Radiance

Chapter 105: Hunting Season.

Wisp and Passa soared through the air in pursuit of the rapidly vanishing shape of Number 9 as she vanished over the horizon carrying Fuller in her grasp, both were determined not to lose in.

Anger drove both of them onwards, this was personal, not only had she broken into their camp in the dead of night but she had snatched one of their people right from under their noses but they were not going to let her get away with it, they were going to keep chasing her no matter how long it took to catch up to her, this wasn't just a matter of pride it was a matter of principle to both of them, no-one harmed their people and got away with it.

It was a rule that both she and Seven had sworn to live by when they'd kind of officially ratified this group as a new and emerging power in the wastelands, Wisp still remembered the conversation like it was just yesterday, she'd been sat with Seven at a campfire and she'd brought up the topic she knew he hated to face but was becoming more of a reality with every passing day, the topic of them not being able to simply fade int othe background and hide somewhere far away but having to not only face the Enclave head on but to accept the responsibility of the movement that seemed to be springing up around them.

Seven had simply sighed heavily and leaned back against the log he was sitting against, then he'd nodded his head, "Yeah it seems like its inevitable at this point doesn't it? So many people are starting to look to us for answers to their questions and to help them that obscurity seems like a pipe dream," he'd said.

"Yeah it seems everywhere we go more and more humans and non-humans alike rally to our cause and fall in step with us, can we really just take them to a place far away from everything and everyone and try and settle down after this?' she'd asked and Seven had sighed again and shook his head.

"No not really, we owe it to them I suppose, they've put their trust and dreams right in our hands as the price for their loyalty and strength so we owe it to them to make somthing of them one and all, but you know I'm honestly ok with that now, I've been kinda thinking about it and the more faces I see and the more of an impact our actions have the more Ibelive that we can aim for somthing bigger than ourselves, somthing that could change everything for everyone, a new way of life, not one forced upon people but one that they have to choose for themselves, but if they do choose it then they have to be not only fully sure it's what they want but prepared to stand for everyone else whose a part of it as well, everyone has to know that no matter what we leave no-one behind and we will stand for everyone, from the strongest to the weakest we will stand for them come what ever may, we abandon no-one ever," Seven said with such passion and fire in his voice that his telekinisis bled a little through his exterior and made the flames of the fire burn extra bright like he'd just fed it with pure oxygen.

Those words and that passion had really hit home with Wisp because she'd seen for herself exactly how much Seven had embodied them over the coming weeks, every time he'd stood in the face of danger and opposition he'd stood tall and proud, he stood for all of them protected them and now it was her turn to step up and she was not going to let Fuller down.

It seemed that Passa was of the same frame of mind and while the large flying Claw boy might be slower than her in her cloud form he was putting in a gargantuan effort, Wisp could hear the beating of his mighty wings as he propelled himself through the sky behind her as they gave chase, even after they lost sight of Nine and Fuller they still never gave up.

Though eventually, the pair had to split up and go looking for any sign of the pair's trail, up until that point they'd been using both sight and the heat trail left in Nine's wake to track them but the further she drew ahead the harder it became but that's when Passa seemed to pull another little Claw trick out of his scaled arse.

After flying in circles for what felt like hours Passa suddenly seemed to latch onto something and Wisp could see him tightening his circles until he seemed to have something, "This way!!" he exclaimed in a panting voice and pointing, Wisp circled and got on his scaled arse not knowing what was happening at first until she saw him taking massive lungfuls of air in through his nose and she realised he was actually tracking a scent, how the hell a scent trail existed all the way up here with nothing to attach to stumped her for a bit until it clicked, it was the water molecules of the clouds!

Somehow the denser air around the clouds had managed to allow Passa's super sensitive nose to pick up a faint scent trail where Nine flying through the cloud layer had left patches of scent that washed off them both as they passed through the cloud layers, Passa was now following those patches like a trail of bread crumbs, it took them well over a day but eventually, the pair tracked it all the way to an abandoned military base.

