Cait wasn’t asleep. Instead, she just lay in bed, meditating. She’d been trying to break the habit of sleep, since it had become clear it wasn’t necessary. Unlike delicious food, she wasn’t really missing out on anything with sleep; she simply didn’t get tired any more.

  Her ability to stay awake and alert had made a big difference in their hunt for Ironhide not going even worse than it had. If the Evolved Altered’s ambush had gone off without a hitch, there was a chance none of them would have walked out of there, and things were bad enough with losing Hotglue.

  She hadn’t known the man at all. Of all the people on Rodeo Squad, he had seemed the most apt to blend into the background, happy to be included. Seeing his teammate’s reaction to his loss though, she had reassessed her estimation of him. At his memorial, the picture their eulogies painted was one very similar to the role Breastman played on their own team. Quiet, but giving constant support, and surprisingly funny if you took the time to pay attention.

  She’d been with Breastman for about 3 weeks, and she already knew she’d kill for the dude. Add in the years of history Rodeo Squad had with Hotglue, and the sense of loss must have been devastating.

  She winced as she reflected on her fuckup immediately after the fact. Chasing down the wounded Ironhide had turned out okay in the end, but only after the rest of her team had to risk their lives to save her over-zealous ass.

  Around 3 a.m., Cait heard the apartment door open, and Lira snuck into her bedroom. She tried to keep a grin off her face as the redhead undressed, and gently lifted the covers off of Cait.

  “Rahhh!” Cait growled, opening her eyes and shooting up to pull Lira into bed. The redhead yelped and giggled, squirming around to press her back up against Cait’s chest. Cait brushed her hair back, kissing the curve of her neck, getting a hum of pleasure from Lira. She reached up a hand to pat Cait on the cheek.

  “Later, lover,” she stated, although the wiggle she gave her butt as she back up against Cait’s hips wasn’t helping her case. “Long day saving the world, ya know.”

  Cait left a few more kisses on her neck, but relented. What she needed from Lira right now was exactly what she was giving her. It could get lonely at night.

  The next morning, Cait was pulled out of her reverie as Lira stirred, her morning stretches the kind of absent motions that were sexier than anything someone could do on purpose. She craned her neck back to kiss Cait good morning.

  “Okay, you were a good girl last night,” she teased. “Why don’t you join me in the shower for your reward?”

  Cait did, and what a reward it was. Sex with Lira had started out excellent, and only gotten better as they learned each others bodies and personalities. There was an odd kind of equilibrium between them, that shouldn’t really have worked. Both were strong, dominant personalities, that easily could have clashed. Instead, each seemed to trust the other to know what they wanted, resulting in a give and take that left each of them both satisfied, and excited for the next time.

  After they were dressed, Lira dragged Cait out the door towards the Bunker.

  “You’re going to help me bully Gwyn into giving me superpowers,” she explained matter-of-factly.

  “This is probably a good time to tell you she tanked one of my nano-punches, like, a second after she gave them to me,” Cait replied. Probably best to temper Lira’s expectations on the effectiveness of bullying someone that tough, who also fucked eldritch horrors.

  “Ugh, that bitch. Hoarding all of our nano-tech and tentacle monsters,” Lira groaned, completely undeterred.

  “Pretty sure B-man has space for all of us in his heart, if you want in on that action,” Cait teased. “And more than enough tentacles for every hole on the team!”

  Lira scowled at her.

  “Keep that up and I’m gonna ask Gwyn for a robo-dick instead of anything useful. I’ll make you regret not having a prostate,” she threatened. Cait laughed, holding her hands up in surrender.

  They strolled into the Bunker. Cait made sure to keep her head on a swivel, ever since the highly invasive attempt at a medical checkup, she’d avoided this place. Fortunately, the Accessibility Bay that had become Gwyn’s de facto laboratory was the first door on the right after the entryway.

