Radiance Ch. 18

Chapter 18: Upgrades People, Upgrades.

Seven had to say he was impressed by what Riss had pulled off all on her lonesome, though he couldn't help but wonder why she'd done it. Still, by the way, she kept smiling at him he got the feeling she was trying to prove herself.

Ven threw down a dead Ghoul that had a series of large holes through the centre of its chest, "Think that's the last of them, Riss you did a good job of clearing these rotten fuckers out of here there were only six left for us to deal with" he said cleaning off his claws on the dead Ghoul's raggy clothes.

Seven was dragging another and he threw it down into the pile by the door, "Yeah think we got 'em all, certainly an upgrade from a shipping container ain't it?" he said.

Suddenly a huge pair of clawed hands appeared around his metal armoured chest and pulled him back against a large scaley body.

"Oh I don't know, I have a rather fond memory of that shipping container" Visa's voice purred from behind him and Seven gently patted her hands.

"Oh, me too my sexy alpha and I intend to make a whole lot more of them any chance we get," he said making Visa growl softly as she squeezed him tightly.

"I'll hold you to that my sweet-talking human" she growled.

"If by that you mean that sexy scaled bum of yours I say, anytime," he said making Visa growl again, at the same time he heard Wisp making gagging noises in his head, "Mmmm the underside of her tail is looking mighty tasty right about now," he said in a voice so quiet only Wisp heard it.

"Shutting up now," Wisp said very quickly.

"I think we should search this place top to bottom, they got a lot of old stuff stored here and it's pretty much in mint condition, chances are we ain't going to see another place like this one for a hell of a long time if ever, we should see what we can find," Gregory said turning a part for something over in his skilled hands.

"My beautiful human is right, we should see what treasures this place contains," Ven said running his large hand over Gregory's slender back.

So the group spread out and began to search the place inch by inch, it was time-consuming but surprisingly worth it, they found a surprising amount of old prewar military food packed into boxes, this stuff thanks to the preservatives and radiation that it was blasted with it before being either canned or vacuum-sealed it would never rot or expire.

So each of them loaded up a pack with what they could carry, this would keep them going for weeks if need be, though they all agreed it should only be used if they couldn't obtain fresh as, unlike fresh food, it wouldn't rot.

That's when Ven found something rather interesting, he'd had the idea from Gregory who had been somewhat mystified by the presence of military rations here, so he'd figured that if there was military food that there might be other military parts or possibly weapons that the two humans could use, so while Seven and the others kept packing and searching he'd gone off through the maze of shelves and crates.

It turned out his instincts were spot on, he called out to the others and they came through the maze and found him standing in front of what appeared to be a hidden cage tucked right at the back of the building as far out of sight as it was possible to be.

It was made of heavy dark metal with a thick armoured door with a seriously heavy lock just below the handle, even as strong as the two claws were even they'd have a seriously difficult time busting through it.

"What do you think my sister? Think we could force that door?" Ven asked appraising the door carefully.

"I believe so oh brother of mine, there is little two strong claws cannot do when we put our mind to it," Visa said shooting Seven a look that said 'Watch me show off for you.'

Suddenly Gregory stepped up and ran his hand down Ven's long-arm until he stroked it over his hand and entwined his fingers with his, "Now my big claw boy there's no need to show off for me, I know how big and strong you are and you know I love it just as I love you, but why use brawn when you can use brains, allow me my sweet one" he said in a soft voice that made Ven's tail swish.

Gregory stepped forwards and pulled out a leather wallet from one of his inside pockets, they all looked at him curiously as he took out a lot of small tools some of which looked suspiciously like bobby pins, or at least were once bobby pins.

Though right now it was hard to tell what they were as they'd been twisted and shaped into something else entirely, Gregory crouched down before the huge metal door and began inserting various tools into the lock channel.

Seven switched on his headlamp and shone it on the lock to give him more light to work, Gregory flashed him a smile and a nod, "Thanks" he said before setting back to work, they all watched curiously as he twisted and turned until eventually there was a series of sharp clicks and with a triumphant squeak that seemed to make Ven smile Gregory popped the lock open.

