Radiance

Chapter 71: Roaming Ronin.

Raymond yawned and stretched himself out feeling his muscles twang and pop, he slowly pushed the covers of his perfectly stitched bed roll back and got to his feet furthering his stretch as he got up and winching as he accidentally punched the ceiling with both hands, sighing heavily he shook out both hands, it wasn't easy being near eight foot tall some times.

Though at least the new bed roll that Malakai had made for him was super comfy, he hadn't had a proper bed since he'd become a super mutant, 9-10ft heavily reinforced mattresses weren't exactly in abundant supply around the wastes but that's where Malakai and that incredibly useful talent of his had come in, who knew that being a tailor would be so widely useful?

Given his size, he'd forfeited trying to cram himself into one of the little human-sized bed frames so that someone else could make use of the mattress, though to be fair given that he was kinda used to sleeping on the ground these days he doubted the softness of a bed would actually help him as he'd probably wind up tossing and turning trying to get comfortable, but now thanks to their Arachnakai tailor the floor was as comfortable as it got, though where he'd gotten the padding and heavy duty cloth from was a mystery, that boy had a real habit of pulling little miracles out of his spinnerets at times.

No sooner had he stepped foot out of his room than he heard the telltale clicking of claws on concrete which indicated the approach of one of the claws and by the almost musical sound to them he got the instant feeling that he knew exactly who it was.

A moment later Lia rounded the corner and locked eyes with him, her eyes widened for a moment before her pupils turned into a pair of narrow slits as a predatory smile crossed over her surprisingly handsome face, Raymond had no idea how in the name of hell she kept doing this but lately every single day she always seemed to be the first person he saw in the morning, it was like she'd either memorised his routine or was sat waiting for him somewhere.

"Good morning Raymond did you sleep well?" she asked walking right up to him, given that she was a slightly younger Claw than either Visa, Ven or indeed most of the others she was slightly smaller than them, but then with Claws slightly smaller meant fuck all when they were all in the 8-9 foot tall range.

"Yeah very well actually, that bed roll Malakai made for me is damn comfy, best night's sleep I've had in a while," he said and Lia nodded approvingly.

"I am glad to hear it a male such as you needs his strength and his rest, this will be doubly true when he has himself a proud and noble Claw girl to look after, a proud Claw such as this one right here always expects her male to be at his best and a good nights sleep is part of that, a well rested male is a happy male," she said with a bit of a sultry purr in her voice and Raymond couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head, this girl did not give up easily.

Ever since that day back in the safe house where she had said she was going to hunt him she had been true to her word as she had been like a scaly shadow trailing him around, though to be fair it wasn't exactly a bad thing, at first it had been kinda annoying as Raymond was a guy who liked his peace, quiet and solitude, this was a little hard to obtained when you had a rather amorous Claw girl following you about like an oversized lost puppy.

But that having been said she wasn't exactly bad company and she did have a real habit of being able to make him laugh, she had a very blunt and deadpan sense of humour at times that caught him off guard and just tore a laugh out of his soul even when he really didn't feel like it.

She also habits of catching him off guard by paying him compliments at the most unexpected of times like when he'd been moving some of the heavy gear from the vertibird to outside and he turned around to find her watching him with the most predatory eyes he'd ever seen, she'd told him that he had the muscles of a Claw and the skin of a human with colours that really drew the eye, though to be fair she had also said that she couldn't wait to see what those muscles of his could really do when put to the test which he really hadn't quite known what to make of.

She quickly fell in step with him as they headed to the mess hall where they found the rest of the team gathered already, it seemed that they were the last pair to rise and no sooner had they entered than every head turned to greet them.

"Ahh good morning you pair if you keep showing up at the same time people are gonna start talking, you know how tounges like to wag like Claw tails around these parts," Ven said with a sly grin from his place at the large dining table which he and Gregory had spent some time arranging last night so they could all eat together.

