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As they played, Cassie and Cameron wandered by, both of them with beers in hand, looking outraged, gesturing to something on Cameron’s phone.
Nikki froze up a little, not comfortable with them being so close, but they weren’t paying anyone else any attention.
“Fuck that guy,” Cameron said with righteous indignation.
Cassie frowned deeply. “What if we fucked him with a cactus?”
“While the cactus is on fire? Sold.”
“I’m worried the fire would damage the integrity of the spines and therefore be less painful because of it.”
“We can light it on fire for round two.” Cameron nodded, comfortable with his own decision.
Tori turned and added, “I feel sorry for this cactus that is about to die a tragic, very young death. I think we should reconsider this plan, as this is plant abuse. Poor, innocent desert pricks deserve nurturing, not burning in some disturbing bum. And what the hell are you two talking about?”
Cameron flipped the phone so they could see the screen. “Look at this. This guy is selling kittens as snake food. What the hell, am I right?”
Nikki looked at the ad posting and felt their own outrage stir. Shit like that was absolutely not cool. Pet stores sold legitimate snake food, didn’t they? This guy was an asshole. “Is that nearby?”
“Yeah, they’re in Sonthofen. Hence why it popped up on my marketplace feed. Shit, seriously, I want to do something about this.”
“What if we made a cactus using floral foam and porcupine quills?” Cassie suggested hopefully.
“If you’re going to do that, I think it only right to give the guy some lube. I’ll buy some road grease.” Lir’s smile was not at all nice.
Nikki looked at them, these grown adults who were ready to wage war over helpless kittens, and felt themself thaw a little more toward Cameron. You couldn’t be a bad person and love animals. That was just fact.
It was as much a surprise to them as anyone that Nikki felt comfortable saying, “I’ve found that explosions fix a lot of problems.”
“Explosions!” Cameron thrust out a hand, offering knuckles to bump. “Right on. Let’s explode this guy.”
Nikki bumped, grinning. Cameron was now officially alright in their books.
Baldewin proved the most sensible of the bunch, as he took Cameron’s phone for a moment. “That really is close by. And the posting is only five minutes old. If we leave now, we have a chance of saving them all. Alright, Knights of the Kittens, assemble! We do ride forthwith!”
Everyone in earshot—which proved to be a good ten people—immediately stood, all heading for the door. Drunk, sober, buzzed, they all were united in their goal. Nikki moved with them, feeling good about for once being the rescuer instead of the rescued. They coordinated about which vehicles to take, Cameron already calling the number to arrange ‘buying’ all of the kittens from the man.
It felt good, to be united in purpose with these people. It felt right, as if Nikki was supposed to be doing this precise thing, at this very moment. See? Nikki was totally right in diving in and telling their fears to shut up. They could totally do this. And they caught the approving look Tori shot them and grinned back at him. They’d save the kittens. And mess shit up.
Nikki was always down for that.
Gunter tapped a couple of notes into his tablet as he walked up the stairs to the fourth floor, where Cassie had created what she called her great hacking hub. A gentle hand squeezed Gunter’s elbow and pushed him slightly to the left. He blinked, his head snapping up to see Nikki had shifted him just far enough over to keep from running into one of Rodrigo’s ice dragons. Igor? Ivan? Vanya? Whatever. There were too many new dragons running around the castle; he couldn’t possibly be expected to keep all the names straight.
The ice dragon smiled and winked at Nikki, giving Gunter the impression that maybe this was a common occurrence. Did Nikki regularly make sure he didn’t walk into other people and walls? He had plenty of memories of Nikki taking his arm, but he’d thought they just wanted to be close to him.
“Do you think they’ve actually managed to pull something off that broken phone?” Nikki asked, which effectively redirected Gunter’s attention from Nikki’s management of him to more important thoughts.
“I do. I think the larger problem we are likely to face is making sense out of what they’ve been able to recover.”
At the top of the stairs, they made a left and walked a few feet down the long hallway before stopping in front of a door. Gunter knocked and grabbed the handle when Cassie shouted for him to enter, but he immediately jerked his hand back when his skin met ice-cold metal. He stared at it for a second, half expecting it to be covered with ice. How odd.
