Radiance

Chapter 147: Bug Hunt.

Vizzy paced around the shared kitchen frantically, it had taken her all day to gather all the ingredients to make both herself and David's dinner, but so far there was no sign of the pretty human boy and it was making her wings buzz with anxiety.

A million questions pulsed through her mind like a maelstrom of buzzing wings, it reminded her of being back in the hive when everyone got excited about something and the buzzing of so many wings would make the entire hive vibrate with that outpouring of emotion.

Only this emotion was not a positive one.

In her head, she wondered if David had gotten cold feet, had he come to his senses and realized he'd be better off courting a human girl?

Vizzy's wings buzzed constantly with nervous energy as she paced to the point where she had to take actual control of them to prevent her from lifting off the floor and hovering along.

A flash of defiant thought smashed through the nervous energy in her mind like a hammer.

No! David would not do this to her, he was not the kind of man who would do this to a girl she knew this in her heart, she had seen the kindness and the gentleness in those beautiful eyes of his, something was wrong, something had to have happened and she was going to find out what!

Vizzy quickly rushed to find Varrel so he could keep an eye on her food and to make sure it wouldn't burn, of course, was with Eve and wasn't exactly hard to locate but thankfully the pair of them agreed and they could see the worry that was lacing Vizzy.

"I'm sure he's fine sis, probably just got delayed trying to decide if his hair was perfect for you, try not to worry so much," Varrel said reassuringly but Vizzy could not shake the really distinct feeling of foreshadowing here, she knew at her core that something was very wrong and she was going to get to the bottom of what it was.

Once she was sure her dinner would be ok thanks to Varrel Vizzy set off on a loop of the compound trying to spot her human date from the air but to her dismay, she couldn't see him anywhere.

There were a few Gatorclaws still milling about and one or two humans but given how late it was getting and how dark most people had retired to their quarters for the night so picking out a singular human should have been easy.

Suddenly as she flew over a part of the compound she got a whiff of a very familiar scent that instantly caused her to pause mid-flight and to cast about with her incredibly sensitive antennae.

No sooner had she located it again than her heart soared, it was David's scent there could be no doubt in her mind and it was coming from somewhere below her.

Vizzy dived towards the ground and landed near what looked to be a couple of benches and some buildings, the lanterns that the people of the town had set up now burned brightly but still didn't give off much in the way of ambient light as they were more for navigating to the buildings rather than actually lighting up the environment.

But thankfully her eyes were very good in the darkness thanks to having been raised in a hive where it was rather dark most of the time.

Vizzy cast about with her antennae trying to pick up David's scent trail and after a minute or so she locked onto it.

She followed it to the edge of some nearby crop plots where there seemed to be a crate that smelled strongly of him, waving her antennae over it and moving around it in a circle Vizzy was able to pick up a faint trail that pulled her towards what appeared to be an alleyway.

No sooner had she stepped into the alleyway than her heart froze solid in her thorax.

There laid out on the ground as if he was merely sleeping was David.

Vizzy rushed to his side and dropped down onto her knees scooping up the limp body of the young human male into her four arms.

"David! David oh no, please please be ok!" Vizzy cried as a hard note of panic bit into her voice.

To her absolute relief, it seemed that he was still breathing and his heartbeat was strong in his chest but she could smell the faint scent of blood in the air around him though she couldn't see any wounds or any blood on him.

It seemed to be strongest at his neck and when she inspected it she saw the faintest of white dots in his tanned skin like he had been bitten by something.

Thats when Vizzy noticed another scent on him, one that she had never smelled before, it was a strong, earthy and almost musky aroma but it was blatantly the pheromones of another creature but it was not human.

This had to be what had attacked him!

But Vizzy could not get distracted, she had to help David right now and she knew the first thing she had to do was get him to Seven, he would know what to do, so Vizzy quickly scooped the young human up into her four arms and rushed to the house that Seven and Visa had taken over as the temporary command post banging on the door with one of her many fists as she clutched David to her chest.