When they landed Passa was noticeably exhausted but he was also very much unwilling to stop, he folded his wings in and panted for a few moments to catch his breath, Wisp quickly flew into his head so she could communicate with him the same way as she had done with Seven and to a degree Visa, though it was noticeably harder with Claws she had been practising over the last few weeks in order to make some form of communication possible should she wind up stuck outside of her body again, like now for instance.

It was a little jarring for Passa at first until he realised what was happening and relaxed enough for her voice to come through in his mind, though she also felt his exhaustion, poor boy had been pushing himself well beyond his limits but this made Wisp's heart swell with pride, this determination and fire was everything that Seven had preached when he'd made his promises to the group and it was damn good to see someone else carrying those ideals in their heart as well.

"Easy big guy we need you fighting fit if we're going to do this right, so wind down a little and let's think," Wisp said softly into his mind.

"I smell them Wisp, they are close," he replied silently in his mind.

"Smell anything telling like fear or blood?' she asked and he shook his head before answering through his mind.

"No just their scents, I smell stress pheromones that tell me it got intense here but that seems to be fading, if anything now the scents I detect are, calmer," Passa said obviously trying to make sense of what he was picking up, it was obvious to Wisp now that the device that had worked over his DNA and had given him the wings,, as well as the feathers had instilled a few other little tricks into this Claw boy.

"Well that's a good sign isn't it, what else can you smell?" she asked and Passa took a deep breath then she actually felt his brow furrow.

"Animal blood, radstag I think and fire," he said.

"Sounds to me like Nine went hunting for food, she must have left all her gear behind when she fled with Fuller, probably went hunting for something to eat, looks like we might have caught her at dinner, be good to repay the favour of catching her with her pants down don't you think?" Wisp said.

Passa issued a soft growl, "If she has harmed Fuller I will not be kind, he may be new and a defector but he has shown his dedication to our cause in the aid he has rendered and to me he has shown his true heart in the way he fought to save those innocent humans from those crazed ones, he stood for them now we stand for him, he is of our pack now," Passa said defiantly.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, alright let's move up and take things slow and quiet, don't want to tip her off before we're ready to strike, we gotta remember, she's one of my kind and that makes her dangerous," Wisp said and Passa nodded.

"Agreed I will defer to your judgement Wisp, you are the Alpha here," he said and Wisp actually found herself both taken aback and flattered by that assessment of her, she'd heard Seven being referred to as Alpha by the Claws before but never herself, it actually felt kinda good to know that they thought of her in such a way.

Exiting Passa's head Wisp flew into the base cautiously, doing a circuit of the perimeter first to check for traps and threats but when she found none she moved in a little deeper, following the sounds of what sounded like a fire crackling coming from one of the buildings, she also noticed that there seemed to be smoke coming from a chimney stack attached to a building central to the base.

She morphed her body for Passa to follow her and the big Claw moved silently up also seeming to notice the smoke rising from the chimney now into the rapidly darkening sky, Wisp flew back into his head again.

"I'm going to find a vent and scout the building out, you stay out of sight until I report back," she said and he nodded his large head.

"Understood Alpha," he replied silently and she flew out of his ear and into a small vent that brought her out to the back of a large room that reminded her of one of the smoking lounges that they'd seen when passing through some of the cities, that's when she saw them.

Nine and Fuller were sat in a pair of leather armchairs next to the fire and Wisp could see that there was a pot filled with water resting on what appeared to be a makeshift metal frame that was set over the flames.

To her genuine surprise, Fuller didn't seem to be restrained in any way, he was simply sitting there tending to the fire and the pot while Nine watched him closely, she figured that her power must be enough of a threat to keep him in line so that he did what she wanted without complaint, she quickly spotted and entrance that Passa could use off to their right side and she quickly planned it in her head before rushing back outside to inform the big Claw of her plans.

"This is going to have to be quick are you ready for this?" Wisp asked and Passa nodded.

