Amaranthine

The rest of the trip passed without serious incident, save for when Qi decided to see if she’d work as an impromptu mounted weapon. She strapped on her gun harness and poked herself out the hole in the roof, raining death on any beasts too brave or curious their own good.

The hits might not kill Ironhides, but shells the size of carrots still sent them flying. Cait kept popping out of the hole with her to cheer the Dragon on and flip off the pursuing horde.

CHECKPOINT AHEAD!, Breastman warned, having taken the wheel back from his ladyfriend, who still sat beneath him in the driver’s seat. Even without the warning, Cait would have known something was up, when the roar of Qi’s guns was drowned out by the thunder of artillery.

Shells ripped apart the horde, literally for the weaker beasts, more of a forced dispersal for the stronger. Cait watched the carnage in awe, making air-guitar sounds under her breath.

“Well fuck,” Qi huffed, “Way to make a girl feel inadequate.”

Klaxons blared as Honey drove through thick metal gates set into a concrete wall. Coming through the other side, they came up on a set of bollards guarded by a pair of sleek mecha.

“AEGIS, huh?” one of the mechs said through its speakers. “Been expecting you. The Dawn Posse?”

“Thaaat’s us!” Cait announced, taking in the sleek, almost organic lines of the machines. If they were even machines. Mentally categorizing the mecha she’d seen in nerd terms, ARMOR was Mechwarrior, Gwyn was Pacific Rim, and these were closest to Evangelion.

Hope its only a visual similarity, she thought, if these are all gonna be piloted by groomed teens there will be more punching than I expected when we reach the city.

The mech that had spoken nodded, and the bollards retracted into the street surface.

“Go on through,” it said, “Watchdog ‘s waiting for you at checkpoint 2, couple miles down the way.”

Cait gave a jaunty salute and popped back through the roof hole.

“You guys see those things!?” she gushed as B-man started them back on their way. “Feels like Technocago is gonna have some problems with biblically accurate angels.”

“Right?” Gwyn agreed. “Gotta be on purpose. I’ve talked to their designer, and he insists that its just the way organic metal works best ergonomically. But I’d bet anything he sleeps with a Rei body pillow.”

Almost immediately, they passed a line of howitzers, still roaring their fury into the sky as they pressed back the horde. The guns seemed to be largely conventional, but had a whole lot of blue neon on them that implied they might be more than they seemed.

Regardless, they seemed to be effective. Past the first wall, they didn’t encounter any more beasts on the road.

“Makes you grateful for Shelly,” Kennedy commented, stretching out as she woke, roused by the guns. “The ‘Shell is quiet, and a lot prettier than a fusillade of gunfire.”

“Hey!” Cait asked, kneeling down to stroke her hair. “How you feelin’ babe?”

Kennedy gave her a soft, tired smile.

“Drained, but better,” she said, leaning up into a gentle kiss from Cait.

Willow knelt next to them, apology written on her face.

“It’s cool, Willow,” Kennedy cut her off before she could speak. “I’m fine, and seeing Cait like that was hot.”

“Right?” Qi agreed, ducking her head back in from outside.

“Really?” Cait asked, “Kinda thought you’d be jealous.”

“Yeah,” Qi sighed, frustration audible in the sound, “me too, but I’m not. I’ve given up trying to predict my emotions when it comes to you. K, you okay?”

Qi pulled herself all the way back into the vehicle, reaching out to cup the side of Kennedy’s face not currently held by Cait. In general, Kennedy was relatively deadpan. As she looked up into the faces of the two concerned, beautiful women holding her gently, she gave them the kind of beaming contented smile that Cait was more used to seeing on Salad’s face when he was getting cheek rubs.

“Yeah,” Cait chuckled, “I think she’s fine.”

COMING UP ON THE NEXT CHECKPOINT LOVEBIRDS, B-Man said, drawing everyone’s attention to the windshield.

This checkpoint looked more like an old-world border crossing, chain-link fence with a gate and a little hut. The single mech that stood at attention, towering over the hut, was less stereotypical, but that was The World of the Waves. As Breastman pulled Honey up to the gate, a man stepped straight out of a meme towards them.

“That cannot be our contact,” Qi whispered.

“Be nice,” scolded Kennedy, but she wasn’t fooling anyone.