The door opened with a bang to reveal a rather grumpy-looking Visa who momentarily glared down at her with an expression that said she was not happy to be disturbed, that was until she saw what she was carrying in her arms and it instantly changed into one of concern.

"What happened?' she demanded pulling her inside and guiding her through to the main part of the house where Seven was and by the state of undress and the strong smell in the air she'd obviously pulled the pair out of bed though they were blatantly not sleeping.

"He's been attacked by something, though I don't know what," Vizzy said with the hard edge of fear still clinging on to her voice.

Seven's expression instantly hardened and he came over to check David over.

"How can you tell I don't see any marks or anything?' he said sounding confused.

"I found him unconscious in an alleyway not far from here, we were supposed to be having a dinner date together and he never showed up so I got worried and went out looking for him, that's when I found him like this in an alleyway and look here, it looks like something bit him though somehow its healed up but those scars were not there when I spoke to him earlier, I'd have seen them and the scarring is fresh, plus I smell blood on him but I can't find any," Vizzy said and Viza leaned down to take a strong sniff of David's neck.

The big Claw instantly scowled.

"She's right, I too smell blood and my sense of smell is nowhere near as good as our insect friend here, but how he has healed so quickly I do not understand," Visa growled.

"Visa get Shuna over here she's the closest thing to a true medical doctor we have, she'll be able to figure this out," Seven said and the big Claw nodded before vanishing out of the door with very distinct purpose in her heavy strides.

"Don't worry Vizzy we'll get to the bottom of this, whoever attacked David is going to be found and when we do I'm going to get the answers as to why out of them personally," Seven said making Vizzy buzz her wings thankfully but she still couldn't dislodge the nugget of pure fear that seemed to have set up home in her heart as she held David's limp hand while stoking his forehead.

It didn't take Visa long to return to the temporary HQ with the big super mutant girl in tow along with her human husband Tim.

The pair wasted no time in examining the still-unconscious David and listening as Seven told them what Vissy had told him.

"This is very strange, there are no marks or bruises to indicate what knocked him out, normally there would be a bump on his head or a bruise to the back of his neck, ligature marks on his throat but there is nothing," Shauna said examining the unconscious young man.

"Agreed, there are no burn marks to indicate an electrical weapon of some kind like a shock stick, cattle prod or a tazer, but I do have a theory," Tim said pointing to some slight bruising around his ear canals.

"You thinking sonic weapon my love?' Shauna asked and he nodded.

"I've seen marks like these before on prisoners the Brotherhood brought in after using an ultra-high-frequency sonic device to stun and render a target unconscious," he said.

"Surly we'd hear such a weapon being used in our midst if one was deployed here and who would have access to technology like that?" Visa said and Tim shook his head.

"Nope the whole point of the things is the sound pulse they hit you with is so high frequency that to anyone that did hear it the thing would scramble your senses pretty badly, but for the most part the frequency is so far outside of the human hearing range that to us it would be no more than a click if heard from a distance that was safe for you to hear it of course," Tim said.

"As to how someone would get their hands on such a weapon they are very common among slave traders, from what I understand they were very commonly used by slave takers of Paradise Falls before their demise at the hands of Seven, so they are not all that uncommon in the wastes unfortunately," Shauna said.

"But why use it on him and then leave him where he fell, surely if the intention was to take him alive then the assailant forgot the whole taking part?" Seven said and Shuna simply shrugged.

"The only thing I can come up with is that the assailant's intention was not to take him only something from him, though the bite has me both intrigued and confused as well as this is indeed a fresh scar that could have only happened in the last few hours but there is no way it should have healed up this quickly without some kind of intervention, something like a stimpack must have been used but I cannot find a puncture wound anywhere to indicate that he was injected with such a thing, I'm going to swab the wound and see if we can find any kind of trace evidence as to who or what delivered the bite, but I would also suggest putting those antenne of Vizzy's too good use if she indeed smelled our mystery assailant then she stands a far better chance of hunting them down," Shauna said.

