Radiance Ch. 112

Both Vizzy and Varrel looked like their legs had been turned into jelly as they staggered about for a moment while both Claws stood leaning against Seven to get their own bearings back.

"Warn me next time you're going to show off," Visa said as she tried to use her tail to correct her balance but it didn't want to seem to play ball by the way it was swishing about.

"Thought I heard a sonic boom a while ago, figured it was either the Enclave attacking us or Seven going for another impromptu flight, looks like the latter.........wait are those fucking Cazadors!!" a familiar voice said from the doorway of the large treehouse come laboratory and Seven turned to see Timothy standing there.

"Shauna!! Eve come down here you gotta see this!!" Timothy called back up the stairs before bounding over to the still-dizzy twins who were leaning on one another for support.

"Oh my goodness, what incredible creatures! Never in my life have I ever imagined that I'd be able to get this close to a living Cazador without it trying to you know chew my face off or run me through with its stinger, hell even power armoured Knights are shit scared of em," Timothy said circling around the pair obviously taking mental notes as he examined them closely though he held off from actually touching the pair.

"Vizzy, Varrel may I introduce Timothy our resident ex-Brotherhood of Steel scribe now turned Super Mutant lover and mad scientist," Seven said playfully making the young human man make a humph noise as he looked up at him.

"Hey I only love one Super Mutant, not their entire species you know," he shot back.

"Damn straight he does and she loves him right back I'll have you know.........wait are those Cazadors!!?" another voice said and Seven turned his head just in time to see Shauna appear before she rushed past him to join her boyfriend in circling the bewildered looking twins as they examined them.

"Oh, my days! What incredible creatures!!" another voice chimed in and suddenly Eve appeared between the pair joining in the circling and mental note-taking as the three discussed what they were seeing in rapid-fire science babble.

"You'll have to forgive our overly curious science team they get way too excited when we introduce them to unseen species that they tend to forget their manners and forget that they are dealing with sapient beings," Seven said like a father scolding his errant children.

Suddenly all three of them froze and all got the same look of being chastised and embarrassment painted across their vastly different features.

"Oh my goodness my sincerest apologies to you both I let the scientist in me run away with me again, my curiosity often has a habit of silencing my manners at times," Even said straightening up and offering a hand to be shaken to the nearest of the pair which happened to be Varrel.

"At least you had manners enough to not poke or prod us and I thank you for your apologies, they are accepted, as Seven has said I am Varrel and this is my twin sister Vizzy formerly of the Nukaworld Hive," Varrel said taking her offered hand in two of his one upper and one lower and shaking it while Vizzy shook hands with both Shuana and Timothy.

"Formerly?" Eve said catching that last part.

Varrel's antennae drooped, "Our hive was destroyed by the ones you call Raiders, they burned it to the ground, and all were lost dave for myself and my sister here," Varrel said softly.

"Oh, dear boy that's truly awful! Is there nothing those vile excrement stains on humanity will not corrupt or destroy?" Eve said her voice taking on a note of genuine sadness.

"A sentiment I concur with Eve but thankfully your leader Seven here has not only offered us sanctuary with your group but also has offered to exact vengeance on behalf of our hive, so the souls of our gentle and good queen and all of our brothers and sisters may rest finally," Varrel said with a firm note to his voice.

"Oh it's a done deal then trust me when I say that if Seven has given you his word he will never break it, I've never seen him even bend it slightly in the time I've known him, if he says he'll do it then he'll find a way," Timothy said patting Seve's armoured shoulder.

"Yes speaking of which our new friends here are going to require some armour and possibly some ranged weaponry, preferably light enough that they can still fly with it, as one of them has expressed an interest in joining us for this though I do believe it will most likely be both," Seven said making Varrel look at him questioningly before turning his attention to his sister.

"He speaks true Varrel, this was our hive, our home, our people, we cannot let this act slide or we will never have peace, our kin's blood must be paid for in blood and some of it must be on our hands too we cannot and should not let others fight out battles for us if we are not willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with them while it is fought," Vizzy said with a powerful note of defiance and anger in her voice that somehow seemed to echo through the buzzing of her wings.

Varrel looked like he was going to argue for a moment but then he just closed his mouth and nodded, "You're right sister, what kind of hive guard could I ever call myself if I was not willing to avenge those I failed, I will be coming too Seven," he said turning to face Seven at the end who just nodded.

"Well then I'm sure we can sort something out for you both but you will need to talk me through your anatomy and I'll need to examine it very closely so that we can work out where the heaviest levels of protection need to be plus we will need to do some tests to see what kind of flight strength you have if you'll come with me please we'll get this show on the road," Eve said quickly stepping forwards and grabbing the rather surprised looking Varrel's arm and vanishing into the tree house with him in tow.

"Well she's keen to get started," Timothy said as he watched Varrel vanish through the doorway being towed along by Eve.

"I think a little too keen," Visa said cocking her large hip and swishing her tail while also folding her arms over her ample bust.

Seven glanced at her curiously but before she could elaborate Thundertail got there first.

"Me's thinks Miss Eve likes new buzzy boy Varrel," she said with a hint of sadness in her voice as everyone knew that Thundertail had been rejected when she had made a somewhat clumsy pass at Eve herself.

Seven reached out and gently patted Thundertail's massive thigh and she glanced down at him.

"Snout up and chest out big girl there's a human out there just waiting for you, don't want to see you moping now do they?" he said and she smiled and nodded.

"Come on let's get up there before Eve gets too carried away and starts trying to turn the lab into an egg chamber or something," Shaua said with a chuckle all of which seemed to be both alarming and intriguing Vizzy who just stood there flicking her attention from one speaker to the nest her alarm visibly growing with each joke.

