With all the straps they had holding him tight to her back, Kevin probably didn’t need to be gripping her quite so hard. That said, when she got a rhythm going, Lira had clocked Cait at around 70 mph during her booming leaps, so his fear was understandable. Ill fitting bike helmet or no, kid would probably be boy paste if she tripped.

  “Hell of a day, huh?” she called over her shoulder.

  “W-what?” Even right next to her ear, she could barely make out what he was saying.

  “HELL! OF! A! DAY!” She shouted.

  “Oh, uh, yeah!” he yelled back, clearly happy for a little distraction as Cait took them on a deserted, circuitous route towards Blank Park.

  “YOU SEE ME ON THE NEWS EARLIER?” She yelled, figuring the Clownfreak fight must have gotten some news coverage.

  “Hell yeah!” Kevin responded, his voice a little steadier. “You popped that thing’s fuckin’ lid!”

  “LANGUAGE! ALSO, FUCK YEAH I DID!” She heard the kid laugh and slap her stomach, before remembering his situation and frantically grabbing back on tight.

  It was wild to be the one on the news. Entertainment media hadn’t died out post wave, but the fact was with all the hot caped idiots running around, most media focused around them. Newscasts of fights like the one Cait had been in this afternoon would be replayed ad nauseum, and got the highest ratings of basically anything out there. She imagined that went double when her clothes melted off, so there was probably a news drone pointed her way at all times.

  “IF YOU GET A HANDLE ON THIS POWER OF YOURS, THAT COULD BE YOU!” She yelled, then thought better of it. “WELL MAYBE NOT. IDK IF YOU KNOW THIS, BUT YOU DON’T SHOW UP ON VIDEO EITHER. I WONDER IF WE HAVE A BLACK OPS SECTION.”

  “Whooooaaa that would be sick!” Kevin exclaimed.

  “RIGHT?” Cait asked. “REPEAT AFTER ME, ‘SAM FISHER CAN EAT MY ASS!’.”

  “I don’t know who that is!”

  “FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS!”

  “Sam Fisher can eat my ass!”

  “LANGUAGE!”

  Cait tried her best to keep the kid laughing and relaxed as they approached the installation, kicking up dust as she skidded to a halt at the gate.

  “Did I beat Kennedy?” she asked Pete as she started to unstrap Kevin. He had a little trouble unclenching his fingers and his legs were less than steady after the ride, but it was just nerves. Hopefully.

  “Jesus Christ this is weird,” Pete responded, holding out white spandex clad arms in front of him.

  “Oh right, he does that. This is Kevin. It doesn’t work on me. Kennedy?”

  “What? No, of course you didn’t beat her, she was in a car on the main roads. She, the Director, and the kid’s mom are waiting for you in Cottage #4, you know how to get there?” Pete said, still very disconcerted with the temporary blindness.

  Cait checked her phone, and found the place using the campus map’s search function.

  “Do now, thanks Pete!” she gestured to Kevin to follow, walking past the befuddled Guardian.

  “Let there be light!” she called back as they passed Kevin’s radius, and Pete sighed in relief. He flipped her off, and headed back into the guard shack.

  “Alright K-Cash, follow me. I’m gonna try and guide us around people as much as possible, don’t want ‘em to get a bad first impression.” Cait said, leading Kevin off the walking path.

  “Except Pete?” Kevin asked, and Cait chuckled.

  “Yeah, dude is fun as hell to fuck with. And he very well may be fucking with all of us with that costume of his, turns out no-one here knows either.”

  “It is stupid,” Kevin agreed.

  “Shockingly so,” Cait nodded sagely.

  “Am I gonna get a costume?” He asked, perking up.

  “#1, no-one but me can see you, so you can wear whatever you want. #2, no, not until you’re older.” Cait responded, and the teen kicked a rock sullenly.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Cait saw a support worker jump as it looked like the rock moved out of nowhere, and steered them clear of the surprised woman.

  They approached Cottage #4, a picturesque little home placed well off of the main campus promenade.

  “Uh, shit, I don’t wanna blind all of them without warning. Can I trust you to wait at this tree?” Kevin nodded, and while Cait was not in the habit of trusting teens, the kid had been pretty good so far.

  She approached the door and knocked. A moment later, Director Swan answered. She was a knockout, as always. Pornstar body meets C-Suite chic, she exuded a mix of confidence and competence Cait had never experienced from anyone else. The beauty mark above her lip quirked up as she looked Cait over.

  “Lost him already?” She asked. Cait stopped running her eyes over the woman long enough to roll them.

  “He’s over by the tree. Just didn’t want to blind everyone and start a panic. Is his mom here?”

  “She is.”

  “How do you want to handle this? I can see this being pretty traumatic for both if them,” Cait asked.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve handled worse. Lead me over to him?” Cait did, and the Director barely reacted to her vision cutting out. One more mystery of how her powers worked.

  I guess she’s competent at being blind? How does that even work?

  “Thank you Cait,” She said. “I will handle this from here. Why don’t you go play with Lira?”

