Radiance Ch. 58

Chapter 58: On a Wing and a Prayer.

Passa was nearly bowled over by Ven as he charged down the corridor in hot pursuit of a small fast-moving but barely visible blur and he leapt back in wide-eyed surprise as his cousin charged past him.

"Sorry cousin!!" Ven called back over his shoulder before he heard a human yelp followed by a lot of loud giggling, moments later Ven emerged from one of the side rooms that Passa hadn't explored yet only now he was carrying the young-looking black-suited human man on his shoulder.

"Now you are going to learn that your actions have consequences pretty human, I'm going to teach you the meaning of claw punishment!" Ven growled and the young man gigged and propped himself up on his elbows and Ven's hand seeming squeezed his rear end.

"Oh no being punished by a big bad sexy claw boy whatever am I going to do?" the man called Gregory said in a playful voice and Passa cocked his head curiously, was this man seriously not fearful of Claw justice? he was braver than he looked, a lot braver.

The pair vanished into a side room and mere moments later there came the sounds of human howling, Ven must be really punishing the little human hard he almost felt sorry for him, well that was until the large strange spider boy showed up taking him by surprise.

"Those two at it again!? They really can't keep their hands off one another, can they? Hi, I'm Malakai, by the way, we really haven't had the chance to talk yet" Malakai said offering him a hand in that odd human sign of greeting.

Passa shrugged, when in another's nest you did as they did so he took it and shook it making the spider boy smile at him warmly, "Excuse me what did you mean that they cannot keep their hands off one another, does this Gregory fight back against Claw justice being acted out upon him?" Passa asked glancing at the door that Ven had carried the little human through and was boy the sounds coming out vigorously disciplining him, there were a lot of odd-sounding slapping noises coming through it.

Malakai chuckled softly making Passa growl and turn his attention back to him, was he mocking him? if so he was a lot braver than he looked to mock a proud Claw to his face, he might not be an Alpha like his mother or his cousins but he was still strong enough to defend both his and their honour.

Malakai seemed to notice his irritation, "Forgive me I'm not laughing at you just at what you said is all, Ven is not hurting or striking Gregory, hell he'd tear anyone who laid a single unwanted finger on him limb from limb let alone what he'd do to anyone who ever dared to try and harm him let alone actually do so, those two love each other to the end of the ends of the universe, never seen two boys as in love with one another as those two, so no he's not hurting him, the gruff act you just saw was them just playing around is all, I know it can be kinda strange to the uninitiated but you kinda get used to it real fast the more time you spend around this group trust me on that one" Malakai said.

Passa raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, "B-But those sounds, that is unmistakably the sound of scale meeting flesh, he must be striking him!" he protested and Malakai chuckled again making him irk again.

"Well I guess you're kinda right in that sense but it's not exactly his hand he's striking his flesh with," he said with that soft chuckle again.

"I do not understand?" Passa said sounding as confused as felt and Malakai scuttled up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder and while Passa flinched slightly the touch was not aggressive or unfriendly.

"I can see that, come on let's take a walk I've been meaning to measure you new claw guys, up anyway, need to get you guys some armour rigged up, sure as hell not letting you guys walk into that lab we're going out to attack without my patented heavy claw armour keeping the bullets away from those scales of yours, hell I get the feeling half the human girls around here wouldn't forgive me if I let you get dinged up," he said gently guiding him away from the room where Ven and Gregory had gone in to.

"Heavy Claw armour?" Passa asked and Malakai nodded.

"Yup, make the stuff myself, came up with it when we attacked Paradise falls, turns you guys into walking talking tanks, you think a claw is scary a claw you can shoot down is even scarier," Malakai said proudly and Passa looked at him in amazement.

"You can protect us from human weapons!!?" he exclaimed and Malakai nodded.

"It doesn't make you bulletproof exactly but it stops all but the very heaviest of calibres though you still have to watch out for both plasma and laser weapons though I got some ideas on how to deal with those bastard things, something involving polished ceramic maybe?" Malakai said sounding thoughtful.

