Radiance Ch. 35

Chapter 35: Where the Ravens Roost.

As they walked across the town Seven noticed that they were getting a lot of interest from the residents of the town who had apparently all come out to see the strange group among them again.

Seven could see Maria among the group and she was showing off her freshly repaired coat to quite a few of them and he could see the surprised looks young Malakai was getting and by the way, he was wringing his hands it was making him nervous, Seven slowed his step and placed a large armoured hand on the young Arachnakai boy's slender shoulder and he looked up at him with his large amazed looking eyes.

"Don't worry about it kiddo, trust me those aren't angry looks, those are hopeful looks" he said and Malakai cocked his head curiously.

"Just look at the state of some of their clothes, these girls have just had all their Christmases come at once in the form of a happy little spider boy who is an incredible tailor who could probably make their clothes bulletproof if he wanted to, trust me you are going to be getting a lot of offers in the next few days," he said which made Malakai smile.

"You really think so?" he asked and Seven gave him a huge smile and wrapped his arm around his slender shoulders and gently gave him a playful shake.

"Yup, trust me you are about to become the most popular Arachnakai boy there ever was with my kind and hey you already got yourself a sexy little cloud girl chasing after your fluffy silk-making tail, so don't worry yourself kid you're going to do just fine," he said this seemed to cheer Malakai right up which was oddly obvious because he seemed to raise up on his legs as he walked and Seven saw him glance at the back of the floating Wisp who appeared to have one of her three camera eyes facing backwards towards him which as soon as he looked at her snapped back to facing forwards making Seven chuckle to himself.

He couldn't help but smile at this turn of events, he kinda knew that Wisp was starting to really feel left out and lonely and honestly he couldn't blame her, life was a lonely road to walk especially if you are different from everyone else around you, more so if you look different as well, at least in Seven's case he looked human so he despite having the ability he did could at least vanish into a crowd somewhat, Wisp didn't have that luxury.

She would stand out or be invisible where ever she was because she'd either be a floating cloud of gas that glowed and sparkled or she'd be a robot, one invisible sort of ignored the other standing out like a sore thumb as it was kinda hard to ignore a glowing cloud that moves around on its own.

But then add in on top of that she watches her friends all pairing off and finding happiness in the most unlikely of places proving in essence that most of the time it kinda means nothing what you look like because there will be someone out there with a mind open enough to see you for who you are and find the beauty in you, like him and Visa, Gregory and Ven, and Runs and Riss.

All of her friends found themselves a non-human love to call their own so it was only natural that she would be getting kinda desperate at this point to find someone, anyone who would be willing to look at her that way, the way that Visa looked at him, a giant girl with a body to die for, a temper like a Yao guai that got kicked in the balls and a love so fierce that it burned anyone who dared to question it to ash, who wouldn't want that right?

That wasn't to say she chose Malakai out of pure desperation and that she didn't have any real feelings for him and that she just didn't want to be alone, even Seven as a purely heterosexual guy with a thing for giant sexy crazy tail claw girls could see that Malakai was far from ugly, he might not be what most humans would call conventionally handsome but there were plenty of points in the boy's favour that could catch the eye.

For example, his face was close enough to human to override most people's perceptions of a non-human and even though he had six eyes and little mandibles on the sides of his mouth they didn't detract from his delicate looks, the eyes especially the two rather large ones at the front gave him a permanently amazed and curious look which many would find endearing, then add on that the way he twitched his little mandibles like someone chewing their nails or trying to hide behind their hand and it further added to the effect.

Then there was the human half of his body, he was slender but well built giving him a delicate and gentle appearance which if you added his nervous mannerisms in took away and disarmed the perceived threat created by the spider half of his body.

Then even if you did take his spider half into account all you tended to see were vibrant colours he had running through the surprisingly fine-looking fur that covered him, the black looked almost blue when the light caught it and the yellow was so bright it looked like stripes of golden sunshine splashed across him.

So all in all unless you were the most arachnophobia person to ever live it would be hard to see Malakai as anything but a very innocent and naive young man who wanted nothing more than to see the wonders of the world around him and to revel in them, to see new things and to have new experiences while making new friends and finding ways to make them happy, it was plain for anyone to see that the young spider boy had a heart of gold and as ironic as it sounded, wouldn't hurt a fly, he just wanted to help people and make them happy.

So taking all of that into account it was not hard to see why he had caught Wisp's interest almost immediately because he was very much like her in a lot of ways that her struggles were his struggles with some obviously notable exceptions.

He just hoped that they would find a way to make it work and first of all and obviously most importantly that Malakai would actually return Wisp's attraction and feelings because in his opinion unrequited love was one of this universes cruellest jokes.

Shepherd led them into the meeting room that had prepared where a few more of the women from the town were gathered including the woman who had argued with Shepherd when she'd first brought them in.

The building appeared to be an old church of some kind that had been converted into a kind of command centre for the group, it was full of flip boards that were covered in maps that were adorned with notes and drawn on with circles to denote points of interest to them.

