Amaranthine

The next morning, after nowhere close to enough hours of sleep, due to repeated and very physical apologies to Lira, with Cait tapping in as she saw fit, Kennedy woke up. She could feel Cait pulling away, trying to get out of bed, and she put every ounce of strength she had into keeping her put. Unsurprisingly, that just meant she was hanging off the big girl when she rose out of bed.

“Has she always been like this?” she heard Cait ask someone, and Lira laughed in response.

“Fuckin’ no,” Lira said, “but hard to blame her, I sleep a lot more soundly next to a big blonde indestructible teddy bear too.”

Kennedy remembered years of nightmares and lost sleep, her body trained to interpret every bump in the night as her father coming to her bedside.

The nightmares hadn’t left, but now it was even odds whether a golden goddess would smash through the wall and uppercut him into deep space, or whether Kennedy would pound him to dust herself just like she had to her Grandfather. With those endings, it was a lot easier to sleep through the night.

It also meant, for the first time in her life, Kennedy was in a position to sleep in, and had embraced that wholeheartedly. Her arms hung limply off the bed when Cait peeled them off of her waist, and she felt Salad climb on top of her ass, toebeans starting to make biscuits.

She groaned again and rolled, tossing him off of her before the cat could get too comfortable, because then she’d never get up. He yowled until Cait picked him up and gave him sufficient belly rubs before getting dressed herself.

Kennedy finally let her eyes open all the way, and saw Lira leading Cait out into the kitchen, and could smell that apparently the redhead had beaten them both up this morning. She finally rose, stretched, and pulled on some combat chic. Today would be a travel day, and those never went as planned.

She waved, hopefully pleasantly enough, at the girls’ cheerful ‘Good Mornings!’, Cait’s delivered through a mouthful of eggs, as she strode to the balcony. She threw the door open, and was immediately knocked on her ass by an enthusiastic Cruma.

For the second time that morning, Kennedy found herself the recipient of kitty biscuits, this time on her chest, and accompanied dangerously closely by talons like butcher’s knives.

“Hey! Goood morning sweet baby!” she cooed, rubbing at the big cat’s cheeks, drawing on some of Rose’s wild vitality to wake herself as her hair splayed to feathers. In return, Rose’s rumbling purr rattled the sliverware on Cait’s plate.

“That is one happy cat,” the blonde commented, fending off her own chonker as he tried to steal some sausage he’d inevitably throw up.

“She loves her momma!” Kennedy beamed, gently pushing Rose off her, more empathically than physically. Lira helped by flipping a piece of fried ham the Cruma’s way, who eagerly jumped to catch it. Kennedy dusted herself up and got off the floor, snagging a greasy kiss from Cait on her way to fill up a plate from Lira.

“You two gave me a hell of a going away present last night,” the redhead purred, a very different kind than Rose’s. “gonna make me miss you all the more.”

She tilted her head back to accept Kennedy’s lips, then giggled and piled ham ‘n eggs onto her plate. There was a weird kind of energy in the room this morning. She’d never gotten the whole ‘family vacation’, but like everyone, she’d experienced the chaos beforehand vicariously through Home Alone, and that described it pretty well, albeit with only 3 people.

“Gonna miss you too,” she said, giving Lira’s booty a little heel kick as she turned to bring her plate to the kitchen island. “but fuck if it isn’t gonna be good to get out and do some hero shit again, even if it is an escort mission for one of the top 5 people in the world least in need of escorting.”

“That’s technically a positive,” Cait said, and someone really needed to reinforce the whole ‘don’t talk with your mouth full’ lesson on her. She swallowed, and continued; “escort missions are annoying because the NPCs keep getting eaten by zombies or something. Gwyn’s more liable to cause a global catastrophe than she is to get eaten.”

Kennedy sat across from Cait, narrowing her eyes at the Amazon.

“What!?”

“Why don’t the nerds in movies ever look like you?” Kennedy asked, and Cait’s grin in return was considerably less dazzling than normal, dulled as it was by scrambled egg.

“We got our day in the 2010’s. No bigger nerd than Tony Stark.”

“Fair point,” Kennedy admitted, and dug in. She was contemplating going for seconds when her comm chimed in time with Cait’s. They locked eyes, then checked to find messages from the Director asking them to gather in the Ready Room.

Cait jumped up first, catching Lira around the waist and scooping her into a spinning, giggling kiss.

“Gotta go to work honey,” she said, and nodded her head towards Salad who was already licking her plate like it was the only food he’d ever seen. “Take care of the kid, and you better have dinner ready when I get home.”

Lira scowled, but in a way that just made her cuter.

“I know the whole irredeemable buttslut thing doesn’t match up with your view of a feminist, but keep that talk up and the only dinner you get is gonna be Uncrustables and pussy.”

“I love Uncrustables and pussy,” Cait shot back, putting Lira down and flashing Kennedy a cheerful grin. “C’mon, other honey, we gotta get this done quick! A feast awaits!”

She let go of Lira and headed for the door, but pretended to busy herself before leaving, so Kennedy could say her own goodbyes. The goth stood, stalking towards Lira. She pushed her back against the counter, leaning forward and trapping her waist with her forearms, before laying as deep a kiss as she’d ever given on Lira’s mouth.