  That should be weird for her to say, not hot, but this is a weird working environment.

  Cait saluted with a grin, but walked over to Kevin.

  “Hey K-money. I know this isn’t how you expected today to go. Don’t worry. Director Swan is, literally, the best. You’re in good hands.” She clapped him on the shoulder, and tried to grin, but grimaced instead. “Look, kid. I’d like to tell you you’re going home today, but I bet you’ll be here awhile, till that power of yours gets under control. I put my number in your phone, give me a call if they’re keeping you. No need to go through this kinda shit alone.”

  Maybe it was because no-one could see them, but Kevin got over the famed emotional unavailability of teenagers long enough to give Cait a tight hug around the waist.

  “Thanks, Cait.”

  “No problem bud.” She responded, patting him on the head, before waving behind her as she walked off.

  Director Swan caught her, brushing a manicured hand over Cait’s shoulder.

  “Good work,” she whispered, her breath tickling Cait’s ear and giving one part of her a quick wake up.

  I gotta do something about that. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I don’t think I could bring myself to fuck Kennedy’s mom anymore.

  Cait glanced over her shoulder, feeling herself bite her lip as her eyes traced the sway of Director Swan’s hips.

  Even when she looks like that.

  She left Kevin’s radius, making for the Palace. Activity on the team group chat suggested folks had convened on the dining hall, and that sounded juuust right.

  Gwyn had told Cait her medical scans suggested eating was no longer required, but when pressed had admitted it also wasn’t prohibited. Thank god for that. Cait wasn’t a full-blown hedonist, but she was damn close. As such, the heaping plate of pulled-pork mac n’ cheese she approached the table with was not something she would have happily given up.

  “Hey slowpoke,” Kennedy gave her a sly smile as Cait took the open seat next to her.

  “Howdy loner,” Cait shot back, tearing into her dinner. “Was everyone else afraid you’d drink ‘em like a capri sun?”

  “Wooooowww.” Kennedy looked non-plussed. “That’ll teach a girl to save you a seat. Also, people love Vampires, saying I look like one is high praise.”

  “Damn straight,” Cait grinned. “I’m still waiting for you to suck me dry.”

  Kennedy scoffed, rolled her eyes, and turned her attention back to her chicken salad.

  Breastman was wiggling animatedly across the table, drawing Cait’s attention.

  KID OKAY? Scrolled across his hat.

  KENNEDY FILLED US IN

  SORRY

  WAS HIGH

  Cait chuckled, shaking her head.

  “Yeah, well, he’s safe at least. Honestly bud, he got it nearly as bad as you did if most people’s reaction is anything to go by. Not the same level of body horror, but making everyone near you go blind is a terror all its own.” Cait grimaced as she thought about what the future held for Kevin. Optimism aside, the only thing guaranteed was that it wouldn’t be easy.

  YEESH

  I WONDER IF IT WOULD WORK

  ON ME

  Cait had to think about that. Whatever was going on with the kid didn’t block out sound, and as far as she knew that was the main way Breastman saw.

  “I dunno!” she replied. “We should figure it out though. Kid is gonna need friends, maybe you guys could game or something.”

  “The Bunker is already analyzing you guys’ experience with him,” volunteered Gwyn. “Alongside what little we could get from the, well, absence of readings tech gave. Honestly, it fucking sucks not having a readout from Metric, that always answers so many basic questions.”

  “Where is Lira?” Cait asked, knowing that diving into Wave science with Gwyn would be a losing battle for her. “Kennedy’s mom specifically told me to go play with her.”

  “In the booth with Bubb-Bill,” Kennedy explained through a mouthful of lettuce. “Been a lot of weird shit this Wave, better to have her on hand.”

  “I’ve been wondering about that. Obviously she’s a pretty great personal trainer, but the whole brain wikipedia thing does kinda supercede that. How is that not her main job?” Cait asked.

  “Well, have you ever tried to make Lira do something she didn’t want to do?” Kennedy asked back.

  “Point made,” Cait acquiesced. “So basically, she gets to do workouts for superheroes, and AEGIS gets Metric’s abilities as a treat?”

  “Bingo!” Kennedy pointed at Cait with her fork before popping the piece of chicken speared on it into her mouth. “Honestly, she’s happy to help, but she’s also super conscious about her abilities. I think she knows there’s plenty of folks that would see that and nothing else.”

  “Hard to imagine they’d think that after actually seeing her.” Cait locked eyes with Kennedy, who gave her back a sly smile.

  “Smoking hot redheads with enough ass for two aren’t everyone’s type, Cait.”

  Cait looked around the table skeptically.

  “IDK, Kennedy,” she said. “Let’s get a show of hands of who ‘would’.”

  17 hands went into the air. Well, 13 tentacles and 4 hands. Dawn included, which Cait hadn’t expected.

  “Damn buddy!” Cait laughed at Breastman’s enthusiasm. “Didn’t know I had that much competition!”

  HOT PEOPLE ARE HOT

  “Fuckin’ put that on a t-shirt,” Cait agreed. “Or, I guess, a hat.”