CHAPTER 19
Cait had just managed to get a stubborn gobbet of fish cleaned out from under a tit when she found herself waist deep in carp throat. She felt the things teeth grind against her hips as peristalsis began to pull her towards its stomach. The shock of the situation made her think of the truck crash, and a thought scrolled through her mind with absolute clarity.
If I wasn't invincible I'd be dead way too goddamn often.
Then the panic started to set in. Cait had inherited a healthy dose of claustrophobia from her father, and there were few environments more triggering than what she found herself in. The dank, stinking esophagus of the enormous monster strained to accommodate her, the tightness and immensity of the muscles stealing motion from even her enhanced strength. She felt herself begin to hyperventilate, stress overriding the fact she no longer actually needed to breathe.
Gulps of the carp's reeking innards uselessly filled her lungs, adding to her rising horror. Something wrapped around her legs, yanking as the carp coughed and gagged to keep her down. There was a snap, and one of BREAST MAN's disembodied tentacles slid down the beast's throat to join her.
It's the thought that counts, buddy.
She realized that she'd calmed enough for rational thought, and at the same time noticed Kennedy's presence in her emotions, soothing, fighting back her panic. Cait could feel Kennedy's own stress and fear, but the girl had pushed them to the back of her mind, using them to fuel her fight against Cait's. That display of courage might have done more to bolster Cait than the emotional triage, and Cait took stock.
Okay. This fucking sucks, but what do you have to worry about? You're balls-out invincible. Nothing to be afraid of. Except being stuck in here, helpless as this thing kills your friends and their chewed bodies tumble down on top of-
Kennedy's efforts redoubled, and Cait got the empathic equivalent of a sharp slap to the face. Her panic was tamped down once more, as the beast started gagging weakly again. Cait thought of Eyebite sitting exhausted on the riverbank, and like BREAST MAN, was certain he didn't have the juice left to get her out. Her head popped through a pulsing valve into a stomach, and as soon as she could, she wrenched an arm free to pull herself into it. It wasn't spacious, but it allowed some motion.
Cait heard a sizzling, and while it was pitch black in the carp she just knew her brand new costume was melting away.
Wonder if this will be some kind of record. Fiberfix is going to hate me. Fuck, my hammer and gun are lying on the riverbank because I'm a goddamn idiot.
Her link from Kennedy took on a questioning air, and she sent back reassurance. The panic had left her now that she had some degree of motion, and she grinned as she realized she got to try something it never seemed like the little heroes in the movies had the stomach to do.
Rip and tear, until it is done.
With that, she formed a knifehand, and thrust with all the power she could muster at the membrane of the stomach. She felt it start to stretch, and heard the beginnings of a rip. A second strike sent her hand through the meat of the organ, and she put her other hand in the rip, tearing it wide. She heard more sizzling as the stomach acid began to spill out onto the organs around her, and her world shook with an agonized roar from the monster.
Sorry Mama, but this ain't the type of swallowing I'm in to.
She began to tear chunks out of the unidentifiable meat around her, digging her way forward to the sound of more pained shrieks. Eventually, she found another membrane in front of her and repeated the process of escaping the stomach. As her hand burst through, light seeped in, and she eagerly pulled her torso through the hole.
Outside the monster, the fight was still going strong despite the internal damage she'd done. BREAST MAN was doing the blender dance again, but the things scales were too tough and his tentacles too small to do fatal damage from the outside. As expected, the glow from Eyebite's eyes was faint now, and the hero had been forced to retreat, plinking at the beast from the levy with his sidearm. Dawn conjured and flung great wooden spears, and Cait could see many of the weapons hanging off of the Titanocarp, but she was having the same issue as BREAST MAN: the thing was too fucking tough. The fight would almost certainly be going worse if Kennedy, linked with Cait, wasn't tanking and pulling the thing's attention from the others. She didn't get the full invincibility suite though, and one arm hung limply from her side. Kennedy did, however, notice the monster had grown an oddly attractive wart just below its left arm.
"Cait!" She called, spitting out a mouthful of blood. She managed to dodge a blow from the arm Cait was under, and looked bewildered as she got a closer look. "Why the fuck are your tits out?"
Cait gave her evilest smile in response, the dire scene painting a pretty clear picture of what she had to do.
"RIP AND TEAR!" She bellowed, before pulling herself back into the beast.
"What!?"
Cait could barely hear Kennedy's confused shout from outside as she went about making her words reality. Her peek at the world beyond had given her a pretty good idea of where she was in the beast, and knew its heart couldn't be far. Indeed, as she crawled through gore inwards and upwards, she began to hear the frantic thumping of the enormous organ. Pulling her way through more innards, she eventually reached it. She still couldn't see anything, but by touch she could make out that the heart was nearly as big as she was.
She lashed out in a punch, but the damn thing was tough. A shuddering moan meant the carp hadn't liked that, but she needed to end this. She doubted the monster would survive the damage she'd done thus far, but no guarantees it wouldn't squish a friend before it gave up the ghost. Thinking about all the hours she'd spent on the fly machine, Cait wrapped the organ in a bear hug.
It thundered against her arms, but it's pumping was its undoing. She remembered Lira's testing, particularly finding out how firmly she could lock her limbs in place. She squeezed as hard as she could, and each time the heart pumped she ratcheted in her arms one step further. The thing's blood rushed through the overtaxed heart, filling space it didn't have to give, and as Cait pulled her arms tight one last time, a ventricle burst.
The monster gave a titanic groan, and Cait could feel gravity shift as the monster staggered and fell. As it crashed to the ground, Cait found herself once more digging through a crush of viscera. After a minute or two of work, her eyes started to pick up light and she was yoinked up through a hole in the beast's side by a pair of tightly hugging tentacles.
