"Frogger. What a f***ing original name THAT is."

Ryan Doyle was his usual pleasant self as he trudged through the warehouse district of New York City. He'd been here before, seen all the sights. None were pretty but it wasn't like they should have been. People came here, in Ryan's mind, in lieu of it being the pisspot that it was. Decent folk never came here, nor should they. Ryan chuckled to himself. Decent folk... what was he talking about. No one really was decent these days thanks to the damn media and the-

"Gah! Stupid..." Ryan said as he almost tripped over his own feet. A crack in the pavement, filled with murky water, caught his foot and almost toppled the mutant detective over. Good thing he'd worn his worst pair of shoes. And pants. And just about everything. Last thing Ryan wanted was to be a sore thumb in the middle of a crime district, regardless of his abilities and badge.

It was mid-afternoon, and the humid weather made the whole place reek of sweat and grunge. Ryan had to give this "Frogger" credit for being at least somewhat intelligent. Most drug dealers did their sales at night, but everyone knew that. This time of day, it was harder to sneak up on someone... both a boon and a problem for any mutant drug dealer.

The fact that Frogger was a mutant was the only goddamn reason Ryan was here. He'd been handed the case after word got around that some mutant was using his powers to create some sort of LSD. Nothing major, but Chief Myers said to take care of it before it WAS something major. Ryan had spent days tracking the man down, and finally, arranged a meeting. He'd told Frogger he wanted to buy. Push came to shove. Here he was. In the s***hole. Part of the job he'd learned to overcome a long time ago.

Ryan reached the specific warehouse Frogger had told him to go, alone. Yeah, sure, right. Ryan tapped his left pocket three times, the sound channeling through the small microphone in his pocket. Just outside the warehouse district, a pair of black & whites hear it, and began to gear up. Ryan wanted backup, but when cops usually came into this area, all crime seemed to disappear. He didn't want Frogger running early.

Figuring he had about 10 minutes before backup showed up, Ryan entered the warehouse. It was fairly full, random s*** laying around here and there. Boxes, crates, the works. A few homeless folk dotted the area, but Ryan didn't care about them. His eyes were sent on the greenish skinned man before him. "Frogger."

"You O'Mally?" Frogger said, in a squeaky yet deep voice. It was as if his mouth was filled with wax. Ryan almost felt sorry for him, but the urge not to laugh was precedent instead.

"No, I'm not." Ryan said, as he'd been instructed too over the phone. Again, he had to give the green skinned slime ball a tip of the hat. Pretty clever.

Ryan followed Frogger further into the warehouse. It stank even worse inside than outside, like fish mixed in with gym socks and dates. Wow, dates? Ryan had no idea how the heck he'd pulled that one out of his sensory memory bank. But nonetheless, it was not pleasent.

"Here we go, five jars of my signature Slime." Frogger over dramatically bowed, presenting Ryan with five small glass jars of what resembled... snot. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick. Ryan had seen it before, but still, every time he did he couldn't believe people ingested the stuff. Even he, a trained officer, couldn't keep an entirely straight face. Frogger must have noticed. He started getting shifty.

"So um... where the heck is the money? You got it in stones or something man?" Frogger said, looking around for a briefcase, or something stereotypically used for money.

Ryan sighed, and turned towards the green-skinned mutant. "I almost through you were smart... Frogger." Ryan said, reaching into his jacket for his gun and cuffs. "Almost. Now hands behind your head, you're under arrest."

The next few seconds happened almost faster than Ryan could observe.

Frogger panicked, and leaped away as the detective had expected. As they both turned, Ryan was about to throw up a gravity field... but the nanosecond of focus required to do so was lost as a familiar and terrifyingly whoosh of air passed his right cheek. The bullet hit one of the slime jars, barely missing Frogger as well. The jar shattered, slime went everywhere. But Ryan didn't hit the ground. The one thing that triggered this particular reaction was missing.

There was no gunshot.

"WHAT THE F***!!!!"

The drug dealers in her neighborhood didn't like competition. This Frogger mutant was stirring things up with a new mutant-created drug. Slime it was called and it was stealing their business. They quickly decided that they'd had enough. Mute was called in. This was a job she was happy to do. Mina didn't need this scum bringing more cop attention to the warehouse district. He had set up shop not too far from her home. If the cops made a concentrated search of the area they'd find her place and that just wasn't something she wanted. Sure she could abandon it if necessary and hole up elsewhere. However she'd spent good money on that warehouse and wasn't about to let the cops have it.

