Radiance

Chapter 14: Building Trust.

Wisp had remained silent the entire time of the kidnapping, her every instinct had told her to go for help but there were two problems with that, one she'd have to invade Gregory in order to communicate and two: if she didn't know where the creature had taken Seven she'd be utterly no use to anyone.

So she'd sat and waited for them to stop at their destination, to her surprise she'd found that while Seven was in this state of deep unconsciousness she actually had some limited control over his body, she couldn't move his arms or his legs though that might be due to the effects of the toxin he'd been hit with having a kind of paralysing agent, but the stuff connected directly to his brain like his eyes etc she could now work.

So the whole time the odd creature had been carrying him Wisp had been watching the path she'd taken, it had been a twisting turning path through the mine tunnels but thanks to being a non-corporeal being her mind didn't work the way most flesh and blood beings did, she had an eidetic or flawless memory.

Once it had reached its destination it had secured Seven's body to a bunk bed with wire at his wrists and ankles, which in a way was a good thing, because it decreased the likelihood that the creature intended to either eat or harm Seven, though what it did want still remained a mystery.

That's when an idea struck Wisp, Seven himself was out cold, that toxin it had hit him with was pretty potent stuff, he was in a deep state of unconsciousness and was going to be out for hours, that she could already feel, perhaps if her control was strong enough, maybe she could pretend to be Seven and get some answers here, because the way the creature was acting said to her it blatantly intended to question him or ask something of him, otherwise why go to all this trouble of taking him away, securing him down and now sitting there with a book on a chair waiting for him to wake up.

Through Seven's eyelashes Wisp got her first proper look at it, the first thing she realised as it was a she, the second thing was her species, she appeared to be something people referred to as a Nightstalker.

She was about seven feet tall, a mixture of reptilian and mammalian traits blended together, she had a snake's head, mounted on a furry body with long digitigrade legs and a huge tail that would easily make Visa jealous, though her tail was a lot thinner and had a large rattle mounted on the end of it, she looked like someone had cut a snake in half and mounted it to a distinctly canine body then gave it the ability to walk upright.

Though that wasn't to say she was ugly, when in all honesty she was anything but, yes she was different and yes she was highly exotic looking, but she was far from ugly, her head was streamlined like a cobra with dark onyx coloured scales and intense yellow eyes that didn't seem to blink, though oddly she had a pair of triangular furry ears stuck on the top of her otherwise smooth scaled head.

Her face was very feminine, a narrow jaw and pointed snout gave her face an almost delicate quality, her body itself was blatantly feminine, while powerful and toned looking even through her sleek golden fur she had a distinct hourglass shape with a pinched waist and flared wide hips, not to mention two fairly large breasts sat on her chest hidden only partially by her fur.

Though it was her muscles that caught Wisp's attention the most, this girl was no stranger to hard work and hardship, she was solidly built, her long arms and legs were bunched light a weight lifter and looked like they packed some serious power to them, her stomach was covered in two rows of abdominal muscles that looked like they could be used as a washboard to rub wet clothes on.

Her shoulders looked like she could probably lift either Visa or Ven and do squat thrusts with them on her back, this odd Nightstalker girl was definitely not someone to take lightly, though Wisp had never heard of a sentient Nightstalker before, from what she'd read on the creatures in the Enclave's archive research files, they came in two verities, both looked almost the same with just minor subtle differences, they were quadrupeds with the body of a coyote and the head and tail of a snake, they moved in packs and were utterly nocturnal.

The second verity had only been encountered on a handful of occasions and while they looked similar to their brethren they had a darker appearance while also having the ability to cloak themselves a will making them an almost perfect ambush predator, these were usually solitary creatures though they had once or twice been encountered in packs and these encounters had always been deadly.

Given what Wisp had seen on the way here she believed that this strange woman was of that second genus, though again why she was sentient escaped her, but given that she was living cloud riding around in a telekinetic guy's head who was friends with two sentient deathclaws one of which loved her best friend, who the hell was she to judge anyone?

