Radiance Ch. 92

"Who are you!!? What are you!!?" the teen howled and Malakai simply gave him a warm calming smile.

"My name is Malakai and I'm an Archnakai, this here is Ven and that there is Passa, they are my friends and we came here to help you as did all of them," he said turning the boy so he could see the humans and others in their group as they moved forwards to check the bodies.

"The dark gods will punish you for this!! Your blood will fill the cups of the faithful you will..........mmmmmmmmm" the leader began screaming until Ven leaned down and with a deft flick of two fingers snipped his tongue clean out of his head like a giant pair of super sharp scissors leaving him screaming and spitting blood.

"Suffer in silence vile one, keep your bile in your head where it belongs," Ven said coldly.

"Well it seems that the wastes never fail to surprise never thought I'd see a talking Deathclaw let alone two of them and I never thought I'd see them defending humans," a deep throaty voice said from the left side of the room and as one they all turned and there standing in a small welded cage was a synthetic man dressed in a long trench coat and wearing a fedora.

"Nickolas Valentine I presume?" Wisp asked and the man's glowing golden eyes snapped onto her.

"Now is in this more interesting, you know my name which means you were most likely here looking for me?" he said and Wisp nodded.

"Very perceptive I can see why you became a detective because the rescue work doesn't really seem to agree with you," she said slightly sarcastically gesturing to the cage he was stuck inside of.

"No arguments here, know my way around a gun but the minds of the criminally insane never fail to take you by surprise," he said gesturing to the stuttering and blatantly dying cult leader who was growing paler by the moment as he slowly bled out.

"So what's this fuckwits deal anyway?" Wisp asked as she stepped up to the cage and looked at the lock before gesturing for Ven to come over and help her the big Claw wandered over and with ease of the mighty simply snapped the cage door right off its hinges making Gregory pant a little as he once again showed off his incredible strength, of that big boy was getting all he loves his big beautiful heart could handle tonight.

Nick stepped forwards out of the cage and stretched himself like he was flexing actual organic muscles and not polymer-coated servos, it must have been a programmed behaviour and given the holes in his musculature he was blatantly a much older model than Wisp's body.

"Much obliged big fella, you got a name?' Nick said looking up at Ven as he dropped the large metal door.

"Ven of the proud Northen pack but you may call me Ven," he said.

"Well, it's good to meet you Ven, so who sent you after me and why?' Nick asked.

"Your assistant put us on your trail, we're looking for information on synths and more specifically the institute," Wisp said.

"You and everyone else, I'll tell you what I know about them but despite obviously being a synth myself I don't exactly have a plethora of intel on them, but given the breakout and what I just saw you do there I think you've earned that at the very least," he said.

"Glad to hear that our efforts are appreciated," Ven said.

"Oh trust me they very much are how many did you free if you will indulge me?" he asked gesturing to the boy that Malakai was still gently trying to calm and soothe though he wasn't carrying him anymore and had him stood at his side and looked to be measuring him to outfit him with clothing which knowing him he'd probably have made before they were done with their conversation.

"About thirty or so," Wisp said and Nick sighed heavily while nodding.

"When they first caught me there were at least double that, these fuckers believed that the vampire shit from old media was actually real and when you throw in a rather unhealthy mind and a fuckton of a charisma and you have yourself a bloody cult, they were sacrificing these poor souls and drinking their blood because they believed that it would morph them into vampires and make them immortal in some kind of blood pact with some old gods," Valentine explained.

"Fuck me why does this shit really bring out the fucking crazies and how come they always seem to be the ones that survive," Wisp said.

"Does always seem to be the way of things, doesn't it? Well let's get back up top and find out where all these young men came from so we can start working on returning them home," Valentine said gesturing to the young man who stood with Malakai who now seemed to have developed a brand new pair of silken pants.

Back on the surface the group met up with their friends and the group of prisoners who thankfully were not as stripped bare as the young man from the sacrificial chamber, they were gathered around the group waiting to find out their fate.

"Alright gentlemen we're going to be taking you back to Diamond city with us, if anyone lives in a settlement that is on the way please let us know and we'll deliver you there on the way but not to worry once we make it back there we'll figure out a way to get you all home," Valentine said much to the chatter of joy that came from them.

A couple of them stepped forwards to let them know that they did indeed live close enough to be dropped off on the way including the group from Greentop which certainly made their lives easier.

As they walked they talked and Malakai worked he was moving among the group and rapidly winning hearts and minds by patching clothes and replacing them to keep the survivors warm, infact the young man who had been strapped to the altar not long ago was now outfitted in a full new suit made from a mixture of silk and hardened cloth, it seemed that Malakai scavenged materials where ever they went he was like a one spider clothing factory on legs.

