Radiance Ch. 20

Chapter 20: City of the Dead and Not So Dead.

"Mmmmmm I could really get used to all this human luxury you know, nice human home, nice human bed, gorgeous human boy to warm it for me........." Ven said playfully smacking Gregory on the rear with his hand as the slender human man walked past into the main living room where all the others were already up and about.

"Hey! I am nobody's bed warmer!" Gregory snapped, actually sounding quite angry at that comment which the very sour look on his face also backed up.

Ven looked both surprised and taken aback by his human's sudden change in demeanour and a look of concern crossed his face, "Hey now I'm only joking my beautiful one, you know you are so much more than that to me, you're my everything" he said trying to embrace Gregory but Gregory shrugged his hand off him and stepped out of range leaving Ven standing there looking both hurt and surprised.

"What's wrong my love?" he asked.

Gregory hung his head and looked down at his feet, "I hate that term it's degrading, it's what Legionnaires used to call the slaves they took a liking to, women and men both, they would be forced to work all day and then carted off at night to 'warm' whatever Legionare's bed at night, it was fucking horrible" he said sadly and instantly Ven balled his fists in anger.

"Rapist pieces of shit! They can't get someone beautiful for themselves so take them by force!" the big claw male snarled angrily and that's when Seven saw the weight of his own words hit him and his eyes widened.

"T-T-They didn't do it to you, did they? Oh please tell me that they didn't do that to you" Ven said and Gregory shook his head.

"No, I was one of the lucky ones," Gregory said and Ven stepped forwards and wrapped his long arms around his slender human and this time he didn't shrug him off.

"I'm so so sorry my wonderful man, I had no idea and I promise I'll never say that to you again, you are nobody's slave and you are certainly nobody's bed warmer, it is my greatest happiness and pride to share my bed and my life with you, the very fact that you look at me the way you do makes my heart sing the most beautiful of music and I love you more than life itself, you know that right?" Ven said softly.

Gregory sniffed softly and Seven could see that his emotions were getting the better of him which was utterly understandable knowing only the fraction of what that man had seen and been through.

He embraced Ven and clung to him burying his face in his claw boy's broad chest, "Thank you Ven, I love you too, thank you for understanding me" he said his voice choking up softly and trying to hide it against Ven's chest scales.

"Hey now you never have to thank me for loving you nor do you have to ever hide your emotions from me, don't you ever be ashamed of them as they are as beautiful as the one they belong to and if anyone ever wants to try and belittle you for feeling what is yours to feel will answer to me," he said gently holding his man tighter now.

"You got that last part wrong dear brother," Visa said from her perch on the sofa, she had actually figured out a way to sit herself on Seven's lap without crushing him by using the arms of the sofa to support most of her weight so she could nestle her bum right on Seven's lap and coil her tail around him possessively.

Both of them looked up and Seven could see the tears on Gregory's face even from behind Visa, "They will have to go through US" Visa said proudly making both of them smile.

"Thank you Visa, thank you, everyone, you have no idea what that means to me," Gregory said.

"Ahh don't mention it, Gregory, we're family and that's what families do, they protect each other" Wisp said and Gregory nestled his face back in his man's chest as he held him tight, Seven saw it plain as day in the way they held together, it was going to take far more than the Enclave to ever tear those two apart, just like him and Visa.

Thinking of which he looked at the back of his big claw girl as she sat proudly upon his lap, he very gently ran his hands over her wide hips and squeezed her making her stiffen slightly before relaxing and turning to smile back at him, "Mmmm I love the way you touch me my human" she purred softly and Seven smiled up at her.

"Trust me the feeling's mutual but when faced with something this beautiful it's damn near impossible to keep my hands to myself," he said rubbing his hands very gently over the top of her rear and the root of her tail making it tighten its coil around him.

"I never want you to keep your hands to yourself my human because I never will" she growled softly.

