Chapter 1

  Sealord’s attempt to resurrect New York had been doomed from the start. Yes, he could control the oxygen content and salinity of small bodies of water. Yes, he could talk to fish. Why the fuck he thought that would be enough to deal with the Kaiju and freak storms that had rendered Coastal life untenable would be a matter of historical debate.

  His true calling, Cait thought, had been found here in Des Moines. She and Lira stood in front of the wave-styled entrance to Sea Kingdom, watching the fish swim along the tank that ran through the wave motif.

  “If he can talk to them,” Cait asked, as Lira laid her head on her shoulder. Her eyes tracked a jellyfish that floated up from below the sidewalk. “Do you think he has to count them as employees?”

  “He probably should, but AEGIS typically lets stuff like that slide, especially since he handles a lot of the water treatment for the area,” Lira explained. She took Cait’s hand, tugging her inside. “Come on! I wanna make out in the tube!”

  Cait rolled her eyes, but let herself be pulled along. The aquarium was breathtaking the you walked in the door. The reception desk sat in front of a massive cube of water, containing all manner of sea-life, Altered and otherwise. Cait watched as a large fish with a placid looking, bald human face happily chomped at flakes floating down from the ceiling.

  The couple checked in, finding the fees waived for the Guardian Amaranthine and her plus one. As Lira led her down another glass-walled hallway, she laced her fingers into Cait’s, and reached across to lay a hand on her bicep.

  “So tell me about what you, like, did,” she asked. “Before AEGIS I mean.”

  “Lirapedia’s data not exhaustive enough for you?” Cait asked with a grin. She knew Lira, technically, knew everything about her. She could do that for anything she looked at, her personal benefit to being Altered.

  “Oh my god, Cait, if I just used that for everything I’d never talk!” she complained. “To anyone! About anything! I love talking.”

  “Do you?” Cait asked, leaning against the cool glass wall and pulling Lira into a kiss. The light played through the water over her pale skin, a stray refraction highlighting the bright green of her eyes. “Weird how little talking we’ve done the last few weeks then.”

  Lira stuck her tongue out at Cait’s grinning face.

  “Well, yeah, I love fuckin’ too. God forbid a girl have hobbies.” Lira pulled away, and swatted at Cait’s ass to get her moving again.

  “What’s the weirdest workout you’ve ever had to design?” Cait asked her as they kept ambling down the aquarium’s halls.

  A big benefit to Guardians having, to put it mildly, non-standard working hours was that they were here on a Thursday afternoon, and the place was deserted. Lira kept one arm wrapped around Cait’s, but tapped her other hand against her chin in thought.

  “When Bill started showing up, I assumed it’d be him. I mean, what was I gonna do with a vaguely human shaped pile of bubbles right?” they both chuckled at the thought, but Cait knew it wasn’t a joke. She’d seen the bubbleman plugging away on a treadmill her second day at AEGIS. “Turned out, you do the same thing with him as everyone else, just being more careful with anything sharp. Dude somehow had cardiovascular issues without an actual cardiovascular system, so I started him on some light rehabilitation workouts. A few months later, I couldn’t get him off the treadmill. Apparently he can still have heart problems with that body but doesn’t get joint pain. Way of the fuckin’ Waves I guess.”

  “Way of the fuckin’ Waves,” Cait echoed. “Didn’t answer the question though, I bet you’ve done that with a thousand middle aged dudes. Definitely not the weirdest.”

  “I mean, you’re right, but I’m a little paralyzed by choice.” They stopped in front of a column filled with gently floating jellyfish, and Cait lost herself in the drift as Lira thought. “Honestly I’d say Breastman, the stuff Jonas has him doing is insane, but really Jonas has laid out his whole plan. For me…. Oh! You know Chloe? Ugh, you’ve been here like a week, of course you don’t.”

  She shook her head like she was being silly. Cait just smiled, gesturing for her to continue. Nothing like watching a beautiful person talk about something they loved.

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  “She’s the big fluffy owl you’ve probably seen around campus. Well, she’s one of the folks that got really fucked over by being Altered. Whole new bird body, weird instincts, and worst, fragile-ass bird bones that did scale well to human size, and can’t even fly! She was having massive weight gain issues, both due to depression and the fact that your average exercises were legitimately dangerous for her with her new bones and body plan. Easy, just put her in the pool, right?”

  Cait opened her mouth to answer, but Lira was already continuing. Seemed like the question was hypothetical.

