Radiance

Chapter 42: Paradise Lost.

The training was intense and took a couple of days to get everyone up to scratch, Seven was also pretty happy with the results they had gone from a ragtag bunch of survivors to a cohesive unit.

They were working incredibly well together and now they had gotten used to having rampaging claws around the place along with the super mutant girls they were a lot better, it was seriously distracting to have them rampaging around and it was something you needed to learn to work around so that you didn't get distracted and killed.

But now everything was ready, all that was left was to take the fight to Paradise falls, the team had decided to hit them under the cover of night so that the majority of the guards would be asleep, it meant resistance would be lighter and take them longer to respond.

"Are you sure this is going to pass muster?" Seven asked for about the sixth time looking at Shepherd.

"Trust me ok plenty of the raider groups have salvaged power armour, granted X-01 isn't exactly common but they have all different shapes and sizes, most found in old military cashes or convoys they've stumbled across, but don't worry it'll pass muster," Shepherd said looking over her handiwork.

Seven looked down at all the crap that had been spray-painted onto the outer skin of the armour along with all the things like rusty chains and metal fins that had been stuck all over him to make his armour look more raider-like.

"Hey, at least your ass isn't hanging out!" Wisp said from his right and Seven turned to see Wisp now dressed in a very fetching pair of ripped denim shorts that barely hid anything, a white tank top and black leather jacket that was covered in studs and chains, but it was her hair-do that really set it all off, all of her hair had been pulled upwards into a Mohawk style.

"Well, I'm not complaining," Malakai said and Seven snorted a laugh as she shot him a look.

"Well of course you'd like it," she said shooting him a grin as she flicked a hip at him making Malakai grin and twitter his mandibles.

Malakai was currently modelling his brand new armour which Wisp had insisted on him making for himself, over the days while everyone was training Malakai had been designing and improving his armour design, now everyone was wearing his mark two armour which was made of incredibly tightly woven silk with plates now mounted in at important points like over their hearts and major organs, as they had already proven the spider silk stopped most low calibre and the plates would stop heavy calibres or at least that was the hope.

Once the preparation work was complete all they needed to do was head across the city to Paradise falls, moving across the city as the light was failing was quite eerie, from all around them they could hear the distant noises of gunshots, screams, howls and a million other unidentified noises that echoed down the city streets.

Seven could see the nerves of the group as they moved and they all hung pretty close to the non-humans in Seven's group for the support of feeling their strength and presence close by.

Seven couldn't believe that this city was still inhabited despite the multiple strikes it had taken during the war, but still, people clung on to this place, to the prestige that came with living in Washington DC or as it was now known the capital wasteland.

It was fully dark by the time they arrived at their destination, "That's it, Paradise fucking falls, literal hell on earth" Shepherd spat as she pointed off towards the distance where the lights of the converted strip mall-style shopping centre which was surrounded by a high welded steel wall.

"Alright people you know the plan, stick to it and let's do this, we'll get those people out of there, everyone knows their jobs, let's get this done," Seven said and there were nods all around.

He turned to Wisp, "You ready for this?" he asked and she sighed heavily and nodded.

"As I'm gonna be," she said and Seven nodded.

"Aright let's do this then," he said and Wisp took two steps before she stopped suddenly.

"Hang on one sec," she said and she turned on her heel and marched right up to Malakai before grabbing the front of his armour and yanking him down to her level.

"You keep that fluffy bum of yours in one piece you hear me? I do not want your cute fluffy bum shot full of holes, you keep it in one piece because I do not want to be wasting my fluffy bum stroking time picking out bullets" she said making Malakai smile and chuckle to himself.

"You got it, my love," he said and Wisp nodded.

"Good boy, I'll be holding you to that and if I find a single bullet in that fluffy bum I will tear the arms and legs off the one who put it there," she said and before Malakai could answer she pulled him down further showing off the strength of those android synthetic limbs and jammed her mouth to his.

"You come back to me whole or the one who hurt you will find out that my bite is far worse than my bark," Malakai said softly stroking her face with his mandibles and she smiled at him and pressed her forehead to his.