The large metal door swung open surprisingly quietly considering how long it must have been since it was last opened, Seven pulled it out of the way so that they could see past it and what he saw inside lit his face up inside his helmet like the morning sun.

"Holy shit would you look at that! Think it still works?" Gregory said looking it up and down.

"Only one way to find out," Wisp said and with that, she shot out of Seven's head and poured out through the vents making everyone jump back in surprise except Seven.

Wisp shot forwards and filtered inside through the vents along the rear of it and mere seconds later the whole thing began to shudder and whirr loudly, then with a loud noise that was blatantly the sound of heavy military-grade motors and electronics powering up the huge sentry bot shuddered to life.

"Oh, how this is a hell of a lot cooler than that assaultron" Wisp said through the Sentry bot's voice modulator, somehow it still managed to have a feminine twang to its heavy mechanical voice.

She lifted the two laser Gatling guns that she now appeared to have for her hands and looked at them, "Don't think I'll be fondling anything sensitive with these do you?" she said shooting Seven a look and he laughed.

"I doubt it," he said grinning as she lowered them and rolled forwards on the multiple wheels the three legs had attached to the bottom.

"You sure it's safe to do this now?" Gregory asked and Wisp shrugged her mechanical shoulders.

"Don't know but I think it's worth the risk for this kind of firepower" Wisp said holding up one of her gun hands and looking at it as the motors made the barrels spin.

"Who knows maybe they make attachments for this thing," Seven said making Wisp laugh as she knew what he really meant.

As Wisp rolled out of the way they all spotted something else sat in the back of the cage and Gregory whistled, "Well would you look at that! That's a T51F!" Gregory exclaimed heading to look at the parts lined up on a rack at the back of the cage.

He whistled as he ran his hands over them, "New helmet with smart targeting and night vision, chest piece with what looks like lead plating to made it resistant against the rads, arms are fitted with better servos and spiked knuckles and the legs have uprated hydraulics and servos, mint condition too, hell if I had to guess I'd say this thing was a prototype, only two things missing are the frame and the fusion core which it's pretty much useless without" Gregory said lifting the helmet up and turning it over in his hands.

"Think we'd be able to find a frame for it around here?" Seven asked running his own armoured hand over the metal of the chest plates.

"Nope, we've been over every inch of this place, we'd have found it by now," Gregory said placing the helmet down on the shelf again.

"Shame would have been really nice to have that on our side and I think it would have made Ven much happier to know that you're protected behind steel" Seven said.

Gregory grinned and pointed to the other side of the cage, "Oh I've already found my protection Seven unless you think you can fit into that thing" he said.

Seven cocked his head and turned to see what appeared to be a rubber diving suit of some kind hanging up on a pole, he walked over and picked it up looking at the oddly shaped mask with a large visor on the faceplate.

"What the hell is this thing? Doesn't look very bulletproof to me?" Seven said and Gregory grinned as he took it from him.

"Doesn't need to be, this here my good Seven is a Chinese mark three stealth suit, wearing this I'll be as invisible as our new friend here, well as long as it doesn't run out of power" he said.

Suddenly a large clawed hand lifted it out of his hands and turned it over, "My human in skin-tight rubber Oh yeah count me in" Ven said with a fang-filled smile making Gregory blush.

"So what do we do? Tak it with us? Be a real shame to leave it here" Seven said and Gregory turned and smiled at him.

"Oh hell no, we ain't leaving it, hell you look much better in metal than I ever could and it seemed to turn your girl on something fierce planning on ways to pry you out of your tin suit, so why don't we give her an even better challenge?" he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye as Visa growled and swished her tail back and forth.

Seven cocked his head, "Are you saying you can outfit my power armour frame to take that thing?" he said and Gregory nodded.

"There's a power armour stand near the entrance, we can hook it up and I'll swap out the pieces, should take me no less than an hour," he said and Seven couldn't help but be impressed.