"We will take care of David here, from what we can see he is in no danger and if this is indeed a sonic weapon she should regain consciousness in a few hours with little more than a bit of a ringing headache," Timothy said reassuringly.

"I'm gonna find whoever hurt David and when I do I'm going to show them why you do not fuck with a Cazador's human!" Vizzy snarled.

Visa shared a nod with Seven before she turned to Vizzy.

"I will accompany you young one, we stand a better chance together and we Claws are natural trackers, so let's get to it shall we?" Visa said making Vizzy ball her four fists and nod with determination.

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It had taken Click a lot longer to manage to acquire some human clothes than she would have liked as it really appeared that these people here didn't seem to have much in the way of possessions to the point where she actually felt rather bad taking what she did.

But needs must and her need was great so once she was finally able to move around in public without drawing the strange looks she knew the humans would give one of their own kind moving around unclothed Click began her investigation.

It seemed that all the humans that had next to nothing had once been confined to a singular building that was at the far side of the compound though from the conversations she heard while moving among those people it seemed that the humans of this place had once been slaves to another group of humans.

But then this other group of both humans and non-humans had shown up out of seemingly no-where and had destroyed the slaving humans freeing the slave humans.

Now the new group were staying here and helping to build the place up while helping the people to not only fend for themselves but teaching them how to defend themselves.

"Apparently these Free Peoples are spreading all across Boston, they are some kind of movement, a group of humans and non-humans working together in trying to make the world a better place can you believe it?" one older woman said to another as they both sat eating some kind of stew that was being served up by one of the large reptilian creatures that had seemingly dressed itself in a large white apron and a floppy white hat.

Click sat alone at a table with a bowl of the stew that she had collected from the seemingly happy creature as she had lined up with the other humans in order to blend in.

Now she saw absent-mindedly eating the surprisingly good meat and vegetable stew while she used her incredibly sensitive hearing to tune into the conversations going all around her in the mess hall of the shared living space.

"That guy they all call Seven is apparently their leader and the leader of the whole thing, he's some kind of superhuman or so they say," another human this one a man was saying to his friend at another table.

"I can believe it the dude can frigging fly!" the man's friend said.

"Flying's not a superpower I can do that," Click murmured to herself silently as she tuned them out to focus on another conversation while taking another mouthful of the warming and filling stew.

"Yeah I heard the dude can crush people just by looking at them and he can catch bullets in mid-air before throwing the fucking things back at the shooter!" a young woman said to an older man who was sitting with her.

"Yeah I know I saw him do it from the window, it was incredible, all of the Boss's people were unloading on him and he just stood there not giving a single shit just stopping all of the bullets, then he just sort of looks at them and sends all their bullets right back at them!" her companion said sounding incredibly impressed.

"I think my favourite is that big Deathclaw woman that's shacked up with that Seven guy, she's like the coolest woman ever! She's strong, she takes no shit from anyone, she's got badass claws that can just cleave through people like they are made of paper, but she's not mean, she's nice and kind to talk to and she blatantly adores that Seven guy and he adores her too which while yeah I guess is kinda weird with him being a human and herr being a Deathclaw and all, but it works for them and they seem really happy together you know?" a young girl was saying to her young male friend at another table.

"Yeah they're like the ultimate power couple, both total badasses in their own right but complement each other so well," the young male said.

"Power couple where did you learn about something like that?" the girl asked.

"Saw it in that magazine that Joe snagged off one of the Boss's people when the daft fucker was wasted on Jet, he let me read it and it was full of the really cool old world stuff and they were discussing power couple dynamics or something like that, I mean I really didn't understand it all but it just seemed to fit Seven and Visa you know?' the young male said a little defensively.

"Ok it seems that this Seven and Visa are the two running the show and they belong to or are running something they call the Free Peoples, but I need more, I need to find out who these Free Peoples are," Click said to herself silently as she finished her stew and took the bowl back up to another of the big reptiles who was washing up all the used bowls and cutlery at the back of the mess hall.

