"On what basis! You're taking the word of some random guy you know nothing about except that they're a criminal and assuming it's truth? You keep refusing proof!" Admittedly, Allison's proof had been verbal, but it still really ought to outweigh the word of a criminal. Especially a baby-kidnapping criminal. And Allison's crimes didn't count, because really, rapists ought to die. If the justice system wouldn't do it, that wasn't her fault.

And people who took babies and refused to return them? Alli was starting to think they ought to die, too. If she could figure out how to make sure he wouldn't get to Alex....

"What proof do you want? I already asked you that! I told you Alex's mutation, which you just said you still haven't managed to figure out yourself, how else would I know?" Nevermind the more human pose; Allison was back to her hands alternating between fists and claws at her sides. And ink starting to burn as it seeped out of her skin all over--she hadn't bothered to strip it out since a few days before Alex went missing, so by now there was quite a bit built up. Enough for what was escaping to be noticeable, probably, but then that was the point. Well, partly the point; Allison wanted to make it very clear that she was angry and that she was a mutant, but it would also make it a tiny bit faster if she did have to attack, and the ink leaking on its own could be attributed to a subconscious or emotionally controlled mutation. It wasn't, of course, but she wasn't acting like she noticed it, so it could be.

>>"On what basis! You're taking the word of some random guy you know nothing about except that they're a criminal and assuming it's truth? You keep refusing proof!"

There was no person in the world that wanted more that what Allison was saying would be the truth. That would make Baby X hers, not his, and Mirror's life would just get a whole lot easier.
At the same time, she was clearly not cool about all this.

>>"What proof do you want? I already asked you that! I told you Alex's mutation, which you just said you still haven't managed to figure out yourself, how else would I know?"

"I DON'T KNOW, okay?" Gawain snapped, louder than he had initially intended. The woman's hands were leaking some kind of dark liquid, and Gawain was not happy with that fact. So baby mama was a mutant, and he had no clue what kind. Not good.

"You really gotta calm down so we can figure this out." he said, his hands still up "I'm not gonna hurt you, or the kid, okay? But I gotta know the baby is all right with you. So why don't we talk about this and find a way to prove..."

"You keep saying that!" Screw politeness. Not that Allison had been very polite, really, with the yelling, but even more than already: screw politeness. "I keep asking what proof you need and you keep saying you need proof! I am not the one being unreasonable about this!"

Hair was starting to get into the edge of her vision. Allison shook her head to get it out, and felt more beads of mostly brown ink trickle through her hair and down her skin. "That is the one thing I might trust you about, whatever reason you want Alex hasn't gotten them hurt yet that I can tell." Her eyes narrowed further. "Not that it would be easy to tell with them. I will kill you if you have. But even if you haven't, that is still way below the minimum. I want my kid back!"

>>"You keep saying that! I keep asking what proof you need and you keep saying you need proof! I am not the one being unreasonable about this!"

Now she was oozing some kind of a dark liquid and started to look like some ghost from a Japanese horror movie. Gawain felt his mouth twist into a frown. One does not trust Japanese ghosts with babies, mommy instincts or not.

>>"That is the one thing I might trust you about, whatever reason you want Alex hasn't gotten them hurt yet that I can tell. Not that it would be easy to tell with them. I will kill you if you have. But even if you haven't, that is still way below the minimum. I want my kid back!"

Reasoning obviously was not leading anywhere. Gawain stepped forward, between her and the desk. If she was gonna flip out, he needed to get her away from Baby X. He still didn't know what she wanted with the baby. He was also not above knocking her out until she calmed down and they could figure out a solution.

"All right that's it, last warning ya need to calm the f*** down, and stop doing... whatever you are doing." he pointed at the dripping liquid "If you don't, I'm gonna have to put you in time out until you're cool."

...Time out?

Allison paused, blinked, and started laughing. The laughter was genuine, even if her expression stayed thoroughly pissed off. But really, time out? Please. "I highly doubt you could." And even if it was somehow possible, the idea was just too absurd.

"But fine." The ink. Alright, Allison could humor him. She tossed her head as she straightened back up, pushing the last of the ink in her skin out--if there was any left, anyway, which she somewhat doubted--and then pulled it all up to float around her head. He could think the bleeding ink was intentional or not, but this clearly was.

Allison was going to get Alex back.

>>"I highly doubt you could. But fine."

Oh sh*t.