Suddenly Seven was spun on the spot and pulled into a very tight armoured claw hug, "That goes doubly for you my human, if a single bullet makes it through that armour of yours I will tear that entire place to the ground with my bare claws you hear me?" Visa growled.

"Isn't that the plan anyway?' Seven joked and Visa growled before pressing her forehead to his helmet.

All around them Seven could see the other couples doing exactly the same, they were taking the moment to remind their beloved one just how much the meant to them and to make sure that they knew the biggest reason to fight and live, to come back to the one person in this universe who loved the very air they breathed.

Finally, Visa let go of Seven and Wisp let go of Malakai, they both nodded at one another and then began the short walk towards the huge front gates of the shopping centre come hell.

"Here we go game face on," Seven said quietly to Wisp as he lifted an armoured fist before banging it on the door which made it ring like a bell.

A second or two later a large metal slit slid open with a bang and a rather suspicious set of eyes peered back through at them, "Fuck do you want?" a gruff male voice asked.

"Slaves, heard this was the place to come or did I hear fucking wrong?" Seven said putting on a griff voice which was aided by his voice modulator.

"Depends, who the fuck are you?" the man asked.

"Name's metal head and this here is Needles, our group sent us here as they heard this is the place to get workers and entertainment," Seven said gruffly.

"What group is that then?" the man asked.

"Why the fuck does that matter? Listen we came a long way to buy, do you have merchandise or fucking not?" Seven growled trying to act up the aggressiveness of how a true raider would speak.

"Listen fucker I don't know you, so you tell me why the fuck I should let you in here?" the man growled.

"Because your smart and you don't want a whole load of caps to walk the fuck away," Seven said

That caused the man to pause as he was thinking, "Show me" he said and Seven folded his arms over his huge mental chest.

"I look like a fucking idiot to you? Like I'm going to show some guy guarding a fucking door my money, but if you want to answer to your bosses as to why someone who came here to buy depending on the price possibly half their stock walked the fuck away, then that's a fucking you problem, so think fast chuckle nuts which problem do you want to have?" Seven said trying to not only apply to the guy's ego but to put him under pressure.

The guy seemed to freeze up and Seven could see him thinking this over, "Alright alright keep your fucking tin can panties on" he growled causing Wisp to flash a knowing grin at Seven as he almost heard Visa's voice ringing inside his head.

There was a loud bang as the slit shut and the sound of a huge metallic bracing bar being removed from the door which then swung inwards which revealed to Seven three more raiders standing behind the one who had been stood behind the door and the guy looked like he was a serious friend to the chems.

His face looked haggard and there were blatantly sores peeking out of the neck of his jacket, he was also missing more than a few teeth, "Hand over your weapons" the guy said.

"Not fucking happening, you expect me to walk into a place filled with armed people that deal in slaves without my guns, you think I'm fucking stupid or crazy? You think I have any plans to end up in a collar or in a cage?" Seven said flatly.

The guy tried to square up to Seven but given that he was standing near Seven feet tall in his power armour so that wasn't happening, the effect was obvious as the guy just shrank into himself, "Alright fine, it was worth a try but just so you know we'll be fucking watching you and your guns had better stay in their fucking holsters because if they end up in your hands you'll end up in the fucking ground, tin can or not" the guy growled trying to intimidate Seven and failing miserably but Seven also knew that backing down with these people was not an option.

So he laughed at him, "I would love to see you try little man because trust me when I say I don't even need guns to put you in the ground" he said walking past him.

Then man just growled and then turned his attention to Wisp and his face instantly changed to a serious look, "Hey guys I think we might need to strip search this one" he said making his two friend chuckle as they moved to block her path.

"Try it fuck wad because I will happily break your hand off and jam it so far up your ass you be able to taste it," Wisp said in a flat and very matter of fact voice.

