Amaranthine

They did have a go, and then the group had to move to a new patch of grass. Otherwise they'd have had to skip around the batch of Cait-shaped craters the warm-up left once things really got started. Kennedy glared at her girlfriend as she hopped out of the most recent of these, smiling broadly and jogging over to rejoin the team.

“It’s actually less satisfying than you’d think,” Kennedy said to no-one in particular, just making sure Cait could hear it, “When she pops back up after your hardest hit like it was a pleasant summer breeze.”

“Gotta hit the gym!” Cait admonished, scooping her up and spinning her around while she yelped. Cait still got the adrenaline rush hard coded into humans from being attacked by monsters from fell and fantasy, but to her it was beginning to just feel like a drug, absent the pants-shitting fear response that was supposed to accompany it. Kennedy’s sharp tail plinked pitifully off of her skin as she tried to extricate herself.

“So,” Gwyn started, already finding herself inured to Cait’s constant and audacious displays of affection, and thus ignoring the pair, “I’m thinking we really focus on getting Kennedy and Qi in sync.”

She started summoning nano-avatars of the group, shifting them around to demonstrate combat scenarios.

“I think Cait’s right. In all likelihood, with how many powers he has at his disposal, Bookkeeper probably has something to take her out of the fight, at least for a little while.”

A representation of Hotglue sprayed down Cait, then flipped off the rest of the group and sprinted away.

“So, even odds Qi and Kennedy have to do a lot of the final fight alone. That’s not great, since you two don’t even like each other and have spent the least time practicing together.”

The avatars of the women began an escalating catfight, before Gwyn blushed as they started to make out.

“Uh, sorry, wrong sim.”

The avatars returned to normal while Qi and Kennedy exchanged a complicated glance.

‘Don’t like each other’ my ass, Cait thought. Might not be friends yet, but definitely already more than friends.

“Anyway, I propose we all come at them hard as we can. If Kennedy stays linked up to Cait and Qi, she should be tough enough to take it, and Qi is damn near as tough as our fearless leader.”

The avatars all converged on the two women, who now stood back to back, scales shining and fire blazing.

“Am I still the leader?” Cait asked. “Names not on the team anymore.”

“Yes,” Gwyn stated, electing not to elaborate further. “As we attack, I’ll use my bots to simulate a variety of abilities, to try and keep you on your toes. Don’t worry about hurting me, if you can, I deserved it.”

I WOULD LIKE TO NOT BE HURT

“Oh quiet, I’ll kiss any boo-boos better later you big purple baby,” she did sigh however, and relent a little. “Try not to fry my boyfriend’s center mass. Tentacles are fair game though!”

WHY DO YOU GET TO SAY THAT

“Because I’m where you store them when you sleep. Lets get to it!”

It was decided they’d give the girls a few minutes to talk tactics, then hit ‘em hard.

“Remember,” Cait said, grinning at the women as she jogged backwards towards the treeline, “could always just use the time to makeout, if that sim gave you ideas.”

Qi’s tail whipped a rock at her head so fast it broke the sound barrier, sending her flipping head over heels the rest of the way into the woods.

Smile unbroken, she hopped up, calling back ‘You’ll pay for that!’ loud enough she was sure they could hear it before dashing off to come at them from a new direction.

As Cait faded into the woods, Kennedy wished she still had B-man’s Altered sense. It’d be against the entire point of the exercise, which was to fight with only Cait and Qi’s powers at her disposal, but still. It was eerie standing there in the field knowing 3 of the 5 baddest asses she knew were in the woods waiting to jump her and her… friend.

At the thought of Qi, she noticed their tails had once again entwined.

Mind of its fucking own, she thought, starting to pull away before thinking better of it. Fuck it, different kind of team-building.

There hadn’t been much to discuss tactics-wise. The women were immune to one anothers fire, and their relative sizes and strengths painted clear pictures of their roles. Kennedy had pointed out though, that since she was still linked to Cait she was a lot tougher than she looked. Her sinuous draconic form was dimunitive compared to the hulking beast Qi became when she got going, but Kennedy might actually be able to take more hits when bolstered by the bulletproof bimbo that now lurked in the woods.

There was a sound like a breeze made of angry bees, as figures coalesced out of the evening twilight along the treeline, charging, flying and crawling towards them.

“Fuuuuuuck,” Kennedy groaned, forming up under Qi’s guard. “Shoulda known Gwyn wouldn’t play fair.”

