Amaranthine

She didn’t keep up the fight for long, dropping the struggling cat to the floor and ‘squee-ing’ as she quick-stepped over to wrap Kennedy up in an excited hug. Salad landed on all fours, darted over to bap Rose on her nose, then took cover under a couch when the Cruma gave chase.

“Hey!” Kennedy laughed as Lira poured kisses over her head like a cartoon housewife. She reached up to squeeze her arm where it wrapped around her chin. “I missed you too, babe!”

Lira didn’t respond instead doing the exact same routine to Qi, then Cait, before finally sitting in Cait’s lap, breathing hard.

“Whew!” she panted. “Exhausting, to have to do that three times. But such is the price one pays for a harem.”

Cait laughed, accepting the soft, actual kiss from Lira. The girl turned around, helping herself to the hash piled high on Cait’s plate.

“Who cooked?” she asked, “Cait only knows how to make pancakes and protein shakes, and Kennedy would have done some kind of French cuisine that was more effort than it was worth.”

“Hey!”

“Sorry babe, eggs benedict just aren’t that good.”

“I can do pancakes next time, if you prefer,” Willow answered, as always wearing her look of faint amusement, not even a little out of place this time.

“Ooooo, new girl can cook!” Lira said, popping another fork full into her mouth. “Keep this up and you might actually earn a spot in my ever growing stable.”

Willow’s eyes, almost imperceptibly, fluttered to Cait’s. That wasn’t lost on Lira. She looked between the two women, realization dawning on her face.

“No,” she gasped. “Already!?”

“Ooookay,” Kennedy interjected, noting the blush in Qi’s cheeks and deciding that a debreif with Lira would be a good idea before this got brought up again. “We’ve got a meeting with The Council in 5, so let’s head on up. Lira, you come too, I’ve got some ideas for how you can be useful around here.”

“Uggghhhh,” Lira groaned, “This is my first time out of the compound in years, kinda thought it would be a vacation.”

“What?” Kennedy scoffed, “No, you’re way to valuable for that. And even if you weren’t working, I’d find something for you to do.”

Lira didn’t miss the heat in her words, smirking back at her.

“Well yeah, but that sounds like what I’d do on vacation anyway.”

A few minutes later, the elevator shuddered under the groups combined mass, and Cait wondered if they might have to start a rotation. Sure, there were only 7 of them and it was a 12 person occupancy, but two of them weighed nearly half a ton. She idly pondered if there was any way she could save the squishier members of the group should things decide to go Final Destination.

“Alright,” Kennedy said, cracking her neck and doing a couple hops to hype herself up, “Cait, Qi, I’m about to tear Zebrowski a new asshole for letting things get bad enough that we had to deal with a goddamn heist, so look intimidating, kay?”

Cait made a mental note to stop smiling, and cross her arms, but that was far less impressive than the way the elevator screamed as Qi gained in mass and armor. She looked down at Cait and chuckled to herself.

The elevator shuddered to a halt, and Kennedy was out of it as soon as the doors parted enough to allow her.

“Zebrowski,” she said, coolly, confidently, stride reflecting her voixe as she approached the long desk. She leaned over it, splaying her hands across its surface. Cait knew from experience that when she got like this, Kennedy could look more like towering, upset giantess right now rather than a 5’ 7” hot goth woman. “Care to explain why I had to stop a goddamned old fashioned bank robbery in your city?”

To his credit, The Chairman didn’t flinch, instead looking up from the document Fiona Impish had been showing him, but was currently cowering behind. He smiled pleasantly up at Kennedy, like she had walked in with a polite greeting and a box of bagels rather than an icestorm and accusations.

“Ah, Kennedy,” he said, voice as calm as Kennedy’s had been, but considerably warmer. Cait watched, amazed, as her girlfriend visibly disarmed. The man had barely spoken, but had made Kennedy look like a brute, rather than a righteously upset dignitary. “Thank you, for that. I was informed ARMOR was rather late to the scene, it is likely that crew would have been in the wind before they even arrived.”

To her credit, Kennedy didn’t stammer like Cait would have as she changed tack. She straightened up, returning The Chairman’s smile with a self-assured one of her own.

“That was the assessment of Draconic and myself as well,” she said, inclining her head in agreement, and just maybe, apology for her entrance. That didn’t mean The Council was off the hook. “Still, the circumstance is concerning. This kind of crime is a relic of the past, Zebrowski, and these people were prepared. How has a crew like that escaped your notice?”

At this, Chairman Zebrowski finally gave the resigned sigh Cait had been expecting. When he looked back up, his eyes had steel in them, hard as Cait’s abs.

“The rot in this city went far deeper than any of us knew,” he explained, inclining his head to Roman and Gwyn in turn. “The work of these two on Splice’s communications alone uncovered a dozen bureaucratic moles, and not all of them were ER radicals. It appears our citizens are no more immune to the desire to make a quick buck than any other populace. To be frank, none of that would matter if our defenses, Altered or technological were fully online, but it appears there were many groups waiting in the wings for just such an opportunity as this.”

The Chairman’s explanation was more or less the conclusion the group had reached for themselves earlier. The Chairman reaching it himself, about his own people, and then sharing it with them, put a heavy weight in his favor on the scales of their trust. Kennedy nodded sharply.

“Fair enough, only so much you can do in the short term. What do you have for tactical teams? That ARMOR response was slow, and had no Altered support that I could see,” Kennedy said.

Now Zebrowski actually grimaced.