It turned out that the only room that they could use was a room just off the lab that Timothy and Shauna had been using to defeat the claw control helmets, "What is this place?" Passa asked looking around at all the strange human glass objects that seemed to come in all shapes and sizes, there were beakers and flasks of different sizes linked together with large tubes.

"Chemistry lab, do me a favour and try not to touch anything along that wall, I know our scientists tend to come through here when there's a big find that they want to analyse and I know one of our teams pulled something pretty big about a week ago and I don't know what or even where it is, so do me a favour try not to mess with anything ok?" Faith said hanging the large key ring that she'd used to open the door back on her belt.

"No probs Faith and thanks, don't worry we're only going to use the seat over there and the bench, Is that ok?" Malakai said and Faith nodded before disappearing again with her current chaperone in tow.

Passa followed Malakai over to the large strange looking human seat that the large spider boy indicated, "Ok take a seat big fella I'm just going to start taking some measurements so I can start this off" Malakai said and Passa obliged by moving over to the seat and after a bit of wiggling his sizeable frame into the narrow seat but he finally managed to get himself into place.

Malakai told him to wait while he went and got his tools and he vanished out of the room to scuttle back to his room, while he was gone Passa couldn't help but looked around at all the odd human stuff all around him, it kind of reminded him of some of the stuff he'd seen in his time with Enclave well before they put that vile helmet on his head anyway, all of his memories from the time with that thing bolted onto his head were very fuzzy, like he was trying to look at them through heavy mist or maybe a rainstorm.

That's when he noticed a large case that was sat on the bench on the far side of the large room, he raised himself up out of the chair and stalked over to it, the case was covered in Enclave markings that recognised from his time with them, infact the bench was covered in what looked like stolen Enclave equipment and tech, it appeared that the Ghouls who apparently ran this place that they were using as a nest had really been busy.

Passa couldn't help but feel a sense of smug satisfaction at these people hitting them and taking their stuff, after all, they had done to his pack and others he felt that they deserved any and all injustices enacted upon them, in fact, he'd go as far as to say that they were not injustices at all, they were justices.

Claws are naturally very curious beings to the point where they make cats look positively cautious, add sentience and a thirst for learning and knowledge on top of that and sometimes it can be a recipe for disaster.

Passa had always been like this ever since he was a hatchling both his mother and his elder sisters were forever chasing him around as he got himself into all sorts of mischief like the time he got himself stuck in a mole rat burrow because he'd wanted to know what was in there, that time his sisters had decided to leave him stuck in there for an hour with his lower half stuck in the air sticking out of the ground like a scaly tentacle, one that when they finally did finally pull him out he found that they'd painted rings around his tail so they could use it as a moving target to play claw hoops with old tyres they'd take from some scrapped human vehicles.

Leaning down to look at the large metal case he noticed two large clasps on the front that seemed to connect to the large cylindrical corners of the case, he knew that Malakai had made the Ghoul woman called Faith a promise that they would not touch anything but since he had made no such promise himself he didn't think it would be so bad if he simply took a look in the case, it wasn't like he was a thief who planned to steal their spoils, he merely wished to know what it contained.

Reaching out with one of his Claws he managed to flip the latches on the front from their closed to their open position, as soon as the second one opened there was a loud hiss from each of the cylinders in turn before like screws the wound themselves upwards and out of the case making him jump back in alarm.

The case split in two with a sharp hiss and the top slowly ascended upwards away from the bottom half revealing a foam laid inlay, sat in the middle of the spiky foam that was obviously designed to protect the contents there was nothing but an odd metal sphere.

"Huh, I was expecting something far more impressive than just a ball," Passa said cautiously reaching out a claw tip and tapping the metal sphere which by the odd ringing it made when he tapped indicated it was slightly hollow.

He reached in and very cautiously removed the sphere letting it rest in the palm of his hand testing its weight, for something that was so small it was surprisingly heavy, "Passa!! What the hell are you doing Faith told us not to touch anything!!?" Malakai's voice yelled from the doorway suddenly making the big claw boy nearly jump out of his scales and he snapped his hand shut on the sphere before he dropped it.