They dropped off a few of the teens as they went returning them back into the arms of overjoyed families who thought they'd lost their beloved sons forever, this included Greentops.

Both Valentines were thanked most profusely by their people for their efforts in returning their wayward sons to them, infact the people there insisted on feeding the group before allowing on their way though they got quite the shock when feeding both the Claws in seeing how much they could eat though both Ven and Passa had the good manners to wait for their human friends to go first before they absolutely demolished the remainder of the roasted radstag between them.

But eventually, they were back underway and with a renewed vigour thanks to their full bellies, as they walked Valentine filled them in on the details he had on the Institute and to be fair he'd been truthful when he'd said it was barely anything, but what they did learn was that they used operators to infiltrate settlements in order to control them and they also used human contractors from time to time to do a variety of wet work.

"Makes sense that they'd field out the work to others like the merc groups, gives them a sense of detachment and a form of plausible deniability," Fuller said thoughtfully as they moved towards the city which loomed up on the horizon after a hell of a lot of walking.

"Indeed this was my thought as well, I got abandoned by them myself, pretty much woke up in a ditch with no memories of who I truly was and a head filled with memories that weren't my own," Nick said.

"What do you mean?" Wisp asked.

"Well Nicholas Valentine was a real live person once, he was a cop from before the war though how the institute got ahold of his memories is a bit of a mystery to me really but it did help me with a bit of help from a friend to bring an old prewar gangster who Ghoulified himself to justice, it also kinda kitted me out with this set of skills towards being a detective, o that's what I did and while the people of Diamond city kinda just treated me as a curiosity and an outsider but given that I was unmistakably a synth but they didn't see me as a threat, then when I started helping people they kinda just accepted me and here I am now," he said.

"Wow but given what we've seen that kinda makes sense, this body is a synthetic woman that we found in an Enclave bunker, it looks like they either killed her or was brain dead when they found her and well I needed a new body given my own being dead and me being sick of inhabiting robots well here we are," Wisp said and Valentine looked at her curiously to see him pour out of her ears and the body lock up before she whirled around them and then flew back into her head and reactivated the body.

"Well well that's a new one, a sentient cloud girl, talking Claws, a half-spider centaur-like guy you guys really do have the market cornered on unique don't you?' he said and Shepherd laughed out loud.

"Oh you ain't seen anything yet Nick, our group is three times as large as this and we got a little bit of everything, friendly gendered super mutants, aliens, Ghouls who aren't complete arseholes, sentient Nightstalkers and a leader who while being human is possibly one of the most powerful beings on the planet," she said and Valentine looked at them all in amazement.

"Wow you sound like a walking advert for possibly the best merc company that ever existed," he said and now Wisp laughed.

"Yeah while we kinda do wind up acting like mercs we are just trying to make the world a better place for everyone regardless of who they are, we started out as just people fleeing the Enclave so as to not be used as living weapons, but that kinda grew as we gained more people and now its less of a group and more of a movement but this time one that is good, we aim to show people what the world can be if only you take the chance on the different," Wisp said pausing to grab the slightly distracted Malakai and to pulled the sewing spider boy into a deep and very passionate kiss that left im looking breathless and flustered as she gently patted his flushed cheek.

"Ok yeah you guys definitely have the market cornered on different," he said and once again Shepherd laughed and turned and pulled the rather surprised Passa into a kiss while Gregory himself did exactly the same to Ven not only surprising Valentine but the rest of the remaining group of teens with them.

"We are not ashamed to be different and we aim to show people not only who we are but what we stand for, we practice what we preach every single day because for us there is no other way to live," Gregory said.

"Well you certainly proved that point, alright we're here let's get these boys inside and get them set up in the inn for the night while we sort out how to get them back to their homes and don't worry about the cost my fee already covered that and then some," Valentine said surprising them all.

The guards greeted Valentine and their group very warmly as they entered the city and headed towards the fens where the inn was located and thanks to a standing booking that Valentine had already paid for and was holding for his return the boys found themselves with a paid for be and a meal for the night before after leaving them there while he and the team headed back to his office.

As they entered his sectary actually ran towards him and hugged him joyfully, "Oh thank god you brought him back in one piece!" she exclaimed happily.

"We told you we would and we are a group of our word always," Wisp said.

She smiled as she released her boss and then shyly but quickly headed to put some tea on for them, "First thing we got to do is sort out getting those boys back home not made of caps you know and can't afford to keep them there indefinitely, so if you guys can help me out there I'll repay the favour by helping you in your quest to find my former creators, sound fair?" Valentine said and Wisp looked at the rest of the group and saw nods all around.

"Sounds good to me, gives us a chance to show off more of what we can do so count us in," she said.

"Well alright then, let's get to work shall we we got quite a list to go through thankfully," he said and with that they began to work.