“Bookkeeper won’t either,” Qi said, a fierce excitement audible in her draconic growl. “Glad though, woulda been hard not to be worried about hurting her or B—”

With a titanic twang, a whirling, purple ball of death shot out from between two trees, the slingshot momentum quickly carrying it past the approaching horde.

“Shit!” Kennedy yelled, ducking under a reaping tentacle. Qi wasn’t quite so quick, or was just too big of a target. She roared as the impact slammed against her scales, leaving a visible crack on her forearm.

That said, the move might have killed a paper Freeflow, but B-man had overestimated its effectiveness against a raging dragon. The same forearm it had struck snaked around, talons digging into its flesh as Qi swung him like a lariat, right at Kennedy.

This wasn’t the betrayal it looked like. One of the few kill moves the two had practiced was using Kennedy’s tough-but-nimble form as a shredder while Qi got an enemy in harms way. Her tail was already whipping around as Qi swung Breastman towards her.

She heard a hiss from him, then another before she whiffed with her strike and found herself slapped with a disembodied tentacle.

“Ah! Gross!” Qi yelled, dropping it. “Why is it only gross after he cuts it off?”

She didn’t get an answer as the rest of the horde arrived.

The protocol here was clear. Without so much as a look between them, the two dragon women turned their faces to the earth and belched as much fire as they could muster.

As had been proven so often recently, enhanced durability was not that common among Altereds. As such, while many Guardians could have dealt with the inferno they produced, most of the foot soldiers found themselves ash before they could lay a nano-finger on either of them.

Most was the key word however, as one dashed straight through the wall of fire, surrounded by a buzzing shield. Kennedy immediately shot out the spiked tip of her tail, spearing directly towards the simulated combatants blank face. The instant it reached the buzzing shield, she hissed in pain, wrenching it back.

It felt like she’d dipped her tail in fire, except with Qi and Cait’s stacked immunities, that wouldn’t have done jack shit. Kennedy squinted at the figure as it continued its approach.

“Its that ice bitch from the attack,” Qi rumbled, holding an arm in front of Kennedy and pushing her back. “Look like Gwyn’s taking a page from Ol’ Papercut Dick’s book. Still, just ice all the same.”

While their area attack inferno was as much as Kennedy could do with her flames, she was, as ever, a pale imitation of the original. A high pitched whine, ever increasing in volume, sounded as Qi breathed in, coruscating white light beginning to shine from beneath the scales of her throat.

With a crack like lighting that was far too close, the stored power burst from her mouth in a thin white beam that seamed to burn the very air around it. The shield around Frostie technically held, but not for an amount of time that could be measured without getting down into picoseconds. It burst through her simulated form, the shockwave blowing away the firestorm the pair had just laid down, which looked pitiful in comparison to the thermal lance of Qi’s concentrated might.

She raked the remnants of the beam across the second wave of approaching combatants, all but evaporating the front line. All save one beautiful figure, tanned skin marked with glowing gold.

Cait’s grin was savage as she surged forward, her fist connecting squarely on Qi’s jaw as the dragon sagged from her exhausting attack. Normally, Qi was on the short list of people who actually could take more than one of Cait’s punches. That, however, was when her guard was up. She wasn’t out, Kennedy would have felt it if she was, but she was down, slumping like a defeated prizefighter. Cait turned to Kennedy, grin looking less dazzling, more terrifying.

“Sorry baby, gonna be a little rougher than you like it,” she said. She didn’t sound sorry at all.

Hmm. Little wet, but I’ll unpack that once I put this bitch in her place, Kennedy thought. Motion around Cait’s arm caught her eye, and she let herself smirk. Gotta get more tricks B-Man.

Kennedy’s staff wasn’t a spear, but when you had Qi’s strength behind the throw, almost anything became penetrating. With the grace of an Olympian, Kennedy’s throw flew true, spearing through B-Man’s side as he flung himself forward. Kennedy didn’t like the screaming hiss he made, but he’d make it.

That didn’t solve the Cait problem. The girl had moved the instant Kennedy had thrown, catching her out of stance and unable to leverage her superior skill.

The punch hit her in the side, and sent her flying. Even with the added toughness, she wheezed, eyes watering as her mind flashed back to every time she’d had the breath knocked out of her during training.

Jeepus fucking creepus that hurts, she thought. But you didn’t train with the Black Swan for years without developing a sort of codependently loving relationship with pain. If you were still feeling it, you weren’t out of the fight yet.

She shot out her tail, digging it into the ground and dragging herself to a stop. As she gained her bearings, she saw Cait barreling towards her once more, a corona of gold shining off of her tech, looking for all the world like an avenging angel bearing down on a black horned demon.