The man defied Altered convention by not being supernaturally attractive, instead being quite the opposite. A beard that looked like poorly trimmed pubes adorned a pudgy face, beady eyes shadowed under what appeared to be an unironic fedora. A Jujutsu Kaisen shirt and khaki cargo pants under a long leather duster completed the image of the ultimate neckbeard.

Cait tried to kick the door open, found it was still jammed, and had to give it another go with nano-boost to knock it free. She hopped out and approached the man, hand out and wearing the ‘dazzle ‘em’

“Howdy!” she said, as the man shook her hand, his own comfortable in fingerless gloves. “You Watchdog?”

“That I am!” Watchdog said, releasing Cait’s hand. His grip had been surprisingly firm and strong, and the confident smile he returned into Cait’s own grin caused a bit of cognitive dissonance as it turned his features temporarily handsome. “No need to introduce yourself, not a lot of people who wouldn’t recognize Amaranthine after the last few months.”

Breastman rolled down the window waving a few tentacles in greeting.

HEY

“Heyo!,” Watchdog responded, tipping his fedora. “If it isn’t my girlfriend’s favorite superhero! She’ll be jealous I got to meet you, but believe me, it’s for the best.”

“Best for her safety, maybe,” Gwyn muttered leaning forward to get a look at their escort. Watchdog just chuckled.

“Permission to come aboard?” he asked, looking between B-Man and Cait like a guest who’d been left too long out in the cold.

SPEAK FRIEND, AND ENTER

“Mellon,” Watchdog responded gravely, to approving nods from everyone but Qi and Kennedy, who locked eyes and hissed one word: “Nerds.”

Watchdog settled onto the bench seat next to Qi, under the distrustful eyes of Rose, who had made a low mrrr since he entered the vehicle. She did that with most new people though, so it wasn’t too damning.

“Is that a trained panther?” he asked, wisely not meeting the cat’s eyes. “How’d you all manage that?”

“Rose is a Cruma, and trained is a strong word,” Kennedy admitted, reaching down between her legs to scratch at Rose’s ears. The cat flinched back before licking at her fingers and repositioning to accept the affection. “She’s bonded to me though, and is pretty good as long as we keep her fed. She’s also my special baby, yes she is! Isn’t she!?”

Kennedy got carried away rubbing at Rose’s cheeks as the cat’s shifted to making its low, pulsing purr, enthusiastically bumping Kennedy’s palms. That only continued for a moment or two before Kennedy visibly remembered there was a stranger present. She stiffened, then straightened up, coughing and turning nearly as red as Qi’s eyes.

“Never seen the like,” Watchdog said, admiration written on his face. “’Round Technocago, there’s not a lot of flesh and blood pets to begin with, and a grand total of 0 tamed Altered Beasts.”

“What are you messing with there?” Cait asked, indicating Watchdog’s left hand. She’d thought he was just twitching, but it’d become clear the movements were purposeful.

“Hmm? Oh, just sending Nanosmith there the navigation and authentication bullshit you guys will need to move around the city.”

“By tapping on your palm?”

“How is that surprising to you? I’m sitting next to a dragon that walked off of a DeviantArt page.”

“Hey!” Qi protested.

“He’s got a point, babe,” Cait said, placating, “it is weird how fucking sexy you are.”

Qi preened a little, and seemed to decide to let the perceived slight slide. Watchdog clearly hadn’t meant it as an insult anyway, but he was going to have to watch himself.

Shortly after the checkpoint, the landscape shifted from reclaimed suburbs to distinctly urban.

“So, is the ‘Techno’ part of Technocago just those blue lights on everything?” Cait asked, noting that really, the city looked mostly normal, but with a distinct cyberpunk coat of paint splashed onto pre-Wave buildings.

“Honestly?” Watchdog laughed, gesturing around them. The lights twinkled, following his hand as he waved, a pulse traveling between buildings. “Mostly, nowadays. But it all does actually do something. Kind of a distributed powergrid, all fed by PlazLoad at the center. Bunch of other Altereds and Meta-Brains piggyback on the lines. Disparate effects, but one of the major ones is that I bet you couldn’t even put a dent in these buildings.”

“Sounds suspiciously like a challenge,” Cait grinned, flexing to make her nano-tech glow gold. It didn’t, remaining simply shiny and metallic. “What the fuck?”