So she'd found herself geared up and infiltrating the warehouse in the afternoon. Her sources had told her he was doing a deal this afternoon so she knew he'd be here. Mina had sequestered herself up high amongst the boxes with a rifle and a handgun. With the distances and angles the warehouse provided she didn't much see the point in bringing a longer ranged sniper rifle. What she had would do just as well given her position. Once the mutant in question came into view it was show time. Mina fired up her mutation and centered it on the gun. They wouldn't know what had happened until it was too late.

Unfortunately for her she hadn't expected the buyer to be a cop. That complicated matters since she'd been planning on killing the fool once the buy was completed. Now she was forced into action early. She squeezed off a shot only to miss as the frog mutant turned to run and the cop to follow. Now it was going to be a chase. Mina cursed under her breath that her cover had been compromised for a shot that hit nothing. It hadn't even grazed either of them. Mina shifted the silencing from the rifle to herself and began negotiating the boxes and crates to a better position as the frog and the cop ran.

A glint of metal shimmered in the corner of Ryan's eye. The shooter? Maybe. No time to react otherwise. Frogger was getting away, there was guns being fired completely f***ing silently, backup was still a good five minutes away.

And he was covered in slime. Goddamn it.

"Oi, freeze, in the name of the law!" Ryan said, instantly wishing he hadn't. That sounded more cliche than-

"OW!" Ryan banged his knee into a crate as he ran. Grimacing, he kept on running, never losing sight of Frogger as he leaped and bounded away. Time to use his own powers. Focusing in front of him, Ryan summoned a zero G field, 10' cubical. The air shimmered ever, ever so slightly. As Frogger used his super legs to leap onto the catwalk above, Ryan jumped as well, just at the edge of his field. Momentum carried him forward, but the temporary lack of gravity caused his jump to go up and up and up. Eventually, Ryan left the field and fell a short distance down onto the catwalk.

Well, less onto the catwalk and more onto a masked woman carrying a rifle. Where the f*** did SHE come from? He hadn't heard a thing? Was Ryan going deaf?

Mina kept her eyes on the chase going on below her. Frogger it seemed was an apt if obvious name for the frog mutant. Aside from producing the psychedelic slime, which now coated the cop, he could also jump far beyond normal ability. This of course was something she'd previously known from her information dealers. She didn't go into something blind. Seeing it for herself gave her a much better judgement of how to counter it though. The chase was headed for the catwalks now it seemed so that's where Mina headed. She clambered up onto the highest crate in her vicinity and from there it was an easy jump onto the catwalks overhead.

However she wasn't the only one that had the idea to jump up there. Frogger of course had gone first but the cop seemed to have the idea at the same time as she did. The feat of jumping from the ground to the catwalks earned him an immediate mutant designation from Mina, as well as a much higher danger rating. She'd known that if they sent anyone to deal with Frogger it would be MRC. However MRC weren't all mutants. This one was. This one also didn't have great aim. He landed right on top of her.

Mina briefly glared at the man on top of her before shoving him off of her roughly and taking a swing at him with her gun. She stayed no longer than that. Mina turned and gave chase after Frogger. No way was she going to let some fool cop stop her from completing a job.

Something hit Ryan in the head. Hard.

"Jesus...!" Ryan almost toppled over the rail of the catwalk. The world seemed to split apart into doubles temporarily as the detective's head rattled. This was not a good day, and this is coming from a man who didn't even believe in good days too often.

Fumbling for the pistol he'd dropped, Ryan just kept swearing. A hitman. Hitwoman, really, but all in all there was a merc here vying for Frogger. It was people like them that were the paradigm for people like Ryan, cynics. In his opinion, the world was cold. Every action was made with individual goals at the forefront, and who else but a person willing to kill for self gain would epitomize this more? Ryan f***ing hating them. Hated. Them.

"I SAID FREEZE!" Ryan bellowed, his voice echoing through the warehouse. He wasn't sure who he was talking to though really. As he ran, Ryan fired his gun here and there, his aim wild, completely missing everything, even the walls. Slimed, bewildered, possibly deranged, defiantly motivated, Ryan kept running along the narrow catwalk above the boxes. He saw Frogger leap off, double backing towards the entrance. Without even bothering to see what the hitwoman did, Ryan vaulted over the railing, using a negative gravity field to slow his decent.

*BAM BAM BAM BAM*

Ryan fired again, but this time with a different result. A bullet clipped Frogger in the leg, who shouted out in pain.

"I said freeze you froggy little f***face." Ryan said, but before he could give chase to the now limping mutant, the hitwoman rounded the corner.

S***

Ryan held up his gun, pointed straight for her.

"Hands in the air b****, do it! NOW!"