"Thank you," the big creature said in its deep resonating voice that seemed to make all of Click's bones rattle as it took the bowl and spoon from her and plunged them into the soapy water in the sink before it.

Suddenly Click saw an opportunity here to get a non-human opinion on things.

"Umm hi, what's your name?' she asked the big creature which by its shape was blatantly a female.

The big reptile turned to her and gave her a tooth-filled smile that cracked its snout apart slightly.

"Reesh," the creature said.

"It's good to meet you Reesh my name is Cl....Clementine," Click said catching herself before she nearly said her real name and quickly subbed it for one she'd heard another human use earlier.

"Good to meet you, Clementine, you like stew?" Reesh asked and Click nodded.

"It was lovely thank you very much," Click said.

"No thank me is beloved husband's recipe, he loves to cook since Free Peoples teach him how, makes mes love him even more than I did before, he is good husband and will make good brood father when time comes, makes other Gatorclaw girls jealous that he is mine and I am his," Reesh said turning her gaze lovingly to the large creature who was happily dishing up the stew to the waiting humans.

"Oh, so he's your husband?" Click said politely and Reesh nodded.

"Yes so no get funny ideas about stealing him away Clementine, is my husband, all pretty human girls around place looking at my Varl wantingly," Reesh said but by the tone in her voice Click could tell she was joking and the smile on her snout gave her away.

"Oh don't worry Reesh you have nothing to worry about from me, actually I was hoping to speak to you about these Free Peoples and to get a non-human perspective on them if that's ok?" Click said to the large female Gatorclaw.

Reesh's smile got even wider and she nodded eagerly.

"Free Peoples are good people, they help Gatorclaws and uplift us, they show us how to fight against bad humans who would hurt us and they protect us, in return, Gatorclaws fight with them to help free others so good humans can see that Gatorclaws not bad people and only wish to live free just like them," Reesh said happily.

"So the Free Peoples don't force you guys to do this sort of stuff?" Click asked and Reesh scowled and shook her head.

"No, Free peoples not force any Gatorclaw to do what they not want, all Gatorclaws you see fight with good human Seven and good Claw Visa want to fight with them, we stand tall and proud with them as they fight for us now we fight for them, we all fight together!" she said in a defiant voice.

"Sorry Reesh I didn't mean any offence I just want to understand, I mean freedom isn't exactly something I'm accustomed to and seeing humans and non-humans working together is kinda a new one," Click said and Reesh's smile returned as she nodded her large head in agreement.

"We too believed as you did when we's first meet Seven and Visa as well as other Free Peoples, but they help Eve and prove to Alphas that they are good people, they help Gatorclaws and even help Thundertail find herself good Gatorclaw-loving human to love her, was good to see as girl has wanted human for her own for so long, she was so happy," Reesh said.

This little revelation really did startle Click as it really did seem that the hints of interspecies romance she'd seen and heard the whispers of around the mess hall were true.

"So they really have interspecies relationships between humans and non-humans?' Click asked and Reesh nodded.

"Oh yes, many different peoples all together as one big pack, is wonderful thing to see, Free Peoples not care who you is or who yous loves only that yous is good person, Seven and Alpha Claw Visa sets good example for all of us who come to Free Peoples, they shows us all that is possible for humans and Claws to be friends and more, then they show us is possible for others to do same too, now we have Vizzy and Varrel the buzzy Cazadors and Varrel makes Miss Eve very happy so he is big friend to Gatorclaws as we's all loves Miss Eve, she is friend to Gatorclaws," Reesh said happily.

So it seemed that there was indeed a lot more to these Free Peoples than met the eye but it also seemed that they might indeed be the very kind of people that Click might be after to help her.

That was when the door to the mess hall burst open and in marched the large Deathclaw called Visa who looked every bit the regal Alpha Claw that the others seemed to rever her as.

She swept her gaze over the room and something about her demeanour instantly set Click on edge, she was hunting something or more likely someone.