Radiance Ch. 15

Radiance Chapter 15: Running the Gauntlet.

True to her word Riss led the group through the winding tunnels of the mine until they reached an exit on the opposite side, well it was more of a collapsed air shaft that had opened up a hole large enough for them all to climb out, but an exit is an exit.

"It hassss been sssso long ssssince I walked on the ssssurface," Riss said looking around herself and tasting the cool night air with her forked tongue, well Seven imagined it to be cool as couldn't actually feel it inside the temperature regulated power armour suit.

"We too know what it is like to hide yourself away from the world, as proud claws we hated it, walking tall and proud is our hatch right, so we know this pain well," Visa said actually sounding sympathetic towards her.

"Honestly with all the shit up here I don't blame you fr wanting to live underground," Gregory said looking around himself nervously as if he expected a swarm of Cazadors or Legionnaires to burst out of the night at any second.

Gregory put his long arms around his nervous human in order to comfort him, causing the slender male to glance upwards and smile softly, "Come on people let's get moving, we got a long way to go and this road is going to be a tricky one to travel" Seven said.

"Plus we have to get out of range of the Enclave's latest puppet before she brings an assault team down on our heads," Wisp said inside Seven's skull and he nodded an agreement.

"This road is dangerous at the best of times, we need to be real careful here, there's a reason the locals and the trade caravans refer to it as running the gauntlet," Gregory said glancing off towards the eerily silent road.

There were no signs of life moving about over the old broken asphalt road, no lights, no fires, no anything for miles upon miles, but Seven already knew that it wasn't the problems that you could see that you should be worried about, it was the ones you couldn't.

Rather than walk along with the asphalt itself, the group used the ditches and scrubland to the sides to keep themselves partially out of sight, well as out of sight as two seven and a half foot claws, one seven-foot Nightstalker and a guy in power armour could be anyway.

The sandy ground also helped to muffle Seven's heavy footfalls somewhat as well, in the utter silence it still managed to sound like he was banging a metal bin lid with a gong hammer with every step but it wasn't half as bad as it could have been had be been walking on the solid asphalt, but still, it was those heavy footsteps that eventually led them into trouble.

The group were spaced out as Seven had advised ensuring that if the shit hit the fan they wouldn't all be caught in one place, Ven was at the very front with Gregory twenty feet behind him, then another twenty feet and Visa was behind him, then after the same distance there was Seven in his power armour and finally right at the back was Riss.

"I ssssmell something!" Riss said suddenly but before Seven could reply a bright light snapped on blinding him and there were a series of clicks which Seven knew all too well, those were the sounds of weapons being cocked.

The group scattered and took cover, it appeared that whoever was behind the light had only managed to pick out Seven in the darkness because there was no furry of movement in order to pin them down, or any form of realisation that there was anyone other than Seven here.

"Well, well, well, looky here boys and girls, we got ourselves a genuine tin soldier" a voice rang out from between the burnt-out husks of cars that were serving as the hiding spot of the group, the accent was thick and rather slow, Seven also heard a series of giggles indicating that there were indeed more than one of them.

"Think that suit will look real nice in our office don't cha think boss?' another voice said as Seven tried in vain to identify the speakers through the blinding glare.

"Why I do indeed Smeg, so why don't you make this easy for us tin man and go on and get out of that there tin suit for us nice and slow, be a real shame to have to fill my new toy full of holes now don't you think?" the first speaker said obviously addressing Seven.

"Not going to happen, you do realise this thing is useless to you right? DNA locks, one user, one pilot, one person, period and that person ain't you" Seven said loudly,

"What's he talking bout boss? What's this err D M A?" the second speaker called Smeg asked.

"It's DNA fool! And he's bluffing, you only see that kinda shit on the later models, you know the ones you always see those Brotherhood cronies running around in, that there is one of them older T45 ones, ain't no DNA lock on that thing" the leader growled menacingly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Seven saw two large shapes moving low to the ground so he decided to stall some more, "Well, either way, it's still more bulletproof than those cars now ain't it? So I think a better idea would be you cut your losses and walk away because I can promise you if we keep this up the only one walking away will be me, I mean sure I might have to get a new paint job and have to buff out a few scratches, but you can't buff bullet holes out of your ass now can you?" Seven said confidently, though inside he was shaking.

