Biohazard

By Psion

Part of the Silicon City setting

All Rights Reserved

It was a yet another relatively early morning in Silicon City, the light of the rising sun banishing darkness both literal and metaphorical as the majority of the city's neer-do-wells and the night dwellers that hunted them disappeared into their hideouts and secret lairs. The SCPD night shift wrapped up their rounds and clocked out as the day shift took over the task of watching over the city.

As the city's population of office workers and factory laborers woke up, Sarah Driden's alarm blared with the popular pop song of the day. The spiky-haired silver fox anthro groaned and turned off her alarm before crawling out of bed. Today was the day, interview day... Stumbling out of her bedroom and into the bathroom, the frazzled vixen pressed her hands into the porcelain sink and stared angrily at the reflection glaring back at her. It wasn't fair; it wasn't her fault that someone else was careless with containment protocols... they should have taken her... accident for a blessing. Because of her, no one died of a horrible bacteria. Unfortunately, because of her a very vindictive scientist lost several months of research.

Shaking her head, Sarah showered and got dressed before seeing about breakfast. Rummaging through the efficiency kitchen in her apartment, breakfast turned into some leftovers from last night; a plate of steak and eggs from a home-style restaurant that served breakfast all day. A celebratory dinner for a promising job interview that ended up being boxed when she got the phone call. It wasn't a wash, not yet, but if this lead didn't pan out... She shook her head in a vain attempt to chase the doubt out of her mind and focused on the task of reheating breakfast.

Picking up the Styrofoam takeout container and dumping the contents on a glass plate, she set the glassware down on the kitchen counter and held her hand out, palm down, over the cold proteins. Pushing the hesitations from her mind, she concentrated and felt that familiar tingle in her arm. It was hardly perceptible, more then once when she was practicing Sarah wondered if it was even there or just in her mind, but as that prick transferred to her fingertips she could "see" the waves radiating out from her appendage. Within seconds the meat began to sizzle as it was bombarded with a short burst of microwave radiation, the plate becoming warm to the touch as she pulled up a stool and ate breakfast right there on the counter. A recently awakened mutant with the ability to sense, project, and manipulate microwave energy, Driden was practically a walking microwave oven. Some might have considered her powers a blessing, especially considering the events she developed them in, but to her they were only a curse that caused her to lose her job and any semblance of a normal life.

Sighing, she slowly chewed on the steak and went over what she knew about the company she was applying to. Epsilon HAZMAT Solutions was hardly her first choice, a government contractor that specialized in cleaning up super-powered messes was hardly a glamorous or particularly safe profession but on the other hand it was a job. And unlike the other offer she had open, it actually involved her skills and the degree she was working on. The other... no it was better to think about what to wear to the interview then dwell on that train wreck in the making. The white blouse and gray skirt with black high heels was a classic if perhaps a bit bland. Then again, was it bad luck to wear the same thing to two different job offers... Wincing, she finished breakfast and deposited the plate in the sink. Walking back over to the closet, she continued to ponder the dilemma on what to wear while grumbling that she was going to give herself an ulcer if she didn't find an alternative to that PharmRx job soon.

Epsilon Corporate Office, Eleven AM...

Epsilon's sole physical office was on the sixth floor of the regional DSA headquarters in downtown Silicon City. Ten floors of offices and cubicles served as the administrative heart of the Department of Superhero Affairs' West Coast operations, overseeing activities on American soil from Alaska all the way down to the Californian-Mexican border. A few of these offices were lent out to small government contractors, registered businesses in regular contact with the DSA.

Arriving ten minutes early, Driden boarded the first open elevator and was about to ascend to the Epsilon office when someone called out behind her. "Please hold the elevator!"

Pressing the hold button on reflex, the sliver fox turned to find a young feline male staring back at her, exertion causing the skin beneath his fur to turn red with exhaustion. "Thanks." The tabby-like feline wheezed as the doors closed behind him, almost catching his whip-like tail between the metal panels. Pulling a handkerchief from his breast pocket, the lithe office worker dabbed the sweat from his forehead as Sarah looked him over.

The male looked like he had stepped out of another era, his dress was formal enough to mistaken him for a bank clerk... if the year was 1889. Beautiful leather dress boots lead up to gray pinstripe pants, a black cotton vest, and a white silken shirt. All that was missing was a top hat or a funky pair of eyewear and he'd look right at home in a steampunk convention.

