouth opening to ask him what his problem was, but then I heard one word ... distraction.

Turning, I began to actually pay attention to what Shepard was saying and I didn't like it one bit. Neither did Zaeed. "That's goddamn suicide," he growled, once again squeezing his gun close, almost like a lover.

"Sounds like it," I agreed, my fingers twitching.

Shepard shrugged. "We'll be fine," she told us. "Let's move."

Without a choice in the matter, I began to follow, once again zoning out the dialogue. I always skipped it when it wasn't story related.

Shepard trundled round, hacking this and that, electrocuting some dude working on a small ship and in general making a nuisance out of herself. I kinda liked this side of her.

She seemed to enjoy making the gangs suffer and after living on Omega for a while, I didn't really hold it against her. They all sucked. Bullies, the lot of them. Seeing her putting them down had me chuckling a bit, even her bad 'You're working too hard' joke got a laugh out of me.

As we moved through the compound-type area, I could hear the patter of gunfire. "I guess cut-scene time is over," I murmured to myself, my hands reaching for my pistol. I had a submachine gun strapped to my lower back as well, but I prefered the accuracy of the pistol and the ease I could switch out with my biotics.

"Archangel doesn't have much time," Jacob said as we reached the bridge. We took cover to one side, giving our gear a final check.

I amped up my Lx5's and flexed my wrists. "Then let's go."

Shapard nodded and without saying anything, leaped over the barrier and onto the bridge.

I followed, hearing the sound of Jacob and Zaeeds boots landing behind me. We spread out in formation naturally, without needing to be told and I knew the game was pushing us to 'fit' as a team. It felt good though, being in a team. My heart was already racing and adrenaline fired through my veins like lava.

Looking up, I caught the flare of a sniper scope and flinched as a bullet passed me and into the chest of a soldier that was unlucky enough to be behind me.

"Is he shooting at us? I thought he was a friend!" I shouted to Shepard, my fingers going blue in preparation to fight back.

Shepard laughed and opened fire on the solders we'd jumped over with, shooting them in the back. "If he was shooting at you, you'd be dead. Archangel doesn't miss." She charged forward, her own hands lighting up as she holstered her pistol and sent off a quick shockwave attack, taking down two more soldiers.

"Oh damn, she's biotic too!" I hooted, allowing my biotics to flare out in a burst. I sent a warp down the bridge like a bowling ball, knowing a blood pack member off into the abyss below. I felt no remorse. Pixels can't die.

"Keep up, princess!" Zaeed roared, his assault rifle snarling as he fired it, mowing down a blue sun grunt in his path. He thundered past me, spritely for his age.

I put on a burst of speed as we cleared the bridge and just before he reached the apartment building, I slid into cover before him. "Keep up, old man," I bantered back, sliding my pistol into its holder.

"Punk," he growled, his mismatched eyes shimmering with amusement. He reloaded his rifle and looked over to Shepard. "There was four already in the building when we crossed."

She nodded. "I saw. We need to move, Archangel is low on time. If they get the gunship running, we're all fucked." Her gray eyes met with ours, one by one. "We take them down and we take them down fast. Once we have Archangel, we extract to the ship. No fucking around."

Without another word, we stood and rushed into the room, Zaeed and Jacob first, drawing fire. Their shields were heavier than mine and Shepards, as they were soldier class. Like tanks in other games, they would lead the charge.

As a true mage would, I followed a second or so behind, sliding into cover behind a sofa and letting off my biotics like a wizard in a Harry Potter game. "Wingardium Leviosa, motherfucker," I said, watching as a Vorcha went sailing across the room, pulled by my biotics. I tapped him in the head with a shot from my pistol.

"Clear!" Jacob called, moving towards the stairs.

A shot rang out and Shepard dove for cover. It had missed her by inches. "We are not clear, we are very not clear!" She pulled out her submachine gun as we all scurried for cover ourselves. With accuracy I envied-considering that in my opinion submachine guns were spray and pray-she mowed down her would-be assassin and called "Now we're clear."

We moved towards the door at the end of the hallway and as it opened, we came face to face with the barrel of a very large, very scary looking sniper rifle. It lowered and behind it a pair of shocked blue eyes.

The Turian put his gun against the wall and whispered, "Shepard. I thought you were dead."

"Garrus."