Radiance Ch. 110

"It's gonna be hard to know who to trust given he could be fucking any one of them, though from what Yumi told us I don't believe the team got to Glory and I highly doubt they went after Desdemona as those two would be hard to emulate and given that Des runs the show emulating her would be a seriously hard task because not only would you have to have inside info on all the ops but there'd be a whole lot of tells locked up in her head, so most likely he went after either a junior heavy or someone similar, so I'd say a safe bet would be to reach out to one of those two if it comes to it," Fuller explained.

"What about that Tom dude you told me about?" Wisp asked and Fuller nodded.

"Yeah he'd be a hard one to copy as well given he's a conspiracy nut but he's a damn genius when it comes to coding and cracking tech, he's probably another safe bet infact given his love of tech he'd probably be a good place to start, he and Des never leave the HQ really from what I was told, so if someone managed to kidnap either of them it would mean they'd be pulled right of the HQ which would set every fucking alarm bell the group had going, so your best be to locate Eight is to look at agents who were in the field in the last few weeks," he said.

"Alright that gives us a solid starting point thanks Fuller, we'll keep a radio with us so you'll be able to speak to the team though I'll probably be rad silent when I'm in there unless I can crack into one of their comms relays," Wisp said and Fuller nodded.

"Yeah just be careful around that shit, Tom wired up all sorts of crazy ass security protocols around it, it's one of the major reasons they use dead drops and physical comms most of the time, a lot harder to crack or locate," he said and Wisp nodded.

Finally, the time came for them to leave their comfortable house in Diamond City and to head back out into the wilds again so with one last farewell to half of the team Wisp and her crew set off for the deep streets of Boston City.

Fortunately, Diamond City itself was located on the outskirts of Boston city but the place got far more dangerous the deeper you went, everything from super mutants to raiders to feral Ghouls and Claws roamed those streets hidden between the massive towering buildings so even with a team like Wisp's you had to keep your wits about you and your weapons ready.

Malakai was acting as their scout as they went as he was easily able to get up high onto building rooftops to be able to get a birdseye view of what they were walking into, though it was still rather entertaining for Wisp to see her man leaping from building to building before scuttling up the wall he landed on and onto the roof high above her head, he also seemed to be rather enjoying swinging from various buildings using his silk lines like a big eight-legged fluffy Tarzan.

More than once he zip-lined his big fluffy arse down on them stole a kiss from Wisp and shot back up the line before she could retaliate leaving her on the ground watching his white fluffy arse vanishing back up the side of the building he was currently on.

"Well at least someone's having fun," Gregory chuckled after about the fifth time he did it.

"It's honestly nice to see him in his element like this, it's easy to forget just how strong and powerful he really is when he's cooped up in a building with nothing to do but patch holes in our armour or fix clothes though I am glad that also makes him happy," Wisp said with a wistful smile as she watched Malakai leap from a building sailing over fifty feet with his eight fluffy legs fanned out only to land on the side of a skyscraper which he proceeded to run vertically up.

"Kinda easy to see the jumping spider in him when he pulls shit like that," Ven said making Gregory chuckle.

"What and the eight legs didn't give it away before?" he said making Ven swish his tail in annoyance.

"There is more than one type of spider you know?" he replied snarkily making Gregory grin at him.

"I know I'm just yanking your tail," he replied.

"Alright guys game faces on we're getting close according to Fuller's map," Wisp said glancing at the hand-drawn map Fuller had given them, he'd also noted down some Raider encampments in the area which he mentioned that the Railroad apparently left in place as a kind of cover to dissuade any delvers from accidentally stumbling across their HQ.

"Alright, where are we gonna set up?" Gregory asked looking at the large church in the distance.

"Well we don't want to be too close to either them or the Raiders though I doubt they'd be stupid enough to tangle with us if they got a sight of Ven her strutting his stuff, but still I'd rather fly under the radar if at all possible," Wisp said looking around.

'What about that place there?" Ven asked pointing to a rather large skyscraper off to their left which overlooked the whole area.

"Hmm good sight lines, be hard for anyone to get a bead on us up there and plenty of space for both Gregory and his rifle not to mention Malakai to do his thing, yeah that works lets go get set up," Wisp said nodding.

"You might wanna signal the amazing flying fluffy bum up there before he goes leaping onto the church roof," Gregory said pointing upwards at Malakai hanging upside down on what appeared to be an old window cleaning rig that was swinging in the breeze.

Wisp sighed and nodded pulling out a little pocket mirror and using it to catch the sunlight she flashed a code to Malakai which thanks to his multitude of eyes he easily noticed.

Attaching silk-like to the wall he zipped down with his eight legs fanned out to stabilise himself until he hit the ground right in front of them.

'What's up?' he asked smiling all over his handsome face.

"We're gonna set up in that tower over there, high up, lots of good sight lines and decently far enough away that we can quickly cover the distance here without being observed easily," she explained.

Malakai rotated himself on his axis to look up at the tower and nodded, "Ok got it, I'll go take a look while you guys walk there, if there's anything bad in there I'll let you know ahead of time," he said and with that, he leapt back ont othe wall and began leaping from building to building on his way there.

