Radiance Ch. 58

"I think pain is the least of his worries, don't you? Given that he has been transformed!" Lemet said with a snarl in her voice though Passa could tell that it wasn't aimed at Shauna it was just general anger but that's when her words caught up with him.

"T-Transformed? What do you mean transformed?" Passa exclaimed shakily and all four of them looked at one another and then back at him.

"That sphere you touched has done something to you Passa, I believe from my preliminary analysis that it may have been either a counter program or an enhancement program for the FEV I will need to do more research into the device itself but from what I and Timothy have been able to ascertain during our evaluation, it seems to have been using some kind of what appears to be nanotech from the traces I found and it appears that it either attacked or enhanced your DNA it's too early to tell but either way the result is the same," Shauna said musing as she thought it over.

"I-I still don't understand," Passa said nervously.

"She's trying to say whatever was in that orb has changed you Passa but I don't think it's necessary for the worse you are no less Claw than you were before to my eyes you are now just a different class of claw," Seven said from somewhere off to his left and Passa turned his head to see the small but powerful human stood being flanked by both Visa and Ven.

"Different class of Claw? I don't understand how can I be a different claw?" Passa asked feeling confused.

Seven looked at Shauna, "Show him" he said and she looked surprised.

"Are you sure Seven I mean the shock could send him into shock" she said and Seven nodded.

"He needs to see the truth early on then he can see it's not so bad and he can begin dealing with it and the changes to his life it means," he said.

Shauna sighed and then she turned and retrieved one of those human mirror things that they used to look at themselves, though why they didn't just use a pool of water like any self-respecting Claw would do had always been a mystery to Passa, humans were always coming up with totally unnecessary things in his opinion.

She turned the mirror to face him and instantly he noticed something was different, to his eyes his horns seemed to be longer but as he turned his head to try and measure them that's when he noticed that his eyes were larger and far more vivid than they were before they also now appeared to be purple in colour but if that wasn't shock enough then the feathers that seemed to be running down the centre of his head certainly did the trick.

"M-My eyes! What happened to my eyes!? And why do I have feathers!!?" he exclaimed reaching up to touch them feeling the soft feathers bristling when he touched them.

"If those surprised you then the wings are seriously going to rock your world," Spectre said and Passa snapped his head to look at the female human in shock.

"Suitable, way to help him ease into this" Gregory said.

"I think that life-changing things are kinda like a band-aid on hair, better to just rip it off and get it over with rather than slowly pick at it and just make it hurt more, one short sharp shock and done with," Spectre said.

"W-Wings!? What wings!?" Passa said and Seven sighed but he stepped forwards and held out his hand, suddenly Passa felt a tugging sensation to his side and he turned his head just in time to see what that odd power of the little human's was tugging at, a giant flap of what looked like leathery and very finely scaled flesh that was attached to him.

The shock of what Seven was holding and the fact that he could feel the grip that Seven was exerting on it with his power shocked his system and he felt himself getting woozy but before he went back into the darkness his mother was there cradling his head.

"It's alright my beloved boy I'm here and I want you to know right this second right now that neither I nor your sisters think any less of you or love you any less, you are still my Passa and you are my son and I still love you and am as proud of you as I ever was," she said soothingly as she stroked the scales and horns of his head gently.

That helped his mind to recenter and fight back the darkness threatening to pull him under and eventually it stabilised allowing him to breathe easy again after his momentary lapse into a panic.

Once he felt a bit stronger he was able to get up off the bed and to his shock, he realised his feet were slightly different as well now, his large wide-spaced toes were now tipped with what appeared to be large hook-shaped talons that clicked slightly as they made contact with the concrete of the floor, he also now appeared to have a talon on the rear of his foot as well attached to a point in his heel that when he flexed his foot allow the whole thing to close like a large gripping claw.

But as it turned out this rear-facing talon served a secondary purpose to help him balance with the new burden of the weight hanging off his back because as he stood up his body did something strange, it was almost as automatic as breathing or stretching an aching muscles but he actually felt to large struts that were located behind his shoulders anchored into his shoulder blades began to move and he felt what felt like large folds of skin being retracted and shuffled into place like his body had done it a million times before.

"Damn those puppies are even bigger than I thought they were, damn a flying claw now that is going to be something to see!" Shepherd said walking over and circling around him studying him closely.

"I want to see them," Passa said and Shepherd quickly took the mirror from Shauna and began to walk around him to find the right angle before she held it up to allow him to see his back properly.

Just where he felt them to be there were two large struts made from solid bone sticking upwards above his head, these served to hold the massive flaps of white scaly flesh that were folded in underneath them and by the look of them, there were two large solid joints on the tops of the struts that folded in further struts which added to the overall length of the wings.

He tried to open them and to his surprise, they responded to his commands just like his hand or his leg would despite having never had a basis to have a limb there let alone the knowledge of how to control it or make it function, but just as if he'd told his hand to open wide the struts moved and the joints opened out straightening them out to his sides opening the wings out fully and making all the others jump back as the two massive white wings unfurled from his back and touched each wall with ease.

The flesh that was anchored to the absolutely massive multi-jointed struts was jointed into his back reaching down to his hips and running the entire length of his back, that's also when he noticed a series of what looked like shark-like fins running down either side of his spine with the centre of his spine being covered in a singular stripe of bright blue feathers that seemed to run right the way down from the back of his head to the very tip of his tail, infact that's when he noticed that his tail was rather different now.