"I-I-I was just curious! I wasn't going to steal it or anything! I just wished to look!" he exclaimed defensively as he spun to face the large spider boy who was standing just inside the doorway holding his tool bag.

"I didn't say you were going to steal anything but Faith said this stuff could be dangerous! And those are fucking Enclave markings on that case! There could be anything in there!" Malakai exclaimed scuttling right up to him.

"There wasn't anything dangerous there was just a metal ball, here look," Passa said holding out his hand and opening it to reveal the metal ball which to his surprise seemed to now have glowing yellow seams that were blinking on and off.

"Huh it wasn't glowing before," he said looking at it curiously.

Suddenly the colours changed from yellow to green, "Subject analysed, DNA match found and confirmed, the subject appears to have twenty per cent damage to DNA strand, this is most likely due to excessive radiation exposure, both reptilian and avian DNA has been detected correcting damage would require strand realignment with a compatible match, scanning database please wait............... have now confirmed DNA repair is possible using compatible mammalian DNA molecules beginning procedure, nanites programmed and now being administered" the odd sphere said in a surprisingly feminine human-sounding voice.

"Huh, the sphere talks?" Passa exclaimed.

"What was that about nanites?" Malakai said but before Passa could answer the sphere opened and a series of sharp spikes fired out and pierced Passa's hand.

Passa yelled out in alarm and pain and tried to drop the ball but thanks to the long thin needles piercing his hand he was unable to let go, he tried to shake it off but the spikes appeared to have anchored it into his hand, "It won't come off!! I cannot let go!! Malakai help me!!" Passa yelled as a surge of fear and panic hit him.

Malakai tried to grab the sphere to pull it off him but as he did it shocked him making him recoil in pain waving his singed hand about, "It fucking shocked me!! Hold on Passa I'll get Seven, he'll know what to do!!" he said and before Passa could say another word the large spider boy was gone like a shot out of a human rifle.

A hot sensation was beginning to travel up his arm from where the needles had pierced him, but when he tried to grab the thing with his other hand to pull it off the sphere simply fired more needles into that hand now anchoring the two together with the sphere wedged between them.

In his chest his heart began to pound like a digger claw trying to carve out a rock nest for his pack to sleep safely in, that odd heat had now made its way up both of his arms and was washing throughout his chest before bleeding outwards towards the rest of his body including his head which began to swim with waves of dizziness.

"New DNA strand forged, nanites applied and fully injected, now beginning upgrade procedure," the odd sphere said and just like that the needles shot back in and he dropped it to the floor with a hollow ding noise, he was stood looking at the eight puncture holes in his hands as Seven and everyone burst into the room like a hurricane.

"Passa?" Seven said approaching him cautiously and he looked up to see the concern in the powerful human's eyes.

"T-T-The ball did something to me, i-i-i-it stuck me with needles, I couldn't let go, there's something inside me......I feel strange" Passa said and that's when things got real swimmy real fast.

Both Seven and Visa were at his side in flash and caught him before he was even halfway to the floor, "We need to get him to the medical bay, get both his mother and faith I need to know what the hell that thing did to him!!" Seven yelled and everything went black.

The first thing Passa became aware of was an odd buzzing him his head and then what sounded like a distant voice, "Upgrade procedure complete, DNA sequence has been repaired and fully integrated, new features now logged, nanites now going to passive repair mode, logging completed sequence as Death Claw two point zero" the voice said far off in the distance.

"Hello? Who's there?" Passa called into the darkness but there was no answer and that was when he heard another voice.

"M-M-My boy my beautiful boy!! What happened to him!!? Who did this to him tell me human!!!" the voice that he recognised as his mother's bellowed.

"Please calm yourself Vess no-one did this to him he err kinda did it to himself" another voice that he recognised as Malakai's said and there was a thunderous noise that he instantly recognised as a couple of hundred pounds of angry claw matriarch pacing back and forth close by sounded real close to him.

"What do you mean he did this to himself!!? How could he do this to himself!!?" his mother yelled.