"What about the DNA lockouts?" he asked.

"Mainly that stuff is only applicable to the frame, but with the new models it's hard-wired into all the parts as well, given this stuff is locked up in a supply cage I'd bet my last cap it's not been programmed yet so as soon as we attached it to the frame it should update it all and the os will sync up and you'll be good to go in a whole new shiny tin suit that Visa can walk about all daydreaming of how to pry off you," Gregory said making Visa growl and turn to her brother.

"This male of yours knows a lot about the claw heart," she said and Ven grinned proudly.

"You bet your crazy tail he does, he knows my heart like the back of his beautiful hands," he said.

"Give it a try now," Gregory said lifting the welders mask he'd found near the stand and Seven stepped behind the armour suit and slapped in the fusion core he'd taken out of the back of his T45.

The armour made a series of whirrs and whines before Seven turned the handle in the back causing the suit to open up like a metallic flower, "Alright here goes nothing" he said before stepping inside.

The suit closed around him and instantly began to power up, in front of his eyes green numbers and symbols scrolled past as the suit synced up with both the frame and his Pipbody, 'DNA signature uploaded and logged, user-approved and cleared, system online' appeared in front of his eyes and as it did Seven felt the joints unlock.

Taking his first step forwards Seven was surprised by just how much lighter this suit felt over the old one, he'd always imagined power armour was power armour and the only differences were in what was stuck to it, but it appeared that it was simply so much more than that.

"How's it feel?" Gregory asked as Seven bounced on his heels and examined his hands.

"Good, it feels oddly light," he said and Gregory nodded.

"That's the reinforced servos, it's designed not only to allow you to move faster but to carry heavier loads as well, they usually used to kit people in these suits out with heavy weapons so they needed them to be able to carry the load without it bogging them down, the frame only does so much, the rest is in what you bolt on to it, they made a lot more of these T51's than just about any other model and from what I read up on it and saw in old holovids I've found from time to time they were really popular, that's why it made it up to the F model you got on right there, there only two more models better than it, the T60 which is the model you tend to see the Brotherhood guys running around in and another one that I don't know much about but I believe its called the X-01," Gregory said.

Visa slunk up behind Seven and wrapped her arms around him dragging her claws over his chest leaving light coloured lines in the paint, "You just put it on and I'm already dreaming of peeling it off you" she growled making Seven chuckles and glance at Gregory.

"Seems you really do you your way to a claw's heart," he said making Gregory blush slightly before he noticed Ven holding up the skin-tight Stealth suit with a knowing look and his blush got even brighter.

Ten minutes later Ven looked like he was going to trip over his own tongue at some point as he gazed unashamedly at Gregory's rear stuffed into the very form-fitting black polymer suit, "It umm chaff's a little in the crotch" he said and that was Vens cue to pounce seizing hold of his man from behind and running a hand down his belly.

"I think I can help you out there" he purred softly.

"I think that would probably make it worse my love, it's tight enough as it is now," Gregory said in a soft voice and that made Ven purr even louder.

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Riss was looking on almost longingly and nearly jumped out of her fur and scales when Wisp tapped her on the shoulder with gun barrel covered arms, she'd actually figured out that there was actually a hand under the guns that could be exposed by retracting the guns up onto the forearms, which made this model of Sentry bot far more useful in that it could manipulate things and not just shoot them.

"Don't worry girl, you get used to them after a while, or you go crazy one or the other, just do yourself a favour don't get any ideas about pouncing on him, as good as he looks I've lived inside his head, that man utterly adores Visa and he will never betray her willingly and trust me he's a lot stronger than he looks" she said making Riss smile guiltily.

"How did you manage being inssssside Ssssseven'sssss head?" she asked and Wisp shrugged.

"It was tough but I realised that if that man can love her the way he does there is no reason I can't find someone to love me the same," she said and the big Nightstalker girl smiled brightly and hopefully at this.

"Me too," she said as the pair turned back to looking at the loving interspecies couple.

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"I feel him again! I can see him again!" Number two suddenly yelled making Dr Chalmers jump a mile before spinning on the spot to rush over to her.

