Radiance Ch. 117

Suddenly a rather small mouse dropped out of the pant's leg of the figure and began to run for the shelves just as Ven and Passa burst into the scene.

"What the fuck where did he go!!?" Malakai yelled as he tore the cloth from his mouth and unhooked it from his fangs which he quickly retracted.

"He's turned himself into a fucking mouse!! Look there he goes!!!" Yumi yelled pointing as a pink coloured mouse ran right between Ven's massive feet and tried to vanish under a shelving unit which the big Claw boy simply swatted out of the way like it weighed no more than a cardboard box of air.

"Malakai web him up!!" Wisp yelled before she quickly left her body and raced down towards the scene in her cloud form, there was no way she'd be of any use trying to hit a mouse at this distance with all of her friends in the way.

Malakai quickly began to spin balls of webbing which he threw at the fleeing mouse causing them to splat onto the concrete all around it as it deftly zig-zagged left and right before finally vanishing into a pipe in the floor.

"Oh no you fucking don't!!" Wisp yelled to no one as she flew right past her confused friends and dove into the pipe herself.

The pipe network was like a fucking maze crisscrossing the entire underside of the warehouse and the lab and as Wisp shot down pipe after pipe in pursuit of the fleeing Eight her desperation grew sharper and sharper.

She could not let him get away, she had to get to him though what she was truly going to do when she did catch up to him was another question, the only real option she had was to invade his mind and hope to god that he wouldn't be strong enough to expel her from it through some method or another.

But that's when things truly fell apart because as she caught sight of the fleeing mouse form of Eight she burst out of the exit of the pipe and found herself in an old sewer tunnel that ran under the whole complex, one that was absolutely flooded with rats and mice of all shapes and sizes that fled at the sight of a glowing cloud that burst into their midst.

Wisp flitted one way and then the next trying to pick Eight out of the horde of fleeing rats and mice that were scurrying in every direction but it was absolutely fucking useless, she couldn't tell him apart from any of them, he was gone.

By the time the pipe was pretty much empty and only Wisp and a few stragglers were left her hope had left her, the only good thing that had come from this plan would be that the Railroad scav team saw the whole thing, they had seen Mouse for the wolf in sheep's clothing that she was and would now be hurrying back to their HQ to report this development to their leader.

As Wisp forlornly floated back up out of the pipes and to her body which Malakai had helpfully lifted down from the web nest she could already see the look of frustration on all of her friend's faces, they all knew she had failed, they all had.

"How the hell did he do that!? I thought he could only take the form of other humans!?" Wisp exclaimed as her body came back online and she sat up to face Yumi who looked just as confused as everybody else.

"So did I! I never knew he could do animals as well that was never something he showed off or I'd have warned you I swear!" she exclaimed.

Wisp could see the truth in her eyes and she nodded, "What happened to our witnesses?' she asked turning to Malakai.

'Fled as soon as you went down the pipe, probably already made it back to the HQ given how fast they were running," he said.

Suddenly the radio crackled into life.

"Heads up guys you have a Railroad assault team heading your way and they do not look happy," Fuller's voice said.

"Alright guys best smiles on let's not get ourselves shot shall we?" Wisp said.

Moments later a team of heavily armed individuals some of which Wisp recognised from the Railroad HQ burst into the warehouse with their guns raised, instantly training them on Wisp and her team.

Wisp had stepped in between the two groups to ensure that none of them had a clear shot on any of the non-humans without shooting through her first as she raised her hands up.

"We surrender don't shoot, we are not a threat to you," she said as she stared down the already spinning barrels of Glory's minigun.

"Who the hell are you and what did you do to our friend?" Glory yelled indicating the clothes that were on the floor next to Malakai.

"I hate to say this Glory but you have been deceived, that was not your friend, but rather an imposter in disguise," Wisp said.

"Bullshit!" Glory yelled but suddenly another group burst in this one containing yet more familiar faces, namely Desdemond and Tinker Tom.

"Glory stand down!! They are telling the truth!!" Desdemona yelled and the synthetic woman turned to look at her with disbelief painted all over her features.

"What!?" she exclaimed in confusion.

"Yeah they are telling the truth Glory to trust me I wouldn't have believed them at all when they came to me but then I saw what that girl there can do, that body is a synth but the girl inside it most certainly isn't she's something else entirely, show her," Tom said and Wisp nodded before flowing out of the ears and nose of the synthetic body which Malakai stepped forwards to catch before it fell.

She quickly did a flying loop around them all causing Glory to swat at her and then to watch in amazement as she flowed back into her nose and brought the body back to life in Malakai's arms.

"What in the name of hell are you?" Glory said.

"She's complicated," another voice said from the doorway and Wisp's heart froze as she instantly recognised it and by the look on her face, so did Glory.

All of them slowly turned to see Fuller standing in the doorway with his rifle in his hands but pointing at the floor and a grim but also very pained look in his eyes that told a million stories, none of them were pleasant.

"O-O-Owl? N-N-No, that's not possible! I-I-I saw you die!!" Glory exclaimed in pure disbelief as she dropped her minigun to the floor with a loud clatter.

"No you saw my power armour explode, I wasn't in it at the time," he said in a soft but incredibly pained voice.