It looked like they had a working printer somewhere because Seven noticed that pretty much all the maps were identical copies of the same map just drawn on differently to point out various points of interest and he began making a few mental notes as he looked around to see if there would be any notes on places to either go or avoid, like rival gang territory or super mutant infestations.

One map did catch his eye and was covered in multiple circles all over the city and at the top, it read 'Amazon sightings' he paid close attention to that one.

Seven saw the black woman watching Malakai as he followed his group up onto the stage he stood there looking at all the maps curiously and seemed fascinated by them, "Hey umm spider boy" the woman said finally speaking and Malakai rotated himself on the spot like a tank turning on the spot on its treads again till he faced her.

"His name is Malakai" Wisp growled darkly the masculine voice modulator adding extra intensity to her voice while she made a point of floating herself up to Malakai's side defensibly which he looked rather glad of by the relieved expression on his face as he glanced at the back of Wisp's lightbulb shaped head/body.

"Right yeah sorry, umm Malakai, would it be alright if I swung by the house you guys are staying in later? I umm saw what you did for Maria with her coat and I gotta say I ain't never seen such work like that before, you like a master tailor or something, so I was umm wondering if you could help me out, I got a few things need fixing and well you know finding clothes that fit properly out here is a motherfucking nightmare as pretty much every house and shop is fucking picked clean at this point so when you find something good and comfy you try to make it last as long as possible, so umm would that be ok?" she asked in a surprisingly nervous sounding voice though whether that was do with Wisp's aggressive posture or because she was talking to a non-human was currently up for debate.

Malakai's face brightened up again, it was obvious to Seven that he really did like to feel both wanted and useful, so genuinely seemed to love helping people because it made him feel both, "Sure no problems, bring over what you've got and I'll take a look, I also do upgrades aw well so if you want me to reinforce thing with things like leather patches just bring me the materials and I can do that too" he said cheerfully.

The woman's face brightened as she seemed to blow out a sigh of relief, "Ok thanks I'll do that, my name is Brandy by the way" she said and he nodded and offered her his hand to shake, she hesitated for a moment but the large Arachnakai boy's warm smile and honest demeanour quickly won her over and she shook his hand.

"Alright introductions first, obviously you've met Brandy there, this is Cho and the tiny one over there is Spectre, ok your turn," Shepherd said pointing first to an Asian woman who looked to be of Japanese descent and then to a small white woman with black hair who was about four foot ten if she was an inch who was sat on a table watching the group with a rather curious but also sour look on her face before Shepherd gestured to Seven for him to do his introductions.

"Ok I'm Seven, this beautiful slab of prime feminine claw beefcake here is my life mate Visa, that there is her brother Ven, next to him dressed like a ninja is his lifemate Gregory, the big deadly looking Nightstalker girl is Riss and next to her is her husband Runs-With-Nightslakers who really lives up to his name, then we have the sexiest Sargent Gutsy you are ever likely to see piloted by our resident sexy cloud girl Wisp and finally we have our resident master tailor Arachnakai boy there Malakai," Seven said pointing to his team as Visa stepped up and wrapped her long arms around him from behind him.

Spectre seemed both shocked and by the look of disgust that flickered over her face repulsed by this interaction between them as well as the new that most of this team were partnered with members, not of their own species but it seemed that in the face of such powerful opposition she was smart enough to keep her opinions to herself.

"Alright now we all know each other this here as some of you will know is our target, Raven Rock," Shepherd said flipping a swing board to reveal a series of black and white photographs along with a couple of maps and blueprints attached to it.

"Ok for those not in the know so our new friends here Raven Rock is an old abandoned Enclave bunker that was sealed up by the Brotherhood of Steel a few years ago, it was originally thought to have been destroyed but it was quickly discovered that the bunker itself survived, or well the lower part of the bunker did, the personnel managed to escape leaving it abandoned but far from defenceless as they left a series of turrets and traps in their wake which until now have defeated all who have attempted to reach it," Shepherd said pointing to the pictures which were obviously before and after pictures of the bunker.

The fact that this place used to belong to the Enclave made Seven both curious and nervous at the same time, it could be an awesome chance for them to gain valuable intel on not only the internal workings of the organization but also possibly the locations of other strongholds, plus possibly valuable equipment that could aid them in their travels.

"Now I believe our best chance of making effective entry into the place would be through the subway tunnels, now I know what everyone is thinking before anyone says it, but Shepherd this place is filled to bursting with an army of feral ghouls and other nasties, not to mention traps, well that's where our new friends here come in, I can't imagine even an army of ghouls being able to even slow down those two let alone stop them," Shepherd said gesturing to Visa and Ven.

"But what about all the electronic locks, alarms and turrets?" Spectre said in a surprisingly deep but also quiet voice.

"That's where she comes in," Shepherd said gesturing to Wisp and Spectre looked at her curiously.

"This robot is not my real body, I don't have a real body, I'm a non-corporeal human and I have the ability to jack into pretty much any and all electronics and take control of them, just like this Sargent Gutsy I can pop into it and control it, it's easy for me, so turrets and electronic locks will be no problems for me," Wisp said.

"And even she can't get through them he will," Visa said confidently pointing at Seven.