They were all kinda loathe to leave their refuge behind but none of them wanted to give their pursuers a chance to catch up to them or for any others to stumble across them, so after carefully closing up the bunker door and concealing it as best they could in case they had to return here they set off into the dead city.

Moving between the ruins of the city at night was creepy as hell, they couldn't afford any light sources so all of their lamps were out so all they had was the light of the moon to go by, fortunately, apart from the two humans in the group, everyone else could see perfectly in the dark, so both Seven and Gregory were in the middle of the pack with Wisp bringing up the rear thanks to her advanced sensors and night vision which would help them spot their pursuers before they had the chance to spot them hopefully.

So Riss was out in front using her cloaking and acrobatic skills to move quickly between the buildings without being spotted, there was Visa, then Seven, then Gregory followed by Ven and lastly Wisp.

Seven was painfully aware that every single footstep he took echoed badly, the sound bounced so badly that for every step he took in the powerful and heavy suit of power armour it actually sounded like he was taking three or four steps, which was rather disconcerting.

But the sound was the least of their worries as they plodded along through the echoing streets, Seven was once again blindfolded to prevent his eyes giving away their position so he was being led by the hand by Gregory who much to Visa's annoyance had been the obvious person for the job as they needed both claws on guard duty, so while he couldn't see any of the debris that Gregory was trying his best to steer him around Seven was watching his onboard Geiger counter like a hawk.

Even now hundreds of years after the very last of the bombs had fallen this city was still heavily irradiated, but then given how much ordinance had been thrown at it was hardly surprising, but it was also now home to a great many nasty creatures with neither feared the radiation nor those unlucky enough to be trying to thread their way through it.

A great many of them had managed to work out how to use it to their advantage, before they'd even got halfway into the city they had avoided no fewer than ten ambush sites set up by the Super Mutants that called this city home.

Fortunately, they were big and for the most part not incredibly smart so not only did they have a habit of announcing the positions of their camps with rather large fires which gave away their positions for miles around but they also didn't really understand the concept of camouflage so they showed up rather easily showed up on Wisp's sensors.

Riss was running along a rooftop ahead of the main group as they passed through the streets below, her eyes saw through the darkness like it simply wasn't there so she was an absolutely perfect scout, in fact, it was those eyes of hers that picked out something very odd against the backdrop of the dead city.

Everyone jumped a mile when Riss dropped down from a roof right in front of them, both Visa and Ven instinctively pushed their humans behind them and dropped into fighting stances with their bodies low and their claws fully extended before they realised who it was.

"Fucking hell Riss don't do that!! I nearly sliced you into three!!" Ven exclaimed as he retracted his claws back in and stood up allowing Gregory to peek out from behind him as he loosened his tail grip on him.

"I found ssssomething ahead!! Come quickly! I think itssss bad!" Riss exclaimed in a very animated way which set all of them on edge.

"Alright lead on," Seven said checking his weapons and gesturing with his hand before Riss ran on ahead leading the group at a run down the street.

Seven's footfalls had gone from simply echoing to utterly booming now he was running but right now he didn't care, the very fact that Riss was worried about something was more than enough to get them all moving at top speed, they'd only known her a very short time but her drastic change in manner worried him.

They reached a large open tower that was standing towering into the sky like the builders had wanted to try and touch the sun, it amazed Seven that it was even still standing after the number of bombs that had hit this city.

All of the sides were made utterly of glass or at least had once been, now the open metal frame looked like some kind of grim skeleton that still reached for the sky after having the flesh stripped from its bones at its moment of death.

But it was hiding in the base level that had obviously grabbed Riss's attention, even from their position in a bombed-out diner across the street they could not only see the group of Super Mutants that had taken over the place turning it into a camp with a large cooking fire at its centre, but they could also see all the makeshift cages that they'd set up for storing prisoners, or rather cattle.

Super Mutants were not exactly known for their compassion towards others, to them if you weren't like them you were inferior and that made you food.

Animals, insects, hell even humans they simply didn't care, if they caught you you were utterly screwed, they were among one of the horrors of the wastes that you hoped killed you outright rather than captured you, because if they did what awaited you did not even bear thinking about.