The man faltered but under the scrutiny of his two friends he wasn't just going to back down, "Oh is that so? Well I think....." he began as he started to reach out to touch her, quick as a flash Wisp reached out grabbed his hand and crushed it and Seven swore he heard a soft giggle from somewhere above him.

The guy screamed so loud that anyone swears he was being murdered, the other two froze in utter shock as they looked between the door guard who was now on his knees cradling his shattered hand and Wisp who looked as sweet and gentle as could be, the look of pure confusion written in their eyes before turning to look at Seven.

"Don't look at she did warn him just be glad she restrained herself and didn't follow through on her threat, that's her way of being kind and professional as we're new here but I would very much recommend not pushing her buttons or you'll find out how unprofessional she can be" he said menacingly.

That's when three people rapidly approached seemingly out of nowhere and even at a glance Seven could feel the authority coming off the guy in the centre, to his left and right were two huge guys who were blatantly muscle.

The guy was mid-forties with a long beard, a bald head and more tattoos than bare skin including a rather obvious black star tattoo that was surrounding his right eye which was obviously blind by the way it was completely white.

The man looked between Seven and Wisp and his men including the one who was on his knees holding his crushed hand, "Don't tell me you've been harassing the customers again Razor?" the man said in a surprisingly soft voice.

"She crushed my fucking hand!!" the guy called Razor wailed.

The man looked at Wisp with surprise but then just chuckled, "Well then serves you fucking right for being a dumbass, you won't underestimate an android again now will you?" he said which shocked both Seven and Wisp.

he then turned to Seven, "Gotta say pretty smart play having a synthetic bodyguard, never seen one who is quite so realistic though, where did you get it and are you willing to sell it?" he asked.

"Hey! I am my own fucking person I don't belong to anyone and I am not a fucking thing!" Wisp snarled menacingly which didn't seem to phase him at all.

"I'm surprised you noticed if I'm honest, but as she said she is her own person, she doesn't belong to me, she's a part of my group because she chooses to because trust me I would love to see anyone try to stop her being what she wants or doing what she wants, that is considered a polite handshake by her standards," Seven said pointing to Razor who was now being given a hit of what appeared to be Jet by the appearance.

"A sentient android? That's a new one" the guy said with a look of genuine surprise plastered on his face.

"I'm a fucking synth not a fucking android and how the fuck do you know anyway?" Wisp growled obviously trying to pry out of the guy how he'd seen through her new body so easily.

"Same way you can spot any of your kind, its the eyes though I do have to admit a free-thinking one is definitely a new one, I have seen quite a few of of the lower models come through here from the groups down towards Boston, apparently they got something down there called the Institute or something, a big group of limp dick science nerds hold up in a fucking bunker under the city or something, but they've been making these new androids, now we've all seen the robots that wander the wastes but they are nothing like them, they look like something out a sci-fi horror comic or vid, like walking metal skeletons, then a couple of months later these human-looking ones start showing up, first off we had some groups jacking them and trying to pass them off as real people, but I never imagined I'd see a sentient one," he said dismissively with a wave of his hand.

"Well she is not for sale she's a member of my group and she's my bodyguard," Seven said.

"And what group is that?" the man asked turning to look directly at Seven.

"The lovers of the Claw" Seven said thinking on the spot and out of the corner of his eye he saw Wisp raise an eyebrow.

"Hmmm never heard of you and I gotta say that's a pretty odd name," he said curiously.

"Lotta deathclaws where our turf is and they kinda keep all the other fuckers away so, in a way you could say we utterly love them, they're like a majestic set of bodyguards made of fury and scales, we leave them alone they leave us alone and they keep the other cunts off our turf, so win fucking win," Seven said and the man looked at him with an incredulous look on his

"You have deathclaws on your turf and you let those fuckers live? Damn that's crazy, anytime my guys see one of those fucking things they either run or fucking blast it, ain't no living with those things" he said.

"Oh you'd be surprised, just leave em alone and they tend to do the same anyway we didn't come here to talk about claws, we came here to buy so you gonna show us the merchandise or what?" Seven said flatly.

