Radiance Chapter 130

Chapter 130: Pandora's Box.

After Seven's amazing appearance and departure, the whole of Raymond's group was buzzing with energy, especially the new guys who had never met the leader of the Free Peoples before.

So to see the man that all of them raved about and spoke so highly of and for him to appear and disappear in such a dramatic fashion really got everyone pumped up.

"No wonder you guys all seem to look up to him so much, I mean if the dude can fly then you are quite literally all looking up to him," Paladin Wright said with a grin as they all sat at the conference table.

"That kind of a new thing I assure you, I mean I've heard the others talk about him getting these smoke wings and hovering off the floor like some kind of vengeful angel before he levelled a slave trader outpost, but I've never actually seen him, well you know, fly before," Raymond said.

"How do you think he does it without wings?" Jewel asked curiously with all of her Featherguard companions nodding their approval of the question.

"Oh, I'd say that's kinda simple," Lucas who was currently acting as both an attendee and as Zixxy's personal seat at the table said.

All of them turned to look at him and Raymond gestured for him to continue his thoughts with a wave of his large hand.

"Think about it, you said he's telekinetic correct?" Lucas said and Raymond nodded.

"Yeah so?" he said and suddenly Sasha's face lit up as an idea struck him.

"I believe I see what young Lucas is thinking, he believes that because Seven has the power to lift things with mind, then he also to has the power to lift himself and others with mind, yes?" he said and Lucas pointed at the grizzled Cossak and smiled.

"Exactly! Think about it, you've said on multiple occasions that he can pick up people or objects and throw them around or crush them with ease, then there is really nothing to stop him from turning that power inward and using it to lift his own mass, therefore rendering him effectively weightless, all he has to do is lift and accelerate, to him it would be essentially as simple as one of us thinking 'I would like to go here,'" he said.

"Ok well, that covers in part the how, but what I'd like to know is how he manages to travel at such speed without consequence, we all blatantly heard him break the sound barrier up there, that kind of speed would rip the scales clean off a Claw's ass with zero issues, even in his power armour the air resistance would tear plates off it, so how the hell does he pull off that little trick?" Paladin Wright asked looking around the table.

Lia shrugged before glancing downwards and behind her as if to make sure none of the scales of her own ass was missing, as if a sympathetic fear for such a Claw-related indignity worried her, kinda like a man wincing upon seeing another man getting kicked full force in the balls.

"I believe he is creating a psionic bubble," Zixxy said and all of them turned to look at the little extraterrestrial sat upon Lucas's lap and once again Raymond made his 'please continue' gesture to her.

"Well think about it, we know from experience that Seven can create hands made of nothing but pure psionic energy that while invisible to the naked eye have as much mass and substance as the real thing, he's used them to torment poor Visa more than once in our sight," Zixxy said.

"I doubt she sees it as torment, more as a reason to pounce on him when the chance presents itself, as any healthy Claw woman would if her beloved male were to tease her so," Lia said shooting a loaded and very fang-filled grin at Raymond who simply swallowed hard but grinned back all the same.

"Well err yes quite, but all the same, if we think about it it makes perfect sense, there would be nothing to stop him from dictating the shape or even really the size of the shape he created other than his own power and imagination, so, in essence, all he'd have to do is create a bubble for them to ride in while he lifted them and propelled them along, this bubble would kinda act like a dart, allowing him to cut through the air with ease while deflecting all of the air resistance away from its passengers, so in short higher speed and no risk," Zixxy said.

"Well I wouldn't say no risk, as anybody who can fly would concur with me on this, it is all about concentration, any kind of lapse in it can result in catastrophic damage to yourself or anything you are carrying, say if someone were to shoot at you while you were carrying someone and that shot was a near miss, therefore startling you and causing you to both pause your wing beat while also releasing your talon grip," Jewel said.

Zixxy nodded in agreement with this as did Jewel's fellow Featherguard.

