Radiance

Chapter 48: Scribe's Tale.

The fighting happening outside was brutal and it was fast as tends to be the case when it is in close quarters and you didn't get much closer than having an angry radio-controlled claw right in your fucking face.

But after Runs came back he reported to the team that the result had been a draw with all three parties wiping each other out, well that wasn't strictly true as there had been one mutant left standing due to the sheer numbers they had thrown at the fight but the vast majority of were mown down by the heavy automatic fire from the Brotherhood and the Enclave, but that last mutant wasn't able to take the news of their victory back to any comrades back at its camp thanks to a swift and silent arrow to the eyeball thanks to Runs.

That meant the only survivor of the rapid battle had been the scribe that Riss had snatched right off the battlefield and carried back to the group where he had been bound and secured not to mention gagged after the Ghouls had insisted upon it.

"Let's go and check the bodies for anything useful, both the Brotherhood and the Enclave carry some pretty hefty gear that could be really useful to both of our causes," Faith said in a rather curt voice, it seemed she was still pretty angry that not only had they taken a prisoner but that they had been willing to possibly parlay with the Brotherhood before the fight started but Seven had stood his ground repeating his stance of giving them a chance to speak rather than just murdering an unconscious defenceless man before making a decision.

But he did agree to go and check the bodies with them taking both Visa and Ven with them as they wished to check the bodies of the two fallen claws to see if they either knew them or God forbid were related to them.

The remainder of the group remained behind to watch over the captive while Seven, Visa, Ven, Faith and Markus headed down to the street level and headed up to the cross junction where the fight had taken place.

The sheer level of explosive violence was blatantly evident even before they reached the bodies, there were bullet holes and laser burns in nearly every possible surface which indicated the insane level of firepower the three small groups had thrown at each other in only a matter of minutes, then there was the blood.

It was like a river of red flowing down the crumbling gutters and into the drains, it was still leaking from everybody that lay on the field, claw, human and mutant blood all mixing together until you could not tell whose was whose and that made Seven incredibly sad.

The two closest bodies were the two claws, one had been completely riddled with so many laser rounds that it was almost impossible to tell what gender the poor creature was as its front side was shredded with scales and ragged flesh simply hanging from long strands of destroyed viscera.

The one thing that was still seemingly unharmed upon the poor claw's body was the helmet on its head that was still crackling with electrical energy, Ven slowly approached and slowly crouched down before reaching out and tenderly closing the claw's wide lifeless eyes with his large hand.

"Rest now brother your fight is done, I hope the place you are in now accepts you and lets you run free and happy," he said softly.

"Did you know him Ven?" Seven asked softly and Ven shook his head.

"No this claw was not one of ours, as for his sentience I do not know," he said softly.

That's when Seven heard a gasp and turned to see Visa looking down on the other claw who was in much better shape than the one they were still standing over, it was blatantly a female and had been killed by a collection of gunshots to her torso before being finished off by what looked like a spear of some kind having been jammed through her heart from behind.

She was wearing the same bolted-on colander style helmets and to Seven's claw loving eyes she was a rather pretty claw girl, she'd had a fine and strong figure that she was blatantly proud of by the way she had cared for herself, her scales were clean and polished in places and her horns were long and sharpened which showed that she had been a proud claw female.

"Her name was Vess, she was one of our pack," Visa said quietly before she couched down and just like her brother had she gently closed the dead claw's eyes.

"Rest sister may you run free and happy in paradise where all you hunts will fill your belly and your nest will be full and safe," Visa said in a genuinely emotional voice.

Seven placed a hand on her shoulder and she reached up and gripped his metal-sheathed hand and held it, "I want vengeance for this Seven, I want these fucker to drown in their own blood! Vess was a good claw, she was kind and she was gentle, she would spend all of her time protecting and teaching the new hatchlings making them feel safe and secure in their nests, there were many times in lean times when she would go without food so she could make sure their bellies were full, she did not deserve this, to be used as someone's tool of war, reduced to nothing more than a beast, no not even that, a fucking puppet on a string!" she snarled angrily.

