Alpha

Desperately Baikal tried to shake the cobwebs out of her head. She had fought the Mime before and knew the he was not a "bad guy" with a conscience. Mime didn't let up when you were down, he'd beat the shit out of you until you stayed down.

Their previous two encounters had resulted in draws both were able to walk away from. Unfortunately as a "good guy", Baikal was supposed to allow law enforcement to escort Mime, not allow him to leave unescorted. The media tallied both battles in the "L" column for Baikal.
As her double vision slowly centered into one image, Baikal realized that Mime was nowhere in sight. Following the sights and sounds of violence she quickly found Mime attempting to relieve the munitions depot of its prime holding.

When Mime turned to leave the weapons bay, Baikal was waiting for him.

"You know I can't just let you walk out of here. Damn what a cliché.", she said slowly shaking her head at both the folly of the "villain" and at the crap the had just come out of her mouth.

"Whatever. I've kicked your ass two, almost three times.", Mime replied slowly laying the compound canister down so both hands were free.

"Let's do it!!", Baikal yelled raising both of her hands. Suddenly ten tendrils of blue-green water encircled Mime, connected by streamers to Baikal's fingers.

Casually Mime shrugged some tendrils off and stepped out of the rest.

"Man, you know with my biofield in tact you'll never get hold of me. But given enough time I'll get to you and give you the pimp slap of a lifetime."

Mime was a mutant born with the ability to surround himself with a self generated force field. Nothing short of unconsciousness could deactivate it against his will. Knocking him out was a little tough to do when you couldn't even touch him, as Baikal had found out in their previous encounters.

Now Baikal's power on the other hand was the ability to control water molecules in their liquid form.

Baikal threw a barrage of offensive and defensive obstacles at Mime only to find him slowed down at best. Slowly but surely he was going to get within arms reach of her and make good his threat.

Silently one of the shadows, to the right of our combatants, detached itself from the wall and carefullt watched the growing conflict.

" Hey waterboy, ya need some help?", the shadow asked in an innocently female voice.

" I guess.", Baikal replied, at which point she again surrounded Mime in watery tendrils. Only this time she exerted pressure in and slightly downward in relation to Mime's biofield. Tossing him into the air, much like a watermelon seed squeezed between someone's fingers.

Matrix then increased the polar attraction between Mime's costume and the wall. This along with the force of Baikal's initial squeeze sent Mime flying headlong into the wall. As he slowly slid down the wall's surface and into unconsciousness Mime's biofield also contracted and went out.

" Damn what was that?", Baikal asked as Matrix fastened a damper around Mime's neck.

"I just rattled his cage a little."

Already an expert a martial arts, Tanis Colby had agreed to sign on as head of security for the United States Strategic Weapons Initiative. Part of that posting was the agreement to undergo bio-engineering. That process in conjunction with her pre-existing mutant powers gave her the ability to increase the ionic or polar attraction between molecules of inanimate materials.

" I think I coulda taken him.", Baikal quipped as she lifted Mime's unconscious frame with a water hand like a waitress lifts a tray.

" Probably.", Matrix replied retrieving the compound canister.

" Even with help I finally got a "W"."

"Yeah one outta three ain't bad."

" It'll keep me in the lineup."

As Baikal and Matrix left neither noticed a female figure appear off to the left. Silently she glanced at a hand scanner and made an entry into a PDA she had withdrawn from her pocket. Nodding slowly as she looked around the room she stepped into a tear in the ether and disappeared.