Gawain's eyes widened at the sight of dark liquid floating out of the girl's skin and proceeding to float around her head. That was clearly a controlled mutation, and she knew it too. The X-man's eyes narrowed. She was willing to fight in a crowded office space where the baby was also present? Not cool.

"All right out we go" he decided, calling on his training as he lunged towards her.The office door was still half open behind her. Gawain feigned to the right and then ducked, aiming to catch her around her midsection and push her out into the hallway. Away from Baby X, and with the possibility of finding a mirror.

About time the guy took her seriously. Allison had seen that expression before... mostly on men and mostly on men she was about to kill, which she hadn't quite decided to do yet even if she was planning how to get away with it, but anyway. She knew the expression. It was very gratifying to be taken seriously. Especially since seriously meant the guy might actually listen long enough to realize she was Alex's mother.

...You know, or it might get her tackled. Since that still got the guy away from Alex Allison was fairly okay with that, even if it was still a bit of an instinct to immediately shred anyone who hit her in the stomach. She stumbled back until her ankle twisted and she ended up kneeling, and flung the ink out in every direction. Mostly to make a show, but she really didn't have many settings between scary and lethal.

And then it started raining. Oops. Allison had forgotten she could do that. Oh well; the sprinklers would just throw the guy off more, hopefully, and if she remembered right the basket Alex was in was covered. If not, it wasn't like the water was that cold; they'd be unhappy, but alright. Allison tried to throw the guy off and twist around so she'd be in between him and the door, and pulled the ink back toward her.

The push was strong enough to throw her out of the office and make her lose her balance. Gawain followed her into the hallway and kicked the door shut behind him, creating an extra barrier between Baby X and the Mother of Crazy. Suddenly, black liquid was shooting everywhere.

"Motherf..." Gawain held up his forearms against the liquid and felt it hit his body with the painful sting of a thousand needles. When Gawain let his arms down and looked at himself, he couldn't see any wounds, which freaked him out more than anything else. Just what on earth was she doing?!

The sprinklers came on. Darn. Gawain shuddered and made a brief mental note to tweak the system. Nothing was even smoking. Yet.

Back in the office Baby X twisted her nose at the sudden cold and make whimpering sounds, protesting the indoors rain.

Gawain took a fighting stance. Allison lunged for the door but he blocked her way. If she was intent on flinging projectiles, he was intent on giving her as little space as possible for gaining momentum.

"You really... umph" contact knocked the air out of his lungs but he managed to grab her at the shoulders. He was going to try and use his weight to unbalance her and take her to the floor. "... need to cut that out..."

"And you need to give me my kid back." Allison tried twisting away from the guy's grip, since going directly for the door clearly hadn't worked, but if anything that just made it easier for the guy to knock her over. Allison hit the floor on her side, gasped for breath and decided she clearly wasn't going to win a physical fight. Shame, she'd been better at those in the future; maybe she ought to try and find Skydancer again. In the meantime, mutation it was. "I think we've been over this."

Allison stayed where she was on the floor, and pulled the ink back again, moving it to hover over herself and the guy. "Want to know what I can do?"

>>"And you need to give me my kid back. I think we've been over this."

"Yeah me too" Gawain gasped as they both hit the floor. She was not good on the balance, he could tell that much. He could possibly win this fight and make sure neither of them was seriously hurt.

>>"Want to know what I can do?"

Gawain looked down at her from his kneeling position over her, and water dripped in his eyes from the sprinklers. Baby X made wailing noises that were the prequel to full-on crying. The shorter this fight was, the better.

"No, not really" he said honestly. The next step would be to get her up off the ground and into a reflecting surface. Looking down the hallway he spotted one of the mirrors on the wall, a couple of feet away.

"That's a shame. You're going to find out anyway." Honestly, Allison would have preferred not to tell, but just showing him what she could do clearly wasn't sufficient for him to comprehend it. "I control ink. And produce it, but it's the controlling it you need to be worried about." She tried to sit up, just in case he would let her. Of course not; he was still sitting on her and holding her arms down--

Allison froze and stared. What was he--this was the place with the adapted, wasn't it? F***--

The ink was still there though. It hadn't... fallen yet. So she was okay. No matter how... disturbing the cycle was. The ink swirled above their heads, just so Allison could see it and be sure it was there. What had she been...?

Right. "I can move ink through anything." That wasn't waterproof, but he didn't need to know that. "But it's not teleportation, so it tends to disturb things on the way. Like nerves. So if I just hit your arm--" as she demonstrated "--all it does is hurt. But if I hurt your brain," several dots of ink dropped down in front of the guy's eyes, "good luck." And normally that would be enough, but given what he'd just reminded her of....

