CHAPTER 22
The gang was awoken the next morning by the distinctive clatter of Dawn's hooves on the wood floor as she entered the apartment. Cait blinked awake, feeling Lira stir in her lap, and surprisingly, Kennedy lift her head off the opposite shoulder. Lira registered the situation first, a shit-eating grin splitting her pretty face.
"And where were you all night, young lady?" She teased.
"Hardly any of your business, Lira Light." Dawn said, her nostrils flaring slightly as she sniffed. "Hmmm, but from the scent of you, you wouldn't really have the room to judge, would you? Also, you have a post it on your forehead."
Dawn took the distraction as an opportunity to make for the big bathroom, where the sounds of the rain shower were heard shortly after.
"What the hell?" Lira snatched the post it off her face. "Hah!"
So. CuTe.
-G&B
"Cheeky bitch!" Lira laughed. It looked like Gwyn and Breastman had actually made it off the couch last night and had taken the opportunity to get even. One of them had even drawn a pretty good mocking little sponge man next to the message. Lira patted Cait on the shoulder and hopped off her lap, way too sprightly for someone who'd woken up a minute ago. "Alright! I'll try my best not to be jealous, but I'm pretty sure you've got another date with Freeflow babe."
Cait groaned, and pulled herself away from Kennedy, who slumped back into the divot Cait's ass had left in the seat. Summoning her nanocomm, Cait saw she had about 15 minutes to get to the gym. She grinned at Lira, who was already stripping for the shower.
"Can I join you for a quickie?"
Lira snorted
"Sure, if you can fuck through a layer of dried cum." She replied as Cait's nose wrinkled. Kennedy groaned in protest from the couch.
"I agree with Kennedy, gross." Cait nodded.
"Fuck you, you put it there!" Lira shot back as she disappeared into Cait's bathroom, to increasingly aggravated groans from Kennedy.
Coulda just said no, not my fault your legs lock me in like a 0% interest rate at Crazy Joe's pre-owned.
She glanced at Kennedy, blushing and looking away when she noticed a titty had popped out when she'd flopped over.
And what a titty it is, she thought, but I'm gonna ignore that.
Cait changed into athletic wear, and 10 minutes later was walking into one of the reinforced rooms at the Coliseum. Chance was waiting for her, Freeflow costume absent, normal training gear in its stead.
"Mornin' new blood," he greeted Cait with a friendly smile, only rendered sinister by what Cait knew was coming. "Good fight yesterday, 'cept I can't say you really took my 'Don't let overconfidence take you out the fight' lesson to heart."
Cait groaned, and took a fighting stance. She'd learned quickly to lock her knees, or Chance would have her on the floor quicker than she could blink. As it stood, she did have time to blink, as a supersonic right hook rung her bell, and a kick smashed into the back of her knee, bouncing off. She had an instant to appreciate the hiss of pain Chance let out before a susurrating blur of blue used her arm as leverage to send her ass over teakettle to the floor. She landed on her back, and her instructor spent the next 10 minutes keeping her there. Every time she moved to get balance in order to rise out, he'd kick out an elbow, knee, or just punt her in the chest to knock her off balance enough that she looked like she had the motor control of a baby.
It was more aggravating that it didn't hurt. It felt like at least with pain, if she was taking damage, she'd have an excuse for being so fucking useless. But instead, she was completely taken out by superior speed and skill.
Nothing I can do about the speed, she thought, giving up and locking herself in the fetal position. Fuck, idk if skill would even be enough. What do you do against someone you can't even see move?
"Took you long enough new blood!" Chance said, slamming into existence in Cait's view, dickhead smile still plastered on his face.
"To fucking what!? Cry?" Cait shot back, she wasn't actually crying, but holy shit was she salty. Chance had the audacity to laugh like they were kidding around all buddy-buddy.