"Just say the word Alpha and it will be so," he replied making her actually feel the growl of his silent voice as he aligned himself with the door.

"Just remember your job is Fuller, leave Nine to me," she said and once again Passa nodded bunching up his large steel-like muscles in preparation.

"Alright go!!!" Wisp yelled and Passa hit the door with a mighty kick that tore it from its hinges before following it into another room and unleashing a horrific bellowing roar that made both Nine and Fuller drop to the floor holding their ears in shock.

Wisp poured out of Passa's nose the moment he entered the room and as he rushed forwards to grab Fuller she darted forwards and went straight up Nine's nose before she had the chance to even process what was happening to her.

"Welcome to the house of fun kid, you want to kidnap our people and hold them hostage let's play shall we?" Wisp boomed inside Nine's head making sure to amplify and echo her voice so it would sound like it was echoing around inside her skull enough to disorientate her.

It worked like a charm and Nine dropped to the floor yelling in pain as Wisp began to invade her mind, meanwhile, Passa grabbed Fuller and threw him over his shoulder with the intent to run out of another door.

That was until he heard him yelling, "Passa!! Passa put me down it's not what you think!! It's over she's not our enemy!!" Fuller yelled so loudly that even Wisp heard him over the klaxon and screaming sounds she was making inside Nine's mind to disorientate her.

"Wait, what? You are not a hostage?" Passa asked taking Fuller from his shoulder and looking at him curiously.

"I was but not any more, we reached an understanding," Fuller said quickly and Passa looked at him more curiously before leaning in and sniffing him.

"I smell no stress hormones other than the ones we generated kicking in the door, you are telling the truth," he said.

"Well of course I am, I doubt I'd be sitting here armed if I was a hostage now, would I? Now will you please put me down, I'm getting real sick of being carried about like a kid," Fuller said sounding relieved and Passa did so curiously as he noticed that Fuller's rifle was indeed sitting next to the chair he'd been sitting in.

Wisp stopped making loud noises inside Nine's head and her mind fell silent except for the pained moans of the young woman, "I'm going to remain in here for a little bit, no offence but while you might be able to lie or trick my friend there you can do no such thing to me, if you don't mind I'm going to have a look-see for myself," Wisp said clearly making sure that Nine understood what she was about to do.

"Do what you must I have suffered much already what is more pain?" Nine snarled through gritted teeth.

"If you do not resist there will be no pain, it is not my intention to harm you, if Fuller speaks the truth but I must be sure, I cannot take chances with the lives of those I care about, I'd say I'm sure you understand but given who sent you here and what you were sent to do I'm not so sure you do," Wisp said.

"Very well I will not fight you, see the truth if you must but I warn you it may be more than you can bare," Nine said.

"I doubt it, you forget I was in that place with you too and add on top of that I have seen the depths of Seven's mind as well so there is nothing there that can shock me," she said softly before beginning her probing of Nine's mind and to be fair to her she didn't resist just like she said she wouldn't.

After about half an hour Wisp had finished her fact-finding mission and released Nine's mind from her grip, she flew out of her mind across the room and after a swift loop around his head she flew into Fuller's.

"Sorry about the involuntary hitchhiking but speaking through you is easier than trying to work through the treacle of translating everything in Passa's head from Claw into English and then back again when I wish to speak to him," she said into his mind.

"Yeah, fair enough so what's the word oh glittery one?" Fuller asked silently though Wisp could feel that having her inside his mind jarred him considerably though she'd already been in here once when they were trying to ascertain whether he was on the level or an infiltrator so he knew the drill.