"I swear this was the first time they told me about this meeting. How do they expect me to keep up on my research if they keep scheduling interviews at the last minute?" The male sighed. "You would think that because we worked with the DSA we could have someone else handle the bureaucratic nonsense but no, Anna and Jack don... Sorry I don't believe I told you my floor did I?" He stopped midsentence and checked the elevator buttons. "Oh, well that is certainly fortuitous." He replied with a blush, seeing that they were going to the same floor. "Alexander Grove of Epsilon Solutions." He greeted, politely offering his hand.

"Sarah Driden and I thought the interview started after I got to the office." She joked, firmly shaking the offered hand.

"YOU'RE Sarah Driden? Amazing, this truly is fortuitous. Well I suppose it would technically be considered cheating if I started asking you questions right now without Anne or Jack with me...."

"I'm sensing a but in there though."

"Well there is one question I'm very curious about. So are the other two for that matter. Simply put, why us? We've read your resume and the story about what happened at the Redmond University medical lab was all over the news a few weeks ago. Now you don't have to answer this right now but we are still curious as to why you would choose us. Why I'm sure PharmRx would love to help you finish your degree so you can slide right into one of their laboratories."

Resisting the urge to suck in her breath or say the first thing that came to her mind, Sarah nodded her head in understanding while trying to figure out her response. "PharmRx is not looking for a research super. At present, all open metabeing positions are in their marketing department." She answered in monotone while fighting to regain control of her emotions.

"Ah, I see. It's probably illegal for me to ask and I can imagine how that went anyway." The feline nodded as the elevator arrived at their floor. "And we're here, so let's introduce you to Annie and Jack so we can make this official." He smiled and led the way to Epsilon Hazmat's office.

The office turned out to be a small windowless room sandwiched between the employee lounge and janitor's closet on the other side of the maze of cubicles dominating the majority of the floor. Anna and Jack turned out to be a pair of canines, a portly Dalmatian female and a male Alaskan malamute in his early thirties, dressed in business causal.

"Sorry I'm late everyone but look who I found in the elevator!" Alex smiled and turned to Driden. "This is Annabel Belmont and Jack Smith."

"Hello, I'm Sarah Driden. It's a pleasure to meet you." She greeted, shaking both of the canines hands before taking a seat across from two canines. Alex gave her a reassuring wink as he shut the door behind them and took a seat next to Anna.

The pear-shaped Dalmatian passed copies of the energy controller's resume to her coworkers and cleared her throat. Was it Sarah's imagination or were her interviewers trying to figure out where to begin?

"I suppose I should start with the biggest question on our minds. Why us Ms. Driden? While we appreciate your interest in our opening for a biohazard specialist, your education and work history make you almost overqualified. And given the events regarding your awakening, we thought RU would have been happy to have you keep doing lab work for them."

The shorthaired microwave blaster nodded slowly. "While I believe it to be in bad taste to speak ill of someone, there were... consequences to my accidental intervention. Specimens were destroyed in the first manifestation of my powers; one doctor was particularly... upset to have her research set back by several months. She has some sway over the hiring process and believed it was her duty to notify my abilities to the registration agency."

"You saved ten people from a bacteria that would have turned their lungs to slime without immediate surgical intervention." Jack replied with a raised eyebrow

"And her argument was that the research could have saved millions more by making it useless as a bioweapon." She countered.

The interviewing anthros nodded. "Moving back to our original question, why us? Your credentials qualify you for a senior lab tech position in most corporate laboratories. And being a walking autoclave... the only way you'd be more desirable is if you had the ability to conjure glassware on command."

Sarah thought about the question for a moment, this is probably suicide but what the hell. She mused to herself before answering. "Why Epsilon HAZMAT Solutions? That is a good question. To be honest, you weren't my first choice. Actually you were almost my fifth choice. But I've applied to three of those medical research companies you mentioned already and they all told me the same thing, the only open positions for metabeings are in marketing. So I decided to see if a company run by a wizard, a hypertech engineer, and a fellow mutant would know how to use a disease pathologist. I can't think of a better test of my abilities then cleaning up after a supervillain arrested for cooking up bioweapons to sell on the black market." She answered, looking at Alex, Annabel, and Jack in turn. It finally dawned on her; three interviewers at once, all of them as nervous as she was, Alex's offhanded comment about research, if she nailed this interview the three of them would become her coworkers.