  As they entered, they saw Gwyn leaned over one of Breastman’s tentacles stretched out on a workbench, rubbing at its tip.

  “Whoops!” Lira said, starting to spin on her heels. “Sorry for interrupting!”

  Cait didn’t follow her.

  “At work you two? For shame!” she cat called, “I’m gonna have to observe to make sure you don’t break any more HR rules.”

  It shouldn’t have been possible for Breastman to give her the middle finger, but the little guy was full of surprises. Gwyn turned to them, scowling.

  “Can I help you dickheads? You are interrupting, just not in the way you’re implying,” she said, annoyance very audible in her voice.

  Cait ambled over, taking that as the permission to enter it definitely wasn’t. She looked over Gwyn’s shoulder to the tip of the tentacle she was working on. It was covered with a faint silvery sheen Cait was pretty sure hadn’t been there before.

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  “What were you doing then?” she asked, poking at the tentacle. Breastman hissed and pulled it back, like a cat that didn’t want its paws touched.

  “Actually, you could help out with it!” Gwyn’s voice sounded more cheerful, but not in a way Cait liked. “Boyfriend! Kill!”

  Breastman hissed, and shot the tentacle out at Cait’s forehead. It plinked off, but the crazy force he could put behind his tentacles did knock her on her ass.

  One of these days, a friend is going to try to kill me as a joke only to find the one thing that actually does it, Cait thought.

  But I guess it won’t be today.

  Breastman wrapped a tentacle around her forearm, pulling her to her feet. Gwyn frowned at her.

  “Well, it was less impressive than I’d hoped. I’m coating a few of B-man’s tentacle tips!” she said, grabbing said tentacle and shaking the tip at Cait’s face. The shudder the little monster gave at that did not go unnoticed. “He said he was having trouble against Ironhide, even with being able to harden himself somewhat. I figured I could coat a few to use as armor piercing attacks! Obviously, if he used blastrings on those arms, he’d need a recoat, but should be good until then.”

  “#1, cool! #2, don’t point that thing at me when you shake it, an accidental facial would add a layer to our friendship B-money and I do not need.” Cait said, pushing Gwyn’s wrist away. The cute little nerd blushed, realizing the effect she’d been having on her betentacled beau.

  “For real, the only one that gets to cum on Cait’s face is me,” Lira announced, having rejoined the group at some point.

  Patently untrue, but I appreciate the sentiment.

  “So it sounds like you’re in the mood to be giving out upgrades then?” she walked up close to Gwyn, and even though she was an inch shorter than the technowizard, it felt like she towered above her.

  “Uh, w-what?” Gwyn stammered.

  “Upgrades! You think I fuckin’ liked having your boyfriend save me yesterday? I didn’t! Fix it!” Lira demanded.

  Gwyn looked to Cait for support, but the big girl just shrugged. She didn’t have any specifics on what Lira wanted either.

  “H-how?” Gwyn asked, still on her back foot.

  “I don’t know, I’m not the Meta-Brain! Give me those punchy lines you gave Cait!”

  The Amazon laughed at that demand.

  “Gwyn, why don’t you show her that sim you showed me?”

  She did, and the group winced as mini-Eyebite’s arm splattered against the simulated Roidrage.

  “Okay!” Lira said, exasperated. “So! Not that! But something! I’m dating superheroes, Gwyn. Gotta be able to save myself!”

  That actually seemed to get through to Gwyn a little bit. With her tech mastery, Cait suspected Gwyn would actually be able to take any of her team 1v1, and could probably put up a decent fight against all of them at once. It wasn’t like she had to worry about turning into a liability on a date with Breastman. Unfortunately, she still didn’t look like she was going to cooperate.

  “Honestly Lira,” she said, her tone sympathetic, “I’m not sure what I could do! My stuff works so well for me because I can program it on the fly. Bullshit, you know? Cait and Breastman both have different flavors of invincibility, so they don’t have to deal with a lot of the physics and anatomical concerns the rest of us do.”