"B-B-But how!? Why!?" she exclaimed angrily as her voice cracked and she struggled to make sense of what she was seeing.

Fuller sighed heavily.

"Because I never truly left the ESF to join you guys, I was working for them, just like our escapee friend who turned into a mouse, my job was to infiltrate your organisation and to set you on these guys right here, to use you and your resources to help track them down and then for us to step in and eliminate both your team and the non-essential members of theirs, but then I met you and my whole world changed," Fuller said with such raw pain and emotion in his normally stoic voice that everyone couldn't help but listen.

"You changed my world Glory, you made me realize that it's pretty fucking far from black and white, that it's all kinda beautiful shades of grey, but I couldn't alert you to what was happening without tipping them off, they were listening to my every word and I couldn't risk exposing things while we were out in the Glowing sea to incase it sank everything, so I had to escape and the only way I could see to do that was to fake my death so that you thought I was dead, they knew of our relationship and I thought if I could convince you then essentially you would convince the ESF albeit unknowingly, then I could head out and warn Wisp and her team what was hunting them," he said.

"And he did, he found us and warned us what was coming and now here we are helping to clean up our mess, the only reason they got into your ranks was to use you against us for you and us we're kinda the same so they figured to get rid of two enemies with one attack,' Wisp said.

"There aren't words to say how sorry I am to you Glory, I never in a million years wanted to hurt you, I love you and will always love you even if you hate me with the fire of a million suns I cannot help loving you, hell if it takes my life to make it up to you then its a price I'll willingly pay, it's why I'm standing here right now," Fuller said.

"I cried for fucking days because of you!! I felt like my heart had been torn to shreds and pissed down the fucking drain because of you!!" Glory yelled and Fuller hung his head.

"I know and I'm sorry," he whispered a single tear rolling down his face and dripping off his chin.

Glory suddenly walked up to him and as he lifted his head she punched him full in the face hard enough to snap his head back and cause him to begin to fall, but before he did she caught hold of his collar.

"That's for making me think you were dead!!" she yelled in his face as blood trickled down both of his nostrils.

Then to everyone's surprise she grabbed his face in both hands and smashed her mouth to his locking him in a deep kiss that by how wide his eyes had gone Fuller himself was disbelieving was happening right now.

"And that's for coming back and having the balls to tell me the truth," Glory said as she let go of his face but retook hold of his collar again.

"I err umm...." Fuller began and she place a finger on his lips before wisping some of the blood off him.

"N, not right now, my head is spinning too much to hear anything other than what it needs to, later you are going to tell me the whole fucking thing and I swear to god if you miss a single detail out that punch is going to feel like a fucking flick you hear me, you tore my heart to fucking shreds and now you are going to sew it back together again you understand?" she said and all Fuller could do was nod dumbly.

"Well then now that's out of the way, what do you say we all sit down and discuss our mutual problem like civilised adults and not children with guns because if we want to play who has the bigger cock here, pretty sure we win," Wisp said gesturing to Ven, Passa and Malakai who all turned to stare at the Railroad with enough menace to make their silent point written across their faces.

"I'd listen to her Des trust me it's a fucking wild story and we could seriously use their help, these guys got skills like you wouldn't believe!!" Tom said gesturing wildly.

Desmond glanced between the two Claws and the large spider boy who was flexing his legs like he was ready to pounce at a moment's notice and then nodded.

"Alright then your place or ours?" she said.

"Yours for now but I would recommend moving shop soon as your HQ has compromised thanks to our fucking escapee friend," Wisp said and Desdemona sighed and nodded.

"Alright then let's go," she said and the two groups fell in step with one another with Glory pulling Fuller along by his collar making it clear she wasn't going to let him out of her sight ever again.

It took Wisp two solid hours to recount the tale of their exploits and their findings to Desdemona and the rest of the Railroad and only then did the barrage of questions begin with each of the team answering as one rather than leaving it all to Wisp.

"I was sceptical when they first approached me to Des but I've seen what these guys can do with my own eyes, trust me if they'd have wanted us dead then we would be, they got in here without us ever knowing, hell Wisp took over my computer and my pipboy and I didn't have a fucking clue, hell she could have taken over PAM and hit us from within or even the fucking turrets and turned them on us, hell she could have just opened the door and let her two big scaley friends in there and there would have been fuck all we could have done to stop them, but they didn't they came to us and spoke to us and showed us what was going on in our own house if that doesn't warrant hearing them out I don't know what will?' Tom said.

Desdemona turned to look at Glory who was sitting next to Fuller, neither of them had said a single word other than Fuller filling them all in one what had happened from his side of things though it was obvious he had more to say to Glory later.

"Well Glory what do you think?" she said.

The synthetic woman turned to look at Fuller and then just sighed and nodded.

"Yeah Des for the type of fool it makes me, I say we let them in," she said.

"Well alright then if my best agent thinks you are all worthy of a chance in one case a second chance then I'm in also," she said.

Wisp stood up and stuck out her hand which Desdemona took and shook, 'Glad to hear it now let's get to planning, shall we? We got a base to move and jackbooted fucks to find, oh and a runaway mouse to set the cats on," she said with a grin.