With considerable effort Wisp began to lift Seven's head and opened his eyes making a point of looking around himself, she wanted to give the illusion that he was just waking up, so far so good the muscles were working though they were heavy thanks to the toxin but Wisp's control managed to override it somewhat.

Now to test the voice, "W-W-Whats going on? Who are you? Where am I?" she said and it was seriously odd hearing her words come out in Seven's voice.

The woman looked up from her book and looked at him with an expression that could have been astonishment, though given her snake features it was kinda hard to read if her wide eyes were astonished or just neutral.

"It ssseems that you are mossst resssiliant to my venom," she said in a surprisingly light feminine voice, though she was seriously rolling her S's making it sound like she was hissing as she was speaking.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" Wisp repeated.

"You are not the one asssking quessstions here human!!" she snapped angrily, crossing the room in the blink of an eye and leaning right down in Seven's face making Wisp flinch though only the muscles in his head responded.

Ok so it seemed she wanted to question Seven about something, she knew that much at least now, that explained the snatch and grab as well as the restraints.

"I am going to assssk you a sssseries of quessstions human, do not think about lying to me, or I will know and you will be punisssshed" the Nightstalker said in a voice that sounded like it was filled with a mixture of what could be excitement and possibly anger, though it was hard to tell thanks to her accent.

"You could have just asked them you know? You didn't have to do this" Wisp said and the Nightstalker glared at her/him with unmistakable fury burning in her eyes, that was an emotion that was unmistakable regardless of what species they belonged to.

"No! Humanssss lie! Humanssss hurt! Humanssss kill! If I ssssimply assssk you would lie or hurt me, thissss way you musssst anssswer me!" she snapped obviously angrily, it was obvious that she had had a really rough time with humans up till now, that was something Wisp could sympathise with easily.

"Trust me I hear you on that one, not exactly a fan of my kind myself not after what they did to me, but not all humans are bad, some of us just want to be left alone to live whatever life we can make for ourselves in this place," Wisp said and that seemed to catch the Nightstalker's attention.

"What did they do to you?" she asked curiously.

"Experiments of the worst kind, tried to see exactly what I could live through, tried to use my abilities for their own ends, tortured me, abused me, belittled me, you name it, hell I wasn't even allowed a name, only a number, I'm called Seven by the way," Wisp said watching the Nightstalker very closely, there was more than one flicker of recognition in her eyes at those words, it was obvious to Wisp she had been through something very similar herself.

"Why would humanssss do thissss to one of their own kind?" the Nightstalker asked curiously.

"I'm not like them, I might look like them but I am different, I do not even know if I was made or born, I have no memories beyond waking up in a skyship owned and run by people who call themselves the Enclave, they are evil, vile, horrible people, the very worst humanity has to offer, obsessed with power and control beyond anything else, they have all this technology and influence and rather than use it to help the common people, they use it to try and control and rule them through fear, then anything outside of what they consider the norm either gets experimented on or simply exterminated," Wisp said with genuine bitterness in her voice.

That name caught the Nightstalker's attention, "You knowssss the Enclave?" she said and Wisp nodded Seven's head making it wobble and bounce like a bobblehead on his rubbery neck.

"Only too well" Wisp replied.

The Nightstalker seemed to consider this then something like a mental block seemed to shoot up in her head, like her guard was slamming back into place, "No! Thissss issss a trick! You liesss to me! Humansssss would not do that to other humanssss! Kill and hurt yessss, but not experimentsssss!" she yelled.

"I told you I'm not a normal human!" Wisp exclaimed as the Nightstalker loomed over Seven menacingly, she was losing her and she got the feeling now might be a good time to reveal herself to her, if she was going to gain her trust this might be a good way to do it and if it went wrong she could make her escape and bring the calverly in the form of Visa and Ven because let's be honest if Visa discovered Seven missing she would rip this entire mine apart with her bare claws to recover him and if anyone got in her way while doing do, well let's just say they wouldn't be having a good day at that point.

"Well I should say we are not normal humans," Wisp said and the Nightstalker cocked her head and her long forked tongue flickered in and out of her mouth like she was trying to taste a lie.