There was a series of murmurs among the hidden raiders behind the cars, "Well the way I see it, there's ten of us, one of you, you gotta get lucky ten fucking times to get all of us, we only gotta get lucky once, you like those odds tin man?" the leader growled with a snide laugh.

"That depends on how well you can count?" Seven said watching both Visa and Ven morphing into view their huge figures moving as silent as the night as they crept up behind the hidden group.

"And what's that supposed to mean!?" Smeg yelled.

"Well you see there's ten of you, one of me, plus those two angry Deathclaws right behind you and yeah I like those odds just fine," Seven said.

"Angry Deathclaws? What's the.........holy fucking shit!!!!!' the leader screamed a moment before Visa slammed into him like an angry, scaley freight train.

With a whip of her tail the flood lamp smashed down onto the floor plunging the place back into darkness and Seven fired up his headlamp bringing his rifle up as he did, he was just in time to see Visa hoist the leader off the ground by his long greasy hair, "No one threatens MY males and lives!!" she roared and with a single swipe of her long claws, she cleaved his head clean from his neck.

But she wasn't done there, she pivoted on her feet and like a major league pitcher, pitched the severed head like a baseball right at the next closest raider who was brought to try and scramble out of their hidey-hole, the flying head smashed right into his face snapping his head back, at that point, Seven got sight and fired.

The hunting rifle in his hands roared and lit up the area with its muzzle flash sounding like an angry dragon, the guy who got hit in the face by a flying head now got hit in the back of the head by Seven's bullet and he slumped down out of sight, Ven let out a bellowing roar that must have travelled for miles, but it had the effect he was blatantly going for, the raiders rather than group up and fire at them freaked out and began scrambling over one another to get out of the circle of burnt-out cars.

As a rather large man scrambled for his life over the roof of one of the cars he came face to face with another player entering the fray, "Greetingsssss" Riss said as she decloaked and sank her venom laden fangs into his throat after striking with such speed that he barely had time to blink before he slumped down dead.

The raiders went from ten to three in less than ten seconds, the three of them that managed to break out ran firing over their shoulders as they did, suddenly Visa let out a yell of pain and Seven snapped his headlamp onto her, there was blood trickling down her long tail where she'd been hit by a lucky shot, Seven instantly saw red and a wave of anger like he'd never felt in his life burned through his veins like liquid fire.

"NO ONE SHOOTS MY CLAW AND FUCKING LIVES!!!!" he roared at the top of his lungs, he instantly dropped his gun into the dust as his instincts took over, he reached out his hands and three of the eight circled cars that they'd been using wrenched themselves free of the years of rust and grime that tried to hold them welded to the road, they flew into the air above him and with a roar that even made Ven who was busy gawking at him wince, he threw them after the running raiders like giant metal missiles.

Two of the three missed slamming into the desert dirt before bouncing end over end away from them, but the third was right on target, it flicked sideways at the last moment before impact and hit all three straight in the back crushing them beneath it, but by the screams and yells they could hear they weren't dead, merely wounded, this seemed to make Seven even angrier, he wasn't done.

He stretched out his hand again and even at the distance they were away from him all of them saw the husk of the car lift into the air and hang there before Seven brought it down like a giant metal hammerhead right on top of the three crippled raiders with such force that he buried it into the ground right up to its roof struts, this time there were no more screams and the silence of the night returned.

Without a second thought, Seven rushed over to Visa and dropped down behind her, "Let me see!!" he said in a worried voice, the pain was already beginning to throb in his head like a kicked hornet's nest beginning to buzz, but he ignored it.

"I-I-It is fine my male, just a lucky hit is all" Visa said as she looked down at him in awe.

Seven managed to grip her tail and she saw a neat hole drilled through about a quarter of the way down from the root, it was a through and through, "Nonsense, you are wounded and I will tend it, I've got some bandages in here somewhere" he said pulling his pack off and scrambling through it and despite her protests, Seven managed to stem the bleeding and wind a clean white bandage around her thick beautiful tail.

