Just an amusing short that popped into my head while doing the Omega recruitment missions, and I noticed that Shepard's melee attack seems to have... improved, somewhat, since ME 1.

So this is basically pointless. But it amused me, and took about ten minutes to write, so enjoy. :p

Disclaimer: Mass Effect, etc, at owned by Bioware and Demiurge. This is a work of fanfiction written without any intention of profit or other gains.

Shepard ducked back into cover, reloading her Mantis with a quick action before popping back up to draw a bead on her next target. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sight that greeted her.

"Shit." She had time to mutter, before the charging krogan hit her in the chest with his shoulder, sending her flying back into a pillar. Her head snapped back, cracking against the pillar and dazing her for a moment. By the time she'd shaken it off, the krogan was too close to launch an incineration mine at or bring her Mantis to bear. In desperation, she ducked under its sweeping gun butt, then rose in an uppercut, smashing her fist into the shark-lizard's chin. To her surprise, it dropped like a stone, falling backwards. Blinking, Shepard picked up her rifle and went back to work, drawing a bead on one of the vorcha taking cover behind a bench.

"Hey, Miranda." She keyed her comm link.

"Not in the middle of a fight!" Miranda commed back, ducking out of cover to lay down suppressive fire from her SMG.

"Relax, I'm an Infiltrator. Nonchalant is what I do." Shepard replied, sighting up then pulling the trigger. "So, if Lazarus was meant to bring me back one hundred percent Shepard, as I was when I defeated," -boom/ch-click- "Saren... how come I just cold-cocked a Krogan?"

"You're complaining?" Zaeed cut in, sounding amused. "I coulda done with that kind of punch back when I was taking on Blood Pack vets when I first started out."

"Well, not exactly complaining," Shepard chuckled as she dropped a Varren. "Guess it'll come in pretty useful, but..."

"You two are insane." Miranda muttered, leaping back over a fuel tank before flipping away as it took a rocket, putting all that genetic perfection to use. "How can you hope to concentrate..." she paused as she gathered her power and hurled a warp, "on fighting if you keep bantering?"

Shepard glanced over to where Zaeed was laying out a Krogan with point-blank assault rifle fire. The old merc's eyes met hers in amusement, before he dropped to avoid a rocket.

"We'll manage." Shepard replied, chuckling as she keyed her omni-tool to launch an incendiary mine. "So, about this Doctor..."

"Later, damn it!" Miranda yelled back, hurling a varren away with what sounded dangerously like desperation. The perfect woman may have been an experienced Cerberus commander, but she certainly seemed to lack front-line combat experience. Shepard took pity on her and dropped the landshark with a shot to the soft part of its skull, behind the ear vent.