"Nah, to curl up like that! Stop tryin'!" He extended a hand down to Cait, who reluctantly took it. She half expected him to kick her legs out from under her again. Instead, he clapped her on the shoulder and continued. "I know what you're thinkin'. Fuck are you supposed to do against someone like me, right? You gotta flip that on its head, Cait! Fuck am I supposed to do against someone like you!"
He punctuated that by blurring back, then pounding a full speed full power haymaker into Cait's sternum. It did exactly nothing except make him hop back, whooping at the pain in his hand.
"I. Can't. Hurt. You." He said when he'd collected himself, separating each word. "Shit, probably nothin' can. You meet an Altered Madman with powers like me, you ball up like that and they'll give up pretty quick once they figure that out. Honestly though, maybe better you keep strugglin'. Keep 'em interested while your friends figure out how to drop a bomb on the both of you or somethin'."
He pressed a button on the wall and a hulking dummy slid out of the floor.
"You gotta remember, defense is your superpower. De-fense." He tapped the dummy's chest.
"This target here has the durability of a Madman Eyebite and I took on a while back."
He did the same blurring punch he'd done to Cait on the dummy. It shook and cracked slightly, but was mostly unharmed.
"See?" He said. "Roidrage wasn't half as tough as you are, and I couldn't hurt him neither." Cait suppressed a smirk when he said the name, but did her best to keep hidden.
"What I could do though," he continued, "Was keep him distracted while Eyebite poured sleep into him till the big bastard keeled over. You give it a try, nothin' like experience."
Keeping that eager smile schooled, Cait walked up to the dummy and took a fighting pose. The golden banding on her arms flashed into existence the second before she swung, and her fist slammed into the dummy at the speed of sound. The results were even more dramatic than they'd been in miniature. The dummy was brittle, so instead of punching through, Cait's blow exploded the damn thing. Cait heard a 'Shit!' from behind her as shrapnel whizzed past her ear. And hit her full in the face, but that didn't matter. She was almost worried, until she spun to find Chace standing in front of a wall covered in shrapnel without a scratch on himself.
Right, that all happened in slow motion for him.
He slow clapped as he walked back up to Cait, wide grin still present and seeming a lot more genuine.
"Well shit, there goes today's lesson." He said, shaking his head with good humor. "Guess Nanosmith got that working, huh?"
He rubbed at his right arm as he spoke, ghost of a wince entering his eyes.
"Honestly, I don't think she changed shit, based on the sims she showed me. Poor sim-Pete's arm got fully pulped, I think you technically got off easy." Cait gave him an apologetic grimace.
"Man, you try getting a triple fracture and calling it lucky." He shuddered, but laughed it off. He shook his head then, clearly at a loss. "With that punch in your arsenal, today's lesson on maximizing defense is a bit of a moot point. You're still limited in how you can apply it, but that probably packs more one-hit power than anybody else on your team, hell, you'd be way up there with anyone at AEGIS. I'm gonna work on coming up with a training regimen to get you some skills to back up that power, like as not go with muay thai to give you some versatility, focus on the strikin' though…"
He trailed off before refocusing on Cait.
"I'm gonna call it for today. Be here same time tomorrow. I promise I won't beat ya ass unless you're late." He grinned, and Cait flipped him off as she walked away. She almost fell when she felt a kick hit the sole of her foot while she was taking a step. She glared back, but Chance was a good 30 feet away, still looking deep in thought.
Dickhead, she thought, but she didn't mean it. To be honest, the man was treating her like an equal, and doing his best to help her out. She appreciated that. Don't really know how to show it though. Keep getting better, I guess.
"Oh! Shit, I forgot." Chance said, appearing in front of her. "I asked Warhawk to give your gang some team tactics training! Make sure none of y'all plan anything Friday afternoon, you shouldn't have patrol."
"Thanks!" Cait said to empty air. She shrugged and continued out the door, only to nearly bowl over Lira. She returned her bright smile with one of her own, and the smaller girl laughed as Cait picked her up, spinning her around in a kiss.
"Mmmh," Lira hummed into Cait's mouth as she held herself up around Cait's neck. She pulled back, eyes happy and bright. "You look a hell of a lot better than you did coming out of there yesterday."
