Radiance Ch. 45

Chapter 45: Sisterhood.

Shauna sat on the couch with her hands folded in her large lap, she was trying to remember a point in her life that Sheila hadn't been there before but she was failing miserably.

The pair had grown up together doing everything together, they were more like sisters than friends when the pair had the opportunity to become scientists working out of Rivet city they had jumped at the chance, every love, every loss, every triumph and every failure the pair had shared it all.

But now........now she was just gone and Shauna felt so incredibly empty, despite the fact that they had just burned her lifeless body in a pile of wood she still kept expecting her lifelong friend to just walk in the door and give her that warm smile that had lit up her entire life.

She found herself constantly flicking her gaze up to the door every time she heard a simple noise like someone moving around in the house, she just felt so empty inside now, so lost, honestly, the only thing holding her together now was Seven's group, if it hadn't been for them she would have broken down and totally lost her mind but right now they were all around her supporting her and keeping her whole and together.

She remembered the day that they were snatched by the super mutants it was the scariest and worst day of her life, but Sheila had gotten her through it, her reassuring presence had kept her sane and had allowed her to analyse the situation rationally, but then she also remembered the heartbreak she had experienced when they had gone through the vats and come out the other side changed into what they had become now, but it wasn't the new look that truly broken her heart, it was the fact that Sheila's intellect had been so severely reduced.

Sheila had been one of the smartest people that Shauna had ever known, she had such a critical and analytical eye and mind, there wasn't a problem or equation that had ever beaten her, so seeing her so diminished was truly awful.

But over time Sheila had not only overcome the problem but had learned to embrace her new self and from what Shauna had observed it had given Sheila a new perspective on life and rather than the science she couldn't do any more she decided to focus on other things, like trying to be happy and that's when she'd become more focused on boys.

Their whole lives the pair of them had had zero luck with the boys, they just really didn't know how to either talk to them or even how to approach them to spark up a conversation, their whole lives they had simply been the nerd girls.

But Sheila had become determined that one day they would find boys for themselves and then they could show them their true selves, but then the Amazons happened and seeing what their so-called sisters had done to innocent men and boys and the pair of them had been so distraught and disgusted by the behaviour of their so-called gender that they'd had no choice but to run.

That's when they'd seen this incredible group of people, humans and non-humans working together so perfectly that they had no choice but to try and seek their help, it had been a massive risk but if they weren't willing to help them then who would?

But even after kidnapping Seven not only had they helped them and taken them in but Seven had even offered to help Sheila with her quest to find herself, someone, to love, but now she would never know what love was or the joys of a good man.

That thought simply added to the crushing weight of the depression sitting on her shoulders like a heavy rock, all she had wanted was to find herself a beautiful open minded boy and to make him happy while protecting him from all the shit this world could throw at you.

That's when a flash of inspiration hit her and with it came a wash of determination, Sheila had been the one who had always been pushing her to embrace her new self and to be happy about it, to move on and to be the best super mutant girl she could be, she'd said if she was confident in her skin then the boys would see that and they'd be more likely to not only accept her but to approach her, so this was it, that's exactly what she was going to do.

Shauna steeled her nerves with a deep breath, in Sheila's honour she was going to fully embrace the spirit of Seven's group and their way of life, she would stop fighting it and she would take the first step into her new life in honour of her fallen sister she would find herself a man to love and she would give him the best life she could give, she would do everything in her power to live a life of joy, happiness and love in the honour of her fallen sister so she could look down on her with pride from wherever she was now.

She felt a heavy hand on her shoulder and she turned her head to see Visa looking at her with eyes filled with concern, "You ok Shauna?' she asked softly and that's when she realised she'd been balling her fists and staring off into space with a scowl on her face.

"Oh sorry I was just thinking about what Sheila used to say to me," she said softly.

"Oh, and what's that?" Visa asked.

"That the more life changes the more we need to adapt, that's how life grows and evolves, if we don't adapt we die its the nature of life, so I was just thinking that's exactly what I'm going to have to do, I will adapt and I will live because that's what Sheila would want me to do, she wouldn't want me to wallow in grief, she'd want me to just remember her and to keep going on with my life, so that's what I'm going to do, I'm going to live and I'm going to love in her name, I am going to go with you guys I am going to lift my head up and I am going to be proud of who I am now, I am going to show this world who I am and I will make it remember her, I will find myself a beautiful human man and I will love him as hard as I can in honour of my fallen sister," Shauna said proudly.

Visa nodded in agreement and gave her a broad and warm smile, "That's the way girl, chin up and chest puffed out" she said patting her shoulder with one of her large clawed hands.

That's when Seven appeared and came over to join them, "How are you feeling big girl?" he asked gently as he joined them on the couch.

"Not great but better, been thinking about Sheila and I just can't stop thinking that she's going to walk in the door at any moment you know?" she said and Seven nodded.

"Yeah I feel you, I've not lost anyone myself but I can kinda understand that," he said.

The group spent the rest of the night comforting her until they all went to bed, it felt very weird not sleeping in the same room as Sheila, it had always been a source of comfort to her to have her so close ever since they had become super mutants, despite not really having many things to be scared of her heart had always had been fearful, but now she was going to have to adapt but it was still hard and she did not have a comfortable night.