"You mean the other human with you?" she said and Wisp shook Seven's head.

"No that's Gregory, he's a normal human, ahhh look I'm technically not Seven, Seven is still out cold from that venom you stuck him with, my name is Wisp," Wisp said and the Nightstalker looked triumphant.

"I knew it! I knew you were lying to me! Wait, what? How issss another human talking through hissss mouth then?" she said going from triumphant to confused in less than a second.

"Seven is the human male you are currently looking at, but he's unconscious thanks to your venom, but what you didn't know is that I'm currently riding around in his head thanks to my robotic body being sacrificed in order to help us escape the Enclave, my name is Wisp, or as the Enclave used to like calling me, number three" Wisp said.

"That makessss no ssssense! How can two humanssss ssssshare one body?" the Nightstalker exclaimed.

"Like this" Wisp said and with a flash, she exited Seven's head through his mouth and nose and ears.

Retaking her cloud form she floated towards the Nightstalker who leapt clear across the room backwards in alarm as she was approached by the golden cloud of sparkles, Wisp floated over to her but did so slowly so she could show her she meant her no harm, the Nightstalker stood at the ready to attack with her clawed hands if she did anything threatening, she'd also opened her mouth and extended a pair of wicked-looking retractable fangs that dripped venom now.

But Wisp simply floated around her and then the room slowly as she watched her, "Thissss issss impossssible!" the Nightstalker exclaimed trying to swish a hand through Wisp as she floated by, but Wisp deftly dodged it and swirled around her before returning to Seven's body and reentering it the way she'd come out.

"See now why the Enclave is so interested in us?" Wisp said after she managed to retake control of Seven.

"What are you?" the Nightstalker asked moving back over to the bedside again, though much more cautiously this time.

"Oh I'm human but I'm a non-corporeal one, that means my mind is detached from my body, I used to have a biological body just like my best friend Seven here, except I'm female and he's male, I was inhabiting a robotic body which I used to escape the Enclave airship, so I sacrificed my biological body in order to be free of them and I took Seven here with me when I escaped, though he had it worse than me up there" Wisp explained.

"Worse how?" the Nightstalker asked curiously.

"He's telekinetic, that means he's able to move things with his mind, he's a very powerful being, so they wanted to test him in every way they could, they shot at him, tried to burn him, put him up against things that would kill him and forced him to kill them for no other reason than to see if he could, plus then one of the doctors up there took a kind of twisted liking to him and I believe she did things to him, I hope she didn't but I'm not hopeful," she said and the Nightstalker looked him up and down curiously.

Wisp also noticed a flicker of anger passing through her surprisingly expressive serpentine eyes, "Then you are both like me, I too know the pain of human labsssss, the humiliation, the pain" she said with genuine anger and sadness in her voice.

"Were you on the airship as well?" Wisp asked in confusion and the Nightstalker shook her serpentine head.

"No, I was kept in an underground place, a dark place filled with humanssss in white coatssss, they liked to poke me with ssssharp needlesss and they liked to hurt me to ssssee what hurt me," she said angrily.

"Then we have something in common, we are running from the same people for pretty much the same reason, because we want to live free, free of pain and free to choose our lives and paths" Wisp said and this really seemed to strike a chord with the Nightstalker but then she cocked her head curiously.

"But what of the clawssss? What are they to you?" she asked.

"They are our friends, well they're my friends, in the case of Seven one of them is his mate, the pair of them are in love and I know that sounds strange, a human and a claw in love, but they are all the same, the pair of them are inseparable, infact I would seriously return him to her without a single scratch on him or you don't want to even think about what she will do to you otherwise, she's not known for her clam temper," Wisp said making the Nightstalker flinch.

She moved over to her chair and perched herself on it, it was obviously built for humans and her large frame looked kinda comical perched on it the way she was as there was no vent for her long tail so she'd pushed it between her long powerful legs.

"If you want you could come with us, join us on our run for freedom," Wisp said and that caught the Nightstalker's attention.

"But I issss free," she said confidently.