Even now as they watched one of the groups of ten or so was preparing a meal for them, what they saw filled Seven with both a profound sense of grief and anger.

Upon a blood-covered stone and metal slab in the centre of the area next to the fire lay a young red-skinned human woman who was screaming in agonising pain, both of her arms and legs had been cut clean off while she was still alive and were in the process of being fastened to a roasting spit above the large fire.

"Oh my god! Oh fuck I think I'm going to be sick, that poor poor woman" Gregory exclaimed his whisper so filled with grief that they all felt it pouring out of him.

"Look! There" Riss said pointing to the left side of the bank of cages and the group all turned to look where she pointed.

It took all of them a moment to realise what she was indicating, but when they saw it Seven felt their collective heart sink as low as his did.

In the centre cage sat all alone was a man.

He was sat with his head pressed into his knees and his arms wrapped around them, he looked like the young woman who now had stopped screaming as the tremendous loss of blood due to the severing of pretty much all of her major arteries had sent her soul onwards to what Seven hoped was at the very least a peaceful rest given the horrendous way she had died.

He was young-looking, no older than twenty by Seven's approximation though it was kinda hard to tell at this distance, his red skin seemed to glow an amber colour in the lick of the fire's golden glow.

His long jet black hair that seemed to be filled with an assortment of feathers and beads flowed down his shoulders like a waterfall made of ink as he pressed his head in between his knees in a vain attempt to block out the horrors of what he was being forced to witness.

Seven huffed and checked the chamber of the hunting rifle as well as the charge on his laser rifle, "Alright guys what's the play?" he asked and everyone turned to look at him all wearing the same expression well all except for Wisp who's face was expressionless, but he still felt it.

"We going in?" she asked.

"Well don't know about you but I can't just walk on by and let that poor guy get eaten, I'd feel that for the rest of my life and there no fucking way I'm carrying that for the rest of my life however long or short it is, the way I see it we promised to show both Riss and these two noble claws here how not all humans are evil, how can we do that if we simply walk past a soul in need and ignore it like he doesn't matter? Every innocent life matters in this world, how many times while we were on that airship did we lay awake at night simply praying that some noble person would burst in and pull us out of there, well now we have the chance to do just that and I for one will not walk on by and ignore him" Seven said with such fire in his hushed voice that both Visa and Ven drew themselves up proudly and nodded at one another.

"Well said my beautiful one! Every day you find new ways to make me proud to be the one who walks at your side and holds your heart, lets go save that human and show the world one life at a time that just as you say for humans, not all claws are bad, we are noble and we will stand for those who cannot stand for themselves!!" Visa growled proudly.

Ven nodded in agreement, "Well said sister, so what's the plan?" he asked and Seven looked over the scene playing it out in his head before a smile broke out on his face when his eyes picked something out among the mess.

"I got just the thing," Seven said and they all turned to him again and they huddled up while he explained.

The group broke and moved to get themselves into the positions that Seven had set out, with a bit of luck they would be in and out before the mutants even knew what the fuck hit them, but just in case shit hit the fan Wisp was standing by to pour a wall of fire onto them to cover the group's exfiltration, the timing would be everything here so all Seven had to do was wait.

"Ugggh these humans are so stringy, wish we catch a bucket head, they always have fat on them" one of the mutants sat around a makeshift table said as he bit a chunk out of what appeared to be an arm that had been cooked over the fire.

"Yeah haven't had a good fight with the bucket heads in ages, they must be scared of us," another said.

This set a few of them laughing, Seven simply watched and waited, then it happened and he was ready.

The mutant acting as chef turned back and lifted down the spit from the large fire and as he did Seven gave him a hard telekinetic shove while also locking up his legs so he couldn't stumble and catch himself.

The result was he went face-first into the fire pit, the screaming was instant and incredibly loud, as the mutant tried to haul himself out of the incredibly hot flames Seven could see his skin was already beginning to peel off, the others at the table instantly rushed to help their fallen comrade.