The three anthros looked at one another. "Well, I think that answers all of our questions. Do you have any other questions Anna? Alex?" Jack asked as he turned to his colleagues.

Belmont smiled. "None I can't ask without giving her the job first... Actually I take that back, how do your powers work?"

"I can project bursts of thermal radiation similar to the kind produced by your microwave oven. This energy can be emitted like a projectile from each hand or in a radial 'aura'-like fashion with a range of about five feet. I can also see microwave energy in a sense, helps figure out where my beams are going. And that's about as far as I got with my abilities even with the mandatory testing and training that comes with getting registered."

"T&T only teaches you how to avoid killing people by accident so I'm not surprised." Annabel replied, writing a few notes on the back of her resume copy.

"I have nothing else so I guess I'll see Ms. Driden out." Alex smiled and stood up, escorting Sarah out.

"Thank you for the opportunity, when can I expect you to reach a decision about the position?"

"This evening." Jack answered as he shook her hand goodbye.

"That quick?"

"Well, the sooner we reach a decision, the sooner we can get the paperwork out of the way and decide whether or not to get you fitted for a hazard suit." The Dalmatian replied.

Sarah blushed briefly, looking down at her rather plump thighs. "Yes, I can see how that might take awhile."

"Can't take me as long as it took me to get myself fitted." The portly canine rebutted and laughed as she shook the vixen's hand one last time.

Escorting her back to the building lobby, Alex briefly whistled a happy tune to himself. "Well I think you did well, I'll find out what the others think over lunch and we should have an answer by dinner time." The magi affirmed as they stepped out of the elevator into the busy lobby.

"Thank you, it was a pleasure meeting all three of you."

"Believe me when I say the pleasure was ours. And one last thing Sarah... if we do say yes and if I'm right in assuming PharmRx offered you employment on the condition you got some cosmetic surgery, try not to take too much satisfaction from telling them where to stick their offer." The feline spellslinger grinned and shook her hand. It was the last she would see or hear of him till that evening...

Foodie Row, Five PM...

Foodie Row was a small street filled with independently owned restaurants tucked away on the edge of the university district. There were rumors that the neighborhood was the secret homebase of a number of masked costume chefs but Sarah regarded them as just plain silly. A masked grillmaster named Rump Roast? Really?

Driden's favorite restaurant in the neighborhood was a small steakhouse run by a fellow British vixen. The menu was mostly American fare but there were a few tastes of home snuck in to dare the Yanks to try something out of their comfort zone. It was one of these plates she busied herself with, a small serving of liver and onion balls, as she sat at a corner table, her cell phone rested on the polished oak table as she ate and waited...

When the phone rang she had it answered and against her ear on the first ring. "Hello... why yes of course I'm still interested. Does this mean I have the job? Why yes I can come in tomorrow to start the paperwork. Same office? Alright, thank you and see you tomorrow." Sarah answered, the enormous grin on her face growing larger by the second.

Hanging up and sticking the phone in her pocket, the black-furred vixen turned to the chef in the kitchen. "Oi Moira! Moira! Put a ten ounce steak with all the trimmings on my order and I do mean ALL the trimmings!" She smiled as she added another item to her bill. Tonight was definitely a night worth celebrating...

One Week Later...

After a week of income tax forms, health insurance applications, and those suit fittings Annabel mentioned, Sarah found herself sitting in the back of a small van with Alex while Jack and the Dalmatian drove the group to a job site.

"Shouldn't I have to spend a couple more weeks in training?" She asked nervously.

"There's really not much 'training' you can do outside of get some hands-on experience at some less dangerous sites. Fortunately we just got a contract for one, a hardcore right-wing militant mastermind had an underground military base up in the Klamath Mountains." Jack explained.

"Right-wing? I thought he was some leftist nutjob who believed the government was trying to steal your brain with radio waves." Alex asked.

"Right, left, when they get that crazy they're all the same. In any case, he was a fairly pragmatic paramilitary type so no thematic deathtraps, narrow catwalks suspended over giant vats of acid, or six-inch metal spikes every two feet. Just a guy with a fairly ordinary layout, a small army of brainwashed minions the DSA already finished stomping, and an arsenal of weapons hidden somewhere in a maze of locked doors and subterranean tunnels. The perfect kind of job to get you started on." Annabel continued.

"Sounds like they shouldn't even need us." Sarah replied.