When they got upstairs they found Varrel standing in the centre of the classroom come lab with all four of his arms out to his sides as well as his wings extended, while Eve circled him taking notes and measurements.

"Magnificent! Simply magnificent! It's like your species has perfectly combined the insect world and the mammalian worlds together into a simply magnificent creature," she said seemingly to Varrel but Seven knew it was more to herself as she ran her tape measure down each of Varrel's arms in turn.

"Umm thank you doctor your words are most kind," he replied in an embarrassed note his wings buzzing lightly as he did.

"Oh, simply fabulous! Your wings help you to display emotion!" Eve exclaimed nipping around to his back and measuring each one before noting her findings down.

"Umm yes the note of the pitch produced when vibrating them can be used to confer an emotional state," Varrel clarified.

"Incredible I had always surmised that this was a form of nonverbal communication used between members of a social hive like that of bees or Cazador, may I measure your sting please?" Eve asked moving around to Varrel's rear and gently running a hand over his abdomen.

As his hand slid off the overlapping chitin plates of his abdomen Varrel's antennae stood up straight in surprise but he didn't look alarmed or angry, merely surprised though seemingly more at how her touch had felt.

"Umm yes ok," he said extending the long stiletto-like stinger from a pouch at the rear of his abdomen.

As they watched the plates shifted to allow the long barb to extend and Seven noted that it was thicker than his finger at the root but it tapered into an incredibly sharp-looking point.

"Oh exquisite! I will have to make time to measure the potency of your venom there might be some rather useful applications for it," Eve said running two fingers down over Varrel's stinger.

"Umm..." Varrel began obviously looking flustered.

Seven cleared his throat and Eve's eyes snapped up to him and the group with him, "Oh forgive me Seven but I simply could not wait to begin Varrel's examination, he is such a magnificent specimen of his species that I once again allowed my curiosity to overwhelm my sensibilities, my apologies to you Varrel if you feel that I have overstepped my bounds," Eve said springing up right and stepping back from the young hybrid.

"N-No not at all doctor, you were umm most diligent in your examination," Varrel said sounding flustered as he felt the weight of his sister's fascinated gaze upon him.

"Learn anything useful in the whole minute that you managed to steal him away for?" Seven said with the accusation lacing both his smile and his voice.

Eve picked up on it and blushed before trying to bury her head in her hastily taken notes, "Umm yes actually quite a lot, he will require quite a lot more study but I do believe I have a solid baseline to work from," she said her voice faltering from the embarrassment.

Seven strode over to her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder nearly making her jump out of her skin and she would have dropped her notes had Seven not caught them telekinetically.

"No need to be ashamed or embarrassed doc, now you truly know how we all feel, now you're truly one of us," he said in a voice so quiet that only she heard it and she looked at him with wide eyes before glancing away.

"Umm thanks," she said before she hurridly headed over to the blackboard and pulled out some chalk.

"Right well let us begin shall we?" she said quickly before she began to draw a surprisingly accurate representation of what was blatantly Varrel on the board, though Seven couldn't help but smile at just how broad she drew his chest or how muscles she drew his arms.

While team science nerds worked and argued among themselves Seven, the two Claws and Vizzy all relaxed on the benches eating some food, Varrel had been drafted in to help the team need to figure out their capabilities as right now he was trying to fly while holding weights strapped to his chest and legs.

"Do you really think she likes my brother Seven?" Vizzy said suddenly and he glanced at her in surprise.

"Well you said now she was truly one of you did you mean that to infer that she liked a non-human or some other way?" Vizzy said and Seven found himself surprised that she'd heard that.

Vizzy seemed to sense his surprise and she tapped her chest plates which he noted were shaped like they had breasts hidden beneath them, "My kind don't hear like yours do, we sense vibrations through our entire carapace, so essentially my entire body is one big ear, this has the added benefit of being able to hear through the soles of our feet as well," she said and he chuckled.

"Should have guessed you'd guys would play by different roles, but yeah it was more a light-hearted joke to put her at ease, Eve is a new addition to the group but she's no stranger to interspecies attraction though more an unfortunately unrequited one really," Seven said noticing Thundertail's tail droop again.

"Oh? A non-human took a liking to her but it wasn't reciprocated?" Vizzy asked curiously and Seven nodded.

"Yeah pretty much but that's her loss truly because I happen to know the person who liked her will make some lucky human very happy one day, but in essence that is the nature of this group we don't force love we simply embrace it in all its shapes, sizes and flavours and by the look of it Eve got herself stung by the first stage of it, like a I said earlier it has a funny way of blindsiding you like that, you never quite know when and where its gonna strike, sometimes its a slow long burning process that takes ages for it's truth to bee realised and sometimes it hits like a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky, totally unexpected but no less powerful," Seven said.

"You make it sound like a force of nature rather than an emotional state," Vizzy said glancing at her brother who was locked in a conversation with Eve who was beaming all over her face.

"Oh it is trust me on that one, ask any human who has ever experienced Claw love at its most raw and primal then ask them to define the difference between their love and a force of nature and I'll bet you any amount of caps they'll fail," Seven said exactly one second before being plucked from his seat and deposited on Visa's lap as she wrapped her long arms around him.

"See what I mean?" he said.

Vizzy looked at as Visa as she nuzzled the back of Seven's head lovingly, "Is human love really so valuable that it's worth breaking from your species for?" she asked the big Claw girl.

Visa looked her right in the compound eyes, and gave her the most fang-filled smile Seven had ever seen, "Without any shadow of any doubt, the right human will show you who you are and make you revel in it as you do in them," she said.

Vizzy looked amazed at her response, "Interesting, I'll have to keep that in mind," she said before all of them turned back to watch team nerd hard at work.