"Think it'll shit him up if he finds mutants in there?" Gregory asked and ven snorted.

"Think it'll more likely shit the mutants up, imagine how you'd seel if you had no idea he existed to be sat in your happy tower only to have a massive armoured flying spider jump onto your window, plus given his love of heights he's gonna be far more at home fighting up there than they are, he'd have them all out of there and flying like big green bricks in seconds," Ven said confidently.

As if on cue as they got close they all heard a scream from high above them, as they looked up a large green shape came whistling down out of the sky and impacted the ground with a sickening wet crunch ahead of them.

"I'm gonna hazard a guess at Malakai found some mutants camped out up there," Gregory said as he looked at the ruined remains of the fallen mutant who thinks to his impromptu flying lesson kinda looked like a burst green sausage on the pavement ahead of them.

It was swiftly followed by four more screams and as they looked up Malakai could be clearly seen on the outside of the building throwing what appeared to be lines of sticky silk into a hole on the side of the building and yanking the mutants out of it into the air before severing the lines and letting them fall the few hundred feet into the pavement far below.

After the fifth one hit the pavement with a wet crunch Malakai came down on a line of silk looking like a giant spider descending from the ceiling.

"Bloody mutants, they were on me the moment I hit the side of the building, think I shit them up while they were eating dinner, that stupid sod tried to grab me and pull me inside, well you can see that didn't go so well for him now did it, then his four friends decided they wanted to have a go, stupid fuckers came at me with bits of wood with nails in, I'm bloody insulted here I am in this stylish body armour made to soak up whatever you can throw at me and they decide big sticks will be enough to take me down, well you ain't squashing this spider with no stick!!" Malaki snarled obviously still pumped up on adrenaline from his tussle.

Wisp walked up and gently stroked his yellow leg and he turned quickly on the spot until he saw who was touching him and he calmed instantly down.

"Sorry just got a little worked up is all," he mumbled in way of apology.

Wisp reached up and gently took his face in both of her hands and went up on her tiptoes to kiss him loving the feel of his little mandibles rubbing her cheeks as she did, "You did amazing my little cuddle spider, plus you were a lot quieter than us having to go I there guns blazing or Claws booming," she said and he smiled at her.

"Think the place might need a clean given yeah mutants but we could always use a higher floor," he suggested and Wisp nodded.

"Lead on," she said gesturing to the building.

Malakai led the team up the stairs of the ruined building, though to be fair it looked like only the furniture of the building was ruined, the superstructure and everything else was still extremely solid, hell even most of the windows still had glass in them other than places where they'd been broken by shit like gunfire.

The team decided to take a hard pass on trying to clean the level the mutants had been using and instead headed up to the roof level where they stopped one shy of the roof itself so they couldn't be seen from the outside, though Malakai did decide to run a zip line down from the roof to a nearby building as a means of quick escape should they need it, he made it by weaving a multitude of silk strands together into a dense rope that when secured would hold every one of them up at the same time with zero issues.

The place they chose was a series of large offices with only two ways in or out minus the non-functional elevator shafts which they barricaded off, that only left the two stairwells at either end of the building, from up here they had a clear view down onto the church where Fuller had told them the HQ of the Railroad was located and all the ground surrounding it, so they could easily see anyone coming or going on the surface streets and roads.

"Alright from up here we should be golden to keep tabs on that place, though I'm gonna have to go and take a much closer look if we hope to get inside, or to make contact," Wisp said peering down at the church far below them.

"It worries me you going in there alone with another number wandering around in there," Malakai said his voice betraying his deep concern and his love.

Wisp turned and gently stroked his smooth cheek, "Don't worry my little cuddle spider he can't hurt me as a cloud remember? Most he could do is try and vacuum me up but by the time he's had that idea, I'd be long gone but not before making everything with a circuit board in the place go bat shit crazy," she said making him laugh.

"Don't fuck with the sparkly cloud girl or she'll kill you with your own coffee machine," Gregory said from a table he was currently laid flat upon looking through the scope of his rifle.

"Damn straight and if not your coffee machine then I'll definitely think up some creative uses for your own grenades," she replied with a grin.

"So what's the play gonna be boss?" Ven asked reclining against the table Gregory was currently lying on and using his tail to stroke his man's back gently.

"Simple I'm gonna go down there and scope the place out, see what we're up against and also if I can pick out Eight who knows maybe I'll be able to spot his electrical field thanks to him being a shapeshifter, he may give off something suitable which will give him away, if not I'll see if I can find a way for us to possibly get one of the big three that Fuller mentioned away from the others and then we'll make contact," Wisp said.

"That's if Eight hasn't got them all twisted up in knots already I doubt he's been sitting on his fucking hands all this time and he's got a good head start on us by now," Gregory said.

"Agreed but we still gotta try otherwise we're gonna be fighting on multiple fronts and I don't like the thought of having to go to war with these guys, they only trying to do what they think is right and to free what they see as slaves, that's the kinda people we want fighting with us not against us so we'll have to convince them," she said.

"Well let's hope your diplomacy skills are as good as Raymond then eh?" Ven said.

"Yeah let's hope," Wisp said taking one last look at the church.