The team had packed up ready to leave the night before so come the dawn the team was ready to leave, Shepherd and her team had now joined the group as well one of the male super mutants from the Greaser group called Raymond.

The leaders of the group that Shepherd had and her team had belonged to weren't exactly happy about the decision of their top scavengers and top assault team to leave, but thanks to Seven's efforts in training the others to not only defend themselves but how to work together as an effective team but emotions still ran a little high but after a brief argument they left as friends after a few tears and some hugs were exchanged and the group left.

They were all carrying their share of the spoils from the raid on Raven Rock in large backpacks that Malakai had reinforced with his silk, they were also still wearing his silk body armour which she had to admit was not only warm but it was comfortable too though thanks to a fluke of bad luck it had not saved Sheila though given some of the hits on some of the girls that it had caught it was highly effective just not against bad luck.

Runs and Riss had decided to scout ahead of the group as they headed out of the gates waving goodbye to everyone, due to the way this group was growing in size Seven had decided it would be worth having scouts running ahead of the main team in order to give them early warning of any potential problems which made sense to her and given Runs and Riss's talents they were the natural choices.

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Seven clomped along in his armour and he kept glancing at Shauna as she walked along in the centre of the group, it seemed that Shepherd had decided to take it upon herself to help support the big grieving girl and by from what he could hear she had experience in losing friends and people so she was sharing those experiences with her but overall she seemed to be taking it pretty well now.

The team had planned out a route that would take them down to Boston but it was going to take them right through the city itself, it was going to be a dangerous route not just because it took them right through both Raider territory and territory that was controlled by the Brotherhood both were dangerous for very different reasons so Seven wasn't taking any chances.

"So how did you guys all meet anyways?" Raymond asked suddenly and Seven got the feeling he was killing two birds with one stone in that he was hoping to learn more about them and secondly he was hoping to cut through some of the tension in the group.

Seven glanced at the long-haired, beared super mutant male and he instantly noticed a certain nervousness to the man in that he looked away and didn't hold eye contact with him for very long, not that he could see his eyes through the helmet he was wearing.

"Well myself, Wisp, Visa and Ven all escaped from an Enclave airship where they were running experiments on us, me and Wisp to create some kind of super-soldier program while with Visa and Ven we think they were trying to create a controllable Claw program," Seven said with a wave of his hand.

"Controllable Claw program? Oh, they already have something like that down here" Raymond said making all of them straighten the fuck right up and stare at him.

"What did you say?" Ven growled menacingly and Gregory placed a calming hand on his man's arm making the big male claw glance at him and instantly simmer down as he realised that Raymond was simply the bearer of this bad news not the instigator of it.

"Ummmm yeah, I know who the Enclave are though I really didn't know their name till Seven mentioned them by name and I recognised the armour he's wearing though to be fair I figured he was some kind of defector or something but now I guess you kinda stole it or something?" Raymond said and Seven nodded his affirmation.

"Yeah though not when we escaped, nicked it from them later on as they have been hunting us since we broke out, so what's this about controlled claws anyway?" Seven asked and Raymond nodded.

"Now I'm not super accurate on the details here as this was before I became....well this, so it's a little hazy but I know what I saw, there are groups of soldiers dressed in armour just like that and a couple of variants that you tend to see around DC in the areas around the outskirts, not so much in the main city itself as I think they got run out by the Brotherhood but that's another story, but anyway more than once I remember seeing these little squads of soldiers and with them, they'd have a claw but the claw was strange" Raymond said.

"Strange how?" Visa asked.

"Well they had on these strange headsets, at first I thought it was a helmet but now having heard Seven say about controlling claws it makes more sense, these helmets must have given the squad control of the claw, instructing it where to go and who to attack, more than once I saw them used to attack people who got in their way and forgive me for saying this given our present company but given that they were claws I stayed as far away as I possibly could," Raymond said.

That's when Shepherd and her group perked up as well, "Hey yeah we've seen those guys but I just thought that maybe they'd somehow trained the claw to follow them along well that was until I met you guys then I kinda thought hell maybe it just joined them but the more I get to know about these Enclave fucks well now I think that yeah maybe something had been done to them" she said.

Both Ven and Visa looked at one another, "Do you think.....?" Ven began and Visa folded her arms over her ample chest and looked very thoughtful but also worried.

"No it couldn't be it just couldn't be, they were all killed," she said.

"But it would account for why some of them were missing, do you remember one of the things we both said was that afterwards before they wiped out our pack?" Ven said and Visa looked very uncomfortable now making Seven step forwards and place his hand reassuringly on his big claw girl's arm to show her he was there for her.

She glanced at him before taking his hand off her arm and simply holding onto it tightly using the rigidity of his glove to allow her to grip his hand tightly, she sighed heavily and nodded at Ven, "Yes, we said that some of them were missing but surely if they had taken more of us we would have seen them before now?" she said.

Ven shrugged, "I don't know Visa wish I did but if there's even a remote chance that they are our pack we have to do something, we can't just leave innocent claws in the hands of those.....those.....those fucking animals!!" Ven said with pure passion and venom in his voice.