"Technically no, there are no hazardous materials to contend with except some suspected explosives. But they also want us to survey and assess the lair for redevelopment. Find out if it's worth turning the place into an army base or an underground hotel." Anna explained.

"Or just blow it up and be done with it." Jack added sardonically.

Sarah was still a bit nervous. "Do we need the suits? I still haven't gotten mine."

"We shouldn't but we'll wear them anyway. In addition to protecting against NBC threats, I designed them to function as light armor. Nothing particularly fancy, just as tough as the Kevlar gloves they use in factory work, but it will help keep us from getting cut on whatever's down there. And besides, information about what's down there is subject to change. As for your suit though, I have it in the back with the rest of our gear. I think you'll like what I've done." Annabel chuckled as she drove them off the main highway and onto a dirt road leading to the foot of the mountain range.

The mouth of the cave didn't look like much, it took Sarah moment to realize it wasn't naturally occurring, but it was wide enough to drive the van through with room to spare. About thirty feet, the cave opened up into a flat area roughly a quarter of an acre in diameter, the tires crunched stray bits of gravel as Belmont took them over a granite plain worn smooth by machinery. At the far end, an old-style blast door broke up the otherwise featureless wall of stone. A duo of figures, the distance making them difficult to identify, sat around the giant metal gate and watched the van approach. The canine bit her lip as she slowed the vehicle down and the bunker's guardians became more distinct. There were two of them, an exceptionally busty reindeer doe dressed in a somewhat tight patriotic costume and a towering equine male with an obsidian pelt and a gunmetal gray outfit. The horse anthro stood up to his full height and briskly walked towards the van.

"That will be far enough, identify yourself." The tall male ordered in a strangely apathetic tone, keeping his distance as he waited for a response.

"Hey Mason, it's Annabel." The Dalmatian techie replied with a wave.

Mason allowed himself to come close enough to peer into the truck and take a quick count of its occupants. "Let's see... Annabel, Jack, Alex, and... hello are you new?" He asked, spying Sarah for the first time.

The vixen found it hard to speak, who hadn't lived in America for any length of time without hearing about Mason the Titanium Hercules? Seven and a half feet tall, body ripped with muscle... Driden was painfully aware of the double standard she seemed to have but at the same time there were few words she could think of to describe the equine giant that weren't profane.

Belmont caught her dreamy gaze and shook her head. "Yes she's a new hire. This is Sarah Driden, the girl who turned into a microwave oven and sterilized Redmond University... that is when she isn't off in dreamland. So how have you-"

"HEY MASON! ARE TONKA AND HER SIDESHOW FREAKS IN THE VAN OR NOT?" The chesty doe shouted from her seat by the bunker entrance.

"Nice to see you too Polaris." The portly Dalmatian grumbled.

"Tonka?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, her little nickname for me. She calls me that because-"

"Because you build everything we need and have a body like a Tonka truck. Polaris isn't particularly imaginative is she?" Sarah chuckled.

"Tonka" snorted in agreement as Mason stepped back and waved them on. Grumbling something about Barbie doll superheroes, the canine techie shifted gears and pulled up next to the impromptu guard post. The foursome was silent as they stepped out of the van, Belmont opened the back of the truck up and started unloading equipment. First out were the suits, customized HAZMAT suits tailored to each member's specific measurements. Alex was the first to finish getting in dressed, his work uniform reminding Sarah of a sci-fi techno wizard, and quickly busied himself by helping the others put theirs own and checking the seals. The vixen was happy to return the favor once she finished getting into her slivery body suit with a bulky pair of gauntlets and putting the respirator over her face.

Dressed in a black and yellow suit, Annabel pulled out a big red toolbox and a metal staff unadorned except for a clear quartz crystal. Handing the staff to Alex after he and Sarah finished checking over Jack in his black rubber HAZMAT suit, she gave the group an approving nod. Still in her seat by the enormous steel hatch, Polaris put down her magazine to clap at the suited specialists.

"Oh goodie, the circus is in town! The amazing inflatable Sponge, the cat of mystery Counter-Hex, and Tonka the ringmistress herself! Ready to dazzle us with another episode of... wait a minute, who are you?" The cryokinetic doe was all cruel smiles until she remembered there was a fourth member she hadn't nicknamed.

"Call me Microwave." Sarah greeted with an extension of her middle finger. "Good to see my tax dollars at work." She added, regarding the fashion periodical with a glance.

