Radiance Ch. 100

He didn't wait to see how long it would take them to right themselves or require him, Seven punched his way through the front of the stand leaving a power armoured shaped hole in it as he moved, the turrets to his right wasted no time in opening up on the now required target as he sprinted to where he'd left the armour standing burying the floor at his heels until he was clear of their arcs.

Once stood in between the three suits of armour Seven focused his mind and shot vertically upwards with the three sets of armour attached to him by his telekinetic grip but it appeared that the droids weren't done yet as red bolts began to zip past him causing him to have to take evasive manoeuvres to avoid being shot out of the sky with one or two pinging off the armour he was holding.

"Jesus Christ, they really didn't want anyone getting their hands on this stuff did they?" Seven said to himself as he shot along through the air holding the armour close to him, fortunately, the bolts that had hit had done little more than singe the paint off one of the suits, hopefully, Timothy and Shauna could do something with this as he got the feeling going back would be far more difficult now the place was on high alert.

He also thought about the implication of setting off all those alarms in the place, the raiders as stupid as they were most of the time were definitely not going to miss that place lighting up like a fucking Christmas tree, they were going to know something was up now and that someone was operating in their territory, so much for a sneak attack.

Seven landed back outside the tree lab to find Thundertail now clad from head to tail in a surprisingly well-crafted suit of armour that made her look somewhere in between a roman legionary and a walking tank, she was even holding up what appeared to be a massive tower shield that was fastened to her left arm with huge leather straps that she was showing off for the other Gatorclaws who were prodding and tapping at the suit curiously while also tapping at the heavy shield.

"I see your model is enjoying her role," Seven said a little breathlessly as the energy drain of carrying the heavy suits and himself along at high speed not to mention the adrenaline crash caught up with him.

"Yeah, she does seem to have taken to it well like an alligator to water doesn't she?" Shauna said.

"Oh, this is excellent! Three whole suits of T-60 can't say I'm a fan of the colour prefer green myself but we can work with this," Timothy said walking up to inspect the new suits closely and Shuana beamed at him as she caught the green reference.

"Hey are these laser burns? Where the hell did you get these and did you get seen?" Timothy said a noted concern creeping into his voice as he spotted some of the minor burn marks on one of the suits.

"There's a big theme park called the Galaxy zone close to the centre of the park, they were on display in one of the buildings there and yeah kinda set off the alarms when I yoinked them, the place is filled with pissed-off robots and fucking turrets, so many fucking turrets," Seven said rubbing the back of his head.

"Did someone say laser burns? Who's been shot!?" a familiar voice said behind him and Seven turned just in time to see Visa seemingly pop out of thin air right next to him instantly grabbing hold of his suit and swivelling him around to examine him.

"Are you hurt? Did they breach your suit?" she asked in rapid fire.

"I'm fine honestly, just some friendly AA fire is all," Seven said taking hold of Visa's hands and holding them in his.

"No such thing as friendly fire," Vess said appearing next to her niece and leaning down to examine him as well.

"Set the alarms off liberating these three and it kinda lit the place up, they took a couple of glancing hits as I made my escape, nothing major, so how did it go with the Gatorclaws anyhow?" Seven said brushing off the worries of Visa to reassure her.

"Not telling you until I am satisfied you are not hurt, I know your habit of brushing off injuries, out of the tin suit before I peel you out of it!" Visa said in a commanding tone causing Seven to glance up at her in surprise but he sighed and nodded knowing full well it was pointless to argue with her when she was in this kind of mood, they didn't say stubborn as a Claw for nothing.

No sooner had Seven stepped out of the suit than Visa hoisted him off his feet lifting him up to her height so she could examine him closely, she turned him around and once she was satisfied she placed him back down on his feet releasing him as she did so.

"Satisfied now?" he said and she nodded raising herself back up to her full height all while taking on the look of a regal Alpha Claw, it suddenly clicked why she was being not only overprotective but a little bossier than usual, it was because of all the Gatorclaws watching them, she wanted to show them that she was indeed an Alpha Claw capable of keeping her pack in check while taking their safety seriously while showing she cared about her most important and beloved one.

"The Gatorclaws have agreed to join us, they too are tired of the harassment from the raiders and want them gone, they are sick of young hunters coming back with injuries sustained thanks to those savages as well as sometimes not coming back at all, so they have agreed to do anything that is necessary to be rid of them, as long as the human settlers that remain behind leave them in peace or at the very least treat them with respect," Visa said and Seven felt the smile tugging at his face.

"That's excellent news, get the feeling that we are going to need a whole lot more armour for this than just three sets of power armour," Seven said and Vess smiled.

"Indeed and they have agreed to help us there as well, so impressed by what Shauna and Timothy came up with to protect Thundertail that they have offered to help, they are aware of a couple of scrap yards where old attractions and broken robots are dumped, they have agreed to help us retrieve what we need to make more," she said.

"Well then I'm pretty sure I can think of a few ways we can use these suits of power armour not least of all to protect us out there in the field," Timothy said opening one of the suits up and stepping into it after he'd placed one of Seven's spare batteries into the back of it.