"Right down to business I like that, alright then but I'll warn you now if you try anything stupid you will regret it, at the very least you'll end up in the ground at worst you'll end up in one of those cages with the rest of those dumb fuckers just waiting on some horny dude to buy your sorry rear and in the meantime, I'm sure Razor will be taking out his compensation for his hand on either your ass your friend's understood?" he said.

Seven nodded, "Understood but a warning of my own, there might only be two of us we don't go down easy, you play fair and straight and we'll have no problems, we just came here because we heard on the vine that this was the place to come if needed workers or entertainment, so here we are," Seven said and the man nodded.

"That has to be the most polite threat I've ever heard, it's good to see another educated man, it's a true rarity these days, alright follow me, so you said workers and entertainment hmmm how many of each you looking for?" the main man asked.

"As many as we can get as long as the price is reasonable" Seven said giving nothing away.

The man simply huffed as he began to lead the pair of them across the open plaza, above them, there was a soft noise and Seven glanced up, thanks to the enhanced vision of his helmet Seven was able to pick out the shape of a rather large spider boy scuttling his way over the roof of one of the buildings wearing a large pack strapped to his back.

He couldn't help but smile to himself as he imagined the little packets of pure chaos that Wisp's beloved spider boy was depositing all over the place, which also thanks to his webbing could be stuck in the most inaccessible of places making it almost impossible to disarm them.

They made their way to the rear of the compound, where there appeared to be three bunk style houses that had been converted into a mixture between a bunkhouse and a prison, there were bars on the windows and a huge box cage on the front door.

"Ok so the one on the left is men, the one in the middle is women and the one on the right is children, what takes your fancy?" the salesman asked gesturing between buildings, Seven felt his jaw clenching hard at that last one, he had to fight pretty hard not to clench his fists and give himself away through body language.

"A bit of everything would be good I think," he said trying not to grit his teeth.

"Ahh a man who likes his options, I can respect this," he said then he gestured to the gate guards through a series of hand gestures and all nodded, they opened up the cages and went inside the houses, from inside they could hear shouting before in the what was obviously a display cage a near-naked man, woman and little girl were roughly pushed being put on display for their prospective buyer.

Suddenly the radio receiver in Seven's headset sparked up, "All bombs set and the rapid exit is ready, Malakai is standing by so we're ready here over" Shepherd voice said.

Now the original plan was to try and distract the guards and try and stealth the slaves out of here but Seven could see by the updated security measures they seemed to have compared to what Shepherd had described, most likely due to their escape in the first place, he saw that this was not going to be an option now so it was going to have to be all speed and aggression from here on in, he could not let them get wind of or even a slight hint of what was about to happen, it was go time.

"Alright, one through six on my mark" Seven said and the man turned to look at him with a puzzled expression written on his face.

"What did you say?" he asked.

Seven looked him right in the eye, "Mark" he said.

For such small things, the bombs that Shauna and Gregory had cooked up were truly incredible, the blasts tore through the compound like the wrath of an angry god, the first one to detonate was their armoury which thanks to all the weapons and ordinance it contained went up with enough force to blow a hole clean through the outer wall and blew the roof clean into orbit.

The next one to go was the guard bunkhouse and it appeared that either this bomb was built a little stronger than the rest to manage to kill as many raiders as possible, but there was also the possibility that Malakai had found something volatile like drugs or chemicals to plant his bomb on because the whole building just disappeared just like the armoury.

The last bomb to go off was the one planted on the outside of the main doors which given how it flew clear off its hinges and inwards taking Razor and his cronies with it Seven had to guess he was a lot less worried than his hand now.

"What in the name of fuck is going on are you fucking stupid!? Do you know who you are messing with!!?" the leader screamed drawing his pistol and aiming it right at Seven.

"Yup the scum of the earth, well guess what fuckers, the cleaners are here" Seven snarled shooting out his hand freezing the man in place then right before the eyes of his guards who were all going for their own guns he crushed him into a chunk of meat and bone the size of a soda can in the blink of an eye before launching him right at the face of the nearest guard.