Chapter 18: Upgrades People, Upgrades.
Seven had to say he was impressed by what Riss had pulled off all on her lonesome, though he couldn't help but wonder why she'd done it. Still, by the way, she kept smiling at him he got the feeling she was trying to prove herself.
Ven threw down a dead Ghoul that had a series of large holes through the centre of its chest, "Think that's the last of them, Riss you did a good job of clearing these rotten fuckers out of here there were only six left for us to deal with" he said cleaning off his claws on the dead Ghoul's raggy clothes.
Seven was dragging another and he threw it down into the pile by the door, "Yeah think we got 'em all, certainly an upgrade from a shipping container ain't it?" he said.
Suddenly a huge pair of clawed hands appeared around his metal armoured chest and pulled him back against a large scaley body.
"Oh I don't know, I have a rather fond memory of that shipping container" Visa's voice purred from behind him and Seven gently patted her hands.
"Oh, me too my sexy alpha and I intend to make a whole lot more of them any chance we get," he said making Visa growl softly as she squeezed him tightly.
"I'll hold you to that my sweet-talking human" she growled.
"If by that you mean that sexy scaled bum of yours I say, anytime," he said making Visa growl again, at the same time he heard Wisp making gagging noises in his head, "Mmmm the underside of her tail is looking mighty tasty right about now," he said in a voice so quiet only Wisp heard it.
"Shutting up now," Wisp said very quickly.
"I think we should search this place top to bottom, they got a lot of old stuff stored here and it's pretty much in mint condition, chances are we ain't going to see another place like this one for a hell of a long time if ever, we should see what we can find," Gregory said turning a part for something over in his skilled hands.
"My beautiful human is right, we should see what treasures this place contains," Ven said running his large hand over Gregory's slender back.
So the group spread out and began to search the place inch by inch, it was time-consuming but surprisingly worth it, they found a surprising amount of old prewar military food packed into boxes, this stuff thanks to the preservatives and radiation that it was blasted with it before being either canned or vacuum-sealed it would never rot or expire.
So each of them loaded up a pack with what they could carry, this would keep them going for weeks if need be, though they all agreed it should only be used if they couldn't obtain fresh as, unlike fresh food, it wouldn't rot.
That's when Ven found something rather interesting, he'd had the idea from Gregory who had been somewhat mystified by the presence of military rations here, so he'd figured that if there was military food that there might be other military parts or possibly weapons that the two humans could use, so while Seven and the others kept packing and searching he'd gone off through the maze of shelves and crates.
It turned out his instincts were spot on, he called out to the others and they came through the maze and found him standing in front of what appeared to be a hidden cage tucked right at the back of the building as far out of sight as it was possible to be.
It was made of heavy dark metal with a thick armoured door with a seriously heavy lock just below the handle, even as strong as the two claws were even they'd have a seriously difficult time busting through it.
"What do you think my sister? Think we could force that door?" Ven asked appraising the door carefully.
"I believe so oh brother of mine, there is little two strong claws cannot do when we put our mind to it," Visa said shooting Seven a look that said 'Watch me show off for you.'
Suddenly Gregory stepped up and ran his hand down Ven's long-arm until he stroked it over his hand and entwined his fingers with his, "Now my big claw boy there's no need to show off for me, I know how big and strong you are and you know I love it just as I love you, but why use brawn when you can use brains, allow me my sweet one" he said in a soft voice that made Ven's tail swish.
Gregory stepped forwards and pulled out a leather wallet from one of his inside pockets, they all looked at him curiously as he took out a lot of small tools some of which looked suspiciously like bobby pins, or at least were once bobby pins.
Though right now it was hard to tell what they were as they'd been twisted and shaped into something else entirely, Gregory crouched down before the huge metal door and began inserting various tools into the lock channel.
Seven switched on his headlamp and shone it on the lock to give him more light to work, Gregory flashed him a smile and a nod, "Thanks" he said before setting back to work, they all watched curiously as he twisted and turned until eventually there was a series of sharp clicks and with a triumphant squeak that seemed to make Ven smile Gregory popped the lock open.
The large metal door swung open surprisingly quietly considering how long it must have been since it was last opened, Seven pulled it out of the way so that they could see past it and what he saw inside lit his face up inside his helmet like the morning sun.
"Holy shit would you look at that! Think it still works?" Gregory said looking it up and down.
"Only one way to find out," Wisp said and with that, she shot out of Seven's head and poured out through the vents making everyone jump back in surprise except Seven.
Wisp shot forwards and filtered inside through the vents along the rear of it and mere seconds later the whole thing began to shudder and whirr loudly, then with a loud noise that was blatantly the sound of heavy military-grade motors and electronics powering up the huge sentry bot shuddered to life.
"Oh, how this is a hell of a lot cooler than that assaultron" Wisp said through the Sentry bot's voice modulator, somehow it still managed to have a feminine twang to its heavy mechanical voice.
She lifted the two laser Gatling guns that she now appeared to have for her hands and looked at them, "Don't think I'll be fondling anything sensitive with these do you?" she said shooting Seven a look and he laughed.
"I doubt it," he said grinning as she lowered them and rolled forwards on the multiple wheels the three legs had attached to the bottom.
"You sure it's safe to do this now?" Gregory asked and Wisp shrugged her mechanical shoulders.
"Don't know but I think it's worth the risk for this kind of firepower" Wisp said holding up one of her gun hands and looking at it as the motors made the barrels spin.