“Not fucking much,” he hissed, the first time Cait had heard him curse. “While they might not be Ironhides any more, there remains a horde of biblical proportions at our perimeter defenses, and the bulk of our ARMOR contingent is working 24/7 to thin them out. We had few combat Altereds to begin with, and the recent assaults have left us near zero. Watchdog and Point Defense are really the only two worth mentioning, and Watchdog is severely hampered with the city’s infrastructure so damaged. The rest are sprinkled throughout ARMOR units, with abilities minor enough they are really of more use as trigger pullers.”

“I see,” Kennedy said, and Cait smirked to herself as she watched the gears grind in her head. Felt them, too, if she was being honest. When Kennedy put her mind to an issue, the feeling was intense. “I’ll have Willow connect me with mother again to ensure security, and request anyone she can send. Many of our own Guardians are occupied assisting ARMOR at the DC border, but under Dawn’s Arbor, we really only need a token force at DSM.”

Her eyes refocused on The Chairman, gaze intense enough the steel in his gaze seemed to crack.

“Now,” she continued, voice chilly, “you said there were groups waiting in the wings. I think we can safely upgrade were, to are. Tell us what you have on them.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Zebrowski was prepared for this ask, and gestured to Impish, who threw up a holo-display of the city. Gwyn ‘tsk’d’ and a buzzing cloud outlined it, illuminating it for her boyfriend. Roman seemed much more interested in that than the briefing as Zebrowski outlined the threats they’d identified.

The general breakdown was that most ER operatives had fled or been taken down by ARMOR as soon as they were identified via Splice’s intel. That same intel however, had illuminated other fringe groups, but only the edges. ARMOR had been unwilling to wade into the strongholds of Altered groups with only the slightest baseline of what might be in store for them.

“Pussies,” Cait said, casually cracking her knuckles. “I, for one, am definitely down for another 801 Grand.”

Qi slammed one armored fist into the other with a shockwave that shook the glass walls of the room, signaling her agreement.

Chairman Zebrowski’s face took on a mirror of Willow’s faintly amused smile, but looked like he appreciated their eagerness.

“This,” Impish said, tapping on a pulsing red spot on the outskirts of the city. It zoomed in, resolving to a factory complex. “is where we believe the outfit that you tangled with yesterday is headquartered. There’s been a lot of movement in and out since yesterday, they’re either running or planning another big move.”

“That’s where we start then,” Kennedy said, eyes intense enough that they threatened to burn away the hologram. “What do you have for intel?”

“Not much,” Impish said, “group of 50 or so, call themselves ANARKY55, which probably tells you all you need to know about their motivations.”

“Bunch of idiots want to make the Apocalypse notably worse for everyone?” Qi volunteered, receiving an emphatic nod from Impish.

“Pretty much!” she answered, flipping her hand to shift the holo to an image of a hulking, shadowed figure. “The group is heavily invested in physical strength, exemplified, supposedly, by their leader. Goes by Goliath. If I recall, DSM dealt with someone similar, Roidrage?”

“That guy was insane,” Kennedy answered, “but also a pretty easy kill for any one of us at this point.”.

“Mmm,” Impish responded, “Well, I dig the optimism, but it may be misplaced. We believe Goliath has gotten a hold of some enhancements in addition to his formidable physical powers, but we don’t know what that means. Their comms chatter references ‘Juice’ and ‘getting Juiced’ too often to be a coincidence.”

“Uh,” Cait sheepishly raised her hand, “recovering gym rat here, you guys know that just means steroids, right?”

Each of the Council Meta-Brains fixed Cait with the same look you might give to a particular cute and precocious child.

“Yes, we are aware, Amaranthine,” Roman said. “However, no known baseline anabolic steroid has any effect on Altered physiology. It Is safe to assume that while this ‘Juice’ may have a similar effect, we will be dealing with something far more dangerous than the pharmaceutically irresponsible misuse of testosterone.”

Appropriately chastened, Cait returned her hand to her side.

“Right,” Kennedy said, reigning things back in, “well, regardless of how hard they hit, physical bruisers are right in my team’s wheelhouse. If these guys are who you think pose the biggest threat, we can have a raiding party ready before the day is out.”

Chairman Zebrowski gave her a tight smile, and nodded his assent. “Please do, Kennedy. Keep us updated on plans and any necessary support. Oh, and do contact your mother at your earliest convenience. We desperately need more street level Guardians.”

Kennedy agreed, then flicked her eyes to Gwyn, who was already rushing over to Roman, pulling up some graph or another on her tablet and picking up where she’d left off the day before. She noticed Kennedy’s gaze, shrugged, and said; “It was supppsed to be a tech exchange, right?’

Kennedy rolled her eyes, but she was grinning as she turned on her heel, bringing her face to face with a ‘pariently’ waiting Lira, stood about an inch behind her.

“Oh, shit, right, Council, Metric, Metric, Council,” Kennedy said with all the obligatory hand gestures. “She can help you ferret out moles just by looking at them, so I’m leaving her here with Gwyn.”

“I’m also her girlfriend!” Lira volunteered cheerfully, bouncing over to get a better look at what Zebrowski and Impish were looking at. “And Cait’s, and Qi’s, and… well, that’s it for now, but I have my eye on Wi—”

The elevator door slid shut behind the group, cutting off the sound of Lira, and sight of a very confused Chairman.

Cait’s arm bumped Kennedy’s shoulder, and she looked over to see the Amazon wearing a shit-eating grin.

“Politest asshole ripping I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing,” Cait teased, and Kennedy felt her cheeks go red.

“Quiet you,” she replied, not letting Cait see her lips quirk up in a quiet grin. “Zebrowski had more of my mother in him than I expected.”