This specific mutant premise does not belong to me. However, I'm not making any money off it, so it doesn't matter. The people here are mine, but the dog belongs to my neighbours. Oh, and please feedback me.

"Shut the hell up!" a neighbor yelled. The dog just barked louder.

"Do they really think that's going to do any good?" Paul mumbled from under his pillow.

"Not really, it'll take a bit more than yelling to scare that dog into silence. Dogs usually only stop when their owners say so, and they're apparently deaf." Alison glanced at the clock. Seven minutes to one. She idly wondered if justifiable homicide counted with pets. She'd check at work tomo- later that day, and if it could, the old couple next door might be looking at one dead doggy before the week was over. It hadn't shut up once in the last two days. It wasn't her cat, none of the other dogs took much notice, it just seemed to like the sound of it's own voice. Or maybe it was a sadist.

There was a momentary lull. Stupidly, she hoped that it had finally gotten bored. No such luck. The short silence was followed up by a sudden frenzy, setting off two other dogs. Both of them were called inside, and across the street a window slammed up hard.

"SHUT UP!" A few thumps indicated that Steven had decided to use the rocks he'd carried upstairs that afternoon. Alison had been a little sceptical then, but now wished she'd done the same. Something to throw would certainly have made her feel better, and she was a better shot than Steve. Truth be told, she was a better shot than almost anyone.

"Somebody please shoot it." Paul grumbled, need for oxygen finally overcoming the need for less noise and forcing him back into the open. "It's Monday, almost everyone has to work tomorrow. This is ridiculous."

"Did you try talking to them?"

"Yes, after work. They used the X-Files tactic and denied everything. 'He's really a little sweetie, he'd never do that. I certainly don't hear anything, and I'm a very light sleeper.' Light my ass."

"It's a conspiracy, everyone on the street's lying about their dog because we don't like them."

"Mm, they're onto us. Have to get up pretty early to put one past them."

"No, you just have to be kept up until early morning by their stupid dog."

"That works too."

The retriever in question enthusiastically launched into another series, with an appropriate rise in volume.

"That's it. That dog is history." Alison threw back the blankets with a lot more force than was strictly necessary.

"Kill it quickly, the last thing we want is lots of howling and whining."

"I'm not going to kill it." She marched into the ensuite and turned on the taps in the bath. Paul got up and walked in after her looking confused.

"What are you going to do?"

She told him. He laughed. They sat there for almost fifteen minutes to build up as much water in her telekinetic bubble as was possible. Then Alison, Paul and the bubble all headed for the window. They waited patiently for it to begin again.

"Now." Alison manuevered her bubble out the window and with great satisfaction dumped the entire load of freezing water over the object of her hatred. There was a few startled yelps as it ran in through the dog flap, and then blessed silence fell over the neighborhood.

* * *

Alison was just getting into her car the next morning when Steve wandered over.

"Great stunt last night Ally, I knew having a mutant around the place would be handy."

"So that was you last night, young lady?"

Alison turned around to see her neighbor on the other side smiling at her. She'd had little contact with him, he kept to himself. At least he wasn't too shocked by Steve's incredible display of diplomacy.

"Yes, I did the dirty deed and threw cold water all over it. I'm not at all sorry."

"You shouldn't be. If we can keep up the negative reinforcement, hopefully it'll be too scared to bark for the rest of it's life. Of course, if it doesn't stop that life might be quite short…" The older man trailed of meaningfully.

"I don't think I could do that every night. I'm exhausted and late this morning as you may have noticed."

"We don't expect you to. I'll do something nasty to it next time. Now you hurry off, don't let it ruin your day."

* * *

That night the brainless blonde dog started up at around nine. It managed to get four full yaps out before it was struck by a rather diminutive but well-aimed bolt of lightning.

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