"Where is he!?" she demanded grabbing the young girl by the shoulders and shaking her, her milk-white eyes turned to her but looked right through her.

"H-H-He's in a warehouse of some kind, I see many shelves and containers, i-i-i-it looks like a truck depot of some kind" she replied.

Dr Chalmer turned to one of the Assaultron assistants who was stood nearby cleaning tools, "Bring me a map NOW!!!" she yelled and without a word, the Assaultron scurried off to retrieve the item requested.

It didn't take long for the robotic assistant to return with the requested map and Dr Chalmers snatched it from its claw-like hand before spreading it out on her desk.

She began to pour over the region where she believed they last were at the base of the mountains, using a compass she began to pan outwards from that point looking at roads etc until she found three potential sites where they could be.

She began to question Number two as to what she could see and based on the answers she gave she narrowed it down till she was left with one of the three and a dark smile spread across her face, "Gotcha" she said reaching for the comms.

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The group were sat watching Seven cleanings and polishing his new power armour suit well all except for Ven who was still drooling over Gregory in his new skin tight stealth suit, it was getting so bad that Seven was beginning to believe that Gregory was very glad that the suit as utterly waterproof as he was basically sat in a puddle as he watched Wisp using her new robotic hands to cook their meal.

Seven couldn't help but smile at them though, it was good to see his two friends so in love with one another that the pair could barely keep their hands off one another, in fact, Ven had shimmied himself over so close that he was only one step from scooping the slender little human male into his lap which happened only five seconds after Seven had the thought.

Suddenly Riss sat up ramrod straight and her tongue began to flicker in and out rapidly as her ears began to twitch and swivel atop her head like furry radar dishes trying to lock on to something.

Visa instantly noticed her sudden state change and turned to look at her, "What's wrong?' she asked a hard note of concern creeping into her deep voice.

"I hear sssssomething, it ssssounds like an engine" Riss said.

That instantly put everyone on edge, "Check the roof!!" Seven said quickly as he dashed around the back of the new set of armour and opening it.

Visa dashed towards the ladder that led up to the roof access and scaled it in a matter of seconds popping her head up and looking around the daytime clear sky, "We got incoming!! They fucking found us!!" her voice yelled down sending a cascade of ice water gushing through Seven's veins.

The armour slammed shut and the suit powered up, "Gregory! Riss! Hide!" Seven yelled and the Gregory cloaked and vanished from sight as Visa slammed the roof access and locked it before dropping back down and rejoining the others.

"I want to fight!!" Riss snarled and Seven nodded.

"That's fine but your best skill is stealth and ambush, hide and take out any who get separated from the group, if we're going to get out of this we have to fight smart and hard, we are going to be outnumbered and outgunned so we are really going have to fight for this and we will need every advantage we can get and you have to make sure I can't see where you are," Seven said and Riss looked confused.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because this is my fault, they must have got into my head again which means they can see what I see, I don't know if they can hear what I say but we have to assume it, so if I don't know where you are they can't use that against you or us," Seven said.

"It's not your fault Seven it's mine, I left your head before we were sure we were clear just because I wanted my freedom and a new body, I should go back in and then they won't be able to see anything" Wisp said and her voice even through the modulator sounded distraught.

Seven placed a metal hand on her metal shoulder, "No it's not Wisp, it's their fault, those fuckers out there, they want to hurt us and control us and they believe that they have that right, they don't and we will not let them take us and the firepower that new body of yours has is going to be a massive advantage and we are going to need everything we can get because they are going to hit us hard but I am confident we can get through this, together" he said

Wisp nodded her domed head, "Thank you Seven that means a lot to me" she said and he patted her shoulder making the metal of her body ring loudly.

"Alright let's move we're going to have to act fast here, they will most likely come in through the roof once they see the guard Ghouls, so we should prepare for that" Seven said and both the claws nodded in agreement.

"What's your plan?" Ven growled.

"Simple........" Seven said and he began to outline what his idea was.