As they watched Timothy testing out the suit and moving about in it Shauna sighed heavily and turned to Visa, "Guess you're not gonna be the only one who has to peel their human out of a tin suit anymore," she said and Visa grinned at her.

"I can see that you are already feeling my pain sister," she said.

Chris wandered past the pair and took one of the spare batteries from the bag that Timothy had brought down and turned to one of the suits, "Always wanted to use one of these, but they never let the grunts use them," he said slapping the fusion core into the back of it and before Vess could say a word of protest he was inside of it and moving.

"Great now I know it too," she grumbled as she watched both Timothy and Chris clomping about testing out the manoeuvrability of the seven-foot-tall suits.

Seven chuckled and then turned to look at the last suit and just as he was wondering what they would do with that one he saw Eve come down and look at it before she too took a battery from the bag and slapped it into the back, "I've always wondered what it would feel like to pilot one of these suits," she said turning the handle on the back making the suit stand erect while opening up.

She wasn't as graceful as the others clambering into it but after a little stumbling around as she got used to the suit doing the work of moving for her she soon got the hang of it, "Ok this is officially cool," she said making Seven laugh out loud as he watched the three of them clomping around being watched by the crowd of curious Gatorclaws as well as the fully armoured Thundertail.

"Hard not to feel fucking invincible inside one of these," Timothy said his voice being amplified now by the helmet's onboard mic.

"Yeah but having been shot through one of them let me tell you are bullet-resistant, not bulletproof," Seven said reaching up to rub the scar on his shoulder.

"Only to the heavier stuff like plasma or concentrated laser fire, or maybe anti-material calibres, most bullets just bounce right off these things, I've knocked enough dents out of them and repaired more than enough paint jobs in the Brotherhood to know that, plus these in case you hadn't noticed are the T 60F variant," Timothy said.

"So?" Seven asked curiously.

"So they have much heavier plating all around, they might have a gaudy paint job but they are no less combat effective, plus with me and my big green love machine on the case I've got some ideas where we can make them even stronger," Timothy said confidently as Shuna planted a massive hand on his shoulder.

"Oh?" Seven asked curiously.

"Let's just say that working on Thundertail's new get-up has inspired me and these suits will be perfect to test some ideas I've got out on, don't you worry Seven once I'm done we'll be able to walk through the gates of hell themselves and punch the devil right in the balls in these things," Timothy said confidently.

"Could you apply such upgrades to my male's suit as well?" Visa asked and Timothy looked at the X-01 appraisingly before nodding.

"I don't see why not, same principles apply, just needs some adaption on the shaping, leave it with me I'll plan it out and when I have what I need I'll give you a shout," he said giving Visa an armoured thumbs up.

"Well then looks all we need to do now is get everyone ready for battle, while you guys handle that side of things, I'll continue to scout the outer settlements and take note of the defences they have, I'll also look into that cult while I'm at it," Seven said.

"I'm coming with you, I'm not letting you get your arse shot off without me," Visa declared firmly and Seven glanced at her before closing his mouth again knowing it was pointless to argue with her simply by the look of powerful determination radiating through her eyes.

"Alright fine which would you prefer we look into first the outer towns or the cult?' he asked and Visa scratched her scaly chin with her long claws making a deep rasping sound.

"Hmm I believe our first priority should be to free slaves and to protect the common people, this will set a good example of who we are and what we stand for, if we can rouse enough support then we will be on a far better footing when our main attack on the radio compound is to commence, yes the cult is intriguing and should not slip our notice but they are not a threat to us yet so I'd say slaves first lunatics second," she said and Seven chuckled.

"Fair enough then, alright go get your armour on my lover claw and we'll get to it, I know just the place to start looking, saw one of those towns on my way to the centre of the park that warrants a look," he said.

"Should we not wait for it to get dark? Raiders may be stupid but even in their narcotic fuddled haze I seriously doubt that even they could fail to notice a power-armoured human and a Claw descending from the heavens upon them?" she said and Seven shot her a grin.

"Well who knows if they see you first they might actually think it's an angel coming for them," he said grinning and Visa's growly pur caught in her throat before she shot him a smile.

"Cheesy my silver-tongued human but never stop," she said making him laugh.

"Alright yeah we should wait for dark, probably for the best anyway I could use something to eat and a bit of a rest been flying all day as it is, surprising how draining it can be especially when you have to lug things like that around," he said pointing to the armour that his three fellow humans were wearing while they appeared to be having a jumping jack contest for some reason.

Suddenly Visa planted her hands on his shoulders and began to steer him towards the tree lab, "Then come along my human I am going to feed you and rest you, a strong well-rested male is a happy male and my male will never be sad!" she said defiantly pushing him towards the lab.

Seven sighed and just chuckled while letting Visa steer him towards the lab while out of the corner of his eye, he could see a crowd of scaly heads all turning in unison as they watched, it seemed that Visa was fully intent on making the statement that not only was he her male but that she was proud to be a human loving claw a very public one, not that he was complaining as he got the distinct impression from her body language that resting was probably the last thing he was going to be doing.