"Well aren't you just the textbook definition of a lady, I bet you're single too."

"Says the female with nothing better to do then to come up with nicknames for people."

Mason cleared his throat. "Ladies... While I would love to sit and contemplate the toys they make these days, don't we have something we're supposed to be doing?" He asked calmly, gently pushing Sarah along after the rest of Epsilon as Tonka stepped into the bunker airlock and busied herself with the inner door.

Before Driden could say anything, the tech-savvy female had the door open and was leading the group through. The energy-controlling newcomer sucked in her breath in anticipation of seeing her first supervillain lair only to find... it was quite ordinary really. Steel I-beams reinforced the natural stone walls of the lair's main atrium with three identical steel and stone tunnels branching off in different directions. Industrial lights hung from the ceiling, casting everything in a harsh glow.

"My first supervillain lair and it looks like the owner did his decorating down at the local hardware store." She lamented as the heavy-duty techie shut the airlock door behind them.

"Trust us, once you had your first necromancer or mad scientist you'll appreciate the ones who have no imagination or money. Heh, remember that time we were on an old oil derrick in the Gulf Coast?" Sponge replied before reminiscing with Tonka.

"The lunatic chemist that almost finished what the Gulf spill started? Don't remind me, you can't even begin to comprehend what it means to be at least three hundred miles away from anything until you're out on the ocean like that. At least you really earned your share on that job Jack."

As his coworkers conversed amongst themselves, Alex pulled out a map drawn on notebook paper and turned it around a few times. "Alright, assuming this map is correct, the armory is down that hallway." He gestured to the tunnel on the right. "And something labeled 'laboratory' is down the other way." The feline jerked his thumb towards the other tunnel on the left.

"Why would a militant want a laboratory?"

"No idea, the file we were given doesn't even mention the lab on the map. Could be a typo and the writer meant to say 'lavatory.' Or he could be a low-level minion that accidentally revealed something the higher-ups purposely didn't mention. Regardless there is only one way to find out, shall we head down that way?" Alex asked, Sarah could almost hear the smile behind his tinted visor.

"Yeah let's get this over with. Depending on what we find, it shouldn't take me too long to get the rest of you started then go back to do some EOD in the arsenal." Anna replied.

The left tunnel hardly looked any different from the atrium they arrived in, only occasionally branching off into side corridors leading to various facilities. Alex's map was accurate if the signage they were finding was anything to go by. The cafeteria, living quarters, training hall, and conference room were all where they were supposed to be, yet the tunnels looked identical to one another. Good thing the signs weren't taken down, the place could use some colored lines on the walls or floor to help guide new recruits...

"Geeze, wonder how many minions this idiot executed just for getting lost? Anyway, why is Mason here? I mean I get why the DSA would send someone, site security to make sure nobody jumps us and I can see why Polaris would draw the short straw. But why Mason? I mean he's the Titanium Hercules."

"Sometimes the DSA agents get put on the pointy end of things for too long. And when that happens, well sometimes their best tend to get shipped to low-risk missions for a while before they break. I hear Mason was part of a bust on a metabeing slavery ring, using earth controllers and Atlas-type metabeings as miners in a mercury mine down the coast." Alex explained.

"Oh dear, and the slaves were all suffering from mercury poisoning weren't they?" Sarah asked.

From up ahead, Jack growled violently behind his mask. "It gets better, bastards working in these schemes like to target children because they don't always know any better. Either the kids of known supers or just random unlucky pups that had their powers blossom in front of the wrong people. This is why I hate leaving my kids, at least I get paid to swell up like a fucking balloon."

"Kids getting mercury poisoning before they're old enough to drive. Almost makes the whole 'selling masked heroines as sex slaves' cliché seem tame by comparison doesn't it?" The vixen replied.

The others grumbled their agreement as the four of them arrived in front of a sturdy metal blast door almost as large as the one out front. The actual door itself was covered with warning signs cautioning the Epsilon team to the variety of chemical and flammable hazards on the other side of the closed portal.

"Well, still think the map maker meant to write 'lavatory' Alex?" Belmont asked as she tested the door handle, locked and bent out of shape too from the sound of it. Groaning and setting down her box of tools, the canine techie prepared to cut the lock. Immediately the feline stood beside her and raised his staff over his head. The quartz crystal began to glow with an incandescent light as the suited wizard began to softly chant a spell. A minute later the glow subsided and Grove finished his chanting, the sorcery complete.