Holy fucking shit!! Seven you threw a fucking car at those dudes and smashed them into the ground with it like they were bugs under a boot!!!" Gregory exclaimed as he walked up and got hugged off his feet by Ven.

"They shot my woman, you shoot my woman I end you, simple" Seven snarled as his anger began to cool and the pain began to get a better foothold.

A long slender claw-tipped finger lifted Seven's chin and he found himself looking up at Visa's beautiful face, she was smiling down at him, "If we did not have so much ground to cover and were not in such polite company I would be pulling you behind those bushes and cutting you out of that tin can my human" she purred lifting him and hugging him off his feet.

"A guy has to look after his girl you know? It's the rules" he said and Visa laughed and gave him a deep grin.

"Just as this girl looks after her male, that I showed to that bastard who threatened your life" she growled and Seven nodded.

"Yeah I saw, thanks for that," he said and Visa squeezed him tighter making the metal plates creak under the pressure.

"You never need to thank me for such things my human, I love you and that means I defend you to my grave, this is the way of the claws, none shall ever take you from me and any who would harm you will face me" she growled and Seven managed to use the suit's strength to free his hands enough to lift them and stoke her horns making her purr again.

"What a team we make eh?" he said and Ven appeared next to them carrying Gregory in a hug that left his feet dangling in the air.

"Not a team, a pack," he said in a very matter of fact voice.

"Speaking of which where is our newest pack member?" Visa asked looking around to find Riss standing alone over by the cars.

"Why do you stand alone? Your actions to defend our humans here have proven to us both that you are worthy of a place with us, when violence was unavoidable you did not flee and you did not hesitate, you struck, swift and sure and worthy of any claw, so come Riss, be welcome in our pack" Visa said proudly actually making Seven feel like tearing up a bit.

Infact Riss looked like she might, if well she hadn't had the head of a snake and you know, no tear ducts, but she still looked utterly shocked and oh so happy by these kind words for someone who told her only a few hours ago that if she ever laid another finger on her male she would tear off her tail and feed it to her, now she welcomed her like a sister.

So Riss took the invitation and as she got close ven threw a long arm around the surprised Nightstalker's shoulders while still holding Gregory swinging from the other one, "Ahh this feels good and it feels right you know? I feel like with all of us together there is nothing we cannot do and no force that can stop us" Ven said happily.

"I agree beloved brother but do not tempt fate by saying such things out loud, we know too well the thing humans call fate always listens to those who tempt it," Visa said warningly as she put Seven down on his feet again.

"Agreed and I think we may want to get out of here pretty swiftly, the noise of all the fighting will probably bring more of these fucking scavengers in hoping to either pick a few missed carcasses clean or to catch the other raiders unaware so they can hit them," Seven said and the others nodded in agreement.

"My human is right, we should leave swiftly, the noise of the gunshots will travel far on ground like this, it will bring others in from miles around, we should not be here when they show up," she said.

"Shouldn't we you know loot their supplies? I mean they did try to rob us or well you" Gregory said and Seven glanced at one of the fallen raiders, his body looked like the introduction of some very sharp claws to his midsection hadn't done much to change his overall appearance and that really wasn't too great before, he had the appearance of someone who had sent a great deal of time in the company of various chems.

"Nah, honestly I don't believe these guys have anything worth the time taking, I mean just look at them, I doubt they had two loaves of bread between them," Seven said and Gregory glanced at the bodies then sighed heavily.

"It's such a shame that desperation drives people to do such horrible things, I saw it so often as a slave, sometimes some of the more sadistic Legionnaires would only feed half the slaves just to watch the resulting fights that broke out and they took bets on who would win, I saw more than one person get beaten to death for a simple bowl of soup," he said his voice cracking and wavering as he recounted some of the dark days of his enslavement.

Ven stepped forwards and once again wrapped his long arms around the slender human, "No one will ever put chains on you again my human, not while I still draw breath, if they want you they will have to go through me" he said softly and Gregory hugged him back tightly, clinging to his big strong male claw with all his might.