"I swear this to you my sweetest of all hearts they will pay in blood for this, we will get any other claws out of there, you have my word," he said softly but with pure venom in his voice.

Ven joined them in his hands he was holding one of the helmets in his large hands while blood dripped from his claws indicating that he had cut it off with his bare claws, "Will you pay these two fallen claws the same respect as you did the fallen pack in the railway yard Seven?" he asked softly and Seven nodded before reaching out and placing a gentle hand on the big claw's arm.

"Of course I will my friend, leave it with me," he said softly and Ven nodded.

"Thank you Seven you do not know what this means to us, Vess was a good woman, a gentle claw, she deserves every chance at happiness and peace that she can get and it gives me peace knowing that her earthy remains are in the hands as one who shows honour to all such as you," he said reaching up and rubbing his eyes on the back of his forearm.

Faith stopped next to the two claws and Seven could see something in her red eyes that told him that she wanted to say something but smartly held her tongue and instead chose to show respect, she bowed her head, "I'm sorry for your loss guys, its a pain I know all too well" she said softly and Visa lifted her large head and looked at her and nodded.

"Thank you," she said softly then she turned and began the awful task of removing the helmet from Vess's head.

Once she was done Seven used his Telekinis to move the two claw bodies away from the scene before placing them in a nearby destroyed property and placed as much wooden furniture around them and atop them before lighting the whole thing on fire, "Rest easy good claws, I hope you find peace in the next life, run free" he said turning around only to run right into both Ven and Visa who had been behind him the entire time, both of them embraced him and held him tightly between them.

"Thank you Seven, I did not exaggerate when I said this world needs more humans like you, there would be a lot more happy claws if there were," Ven said softly.

"I didn't do it just because they were claws, I did it because they were innocent and any innocent person deserves at least the chance at a peaceful afterlife if there is such a thing, I also did it because they were important to you two and that makes them important to me because you two are important to me, you are my family, you are my life mate and you are my brother in law," he said and that made them squeeze him even tighter between them.

"I don't know what I did to deserve you Seven but thank you," Visa said resting her head on his wide metal shoulder.

Eventually, the three of them rejoined the two Ghouls who were checking over the bodies of the two Enclave and four Brotherhood soldiers, the armour they were all wearing was completely ruined it was obvious that both parties had come with anti-armour firepower as they were expecting to run into other armoured parties and it had come into reality though neither of them had obviously been prepared to have to fight on two separate fronts and the mutants were an unknown and it had cost all of them.

"Here Seven an upgrade think this will suit you," Markus said handing Seven a strange-looking rifle.

"Hmmm, a plasma rifle huh? Seen these things in action pretty nasty little toys" he said.

"Think that one would do you better," Visa said pointing to a large weapon laid on the floor nearby and Seven turned to look and he couldn't help but smile.

He placed the plasma rifle in Vena's hands, "Give that to you life mate I think he'd be better off with it" he said and he strolled over and using the power-assisted movement of the armour to lift the laser Gatling gun from the floor and to his surprise, the thing looked pristine.

No sooner had his hands touched the gun his suit connected to it remotely and his HUD began to display not only an ammo count for it but the condition of the weapon and it was pristine, these Brotherhood people really did take care of their gear.

They swiftly collected all of the other weapons and any parts like fusion batteries that they could along with things like their rations, though Seven did decide to show the fallen Brotherhood soldiers some respect by moving their bodies off the street and setting them aflame as well he also removed their dog tags, Faith wasn't exactly happy about it but she didn't fight it because she obviously felt he was just being an honourable human being, but he did not place them in the same fire as the two fallen claws and he left both the Enclave and the mutants exactly where they fell as to him they deserved anything they got.

When they returned to the group Seven's group allowed the Ghouls to keep the majority of the weapons as a show of good faith and it seemed to go down rather well and infact surprised them.