“Oh, yeah, that too,” Watchdog chuckled. “Hostile foreign tech gets shut down in the city limits, looks like you’re just tou—”

“Excuse me, what!?” Gwyn interjected, frantically tapping at her display. She gestured like she usually did, and her nano-bots swarmed to her call. “Oh, phew….”

“Sorry,” Watchdog shrugged, “Hostile was the wrong word. Its an Altered ability, Firewall’s, not a Meta invention, so you know that shit can be pretty woo-y woo-y. Your bots should work as long as you’re not using them as a weapon, but simpler mono-function tech like Amaranthine’s punch-good bots? Destructive shit like that gets shut down as a matter of course if you’re not on The Council.”

Frowning, Cait got up and threw a haymaker into the side of the APC.

HEY! WHAT DID HONEY DO TO YOU!?

SHE HAS SUFFERED ENOUGH

“Well, doubt this is gonna tip the scales,” Cait said, glaring at the tiny scuff her fist had left in the steel. “I feel like a baby.”

“Awww, don’t worry!” Qi cooed, wrapping her tail around Cait’s waist and lifting her into her lap as easy as if she was a baby.

Fuck me she’s strong.

“Us big strong Altereds that don’t rely on tech will protect you,” Qi finished, stroking a claw along Cait’s chin while gazing lovingly into her scowl.

“Great….” Cait said, once again annoyed at how good it felt to be cradled by Qi. Little spooning was not part of the vibe she cultivated. Qi grinned, dropping the patronizing act a bit.

“Hey, look at it this way: now the rest of us get to feel like it wouldn’t be better to just throw you at any problem we come across.”

“You’ll have to throw me now, if you want me to do any damage,” Cait groaned, bumping her head back against a scaly tit.

AWWWW POOR INDESTRUCTIBLE BABY

A web of tentacles formed into a surprisingly recognizable rendition of a tiny violin, tip of one dragging at the strings. Cait sighed forlornly into the vista, throwing a limp wristed punch at the violin’s neck.

“I remember the days I could have turned those mocking tentacles into so much purple mist,” she said wistfully, then giggled in panic as one of said tentacles went for her ears.

“Well, hopefully, the job here will be easy street for you all,” Watchdog said, watching the display with the air of a school trip chaperone. “Technocago was safer than DSM before Wilds Witch got her upgrade.”

Cait got a burst of increduility from Kennedy, and caught her eyes. Kennedy tapped at her comm, and Cait checked her own.

K: didn’t mom say WH saw fires

C: oh fuck, yeah

“Uh, you sure? That was a hell of a horde we dealt with on the way in,” Cait said, drawing an approving nod from Kennedy. Watchdog grimaced.

“Yeah…. Yeah, that’s been a fucking problem,” he admitted. “They broke through a week or two ago when all the sudden they were like 1/3 Ironhides. Did a lot of damage, but the defenses inside the city are strong as hell, so we were able to push them back out, mostly, or so The Council says. Still don’t know where the fuck they came from though. Hasn’t been a new Wave in months.”

“Sure you got em all out of the city?” Cait asked, mental calculations not adding up. Warhawk had flown over two days ago. No way a city full of Altereds left fires burning from the attack a week ago. Once again, Watchdog grimaced.

“We were….” He sighed, “but a couple days a bunch came out of the goddamn sewers. I’d take sewer alligators over these things any day.”

YALL REALIZE THAT THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ARE LIKE, A REAL POSSIBILITY NOW?

“I pray to whatever god is listening for that each day,” Watchdog replied gravely. “Anyway, maybe I oversold the safety angle right now. Probably best you brought so much backup, Nanosmith.”

“We’re coming up on the Council Column,” she said, ignoring the statement. She was pretty clearly still upset about the tech interference.

Cait lifted herself out of the hole in the roof, and found herself overawed by the massive, glowing column rising into the sky at the center of the city. It honestly didn’t look that different from the stem of the Tortoiseshell, dwarfing all nearby buildings and pulsing with power.

Instead of coursing up though, this power seemed to pump downward, pulsing through myriad causeways into the glowing lines that frosted the city.

“Damn, you might have one up on us for an HQ,” Cait admitted. “Rome is cool and all, but that is anime as fuck.”