Amaranthine

Cait was torn from her reverie by a shrill ‘What the FUCK!?” from Breastman’s room across the hall. Kennedy’s protesting groan barely even registered as she burst out of her state room, throwing open the door to her friends’.

“What’s going on?” she asked, eyes scanning the scene, trying not to fixate on a very naked Gwyn standing on the bed. For his part, Breastman just managed to look confused.

“Something tried to breach my room barrier last night!” Gwyn complained, clearly distraught, as she still hadn’t registered being naked in front of Cait. “And because that puts my bots into combat mode, a fuck ton of them are fried!”

WAIT REALLY?

USUALLY I SENSE ANYTHING THAT EVEN GETS CLOSE

I KNOW WHEN CAIT GETS UP TO PEE AT HOME

“Upsetting,” Gwyn said, a sentiment Cait echoed, “but yes, really. And because the bots are fried, they couldn’t do a capture, and I’ve got no idea what the fuck did it.”

“Couldn’t have just been, like, a bug?” Cait asked, not quite following why this had Gwyn so up in arms.

“No it couldn’t have been ‘just, like, a bug’, Cait!” Gwyn mocked, clouds of bots forming air quotes around her head as she finally looked at Cait. “Also put on some fucking pants Cait, I swear to god!”

UHHHH

BABE?

“Ohfuck!”

Gwyn scrambled off the bed, waving Cait out of the room.

“Get dressed!” She commanded, the rustling behind the bed suggesting she was doing the same. “and get the others! Meet us out in the kitchen.”

5 minutes later, Cait had a bleary eyed dragon and a sleepy goth hanging off either arm, while a surprisingly chipper Willow sipped a cup of tea that smelled like lavender and honey. Gwyn and Breastman joined them momentarily, B-man still looking pretty confused, and Gwyn looking, if anything, more upset.

“So, I checked, there is nothing on the room entry logs,” she began without preamble, “and my barrier was only set up on my room.”

“Okay, so?” Cait prompted. She was pretty sure Gwyn was already working on thoughts about a hundred steps after this one, but would need steering to help the rest of them get there.

“So,” Gwyn continued, “Whatever tried to get into my room was already in here! Or hacked the logs, or didn’t have to use an entrance, or—”

“Windows?” Kennedy asked, noticeably brighter eyed than she’d been a moment ago. Willow had pressed a cup of that tea into her hand, and Cait had felt it when she’d taken the first sip.

“No, thought of that,” Gwyn said, “they’re also logged, and nothing.”

“Again, why couldn’t it have just been a bu—”

“Because I set them not to activate on bugs and small animals!” Gwyn snarled, exasperated. “I’m not trying to wipe out the buildings microfauna, just have a bit of a safeguard against intruders.”

“Okay….” Cait said, pondering. “Well, I was awake all night, per ushe, and I didn’t hear anything once you guys stopped having an absolute banger of a fuckfest. If it was a person, they’d have to have been insanely quiet.”

“Right, okay,” Gwyn responded, chewing on her lip. “Well, I mean, fuck, World of the Waves right? Superpowered ninja is a real possibility.”

“Would a person even know they’d crossed your barrier though?” Kennedy asked, and Cait saw where she was going. “A lot of your tech is pretty much invisible if its not visible on purpose.”

“Yeah….” Gwyn agreed, but didn’t seem dissuaded. “Still, same explanation, no way of knowing what superpowers people have. We can’t rule out that someone snuck in here last night, though with Cait being awake, Rose not freaking out, and B-man’s passive senses I’m agreeing it seems unlikely.”

“What else would set it off?” Qi asked, mostly just to be a part of proceedings, they were all thinking it.

“Kind of a lot of things,” Gwyn admitted. “Unidentified energy sources, foreign robotics, fuck, even ‘magic’ constructs to a point, although that’s an absolute bitch to code for.”

“Yeah, this isn’t really narrowing much down,” Cait agreed, leaning back in the surprisingly comfortable bar chair. “I mean, shit, we're in a diplomatic situation here, right? Isn’t it common practice to spy on visiting dignitaries?”

“I…. I don’t know,” Gwyn said, but Kennedy shook her head.

“I mean, yes, kind of,” the Goth said, “but usually we’re talking hidden cameras, listening devices, that kind of thing. Not sending someone into the suite. That would be an insanely tough sell if they got caught.”

“Right!” Gwyn agreed, pointing at her. “and my initial sweep of the place god rid of those! There weren’t even very many, probably just a token attempt so The Council didn’t seem like rubes.”

WAIT WHAT

THERE WERE CAMERAS?

“Emphasis on the were, babe,” Gwyn said with a soft smile to her man, who deflated a little.

DAMN

KINDA WANTED THE FOOTAGE

“Oh, really? You just gotta ask then. I always record us.”

….

NICE?

“You’re welcome!” Gwyn responded brightly, before returning to the task at hand. “So, basically, it seems unlikely it was garden variety espionage either. All of this begs the question of what to do next.”