"Oh I'm making this male mine just you wait and see if I don't but like any good huntress I just need to study my prey, know its habits and routines, that way I will know when it is at its most vulnerable, then and only then will I strike!" Lia said proudly making the other Claws chuckle and quite a few of the humans shake their heads.

"He's not a radstag Lia you don't need to stalk him through the underbrush," Seven said as he held out his hand towards them sending what looked like a steaming cup of freshly brewed tea heading right for Raymond's hand before sending another towards Lia.

Raymond plucked it out of the air and using the cup he did the universal sign of thanks and cheers to him by raising the mug in Seven's direction before taking a mouthful of the hot tea, Seven was really getting the hang of this Jack of trades lark.

"I disagree! To a female Claw, a good male is like the most succulent and juicy of radstags, they must be studied, and understood, the hunt must be savoured because it makes the hunt more sweet and the prize even sweeter still!!" Lia said and a couple of the Claws seemed to nod in understanding.

"She has a point, my male, every time I hunt you I know my reward will be succulent and juicy as any radstag steak," Visa purred gripping Seven from behind and pulling him against her.

Raymond took his seat at the table and before he could even blink Lia was planting herself on the stool next to him, it had taken him a bit to understand the dynamic of this group and its odd social structure, but he was slowly starting to come to terms with it and to accept it, but he was slowly getting there and honestly, he did have to admit that not only was it nice to have a member of the opposite sex showing an interest in him but also being so brutally honest about it.

That was one thing Raymond had despised about being human was all fucking confusing and stupid mind games that people played with one another, it was like people expected you to know fully what was going on in their heads and not only that but you were supposed to play along with their game, well Raymond had not only never got those games but he'd never wanted to play in the fucking first place, he just wanted honesty and openness, was that so much to ask really?

He'd never been a confident man, always second guessing himself and questioning his every action and in action for days after making them or not making them as the case may be, he'd always felt so passed by the rest of humanity, as he saw the people around him all pairing off and finding themselves someone, but then he'd also witnessed the fallout of when those games went wrong, like cheating, affairs and even deaths.

This made him think quite often that humanity was its own worst enemy, that even after all the shit that had brought about the end of the world they still couldn't past all that shit, but here among these good people there was none of that, they didn't keep secrets, they didn't play games, they were honest and they were forthright with both their actions and their intentions.

No bullshit, just raw brutal honesty take it or leave it and Raymond really liked that because he knew where he stood with them and despite this whole hunting thing that Lia was doing she was still being brutally honest with her intentions, she was coming after him and was stating her intention to make him her male and her mate as clear as day, essentially she had put the ball in his court but was not forcing him to pick it up, she was telling him she was going to pursue him but in essence giving him the choice to reject her.

Now it might not sound all that way to the uninitiated but having seen how the Claws around here operate Raymond had come to realise how straightforwards they were, this was her way of saying 'I like you and I want to make you mine but I'm going to figure you out while you take the time to figure yourself out if this is what you want then take the step and I will do the rest, but if not be as honest as me and say it so it is understood.'

Now if Raymond was brutally honest with himself that indeed had been his first instinct, to push her away and to say no thank you not for me, but then he had stopped himself as he'd begun to really think it through, what real reason did he have to reject her?

She wasn't unattractive quite the opposite, she was a truly beautiful example of her species, deeply coloured and rich-looking scales, long shiny horns, a very surprisingly feminine figure with taught muscles and such power packed into them, but not only that but a surprising hourglass shape despite the massive thighs and chiselled washboard stomach that led up into her chest swells, even her face was handsome.

Yes, she was a fine-looking member of her species hell of any species, it was perfectly acceptable around here to say that she was handsome looking female, plus she was a hell of a lot more woman than any human girl would ever be, which brought him onto another fear that had been swimming around his mind like a radduck doing laps because its heads were arguing on which direction to go.