When their lips parted, she rested her forehead on Lira’s and whispered, as she realized, with surprise, that she near to tears.

“Thank you for making a home worth coming back to.”

Lira blushed, and while her smiles were always genuine, something about this one was special. Kennedy pecked her on the forehead once more, spun, and pulled Cait out the door before the goodbye could get awkward.

Rose slammed to the ground next to them as the left the Palace, trotting along happily at their heels as they made their way to the Ready Room. They found the rest of the away team already there, Gwyn sitting on Breastman’s enclosure and chatting away with Willow and Qi.

“Mom’s not seeing us off herself?” asked Kennedy, trying to keep a note of disappointment out of her voice, and knowing she’d failed. The screens adorning one of the walls clicked on as one, with the Director’s face splashed across them.

“Ah, you’re all here. Good.” She started, and Kennedy felt a little bad for doubting her. “Not a lot to brief I haven’t told you all already, but I have a few more details. For one, I had Warhawk do a flyover before diverting south to consult on the DC unrest. She has reported that ‘Ironhide sightings’ was massively underselling things. While she was under strict orders not to get close without her wings, she said she personally saw upwards of 20, half of those in a single pack.”

Cait whistled low, and Kennedy had to admit she was impressed as well. Yeah, they’d figured out the trick to taking the things down, but she’d literally lost a leg to do it. Temporarily, but still.

“Due to this,” the Director continued, “it looks as though this mission will likely be much more dangerous than initially anticipated. I highly doubt Technocago has the capability to deal with those beasts on their own, so please, assist where you can.”

The group nodded their assent, each quietly pleased that this mission wouldn’t be the cakewalk it had seemed.

“In addition,” she added, “Warhawk reported that the situation she observed within the city itself differed considerably from the satellite imagery we had of the area. While our tech shows business as usual, Warhawk saw battle damage, and what appeared to be active fighting in the streets. This may or may not be due to the presence of these strengthened Altered Beasts, but we cannot be certain. In any case, your contact in the city, Watchdog, has not reported anything amiss.”

Kennedy started to get a weird feeling in her stomach, a mix of excitement and fear she usually only got when Cait had her on her knees. This was gonna be fun.

“He’ll be meeting you at the second checkpoint along I-80 approaching Technocago. Gwyn, you have the map data, but I guarantee you won’t miss them.”

A portrait of a man who, fedora and all, looked like he’d never called a woman anything other than ‘m’lady’ replaced the Director on the screen, drawing a surprised ‘Gah!’ out of Cait.

“This is Watchdog,” the Director’s voice continued, although Kennedy was certain she heard her stifle at chuckle at Cait’s outburst. “Despite appearances, he is quite capable, and trustworthy, in my estimation. Given the fluidity of the situation, I would advise not extending trust to any unknown quantities until you are certain it’s warranted. Now, any questions?”

Kennedy sighed, knowing she was the only one in the room humble enough to say it.

“Mom…. I mean, we kick ass, but this kinda seems like it warrants some back up,” she said, and saw everyone else in the room release a little tension as she did. Her mothers face flashed back onto the screen, wearing a sad smile.

“You’re right, honey,” she said, “but you’ve seen what Ironhides can do to Guardians who aren’t, well, you all. If you can deal with that situation, or confirm the situation in the city is unrelated, I’ll have Samsara there with help in an instant. But we don’t have enough Guardians to throw them into what we know are losing matchups.”

Kennedy nodded grimly, expecting the answer. Her mother understood tactics and strategy as well as literally anyone else. If she had a better option with which to approach the evolving situation, she’d be using it.

Qi came up behind her, and wrapped a talon almost all the way around her waist.

“Don’t you worry, Director,” the dragon growled. “We kill supervillians. A few sparkly coonbeasts stopped being something to be scared of a long time ago.”

Kennedy hoped the cocky dragon was right. And also wondered where the fuck she got off putting her claws on her in front of her mother. Even if they did feel warm, strong, and safe.

The screens winked out after a curt nod from the Director, and the team grabbed whatever they needed from the racks around the room. Kennedy pushed off of Qi, grabbed her customary shotgun and slung it behind her back, before Gwyn stopped her as she looked for her staff.

“Don’t worry about that,” the busty nerd informed her, tapping Kennedy’s forearm. “Lira’s knife made me realize I should’ve done the same thing with most of our Guardian’s melee weapons. I’ll tat you up on the way, and it’ll have some extra tricks too.”

“Hell yeah,” Kennedy said, holding up a palm for a high five. Truth be told, she’d been feeling a little left out. She shifted her attention, to where it looked like Cait and Qi were trying to wrestle a pair of anti-aircraft guns onto the dragon’s shoulders.

“Hey! Hey!” Gwyn scolded, “that’s not gonna work. Not like that, I mean, here.”

A cloud of ‘bots floated out of her pocket, flowing over the metal mounts of the guns, which were clearly for use on a vehicle. The metal shifted, and formed into a harness that fit snugly over Qi’s shoulders.

“YES! Hell yes!” Cait shouted, visibly overcome by the sight of a hot dragon lady wearing artillery like high fashion. “E-D-F! E-D-F!”

Kennedy had no idea why she was chanting that, but when Gwyn took it up as well, she had to cross it off as just one more piece of nerd shit that went over her head.