CHAPTER 42
Cait watched as the girl of her dreams stole a city killer's power and turned it back in on itself. The rushing tide of the Risen River had halted, quivering, inches from their barrier.
"Cait," Kennedy growled through gritted teeth. "You better not leave me this time."
She felt Kennedy's mind pull at hers, squeezing it tight like a husband's hand during delivery. Her words were like a knife to the heart, but Cait couldn't deny she deserved them. She wouldn't fuck up a second chance if it was on offer. Cait wrapped Kennedy in love, or what she thought might be love, holding her up. At the same time, she stepped out from the barrier.
"The core should be in that basement," she explained. "I'm going to get it. If Kennedy loses control of this thing while I'm inside it, I'll survive."
YEAH, WE KNOW DICKHEAD
"Ouch, but yeah, fair. Uh…. Back in a sec!" she gave an awkward wave and ran off towards the hole she and an Ironhide had made. The frozen water was surreal, like someone had dug all the ground out from around a river, but the river had elected not to allow physics to effect its position. She reached the hole, where the water came up from the ground. She'd looked for the core on the way over, and seen nothing.
Cait slammed a fist through the floor, pulling a chunk up on the way back out. All she saw was water.
Fuck. Gotta go back in.
Taking a deep breath she didn't need, she hopped through the hole.
Mostly, it just felt like still, chilly water. But there was an energy to it, like shaky nerves from too much caffeine. This water wanted to move. To resume the battering it had been giving her for an hour before the rescue. The only thing stopping it was the girl Cait was harboring the biggest crush of her life on, and who was, thankfully, remarkably forgiving.
Cait's density pulled her to the bottom, and she didn't have to look long for the core. It floated dead center in the room, squirming with the energy of the water around it. Cait steeled her jaw, and approached it. Her first slime had taught her this was unlikely to be a punching job, so she placed a hand on the quivering sphere.
Maybe it was something the core could do, maybe it was because she was linked to Kennedy, or maybe Cait herself became an empath for an instant. Whatever the reason, when Cait touched that cool, quivering sphere, she knew it. She felt its fear now, and its rage at humanity. The wrongs it railed against may be years in the past for them, but for the Risen River, on its planetary timescale, all of the ecological disasters it had suffered were the merest blink of an eye removed from the present.
Ah, fuck. Cait thought. Dawn's not gonna let us kill this thing.
Cait wrapped one arm around it, and punched upwards, letting the force carry her through the ceiling and out of the basement. As the core left it, the frozen water sloshed to the ground, returning to being no more than what it was.
Her team rushed towards her. Before she even said a word, a forest of thorny vines surrounded her, shooting up and down through the core, savagely ripping it apart.
Cait boggled at Dawn, who sighed in relief.
"That motherfucker," she said, putting some heat on the words, "killed almost everyone I ever called a friend. Thank you all for your assistance in ending it."
Cait started to laugh, and while no-one else understood why, soon the team's shared laughter echoed off the rolling hills of eastern Iowa.
Hours later, Kennedy, Cait, Dawn and Breastman sat in the Director's office. Most of that time had been spent pleading with Samsara for a pickup. The teleporter had only relented once Director Swan gave her a direct order.
Kennedy kept her link with Cait. They'd become so adept at subconsciously supporting each other during the trip Kennedy was beginning to feel nervous when she didn't have it up. For her part, Cait was extremely eager to prove that, despite all evidence, she could be relied upon. That support was necessary now.
Director Swan was furious.
"You all defied a direct order to retreat and regroup," she hissed, barely contained rage burning in her eyes. "An order given, I will add, because we already had one Guardian perish on this mission. So what did you do? Put 4 fucking more in greater danger with LESS BACKUP!?"
She was actually shrieking by the time she finished. Cait noticed her nails had actually dug into the hard wood of her desktop.
"I actually didn't hear the order," Cait volunteered. That was drawing aggro on purpose, all this was her fault after all. Unfortunately, the disappointed sigh Director Swan gave as the flames in her eyes went out was a lot worse than more screaming.
"No, Miss Smith, you chose not to hear the order."
Ouch. Not first names anymore, I guess.
"All of you ended a great threat to this city today. Now get the fuck out of my office."
"Love you mom," Kennedy said, drawing surprise from everyone in the room, herself included.
Director Swan gave her a tight smile.
"I love you too, baby. I'm happy you're alright."
The group rose to leave, but Director Swan called after them before they made it out.
"Oh, Breastman. I am far too pissed to be a good therapist at the moment, but be back here this time tomorrow. We will speak on your issues."
Cait watched her friend shudder at that.
Man, what a way to phrase it.
She nudged him with a foot.
"Uh-oh, called into the principal's office," she teased. Then she fell on her face, since Breastman had snuck a tentacle around her back, and grabbed her opposite foot right as she was about to take a step.