"They all looked at him curiously so Seven sighed heavily and stretched out his hand making the board marker shoot out of Shepherd's hand and float around him till he returned it to her.

A look of shock passed over all four of them, "What in the name of fuck!!?" Shepherd exclaimed.

"I'm telekinetic, that is I can move and interact with things with just my mind, its a lot more powerful than my regular body but has a heavy price so I try not to use it unless I really have to, I'm working on making it more useable but it's slow going," he said.

"What kind of price?' Cho asked curiously.

"Imagine having a skull full of broken glass, that's what my head feels like if I push the ability too far or use it for too long so I try to avoid it where I can" he explained.

"Well holy shit this team just got even more powerful and useful," Shepherd said gleefully rubbing her hands together.

"Alright, so where are to make entry into this place?' Seven said gesturing to the map on the board.

Shepherd turned and pointed to a point on the board, "Ok we are here, now we could walk the surface but that's pretty risky as to get close to the place we are going to be passing through some pretty risky areas, at least three of them are controlled by the super mutants, two are held by the Brotherhood of Steel which while that would be no problems for us your non-human friends there not so much, those guys take purity to the next fucking level, so it would be smart not to piss them off or provoke them, also we'd have to pass through suspected Amazon controlled areas and that would be really stupid and that's even before we get onto all the minor raider groups that we'd have to deal with who would most likely be affiliated with Paradise falls, so our best and safest option would be ironically to move through the sewers and subways" Shepherd said indicating what appeared to be a subway entry point very close to where we were.

"Who are these Amazons that everyone keeps mentioning?" Seven asked.

"They are a group of supposedly all-female super mutants which really kinda makes them stand out as it was mainly believed by most that not only were super mutants genderless as the process by which they are created made them all gender-neutral so their only way to procreate was to capture more humans and force them to undergo the procedure, but apparently in more recent times there have been reports of super mutants with male genitalia being sighted and now these girls, now whether they are genuine girls or just super mutants who manage to remember who they once were and its warping their minds is up for debate, but from the reports of sightings I have seen they are supposed to have very exaggerated feminine characteristics," Shepherd said with a shrug.

"They look like female Orcs from the comic books, about eight to nine foot tall, long hair tied back behind their heads in ponytails, broad as fuck just like the boys or the genderless, but given the ones I saw had tits as bigger than my head and they were finally not just basketballs stuffed up their shirts like some of the more confused ones, plus these girls looked like they had thighs that could bend fucking steel girders," Spectre said solemnly.

"Spectre here swears hands down she saw a team of them attacking a group of their own kind near the capital building during a raid on their brethren so at the very least we know that they have no love for their kind, though I have read a few reports intercepted from the Brotherhood of Steel about them kidnapping guys and carrying them off to god only knows what fate, though for the most part, they seem to leave girls alone, but what we do know is quite a few of those boys they took have been later found cut up and nailed up as a warning to others, though others have never been seen again, so eaten or converted your guess is as good as ours, either way avoiding them all together would be the best option for all involved," Shepherd said and Seven nodded in agreement.

They spent the better part of two hours going through the plan to make entry to Raven Rock and what part each person would play, once they were happy they had a functioning plan Shepherd set a time frame for them to leave as tomorrow at just after breakfast which would give them the chance to get all the supplies they would need for the two to three day trek to the place until then they were free to relax.

As they headed for home Brandy came rushing up to them and asked Malakai if it was ok to bring her stuff over straight away and he nodded, she assured him that she would have something to trade for his services and she would bring a selection of things for him to choose from for his payment and she vanished happily heading for her home in the town.

It turned out that new of Malakai's sewing talents had indeed travelled around the small town like wildfire because no sooner had they arrived back home than there was a knock at the door which Seven answered having not even had a chance to get out of his power armour, what he found made him both laugh and shake his head, there was actually of a queue of hopeful women waiting with hope to hire the young Arachnakai boy.

Seven told them that Malakai had promised to work on something for Brandy but after he was finished with her it would be up to him if he was able to see any of them, so as Brandy pushed her way past the queue and into the living room where Malakai was waiting, she was carrying a large box filled with things she could use as a trade for his services.

Seven sighed heavily and he let all of them in before heading back inside himself, it seemed like relaxing was off the cards for tonight, he saw Visa had claimed the large couch for her and him again and by the way, she patted her lap as he stepped into the living room she wanted to hold him and show everyone just who he belonged to.

He opened his new set of power armour and stepped out of it leaving it standing it standing like a silent sentinel next to the couch while Visa reached up grabbed him by the hips and pulled him down into her large lap before wrapping her arms around him and resting her chin on the top of his head for only a moment before using one of her long claws to turn his head and pulling him into a deep and loving kiss where she filled his mouth with her long tongue feeling his cheeks bulge as she wound up his own tongue and pressed the kiss in deeply.

When they parted she purred very softly and very gently nuzzled him making him lift his hands and very gently stoke her horns making her shiver in pleasure belove him, that's when he noticed all of the women who were in the room waiting on Malakai who was currently blissfully unaware as he was focused entirely on the clothing he was holding though given his six eyes he very well might be able to see them but he was focused on what he was doing.