No sooner had they clustered around the fire to pull the fallen mutant out Seven reached out again, though this time he wasn't pushing something he was pulling something, more specifically a whole group of somethings.

The spoon leavers of the grenades in the bandoleer the leader of the group were wearing around his chest all flicked off at once as Seven tore all the pins out simultaneously, "Fire in the hold motherfuckers" he said silently.

The blast was utterly incredible as the ten grenades all went off at the same time, the mutant who had been wearing the bandoleer simply ceased to exist except for a single leg that simply stood where he had a second before stood.

The whole group of them was caught in the incredible blast that sent a cloud of deadly shrapnel out in every direction catching all of his comrades full in the face, this was the signal Seven's three hidden friends had been waiting for.

Almost Immediately as more mutants rushed in from another room to figure out what the hell was happening they were caught utterly off guard by the two angry deathclaws that simply seemed to spring out of nowhere and rush right at them.

The pair were on them before any of them could even get a weapon into the raised position, not that they could even fre them when they did because for some strange reason all of the ammunition just jumped out of their weapons all at once like it simply didn't want to fight the two angry claws that were tearing into them with their wicked claws.

While that was going on the door containing the now utterly astonished human popped open as the lock holding it shut was picked open by invisible hands.

"Come with us if you want to live!!" Gregory said from right in front of the utterly confused and frightened man.

"W-W-Who y-y-you!!?" the man said in what sounded like broken English.

"No time to explain, Riss, get him clear we gotta go more of them are coming and Visa and Ven are going to get overwhelmed!!" Gregory said quickly.

"With pleassssure" Riss said and before the man could even say another word he was yanked from the cage and thrown roughly over the large invisible Nightstalker's shoulder.

Just as Seven saw the captive human apparently floating arse first across the street towards his position more mutants began to spill into the fray from above, "Wisp you're up!!" Seven yelled as he focused on disarming any projectile weapons he saw the mutants wielding, his brain felt like it was full of needles being shaken around but he would not let the pain beat him, the life of both his friends and the woman he loved was on the line here.

In a stand-up fight without firearms, the mutants were not matched for the incredibly strong and angry claws, both Visa and Ven were kicking and slashing left and right moving like a pair of dancers in perfect sync.

Every single slash of their huge claws was opening vicious wounds and sending sprays of hot blood into the air to paint the floor and walls, that's when the air around them filled with burning hot laser beams.

Both of them didn't bat eyelid as they both know this was part of Seven's master plan, plus they both knew that this was their cue to haul tail and get out of there, so as the mutants scrambled to duck into cover to avoid the barrage that was being aimed at them both claws turned on their heels and sprinted out of there back towards the diner.

"Clear!! Seven now!!!" Ven roared as he dove into the cover behind the counter.

Seven blew out his held breath slowly and squeezed the trigger of his scoped hunting rifle.

The weapon roared and kicked but in his power-assisted hands, the rifle didn't move from its target.

Seven swore that it felt like time slowed down as he threw himself down behind the counter and pressed himself flat and in his mind he worried that he'd missed, but the white flash that bleached out all the colour in the world for the briefest of seconds above him said he'd hit his target square on.

The roar for the mini-nuke detonating inside the building across the street was utterly deafening, but then no one said splitting the atom was a quiet affair, all of the mutants hiding in the building across the street vanished in the blink of an eye.

As Seven dared to lift his head above the counter again he was just in time to see a huge pillar of pure golden flame rising upwards through the floors above creating a mushroom cloud about halfway up the building with the metal skeleton at its centre.

"Holy shit!! Well, that fucking worked!!" Wisp exclaimed as she hoisted her body back upright from her hiding spot behind a metal counter, most of the counters and walls of the diners were now scorched black from the heat that hit it from the nuke going off.

Just as Seven dared to get to his feet again he was instantly tackled back to the ground and found himself buried under a writhing mass of scaled muscle.