Radiance Ch. 03

"Please call me Wisp, I know it's an odd name but I like it and it's kinda all I got right now, well except for this knucklehead right here," she said hoisting seven slightly higher to emphasise her point.

"Very well wisp since you show manners and ask politely we shall honour your request," Visa said with a surprisingly regal tone to her voice.

"Can I ask where it is you plan on going from here?" Visa asked and Wisp shrugged.

"Honestly I hadn't thought that far ahead, the plan was to escape and evade, that's it, untill we've pulled that part off I can't honestly say that we have a plan B set up yet or any kind of long term thing that isn't run the fuck away from the Enclave based" she replied.

"Then it seems we have more in common in both goals and enemies, I think we should stick together with these two, we could use their help and I'm positive they could use ours, plus it would be nice to have a conversation with another species that doesn't involve weapons fire," Ven said glancing at his sister who growled as she seemed to consider it.

Eventually, she huffed and nodded, "For once in my life I agree with my brother, what is that saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Fitting I believe, together we would be stronger and more of a threat to those that pursue and hunt us, plus four minds would be far superior than one and a half when it comes to planning" Visa said her brother nodding right up until she said that last part.

"Hey! Who are you calling half a mind crazy tail?" he growled and Visa grinned showing off her wicked fangs and huffing a laugh, never in her life had Wisp ever imagined a deathclaw laughing but here it was, but then she'd never imagined having a conversation with one either, this was a day of firsts.

"If you don't mind me asking how did you come to be? It's my understanding that the vast majority of your kind are not exactly great conversationalists and they definitely don't have your eloquence" Wisp asked.

Visa nodded in agreement, "We couldn't tell you any specifics, only the bits and pieces we gathered from our pack when we were hatched, it was much the same story as you yourselves, experimentation by people in white coats with little moral fibre doing what they will because they can, I believe it had something to do with genetic manipulation and viral experimentation whatever those are, but it created the alpha pair of our pack and so we came to be, others like us found us and our pack grew larger, then the Enclave came and our entire world and family was torn from us, whether any of the others survive is unknown to us, for all we know we may be the last two of our particular kind of claw" Visa said sounding sad.

"My condolences on your loss, I meant no offence" Wisp said and both of them looked at her in surprise.

"There is none taken, curiosity is not a sin Wisp but your manners and your tone are both appreciated, it is good to know that there are others out there that believe in manners and simple discourse rather than bloodshed, if only there were more like you," Visa said with her brother nodding in agreement at her side as they plodded along their heavy footfalls crunching on the gravel.

"Oh, there are I'm sure of it. even this knucklehead here is nice once you get to know him, sure he has a bit of a tendency to stick his foot in his mouth by saying the first thing that comes into his mind, but he's a nice guy honestly, I mean look back there, he gave all of us fair warning before he ended that fight, if he didn't care about any other life than his own he could have just as easily shredded all of us with that shit storm" Wisp said glancing down at the stirring softly Seven.

Visa considered this and nodded, "True, though if he had chosen not to and one of us had survived he would have regretted that decision very swiftly, but he did indeed warn us and gave fair chance for us to evade, but I'm still getting my apology from him, no one calls me an animal" Visa said huffily and her brother snickered behind her.

It took Seven a full hour to come back to reality from the stupor his pain besieged brain had forced him into, "Ugggh remind me not to throw a tunnel at people again Wisp" he groaned and he heard a metallic laugh from above him.

"I think I can do that, glad to have you back with us," she said he lifted his head and looked at her as his senses swam back in and he realised he was being carried bridal style by the assaultron.

"Us?" he asked.

"Yeah we have travelling buddies now, they escaped from that fucking shit show of an airship too, infact same way we did, small world huh?" Wisp said and Seven turned his head to see the two huge shapes of the two deathclaws following along at Wisp's shoulders and he made a slight eeep noise-making Wisp laugh.

"Don't worry they're friendly, this is Visa and Ven, they're brother and sister and our little break out actually freed them too, when I popped the cages in the ship to add some anarchy to our escape plan it gave them a chance to become flying deathclaws and jack a pod as well, oh yeah so err you're welcome for that one I guess?" Wisp said and both of the deathclaws looked at her oddly.

"It was you who unlocked all the cages?" Ven obviously the male one said sounding surprised.

"Yeah I was in the system sorting out a covert route for me and Seven to follow so we could escape undetected and kinda saw a chance to A fuck the Enclaves shit up and B cover our tracks better, so yeah think of it as a big ass shiny red button I just couldn't resist pushing, so push it I did, I wonder if they're still fighting up there or whether they actually managed to get their shit together yet?" Wisp said wonderingly.

"The second one, they were circling the area in which were hiding before we ran down here in those buzzing mini flying machines of thiers," Visa said as Wisp stopped to let Seven down onto his own feet albeit a little shakily.

"Fuck, I was hoping for a bit longer but oh well still worked I guess," Wisp said.

"In any case we are grateful for your inadvertent assistance," Ven said and Visa nodded in agreement before turning her large head and locking onto Seven her eyes narrowing as she did, in a single large stride she was before him leaning down to peer right into his face, Seven felt the blood running away from her as he paled.

"I believe you owe me something human," she said and Seven looked lost looking at Wisp.

"She's waiting for her apology for you calling us animals," Ven said and that clicked into Seven's memories as they came back online fully.

"And make me believe it human, I am easily offended and not easily appeased" Visa growled her narrow slit-like eyes looking him up and down as he stood before her.