Kennedy fell flat, letting Cait shoot straight over her and hearing the girl curse. Kennedy grinned now, flipping over and whipping up her tail to grab Cait’s ankle. Her talons dug into the soil as she anchored herself, leveraging the blonde’s momentum down to slam her face first into the earth.

She felt self-satisfied for an instant before Cait just started to stand back up.

Right. Totally invincible. Annoying when shes your girlfriend, absolutely fucking aggravating when you’re fighting her.

Cait had just enough time to flash her that manic, unscathed, grin before a titanic impact buried her back in the ground. Qi’s massive talon stayed planted firmly into the dirt, presumably on top of a newly made deposit of bimbo.

Qi was the kind of Altered that, like Breastman, unless you made absolutely sure they were down for the count, tended to just come back stronger. Very literally in her case, as the more battlerage she felt the more draconic she got, and that was bad news for anyone not on her side.

They actually hadn’t been able to find the upper limit to her size and strength in controlled testing, not because it was absolutely titantic, but no experiment had ever been able to get her as hyped up as they’d seen her in actual combat.

Even now, the raging beast that turned a many-toothed smirk on Kennedy wasn’t as big as she got. That said, she was big enough that Kennedy knew Cait still had at least a couple tons of Draconic on her back.

“Guess this is my pivot foot now,” Qi growled, the good humor in her voice sounding odd in the resonant timbre it had gained. “Good thing I played basketball in school. I’ll keep her dow—HEAD DOWN!”

A vibrating spear of nanobots flew over Kennedy’s head as she ducked. It ricocheted hard off of Qi’s thick armor as she angled it to deflect, unwilling to move off of Cait to dodge. Kennedy spun to see Gwyn approaching, her cloud of nanobots coalescing into the sleek mech she’d used during the attack on campus.

Well, fuck, Kennedy thought, unsure what to do against that. She only stayed still for an instant though, since the answer almost certainly wasn’t ‘stare like an idiot’.

She dashed forward, striking a claw at one of the metal legs. Surprising herself, she tore a chunk out of it. Unfortunately, the chunk was almost instantly replaced by more ‘bots.

“Qi! Got another plasma blast in you?” she yelled, knowing it was a lot to hope for.

“Not yet,” Qi growled back. “Those bots are small enough to burn though, start melting!”

Kennedy nodded, and began using the incressed agility of her Draconic form to dash around the legs of the mech, striking where she could and following up with blasts of fire.

She felt like it would have been pretty effective against an ARMOR mech. Despite the acrobatics the most skilled pilots could pull off, the vast majority couldn’t have kept up with her. Gwyn’s though, danced like a ballerina. A familiar ballerina.

“Mom should have copyrighted her fighting style,” Kennedy hissed, barely spinning away from a slender, buzzing blade.

“Wouldn’t have mattered,” Gwyn’s voice blasted from speakers loud enough to almost count as weapons themselves. “I’m a proud sailor of the seven seas when it comes to IP.”

Kennedy held back a laugh, but let herself grin.

Fuck it, not like there’s any style on earth I’m more familiar with.

Her mother would have known that, and changed things just enough that Kennedy’s knowledge worked against her. Gwyn, however, was counting on programmed moves, unlikely to be able to properly adapt. As such, Kennedy read one of her mom’s classic feints, and positioned herself exactly where it looked like the blow would land.

As the blade fell, it did draw a line of hot blood across her ribs, but that was all. Kennedy kicked off of the falling arm, scrambling up the mech to dive both of her talons into the sleek metal of its chest. Ripping like a madwoman, she also unleashed a torrent of flame, quickly burning through to an overawed Gwyn.

“I yield!” she yelled, the mech falling away as she raised her hands. “No idea how my dermal nanites will do against dragonfire, no desire fo find out.”

She considered that for a moment.

“Right now at least. Probably would be good information to have overall.”

Kennedy smirked at the pondering nerd, but only got to feel smug for a moment before a surprisngly girlish yelp from Qi’s draconic lungs drew her attention back to the Dragon.

Her hulking form was lopsided, one leg sinking into what looked to be a rapidly deepening hole. The ground shook with rhythymic booms, and while Qi stopped sinking, they didn’t stop coming. The ground shook beneath her feet, and Kennedy cursed.

She jumped as Cait burst out of the ground at her feet. Impossibly, the blondes confusion on seeing her right there implied she’d just gotten lucky. That confusion was quickly replaced by the familiar savage grin though, as her fist drew back once more.

Kennedy sighed. This was not how she liked Cait to exhaust her.