"Thank you, my love," he said softly and Ven stroked his head gently.

"Alright, people let's move out because if those lights over there are anything to go by company is heading right for us," Seven said pointing as he spoke.

In the distance was a series of small lights and they all appeared to be moving closer, they were quite some way off yet but none of them wanted to be there when they got close enough to light them up, so dousing his headlamp once again Seven turned and headed off with the others falling in step with him.

The group were far more aware as they moved along now, it didn't take long for them to realise why people called this place the Gauntlet, the road was utterly littered with bandit camps, both small and large, just laying in wait for a target to walk by unawares.

They took precautions to avoid them as best they could, Seven really didn't feel like having to pull out his abilities once again this quickly, his headache after the throwing of the care incident had been pretty bad, though it hadn't been as bad as he would have thought considering the level of power he'd had to use in order to achieve it, so maybe he was slowly growing more accustomed to using it, or maybe he was just getting better at ignoring the pain.

"Does it hurt like that all the time when you use it?" Wisp asked suddenly, she'd been so quiet recently that Seven had actually kinda forgotten that she was there.

"Yeah, not usually to that degree but then I did basically throw a car at someone, so to be expected, though to be fair the last time I used it that bad I threw a shotgun blast of gravel at a load of ghouls and I passed out remember?" he said.

"Yeah I do, I just didn't realise it hurt that much, I felt it as it pulsed through you, felt the anger you felt when they hurt Visa too, never felt anything like that before, it was like you were made of raw fire or something", she said.

"Yeah I know, I wasn't expecting that myself if I'm honest, but when I saw her in pain and saw that hole through her beautiful tail I just fucking lost it, it was like my brain was screaming how fucking dare they hurt the one I love, over and over again in the back of my head, I couldn't bear the thought and I just wanted to hurt them, had to hurt them, I had to make them suffer for what they'd done, does.......does that make me a bad person?" Seven said softly.

"Not at all! And don't you dare think like that!" Wisp exclaimed and Seven baulked at this sudden explosion of sound inside his head making his headache flash hotter.

"Sorry, it's just you should not feel in the least bit sorry for what you did Seven, you stood up for the woman you love, it doesn't matter if that woman is human, claw or otherwise, she was hurt by someone and you defended her, just as she was defending you, that's what people in love are supposed to do I think, I mean I've never been in love myself but I know that if I had a man like you I'd do anything I could to keep him safe no matter what it was, even throwing a car at murdering robbing scumbags," she said making him chuckle softly.

"You really know how to make a guy feel better you know that?" Seven said and Wisp laughed now too.

"Thanks, Seven, but I meant what I said, don't you feel guilty even for a second, you are a good man and don't you forget it," Wisp said.

"Thanks, Wisp, you know you really are going to make some lucky guy very happy one day, got no doubt of that in my mind at all" Seven said.

"Thanks, Seven, that means a lot coming from you, well on that day that lucky guy can have all the fluffy cloud sex he can handle," Wisp said making Seven snort loudly inside his helmet as he tried to hold the laugh in and he noticed Visa ahead of him glancing him over her shoulder in confusion, he just waved a hand at her to show he was alright.

"Great now I'm going to be stuck with that image in my head fr the rest of the night," he said and Wisp laughed now.

"Nah I'm sure it'll get pushed out by Visa's swishing tail in about half an hour, hell that bandage just makes it even easier to watch now doesn't it?" she poked at him and Seven grinned to himself.

"Given you can't control where my eyes look I bet you're developing quite the thing for a nice chiselled scaley rear end and a long luxurious tail by now aren't you?" he shot back making her laugh.

"Not on you life buster, big strong dominant claw girls might be your thing but they sure as hell ain't mine, give me a plain old human guy any day" she shot back.

Seven laughed, "We'll see how long that attitude last with this group, it seems we have become a mobile mecca for the strange and exotic so, at this rate, we gonna end up picking you out a nice sentient rad scorpion boy who's just aching to get his many hands on a lovely cloud girl," he said and Wisp roared with laughter in his head.