  Lira glared at her, clearly not ready to accept defeat.

  “What about MedCorps? BunkerBasement?” she pressed. “Shoot me up with modified radioactive horse cum, give me a gun that turns motherfuckers into sheep!”

  “Okay, first, gross, and second, you can just take a regular gun from the ready room. You are an AEGIS operative, even if you aren’t usually in the field.” Gwyn replied.

  Lira crossed her arms, ready to double down. Then she sighed, and everything about her seemed to deflate.

  “I can’t just take a gun on every date I ever go on. Please, Gwyn. It sucks to feel helpless like that.”

  Gwyn clearly felt for her, but looked like she was at a loss. Everyone in the room could almost hear the complex workings of her brain chugging away. Eventually, her eyes did light up, but the smile she gave was more sheepish than a great idea would suggest.

  “So, there’s something I worked on early on. It is not impressive, but it’d be something, and you could have it at all times!”

  “C’mon, spill!” said Lira, who’s face had lit up alongside Gwyn’s.

  “Well, when I was making the nano-comms, I had to get down programming summonable structures first.” Gwyn waved a hand, and a long matte grey knife appeared in her hand. “This was the practice! Its way sturdier than the phones needed to be, and is literally as sharp as something can be. We’re talking mono-molecular.”

  To demonstrate, she brought the knife down on the corner of the steel workbench. Without a hint of resistance, the knife passed through and a chunk of table fell to the ground.

  “You’d be able to summon it just like your nano-comm, and dismiss it too! It’d always be on you, and you’d be able to cut yourself out of any tentacles like the one that grabbed you yesterday.”

  Breastman wiggled tentacles out towards Lira. Gwyn slapped them away.

  “Don’t make me demonstrate it!” she warned.

  “Its perfect!” Lira squealed, bouncing in excitement. “What do I have to do? I will suck your dick.”

  “You did raise your hand when I asked if you’d bone down with her yesterday,” Cait commented, getting a glare back from Gwyn.

  “I can make that happen! It’d be fun for me, even!” Lira continued her pitch.

  Breastman wrapped tentacles protectively around his girlfriend.

  “No problem! If that’s how it is, B-man can use me like a finger fiddle! Just gimme the nano-knife!”

  “Oh my god, stop!” laughed Gwyn, patting Breastman’s tentacles. “No sexual favors required. Here, let me link it to your comm.”

  Gwyn summoned her tablet, tapping away as the knife dissolved into a cloud of nano-bots, swirling over to invisibly coat Lira’s forearm.

  “Okay, try summoning it. Be careful.” Gwyn warned.

  “HI-YAH!” yelled Lira as she swung her arm down, knife appearing just in time to clink against Cait’s titty.

  “Jesus Christ! All its gonna take is once and that game isn’t gonna be fun anymore!” Cait cried, reflexively rubbing at her breast. It hadn’t hurt, but she still hadn’t quite internalized complete invulnerability. “Also, all of you better stop looking so disappointed when it doesn’t work, or I’m gonna get real paranoid real fast.”

  Gwyn at least had the decency to look embarrassed that her face had visibly fallen when her knife had failed to pierce Cait, but Lira just gave her a smile that was anything but angelic.

  “Am I supposed to have less faith in you, dear?” she said, batting her eyelashes over those piercing green eyes.

  “Okay, hate that, worse than being stabbed,” Cait said, waving at Lira as her face wiped to her normal mischievous grin.

  “Anyway!” Lira exclaimed, “I got what I came for, and these lustful nerds are no longer of any use to me. Come, slut. You two can get back to the worlds weirdest handjob.”

  “Its fucked up that that attitude’s better than what you were doing before,” Cait said, following Lira out to a chorus of 15 raised middle fingers. Lira threw Cait a smile over her shoulder that was frustratingly dazzling.

  “I know how to treat my girls,” she said, sticking out that sexy pink tongue.