Amaranthine

Cait sat in a rolling chair in the Acessibility Bay, staring at Gwyn while she fiddled with the readouts on Breastman’s display. The girl would read, tap a few buttons, run her fingers through her mousey brown hair hard enough a few strands came out, and repeat. Cait couldn’t really blame her.

Not that the readings meant anything to her, but the frozen silver splatter floating in the isolation cube was a stark enough scene to begin with. They’d been here for hours. Cait as soon as the debrief conference was over, Gwyn before even that.

What should have been a pretty smooth victory rundown, if still saddened by the numerous losses they’d taken, had been turned into an absolute clusterfuck by Breastman’s rampage. Whatever goodwill Cait’s strike team had garnered by turning an unwinnable battle of attrition into a large-scale but quickly ended skirmish was well and truly spent, and ARMORs leaders were calling for blood. Apparently, in the few minutes he’d been out of control, and titanic, her friend had incurred about as many casualties on ARMOR as the entire fight beforehand.

To her credit, at no point had Director Swan floated the idea of handing him over once she’d opened the floor to discussion. Whether that was personal pride, moral fortitude, or an unwillingness to see how many Guardians it took to bring down Amaranthine and Nanosmith working together Cait couldn’t say, but any time the conversation had looked like it’d be heading in that direction, she’d shut it down, hard.

Small mercies, Cait thought, AEGIS can’t afford to lose any more Guardians.

Her dark chuckle drew a glare from Gwyn, and as she took her eyes from the display for the first time in hours, Cait took in a sharp hiss of concern. Her pretty brown eyes were bloodshot and wild, stress, fatigue, and fear showing their effects vividly. Cait stood up, taking a step towards her before a buzzing hand of nanobots slammed her back up against the wall.

“If you were about to tell me to take a break,” Gwyn growled at Cait, who’d opened her palms in supplication. Not that she could move more than that anyway. “Then I thought I’d give you your answer in advance.”

“Fair enough,” Cait said, letting her mouth slip into a devious grin. “Any chance you could upgrade Lira’s knife tech to do this somehow? Kind of doing it for me.”

Despite herself, Gwyn cracked a smile, quickly hiding it back behind a scowl as she dismissed the hand and Cait clattered onto a workbench.

“Weirdo,” she scolded, but the heat was forced into her quavering voice.

“Yeah?” Cait said, walking up to wrap an arm around her shoulders. They were shaking. “Remind me, how many did our man get inside you. All 13?”

A real laugh this time, followed quickly by a sob. Gwyn bumped her head back into Cait’s chest, letting a little of her weight settle into her support. Cait caught herself looking down the impromptu Grand Canyon that formed under Gwyn’s shirt when she slumped against her, and immediately scolded herself.

No! Bad girl!

“No, only three. We’re taking things slow,” Gwyn said, genuine, soft, wistfulness in her voice. Thank god for that, because it clued Cait in to it not being a joke.

“Oh, uh, yeah, good!” she said, patting Gwyn’s trembling shoulder, as both of them stared at the slowly rotating form in he cube. “Gotta protect his innocence and all that.”

“…..he wanted to wait,” Gwyn whispered, before looking up at Cait, tears in her eyes. “Was this why? Did I do this? Leave just enough of a nick in his self control?”

Again, Cait had to force the laughter down. Ridiculous or not, it would’ve been inapporopriate.

“Do I think you have such a bomb-ass pussy that it made B-money go on a Kaiju level rampage?” she asked, shaking her head and earning another glare. “No, Gwyn, I don’t. From what Kennedy said, his self control was as good as ever, maybe better. Whatever is in him just reacted too strongly to Kennedy’s dad doing… whatever the fuck he did.”

“Any ideas on that?” Gwyn asked, wanting to still be cross but her scientist’s curiosity getting the best of her.

“Kind of. Bookkeeper and the World’s #1 Worst Dad were spouting some shit about souls near the end. Given how things progessed, and how B-man took a bite out of said Ghost Dad earlier….”

“Ugh, soul garbage.” Gwyn finished, adding a scoff. “So unscientific.”

“What’d you tell me when you gave me my nanotech? Ah, right, ‘Bullshit, keep up’.”

Gwyn elbowed her in the stomach, wincing as her elbow stopped cold. Eventually people were going to remember that negative physical reinforcement on Cait was a losing proposition, but she did not look forward to that day.

“Whatever, bullshit or not, my boyfriend eats souls? That’s….”

“Pretty fucked up?” Cait guessed, giving her a sympathetic look.

“Yeah, sure,” Gwyn said hurriedly, blushing bright red, “but….”

“Also kinda hot?” Cait interrupted again, dancing away from a slap aimed at her titty.