Seven took a deep breath, talking his way out of situations wasn't exactly his strong point but when facing down an angry offended female deathclaw who hadn't clawed your head off yet the words had better bloody come to you.

"Visa I am very sorry for my offensive words aimed at both yourself and your brother, I did not mean to call you animals it was deeply offensive and was based on my ignorance, if you will forgive me I will offer you any service I can give in order to make this right and regain any honour I have lost in your eyes," he said surprisingly even himself not only with the utter sincerity of it but also of the eloquence of it.

Even the female deathclaw seemed taken aback by this, "You would offer service in exchange for forgiveness?" she asked and Seven silently cursed his big mouth again but couldn't very well retract it now could he and instead nodded.

"Yes, I offended and I am willing to do what is needed to make it right," he said and the big deathclaw drew herself up and scratched her scaly chin with claws which seemed to have retracted into her hands kinda like , with now only the very tips of the claws sticking out of the end of her long multijointed and dextrous looking fingers.

"And I may ask for anything?' she asked curiously and Seven nodded again.

"Yes as long as it is something I am able to give or to do then so shall it be once requested of me, you have my word" he said and that really got her attention.

"Your word you say? Hmmmm I like this notion, very well human I accept I will keep this offer as a boon you owe me and when I feel the need of it I shall hold you to that word of your and call upon the service I require or desire and you shall perform it for me and in exchange, I will forgive you and all will be square, agreed?" she said and Seven nodded.

"Agreed" he said trying not to let the note of dejection slip into his voice, if it had Visa had not noticed instead in a display that both surprised and shocked him she clapped her huge hands together and flashed him a bright but equally dangerous smile that showed off those incredible fangs of hers.

"Excellent! Oh this is splendid, indeed my brother it seems that we have had the good fortune to stumble across the only two humans that not only believe in discourse and manners but honour as well, it is almost like being among our own kind again, a human offering me his service in exchange for forgiveness of his bigotry and ignorance, I never believed I'd see the day, oh I am going to enjoy this" she said and she continued to walk with a variable spring in her step swinging her huge tail happily as she walked.

Suddenly an utterly huge hand clapped down on Seven's shoulder with enough force to shake his whole body, he looked up and saw Ven looking down at him with both mirth and concern in his eyes, "You do realise you not only made her whole year but just offered your service to a crazy tail right?" he said in his gravelly voice.

"I fucking heard that!" Visa voice floated back to them from further up the tunnel.

"Whatever god you humans prey to have mercy on you that's all I can say," Ven said patting Seven's shoulder before continuing on his way after his sister who seemed to have broken into a full-on skip, skipping deathclaws seven really had seen it all now.

Lastly, Wisp walked up to him, "Don't listen to him, I'm proud of you, you offended her and you found a way to make it right, good for you Seven, always knew you had a good heart in your chest and I'm glad you did because you just confirmed me saying you were a good guy to them while you were out of it, now just make sure you keep it, nothing pisses a lady off more than a guy breaking his word to her and something tells me that is one lady you do not want to piss off" Wisp said clapping him on the shoulder before steering him into a brisk walk to keep up with the still skipping deathclaw, though Seven wasn't sure the word 'lady' applied the logic sure as hell did.

They carried on their walk down the seemingly never-ending tunnel thankfully in peace, it seemed that Seven's little stunt had basically murdered the entire feral population in one hit, so when they finally reached the end of the line it was in peace and quiet, the exit of the tunnel was much the same as the way they'd got in, a long winding corridor that leads to a blast door, which thankfully wasn't locked.

It took both the deathclaws to unstick the rusty mechanism holding it closed but with a display of strength that made Seven somewhat both uneasy and grateful that they were on his side they got it open, this one lead into a large room filled with long shelving units filled with a whole host of things, most of which were utterly useless, apart from the full set of military-style fatigues Wisp found complete with boots and helmet which could fit Seven.

He took them gratefully and headed over into the corner away from the group to change, to his surprise Visa followed him and he looked u at her in the gloom created by Wisp's headlamp, "Err I'm going to change my clothes" he said and she nodded.

"Very well go ahead," she said staring at him intently.

"Err why are you coming with me?" he asked.

"I'm protecting my investment, we take favours owed very seriously you know, if anything happens to you I do not collect my debt owed and therefore I lose out, so from now until I decide upon and collect my boon you are under my guardianship," she said in a very matter of fact voice.

"Errr umm ok I guess, but err do you mind turning around or something? I don't exactly like doing this with people watching, I had enough of that shit up there on the ship" he said.

Visa considered for a moment and then nodded, "Very well but be swift she said and he nodded as she turned large spiny back to him, Seven quickly stripped to just his boxers before pulling the military fatigues from their protective plastic shrink wrap which had kept them as fresh as the day they were made hundreds of years ago, he pulled on the pants, tee-shirt and smock before pulling on the hard-wearing boots and lasing them up, the boots were a fucking godsend as the slippers he'd had on had near enough destroyed his feet on their march here.

As he stood up he realised that Visa had been watching him the entire time over her shoulder and he huffed, "What? you merely asked me to turn around you did not specifically say do not watch you" she said and he realised that they took a lot of stuff very literally, he was going to have to choose his wording much more carefully from now on.

They rejoined the others and Ven stopped them before they went to proceed up the stairs that would lead them up and away from the basement storage room, "We should proceed with caution, I smell fire and gunpowder and there is only one species that leaves that scent everywhere it goes, yours" he said pointing at Seven who nodded, they lined up in single file with ven at the front, then Wisp, then Visa with Seven at the rear and slowly and silently began to ascend into the unknown.