"My projection was successful. The room seems to be filled with laboratory equipment of some kind and it doesn't look like there are any traps or security devices on the other side of the door."

"Any gas?" Tonka asked as she fiddled with what Sarah thought was a blowtorch.

"Didn't smell like there was any." The wizard replied

"Good enough for me." The canine replied as she adjusted a welding mask over her face and started cutting into the door. Sparks flew like an infernal rain as the flames bit into the metal and slowly tore the industrial steel portal from its hinges. With nothing to do but step way back and wait, the rest of the clean-up team made small talk.

"So Sarah, saw you were raining on Polaris' parade. Think she's going to take to calling you Microwave?"

"Well, she certainly looks like the type to start thinking it was her idea when she can't come up with anything better. Though that reminds me, Mason said something weird as he pushed me in after you, something about contemplating the toys they make these days. Is he a toy maker when he's not Mason?"

The two males looked at one another, Alex struggled to choke back a laugh. "Was he looking at... nah it would have to be Annie otherwise he would have come up with something witty about a microwave."

The vixen raised an eyebrow behind her mask. "Excuse me?"

"Well, he tries to be quiet about it but you know what they say; the bigger the boy, the bigger the toys. And Mason the mountain of muscle is a very big boy indeed." Jack explained.

Sarah blinked as the realization finally hit her. "Seriously? What does Annabel think?"

"She's hesitating, thinks she and him aren't 'right' for each other, but they still have a friendly understanding with one another. And of course, you didn't hear any of this from us. Anne doesn't like it when people talk about her personal life." The canine continued.

"Well... I'm still just blown away I didn't figure that out myself."

"True innuendo, in its purest form, is the lost art of keeping people from figuring out what you're talking about. So many people fail to understand that." Alex lamented as the Dalmatian finished cutting the door off its hinges and setting it aside. Extinguishing her torch, she gestured for the others to follow her through the dismantled entryway.

At first glance the actual lab looked ordinary but Sarah felt her blood run cold when she recognized some of the machinery. And from the tone of Belmont's voice, she clearly did too.

"Mass spectrometer, fume hoods, and... that's a big chemical mixer and a lot of drums."

"I thought the DSA said these people weren't working with chemical weapons?" Alex asked.

"Apparently they were wrong." Annabel replied as she walked towards a computer console and stopped about a foot in front of it. Crouching down, she checked under the console and to the sides, trying to make sure the device wasn't trapped before turning it on and seeing if it had power.

"Well the generator still works." The canine replied as the screen came to life and asked her for logon information. "Let's see, where did I put that flash drive..." She mumbled thoughtfully as she rummaged through her box of tools for a small USB drive. Sticking it into the computer, a second submenu appeared below the login screen asking if she would like to use "lockgrinder.exe". Belmont clicked yes and a small progress bar came up.

"Let's see who was working in this lab and on what. I'm sure the DSA would like to see a record of what went on here before we dispose of it."

"Back away from that computer you pitiful specimen!" A voice shouted from behind them.

Back at the entrance to the laboratory was a male rat of average height and build, his body clad in a black jumpsuit with rancid green highlights. A matching ski mask with a green circle over his mouth completed the look. Sarah would have rolled her eyes at how he looked but the she caught the black sludge oozing out of a pair of pneumatic pistols he held in a death grip.

Alex, the closest to the door and the threat, quickly channeled a spell into his staff. "Alright friend, care to tell us who you are and exactly how you managed to get past two crack DSA agents without anyone noticing?"

"I am Biohazard! Master of chemicals, lord of poisons, doctor of toxic delights, the-"

"Alright you answered the first question, where's Mason and Polaris?" Belmont interrupted.

"Those pitiful tools? Don't worry; I only hit them with a small dose of my special cocktail. They'll live to provide me with some useful data later. The same as you, after all I never experimented on someone of your... stature before."

"Really? Do you have any idea who you're threatening?" The Dalmatian tech-head asked coldly.

Their foe chuckled. "Threaten? I never threaten, I EXPERIMENT!" He laughed manically and fired his pistols into the room, catching all four of them in a mist of obsidian slime. The Epsilon team merely looked down, regarding the toxic sludge on their hazmat suits with the same annoyance of someone inconvenienced by a ketchup stain on a white shirt.