"She's clean and she wasn't kidding when she said that what I saw would shock me, both her and Seven both been through some serious shit at the hands of those fucking lunatics, though her's was pretty diverse, they worked out she's an elementalist which means she can control ceertian elements at their base level like fire, water, electricity, air and even solid matter though to a far more limited degree, thats more where she can make the other elements interact with it rather than controling the sub atomic bonds of matter itself but that doesn't make her any less dangerous, just because she can't control the very attoms of your body doesn't mean she can't just over exite the electrical charge of your nervous system and just short it out, or over load it and blow your heart to smithereens, or even just ramp up the heat in your body and litterally boil your blood, I can see why they sent her of all the numbers after us, she's probably one of the only ones with enough raw horse power under her hood to be able to contain Seven if she went toe to toe with him, though given the raw power Seven is capable of generating these days thats still a debatable outcome," Wisp said and she felt the jolt of fear and appriciation run through Fuller.

"Alright so I get the dangerous part, to be fair I kinda assumed that of all of your kind if I'm honest, what's the word on whether she's off the reserve and following her own path now, she telling the truth or was it a ruse to get close to you two?" Fuller asked.

"Oh she's fully mind broken, what you forced her to see with your facts and logic snapped her control clean in two, she still doesn't like the fact that she can't refute it but she sees what you were saying to her as truth and just to shore things up a little I gave her a look at mine and Seven's memories as well just to cement the fact, so yeah she's as rogue as you are soldier boy," Wisp said and she felt Fuller blow out a sigh of relief both inside out of his head.

"Good to hear, well at least I know I can be persuasive when I need to be," he said and Wisp chuckled a little bitterly inside his skull.

"Yeah you got that right Fuller, you really did a number on her, the grief she got bottled up in there is pretty bad we're going to need to find her a way to vent it because we do not want that shit coming out at the wrong moment with the power she got on tap, imagine Seven losing his shit on a city and unleashing on it fully and you are somewhere close to what she could do," Wisp said and again she felt a powerful fear spike run through Fuller.

"So we got two walking bombs in our ranks now, good to know," he said.

"Just people like you Fuller, different yes but people all the same, same wants, needs, loves and flaws, but where both Seven and myself have had the experience of learning by our mistakes and growing with them she's a blank slate in that respect, trained to kill without question and to fight for a cause that she now knows to be false she's got nothing and no-one now, she's like a child who has just learned that the world is a fucking scary place being turfed out into it all alone to fend for herself but given one piece of information to carry with her, everyone will hate and fear her because of what she is and what she can do, try that one on for size," Wisp said.

"Well you were wrong about one thing," Fuller said.

"Oh? And what's that then?" Wisp replied curiously.

"She's got us now," he said and Wisp felt a tickle of joy spike through her.

"You got that right Fuller, you got that right," she said happily.

"Alright Yumi it looks like our fluffy mind-bending little friend says you check out, so we're all good, you can come with us if that's what you want to do of course," Fuller said stepping over and helping Nine to her feet and holding her steady as her rubbery legs threatened to give out on her.

She looked up at him in surprise, "You mean it? You'll take me with you? Just like that?" she asked.

"Trust me I know exactly what one of Wisp's little mind wanders feels like and it'll make you feel like your head is full of sludge for an hour or two afterwards but if there is one thing that girl is it's maticulous, she'll have been through every little memory you have no matter how well you thought it was hidden so if she says you're good then you're good it's as simple as that, I know she showed you a little of what she and Seven went through to boot so I know that you know what she's seen and how our people are while also knowing why they are the way they are, so in keeping with that Yumi we offer you the choice, join us or go your own way but know this if you do choose to walk with us you'll have to abide by our rules, no vendettas or going rogue, I've seen what these people are and what they stand for first hand and I'm proud to be among them now, they will do everything they can to aid you in whatever way you need but you have to be fully on board with wha tthey stand for, if you can do that then it's all good but the choice is still yours to make," he said.

Nine who called herself Yumi glanced from Fuller to Passa and back before nodding her head, "I don't want to be alone anymore, I'm sick of it, I'm sick of just being a thing, a tool, only good to get jobs that other people want done or scaring them into compliance, I don't want to be that person, I want to be........hell, I don't even know what I want to be, I've never even really had the chance or opportunity to think about it before but what I do know is that with you people at least I'll get that chance, so if you'll have me, I'm in," she said smiling up at Fuller.