Amaranthine- Horny Heroes

CHAPTER 5

Breastman had also given an affirmative gurgle, and a thumbs up with each one of his tentacles. For Cait, it would have been worth it for Director Swan's genuine, radiant smile alone. The trio quickly finished up in her office, and were soon marching out of the Pantheon building towards what appeared to be a full scale replica of the Coliseum. 

"Never ask a Guardian how often they think about the Roman Empire, huh?" She asked Director Swan, raising an eyebrow. 

The Director smirked. 

"A necessity, I'm afraid. These buildings aren't geomanced, as we don't have access to a geomancer in the area capable of the level of detail needed to make comfortable, livable buildings." She gestured around at the eclectic, but universally beautiful architectural styles on display. 

"What we do have access to is The Hobbyist. A perfect example of an Altered with an extremely powerful and useful ability that is so very specific it's a miracle he discovered it. It turns out, when he builds a kit from the Masterworks line of model kits produced by Hennison Co., a copy of the building in that kit is pulled whole cloth into existence in place of the model. If you're from the area, I'm sure you're aware of the edo style period-accurate Japanese castle just north of Alleny. Well, that is the result of The Hobbyist's first time trying one of those specific kits. We've found each kit only works once, anything else won't do, and kits made to spec for him to build, even manufactured by Hennison Co. and packaged as the Masterwork brand, don't work unless they were produced as a normal planned product release. Thus, we have the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Flatiron Building and the Palace of Versailles all on the grounds of what used to be the Blank Park Zoo, just to name a few." 

"Damn. Hell of a power. Good guy?" 

"Yes, Cait, he's a pretty good guy." Director Swan chuckled and shook her head as they entered an arching gap in the Coliseum that had been fitted with glass double doors. 

The shock wasn't as great the second time around, but it was still jarring to jump from the ancient grandeur of the exterior to an interior that was a well appointed, modern gymnasium. Unlike the real open air coliseum, this one was equipped with a roof that looked as though it might open like a camera shutter. The lights fitted into the roof filled the massive space with a familiar fluorescent glow. 

A large section of the building was devoted to free weights and racks, and Cait was pretty sure she saw weight denominations going up to a full ton. There were various other machines in another section, some familiar, some esoteric, along with all the expected cardio equipment in a high class gym. Some had odd designs, construction, or attachments, speaking to the diversity of form AEGIS hosted. One side of the building seemed to be devoted to closed off, windowless rooms, constructed from a kind of black metal Cait couldn't identify. 

"Damn, and I thought my gym back home was nice." Cait said, the gym rat in her excited by the limitless workout options the space represented. She was in the habit of spending at least an hour and a half a day at Fitness World back home, and it looked like that wouldn't have to be interrupted here. 

"Welcome to the Coliseum!" Cait hadn't noticed as one of the doors to the side room slid open, but looked over to see an adorable redhead jogging over towards them with an excited bounce in her step. 

Her fire orange hair was flecked with gold, and pulled up into a high ponytail, the wavy locks bouncing in step with her movement. She was pretty, very pretty, with striking green eyes that radiated a playful attitude, framed by a cute spattering of freckles. Her attire revealed that those freckles spread down at least to her lithe torso, since it was covered by a light cloth sports bra and nothing else save those perfectly toned abs. Everything about this girl was fit. 

Goddamn, Cait thought. Is it a requirement to be a 10 to work here? Why wasn't Eyebite this hot? 

The perky redhead had on the kind of workout leggings that clung to her like body paint, revealing the smooth muscle of thick, powerful thighs, and promising one hell of an ass once she turned around. Cait wanted to keep on appreciating everything that was on offer, but refused to be caught gawking twice in the same half hour. She pulled her eyes back to the girl's face. She noticed that her cheeks were flushed, and she was covered in a light sheen of sweat, like she'd just finished a workout, or something in that room had been very exciting for her. 

"Hey Beth! I just got everything ready for Cait in test rooms 1. I cannot tell you how excited I am to get started!" She bounced in place, clapping her hands. Cait noted that her bra was more for coverage than support, and the motion did fun things to her perky breasts. Then suddenly the girl was in front of her, grabbing one of Caits hands in both of hers. "Ohmygod, Cait, it has been sooooo long since we had a durability Altered come through here. And one that can take 35 tons of gravel truck moving at speed!? Ugh, I'm gonna die." 

"Lira!" Director Swans voice cut through the redhead's, Lira apparently, verbal onslaught. "Why don't you introduce yourself, before manhandling the people who have just had their lives forever changed by a force beyond human understanding?" 

"Ohmygosh, right, sorry," Lira said, bright green eyes looking up at Cait, her lower lip held in her teeth. 

Wow. Wouldn't mind seeing that look again. 

Lira released Cait's hand but didn't step back, instead staying right up close to her and straining her neck to meet Cait's eyes. 

"So, yeah, I'm Lira," she said, brushing a stray strand of fiery hair back behind her ear. "I'm in charge of classification testing around here, and one of the personal trainers on staff! I'm also Altered, but not in a combat related way. I go by Metric." At the last word she struck a pose, giving a wide smile and a wink while throwing up one hand in a peace sign next to her face. 

 Cute.

"Basically I get videogame like tool tips on whatever I look at, and if I concentrate the info gets more and more detailed. For example, just looking at you, I can see you're Cait Smith, 27, 6'3'', live in Jamestown, do bar trivia with your parents every Monday, work with Pilgrim Ag as a field lab tech, have a 9 and a ½ inch lo…" she stopped there, her eyes wide and biting her lip again, this time with a blush Cait was very familiar with. "Uh… yeah, so, your skin has a hardness rating so high the scale would need to be expanded to accommodate it, and you weigh…. What the hell? 808 pounds? Is any of that a surprise to you?" 

"Big dong, no. Skin, kind of, but I figured. Weight, definitely. I keep pretty good track of that, and I know for a fact I went to bed last night at 202." Cait responded, winking after the first sentence. Lira chewed on her lip, doing mental math. 

"Hmmm…. 4 times your regular density… could explain some of the durability, but definitely not all…." Lira's eyes lit up, the playful gleam from before now coming off as a little more manic. "Holy shit, I have got to start testing you." 

Lira managed to tear her eyes away from Cait to address Swan.

 "Director, would you mind taking Nick to check out Accessibility or available lodging? I have his testing battery figured out and set up as well, but it's completely different than Cait's and I won't be able to proctor both at once. Please?" 

Director Swan smiled and nodded, patting Breastman on the nearest tentacle and turning to leave. "Of course, Lira, call me when you're done. Oh, and on his return, Mr. Fein has elected to go by Breastman, so-, she isn't listening. Ah well, come along!" 

Well before Director Swan had finished talking Lira was behind Cait, pushing her towards the open door of the testing room. Cait found that despite Lira's obvious fitness and considerable effort, she was experiencing next to no force to move, but after a second allowed herself to be marched into the next room. 

What awaited her looked as if a Bond villain had spent his entire budget on a cartoony-ass torture chamber. Conventional and esoteric weapons lined the walls, contraptions of no discernable purpose adorned the floor, and Cait was pretty sure those were swinging hammers and blades locked into place on the ceiling. 

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.