Radiance

Chapter 148: Sonic Boom.

Seven looked at the fur-covered bat girl that he was holding in a bubble of telekinetic energy, just in case she decided to hit them with one of her hypersonic attacks.

He didn't sense any kind of deception from her when she told them that the Enclave had attacked and killed most of her colony, as well as kidnapped the remaining living members of her flock.

But he couldn't be too careful, as he knew that the Enclave would definitely be ramping things up, and by the reports he was getting from the others back in Boston, the Enclave were going all out to attempt to uproot them and to undo all that they had already achieved.

They were getting desperate, and he knew it, so he wouldn't put it past them to try anything at this point, even using their sympathy for non-human species against them.

"I'm sorry for what I did to your human boy. I did my best not to hurt him; it is forbidden in my culture to harm artists and storytellers, as they are the ones who pass along the sacred knowledge to the cubs. If it were not for them, the new songs would never get written, and there would be no one to sing to the cubs of the memories of the past. I tried my best to only put him to sleep," the bat girl Click called.

Vizzy buzzed her wings angrily, but Seven gave her a look of both sympathy and a silent command to remain restrained here, as it was indeed true that Click had not harmed David, only sedated him.

"So tell me about this ability of yours to look like one of us," Seven said, turning to face Click, who was still hanging in the air suspended in his telekinetic grip.

"All of my kind can do it; it's kind of a defence mechanism to allow us to pass through human society unnoticed. I couldn't tell you where it came from or how we developed it, but every Banshee can do it. All it requires is a little bit of blood that we ingest, and it triggers something within us that allows us to change form and to present as one of you," Click said.

"Is it only humans you can imitate?" Timothy asked curiously, and Click shook her head.

"No, we can do pretty much any humanoid species; they just have to be roughly the same shape and size as us for it to take. I once saw my grandmother imitate a ghoul once to get them to sell her something," she replied.

"How long does it last?" Seven asked.

"A couple of hours for only a small amount of blood," Click said.

"You can hide your face, but you can't hide your smell; that's how we found you," Visa said from where she was leaning on the doorframe as she watched the floating bat girl closely.

Click nodded and looked at Vizzy.

"Yes, I figured as much. Scent is much harder to mask than looks. While I do gain some human scent markers, they are not strong enough to hide my actual scent from one with a sense of smell powerful enough to see through the mask, like your Cazador friend there," Click said, glancing at Vizzy.

Suddenly, another voice caused Vizzy's head to snap around so fast that her antenna seemed to follow a moment later.

"What's going on? How did I get here?" David said, sounding very groggy and confused.

"Looks like our patient woke up," Shauna said as Vizzy rushed to David's side to hold him upright, as he looked very unsteady on his feet.

"You had a run in with our young Banshee friend here, she knocked you out with some kind of sonic attack and the bit you in order to pass herself off as human and walk around here without anyone noticing her, she didn't count on you having a date with Vizzy tonight though and your young hopeful little queen bee there turning all Sherlock Holmes on her and hunting her down," Timothy said jokingly as he helped Vizzy get David into a comfortable looking arm chair so that he wouldn't fall on his ass or face.

"Huh?" David said, sounding even more confused.

"Your friend tells the truth, young artist, and I offer you my most sincere and humble apologies. It was never my intention to hurt or harm you, but I could see no other way to learn the secrets of this place in order to save my flock. As it turns out, I have misjudged this place and the people in it quite gravely. In my culture, to harm an artist or a story weaver is a grievous thing, as they are the tellers of history and the conveyors of the songs, so if I am to be punished for this, I will understand, but please, help me save my flock first, and then I will submit to whatever punishment is deemed necessary by your elders," Click said, addressing David.

David looked up at the young bat girl who was hanging in the air thanks to Seven's abilities, and then he glanced at Seven.

"Seven and Visa are the ones who lead this place and the people in it, not me. I'm just an ex-slave who likes to draw, nothing more. I have no sway over their decision," he said, trying to shake off the fog in his head.

"Actually, that's not quite true; you were the one who was attacked here, David, so by the laws of the Free Peoples, you most certainly have a say in the outcome as you are the victim," Visa said.

