Amaranthine

Nick’s mind wanted to blink himself awake, and he tried to, before he remembered his new body wasn’t capable of that. The interior of Honey, with the notable addition of a DIY sunroof, swam into focus in his senses before those senses were smothered by an enormous mass of green hoodie and titty.

“Welcome back baby!” Gwyn said, and he could feel her face nuzzling into the crown of his hat. “Please don’t kill me, that’d be super disappointing.”

Not really caring about the optics, Nick whipped out all of his tentacles…. 15? That was new, and wrapped her up in as tight of a hug as he felt was safe. She squeaked, and he realized he’d overdone it.

SORRY! ITS ME…

I… I DON’T REALLY KNOW HOW I GOT HERE

“Maybe for the best,” Cait’s voice said from behind him and he felt her big hand rest on the top of his hat, giving it a friendly wiggle. “Last few waking moments for you were pretty rough, and I’m totally cool if my bestie doesn’t remember me beating his ass.”

Qi scoffed.

“Cait, you ‘beat his ass’ like the PJ Masks fighting a grown ass man,” she said, waving in Breastman’s direction. “B-Money was a Godzilla problem, and you were at best a power ranger.”

“Right, well, you just referenced PJ Masks in casual conversation as an adult, so your statement is suspect,” Cait shot back, but despite her tone, her scent, more nervous than Nick had ever gotten from the Amazon, told him Qi wasn’t exactly wrong.

I WENT BERSERK AGAIN HUH?

“Bit of an understatement, but yeah,” Gwyn admitted, hugging him tighter. He wiggled himself around so he was ‘facing’ the cabin instead of her boobs, much as it pained him to do so. “Willow says its God’s fault though, so probably we should just be grateful it wasn’t an apocalypse scenario.”

….

WHAT

“I did not say that!” protested an unfamiliar woman who Nick probably could have pegged as ‘Willow’ even without being told someone with that name was present. Her scent was strange, like ancient undergrowth and fresh petrichor, giving the sense of primordial forest covering untouched ruins. In his Altered sense, she was an odd mix of everyone around her, different than Kennedy, but in a way Nick wasn’t verbally equipped to quantify.

“I said… well, whatever is inside him is God-like…” she continued, losing steam with each word. “Okay, maybe I did kind of say that. But it isn’t exactly accurate.”

HUH

I DO MAKE GWYN SAY OH MY GOD A LOT

DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS LITERAL

He slapped the hand Cait had raised without even looking, knowing the Amazon would have been ready for that one. Neither of them were ready for the force of the casual high five though, which sent Cait flying through the cabin, denting the hardened steel back doors of the APC.

WOAH!

SHIT, IM SORRY!

Nick lifted his friend back up, placing her back on her feet. She was, obviously, fine, if surprised. She also seemed much lighter.

DID YOU LOSE WEIGHT?

“Buddy, I think either your wires are crossed from carbonite or you somehow got swelled to hell during your rampage,” Cait said, examining the back door. It was jammed. She chuckled, turning back to face him. “Bullrush doesn’t hit half that hard even when he’s trying.”

“You do seem bigger…..” Gwyn said, tracing her fingers around the base of a tentacle, lip caught between her teeth in a look Nick had begun to know well.

NO FAT SHAMING

I DO HAVE TWO NEW TENTACLES THOUGH

He waited patiently as everyone did a customary count, all either nodding in satisfaction or frowning in confusion.

“Well, Gwyn will be happy about that, I’m sure,” Cait said, once it was clear no-one really knew what to say in regards to his new appendages. She was right anyway. “Big question, buddy, is if you’re feeling any rampage-adjacent emotions right now?”

Before answering, Nick took a moment to examine himself. He’d been awake for like, 3 minutes, and hadn’t had much time for self-reflection. He felt normal. Level-headed, a little anxious like he always was, but certainly not at risk of ripping Honey and its occupants apart. Only….

I CAN FEEL ‘IT’ NOW

FAINT

BUT THERES SOMETHING ELSE IN HERE WITH ME

“Couldn’t you always?” Cait asked. “You were always worried about instincts and stuff, that’s why Kennedy had to ride shotgun when you tested how well Gwyn worked as a mitten.”

DIFFERENT

I THINK THAT’S THE BODY

THIS IS THE MIND THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE BODY

“Not mind!” Willow corrected, “Soul. Or something more, honestly. Also, hello Breastman. I’m Willow, an Animancy expert. Director Swan brought me in to help sort out Kennedy’s situation and take a look at your own.”

HI!

SO

HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN OUT

The sheepish looks his friends exchanged let him know it wasn’t good news even before a figure was dropped.

“I’ve been celibate for a month!” complained Gwyn, squeezing him even tighter. “If I had even an ounce less self control, I’d kick everyone out of the cab and fix that right now.”