"Ayyyy!" She laughed as BREAST MAN brought her over to the riverbank. "Thanks for the assist bud!"
She sauntered over to the dead Titanocarp and gave it her best kick, accomplishing nothing but making herself feel better.
"I'm going to eat this fucking thing."
Half an hour later, after they'd made double sure the area was secure and ARMOR had arrived to escort a scav unit, the tired patrol headed back towards their SUV. As they walked, a smattering of applause and awed looks followed them, along with a few people leering at Cait in the hemp bikini Dawn had conjured for her. In shop windows and displays all over, they could see replays of their fight, first their slaughter of the spawnling gigacarp than the harrowing battle against the Titanocarp.
Maybe it's good I got eaten, they weren't having any luck from the outside and I wouldn't have been any better with my stupid hammer.
Cait was at a cold zero concerning equipment survival for her first patrol. The supersuit melted, and she found the smashed remains of her gun and hammer on the riverbank, stepped on by the huge monster after chomping on their owner.
I really need some offense as tough as my defense.
"Yo, Breastman." She said, head tilted back in thought. "Think you could bribe Gwyn to build me some tech with those consentacles of yours?"
She felt a sharp smack on the ass, then a tentacle wrenched her head around to look at its owner.
FUCK YOU
BUT YEAH
I THINK SHE ALREADYHAS SOMETHING
"Might want to throw her a little something anyway, girl is gagging for it." She grinned like an idiot, dodged one tentacle, and then was battered by 13 others before throwing up her hands in surrender.
The mood of the group was higher after that, since none of them could resist laughing at Cait when her surrender was denied and she shrugged, walking along under a rain of slaps. They interacted with the crowd more, giving victorious shouts, waving and handing out high fives, as many as 13 at once. They were in the thickest part of the crowd when a woman stopped their progress.
Her outfit was cut perfectly to draw attention, but still appear at least surface level professional. A tight black blazer just barely didn't obscure an hourglass figure, and the shirt beneath revealed a swath of cleavage even with only one button undone. Far and away most attention grabbing however, were her eyes. Tucked away behind a pair of horn rimmed glasses, they seemed to be entirely made of transmission static. Looking into them, Cait felt like she could hear the telltale buzz of a screen with nothing to show.
"Good afternoon heroes!" She started, her tone riding the line between friendly and mocking. "Sharon Smart, from the Smart Script. The public would love to hear about the new team that's responsible for taking down that terrible beast."
She pouted at Cait as she said that last part, in a cartoonish attempt to be sexy. Cartoonish or not, it worked, and Cait smiled and opened her mouth to reply. Eyebite slapped a hand over it and took over.
"Hello, Miss Smart." He said, his voice a neutral PR drone. "AEGIS has no comment on this time except to say they are happy the incident was concluded with no injuries to the public, thank you."
"Ugh, Eyebite." Sharon's entire posture communicated boredom as the senior Guardian spoke. "You're old news, if you ever were news."
She walked up close, her static eyes locked on Cait's as she ran a finger down the strap of the Amazon's bikini top.
"You though….." she smiled, unabashedly predatory. "You were made for the news. Can I at least get your name?"
Eyebite sighed, and took his hand off Cait's mouth. Now that Sharon was so close it was awkward anyway.
"Amaranthine." Cait stated, doing her best to dazzle the woman with her smile. Instead, Sharon just chuckled, produced a business card from her cleavage, and tucked it into Cait's top.
"Well, Amaranthine," she purred, and the way she said Cait's name sent shivers down her spine the same way it sent shocks along her cock. "If you'd ever like the public to get to know you a little better, or if you'd like to get to know me a lot better, my number is Right. There."
She tapped the card in Caits top with the last two words, before sashaying away. Cait watched those hips sway until they were lost in the crowd. She was literally snapped out of it by two white spandex clad fingers snapping in front of her face.
"Hey! Bad idea." Eyebite said, his glowing eyes boring into Caits. "We have our own PR folks for a reason, and that reason's name is Sharon Smart."
"Really?"
"Well, no, but it might as well be. Ask Warhawk sometime." Eyebite shrugged. "I wouldn't recommend that to anyone else, but not like she can kill you."
The senior Guardian hurried the rest of them along after that, and soon they were bundled back into their SUV. As Eyebite pulled onto the highway, Cait went to check her communicator to see if Lira had responded to her questions from earlier with anything but a distracting nude. She, of course, found the skin of her thigh where she'd secreted the phone in a pouch on her holster.
Okay, really gotta talk to Gwyn. At least get one of those nifty nano-phones B-man has.
She rested her head against the seat, and let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. A wave of tension left her shoulders, and she felt a soft touch on her arm. Kennedy's fingers rested against her tricep, as she leaned close through the gap between the seat and the door.
"You good?" She asked, actual concern written on her face. "I felt what you felt in there, and I've dealt with panic often enough to know it has aftershocks."
Cait smiled reassuringly back at her. To be honest, she'd left that particular experience behind on the riverbed, it wasn't like she'd actually been in danger. Kennedy herself was the source of her current headache, indirectly at least, but she couldn't know that and it wasn't her fault anyway.
"I'm good Kennedy, thanks for checking in." Cait went to lay her hand on hers, but hesitated. Kennedy saw her move, and nodded consent before Cait squeezed her fingers. "That's the second time you've pulled me back. Given that it's been barely a day in-between, I bet it won't be the last. Thank you."
Kennedy blushed a bit, as Cait met her eyes without a hint of guile. No-one ever seemed to deal with genuine gratitude well.
"When life gives you empathic lemons, make tele-therapeutic lemonade!" She gave an awkward smile.
Cait chuckled.
"Keep that lemonade stand open then, girl. We all need it."