As a mutant, his strength was many many times that of a garden variety human especially a female, which made him worry about what would happen if he did ever by some miracle find an open-minded human girl to take him on and he lost control of his strength, well the answer was blatant, simple and devastating, dead or at the very least seriously hurt.

Now he didn't mean what if he lost and control and beat her to death because that was as far away from Raymond's personality as it was possible to be, no he was worried if he got so overwhelmed by emotion during loving her that he accidentally hurt her, he knew he'd never be able to forgive himself, but this was something that just didn't exist if that girl was a Claw or another mutant because they could easily match him blow for blow on that front, hell if the girl was a Claw technically he was the one in danger because not only did they have the strength they had Claws and teeth.

So handsome, exotic, incredibly durable and strong as well as brutally honest with their words and intentions, yeah Lia was checking a whole lot of boxes off in Raymond's mental checklist, then when he took into account her natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge she jumped right up on the points scale.

So whichever way he tried to pin it there simply wasn't a reason to reject her or her advances, to simply they pick that ball up and say "Lets fucking play then Claw girl,"

That's when the true reason and indeed question surfaced itself in Raymond's mind like the fabled Lochness monster coming up to greet him, was he ready for a relationship?

It was a simple question but a brutally difficult one to answer, the only answer he could even begin to muster for it was he didn't know.

Of course, he'd always dreamed of a day when he could have someone stood proudly at his side who would declare happily to the world this is my man and no one else's, who would make him stand proud with his chest puffed out saying to the world this woman is mine and I will do anything to defend her, but now he thought to himself whether he was truly ready to actually take that step now that it was actually a possibility.

Seven's voice snapped Raymond back out of his headspace and into the room, "Alright people listen up here's the deal, I'm going to split the team up so we can cover more ground as we gotta lot of leads to investigate around here and going as a full team to each one is just going to take too long, now each of these missions might take a quite a few days to complete maybe een longer than that depending on circumstances, thankfully due to that freshly liberated comms equipment we have just enough radios for each team to stay in communication and given that these radios are long distance we should be capable of staying in comms range with one another though I would recommend activating any comms relays you find in your search area, thankfully before we went to bed last night me and our lovely Wisp here mananged to pull both a map and a list of relay stations in the area from the listening post's computer system, so we have pretty solid basis of where each team should start, each team will have a singular goal in mind that doesn't mean you should get tunnel vision on your journey you should ensure you look out for anyone you can help either human or non-human, we have a message to spread so lets ensure its gets as far as it can," Seven said.

"Alright so who is going where?" Vess asked.

"The teams will be more or less even, Visa and I will take Vess, Chris, Shuna and Timothy and we will head towards this Nukaworld place to investigate this new breed of Claw that is supposed up there, Raymond, Lia, Cho, Spectre, Riss and Runs you guys are going to investigate the reports of thes Avian people that ar slugging it out with the Brotherhood, the rest of you are going with Wisp to investigate these synths and this Institute, hopefully, if you come across any synths as a technical fellow synth Wisp might be able to garner some trust from them, we've set up a search grid where each team will operate based on the intel we gathered from both the Brotherhood archives and everything else we complied along the way, the name I called out at the beginning of each group is the person in charge of it so despite obviously working the way we always have their word is the final one, so let's get out there and show Boston that there's a new force for good in town shall we?" Seven said to a series of cheers but Raymond was more shocked by the fact that he had been put in charge of a group.

"Err Seven a word please?" he said quickly and the young human nodded and beckoned him away from the rest of them sensing that this was in a private kind of scenario.

"Let me guess you wanna know why I chose to put you in charge of your group right?" he said and Raymond nodded once again amazed by this guy's observant nature.

"Well yeah, I'm not exactly the best qualified for this am I? I mean surely Riss or Runs would make a better candidate than me?" Raymond said and Seven shook his head.

