Amaranthine

It became clear pretty quickly why “Frank”, or whoever the flooromancy guy was, wasn’t a Guardian himself. If Cait stayed in one place, sure, the floor could grab her kinda quick, but however the specifics worked, his powers didn’t turn Kennedy into Magneto. Still, knowing Kennedy had access to them meant Cait actually now had to worry about getting hit for once, and by the very walls of their little cage match. Not to mention unless she hit Kennedy dead center or off guard, Counterweight’s abilities would have her on her ass and in an Onyxiron tomb in no time flat.

This meant Cait had to adopt a mobile, always moving fighting style far removed from her natural brawler tendencies. She took inspiration from Freeflow for that, both the very short time she’d trained with the fallen legend and the countless hours she’d spent watching his exploits as a civilian. Using her nanoboosts and durability, she kicked, pushed, or simply bounced off of floor, ceiling and walls more quickly than the treacherous architecture could grab her.

Even using evasive tactics, she still had to keep her movements erratic. Kennedy was a hell of a lot smarter fighter than she liked to let on, and had excellent kinetic vision to boot. Cait didn’t trust for a second that she wouldn’t be able to set a trap on Cait’s landing point if she didn’t keep moving too randomly for her to predict.

Time was, Cait wouldn’t have even known what ‘kinetic vision’ meant. She’d never been much for team sports, and her AEGIS training had been laughable before things just got too hot to allow someone as powerful as her the luxury of preparation. This recent lull in the action had been opportunity to remedy that.

After prodigious effort, Lira had finally accepted that Cait just wasn’t going to respond to traditional workouts. The fact that she couldn’t get her to puke from HIIT definitely grated on her girlfriend, but Lira, sometimes, could be practical. Instead, she’d refocused her efforts on Kennedy, Gwyn, and sometimes Qi. The Dragon had found herself the most in-demand Guardian in the city after her role in the Elevated Race attack and Bookkeeper assault, and had become something of the public face of AEGIS in the recent weeks. Gwyn, on the other hand, needed to get up to the bare minimum level of physical fitness required of combat Guardians, and those down with the Thiccness worldwide wept for the loss.

Cait had largely been handed off, working with Counterweight on agility, and Bullrush for close combat. As ever, the Minotaur contained multitudes, showing an absolute mastery not only of the brawler tank technique his build suggested, but an excellent grasp of small engagement tactics and a wide array of fighting styles as well. Cait had been excited to learn some real UFC shit, but while she’d gotten pointers here and there, what Bullrush had really focused on was situational awareness.

Speaking of, the wall Cait was about to hit shimmered, just barely. She cursed, throwing an explosive uppercut to pull her up and towards the corner. As the entire wall fell towards her she cursed again, with a little more heat on it. Her punch had given her just enough latitude though, and she spun midair, kicking before her feet even met the falling metal. Kennedy’s eyes went wide in surprise as Cait shot towards her position in the center of the room.

Cait had aimed high, expecting Kennedy to try to jump out of the way. She did exactly as expected, but Cait caught her own surprise when the goth kept rising, well past what her vertical should be even with a little enhanced strength from Cait.

Fuck! Cait recognized the barely constrained fury that flowed through whenever Kennedy’s mind brushed Warhawk’s. Injury and recuperation had done nothing to dim that within her, but the experience combined with the loss of most of her team had brought a fathomless sadness forward she’d usually kept at the back.

Wish Kennedy would have the decency to at least grow wings like with Rose.

She felt the floor beginning to creak under her foot as she stilled from the momentary distraction, and pushed off , shooting forward to bounce off the far wall. On this rebound, she directed herself up, well above Kennedy, aiming for the ceiling. Cait could feel those golden eyes coolly tracking her, and tried not to feel too certain about this maneuver working.

The Amazon hit the ceiling, letting her legs bunch to shoot down back towards her, concerningly grinning, girlfriend/rival. She pushed off, nanotech booming, but it felt wrong. It was like she was pushing off for longer than she should have. Realization dawned as she noticed the ceiling wasn’t anywhere near as far away as it should be.

She swung wildly as she passed Kennedy, her trajectory thrown well off by the ceiling falling as she’d tried to push off of it.

“Raaaaagh!” she roared, then she hit the floor, instantly entombed by the slab of Onyxiron following her down. Her chest tightened through the rage as the completeness of her encasement seeped into her mind, but before she had the time to start freaking out, the metal flowed, pushing her up and out, into Kennedy’s boot, positioned perfectly to rest on her chest when she stopped moving. Those golden eyes were a lot more sinister looking down at you from a position of complete dominance.

No less sexy though, kinda get why Qi’s a switch for her.

Then her determined expression broke into a grin, and she reached down a hand to help Cait up.

“Remember,” Cait said, grabbing her hand, “I’m 800lbs of T ‘n A, lift with your legs!”

Kennedy rolled her eyes, then yelped when Cait pulled her down on top of her. She fell against her chest, she giggled, and the few strands of hair loose from her messy bun fell around Cait’s face as she leaned down to kiss her.

Lira coughed, which they ignored, coughed louder, which was also ignored, then said “Hey, so, this is a good time to tell you guys I’m streaming these matches to the gym TVs.”

Kennedy leapt up like she’d been shocked, and a muffled chorus of groans soaked through the walls of the room. For her part, Cait grinned up at the mortified goth, propping herself up on her elbows. “Hear that babe? You’ve got fans!”