"So what are we going to do with him?" Faith asked pointing to the unconscious Scribe they had in custody and the hate and venom were obvious in her voice.

"Well none of us are about to murder a restrained and defenceless person, I don't care who they are or what they represent, my people are not cold-blooded murderers and think about this Faith we may be able to get intel about the Brotherhood's movements and set up, if done right we may even be able to even turn an enemy into an ally," Seven said.

"How did you come to that conclusion, these fuckers are fucking zealots!" she yelled and Seven put up his hands to try and calm her down as she stomped around the room.

"Simple I can be very persuasive when I need to be, this person is obviously not a warrior, he's an intelligence that we can work with, we can appeal to his reasoning and make a case to him, that way we could not only get intel from him but maybe even turn him to our cause, think about it, you said it yourself you've never seen a group like ours before, that alone should spark his scientific curiosity, not to mention we have our very own scientist in the form of Shuna who could speak to him on the same level, there are all sorts of things we can do and just think about the rewards we could get, with his help we maybe even able to kick both the Enclave and the Brotherhood royally in the balls and get them off the back of Underworld's back for good" Seven said.

Faith seemed to think this over for a bit, it was obvious she was not exactly thrilled with the idea but the potential to hurt both the Enclave and the Brotherhood was too tempting for her to resist, "Fine don't make me regret this Seven but we can't do this here, we'll take him to a safehouse we run that's not far from here, it's secure and our runner teams use it from time to time" she said and Seven nodded.

"Deal," he said and she nodded.

"Fine but you guys are carrying his Brotherhood ass around, I ain't fucking touching him," she said before anyone could say anything Shuna stepped forwards and picked the unconscious scribe up surprisingly tenderly considering she was holding someone who would most likely happily see her dead in a heartbeat for merely existing.

"I got this," she said and Seven nodded.

"Alright then lead on," he said and Faith nodded before turning away and leading them off back into the city.

The Ghoul safe house was a few blocks away and to Seven's surprise was actually not only very well hidden but incredibly secure, the entrance was hidden behind a bookcase in an old large house that looked like it dated right back to the Victorian age by it large pointed slate style roof and large sweeping arches.

Behind the bookcase was a doorway that led into a surprisingly large stairwell leading down below the normal basement, it was barely wide and tall enough for both the claws and Shuna to enter but it was obviously not comfortable for them.

At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy bank style vault door that blocked entry to what lay beyond it, as they reached it Faith punched in two separate codes into the door before turning a huge metal handle that looked like a giant ship wheel in the centre of the door after a series of clicks indicated it had been unlocked.

The door swung inwards silently on its massive hinges which were set into what looked like some kind of reinforced concrete which just like the door looked pretty much new and also very well maintained.

Faith seemed to sense Seven's surprise at the situation and she shot him a smug smile, "What's the matter Seven surprised that mere Ghouls can have both security like this and the tech to install it?" she said.

"The fact that you are Ghouls has nothing to do with this more I was just surprised to see such security inside a house this old, made me wonder what this place used to be what with the secret passageways which given how old they blatantly are you guys most definitely did not install, well unless you guys were around in the Victorian age anyway, honestly you keep coming back to the Ghoul thing you really need to stop projecting your insecurities onto me as it seems to me you are the only person here who has a problem with it" Seven shot back making Faith's smug smile vanish and it got replaced with a scowl, she made a humph noise before turning her back on them and heading into the room beyond.

Just inside the vault doorway was a small fusion reactor that looked like it ran on the same type of fusion battery that Seven's power armour ran on, he'd seen a few of these things dotted around all over the wastes though usually the battery powering them was gone or run dry, but this one seemed to have a fully charged battery inserted into it as no sooner had Faith began flipping switches than lights began to come on and fans in ventilators above them began to hum softly above their heads pumping cool breathable air into the place which obviously appeared to be a bunker or fallout shelter of some kind.