"Agreed which is why I do hope that Seven has thought up some potential countermeasures to such an occurrence, such as making the field bulletproof to protect those within it," she said.

"He can do that?" Paladin Wright asked in surprise and Raymond nodded.

"Aye he can, all of us that have been around him long enough have seen him catch bullets out of the air and throw them back at their shooter with more force than the original gun had, we've seen him deflect them, hell we've even seen him block the end of people's gun barrels causing them to blow up when they've tried to fire them, kinda like if they had a squib round jammed in the barrel, honestly it never ceases to amaze me the uses he figures out for that power of his," he said.

"No fucking wonder the Enclave want him so badly, with a power like his under their thumb they'd be unstoppable, hell they could use him to pull our floating city out of the air and ground us with nothing more than him on the ground," Jewel said with her face etched with worry that seemed to also infect her fellow Featherguard as the mental image passed from one to the next.

"Agreed, hell he could take out the Prydwynn with nothing more than fucking bits of pavement that he propelled to supersonic speed and launched at it," Paladin Wright said also looking worried.

"And now you know why Seven and all of us fight so diligently against them, it's not just the fact that they are Jackbooted fascist fucks, it's the fact that they are relentless, smart and devious, fascist Jackbooted fucks who will stop at nothing to not only enslave the entire country into their lunacy, but would simply kill the rest of us for simply existing, but they have zero issue capturing and enslaving non-humans to do their dirty work for them when they can, look at what happened to my beloved Lia and her family, look at what happened to the Scorpians, I have no doubt they have or are trying the same thing with mutants too and if they could get their hands on Valkyries they wouldn't hesitate," Raymond said and a couple of them glanced at Lia.

"What happened to you and your family if I might ask?' Paladin Wright asked in a soft voice as she glanced at the big Claw girl seated to Raymond's right side.

"Myself, my brother and my Matriarch were captured by the Enclave, they used these vile helmets on us to make us docile and controlable, we had no will of our own, we could not resist or fight them, we were nought but enslaved puppets until Seven and his people freed us and helped us to destroy the vile humans who held us captive, we learned that day that not all human are the same, that they are as varied and as unique as we ourselves are, for the first time we saw what good humans can do when they are willing to stand up and fight for the right thing, the humans of this very group sided with us against their own kind and never has a show of compassion or determination touched my heart in such a way, I will be forever grateful to them for what they did for us because if it were not for them I would still be a slave and would not have my beloved Raymond here," Lia said with fire in her voice as she took Raymond's massive hand in hers.

"As I've said on numerous occasions, that's kinda what this whole group is about, it started as just some escape slaves who were being experimented on running for their lives but the diversity and differences within that group touched the hearts of those they met along the way and whom they stopped to help that the group grew and the message spread, now here we are months later and we are no longer simply a group, we are a movement," Raymond said.

"Here here, if it were not for these wonderful people sitting at this table, especially both Zixxy and Rayomnd I would be still a vile defiler but thanks to their efforts they showed me the truth of my actions and they gave me a path to redemption, one that I am proud to say that I get to walk with the most beautiful human man that even my dreams could conceive at my side and every day I aim to show him the strength of my soul and the truth of my love for him," Jewel said reaching for Adam's hand which he gave her most happily and willingly.

"Very true that, Zixxy put me back together again and freed me from the nightmare of my own pain and sorrow, she showed me the truth of Jewel's remorse and led me back towards the light, there simply are not words to express the gratitude I feel towards this group," he said.

"A very potent message indeed, showed me the truth of heart when I was pulled from a dank, miserable cell by non-human who fights for me alongside her own human love, but now I find myself conflicted after seeing what happened to this Seven's sister, makes me wonder if all those Spectres were nothing more than programmed puppets who had no choice in matter?" Sasha said glancing around at the group and Raymond nodded in agreement.

"Yeah I've been wondering that too, did you manage to pick up anything from the others towards an answer in that department Zix?' he asked glancing at the little extraterrestrial.

Zixxy shook her head and shrugged.