David turned to look at Click, who was hanging there helplessly.

"You asked us to save your flock. What's that?" he asked, and Click explained the nature of a flock to them; essentially, it was her family.

"And these Enclave people have them after they killed the others in your colony?" David asked, and Cklick nodded.

"I don't know if everyone else is dead, but a great many are, I know that for sure. I saw their bodies; our strongest cries were no use against them. We shrieked, and we shrieked, but it washed over them like water over a stone," Click said, sounding forlorn.

"Sound dampening," Seven said, and Click turned to look at him curiously as he held up the helmet he had been wearing when she'd burst in on them.

"What does that mean?" Click asked.

These helmets are fitted with special devices that protect against very loud sounds to protect the wearer's hearing. While it's usually for the sounds of battle like gunfire or explosions, it will work just as well against your sonic attacks, so if you shriek at someone wearing one of these, it will have pretty much no effect," Seven explained, placing the helmet on the table.

"So my people truly were defenceless against them," Click said, sounding forlorn and distraught.

Seven could hear the raw emotion in her voice as she spoke, and he glanced at Visa, who simply nodded her horned head; the pair of them were thinking the same thing: you can't fake pain like that.

Seven released Click, and she dropped onto her feet before looking up at Seven in surprise with her little snubby nose and massive ears twitching.

"You are letting me go?" she asked in shock.

"Yes, but before you get any ideas about pulling any stupid stunts, just remember I can throw that bubble up around your head faster than you can draw in the breath to scream at me, so unless you want to blow your own eardrums inside out, I highly suggest you don't," he said.

"Why are you letting me go?" "Click?" asked.

"Simple, it's obvious to me that you truly didn't intend harm to this place or its people; you simply didn't understand us, and given your running history with humans, I can understand and empathise. My people don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to trying to understand their non-human neighbours, but that is where the Free Peoples aim to change things for the better. Part of our mission is breeding understanding between the multiple races that inhabit this fucked-up blue ball we all call home so that we can try to possibly mend it and build something bigger and better from the ashes of the world that came before, not repeat its mistakes," Seven said.

"With heavy emphasis on the breeding part," Visa said playfully, making Click blush as she remembered the smells from the bedroom she'd broken into, along with the claw marks on quite a lot of the furniture.

"So you'll help me!?" "Click," exclaimed Seven, and Seven nodded.

"Yes, Click, we'll help you. The Free Peoples are the enemy of the Enclave and all they represent; they wish to control by force and brutal methods. We wish to help by understanding and building. They seek to tear us down and to destroy everything we are attempting to build, but we will not let them succeed because if we do, then this world will never change, it will never heal, and it will never grow stronger. Only through understanding can we even begin to hope to make this place better, and that starts by throwing off all the old shackles of the past, of countries and their petty power struggles. Now, I'm not saying we don't believe in the rule of law or anything like that because, of course, we do, but we also understand that humans are not the only sentient species on this world anymore. I mean, look around this room; you have five different species in this very room and only seven people, four of whom are in happy relationships and two others who are just starting down that wonderful path. That is a huge part of our message: that we aren't all that different inside, only on the outside, and those outsides can be wonderful and beautiful in their infinite combinations," Seven said proudly.

"Also, that we can feel wonderful inside too if we get our hands on a pretty human boy," Visa said playfully while reaching out to stroke Seven's white hair.

Click looked like she was about to cry, and her ears drooped as she looked up at Seven.

"I-I-I don't know what to say. Thank you, Seven. Thank you so, so much. You have no idea what this means to me. Never before has a human stood up for a Banshee. If any of my colony or flock survive this, our storytellers and singers will write amazing songs of this and of all your people. I swear it to you. All Banshees will know the goodness of the Free Peoples," she said, and Seven simply smiled at her.

"And that, my new friend, is what we are trying to achieve, spreading our word and message by showing people like you that there is a different way, a new way," he said before turning to the group at large.