"Yes but for how long? The Enclave is here, now, they are hunting us and I have no doubt that if they find a trace of you here then they'll hunt you too" Wisp said and the Nightstalker jumped to her feet knocking her chair over in anger.

"You brought them here to me!!" she yelled angrily her long tail whipping around and rattling in anger.

"Not on purpose! How were we to know that you even existed let alone hiding in here!?" Wisp shot back.

The Nightstalker faltered at this, "What's your name?" Wisp asked softer now.

The Nightstalker looked at her, her tail was whipping back and forth rattling again, "It's Risssss, they didn't give me a name so I picked one for mysssself" the Nightstalker said.

"Just like me, they called me number three but given what I am I thought Wisp sounded better, so that's who I am now and what's more, I am who I want to be, not who they want me to be and I am free, I'm hunted but I am free" Wisp said.

Riss seemed to mull this over in her head, even to Wisp's borrowed eyes she could see that what she'd learned here tonight had rocked the very foundation of her world very quickly, "Why would you take me with you?" Riss asked curiously.

"Because you're like us, different, hated and hunted because you are so, but I can see that you are not a bad person," Wisp said.

"How do you know thissss?" she asked curiously.

"Because if you were you would have hurt or killed Seven, but you didn't you took him yes, but you gave him just enough venom to knock him out, not hurt him, you even took care to wrap his wrists in padding when you tied him down, you wanted answers and I gave them, we are not here to hurt you or to make your life harder but in a way we have wronged you, we have led the Enclave here, let us make that right in some way, come with us and we'll help you however we can, I promise," Wisp said.

Riss looked conflicted, her golden eyes roamed over Seven in an odd way that made Wisp feel slightly uneasy, "Humanssss alwayssss lie, alwayssss hurt" she said quietly.

"Not these humans, think about it, if I'd wanted to hurt you then it would have happened and rather easily too, all I would have had to do would have been wait for you to reach the entrance to this place, then fly my sparkly butt back to the others and woke Gregory up and trust me that barricade you set up would not stop Visa or Ven even for five seconds, have you ever wondered what would happen if you hit a mutfruit with a rocket-powered sledgehammer? Yeah that's kinda what would happen to anyone who would dare to harm this man, he is loved and he is protected by Visa as he loves and protects her however he can, but we didn't did we?" Wisp asked.

Riss looked thoughtful but then shook her serpentine head flicking her long tongue a couple of times as she did, "No you did not" she said.

"Exactly and nor would we unless you forced us to, you know fear, you know pain, you know humiliation, you know loneliness and anger, but what you don't know is friendship or love, come with us and we can promise you one of those two and who knows maybe you might get both, but if you stay here you will never have either, so the question is, what do you want Riss?" Wisp said.

Riss paced back and forth wrestling with the answers in her head, both her tongue and tail swished about, her tail was rattling constantly and her tongue was firing in and out of her mouth constantly like she was trying to taste the answer in the air, then she shot forwards with the speed of a striking snake, jamming her oddly feminine and surprisingly pretty face right into Seven's.

"I want one like him, pretty like him, not bad, doesn't hurt people becasssue they are different, one who is understanding, can you promisssse me thissss?" she asked.

Wisp shook Seven's head, "Promise? No I can't promise you that or I'd have one myself, guys like him aren't easy to find, hot as hell, kind, gentle, strong but at the same time beautifully vulnerable, they are pretty damn rare, so while I can't promise you we'll find you one I can promise you that if you come with us we'll help you look and hell with our group your odds do seem to be rather improved, hell both Visa and Ven found themselves one and they are deathclaws, so if they can why not you? Or for that matter, me?" Wisp said.

Riss stepped back and her tongue flickered constantly but then her face cracked into a smile which seemed to light her face up, "I believe you, one who was lying to me would have agreed in an inssstant, but you did not, you promisssse only what you believe you can deliver, thissss is the mark of ssssomeone who tellssss the truth" Riss said.

Then the large Nightstalker stepped forwards and with surprisingly deft fingers for their size undid the binding wires holding Seven's wrists, then she moved to his ankles and undid those too.

"I will join you, if you will have me," Riss said quietly and Wisp smiled warmly.