"Not really no, I was only able to ascertain the truth behind Judy when I deep-dived her mind and discovered the lies stacked atop the truths they had tried to erase, as to whether all of them are like that I could not say for certain, but what we do know is that all of them were brainwashed and 'trained' in the same way as she was, I saw the pods that had them plugged into where their indoctrination was occurring, that indicates to me they will all be as fanatical as her unless we manage to unplug them the same way," she said.

"Think they did the same thing to Seven's other sister, Chloe was it?' Lia asked and Zixxy shrugged again.

"No way to tell, Judy had no memories of her after the pair of them were taken away from the ward that was kept in, so it could be the case that they made her into a Spectre, or possibly she was more like Seven in that she had a Psionic ability and ended up in another part of that program, or maybe she's something more altogether, we'll need to locate that facility and gain access to their records to know for sure," Zixxy said.

Raymond sighed and nodded.

"Yeah I was afraid you'd say something like that, so we'll have to put that on the back burner for now with all that we've got going on around here at the moment, we need to start working on a counter push against the Enclave incursions plus we got that call from Wisp about a possible alliance with the Minutemen they want us to help mediate which would be an excellent boon for our local strength," Raymond said.

"Did she give a time frame on that one?" Paladin Wright asked and Raymond shook his head.

"Asked me to wait for Fuller's call as he's the one who has headed off to their base of operations to broker the deal, said he'd call when he needed us, she also asked if both yourself and Jewel would sit in as representatives of your respective groups as well," Raymond said and both of them nodded.

"No problems there, hell I'll go one better and call in a vertibird to lift us to the meeting, no better way to arrive than in style right?' Paladin Wright said with a grin.

"Awesome well that will take care of that then, so I suppose that leaves us with what you discovered from Judy's memories Zix," Raymond said turning to look at her expectantly.

"Yeah, I've been pouring over what I pulled out of her head and despite a lot of it being kinda fragmented as to the where's and who's I did pull both a name and a face of interest out, Dr Chalmers," she said and Raymond nodded.

"I've heard Seven mention her name before, from what I remember, she was the one responsible for overseeing the entire bio-weapon division, she was also the one responsible for torturing Seven while she was testing out his abilities, that woman has a lot to answer for if you ask me," Raymond said.

"She was also one of the people and I do use that term very loosely, who was in charge of the department that created the helmets designed to control Claws, who knows how many of my feral brethren they have enslaved in those vile devices, I am most sure that there are numerous packs feral and non-feral alike who would give up their tails to get some one on one time with that woman," Lia spat with pure vitriol and venom in her voice.

"Seems like she's gone right to the top of our hot target list, if she's the one pulling the strings on a lot of this shit being thrown at us, she would be an excellent candidate for a snatch-and-grab op if you ask me, get the feeling our interrogators would have a field day with her," Paladin Wright said with all of the normal joviality gone out of her voice.

"Not if a Claw gets hold of her first, you won't need interrogators or even a minute to get her to spill her deepest darkest secrets," Lia said flexing her wicked Claws for all to see to emphasise her point.

"We need her able to speak to be able to reveal said secrets my love," Raymond said placing a reassuring hand on his Claw girl's broad shoulder.

"Spoilsport," she said with a soft smile at him.

"Any idea where we might find the not-so-good doctor Zix?" Raymond asked glancing at her.

"Hmm that's a bit of a tricky one, I've seen quite her in quite a few of the memories from Judy but they were all from before she was transferred to the Spectre program, it seems that while she might have some say in that project it's not her area really, that seems to be overseen by a completely different department or team, the one face I've been able to pull out is a male doctor who goes by the name of Phillip Reinhold, seen his face quite clearly numerous times from when she was in the pod, seems he's the man in charge of the show over there," she said.

"Add another one to the list, I'll pass these names on to our intel division, maybe our moles inside the Enclave can pull us out some details on their whereabouts," Paladin Wright said and Raymond nodded approvingly.

