-Matthew’s P.O.V-

It didn’t take us nearly as long to return to Gilramore as it had for us to range away from it. That said, I would have appreciated a little bit more time to absorb the messages I was receiving.

The first one was simple, just that we’d recovered our wayward team. That was something to be happy about, and having information on Wolven’s whereabouts was even better. As minutes passed I received more messages, many of which were describing the… escort that Louis’ team had acquired.

Then there was Louis’ message itself, asking that we refrain from opening fire on the biotics that were escorting them.

‘What in the hell am I looking at right now?’ I felt a twitch from my eye as I looked at the picture that Louis had sent to me. The creature was distorted, in no small sense appearing as an abomination that was man-shaped.

What were the possibilities here? Man-shaped biotics just happened to be friendly? I highly doubted that, but I couldn’t fully rule out the possibility of course. Beyond that though the options didn’t get any better. It was possible that these biotics somehow had a way to manipulate others mentally. If they did, then they also had to be sentient; the team would be dead right now if they weren’t, which meant that they might be seeking to gain entry into Gilramore.

I sent a message to Doug to make sure he maintained distance from them and explained my reasoning. Of course, I also noted that it was possible that I was overreacting, but in spite of how outlandish psychic abilities or whatever they might have sounded, neither of us wanted to risk the city.

He said he’d get a specialist on the job to watch them, someone named Richard.

It stunned me that I remembered the man quite clearly, though he definitely left an impression. He’d managed to rack up quite the kill count and could back it up with a kind of quiet cunning. I had to wonder where Doug found him.

At another time. I shook my head and turned my attention back to a few more messages while Shade took over the bulk of the driving.

I forwarded the information to everyone else as well, cutting it down to the basics.

“So… we aren’t shooting the biotics?” Terry asked, as confused as the rest of us.

I sighed, “Not at first at least, I want you, Fran, and Daniel waiting a little bit farther away, in case something strange happens.”

I could almost see the frown on Daniel’s face, “Why would a biotic help a person?”

“We’ll find out soon,” I answered, “If nothing else, we can see if this is all just some sort of elaborate biotic trap.”

“That the two squishiest members of the team are walking into.” Fran noted with concern, “You’re sure about this?”

“As much as I can be. Either way, we’ll have to do something with them, and Louis’ group has returned, to my knowledge, safe and sound. Though apparently Jack, one of their people, is unconscious. They report that he has nothing physically wrong with him.”

A minute passed before Alice spoke up, “So… do you guys think that maybe there are nice biotics out there?”

Second lingered as we mulled that over. Fran was the first to have a response, “I think perhaps we don’t know enough about biotics to really know what to expect.”

“This sucks.” Daniel contributed, “I really don’t want to worry about accidentally killing a good biotic.”

Terry snorted, “Yeah, I’d be really torn up about it. Might take me all of a few minutes to get over that one.”

“Seriously, though,” Alice sighed, “What if you did accidentally kill one that wasn’t bad?”

There was a pause before Terry answered, hesitant, “Well… I mean… I know this isn’t going to sound good, but I don’t know if I’d care? I mean, yeah, I’m not going to go on a killing spree on a bunch of monsters that don’t want to eat me, but I’m not going to take the time to check every one of the things out there to see if it does in fact want to eat me first.”

I thought that was fair enough, “Either way, a sentient biotic represents a huge threat.”

“Meaning?” Alice asked, a tightness to her voice.

“We have no idea if a biotic can maintain such a mindset,” I spoke, grimacing behind my helmet at the fact that Alice probably wasn’t going to be okay with this, “We literally have no clue why biotics do what they do. Why do they go after people at all? They don’t seem to really need to eat. It’s not territoriality either, unless they’re that crazy aggressive about it. What I’m saying is that they might literally be incapable of not going after people.”

Alice opened her mouth to speak but hesitated, sighing loudly. She was thinking it over, it wasn’t as though she were naive about any of this, and she was aware enough to be able to figure out her own answer.

“I’d like to say that I’d give one a chance but… Wolven’s clearly intelligent to an extent.” Alice had a sour expression on her face, “If somehow it asked for the opportunity to exist among us…”

“Ah, yeah… I’d have to kill it with fire.” Daniel grunted with disgust, “That thing i'll probably pop up in my dreams every now and then forever.”

My mouth went dry at that thought. Smith’s dream sessions certainly weren’t the best with that kind of thing. I could do without ever seeing it again.

This time we’d make sure it couldn’t escape.

“Alright, we’re almost there,” I reminded them, “Lets focus on the possibly sentient biotics in front of us before we go thinking about ones that might not even exist anywhere else.”