"Yes, bask in the fear of knowing your death is... nigh? Ummm, shouldn't you be panicking or something?"

Annabel looked back up and regarded Biohazard like a particularly disgusting bug. "Can you vacuum this stuff up?" She asked Jack without taking her eyes off the blathering rodent.

"I should, only my chemical detector went off. Bio's still silent."

"Good." The shorthaired female replied as Alex fired off his spell. Biohazard's eyes went wide as he tried in vain to dodge the beam of azure light that flew out of the wizard's staff. The force of the impact knocked him out of the room and out in to the hallway. The back of his costume burnt off, he groaned and struggled to push himself up from off the floor. Alex walked out after him and placed a boot on the rat's shoulder blades. Even with his body completely covered by a HAZMAT suit, the others could see the feline was panting heavily. Jack was right behind him, Belmont taking only long enough to grab a particularly large wrench out of her tool box before following after the other canine.

The husky's suit covered him in a black, rubber-like fabric from head to toe, his respirator the only real contrast to the shiny elastic fabric. The mask was unusually bulky compared to most of the models Sarah had seen, the gunmetal gray housing looking like it did more then hold up a pair of mask filters. As Jack inhaled deeply, she saw why. The vacuum motor inside the mask came to life and began filtering Biohazard's spray out of the air. Motioning for Sarah to come over, he began to unfurl a coiled tube tucked away in his mask while the team's new medic examined their prisoner.

Looking at the prone male's exposed back; the vixen voiced her thoughts. "Hmmm, burns appear to be mostly superficial, it hardly looks like we scratched... him." She explained, her voice trailing off as she pulled her hand away from an ichor that began seeping through the rodent's thin pelt.

"Oh geeze, his body must be producing this crap naturally." Annabel groaned as they watched the sludge ooze and blacken before slowly spilling out of Biohazard's torn suit.

Sarah, Annabel, and Alex immediately stepped back, leaving only Jack standing over the defeated supervillain as he stuck the rubber hose in the spreading puddle. Almost immediately his abdomen began to grow distended before turning increasingly swollen...

"Sarah, let's go see if Mason and Polaris are alright. One of them has to have a radio on them; I'll use it to call the DSA field office in Redmond..." Annabel ordered, her tone carrying other unspoken concerns.

Back out in the cave where they last saw Mason and Polaris, both supers were lying prone and motionless. The vixen checked for pulses while the bumblebee-colored techie rummaged through Mason's utility belt looking for his communicator. When she found the handheld short wave radio, Sarah could see the canine's gloved hands shake ever so slightly.

"This is Chimney Sweeper One to Chimney Sweep Central. Come in Central, we have a Class G emergency on site."

"Message received Sweeper One, this is Central." A firm but reassuring voice crackled through the device's loudspeaker. "Relief team is being assembled, what's going on?"

"We encountered a mutant metabeing with chemical generation powers. Calls himself Biohazard, his body produces some sort of liquid toxin." She replied, looking at Sarah who gave Belmont a reassuring thumbs up, Polaris and Mason still had a chance to survive this. The canine focused back on the communicator and continued to give information. "He somehow managed to ambush Special Agents Polaris and Mason while the rest of us were inside exploring the facility. He then attempted to ambush us while we were searching a chemistry laboratory that intelligence somehow missed. Whatever his toxin is, it isn't acidic enough to penetrate our NBC suits or nasty enough that Jack can't clean it up."

"Understood, a medical team has been dispatched for Mason and Polaris. What is the status of the mutant perp?"

"Injured and disabled by Alex Grove, currently having his toxin reservoirs siphoned by Jack Smith. How long before we get help?"

"An Avenger VTOL has been sent from the Redmond base, ETA eight minutes. Medical team will have to start care on site, is there an infirmary or something they can use?"

"Map says there is, I'll get it ready. I'm leaving new Epsilon associate Sarah Driden with the injured."

"Understood, see you in eight Chimney Sweeper One." The controller signed off.

Signing off, Annabel exhaled deeply. Shaking her head, she turned to head back into the abandoned bunker complex. "Restore an abandoned medical facility to working order in eight minutes, well I've done crazier things."

"Are all our days like this?"

"Oh no, some days get REALLY exciting." The canine laughed as she walked back in and got back to work. Sarah shook her head and went back to making sure Mason and Polaris remained stable. Definitely not how she pictured her first day on the job turning out....