"This dog ain't that old, and I've got plenty of tricks." Cait pulled her into a princess carry, earning a giggle, then a yelp as she spun her a full 360, vertically. Lira scowled, extremely cutely, through a firefall of red hair.
"Down." She commanded, and Cait let her feet drop to the floor.
"If you wanted me to lay down…." Cait smirked at her. "I guess that trick isn't in my repertoire."
"Nah," Lira said, her voice breathy as she pressed herself into Cait, teasing her fingers along the Amazon's waistband. "I just don't think I used the right command."
Whatever command Lira was trying to impart, Cait's lower half heard it as 'Up!'. She suddenly found herself very aware of the busy morning crowd at the gym. Lira pulled back, giggling.
"Your blush threshold is fucked," she laughed. "The entire NAAC has seen your junk on the news twice and you don't bat an eye, but one little…."
She glanced down, bit her lip and glanced back up.
"Well, one big public boner and you turn into a fire hydrant." She reached down, her finger in a flicking position, but Cait danced away.
"I got an awful lot of fuckin' witnesses for this sexual harrassment case!" She yelled, jogging away. "You all saw the horrible lady!"
Some of the gym goers laughed, others looked annoyed. Most were sane people though, so had headphones in and didn't notice. Cait kept the jog up back to the Palace. She'd realized she could technically sprint everywhere now, and wouldn't even be winded when she arrived, but she wasn't quite ready to look like that much of a crazy person.
I gotta stop reporting to get my ass kicked on an empty stomach, she thought, skidding into a walk as she entered the building. She made her way over to the coffee counter, finding herself in line behind Claudio. The twinky elf, Austin, was on barista duty again, and was laying it on thick to the hulking minotaur.
"Extra cream inside." He purred, handing over a delicious looking iced coffee, none-too-subtly brushing his slender fingers along Claudio's massive counterparts. "Just like you like your…. Coffee."
He finished with a wink, and Cait heard Claudio actually take a cartoonish gulp.
Huh, not the sexual dynamic I expected there. Also, fuck, is this what it sounds like when I talk with like, any woman?
Cait pondered on her life choices as Austin made her morning milkshake, just the slightest bit of coffee creeping past the peanut butter flavoring. The barista had gone from flirty to fastidious with impressive ease, something to be said for professionalism. Cait toasted the drink to him with a wink.
"Good luck gettin' that cream, brother." She said, and instead of a blush got back a wide predatory grin and suggestively wiggling, perfectly plucked, eyebrows.
Kindred spirit right there.
She felt a push on her emotions, and received the emotional equivalent of a lady boner, which seemed like as good a sign as any Kennedy was around. She located the goth babe at the same table they'd first dined together at, smirking at her over the same tiny mug of espresso.
"Okay, that time was definitely on purpose." Cait said, sliding into a seat across from her.
"No idea what you're talking about." Kennedy responded with a placid smile. The smile became genuine as she leaned forward. "Thanks for making me feel welcome last night."
Justwelcome? Cait thought, but was coming around to the idea that pushing Kennedy would do more harm than good. At least coming from her.
"Thanks for introducing me to Ghost Adventures!" Cait said instead, meaning it too. "God willing, we'll get a chance to punch some ghosts ourselves."
The pair fell into an easy tete-a-tete. There was undeniable tension between them, but instead of trying to shatter that like she usually did, Cait let herself savor it. Kennedy seemed like she'd be worth the wait, and nobody had any fun doing things they weren't ready for.
[news] Hey folks! Might not feel like it, but we've reached the halfway point of book 1! Things heat up in both the horny and hero departments from here on out.
Don't worry, book 2 will begin serializing immediately after a short interlude when we finish with this one.
Please, if you've enjoyed yourself thus far, rate me, or better yet review! As always, if you want chapters early or more of my particular brand of smut, you can find it on my Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=5507647
Regardless of any of that, thank you for reading! [/news]