"Believe it or not I've been watching you along with everyone else in this odd little team we've been building and I've noticed that not only do you pay attention to the little details but you analyse them, you are also very good with sizing things up quickly and while you are impulsive this tends to be a good thing as you make your choices based on all the data you have, so I estimate that you are ready for more responsibility in the group, don't worry big fella I got faith in you and I know you'll do fine, plus you got a Claw girl backing you up not to mention the others so don't sweat it yeah? You got this big guy," Seven said patting him on the arm and before he could even begin to think of a counterargument to Seven's surprisingly flattering assessment of him and his abilities he was gone back into the swell of people getting ready.

After breakfast during which the team began bouncing around plans for their operations they began packing back up again, well Seven had said that this station would only be a temporary stopping point for them, but they all decided that it would also be a good rally point for after their individual operation was complete.

Raymond double and triple-checked all of his gear as the last thing he wanted was to be caught with his rather sizable pants down out there, once he was done and he had completed all his checks he moved to find his team gathered in the mess hall all waiting on him, "Ready to go bosses?" Riss said with a flick of her tongue and a smile.

"Yeah I guess, well we've got a long way to go so we'd better make a start has the radio been checked?" he asked and Runs nodded.

"All works good, clear as the night sky in the desert," he said.

"Well then let's move out I guess," Raymond said and his little team turned and headed for the door after waving off to the others.

Raymond began to run over the plans in his head as he travelled and the more he thought about it he began to see how clever Seven had been when picking these teams, for instance, Seven's team was comprised of two Alpha Claws and two scientists who better to deal with a new Claw species really?

Then there was the team going after the synths, not only did it contain an actual synth but Malakai who was one of the most calming people he had ever met once you got over the initial wave of arachnophobia of giant spider boy, so who better to calm and earn the trust of potentially suspicious synths who may very well have been abused, something like a comfort blanket that was woven right before your eyes especially for you when you may very well have never received a gift in your life before could go a very long way to earning trust.

Then there was his own team, it was filled with trackers and hunters not to mention warriors which given they were going into a potentially deadly situation was a smart choice because they would not only be able to aid him to track their targets but to be able to potentially observe them before initiating contact.

Raymond couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he realised this, Seven seriously was a smart cookie when it came down to it which if you added his very odd ability to be able to see right through people and their intentions was a very powerful mixture in a leader, he could easily see why the team had silently voted him as the one they would follow because he and Visa were more than just a couple they had become a symbol of what things could be if only people were willing to work for it.

"What amuses you Raymond?" a deep growly feminine voice said from his right and glancing right he saw Lia looking at him curiously.

"Oh nothing was just thinking about the team is all," he said shooting her a smile.

"I think Seven picked masterfully, this team is made of skilled hunters and warriors, who better to take on the challenge of finding this new species and potentially helping them with any battles they may have to fight? Not only that but we have a leader who thinks before he acts and decides carefully what should be done, this is a good quality to have and is needed in one who leads, it is how a pack chooses and Alpha as they cannot only be strong but they must be smart enough to look out for the needs and wants of their entire pack, the weight of all rest on their shoulders so those shoulders need to be broad and steady, just like your big green ones," Lia said with a very matter of fact note in her voice.

Raymond laughed and grinned at her, "Your only saying that because you want to get your hands on said green shoulders," he said playfully actually shocking himself at the speed at which he thought of that comeback, as usual, those things hit him days later after much self-analysis had taken place.

The big Claw shot him a look of surprise which slowly morphed into a very predatory smile, "I see you are coming around to the idea of being hunted by a Claw, this is good and yes you are right I do want to get my hands on those big green shoulders and so much more besides but that is not the reason I said it, I truly believe that Seven was correct in his choices, I do not make my flattery and compliments sideways like humans seem to, when I say words they are carefully chosen with reason if I wish to compliment your shoulders I will simply say they will look far better with my hands resting upon them as you look up at me," she growled deeply making Raymond shiver but somehow before he could stop himself another retort shot out.