Not only was his tail thinner than it was before it also felt much light but somehow it felt much more dextrous and prehensile and he curled it and realised he could actually easily grip things with it now as he coiled it around Shepherd's waist as she was the closest thing to him making her gasp in surprise as the feathery appendage gripped her gently but firmly.

"Why Passa if this is your way of flirting gotta say it's different but I kinda like it," Shepherd said with a chuckle that caught Passa by surprise as he realised he'd just coiled his tail around a female rather suggestively and to both of their shock and surprise his feathers instantly fluttered and changed colour to a bright crimson red colour.

"Holy shit he's got mood feathers! Oh, now that is seriously fucking cool! Not that you know giant wings, talons and inbuilt body armour aren't cool but having a living rainbow on your back and tail is fucking mega cool!" Shepherd exclaimed.

Passa quickly released Shepherd and stepped back from her folding his wings in as they began to bang into various things around the room, "M-My apologies Shepherd I-I did not mean to I was simply lost in my curiosity" he said and she chuckled and waved her hand dismissively.

"It's fine honestly big fella, honestly I'm kinda beginning to see what both Seven and Gregory find appealing about this way of life, something kinda nice about having a big handsome white claw boy sweep you off your feet with his feathery tail and having a big pair of soft leathery wings to snuggle up in at night sign me the fuck right up, don't think any human arms on this planet could make a girl feel as safe as those fucking tree trunks you call arms so listen to me when I say this big boy because coming from a woman from another species it means double the weight, don't you dare feel bad about this new you, you are no less of a Claw than you were before if anything the new you is even prettier and better, you're now like Claw plus, the next generation of pretty claw boys" Shepherd aid stepping up and patting first Passa tail and then his long arm.

Honestly, Passa was extremely surprised but also very grateful for her kind but also flirtatious words, they made his heart flutter like the feathers now coating his back but that's when something else she had said caught his attention.

"When you said natural body armour what did you mean? he asked and Shepherd smiled then reached out and tapped his chest which to his surprise made a clicking noise, he glanced down and to his shock, her realised there were now interlocking plate-like scales overlapping like Dragon scales all over his torso seemingly with the intention of protecting his vital organs.

He reached up and tapped the scales with his claws making them click loudly like he'd just tapped painted metal, that's when he also noticed that he felt a lot lighter on his feet than he did before because when he took a step to his side when he turned it didn't make the usual thump that it normally did.

Suddenly a loud snap made them all jump and spin to find that Timothy had just snapped his fingers and was looking like he'd just had some sort of idea or breath through, "Claw two point zero! Shepherd you are a genius!" he exclaimed and Shauna cocked her head curiously at him.

"What are you thinking my love?" she asked.

"It's so bloody obvious don't you see?" he said and then grinned broadly and rushed to a whiteboard that was hanging on the wall, he began scrawling things all over it that Passa had absolutely no idea what they represented.

"It's an enhancement device! The orb that Passa triggered it's Project fucking Unity!!" he exclaimed loudly and rather excitedly and the whole group looked at one another in confusion.

"Project Unity, what's that?" Seven asked.

"To answer that I kinda have to explain everything first, now we're all familiar with the FEV that created both the Claws and the Super Mutants, now this thing was both an absolute success and a catastrophic failure all in one, success in that it kinda did what it said on the tin, failure in that there was no unified results in that some subjects it evolved others it fucking killed outright, but the subjects that it did enhance tended to be uncontrollable and unpredictable, the Claws themselves were kinda designed to be search and destroy creatures towards the end of the Great War, but the FEV had problems interlinking the DNA that was used to engineer them and rather than fix the errors it kinda exasperated them now that's not to say there's anything wrong with the Claws of today but they were born of a flawed integration which means they aren't exactly what they were supposed to be," Timothy said drawing lots of little pictures on his board and drawing arrows between them.

"Are you saying that Claws are flawed?" Ven snarled defensibly.

Timothy baulked as he seemed to realise that he had inadvertently insulted them all and he shook his head, "No that's not what I'm saying I'm saying you aren't what you were intended to be, both human intervention and the FEV twisted what you were meant to become and I believe it was due to the military intervention wanting you to be heavy ground units and today's Claws are the result of that, but I remember reading something in one of the recover military archives that we had back in the Brotherhood and it spoke of something that it referred to as 'Project Unity' which was project started to not only correct the damage done by the FEV but to correct the errors it forged into the DNA of anything affected by it using nano technology to repair gene sequences by using a massive catalogue of stored genomes to plug gaps and repair the damage, if this is what Passa got his large clawed hands on then what you are seeing now is what Claws were truly meant to become, Passa here is Claw two pont zero, Passa is what your species was supposed to become" Timothy said triumphantly and every one turned to look at Passa shock.

"M-My son, my baby boy is the first of the true pure Claws?" Vess exclaimed walking over to him and running her hand over his horns and Timothy nodded.

"The first and maybe the only one of his kind, not only a whole new breed of Claw but the natural evolution of your species made scale and flesh, ladies and gents you are looking at the future of the Claw race right here and now today, ladies and gents welcome to the future," he said causing them all to look at Passa in amazement making him feel very self-conscious, he seriously didn't feel like an evolved being, he just felt like Passa regular old white scaled Claw but then only time would tell wouldn't it?