Her gun had connected solidly and she left the cop behind. Her sound canceling was still active so though she was making no noise as she moved she also heard none of the swearing, gunshots, or calls to freeze. It was one of the downsides of her power. Mina supposed she could confine the sound canceling to her body and leave her head outside the sphere of influence but that was a thought for another time. For now she needed to keep moving and keep Frogger in her sight. If she lost him she'd have to drop the canceling in order to hear which direction he was in and she didn't want to have to do that.

When the mark departed the catwalk for the floor again so did she, albeit via the crates. Unlike the two men she was playing with Mina couldn't perform jumps like that without breaking something. This however was a warehouse still used partially for it's original purposes. So Mina had plenty of crates and boxes to use as a makeshift stairs. Upon catching up to Frogger she dropped the silencing. The cop had apparently winged Frogger with a bullet but had seen her the moment she came around the corner. This was why she had dropped the silencing. It could be revealing if she were to not respond to something he said to her. Of course the only thing he did say was to demand that she put her hands up.

Mina couldn't help it, she sighed.

He actually thought that demanding she put her hands up would work? On someone who, in his view, was a vigilante at the least and more likely a hitwoman? Instead she calmly pointed the rifle in question at the still fleeing Frogger and responded in a bored tone, which she made sure to keep pitched lower than her normal voice.

"You do realize of course while you are busy wasting your time on me he is getting away?"

Black knit masks didn't lend themselves well to expression but her incredulity should have been readily apparent just by her eyes.

Ryan dared not take his eyes off the hitwoman. The rifle she was holding looked like a completely custom job, bits and pieces from various weaponry fused together. In comparison to it, his standard issue 9mm was about as deadly as a potato gun. Whoever she was, she was dangerous. Silk mask, most likely trying to hide her identity, had somehow sile... silenced...

Oh s***. Ryan's mind did a double take. If she was who Ryan thought she was, he was in serious trouble. Or was he?

The vertical, metal platted door of the warehouse was raised open. Backup had arrived. Frogger had no where to go with four other police officers with guns trained on him. Ryan couldn't believe his luck. This almost NEVER happened to him.

"No, he isn't actually." Ryan replied, his tone sounding like he'd planned for this all along. "A neither are you. Now, like I said, hands in the air b****, and no funny stuff." Ryan moved forward slowly, but as he did, something strange happened.

At first, his head throbbed. Sure, he'd been whacked in the face with a rifle. He'd spammed two gravity fields pretty quickly too, but still. Ow! He had to blink a few times to fight away the pain, rather uselessly. To make things worse, Ryan's vision started to... twist. As if reality was stapled to a slowly spinning pinwheel, the wind pushing it along.

"I said no funny stuff!" Ryan shouted, but stumbled slightly. Be couldn't summon a gravity field, his concentration was shot to s***. His gun wavered, and Frogger's slime began to kick in. Ryan was tripping.

While her smile stayed in place beneath the mask as though she'd planned for the circumstances she found herself in Mina was nearly swearing in her mind. Of all the days the cops had to be good at their job today?! It was ok. She could get around this. However it was irksome to the point of annoyance that the cops were actually performing their duties efficiently today. Her target was going to get arrested. There was no way around that now. Therefore Mina's objective shifted from taking out the target to extracting herself. She couldn't very well orchestrate Frogger's death in jail if she was there as well.

Well she could but it wasn't an optimal situation for a mercenary-slash-hitwoman like herself. Mina kept her cool and rolled her eyes at the tough guy cop.

"You know I have a name. It's Mute. I like that much better than the filth you're spewing at me."

Mina's own good fortune kicked in at that moment to counter that of the cop. He had after all been covered in a hallucinogenic toxin. It started to affect him moments after he demanded she put her hands up again. Mina of course had made no move to comply but now, she didn't have to. The rifle went over her shoulder into a carrying bag and she pulled a pistol, it wouldn't do to be completely weaponless, before walking over to the tripping cop.

"Enjoy your trip, Mr. Cop."

Mina then began clambering back up into the stacks of boxes and crates. She needed to get out of the warehouse and out of her mission threads before the smaller dose she'd gotten affected her as well.

Ryan began to see blue and green dots popping in and out of his mind. The hitwoman's voice was warpped, like it was a record on a turntable and a hand slowed it's spin. He thought he fired his gun, he couldn't be sure. Maybe the gun fired him? Fun gired him? Tired. Very tired.

Slumping to his knees, the mutant detective threw up onto his shoes. He was tripping so hard he didn't even care about this either. Desperately he flailed towards the general direction of the hitwoman as she strutted past him and onto the crates. F***ing....b****....just had to strut didn't... didn't she...

*Ryan passes out, Mina escapes the authorities, and Frogger is arrested and brought into the local precinct for questioning*

[END... or is it?]

CONTINUED!