Allison kicked the guy before attempting to twist out from underneath him. Just to make sure.

>>"That's a shame. You're going to find out anyway. I control ink. And produce it, but it's the controlling it you need to be worried about."

Ink? The black stuff was ink? Was she some kind a freaky Kraken lady? Was she going to sprout tentacles? Gawain had seen enough... nevermind.
She tried to sit up and he held her down. She was talking and not fighting, and that was progress. But then he saw the moment of panic in her eyes, and that jolted him.

>>"I can move ink through anything. But it's not teleportation, so it tends to disturb things on the way. Like nerves. So if I just hit your arm--"

"Ow!" he pulled back, half out of guilt and half from the sudden pain in his arm.

>>"--all it does is hurt. But if I hurt your brain... good luck."

Luck had nothing to do with it. Her knee connected and Gawain found that once again the air was knocked out of his lungs. She twisted away and scrambled towards the office door. Gawain got up behind her ignoring the throbbing pain in various points in his body and grabbed after her, managing to get an arm and pull her away from the door. All that did though was make him lose his balance and fall back against the wall, hitting the back of his head as she stumbled back against him.

He was fighting a girl, and it was not going great.

Finally something worked. Allison was able to even get an ow out of him, and then to get away, scramble up and run for the door--

and get yanked away. She stumbled again, though instead of falling this time she apparently pulled her shoulder. Whatever. She still twisted, pulling on the arm he'd grabbed and spinning the rest of her body to try to hit him. "Let go!" That, of course, did not happen, and instead the turn put her completely off balance so she fell against the guy. Which led to another moment of frozen terror before the ink responded and what was close enough jumped off the floor so she could see. Not much, most of it had fallen and stayed, but enough was in her reach for it to be effective. And with that established....

Allison twisted again--she was doing a lot of that recently--and elbowed the guy in the process so he'd be distracted. There wasn't much to see, except for water running down the walls and a mirror that the guy was half leaning against.

Why was there a mirror in a school hallway? That should not stay whole for long; it was a waste of money. So there had to be a purpose to it. Most likely, whatever that purpose was was irrelevant, but Allison was fine with that. Mirrors broke, and broke into nice, sharp shards, which she may or may not be able to use but which would certainly provide a bit more chaos that the guy wasn't expecting. She lifted her free fist and smashed it into the mirror.

All the struggle earned Gawain was an elbow in the nose that made his head spin, and he lost his grasp on Allison. By the time his vision cleared she was in motion again, and as he stumbled after her he reached her just in time...
... to see the mirror shatter up close.

Raising his free arm to shield his eyes from the falling glass he yanked her away from the mirror; he told himself it was for her own safety (her fist started bleeding immediately), but his instincts told him she could not be above using a shard as a knife, and the last thing he wanted was to get shanked. He could feel blood trickling from his nose.

They fell against the wall once more and hsi shoulder scraped the broken glass before they stumbled away. He managed to get an arm around her waist to hold her in place, even though ink was still floating around and there was no telling how well she could control the thing. He sneezed some blood so he could breathe through his nose again. Hurt as hell.

"All right that's it I'm gonna have to..."

"GAWAIN MORRIS!"

DocProf was standing in the hallway, giving them both a stink eye of EPIC PROPORTIONS.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF #@@%+"% SCIENCE IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"

Perhaps Allison should have thought of the likely result of smashing a mirror with her fist. Of course, it was also possible that she had, and decided to do it anyway. Allison hadn't been particularly concerned with consequences to begin with; adding in Alex and her increasing paranoia of the guy... besides, her hands were already scarred.

Anyway, it wasn't a huge deal; her hand was cut, and a few small shards got to her wrist and the back of her hand to embed themselves, and then the guy was dragging her away from where the mirror was falling. And really, what was with the falling against walls thing? Admittedly it was better than being trapped on the floor again, but seriously, this was getting old. She tried to squirm away, and was very effectively trapped by the arm around her waist. Which was another thing that bothered Allison, but it wasn't exactly what had happened, so instead of freezing she kept squirming.

At least until someone else yelled. Allison stopped squirming then, in order to look.

...Nope, no clue who that was. He sure looked mad, and sounded like it, but then, Allison didn't really care about that. She waved a hand at the guy, unfortunately not at the right angle to accidentally hit him. "He won't give my kid back to me!"