"Alright, people, looks like we got some fucking armoured scale ticks to dig out yet again. Vizzy, I'm putting you in charge of getting David back home and making sure he recovers. Send Varrel my way and join him when you can. The rest of you with me, we're gonna have some serious planning to do here, because I get the feeling that these particular Enclave troops are no run-of-the-mill grunts. I smell special forces, and with that comes a whole host of new problems, so let's get to it, shall we?" Seven said.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

While the group headed up to Seven and Visa's temporary office and probably tried their hardest to pretend that they didn't see Visa's claw marks in just about every single piece of wooden furniture up there, Vizzy scooped up David into her four arms.

"Err, I think I'm fine to walk," he said, sounding embarrassed, and she shook her head.

"Nope. Seven said I was in charge of your protection and that I was to ensure that you got home safely. Since I cannot be sure that you will not fall down and hurt yourself in this state, I will be carrying you, and also, since I have to both fetch my brother and also protect you, I will be taking you to my home rather than yours," Vizzy said with a firm buzz of her wings as she tightened her grip on the young human male.

Vizzy carried the somewhat embarrassed David across the town to her temporary home, where she found both Varrel and Eve waiting for her return.

When Varrel saw Vizzy carrying David in her four arms, a smile broke out on his mandibles, and the buzz in his wings was very telling as to what he was thinking.

"I see you found him then. Where was he hiding?" he asked playfully.

"Unconscious in an alleyway," Vizzy said, and instantly her brother's expression changed to one of seriousness.

"What? "How?" he asked, and Vizzy explained the situation as she placed David down on their shared couch.

Varrel and Eve both looked concerned and shared a glance.

"I will go and see Seven right away. If this Enclave is here, then things have gone from bad to worse. From the stories the others tell of them, this could be really bad," Varrel said with a concerned buzz to his wings.

"I have only heard stories of the Enclave, mostly from Seven's people, as before that I considered them little more than a myth, but if they are truly here and are already making their presence known among the local non-humans, we could have a real problem on our hands when it comes to getting them to trust us," Eve said, her voice laden with concern.

"I believe this is why Seven is taking such swift action, well, that and saving Click's flock from them," Vizzy said.

"Well, I'd better go and see what the plan is," Varrel said, and with that, he and Eve headed off to see Seven. Now, Vizzy might have been a bit more perturbed at not attending the meeting if she didn't have a pretty human boy to care for, that is.

Thankfully, it seemed that Varrel had taken good care of her dinner and had made sure to keep it stable so that it didn't burn or dry out, so she was able to get it out of the oven, and it was ready to eat.

"Not exactly the perfect start to a dinner date, huh?" Vizzy said, trying cheerfully to break the tension of the young man sitting on her couch, looking around nervously.

"Not that I exactly have anything to compare it to, really, but it's definitely not the kind of night I was expecting, that's for sure," David said with a soft laugh.

"Well, I'm sure we can put all the nastiness behind us and not let it ruin our evening," Vizzy said as she hurriedly made sure to prepare the dishes in the correct order and to set everything out.

Thankfully, it seemed that Eve had set the table for them, as Vizzy could smell her pheromones on the plates and cutlery from where Varrel's human mate had touched them.

As she dished up their food, she gestured for David to join her at the table, and he made his way over on what were blatantly still shaky legs; she would have rushed to his side to assist him had she not been carrying some hot plates and dishes at the time.

As she joined him, she could see the nervousness in his bright and beautiful eyes, and she reached out to take his hand in two of hers, causing him to look at her in surprise.

"You do not need to be afraid, David; I will not let anyone hurt you ever again. I wish I could have been there to protect you from what happened, and I am angry with myself that I was not there," Vizzy said with a mournful buzz of her wings.

David smiled softly and nodded.

"You don't need to be sorry, Vizzy; it's not your fault. I doubt anyone could have predicted that a Banshee was going to sneak into our town, knock me out, and bite me to look human," he said with a chuckle.