“Do we wanna ask The Council?” Cait asked, not suggesting it, but testing the waters of the group. It took a moment and some thoughtful looks for anyone to respond.

“I mean… even if we accept it probably wasn’t The Council as a whole, it’d be hard to rule out individual members,” Kennedy said, to a room full of nodding heads. “Far as we all know, Watchdog and them are the only ones that know we’re here.”

“Graaahhhhhh!,” Cait groaned, sliding one huge hand down her face. “This is a fucking headache! I’m built for fuckin’ bitches and punchin’ problems, not espionage!”

“Like B-Man said yesterday, poor indestructible baby,” Gwyn mocked, the frustration of the morning having stripped her social graces. “Fortunately, 3 of us are pretty well suited to spy craft. My drones and leet haxor skills—”

“Cringe.”

“Quiet Cait, B-Man’s senses, and Kennedy’s woo-y woo-y empath stuff, not even counting whatever you can do Willow, you fuckin’ mystery, there’s no way whoever’s peeping on us stays hidden for long.”

“Okay, sure,” Kennedy agreed, “but what do we do until we figure that out? I don’t think I’m off base in sensing that all this centers around you Gwyn. The tech requests were the only thing both lines of communication agreed on. The intrusion, far as we know, only happened in your room. Hard of a target as you are, this city’s defenses render you a lot less formidable than you usually are. We should consider moving to a neutral location, or fortifying this one.”

Gwyn chewed her lip as she considered Kennedy’s words, all of which, to Cait at least, had perfect merit. Seemed like for once, events were progressing without her or her girlfriend at the center.

“I think fortify,” Gwyn finally said. “But… I mean this sounds stupid, but subtly as possible. Set traps. This is Technocago. I bet that they’ll pick up whatever I lay down, loathe as I am to admit it. They should be way less adept at dealing with Willow and Kennedy’s soul bullshit.”

“That tracks,” Kennedy agreed, “I’m not even good at dealing with the soul bullshit.”

“Oh, I’d say you’re actually surprisingly adept, dear,” Willow said, placating, “but yes, Animancy is a rare expertise even among the magically inclined, and the denizens of this city could hardly be further from that. Still, there is a reason for such things. Magic and technology do not like to mix. We will need some of your guidance on how we can set up ‘traps’ for someone who is assaulting us digitally.”

The conversation quickly evolved into a discussion of high level cyber security and its relation, or lack thereof, to Animantic pitfalls. Cait got less than a sentence in before her eyes glazed over and she was well and truly zoned out. An indeterminate amount of time later, a strong talon on her shoulder pulled her into the corner of the room.

“I’m more of a puncher too,” Qi said, giving Cait that charming fanged smile. They’d joked about that smile at first, but honestly, Cait found the more she saw it, the more it absolutely suited Qi. It was like the girl herself often was, sweet and understated, but with incredible potential for danger just beneath. Cait returned it warmly, bumping her head back into Qi’s armpit and taking comfort from one of the few people that could make her feel small, physically at least.

“Yeah, and fuck me do I wish I had something to punch,” Cait agreed, to a murmur of assent from Qi. She looked up at the dragon, letting an edge of mischief enter her grin. “Ya know, The Council did say they wanted a combat team…”

Qi’s grin mirrored Cait’s. “They did!” she agreed, and nodded her head at Breastman, who was clearly just as lost as they were, but was sticking by Gwyn for moral support. “I doubt there’s anything that could take the three of us, could leave the nerds and magicians to talk things over and find some trouble?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Cait said, and cleared her throat to grab the groups attention. She was ignored, tried again, and when that wasn’t enough Qi let out an actual dragon roar, complete with a gout of flame that was absolutely un-ignorable.

“Hi!” Cait said into the startled faces of her friends. “So, this is not something us bruisers are going to be useful for. The scalie and I were thinking we could take B-Man and check out the sewers? Get a jump start on another objective, maybe get a clue as to what the fuck is going on in this city?”

Gwyn and Kennedy exchanged a glance, somehow having taken on co-command of this mission. They nodded, and Kennedy spoke.

“Good plan, babe. Not that you ever don’t, but stay linked up to me. We can’t trust comms, but that should tip us off to any discrepancies.”

Gwyn made a gesture, and Cait’s comm lit up with contact info.

“Call Watchdog,” Gwyn ordered, “get him to point you in some kind of direction. To be honest, he’s by no means firmly on my ‘trusted’ list, but if he sends you on a wild goose chase, that’s good info too.”

Her eyes flicked to her boyfriend, currently sopping over towards the bruisers.

“Just, uh, make sure you take point. You know, no point in anyone else tripping any traps.”

“Ugh, just once I wish I was getting sent dick first into the fun kind of traps,” Cait said, grin sly enough to tell Gwyn she’d already been planning on it, but smug enough that no-one was going to give her the grace to laugh at her joke.