  “Nope! Those feathers did not do well with water, and she got a weird skin condition we had to get Farewell, ugh, r.i.p, to take care of. So! After a few more failed techniques, I got the idea to try the wind tunnel we use for Freeflow’s resistance training. It turned out Chloe can’t fly exactly, but she can glide beautifully with the right wind speed, and keeping herself steady and at the right level in the tunnel was actually a really good workout! Plus, the feeling of flying, even simulated, did a hell of a lot to help with her depression. IDK if that’s necessarily my weirdest, but its definitely the one I’m the most proud of.”

  I love you. The words entered Cait’s mind unbidden, and she let them bounce around in there for a bit before they faded. She was growing more and more concerned that they were true.

  “You,” she said, swinging the redhead up by the waist so her face was slightly above her own. Lira giggled, looking down at Cait with an emotion similar to that four letter word Cait was feeling in her eyes. “Are amazing.”

  Lira leaned down to kiss her, soft and long. She broke away, bringing her lips to Cait’s ear.

  “C’mon, we’re not even in the tube yet.”

  “Were you serious about that?” Cait asked, grinning up at her. “’Cause I’ll fuck you in the tube. I don’t care if that weird bald fish watches.”

  Lira rolled her eyes.

  “Down, girl.”

  Cait complied, putting her feet back on the floor but keeping her close. Lira looked up at her, lower lip held in her teeth. “Honestly, if I didn’t love this place so much I’d consider it. Don’t want to get banned.”

  “Believe me, I wouldn’t mind!” crackled a new voice over the PA system.

  “What the fuck?” responded Cait, who’d definitely thought they were alone.

  “Sealord, at your service!” the voice returned over the PA, bombastic and proud.

  “Can we fucking help you?” Lira asked, glaring up at the nearest speaker.

  “I should very much hope so!” Sealord replied. “You see, a wave started right after the two of you entered the building, and one of our residents has had a concerning Alteration. Amaranthine, if you would look to your left?”

  Cait looked to her left.

  It had probably been a clownfish, judging by the orange and white patterns, but that no longer properly described the beast that was careening towards the glass. It slammed into the wall, cracks forming and immediately starting to spray water.

  Time slowed down as adrenaline rushed through her veins. She felt Lira’s grip tighten on her hips, and the redhead’s breath begin to speed up in fear. The monster was backing up for another ram. Cait looked down at Lira, then threw her over her shoulder, sprinting for the exit.

  “Why are you running?” yelled Sealord. “Aren’t you invincible?”

  “ isn’t, asshole!” Cait yelled, swinging her free arm to unleash a nano-powered punch and pull herself forward. There was another crash from behind her, and she immediately felt water wash over her shoes. “Can’t you control fish?”

  “Alas, my amazing powers of conversation do not extend to the Altered denizens of the sea,” he responded. “’Twere only that so, I’d likely be the ruler of this world by now!”

  Man, Sealord fucking sucks, thought Cait.

  “This guy fucking sucks!” yelled Lira.

  Cait burst out into the lobby, water already up to her lower thighs. The woman who had sold them tickets stood on the reception desk, terrified.

  Fuck, gotta get her out too.

  The water was quickly rising, and Cait made a snap decision. Punching towards the woman, she propelled herself up onto the desk. Not bothering to explain, she threw the hyperventilating woman over her other shoulder. She leapt back into the rising water, feeling a fish swim between her legs as she high-stepped towards the door.

  “Cait! Faster!” yelled Lira, a note of panic in her voice. Cait’s peripherals were filled with ass of varying quality, but she could imagine what Lira saw behind her. The doors were only a few steps away. She reached them, and tried to pull them open, but even with (barely) superhuman strength couldn’t overcome the water pressure.

  “Fuck this,” she muttered, letting both women drop into the water. “Cover your ears.”

  A sonic boom sounded as her arm glowed gold, shooting her fist out and shattering the doors.

  “Out! Now!” she yelled, grabbing at the women to throw them to safety. She got a handful of the ticket agent’s ill fitting blazer, but only found water where she’d dropped Lira. She tossed the woman out of the building, then spun, eyes locking onto Lira.

  She was being lifted into the air by one of the tentacles that now comprised the ex-clownfish’s tail area, pulling her towards a maw of razor sharp teeth.

  “Cait!” Lira called, eyes wide and terrified.

  Cait blasted towards the monster, but she could see the tentacle was moving faster than she was. Again, time seemed to slow as she watched Lira get pulled towards a gruesome demise.

  The air above Lira flashed, a swirling mandala appearing as something scarier than the Clownfreak dropped through. One of its purple tentacles whipped out, severing the orange one that held Lira while another two caught her. Those two proceeded to not-so-gently toss her towards Cait.

  -SAVED YOUR GIRLFRIEND-