Both of them looked at Seven and he knew what was coming next, "Seven you have been the greatest human ally to claws that we could have ever hoped to meet and honestly in a million lifetimes we could have never even dared to hope to find someone like you, but not only did you stand for us and show us honour but you stole my sister's big scaly heart, will you stand with us now? I've never begged for a single thing in my life, not even my life itself but please Seven we need your help with this" Ven said as Gregory gripped his large bicep in a tight hug against his body.

Seven was acutely aware that every single one of his group was staring at him expectantly including the newcomers of Shauna and Raymond, he sighed heavily and nodded, these weren't just his friends they were his family and as his family, they had to know he was willing to stand for them no matter what because that's what families do, he had asked them to stand for and to help complete strangers and they had done so without question and now they were asking him to stand for them so there was no way he was going to refuse them.

He pressed the PTT on his radio at the base of his helmet which connected him to their comms network which they now had thanks to the lifted Enclave hardware, "Riss and Runs come back in and meet us by the Red Rocket station, we're going asshole hunting over" Seven said and Riss's voice came back almost immediately.

"Roger that SSSSeven coming back over and out," she said and before Seven had even chance to turn back to the others a huge pair of arms appeared around him and hoisted him off his feet and into the air and before he had the chance to even exclaim at that another pair of large muscled claw arms wrapped around him from the other direction and hugged him from behind so he was stuck as the meat in a claw sandwich.

"Thank you Seven thank you so so much I tell you what if you didn't belong to my crazy tail sister and I didn't have my beloved Gregory, straight or not I would find a way to turn you bi or gay just so I could love you wonderful human," Ven said with genuine emotion in his gravelly voice.

Seven chuckled, "Thanks but one claw girl is more than enough for me and hey this is what families do right? We look out for one another and stand for each other because no one else will" Seven said.

"You got that fucking right, my beautiful human, we are both family and a pack and no matter what we will always have each other's backs no matter what comes we fight, live, love and die together just like a perfect pack is supposed to," Visa said from behind him.

The group quickly cleared an abandoned Red Rocket fuel station that was sat in the centre of a major throughway that led onto the freeways that looped around the city, infact right next to it were slipway entrance ramps to three of the cities three freeways.

After clearing it of hostiles which were just a few radroaches and a singular feral Ghoul that they found lurking in the back storage room, once clear the group took a load off and searched the station which they were already sure was picked clean to pass the time while they waited for Runs and Riss to come back in when suddenly Runs's voice came through Seven's radio.

"Runs to Seven, I's sees a small group approaching Red Rocket station, they's is trying to be unseen but we's has seen them, cannot tell who they are as they is wearing hooded cloaks, over," he said.

Seven was instantly on alert, "Head's up guys Runs just called in, apparently we have some uninvited guests to our party" he said and now the rest of them went on alert and looked to him for orders.

"Malakai you, Wisp and Gregory go up high get eyes and scopes on these fuckers, the rest of you with me, let's go and say hello shall we?" Seven said hoisting his rife up and checking it.

While Seven and the rest of the group split up and moved in to cover all around the station using things like shelves and counters to hide from view Malakai climbed up the giant Red Rocket that was the symbol of the franchise to place both Wisp and Gregory at various points so they could use their scoped rifles to get eyes on while he climbed right to the very top and scanned the area with a set of binoculars he'd gotten from fixing clothes back in Shepherd's ex town.

"Malakai to all call signs I have them, they are on the east side just next to the ramp for the freeway, four figures wearing hooded cloaks, uggghh they really need a good tailor, over," Malakai said.

"Roger that sugar legs I got eyes on them over," Wisp said.

"Me too over," Gregory said.

"Me's and Riss have them from the rear, have nowhere to go over" Runs said in a very soft whisper indicating to Seven that they were close to them and didn't want to give themselves away.

"Ok people let's not get twitchy, we don't know if these guys are a threat or not yet, they might just be an innocent group that were either curious of us or something so let's do this by the numbers, I'm going to go out there and address them if they make a stupid move I want Gregory to fire a warning shot over their heads or at their feet over and out," Seven said and with a deep breath he stood up from his cover behind the counter and began heading for the door.

Seven strode out into the middle of the roar facing the part of the ramp where the group were hiding, he switched on the amplifier for his voice which made it boom, "Unidentified group hiding under the ramp, we know you are there and we have you surrounded, we mean you no harm so if you make no aggressive movements towards us you have nothing to fear, but be aware if you act stupidly we will not hesitate to defend ourselves" Seven called out.

From where he was he couldn't see them properly but he could see a flurry of movement, "We're friendly we don't mean you any harm!" a deep gravely voice called from under the bridge.

"Well if that's true step out into the light and keep your hands up and let's talk, if what you say is true you have nothing to fear from us" Seven called.

There was more hesitation from the group under the bridge, "How do we know that you won't harm us the moment we step out?" the voice called out.

"If we wanted to hurt you we already would have there are a lot more of us than you can see, if you have only good intentions then you have nothing to fear from us," Seven said then he pressed his PTT.