"Now that would be useful indeed, hell even a general area, but tell them to be careful, these guys are going to be heavily protected and simply asking about them may raise some eyebrows to say the least, so as they say discretion is the better part of valour in this instance," he said.

"As for our more immediate problem here it seems that there were a couple of objectives all going on at once but none of the teams knew the full ins and outs of what the others were doing for security, though Judy was exceptionally good at her job and did get some minor details as to their objectives in the region, first of all the team we wiped out were tasked with capturing the Scorpians who were then going to be transported back to their base and onwards to the bio-weapons team, so lets put a pin in that one as there is a potential entry point there, second team were tasked with establishing a foothold in the region, of securing a base of operations and setting p transport routes so troops and weapons can be brought in, this is incredibly worrying as we have no idea where this team is operating or how far along with that they are, the third team is possibly the worst of the lot, they are a deep cover sabotauge and assassination team, they are tasked with going deep cover in the zone so for my money that means no power armour or other distinguishing marks, their job is to disrupt the peace process that is currently on going between us and the other power players in the region," Zixxy said.

Raymond's brow furrowed deeply and a mask of concern spread across his face.

"We need to alert our allies to this immediately, both the Brotherhood, the Valkyeries and everyone needs to know about this so they can be ready for them, the last thing we need is them derailing all that we've worked this hard to accomplish, the foothold is worrying of course but for my money the bigger threat is them attacking our allies and framing either us or one of the others for the attacks, it will undermine everything we have sought to accomplish, it could even plunge the whole region into an all-out conflict," Raymond said.

"Which is exactly what they want," Paladin Wright said causing them all to look up at her questioningly.

"Well think about it, the worst possible outcome for them would be this entire region united under one banner of peace, if that happens they will have a much much harder time of securing any kind of foothold or gains here as we would all actively work together to expel them, but if we're fractured and squabbling or better all-out fighting one another all they need to do is slip in and offer 'support' through various covert means before you know it the whole region is in chaos and we don't have the manpower or strength to kick them out, it's a tried and true tactic, turn allies into enemies and watch them do the work for you," she explained.

"The Elders will need to hear about this development at once!" Jewel exclaimed as the other Featherguards around her and even Adam nodded in agreement.

"Isn't Oliver assigned as the ambassador to the Brotherhood over at their base now?" Raymond asked and Jewel nodded.

"I like your thinking Raymond, we can warn both of our governments at the same time, if we get the Elder in charge and Oliver together we can report this to both of them and ensure that this news gets passed on to everyone," Paladin Wright said to much nodding from both the Brotherhood and the Featherguard.

"I'd like to pull Wisp into this call as well as she's got a hotline to the Railroad now given that she's working with them, though I don't know if she'll be able to reach Fuller before he makes it to the Minutemen compound but even so we'll make sure they are informed when we go there to negotiate the treaty with them," Raymond said.

"Excellent idea Raymond, with this base covered we'll nip this sneaky shit in the bud before they can kick off world war four down here, plus it will go a long way to bolstering the trust that we're building by ensuring everyone not only has a seat at the table for the news being delivered but will have an equal say in how to handle it," Jewel said.

Raymond quickly set about setting up the call to all of the parties involved and while it took a little while to get all of those required on the line finally he had a secure conference call with Wisp, Desdemona of the Railroad, Oliver and the Elder in charge of the Brotherhood compound.

"What's going on big green?" Wisp asked with a note of concern in her voice.

"Our efforts out here have picked up some intel that you're all gonna want to hear as it is very concerning to all of us so I wanted everyone at the table so we could go over it together," Raymond said.

"That sounds ominous," Oliver said, his voice sounding slightly crackly over the radio.

"That's one word for it," Raymond said and he went on to explain all that Zixxy had uncovered from Judy's memories with the others of the growing council.

"That is deeply disturbing news Raymond, do you have any way to verify it yet?' Elder Grey who was the newly promoted Elder in charge of the region asked.