“But Gwyn,” Cait said, grin telling Nick what came next was going to be stupid, “B-Man has been in stasis for a year!”

Gwyn scowled at her, only an instant before a cloud of ‘bots swept Cait up and tossed her out the hole in the roof.

SO, A MONTH?

“A month, babe. Nobody at AEGIS could do anything, and well…. You’ll have to watch the footage. We couldn’t take the risk you weren’t yourself, especially not in the city. I don’t think even Dawn the Divine could have handled you,” Gwyn explained, an apology she didn’t need to give written on her face.

NO, THAT’S GOOD

I GET THE FEELING I HURT A LOT OF PEOPLE

WOULD BE WORSE IF ID HURT MORE

“I got a few good hits in,” Cait said, patting him on the bill after she casually hopped back into the APC, “If Kennedy keeps roiding me up maybe I can be the Ultraman to your Kaiju next time you lose it!”

THERE WONT BE A NEXT TIME

ROIDING YOU UP?

“Yeah, guess you didn’t see that. She’s managed to give me Qi’s powers a couple times.”

I DIDN’T THINK THAT WAS HOW IT WORKED

“Neither did we! The world is full of wonders. Do you remember anything from being in stasis?”

NO

DIDN’T EVEN DREAM, I DON’T THINK

“Probably for the best, given what might have taken over while you were dreaming,” Willow said. “I’ve reinforced the wall you’ve built within yourself, but…. It honestly doesn’t seem like such a thing should even work. You are yet one more mystery making a mockery of my entire field of study.”

UH

SORRRY?

Willow sniffed, “Well, an apology is more than I got out of your friends, so it will have to suffice.”

The bright, mischievous smile that graced her face after she’d finished speaking was one Nick was more used to seeing on Lira, so he imagined the new girl was fitting in with the group quite nicely.

The next thing he noticed was probably a testament to how disoriented he was. When he’d opened his Altered sense, to reassert his bearings on the group, he hadn’t registered the ocean of lights behind them. To be honest, it had been so solid it had just seemed like background, like someone had turned the gain up way to far on a display. Looking at Willow, though, he realized those lights were moving.

FUCK!

INCOMING!

The first light resolved into the familiar shape of a Coonbeast as the APC shook from an impact on its rear doors, partially fixing the dent Cait had left. Oddly enough, he seemed to be the only one surprised.

“Fuck!” Gwyn yelled, smacking a theatrically large red button on the dash and making the massive vehicle do a wheelie from the speed boost. “Knew they wouldn’t let us finish the trip in peace.”

“What do ya say, buddy,” Cait said, manic battle grin splitting her face as she extended a hand toward him. “Ready to find out if you lost a step?”

Nick wrapped her forearm, and received a super-powered yeet out of the hole in the roof.

ALLEY OOP BITCH! His digital voice called, unchanged from his time in slumber, as he whipped Cait out behind him, slamming her into the oncoming tide of monsters in a truly meteoric impact. Any flesh and blood beasts were rendered into their constituent atoms and…

Fuck, did I just pulp an Ironhide with Cait?

The monsters destroyed body was clearly visible as Cait propelled herself into the air, launching herself back down to wreak more havoc on the creature-tide while the APC roared off along the Interstate.

Nick threw himself into the assault as well, keeping some portion of his focus on Cait to make sure she didn’t get bogged down, but mostly just slaying.

A normal Coonbeast had, honestly, never really been a threat to his new body. But now they might as well have been made of tissue paper. He was pretty sure he killed one with a shockwave, anime style, no direct hit required. The real difference though, was the Ironhides.

They still hurt to hit with an uncoated tentacle, but even with those, their immensely durable flesh would crack and buckle with the force of the blow. When he managed to get a good spear in with a nanocoated arm though… well, it was wet and wild. In 10 seconds he’d killed 4 of the beasts that had been a team effort previously.

Okay, so, not a fluke, definitely stronger. Way stronger.

Cait noticed too, and she burst out of a knot of monsters towards him.

“Think I might be more useful as a club!” she yelled, and he obliged.

If it had been fun to play whack-a-bitch with the first Ironhide they’d tried this on, it was fuckin’ ectasy to do it when the blows actually worked. While the normal Coonbeasts basically exploded when Cait hit them, the Ironhides flew, broken and bloody, into the distance. Nick could hear Cait laughing manically all the while he wielded her, occasionally throwing an extra punch when her trajectory allowed.

All too quickly, the tide of monsters broke, roaring and screeching as they pulled back. Nick latched onto Cait as she boomsprinted back to Honey, dropping into the roof.

“Okay, Gwyn, we gotta make this skylight standard issue, it is way too convenient for hero work,” Cait said. “Also, your boyfriend is more swole than ever, make sure he goes easy on the ol’ hairy clam.”

The look on Gwyn’s face suggested she would do anything but.