We did just that, slowing somewhat as we moved between trees and onto a road. Those of us who couldn’t float, at this point only Daniel, navigated around the vehicles on the road. Our approach was far from stealthy, and at more than one point Daniel bulldozed a vehicle out of the way, filling the air with a crash of steel against aluminum car bodies. None of these cars would be driving anytime soon anyways, but I found myself exasperated with the clutter of the highway.

The location we were on our way too was only two minutes away, the gentle curve of the road into the suburbs of northern Gilramore quickly showed us a gathering of over a hundred individuals. Many of whom were staring in our direction.

I could almost see the relief on the Reaper’s faces that were there, whether for the fact that we were there to deal with the complicated issue or that the sounds that they’d probably been hearing were only coming from us. Wolven would be the next likely contender for that.

Louis’ team was near the front of the larger group, what looked like a hundred of the biotics from the picture he sent me standing close together. There were some variations from the picture, these entities weren’t uniform, not like how wolves were, or even how the beetles had been. They were far more individualistic, but no less ugly looking to my eyes. On the vast majority, it looked like gnarled, ivory bone and fungal-looking flesh had grown together to form these things. They didn't appear to be outwardly dangerous in an extreme sense, lacking clawed appendages, a mouth of any sort that I could see, and didn’t seem to have any unusual prehensile limbs. Just two arms, two legs, standing at around 177 cm or 5 feet and 8 inches or so. They were lanky, not overtly bulky. Although, the larger ones were standing at around 186 cm, bulkier, and seemed to be carrying sticks and varying weapons of natural make.

As I looked them over, I noted the one closest to the front, he - and indeed it looked much more human-like than the others did - seemed to be conversing back and forth with Louis. He turned after a moment of my inspection and seemed to look straight at me. Grey pupils with a glint of silver shone in them, a clear intelligence wrapped in the body of a biotic.

“Alright, stick with the plan.” I said back to the others, with exception to Alice. She’d be coming along with me.

They nodded, studying the gathering with as much parts surprise as I had. Alice bore a look of determination, and after we exchanged a wordless affirmation, I guided Shade to the front of the procession.

All eyes had turned to us already, but the sight of the flying vehicle, armed to the teeth, had its own value for intimidation. I kept my gaze locked on the head biotic, studying his responses. What I saw gave me no small amount of information. He was tense, and it seemed clear that he wasn’t in a position of comfort. Even so, I couldn’t find any sign that he was overly afraid of us, more wary of the lot of us.

Well, at the very least, wary of the flying death machine that flew over his group and landed in front of him.

I stepped over the edge of the Sickle, Alice bounded from the back as well while we landed effortlessly.

“Louis, I’m glad you and your team are alive,” I greeted him first, walking up and clasping his hand, trying to keep the aggression out of my posture towards the biotics. While I wasn’t much for politics, that didn’t mean I shouldn’t at least try to be considerate towards such a delicate situation.

“Now tell me what the hell happened to you all.” Well. I tried.

Louis shook my hand with a nervous chuckle, “Well, long story really, and I’ll definitely get to that, but first off there’s someone you should be meeting.”

I glanced to his teammates then, seeing that they all seemed to be in more or less good health, Jack Knight aside. He was unconscious and being looked over by a medic from the Legion and a member of Louis’ team, Liam. Benjamin’s expression was somewhere between pity and amused as he watched Louis lead me to be introduced to the biotic.

It stepped forward as Louis introduced himself, “This is Yaga, Head of… his village?” He turned to the being who bobbed its head slightly as Louis nodded, “Ah, right, his Cluster. They kind of take after mushroom designation.”

He turned his attention to the being that called itself Yaga once more and winced, “Uh, well, that’s not how it really works here. He’s the leader of the Legion,”

Alice laughed, “Yeah, careful about calling him Head Chieftain, might inflate his ego. I’m Alice, by the way, and he’s Matthew, though you can call him The Reaper too, kind of a thing in the Legion.”

I frowned, confused on several late “What?”

“Well,” Alice teased, “You’re already the Legion leader, being Head Chieftain sounds like a bigger job.”

I felt my head tilt and confusion run through me. I turned to the biotic as its head moved slightly.

“Uh… about that... I don’t think people would be too comfortable with you being in the city proper. Sorry. What do you think?” Alice looked to me.

I said nothing, completely lost in the conversation. And then the realization struck me, as ridiculous as it seemed, I couldn’t think of anything else. That aside, if the Obelisk could do it, why not some random biotic?

Frustration creeping into my voice, “I’m assuming both of you can hear Yaga speaking?”

A look of consternation came over Alice’s face, followed by realization, “Oh. Yeah, yeah we can.”

‘Great, seems that psychic powers do exist. And that I’m psychically deaf. Awesome.’