Every time she put on a mask it was the same. The rush of power, a heady, hormonal whirl. It was an adrenaline high like nothing else, and she'd always been a sucker for that kind of thing. Plus, now Rat had made her mad.

Shepard stood and inhaled, took a step back and made her decision. No easy death for you, peaches. You've earned this beat-down.

Power flared around her in a blue corona, clouds of biotic fire flickering in and out of existence as the eezo in Shepard's body drew charge from her nerves and acted on the invisible Dark Matter all around them. She flung out a hand in a careless gesture, like skipping an invisible stone across a pretend lake, and the power flared out from her in a cascade-wave that skipped along much like a skipping stone. It lifted up priceless vases, antique chairs, glass cases, and flung them violently aside, an unstoppable locomotive of barely-visible force, wreathed in blue-white light.

It picked up Rat and threw him violently against the marble facade of the wall. It did it again as the followup-wake rushed past him as an undertow. It gained her time, and space, and made it easy to reach for the other Mnemonic. This time, nobody got to run away.