“Well…. Yeah, that is what I was gonna say,” she said, looking back at the weird silver splotch in the box with naked lust.

Man, they really broke the mold with what she's into, huh?

“Okay, I’m not actually going to touch that one, animophagic vore is on the short list of kinks I don’t have. Since you’re in the mood to talk though,” Cait gestured to the box. “What are we looking at? I haven’t asked since you definitely would have thrown me out earlier.”

“Damn straight,” Gwyn agreed, looking over the readouts once more. She sighed, and turned back to Cait. “I just don’t know. The bots have his cells locked in a holding pattern, and nothing seems to really be pushing against that. His energy levels are higher than his baseline, but nothing like that behemoth he turned into would suggest, maybe like a third higher?”

Her face darkened before she continued.

“The issue,” she growled, slapping the side of the cube in frustration, “is that I have no way to guarantee who’s in control inside of there.”

“Oh, easy, just let me go get K—” Cait started, but Gwyn shook her head.

“You think she wasn’t the first person I asked?” Gwyn scolded, which, yeah, good point. “She can’t tell. Says she can feel both of them in there. She’s gonna work with the Director, see if they can’t do some woo-y-woo ass ritual to ‘divine’ it or whatever. Swear to god, if it’s tarot cards I’ll scream.”

Cait nodded, understanding the frustration. She didn’t have Gwyn’s scientific disdain for magic, but she didn’t understand magic any better than Gwyn’s nanotec. The powerlessness, especially now, when she had so much power.... it grated.

“I think we just have to wait,” Cait said, shrugging. Gwyn’s eyes flashed, before the light seemed to leave them almost entirely. She slumped back against Cait.

“Fuck…. Yeah, fuck, you’re right. God I’m so fucking tired.”

“C’mon. Let’s get you to bed,” Cait said, starting to ferry her towards the door. Gwyn shoo’d her away, a buzzing cloud whisking her out of Cait’s grasp. It gelled into a cushy looking sleeping bag that floated near the cube, Gwyn’s face barely poking out.

“Not leaving,” she stated. “but I will sleep. I promise.”

“That is—” another angrily buzzing cloud materialized near Cait. “Gonna have to be good enough! I’ll check on you tomorrow, and swear to god, if you haven’t slept I’ll risk the nanobots to the dick.”

She left, boomsprinting the second she was out the door to avoid any possible traps the Meta-Brains had laid for her. For whatever reason, they seemed to have accepted the Bunker as a boundary, but within it was more or less no-holds-barred. It was not for nothing. A cacophony of falling metal, shooting nets, and considerably more esoteric technological wonders fell in her wake, all juuuuust too slow.

Honestly, probably a good thing to keep me on my toes.

She shot out of the building, imagining she could hear the frustrated groans of thwarted mad-scientists.

Okay, one more stop.

She stopped Boomsprinting, but kept up a human sprint toward the cottages. Even if she hadn’t remembered where Kevin was staying, the moving van would have been a big giveaway. Either Director Swan had accepted that Kevin had shown more than enough control, or she’d accepted that she’d have to kill Brittney to stop her from leaving after what she’d pulled.

Cait skidded to a halt in the driveway, a second before a tasteful flat smacked into her face.

“Get the FUCK OUT OF HERE!” Brittney screamed, rushing up to Cait, other shoe brandished like it was a sword of myth. For the second time that night, Cait raised her hands in supplication.

“Hey, I’m just here to ch—” the second shoe smacked into her cheek, hurting nothing but her feelings. Not that she didn’t understand.

“LEEEAAAAAVVVEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” Mama Peach commanded. The sound was not something that seemed like it could have come from the tiny soccer mom. It also didn’t brook any dissent. Almost by reflex, Cait spun on her heel, and left.

Once she’d reached the end of the cottages, her comm buzzed. Kevin’s conversation lit up.

K: yeesh

K: sorry about that

C: nah, she’s right. You almost ate it out there buddy.

K: but I didn’t! And it was awesome!

K: I helped kill a supervillian!

C: you’re good, though?

K: scrapes and bruises. More than mom’s happy about, but I’m fine yeah.

C: good. Listen, K-money, what we made you do was fucked up, but thank you. Please, though, go be a normal teenager for a few more years.

K: I was gonna! I mean that was awesome, but I’m sure Warhawk will tell you this so no point hiding it, so ill let you know that I shit my goddamn pants when the bone dragon showed up.

K: Still down to carry me to diamond?

C: …

C: Yeah, fuck it, you need the help.

K: cool. Im on right now since mom has me on room arrest?

C: gimme 5.

It’d actually be pretty nice to kill some bad guys that weren’t a threat to anyone she loved, for once.