"No, I'll give you that one. I doubt anyone had that on their weird shit that happens around here bingo card for this week, but still, I feel really bad that it happened at all and that I wasn't there to stop it. I swear to you, David, that if you do give me the chance to become your hive queen, I will make sure that it never happens again," Vizzy said with a more determined buzz to her wings, and David laughed, making her cock her head curiously.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"I'm wondering what the odds of being accosted by a Banshee looking to fake being human while sketching twice are exactly," he said, making Vizzy chuckle.

"Probably and hopefully very low. I seriously doubt that our particular Banshee will be pulling that crap again anytime soon, now that she's had a firsthand taste of what Seven can do. Most people think twice about tangling with him once they've seen what he's capable of," she said.

"Yeah, I can see that. Watching him fight to liberate this place from the Boss was like nothing I'd ever imagined seeing, let alone seen before. All of you were truly incredible when you burst in here and started kicking the Boss and her people's collective ass," he said.

"What can I say, we like to make an entrance," Vizzy said playfully as she began to eat her food, which she thanked the stars had turned out perfectly.

As she and David ate, the atmosphere became a lot less tense, with the pair laughing and joking with one another, and it warmed Vizzy's heart to see how quickly David seemed to be bouncing back from what must have been yet another of the long list of traumatic experiences he had suffered in his young life; she saw it as a testament to the strength of the young man that he was able to so quickly put something like this behind him and just keep moving forward. If she were honest, it just made her want him even more, and she felt herself flush under her carapace as her wings gave a desire-filled buzz despite David obviously not knowing what the tones of her buzzes actually meant.

Like a lot of insects, or in the case of Vizzy's people, insectoids, the Cazadors used their wings for a form of non-verbal communication; the tone and pitch of the buzzing were used to convey emotion along with their powerful pheromones. This was used in place of expressive facial features, as humans had.

Now granted, her kind did have far more expressive features than their feral cousins, but these were not easily distinguishable by members of another race, nor were they even easily distinguishable at a distance by members of their own race, which is why their biology had developed in such a way as to use sound as an addition to this so that their moods and the context of their communication would be much easier to understand.

But to an outsider like David or any human, really, the inflexions of the buzzes and the tones produced would be lost on him, but to her surprise and delight, it seemed that not only was he paying attention to them, but he was actively trying to understand them as well.

"I've not heard that one before," he said suddenly through a mouthful of potato.

"Heard what one before?" Vizzy asked in confusion.

"That buzz, it was different from the other ones I've heard you make; it was interesting, lower in pitch than the others. It's nice," he said.

"You like my buzzing?" she asked in surprise.

David blushed slightly and smiled before nodding.

"They sound nice, and I've been trying to work out what they mean. I think I've got down happy, determined, and angry, but that one was a new one, and it's nice. What does it mean?" David asked, and Vizzy flushed and buzzed again, and David cocked his head again.

"Oh, and that's new too!" he exclaimed happily.

"That one was umm embarrassment," she said, and David's face changed to one of surprise and then shame.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you, Vizzy," he said, and she instantly shook her head and grabbed his hands.

"No, it's ok. I'm fine with you knowing what my buzzing means. I was just surprised that you'd noticed; most humans don't actually hear the difference in the tones enough to pick out that they mean something different from one another, and it makes me really happy that you not only noticed it, but you are actively trying to decipher them despite only knowing me for such a short period of time, so in answer to your question, the one you asked me about first was, umm, desire," she said, her voice displaying her embarrassment along with the slight buzz of her wings again.

For a moment, David looked confused, as if he couldn't figure out what she would be feeling desire until, in a flash of inspiration, it seemed to click in his mind, and he blushed bright red.

"Oh, so umm, I guess that umm means that you err desire me then, huh?" he stammered nervously, and Vizzy nodded her head, making her antennae bob and swish.

"You are the most beautiful male I have ever seen, David, not only in looks but in soul as well. Getting that glimpse of how you see the world around you and how you see me made my heart do flips in my chest. Never before has anyone looked at me the way you do, and then for you to describe me as a hive queen, it just blew me away. You are lucky I was able to get a handle on my wings right then and there; otherwise, they would have been buzzing so hard I'd have either taken off or blown you clear off the side of that ledge," she said, chuckling at her own joke.