“Oh my god,” Kennedy scoffed, walking back into her corner and pulling her extendable quarterstaff out of some pocket or another. When she reached the wall, she turned back to Cait, face set once more with just the hint of a smirk. “Square the fuck up. Beat me once, and maybe I’ll let you help me set up an OnlyFans.”

Like hell you will, but a girl can dream. Maybe Lira and I could do some good for morale though, not like we need the money.

Cait hopped up, doing a performative series of stretches and joint pops, before falling into a fighting stance. She shot a sly look to Lira, feeling the smile her body reserved for fighting and fucking spread across her face.

“Alright, cockblocker. Count us down.”

Cait did win once. Twice even! Out of 12 total matches though, that really wasn’t great. Still, given that Kennedy had displayed roughly 20 different powers during that time, Cait didn’t let herself feel too bad about it. If anything, the fights had also demonstrated Kennedy’s initial point: given the fullness of time, Cait would always win. Even with Siobhan’s healing, taking Cait’s hits took it out of a girl, and her two wins had come back to back, the next match being called off when Kennedy’s legs were noticeably wobbly.

She scowled up at Cait after the big girl pulled her into her chest, ruffling her hair and kissing the top of her head.

“It sucks that I just beat your ass for an hour and a half, but you’re fine and I feel like hell,” Kennedy complained, propping her chin between Cait’s tits to look up into her eyes, a move that always made Cait’s heart melt.

“Don’t know what to tell you, babe. Get better powers.”

“I have your powers.”

“You have my powers like a penguin has wings.”

“I don’t know if that simile passes the smell test, but it is evocative,” Kennedy admitted, gently pushing off Cait and lacing their fingers together as they left the room.

Across the gym, there were a few cheers and a good amount of applause. Notably, a lot more directed towards Kennedy, particularly from people who had watched her use their powers to wreck Cait’s entire shit. Above all of them was one loud cartoony whistle, followed by an impassioned cry of ‘Now show us your tits!’.

Cait smiled as soon as she heard it, recognizing the voice and following it to a girl who towered over most of the gym goers even without the majestic horns that arced up over her head. Kennedy kept Cait’s hand held tight, and slapped at the other when it reached to pull away the bust of her outfit.

Qi sauntered up to them, and Cait could tell the weeks of being the most in-demand Guardian in the metro, and thus essentially its poster girl, had done a hell of a lot to stroke the draconic side of her ego. She leered down at them, predatory grin indicating that side was well and truly in charge.

“Kennedy, a little offended I didn’t see any scales on you that whole fight,” she chided, and Cait winced.

Well, Kennedy was almost certainly gonna cut her down to size anyway. She watched Kennedy’s perfect eyebrow arch, and lip curl into a cruel sort of smile.

“Don’t know why, Lizard-girl. Cait could punch a new hole in you just as easily as she uses the ones you already have.”

Uh-oh.

Qi’s eyes flashed, smoke following a flash of flame out of the sides of her mouth.

The two women’s relationship was probably never going to be normal. A 3+1way polycule was already not traditional, and the weird dominance dynamic between the two didn’t make things simpler. They fought together like they’d done it for years, fucked like they were made for it, and if Kennedy wasn’t wrapped around Cait when she woke up, even odds that it was because her face nuzzled into the warm skin of Qi’s neck.

But, basically any other time, they were like this.

“Ayo!” Lira interjected, leeching away a bit of the tension. “I need to start the stream again? I know those looks, and you guys are either going to fight or fuck this out. I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re down to see either.”

Bold statement, but I don’t see anyone in the gym disagreeing.

Lira grinned beatifically into red and gold tinted glares, entirely unbothered by either. “So? I’m down to referee or make it a three-way, either-or.”

Cait watched Kennedy, blush, smirk, then raise a questioning eyebrow to Qi. For her part, the dragon scowled, but then sighed, the action causing her to visibly deflate as smoke left her lungs.

“Nah,” Qi said, “Kennedy’d win, and the public couldn’t handle option B.”

She turned a baleful gaze on Cait, and she felt a little empathy pass between them. Cait reached up to slap a hand on her shoulder in support.

“Sucks when the team brawlers get trounced by the DPS, but least you ain’t alone. Gonna be tough to feel dominant after that ass-beating,” she said, giving Qi’s shoulder a gentle shake. The dragon sighed again, but shrugged, admitting the point. Sure, in a different situation things might be different, but when Kennedy could pull from anyone in the Colosseum? Well, there was no way you could be prepared for that many variables.

The girl in question laid a hand on either of the women’s hips, the look on her face absolutely malevolent. Cait wasn’t sure if it was a power, that look, or just the massive ego boost the morning had provided her, but Kennedy’s hand felt much stronger, more possessive than usual against her skin.

“Oh?” Kennedy purred, and Cait watched her thumb stroke casually over the swell of Qi’s hip. “Not feeling dominant? Finally gonna let me treat you the way I treat this slutty little scalie?”

Cait’s grin flashed, confident, masking the way those words had made her blood pump.

“If I didn’t know she liked it,” Cait responded, tilting her head towards Qi while keeping her eyes locked onto Kennedy’s, “that would sound a lot like bullying. Kind of thing that might need to be punished.”

The atmosphere was becoming considerably heavier, and Lira’s option B was looking a little more plausible with each breath, before all of them straightened up as their comms beeped into life.

“Dawn Posse,” said Director Swan’s voice over comms, “if you are quite finished being an HR nightmare in the Colosseum, find your way to my office. I have a tasking for you.”

Off to the side, Lira groaned.

“Oh my gooooooood, I was going to enjoy watching that so much.”