"There was a case on the workbench, Faith let us use the lab so that I could work on making new armour for you all, she told us explicitly not to touch anything on the workbenches as they were things their scientists were going to study when they arrived, so I left Passa there sitting in a chair while I went to fetch my tools when I returned I found he'd left the chair and had opened one of the cases, he was holding some kind of sphere thing, but before he could put it down it kinda turned on somehow and stuck him with needles, I tried to get it off him but it fucking shocked me and burned my hand, here look," Malakai said and there was the sound of angry matriarch claw stomping over to where his voice was coming from.

There was deep rumbling growling that Passa recognised as his mother conceding a point, "Very well I believe you so what happened next?' she demanded.

"Well when I couldn't get it off I ran to get Seven I knew he would know what to do but by the time we got back the sphere had come off on its own but it had struck him in both hands, he must have tried to take it off himself but it obviously stuck his other hand too, that's all I know I swear, if I had known there was anything that dangerous in the room I would have never even gone in there let alone used it," Malakai said.

"And I too would have never let them in there had I know that stuff was dangerous I swear it to you, Vess, I was never told that the things were dangerous just sensitive, this stuff was stolen from an Enclave cache outside of the city, one of our recon teams robbed a bunker and found that stuff, they brought it all the way here to be checked out by our science teams but they never reported it as dangerous otherwise I'd have never let your son or anyone else anywhere near it I swear it to you Vess," Faith's voice said.

"Guys!! I'm right here!! What's going on!!?" Passa tried to yell.

"How is he?" Seven asked.

"As far as I can see fine, other than the obvious changes it doesn't appear to have done anything negative to him, heart rate is strong, brain waves are good, infact everything seems to be checking out fine but I would fucking love to know what the hell was in that sphere that could do this, I might have to check it out," Shauna's voice said from his right.

"No! No one else touches that fucking thing until we are sure of a way to handle it safely, for now, it stays under lock and key," Seven said.

"Agreed I would destroy it with my own claws before I let it do this to another claw or another person here!!" Vess snarled loudly.

"I think he looks good like that" Spectre's voice said from somewhere off to his left and Vess snarled loudly.

"Sorry if you took that as offensive Vess but your son was a pretty Claw boy before, now he's even more exotic than simply being a white scaled claw to boot, girl's gotta call it as she sees it you know?" she said obviously standing her ground and his mother snarled again but then sighed heavily.

"I apologise, Spectre, your words are honourable I am just worried about my only son, he was the only boy in my clutch and as such I and his sisters are very protective of him," Vess said.

"I would claw the face off any female who would seek to sully his honour or steal him from his beloved pack!!" Lia's voice snarled close by.

"Agreed the female who would seek to claim him must first prove herself worthy to us or they will be chased away with their tail between their legs because it sure as hell won't be my beloved son between them!" Vess snarled proudly.

"Wow, I've heard god knows how many mothers in law jokes but mother claw in law is a whole new level of crazy" Shepherd said and Vess growled.

"I think mother-in-claw sounds better," Gregory said and there were a few chuckles around the room.

"You had better believe it, a proud matriarch Claw always protects her son till her dying breath leaves her body" she snarled and then the darkness swallowed him back down into its depths and the silence flooded back into his mind.

Passa woke with a huge rushing gasp of breath sitting bolt upright on the bed that he found himself laid upon, for a moment his mind wondered if it had all been a dream until the dizziness set in and forced him back down onto his back where he lay panting trying to focus on the very white ceiling above his head.

Suddenly his mother's face appeared in his vision along with both of his sisters, "Are you alright brother?" Lemet asked leaning her large head down to press her horns to his.

"Give him air Lemet, let your brother breathe," his mother said softly pushing her head back up away from him.

Suddenly the large super mutant woman appeared above him looking down at him, "How are you feeling Passa? Is there any pain anywhere?" she asked and Passa shook his head instantly regretting it as it only added to his dizziness.

"That's good to hear I'm glad that the process hasn't caused trauma that's at least one blessing in disguise," she said checking one of the odd human monitors that were beeping away to itself next to his bed.