"We didn't build this place but we did find it and take it over from its previous owners a group of jet dealers who met an unfortunate end, we also upgraded the security, we use places like this to hide Ghouls that have come into problems and have sought us out or who we have freed, it may just seem to outsiders that we are nothing more than scavengers but we also work in the areas of slave freeing both Ghoul and human, we have freed numerous slaves from those fuckers over at Paradise Falls and other groups, as you can imagine that doesn't exactly make them happy so yeah we use these place to hide the freed Ghouls before we can shuttle them out of town as well as other things," Markus said proudly.

"Well you won't be having problems with them anymore," Ven said and both Faith and Markus turned and looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Markus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean you are speaking to the group that destroyed those slave-trading fucks and what's more Seven right there turned the whole fucking place into rubble, not one of them walked out of there, we completely destroyed those fuckers and boy you should have seen Seven in that place, he nuked them he even had wings for a few moments, hell they were calling him a Dark Angel," Ven said proudly as he folded his arms over his broad puffed out chest.

"W-W-Wait, you mean it's true!!? You're the fucking Dark Angel!! And Paradise Falls is really gone!!?" Faith yelled so loudly her voice seemed to boom from the poured and reinforced concrete walls echoing away down the long corridor leading away from them.

Seven sighed heavily and placed a metal hand to his helmet, "How the fuck did you guys hear about that? It only happened a couple of days before we met you" Seven said his voice sounding exasperated.

"Fuck me so it is true! Jesus H Christ on a pogo stick, when our scouts came back in and made that report no-one believed them, hell the scouts even went to the town where they'd seen all the slaves get transported to just in case it was another slave taking group just taking over from them but one of the Ghouls in the group that escaped told our people everything, it was just so incredible and so hard to believe no-one wanted to swallow it but given what's heard and seen from multiple sources there's just so no denying it now, Jesus I can't believe it, Paradise falls is just gone, fucking awesome" Faith said sounding both relieved and amazed.

"Holy shit do you realise what this means Faith? No more fucking slavers, holy shit this is fucking huge!! This is the first step to a truly free DC" Markus exclaimed with his emotions pouring out through his voice.

"Alright let's get this Muppet locked up and then we'll deal with all this," Faith said and she quickly guided the group down the long corridor to a small room equipped with nothing more than a toilet, a sink and a bed, where Shuna placed the still unconscious Scribe down on the bed and released his bindings after removing any weapons and other items from his person leaving him in just his clothes though Seven did note that Shuna did seem to pay rather close attention to the Scribe's body when she lifted his shirt to check if he was hiding anything under it, her eyes went rather wide while looking up his rather solid torso and he noticed her fingers flexing like she wanted to touch him so he decided to intercede.

Glancing around Seven noticed the others were outside of earshot and he very gently placed a hand on Shuna's large shoulder making her jump as she looked down at the now released Scribe who was laid on the bed, her eyes snapped to him and they were as wide as dinner plates with a slightly guilty edge like a kid caught with it's hand in the cookie jar.

"Just don't Shuna, it's not right or cool, guy is out of it and can't say yes or no, just because he's male doesn't give you a free pass to do what you want to him," he said in a very soft but stern voice that was inaudible to the others outside but conveyed his intention to defend the unconscious and helpless man.

Shuna's eyes widened further and then she looked down at her feet, "I-I-I wasn't gonna...." she began and Seven shook his head.

"You don't need to lie to me Shauna I know what you were thinking and that's fair enough I'm not trying to shame you here but what I am saying is you know me and what I stand for alright?" he said softly and she nodded.

"S-Sorry" she stammered softly.

Seven shook his head, "It's fine you didn't do anything wrong, you just saw someone you like and you wanted to touch and that in itself is fine but you need to ensure that until you get that permission you keep them to yourself ok?" he said and she nodded.

Seven patted her shoulder as she nodded, "Alright I just wanted to be clear on that, that's all and I'm sorry if I embarrassed you Shauna that was not my intent I just wanted to be clear if I don't uphold the standards to which I hold myself within my own group how is this group supposed to act as an example to others?" he said and she nodded.